Booster Pack Game

Groundbreaker:

My first thought was to immediately compare things like Wild Celebrants and Batterhorn, which this card matches up to pretty neatly for artifact destruction.

I think the LD mode pushes it a bit, though: compare Avalanche Riders, Goblin Ruinblaster, Faultgrinder, etc..., and you'll all notice that they have a tendency to be to prevent it from being too easy to get land destruction in draft - seeing as I have Fortifications as common, I imagine this hits at least one land each time it appears. Having it appear frequently at is thus a bit risky and perhaps too punishing to Fortifications, I suspect.....would be a great though.

Solid execution of a design but feels like it's at the wrong rarity for a draft.

Servants' Annex:

Been a while since I've seen Serfs and I like the multiple archetypes this one promotes - either it's a constant chump block that gums up the board or a consistent aristocrats supplier. Almost like a slower super budget Bitterblossom in the right deck, too. I think it's a tad pushed - definitely better than Nuisance Engine since you only pay mana once but I think the equip-like nature and high frequency of Fortification removal running around in this environment means that I won't be thinking of Mavren Fein, Dusk Apostle right off the bat either. Pushed but justifiably so. I'm not 100% sure how to rate it, but I'd love to playtest it.

Overall: I know creature-based payoffs are super pushed nowadays but I think you still walked a bit of a fine line (even by today's standards) in an effort to push said payoffs. I like your designs but I think some changes could be made.

Pristine Hilltop: I'm honestly surprised I didn't see at least one more land design besides this one. A nice simple effect that could fit into any set but also captures the lore document I wrote out quite nicely. I was thinking some flavortext would be nice, but on further reflection, I like the simplicity of it as is. Not sure if it's intentional btw but it feels like this card represents the idea of planning blueprints via scrying for fortifications really well. Yes, it ETBs tapped, but at this rarity, most lands with this kind of ability do anyway. I think you scaled this correctly relative to Zhalfirin Void and New Benalia - it's certainly not the card advantage machine Mystic Sanctuary is but not every land of this kind should be. Set-ready, and reprint-ready to boot.

Overall: Sometimes less is more. You made a good single quality submission that makes me feel like you read the prompt and let me draw my own conclusions.

Imperious Heir: A creature-ritual that riffs on steal effects, and pretty clever in the sense that it steals Fortifications too. I think what primarily bothers me is that I can't tell whether I should make the comparison to Claim the Firstborn where you can do a major 1-mana swinging steal pretty easily (albeit at different phases in the game) or if this is closer to your average Act of Treason effect - perhaps I'm overthinking this but even looking at Wrangle I feel like this should cost maybe at , especially with the potential to form Voltron-Fortification lands. I do think is the right place for it, though. I'd be keeping an eye on this in playtest.

Fellgrove Avenger: General flavor common, gets the Vorthos thinking about the wilds, balanced by Boot Nipper standards. Not much else to say here, it's a decent pack filler. I suppose Boot Nipper makes me wonder if one could better tie this into Larmakia mechanics but that's probably a bit too nitpicky.

Purist's Disdain: Good expression of your stance, I'd say. Reminds me of something like Glass Casket where the card stays within the expectations of the color pie but reflects the designer's view. Going to take a wild guess that Fuijon is ::WG:: but otherwise this is really strong submission. Set-ready, effective demonstration of your design philsophy.

Scythe-Queen Kalaz: Hmmm. I like that you took note of Fulminator Mage being hybrid and you clearly were intending to build up to this archetype based on Fermat's submission, but the big question lurking over my head is.... is stealing lands really okay in MonoGreen? I try to be lenient when it comes to bends or even breaks but I think Green mass-stealing artifacts and lands is really pushing it for a set that hasn't exactly said anything about being Planar Chaos-esque or warped by something Bolas/Phyrexia tiers of threatening. If she was I think I could see myself agreeing but as is I feel like this combination of hybrid and effect is either in the wrong set or just missing something to sell me.

Overall: I feel like you had one really strong submission (Purist's Disdain) and then the rest are great ideas at their core but also kind of all over the place in terms of balance or design. I think I'd feel better about my overall rating here if the land-steal archetype didn't feel...off somehow. Feels like there are knobs that need to be adjusted a bit more, though I appreciate the heart you put into the flavor - there's a story waiting to be told here.

Splendid Vista: I'm pretty surprised this exact design doesn't exist already. Gift of the Gargantuan but costs 1 more for more flexibility, seems perfectly fine to me.

Breathing Frontage: Gift of Paradise but more resilient, less fix-y and without the lifegain. No complaints here, solid adaptation of an existing design niche. Set-ready, I feel like you costed this well.

Overall: Looking at the designs you made I can see you aimed to fill primarily green slots and in that regard I think you succeeded. Breathing Frontage excites me the most with the way you used the equip cost and tweaked the knobs to make it match a comparable card while offering its own benefits. Splendid Vista's pretty generic, but it works for the setting and there definitely is merit in finding new ways to print variations of fairly common effects that don't feature the set mechanic.

Crashing Coastline - Keeping Twiddle and its many tap-based variants in mind I think you could pull an Ice Over of sorts here and have this apply to creatures, too. Otherwise, I think this is a really neat take on Unsummon-style effects thats gives a sort of common removal without

Overall: May need playtesting/tweaking? But I think you could print this as-is and it'd still be fine, if potentially a little situational. I really like that this is both an Unsummon and Twiddle riff without flat out saying it's the former.

Spell-Mason Fortifier: Effectively the set's Auriok Windwalker. Cute interplay against the Dryad right before it in limited. I like that this turns Aerial Aegis into a combat trick.

Castle Blueprints: Interesting that it isn't just your turn. I sense a deliberate opportunity to let people play politics, haha. I like that it's not an Aura and yet is Aura-esque - it would be interesting to see what kind of deck formed around this in limited, especially since on-damage trigger creatures do seem to be in this set.

Overall: Relatively straightforward designs, I can see what they're balanced around but also try to encourage on their own. Not entirely sure if you could jam both a high number of Fortifications and Creatures, but I'd certainly be curious to see someone try in hypothetical Standard land.

Lessons in the Leaves: Wow, this is super cheeky, taking a very type of card draw effect and trying to turn it into something fitting of 's usual "I hate these specific things!" type effects. I like that you built on fluffy's initial setup for the land-stealing theme from the common but I think this nails the implied Gruul-steal-stuff archetype better by getting the player to figure the synergy. It definitely pushes the limits of what can do but I do have to admit artifact destruction and restricted card draw are in 's wheelhouse, so I think this gets a pass. Set-ready, and bonus points for appealing to the EDH crowd with a unique and set-appropriate restriction for hypothetical standard. Set-ready.

Overall: There's several attempts to implement Green card advantage in this pack. I think yours is the most interesting take - you incorporated the artifact theme into Green without making it feel out of place. Really strong submission.

{Spoiler}1st: Fermat - There were several attempts to express a unique design vision in this set but I like that you tackled the difficult challenge of making an artifact payoff in Green that didn't feel super forced for the sake of the set. I also think your approach to paying attention to other cards in the set was the most thought out - you clearly took note of both fluffy's cheap land/fortification stealing creature and ameisenmeister's one-mana Green fortification that ramps you into this. It could be super powerful in the wrong environment, but I'll admit I'm on the side of wanting to see just what kind of impact it has, especially due to its restriction.
2nd: Matt - A very clever combination of Unsummon and Twiddle style effects to produce a set-appropriate anti-Fortification and soft land 'removal' for in limited. Doesn't feel like a bend at all and could go straight to print in this hypothetical set.
Honorable mentions: Everyone else, really - You all had strong ideas and at least one card I liked a lot, but the competition was really stiff as well.