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Venerated Loxodon Needs Friends
For this challenge, submit exactly one new or old card with convoke that cares which creatures convoked it. An example from real Magic is Venerated Loxodon. The (flexible) deadline is June 9.
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Honorable* Mentions
*If you're the kind of person that doesn't like everything that doesn't "win" getting an honorable mention, think of these as dishonorable mentions in order for me to provide feedback. Otherwise, imagine them as extremely honorable.
HM. @EmolgAn - Percy Val, Swordlight Mage
Percy Val was the only legend submitted for this contest, and this design gives me a good idea of who he is: a cooperative creature of some sort, such as a military general, who is strong in battle and buffs his teammates. Also, no other submission provided buffs to the convoked creature. The main reason this isn't top-5 is that I'm unclear as to whether or not this effect occurs until end of turn. If yes, the card doesn't say so. If no, this leads to memory issues which could be solved with counters. For example, something like this:
Percy Val, Swordlight Mage v2.0 (4WW)
Convoke, first strike
When Percy Val, Swordlight Mage enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature that convoked it.
Creatures you control with +1/+1 counters on them have first strike.
4/3
This is certainly a good design, and a card I would be interested in playing as a top end of a white aggro deck or in a Selesnya-type go wide deck.
HM. @Animist - Venerated Sadist
This is the first design I thought of when creating this challenge, and often the simplest designs are the best and most elegant. This clearly is a mirror to Venerated Loxodon, and to compensate for its punishing effect, has significantly larger stats. The one worry I have about this card (and I haven't playtested it so I could be off) is that it essentially functions as just a 3BB 5/5 flying trample, a good card already, since you have a disincentive to convoke. So that's why it's not higher. But it is a clean, interesting, well-templated design. As far as your other card, Concerted Containment, that is also a cool design with a great flavor (though it might have memory issues like above too). I think Venerated Sadist was probably a stronger submission, but they're both cool cards I would want to play with.
HM. @TuckerBarnes - Shepard of Safety
Flickering is a great thing to do with convoke. Especially when combined with flash, it allows this creature to swoop in, often for no cost, and surprise protect a few creatures that are about to die (or to use their enters-the-battlefield or leaves-the-battlefield abilities). As far as constructive feedback: first of all, it's spelled "Shepherd" not "Shepard." Second of all, there are some other templating issues going on. You could do a line break after convoke and there is a period missing somewhere. Not to be all grammar-nerd here, but making cards appear professional helps them score better at least in my opinion. It's definitely a promising design though, and when fleshed out, would be a card I'd look to play with to waste my opponents' kill spells for days.
HM. @SteampunkDragon - Herald of the Obzedat
Herald of the Obzedat is an intriguing submission that, first of all, wants to make me learn why the Orzhov are using Selesnya tactics. Maybe the Herald of the Obzedat isn't faithful to the Obzedat anymore. Maybe the Orzhov and Selesnya are joining forces. If that's the case, Herald of the Obzedat will certainly help amass (not literally) a large army of evasive Spirit tokens. I worry, however, that this is kind of stretching what convoke is, as it's really sacrificing. And also that this, as you suggested, might be overpowered - imagine using a 1/1, and a 2/2 to power this out T3, sacrificing them, and creating up to 3 . This would probably be in 6th place, by the way, and falls into the "honorable" category among the mentions for sure.
5. @TheCaptain010 - Ghost Assassin
Ghost Assassin makes use of convoke in a cool way that none of the other submissions do: instead of having an effect to each convoker, or once per each convoker, this card simply looks at a threshold (3) for how many convokers. I think this will create unique gameplay, and is also probably an easier mechanic to understand the gameplay ramifications of. As far as feedback, my biggest issue is of flavor. Why does the ghost assassin kill someone if creatures help to cast it? Maybe it's me, but I can't figure out why. This is not a significant issue however, as it has been broken twice just in Guilds of Ravnica alone (Puase for Reflection and Sprouting Renewal).
4. @MemoryHead - Unity Charm
This is a snazzy idea and an extremely flexible card. You can use this in so many ways it's not even funny. Let's say you have two vigilance creatures that are attacking. You could use this card, tapping both, to tap a blocker, make a Soldier token, and give one of your attackers +1/+1, for example. Alternatively, you can tap a creature and a Plains to gain 4 life and tap an attacker to preserve your life total. This just has so many options. However, if I had to provide feedback, this design's strength might also be its downfall - the options might be overwhelming in a game. To fix it, I might remove one of the options, such as the life-gain one.
3. Affinity for creatures
I grouped these together since they all have a common thread: they essentially act as affinity for creatures, i.e., when this creature enters the battlefield, untap all convokers. There are some differences (the creatures have to be untapped, for example) but these probably have relatively similar. This grouping might upset some people, and I'm sorry for that.
Affinity for creatures is a cool variant of convoke that is an intriguing direction to go in.
Now that we've looked at the similarities between these cards, what are their differences?
@bnew07's Liberator Angel flickers, which has the added benefit of disguising the affinity, as well as providing enters-the-battlefield and leaves-the-battlefield triggers. (Notably, it does give the creature summoning sickness again, so it is a bit like tapping in that the creature cannot attack unless it has haste or vigilance.) The nontoken clause is nice, and this card is very clean. I'd probably give the nod to this card for the "true" third place.
@pstmdrn's Venerated Nurturer untaps lands for convokers. This is a cool blend of affinity for creatures and convoke, since it is cheaper based on the creatures you have, but you have to tap the creatures to get this reduction instead of your lands. This is a unique and innovative idea that would result in good gameplay.
@Tomigon's Venerated Medic actually does a lot more than affinity for creatures, but I have a feeling that the untap is a lot more valuable than either of the other two options. However, this can be flashed in on an opponent's turn to pump, or to provide a bump in life total. This is flexible and a great submission, though it feels like the abilities could be spicier and provide more of a choice.
@ElMagici's Nomad Crusader is costed correctly for sure, in contrast to some other cards here that may be overpowered. It's a good example of affinity for creatures used on a clean design. The flavor here comes through well, and this is a card I would be happy to insert into my decks.
2. @sanjaya666 - Venerated Absolution
One of the two submitted noncreatures, Venerated Absolution is a very interesting card that would certainly feel good to cast. It imitates Plague Wind in many ways; however, it has the downside of your convokers not being able to attack or tap that turn. As an aside, this is a great utilization of hybrid mana: this is white in that it's technically "fair," but black in that it protects your creatures at others' expenses. As far as gameplay, this is a design I would be excited to insert into my deck. With just four creatures in play on turn 4, this card secures a giant advantage for your team, and one that's difficult to penetrate. If I had to criticize one thing, probably the "each player" in the rules text - your opponent's creatures will never convoke this. The template has room to be streamlined better, actually - I'd probably write it as,
Venerated Absolution (4 W/B W/B W/B W/B)
Sorcery
Convoke
Destroy each creature that didn't convoke Venerated Absolution.
for most of the same functionality.
1. @ASubtleGhost - Renowned Alchemist
Spicy. This is a great mythic rare, and it might be overpowered, but I don't even care - if people play this in Modern, then Modern becomes more fun, right? I don't think it's too good though, but I'd need to play to be sure. The flavor here elegantly captures the idea of convoke (they're a well-respected alchemist) and feels like an alchemist. This manages to be engaging and fun without being too complex or bogged down with complex ideas or design concepts. I am a big fan of this card.
In summary, it's great to have people do my contests on the forums, and even the bad cards are better than no cards. If you have any other questions for me, feel free to PM me or reply below. My intention is not to hurt anyone's feelings with any criticism, by the way; my intention is to help you be a better designer. Thanks everyone for joining my contest.
Well, what I mean about each player is in a scenario when you used stolen creatures via, for example, Reins of Power to convoke this. Then after they got destroyed, their owner can regain control of their creatures from the grave.
I know, that's a bad position for you but... fine, I'll use your wording. Whatever then.
It's already changed btw.
It seemed like it did too little at three, but I suppose at four it does too much.
On a totally unrelated note that just occured to me, cost-raisers like Thalia, Guardian allow you to get all four abilities because you can convoke three creatures to pay for the card. Huh.
Thank you for the contest and feedback!