Planeswalker Game

Inspired by his previous incarnation, I present you:

Aneon, the Leafking
Planeswalker - Aneon
: Look at the top card of your library. If it’s a land card, you may put it onto the battlefield tapped.
: Until end of turn, Aneon, the Leafking becomes an X/X Avatar creature with hexproof, trample, haste and indestructible. X is the number of loyalty counters on Aneon.
: Put up to three target cards from your graveyard on top of your library.


Note 1: The X in the second ability is set as the ability resolves. It won't change later if Aneon gains or loses loyalty counters.
Note 2: Yes, he gets damage while he is a creature which causes him to lose loyalty.

Is there a style guide like the previous forum's? Such as how to create the mana symbols, etc? Or is it the same as sourceforge's?

Garruk Relentless does not include the operative word "then". With Garruk's case, the damage is done simultaneously as worded. With Somarus' case, the operative word "then" splits the action into two actions on the stack instead of one. If the intent is for the damage to be dealt simultaneously, just omit the word "then" from the ability text so that it happens as a single stack action. Same with the 0 ability.

No problems. As i said in another post, im a munchkin by trade, so i pick apart syntax like no other. Corrected, it negates the obvious loophole i stated.

Let's judge.

fluffyDeathbringer and k'Klaglca the Hellpit: The whole "gradually gets stronger but also hurts you worse" gimmick is hard to pull off, but this one's close. I think this particular example may be too efficient even with the damage. 3 mana and 5 life is a pretty solid deal for any combination of two of these at X=2 and 3 (assuming they can be protected), and having the option to just let them sit and take no damage is both a significant upside and a little out of flavor for a character whose abilities seem to scream wild and uncontrollable.

Daij_Djan and Setheret, Artful Advisor: This guy suffers in that the loss-prevention / self-mill ability overshadows his status as a planeswalker and the potency of his abilities. He's certainly a jaw-dropping bomb, but the static ability draws more attention than all those powerful pluses and that's not a great sign. I could get behind this if it were just the self-mill drawback, I think - that'd put it more in the vein of the classic black Overpowered Card At A Terrible Price, rather than a planeswalker stapled to a mostly-unrelated big enchantment.

voltaic-qui and Blodwyn, Woeleecher Ascendant: Har har. The internal synergies are cute, and I can deal with the quirkiness. What I can't deal with is making two 1/1 tokens (which might not even be 1/1s if you have spare mana) as a plus on a four-mana walker. You gotta be four mana at the least to make one token as a plus (Elspeth, Knight-Errant, Sorin, Lord of Innistrad). Tone that down and this could be a fine 'walker, though it's still probably too weird for some tastes.

kinotherapy and Tavric, Rabble-Rouser: This is clean and conceptually strong. He does violate the rule of not being able to plus without targets, though; relatedly, I'm not sure I like that he needs to be able to blow up artifacts or enchantments to increase the damage potential of his last ability. You could throw him some targets yourself, I guess, but at that point you're basically burning your own board to charge up a Lava Axe, and there are better uses for throwaway artifacts and enchantments. Most of the time, I suspect he'd be his middle ability and little more - but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

celebi and Liona Sparkgiver: The abilities on this card are kind of all over the place. It tutors/wishes for a planeswalker on death but it kinda buffs your creatures while it lives, except untapping and granting vigilance is almost always redundant? And the ability to clone vanillas comes so out of nowhere that I thought I'd accidentally skipped over to another entry at first. Very few decks will have need for vanillas-matter and Superfriends-style tutoring at once. It's pulling in a lot of different directions which don't really come together.

4d20 and Ühtsus, Kylem's Pride: disqualified for making me Google alt codes Planeswalkers that exist mostly (in this case, entirely) to affect other planeswalkers are a... controversial topic, let's say, and I mostly fall on the "they're a bad idea" end of the spectrum. Mechanically they're very insular and unbelievably feel-bad for Limited (where that's relevant), and flavorfully they undercut planeswalkers being rare wildcard beings. If we have to have one, I suppose this one's a decent execution, though I'm wary of anything that lets a planeswalker ult quickly, especially at this low a cost.

Flo00 and Aneon, the Leafking: I don't know how I feel about creaturewalkers taking damage while they're creatures. Taking loyalty damage from combat is odd, to say the least. The first ability is also very underwhelming for five mana. It comes a little too late to be enticing as ramp, and, while it does buff Aneon substantially for when he attacks, it feels odd having the loyalty gain sometimes being the only thing you get from it. Seeing your next draw is an upside, yes, but a very minor one. The last ability also feels really out of place. I get that you can use it to recycle lands to the top for his first ability, but why would you spend turns on that kind of extremely slow ramp with a planeswalker whose biggest attraction is becoming a huge creature?

touhoufanatic and Bebe, the Rogue Blossom: Ah, the greater-spotted one-mana planeswalker. I... don't know how you decided that doubling your mana as a plus ability on a one-mana 'walker was a good idea. That, plus the first ability letting you refund its casting cost, makes it a more efficient accelerator than any mana elf, arguably more so than Sol Ring. Hard pass.

Casstastrophe and Semaros the Aggressor: Talk about commitment to a theme. I agree with norench that the last ability is unenticing unless you can abuse it, which is odd when it's thematically a much stronger expression of I Hate All Y'all than the other two. I do also wonder if just spamming the +1 might be too good - 4 damage on landing, potentially 5 the next turn, that kills in four turns on its own if uninterrupted, which is startlingly good for a plus.

norench and Norin, Master of Retreat: Cute. Maybe too cute, in that its ability to dodge removal and attacks makes it functionally just an enchantment that gives you one minor effect per turn as long as you don't cast spells or attack first. The whole point of planeswalkers is that they're kind of like mini-player allies - they grow, they develop, and you can attack them - and Norin here sadly does none of the above.

I don't want to seem overly critical - good efforts all round, especially given that the challenge was, in retrospect, maybe a little too hard. This is a tough call, but I'm giving it to kinotherapy with fluffyDeathbringer as a runner-up.

Thank you xox

Those comments on the difficulty, + how I wound up judging the previous contest, gave me an idea. It might be an awful idea. Let's see

Design a planeswalker card that would be appropriate (in power level and complexity) for a planeswalker preconstructed deck. For those who don't know these "uncommon" planeswalkers, here's a few recent examples: Jace, Ingenious Mind Mage; Angrath, Minotaur Pirate; Teferi, Timebender.

I will be judging the titles so make sure they're dumb and generic. You can use your own walkers but bear in mind that I don't know anything about anybody's characters. sorry

With so many "awe-inspiring" names, I just couldn't resist:

I am submitting a Planeswalker that was once just a regular Legendary Creature from a set I never finished. He was an Jailer and Warden to a massive planar prison complex. While it probably housed many innocents as well as monsters, it was originally made to imprison just one being, and he was to be Her ever watching eye.

Koth, Mountain Mage
Legendary Planeswalker - Koth
: Create a 4/4 red Elemental creature token with haste and trample. Exile it at the beginning of your next end step.
: CARDNAME deals damage equal to the number of Mountains you control to target creature or planeswalker.
: Add . Exile the top eight cards of your library. Until end of turn, you may play those cards.