Friday, January 16, 2015

Weekend Art Challenge 011615—Ciameth (Griffons)

Weekend Art Challenge
Greetings, artisans! Click through to see this weekend's art and the design requirements for your single card submission, due Monday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, and everyone is encouraged to give feedback. You may use that feedback to revise your submission any number of times, though only the version rendered will be included in the review, if someone volunteers to render the cards.

A
Choose one of these griffon illustrations and design a rare, or for bonus points, an uncommon.

B

C

D

E

F

30 comments:

  1. Carrion Clash 2GG
    [Art C]
    Enchantment (R)
    Whenever a creature you control dies, you may have target creature you control fight another target creature.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cool! It's a smart move to make this trigger on creatures you control only, since it would be pretty oppressive otherwise. As it stands it seems like a very well-balanced card. Spike will try it out as a source of value in Whip decks, and Johnny will try to go infinite with Hornet Nest.

      Delete
  2. Fell Swoop
    RG
    [Art E]
    Instant - Uncommon
    Target creature with flying fights target creature without flying.
    ~Only wounded griffons have qualms about cannibalism.~

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think this is too strong if your opponent happens to have both. I think we're past the days of Branching Bolt.

      Delete
    2. I like the hoser, but I agree this is too swingy. Perhaps it could be Prey Upon with a rider if the second creature has flying.

      Delete
    3. The only change I would make would be to make it a sorcery. Otherwise, I like it.

      Delete
    4. This is significantly worse than Branching Bolt because you can't cast it if your opponent doesn't have flyers. I also like it more as a Sorcery though

      Delete
  3. (Art B)

    Blizzard Sanctuary (UNC)
    Snow Land
    T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
    Snow landcycling S (S, Discard this card: Search your library for a snow land card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library. S can be paid with one mana from a snow permanent.)

    I think Uncommon makes sense, if you imagine this is in a Snow set with the snow-covered lands at Common.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't know about Limited, but this seems fun in constructed with Snow lands akin to what we have already. Might push this for 101st common to get it into Pauper, but that's obviously not a designer's concern.

      Delete
  4. All of this art is pretty bad. Let's make do with what we've got, though. Art A.

    Peaceful Example (rare)
    2W
    Sorcery
    Put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield. It gains "This creature can't attack or block."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agreed, most of this art is way busier than what would generally fit onto a Magic card.

      Delete
  5. Art A:

    Griffin Roost 1W
    Enchantment (Rare)
    At the beginning of your upkeep, put an egg counter on CARDNAME.
    Tap an untapped Griffin creature you control: put an egg counter on CARDNAME.
    W, Remove two egg counters from CARDNAME: Put a 2/2 white Griffin creature token with flying onto the battlefield.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Art E, cropped to keep the upper left:

    Banishing Shower 2UU

    Instant (Uncommon)

    Return up to two target creatures that share a creature type to their owner's hand.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Art C.

    Recon Team 1WU
    Instant (R)
    Until end of turn, flying creatures you control gain first strike and "when this creature deals combat damage to a player, return target creature that player controls to its owner's hand.
    Other creatures you control gain vigilance until end of turn.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Eh, too wordy even for an intentionally wordy card.
      Art D.
      Drawing on the Wall
      Sorcery 1U (R)
      As an additional cost to cast CARDNAME, tap an untapped creature you control.
      Put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of the creature tapped this way.

      Delete
    2. Solid design. For what it's worth, I liked Recon Team pretty well as a concept... maybe do just the first half of the card and remove the flying condition?

      Delete
  8. Art D, cropped to remove everything except the drawing and the upper torsos of the two griffons.

    Ancestral Lore 1U
    Enchantment (U)
    As Ancestral Lore enters the battlefield, choose a creature type.
    At the beginning of your upkeep, look at the top X cards of your library, where X is the number of permanents of the chosen type you control. Put one on top of your library and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And I'll do the renders this week (because I worked damn hard on a custom set symbol and y'all are going to see it).

      Delete
    2. I'm generally suspicious of cards that give Spike-friendly rewards for Johnny or Timmy conditions. That doesn't necessarily mean this is a bad design, but I'm used to seeing something a bit more flavorful and/or powerful-reading with a tribal condition.

      Delete
    3. It feels like if I have three griffins, I get to look at my top three cards, then put one griffin on top and two on the bottom of the library.

      Delete
  9. Trying out this mechanic again:

    Weather the Storm WW
    Art B
    Sorcery (U)
    Work Together—As an additional cost to cast Weather the Storm, you may tap any number of untapped creatures you control.
    Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you tapped this way.

    Feedback appreciated as always.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tempted to say "Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you tapped this way, OR put a +1/+1 counter on target creature for each creature you tapped this way", but I may just have modal spells on the brain from Fate Reforged.

      Delete
  10. Keening Griffin 4W
    Creature - Griffin (U)
    Escort — Whenever CARDNAME and exactly one other creature attack, tap up to two target creatures you don't control.
    3/2

    ReplyDelete
  11. ART A please
    Focused on the red griffin on the right,

    ReplyDelete
  12. Tribal Memories
    Art D
    Enchantment, {2}{G}
    {1}{G}, Exile a creature card from your graveyard: Choose one of the exiled card's creature types. Reveal the top three cards of your library. Put up to one card with the chosen type into your hand and the rest into your graveyard.

    This could go into a set where at least some green cards appreciate filling the graveyard (like Innistrad, Return to Ravnica, or Khans of Tarkir). In Limited it rewards drafting a deck with lots of the same creature type, but isn't picky about what that type is. In Constructed it's a decent draw engine for a tribal deck... maybe too self-fuelling?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rare. Sadly. I set out to design an uncommon, but I don't think I can honestly claim that fits better as an uncommon than a rare...

      Delete
  13. Renders have been emailed. Apologies to anyone (especially Czynski) if I didn't get the crop exactly right!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Lullaby of Griffinland WW
    Sorcery (u)
    Until end of turn, creatures you control gain "T: Tap target permanent. It doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step".

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Whoops! Guess I need to design faster next time. Got too stuck on the name for Art B and couldn't come up with the card.

      Delete