GDS3 Reflections: Ari Nieh, Challenge #4

When I saw that this week's challenge was an art challenge, I felt rather sheepish. We've been running Weekend Art Challenges here for many years, but I rarely participate in them. My thinking was: "Is is actually useful to practice designing for a given piece of artwork? Sure, they did it one time during the first Great Designer Search, but let's be realistic- it's a niche skill that I'll never need."

So. Yeah.


Anyway, although I'm inexperienced at designing to art, I felt excited about this challenge because its goals and parameters were quite clear: match the arts, match the card specs, show off some skillz. And though I have no formal training in visual arts, I know a bit about color and composition, and have some sense of what sort of art is appropriate for different colors and card types.

The first thing I did was build a matrix of card specs and art. I rated each match on a scale of 0 to 3, with 0 being unusable and 3 being completely reasonable.

Then, as I picked pairs and came up with designs for them, I enlarged the appropriate entries to clarify which things were yet to be chosen.

The judges had kindly provided us with twelve pieces of art for ten cards, meaning we got to throw two of them out. Initially, I was planning not to use E and K. E is dim and low-contrast, and it just doesn't grab the eye at a small print size.

"I am ominous, but difficult to see clearly in this lighting!"

K has a better color palette, but the vertical and horizontal lines give it a static composition. There's no clear focal point, and the dinosaur doesn't fill enough of the frame to be a creature card.

It does look like a lovely place to visit, though.

However, after some experimentation and playtester feedback, I had to swap things around. The most important conclusion I came to is that H is a trap. It's a nice piece: evocative, focused, and vibrant. I'd used it for my black creature, because of the embedded skeleton, but the palette is so strikingly green that it didn't feel right. And since we weren't given a green creature card, there just wasn't a good use for the art. (Though I'm impressed that Scott made it work as an aura!)

The other trap was C. Sure, it seems conveniently flexible- plausibly white, black, or even green. But the lack of specificity is problematic. What does the elf's gesture mean? What are those shadows doing there? It's quite difficult to get a clear flavor from the art, and that meant it wasn't useful.

Looking back, I think C and H were indeed the correct pieces of art to skip. They had the lowest "GPAs" given by Jenna's grades.

That meant I had to use E, which turned out to be very easy- it's so clearly a black creature that does something with damage, sacrifice, or -N/-N.

Finding a use for K was much harder, because the composition is way too chill. The only card type it could plausibly fit was enchantment, but there are few visible cues for what that enchantment might do. In the end, I'm happy with the build-around I came up with, although I was sorely tempted to name it "Dinosaur Day Spa":

Shrine of Serenity (uncommon)
3W
Enchantment
At the beginning of your end step, if you cast an enchantment or sorcery spell this turn, create a 2/3 white Dinosaur creature token.
The eldest races know the wisdom of taking things slow.

A few notes on other cards:

Kalau River Naturalist (common)
3U
Creature - Merfolk Shaman
3/3
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, if you control a forest, look at the top card of your library. If it's a creature card, you may reveal it and put it into your hand.
Despite their best efforts, no Kalau has successfully taught a tortoise how to swim.

This art was just a huge pain to work with. Between the animal parts all over the creature's garb and the turtle being actually on fire, it's completely mysterious what is meant to be going on. (Also, the fire on the turtle is too small to notice at printed size.) I think Jeremy handled this best with clever use of flavor text.

Hellfire Oppressor (rare)
5BB
Creature - Demon
6/6
Flying
Whenever CARDNAME attacks, put a -1/-1 counter on each creature defending player controls.
Whenever another creature with a -1/-1 counter on it dies, draw a card.
It feeds on searing pain and terror.

Yes, the challenge requested a mythic rare, but I made a transcription error at some point and designed a rare instead. I guess following all the rules last week was just too much effort for me, and I had to get back to breaking them at the soonest opportunity. Luckily for me, it was a big splashy demon that could plausibly be mythic.

Reckless Bombardment (rare)
5R
Sorcery
Cast target instant or sorcery card from a graveyard without paying its mana cost. If it targets only a single permanent or player, copy that spell for each other permanent or player the spell could target. Each copy targets a different one of those permanents and players.

Here's another example of art that's hard to use at printed size. You have to look very closely to notice that the missiles were in fact fired from closest ship, and it's unclear why some of them are aimed back at the fleet.

The design I had here for a while was a wacky Fact or Fiction multi-target burn spell, but it wasn't really Jenny enough. I thought "Radiate from a graveyard" was a boring and obvious design, but it was a decent fit for the art, and I was out of ideas. But the judges liked it, so... go me?

The original template was also much stranger:

Choose an instant or sorcery card from target player's graveyard that can target a single permanent. Copy that spell for each permanent the spell could target controlled by that player. Each copy targets a different one of those permanents.

This captured the "friendly fire" aspect much better, but it wasn't as versatile a build-around. Also, I doubt that first sentence works in the rules.

Brutal Energy (uncommon)
2G
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature you control
When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, enchanted creature must be blocked this turn if able.
Whenever enchanted creature deals damage to a creature, add that much G. Until end of turn, you don’t lose this mana as steps and phases end.

"Let's hug it out!"

Mark asks why I made the "must be blocked" effect an ETB trigger instead of permanent. I had noticed that there are no auras or equipment in recent memory that grant the ability "must be blocked if able". I think I know why this is: it can be an oppressive and repetitive way to lose. If your opponent puts it on a 6/6, you might just get Cruel Edicted every turn for the rest of the game and never have a chance to race or build up enough blockers to take it down.

All in all, I was happy with my submission this round. When I got the judges' feedback, I was extremely pleased to finally place first. Sadly, we had to say goodbye to Ryan this time, which left me the last Goblin Artisan remaining. Will I get the chance to represent our crew in the finals? Which set will I pick for Challenge #5? Find out on Thursday!