MTGNexus

Quake Hellion 2RR
Creature — Hellion {M}
Trample, haste
Whenever Quake Hellion attacks, flip a coin. If you win the flip, put two +1/+1 counters on Quake Hellion. If you lose the flip, sacrifice a land.
4/4

IIW: templating we haven't seen before (an example from some card workshopping today: there are currently no cards that modify "any target" outside of Needle Drop and Goblin Test Pilot.)

Surge Strike R
Instant (R)
Multikicker — Flip a coin
~ deals 1 damage plus 1 damage to any target for each time you won the flip and 2 damage to you for each time you lost the flip.

IIW: Smells fishy

Ok! Sorry! Thanksgiving and such. Even with poor turnout, it's time to move this along.

Given that the challenge involved picking an upcoming set and a fictional drop set, and also a card that's a preview of a new set, so it should get me excited and give me some sense of something that the set will be about. If you didn't specify an upcoming set or drop, and I can't tell, that's a mark against you. Given that one is a brand new set but the other is a return world that was almost destroyed last time, there's some opportunity for interpretation in both cases.

Sojourner Dusk - You specified that this is from CotD, but not which set. This is almost always either a wrath or a card that does very little, unless you have an enormous creature and they only have a bunch of weenies, which seems dubious. This also doesn't feel very green, and doesn't set my expectations for an upcoming set as a preview card. It's also a kinda cutesy way of handling a wrath, so barring lifelink shenanigans, I'd need to see more of what you'd be envisioning for this.
SecondBestFriend - Reap seems sorta odd to me as a keyword, but from an implementation standpoint, it seems fine. Menace on a big black creature strikes a good middle ground for a keyword ability, and I like that you have to keep paying into the triggered ability to keep it "fair". Given that this doesn't involve coinflips, and the name, I'm assuming this is for CotD.
Megiddo - Mild minus points for not saying which plane this is from. Zendikar definitely has hellions, but a new plane could too. That said, this is a neat risk/reward for a coinflip, and this comes down early enough that losing the coinflip can actually be a setback.
avatarz - I have no idea which plane this comes from. Flipping coins as a kicker is interesting, and very strong with Chance Encounter. That said, I feel like a lot of the strength of this card is in the complete freedom to choose the quantity of coinflips, as the risk/reward ratio is pretty high.

HM: Megiddo
Winner: SecondBestFriend

Next: A mana cost that has never been on a card

Zegana, Creation of Perfection GGGUUU
Legendary Creature - merfolk wizard
This spell can't be countered
Trample
Whenever one or more +1/+1 counter is placed on another creature you control, put a +1/+1 counter on zegana
Creatures you control with at least 3 +1/+1 counters on them have hexproof.
4/4

IIW: Uncommon walkers from war of the spark upshifted to rare

Kilna, the Fair RWWB
Legendary Creature - Dwarf Noble (M)
Lifelink
Creatures with power 1 or less can't attack you.
Whenever a creature you control with power 1 or less attacks, Kilna, the Fair deals 1 damage to each opponent.
4/4

iiw: frog tribal

Evanesce CCC
Sorcery (R)
Exile target nonland permanent.
All things end. Most are not remembered.

IIW: Murmuring Bosk-style lands.

Molderwurm 1BGG
Creature — Wurm Carrier
Hexproof
Whenever Molderwurm deals combat damage to a player, you may sacrifice it. When you do, destroy target nonland permanent that player controls.
3/4

IIW: Cards that can change a spell's targets.

Chanter of Putrid Virtues WCCB
(Colorless) Creature — Horror (M)
Flying
~ can't be blocked by Spirits.
When ~ enters the battlefield, if you cast it, exile all other creatures. For each nontoken creature exiled this way, its controller creates a 1/1 colorless Spirit creature with flying.
5/5

IIW: A card from a cycle of which my current entry is part

Invoke Tariffs 1WUU
Instant (R)
Counter target spell. Exile each artifact or enchantment which shares a mana cost with it.

IIW: a 4 mana 3/4

Alone Time 3wuu
Sorcery (M)
Take an extra turn after this one. Your opponents can't cast spells until the end of that turn. Exile Alone Time.

IIW: Meg's avatar is the card art

Eldrexian Abomination 6(the mana symbol for phyrexian-colorless mana)
Creature - Eldrazi Horror
(the mana symbol for phyrexian-colorless mana): Eldrexian Abomination gains infect until end of turn.
Annihilator 1
7/7

IIW: Colored mana symbols and Vehicles.

judging tonight

Replace UBB
Art: A Dimir assassin kneeling over a corpse. They're putting on a mask matching the victim's face.
Instant
Destroy target creature with converted mana cost 2 or less. Create a token that's a copy of it.
"You won't even be gone."

IIW: Cards that can change a spell's targets.

Keening Coatl {U/B}{2/G}
Creature - Snake Zombie (R)
Flying
When Keening Coatl enters the battlefield, draw a card and you lose 1 life.
Whenever you draw your second card each turn, put a +1/+1 counter on Keening Coatl and untap it.
1/1

IIW: Zombies that wear pants.

half of these entries are obnoxious mana costs i hope never see print and the other half are elegant mana costs i can't believe haven't seen print yet.

Megiddo wrote: ↑

4 years ago

half of these entries are obnoxious mana costs i hope never see print and the other half are elegant mana costs i can't believe haven't seen print yet.

it's really more like 70-30

I Don't Know When SecondBestFriend's Tonight Is But They Haven't Judged Yet So I'm Submitting Another XGUR

aka

Ambush on Qal Sisma XGUR
Sorcery
Ferocious — This spell costs less to cast for each creature you control with power 4 or greater.
Look at the top X cards of your library. You may put a creature card from among them onto the battlefield. It fights up to one target creature you don't control.

aka what if See the Unwritten had an X in it

IIW: Cards that can change a spell's targets.

Aw crap, I forgot about this, and I really need to go to bed. Alright, let's do it anyway!

Chetoos- Zegana:
This is a really conservative build considering the strict mana cost. I appreciate that it mirrors Niv-Mizzet, Parun. It's the kind of card that finds good homes on the kitchen table, and at a few EDH tables, but never gets to a dollar's value. There's nothing at all wrong with the card, and it properly respects the terrifying power that is hexproof. Still, it's a total jank rare.

Wonderful- Kilna, the Fair
Well this is pretty darn cool. As above, the mana cost respect the terrifying power of lifelink. This would be a fun sort of general to build around, and would turn off a lot of surprising things. I'm a fan. The mana cost is also one I fully expect to see some day.

Sojourner Dusk- Evenesce
Well that's a basic and good card, but it's only good in a SUPER specific kind of deck. Frankly I'd like to see something a little stranger coming out of a card with this cost.

Spacemonaut- Molder Wurm
Again, you've really respected the power of hexproof, and I really respect that respect. You can't just equip this with Whispersilk Cloak and crush the world-- you have to sacrifice the wurm for value. And the value is strong. Sometimes you want to keep the wurm, and sometimes you want to sacrifice it. Nice card.

Avartz-Chanter of Putrid Virtues
This is a mana cost that doesn't exist for good reason. To cast this, you have to tax your mana base to the fullest, and the payoff is real, but isn't really something you want to build around. But I do like the way the evasion seems random but isn't.

Ninja Caterpie- Invoke Tariffs
What a thoroughly strange card. The wording could be more clear: I think it means "destroy each artifact and enchantment with (yada yada)" but it could mean that you choose which type. Regardless, this strikes me as the kind of jank rare that doesn't need to exist. You can't plan around it working, and you shouldn't be holding that specific mana up for something you can't plan on.

Togs- Alone Time
That's a totally fair cost for the effect. It's not a card I would be particularly happy or unhappy to see printed, but I can't deny the cost and effect are really perfect for each other.

Tactical Celebrant- Eldrexian Abomination
Noooop. Too pushed. It pretends to cost seven, but it costs six, and that's too little for a 7/7 annihilator that can get infect whenever it wants. Phyrexian/ colorless mana generally just means that it costs two life, but with a small upside that it doesn't have to. This isn't costed to that reality.

Spacemonaut (Second entry)- Replace
Well that's just sweet. But it's less exciting of a design when you realize it's basically like Domestication. Still, not a bad design.

Cythare- Keening Coatl
Huh. The cost is strange, but every version of it seems to be okay. It's a strictly better Wind Drake in the most interesting of ways, and it's not too powerful for a rare. It's both conservative and innovative in its design. That's hard to do.

Spacemonaut (third entry)- Ambush on Qal Sisma
This seems like a really plausible card, and I like the shift from "if you control a creature with power four or greater" to "for each creature (yada yada)". I've got no problems with this. It's a fairly costed card that might end up being good enough for its standard, but probably wouldn't- but there would be EDH decks for it. Still I'm only gonna judge your first card.

Winner: Wonderful
HM: Cythare, Spacemonaut, Spacemonaut, and Spacemonaut (for three reasonable cards)

Next: Frog tribal

finally, a challenge for me

Poisonskin Trapper 2B
Creature — Frog Warrior {U}
Deathtouch
3G: Target Frog creature must be blocked this turn if able.
2/3

IIW: prolate spheroid

finally, a challenge for me

Frogatog 1g
Creature - Frog Atog (C)
Sacrifice a Frog: Frogatog gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
1/2
On Mirrodin, a predator. On Anuria, a conquerer.

IIW: Colorshifted Tibalt

Mass Frogify 2GWU
Enchantment
All creatures lose all abilities and are green Frog creatures with base power and toughness 1/1.
Discard a Frog card: Put a +1/+1 counter on each Frog creature you control.

IIW: The number nine anywhere on a card.

Croak 1BG
Instant
Destroy target creature. If you control a Frog, you gain life equal to the destroyed creature's toughness.


Anurian Mentor 2GU
Creature — Frog Knight
When Anurian Mentor enters the battlefield, support 2. (Put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to two other target creatures.)
Whenever Anurian Mentor attacks, target Frog you control gains flying until end of turn.
"The battle is here! To legs, fellows!"
3/3


IIW: A card that uses the phrase "if X is N or more", like Banefire or so on.

Frilled Dusksnapper 3GG
Creature - Frog (M)
Other Frog creatures you control have vigilance and reach.
At the beginning of your end step, if a land you control has left the battlefield this turn, create a 4/4 green Frog creature token.
4/4

IIW: Threshold-like mechanics

I do appreciate you getting the callback to Niv, and right now I'm wondering if I should have made it more clearly reflect that dragon's powers. Oh well.

Leaping Experimentation 2GU
enchantment (rare)
Each creature you control with at least 2 +1/+1 counters on it is a frog in addition to its other types.
Whenever a frog enters the battlefield under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
Each frog you control gets +1/+1 and has flying.
"Yes, but wait until they come down." - Zavena, Simic Biomancer

Frog of War 2UG
Creature - Frog Soldier (R)
Attacking Frogs you control get +1/+1 and have hexproof.
Sacrifice Frog of War: Prevent all damage that would be dealt to players this turn.
2/2

IIW unplayable white cards