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Post by FLAREdirector on Feb 24, 2020 2:32:50 GMT
Gosh, cool, thanks for the win! For your next challenge, build a card from Ixalan block!
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Post by kefke on Feb 24, 2020 7:30:39 GMT
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Post by Tesagk on Feb 24, 2020 16:27:26 GMT
Baby Brontodon Creature - Dinosaur When ~ enters the battlefield, target opponent creates two 2/1 red Dinosaur creature tokens with haste. If ~ would die and does not have a +1/+1 counter on it, instead put a +1/+1 counter on it and create a 3/4 green Dinosaur creature token. 1/2
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Post by sdfkjgh on Feb 24, 2020 20:33:02 GMT
Roaming Altisaur Creature--Dinosaur Trample Whenever Roaming Altisaur enters the battlefield or attacks, it explores. (Reveal the top card of your library. Put that card into your hand if it’s a land. Otherwise, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature, then put the card back or put it into your graveyard.) 2/1
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Post by FLAREdirector on Feb 29, 2020 20:07:50 GMT
Bump! I'll be closing the challenge in a week's time or so, so that people have plenty of time to submit entries.
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Post by Boogymanjunior on Mar 7, 2020 17:03:24 GMT
Instead of some pearls, the Legion of Dusk may share some immortality gifts to the natives. Always open for new things in this new land! Even with combining the Vampire and Merfolk mechanics, I thought of this as more of a flavour design than playable in either fraction due to it's colors. Interestingly, by accident this still may fit into a fraction, the only fraction with these colors, enabling some Raid action. {old version with "Mervolk" instead of "Merfolk"}
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Post by kefke on Mar 7, 2020 17:43:46 GMT
Thank you. I'd nearly forgotten about the nightmare with the vampire mermaid that I had as a kid.
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Post by sdfkjgh on Mar 7, 2020 18:20:25 GMT
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Post by Boogymanjunior on Mar 8, 2020 3:01:47 GMT
Ou yes, thanks for the typo nod! Will change it tomorrow. While I'm not fond of rarity influencing the card power, I completely agree that it's pushed! You could say the scales fell from my eyes, so thank you (ahem)^^ I don't feel confortable with amending something playability affecting afterwards if it was someone else's good eye but I would have added "sacrifice a creature" to the activation cost now. At least it stays triggering bad memories, so it keeps it's psychological effect on the game.
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thaneofglamis
8/8 Octopus
Thane's activated abilities can't be activated
Posts: 444
Favorite Card: Slimefoot, the Stowaway; Phyrexian Rager; Swarm Shambler
Favorite Set: Midnight Hunt
Color Alignment: Green
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Post by thaneofglamis on Mar 8, 2020 5:11:25 GMT
Hoarding Trilobite Creature - Trilobite When Hoarding Trilobite dies, create a two colorless Treasure tokens with " , Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color." "The merfolk want it for a pet, the pirates want it for the treasure it sucks up. I just want it for dinner."2/3
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Post by Tesagk on Mar 8, 2020 14:10:44 GMT
While I'm not fond of rarity influencing the card power, I completely agree that it's pushed! Isn't this part of the reason for rarity though? It's loosely based on power. I say loosely because there are intended to be some "bad" rares where the power is either low, or the effect isn't weighted proportionately to the cost, and you can have "pushed" commons and uncommons that have power equal to the next level of rarity (uncommon for commons and rare for uncommons)
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Post by kefke on Mar 8, 2020 14:38:26 GMT
While I'm not fond of rarity influencing the card power, I completely agree that it's pushed! Isn't this part of the reason for rarity though? It's loosely based on power. I say loosely because there are intended to be some "bad" rares where the power is either low, or the effect isn't weighted proportionately to the cost, and you can have "pushed" commons and uncommons that have power equal to the next level of rarity (uncommon for commons and rare for uncommons) It wasn't originally meant to be. Back in the day, I remember checking out a book from the library on Magic. One of the things they talked about was Richard Garfield's desire to avoid "rich kid syndrome" and not have all the most powerful cards be the most expensive. I'm not sure when it shifted to power-based rarity, but it was originally meant to explicitly not be that.
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Post by Boogymanjunior on Mar 8, 2020 19:09:15 GMT
While I'm not fond of rarity influencing the card power, I completely agree that it's pushed! Isn't this part of the reason for rarity though? It's loosely based on power. I say loosely because there are intended to be some "bad" rares where the power is either low, or the effect isn't weighted proportionately to the cost, and you can have "pushed" commons and uncommons that have power equal to the next level of rarity (uncommon for commons and rare for uncommons) What kefke said. I am very opposed to the idea of rareness influencing power level because I see it as a cash grab and ultimately, an imbalance factor. Rareness for me is about complexity and impact. Of course rare boms etc. will always be the dominant force but it should always be constrained by mana cost, drawbacks etc. in the same vein as any other card.
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Post by Tesagk on Mar 9, 2020 16:59:55 GMT
I mean, we can get into arguments about it, but if we gave commons rarity power level, that would cause problems. Even giving uncommons that level of power should be rare (and it is) so I'm not sure that the game's design is really suffering from it.
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Post by Boogymanjunior on Mar 9, 2020 19:41:52 GMT
Well, it feeds very much into my disdain for power creep (yes I know, I sound like a grumpy out-of-the-window pensioner^^), both intra-set and inter-set. A card being too powerful is always bad (for the balance of the game) and shouldn't exist. Having it at a rarer rarity only means that the number of bad cards in circulation that shouldn't exist in the first place is smaller but it doesn't extinguish these cards. Now, there is a way better option to extinguish them: not creating them (and this wouldn't be difficult at all). Using rarity as an excuse for too powerful cards allows cards being too powerful to exist and to imbalance the game (within one set or across sets). But when eliminating the fact that rarity causes different power levels, the remaining universal power level across all rarities ceases to be an incentive for creating too powerful/imbalancing cards. In short, when I (rather, the yearned for WotC) see that I made a card too powerful, it would remain too powerful even at (mythic) rare status, and I then amend it to be not too powerful anymore because being too powerful is not good (don't be confused with the other part, that I don't want to change too powerful cards afterwards when other people improved it because that isn't affected here). But fortunately, all this doesn't really matter here. Because when I'm a judge and find a card too powerful, probably no one would use rarity as a reason to argue, they would either agree that it is too powerful or they would disagree, but then based on what the card does.
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Post by ZephyrPhantom on Mar 10, 2020 2:33:57 GMT
I think the point that's unclear here is that certain rarities do certain roles better than other rarities. Common is where you want to be conscious of how your keyword is presented, for example, Uncommon is where you want to put signpost designs that direct players to build a certain way, Rare and Mythic is where bombs should go, and so on and so on. You can certainly have bad rares and pushed commons (Pestilence was a common, Dark Ritual was a common, Kird Ape was a common, Duress was a Common... and those first two weren't by accident! Even back then there was some intention to provide powerful but accessible strategies to players on a budget.), but I think throwing around pushing a card up a rarity without considering the impact it would have on its role is the real lesson here. My 2 cents is that Pulse Divers doesn't belong at rare. Try asking yourself "what do you normally think of rares in that are CMC 2 or less creatures?" They're either things like Baral, Chief of Compliance and Bloodghast that would define a deck's style of play just as much as a higher mana-costing rare might, value plays like Harbinger of the Tides or Asylum Visitor, or card advantage engines like Dark Confidant or Snapcaster Mage. This isn't just limited to the best of the best - cards like Lord of the Unreal, Soul Diviner, and Cabal Therapist all follow similar lines of design logic. Pulse Divers, while offering an interesting way to get in unblocked that is reminiscent of Inkfathom Infiltrator, doesn't really follow any of the design intentions a card might and to take a page from what Boogymanjunior said just doesn't really carry the impact and complexity a rare card should. There are plenty of ways to tweak Pulse Diver's knobs to make it less pushed, but I'm definitely in the camp of not pushing it to just to 'balance' it.
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Post by FLAREdirector on Mar 10, 2020 20:09:17 GMT
I apologize, but I've been going through some mentally taxing stuff lately, so I frankly don't have the time or the energy to go into more detailed judging. I apologize greatly for this.
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Post by kefke on Mar 10, 2020 21:08:15 GMT
Thanks for the win. Hope things start looking up. For the next set, let's see what you guys do with Portal: Second Age. Your condition? No special condition. Just keep in mind the limitations of Portal's simplified rules.
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Post by sdfkjgh on Mar 10, 2020 22:06:57 GMT
Nightstalker Patrol Creature--Nightstalker Soldier When Nightstalker Patrol enters the battlefield, you may search your library for a Nightstalker card, reveal it, and put it into your hand, then shuffle your library. Nightstalker Patrol’s power and toughness are each equal to twice the number of Nightstalkers you control. */*
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Post by gateways7 on Mar 10, 2020 23:56:47 GMT
Well, it feeds very much into my disdain for power creep (yes I know, I sound like a grumpy out-of-the-window pensioner^^), both intra-set and inter-set. A card being too powerful is always bad (for the balance of the game) and shouldn't exist. Having it at a rarer rarity only means that the number of bad cards in circulation that shouldn't exist in the first place is smaller but it doesn't extinguish these cards. Now, there is a way better option to extinguish them: not creating them (and this wouldn't be difficult at all). Using rarity as an excuse for too powerful cards allows cards being too powerful to exist and to imbalance the game (within one set or across sets). But when eliminating the fact that rarity causes different power levels, the remaining universal power level across all rarities ceases to be an incentive for creating too powerful/imbalancing cards. In short, when I (rather, the yearned for WotC) see that I made a card too powerful, it would remain too powerful even at (mythic) rare status, and I then amend it to be not too powerful anymore because being too powerful is not good (don't be confused with the other part, that I don't want to change too powerful cards afterwards when other people improved it because that isn't affected here). But fortunately, all this doesn't really matter here. Because when I'm a judge and find a card too powerful, probably no one would use rarity as a reason to argue, they would either agree that it is too powerful or they would disagree, but then based on what the card does. The thing I think is important to understand is how Limited effects these kinds of things - yes, in a Constructed sense, rarity should not be an indicator of power, but in draft or sealed with a card like Pulse Diver in the set, having too many in the environment would make the average UB deck a lot more uninteractive and focused on forcing in damage with a Pulse Diver, and these limited decks would not be as common if Pulse Divers was a rare. We need to take into account all formats when designing, and draft is one of the most popular, and the format that rarity effects the most in terms of gameplay. Also, my card! Norwood Wurm Creature - Wurm (rare) Whenever Norwood Wurm becomes blocked, it gets +3/+3 until the end of turn. 4/4 Five little goblins, hunting for more. Out burst a wurm, and then there were four.Tried to design it in line with the power level of when the card was made.
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Post by ZephyrPhantom on Mar 11, 2020 0:42:54 GMT
Something I felt that was worth noting for me is that very few Portal Second Age cards had more than one sentence on their initial printings - the few that do are either counterspells that would be "Counter X spell" today or really niche effects like Eye Spy. Then, I wanted to think about what stood out on Caliman, a little island on Dominaria that the set takes place on. Obviously this is one of Magic's few gun-centric sets, but we also see things like Pirates, Steamships ( Steam Frigate), and Nightstalkers. Also important to observe is the lack of certain card types - Artifacts and Enchantments didn't exist in this set, and Planeswalker obviously wasn't a type back then. Instants do exist, but they sort of got retroactively added back in because the attempts to 'sneak' them in as Sorceries with limited flash didn't get along well with WoTC's views on consistent rules and the like. So realistically, it seemed best to make a creature or sorcery. Talas Captain Creature - Human Pirate Whenever a Pirate deals combat damage to an opponent, you may draw a card. 1/4 "A good ship needs a guiding hand. The market isn't much different."Human Pirate is the typeline given to Steam Frigate, Talas Air Ship, and Steam Frigate. As noted on Steam Frigate, pirates and merchants in Caliman are pretty much one and the same. Overall, I aimed for a situational but potentially strong draw effect akin to Theft of Dreams that would work both as an uncommon build-around back then while letting it still be relevant in someone's EDH deck today as a card draw engine. Talas Explorer and Talas Warrior can suddenly become very useful means of card advantage and the Talas are no stranger to card drawing as well as indicated by Talas Researcher. On the more flavorful side of things, he encourages you to attack with both your Pirates and your now-errated Pirate ships to plunder via drawing cards, keeping him both appropriate for the set and plausible in .
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Post by Boogymanjunior on Mar 11, 2020 12:45:40 GMT
Just to finish this off, first of all, ZephyrPhantom you said it perfectly. gateways7 I don't think environments matter here. Yes, it would be "better" when overpowered cards that shouldn't exist like Pulse Divers are rare to not flood Limited with overpower, however in Limited too the correct way would be to simply design Pulse Divers as not overpowered in the first place (I would have probably added "sacrifice a creature" to the activation cost). And then it could and would keep it's uncommon status because of it's non-rare complexity/impact. Portal card will follow- hopefully balanced^^
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Post by kefke on Mar 16, 2020 17:01:06 GMT
Going to extend the contest to Friday just to see if anyone still wants to get entries in.
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Post by Boogymanjunior on Mar 17, 2020 23:56:09 GMT
At first I thought about designing Arathel, the elven queen of Norwood. But of course this set doesn't have legendary creatures besides artifacts, enchantments and basically instants. Designed this to give Norwood Priestess more fodder. It's an UC (the symbol is not 100% clear), a rarity the Norwood elves lack in this set.
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Post by Tesagk on Mar 18, 2020 10:55:27 GMT
Trokin Defender Creature - Human Soldier If you control another creature named ~, each creature named ~ has vigilance. Those filthy goblins will not breach these walls! 3/4
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Post by kefke on Mar 20, 2020 22:10:45 GMT
So, as a general criticism, when designing for a Portal set, you've got to keep complexity in mind. Those sets were designed to be as basic as possible so that absolute beginners could pick them up and play. You all did a good job avoiding card types that didn't exist in P:SA, but it's important to remember that most keywords weren't used either, and everything was worded very plainly and explicitly. Normally I make allowances for modern wording, but I have to be a bit extra-anal on it here, since designing according to the restrictions of a Portal set was the challenge this time around. A waggled finger for (almost) everyone on that front. sdfkjgh - A decent, powerful card at a high cost. I like the way its ETB effect plays into its scaling power and toughness. The mechanics of search-and-reveal and scaling individually show up in other cards in the set, but I wonder if the combination of them wouldn't have been a bit too complex for an individual card, especially with the added math required. It's also worth noting that no P:SA card has scaling toughness, which was probably a deliberate choice to avoid new players having to figure out what happens if base toughness is zero. I think a render could have helped sell this one. gateways7 - Another I would have liked to see a render for. Points for tying the card into an existing cycle with some well-written flavour text, though. My main criticism with this card is that it doesn't offer too much different than other beat sticks green already has. That wouldn't be much of a problem, as it's a solid design, except that P:SA already has Deathcoil Wurm, which fills a similar role and has a bit more splash factor going for it at a glance. ZephyrPhantom - I like the way you made use of the setting flavour to really capture the essence of what this card's faction is all about. The effect is simple and easy to understand. Though, if it had been included, it would have been the most powerful card draw effect in the set. Not by a lot, but definitely a strong card for the environment. That said, I like that it pushes blue to be more aggressive, a role that is easy for blue decks to neglect even with experienced players. Boogymanjunior - First of all, it's nice to see a render (I notice that your card name is in plain Arial font, though. Issues with the editor?). I think this is a really solid design, and does something that green has trouble with by helping the caster fill their hand. On the other hand, that's a lot of text - seven fairly dense lines. Portal liked to put their cards in big bold text so it was easier to see (for instance, compare to the printed text of Deep Wood. While I don't think the effect is too complicated for a new player to understand, I do worry it might not have fit on a card for the set. Tesagk - Good flavour on this one. I worry about the complexity, though. As typed up, it doesn't seem bad, but P:SA didn't keyword Vigilance, which would have made for a more wordy card. Overall, it's not a bad effect, but it's a little bit complex as is, and that means it would have been a lot complex the way Portal sets do things. I pick ZephyrPhantom as the winner.
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Post by ZephyrPhantom on Mar 21, 2020 0:55:43 GMT
Thanks for the win! For the next set, let's jump a bit forward in time in Magic's history to the time of a recent infamous banning: your next set is Modern Horizons! Since this has been done by others on the thread, I'll elaborate a bit on the set to get you started - you can find more information on the appropriate Gamepedia page:- Please keep in mind that this set is called Modern Horizons. Cards like Arcum's Astrolabe, Hogaak, Wrenn and Sixx, and Force of Negation were printed either to supplement existing archetypes or blow the format wide open with new ways to play. It's okay if the card doesn't quite live up to the hype like Serra did, but there is a design focus here! - The other focus on Modern Horizons, as stated previously by MaRo and other designers, is "Time Spiral 2". Almost every card in the set is a reference to a preexisting mechanic, storyline, or card in magic's history, from Pyrophobia to Urza, Lord High Artificer. (If you look even closer, you'll notice that some references like Ninjas were made to promote interesting limited archetypes that didn't exist before or hadn't been seen in a while.) - According to R&D, Modern Horizons cards "could use any mechanic already in Modern up to Dragons of Tarkir." That means anything like Food, Energy, or even Playtest cards is off the table - be sure to check when your mechanics first came out! Good luck!
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Post by Boogymanjunior on Mar 21, 2020 2:21:11 GMT
So, as a general criticism, when designing for a Portal set, you've got to keep complexity in mind. Those sets were designed to be as basic as possible so that absolute beginners could pick them up and play. You all did a good job avoiding card types that didn't exist in P:SA, but it's important to remember that most keywords weren't used either, and everything was worded very plainly and explicitly. Normally I make allowances for modern wording, but I have to be a bit extra-anal on it here, since designing according to the restrictions of a Portal set was the challenge this time around. A waggled finger for (almost) everyone on that front. sdfkjgh - A decent, powerful card at a high cost. I like the way its ETB effect plays into its scaling power and toughness. The mechanics of search-and-reveal and scaling individually show up in other cards in the set, but I wonder if the combination of them wouldn't have been a bit too complex for an individual card, especially with the added math required. It's also worth noting that no P:SA card has scaling toughness, which was probably a deliberate choice to avoid new players having to figure out what happens if base toughness is zero. I think a render could have helped sell this one. gateways7 - Another I would have liked to see a render for. Points for tying the card into an existing cycle with some well-written flavour text, though. My main criticism with this card is that it doesn't offer too much different than other beat sticks green already has. That wouldn't be much of a problem, as it's a solid design, except that P:SA already has Deathcoil Wurm, which fills a similar role and has a bit more splash factor going for it at a glance. ZephyrPhantom - I like the way you made use of the setting flavour to really capture the essence of what this card's faction is all about. The effect is simple and easy to understand. Though, if it had been included, it would have been the most powerful card draw effect in the set. Not by a lot, but definitely a strong card for the environment. That said, I like that it pushes blue to be more aggressive, a role that is easy for blue decks to neglect even with experienced players. Boogymanjunior - First of all, it's nice to see a render (I notice that your card name is in plain Arial font, though. Issues with the editor?). I think this is a really solid design, and does something that green has trouble with by helping the caster fill their hand. On the other hand, that's a lot of text - seven fairly dense lines. Portal liked to put their cards in big bold text so it was easier to see (for instance, compare to the printed text of Deep Wood. While I don't think the effect is too complicated for a new player to understand, I do worry it might not have fit on a card for the set. Tesagk - Good flavour on this one. I worry about the complexity, though. As typed up, it doesn't seem bad, but P:SA didn't keyword Vigilance, which would have made for a more wordy card. Overall, it's not a bad effect, but it's a little bit complex as is, and that means it would have been a lot complex the way Portal sets do things. I pick ZephyrPhantom as the winner. Thanks for the judging and congratulations to the winner! Since I remade my PC, deleting MSE in the process, I indeed have problems with Templates and Font. Somehow Mainframe Template doesn't show up as option in MSE even though I downloaded it, and also Beleren Font does only work on some templates (mainly the M15 altered Template). But I will probably delete and re-install every template/font somewhen.
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Post by sdfkjgh on Mar 21, 2020 17:03:32 GMT
This posits a Tarkir invaded by Phyrexians:
Compleated Martial Artist Creature--Monk Infect (This creature deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters and to players in the form of poison counters.) Prowess (Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ With the simultaneous compleation of Ojutai in the present, Shu Yun in the past, and Narset in the alternate timeline, the full annexation of Tarkir was declared a resounding success. 0/2
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Post by ameisenmeister on Mar 29, 2020 13:58:49 GMT
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