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[RESULTS] CUSTOM-START 2: A random design challenge
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That was quick! And it looks like all restrictions have been met, congratulations! =D
Oh wow, I think you just established a speed record xD And every restriction seems to be met! Congratulations ^^
Third batch of packs incoming!
Your last batch will be a Flash-matters batch! It's not unlike the hexproof/ward pack you did earlier so hopefully you should feel at home with this one ^^ And for the flavour...
A labyrinth-flavoured pack! Note that I'm ok with more subtle interpretations of the theme, someone being lost would be considered a valid entry for instance ^^ The pack is Jund colours, no white or blue allowed, thankfully both green and black have heavy access to flash so you should be fine on that front. You already know the rules, so good luck to you =D
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The next participant can claim two of these packs:
The common, satisfying category 3
With a theme like spell and permanent copying, the common was by far the hardest slot to design. In the history of the game, there have only been three commons that could copy themselves or other objects without the use of a keyword (e.g. Replicate, Populate, Storm, etc.), and two of those cards are part of the "chain of" cycle which were downshifted in supplemental releases.
Power Chord is a card I have been on the fence about. Its effect is wordy and requires more text on it than I would like for a common, but I don't believe it is too complex for a newer player to pilot, and its sorcery speed timing prevents it from allowing complex combat scenarios or board decisions. I envision the set/pack this card would show up in as having a "token copies matter" theme throughout the set, possibly using populate or some other new mechanic that can copy creatures in order to facilitate the effect at common, and this card allows you to effectively use those extra tokens you'd be creating for things outside of combat, creating a rather powerful burn spell when you tap a creature while casting it.
The uncommon, satisfying category 2
Reverberation Zone is a heavy buildaround card, and I honestly debated putting it into a second color to make it a proper Arcun/Signpost Uncommon. However, I opted to keep it mono-blue as blue can reasonably do both of these effects on its own and I wanted to keep a relative color balance in my entries, as both my rare and mythic rare are multicolored.
I largely based the wording and costing of the card off of Twinning Staff, which is a rare. However, I decided to keep this effect at uncommon (and at 3 mana as opposed to a higher cost) since Twinning Staff has the very critical extra utility of being able to enable itself via its activated ability. This means on its own twinning staff is still an artifact with "7, T: Copy target instant or sorcery spell you control twice..." and Reverberation Zone lacks any of that additional (and rather powerful) utility.
Honestly, one of the challenges with this pack that I didn't anticipate when going in was that I wanted this pack to focus more on copying permanents than on copying instants/sorceries, and there is no real precedent for a card that cares about/pays off copying permanents. Frankly, even after going over the rulebook section on copying objects, I'm not entirely sure the game can track whether or not something is a copy past its initial creation. Thus, the approach I took for Reverberation Zone was to look specifically at the only real precedent we have for copy-matters in the past, which looks specifically at the action of copying the object. This is why Zone doesn't provide some static anthem to spells and/or permanents that are copies.
The rare, satisfying category 2
While Aria does have the ability to ping when you copy a spell, Aria's most effective application is with effects that can copy your creatures, since I believe her anthem effect to be the meat of this design. I think she is especially interesting in a format like Commander where you aren't allowed to have duplicates of most of your cards. Speaking of, I largely wanted to aim Aria at limited and EDH, since I think that's where she is most interesting. I debated giving her an effect that could enable herself so she isn't a total blank without effective copying abilities. However, I think she proves to be a much more interesting and focused buildaround effect when she can't automatically enable herself. Given this contest has the implication that these cards would be fore a Jumpstart setting, ideally a pack with Aria in it would include sufficient tools to ensure she provides good value when you play her.
The mythic, satisfying category 1
Vivace might be my favorite design in the pack, as I really enjoy the marriage of flavor and function on this card. The card I based him off of was Imminent Doom, since I think Imminent Doom encourages a really cool and interesting play pattern of sequencing and curving your spells out effectively. It was through this that I came up with the idea marry that encouragement of playing a specific way to a magic wizard conductor putting on a grand symphony.
The main deviation between Vivace and Imminent Doom is that Vivace uses experience counters rather than placing counters on himself. This was largely done for EDH purposes, as it makes it much harder to "restart" his encouraged play pattern, and keeps decks from being low-cost spellslinger-y piles that can bounce and replay Vivace. Eventually, Vivace pilots are going to have to start casting massive spells, and when Vivace copies them, that's going to create some pretty exciting and explosive turns. It feels fitting to a concert piece building up as it's played to its massive finale.
Of course, that all is not to discount Vivace's limited/jumpstart utility, where I assume he is typically only going to be played about once a game and thus will function quite similarly in impact and play pattern to Imminent Doom, albeit with a rather powerful payoff, hence why he is higher costed and easier to remove than Doom is.|
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This was fun and I'll take another. Gonna do C25 Block and #58 (also gonna @ningyounk just to make sure you see I'm taking another pack)
#1: Sink // Swim (Common, satisfies design requirement 3: A split card)
For this one, I decided to use one side to represent sirens dragging a sailor to his doom, and the other one to represent a merfolk slipping their way through a sticky situation. Mechanically, they're both fairly simple (they are commons, after all). Sink allows you to temporarily remove anything that could logically be brought to the bottom of the sea. That means no sea creatures, but it works on everything on land. Swim, however, is a simple evasion spell most useful when they target your creature on your turn before you attack. Of course, it is perfectly useful as just unblockable or hexproof if you don't need one of them at a given moment.
#2: Darksong Siren // Entrancing Melody (Uncommon, satisfies design requirement 2: A creature with an adventure)
Another fairly simple one, I tried to convey the classic story of a siren luring a sailor to their death with their song. The creature itself is perfectly acceptable on it's own (essentially Assassinate with a body attached), but combined with the adventure it becomes something even more powerful. I feel like the flavor really came through on this one, and I quite like it.
#3: Beckoning Lure // Saevo, Ocean Scourge (Rare, satisfies design requirement of using an alternate frame)
When you hear the words "flip cards," you probably think of what are technically called "transform" cards, where you flip the card onto the back side. However, flip cards are actually a mechanic from Kamigawa block where you turn the card upside down upon completing a requirement. It being one of the least-remembered alternate frames, I figured it would be interesting to try making one. I chose to depict a massive serpentine leviathan using a beautiful merfolk woman as bait to lure in unsuspecting victims. In mechanics, whenever a creature gets close to the lure, Saevo pops up and eats it alive. If your opponent tries to remove him once he's revealed himself, he just pops back into your hand and hides behind his lure again. However, his lure is fragile. If it dies, he's gone for good.
#4: Kumena Takes Orazca (Mythic Rare, satisfies design requirement 1: A saga)
This is by far the card from this set that is most rooted in actual MTG lore. It represents Kumena (of Tyrant of Orazca fame) being the first to discover the Golden City. The first ability represents his search for Orazca, the second ability represents his taking of the power of the Immortal Sun (Also, it's a non-planeswalker card that makes an emblem! Neat!), and the third ability represents his battle with Vona which he lost but don't worry about that. It was interesting trying to come up with flavorful representations of Kumena's journey to power, but I feel like it turned out well.
Oh my bad, I mixed up your first entry with Vardus, I'm definitely in way over my head >.< Anyways, congratulations on completing your third entry! As usual, all restrictions have been met
@Aggroman15
All challenges have been cleared successfully, congratulations on your entry! =D
@Arceus8523
Congratulations! That was an especially spicy one to clear but you managed to clear every challenge =D
Here are your next packs as requested:
This is a defender pack! defender can be a tricky mechanic to design for but you'll find plenty of existing examples to take inspiration from ^^ The term "boosts" in the second challenge is purposefully vague to let you some room for interpretation. It doesn't have to be a stats boost (though it would be valid), it can also be a more specific bonus similar to what was done in Ikoria and the keyword-matter cards. However, I won't count allowing creatures with defender to attack as a boost since this is challenge #3. As for the flavour pack, this is an especially unique one!
This is a "Multiverses Beyond" pack! Are you a Marvel, Harry Potter, Transformers, or maybe SpongeBob SquarePants fan? Choose any fandom you like and stick to it for the four cards! For the colours, it's actually up to you to decide what suits your fandom best, but you cannot use more than three colours in total in your whole entry. I wish you luck! =D
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Here are the packs to choose from for the next participant:
As soon as I saw 'paired' I wanted to make a Fuse card, and it wound up meaning I had a fuse that could either have dogs and cats working apart or together. I didn't want to just make Rin and Seri again, so Warring Apexes is a Dog and Cat card that reflects their rivalry instead.
Also, if this satisfies my previous challenges conditions, could I have Coins and #14?
Wonderful! That's some intricate weaving of restrictions you've managed to do here! x) Everything is here, congratulations!
Here are two new packs for you as requested:
Coins is a double-faced cards pack!
As for the flavour pack:
Ancient nordic civilizations! Obviously in MTG terms you have Kaldheim as a reference now so hopefully this shouldn't be too hard. No black or red allowed, you know the rest, so good luck on your second run!
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The next participant can choose two packs from among those:
Flavor Pack - Spring & Summer
Beautiful, I'm loving the butterfly theme =D That was a hard one and all restrictions have been met, congratulations ^^
Elementary
and
Flavor #54
Your request shall be granted ;p Here is your second batch of packs!
This is a tough one! It's an Vanilla and French vanilla pack ^^ The creature cards you make are only allowed evergreen keyword abilities (flying, ward, deathtouch, trample, etc.) though naturally your other card types can have any ability they want. And to go with it your flavour pack—which was certainly misleading as all rare pack— is about...
This pack requires you to have flowers in each illustration, and it ties you to Temur colours—no white or black allowed. However, this theme is quite similar to the one you got in your previous pack (spring and summer) so I'm going to offer you a chance to switch your pack with one of two other packs of the same rarity if you prefer:
You already know the rest, tell me if you're interesting in making an exchange and good luck!
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The next participant can choose from this fresh batch:
Flavor Pack -- Rogues
For the next packs, I'll take Tribute and Flavor #26
Wonderful! You managed to satisfy all restrictions, congratulations!
As requested, here is your second batch of packs:
This is a legendary-matters pack! You've got the whole Dominaria set for inspiration if you need some, but this is a pretty self-explanatory pack x)
And for the flavour pack to go with it:
Elemental magic in Temur colours! Obviously elementals themselves are a part of elemental magic, but any magic related to the elements such as water, fire, air, earth, thunder, ice, etc. is fair game ^^
Hope this inspires you, I'd say it's a pretty unusual combination; I'm curious to see where you will choose to take it. You already know the rest, good luck to you!
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The next participant can claim two packs from these:
Haha well at least you know what you've gotten into, because this one is especially spicy!
It's a custom keyword pack xD You get to create your own keyword mechanic (or use one you already invented). I'm being broad with the term "keyword" here, this can be anything from a keyword ability to an ability word, keyword action, new card type, or game concept like "historic" or "perpetually".
And the flavour pack to go with it is about:
Schools, in Sultai colours! We've got Strixhaven as a new plane of reference for the theme but it doesn't have to be in Strixhaven if you don't want to. Just a card name or flavour text evoking things at school will be enough to satisfy this restriction ^^ It's an interesting combination because Strixhaven didn't have school-specific mechanics. One option could be to give Witherbloom or Quandrix a specific mechanic, or even invent a new UB college with its own theme. Ayways, you already know the rest of the rules, so good luck to you on this second run!
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The next participant can choose from those packs:
I found myself reusing art on two cards because I couldn't find what I wanted that would be as visually impactful within the set. I did tie the cards together in flavor.
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/hyacinth-purveyor-of-pain-1
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/what-lurks-beneath-9
The cards are beautiful! =D The flower theme is definitely respected, however I think you forgot about the "Creatures can't have non-evergreen abilities" restriction
Oooh I see your reasoning now. It's my bad then, I should have been clearer about the theme of the pack >.<" An evergreen keyword is really just the keyword, for instance "First strike as long as it's attacking" or "target creature gains first strike until end of turn" are not evergreen keyword abilities because they'e not keyworded, only "first strike" is. In this case, you can circumvent the pack restriction entirely by writing anything without its keyword, the way most sets will say "Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control" instead of "landfall" for instance. The intended theme was vanilla and French vanilla creaures xD
But that one is on me, the pack wasn't clear enough as I didn't anticipate this interpretation, so I'm just going to judge the pack as if it said "don't use non-evergreen keywords on creatures" ^^ Sorry for the confusion, I'll just roll with it x)
If you want to participate, you can choose one design pack and one flavour pack from the ones above (Costume/Save/Simulacrum & 29/03/37) =D Fair warning though, the deadline is this Sunday so it might be difficult to submit your entry in time >.<
— REMINDER—
THE CONTEST ENDS ON SUNDAY
IF YOU WANT TO RUN FOR THE CONTEST AT THE END,
PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR ENTRIES BEFORE MONDAY
List of participants that have opened packs but not submitted their entries yet:
And here is the list of participants with complete entries:
- 1x Aggroman15
- 1x Temurzoa
- 1x HeroKP
- 1x GameQnQ
- 1x LyndonF
- 2x Corwinnn
- 1x Arceus8523
- 1x Vardus
- 3x IanLowenthal
Please tell me if you see any mistake in any list ^^