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[RESULTS] Work of Art: The HALF-Great Designer Search 3 — Challenge 5
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Sure, a "Bomb" is a bit of a fuzzy term so I won't be too reluctant about what you propose as a bomb. It simply must have a huge impact on the game, at least in Limited. Here are a few uncommon examples:
Yes, it's quite bomb-y ^^ As you can see above, I'm quite loose on the definition, few people ever shivered at an Inspiring Unicorn, but it still has the potential to turn the game on its head in just one attack. Many people certainly grimaced at an opponent's Arboretum Elemental in Limited though xD
A versatile limited card that can turn from a good blocker into three offensive threats (or chump blockers to ward off something huge for a few turns).
In a moment of forgetfulness, I didn't put the art credit on this one. It's by Conor Burke - whose art I really love, as it happens. Sorry about that.
Timmy and Tammy like legendary at every rarity, except common obviously. While a board sweeper might feel more Spike-ish, Timmies and Tammies that play black can enjoy removing all of their opponent's creatures with a maniacal laugh. Free (relative) fatties is a good deal too.
This is both a mass removal spell and a mass chaos warp all rolled into one. I tried to make it feel as mythic as possible.
This rewards Johnny and Jenny for a couple of really niche things- which obviously they're going to want to abuse as many times as they can.
I wish we could explore White's xenophobic side more. The convoluted wording is there because it impacts the effect of the ability.
Balanced for a Standard environment, but bonkers in Modern, Legacy, and Vintage. Hear that clattering noise? That's the collective sound of thousands of Spike players' jaws dropping to the floor.
A fun callback to Sengir Vampire.
Spirit Assistant
1W Common
Art: E
Creature - Spirit
Sacrifice ~: Destroy target artifact.
2/2
(A bear that sacs itself to destroy an enchantment is very common, but just doing so for artifacts hasn't been made yet. Weird.)
Deflect
1UU Uncommon
Art: I
Instant
~ costs {1} less to cast if a permanent you control is being targeted by a spell you don't control.
Counter target spell.
(A mix between Cancel and Turn Aside. I thought of reducing the cost to just {u} but it seems too strong for a control deck to protect its threat.)
Boonslayer Angel
4BB Uncommon
Art: H
Creature - Angel
Flying, first strike, lifelink
4/4
(Callback to Baneslayer Angel. They look pretty similar, except this costs more and is weaker.)
(EDIT: Changed the name and creature type because it doesn't look like a demon on second thoughts :{ )
Spiritual Impact
5RRR Mythic
Art: F
Enchantment
Whenever a creature you control dies, it deals damage equal to its power to any target.
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Tribes may come and go, but their impact will be felt for generations.
(EDIT: Removed exile clause and changed mana cost. Also added flavour text.)
Awaken the Lands
3GG Rare
Art: A
Enchantment
Whenever you activate an ability of a land you control that isn't a mana ability, or when a land you control becomes the target of a spell or ability, if that land isn't a creauture, it becomes a 2/2 Elemental creature with haste. It's still a land.
(The flavour is that whenever a land is "nudged" it wakes up and becomes a creature. The non-creautre clauses are to prevent combos by tapping and untapping lands e.g. Freed from the Real on a creature land)
(Flavor texts may be added if I have time.)
This card screams “Combo!” but also imposes some pretty heavy restrictions on deckbuilding. Is this an amulet of vigor combo piece? Just a giant ramp spell With a major drawback? Something to be paired with Courser of Kruphix/Oracle of Mul Daya to mitigate the drawback? Or a combo piece with some flicker/sac effects to retrigger or remove the downside. I chose this effect for the art because it clearly depicts a corrupted piece of land, and that concept pretty cleanly relates to “can't play lands". From there, I built the etb effect as both a contrast to the second ability and as a reward that appropriately matches the drawback.
This art clearly shows a spell being repelled, protecting a castle of some sort. In the bottom left corner, however, the spell has already ravaged whatever used to be there. I interpreted this as a spell that protected the Privileged in the castle (the nobles) and neglected the peasants who lived in the burning land. The mechanical interpretation of “nobility” I chose was converted mana cost—the most “noble” creature is the creature that has the greatest CMC. If you satisfy this constraint, you have Counterspell. Otherwise you have a serviceable but unexciting Quench. This spell could play well in both mono-U aggro and control decks that use big creatures as Win
Conditions, rewarding tight deck construction and sequencing in a way that Spike would enjoy.
Timmy like big, splashy effects but the fact that this had to be an uncommon limited bomb meant it couldn’t be either too complex or cost too much. The art showed an eclipse and a smaller person shrouded in white light below. I chose to represent this as the eclipse revealing the true character of the targeted creature. Was the creature good? If so you gain some life and if not its controller loses life. To further stress this dichotomy, i contrasted the two abilities with power and toughness. This cards flexibility and ability to alter game states to either finish the opponent or stabilize your life total cements it as a limited bomb and the large effect would appeal to Timmy.
The figures in this art almost looked like wispy elemental tokens, as if they were ash and ember recreations of actual people that were burnt to cinders (The name harkens to this idea). Mechanically, I chose to make this a board sweeper that created fleeting token copies of any opposing creature it destroyed. This is and sweeper and a win condition all in one which is appropriate for an 8 mana card. I chose not to copy your own creatures to make this feel mechanically different than a hybrid of plague wind + insurrection that has very little downside to it.
This creature is clearly performing a ritual of some sort. I interpreted the blood in the chalice representing their own blood given willingly. To tie the flavor together, the flavor text hints at the white concept of society in a world where blood is the ink used to write the laws. Mechanically, the creature has lifelink and can sacrifice itself to gain twice the life it gains in combat to represent the greater power of the sacrifice. In gameplay, creatures like this are typically removal magnets as they gum up the ground and buffer life totals (particularly against aggro), so the sacrifice ability and the 4 toughness help mitigate that while still keeping complexity down at common.
Let's take rarity from low to high, shall we?
I'd used this artwork before on a similar design with higher complexity at rare. I knew exactly what I wanted to do and published it almost immediately (it seems to have inspired some others, which is cool)! I think this guy would result in a lot of fun play patterns and encourage both you and your opponent(s) to strategize. I think the flavor is solid and needs no explanation, so, moving on!
Spike, Spike, good ol' Spike. Well, this art seemed to be the obvious choice for the prompt, so I'm not getting any points for going with it XD It seems to depict a castle that's already sustained some damage and knows exactly what to do to prevent more. I came up with at least three "counter spell" designs for this before deciding to stick with what I have here. I came up with an original target for the counter spell that uses common MtG terminology of "with a single target" to get across the idea of, along with creatures, something that's easy enough to anticipate and counter. Such spells are also frequent and have probably happened already by the time you've got this online. It won't be able to stop Planeswalkers, Enchantments, Artifacts, Divination-esque cards, etc. but it still seems broad enough and cheap enough to be Spike approved.
Everyone knows that flyers are bombs in most scenarios, especially Timmy. Something else Timmy is fond of is global board-altering effects. Let's combine them! Below the Angel the art clearly depicts a catastrophe-in-progress so I decided to make the flavor such that the Angel is attracted to death and destruction. When he's cast, things start dying off, and then he lands, bent on increasing the havoc. The fact that he can't sacrifice himself makes him more playable then other creatures with similar effects. The added bonus is that tokens and less valuable creatures can't be sacrificed to satiate him.
Land destruction! *Johnny begins to drool* That's right, you get value for blowing up your opponents lands. With a little help, I've tweaked the wording so that it also hoses fetches and any other lands with sacrifice effects. I hope the flavor is clear here: your opponents lands are tired of being used for outpost sites and decide to rise up, join your cause, and and fight back as powerful elementals! Their whole-hearted defection makes them even more terrifying in battle.
I love Julie Dillons Art, I've supported one of her Kickstarter campaigns and own a number of her books (which are fantastic). During the campaign I even offered to go and help her pack up the shipments at her house, since she lives pretty close by, but she graciously declined as she had it all planned out. Anyway, the card, right. I really like it. It costs 8, scrys 4, and doubles the damage (math is cool). I also developed the wording that allows it to exile creatures and Planeswalkers and decided to use it here. The art really seems to symbolize flames that do more than send stuff to the yard, so, it exiles. Definitely feels mythic.
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Thanks for another incredible contest, @ningyounk. Good luck to all the entrants!
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Literally everyone: *Proceed to post perfect A+ entries I would never have dreamt of."
Me right now: "I'm so f****d. I don't know how I'm going to judge this, there are going to be like five people ex aequo at first place T_T"
Seriously, I thought people were going to *STRUGGLE* with this one, did you find it easy?? I'm blown away by how good all the entries are honestly XD
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@Faiths_Guide: You actually know Julie Dillon?
I know her a little less well than I "know" ningyounk, and not in person. She's an awesome highly decorated artist.
And, no, this contest wasn't easy (though some concepts did come to me immediately). Glad you liked the entries!
A tough to judge contest is always better than a boring one anyway (at least IMHO).
Ya, that can happen. I have a huge collection of art pieces to choose from (and have become very quick at finding specific art), so that doesn't tend to be my bottleneck.
I think it came out well!
As you can see I love enchantments.
You can use Treasure tokens as they're not a named mechanic per se. (One trick to know if something is a named mechanic is to ask the question "Does it require a reminder text the first time I see it?", but if in doubt don't hesitate to ask me again ^^)
You should know your blue card should be an instant or sorcery though
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Also, sorry if there are any typos in my cards.
As you want, but the restriction specifically called for a "blue Spike-Friendly uncommon instant or sorcery", so it's like if you made it red instead, I can't really compare it to the others.