Click through to see the requirements for your design challenge, due by Monday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, which you may use to revise your submission any number of times. I encourage you all to revise your designs at least once in response to feedback. I will review the most recent submission from each designer, or whichever submission you specify you wish to have reviewed.
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| Summon by Artur Sadlos |
Just so happens I've been fiddling around with the idea of a Tammy/Timmy blue alternate win condition enchantment.
ReplyDeleteSeduce the Gods (Rare)
3UU
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control four or more permanents owned by your opponents, you win the game.
An alternative possibility that might actually be achievable. Not sure which one I prefer.
DeleteSeduce the Gods (Rare)
3UU
Enchantment
Whenever you gain control of an opponent's permanent, put a Charm counter on Seduce the Gods and draw a card.
If Seduce the Gods has five or more Charm counters on it, you win the game.
That makes it more compatible with splashing into red's one-turn-only stealing. Both versions are compatible with black.
Trying to decide if alternate win cons fall under Tammy. Also if I have gained control of 5 of my opponent's permanents it seems win more. Could we have three effects for different number of charm counters removed. Draw, icy manipulator, and bounce?
DeleteI think it depends on what kind of hoops are involved. Approach of the Second Sun is very Johnny/Jenny, but I think Revel in Riches is kind of a fun, straightforward minigame that a Timmy/Tammy would like.
DeleteThere is a challenge here in trying to figure out the line between "hard goal" and "win more" because of the nature of alt win conditions. You usually have to maintain control of the game to win ... which often means you're winning anyway.
Let's stick with the second version. We may end up altering the number of counters required to win in playtesting.
Engineer Life XU
ReplyDeleteSorcery (rare)
Exile the top X cards of your library. If you exile at least two creature cards this way, create a colorless Mutant creature token. For each creature card exiled this way, choose its power, its toughness, or one of its abilities. The token gets the chosen characteristics. You must choose a power and a toughness.
Cool idea, other than the problems defining "one of its abilities". I don't like the "You must choose a power and a toughness" wording. Maybe something like this instead?
Delete"Select the power from one of those creatures, the toughness from another, and up to one ability from each of the remaining creatures. The token gets the chosen characteristics."
Also, all I want to do with this card is build a deck that lets me go "I'll choose the power of Emrakul, the toughness of Emrakul, Emrakul's annihilator ability, and haste from literally anything". Seems like a lot of fun.
Two possible thoughts to make it less prone to confusion.
Delete1. Have the player choose one creature to provide its power and toughness and it gets ALL the abilities of a second creature. This avoids the issue of "What counts as an ability."
2. Have the player choose the power and toughness of one creature and give it ALL the abilities of the exiled creatures. Then maybe require more blue commitment or XX or bump it to mythic or some combination.
Also, you're kind of cheating the rules by making a token creature. But it's a blue card. What's the point of designing blue Timmy/Tammy cards if not to cheat the rules?!
Some good points.
DeleteEngineer Life XGU
Sorcery (rare)
Exile the top X cards of your library. Create a colorless Mutant creature token with base power and toughness equal to the total power and toughness of creature cards exiled this way. It has all of their abilities.
This seems very very strong in Modern and any format with decent scrying abilities/brainstorm effects? Even without top-of-deck selection, this lets you get a Lot of power on the board very quickly, right? At the very least the ease of (massive power)+(haste) makes me want the token to ETBT, just to reduce the immediacy of that kill.
DeleteIn retrospect, it's interesting to think about where this slots in - it's possible Collected Company and Chord of Calling are efficient enough that the U and "noncreature" keep this out of Vizier of Remedies and Devoted Druid decks, and I don't want to be alarmist about a card that would be fun for a lot of Jennies out there. But the ease of slipping a Primeval Titan, or Emrakul, or both in one creature, makes me think this is a fun card that should cost a lot more.
DeleteIs there anything in the rules that determines what happens when one of the abilities copied sets the power/toughness of the creature based on the game state (cards in hand/graveyard, etcetera)? Does it overrule the power/toughness you add up?
DeleteIf one of the abilities sets p/t, it overrides the 'printed' p/t. If there are two, ???
DeletePasteur has a point.
Engineer Life 4GU
Sorcery (rare)
Exile the top 6 cards of your library. Create a colorless Mutant creature token with base power and toughness equal to the total power and toughness of creature cards exiled this way. It has all of their abilities.
I tried this out in the level-up frame — it works well with the trigger in the first slot and the two abilities in the 2nd and 3rd.
ReplyDeleteAquatic Summonings 1U
Enchantment (u)
Whenever you cast a nonblue creature spell, you may activate one —
U: Scry X, where X is the converted mana cost of that creature.
UU: Put a +1/+1 counter on that creature. It has hexproof from nonblue.
I'm curious as to what you see as Timmy/Tammy about this. To me the first ability seems like something Spike would value highly in a limited environment to help him dig for win conditions and get additional value from non-creature spells that are otherwise hard to prioritize.
DeleteI like the enchantment, mind you. I'm just trying to visualize what Timmy/Tammy is thinking when they look at this.
Whoops, sorry, I confused "nonblue creature spell" with "noncreature blue spell" lol. My first paragraph probably seems a little confusing.
DeleteYou're right! I lost the Timmy between initial concepting and the card I presented.
DeleteRite of Dyp Jötun {1}{U}
ReplyDeleteEnchantment (r)
Whenever a creature you control becomes tapped, put a prayer counter on CARDNAME.
{1}{U}, Remove seven prayer counters from CARDNAME: Create a 4/5 blue Giant creature token with hexproof.
So is this a raise that worships giants?
DeleteRace*
DeleteManifest the Avatar 2U
ReplyDeleteEnchantment (R)
Whenever you cast a spell, scry 1 and put a marker for each of that spells colors onto Manifest the Avatar.
Remove X markers of different colors: If Manifest the Avatar is an enchantment, it becomes a X/X Avatar creature instead with Indestructible and "When this deals combat damage to a player, draw that many cards." until end of turn.
A possible simplification:
DeleteWhenever you cast a spell, ~ becomes an X/X Avatar creature until EOT with Indestructible and "When this deals combat damage to a player, draw a card." X is the number of colors in that spell.
Cult of the Tide King 4UU
ReplyDeleteEnchantment (M)
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, create X 1/1 blue cleric tokens, where X is that spells converted mana cost.
Tap thirteen untapped clerics you control: create a legendary 20/20 blue God token with indestructible named Thalmes the Tide King. Return all permanents you don't control to their owners' hands.
This is doing an awful lot.
DeleteAlso, is this mono-blue?
Diverse Summoning
ReplyDeleteXUU
Sorcery
Converge - Search your library for X cards with converted mana cost Y, where Y is the number of colors of mana spent to cast Diverse Summoning, then put those cards into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
No idea what the power level is here. I originally had X and Y swapped, no idea if that's better or not.
I thought this art was very black, and my design shows it a bit I think. My original idea for a black card was:
Demigod's Deal
3BB
Sorcery
You and target opponent each choose a number from 0 to 6, secretly. Reveal those numbers. For each number between and including the revealed numbers, search your library for a card with that converted mana cost, reveal them, then put them in your hand. Then shuffle your library. You lose 2 life for each card revealed this way.
Way too convoluted I think, but might make a fun un-concept? To clarify what it does, if the numbers chosen are 3 and 5, you'll search for cmc=3, cmc=4, cmc=5. If the chosen numbers are both 4, you'll search only for cmc=4.
I like the mind games in Demigod's Deal. I also felt a black component to the art. Using Y in cards has pretty much been phased out due to confusion. Might just be better to spell it out without using the variable.
DeleteDemigod's Deal has potential.
DeleteUnfortunately, it's correct for the opponent to choose 4 60% of the time and 3 the other 40%, which hurts the mind game portion of this.
I don't think there's actually an equilibrium at 3/4, but it's been a while since I've actually done any game theory. Let's assume I'm playing against someone who just cast Demigod's Deal against me.
DeleteIf I assume they're a "level zero" player (who will make their choice completely at random), then my correct choice is either 3 or 4, depending on which CMC I deem "worse" for my opponent to get a card from.
However, my opponent is likely a rational entity and can then choose his/her play to be a 0/6 and guarantee to search for 3-4 cards every time (the "level one" play). If I want to prevent that, then I should choose 0/6 as well. So on and so forth.
In addition, the utilities for each player increase/decrease for each option based on the quality of cards in my deck at each CMC (will a search for a 0, 1, 2, and 3 CMC card actually win me the game? Do I need a 4 and 5 drop to set up my combo next turn?). I also threw the life loss in there to hopefully break things up as well (if I'm at 10 life, can I ever risk picking 0/6?), but I'm not sure how much of an impact that actually has.
If I say 3 or 4, you will get 3 or 4 cards (less if you're irrational): EV 3.5. If I say 0 or 6, you will get 1-7 cards: EV 4. It's always correct for the caster to say 0 or 6, and it's slightly better for the opponent to say 3 or 4.
DeleteAny deck running this will have good options from 0-6, but it is true that context will often skew your preferred result and thus the gamble, so that's something.
Again, that's the level zero solution. Game theory goes beyond simple calculations of EV and incorporates opponent's strategies and relative utilities of different outcomes.
DeleteI don't know if it actually changes the 'answer', but the answer being 3/4 with the percentages you gave certainly isn't a foregone conclusion.
Less Recurring Nightmare 2UU
ReplyDeleteEnchantment - Mythic
When ~ enters the battlefield, exile a creature card from your graveyard. Create a token that's a copy of that card.
When that token dies, return ~ to its owner's hand.
Recurring Nightmare is a very fun card, as regular vintage cubers will know, but the gameplay tends to involve repeatedly cycling between the same creatures.
DeleteUsing Back from the Brink technology, we can fix that.
Is this color pie appropriate? My money is on no, but certainly cloning creatures from graveyards is something Blue has dabbled in in the past, so it isn't straight out of the question. But if not a break, this is a heavy, heavy bend.
Yeah, Embalm splashed copying dead creatures into all sorts of colors. That said, this feels White or Black rather than Blue. And Reanimation effects usually cost at least 5 mana now, especially when they come with an upside.
DeleteFalse Demise was never blue. I personally dislike the embalm tech, but I do think it's correct to prevent recurring the same creature.
DeleteSummoning from the Deep 6UU
ReplyDeleteEnchantment
When ~ ETBs, create eight 1/1 blue wizard creature tokens.
Tap eight untapped creatures you control: Exile cards from the bottom of your library until you reveal a creature card. Create an token that's a copy of that creature, except that it's power and toughness are 8/8.
Why is this card playing the game for me? Ditch the first line.
Delete"3U - 2 tokens, tap 8:" is probably a fair rate? But "4UU - 4 tokens, tap 8" is probably more appealing to Timmy. Fun interpretation of the art!
DeleteMy main concerns with this card is that it's probably more Jxnny than Txmmy and it has way too much text.
ReplyDeleteSpliced Being 1U
Enchantment - Aura (R)
Enchant creature you control
When Spliced Being enters the battlefield, search your library for any number of creature cards with converted mana costs less than or equal to enchanted creature's and exile them with a splice counter on them, then shuffle your library.
1, Remove a splice counter from a creature card you own in exile: Enchanted creature becomes a copy of that creature until end of turn.
Good self assessment. How about:
DeleteSpliced Being 1U
Enchantment - Aura (R)
Enchant creature you control
1, Exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a creature card: Enchanted creature becomes a copy of that creature until end of turn.
Unstable Mutation
ReplyDeleteI'd argue UM is more Spike than Tammy.
DeleteEnergy Consumption- 3UU (Rare)
ReplyDeleteInstant
Multikicker U
Counter target spell. CARDNAME costs 3 less to cast if you control the creature with the most power. Put an X/X creature into play for each time CARDNAME was kicked, where x is the cmc of the countered spell.
Cool concept, but too much math.
DeletePossibilities:
Energy Consumption- 2UU (Rare)
Instant
Multikicker U
Counter target spell. Create a 2/2 blue Illusion creature token for each time CARDNAME was kicked.
Energy Consumption- 3UU (Rare)
Instant
Counter target spell. Create an X/X blue Elemental creature token, where x is that spell's CMC.
You may cast CARDNAME for 1UU if you control the creature with the single highest power.
Yeah I felt it was too mathy also, maybe making a bunch of 2/2's would be a fun enough moment for Timmy/Tammy.
DeletePortal of the Titans - 5UU
ReplyDeleteEnchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may exile target creature card from your graveyard. If you do, create a 6/6 blue Titan creature token with Vigilance.
Vigilance isn't blue anymore, but otherwise, this feels like it fits right into the Advanced Stitchwing/Armored Skaab deck.
DeleteBeckon from Beyond XUU
ReplyDeleteSorcery M
Draw X cards. Then you may discard any number of cards. Create a blue Avatar creature token with power and toughness equal to the number of cards discarded this way.
Discarding cards (especially at an ostensibly terrible rate) feels like something only Spike could love.
DeleteIteration Vat 1GU
ReplyDeleteEnchantment (R)
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on it for each other creature you control with the same name as that creature.
Cool. Vastly underpowered.
DeleteHow does this work re: timing if you Spectral Procession, etc? I don't actually know.
DeleteTo really be "iteration", I wonder if we want to check graveyards as well.
It's a token enabler, primarily, so pretty strong in green. I really think this could be any of mono u, mono G, or mono W, but I'm happy at 1MM whatever the color.
Delete@Past: I love including GY, but it pushes it further into monoG (or Golgari) than it already is, and I wanted it to be justifiably Blue.
Delete