When doing top down, there are alwayalmost always gods that can be referenced from mythology. What aspects of that culture/mythology make you more likely to add "God" cards into a set?
It depends a lot on how much expectation there is of Gods being there.
Is this the most difficult challenge I’ve given you all so far? This art without using the words target, destroy, damage, or die? A pretty tall order to be sure. I’ve really procrastinated this week so you’re getting part one of the entries right now and part two later tonight. There will be a part three some time tomorrow!
@origins15
As I picked a part of the art to focus on, I panned around the image. My interpretation of this art is that some kind of rebellion either stole or deployed the larger ship, distracting the enemy forces from a key operation happening in the city.
This would be a great finisher for any R/W deck, pushing through for that final damage. The flavor is that you send your creature out to be a decoy, and your other troops are inspired by the sacrifice, becoming temporarily stronger.
Everything about this design is hitting its mark. It’s fairly costed, in colors that make sense, and the flavor is coming through strong. The creature sacrifice is the one bit of this I’m a little less certain of (I’m not sure it feels super red/white to me despite the flavor) but that’s a small quip really. Outside of that, the most obvious knob to turn on this card is the bonus it grants your creatures. That can be tweaked pretty dramatically to get the power level just right though what’s here is just fine. I think this effect could be mono red if you wanted.
Two points!
@aethernalstars
Another vehicle based design, more vehicle token generation, and maybe more cost issues… Anyways, hordes are fun, especially when you can almost make one from a single card. These will probably sit around most of the game, swooping in for one final attack lead by the flagship. Part of me wanted to put a coat of arms style effect on there too, but I’m pushing the text box as is. Mass token generation effects are rare and repeatable ones are even rarer. I’m split on how it should be costed, between XX and XXXX. Right now it seems simultaneously over and under costed. In any case, this whole card was hard to put numbers on, from mana cost, to crew, to base pt. Nothing seems right, both too powerful and too expensive.
First of all, sorry I don’t have a Vehicle template installed.
I think you’re close. It seems like, especially considering you have to pay into the activated ability here so heavily, this thing could stand to be bigger. My main comparison here is Aethersphere Harvester. Or else a base CMC of 2 maybe. The token creation is unusual for the reasons you mention, though it’s also a bit different from typical token creation since none of these are actually creatures by default. Instant speed access to blockers is a big board trick. This is less so. Three mana for a 2/2 that isn’t really a 2/2 is a big investment. Six mana for two of this is huge. I’d leave that right where it is.
That last ability is a nice tough. It feels really cool and unique. I think you might want to simplify in this though. Gamblignant is an odd word and actually confused me a bit when reading this card. I’m cool with that word, but I’d reference it less. The changes I’d make are “Crew X, where X is the number of Vehicle tokens you control plus 1″ and “When you crew Flagship Sophronia, all Vehicles you control becomes creatures in addition to their other types until end of turn.” That is functionally different and that last bit is a huge shift in power that would need testing/adjustment, but it’s a lot more straight forward to me.
Two points!
@the-lonely-demon
I’m not 100% sure about the formatting on this but I decided to go with an ambush type flavor
I think the biggest thing here is that this would use Sneak Attack wording for the first bit. This is fantastic! Likely too powerful--I’d guess printing something like this in Kaladesh would have to be 4RR and maybe at mythic.
Two points!
@thanatyr
Damn, those restrictions were something. Looking at this, it’s a definite sudden assault on a ship, but doing something with just one vehicle means targetting. So instead, full on aerial attack on opponent’s vehicles. I did have to tweak the middle text so it couldn’t be abused to turn your regular vehicles into creatures.
This has a lot going on. Being a colorless sorcery not related to Eldrazi puts it in a weird place just within Magic itself. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just odd. This is one expensive potential partial board wipe that’s severely limited based on what your opponent is playing. Even if they have a dedicated vehicle deck, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re running a whole lot of vehicles. I haven’t checked recently but outside of banking on Start Your Engines for a win, decks focused on vehicles run about 10 or 12 tops (compared to creature heavy decks running perhaps double that) because you still need creatures to crew them.
I like this twist on Ezuri’s Predation that keeps from being a color break by dropping colors entirely. It’s another unusual bit that makes this card really stand out. But I think the whole thing could be relatively simplified (and functionally this is quite different) by making a Release the Gremlins that makes vehicle tokens instead of gremlins.
Two points!
@shadowknight1224
This is probably the nichest board clear that’s still actually viable. Red forcing others to sac stuff is probably a bit of a bend, since Red would prefer to flat out destroy, but I feel this is an acceptable bend because it preserves Red’s own Vehicles (which fits the sabotage flavour better and it respects the White/Red affinity for Vehicles that was pushed in Kaladesh). It’s probably a bit cheap, but I couldn’t in good conscience justify paying more than 3 mana for a super conditional board clear that you’ll be paying 1 mana for most of the time anyway.
Nice use of trap! Super niche but entirely appropriately and just spot on with the flavor in this art. Really I think this would use destroy most often but agree that red forcing someone to sacrifice an artifact is a reasonable bend for this effect.
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so many innovative designs. You all are really hitting this challenge hard. It’s awesome!
@amtgplayer
This is one bizarre take of the “PvE” idea: it fits in a normal game of multiplayer Magic, and mostly act as a normal Magic card — except with some probability, the players will then need to fight a monster together. (I took care that it only triggers in multiplayer.)
A major downside of this idea is that it is hard to describe a formidable adversary on a Magic card. Still, I think this example reasonably simulates a prison player that sits behind Ghostly Prisons. (Disclaimer: I don’t actually play multiplayer, so maybe I’m off by a lot.) Other “environmental players” can replace drawing cards with more interesting actions, like exiling cards from its owner’s library and casting some without paying the mana cost.
I don’t know how many rule problems will come with this idea, but I imagine the rule of thumb “the owner of the card makes all possible decisions” should eliminate most of them. (Yes, that means it “turns on” things like Fact and Fiction.)
This design is incredibly bizarre and absolutely nothing I ever expected to see. Masu will always have at least one intervention counter so it does become a big hurdle players have to commit to pretty quickly in order to take her down. Furthermore they have to do this after having their fields wiped. I think that task might be a little too difficult as is, but this is just so weird that I couldn’t say for sure. It does make for an interesting addition to a pillow fort deck--essentially telling players to attack this instead of the pillow fort player (though if they eliminate the real player this card leaves the game anyway so maybe it just means they should put more pressure on that player).
There are definitely a ton of rules issues but the concept here is really exciting. Well done!
Two points!
@dimestoretajic
Okay, here’s the thing.
I have no clue how Rain would affect the battlefield. None. I 100% believe it could work for the fan block, possibly in the same way weather affects combat in Pokémon, but how it would work outside of “things happen when it’s raining, or sunny, or snowing, or windy”, I have no clue. But… enjoy this “weather matters” card anyway? ^^;
Also Native American block FTW. :D
So basically the Steamflogger Boss of this contest. ;p The stats are reasonable, all depending on how Rain actually functions but even it’s easy to turn on, I’m imagining something a la world enchantments or planechase planes--you only have one active at a time so other players could make it sunny or whatever to negate the bonus. Weather matters is an intriguing concept.
Two points!
@morbidlyqueerious
So, this tackles two separate things, namely “angels that don’t care” from @nine-effing-hells and darkbond from @conorace . I’m honestly not certain if this card even needs to be black, actually. Also, the artifact thing is mostly from the art, but maybe it’s also unneeded?
I love the story that the flavor text adds to the effect here. As far as the effects go, I think it could be either WU or WB--white typically exiles while both blue and black steal things. If you wanted to push it, since the exile is creature removal, this could be bent into mono black. But at the same time it makes it even more iconic to have an unusual mana cost like this. Basically development can tweak that knob so it fits best in whatever set it’s in, which is nice.
The effects make sense but it’s in a bit of a weird space--just exiling one creature isn’t a huge play for a big investment on an otherwise vanilla creature, whereas if you get to steal a creature (and get an ETB trigger if it has one) for the same cost it’s a much bigger play without actually investing more (aside from running stuff that gets your opponent’s cards into exile first). Other than that I think an angel without flying would confuse a lot of players and that the art here is ambiguous enough that it could fly probably.
Two points!
@origins15
My thought process was inspired by the creation of atraxa from a lore perspective, how each praetor had a keyword of their color put into the creation. This is a collaborative effort between Sheoldred and Vorinclex. Their creation is ravenous, and is only sated through blood or mana.
I chose Phyrexian mana for flavor reasons, and I also felt that having the only payment option being two life would have been a little strong.
This is clearly a rattlesnake (rattle-gorgon?) something that’ll be a great defensive option, but can get some attacks through when necessary.
Nice use of Phyrexian mana. Cards that want other players to pay for something always run into this sort of problem and being able to pay two life instead of colored mana is an interesting option.
The problem is this is a lot of text to read sitting across the table, upside down, on an opponent’s card. Most players will accept it as a menace and deathtouch wielding gorgon and forget they can change that. However I think perhaps you could make effects like this a small focus in a set and perhaps give them a special frame in order to draw attention to them and clue players into the fact that they should be reading them pretty explicitly and keeping them in mind.
Two points!
@outerspace-messiah
Reading the creative bit, I figured story telling was a very important part of this plane, so I wanted to create a story telling mechanic. Chronicle acts like haunt or cipher in that it’s exiled and attached to the creature, but when it dies, it passes the story to another. Of course, not having another creature to pass the card to means the story is lost.
For the card itself, it looks like a lot because of ETB effect, but I was merely going for something flavorful based on the art that other Chronicle cards don’t have to have. The ETB turned out to work mechanically well with Chronicle though!
And of course, my only worries for the mechanic are the same as the problems with Haunt and Cipher, but that be a lesser problem since this is an unofficial set.
Which plane? We have a few we’re deciding from but no decision has been made yet. Chronicle is a neat mechanic, and it does have its issues. For one, being a permanent type that would remain on another creature but which is technically in exile is a big headache.
While mechanically quite different, my first thought was what if you had a Bestow variant that went on enchantment creatures and basically did what Chronicle does, except it would be attaching the aura to another creature (and thus it would still be on the battlefield). Cool card, but it’s a lot to unpack and a tough area to play in.
Two points!
@sphinxs-revelation
I hope you recieved my lengthy submission for the Arcana mechanic on MtGFanset. This card is obviously intended as an enabler for it, though even without it, it leads to some interesting choices, espescially in multiplayer. It lets you help your teammates or appease would be enemies. You might want to reveal something harmeless… or better show them why not to mess with you?
Arcana actually posted from the queue, either earlier today or late yesterday, I’m not sure which.
Numbers on the card are solid here, especially since the lifegain is symmetrical. It is really cool to see just how many cards support this sort of effect, how innate they are to the game, and how the presence of such a mechanic can totally change how you evaluate those cards.
As for Arcana, it seems like it could be big trouble developmentally. Maybe a one-off fan set can skirt that trouble. Hedron Alignment gives free reveal triggers on your entire hand each upkeep. Madcap Experiment makes this totally broken by loading Arcana cards while putting in only as many artifact cards as are necessary to keep from dying. Just something people would definitely have to be aware of when working with this.
Just realized I never took a picture of my latest #kickstarter #tabletop #game #worldchampionship #russianroulette by #anthonyburch and #tuesdayknightgames First played at #origins15 in #columbus.. very fun quick game!
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!
I know the CFAC is ending soon, but has anyone suggested a similar challenge, but pairing new arts with old cards? A reprint challenge if you will. Any thoughts or criticisms on the idea?
As far as I know, no one has publicly stated they will be starting up a similar challenge. As for this kind in particular, finding old cards that fit new artwork, it sounds interesting. I think it would have a bit less space, as there are only going to be so many valid cards and you’re bound to get duplicates, but it’s worth a shot, at least just to see what shakes out of it.
Regarding masterpieces, are you allowed to discuss the reasoning behind which cards are chosen? I've been curious to why painter's servant was chosen for Kaladesh Inventions
All cards were chosen because there is an audience for it. Different cards have different audiences.
