September MCC, Round 3: Building and Growing

[void_nothing]

Banner based on Arcbound Overseer by Carl Critchlow and Wizards of the Coast. Thanks to bravelion83 for the "Core Set Style" MCC Logo

September MCC, Round 3 - Building and Growing

Welcome to the September MCC! It's Counter Mechanics Month here at the MCC. Each round will feature a different keyword.

Main Challenge: Design a card that can cause one or more players to proliferate.
Subchallenge 1: Your card is an instant, a sorcery, or a noncreature enchantment.
Subchallenge 2: Your card has a name that is exactly three words.

DEADLINES

Design deadline: Tuesday, September 29th 23:59 EDT

Judging deadline: Friday, October 2nd 23:59 EDT

Clarifications

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Main Challenge - Basically this just means that somewhere on the card is the keyword action proliferate.

Subchallenge 2 - Hyphenated phrases count as one word. "Siege-Gang", "il-Vec," and the like are one word for the purposes of this challenge.

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
Dragoon26
Subject16

Players:
@slimytrout
@haywire
@Raptorchan
@StonerOfKruphix
@Feyd_Ruin
@RaikouRider

[StonerOfKruphix]

Conclave's Stalwart Solidarity 2GW
Enchantment (R)
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, choose one —
• Put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.
• Proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.)
During Ravnica's worst crisis, for a brief moment, every guild felt the embrace of Mat'Selesnya.

[Feyd_Ruin]

Stratagem of Khudal
Sorcery (R)
Choose one —
• Remove all counters from target permanent.
• Double the number of each kind of counter on target permanent.
• Proliferate, then proliferate again.

[RaikouRider]

Sheoldred's Magnum Opus 3BB
Sorcery {R}
Put two -1/-1 counters on each creature. Proliferate, then proliferate again. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there. Then do it again.)

[Raptorchan]

Selesnya Conclave Command gw
Instant (R)
Choose two —
• Create a 1/1 white Soldier creature token with lifelink.
• Populate.
• Put a +1/+1 counter on a creature you control.
• Proliferate.

[slimytrout]

Surge of Growth 1GG
Instant (R)
Multikicker 1G (You may pay an additional 1G any number of times as you cast this spell.)
Put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to three target creatures. Proliferate for each time Surge of Growth was kicked.
Saved from the Eldrazi's endless hunger, life on Ondu grew back with glorious abandon.

[haywire]

Harmony of Hatred
Sorcery (R)
Multikicker—, shuffle a card named Harmony of Hatred from your graveyard into your library.
Put a -1/-1 counter on each of up to X target creatures, where X is one plus the number of times Harmony of Hatred was kicked. Proliferate X times. Each player mills a number of cards equal to the number of -1/-1 counters among creatures on the battlefield. Then, if Harmony of Hatred was kicked 3 or more times, return any number of cards named Harmony of Hatred from your graveyard to your hand.
Each insidious, spiteful whisper stirs up wounds and hatreds thought forgotten, whipping them into a crescendo of cruelty and rage.

Apologies for the late response, I lost track of time. Hopefully you can still count it, but I understand if not.

[void_nothing]

In the interest of fairness to the other contestants in the versus round, and since I didn't close the round yet, I'll accept all the entries.

In this round each judge will evaluate two pairings of contestants, and the contestant with the highest total score in each pairing will move on to the finals.

void_nothing:
Feyd_Ruin vs. slimytrout
RaikouRider vs. haywire

Dragoon26:
RaikouRider vs. haywire
StonerOfKruphix vs. Raptorchan

Subject16:
StonerOfKruphix vs. Raptorchan
Feyd_Ruin vs. slimytrout

[Dragoon26]

Sorry I'm a little late. This has been some week.

RaikouRider

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Design
(1/3) Appeal - Spike likes a good board wipe, but that's about all the appeal I can see here.
(3/3) Elegance - Very clean. The mechanics are easily grokkable and mix very well with the flavor.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Appropriately rare, very black. I can absolutely see a card like this being printed if we ever return to New Phyrexia.
(3/3) Balance - This falls somewhere between Languish and Black Sun's Zenith in terms of effect, and doesn't completely outclass either of them while still being very powerful in its own right.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - Considering Grim Affliction exists, this is not much of a stretch creatively.
(2.5/3) Flavor - The name is fantastic for the effect. I wish it had flavor text.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - No issues.
(2/2) Main Challenge - It proliferates.
(2/2) Subchallenges - Sorcery, three words, check and check.

Total: 21/25

haywire

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Design
(1/3) Appeal - This does enough unique things that Johnny will probably want to experiment with it.
(.5/3) Elegance - This is... not elegant at all. I had to reread this card three times to fully comprehend what it was even doing. Not only is the rules text difficult to parse at first glance, but the output randomness of the effect ups the confusion by another order of magnitude. If I ever cast this card, there's a good chance I wouldn't know what the board state is going to look like until it actually resolves.

Development
(1.5/3) Viability - I feel like this needs a check list to help you resolve it. While this doesn't really break anything game wise, I have a hard time seeing something like this being printed due to its complexity with multiples.
(1.5/3) Balance - So, let's look at the whole gamut of what this card can do. The floor is for 1B, you get two -1/-1 counters on a creature and each player mills two cards. The ceiling (as infrequently as it may come up) is for 4BBBB you get five -1/-1 counters on four different creatures, on top of whatever other shenanigans you're able to pull off with existing counters, and then each player mills (at least) twenty cards, and then drawing three more cards. That's such a wide range of effects, especially on just one card. The difficulty to balance such a range of possible effects for this card is incredibly difficult. After thinking about it a little bit more, the complexity doesn't impact limited hardly at all, and only scales with multiple copies. That tones down the complexity in practice a little bit.

Creativity
(3/3) Uniqueness - Full points here. This is definitely playing in some space we've not really seen before, mechanically anyway. The Multikicker cost itself is very cool, I'd like to see that implementation on other cards, kind of a variant of the Kindle mechanic. I just think the card itself is doing too much stuff.
(2/3) Flavor - I like the name and the flavor text. I'm not quite feeling connection between the mechanics and the flavor of the card, because it's doing so much it just doesn't really feel harmonious. Cacaphony of Hatred feels more apropos.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - No issues.
(2/2) Main Challenge - It proliferates.
(2/2) Subchallenges - Sorcery, three words, check and check.

Total: 16.5/25

StonerOfKruphix

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Design
(2/3) Appeal - Timmy likes making his creatures bigger. Johnny is playing this with Animation Module. Despite that interaction, it feels a little too expensive for Spike (though I might be wrong.)
(3/3) Elegance - Very easy to understand, very grokkable for all Selesnya mages.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Appropriately rare and appropriately green/white.
(3/3) Balance - This is a Good-Fortune Unicorn that costs more and can't attack, but has the upside of proliferating your army down the line. I feel that it's costed at an appropriate rate, though by the time you start getting significant value by choosing the second mode instead of the first, you're probably in a good position to just end the game. This does help break stalemates though.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - It's not super unique (one of the modes is already on an existing GW card) but it does combine two aspects in a semi-interesting, very Selesnyan way.
(3/3) Flavor - Great flavor. Great flavor text. At some point, the creatures entering the battlefield stop bettering themselves and start bettering the community, and if that isn't Selesnya, I don't know what is.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - No issues.
(2/2) Main Challenge - It proliferates.
(2/2) Subchallenges - Enchantment, three words, check and check.

Total: 22.5/25

Raptorchan

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Design
(2/3) Appeal - Timmy definitely likes making more tokens and making them bigger. Spike likes the efficiency of this card.
(3/3) Elegance - Aesthetically, I really wish the second and third modes were switched so that the two keywords appear at the bottom. But that changes the card mechanically, and its current version is certainly optimal. It just looks weird. It's really a petty complaint, the card is actually quite slick.

Development
(3/3) Viability - I see no issues with this ever being printed. In a hypothetical Ravnica where both Populate and Proliferate were being brought back, something like this would be a shoo-in.
(3/3) Balance - I think this does a pretty good job of making each of the modes relevant for different parts of the game. Generally populating and proliferating are going to be more powerful than the other two modes, but they require more set up.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - We've had commands before. We even have a command in this very color combination. It's a new setting for a Command, but not entirely groundbreaking.
(2/3) Flavor - The name feels incredibly forced. I get that it's checkmarking the box of "has exactly three words" but it just feels too generic even for what it's trying to do. Even if you wanted to keep a reference to a command in the name, something like "Command of Trostoni" I think would be much better. Mechanically though, yes this is very much a Selesnya command.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - No issues.
(2/2) Main Challenge - It proliferates.
(2/2) Subchallenges - Instant, three words, check and check.

Total: 21.5/25

Results

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RaikouRider: 21
haywire: 16.5

StonerOfKruphix: 22.5
Raptorchan: 21.5

[Subject16]

Complete

StonerOfKruphix

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Design
(3/3) Appeal – Timmy loves making everything way bigger, Johnny loves proliferation and messing with odd counters, spike sees a strong payoff for going wide.
(3/3) Elegance – It all reads fine.

Development
(3/3) Viability – Selesnya is undoubtedly the color pairing that most cares about creatures, and has used both proliferate and counter synergies in the past. The modality and fequancy of these triggers puts this at a rare.
(3/3) Balance – Now this can start doing very silly things quite quickly, and mainly because this card doesn't specify nontoken. I understand that's a deliberate choice for a Selesnya card but it definitely pushes its power up a notch. With cards like Ghave or Pentavus you could easily rack up a huge army with very little effort, and even when it doesn't, it's a great way to buff your board up over the turns. I think that it's very nicely balanced and whilst there are ways to break it, that requires its own deck to achieve. I would play the hell out of this.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness – Modal abilities on ETB we've seen on creatures before, but not enchantments. The modes are taken straight from Pollenbright Druid, however.
(2.5/3) Flavor – It's a little long in the sense that it feels a little off. The rest of the card fits a snug little Selesnyan card.

Polish
(3/3) Quality – No mistakes here.
(2/2) Main Challenge – It has proliferate.
(2/2) Subchallenges – It's a noncreature enchantment, and it has three words in its name.

Total: 23.5/25

Raptorchan

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Design
(3/3) Appeal – Timmy likes going wide and going tall, and this can help do both relatively cheaply. Johnny loves populate and proliferate. Spike sees a lot of combinations that'll make this pretty useful.
(3/3) Elegance – Reads just fine.

Development
(3/3) Viability – The lifelink soldier was a Selesnya staple for last time we were on Ravnica, and populate and proliferate are both mechanics we've seen in those colors. The variety of what this spell can accomplish puts this at rare.
(3/3) Balance – So the 'worst' modes are probably the last two, but the truth is you'd use those when you already have a board and are doubling down on counters/value. On an empty board, this can be A) two lifelinky soldiers or B) a single 2/2 lifelinker, at instant speed on turn two. The former is a buff on Raise the Alarm which is fine, the latter may just be a little pushed, but I think it's okay. This is a card that's powerful because of its modality, and although it doesn't fit in a particular deck, it can enable many interesting playstyles.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness – I can't help but feel I've seen this card before? On here or MtgS maybe, or reddit? Nothing's come up though. Mixing populate and proliferate on a card is pretty cool, but it's all known mechanics used in a new way.
(2/3) Flavor – I know it's three words for the sake of the subchallenge but commands (black bordered ones anyway) have always been two words. The rest of the card is great flavor-speaking.

Polish
(3/3) Quality – No issues here.
(2/2) Main Challenge – It has proliferate.
(2/2) Subchallenges – It's an instant, and it has three words in its name.

Total: 23/25

Feyd_Ruin

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Design
(2/3) Appeal – Timmy likes the second mode the most but isn't enthused by the other two. Johnny likes everything this is doing. Spike sees "destroy target planeswalker" with probably too many restrictions.
(3/3) Elegance – Reads just fine.

Development
(3/3) Viability – Three modes on a three color card usually gives each mode its own color reference, and we have that here. Removing counters is in black's wheelhouse, doubling them is green's, and proliferating/adding counters bit by bit we've seen in blue. This feels like a rare.
(3/3) Balance – This feels like the kind of card you'd play on your own things. Unless the metagame becomes incredibly counters-based, there's no guarantee this'll have any effects unless you run counter synergies yourself. To that end I think can do silly things but only when paired with other specific cards like Dark Depths. But this card can easily be dead in your hand as well. That's actually not a bad thing though, this card has a goal -messing with counters- and needs counters to be effective. That doesn't make it a powerful card, but it does make it balanced.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness – The individual modes are things we've all seen before, but putting it all on one card and mixing counter removal with counter placement is pretty fun.
(2/3) Flavor – Khudal could be a person or a place, and really for either "Khudal('s) Stratagem" would be a much more fitting card name for mtg. I feel like messing about with counters would be a slow process, and 'stratagem' has a more militaristic/combat feel to it that to me doesn't fit with the rest of the card.

Polish
(3/3) Quality – I see no mistakes.
(2/2) Main Challenge – It has proliferate.
(2/2) Subchallenges – It's a sorcery, and it has three words in its name.

Total: 22/25

slimytrout

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Design
(3/3) Appeal – Timmy likes buffing his creatures, Johnny likes mass proliferation, and spike likes seeing a way to sink his mana into lethal damage.
(3/3) Elegance – Reads fine to me.

Development
(3/3) Viability – Green pumping instant is a classic. This is rare for amount of proliferation this can get done.
(3/3) Balance – It's a good combat trick, and the potential for mass proliferation is always nice. I like that it has up to three targets, meaning if you have no creatures at all you can still proliferate your planeswalkers/artifacts at instant speed anyway. I think the mana cost is a little steep for when this doesn't have three creatures on the board to pump, however.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness – I love the combination of multikicker and proliferate, but the rest is fairly standard card mechnics.
(2/3) Flavor – 'Surge of Growth' is a fitting card name, albeit a little basic for a rare. Proliferate could be a nice fit on Zendikar, especially since it messed around with quests and level up.

Polish
(3/3) Quality – I see no mistakes.
(2/2) Main Challenge – It has proliferate.
(2/2) Subchallenges – It's an instant, and it has three words in its name.

Total: 23/25

Results

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StonerOfKruphix: 23.5/25
Raptorchan: 23/25

Feyd_Ruin: 22/25
Slimytrout: 23/25

[void_nothing]

Feyd_Ruin

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Design
(2/3) Appeal - Full Jxnny points and half from each of the others. Txmmy likes doubling counters but prefers having a guaranteed source of counters to double. Jxnny definitely likes this. Spike may want to make use of its versatility sometimes.
(2.5/3) Elegance - Three relatively simple individual modes, but all involve fiddling with tracking complexity.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Definitely complex enough for rare, and the colors are all right.
(3/3) Balance - In a counter-focused deck any one of these effects could be potent, and one of them even doubles as planeswalker removal, but no single one of them is too much for a four-mana sorcery.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - A modal card all focused on counter manipulation hasn't been done yet, but ultimately these are all effects that have been done before, just never on one card.
(3/3) Flavor - Nice secondary character reference - Khudal is a Sultai rakshasa, and I buy Sultai scheming and BGU counter mechanics as good flavor and mechanical reasons to give the clan proliferate.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - Good.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Done.
(2/2) Subchallenges - And done.

Total: 22/25

slimytrout

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Design
(3/3) Appeal - All-rounder! Mass pump for Txmmy, counter manipulation for Jxnny, a potential finisher for Spike.
(2.5/3) Elegance - Can possibly lead to a lot of proliferating, which definitely increases tracking complexity across the board.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Obviously feels green and rare.
(3/3) Balance - Instant speed makes this potentially strong, but getting multiple proliferates out of this card is difficult enough to make it not be overpowered.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - Proliferate and +1/+1 counters have by now been used alongside each other in WAR. The proliferate-multikicker aspect is unique though.
(3/3) Flavor - Flavorful name (if a bit boilerplate) and well-written flavor text.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - Looks good.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Done.
(2/2) Subchallenges - And done.

Total: 23/25

RaikouRider

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Design
(2.5/3) Appeal - Mass removal is not normally Txmmy's thing, but this also has a double proliferate. Jxnny also likes that aspect, and Spike likes the asymmetricality.
(3/3) Elegance - Definitely a clever design.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Definitely black and definitely rare.
(2.5/3) Balance - Looks fairly strong for its cost, but not outright OP.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - A combination that seems obvious at first, but is unique in its net effect of giving different amounts of -1/-1 counters to different creatures.
(3/3) Flavor - Really nice name - could have had, but didn't need, short flavor text.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - Looks good.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Done.
(2/2) Subchallenges - And done.

Total: 22.5/25

haywire

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Design
(1/3) Appeal - Txmmy doesn't really think getting all the copies of this into your graveyard and looping them is worth the effort. Jxnny loves an engine, and this is one. Spike sees this as too unreliable.
(0.5/3) Elegance - This is a serious wall of text with so many variables in it that it took me several readings just to figure out what it did.

Development
(3/3) Viability - All the effects are black, and this is so mindblowingly complex it would have to be at least rare.
(3/3) Balance - A mana cost on the multikicker ability is enough to basically prevent any possibility of this card getting out of control.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness - Definitely some unique ideas on the execution, but the card itself is primarily a recurring -1/-1 counter generator, not an unprecedented idea.
(2/3) Flavor - The flavor text is too long-winded, especially for a card with text of this length.

Polish
(2.5/3) Quality - The first letter of a keyword action as a cost is capitalized (so "Multikicker - 1B, Shuffle"...), and it would be "kicked three or more times."
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Done.
(2/2) Subchallenges - And done.

Total: 19/25

[void_nothing]

Wow, this was a strong round throughout! Sorry for the delay - our finalists will be slimytrout, StonerOfKruphix, and RaikouRider.