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[RESULTS] The HALF-Great Designer Search 3 — Challenge 4: Finding a Good Mechanic
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Comments
@Undead Unsettle was one of the most original and exciting mechanics of the whole contest. It fits the Zombie tribe perfectly, and synergizes with the plane of Innistrad in general more than any other set probably could. You also showed many elegant ways of triggering it. The reason I didn't ranked you higher was because I think there's a big developmental flaw in this iteration. I can get passed the fact that it would be difficult to enable because you can't show that on just four cards, but there are combos with cards that exile a whole graveyard that would break the mechanic easily, and I believe there were multiple potential solutions to that problem that you could have implemented. Still, I really liked your mechanic and your cards!
@bnew07 Chivalry felt like a solid mechanic that would play well with all colours in the Bant shard and with previous iterations of Bant in particular. On the downsides, I believe it feels like it would always be "on" because it's easy to activate and the upsides of activating it exceed the downsides by a wide margin. I also think your entry lacked in more original ways of making Chivalry matter. That being said, it was one of the most realistic entry of the contest. It was a very clean execution and if I had to pick one mechanic I think could most likely work in a real set, I'd probably pick Chivalry ^^
@Faiths_Guide Hoard innovated by caring about a deciduous mechanic, the treasure tokens, while still remaining a very simple ability word in essence. It was one of the most flavourful mechanics of the contest, it screams "Pirates!" like no other mechanic could. It would probably be a bit complicated to have in a set because it cares about having a lot of free mana sitting around on the battlefield, but you can't really address that with just four cards. Your execution was very elegant, you thought about many little details and I'm sure depending on the judge you could very well have been first place, it's really subjective at this point as it was a really strong entry.
@kandra123 Dream was a really exciting mechanic! I was a bit scared at first because there are many traps you could have fallen into, as it's a small variation on an often-used staple mechanic you find in every set. While your entry was not 100% perfect, what made me choose you as the winner was how incredibly elegant your entry was. Each card dreams in a different and innovative ways, and I was especially impressed at how you managed to make Dream feel like a unique mechanic with a strong mechanical identity. The Faerie restriction was very risky, as you usually don't want your mechanics to be that parasitic, but you showed how it could open some very unique design space. I see you as the high risk / high reward contestant of this challenge because your actual entry turned out much better than I initially thought it possibly could ^^
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Congratulations everyone who participated! Whatever my review of your mechanic was, considering how difficult these challenges are getting, just managing to design a full-fleshed entry is already quite a feat!
I adjusted the prizes due to the fourth place this round:
- @kandra127 — Which 5 cards of your choice do you want me to favourite?
- @Faiths_Guide — Which 3 cards of your choice do you want me to favourite?
- @bnew07 — Which 2 cards of your choice do you want me to favourite?
- @Undead — Which 1 card of your choice do you want me to favourite?
For those of you who aren't scared by difficulty, I'll post the fifth round of the Half-GDS3, "Work of Art", within the next 24 hours. This one is a biter, you've been warned
(fyi) The card-by-card review links to page one of this discussion.
Congratulations, @kandra123! Congrats to all other @Winners too, and thank you @ningyounk for another amazing and very difficult contest!
Oh thank you, good catch I knew I forgot something ^^" The link to the card-by-card review should work now ^^
Thanks! I never thought I'd win! I was just having a drink of water, and then I read the results, and spat it all over my couch!
For my prize, I just say look through my cards, and favorite some you likes, if that's okay!
Thanks, everybody!
Sorry about your couch ;p
I favourited your four entries and your most favourited card, Virtual Firewall, just so it gives you a new highest number of favourites on a single card ^^
Thanks! Twiddle was a really smart suggestion for the Powder-Monkey, and all of your input was super helpful.
I totally agree about the dangers of a set that had enough Treasure to really make the mechanic shine too; it had me a bit worried as I designed my entries.
Could you fave the Charm I made you and these two:
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/gaith-fuide-tavern-keeper
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/notion-mentoring
I'd be even more pleased if you stopped by and voted for your top three out of ten cards here:
http://forums.mtgcardsmith.com/discussion/4333/vote-for-the-best-recipe-on-the-menu#latest
Favourited and voted! =D
That's a funny charm by the way, was the inspiration my most favourited card, "Suicide Doll", or the translation of my username from the japanese "ningyou" to the english "doll/puppet"?
The translation of your name combined with the effects of WotC's Dolls. I remembered someone talking about your names translation from way back.
It's actually out now :P
http://forums.mtgcardsmith.com/discussion/4349/work-of-art-the-half-great-designer-search-3-challenge-5/p1
Favourited! =D
Thanks for the feedback, I think you are right that I didn’t innovate enough in this submission although I think Chivalry would be a good workhorse mechanic and lends itself well to simpler designs which is what I ended up submitting. The one point I disagree on is the fact that it has very little downside. I think the biggest downside is the deckbuilding cost and after that the sequencing requirement in gameplay. Not being able to use the chivalry ability renders these creatures mostly just French vanilla which is why ensuring that the chivalry is enabled is key. This reduces options in deckbuilding and sequencing as well as rendering these creatures relatively weak on defense. It definitely isn’t too difficult to enable but I think the costs are there but hidden.
Can you please fave:
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/unseat?list=set&set=30793
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/distort-the-mundane?list=set&set=30793
Favourited! =D
Yes, Chivalry was a bit difficult to judge, it's entirely possible if we had more judges with different sensibilities they wouldn't have agreed with my point about the "always on" part of my review. In my head, I was afraid of the following play patterns:
1) You play a couple small creatures early and Chivalry becomes available to you for the remainder of the game because you never have to put them in danger.
2) The board becomes stalled later in the game, the small creatures have nothing to do so, if you ever attack with a Chivalrous creature, activating it is almost free value because those creatures are just chump blockers at best and that's not very valuable on a stalled board.
3) The combination of the two previous points would make the mechanic feel a bit like "This creature has +N/+N as long as you control a creature with lesser power".
That being said, I haven't playtested it so it's possible I'm misjudging how strong of a downsides having those smaller creatures in your deck and tapping them on your own turn would be ^^