Friday, July 31, 2020

Weekend Design Challenge 073120 - Vehicles

Hey Artisans! Click through to see this weekend's design challenge. Your mission is to design a custom magic card that follows the guidelines. Over the course of the weekend, give feedback to your fellow designers on their designs and incorporate their feedback to iterate on your own. I'll try to offer some feedback of my own starting on Monday.


Vehicles are best-known for their connection with Kaladesh but we've also seen them tie into mechanical themes for Ixalan (Shadowed Caravel), Ravnica (Mizzium Tank), and Dominaria (Weatherlight). Pick a plane that doesn't have any vehicles yet and design a similarly thematic vehicle card for it. Bonus points for doing it at a lower rarity (common or uncommon).

Good luck and have fun!

21 comments:

  1. Grave Robber's Wagon 2
    Artifact - Vehicle
    Crew 1
    Whenever Grave Robber's Wagon attacks, you may exile a creature card from a graveyard. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on Grave Robber's Wagon.
    When Grave Robber's Wagon dies, create 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens equal to the number of +1/+1 counters on it.
    1/2

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    Replies
    1. Yeah, this wants to be rare. But it seems like a lot of fun and does a great job capturing the top-down gothic flavor of Innistrad.

      Delete
  2. Sloughflesh Hulk 3BB
    Creature - Zombie (Common)
    2B: Return Sloughflesh Hulk from your graveyard to the battlefield transformed.
    5/3

    Bone Chariot
    Artifact - Vehicle
    Crew 2
    5/3

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    Replies
    1. That's really fun. I kind of want there to be some interaction with Germs on the vehicle side, as a callback to living armor.

      Delete
    2. Interesting that Zefferal read this as New Phyrexian while I was trying to decide whether it was supposed to be Innistrad or Grixis. The use of transform (similar to cards like Harvest Hand) cements it as Innistrad mechanically. I think the concepting is what confuses it: a zombie that turns into a bone chariot is more body horror than Gothic/Lovecraftian horror.

      Is it intended that one can activate the reanimation ability over and over again? (Cards in graveyards always revert to their front side.) Seems like a lot of card advantage for a common if so, despite the hoops required to get value.

      Those points aside, I think this does a great job of satisfying the challenge-- it's a simple and effective way to represent the main themes of Innistrad on a vehicle.

      Delete
    3. Actually, I got my wires crossed somewhere and thought living weapon was on Innistrad. Not sure how that happened.

      But in any case, a Germ-piloted car on Phyrexia would be cool.

      Delete
    4. Wow, this is great feedback. Now that you mention it, it really is a kind of body horror that is more fit for Phyrexia than Innistrad. I also forgot that it would keep reanimating itself forever (unlike creatures that turn into Equipment).

      I would fix it like this:

      Breaking Wheel Executioner 3BB
      Creature - Human Assassin (Common)
      2B: Return Breaking Wheel Executioner from your graveyard to the battlefield transformed.
      "The wheel was his preferred tool for tormenting his charges..."
      5/3

      Skaab Carriage
      Artifact - Vehicle
      Crew 2
      If Skaab Carriage would be put into a graveyard, exile it instead.
      "...little did he know that it would become part of his eternal torment."
      5/3

      Delete
  3. Ferry of the Worthy 2
    Artifact - Vehicle (uncommon)
    When Ferry of the Worthy attacks, you may exile target creature card from a graveyard.
    Crew 1
    1/4

    This is meant to be the barge mentioned on Final Reward.

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    1. It's a nice flavor card, but it seems like a lot of hoops to jump through with not enough upside. If we want this to keep its low power, could I suggest exiling a card for each creature crewing it?

      Delete
    2. This is a really smart choice for a resonant Amonkhet vehicle. I agree with Zefferal that the numbers could use some tweaking. (Smuggler's Copter, which is on the high end of reasonable power level, is a 2-mana crew 1 with 3 power, a stronger effect, and flying.) Making the stats 2/4 might be enough.

      Delete
  4. Boartusk Ram 2{R/G}{R/G}
    Artifact - Vehicle (U)
    Trample
    CARDNAME can't be blocked by creatures with -1/-1 counters on them.
    Crew 3
    5/4

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    1. I was curious to see how Magic had done battering rams previously-- equipment?-- so now I know about Battering Ram, an artifact creature from Antiquities that represented its crew with *banding*. Oh how far we've come.

      Anyway, between the hybrid cost and the -1/-1 counter interaction this is a nice clear homage to Shadowmoor and especially Boggart Ram-Gang. My only complaint is that I'm having trouble visualizing this from the flavor side. The ram's crew are protected in combat? And withered creatures run away from it for some reason?

      Delete
    2. Maybe if blocked creatures with -1/-1 counters on them were destroyed? There's still the disincentive to block, but flavor wise the Ram is destroying a previously weakened permanent.

      Delete
  5. Esper Mindraker 1BU
    Artifact - Vehicle Uncommon

    Flying
    Whenever Esper Mindraker attacks, target player Mills 2.
    Crew 2
    1/2

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    1. This is designed to mirror the pretty common 2U enchantment that mills 2 when X happens (Usually drawing a card).
      I made it target player since Esper previously had a sac artifact and recursion theme so it can play into that, and I added black to fit into the Grixis/Esper shard drafts but not the bant where its pretty off flavor.

      Delete
    2. A multicolor Esper flying machine makes tons of sense as a thematic vehicle for Alara. Good choice.

      In my opinion the mill doesn't add much here. It wasn't used at all in Alara; Grixis and Esper both focused on other ways to stock their graveyards. A trigger to sacrifice something for value, or return a card from graveyard to hand, might be more thematic.

      If you do want to keep the mill, there's plenty of room to improve the numbers on this card. Giving up 1 power for evasion and milling 2 isn't even something players will want to do much, let alone pay 3 mana and a card for.

      Delete
  6. Calamity's Wake {R/G}{R/G}{R/G}{R/G}
    Artifact - Vehicle (U)

    Trample
    Whenever Calamity's Wake deals 4 or more damage to an opponent, destroy target artifact or enchantment that player controls.
    Crew 2
    5/5

    I think it would be cool to do a cycle of a these for each of the Spirit Avatars. Create smaller versions of their effects. Maybe for a far flung future version of lorwyn where the old gods have died away and left pieces of themselves behind that have been forged into power vehicles of war. was also thinking about the Nobilis of War since its riding a chariot in the art.

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    1. This is a very nice design mechanically-- it reminds me a lot of Sunder Shaman and works as a 2-color reward the same way.

      The catch is that this doesn't scream either "Shadowmoor" or "Vehicle" at me flavor-wise, and both at the same time is an especially hard sell. Based on your description I'm visualizing it as a kind of post-apocalyptic mage-tank, which is awesome but not at all Shadowmoor's vibe.

      Delete
    2. Absolutely. I think without any art to say "this is something that people can drive" and the name not referencing a recognizable vehicle, it is a hard sell. I definitely leaned more into the cool sounding name rather than a name that conveys information to the player.

      And yeah! I didn't even realize Sunder Shaman did the same thing for a similar cost to stat ratio. Thanks for the feedback! I think rebranding this as a gruul themed vehicle would be better. Maybe some kind of street sweeper chariot with goblins leaning out the side smashing statues as its pulled by boars.

      "Bash Buggy" "Gruul Street Smasher"

      Delete