Planeswalker Game

{Render}

gateways7 Middle ability's the selling point of this planeswalker as far as I'm concerned - it's an excellent riff on Gideon effects while striking a perfect middle point between "clone" and "animate dead". I feel like the final ability pushes rather heavily into requiring or even , but given how neatly wrapped the overall package is I think it's okay to push the Eternalize-in-blue envelope in this case. No real complaints about balance here, he's a durable 5-mana walker that runs himself and provides value the moment he hits the board. He does ticks up in loyalty fast but also needs to be protected so I think the +2's fine in this context. Would definitely like to see this in a set.


viriss Submissions like these remind me of why I like these kinds of challenges to begin with. That said, I find it interesting (and maybe a bit concerning) that this is essentially a modal spell that uses 3 life to choose the "mode". Assuming you always play the 3 life, you've essentially got a 4-drop that spits a hasty 3/3 every turn while ticking up - even Garruk isn't that good. (Garruk, Primal Hunter, Garruk Wildspeaker) The middle ability seems okay compared to Red's typical array of mass buffs, but it does concern me a bit that I can't seem to remember any sort of Overrun-style mass buff in black. The last ability is essentially Lava Axe with 1 less damage and lifegain for 1. It interests me a lot because it means you can run multiple copies of this Planeswalker without ever worrying about dead cards, but lifegain is definitely stretching the part of it.

Overall, it's a great idea but some of the extra bells and whistles need to be removed or tweaked. I actually think this would've been a more interesting card if you had't made it a DFC mana rock and were able to make it cost (or tweak the abilities to better fit the hybrid prompt, but I think just making the cost is a much better option outside this challenge.) Consider having the 1st ability spit out 2/1s or maybe 2/2's instead, though.

Fleur I had to think about this for a bit to realize you were riffing on Polymorph effects. It's a different take on what Blue and Black can do and I think it's great that both abilities feed into the ultimate so well in a way that befits Blue and Black. Not sure how I feel about two different types of tokens being created so often but Planeswalkers have done much crazier things with tokens so I think it'll work. Could go into a set - in fact, he's straightfoward enough that I think he'd be an excellent promo card for a PW deck but powerful enough that he could see a use in whatever format you want him inserted into.

Flo00 Glad to see we had someone up for trying to do this type of challenge, lol. I feel like the abilities play it very safe but at the same time given the restrictions I do have to admit this still mostly matches what Boros, Orzhov, Rakdos, and MonoB can all do without feeling off color. Lifelink is cleverly placed and makes the card not feel boring while giving it additional flexibility in where to run it which is what I feel like what this card wants to do. I feel like in an actual set this would either just be a really cheap multicolor-costed mythic or use less colors for hybrid (as in, this could just be a PW with any of the guild combos or MonoB alignment as the hybrid cost) but it's a very effective "proof of concept" and a good reminder that a good designer can make a pretty airtight case for even a difficult concept.

mrlozano I'm a little worried this guy's going to be a bit too good at sticking around given that he's a repeat flickerer in Banisher Priest and Nekratraal colors. It's true that you'll have to commit him to a very specific type of Orzhov control (and the fact he can turn even your endgame one drops into massive lifedrains is pretty cool) but I'm not sure how I feel about the fact he can gain loyalty back very fast too. I'd rather starting loyalty moved down to 4 (so that gaining the emblem feels like a more difficult choice to make) or maybe make the first ability +1 loyalty instead and scale everything else accordingly.

augur This card's +1 is both a decent ramper and turns your dead land drops in into....something? I feel like my biggest problem with this card is that while it does feel Red, I can't really think of a reason monoRed would actually want to use this card because it doesn't really advance its aggro agenda all that well - if anything I feel like it'd get boarded in a lot of decks that just happen to contain as a way to get nongreen ramp and be a utility answer to pesky nonbasics and artifacts. That's not necessarily a bad thing (it certainly hits all the high notes of Red, Green, and Gruul in a more utility based fashion) but I did have to look at this from a different angle to see where it was coming from. Would like to see this in a set as is.

Daij_Djan I don't know if I could consider this a "Garruk" card because Garruk's long made it clear he prefers survival of the fittest over protecting the weak, but to be fair, that's not the main focus of the prompt. I like that the first ability approaches Overrun from a very Fog-like angle and still encourages you to swing out in Selesnya and Green but I feel like it does suffer a bit in finding its place in monoWhite (I guess Aura/Anthem matters would appreciate it but I suspect that slot would go to a more enchantment-focused or proper finisher in many cases. ) 2nd and 3rd abilities are pretty straightforward and fit the colors they're in and I think they're fine as is. I think I'd be a lot more comfortable with this card being multicolor-costed as opposed to hybrid (and arguably representing a character other than Garruk), but if those changes are made I could see it fitting in a set.

kinotherapy The good news is that I think the way this guy's set up, art, fairly costed abilities, and all, I think he's pretty much ready to appear in a set and I highly recommend he should. The bad news is that he's got some pretty stiff competition and doesn't really have anything to uniquely sell himself on (all of his abilities are pretty basic Red/Blue/Izzet ones that can be seen on many of their cards) so while he's great, he doesn't really 'pop'. (I.e. Poor fellow's the victim of the typical well designed COTW entry - excellent design but can't necessarily win the battle for votes.)

Tesagk Not sure if you noticed from the other submissions or the examples I gave in the prompt but number costs were exempt from the "single symbol" ban, but I can see how the challenge could've been interpreted as such so I'll just make a note that using this many different hybrid symbols looks awkward to many players and designers and give you a pass on that.

Freya feels...uncoordinated, for lack of a better word. Her 1st ability mixes Green and Blue aspects so well that I'm not sure I could see it working as a monocolor card but it is a perfect ability for Simic. I feel like her -2 captures the majority of her issues - it potentially interacts with so many different card types that I'm not really sure where I want her to go in a deck or what I should be "tracking" in the odd scenario I manage to draft her if that makes sense. (2nd ability hating artifacts and 3rd ability loving them also feels weird flavorwise). 3rd ability in general feels like a really weird flavor swerve from someone who I was getting Naturalize vibes from in general and I don't like that it's basically a Green ability with artifacts-matter tacked on to try and make it Blue. (Blue does have precedent for land tinkering but not to the extent of all lands become creatures in modern design, IMHO.)

I'd really like to see "Creatures you control gain hexproof until EOT" as a +1 on another planeswalker and feel like she would've been better with a regular multicolor cost out of the gate. I think the best way to sum up this entry is that all of her abilities would work great on individual cards, but when they're all on the same card they're all a bit much to take in.

1st: gateways7 - I feel like you pretty much nailed what I wanted to see from this challenge in a hybrid design.
2nd: augur - It takes a little bit of thinking to see why and how it fits, but it's ultimately still something I think the card's colors could definitely use in the right set and I'd really want to see it in play.
3rd: Fleur - Clever intersection that takes advantage one of the useful but less 'obvious' aspects of Blue mechanically. (and) Flo00 - Excellent proof of concept that I think aspiring designers should keep in mind in the sense that those crazy weird ideas everyone has are worth keeping around, as long as they're properly tweaked and designed.

{Render}