Mystery Box Challenges

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  • @Shelko
    did you make all of those just now?
  • @jpastor Yep, I designed those today slowly, when I had spare time. Hard part was trying to find fitting artworks as Zubera is pretty complex creature type haha.
  • I just bought a gaming pc :)
  • @jpastor Nice! Have fun!
  • edited June 2022
    @jpastor , congrats on the PC! For the premium legacy prize, I won't gamble with 50/50 odds. I'll choose the custom earnable mystery box avatar.

    Here's my submission for a mono-white, single-worded instant that draws a card. It's like a pre-emptive flicker, even for permanents that would otherwise not be flickerable, a Panharmonicon-on-a-Stick.


    Another box, please.
  • @Potato13
    Your mystery box contains:
    • Premium Prize 18 - Broadcast Feature: An entire twitch/discord stream dedicated to you.
    • A Mystery Challenge: Create a rare red & blue instant.
  • Very fun fact: In Australia, dust devils are sometimew called williewillies for some reason. 
  • williewillie - hahah!
  • @jpastor Am I doing the judging of this duel as well?
  • @Jadefire Here's my entry:

  • OK, here we go.

    @jpastor despite your claim that Dust Devil is a bad entry, it's actually a very good entry for some pretty subtle reasons.  Red doesn't have many ways to deal with large creatures without giving up card advantage, so the fact that Dust Devil deals six damage is something that's a welcome addition for red.  It's also an unconditional six damage (vs. Firecannon Blast) for an unconditional three mana (vs. Squash), so it's reliable and aggressively costed enough to be in a control deck's toolkit.  It also doesn't suffer from the limitation of not being able to target flyers like Roast.  That being the case, it was a correct move to make Dust Devil a sorcery.  Three mana for three damage to a Planeswalker isn't anything to write home about on its own but I'm counting that as icing.  Dust Devil will mainly be a creature kill spell and any added flexibility only makes the card's stock go up.  To take a page out of hileandr's book, I wouldn't be sad to see Dust Devil show up at the level of frequency of an uncommon in a limited environment, so the choice of rarity was good.  The flavour of a storm column is also on point for explaining why it can damage the permanents it does.  Given its efficiency, an argument could be made for making Dust Devil harder to cast and/or splash into non-red decks (i.e., 1RR or 3R) but 2R is probably the upper-limit acceptable cost for it.  The formatting is good except that card types don't need to be capitalized, "creature" was right but "planeswalker" should be lower case.  Also, when a mode extends past a single line of text the following lines should be indented and there should be a space between "choose one" and the long dash, but those are minor points.  Overall, excellent work.

    @ShadowReign I like the flexibility of your design in being able to interact with more card types and how the modes are very in line with the colours of the card.  The addition of flavour text is also appreciated.  The rarity also seems good for the artifact hate and enchantment hate modes.  There are a few formatting issues that can be easily addressed: 1) the card is missing the Golgari card frame, 2) the modes should be separated into individual lines with bullets, and 3) there should be an empty line separating the rules text from the flavour text.  I get that it was probably a deliberate choice because of vertical spacing limits.  There are two functionality issues with Secret Bargain that I think are important to address.  Firstly, you never want to make the function of a card dependent on the honour system.  The fact that you're just supposed to trust that your opponent doesn't have any cards in their hand that match the mode you choose when they fail to discard one is problematic.  That's why real Magic designs force players to reveal their hands when you're supposed to look for specific matches, so that all players can verify that what happens is above board.  You'll just avoid disputes during gameplay by following this design convention.  Secondly, the ability to take a land out of your opponent's hand for two mana (and at instant speed) is a pretty unfun ability to play against, it's like pre-emptive land destruction.  Even though your opponent gets to choose which land they lose, losing that land can be pretty devastating if you're playing second and your opponent casts Secret Bargain on curve, especially if you've had to mulligan.  This is because Secret Bargain works differently than cards like Raze, Tremble, and Crack the Earth, you don't actually need to have a land card in your hand to cast it so it's easy to make the effect asymmetric.  I think Secret Bargain has several ideas of value that can be reclaimed/repurposed with a little bit of rewording (e.g., the name, art, and flavour are on point) and if the formatting was aligned with current Magic conventions, you'd have yourself a really solid card.

    TLDR: Both cardsmiths put forth a solid effort but Dust Devil takes the win over Secret Bargain.
  • edited June 2022
    @Jadefire I completely agree with your decision. Your points about not revealing each player's hand, and that you can play around the discard all make sense. I feel I should mention though, the frame, the wording, and the spacing are all intentional. When I see this style of art it makes me think of older MTG cards, so I used the Alliances symbol, and designed it as close as I could to how a card printed at that time would be designed. That said, the flaws can't be overlooked and I understand why it loss.

    Good Duel @jpastor, and I'm ready for a new Mystery Box.
  • @Shelko
    Your mystery box contains:
    • A Mystery Challenge: Create a Sorcery with a surge cost.
    @Potato13
    Your mystery box contains:
    • Prize 36 - Herbal Supplement: You may exchange X of your unused prizes for 2X favorites.
    • A Mystery Challenge: Create a Legendary Enchantment Creature with 3 different artwork variants. (Post all 3 entries.)
    @ShadowReign
    Thanks for challenging me to a duel! Your mystery box contains:
    • A Mystery Challenge: Create an instant that deals damage and allows you to draw a card.
    @cadstar369 / @Jadefire- I'll take another mystery box!
  • Here's my entry for a card with this mystery challenge: 
    • A Mystery Challenge: Create a Sorcery with a surge cost.


    I'd gladly open another box when you have the time for that, please! :)
  • edited June 2022

    @Shelko

    Your mystery box contains:

    @jpastor

    Your mystery box contains:

    • Prize 4 — What’s Wrong with That Card?: I list the card text of a random card in a problem format. What's wrong with this card? Then post an entry with corrections. [Activate this prize anytime.]
    • A Mystery Challenge: Create an instant that grants fear.
  • @cadstar369 Those are very cool prizes! I have little question concerning the n.5 of Volume 1: Giant Magnet (You get every mystery box in this batch.) / How does it work?
  • @Shelko
    a batch is a single post with more than 1 mystery box in it. So, it works like this:

    The more mystery box requests, the bigger the next batch will be.. and the bigger the giant magnet will be..
  • @ShadowReign Thanks for the explanation.  It's been a while so I looked up some old charms and your wording and formatting of the modes are completely appropriate for that era.  The one major thing that you didn't have access to on MTG:CS that would've immediately signaled that you were trying to go in that direction was the classic card frame, but you have no control over that.  The art style is very reminiscent of some pre-6th edition set, so I see your inspiration.
  • Oh I see. Thanks for the explanation! @jpastor

    Here's my entry for:
    • A Mystery Challenge: Create a creature card that buries a creature of a particular type when it enters the battlefield unless you pay a cost, and is that creature type itself.

    I took some freedom on ''burying'' since this term is no longer used. I know it should probably be destroy effects with ''it can't be regenerated'' nowadays that replaced bury, but sacrificing was making more sense to me for this one.

    Concerning the prizes, I'll take the n.1 Treasure map and I'd like to activate it! :)
    1. Treasure Map (You'll go on adventure with 3-5 mystery challenges.)
    I don't know if I can still get mystery boxes while treasure map is active, but if it is possible, I'd gladly have another one, please!
  • Am I supposed to have two different mystery boxes right now? Either way, here's my card for creating a rare red & blue instant, and I'll get around to doing the other mystery box.


  • Mystery Challenge: Create a Legendary male creature with a, generally, female name.
    Aiela Stillsoul

    Inventory
    • Premium Prize 66 - Legacy Premium: Angelstone (This deadline's winner will receive a premium prize. Activate any time before a deadline ends.)
    • Prize 36 - Herbal Supplements: You may exchange X prizes in your inventory for 2X favorites.
    • Prize 62 - Zombies (Event)
    • Prize 52 - Quest Journal (Gambit, Duel, Moshpit, Draft - Go on your own adventure of 3-5 cards, equipped with a short story along with it. 2-3 sentences per card.) [Activate any time.]
    • Prize 47 - Improvised Advisements: Solo Challenge, Duel, Mode, Modifier - Mystery Challenges are hand crafted for each cardsmith.
    • Prize 70 - Snake: Activating this modifier turns the remainder of the deadline into story building, where each cardsmith's mystery box entry will include a 1-2 sentence continuation of a shared story.
    • Prize 57 - Crossbones: Activate crossbones before a deadline ends. The winner of that deadline gets an invitational qualification.
  • @Potato13
    Not sure how you ended up with double boxes... i might has misread my own work haha. oh well
  • @Shelko
    Your treasure map takes you to the bottom of the ocean.
    A Mystery Challenge: Create a Vehicle that is subaquatic.
    A Mystery Challenge: You encounter a majestic creature during your descent. Create a rare or mythic non-Legendary, blue creature.
    A Mystery Challenge: It becomes pitch black towards the bottom of the ocean. Create a monoblue spell that nullifies or negates something.
    A Mystery Challenge: You find the wreckage you are looking for. Create a card that returns an artifact from your graveyard and creates a treasure token.
  • A Mystery Challenge: Create a common with {u}{u} mana cost.
    https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/flummox-7

  • edited June 2022
    Here's my little ''Treasure Hunt Quest''!

    The Vehicle for some random explorers to discover the bottom of the seven seas:


    An unexpected encounter with a majestic and colossal leviathan the explorers will barely manage to escape from:


    At the bottom of the sea, the explorers enter a long forgotten realm but are dismissed by their new inhabitants, some random merfolk civilisation:


    Finally, they are able to clear a path through the sunken city and break free from the merfolk, and they find the treasure they were seeking for since the beginning:


    Funny thing is that this actually motivated me to start a little set around treasure hunter (like Ixalan without the prehistoric aspect). Thanks for that inspiring challenge!

    I'd gladly open another mystery box, please. :)
  • A Mystery Challenge: Create a 6-mana Golgari-colored Sorcery spell.

    Took me quite a while to stew on this one.


    Another box, please!
  • The deadline has ended.

This discussion has been closed.