#cfac04

[magicarasa]

All images by Cathrine Langwagen

CFAC 04 Winners!

We’ve got a lot of you this week! One for each of the arts pictured here. And I’ve kept you waiting long enough here, let’s get to it!

@conorace

I love the call back here and especially how dividing the effect of Martyr of Sands and including Sand tokens substantially alters this and allows some new strategies, particularly in a white weenies build. For this you’ll get a bonus point!

@nine-effing-hells

More work with tokens to create a neat riff of Lotus Blossom. This is especially cool in that it encourages plant tribal outside of just the tokens it creates on its own. That’s good for a bonus point!

@origins15

Way to bring the color pie back into alignment with your callback card! This references Rimescale Dragon from Coldsnap and origins15 was the only person who dared brave the icy art for this challenge, assuring themselves a bonus point!

@outerspace-messiah

This was a really popular art for this challenge and this wasn’t the only callback card to Solemn Simulacrum, but it was a beautifully designed card that evokes the original while doing something entirely different. A well-won bonus point!

@thekillershrub

This seemed to be the most popular art this week. (I think it was but I’m not going back to count at the moment) so know that this one had the most competition and was definitely the hardest choice for me to make. Valakut on a creature edged out the others for this bonus point!

[magicarasa]

All images by Cathrine Langwagen

CFAC 04 Entries -- Part 2

I knew I would enjoy this challenge--call back cards have always been a favorite of mine. Just recognizing them is a reward. Being able to appreciate how they play with a known theme is a very Melvin past time. This week has been a blast!

@infernalshards

I’m referencing Cromat, which fun fact the name Xaadregaz was considered for. Since Cromat uses enemy colored mana pairs, wedges seemed appropriate to use.

I’m not a huge fan of Cromat but I find these designs intriguing, if a bit troubling because it’s virtually impossible to come up with five modes or abilities of roughly equal power and utility. For me the Jeskai ability here is the standout and the Mardu ability comes in second. The others are all so expensive for such a small gain that I find it difficult to imagine circumstances where I would use them. I’d rather have cards. It is awesome that each ability here is a clear homage to the relevant wedge.

Two points!

@thanatyr

The art made me think Jund, and then there was the creature that didn’t feel like he had any green in his ability. So what if Sek'Kuar was just attempting to channel the radiance of the sleeping 3 colour gods (each of the arts could be one of them), and the god showed him how it was done?

Liomenyfi was the result. Her name is a merging to two Greek words meaning ‘molten bride’.

Dang, Liomenyfi is really showing him how it’s done. Devour is just begging you to wipe your board into a big Elemental Graveborn (though you could also chain the ETB triggers to replace your board with a bunch of 4/2 hasters if you prefer, and I like that option though I’m honestly unsure how much I’d ever do it). I think the weird part about this card is that if you want to maintain devotion to insure Liomenyfi remains a creature that could well mean not sacrificing your creatures to devour. And I don’t find that tension particularly compelling so I’d rather eliminate it.

Two points!

@tonric

For CFAC04, I wanted to throwback to one of my favorite EDH cards, and a historically powerful if color-bending(break?) card Desert Twister. Bringing it full circle, and adding in a body as a bonus, this femme fatale also has Deathtouch, to ensure that it will be a staple like its namesake!

Green doesn’t get to destroy creatures outright so Desert Twister is a break for sure. You’ve avoided that error while providing a powerful allusion to the original. I also think this would be a solid uncommon.

Tw points!

@nine-effing-hells

(A reference to Lotus Blossom)

One thing I dislike about a lot of cards like Lotus Blossom is that they are susceptible to removal (less so on Lotus Blossoms than others, but still) and once they’re gone you have little to nothing to show for all the counters you built up on it. So I like that Plants are the measure used here. One, you can play other plants to increase the power and this and two, even if Blossom Sower is removed (rather an opponent tries to remove her so you tap and exile her sooner than you would have otherwise) you still get a token force around whether or not you were able to cast something with that mana.

Two points!

@ozthearistocrat

This CFAC04 card calls back to Flamespeaker Adept and its ability. I always like the ability and I always wondered why it was never made a key word.

It’s cool to see how well all this stuff works together and how radically turning these staple effects into activated abilities alters the power of the card. Considering you need to invest more mana for this to actually do anything, and more red mana specifically, I don’t think this should cost 1RR. 1R would actually be fine.

As for the Prophecy ability, they avoid nesting keywords in other keywords. And this is actually really narrow design space, however cool it is. 

Two points!

[magicarasa]

All images by Cathrine Langwagen

CFAC 04 Entries -- Part 1

This week I tasked you all with looking back on Magic’s past and drawing upon it for inspiration. Let’s see what tributes to the history of this game you’ve created.

And if you haven’t submitted yet, you have until this Saturday at midnight, that’s 12/3/16.

@dimestoretajic

It’s still in the spirit of the challenge if I take inspiration from TWO cards, right? :D

I dunno, man. I just got a soft spot for Rusted Relic. I figured the least I could do for it is make it more like Solemn Simulacrum. Hope you like!

This is a neat combination of the two though I’d consider upping the mana cost a hair as I don’t think the Metalcraft requirement is a big enough barrier for that body. The biggest problem I think this card has is some potential rules confusion. Did you know if you don’t have Metalcraft and this is destroyed you won’t get the dies trigger? I was in error here. It works just fine though it sounds kind of odd.

Two points!

@conorace

A card inspired by Matyr of Sands for CFAC04. I thought about doing a card inspired by something more iconic, but Matyr of Sands is pretty neat and the art just fit with it.

Okay, this is really clever. I’ll save people the searching; Martyr of the Sands has an ability where you reveal any number of white cards from your hand and then gain three times that much life. This puts a step in between to allow it a powerful white token strat and bonus if Ladael dies. Great use of the pre-existing Sand tokens as well. This joins Dune-Brood Nephilim in being the second card to create those.

Two points!

@amtgplayer

This card is inspired by Eternal Witness, as well as the recent Wildest Dreams. At first I didn’t want to add the exile drawback because it would be awkward on a creature, and you have like a million ways to get around it anyway. However, the whole thing reminded me of the classical scene of flower-burial in Dream of the Red Chamber, where Dai-yu mourned her own destiny to be forgotten after death. It was so strong an image that I decides to leave the whole thing as is.

By the way, today I just realized that they gave Genesis Hydra a cast trigger not to make it feel like an Eldrazi, but because ETB triggers and X don’t work well within the rules. (See: the unintuitive template on Quarantine Field).

Good catch on that rules stuff. It also helps balance this--you can’t abuse flickering effects to net even bigger card advantage. Eternal Witness is one of my favorite cards so I’m excited to see something like this. But comparing it to Season’s Past, I think you’ve hampered this design too much. At 6 CMC X is 2. Season’s Past doesn’t have a body, but it probably grabs 4 or more cards for you when cast (I’ve never seen one get less) and it has the ability to let you get it back later. Season’s Past does require you select cards of different CMC, so I wouldn’t want something like XGG here, which would put 6 CMC at 4 cards, just like what I think a baseline Season’s Past is, but I think X and 3 or 4 G wouldn’t be far off. I don’t feel the exile bit is necessary here.

The alternative is to decide a set number of cards and a hard mana cost (which could then allow this to be an ETB trigger and necessitate the exile bit, which I would then change to “If ~ would leave the battlefield, exile it.”).

Two points~

@thekillershrub

I love the Magus Cycle. Lots of them reference powerful lands, and I feel like Valakut is powerful enough to have one. Multiple of these is scary, so 5 mana instead of 4. 

This is definitely scary. Great take on expanding a cycle that’s pretty much all about referencing other cards. You have altered the Valakut ability in a significant way though--Valakut requires five other mountains so it only triggers on the sixth and beyond. This would count the fifth and trigger earlier... except that if you cast this on curve then you’ve already played your land for the turn and can’t get the trigger right away.

I also was wary of the body and entering tapped bit--doesn’t feel red to me--but it’s growing on me as this would help to enable a mono red control archetype as both a repeatable free Bolt and a win con. Still think the body might be too big since you don’t want to attack with this anyway, so I’d knock it down to a 3/3 probably.

Two points!

@ubervores

Who doesn’t like burn? the person on the other side of the table that’s who but nonetheless banefire has some pretty sweet art so a referential card would have equivalently sweet art (in my opinion this is the better art.) So I mean what more can I say than Its bane fire lady? I didn’t want this to be goblin guide with a banefire stapled to it so she costs three when not spitting fire making her a haste-y bear with an almost banefire stapled to it.

I hear ya! Technically red gets can’t be countered on instants and sorceries and green gets it on creatures, but this is a fair bend in my eyes. (Akroma is exception and she was printed in Planar Chaos, which is not a real precedent) Otherwise this looks like a whole lot of fun to me. I think you could probably split the difference so to speak on casting cost and put it at XRR. A haste bear for RR is definitely not breaking anything and at mythic X should be pure bonus.

Two points!

[magicarasa]

All images by Cathrine Langwagen

Welcome to week 4 of the CardsFromArt Challenge! I bring the art, you bring the custom Magic card design based on that art! Please submit entries directly through this link, which is also the “Submit” link on the main page of this blog. Include CFAC04 somewhere in the submission.

Feel free to mock your card up using any appropriate program and send it in with the art I’ve provided AND artist credit! If you can’t do that, just send in the text of your card and I’ll make a mock up of it.

Be sure to include:

Name – mana cost Type – subtype, rarity Any abilities, power/toughness CFAC03

Bonus Challenge:

Magic design likes to reference past designs. The first one that jumps to mind for me right now is Torrential Gearhulk being being a callback to the iconic Snapcaster Mage. Design a card that’s a call back to another card from Magic’s past. Be sure to tell me which card you’re referencing to secure this bonus point.

Weekly Winners:

There will be 5 winners this week! Five bonus points up for grabs! One winner per piece of art!

If you have any questions please ask me. You have until 11:59 pm EST on Saturday, December 3, 2016 to submit your entry!