Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2020 14:47:24 GMT
This is normally about the time I'd call a contest for judging. I'm not really sure why this got so few entries, and I'd like to keep it open for a little longer to see if anyone else is interested, but apparently not. Judging will come within 48 hours.
Edit: Just goes to show you that all you need to do to get people interested in a contest is threaten to close it. We found the line.
ameisenmeister Desire for Demise initially read to me as a very good limited card. Follow up some random two-drop 2/X with this and then your opponent has to think twice about trading creatures. Being able (but not too able in most limited formats) to profitably trigger it yourself is also really neat. The demanding mana cost to recur it means there's a significant downside to playing it out a second time instead of committing more to the board, but it's a real option in the late-game that squeezes value out of your diminished resources. The only constructed play I can imagine is in Commander as a Deadly Designs-esque political tool, persuading other players to give up their own creatures instead of paying their own mana in order to answer a mutual threat, but also a lower-powered Grave Pact or similar for decks already killing their own creatures. 3.5/5 for significant playability at uncommon and 'could be good in Commander' potential, but not being especially novel and the potential for repetitive lines.
Flo00 The creature-based Spellweaver Volute I never knew I needed. Preserved Life is exactly the card I want to pop up in Cube or want to force in whatever limited format I find it in. Reanimation with no conditions on the target hardly ever comes this cheaply anymore, but the breakable cost is balanced well by the unique and arguably janky conditions to make Preserved Life into a proper reanimation spell. It clearly wants to interact with mechanics like delve and now escape that use the graveyard as a resource, or you could slam it together with Sun Titan for something grindier. Outside of proactively triggering it yourself by targeting or exiling your enchanted creature, Preserved Life could also be a sideboard card on either side of the reanimator match, with the reanimator deck fighting through graveyard hate and the opposing deck comboing with their own graveyard hate and blanking reanimation. 4.5/5 for having multiple interesting uses and being altogether brew-aroundable.
ZephyrPhantom Dyr reminds me a lot of Elenda, the Dusk Rose as a very Shock-able four-drop that demands a much more thorough answer if it's ignored. Where Elenda eventually wants to be sacrificed herself, though, Dyr continuously clogs up ground combat and and wants to stick around for as long as possible. The series of creature types that trigger the first ability is really neat, sort of an 'undead' supertype similar to how the different types of sea monsters always show up in the same tribal cards. In eternal formats lower to the ground Dyr seems like a hard sell, but they'd be a really neat commander with tribal synergies, tokens, and +1/+1 counters all relevant. I might be worried that Dyr's triggered ability even wants their own Skeleton tokens to die; with a free sac outlet, you can trigger all your other death abilities as many times as you've got open white or black mana, which makes anything from Viscera Seer to one of the mana altars extremely good. 4/5 for somehow taking skeleton tribal and making it hard to de-power.
Boogymanjunior I had to read Longing for the Perished at least twice to actually get what it did, and again to see if there might be a better way to word it. For a four-mana discard spell, I'm not sure this is powerful enough to be uncommon. It could see play in Standard maybe, but it's too slow for eternal formats and there's a real possibility of not hitting two noncreature cards with it in limited. Worth noting is that Longing for the Perished can force players to discard lands. I'd be very eager to see a targeted discard effect that can snipe down lands, but I don't think it should come with a mana cost that makes it slower than, say, Tron on the draw. For limited purposes, I'm not sure taking turn 4 off to stop someone from hitting their fourth or fifth land drop is attractive enough for an uncommon. 3.5/5 for good flavor but questionable rarity.
Flo00 wins, with ZephyrPhantom in second.
Edit: Just goes to show you that all you need to do to get people interested in a contest is threaten to close it. We found the line.
ameisenmeister Desire for Demise initially read to me as a very good limited card. Follow up some random two-drop 2/X with this and then your opponent has to think twice about trading creatures. Being able (but not too able in most limited formats) to profitably trigger it yourself is also really neat. The demanding mana cost to recur it means there's a significant downside to playing it out a second time instead of committing more to the board, but it's a real option in the late-game that squeezes value out of your diminished resources. The only constructed play I can imagine is in Commander as a Deadly Designs-esque political tool, persuading other players to give up their own creatures instead of paying their own mana in order to answer a mutual threat, but also a lower-powered Grave Pact or similar for decks already killing their own creatures. 3.5/5 for significant playability at uncommon and 'could be good in Commander' potential, but not being especially novel and the potential for repetitive lines.
Flo00 The creature-based Spellweaver Volute I never knew I needed. Preserved Life is exactly the card I want to pop up in Cube or want to force in whatever limited format I find it in. Reanimation with no conditions on the target hardly ever comes this cheaply anymore, but the breakable cost is balanced well by the unique and arguably janky conditions to make Preserved Life into a proper reanimation spell. It clearly wants to interact with mechanics like delve and now escape that use the graveyard as a resource, or you could slam it together with Sun Titan for something grindier. Outside of proactively triggering it yourself by targeting or exiling your enchanted creature, Preserved Life could also be a sideboard card on either side of the reanimator match, with the reanimator deck fighting through graveyard hate and the opposing deck comboing with their own graveyard hate and blanking reanimation. 4.5/5 for having multiple interesting uses and being altogether brew-aroundable.
ZephyrPhantom Dyr reminds me a lot of Elenda, the Dusk Rose as a very Shock-able four-drop that demands a much more thorough answer if it's ignored. Where Elenda eventually wants to be sacrificed herself, though, Dyr continuously clogs up ground combat and and wants to stick around for as long as possible. The series of creature types that trigger the first ability is really neat, sort of an 'undead' supertype similar to how the different types of sea monsters always show up in the same tribal cards. In eternal formats lower to the ground Dyr seems like a hard sell, but they'd be a really neat commander with tribal synergies, tokens, and +1/+1 counters all relevant. I might be worried that Dyr's triggered ability even wants their own Skeleton tokens to die; with a free sac outlet, you can trigger all your other death abilities as many times as you've got open white or black mana, which makes anything from Viscera Seer to one of the mana altars extremely good. 4/5 for somehow taking skeleton tribal and making it hard to de-power.
Boogymanjunior I had to read Longing for the Perished at least twice to actually get what it did, and again to see if there might be a better way to word it. For a four-mana discard spell, I'm not sure this is powerful enough to be uncommon. It could see play in Standard maybe, but it's too slow for eternal formats and there's a real possibility of not hitting two noncreature cards with it in limited. Worth noting is that Longing for the Perished can force players to discard lands. I'd be very eager to see a targeted discard effect that can snipe down lands, but I don't think it should come with a mana cost that makes it slower than, say, Tron on the draw. For limited purposes, I'm not sure taking turn 4 off to stop someone from hitting their fourth or fifth land drop is attractive enough for an uncommon. 3.5/5 for good flavor but questionable rarity.
Flo00 wins, with ZephyrPhantom in second.