The Great Cardsmith Design Search - Stage 2: The Hybrid Challenge

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  • edited October 2018
    Here are all my entries.

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    (GW-creature-triggered ability-uncommon)
    The first card I made, this was originally a hybrid costed card, but I ran into entry restriction related stuff, and decided this would be the easiest one to change, and this has probably gone through the third most iterations of my entries. The ultimate goal in mind: make a card that utilizes the GW sense of togetherness. It just happens to be upon a death trigger.

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    (URG-enchantment-activated ability-common)
    This went through the most iterations, and was a result of me working off the art. It starting as a Claustrophobia never changed, but activated ability got swapped around a few times, originally just untapping it, then a bonus if the creature had base power four or more, and now we're here. I figured this is, at worst, a bend, due to the fact that while neither red nor green untap creatures, blue does, and the original card is blue.

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    (BW-artifact creature-triggered ability-rare)
    This had me scratching my head more than anything else I made. I knew from the beginning I wanted to make a creature that you can pay black and white hybrid mana to give it lifelink, but I couldn't find a good way to do it that wasn't just a creature that should've just had lifelink from the get-go. So thank goodness for artifact creatures being allowed.

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    (BR-enchantment-mana cost-uncommon)
    The biggest issue I ran into overall was costing my hybrid mana costs. On the one hand this could be just a really expensive Unholy Strength or Reflexes. On the other hand, if you meet both conditions, it's a very potent combination. I didn't feel safe making it give both the +2/+1 and first strike unconditionally to the creature, either, since first strike in black is tertiary and pretty stinkin' rare to see.

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    (UB-instant-mana cost-rare)
    Chess, anyone? I knew I wanted to bring Sign in Blood and Divination together for this from the start, though it ended up being more of a Caress of Phyrexia and Divination instead. Take all the cards for yourself, give some to your opponent for a price, or even just pay too much mana for either effect normally, this card'll have you planning your next moves in no time.
  • Here are my entries. Due to the inherently restricting nature of hybrid mana (and New World Order for commons), they aren't too innovative this time around.

    I will follow @Temurzoa's lead and provide a rundown of how the cards fit within the restrictions:

    Common - Instant - Mana Cost
    Common - Creature - Mana Cost
    Uncommon - Enchantment - Activated Ability
    Rare - Enchantment - Triggered Ability
    Rare - Creature - Triggered Ability

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    Infernal Might is a simple combat trick; both black and red can give a one shot buff to power on an instant, both can give the "Frostwielder" ability of exiling rather than killing, though red does it more often and neither have ever really given the ability. Lastly, due to the inherent weakness of a +2/+0 buff as a combat trick, I added the cantrip ability, which every color has access to, as long as no more than one card is drawn this way.

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    Marauding Bruiser is essentially one of three cards: 1R for a 2/1 trample (Satyr Rambler), 1G for a 2/1 trample (Pygmy Razorback), or RG for a 3/2 trample. Based on the current power level of cards, this might be a slightly powerful common, but not backbreaking.

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    Ethereal Embrace was inspired by the already existing Ghostly Wings, but taken in another direction. Both blue and white can give flying, but only white can give vigilance, and both of them are able to "flicker" their own creatures, usually to recur ETB triggers. This was placed at uncommon rather than common because a) the rules on "Enchant creature you control" isn't the simplest, b) it could be more efficiently-costed at uncommon, and c) flicker effects in general can be abusable. I think this is also a bit of a stretch at uncommon, but it is in the gray space between common and uncommon.

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    For Irrational Ingenuity, I took inspiration from the repeatable impulse draw effects at rare, then added an instant sorcery-matters ability that both works solely in red but also in blue. Both blue and red are allowed to copy instant and sorcery spells, so the ability works within the rules of hybrid mana. Instead of just caring about exile or being exiled with the card itself, the allowance for copying any spell if it wasn't cast from the hand allows more interaction in a constructed setting, notably with Flashback and Suspend.

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    Lingering Geist is a take on the classic Gravecrawler, with a few changes for innovation. Black is allowed to return creatures from graveyards for basically any reason (Bloodghast is an example of this), and green is allowed to care about land cards in any zone (Centaur Vinecrasher). The ability was changed to care about lands leaving the graveyard to make it more unique as well as more aggressively costed. I decided to make it a 2 mana 3/1 rather than 1 mana 2/1 due to the somewhat exhaustive work that has already been done in making 1 mana 2/1s in black.

    TL;DR
    This challenge was much more difficult compared to the first challenge, and therefore I played it safer. None of my designs in particular are my favorite, as I feel that all of them have deficiencies that are difficult to deal with, but I don't think any of them are objectively badly designed.
  • @Fiskerton

    Will do. You have until tomorrow 10/24 at 4PM EST to get your entries in
  • edited October 2018
    My--very last minute--entries:

    Rare - Creature - Triggered
    Common - Sorcery - Mana Cost
    Uncommon - Sorcery - Mana Cost
    Rare - Creature - Triggered
    Uncommon - Enchantment - Activated

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    A creature that's fun, but not a super exciting rare. The land destruction seems fitting.

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    White and black like to destroy tapped things. This is strictly better than "Assassinate," but worse than a couple of newer commons "Murderous Compulsion" and "Take Vengeance."

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    Black is secondary twice here, but I was running short on time :P

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    Tapping a creature is white/blue, and since the card itself is mono-blue it "freezes" (as blue is apt to).

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    Kinda simple white/green. Again, short on time.
  • All right everyone the deadline has passed! No more edits or entries will be allowed. Both @fiskerton and @ChuckTesta used 1 day of delay time each and have one more day to get their entries in.
  • edited October 2018
    My Entries:

    Uncommon - Mana Cost - Sorcery
    Mythic - Mana Cost - Creature
    Rare - Triggered Ability - Enchantment
    Uncommon - Activated Ability - Creature
    Common - Triggered Ability - Enchantment

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    I saw a few cards like this in the hybrid mana links, and well, I wanted to make one. Technically, the restrictions aren't necessary because both White and Green have life gain and pump of some sort. For this card, paying only white gives you a relatively weak ability, paying green an on-par ability, and paying both is a very powerful ability.

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    This is why I commented on the Guildmages. I feel kind of ballsy now because no one else made a mythic, but I find mythics the most fun to design. Bouncing tends to be a blue ability so this card wants to be blue, but it also has the "exile until this leaves the battlefield" ability that makes it white as well. Balancing the second ability was kind of hard, but considering there are 3 cost enchantments that do it at uncommon, I thought 7 mana and tapping was fair enough to be able to do it multiple times... maybe.

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    The pump is a little bit more green than red, as red usually does +X/+0, not +X/+X. However, the ability is balanced out by the haste which is mostly red, though I thought that green could gain it by association (haste is tertiary in green)

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    Black likes zombies, red likes fire. What do you get when they come together? Burning zombies! Anyway, menace is primary in both colors (and flaming zombies are quite frightening), and the second ability just felt on-flavor and discarding is common in red and black.

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    And so I come to my last card, and I realize that I cannot use hybrid mana in a mana cost OR use a creature. And it had to be common. It was tough to think of a card, but I thought this would be alright. It might be a little more black than white, but life gain is so much in white that it felt okay. It was mainly inspired by cards like Epicure of Blood or Sanguine Bond.
  • edited October 2018
    Entries:
    Common Creature - W/U - Activated Ability
    Uncommon Sorcery - U/B - Mana Cost
    Uncommon Instant - B/R - Mana Cost
    Rare Enchantment - W/G - Activated Ability
    Mythic Creature - U/G - Triggered Ability

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    Simple replacement for the classic limited stallbreaker. I know that gnomes in MTG lore are something else completely from the rest of the fantasy genre, but the art depicted gnomes, so please forgive the creature typing.

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    Pseudo-choose one spell that essentially allows you to get back any card provided you have the right mana. Mono-green "get back any card" tend to be 3 mana, so I felt comfortable pricing this at 2 different colored mana.

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    Black and red are the colors that would most likely sacrifice something to destroy their opponent, not unlike can't block cards like Cosmotronic Wave. This is also a stallbreaker, but requires a good board to use. Since it's an instant, it can also be used defensively.

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    Gives both players an interesting choice in how they want to handle the enchantment. Ties together both green's and white's protection philosophy in a Selesnya fashion.

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    When I saw the Maro ability (P/T equals number of cards in your hand), I knew I wanted to make something Simic that was a reverse Maro effect. But since cards equaled knowledge, it had to be something big and rampagey without much intelligence. The second ability is similar to my previous challenge Simic card, Hoarder Sprite, but card draw self-denial fit perfectly with the first ability. This was challenging because blue and green have very little mechanics in common besides +1/+1 counters.

    Just as a point of contention I foresee, I dont believe this is a "hellbent" type ability and so doesnt belong in black or red. It's still an ability that cares about the total number of cards in hand rather than whether or not the hand is empty, even though it functions best when the hand is empty.

    Overall, the theme of this design challenge was fun. There was a very fine line distinguishing between hybrid and gold cards.
  • Great entries everyone, i am going to try have this judged by Friday afternoon or Saturday morning
  • All right everyone the results are in! Refer to the google doc link below for all the written feedback and to the google sheet link for raw scores and some data. Let me know if anyone has trouble with the links.

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GBodprT0bA1tjCviXa9YjhS1gCyCviAwxpkz9s6PTSY/edit?usp=sharing

    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OXDnf_u2K3Ghymt4uBdd_2dA2lWdfHXWIHbgWNFz3us/edit?usp=sharing

    There were a lot of great entries but only the top 7 can move on.

    8th Place: @Lujikul with 68 pts
    7th Place: @brcien with 74 pts
    6th Place: @fiskerton with 77 pts
    5th Place: @ChuckTesta with 78 pts
    3rd Place: @ningyounk with 84 pts
    3rd Place: @Faiths_Guide with 84 pts
    2nd Place: @Temurzoa with 88 pts
    1st Place: @TheCenterOfTheUniverse with 93 pts

    @Lujikul , unfortunately you came up short this challenge and are eliminated. You get 4 favorites of your choice.

    Congrats to everyone moving on!!! I will post the next stage's challenge in the next few days.

    The top 3 placing Cardsmiths from this stage can request the following amount of faves of their choice from me:
    3rd Place: 1 fave
    2nd Place: 2 faves
    1st Place: 3 faves
  • edited October 2018
    Good luck to to all the entrants that get to continue on! I'll be keeping an eye on this, I'm curious to see how it ends up.
  • @Lujikul, you will be sorely missed in the future challenges. I am sorry to see you go so soon! I wish you better luck in the future, fellow smith.
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