October MCC Round 4 (finals) - The midnight howl

[bravelion83]

(This month's banner is my own elaboration on the art of the cards Untamed Pup and Frenzied Trapbreaker by Randy Vargas.)


October MCC Round 4

The midnight howl

Leo's set-themed MCCs are back! And it's been a long time, my last set-themed MCC month was for Ikoria, which now is not even in Standard anymore. It was more than a year ago. It was time. And it feels good to be back! This month we will celebrate the latest set, in this case Midnight Hunt, by exploring its mechanics and themes, as usual in this kind of MCC months.


Main Challenge - Design a Werewolf DFC with daybound on its front face and nightbound on its back face.

Subchallenge 1 - You card's front face is exactly two colors: the first color is either red or green, and the second color is either white, blue, or black.

Subchallenge 2 - Your card's back face is monocolored and its color is one that is not found on its front face.

Clarifications

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None for now.

If you have any questions, post them in the MCC discussion thread.

DEADLINES

Design deadline: Friday, November 5th 23:59 EDT

Judging deadline: Tuesday, November 9th 23:59 EDT


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.

JUDGES

bravelion83
void_nothing


PLAYERS

@Lorn Asbord Schutta
@slimytrout
@vishamon


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 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.

[vishamon]

Elder Moon Sage
Creature — Human Druid Werewolf (R)
Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on Elder Moon Sage.
Daybound (If a player casts no spells during their own turn, it becomes night next turn.)
2/2

Blood Moon Howler
()Creature — Werewolf (R)
When Blood Moon Howler attacks, add for each +1/+1 counter on it. Until end of turn, you don't lose this mana as steps and phases end.
Nightbound (If a player casts at least two spells during their own turn, it becomes day next turn.)
2/2

[slimytrout]

Merciless Hunter 1BG
Creature — Human Warrior Werewolf (R)
Menace
Whenever Merciless Hunter attacks, you may have it fight target creature you don't control.
Daybound (If a player casts no spells during their own turn, it becomes night next turn.)
"Out here, it's eat or be eaten."
3/3
///
Huntpack Killer
(R) Creature — Werewolf (R)
Menace
Whenever Huntpack Killer attacks, it deals damage equal to its power to target creature or planeswalker.
Nightbound (If a player casts at least two spells during their own turn, it becomes day next turn.)
"It's a good thing we're always hungry."
4/4

[Lorn Asbord Schutta]

Slayers Commander
Creature — Human Soldier Werewolf (M)
, Discard a card: Target creature gains haste and gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
, Discard a card: Target creature gains vigilance and gets +0/+2 until end of turn.
: Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to target creature you control this turn. Combat damage that would be dealt by that creature this turn can't be prevented.
Daybound
4/4
///
Slaying Alpha
() Creature — Werewolf (M)
Haste, vigilance
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to creatures you control.
Combat damage that would be dealt by creatures you control can't be prevented.
2gg, Discard a card: Creatures you control gain haste and vigilance and get +2/+2 until end of turn.
Nightbound
6/6

[bravelion83]

The round is closed. Judging may begin.

---

Judgments complete.

vishamon

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Elder Moon Sage
Creature — Human Druid Werewolf (R)
Whenever you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on Elder Moon Sage.
Daybound (If a player casts no spells during their own turn, it becomes night next turn.)
2/2

Blood Moon Howler
()Creature — Werewolf (R)
When Blood Moon Howler attacks, add for each +1/+1 counter on it. Until end of turn, you don't lose this mana as steps and phases end.
Nightbound (If a player casts at least two spells during their own turn, it becomes day next turn.)
2/2

Design
Appeal 2/3 - Timmy likes this card. Johnny has the challenge of how to trigger the life gain ability with no built-in ways to gain life, and he can also use the mana the back face gives him. Spike doesn't care too much.
Elegance 3/3 - Not too long and very easy to understand.
Development
Viability 2/3 - The front face's triggered ability can be both green and white. For the back face, one-shot mana generation is red but green can also do it as the king of mana production. I see nothing on the back face for which you have to pay the white mana of the front face. If it weren't for the subchallenges, this card's front face could have been monogreen. No problems with rarity or the rules.
Balance 2/3 - Probably playable in limited, especially if you have other sources of life gain. I can't really see this in competitive constructed. No problems in casual or multiplayer.
Creativity
Uniqueness 0.5/3 - Literally nothing new here.
Flavor 2/3 - I like the names, and the word "moon" connecting them. MSE shows me there is definitely room for flavor text on the front face and also a couple lines on the back face, so the lack of flavor text is a problem here.
Polish
Quality 2/3 - No space between the color indicator and the creature card type, but it's too small of a mistake to deduct points for it. In color pie order, green comes before white, so the mana cost of the front face should be 1GW (-1).
Main Challenge 2/2 - Good.
Subchallenges 2/2 - Both met.
TOTAL 17.5/25

slimytrout

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Merciless Hunter 1BG
Creature — Human Warrior Werewolf (R)
Menace
Whenever Merciless Hunter attacks, you may have it fight target creature you don't control.
Daybound (If a player casts no spells during their own turn, it becomes night next turn.)
"Out here, it's eat or be eaten."
3/3
///
Huntpack Killer
(R) Creature — Werewolf (R)
Menace
Whenever Huntpack Killer attacks, it deals damage equal to its power to target creature or planeswalker.
Nightbound (If a player casts at least two spells during their own turn, it becomes day next turn.)
"It's a good thing we're always hungry."
4/4

Design
Appeal 2.5/3 - Timmy likes pretty much anything on this card. I don't see much for Johnny though. Spike likes a creature that's hard to block and has built-in removal.
Elegance 3/3 - Not too long and very easy to understand.
Development
Viability 3/3 - Menace is black, fight is green, and both menace and bite are also red. Forcing you to find shared abilities like this was the intent of the subchallenges. No problems with rarity or the rules.
Balance 2.5/3 - Three mana for a 3/3 with menace and built-in removal looks a bit pushed to me. Being multicolored helps, but I wonder if this would still be playable at four mana. As is, it's certainly playable in limited. The removal is tempting in Standard, but being an attack trigger on a creature that doesn't have haste doesn't help there, though it does help the balance of this card in a general sense. No problems in casual and multiplayer.
Creativity
Uniqueness 1.5/3 - Nothing really new here. The combination feels fresh though. After all, most MID Werevolwes are like this: very similar faces where only one small details changes. This card just follows that trend, but it does so in a very nice way.
Flavor 3/3 - I like names and flavor texts very much, and I could see them all being printed as is. Good job.
Polish
Quality 3/3 - All good.
Main Challenge 2/2 - Good.
Subchallenges 2/2 - Both met.
TOTAL 22.5/25

Lorn Asbord Schutta

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Slayers Commander
Creature — Human Soldier Werewolf (M)
, Discard a card: Target creature gains haste and gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
, Discard a card: Target creature gains vigilance and gets +0/+2 until end of turn.
: Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to target creature you control this turn. Combat damage that would be dealt by that creature this turn can't be prevented.
Daybound
4/4
///
Slaying Alpha
() Creature — Werewolf (M)
Haste, vigilance
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to creatures you control.
Combat damage that would be dealt by creatures you control can't be prevented.
2gg, Discard a card: Creatures you control gain haste and vigilance and get +2/+2 until end of turn.
Nightbound
6/6

Design
Appeal 2.5/3 - Timmy likes a creature with a bunch of board-relevant abilities. Johnny can use this as a discard outlet, and he also has the damage prevention acting like protection for his combos. Spike is probably the one that's the least interested, the back face is tempting as a six-mana 6/6 with upside, but she would have probably liked to have the back face by itself on a traditional card.
Elegance 2/3 - The text is easy to understand, but it's very long, so long that it leaves you no room for reminder text.
Development
Viability 3/3 - I like how you used abilities that share colors on the two faces. Haste is red and vigilance and damage prevention are white, and all three are also green. Forcing you to do this was the intent of the subchallenges this round. I can see this at mythic, and I see no problems with the rules.
Balance 2.5/3 - Playable in limited. I wouldn't be surprised to see this making a splash in Standard, though preventing all combat damage may not be so fun when you're on the receiving end of it, which is also relevant in casual. Working on all damage regardless of which opponent it comes from is obviously relevant in multiplayer.
Creativity
Uniqueness 1.5/3 - There are small elements that are relatively new, but they're surrounded by very well known abilities. In particular, Gatherer tells me that the "combat damage can't be prevented" line on the back face has only been done once ever before, on Questing Beast from Eldraine.
Flavor 2.5/3 - Given how it looks like (sigh ) Commander is now the most played format, I'm not sure how much I like the word "Commander" being used on a creature that is not legendary and thus can't be your Commander. I know there is precedent, but I think that today they would think about that. No problems with the name of the back face or the verb to slay linking the two names. It's also not a problem that you don't have flavor text here, as if the card doesn't even have room for reminder text, it certainly doesn't have room for flavor text either.
Polish
Quality 1.5/3 - The P/T bonuses are always listed first, before other granted abilities, so it should be " gets +2/+0 nd gains haste" (-0.5), "gets +0/+2 and gains vigilance " (-0.5), and "get +2/+2 and gain haste and vigilance" (-0.5). On a mythic where there is no room, you can leave out reminder text for non-evergreen keywords, so that's not a problem here.
Main Challenge 2/2 - Good.
Subchallenges 2/2 - Both met.
TOTAL 19.5/25

Results

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slimytrout: 22.5
Lorn Asbord Schutta: 19.5
vishamon: 17.5

[void_nothing]

vishamon

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Design
(2/3) Appeal - Txmmy likes the potential size and the ramp. Jxnny has a few things to do with this. Spike finds it too small and slow to bother with it.
(2.5/3) Elegance - Counters on a card designed to transform repeatedly can be annoying to track, but otherwise this is nothing anybody hasn't seen before.

Development
(2.5/3) Viability - Colors look okay but rarity wise this seems to want to be uncommon more than rare. The parasitic ability feels almost like a signpost uncommon card, and it's neither all that powerful nor all that complex.
(2.5/3) Balance - At rare this card feels underpowered if anything. It requires you to gain life at least two or three times and then get to night for it to be "interesting" and if it starts on the night side the whole deal is even more parasitic.

Creativity
(1/3) Uniqueness - There are tons of creatures with the "gain life, get a +1/+1 counter" ability and in fact the front face is basically Ajani's Pridemate. The back face has more new content but there are still quite a few creatures that give you mana for attacking, including a couple of Werewolves.
(2.5/3) Flavor - Names are good if a little generic. The concept of a blood moon is pretty heavily associated with red mana in this game, of course.

Polish
(2.5/3) Quality - Mana symbol order's the wrong way around.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Done.
(2/2) Subchallenges - And done.

Total: 19.5/25

slimytrout

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Design
(2.5/3) Appeal - Txmmy definitely likes all the damage going around. Jxnny sees the card as sort of blunt but could do tons of wacky Voltron stuff with it as well. Spike sees an evasive beater that comes with its own removal.
(2.5/3) Elegance - Huntpack Killer can technically have to target (and deal lethal damage to) itself whilst Merciless Hunter is always optional, which is a bit odd.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Sure. A definite rare, and works as both BG and red.
(3/3) Balance - Nothing objectionable - a Limited bomb for sure but the front face's ability is at least risky to use.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - Menace plus taking creatures feels interesting. Ultimately Werewolves and fight/bite go hand in paw, and this card is a new presentation of some pretty old elements.
(3/3) Flavor - I like this a lot - excellent flavor text writing.

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

Total: 22.5/25

Lorn Asbord Schutta

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Design
(2/3) Appeal - Txmmy sees something big and splashy. Spike sees a toolbox-y finisher. Jxnny regards it as kind of a blunt instrument.
(1.5/3) Elegance - Both sides of this card are really text heavy and would make combat math pretty complicated.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Abilities fit both RW and G. Should definitely be a mythic for Limited purposes.
(3/3) Balance - Easily takes over games, but that is expected for a six-mana mythic. Plus it requires more mana investment.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - While these exact effects have not been done before, they're all tried and true, with the back face reminding me of Questing Beast.
(2/3) Flavor - The idea that a high-ranking inquisitor is secretly a werewolf is so unusual that I'm surprised this card isn't legendary. As-is, the idea that any number of veteran Slayers might be werewolves strains plausibility.

Polish
(2/3) Quality - P/T bonuses should come before gained abilities.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Done.
(2/2) Subchallenges - And done.

Total: 19/25

[bravelion83]

Final results:

slimytrout: 22.5 + 22.5 = 45
Lorn Asbord Schutta: 19.5 + 19 = 38.5
vishamon: 17.5 + 19.5 = 37

Congratulations to slimytrout, the winner of the October MCC.