I'm just going to put my favourite three so far here, as everyone else seems to be doing-
(3-House of Two-moons
I love this cult! It has a cool vibe and interesting concept! One thing is I just wouldn't include black in your cult's colours. Just my thoughts.
(2- Tannarian society
This has such a mystic vibe! An amazing combination of slightly mysterious characters and enlightened minds!!! Some of my favourites are Eye of the Library! Cool cult, almost made it 1st place!
(3- Heroreapers
This cult is absolutely great! It has a vibe of fun instants, sorceries and enchantments and fun creatures! It introduces some new design space and abilities! keep up the good work!
(Obviously, most people probably think my cult is the worst)
I would leave notes for the other cults, but there are a fe people I don't want to feedback on, so I don't want them to feel left out.
The Bitter Sisters are all fun, dresses and (little) murders but they mostly do it for the thrill of it. It never really felt like they had a long-term plan. That is, until someone really important got poisoned. They may have an endgame, after all. The Bitter Sisters are after the highest power, and now that the Queen is gone, they will do everything they can to make sure the next Queen likes to drink a lot of tea...
Mechanically, the creature with the highest toughness obviously represents the Queen herself. What might be less obvious is that skipping the next combat phase represents the national mourning period decreed after her death. She was an important person, so the game "skips a beat" to acknowledge her.
PROMPT #2: A former cult member that escaped
A few ladies have felt uncomfortable with the lack of sugar at the Bitter Sisters tea parties and decided to leave. The smartest of them know that quitting tea that abruptly can shorten your life expectancy dramatically, so they hide in exile, looking anxiously over their shoulder for the rest of their days.
A creature dying by lethal combat damage represents a "natural", honorable death in a game of MTG. That's all this old lady aspires to, these days. If the creature was sacrificed, destroyed, or encountered a creature with deathtouch, then the wise crone will draw a card as she knows how to avoid those traps.
Bonus objective #4: The flavour text references that time where Vraska decided to come for an afternoon tea at the Bitter Sisters party. It is said she likes jasmin pearls.
BONUS CARDS:
The theme of this card is the lack of trust at court. The cards exiled face down represent the hidden agenda of everyone around the king.
Bonus Objectives #1, #3, and #5: A card uses a type of counter that is not +1/+1, -1/-1 or loyalty (in this case, debt counters). A card which name is a song from "The King" Elvis Presley (you can listen to Suspicious minds on Youtube here: LINK). A card that uses one of TheRacingTurtle's custom mechanics, in this case Pact.
This is a simple play on the "Pick Your Poison" saying, which takes a very different connotation when you're a member of the Bitter Sisters. Mechanically, it's a little mini-game where each player chooses one mode. Then each mode happens but, because a mode can't be chosen twice, if both players picked the same mode then it only happens once. This means the opponent can try to guess which mode you're going to pick instead of going for the less painful for them in hope of being submitted to only one mode instead of two.
Oh, do you mean the second step in trying MSE? If so, here are some more details on the second step:
The point is to install the fonts necessary for making an MTG card on your computer (they are the font for the card name, the rules text, etc.). This means that you install them the same way you'd install any font like Calibri, Arial, Times New Roman, etc. Also you'll be able to use them outside of MSE, on Word for instance.
Next, go down to the second post on the page. At the very top of this post you'll see a link called "Fonts for Magic Template". Click on it. This sends you to a download page on SourceForge for the font files in a compressed zip folder.
Once you have downloaded the zip folder on your computer, unzip it. It doesn't need to be placed anywhere in particular.
Inside, there are a bunch of folders. Ideally, you would install every different font inside each folder (they are .ttf files usually) by right-clicking on them and choosing "Install" (this takes a couple seconds per file).If you're feeling lazy, I believe you mostly need all the fonts in the "Magic - After M15" folder (Beleren especially is the font for the card names) and all the "Magic - All" folder (mplantin and its variations are the official font for MTG rules text).
Et voilà! You're now set to make MTG cards on your computer using MTG official fonts, on MSE but also any other software you want.
EDIT: Note that these instructions assume you're running on Microsoft Windows. I don't know how it works on Mac and other OS, but I'm sure you can find it on Google if that's the case.
1. Vahimgar’s Vision - I’m still holding off on revealing what exactly Vahimgar is, but you’ve surely figured out he’s the main object of worship for the Two-Mooners. As for the end-goal, Vahimgar’s, and the House’s overarching ambition and desire is the ability to manipulate future as they see fit, in order to shape a world of perfection and order. After all, the opening lines of the Chronicles of Arzhang are “Fate is woven by the Wise.” (And I’m sure you know who they mean by ‘the wise’.)This card satisfies the insidious scheme/enlightened plan prompt.
2. Aliana, Resplendent Avenger - Firstly, it should be noted that Aliana is referenced in one of my first entries (Seduced by Knowledge.) She like many others was drawn to the House by a desire for greater understanding of magic, and the wider world itself. Her beauty (and her ability to use it to her advantage), as well as virtue of her birth to a minor nobleman of Raqqad allowed her to advanced within the cult more quickly than many before her. As her innate powers of clairvoyance grew in subtlety and potency, she gained ever more access to the true nature of the House itself, bit by bit its greater schemes coming into focus. This ultimately lead to her leaving the cult outright, becoming a persona non grata, especially as she began convincing many of the Lamassu to join her in defection. This card satisfies the Former member/Outcast prompt, as well as the Gotta count em all bonus objective.
3. The Prophet’s Song - The hymns of Arzhang are sung on nights of the waxing and waning crescent moon. This card satisfies the `Fit for a King` bonus objective (a song by queen) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzdjMLKKdgkas well as the third times a charm bonus objective.
4. Plotting Potentate - Another typical scheming member of the House, but also satisfying the Planeswalker prompt (reference to Dovin Baan.) Dovin’s unexplained appearance and subsequent disappearance (after gleaning much information from the cult) was a factor in Aliana’s questioning of The House’s leadership and motivations that lead to her eventually becoming a renegade. Dovin was heavily empowered by his time within the cult, and he used this knowledge to great affect more famously in Ravnica.
6. Repudiate Heresy - This card serves no function in terms of scoring points. Its just another card to further flesh out the House.
*Had to edit Vahimgar’s Vision as the end step clause didn’t work as it was. Hopefully that is cleared up now.
Also I have to say that I’ve been loving the entries so far. The Bitter Sisters and the Heroreapers stand out especially.
@ningyounk The Bitter Sisters - I really like how you took the idea of a ‘cult’ and really upended it. Your cult has an undercurrent of deadly seriousness hidden beneath a frivolous facade and I’ve found it both intriguing and amusing. Mechanically clean, coherent, and very functional with a very clear identity. You’re killing this competition and when I first saw your entries I thought I had no chance. Also, thank you for the thoughtful feedback earlier.
@ThePhantomJoker The Heroreapers - Hero cults were a real thing historically, especially in Ancient Greece, and you’ve done a good job of giving this organization a strong identity that feels very white, but also fanatical and zealous enough to be a ‘cult’. Its really cool. Feels at home in innistrad aesthetically, but I could see a version of it in Theros from a philosophical/mechanical perspective. Speaking of mechanics, I think you’ve done a very good job with your goal of making mono white playable in commander. Well done!
@MemoryHeadThe Innovation - The Mad-scientist Izzet combine thing has never been that appealing to me, but I thought you had a really cool twist (that I wish you’d have continued) in that the cult had a semi-medical aspect to it (something like early simic), with an emphasis on people who had been maimed or disfigured that then lead to ever-increasing upgrades. Your cards are are always clean af and mechanics are clear, functional and elegant!
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@TheRacingTurtle Thank you for the feedback. I really appreciate it! I realized afterwards that Seduced by Knowledge was not worded properly as it should have been. The intended idea being a trade (which it seems that you got despite my mistake.)
My apologies for not coming back and talking about everyone’s entries yet, it’s been a truly manic week and my weekend isn’t getting better. I have proper time to do so Sunday night, so I’ll talk about that with week 3s judging. It’s wonderful to see so much constructive feedback amongst yourselves and the awesome entries continue to roll out.
@TheRacingTurtle Don't worry, if you're pressed on time feel free to take a little break Hosting these ongoing challenges can be super demanding in the long run ^^
@Rayne-Lord Thanks for the great feedback! I had NO idea, that something like "hero cults" is a historical thing, I might need to do some research. And as for the plane, I still haven't decided where exactly do Heroreapers operate - might be Innistrad, might be Theros, might be a custom plane or they could be an interplannar organisation, who knows. And probably no-one will ever know, because I am to lazy to come up with a clear answer, so anyone's headcannon is equally valid
The Innovation's members and sects each have their own ideas on what's best and what's worth working towards, but one overarching principle that joins many of them is a wish for revolution against the Enforcers and their obsessive crackdowns on anything that moves people away from the past. Whether they'll ever get organized enough to achieve it is debatable, but hey. They can dream:
That isn't to say that every aspect of the Innovation's fight for progress is uncoordinated. The Amov twins in particular are known for rescuing the victims of Enforcer "justice", and the practice has earned them a close-knit, organized following not entirely unlike an army:
But regardless of the Innovation's sub-groups and diversity, there are still rules. Among creators, somebody that looks to do nothing but destroy can't always fit.
Considering the context, it shouldn't be much of a surprise that the Innovation's members are constantly tooling themselves up with increasingly complex designs from both within the group . . .
Again, I'm just going to list off objectives for convenience. Revolutionary Dreams represents one of the Innovation's main plans. Unstable Recruit // Outcast Anarchist shows somebody thrown out of the Innovation. Epigone's Designs suggests that the Innovation has encountered Tezzeret. Delirious Survivor // Imperious Commander uses "Delirious" in the name, which is apparently a song by Prince. It also uses keyword counters for exalted (a non-generic counter type). Variance Modder // Multimod Expert provides modal choices.
I haven't covered the sub-task to use one of your mechanics. I tried pretty hard with levy, but eventually came to the conclusion that I wasn't getting anything cohesive with the wider faction setup and that it wasn't worth it.
Ataar's long-term plan is to gain majority control of the Council of Targai, either through blackmail or the Society's agents and allies. To do so, he researches possible ways to do so, paying whatever is necessary in order to gain control.
Kazmagar is a former ally of Ataar, and they started the Tannarian Society a few centuries ago. However, Kazmagar's ideas of what the Tannarian Society should be and how it should operate were different then Ataar's, and they split apaart, with several members of the Society at the time followed Kazmagar.
Endira is currently the highest-ranking member of Kazmagar's following. She believes that he is bound to rule the land, with Ataar merely an impotent pretender who refuses to play their "game" correctly.
@TheRacingTurtle quick question about the bonus objectives. If we say, make a card that uses one of your mechanics for that challenge, and that card (or another one) uses the counters from those mechanics, does using those counters count for "gotta count them all" challenge? I realize it might be a little bit cheap as far as doing the bonus objectives, but it does help to know.
Hey @Red_Tower, yep that’ll count just fine. I didn’t think that combination through entirely when putting pact and berserk on the list. No issue with it, it can tick both.
I am awarding this week's top entries to: 1st . @ThePhantomJoker and The Heroreapers (7pts) 2nd. @MemoryHead and The Innovation (5 pts) 3rd. @Rayne-Lord and House of the Two-Moons
Thoughts on this week's top three: 1. Vision of a Better World illustrates the idea of an ideal equal world so strongly while playing into white's slice of the pie, and Aldrei tell a fantastic story with each line of text. I appreciate the symmetry PhantomJoker pointed out, that his cult leader Rendal makes an excellent opposite to his outcast. This isn't just some random cult member that left, this is a former friend turned bitter enemy, and that personal touch makes for a fantastic story.
2. Revolutionary Dreams I felt encapsulated MemoryHead's cult excellently, caring about transform and artifacts in the way it does, and it's flavour text pushes the fervour of it's cult leader. I think there could have been a bit more of a focus on a specific revolutionary "dream" in the flavour, but mechanically this card nails the prompt and cult's identity. I like that your cult outcast is still very much within your cult's identity, and has become an outcast by being over-zealous instead of rejecting the cult's ideals like most have chosen to go with. The use of flavour text being carried on across the transform is really well done.
3. Third spot was a real tough decision this week, what ended up deciding it was the way Rayne-Lord continued the story started in their earlier entries to create a detailed outcast of the cult. I think Vahimgar's Vision is a very interesting spell that works into the scry theme of the cult very well, I just think it might need a tweak to it's balance. Very few spells are so heavy on colour pips in the cost, even when cheating out free spells. I like the second ability playing off your ordain mechanic, but it feels odd to have your patron's vision to want you to not ordain spells during your turn... though maybe more will be revealed on that in the last week. I like Aliana's revelations and gameplay decisions to work towards tokens or use the scrying, and her abilities letting her escape the black element of the cult.
Leaderboard
Rayne-Lord – House of the Two-Moons
26
MemoryHead – The Innovation
26
ThePhantomJoker – The Heroreapers
22
ningyounk – The Bitter Sisters
18
AboveAndAbout -Krelli
15
TheDukeOfPork – Unjay Cult
11
SpellPiper2213 – The Tannarian Society
8
Red_Tower – The Silverblade Order
8
If you have any questions or want me to clarify where your points have been awarded, please feel free to message me and I shall consult the mighty spreadsheet.
Thoughts on everyone's cult's so far, as I said I would try to do earlier in the week. Apologies, my life has been a little full on recently, and I didn't want to do a half-assed job on my feedback.
@AboveAndAbout I have thoroughly enjoyed the Krelli's brain-scooping shenanigans. I thought it was brilliant to create a Priceless Relic with no apparent purpose beyond being treasured, and glad you referred to it in other cards so we could see what it might do. You've ticked all of the bonus objectives every week and made a consistently strong show, the thing I'd like to see most for the Krelli is for a stronger mechanical focus. There's been plenty of tribal zombies, and you've gone back and forth a bit between "creates humans", "cares about zombies/sometimes other undead", "exile zombies". You've used my Pact mechanic a few times, which I appreciate, but with it requiring different costs each time it's not been a strong cohesive theme. I think what you experimented with in creatures dying to be replaced by zombies copies of themselves was excellent, and strongly representative of your cult's flavour of brain-scooping. That would be the area I would most want to explore if I was designing for this cult.
@Rayne-Lord I guess I've spoken about The House of the Two-Moons the most in my top three judging so far, so I don't have too much else to add here. I've enjoyed your cult's mechanics and flavour, and impressed that you've found such cohesive art work throughout the weeks. I think what I'd like to see the most from it is to see what Ordain could really be pushed to be. You've used it consistently, and I think carefully, now I'm curious what the most powerful Ordain spell might look like.
@ningyounk I've enjoyed your dark humour in The Bitter Sisters quite a lot, and I think you've made cards that reflect that quite well while establishing your cult. You've made it clear that deathtouch and toughness matters are the themes for your fearsome ladies, and I think you've explored those areas quite well. I particularly liked your Crone in a Silk Dress this week, a way to demonstrate an opposition of deathtouch without just hating on the keyword itself. I think what I'd like to see most from your cult is a little more depth mechanically. It's been consistently solid caring about the keyword, I'd love to see something a little flashy to finish us off.
@ThePhantomJoker The Heroreapers have won my blue ribbon so far for most growth from week 1. Things seemed a little mixed in the first batch, but I feel have tightened up a lot in the last two weeks and grown to tell quite a rich story. The personal relationships you've shown between your characters have been reflected well mechanically without complicating the cards' rules. I'm hoping to see a climax to the tale in the final week, and the power of the 1/1 shine through.
@TheDukeOfPork A very cool concept for a mysterious order of monks. My favourite card has been the Tomb of the Unjay so far, seeing level up played with on a non-creature permanent like that was really interesting. You've said that you plan to make level up and other "self-improvement" style mechanics to be your focus for the Unjay, which we've seen with your entries each week, I think I'd like to see you settle on one particular style to carry that through to the end, whether that be the divergent mechanic, level up, or elusive counters. I'm very much looking forward to seeing more of Jaliau by the end.
@SpellPiper2213 A most mysterious secret society, I think your entries have been elegant in their simplicity. Seeing a self mill and non-creature spell relationship grow has been interesting and not at all what I would have anticipated from week one. I like that you've used the outcast prompt as a way to define the Tannarian Society by what they are not, that is, not "blunt, careless". I'm hoping you'll let us behind the curtain a little more in the final week to show what these sinister scholars seek beyond knowledge.
@MemoryHead There's no doubt that the cards you make look stunning MemoryHead, and are absolutely things I want to play with in paper Magic. I think you've made a great theme of artifacts interacting with transform, and I appreciate the work you've done in effectively creating double the amount of cards each week by making so many of them double-sided. Cool across the board, and constantly impressive. The element I feel I'd like to see more in your cards is focus towards the specific brief, sometimes I feel you've made more generic examples from your cult when a focused approach would smash it out of the park for me. I touched on this above when I spoke about this week's entry in particular.
@Red_Tower Missed you this week dear Tower, hopefully we see you back. Also some fantastic looking cards. I really liked the step from week one to two where you took a fairly well used trope of vampire hunters and gave it a lot more life and backstory, which is what I'd love to see continue. In particular I liked the idea of the Moonfolk Horror transformation as a bane to vampires, and curious to see if that's going to be used again.
_______________________________________________________ I hope I've helped provide some insight into how I've been evaluating each week's entries. I'm always open to feedback, especially this being my first competition, so please feel free to reach out if you feel I can be more constructive. It's pretty late here right now so I'm going to write up our final week's prompts tomorrow instead, and I'll extend the due date to reflect the delay. Thanks for your patience all.
Four weeks, this next batch of prompts will be our last. But already sitting on a few more challenge ideas I'd like to put forward when this is complete, so hopefully see you there too.
"Due Date: Sunday 21st February 2021 (I'll be judging it Monday morning here in good ol' Australia). The next week's challenges will be posted after that."
I should really have asked about that instead of assuming we had two weeks...
Well too bad for me. I'll go ahead and post the cards I had made so far (One I knew for sure I was going to use the other I wasn't sure about). For prompt 2 was this: https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/quinn-the-first-blade
Oh damn, I'm sorry @Red_Tower, I intended for each step to be one week long and then have put the wrong date entirely for week three's deadline.
@Everyone, in the interest of trying to resolve this mistake fairly here's what I'm going to do:
Not change the placement points for 1st/2nd/3rd this week, I've scored them, I'm not going to take them away from anyone.
Red_Tower, you have until the 21st to enter your two prompted submissions and bonuses for the week, seeing as you've not settled on your completed entries and it's my mistake here. I'll judge your prompted entries based on the same metrics , and if your score would have had you in the top three, you'll be awarded the appropriate points.
Offer up three bonus objectives for this week, for which anyone can enter up to three cards. A chance for everyone to score some extra points if you want them, a week off if you feel you're happy at the moment, or just a prompt because you love making cards for your devious cult. I even think you could realistically nail them all in one card if you want to keep it short.
-Well that's not normal. One of your cards has an alternate casting cost: "A cost a spell may have that its controller can pay rather than paying its mana cost." -An unlikely convert. One of your cards takes another contestant's Legendary Cult Leader from week 2, and reimagines them as a recruit of your own cult. -It's soo shiny! One of your cards is silver-bordered, and is appropriately designed for an "Un" set: https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Unstable - that is, a bit silly or breaks the usual rules of Magic.
I'll close that off on the 21st and then put up Week 4's final prompts after that. Apologies all, certainly having myself a rich learning experience running this show.
@TheRacingTurtle I'm incredibly appreciative of the offer, however I would like to say that while the date listed was a mistake, I believe I'm the only one of the past participants that didn't submit by the correct time.
In fairness to everyone else who has been working hard, and in the interest of other's time, I think it would be best to continue on the normal schedule and continue on for week 4. If you'd still like to offer me the extension to get my cards submitted properly by the end of week 4 I'd be more than happy with that alone.
MTG Cardsmith Community Forums
Comments
(3-House of Two-moons
I love this cult! It has a cool vibe and interesting concept! One thing is I just wouldn't include black in your cult's colours. Just my thoughts.
(2- Tannarian society
This has such a mystic vibe! An amazing combination of slightly mysterious characters and enlightened minds!!! Some of my favourites are Eye of the Library! Cool cult, almost made it 1st place!
(3- Heroreapers
This cult is absolutely great! It has a vibe of fun instants, sorceries and enchantments and fun creatures! It introduces some new design space and abilities! keep up the good work!
(Obviously, most people probably think my cult is the worst)
I would leave notes for the other cults, but there are a fe people I don't want to feedback on, so I don't want them to feel left out.
PROMPT #1: The Bitter Sisters' insidious scheme
The Bitter Sisters are all fun, dresses and (little) murders but they mostly do it for the thrill of it. It never really felt like they had a long-term plan. That is, until someone really important got poisoned. They may have an endgame, after all. The Bitter Sisters are after the highest power, and now that the Queen is gone, they will do everything they can to make sure the next Queen likes to drink a lot of tea...
Mechanically, the creature with the highest toughness obviously represents the Queen herself. What might be less obvious is that skipping the next combat phase represents the national mourning period decreed after her death. She was an important person, so the game "skips a beat" to acknowledge her.
PROMPT #2: A former cult member that escaped
A few ladies have felt uncomfortable with the lack of sugar at the Bitter Sisters tea parties and decided to leave. The smartest of them know that quitting tea that abruptly can shorten your life expectancy dramatically, so they hide in exile, looking anxiously over their shoulder for the rest of their days.
A creature dying by lethal combat damage represents a "natural", honorable death in a game of MTG. That's all this old lady aspires to, these days. If the creature was sacrificed, destroyed, or encountered a creature with deathtouch, then the wise crone will draw a card as she knows how to avoid those traps.
Bonus objective #4: The flavour text references that time where Vraska decided to come for an afternoon tea at the Bitter Sisters party. It is said she likes jasmin pearls.
BONUS CARDS:
The theme of this card is the lack of trust at court. The cards exiled face down represent the hidden agenda of everyone around the king.
Bonus Objectives #1, #3, and #5: A card uses a type of counter that is not +1/+1, -1/-1 or loyalty (in this case, debt counters). A card which name is a song from "The King" Elvis Presley (you can listen to Suspicious minds on Youtube here: LINK). A card that uses one of TheRacingTurtle's custom mechanics, in this case Pact.
This is a simple play on the "Pick Your Poison" saying, which takes a very different connotation when you're a member of the Bitter Sisters. Mechanically, it's a little mini-game where each player chooses one mode. Then each mode happens but, because a mode can't be chosen twice, if both players picked the same mode then it only happens once. This means the opponent can try to guess which mode you're going to pick instead of going for the less painful for them in hope of being submitted to only one mode instead of two.
Bonus objective #2: A card with 3 or more modes.
Oh, do you mean the second step in trying MSE?
If so, here are some more details on the second step:
EDIT: Note that these instructions assume you're running on Microsoft Windows. I don't know how it works on Mac and other OS, but I'm sure you can find it on Google if that's the case.
1. Vahimgar’s Vision - I’m still holding off on revealing what exactly Vahimgar is, but you’ve surely figured out he’s the main object of worship for the Two-Mooners. As for the end-goal, Vahimgar’s, and the House’s overarching ambition and desire is the ability to manipulate future as they see fit, in order to shape a world of perfection and order. After all, the opening lines of the Chronicles of Arzhang are “Fate is woven by the Wise.” (And I’m sure you know who they mean by ‘the wise’.) This card satisfies the insidious scheme/enlightened plan prompt.
2. Aliana, Resplendent Avenger - Firstly, it should be noted that Aliana is referenced in one of my first entries (Seduced by Knowledge.) She like many others was drawn to the House by a desire for greater understanding of magic, and the wider world itself. Her beauty (and her ability to use it to her advantage), as well as virtue of her birth to a minor nobleman of Raqqad allowed her to advanced within the cult more quickly than many before her. As her innate powers of clairvoyance grew in subtlety and potency, she gained ever more access to the true nature of the House itself, bit by bit its greater schemes coming into focus. This ultimately lead to her leaving the cult outright, becoming a persona non grata, especially as she began convincing many of the Lamassu to join her in defection. This card satisfies the Former member/Outcast prompt, as well as the Gotta count em all bonus objective.
3. The Prophet’s Song - The hymns of Arzhang are sung on nights of the waxing and waning crescent moon. This card satisfies the `Fit for a King` bonus objective (a song by queen) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzdjMLKKdgk as well as the third times a charm bonus objective.
4. Plotting Potentate - Another typical scheming member of the House, but also satisfying the Planeswalker prompt (reference to Dovin Baan.) Dovin’s unexplained appearance and subsequent disappearance (after gleaning much information from the cult) was a factor in Aliana’s questioning of The House’s leadership and motivations that lead to her eventually becoming a renegade. Dovin was heavily empowered by his time within the cult, and he used this knowledge to great affect more famously in Ravnica.
6. Repudiate Heresy - This card serves no function in terms of scoring points. Its just another card to further flesh out the House.
*Had to edit Vahimgar’s Vision as the end step clause didn’t work as it was. Hopefully that is cleared up now.
@ningyounk The Bitter Sisters - I really like how you took the idea of a ‘cult’ and really upended it. Your cult has an undercurrent of deadly seriousness hidden beneath a frivolous facade and I’ve found it both intriguing and amusing. Mechanically clean, coherent, and very functional with a very clear identity. You’re killing this competition and when I first saw your entries I thought I had no chance. Also, thank you for the thoughtful feedback earlier.
@ThePhantomJoker The Heroreapers - Hero cults were a real thing historically, especially in Ancient Greece, and you’ve done a good job of giving this organization a strong identity that feels very white, but also fanatical and zealous enough to be a ‘cult’. Its really cool. Feels at home in innistrad aesthetically, but I could see a version of it in Theros from a philosophical/mechanical perspective. Speaking of mechanics, I think you’ve done a very good job with your goal of making mono white playable in commander. Well done!
@MemoryHead The Innovation - The Mad-scientist Izzet combine thing has never been that appealing to me, but I thought you had a really cool twist (that I wish you’d have continued) in that the cult had a semi-medical aspect to it (something like early simic), with an emphasis on people who had been maimed or disfigured that then lead to ever-increasing upgrades. Your cards are are always clean af and mechanics are clear, functional and elegant!
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@TheRacingTurtle Thank you for the feedback. I really appreciate it! I realized afterwards that Seduced by Knowledge was not worded properly as it should have been. The intended idea being a trade (which it seems that you got despite my mistake.)
@TheDukeOfPork thank you for your kind words!
Don't worry, if you're pressed on time feel free to take a little break
That isn't to say that every aspect of the Innovation's fight for progress is uncoordinated. The Amov twins in particular are known for rescuing the victims of Enforcer "justice", and the practice has earned them a close-knit, organized following not entirely unlike an army:
But regardless of the Innovation's sub-groups and diversity, there are still rules. Among creators, somebody that looks to do nothing but destroy can't always fit.
Considering the context, it shouldn't be much of a surprise that the Innovation's members are constantly tooling themselves up with increasingly complex designs from both within the group . . .
. . . and from without.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Again, I'm just going to list off objectives for convenience. Revolutionary Dreams represents one of the Innovation's main plans. Unstable Recruit // Outcast Anarchist shows somebody thrown out of the Innovation. Epigone's Designs suggests that the Innovation has encountered Tezzeret. Delirious Survivor // Imperious Commander uses "Delirious" in the name, which is apparently a song by Prince. It also uses keyword counters for exalted (a non-generic counter type). Variance Modder // Multimod Expert provides modal choices.
I haven't covered the sub-task to use one of your mechanics. I tried pretty hard with levy, but eventually came to the conclusion that I wasn't getting anything cohesive with the wider faction setup and that it wasn't worth it.
https://magicseteditor.boards.net/thread/756/use-magic-set-editor-mac
Ataar's long-term plan is to gain majority control of the Council of Targai, either through blackmail or the Society's agents and allies. To do so, he researches possible ways to do so, paying whatever is necessary in order to gain control.
Kazmagar is a former ally of Ataar, and they started the Tannarian Society a few centuries ago. However, Kazmagar's ideas of what the Tannarian Society should be and how it should operate were different then Ataar's, and they split apaart, with several members of the Society at the time followed Kazmagar.
Endira is currently the highest-ranking member of Kazmagar's following. She believes that he is bound to rule the land, with Ataar merely an impotent pretender who refuses to play their "game" correctly.
I am awarding this week's top entries to:
1st . @ThePhantomJoker and The Heroreapers (7pts)
2nd. @MemoryHead and The Innovation (5 pts)
3rd. @Rayne-Lord and House of the Two-Moons
Thoughts on this week's top three:
1. Vision of a Better World illustrates the idea of an ideal equal world so strongly while playing into white's slice of the pie, and Aldrei tell a fantastic story with each line of text. I appreciate the symmetry PhantomJoker pointed out, that his cult leader Rendal makes an excellent opposite to his outcast. This isn't just some random cult member that left, this is a former friend turned bitter enemy, and that personal touch makes for a fantastic story.
2. Revolutionary Dreams I felt encapsulated MemoryHead's cult excellently, caring about transform and artifacts in the way it does, and it's flavour text pushes the fervour of it's cult leader. I think there could have been a bit more of a focus on a specific revolutionary "dream" in the flavour, but mechanically this card nails the prompt and cult's identity. I like that your cult outcast is still very much within your cult's identity, and has become an outcast by being over-zealous instead of rejecting the cult's ideals like most have chosen to go with. The use of flavour text being carried on across the transform is really well done.
3. Third spot was a real tough decision this week, what ended up deciding it was the way Rayne-Lord continued the story started in their earlier entries to create a detailed outcast of the cult. I think Vahimgar's Vision is a very interesting spell that works into the scry theme of the cult very well, I just think it might need a tweak to it's balance. Very few spells are so heavy on colour pips in the cost, even when cheating out free spells. I like the second ability playing off your ordain mechanic, but it feels odd to have your patron's vision to want you to not ordain spells during your turn... though maybe more will be revealed on that in the last week. I like Aliana's revelations and gameplay decisions to work towards tokens or use the scrying, and her abilities letting her escape the black element of the cult.
Leaderboard
If you have any questions or want me to clarify where your points have been awarded, please feel free to message me and I shall consult the mighty spreadsheet.
@AboveAndAbout
I have thoroughly enjoyed the Krelli's brain-scooping shenanigans. I thought it was brilliant to create a Priceless Relic with no apparent purpose beyond being treasured, and glad you referred to it in other cards so we could see what it might do. You've ticked all of the bonus objectives every week and made a consistently strong show, the thing I'd like to see most for the Krelli is for a stronger mechanical focus. There's been plenty of tribal zombies, and you've gone back and forth a bit between "creates humans", "cares about zombies/sometimes other undead", "exile zombies". You've used my Pact mechanic a few times, which I appreciate, but with it requiring different costs each time it's not been a strong cohesive theme. I think what you experimented with in creatures dying to be replaced by zombies copies of themselves was excellent, and strongly representative of your cult's flavour of brain-scooping. That would be the area I would most want to explore if I was designing for this cult.
@Rayne-Lord
I guess I've spoken about The House of the Two-Moons the most in my top three judging so far, so I don't have too much else to add here. I've enjoyed your cult's mechanics and flavour, and impressed that you've found such cohesive art work throughout the weeks. I think what I'd like to see the most from it is to see what Ordain could really be pushed to be. You've used it consistently, and I think carefully, now I'm curious what the most powerful Ordain spell might look like.
@ningyounk
I've enjoyed your dark humour in The Bitter Sisters quite a lot, and I think you've made cards that reflect that quite well while establishing your cult. You've made it clear that deathtouch and toughness matters are the themes for your fearsome ladies, and I think you've explored those areas quite well. I particularly liked your Crone in a Silk Dress this week, a way to demonstrate an opposition of deathtouch without just hating on the keyword itself. I think what I'd like to see most from your cult is a little more depth mechanically. It's been consistently solid caring about the keyword, I'd love to see something a little flashy to finish us off.
@ThePhantomJoker
The Heroreapers have won my blue ribbon so far for most growth from week 1. Things seemed a little mixed in the first batch, but I feel have tightened up a lot in the last two weeks and grown to tell quite a rich story. The personal relationships you've shown between your characters have been reflected well mechanically without complicating the cards' rules. I'm hoping to see a climax to the tale in the final week, and the power of the 1/1 shine through.
@TheDukeOfPork
A very cool concept for a mysterious order of monks. My favourite card has been the Tomb of the Unjay so far, seeing level up played with on a non-creature permanent like that was really interesting. You've said that you plan to make level up and other "self-improvement" style mechanics to be your focus for the Unjay, which we've seen with your entries each week, I think I'd like to see you settle on one particular style to carry that through to the end, whether that be the divergent mechanic, level up, or elusive counters. I'm very much looking forward to seeing more of Jaliau by the end.
@SpellPiper2213
A most mysterious secret society, I think your entries have been elegant in their simplicity. Seeing a self mill and non-creature spell relationship grow has been interesting and not at all what I would have anticipated from week one. I like that you've used the outcast prompt as a way to define the Tannarian Society by what they are not, that is, not "blunt, careless". I'm hoping you'll let us behind the curtain a little more in the final week to show what these sinister scholars seek beyond knowledge.
@MemoryHead
There's no doubt that the cards you make look stunning MemoryHead, and are absolutely things I want to play with in paper Magic. I think you've made a great theme of artifacts interacting with transform, and I appreciate the work you've done in effectively creating double the amount of cards each week by making so many of them double-sided. Cool across the board, and constantly impressive. The element I feel I'd like to see more in your cards is focus towards the specific brief, sometimes I feel you've made more generic examples from your cult when a focused approach would smash it out of the park for me. I touched on this above when I spoke about this week's entry in particular.
@Red_Tower
Missed you this week dear Tower, hopefully we see you back. Also some fantastic looking cards. I really liked the step from week one to two where you took a fairly well used trope of vampire hunters and gave it a lot more life and backstory, which is what I'd love to see continue. In particular I liked the idea of the Moonfolk Horror transformation as a bane to vampires, and curious to see if that's going to be used again.
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I hope I've helped provide some insight into how I've been evaluating each week's entries. I'm always open to feedback, especially this being my first competition, so please feel free to reach out if you feel I can be more constructive. It's pretty late here right now so I'm going to write up our final week's prompts tomorrow instead, and I'll extend the due date to reflect the delay. Thanks for your patience all.
(um, by the way, how many weeks is this supposed to last for?)
Bed time! Hope ya'll have a good Monday.
(Well, not the exact town or region or state, just in america)
"Due Date: Sunday 21st February 2021 (I'll be judging it Monday morning here in good ol' Australia). The next week's challenges will be posted after that."
I should really have asked about that instead of assuming we had two weeks...
For prompt 2 was this: https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/quinn-the-first-blade
And what I was thinking of possibly using for the first prompt was this: https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/unknowable-truth
I might still try and get the bonuses done so I at least get some points from the week *shrug*
@Everyone, in the interest of trying to resolve this mistake fairly here's what I'm going to do:
- Offer up three bonus objectives for this week, for which anyone can enter up to three cards. A chance for everyone to score some extra points if you want them, a week off if you feel you're happy at the moment, or just a prompt because you love making cards for your devious cult. I even think you could realistically nail them all in one card if you want to keep it short.
-Well that's not normal. One of your cards has an alternate casting cost: "A cost a spell may have that its controller can pay rather than paying its mana cost."-An unlikely convert. One of your cards takes another contestant's Legendary Cult Leader from week 2, and reimagines them as a recruit of your own cult.
-It's soo shiny! One of your cards is silver-bordered, and is appropriately designed for an "Un" set: https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Unstable - that is, a bit silly or breaks the usual rules of Magic.
I'll close that off on the 21st and then put up Week 4's final prompts after that. Apologies all, certainly having myself a rich learning experience running this show.
In fairness to everyone else who has been working hard, and in the interest of other's time, I think it would be best to continue on the normal schedule and continue on for week 4. If you'd still like to offer me the extension to get my cards submitted properly by the end of week 4 I'd be more than happy with that alone.