January MCC Finals: Cost Effective

[slimytrout]

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 Finals - Cost Effective
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 card with a new mana cost.
Subchallenge 1: Your card's rules text does not include its own name.
Subchallenge 2: Your card satisfies at least one challenge or subchallenge from each of the previous three rounds.

DEADLINES

Design deadline: Wednesday, February 23rd 23:59 EST

Judging deadline: Saturday, February 26th 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 2: Here's the list for each round:
Round 1:
*Design a creature card with a new creature type.
*Your card refers to one or more creature types in its rules text.
*Your card is legendary.

Round 2:
*Design a non-creature card with a new subtype.
*Your card includes a symbol that's not W, U, B, R, G, T, or a generic mana cost.
*Your card has flavor text.

Round 3:
*Design a card with a new keyword ability or keyword action.
*Your card's name includes the name of a Ravnican guild.
*Your card's rules text includes the word "named."

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

Players:
@RaikouRider
@bravelion83

[bravelion83]

Valnik, Boros Guidelight 2R{R/W}{R/W}W
Legendary Creature — Angel Warrior (M)
Flying, first strike, haste
Whenever one or more creatures you control attack, exile the top card of your library. Attacking creatures get +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the exiled card's mana value. Until the end of your next turn, you may play that card.
Whenever you cast a spell from exile, you gain life equal to that spell's mana value.
4/4

[RaikouRider]

Galeclaw, Selesnya Sprinter GWW
Legendary Creature - Cat {R}
If one or more creatures without flying are attacking you or a planeswalker you control, you may cast this spell as though it had flash. If you cast it this way, it enters the battlefield blocking one of those creatures.
First strike
Arthea jabbed at the cheetah's sides, overtaking even the Legion's angels as she led the charge toward Rix Maadi.
4/4

[slimytrout]

Round is closed! @void_nothing and I will each judge both entries.

[slimytrout]

bravelion83

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Valnik, Boros Guidelight 2R{R/W}{R/W}W
Legendary Creature — Angel Warrior (M)
Flying, first strike, haste
Whenever one or more creatures you control attack, exile the top card of your library. Attacking creatures get +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the exiled card's mana value. Until the end of your next turn, you may play that card.
Whenever you cast a spell from exile, you gain life equal to that spell's mana value.
4/4

Design
(3/3) Appeal – Timmy loves a mythic beater with a ton of keywords that also makes attackers enormous. Spike loves this for the value, and particularly appreciates haste and the fact that you get an extra turn to play the card, so the only way not to get value from this is instant-speed removal. Johnny has several ideas for how to use this, either for giving their creatures +10 power or for comboing off and gaining infinite life.
(2/3) Elegance – Just a lot of text on here – six different abilities starts to rival Questing Beast, even if they do flow together better on Valnik.

Development
(3/3) Viability – There's definitely more red here than white, but it does feel very Boros so I don't think there's anything wrong with that. And mythic is definitely necessary.
(3/3) Balance – I mean, it's definitely pushed, but it's also six mana which means it's hard to be too busted in constructed formats. Absolute bomb in limited, but at least it's not super splashable.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness – All the pieces of this have been done before, but definitely has some new combinations of them.
(3/3) Flavor – Definitely no room for flavor text, but the point gets across from the name.

Polish
(3/3) Quality – Looks good.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) – Yep.
(2/2) Subchallenges – Doesn't use its own name and it's a 1) legendary 2) hybrid 3) Boros card.

Total: 23/25

RaikouRider

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Galeclaw, Selesnya Sprinter GWW
Legendary Creature - Cat {R}
If one or more creatures without flying are attacking you or a planeswalker you control, you may cast this spell as though it had flash. If you cast it this way, it enters the battlefield blocking one of those creatures.
First strike
Arthea jabbed at the cheetah's sides, overtaking even the Legion's angels as she led the charge toward Rix Maadi.
4/4

Design
(2/3) Appeal – Timmy likes an undercosted first striker. Spike likes the chance to very likely eat an opponent's creature. Johnny has no interest.
(2.5/3) Elegance – Mostly makes sense, except for the enters the battlefield blocking part – what if you cast it before blockers are declared? Then one of your creatures is already blocking but the others aren't yet? Not sure why this needs this text since it can just be cast during declare attackers like normal flash creatures.
Development
(3/3) Viability – Sure, first strike is white and kinda-flash feels green, plus Selesnya has a history of cheap beaters. Rare feels right.

(3/3) Balance – 3-mana for a 4/4 first strike is definitely pushed (probably an upgrade on Loxodon Smiter), as is the ability to ambush an opponent's creature, but realistically this doesn't have a ton of synergies so it's probably just seeing play in Standard and Limited.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness – Qasali Ambusher is a pretty strong precedent for this, other than some of the details.
(3/3) Flavor – Fun! Tells some sort of story about a fight where the Selesnya and Boros are attacking the Rakdos.

Polish
(3/3) Quality – Sure, seems right.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) – Yep, surprisingly enough.
(2/2) Subchallenges – Doesn't use its own name and is a 1) legendary 3) Selesnya card with 2) flavor text.

Total: 22/25

Results

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Two strong entries!

bravelion83: 23
RaikouRider: 22

[void_nothing]

bravelion83

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Design
(2.5/3) Appeal - Txmmy has many and varied reasons to like this card. It's a little blunt for Jxnny, but they also get some funky clauses to build around. Spike likes the sheer amount this card does despite it costing six mana.
(2.5/3) Elegance - Card is a little bit wordy, but self-synergistic enough that it's a relatively self-contained and easily figured-out package.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Colors and rarity look right. I like the use of hybrid and regular multicolor in this way - it allows the card to be a red splash in a heavily white deck or vice-versa without sacrificing the real identity of the colors.
(3/3) Balance - Sure - strong stuff all around but as six mana creatures go it's not Prime Time.

Creativity
(2.5/3) Uniqueness - All quite familiar effects, but put together in a unique way, and the mana cost actually does something mechanically quite different than most hybrid costs.
(2.5/3) Flavor - Works for me, although the name Valnik doesn't quite fit a Boros firemane imho.

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

Total: 23/25

RaikouRider

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Design
(2/3) Appeal - Txmmy is a person of simple needs sometimes and an undercosted beater can fill those needs. Jxnny sees a totally reactive card. Spike likes to turn combats around.
(2/3) Elegance - The as-though-it-had-flash ability's purpose is not immediately apparent, especially to new players. However, enfranchised players would find the fact that this card gets around blocking restrictions intuitive and cool; I actually would have dropped the "without flying" clause for this reason (more in the Flavor section).

Development
(3/3) Viability - Sure, colors and rarity are exactly what you want them to be. Gives me an Invasion block feel, actually, although it works with the Selesnya too.
(3/3) Balance - No real issues. 4/4 and first strike for three is pushed, but this is a legendary creature with a heavy, multi, colored mana requirement.

Creativity
(1/3) Uniqueness - "Enters blocking" is a really interesting and subtle wrinkle to typical flash creatures, but once on the battlefield, this card is a virtual French-vanilla.
(2.5/3) Flavor - Love the flavor text, really grappling with the flavor need for the "without flying" in the first ability. Since it's only a one-time thing, after all, I think you could get away with letting this block flyers, for better mechanical usage, given that you can flavor it as a huge leap rather than actual flight.

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

Total: 20.5/25

[slimytrout]

Congrats to January's winner (on March 1st), @bravelion83!