Welcome, everyone, to the conclusion of the forty-ninth CardsFromArt Challenge! We’ve had a ton of fun with tricks and treats this week, but now it’s time to get down to business and determine this year’s Hallo-winners (I’m so sorry).
Best Enchantment - Soulless Revelry by @thricexandvii:
What really sold me on this card was the inversion on the Sieges, letting your opponent make the decision about the effect you get from it. It might be a bit too expensive, for the effect, but the effect is quite excellent for a Trick-or-Treat enchantment. Congratulations, you will receive one bonus point!
Best Instant or Sorcery - Undying Party by @amtgplayer
All Hallow’s Eve. Living Death. Living End. Mass reanimation spells are powerful, popular, and pretty spooky. Undying Party takes a bit of the bite out of it by letting your opponent trade your most threatening creatures for cards from the top of your library, but that’s actually a pretty interesting dynamic. I like that this isn’t the “game ender” but it’s definitely got a good shot at helping you when you fall behind. Congratulations, you will receive one bonus point!
Best Other Card Type - Cavorting Cult by @nine-effing-hells
I really like this use of Epiphany to convey the kid just popping up at your door going “Trick or Treat!” all of a sudden, and you’re forced to make a quick decision to put yourself down a card or your opponent up a card. And outside of that, it’s a reasonable creature. Thanks for the submission, you will receive one bonus point!
Weekly Winner - Trick or Trick by @linvala-the-memer
There is so, so much that I like about this card. It’s a take on Silver border that does things you definitely can’t do in a normal game of Magic, like scaring people and giving out pieces of candy. I love that it hints at scaring people being a theme in this card’s set. And I love that the card’s name is “Trick or Trick.” Fantastic design for this challenge. Congratulations, you will be awarded two points and your card will be added to the CFAC Hall of Fame!
Thanks to everyone for taking part in this week’s challenge! Remember, week’s challenge is going to be the last CardsFromArt Challenge, and it’s going to be the biggest (and highest-rewarding) challenge yet! Stay tuned to see the challenge tomorrow!
I’d love to give a long-winded introduction about Halloween and design, but I’ve got to prep for a Halloween party. As always, any designs I receive after this goes up and before the deadline will be added to the end of this post. Follow the jump to check out more spooky designs, and come back tomorrow to see the winners of this week’s Halloween challenge!
Art by Dominique van Velsen
@acting4life97:
I was able to figure out a design I personally like. it being a Halloween theme feels really RB, ala Rakdos, so I wanted to make something that was chaotic with an equal amounts of risk and reward. I think possibly the costing of counters may be a little off, but that’s something that I might not be able to figure out without testing. But I do think there is some room for adjustment there.
That is rich. I love this design: builds up counters over time, might pay you off huge, or might just kill you.
Now, the counters are completely off: statistically, it’ll take twenty turns before you’ll actually die, and by then you would’ve drawn nine cards; if you haven’t won by then, you probably deserve to lose. I’d lower the loss numbers by a lot, probably to five.
Really interesting card, though, and would be fun to Donate.
Thanks for the submission! Two points!
@commandtower-solring-go:
Okay, so there is a bit of flavour. The 6 suspend counters is meant to represent the time between dusk and midnight. If you cast it to early, it may be very powerful, but it’s a trick as you can’t win the game, but you can’t sacrifice it either. If you are patient and cast it at midnight, it’s a treat as it will be a huge demon smasher. Also adding 7 counters may seem arbitrary, but it rounds out it’s power and toughness at 12
He can’t be sacrificed, but he can just be killed by targeted removal, you know :P
I do get the flavor you’ve got going here, though I’m unsure about getting such a huge upside when you only had to pay two mana for it. I’d at least think about bumping up the cost.
Also I hate Suspend, but that’s a fight for another day.
Thanks for the submission! Two points!
@palaguin:
For the penultimate challenge, I didn’t want to design just another card. I new I wanted to make a land, but what were the right abilities. So I figured that this design was tricky. Either you get a Rakdos tap land, or take your chances and grab the use of the top card, It’s a bit reckless, but what else do you want to do with B/R? Besides, this card might trick you, or it might be a treat.
I initially thought it was your library that you got a free spell from, and I was like “HA no.” But, since it’s your opponent’s library, I might would be able to see this...but getting it for free is simply too powerful, even if there is a small chance it bites you in the butt. I’d go for the “exile it. You may cast it until the end of turn, and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to cast it” mechanic. Probably should at least be Rare, though, because it’s a tad complex.
Thanks for the submission! Two points!
@magicarasa:
So it turns out I didn’t submit this the other day. The initial idea was a Sin Prodder-inspired trick or treat; damage or a card. I think trying to execute the concept got away from me a bit here but it’s still something I’d have fun playing in Commander.
One of the biggest problems with extra-wordy cards that doesn’t get talked about a lot is that, the more words there are, and the smaller they are, the more likely you are to misread them. I read this card about three times before I think I actually knew what it was doing, and I’m still not 100% sure. And awkwardly, it’s the “choose trick or treat” template that’s harming it so much, because it’s adding unnecessary words. Here’s a trimmed version:
At the beginning of your upkeep, starting with you, each player reveals the top card of their library and may put it into their hand. If they do, ~ deals damage equal to that card’s converted mana cost to that player. If they don’t, they put that card into their graveyard and ~ deals damage equal to that card’s converted mana cost to a player of their choice.
To be fair, this template won’t be possible unless Wizards adopts the “their” template over “his or her,” but this at least takes less space.
For those that don’t know, I grew up out in the country, which means my Trick-or-Treating was restricted to basically driving to my grandparent’s or cousin’s house, and maybe going to a party one of the local churches was throwing. That doesn’t mean I don’t have an appreciation for the tradition, though, and I’m super eager to see what everyone can do with that topic on a card. Follow the jump to see what the first group of designers went with, and if you think you can tackle the challenge, check out the main page here!
Art by Dominique van Velsen
@thereliquarytower:
For the “Trick or Treat” theme, I decided some word change was necessary. Boon and Bane took up their place, and both represent parts of the phrase. Boon is a stand in for treat, but also shows too much of a good thing is bad, while Bane stands in for Trick, but that the bad thing has it’s own rewards.
A nice fantasy take on the words Trick and Treat (which would be much more at home on a silver-bordered card). I have a feeling that, outside of a Madness deck, the drawback on that first ability is never actually going to come up, but this is probably better than locking it into fixed conditions. I do like the card; it captures the spirit of the challenge and the art quite well.
Thanks for the submission! Two points!
@tealovingperson:
no commentary
Took me a bit of reading this to really get what’s going on, but I think I got it. Basically, whenever a creature with both counters attacks, you have four options:
Your opponent loses five life and draws a card.
Your opponent gains five life and discards a card
Your opponent discards a card, then draws a card.
Nothing (by virtue of your opponent losing five life and gaining five life).
This is definitely a really interesting effect, and although the execution allows for some interesting combos (Proliferate, anyone?) it should probably cleaned up a bit, though I’m not sure what the best way to do that would be. I would recommend having it distribute the counters on each creature currently on the battlefield instead of ones that hit later, though, so it has more of an instantaneous effect that your opponent can work around.
Thanks for the submission! Two points!
@dragonwithgoggles:
This is my first time participating in the CFAC but I’ve been making custom cards for quite some time, so here’s my take on the art provided!
Right off the bat I wanted to do an enchantment, and I felt like a curse with the flavor of “the enemy’s creatures are going insane and tearing at each other or themselves” would be a sufficiently creepy way to go. Wither is also one of the darker-sounding keywords in magic, so it lined up nicely.
Field-wipes and similar effects are typically priced at around 4 mana at rare, but wither gives a lot of combo potential and can go through indestructible, so I figured 5 was an appropriate cost.
Yep, this is definitely what happens to opponents that don’t give me candy.
Since it’s a slow board wipe that combos well with both damage-based removal and literal combat, I’d say the costing is fine for a start. Definitely an interesting effect, though.
Minor template thing: Curses are still Auras, so the type line should be Enchantment - Aura Curse.
Thanks for the submission! Two points!
@thanatyr:
In some places, Trick or Treating is more about the choice to have the evil spirits paid off to leave you alone. Don’t deal with the devil, and there will be trouble.
Basic idea is the casting player adds in some mana as it’s cast, likely 2-3. Enough to warrant other players on the table to see if they can beat 10 mana in to stop the damned thing, locking down the land for a turn. Else, the devils come out to play!
This definitely makes an interesting mind game with your opponents (especially if there are multiples) where they have to balance losing lands for a turn against letting you drain them and Devil them. Its current templateis a bit clunky, but I’m not entirely sure what the best adjustment to that would be. Maybe go for something closer to Lightning Storm for the template?
And I have no idea how to balance this for power level; I’d need to play games with it to get a better sense of that.
Thanks for the submission! Two points!
@dimestoretajic:
So, I took a quick scan of the art, and I realized that I kinda wanted to turn the pre-established Trees into the start of a cycle. So, I pretty much made the exploding tree from Earthbound. Enjoy!
Well, it does somewhat fit that “cycle”: 0/13, defender, taps, something about life totals. The “sacrifice” part of it feels very off from the rest of the trees, though, because that makes it non-repeatable and means it doesn’t care about its toughness. I don’t know exactly what could be done to do that, but I think I’d like to see a bit more tweaking on here. The current effect is fine, and I actually really like a Red removal spell that deals damage equal to your life total, because it’s certainly going to get worse the later the game goes. It’s just missing some of the mechanical feel of the other trees.
Definitely on the “Trick” end, but your opponent does get a “Treat” from you removing this huge freaking blocker. Thanks for the submission! Two points!
@amtgplayer:
It’s hard to look at the phrase “trick or treat” without thinking of punisher effects. The problem is they are often weaker than they looks, but I believe that’s actually a better problem than things being stronger than they looks (which can simultaneously seem lackluster and be dangerous).
Here, one half is an undercosted Diabolic Revelation, and the other half is a Rally the Ancestors with no mana cost restriction. I have no idea if this is balanced, but I love the fact that if your opponent is reluctant to treat you with free tutors, then this will be a nasty combat trick.
Well. That’s....that’s certainly a thing. I believe the default effect for your opponent to do would be to just let them reanimate for a while removing any creatures that would provide you a powerful lasting benefit, and also removing any that would give your team haste. I can see this being used for some powerful combos by Johnny players, and for that reason I think I would like to raise the mana cost a bit, probably to five or maybe even six mana.
It’s a really interesting effect, and it is a Punisher effect, so you’ll probably never get exactly what you want, but man is it cool.
Welcome, everyone, to the forty-ninth CardsFromArt Challenge, where I find a piece of fantasy art online and you come up with an awesome Magic card design based on that piece of artwork!
All you have to do is submit your entries directly through this link (which can also be found on my main page; it’s the “Submit Things Here” link) and include CFAC 49 somewhere in the submission.
Submissions are accepted in two forms: first, if you can, create a mock-up image of the card through a program like Magic Set Editor, MTGCardsmith, or even Photoshop if you’re fancy. Just remember to include the artist credit!
Second, if you’re a tumblr-mobile user or just can’t use any of the image software, you can submit a text version of your card with the following information:
Name - mana cost
Type - subtype, rarity
ability/abilities, power/toughness
CFAC 49
I’ll create a full image of the card, and give you a few friendly critiques.
You can find more information about the rules and such in the CFAC Comprehensive Rule’s Guide.
This week, we’re taking a look at a piece called “The Haunted Festival,” for obvious reasons. Most of you that’ve been on here for a year know that Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday, and if I had the art resources for it, every challenge would be Halloween-themed. Alas, I don’t, so it isn’t, but I’m taking advantage of the opportunity while I can!
Bonus Challenge: “Trick or Treat!” That’s the classic tagline of every child on Halloween night, going door-to-door to gather candy. This week, I want you to take that phrase, and convey it in your card’s design. How you do that is up to you, just make sure I can tell, because if I can’t and you don’t explain it, you won’t be passing this bonus challenge! Pull it off, however, and you’ll be awarded one bonus point!
Weekly Winners: Three categories this week. First, we’ll recognize the top enchantment, which was the first card type that jumped out at me. Second, a prize for the best instant/sorcery, which was the second card type I thought of. Finally, the best card of any other card type will receive a bonus point. And of course, the top submission for this week will receive a full two points and will be immortalized in the CFAC Hall of Fame!
Good luck to everyone! I know the difficulty is a bit ramped up: remember that the bonus challenge is completely optional, and you’re 100% welcome to just make an awesome card with the artwork and submit it: you’ll still receive one point, and if I really like the card, you can still possibly win the challenge for the week!
If anyone has questions, don’t hesitate to contact me and ask! You have until 11:59 pm EST on Friday, October 28th, 2016 to submit your entries!
