2-for-1 (Premium Prize)

TomigonTomigon
edited September 2021 in Contests and Challenges
A 2-for-1 occurs when a player uses one card and either one of these happens-
*You get two cards.
*An opponent loses two cards
*You get one card and an opponent loses one card.

In this contest, I'd like to see card designs that give you 2-for-1 opportunities!

Examples:
Solemn SimulacrumRekindling Phoenixthersnatch

CRITERIA
Presentation, art selection, templating, spelling, balance, creativity and flavor.

Limit of 3 entries max per person.
Only cards created after September 16th will be accepted.
Deadline in two weeks: September 30th
*The first place gets 2 months of premium membership.
*Top 3 winning cards will get a favorite from -TROPHY-


Comments

  • jpastorjpastor
    @Tomigon i don't see how your phoenix and aethersnatch match any of your definitions of a 2-for-1 card
  • feralitatorferalitator
    @jpastor I'm not sure if the phoenix should be counted as a 2-for-1, but athersnatch both "counters" and opponent's spell, and you get to cast another spell for free, all in one card.
  • jpastorjpastor
    i can see that side of thing... it's just not a clear cut "you get to cards".. but i understand the logic for calling it a 2-for-1
    Thanks @feralitator

  • TomigonTomigon
    @jpaster
    Rekindling Phoenix - 4/3 flying is something that opponents would want to remove, and to do so they need to cast two removal spells(one for Phoenix and another for a token). 

    Aethersnatch - What @feralitator said! 
  • jpastorjpastor
    Got it @Tomigon
  • JadefireJadefire
    In that case, Solemn Simulacrum is a conditional 3-for-1 if you can trade it with an opponent's creature or removal spell since you'll get the land off the bat and a death cantrip.
  • TomigonTomigon
    edited September 2021
    X-for-1 is not a card. It's a play. What I'm looking for are cards that can make 2-for-1 happen. It's ok to be a little conditional, as long as it does its job in common scenarios. 
  • RevanRevan
    edited September 2021
    Here is my first entry.
  • JadefireJadefire
    Entry 1:
    https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/gravelgill-deceiver

  • RevanRevan
    @Jadefire Oooh, I like that. Feels very inline with the Merrow. Very nice.
  • JadefireJadefire
    Thanks @Revan. I tried to stick as close to the Lorwyn block Merfolk as I could to make the card feel like it could belong to that format.
  • RevanRevan
    I think you hit the mark on that.
  • SpellPiper2213SpellPiper2213
    Disembodied Head

    I'm not entirely sure this works for the contest, but I tried to have this both a.) give you a creature, and b.) take away an enemy's creature, somewhat similar to Rekindling Phoenix.
  • jpastorjpastor
    My first entry

    https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/jadefire-conundrum

    @Jadefire
    @Tomigon
  • FangQuilFangQuil
    This one's a bit strange

    "P" represents a poison counter btw, not especially relevant for this contest, but it's a theme in the set I'm working on that this card is a part of.

  • JadefireJadefire
    edited September 2021
    Entry 2:
    https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/bleed-dry

  • RevanRevan
    Here is my second entry.
  • TomigonTomigon
    Cool entries!

    Three days remain!
  • JadefireJadefire
    edited September 2021
    Entry 3:
    https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/eidolon-of-dark-revelation

  • cadstar369cadstar369
    Three entries on deadline day~ :sweat_smile:

    Agonize Leyline Ambusher Cycle of Violence

    P.S. – I am aware that Cycle of Violence is probably best considered an edge case at best, since it's definitely very hard to make it a potential 2-for-1 outside of multiplayer. That said, I'm primarily a commander player, so that greatly influences my designs.
  • TomigonTomigon
    This didn't get so many entries, so I think I can give sone feedback on each cards.

    "Spare Parts" by Revan
    It should be "Choose one - ". Colon( : ) is an important component in MtG's wording that tells us that if it's an activated ability or not.
    I think returning an artifact card from your graveyard to your hand is something green or white would do.
    I think the spell is too difficult to use, because you need two targets. Even if there's an artifact you want to remove, you can't cast this spell if there's no artifact card in your graveyard. Same goes for when you want to return an artifact card from your gy but there's no artifact to remove. "target" in the last effect should be "an".

    "Gravelgill Deceiver" by Jadefire
    It's an uncommon card, so I think it could have the reminder text for persist. That's an interesting conditional ability. I wonder what was the inspiration. 
    The activated ability looks fun! It goes well with persist. But I think it should only target creatures, because moving loyalty counters among planeswalkers could be dangerous. Fate Transfer targets only creatures. 

    "Disembodied Head" by SpellPiper2213
    Flametongue! (That's what I call 4 drop cards like Ravenous Chupakabra, Skinrender, Flametongue Kavu) But this card's power is only 1, so I don't think it can take down an attacker that often. I think this is like 1.5-for-1.

    "Jadefire Conundrum" by jpastor
    It's a creative way to remove permanent!
    My issue is Precede ability. I see that's an reverse Cascade, but that's much too dangerous. This is what you do- All cards in your deck are mana value 4 or less, except for one Expensive&Powerful finisher(Like Emrakul). So that Precede can always give you that creature. It's like Natural Order without sacrificing.

    "Black Sun's Nadir" by FangQuil
    I don't know why WURG does only card drawing and life gaining, but it looks interesting to play. It basically reanimates a creature, so it's like Zombify with some upsides. I think it's slightly OP.

    "Bleed Dry" by Jadefire
    -X/-X always kills a creature. So why not just "Destroy target creature. Another target creature gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the destroyed creature's toughness."?
    I like what it does. If you do that in middle of combat it could get you big advantage!

    "Spring's Return" by Revan
    You don't target things in additional costs.
    Lands should enter tapped. Otherwise mana advantage is too good.(It's like this spell costs 0 mana.)
    I like the idea of making sacrificing optional! Sometimes I don't want to cast Harrow if an opponent has some untapped Islands.

    "Eidolon of Dark Revelation" by Jadefire
    So the bigger the creature you steal is, the bigger the damage you get. Nice idea for the drawback.
    +3 to power looks powerful. I would make it 1/3(+1/+3 to enchanted creature).

    "Agonize" by cadstar369
    This is a very powerful card. Splendid Agony with cantrip. I'm not sure if being color weighted and sorcery would balance that out. But I think I can't imagine WotC prints this.

    "Leyline Ambusher" by cadstar369
    I think this should be black because it's similar to Liliana's Standard Bearer. But the timing this lets you draw is better than Standard Bearer. Because most of the time it guarantees two cards(one for this and one for attacking creature it kills). So this is easily 3-for-1. That's OP.

    "Cycle of Violence" by cadstar369
    I like the concept! It can be 2-for-1 or more if you don't control any threatening creatures and opponents do.

    //////////////////////
    Alright! Here's the result!


    1st Place:
    "Eidolon of Dark Revelation" by Jadefire

    2nd Place:
    "Cycle of Violence" by cadstar369

    3rd Place:
    "Disembodied Head" by SpellPiper2213

  • jpastorjpastor
    Thanks for the feedback @Tomigon I understand why I didn't place in the top 3 now. It's a good point, stacking your deck with that card so that you always yield Emrakul, etc.... I thought the cumulative upkeep would be enough, but it makes sense when you drop something so big... it just won't matter.

    I wish I could have come up with another idea for this contest. I tried.

    Next time!

  • TomigonTomigon
    @jpastor
    I like the idea and it made me want to come up with something similar. Thank you for participating! 
  • JadefireJadefire
    edited October 2021
    Thanks for hosting this contest @Tomigon and for all the time you spent providing comments on all the cards!  It's always nice to get feedback from someone who clearly knows the game and has an eye for details.  I suppose I should provide an explanation for the decisions I made in card design since it's not something that would be obvious from looking at the end results.

    Gravelgill Deceiver - Good point about including the reminder text for persist, I usually try to include that wherever space allows but it just didn't occur to me to do that this time.  I think the condition for giving the Deceiver Persist came from wanting to not make the card too powerful since Leech Bonder is also an uncommon and can only give a -1/-1 counter to another creature twice.  Requiring a weaker creature means the Deceiver can be played on curve in a creature-based deck and already have Persist when it hits the board without guaranteeing a 2-for-1 in all situations.  It also opens up interesting plays where you can use the -1/-1 counter on your own 3-power creature to re-enable Persist if your weaker creature gets removed.  I hear what you're saying about limiting the counter transfer to only creatures.  If the ability didn't already exist on a real card as recent as Nesting Grounds I wouldn't have gone there but it seems Wizards is OK with creating a scenario where creatures have loyalty counters, noncreatures have ability counters, and other cards have card-specific counters (e.g., arrowhead counters).  I think it could've equally been worded as moving a counter from one permanent to another permanent of the same type, I was just following established templating.

    Bleed Dry - I choose to not word it as a destroy effect for multiple reason: it preserves the sense of a scaling symmetry and puts the card into the family of effects that includes Steal Strength, Consume Strength, Drooling Groodion, and Rites of Reaping, setting a creature's toughness to 0 does what destroying does but it also gets around regeneration and indestructibility, and draining toughness is on theme flavourwise with established Vampire protocol (e.g., Ascendant Evincar, Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief).

    Eidolon of Dark Revelation - I agree that +3 to power can be a lot but it's balanced by the fact that if the creature you take doesn't have trample or evasion, your opponent can just throw chump blockers in front of it and force you to lose life equal to its toughness plus 1 every turn (which you have to do anyway before you can even attack with the creature for the first time unless the stolen creature is untapped and has haste).  This isn't a stealing effect that allows you to take a creature and sandbag with it for the rest of the game, it's all about aggression and ending the game ASAP.  In designing the card, I had to make the Eidolon playable as a 2-mana nonbestowed creature in the event that you have an aggressive hand or there aren't any creatures to steal.  A 1/3 that Bump in the Nights you every turn for two mana would be a tough sell, and making the effect or the stats bonus it gives different from the Eidolon as a standalone creature wouldn't be consistent with how the other Bestow creatures work.

    Hopefully, that addresses all the points you brought up.  Feel free to continue the discussion if you have any further comments.
  • SpellPiper2213SpellPiper2213
    Thanks for the feedback and hosting this contest, @Tomigon! I'm a little surprised I placed in third place.
  • TomigonTomigon
    @Jadefire
    Premium membership has been awarded to your account.
    Thanks for explanation. Things make more sense now! 

    @SpellPiper2213
    It wasn't the most creative entry, but the fact that I don't see any issues in the card made it to the 3rd. Also I like the idea of making only that body part as a creature.


    Thanks for all the participants!
This discussion has been closed.