Commander Game

My bad, I've been busy.

Your next challenge is to Create a Commander that is based on a real life historical event or person from the 16th century or earlier (i.e. Everything up to and including the Renaissance in Europe is fair game.) So something like Saskia the Unyielding being likely based on Boudica (60 AD) for example.

While not mandatory I would prefer if you used a historical figure/event WoTC has not referenced already - e.g. I won't stop you from making another Cleopatra card, but I might dock a point or two because Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons already exists. Conversely, I may rate cards that are based on obscure historical figures a point or two higher, assuming the card itself is well made.


Good luck!

First thought for this prompt DaVinci but they probably referenced him already, I'm not even going to check; second thought, Tesla but there's an entire ravnican guild that's just Teslapunk. So having tried and failed twice to think of a cool historical figure, I searched up "Obsure Historical Figures" and found a winner. 

Nellie Bly, pioneer in investigative journalism and noted world traveller (first to circumnavigate the globe in under 80 days). She seemed like a good inspiration for a Innastrad Investigative Journalist to investigate the Geier Reach Sanitorium (Bly investigated insane asylums), and while there's little lore about the sanitorium specifically, the fact that the sanitorium is in Stensia made the story pieces fall together.  The daughter of Cosper Lowe, Sabine travels Stensia investigating and reporting on the attrocities of the vampires houses that rule the Geier Reach, often at great risk to herself, hoping her reporting will galvanize her fellow humans to overthrow their vampiric abusers. With the events of Eldrich moon decimating the vampiric bloodlines, she has redoubled her efforts to take out the Stensian human's greatest oppressors.

This story lends itself naturally to a clues-matter deck so to I made her bant so she could lead a Bantvestigation commander deck.

Sabine Lowe, Geier Reach Scrivener
A Green, a White, and a Blue
Legendary Creature - Human Scout
Rare

Whenever an opponent draws a card, investigate unless they pay two.
Sacrifice a clue: Another target creature gains hexproof, indestructable, or protection from creatures until end of turn.
Sacrifice three clues: Creatures you control get +2/+2 and first strike until end of turn.

FT: "Why do we continue to suffer their abuses now that there are so many more of us than there are of them!"
2/3
No render provided.

I decided to make a card for Kusho. And since I'm not feeling very creative today, I just kept their name on the card.

Kusho, Warehouse Accountant
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor
At the beginning of each opponent’s upkeep, that player may create a Food token. If they do, you draw a card. Otherwise, you create a Food token.
: The next time a creature with power less than the number of Food you control would deal damage to you, prevent that damage.
1/4

The first ability represents either selling Food and making records about it or storing food. And if you store lots of food, Kusho might make some "mistakes" while recording some numers.

Sanfonier of the Night I did specify 16th century or before, but I think your entry captures the spirit of what I wanted to see for the challenge (obscure historical figures that don't normally get referenced in pop culture) well enough that I'll make an exception for it.

Thank You, and sorry for not using the rules right.

I will generally accept anyone who people could agree had some kind of living or biological counterpart in some form. Someone like Muhammad or Jesus might pass better muster than Adam/Eve/Lilith in this regard ("The First Homo Sapien" might be a better way to reframe this idea even if it takes away from the religious context.)

Basically, please try and use someone who had a decent amount of evidence that they existed 'as that person'. So Lucius Artorius Castus is fair game, but please try to include details that show you're making Lucius and not King Arthur.

hydraheadhunter - If you can't make a new card in time I will accept your Nellie Bly card as well.

Closing now as this is probably the best chance I have to judge for the rest of the week.




dangerousdice - Combining Joan and The Crusaders is a bit odd given the 200-300 year gap and regional differences, but I'll at least agree using Vampires to represent medieval Europeans seems about right given how Vampires were portrayed in Ixalan.

What I don't like is that this card doesn't really really capture the idea of either - the idea of a resurrection sounds like something more in line with Jesus or Vlad III, and I feel like if you were trying to nail Joan or the Crusaders more it would've been done by having a card flipping into an enchantment representing the former's exoneration to sainthood, or a land to represent the Holy City, or an artifact that is some in-between interpretation of both. If you wanted to portray a spirit of revenge, there are plenty of more fitting figures like Boudica (who I'm specifically picking as an example because she already has a card that screams "single out a player and kill them asap".)

I also feel the color distribution is pretty lopsided for this idea - I think specifying non-combat damage is smart to capture burn without saying it outright, but there isn't much about this card that indicates mana would be justified here, and the isn't really pulling its weight either. I think this could've been a much more graceful design if the front side was just a white weenie that flipped into a creature that had to pay when it triggered Crusade - there is evidence that Joan had a skilled understanding of artillery for her time to the point some even say Napoleon studied her tactics for his own use.

Crusade is an interesting mechanic that forces you to commit to all out attacks and I think it matches the component colors well, but I feel like the way you tried to sell it it just feels like the Crusades got stapled onto a card that is mostly about Joan.

I feel like a lot of this card doesn't really scale well into Commander. Damage-based removal, sure, but that's more likely to be part of a boardwipe or a big X spell than your average Lightning Bolt, which is what this card feels like it's meant to respond to. Repeatable pinging is somewhat interesting but the hoops you have to take to get there make feel like this was designed more for Standard than anything else - aside from giving this deathtouch I'm not exactly confident about this card's ability to scale aggro weenies into the late game.

Overall, I think there are a lot of good ideas here but the card is very rough and I think this is a side effect of it trying to represent too many ideas (Joan, Crusaders, European Vampires) at once.


hydraheadhunter - Funnily enough, DaVinci and Tesla would've probably qualified, because as far as I know, neither has an actual Magic counterpart, and I wouldn't have minded seeing an energy-based take on Tesla if it was done right even if it broke the 16th century or before requirement. I'd encourage you to try making either when you have a chance.

The insertion of Nellie Bly into Innistrad using the investigate mechanic is very clever and sells me on the idea very quickly without having to think too much about the resemblance, which I think is a strong appeal of your design. I think your idea of portraying her as a reactive force is a bit odd given how proactive she is as a person, but I suppose if you look at stopping repeated card draw/looting as needing to witness the horrors of mental institutions to act on them makes enough sense. The idea of her getting stronger the more Clues exist is a very good part of this concept as well and I think it helps bring the card together, encouraging you to run other investigate or even artifact cloning cards around her or perhaps using her as a more generic control commander. I think there's a decent bit of flexibility.

I do think you neglect the "world traveller" aspect part of the source material but there's only so much you can fit on a Magic card and I think less is more is better here.

Sanfonier of the Night - While I like that you picked a historical figure that isn't referenced often, I feel like your card is very all-in on War of the Newts and the result feels more like it is mostly in reference to the book rather than the author itself. As well made as this is, I feel like I ended up getting the wrong expectation given what I read about the person before I read the card itself, particularly with a greater emphasis on the and aspects of free expression and intelligent thought. The card itself is excellent, but I'm not sure if I would describe this to someone as an explicit reference to a historical figure - it somewhat feels like its own thing more, somehow.

I also think that "protection from opponents" is playing with fire in the sense it is very uninteractive - so as long as I have 7 mana, my opponents can't do anything besides boardwipe Kapek? I feel like he just becomes a very predictable commander that accumulates a lot of Equipment and Auras and just hits your opponents a bunch until they no longer can do anything else, and given that this sort of broad protection is apparently due to True-Name Nemesis I'm left wondering what exactly about this card is . I don't particularly mind him being a very specific Commander that alternates between either being jank tribal or Voltron, but I do feel like the way it was implemented is a bit overly unsubtle.

Flo00 - I feel like you definitely took my prompt to heart haha. This is the kind of historical figure I feel like I would have never found out about otherwise, and I like the flavor of portraying as the bartering side while ::W: is the orderly side trying to keep the records done right. It feels like a playstyle I've never seen before and I would want to build this kind of commander.

While I get the wink-wink nudge-nudge aspect of the mistake represented here I do feel like the card would've been better off if you hadn't gone all in on presenting me that part. You seem to want to try and get ambiguous about if it's a mathematical mistake (as shown in the video) or a bribe and I feel like the result takes away from the idea of a clever food merchant and more into the territory of "What character would do bribery instead?" I'm left wondering how easily this card could not be Kusho if Food was Treasure. The card itself is still clever but it feels a bit underscored by the twist.

gamma3 - With a description like that I feel like it's a little odd you didn't try for the 3rd law lol. I think your card is a pretty straightforward capturing of the historical figures otherwise and it resembles the original historical figure enough that I feel like people would get the reference if I showed them it. The commander feels a bit generic, but I still think it would cause people to brew it as combat manipulation can be fun in its own way. It feels like an older era Commander where the card doesn't seem specifically made with anything in mind and thus the possibilities of what to do with it are left relatively open.

Winner: hydraheadhunter - I think presentation was a big part of this round and in that sense you carried it well while still making an interesting card in a vacuum. I think this card could see print and you match your historical figure to MTG lore well, while choosing the bits and pieces that mix together best. You struck a good balance between making an exciting and unusual card and being faithful to the historical material.

"Whenever a source deals damage to ~, ~ deals that much damage to that source if that source is a creature or planeswalker. Otherwise, ~ deals that much damage to that source's controller."

Doh! I'll fix, thank you!

Cheyenne, the Taskmistress 
Legendary Creature - Human Noble
Each turn, whenever a player casts a spell, other than the first spell cast by the turn player, that player must sacrifice a permanent in addition to that spell's other costs.
2/4

The biggest weakness of Orzhov is ramp, imo, which is handled easily enough by artifacts (and even then, black has some decent ramp options). So I made a very staxy commander, which casual players will hate, but is something that competitive cEDH players might enjoy, especially since this effect in these colors is also very easy to break parity on.

Not quite: Mark Rosewater has spoken on his blog a lot about how black's enchantment removal shouldn't get rid of its own enchantments, or at least not without downside.