July MCC, Finals - Between Heaven and Hell

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void_nothing
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Post by void_nothing » 2 years ago

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Banner based on Mannichi, the Fevered Dream by Martina Pilcerova and Wizards of the Coast. Thanks to bravelion83 for the "Core Set Style" MCC Logo
July MCC, Round 4 - Between Heaven and Hell

Welcome to the July MCC! It's Paradoxes Month here at the MCC.

Main Challenge: Design a card that is both an "alternate win" and "alternate loss" - i.e. it has effects that can both cause a player to win the game and lose the game.
Subchallenge 1: Your card is multicolored
Subchallenge 2: Your card does not put any counters on itself

DEADLINES

Design deadline: Wednesday, August 18th 23:59 EDT

Judging deadline: Saturday, August 21st 23:59 EDT

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Design
(X/3) Appeal - Do the different player psychographics (Timmy/Johhny/Spike) have a use for the card?
(X/3) Elegance - Is the card easily understandable at a glance? Do all the flavor and mechanics combined as a whole make sense?

Development
(X/3) Viability - How well does the card fit into the color wheel? Does it break or bend the rules of the game? Is it the appropriate rarity?
(X/3) Balance - Does the card have a power level appropriate for contemporary constructed/limited environments without breaking them? Does it play well in casual and multiplayer formats? Does it create or fit into a deck/archetype? Does it create an oppressive environment?

Creativity
(X/3) Uniqueness - Has a card like this ever been printed before? Does it use new mechanics, ideas, or design space? Does it combine old ideas in a new way? Overall, does it feel "fresh"?
(X/3) Flavor - Does the name seem realistic for a card? Does the flavor text sound professional? Do all the flavor elements synch together to please Vorthos players?

Polish
(X/3) Quality - Points deducted for incorrect spelling, grammar, and templating.
(X/2) Main Challenge (*) - Was the main challenge satisfied? Was it approached in a unique or interesting way? Does the card fit the intent of the challenge?
(X/2) Subchallenges - One point awarded per satisfied subchallenge condition.

Total: X/25
*An entry with 0 points here is subject to disqualification.
Judges:
void_nothing
slimytrout

Players:
@netn10
@RaikouRider
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void_nothing
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Post by void_nothing » 2 years ago

Bump.
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Important Facts: Colorless is not a color, Wastes is not a land type, Changeling is not a creature type

netn10
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Post by netn10 » 2 years ago

Concentrated Death-Ray Machine BR
Artifact (Mythic)
At the beginning of your upkeep, discard a card, then do the following according to the number of cards in your hand:
0-1: You lose the game.
2-6: Draw two cards.
7-10: You lose the game.
11: You win the game.
12+: You lose the game.

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RaikouRider
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Post by RaikouRider » 2 years ago

Apocalypse Engine WUB
Artifact {M}
At the beginning of each end step, exile a card from your hand or graveyard with a different mana value than cards exiled with Apocalypse Engine. If you can't, you lose the game.
When nine or more cards are exiled with Apocalypse Engine, you win the game.

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void_nothing
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Post by void_nothing » 2 years ago

And the round has ended! Let us judge.
Psst, check the second page of Custom Card Contests & Games! Because of the daily contests, a lot of games fall down to there.

The greatest (fake) pro wrestling on the internet - Collaborative Create-A-Booster - My random creations (updated regularly)

Important Facts: Colorless is not a color, Wastes is not a land type, Changeling is not a creature type

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void_nothing
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Post by void_nothing » 2 years ago

Judgment bump
Psst, check the second page of Custom Card Contests & Games! Because of the daily contests, a lot of games fall down to there.

The greatest (fake) pro wrestling on the internet - Collaborative Create-A-Booster - My random creations (updated regularly)

Important Facts: Colorless is not a color, Wastes is not a land type, Changeling is not a creature type

slimytrout
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Post by slimytrout » 2 years ago

netn10
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Concentrated Death-Ray Machine BR
Artifact (Mythic)
At the beginning of your upkeep, discard a card, then do the following according to the number of cards in your hand:
0-1: You lose the game.
2-6: Draw two cards.
7-10: You lose the game.
11: You win the game.
12+: You lose the game.
Design
(2/3) Appeal – Mostly a Johnny card, since it has a crazy win condition that requires a deck dedicated to making it work. Spike is mixed – they like that the middle of the card is a very strong value engine, but they hate the chance of their own card killing them if they're facing a discard deck. Timmy is also mixed, since they love the potential for wild swings (hard to imagine more of a delta than winning the game and losing the game being separated by a single card in hand), but don't like how much easier it is to lose than to win.
(2/3) Elegance – This is a bit of a new format for a card, but it's clear enough. The main problem is that there are a lot of numbers to remember, and I can definitely imagine players forgetting them and insta-losing.

Development
(2/3) Viability – The colors seem fine – the repeated 1-for-2 is a little bit of a bend in BR, but the risk of losing is pretty black so it should be ok. But the rarity is wrong – the vast majority of alternate win conditions are rare, and this also has too much text to be a good mythic.
(1.5/3) Balance – To be honest, the second ability is way more concerning than the fourth – drawing two extra cards per turn for two mana has some real Sylvan Library vibes, which is very concerning. You definitely can lose to it, but you really shouldn't, since the extra cards should prevent you from losing to the first ability, while hand size limits should prevent you from losing to the third ability (assuming you're playing it in a deck that isn't using this as a win condition). Would have been much more balanced if 6 made you lose, since at least then you could die if you were unable to empty your hand fast enough.

Creativity
(3/3) Uniqueness – I mean, yeah, full points here.
(1/3) Flavor – Don't like it at all. The name belongs in silver-border, and also doesn't really explain why it has anything to do with hand size or drawing and discarding. I'm sympathetic since this is a very difficult card to come up with a good flavor concept for, but sometimes that means you need to shift tracks rather than just using the best of a bad set of choices.

Polish
(2.5/3) Quality – There's never been a card quite like this, but the closest parallel are cards like Danse Macabre, which don't give explicit instructions to "do the following," so this should just say something like "count the number of cards in your hand."
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) – Yep.
(2/2) Subchallenges – Yep yep.

Total: 18/25
RaikouRider
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Apocalypse Engine WUB
Artifact {M}
At the beginning of each end step, exile a card from your hand or graveyard with a different mana value than cards exiled with Apocalypse Engine. If you can't, you lose the game.
When nine or more cards are exiled with Apocalypse Engine, you win the game.
Design
(1/3) Appeal – This is a pure Johnny card. It does absolutely nothing for Spike until it wins the game (and frequently it loses instead), and is far too fiddly for Timmy.
(3/3) Elegance – Yeah, clear enough.
Development
(2/3) Viability – This card should be rare, like virtually all alternate win conditions are. It's definitely not overpowered, so no reason to deviate from the pattern. Colors are okay though – it's definitely not green or red, so Esper is a fine choice.
(1/3) Balance – Extremely bad. It takes minimum nine turns to win, imposes huge deckbuilding constraints, and wants you to exile from your own hand to do so – all of which is to say it's definitely not busted to begin with, and then there's also a high chance that it causes you to lose. The "lose the game" part is very unnecessary and added purely to satisfy the challenge – this would be virtually unplayable even without that text.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness – Fairly reminiscent of Azor's Gateway, but with a new spin.
(2.5/3) Flavor – Name is fairly generic, but more or less fits the card.

Polish
(2/3) Quality – There can't be required exile from a hidden zone, so this should say "you may exile…" and "If you don't…" – rarely relevant, but could matter if you have a Platinum Angel out or the like. Also, should read "exile a card… that doesn't have the same mana value as a card exiled with Apocalypse Engine" a la Guardian Project.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) – Sure – the lose the game part is unnecessary for balance purposes, but it is on the card and definitely is not trinket text, so no deduction.
(2/2) Subchallenges – Yep yep.

Total: 17.5/25
Results
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Very close on my end -- void will probably have to sort it out.
netn10: 18
RaikouRider: 17.5

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void_nothing
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Post by void_nothing » 2 years ago

netn10
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Design
(1/3) Appeal - This is basically a card only Jxnny could love. Neither Txmmy nor Spike wants to deal with the three(!) different loss conditions based on an opponent having a clutch discard effect or whatever.
(1.5/3) Elegance - While each individual possible effect is simple (and most of them end the game), there are five different ranges of numbers that you have to keep in mind.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Looks like the right colors, and this is enough of a piece of wild jank for mythic.
(2/3) Balance - While the alternate win is appropriately hard enough to get to because of the timing - having twelve cards in hand at the beginning of your upkeep requires either instant-speed card draw or a lot of "at the beginning of your upkeep, draw" effects - this card is also swingy insofar as it can randomly lose you the game at times. The card draw ability also has the potential to be too good in the likes of a madness or other graveyard deck.

Creativity
(1/3) Uniqueness - While this level up-type formatting is new design technology, similar to the d20 results cards from AFR, most of the card is basically simple. It feels rather like an Unstable card.
(1.5/3) Flavor - I get a League of Dastardly Doom vibe from this card but the name is kind of arbitrary - what do death rays have to do with card draw or cards in hand? And why is the magic number, well, what it is?

Polish
(3/3) Quality - Looks good.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Done.
(2/2) Subchallenges - And done.

Total: 17/25
RaikouRider
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Design
(2/3) Appeal - Not much action here for Txmmy. Jxnny generally finds ways to abuse alt-wins, and Spike actually does like the quick charge-up time with the "each end step" clause - could take as little as two turn cycles or so in an EDH game.
(2/3) Elegance - A bit of tracking involved, but otherwise this is a simple counting game.

Development
(2.5/3) Viability - Not certain about the colors, but they're not wrong per se? This feels more like a colorless artifact than anything belonging to particular colors. Mythic is right.
(2.5/3) Balance - That is a potentially harsh "if you can't" that can bite you and be frustratingly swingy if you aren't prepared. Utterly underpowered unless totally built around, in which case it's definitely viable.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - A new win condition that isn't an especially new idea: It's basically a Darksteel Reactor-alike.
(1/3) Flavor - I think I liked this card's flavor better when it was an enchantment. The name really explains nothing - it's a machine that brings about the apocalypse, yes, but what does that have to do with the mechanics?

Polish
(3/3) Quality - Fine.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Done.
(2/2) Subchallenges - And done.

Total: 18.5/25
Psst, check the second page of Custom Card Contests & Games! Because of the daily contests, a lot of games fall down to there.

The greatest (fake) pro wrestling on the internet - Collaborative Create-A-Booster - My random creations (updated regularly)

Important Facts: Colorless is not a color, Wastes is not a land type, Changeling is not a creature type

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void_nothing
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Post by void_nothing » 2 years ago

RaikouRider 17.5 + 18.5 = 36
netn10 18 + 17 = 35

Congrats to @RaikouRider!
Psst, check the second page of Custom Card Contests & Games! Because of the daily contests, a lot of games fall down to there.

The greatest (fake) pro wrestling on the internet - Collaborative Create-A-Booster - My random creations (updated regularly)

Important Facts: Colorless is not a color, Wastes is not a land type, Changeling is not a creature type

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