November CCL, Signups/Round 1: Heat at Your Back

[void_nothing]

CCL November Signups/Round 1

"Heat at Your Back"


Flame Rift, taken from EchoMTG, by Ben Thompson and Wizards of the Coast

Welcome to the Card Creation League! Everyone is free to participate in either or both of the first two rounds. Come join us!

Theme

It's Classic Deck Archetypes Month in the CCL - we'll start off with burn!

Challenge

Design an instant or sorcery card that deals damage.

Clarifications

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• Make sure to include a rarity.

Anyone can enter this first round! Your submissions are due Thursday, November 7th, 23:59 EST.

Schedule

• Round 1 — Open to Everyone (November 1st–7th)
• Round 2 — Open to Everyone (November 8th–14th)
• Rounds 1 and 2 Critiques (Due November 17th)
• Top 8 — Open to top 8 finishers (November 18th–21st)
• Top 8 Critiques (Due November 23rd)
• Top 4 — Open to top 4 finishers (November 24th–27th)
• Top 4 Critiques (Due November 29th)
• Final (End of month, winner determined by public poll)

[bravelion83]

Jund's Vengeance XR
Instant (M)
Jund's Vengeance deals X damage to target creature without flying. If G has been spent to cast this spell, it also deals X damage to target creature with flying. If B has been spent to cast this spell, it also deals X damage to target player or planeswalker.
"Jund is like a wounded beast: angry, and ready to get up again to get its revenge."
—Sarkhan Vol

[Koopa]

Sparkblast R
Sorcery (R)
Remove any number of loyalty counters from among planeswalkers you control. Sparkblast deals damage to any target equal to the number of loyalty counters removed this way.
"I said burn." -Jaya Ballard, last words

[netn10]

Bendable Lightning RR
Instant (Uncommon)
Bendable Lightning cost 1 more to cast for each target beyond the first.
Bendable Lightning deals 3 damage among any number of target creatures and/or players.

[barbecube]

Flamekin Uprising

1R

Sorcery

Create a 1/1 red Elemental Shaman creature token. Then Flamekin Uprising deals X damage to any target, where X is the number of Elementals you control.

[Flatline]

Double Strike r
Sorcery (C)
Double Strike deals 3 damage to any target that was dealt damage this turn.
"Who says lightning never strikes the same place twice?"

[RaikouRider]

Spark Volley XR
Sorcery {R}
Choose one -

• Spark Volley deals X damage to any target.
• Spark Volley deals 2 damage to each of up to X targets.

[Subject16]

All or Nothing 4RR
Sorcery (Rare)
As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice all creatures you control.
All or Nothing deals X damage to any target, where X is the total power of creatures sacrificed this way.
"If this is the end, then we'll end it together!"
-Captain Lannery Storm

[slimytrout]

Infernal Flames 1R
Instant (R)
Kicker 1BB (You may pay an additional 1BB as you cast this spell.)
Infernal Flames deals 3 damage to target creature. If this spell was kicked, it has deathtouch and lifelink.

[Henlock]

Fires of Ghirapur rr
Instant (u)
You may pay and remove a loyalty counter from a Chandra Planeswalker you cobtrol rather that pay Fires of Ghirapur's mana cost.
Fires of Ghirapur deals 3 damage to any target.

[Jimmy Groove]

Erupt Outwards XR
Sorcery (R)
Choose target creature or planeswalker an opponent controls. Erupt Outwards deals X damage to each other creature and/or planeswalker that opponent controls.
When the spell Chandra cast on Jace was unleashed, the only thing still alive within a mile of Jace was the mind mage himself.

[Gateways7]

Impact Demolition 1R
Instant (uncommon)
Impact Demolition deals 1 damage to each creature.
Storm (When you cast this spell, copy it for each spell cast before it this turn. You may choose new targets for the copies.)

[Ink-Treader]

Netherblaze 1R
Instant (U)
Netherblaze deals 3 damage to target player.
1B, Exile Netherblaze from your graveyard: Exile all cards from target player's graveyard. If five or more cards are exiled this way, Netherblaze deals 3 damage to that player.
A demon's wrath doesn't burn out swiftly.

[Ryder]

The Grand Finale
Sorcery (R)
As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a creature.
The Grand Finale deals damage equal to the sacrificed creature's power to each creature and each player.
"Here is what you've all been waiting for!"
—Judith

[Icarii]

Suppression's Aftermath 1RR
Sorcery (R)
Suppression's Aftermath deals 3 damage to each creature and each planeswalker. Then Suppression's Aftermath deals 3 damage to each player who controls a creature or planeswalker.
"Your resilience is anything but appreciated."
—Alvel, Codemnation Sargent

[spacemonaut]

Blood to Brawn XRRW
Sorcery (R)
Blood to Brawn deals X damage to any target. You create X 1/1 red and white Elemental creature tokens.

(Token art would depict a humanoid figure rising out of a puddle or rivulet of blood.)

[void_nothing]

The round is closed. Please critique and provide a top 3 for the six contestants below you on this list, looping to the top as necessary.

bravelion83
Koopa
netn10
barbecube
Flatline
RaikouRider
Subject16
slimytrout
Henlock
Jimmy Groove
Gateways7
Ink-Treader
Ryder
Icarii
spacemonaut

Round 2 will be posted later in the day.

[Subject16]

slimytrout: Kicker doesn't make lifelink on a red card more palatable imo. 5 mana for an instant speed Lich's Caress feels underpowered, perhaps the "exile if dies" effect as well as hitting planeswalkers would make this more interesting and worthy of a rare.
Henlock: Very cute design that makes me think of Heart of Kiran. Depending on what Chandras you use could be very strong.
Jimmy Groove: This seems very strong for just XR. I would say its too mana efficient, especially as a one-sided spell. Lavalanche is the closest resembling card I can think of and that's three colors as well as costing 2 more.
Gateways7: Great use of Storm that's difficult to break. Love it.
Ink-Treader: This could be a spell with Aftermath, but Geistblast is a similarly worded card so it's not unseen before either. Nice sideboard hate and definitely playable.
Ryder: Big flavorful Fling spell that's reminiscent of Chandra's Ignition. Probably undercosted as a two mana boardwipe.

Top 3:
3: Ryder
2: Henlock
1: Gateways7

[Icarii]

SPOILER

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spacemonaut: I think this card is fairly costed and makes a lot mechanical sense in it's colors. I don't like the flavor, as I dont quite get the association of making elementals from blood. It almost makes me wish this spell had black, but tbh I think it just needs a flavor re-purposing to make the concept feel more RW.

bravelion83: This card produces insane value, though a good chunk of that is circumstantial. This seems like it would need to be played in RB in constructed. Depending on the environment could be very maindeckable but certainly sideboardable. I think the direction for the flavor text makes sense, but the grammar is a little clunky and I don't like using almost the same word as in the name of the card (Vengeance → revenge).

Koopa: Solid design. Lackluster feeling rare even if aggressively costed. I would make this an uncommon that cost 2. Flavor is generic for Jaya. She's usually wittily aggressive.

netn10: Strive lightning bolt. Sure. I think it's a little too aggressively costed, as 3 mana for three damage to a creature and its controller is pretty good at instant speed. Probably should be 2 for each additional target. Flavor is simple and standard.

barbecube: This is a really solid design that has a lot of flavor in it's mechanics tied with the name. I wish it had flavor text to really drive it home, but this is spot on the type of card I like to see. Testing might make this cost 3 depending on the environment/how go wide elementals are.

Flatline: I like the idea here, though I do wish it was an instant. Surprisingly no other magic card is called double strike either. The flavor text is really overdone and done better, even in Magic: Boltwing Marauder, Chain Reaction, Izzet Chronarch, Pyrotechnics(Planechase).

Top 3
1st: barbecube
2nd: bravelion83
3rd: Flatline

[Ink-Treader]

Ryder

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It feels a little undercosted, but the flavor is nice.

Icarii

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A cute boardwipe. It does feel nice to get a bonus if someone manages to survive, although I do wish it didn't hit yourself with the second part.

spacemonaut

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Seems reasonable, and almost certainly something we'll see printed someday.

bravelion83

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It's not quite strictly better than Clan Defiance, especially since you don't get a choice beyond not spending mana of a particular color, but it does seem usually better a lot of the time.

Koopa

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Kind of an oddball. I feel like it should cost more, but have a minimum damage.

netn10

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Potent. Maybe a little too much so. Perhaps a higher base cost would help here.

Top 3

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1. spacemonaut
2. Icarii
3. Ryder

[bravelion83]

Finally I get to do this, after multiple days that both real life and other things going on here got in the way.

Done.

Koopa

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Sparkblast R
Sorcery (R)
Remove any number of loyalty counters from among planeswalkers you control. Sparkblast deals damage to any target equal to the number of loyalty counters removed this way.
"I said burn." -Jaya Ballard, last words

I really like the design of this card, even though it might be a little narrow, and I guess that's what allows you to have such a low mana cost. Wrong formatting in the flavor text (the attribution should go on its own line and with an em dash — instead of a hyphen -), but it's pretty good. I can definitely see "burn" being Jaya's last word when she eventually leaves us.

netn10

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Bendable Lightning RR
Instant (Uncommon)
Bendable Lightning cost 1 more to cast for each target beyond the first.
Bendable Lightning deals 3 damage among any number of target creatures and/or players.

Missing text ("3 damage divided as you choose among...") and this just feels like mini-Fireball to me, mostly for the similarity in the rules text, but also for the complexity and the high amount of math required. I'm honestly not the biggest fan of this card.

barbecube

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Flamekin Uprising

1R

Sorcery

Create a 1/1 red Elemental Shaman creature token. Then Flamekin Uprising deals X damage to any target, where X is the number of Elementals you control.

A perfect card for Elementals in Lorwyn (and the Flamekin flavor feels so right for that), or the Temur Elemental deck from M20. Everything's good on this card. I would just have liked to see some flavor text.

Flatline

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Double Strike r
Sorcery (C)
Double Strike deals 3 damage to any target that was dealt damage this turn.
"Who says lightning never strikes the same place twice?"

Ok, there are cards that share their names with mechanics, but this is too egregious for my taste, most of all because the mechanic with that name is evergreen. Also, if I absolutely had to make a card called "Double Strike", I would have it be a spell that grants the double strike ability. As is, if I were an editor in R&D, I'd send this back to either the design team asking them to have the card actually grant double strike, or to the creative team saying "the concept is fine but please change the name, maybe something like Double Bolt, or Double Lightning. Or anything but the name of an evergreen mechanic." I think most players, myself included, would have the expectation that a new card called with the name of an evergreen mechanic grants that mechanic, kinda like Indestructibility actually grants indestructible (just the first example that came to my mind). I really like what the card does, but the name is both the probable inspiration for this card and the reason why I would never print it as is just because of it. The rest of the card is simply perfect, but the issue is too big in my opinion. I'm really, really sorry. Believe me. You know me.

RaikouRider

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Spark Volley XR
Sorcery {R}
Choose one -

• Spark Volley deals X damage to any target.
• Spark Volley deals 2 damage to each of up to X targets.

A piece of advice: use bullet characters (•) instead of bulleted list for modal cards. You get everything aligned, and you don't get the needless space before and after the list (for which I might even deduct Quality points if we were in the MCC). The hyphen should also technically be an em dash (—). But really, why am I listing all these little details? Because I have nothing to say about the design of the card, it's just perfect, and I have to write something in a critique! I still have to look at the last card, but this is a very very strong contender for my first place.

Subject16

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All or Nothing 4RR
Sorcery (Rare)
As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice all creatures you control.
All or Nothing deals X damage to any target, where X is the total power of creatures sacrificed this way.
"If this is the end, then we'll end it together!"
-Captain Lannery Storm

This would only get played as a finisher, and you will feel really bad if it's countered or fizzled. This is a high risk, high reward card, and it's honestly not my style. There are plenty of players that would like this, this card is just not for me. No problems with the flavor. The hyphen should also technically be an em dash (—), but that's just a meaningless detail here. (How bad is it as a Linkin Park fan that I read the name of the card as "All for Nothing" several times before realizing that wasn't actually "for" but "or"?)

Top 3

1st place: RaikouRider
2nd place: Koopa
3rd place: barbecube

[Gateways7]

SPOILER

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Ink-Treader - This works really well as a combination of burn and graveyard hate, and I think that it'd be fun to play with as cool sideboard tech for a Rakdos aggro deck.
Ryder - This is an interesting retooling of Chandra's Ignition, but it doesn't really feel that innovative.
Icarii - I like the card and that it tries to give you a bonus if you have to play it sub-optimally. Cool idea!
spacemonaut - This seems about balanced for a big X spell (maybe on the strong side), and although I don't normally like unbalanced mana costs I think it works here to tie this together as a mainly red card. I do think it would have worked better as mono-red, though.
bravelion83 - I think that having all of these abilities tied together is a little too powerful, as you get to kill two things and deal a lot damage to a player. Furthermore, this spell doesn't actually work, as there needs to be a target with flying for you to cast the spell whether you pay G or not, which seems like an error - use "up to one" for all of the targets.
Koopa - While this is a cool idea, it's also pretty weak, as if you want to have this deal more damage than a Shock, you have to either sacrifice a planeswalker or have a great deal of set-up. It's also win-more in that if you have enough planeswalkers to kill an opponent off of this spell, you've already won.

1. Ink-Treader
2. spacemonaut
3. Icarri

[barbecube]

Crits

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Double Strike r
Sorcery (C)
Double Strike deals 3 damage to any target that was dealt damage this turn.
"Who says lightning never strikes the same place twice?"

I find the flavor of this weak (the FT is repetitive with other FTs cards have had and the cardname is the name of a keyword that the card doesn't do) but it's mechanically solid.

Spark Volley XR
Sorcery {R}
Choose one -

• Spark Volley deals X damage to any target.
• Spark Volley deals 2 damage to each of up to X targets.

The modal approach here makes me want this card to cost one more . Credit where due for cleverness though.

All or Nothing 4RR
Sorcery (Rare)
As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice all creatures you control.
All or Nothing deals X damage to any target, where X is the total power of creatures sacrificed this way.
"If this is the end, then we'll end it together!"
-Captain Lannery Storm

This is an exciting game-ender here. I'm not sure about the costing, but that's something that would have to be explored in playtest. It's interesting that it calls for a red archetype that goes big on creatures.

Infernal Flames 1R
Instant (R)
Kicker 1BB (You may pay an additional 1BB as you cast this spell.)
Infernal Flames deals 3 damage to target creature. If this spell was kicked, it has deathtouch and lifelink.

I appreciate that you didn't go monored on your submission here. Refreshing. I appreciate the mild oddness here in granting keywords to a spell (not that it hasn't been done, but it's infrequent). The kicker cost reads a bit high to me; 5 mana across two colors to destroy target creature and gain 3 life? Hm?

Fires of Ghirapur rr
Instant (u)
You may pay and remove a loyalty counter from a Chandra Planeswalker you cobtrol rather that pay Fires of Ghirapur's mana cost.
Fires of Ghirapur deals 3 damage to any target.

This is interesting but I really don't think Chandra needs more facetime.

Erupt Outwards XR
Sorcery (R)
Choose target creature or planeswalker an opponent controls. Erupt Outwards deals X damage to each other creature and/or planeswalker that opponent controls.
When the spell Chandra cast on Jace was unleashed, the only thing still alive within a mile of Jace was the mind mage himself.

This seems undercosted to me.

Top 3

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1. slimytrout
2. RaikouRider
3. Subject16

[Ryder]

Icarii

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Suppression's Aftermath 1RR
Sorcery (R)
Suppression's Aftermath deals 3 damage to each creature and each planeswalker. Then Suppression's Aftermath deals 3 damage to each player who controls a creature or planeswalker.
"Your resilience is anything but appreciated."
—Alvel, Codemnation Sargent

3 damage to each creature is already great for 3 mana. Making it hit 'walkers AND adding more damage to the players takes it way over the top.

spacemonaut

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Blood to Brawn XRRW
Sorcery (R)
Blood to Brawn deals X damage to any target. You create X 1/1 red and white Elemental creature tokens.

(Token art would depict a humanoid figure rising out of a puddle or rivulet of blood.)

By the flavor it seems black, but otherwise a perfectly reasonable card.

bravelion83

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Jund's Vengeance XR
Instant (M)
Jund's Vengeance deals X damage to target creature without flying. If G has been spent to cast this spell, it also deals X damage to target creature with flying. If B has been spent to cast this spell, it also deals X damage to target player or planeswalker.
"Jund is like a wounded beast: angry, and ready to get up again to get its revenge."
—Sarkhan Vol

Great use of colors for additional effects, but slightly too strong in my opinion. Compare to
Jaya's Immolating Inferno. Even with X=1 it may be a Chandra's Pyrohelix, which is not what should be the case with an X spell.

Koopa

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Sparkblast R
Sorcery (R)
Remove any number of loyalty counters from among planeswalkers you control. Sparkblast deals damage to any target equal to the number of loyalty counters removed this way.
"I said burn." -Jaya Ballard, last words

Nice idea, but this should probably sacrifice the PWs or hit only creatures to keep it balanced. Oko, Thief of Crowns already provides up to 6 damage on the turn he hits the table. See Lightning Axe

netn10

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Bendable Lightning RR
Instant (Uncommon)
Bendable Lightning cost 1 more to cast for each target beyond the first.
Bendable Lightning deals 3 damage among any number of target creatures and/or players.

You probably meant "damage divided among". I like this spell a lot! That is exactly the power level I'd expect from RR burn. Compares well with Searing Blaze and Arc Trail

barbecube

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Flamekin Uprising

1R

Sorcery

Create a 1/1 red Elemental Shaman creature token. Then Flamekin Uprising deals X damage to any target, where X is the number of Elementals you control.

I would argue this should target creatures and planeswalkers only, and the wording is off - see Omnath, Locus of the Roil. Other than that - pretty solid.

Top 3

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Wasn't easy. Congrats everyone.
1. netn10
2. spacemonaut
3. barbecube

[slimytrout]

crits

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Henlock: Fires of Ghirapur - If you have a Chandra, it's basically a Lightning Bold, if you don't it's a harder to cast Lightning Strike. I like the idea, but I think that's a pretty big upgrade for a low-probability event, which would lead to a lot of variance.

Jimmy Groove: Erupt Outwards - Basically you get to Earthquake their board except for one thing -- seems like a huge upgrade to what was already not a weak card.

Gateways7: Impact Demolition - This card says Storm on it so it's almost certainly undercosted. Even though it's not really a win condition, I don't think that giving storm decks a 2-mana wrath out of the sideboard is a good idea. Also would be quite busted with Swans of Bryn Argoll.

Ink-Treader: Netherblaze - A fun way to do graveyard hosing. Honestly, no real criticisms.

Ryder: The Grand Finale - Kind of like Fling meets Earthquake. Very strong, but probably not busted. Not entirely sure what's black about it, though, since both of the cards I listed were mono-red.

Icarii: Suppression's Aftermath - I think this is too strong. 3-mana deal 3 to all creatures usually gets a minor upgrade at rare: Anger of the Gods gets exile, Sweltering Suns gets expensive cycling, etc. Hitting planeswalkers is already a substantial upgrade, so I think the extra damage to the face at the end is probably too strong (compare this to Slagstorm for instance).

T3

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1. Ink-Treader
2. Ryder
3. Henlock