Insidious or Enlightened? Create-a-Cult Challenge

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  • edited February 2021


    1. Vahimgar, Fate’s Finality - Here he is, after much build up, the one and only. Vahimgar is a Deva, a being well known in Perso-Indic cultures, variously as an angelic being, or as a demonic being, while not quite being either of them. I opted for this both to achieve to new creature type bonus, but also to communicate Vahimgar’s otherness, while not exactly making him an outright deity. In truth, Vahimgar both feeds off the worship of the House, and is also bound to serve its aims. Thousands of years ago, a mighty Thaumaturge by the name of Arzhang (of the eponymous Chronicles previously created) bested him an a game of riddles, and thence created an arcane contract binding Vahimgar to Arzhang’s purpose of egalitarian enlightenment. Truly, Vahimgar was not wholly unwilling as it provided him with an opportunity to manipulate human affairs, for Vahimgar is an embodiment of the corrupting nature or pursuing knowledge and how it can be used to dominate others. It is through his influence that the cult has taken on its darker aspects when originally it was an organization of pure integrity. As a physical being, Vahimgar resides within a remote labyrinth underneath the city of Vargshapat, and few of the cults members know that he physically resides there; and even fewer have met him personally. Vahimgar can empower those who worship him to the outermost limits of their minds capacity, while simultaneously denuding others of all mental capability. 
    (This fulfills the first prompt, as well as the new creature type bonus)

    2. Enlightened Hegemony - 
    To all outward appearances a world ruled by the Two-Mooners is a better one. People are educated, medicine is available, resource acquisition is more efficient then ever- that is as long as everyone follows the rites and rituals as prescribed by the Council of  Scholarchs. I.E. Enlightened Fasco-Technocracy (This fulfills prompt number 2)

    3. Ataar, Perilous Pilgrim -
    In another world Ataar is one of the House’s field researchers. Exploring ancient ruins, sacred tombs, and lost labyrinths in the pursuit of arcane knowledge. I’ve tried to make this a fitting homage to the op. He felt like he could perfectly fit into the world of Raqqad. I couldn’t help myself! (This fulfills bonus of another reimagined Cult Leader, as well as the Highest price bonus.)

    4. Esoteric Astrolabe - Not a lot to say here other than the art was screaming for inclusion. A device used by many lower ranked Scholarchs to aid their own burgeoning abilities. (Fulfills the color identity technicality bonus.)

    5. Reverent Oracle - Yet another member of the House, showcasing the hit and miss nature of clairvoyance as practiced by the half-enlightened rank and file. (Fulfills the random/coin flip bonus)

    6. Dogmatic Recall - The memory of the House goes back millennia, their records forgetting nothing. It only takes some diligent study and prayer to bring back that which has been buried under the dust of years. (Fulfills alternative casting cost bonus)

    7. Hierophant’s Decree - This card is my attempt to answer @TheRacingTurtle personal challenge of what the most powerful ordain spell would be. I’m not sure this is the one, but i tried, and i thought it was fitting to show how Taharqa would go about his resolving his power struggles in one final checkmate move eliminating all competition within Vargshapat.

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    All in all, this has been one of the most fun, and expanding challenges I’ve participated in. I’ve really enjoyed all of your entries, and I wanna thank TheRacingTurtle for putting it on. Its been a blast, good luck to everyone!!!
  • Well, I suppose it's the end times, the Old Ones have been summoned, and madness enthralls the land. Okay I'll stop being dramatic, on with the actual cards.

    Prompt #1 + A new creature type + an alternate cost:
    https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/orecic-manifest-void


    Orecic, a being of unknown ages. Numen is the Latin term for divinity, divine will, or divine presence. The Silverblade Order could not have imagined such a creature, could not realize what they were dealing with.

    Prompt #2 + use of Sacrifice in the text:
    https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/unknowable-truth


    I suppose I let this one show up a little early, but it arrives all the same. The knowledge of the numina is too vast, too incomprehensible for anyone to understand. It drives all who gain such insight to the brink of insanity and malformation. Gazing upon a Numen causes terrible headaches, ringing in your ear, skin crawling and itching, and hallucinations. The Truth of the Universe and the Numen are Unknowable.

    I have two additional cards to fill out the other prompts!
    First, a leader from another cult + a cost of a color not in the casting cost:
    https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/melile-moonlight-sister


    Something I hadn't made perhaps super clear was that all members of the Silverblade Order identify as women, which limited my selection of other faction leaders by a bit! In the end I decided to imagine @ningyounk's Lady Melile of Paliano (and her snake) from the Bitter Sisters as a member of the Order. I tried to capture and reimagine some of the same flavor from the original, keeping in mind that the only color our groups shared was White, and worked from there.

    Silly, Second, and finally, an Un card + randomness:
    https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/godpost


    Now I realize this may seem like a bit of a random card at first, but the theme/idea I was going for was "Cosmic/Celestial Unknown" as a sort of "realm of the Numen" concept. Unpredictable, bizarre, shifting, unstable, and 10 colors! (It also was a land because I was going to try and get 4 different card types but didn't quite get there)

    Anyways, thank you so much for making and hosting this wonderful challenge! Unfortunately going into it I didn't have a super firm grasp of the cult I was making, and so it shifted some away from where it started, but I did try to find a good reason for the shift and I hope that the "trickery and unknowable plans of the Old Ones" is justifiable for some of it haha. I look forward to the final results!
  • @Red_Tower That's yellow, orange, grey, pink and purple? Now I need to know their basic lands and overall color identities, please elaborate :lol: No, really, I know it's a super silly card, but you can't just leave it at that!
  • Hey look, the Off Color pie. 
  • @ThePhantomJoker actually it's brown, not grey. I haven't personally used them much yet, although I know there are some people that have. The go-to land type for purple is cave or city, but besides that I'm not sure. I know Arceus has done some work with the other color pie haha.
  • I found this thing on the five "other" colors. Here.
  • Attention, all Innovation members. This is a general organization announcement. Could the individuals assigned to the keeping of Veska's mechanized dragon prepare subdual measures as quickly as possible.



    The Amov twins would like to thank all contributions so far made towards their natural filigree reimagination project, and remind everybody that while there isn't much chance you'll do better than whatever poisonous mess the Symbiont ends up entering, it can't hurt to try.



    On a different note, could the individual who allowed their squirrels into the central workshop please report to the central workshop. You are required to persuade your squirrels to relinquish control of the deadly robot they appear to have created. Failure to do so may result in the temporary confiscation and recategorization of your squirrels as assets for future projects. This confiscation will occur as soon as we find a way to stop them from knocking holes in the walls.



    Finally, our interdimensional crossover team would apparently like to thank Rayne_Lord's Taharqa, Dread Polymath for their collaboration on the living supercomputer project. We'd also like to remind people that we do not actually have an interdimensional crossover team, and that if you see or hear anybody claiming to be a member of an interdimensional crossover team they should be extensively questioned on the details of interdimensional travel. Thank you, everybody. Have a good day.



    And then there's these guys, and I'm happy to say that I haven't got a clue how to fit them into that rambled broadcast shell this close to the deadline. I guess they're just here, along with vague regrets that I didn't lay out these ramblings into mechanical rather than flavorful at the beginning of this.


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    Objective listing time. Pretty sure I've got everything including a metaphorical headache:

     - Haphazard Scrapping // Hazardous Steelkite is intended for the first prompt. The Innovation being a philosophy cult rather than a religious one makes it pretty debatable as to whether the prompt's actually fitted, but I figured that something receiving interest and "offerings" of metal from the group would have to do. Haphazard Scrapping // Hazardous Steelkite also uses sacrifice.

     - Artful Reworking // Automated Regent is supposed to represent one vision of the Innovation's success, specifically the "improvement" of the world through the application of machinery.

     - Enigmatic Songmodders is an Artist, a custom creature type intended to encompass musicians, painters, and anybody else in that area. It probably needs an overhaul at some point.

     - Overtooled Techbot is silver-bordered, employs randomness, and uses mana colors in the rules that aren't in the cost. Also, I may as well mention that its art is a mess of different images that I've stuck together, and that the credits for them can be found on the Cardsmith page for it.

     - Taharqa, Optimized Insight is based on a week two legendary.

     - And finally, the general task of "use four or more card types" is covered by instant on Artful Reworking // Automated Regent, sorcery from Haphazard Scrapping // Hazardous Steelkite, and artifact and creature from literally everything.
  • @MemoryHead This entry is absolutely beautiful. The broadcast was a brilliant idea and I chuckled at times (especially in the squirel bit). Good job, good job...
  • Thanks all, we are now closed for final judging. It'll probably be a few hours off as I've got a busy Monday right now, I'll tackle it tonight.
  • (cue drumroll)
  • Ended up in hospital for the afternoon instead, thankfully nothing is broken.

    For the fourth and final set of prompts, I am awarding this week's top entries to:
    1st . @ThePhantomJoker and The Heroreapers (7pts)
    2nd.  @Rayne-Lord and House of the Two-Moons (5 pts)
    3rd. @MemoryHead and The Innovation (3pts)

    Thoughts on the top three:
    1. I thought both Eren and Equal World were excellent representations of your cult, both addressing leveling the playing field for the masses. They both also work very well together, Eren creating your go-wide army with Equal World meaning the tokens are just as threatening as whatever creature they've been made in response to. Equal World breaks out a creative new design, feeling inspired by Humility but different enough, while still being colour-appropriate and easy to understand.

    2. Vahimgar feels extremely spot on as the deity of your cult, with the simple design being incredibly evocative of the themes you've had running. Had to look up what apogee meant (the highest point in the development of something; a climax or culmination) and felt that was a a very flavourful decision. It also merges very well with the flavour of Enlightened Hegemony. I think that card is so close for me, gaining a benefit from tapped creatures that didn't attack works perfectly for your cult, and I think that's an interesting way to develop more card advantage for white (by benefitting off creature's activated abilities). The pay-off being mana that can only be used to cast noncreature spells is where I feel it clashes with the design. Excellent for your cult's direction, a great representation for your glorious tomorrow, but it feels off in the colour pie with this card being white. I think adding blue to this spell's cost, or changing the restriction to something different, would strengthen the design. Very slick flavour text on that one too.

    3. Artful Reworking // Automated Regent is another beautiful card MemoryHead, in design and execution. Another great use of the dual sided flavour text, I think the concept is elegant and beautiful, and is how I envision The Innovation "bettering" the world. Regarding Haphazard Scrapping // Hazardous Steelkite, I understand your point regarding whether this fitted the first prompt, I can see how this might have been a challenging aspect to tackle with the nature of your cult - it feels like a philosophical community with a broad range of ideas more than it does a group worshipping a singular focus. I think you've made an excellent card, I just don't feel it is definitively enough "the deity, concept, or ultimate object of your cult's worship" to take the top spot this week. Also, awesome Daft Punk reference in the bonus cards. Couldn't go without mentioning that.


  • @Everyone
    Friends, cardsmiths, maniacal cult leaders, I present to you our final leaderboard:

    1st Rayne-Lord – House of the Two-Moons 38
    2nd / 3rd MemoryHead – The Innovation 37
    2nd / 3rd ThePhantomJoker – The Heroreapers 37
    4th / 5th AboveAndAbout -Krelli 23
    4th / 5th Red_Tower – The Silverblade Order 23
    6th ningyounk – The Bitter Sisters 18
    7th SpellPiper2213 – The Tannarian Society 14
    8th TheDukeOfPork – Unjay Cult 11
    9th Jadefire – Oniko Clan 5

    What a close competition! Congratulations to an extremely tight top 3.

    Rayne-Lord, you've earned 6 favourites from me of your choice, let me know what cards you'd like done, and I've followed you. MemoryHead and ThePhantomJoker, seeing as you're tied for 2nd/3rd you can both have second place's prizes - 4 favourites and a follow each, let me know what cards you'd like done.

    I hope you have all enjoyed your time with this challenge, no amount of imaginary internet points feels like enough to reward your hard work.

    This was my first time running something on these forums, and I learned plenty along the way. In the future, if I was to do such a complex challenge again I would give more time for the deadlines, and aim to provide as clear as possible instructions as possible. I would also work to provide my judging feedback from the start if it had multiple stages like this one, to help give direction on what I'm looking for. Additionally, anything big like this definitely deserves more prize support, so I'll look into what options there are other than providing more and more favourites (I attempted to make it a Circuit Challenge early on, but it didn't quite fit the criteria required). If you have any other feedback you'd like to offer please let me know, I'm all ears.
  • @TheRacingTurtle Thanks for the amazing challange idea and fun prompts! I absolutely love these type of challanges where I can work on some gorup/organisation/whatever overtime and this one was really nice. And I'm grateful for the second place!

    You can favorite these cards:
    https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/xatherius-the-faithful
    https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/border-toll
    https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/jinzaahns-might
    https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/remembrandt
    I feel like they deserve a little more attention.

    And thanks to everyone else who participated, I enjoyed most of your creations. It's great to see how everyone has different approaches to the same prompts!
  • Yay! Thanks for hosting this awesome competition @TheRacingTurtle! Can't wait to see your next competition!
  • edited March 2021
    Well, thanks for the challenge and the podium spot. It's been good, it's helped me catch some pretty major flaws in some designs, and perhaps it'll actually do the job of teaching me to manage time better. I guess I'll just take my favorites on stuff that I've made that you feel's deserving them.

    In memory of that one bonus point I dropped on week three before I figured out the details of the weekly top three judging system.

    @Rayne-Lord Congratulations on the win. Feels like it was extremely deserved. The flavor and mechanical cohesion of the House both seemed superb to me, and I'm pretty surprised that the scoring ended up being as close as it was.

    Also, congratulations to @ThePhantomJoker on that shared podium spot, and a general "nice work" kind of thing to everybody who was a part of it. There were some neat ideas rattling around, and it was good to see them.
  • I missed this week.
  • What a waste of time.
  • That's quite rude @TheDukeOfPork. Winning isn't life.
  • edited March 2021
    No, because I was looking forward to finishing their story, and I couldn't. I mean no disrespect to @TheRacingTurtle, I didn't really want to win. 

    Plus, @AboveAndAbout just because you some 'Card-making' genius does not mean that you can assume I'm doing something wrong all the time, which you do.
  • @TheDukeOfPork, I'm far from a "card-making genius". I don't know what you thought I said was wrong about everything you did. Besides, it was just your comment that could come off as rude, since you did say "A waste of time".
  • I mean a waste of time writing all that in a big build-up, only to face the truth that I could not complete it.

    And about the other part of your comment, the way you speak to me suggests that I am doing something wrong, almost all the time. And also the way you speak in general about my cards and other stuff seems like you feel, in a way superior. 
  • Congratulations to all winners! This was a fun contest. I learned a fair bit from it.
  • @TheDukeOfPork I believe you can still finish up your cult if you want to, it just won't enter for judging.
  • @TheDukeOfPork, it wasn't a waste of time.  I liked your cards, they were very interesting.
  • Major congrats to the top spots! You all had excellent cards with solid flavor and direction. I also definitely missed a bonus point here or there that could have broken the tie, but regardless this was an awesome and fun challenge to take part in. Thanks again to @TheRacingTurtle for hosting and I look forward to participating in more of your challenges.
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