Challenge Slots

Judging now!
Sorry for the delay:

viriss - Baker Bot
A fun and simple card with very nice art. Balanced, would probably work better at common. Food naturally being both an artifact and related to lifegain makes me surprised no one else used it for the challenge, so points for creativity.

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SilentKobold - Hall of Remembrance
A good tribal card that, while it doesn't fuel itself, can fuel other copies of it by tutoring for Angels. Tutoring is difficult to balance, but it seems fine. The name is a little weird - the Angels clearly are still around, so what exactly is being remembered?

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Flo00 - Gem of Insight
That's a very unique ability, and the originality is good, but it would be difficult to play in any deck without strong cycling and lifegain themes. Even if you do, timing it so you can actually make use of the mana would be tricky, probably too much to make it worthwhile.

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inferno390 - Staff of Pure Thought
A clean card that could probably fit at common in a set with a lot of cycling. Overall a good design that I could see as part of a cycle with various keywords, or maybe a more pushed version that grants different abilities than lifelink.

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gamma3 - Stone of Bright Thought
Pure thought and bright thought, huh? It seems pretty solid, and unlike the Gem of Insight doesn't necessarily need to be backed up with other lifegain as long as you have cycling. Also, having more than one of these on the field and cycling something big would be fun.

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ameisenmeister - Pendant of the Order
I am a fan of tribal cycling like the angelcycling seen earlier, but other than that the Pendant seems pretty weak, especially the activated ability. That's four mana for a swing of two life, and while it's repeatable I think it should either cost less or not require it to tap. Basically, I would never cast this if there's still a cleric I want in my library.

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Boogymanjunior - Utilizyt
That sure is complicated at first glance. I think there might be a better way to phrase that ability, but there might not. It fits fine in any deck with cycling, and each ability has a use, but I think the Shock might be chosen the most. I'm sort of envisioning it has having five activated abilities that have cycling a card as a cost.

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ZephyrPhantom - Spare Wheel
I love the flavor, but you're never ever going to cast this. Conditional 2 life for one mana is a terrible rate, especially when the other option is getting any artifact for 2 mana. It's effectively Demonic Tutor, at instant speed, and while it can only get you artifacts it also IS an artifact, so artifact recursion lets you do it again and again. Incredibly strong, and it's at common??

The winner is:

A failed wizard. Who, in his jealousy for his peers, created an anti-magic device.

Dapca, Callous Conjurer 
Legendary Creature - Elf Artificer 
Partner with Dapca's Dampening Device (When this creature enters the battlefield, target player may put Dapca's Dampening Device into their hand from their library, then shuffle.)
If a permanent or player would get one or more counters, that permanent or player gets that many counters plus one instead.
3/4

Dapca's Dampening Device 
Legendary Artifact
Whenever an opponent casts a spell, you get .
, : Counter target spell unless it's controller pays .
Always in the shadow of his peers, Dapca decided it was time to even the playing field.

Always wondered what a 'single sided' partner would look like, and I think creature-noncreature is the way to go.

I allways wanted a nice energy commander:

Benton, the Powerglove
Legendary Creature - Human Warrior
Partner with Enguon, the Tinkerer
Haste
Whenever Benton, the Powerglove attacks, you get .
3/1

Enguon, the Tinkerer
Legendary Creature - Vedalken Artificer
Partner with Benton, the Powerglove
Pay : Target creature gains flying until end of turn.
Pay : Target creature gains indestructible until end of turn.
2/4

ZephyrPhantom: You might want to take a close look at your reminder text.

Bumati, Constructor of Life 
Legendary Creature - Elf Artificer 
Partner with Dyal, Engine of Rage
When ~ enters the battlefield, you get .
, Pay X : Draw X cards and you gain X life.
1/1

Dyal, Engine of Rage 
Legendary Artifact Creature - Beast 
Partner with Bumati, Constructor of Life
Whenever ~ attacks, you get .
Pay : ~ gains trample until end of turn.
4/3

 

Flo00 gamma3 Thanks for pointing out my typos, it's been a long day.

Some interesting stuff in here, let's get to it:

SilentKobold - Some nice synergy between the two. I'm not sure how I feel about the asymmetrical partner, but it's an interesting design choice. Interesting that the spell you counter gives you one of the energy needed to counter it. And while the challenge is not based on commander, I still feel like you lose points for making a legend whose partner can't be the commander with them and doesn't fit in their color identity.

ZephyrPhantom - Oh this is clever. Combining the relentless ability with a self-searching artifact that's limited by the energy thing. I really like this.

Flo00 - This is really interesting. The one gives you the energy, the other uses it to give it evasion and/or protection. I can see a deck based around these going the energy direction, or going for a combat damage voltron style.

inferno390 - This is the second design that has one half generate energy and the other spend it, which is a great design choice for this challenge in my opinion. A great synergy with the aristocrats theme too..

thaneofglamis - This gives you less energy than the other designs, but makes up for it with a bigger payoff. The activated ability on Bumati feels more WU than GU, but it still technically fits in color for what you have.

viriss - These have a more oblique synergy than the other designs, which is not necessarily a bad thing. As a Jenny, I sometimes prefer it because it allows more creativity in how it gets broken. Unfortunately, there's a major flavor disconnect here. All the other entries have some sort of connection, some more minor than others, but these don't have any kind of obvious connection flavorwise, which detracts from an otherwise cool and unique pair.

ameisenmeister - I like the pokémon thing for some reason. Normally that would really throw me off, but this is so cute and flavorful that I can easily overlook it. This is also only the second non-legendary design. I mean, I was expecting mostly legendary creatures, but the fact that there's only two non-legendary entries is slightly disappointing, but I digress. Like I said, cute, flavorful design. One isn't strong enough on its own, but both together can deliver a shock.

Someone on Mark Rosewater's blog brought up the theoretical possibility of companion doing vanguard-esque starting changes to the player. I liked that idea, so here's my entry:

Cogwork Cogmaker
Creature- Construct
, Remove a card with converted mana cost X from your pool, : Create a X/X Construct artifact creature token.
With Muzzio gone, his servants continued his work.
0/4 

I'd say technically yes since "outside the game" is equivalent to "your sideboard" in Arena/competitive matches, and your draft pool is considered your sideboard, but cards that directly affect your pool via some effect like Cogwork Librarian and Volatile Chimera are on the safer side of that technicality. I would still be okay with cards that affect how you draft, like Archdemon of Paliano or Aether Searcher but I would also consider it pushing the spirit of the rule when judging.

Soul Mirror
Artifact
Draft Soul Mirror face up.
As you draft a creature card, you may remove it from the draft face up, then turn Soul Mirror face down.
, : Create a token that’s a copy of a card you removed from the draft with cards named Soul Mirror. X is the converted mana cost of that card.

A cospiracy-ized Soul Foundry.

Boogymanjunior I don't think the command zone or exile qualify as outside the game.

Ah yes, well noted. Thanks for the heads-up gamma3 and ZephyrPhantom! Have retracted this now. I'll see if I manage to get a new entry in time or not.