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.
And now for something completely different. The setting is post-chronotastrophe Dominaria. Choose either of the image crops below (specify left or right) and design a card that feels like it belongs in a block that revisits Dominaria after the events of Time Spiral. Bonus points if you are able to evoke one of the positive aspects of Time Spiral or reference a card/mechanic from it. Penalty points if the card makes the same mistakes of Time Spiral and isn't NWO-friendly.
So this is proving really hard. Hmm.
ReplyDeleteHarbor Ruins
ReplyDeleteLand (Rare)
CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add G or U to your mana pool.
Sacrifice CARDNAME: Excavate. (Look at the bottom card of your library. You may put it on top of your library.)
Inspired by the scry-lands and the idea of looking 'backward' rather 'forward'. Feedback welcome and appreciated.
(Crop A)
DeleteExcavate (in some form) makes sense for New Dominaria. Is reverse Scry 1 the best execution for it?
DeleteEven if it is, Harbor Ruins is identical to Temple of Mystery except that instead of getting the bonus effect for free when you play it, you have to sacrifice your land. That's definitely worse, so I would either expect the effect to be bigger or the card to be more common.
I do not remember where, but I read a case against tampering with the bottom of the library. Things that are there have a reason for being there, and manipulating your deck to see the bottom card is time-consuming. However I really like the idea for new Dominaria!
DeleteJay's right about the rarity. I'll change this to uncommon, to fit the "better than Guildgate, worse than scry-land" category.
DeleteIt's funny-- I really had to work to convince myself that Excavate is functionally identical to scry 1. Really it just means "put the bottom card of your library on top, then scry 1." But it feels way different for some reason; not sure why.
Lose Yourself 2WW
ReplyDeleteEnchantment (r)(right)
Vanishing 3
You can't cast spells or be the target of spells.
Creatures you control can't attack, and creatures can't attack you.
Very Johnny
DeleteI like it.
DeleteAgreed. My only gripe is that this certainly needs to cost more so that Standard isn't ruled by something as obnoxious as this + Curse of the Pierced Heart.
DeleteI wouldn't want to play against any deck that has enough draw power to cast 4 of these every single game. I can't exactly say it's more antisocial than Solitary Confinement or Moat, though.
DeleteI had hoped that the fact that your opponent can still develop the board and attack your planeswalkers would mean that they aren't too strong in conjunction with this, and had assumed that there's some weird cycling deck that would combo with this in Eternal formats, but I hadn't thought as much about enchantments.
DeleteDevelopment/FFL might have to make sure that something like Curses or Valakut aren't too strong in the same Standard, I guess. The other thing would be for that to be an "enchantment" deck, and specific playable hate to be readily available. On the other hand, it's possible that if you put the right tools together, this could be very playable in a deck designed to answer a dominating RDW or MBC presence.
This is a tough one. Rebuilding Dominaria really really shouldn't be Time Spiral 2. "All the mechanics from the past" was an NWO disaster and the overreliance on nostalgia was off-putting to newcomers. New Dominaria should be about building the future, not about revisiting the past.
ReplyDeleteUsing the crop on the right.
A Promise of Renewal (common)
W
Sorcery
Gain 3 life.
Hope (When you cast this spell, you may search your library for a card with converted mana cost 1 greater than this card. Reveal it, shuffle your library, and put that card on top.)
What do you do to rebuild a fallen world? You make a plan and you get there one step at a time. It's a long path, and not an easy one, but you'll get back to where you were eventually.
Is this too much shuffling at common?
Agreed: New Dominaria should be about building the future, not about revisiting the past.
DeleteIt is a lot of shuffling. Even so, make it chain up 1 like rebels and it's a neat idea. Love the justification.
Hope is neat, but on top of the shuffling issue this mechanic takes way too much variance out of the game. Imagine always having access to Thopter Foundry and Sword of the Meek because all the CMC 1 hope cards are cheap tutors for the combo pieces. Now all the other cards in your deck are irrelevant.
DeleteMaybe if it was like a reverse cascade?
DeleteHope (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a card that costs (1?) more. You may put it into your hand. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.)
Changing Hope to an action rather than a trigger. This way a card that says "draw a card, hope" is less awkward.
DeleteA Promise of Renewal (common)
W
Sorcery
Gain 3 life.
Hope (You may search your library for a card with converted mana cost 1 greater than this card, reveal it, then shuffle your library and put that card on top of it.)
I'm not concerned about this taking too much variance out of the game: Transmute exists, and this is a different flavor of that. Transmute actually puts the card in your hand, too: this just helps you curve out without actually generating card advantage.
I'd love to see hope work in such a fashion that the chain of spells you use to get to your non-hope bomb would vary from game to game, thus creating more interactivity and fewer autopilot decks.
Vesuva Rerisen
ReplyDelete(Left crop)
Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool
1, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Return target land card from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.
This is definitely difficult, but I think there's scope for using the flavour of time spiral with a more coherent mechanical identity. I picked something from timespiral that seemed to go with the art. I would prefer to think of a theme for the set, but didn't get that far -- it'd probably be something different to time spiral (phyrexians again?). So I made a one-off card that would fit into a new set, but also be a reference to cards in time spiral.
Works for me.
DeleteRare or uncommon?
Not having to tap to sacrifice, and being able to pay for its own {1} to sacrifice is needlessly clever. Just replace the activation cost with {T}.
The non-tap activation also lets you loop multiple Vesuva Rerisens in and out of the graveyard if you have mana from other sources...is this intentional? (Landfall theme?)
DeleteOops, that was a typo! It should have been {T} both times, I was distracted by thinking about the "ETB tapped unless you pay 1" lands, I wasn't trying to do anything clever.
DeleteIcatian Ruins
ReplyDelete(Left Crop)
Legendary Land (Mythic)
Card Text:
Tap: Add 1 to your mana pool.
1W, T: Put target enchantment card from your graveyard on top of your library.
I'm not too familiar with the lore, but I know Urza's Saga had a decent enchantment theme and I wanted to give a shoutout to Academy Ruins and Volrath's Stronghold. Does the location make sense?
Go go gadget mega-cycle!
DeleteWhile I don't think either of those cards were good for the game, continuing mega-cycles is compelling. Though I can't help but wonder what the green one will do.
DeleteIcatia seems like a fair location for this.
Green- lands, Red- instants and/or sorceries? Sounds fun, but I agree that these would risk being very overpowered. The cycle is obvious enough that different mana costs (e.g. 2G, 3R) for the ability would probably be justified.
DeleteYeah, would it be better for gameplay to increase the cost of the activated ability? 2W or 3W? It wouldn't be a strict mega cycle then, but that'd probably be fine.
DeleteOvergrown Academy
ReplyDelete(Left Crop)
Land (R)
T: add 1 to your mana pool
UG: Choose a counter on target permanent. Remove that counter from that permanent or card or put another of those counters on it.
"Many meditate among the ancient ruins of the academy to forget great pains and attain spiritual growth."
Should the second ability require a tap?
DeleteRemoving counters is black.
DeleteAdding is green/blue. Should require tap and have higher activation cost.
Moving counters from one thing to another is green-blue, and that's what this ability feels like. See also: Give // Take, the Spikes, and both Simic guildmages. But this ability *should* probably require a tap to prevent abuse.
Deletethis ability is taken directly from the card Clockspinning (Which is blue) minus the suspend part.
Deletehttp://magiccards.info/query?q=clocksp&v=card&s=cname
I didnt make it tap to play up the idea that the longer you meditate at the ruins (spending your mana) the more you get out of them. Im not against upping the cost though. maybe 2UG?
Right
ReplyDeleteReturn to Nothing 2WW
Sorcery (U)
Exile target creature until its owner controls no creatures.
It reads *really* weirdly for a sorcery to be doing something that pays attention to game state after it resolves. It could also be misinterpreted as "Exile all creatures that target player controls". I'd suggest making this into an enchantment (but keep the clever 'until' templating).
DeleteI didn't even know what this did until I read Ipaulsen's comment. Yes, enchantmentify this.
DeleteNWO nightmare. Very intelligent card, but under NWO it would be:
DeleteReturn to Nothing 2WW
Enchantment
Exile target creature.
Whenever that creature's owner doesn't control any creatures, sacrifice cardname and returned the exile creature to the battlefield, under its owner's control.
I like the flavor a lot, kind of like Richard the 3rd returning from a crusade to find the kingdom distraught.
Similar design space to Forced Isolation from http://goblinartisans.blogspot.com/2013/07/weekend-art-design-challenge-review.html .
DeleteReturn to Nothing
Enchantment
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, exile target creature until CARDNAME leaves the battlefield.
When that creature's owner controls no creatures, sacrifice CARDNAME.
By no means should be 2WW - Journey to Nowhere may be undercosted (maybe), but at uncommon, this is still much worse than Oblivion Ring. I'd start it at 1W as "this set's Pacifism" and test from there.
Good points all. I'm not sure why an enchantment didn't cross my mind, but I'll use Pasteur's rules text and suggested cost of 1W.
DeleteI'm not loving any of my ideas so far. Thoughts?
ReplyDeleteCrumbling Cliff-Face
(left)
Land (cmn)
T: Add R to your mana pool. If you control six or more lands, sacrifice Crumbling Cliff-Face. If you do, draw a card.
Deserted Castle
(left)
Land (rare)
T: Add 1 to your mana pool. Add one mana of any color instead if you control another land named Deserted Castle.
Wandering Survivor W
(right)
Creature-Human (unc)
Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control tapped, put a +1/+1 counter on Wandering Survivor.
1/1
Crumbling Cliff-Face is good mechanically, yet does not live up to the art.
DeleteI dislike Deserted castle from a flavor point of view, but could be nice on another design.
The same goes for the wandering Survivor. very hard challenge this week.
I like Crumbling Cliff-Face a lot-- it's an interesting and resonant land design that doesn't rely on ETBT. It probably wants to be white or blue in order to better match the art. Also, I'd suggest re-templating to use a single triggered ability ("sacrifice ~ and draw a card").
DeleteCrumbling Citadel
Delete(left)
Land (rare)
T: Add {W} to your mana pool. If you control six or more lands, sacrifice Crumbling Citadel and draw a card.
forced land sacrifice would not sit well with most players. make it a "may" clause instead? Also why limit it to number of lands? what if i am at 5 lands, and really need the card draw?
DeleteCrumbling Citadel
Land (Uncommon)
enters play tapped
T: add W to your mana pool.
1, T, sacrifice cardname: Draw a card
too different / overpowered?
The forced sacrifice is an important part of the design. Otherwise it would be strictly better than Plains. Ant's version seems like a good idea for a dual (see also: Horizon Canopy) but is probably a little *underpowered* as a monocolor land.
DeleteI imagine the Crumbling lands add a lot to gameplay, but I don't think they read very well to most players. Not unprintable, but we certainly need to consider whether it would be wiser to aim for broader appeal.
DeleteI'm not in love with either of the other designs.
Invisible Guardian 3U
ReplyDelete(left crop)
Creature - Guardian (uncommon)
Defender, flash
2/7
"You cannot see it? Well, obvisouly."
Emerging Keep
(left crop)
land - rare
Whenever you play an island add an emergence counter on Emerging Keep.
remove 1 emergence counter, tap: add 1 to your mana pool.
Creatures with less power than the number of emergence counters on emerging keep cannot attack you unless they have flying.
Reclaim the ruins 1GG
Sorcery uncommon
You may put up to 3 basic land cards from your graveyard to the batteground, tapped.
I'm loving the idea behind Invisible Guardian, though if art were actually made for the card it would probably show more of an action scene (e.g. someone running into the Guardian). It's really tempting to give it hexproof, but I can see how that might raise NWO and power level issues.
DeleteEmerging Keep seems really overpowered (free pseudo-Moat in a land slot?!) and doesn't make total sense flavor-wise.
Reclaim the Ruins is very nice and fits well in a post-apocalyptic world. It's potentially very powerful in a format with fetchlands: Fetch, Elf, fetch, Reclaim gets you to 6 mana on turn 3 pretty reliably. But that's more of a development concern than a design issue.
Invisible is cute, but I agree with Ipaulsen it deserves funnier art.
DeleteEmerging Keep is powerful, but perhaps printable. Counters on lands is a big drag though.
Reclaim is good. I suppose it implies a self-milling theme in the set.
Invisible came about because I could not see anything on the card...
DeleteThen I saw the back island as though it was coming out of the water. It requires islands, and a lot of them and reads more powerful than it is. Suppose you drop it on turn one, and then play an island every turn. On turn 4, it has 3 counters if you have not used it for mana. At turn 4 your opponent should have a creature with power 3 or more...
Reclaim targets basic lands, so fetch lands are not really an issue. Self milling or discard are indeed implied.
Which one should I submit?
DeleteAnd on turn 8, assuming you're drawing enough cards to play a land every turn, Emerging Keep locks your opponent out. You just have to live that long. Again, probably printable (in terms of power-level), but not without risk.
DeleteI prefer Reclaim.
My problem with Emerging Keep is that it feels less like a land and more like a lockdown card with an incidental mana-granting ability. The blue deck will probably be playing counter/bounce spells while ticking up Keep, so actually being able to attack with a 3+ power creature on turn 4 is by no means guaranteed. Whether a given opposing deck is likely to have creatures with 3+ power is also heavily meta-dependent. Legacy Goblins and Elves, for example, have a majority of creatures with 1-2 power (unpumped).
DeleteI really like Reclaim the Ruins. It's just powerful enough to tickle Spike's fancy but you can't jam it into every green deck and expect it to do work (appealing to Johnny).
How about 1, sacrifice an island, tap: put an emergence counter on Emerging keep instead of whenever an island...
DeleteRight-hand art:
ReplyDeleteNettlesome Terrain
Land (Uncommon)
CARDNAME doesn't untap during your untap step.
Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may untap CARDNAME.
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
Whoa. Interesting design, possibly quite powerful in Legacy. I'm not persuaded it fits the art, though.
DeleteSo... it's unplayable unless you intend to combo it with some way to play multiple lands each turn? Should it be rare then? If the goal is to combo with Rampant Growth.dec, should it just be {G}?
DeleteThis really shouldn't be uncommon unless the set has "land drops matter" in it. No one likes guaranteed 14th pick garbage in Draft.
DeleteAs a rare that tapped for colored mana, this could actually be interesting in the Amulet of Vigor/bouncelands/Summer Bloom Modern combo deck.
The idea was to represent damaged terrain that needs a kickstart in order to be productive again. I'm being quite conservative with the colorless mana. But let's bump it up to rare and increase its production:
DeleteRuined Farmstead
Land (Rare)
CARDNAME doesn't untap during your untap step.
Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may untap CARDNAME.
T: Add 1 to your mana pool for each land that entered the battlefield under your control this turn.
Green mana is an option, though part of me wants it to remain open to other colors in Commander. Green doesn't need even more exclusive ramp, especially when it can already use this the most effectively.
(Right image)
ReplyDeleteSettle the Ruins 3W
Instant (C)
Delve
Put two 1/1 white Citizen creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Using your graveyard as a resource seems to me like the best way to represent a post-apocalyptic world trying to rebuild itself. Settle the Ruins is also a callback to Icatian Crier and Empty the Warrens.
Great call on Delve. I like it.
DeleteSeconded.
DeleteSurvivor Tokens?
DeleteLeft Picture
ReplyDeleteSanctuary Ruins (Rare)
Legendary Land
Tap: Add W to your mana pool.
1W Tap: Target creature without flying or islandwalk cannot attack you or a planeswalker you control until your next turn.
Flying Sanctuary reference is neat, and I like how much more limited it is. I do wonder if it should require WU or leave off the islandwalk, since that looks pretty strange in a vacuum.
DeleteName change to ruins of the island sanctuary. Better reflects the island walk and picture.
DeleteI think the best part of time spiral block was the "hidden" references. For a new player they don't even notice but for a long time player they make you smile.
Return to Ruins (Uncommon)
ReplyDelete1R
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Whenever enchanted creature attacks you, that creature's controller sacrifices a land.
This is based on how dejected the guy in the right-hand art looks after looking at his previous home.
You don't see a lot of defensive red removal (though they do make some), but this could work. Interesting
DeleteI'm worried that this will end up making players suffer from a lot of mana screw as they misjudge how many lands they need to keep. if testing proves otherwise, I'm with Jay.
DeleteCalm Before the Storm 4U
ReplyDeleteEnchantment - Rare
Sacrifice ~: The next instant or sorcery spell you cast this turn has storm. Activate this ability only if you controlled ~ from the beginning of this turn.
I don't think this is remotely printable, but that's just because it would requirethe set to have Storm as a mechanic. Ignoring that for a moment, I'd fight to put this on a creature so that it can just be summoning sick with a tap ability instead of having the awkward wording.
DeleteTerrifying.
DeleteMake it a Legend(ary creature) and print it in a Commander set! I'm sure it'd be a lot of fun there. Maybe RU?
DeleteI second (third?) the idea of putting this on a creature. The storm mechanic in and of itself is not a deal-breaker; there are plenty of ways to make the effect differ from storm proper. For example, you could write the ability as:
Delete"T, Sacrifice ~: Copy target instant or sorcery spell X times, where X is the number of spells that have been cast this turn. You may choose new targets for the copies."
This is substantially more powerful than just granting storm, but on an expensive enough creature it ought to be balanced. We're now very far afield from the original art, but I like the concept behind the design a lot. In general, I think Storm has made designers a little too afraid of copying spells.
As usual a little late to the party, but to what extent does the non-NWO penalty apply to things other than commons?
ReplyDeleteHigher rarities are less impacted, because NWO back-loads complexity there. Even so, you wouldn't want 8 lines of text on an uncommon or three keywords that aren't used anywhere else, etc.
Delete[Right Crop]
ReplyDeleteWork Yet to Do - 2G
Sorcery (Common)
Search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Shuffle your library.
Momentum 3 — If this is the third card that you played this turn, instead search your library for two basic land cards and put them onto the battlefield untapped. Shuffle your library.
---
Only NWO friendly if momentum is a viable ability word. Tries to capture some of the feel of time dilation in having bursts of high activity at once.
The 3 in the ability word doesn't work, but otherwise it's fine. It would obviously require playtesting, but I imagine 3 is too hard and 2 would be better.
DeleteI imagine 'third card played' is an attempt to make land drops matter, but 'second spell cast' is probably easier to understand and creates fewer feel-bad situations. I'm also with Jay on wanting to drop the '3' in the ability word.
DeleteSounds about right.
DeleteWork Yet to Do - 2G
Sorcery (Common)
Search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Shuffle your library.
Momentum — If this is the second spell that you cast this turn, instead search your library for two basic land cards and put them onto the battlefield untapped. Shuffle your library.
Crumbling Holdfast
ReplyDelete(Right)
Land
Unc
T, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. THen search your library for a card named CARDNAME and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Shuffle your library afterwards.
Cool, and in all likelihood quite powerful (basically 133% of a Gemstone Mine with deck-thinning upside). Also creates a lot of shuffling. Should probably be rare for NWO; you might also consider having it enter the battlefield tapped.
DeleteI don't know why I didn't put ETB-tapped on there...
DeleteNot a fan of rares that require you to play multiple copies. Uncommon seems more fair to my wallet, shuffling be damned.
DeleteThe mitigation of shuffling was brought about due to tourney time constraints. Making it rare will not effect its appearance on the constructed scene. (see fetch-lands)
As far as limited goes, this would make for a terrible rare and might be better served as a common (with "etb-tapped").