MTG Cardsmith Community Forums
Clade Dinosauria **Circuit Challenge**
Background
Art by Raph Lomotan
I'm going to be the first to say it: the Dinosaurs of Ixalan were disappointing. Although they were a fine introduction as a fantasy version of these titanic creatures, they did two things wrong. First, of all the dinosaur cards, the number of constructed playable dinosaurs can be counted on one hand. A vast majority of the dinosaurs are either made for limited like Bonded Horncrest, or they were made with only commander in mind like Zacama and Etali. Although these cards are certainly fun in there respective formats, they leave cubers like me wanting something better. Zacama might be fun when consistantly casting her on turn 7 just wins you the game, but it's not as good when it gets countered by Cryptic Command or you're just dead to a good mono red aggro hand. You can count the dinosaurs that are good for cube/constructed on your hands, and even then some of those are pushing it.
The second issue was the aesthetic. Before previews started, WOTC was telling everyone how their dinosaurs would have "scientifically accurate feathers." This was exciting, because most of the time pop-culture dinosaurs are portrayed as scaley monsters instead of the feathered beasts that they probably were. Unfortunately, the added a bunch of random spikes and feathers where they don't belong.
Gishath, being a Giganotosaurus, wouldn't have had all of those random spikes all over his body.
Ceratopsians like Goring Ceratops here wouldn't have had feathers on their frills or back. If they had any feathers they would most likely resemble quills on their tale.
Worse still, WOTC calls these things dinosaurs:
Disregarding the fact that the sunwing has feathers it should not have, Kinjalli's Sunwing is not a dinosaur. It is a type of flying reptile called a Pterosaur. Although Pterosaurs are related to dinosaurs, they are not the same thing. On blogatog, Mark Rosewater has said that "On Ixalan, anything that is remotely related to a dinosaur counts as a dinosaur." This is WRONG. Calling a Pterosaur a Dinosaur would be a lot like calling an Elf or a Chimpanzee a Human because they are remotely related.
Between low power level, scientific inaccuracies, and general tomfoolery, I am taking the reigns of DInosaurs away from WOTC. Today, you will be making me some new stompy bois! I want to see dinosaurs that have accurate portrayals of these ancient animals.
Rules and Regulations
1. Cards should be new.
2. Cards should represent Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs or another extinct animal from the Mesozoic Era. They don't have to be creature cards.
3. If you choose to make creatures, please use appropriate types. Dinosaurs should have the creature type Dinosaur, Pterosaurs should have the creature type Pterosaur, Plesiosaurs should have the creature type Plesiosaur, and so on and so forth. If you make a mammal or something with multiple established creature types to represent it, choose the closest fit. You can make a mole, for example.
4. These should be on the power level Competetive Constructed and Cube. Not Kitchen Table, Limited, or Commander.
5. 5 entries per Smith.
I want to see Competetive Constructed and Cubeable dinosaurs, not more Limited or Commander abominations.
Here are some examples of what I want to see.
Breakneck Carnotaurus by @Brainifyer
You don't have to use enrage if you don't want to, these are just the types of cards I want to see.
Avoid stuff like this at all costs!
Any useful resorces?
This for uploading card images and this for forum coding.
Prizes
First Place - 1 Circuit Point and 5 Favorites
Second Place - 3/4 Point and 3 Favorites
Third Place - 1/2 Circuit Point and 3 Favorites
Honorable Mention - 1/4 Circuit Point and 1 Favorite
Submission Cutoff: May 12th, 2018.
And with that, I wish you good luck and happy smithing!
-Kramp
Art by Raph Lomotan
I'm going to be the first to say it: the Dinosaurs of Ixalan were disappointing. Although they were a fine introduction as a fantasy version of these titanic creatures, they did two things wrong. First, of all the dinosaur cards, the number of constructed playable dinosaurs can be counted on one hand. A vast majority of the dinosaurs are either made for limited like Bonded Horncrest, or they were made with only commander in mind like Zacama and Etali. Although these cards are certainly fun in there respective formats, they leave cubers like me wanting something better. Zacama might be fun when consistantly casting her on turn 7 just wins you the game, but it's not as good when it gets countered by Cryptic Command or you're just dead to a good mono red aggro hand. You can count the dinosaurs that are good for cube/constructed on your hands, and even then some of those are pushing it.
The second issue was the aesthetic. Before previews started, WOTC was telling everyone how their dinosaurs would have "scientifically accurate feathers." This was exciting, because most of the time pop-culture dinosaurs are portrayed as scaley monsters instead of the feathered beasts that they probably were. Unfortunately, the added a bunch of random spikes and feathers where they don't belong.
Gishath, being a Giganotosaurus, wouldn't have had all of those random spikes all over his body.
Ceratopsians like Goring Ceratops here wouldn't have had feathers on their frills or back. If they had any feathers they would most likely resemble quills on their tale.
Worse still, WOTC calls these things dinosaurs:
Disregarding the fact that the sunwing has feathers it should not have, Kinjalli's Sunwing is not a dinosaur. It is a type of flying reptile called a Pterosaur. Although Pterosaurs are related to dinosaurs, they are not the same thing. On blogatog, Mark Rosewater has said that "On Ixalan, anything that is remotely related to a dinosaur counts as a dinosaur." This is WRONG. Calling a Pterosaur a Dinosaur would be a lot like calling an Elf or a Chimpanzee a Human because they are remotely related.
Between low power level, scientific inaccuracies, and general tomfoolery, I am taking the reigns of DInosaurs away from WOTC. Today, you will be making me some new stompy bois! I want to see dinosaurs that have accurate portrayals of these ancient animals.
Rules and Regulations
1. Cards should be new.
2. Cards should represent Dinosaurs, Pterosaurs or another extinct animal from the Mesozoic Era. They don't have to be creature cards.
3. If you choose to make creatures, please use appropriate types. Dinosaurs should have the creature type Dinosaur, Pterosaurs should have the creature type Pterosaur, Plesiosaurs should have the creature type Plesiosaur, and so on and so forth. If you make a mammal or something with multiple established creature types to represent it, choose the closest fit. You can make a mole, for example.
4. These should be on the power level Competetive Constructed and Cube. Not Kitchen Table, Limited, or Commander.
5. 5 entries per Smith.
I want to see Competetive Constructed and Cubeable dinosaurs, not more Limited or Commander abominations.
Here are some examples of what I want to see.
Breakneck Carnotaurus by @Brainifyer
You don't have to use enrage if you don't want to, these are just the types of cards I want to see.
Avoid stuff like this at all costs!
Any useful resorces?
This for uploading card images and this for forum coding.
Prizes
First Place - 1 Circuit Point and 5 Favorites
Second Place - 3/4 Point and 3 Favorites
Third Place - 1/2 Circuit Point and 3 Favorites
Honorable Mention - 1/4 Circuit Point and 1 Favorite
Submission Cutoff: May 12th, 2018.
And with that, I wish you good luck and happy smithing!
-Kramp
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
EDIT: Minor templating changes, updated creature types to be correct, and edited P/T on Predatory Torpedosaur.
Sorry for the confusion!
Real flavor :
"See, it should even be legal in every league. 'Waa, I don't like commander or limited cards, waa~', boo hoo, get your stuff together, kid."
--Pragmatic cardsmith
Should I resubmit the four non-Plesiosaur cards with the creature type --Dinosaur?
This is based on Cryolophosaurus, an Antarctic dinosaur. Went for a 'freezing' theme. My only concern is that the name is cheesy.
@sanjaya666 I actually really enjoy limited and I tolerate commander when it's with my friends. About 90% of the official WOTC dinosaurs are designed specifically to fill the needs of those formats, leaving everyone who wants to play with them in some other setting in the dust. It makes sense that most cards are geared towards limited play. After all, it is rare that even a really good card makes it into constructed. However, because of the heavy emphasis placed on commander specifically when the Dinosaurs were being produced, there are really only 4 good dinosaurs for constructed. I want to see cards that can be played in a tournament setting, not just casually.
I really like Must go Faster!
For art check this...
http://forums.mtgcardsmith.com/discussion/441/tutorial-selecting-artwork/p1
For posting check this...
http://forums.mtgcardsmith.com/discussion/2584/brief-guide-to-uploading-linked-pictures-images-in-comments-w-visual-aid/p1
I think this is how I do this:
If not, please tell me and I will fix it.
I opted to keep the reminder text off to keep the space more open for elude, here's the full version.
Elude (Can not be blocked by creatures with Defender or Flying.)
I used art modeled off the Trex from Jurassic park, so the elude there because it always seems to sneak up on people despite being you know a Trex. (full stealth mastery is how she speced.) The quote obviously a revamp of their tagline.
My first entry!
Some of his recent stuff here is awesome!