August 2020 MCC — Round 2

[Sojourner Dusk]

Welcome to the MTG Nexus August 2020 MCC!

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Back in 2003, as Eighth Edition was preparing to be unveiled, WotC had decided on implementing two changes to Magic: The Gathering. The first was a new card frame. The second was replacing the word "colorless" with a new symbol: . This allowed for new... wait, I'm being told that the symbol wasn't implemented until... 2016? It was only used in casting costs for one set? Colorless mana generation and generic mana costs were confused for more than a decade? And still isn't evergreen for casting costs, which would break open design space in several directions?

We are continuing to retcon that oversight.

Main Challenge — Design a Mythic God of Theros (2013) with devotion to .
Subchallenge 1: No generic mana appears in your entry. (This subchallenge will appear in every Round this month.)
Subchallenge 2: Your entry includes at least one static and one activated ability (in addition to devotion).

Clarifications

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None yet.

Deadlines
Design: 23:59 EDT 17 Aug // 03:59 UTC 18 Aug

Judging: 23:59 EDT 21 Aug // 03:59 UTC 22 Aug

Judges
@Sojourner Dusk
@slimytrout
@void_nothing


Players
@BaconCatBug
@Freyleyes
@MonoRedMage
@Feyd_Ruin
@Subject16
@Lorn Asbord Schutta

[BaconCatBug]

Ruxaldin, God of the Devoid CCC
Legendary Enchantment Creature — God (Mythic Rare)
Indestructible
As long as your devotion to colorless is less than seven, Ruxaldin isn't a creature. (Each in the mana costs of permanents you control counts toward your devotion to colorless.)
Other colorless permanents you control have ": Add . Spend this mana only to cast colorless spells or activate abilities of colorless permanents."
CCC: Put a hexproof counter on another colorless permanent you control.
5/5

[Subject16]

Nyx, God of the Realm CCC
Legendary Enchantment Creature — God (M)
Indestructible
As long as your devotion to each color and to colorless is less than two, Nyx isn't a creature.
Spells you cast that target a permanent you control cost 1 less to cast.
WUBRG: Create a token that's a copy of target nonenchantment permanent you control, except it's an enchantment in addition to its other types.
7/7

[Lorn Asbord Schutta]

Gnosis, God of the Deep Magic
Legendary Enchantment Creature — God (M)
Indestructible
As long as your devotion to colorless is less than five, Gnosis isn't a creature. (Each in the mana costs of permanents you control counts toward your devotion to colorless.)
First spell you cast each turn cost less to cast.
: Counter target spell unless no colored mana was spent to pay for its generic mana cost.
6/6

[Freyleyes]

Hayseus, God of the Void CCC
Legendary Enchantment Creature — God {M}
Indestructible
As long as your devotion to each color and to colorless is less than four, Hayseus isn't a creature.
Whenever a player casts the first spell during their turn, exile that spell if it's converted mana cost is less then or equal to your devotion to colorless.
CCCCC: You may cast all spells exiled by Hayseus without paying their mana costs.
4/5

[MonoRedMage]

Klepsudreon, God of Time 3C
Legendary Enchantment Creature - God {M}
Indestructible
As long as your devotion to colorless is less than five, Klepsudreon isn't a creature. (Each C in the mana costs of permanents you control counts towards your devotion to colorless.)
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under an opponent's control, return that creature to its owner's hand unless its controller pays 1.
5C, Sacrifice two enchantments: After this phase, you get an additional beginning phase. Activate this ability only during your turn. (The beginning phase is an untap, upkeep, and draw step.)
4/8

[Feyd_Ruin]

Serenios, God of the Moon {3}{C}
Legendary Enchantment Creature — God
Indestructible
As long as your devotion to colorless is less than five, Serenios, God of the Moon isn't a creature. (Each in the mana costs of permanents you control counts towards your devotion to colorless.)
Players play with the top card of their libraries revealed.
: Put the top card of your library on the bottom of your library.
5/6

[Sojourner Dusk]

Round 2 is now closed. Judgments will commence.

@Sojourner Dusk
Feyd_Ruin vs MonoRedMage
Freyleyes vs Lorn Asbord Schutta

@slimytrout
BaconCatBug vs Subject16
Feyd_Ruin vs MonoRedMage

@void_nothing
BaconCatBug vs Subject16
Freyleyes vs Lorn Asbord Schutta

[slimytrout]

BaconCatBug

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Ruxaldin, God of the Devoid CCC
Legendary Enchantment Creature — God (Mythic Rare)
Indestructible
As long as your devotion to colorless is less than seven, Ruxaldin isn't a creature. (Each in the mana costs of permanents you control counts toward your devotion to colorless.)
Other colorless permanents you control have ": Add . Spend this mana only to cast colorless spells or activate abilities of colorless permanents."
CCC: Put a hexproof counter on another colorless permanent you control.
5/5

Design
(2.5/3) Appeal — Timmy likes an enormous beater that helps ramp you into Eldrazi. Spike has some interest in the hexproof but doesn't like how narrow it is, while that's exactly what Johnny loves about it.
(1/3) Elegance — Waaaay too long – you didn't need the devotion text on a Mythic, as evidenced by the THB gods. Also, the fact that all your lands and mana rocks all tap for C means that the triple-colorless cost on the activated ability is basically just to fulfill the challenge, which would be confusing to players.

Development
(3/3) Viability — Yeah, sure. Not sure what a colorless god *couldn't* do.
(2/3) Balance — Huh. I get the feeling that these are all going to be damn hard to evaluate. I suspect that this is going to be busted – note how Inspiring Statuary made sure to say "nonartifact spells" so that you couldn't just string together artifacts forever. This is the opposite, which is much more dangerous, and which I think makes it too good, especially when you add in the ability to give other combo pieces permanent hexproof.

Creativity
(2.5/3) Uniqueness — Very close to giving you full points here, but it doesn't quite make it – we've seen the basic elements before, if only barely.
(2/3) Flavor — Kind of a big mashup – devoid (BFZ) meets gods (THS) meets keyword counters (IKO). A little over the top, in my opinion.

Polish
(3/3) Quality — All good.
(1.5/2) Main Challenge — Keyword counters were not around at the time of Theros, and my impression is that @Sojourner Dusk wanted you to adhere to contemporary elements.
(2/2) Subchallenges — Yep yep.

Total: 20.5/25

Subject16

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Nyx, God of the Realm CCC
Legendary Enchantment Creature — God (M)
Indestructible
As long as your devotion to each color and to colorless is less than two, Nyx isn't a creature.
Spells you cast that target a permanent you control cost 1 less to cast.
WUBRG: Create a token that's a copy of target nonenchantment permanent you control, except it's an enchantment in addition to its other types.
7/7

Design
(3/3) Appeal — It's easy to appeal to everyone when it's busted beyond all belief.
(1.5/3) Elegance — The devotion requirement is deeply confusing on multiple levels, and I honestly don't even quite understand what it's supposed to mean. But what it literally says is "devotion to each color and to colorless," which I think literally means "count up every non-generic pip," so that's how I'm interpreting it. I don't think that's actually what you meant, but this is a case where reminder text is necessary. Maybe you meant "devotion to any color or to colorless"? Genuinely not sure, so I have to go with the text of the card.

Development
(3/3) Viability — Yeah, I guess so.
(0/3) Balance — This one is actually easy to evaluate. Since it activates its own devotion requirement, it's a 3-mana 7/7 indestructible – absolutely insanely good even before its other abilities are tacked on.

Creativity
(3/3) Uniqueness — Uniqueness is not the problem with this.
(2/3) Flavor — Kind of weird, since Nyx is actually established as being a place, but now it's also a god? Or is it the god of that place?

Polish
(3/3) Quality — All good.
(1.5/2) Main Challenge — Very dubious that this even has a "devotion to colorless" requirement, since it fulfills its own devotion.
(1.5/2) Subchallenges — No generic mana in the cost, but that 1 did sneak into the rules text.

Total: 18.5/25

Feyd_Ruin

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Serenios, God of the Moon {3}{C}
Legendary Enchantment Creature — God
Indestructible
As long as your devotion to colorless is less than five, Serenios, God of the Moon isn't a creature. (Each in the mana costs of permanents you control counts towards your devotion to colorless.)
Players play with the top card of their libraries revealed.
: Put the top card of your library on the bottom of your library.
5/6

Design
(2/3) Appeal — A little fiddly for Timmy, although they don't mind the big indestructible body. Spike loves having all this extra info, but hates that they can't bluff anything because their opponent is seeing all their draws. Johnny likes being able to dig for their combo pieces and seeing when the coast is clear.
(3/3) Elegance — All good!

Development
(2/3) Viability — Rarity missing.
(2.5/3) Balance — I think this is a little underpowered – the stats are in line with the monocolor Theros gods but the abilities are worse than the gods that saw play.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness — The abilities come right off Crown of Convergence, just with GW turned to 1C. The rest is exactly what you'd expect a colorless god to be.
(3/3) Flavor — Reasonable enough.

Polish
(2/3) Quality — Rarity missing.
(2/2) Main Challenge — All good.
(1/2) Subchallenges — Plenty of generic mana.

Total: 19/25

MonoRedMage

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Klepsudreon, God of Time 3C
Legendary Enchantment Creature - God {M}
Indestructible
As long as your devotion to colorless is less than five, Klepsudreon isn't a creature. (Each C in the mana costs of permanents you control counts towards your devotion to colorless.)
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under an opponent's control, return that creature to its owner's hand unless its controller pays 1.
5C, Sacrifice two enchantments: After this phase, you get an additional beginning phase. Activate this ability only during your turn. (The beginning phase is an untap, upkeep, and draw step.)
4/8

Design
(2.5/3) Appeal — The beginning phase is not Timmy's favorite phrase, although they don't mind the big indestructible body. Johnny, on the other hand, loves the beginning phase. Spike likes taxing and drawing, so they're happy.
(1/3) Elegance — Waaay too long – shouldn't have included the devotion reminder text. Also, adding an upkeep step in the middle of the turn is likely to confuse the hell out of people.

Development
(2/3) Viability — Along with confusing people, I think it could also cause some serious rules headaches – we've only ever had upkeeps at the beginning of turns before.
(3/3) Balance — Toughness barely matters for indestructible gods, so this is a little understatted compared to other four-mana gods. That being said, the static ability is quite strong, so I think it makes up for it. Not remotely sure how good the activated ability is, so I'm not even going to try to evaluate that.

Creativity
(3/3) Uniqueness — Paradox Haze exists, but that's got nothing on this.
(3/3) Flavor — Best flavor I've evaluated in this whole round.

Polish
(3/3) Quality — No problems.
(2/2) Main Challenge — All good.
(1/2) Subchallenges — Plenty of generic mana.

Total: 20.5/25

Results

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BaconCatBug: 20.5
Subject16: 18.5

Feyd_Ruin: 19
MonoRedMage: 20.5

[Sojourner Dusk]

Feyd_Ruin

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Design
(2/3) Appeal: T is mildly confused; J and S enjoy the deck management and info.
(3/3) Elegance: The abilites are simple and clean, and synergize well.

Development
(2/3) Viability: As a Mythic, this is a little underwhelming. It might have been better to lower the casting cost and the potential P/T, like original Thassa, which this is closer to in power level.
(2/3) Balance: As an enchantment, this is overcosted for the abilities, compared to prior appearances. As a God creature, it's fair. Useful in Limited, though probably unlikely to reach devotion. In Constructed, it would be soilid utility.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness: As noted above, the static ability has been seen before, though rarely. Adding a repeatable pseudo-scry effect blends well.
(2.5/3) Flavor: Illumination from the moon revealing the top of libraries is flavorful.

Polish
(2.5/3) Quality: Rarity missing (-0.5).
(2/2) *Main Challenge: Challenge met.
(1/2) Subchallenges: Generic mana symbols present.

Total: 19/25

MonoRedMage

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Design
(1/3) Appeal: T sees a (potentially) big defensive creature, J wants to be able to bounce his own creatures, and S thinks the cost is too **** high foir just one extra phase.
(2/3) Elegance: There is a lot of text here, and not many players ever refer to the beginning phase of the turn.

Development
(2/3) Viability: I don't relish the idea of being able to activate this during your end step. The activated ability has Mythic flavor, though the triggered ability does not.
(2/3) Balance: This would be difficult to utilize in Limited, and not much easier in Constructed. The "penalty" of bouncing can benefit your opponent due to the preponderance of ETB triggers. This would easily find a home in EDH with tax dec ks.

Creativity
(2.5/3) Uniqueness: The "tax or bounce" is new, rather than just a straightforward additional cost, though I've always been a fan of Tainted Aether. An additional beginning phase has not seen print previously (in blackborder).
(2/3) Flavor: Never going to be able to pronounce that name. And for a God of Time, the abilities only do a little rewinding.

Polish
(2.5/3) Quality: Missing Em dash between type and subtype (-0.5).
(2/2) *Main Challenge: Challenge met.
(1/2) Subchallenges: Generic mana symbols presernt.

Total: 17/25

Freyleyes

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Design
(2/3) Appeal: T is confused, J sees combo potential, and S is ready to thieve when their opponent doesn't RTFC.
(1/3) Elegance: So many words. Why does being a creature care about all mana types, but the static ability only cares about colorless?

Development
(3/3) Viability: With the abilities, that is textbook Mythic. However...
(0/3) Balance: That's a LOT of devotion required to turn on a 4/5 creature. It is difficult to remove the growing pile of cards under it with the indestructibility, and there is no end to the activated ability once paid, since there is no "end of turn" statement. This is more of an emblem than an "activated ability".

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness: Reminds me of the Erayo ability, but with a twist. Casting after exiling is something we're getting used to from Ashiok.
(1/3) Flavor: Feeling the void vibes, but not understanding the different devotion checks.

Polish
(2/3) Quality: "Whenever a player casts their first spell during their turn, exile that spell if its converted..." (-0.5). "You may cast each spell exiled with Hayseus..." (-0.5).
(2/2) *Main Challenge: Challenge met.
(2/2) Subchallenges: Both met.

Total: 15/25

Lorn Asbord Schutta

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Design
(2/3) Appeal: T sees a 6/6 for 4. J sees a combo enabler. S likes the idea of countering spells, but then keeps rereading the ability.
(2/3) Elegance: I don't know how to connect "Deep Magic" to first casting discounts and anti-generic clauses.

Development
(3/3) Viability: Repeatable spell countering with spell discounts fits the bill at Mythic. That said...
(1/3) Balance: Repeatable spell countering usually involves a tap or sac effect to keep it from being oppressive. Having the discount only on the first spell you cast each turn pushes this deckbuilding towards instants and flash, which is unlikely in Limited (maybe draft), but much more likely in Constructed. In EDH, this will draw a great deal of hate.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness: Casting discounts exist at all rarities, and can be found as far back as Legends. The restriction required to counter a spell is something I don't think I've seen previously.
(2/3) Flavor: "God of Deep Magic" works better as a name.
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
(2/3) Quality: "The first spell you cast each turn costs less to cast." (-0.5). "Counter target spell if colored mana was spent to pay a generic mana cost." With the other wording, there are issues with cards that lack generic costs (-0.5).
(2/2) *Main Challenge: Challenge met.
(1/2) Subchallenges: Generic mana symbols present.

Total: 16.5/25

Scores
Feyd_Ruin: 19
MonoRedMage: 17

Freyleyes: 15
Lorn Asbord Schutta: 16.5

[void_nothing]

BaconCatBug

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Design
(2/3) Appeal - Jxnny finds this interesting and Spike sees the protective abilities as having potential. Txmmy doesn't care that much, not even with a conditional ramp ability.
(1.5/3) Elegance - There is a lot to keep track of here - ability counters add considerably to the complexity of both a card and a set, especially when that card can put those counters on any kind of permanent.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Well this had to be mythic and it feels colorless enough.
(3/3) Balance - All the abilities are pretty conditional to a heavy colorless deck. So - monogray Tron could use this? Besides that it wouldn't really be powerful anywhere else.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - Plenty of things grant mana abilities and hexproof but this does it in a somewhat unique way.
(1/3) Flavor - Name doesn't sound Theran (i.e. ancient Greek) and "devoid" refers to a pretty specific kind of colorless card - Eldrazi related ones with colored costs.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - Think this is okay.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Done.
(2/2) Subchallenges - And done.

Total: 19/25

Subject16

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Design
(3/3) Appeal - Something for everyone here.
(2/3) Elegance - All a bit wordy and all those token copies could get confusing. but I like the grokkability of tying together multiple Theros mechanics. Now where's the monstrosity payoff? (JK that would make it all too wordy I think.)

Development
(3/3) Viability - Feels WUBRG/C and sufficiently legendary and mythic.
(1.5/3) Balance - As worded, this card is incredibly overpowered, because it turns itself into a creature automatically. I believe you meant for this only to become a creature if you had CCWWUUBBRRGG on the battlefield... but then it provides for the colorless itself... so what gives with that, other than to meet the challenge? If you need Progenitus devotion for this to be a 7/7 then it should be fine, but as worded this checks like the multicolor Gods, counting the total of all those mana symbols. This could have easily been fixed by changing that "two" to ten, but it'd still be agnostic to what colors were being used, which I think is counter to your intent. I have no idea how to word it to be what you appear to want other than "Your devotion to white... your devotion to blue..." and so on.

Creativity
(3/3) Uniqueness - A lot of this is unique.
(3/3) Flavor - For Nyx to be personified seems - not-Theros-ish - but if it were to be done I feel this is how it'd be.

Polish
(2.5/3) Quality - As addressed before I think you seriously misworded the devotion check.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Done.
(1/2) Subchallenges - There is one generic mana symbol there.

Total: 21/25

Freyleyes

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Design
(1/3) Appeal - This is almost purely a Spike card. Locking down the game doesn't appeal to the other psychographics very much.
(1.5/3) Elegance - Lots of things to track, a possible huge pile of exiled cards, plus - this can exile one of the spells it casts with its own activated ability - bizarre. If there were a cast from hand clause in there it would help a lot.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Yes to colorless, yes to mythic.
(0/3) Balance - Even symmetrically, unconditionally exiling spells with CMC 3 or less from the get go seems super oppressive. Erayo, Soratami Ascendant // Erayo's Essence offers that kind of power, requires a significant amount of work to flip, and even then is considered to be a broken card in several formats. An even better comparison is Brisela, Voice of Nightmares, which requires you to meld together a four-mana card and a seven-mana one. Then the activated ability is well beyond the pale - not only does it allow you to get your own spells back but it punishes your opponents for having wasted a spell in order to be able to cast anything with a low CMC. Not to mention it has the same problem as Subject16's - just one pip of colored or colorless mana on anything else makes this a mid-sized, indestructible, creature on top of everything else.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness - Some precedent as detailed before, but some unique aspects as well.
(3/3) Flavor - This does feel like a "God of the Void" - and that's coming from "void."

Polish
(2/3) Quality - Hit it Strong Bad. Also "less than" not "then".
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Done.
(1/2) Subchallenges - There is a triggered ability there, not a static ability - I feel like triggered abilities should have counted given that several of the Theros Gods had them in addition to the activated abilities, but the letter of the challenge counts.

Total: 16.5/25

Lorn Asbord Schutta

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Design
(2/3) Appeal - Solidly a Jxnny/Spike card.
(2.5/3) Elegance - The mana counting in the activated ability is a bit fiddly.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Definitely mythic and feels colorless.
(1.5/3) Balance - The static ability looks fine; the activated one, however, appears to be really strong.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness - The abilities are fairly usual but referencing generic mana is a new twist.
(3/3) Flavor - Definitely a "God of Deep Magic."

Polish
(2.5/3) Quality - There should be a "the" in there somewhere.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Done.
(1/2) Subchallenges - There is generic mana.

Total: 19.5/25