March MCC, Round 3 - Safekeeping

[void_nothing]

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March MCC, Round 3 - Safekeeping

Welcome to the March MCC! It's Renewal Month here at the MCC.

Main Challenge: Design a card with an effect that can exile one or more cards and return them to the same zone.
Subchallenge 1: Your card is not white
Subchallenge 2: Your card is common or uncommon

DEADLINES

Design deadline: Saturday, April 9th 23:59 EDT

Judging deadline: Tuesday, April 12th 23:59 EDT

Clarifications

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Main Challenge: Banisher Priest is as valid as Flicker for this challenge - the card's effect must just allow the exiled cards to go back to the zone they came from. It doesn't matter when this happens.

MCC Rubric

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Design
(X/3) Appeal - Do the different player psychographics (Timmy/Johhny/Spike) have a use for the card?
(X/3) Elegance - Is the card easily understandable at a glance? Do all the flavor and mechanics combined as a whole make sense?

Development
(X/3) Viability - 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?
(X/3) Balance - 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?

Creativity
(X/3) Uniqueness - 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"?
(X/3) Flavor - 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
(X/3) Quality - Points deducted for incorrect spelling, grammar, and templating.
(X/2) Main Challenge (*) - Was the main challenge satisfied? Was it approached in a unique or interesting way? Does the card fit the intent of the challenge?
(X/2) Subchallenges - One point awarded per satisfied subchallenge condition.

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

Judges:
void_nothing
slimytrout

Players:
@bravelion83
@Venedrex
@RaikouRider
@netn10

[netn10]

Purifying Fire R
Instant (Common)
Exile target creature you control and the top card of your library. Until the end of your next turn, you may play those cards.
The shinobi walked from the magma unscarred, grinning with madness. "I've learned this: the fire cannot be tainted, and for the world to be pure, one must spread the gift of flames."

[bravelion83]

Whirling Strike 1UR
Instant (U)
Exile target creature. Return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step. Another target creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the exiled creature's power.
Jeskai techniques are not always subtle. Sometimes all you need to do is to break your enemy's guard with one fist and then hit them hard with your other one.

[Venedrex]

Titania's Sentinel
Creature — Elemental (R)
Vigilance
Champion a creature or land (When this enters the battlefield, sacrifice it unless you exile another creature or land you control. When this leaves the battlefield, that card returns to the battlefield.)
Whenever a land you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, Titania's Sentinel fights up to one target creature you don't control.
5/5

[RaikouRider]

Niblis of the Gravestone 1W
Creature - Spirit {U}
Flying
When Niblis of the Gravestone enters the battlefield, exile all cards from each opponent's graveyard until Niblis of the Gravestone leaves the battlefield.
Rest in peace.
2/1

[void_nothing]

And the round is closed - this is the versus round. The following are the brackets, and the top scorer for each one will move on to the finals.

netn10 vs. Venedrex
bravelion83 vs. RaikouRider

@slimytrout - Let us judge.

[void_nothing]

Bump for judging

[slimytrout]

netn10

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Purifying Fire R
Instant (Common)
Exile target creature you control and the top card of your library. Until the end of your next turn, you may play those cards.
The shinobi walked from the magma unscarred, grinning with madness. "I've learned this: the fire cannot be tainted, and for the world to be pure, one must spread the gift of flames."

Design
(1.5/3) Appeal – Johnny is absolutely into this, since it's pretty unusual for allowing you to cast your own creature again in red. Timmy is potentially interested, if they can reuse a powerful ETB ability. Spike is probably the least interested, since it has such a high setup cost, and the potential for disaster if your opponent has a removal spell.
(3/3) Elegance – Pretty simple, no real comprehension issues.

Development
(2.5/3) Viability – I can see how you get to this in red, but it still doesn't quite feel right – this is basically a sort of self-bounce spell, which is pretty squarely in white and blue and doesn't really need to go in a third color. Common seems fine.
(2/3) Balance – Typically self-bounce spells are pretty weak in limited, and I think this would likely follow that trend. It does have the advantage of potential card advantage – you exile a creature that's under a negative aura or that's the target of a removal spell, and then also get to play the top card of your library – but it's very conditional, since you not only need your opponent to cast a removal spell, but you also need to not exile something that's too expensive for you to cast with your creature. Probably not good enough to make a splash in constructed either, unless you're abusing it with some very powerful ETB effects.

Creativity
(2.5/3) Uniqueness – The fact that this exiles your own creature in red is quite new, even if the overall feel of it as a self-bounce spell isn't.
(2.5/3) Flavor – A bit unusual to have flavor text that's both description and quote, and this one is a bit over the top, but mostly seems okay.

Polish
(3/3) Quality – Looks good.
(0.5/2) Main Challenge (*) – I'm not going to DQ you, but I honestly considered it and I certainly wouldn't object if void_nothing did. This doesn't return a creature to the battlefield, it returns it to the stack, which is a completely different zone. Obviously it would likely then go to the battlefield if it's not countered, but it still doesn't satisfy the letter of the challenge and (in my opinion) plays fast and loose with the spirit as well.
(2/2) Subchallenges – Yep yep.

Total: 19.5/25

Venedrex

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Titania's Sentinel
Creature — Elemental (R)
Vigilance
Champion a creature or land (When this enters the battlefield, sacrifice it unless you exile another creature or land you control. When this leaves the battlefield, that card returns to the battlefield.)
Whenever a land you control is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, Titania's Sentinel fights up to one target creature you don't control.
5/5

Design
(2.5/3) Appeal – Johnny loves a weird trigger and can absolutely envision some sort of crazy loop that this will enable with a reanimator creature and land sacrifice. Timmy just likes a cheap beater that does a ton of fighting. Spike is a little worried about the tempo cost, but ultimately they're getting enough to make it worth it.
(3/3) Elegance – Very clean.

Development
(3/3) Viability – Sure, definitely green and rare.
(2.5/3) Balance – A 4-mana 5/5 vigilance is pretty strong to begin with, and champion a creature or land is probably going to be a bonus on average (the creature option protects against sweepers, the land option is not too big a cost plus works great with MDFC's), plus the fight ability is strong with fetches, so overall it's a bit above rate but hardly busted.

Creativity
(2.5/3) Uniqueness – Champion a land is new, and the specific fight ability is also new, although the trigger itself is straight from Titania, Protector of Argoth. Overall, quite novel.
(2.5/3) Flavor – Champion a land feels a little weird, but this is certainly a reasonable way to skin it so not a big problem.

Polish
(3/3) Quality – Looks good.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) – Yep.
(1/2) Subchallenges – Rare.

Total: 22/25

bravelion83

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Whirling Strike 1UR
Instant (U)
Exile target creature. Return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step. Another target creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the exiled creature's power.
Jeskai techniques are not always subtle. Sometimes all you need to do is to break your enemy's guard with one fist and then hit them hard with your other one.

Design
(2/3) Appeal – Timmy is the most interested, since it lets them get a blocker out of the way and attack for a lot. Spike sees a strong tempo play, and likes that it's an instant, but worries about a high mana and setup cost for a combat trick that doesn't have any inherent value. Johnny can maybe do something with the blink, but there's a lot on here that doesn't appeal to them.
(2/3) Elegance – A difficult-to-intuit question arises when the printed power on the card doesn't match its power on the battlefield – what's the value of X? (The answer, per the rulings for Yannik, Scavenging Sentinel, is "Use the power of the creature as it last existed on the battlefield.") But otherwise it makes sense.
Development
(3/3) Viability – Delayed blink is a little unusual in blue, but not unprecedented (see Voidwalk, e.g.). Red part is obvious, and rarity is definitely right.
(2.5/3) Balance – Almost certainly not playable in constructed, and probably fine but not great in limited, with a lot depending on how aggressive the U/R decks in the format are trying to be.

Creativity
(2.5/3) Uniqueness – As mentioned earlier, there are vague precedents in Voidwalk and Yannik, but neither of those are terribly close to this.
(2/3) Flavor – It kind of makes sense, but the flavor text goes for explanation over brevity, and the result is not very elegant.

Polish
(3/3) Quality – All good.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) – Yep.
(2/2) Subchallenges – Yep yep.

Total: 21/25

RaikouRider

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Niblis of the Gravestone 1W
Creature - Spirit {U}
Flying
When Niblis of the Gravestone enters the battlefield, exile all cards from each opponent's graveyard until Niblis of the Gravestone leaves the battlefield.
Rest in peace.
2/1

Design
(2/3) Appeal – Timmy and Spike both see an efficient flyer that will sometimes prevent opposing graveyard shenanigans. Johnny has no interest.
(3/3) Elegance – It doesn't explicitly say the cards go back to the graveyard, but that is the only plausible place so I think it's fine.
Development
(3/3) Viability – Sure, definitely white and uncommon.
(3/3) Balance – We've seen a 2-mana 2/1 flyer with upside before (Stormchaser Drake), which was quite strong in limited and saw occasional standard play. This ability is definitely weaker maindeck but probably stronger in the right matchup, so I imagine would see sideboard play in white weenie decks.

Creativity
(2.5/3) Uniqueness – Not a lot of precedents here – vague elements of Apostle of Purifying Light, Angel of Serenity, and Idol of Endurance, but definitely substantially different from each of those.
(1.5/3) Flavor – There are some pretty strange elements here – all the previous Niblises have been either named for weather/air phenomena or, in one case, for a container. But is the idea here that the niblis lives in the gravestone? And the flavor text is odd because it is itself a spirit, and the previous niblises have all been portrayed as dangerous (or at least unpleasant) to the living, whereas this one seems to be more of a positive presence.

Polish
(3/3) Quality – Looks good.
(2/2) Main Challenge (*) – Yep.
(1/2) Subchallenges – White.

Total: 21/25

Results

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netn10: 19.5
Venedrex: 22

bravelion83: 21
RaikouRider: 21

[void_nothing]

netn10

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Design
(1/3) Appeal - Very much a Jxnny card. Not much for Txmmy here, and unless Spike is using this in a highly specific combo, the level of risk involved is too much for them.
(3/3) Elegance - Nicely elegant.

Development
(2.5/3) Viability - The blink part is definitely a clever red take on blink, but it's also a bend.
(2.5/3) Balance - A fairly swingy card. Most of the time it's going to play like Rescue + draw, and that's the best case scenario (it's easy to whiff on the impulse draw, for example), which is not overpowered for one mana. However, there are plenty of abuse cases for effects like this.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - A quite new execution of some very old effects.
(3/3) Flavor - Unimpeachable. I really like this.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - Looks okay.
(1/2) Main Challenge (*) - This more or less fits the spirit of the main challenge, but it doesn't really fulfill the letter. I didn't issue any kind of clarifications, so no DQ.
(2/2) Subchallenges - Done.

Total: 19.5/25

bravelion83

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Design
(3/3) Appeal - Txmmy likes the possible gigantic power boost. Jxnny has many different use cases for this. Spike appreciates a combat trick in this vein.
(2.5/3) Elegance - The effect is a bit involved, but it's also easy to understand.

Development
(2.5/3) Viability - Blue blink has always felt off to me since that color also gets bounce. Rarity is correct.
(3/3) Balance - Nothing to worry about here - could be a blowout, but that needs setup.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness - While this is a combination-platter multicolor card I've never seen anything quite like this pairing of effects before. +X/+0 keying to the blinked creature's power is rather new.
(3/3) Flavor - Floored by how perfectly everything syncs up. Great job on this aspect.

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

Total: 23/25

Venedrex

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Design
(2.5/3) Appeal - Txmmy is never going to pass up a beater that has an auto-fight ability. A bit unsubtle for Jxnny but they have things they can do with it. Spike has multiple reasons to use this as well.
(3/3) Elegance - Pretty easy to understand.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Colors and rarity are what they need to be.
(2/3) Balance - I'm concerned that the main way to use this is to use fetchlands as a board sweeper.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - Championing a land is new, but not that much else is unique.
(2/3) Flavor - Serviceable, just a bit generic.

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

Total: 21/25

RaikouRider

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Design
(1.5/3) Appeal - Not much here for Txmmy, but it's small/effective/hosery enough for Spike and unusual enough in its effect's execution for some Jxnnys.
(3/3) Elegance - Very solidly elegant.

Development
(3/3) Viability - Color and rarity look good. You could argue for this at rare, but that's not necessary.
(3/3) Balance - Good enough at doing what it does. Quite fragile.

Creativity
(1/3) Uniqueness - The reference is pretty obvious, and this type of graveyard hosing is well-worn.
(3/3) Flavor - Neat, clean, works well.

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

Total: 21.5/25

[void_nothing]

And with that, the finalists are Venedrex and bravelion83 - congratulations!