MTG Cardsmith Community Forums
Circus Deck
Ok so I've been thinking about building a circus deck lately. Circus decks are pretty fun to play with, that is if you can actually get your cards out. This contest is just for fun to see what kind of crazy cards y'all come up with.
In case you've never heard of a circus deck they are pretty simple, they are comprised mostly of crazy cards that have weird, unpredictable, often game changing effects; but usually at a high mana coast. They are hard to play with because it can take a lot of time to get out a single card and I've never heard of a competitive circus deck (a real one atleast.) These decks are fun to play with because they play with your opponents mind, you never know what to expect from the next card and these decks are nearly impossible to predict. A lot of circus cards will have effects that harm the user themselves, but can be turned around in some way. I'll post a few examples of circus deck cards, these are all actual cards so use them as a reference.
Rules:
1: Cards must be playable and balanced (Unglued cards are allowed and encouraged but only if they are usable in an actual game. They can not be OP, or UP.)
2: Cards must be unpredictable, cards that simply destroy, exile, bounce, etc opponent creatures will not be accepted.
Score Guide
0-10: Artwork
0-10: Playability
0-10: Ability (predictability)
Bonus Points:
+1 If the card references in some way an actual circus. This can be artwork, name, flavor text, anything. It doesn't have to say the word circus but must reference it in some way, for example an elephant on a unicycle, the name "Night of fun", or flavor text written by "The clown"
+1 If you create a card, or set of cards that have an effect that would normally harm you, but have a way of turning it around to benefit you instead. (Example: Enter the Infinite and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries)
In case you've never heard of a circus deck they are pretty simple, they are comprised mostly of crazy cards that have weird, unpredictable, often game changing effects; but usually at a high mana coast. They are hard to play with because it can take a lot of time to get out a single card and I've never heard of a competitive circus deck (a real one atleast.) These decks are fun to play with because they play with your opponents mind, you never know what to expect from the next card and these decks are nearly impossible to predict. A lot of circus cards will have effects that harm the user themselves, but can be turned around in some way. I'll post a few examples of circus deck cards, these are all actual cards so use them as a reference.
Rules:
1: Cards must be playable and balanced (Unglued cards are allowed and encouraged but only if they are usable in an actual game. They can not be OP, or UP.)
2: Cards must be unpredictable, cards that simply destroy, exile, bounce, etc opponent creatures will not be accepted.
Score Guide
0-10: Artwork
0-10: Playability
0-10: Ability (predictability)
Bonus Points:
+1 If the card references in some way an actual circus. This can be artwork, name, flavor text, anything. It doesn't have to say the word circus but must reference it in some way, for example an elephant on a unicycle, the name "Night of fun", or flavor text written by "The clown"
+1 If you create a card, or set of cards that have an effect that would normally harm you, but have a way of turning it around to benefit you instead. (Example: Enter the Infinite and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries)
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
It may not be specifically a circus theme, but it is close enough.
Parallax is a game created by a desparked shapeshifting planeswalker, who preys on the reactions of fears. It is the hook of a D&D campaign I'm currently working on.
The ex-planeswalker (currently unnamed) divulged into the dreams of five random individuals, of different races, from different planes, and dragged them into his game. The style isn't circus, but arcade, where the characters have nothing except "Credit" or "Points", to spend on things to survive. The main center of the game is an item called the Reality Emitter, which, on different settings, changes reality around you and causes different levels of insanity. I think I captured the circus deck effect rather well in this spinoff of Knowledge Pool, where players can fight to rack up credit to spend on bombs created by it, or they can ignore it entirely and focus on the game, minus those few, possibly crucial cards.
Disclaimer, I did want to have more text on the card, but MTGCS simply wouldn't allow it in the frame of the card, so this is as it stands.
The second one fits the theme a little, but it's effect is very generic. A lot of newer cards have a similar effect and the purpose of a Circus deck is to have effects that are wild and unpredictable. I don't mean necessarily in what they do but how dissimilar they are to other cards.
It's a great card with an awesome effect. I'd probably run it in a green deck. But it's more of a red or black effect. Green focuses on beefing up your creatures and making them better or forcing battles. Also I don't really know how I would judge it, a burn card like this is pretty generic, but a green burn is extremely unexpected. I'm not sure if that's what you were going for or not.
+1 If you create a card, or set of cards that have an effect that would normally harm you, but have a way of turning it around to benefit you instead. (Example: Enter the Infinite and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries)
Check this out:
https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Storm+Seeker
Or these:
https://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/card/details.aspx?name=Squall Line
https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Hurricane
This gives me a bad feeling though, I have a friend that loves burn decks, he's somehow made a burn deck with almost every color except green, and he said he was going for green next lol.
Yeah, pro players may use mono red burn decks, but only legends use mono green burn decks.
These three come from the Same Set which contains many more unpredictable cards.
@faiths_guide I like those cards! They're all pretty unpredictable, especially the clash mechanic, I never considered using it. This would work very well in a circus deck where most cards have a converted mana coast of 5+.
wait for it...
Me with: No Submission
Told ya carnival decks are unpredictable!
In all seriousness though
Winner by points "Mysticore" by @Faiths_Guide.
Personal favorite "Eager Ringmaster" by @TenebrisNemo This one was just so funny!
Though honestly All these submissions are awesome I'm gonna give everyone a favorite!
Thanks for the submissions guys!