January MCC Round 4
Escape attempt
The story continues, but does it end?
Intro
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A chase is underway. Calix is trying to fulfill the purpose for which he was created by Klothys: bringing back Elspeth to the underworld, preventing her from escaping. Okite is trying to accomplish the mission for which Phenax had chosen him, killing Calix to prevent him from preventing Elspeth's escape, having been promised his own escape in exchange.
Okite, with Aktifotas, the two blessed indestructible daggers forged by Purphoros specifically for his mission, wanders the Underworld looking for agents of fate, to kill on sight, and traces of Calix. A single strike of Aktifotas is enough to bring down an ordinary agent of fate. Okite takes advantage of this to try to hit the big target that Phenax gave him: Klothys herself.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Okite."
"'No god'?"
"In fact I have to end you."
"Who sends you?"
"The great Phenax."
"I should have imagined. He will never understand that destiny is to be fulfilled."
"Your destiny is to die. You and your agents."
"Try it. I'm here."
Okite tried to put Aktifotas in Klothys's vital parts, but it was like moving through thin air. Klothys's body wasn't solid. For that reason, a couple of daggers could do nothing against it.
"Try again. Maybe you just had bad luck."
He tried again, but this time, she always appeared to be moving with him, visible yet always unreachable, like the sun or the moon when one is travelling fast.
"See? Destiny is inevitable. I incarnate destiny, and destiny can't die."
"But these are Nyx-forged. They should hit you. They've been made by a god to strike down another."
"My destiny is to live forever, Okite. What's yours?"
"To kill you."
"No. To stay here in the Underworld. You will not escape. Now I will cast a spell on you."
She moved her hands and fingers in an apparently incomprehensible dance.
"I know who you're really after. Calix. My most precious creation. Every time you will meet me or him and lose, you'll be magically transported back to your starting point, where you first met Phenax. You won't be able to escape your destiny, Okite. Now you haven't defeated me, so you will be set back to your starting point. Goodbye, Okite."
A moment later he found himself back in Phenax's lair, but in the absence of the God of Deception.
"I guess I'll better give up the extra goal. Oh well, there are still the others."
He chose to give up on Klothys, concentrating on Calix instead. Phenax's influence let him see a trace right in front of him. He followed the trail, somehow recognizing it was Calix's. Everybody with a destiny web kept going down with a single strike, so that wasn't the problem. That was to be faster than Calix to reach him. He prayed to Phenax:
"O great Phenax, I know it's strange for a leonin to pray a god. But I'm not an ordinary leonin. I am a leonin that has seen the truth. Give me the necessary guidance and speed to reach my enemy."
He started following Calix's mystical traces, running as fast as he had never done in life until he reached him.
"Hey you! I know who you are. You are Calix."
"Yes, that's my name. But you're not my target."
"But you are mine!"
Okite sprinted towards Calix to hit him with Aktifotas, but while he was still running, Calix threw a destiny web on him, and as the web touched him, he found himself back in Phenax's lair. After several times that the scene repeated, with Calix advancing, Okite reaching him, being hit by a web and set back, Okite was able to find Calix in the spot where he was supposed to catch Elspeth.
"Enough is enough. This time I'm going stealthy."
Okite saw a few rocks nearby, and hid behind them, ready to ambush his enemy.
"Look the strangeness of destiny. Klothys would love this. This is the same scene when I died, only with me in the place of that human invoking Heliod, and Calix in my place."
Okite saw Calix's agony.
"He's even in agony, like I was back then. A reversal of fate. Again, Klothys would love this. Who knows, maybe she's the one who arranged for this to happen. Anyway, I have a mission, and he's in agony. I have to take advantage of the situation. Now I leave my hiding spot, and go to kill him."
As he left his hiding spot, Calix suddenly disappeared.
"What? Where has he gone? I've got it, the similarities continue. Jeff too had disappeared while I was in agony, in my last moments of life. I saw it. Is what happened to Jeff and Calix the same? And what was that? And what do I do now?"
Another falling star in the sky. Phenax wanted to talk again.
"Alright, Phenax, I'm coming. Probably I'll be magically brought to your lair in a few moments. Just the time to contemplate the same scene from another point of view."
In fact, in just a few moments, he found himself before Phenax himself.
"So it looks like you've failed."
"I've done my best."
"Why have you gone to Klothys first?"
"You've said she was the extra goal."
"Yes, but not the main goal. To go for the big game, you've lost the meaty one. Tell me, without Klothys's enchantment setting you back each time, your mission would have been easier or harder? And don't try to deceive the God of Deception!"
"Easier."
"So it was a mistake?"
"Probably."
"I'll leave you all doubts: yes, it was a mistake. A fatal mistake. Your mission is failed, thus you stay here."
Okite thought:
"Which is exactly what Klothys wanted."
Meanwhile, Phenax had disappeared from Okite's view. Okite was alone now, his mission unaccomplished. He knows he's condemned to a slow loss of identity, like the other leonin he met earlier. He has only one thing left to do now: lay down on the ground in front of Phenax's now empty lair and look at the starry sky.
"Who knows, maybe one day I will see another falling star."
Instead he saw another thing in the starry sky. Like a projection. He could see the images and hear the sounds.
"What's that? No, please, no! Not my agony scene!"
He had recognized his point of view in the scene of his own death, and he was reliving that. But at a certain point, something happens:
"I'm about to die in that moment. I should see Athreos and his river if this were my story projected in the sky. Instead I still see the same scene, I recognize it, but this is not my point of view. Oh my! Is that my own body? Did Jeff really reduce me to this state? Of course I died, then! Am I seeing things from Jeff's point of view now? I guess so. But wait! The image is changing... What's this, another trick by Phenax? What's that world? What's this? Lanathos?"
While looking at the sky, he was magically seeing everything that Jeff has been through in the meantime, from the perspective of Jeff's eyes and ears, seeing what Jeff has seen, and hearing what Jeff has heard. He kept thinking to himself:
"WHAT?!? An ancestor of Jeff has been a champion of Heliod? So he knows about the gods being real too? But is this reality or imagination? Or hallucination? What's that city? That must be the house of the human that he chose to save. WHAT?!? That's Ajani! That scar on his left eye is unmistakable. Planeswalker? What does that word mean? Oh, here, Ajani is explaining. So this is what happened to Jeff? And are these the real origins of Ajani? More news for the pride, if only I could reach them. But how? I have to do it. With Phenax or not. After all, wasn't Calix after a woman trying to escape by herself? Maybe if she did it, I could too. I have to think about this... Maybe I can find another way to escape. But if I go to them, to my pride, to Oreskos, and I start talking about the gods, that are real, now I know, they kill me again. They don't know about the gods! Would they believe me? I don't think so. Jeff is wanted for that, and for having killed me. After all, we're not as different as I thought. That's why I had to relive that scene in the role of the human behind the rocks observing Calix become a planeswalker too probably. Now I know everything. Now I know the truth. Now I know all that Jeff knows, about the gods, and about planeswalkers. No, we're not different at all. If I had known back then what I know now, I would have totally saved that human, Martin. Now I also know his name and his story. He deserved to be saved, regardless of whether he was calling a god, and one that is real, now I know it. Now I'd totally behave exactly like Jeff did. And Jeff deserves to be readmitted in Oreskos, he was actually right. He did nothing wrong. And if I met him today, I'd behave very differently. I'd try to be his friend before his boss. Actually, he is the only person that can understand me. We both know about the gods and planeswalkers, we are both exiled and wanted in Oreskos. At least, I would be if I mentioned the gods. I wish there was a way to let all the leonin on the mainland know that the gods are real. And I wish to meet again Jeff, the planeswalker. Until I stay here, I can't do anything. I have to try to escape like that woman. Without the help of anybody. I'll think about that. Meanwhile I have learned a lesson: everything that happens depends on your point of view. From his own point of view, Jeff did nothing wrong, but neither did I with the information I had in that moment. But now I see. Now I see that we're definitely not that different. Maybe we've never been. And neither of us will make his way back to Oreskos now. For now. Ever is a long time. And if that woman did it, I can do that too. Somehow."
Okite, with Aktifotas, the two blessed indestructible daggers forged by Purphoros specifically for his mission, wanders the Underworld looking for agents of fate, to kill on sight, and traces of Calix. A single strike of Aktifotas is enough to bring down an ordinary agent of fate. Okite takes advantage of this to try to hit the big target that Phenax gave him: Klothys herself.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Okite."
"'No god'?"
"In fact I have to end you."
"Who sends you?"
"The great Phenax."
"I should have imagined. He will never understand that destiny is to be fulfilled."
"Your destiny is to die. You and your agents."
"Try it. I'm here."
Okite tried to put Aktifotas in Klothys's vital parts, but it was like moving through thin air. Klothys's body wasn't solid. For that reason, a couple of daggers could do nothing against it.
"Try again. Maybe you just had bad luck."
He tried again, but this time, she always appeared to be moving with him, visible yet always unreachable, like the sun or the moon when one is travelling fast.
"See? Destiny is inevitable. I incarnate destiny, and destiny can't die."
"But these are Nyx-forged. They should hit you. They've been made by a god to strike down another."
"My destiny is to live forever, Okite. What's yours?"
"To kill you."
"No. To stay here in the Underworld. You will not escape. Now I will cast a spell on you."
She moved her hands and fingers in an apparently incomprehensible dance.
"I know who you're really after. Calix. My most precious creation. Every time you will meet me or him and lose, you'll be magically transported back to your starting point, where you first met Phenax. You won't be able to escape your destiny, Okite. Now you haven't defeated me, so you will be set back to your starting point. Goodbye, Okite."
A moment later he found himself back in Phenax's lair, but in the absence of the God of Deception.
"I guess I'll better give up the extra goal. Oh well, there are still the others."
He chose to give up on Klothys, concentrating on Calix instead. Phenax's influence let him see a trace right in front of him. He followed the trail, somehow recognizing it was Calix's. Everybody with a destiny web kept going down with a single strike, so that wasn't the problem. That was to be faster than Calix to reach him. He prayed to Phenax:
"O great Phenax, I know it's strange for a leonin to pray a god. But I'm not an ordinary leonin. I am a leonin that has seen the truth. Give me the necessary guidance and speed to reach my enemy."
He started following Calix's mystical traces, running as fast as he had never done in life until he reached him.
"Hey you! I know who you are. You are Calix."
"Yes, that's my name. But you're not my target."
"But you are mine!"
Okite sprinted towards Calix to hit him with Aktifotas, but while he was still running, Calix threw a destiny web on him, and as the web touched him, he found himself back in Phenax's lair. After several times that the scene repeated, with Calix advancing, Okite reaching him, being hit by a web and set back, Okite was able to find Calix in the spot where he was supposed to catch Elspeth.
"Enough is enough. This time I'm going stealthy."
Okite saw a few rocks nearby, and hid behind them, ready to ambush his enemy.
"Look the strangeness of destiny. Klothys would love this. This is the same scene when I died, only with me in the place of that human invoking Heliod, and Calix in my place."
Okite saw Calix's agony.
"He's even in agony, like I was back then. A reversal of fate. Again, Klothys would love this. Who knows, maybe she's the one who arranged for this to happen. Anyway, I have a mission, and he's in agony. I have to take advantage of the situation. Now I leave my hiding spot, and go to kill him."
As he left his hiding spot, Calix suddenly disappeared.
"What? Where has he gone? I've got it, the similarities continue. Jeff too had disappeared while I was in agony, in my last moments of life. I saw it. Is what happened to Jeff and Calix the same? And what was that? And what do I do now?"
Another falling star in the sky. Phenax wanted to talk again.
"Alright, Phenax, I'm coming. Probably I'll be magically brought to your lair in a few moments. Just the time to contemplate the same scene from another point of view."
In fact, in just a few moments, he found himself before Phenax himself.
"So it looks like you've failed."
"I've done my best."
"Why have you gone to Klothys first?"
"You've said she was the extra goal."
"Yes, but not the main goal. To go for the big game, you've lost the meaty one. Tell me, without Klothys's enchantment setting you back each time, your mission would have been easier or harder? And don't try to deceive the God of Deception!"
"Easier."
"So it was a mistake?"
"Probably."
"I'll leave you all doubts: yes, it was a mistake. A fatal mistake. Your mission is failed, thus you stay here."
Okite thought:
"Which is exactly what Klothys wanted."
Meanwhile, Phenax had disappeared from Okite's view. Okite was alone now, his mission unaccomplished. He knows he's condemned to a slow loss of identity, like the other leonin he met earlier. He has only one thing left to do now: lay down on the ground in front of Phenax's now empty lair and look at the starry sky.
"Who knows, maybe one day I will see another falling star."
Instead he saw another thing in the starry sky. Like a projection. He could see the images and hear the sounds.
"What's that? No, please, no! Not my agony scene!"
He had recognized his point of view in the scene of his own death, and he was reliving that. But at a certain point, something happens:
"I'm about to die in that moment. I should see Athreos and his river if this were my story projected in the sky. Instead I still see the same scene, I recognize it, but this is not my point of view. Oh my! Is that my own body? Did Jeff really reduce me to this state? Of course I died, then! Am I seeing things from Jeff's point of view now? I guess so. But wait! The image is changing... What's this, another trick by Phenax? What's that world? What's this? Lanathos?"
While looking at the sky, he was magically seeing everything that Jeff has been through in the meantime, from the perspective of Jeff's eyes and ears, seeing what Jeff has seen, and hearing what Jeff has heard. He kept thinking to himself:
"WHAT?!? An ancestor of Jeff has been a champion of Heliod? So he knows about the gods being real too? But is this reality or imagination? Or hallucination? What's that city? That must be the house of the human that he chose to save. WHAT?!? That's Ajani! That scar on his left eye is unmistakable. Planeswalker? What does that word mean? Oh, here, Ajani is explaining. So this is what happened to Jeff? And are these the real origins of Ajani? More news for the pride, if only I could reach them. But how? I have to do it. With Phenax or not. After all, wasn't Calix after a woman trying to escape by herself? Maybe if she did it, I could too. I have to think about this... Maybe I can find another way to escape. But if I go to them, to my pride, to Oreskos, and I start talking about the gods, that are real, now I know, they kill me again. They don't know about the gods! Would they believe me? I don't think so. Jeff is wanted for that, and for having killed me. After all, we're not as different as I thought. That's why I had to relive that scene in the role of the human behind the rocks observing Calix become a planeswalker too probably. Now I know everything. Now I know the truth. Now I know all that Jeff knows, about the gods, and about planeswalkers. No, we're not different at all. If I had known back then what I know now, I would have totally saved that human, Martin. Now I also know his name and his story. He deserved to be saved, regardless of whether he was calling a god, and one that is real, now I know it. Now I'd totally behave exactly like Jeff did. And Jeff deserves to be readmitted in Oreskos, he was actually right. He did nothing wrong. And if I met him today, I'd behave very differently. I'd try to be his friend before his boss. Actually, he is the only person that can understand me. We both know about the gods and planeswalkers, we are both exiled and wanted in Oreskos. At least, I would be if I mentioned the gods. I wish there was a way to let all the leonin on the mainland know that the gods are real. And I wish to meet again Jeff, the planeswalker. Until I stay here, I can't do anything. I have to try to escape like that woman. Without the help of anybody. I'll think about that. Meanwhile I have learned a lesson: everything that happens depends on your point of view. From his own point of view, Jeff did nothing wrong, but neither did I with the information I had in that moment. But now I see. Now I see that we're definitely not that different. Maybe we've never been. And neither of us will make his way back to Oreskos now. For now. Ever is a long time. And if that woman did it, I can do that too. Somehow."
Main Challenge - Design a mythic rare card that has exactly one of the four named mechanics from THB (Constellation, devotion, escape, Sagas).
Subchallenge 1 - Your card is an Enchantment Creature that does NOT have the "God" or "Elder" creature types.
Subchallenge 2 - Your card has a multicolored color identity.
Clarifications
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Main Challenge
• Your card has to belong at the required rarity. You can't just take Llanowar Elves, put in a mythic rarity instead of common and submit it as is. Or better, you technically can, but expect huge deductions in several areas of the rubric if you do. Trust me, it's not a good idea.
• Your card must have exactly one or the four mechanics from THB: it has to have one (no cards without any of the four mechanics), and it can't have more than one (no mix-and-match cards).
• Your choices have NOT been tracked this month, so don't worry about your past cards this month influencing this round. They don't. If you used the same mechanic on all three previous rounds, you can use it again in this round. You are able to make all four rounds with the same mechanic if you want.
• For Sagas, having the Saga mechanic means that your card is a Saga. It can't simply reference Sagas, it has to be a Saga itself.
Subchallenge 1
• Your card must have both card types "Enchantment" and "Creature" on its type line.
• It can have additional supertypes and/or card types, but pay attention to the length of the type line.
• Your card's subtype(s), or in other words its creature type(s), can be whatever BUT "God".
• Both requirements (being an Enchantment Creature and NOT being a God) must be met at the same time to pass this subchallenge. If only one is met, this subchallenge is failed.
Subchallenge 2
• "Color identity" means that mana symbols in the rules text are also checked in addition to those in the card's mana cost.
• There are multiple ways that a card can have a multicolored color identity, and they are all fine. It can be a multicolored card in itself (aka have a multicolored mana cost, all forms of multicolored costs are allowed, including hybrid), a monocolored card with off-color mana symbols in the rules text, or a colorless card with colored mana symbols of two different colors (or multicolored mana symbols) in the rules text. Anything goes, as long as the result is a multicolored color identity.
If you have any more questions, just ask in the discussion thread.
• Your card has to belong at the required rarity. You can't just take Llanowar Elves, put in a mythic rarity instead of common and submit it as is. Or better, you technically can, but expect huge deductions in several areas of the rubric if you do. Trust me, it's not a good idea.
• Your card must have exactly one or the four mechanics from THB: it has to have one (no cards without any of the four mechanics), and it can't have more than one (no mix-and-match cards).
• Your choices have NOT been tracked this month, so don't worry about your past cards this month influencing this round. They don't. If you used the same mechanic on all three previous rounds, you can use it again in this round. You are able to make all four rounds with the same mechanic if you want.
• For Sagas, having the Saga mechanic means that your card is a Saga. It can't simply reference Sagas, it has to be a Saga itself.
Subchallenge 1
• Your card must have both card types "Enchantment" and "Creature" on its type line.
• It can have additional supertypes and/or card types, but pay attention to the length of the type line.
• Your card's subtype(s), or in other words its creature type(s), can be whatever BUT "God".
• Both requirements (being an Enchantment Creature and NOT being a God) must be met at the same time to pass this subchallenge. If only one is met, this subchallenge is failed.
Subchallenge 2
• "Color identity" means that mana symbols in the rules text are also checked in addition to those in the card's mana cost.
• There are multiple ways that a card can have a multicolored color identity, and they are all fine. It can be a multicolored card in itself (aka have a multicolored mana cost, all forms of multicolored costs are allowed, including hybrid), a monocolored card with off-color mana symbols in the rules text, or a colorless card with colored mana symbols of two different colors (or multicolored mana symbols) in the rules text. Anything goes, as long as the result is a multicolored color identity.
If you have any more questions, just ask in the discussion thread.
DEADLINES
Design deadline: Saturday, February 1st 2020, 23:59 EST
Judging deadline: Tuesday, February 4th 2020, 23:59 EST
RUBRIC
MCC Rubric
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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.
(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
bravelion83
Ryder
Sojourner Dusk
PLAYERS
[mention]Gateways7[/mention]
[mention]slimytrout[/mention]
[mention]Subject16[/mention]
A reminder to everyone:
In the MCC, putting rarity on cards is mandatory! If you don't put a rarity on your card, expect huge deductions in both Viability AND Quality.
Please check out the MCC Guidelines and FAQ if you have the will and time. Link here and in my signature. Among the many things you can find there are a detailed explanation of the rubric (section 6.2) and the recommended card formatting (section 4) that you should use to format your text cards. Expect deductions in Quality otherwise.
