MTG Cardsmith Community Forums
Mystery Box Challenges
This discussion has been closed.
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Comments
Prize List (28/50)
Top 50 Mystery Boxers as of April 2025
Milestone Recap
Deadline Reset! - Special Event (Legacy Deadline)
Whenever you don't get a prize in a box this deadline, you'll instead receive 2 Legacy prizes (227 possible legacy prizes)To ask for a Mystery Box, just ask for a mystery box!
Your mystery box contains:
- Mystery Challenge
Create a creature of the Vizpoka guild and include the proper watermark on the card.With no requests entered yesterday, I roll the Mystery d20...
It lands on 10Uh oh!
A NUKE goes off. All entries submitted this deadline have been destroyed.
Luckily there are none. That would have been tragic.
Another day goes by with no mystery box requests, another roll of the d20...
It lands on 12.
by Marc Winters
Nicol Bolas has arrived to examine the most recent entries.
NICOL BOLAS speaks...
Ah, how quaint. You've come crawling before an elder dragon, bearing cards as if they are gifts, hoping for my approval. Very well. I shall indulge your foolish mortal whims — and crush your hope beneath the weight of brutal truth.
Santa, Giver of Gifts by @Mellow_MC
{3}{R}{W}{G} — Legendary Creature — Human Demigod (Common)
2/6
Text: You may cast spells with 5 CMC or less for free if you gift each opponent a tapped Treasure and a tapped Food. Whenever you cast a spell for free, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you don't control. For each counter put on creatures this way, put that many counters on Santa, Giver of Gifts divided by three rounded down, then draw 3 cards.
BOLAS' VERDICT: What plane of idiocy birthed this monstrosity? A common card that allows free casting, mass counter generation, card draw, and pseudo-Group Hug-to-Super Saiyan transformation? Do you seek to make Magic a joke? Do you understand nothing of balance?
You grant your enemies resources — but then punish them by making their creatures stronger, and then greedily draw three cards as you power up your own? The mechanical synergy is like giving out poison with a smile and congratulating yourself for your charity.
Also, “divided by three rounded down”? What are you, a math teacher? You dare put long division on a common card? This doesn’t belong in a booster pack — it belongs in the trash fire of holiday jank precons.
“Jingle Bell Rock”? Your flavor text is a desecration of the very concept of flavor.
Final Judgment: Should be mythic for power level, banned in Commander for enabling obscene nonsense, and exiled from existence for thematic blasphemy. Rework it or face obliteration.
Altar of Sacrifice by @Mellow_MC
{5}{B}{B} — Legendary Artifact — Altar (Rare)
Text: Sacrifice a creature; each player loses life equal to its power plus its toughness. At the beginning of your end step, you lose life equal to the amount of life you lost this turn. Then, each player mills X, where X is the amount of life you lost this turn.
BOLAS' VERDICT: Ah, finally, some actual malevolence. But you still manage to fumble the blade before it strikes.
The mana cost is absurd — seven mana for a sac outlet? You overestimate how long mortals like you survive in a game.
The effect is interesting — symmetrical, punishing, potentially abusable — yet you’ve laced it with too much self-harm, ensuring your enemies merely wait while you bleed out like a fool.
The milling is flavorfully appropriate, but timing-dependent and not quite explosive enough to be worth it. The design screams dark ambition, yet delivers a mild nosebleed.
Final Judgment: A beautiful idea wrapped in clunky, overpriced mediocrity. Lower the cost, give it real teeth, and make the bloodshed worth the pain. As it stands, I’d use it as a coaster for my drink made of planeswalker tears.
In summary, your cards are like fragile mortals themselves: ambitious, confused, and painfully unworthy. But with pain comes growth. Perhaps next time, you’ll present designs befitting my glorious intellect. Until then… return to the drawing board. Or don't — I enjoy the sound of your failure.
— Nicol Bolas, Supreme Reviewer of Terrible Custom Cards