[RESULTS] Work of Art: The HALF-Great Designer Search 3 — Challenge 5

2

Comments

  • @Ranshi922
    Sure, a "Bomb" is a bit of a fuzzy term so I won't be too reluctant about what you propose as a bomb. It simply must have a huge impact on the game, at least in Limited. Here are a few uncommon examples:

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  • Ok. Does my black card qualify as a bomb?
  • @Ranshi922
    Yes, it's quite bomb-y ^^ As you can see above, I'm quite loose on the definition, few people ever shivered at an Inspiring Unicorn, but it still has the potential to turn the game on its head in just one attack. Many people certainly grimaced at an opponent's Arboretum Elemental in Limited though xD
  • @People, could someone help review these cards for balance and applicability to the criteria?

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  • edited April 2019
    Deleted.
  • edited April 2019
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    A versatile limited card that can turn from a good blocker into three offensive threats (or chump blockers to ward off something huge for a few turns).
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    In a moment of forgetfulness, I didn't put the art credit on this one. It's by Conor Burke - whose art I really love, as it happens. Sorry about that.
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    Timmy and Tammy like legendary at every rarity, except common obviously. While a board sweeper might feel more Spike-ish, Timmies and Tammies that play black can enjoy removing all of their opponent's creatures with a maniacal laugh. Free (relative) fatties is a good deal too.
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    This is both a mass removal spell and a mass chaos warp all rolled into one. I tried to make it feel as mythic as possible.
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    This rewards Johnny and Jenny for a couple of really niche things- which obviously they're going to want to abuse as many times as they can.
  • My first three entries:

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    I wish we could explore White's xenophobic side more. The convoluted wording is there because it impacts the effect of the ability.

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    Balanced for a Standard environment, but bonkers in Modern, Legacy, and Vintage. Hear that clattering noise? That's the collective sound of thousands of Spike players' jaws dropping to the floor.

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    A fun callback to Sengir Vampire.
  • REMINDER: ONE WEEK LEFT
  • edited April 2019
    My entries:

    Spirit Assistant
    1W Common

    Art: E

    Creature - Spirit
    Sacrifice ~: Destroy target artifact.
    2/2

    (A bear that sacs itself to destroy an enchantment is very common, but just doing so for artifacts hasn't been made yet. Weird.)



    Deflect
    1UU Uncommon

    Art: I

    Instant
    ~ costs {1} less to cast if a permanent you control is being targeted by a spell you don't control.
    Counter target spell.

    (A mix between Cancel and Turn Aside. I thought of reducing the cost to just {u} but it seems too strong for a control deck to protect its threat.)



    Boonslayer Angel
    4BB Uncommon

    Art: H

    Creature - Angel
    Flying, first strike, lifelink
    4/4

    (Callback to Baneslayer Angel. They look pretty similar, except this costs more and is weaker.)
    (EDIT: Changed the name and creature type because it doesn't look like a demon on second thoughts :{ )


    Spiritual Impact
    5RRR Mythic

    Art: F

    Enchantment
    Whenever a creature you control dies, it deals damage equal to its power to any target.
    ---
    Tribes may come and go, but their impact will be felt for generations.
    (EDIT: Removed exile clause and changed mana cost. Also added flavour text.)



    Awaken the Lands
    3GG Rare

    Art: A

    Enchantment
    Whenever you activate an ability of a land you control that isn't a mana ability, or when a land you control becomes the target of a spell or ability, if that land isn't a creauture, it becomes a 2/2 Elemental creature with haste. It's still a land.

    (The flavour is that whenever a land is "nudged" it wakes up and becomes a creature. The non-creautre clauses are to prevent combos by tapping and untapping lands e.g. Freed from the Real on a creature land)


    (Flavor texts may be added if I have time.)
  • DISCLAIMER: MtgDesign doesn’t crop the art very well so pretend they were cropped appropriately if they look funny.

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    This card screams “Combo!” but also imposes some pretty heavy restrictions on deckbuilding. Is this an amulet of vigor combo piece? Just a giant ramp spell With a major drawback? Something to be paired with Courser of Kruphix/Oracle of Mul Daya to mitigate the drawback? Or a combo piece with some flicker/sac effects to retrigger or remove the downside. I chose this effect for the art because it clearly depicts a corrupted piece of land, and that concept pretty cleanly relates to “can't play lands". From there, I built the etb effect as both a contrast to the second ability and as a reward that appropriately matches the drawback.

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    This art clearly shows a spell being repelled, protecting a castle of some sort. In the bottom left corner, however, the spell has already ravaged whatever used to be there. I interpreted this as a spell that protected the Privileged in the castle (the nobles) and neglected the peasants who lived in the burning land. The mechanical interpretation of “nobility” I chose was converted mana cost—the most “noble” creature is the creature that has the greatest CMC. If you satisfy this constraint, you have Counterspell. Otherwise you have a serviceable but unexciting Quench. This spell could play well in both mono-U aggro and control decks that use big creatures as Win
    Conditions, rewarding tight deck construction and sequencing in a way that Spike would enjoy.

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    Timmy like big, splashy effects but the fact that this had to be an uncommon limited bomb meant it couldn’t be either too complex or cost too much. The art showed an eclipse and a smaller person shrouded in white light below. I chose to represent this as the eclipse revealing the true character of the targeted creature. Was the creature good? If so you gain some life and if not its controller loses life. To further stress this dichotomy, i contrasted the two abilities with power and toughness. This cards flexibility and ability to alter game states to either finish the opponent or stabilize your life total cements it as a limited bomb and the large effect would appeal to Timmy.

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    The figures in this art almost looked like wispy elemental tokens, as if they were ash and ember recreations of actual people that were burnt to cinders (The name harkens to this idea). Mechanically, I chose to make this a board sweeper that created fleeting token copies of any opposing creature it destroyed. This is and sweeper and a win condition all in one which is appropriate for an 8 mana card. I chose not to copy your own creatures to make this feel mechanically different than a hybrid of plague wind + insurrection that has very little downside to it.


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    This creature is clearly performing a ritual of some sort. I interpreted the blood in the chalice representing their own blood given willingly. To tie the flavor together, the flavor text hints at the white concept of society in a world where blood is the ink used to write the laws. Mechanically, the creature has lifelink and can sacrifice itself to gain twice the life it gains in combat to represent the greater power of the sacrifice. In gameplay, creatures like this are typically removal magnets as they gum up the ground and buffer life totals (particularly against aggro), so the sacrifice ability and the 4 toughness help mitigate that while still keeping complexity down at common.
  • Probably submitting today!
  • edited April 2019
    _____WELCOME TO MY SUBMISSION_____
    Let's take rarity from low to high, shall we?

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    I'd used this artwork before on a similar design with higher complexity at rare. I knew exactly what I wanted to do and published it almost immediately (it seems to have inspired some others, which is cool)! I think this guy would result in a lot of fun play patterns and encourage both you and your opponent(s) to strategize. I think the flavor is solid and needs no explanation, so, moving on!

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    Spike, Spike, good ol' Spike. Well, this art seemed to be the obvious choice for the prompt, so I'm not getting any points for going with it XD It seems to depict a castle that's already sustained some damage and knows exactly what to do to prevent more. I came up with at least three "counter spell" designs for this before deciding to stick with what I have here. I came up with an original target for the counter spell that uses common MtG terminology of "with a single target" to get across the idea of, along with creatures, something that's easy enough to anticipate and counter. Such spells are also frequent and have probably happened already by the time you've got this online. It won't be able to stop Planeswalkers, Enchantments, Artifacts, Divination-esque cards, etc. but it still seems broad enough and cheap enough to be Spike approved.

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    Everyone knows that flyers are bombs in most scenarios, especially Timmy. Something else Timmy is fond of is global board-altering effects. Let's combine them! Below the Angel the art clearly depicts a catastrophe-in-progress so I decided to make the flavor such that the Angel is attracted to death and destruction. When he's cast, things start dying off, and then he lands, bent on increasing the havoc. The fact that he can't sacrifice himself makes him more playable then other creatures with similar effects. The added bonus is that tokens and less valuable creatures can't be sacrificed to satiate him.

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    Land destruction! *Johnny begins to drool* That's right, you get value for blowing up your opponents lands. With a little help, I've tweaked the wording so that it also hoses fetches and any other lands with sacrifice effects. I hope the flavor is clear here: your opponents lands are tired of being used for outpost sites and decide to rise up, join your cause, and and fight back as powerful elementals! Their whole-hearted defection makes them even more terrifying in battle.

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    I love Julie Dillons Art, I've supported one of her Kickstarter campaigns and own a number of her books (which are fantastic). During the campaign I even offered to go and help her pack up the shipments at her house, since she lives pretty close by, but she graciously declined as she had it all planned out. Anyway, the card, right. I really like it. It costs 8, scrys 4, and doubles the damage (math is cool). I also developed the wording that allows it to exile creatures and Planeswalkers and decided to use it here. The art really seems to symbolize flames that do more than send stuff to the yard, so, it exiles. Definitely feels mythic.

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    Thanks for another incredible contest, @ningyounk. Good luck to all the entrants!
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  • Me while preparing this challenge: "This round is super hard, I don't know how I'm going to adapt it. It's like 15 challenges in one with psychographic profiles thrown in and crazy restrictions like the 8-mana red card and stuff. I hope people will not run away when they see this."

    Literally everyone: *Proceed to post perfect A+ entries I would never have dreamt of."

    Me right now: "I'm so f****d. I don't know how I'm going to judge this, there are going to be like five people ex aequo at first place T_T"

    Seriously, I thought people were going to *STRUGGLE* with this one, did you find it easy?? I'm blown away by how good all the entries are honestly XD

    ___

    @Faiths_Guide: You actually know Julie Dillon? :o That's so cool!
  • Wait wait wait WHAT!!!??? @Faiths_Guide, you know her?! Like in person?
  • edited April 2019
    @ningyounk @Ranshi922
    I know her a little less well than I "know" ningyounk, and not in person. She's an awesome highly decorated artist.

    And, no, this contest wasn't easy (though some concepts did come to me immediately). Glad you liked the entries!
  • @ningyounk
    A tough to judge contest is always better than a boring one anyway (at least IMHO).
  • For me this is easier since finding the right art always takes the longest time...
  • @LyndonF
    Ya, that can happen. I have a huge collection of art pieces to choose from (and have become very quick at finding specific art), so that doesn't tend to be my bottleneck.
  • First entry
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    I think it came out well!
  • edited April 2019
    Oh boy oh boy oh boy, I finished.
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    As you can see I love enchantments.
  • I couldn't put flavor text on the last two because of text length, sorry.
  • Do I get a ding for using both graft and treasure tokens?
  • @Project1734
    You can use Treasure tokens as they're not a named mechanic per se. (One trick to know if something is a named mechanic is to ask the question "Does it require a reminder text the first time I see it?", but if in doubt don't hesitate to ask me again ^^)

    You should know your blue card should be an instant or sorcery though ;)


    _________


    REMINDER: ONE DAY LEFT
  • edited April 2019
    @ningyounk ok thanks for clearing that up, but...about my blue card, honestly imo if it was an instant or sorcery it would be...bad. Just, bad. I prefer it being an enchantment. Plus, you said Spike-friendly.

    Also, sorry if there are any typos in my cards.
  • edited April 2019
    @Project1734
    As you want, but the restriction specifically called for a "blue Spike-Friendly uncommon instant or sorcery", so it's like if you made it red instead, I can't really compare it to the others.
  • @ningyouk Oh shoot welp let me fix that ._.
This discussion has been closed.