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Designer's Gauntlet [Week 5] - Commence the Endgame
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Here are the commons:
And here are the uncommons:
And finally, the rare:
1) I unfortunately didn't have time this time to explain my entries, so I hope to some extent they speak for themselves.
2) I also acknowledge that a decent amount of the art doesn't completely fit Innistrad, but finding the art for it was much more difficult than I anticipated.
While there were fewer entries this week, every entry offered something compelling for us to chew on. As with last week, each entry had some stand-out cards that were thought-provoking, original or clever. Our standings came down to which cards brought out the best in their precon or pack and which cards stood out best as individual designs. Due to limited space we won't be posting all the feedback here, but YOU should message one of us and we'll pass our feedback on to you!
As a reminder:
5th Place - @KorandAngels ; & @TheCenterOfTheUniverse
4th Place - @TerryTags ; & @Ilmarinen
3rd Place - @spookoops & @shadow123
2nd Place - @Potato13 ; & @bnew07
There were a few designs we wanted to highlight from among our runners-up this week:
@Temurzoa - 1st Place EDH
Santris, Synthomancer
LL: Very cool! I really wish this existed.
DK: "token that’s a copy," but I imagine that’s for spacing. The second ability may be a bit much but this is probably right for 6 CMC.
Asil, Deviant Wonderling
LL: Maybe I'd have to see it in action but this feels extremely powerful, maybe too much. That being said, I think I would have a blast trying it out.
DK: I imagine there are many simple deck builds that would abuse this quite easily, especially since you’re likely to net 2 Sparks per turn. This probably wants to cost more and the activated ability should be closer to 5 based on Urza and his ilk. I’m usually very down on tokens that do nothing but I think this package really nails the application.
Ilethia, Scryb Matriarch
LL: Another Legend design that I love. I love that it can lean into the deck theme or go another way.
DK: I’d prefer the flying Faerie were on-color but this is cool. In a strange way, this fits Jeskai better than Temur.
Druid of Silent Strength
LL: This may not work within the rules but I do like the concept! Turning complexity into pure strength feels super green.
DK: Flavorfully cool, practically iffy. We’re in the realm of X stealing text boxes.
Belligerent Scout
LL: A+. I don't want to sound redundant, but it's another favorite of mine.
DK: I love the politics on this, great card.
Aspiring Archmage
LL: When you mentioned your mechanic at the beginning I was very skeptical of balanced designs, but this seems like a solid execution!
DK: Surprisingly balanced, I like this.
Commander's Monument
LL: I appreciate it as well!
DK: Cool idea! I do worry that there are a few broken things to do with this though.
@Ranshi - 1st Place Limited
Selesnya Monument
DK: Sweet take on the mana rocks!
LL: I like this a LOT!
Sluiceway Slurper
It’s a bit expensive for a reach creature to really thrive.
DK: I like this card but I don’t like saying the name
LL: I like this too!!
Arrester's Intuition
DK: I think I’d rather have Grasp of the Heiromancer here for the P/T boost but this is serviceable, if odd.
LL: The parallel between I don't tap and now you do feels good for smug Azorius OR cop Boros to me.
Scenic Thoroughfare
DK: Love this! My favorite of yours this week.
Fluxocharge
DK: These effects are individually R and U but their combined effect is mostly Shrivel (B).
LL: Love the flexibility, but wiping out enemy one toughness creatures isn't very blue. Not quite right for hybrid.
Manic Fluxmage
DK: I would have loved this in GRN.
Undercity Behemoth
DK: Neat idea, but super high-variance. I’d have preferred to see some sort of fail case that made it useful if there were no other counters in play.
LL: Boneyard Mycodrax feels like a slightly more flexible take on this concept.
Grand Finale
DK: I'm not sold on this card's usefulness - it seems best as a way to push through damage rather than destroy opposing creatures and even that is iffy.
LL: I actually like this in all its weirdness. Like a more usable Showstopper!
Drumroll, please!
After five weeks of challenges, only one can stand on top. With an impressive showing each week, we're proud to bestow the title of Designer's Gauntlet Champion to... bnew07!
Let's quickly talk PRIZES!
I have some custom dice being printed but they won't be ready right away. The top four get first dibs on the dice with a unique color (mythic orange swirls!) while our top eight finishers can get the runner-up dice. If you're not in the top eight and would still like a die, please reach out to me; I'll do my best to get you hooked up! They'll be printed with the Designer's Gauntlet logo. Watch for a follow-up post regarding how I can get these to you (I want to make sure I'm working appropriately through MTG Cardsmith's rules for sending to addresses, etc.). I'll also be working my way back through to award favorites to the cards I enjoyed the most each week.
This has been an amazing ride for LuckyLooter and I as judges - y'all have made each week an exceptional privilege and challenge. We'll be writing up some retrospective thoughts on this event over the coming days, in part to help up learn but in part to aid others who are looking toward long-form tournaments of their own. We had lots of thoughts during the event and there are certainly things we'd do differently in the future. I'd encourage you to send us your feedback - the goal is continual improvement!
A hearty "thank you" to all who participated and congratulations to bnew07, your Designer's Gauntlet Champion!
Many thanks!
Was there precons made for this contest?
Thank you so much for this wonderful contest!!! I’ll contact you on discord for details on the prize so that I don’t clutter this thread up.
Congrats to @bnew07 and the other @winners!!!
A dice is a fine prize, but I doubt you'll be able to send it. I live outside of America. I'm just glad I did as well as I did, and hope to make even better designs in the future.
thanks a ton for the recognition and for the contest! I know firsthand how Much effort it takes to host a contest of this scale and you guys did a great job!
This is my first time hosting an event of this scale and I wanted to do a write-up of some thoughts on the process. I enjoyed the process of evaluating card design, but I really learned a lot about managing an event like this one and I hope that some of these thoughts will be valuable to you in case you ever decide to do something similar.
Scoring
This was the biggest stressor for me going in. I loved several of the challenge ideas and I was confident in the structure and design goals, I just wasn’t confident in how to measure ongoing scores. The Circuit Challenges are done on a micro scale, with ½ a point making a critical difference in some cases, and I knew I didn’t want that here. What I ended up with was a scale that was heavily weighted toward the top end, decidedly too much so for perceptions. There were some very public criticisms of that part of the process but we elected to leave things as they were for the event rather than switch halfway through. That’s a principle I tried to use throughout - consistency where possible.
I kept a parallel spreadsheet throughout the event with an alternate, flatter scoring system (12 points for first, 11 for second, etc. down to 5 for eighth and 3 for participation). Interestingly, the top seven participants were in exactly the same place in the same order with both systems, though the margins look decidedly more close! The other placements were also much closer, meaning there were lots of shifts in placement from week to week with a smaller spread in points. I could see that being a more ideal system in the future, encouraging more folks to play with a larger victory still being attainable.
Earlier in the contest, I mentioned our “secret in-house grading system” for cards, and that was largely that we didn’t have a point system for individual cards in place. I thought we would eventually, but time and experience proved otherwise. On one hand, that allowed us to approach evaluation each week more organically as they all featured a different number of cards with different elements. On the other, I could see where it could look much more subjective since there aren’t tangible numbers assigned to our evaluations. I would be a stronger proponent of a micro-score per card for a single contest, but I appreciated having the flexibility for an event of this scale.
Review
I can’t recommend reviewing cards with other people enough. I always feel like my ‘smithing axe is sharpened just by honest conversation about the designs of others, how we would approach them differently and what we liked. LuckyLooter and I have been friends for some time and we’ve worked on several projects together so it was no surprise that we often landed in similar places with our reviews. Even then, it was great to hash out what made our top entries stand out. Also, with rare exceptions, we had different personal favorites each week which I was quite happy about.
I wish we could have posted more feedback for individuals week-to-week but our formatting didn’t always allow for it. We did a lot of our review by voice and then collected notes that we could draw from when requested. In other long-form challenges, more organized minds provided a complete grading system and/or a linked document with a full write-up for each entry. While we have that info, we didn’t feel quite as confident publishing our (often chicken-scratch) summaries of conversations. We decided to make feedback available by request to better serve individuals.
I heard from several of you that this was a good learning process for you and I’m thrilled as that was my goal! Prizes and competition are good but I’m glad to think that this helped in a small way to hone others’ skills as designers and creatives.
Schedule
The initial proposal of “5 Challenges in 5 Weeks” sounded really doable on paper. In practicality, it works if there are no other life events going on. Life is always happening though so I hit a few snags here and there. A two-day turnaround on judging and publishing with some modicum of quality tended to turn my Sunday evenings into lengthy Discord and Photoshop sessions.
For a short contest, a brief timeline and a quick judging turnaround is quite doable. One week that you can plan for isn’t quite as significant as five in a row. Were I doing this event again, I may stretch the submission time into 9- or 10-days and allowed four or five days for review. It’s tough to say though, as I really enjoyed the quick (and mostly predictable) pace of the whole event.
Choice
An epiphany partway through came from some ‘smiths mentioning that they preferred commander to limited design. I realized that our remaining challenges could be pivoted to include this element of choice. Those that participated in those final events displayed a remarkable ownership over their designs since they were able to guide broadly where they went. There are some small additional guidelines that I’d consider utilizing in the future (restriction breeding creativity and all that) but I was overall pleased that there were options to be explored. I will say that comparing EDH designs against draft designs was particularly challenging - I’d likely split some of those in the future like we did on the final round.
Prizes
As an indicator of how troublesome this has proved for me, the tangible prizes are still in process of being produced. Premium is a valuable gift for some and largely meaningless for others. Favorites are a much maligned commodity and I don’t like offering invisible points for a challenge of this magnitude (I personally try to favorite cards I enjoy rather than offer them as badges to use preferentially). That said, I don’t mind doing favorites for single events or for cards I enjoyed week-to-week, it just felt empty for the culmination of a five-week event. Also, some folks just enjoy seeing their name up on the board and I don’t want to take away from that either!
I’m still not sure what an ideal solution would be on this but it’s going to be largely based on the contest host. Are you wanting to invest financially or are you wanting to operate only with the in-site ‘currency’? I’m hopeful that our current solution will pan out well for those interested and I can learn and grow from there.
In Short
Plan ahead! I worked on the framework for this event for over a month before publishing week one and there were still elements that had to change throughout. Having the structure and schedule in place helped this run much more smoothly than it could have.
Stick to the plan! Consistency is key when managing participant’s expectations, both in schedule and in adjudication.
Be willing to learn! Don’t assume that the first way is the right way - be flexible as your framework allows and do so thoughtfully.
When in doubt, sleep on it! Quick decisions are often bad decisions. Don’t be afraid to give an idea time to percolate.
It’s dangerous to go alone! When possible, work with others on large-scale events. The camaraderie is valuable, but the variety of ideas helps avoid the myopia of working individually.
The Future
“When is the next one?” is a heartwarming question and I’m thrilled that there was enough enjoyment to warrant considering more. There are several factors that go into putting on an event like this but the biggest element is sufficient TIME. I can’t regularly commit several nights and weekends for five+ weeks but I am glad I was able to here. I’ll be reviewing this event in the coming weeks and evaluating what went well and what I’d change. After that process I’ll have a better idea of how to approach future iterations. That’s the most convoluted way to say “we’ll see,” isn’t it?
In this and on anything above, feedback is always welcome. My inbox is always open. Thank you again for making this an amazing journey!
It was a pleasure co-judging with DomriKade and I'd be happy to do it again the future. I may not respond to further messages on here outside of another contest but I am Luckylooter#1175 on Discord if anyone ever feels like some sporadic feedback on a card design. Congratulations to the winners! Happy 'smithing!