Friday, April 29, 2016

Weekend Art Challenge 042916—sandara

Hello Artisans,
Anastase here. Last week's challenge was slightly too perplexing.
This week all constraints are off.

Design a card for this artwork:
by sandara
I will try to give feedback on your submissions over the weekend. Each Artisan is allowed one submission, but can update it as many times as needed. Please state the rarity of the card you submit.

Good crafting Artisans!

35 comments:

  1. Gold Squadron {4}{W}
    Creature-Human Soldier (unc)
    Flying
    At the beginning of combat each turn, creatures you control with power 2 or less gain flying until EOT.
    3/4

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not saying you're wrong, but I personally dislike "team flying" as a repeatable effect. I find it invalidates too many red and green strategies just by chance. For that reason, I'd prefer this not to have toughness greater than one or two common burn spells in its set and also be able to profitably attack into (or fight) with multiple common green creatures.

      Delete
    2. 3/3
      I'd been leaning that way anyhow.

      You think it's a problem even with the power restriction, Mike?

      Delete
    3. Seems like reasonable restriction.

      Delete
  2. Griffin Keeper 3WW
    Creature - Elf Knight (R)
    Griffin Keeper gets +3/+3 and has flying as long as you control a Griffin.
    At the beginning of your upkeep, put a 2/2 white Griffin creature token with flying onto the battlefield.
    2/2

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is good and printable as is. My only critique is that it's basically a 5/5 except for a very small and constantly closing window of time. Although I really like the p/t boost for flavor reasons, I feel like the printed p/t would be better served if the hoops were harder to jump through (adding a cost or trigger to generate the tokens) or if it reflected its actual p/t more frequently.

      Delete
    2. Unlimited Wind Drakes is terrifying.

      I guess the first ability gives your opponent one turn to Shock or Dead Weight this, but otherwise might as well be static. Pyroclasm is the only effect that will care after your first upkeep.

      Delete
    3. How do people feel about:

      Whenever CARDNAME attacks, if you control an attacking Griffin, CARDNAME gets +3/+3 and flying UEOT.

      I'd rather nerf his ability to be 5/5 all the time than nerf the token making.

      Delete
    4. FWIW, I think the original hoop is sufficiently hoop-y. Assuming Shocks are easier to come by than Murders, it lets you trade one on your first turn for GK, or one + one of your creatures on the second turn, and so on. That puts it in challenging-but-comes-up-often-enough territory for me.

      That said, it depends on what else is in the environment. If you want people to be able to shock their opponent's Griffin token in response to the GK attacking so they can surprise-block it, the first works better. If you're worried about people casting Pyroclasm postcombat and accidentally wiping their own GK alongside its token, definitely the second.

      Delete
  3. Rouse the rookery 2WW
    Sorcery (U)
    Humans you control get +2/+2 and gain flying until end of turn.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My initial aim was to design a common. As usual, it crept up towards uncommon. :/

      Any insights as to how to make this a true common?

      Delete
    2. Removing the human restriction and upping the cost to 4WW whould do it. It could probably even be an instant at that price.

      Delete
    3. Commons: Angelic Blessing, Battleflight Eagle, Mighty Leap. You might be able to make a Theros-style target-two common, but anything more and it's just not common.

      Delete
    4. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    5. Official change:

      Rouse the rookery. 2WW
      Sorcery (common)
      Up to two target creatures each gain +2/+2 and gain flying until end of turn.

      Thanks guys

      Delete
    6. Funnily enough, this is effectively already an uncommon (Windborne Charge). +2/+1 and +1/+1 have been common white commons over the past few years - I'd be curious about something like this:

      2WW
      Sorcery (common)
      Target creature you control gains flying until end of turn.
      Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn.

      Thematically "one of your creatures flies ahead, inspiring all the others"?

      Delete
  4. Ride in on Griffins 2W
    Sorcery (U)
    Creatures you control gain flying until end of turn.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I feel it is strange how any people want this to be white and give flying.

    The humanoids in the image seem to be elves, and as such I would expect creative to be against them turning into humans since it would require a redrawing of the image.

    What world would have griffin ridding elves however? Alara?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why wouldn't this be white? There are 38 Griffin creatures in Magic. 2 of them are nonwhite.

      I could maybe see going GW to play up the elf angle.

      Delete
    2. Easier to ignore the ears than the landscape, armor, art color and griffin association.

      Delete
    3. True. I guess since I saw it in big resolution initially and not cropped down, I had an expectation it would lead us to explore a new take on griffins + elves, but now that I see the zoomed out version it is indeed easy to miss.

      Delete
  6. Ride in on Griffins 2W
    Sorcery (U)
    Creatures you control gain flying until end of turn.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was shocked to see that this text box hasn't been printed before. Nice find.

      The closest comparisons I could find were Magnetic Flux (eesh), Stormcaller's Boon (hmm), and Skyshaper (strictly better in several ways). If you cost it at 1W it's basically a white Magmatic Chasm, and still strictly worse than Skyshaper. 1W instant might be a good place for this effect, but I can also understand keeping it as a sorcery.

      Delete
  7. Wings and Claws {1}{G}{W}{U}
    Enchantment (Uncommon)
    Whenever a creature with flying enters the battlefield under your control, you gain 2 life
    Whenever a creature with flying you control attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The first part is so minor and the second part is so major. Cut one, balance them, or link them.

      Delete
    2. You're right. I was enamored with the symmetry.
      New design:

      Wings and Claws {1}{G}{W}{U}
      Enchantment (Uncommon)
      Whenever a creature with flying enters the battlefield under your control, you gain 3 life.
      Whenever a creature with flying you control deals combat damage to a player, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.
      Whenever a creature with flying you control dies, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card.

      Delete
  8. Leave the Nest 1WW
    Enchantment (R)
    Creatures you control with flying get +2/+2 as long as they're tapped.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't think this effect would work with any other card name.

      Delete
  9. Skyknight Training 1WW
    Enchantment (R)
    Whenever a creature with flying you control attacks, attacking creatures gain flying until end of turn.
    Whenever one or more Knight or Soldier creatures you control attack, attacking creatures get +1/+1 until end of turn.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ooh, neat. Plays well into white's "follow the leader" flavor space. Since the title calls out "Skyknight" specifically I'd just say "Knight creatures" in the second ability.

      Also, TIL there are four Magic creatures with "skyknight" in the name, and this would play well with any of them. Win.

      Delete
  10. Jhessian Barnstormer 3W
    Creature - Elf Scout (c)
    Flying
    CARDNAME can block an additional creature each combat.
    2/4

    ReplyDelete
  11. Griffin Guardians 2W
    Creature - Griffin
    2/2
    Flying
    Whenever a creature with flying enters the battlefield under an opponent's control, you may put a 2/2 white griffin creature token with flying OTB tapped.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Why tapped?

      Other than that, I like this a lot. At first I read the ability and thought "sideboard card", but then I realized that if the opponent will probably have to play into the ability in order to block the Griffin. Very nice.

      Delete
  12. Top-down design, a little clunky I guess, but kinda cool.

    Hippogriff Alliance 1WW
    Enchantment- Aura (Rare)
    Enchant creature you control with no other Auras attached to it
    Enchanted creature gets +2/+2 and has flying.
    Whenever enchanted creature deals combat damage to a player, you may put a token that's a copy of CARDNAME onto the battlefield attached to a creature of your choice.

    ReplyDelete