May MCC Round 2 - Family guy

[bravelion83]

(This month's banner is my own elaboration on the art of Meeting of the Five by Dominik Mater.)


May MCC Round 2

Family guy

As is tradition by now, this month we will celebrate the latest set, in this case Streets of New Capenna, by exploring its mechanics and themes, as usual in this kind of MCC months.


Main Challenge

Choose one of the five SNC families. (You can choose the same one you chose in the previous round or a different one. Your choices in this and the previous round will not influence your choices in future rounds.) Please write your choice in your submission post, especially if it's not obvious just by looking at your card (for example if you make a two-colored ally gold card that could fit in two families, or a monocolored one that could fit in three, or if you give up Subchallenge 2). BEWARE: This round it's mandatory to state your chosen family! Don't make your judge have to guess which one you picked. This is the only exception to the "no design notes" rule for this month. You still cannot write anything else in your submission post, just name your chosen family and post your text card with the optional render. Nothing more.

Design a legendary creature card that is NOT a Human and whose color identity is within the colors of your chosen family.

Subchallenge 1 - Your card has at least three two-colored hybrid mana symbols on it that are all within the colors of your chosen family.

Subchallenge 2 - Your card has flavor text that mentions or quotes your chosen family's head by name (Falco Spara, Raffine, Xander, Ziatora, or Jetmir).

Clarifications

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Main Challenge

• To pass the Main Challenge, you have to mention your chosen family in your sumbission post and your card has to meet ALL the following requirements:

- It has the "Creature" card type on its type line.
- It has the "Legendary" supertype on its type line.
- It does NOT have the "Human" subtype on its type line.
- Its color identity is included within your chosen family's colors, totally or only partially.

• If you don't mention your chosen family in your submission post, it's an automatic DQ for this round. You've been warned, and I'm writing this while I'm typing this round in Word even before I'm posting the thread, so I'm fine with my conscience, but still, please don't make me do that.

Other causes of automatic DQ follow. (I'm also typing these in Word before I even post the round, so my conscience is clean, but again, please don't make me actually do that.)

• A card that doesn't have the "Creature" card type natively on its type line automatically fails the Main Challenge and is thus DQ'ed, even if it can somehow gain it or turn into a creature.

• A card that doesn't have the "Legendary" supertype natively on its type line automatically fails the Main Challenge and is thus DQ'ed, even if it can somehow gain it or turn into something legendary.

• A card that has the "Human" subtype natively on its type line automatically fails the Main Challenge and is thus DQ'ed, even if it can somehow lose it or turn into a different creature type.

• A card that does NOT have the "Human" subtype natively on its type line but that can somehow gain it, either temporarily of permanently, is fine.

• The last requirement doesn't just care about color, but it takes into account the whole color identity of the card. The color identity of a card is the sum of all the colors found in the card's mana cost and in the card's rules text.

• Cards with a monocolored, two-colored (both ally and enemy), or three-colored color identity are all allowed as long as that color identity is contained within the colors of your chosen family. If you use any colors anywhere on the card outside of your chosen family's ones, the Main Challenge is automatically failed and thus your card DQ'ed.


Subchallenge 1

• The distribution of hybrid mana symbols between mana cost and rules text doesn't matter. The amount of hybrid mana symbols on the card is counted as the sum of those in mana cost and rules text. All that matters is that there is a total of at least three hybrid mana symbols anywhere on the card.

• If one or more hybrid mana symbols are in reminder text, such as for the extort keyword ability, those symbols DO still count towards the three needed for this Subchallenge to be met.

• This Subchallenge does NOT care about any mana symbols that aren't hybrid, or any symbols that aren't mana symbols. Feel free to use any or all of the following:
- Generic mana (1, 2, 3, X, etc...).
- Colorless mana (C).
- Monocolored Phyrexian mana (for example {UP}).
- The tap symbol (T).
- The untap symbol (Q).
- The energy symbol (E).
- Chapter symbols if you somehow manage to make a legendary creature that's also a Saga (NOT just a Saga that can be animated, but one that has "Legendary Enchantment Creature — Saga" printed on its type line as the Main Challenge requires you to make a legendary creature and Saga is an enchantment subtype).
- Starting loyalty and loyalty costs if you somehow manage to make a creature that's also a planeswalker at the same time (NOT just a planeswalker that can be animated, but one that has "Legendary Planeswalker Creature" printed on its type line as the Main Challenge requires you to make a legendary creature).
- And so on....

• Twobrid mana symbols ({2/G}) do NOT count, as they are not "two-colored" hybrid symbols.

• Phyrexian hybrid mana symbols like the one seen in the mana cost of Tamiyo, Compleated Sage DO count, as they are still "two-colored" hybrid symbols.

• They have to be exactly "two-colored" hybrid mana symbols to count towards this Subchallenge. If you somehow come up with a three-colored hybrid mana symbol, something like "Obscura hybrid mana" (or "Esper hybrid mana", call it what you want), that does NOT count. The same goes for hypothetical four- or five-colored hybrid mana symbols.

• The required mana symbols can be all of the same combination of colors or different combinations, like for example on the {M/N}N{N/O} cycle from SNC.

• The required mana symbols MUST be all within the colors of your chosen family. For example, I can make a Maestros card that costs {U/B}{B/R} and has {U/R} in its rules text. I CANNOT choose the Riveteers and make a card that costs 2{B/G} and has {G/W} in its rules text, because even though green is part of my chosen family's colors, white is not.


Subchallenge 2

• Obviously, if your card doesn't even have flavor text, this Subchallenge is automatically failed.

• The name of your chosen family's head can be used in any context. As long as their exact name is there, you're fine.

• The flavor text can be a quote attributed to them, but it doesn't have to. If the flavor text is a quote, it can be attributed to anybody, within or outside your chosen family.

• The name can be associated to a title, but it doesn't have to. If it is, it can be the same title from their card, but again, it doesn't have to. It can also be a different title. For example, if I choose the Maestros then ALL of the following pass this Subchallenge. Ignore how flavorful or inspired these would or wouldn't be as actual flavor texts, it's just for the sake of example.

"Killing is an art."
—Lord Xander, the Collector
(It's his title on his card.)

"Killing is an art."
—Xander, Vampire Artist
(It's a title but different from the one on his card.)

"Killing is an art."
—Lord Xander
(It's the title on his card, but only part of it.)

"Killing is an art."
—Xander
(Just his first name with no title.)

"Xander says killing is an art."
—Anhelo, the Painter
(Anhelo is Xander's second-in-command and this is his title on his own card.)

"Xander says killing is an art."
—Anhelo
(Anhelo is Xander's second-in-command, no title, just his first name.)

"Lord Xander says killing is an art."
—Anhelo, the Painter
(Anhelo is Xander's second-in-command and this is his title on his own card.)

"Our boss Xander says killing is an art."
—Anhelo, the Painter
(Anhelo is Xander's second-in-command and this is his title on his own card.)

"Xander says killing is an art."
—Victorio, Maestros hitman
(Victorio is a character of my own invention from the DCC that doesn't even exist in official SNC lore, and this is his title from my own custom card for him. It was my DCC submission for April 22nd if you care.)

"Xander says killing is an art."
—Victorio
(Victorio is a character of my own invention from the DCC that doesn't even exist in official SNC lore, and this is just his first name without any title. It was my DCC submission for April 22nd if you care.)

"Xander says killing is an art. I'd say it's more like the end of the party."
—Jetmir
(A different family's head without any title. Xander, my chosen family's head, is still mentioned, and that's all that matters.)

"Xander says killing is an art. I'd say it's more like the end of the party."
—Jetmir, Nexus of Revels
(A different family's head with the title from his own card. Xander, my chosen family's head, is still mentioned, and that's all that matters.)

"Xander says killing is an art. I'd say it's more like the end of the party."
—Jetmir, Cabaretti leader
(A different family's head with a title different from the one on his own card. Xander, my chosen family's head, is still mentioned, and that's all that matters.)

"Xander says killing is an art."
(It's a quote but with no attribution.)

Xander says killing is an art.
(Without quotation marks and with no attribution.)

• If I had chosen the Cabaretti as my family for this round instead of the Maestros, then, out of all of the above, only the three ones attributed to Jetmir would pass this Subchallenge. This is yet another reason why it's mandatory to state your chosen family in your post this round.


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

DEADLINES

Design deadline: Sunday, May 22th 23:59 EDT Monday, May 23th 23:59 EDT

Judging deadline: Thursday, May 26th 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

@Henlock
@Ink-Treader
@kwanyeegor-ii
@MonoRedMage
@Pygyzy
@RaikouRider
@slimytrout
@Venedrex


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.


The delayed deadline has expired as well, so I just have to move on. The round is officially closed. Henlock didn't post a card. Brackets are as follows.


BRACKETS

Judge: bravelion83
Ink-Treader
Pygyzy
RaikouRider
Venedrex

Judge: void_nothing
kwanyeegor-ii
MonoRedMage
slimytrout

Top 2 from each bracket advance to the next round.

[kwanyeegor-ii]

Cabaretti

Rektyr Strongbelly 1{R/G}{R/W}{G/W}
Legendary Creature - Ogre Druid (Rare)
Haste
T: Secretly guess 1/1 green and white Citizen creature, Food artifact, or Treasure artifact. Create one of those tokens of an opponent's choice, then repeat this process if you guessed their choice correctly.
An appetite for life so big, he can out-talk, out-eat, and out-party Jetmir.
3/5

[slimytrout]

Obscura

Izzia, Urchin Keeper 1{u/b}{u/b}
Legendary Creature — Cephalid Rogue (R)
1{u/b}, T: Create a 1/1 blue and black Rogue creature token. That token connives. (Draw a card, then discard a card. If you discarded a nonland card, put a +1/+1 counter on that token.)
Sacrifice two creatures: Izzia, Urchin Keeper gains hexproof until end of turn.
"The smallest ears can hear the largest secrets."
—Raffine
2/2

[Pygyzy]

The Maestros

Nilo, The Disappearer
Legendary Creature — Shapeshifter Rogue (R)
Whenever another creature you own dies, exile that card with an identity counter on it. If you do, each other creature you control becomes a copy of a card you own in exile with an identity counter on it, except they're green and white Citizen creatures with base power and toughness 1/1 named Legitimate Businessperson.
: Put a card you own in exile with an identity counter on it into your graveyard. You may cast that card from your graveyard this turn.
"Those who procure my services would never see the same fate as Lord Xander."
3/3

[RaikouRider]

Maestros

Nervall, Conductor of Falls 1B
Legendary Creature - Vampire Advisor {R}
Menace
B: Until end of turn, you may sacrifice target creature you don't control as though you controlled it. Activate only once each turn.
Among Lord Xander's most valuable resources is a vast collection of fall guys.
3/3

[bravelion83]

Only half a day left before the deadline, still waiting on @Henlock, @Ink-Treader, @MonoRedMage, and @Venedrex.

[MonoRedMage]

Maestros

Shredjaw, Pet Hellhound 1{U/B}R
Legendary Creature - Elemental Dog {R}
Menace
Whenever a spell you control resolves, put a +1/+1 counter on Shredjaw, Pet Hellhound and Shredjaw deals 1 damage to you.
2{U/B}{U/B}RR: Mill X cards, where X is Shredjaw's power. Then you may shuffle an instant or sorcery card in your graveyard that was put there this turn into your library. If you do, copy that card and you may cast the copy without paying its mana cost.
Lord Xander's one employee who has no personal agenda.
2/2

[Ink-Treader]

Obscura

Delere, Patient Plotter 1
Legendary Creature - Sphinx Wizard (R)
Flying
When Delere enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, he connives. (Draw a card, then discard a card. If you discarded a nonland card, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.)
X, T, Remove X +1/+1 counters from Delere: Until end of turn, you may cast spells from your hand with mana value less than or equal to X that don't share a name with a spell you cast this turn without paying their mana cost.
3/3

[Venedrex]

Brokers

Felsor, Savvy Dealmaker
Legendary Creature — Raccoon Advisor (R)
Artifacts and creatures your opponents control enter the battlefield tapped.
, Untap target tapped creature an opponent controls: Put two +1/+1 counters on target creature you control. Activate only during your precombat main phase.
2/2
"I see you've gotten yourself in a bit of a bind. Perhaps you can still come to an arrangement with Spara."

[bravelion83]

Seven hours to the deadline and only @Henlock's submission is missing.

EDIT The deadline has passed and we're still missing @Henlock's entry. As usual, that means an automatic 24-hour extension is granted and everybody has an additional day to post (Henlock) or edit (everybody else) their cards. If tomorrow we're still missing a submission, we will move on anyway with the remaining players.

[bravelion83]

The delayed deadline has expired as well, so I just have to move on. The round is officially closed. Henlock didn't post a card. Brackets are as follows.


BRACKETS

Judge: bravelion83
Ink-Treader
Pygyzy
RaikouRider
Venedrex

Judge: void_nothing
kwanyeegor-ii
MonoRedMage
slimytrout

Top 2 from each bracket advance to the next round.

[Henlock]

Cyo, Park Heights Realtor gwu
Legendary Creature - Bird Citizen (u)
Flying
Whenever one.or more lands enter the battlefield.from.your library, search your libarary for a land card with the same same as one of those lands and.put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle. This ability triggers only once each turn.
1, Sacrifice Cyo, Park Heighs Realtor: Put a shield counter on target land.
2/2

[bravelion83]

Henlock's card was unfortunately posted only after I had officially closed the round, so it still doesn't count, I'm sorry. Either I or @void_nothing might still judge that card out of competition after we've completed our respective brackets.

My own judging will start soon. Due to real life reasons, I'm almost sure I won't be able to make it within the original judging deadline. I'm sorry. More updates will follow.

[Henlock]

Had not realized I posted this after the round being closed. I would ve happy to have it judged out of competition. Thanks

[bravelion83]

Had not realized I posted this after the round being closed. I would ve happy to have it judged out of competition. Thanks

No problem, I usually always do it in cases like this. If @void_nothing prefers to be the one to do it as he has the smaller bracket this time, he's also free and welcomed to do it instead of me. I think I can guarantee you that at least one of us will judge your card out of competition. Of course, our actual brackets will come first though.

And speaking of brackets, it's about time I start mine. As I said, I've had real life things to take care of in these last few days, so I apologize in advance for the probably inevitable delay. That said, let's go!

---

Judgments complete. Synthesis is not my strongest point, you all should know by now... I like to think that I just focus on every detail I can see, and that naturally leads to longer writings. In this case, even longer than usual. I also went off on several tangents and even shared part of my life story. If that kind of thing is interesting to you, then great! You will find more than enough of that here. If not, I apologize. I am what I am.

Ink-Treader

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Obscura

Delere, Patient Plotter 1
Legendary Creature - Sphinx Wizard (R)
Flying
When Delere enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, he connives. (Draw a card, then discard a card. If you discarded a nonland card, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.)
X, T, Remove X +1/+1 counters from Delere: Until end of turn, you may cast spells from your hand with mana value less than or equal to X that don't share a name with a spell you cast this turn without paying their mana cost.
3/3

Design
Appeal 2.5/3 - Timmy likes an evasive creature that's relatively big enough by itself and can get even bigger, but he doesn't like that he has to discard relevant cards to do it. He also likes casting spells for free, as does Spike, the difference is Timmy doesn't really want to remove +1/+1 counters to do so, while Spike doesn't really care about that. She is more interested in the value, looting, and evasion. I think Johnny can also use this in several ways, focusing on the counters, the conniving/looting, or the free spells depending on the specific deck he wants to create.
Elegance 1.5/3 - The text is a bit long and all the restrictions in the activated ability can make it quite hard to read.
Development
Viability 2/3 - A hybrid card should be able to be printed as both mono-colors at the same time. I have no problems with this in monoblue, but I don't think the activated ability could be monoblack in any way. Black can cast spells from the graveyard, especially creatures and only in rare occasions noncreature spells, but casting spells from your hand for free is not black. I see no problems with rarity or the rules.
Balance 3/3 - For the first two abilities, a good comparison is Echo Inspector. Both cost four mana, both fly and both connive on ETB, but this has one more point of power and also connives repeatedly on your upkeep. It also costs three colored mana while the Inspector just one. That looks reasonable to me, more upside for a more restrictive mana cost. The activated ability is an additional upside on top of that, but this is rare and the Inspector common, and it costs more mana to activate, luckily. I wouldn't want to see such an ability with no mana component in its cost. There is also a really nice synergy between the abilities: conniving every turn of yours can give you more +1/+1 counters to use for the activated ability. Definitely playable in limited. I can see this in constructed as well, or at least being considered for it, cards that let you cast spells for free are never to be undervalued. I see no problems in casual or multiplayer.
Creativity
Uniqueness 3/3 - The restrictions in the activated ability do feel new, and in fact I can't find any precedents in Gatherer. I also can't find any cards in SNC that connive every upkeep, neither in the main set nor in the Commander one.
Flavor 3/3 - I have no problems with the name or the concept. Flavor text is missing, but that's not a problem either because MSE shows me there is no way it could realistically fit in the frame.
Polish
Quality 2/3 - Hyphen instead of em dash in the type line, but no deduction for that. I've found only a single card with that wording for the trigger (Wildfire Devils), usually and more recently the template with an "or" has been used, like on Old Rutstein in VOW. (-0.5) Also, gendered pronouns are only used for planeswalkers, not legendary creatures (-0.5), so the second ability should have been "When Delere enters the battlefield or at the beginning of your upkeep, it connives." The last ability is VERY convoluted, I thought there had to be a better wording but I haven't been able to find a suitable existing one. Based on Omniscience and similar cards, I thought about putting the "from your hand" part at the end right before "without paying", but then it could cause confusion because it might be interpreted as linked to the instance of "cast" that would come immediately before instead of the first. All in all, you're probably right that this is the best way to word what ability. Just wanted to mention this, no deduction as I have no good precedent to base it on.
Main Challenge 2/2 - Good.
Subchallenges 1/2 - Three hybrid symbols, but no flavor text, so Subchallenge 2 is automatically failed.
TOTAL 20/25

Pygyzy

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The Maestros

Nilo, The Disappearer
Legendary Creature — Shapeshifter Rogue (R)
Whenever another creature you own dies, exile that card with an identity counter on it. If you do, each other creature you control becomes a copy of a card you own in exile with an identity counter on it, except they're green and white Citizen creatures with base power and toughness 1/1 named Legitimate Businessperson.
: Put a card you own in exile with an identity counter on it into your graveyard. You may cast that card from your graveyard this turn.
"Those who procure my services would never see the same fate as Lord Xander."
3/3

Design
Appeal 2.5/3 - Johnny is already brewing. Spike likes the opportunity for card advantage the last ability gives her. Timmy dreams about making an army of huge monsters until his dreams are crashed when he reads "except they're 1/1".
Elegance 1/3 - MSE shows me this is microtext, both because the rules text is already way more than enough to fill the text box and because of the presence of flavor text that doesn't fit at all in the frame (see Flavor). It's also far from the easiest card to understand at first glance from a mechanical point of view, you will probably have to read it multiple times to fully grok it. Also, it feels a bit strange that a Maestros card turns your creatures into the two colors the Maestros are not.
Development
Viability 1.5/3 - Let's start with the easy part: this must absolutely be at least a rare, and it works in the rules despite having quite unusual wording ("a creature you own dies" instead of "you control", "each other creature... becomes... except they're..." with the copy effect singular and the exception plural, but it works, and the "process then flashback" activated ability). The harder part is the color pie. I know they allow three-colored cards to just feel like they are all three colors, but as I pointed out last round, I personally don't agree with that. If a card is a color it should have at least a little detail in it that justifies it being that color. I treat all cards in my bracket the same way so it's not unfair, it's just how I personally think things should work. Add hybrid mana of three different combinations and this gets very hard. What I expect to see here: an ability that could work in either monoblue or monoblack, plus one that could work in either monoblack or monored, plus one that could only work in monoblack, plus an effect for the activated ability that could work in either monoblue or monored but not in black. I told you it would have been hard. Let's start with the triggered ability. One could argue the death trigger can be the monoblack part. The rest of the ability is copying a card in exile with some exceptions to the copy process. That's clearly monoblue. Yet it's on a card that could be cast with no blue mana at all. You might also interpret it as transformation, like on the original Witness Protection, but that's monoblue as well. And I don't see anything red in that ability either. Now, the activated ability could be seen as a form of flashback, which could be black as that's the color that interacts the most with the graveyard, but it's primary blue and red as we know, so that part of the card looks fine at first. But actually, it's more like reanimation, because the "cards you own in exile with an identity counter" will usually be creatures thanks to the first ability, so maybe some black should have been there in the activated ability as well. I would have personally made this a monoblue or maybe blue-black card, even though much more blue than black, something like UUB.
Balance 2/3 - It's good that this doesn't affect itself and that two copies of this won't affect each other because they can't coexist on the battlefield unless some Mirror Box shenanigans are going on. As a non-vanilla 3/3 for three mana it might be already playable in limited. I don't know how good this would be in constructed, it turns all your other creatures into 1/1s regardless of the power and toughness of the card you choose to copy, so you can't just count on sheer size, you probably need that card to have an ability that you can exploit in multiples, so ideally one that stacks and not an ETB because those won't trigger anyway as the creatures that get overwritten are already on the battlefield and copying doesn't count as entering the battlefield. I can't think of many useful such abilities, but maybe Johnny could. Also worth of notice is that the copy effect is not optional, you have to copy something even if you might not want to. What is optional instead is casting the card from the graveyard, even though I see no real reasons not to do that, and if you don't have the mana to cast that card from your graveyard, then why didn't you just leave it in exile? Why have you activated that ability? Yes, you might need that to get threshold or delirium or you might need that card in the graveyard for some other reasons, but those uses feel a little too niche to me. It might be a little too complex for some casual players, but I see no other problems there or in multiplayer.
Creativity
Uniqueness 3/3 - To me this feels like Mirrorweave meets Witness Protection and together they meet impulsive draw and flashback. A mix of known elements that results in something that functions in a unique way and feels like its own thing.
Flavor 1.5/3 - In Italian, "Nilo" is the name of the African river that's known as the "Nile" in English. Not that it matters here, but I thought I would mention that as yet another piece of Italian trivia after the one that I shared last round about what Falco Spara's name means in Italian and the (useless in my opinion) change that they've made to it in the Italian translation. If you're curious and you haven't seen that, in Italian "falco" means "falcon" (the raptor bird) and "spara" is the third person conjugation of the verb "sparare", which is "to shoot", like a gun for example, so Falco Spara literally means "(the) falcon shoots". In Italian they've translated his name as "Falco Sparo" with a final "o" instead of an "a" (feel free to check out the Italian version of his card in your favorite card database if you don't believe me), which doesn't solve the "problem" of being associated with the act of shooting, because "sparo" is still the same verb, only conjugated in the first person instead of the third. "Io sparo" means "I shoot". Anyway, back to the point. There are a lot of Italian influences in the names of SNC, so the word "Nilo" having an actual meaning in Italian feels appropriate for the setting. I don't know how I feel about this being a Shapeshifter, it changes the identity of others, not of itself. It makes others take the "shape" of another person, it doesn't take it itself. It makes others become Legitimate Businesspersons, it doesn't become one itself, unless it's under Witness Protection of course. As for the flavor text, I understand what it means and I really like that, but there is something that bugs me... We'll talk about that in Quality, because it doesn't really change the meaning of the flavor text, it's just a grammar thing, so it belongs there and not here. A big problem here is that the flavor text doesn't fit on the card, MSE shows me that it's eleven lines and two breaks, one more line than Animate Dead from EMA, which, as everybody probably knows by now, is the limit that I consider for microtext. This card as is definitely crosses that line and so the flavor text shouldn't even have been there in the first place.
Polish
Quality 3/3 - I see no problems in the rules-relevant text. I've spent way more time than I'd like to admit making research about all the possible uses of "will" vs. "would", because... Well, I am Italian, born and raised in Italy and I have never left Italy not even once in my life so far, but I'm perfectly aware that I know English very well, I'm very confident about my English and I have official certification. My mother was also born in the UK from an Italian mother (my grandmother) and a British father (my grandfather) and spent most of her youth there, then the family decided to come back to Italy, my grandma's country. I've had the luck of having both of those grandparents with me until I was well within my adult age, but now unfortunately they're no longer with us and they haven't been for quite some years by now. But I remember them very well. My grandfather eventually learned Italian, but even when he spoke in Italian you could clearly hear his British accent. I guess you'd probably hear an Italian accent from me too if you heard me speaking in English instead of reading what this strange random guy on the Internet is writing about his own family. That goes to say that I've been surrounded by the English language since a very young age, for sure at least 30 years by now (as you can probably guess from my username, I'm 38, 83 is my year of birth). My eyes and ears are quite good at reading and hearing English. By now, English is maybe not just my second language, but my second nature. Yet, that "would" in the flavor text really, really, REALLY bugs me. It just doesn't sound natural to me. I could swear I would always use "will" there: "Those who procure my services WILL never see the same fate as Lord Xander." That's what sounds natural to me. But it's still true that I'm not a native English speaker, so despite my very high confidence that I was correct in thinking there should be a "will" there and not a "would", I did my research anyway instead of just trusting my instinct. And I've spent more than an hour searching only about these single words, hoping to find a counterexample that proved me wrong and you right. I haven't been able to find one. At the contrary, I found from several trustable sources that "will" is what you use for promises, offers, or predictions, and I think Nilo's sentence here absolutely qualifies as such, maybe as even all three of those things. Yet, I still have doubts. Is this really a mistake just like it naturally sounds to me? I feel like I should be absolutely sure that you cannot use "would" in this context to deduct points for grammar mistake here, and despite my life experience that I've just told and my deep researches, I still don't feel like I can exclude there are some specific corner cases that I don't know about that could justify using "would" here. So I won't deduct points because of that for now, even though I'm absolutely convinced that is wrong. Well, thanks anyway for making me question my assumptions and doubt my certainties, I guess. In Italian we have a saying that goes "Non si smette mai di imparare", which in English would be "You never stop learning". Maybe you made me learn something new about a language I thought I could master even though it's not my native one technically. What you made me do for sure is, again, making me doubt myself and my 30-plus-years-long familiarity with the English language, or at least this specific part of it. Ok, I have to move on. I hope you enjoyed my life story, get your full points, and I'll find a way to deal with the seed of doubt that you've planted in me somehow...
Main Challenge 2/2 - Good.
Subchallenges 2/2 - Both met.
TOTAL 18.5/25

RaikouRider

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Maestros

Nervall, Conductor of Falls 1B
Legendary Creature - Vampire Advisor {R}
Menace
B: Until end of turn, you may sacrifice target creature you don't control as though you controlled it. Activate only once each turn.
Among Lord Xander's most valuable resources is a vast collection of fall guys.
3/3

Design
Appeal 3/3 - Timmy likes a big enough creature that's hard to block and that can save his own creatures from sacrifice while also letting him get rid of the biggest blocker. Johnny is making a sacrifice deck around this card right now. Spike likes the good rate and pseudo-removal.
Elegance 3/3 - Short and very intuitive. Most players won't even realize this might or might not have rules problems (see Viability).
Development
Viability 2/3 - As the colored part of the mana cost is exactly the same as the previous card, you can check that for the premise about what I'm looking for here, I won't repeat it again here. The only exception is that the activated ability here should be something that only black can do instead of something that both blue and red could do but not black, because of the difference in the colors of the activation costs between this card and the previous one. That said, menace is clearly the BR hybrid part. The activated ability is new but if I had to place it in a color it would absolutely be monoblack, we agree on that, and that accounts for both the monoblack symbol in the mana cost and the monoblack activation cost. But now we have a problem: where's the blue? I don't see anything blue here, let alone something that blue and black share. I think this should have been a black-red card at the very least, if not straight up monoblack. I wouldn't want to see that ability at anything less than rare. I'm not sure if that ability would work in the rules as they are now, but it's also true that the "as though" wording lets you circumvent defender and hexproof for example, so it probably also would allow you to sacrifice other players' permanents while normally you're only allowed to sacrifice your own. It might very well just work in the current rules, but even if it doesn't I think that it wouldn't be too hard to change them so that it does.
Balance 2.5/3 - For once, not much to say here. Clearly playable in limited for sure. I can very easily see this in Standard Aristocrats/sacrifice decks. Might get a little unfun in casual, it's an obvious variant of the classic Act of Treason play of stealing a creature temporarily only to sacrifice it permanently, which isn't too fun from the opponent's point of view. The choice of which opponent, or maybe even teammate in some very narrow corner cases, to affect with the activated ability is obviously relevant in multiplayer.
Creativity
Uniqueness 3/3 - Easy full points here. I can't remember any existing cards that let you sacrifice one creature in stead of another. There is a card that does something similar in a custom set of mine but that set is not public so you couldn't have known it.
Flavor 3/3 - Ok, yet another lesson to me. I admit I didn't understand the flavor of this card at all at first, I knew I was missing something, and I quickly identified what it was: the words "fall guys" didn't make any sense to me, despite all my story that I won't repeat here and that you can check out in the previous judgment if you want. The short version is that I'm half-British, specifically my mother was born in England and she spent a good part of her youth there, then my purely British grandfather followed the family when they moved to Italy way before I was born and as a result I've been exposed to the English language for more than thirty years by now, and I'm 38. Well, that's not short, it's just shorter than what I wrote in the previous judgment. Oh well, let's call it short enough. Anyway, for the second time today, I found myself searching the internet for an unknown English expression, which doesn't happen often to me. Google immediately showed me the tag "North American" (and I went: "Oh, so that's why I don't know it then", all my English heritage is from the UK) and then told me what that meant with a single word: "scapegoats". Ok, now that's a word I know! I thought you were just talking about some boys who happened to be born in autumn. Seriously, I'm not joking. Then Wikipedia explained me the history behind that expression, and I have to admit it fits perfectly with the setting of New Capenna. It also fits perfectly with the mechanics: instead of sacrificing one of your creatures, you sacrifice a scapegoat for them. And I can definitely see Xander keeping a collection of those scapegoats. Ok, thanks to you too for the lesson in a language I thought I knew, and you too take your full points here while I go to meditate about how your lifelong certainties can suddenly fall in just a few minutes just like those guys...
Polish
Quality 3/3 - The wording is unprecedented, so it's hard to say it's wrong. As with the previous card, despite my very good knowledge of the English language, you also managed to teach me something new, as I've just explained, so no problems with the flavor text either. Hyphen instead of em dash in the type line, but no deduction for that.
Main Challenge 2/2 - Good.
Subchallenges 1/2 - Lord Xander is in the flavor text, but there are only two hybrid symbols instead of the three required by Subchallenge 1.
TOTAL 22.5/25

Venedrex

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Brokers

Felsor, Savvy Dealmaker
Legendary Creature — Raccoon Advisor (R)
Artifacts and creatures your opponents control enter the battlefield tapped.
, Untap target tapped creature an opponent controls: Put two +1/+1 counters on target creature you control. Activate only during your precombat main phase.
2/2
"I see you've gotten yourself in a bit of a bind. Perhaps you can still come to an arrangement with Spara."

Design
Appeal 2/3 - Timmy likes making his opponents' things enter tapped and giving +1/+1 counters to his creatures, but he doesn't really like to do that at the cost of giving them a potential blocker. Spike likes that tension instead and the skill required to make the right decision in each situation: is it better to let them get an additional blocker to make my creatures bigger, or is it better to have smaller creatures which have an easier time attacking because the defending player might have less blockers available? I think the restrictions in the untap ability are too much for Johnny here.
Elegance 2/3 - Paradoxically, this might confuse experienced and/or competitive players more than newer and/or more casual ones, as the former will be perplexed as they see the word "target" in a cost: they've never seen it before used this way and they will wonder how it works. (Answer: it doesn't. See Viability.) The latter instead will probably not even notice it. The rest of the card is definitely easy enough to understand.
Development
Viability 1/3 - This is definitely rare. It's also probably fine in the color pie: the static ability is definitely something white can do and I can also see blue doing it. The activated ability is a bit strange, the cost is probably something both colors could do, white as pseudo-vigilance and blue as a Twiddle effect, but the effect is clearly much more white than blue. I can still accept it as a bend in blue though because all colors are allowed to put +1/+1 counters on their own creatures. The VERY big problem here is with the rules. You just cannot target things as a cost, that's a fundamental breaking of the rules. You could choose to say either "Untap a tapped creature..." in the cost or "Untap target tapped creature..." in the effect, but here you tried to do both at the same time and you just can't. I'm pretty sure you can't target as a cost, but let me see if I can find some relevant text from the CR. *checks* I'm not finding anything about targeting as a cost in rule "115. Targets", and that's probably right that there isn't anything there if you can't do it, but it doesn't really help here... Wait! A sudden epiphany! It's not there that I should look, but in the section about casting spells! Activating an activated ability follows the same process. Targeting as a cost is not compatible with THAT part of the CR, because you choose targets way before you even determine costs! Let me get back to you in just a moment! *checks the "casting spells" section* Ok, it's rule 601 for anybody who cares and is still bearing with me. You choose targets in the third step of the process (601.2c), after having put the spell on the stack and having done all your choices for it (modes, value of X, etc...). You determine the total cost of the spell in the sixth step (601.2f), after choosing how to divide or distribute things and checking whether the spell is still legal to cast. Then, you will have a chance to activate mana abilities, you will actually pay the total cost, and only then will the spell be considered "cast" and the appropriate player will receive priority after SBAs are checked and all triggered abilities that might have triggered in the process have been put on the stack. Ok, that's a satisfying enough answer to me. If you're wondering, no, I'm not an official judge, just a huge rules fan, and yes, I could probably become a judge if I wanted, but as of right now I'm not interested in that because of real life reasons. In the future we will see, we never know what it holds in store for us until it becomes the present of at least close enough to be foreseen. You know the one thing I can't really wrap my head around despite having read a lot of articles and watched a lot of videos about it? Dependencies. That would be my worst nightmare as an actual judge, by far. But I'm digressing as usual, so let's just move on.
Balance 2/3 - A bear with upside, we've seen many of those by now, even with significant upside. The activated ability gives you an upside, the +1/+1 counters, and a downside, untapping an opposing creature, so it's probably fine at a low mana cost as those might kinda cancel each other out in a way. The restriction on the activated ability is nice because you probably don't want this to be used as a combat trick and most of all you want the choice to be meaningful. If you could just activate that ability as an instant during combat or in the second main phase, the obvious correct choice would be to always do it after the declare blockers step, to avoid giving your opponent an additional blocker, which is probably meant to be the main downside here. Nice synergy between the two abilities, as the first one gives you more things to untap for the second one. Playable in limited. It might be considered for constructed play even though I feel like I don't know if and how much it would actually succeed there. Making their things enter tapped is not that fun from the opponent's point of view, so it might be a little unfun to some casual players. Affecting all your opponents in the first ability gets obviously even more relevant in multiplayer.
Creativity
Uniqueness 3/3 - That activated ability is definitely new, especially tapping an opponent's creature as a cost.
Flavor 3/3 - At least I understand everything here. That's already something, seeing how the previous judgments went! Anyway, I have no problems with the flavor of this card. It's good.
Polish
Quality 2/3 - You can't target in a cost, that's a functional mistake, so -1 here too in addition to the points already deducted in Viability. The cost should have been worded as "Untap a tapped creature an opponent controls", or that part of the ability should have been part of the effect instead of the cost. All the rest of the card is good.
Main Challenge 2/2 - Good.
Subchallenges 2/2 - Both met. I accept only "Spara" as the name because there are actual precedents of him being called just that in the real SNC set, such as Spara's Headquarters for example.
TOTAL 19/25

Results (bold advance)

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RaikouRider: 22.5
Ink-Treader: 20
Venedrex: 19
Pygyzy: 18.5

---

May 30th 8 pm CET - Ok, I'm going to go ahead and do Henlock's judgment out of competition myself. Starting now, I think I can make it at most in a couple hours.

EDIT 10 pm - Done. I only have to check for typos. In the meantime I'm posting it, then I will reread and correct all eventual ones I can find.

10:20 pm CET - Ok, done. It should be good now. Enjoy! @Henlock

June 2nd - Found and fixed another typo.

Henlock (out of competition)

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Cyo, Park Heights Realtor gwu
Legendary Creature - Bird Citizen (u)
Flying
Whenever one.or more lands enter the battlefield.from.your library, search your libarary for a land card with the same same as one of those lands and.put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle. This ability triggers only once each turn.
1, Sacrifice Cyo, Park Heighs Realtor: Put a shield counter on target land.
2/2

Even if you haven't explicitly stated it as the Main Challenge required, it's clear that you chose the Brokers. If this was a real submission, I would have at least pm'ed you about it before having to DQ your card. Notice I said "your card", not "you", because as I always like to say, here we judge cards, not people. But as your card is out of competition anyway, I have the luxury of just pretending you wrote it in your submission post. From here on, for all the rest of the judgment, I will treat this submission as if it stated you chose the Brokers.

Design
Appeal 3/3 - Timmy really likes this. He always likes ramping, evasion, and protecting his things. The triggered ability is at the same time unusual and open-ended enough to make Johnny want to work with it. He can also find a way to exploit the shield counter for unintended purposes. Spike also likes this, both as a Wind Drake with upside in limited and because of its strong interaction with fetchlands in larger formats (see Balance).
Elegance 2/3 - The text is a bit long, but it's not microtext. Only apparently easy enough to understand, it's quite easy to miss a detail: this is NOT a landfall-like trigger. It's only when the lands enter from your library. I totally missed that on my first draft and I had to rewrite some of Viability and Uniqueness and a good chunk of Balance because of this. But it's not your fault, that's on me for misreading the card. It's just a very unusual trigger, you're so used to landfall and such that it's really easy to miss this. I've missed it and I've been playing continuously since original Ravnica back in 2005, I can only imagine newer or less experienced players missing this detail even more easily than me.
Development
Viability 2.5/3 - If you read the other judgments above, I don't have to repeat the same premise about me disagreeing with Wizards about the colors of three-colored cards, and mentioning that it's not a problem here as long as I treat all the cards I judge in the same way, which I always strive to do. So here I'm looking for something that's clearly G, something clearly W, and something clearly U. Flying can be either white or blue, it's primary in both colors. The triggered ability is obviously green. Shield counters are clearly in all three colors being their faction mechanic, even though I believe they are a bend in blue. I think I remember Maro said that too somewhere, but now I'm not going to search for the exact quote. Also, the shield counter going on a land feels more green than white or blue. In the end, this could have been a GW, GU, or even G{W/U} card. It's still fine as all three colors though, there are no breaks here, it's just that it could have been two-colored, it's not necessary for all three colors to be here given the effects. No problems with the rules. It's unusual to trigger on a land entering from the library, but I see no reason why the current rules couldn't support it. This is probably fine at uncommon. I think it's a strong uncommon though, but every rarity is supposed to have strong cards as long as they're appropriate for their rarity. Being a strong card at lower rarities is obviously not a bad thing as long as it's not too strong, and I don't think this is, at least in limited, because...
Balance 2.5/3 - ...the "only once each turn restriction" means you will only be able to ramp one land a turn at maximum, barring shenanigans which we'll talk about in just a second. It also keeps that ability from triggering itself repeatedly, which is what probably made you correctly put it there in the first place. I'm not the biggest fan of this new "triggers only once each turn" restriction for triggered abilities, but sometimes it's just necessary, as it is here. Requiring the fetched land to have the same name as one of those that just entered means that in limited that will almost always only apply to basic lands (nice interaction with the ETB sac lands from SNC, like Brokers Hideout), but in constructed it depends. The farther back in time you go with the format, the more attention you have to pay. In Standard this will also most often just apply to basic lands or relatively low-powered multilands (I'm not saying "dual lands" because I'm also thinking about things like the new Triomes in SNC and those are Standard-legal), but in Modern, for example, cracking a fetchland will let you find two shocklands. They can't be different ones, so you can't take a Hallowed Fountain and a Temple Garden out of your Misty Rainforest in your Bant/Brokers deck, you will have to choose between taking two of the former or two of the latter, but that's already really strong. And you can do it again on each of your turns as long as Cyo survives. Luckily he's legendary, so you won't be able to take three of those Fountains or Gardens instead of two. I'd say two is already good enough. This is both plausible and very strong in Modern. It's an even bigger deal if you substitute shocklands with original duals, so I don't even want to think what the implications could be in even larger formats like Legacy or Vintage. I admit I'm a bit scared by that and the fetchland/shockland interaction that is essentially the fundamental part of Modern mana bases. That's the reason why I'm deducting that half point here. That won't be relevant in Commander though, as that's singleton. Except for basic lands, you will have no lands with the same name as another one in your deck at all. In casual, aka "all cards I own", this could work with any lands in Magic history, which could be like limited or Standard for newer players with smaller collections, of potentially even worse than Legacy or Vintage for players that have been playing since the beginning of the game and have large collections that include the most powerful lands in the whole game. In multiplayer, the triggered ability doesn't really make a difference as it only affects you, but you could put shield counters on other players' lands, which could be relevant. I should have probably mentioned it earlier, but the rate is fine here, a common 2/2 flyer for three mana is definitely playable in limited, there is even one with upside in SNC. Here we have significant upside but for a much more restrictive cost and at a higher rarity. Finally, the shield counter becomes even more relevant on lands that can become or are naturally also creatures, as those are also subject to damage when animated in addition to both creature and land destruction.
Creativity
Uniqueness 3/3 - Ramping is nothing new, but this card does function differently from usual ramp. Triggering on lands entering from your library instead of your hand is new, in fact I haven't been able to find a single precedent on Gatherer. I also believe there is no card in SNC that puts shield counters on a land, even though in the CR it's absolutely clear that shield counters can go on any permanent. *checks* Ok, technically Elspeth Resplendent can make a land enter with a shield counter on it using her -3. But it's the only card that can put shield counters on a land in both the main set and the Commander one. There is only a single card in the whole history of Magic that can do that, and it doesn't do that specifically to a land, it's just a byproduct of saying "permanent card".
Flavor 3/3 - The name and concept of a realtor for a card that lets you search lands from your library and protect them is perfect for the setting of New Capenna. Too bad for the lack of flavor text, but that's not a real problem. MSE shows me the rules text alone is already nine lines and two breaks in the M15 frame, so flavor text couldn't really fit here unless it was very short, and even then, the card as a whole would have looked much worse with even a single line of flavor text.
Polish
Quality 0/3 - I can tell this card has been typed in a hurry from a mobile device, probably a cell phone. Look at how many periods instead of spaces there are here. This often happens to me too on my cell phone because keys on the virtual keyboard are so small and the period key is, at least on my own phone, right next to the space bar. I always try to correct it manually, but sometimes some will escape me. That's why I say I believe this card has been posted from such a device. There are four instances here: "one.or", "battlefield.from.your", and "and.put". Also, "libabary", "the same same", and "Heighs" are clear typos, they should be "library", "the same name", and "Heights". Again, probably a cell phone autocorrect "feature" misbehaving. I use quotation marks because I hate it. To me, it's a bug, not a feature. But I've digressed enough in the other judgments, so let's avoid doing it again here. Usually, I deduct half a point for each typo, and unfortunately there's more than enough here to go into the negatives, so, just like the CR in a game calculation that's not about life or power and toughness (Rule 107.1b in the SNC edition of the CR if you care), I will use zero instead.
Main Challenge 2/2 - Good.
Subchallenges 0/2 - No hybrid mana symbols and no mention of Falco Spara in flavor text because there is no flavor text in the first place, so none met.
TOTAL 18/25

[void_nothing]

kwanyeegor-ii

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Design
(2/3) Appeal - Txmmy has starry eyes for the possibility of getting a BUNCH of tokens with proper bluffing. Jxnny has interesting ideas as well. Spike doesn't like the level of opponent choice in the matter even with the ability to get hasty activations.
(2/3) Elegance - That activated ability is rather complicated and produces multiple token types - and also, might need a "reveal your guess" clause?

Development
(3/3) Viability - Sure, I buy this as a rare and it fits in RW, GW, and RG.
(2.5/3) Balance - My one concern here is collusion at the EDH table, which would represent a toxic form of multiplayer politics. If everyone is playing as intended, this card is fine and fun.

Creativity
(2.5/3) Uniqueness - A pretty clever minigame.
(3/3) Flavor - I like the flavor text. Guess Rektyr is a gracious host who likes to play parlor games at dinner.

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

Total: 22/25

slimytrout

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Design
(2/3) Appeal - Mere 2/2 tokens at best that are vanillas doesn't really excite Txmmy. Jxnny could always use madness/aristocrats enablers. Spike sees potential for a lot of value.
(2.5/3) Elegance - Counters on multiple tokens provides a bit of tracking complexity.

Development
(2.5/3) Viability - Rare looks about right. The hexproof gaining activated ability looks wrong in black, and considering this is a hybrid mana cost, that's technically out of pie.
(2.5/3) Balance - This has a lot of potential as an engine particularly in EDH but is smaller in its utility elsewhere.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - "That token connives" is a new line, but ultimately the primary purpose of this card is to make (hopefully) 2/2 tokens and loot, and that's a pretty well-worn idea.
(2.5/3) Flavor - The trope of the criminal rogue with a network of street children as their informants is at least as old as Dickens's Fagin, but the idea of a character having their adorably knavish kid associates die to keep the heat off them is distasteful, lol.

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

Total: 20.5/25

MonoRedMage

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Design
(3/3) Appeal - Txmmy wants a huge creature that's firing off free spells. Jxnny's all over the bunch of knobs to turn. Spike likes the curve efficiency and possibility to close out games with the activated ability.
(0.5/3) Elegance - Definitely a wordy and complex card, although I understand the need for at least one of the sources of complexity - the "resolves" clause - for compatibility with casualty. That funky mana cost doesn't help matters.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Normally something with costs like this would be awkward to fit into the color pie but actually, I think UR and BR both work. Rarity looks right.
(3/3) Balance - Splashy, sure, but the activated ability is costly and going just by the self-pump ability, Managorger Hydra/Taurean Mauler are good-to-okay cards that are comparable.

Creativity
(3/3) Uniqueness - Several new ideas here.
(3/3) Flavor - Ha! I dig this.

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

Total: 22.5/25

Totals (Bold advance)

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MonoRedMage 22.5
kwanyeegor-ii 22
slimytrout 20.5