Friday, January 20, 2017

Weekend Art Challenge 012017—zirngibl

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.



Design an artifact creature or vehicle for this art.

32 comments:

  1. Wasteland Tiller
    7
    Artifact Creature - Wurm - Mythic Rare
    When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, search your library for up to seven cards named Wastes and reveal them. For each card revealed in this way, target player sacrifices a non-Wastes land, then puts the revealed card onto the battlefield under his or her control. Shuffle your library afterwards.
    7/7

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interesting! You can replace all (probably, except in Commander) of your opponent's lands with Wastes, but to do it, you've got to be playing 8+ Wastes in your deck and get Tiller OTB. That could absolutely cripple a player, but no more than Iona, Shield of Emeria. Iona is better against decks with fewer colors and Tiller is better against more colors. If Tiller doesn't end the game (and it notably doesn't have evasion), your opponents can draw out of their color screw.

      This seems like a splashy mythic creature that should be reasonable to play against (especially since you can play around it if you suspect it's coming).

      Delete
    2. Also there's a secret mode - a ramp spell for yourself for your all-Wastes deck, so you can hardcast some Eldrazi titans sooner. :)

      Delete
    3. Indeed! (Though it'll be sad not to play Eye of Ugin, etc.)

      Delete
  2. Would it be possible to link to the original for the art for these challenges? Or is there some reason it's a bad idea?

    I can usually find it easily from the artist's name or a google image search. But it would seem nice to point people to the artist's page, I've discovered some lovely pics from these!

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    Replies
    1. I did that for a long time and then just got lazy. 9 times out of 10, I find art that would be good and save it for this, so I'd have to do the same research you do to find it again when I post it. Linking is both nicer and more prone to draw ire, unfortunately.

      Delete
    2. That makes sense. *shrug* Probably not worth it for the images you've already saved, anyway.

      Delete
  3. Lightning-powered Serpent 5
    Artifact creature - snake (u)
    Trample
    If CARDNAME would be dealt non-combat damage, put that many +1/+1 counters on it instead.

    I tried to think of an ability that might make it worth aiming your burn spells at this instead of opponent's head or creatures...

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    Replies
    1. Also cool, I'd love this Vigor variant for any number of +1/+1 Commander decks that don't have access to green.

      Delete
    2. Oops. 4/4. Thank you. But I'm not sure what rarity, cost or p/t would be best.

      Delete
    3. The name helps convey the flavor here, nice.

      On its own, LPS will never get burned by an opponent (unless they've got global burn and you've got a lot of little dudes) and in that way it's a false promise, but it's not terribly hard to figure out you can bolt it yourself. Or even better, pyroclasm a couple of them and clear the board for them.

      I kind of wish this also gained hexproof until EOT whenever you zap it, so it doesn't lose to most W, B, or U removal despite your investment, but that would up its rarity and push it further toward wanting to be green.

      Delete
    4. Thanks. I went through several iterations on the name to get the "powered by" idea across.

      Huh. Now you say it, it should maybe say "dealt damage by a source you control". That's approximately the same, but doesn't feel-bad that you can't get your opponent to target it.

      The only downside is an occasional johnny use (eg. put a "must target me" aura to save your other creatures, or manifest it), but those are much more niche than the main red idea.

      Likewise. I toyed with "...and gain hexproof or trample until end of turn" or something like that, but couldn't find anything very clean.

      Delete
    5. Alternatively, it could be higher rarity and grant the ability to all your creatures!

      Delete
    6. "If non-combat damage would be dealt to one or more creatures you control, put that many +1/+1 counters on Lightning-Powered Serpent instead" would be real sweet.

      Delete
  4. Serpent Turbine 3
    Artifact - vehicle uncommon
    Whenever an opponent activates an ability using energy, you may crew serpent turbine without paying its crew cost
    Menace
    Crew 3
    3/4

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Whenever an opponent pays energy" perhaps? This doesn't trigger off Thriving creatures attacking as worded, which seems exactly in this card's wheelhouse.

      Delete
    2. Oh nice. Very appropriate.

      I think they usually used "becomes a creature UEOT" not "crew" to animate vehicles?

      Delete
    3. There are two strikes against Serpent Turbine: First, its value is dependent not only on your opponent's deck, but also their choices. (You can crew this manually, but you'll feel bad about it.) Second, this punishes the block's primary mechanic, which sends mixed messages to players about what they should be doing and is something Wizards has avoided doing for a good while now.

      The menace helps makes manually crewing this more relevant. Crewing-via-energy-use is actually pretty neat, I'd just key off your own energy use so that you control your own destiny and are rewarded for doing what the set asks you to.

      Delete
  5. Aethermaw Despoiler 4
    Artifact Creature - Wurm (R)
    Trample
    Whenever Aethermaw Despoiler attacks, you gain EE (two energy counters).
    At the beginning of each end step, you lose all your E. Put a +1/+1 counter on CARDNAME for each E lost this way.
    2/3

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Forcing you to spend all your E every turn feels red, but I think it also works on artifacts, because they're often quirky.

      Despoiler converts energy to counters dangerously efficiently, especially considering how rapidly it generates E. If I make EEE during my first three turns, Despoiler attacks on turn 5 as a 5/6 trampler, and then 7/8 on turn 6, etc.

      Having to spend all your E on it isn't really a downside because you're most always enthusiastic to do so. Still, I think the core idea here is lovely, and I think this would be perfect if we change the first EE to E or the last E to EE, which is Dev's concern.

      Delete
  6. Mayor of Coldview 3
    Creature - Human Lord (R)
    Whenever ~ attacks, it deals 1 damage to each other creature.
    2/1

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I looked at the art.
      Edit: It should say artifact creature.

      Delete
    2. Googling "Mayor of Coldview" and "Coldview" didn't answer any questions for me, so I'm lost on the flavor here.

      Delete
  7. Storm Thrasher {3}{U}{R}
    Artifact Creature - Wurm Weird (Mythic)
    Whenever a player casts a spell, Storm Thrasher deals 2 damage to itself and 2 damage to target creature or player.
    6/6

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    Replies
    1. I like that Storm Thrasher is so threatening, but also vulnerable. You can fairly safely trigger it once during your opponent's end step and your own (which is great by itself), but you can also get greedy and try it twice, hoping opponent has no instants. You can even detonate it on purpose just to get 3 shocks.

      Despite the dangers (heck, your opponent could kill it outright by casting three spells themself), I'm skeptical this can cost just five mana because it's so huge and will murder so many blockers and so many faces. Balance aside (Dev's concern), this is pleasantly unique and Jenny/Spike friendly.

      Delete
  8. Aethermaw Engine 6
    Artifact Creature-Juggernaut (R)
    As Aethermaw Engine enters the battlefield, you may pay any amount of E. Aethermaw Engine enters the battlefield with +1/+1 counters on it equal to the number of energy counters spent this way.
    Whenever Aethermaw Engine deals combat damage, you gain that much [E].
    0/0

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unplayable without E is a narrow hoop, but when you can put EEEE+ into this, the gains are potentially massive. Very Johnny in that way.
      I might consider giving it one of:
      • ~ has hexproof as long as you have N or more [or less, or 0] energy.
      • EEE: Put a +1/+1 counter on ~.
      • As other creatures ETB, you may pay X E to put X +1/+1 counters on them.

      Delete
  9. Dune Harvester 5
    Artifact - Vehicle (UC)
    Trample

    You may sacrifice a land instead of paying the crew cost on Dune Havester

    Crew 4

    7/6


    I feel like this might be too cheap to be an UC but not strong enough to be a rare

    ReplyDelete
  10. Drill-Wurm Harvester 3
    Artifact - Vehicle Ucommon
    Whenever @ attacks, you gain EE.
    Crew 3.
    Pay EE: @ becomes a creature and gains trample until the end of turn.
    6/6

    I wanted to express that this could self-sustain after the first time it attacks. But may be it is too powerfull, and need to be a 5/5 or crew 4... not really sure.

    ReplyDelete