November MCC Round 4 - Back on the Rocks

[Raptorchan]

Artwork by Vincent Proce

November MCC Round 4

Back on the Rocks

What's a planeswalker without an ability to planeswalk? A simple trickster? A delighted wanderer? Still a threat to the multiverse? Shall planeswalkers give up their role of main driving force of the Multiverse to someone... or something else?

Main Challenge - Design a legendary creature card portraying your planeswalker being desparked.

Subchallenge 1 - Your card has at least one keyword ability.

Subchallenge 2 - Your card has mana value 5 or 6.

Clarifications

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Main Challenge - There are examples of how desparked planeswalkers look like.

Subchallenge 1 - Your card mast HAVE the ability, unconditional (printed Deathtouch is fine, printed "this creature has deathtouch for as long as..." isn't!)

Subchallenge 2 - Mana value is exactly 5 or 6, not anything else.

DEADLINES

Design Deadline: Monday, December 18th 2023 at 23:59 Eastern Time

Judging Deadline: Friday, December 22th 2023 at 23:59 Eastern 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.

Players:

slimytrout
Ryder
netn10

Judges:

Raptorchan
void_nothing

Both judges will judge all cards, and player with the highest combined score wins.

[Ryder]

The Adventurer 2RGW
Legendary Creature — Human (M)
Vigilance, haste, protection from Rogues
Whenever The Adventurer attacks, you may cast an Adventure spell from your hand without paying its mana cost. If you do, that spell can't be countered.
"My plans?" the Emperor smiled. "I've been dreaming about this day my whole life. I've got some ideas..."
4/4

[slimytrout]

Ral, Obsessed 3UR
Legendary Creature — Human Wizard (M)
Hexproof from permanents
Whenever a player casts an instant or sorcery spell, untap Ral, Obsessed.
X, T: Copy target instant or sorcery spell with mana value X or less. You may choose new targets for the copy.
"I can conjure as many sparks as I want, but never the one I need."
4/4

[netn10]

Grist, Unsatisfied Hunger 8BG
Legendary Creature - Insect Horror (Mythic)
Ward - 6, Pay 6 life.
This spell cost 1 less to cast for each Insect you control plus each Insect card in your graveyard.
When Grist enters the battlefield, exile each other creature and exile all creature cards from all graveyards, then put a +1/+1 counter on Grist for each card exiled this way.
2/2

[Raptorchan]

Round is closed. Let's judge.

[Raptorchan]

Ryder

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Design
(2/3) Appeal - Timmy likes it with all his heart, Spike and Johnny are cautiously interested.
(2,5/3) Elegance - Straightforward, but casting specifically Adventure part of cards from your hand is quite specific to understand from the first glance.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Vigilance, haste and protection all go into the color pie. Adventuring part can be present in any colors but flavorfully suits GW the best. Mythic is appropriate,
(2,5/3) Balance - It's a strong Limited beater but I doubt it can affect constructed much, less Eternal formats unless there are really groundbreaking Adventures present.

Creativity
(3/3) Uniqueness - This is very mechanically unique so it deserves high score.
(3/3) Flavor - Very interesting and wholesome turn for a character. Hard to judge does it really fit the Emperor, but I mean - why not? Name is super generic - but so was her first card's name in WAR set! And flavor text is sweet.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - No issues here.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Met.
(2/2) Subchallenges - Both are met.

Total: 23/25
*An entry with 0 points here is subject to disqualification.

slimytrout

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Design
(2,5/3) Appeal - Valuable card that all three types of players would like to play. Spike, however, is less interested than Timmy and Johnny.
(2,5/3) Elegance - Hexproof from permanents is something that makes player to stop for a moment to figure out how it works.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Everything about colors and rarity is fine. Definetely Izzet and mythic.
(2,5/3) Balance - It's a strong card that feels almost pushed to its limits, however, for 5 mana and some protection it doesn't generate value immediately.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness - Triggered and activated abilities are very well known, especially first one, when second one was printed only on Izzet Guildmage as far as I can remember. Protection adds some uniqueness points.
(3/3) Flavor - Flavor, name and the situation he finds himself in - all feels appropriate. Good job.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - No issues.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Yes.
(2/2) Subchallenges - Both are satisfied.

Total: 22,5/25
*An entry with 0 points here is subject to disqualification.

netn10

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Design
(1,5/3) Appeal - Some uber-Johnny can find a use for this card. Timmy is only slightly interested, Spike doesn't care.
(2,5/3) Elegance - Pretty understandable, however, each ability counts the sum of two things, mor math - more complexity.

Development
(3/3) Viability - No problems here, everything is fine and on place - GB and mythic.
(1,5/3) Balance - This card requires heavy deckbuilding and doesn't have much impact on its own. It has monstrous ward, but still... Unplayable in limited, questionable in constructed. Commander? Maybe...

Creativity
(2,5/3) Uniqueness - There are some cards that eat other stuff and grow and multiple cards with cost reduction including graveyard matters, but overall combination is fresh enough.
(3/3) Flavor - No problems here, Grist feels like she c an turn into a real disaster if she once settles somewhere.

Polish
(2/3) Quality - First, the use of "plus" feels incorrect here - it would have been correct for "X, where X is A plus B", but for your case, I believe it must be written as "less to cast for each Insect you control and each Insect card in your graveyard". Second, "this spell costs", not "cost".
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Met.
(1/2) Subchallenges - Only one met.

Total: 19/25
*An entry with 0 points here is subject to disqualification.

[void_nothing]

Ryder

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Design
(3/3) Appeal - Txmmy likes free stuff, Jxnny wants to pair this with Lucky Clover, Spike REALLY wants to pair this with Lucky Clover.
(3/3) Elegance - Pretty much does exactly what it says it does.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Colors and rarity look correct to me.
(2.5/3) Balance - So there aren't that many Adventures with high mana value, and Fetch Quest is probably the strongest individual thing you can free-cast with this card. Ultimately it seems reasonable. Removing half a point because it'd require taking care with future Adventure designs.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness - Interacting with Adventures has been done before, but never quite like this.
(2.5/3) Flavor - The Wanderer is a fave of mine even if I wish she had turned out to be Emrakul. Some very minor flavor dings in an overall package that is otherwise extremely good. First, as a real card I don't think her name would just be "The Adventurer" - even without her forced planeswalking I imagine she'd still somehow be identified as she currently is, like "The Adventurous Wanderer" or something (even though that name is really long). Second, being a Kamigawan who is RGW, I feel like she should have protection from Ninjas and Rogues, not just Rogues.

Polish
(2.5/3) Quality - That "the" at the beginning of the second flavor text sentence should be capitalized.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Done.
(2/2) Subchallenges - And done.

Total: 22.5/25

slimytrout

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Design
(3/3) Appeal - Txmmy wants double their spells, Jxnny has TONS to interact with, Spike especially likes this for counter wars.
(2/3) Elegance - Triggering on any player casting an instorcery is in line with Niv-Mizzet, Parun and also works well with the activated ability, but also might lead to a few missed triggers. Copying spells is also inherently somewhat complex.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Definitely UR,
(2.5/3) Balance - This is one of those things I'd playtest a lot - nothing inherently broken here of course but obviously a lot of combo potential.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - Hexproof from permanents is a novel variant, but this card is very much composed of very old ideas, and I think you might have meant it simply to be the "ultimate" Fork creature.
(3/3) Flavor - This makes a lot of sense and it's clever that the flavor text plays on the double meaning of "spark" in Magic flavor in terms of both mundane red offensive magic and the planeswalker's spark.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - No issues.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Done.
(2/2) Subchallenges - And done.

Total: 22/25

netn10

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Design
(2/3) Appeal - Big effect, expensive, requires a strange deck to be built? That's a Txmmy/Jxnny card. Spike is not holding their breath for Insect tribal to be viable.
(2/3) Elegance - Overall this card is simple - a huge beater with an expensive ward cost that removes everything. However, in execution, it requires a fair bit of mathematical complexity.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Colors and rarity look right.
(3/3) Balance - Huge and impractical except maybe in a dedicated Commander deck - while viable cards can have more involved mana costs these days than they once did, ten mana is still enormous.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness - A couple of unique features here, but basically a virtual French vanilla when on the battlefield.
(3/3) Flavor - Sure, I buy this as Grist at their highest power level.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - Seems fine.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) - Looks good.
(1/2) Subchallenges - CMC is not 5 or 6.

Total: 21/25

[Raptorchan]

Ryder 45,5
slimytrout 44,5
netn10 40

Congratulations @Ryder!