Friday, April 24, 2020

Weekend Design Challenge 04242020 - Mutate Mutations

Happy Friday, Artisans! It's been a while since we've done one of these, and maybe people are staying in for the weekend and have some time to think about magic design. Click through to see this weekend's design parameters. With those as your guidelines, design a custom magic card. Over the course of the weekend, give feedback to your fellow designers on their designs, and incorporate their feedback to iterate on your own. If I have time over the course of next week, I will try to offer some of my own feedback.


I still haven't had a chance to fully digest the Ikoria spoiler, but Mutate is a very interesting mechanic for a whole mess of reasons. Design a card that uses or plays nicely with Mutate, but out of the context of Ikoria.

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

35 comments:

  1. Impetuous Beckoner R
    Spells targetting CARDNAME cost 1 less to cast.
    Hellbent - CARDNAME has hexproof as long as you have no cards in hand.
    1/1

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    1. I like this design but I am pretty sure hexproof is not a red mechanic? I believe its U/G.

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    2. Agreed, the concept is otherwise great but hexproof is a no-go here. Being vulnerable to removal is an inherent weakness of red. Maybe "when ~ dies, it deals damage equal to its power to any target"?

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    3. Also, what creature type and rarity?

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    4. How would a mutate creature hitting the graveyard count creatures? Do all creatures that were on it hit the graveyard at tha same time?

      Would they be counted by "When ~ dies, it deals damage equal to the number of creatures in all graveyard to target opponent" ?

      If so, that could be a black version.

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  2. Griffin Spirit 2WW
    Creature- Griffin Spirit
    2/2
    Mutate 2W
    Flying
    When CARDNAME leaves the battlefield, create a 2/2 white Griffin creature token with flying.

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    1. That is a nice take on the rider mechanic we have been trying for years to make in a clean way! (Still not convinced by crew as a 100% spot on implementation of that.)

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    2. Nice Griffin Guide call back!

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  3. Martyr's Army 2W
    Creature-Cat Warrior
    2/2
    Whenever you cast a creature spell, create a 1/1 white Soldier creature token for each opponent who controls more creatures than you.

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    Replies
    1. Oh, I should probably make the main creature a soldier since it makes soldier tokens or make it a warrior and have it make warrior tokens.

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    2. Very cool idea for how to reward go-big play, and mutate specifically since Auras aren't normally creature spells. Does it do enough outside of a mutate deck to make sense? Maybe it plays a role in sacrifice decks...

      Maybe make it a Cat Knight and concept it as the army's leader rather than the whole army?

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    3. I concur that with the nice reward for mutate, and the possible rebrand (Martyr would require a death, no?)

      Another way to reward go-big would be to care for the number of keywords the creature has.

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    4. That's a lovely little rare that urgently wants to be made more relevant in commander. Can it base cost more and make 2/2s instead?

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  4. Spontaneous Sentry UU
    Creature - Turtle
    4/4
    Defender
    As long as CARDNAME has been mutated, it can attack as thought it didn't have defender

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    1. That is a nice solution to the question posed by a previous post on the site!

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  5. A cycle of uncommons at 1CC:

    Aspirant of Phenax
    Creature - Merfolk Wizard
    2/2
    Hexproof
    T: Target player puts the top X cards of their library into their graveyard, where X is ~’s toughness.

    Aspirant of Pharika
    Creature - Gorgon Cleric
    1/3
    Deathtouch
    When ~ deals combat damage to a player, that player discards that many cards.

    Aspirant of Gideon
    Creature - Cat Soldier
    3/2
    Vigilance
    T: Target blocking creature gets +X/+X, where X is ~’s toughness.

    Aspirant of Mogis
    Creature - Minotaur Berserker
    2/2
    Trample
    When ~ attacks, it gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is its power.

    Aspirant of Karametra
    Enchantment Creature - Nymph Druid
    2/4
    Haste
    When ~ attacks, add an amount of {G} mana equal to its power.

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    1. Green shifted around the most -- its creature type should probably be Satyr Shaman instead!

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  6. Oh, more challenges, cool! Although I've drifted away from magic, my cards will probably end up following design principles circa Kaladesh... :)

    Bessengeist 3UU
    3/3 (Uncommon)
    Mutate Human (...)
    Flying
    Bessengeist can target a creature you don't control. You control the mutated creature.

    Innistrad also has humans and monsters but when we revisit it, the mutate mechanic takes the opposite role, it's what turns humans into monsters. A werewolf can enter the battlefield itself, or convert an existing human into a werewolf. A zombie can represent a new creature or one stitched together from an existing creature (e.g. one that died this turn).

    The "gain control" was the first thing that occurred to me as a variant of mutate.

    I'm not sure if "human" is the right restriction. It could also be, say, a werewolf mutates a non-werewolf.

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    1. Mutatron Slime {2}{U}{G}
      Creature- Slime Mutant (Uncommon)
      Mutate {U/G}{U/G}
      When this creature would leave the battlefield, you may attatch its mutations to another creature you control.
      1/4

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    2. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand I am out of subject! This is clearly an Ikoria card.

      Take 3:

      Promissing Monster 1W
      Creature - Human
      If ~ is a werewolf, vampire, ghost or zombie, it gains +4/+4
      1/1

      On inistrad making humans into monsted?

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    3. Aaaand the post before mine just used Innistrad.

      Eventide / shadowmoor chanegelings?

      Unfinished Changeling {C}{C}
      Creature - Shapeshifter
      If ~ has 4 or more creature types, it gains all remaining creature types, +2/+2 and indestructable.
      2/2

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    4. Deeeeeeeep lore note: in Shadowmoor, all changelings have become mimics! And all the mimics we've seen so far are enemy hybrid, for whatever that's worth.

      Design note: I totally get wanting to give one's mutate pile indestructible, but also wonder if that could feel oppressive on the other side of the table -- maybe it could be an activated ability, so that sometimes the shields are down?

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    5. In this version the shields are down until you mutate it twice, to get to 4 creature types. Itself has no mutate and a harsh mana cost to go with your mutate restrictions. I felt there were enough hoops to jump through as it was, but maybe I am wrong? This is mostly ment for tammy.

      You are correct that changelings in shadowmoor are mimics, I should have kept it Eventide. Nice catch.

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  8. Norn’s Transmogrant 1W
    Artifact
    (W/P)(W/P), T: Mutate Norn’s Transmogrant on top of target non-human creature you own. (It is no longer a creature)

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    1. Took me a second to realize what this actually does: it lets you manually mutate any 2 creatures together. Very neat and interesting for Johnny / Jenny but the price (a whole card plus needing at least two activations) seems kind of steep to me.

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    2. Shouldn't it be below target non-human creature you own? Otherwise the mutation will not have a stats block.

      I would remove the tap activation, personally.

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    3. The goal was to create a Cold Storage/Safe Haven style card, where you can store a creature that’s about to die while keeping their abilities. You can also “release” the creatures by flickering the artifact. Very Jenny/Johnny, but I thought it was neat

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    4. Oh wow, I hadn't realized the mechanical implications at all -- I was just so struck by the "lose yourself to Phyrexia" flavor!

      I'm wondering if you need the non-human rider in this context -- shouldn't Norn be able to compleat anything?

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    5. Mutate has the “non-human” and “own” riders as part of the ability, so even if you don’t write them out I think they’d still exist as a restriction. You could have the artifact “Merge” with any target creature, but then mutate triggers wouldn’t trigger. I don’t know, Mutate is a very weird ability and nothing currently allows a card to mutate once it’s on the battlefield.

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    6. I see. I missunderstood the (It is no longer a creature). Indeed mutate is weird.

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  9. Evolving Wastes
    Land - Wastes
    T: Add <>.
    <>: Evolving Wastes becomes a 0/1 Eldrazi creature until the end of turn.
    Whenever this card mutates, untap it.

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    Replies
    1. Evolving Wastes
      Land - Wastes
      T: Add <>.
      <>: Evolving Wastes becomes a 0/1 Eldrazi creature until the end of turn.
      Whenever this card mutates or awakens, untap it.

      Delete
  10. Nice little add on. Clean and funny take on evolving wilds. Common? Uncommon?

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    1. Despite the recent push towards rare creature lands, this reads as Uncommon to me

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