March MCC
Judge signup thread
As is tradition by now, this month we will celebrate the latest set, in this case Murders at Karlov Manor, by exploring its mechanics and themes, as usual in this kind of MCC months.
Here is this month's calendar, with a few additional notes. I will post it again in each round's OP.
March MCC calendar
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By signing up as a judge this month, you are giving me, as host, full permission to take over your bracket and do it myself if you haven't posted your judgments within the judging deadline.
This is to avoid the problem of the contest being slowed down by late judgments and possibly proceed with the same pace I and Ryder kept in January and that should be the normal pace of this contest in my opinion. It was also the "change" that got the most positive feedback in January, and I can easily see why. In fact, it's a point that I've been bringing up for a very long time, probably years by now. Time to do something about it and try to bring back the contest to its proper pace, the one the guidelines document also suggests if you've ever noticed. We managed to do it in January and I want to do it again this month, and that's the reason for the additional clause bolded above.
Still taking feedback from January into account, Ryder proposed that the reason we were able to do it was having split weekends, with one day between Saturday or Sunday falling in the design phase and the other in the judging phase. To me it was more a matter of being very determined to show everybody that it can be done, but I can also see where Ryder's reasoning comes from, and it's honestly not a bad idea to give everybody one weekend day. I wanted to bring back the split weekend idea as well, and I'm doing it this month as well, only reversed from the way Ryder did it in January, but that's just because of the different way weekends are distributed in the month. All of this to say that I've already made a calendar for the whole month respecting that principle, you all can see it at the top of this post, and I will strive to enforce it in all the ways I possibly can, and the bolded clause above is one of those ways. It helps guarantee that the calendar will be respected.
Now you all know the planned design and judging deadlines for the whole month. Please make sure to play or judge accordingly and everything will be fine.
If you already know you can't keep up with that calendar for any reason (first and foremost real life reasons of course), I kindly ask you NOT to sign up as a judge this month. What I'm looking for and what I need to properly enforce this calendar is someone who is able to keep up with that calendar reliably, every single week. Of course, things can happen in real life that we can't possibly expect or foresee during the month, such as myself hosting December and my father dying right as Round 2 was happening. Should something like that happen to you in real life, remember this: you will not be alone. Your fellow judge(s) will be there to help you. And if it's just me, I will be there to help you. Just pm me saying that you won't be able to make your judgments on time and I will take care of it. What I'm talking about is the same kind of collaboration as when my father died in December while I was also hosting the DCC, one of my fellow DCC hosts essentially took over the rest of the month (it was void_nothing in this case, but I'm sure Rithaniel would have done it too). This is exactly what I'm talking about: if a sudden problem arises in real life that causes you to not be able to respect the judging deadline, I will do what void_nothing did for me in the December DCC and be there for you. This is at the same time a promise and a requirement on my part as host for this month.
I hope this extra requirement to sign up as a judge will allow us to repeat what we did in January and finish the contest within the actual month. I'm very determined to do it again, exactly as I was in January. In January, we proved that it's possible. This month, I want to prove that it's repeatable, and that, to say it with an expression that we're using a lot in my family after my father's death, that it can be our new normality for the MCC. It was actually the old normality, as things went back when we still were on Salvation, but I want to bring it back and turn the old normality into the new normality.
Also, Round 3 pairings being based on the total score from Rounds 1 and 2 will be returning as well. I've already tried it in December and it went over very well. In January, it was the second best rated of our experiments, after the proper pacing with the split weekends. So let's give it another try as well!
All of that said, let's go back to my normal pattern for the judge signup thread.
If you've already judged before in the MCC, just post in this thread and that's enough. Otherwise, if you've never judged before, there is a little extra step required: please try to judge the sample card you can find below with the MCC rubric and post your sample judgment here. I will reply to you as soon as possible with my own thoughts about it and if you did good enough of a job, I will officially welcome you as an MCC judge.
Anyway, regardless of whether you've already judged in the MCC or not, please remember the extra timing requirement this month before deciding whether to sign up here or not! (See above.) Even if that prevents you from signing up as a judge this month, I will be more than happy to have you as a player!
Please also check out the MCC Guidelines and FAQ if you have the will and time. You can find it in a low size PDF version attached to this post and you can also find the link to the original higher size PDF in my signature. They are the same document, I just had to compress it more to be able to put it here as an attachment as the original file, the one linked in my signature, is too large to be attached here.
Sample card
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Assume all challenges (Main Challenge and both Subchallenges) are met.
Stealth Gang
Creature — Vampire Assassins (M)
, Discard a card; Stealth Gang can't be blocked this turn.
Disguise
When Stealth Gang is turned face-up, draw cards equal to the amount of blue mana used to pay its disguise cost, then discard cards equal to the amount of black mana used to pay its disguise cost.
"When you can fly above the ground, nobody can hear the footsteps bahind them."
3/6
(If I remember to do it, I might post the list of intentional mistakes after the signups are over. I forgot last time, let's see if I can remember it this time.)
MCC Rubric
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The MCC Rubric is given below, in an easily "copy and pasted" form. (Courtesy of Rithaniel.)
Code: Select all
[b]Design[/b]
[b](X/3) Appeal[/b] - Do the different player psychographics (Timmy/Johhny/Spike) have a use for the card?
[b](X/3) Elegance[/b] - Is the card easily understandable at a glance? Do all the flavor and mechanics combined as a whole make sense?
[b]Development[/b]
[b](X/3) Viability[/b] - 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?
[b](X/3) Balance[/b] - 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?
[b]Creativity[/b]
[b](X/3) Uniqueness[/b] - 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"?
[b](X/3) Flavor[/b] - 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?
[b]Polish[/b]
[b](X/3) Quality[/b] - Points deducted for incorrect spelling, grammar, and templating.
[b](X/2) Main Challenge (*)[/b] - Was the main challenge satisfied? Was it approached in a unique or interesting way? Does the card fit the intent of the challenge?
[b](X/2) Subchallenges[/b] - One point awarded per satisfied subchallenge condition.
[b]Total: X/25[/b]
*An entry with 0 points here is subject to disqualification.As always, since I am hosting, I am also going to be a judge. We might or might not need another judge depending on how high the player participation will be. If player participation is so high that more judges will be required I will certainly not complain! That's a problem that I actually would like to have! But if the participation is too low, I am also ready to judge solo, as both void_nothing and myself have already done multiple times in still relatively recent times.
Judge signups will stay open until the design deadline for Round 1 or until we get enough judges, whichever comes first. The judge signups will be going on in parallel with Round 1.
Round 1 will be posted on the 1st (or maybe even the night before). And there you all will also begin to see what it was that took me a whole month of work, several hours almost every day beginning while the January feedback poll was still in progress. I hope you all like loxodons and minotaurs… Ok, I'll give you a little tidbit as an appetizer. It's a little something called "One pierced heart, two mindful horns". Don't worry, it's completely independent from the contest and the challenges, just a little extra something that I was inspired to do.
I'll see you all again for Round 1 in a couple days. In the meantime, prepare your best sleuthing equipment!
