January CCL Round 4: Catharsis and Comicality

[Lorn Asbord Schutta]

CCL January Top 4/Round 4

"Catharsis and Comicality"


Banner to come.

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 Artisty month here at the CCL. This month we will hopefully see beauty in many forms.

Challenge

Design two uncommon creature cards with the same mana cost and an activated ability with the same activation cost, where one of those creatures comes a standard expansion set, while the second one is from an un-set.

Clarifications

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• The creatures do not need to be tied in terms of flavour; likewise, the activated abilities might have absolutely different effects, they only need to have the same activation cost.
• Mana cost include symbols, so is not the same mana cost as , for instance.
• Remember to add rarity.

Contestants:

@Subject16
@slimytrout
@void_nothing
@kwanyeegor-ii

Your submissions are due Friday, February 11th, 12:00 EST.

Schedule

• Round 1 — Open to Everyone (January 2nd-10th)
• Round 2 — Open to Everyone (January 10th-18th)
• Rounds 1 and 2 Critiques (Due January 24th)
• Top 8 — Open to top 8 finishers (January 24th–27th)
• Top 8 Critiques (Due February 7th)
• Top 4 — Open to top 4 finishers (February 7th-February 11th)
• Top 4 Critiques (Due February 14th)
• Final (February, winner determined by public poll)

Please note: For this month we will continue asking first and second round contestants to evaluate seven other contestants during the critique and top 3 period, in order to increase the total number of evaluations each contestant gets.

[Lorn Asbord Schutta]

Bump.

[Subject16]

Cylian Outcast BG
Creature — Elf Warlock (U)
T, Discard a creature card: Add one mana of any color. If you discarded a creature with power 5 or greater, add two mana of any one color instead.
"With great power come great potential."
1/1

Elvish Ringmaster BG
Creature — Elf Bard (U)
T, Discard a creature card: Throw the discarded card at least two feet into the air. If it lands on a creature, you may have that creature get +X/+X or -X/-X until end of turn, where X is the discarded card's power.
"Come on, Ghalta, do a flip!"
2/2

[slimytrout]

A difficult challenge!

Blue/Blackbeard, Feared Pirate 2UB
Legendary Creature — Human Pirate (R)
Menace
As Blue/Blackbeard, Feared Pirate enters the battlefield, cover one of your eyes with a hand. Sacrifice Blue/Blackbeard when you uncover that eye.
2UB: Each opponent that you dealt combat damage to this turn reveals the top card of their library for at least one second. For each revealed card you can name, you may play it without paying its mana cost.
3/3

Issini, the Silent Fang 2UB
Legendary Creature — Cat Demon (M)
Ward — Discard a card.
Whenever Issini, the Silent Fang's ward cost is paid, draw a card.
2UB: Look at the top two cards of your library. Manifest one and put the other into your hand. (To manifest a card, put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature. Turn it face up any time for its mana cost if it's a creature card.)
3/2

[void_nothing]

I'll do my best to enter tomorrow.

[void_nothing]

Jeskai Lecturer 2U
Creature - Djinn Monk (U)
Flying, ward 1
1RW: Return to your hand target noncreature card in your graveyard that was put there this turn.
"You will need memory and the written word alike to learn the Fires and follow the Way."
1/2

Pyro-Aero-Boomographer 2U
Creature - Human Scientist (U)
Whenever a card lands on a permanent (as part of an effect), if you control the landed-on permanent, you may untap that permanent or return it to its owner's hand. If an opponent controls it, you may draw a card.
1RW: Flip Pyro-Aero-Boomographer onto the playing area from a height of at least one foot. Each creature you control it touches gets +1/+1 until end of turn and Pyro-Aero-Boomographer deals 1 damage to each creature an opponent controls it touches. Put Pyro-Aero-Boomographer on the bottom of its owner's library if it lands face down.
"Hmm, you know what would sound even more impressive on a resume than 'rocket scientist'?"
2/3

[kwanyeegor-ii]

Orangutan Shaman 3R
Creature - Ape Shaman (Uncommon)
Haste
1R, T: Destroy target artifact with mana value 3 or less. Orangutan Shaman deals X damage to that artifact's controller, where X is 3 minus its mana value.
3/2

Spark Fiend II: Spark Harder 3R
Creature - Beast (Uncommon)
At the beginning of your upkeep, roll two six-sided dice.
Whenever you roll two or more dice and any results match, sacrifice Spark Fiend II: Spark Harder
1R, T: Roll three six-sided dice. Discard a card for each 1, you lose 1 life for each 2, create a Treasure token for each 3, untap a creature you control for each 4, put a +1/+1 counter on a creature you control for each 5, and draw a card for each 6.
4/5

[Lorn Asbord Schutta]

That would end this round.
@Subject16, @slimytrout, @void_nothing, @kwanyeegor-ii, please make a critique and a top 3.
I hope we can wrap up this till 19th, Saturday.

[void_nothing]

Critiques

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Subject16 - Cylian Outcast is a good concept but could use numerical tweaking - this seems completely not worth it unless you're discarding a 5+ power card or doing something degenerate. Elvish Ringmaster is perfect, no notes.

slimytrout - Unfortunately neither of these are uncommon. Blue/Blackbeard looks like fun and is flavorfully quite funny although the actual minigame aspect could be frustrating. Issini is totally neat - could be lots of tricks here.

kwanyeegor-ii - Orangutan Shaman has good design space - I like the ratcheting up and down of the damage based on the artifact size and the broader concept. SFII is a funny reference to the older card but like Spark Fiend the joke of being overly wordy makes for not a very elegant card.

Top 3

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1. Subject16
2. kwanyeegor-ii
3. slimytrout

[slimytrout]

Oh man, I completely missed the uncommon part, but so it goes.

Subject16

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The outcast is very weak -- there are plenty of 2-mana 1/1's that produce 1 or even 2 mana without the cost of discarding a card. I suppose in a madness or reanimator deck maybe it's ok, but I still think it could be pushed more without breaking those decks. The ringmaster is much more fun, although it could probably use some more clarity about what happens if it's touching multiple creatures.

void_nothing

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Lecturer is clever -- red gets to return instants and sorceries, while white gets to return artifacts and enchantments, so the only thing missing is planeswalker which is an acceptable bend. The stats are a little weak, but the ability is quite strong -- in fact, given the existence of Soulfire Grand Master and its use in some infinite combos, probably too strong, especially on an uncommon. The Boomographer has a *lot* of text (in fact, more rules text than can even fit on a card without including flavor text), so even if it does seem like it would play in a fun way, I feel like it would be too much for a lot of un-set players.

kwanyeegor-ii

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The orangutan is cool, but I have a couple of issues with the Spark Fiend -- first, players don't tend to like cards with unpredictable drawbacks, and the fact that this has several of them would be a big turn-off for a lot of people. Second, a big part of the joke of the original Spark Fiend was that you were playing the dice game craps ('spark' backwards, phonetically at least), but this new version doesn't seem to really resemble any dice game that I've ever heard of.

T3

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1. Subject16
2. kwanyeegor-ii
3. void_nothing

[kwanyeegor-ii]

Only time for a top 3

1 subject16
2 void_nothing
3 slimytrout

[Subject16]

Quick top 3 for me too:

1: kwanyeegor-ii
2. void_nothing
3. slimytrout

[Lorn Asbord Schutta]

And the round will close.
The finalists are:
Subject16 and kwanyeegor-ii.
Congratulations!
The final round will come soon.