June MCC Round 2 — Silver ring

[bravelion83]

June MCC Round 2

Silver ring

4 rounds, 4 rarities. The perfect match!


Main Challenge — Design an uncommon card.

Subchallenge 1 — Your card is an instant or sorcery. (1 point)

Subchallenge 2.1 — Your card does NOT have the word "search" in its rules text. (0.5 points)

Subchallenge 2.2 — Your card does NOT have the words "scry" or "surveil" in its rules text. (0.5 points)

Clarifications

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Your card must actually be designed as an uncommon, you can't just make a rare and label it as uncommon. Rarity is a fundamental part of design: there are effects that aren't done at low rarities, and others that are done only at low/high rarities.


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

You can also check out the MCC Guidelines and FAQ if you have the will and time. You can find it in a low size PDF version attached to this post and you can also find the link to the original higher size PDF in my signature. They are the same document, I just had to compress it more to be able to put it here as an attachment as the original file, the one linked in my signature, is too large to be attached here. 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 if you don't follow that recommended formatting from section 4 in any way.


DEADLINES

Design deadline: Saturday, July 11th 2026 at 23:59 Eastern Time

Judging deadline: TBD


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


PLAYERS

@barbecube
@haywire
@marioguy3
@netn10
@slimytrout
@Subject16


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.

[netn10]

Gnawing in the Deep B
Sorcery — Lesson (Uncommon)
Exile target card from a graveyard. If a creature card was exiled this way, create a 1/1 black and green Pest creature token with "Whenever this token attacks, you gain 1 life."
At the beginning of your end step, if this card is in your graveyard, you may pay 2. If you do, cast it without paying its mana cost.

[marioguy3]

Cranial Brain Ring
Artifact — Equipment (Uncommon)
Equipped creature has haste and vigilance.
Whenever you cast a spell that targets equipped creature, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card or sacrifice another nonland permanent.
Equip

[Subject16]

Mastermind's Meeting 1UB
Instant (U)
Each creature you control connives. (To have a creature connive, draw a card, then discard a card. If you discarded a nonland card, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.)
UB, Exile this card from your graveyard: Create a 2/2 black Rogue creature token.

[bravelion83]

Reminder for @barbecube, @haywire and @slimytrout.

[slimytrout]

Safe 1W
Instant (U)
Target creature you control gains protection from the color of your choice until end of turn.
Fuse (You may cast one or both halves of this card from your hand.)
///
Sound 1U
Instant (U)
Tap or untap target creature. Draw a card.
Fuse (You may cast one or both halves of this card from your hand.)

[haywire]

Hone Through Death
Sorcery {U}
Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control. When you do, put an additional two +1/+1 counters on that creature and draw a card if there are no other creatures on the battlefield. Otherwise, it fights up to one other target creature.
You may cast this card from your graveyard by sacrificing a nontoken creature in addition to paying its other costs.
Do not mourn the allies lost along the path. Revel in the corpses of enemies piled at your feet.

[bravelion83]

Still waiting for @barbecube.

[barbecube]

Flickering Insight
Sorcery (U)
Until end of turn, whenever you draw a card, the next instant or sorcery spell you cast costs less to cast.
Draw a card.

[bravelion83]

Ok, the round is closed. I will judge and the top 4 will advance to the versus round.

[bravelion83]

barbecube

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Design
(2.5/3) Appeal - This is a pure Johnny card, and he loves it. Spike too likes the cost reduction.Timmy just doesn't care.
(3/3) Elegance - Very good.

Development
(2.5/3) Viability - Fine in blue, a bit of a stretch in red (it triggering on card draw doesn't feel red to me) but far from a break. No problems with rarity or the rules.
(2.5/3) Balance - I really like how the cantrip triggers the previous ability, though you have to have another spell in hand to cast to use the cost reduction. Not sure how high of a pick it is in limited, but sometimes you will play it there. I expect to see this in constructed combo decks. No problems in casual or multiplayer.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - Nothing new here, default score.
(2/3) Flavor - The name is good, but there is definitely room for flavor text here.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - All good.
(2/2) Main Challenge - Good.
(2/2) Subchallenges - All met.

Total: 21/25

haywire

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Design
(3/3) Appeal - Timmy likes pumping his creature and making them fight. Johnny can exploit the last ability. Spike likes a card that can draw her a card while also acting as removal.
(1.5/3) Elegance - The text is understandable but very long.

Development
(2/3) Viability - This looks more like a rare to me, but I will accept it as a complicated uncommon. No problems with the color pie or the rules.
(2.5/3) Balance - Playable in limited. Being able to recast it from the graveyard is nice in constructed, especially on a card that does things you'd want it to do anyway: card drawing and removal. One problem in casual might be some players giving up before they finish reading, or they see a wall of text and say to their opponent "I'm not reading, you just explain to me what is does." No problems in multiplayer, on the contrary, you will have more options of opposing creatures to fight.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - Interesting how this behaves differently depending on whether you have no creatures. The last ability just reads to me like the next keyword in line after flashback, escape, retrace, jump-start, and maybe more I'm not thinking about right now. Those two aspects cancel each other, so default score.
(3/3) Flavor - I like it a lot. No problems here.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - All good.
(2/2) Main Challenge - See Viability.
(2/2) Subchallenges - All met.

Total: 20.5/25

marioguy3

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Design
(2/3) Appeal - I don't think Timmy cares too much. Johnny loves this card, there is so much he can do with the triggered ability. Spike canuse some looting.
(3/3) Elegance - Maybe a couple minor things, but no real big problems here.

Development
(2/3) Viability - Reading vigilance in red immediately caught my attention and not in a good way. Ok, if you actually pay the equip cost, no problems, blue now has vigilance. But what if you're attaching this without paying the equip cost, and there are ways to do that? In that case you get vigilance for only red mana, which is clearly not in pie. The same logic applies to looting (not red, they recognize Faithless Looting as a mistake today) that should have probably been rummaging. No problems with rarity or the rules.
(1.5/3) Balance - This card essentially forces you to be in Izzet colors to use it in limited, you'd probably just ignore it if you're in one of the other 9 color pairs or if you don't want to commit to a specific color pair yet in your draft. The last ability might be tempting, but I don't think this is enough for constructed. No problems in casual or multiplayer.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness - I see the triggered ability as a nice twist on heroic.
(2/3) Flavor - The name feels to me there is some reference I'm missing, but it can be acceptable. No flavor text.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - All good.
(2/2) Main Challenge - Good.
(1/2) Subchallenges - Not an instant or sorcery.

Total: 18.5/25

netn10

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Design
(2/3) Appeal - This is not a Timmy card. Johnny and Spike both like it for different reasons (combo protection or exploiting thetoken for Johnny, recurrence for Spike).
(2.5/3) Elegance - Not bad but it would have been even more elegant using flashback.

Development
(2.5/3) Viability - Why isn't the last ability just flashback? I think it would play the same the vast majority of the time. The timing restriction could have been written as "you may cast this card from your graveyard as though it had flashback during your end step." I feel like that would help making this feel uncommon, though this is still acceptable at uncommon. No problems with the color pie or the rules.
(2.5/3) Balance - Not a high pick, but could be tempting in limited. The double casting might be very relevant, in constructed too, though usually this kind of cards end up being sideboard cards. No problems in casual or multiplayer.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness - The last ability is a nice twist on flashback.
(2.5/3) Flavor - Not a big fan of the name, it reminds me too much of the song "Rolling in the deep", though that may have been intentionaland is not a big problem anyway. Maybe one line of flavor text would have fit.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - All good.
(2/2) Main Challenge - Acceptable at uncommon.
(2/2) Subchallenges - All met.

Total: 21/25

slimytrout

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Design
(3/3) Appeal - Timmy likes Safe to protect his creatures from removal. Johnny also likes the protection and Sound can be used in some kind of tap/untap engine. Spike agrees with Timmy and sees Sound as removal, at least in limited.
(3/3) Elegance - Excellent.

Development
(3/3) Viability - No problems with the color pie, rarity, or the rules.
(2/3) Balance - Playable in limited, but I see it as a sideboard card at best in constructed. No problems in casual or multiplayer.

Creativity
(1.5/3) Uniqueness - Nothing really new here, default score.
(3/3) Flavor - I had to check that the name wasn't already in use, which is a very good sign. No room for flavor text on split cards.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - All good.
(2/2) Main Challenge - Good.
(2/2) Subchallenges - All met.

Total: 22.5/25

Subject16

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Design
(3/3) Appeal - Everybody likes this, Timmy to get +1/+1 counters and tokens, Johnny and Spike to dig into their libraries. They also can use the last ability, though probably in different ways.
(3/3) Elegance - Perfect.

Development
(2.5/3) Viability - I feel like this pushes towards rare, but I also like it at uncommon for limited purposes. No problems with the color pie or the rules.
(3/3) Balance - Definitely playable in limited. I wouldn't be surprised to see this in constructed too. No problems in casual or multiplayer.

Creativity
(2/3) Uniqueness - Having all your creatures doing it at once is a nice twist on connive.
(2/3) Flavor - I really like it. I would have liked to see some short flavor text.

Polish
(3/3) Quality - All good.
(2/2) Main Challenge - See Viability.
(2/2) Subchallenges - All met.

Total: 22.5/25

Results (bold advance)

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slimytrout: 22.5
Subject16: 22.5
barbecube: 21
netn10: 21
haywire: 20.5
marioguy3: 18.5