Thank you so much, everyone, for participating! It was a delight having you participate in this contest this year. As of now, I have just finished judging this contest and I also created cards for each participant as a thank you:
Okay, thanks so much for waiting! Here is the first part of the results!!!!
This has been a wonderful experience for me. I've loved watching everyone create cards for other cardsmiths. Across this year (since May 2nd 2020) this contest got over 250 cards!! Now comes the difficult decision of choosing ONLY 25 of them.
It was very difficult to single out these cards among all of the other amazing entries, but I knew I had to find the cards that really stuck out to me and zero in on those ones. To help my mind as I sorted through all of these cards, I wrote feedback for each of these cards to see where each of these top cards' stregnths and weaknesses were. In addition to that, I sent PMs to cardsmiths with more than one card made for them from different cardsmiths and they chose their favorite cards from among them to get boosted in my judging process:
Naian, Pride Faithmender by Temurzoa - ThatOneCat’s choice!
This is really a brilliant card. I love the flavor and mechanics. I do worry a little bit about giving exalted to every creature you control on top of the card draw and life gain.
KorandAngels’ Final Gift by AboveandAbout - KorandAngel’s choice!
This is a neat idea, but phasing has been “phasing out” of mtg due to its complex nature. However, I’m willing to accept this type of design. Because phasing is so complex, I definitely think that discord should not be a keyword with phasing inside it.
Ral, Last of a Thousand by sorinjace - Ral1000’s choice!
This is a very neat card. The abilities all blend together nicely too. I’m not sure how I feel about reducing the cost of all black spells though. This might be undercosted Well done!
Ranshi’s Ascendancy by tookie1 - Ranshi’s choice!
This is very flavorful and fun! 2 mana might be a little weak for this effect, however. I think this could get away as 1. Nice job.
Abu Jafar, Empyreal Tyrant by Usaername - Abu_Jafar’s choice!
I think you already know what I’m going to say. Yup, memory issues. The effect of this card is really creative and amazing, but the memory issues are, well, an issue for me when there are so many cool cards.
Tezzeret, Mechanic Seeker by Usaername - TezzeretofCarmont21’s choice!
While this is a cool card, metalshape is a very, very powerful mechanic and definitely should not be given to two artifacts on a plus ability (I disagree with such a powerful thing being a mechanic honestly)!! The whole planeswalker in total seems a little pushed, but the concept is neat.
Corwinnn, Ready for Winter by TenebrisNemo - Corwinnn’s choice!
This is quite a good food token generator to say the least. At 2 mana combined with the +1/+1 counters, this is a little pushed, but cards are definitely allowed to be a little pushed.
Tomigon, Prince of Creators by Ral1000 - Tomigon’s choice!
While this is a cool concept, I have to say that this is a really busy card. Deathtouch also isn’t a very good choice as an ability on this card since it will get so big.
Solemn Marauder//Sorinjace, Exalted Marauder by Ral1000 - sorinjace’s choice!
This is a very cool card. I don’t like how easily this returns from the graveyard to the battlefield though. Still, this is a wonderful design.
Dread Lord Tachanka by Temurzoa - LordTachanka123’s choice!
This is honestly a very cool design, however weird it may be. There isn’t much more for me to say.
SpellPiper, the Compounder by RandomFandom - SpellPiper2213’s choice!
This is a fun effect. You did make the wording more lengthy than it needed to be--you can remove “in addition to its other costs” and “copy it” instead of “create a copy of that spell”. This also might be a little powerful for only 2 mana (remember that permanent copies become tokens under your control now!). The card also feels a little empty and I would have loved flavor text. I have to be really nitpicky when there are so many good cards here.
Temurzoa, Paradox Dreamer by tookie1 - Temurzoa’s choice!
This is honestly super, super creative. I love the art choice and the cool effect too. My one nitpick is that this doesn’t sacrifice itself like an illusion normally does, but this was still brilliant.
CassZero, Bargain Mage by Abu_Jafar - CassZero’s choice!
This is such a fun card with two very niche abilities. I do wonder if you chose the right color combination though. I would’ve liked to see this in sultai colors, but this does work too. There’s also no dash in nontoken. I’d love to see a commander deck based off of this!
Daedalus, Conscious Maze by CassZero - Daedalus_The_All_Father’s choice!
This card is honestly super flavorful and amazing. I’d probably up the cost by 1 or 2 though.
Sevenn, Fantastic Killer by Abu_Jafar - Fantastickill7’s choice!
This doesn’t seem boros at all. Rakdos seems more fitting for this in whatever way I look at it. One tiny nitpick: trample doesn’t need to be capitalized since it comes after first strike.
Eoj Amam, Bloodlust Incarnate by Usaername - joemamajoe’s choice!
I like this a lot. I would definitely decrease this thing’s power to 3 or 4 though. Nice work!
Tookie, of the First Manifest by CassZero - tookie1’s choice!
I like this. One nitpick I have is that this should probably say “with lesser converted mana cost” rather than “equal converted mana cost” for more flexibility. This probably could be mono-blue too. Other than that, this is pretty sweet!
Usa, Secret Studier//Usa, Master Mage by ChoyBoi - Usaername’s choice!
This is pretty cool, but two things bother me here. This cares for sorceries and not instants. That buyback cost reduction is brutal and I don’t think it’s worded correctly. However, I can’t seem to grasp a better one. I’ll PM you if I get something better.
Choy, Shield of Brightblade by Usaername - ChoyBoi’s choice!
Congrats! This card is really wonderful! The mechanics and flavor blend together nicely even though it doesn’t do anything super out of the box. I’d actually be fine with this as an uncommon. The graveyard part doesn't really seem needed, but it's fine on the card.
Foureyes, Ancient Skywhale by Usaername - FourEyesIsAFish’s choice!
This is a sweet card. I think the second ability should be separated into two abilities. Why does eldritch include avatars and elders?
Gladis, Fang of the Hedgemony by Usaername - DrakeGladis’s choice!
This is a neat card, but it bothers me a lot that this doesn’t have flying.
Shadow, Creative Harpist by CassZero - shadow123’s choice!
This is a very nice card. There are some wording errors though: “have” should be “has” in the second ability and you don’t need “is the number of” in the first ability. I like the ability word you made.
Omnipleveure, All Reflection by FangQuil
Boat.
…
While this didn’t place in the month of may, I realized now that this is actually a really genius design. I like where you’re going with this, just...boat. Why did you have to write “boat” there? I’m laughing so much right now.
Torinin, Rogue Preadator by Temurzoa
This is another amazing design that didn’t end up placing in may. I feel like this is a tad bit powerful, but it does skip your own main phases too...well done!
Return to the Mundane by Ranshi
Nice, simple, and fun. This isn’t anything super interesting, but it’s a very nice card.
Sven, Creator of Snaps by AbuJafar
Nicely done! My one problem with this is you must specify what is dealing damage! At “it” before “deals”
TheCubicalGuy, Biosmith by Ral1000
This is a very fun, niche card. I’d love to see what you can do with it. You might want to make X become X2 or XG or something in that vein.
Tachanka, Forerunner of War by Ranshi
Now, this is a sweet card. I love this so much! This does seem a little too fragile for its cost though.
Shadow’s Command by Ral1000
This was definitely one of the contenders for my favorite card made for me. The design is very fun, even if a bit wordy. Nice work.
Tachanka, Lord of Slaughter by Fantastickill7
There should be a period before “you lose life”. Other than that, this card seems pretty nice to me. Well done.
Ranshi, Adept Flamecaller by Ranshi
This is a very fun card, but given that splice can be repeated over and over on separate instant/sorcery spells without losing a card seems a little good. Also this looks like it has an efreet rather than a djinn in the artwork, but I might be wrong and I won’t take that into account while judging.
Volos, Cruel Soulwarden by Ranshi
I like this, but deathouch seems rather unwarranted on a creature with power 4 or greater, to be honest.
Gladis, Drake of Calamity by Corwinnn
This is a lovely card! I could see this being 3 power and say “that many cards” instead of just three cards.
Corwinnn, Realm Ruler by Ranshi
This is a really fun card. It’s flavorful and the mechanics work together nicely. I do think that this cost is quite steep for this card’s effects and maybe it would’ve been nicer to see this as a 1GW 2/2.
Ranshi, the Burning Blind by Volos
I love this card’s concept. The flavor is nice too, but there are definitely a few wording mistakes. For example “one” should be “1” when talking about life and you need and “until end of turn” clause for the first part of the activated ability. THe other thing that annoyed me here was the hybrid mana. I don’t think there was any reason to use hybrid besides you wanted it to be hybrid here. This needs to have black in its cost because of the life loss, so maybe 1Br/w would’ve been okay. Also, monk and knight are both classes which I don’t think should go together on a card mtg wise. I love the flavor text though!
Volos, Blessed by the Faeries by CassZero
This is a very nice card. I think it may be slightly pushed with its adventure, but I don’t really care about that. I love how you got both of Volos’s favorite creature types together on one card.
Daniel, on Wings of Faith by Ranshi
Wow, wow, wow. This card is so cool! My only problem is that this seems a little too good, especially when the Sigil of the Empty Throne type effect is slapped onto a 3/3 body. Regardless of that, well done. This is a very nice card.
Tezzy’s Familiar by sorinjace
This is a fine card, but ingenuity just doesn’t seem like a mono black mechanic. Discard, then draw without some type of downside seems like a really hard bend. Other than that, nice work!
Sorinjace, Animated Dreamer by CassZero
I love this idea so much!! This might be a little bit too powerful of a token generator though. It will create tokens pretty quickly in many decks where scry is stapled onto so many effects.
This is a very fun card! I like how the last ability works, but I think the wording is a little weird. I’m trying to think of a better wording and when I come up with one, I’ll PM you if that’s okay.
Irononion, Herald of the Abyss by MonkeyPirate2002
As much as I love this (and am biased towards it), this is really, really good for a 3 mana 3/3. This already is a 3/3 for 3 with flying which is good in limited. Then add on two more powerful abilities and this is crazy. But the flavor...I love it so much!!
Cass, Scion of Oloro by East2West
This is a really cool card with lots of utility! I’m not a fan of a more powerful ajani’s pridemate ability combined with flying. Especially when this can be your commander! Still, this design is brilliant.
East2West, Adventure Seeker by Abu_Jafar
This is a very nice card. But...the card title...aaaaahhhhh!
Lord Gladis, Tamer of Drakes by East2West
I would change the title to “Lord Gladis, Drake Tamer” and increase the mana cost to 1WUR. Other than that, this is a neat card! Nice work.
Ningyounk, Doctor Nova by LordTachanka123
This is a pretty fun design! I really love how this approaches white card advantage. Personally, I think you should get rid of the second ability, drop this to rare, and increase the p/t because the ability’s rulings might be too complicated and a 4 mana morph might become too good, but this is still a very nice card design. Good work.
Sorinjace, Seeker of Coasts by IronCrusher
This is a very, very fun card! I’d probably make the activated ability cost 5 mana though. Nice work.
Aicy, Valiant of Ironcrush by Usaername
I don’t think “an opponent” is needed in the second ability because a creature you control will never attack you! I love the approach to boros card draw, if you didn’t already know.
ChoyBoi, Kin of Macar by Abu_Jafar
This is very nice! The flavor is definitely there. However, I'm not a fan of the repeated exile on this card for 4 mana (essentially 3 with the gold token). I would’ve liked some flavor text if possible though. Also there’s a period before “if you do”, not a comma. Well done.
Choy, Tireless Fighter by CassZero
This is actually a very fun design. The mechanics work together so nicely and everything about this is so fun! I love the added touch of impulse draw there too! This isn’t super out of the box, but there’s also lots of value in simplicity.
Ranshi, Midnight Musician by ChoyBoi
Yay! You used my song mechanic!! I love the mechanics and creativity here as well. You also fixed the wording, which was nice too.
CarlBobilado, Pride Lord by RandomFandom
This is a genius design I missed during the monthly judging. I love how all the mechanics work together. I feel like the counter removal is more black, but I could see it in white with the life gain here.
Sinx, Master of the Menagerie by Usaername
This is actually a very fun design. I worry about how good the tokens will be, but I don’t suspect it’ll be too good for 3 extra mana. Nice work.
Senior Enchantress Teacup by TenebrisNemo
Oh. My. Gosh. This card is so flavorful and fun! My only gripe is that the opponent has a little bit more control about how much they have to pay with the food tokens, but that’s also a nice little part of the design. Well done!
Daedalus, Donations Recipient by Usaername
This is a very cool effect that I think you’d see more in dimir colors. Nice work.
Metatron of Orzhova by Temurzoa
This is such a fun, crazy card! I think the wording should be edited a little so that the spell’s controller chooses the option with the most votes or tied for the most votes.
Abaa, the Growing Storm by Ranshi
This ability is very niche, so I think that it would be fine making this uncommon. It doesn’t have too many uses outside its connection with Abu. Nice work!
Abu, the Rainamaker by Ranshi
I like this a lot more. I think both partners could definitely be legendary uncommons considering their effects and simplicity.
Corwinnn, Transformed by AboveAndAbout
This is actually a very fun card! I think the token creation should probably cost more mana and maybe be {1}{g/w}. This might be a little high on the power side too. I’d make the mutate and mana cost 4 and maybe change the p/t to 3/3. Remember to have the “has” in “number of times this creature has mutated”! Fun card!
Teacup’s Little Cottage by AboveAndAbout
I like this, but I’m not a fan of the idea of repeatedly discarding your hand and drawing SEVEN cards with no cost. Still, this is a cool concept and I have a soft spot for lands.
Tabou Bovea, Trinket Engineer by Abu_Jafar
Remember to use “have” instead of “gain” in the first ability since this is a permanent effect. The bottom also feels really empty. Maybe add a blank line at the top or add flavor text?
Now, which cards do I choose? I made one more cut before going to the top 25:
(These cards were not cut)
Naian, Pride Faithmender by Temurzoa - ThatOneCat’s choice!
Ral, Last of a Thousand by sorinjace - Ral1000’s choice!
Ranshi’s Ascendancy by tookie1 - Ranshi’s choice!
Corwinnn, Ready for Winter by TenebrisNemo - Corwinnn’s choice!
Solemn Marauder//Sorinjace, Exalted Marauder by Ral1000 - sorinjace’s choice!
Dread Lord Tachanka by Temurzoa - LordTachanka123’s choice!
Temurzoa, Paradox Dreamer by tookie1 - Temurzoa’s choice!
CassZero, Bargain Mage by Abu_Jafar - CassZero’s choice!
Daedalus, Conscious Maze by CassZero - Daedalus_The_All_Father’s choice!
Choy, Shield of Brightblade by Usaername - ChoyBoi’s choice!
Foureyes, Ancient Skywhale by Usaername - FourEyesIsAFish’s choice!
Gladis, Fang of the Hedgemony by Usaername - DrakeGladis’s choice!
Shadow, Creative Harpist by CassZero - shadow123’s choice!
Omnipleveure, All Reflection by FangQuil
Torinin, Rogue Preadator by Temurzoa
TheCubicalGuy, Biosmith by Ral1000
Tachanka, Forerunner of War by Ranshi
Shadow’s Command by Ral1000
Tachanka, Lord of Slaughter by Fantastickill7
Volos, Cruel Soulwarden by Ranshi
Volos, Blessed by the Faeries by CassZero
Gladis, Drake of Calamity by Corwinnn
Corwinnn, Realm Ruler by Ranshi
Sorinjace, Animated Dreamer by CassZero
Jonte, Unifying Warleader by Usaername
Lord Gladis, Tamer of Drakes by East2West
Ningyounk, Doctor Nova by LordTachanka123
Sorinjace, Seeker of Coasts by IronCrusher
Aicy, Valiant of Ironcrush by Usaername
ChoyBoi, Kin of Macar by Abu_Jafar
Choy, Tireless Fighter by CassZero
Ranshi, Midnight Musician by ChoyBoi
CarlBobilado, Pride Lord by RandomFandom
Sinx, Master of the Menagerie by Usaername
Senior Enchantress Teacup by TenebrisNemo
Metatron of Orzhova by Temurzoa
Abu, the Rainamaker by Ranshi
Corwinnn, Transformed by AboveAndAbout
All of these entries are really solid, and I really had to get nitpicky when separating these from the top 25. So, if you have a card in here, pat yourself on the back. All of these cards are AMAZING.
I found this to be a fun design. I liked how the card worked, but I felt that it might have been a little easy to repeatedly populate bigger creatures with this. I would've also chosen the correct border (Hybrid Green/White). Nice job.
This would make a pretty fun commander! Remember that if this is given first strike, it could be really, really scary. You might also want to make X a little larger, but overall this was very well designed.
23rd place: @East2West with Lord Gladis, Tamer of Drakes
I like this design, but I feel like it gives you too much value for 3 mana.
22nd place: @Usaername with Gladis, Fang of the Hegemony - DrakeGladis's Choice!
Congrats on getting DrakeGladis's pick! This felt a little too oppressive even though you can ignore one of its effects for 3 mana, and not having flying was a big mark against this. However, there is still lots of design merit in this, so this earns its spot in the top 25!
This was an interesting design. I like the first two abilities, but I felt like the second one could be abused with big creatures or create weird rules complications with nonpermanent cards. This was still a very interesting design to review.
20th place: @Corwinnn with Gladis, Drake of Calamity
I always liked this design ever since you made it. You might want to raise the p/t to 3/3. I think it would still be fine in limited like that. I love the simple design!
19th place: @Abu_Jafar with Choy Boi, Kin of Macar
This is so, so flavorful! The repeated exile+gold token+1 life each turn is a little too good though.
18th place: @Fantastickill7 with Tachanka, Lord of Slaughter
This a nice, slightly pushed legendary mythic, which is totally fine. There are some wording mistakes that did take away from this card though. Overall this is a neat card!
17th place: @CassZero with Shadow, Creative Harpist - Shadow123's choice!
This is a very unique card! As I explained in the feedback section, there are some wording mistakes, but the concept of this (and my love for music) definitely made me think that this was my favorite card made for me this year! Nice work.
16th place: @tookie1 with Ranshi's Ascendancy - Ranshi's choice!
The flavor here is amazing. It's unfortunate that this card is so weak. Congrats on earning Ranshi's choice!
15th place: @Temurzoa with Dread Lord Tachanka - LordTachanka123's choice!
This design, while a little weird, really fits nicely in its colors. I love the feel of this card. Congrats on getting LordTachanka123's choice!
14th place: @TenebrisNemo with Corwinnn, Ready for Winter - Corwinnn's choice!
Congrats on earning Corwinn's choice! I felt like this card was a little bit powerful but, the flavor is amazing and the design is quite good. Nice work here.
13th place: @Abu_Jafar with CassZero, Bargain Mage - CassZero's choice!
This was a very interesting design. I felt like it could fit better in Sultai colors maybe. I love this design though. Congrats on earning CassZero's choice!
From here on, I was stumped and didn't really know what to do. So, @Lujikul came to help me by offering additional feedback on cards. So, I'll be adding in Lujikul's comments as well:
12th place: @Temurzoa with Naian, Pride Faithmender - ThatOneCat's choice!
Shadow: This is a very nice card. I love the flavor and how the mechanics work together here. I am worried about the power level with all creatures gaining exalted + life gain and card draw.
Lujikul: Pretty much a legendary Sublime Archangel. I don't think the card draw is too much, but the lifegain could become oppressive very quickly. Something to note is it's universal, but also makes your opponent unable to realistically play the exalted game back at you since it'll heal up for almost the same amount they attack for.
11th place: @RandomFandom with CarlBobilado, Pride Lord
Shadow: I honestly love this card and it's a shame I didn't notice how nice it was in the monthly judging. Counter removal is normally black, but white should work here with the life gain.
Lujikul: The issue I have with this is that it can do it to opponents' creatures which is where I personally have grievances
...and now we're onto the TOP 10!!!
10th place: @CassZero with Daedalus, Conscious Maze - Daedalus_The_All_Father's choice!
Shadow: I personally love this design a lot. I love the flavor so much and this is a clean design. The mana cost might need to be moved up to 4 or 5 though. Lujikul: I'm personally less sold on this, since making a maze (location) an equipment feels like a massive flavor fail to me, even if it's mechanically effective. I would've preferred to see this as an enchantment that could move itself, though that'd also likely take more words. The entire design is cleanly executed and cool, my one gripe is just that location<->equipment thing 9th place: @FangQuil with Omnipleveure, All Reflection
Shadow: Boat. This is a very nice card. I like everything about this, but I have no idea why there is a random "boat" stuck in there.
Lujikul: I don't have an issue with this to be honest. The "can't be countered" is a little worrying but I don't think it's overbearing. "Boat" is very confusing. 8th place: @sorinjace with Ral, Last of A Thousand - Ral1000's choice!
Shadow: This is a nice card. I like how the abilities work together, but this might be a tad bit undercosted. I'm not sure.
Lujikul: Feels a bit disjointed to me and like a potential monoblack storm engine, but I like the connection between lifelink and the last ability. Not sold on the mana cost, I think for this kind of power I'd want to see something like {3}{b}{b}.
Shadow: I like this design. It's quite fun, but deathtouch seems a little useless on a 4+ power creature.
Lujikul: Deathtouch seems gratuitous, yes, but I don't think it inherently weakens the design. I think undying is a bit much for this though, since it effectively says you have to kill every creature twice. I would've preferred persist or simply neither.
6th place: @TenebrisNemo with Senior Enchantress Teacup
Shadow: Wow! You have a knack for making cool, flavorful cards. I feel like this will be either too powerful where it will completely lock out an opponent from attacking eith anything or this will do pretty much nothing and give opponents more control over this ability.
Lujikul: I think you're spot on, it'll either benefit the opponent a lot with incidental lifegain or completely lock them out of attacking.
Shadow: This is a clean design. I'm not sure if this will be too easy to return from yout graveyard to the battlefield. This should be fine. This is actually a pretty smart hybrid design too!
Lujikul: It's very easy to return to the battlefield, but never too easy to flip since it'll always take some work. I do wish the back side used the hybrid border though.
4rd place: @ChoyBoi with Ranshi, Midnight Musician
Shadow: I like this card. You fixed the wording errors you had when you originally submitted it, which was nice. This seems like a pretty fun card to play with lots of flexibility. Thanks for using the song mechanic
Lujikul: This is a big human for being a blue 4 drop. I'm guessing songs have been a thing on mtgcs for a while, but I'm unfamiliar with their rules and thus can't commentate on the rest of the card effectively.
3nd place: @tookie1 with Temurzoa, Paradox Dreamer - Temurzoa's choice!
Shadow: This is an amazing design which is so creative. The illusion typing does feel a little weird here, but wow. This is so simple and cool. Totally my type of card (and I guess Temurzoa's too!).
Lujikul: You're right, the illusion typing feels weird. The ability itself is creative, and has the most effective safety valve to prevent abuse. Red feels odd, however, and I think I would've preferred white or green in its place, as far as color pie balance is concerned.
2nd place: @Temurzoa with Torinin, Rogue Preadator
Shadow: This is another super creative, amazing card. I wasn't sure how this was power level wise.
Lujikul: Seems balanced to me. As the person playing it, you'll be a lot more ready to handle the symmetrical effect. I could even see an argument for upping the p/t.
This was an amazing design and all your cards have been solid throughout the competition so far. The only thing separating this from the first place card was the cardsmith's choice.
...and now, the grand winner...
1st place: @Usaername with Choy, Shield of Brightblade - ChoyBoi's choice!
Shadow: Wow. This card is very, very fun! My one (tiny) gripe with this is that first strike seems rather unneeded when indestructible is already there. This nailed flavor and really is a wonderful design. Congrats! You should see this card featured sometime in January (@Corwinnn)!
Lujikul: I find this to be a genuinely interesting design, and balanced because you have to pay more mana to make it scale to more creatures. The last ability feels mostly like trinket text.
Thank you so much to everyone for participating and congrats to the winners! I could've made an argument for many of these cards to win the whole thing. All of you are awesome!
Also, here are the prizes again: 1st place: 10 favorites, a follow, and the winning card will be FEATURED!! 2nd place: 8 favorites and a follow 3rd place: 5 favorites and a follow 4th - 10th place: 3 favorites 11th-20th place: 2 favorites 21st-25th place: 1 favorite
Wow! I don't know what to say! It's been super fun creating cards for everyone and it's a great honor to come in 1st place! Thanks so much to @shadow123 for all the work you've put into this contest! Also, not to mention creating a card for every entrant is an amazing feat! Also of course thanks to @Lujikul for being a guest judge as well And of course congrats to all of the other winners!!! I hope we can keep up all the great designs in 2021! Does this mean I get to host now?
MTG Cardsmith Community Forums
Comments
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/santa-corwinnn
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/temurzoa-worldscryer
https://mtgcardsmith.com/user/CardsOfMtgcardsmiths/sets/57999
The results will be up shortly.
This has been a wonderful experience for me. I've loved watching everyone create cards for other cardsmiths. Across this year (since May 2nd 2020) this contest got over 250 cards!! Now comes the difficult decision of choosing ONLY 25 of them.
First Cut-
Now, which cards do I choose? I made one more cut before going to the top 25:
(These cards were not cut)
Here is the part everyone was waiting for- the actual results haha.
25th place: @AboveAndAbout with Corwinnn, Transformed
I found this to be a fun design. I liked how the card worked, but I felt that it might have been a little easy to repeatedly populate bigger creatures with this. I would've also chosen the correct border (Hybrid Green/White). Nice job.
24th place: @Ral1000 with TheCubicalGuy, Biosmith
This would make a pretty fun commander! Remember that if this is given first strike, it could be really, really scary. You might also want to make X a little larger, but overall this was very well designed.
23rd place: @East2West with Lord Gladis, Tamer of Drakes
I like this design, but I feel like it gives you too much value for 3 mana.
22nd place: @Usaername with Gladis, Fang of the Hegemony - DrakeGladis's Choice!
Congrats on getting DrakeGladis's pick! This felt a little too oppressive even though you can ignore one of its effects for 3 mana, and not having flying was a big mark against this. However, there is still lots of design merit in this, so this earns its spot in the top 25!
21st place: @LordTachanka123 with Ningyounk, Doctor Nova
This was an interesting design. I like the first two abilities, but I felt like the second one could be abused with big creatures or create weird rules complications with nonpermanent cards. This was still a very interesting design to review.
20th place: @Corwinnn with Gladis, Drake of Calamity
I always liked this design ever since you made it. You might want to raise the p/t to 3/3. I think it would still be fine in limited like that. I love the simple design!
19th place: @Abu_Jafar with Choy Boi, Kin of Macar
This is so, so flavorful! The repeated exile+gold token+1 life each turn is a little too good though.
18th place: @Fantastickill7 with Tachanka, Lord of Slaughter
This a nice, slightly pushed legendary mythic, which is totally fine. There are some wording mistakes that did take away from this card though. Overall this is a neat card!
17th place: @CassZero with Shadow, Creative Harpist - Shadow123's choice!
This is a very unique card! As I explained in the feedback section, there are some wording mistakes, but the concept of this (and my love for music) definitely made me think that this was my favorite card made for me this year! Nice work.
16th place: @tookie1 with Ranshi's Ascendancy - Ranshi's choice!
The flavor here is amazing. It's unfortunate that this card is so weak. Congrats on earning Ranshi's choice!
15th place: @Temurzoa with Dread Lord Tachanka - LordTachanka123's choice!
This design, while a little weird, really fits nicely in its colors. I love the feel of this card. Congrats on getting LordTachanka123's choice!
14th place: @TenebrisNemo with Corwinnn, Ready for Winter - Corwinnn's choice!
Congrats on earning Corwinn's choice! I felt like this card was a little bit powerful but, the flavor is amazing and the design is quite good. Nice work here.
13th place: @Abu_Jafar with CassZero, Bargain Mage - CassZero's choice!
This was a very interesting design. I felt like it could fit better in Sultai colors maybe. I love this design though. Congrats on earning CassZero's choice!
12th place: @Temurzoa with Naian, Pride Faithmender - ThatOneCat's choice!
Shadow: This is a very nice card. I love the flavor and how the mechanics work together here. I am worried about the power level with all creatures gaining exalted + life gain and card draw.
Lujikul: Pretty much a legendary Sublime Archangel. I don't think the card draw is too much, but the lifegain could become oppressive very quickly. Something to note is it's universal, but also makes your opponent unable to realistically play the exalted game back at you since it'll heal up for almost the same amount they attack for.
11th place: @RandomFandom with CarlBobilado, Pride Lord
Shadow: I honestly love this card and it's a shame I didn't notice how nice it was in the monthly judging. Counter removal is normally black, but white should work here with the life gain.
Lujikul: The issue I have with this is that it can do it to opponents' creatures which is where I personally have grievances
...and now we're onto the TOP 10!!!
10th place: @CassZero with Daedalus, Conscious Maze - Daedalus_The_All_Father's choice!
Shadow: I personally love this design a lot. I love the flavor so much and this is a clean design. The mana cost might need to be moved up to 4 or 5 though.
Lujikul: I'm personally less sold on this, since making a maze (location) an equipment feels like a massive flavor fail to me, even if it's mechanically effective. I would've preferred to see this as an enchantment that could move itself, though that'd also likely take more words. The entire design is cleanly executed and cool, my one gripe is just that location<->equipment thing
9th place: @FangQuil with Omnipleveure, All Reflection
Shadow: Boat. This is a very nice card. I like everything about this, but I have no idea why there is a random "boat" stuck in there.
Lujikul: I don't have an issue with this to be honest. The "can't be countered" is a little worrying but I don't think it's overbearing. "Boat" is very confusing.
8th place: @sorinjace with Ral, Last of A Thousand - Ral1000's choice!
Shadow: This is a nice card. I like how the abilities work together, but this might be a tad bit undercosted. I'm not sure.
Lujikul: Feels a bit disjointed to me and like a potential monoblack storm engine, but I like the connection between lifelink and the last ability. Not sold on the mana cost, I think for this kind of power I'd want to see something like {3}{b}{b}.
7th place: @Ranshi with Volos, Cruel Soulwarden
Shadow: I like this design. It's quite fun, but deathtouch seems a little useless on a 4+ power creature.
Lujikul: Deathtouch seems gratuitous, yes, but I don't think it inherently weakens the design. I think undying is a bit much for this though, since it effectively says you have to kill every creature twice. I would've preferred persist or simply neither.
6th place: @TenebrisNemo with Senior Enchantress Teacup
Shadow: Wow! You have a knack for making cool, flavorful cards. I feel like this will be either too powerful where it will completely lock out an opponent from attacking eith anything or this will do pretty much nothing and give opponents more control over this ability.
Lujikul: I think you're spot on, it'll either benefit the opponent a lot with incidental lifegain or completely lock them out of attacking.
5th place: @Ral1000 with Solemn Marauder//Sorinjace, Exalted Marauder - sorinjace's choice!
Shadow: This is a clean design. I'm not sure if this will be too easy to return from yout graveyard to the battlefield. This should be fine. This is actually a pretty smart hybrid design too!
Lujikul: It's very easy to return to the battlefield, but never too easy to flip since it'll always take some work. I do wish the back side used the hybrid border though.
4rd place: @ChoyBoi with Ranshi, Midnight Musician
Shadow: I like this card. You fixed the wording errors you had when you originally submitted it, which was nice. This seems like a pretty fun card to play with lots of flexibility. Thanks for using the song mechanic
Lujikul: This is a big human for being a blue 4 drop. I'm guessing songs have been a thing on mtgcs for a while, but I'm unfamiliar with their rules and thus can't commentate on the rest of the card effectively.
3nd place: @tookie1 with Temurzoa, Paradox Dreamer - Temurzoa's choice!
Shadow: This is an amazing design which is so creative. The illusion typing does feel a little weird here, but wow. This is so simple and cool. Totally my type of card (and I guess Temurzoa's too!).
Lujikul: You're right, the illusion typing feels weird. The ability itself is creative, and has the most effective safety valve to prevent abuse. Red feels odd, however, and I think I would've preferred white or green in its place, as far as color pie balance is concerned.
2nd place: @Temurzoa with Torinin, Rogue Preadator
Shadow: This is another super creative, amazing card. I wasn't sure how this was power level wise.
Lujikul: Seems balanced to me. As the person playing it, you'll be a lot more ready to handle the symmetrical effect. I could even see an argument for upping the p/t.
This was an amazing design and all your cards have been solid throughout the competition so far. The only thing separating this from the first place card was the cardsmith's choice.
...and now, the grand winner...
1st place: @Usaername with Choy, Shield of Brightblade - ChoyBoi's choice!
Shadow: Wow. This card is very, very fun! My one (tiny) gripe with this is that first strike seems rather unneeded when indestructible is already there. This nailed flavor and really is a wonderful design. Congrats! You should see this card featured sometime in January (@Corwinnn)!
Lujikul: I find this to be a genuinely interesting design, and balanced because you have to pay more mana to make it scale to more creatures. The last ability feels mostly like trinket text.
Also, here are the prizes again:
1st place: 10 favorites, a follow, and the winning card will be FEATURED!!
2nd place: 8 favorites and a follow
3rd place: 5 favorites and a follow
4th - 10th place: 3 favorites
11th-20th place: 2 favorites
21st-25th place: 1 favorite
@Winners Make sure to request your favorites!
@Corwinnn Can you make sure to feature Choy, Shield of Brightblade by Usaername? Thanks so much!!
If anyone wants feedback on their other cards, PM me and I'll be happy to provide it.