[RESULTS] The HALF-Great Designer Search 3 — Challenge 3: A Circus Act

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Comments

  • REMINDER: DEADLINE IS TODAY


    @Revan
    You entered three cards so far, you still have time to enter your last card if you want ^^ (Remember it needs some blue.)
  • It is now Sunday everywhere in the world, which means...

    THE CONTEST IF NOW CLOSED FOR JUDGING.

    Thanks everyone who entered! =D The results should be up within a couple days ^^
  • It's finally time for the results! I was longer than usual because I had a hard time deciding on the winners x) But before we get there, let's first look at individual reviews of each entry ^^ As usual, here's a link to the full card-by-card review: LINK. Following the traditions of the Half-GDS challenges, you can find your overall review below with sometimes those little icons associated:

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    ORIGINALITY MEDAL — Your cards did something mechanically novel.
    FLAVOUR MEDAL — Your cards captured the flavour essence of the name you chose.
    REALISM MEDAL — Your cards looked like they could be printed without change.
    ELEGANCE MEDAL — Your cards had clever details about them.
    *DING* — You get a *DING* whenever you break one of the contest rules.

    @KorandAngels
    I think your cards had some good flavour, which was the most important part of this challenge. I especially liked Once Upon a Time which was an intuitive and very fitting concept for that name. The execution of your cards was a little uneven though, with some cards being more realistic than others. It can really make a difference to check existing cards with the same kind of effects before deciding colours, rarity and cost.
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    @Nicholas_Bolas
    I found your cards to be realistic and well-balanced for the most part. If we except Hundred-Year Curse which was really weird on many levels, they seemed to push towards interesting and deep gameplay. Your concepts were simple, clear and I think they were very enjoyable ^^ Your overall entry might lack a bit in “wow factor” though, but it’s somehow compensated by the high level of elegance in your design.
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    @Derfaulehelmut
    First, you get a *DING* as your entry is missing green. That being said, I think this was a quite good entry overall. Each card can have small issues, sometimes it’s balance, sometimes it’s gameplay, but taken together you had original concepts, flavourful details, and fun gameplay idea all around. I especially liked your higher rarity cards this round.
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    @SmallJem
    You proposed some original concepts and played with the “all colors must appear” rules in interesting ways as well. The templating of your card was a little all over the place though, you don’t have to perfectly template all new abilities you design but it reaches a level where the mistakes diminish the realism of your cards. I think you also latch onto some flavourful concept sometimes and lose sight of the purpose of the card mechanically. Taking a step back after finishing your cards and asking yourself “For what deck is that card?” could help here.
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    @bnew07
    The flavour was absolutely off the roof, each and every one of your four cards was oozing with fairy tale ambience! They each brought a unique concept to the game that perfectly fits the theme, I think you had the most original entry of this round. Finally, there was a lot of very elegant details everywhere, it felt very clever and was very enjoyable to read. It really made me want to see a Fairy Tale world happening ^^
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    @Undead
    You had a lot of unique and interesting concepts. You managed to capture the flavourful essence of each name you chose, which was the most important part of this challenge. I’m especially fond of your higher rarity designs this round. On the other hand, your lower rarity cards felt overly complex. I also think you put a little too many downsides on your cards, which brings a bit too much swinginess, in my opinion. It’s already difficult to play the cards correctly, you don’t need the cards to confuse the players about whether they are worth putting in a deck or not at all ;)
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    @Faiths_Guide
    In my opinion, you had the most elegant entry of this round. You really went in difficult places to design with notably a rare utility land and a 3/3 for 3 with all upsides, and every time you found elegant ways to deal with the potential traps that they set up. On top of that, all your cards were very flavourful, you perfectly captured the essence of the names and did such in ways that felt fresh and intuitive. A really strong entry!
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    @ouser94501
    First, you get a *DING* as you forgot to create a legendary card as was asked by the original rules of the challenge. Otherwise, you had some interesting concepts and I especially like your Mythic rare, but your overall entry felt a bit simplistic for a design contest. You also showed a general tendency to play with the red line that separate fun from broken, with 0-mana tutoring, double-mana lands and free spells altogether.
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    @Revan
    You did follow the rules of the challenge pretty well if we except the non-evergreen mechanics rule. This means you did a pretty good job at making flavourful cards that captured what their name was about. You also had some interesting concepts here and there, I saw some good potential but the execution really gets in the way. You’re missing some of the basics, namely respecting the colour pie, rarity, templating, balancing and such. If you check existing cards with similar effects before posting your custom cards, I think you can really improve the realism of your cards.
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  • And now for the results! As it's quickly becoming a tradition, I made some unexpected twists in my "Top 3" — which is again not a Top 3 xD

    1) As we get into the harder challenges, we had fewer entries this round so I decided to not do special rarity to avoid putting more than half the participants in the final ranking x)

    2) I had a really hard time choosing the winners as I basically got two ties: one for first place and one for third place. I considered some ex-æquo but decided I'd rather make some hard choices than no choice at all. Still, it felt wrong to not mention the loser of the tie for third place, so I included a fourth place this round.


    — FOURTH PLACE —

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    @Nicholas_Bolas You definitely showed some strong design skills this round and I didn't want to exclude you from the final ranking because I think your entry was quite solid and deserved to be highlighted. So you get a new and unplanned place just for you ;) Interestingly, I think you really stumbled on one card (Hundred-Year Curse) but your direct concurrent for third place also had the exact same issue.



    — THIRD PLACE —

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    @Derfaulehelmut As I wrote to Nicholas_Bolas, you two were really tied for third place and I strongly considered ex æquo for a moment. You both had one card that was completely off, according to me, in your case Hundred-Year Curse. You had more of those small issues that could make a card unbalanced, but I think what tipped the balance in your favour is that your concepts were slightly more interesting, you got more excitement points for taking more risks ^^



    — SECOND PLACE —

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    @bnew07 Just as I hesitated for a while between third and fourth place, deciding between you and the first place was a real challenge in itself, and I almost gave up by giving you both first place x) The level of design of your entry was definitely worth first place, I made my choice on very small details, and I think you got just slightly more debatable choices here and there, but it's still an incredibly strong entry.



    — FIRST PLACE —

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    @Faiths_Guide What a hard time you gave me on deciding the ranking xD I don't know if you read bnew07's review above, but I almost put you ex æquo as your entry had such a similar level of design this round. I found you had one card that was slightly less interesting than the rest (your common) but I felt you also had the highest level of realism this round and I could barely find a mistake so I decided it should be you! Congratulations, that was a great entry =D


    ___


    Congratulations to all the participants, and thank you for taking part in the Half-GDS! :D

    I adjusted the prizes due to the new and unexpected fourth place this round:
    - @Faiths_Guide — Which 5 cards of your choice do you want me to favourite?
    - @bnew07 — Which 3 cards of your choice do you want me to favourite?
    - @Defaulehelmut — Which 2 cards of your choice do you want me to favourite?
    - @Nicholas_Bolas — Which 1 card of your choice do you want me to favourite?

    I hope I'll see you around this Friday for the fourth round "Finding a Good Mechanic"... but with a twist of course ;) In the meantime, thanks again everyone! Take care :)
  • edited March 2019
    Wow, @ningyounk, you always do such an excellent and professional job with these contests! I really appreciate the card-by-card analysis too (and I'm upset I forgot it on the last challenge, so I went back and read it).

    Could you fave my entries and this:
    https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/ruthless-vanguard

    Feedback on shortening the reminder text for my counter strike mechanic would also be great.

    Last version:
    Counter strike (Whenever this creature is dealt combat damage, if the damage is less than its toughness,
    it deals damage to the source equal to the difference.
    )

    New shorter version:
    Counter strike (Whenever this creature is dealt less combat damage than its toughness,
    it deals damage to the source equal to the difference
    .)

    Check out the Counter Strike Set.
  • I'm on a great strike! Thanks for evaluating always on both strenghts and minor sides.

    https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/wula-teen-wizard

    I choose my baby girl and the card of this entry you liked the most.
  • edited March 2019
    @Faiths_Guide @Derfaulehelmut
    Favourites have been distributed! =D

    @Faiths_Guide
    I think the reminder text you have now is clear and functional. If you really want to shorten it, as Counter Strike is kind of a reverse trample in some way I think you can take advantage of the looser nature of reminder text compared to rules text and really go vernacular like the reminder text of trample does. Maybe something like this?

    Counter Strike (Whenever this creature is dealt combat damage, it deals damage equal to its remaining toughness in return.)

    __

    Also, I have a little confession/apology to make to everyone xD I'm mostly fluent in english but I'm still not a native speaker (I'm French) so I make my share of dumb language mistake and I did a big one in this challenge >.< I usually double check what I write whenever I have a doubt, but sometimes I don't have an ounce of doubt even though I'm blissfully misguided. So when I put "Eerie Ballroom" in the list of names, I was really really convinced that "eerie" meant "dreamlike" as in "Beauty and the Beast" or "Sleeping Beauty". I got very confused when I got back creepy illustrations with spirits and such when I was expecting bright and colourful ballrooms full of dancing people and quickly realised my mistake XD So, special acknowledgements to everyone who actually designed an Eerie Ballroom even though that was a pretty nasty curve ball I absolutely never intended x)
  • Is there going to be another round?
  • @Ranshi922
    Absolutely, you can come back this Friday for the "Finding a Good Mechanic" round! =)
  • Sounds like a plan.
  • @bnew07
    Favourites have been distributed! :D
This discussion has been closed.