Friday, December 25, 2020

Weekend Design Challenge 122520 - Hippo

Merry Christmas, Artisans! Click through to see this weekend's design challenge. Your mission is to design a custom magic card that follows the guidelines. Over the course of the weekend, give feedback to your fellow designers on their designs and incorporate their feedback to iterate on your own. I'll try to offer some feedback of my own starting on Monday. 

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas. Only a hippopotamus will do.

Design one for me, please.

Good luck and have fun!

9 comments:

  1. hahahah
    what

    okay, so. from what we have of hippos, they are usually green/simic. (There is phelddagrif, but they are like pegasus to horse. they are more, "angelic" so to speak)

    so, a Simic creature. with quite "green" stats i suppose. and to make it somewhat christmas themed, im making a snow creature.
    here:

    Wandering Hippo | 3UG
    Snow Creature - Hippo | Common
    Trample
    Whenever CARDNAME enters the battlefield, each player may look at the top 5 cards of their library, reveal a snow card from among them, put it into their hand, then suffle their library.
    4/5

    i have no clue if this is "hippo" enough, but its a neat challenge!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Very "hippo"! I would say this belongs at uncommon or rare, for complexity. "Each player" is a fun and interesting twist on the effect. Very Hippo-appropriate. What I like most about it is how it naturally mitigates the card's Constructed power level-- if Snow Hippo decks get to be too much of the metagame, they may have to start cutting or sideboarding Wandering Hippo since it's so much worse in the mirror match. Nice work!

      Delete
    2. @Ipaulsen
      the snow thing and "each player" was more of a "it's Christmas"
      Now that it's been a few weeks, i think i should have added a pip of mana and made it "each player *reveals* the top 5..." for it to fit better, as this one is a bit too on rate for a common.

      Delete
  2. Hippos have usually been green but given their main emotion is "ornery" perhaps they should have a chance in red :)

    Irritable Riverlord 3R
    Creature - Hippo
    3/3
    Whenever ~ attacks, destroy target artifact defending player controls at random.
    "Release the 'gift', girls"
    - Ikka Spiff, Goblin Tactician

    I'm not really happy with "at random", it's too inconsistent as either a bonus on the creature or as an answer card, but I'm not sure about a good alternative. I also considered a late-game land destruction.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree with your concerns about the random artifact destruction. In practice, either this is getting through and wrecking all the opponent's artifacts in a few turns, or it's not doing anything special. Maybe make it an ETB trigger instead?

      Land destruction is also a cool idea here. Obviously it can't be repeatable but I could see it as a kicker or monstrosity effect. Nice work!

      Delete
  3. Chillaxed Hippo 2G
    Creature - Hippo (U)
    Defender
    Enrage - When Chillaxed Hippo is dealt damage, transform it.
    3/5
    //
    Angery Hippo
    (Red) Creature - Hippo (U)
    Trample
    Angery Hippo attacks each turn if able.
    5/5

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Enrage- transform" is a very clean trigger and this design makes great, resonant use of it. I almost want it to be common since it's hard for an OG DFC to play much more simply than this. But I guess Hanweir Watchkeep is precedent for uncommon. Nice work!

      Delete
  4. Waterhole Conqueror 3UG
    Creature - Hippo (R)
    When ~ enters the battlefield, return all other creatures you control to their owner's hand.
    The first time you cast a creature spell each turn, create a 3/3 green Hippo creature token.
    5/6

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love the way this creates deckbuilding puzzles and mini-games for players. The drawback isn't totally novel (see: Denizen of the Deep), but turning it into a build-around advantage sure is. Nice work!

      Delete