#broken spotlight

[inventors-fair]

Broken Spotlight

@follower-of-liliana reporting for duty! The story void of Theros Beyond Death was an ordeal for every Vorthos out there. Let’s gather around the fire and tell stories with our designs.

Design a card resolving around an event or a character from mtg’s vast lore that doesn’t have a card.

To make things a bit more challenging, flavor text is mandatory.

As for power level, put the settings on EDH! There will be three winners! I doubt design examples will be needed but I will cook up something for tomorrow just to keep those design muscles warm.

Good luck everyone!

Submit your cards >> HERE! <<

[porcelain-dionysus]

Fanart of Jay from Big Mouth (from my fanfic Broken Spotlight)  I’m ConnorProject2K17

[inventors-fair]

Congratulation to our winners @scavenger98​, @misterstingyjack​ and @reaperfromtheabyss​ (The lineup is irrelevant, I just put the images in the order that felt more aesthetically pleasing.)

Thanks everyone for participating! I hope the challenge was as fun for you as it was for me, going down on memory lane and digging up old stories to draw inspiration from. In general, there was a tendency to lose your grip on power level in your attempt to tell a story with your design. The winners of today managed to perform well in both areas and submitted three very interesting designs!

Starting off with Maigoyume, Washitora’s dead baby. I like the fact that it’s a very flat card but it’s death gets “the plot moving.” A 5 mana tri colored 3/3 flyer would be expensive if not for the really interesting death trigger. Going over more cards from your library, Jund graveyard shenanigans, and a free Cat/Dragon to replace the baby! Sign me up!

Next up, Migellic. We met her as a Boros lieutenant in the first Ravnica stories, and boy is she making her guild proud. A solid body to play both offense and defense and a stellar static ability that goes perfectly with two of the three guild mechanics, exalted and more. She has me itching to theorycraft an EDH deck!

And finally, we got Halana, a character lucky enough to jump from your casual planebound character to a fan favorite for her part in the first SOI story. Using partner instead of a card that showcases two characters, like in royal scions, was a risky move, because I feel everyone wants to the other card now XD

Either way, I really like the flavorful redundancy of partner and soulbond and the fact that she acts as a “soulbond lord”. This is new territory and it makes me wonder if there were cards with similar fuction in AVR’s design file!

Stay tuned this weekend for the 2-part commentary on the remaining 20 submissions. Thanks for reading!

[inventors-fair]

Broken Spotlight: Group Commentary pt1

Pt2 coming up tomorrow! Thanks for participating! Click below for the commentary on 10 designs!

@illharg-the-rave-boar​   Oh, you dug really deep to find Asmor! I didn’t know the character and at first I thought she was part of the silver bordered universe. The design is really fair and useful. I feel you missed a good opportunity to play around with the Food mechanic though.

@fluffysheeplion​ Oh, the flavor text, a killer line from Emrakul inside Jace’s head. The name, the overwhelming effect and the flavor text tie very well together but I think the cost could be a bit higher since stealing is usually better than destroying, and Plague Wind and In Garruk’s Wake are both 9 mana spells.

@i-am-the-one-who-wololoes​ Great art choice and informative flavor text. The sum of the abilities do create a scout of legendary status, though she has a lot going on about her for only 3 mana. And while she knows her way around snow lands, I got a feeling she loves fetchlands XD

@tmstage​ Solid card and really neat idea to use a screenshot from the trailer. If only we had it as a real card. The execution of the effect could be a little different but the way it is worded has a narrative dynamic!

@teaxch​ Oh the feels. Oret bargained with Dromoka and executed Anafenza in her stead. However this was secretly an act of mercy because death by the sword allowed Anafenza to return as a spirit and the card delivers that part of the story. My sole issue with the card is the optional part of the trigger and the fact that it may be a little pushed for a threedrop.

@gollumni​ First off, props for the mad photoshop skills! The Gruul aren’t known for their token production but boi is this good token support!! It puts Fires of Yavimaya to shame.

@walker-of-the-yellow-path​ I am not familiar with your username, so allow me to welcome you to the Fair! For cohesion’s sake, I turned your text into a card. If you need help with MSE we’re your guys!

On the card! Infinite Consortium was a interplanetary black market, founded by Bolas and run/stolen by Tezzeret. Honestly it was a surprise entry, and I really liked the fact that you represented it with a land that interacts with planeswalkers, so you get points for originality and creativity. On the execution, the card is very powerful, wordy and the “cool” ability is overshadowed by the artifact searching one. I think that if you somehow combined the two into one clean ability it would be an all star design!

@memnite-shyamalan​ A rather unique Green reanimation card, worthy of an avatar of life! Although I understand the goal and flavor of the design, the power level limitations have left the chat. I mean even a 3/8 indestructible for 5 mana is a really good deal.

@juggernaut-is-a-metalhead Rat is the “youngest” among the characters of this fair, as she appeared in War of the Spark novels. As a card, she is unique, a tad undercosted but overall she could be at the helm of an crazy all legend EDH deck. Props for the evasive ability, going undercover was her thing after all.

@snugz​ A trip to Mirrodin of the good old days! If I were to judge the card solely for the ability, I would say it is a very flexible, interesting design that can be a game winner late game. I would definitely try it out in EDH decks with high cost creatures. That said, the flavor feels a bit off to me, because I feel that the vanishing was a bittersweet, if not a happy event, because people who were kidnapped by Memnarch returned to their home planes with Karn’s help.

[inventors-fair]

Broken Spotlight example designs by @thatboonguy and @follower-of-liliana. One creature (group) and one event.

The Crew is a strong card statwise, with a high hoop to jump in but the reward cleverly gets around the color restriction of EDH so you can have a joyful reunion on the kitchen table.

As for my card, I feel it’s important to depict the deaths of characters in cards/ Wwhen that doesn’t happen, the set loses flavor points. With Luxa Massacre, I tried to capture the brutality of Liliana’s debt negotiations on Amonkhet.

Hope you like our designs and I can’t wait for the sweet cards you’ll send us!

[inventors-fair]

Broken Spotlight: Group Commentary pt2

@dabudder​ Counter target spell and practically “draw a nonland card” sure is a sweet deal for four mana! I hope we see this printed sometime! Regarding the overall flavor, Emrakul didn’t trick anyone. I mean, it was very honest from the start. Emr...rything is already theirs XD

@demimonde-quasigoddess​ Another new participant? Welcome aboard!

Aiming to showcase “High and Dry” was a great idea and approaching it with the Map format of Ixalan (Enchantment into land) added extra flavor!

The outlines of your idea were very good and on theme. Ships gather and then the big fleet returns to the capital of the pirates, which is a place of treasure, trickery and nasty deckhands. Everything mentioned above exists on your double faced card, but the execution was a bit ambitious.

First off, giving tokens only to take them back is mean, and in case of multiplayer, you can transform the card with 0 zero effort. Also, you need to make the transform trigger’s timing more specific. At the beginning of each end step, or when a Vehicle enters the battlefield, both could work.

Now on the back side. Lands by tradition need to produce mana, and your does that in a clever way. However three treasures at once is a lot.On the activated abilities, I get that you wanted to represent all color combinations (tokens, deathtouch, stealing), but the card is simply doing a lot of stuff, plus it seems to have lost its previous connection with Vehicles.

Sorry for the lengthy commentary. You got potential! Jut be a little conservative on the execution of your ideas in the future and you’re gonna create real gems!

@fractured-infinity​ A psychic shade from Volrath’s Era that goes from host to host sure is a wild card. The most important aspect of the design is bestow, not so much as a casting alternative, but for the fact that whenever the stolen creature dies, the Weaver King will return over and over. Truly frightening!

Good news: It dies to removal. Bad news: The value this card can generate and it’s many “moving parts” make it difficult to evaluate. For example, the fact that it costs 4 for a creature and 5 for a mind control with an upside tips the scale more towards casting it for 5.

@jsands84​ Another fan of Spidery Grasp’s art from OG Innistrad! The design is lit but it’s has a rare case of overcosting. Should Aranea didn’t transform back to human form, the 4 colored mana cost would be fine!

@mardu-lesbian​ Maybe Avacyn killed the fourth sister for hanging out with Griselbrand! I hope one day we learn the whole story..

Now, the symmetrical draw effect is both fair and evil! The 7 life swing is very big and the Undying part of the card makes it even riskier, because you have no control over it under normal circumstances, which means that depending on the life totals on the table, either you or your opponent(s) will kill her to close the game.

@nine-effing-hells​ Props for capturing such a great story moment that WOTC criminally forgot to make a card off. It is a really interesting card and it would surely make an impact every time it’s cast.

Two tiny tweaks that would make the card “sexier” would be to omit the casting restrictions as it already has a high cost and second, to return the third card to the library. Most if not all players don’t like it when they lose cards this way. (I think it’s the main reason Distant Memories doesn’t see play.)

@koth-of-the-hammerpants An absolute bomb and I love how the legendary permanent that  is required for the casting it stays on the battlefield while the pleb creatures etc become 2/2 nobodies. Legendary spells get to be a little more powerful, so I think it could be a four mana spell.

@dim3trodon​ Kalyntri was the dragon whose entire career was ended by everyone’s favorite spellslinger/drake summoner Talrand. While the second ability was a really smart way to recreate the story, the rest of the card is a flying nuclear bomb. Repeated creature destruction and land ste.. borrowing is too much.