Friday, September 14, 2018

Weekend Design Challenge 091418 - Out-of-Guild Ravnica Keywords


Hey Artisans. Click through to see the requirements for this weekend's design challenge, due Monday morning. Every submission warrants feedback, so once you've got your great idea down, give some thoughtful critique to some of your peers. Revise your submission any number of times, and I'll review the most recent submission from each designer.

This week's challenge is to take one of the Guilds of Ravnica keywords (Surveil, Jump-Start, Undergrowth, Mentor, or Convoke), and to design a Rare or Mythic rare card around it. The catch is that it has to be a multicolor guilded card, but in a color pair that shares no colors with the guild that owns it. So you can do Convoke in Dimir, Rakdos, or Izzet, but not for any other color combo, for instance.

Good luck, have fun, and I'll see you all Monday.

87 comments:

  1. I kind of want to throw mentor into Rakdos just to subvert the philosophical intent of it for fun, but they share red, so no go.

    But for Simic, done in a targeted way, it can show a more specific targeted plan for growth.

    Zonot Drake Trainer - 2UG (Uncommon)
    Creature - Vedalkin Wizard
    Flying, Mentor
    Whenever CARDNAME mentors a creature with flying, that creature gains an additional +1/+1 counter.
    3/3

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    1. Also, I can totally see this concept happening for the third expansion. Maybe not as extreme as a mechanic drifting into two completely new colors, but spreading into a third. MaRo made it clear that the synergy between mechanical concepts like surveil and jump-start is fully intentional, so I could see mechanics pushing into a third color for a set that has guilds mixing things up to deal with Bolas.

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    2. Mentor in Simic is a smart choice and I like the twist you put on it.

      The challenge asked for a rare and I think this could be one if you wanted.

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    3. OH! I missed the rare/Mythic component. I'll iterate to make it stronger. I already have an idae.

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    6. Because I can't stop fiddling with proper wording ...

      Zonot Drake Trainer - 3UG (Rare)
      Creature - Vedalkin Wizard
      Flying, Mentor
      Whenever CARDNAME mentors a creature with flying, put an additional +1/+1 counter on that creature and draw a card.
      3/3

      Delete
    7. Interesting tension here: the additional counter limits the number of cards you can draw off a small flyer. Not saying it's wrong, just pointing it out.

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    8. That's very intentional. "Draft lots of little flyers and build them up" is the message I want the card to send players. Plus Simic is gonna have access to any number of green power boosts if you really need to turn a drake into a dragon.

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    9. Probably the biggest obstacle to this challenge is that the names of these keywords often don't make all that much sense in the flavor of other guilds. Mentor sits very nicely in GU philosophy in general, but not as well in Simic specifically.

      I love this card. I does lean far more Blue than Simic. There's enough overlap that it works in Simic, but I almost want it to affect Trample creatures as well in the same way (maybe have it cost 6). It is a little weird (and a little Simic) that the mentored creature can end up larger than the Mentor.

      This is a great execution and guild shift. Well done.

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    10. Mentor in Simic is a good choice because of +1/+1 component. In other hand, the name and how mentor work seems a bit weird in simic but it is a part of this challenge. Nice Job by the way.

      Delete
  2. The hard mechanics to do with this are Surveil and Undergrowth. Counting creature cards in graveyards is a color pie break in anything but black or green. Self-mill is in blue, black, and green only. The others are plausible in all five colors.

    Undergrowth is a lost cause, I think. I'll be very impressed if someone pulls it off believably. But with some aggressive re-flavoring, I think I can justify surveil in... wait for it... Gruul.

    Borborygmos the Homeless 1RRGG
    Legendary Creature- Cyclops (Rare)
    5/5
    Trample
    Whenever CARDNAME attacks, surveil 3, then exile the top card of your library. If it's a nonland card, you may cast that card this turn.
    CARDNAME gets +1/+1 for each land card in your graveyard.

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    1. I think you can maybe make the case that surveil could technically fit in all colors as long as the mill-focused colors do it best. Kind of like how blue is primary in scry due to its heavy focus on library interactions but it's actually available to all colors, as long as blue is doing it more.

      I can't think of balance problems that it would cause really. Red is already heavily into discarding cards and even exiling top cards of the library and playing them, as you're doing here.

      Yeah, undergrowth is much harder. If you squint hard, white does have some regular recursion of small creatures from the graveyard and if you present as some sort of holy sanctification of the dead concept ... maybe? But the name of the mechanic "overgrowth' just breaks the flavor of trying to push it into white.

      Anyway, I think that this is repeat surveil and repeat extra card draw AND boosts from land in the graveyard, your Borborygmos is mythic. Maybe scale back the surveil?

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    2. I meant "undergrowth," of course.

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    3. Yeah, I was originally designing this as a mythic but then I realized that Borborygmos would be at rare (on the premise that he's been kicked out as guild leader by Domri Rade or somebody).

      Fair point about the surveil. I think I'll scale this back to a 4/4 and surveil 2.

      Delete
    4. Very nice use of Surveil, and some nice callbacks to Borborygmos Enraged as well. I think your numbers are better in the second iteration. Scry/Surveil becomes so much more potent at higher numbers, which works well for blue, less so for green, and not at all for red.

      I like the impulsive draw for the red component of the card. It offsets some of the fundamentally anti-red-ness of surveil as an ability. I'd like to play with this to see if it really captures the whole "Kill! Eat!" mentality of the clan and its (former?) leader. It looks super fun though.

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  3. [Nightveil Guide 2UB (Rare)
    Human Rogue Advisor
    Menace
    Mentor (Whenever this creature attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on target attacking creature with lesser power.)

    Each creature you control with a +1/+1 on it has Menace and “when this creature deals combat damage to a player, draw a card”
    ———————
    “Imitation is the first step to intimidation”
    *Dimir Watermark*
    3/3]

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    1. Neat. For my money Simic or Golgari would be a better fit for mentor, but this is plausible too and plays in a similar space as Larcent's submission.

      Was it intentional that the Guide doesn't have a saboteur ability of its own? Seems counter-intuitive to me.

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    2. You know what Ipaulsen, your totally right. Lol it is a bit wonky as is. Lemme fix that:

      [Nightveil Guide 2UB (Rare)
      Creature - Human Rogue Advisor
      Menace
      Mentor
      When this creature deals combat damage to a player, draw a card.

      Each creature you control with a +1/+1 has Menace and “when this creature deals combat damage to a player, draw a card”
      ———————
      “Imitation is the first step to intimidation”
      *Dimir Watermark*
      3/3]

      Thanks for the feedback.

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    3. Sorry but I don't buy mentor in Dimir because of the growth side (+1/+1 counters) which is green or at least white (not possible in this challenge) and specially not in black.

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    4. Hey, Julian! Thanks for the feedback. I totally agree, it’s a little bit of a stretch in Dimir. There are a few mono black creature cards that grow with +1/+1 counters though. I’m a big fan of Oona’s Blackguard, which is kinda what inspired this card. There is also effects like Indulgent Aristocrat which grows teams of vamps with +1/+1 counters. It’s less common in black, but not unheard of. Thanks again for the comment!

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    5. All of these keywords are named in a way to be VERY thematic to their host guild, but if you were to strip the name away, many could mechanically fit in another guild without too much dissonance. +1/+1 counters are a 5-color thing, and can mean all sort of stuff beyond "growth".

      I like this as a build-around rare. The templating could use some massaging, but the core mechanic is great as a rare. Bred for the Hunt put this in Simic, so I might have it cost you a bit of life to help the transition from Green to Black for this card.

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    6. I know that all colors have access to +1/+1 counter and they can represent various things. Green does it just better than anyone.
      What strike the most in dimir or rakdos mentor is that the strongest creature helps the weaker one wich doesn't seems right in black for me.

      Delete
  4. Selective Recovery 3GW
    Instant (R)
    Surveil 2, then return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. Put two +1/+1 counters on it. (Look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on the top of your library in any order.)
    Jump-Start (You may cast this card from your graveyard by discarding a card in addition to paying its other costs. Then exile this card.)


    Might be overkill?

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    1. To me the counters seem like a strange overcomplication, but then again without them this could just flat-out be a mono-black card with Jump-Start added. It makes it "feel" a bit more GW.

      Also, and totally irrelevant, but "overkill" would be a great name for a Rakdos mechanic.

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    2. Remove jump-start and I'm sold. Or almost sold. Instant speed, surveil 2, *and* two +1/+1 counters seems like a bit too much value here.

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    3. Both available keywords is cute, but it's not really doing your design any favors. I'll ignore the jump start for now.

      As a strict surveil 2 reanimate, it doesn't feel particularly Selesnya, but I completely buy surveil in green, and the reanimate in white. The one change I would make would be to limit it to a creature with a low CMC or power. It still feels fundamentally black having those two abilities in tandem, but it mechanically works in white better that way.

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  5. Rakdos, Center of Attention 2BBRR
    Legendary Creature - Demon (mr)
    Convoke
    Non-legendary creatures can't untap.
    When CARDNAME attacks, it deals damage equal to the number of tapped creatures you control to each player and planeswalker.
    5/5

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    1. Neat idea! I thought of doing a convoke version of Rakdos that prohibited you from using mana from lands at all, meaning you could only summon him via tapping creatures.

      I'd maybe jack up his cost a bit to really push players to have to convoke and maybe to make sure it can't come into play too early. Or maybe make it so that only YOUR creatures don't untap to make it more possible for an opponent to stop him.

      Delete
    2. I'd say limit the damage to opponents and their planeswalkers. Perma-tapping your board is enough of a demon drawback as it is.

      Add flying and trample like the previous Rakdos iterations? It's a mythic rare, so you've got plenty of room.

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    3. Forgot to say: the base idea here is really really cool. Love the flavor.

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    4. I love the feel of flying and trample, but I feel like the card ends up being more fun for both players without it, sadly. (To be honest, Rakdos never seems much like he's flying in his creature art anyways, if that's any excuse.)

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    5. Luv that one except "Non-legendary creatures can't untap." that seems off color.

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    6. Okay, this version should fit in at 7 lines and a readable text-size! I still like "non-Legendary", but it's up to the reader to decide if that's worth another line break.

      Rakdos, Center of Attention 1BBRR
      Legendary Creature - Demon (mr)
      Convoke, flying, trample
      Other creatures can't untap. Any player may pay 5 life to ignore this effect until end of turn.
      When CARDNAME attacks, he deals damage equal to the number of tapped creatures you control to each player and planeswalker.
      5/5


      Risky. And definitely worth watching for easy early token producing in relevant formats and colors. But mythics do get to be good? And while this is game-ending in a lot of places, it's neither necessarily above replacement value everywhere, or resistant to removal.

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    7. That's a great take on Rakdos. For the essay part of the GDS3, I advocated for Convoke to be evergreen, primary in black on creatures and blue on spells, so I'm already on board with this colorpie-wise.

      Preventing untaps is fairly blue, so while I dig the punishment aspect of this, I think it could definitely shift more Black.

      For each creature they control, players may choose not to untap that creature during their untap step.
      Whenever a creature becomes untapped, its controller loses 2 life.

      It could go even easier, and just say "whenever a creature you control becomes untapped, lose 2" and call it a day.

      Of course, with those changes, the second major effect needs to be reexamined. I really like where this ended up, but I think that the universal untap prevention has to be grounded in Blue.

      Delete
  6. Fertilize
    1BG
    Sorcery - Rare
    Return up to two target land cards from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.
    Jump-start

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    1. Solid design. You've totally sold me on the jump-start. It reminds me of Life from the Loam, which might be a bad sign. At least this one doesn't recur itself indefinitely.

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    2. That is such a fantastic design. I wish Jump Start as a mechanic name made sense absolutely anywhere else in Magic other than Izzet and Kaladesh. It's a useful flashback variant, and locking the flavor into such a narrow space is almost certainly going to come back to haunt them.

      My only critique here is that I'm not sure this needs to be Black in any way. Green can do flashback, so there's no reason in a vacuum that jump start won't work there. The cards mechanic itself is mono-G. What's B bringing to the table here? This is such a phenomenally elegant mono-G design, and adding something to it to justify black would probably make it a worse design.

      Delete
  7. Assassination Team XUB
    Instant R
    Convoke
    Destroy target creature with mana cost X. Draw cards equal to that creature’s power.

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    1. Is it weird to care about (number of creatures, irrespective of cmc/power) + (a creature's cmc) + (a creature's power)? Is there much gained to setting the draw to power rather than X?

      Delete
    2. I think you need to up the base cost and slow it to sorcery speed. If we assume that the average result is killing a 4 mana 3/3 (I know, but still), paying 6 mana to remove a threat and drawing 3 cards is one of the most efficient draft cards I've ever seen even before we mention convoke. In addition this kind of card advantage at instant speed gives you no shields down moment which is necessary when drawing this many cards and just after removing your opponent's scariest threat.

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    3. Hey, Mr. Klesh! Great twist on the convoke mechanic. I like what you’re doing here. Tapping creatures as part of the cost of killing a kritter is very flavorful! It reminds me a lot of Urge to Feed. Good job on the design.

      I do agree with Pasteur and Unknown, this is really strong as you have it printed. I think sorcery speed and draw cards equal to x seems like a good tweak, maybe even a cost increase. With your current version, I’m imagining casting this removal on a Deaths Shadow or Tarmogyoyf for low cost and drawing a grip of cards for 3 or less mana from convoke. It would be busted in modern against creatures with efficient power.

      Your design is fun, tells a cool story, and it’s a good interpretation of the mechanic in a new color. I’m a fan, keep it up!

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    4. I agree with Pasteur-- this should say "draw X cards". But the bigger problem is that either way, control decks would play this just for the removal + card advantage even if they had nothing to convoke with. How about "Draw a card for each creature you tapped to cast this spell"?

      One other minor thing: "Assassination Team" sounds like a creature name. "Team Assassination" maybe?

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    5. I agree with the sentiment that we shouldn't be caring about two different numbers in this context. I'd up the cost to XXUB, Let it kill something CMC X or less, Draw X, and Convoke.

      In the GDS3 essays, I suggested convoke for evergreen status primary in Blue for spells and in Black for creatures, so I'm very on board with this design. It's a great, splashy rare, simple and interesting.

      Delete
  8. My attempt at Undergrowth.

    Purity Bonds
    {U/W}
    Enchant Creature
    Undergrowth - Enchanted creature doesn't untap during it's controller's untap step if it's converted mana cost is less than or equal to the number of creatures in its controller's graveyard.

    or

    Purity Bolt
    WR
    Instant
    Lifelink
    Undergrowth - Purity Bolt deals 5 - X damage to target creature, where X is the number of creature cards in your graveyard (Purity Bolt can't deal less than 0 damage).

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    1. I think bonds is fun design, but bolt leads to a feels bad in the mid-late game, especially since WR isn't exactly known for its big durable creatures.

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    2. Am I reading it right that Purity Bolt wants to be played in a deck with 0 creatures (i.e. Jeskai Control just got a strictly better Lightning Helix)?

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    3. Oof. Yeah, that makes Purity Bolt unprintable at the current numbers. And if you back off that enough to make it non-broken in control decks, it'll be extra lame anywhere else. Points to Sage for creativity and effort, though.

      Purity Bonds isn't Undergrowth in the strictest sense, but it's a lot more plausible as a printable card. I like the idea that the Azorius get extra suspicious if enough dead bodies turn up in your neighborhood.

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    4. Doesn't Purity Bonds do the opposite, though? It punishes you for NOT having creatures in your graveyard. It seems like it would be a great card in your opening hand against early aggression, but also potentially a way to shut down win condition creatures in control decks that aren't going to have enough creature to untap it.

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    5. Purity Bolt doesn't hit face or planeswalkers, so it's not *strictly* better. If it needs to be toned down (and it probably does) then there are a few levers we have: 1RW, 4-X, and sorcery speed all help bring this down a couple of notches.

      @Larcent: Purity Bonds will only keep things tapped if your opponent (the controller of what you're enchanting) has enough creatures in the graveyard.

      Delete
    6. I read that card 10 times I swear and still got it backwards, which is probably a warning sign about clarity. Though it could possibly just be me.

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    7. I'm doing Bolt instaed of Bonds, since Undergrowth is explicitly a one-time check on ETB or cast, rather than an step trigger check.

      I'm not the fan of Undergrowth used as a negative ability to make effects weaker. In fact, in white at least, the growth of your graveyard scaling into damage can tie very nicely with it's emphasis on retribution. Boros doesn't have a tremendous amount of recursion abilities, and is the worst color pair for drawing into new answers, so having this scale upwards with dead creatures in this color pair is something that can easily be kept in check.

      Remember that we use keywords to build excitement on cards, not detract from them. We want more damage, not less, tied to playing a card such as this.
      3RW
      Sorcery
      Lifelink
      Undergrowth -- ~ deals damage equal to the number of creature cards in your Graveyard to target creature.

      Delete
  9. Rakdos Gladiator 3BR
    Creature - Human Warrior (U)
    Flash
    Haste, Convoke
    When Rakdos Gladiator enters the battlefield, it gets +1/+0 for each tapped creature you control.
    3/2

    Its a bit wordy for an uncommon but if Dom is anything to go by they'll probably be ratcheting up uncommon complexity in expert sets for the sake of limited.

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    1. Would that be +1/+0 "until end of turn"?

      I agree that complexity is fine at uncommon, but I'm not sure the flash is pulling its weight here. Also, FYI the challenge asked for a rare or mythic.

      Delete
    2. I misread the challenege but its pretty to bump this up:

      Luci, Rakdos Champion BBRR
      Creature - Human Warrior (R)
      Flash
      Haste, Convoke
      Luci has +1/+0 for each tapped creature you control.
      4/3

      Delete
    3. I love it. Man, convoke is just such a great ability. I'm not the biggest fan of the Venerated Loxodon wording of "each creature that convoked it," and would much prefer the "tapped creature you control" option included here.

      So here's the question. Is this fundamentally Rakdos in some way? On paper, this could easily be mono-G (although +1/+1 instead of +1/+0). This absolutely works, and I'm a fan, but I wish it did something that read more Rakdos than generic convoke spell.

      Delete
  10. Hi there new here, while I've been designing custom cards since I started playing around 5-6 years ago, I haven't actually done any reaching out into the community until roughly now. Anyways since I'm not sure just how strict your rules are I came up with a few mono-color ones that follow the other rules and decided just to make it a nice round cycle. (also I'm terrible at naming cards when i do bottom up design...)

    Angel of Second Chances 3WW
    creature - Angel (R)
    flying
    undergrowth - when angel of second chances etb return a creature with cmc less than or equal to the number of creatures in your graveyard
    2/2

    Guideling 3UU
    Creature - shapeshifter
    prowess, mentor
    (U): this creature gets +1/-1 until end of turn
    (U): this creature gets -1/+1 until end of turn
    2/2

    Demon of Deathly Devotion 3BB
    Creature - Demon (R)
    convoke, flying
    Sacrifice any creature that convoked CARDNAME, for each creature sacrificed this way put a +1/+1 counter on CARDNAME and draw a card
    2/2

    Covert-Opps Goblin 3RR
    Creature - Goblin (R)
    whenever a creature etbs surveil 1
    whenever a creature is sent from your deck to the graveyard deal 2 damage to each opponent
    2/2
    "whoops, that was our guy"

    Seasonal Migration 3GG
    sorcery (R)
    jump-start
    create a 2/2 wolf token for each land card in all players graveyards.

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    1. whoops, angel of second chances returns to the battlefield.

      Delete
    2. Alright, I slept on it and have a new outlook on each of these cards than when I designed them yesterday. I ended up just reworking all of them at least slightly to cover some perceived weaknesses, as well as just completely replacing 1.

      Angel of Second Chances - it's fine likely rate, not innovative with the design space, but not off flavor either. probably a bomb in draft and an extra karmic guide in decks that want one.

      Angel of Second Chances 3WW
      Creature - Angel (R)
      Flying
      Undergrowth - whenever this creature enters the battlefield return a creature with CMC less than or equal to the number of creatures in your graveyard from your graveyard to the battlefield

      Shapeshifter Super Soldier 3UU
      Creature - Shapeshifter (R)
      Prowess, Mentor
      (1) CARDNAME gets +1/-1 until end of turn
      (1) CARDNAME gets -1/+1 until end of turn
      (U) return CARDNAME to it's owners hand.
      2/2

      Demon of Deathly Devotion 3BB
      Creature - Demon (R)
      Convoke, Flying, Deathtouch
      Sacrifice any creature that convoked CARDNAME, for each creature sacrificed this way put a +1/+1 counter on CARDNAME and draw a card.
      2/2

      Covert-Opps Goblin 3RR
      Creature - Goblin Rogue (R)
      Whenever a non-token creature enters the battlefield surveil 1
      whenever a creature is sent from your deck to the graveyard deal 2 damage to each opponent.
      2/2

      Call of the Alpha 3GG
      Sorcery (R)
      jump-start
      target a creature you control, create 2/2 wolf tokens equal to it's power and gain life equal to it's toughness

      Delete
    3. Welcome!

      Angel of Second Chances- W is the correct third color to use for Undergrowth and I like this execution.

      SSS- I'm not persuaded that either prowess or mentor is doing enough on this card, compared to the usual Morphling pattern, and I'm having a hard time seeing the flavor justification.

      DDD- Interesting! Reminds me of Skullmulcher. The effect is *nearly* devour, but devour doesn't get to do cost reductions. I'd say go for a higher CMC and larger body (Demons tend to be bigger than 2/2).

      Covert-Ops Goblin- I'm really not seeing the R here. U, B, and/or G, but not R.

      Call of the Alpha- I liked the simplicity of Seasonal Migration compared to this, and it justified the Jump-Start better somehow.

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    4. thanks for the feedback!
      ASC - I believe it's in the spot it'll stick thank you for re-assuring me.
      SSS - I thought the mentor pattern plays well when meshed with the statshifting nature as it's either a super low bar to jump over for other mentors or can set a high bar to buff your other creatures (which is where the prowess was supposed help). that said I agree on the flavor note, probably because of the constant teacher/student duality with the shapeshifter base this card's abilities desire makes it far to hard to express without a flavor text I am not whimsical enough to write.

      Adaptive Instructor 1UU
      Creature - Shapeshifter (R)
      Mentor
      (U) CARDNAME gets +1/-1
      (U) CARDNAME gets -1/+1
      2/2

      DDD - I honestly forgot about devour when designing this. Fair point about the CMC and power I kinda worked myself into a corner with the 5 cmc 2 square stats.

      Demon of Deathly Devotion - 5BB
      Creature - Demon (R)
      Convoke, Flying, Trample
      Sacrifice any creature that convoked CARDNAME, for each creature sacrificed this way put a +1/+1 counter on CARDNAME and draw a card.
      4/4

      COG - this is where the remaining mechanics started to bite me (I came up with the other 3 sometime between when the mechanics were announced and reading the challenge), with the other mechanic left being jump-start red had to be surveil. I tried to make it flavorful by a goblin just accidentally milling his friends as a play pattern, but it's not my cleanest work. however I'm blanking on a cleaner way to make it work for the moment so the only change would be adding the flavor text from the first to the second.

      CotA - I think Seasonal Migration had a better flavor tie in in that between the idea of using jumpstart to show time taking place between seasons and the discard letting you hit another land (making the second time through more powerful even if cast in the same turn), however this was a case of 5 mana with 2/2s biting me again as SM was probably next to unplayable at 5 mana in even the most fetch happy of lands EDH decks (also undraftable). Since I'm ignoring that self imposed limitation for round 3 of edits I'll bring it back. (as for call it's a pretty classic win more, not bad in draft but likely forgettable which is not great for rare design)

      Seasonal Migration 2GG
      Sorcery (R)
      jump-start
      create a 2/2 wolf token for each land card in all players graveyards.

      Delete
    5. Hey, Unknown! Thanks for the awesome designs! I was thinking about the goblin problem. I love the narrative that you thought up for the character, but the mechanics can be tweaked a bit. If I were playing red in limited, I don't necessarily think I would want to mill my creatures. Also, if I am incentivized to mill my creatures, I'll be less likely to trigger the goblin's surveil ability too.

      This is what your design made me think of:

      Rubblebelt Tactics 1RG
      Enchantment - Uncommon
      At the beginning of your upkeep, surveil 1.
      Whenever a land enters your graveyard from your library, Rubblebelt Tactics deals 2 damage to each player.

      Also, I'm a big fan of your undergrowth angel. That's one of my favorites so far. Thanks again for the designs,keep it up!

      Delete
    6. Hi, and Welcome! Typically the challenge restrictions are there to focus the submissions, so ignoring them can sometimes just have the reviewer skip your submission.

      I'll take a look at that convoke demon today, since that's really a design blueprint I want to see adopted into evergreen status.

      7 CMC for those stats is nothing to write home about, and recent demons have been very aggressive as far as stats and rate. I think, even with convoke, this could be tuned down to 6 CMC or increased to a 5/5.

      As I mentioned above, I'm not a big fan of the "convoked it" template, but since it's something that's already been adopted, that's fine. I think that if this required the sacrifice of all creatures that convoked it it would feel more like a demon drawback. I'd pick counters or card draw, as both seems a bit much.

      That's the start of a very solid and interesting design there. Now what can you do with it differently if it's a Dimir or Rakdos card?

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

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    1. Thief of Tactics 1UB
      Creature - Human Rogue (R)
      Mentor
      Whenever Thief of Tactics mentors a creature, you may exile a creature card from an opponent’s graveyard. If that card has flying, Thief of Tactics and the mentored creature each gain flying until end of turn. The same is true for first strike, double strike, deathtouch, hexproof, indestructible, lifelink, menace, and trample.
      3/2

      Delete
    2. If you removed mentor and made this a simple attack trigger, you'd have a very cool rare Dimir design. Adding mentor seems like a bit too much-- it muddies the mechanical and flavor identity.

      Delete
    3. Good point. I was trying to thematically justify having another guild's mechanic by stealing keywords, but that just shifted the focus of the design.

      Trying a simpler approach:

      Thief of Tactics 2UB
      Creature - Vampire Rogue (R)
      Flying, haste, hexproof from red and white
      As long as a red or white creature card is in an opponent's graveyard, CARDNAME has mentor.
      3/3

      Delete
    4. That's different and... also extremely cool! I love how literally this is stealing the Boros mechanic. Now I want to see a full cycle of "guild rivalry" designs, e.g.:

      Get Off My Lawn 1GW
      Instant (Rare)
      Create a 3/3 Centaur creature token with vigilance. You gain 1 life for each red and/or blue instant or sorcery spell an opponent has cast this turn.
      CARDNAME has jump-start as long as it's in your graveyard and an opponent has cast a red and/or blue instant or sorcery spell this turn.

      Delete
  12. Battlefield Scout 3GW
    Creature- Elf Scout
    When Battlefield Scout enters the battlefield put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control then surviel X where X is the number of +1/+1 counters you control.
    2/2

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Templating nit: "number of +1/+1 counters on creatures you control"

      Or should it be "number of creatures you control"? I like that better, since surveil / scry gets hard to manage with numbers bigger than 3 or 4-- the number of decisions increases exponentially.

      Delete
  13. Feasting Roaches 2BG
    Sorcery (R)
    Create two 1/1 black and green Insect creature tokens with deathtouch and "This creature must be blocked if able." If you jump-started Feasting Roaches by discarding a creature card, you gain life equal to that creature's toughness.
    Jump-start

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Must be blocked if able" feels like a bit too much here. If you untap with the creatures it's a one-sided Barter in Blood, and then you get to jump-start and do it again. Besides, why would anyone in their right mind feel like they had to block roaches?

      Also, I'd suggest putting more of this card's power into the jump-start rider, e.g. "put a +1/+1 counter on each Insect creature you control".

      Delete
  14. Spirits of the Fallen 4WW
    Sorcery (U)
    Undergrowth- Create a 1/1 white flying spirit creature for each creature card in your graveyard.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Clean and resonant. Very good choice.

      Any interest in turning this into a rare WU or WR card?

      Delete
    2. "Writ of Re-entry" at 4WU?
      "Rise of the Downtrodden" at 4WR?

      Delete
    3. I like WU for this. More room to play into a mill sub-theme. For rare you'd probably want to add some additional oomph from blue's color pie, e.g. mill yourself first, or can't be countered.

      Delete
    4. What's up, Wobbs. I'm really feeling this design. Its giving me Moorland Haunt vibes, but on a spell. It makes sense! Keep it up!

      Delete
  15. Debts Due XWB

    Sorcery

    Create X 1/1 Spirit tokens with Flying. Then, if ~ was jump-started, each opponent loses X life.

    Jump-Start

    ----

    Fire-Eating 3RB

    Instant

    Each player loses 5 life

    Convoke

    *If a shred-freak invites you to dinner, pray they're just going to eat you*

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Both solid designs! (I assume this isn't meant as a split card.) Fire-Eating seems more like an uncommon than a rare to me. Also, it should probably be written as damage, not life loss (direct life loss is frowned on these days, and damage does more to justify the R element).

      Delete
  16. Here is my idea. Izzet magicians could help each other cast powerful spells.This is a variation of convoke found only on instant and sorcery. We could call it "spell chorus".

    ReplyDelete
  17. Brainstorming {8}{u}{r} (rare)
    Instant
    Convoke
    Draw a card for each creature that convoked this spell.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This card is growing on me! The more I think about it the stronger it gets. My first thought was “if I only have 3 creatures, I’m paying 7 to draw 3.” Then I thought “this would be so much fun in a Young Pyromancer style deck!” Cool design.

      Delete
    2. Maybe it is a bit bit overcosted. 8 in CMC might be more accurate? And thank you for the review.

      Delete
    3. Brainstorming 6UR (rare)
      Instant
      Convoke
      Draw a card for each creature that convoked this spell.

      Delete