December MCC
A fork in time
As is tradition by now, this month we will celebrate the latest set, in this case The Brothers' War, by exploring its mechanics and themes, as usual in this kind of MCC months.
Sometimes you make life choices you might regret later, and taking a different path in just a single occasion might have lifelong ramifications. Just a thing to remember. No connections to what happened, what's happening, or what's about to happen here...
Main Challenge - Design an artifact creature card that has either prototype or unearth, but not both.
Subchallenge 1 - The card is colorless AND the prototype/unearth cost is multicolored. (Hybrid counts.)
Subchallenge 2 - Your card's mana value is 6 or greater AND the prototype/unearth cost is at least 2 mana fewer than the card's mana value.
• The card has to be both an artifact AND a creature natively, that is the words "Artifact" and "Creature" are both in the printed type line. Gaining or granting one or both of those card types in any way to itself or other objects does NOT count.
• The card can have any additional supertypes, card types, and subtypes. Just make sure that the whole resulting type line fits in the frame.
• The card must have either prototype or unearth. The card also canNOT have those two keywords both printed in its text box at the same time. Again, your chosen keyword must be natively on the card. Gaining or granting one or both of those keywords in any way to itself or other objects does NOT count.
• Unearth is just a regular keyword, so we know how to format it properly, but prototype might raise some doubts. Here, you can format a text card with prototype in any way you see fit.
• NEW: As both prototype and unearth are nonevergreen set keywords, they need reminder text if it fits. So, whatever you do, don't forget the reminder text!. Also, no need to repeat the type line in the prototype ability, prototype doesn't change the type line of the permanent it's on.
• I personally have two suggestions to format prototype text cards. One is what I did yesterday in the DCC, that is just writing out the prototype keyword with the relative mana cost and P/T right next to it. I'll just use my DCC submission as an example:
Or you could do what they did in Gatherer, that is treating it as a split card with the prototype part being its own separate half of the card. For example, consider Blitz Automaton (just the first French vanilla prototype creature I found) and check out its Gatherer entry. You will see it written out as:bravelion83 wrote: ↑1 year agoMechanical Hydra
Artifact Creature — Hydra (R)
Prototype 0/0 (You may cast this spell with different mana cost, color, and size. It keeps its abilities and types.)
Mechanical Hydra enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it.
Trample, haste
0/0
Please don't ask me what that line of text separating the two halves of the card means ("PRT-Prototype_Mech") or why it's there, I don't know. As far as I'm concerned, you could just use a double slash there as you would do with a regular split card and rearrange the regular P/T and the flavor text and write it like this:Blitz Automaton
Artifact Creature — Construct (C)
Haste
//PRT-Prototype_Mech//
Prototype (You may cast this spell with different mana cost, color, and size. It keeps its abilities and types.)
3/2
While Urza's machines favored defense, Mishra built his to end the war quickly.
6/4
Written this way, my DCC submission would look like this:Blitz Automaton
Artifact Creature — Construct (C)
Haste
While Urza's machines favored defense, Mishra built his to end the war quickly.
6/4
//
Prototype (You may cast this spell with different mana cost, color, and size. It keeps its abilities and types.)
3/2
These are the ways I personally suggest, but you can do anything you want as long as it's clear and understandable. Also keep in mind the goal for the text card to resemble as closely as possible a real printed Magic card, at least here in the MCC. I think I also wrote that in the guidelines, which you can always check through the link in my signature.Mechanical Hydra
Artifact Creature — Hydra (R)
Mechanical Hydra enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it.
Trample, haste
0/0
//
Prototype (You may cast this spell with different mana cost, color, and size. It keeps its abilities and types.)
0/0
Subchallenge 1
• The two conditions (the card being colorless and the prototype/unearth cost being multicolored) must be both met at the same time for this Subchallenge to count. If only one is met, this Subchallenge is failed.
• The card being colorless refers only to regular color, not color identity. Also because if it referred to color identity it would be pointless to also require the ability cost to be not only colored but multicolored...
• For the ability cost, any kind of multicolored costs count. Hybrid, traditional gold, twobrid, Phyrexian, you name it. As long as there are at least two colors in the ability cost, you're good to go.
Subchallenge 2
• Again, both condition (mana value 6 or greater and ability cost at least 2 mana fewer than the card's mana value) must be both met at the same time for this Subchallenge to count.
• The ability cost counts exactly like if it were the mana cost and you were to calculate the mana value. If I write "unearth ", that's an unearth cost of 4 mana. The same goes for the prototype cost.
If you have any questions, post them in the MCC discussion thread.
DEADLINES
Design deadline: Friday, December 9th 23:59 EDT
Judging deadline: Monday, December 12th 23:59 EDT
RUBRIC
(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
bravelion83
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.