November CCL, Top 4: Raging Tempest

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void_nothing
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Post by void_nothing » 4 years ago

CCL November Round 4/Top 4

"Raging Tempest"


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Grapeshot, taken from DeviantArt, by Clint Cearley 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 - and my favorite broken deck of all time has got to be Storm! So we'll be enabling decks that spit out spells at a crazy rate.

Challenge
Design two cards: a card that causes its controller to draw two or more cards at one time, and a card that reduces the cost of spells.
Clarifications
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  • Make sure to include a rarity.
Contestants
[mention]Ink-Treader[/mention]
[mention]Ryder[/mention]
[mention]Gateways7[/mention]
[mention]Subject16[/mention]
Your submissions are due Thursday, November 28th, 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 25th–28th)
  • Top 4 Critiques (Due November 30th)
  • Final (End of month, winner determined by public poll)
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

Ink-Treader
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Post by Ink-Treader » 4 years ago

Refreshing Breeze XUUU
Sorcery (R)
Draw X cards and untap up to X target creatures.
A light wind can refresh body and mind.

Malik, the Witchfinder 1WBR
Legendary Creature - Human Cleric (R)
Menace, lifelink
When Malik, the Witchfinder enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, choose an opponent. Until your next turn, spells that player's opponents cast that target that player and/or one or more permanents, spells, and/or cards they control cost 2 less to cast.
3/3
Last edited by Ink-Treader 4 years ago, edited 3 times in total.

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Subject16
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Post by Subject16 » 4 years ago

Moonblood Skaab 3U
Creature — Zombie (Rare)
Moonblood Skaab enters the battlefield tapped.
When enters the battlefield, draw cards equal to its power, then discard a card.
Undying (When this creature dies, if it had no +1/+1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control with a +1/+1 counter on it.)
"Eldrazi blood makes for far more potent creations."
—Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist

2/2

Master of Curios 2W
Creature — Human (Rare)
Will of the Council — At the beginning of your upkeep, starting with you, each player votes for artifacts, creatures, enchantments, instants, sorceries, or planeswalkers. Until your next turn, spells that share a type with a type with the most votes or tied for most votes cost 2 less to cast.
"Everyone loves a discount."
3/3

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Ryder
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Post by Ryder » 4 years ago

Lightning Wits 2{u/r}
Instant (U)
Scry 2, then discard up to two cards, then draw that many cards.
Rebound (If you cast this spell from your hand, exile it as it resolves. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile without paying its mana cost.)
"Second thoughts? Mine are always the first!"
—Hez


Hez, the Stormchaser 4UR
Legendary Creature — Human Wizard (R)
Flying
Prowess (Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
Instant and sorcery spells you cast cost 1 less to cast for each other instant or sorcery spell you've cast this turn.
2/3
Last edited by Ryder 4 years ago, edited 4 times in total.

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void_nothing
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Post by void_nothing » 4 years ago

Just over 24 hours left!
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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Gateways7
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Post by Gateways7 » 4 years ago

Liminal Insights 2R
Sorcery (uncommon)
Exile the top three cards of your library. Until the end of turn, you may cast spells exiled this way and they cost 1 less to cast.
"Something doesn't go from your imagination to being made—you gotta put the work in yourself, and that's the best part!"
—Ji-Rel, Izzet engineer


Acumen of the Detached 2UU
Sorcery (uncommon)
Solitary (Before you start the game, you may reveal your library. If there are no nonbasic cards with the same name, you're solitary for the rest of the game.)
Draw three cards. If you're solitary, draw four cards instead.

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void_nothing
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Post by void_nothing » 4 years ago

Round closed! Please critique each other contestant and arrange them into a T3.
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

Ink-Treader
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Post by Ink-Treader » 4 years ago

Subject16
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The Draw: Seems... kind of strong really. The initial outing is decent, and the return trip is really good. And it only gets nuttier with lords.
The Reduction: Some cute politics here, especially in multiplayer. Might be a bit potent 1 vs 1, but it's definitely also very double-edged there.
Ryder
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The Draw: The most obvious comparisons are Faithless Looting and some of the 3 CMC scry 2/draw 2/lose 2 life type cards. This comes off as quite pushed, especially with the scry. I'd like it a lot more either without the scry, or as a draw 2/discard 2 deal.
The Reduction: I'm not sure how this compares to Thousand-Year Storm... but this does have some of the same interactions, with some bonus hilarity with X costs. Seems fun.
Gateways7
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The Draw: Eh... I'm not sure how I feel about Solitary. Especially considering how formats like Commander and Draft exists (though it can dodge the latter depending on where it's printed). In other Constructed formats... I wonder if these this mechanic would even see play.
The Reduction: Act on Impulse isn't fantastic, but this seems better in a way that's still fair (the problem still exists where you need more mana beyond the card itself to make it shine.)
Top 3
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1. Ryder
2. Subject16
3. Gateways7

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Ryder
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Post by Ryder » 4 years ago

Stealing the template ;)
Subject16
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The Draw: Top-down design with mediocre balance and flavor. Powerful on it's own, as it's likely to be a 5 for 1... 2 creatures, + 3 cards + 2 lootings. Pretty sick for 4 mana. Also, I'd expect that having Eldrazi blood would give the Skaab some destructive properties instead of... wisdom?
The Reduction: Good effect and a solid card, even if completely unexciting.
Ink-Treader
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The Draw: Clean and effective at what it does. Storm would like it as it allows you to both draw gas and use it on the same turn. Flavor text is a bummer though, the card has much unused space.
The Reduction: Pushed legend is pushed. Making his ability work both on etb and on each upkeep is too much. Would be much more elegant if it was on combat damage, that would actually work with menace. Other than that, I guess the flavor works, he stigmatizes a player. Having said it all, I doubt anyone but Spike could be excited by the card.
Gateways7
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The Draw: Solitary is plain bad. Unprintable card because there is no limit to the library size. Imagine bringing a 500 card deck and going solitary... Dave would approve.
The Reduction: Ink-Treader said it all. "Act on Impulse isn't fantastic, but this seems better in a way that's still fair (the problem still exists where you need more mana beyond the card itself to make it shine.)"
Top 3
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1. Ink-Treader
2. Subject16
3. Gateways7

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Subject16
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Post by Subject16 » 4 years ago

Ink-Treader
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Ink-Treader wrote:
4 years ago
Refreshing Breeze XUUU
Sorcery (R)
Draw X cards and untap up to X target creatures.
A light wind can refresh body and mind.

Malik, the Witchfinder 1WBR
Legendary Creature - Human Cleric (R)
Menace, lifelink
When Malik, the Witchfinder enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, choose an opponent. Until your next turn, spells that player's opponents cast that target that player and/or one or more permanents, spells, and/or cards they control cost 2 less to cast.
3/3
Untapping creatures is an oft underestimated potential. I appreciate the "up to" so as to not limit your card draw output. Nice design.

Nice hate commander using cost reduction to push value. Although for commander most removal spells worth casting are usually 3cmc at most so the cost reduction can be a bit difficult. Would run this as a curse Tribal commander for sure.
Ryder
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Ryder wrote:
4 years ago
Lightning Wits 2{u/r}
Instant (U)
Scry 2, then discard up to two cards, then draw that many cards.
Rebound (If you cast this spell from your hand, exile it as it resolves. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile without paying its mana cost.)
"Second thoughts? Mine are always the first!"
—Hez


Hez, the Stormchaser 4UR
Legendary Creature — Human Wizard (R)
Flying
Prowess (Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
Instant and sorcery spells you cast cost 1 less to cast for each other instant or sorcery spell you've cast this turn.
2/3
Rebound on scry and looting is interesting. For only three mana this can be a strong value generator in terms of library manipulation and graveyard filling. Strong spell for sure, especially at Uncommon.

Hex is a very powerful commander, especially for storm and X mana spells. I'm sure there are ways to break this a lot, especially with something like Snap and other land untapping spells.
Gateways7
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Gateways7 wrote:
4 years ago
Liminal Insights 2R
Sorcery (uncommon)
Exile the top three cards of your library. Until the end of turn, you may cast spells exiled this way and they cost 1 less to cast.
"Something doesn't go from your imagination to being made—you gotta put the work in yourself, and that's the best part!"
—Ji-Rel, Izzet engineer


Acumen of the Detached 2UU
Sorcery (uncommon)
Solitary (Before you start the game, you may reveal your library. If there are no nonbasic cards with the same name, you're solitary for the rest of the game.)
Draw three cards. If you're solitary, draw four cards instead.
Cost reduction in impulse draw is very nice and rewards the aggressive playstyle. I do wish this would let you play lands.

Solitary is an interesting mechanic well suited to commander variants. Can't imagine this would see constructed play for consistency reasons though.
Top3
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3: Gateways7
2: Ryder
1: Ink-Treader

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void_nothing
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Posts: 14924
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Post by void_nothing » 4 years ago

EDIT: And our finalists are Ryder and Ink-Treader. Final round to come...
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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