MTG Cardsmith Community Forums
Biscuit's Bring Back Mechanix Challenge
Heyo everyone. Hope your day is going well!
For those of you who don't know me, (which is probably most people) I used to post here a lot back in 2018ish. Recently, I have found myself with a bit more time on my hands and thought I'd come give some of my old lurks a check in. Though it may not be as bustling as it once was, I'm very happy to see that this community is still active and that more and more updates are coming to Cardsmith.
I've been particularly enjoying the borderless beta happening at the moment. Go check it out here:
https://forums.mtgcardsmith.com/discussion/6136/beta-borderless-frames-test-here-now#latest
https://forums.mtgcardsmith.com/discussion/6136/beta-borderless-frames-test-here-now#latest
I'm planning on running a lot more contests and challenges here in the near future with the hopes it may bring back some more activity like I so fondly remember. I'm even going to be trying my own hand at a Saga soon, as I had so much fun with things like the Stitia series. If things go well, I'm got it in my books to reward some sweet, sweet premium memberships in the future (I remember they used to be all the rage with the kids) - so if you want to have a chance of winning some epic free things, then make sure to get involved!
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Now with the introductory spiel out of the way, lets get into the challenge:
Paying homage to Tomigon's Mechanix challenges, where I spent manyer hour meticulously crafting unbalanced and off-color cards for, I am going to be asking you to smith cards based around several custom mechanics you can choose from.
Rules:
- Submissions must use, or mechanically reference, at least one of the featured mechanics
- Submissions can use multiple of the mechanics at once.
- You may submit up to 6 cards
- Only new cards are allowed
- Only cards made on MTG Cardsmith are allowed
- Judging will be based on balance, creativity, flavour, wording, and art selection.
- Submission will be closed in ONE WEEK (Sunday 9th June), likely around midday, but I'll give a final warning period on the day for peeps to get those pesky last minutes submissions in.
The Mechanics:
"Champion"
(A championed card is legendary and gets +1/+1 for each championed card you control.)
Example: "When this creature enters, champion another creature you control."
"Claim"
(A claimed card is exiled with a claim counter on it. You may cast that card for as long as it remains exiled with a claim counter on it, and you may spend mana as though it were mana of any type to cast that spell.)
Example: "When this creature enters, claim target nonland permanent an opponent controls.
"Recruit"
Recruit [cost] (You may cast this spell for its recruit cost if you control a number of nonland permanents equal to or greater than the mana value of its recruit cost.)
Example: Recruit 1W <-- You would have to already control two nonland permanents to cast this card for its Recruit cost.
"Spoils token"
(Spoils tokens are artifacts with "T, Sacrifice this artifact: Target creature you control gets +1/+1 until end of turn.")
Example: "When this creature enters, create a Spoils token."
These may seem a little unorthodox if you're used to the old mechanix challenges, but to you I say get creative! While I do appreciate those common cards that you'd probably see printed and played in limited, my personal preference lies in breaking the mould. So if you really want to give yourself every edge you can get, try thinking outside the box a little. (And this doesn't necessary mean I want to see loads of Mythic, wall-of-text cards that instantly win the game btw)
And the moment you've all be waiting for:
The Prizes:
1st: Favourite of the card, 5 favourites of your choice, a follow (+2 favourites if I already follow you), and two mechanics of your choice to be included in the next challenge
2nd: Favourite of the card, 3 favourite of your choice, and one mechanic of your choice to be included in the next challenge
3rd: Favourite of the card and 1 favourite of your choice
Runner-up: Favourite of the card
Good luck everyone. I'm hoping to see a catalogue of amazing cards by this time next week!
Comments
Here's an entry. Don't know how over/underpowered, but we'll see.
@Blazin_Biscuit - Who do we give credit for the mechanics of this challenge?
I didn't really look around primarily for mechanics before making them, so I guess the credit falls on me. Though, by all means, if someone finds the exact same mechanic written by someone else, then let me know and I'll add it
2nd entry, using Spoils
By the way, champion is already a mechanic in MTG:
I modified the reminder text of Claim to simplify and streamline it, I hope that's ok. A card with a claim counter will either stay in exile or lose the claim counter if it moves to any other zone, since it'll be treated as a brand new object.
Original: Champion (A championed card is legendary and gets +1/+1 for each championed card you control.)
Reworded: Esteem (An esteemed creature is legendary and gets +1/+1 for each esteemed creature you control.)
Thank you @TheDarkKnight1234567 for pointing this out. I don't know how this got past my usually rigorous research, but happy you caught it for me. Possibly because it only appears on 12 cards between Lorwyn and Morningtide, both of which were much before my MTG time.
Thank you @Jadefire for the streamlined text for claim, all the logic seems correct to me.
2nd entry
I updated the reminder text of Recruit because a mana value is related specifically to an object's mana cost and just saying "cost" without specifying the "amount of mana" could be confusing if another effect introduces an additional non-mana cost to casting a spell with Recruit.
Recruit is an interesting ability. The inclination is to use it for cost reduction, but the lower the Recruit cost is, the fewer the number of permanents you need and the earlier you can pay that cost. Giving a spell a higher Recruit cost also makes it harder to cast from the standpoint of the required number of permanents. So it's either going too far in making things easy or going too far in making things hard. It seems the mana cost and the required number of permanents to qualify to Recruit should be inversely proportional. I tried to work within the existing design to give a greater benefit the more permanents you have.
Edit: Fixed the wording on 1st and 2nd ability thanks to the feedback from @Jadefire
Championing/Esteeming a creature makes it a legend, which automatically means you can't do it to any other creatures with the same name without losing all but one copy of them. However, the primary benefit of Championing/Esteeming is gained in bulk, because you want to have many creatures with this status to stack the bonus. Imagine how good Muscle/Predatory/Sinew Sliver would be if you could only control one copy of each. This makes the detriment of Championing/Esteeming out of proportion to its benefits. In this case, the legendary status seems to only serve a flavour function, rather than a power balance function, and can probably be done away with so that it's more like Renown.
TenebrisNemo has the right idea with Senior Student of Prophecies. The primary benefit of a creature with Champion/Esteem has to come from a second ability that references it, because a single creature with that status only confers a +1/+1 bonus along with a restriction. It's too bad Exalted and Renown are already taken as mechanic names. I think Acclaim might've been a good alternative name since it conveys a greater sense fame and honour.
3rd entry
Original: Champion (A championed card is legendary and gets +1/+1 for each championed card you control.)
Edited: Acclaim (An acclaimed creature is legendary and gets +1/+1.)
Without the "gets +1/+1 for each championed creature you control" bit, I think the mechanic is cleaner and more open for different card ideas. It also eliminates the contradictory nature of becoming legendary and getting +1/+1 for each championed/esteemed/acclaimed card.
Still, running multiple copies of the same card in a deck has the risk of having to remove the other copies from the 'field if they happen to become legendary. Perhaps the only solution to that is to hold onto the other copies in hand if you got one acclaimed copy on the 'field. Or throw them in as meat shields with no intention to acclaim them if your situation is dire.
All in all, I'd see this mechanic shine in a "legends matter" set environment.