December MCC, Round 2: Beach Weather

[void_nothing]

Banner based on Thawing Glaciers by Jeff A. Menges and Wizards of the Coast. Thanks to bravelion83 for the "Core Set Style" MCC Logo

December MCC, Round 2 - Beach Weather

Welcome to the November MCC! It's Winter/Summer Month here at the MCC. We will be covering the spirit of the season in both hemispheres!

Main Challenge: Design a card with one of the following exact words in its name: Summer, Sun, and/or Heat.
Subchallenge 1: Your card is blue and/or black
Subchallenge 2: Your card has X in its mana cost

DEADLINES

Design deadline: Saturday, December 19th 23:59 EDT

Judging deadline: Tuesday, December 22nd 23:59 EDT

Clarifications

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None yet!

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

Players:
@Jimmy Groove
@MonoRedMage
@BaconCatBug
@haywire
@StonerOfKruphix
@Lorn Asbord Schutta
@Sagharri
@Henlock

[StonerOfKruphix]

Heat Deprivation XBB
Instant (U)
Spend only snow mana on X.
Target creature gets -X/-X until end of turn, where X is the amount of mana spent to cast this spell. If at least five snow mana was spent to cast this spell, return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
"In these frozen lands, heat is the difference between life and death."
—Praxa, Rimewind necromancer

[BaconCatBug]

Dawn of the Black Sun
Enchantment (Rare)
Dawn of the Black Sun enters the battlefield with X corruption counters on it.
At the beginning of your end step, move a corruption counter from Dawn of the Black Sun onto target land.
Lands with corruption counters on them are Swamps.

Card Render

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[haywire]

Glare of the Sun
Instant {R}
Addendum — If you cast this spell during your main phase, look at the top X cards of your library. Put one on top of your library, then put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Choose one —
• Put target spell or nonland permanent an opponent controls with converted mana cost X or less on top of its owner's library.
• Whenever target player casts a spell this turn, counter that spell unless its controller pays .
What some call cruelty, I see as clinical detachment.

[MonoRedMage]

Wrath of Summer XRR
Enchantment {R}
Wrath of Summer enters the battlefield with X heat counters on it.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may remove half the heat counters, rounded up from Wrath of Summer. When you do, Wrath of Summer deals damage to any target equal to the number of counters removed in this way.
Whenever a creature an opponent controls deals damage to you or a planeswalker you control, Wrath of Summer deals damage to that creature equal to the number of heat counters on Wrath of Summer.

[Henlock]

Heat of the Argument xuu
Instant (r)
Counter target noncreature spell with converted mana cost X. Draw X cards.
A debate is won by what you say, when you say it and how you say it, not by being right.

[Sagharri]

Summer's End 3UB
Sorcery (R)
This spell costs 1 less to cast if it targets a red creature.
This spell costs 1 less to cast if it targets a white creature.
This spell costs 1 less to cast if it targets a green creature.
Destroy target creature. If a creature is destroyed this way, create token that's a copy of that creature except it's colorless.

[Lorn Asbord Schutta]

Summer Ritual
Instant (R)
Repeat the following process X times. Add .
"Golden grain basking in sun bright,
Palm pleasant that casts shade at coast,
Orchid that only blooms in bog,
Pine on peaks where howls the wind,
Forest full of healthy herbs.
That's summer season's goods and glees."
—Elvish chant

[void_nothing]

The extension deadline has now passed and it's time to judge. The top two contestants per judge will move on.

void_nothing:
StonerOfKruphix
haywire
MonoRedMage
Lorn Asbord Schutta

slimytrout:
BaconCatBug
Henlock
Sagharri

[void_nothing]

@slimytrout Hopefully we can both get judging finished by the 24th?

[slimytrout]

I already got a good start on it today, and likely would have finished had I not started unnecessary rules discussions in the NCED thread . All of which is to say, I can be done by tomorrow (i.e., Wednesday) evening.

EDIT: Ok, today got away from me. But definitely by EOD tomorrow.

[slimytrout]

BaconCatBug

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Dawn of the Black Sun
Enchantment (Rare)
Dawn of the Black Sun enters the battlefield with X corruption counters on it.
At the beginning of your end step, move a corruption counter from Dawn of the Black Sun onto target land.
Lands with corruption counters on them are Swamps.

Design
(1/3) Appeal — Johnny is mildly interested, since it's doing something weird. Your average Timmy isn't interested, but the griefers are. If Spike is going to color screw their opponent, they don't want it to be so slow and expensive.
(3/3) Elegance — Yeah, nice and simple.

Development
(2.5/3) Viability — Definitely rare, but black doesn't really get mass land hate like this. It can do individual destruction, and it can make lands into swamps in addition to their other types," but mass color screwing is a bit out of pie.
(1.5/3) Balance — Fairly weak – can only do 1 land per turn, it costs a lot for it to do much of anything, you can't save charges to hit future land drops, and it is vulnerable to enchantment hate. Not particularly close to the standard required for constructed land hate, and land hate is practically unplayable in limited.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness — Cyclopean Tomb is a clear precedent, but it's a different card type and it works a bit differently so there are some new elements.
(3/3) Flavor — Sure, feels appropriate.

Polish
(3/3) Quality — All good.
(2/2) Main Challenge — Yep.
(2/2) Subchallenges — Yep yep.

Total: 19.5/25

Henlock

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Heat of the Argument xuu
Instant (r)
Counter target noncreature spell with converted mana cost X. Draw X cards.
A debate is won by what you say, when you say it and how you say it, not by being right.

Design
(2/3) Appeal — Spike likes the skill required to play this properly. Johnny's interest is definitely piqued on how they can take advantage of an effect like this. Timmy does not want to have to wait to cast their huge draw spell until their opponent sets them up for it, and even less wants to be restricted in how huge it can be.
(3/3) Elegance — Very simple.

Development
(3/3) Viability — Definitely rare, as all "draw X" spells are, and even more definitely blue.
(2.5/3) Balance — My suspicion is that it's a tiny bit weak, given the percentage of the time that either a) you often won't be able to set X as high as you want because you're just countering a Negate or b) you won't be able to counter your opponent's Karn Liberated because you don't have enough mana, but there are definitely moments where it'll be a huge blowout.

Creativity
(2.5/3) Uniqueness — Definitely the effects have been seen before, but it's in a fun and unique package.
(1.5/3) Flavor — From the name, I would definitely expect this to be a RU spell (if not mono-R), and I'm adding a bit more of a deduction than I would otherwise because it's central to the main challenge.

Polish
(2.5/3) Quality — Missing an Oxford comma in flavor text.
(2/2) Main Challenge — Yep.
(2/2) Subchallenges — Yep yep.

Total: 21/25

Sagharri

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Summer's End 3UB
Sorcery (R)
This spell costs 1 less to cast if it targets a red creature.
This spell costs 1 less to cast if it targets a white creature.
This spell costs 1 less to cast if it targets a green creature.
Destroy target creature. If a creature is destroyed this way, create token that's a copy of that creature except it's colorless.

Design
(2/3) Appeal — Spike definitely likes a (potentially) cheap removal spell that's also a guaranteed 2-for-1. Timmy likes having a Control Magic but hates when it's pointed at their stuff, so half credit. Johnny generally likes spells that get cheaper, although this one is a bit straightforward in how it does it.
(2.5/3) Elegance — The "If a creature is destroyed this way" text is inelegant mostly because it doesn't quite seem necessary – if the spell doesn't resolve it doesn't produce the token anyway, so is this just to prevent you from getting the token if the target gains indestructible? The symmetry of including all three "other" colors is nice though, as is the repetition making it very clear how much of a discount you get.

Development
(3/3) Viability — Yeah, this is good in UB, and I think rare is probably best given the potential to become cheaper.
(2.5/3) Balance — Basically a Control Magic that can't be destroyed to get the creature back, so that's the best comparison. What we've seen is that this effect is very strong (Vintage Cube playable) at 4 mana and not that strong at 5 mana. This will cost 4 mana around 60% of the time, and will even cost 3 mana occasionally (and 2 mana in extremely rare circumstances). So probably a bit pushed, but not crazy.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness — The spell effect is practically right off Fractured Identity, but there's a good bit of novelty in the triple-discount, even if similar individual effects have been done before on Mystical Dispute, Price of Fame, etc.
(2.5/3) Flavor — I basically really like it, even if it's a bit understated. The only part that confuses me is the "colorless" part – is that for flavor, or some weird thing about mirror matches, or what?

Polish
(3/3) Quality — All good.
(2/2) Main Challenge — It does say "exact word" in the challenge, but I figure this is probably fine because it's a contraction.
(1/2) Subchallenges — Blue and black, but that doesn't get you a bonus point to make up for not being an X spell.

Total: 20/25

Results

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Henlock: 21
Sagharri: 20
BaconCatBug: 19.5

Close round!

[void_nothing]

StonerOfKruphix

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Design
(1.5/3) Appeal - Frankly a half point to everyone. Txmmy somewhat likes reanimation, Jxnny kind of wants to build monoblack snow.dek just for its own sake, and Spike somewhat likes the sheer value on offer.
(2/3) Elegance - An odd issue that could be fixed by retemplating: You can't cast this spell unless you target a creature card in your graveyard. An "up to one" or just changing "target creature card" to "a creature card." Besides that, the card is wordy and has unusual features.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Colors and rarity check out.
(2.5/3) Balance - Perhaps a bit pushed - compare Yawgmoth's Vile Offering and add flexibility while dropping some of the raw power, and also consider the rarity difference and legendary drawback. This would be fearsome in Limited if snow mana were not a problem there.

Creativity
(1/3) Uniqueness - It's hard to make a unique removal spell, but you have somewhat done so with the Gyrus, Waker of Corpses type text, the snow mana restriction, and the rarely used "big spender bonus" for X spells.
(3/3) Flavor - I think this flavor works excellently.

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

Total: 20/25

haywire

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Design
(1.5/3) Appeal - An X-spell but hardly an explosive one: Txmmy doesn't get it. Jxnny would have some interest, Spike would be all over it.
(1.5/3) Elegance - This card doesn't do any ONE thing that is particularly complicated, but wow does it ever do a lot, all dependent on a variable.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Colors and rarity definitely right, especially with use of an Azorius keyword.
(2/3) Balance - Hard to evaluate. The spell or permanent delaying mode is very strong simply for its flexibility. The Silence mode is actually not very good for its cost. The card selection bonus is strong but relies on using this at a non-optimal time. I will settle on this being powerful and probably doing too many things for its own good, but not exactly a Sphinx's Revelation.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - Similar to MonoRedMage's evaluation: this is a remix but a new-feeling one.
(1/3) Flavor - I was with you until the flavor text, which could at a stretch have to do with the mechanics, especially the Azorius, but seems to have nothing to do with the name, and is also an unattributed quote, deepening the confusion.

Polish
(2/3) Quality - As an ability word, addendum should be italicized. There should be quotation marks around the flavor text.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Done.
(2/2) Subchallenges - And done.

Total: 16.5/25

MonoRedMage

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Design
(2/3) Appeal - If Txmmy wants to play X burn, they will just do that, go arbitrarily-large, and kill the opponent. However, Jxnny and Spike both have uses for this.
(1/3) Elegance - This is a wordy card with a lot of math and a LOT of tracking.

Development
(3/3) Viability - That's a red rare alright.
(2/3) Balance - Not exactly a No Mercy level of power, but - this is a flexible card that throws around a LOT of damage and could be miserable to play against.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - A remix of a BUNCH of stuff, but does break some new ground.
(1.5/3) Flavor - No room for flavor text, but while I kind of get this, there's little connection between summer and burn other than both involving heat, imo.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - Looks good.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Done.
(1/2) Subchallenges - X but not blue or black.

Total: 17/25

Lorn Asbord Schutta

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Design
(3/3) Appeal - And then everybody clapped. Seriously, do I have to explain the universal appeal of WWUUBBRRGG for 6G and then some?
(2.5/3) Elegance - It's hard to word this effect fully elegantly but I think everyone gets it.

Development
(3/3) Viability - DEFINITELY a green rare.
(3/3) Balance - Strong but fair - probably part of a game-ending combo and that's okay because it needs other stuff around it naturally.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - Based almost entirely on Channel the Suns, but with a wild twist.
(3/3) Flavor - Love it.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - I might say "Add WUBRG X times" but that's up for debate.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Done.
(1/2) Subchallenges - Got the X point but not for colors.

Total: 22/25

Totals (Bold advance)

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Lorn Asbord Schutta 22
StonerOfKruphix 20
MonoRedMage 17
haywire 16.5