GDS3 Discussions: Chris Mooney's Challenge 2 Submission

(These posts are being backdated for administrative purposes. They were not disclosed to nor published on this site prior to their publication on the mothership. You can read the judge commentary on Chris's submission on his official GDS page)




CONTESTANT COMMENTS
My approach was to determine flavor identities for the five colors:

As [this was] a top-down challenge, I purposefully designed cards that would represent these themes instead of directly synergizing. This is a sample platter of what you'd see in my Bigtopia.

I chose exalted to represent performers collaborating to boost whichever act is in the spotlight. Only one exalted card remains, but support cards (Acrobatics, Unicycle) still play into that theme.

This week I focused on ensuring my cards were fun to play both with and against. I also tried to reign in my complexity, channeling it into only the most fun and flavorful effects. My playtesters thought these cards were a blast, and I hope you agree.

Traveling Circus – Green's "exotic" theme encouraged lots of colors. This is a weak fixer for Limited, but savvy players can use it to get ambitious with double off-color splashes.

Unicycle – Playtesters' favorite. Easy to grok, incredibly fun, balanced trade-offs. "How does a Wurm even ride a unicycle?"

Knife Thrower – This card has a lot of variance, but testers had so much fun flipping the "knives" that they didn't mind the whiffs.

Tightrope – The idea of "balanced creatures matter" came early on, but lots of testing went into avoiding common pitfalls (mid-combat math, non-interaction, layers!). Eli might ding me for my templating here, but I hope the second ability is simply "non-traditional" rather than "non-functional." White – Showpeople, ensemble Blue – Skilled performers Black – Seedy sideshows Red – Daredevils, thrill seekers Green – Exotic animals

1) Acrobatics (common)
U
Sorcery
Target creature you control gains flying and prowess until end of turn.
Draw a card.

2) Traveling Circus (common)
G
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant land
Enchanted land has "T: Add one mana of any color."
Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may attach CARDNAME to that land.

3) Ringmaster (uncommon)
2W
Creature — Human
2/2
Whenever Ringmaster or another creature enters the battlefield under your control, that creature gains exalted until end of turn. (Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each instance of exalted on permanents you control.)

4) Unicycle (uncommon)
1
Artifact — Equipment
Equipped creature has haste, menace, and attacks each combat if able. Its base toughness is 1.
Equip 1

5) Knife Thrower (rare)
2R
Creature — Human Rogue
3/2
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, exile the top card three cards of your library face down. (You can't look at them.)
Whenever CARDNAME attacks, turn one of the remaining face down exiled cards face up at random. CARDNAME deals damage to target creature equal to that card's converted mana cost.

6) Juggling (rare)
4UR
Enchantment
CARDNAME enters the battlefield with three ball counters on it.
At the beginning of your end step, draw a card for each ball counter on CARDNAME. If you have more cards in your hand than your maximum hand size, sacrifice CARDNAME and discard your hand. Otherwise, put a ball counter on CARDNAME.

7) Sawdin Half, Divisive Magician (mythic rare)
4BB
Creature — Human Wizard
2/4
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, target player sacrifices a creature. Create two X/X black Horror creature tokens, one where X is the sacrifice's power, and one where X is the sacrifice's toughness.

8) Tightrope (mythic rare)
5
Artifact
Creatures you control have vigilance.
Creatures can't attack or block unless their power and toughness are equal.
1: Target creature you control gets either +1/+0 or +0/+1 until end of turn. This ability may be activated by any player, and only during the beginning of combat step.