This week’s challenge asked you to find the fine line between common and rare when it came to commanders, and you all did a fantastic job!
Winners: Gurah, the Forerunner by @scavenger98
and Tarah, Warfront Armorsmith by @dumbellsndragons
Two Winners? Of course! They Have Partner!
Gurah is a lesson in keyword management, encouraging you to fill your deck with all manner of tramplers to fuel your onslaught! However, being red/black means that their power level is going to be restricted by what colour you pair them with (green obviously being the best choice).
Tarah is an early game threat and a late game helper, coming down on turn 2 to help give all your creatures just a bit of a boost, their power level staying around the same no matter what colour/s you pair them with.
But wait, there’s more!
For an extra bonus, here’s the pair that I drafted with the best synergy!
Titus of Ardenvale by @teaxch
Uya, Sparkhaven Prodigy by @emmypupcake
Two things you’re sure to draft in a set like commander legends are legendary creatures and noncombat damage sources, and this pair lets you weaponize them! This pair encourages sending Titus into battle so you can cast them again, getting a stockpile of counters on Uya to supercharge your burn! This pair also ensures that any other legendaries you decide to run in the deck act as mini power boosts!
And that’s our winners for the week! I’ll have the commentary up in the next few days, and a special post dedicated to @askkrenko‘s challenge to match their mystery partner! As always, the Discord is buzzing with all kinds of mtg and custom card chatter. The current community contest being run on the discord is to revive an old creature as a zombie! If you’d like to have a go at it yourself, or just come hang out, just follow the link HERE.
Abelzumi will be back on sunday with a brand new contest. Until then, enjoy your weekend!
~mod @thatboonguy
Double Masters is so close I can almost taste it. Anyone who’s looked at even a fraction of the spoilers for it knows that the set would be more accurately named “Artifact Masters”.
So, to celebrate (or rebel, you do you) we’re going to spend the week building up to the set by making artificers!
BUT NOT MONO BLUE AND/OR RED ONES.
Your design this week has to be an artificer, but they cannot be Mono Blue, Mono Red, or Blue and Red. You can use any other combination of colours (green/blue for example), and of course, being an artificer, your design must Deal with Artifacts in some way, shape or form.
We’ll have 3 categories for winners this week:
Best Mechanical Design
Best Legendary Design
Best Flavour Design
I’ll be around all week to answer questions and queries, and you’ll see update and suggestion posts throughout the week.
As always, you can submit your designs by clicking HERE
And Our Discord is seeing a flood of new designers HERE
Get your welders ready, designers. the Inventors Fair eagerly awaits your works of Artifice. er. Works of Artificer.
~Mod @thatboonguy
P.S. While Ablezumi did say that this week would kick off our Judge-in-waitings starting their trial by fire this week, we had a slight bit of scheduling to work out, so I came back to let Ablezumi have their well-deserved break while we sort things out behind the scenes.
This weeks winner is Kolaghan, Tempest Incarnate by @whuh-oh
A red/black commander that rewards aggression, this card keeps in the flavour and mechanics of Kolaghans brood by being especially powerful when combined with the Dash mechanic! A very well thought out design that captures both the original flavour of the card it’s based on the set the originals were based on, while encouraging an aggressive playstyle. Well done.
Runner-Up #1: First of the Cabal by @misterstingyjack
Making haunt viable is a fantastic design that opens up a whole new deck building opportunity, and reanimating your haunting creatures means you can keep your haunts relevant throughout the whole game. This creature is well costed, my only sticking point being that this card should have been black/white to fully embrace haunt as a mechanic. Great design that barely missed it’s full potential.
Runner-Up #2: Lord Konda, Eiganjo Sovereign by @snugz
We’ve needed a samurai tribal commander ever since Yuriko was given to the ninja players. Lord Konda being mardu allows you to run almost every samurai, which is a great design decision. What let you down is the trigger of the ability. I really think it should have been “Blocks or Becomes Blocked” to evoke the bushido mechanic in his ability, and to balance out the third mode a little more. Fantastic concept, slightly flawed execution, still a great design.
And that’s our podium finishers for this week! I’ll have commentary for the rest of the designs up in the next few days. We received a ton of entries this week, so It might take me a while to finish the whole write up. Follower of Lilliana will be back on Sunday with a brand new contest for you all. Have a great weekend, everyone.
Mechanical Winner: Mage-Ring Saboteur by @ irenefondorn
Simple Technicality. This is such a beautifully made engine for an artifact deck dipping their toes into the UBx artifact deck. The first ability triggers off of the activation of the second, letting you get a scry before you draw and discard, while putting light pressure on your opponent. This is a fantastic design of a mechanics-forward signpost uncommon. Great work.
Legendary Winner” Lambick the Reborn by @teaxch
While mono-white commanders that deal in equipment are a dime a dozen, Lambick is the only one that brings her own personal armoury! Lambick can apply some VERY early game pressure, and apparently death is only the beginning as Lambick refines her swords every time you cast her, Making Certain cards like Fencing Ace and Mirroden Crusader into potentially lethal threats. A very cool design, well done.
Flavour Winner: Gravel-Hide Salvagecrafter by @demimonde-semigoddess
Step 1: Pick up Rock
Step 2: Smash!
This is an absolutely flavourful design that ties shows that gruul don’t just smash and forget. A great design that I can see in any Ravnica/Gruul set.
And those are our winners! I’ll be splitting the commentary in to MANY posts, so keep a look out for those as we head into a solid month of
PROVING GROUNDS.
Our four Mod finalists are taking over for the next month, each taking a week to run a contest to see if they have what it takes to become a full-time mod. @illharg-the-rave-boar is kicking things off on Sunday for week one of PROVING GROUNDS.
As always, I hope you guys have a fantastic weekend, don’t forget our Discord is always open to fresh new faces.
~Mod @thatboonguy
Here’s the commentary for all our entries for the Second Chance to be Legendary contest!
Due to popular request, this will be a longpost with the commentary directly under each entry.
Momir Vig, Perfect Evolution by @aethernalstars
This was a great idea that’s a little oddly costed. A 5-mana 2/2 with a biomancer effect that only triggers once you’ve payed another 6 mana is really steep. That being said, a biomancer that also gifts keyword counters is really cool. A great idea that didn’t quite hit the mark.
Pianna of the Order by @antediluvian-microchip
I get where you were going with this card, but I think this really needed something to make it stand out. It's not really doing anything we haven't seen before, and I wish you would have taken a bit more of a chance. A good idea, if a little safe.
Daxos, Forgotten by the Sun by @big-think
This entry surprised me, considering Daxos has two fantastic commanders with Daxos the Returned being one of the powerful experience counter commanders, and Daxos, Blessed by the Sun being a very powerful soul sisters-esque commander. As for the design itself, having to pay 3 each trigger for an enchantment-specific Yarok trigger is really exspensive, and this card not being in green means we miss out on the vast majority of enchantress effects.
Torsten, Winged Cavelier by @dimestoretajic
This was a solid design that just didn’t stand out. Torsten’s two abilities means you can focus on either going wide or going tall, which is a godsend for token decks, but unfortunately he’s competing against other incredible token commanders that just do things Torsten just doesn't. Good design that just missed the mark.
Dakkon, Blacksmith by @driftingthroughthecosmos
This design is... busy. The first ability is trademark Dakkon, but the second ability being a universal artifact tutor that re-triggers itself makes it very easy to abuse, and the third is just... woof. I would be very surprised if anyone using this just dumps a whole hand worth of artifacts just to ramp impossibly hard, then using the new boatload of mana to recur those artifacts to either keep abusing the third ability or to start pumping absurd amounts of mana into the second ability.
Malfegor, the Devourer by @emmypupcake
When looking at designs this week, I had two criteria I couldn’t ignore as a commander player: The designs should be fun to play with, and play against. This entry violates the second criteria. 3 mana to force a sacrifice is both incredibly powerful, and incredibly unfun, especially considering the first ability is prompting players to build a death and taxes style deck that forces sacrifices out of your opponents.
Crovax Windgrace// Crovax, Compleated Tyrant by @fractured-infinity
I love, love, LOVE this design, but it had a single fatal flaw that let it down.
2 mana for a repeatable fling effect is far too cheap. This was a fantastic design, and you should be proud of it, but it just crosses the line in terms of power for cost.
Thalia, Veteran of Thraben by @gollumni
While I’ll always champion for white to get card draw, this is very commander-unfriendly. While not a bad idea, I’d argue that it’s basically just a legendary white Rhystic study without the pay mana option, as I can’t imagine any scenario where an opponent doesn't just let you draw the card rather than have their spell countered.
Karametra, of Bountiful Harvest by @hypexion
I’m not quite sure why you chose Karametra, a uniquely land and creature spell based commander, to make another generic green/white token commander. This design is rather on the safe side, and doesnt do much to make itself stand out from the massive pool of green/white token commanders.
Ixidor, Maddened by Despair by @i-am-the-one-who-wololoes
This was a really cool idea (with very squicky art) that was let down by a single detractor: 3 mana to turn an opponents creature into a 2/2 with no abilities in insanely powerful, considering your deck is likely to be full to the brim with morphs. You can also target an already face-down creature you control, as a face-up creature is not part of the targeting conditions.
Hythonia the Wicked by @ignorantturtlegaming
While I love the idea of a commander-worthy Hythonia that isnt just “Haha boardwipes go brrr”, I’m not quite sure what you were aiming for with her first ability. Is she supposed to be turning herself to stone to protect herself? Also, a 4/3 with deathtouch isn’t going to be able to leverage that deathouch very well.
Phage, Avatar of Death by @illharg-the-rave-boar
While I love the idea of a playable Phage commander, and I understand that she had to be expensive for her multi-quietus spike ability, 9 mana is far too expensive for a mono black commander without investing in a lot of blacks sparse and/or expensive mana generation. This is a kill-on-sight commander, and she’ll very quickly become too expensive to cast reliably. A great design, but maybe not designed perfectly well for commander.
Norin, Fearful Tactician by @ishouldgetatumbler
I’m not quite sure what you were going for here. This is literally just Norin with +1/+1. The addition of the blocks trigger is pointless because Norin will exile himself whenever a creature attacks anyway, and any deck built around this card will be the exact same gimmicky Norin deck that already exists. If anything, this design is worse because original Norin trigger himself when he attacked.
Ludevic, Grave Stitcher by @karkatvantasticvantas
While this isn’t a bad design, I’m not sure why you’ve made the Blue/Red Ludevic into a Blue/Black card. This feels more like a Geralf card with the stitcher-like focus.
Temmet, Vizier of Ruins by @kavinika
I really love the idea of a blue/white zombie commander after Amonkhet’s fantastic zombies, but this design was let down by how incredibly powerful the third ability is. A repeatable reanimation effect that fuels itself and that can lift creatures out of any opponents graveyard is far to strong not to require either mana or a tap of Temmet Himself.
Rakka Mar, Hate Summoner by @koth-of-the-hammerpants
I’m so glad someone tried to give Rakka Mar a second chance. Unfortunately, this otherwise fantastic design is let down by turning the tap of any creature with haste into a lightning bolt is incredibly powerful, which is then amplified by the fact that the creatures themselves do the damage, making the 2-mana 3/1s that Rakka makes into repeatable Dreadbores, that also let you loot off Rakka’s second ability. All in all, this effect is far too strong for just 4 mana.
A Grave Concern: Winners Circle
Overall Winner: Raging Spirit by @mistershinyobject
This card does some crazy backflips in order to fit the contests rules, but I was impressed with how well this design works, while also encouraging green/red’s “Can’t be countered” motif. Even without cards like Rhythm of the Wilds, A successive onslaught of raging spirits is a really cool basis for a deck and I would love to play gruul aggro featuring this card. You should feel really proud about this design.
Runner-up 1: Timetwist Tideturner by @teaxch
A neat little draw engine wrapped in Time Spiral’s bizarre obsession with combining several disparate creature types. Well done.
Runner-up 2: Grafworm Spawning by @demimonde-quasigoddess
Using Retrace as your recursion mechanic is a great incentive to try and find a way to dump this token-spawning engine into the graveyard. A great design.
Congratulations to our winners, and thank you all for your entries. I’ll be dropping commentary on all the entires over the weekend.
~ @thatboonguy
P.S. Don’t forget to keep an eye out for the new contest on Sunday. After all of our necromancy crimes, Ablezumi will be dishing out some...
You know what’s really cool? Being able to cast cards from your graveyard. You know what’s really interesting? ONLY Being able to cast a card from the graveyard. Whether it’s our leading man Haakon here, the plethora of aftermath cards that Amonkhet gave us, or the recently released Titans from Theros, cards that can only be played from the graveyard have an added layer of puzzle solving to them. How do you get them to the grave? Do they put themselves there, like the Aftermath Splits or the Titans? Or do you need to trick it in there, like Haakon? That’s your goal this week.
Design a card that can only be cast from your graveyard.
You are allowed to use the Aftermath Design if you wish
You are allowed to use the Titan Design if you Wish
The main goal here is a card that can only be cast from your graveyard. Whether you give it a way to put itself there or make the player figure it out it up to you.
This incredibly narrow design space is going to be a real challenge for you this week. I look forwards to all of your designs, and I’ll be ready to answer any questions you have. Good Luck,
Before I post the rest of the entries, I thought I’d take a quick second to shout out some designs that came very, very close to winning.
Exos, Vortex of Souls by @memnite-shyamalan
This card is cool. Really, really cool. There was a slight problem with it though. It didnt feel like a god. In a different contest, this might have taken the top spot. But we feel it didnt quite have the “God” factor.
The Neon God by @starch255
This is a fantastic design with a truly unique mechanic. The only thing that stopped you from taking one of the top slots was the syntax of the effect, which could be worded better. Great design though.
Aclazotz, the Eternal Night by @opalosprey
This card was a fantastic twist on the god style, and much like I mentioned for the other two cards in this post, nearly made it into the winners circle. My only problem with the card is I feel like it might need slight balancing tweeks. While active it’s a one-card win engine, depleting your opponents field and giving you back threats every single turn as long as your life total is higher than 10/20 (depending on your format) and if it’s offline, you’ve just paid 4 mana for a land that gives you BB every turn. And potentially gaining life. Seems a little too strong for its cost for me.
Thank you all for your amazing entries! I’ll post a master list of all entries in the coming days. Have a great weekend!
