Friday, May 25, 2018

Weekend Design Challenge 052518 - A Circus Act

Hey, Artisans! Click through to see this weekend's design challenge, submissions due Monday morning.



Alright. First, some bookkeeping. There were A LOT of cards to go through for last week's challenge. Even only doing two per person, it's still taking the three of us a while to get through. They should be posted some time early next week, but we will get to them.

This weekend, we'll be continuing our GDS3 play at home challenges, doing the second round. Again, Inanimate and I, along with a guest judge, will be "judging" submissions like Maro & co. with the Top 8's designs. Here are the design guidelines, lifted directly from the mothership:

For the next challenge, we're going to do some top-down design. Here's how it's going to work. We're designing Bigtopia (just the codename), the circus plane. Here's your assignment:
  • You're going to design eight cards from the 25 card names below. You must use the card names exactly, no tweaking (with one exception listed below).
  • Your cards must mechanically capture the flavor of their title.
  • You must design two cards of each rarity (common, uncommon, rare, and mythic rare).
  • You may have no more than three cards be of the same card type.
  • You must use each color at least once.
  • You must make at least one legendary card. For legendary cards, and only legendary cards, you may slightly tweak the name to make it sound legendary.
  • For named keyword mechanics, you are allowed access to all evergreen mechanics and up to one non-evergreen mechanics (keywords and/or ability words). Note that there is no requirement to use named mechanics. Please do not create any new named keyword mechanics.
Card Names:
Acrobatics
Circus Peanuts
Circus Tent
Clown Car
Contortionist
Feats of Strength
Fire Eating
Flaming Hoop
Human Cannonball
Juggling
Knife Thrower
Lion Tamer
Magician
Plate Spinning
Ringmaster
Seltzer Bottle
Stilts
Sword Swallowing
Three Rings
Tightrope
Trained Elephant
Traveling Circus
Trick Riding
Trapeze Artist
Unicycle

Here's what the judges will be looking for:
  • Mechanical Flavor – This assignment is about designing cards to mechanically capture their flavor. The judges will be looking at how the gameplay of the cards reinforces what they represent.
  • Fun Gameplay – These cards can't just be fun to read, they have to be fun to play. You will have to balance how flavorful they are with how fun they are when you use them.
  • Set Feel – These cards are all from the same set. The designs need to reflect that.
  • Card Choices – This is the first challenge where we're giving you the ability to pick which components to design to. What you pick and how it works together will be judged.
  • Originality – While doing your top-down design, we still want you to show off new and exciting components.
  • Color Pie Appropriateness – Your color choice needs to be appropriate to your flavor as well as your mechanical designs. Bends are allowed if appropriate (although be frugal with them), but breaks are not.
  • Rarity Appropriateness – Your designs need to fit into the rarity you're designing for. One of the difficulties of this challenge is being flavorful within the constraints of each rarity.
  • Card Type Appropriateness – Make sure that your cards are properly representing the card type they're in. Note to be careful with cards that are mimicking other card types (for example, instants or sorceries that only create tokens).
You will need to submit the following:
Your Name
Design 1 (YOUR FIRST COMMON)
Design 2 (YOUR SECOND COMMON)
Design 3 (YOUR FIRST UNCOMMON)
Design 4 (YOUR SECOND UNCOMMON)
Design 5 (YOUR FIRST RARE)
Design 6 (YOUR SECOND RARE)
Design 7 (YOUR FIRST MYTHIC RARE)
Design 8 (YOUR SECOND MYTHIC RARE)
Comments: You will have up to 250 words to say whatever you want about your design. You are free to talk about individual cards, but I would suggest spending some of your words explaining holistically what you were up to with your overall design.
We're curious to see what you do to fill up Bigtopia!
 OK. That's a lot to process, but I'm sure most are already pretty familiar with the challenge. Here are the tweaks for you guys:

You may submit up to eight cards, but if you go under, no penalties. You may specify two cards you want us to review. We may not necessarily review both, but we will review at least one if you specify at least one. If you don't specify, we're not going to pick for you. The volume is just too much. We will, however, still offer general feedback on submissions as a whole.

PLEASE PUT YOUR CARDS IN THE FOLLOWING FORMAT

1) Cardname
Mana Cost
Type
Rules
P/T

Other than that, usual Design Challenge rules apply. Give each other feedback. Use that feedback to revise your submissions any number of times, and we'll grab whatever you have on Monday and put it in our document for review. We'll get it posted as soon as we're able to finish offering our judge feedback.

That's it! Have a great weekend, have fun, good luck, and stay tuned for the last week of GDS challenges next week!

-Zeff

52 comments:

  1. Just wrapped these up yesterday. I feel like I'm missing some cohesion, but I think I managed to capture the flavour in mechanics for each card individually at least.

    It'd be great if you could review Tightrope and Fire Breathing, judges :)

    1) Fire Eating (Common)
    {R}{W}
    Instant
    Prevent the next 2 damage that would be dealt to target creature. That creature gets +2/+0 until end of turn.

    2) Stilts (Common)
    {1}
    Artifact - Equipment
    Equip {1}
    Equipped creature gets +1/+1 and has reach. Whenever it becomes the target of a spell an opponent controls, unattach ~.

    3) Feats of Strength (Uncommon)
    {1}{G}
    Sorcery
    Search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.
    If you control a creature with power 3 or greater, you may play an additional land this turn.
    If you control a creature with power 5 or greater, until end of turn such creatures you control have ¨{1}{G}: This creature gets +2/+2 and gains trample until end of turn¨.

    4) Trapeze Artist (Uncommon)
    {1}{U}
    Creature - Vedalken
    Whenever ~ attacks, you may have it gain flying until end of turn. If you do, sacrifice it at end of turn unless you tap an untapped creature you control.
    3/1

    5) Hercule, Lion Tamer (Rare)
    {R}{W}
    Legendary Creature - Human Warrior
    When ~ enters the battlefield, create a 2/1 white Cat creature token.
    {T}: Cat creatures you control gains first strike until end of turn.
    Tap an untapped Cat creature you control: ~ gets +2/+1 until end of turn.
    1/2

    6) Kyre Banrog, Magician (Rare)
    {3}{R}{B}
    Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
    Flash
    Whenever ~ enters the battlefield or becomes blocked, it becomes a 1/1 Rabbit creature with first strike and deathtouch until end of turn.
    That´s no ordinary magician. That´s the most foul, cruel and bad-tempered magician you ever set eyes on.
    5/1

    7) Tightrope (Mythic Rare)
    {B}{B}
    Enchantment
    At the beginning of your upkeep, if the number of cards in your hand is equal to the number of cards in your graveyard, draw a card and put a step counter on ~. Otherwise you lose life equal to the difference.
    When there are five or more step counters on ~, you win the game.

    8) Bigtopia, Traveling Circus (Mythic Rare)
    Legendary Land
    {T}: Add {1}. If a creature entered the battlefield under your control this turn, add one mana of any color instead.
    {2}{W}{U}, {T}: Exile ~ and all nontoken creatures you control until the end of next turn.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am amused by the flavor of the trapeze artist dying if there's nobody there to catch them.

      Your magician is interesting and weird! I am fascinated by you not putting it in the most "logical" color choice of blue. The way that the self-polymorph works is templated well for red. I kind of wish they were non-human, though, to sort of emphasize that "This is not your typical magician." Imagine if it were an orc or an ogre or something.

      Delete
    2. Yeah I just stuck human on there as a placeholder mostly. I dig the orc magician, I'll go with that :D

      (Also the card is a reference to Monty Python's Holy Grail)

      Delete
    3. Oh, now I get it. Was the name an anagram?

      Delete
    4. Nope, the name is the name of the cave where the killer rabbit resides :p

      Delete
    5. Blue can't get a 3/1 for 2, that's my only problem with Trapeze Artist.

      Delete
    6. Fair point (Frost Walker seems to be a recent exception). 2/2 for {1}{U} and 3/1 for {2}{U} wouldn't feel very exciting.

      {2}{U} for 4/1 seems pushing it too hard for limited, but 3/2 for {2}{U} feels like an ok rate (comparable power-level to Wasp Lancer?)

      Delete
  2. 1) Trapeze Artist 1W (Common)
    Creature - Human

    ~ has flying as long as it is attacking with exactly one other creature.

    2/1

    2) Contortionist 1U (Common)
    Creature - Human

    U: Switch ~'s power and toughness until the end of the turn.

    1/3


    3) Circus Peanuts 2 (Uncommon)
    Artifact

    Circus Peanuts enters the battlefield with 5 peanut counters.

    T, remove a peanut counter from ~: Gain 1 life. If ~ has no peanut counters, sacrifice it and draw two cards.

    "A prize in every box!"


    4) Unicycle 3 (Uncommon)
    Artifact - Equipment

    Equipped creature gets +2/+0 and has haste. That creature cannot block unless it is a clown.

    Equip 1



    5) Lion Tamer 3GW (Rare)
    Creature - Human

    When you put ~ into play, create a 3/3 green cat creature token.

    T: Target cat creature you control gains your choice of vigilance, trample, first strike, lifelink until the end of the turn.

    1/1


    6) Acrobatics 3WR (Rare)
    Instant

    Play ~ only during combat on your turn.

    Tap each blocking creature, then remove any number of blocked creatures you control from combat.

    Untap all creatures that attacked this turn. After this combat phase, there is an additional combat phase.




    7) World's Highest Tight Rope 6 (Mythic Rare)
    Legendary Artifact

    Whenever a creature without flying or prowess attacks, its controller flips a coin. If that coin comes up tails, that player sacrifices that creature.


    8) Tibalt, Sword Swallower 4BR (Mythic Rare)
    Legendary Planeswalker - Tibalt

    +1: Each opponent discards a card at random. Tibalt deals damage to each of those players equal to that cards converted mana cost of the card they discarded.

    -2: Put a creature card from an opponent's graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. It gains haste. At the beginning of the next end step, exile it.

    -6: Tibalt deals damage to target opponent equal to the number of cards they own in their graveyard and in exile.

    Loyalty: 4

    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. I made all of these last week before seeing the submissions from this week, so any similarities are a coincidence.

      I was very pleased with how similar my Circus Peanuts was to the Circus Peanuts that was declared the best design in the GDS.

      Delete
    2. I can verify Tommy ain't no stinkin' liar. :)

      We were both so happy to see Circus Peanuts' similarities!

      Delete
    3. I like that your lion tamer both captures the flavor of having a lion perform different tricks, but also gives the player legit combat-relevant decisions to make. Though often times may of the cats in GW already have one of the combat abilities anyway.

      The tightrope really seems like it wants to be a red-blue enchantment and not an artifact at all. Do you see your tightrope getting splashed into any other decks than those two? Beyond that, I'd be concerned about it bringing gameplay to a screeching halt.

      Delete
    4. A tightrope is a physical thing, so I don't think it can be an enchantment. It could be a Red-Blue artifact. I iterated a lot on the tightrope, and am still not super happy with this, but I think the coinflipping + creatrues falling to their death part is good.

      Originally it wasn't symmetrical, so it only impacted your opponent's creatures, and you could freely kill them if you were so inclined. I tried variations where ti improved your creatures at the same time.

      It is possible this wants to actually make you win the game too, but no advantage it could give you felt natural, so I went with just an old school moat variant. Suggestions are always appreciated!

      Delete
  3. I only have two this week due to time constraints and being influenced by the official submissions. I'm pretty happy with my two top-down designs, but I admit neither of them point to a specific kind of larger set.

    I would like both reviewed.


    Not sure if this is worded 100% correctly for the fail-to-find case.

    Sword Swallowing {B}{R}
    Sorcery (R)
    Search target player’s library for an Equipment card and exile it. You may cast that card. If you don’t, that card deals damage equal to its converted mana cost to up to one target creature or planeswalker.

    My idea was a Magician who performs card tricks and can pull specific cards from the deck. Granted, this is less of a circus magician and more of a street magician, hence the name.

    Divad, Street Magician {U}{B}{R}
    Legendary Creature - Human Rogue (R)
    When Divad enters the battlefield, cast a copy of Sleight of Hand.
    Whenever you shuffle your library, you may play up to one card from it.
    3/2

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I meant to change Divad to mythic. Still a bit on the fence but leaning that way.

      Delete
    2. Divad reads very much like a Hearthstone card to me. I'm curious how you envision casting a copy of a specific named card in paper. Can you search your library for a card with that name and then cast it? Do you have to look up the oracle text for it? It's definitely new space, but also tricky to pull off I think.

      I love the flavour of Divad's second ability, and it seems cool on a rare or mythic rare, but I'm also slightly wary of encouraging people to shuffle even more (especially when it's such a powerful effect, effectively turning fetch lands into free Demonic Tutors)

      Delete
    3. I had imagined a copy is just put onto the stack when you cast it. I primarily play MTGO so maybe that idea makes more sense in digital. But with stuff like Urza, I think we're getting to the point that it's not crazy to look up oracle text in paper in black border.

      All that said, it was kinda a purposeless line. I wanted to be shorter and more explicit than writing out Sleight of Hand's rules text on the card. (Since with the text written out, I doubt the reference would be obvious.)

      Here's a cleaner version I think:

      Divad, Street Magician {U}{B}{R}
      Legendary Creature - Human Rogue (R)
      When Divad enters the battlefield, search your library for a card named Sleight of Hand, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.
      Whenever you shuffle your library, you may play up to one card from it.
      3/2

      Now, the first ability has synergy with the second. Sleight of Hand doesn't actually shuffle though, so that doesn't work with the second ability. I might be working too hard to force the flavor here.

      As for the second ability, I think it is OK (pre-playtesting caveat) - for these reasons:

      If Divad is in a supplemental product, he will only affect eternal and commander. Both of these formats are already shuffling-intensive. He probably is eternal playable, which should excite Legacy and Vintage players.

      If Divad is in a standard-legal set, the fact that he is in 3 colors helps mitigate how widely used he will be. He is also pretty vulnerable to removal. Shuffle effects are also intentionally less common in standard-legal sets. Modern might be the bigger issue, but I think the power level is low enough relative to some of the strongest modern decks that it might be OK. That's the format I would be most worried about though.

      Delete
  4. Yes, I'm doing intro sections like I'm actually in the contest. Don't judge me. (Well, I mean, judge me, but for the entry.)

    Welcome to Bigtopia, full of spectacles, color, wild stunts, and dizzying variety.

    Variety is the inspiration for the mechanics for this set. It's designed around five three-color factions and decks. It is also specifically designed with commander and multiplayer formats in mind, though these cards are also all standard-playable.

    Samples of the cliques: The menagerie (R/G/W) is the faction most interested in the animals of the circus and rewards the player for playing lots of different types of creatures, not a "tribe" theme. Its leader, the Ringmaster, calls beasts to the ring, but he knows the audience wants variety. The daredevils (B/R/U) are full of men and women whose acts of daring are bolstered by other spells.

    Turning to the "action" of the circus, how to capture the tension of whether or not these high-pressure stunts succeed? I went with a modal system where one choice indicates the applause-inducing success and the other gasp-inducing disaster. Other types of activities and games are presented by interactive enchantments where players and opponents are in a direct tug of war, represented in this sample set by Plate Spinning.

    And then there are the clowns. They're all 1/1 tokens who count as all colors. Since this is a set that cares about colors, that means they can be affected (for better or worse) by anything that checks for colors of permanents.

    Please review my two rares if you'd like, Plate Spinning (is this actually fun?) and Bigtopia's Three Rings (I am terrible at trying to balance lands).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seltzer Bottle – 1 (Common)
      Artifact - Equipment
      Equipped creature gets +1/+1, is a clown, and is every color.
      Equip: 1

      (Yes, this is deliberately worded to overwrite the other creature types when equipped)


      Tightrope - UW (Common)
      Instant
      Choose one:
      - Target creature gets +2/+0 and first strike until the end of the turn. Untap it.
      - Target creature gets -4/-0 until the end of the turn. Tap it.


      Lion Tamer – 2GW (Uncommon)
      Creature – Human Nomad
      Vigilance.
      When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, you may search your library for a Man-Eating Lion card or a Bloodthirsty Tiger card. If you do, reveal that card, then put it in your hand and shuffle your library.
      2/4


      Knife Thrower – 3B (Uncommon)
      Creature – Human Rogue
      Menace
      When you cast a red spell, CARDNAME deals 2 damage to target opponent. When you cast a blue spell, you may tap target creature.
      2/2


      Plate Spinning – 4U (Rare)
      Enchantment
      At the beginning of each upkeep, put a plate counter on CARDNAME.
      At the beginning of each opponent’s main phase, they must tap an untapped creature they control for each plate counter on this card. If they cannot, sacrifice CARDNAME and draw three cards.


      Bigtopia's Three Rings (Rare)
      Legendary Land
      When CARDNAME enters the battlefield and at the beginning of each upkeep, choose a color. Creatures you control of that color get +1/+1 until the end of the turn. You may not choose the same color twice in a row.
      T: Add one mana of the currently chosen color.


      Markanso, the Ringmaster - 2WGR (Mythic)
      Legendary Creature – Human Nomad
      At the beginning of your upkeep, choose one:
      - If you control no elephants, create a 3/3 green Elephant creature token with trample.
      - If you control no clowns, create two 1/1 Clown creature tokens that are every color.
      - If you control no apes, create a 2/2 red Ape creature token with menace.
      4/4


      Clown Car - 5 (Mythic)
      Artifact Creature – Vehicle
      Crew: 8
      Only clown creatures can crew Clown Car.
      When Clown Car deals combat damage to an opponent, you win the game.
      5/5

      Delete
    2. Crap. That Ape token Markanso makes should have haste not menace.

      Delete
    3. Bigtopia should probably at least enter tapped. Also compare it to gavony township and it is super strong. The clown deck seems busted.

      Delete
    4. I think what you set out to do in your introduction sounds on-point. Colorful performances that can succeed or fail definitely feels like the Circus to me, and clown tokens being every color plays into that nicely. I would've liked to see more of those themes in the eight cards presented however. Perhaps a common or uncommon that cares about colors among permanents you control to have more synergy with the clown tokens/Seltzer bottle?

      - Seltzer Bottle is a nice, simple enough common card that plays into your themes and has solid flavour, well done :)
      - Tightrope does feel like succeed or fail, and I like the two modes it gives me, but I'm not sure if it screams tightrope (why does making it across give first strike?)
      - Lion Tamer seems like a fine card, but it's difficult to judge because we have no idea what the cards it refer to do. Pretty sure you would've been dinged points for that if it was for real (this happened in the multicolor design test too for one of the contestants)
      - Knife Juggler seems great! Either I fling knives at my opponent, or I pin stuff down with them. Solid flavour, interesting play pattern. Might be slightly oppressive with the tap ability if you have enough blue spells.
      - Plate Spinning doesn't seem very fun to me. It's like a one-sided Tangle Wire that also draws me cards, and I'm pretty sure I'd feel absolutely miserable playing against it. Also not sure if it's intentional, but they have to tap creatures twice in their turn.
      - Three Rings needs to enter tapped, otherwise it's strictly better than a basic land. Also seems very, very powerful as it always fixes your colours and on top of that Charges your creatures.
      - Markanso feels more like a rare than a mythic to me, but seems cool otherwise
      - Clown Car seems a bit binary and win-more to me. If I have 8 clown tokens out (or 8 power worth of Seltzer Bottled creatures), then I'm usually already winning anyway, and it makes blocking a non-decision for my opponent.

      Delete
    5. I agree about tightrope Isao, if I squint I can sort of see it, similar to Path of Mettle, first strike represents balance.

      Delete
    6. Would Plate Spinning feel more fun and playable if the tap down were a "may" rather than a must? It would give opponents choices on when and whether to let the player have the cards. (And could add some tension in multiplayer).

      It is only affect the player once, so I'll have to add "first main phase" in there. It's templated that way to make it clear that the enchantment gets a new plate counter before the opponent has to top creature.

      I feel like what my interpretation of Three Rings really wants is to be an artifact, not a land. I'm having a hard time figuring out how to make it one with the name without looking like I'm cheating the spirit of the rules. It would work perfectly as an artifact.

      After looking at it, I think Markanso needs to trigger when he ETBs as well as on your upkeep. Especially in multiplayer EDH, having him just sit there as a vanilla 4/4 for a turn is not mythic.

      Delete
    7. I think making the creature tapping optional on Plate Spinning would be better (though you definitely need to lower the cost then, otherwise it's just a strictly worse Brilliant Plan. Would be interesting to see in playtesting if opponent actually can be bothered to delay the carddraw or if the most common decision would be to just let you have the cards. I suspect that depends heavily on the card's cost, and may be tough to balance for fun gameplay.

      Delete
    8. Some tweaks based on feedback:

      Plate Spinning – 2U (Rare)
      Enchantment
      At the beginning of each upkeep, put a plate counter on CARDNAME.
      At the beginning of each opponent’s first main phase, they may tap an untapped creature they control for each plate counter on this card. If they don't, sacrifice CARDNAME and draw three cards.


      Markanso's Three Rings -- 5 (Rare)
      Legendary Artifact
      When CARDNAME enters the battlefield and at the beginning of each upkeep, choose a color. Creatures you control of that color get +1/+1 until the end of the turn. You may not choose the same color twice in a row.
      T: Add one mana of the currently chosen color.


      Markanso, the Ringmaster - 2WGR (Mythic)
      Legendary Creature – Human Nomad
      Indestructible
      When CARDNAME enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, choose one:
      - If you control no elephants, create a 3/3 green Elephant creature token with trample.
      - If you control no clowns, create two 1/1 Clown creature tokens that are every color.
      - If you control no apes, create a 2/2 red Ape creature token with menace.
      4/4


      There's lots of levers that can be adjusted to make the Clown Car is a challenge to pull off, but that's something that needs to be playtested, so I'll just leave it as is.

      Delete
    9. I think that the spinning is still too powerful. The first line of play I imagined with that card is to play it, followed by any wrath effect. Its even easier to trigger in multiplayer. I dont know if this was your intention? The real issue is that the mechanic is too punishing either way.

      I like your artifact but it reminds me very much to Caged Sun. What do you think to put counters instead and remove the mana ability? Would also help with memory issues, as you would not need to track what gets the boost this turn, each turn.

      Delete
  5. I love top down designs but there was a lot to consider here so I did my best. The only overall comment is that I imaged several creatures having the "create artifact token, sac to get..." as a great way of getting extra flavour OTB, but I ended up only having room for 1.

    I really wanted a contortionist who did half of morphling, getting -1/-0 or -1/-1 in exchange for a relevant keyword. But I couldn't find keywords that fit.

    Mostly interested in general feedback, but if you're looking for specific cards, I guess knife thrower (the one I like most) and Fierenzo (mythics are hard).

    Acrobatics (Common)
    U
    Instant
    Target creature gains flying UEOT. If it deals combat damage to an opponent this turn, draw a card.

    Flaming Hoop (Common)
    R
    Instant
    CARDNAME deals 2 damage to target attacking creature. If it's power was 3 or more, ~ deals 4 damage to it instead.

    Knife thrower (Uncommon)
    2R
    Creature - Human Rogue
    When CARDNAME ETBs, create three knife artifact tokens.
    {T}, sacrifice an artifact: ~ deals 2 damage to any target.
    1/1

    Human Cannonball (Uncommon)
    R
    Instant
    As an additional cost to cast CARDNAME, sacrifice a creature. CARDNAME deals damage equal to its power divided as you choose between any number of target creatures.

    Plate Spinning (Rare)
    2W
    Enchantment
    At the beginning of your end step, you may put a +1/+1 counter on one, two or three target creatures you control without a +1/+1 counter on. If you don't, sacrifice CARDNAME.

    Travelling Circus (Mythic Rare)
    2G
    Enchantment
    Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may pay 1W. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on any number of differently named target creatures you control.
    1U: Exile CARDNAME. Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may return CARDNAME from exile to the battlefield.

    Fierenzo, Ringmaster (Mythic Rare)
    4RR
    Legendary Creature - Human Rogue
    Whenever one or more creatures you control deal combat damage to an opponent, put an applause counter on CARDNAME.
    Remove an applause counter from CARDNAME: Sacrifice all other creatures you control. Reveal the top six cards of your library. Put all creature cards revealed this way OTB and the rest into your graveyard. Use this ability only when you could cast a sorcery.
    4/4

    Oklanzo, Great Magician (Mythic Rare)
    4WB
    Legendary Creature - Human Wizard
    2WB: Exile target creature. Create two 1/1 white bird creature tokens.
    4/4

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What do the knife tokens do on their own? They should do something. Maybe something less powerful than what they do when the knife thrower sacrifices them.

      I think I like how your plate-spinner card operates better than mine, but I think it starts off too powerful. There's no reason not to put three on from the start if you have valid targets.

      I don't understand why you would activate Traveling Circus's second ability. Is there something I'm missing? Other than to protect it from removal in an extremely weird way?

      Fierenzo feels very off color. Seems like he should be green. But the sacrifice is very black. He definitely doesn't feel red. He probably should not be monocolor in any event.

      Oklanzo is crazy powerful, even for mythic. That exile target needs some sort of conditional. Or he needs to be tapped. Or something.

      Delete
    2. Could we have knives be equipment with equip 1 and give +1/+0?

      Delete
    3. Hm, originally Firenzo was *both* players. Maybe that would actually be better.

      And lets add tap to Oklanzo. I wanted to let players dream of multiple activations, but allowing that even with shenanigans is probably too strong.

      My biggest disappointment, is that I found many designs I *liked* but none that made me laugh out loud. I think I should have brainstormed harder, not stopping at good cards I found, but trying to find some that were actually great.

      Delete
  6. I am going to take a very out there approach and an approach that probably would have either surprised the judges or got me immediately cut. The mechanic that I am going to have return to represent the circus is cumulative upkeep, which is a 9 on the storm scale, since I feel a lot of the tricks at the circus are the same trick just getting grander. Without further ado on with the show.

    1. Seltzer Bottle-2 (U)
    Artifact-Equipment
    Equipped creature gets +1/+0 and T: target creature cannot attack or block this turn.
    Equip:1

    2. Bigtopia's One and Only Traveling Circus-2RG (Rare)
    Legendary Enchantment
    Cumulative Upkeep-Put a 1/1 Trained Beast Token into play(At the beginning of your upkeep, put an age counter on this permanent, then sacrifice it unless you pay its upkeep cost for each age counter on it.)
    At the beginning of your precombat main phase, lose one life for each creature you control.

    3. Clown Car-3 (Mythic Rare)
    Cumulative Upkeep- Exile a creature you control
    2, Sacrifice Clown Car: Return to play any number of creature's you own that have been exiled this game.
    When clown car dies put a 1/1 red clown creature token into play for each Age counter on CARDNAME.

    4. Aldridge, The Ringmaser-1RGW(Mythic Rare)
    Legendary Creature-Human Mystic Spellshaper
    At the beginning of your upkeep you may remove any number of counters from any number of permanents you control.
    XG, Discard two cards,T: Search your library for a creature with converted mana cost X and put it into play.
    3/4

    5. Sword Swallowing-1BB (Common)
    Enchantment-Aura
    Enchanted creature is indestructible.
    Cumulative Upkeep-Put a -1/-1 counter on enchanted creature.

    6. Magician-UW(Uncommon)
    Creature-Human Wizard
    U, T, exile target creature you control: Choose One,
    Put a 1/1 white bird creature token with flying into play.
    Put a 1/1 green rabbit token with vigilance into play.
    1/3

    7. Trained Elephant- 1G (Common)
    Creature-Elephant
    CARDNAME cannot attack unless you control a human creature.
    3/3

    8. Feats of Strength-1GG(Rare)
    Enchantment-Aura
    Cumulative Upkeep-Put a +1/+1 counter on enchanted creature
    2G: Enchanted creature gains indestructible until end of turn

    Two things: I want to know if cumulative upkeep tracks for the circus theme and please review whatever two cards end up liking the most. I am steering towards the ringmaster and the clown car, the two mythic rares, let me know if they seem mythic enough.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Plate Spinning was totally my take on using cumulative upkeep without actually using it, so you're not alone there. Original iterations of it were even more obvious. It does interestingly capture the tension of trying to keep an action going as it gets harder and harder.

      Delete
    2. I feel like it gets a bad rep and most of the time upkeep is probably better but if you put it on a positive, then you will never sacrifice the card.

      Delete
    3. Some thoughts

      Traveling Circus: A punishment for token having a lot of creatures is very unusual for GR. The card's play style feels very black. At least the player has the option of not "paying" the cost and letting the enchantment die. I get what you're doing here, but I think the drawback needs to be something other than life loss.

      Clown Car: is missing its card type. Is it a vehicle? The play pattern on this one is really awkward. Given that it's a cumulative upkeep, it would seem to work best in a token creature deck in order to last more than a turn or two, but if you exile token creatures, you don't get them back. You just get new 1/1 tokens. I'm not sure getting a bunch of 1/1 creatures is enough to justify making my better creatures disappear. I'd rather just play spells that make token creatures.

      Ringmaster: Letting you keep your cumulative upkeep cards going forever if you want kind of defeats the purpose and tension of bringing them back.

      Magician: This seems more UB than UW. It's essentially a sacrifice to make a token.

      Feats of Strength: Is there a downside to this at all? Having a cumulative upkeep with no downside whatsoever is maybe a bit much.

      Delete
    4. Yeah not sure a better negative for travelling circus.
      Clown car is just an artifact, without cumulative upkeep it would just have exile to crew.
      yeah ringmaster probably should have an activated ability removing counters.
      Braid of Fire had no downside but +1/+1 counters might be stronger than mana.
      Magician can be blue black but then probably would need to be a black bird, also not sure if exile is in color ecen if it is basically sacrifice.

      Delete
  7. Here is my submission. I had some crazy ideas I cut but may also post if needed. I put two versions of Traveling Circus because they're very different.

    Trapeze Artist
    {2}{U}
    Creature — Faerie Rogue :common:
    Trapeze Artist has flying as long as you control another creature with flying.
    2/2

    Knife Thrower
    {2}{B}
    Creature — Ogre Rogue :common:
    When Knife Thrower enters the battlefield, put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.
    At the beginning of your upkeep, put a -1/-1 counter on target creature with a -1/-1 counter on it.
    2/2

    Fire Eating
    {R}
    Instant :common:
    Fire Eating deals 2 damage to target creature you control. That creature gains +3/+0 and trample until end of turn.

    Human Cannonball
    {1}{R}
    Creature — Human Rogue Berserker :uncommon:
    Menace
    Human Cannonball attacks each turn if able.
    Human Cannonball gets -1/-0 for each creature blocking it.
    4/1

    Feats of Strength
    {5}{G}{G}
    Sorcery :mythic:
    Search your library for any number of green creature cards with total converted mana cost equal to the highest power among creatures you control. Put those creatures into the battlefield, then shuffle your library. Exile Feats of Strength.

    Lion Tamer
    {3}{G}{G}
    Creature — Elf Rogue :uncommon:
    When Lion Tamer enters the battlefield, create a green 3/3 Cat creature token with trample.
    Creatures your opponent controls lose Menace and can’t have or gain Menace.
    2/2

    The Ringmaster
    {3}{R}{W}
    Creature — Human Rogue :mythic:
    Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, you may exile it at the end of combat. If you do, after this phase, there is an additional combat phase. Return all cards exiled this way to the battlefield at the beginning of the next end step.
    3/4

    Traveling Circus
    {2}{G}{W}{U}
    Enchantment :rare:
    Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may exile any number of nontoken creatures you control. Return them to the battlefield at the beginning of your next upkeep.
    3G: You may put a land card from your hand into the battlefield tapped.

    Traveling Circus
    Land :uncommon:
    Traveling Circus enters the battlefield tapped unless you played another land this turn.
    T: Add 1.
    T: Add one mana of any color. Activate this ability only if you played another land this turn.

    Clown Car
    {4}
    Artifact — Vehicle :rare:
    When Clown Car enters the battlefield, create a tapped 2/2 red Clown creature token.
    When Clown Car attacks, create a tapped 2/2 red Clown creature token for each tapped Clown you control that is not attacking.
    Crew 2

    ReplyDelete
  8. Here we go. A little explanation about some of the cards' flavor:
    Stilts - I'm imagining someone growing wooden stilts out of the bottoms of their feet, rather than a piece of equipment.
    Circus Peanuts - A sinister marketing scheme in order to sell bad peanuts to unsuspecting (nonblack) customers and reap the profits.

    1) Trained Elephant 4GW
    Creature - Elephant (C)
    Whenever Trained Elephant attacks, if it's enchanted, you gain 3 life.
    5/6

    2) Stilts G
    Enchantment - Aura (C)
    Enchant creature
    Enchanted creature gets +1/+0 and has reach.
    Whenever enchanted creature is dealt damage, sacrifice Stilts and draw a card.

    3) Contortionist 1U
    Instant (U)
    Cast Contortionist only before blockers are declared.
    Target creature gets -2/-0 and gains skulk until after blockers are declared. Whenever that creature deals combat damage to an opponent this turn, draw two cards.

    4) Lion Tamer 3WW
    Creature - Human (U)
    4GG: Create a 3/3 green Cat creature token.
    Whenever Lion Tamer blocks or becomes blocked by a creature, you may have target Cat creature you control fight that creature.
    2/4

    5) Bonzai, Goblin Cannonball R
    Legendary Creature - Goblin (R)
    Haste
    Tap an untapped creature you control with power 3 or greater: Bonzai gets +3/+0 and gains flying until end of turn. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step. Activate this ability only once each turn.
    1/1

    6) Fire Eating XUR
    Instant (R)
    Target creature gets -X/-0 and loses all abilities until end of turn.
    Another target creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn. Whenever that creature deals damage to a creature this turn, it deals that much damage to each opponent.

    7) Circus Peanuts 3B
    Sorcery (M)
    As an additional cost to cast Circus Peanuts, pay 4 life.
    Create four black Circus Peanut enchantment tokens with "{T}, Sacrifice this enchantment: Target nonblack creature gets -1/-1 and becomes black until end of turn. When that creature dies this turn, you gain 2 life."

    8) Traveling Circus 4R
    Sorcery (M)
    Exile the top five cards of your library. You may put any number of creature cards exiled this way with total converted mana cost 5 or less onto the battlefield. Those creatures gain haste. Exile them at the beginning of the next end step.
    Exile Traveling Circus with three time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter from it. When the last is removed, cast it without paying its mana cost.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ooh that's some fancy Saga-esque tech on Contortionist. I love the flavour on it, though I'm slightly concerned if (newer) players will realise the -2/-0 will fall off again before damage.

      Delete
  9. Design 1 (YOUR FIRST COMMON)
    Circus Peanuts 2
    Artifact
    Circus peanut enters the battlefield with three peanut counters
    2(G/W): remove a peanut counter from Circus Peanuts, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature, activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.

    Design 2 (YOUR SECOND COMMON)
    Flaming Hoop 2R
    Artifact- Equipment
    Deal five damage to target creature with toughness greater than 2



    Design 3 (YOUR FIRST UNCOMMON)
    Trained Elephant 3G
    Creature- Elephant
    Vigilance.
    T: Sacrifice a permanent named circus peanut put three +1/+1 counters on Trained Elephant
    3/4


    Design 4 (YOUR SECOND UNCOMMON)
    Fire Eating 1BR
    Instant
    Deal four damage to target creature
    You may sacrifice a red permanent if you do deal another four damage to any target


    Design 5 (YOUR FIRST RARE)
    Juggling 2WU
    Enchantment Aura
    Enchant creature
    When Juggling enters the battlefield exile two permanents you control with converted mana cost three or less, put an air counter on one and two on the other
    tap untapped enchanted creature: exile a nonland permanent with converted mana cost three or less, remove an air counter from each card exile by Juggling if the last air counter was removed this way return that permanent to the battlefield under your control.

    Design 6 (YOUR SECOND RARE)
    Type rope 3WW
    Enchantment
    No more than one non-flying creature may attack each turn
    No more than one non-flying creature block each turn

    Design 7 (YOUR FIRST MYTHIC RARE)
    Rady Human Cannonball 1RR
    Legendary Creature Human
    When Rady Human Cannonball enters the battlefield he deals three damage to his controller and each other creature that with the second lowest toughness among creatures that player controls.
    Tap an untapped artefact you control exile Rady Human Cannonball: return Rady Human Cannonball to the battlefield under an opponent’s control
    3/1

    Design 8 (YOUR SECOND MYTHIC RARE)
    Haraul the Traveling Circus
    Legendary Land
    T: add two mana of any colour at random, at the beginning of you endstep if you haven’t don’t used coloured all coloured mana produced this way to pay a coloured cost target opponent gains control of Haraul the Traveling Circus

    with my two ones I am interested getting feed back for are circus peanuts and tamed elephant

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh hello, it's me. I'd like to hear feedback particularly about Contortionist and Traveling Circus. Since this is Goblin Artisans, ALL the cards get a blurb! With that said, what follows is the <= 250 word commentary I would have hypothetically submitted:

    I took inspiration from the first Challenge in designing for this Challenge. A circus world all but screamed the need for a tribal theme for the performers. This theme ended up being activated abilities, which I used to embody the concept of what they were performing. Trapeze Artist and Ringmaster embody this the most cleanly out of all eight. Trapeze Artists live in the air (flying) during their performance, while the Ringmaster is the focus point of the show. They are a presenter of the next act (the Sneak Attack ability), and bring the show (the game) to its conclusion. Thus, the Ringmaster would be the Legendary Creature in addition to an alternate win condition.

    From there, I went through the list of names to see if any of them immediately evoked a concept that could be easily communicated through a Magic card. With a tribal theme in place, it was rather surprising for how many I could quickly conjure up an effect. Of the eight submissions, I'm most pleased with the design of Contortionist. I thought it was impossible at first. The idea of "the more contorted the weaker you are but the better your performance" suddenly fell in, and I then knew it had to be a card that rewarded you for shrinking it, which meant a black or blue card. I chose black card draw with a lifeloss rider for the reward, to symbolize the feelings they can evoke over just how far they can contort.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Trapeze Artist (Common)
      1U
      Creature - Human Performer
      2/1
      2U: Trapeze Artist gains flying until end of turn.

      I kept it simple for this common. The activation could probably be 1U, in the end, but when I decided to do the activated-abilities subtheme for the "Performer tribal," I upped some of the costs since that would matter for the other cards I didn't submit here. For Trapeze Artist, its "performance" (activated ability) is that it performs in the air, thus temporary flying/jump ability.


      Juggling (Common)
      1U
      Enchantment - Aura
      Enchant creature
      When Juggling enters the battlefield, tap enchanted creature.
      Enchanted creature doesn't untap during its controller's untap step unless it's a Performer.

      This is a card that I would have changed based on reading the Judge feedback, specifically that the tap clause would have the "is it a Performer?" rider, rather than the "doesn't untap" clause.


      Fire Eating (Uncommon)
      3W
      Instant
      Choose up to any two targets. Prevent all damage that would be dealt to them this turn.
      If you control a Performer, draw a card.

      Not much to see here aside from wanting an Uncommon that cared about Performers, and Fire Eating struck me as a prevention effect due to "not being hurt by the fire."


      Feats of Strength (Uncommon)
      3GG
      Sorcery
      Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control, then put a +1/+1 counter on each Performer creature you control.

      I didn't think this one far enough. After reading the judges' commentary on dailymtg, I realized that my design for Feats of Strength didn't really convey a feat of strength rather than "oh it gets bigger." When I made this card, my thought was "Well, the (strongman) Performer is obviously going to be better able to do a feat of strength, so Performers should get two counters to reflect that."

      Delete
    2. Clown Car (Rare)
      4
      Artifact
      T: Exile target creature you control.
      Whenever five or more creature cards are exiled by Clown Car, return them to the battlefield under your control with an additional +1/+1 counter on them.

      For some reason, I had thought Vehicles would be off limits, but if there was a card that should be one, it's Clown Car. The general idea is still the same (stuffing creatures into it), but I settled on a reward for "filling" the car, where the "clowns" came out with props (+1/+1 counters) for their show. In hindsight, I think two +1/+1 counters would be more appropriate for the reward, since you're looking at exiling over the space of up to five turns.


      Traveling Circus (Rare)
      Land
      T: Add C.
      3, T: Look at the top four cards of your library. You may reveal a Performer card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest back in any order.

      If I could do it over again, this card would probably have another ability, likely "Add one of any color. Spend only on Performer spells and abilities." It's a pretty bland reward as it is now.


      Contortionist (Mythic)
      4BB
      Creature - Human Performer
      5/5
      XB: Contortionist gets -X/-X until end of turn.
      Whenever Contortionist deals combat damage to a player, draw cards equal to 5 minus the damage Contortionist dealt. You lose that much life.

      At first, I couldn't come up with a concept for Contortionist. It wasn't until I decided on an "activated abilities" theme for the Performer tribe that the idea of Contortionists getting smaller (contorting) popped into my head. There's a bit of a magpie subtheme in the idea of a Performer "connecting with the audience" by way of dealing combat damage to a player. (Punny!) In the case of Contortionist, I felt that the better a Contortionist's performance (the smaller it gets), the bigger the reward. What kind of reward? Something that cared about how small it was, so I settled on the number 5 - the damage dealt to allow the reward to scale inversely with the damage.


      Haral, the Ringmaster (Mythic)
      3RR
      Legendary Creature - Human Performer
      3/3
      3R, T: Reveal the top card of your library. If it’s a creature card, put it onto the battlefield. It gains haste. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step.
      At the beginning of your end step, if you activated an ability of five different Performer creatures this turn, you win the game.

      The Ringmaster had to be a legendary creature. Since he's the focus of the show (the game) and since I had decided on an activated abilities theme for Performers, I felt he needed to have an alternate win condition. Somehow I picked up on the number five for him, just like with Contortionist, but I can't put my finger on why I chose that number and why it feels right. The wording on the second ability changed from the Reddit submission because it was unclear what I meant on it there, so I cleaned up the win trigger to better explain what I was getting at ("five different Performers performed").

      Delete
  11. I really wanted to completely fill out this challenge since this is exactly the sort of thing I'm very interested in but time just doesn't permit me, so I'll submit my two favorites. Knife Thrower was actually the most evocative in terms of what I envision and what I can picture as a Magic card for me, so I had to do that one, and I wanted to do a legendary creature, so unfortunately both are creatures.

    Knife Thrower (Common)
    {1}{B}
    Creature - Vampire Rogue
    When ~ enters the battlefield, choose target creature. Each other creature its controller controls gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
    "Unfortunately for you, I always miss my target.
    1/3

    Ringmaster B. A. Dornah (Mythic)
    {4}{B}{R}
    Legendary Creature - Human Advisor
    Whenever another creature you control leaves the battlefield for the first time each turn, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a creature card that doesn't share a name with that creature. Put that card onto the battlefield and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
    4/4

    Thoughts: I actually was making more standard Knife throwers that are more like etb pingers, but then I realized isn't the point of the knife thrower that he DOESN'T kill his target? That was also a more interesting looking card so I went with that. I also agreed with Mooney's issue about lack of overtly black feeling cards and felt this was a good fit (the idea of dangerous risk taking acts being more black on this world, especially when involving other people, whereas Red would be more about entertaining your emotions or flashier acts, such as clowns or fire swallowers.) and this was a good fit. I also found a black looking piece of art for my own personal mock ups which helped my opinion.

    As far as Ringmaster goes, I actually knew the big showstopper legendary had to be the Ringmaster but I wasn't exactly sure what being a Ringmaster meant in magic game terms. But I realized that cascade has a feel similar to a drumroll build to a reveal, and that's perfect for a Ringmaster. When a performer leaves, the Ringmaster builds up tension and excitement to the entrance of a new one. The different names hints at a set subtheme (borrowing jeremy's different names matter), and also fixes an issue with this kind of effect-- you can't just build a deck that's all the same thing, you'll need at least two different names, and because it's a leaves trigger, it's harder to set up combos. With any flavor this would have been a dies trigger (hence black, and also RB feeling very much like the "flashy but dangerous evil ringmaster/circus" trope that probably inspired Rakdos as well), but leaves the battlefield reads more flavorfully for circus performers and maybe grabs the attention of some Johnnies. Cascade like effects are wordy though and make for blocky rules text. Originally I wanted this to exile your hit until your next upkeep when you could cast it for free which I felt better conveyed the build up anticipation feel, but that would have made the text longer and even more blocky and wasn't entirely necessary.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I’m like 90% sure this challenge didn’t specify the cards had to be from a Standard-legal set, so I made some Un-cards! (If I’m wrong, I’m really sorry)

    The main theme of this hypothetical set is “art”, something that hasn’t been explored that much in previous Un-sets. I think caring about art is interesting because it allows the creation of synergies without being too obvious. One cool thing the set could do to support this theme is having full-art vanilla creatures with lots of things in their artwork.

    And that’s pretty much it. Any feedback is welcome.

    (Note: The main inspiration for Circus Tent is, of course, Jay Treat’s “Bucket List”)

    1) Lion Tamer (C)
    {1}{W}
    Creature – Human
    {T}: Tap target creature with a lion in its art.
    2/2

    2) Stilts (C)
    {2}
    Artifact – Equipment
    Equipped creature gets +2/+0.
    As long as you’re the tallest player in the game, equipped creature has reach.
    Equip {2}

    3) Tightrope (U)
    {1}{B}
    Instant
    Target creature’s controller balances it one of their fingers for ten seconds. If the creature falls down during those ten seconds, destroy it. Otherwise, you draw a card and lose 1 life. (You can’t touch the creature or its controller while it walks the tightrope.)

    4) Ringmaster Thesa! (R)
    {2}{R}{G}
    Legendary Creature – Elf
    Whenever you cast a creature spell, you may introduce it using a synonym of “amazing” you haven’t used for a card named Ringmaster Thesa! today. If you do, that creature enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it and gains haste until end of turn.
    3/3

    5) Clown Car (R)
    {3}
    Artifact – Vehicle
    Whenever a creature crews Clown Car, put a clown counter on Clown Car for each clown in that creature’s art.
    {T}, Remove a clown counter from Clown Car: Create a 1/1 red Clown creature token with menace.
    Crew 1
    3/3

    6) Mrgltd, Master Magician (M)
    {4}{U}{B}
    Legendary Creature – Homunculus Wizard
    Flash
    When Mrgltd, Master Magician enters the battlefield, switch a creature on the battlefield or from a graveyard with another creature on the battlefield or from a graveyard.
    2/2

    7) Circus Tent (M)
    {5}
    Artifact
    Whenever you cast a spell with one of the things in the list below in its art, put a quest counter on that thing’s checkbox and draw a card. Then if all checkboxes have quest counters on them, you win the game. (Choose only one thing per spell.)
    [ ] an elephant [ ] a unicycle [ ] a clown
    [ ] a trapeze artist [ ] a flaming hoop

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You weren't the only one who noticed the absence of the "standard set" rule. I'm kind of surprised none of the competitors ran with that, but I guess the stakes of the competition discourage that sort of thinking. I'm not sure I would have gone for multiplayer concepts if I were actually in the competition.

      Delete
  13. Here's a crack at it:

    Clown Car (rare)
    5
    Artifact -- Vehicle
    2/2
    Haste
    When ~ deals combat damage to a player, sacrifice ~ and create six 1/1 red Clown creature tokens.
    Crew 3

    Acrobatics (common)
    1W
    Instant
    Until end of turn, target creature gains flying and first strike.
    Draw a card.

    Juggling (uncommon)
    2BG
    Sorcery
    Draw a card, then put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield, then each player sacrifices a creature, then put a card from your graveyard on top of your library.

    Contortionist (rare)
    2UR
    Creature -- Human Shapeshifter
    0/0
    You may have ~ enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield, except it gains "R: This creature gets +1/-1 until end of turn" and "U: This creature gets -1/+1 until end of turn."

    Fire Eating (common)
    1R
    Enchantment -- Aura
    Enchant creature
    When ~ ETB, draw a card.
    Enchanted creature has menace and "R: this creature gets +1/+0 until end of turn."

    Knife Thrower (common)
    2B
    2/2
    When ~ enters the battlefield, each player draws a card and loses 1 life.

    Mary the Trained Elephant (mythic)
    2WG
    Legendary Creature -- Elephant
    2/2
    First strike, vigilance, trample
    Tap another untapped creature you control: Until end of turn, Mary, Trained Elephant gets +2/+2 and gains that creature's abilities until end of turn. Activate this ability only as a sorcery and only once each turn.

    For me, circuses are all about excess and activity, so cards that allow each player to do a lot (cantrips, token makers, ramp) feel circus-like to me.

    Last mythic may be coming soon!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Here's the last mythic!

      Piria, Master Magician (mythic rare)
      4UU
      Legendary Creature -- Human Wizard
      4/4
      Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, you may pay 1U. If you do, create a creature token that's a copy of Piria, except it's an Illusion and it's not legendary.
      When Piria leaves the battlefield, if it's legendary, sacrifice all Illusions you control.

      Delete
  14. I'm late! I've been traveling and haven't had time to work on any of this until just recently. This is my 'raw' attempt at the challenge, before I've read any official or unofficial attempts at the challenge. The most interesting thing I tried was creating a new card type "Performance" which are auras that represent different circus acts. Each Performance has an opening (ETB ability), main act (ongoing ability), and finale (sacrifice ability). Other than that, I've got some creatures with the type "Performer", but there's no major tribal theme among them in this set of cards.

    Without further ado:

    Fire Eating (Common)
    R
    Enchantment – Performance Aura
    Enchant Creature
    When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, enchanted creature gains first strike until end of turn.
    Whenever enchanted creature attacks, it gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
    Sacrifice CARDNAME: It deals 1 damage to any target.

    Feats of Strength (Common)
    1G
    Instant
    Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn. If it’s a Performer, it gains indestructible until end of turn.

    Tightrope (Uncommon)
    1U
    Enchantment – Performance Aura
    Enchant Creature
    When CARDNAME enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, put a Balance counter on CARDNAME.
    When enchanted creature becomes the target of another spell or ability, sacrifice it.
    Sacrifice CARDNAME: Draw a card for each Balance counter on it.

    Ringmaster (Uncommon)
    2WW
    Creature – Dwarf Performer
    When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, you may search your library for a Performer card and a Performance card, reveal them, and put them into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
    2/2

    Mystico, Mental Magician (Rare)
    UU
    Legendary Creature – Vedalken Performer
    When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, look at target opponent’s hand.
    At the beginning of your upkeep, secretly note a nonland card. Until your next turn, whenever an opponent plays a card with the chosen name, you may reveal the named card. If you do, draw a card.
    1/1

    Traveling Circus (Rare)
    Land
    T: Add C.
    T, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Look at the top four cards of your library. You may reveal a Performer card or Performance card from among them and put it into your hand. Then put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.

    Three Rings (Mythic Rare)
    RWB
    Enchantment
    As long as you control exactly 3 creatures, each of them gets +3/+3 and has first strike, vigilance, and lifelink.

    Contortionist (Mythic Rare)
    2UU
    Creature – Shapeshifter Performer
    1: CARDNAME gets +1/-1 until end of turn.
    1: CARDNAME gets -1/+1 until end of turn.
    U: Change a target of target spell or ability to CARDNAME.
    UU: Exile CARDNAME, then return it to the battlefield under your control.
    3/3

    ---

    With more time, I'd find a replacement for Traveling Circus because it's pretty uninspired. Probably a Black card as I don't like that my only black card in the submission is a tri-color mythic. I'm fairly happy with the way these turned out, though.

    If I had any to get 'officially' reviewed, I supposed I'd choose either Three Rings or Mystico. However, I know I'm late so I don't want to pile more work on the reviewers. I welcome any and all feedback you all have on the submission or on individual cards!

    Thanks for being an awesome community!

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    Replies
    1. Fire Eating
      There’s a ton going on here for a common. Seems like it shouldn’t be common because it totally messes with combat math way too much. It’s a decent complex card, but probably shouldn’t be at common. I also am not following the theme of the card. You eat fire so you get first strike and attack for more damage, but then you can breathe it back out for one damage?

      Feats of Strength
      Feels like a solid common Ties in with performer subtheme. Otherwise, usable and solid. One question I have is if you need both +3/+3 and indestructible. Generally cards that grant indestructible aren’t also that big as it becomes somewhat redundant. Seems fair overall though.

      Tightrope
      I really like this idea though I’m super sad you didn’t use applause counters. I really wanted applause counters with this particular card. It was an idea I really wanted to find a home for and this does it so well. The idea of becoming the target of a spell throws it off is great. I wonder how many people will miss that you sacrifice it when it gets targeted. I think you might want to add “you draw cards equal to the number of counters on tightrope.” to the phantom clause.

      Ringmaster
      This is a really powerful performer card. I don’t know that repeatable search for a performer is a good idea at common. In limited this basically lets you draw every performer in your deck once you cast it. I think this would be a better card if you put it on the top of your library. That would also fit the theme of “up next”.

      Mystico, Mental Magicial
      Secretly noting down a card name feels really conspiracy and not really possible at the competitive magic level. This is design that just doesn’t mesh with magic play. If this was in a conspiracy or other supplemental set I could possibly get behind it, but as a card that people have to play with in limited at GPs. this seems problematic. Also, I’m not sure I’d play UU for a 1/1 peek, draw a card in constructed so this card seems problematic in limited and bad in constructed, not a great combo.

      Traveling Circus
      This hits circus but seems to totally ignore the traveling part. I feel like this would be a better Circus Tent than Traveling Circus. I suppose sacrificing it is supposed to be sending it away, but then you’re left with another performer. Having trouble seeing the connections here.

      Three rings
      Really like this idea. So long as the show is going perfectly you have a huge advantage. Unfortunately, this needs to be rare not mythic. It’s narrow enough to be a good rare but not splashy enough to be mythic. Does nothing too much of the time. Also this could just be White. I’m not sure why it’s blue or red other than in order to be three colors which is a thing, just not a necessary thing I think. You could just make it cost WWW. FYI this is the best idea I’ve seen so far with the Three Rings card.

      Contortionist
      This is an interesting take on the Aetherling cycle. Definitely deserves the mythic title at that overall power level, the rest have been at rare. Giving it the spellskite ability is interesting, I’m not totally sure it fits the theme but you certainly have a cool card here I’m excited to play with.


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    2. Thanks for the feedback!

      I realized that Fire Eating was pretty packed for common, but wanted to show off the performance card type at common to show it worked. I think this version is pretty simple once you parse it, and I'm not quite sure how it messes with combat math so much. The +1/+0 is supposed to be resonant with Firebreathing abilities that Magic has, and the Seal of Fire is indeed you exhaling the fire back out, ending the performance.

      I wanted Feats of Strength be able to showcase something like "Watch this strong man take on a dragon AND LIVE!". The indestructibility being a way for performers to win fights that they "shouldn't".

      Tightrope could be applause counters. I didn't put too much thought into the name of the counters, but applause is more resonant. The draw ability is tied to the activated sacrifice so that you have the option to 'successfully' end the performance without falling off. Maybe the sacrifice should have a window of vulnerability with some mana activation, though.

      Ringmaster is uncommon, but I didn't think about the fact that it searches for itself - that's an oversight.

      Technically, secret decisions are black-bordered so this is ok but weird. Also technically this challenge didn't qualify standard-legal set. However, I'd like to see something like this in a Standard-legal set. I don't see why it would be a huge issue.

      Traveling Circus was supposed to hit the idea of finding new acts by traveling around, but that's not very clear through the card. This is definitely my first one to remove.

      Three Rings is Black, not Blue. That gives an ability from each of the 3 colors. I wanted 3 colors both to up the 3 aesthetic and to give the idea of 'different acts working together', but WWW could work. I think this is splashy enough for Mythic, but I'm bad at Mythic designs so I'm probably wrong. Thought this might be too annoying to see often at Rare in limited.

      I feel pretty much the same way as you about Contortionist. Flavor isn't super resonant.

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  15. That’s right, no +1/+1 counters in Bigtopia. I think a circus has a lot of themes that need to be represented by other counters and you’re better off letting this be a charge counter set instead of a +1/+1 counter set. I named them charge counters for consistency sake but they could easily be knife, runaway, and daredevil counters.
    To match my counter theme, which I don’t consider a returning mechanic, I decided to bring in proliferate as circuses are all about doing the same acts and things getting more and more over the top. I was disappointed I wasn’t able to have any applause counter cards because there’s so much space there but the names were fairly prohibitive.

    For knife thrower I tried a throwback to royal assassin that wouldn’t dominate the game when played early.

    Acrobatics (Common)
    1U
    Instant
    Remove target attacking creature from combat. If you control that creature, draw a card.

    Stilts (Common)
    0
    Aura - Equipment
    Equip 1
    Equipped creature has reach.
    Sacrifice CARDNAME: Equipped creature gains +1/+0 and flying until end of turn.

    Seltzer Bottle (Uncommon)
    1W
    Instant
    Tap up to two target creatures an opponent controls, proliferate.
    While they were distracted, we prepared for the next act.

    Traveling Circus (Uncommon)
    Land
    Traveling Circus doesn’t untap during your untap step if it has charge counters on it.
    Remove a charge counter from CARDNAME at the beginning of your upkeep.
    T: Add C.
    5, T: Exile target creature until CARDNAME becomes untapped or leaves the battlefield. Put three charge counters on CARDNAME.
    I don’t know which was more surprising, when she left or that she ever came back.

    Lion Tamer (Rare)
    3GR
    Creature - Human Druid
    When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, create a 2/2 green cat creature token.
    2RG, T: Gain control of target creature until end of turn, it gains haste until end of turn. If it is a cat, hound, or beast it gains +2/+2 until end of turn. Activate this ability any time you could cast a sorcery.
    2/2

    Knife Thrower (Rare)
    2B
    Creature - Human Rogue
    When CARDNAME enters the battlefield put a charge counter on it for each creature an opponent controls.
    T, Remove a charge counter from CARDNAME: Destroy target tapped creature.
    1/1

    Platinumfield, Extraordinary Magician (Mythic)
    3WW
    Legendary Planeswalker - Platinumfield
    +1: Proliferate.
    -4: Exile target creature, you get a 1/1 white bird token creature with flying.
    -12: Put all permanents from exile onto the battlefield under your control.
    4


    Shelldon, Human Cannonball (Mythic)
    1RR
    Legendary Creature - Human
    CARDNAME enters the battlefield with three charge counters on it.
    R, T, Remove a charge counter from CARDNAME: CARDNAME deals damage to target creature and that creature’s controller equal to its power. Sacrifice this card if there are no charge counters on it.
    3/2
    We knew he could only pull it off a limited number of times, but it was damn fun to watch.

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