MTG Cardsmith Community Forums
Choices, Choices, Choices...
When I saw the Mark Rosewater's teaser on M21, one of the hints excited me the most:
For starters, we have these:
That's basically nothing. Let's get more choices:
Still not quite enough...
Now that's more like it.
For this competition, try to make a card that offers as many choices as you can!
Requirements:
1. Create a card that offers the controller at least five choices under the best conditions. (When in doubt, explain them.) It can be in the form of modes, but choosing a colour, card/creature type, or card name will do as well. This EXCLUDES doing the same effect but for different targets, e.g. Inferno Titan distributing the 3 damage to three different targets, or Verdurous Gearhulk distributing the four +1/+1 counters.
2. Unlimited entries, old cards allowed.
Judging Criteria:
- Accuracy: Does reading the card explain the card (precisely)?
- Balance: Is the card balanced for its costs and card type? Does it break the color pie?
- Creativeness: How different are the choices? How are they presented to the player? Is there a "correct choice" in most situations? e.g. Boot Nipper is nicknamed "a 2/1 with deathtouch" since that is almost always the better option.
Rewards:
1st place: 3 favourites + follow (or another 3 favourites)
2nd place: 2 favourites + follow (or another 3 favourites)
3rd place: 1 favourite + follow (or another 3 favourites)
All interesting entries will be favourited.
BONUS:
Come up with the most choices! This excludes choosing colours, card/creature types, and card names.
Most choices (or tied for most) get 2 extra favourites.
The runner-up(s) get an extra favourite.
Deadline: July 11th 23:59 GMT.
Good luck!
A card with thirty-one different options.
So I thought, how extreme can it get?For starters, we have these:
That's basically nothing. Let's get more choices:
Still not quite enough...
Now that's more like it.
For this competition, try to make a card that offers as many choices as you can!
Requirements:
1. Create a card that offers the controller at least five choices under the best conditions. (When in doubt, explain them.) It can be in the form of modes, but choosing a colour, card/creature type, or card name will do as well. This EXCLUDES doing the same effect but for different targets, e.g. Inferno Titan distributing the 3 damage to three different targets, or Verdurous Gearhulk distributing the four +1/+1 counters.
2. Unlimited entries, old cards allowed.
Judging Criteria:
- Accuracy: Does reading the card explain the card (precisely)?
- Balance: Is the card balanced for its costs and card type? Does it break the color pie?
- Creativeness: How different are the choices? How are they presented to the player? Is there a "correct choice" in most situations? e.g. Boot Nipper is nicknamed "a 2/1 with deathtouch" since that is almost always the better option.
Rewards:
1st place: 3 favourites + follow (or another 3 favourites)
2nd place: 2 favourites + follow (or another 3 favourites)
3rd place: 1 favourite + follow (or another 3 favourites)
All interesting entries will be favourited.
BONUS:
Come up with the most choices! This excludes choosing colours, card/creature types, and card names.
Most choices (or tied for most) get 2 extra favourites.
The runner-up(s) get an extra favourite.
Deadline: July 11th 23:59 GMT.
Good luck!
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Five detailed abilities will be difficult due to the character limit, but I will definitely try to make a cool one.
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/sacrifice-beyond-the-limits?list=set&set=52991
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/volcanic-axe-warrior?list=set&set=52991
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/mystic-sword-2?list=set&set=52991
In total there are 50 different choices (5 colors per 10 creature types). I made it random cause obviously Red Dragon and White Angel and others would be trivial to pull off. So, you get some randomness and you might have to play four blue demons of which there are only 5 in total mwahahahaha
Also, this card will be bonkers in five colour Changeling tribal, if that's a thing...
CLARIFICATION:
If the choice offered to the player is done at random, it is deemed to not satisfy the requirements.NOT OKAY:
No worries! I'll see if I can come up with something soon!
Here it is.
Oh, also, here's the token. https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/druid-29
(Just had it pointed out to me that my entire enormous analogy doesn't work, so that's fun)
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/sojourners-sanctum-1
@Aggroman15 Quite interesting! Let me pull out my pencil and paper to check...
This card has a number of options equal to a modal spell where you choose 3 times from 4 options + one where you choose 6 times from 4 options! No idea what that ammounts to, but I'm pretty sure it's big!
(I also edited Project the Multiverse to be better, so there's that as well)
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/fiery-revelation
This provides six options where each mode is useful singularly or in pairs due to the timing requirements on them.
I think total number of choices is 6 for this one?
Actually it's fine! Spells are illegal targets for themselves, so you are unable to target Fiery Revelation with itself:
114.5. A spell or ability on the stack is an illegal target for itself
@RohanDragoon Thanks for clarifying, boss.
No problem! Of course, if you targeted it with something like Reverberate, then it would go infinite, but that requires a bit more mana.
(Edit: Results are up!)
Good luck to everyone else!
If it's not kicked, that gives you 20 possibilities; if it's kicked, that's 84 possibilities. So a total of 104 possibilities.
For the winner, we have:
Project the Multiverse by @Aggroman15
With a whopping 126 combinations (with replacement), this entry gave a lot of flexibility to the player.
Now, onto the main event...
In 3rd place, we have:
Eye of the Horoscope by @RohanDragoon
The number of choices is limited, but each of them serve very different purposes, and there are clear situations where one will be better than another. It's a bit janky, but hey, that wasn't a judging criteria! (winks)
In 2nd place, we have:
Fiery Revelation by @Fallen_Lord_Vulganos
A clear mirror of the spoiled card, but all the effects feel very red. Like the spoiled card, some of the options are a bit niche, while others are quite general. A nitpick is that you almost always choose to deal 3 damage and give your creatures first strike. (Even if you don't have any creatures. It's like choosing to give your creatures lifelink with Deafening Clarion.) Still, you could have slipped this in the place of Sublime Epiphany and no one will notice.
Finally, in first place, we have...
Project the Multiverse (again) by @Aggroman15 ;
Each of the effects correspond clearly to the 5 colors, and there are situations where you want to mix and match the effects. Giving blue straight-up draw a card is a bit strong imo (maybe loot?), but fix some wordings and get a sweet art of a projection onto Veldalken or Chromatic Orrery, and I could definitely see it getting printed.
@RohanDragoon I have followed you and still owe you a favourite. Which card do you want me to favourite?
@Fallen_Lord_Vulganos Somehow I haven't followed you before so that's what I've done. I still owe you 2 favourites. Which cards do you want me to favourite?
@Aggroman15 I'm already following you so I owe you (pulls out calculator) 9 favourites. Do you want to list out the cards for me to favourite or are you happy with me picking 9 cards on my own?
Congrats to all the winners, and I'll follow this post with some quick feedback for the other entries!
@CassZero:
Sacrifice Beyond the Limits: An interesting card, though probably too busted for common.
Volcanic Axe Warrior: The wording doesn't explain how the ability works well, and the timing should be on "whenever you attach an equipment to ...". You might want to use keyword counters to avoid tracking issues, and bump the rarity up to uncommon.
Mystic Sword: "+1/+1" isn't really an ability, and changing how the sword works based only on the equip cost is a brave idea not quite feasible.
@jaceberlin:
Ixban, Forest of Life: You might want to look at the capitalisation of the cards -- it'll help make your cards look more real. The 3 abilities are all interesting, and as you have already realised, the first one is much more powerful than the others.
@Fallen_Lord_Vulganos:
Sojourner's Sanctum: A well-designed card, though you almost always want to choose all of the choices. A close contender for the top spots.
@Aggroman15:
Nature's Power: The choices are all interesting, and I would say it's another close contender for the top spots. The nitpick is that it looks like a variety of green effects stapled together.
@GameQnQ:
Cause Uneffect: Great art to go along with the pun. The second ability needs a rewording (etb-ed this turn instead of played this turn, otherwise there probably isn't a good way to track it), and the last one seems a bit off, even if it requires {w}.
@Jeroukoo:
Gluttonous Frenzy: The first ability is quite interesting, but the second one is too complex -- rewriting it is tricky at best, impossible at worst.
@shadow123:
Premium Offering: Interesting and nicely-designed, but as you figured out yourself, it doesn't have enough choices to qualify.
Also a PSA:
Whenever something deals damage, remember ?to ?state ?the ?source.
Thank you all for participating, and congrats to @winners!
Anyways, thanks for the contest! It was really fun to design cards for this one!