GDS3 Discussions: Jeremy Geist's Challenge 3 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 Jeremy's submission on his official GDS page)




CONTESTANT COMMENTS
Bloodied is an ability word, primary in black and red and secondary in white, that gives you various bonuses if you lost life during the current turn.

By nature, bloodied is an A/B mechanic, and because all my cards had to have the mechanic, I unfortunately couldn't demonstrate the "B" of cards that make you lose life. The theoretical support environment for bloodied includes things that can ping you like Forked Bolt, life payment like Sign in Blood, and aggressive creatures like Horde Ambusher. White would probably have to bend a little bit to get these effects, but there's precedent (Adanto Vanguard) and my common white card can be cast at instant speed to make use of your opponent's attacking creatures.

I made sure to avoid the pitfall of creating an environment where players would be afraid to attack lest they trigger bloodied effects. Many of the cards trigger primarily during your turn, and the ones that don't are hidden information or higher rarity. The Modern mana base also lets you trigger bloodied essentially at will, so I designed with that in mind.

Favorite card of this batch: Let's give Handy Assassin a . . . round of applause!

Note: I'm not sure if Truzi is a bend or break. I put it in black-red on the basis of black now being secondary in flash and Quicken effects making sense in red and being on Hypersonic Dragon. I feel like bloodied also makes it make more sense flavor-wise.

1) Goblin Tag Team (common)
1R
Creature — Goblin Warrior
2/1
Bloodied — When Goblin Tag Team enters the battlefield, if you lost life this turn, create a 1/1 red Goblin creature token. (Damage causes loss of life.)

2) Debone (common)
1B
Sorcery
Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
Bloodied — If you lost life this turn, you may return another target creature card from your graveyard to your hand. (Damage causes loss of life.)

3) Apprehend (common)
2W
Instant
Tap up to two target creatures.
Bloodied — Those creatures don't untap during their controller's next untap step if you lost life this turn. (Damage causes loss of life.)

4) Handy Assassin (uncommon)
3B
Creature — Orc Assassin
4/2
Bloodied — 1B, discard Handy Assassin: Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn. Activate this ability only if you lost life this turn. (Damage causes loss of life.)

5) Lightning Assault (uncommon)
RW
Sorcery
Creatures you control get +1/+1 and gain your choice of first strike, vigilance, or haste until end of turn.
Bloodied — If you lost life this turn, instead those creatures get +1/+1 and gain first strike, vigilance, and haste until end of turn.

6) Truzi the Ambusher (rare)
BR
Legendary Creature — Goblin Shaman
2/2
Bloodied — You may cast creature and sorcery spells as though they had flash if you lost life this turn. (Damage causes loss of life.)

7) Berserker's Blade (rare)
2
Artifact — Equipment
Bloodied — At the beginning of your end step, if you lost life this turn, put a rage counter on Berserker's Blade. (Damage causes loss of life.)
Equipped creature gets +1/+1 for each rage counter on Berserker's Blade.
Equip 3

8) Demonic Loan Shark (mythic rare)
3BB
Creature — Demon
5/5
Flying
B, pay 2 life: Draw a card.
Bloodied — At the beginning of your end step, discard your hand unless you lost life this turn.