October MCC - Judge signup thread

[bravelion83]

(This month's banner is my own elaboration on the art of the card Into the Story by Jason Rainville.)


October MCC

Judge signup thread

The October MCC and our own story on the plane of Eldraine begin now! Who knows what adventures this beautiful place has in store for us this month? Well, technically I do... Will you and your courage be as adamant as to join me through them? We'll share everything, stories, battles, and even our food! Knights of all courts of the realm, this is your call to arms!

If you want to sign up as a judge for the October MCC, just reply to this thread. If you've already judged before in the MCC, that's enough. Otherwise, if you've never judged before, there is a little extra step required: please try to judge the sample card you can find below with the MCC rubric and post your sample judgment here. I will reply to you as soon as possible with my own thoughts about it and if you did good enough of a job, I will officially welcome you as an MCC judge. (Don't worry, I don't remember ever having to turn down anyone, and by the way I've also helped a number of MCC judges on their first experience.)

As always, since I am hosting, I am also going to be a judge. How many judges we need this month will depend on how high the player participation will be. I think we will need at the very least two more, but if player participation is so high that more judges will be required I will certainly not complain! That's a problem that I actually would like to have.

Please check out the MCC Guidelines and FAQ if you have the will and time. Link here and in my signature.


SAMPLE CARD
Assume all challenges (Main Challenge and both Subchallenges) are met.

Syr Lanlot, Exemplar of Valor 2WW
Legendary Creature — Human Knight (R)
Whenever Syr Lanlot, Exemplar of Valor enters the battlefield, you may search your library for a legendary Equipment and put it on the battlefield attached to Syr Lanlot.
"I and my sword would do anything for Ardenvale. Especially for Queen Linden."
2/3

MCC Rubric

Show

Hide

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.

Judge signups will stay open until the design deadline for Round 1 or until we get enough judges, whichever comes first. The judge signups will be going on in parallel with Round 1. Round 1 will be posted tomorrow night.

[Gateways7]

I know I'm pretty new to these forums, but I'd like to try judging!

bravelion83

Show

Hide

Design
(3/3) Appeal - Timmy loves this because there are a good number of beaters that you could attach to Lanlot for value - Embercleave, Godsend, Blackblade Reforged, Elbris (to try and get a cheap Withengar), and maybe even Tatsumasa the Dragon's Fang. Johnny is a fan because you can make the Kaldra "combo" work, and the synergy with this card and Helm of the Host is really strong. For Spike, I think that same Helm of the Host synergy as well as strong, versatile cards like Umezawa's Jitte make it a good card, especially for Commander.
(3/3) Elegance - It's pretty simple - a legendary Knight grabs a legendary Sword. The flavor is strongly tied to the mechanics of the card, and the flavor text and the name do a lot to demonstrate that this card is supposed to be an expo of Lancelot.

Development
(3/3) Viability - This works perfectly well as a card. Equipment tutoring and attaching for free are both very white things, neither of which hurt the game, and rare is exactly where this card needs to be.
(2/3) Balance - I think that this card creates an incredibly interesting deck archetype, and it plays well in casual / multiplayer formats where oddball picks like legendary artifacts might be more common. That said, I think that its combo with Helm of the Host is a little too powerful for formats like Commander, especially since Lanlot can be a commander himself.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness - We've seen equipment tutoring (Steelshaper's Gift), equipment tutoring on a creature (Deadeye Quartermaster), and equipment tutoring on a creature that then is put onto the battlefield (Stoneforge Mystic). However, the space playing in specifically Legendary Equipments, as well as putting the equipment onto the battlefield, is pretty novel.
(2.5/3) Flavor - Taking off a half a point here because the name is too much of a direct rip from legend than most Magic cards are, but other than that, everything is good.

Polish
(2/3) Quality - Mostly fine, but needs a shuffle clause. Also the flavor text should be "My sword and I."
(2/2) Main Challenge - Completed.
(2/2) Subchallenges - Completed also.

Overall - 21.5/25

Addendums

Show

Hide

Balance - As a card in Limited, this is very weak, as it's very unlikely you're going to draft this card alongside a good legendary artifact, let alone a legendary Equipment. And it's just as weak in Standard - for instance, the only legendary Equipment currently legal in Standard is Embercleave, and there have only been four legal in Standard in the last 5 years (the others being Helm, Blackblade, and Sword of the Animist.) If there was a good legendary Equipment in this card's Standard, I could see the case for it being a Standard powerhouse, but the way it seems Magic is going, that's unlikely. That said, this card doesn't strike me as a card made for a Limited or a Standard environment, so I'll maintain my score of 2/3.

Quality - Two things that I neglected to add before - the card should read "When this creature enters the battlefield" rather than "Whenever this creature enters the battlefield", and it should be searching for a legendary Equipment card. In light of that, the Quality score is now a 0.5/3.

[bravelion83]

Being new doesn't prevent you from trying, as you've said yourself. Several years ago by now, on MTGSalvation, I went from lurker to player than judge and finally host all in the span of four months! The first four months I was active not just on MTGSalvation's CCCG subforum, but in any custom card community. I had been designing custom cards for years, but I was keeping them all for myself until then. That's been the beginning of my public custom card career.

I'll take a look and then come back to you here. At first glance I've already noticed one thing: always use autocards, at least the first time you mention a card in any judgment. Personally, I like to do it every time, not just the first time, but at the very least you should use them the first time. They make life much easier to the reader. For example, now I will have to go search Gatherer for all the several cards you mention, except the more famous ones, like Stoneforge or Jitte. It will take some time, that would have been very easily saved just by using autocard. More detailed thoughts coming later.

EDIT: "Later" has come.

[mention]Gateways7[/mention]: The following are the notes I wrote in real time while reading your sample judgment. I've made a couple edits. Those are in italics.

Notes

Show

Hide

Autocards missing everywhere. No problems with the scores except where noted.

Appeal
- A typo: it's Elbrus, not Elbris. Even if you had used autocard here, it wouldn't have worked. In fact, see what I just did. The following is the code behind the sentence I've just written:

A typo: it's [card=Elbrus, the Binding Blade]Elbrus[/card], not [card=Elbris, the Binding Blade]Elbris[/card].

- Another typo: a comma missing in "Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang", which I thought would also make autocard not work. In fact, let's try that: tell me, autocard, is it Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang or Tatsumasa the Dragon's Fang? The source code is this:

tell me, autocard, is it [card]Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang[/card] or [card]Tatsumasa the Dragon's Fang[/card]?

EDIT: The version without a comma wouldn't have worked on MTGSalvation, but apparently it works here. Well, you should avoid typos anyway. As I always like to say to fellow judges: let's not make ourselves the same mistakes we're supposed to spot and punish in submitted cards.
- I'd prefer mentions of specific formats to go under Balance, but it's just the flow of the speech that brings you to mention Commander here, so this is just a thing that caught my eyes and not a problem in any way.
- I really like how you go deep into specific card interactions appealing to each of the psychographics. Good job here.

Elegance
- Typo: The word "Sword" should not be capitalized. It's not intended as a subtype here, and doesn't exist as a subtype anyway.
- The part about name and flavor text really belongs in Flavor, not here, but I guess it does also influence Elegance a little bit. In this section we talk more about elegance from a mechanical and holistic point of view.
- Decent job here overall, though not as good as Appeal.

Viability
- Just perfect. Best area so far.

Balance
- You essentially just talk about casual and multiplayer, and Commander is already included in both categories. Everything you say about that is fine, but competitive individual formats also exist, and are actually supposed to be the main focus here. What about limited, both draft and sealed? What about Standard? What about Modern and older formats? You should also analyze those, and if you find there are no problems with those formats, mention that there are no problems, otherwise it looks like you haven't even thought about them, just like it appears here, even if I suppose that you have thought about them and concluded that there were no problems so you didn't mention them. You still should, again, even just to say that there are no problems. This is a rather big thing, the biggest thing I've noticed so far.
- It looks to me like you focus a bit too much on Commander, honestly. I see it both in Appeal and here. I guess I and you are the two extremes in the "how much you like Commander" scale: I really don't like it and in fact I just don't play it, you're probably a player that loves Commander and to whom Commander is almost the only way they play Magic. Neither of us is right or wrong, as Maro often says you not liking something means it's just not for you, and in fact I don't like or play Commander but rejoice of the fact that there are many players who do.

Uniqueness
- Also perfect, just like Viability was. Nothing to say if not: good job here!

Flavor
- Agree with the name being too similar to the source material, and that was 100% intentional on my part, so glad that you've noticed that despite it being rather easy to catch. I could see deducting even a whole point for that, but I have no problems with your score either.
- Remember the note at the beginning in Elegance? Thoughts about name and flavor text belong here, as well as ones about card concept and creature types if there is anything relevant to say about those. That's not the case here, but remember that for the future.

Quality
- You caught one mistake: the lack of a shuffle clause, which is big, so -1 for that is definitely right.
- There are multiple (intended as "more than one") other intentional Quality mistake you didn't catch though. This is not good. The score here should definitely be lower.
- As far as I know, "I and my sword" should be correct in English grammar. (It would certainly be in Italian by the way, "io e la mia spada" is much more fluent in Italian than "la mia spada e io". This obviously doesn't matter here, this is an English speaking forum, but I just felt like mentioning it.) There were no intentional mistakes hidden in those specific words, so I'm definitely happy that you went back and stroked that away.

I have two requests for you before officially accepting you as a judge:
• Write an addendum to the Balance section to say what you think about this card in limited and Standard at the very least (also Modern and older formats like Legacy and Vintage if you feel like it) and post it here. You're free to choose whether to adjust your Balance score or leave it as is.
• Find the "more than one" Quality mistakes that you missed (I'm not saying how many are there for now) and adjust your Quality score accordingly. Please, post the further mistakes you find and your adjusted score right here together with the addendum to Balance.

These are the only two things I ask of you before accepting your judging application. I assume you'd use autocard and fix typos in real judgments, but if you want to just repost it all with autocards everywhere and fixed typos in addition to implementing my requests, that's also fine. Your choice whether you want to repost everything or just Balance and Quality.

All the rest ranges from fine to perfect as is, so I'm good with that.

Please reply here asap and anyway before the design deadline of Round 1 (Sunday, October 6th). Thank you.

[Gateways7]

Fixed the two things! Sorry I couldn't do more, but I have a test coming up tommorow, so I wanted to grind some studying.

Also, I think your comment about Commander is really interesting - my immediate first thought looking at this card was that it was designed specifically for Commander, with a more janky build-around theme, but I guess we all work in different ways!

[bravelion83]

Fixed the two things!

Ok, now it's good. Those two plus the lack of a shuffle clause were all the intended Quality mistakes, and I like your addendum to Balance. I'm glad to officially welcome you as an MCC judge. Should you need any help, advice, or anything, you know where to find me (probably best via pm if during judgments).

Sorry I couldn't do more, but I have a test coming up tommorow, so I wanted to grind some studying.

Please do, that's way more important. I wish you the best. I've been through that routine for 9 years, so I definitely know what it's like.

Also, I think your comment about Commander is really interesting - my immediate first thought looking at this card was that it was designed specifically for Commander, with a more janky build-around theme, but I guess we all work in different ways!

Just so you know, I wasn't even thinking about Commander at all while designing the sample card. I was just trying to come up with a top-down Lancelot, then I hid a few intended mistakes, that's all. Anyway, it's a good thing to have judges who focus on different aspects, only don't just ignore (or give the impression that you're ignoring) what you don't naturally focus on. As a rule of thumb, the deeper you go in your judgments, the better it is. I mean, just take myself as an example. I usually write very long judgments, I think that if you take all the judgments that I've written in the 36 times I've judged the MCC (this is the 37th) you could easily fill up a book or maybe even two... Wow, now that I think of it, I'm amazed at how much I must have been writing through the years... Am I really becoming a writer? Not professional, but certainly an amateur author... or Amateur Auteur! Ok, I'm doing it again and my puns are getting bad (they've actually always been...), so I'll stop here! Again, best wishes to you for your test. We'll be in touch starting Sunday. See you then!

[Blydden]

For Syr Lionheart, the Brave!

Eldraine has been a wonderful new plane to visit. As much as I'd love to participate in this month's contest, I'd also love to be a judge for this fine...

Racing quest?
Contest of colors?
Magical bake sale?
Honorable knight's tournament?

Whatever it turns out to be in the end, I have free time this month to judge all four rounds.

Pleasure to make your acquaintance again,
Syr Bly, the Virtuous

[void_nothing]

Guess I have to make a #ThankYouBlydden post again!

[bravelion83]

For Syr Lionheart, the Brave! ...

Reply to [mention]Blydden[/mention]. In spoiler because it's long. In short, you're absolutely officially in! But there is a whole backstory that I want you in particular, and anybody else that might be interested in general, to know. So, here we go...

Story time! And welcome back, Syr Bly!

Show

Hide

So many "strange" things (in a positive sense) are happening to me in these last days... So many "coincidences"... And here it is, even more of them. Dear Syr Bly, you've just managed to hit two of them in a single post. One is you calling me Syr Lionheart. I have used a custom planeswalker, obviously meant to be my own alter ego in the Magic Multiverse back in 2015, writing and using his backstory for the back-to-back MCC months that I've hosted in July and August of that year. That planeswalker's name is Jeff Lionheart, and I still have a link to his backstory in my signature (in the linked "my projects" page). I've been writing a huge story (with its own custom Magic set attached) in the last several months, the "very big project" I refer to. That is the story of another custom planeswalker that has the ability to planeswalk with his brother (kind of like Yanggu with Mowu), also meant to represent another alter ego of me if you take them together. I have already planned several sequels to that story, and in the very next one I'm planning to reprise Jeff Lionheart, putting in his own backstory exactly as I've written it four years ago, having him meet the brothers and become very good friends with them, and letting the three of them live several adventures throughout the Multiverse together (many of which I've also already planned). I will heavily involve him in almost all the following sequels, turning him too into a major character. I've had this planned for months by now, but there is only one single person in the world that knew it (my best friend, the one I've been going to 2HG tournaments with since GRN), and I know for sure he's not a user on this site (yet, who knows what could happen in the future, I do plan to show him what I do here eventually), so it can't be you in disguise. One of the following must be true:
• You were involved in either or both the July 2015 and August 2015 MCCs on MTGSalvation, so you remembered Jeff Lionheart from there. I do remember you judging multiple MCC months that I've hosted (and I also remember other things about you and I'll get to them in a second), but I don't remember if those two months of MCC involving Jeff's backstory were among those.
• You've seen the mention of Jeff's name in my signature (on MTGSalvation) or in the linked Blogger page that I had to use here on MTGNexus because of the character limit for signatures.
• Somehow this is a real coincidence, and you did neither know nor remember about Jeff, coming up with Syr Lionheart by yourself. And if this is actually the case, this is really a striking coincidence to me... too striking for me not to take it as some kind of sign. Exactly like netn10's Cowardly Lion in the DCC.

You might not believe it, but after I've written the modal challenge for this month's Round 1 (and also planning ones for future rounds, but obviously I won't say anything about those now), you came back to my mind because I distinctly remember you hosting an MCC on MTGSalvation (maybe the only time you've ever hosted if I recall correctly), where I judged and I also helped you a lot behind the scenes. I remember you bouncing challenge ideas to me and me giving you feedback before posting them. Only after coming up with the modal structure for this month in a completely independent way, I remembered you because one of those ideas you bounced at me (and maybe the one we actually went with if my memory is working properly, and that's far from a given) was exactly modal challenges, only with two modes instead of the four I have here this month. I thought back at that MCC and at you as a person that has always proved very nice to me on Salvation. I wondered what you might have been up to because it was a lot of time we hadn't heard from each other. I wasn't even sure whether you had come to Nexus or stayed on Salvation. And I literally made the thought that I wouldn't have minded having you as a judge this month. I'm not joking. This was either yesterday or the day before, I can't remember precisely. Then now I come to check the site to see if there were any updates on everything really, but the MCC I'm hosting this month specifically, and what do I see? That you're actually back and you actually want to judge! It's like I've had a premonition about you... and I swear that everything I've just written is totally true.

So, welcome back, my friend! I wanted to have you as a judge, and guess what? You are one right now, in this very moment! I'm so happy! You don't know the huge gift that you've just made me! Yet another one in these days of striking coincidences... Syr Bly, not only you're absolutely in without a second thought, but I'm sure you'll make an excellent job as you've always done. Meet you again on Sunday, or anytime you want really. You know where to find me.

[bravelion83]

I'm closing the judge signups for now. What we need now are more players, not more judges. I'll reopen them if needed, but I honestly don't think that it will be the case, at least for now.
If you're interested in playing, please check out the Round 1 thread.