Weekend Art ChallengeClick through to see this weekend's art and the design requirements for your single card submission, due Monday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, which I will try to provide, and which everyone is welcome to provide as well. You may use that feedback to revise your submission any number of times.
The weekly art challenge tested negative, so back to weekend art challenges. I'm concerned that designers are leaning too heavily on the visual appeal of a mocked up card, since Magic design and game design in general needs to iterate fast enough that it doesn't make sense to make polished playtest materials until later on, but they certainly are nice to look at, and we're not exactly playtesting here. So, we're going to set up a shared folder and if you'd like a mock-up of your card, you'll access the MSE file (here this weekend), create your card and export it to the same folder. On Monday, I'll post all the cards that have been rendered (one per person) and review them. But it'll likely take a while to sort out the permissions. I think I'll have to invite each of you individually by email to give you write access. If you want to share that in the comments here, that's up to you, or you can DM me on Twitter. Anyone can /read/ the MSE file, so if you want to download it, render your card, and post it online, or send it to me another way, that might work too. Since it's short notice, I will mock up cards this weekend only for anyone who can't sync up and asks nice.
The challenge is to design any card appropriate to this art, with bonus points for being most dissimilar to cards already submitted. Remember that a solid design with no bonus has more merit than a bad design with a bonus.
Awaken the Deep {2}{B}{B}
ReplyDeleteSorcery (cmn)
Return target creature card from any graveyard to the battlefield under your control, if it has the greatest power among creature cards in all graveyards.
Is this an interesting restriction? Isn't that what you are doing anyway?
DeleteIt's not interesting until it bites you. "Crap, I have to take the Craw Wurm? I wanted Obzedat." Really just flavor-based, possibly supporting a power-matters theme.
DeleteI like it. Maybe re-template a la Culling Scales:
DeleteReturn target creature card in a graveyard with the greatest power among creature cards in graveyards to the battlefield under your control.
It's kind of nasty no matter how you cut it, even if you ignore the case of a tie.
Can we remove the targeting?
Delete"Return the creature card with the greatest power among cards in all graveyards to the battlefield under your control."
That way you can't target something that then becomes illegal when a larger creature dies with the spell on the stack.
I don't see how this can be common. Uncommon?
DeleteI really don't like that this stops interesting plays. Realizing that the right thing to get is some seemingly innocuous creature that died a bunch of turns ago is part of what makes the game fun.
DeleteThis would feel more coherent mechanically if it cost, say, 2B and also said "You lose life equal to its power."
@metaghost Good call.
Delete@Ben I totally misremembered Rise from the Grave (and every cousin); yes.
@Tommy It's not without merit, but you're right it's pretty mediocre as a design. Until I think of something better…
Awaken the Deep 2BB
Sorcery (unc)
Return a creature card with the greatest power from any graveyard to the battlefield under your control.
Panglacial Hellion
ReplyDelete6RR
Creature - Hellion (R)
Trample, haste
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, CARDNAME deals 3 damage to each other creature.
Whenever a player shuffles his or her library, put a token copy of CARDNAME onto the battlefield. Exile it at end of turn.
6/6
Weird. So if two shuffles happen in the same turn, this guy makes a token that deals 3 damage to him... then on the second shuffle, both of those make new tokens... that each deal 3 damage to everything else... OK, our original two are dead... and one of the new ones has 3 damage on it... wait, how do you stack the triggers? ...oh well, they're both disappearing at end of turn anyway, and everything else on the board is dead by now, except maybe an Emrakul, which is lucky because that dying would cause a third shuffle. My head hurts.
DeleteThe point is, this feels plenty oppressive (and plenty rare) without the enters-the-battlefield ability. Otherwise, cool design.
I suspect it's a bit of a corner-case that an abundance of shuffles are happening on the same turn that late in a game, but it's true that things can get a bit weird. Still, is it really that confusing? Or do you just feel that it's too easy to leverage the duplication effect to win the game on the spot?
Delete"CARDNAME deals 3 damage to each non-Hellion creature" perhaps?
DeleteFor some reason I thought it was fairly traditional for Hellions to have a great potential for suicide, but I guess that's really just Caldera Hellion. Though Volcano Hellion and Flowstone Hellion sort of represent that sentiment.
DeleteStill, that wacky aspect of the original design keeps its replicative powers restrained to some extent. Adding "non-Hellion" may simplify things, but it may push it even further towards an "I win" card (given some on-board shuffle effects or whatever).
Thoughtrender B
ReplyDeleteCreature - Horror (U)
B, Sacrifice Thoughtrender: Target opponent reveals his or her hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card.
1/1
Oh, nice. I wonder why we've not seen more creatures with discard effects like that.
DeleteI feel like there was something along these lines in Innistrad block, but I agree-- good find.
DeleteIs the lack of a "sorcery speed" clause intentional? (see: Thrull Surgeon)
DeleteI'm happy with this strictly better Distress, but I definitely want Sorcery speed. I believe the Innistrad card you are thinking of is Brain Weevil.
DeleteAh, Brain Weevil-- thanks!
DeleteYes, sorcery speed.
See also: Dementia Bat
DeleteI did think about sorcery speed, but I want this to be strong and constructed level playable. Sorcery speed also adds a lot of words to the text and makes it less elegant. It only stops a one-use discard effect anyway; Clique does similar things at instant speed.
DeleteEldricth Horror
ReplyDelete3SSB
Snow Creature - Horror (U)
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, exile each card in target player’s graveyard until CARDNAME leaves the battlefield.
5/4
Cool. Very cool. Below freezing, in fact.
DeleteInsanity Sandwurm
ReplyDelete4BB
Creature - Wurm
Erupt 2BB (You may cast this for its erupt cost. It gains haste. Sacrifice it at end of turn.)
Whenever CARDNAME deals combat damage to a player, he or she discards a card.
4/4
Unearth, without the earth? Very neat. In a full-sized set it would take a lot of work to balance this mechanic and make it pay off, but I'm at least interested in the idea.
DeleteThough Unearth is perhaps my favorite keyword, I don't like "Unearth without the Earth" as a keyword. If this keyword was put at common, it would really mess with limited unless the costing was super conservative making the cards bad.
DeleteThat said, I think if you unkeyword it and make it an ability on a single rare, I think that is pretty cool.
For this particular card, I suggest making the trigger "he or she discards their hand."
Evoke with an obligate attack could definitely have a space, and I really like it as a designer. It's hard to say how good of an idea Evoke was normalized to Lorwyn's poor performance, though.
DeleteI like this costed as-is, but raising a rarity and adding evasion isn't out of the question either.
For anyone wondering what I was smoking, I totally misread this and thought it was just Unearth without the exile clause. This is very cool!
DeleteAm I the only who didn't read this as a summon spell?
ReplyDeleteDeep Freeze U
Instant (U)
Kicker 5B (You may pay an additional 5B as you cast this spell.)
Tap target creature.
If Deep Freeze was kicked, destroy all tapped creatures.
No. (See below.)
DeleteOff-color kicker is something they're bound to do eventually. This is quite the powerful (and flavorful) example. I hope the kicked mode won't just be Plague Wind in too many cases.
Off color kicker was done in the first set with kicker (see Probe).
DeleteOh, right. My bad.
DeleteConsidering uncommon is probably the best place for this combination, I'd probably prefer a narrower width between the primary effect of the card vs. "best possible outcome when kicked". That this could conceivably be a Plague Wind for 5UB seems a bit extreme, especially when the base effect is "bad twitch".
DeleteInverting the tap v. destroy relationship and the appropriate costs would seem to produce a more satisfying result:
Deep Freeze
3U
Instant (U)
Kicker 1B
Tap up to four target creatures. Then, if Deep Freeze was kicked, destroy target tapped creature.
The flavor might not be as strong, but perhaps further iteration upon those relationships can maximize the flavor.
Yours feels like a Fuse card.
DeleteKicker is now, according to Maro, supposed to be used only to make the effect stronger (as opposed to how it was used in Invasion block where it just made the effect stronger). If they do off color kicker again, though, they will almost certainly have to bend that. Here's an attempt at making everything feel connected and like a stronger version (similar to the original but tighter).
Freeze Solid 3U
Instant (U)
Kicker 2B
Tap up to two target creatures. Those creatures don't untap during their controller's next untap step. If kicker was paid, destroy those creatures instead. They can't be regenerated.
Is this too complex for uncommon?
DeleteDeep Freeze XU
Instant (U)
Kicker XB (You may pay an additional XB as you cast this spell.)
Tap up to X target creatures. If Deep Freeze was kicked, destroy each of those creatures.
Not Plague Wind anymore. 2UB gets you a slightly worse Murder, 4UB gets you a two-for-one, etc. No "instead" clause so it can still tap down indestructible creatures.
I think this version is both too confusing and too powerful for uncommon. 6 mana double Murder is a pretty absurd card on its own, but you've stapled it to Glimpse the Sun God, a totally different sort of effect (that is also very powerful).
DeleteUnfortunately, an additional concern is that, though Glimpse is a very powerful effect, it wants probably least of all color pairs to be in UB, which makes the card a bit awkward. (My proposed design also has this issue).
Break the Surface
ReplyDelete3U
Instant (C)
Switch any number of target blue creatures' power and toughness until end of turn.
It's possible that there's a place where this is stronger than it looks, but I'd be inclined to drop "blue" or add a cantrip to make this more broadly playable.
DeleteOK, on board with deleting "blue".
DeleteUnexpected Arrival RR
ReplyDeleteSorcery (R)
Shuffle your deck, then reveal the top card. If it is a creature put it onto the battlefield. It gains haste. Sacrifice it at the end of the turn. Otherwise put that card and ~ into your hand, then discard a card.
I'd say just "Otherwise put that card into your hand" for the last sentence. Plenty powerful and complicated as is, without also being RR: shuffle and loot.
DeleteI don't think your card is interesting because the penalty is too harsh if you miss.
DeleteMine might be too complicated, though I don't think it is significantly more complicated than Unexpected Results on which it is clearly based. The template could certainly be cleaned up.
Tommy, I don't understand the first sentence of your response.
DeleteIpaulsen literally suggested that you remove a "penalizing" aspect of your original design and your response is that his revision is "too harsh"?
I think he meant to not put the card itself back in your hand.
DeleteIt reads to me like he's just saying that the added decision-making of the looting action is an unnecessary burden.
DeleteWait, I'm sorry, I missed that your design recurs the card itself as well. Which does seem a little weird for a monored card.
DeleteI think spells that return to your hand when you cast them (or might do so) feel like they are U or R to me. Certainly I think that is the U part of Unexpected Results. I could certainly see this card costing UR instead of RR, which also more mirrors Unexpected Results.
DeleteIt does seem a little weird that the most reliable use of this card is to play it in a creatureless deck and use it as a perpetual looting engine. (Unexpected Results doesn't have this issue because it's really hard not to include either spells or lands in your deck.)
DeleteThat is quite the hoops to jump through to be able to sorcery speed loot for RR. I think this would be a reasonable card:
DeleteDesperate Digging RR
Sorcery (U)
Draw a card. Return ~ to your hand. Discard a card.
Thin Ice 1U
ReplyDeleteInstant (U)
Counter target creature spell. If that spell is countered this way, put it into its owner's library just beneath the top X cards, where X is that creature's power.
/Kerplunk/
I like this a lot. My biggest fear is that most of the time this will just be Essence Scatter. This does have pretty cool EDH implications, though, which is enough to justify printing what I think is an awesome effect.
DeleteLove it!
DeleteMy only concern is that most of the time this is just Essence Scatter. But, it has cool EDH implications, and I think this is just a neat card.
Nice. It would be flavorful if X was the greatest power among creatures you control.
DeleteBig fan of this card and this name.
Delete@chah That would fit if one of your creatures was pulling the opponent's through the ice, but I was thinking of this card as showing the creature falling though the ice. I suppose that would make your design litterally more "bottom up" while mine is more "top down"
DeletePanglacial Wurm
ReplyDelete5GG
Creature - Wurm - Rare
Trample
While you're searching your library, you may cast Panglacial Wurm from your library.
9/5
~"It's too flat out on the tundra for an ambush. We're perfectly safe here."~
Rimewurm 2U
ReplyDeleteCreature - Licid
U, T: Rimewurm loses this ability and becomes an Aura enchantment with enchant creature. Attach it to target creature. You may pay U to end this effect.
Whenever enchanted creature becomes the target of a spell its controller sacrifices it.
0/1
I thought that 'becomes the target of a spell or ability' would be too oppressively strong but I could be wrong. Also, yeah it sort of looks the wurm/hellion/creature is bursting out of the ground but I took it as though it were bursting out of someone's (frozen) body.
DeleteGlacier Melting Wurm 3UR
ReplyDeleteHaste, trample
At end of turn, return CARDNAME and all creatures you control to their owner's hands.
6/4
Hoarfrost Horror 3R
ReplyDeleteCreature - Horror
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, reveal the top card of your library. If it’s a snow card, put it on the bottom of your library and repeat this process. CARDNAME deals damage to target creature equal to the number of cards revealed this way.
5/1
A mono-red Horror?
DeleteShould Hoarfrost itself be a snow card? The name suggests so. Or is it nonsnow to prevent an infinite loop (assuming you're running more than one)? Could also exile and then shuffle to the bottom afterward.
There are mono-red Demons and Devils, and Cryptborn Horror and Possessed Barbarian are potentially precedents. I don't think it's too much of a stretch, but I do agree that it'd have to be backed up by the setting.
DeleteYou're probably right that it's better to make Hoarfrost a snow card, and I'd probably add a "you may repeat" to solve the infinite loop. You do get to see your entire deck's order this way, but if literally every card in your deck is snow, more power to you, and this hopefully saves on shuffling time and words-on-card.
http://oi59.tinypic.com/25p79kx.jpg
ReplyDeleteBreach from Beneath-Beyond RUG
Sorcery (Mythic)
Each opponent reveals cards from the top of his or her library until he or she reveals a permanent card. You may put the revealed permanent cards onto the battlefield under your control. Then each opponent puts all nonpermanent cards revealed this way at the bottom of his or her library in random order.
Chaos Made Flesh R (R)
ReplyDeleteInstant
Destroy target creature, then roll a die. That creature's controller puts an X/X red Heliion creature token onto the battlefield, where X is the number you rolled.
Does the proliferation of Smart-Phones being used to keep track of things like life-totals mean we can start printing the occasional dice-card? Probably not, but it's good to check-up on old boundaries to see if they were a good idea to begin with.
I think the real issue with this design (in the real world) is whether it knows its audience. That is to say that by phrasing it as though it's color-shifted and efficient removal with a randomized drawback, you've created something that sits in that Spike/Johnny hybrid zone that may be a bit too niche.
DeleteThat said, I still like it, and it definitely fits in with a lineage of risky red token producers, like Hellion Eruption and Devastating Summons.
Can you roll a 1d100? (I don't actually know if dice are defined in Magic-rules, or if they make 100-sided die. Presumably they do and are sold near where Magic is often played.)
DeleteI guess it should say "6-Sided die." Even I, a madman, wouldn't want Magic to have multiple dice-types floating around.
DeleteD100s exist. They look like golf-balls.
Shattered Glacier Hellion - 2RR
ReplyDeleteCreature - Hellion (R)
While you're searching your library, you may cast Shattered Glacier Hellion from your library.
Landfall - When Shattered Glacier Hellion enters the battlefield, if you had a land enter the battlefield under your control this turn, Shattered Glacier Hellion deals 2 damage to each creature.
3/2
Previously, all Landfall permanents have been "count each land that comes in after I am on the battlefield." Do you think switching to "count if a land previously entered the battlefield" blurs the line between Landfall permanents and Instants/Sorceries? Or is this one of the next-steps-forward in evolving the mechanic?
DeleteAll "cast while searching"s feel slightly weird due to the incongruity with fetchlands (you can cast this with your fifth fetchland but not your fourth), but this is a little odder as you'll often crack a fetchland, cast this, and then have the fetched-land enter the battlefield after the Landfall trigger has come and gone. If you played the first half of the fetchland this turn, that's not a problem, but the ordering does seem odd.
So to clarify, it's either a 4 mana 3/2 vanilla or a 4 mana Pyroclasm? Since it will almost always kill itself on ETB...
DeleteInstant-speed from your library Pyroclasm, yes.
DeleteCould possibly be reworked to 3/3, but the effect seems interesting/powerful enough for players to be willing to lose their creature.
DeleteIceplains Devastator 1{R}{R}{G}
ReplyDeleteCreature - Worm (U)
CARDNAME comes into play with X +1/+1 counters, where is is the biggest toughness amongst creatures on the battlefield.
{T}: Cardname fights target creature with toughness equal to its power.
[i]So you thought your hydra was the toughest creature around? Guess again.[/i]
I forgot to say it is a 0/0 otherwise.
DeleteVent Maker Hellion 3RG
ReplyDeleteCreature - Hellion
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, you may destroy target land an opponent controls. If that land is a nonbasic land, CARDNAME deals 2 damage to each creature and each player.
4/3
Debated giving it haste, but I feel that would need a mana cost boost. It already feels dangerous as is. I went with hitting your own creatures to make ramping into this via mana dorks a bit less rewarding.
Last call for card renders. There have been very few; I clearly over-estimated the desire for them.
ReplyDeleteI would like to do a render, but I'm not really sure what all that Dropbox stuff needs me to do. Would it not be easier to get people to just link their own self-made renders in this chat?
DeleteThat was one of the options I mentioned. Go for it.
Deletehttp://i596.photobucket.com/albums/tt50/Aura-Warrior/Thoughtrender_zps9ced0212.jpg
Deleteyeah. it wasn't that there wasn't a desire for renders, it was that dropbox is confusing. :)
DeleteI'd be happy to send you my render in an email or something, I just don't feel like making a completely separate account on another website solely to post card renders for this website.
DeleteAgain, not married to DropBox. You can email me if you've got my address. You can post a link. Doesn't matter.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThin Ice 1UU
ReplyDeleteEnchantment - Aura
Enchant Creature
When enchanted creature becomes tapped, its controller sacrifices it.
This maybe a color bleed. ITs a twist on the blue illusion ability (when this becomes a target, sacrifice it).
As an aura, this is pretty black, a la Brink of Disaster.
DeleteCool. Could cost B? Maybe U/B?
Deleteabboniation of the deep 10BBB
ReplyDeletecreature - zombie hellion
Delve (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting this spell pays for 1.)
[Cardname] can be cast from the graveyard
when [Cardname] attacks, attacked oppenent loses 5 life
10/10
The first two abilities complement the card and each other nicely. The third ability seems random and unrelated. Nix that and I dig this.
Delete