Click through to see the illustration and design requirements for your single card submission, due Monday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, which you may use to revise your submission any number of times. I will aim to review the most recent submission from each designer.
Design a black card for this illustration.
Untiring Terminator 4BB
ReplyDeleteArtifact Creature - Assassin Construct (U)
Indestructible, Deathtouch
1/1
Creepy Doll++? Sure, I like it! Very clean design and great fit for the art too.
DeleteDull, and probably doesn't play well.
DeleteGarruk's Pursuit 3BB
Sorcery (R)
Exile target creature or Planeswalker. Search its controller's graveyard, hand, and library for all cards with the same name or Planeswalker type as that card and exile them. Then that player shuffles his or her library.
Nice to see a flavor other than lobotomy for searching and killing every instance of a person! Seems printable.
Delete(Awkward that it can't hit all copies of a non-legend already in play, and even more awkward that it can hit all 12 copies of Jace in my deck… probably just stick with card name.)
Harbinger of Corrosion B
ReplyDeleteCreature - R
Skulk
When ~ deals damage to a player, target land that player controls becomes a swamp.
~ gets +1+1 for each swamp your opponents control.
1/1
Creature type: mutant horror
Deletethis may want to use counters of some sort for memory issues (decmposition counters?)
DeleteI want the ability to be active without dealing damage. So counters would be difficult to implement. I like how the power and toughness boost scales as the game goes on too. Kinda death shadow esque
DeleteBest fit for the art!
DeleteI could see a variation that says “when ~ deals damage to a player, put a decomposition counted on target land that player controls. It is a swamp for as long as it has that counter”
DeleteHe would then get the boost for decomposition counters. Could be successful
Yeah, I just like some of the other entries so much this week I can't think of anything else.
DeleteI like that it eventually gets big enough for your opponent to block, to keep it from converting all your lands to swamps.
DeleteI don't like that it wins the game by itself when you play it on turn 1 against a deck without black or colorless cards.
Great flavor.
Dev can balance it. 1B still seems dangerous. 2B is a lot, and we maybe don't want it to start at 2/2 because of skulk. Realistically, skulk is never coming back, so I guess it's moot. But in the world where skulk exists, this is doing something neat.
DeleteWelcome the Pure
ReplyDelete2BB
Sorcery
Put target green or white creature card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. That creature is a black zombie instead of its other colors and types.
"Good morrow, Auragar the Just. Isn't it grand to be unburdened of your morality?"
Interesting! From the flavor and the enemy-color mechanic I was expecting this to hit opponents' graveyards only. Turns out that's a real card (Ashen Powder) that costs 2BB. If your intent was for this to be a "hate card" that only hits opponents, I'd love to see it pushed to 1BB.
DeleteOn the other hand, as it's written I'd just build a normal-ish reanimator deck around this, trying to get some white and/or green creatures in my graveyard. Iona and Elesh Norn are popular reanimation targets anyway, right?
Assuming a set that wants to show enemy color hate mechanically, this is solid. Should it be 3B so you can reanimate your Ionas more easily? (Probably not.)
DeleteMaking it target other GYs only does sound more fun and thematic, but it also forces it to be an actual hate card, useless when your opponent isn't playing those colors. Maybe Ashen Powder with a bonus against g/w creatures?
DeleteHand of Decay 1BB
ReplyDeleteCreature Horror
When ~ etbs put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.
T:for target creature you dont control for each counter on that creature you may put another counter of that type on that creature
3/1
Hand of Decay can slowly kill any creature it can target. It can alternately help grow one of your own creatures. Or charge up a Lightning Reaver or Surrakar Spellblade. It's always nice to have other, less parasitic uses for a card, but the flavor mismatch there bothers me more than the utility we gain, especially when our starting flavor is so good. And the gameplay of finding other -1/-1 counters to put on creatures to keep Hand of Decay going.
DeleteIf we do keep this open-ended, we definitely limit it to sorcery speed.
"target creature you dont control" so only for negative counters or weird "yay I did something clever" moments
DeleteIn that case, why not commit to -1/-1 counters? Can you think of any other counters you'd want to proliferate on your opponents' creatures?
DeleteIndomitable Stalker
ReplyDelete2B
Creature - Shade - Uncommon
~ attacks each turn if able.
1B: ~ gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
2/1
Wow, that's a beast of a Shade ability! The "attacks every turn" drawback is definitely merited. Even as it stands it might be too strong-- 5 power of blockers on turn 4 is asking a bit much.
DeleteWhat about making it a 1/1? Still seems much better overall than Looming Shade at that point. If you aren't attacking with your 5/5 activation threat, you're most likely doing it wrong anyway.
Pretend that I intentionally pushed it envisioning it in a set that has -1/-1 counters. ;)
DeleteBut point taken, could definitely see this as a 1/1 instead.
The combination of must-attack and self-growth is significant, if not fun. Your opponent knows you can make it 5/5 or so on turn 4, so they probably don't block, and you probably use the mana to develop your board further. Or maybe they block to force you to spend your mana and prevent stall your board. Maybe they kill it in response to the pump. Sometimes you'll pump it unblocked because you've got nothing better to do, or you're just that aggro. Maybe it needs to be a 2B 1/1 or a 3B 2/2 (but squaring the stats ain't a bad idea); Dev can worry about that.
DeleteBlack Oath Mantle 1BB
ReplyDeleteEnchantment — Mantle (r)
Enchanted creature is a 4/3 black creature with lifelink and “At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 4 life.”
Mantle (Tap an unenchanted untapped creature you control: If it’s a main phase, attach ~ to that creature.)
Black as his purpose did the knight resemble.
Is this "Enchant creature" or "Enchant creature you control?" Mantle makes me think the latter, but this might be cooler without mantle. Mantle is neat, though I'm not sure we want to blue the line further between enchantments and artifacts. Having to tap the recipient during a main phase means it can't attack or block for a full turn longer than normal, which is extra rough when the life loss comes first.
DeleteVery cool story.
DeleteAlso, it's rough that no amount of attacking or targeting huge creatures will allow you to get ahead on life. You're always struggling to keep up (unless your creature has double strike or other +s). That's a cool place for a black rare to put you, but I want more for that risk than making a string of 1/1s bigger.
DeleteIt's likely that this should be 6 power so you can gain 6 and lose 4 each turn, letting your opponents get in enough damage between the gaps.
DeleteThe idea with Mantle is it doesn't have Enchant creature at all, that Mantle covers "enchant creature you control". Equipment are fun and a great space, but this is an effort towards playing in that space without just making colored artifacts (which this could easily be, if you /want/ colored artifacts). It's designed to work on just your creatures, but on any main phase, not just your own.
Ah.
DeleteDoes it matter that you can attack it during any main phase, since it taps the enchanted creature?
Devouring Shadow-Cloak 1BB
ReplyDeleteArtifact — Equipment (R)
Equipped creature gets +6/+6 and is a black Shade in addition to its colours and types and has “Whenever this creature attacks or blocks, put two -1/-1 counters on it.”
Whenever Devouring Shadow-Cloak becomes unattached from a permanent, sacrifice that permanent.
Equip 3
Making this an Equipment mitigates the card disadvantage of Unstable Mutation / Consuming Fervor in a major way. So does the attack/block trigger (since you could just keep the creature back as a giant blocker). So does the doubling from 3-1 to 6-2.
DeleteThat being said, this seems like a cool, resonant design. And I don't really know that it would be unbalanced, especially since it requires 6 mana initially.
By the way, I don't think the last ability is doing all that much. Unless the creature was already pretty big, unattaching after one or two attacks/blocks will probably kill it.
Double Unstable Mutation / Consuming Fervor is cool. I agree that putting that on an equipment mitigates the downside an awful lot. I definitely think this should still shrink on upkeep, both to preserve the mindspace of the reference, and to prevent turtling. Sacrificing on unattach is important, because it means you don't get to leave a bunch of 1/1s or whatever behind.
DeleteI'd choose a type other than Shade, because I'm expecting to see the Looming Shade ability as a result.
Suicide Shadow 1B
ReplyDeleteCreature - Shade
1B, pay 2 life: CARDNAME gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
2/1
I was also thinking of a mechanic where you get a bonus if you lost life this turn. But I would guess something like this wouldn't lead to fun gameplay in large quantities:
DeleteVengeful Shadow 3B
Creature - Shade U
Power in pain - at the beginning of each end step, if you lost two or more life this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on CARDNAME.
0/4
I think power in pain could be named mechanic for a set. It works on defense all by itself. Multiples combo nicely. And it keys right into black's self-harm tendency. Vengeful Shadow could maybe be common.
DeleteRight, I think it plays into Magic's mechanics and flavor well. I would just not want to have to make the decision as the opponent of whether to attack and trigger abilities. Perhaps in a slower set where you are encouraged to board stall until you can hit for a bunch.
DeleteHunting Ringwraith 2BB
ReplyDeleteCreature- Specter (Uncommon)
3/3
Malice (Whenever this creature would be dealt damage, prevent that damage unless an opponent pays 3 life or discards a card.)
Whenever CARDNAME deals combat damage to a player, that player discards a card.
Oh, I forgot there's an actual Wraith creature type!
DeleteI'm going back and forth on the Malice details... I know I want it to be an indestructible-esque "punisher" ability, but I wasn't sure whether the cost should be "torment" or just a straight-up life payment, and in this case I split the difference.
Maybe Malice wants to offer the same choices as the Torment of Scarabs cycle?
DeleteRingwraith is just a touch weak for uncommon, since I can block it with my 3/1 for two and lose 3 life. If it had evasion, or the self-preservation ability were my call, then it would be more of a threat. It's not ideal that I can pay the same card I would've discarded by letting it hit me to block it and keep it dead.
Specter seems correct if you keep the saboteur ability.