Friday, April 21, 2017

Weekend Art Challenge 042117—arvalis

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.

http://arvalis.deviantart.com/art/Ethiopian-Dragon-675683996

Design a rare sorcery for this art.

39 comments:

  1. Horrific Growth
    1BG
    Sorcery - Uncommon
    Target creature gets +5/+5 and has menace until end of turn. Destroy it at the beginning of the next end step.

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    Replies
    1. Oh shoot, rare. This could probably be a rare?

      Delete
    2. I think at rare it can probably not have the sacrifice clause. Compare to Revenge of the Hunted.

      Delete
    3. Seems a bit weird you can use the current version to destroy an opponent's creature. Is that intended?

      Delete
    4. Yes. The idea is that it's secretly a modal spell - most of the time it's a post-combat removal spell for your opponent's creature, and sometimes you can attempt to go for the win by casting it on your own creature.

      I think it's solidly uncommon though sadly. I'll think about a different design.

      Delete
    5. This is a neat uncommon for Mel. It's best use isn't the one it presents—which isn't usually ideal—but that mode won't take much explaining once someone clever uses it on you.

      Delete
  2. Draconic Roar 4R
    Sorcery
    Exile up to three creatures controlled by the same player. He or she may cast those cards until the end of their next turn.

    Somewhere between "can't block", "bounce" and "exile". Obviously this is new to red, but it seemed to fit. Originally it was going to be "creatures with CMC 4 or less" to fit the "bigger than an elephant" flavour, but eventually decided just "some things flee" was close enough.

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    1. Not a huge deal for the excersie but that's a real card name.

      Delete
    2. Doh, I always forget to check.

      I also forget it needed to be rare. The "all creatures" version was, but "three" probably isn't.

      I need to tweak those things.

      Delete
    3. Effectively, return three creatures to their owner's hands. They may cast them during their next turn. If they don't, they discard them. Given that it's targets are unrestricted, and the effect is new space for red, I think rare's fair.

      This effect is between bounce and exile. While it does prevent creatures from blocking, so does everything. If you cast this on turn 5 or 6, you're probably going to give them the choice between their two cheap creatures and their one largest creature, putting them back a turn, in addition to your attack, and their permanent loss.

      That makes me wonder if this can't be mono-red, and need to be red-white, or red-white-blue, or even red-black.

      Delete
  3. Escalating Outcomes 2G
    Sorcery - Rare
    Until end of turn, whenever an opponent taps a permanent you may put a 2/2 green horror creature with flying onto the battlefield.

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    Replies
    1. This simply written card with strange flavor is going to cause players to brake for a minute while they figure out exactly how this works. You cast this during your first main phase. They can tap their lands to cast an instant in response, or even tap their lands and leave the mana until you pass priority, but they have to spend it before attackers are declared. And that's it.

      The chance that they cast spells after that is inconsequential, given this ratio. That kind of card is disappointing because it looks like it does something neat and interesting, but it really never does that and instead just prevents the opponent from doing something. We'd rather see one of these two cards:

      Sorcery
      Opponents can't spend mana this turn.

      Or:

      Sorcery
      Create a 2/2 for each mana opponents spent this turn.

      Delete
  4. Memory Roar 2G
    Sorcery - Rare
    Put target card in your graveyard on top of your library.
    Target creature you control
    fights another target creature.
    A pachykite never forgets.

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    Replies
    1. Weird combination of abilities, shouldn't the card being returned fight? I'm also not sure about the cost, as Pray Upon and Noxious revival suggest this could be pretty cheap.

      Delete
    2. Should've make this Recollect instead of Reclaim - part of my idea is that adding extra targets to a card does make it subtly not-strictly-better. Cantripping fight for 3 is probably in the ballpark of okayish?

      Memory Roar 2G
      Sorcery - r
      Return target card from your graveyard to your hand.
      Target creature you control fights target creature you don't control.

      Delete
    3. Final attempt:

      Roar of Origins 1G
      Sorcery (r)
      Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
      Target creature you control fights target creature you don't control.

      Delete
    4. I'd love to see the cost of Raise Dead plus Prey Upon be {B}{G} (or {1}{B}{G} below rare), but this art definitely wants to be mono-green. It's strange that green never gets Raise Dead since it can get anything from the graveyard and otherwise vastly prefers creatures. I'd be happy to start allowing that, though I do wish there was more of a through-line between these two abilities.

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

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    1. Horrific Reflection XRRB
      Sorcery (R)
      Create a token that's a copy of target creature an opponent controls except that it has haste, menace and +X/+0. Exile that token at the end of turn.

      Delete
    2. Was going to say this doesn't need to be double-red, but that's there just because {X}{1}{R}{B} is more awkward.

      This works.

      Delete
  6. Hurled from Limbo 3RR
    Sorcery (R)
    Exile the top seven cards of your library. You may put a creature card exiled this way onto the battlefield. If you do, it gains haste. Return it to your hand at the beginning of the next end step.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This art would be a suboptimal choice for it, but I could definitely see a card like this seeing print.

      Delete
  7. Ravenous at Birth XBGG
    Sorcery (R)
    Exile the top six cards of your library. You may put a creature card costing X or less from among the exiled cards onto the battlefield. If you do, put 3 +1/+1 counters on it, and you may have it fight target creature.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually I think that's trying to do too many things.

      How about:

      Unnatural Birth XGG
      Sorcery (R)
      Exile the top six cards of your library. You may put a creature card costing X or less from among the exiled cards onto the battlefield with an additional 3 +1/+1 counters on it.

      Delete
    2. For accepting risk in what you (or if) you summon, you get a big boost in power. It would be good to spread some of red's chaos out to other colors, because players who like that stuff don't just like red.

      Is the story that the giant rhino monster came out of the mommy elephant?

      Delete
  8. Sate the Ravenous 1BG
    Sorcery (R)
    Target player sacrifices a creature. Put X +1/+1 counters on target creature you control, where X is the toughness of the sacrificed creature.


    Started as cheaper and just giving a bonus until end of turn, but didn't feel as rare to me. Debated between looking at toughness and power of sacrificed creature, but I think toughness adds a bit more flavor.

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    Replies
    1. It's also intentional that you can either use this as a removal spell or to sacrifice one of your own fatties to pump an evasive threat.

      Delete
    2. This could be mono-black, but green-black is fine in the right set. Doesn't feel like a great fit for the art, but could be printed otherwise.

      Delete
    3. Thanks for the feedback! I thought that the art made it look like the elephant was specifically left out by some group to feed this large dragon of the plane, mostly because it didn't look like the elephant was having any sort of flight or fight response to the threat. But if you didn't see anything like that, my view of the art is clearly not universal. The card has green mostly because of the art, but I also thought the effect is reminiscent enough of scavenge that it might fit with the golgari colors.

      Delete
  9. Dinner Time 4GG
    Sorcery - Rare
    Each creature you control gets +3/+3 until end of turn, then each of your creatures fights a different one of target creatures you don't control.

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    Replies
    1. Is it the case that you can't cast this (for insufficient targets) if you control more than half of the creatures on the battlefield?

      Delete
    2. The template for this will be tricky—do all your creatures fight if you control more, etc—but let's not worry about that right now.

      Is this better than Overwhelm and is that okay at rare?

      Overwhelm says, if the sum of your creatures' power +3 times the number of them you have >= your opponent's life + the sum of her creatures' toughness, you win.

      This says, if the sum of your creatures' power +3 times the number of them you have >= your opponent's life, and you control as many creatures as that opponent with power >= theirs -3, you win.

      The extra mana is almost irrelevant, this card is definitely stronger than Overwhelm. Can we do that at rare? In this case, I think the effect is insta-win in enough board states that we can't quite. But, that doesn't Dev couldn't adjust some knobs so it's fun. Maybe drop to +2/+2, or raise the cost further, idk.

      It's a very splashy effect. Enough to by mythic even. The effect would fit this art if it only affected one of your creatures, or if the art had a whole bunch of these weird fights.

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

      Delete
  10. Will he get in before deadline? No one knows!

    Temuric Polymorph GUR
    Sorcery - Rare
    Until end of turn, each creature you control that doesn't share a creature type with any other creature you control has base power and toughness 4/4, becomes a dragon in addition to its other types, and gains flying.

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    Replies
    1. Heh.

      The dragon spirit only inspires loners? Yeahhh, I can kinda see that. That condition is awkward to read, but not too much for a rare. This works. Everyone loves to dragon-it-up. 4/4 seems correct, as bigger would win too much, and smaller wouldn't feel draconic enough.

      Delete
  11. I mocked up all the submissions in MSE, first time using the program. http://imgur.com/a/TBSKI

    If I can do the same thing early Monday morning, would that help for your reviews?

    ReplyDelete