March MCC, Finals: Leprechaun's Loot

[void_nothing]

Banner based on Chance Encounter by Mark Brill and Wizards of the Coast. Thanks to bravelion83 for the "Core Set Style" MCC Logo

March MCC, Final Round - Leprechaun's Loot

Welcome to the March MCC! It's Fortune Month here at the MCC. With the chances of March going in like a lion and out like a lamb being even, with March 17 being associated with the luck of the Irish, with Friday the 13th falling this month and many other luck-based traditions including on Annunciation, it's time to explore the role of chance in Magic!

Main Challenge: Design a card that can do at least two of the following - Cause a player to gain life, cause a player to draw cards, cause a player to create Gold or Treasure tokens, put +1/+1 counters on a creature.
Subchallenge 1: Your card is green and no other color.
Subchallenge 2: Your card is a Faerie.

DEADLINES

Design deadline: Tuesday, April 7th, 23:59 EDT

Judging deadline: Friday, April 10th 23:59 EDT

Clarifications

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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.

Judges:
void_nothing
slimytrout
Ink-Treader

Players:
@bravelion83
@Ryder
@jamblock

[bravelion83]

Krila, Wingless Champion 3GGG
Creature — Faerie Warrior (M)
When Krila, Wingless Champion enters the battlefield, draw a card for each creature you control, then put that many +1/+1 counters on Krila.
3U: Krila gains flying until end of turn.
Even if she lost her left wing in a violent fight, her siblings generate air currents that lift her up anyway and allow her to keep fighting in the air for all of them.
1/1

[Ryder]

Azurewing Collector 1G
Creature — Faerie (R)
Flying
T: Add U or B.
1, T, Exile a card from your graveyard: Create a Gold token.
0/1
\\\
Cause Ruckus {u/b}
Instant — Adventure
Each player puts the top card of their library into their graveyard.
Draw a card.

[void_nothing]

And the round is closed! One of our finalists didn't respond so judges, you know what to do with the two who did enter.

[slimytrout]

bravelion83

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Krila, Wingless Champion 3GGG
Creature — Faerie Warrior (M)
When Krila, Wingless Champion enters the battlefield, draw a card for each creature you control, then put that many +1/+1 counters on Krila.
3U: Krila gains flying until end of turn.
Even if she lost her left wing in a violent fight, her siblings generate air currents that lift her up anyway and allow her to keep fighting in the air for all of them.
1/1

Design
(2/3) Appeal – Timmy *looooves* this – huge payoffs for doing exactly what they want to do anyway. Johnny is pretty intrigued as well, since this card pretty much has no upper bound. Spike is much less interested – the reward is high, but the setup cost is also pretty steep, so they see this as a win-more.
(2.5/3) Elegance – Pretty packed text box, mostly due to the flavor text, but otherwise quite straightforward.

Development
(3/3) Viability – Permissible in green, and fine at mythic, although probably could be rare as well. Blue cost to gain flying is appropriate.
(2.5/3) Balance – Probably pretty good in limited, where you can usually arrange to have a handful of creatures sitting on the battlefield by turn 6 to allow you to refill your hand. Pretty much unplayable in constructed, where this is worse than Hydroid Krasis by a country mile.

Creativity
(1/3) Uniqueness – Tishana, Voice of Thunder meets Prime Speaker Zegana, with a splash of Dukhara Peafowl thrown in.
(2/3) Flavor – Flavor text feels pretty stilted – would have preferred it if the activated ability were more flavorful (for example, "3U: Krila gains flying until end of turn if you control another Faerie") and then the card would have told the story on its own.

Polish
(3/3) Quality – Perfect.
(2/2) Main Challenge – Yes.
(2/2) Subchallenges - Yes.

Total: 20/25

Ryder

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Azurewing Collector 1G
Creature — Faerie (R)
Flying
T: Add U or B.
1, T, Exile a card from your graveyard: Create a Gold token.
0/1
\\\
Cause Ruckus {u/b}
Instant — Adventure
Each player puts the top card of their library into their graveyard.
Draw a card.

Design
(2.5/3) Appeal – Timmy like this: ramps and can also beat down in the air if they grow it. Spike also likes that it can ramp extra colors – or double ramp in one turn – if they feed it cards from the graveyard. Johnny doesn't mind the ramp or the graveyard filling, but has no particular love for it.
(3/3) Elegance – No issues.

Development
(2.5/3) Viability – Gilded Goose is a reasonably good precedent for the creature side, while the adventure is obviously fine. I think the extra mana in the cost makes this slightly more appropriate at uncommon.
(3/3) Balance – It really helps if your ramp card can replace itself in the late game, so I think this would see substantial limited and standard play and might even make it into some cubes.
Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness – The adventure is a lot like a hybrid Thought Scour, while the creature looks fairly similar to Gilded Goose, with cards from the graveyard as a cost having been done before on Sigarda, Heron's Grace, among others. But the whole package is somewhat more fresh.
(2/3) Flavor – Main complaint is the name of the Adventure – not only is "ruckus" not very U/B, but it also doesn't really describe this card. Would have been much better as Pluck Thoughts or the like.

Polish
(3/3) Quality – Perfect.
(2/2) Main Challenge – Yes.
(2/2) Subchallenges – Was a little hesitant about giving full points for Subchallenge 1, since this card does have a U/B spell printed on it. Ultimately, I read the rules for adventure ("In every zone except the stack, and while on the stack not as an Adventure, an adventurer card has only its normal characteristics.") and decided that because this is not technically a multicolored card you deserved credit for it. But could definitely understand someone going the other way.


Total: 21.5/25

results

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Ryder: 21.5
bravelion83: 20

[Ink-Treader]

Finished

bravelion83

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Design
(2/3) Appeal - Timmy is very fond of this card with its very high potential payout. Blinkable Collective Unconscious is of some interest to Johnny. Spike finds its floor unappealing, and finds it a bit win-more, but it does start looking decent with at least 2 other creatures.
(3/3) Elegance - Seems fairly straightforward as far as cards go.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Collective Conscious and the like are perfectly appropriate for green, as is getting bigger with creatures. The activated ability is a bit unusual on a green creature, but flavor carries it. Strangely, a creature getting counters on itself equal the number of creatures you control hasn't been printed before, I suspect because they prefer to print cards with variable P/T equal to that. But this justifies it by pairing it with the card draw.
(2.5/3) Balance - Even cheaper than Collective Conscious is Shamanic Revelation, and that even has its own upside. On the other hand, Regal Force is costlier, with a narrower ability but also has a higher base P/T. That being said, I don't think this could be costlier without becoming unattractive to cast, or at least some more P/T, which risks some inelegance. The activated ability feels pricy, but also fair. Ultimately, I'd be concerned with how swingy it can be.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness - It's Collective Unconscious... stapled to something that surprisingly doesn't exist in Magic? Ulasht, the Hate Seed is the closest in terms of coming in with counters equal to the number of creatures you control, but it doesn't count just any creature. The gains flying ability is rare in green. Off color activations for it are usually found on artifact creatures (Steeple Creeper has the exact ability though, interestingly enough). That being said, it's a fine blend of familiar elements in a new way.
(2.5/3) Flavor - I think the flavor text could be more eloquent, but otherwise I quite like the overall flavor here. Has an odd sort of wholesome 'coolness'

Polish
(3/3) Quality - Looks fine
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Draws card and gains counters, which is sufficient.
(2/2) Subchallenges - Monogreen Faerie it is.

Total: 22/25
*An entry with 0 points here is subject to disqualification.

Ryder

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Design
(2/3) Appeal - Mana dorks are alright with Timmy, though the adventure is rather lame to them. Johnny finds it alright. Some varied tools to play with. Spike finds the whole package intriguing, though they wish the Gold making ability could in some way remove cards from an opponent's graveyard.
(2.5/3) Elegance - It's pretty easy to understand, but it does feel weird that the Gold making ability can't interact with all the cards put into graveyards by the adventure.

Development
(2.5/3) Viability - Flying monogreen creatures are pretty rare, but Gilded Goose suggests small powerless mana dorks that fly are still occasionally printed. The Adventure is perfectly fine for its colors. There currently exist no adventure/creature pairs with different colors, but I don't see that as an issue. All that being said, I feel this could probably be uncommon without much issue.
(2.5/3) Balance - It's a fairly interesting mana dork. The ability to bank mana for the future is nice. The adventure feels rather anemic though. Could it be punched up to two cards milled each?

Creativity
(2.5/3) Uniqueness - Differently colored adventure and creature provides some instant uniqueness. There are also bafflingly few cards that exile any card from your graveyard as a cost. Ultimately it's a fairly standout mana dork.
(3/3) Flavor - Seems good to me. Faerie makes a mess, and in the chaos makes off with something that they later 'treasure' (or... well... Gold)

Polish
(3/3) Quality - Looks good to me.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - It can draw a card and make Gold/Treasure. That is sufficient.
(1.5/2) Subchallenges - It's indeed a Faerie, but the color is where things get... interesting. While the creature is indeed monogreen, I feel that the Adventure is a little out the spirit of things.

Total: 21.5/25
*An entry with 0 points here is subject to disqualification.

Results

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bravelion83: 22
Ryder: 21.5

[void_nothing]

bravelion83

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Design
(3/3) Appeal - Possible all-rounder; Txmmy and Jxnny have obvious appeal and Spike sees a great finisher that's nice to mana dork into.
(3/3) Elegance - Nothing to complain about here.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Definitely green; should be mythic.
(2/3) Balance - Is the same CMC as Collective Unconscious - which is perfectly playable in Commander. Tishana, Voice of Thunder is a comparable and slightly more expensive effect, and is frankly a pretty good card; this one stays big even if you empty your hand of all the goodstuff you just drew.

Creativity
(1/3) Uniqueness - Pretty much the go-wide version of Prime Speaker Zegana's go-tallness. In fact, there's some pretty heavy Tishana, Voice of Thunder in there.
(1.5/3) Flavor - Name's fine, flavor text does way too much explaining. Something concise like Even without her left wing, her siblings still uplift her - this would have been better. I also think you could have included a callback to tie this card together by calling her a Groundling.

Polish
(2/3) Quality - A card that's pretty clearly supposed to be legendary but missing the supertype.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Done.
(2/2) Subchallenges - And done.

Total: 19.5/25

Ryder

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Design
(2/3) Appeal - Txmmy sees nothing here but Jxnny and Spike both like for the accel/pseudocantrip/efficiency/G O L D.
(2.5/3) Elegance - Has a lot of words for an Adventure creature, but basically fine.

Development
(3/3) Viability - All looks fine.
(3/3) Balance - A perfectly Standard-playable two-mana mana generator. Decent but not too strong.

Creativity
(2.5/3) Uniqueness - Nothing earth-shattering here but the off-color Adventure and fun Gold token use make this a compelling remix.
(2/3) Flavor - If I didn't see the previous revisions of this card I'm not sure I would have gotten that this is supposed to be the Tooth Faerie. But this DOES get the same story across, if a lot subtler and less obvious, and it's kind of brilliant; inciting the kinds of incidents that would lead to accidental tooth loss is exactly the kind of twist I want from my Eldraine fairytales.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - Looks good.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Good.
(1.5/2) Subchallenges - Only half the card's monogreen.

Total: 21.5/25

[void_nothing]

bravelion83 20 + 22 + 19.5 = 61.5
Ryder 21.5 + 21.5 + 21.5 = 64.5

Congratulations to @Ryder for winning the March MCC!