January MCC - Round 1: The Origin of Species

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slimytrout
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Post by slimytrout » 2 years ago

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Banner based on New Horizons by Noah Bradley and Wizards of the Coast. Thanks to bravelion83 for the "Core Set Style" MCC Logo
January MCC, Round 1 - The Origin of Species
Welcome to the January MCC! It's a new year and a New Month here at the MCC. We're going to be coming up with some new things.

Main Challenge: Design a creature card with a new creature type.
Subchallenge 1: Your card refers to one or more creature types in its rules text.
Subchallenge 2: Your card is legendary.

DEADLINES

Design deadline: Sunday, January 9th 23:59 EST

Judging deadline: Wednesday, January 12th 23:59 EST

Clarifications
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Main challenge: As in all the challenges this month, "new" means "never printed on a magic card before."
Subchallenge 1: The creature type(s) referred to can include the new creature type but don't have to.
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:
slimytrout
void_nothing

If you are not interested in playing, please sign up to judge the contest!

Players:
Anyone is welcome to enter this first round!

Legend
Aethernaut
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Post by Legend » 2 years ago

Giant Armadillo (Common)
2GW
Creature - Armadillo
2/2
Lifelink
GW: Giant Armadillo gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Activate only once each turn.
“Comboing in Commander is like dunking on a seven foot hoop.” – Dana Roach

“Making a deck that other people want to play against – that’s Commander.” – Gavin Duggan

"I want my brain to win games, not my cards." – Sheldon Menery

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RaikouRider
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Post by RaikouRider » 2 years ago

Isaac, Vale Adept 1GG
Legendary Creature - Human Psion {R}
At the beginning of your end step, you get E (an energy counter) for each Psion you control.
Growth - You may spend E as though it were mana of any color to cast your first spell each turn.
He is one of two Adepts responsible for guarding Sol Sanctum from those who wish to unleash Alchemy upon the world.
3/3
Last edited by RaikouRider 2 years ago, edited 1 time in total.

Pygyzy
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Post by Pygyzy » 2 years ago

Ywy, Protoplanar Heptodon 4
Legendary Creature - Elder Tapir (R)
Other Tapir, Horse, and Rhino creatures you control get +1/+2.
When Ywy, Protoplanar Heptodon enters the battlefield, propagate. (Create a tapped colorless artifact Monolith token with "2, T, Sacrifice this artifact: Propagate.".)
Whenever you propagate, target player sacrifices a non-Tapir permanent. That permanent's owner creates a 2/4 green and white Tapir creature token with "2, T, Sacrifice this creature: Propagate.".
Unbound from the fabric of the Multiverse, Ywy exists beyond time. Each monolith it creates begins a transformation that spreads across all of The Blind Eternities.
3/6

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bravelion83
Back to fighting monsters
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Post by bravelion83 » 2 years ago

Gak, Welcoming Professor 1GU
Legendary Creature — Human Teacher (R)
Vigilance
Gak, Welcoming Professor gets +1/+1 for each Student and/or Fractal you control.
{G/U}{G/U}, T: Create a 1/1 green and blue Student creature token with "When this creature enters the battlefield, learn." (To learn, you may reveal a Lesson card you own from outside the game and put it into your hand, or discard a card to draw a card.)
2/2

(Quandrix watermark)
Author of the MCC Guidelines and FAQ. | Thanks to all that have provided feedback about the March MCC. You can find the results in this post.


For my projects (Jeff Lionheart, "One pierced heart, two mindful horns", republished articles from my series "The Lion's Lair", and custom sets), see Leo's content index (Last updated on April 25th 2024 - Added TLL #5).
After I'm done republishing my articles I want to reprise the series focusing it more on editing, wording, and templating. Suggest potential future article topics here.
My CCCG Resume (Updated on May 2nd 2024, including Jun 2024 in advance)
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Blue = MTGSalvation Green = MTGNexus
MCC - Winner (9): Oct 2014, Apr Nov 2017, Jan 2018, Apr Jun 2019, Jan Mar 2022, Apr 2023 || Host (31): Dec 2014, Apr Jul Aug Dec 2015, Mar Jul Aug Oct 2016, Feb Jul 2017, Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last on MTGS), Aug 2019 (first on MTGN) Oct 2019, Jan Jun 2020 Apr Oct 2021, Feb May Sep Dec 2022, Mar Jun Sep Dec 2023, Mar Jun 2024 || Judge (59): every month from Nov 2014 to Nov 2016 except Oct 2015, every month from Feb to Jul 2017 except Apr 2017, then Oct 2017, May Jun Nov 2018, Feb Jul 2019 (last on MTGS), every month from Aug 2019 (first on MTGN) to Feb 2020, May Jun 2020, Mar Apr Sep Oct 2021, Feb May Sep Dec 2022, Mar May Jun Sep Dec 2023, Jan Mar Jun 2024
CCL - Winner (4): Jul 2016 (tied with Flatline), May 2017, Jul 2019 (last on MTGS), Jun 2021 (tied with slimytrout) || Host (5): Feb 2015, Mar Apr May Jun 2016
DCC - Winner (4): Mar 2015 (tied with Piar), Feb Apr 2022, Apr 2024 || Host (16): May Oct 2015, Jan 2016, Jun Sep Dec 2021, Mar Jun Sep Dec 2022, Mar Jun Sep Dec 2023, Mar Jun 2024

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Subject16
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Post by Subject16 » 2 years ago

Mishar, Venom Priestess 1BG
Legendary Creature — Chitinid Cleric (R)
Menace, lifelink
Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
Scorpions you control and other Chitinids you control get +1/+1.
BG, Pay 3 life: Create a 1/1 black Scorpion creature token with wither.
1/3
Last edited by Subject16 2 years ago, edited 1 time in total.

netn10
Posts: 4058
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Post by netn10 » 2 years ago

Aarren d'Cannith's Masterpiece 2W
Legendary Artifact Creature - Warforged (Rare)
Vigilance
Immune to Disease - If the toughness of a Warforged you control would become less than 1, it becomes 1 instead.
Immune to Sleep - Prevent all effects that would make a Warforged you control to become tapped or to prevent it from untapping.
3/3

kwanyeegor-ii
Posts: 1939
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Post by kwanyeegor-ii » 2 years ago

Lee Kwa, New Year Monster 1RR
Legendary Creature - Nian (Mythic)
Haste
Lee Kwa, New Year Monster can't be blocked by Gods and Spirits.
When Lee Kwa, New Year Monster enters the battlefield, target opponent takes an extra turn after this one. At the beginning of the end step of that turn, Lee Kwa deals 6 damage to that player and you may cast a nonland card in that player's graveyard without paying its mana cost.
3/3
畫龍點睛

I'm a simple Magic player since several years ago from China. Now I live in New Jersey.

marioguy3
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Post by marioguy3 » 2 years ago

Strikones, Valley Enforcer
Legendary Creature — Beetle (Rare)
Flash
Deathtouch
Whenever Strikones, Valley Enforcer blocks one or more creatures, create that many 1/1 white and black Beetle creature tokens with deathtouch.
: Until end of turn, Strikones, Valley Enforcer gets +2/+4 and can block any number of creatures.
3/4
The summer is hot. The sum of sun and hot equals summer.

Henlock
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Post by Henlock » 2 years ago

Etjros, Planar Eye rw
Legendary Creature - Extraplanar Eye (r)
Haste, protection from planeswalkers
Etjros, Planar Eye can only attack planeswalkers and players who control a planeswalker.
As long as Etjros, Planar Eye is attacking a planeswalker, it can't be blocked except by Extraplanars.
4/3
Last edited by Henlock 2 years ago, edited 1 time in total.

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Lorn Asbord Schutta
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Post by Lorn Asbord Schutta » 2 years ago

Interrogator Pyotr Kara
Legendary Creature — Human Sleuth (R)
Whenever a spell or ability you control taps a creature an opponent controls, investigate.
Whenever you draw your second card each turn, you may pay and reveal it. If you do, choose one —
• Counter target spell if it has the same mana value as the revealed card.
• Destroy target tapped creature if it has the same mana value as the revealed card.
2/3
Last edited by Lorn Asbord Schutta 2 years ago, edited 1 time in total.

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MonoRedMage
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Post by MonoRedMage » 2 years ago

Zau-1, the Sparrowshrike 2RR
Legendary Artifact Creature - Vardeant {R}
Flying, first strike, haste
Whenever Zau-1 deals combat damage to a player, choose one -
• Reveal the top two cards of your library. Put each Human and Vardeant card revealed this way into your hand and the rest into your graveyard.
• You may put a Human or Vardeant card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped and attacking.
The first five vardeants - autonomous aetheric machines of defense - were wholly unique. Zau-1 was the fastest transport ever built.
2/2

slimytrout
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Post by slimytrout » 2 years ago

I'll about to go to bed, so I'll close the round at noon ET tomorrow, 12 hours from now. Last chance to enter!

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Venedrex
Wait, we can have titles?
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Post by Venedrex » 2 years ago

Beldyn, Warden of the Seven Lights
Legendary Creature — Sinidrim Cleric (M)
Whenever an enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, you may exile target nonland permanent an opponent controls until that enchantment leaves the battlefield.
: Another target nonland permanent you control phases out.
3/4
He stewards over a gleaming city of pure light, fueled by those held within.
Epicurean, EDH without Universes Beyond.

http://nxs.wf/np748831

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Freyleyes
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Post by Freyleyes » 2 years ago

It That Waits 3BB
Legendary Creature — Eldritch Horror {M}
Flying, haste, lifelink, protection from Angels.
Corruption — As long as you control a creature with greater mana value then It That Waits, all other creatures gets -1/-1.
Look upon the moon in awe, for one day she shall be released.
5/5

slimytrout
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Post by slimytrout » 2 years ago

Okay, round is closed! Judging assignments are as follows:

slimytrout:
Henlock
bravelion83
Subject16
Legend
Venedrex
RaikouRider
marioguy3

void_nothing:
netn10
kwanyeegor-ii
MonoRedMage
Pygyzy
Freyleyes
Lorn Asbord Schutta

Top 4 from each judge will advance to the next round.

slimytrout
Posts: 1892
Joined: 4 years ago
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Post by slimytrout » 2 years ago

Henlock
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Etjros, Planar Eye rw
Legendary Creature - Extraplanar Eye (r)
Haste, protection from planeswalkers
Etjros, Planar Eye can only attack planeswalkers and players who control a planeswalker.
As long as Etjros, Planar Eye is attacking a planeswalker, it can't be blocked except by Extraplanars.
4/3
Design
(1/3) Appeal – Johnny sees a pretty odd card, which appeals to them, but the creature itself is a little bit of a blunt instrument. Spike sees a very effective sideboard card, but definitely doesn't want to risk playing this and having it basically be a defender. Timmy would usually love a 2-mana 4/3 haste but hates not being able to attack with their stuff.
(3/3) Elegance – Sure, seems good.

Development
(2.5/3) Viability – Red seems important for the haste, but I'm not sure where white comes in and also how either of those colors gets quasi-unblockability. Probably BR is better – there's precedent of both eyes and planeswalker-hate in black.
(2/3) Balance – It starts out being better than Moat Piranhas, but that's a very low bar. Basically this can come out of the sideboard in standard or maybe be played in EDH if you know one of your opponents is playing a 'walker heavy deck (and you don't like that person), but it's grossly unplayable in limited so I suspect it would see very little play.

Creativity
(2.5/3) Uniqueness – We've seen some creatures with planeswalker hate before, but this is a new variety.
(2.5/3) Flavor – I can only think of one real creature type's an adjective, which is Elder, but Extraplanar seems like a perfectly fine addition to that list. It ends up being a little awkward, as seen in text when you reference "Extraplanars," but overall seems like a reasonable candidate for a new creature type.

Polish
(3/3) Quality – Looks good.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) – Yep.
(2/2) Subchallenges – Yep yep.

Total: 20.5/25
bravelion83
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Gak, Welcoming Professor 1GU
Legendary Creature — Human Teacher (R)
Vigilance
Gak, Welcoming Professor gets +1/+1 for each Student and/or Fractal you control.
{G/U}{G/U}, T: Create a 1/1 green and blue Student creature token with "When this creature enters the battlefield, learn." (To learn, you may reveal a Lesson card you own from outside the game and put it into your hand, or discard a card to draw a card.)
2/2

(Quandrix watermark)
Design
2/3) Appeal – Spike loves a repeated value engine that also provides a ton of choices. Timmy likes getting it enormous while also building an army, but it takes a while to get there. Johnny sees some unusual tokens, but not a lot of explosive potential.
(3/3) Elegance – Some people seem to really hate the strange and/or's you sometimes see on cards (and this one is far from the strangest – see Bearded Axe), but I don't have any objections since it seems to be necessary for proper templating.
Development
(3/3) Viability – Definitely rare, and feels very Quandrix.

(2.5/3) Balance – This seems a little above rate to me. If you look at the existing cards, you can see that Learn was costed as a little bit less than drawing a card. But this costs two mana and a tap to learn and create a 1/1 (and get +1/+1 itself). In limited the potential would be a little lower because eventually you'd run out of Lessons (which is probably why they didn't make any repeatable learning cards), but in constructed it could definitely get out of hand, especially because once the first one dies, any subsequent ones still benefit from any tokens left behind.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness – The tokens that learn on ETB are new, but most of the components have been done plenty of times before.
(2.5/3) Flavor – It feels a little random to have it benefit from Fractals and Students, but basically I like the idea and Teacher seems like a fun creature type that's currently missing.

Polish
(3/3) Quality – Looks good.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) – Yep.
(2/2) Subchallenges – Yep yep.

Total: 22/25
Subject16
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Mishar, Venom Priestess 1BG
Legendary Creature — Chitinid Cleric (R)
Menace, lifelink
Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
Scorpions you control and other Chitinids you control get +1/+1.
BG, Pay 3 life: Create a 1/1 black Scorpion creature token with wither.
1/3
Design
(2/3) Appeal – Timmy is generally very into tribal lords, and this is no exception. Spike likes the potential of unbounded instant-speed token generation (i.e., no tapping). Johnny isn't really interested.
(3/3) Elegance – Simple enough.
Development
(2.5/3) Viability – The mechanics aren't terribly green, although obviously BG is the right place for a scorpion lord. Rare is right.
(2.5/3) Balance – Being able to pump out any number of 2-mana instant-speed 2/2's (with wither) definitely has potential. The stats on this itself aren't great (if you play it on turn 3 and it just gets hit with a burn spell a turn or two later it's not so hot) but the fact that it's so good in a board stall makes it a very strong card in limited and probably even in constructed with the right support.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness – Pretty standard lord stuff – we've never had a wither lord or a Scorpion lord, but neither of those are huge leaps.
(2.5/3) Flavor – I'm not entirely sure why Chitinid needs to be its own creature type distinct from Scorpions (other than for the challenge). The most recent example of this sort of thing is Nagas (which, to be honest, caused a decent amount of complaints), but in general, it seems more common to just use the creature type of the underlying creature like, say, the Amphin, where they're just Salamanders.

Polish
(3/3) Quality – Looks good.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) – Yep.
(2/2) Subchallenges – Yep yep.

Total: 21/25
Legend
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Giant Armadillo (Common)
2GW
Creature - Armadillo
2/2
Lifelink
GW: Giant Armadillo gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Activate only once each turn.
Design
(0.5/3) Appeal – Timmy likes the potential for a 4/4 lifelink but not the one-per-turn activation. Spike hates that they have to keep investing in this just to have a moderatel above-curve creature (see: Moldering Karok). Johnny is utterly bored.
(3/3) Elegance – Very simple.
Development
(3/3) Viability – Sure, the lifelink is white and the activation is green. Definitely common.
(1.5/3) Balance – Very mediocre. It's well below rate before the activation (1 power and 1 toughness), although threat of activation does help make up for that. Still, definitely would see zero play outside of limited.

Creativity
(1/3) Uniqueness – This exact combination of abilities has never been done before, but there's nothing novel about it so it feels like it certainly could have been.
(1.5/3) Flavor – Could definitely fit flavor text, but I do think armadillo would be a fun type to have in magic.

Polish
(2.5/3) Quality – Everything's out of order for how things are formatted on this site, but otherwise fine.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) – Yep.
(0/2) Subchallenges – Doesn't include a creature type in its rules text (just mentioning its own name doesn't count), and not legendary.

Total: 15/25
Venedrex
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Beldyn, Warden of the Seven Lights
Legendary Creature — Sinidrim Cleric (M)
Whenever an enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, you may exile target nonland permanent an opponent controls until that enchantment leaves the battlefield.
: Another target nonland permanent you control phases out.
3/4
He stewards over a gleaming city of pure light, fueled by those held within.
Design
(3/3) Appeal – An all-rounder! Spike would love to tack a Banishing Light onto all of their enchantments. Johnny can see all sorts of crazy things to do with this. Timmy wants to just jam this in an enchantress deck and go to town.
(3/3) Elegance – Seems pretty understandable.
Development
(3/3) Viability – Definitely mythic, and white seems right.
(1.5/3) Balance – Seems pretty pushed. It doesn't come in with any value itself, but once you get to play even one enchantment it's already basically a two-for-one, and in the right deck you can basically just wipe your opponent's entire board within a turn or two of playing this.

Creativity
(2.5/3) Uniqueness – It's pretty similar to a card I designed for the CCL finals one or two months ago, but I'm not going to penalize for that. Most of the pieces feel pretty unique here.
(2.5/3) Flavor – I don't quite know what a sinidrim is (sounds kinda biblical/semitic) but probably some kind of light-being? Flavor text is cool!

Polish
(2.5/3) Quality – Flavor text should come before p/t.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) – Yep.
(1/2) Subchallenges – Legendary but no creature type names.

Total: 21/25
RaikouRider
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Isaac, Vale Adept 1GG
Legendary Creature - Human Psion {R}
At the beginning of your end step, you get E (an energy counter) for each Psion you control.
Growth - You may spend E as though it were mana of any color to cast your first spell each turn.
He is one of two Adepts responsible for guarding Sol Sanctum from those who wish to unleash Alchemy upon the world.
3/3
Design
(2.5/3) Appeal – Timmy absolutely loves being able to ramp with energy. Spike also enjoys the tempo boost that this gives you. Johnny is definitely interested, but the (very wise) restriction to one spell per turn makes them unhappy.
(3/3) Elegance – Pretty easy to understand (at least from a human perspective).
Development
(2/3) Viability – Seems correct as a green rare. But I'm not at all sure of the rules viability of spending energy as though it were mana – energy is a counter whereas mana is… mana. I think this would be much cleaner (although admittedly less flexible) if you could pay any amount of energy to cast a spell with that mana value.
(2/3) Balance – Obviously there's a dangerous potential here (especially with Attune With Aether, which becomes a quite powerful ritual) but I actually don't think it would be too out of control, mostly because of the once-per-turn limitation and the fact that this doesn't come with much energy itself. Still, I think that preventing the mixing of energy and mana would be an improvement here as well.

Creativity
(3/3) Uniqueness – Very unique – definitely feels quite novel.
(3/3) Flavor – Nice! I'm not a big D&D person, but from my vague understanding of psions this seems like a cool interpretation for magic.

Polish
(3/3) Quality – I already deducted for potential rules issues above, and given those caveats this does seem like the best way to phrase it for the effect you're going for.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) – Yep.
(2/2) Subchallenges – Yep yep.

Total: 22.5/25
marioguy3
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Strikones, Valley Enforcer
Legendary Creature — Beetle (Rare)
Flash
Deathtouch
Whenever Strikones, Valley Enforcer blocks one or more creatures, create that many 1/1 white and black Beetle creature tokens with deathtouch.
: Until end of turn, Strikones, Valley Enforcer gets +2/+4 and can block any number of creatures.
3/4
Design
(2/3) Appeal – Timmy is the biggest fan of this – they love to imagine the moment where their opponent attacks all out, thinking they're dead on board, and then they flash this in, activate, and kill the five best attackers while making a bunch of beetles. Spike generally likes flash, but they know their opponents aren't typically going to attack all out into 8 open mana. Johnny likes the text "any number," but is less enthused about it being something their opponent can control.
(3/3) Elegance – Very easy to understand.
Development
(3/3) Viability – Rare is definitely correct. Something feels weird about a W/B creature with flash and deathtouch, but I guess it's the right color combination for these abilities.
(2.5/3) Balance – This is going to get to eat something and make a Beetle a good amount of the time, but probably that's all it will do in constructed – I would not expect your opponents to naively attack a bunch of creatures into eight open mana very often. That's not bad, but it's not exactly an amazing rate.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness – We haven't seen a blocking effect that makes tokens before, but Guardian of the Gateless has done a scaling effect based on number of creatures blocked, so it doesn't feel that fresh.
(1.5/3) Flavor – I have two main complaints: 1) I don't see why Beetle needs to be its own creature type when there are already Insects and 2) Beetles don't feel particularly like they should have flash, or deathtouch for that matter.

Polish
(3/3) Quality – Looks good.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) – Yep.
(2/2) Subchallenges – Yep yep.

Total: 20.5/25
Results
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Three-way tie for the final two spots means that five people are advancing.

RaikouRider: 22.5
bravelion83: 22
Venedrex: 21
Subject16: 21
marioguy3: 21

Henlock: 20.5
Legend: 15

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void_nothing
Look On My Sash...
Posts: 15315
Joined: 5 years ago
Answers: 126
Pronoun: he / him
Location: Tal Terig, Zendikar

Post by void_nothing » 2 years ago

netn10
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Design
(2.5/3) Appeal - Txmmy likes vigilant beaters and tribal. Jxnny sees a mostly reactive card but with some possible interesting interactions. If there were any competitive reason to play Warforged tribal Spike would like the narrow but useful protections.
(2/3) Elegance - The Immune flavor-worded abilities seem like they could cause some difficult-to-parse interactions.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Color and rarity seem right.
(3/3) Balance - Sure - definitely won't break anything.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness - Mass protection for creatures in general is pretty old, but these particular abilities function in a pretty new way.
(2.5/3) Flavor - I had to check the existing Warforged lore because my knowledge of Eberron is somewhat limited, but this all checks out - except that aren't they immune to those things inherently?

Polish
(1/3) Quality - You don't "prevent" effects - that third ability would be worded something like "If an effect would tap a Warforged you control or cause a Warforged you control not to become untapped, instead it doesn't." Also, Aaren d'Cannith's name has one r - I had to check this too.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Done.
(2/2) Subchallenges - And done.

Total: 20/25
kwanyeegor-ii
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Design
(2/3) Appeal - Definitely a Txmmy-Jxnny card. Giving up an extra turn is a huge risk for Spike, even with that payoff.
(2.5/3) Elegance - A bit wordy, but pretty comprehensible.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Wacky enough for mythic, and it seems to work in red.
(2/3) Balance - Very swingy. Either your opponent accomplishes nothing with the extra turn and you can get a win off with this, or your opponent kills you in that turn.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - Doing some interesting stuff here, although there have been cards that give opponents extra turns for nefarious purposes before.
(2/3) Flavor - Fits the temporal/bad luck theme well enough. I had to look up the nian, and the "New Year Monster" name is on the nose a little bit - plus I'm not convinced it'd need to be a different type than Beast. The evasion ability is really flavorful trinket text though.

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

Total: 20/25
MonoRedMage
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Design
(2.5/3) Appeal - Txmmy has various reasons to like this. Jxnny sees a lot of interactions and something that can be built around. Spike is somewhat interested but doesn't necessarily want to be all-in on Human tribal and playing a four-mana non-Human legendary.
(2/3) Elegance - Fairly text-heavy stuff that will have you doing more or less involved things DURING combat.

Development
(2/3) Viability - Not sure either of the triggered ability modes works all that well in red. The second one works better than the first. Apart from the haste this feels almost like a GW card.
(2.5/3) Balance - This card does a lot, but it's small in itself and relies on two specific creature types, one of which is almost exclusively small creatures although there are literally thousands of them, and the other of which has no non-changeling members other than this card, inherently to the challenge.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - Largely a mashup card, one that doesn't do any one unique thing but combines old elements in a new way.
(2/3) Flavor - While I get a super robot anime vibe from the flavor text, and that's a unique idea for Magic, I still can't really tell what a vardeant actually looks like or how it works.

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

Total: 19.5/25
Pygyzy
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Design
(1/3) Appeal - This doesn't do enough for how complicated it is for Txmmy. Jxnny generally likes unusual designs with a bunch of moving parts, but Spike is not paying six mana just to force one permanent sacrifice per turn that gets replaced with a 2/4 creature.
(1/3) Elegance - I'm not going to lie, my eyes kind of glazed over reading this card. Even the name and mana cost are complicated. There's a tribal ability for three (mechanically) unrelated and marginal creature types - there are a fair number of Rhinos but way fewer Horses - and there's a new keyword action that creates a new predefined token that exists to do nothing but do that same thing repeatedly.

Development
(1.5/3) Viability - This doesn't quite fit in monoblack and arguably this card isn't super white either; turning any permanent into a specific creature token is probably a GU ability.
(2.5/3) Balance - Underpowered if anything - either Tapir tribal/propagate.dek is dumb strong in the set this is from, or there are way better options for six mana no matter the format.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness - There are plenty of unique ideas here, but I'm not sure how many of them have legs, exactly. For example, propagate is entirely parasitic - the whole point of the ability seems to be little other than "spam triggered abilities of multiple of your cards."
(2/3) Flavor - I'm all for fresh, new creature concepts in Magic and ideas that are entirely original and not rooted in old fantasy tropes or real-world myths. However, the idea of a transcendent cosmic tapir that holds the whole multiverse's fate is… lacking in gravitas, I think.

Polish
(2.5/3) Quality - There's a superfluous period after the propagate reminder text - refer to how investigate's reminder text is formatted.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Done.
(2/2) Subchallenges - And done.

Total: 16.5/25
Freyleyes
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Design
(2/3) Appeal - Txmmy and Spike can both get behind this, but Jxnny sees a relatively normal beater.
(3/3) Elegance - Sure, nothing too out of the ordinary.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Probably correct with regard to the color and rarity.
(1.5/3) Balance - Par for the course for mythic five-drops, for better or worse - this is a lot like a Baneslayer Angel sidegrade, which is to say it could define a format, but the lack of first strike at least means you can beat it in combat with a similarly-sized beater.

Creativity
(1/3) Uniqueness - More or less BSA + Kaervek, the Spiteful. Corruption is a new ability word but the name doesn't seem to fit the flavor of the condition too much.
(1.5/3) Flavor - Eldritch is, of course, an adjective rather than a noun. I'm imagining this as an Innistradi ghost story about the actual events of Shadows block told long after the actual details were forgotten, but that wouldn't make Emrakul a literal different creature type, and also requires a bit too much interpretation on my part.

Polish
(2.5/3) Quality - Some punctuation issues.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Done.
(2/2) Subchallenges - And done.

Total: 18.5/25
Lorn Asbord Schutta
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Design
(3/3) Appeal - Pretty much everyone wants to play some Clue(do).
(2/3) Elegance - A pretty busy card that has you doing quite a few actions in normal functioning, but the actual effects aren't unusual.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Definitely correct in the color and rarity.
(2.5/3) Balance - This could help you lock the board for sure, but while the second ability is powerful, it's also highly situational.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness - Some interesting trigger conditions, dynamics, and choices.
(3/3) Flavor - This works very well - lots of detective tropes coming through mechanically.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - Looking good.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Done.
(1/2) Subchallenges - No creature type reference.

Total: 21.5/25
Totals (Bold advance)
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Lorn Asbord Schutta 21.5
kwanyeegor-ii 20
netn10 20
MonoRedMage 19.5

Freyleyes 18.5
Pygyzy 16.5
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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