Weekend Art ChallengeClick through to see this weekend's art and the design requirements for your card submission, due Monday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, which I will try to provide, and which everyone is welcome to provide as well.
If you choose, you may use that feedback to revise your submission any number of times. I will post and review the most recent submission from each designer some time on Monday, life permitting. To help ensure I recreate your design accurately, please use CARDNAME instead of ~ and don't use the {} symbol images in your submissions.
This weekend, the flavor of the card's set is up to you, but Development has found that the milling strategy for it is a bit too strong for Limited and needs to add another safety valve against it. Your goal is to make an uncommon, non-black card whose presence in the set will curb that strategy a bit. Bonus points if the card is something that players would sometimes main-deck even if they don't expect their opponents are running the mill strategy.
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ReplyDeleteSerenader of the Dead (Uncommon)
Delete3G
Creature- Spirit
2/3
At the beginning of your end step, shuffle all creature cards in your graveyard into your library.
Not sure whether this challenge was referring to Dimir-style mill or self-mill a la Innistrad, so I tried to make a card that caused problems for both. Feedback welcome and appreciated.
the Johnny in me likes this card
DeleteOoh, the *Vorthos* in me likes this card! :)
DeleteIt might fit slightly better if it was an activated ability (either for one creature card, or for all, possibly as a sac ability).
Putting the trigger in the end step was a nice move.
DeleteEncore of Earth and Effulgence 1G
ReplyDeleteSorcery
Put target land card from your graveyard onto the ballefield tapped. Draw a card.
When Encore of Earth and Effulgence is put into your graveyard from your library, you may cast it without paying its mana cost. If you do, shuffle it into your library.
the first half of this card would be a great common/uncommon
DeleteMakes Narcomoeba look lazy.
DeleteThe recursion is easily severable. The idea was to provide a way to keep from being milled out that would fail to work without a target to use the spell on.
DeleteIt's likely just better as:
Encore of Earth and Effulgence 1G
Sorcery
You may put a land card from your graveyard onto the ballefield tapped. Draw a card.
Very much liking the name.
DeleteThe name is fun.
DeleteThis version is much cleaner and much less abusable.
I do have to ask if drawing another card is the thing a player wants to be doing when he's half-way milled out. Maybe you can find another way to reward the player for Rampant Growthing from his graveyard instead of his library?
The Cantrip was the bonus for when the card does nothing against non Mill decks.
DeleteYou could make it a Cultivate as opposed to a Rampant Growth / Explore variant.
Encore of Earth and Effulgence 2G
Sorcery
Choose up to two land cards in your graveyard. Put one onto the battlefield tapped and the other into your hand.
Or add an anti mill clause:
Encore of Earth and Effulgence 1G
Sorcery
Choose up to two land cards in your graveyard. Put one onto the battlefield tapped and the other on the bottom of your library.
Does the land have to come into play tapped?
DeleteI like both of the new versions better.
DeleteI think it's safe to say Cultivate from graveyard is worse than Cultivate, so you could make it a little better somehow.
To be fair, it can get any lands, not just basics. Still might be balanced as a Primeval Titan trigger.
DeleteMissed that. NM.
DeleteBard of the Lost Woods 2G
ReplyDeleteCreature - Human Bard
T: until the end of turn, you may play land cards from your graveyard as if they were in your hand.
2/2
I get that it's open-ended so you that you can play it algonside effects that allow you to play more than one land each turn, but I'm not sure that's worth how strangely it reads on its own.
DeleteSinger of Serenades 2G
ReplyDeleteCreature - Spirit (U)
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player puts a card at random from their graveyard on the bottom of their library.
"No song is heard only once."
2/2
Since it's going to the bottom of your library, is it worth making the selection random?
DeleteI assume the idea is not to slow things down with choice.
DeleteIt's funny how this question comes up:
DeleteIs it faster to do something randomly or by choice?
If there are multiple relevant options, then the player could have a tough time deciding and drag the process out. If there aren't, then it'll be much faster than doing it randomly. Perhaps it comes down to how often you expect there to be multiple good choices for the player.
In this case, since this card exists explicitly to combat milling, we can expect a lot of cards to be in the graveyard and the player is likely to have several good choices, so I guess random is better here.
Flavor text: "Damn it, where did I leave my bow?"
ReplyDeleteGlade of Morpheus (uncommon)
ReplyDeleteLand
~ enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add G to your mana pool.
T, put a card from your graveyard on the bottom of your library: You gain 1 life.
"Music for a while
Shall all your cares beguile."
I'm tempted to suggest dropping the ETB tapped by collapsing both abilities:
DeletePut a card from your GY under your library, T: Add G to your mana pool.
But I'm pretty sure your way's better by 2/3.
Could also make it tap for colorless, but graveyard recycling is a green effect, and the art is pretty suggestive of a forest.
DeleteHmm. Producing green doesn't make the card green, and still any color can run this land as if it were colorless, but I do see what you mean. *shrug*
DeleteGood point. If the ability's green, it should consume green mana, not necessarily produce it. New version:
DeleteGlade of Morpheus (uncommon)
Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
G, T: Put target card from your graveyard on the bottom of your library. You gain 1 life.
Three more ideas:
ReplyDelete1: An update to Apocalypse's Guided Passage. Likely Rare, though.
Learn from the Leaves - UGR
Sorcery
Target opponent chooses from your graveyard a creature card, a land card, and a noncreature, nonland card. You put the chosen cards into your hand.
2: Uncommon Creatures
Sing Song Siren - 2U
Creature - Human Shaman
If a card was put into your graveyard from your library this turn, creatures opponents control can't attack.
If a creature attacked you this turn, cards can't be put into your graveyard from your library.
0/4
Moonlit Cellist - 1G
Creature - Elf Shaman
At the beginning of each end step, if a card was put into your graveyard from your library, put a +1/+1 counter on Moonlit Cellist.
1/1
3: Johnny Enchantments
Lifelight 1 - 1GG
Enchantment
Whenever a card is put into your graveyard from your library, gain 1 life.
Lifelight 2 - GG
Enchantment
If a permanent would leave the battlefield, instead put that permanent on the bottom of that player's library.
Alternatively:
Lifelight Lyricist - GG
Creature - Elf Shaman
If a permanent would leave the battlefield, instead put that permanent on the bottom of that player's library.
2/2
Moonglow Cellist 2W
ReplyDeleteCreature - Spirit
As long as CARDNAME is on the battlefield or in your graveyard, whenever a creature dies you may put it on the bottom of it's owner's library instead.
"I serenade all souls so that some may find a way back into this world."
1/4
Now I've read through some other entries my name is eerily similar to some others. That will need changing.
DeleteAll suggestions welcome.
Ironic that you can put Moonglow Cellist on the bottom of your library? Not that you would.
DeleteSlowing down mill seems to be more appropriate for an uncommon than hosing it completely. After all, development determined that mill is a bit too strong, not that it's out of control good. Therefore, whatever this card is, you want the mill deck to be able to play against a deck running perhaps multiple copies of this card and still be able to win. With that in mind:
ReplyDeleteDusk Minstrel (uncommon)
1G
Creature - Human Shaman
Hexproof
G: Put CARDNAME from your graveyard on top of your library.
2/2
This might be too strong-- 2/2 hexproof for 2 seems like a very good Limited card, and that's before the recursion. I like the design, I'm just thinking it would be more balanced at GG or 2G.
DeleteGiven that False Mourning is a card, I agree this is too good. http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=10599
DeleteI do like the incremental fight though. Put the card on bottom or something?
This card has the potential to get awfully annoying given that when they finally deal with your hexproof guy it comes back. Given that it's hard to get rid of anyway, maybe just leave off the hexproof.
Delete@Jay: I initially misread the card as putting back other cards, but it just recurs itself. Your comment strikes me as being based off the same misreading. If not, please explain a little bit more of your thought process.
Exact same misreading.
DeleteI retract my comment.
The ability strikes me as pretty marginal. The goal of it is to slow down mill. They use an ability that mills 4, in response you trigger this ability from the graveyard and now it's (effectively) a mill 3. You can repeat this as long as you have {G} available.
DeleteYou probably won't use the ability often in other situations. This card is not constructed playable and there's rarely a time in Limited when you would rather have a bear than a random card from the top of your deck.
That being said, is 2/2 hexproof for {1}{G} too good? There haven't been a lot of hexproof cards printed in total yet. At common we have 1/1 hexproof for {G} and 2/2 flying hexproof for {2}{U}{U}. At rare we have Troll Ascetic, which is a 3/2 hexproof for {1}{G}{G} with a cheap self-regeneration effect. Portal Three Kingdoms has a 2/2 hexproof for {2}{G}, but creatures have gotten significantly better since those days. I think less power, less rarity, and no regeneration is worth trimming a {G} off the Troll Ascetic.
You don't generally want to keep drawing 2/2s, but all it takes is one Vulshok Morningstar in the set to make a bunch of hopeless, miserable games.
DeleteAs far as power level. It's almost certainly not TOO good at {1}{G}, but I don't even want it to be "pretty good." Hexproof exists because it's fun to feel like a guy is safe, but it's not fun to be powerless to stop a creature. To balance these two agendas, hexproof belongs on creatures that often won't be your first priority to stop. See: Horror of the Dim and Rubbleback Rhino. There are plenty of sets where Dusk Minstrel would be fine as is, but I have a hard time buying that we want even less interactivity in a limited format where many games are decided by mill.
Which is interesting because if you're running a mill deck you don't want this creature dead to begin with because you don't want to deal with it in the graveyard. The 0/5 wall is really the ideal counter for Dusk Minstrel.
DeleteWhat is the hexproof even for?
DeleteHonestly, it's to make her uncommon. A green bear with a marginal ability (by itself) is common because white and black are getting vanilla 2/2s for 1C these days. I debated flash, but flash seems odd with an activated ability that only works from the graveyard, and combat abilities don't make a lot of sense on a utility creature.
DeleteHexproof is unnecessary. That ability is definitely uncommon-worthy by itself.
DeleteSonata of Life and Death 3WB
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of your upkeep, choose one -- You gain 1 life for each card in your graveyard, then shuffle your graveyard into your library; or put the top card of your library into your graveyard and each player loses life equal to that card's converted mana cost.
It's an enchantment. Not sure why that got erased.
DeleteHmm.
DeleteI want to say this feels unfocused and should probably either be a sorcery or lose one of the choices, but I can't deny there's compelling poetry here.
Anyone else have a perspective?
I could go for the poetry angle if the effects were a little bit more mirrored, but presently they read like counterparts, but don't quite play that way. Even then the choice feels weird, maybe have two different trigger conditions?
DeleteThanks for the critique. I was going more for a poetic card as opposed to card that plays well. Don't really have the time or the skill to fix it right now though.
DeleteThe original one took some inspiration from Etherwrought Page.
DeleteHere's a link to my blogpost about my thoughts behind the card: http://www.mindmoil.com/?p=274
ReplyDeleteEtermal Elegist 1GG
Creature - Human Musician (U)
When Eternal Elegist dies, shuffle any number of target cards from your graveyard into your library.
Her solemn song dredges dreams and memories from the hearts of all who hear her sing.
2/3
Fréchette’s Cello (Uncommon)
ReplyDelete5
Artifact
Whenever you cast a spell, untap CARDNAME.
1, T: Target creature gets +X/+0 or -X/-0 until end of turn, where X is the number of spell cards in your graveyard.
Rapture or sorrow, at the pluck of a bow.
Compares favorably with Runechanter's Pike.
DeleteNot NWO, but maybe fine at uncommon? How much would it hurt to make it sorcery speed?
Nothing wrong with sorcery speed, but it really changes what the card does. I miss the days when you could make cards like this as a one-off uncommon without worrying about NWO.
DeleteMaiden of the Reverie
ReplyDelete2WW
Creature - human spellshaper
2WW,[T]: Return target permanent card with converted mana cost 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.
1/3
Rare?
DeleteSeconded.
DeleteDryad Reverie
ReplyDelete1GU
Enchantment - U
Whenever a card is put into your graveyard from your library, you may put it into your hand instead if you discard a card.
2, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Shuffle your graveyard into your library, then draw a card.
Not sure on the wording of the first clause, but oh well.
I quite like the first effect, but this feels very Card Exists For Mechanical Purpose Alone, particularly with the second ability. Not a dealbreaker, but can you make it feel more natural/resonant?
DeleteSubmission:
ReplyDeleteResurgent Melody 1 G/W
Sorcery (U)
Put any number of target creature cards from your graveyard on the bottom of your library. You gain that much life.
A couple of other interesting ideas I had along the way:
Everpresent Melody 1U
Instant (U)
Shuffle up to five target cards from your graveyard into your library, then look at the top five cards of your library and put them back in any order.
Song of Life 2G
Creature-Spirit (U)
Whenever a creature with greater power than CARDNAME enters the battlefield under your control, you may return CARDNAME from your graveyard to your hand.
3/1
Given how many submissions are playing in similar space to Resurgent Melody, I'll switch my submission to Song of Life, above.
DeleteResurgent Melody is fast, simple and straight-forward.
DeleteEverpresent Melody isn't really any of those.
Song of Life is neat.
Endless Melody G
ReplyDeleteSorcery (U)
Shuffle all creature cards from your graveyard into your library. Draw a card.
I think it is important the effect be non-recurring so that a mill deck can play through it. I think this is very beatable, but will net you a bit of a reprieve.
I would probably be willing to maindeck as it provides some card-quality advantage in the late game. You really want to draw this in a top deck war! The cost here is pretty aggressive, but I fear adding even one colorless makes it un-maindeckable.
This is clearly a very powerful card, but my hope is that the fact that you get no choice in what creatures go back in (since the graveyard is not a hidden zone so you can't choose not to find anything) should keep it from becoming too abuse-able.
It's interesting that the cantrip might make you play this early just to cycle, where you'd hold it until the shuffle had value later.
DeleteShuffle then draw (particularly on a cheap spell) is cumbersome because you can't pass while shuffling. You have to finish, wait for opponent to cut, see what you draw, then decide what to do with the rest of your turn.
I was worried about the fact that you were tempted to cycle it early. The point about not being able to pass while you shuffle is a good one I had not thought of.
DeleteI tried for a while to think of a better upside than "Draw a card" that felt connected, since "Draw a card" is such a cop out. Fog seemed to fit, but is a comical effect to put on an anti-mill card!
Some options:
Delete1—Remove the cantrip. Less maindeckable, but still playable at times. More focused.
2—Draw before you shuffle. Less exciting, but still value. I'd actually cost this at 1G. It's worth playing at that cost, just not as often/automatically.
If one wants to lose the cantrip, another option I've toyed with is tying it to Gnaw to the Bone/Crypt Incursion-esque lifegain:
DeleteEndless Melody 2G
Sorcery
Shuffle all creature cards in your graveyard into your library. Gain 3 life for each card shuffled into your library in this way.
I wouldn't maindeck this, but a lot of newer players would, which would give mill decks a run for their money, and it is a potent sideboard option.
I think attaching Fog is actually a really neat idea. Shuffling cards into your library is kind of like a Fog for mill decks in a way, if you think about it really abstractly. That'd be kind of a neat combination if the flavor supported it, or perhaps as a modular effect (which would support it being maindeckable).
DeleteGrove of Remembrance 2G(U/R)
ReplyDeleteEnchantment
Whenever you cast a creature spell, you may cast a noncreature spell from your graveyard with the same color and converted mana cost as that creature spell without paying its mana cost.
As green as the trigger is, the effect is so not green I'd make this just U/R.
DeleteDo we need both color and CMC as requirements?
I think there's potential for something special here.
I agree on the dual requirements thing, but disagree about the color. This card can't exist in purely U/R because it can return enchantments (and Planeswalkers/Colored artifacts, but that seems less relevant). It doesn't feel terribly green to recast them directly, hence the U/R, but Green could do the same via Regrowth and mana generation.
DeleteCould just hit sorceries and instants.
DeleteIf it's a better restriction to hit just instants and sorceries, that's fine, but should we change the effect just to make the color scheme of the cost look better?
DeleteAbout requiring both color and CMC as requirements: I thought about the kind of decks you could build. Requiring only the same CMC means building mono-2-drop or mono-3-drop decks. Requiring only color means building mono-color decks. Both of those seemed less fun for deck design than picking a cost like 3R and building around that cost.
DeleteIt's like creating a linked Creature-Spell pair like [u]Muscle Burst[/u] and [c]Diligent Farmhand[/c] are linked, except that the cards that get linked up is different for each deck designer; you find your own pair of cards with costs that match up.
It could say "with the exact same mana cost" instead of "with the same color and converted mana cost." It might be harsh on players who want to build around cards with costs like 1GG, but it might look cleaner as a card that way.
DeleteGrove of Remembrance 2(U/R)
DeleteEnchantment
Whenever you cast a creature spell, you may cast an instant or sorcery card from your graveyard with exactly the same mana cost as that creature spell without paying its mana cost. Exile that cards when it resolves.
There could be another spell that costs 2(W/G) that lets you cast enchantments from the grave whenever you cast a creature with the same cost.
I like that quite a bit more.
DeleteFiretree Invoker
ReplyDelete2GR
Creature - Human Shaman - Uncommon
Whenever you would draw a card, you may skip that draw instead. If you do, put two charge counters on Firetree Invoker.
T, Remove a charge counter from Firetree Invoker: Firetree Invoker deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
1/2
If there were room for flavor text (which I don't think there is), it'd be something along the lines of ~Only by shutting out all other sensation can she make the melody stoke the tree.~
DeleteNeat!
DeleteIs it 2:1 to encourage the player to draw cards every other turn (when not avoiding losing)?
Creatures that deal amounts of damage different from their power always feel really weird. It might be justified to make the costing work, but given that I'm pretty sure this is way overpowered as is, it should be fine to cost it higher and add a second point of power. For comparison, Arc Mage was a strong card. http://magiccards.info/ne/en/77.html
DeleteI made the power/toughness 1/2 because I thought it made sense with the flavor - she's supposed to be weaker without the tree's power backing her up.
DeleteIf overpowered, I'd rather add R or RG to the activation cost, which I certainly can see it meriting. 2 damage to a creature OR player is an awful lot. That said, it's a 4 drop that does nothing when it enters the battlefield and forces you to skip a draw before you get anything out of it.
On that subject, if they have instant speed removal it's extremely feel-bad, which was my one regret with the design.
And Jay, nail on head.
Eulogy's Elegy URG (Uncommon)
ReplyDeleteSorcery
Shuffle each creature card in your graveyard into your library. Then draw a card for each card you shuffled into your library this way. Then put a card from your hand on the bottom of your library for each card you drew this way.
I wrote about my submission here: http://millingfor53.blogspot.com/2013/05/goblin-artisans-weekend-art-challenge_18.html
The biggest issue I see here is that it will take a really long time to execute because you have to shuffle before completing the effect. That said, this is really cool!
DeleteYeah, it's neat, but this card is SO Much Work.
DeleteTreefolk Reclaimer 2(G/W)(G/W)
ReplyDeleteCreature -- Treefolk
X, Sacrifice Treefolk Reclaimer: Put X target creature and/or land cards from your graveyard on top of your library.
Persist
1/4
Does Treefolk Reclaimer need persist?
DeleteMidnight Lullaby 3GG
ReplyDeleteSorcery U
Return two target cards from a graveyard to the top of their owner's library.
I have no idea if this is over-priced or under- (though Make a Wish leads me to believe over) but it's neat how it's also a Plow Under.
DeleteApprentice exorcist
ReplyDelete1W
2/1
Creature - human shaman
Whenever you become the target of a spell or ability you may have its controller lose 2 life.
I like the subtlety.
DeleteWhite likes to protect its own, but this punishment doesn't feel white.
DeleteI, too, like the subtlety.
¿How does this... Oh. Oh, nice.
DeleteAs an alternate punishment, how about giving you creatures. It can be flavored as hiring more bodyguards after someone tries to assassinate you.
DeleteHead of Security 1W
Creature-Human Soldier
Whenever you become the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, put a 1/1 white Soldier creature token onto the battlefield.
2/1
White causing life loss is definitely weird.
Delete:) I was very pleased to come up with this approach, as it fixes the environment, but without openly hosing mill. Or anything else -- mill targets _repeatedly_ more than other strategies, so against most decks, even burn decks, it's just a nice little bonus, but it can really scotch a mill deck, but is still interactive because the mill deck can find a way to kill it.
DeleteJules version is cool, a much better card that should really be printed.
But for now, I prefer the lifeloss version, because it has a more direct effect. If mill deck has a 1/2 blocker and mills you once a turn, it can likely ride out the wave of 1/1s, but it can only absorb so much lifeloss.
I think the lifeloss is ok in white in a "you can do this, but if you do, you have to pay the price" way (cf. extort), but I agree something else would be more widely accepted. I'm not sure what though.
Stirring Requiem
ReplyDelete2WW
Enchantment
Whenever a creature card would enter your graveyard from anywhere, you may pay WW. If you do, put that card onto the battlefield.
That should say "onto the battlefield tapped."
DeleteIf my opponent wasn't milling me, I'd go out of my way to mill myself. And if they were, they better hurry, cause that's a lot of free creatures.
DeleteAgree with Jay. Also, I don't think this can exist at uncommon without a preposterously high resurrection cost because making your creatures on the battlefield unkillable makes for unfun games of limited.
DeleteLots of great submissions this week!
ReplyDeleteThat's been my takeaway as well.
DeleteYeah, I've really liked an awful lot of them.
Delete