September MCC Round 1 - Happy bargain!

[bravelion83]

(This month's banner is my own elaboration on the art of the cards A Tale for the Ages by Julie Dillon and Evolving Wilds by Alayna Danner.)


September MCC Round 1

Happy bargain!

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

(*sings*) Happy bargain to me! Happy barthain to me! Happy birthayn to Leo! Happy birthday to me! (*stops singing*)

Later this month (on the 29th if you care), it will be my own birthday. Just like the bolded word, our lives slowly change, and each birthday is one more step up in the endless stairs of time. In my own case, this will be my fortieth one. I'm becoming old. What for most people is a celebration, one's birthday, is quickly becoming a burden to me. What a bargain would it be if a potion bringing you back something like twenty years existed, I would pay any price for it…



Main Challenge - Design a card with bargain and/or celebration.


Subchallenge 1 - Your card uses Food tokens.


Subchallenge 2 - Your card is an instant or a nonland permanent with flash. In other words, your card is playable at "instant speed".

Clarifications

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Main Challenge
• The card must have bargain or celebration itself. Granting them does NOT count.
• The card can have both bargain and celebration, but it doesn't have to. Only having either one of them is enough.

Subchallenge 1
• Creating, sacrificing, exiling them, literally everything counts as long as your card manipulates Food tokens somehow.

@bravelion83 for subchallenge 1 on September round 1, just to be sure, would a card that says "As long as you control a Food token..." count? It references Food tokens, but doesn't "use" them per say.

I'd say no, it doesn't count. It's not an active use of the token, or something you do to that token. In the clarifications I wrote that you need to "manipulate" the Food token. What I was picturing as I wrote that sentence is a tabletop game where you're physically taking the token in hand to do something with it. "As long as you control a Food" doesn't require you to take the token physically in your hand and do something with it, the token just needs to sit there, untouched by your fingers. So no, that doesn't count. You have to actively do something with/to the Food token. Adding this to the clarifications.

For September's MCC involving food, bargains and celebrations. Does turning a non food into a food count as use or the reverse as in animating them.

@Komandon Turning a non-Food into a Food does NOT count as you're not "using" the Food, you're using something else, likely a spell or ability, to turn something into a Food.

At the contrary, turning a Food into something else DOES count. You're doing something actively involving the Food, and that's the whole point of the Subchallenge.

For example, animating one or more Food token(s), aka turning them into creatures, DOES count. The reverse (turning a creature into a Food) would NOT.

Hope this helps. Adding this to the clarifications.

Subchallenge 2
• Your card must meet either one out of two requirements:
1 - being an instant, which means actually having the card type "instant" on its type line, or
2 - being a nonland permanent that has the flash keyword, allowing it to be cast at any time you could cast an instant.
• Artifact, battle, creature, enchantment, and planeswalker are the five nonland permanent card types. If you choose the option of a nonland permanent with flash, your card must have at least one of those card types on its type line.
• The card can have multiple card types.
• It should be obvious why I'm not allowing a land with flash. The short answer is it doesn't work in the rules, ot at least not in the way most people would expect it to work.
• We all know that there is no actual concept of "speed" in Magic, but we all also know what it means.


If you have any questions, feel free to post them in the MCC discussion thread.

DEADLINES

Design deadline: Friday, September 8th 2023 at 23:59 Eastern Time

Judging deadline: Tuesday, September 12th 2023 at 23:59 Eastern Time


RUBRIC

MCC Rubric

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The MCC Rubric is given below, in an easily "copy and pasted" form. (Courtesy of Rithaniel.)

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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.

JUDGES

bravelion83
void_nothing

We might or might not need more judges. If you're interested, sign up in the judge signup thread.


PLAYERS

Everyone can enter this round. Just reply to this thread posting a card that meets the Main Challenge and any number (that includes zero) of Subchallenges. Future rounds will only be open to those who advance. Come join us!


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.


BRACKETS

Top 4 from each bracket will advance to Round 2.

Judge: bravelion83
Freyleyes
haywire
Komandon
marioguy3
Raptorchan
slimytrout

Judge: void_nothing
AnotherAlias
KB52665
kwanyeegor-ii
netn10
Rithaniel

[Raptorchan]

Bakehouse Riot 2g
Instant (U)
Bargain (You may sacrifice an artifact, enchantment, or token as you cast this spell.)
Create three Food tokens. If this spell was bargained, each Food you control becomes a 1/1 Golem artifact creature token with haste until end of turn.
Wounds of Syr Ginger's loss will never glaze.

[KB52665]

Lurker in the Soup 1bg
Artifact Creature — Food Horror (R)
Deathtouch
As long as you control fewer than 3 Food tokens, Lurker in the Soup isn't a creature.
Whenever Lurker in the Soup or another creature you control dies, create a Food token. This ability triggers only once per turn.
Celebration — At the beginning of your end step, if two or more nonland permanents entered the battlefield under your control this turn and Lurker in the Soup is a creature, you may exile a non-land permanent you control. If you do, transform Lurker in the Soup.
"If I'm being quite honest, the soup was delicious. The faces it made were what turned my stomach."
1/1
//
Feast of Fools
{b/g} Enchantment
If an opponent would gain life, that player loses that much life instead.
Food tokens you control have "2, , sacrifice this artifact: Target player gains 3 life."
Rule #1, never eat what a witch serves you. Rule #0, never dine with witches.

[AnotherAlias]

Treacherous Baker
Creature - Human Peasant (Rare)
Bargain
When Treacherous Baker enters the battlefield, create a Food token. If Treacherous Baker was bargained, Food tokens you control gain ", , Sacrifice this artifact: Target opponent loses 3 life."
No one expected the kindly old baker to poison his goods. Even less did they expect his target.
4/4

[netn10]

A Feast to Behold W
Enchantment (Mythic)
Flash
Celebration - At the beginning of each end step, create a Food token and draw a card for each two nonland permanents entered the battlefield under your control this turn.
Whenever you lose life, instead sacrifice that many Foods and/or discard that many cards. If you can't, you lose the game.
The king wished the feast to be endless, partly to prolong time in order to uncover any flaws in the fae wish, and partly because the flavors were simply irresistible.

[slimytrout]

Going to enter due to low participation so far, but happy to drop and judge if needed.

Hunger of the Hunt G
Enchantment — Aura (U)
Flash
Bargain (You may sacrifice an artifact, enchantment, or token as you cast this spell.)
When Hunger of the Hunt enters the battlefield, if it was bargained, whenever enchanted creature deals combat damage to a player this turn, create that many Food tokens.
Enchanted creature has trample and "1, Sacrifice a Food: This creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn."

[Freyleyes]

Cook to a Crisp BRR
Instant {R}
Bargain (You may sacrifice an artifact, enchantment, or token as you cast this spell.)
Cook to a Crisp deals 3 damage to each creature. If this spell was bargained, instead it deals 3 damage to each creature you don't control.
If a permanent dealt damage by Cook to a Crisp would die this turn, create a food token.
Appendix III, Cooking duration, excerpt IV
— The Underworld Cookbook

[haywire]

Matron of the Enchanted Table
Creature — Faerie Wizard {R}
Flash
Flying
When Matron of the Enchanted Table enters the battlefield, tap each creature.
Celebration — At the beginning of each end step, if two or more nonland permanents entered the battlefield under your control this turn, each player creates two Food tokens.
Whenever a player sacrifices a Food, put a stun counter on up to one target creature. If that creature is tapped, scry 2.
No, eat, I insist. I know we've had bad blood in the past, but it's time to put that all to sleep.
3/3

[bravelion83]

I will keep this open for one more day to see if we manage to get more submissions. I'd like three more at least, but tomorrow the round will close regardless of the number of players. Now we have seven. If we don't get any more submissions by this time tomorrow, I will judge solo. If we get one or two more submissions (eight or nine total), I'll bring @void_nothing in and I'll do two brackets of four (one of four and one of five if we have nine) with the top 3 advancing. If we have ten or more, we will proceed as normal.

[marioguy3]

Revitalizing Lamp
Artifact (Rare)
Bargain
Flash
Tapped creatures you control may block each combat as though they were untapped.
When Revitalizing Lamp enters the battlefield, if it was bargained, scry 2.
Whenever a tapped creature you control dies during combat, return that creature to the battlefield under your control at the beginning of the next end step and you lose 2 life.

[bravelion83]

We have the eighth entry (thank you very much @marioguy3) and one of them is slimytrout's, so if I take it out we're back to seven which is too few. This means that I'm officially taking in @void_nothing as a judge and @slimytrout as a player, NOT counting his first line in his submission post as extra content given the context. Thanks to both of them for the availability.

Now let's see if we can get a couple more submissions in the next about 20 hours.

[kwanyeegor-ii]

Concessions Cart 1RW
Creature - Horse (Rare)
Flash
Haste
2W, T: Create two Food tokens.
Celebration - T, Sacrifice a Food: You may put a permanent card with mana value 3 or less from your hand onto the battlefield. Activate only if two or more nonland permanents entered the battlefield under your control this turn.
1/4

[Komandon]

Night of the Living Bread 4b
Instant
Bargain (You may sacrifice an artifact, enchantment, or token as you cast this spell.)
Until end of turn all food tokens you control become 2/2 black zombie creatures in addition to their other types. If this spell cost 2 less if it was bargained.
"I will never forget that night. Pieces of bread everywhere stained with the blood of those without the stomach to do what was necessary. That's why I'm on an all liquid diet." — unknown former baker. Circa 13 A.D (After Dough)

[Rithaniel]

Many Courses
Instant U
Bargain (You may sacrifice an artifact, enchantment, or token as you cast this spell.)
Create a token that's a copy of target artifact token or enchantment token. If this spell was bargained, create three of those tokens instead. If this spell was bargained with a Food token, create five of those tokens instead.

[bravelion83]

The round is closed. Judging may begin.


BRACKETS

Top 4 from each bracket will advance to Round 2.

Judge: bravelion83
Freyleyes
haywire
Komandon
marioguy3
Raptorchan
slimytrout

Judge: void_nothing
AnotherAlias
KB52665
kwanyeegor-ii
netn10
Rithaniel

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Judgments complete. No time to reread them now, so I apologize for any typos that might be there.

Freyleyes

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Cook to a Crisp BRR
Instant {R}
Bargain (You may sacrifice an artifact, enchantment, or token as you cast this spell.)
Cook to a Crisp deals 3 damage to each creature. If this spell was bargained, instead it deals 3 damage to each creature you don't control.
If a permanent dealt damage by Cook to a Crisp would die this turn, create a food token.
Appendix III, Cooking duration, excerpt IV
— The Underworld Cookbook

Design
Appeal 2/3 - Timmy likes this when one-sided, but he doesn't like to sacrifice things to achieve that. It's either "deal damage to my creatures too" or "sacrifice something to avoid that", and Timmy doesn't really like either choice. Johnny could use this card as part of some kind of engine, something like "sac a Food to bargain this, deal the damage and then recreate that Food token or even more of them". Spike likes pseudo-Wrath effects.
Elegance 2/3 - No problems with the first two abilities. The last ability is confusing as it's not clear whether it's meant to be a triggered ability or a replacement effect. What you were going for is clear, but not how you intended to execute on that idea. (Also see Viability and Quality.)
Development
Viability 1/3 - No problems with this in red. Black usually does damage by draining or granting -N/-N (yes, this last one is not actual damage, but you get what I mean), but this is certainly an acceptable bend in black at worst. Rarity looks correct to me. Big problems with the rules in the last ability: the usual "triggered ability vs. replacement effect" fight strikes again! This card isn't printable as is. If I were an actual editor in R&D, and I honestly would like that a lot, I would have to go back to this card's designer and ask them what their intent was, because the functionality is very different. If it's supposed to be a triggered ability, it would need to be worded like this: "When a permanent dealt damage by CARDNAME dies this turn, create a Food token." When such a permanent is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, and AFTER it has gone to the graveyard, so it's in the graveyard when this ability goes on the stack and when it resolves, it's then that you create the Food token. At the contrary, if it's meant to be a replacement effect, it would need to be worded like this: "If a permanent dealt damage by CARDNAME would die this turn, create a Food token instead." What would happen in this case is that the entire event of the permanent dying never happens, so the permanent is never even put into the graveyard in the first place, and as the event of it dying is gone, it never hits the graveyard and it gets to stay on the battlefield, so it's on the battlefield and not in the graveyard, where it was instead in the previous case, when you perform the new event that has completely replaced the permanent's death, that is when you actually create the Food token. As you can see, it's a completely different functionality: in one case the damaged permanent has actually died and is in the graveyard in the moment when you create the Food token, in the other it NEVER actually dies and is on the battlefield as you create the Food token. As the wording here is a hybrid of those two wordings, and as both of them would work, only in completely different ways, I would have to go and ask the card's designer: "which of these two is the one you want?" Then, once that question is answered, I, as editor, would put in the right wording and only then I could send the card to print. As this is a very big functional issue, it causes a very big deduction in this area. *sighs* How many times I will have to explain this difference again? See you all next time. I'm sure it will happen again sooner or later.
Balance 2/3 - A very restrictive mana cost that makes this hard to play in limited. In constructed, the mana base is better so it's more probable that it could support this. I see this as more of a constructed card rather than a limited one, kind of like Anger of the Gods, that definitely saw Standard play during its time. Hard to talk about the balance of the last ability without knowing what's its intended functionality (see Viability right above). Competitive players might wait for an official ruling, but how would casual players read that ability? There are two possibilities and both make sense. Saying "each creature you don't control" obviously makes this relevant in multiplayer formats, where it plays differently than in regular duel.
Creativity
Uniqueness 1.5/3 - Collective burn spells with an effect that cares about creatures dealt damage to it dying this turn is nothing new, as are one-sided such spells. This is essentially just a new twist on Pyroclasm, Anger of the Gods, and that line of cards. Pyroclasm with set mechanic feels like a good description of this card to me, and while that set mechanic is technically new, even if bargain is nothing more than a subset of kicker, the resulting card doesn't really feel that original to me.
Flavor 3/3 - Definitely good enough. Flavor text, card name and rules text all work together to create a coherent single card entity. As they always should.
Polish
Quality 1/3 - First, the easy ones. In the flavor text, there should be no space between the correct em dash and the attribution. (-0.5) In the last ability, the word "food" should be capitalized as it's a subtype. (-0.5). And now for the big one: how could we live without the eternal struggle between triggered abilities and replacement effects? What is the last ability? If it's a triggered ability, it should start with "When" and not "if" and not have the "would". If it's a replacement effect, the word "instead" is missing. This is a mix, so it's neither, and it's wrong anyway. This is a big functional issue as that ability doesn't work at all written as it is now, so -1.
Main Challenge 2/2 - Good.
Subchallenges 2/2 - Both met.
TOTAL 16.5/25

haywire

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Matron of the Enchanted Table
Creature — Faerie Wizard {R}
Flash
Flying
When Matron of the Enchanted Table enters the battlefield, tap each creature.
Celebration — At the beginning of each end step, if two or more nonland permanents entered the battlefield under your control this turn, each player creates two Food tokens.
Whenever a player sacrifices a Food, put a stun counter on up to one target creature. If that creature is tapped, scry 2.
No, eat, I insist. I know we've had bad blood in the past, but it's time to put that all to sleep.
3/3

Design
Appeal 3/3 - Timmy likes all the stuff that's going on here and the way this affects the board. There are definitely various tricks here for Johnny to do and effects for him to exploit. Spike likes the use of flash here and the value she can get out this. It might not be the best five-drop ever, but it does enough to at least catch her interest.
Elegance 2/3 - All the text is clear and understandable, it's just very long. Too long I'd say.
Development
Viability 3/3 - No problems with the color pie, rarity, or the rules.
Balance 2.5/3 - Definitely playable in limited. It might also see some Standard play, especially in Faerie control decks. There are many things going on at once here, and some casual players might have some problems keeping track of all the possibilities they have in the decision tree that this card generates. I see no problems in multiplayer, and tapping "each creature" (including itself by the way) is obviously relevant there.
Creativity
Uniqueness 2/3 - Celebration outside of Boros colors is technically new, but an easy thing to come up with. There are a lot of moving parts here, but they are all pieces we know very well. A song I like came to my mind here: "The cog in the machine" by Lagwagon. What you essentially did here is taking a lot of old and well-known cogs and assemble a new machine out of them.
Flavor 1.5/3 - The flavor text would be good, but it doesn't fit in the frame. In the card name, it feels a little strange to me to read the word "enchanted", which has a specific rules meaning in MTG, even if it's clear that here you're using its ordinary English meaning. If that enchantment (English meaning here as well) is the Wicked Slumber, it makes sense for this card to interact with tapped creatures and stun counters.
Polish
Quality 1.5/3 - I believe that the ETB effect would be worded as "tap all creatures" (-0.5). This is microtext (11 lines plus 5 breaks in MSE's M15 frame), so another -1 here.
Main Challenge 2/2 - Good.
Subchallenges 2/2 - Both met.
TOTAL 19.5/25

Komandon

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Night of the Living Bread 4b
Instant
Bargain (You may sacrifice an artifact, enchantment, or token as you cast this spell.)
Until end of turn all food tokens you control become 2/2 black zombie creatures in addition to their other types. If this spell cost 2 less if it was bargained.
"I will never forget that night. Pieces of bread everywhere stained with the blood of those without the stomach to do what was necessary. That's why I'm on an all liquid diet." — unknown former baker. Circa 13 A.D (After Dough)

Design
Appeal 2.5/3 - Timmy likes animating stuff. Johnny could use this to exploit somehow the animation effect. Maybe a Timmy/Johnny hybrid could use this in a typal Zombie deck to have more Zombie for typal synergies, like he would do with Mutavault. Spike likes the effect in a vacuum but she would always play this bargained, it's too costly to her otherwise, and anyway she would like this card to create at least one Food token before the animation effect, so that this card has always at least some use on an empty board.
Elegance 2/3 - I find it a little counterintuitive that this doesn't technically work with all Food but only with Food tokens. There are cards that are Food but also actual cards and not tokens, for example Gingerbrute from the original Throne of Eldraine and that was just reprinted in WOE. At this moment, there are other eight such cards, five more of which are in WOE: Candy Trail, Eriette's Tempting Apple, Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender, Three Bowls of Porridge, Tough Cookie. The remaining cards are Golden Egg, Lembas, and Vegetation Abomination. None of these would work with this card, as they are indeed Food, but not "tokens".
Development
Viability 0.5/3 - No problems with the color pie, black can turn things into Zombies. Rarity is missing, and this is a big issue that causes a big deduction here and also in Quality (see there). As for the rules, it technically works, but only on actual tokens. There are cards that have the subtype Food but are not tokens (see the list in Elegance), and this card doesn't work with those. While that's fine in a vacuum, I feel like most players would expect this effect to work with all Food permanents, regardless of whether they are tokens or not. The solution? Very easy: just drop the word "tokens". Period. That's all that's needed to make this card meet most players' expectations.
Balance 1.5/3 - One thing I immediately noticed is that this card is essentially a blank if you don't already have at least one Food token on the battlefield. I don't think this card would be designed like this with contemporary design principles in mind. I'm practically certain this card would create at least one Food tokens before the animation effect, to avoid being useless on an empty board. It would also very probably give haste to the animated tokens, and black has haste in its color pie so there would be no problems with that. That's because otherwise, even if you create a Food token right before the animation effect, once animated that token would have summoning sickness. You can look at Raptorchan's card for a better executed version of the same idea. "Better" here means closer to the way Magic is currently designed, and that generates a gameplay pattern that's more intuitive while, again, being based on the same idea. It feels to me like this version could be how the design might have started and that version could be how it goes to print after development by set and play design. I also feel like five mana is a bit too much for the effect, but I can see why you did that: so that you're incentivized to actually use bargain. Ok, that's fine. If you already have enough Food generation, you might consider playing this in limited. Luckily it's already in one of the colors of the Food limited archetype in WOE (black and green, interestingly Raptorchan's card is the other color in the archetype, but both are acceptable). I honestly can't see this card in competitive constructed, regardless of rarity, unless a deck that's very heavy in Food tokens is viable in the environment. I see no problems in casual and multiplayer except the missing rarity.
Creativity
Uniqueness 3/3 - I thought there had to be a lot more existing cards that animate Food tokens, but it turns out there is only one: Tough Cookie. Making a Zombie version of that effect is indeed newer than I thought at first.
Flavor 3/3 - The flavor text is very good, and I really like it. The card name fits well with the cards representing various kinds of animated food (English meaning) in WOE. The mechanics also express that concept very well.
Polish
Quality 0/3 - First, the big one: rarity is missing. Rarity is an integral part of card design, and it's not by chance that in all round threads when I am the host there is a reminder about that at the end. A card is unprintable without rarity. This certainly qualifies as a big mistake in this area as well, and my usual deduction for serious mistakes here is a -1. I've considered deducting even more points for this, as this is a really big one, but in the end I decided to stick to my standards and so this is indeed a -1. Now, the smaller ones. First, there is a missing comma right after "Until end of turn". (-0.5) Then, the word "food" in "food token" should be capitalized as it's a subtype. (-0.5) The same goes for "zombie". (-0.5) A double "if" in the bargain effect: "If this spell cost 2 less if is was bargained." The first "if" should not be there, it's clearly a typo. (-0.5) Also, in that same sentence, the verb "cost" should be conjugated in the third person, so it's missing an "s" at the end, it should be "costs". (-0.5) Once corrected, that sentence should be: "This spell costs 2 less if it was bargained." In the flavor text, the attribution should be in its own line (-0.5) and with no space between the em dash and the name of the character. (-0.5) Also, that attribution should start with a capital letter (-0.5), as it's treated as if it's a new sentence, and starting a new sentence with a capital letter is English orthography, not just Magic templating. The same goes for the two missing periods right after the letter D in "A.D" (the "D" is also an abbreviation in the acronym, -0.5) and at the end of the attribution: "Circa 13 A.D. (After Dough)." (-0.5) There is more than enough material for this to be a full zero. Even if you had included a rarity, which you should have done anyway, it would still be a full zero here. I'm really sorry.
Main Challenge 2/2 - Good.
Subchallenges 2/2 - Both met.
TOTAL 16.5/25

marioguy3

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Revitalizing Lamp
Artifact (Rare)
Bargain
Flash
Tapped creatures you control may block each combat as though they were untapped.
When Revitalizing Lamp enters the battlefield, if it was bargained, scry 2.
Whenever a tapped creature you control dies during combat, return that creature to the battlefield under your control at the beginning of the next end step and you lose 2 life.

Design
Appeal 3/3 - Timmy loves how this card subverts the ordinary rules of the games, that's very exciting! Johnny always likes to play with strange cards, and this one is definitely strange enough for him. Spike likes the ability needed to play correctly both with and against this card.
Elegance 1/3 - This card has a rather low comprehension complexity, as it's easy to understand what it does from its text, but has a very high tracking and board complexity, as now suddenly you have to remember that the defending player(s) can block with tapped creatures, and you're just so used to ignore tapped creature while doing combat math. This card will cause a lot of combat misplays. Easy to understand, but it requires constant concentration and focus in gameplay.
Development
Viability 1.5/3 - It's interesting how this card is formed by two completely separate parts in the color pie: the first three lines are white (white is tertiary in flash, but it does get it when it's needed for the card to work properly, it can scry and it's supposed to be second best at that after blue, and I'm considering the "tapped creatures can block as if untapped" ability as rules setting, which is also white), and the last ability is black (reanimation and life loss). If you unite a white part and a black part, you get an Orzhov-colored card. Obvious, but also correct. I wouldn't want to see this card at any rarity below rare. At the contrary, I feel like this is a very good candidate to be a mythic given how splashy and unusual the effect is, and also to minimize the amount of misplays that letting players block with tapped creatures will inevitably cause. As for the rules, currently that effect wouldn't work. I can see the combat rules being adjusted to make this card work, but it would be a big ask to the rules team and I feel it's like last strike: it could be theoretically made to work, but it isn't worth the amount of work and rules rewriting that it would require.
Balance 1.5/3 - This card completely messes combat and combat math, and flash being there only makes the problem worse as you could do that mid-combat. I don't see that as a positive thing. I also think that bargain is almost irrelevant here, the only thing that you gain by bargaining this is that you get to scry 2 on ETB, and the rest of the card completely overshadows a simple scry 2. If I had designed this card, I would have had it cost a lot more than just three mana, especially because of the first point, the one about combat math, and I would have considered not giving this flash. That said, many players will be taken by surprise by this, in both limited and constructed. The play of letting your opponent believe you've got no blockers because all your creatures are tapped, letting them attack into what they believe is an easy attack, then playing this thanks to flash for just three mana, then blocking all of their creatures with yours in the most profitable way and without worries because your blocking tapped creatures that might die will come back anyway at end of turn seems very strong and potentially very unfun from the other side of the table. The former is relevant in competitive formats and the latter in casual. I see no particular changes between multiplayer and regular duel.
Creativity
Uniqueness 3/3 - Do I really have to explain this? I'll just quote the relevant rules text: "Tapped creatures you control may block each combat as though they were untapped."
Flavor 2/3 - Not including flavor text is correct here, as it would cause this card to go into microtext territory. (See Quality.) The name does fit well with the effects, but I feel like the important word is the first one, while the second one could have been anything that made sense as an artifact, read any tangible object. Nothing mechanically requires this to be a "lamp". I get that you were probably going for the trope of Aladdin's lamp here, but I could see things like "Revitalizing Talisman", "Revitalizing Rock", "Revitalizing Fountain", etc... all working here.
Polish
Quality 2.5/3 - We're playing with fire here with microtext, but this is barely acceptable, right at the upper limit but without going over it (10 lines and 4 breaks in MSE's M15 frame). Given this, it's not only acceptable but actually the correct choice to leave out the reminder text for a set keyword, bargain in this case, on a rare card. As for the rest, I can only see one thing to mention: I believe that flash would go over bargain, not below it. (-0.5) It's true that both are information that you need to know as you cast the spell, before it enters the battlefield, but you need to know that you can cast it at "instant speed" before knowing that you can pay an additional cost. In the process of casting a spell, the first check for legality, where the casting would fail if this card didn't have flash and was cast at a time a sorcery couldn't have been cast, comes before the part where you first determine and then pay the costs. I could also see the counterargument working though, as you choose whether to use bargain or not before that legality check, actually even before you choose targets, it's the first thing you do right after you've put the spell on the stack. Here is the part where we would probably need to ask an actual judge about it, not just a very passionate rules fan that could very probably be one if only his real life allowed for it...
Main Challenge 2/2 - Good.
Subchallenges 1/2 - It's a permanent with flash but I see no mention of Food tokens.
TOTAL 17.5/25

Raptorchan

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Bakehouse Riot 2g
Instant (U)
Bargain (You may sacrifice an artifact, enchantment, or token as you cast this spell.)
Create three Food tokens. If this spell was bargained, each Food you control becomes a 1/1 Golem artifact creature token with haste until end of turn.
Wounds of Syr Ginger's loss will never glaze.

Design
Appeal 3/3 - Timmy likes both Food tokens and animating his stuff in a vacuum, so he will certainly like the union of those two things. He doesn't like to sacrifice his own things though, and bargain requires him to do exactly that. Johnny can certainly exploit the tokens in unintended ways, both by using the animation effect or by other more unusual means. Spike likes the good rate here, certainly for limited at least. And everybody loves Syr Ginger. Really. I mean, who doesn't?
Elegance 3/3 - Hard to do better than this.
Development
Viability 2/3 - No problems with the color pie or rarity. As for the rules, there is an interesting detail here: the word "token" in the bargain effect: "each Food you control becomes a 1/1 Golem artifact creature token..." As there are cards that are Food but aren't tokens (see list in Komandon's judgment, Elegance section), this would cause those non-token cards, and in general objects that are not tokens, to become tokens. How would turning a non-token card into a token work in the rules? I don't think it currently would. I believe there might be cards that play in this area in Un-sets, but those are not covered by the CR except the Eternal part of Unfinity.
Balance 2.5/3 - I think this is how Komandon's card should be. To me, this feels like a much better execution on the idea of animating Food. This has a base effect that gives you the Food token(s) you need for the animation effect and that's reasonably priced so that you're not actually forced to bargain this card, but if you do you get the full effect. You remembered to give the animated tokens haste so that the three Food tokens you've just created don't have summoning sickness, which would go against many players' expectations. It's a very similar thing to spells that animate lands but also give them haste so that it doesn't matter if it's the land you just played this turn and you had forgotten about it while casting the animation spell. I think this is absolutely playable in limited, and if a Food deck exists in the constructed environment, this card could also be considered there thanks to the relatively low mana cost and the good rate. I see no problems in casual or multiplayer. Beware of the implication of turning non-tokens into tokens though.
Creativity
Uniqueness 2.5/3 - I've already explained (see Komandon's judgment) that there actually only one existing card that animates Food tokens: Tough Cookie, so the effect still feels new and original. You didn't create it out of nowhere though, you just expanded it from the single card that exists as of right now.
Flavor 3/3 - The card name and concept are very good and we all love Syr Ginger, we've been loving her since the original Throne of Eldraine trailer, which is where she got her "loss" that you talk about here. For those who might not know, maybe because they started playing after the original Throne of Eldraine, I'll explain it here in spoilers. It's been somewhat like 4 years since then, so I don't know if the spoiler tags are still necessary, but I'll use them just to be safe.

SPOILER

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The one that we know now as Syr Ginger was the protagonist of that trailer. She had a boyfriend, also made of gingerbread, and the baker who made them actually made them with their hands physically attached. They had to stay hand in hand with each other forever, whatever they were doing, because their hands were physically tied, actually one common hand that they shared, and they couldn't leave the other's one even if they wanted. They lived on a kitchen table in a room within a castle belonging to one of the courts (I don't know if it was ever stated or implied which one). At a certain point, a fight between knights starts in the castle, with fighting knights entering that room and the gingerbread couple having to avoid various unintentional hits by the knights. The gingerbread man ended up falling out of the window, but the woman didn't fall down that window, and their hands being tied turned out to be their salvation in that moment, as it's only thanks to them that she was able to take him back up on the kitchen table. Then Garruk arrived in the room, still under the curse of the Chain Veil. He was probably chasing the knights, but if I remember correctly they were already gone. Instead, Garruk found the gingerbread couple on the table. He cut their tied hands with a blow of his axe and then ate the gingerbread man, essentially turning the woman into a widow. Then Garruk walked away and she was left desperate and crying all alone on the kitchen table, and at that point the trailer ends. EDIT: I had forgotten that after the credits there is a brief scene where the now gingerbread widow attacks Garruk, that somehow is back in the room again, with her fork in revenge. We don't see whether she managed to hit the blow though. I will also add a link to that trailer in case you want to see it again. It was a very emotional trailer, one that many, including myself, still remember up to this day. Gingerbrute in Throne of Eldraine was probably meant to be the gingerbread man from the trailer in the set, but many complained that there was no card for the gingerbread woman in that set. Here in WOE we were coming back to Eldraine, so they had a chance to make a card for her as people asked them to do since the original Throne of Eldraine. And not only did they do that, but they made her a knight and a legendary creature, the one that we know now as Syr Ginger. We all love her, and we all still mourn her loss.

Polish
Quality 2.5/3 - I guess the Golem token is colorless. It's an easy guess, but it should have been stated in the rules text anyway: "...a 1/1 colorless Golem artifact creature..." (-0.5)
Main Challenge 2/2 - Good.
Subchallenges 2/2 - Both met.
TOTAL 22.5/25

slimytrout

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Going to enter due to low participation so far, but happy to drop and judge if needed.

Hunger of the Hunt G
Enchantment — Aura (U)
Flash
Bargain (You may sacrifice an artifact, enchantment, or token as you cast this spell.)
When Hunger of the Hunt enters the battlefield, if it was bargained, whenever enchanted creature deals combat damage to a player this turn, create that many Food tokens.
Enchanted creature has trample and "1, Sacrifice a Food: This creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn."

Design
Appeal 2.5/3 - Timmy likes everything here: a positive Aura that can pump his enchanted creature, Food tokens in a vacuum, and also creating Food tokens in addition to combat damage. The only thing he doesn't like is sacrificing his own stuff, but that's built-in in the bargain keyword and that's the whole point of it. This gives Johnny a means to both create Food tokens and a use for them. Spike might consider this due to the very low mana cost, but there is always the problem of Auras being inherently card disadvantage.
Elegance 2.5/3 - The text is very easy to understand, just a little bit on the long side.
Development
Viability 3/3 - No problems with the color pie, rarity, or the rules.
Balance 2.5/3 - We all know about the problem of the inherent card disadvantage of Auras. Here, I feel like the mana cost being a single mana helps a lot with that. At least, if you actually get 2-for-1'ed, you only lose one mana worth of a card. Flash also helps, and actually you could even think of this as a one-mana combat trick thanks to that. Yet, this feels right at one mana, at least to me. You're giving enchanted creature a temporary effect for just one turn, and anyway you need to use bargain to even get that in the first place, then an activated ability that has its own separate cost to activate, and finally trample. Without paying additional costs, you're essentially paying one mana to give enchanted creature trample, that's all. Playable in limited, and it's in the right color to be played in the WOE Food archetype (black and green). I'm not sure about constructed though. It does give you a better use for Food rather than life gain, but I'm not sure this is enough. I see no problems in casual and multiplayer.
Creativity
Uniqueness 2.5/3 - The usual "curiosity" effect draws you cards, having it create Food tokens equal to the damage dealt instead is new, as is making it a temporary effect on ETB. Bargain on an Aura is also technically new, but it fits very well given the enchantment subtheme in WOE. As I often say, this is a card that combines old and known elements in a technically new way.
Flavor 3/3 - Using the word "hunger" in the name of a card that makes and sacrifices Food is a flavor slam dunk. MSE shows me that not including flavor text here was the correct choice, the text box is already full.
Polish
Quality 3/3 - The only time I can say it in this bracket: all good here. At least I got to say it once.
Main Challenge 2/2 - Good. As I said, given the context in which it was written, I'm not going to treat the first line of the post as extra content, I'm just pretending it's not there for the sake of this judgment.
Subchallenges 2/2 - Both met.
TOTAL 23/25

Results (bold advance)

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slimytrout: 23
Raptorchan: 22.5
haywire: 19.5
marioguy3: 17.5
Freyleyes: 16.5
Komandon: 16.5

[void_nothing]

AnotherAlias

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Design
(2/3) Appeal - Txmmy and Jxnny can get behind killing opponents directly with Food, but Spike sees this as all but unplayable outside of Limited without being bargained and still overly niche even when you do use the bargain ability.
(2/3) Elegance - Not too much inelegant here, but this card still grants your Foods an activated ability in perpetuity with a one-shot triggered ability and also doesn't count nontoken ones for some reason.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Black and rare both look right.
(3/3) Balance - No issues here - requires a lot of Foods and a lot of mana in order to cause very much life loss.

Creativity
(1/3) Uniqueness - Heavily reminiscent of Tempting Witch and its update Sweettooth Witch. Mirroring Food's ability by having it cause a loss of 3 life is a pretty intuitive design idea. Obviously this adds differentiation by moving the ability onto the Foods themselves, allowing most notably for multiple uses per turn.
(2.5/3) Flavor - Mostly good except for some creature type and P/T oddness - 4/4 is REALLY big for a single Human Peasant, and while matching power and toughness to flavor is an inexact science to say the least, this is a setting where you could have totally avoided it by using typing like Ogre Peasant. Even making a card that clearly represented multiple human bakers would have gotten full points.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - Fine.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Good.
(1/2) Subchallenges - No flash.

Total: 19.5/25

KB52665

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Design
(1/3) Appeal - Pretty much a pure Jxnny card - while Txmmy would like the transformed side, the front half of the card is too low-impact, and the whole thing is rather fiddly, resource-intensive, and slow for Spike.
(0.5/3) Elegance - Whoa nelly is this card busy, from the not-a-creature condition to the multipart celebration transform trigger. It also appears to have the unintuitive functionality of not creating a Food token when it's put into a graveyard when it's not a creature.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Colors look right, as does rarity based on complexity.
(2/3) Balance - The front side of this card is fairly underpowered for its cost. The back side is an interesting Rain of Gore variant but doesn't seem to justify the work you need to do to get it.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - A mashup card for sure, putting together quite familiar elements in a new way, including a version of the famous Theros God drawback. Oddly the closest that an existing card has come to "creature dies, get a Food" is Old Flitterfang, which was just released.
(3/3) Flavor - Rather evocative, with amusing flavor text.

Polish
(2/3) Quality - Several formatting errors: This should say "fewer than three", "nonland", and the back side should capitalize "Sacrifice" in the activated ability cost.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Done.
(1/2) Subchallenges - No flash.

Total: 16/25

kwanyeegor-ii

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Design
(3/3) Appeal - Txmmy, Jxnny, and Spike all have reasons they might want to flash out small-CMC permanents for sure!
(2/3) Elegance - A bit wordy and has keywords that necessitate a few extra line breaks. Still, easy to understand.

Development
(2.5/3) Viability - I don't see anything wrong with the rarity - colors might be borderline, with the celebration ability probably feeling part green.
(3/3) Balance - Sure - celebration ability is strong but not broken, and it's obviously conditional. I like that the first activate ability can automatically turn on celebration for your other cards, which I suppose is part of the point.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness - A number of unique thought and elements here, but nothing truly groundbreaking.
(3/3) Flavor - Black Carriage gives a bit of obscure precedent for typing a horse-drawn vehicle as, well, a Horse creature. Name is appropriate!

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

Total: 22,5/25

netn10

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Design
(2.5/3) Appeal - Txmmy would very much like to live forever on Food. Jxnny sees plenty of stuff to build around and play with. Spike would have to wait and see if this is jank or incredible.
(1/3) Elegance - A rather wordy and complex design with the additional complication of slightly bending what the celebration ability word normally means - but we have precedent for that kind of thing going back to the Worldwake landfall instant cycle.

Development
(3/3) Viability - White feels okay despite the risky/Lich type aspects - I'm reminded of Transcendence. Mythic is definitely where this should sit.
(2/3) Balance - Taking off one point just because of how hard this is to evaluate. With few Foods to use, this card can be a liability - A Lightning Bolt to the face could cost you at least quite a few cards, if not the game. With lots of Foods, it can make you impervious, keep you drawing cards and making more Foods, and generally take over the game for one mana.

Creativity
(3/3) Uniqueness - A LOT of new thinking and a very original use for Food.
(3/3) Flavor - I see a reference to Enchanting Tales Forced Fruition!

Polish
(2/3) Quality - That last ability, being a replacement effect, should start "If you would", and could probably be worded better to communicate that you can discard cards and sacrifice Foods in any combination.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Good.
(2/2) Subchallenges - And done.

Total: 20.5/25

Rithaniel

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Design
(2.5/3) Appeal - Txmmy and Jxnny are the people who would be into many token copies of tokens. If Spike were to like this card, they'd have to be a Spike of a Jxnny bent in the first place because it's fairly narrow.
(2/3) Elegance - The extra bargain condition for sacrificing a Food adds complexity, and this requires you to have lots of tokens on hand - and can add tracking complexity if you copy a token that is itself a copy of something...

Development
(2.5/3) Viability - This probably COULD be uncommon, but anything with the potential to create five token copies definitely has the whiff of rare about it. Blue is of course appropriate.
(2.5/3) Balance - Could this do dumb things? Of course, it's a one-mana instant that can copy something several times. However, the things it can copy are relatively few, and generally speaking you have to have a lot of setup for this to actually take over or end a game. Offhand, I think the best easily-created artifact or enchantment token to make five copies of is the Karnstruct, which six cards can create to date.

Creativity
(2.5/3) Uniqueness - Sort of a Rite of Replication variant? Maybe? That's the only comparison to this very specialized card.
(3/3) Flavor - Nice, evocative name! A satisfying name, even.

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

Total: 22/25

Totals (Bold advance)

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kwanyeegor-ii 22.5
Rithaniel 22
netn10 20.5
AnotherAlias 19.5
KB52665 16

[bravelion83]

And so, we're done here. Round 2 will be up in a few minutes.