Click through to see the illustration and design requirements for your single card submission, due Monday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, which you may use to revise your submission any number of times. I will aim to review the most recent submission from each designer. |
| jaggudada |
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| aaron miller |
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| yuchenghong |
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| lucastorquato27 |
Happy New Year!
True Strength W
ReplyDeleteInstant
Target creature you control gets +1/+1 for each of its colors.
(illus:Lucastoquato27)
"This illusion magic of the dragons is no match for a warrior who is one with himself." -Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest.
White usually-not-quite-Giant-Growth? Sure. As the flavor text suggests, this makes a lot more sense in multicolor-heavy environments. (I don't think this could ever be printed on Kaladesh, for example.)
DeleteGood find of a simple text box that's never been printed before, though Blessing of the Nephilim and Might of the Nephilim come pretty close. Granting an ability (lifelink? first strike?) would help make this more attractive without breaking it.
White is usually limited to +1 or +2, and True Strength could give +5, but only to very hard to cast creatures (and Transguild Courier) and will usually only give +1 or +2, getting up to Giant Growth efficiency for shard creatures. Power-wise, this is definitely fine. Blessing of the Nephilim suggests it's okay color-wise. It's simple and fairly dynamic. I can't say I love that the interaction with morph creatures is that it's useless on them. I think I'd more expect to see this in a gold set that needs a smaller, whiter Might of the Nephilim, but that's not hard to imagine.
Delete(Aaron Miller art)
ReplyDeleteArrival of the Cavalry
2WW
Instant - Rare
Target blocking creature you control gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to it this turn. Create two 2/2 white Knight creature tokens.
/"We got your message. We'll take it from here."/
I get that this is a top-down design, but the complexity seems high for a combat trick and I'm not getting all the flavor from the effects. What about:
DeleteYou may remove target blocking creature you control from combat. Create two 2/2 white Knight creature tokens. Those tokens enter the battlefield blocking each creature that creature was blocking.
That's a cool card. I agree mine isnt great, but I was envisioning a counterattack card, something where your opponent thinks you're a weak target and suddenly gets more than they bargained for coming back the other way. This is going off the beaten track of what the challenge asked for but something like:
DeleteArrival of the Cavalry
4WW
Instant - Rare
Prevent all combat damage. Create a 2/2 white Knight for each attacking creature.
is both simpler and closer to my original vision.
I feel like this is stretching the meaning of combat trick, but it does change both the immediate outcome and the board state, so close enough. I love that this is six-mana rare Fog and that it's terrible for Turbo-Fog but could be an amazing sideboard card against wide/army decks. It's funny that this card would often be stronger without the damage prevention.
DeleteIt's worth noting that the existence of this card in the format (whether it's actually in a given deck or not) will so punish alpha strikes that tournament matches will go longer across the board.
DeleteRight -similar to Aetherspouts in that regard.
DeleteArt A
ReplyDeletePath From Exile W
Instant Uncommon
Exile target land until end of turn. If you do, target creature gains indestructible for as long as that land remains exiled.
Flavor text:
Delete"I am returned, and with me, my revenge"
So... just any land? Can be tapped? Can be under any player's control? Otherwise it's a benefit, not a drawback, on an effect that's already quite powerful.
DeleteI think "target untapped land" works the way it's supposed to, since tapping the land would make it an illegal target and cause that part of the spell's effect to fizzle, resulting in not trigger the "if you do" clause. Man, rules interactions are weird.
What? What is this card doing?
DeleteI can give my creature indestructible until EOT (and it will always be that length, despite the more complicated condition, unless the land is a token which has yet to be a thing) and it can ping my opponent's second main phase mana production. Why is the second effect on a white card? The flavor tells me why the creature's indestructibility is tied to the land's absence, but it's still mechanically bizarre, especially when we've already got Jouney to Nowhere and kin. But why are we flickering lands? So that this card is free to play? Do we need a 'fixed' Snap?
(Yuchenghong art)
ReplyDeleteStrike Down 1W
Instant (U)
Untap target creature. It gets +1/+1 and gains flying until end of turn. When it blocks or becomes blocked by a creature with power 4 or greater this turn, destroy that creature.
Wow, that's a lot of effects stapled together. I guess it's meant to be top-down? The untap part doesn't seem crucial to the flavor, and it's strange that the +1/+1 is so rarely relevant. Using this on the attack also feels awkward since the opponent will usually avoid a block that triggers it. Unfortunately I can't come up with a good template that works for both attacking and blocking.
DeleteYeah, it's meant to be top-down. A reprisal-esque card, except it's your creature doing the reprising.
DeleteThe +1/+1 is just because not putting a stat boost on a card like this felt weird to me. I agree the untap isn't necessary, though.
Thanks for the feedback!
Strike Down W
Instant (U)
Target creature gets +1/+0 and gains flying until end of turn. When it blocks or becomes blocked by a creature with power 4 or greater this turn, destroy that creature.
Seeing it again I actually like this quite a bit. The removal effect is very resonant and in-color-pie for white, and tying it into combat works pretty well. Still tricky to use effectively on offense, but as before I can't come up with a good way around that.
DeleteWhite gets Immolating Glare, Smite, Vanquish, and Righteousness as well as Smite the Monstrous so I want to either simplify this to "Destroy target blocking or blocked creature" (ala Divine Verdict) or make the power boost what kills, like Aerial Manuever, or tie your creature's power to the enemy's somehow. Mostly, I want a focused design that does only what it needs.
DeleteHidden Valor W
ReplyDeleteEnchantment (Uncommon)
Fated (As the card enters the battlefield, secretly choose a creature. You may reveal the chosen creature at any time.)
When the chosen creature is revealed, that creature gets +2/+2 and gains lifelink until end of turn.
Implementation's a bit clunky and there are potential issues for paper Magic, but I figure the effect is cool enough to at least bring up.
Aaron Miller art.
Choose a creature on the battlefield? In my hand? Can I just name any creature card?
DeleteAm I revealing my choice of creature, or the actual creature?
Since we're boosting it, I'm guessing I'm naming any creature card and then revealing my choice at any time. So this is a combat trick I can cast before I want it, but unlike Seal of Strength I also have to commit to my target immediately. Is that fun?
Why does this enchantment stick around after it does its thing? Should it sacrifice? Or should it offer a static ongoing bonus?
Not a submission, but posting for discussion:
ReplyDeleteStand Strong 1W
Instant (Uncommon)
Target creature gains indestructible until your next turn.
How kosher is "until your next turn" pumping / ability-granting? It's been seen before (e.g. detain) and makes certain kinds of triggers (e.g. landfall) a little less attack-focused when you put them on creatures. Is the gameplay benefit worth the memory issues? Could you see this as the default temporary-buff template for a block? For all Magic sets going forward?
I like the idea of an entire block of it, so that it's a paradigm within that block that newer players are more likely to grasp. That said, even until end of turn effects can be hard to remember when you have multiple - it might be best to save this for Planeswalker abilities at mythic (the other place you see this) so that casual players don't hit the "oh I totally forgot and now I lose" moment so much. It's an interesting idea for sure - testing it, at least, seems worthwhile.
DeleteI invite other opinions, but here's mine:
DeleteIt should be the exception, not the rule, and should stay out common, but has some potential. Like rebound but the two turns are necessarily consecutive.
Will be frustrating when you need to play it off-turn and don't get two turns out of it.
jaggudada
ReplyDeleteTurn The Tables {r}{w}
Instant
Until end of turn, if you would gain life, Turn the Tables deals that much damage to target creature or player.
'Watching people in pain is so much funner than watching others in comfort.'
I think rules as written you have to choose the target when this is cast and not every time you gain life, but I'm honestly not sure if that's how it does work or if that's how you meant it to work. Is it?
DeleteAlso this feels more like a burn spell than a true combat trick.
I think this works as a triggered ability:
Delete"Whenever you gain life this turn, ~ deals that much damage to target creature or player." You choose your target whenever it triggers.
Sort of a one-time {R}{W} Sanguine Bond. Very conditional, usually a lot worse than Lightning Helix but if you build around it, potentially Very Nasty. Angel's Mercy, Rhox War Monk etc.
lucastorquato27
ReplyDeleteThunderpunch 1W
Instant (C)
Target creature deals 2 damage to each creature blocking or blocked by it.
This seems very green to me - maybe have the spell rather than the creature deal the damage?
Delete1W
Deal 2 damage to each creature blocking or blocked by target creature.
Either implementation is a really interesting card though - similar to Impeccable Timing but better against hordes of Servos. Nice design!
You're right, let's go with your wording.
DeleteThank you.
I agree making the spell deal the damage feels a bit more white.
DeleteSomehow, letting it hit any number of creatures rather than targeting one also feel more red to me than white, but I still think this is plenty white.
Nice.
Readiness W
ReplyDeleteInstant (C)
Target creature gains first strike until end of turn. Untap it.
lucastorquato27 art
Clean, resonant, totally balanced, never been printed before, potential to swing combat a bunch... yeah, this seems really solid. Personally I think combat tricks should be a bit more exciting and reliably value-y, but this is totally in line with what Wizards is doing these days.
DeleteYeah, this is clean, thematically synergistic, and potentially useful.
DeleteArt #4
ReplyDeletePrecision Strike 2W
Instant (U)
Target creature gets +2/+0 and has first strike.
Skillful Lunge, from Innistrad, was this at 1W and common, and it still wasn't particularly good.
DeleteAt 2W and uncommon this can afford to be a lot more exciting. Maybe add "draw a card"?
As worded, this effect is permanent. Basically the white Feral Invocation? In that case, it should obviously be an aura with flashback. It would justify the rarity/price tag, but also be a really annoying card.
DeleteWe don't have to worry about the cost too much as designers, but yeah, this is either Skillful Lunge or Dragon Grip depending on your intention.
DeleteRighteous Blow W
ReplyDeleteyuchenghong art
Instant (C)
Target blocking or blocked creature gets +5/+5 until end of turn.
This Righteousness works on offense as well as defense. White is good at combat, so this is defensible, but +5 is a huge number and this card is much better than Giant Growth, overall (only failing to save a creature from numerical removal). White rarely gets trample creatures, but this is surely too efficient on them. I love the core idea, I just think it needs the be smaller.
DeleteWhat if it costed 1W? 2W?
DeleteI'm honestly not sure. At some cost, it's not too efficient. But is it ever appropriate for white to grant +5/+5 on offense? That it only works when blocked is important to making that reasonable. I'd be more comfortable with it at uncommon.
Delete