November CCL Finals: Poll

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Whose designs do you find the best?

Poll ended at 3 years ago

slimytrout
4
44%
Henlock
1
11%
void_nothing
4
44%
 
Total votes: 9

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Lorn Asbord Schutta
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Post by Lorn Asbord Schutta » 3 years ago

November CCL is finally coming to a conclusion. You will decide what this conclusion will be.
Please vote on the submission you find as the best one. The challange was:

Create a monocolored Spirit creature card for each color, that interacts positively with Human subtype.

The poll ends at 28th December 12:00 EST. Anyone can vote and I encourage everyone to do it, even if you have not participated in November CCL.
slimytrout wrote:
3 years ago
Stormwatch Geist UU
Creature - Spirit (U)
Flash
When Stormwatch Geist enters the battlefield, counter target spell with converted mana cost X or less, where X is the number of Humans you control.
"His only thought was our protection."
-Epitaph of Reeves, Archmage of Goldnight

2/1

Flamewatch Geist 1RR
Creature - Spirit (U)
Trample
When Flamewatch Geist enters the battlefield, it deals damage to target opponent equal to the number of Humans you control.
"His voice was a call to action."
-Epitaph of Kolman, elder of Gatstaf

3/1

Nightwatch Geist 2BB
Creature - Spirit (U)
Menace
When Nightwatch Geist enters the battlefield, destroy up to one target non-Human creature with power X or less, where X is the number of Humans you control.
"Though her judgement erred, her blade never did."
-Epitaph of Seeta, Lunarch Inquisitor

3/2

Moorwatch Geist 3WW
Creature - Spirit (U)
Flying
When Moorwatch Geist enters the battlefield, tap up to X target creatures, where X is the number of Humans you control.
"She tended not only to our souls, but our bodies as well."
-Epitaph of Nadila Maas, moor chaplain

3/4

Huntwatch Geist 4GG
Creature - Spirit (U)
Haste
When Huntwatch Geist enters the battlefield, it gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of Humans you control. It fights up to one target creature you don't control.
"Her aim was true."
-Epitaph of Higa, slayer-captain of Gatstaf

3/3
---
Henlock wrote:
3 years ago
Jealous Apparition 1u
Creature - Spirit Shapeshifter (r)
Flying
1u: Jealous Apparition becomes a copy of target Human until end of turn.
2/1

Twisted Summon 1bb
Creature - Spirit Horror(u)
Flying
You may sacrifice two Humans rather than paying Twisted Summon's mana cost.
2/2

Welcoming Presence g
Creature - Spirit (u)
Whenever a Human enters the battlefield, you gain 1 life.
Whenever a Legendary Human enters the battlefield, add .
1/1

Pretheus, the Name of the Flame rrr
Creature - Elemental Spirit (r)
Whenever Pretheus, the Name.of the Flame attacks, exile it unless you exile another attacking creature you control.
You may cast Human creatures exiled with Pretheus.
5/5

Spirit of the Shell 1ww
Creature - Spirit (u)
Flying
Prevent all noncombat damage that would be dealt to Human creatures.
1/4
---
void_nothing wrote:
3 years ago
Kami of Hallowed Pacts 4WW
Creature - Spirit (U)
Flash
Flying
When Kami of Hallowed Pacts enters the battlefield, Humans you control get +2/+1 until end of turn and Foxes you control get +1/+2 until end of turn.
3/3

Floating Isle Steypireydur 6{2/U}{2/U}
Creature - Whale Spirit (U)
This spell can't be countered and costs 1 less to cast for each Human you control.
There are Ulgrothan animal spirits so wise that whole covens of mages will seek out an audience with them.
6/6

Gatekeeper of Tizerus 5BB
Enchantment Creature - Nightmare Spirit (R)
Deathtouch
Constellation - Whenever Gatekeeper of Tizerus or another enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, you may cast up to one target Human card in a graveyard without paying its mana cost.
"Behold the fate you made for yourself. Behold the world that awaits your revenge."
4/8

Agyrem Dare-Sprinter 1RR
Creature - Spirit Rogue (R)
Prowess, haste
Treat Human and Spirit spells you cast as noncreature spells until they resolve.
Whenever Agyrem Dare-Sprinter attacks, for each creature defending player controls, flip a coin. If it's heads, that creature can't block Humans this turn. If it's tails, that creature can't block Spirits this turn.
"Dack showed us that any barriers can be broken - even the barriers of reality."
2/2

Usher of Redemption 2G
Creature - Spirit (U)
Vigilance
When Usher of Redemption enters the battlefield, you gain 1 life for each Human you control.
When Usher of Redemption dies, you gain 1 life for each Human card in your graveyard.
2/1

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Post by Rumpy5897 » 3 years ago

Very first interaction with CCL, so sorry if my takes are very hot and scrubby.

My vote went to void_nothing. All of the cards felt like interesting, broad pieces for various decks that would have a Human component, but also other things going on to complicate matters. There were subtle nods to elements of Magic past, but nothing felt derivative. The red card's static ability was worded a little strangely, but pushed into interesting realms that synergise nicely with various prowess'y humans. The choice to have the black card cast the human was a bit odd, why not just return?

I like the ideas going on in Henlock's designs. The main stumbling block is the red card - how is munching your own creatures like that red exactly? If this were black I'd understand, but it just feels off for red. The cards offer an interesting spread of the synergies kicking in at different moments, some of the details could be tweaked (sac two humans for a 2/2 flier feels steep; getting a green off a legendary human felt a little odd, can't put my finger on why) but the ground covered is nice.

The slimytrout cycle is the most uniform, and also kind of formulaic. ETB, look at number of humans, do a thing. Everything is nicely in colour, the cards feel balanced for what they do, the flavour reinforced by the flavour test is nifty, but the cycle feels like it'd exist in the set's limited and go unnoticed elsewhere.
 
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void_nothing
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Post by void_nothing » 3 years ago

Thanks for the comments and your vote!

The Human card in the graveyard is cast for two reasons -
1) Nameless Inversion shenanigans
2) Escape casts the card
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Post by void_nothing » 3 years ago

slimytrout - For challenges such as these, which are reasonably popular in finals (I've used them, I know Lorn loves them), cycles are an easy way out of sorts, but the challenge is coming up with the compelling cycle concept in the first place. Some of the legwork was done for you with the challenge itself but my God, is this ever a well-put-together cycle. Innistrad is the right setting for this, the flavor texts are just about perfect, and the mechanical aspect of it almost never falters imo. I'm assuming Stormwatch Geist was actually the first one designed here? I like that one and Huntwatch Geist quite a lot. The rest are all okay, although I was never keen on white sorcery-speed tapping: It's a bit too close to "can't block this turn".

Henlock - Like mine this was an assortment, so I'll have to give a brief comment on each individually. Jealous Apparition is brilliant for being able to get in unblocked with that flying and then switching to a saboteur Human. Twisted Summon is deliberately an Aristocrats deck card right? Because two sacrifices is not gonna be worth the 2/2 flyer 90% of the time otherwise. I do like the Horror typing though. Welcoming Presence is interesting yet arbitrary: Nothing about the flavor really suggests why the legendary-matters is there. I feel like this would go in a Commander Legends II type release. Pretheus is missing its legendary type and I assume is a takeoff on the Prometheus myth - but Titan of Eternal Fire is already that. Not big on drawback legends but I suppose this is supposed to have ETB shenanigans in mind. Spirit of the Shell is just plain useful.
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Post by slimytrout » 3 years ago

void_nothing: I'm sure this is not true for you, but I think people in general substantially underestimate how hard it is to make a satisfying cycle. Obviously it is easier in a case like this where I don't have to fit it into a larger set, but this is also a (deliberately) tricky cycle: it requires figuring out how to do five different scaling effects that fit nicely with five different keywords, at five different mana costs, in a way where no card steps on another card's toes and each one is balanced. And I honestly don't remember which one was first (although you have correctly figured out that white was last) -- the way it came about was that I tried a few different things (e.g., a mega-cycle of legendary spirits of known deceased characters from different planes) and the flavor always felt like it was unsatisfying on every plane other than Innistrad, so I ended up switching some of the designs I had to all be part of a geist cycle. The difficulty that I had was that there are several planes where Human tribal feels natural (Innistrad, Eldraine, Ikoria, maybe Kamigawa), and a lot of planes that have spirits, but the overlap is not large. I'm impressed that you managed to get four plane-specific cards in a way that felt pretty flavorfully appropriate, even if Agyrem Dare-Sprinter is a bit of a stretch. The Steypireydur (which I think should maybe be steypireythur) feels a little underpowered and bland -- with two humans you get a 6-mana uncounterable 6/6, which is fine but not exciting. The black and white cards are both nice, but my favorite is actually the one that (as far as I know) is not from a specific plane, the Usher -- very clean and elegant.

henlock: I like all these designs mechanically (esp., in descending order, G, W, U), but the flavor feels a little bland to me. As I noted in my response to void_nothing, I felt like a bit part of the challenge was getting the flavor right, so the fact that 4/5 were non-plane specific (not even a plane of your own invention) and all had no flavor text was a bit of a turn-off.

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Post by void_nothing » 3 years ago

I wanna see the ghosts-of-dead-characters megacycle now.

The Steypireydur (and yeah eth being transcribed as "th" is more accurate but I think this just looks better) and the Dare-Sprinter are references not only to Ulgrotha and Ravnica, but specific renditions of them: Ulgrotha and Heist of Agyrem from Collaborative Create-A-Booster. The Usher, meanwhile, is meant to be from the most obvious Human/Spirit tribal plane: Innistrad. I was concepting a sylvan geist, like Strangleroot Geist but more benevolent (do these have a specific name like skathul and niblis?), as an attendant spirit for a Tree of Redemption.
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Post by slimytrout » 3 years ago

Oh, got it -- and no, I haven't seen a term for a forest spirit; the list I've seen is niblis, skathul, drogskol, banshee, and marei, none of which fit. But I think geist is just another word for spirit, and doesn't imply angry/malevolent -- take the Geist of Saint Traft, for instance.

As for the megacycle, it never got finished because I didn't think I could do it justice (partly because not all of the characters felt right for Human tribal), and I scavenged some of the concepts for my existing cards and forgot some of the rest, but I can tell you who the characters were going to be:

W - Anafenza
U - Saint Traft (yes, kind of cheating)
B - King Macar
R - Argus Kos
G - Sisay (or maybe Saffi -- was considering both)

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void_nothing
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Post by void_nothing » 3 years ago

I'd love to see a monoblue Traft and a monogreen Sisay though - I'm sure you could use those design ideas at a later time!
Psst, check the second page of Custom Card Contests & Games! Because of the daily contests, a lot of games fall down to there.

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Post by Lorn Asbord Schutta » 3 years ago

And the winners are slimytrout and void_nothing.
Congratulations!

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Post by void_nothing » 3 years ago

Congrats slimy!
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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Post by slimytrout » 3 years ago

Congrats void!

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