Legends - Descendants (or All in the Family ) **Circuit Challenge**

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  • So Neimi is a descendant of Marhault. Marhault was a loyal soldier of Nicol Bolas back on Dominaria in the old days so I thought it would be interesting to instead have her trying to make up for the crimes of her ancestor and going out of her way to slay powerful and dangerous tyrants like Nicol Bolas was at the time. I also wanted that to manifest in an ability that triggers when blocked like Rampage but more versatile. She also has reach just so she can actually fight dragons like I intended and it's in green's piece of the pie.
  • Kaspar is a desecndent of Jasmine. Jasmine was a druid whose main feats were creating an earthquake, and destroying a ship by making the mast return to its life as a tree and having it's roots grow through the wood and wreck it. She also hated using modern artifacts in her spells, so for her descendant I wanted to have artifact hate as well as some sort of board wipe type spell like earthquake is in the game (which is why I made him part red) and figured I could combine the two. Storywise I decided that Kaspar while drawing power from the land like his ancestor, was less interested in magic and instead wanted to become a warrior, using his rudimentary druid skills to aid him in battle.

  • edited May 2021
    Even if it's too late for judging, it's worth a share.
    image image image

    https://www.mtgcardsmith.com/view/esdra-sengir

  • edited May 2021
    Closed for judging now.  Jadefire - since it was before dawn, you're in.   There are a lot of great submissions so It might be a little bit as I want to review them carefully.   Than you to everyone who participated.  

    While the contest is closed, if anyone wants to share a descendant and want it to be seen they could still post it here.  As far as I'm concerned it can go on as long as people have interest in posting.
  • edited May 2021

    Ok, this was tough.   Here we go with the results:

    Honorable Mentions 

    Community Favorite:   Among cards that did not place, Dao'kanar, Swamp Prince  by CS101 Tonysparks is the one the community liked best.  Art is nice and creepy.  Making an opponent’s land change into a swamp is a both very old-timey but perfectly apropos.    What held me back was the decision to concentrate on depreciated Swampwalk mechanic rather than some sort of life gain.    A self-fulfilling Swampwalk means it would not be the most fun to play against 1 on 1.   However, he would certainly be fun in Commander, where he could be viably run with the intend to take someone out with 20 commander damage.

     

    Fun with Flavor:  Homelands was magic’s flavorless proto-Innistrad.  It was so early they had a lot to learn about making cards.  Hailing from Ulgotha we have Jadefire’s Esdra Sengir.   Which is as flavorful as you can ask for and shows a power level more balanced for modern play.  When I revisited Ulgotha myself, Wither was in as the lycanthrope ability; curse unhealing wounds is apropos.  The interesting variation on Sengir +1/-1 is good as well.  I had to DWQ it from placing for a “unwritten rules” issue I ran into myself, namely that to decrease confusion WotC isn’t putting +1/+1 and -1/-1 counters in the same set.

     

    Deep in the Lore & Continuing out Story is Oh Wyrm.   While not playing this smith did give us two cards that almost did.  I have them both lined up for an HM and noted they same person made them only after finalizing my list.   2 HMs to one cardsmith.

    Kaspar Boreal, the Aspirant by This is like a textbook on how to dive into a legend that got the vanilla treatment, take everything known about it, and make a card to that is the next step.    It is a good cad to have on your side as a fighter, decent commander.  He is not complex, but his artifact/enchantment hate is a great plus.

    Of special flavor trivia note is kowing exactly what to callsomeone with rudimentary druid skills.   Even if it did have a make-me-feel-old as-dirt-component.  I'm not even sure this is 100% intentional but there it is in any case.  The bell it rung is from way back.  The first edition ofAdvanced Dungeons & Dragons, which gave a name for many individual class levels.  A 1st level druid was an “Aspirant”.    That the card is built like a character that took only 1 level is being a druid rather than having some big complex fancy druid things is spot on with that level of experience.

    Neimi Elsdragon, Baneslayer takes a different tack.  Sometimes, people do not have ancestors to live up to, but ones who have done wrongs they must rise above.   In this case, we have a heroine trying to redeem the family name.   It is interesting how this was done while maintaining the same colors, not bending the color pie, and updating in an appropriate way.

    This could have just gone into Baneslayer Angel territory fact but it did not!   The ability sort of like rampage combined with Reach means 1 on 1 she can bring down an elder dragon, unaided. An impressive feat.   Moreover, the Baneslayer name is justified in that  she works just as well to take down big demons, from Lord of the up through Grixis and Lilianna’s four patrons.  Have her on your side and you are tyrant slaying ready.


  • So, who are the hm's?
  • edited May 2021
    Those were the Honorable Mentions, I apologize if that was unclear.
  • The winners:

     

    #3: Jacques le Vert by ThePhantomJoker.  Here we have someone who is rooting for the little guy.  Shining as a commander, his low-cost high-quality defender carries Pendelhaven every humble soul can share.

     Keeping true to the original, it is specifically NOT all about him.  There are all sorts of strategies to churn out 1/1 counters in these colors and those who gather behind Adrien’s banner find both strength in number and in actual strength.

      I think the art itself deserve a special mention, because he really does look like Jaques’ grandson or something.  I think it the best art choice of al the entrants.  They share a helmet which is very much a like.  The direct callback to events of Dominatia is perhaps a little wordy but I think see Adrien as a veritable chatterbox anyway, like a regular constant inspirational speaker.

     

    #2  Asuriel, Heir to Angelfire by OhWyrm.  In Gabriel Angelfire we had a card with great flavor that, like most legends of its day was not all that could be desired.  Always perplexing to me is why did this not always fly?

      Oh Wyrm fixes this in with the Descendant.  The mechanic of being able to copy Keywords is something we have seen before, but for limited to keywords.  Making it any keyword goes from menu to full smorgasbord.  It manages to ben a spring and a summer in that it feels very we’re all together in this Selesnya yet home in the more mature Dominarian setting.

     The artwork is just lovely.   Most angel art focuses on the angel, not so here.  That she has the support of the laity in battle is clear by their raised swords.  In this way, those she is drawing here abilities from is subtly but definitely acknowledge.

     

     

    #1  Serinsho the Ainted by Jadefire.   Jadefire really shone with with a lot of really good entries, and this is the best.  Seshiro the Anointed was definitely the card to be sure to put in your Kamigowa Snake deck, but suffered from being a little too specialized in that he was clearly a card pretty much just for a mon-green snake deck.  Not nearly so attractive in anything else. 

     Senku corrects this fault by expanding to include utility in Samurai decks.  Which, while still all-kamigowa, blow into WUBRG.  Internal Symmetry on the changes is wonderful.  Changing from Monk to Samurai, Anointed to Avenger, and focus on the spiritual to raw physical are all in harmony.

     Avenger” is interestingly applies in more than one way as well.  That when his fellows die he get tougher is the obvious part.  Less obvious is the Flash.   This lets him show up to the battle at the last second, just in time to block someone minor, as superior foes slaughter a whole slew of his comrades.  This is great untexted flavor in the manner of Stone Giant.  Cause everyone who’s ever seen Stone Giant was doing, even If it never mentioned it on the card.

     Of note:  702.45b If a creature has multiple instances of bushido, each triggers separately.

    Which means his Avenger ability is on steroids as he might have Bushido 1, Buhido 2, Bushido 3, Bushido 4….   Particularly if in a sacrifice deck. Trample means no chump blocker is to counter his mega-Bushido. 

     Finally, he has a built in Lure.  The downfall of bushido is that it depends upon the opponent’s decision to block.   Lure classic alpha tactic for an all-out assault in mono green.  It well captures a Samurai’s suicidal devotion to their lord.   It echoes Seshiro in that, it gives to his fellows.  While he makes a big show of striking the whole army, everyone else gets to sneak around behind them. 

    The art is interesting in that there is a more than passing resemblance to the Seshiro.  This was accomplished by recycling art from somewhere obscure.    The artist UDON had done art for some 74 Vanguard Avatars.  A little side-turn Mtg that took that never off.  Nonetheless, it does provide perfect artwork for a card like this.  Using alternate for fan that depicts a specific character to portray a descendant is clever.


  • Ok, so the  gallery is up.  https://mtgcardsmith.com/user/mmm3creator2/sets/60585?page=1

    Winners & Honorable mentions PM me with what to favorites.  Winners have contact me with a boggle whenever they run into an issue.

    Thank you got all the great entries!


  • @mmm3creator Dao'kanar was @CS101, I do agree its an awesome card. Also thanks for hosting.
  • Thanks @mmm3creator! Congrats to all the participants and all the winners. A lot of awesome cards were submitted! 
  • Thanks for running this context @mmm3creator!  It was a fantastic and imaginative follow-up to the Update old Legendary Creatures contest, which I was sad to see end.  It's really nice when the judge has an appreciation for Magic's lore and history, which you clearly do, so that the subtle design details are picked up on. I can appreciate the other entries more now that I can see some of the behind-the-scenes thinking that went into them.  Good pick-up on the Vanuard art, btw.  I didn't realize it was existing Magic artwork until after the fact since it doesn't occur on a standard card.  I guess that just reinforces the adage that, when Googling for art for a custom Magic card, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

    Congratulations to all the cardsmiths for making so many creative and interesting cards.
  • @mmm3creator this was a fun contest! Like @Jadefire said, this was a good follow-up to the Update Old Legendary Creature challenge!
  • Circuit Points Awarded!

  • @mmm3creator thank you so much! I had a lot of fun. The Aspirant reference was unintentional but I'll certainly take credit for it.
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