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 on Monday evening.We know so far that Bolas is infiltrating some of the guilds, but we have no idea what his master plan is. That doesn't mean we can't speculate, however!
Make a card that strongly feels like both a Bolas-influenced card and a guild-influenced card. No need to restrict yourself to guilds that are currently infiltrated by Bolas.
Scavenging Hound 4BR
ReplyDeleteCreature - Spirit Hound (R)
Exhume 3RB (3BR, Exile this card: Return target creature card in an opponents graveyard that costs less than the exiled card to the battlefield. It gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step or if it would leave the battlefield. Exhume only as a sorcery.)
5/5
Missing words :
DeleteExhume 3RB (3BR, Exile this card: Return target creature card in an opponents graveyard with lesser converted mana cost to the battlefield under your control. It gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step or if it would leave the battlefield. Exhume only as a sorcery.
I like it but it's a bit strong no? Exhume seems good in Rakdos but I don't feel the bolas's influence.
And what about a graveyard intead an opponent gravayard, it will be easier to play.
I might be making a logical leap, but due to the similarity to Unearth I'm assuming that this ability is meant to be activated from the graveyard rather than the hand or battlefield.
DeleteReading it from that perspective, this is a neat twist on Unearth, getting opponent's minions back to hit them with. It's capped in power level by your opponent's best creature, and again by needing a target that costs less, which means against certain control decks this may not ever have targets, while against aggressive decks this will have plenty, but none may be very exciting. I think that's OK - this will create cool stories when it comes together, but it's not oppressive in any way. The main concern that I have with this is that there's not a ton of design space here - I can't imagine you'd want to keyword this as I don't think there are more than a few cards. I like the fact that Embalm/Eternalize are similar, as well as Bolas's mind control. Cool concept!
Kangaroo Court - 2UW
ReplyDeleteEnchantment (Uncommon)
When Kangaroo Court enters the battlefield, exile target creature or planeswalker for as long as Kangaroo Court is in play.
Whenever you activate a planeswalker's ability, you may return Kangaroo Court to its owner's hand.
People following the story cards seem to think that the plot that has been spoiled suggests Bolas is going to manipulate into place a leader for Azorius. I wanted to try to capture the idea of a planeswalker manipulating Ravnica's justice system at his bidding.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteI don't see bolas in it. You can add flash . What do you think?
DeleteOh very nice I like the subversion flavour and the tie to planeswalker
DeleteGranted, the planeswalker bonus is trinket text usually in limited, but I think something that both has flash and bounces back might be a bit too much for constructed play. Maybe some testing would show otherwise.
DeleteThe fact that this can rebuy doesn't make it much more powerful than a normal O-ring effect, but it is much more versatile. I love the planeswalker activation clause to tie it to Bolas, since WotC is clearly signalling that the planeswalker heads of the guilds are the pawns of Bolas. It also makes it feel like part of an evil version of the Oath cycle(+), which is great mirroring. Nice work!
DeleteI was thinking the same thing. It would be great if the pure azorius were polluted in a way or in other by Bolas.
ReplyDeleteSo I thought about a corrupted hero, I wanted the card to be simple and very UNFAIR to represent this fact. I ended up here :
Hero of Injustice {w}{u}{b} (M)
Creature - Human Knight
First strike, hexproof, deathtouch
2/2
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/hero-of-injustice
DeleteFeels pretty Bolas, but not that Azorius. First Strike tends to be a very Boros ability on Ravnica.
DeleteYou are right about first strike but first strike is also in the white section of the color pie. And I wanted to create a card whith first strike and deathtouch at the same time because it is so unfair. So it might be a bend but I can live with it.
DeleteOne variant, I remover first strike and I add an ability I create for Azorius (divine shield).
DeleteWhich one do you prefer?
Hero of Injustice {w}{u}{b} (M)
Creature - Human Knight
Hexproof, deathtouch
Divine Shield 3 (This creature enters the battlefield with three divine counter on it. If
damage would be dealt to this creature, prevent
that damage. Remove a divine counter from it.)
The Azorius aren't much concerned with divine authority as much as legislative authority, and this does preclude +1/+1 counters while also slowing the game down. An indestructible untargetable deathtouch 2/2 might be frustrating, but I don't see a lot of mythic splash yet? Maybe consider ways to highlight some of the aspects of Azorius becoming heightened to a point of deeper corruption by Bolas' influence, as the cards as-is both read as kind of an "evil knight", and Azorius has a kind of "laws, not heroes" theory built-in.
DeleteI think the story of this card is good, but might not be enough to overcome the gameplay being so uninteractive. There will be decks that can't possibly deal with this, and even as a mythic Limited games will be ruined before they even started. I think there's hope for the second one - perhaps you could change the ability to something like "as long as ~ is attacking, prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to it"? That way, if you're the aggressor you can use it to close games, but on defense it's more one-and-done. (That version, incidentally, also may not be a thematic fit for Azorius. I kind of like the suggestion that this might be a more "corrupted Boros" kind of card.) The underlying "this is an unfair fighter" ties nicely in with Bolas's plans for the Eternals, though, which I like a lot.
DeleteEndless Schemes 1UB
ReplyDeleteEnchantment
Whenever you surveil, put a plot counter on ~.
3U: Surveil 1.
Remove 7 plot counters from ~ and sacrifice it: Target player sacrifices a creature, discards a card, then loses 3 life. You return a creature card from your graveyard to your hand, draw a card, then gain 3 life.
A big, durdly enchantment that can slowly enable itself but really wants you to play plenty of surveil, leading to a payoff in a mini cruel ultimatum, which is very Bolas-styled. Flavour-wise, I hoped to capture this element of 'scheming and scheming, arranging things in the background until it's time for the big coup'. Numbers might be off, but it's mostly a do-nothing enchantment until several turns later, so I hope the big, swingy effect is sufficiently hard to get.
What about at the beginning of your upkeep, Surveil 1?
DeleteDurdly but fun! I'd like to test it with a full-sized cruel ultimatum as the effect too, just in case it's not too big (I don't know that it would be).
DeleteThis makes me want to see a "big plans" card where all the trigger inputs are cruel ultimatum actions; but alas once you've done all those actions any output afterwards really is win-more.
I like making the Surveil an upkeep trigger, that makes it a bit stronger. I partially had it as a blue activated ability to make the card feel more blue, as most of the pay-offs feel more black.
DeleteAs for a full cruel ultimatum, hmm. I feel like getting a cruel ultimatum for 3 mana would be a bit bonkers, on the other hand there's not that many repeatable surveil enablers you can spam. Aside from the 6 mana demon.
When I looked at the RTR spoiler, I expected to see a surveil payoff card that had "you win the game" as the outcome, sort of in the same vein as this card's story! I think the flavor is spot on. That said, I do agree with you that the blue doesn't seem to be pulling its weight. I might try to reconcept it, but you could also just consider making it mono-black - one interesting way to subvert Ravnica might be forcing guilds into only one color!
DeleteFamiliar Schemes - 2WWBB
ReplyDeleteSorcery
Choose three. You may choose the same mode more than once.
- Each opponent sacrifices a creature or planeswalker.
- Each opponent discards a card.
- Each opponent loses 2 life.
- Return a creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
- Gain 4 life.
Most of the effects of Cruel Ultimatum fit into Orzhov pretty well, with the exception of "draw 3 cards". That could have been done with a Sign in Blood style draw, but I think this card has enough as-is. It's also heavily black-leaning at the moment but white just doesn't have good effects to put on cards like this. You could potentially shift this a little more towards white by resurrecting <2cmc creatures instead of the raise dead effect, but I wanted to keep it close to Cruel Ultimatum for now.
Like it
DeleteCool but incredibly texty. I'm not sure this would fit on a card. This definitely is mostly, if not entirely black. I think tweaking and condensing some modes might help, but the idea of a Bolas command is appealing. The name feels VERY Bolas, but also not particularly Orzhov. Is there a way to synthesize those two identities better?
DeleteBurning-Tree Fanatic 1{RG}
ReplyDeleteCreature-Centaur Shaman (U)
Sacrifice Burning-Tree Fanatic: Add RG
"Extreme change requires extreme sacrifice"
2/2
The sacrifice is where bolas resides?
DeleteYes, and as a contrast to burning tree shaman.
DeleteNice mechanical flavor
DeleteNice one. As a discounted Catalyst Elemental, I suspect that this might be a little too powerful, but I'd let Dev handle that. A nice twist on a familiar card, and making the change from ETB to sacrifice on iconic Ravnican creatures (Sin Collector for sure would work in this vein) would be a cool way to play up the Bolas-as-manipulator angle. Super cool.
DeleteSunder the Guildpact (M)
ReplyDelete5UURR
Sorcery
Destroy all nonbasic lands. For each nonbasic land destroyed this way, you draw a card and its controller may search their library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield. Then each player who searched his or her library this way shuffles it.
"Ral soon discovered that his greatest triumph was his ultimate failure."
I love love love the name & flavor. I also like that a huge spell like this self-polices a little bit, in that casting it early definitely won't make it as impactful, so you don't have to worry about players cheating it out (see also Brass's Bounty). The reward of drawing a ton of cards is very cool and the entire effect is definitely appropriately mythic. Maybe you want some damage in the deal somewhere? We are spending 9 mana.
DeleteThe main concern I have is setting back a greedy manabase this much without ending the game quickly thereafter. I think we'd want to test this in a Commander environment to make sure it's not too one-sided-Armageddon. Again, Dev can worry about that.
Empowered Arrow
ReplyDeleteR
~ deals X damage to target creature or planeswalker, where X is the number of instant and sorcery spells you cast this turn (including CARDNAME).
If CARDNAME targets a dragon creature, deal twice that much damage instead.
What's one thing we already know Bolas is working on? Ousting Niv-Mizzet, I think. Unless that plot has moved on further since I last checked (I'm not following up-to-date enough). So epic Dragon-Dragon battle.
How do izzet overthrow a dragon? Dragons are famous for having a secret weak spot. I originally was going to make a pun on "brute force attack" with a spell that allowed you to recast multiple sorceries from your graveyard at the opponent's dragon, but it was too fiddly.
So a simple storm-light spell that specifically targets dragons. I couldn't make it more Bolas-y, except just being at this point in the story.
I was about to say "how does this not exist yet?", then I realized that it kind of does: Grapeshot/Scattershot. Differences: only counting your own spells, only counting instant/sorcery, hitting planeswalkers and players, costing just R.
DeleteIn any case, I like it.
Seconded! A very cool story, a very reasonable card. Funny how dragons make trinket text valuable and flavorful - here and Crux of Fate both, it really makes the card.
DeleteI think the story is great, but I don't think the card is particularly reasonable. The Storm Scale is named after Storm for a very good reason, and a one-mana alternative Grapeshot so Storm decks can play eight copies if they want seems too dangerous to print. Additionally, even if there weren't a power level concern, in older formats this is going to add a ton of bookkeeping to Storm decks (which will now need to keep track of both normal Storm as well as "instant and sorceries that only I cast", which is a lot to juggle.
DeleteThis could use the "instants and sorceries in graveyard and in exile" technology, though then it's a little too close to Beacon Bolt....hmm.
We could also just simplify (and give the "double damage" an Izzet twist to keep it on-guild):
Empowered Arrow
1R
~ deals 3 damage to target creature or planeswalker.
When you cast ~, if it targets a Dragon, you may copy it. The copy targets that Dragon.
Since this doesn't deal damage to players, I really don't think it will see play in any storm decks, but your version does avoid the counting either way.
DeleteThank you, everyone. I did consider counting cards in graveyard, but I knew I'd need to include exile as well and I hadn't seen the published ones that did that yet and wasn't sure if that would be kosher or not.
DeleteAnd I thought it was more attractive to let you USE your jump-start cards by counting them twice rather than just not omitting them (I mean, the number is probably lower but the cost would have to reflect that).
And yes, it is storm-lite, but I really think open-ended creature kill has been long accepted as ok, when open-ended everything else has been a big problem.
Ral's Master Plan
ReplyDeleteUR
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a charge counter on CARDNAME. Then you may cast a noncreature spell with converted mana cost equal to the number of charge counters on CARDNAME without paying its mana cost. If you do, CARDNAME deals 1 damage to each opponent. If you don't, CARDNAME deals 1 damage to you.
As Foretold and Imminent Doom have a baby?
DeleteI definitely think that "Ral's Master Plan" is an enchantment people would be pumped to see.
At high enough numbers (if you miss your critical turn to cast your Omniscience for free, say) this ends up as both needless bookkeeping and self-pinging, which isn't great. Maybe a more appropriate version would sacrifice itself for an Izzet Big Boom (TM) if you didn't use it on a given turn? Something like:
Ral's Master Plan
UR
Enchantment - Mythic Rare
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a charge counter on CARDNAME. Then you may cast a noncreature spell with converted mana cost equal to the number of charge counters on CARDNAME without paying its mana cost. If you do, CARDNAME deals 1 damage to each opponent. If you don't, sacrifice CARDNAME and it deals X damage to each creature and each player, where X is the number of charge counters on CARDNAME.
That was exactly my concept. :-)
DeleteI couldn't find a natural way to make the Big Boom work without penalizing players for missing early turns (which wasn't what I wanted). Maybe "CARDNAME deals X damage to you unless you sacrifice it"?
Twinhorn Trumpeting 1WR
ReplyDeleteSorcery (r)
Choose one —
• Until your next turn, creatures have base power and toughness 1/1 and haste.
• Until your next turn, creatures get +2/+0 and have vigilance.
“The strong protect the weak. The weak follow the strong. Compared to him, which are we?” — Sunhome trumpeter
A very weird set of effects! This is definitely unique, but I'm not sure the story (or the Humble effect) are quite in Boros's wheelhouse. I think that the "until your next turn" portion of the abilities may cause some memory issues (I'm all for it, as my GDS3 submision of Alacrity proves, but the judges weren't big fans). I think this could be quite fun. I'd for sure want to test the heck out if it.
DeleteThe flavor text and name are both just perfect.
Alright, underlings, I'll be taking these designs. For, ah, research. Yup. Definitely not getting ideas from you on behalf of Bolas. Or passing those ideas back to him. No sir.
ReplyDelete(but seriously great job y'all, these were great!)
Delete