Welcome to the final FCC of 2007! Your last chance at glory! I wish I could tell you this month will end the year with a bang, but frankly I have no wacky ideas so all the rounds will probably just revolve around winter and Christmas and all that crap. Who knows, though? There's lots of time between now and the final round for me to get some inspiration. Without further ado, here's round 1's lame theme:
Though Christmas is mercifully far away, it's time to start thinking about presents and I need some ideas for useless doohickies to pawn off as thoughtful gifts. So if you wouldn't mind giving me some ideas:
Make an artifact.
Bonus:
Has an activated ability with a t cost that is not a mana ability. - 1 point
Has a converted mana cost of less than 2 or greater than 6. - 1 point
Use Mana Symbols in card (must be in both textcard and render (if submitted) in order to count) - 1 point
Supply rendered card art - 1-2 points (1 for supplying art, 1 discretionary for judges)
If you have questions about the round see the FAQ post.
Point Breakdown:
Bonus: (x/5): Judge how the card fits the bonus parameters. If the card does not meet the challenge, these points are not awarded.
Balance: (x/10): Judge how the card is balanced; its power level, and whether or not it could make or break a format.
Flavor/Creativity/Quality: (x/10): Judge how flavorful, cool, and well-worded the card is. Basically, this is the "slickness" category.
Players may wish to reference the Players List. If you have questions about the FCC, check out the FAQ. If you have a question about using MSE, find your answer here.
This round will run until Midnight, Wednesday the 5th (When Wednesday becomes Thursday.)
Judges, please don't begin judging until the round is over. You may start postings at 12:01am EDT, even if we (Moss_Elemental, Avatar of Kokusho, and Kraj) are not online then to close the round. For this round the top 4 players in each group will advance. In case of a 4th-place tie, both players advance. However, please try to avoid ties if possible.
FCC 12/07 Round 1, the honorable Planes J. Walker presiding.
Bonegrinder
Artifact - Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gets +1/+0.
:symtap:: Bonegrinder deals 2 damage to target creature blocking equipped creature.
:1mana:, Tap an untapped creature you control: Attach Bonegrinder to that creature. Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery.
Artist: Gonzalo Ordoñez
Slow-Time Fountain0
Artifact ~U~ XX,T: Gain X life. Jhoria drank the slow-time water in order to prolong her life. Even though Tolaria is now gone, she still carries the most important piece with her.
Note about the art: The art was a photograph that I edited slightly and put some filters on to make it look slightly more handdrawn, thus the unusual artist credit.
Dark Automaton 7
Artifact Creature- Juggernaut Rare
Delve
Whenever Dark Automaton attacks, for each opponent, destroy target creature that player controls. 2B,T: Remove a total of seven creature cards from all graveyards from the game, put a token into play that’s a copy of Dark Automaton. It is believed they killed their creators so none could hold sway over them.
5/5
Ozan
SDF December 2007 FCC
Selesnya Morale Chest 5GW
Artifact Rare
Convoke, Flash
Champion two creatures
Creatures you control get +2/+3 When the minions of the Conclave the the bountiful treasure inside, they are filled with inspiration to fight. -Sardinha
Ancestral Crown1
Artifact (U)
Play with your hand revealed. T: You gain 3 life. Play this ability only if three or more enchantment cards are in your hand. The crown reveals the true intentions of the wearer. — Mathalian myth
Art: silvestris
Encyclopædia Zombia 1
Artifact (U)
Whenever a creature you control is put into a graveyard from play, put a page counter on Encyclopædia Zombia. 1B, T, Remove two page counters from Encyclopædia Zombia: Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand. 1BB, T, Remove three page counters from Encyclopædia Zombia: Return target creature from your graveyard to play.
57. Ikeda
Judge for this round is PlanesJaywalker.
Number of times this post has been edited: Five. Render is now up.
Celestial Armillary1
Artifact (U)
Celestial Armillary comes into play tapped. 1, T, Sacrifice Celestial Armillary: Until end of turn, you may play nonland cards as though they had flash. Draw a card. “My theories shall never be accepted among a populace that believes that the world is flat.” - Stanislai, Venezian scholar Art: Sharon Whitehurst
Timevessel 3
Artifact (c) ,T: Target player puts the top three cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard. Put the top two cards of your library into your graveyard. "I touched it for but a moment, and suddenly I had a beard and long nails!" - Poferas, Archeoartificer
Sigh. Finals (Wish me luck) + RPG Superstar (Vote for me and wish me luck) + November Judgings (done) = No time to make a great card for FCC. Enjoy this one from my file. (Never before seen in public!)
All done. Sorry it took so long. Concerns or complaints: Please PM or post in the discussion thread.
• No preference on render style as long as it's not textless.
• Please cite your artist and link if possible. Copyright concepts are taken for granted in this age of digital piracy, but you have the power to give credit when credit is due. Lack of proper credit will result in -.25.
• Balance: I'm going to try a format breakdown of Constructed (4), Limited (4), Multiplayer (2). We'll see how that goes. On the other hand, assigning 2 points to multiplayer is a little heavy. Let's call multiplayer the realm of the bonus for this category.
• FCQ: Flavor (4), Creativity (4), Quality (2).
Bonus: 4.75/5. ACM, wonderful art, although the focus isn't on the forge...I know. Hard to find the perfect art.
Balance: 6.5/10. This feels a little powerful in its versatility. Other than the fact that this will regularly cost 3-4 easily and sometimes be a little more free, even if they have an immediate answer, you still have a Vulshok Morningstarafter their answer. If this sticks around more than one turn, you have a LOT of resilient pump to toss around, and every turn it's out, you get scarier. I'd slap this in a green deck with Elves, Birds, Ornithopter, mana acceleration, and Troll Ascetics to make it ugly quickly. With the affinity for creatures, 7 is a bit low. With the equipmentcycling on top of that, it feels way too good. And that's constructed. In limited, where the removal is a lot less concentrated, this thing would be 1st pick, every time.
FCQ: 9/10. Flavor: Quite well-done. I think the flavor text could do without the word "the", but I like it overall. I'm not so sure that equipmentcycling fits the mold as much...I can see the tower that gets easier to build with more people to help, and the concept of it pumping out sets of swords and armor...but not so much the trashing for treasure.(3.5/4) Creativity: Brimming over in execution, even if there's nothing truly innovative. (3.5/4) Quality: No issues. (2/2) Total: 20.25/25
Bonus: 4/5. Stellar art, cited, but 5 is not greater than 6, nor is it less than 2. AOCM.
Balance: 5/10. Comparison cards: Dread Return, Hell's Caretaker, Pulsemage Advocate, Reya Dawnbringer, and Strands of Night. From the additional costs of these forerunners, I think we can safely say that 5 mana (for any color deck) for a creature returned every turn, even just a shell of its former glory, is too cheap. Add in the ultra-cheap zombie regeneration and you're verging on a broken artifact. Since the creatures lose the abilities after they come back into play, CIP abilities still trigger. Not to mention that if you "lose" one of your zombies, it can just come back the next turn, since it again went to the graveyard. I could easily see blue playing this with some nice bounce so that it could return its creatures (all with cip abilities) from the grave, bounce them, replay them (as full creatures this time), etc. For this cost, what I would have liked to have seen here (and this would have netted you some more creativity) would be wording along the lines of "T: Remove target creature card in your graveyard from the game. Put a black Zombie creature token into play with power equal to the removed card's power and toughness equal to the removed card's toughness." That way, no abilities, no bounce, and no easy-peasy lather rinse repeat. As is, this artifact should be in the 8-9 mana range, easily, or have a mana cost attached to that first ability in addition to the tap.
FCQ: 8/10. Flavor: I've always thought there were too few thrones in Magic; after all, seats of power can be very potent magical artifacts...and you've done well with capturing the flavor of an uncaring machine of redeath that cooperates and turns like a knife under your hands only long enough to slice you open and enact your own demise. A traditional end for rulers for centuries. The name is a little ho-hum, but the flavor text does well to save the flavor score. (3.5/4) Creativity: There's some creativity in the combination of the reusable abilities, but the only flashy or innovative element is removing the abilities and creature types. (2.75/4) Quality: Missing a space between the first and second sentences. Rest looks good. (1.75/2) Total: 17/25
Bonus: 3.75/5. The art is just a little on the far side of what I'd expect to see on a Magic card. Just one step beyond, say, Icy Manipulator. Also, 4 is neither less than 2, nor greater than 6.
Balance: 7.75/10. Comparison cards would be Diabolic Tutor (1-shot), Citanul Flute (scales in cost, but only for creatures), Demonic Collusion (hefty repeatability cost), and Lilliana Vess (cheaper, but goes on top of library, not into hand). Of these, Demonic Collusion comes closest, so let's compare: DC is 3BB for 1 card, 6BBBB and 2 discarded for 2 cards, 9BBBBBB and 4 discarded for 3 cards. SS is 7 for 1 card, 17 for 2 cards, and 27 for 3 cards. So the repeatability probably isn't the scariest (with the possible exception of degenerate mana engines...but there are better ways to abuse degenerate mana engines). The echo-like setup of the 1st card being very easily obtained (7 mana divided into 4 and 3 is very doable) is enviable, while the next step will rarely occur in constructed, almost never in limited. I can't say that this effect, repeatable, should never be found in artifact form (since Citanul Flute is sorta similar), but it almost makes me think of Rosewater talking about how to cost a spell that says "You win the game." You can ramp that mana cost up as balanced-high as you like...but maybe it shouldn't be done at all. Still...I think it's balanced.
FCQ: 7/10. Flavor: Not too bad. A bauble-type mechanism that scans your brain for good ideas (at astronomical costs) works fine. No flavor text hurts here, though, as the name plus ability can only go so far. (3/4) Creativity: The creativity shines through here not with the concept (Diabolic Tutor on repeat), but on the execution. As I mentioned in the balance section, you've done a great job of breaking up the costs in a desirable manner. (3.25/4) Quality: "remove" should be capitalized. No other problems. (1.75/2) Total: 18.5/25
Bonus: 5/5. ACM, thanks for the artist citing. Cool art!
Balance: 6.5/10. Since this is so versatile (see below), and since it works with so many elements, including a huge number that haven't even been thought of yet, I think it's a little dangerous. At the very least, it should probably be 8 mana to keep it from exploding too soon. With a little accel, you can easily have her down on turn 5 or 6, then ramp her up to a flying 5/5 the next turn (assuming she doesn't steal the 10 counters off your Dark Depths or the 8 off the Greater Gargadon you suspended turn 3). She feels...powerful. People would break her wiiiiide open. I don't think I'd be remiss in suggesting a 10-mana mana cost. Easy 1st-pick in limited, and she'd be built around in constructed, no doubt.
FCQ: 9.5/10. Flavor: Easy to think of an artifact angel not having the same outlook on life as a "real" angel, so the greediness and self-centered aspects are fine. I like the idea of a machine that runs off of the world around her. The flavor text is a little clunky. I probably would have gone with "A heartless beauty with chilling hands to grasp it all.", but your version is ok, too. (3.75/4) Creativity: I like how you've created a very versatile card with regard to function. 7 mana gets you a 2/2 that can make herself bigger, a huge flying monstrosity that steals all your opponent's +1/+1 counters, a suspend-enabler to get your Greater Gargadon out a little easier, a spiffy way to trigger a quick Dark Depths. There are so many paths to take with this one. (4/4) Quality: There should be a space between "X" and "+1/+1" (in the render). The text is a little squished, but bearable. (1.75/2) Total: 21/25
Bonus: 4.75/5. ACM, but the art is a little...indistinguishable. It works; it's just not quite what I would expect on a Magic card.
Balance: 8.5/10. I'm not going to take this card at face value and judge as though you mean this to be able to retrieve any card removed from the game into your hand...cause then you could be putting your opponent's flashback cards into your hand, and that's a biiig no-no. Even being able to recycle your own flashback cards would be a pretty big effect, so I'm going to interpret this as "cards removed from the game by ~", and take off accordingly in quality for bad wording. As for the card itself, this feels a little cheap. For 1 mana and a delayed card draw, you get the basic "Choose the removed card or get a topdeck." For more, you make up that delayed card draw and begin to expand your options. Over the course of a game, you could probably find 4-5 cards in your rftg zone to choose from each draw, which opens up some stellar possibilities. The optimal time to play this, I would think, would be turn 3, playing it and activating it at the end of your opponent's turn so that you don't skip a draw, you just start enjoying premium card selection on turn 4. Playing it turn 1 and activating it right before your 3rd turn works well, too, if you don't have anything else to do with the mana. Now, on the other hand, destroying it means that all your paid-for rftg cards are gone for good...but the benefits outweigh the costs, imho. Not broken...but darn good for the price. Again, limited loves this little baby, while constructed would certainly play around with finding it a home.
FCQ: 7.25/10. Flavor: Nice. Alternate (hand) dimensions sound very cool, so there is some flavor here. Unfortunately, the name is a little blah, and lack of flavor text is really sad, since there's definitely room for a succinct one-liner. (2.75/4) Creativity: I really like what you've done here. The effect is very subtle, but essentially this expands your card-drawing options into a type of selection effect, allowing you to stockpile cards in the rftg zone, then hand-pick from that stockpile instead of the randomness of the topdeck. Similar in style to Sensei's Divining Top, but much different in execution. Full marks. (4/4) Quality: Wording should be "If you do, put a card removed from the game by Dimension Orb into your hand." (.75/2) Total: 20.5/25
Bonus: 5/5. ACM, art's a little cartoony, but it's cool. Nice job.
Balance: 9/10. for a restricted Pacifism certainly isn't broken, and I would think it comparitively weak were it not also a combat trick and a rattlesnake warning. A bit expensive, and certainly no surprise, but it's a nice response to the Giant Growths and Epic Proportions that seem to wreck your limited play. If your opponent is sitting on a single pump spell, she's going to sit on it for awhile, since playing it on a creature will often ensure that creature's removal. This also has wonderful rattlesnake qualities, acting much like one of the Seals to keep your opponents from rushing with their best creatures. All in all, a pretty fun card. You might have been able to get away with it at uncommon.
FCQ: 8/10. Flavor: This is the first submission this round that I've seen a truly creative name. Of course, that might be because it's already taken. Still, this is extremely evocative, draws on history and legend, and gets the point across neatly. It's very easy to imagine a trap that blinds and binds. Very cool (a better use of the name, imho, than what Wizards used it for). Lack of flavor text is regrettable, but mostly understandable. (3.25/4) Creativity: Essentially, this is a colorless Pacifism for 3 that requires the target to attack and not be flying before it can be "enchanted". Not the newest effect in the book, but you've done a stellar job of reimagining it. (3.25/4) Quality: Everything looks great except for two nitpicks: It feels to me that there was no good reason to add "Snow" other than the art; after all, chains bind just as well when it's not freezing out. But I could see some interesting interactions, so that's minor. Also, the last line shouldn't be "attached" to the activated ability, but should stand on its own. I think the proper wording would be "Creatures with Cyclopean Snare imprinted on them don't untap during the untap step." but it's hard to tell without a Wizards-approved example. (1.5/2) Total: 22/25
Bonus 4/5. The art is cool, cited, and fits well...but the cmc is 6, which is not greater than 6.
Balance: 9/10. for a 4/8 with a Phyrexian Ironfoot-esque drawback is fine, although pretty big. 6, T: for 2 1/1's per turn isn't broken by any means...this isn't dangerous, maybe just a little underpowered. You probably could have made either the untap ability or the token creating cost 2 instead of 3 (but not both).
FCQ: 8/10. Flavor: The name is pretty bland, but the overall concept and flavor text are both nice. (3/4) Creativity: The biggest thing you have going for you is the ability to create two creatures of a new type every turn. This thing would LOVE Lorwyn block limited for the ability to diversify the tokens every turn. This takes a page from Phyrexian Ironfoot and slaps a perma-pump and token generator on it. Not bad. (3.5/4) Quality: Small deduction for no flavor text on text card, and small deduction for flavor text sending it into microtext. 9 lines is a bit much. (1.5/2) Total: 21/25
Bonus: 5/5. ACM, and the art is quite nice. A little gory for MtG, but not much.
Balance: 8/10. I'm under the impression that this doesn't turn creatures into Sengirs...it adds the Sengir stats and abilities to what's already there. So if you target your Akroma, Angel of Fury, the Akroma takes a hit to p/t (becoming a 4/4), becomes black instead of red, becomes a Vampire instead of an Angel, has the Sengir ability and flying, but retains the trample, protBlue, protWhite, and firebreathing. I might be wrong on my interpretation, and if my rules guru contact tells me otherwise, this will be revisited, but: 3BB for repeatably turning your weenie evasion creatures into Sengirs (retaining any additional evasion) seems a little strong, especially at uncommon. Since this can come down as soon as you draw it, the additional restriction of needing blood counters will rarely be a restriction since legions of creatures will usually die with this in play (you are playing black, aren't you?). Seeing as how it makes rares (plus!), it should probably be rare.
FCQ: 9/10. Flavor: A cup that stores up death and bestows undead gifts on those that drink from it...sure. Flavor text would have been nice, but the concept is conveyed adequately without it. (3.5/4) Creativity: This is pretty creative. The concept of adding certain elements to a creature, sort of a "template" for Sengir Vampires, works well. The execution is done well, also. (3.75/4) Quality: The "remove a blood counter" cost should come after the tap symbol (see Gemstone Mine), no other concerns. (1.75/2) Total: 22/25
Bonus: 3.75/5. The art is great (and cited...though I couldn't find this particular art in his gallery...), although from it's broken appearance, I'd expect the artifact to be one that gets sacrificed. Unfortunately, it's cmc (3) is neither < 2 or > 6. AOCM. I really like your expansion symbol, by the way.
Balance: 8.75/10. Compared to Millstone and Whetstone, this is pretty close to balanced. The costs might be a touch high since Whetstone lets you repeat it as many times as you have the mana for 1 mana and 1 self-mill more...but this is close. Not a balancing element, but seeing as how the other 'Stones have set precedent, this should probably be rare.
FCQ: 5/10. Flavor: While I can appreciate the flavor of an hourglass that accelerates time for whoever touches it, it doesn't exactly make sense that in the midst of a battle (even a battle of wits), you'd pick up an hourglass (causing you to "grow older") and hit your adversary with it (causing him/her to "grow older"). The name doesn't seem to further function, nor does it adhere to the standard ____stone naming standard of similar artifacts (not that it has to). The flavor text is evocative, but doesn't hit home with any punch. (2.5/4) Creativity: This is really just Whetstone with a slightly smaller cost and unrepeatability. Sorry...not much to say here. (.5/4) Quality: No issues. (2/2) Total: 17.5/25
Bonus: 4/5. Art is awesomely depressing (and cited), but there's no tap symbol on this sucker anywhere!
Balance: 7.5/10. -2/-2 for and a fraction, repeatedly, in any color, with a residual/cumulative effect...seems a little powerful to me, even at sorcery speed. Constructed would have little use for this, but any player in limited would take it in a heartbeat. Definate 2nd-3rd pick, if not 1st. Replacing a single colorless mana with a black mana in the activation cost (or better yet, balancing the costs to (mana cost and activation cost :2mana::symb::symb:) or (mana cost and activation cost :3mana::symb:)) would have done wonders for keeping this in check while maintaining a powerful artifact.
FCQ: 7.75/10. Flavor: The (somewhat bland) name and ability carry this far...but not quite far enough to get full marks. Flavor text would have earned you higher marks here, but a dock in quality for microtext... It's also odd to think of the creation of a suit of armor like this to only cost 1, but 5 to put it on a creature...not too far a stretch, but a bit of one, flavorfully, and it feels like it's only here to meet round criteria.(2.75/4) Creativity: Cute concept, and while not entirely innovative, it's spiffy enough in execution to pass. (3.5/4) Quality: There's an extra space 'tween the first and second sentences, and -1/-1 counters are a thing of the past (as exhibited by Timespiral 'shifted cards like Serrated Arrows). (1.5/2) Total: 19.25/25
Adversaries: tutka, Kev the Walker, The Mad Tapper, Krey, spiderboy4, Ikeda, L0ng5h0t, Neon-chan, Koki
Judge: PlanesJaywalker
Seratonin Reporting with
Argentum Killjoy 5BB
Artifact Creature-Lizard Construct (Rare)
Sunburst
Fear, frenzy 2
As long as Argentum Killjoy has ten or more +1/+1 counters on it, it has lifelink. XB,T: Put a +1/+1 counter on Argentum Killjoy for every color of mana used to activate this ability.
Artist: Kerem Beyit
Copyright 2007
I think it is important just to clarify some flavor issues. Argentum was the original name of Mirrodon, before Memmnarch took over. The idea is that the ideal set this would be placed in would be placed somewhere in the Mirrodon continuity, as either a prequel or sequel, which is why we have colored artifact creatures and a modded sunburst ability.
Cloak of Thieves1
Artifact – Equipment
Equipped creature has “T: Draw a card, then discard a card.”
Discard a card: Attach Cloak of the Thieves to target creature you control.
Equip Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
It felt kind of callous to not actually say anything here...
My first FCC entry, and second post! Good luck to everyone.
Lunatic Gate 7
Artifact (Rare) T: Choose a card type. Reveal a card at random from your hand. If it’s of the chosen type, you may play it without paying its mana cost. If it isn’t, remove it from the game. Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery. (The card types are artifact, creature, enchantment, instant, land, planeswalker, sorcery, and tribal.) A portal best used by those with little mind to lose.
Mobile Factory 6
Artifact Creature-Construct
Mobile Factory doesn’t untap during your untap step.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay 3. If do, untap Mobile Factory ,T: Choose a creature type. Put two 1/1 artifact creature tokens into play with the chosen creature type.
4/8
Dalek Sec: This is not war. This is pest control! Cyberman: We have five million Cybermen. How many are you? Dalek Sec: Four. Cyberman: You would destroy the Cybermen with four Daleks?
Dalek Sec: We would destroy the Cybermen with one Dalek! You are superior in only one respect. Cyberman: What is that?
Dalek Sec: You are better at dying!
Here we go again. Lets see, either a miniature trinket or a massive structure... Lets try this then:
Brimstone Colossus :4mana::symr::symr::symr:
Artifact Creature - Golem Berserker 6/5
Trample, haste
When ~ comes into play, up to three target creatures cannot block this turn. It's the perfect fusion of cold steel and the hellish forge that birthed it.
And the extended
And since Future Sight had them (meaning a true colored artifact, sorry Transguild Courier),
EDIT: Woah, I thought the round closed at midnight...
Cityscape Golem7
Artifact creature - Golem (R)
Whenever Cityscape Golem is dealt damage, put that many 1/1 Construct artifact creature tokens into play under your control. ,T, Sacrifice a Construct: Search your library for a land card and put it into play tapped. Then shuffle your library. “These golems can build entire cities single-handedly. What are we going to do when they realize they can just as easily demolish them?” -- Kwen, Soldevi architect
4/7
Asking out a girl is like trying to cast a first turn Necropotence. Sometimes the other player will have the Force of Will to say no. You shouldn't let that stop you from trying it.
Bonuses: 5 pts total
Has an activated ability with a activation cost that is not a mana ability – 1 pt.
Has a converted mana cost lower than 2 or more than 6 – 1 pt.
Mana Symbol bonus (both in render and text) – 1 pt.
Has card art – 1 pt. (Additional 1 pt. Discretionary)
Discretionary point:
Quality of art: 0.75 pts. Note: This includes how well the art fits with your card as well as the actual quality of the art.
Artist Credit: 0.25 pts. Note: Basically, all I ask is that you give SOME sort of artist credit. Do note that if you use something from an artist who uses a screenname I do ask that you link to where you got the art from. I DO NOT ask that you search for the artists real name unless it's given on that page in obvious fashion. Use common sense.
Balance: 10 pts total
Competitive Constructed: 4 pts. Total
Standard format – 2 pts.
Extended and Classic formats – 2 pts.
Limited formats – 3 pts.
Multiplayer formats – 2 pts.
Casual formats – 1 pt.
Note: I am NOT an authority on competitive formats so don't expect me to be too far reaching when it comes to the competitive format portion of the grading.
F/C/Q:
Flavor: 3 pts. Total
Flavor Text – 1 pt. (If included. If no flavor text due to space constraints or if inappropriate (e.g. Planeswalkers), this point gets shifted to general flavor)
General Flavor – 2 pts. - The flavor of the card itself.
Creativity: 2 pts. - Is it something new and/or keenly done?
Quality: 5 pts total
Templating/wording: 2 pts - How well is it worded? Is it clear and easy to understand? Does it use modern wording so it's consistent with the way cards are worded today?
Feel: 1.5 pts. total
Mythos – 0.75 pts – Does it fit/belong in the mythos – whether already established or yet to be created.
Color Pie – 0.75 pts – Is it too much of a stretch or does it actually belong solidly in said pie? I'm not asking for a perfect fit for full points in this category – just whether, considering the flavor as well, it would fit in the pie, even stretched. Remember: Stretch - don't break the rubber band.
Space Constraints – 0.5 pts. - The microtext problem.
Slickness: 1 pt. - Is this something players will Ooh and Aah for when they first see it?
Judgings finished!
Bonus: 3/5: The round required the card to have a converted mana cost LESS than 2 and not actually including 2, so you lost a point there. Also, there's no in the activation cost of it, but you knew you were losing that point anyway. Otherwise, I'll give you full points for the discretionary (artist credit and quality). I particularly like the art.
Balance:
Note: There's HUGE mistake in this card (see Templating grading). I'm grading it on as it would be errata'd since common sense says it should belong.
Standard format: 1.75/2 – It pumps out birds, gives some a bonus, but doesn't stay around forever.
Extended/Classic format: 1/2 Well there isn't much this can contribute to to my knowledge. An obvious Johnny combo of this + Dovescape comes to mind but Dovescape by itself wouldn't be easy to get out and stay out... It would need some help of which there's plenty in Classic – not as much in Extended. Don't think it would make a splash in these formats though it might try.
Limited: 1.25/3 – Upside: It keeps critters coming out. Never can have too many of them in limited (assuming they don't totally stink). Downside: It asks you to be heavily in birds which is hard to do in draft and sealed. Of course, I don't mean having birds as your sole drafted/built tribe but I do mean about half of the deck probably needs to be birds in all likelihood just so you can keep them pumping out and applying the bonus the equipment brings to the table. And then it isn't a permanent upgrade. It will probably be enough for a win though if you drop it at the right time... but it won't auto-win for you.
Multiplayer: 1/2: Nothing interesting in multiplayer. It's pretty much a single player card. However, it could work in an interesting beats deck in team games. Probably will be the one that gets you targeted in non-team games, though.
Casual: 1/1 – Easily will be a fun card to play. Nothing like getting cards you want/need AND getting a small bonus. The afforementioned Dovescape combo should be fun too...
F/C/Q:
Flavor Text: 0/1 – An idiom that's overdone and too obvious for the card.
General Flavor: 1.25/2 – I'm only sorta feeling this one. I mean all the parts are there and its easy to understand but it's nothing spectacular.
Creativity: 1.25/2 – It definitely hasn't been done before but this feels like a card that was designed “backwards.” That is, you found the art first and created the card from that.
Templating/Wording: 0/2: There is a MAJOR mistake on this card. You forgot to have the player reveal the card he/she searched for before he/she put it into his/her hand. Otherwise, there's absolutely no problems but the problem is so large (it probably would cause cheating) that I can't give even a single point for this since it was something that should come automatic when making cards.
Mythos: 0.5/0.75 – Not a perfect fit – something just feels off. But overall it does feel and (mostly) act like a Magic card.
Color Pie: 0.75/0.75 – The question is whether birds are, as a majority, blue. The answer to that is an overwhelming yes. The search ability fits fairly well as well considering the artifact status of this.
Space Constraints: 0/0.5 – When I shrunk this down to the size of an actual card on my screen, it had the microtext problem. And adding that clause wouldn't help matters...
Slickness: 1/1 – This does A LOT. I can easily see people drool a little for it.
Total: 13.75/25
Bonus: 4.75/5: Fills all requirements. Art's not the greatest but it fits well.
Balance:
Standard: 0.5/2 Mostly unplayable. The requirement to give it trample will be filled VERY rarely unless you can make it happen yourself since it's easier to just chump block it if you can. The tap ability won't be used as often unless you somehow give it vigilence OR for the game winning damage, as it will do more damage if you simply attack with it. The cost of 8 makes it prohibitive, as well.
Extended/Classic: 0/2 – Even less playable here. There are bigger artifact creatures that you can fetch and play or just simply play from your hand for cheaper. The same reasons as above make it nearly useless here.
Limited: 1.25/3 – It's got SOME beef but it probably won't be taken unless someone's hurting for size. Probably a mid-round pick.
Multiplayer: 0.5/2 – It can't really stand up to bigger stuff and is especially easily removable here.
Casual: 0.25/1 - Not a bad card for beginners but I don't think this would even see much play in serious casual.
F/C/Q:
Flavor Text: 0/1 – Really awfully generic.
General Flavor: 1.25/2 – Card overall isn't that bad. It enforces the Phyrexian battlesense but not much of their drawbacks.
Creativity: 1 /2 – Not bad, again. Just really simple.
Templating/Wording: 2/2: No problems.
Mythos: 0.5/0.75 – Established but lacks the drawback ability on the majority of Phyrexian artifact creatures. Not all of them do have drawbacks though so this is still almost perfect.
Color Pie – 0.75/0.75 – Yup. Yup.
Space Constraints – 0.5/0.5 – No microtext problem here.
Slickness: 0.25/1 – Probably no amazement from the audience on this. It doesn't really have any potential behind it that can be explored because it's rather straightforward.
Total: 11.5/25
Bonus: 4.75/5 – Fits all requirements except one: You didn't link where you got the art. I can only presume right now that you got the art from some site that uses nicks because of the name. If you can prove otherwise, I'll give back the quarter of a point (should it be necessary).
Balance:
Standard: 1.5/2 Decent card, especially for an uncommon. The “cheapness” of it certainly makes it usable in this format and since it can double as creature removal I can see it having a place in one or two decks. Nothing that will show up in everything though, I think.
Extended/Classic: 1.0/2 - I don't think this card will show up in Classic format because of the need for 3 mana every turn (minimum). Extended this could have a home though to deal with smaller annoying creatures (Meddling Mage, for example). Again, I'm not sure it would show up much (and if so maybe 2 copies) but it'd show up.
Limited: 2.5/3 – As an almost solid rule, draft and sealed likes repetitive removal. It might not be the best but it will in fact work sometimes since removal in decks doesn't come up very often. It wouldn't be “broken” though because of it's rarity (you'd probably see three tops at one draft).
Multiplayer: 1 /2 – Team games this might come in handy because of its ability to hit pretty much any creature (assuming it can be targeted). However, I'm not entirely sure of its use in non-team games. Resources are at a premium and trading card for card isn't very good there...
Casual: 0.5/1 – Another stompy loving card. Or at least something that loves big numbers in creature's defenses... Might show up here and there but not sure of it's “fun” value.
F/C/Q:
Flavor Text: 0.75/1 - I actually do kinda like the flavor text. A little obviously descriptive but it gets its point across elegantly.
General Flavor: 1.75/2 – The name doesn't fit it's ability perfectly but it certainly does a very good job of coming close. I can almost see the wince on the face of its user now...
Creativity: 1.5/2 – The ability has been done before but not very often and certainly not in this way.
Templating/Wording: 1 /2 – I don't find anything necessarily wrong with the way you've worded it since it does work the way it's supposed to but the current template (from the Timeshifted Arena) can shorten up the text a bit to “Choose target creature. Equipped creature and that creature deal damage to each other equal to their power.”
Mythos – 0.75/0.75 – No problems here.
Color Pie – 0.75/0.75 – No color pie problems (and not prohibitive to every color for being in an artifact) so full points.
Space Constraints: 0.5/0.5 – No problems.
Slickness: 0.25/1 – There might be a few but because the ability itself ended up on a couple of weak cards in the past, I don't see many, if any.
Total: 18.5/25
No Show
Bonus: 4/5 – No ability. Otherwise, parfait.
Balance:
Standard: 0.5/2 - Clockworks never got any use in Mirrodin and when one showed up in Time Spiral, it didn't get use either. And those were aggressively costed. This guy costs 9. For a good reason, I say, but still I can't see it getting use. Especially when it's non-Clockwork counterpart isn't getting any play either.
Extended/Classic: 0.5/2 – Same as above. Except they STILL aren't getting use.
Limited: 1.75/3 – Beef + Evasion. Nothing wrong with that. Still can't see it being picked up early though because it does have a drawback and there are likely to be other cards at lower rarities that will be used over this. In sealed, this will probably get used unless some bomb gets opened, however.
Multiplayer: 0.5/2 – Definitely gonna have to be built around and with it specifically in mind that it eats up soooo many resources.
Casual: 0.25/1 – I don't think it's unreasonable to say people will consider Tidal Kraken over this if they're already in blue. And if they're not there's definitely other beaters in colors that are far more useful than this.
F/C/Q:
Flavor Text: 0.75/1 – I don't like the flow of the text itself (the second part is kinda clunky on it) BUT I do have to say that I like it overall. Gives it some context...
General Flavor: 1.5/2 – It fits well with its predecessors and has that “je ne sais quoi.”
Creativity: 0.5/2 – Idea's been killed to death by now, IMO.
Templating/Wording: 2/2 – No problems.
Mythos: 0.75/0.75 – Same comment as with general flavor...
Color Pie: 0.75/0.75 – Fits as an artifact very well.
Space Constraints: 0/0.5 – It shrinks a little too poorly.
Slickness: 0.25/1 – After seeing the 9 cost on it most will shy away but there will be a few that will be willing to overlook that since it can be unblockable and in any color.
Total: 14/25
Bonus: 4.25/5 – It took me a while to figure out how the golem was facing and there was no link to the art since you were using someone's art who had a nickname as their artist name but otherwise it fits all the requirements.
Balance:
Standard: 0.5/2 - This one's kinda hard to rate because it's use is so narrow since it becomes a creature after it's already tapped. I really can't see this getting much use at all just because it's so incredibly weak. When your best option with this creature is just to Fling it, it's not that good... I'm just gonna skip to the scores since the same thing hurts most other formats as well.
Extended/Classic: 0.5/2
Limited: 0.5/3
Multiplayer: 1/2 – This has more interesting applications here since there are Threaten effects that your teammate can use on this creature for a cheap early beater. Is it worth the use of the card? Maybe, if there's nothing else to do. Especially early game when it's unlikely that there's going to be bigger creatures on the field.
Casual: 0.25/1 – Same as other singles formats.
F/C/Q:
Flavor Text: 0.5/1 – It's just OK. A little humourous.
General Flavor: 1.5/2 – It really gives that feel of incompleteness.
Creativity: 1.25/2 – You just don't see an artifact that becomes a creature with a activation as part of that ability's cost. It's for a reason, IMO, but it definitely hasn't been done OR explored really.
Templating/Wording: 1.75/2 – Really minor but “artifact creature” not “creature artifact.”
Mythos: 0.5/0.75 – Ahhhh, Urza's Saga. I don't remember you well since I didn't play when you came out but I think it makes enough sense in context from what I've heard...
Color Pie: 0.75/0.75 – Nothing wrong with it here.
Space Constraints: 0.5/0.5 – No problems
Slickness: 0/1 – I hear way more “EWWW”'S than “Ahhh”'s.
Total: 12.25/25
Bonus: 4.25/5 – I really wish the art wasn't as pixellated as it was for the render. No artist credit either. Otherwise, no problems.
Balance:
Standard: 1.5/2 - Six mana in one turn for a repetitive use Thoughtseize-like effect sounds about right and could get use since it IS a free artifact. Might only be SB material against Control decks but it will still be useful even just to see what the opponent has in his or her hand sometimes. Could lock late-game but I have no problems with that since six mana is quite a bit to pay every turn for that.
Extended/Classic: 1.5/2 – Telepathy never got much use but paying the six mana one time for ability it doesn't lose might just be worthwhile. However, by that time, as quick as it may be, it might be too late. Still I see more upside in having an artifact Thoughtseize than the downside of ramping up the mana quickly for it...
Limited: 0/3 – I can see this being last pick material since it isn't removal or a critter and doesn't do much in the early game. Nor does it really do much to protect your creatures. Besides discard isn't really that useful in Limited (unless its amazing).
Multiplayer: 1.25/2 – This one strikes a weird balance here. One one hand it's nice to be able to look at a few different hands in this format before you get to use the ability. On the other you'd likely need to leave quite a bit of mana open to protect what you do have sometimes so playing it at the right moment is CRUCIAL even if it is just a one turn payment.
Casual: .5/1 – A nice little card that might get some use but only in “protective” cases (i.e. To plan ahead). Same lock probably applies here as well...
F/C/Q:
Flavor Text: 0.25/1 – This really doesn't sound like something a dark magic book would say but rather something that would be casual conversed with another person in reality.
General Flavor: 1.5/2 – I really like the name used here as well as the actual feel of its abilities in combination with the name.
Creativity: 1 /2 – The recent elementals come to mind when I see this so it does feel a bit dull for that reason. However the way it's executed is interesting.
Mythos: 0.75/0.75 – Perfectly fine.
Color Pie: 0.75/0.75 – Artifacts getting discard like this is fine I think, color pie-wise.
Space Constraints: 0.5/0.5 – It shrinks a bit when I saw it but nothing that's unreadable.
Slickness: 0.75/1 – This might raise a few eyebrows and get some Spikes interested in it, even if just for a little while.
Total: 14.5/25
Bonus: 4.75/5 – Almost perfect bonuses. Art wasn't perfect but it was pretty good.
Balance:
Standard: 1.25/2 - Obviously, to use this you have to also have a fair amount of enchantments in your deck. Presumably, you'd see this in a set with quite a few of them as well. The ability itself is definitely useful but not sure how many slots it would get devoted in a deck. Lifegain tends to be most useful when it's an additional effect on top of one that already helps you. As such, I'm not sure this gets more than two slots in any deck this will be in. Note: I doubt playing with the hand revealed will make too much of a difference to your opponent in a one-on-one matchup, as I think there'd be very little instant control in the decks this would go in.
Extended/Classic: 1.25/2 – There's definitely one or two decks that this could go in, at minimum. Again, the question is, would this be more useful than what those decks are already using. Honestly, I don't think so. It WOULD get a tryout though, I think. Some might even prefer it over some of the more useless stuff.
Limited: 1 /3 - As I said before the set this is in depends on how much use it's getting. With my presumption, it wouldn't be such a bad card. I think it'd probably be a late round pick, however, since it's purely defense AND conditional.
Multiplayer: 1.5/2 – In a format where having permanents and a little defense will probably win you the game, this works well. Not awesome because of it's hand revealing clause, but still pretty darn well.
Casual: 1/1 – Did anyone say Test of Endurance among other uses for this thing?
F/C/Q:
Flavor Text: 1/1 – Simple but not too simple. Gives it a nice aura about it.
General Flavor: 0.5/2 – There's a big disconnect between the name and what it does to me. Doesn't really “come off the card” because of that.
Creativity: 1.25/2 – An interesting application for this card. Having the hand revealed all the time instead of just at the time the ability resolves makes it worse but at the same time more interesting.
Templating/Wording: 2/2 – No problems.
Mythos: 0.75/0.75 – I'd think this thing would fit well even though it's both precise and generic at the same time.
Color Pie: 0.25/0.75 – While this card isn't broken because of it's high requirements, I'm not sure this is a good thing for “the pie.” Life in artifacts tends to come at a very high cost comparatively to this thing.
Space Constraints: 0.5/0.5 – No problems.
Slickness: 0/1 – Life gain has never been something to be excited about, on it's own.
Total: 17/25
Bonus: 4/5 – Is that a photo? I'm not one for photos in art at all (unless they've been shopped so they no longer look like photos). Also, no linky to the art.
Balance:
Standard: 2/2 - First, in general balance, I understand why you made this thing tap. I think to give it any use without making the equip cost too high or making it broken, you kinda HAD to make it that way. On one hand, it can only protect one creature for one spell a turn. On the other, it's probably better to have that much protection considering how cheap and reusable this thing is. It would probably show up in every aggro deck to help deal with the control elements (assuming there aren't a lot of global destruction cards).
Extended/Classic: 1.25/2 – I'm wondering if this does a BETTER thing than equipment currently in existence. Right now I have to say no. With the ability just being one time between both players turns, I'd have to say pass. There probably would be a niche for it though in Weenie decks, hence the score.
Limited: 2.25/3 – A very useful mid-round, and possibly early, pick. Helps keep those important creatures around and away from what few removal spells there might be.
Multiplayer: 0.5/2 – It might help here and there but a player will eventually get around it with the help of another.
Casual: 1/1 – For all the same reasons, it did well in Standard.
F/C/Q:
Flavor Text: 0.25/1 – “Meh” flavor text. It's uses a lot of clunky words in a less than elegant way.
General Flavor: 1.5/2 – In relation to the other Glasskite objects, it really has a good feel to it.
Creativity: 1.5/2 – Equipment don't usually tap but this was done for all the right reasons.
Templating/Wording: 1.75/2 – Instead of “in a turn,” “this turn” might be more appropriate here so confusion doesn't come up to when the delayed trigger would end.
Mythos: 0.75/0.75 – Fits well with the Betrayers Glasskites.
Color Pie: 0.75/0.75 - This doesn't harm the color pie in any noticable way so I see no harm in it.
Space Constraints: 0.5/0.5 – Fine by me.
Slickness: 0.5/1 – I don't see it being greatly hyped but it might get some eyebrows...
Total: 18.5/25
Bonus: 4/5 – I really like the art for this guy... no ability takes a point off of here though.
Balance:
Standard: 0.5/2 – Really, I think this is too strong in general as it's size for being free is ridiculous. Fresh off the Tarmogoyf craze, I'm wary on undercosted, oversized creatures. And with this thing, it just gets crazier when you think that, should be you lucky enough, you could plunk down two or three of these things when ONE of your creatures leaves play. This needed to be a 1/1, I think... It will get use in everything aggro, just overly so.
Extended/Classic: 0.75/2 – Same grade for same reasons. I think it might even be really powerful in Classic, but I also think it would be a little less broken there...
Limited: 2.5/3 – Being a rare saves this card. A singular copy of this in a deck wouldn't be as ridiculous as four would be.
Multiplayer: 0.5/2 – When everyone at the table is playing four, somethings wrong...
Casual: 0/1 – Same problems as above.
F/C/Q:
Flavor Text: 1/1 – Describes it perfectly and was indeed a bit humorous...
General Flavor: 2/2 – I really am feeling this one. It kinda “pops” itself off the card.
Creativity: 1.5/2 – Pretty new and a bit different.
Templating/Wording: 0/2 – As it's currently worded, it doesn't work at all. The “Whenever” ability is triggered and therefore must go on the stack (and thus able to be Stifle'd, etc). However, an opponent wouldn't be able to know the ability goes onto the stack until the card's already been revealed and/or put into play. Funnily enough, if you just replaced “Whenever” with an “If” it would have been just fine since “If”'s can't be responded to.
Mythos: 0.75/0.75 – Fits well in there.
Color Pie: 0/0.75 – It's all wrong for the same reasons as balance. Having any color get a “free” attacker is a bit off in the card advantadge department...
Space Constraints: 0.5/0.5 – No probs.
Slickness: 1/1 – I think enough people would get this and be like... “WOW.”
Maelstrom Star
Artifact (RARE)
When Maelstrom Star comes into play, it deals 1 damage to each creature with flying and each player.
:symg::symw:, :symtap:: Remove Maelstrom Star from the game. Then return it to play under its owner’s control. You may play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery.
“Creating an absolute defence does not always mean defending yourself.” -Oriss, Samite Guardian
Bonus (5/5): Good.
Balance (6/10): This is definitely too good. Granted, we sometimes see potent artifact creatures that push the curve like Platinum Angel, but this goes way too far. First, it has Delve, which is worth a premium of at least 2 - 3 on the cost if not more, meaning this card should have the power level that costs around 4 or 5 at the most. Even completely vanilla, a 5/5 for 5 is passable; add one kick-ass ability and it's pretty darn good. This has two kick-ass abilities with no drawback at all. I would say this should cost 9; without Delve it would probably be fine.
The one saving grace here is that the activated ability is not easy to use multiple times and is anti-synergistic with Delve, which helps keep this vrom being completely insane.
F/C/Q (7/10):
-Flavor (2/4): Decent name, decent flavor text, would have liked to see some flavor of the copying ability.
-Creativity (2.5/3): The activated ability's cost has never been done before. The rest is decent.
-Quality (2.5/3): I understand why you put "total of" in the templating but I don't think it's necessary.
Total: 18/25
Bonus (5/5): Good.
Balance (5/10): This is pretty weak. For 8 you get nothing; for another x2B a pop you get a creature with CMC X back into play. That's a huge mana investment just to get a decent creature. We're talking 12B to nab a Tarmogoyf. Worse, it can't touch all those creatures racked up in the 'yard before you got this monstrosity on the table, so something still has to die after you play it to get anything out of it.
What it has going for it: it can steal opponent's creatures, it shuts down decks that like to get creatures out of their graveyard, giving the ability a cost prevents scary combo shenannigans, and you could combine this with creatures that want to be recurred, like say Avalanche Riders. But the bottom line is just doesn't do enough to justify the cost.
F/C/Q (5/10):
-Flavor (3/4): Solid but not amazing.
-Creativity (0/3): It's an artifact Purgatory.
-Quality (2/3): Like Purgatory, this uses a dated "under" wording. See Purgatory for the proper templating.
TOtal: 15/25
Bonus (5/5): Good.
Balance (7/10): This is rather undercosted. Artifacts that can tap creatures are much more difficult to use than this. Leonin Bola, Cyclopean Snare, for example. Granted, those suck so you've got a bit of room to improve, but tapping down creatures as early as turn two with no colored mana investment is just a bit too fast. I would cost this at 3 and keep the other costs the same.
F/C/Q (9/10):
-Flavor (4/4): I love it. The name is evocative, the art is fitting, the mechanics are wonderfully flavorful, and the flavor text adds to the story the card is telling. Every piece here works wonderfully together. This is one of the best cards I've seen in the FCC as far as flavor is concerned.
-Creativity (2.5/3): The individual abilities are standard fare but the way the second builds off the first is very cool and gives the card a very fresh feel.
-Quality (2.5/3): I probably would have worded the flavor text as "...weeds out the squeamish." Feels a little tighter that way, but I wouldn't deduct for that, I deducted for misspelling squeamish. I'd have passed it off as a reference to Squee, but not in a ninja setting.
Total: 21/25
Bonus (5/5): Good.
Balance (6/10): I don't see this cutting the mustard. I want to like this, but the thing is there's not much you can't outright cast with 7 mana on the table. Sure, you could have a deck that packs a bunch of expensive stuff from all colors and cheat the mana base with this, but those kinds of decks usually suffer to much in the early game to be playable. What this really does is let you play your spells and sink your mana somewhere else, and the thing is I don't see many cards in Standard that can take advantage of the mana well enough to be worth it.
I had to think a lot about this one and I may be wrong.
F/C/Q (7.5/10):
-Flavor (3/4): Not bad. Decent name and the flavor text is somewhat clever.
-Creativity (1.5/3): Sort of a cross between Cursed Scroll and Temporal Aperture. Not a lot new here but decent.
-Quality (3/3): No complaints.
TOtal: 18.5/25
Bonus (4.5/5): The font of the ability looks funny, but the rest is fine...
Balance (6/10): OK, so Magus of the Jar hasn't been breaking any formats (or been played for that matter) but it's certainly a baseline for what WotC believes the cost of this effect should be. This ability is much better than Memory Jar and only costs a little more without having the important drawbacks of not being able to activate the turn you play it and be easily removed. My instincts wanted to scream broken at the first sight of it, but ultimately I think it's too cost prohibitive to be broken. However, the ability is very much "I win" and abilities like that aren't really balanced at any cost.
F/C/Q (6.5/10):
-Flavor (3/4): Not bad. Decent name and flavor text, decent connection to the abilities. Not really wowing though.
-Creativity (1.5/3): The package as a whole strikes me as a bit creative but the abilities are nothing new.
-Quality (2/3): No big problems but there are several punctuation errors in the flavor text and the text card has the Tilde of Carelessness.™
TOtal: 17/25
Bonus (5/5): Good.
Balance (3/10): Maybe I'm missing something but this card seems God-awful to me. So, whenever a permanent would go to your 'yard you can sack it to get a charge counter instead. Fine. Then it costs you another permanent or 5 life for every 1 point of damage it deals. In the FCC we often see cards of the "win more" variety, but I don't think I've ever seen a "lose more" card before.
If I have time, I will revisit this to see if I can come up with some suggestions to improve this design.
F/C/Q (6.5/10):
-Flavor (2/4): Art and name are both rather generic, but the abilities definitely have a lot of flavor.
-Creativity (2/3): Well, it's certainly something we haven't seen before. Nothing truly innovative but there's some creative thinking here.
-Quality (2.5/3): The last ability is overly complicated. I'm not sure what the ideal way to do this is, but at the very least it should be, "Gem of Destruction deals 1 damage to target creature or player. Then sacrifice a permanent or lose 5 life. Repeat this process for every charge counter on Gem of Destruction."
Bonus (4/5): The art looks like poorly-render 3D, and there's no copyright line.
Balance (9/10): While the price tag limits its playability, this is something I would pay the mana for without it being ridiculous. It's basically a colorless version of Stonewood Invocation where the p/t boost sticks around. Once it's on the table it makes killing any creature very, very hard. Not bad at all, sir.
F/C/Q (6.5/10):
-Flavor (2.5/4): The name and abilities have an interesting connection; I get it but I'm not sure how well most people can be expected to. In any case, not bad. The flavor text feels very wrong to me. There's a not-so-fine line between doing something suicidal for fun in goblin-esque fashion, and literally committing suicide for fun.
-Creativity (1.5/3): Not a lot here, but the concept of using instant-speed indestructibility is novel.
-Quality (2.5/3): The flavor text should have quotes around each line.
Total: 19.5/25
Bonus (5/5): Good.
Balance (0/10): I hate to say this but: Bah-roken. This is a cheap two-card combo for infinite cards with Chromatic Star (or even Mishra's Bauble, but that's inferior). Standard can tolerate three-card combos but not two-card. Especially not on turn 2. This is just as bad in Vintage where it can combine with Black Lotus or Lotus Petal for infinite mana.
The lesson here: no matter how nonthreatening it seems, beware of the free effect. A change as tiny as making it cost 1 instead of 0 would have made a world of difference.
F/C/Q (8.5/10):
-Flavor (4/4): Clever concept, good name, decent flavor text, strong mechanical ties. It's all here.
-Creativity (2/3): It's a Welding Jar and Rootwater Diver with a new ability all rolled into one tidy package. Not bad but not wowing.
-Quality (2.5/3): The last ability should be "is put into a graveyard" instead of "goes to the graveyard".
Total: 13.5/25
Bonus (4/5): The art looks like a doctored photo, and there's no copyright line.
Balance (5/10): This will single-handedly shut down any aggro deck. An unkillable blocker for two mana is grossly unfair. Even toughness-reducing effects like Nameless Inversion and lockdown effects like Bound in Silence are worthless against this since it can just tap and sac itself to make a copy. Ditch the indestructible and put a cost on the copy-making at you're in the ballpark.
F/C/Q (7.5/10):
-Flavor (3.5/4): This does have quite a lot of flavor, but the name is barely different than Wall of Junk.
-Creativity (2/3): Some creative thinking here with the copy-making being the most unique ability.
-Quality (2/3): "Put a token into play that's a copy of Junk Wall."
Total: 16.5/25
Bonus (4/5): Doesn't have an ability with t in the cost.
Balance (7/10): A fair bit worse than Runed Stalactite, which is handy but not great in limited and irrelevant in constructed, but still strictly better than Leonin Scimitar. It's reasonable.
F/C/Q (4.5/10):
-Flavor (1.5/4): Great name for the art. The rest is completely boring.
-Creativity (.5/3): Technically hasn't been done yet due to being a tribal equipment, but nothing about this shows any creativity.
-Quality (2.5/3): "Gains" should be "has"; otherwise is fine.
Total: 15.5/25
Fortune's Hourglass 1
Artifact (unc) ,T: Name a card other than a basic land. Target player reveals the top card of his or her library. If that card is the named card, choose one — Put that card into its owner’s graveyard or draw two cards and sacrifice Fortune’s Hourglass. 4: Target player shuffles his or her library.
“Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.” - Harvey MacKay
Hourglass of Memory 7
Artifact 2,T, Sacrifice ~:Target player discards seven cards, or target player draws seven cards. The touch upon a memory can trap one's mind in it's mist, or it can rekindle old dreams, and make them a possibility
Ersatz Rose0
Artifact
:symtap:, Sacrifice Ersatz Rose: When target creature is put into your graveyard from play this turn, return that card to play. With each paper petal she fastened to the wire stem, Azala pondered, "Perhaps he loves me," or, "Perhaps he does not."
Artist: archsoul1 from www.deviantart.com
Teferi's Eternal Clock 7
Legendary Artifact
You may choose not to untap Teferi’s Eternal Clock during your untap step.
At the beginning of your upkeep, put an age counter on Teferi’s Eternal Clock. ,T, remove an age counter from Teferi’s Eternal Clock: Creature spells you play have split second as long as Teferi’s Eternal Clock remains tapped. “Tick. Tock. The two most powerful words one can utter” — Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
It is my personal goal in life to create a dragon card that will win the MCC. "The dragon has no pretense of compassion, no false mask of civilization—just hunger, heat, and need." —Sarkhan Vol
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Though Christmas is mercifully far away, it's time to start thinking about presents and I need some ideas for useless doohickies to pawn off as thoughtful gifts. So if you wouldn't mind giving me some ideas:
Make an artifact.
Bonus:
Has an activated ability with a t cost that is not a mana ability. - 1 point
Has a converted mana cost of less than 2 or greater than 6. - 1 point
Use Mana Symbols in card (must be in both textcard and render (if submitted) in order to count) - 1 point
Supply rendered card art - 1-2 points (1 for supplying art, 1 discretionary for judges)
If you have questions about the round see the FAQ post.
Point Breakdown:
Bonus: (x/5): Judge how the card fits the bonus parameters. If the card does not meet the challenge, these points are not awarded.
Balance: (x/10): Judge how the card is balanced; its power level, and whether or not it could make or break a format.
Flavor/Creativity/Quality: (x/10): Judge how flavorful, cool, and well-worded the card is. Basically, this is the "slickness" category.
Players may wish to reference the Players List. If you have questions about the FCC, check out the FAQ. If you have a question about using MSE, find your answer here.
This round will run until Midnight, Wednesday the 5th (When Wednesday becomes Thursday.)
Players:
1. infernotsu
2. SquareDragon
3. arimnaes
4. Murpheus
5. TheFooFish
6. elathel trom
7. Nakraton
8. Athani
9. Pesudofate
10. 1T4
11. Jaimie666666
12. KoolKoal
13. MagicProfessor28
14. Lersurgo
15. Iammars
16. muchsarcasm
17. mlacy03
18. Dragon_of_cleansing_fire
19. rizzes
20. fissionessence
21. piercings76
22. WUBRGspellsMagic
23. EzraEliot
24. Megiddo
25. GiftsTrix
26. JeroenC
27. Niv
28. zombi_bobb
29. MindWrencher
30. Kenaron
31. moogie
32. Ace
33. roffman
34. Dodavehu
35. berzerker
36. SoronTheBeast
37. simic
38. Soto2
39. The Orange Mage
40. DARKING
41. Olveron
42. HeavyMetalKing
43. nezumi13
44. Alacar Leoricar
45. RainbowBrite
46. Temeraire
47. anna.mossity
48. cannon
49. Fernin
50. Absolutionis
51. seratonin
52. tutka
53. Kev the Walker
54. The Mad Tapper
55. Krey
56. spiderboy4
57. Ikeda
58. L0ng5h0t
59. Neon-chan
60. Koki
61. YuanTi
62. DevouringZombie
63. wamyc
64. Mr Bloody Minded
65. iphanx
66. videojuegos
67. VampyrLestat
68. P E
69. kyndel
70. bmattox
71. genesys
72. CobyChin
73. ShadowWaveInc.
74. ShinyMan
75. Treble252
76. Silent Prophet
77. InsaneZeroG
78. Azhur
79. Nemcon
80. Jaxal1
81. strongbad56
82. Ultran
83. MajoraX
84. Darkever
85. Asrama
86. Ark
87. Rain93
88. Dragonmayu
89. jozan_destroyer
90. Sankido
91. mstieler
92. ZasZ234
93. VesuvanUS
94. Voila!
95. NetherTraitor
96. Finrod
97. azathoth
98. Alabran
99. Scrounger
100. Filth
101. Preathus
102. lgmhorus
103. Dragoon26
Judges:
Itinerant Soldier (Players 1-10)
Moss_Elemental (Players 11-20)
Howler13 (Players 21-30)
ShadowStarshine (Players 31-40)
Technomagus (Players 41-50)
PlanesJaywalker (Players 51-60)
Sutherlands (Players 61-70)
Cantripmancer (Players 71-81)
Belgareth (Players 82-92)
Kraj (Players 93-103)
Judges, please don't begin judging until the round is over. You may start postings at 12:01am EDT, even if we (Moss_Elemental, Avatar of Kokusho, and Kraj) are not online then to close the round. For this round the top 4 players in each group will advance. In case of a 4th-place tie, both players advance. However, please try to avoid ties if possible.
Good luck, everyone!
Current New Favorite Person™: Mallory Archer
She knows why.
Bonegrinder
Artifact - Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gets +1/+0.
:symtap:: Bonegrinder deals 2 damage to target creature blocking equipped creature.
:1mana:, Tap an untapped creature you control: Attach Bonegrinder to that creature. Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery.
Artist: Gonzalo Ordoñez
Record: 3-2
Simpsons Mafia (Newbie) - Vanilla Mafia - Win
The Fiasco Corporation - Town Reporter - Loss
Doomsday Mafia - Mafia Roleblocker - Win
Battle Royale Mafia - Serial Daykiller - Loss
Danger City Mafia - Vanilla Town - Win
Artifact ~U~
XX,T: Gain X life.
Jhoria drank the slow-time water in order to prolong her life. Even though Tolaria is now gone, she still carries the most important piece with her.
Note about the art: The art was a photograph that I edited slightly and put some filters on to make it look slightly more handdrawn, thus the unusual artist credit.
Avatar by Grey. Banner by spiderboy4 from High~Light Studios
22. WUBRGspellsMagic
23. EzraEliot
24. Megiddo
25. GiftsTrix
26. JeroenC
27. Niv
28. zombi_bobb
29. MindWrencher
30. Kenaron
Judged By:
Howler13 (Players 21-30)
Text:
Dark Automaton 7
Artifact Creature- Juggernaut Rare
Delve
Whenever Dark Automaton attacks, for each opponent, destroy target creature that player controls.
2B,T: Remove a total of seven creature cards from all graveyards from the game, put a token into play that’s a copy of Dark Automaton.
It is believed they killed their creators so none could hold sway over them.
5/5
Ozan
SDF December 2007 FCC
Render:
Bonus Renders:
2: 1
3: 1
4: 4
Figger it out lol
Artifact Rare
Convoke, Flash
Champion two creatures
Creatures you control get +2/+3
When the minions of the Conclave the the bountiful treasure inside, they are filled with inspiration to fight.
-Sardinha
Credit for banner goes to: a passer by
World of Pokemon---------------------------Michael Syne
Magic the RPG-------------------------------Forace
Community Project(Fantasy)-----------------Sammy Matthews
Disegreth-----------------------------------Sussania
The Pen and Paper Inn(Project PlanarChaos)--Valarie Liadon
Judge: Itinerant Soldier
Ancestral Crown 1
Artifact (U)
Play with your hand revealed.
T: You gain 3 life. Play this ability only if three or more enchantment cards are in your hand.
The crown reveals the true intentions of the wearer. — Mathalian myth
Art: silvestris
CMC<2 or >6
Tap ability no mana
Placeholder much?
Opponents: 41. Olveron, 42. HeavyMetalKing, 43. nezumi13, 44. Alacar Leoricar, 45. RainbowBrite, 46. Temeraire, 47. anna mossity, 48. cannon, 50. Absolutionis
Judge: Technomagus
Good luck, everyone!
Encyclopædia Zombia 1
Artifact (U)
Whenever a creature you control is put into a graveyard from play, put a page counter on Encyclopædia Zombia.
1B, T, Remove two page counters from Encyclopædia Zombia: Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
1BB, T, Remove three page counters from Encyclopædia Zombia: Return target creature from your graveyard to play.
Retrodrome, your one stop site for everything nostalgic.
Judge for this round is PlanesJaywalker.
Number of times this post has been edited: Five. Render is now up.
Celestial Armillary 1
Artifact (U)
Celestial Armillary comes into play tapped.
1, T, Sacrifice Celestial Armillary: Until end of turn, you may play nonland cards as though they had flash. Draw a card.
“My theories shall never be accepted among a populace that believes that the world is flat.” - Stanislai, Venezian scholar
Art: Sharon Whitehurst
Artifact (c)
,T: Target player puts the top three cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard. Put the top two cards of your library into your graveyard.
"I touched it for but a moment, and suddenly I had a beard and long nails!"
- Poferas, Archeoartificer
Sigh. Finals (Wish me luck) + RPG Superstar (Vote for me and wish me luck) + November Judgings (done) = No time to make a great card for FCC. Enjoy this one from my file. (Never before seen in public!)
'Bad Spirit' banner by Hot Pizza at Ye Olde Sig and Avatar Shoppe
I was a Top 32 Contestant for RPG Superstar 2008!
Come take a look at my custom set, Lost Relics. (To be finished...eventually)
Check out the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game
• Please cite your artist and link if possible. Copyright concepts are taken for granted in this age of digital piracy, but you have the power to give credit when credit is due. Lack of proper credit will result in -.25.
• Balance:
I'm going to try a format breakdown of Constructed (4), Limited (4), Multiplayer (2). We'll see how that goes.On the other hand, assigning 2 points to multiplayer is a little heavy. Let's call multiplayer the realm of the bonus for this category.• FCQ: Flavor (4), Creativity (4), Quality (2).
Balance: 6.5/10. This feels a little powerful in its versatility. Other than the fact that this will regularly cost 3-4 easily and sometimes be a little more free, even if they have an immediate answer, you still have a Vulshok Morningstar after their answer. If this sticks around more than one turn, you have a LOT of resilient pump to toss around, and every turn it's out, you get scarier. I'd slap this in a green deck with Elves, Birds, Ornithopter, mana acceleration, and Troll Ascetics to make it ugly quickly. With the affinity for creatures, 7 is a bit low. With the equipmentcycling on top of that, it feels way too good. And that's constructed. In limited, where the removal is a lot less concentrated, this thing would be 1st pick, every time.
FCQ: 9/10. Flavor: Quite well-done. I think the flavor text could do without the word "the", but I like it overall. I'm not so sure that equipmentcycling fits the mold as much...I can see the tower that gets easier to build with more people to help, and the concept of it pumping out sets of swords and armor...but not so much the trashing for treasure.(3.5/4) Creativity: Brimming over in execution, even if there's nothing truly innovative. (3.5/4) Quality: No issues. (2/2)
Total: 20.25/25
Balance: 5/10. Comparison cards: Dread Return, Hell's Caretaker, Pulsemage Advocate, Reya Dawnbringer, and Strands of Night. From the additional costs of these forerunners, I think we can safely say that 5 mana (for any color deck) for a creature returned every turn, even just a shell of its former glory, is too cheap. Add in the ultra-cheap zombie regeneration and you're verging on a broken artifact. Since the creatures lose the abilities after they come back into play, CIP abilities still trigger. Not to mention that if you "lose" one of your zombies, it can just come back the next turn, since it again went to the graveyard. I could easily see blue playing this with some nice bounce so that it could return its creatures (all with cip abilities) from the grave, bounce them, replay them (as full creatures this time), etc. For this cost, what I would have liked to have seen here (and this would have netted you some more creativity) would be wording along the lines of "T: Remove target creature card in your graveyard from the game. Put a black Zombie creature token into play with power equal to the removed card's power and toughness equal to the removed card's toughness." That way, no abilities, no bounce, and no easy-peasy lather rinse repeat. As is, this artifact should be in the 8-9 mana range, easily, or have a mana cost attached to that first ability in addition to the tap.
FCQ: 8/10. Flavor: I've always thought there were too few thrones in Magic; after all, seats of power can be very potent magical artifacts...and you've done well with capturing the flavor of an uncaring machine of redeath that cooperates and turns like a knife under your hands only long enough to slice you open and enact your own demise. A traditional end for rulers for centuries. The name is a little ho-hum, but the flavor text does well to save the flavor score. (3.5/4) Creativity: There's some creativity in the combination of the reusable abilities, but the only flashy or innovative element is removing the abilities and creature types. (2.75/4) Quality: Missing a space between the first and second sentences. Rest looks good. (1.75/2)
Total: 17/25
Balance: 7.75/10. Comparison cards would be Diabolic Tutor (1-shot), Citanul Flute (scales in cost, but only for creatures), Demonic Collusion (hefty repeatability cost), and Lilliana Vess (cheaper, but goes on top of library, not into hand). Of these, Demonic Collusion comes closest, so let's compare: DC is 3BB for 1 card, 6BBBB and 2 discarded for 2 cards, 9BBBBBB and 4 discarded for 3 cards. SS is 7 for 1 card, 17 for 2 cards, and 27 for 3 cards. So the repeatability probably isn't the scariest (with the possible exception of degenerate mana engines...but there are better ways to abuse degenerate mana engines). The echo-like setup of the 1st card being very easily obtained (7 mana divided into 4 and 3 is very doable) is enviable, while the next step will rarely occur in constructed, almost never in limited. I can't say that this effect, repeatable, should never be found in artifact form (since Citanul Flute is sorta similar), but it almost makes me think of Rosewater talking about how to cost a spell that says "You win the game." You can ramp that mana cost up as balanced-high as you like...but maybe it shouldn't be done at all. Still...I think it's balanced.
FCQ: 7/10. Flavor: Not too bad. A bauble-type mechanism that scans your brain for good ideas (at astronomical costs) works fine. No flavor text hurts here, though, as the name plus ability can only go so far. (3/4) Creativity: The creativity shines through here not with the concept (Diabolic Tutor on repeat), but on the execution. As I mentioned in the balance section, you've done a great job of breaking up the costs in a desirable manner. (3.25/4) Quality: "remove" should be capitalized. No other problems. (1.75/2)
Total: 18.5/25
Balance: 6.5/10. Since this is so versatile (see below), and since it works with so many elements, including a huge number that haven't even been thought of yet, I think it's a little dangerous. At the very least, it should probably be 8 mana to keep it from exploding too soon. With a little accel, you can easily have her down on turn 5 or 6, then ramp her up to a flying 5/5 the next turn (assuming she doesn't steal the 10 counters off your Dark Depths or the 8 off the Greater Gargadon you suspended turn 3). She feels...powerful. People would break her wiiiiide open. I don't think I'd be remiss in suggesting a 10-mana mana cost. Easy 1st-pick in limited, and she'd be built around in constructed, no doubt.
FCQ: 9.5/10. Flavor: Easy to think of an artifact angel not having the same outlook on life as a "real" angel, so the greediness and self-centered aspects are fine. I like the idea of a machine that runs off of the world around her. The flavor text is a little clunky. I probably would have gone with "A heartless beauty with chilling hands to grasp it all.", but your version is ok, too. (3.75/4) Creativity: I like how you've created a very versatile card with regard to function. 7 mana gets you a 2/2 that can make herself bigger, a huge flying monstrosity that steals all your opponent's +1/+1 counters, a suspend-enabler to get your Greater Gargadon out a little easier, a spiffy way to trigger a quick Dark Depths. There are so many paths to take with this one. (4/4) Quality: There should be a space between "X" and "+1/+1" (in the render). The text is a little squished, but bearable. (1.75/2)
Total: 21/25
Balance: 8.5/10. I'm not going to take this card at face value and judge as though you mean this to be able to retrieve any card removed from the game into your hand...cause then you could be putting your opponent's flashback cards into your hand, and that's a biiig no-no. Even being able to recycle your own flashback cards would be a pretty big effect, so I'm going to interpret this as "cards removed from the game by ~", and take off accordingly in quality for bad wording. As for the card itself, this feels a little cheap. For 1 mana and a delayed card draw, you get the basic "Choose the removed card or get a topdeck." For more, you make up that delayed card draw and begin to expand your options. Over the course of a game, you could probably find 4-5 cards in your rftg zone to choose from each draw, which opens up some stellar possibilities. The optimal time to play this, I would think, would be turn 3, playing it and activating it at the end of your opponent's turn so that you don't skip a draw, you just start enjoying premium card selection on turn 4. Playing it turn 1 and activating it right before your 3rd turn works well, too, if you don't have anything else to do with the mana. Now, on the other hand, destroying it means that all your paid-for rftg cards are gone for good...but the benefits outweigh the costs, imho. Not broken...but darn good for the price. Again, limited loves this little baby, while constructed would certainly play around with finding it a home.
FCQ: 7.25/10. Flavor: Nice. Alternate (hand) dimensions sound very cool, so there is some flavor here. Unfortunately, the name is a little blah, and lack of flavor text is really sad, since there's definitely room for a succinct one-liner. (2.75/4) Creativity: I really like what you've done here. The effect is very subtle, but essentially this expands your card-drawing options into a type of selection effect, allowing you to stockpile cards in the rftg zone, then hand-pick from that stockpile instead of the randomness of the topdeck. Similar in style to Sensei's Divining Top, but much different in execution. Full marks. (4/4) Quality: Wording should be "If you do, put a card removed from the game by Dimension Orb into your hand." (.75/2)
Total: 20.5/25
Balance: 9/10. for a restricted Pacifism certainly isn't broken, and I would think it comparitively weak were it not also a combat trick and a rattlesnake warning. A bit expensive, and certainly no surprise, but it's a nice response to the Giant Growths and Epic Proportions that seem to wreck your limited play. If your opponent is sitting on a single pump spell, she's going to sit on it for awhile, since playing it on a creature will often ensure that creature's removal. This also has wonderful rattlesnake qualities, acting much like one of the Seals to keep your opponents from rushing with their best creatures. All in all, a pretty fun card. You might have been able to get away with it at uncommon.
FCQ: 8/10. Flavor:
This is the first submission this round that I've seen a truly creative name.Of course, that might be because it's already taken. Still, this is extremely evocative, draws on history and legend, and gets the point across neatly. It's very easy to imagine a trap that blinds and binds. Very cool (a better use of the name, imho, than what Wizards used it for). Lack of flavor text is regrettable, but mostly understandable. (3.25/4) Creativity: Essentially, this is a colorless Pacifism for 3 that requires the target to attack and not be flying before it can be "enchanted". Not the newest effect in the book, but you've done a stellar job of reimagining it. (3.25/4) Quality: Everything looks great except for two nitpicks: It feels to me that there was no good reason to add "Snow" other than the art; after all, chains bind just as well when it's not freezing out. But I could see some interesting interactions, so that's minor. Also, the last line shouldn't be "attached" to the activated ability, but should stand on its own. I think the proper wording would be "Creatures with Cyclopean Snare imprinted on them don't untap during the untap step." but it's hard to tell without a Wizards-approved example. (1.5/2)Total: 22/25
Balance: 9/10. for a 4/8 with a Phyrexian Ironfoot-esque drawback is fine, although pretty big. 6, T: for 2 1/1's per turn isn't broken by any means...this isn't dangerous, maybe just a little underpowered. You probably could have made either the untap ability or the token creating cost 2 instead of 3 (but not both).
FCQ: 8/10. Flavor: The name is pretty bland, but the overall concept and flavor text are both nice. (3/4) Creativity: The biggest thing you have going for you is the ability to create two creatures of a new type every turn. This thing would LOVE Lorwyn block limited for the ability to diversify the tokens every turn. This takes a page from Phyrexian Ironfoot and slaps a perma-pump and token generator on it. Not bad. (3.5/4) Quality: Small deduction for no flavor text on text card, and small deduction for flavor text sending it into microtext. 9 lines is a bit much. (1.5/2)
Total: 21/25
Balance: 8/10. I'm under the impression that this doesn't turn creatures into Sengirs...it adds the Sengir stats and abilities to what's already there. So if you target your Akroma, Angel of Fury, the Akroma takes a hit to p/t (becoming a 4/4), becomes black instead of red, becomes a Vampire instead of an Angel, has the Sengir ability and flying, but retains the trample, protBlue, protWhite, and firebreathing.
I might be wrong on my interpretation, and if my rules guru contact tells me otherwise, this will be revisited, but:3BB for repeatably turning your weenie evasion creatures into Sengirs (retaining any additional evasion) seems a little strong, especially at uncommon. Since this can come down as soon as you draw it, the additional restriction of needing blood counters will rarely be a restriction since legions of creatures will usually die with this in play (you are playing black, aren't you?). Seeing as how it makes rares (plus!), it should probably be rare.FCQ: 9/10. Flavor: A cup that stores up death and bestows undead gifts on those that drink from it...sure. Flavor text would have been nice, but the concept is conveyed adequately without it. (3.5/4) Creativity: This is pretty creative. The concept of adding certain elements to a creature, sort of a "template" for Sengir Vampires, works well. The execution is done well, also. (3.75/4) Quality: The "remove a blood counter" cost should come after the tap symbol (see Gemstone Mine), no other concerns. (1.75/2)
Total: 22/25
Balance: 8.75/10. Compared to Millstone and Whetstone, this is pretty close to balanced. The costs might be a touch high since Whetstone lets you repeat it as many times as you have the mana for 1 mana and 1 self-mill more...but this is close. Not a balancing element, but seeing as how the other 'Stones have set precedent, this should probably be rare.
FCQ: 5/10. Flavor: While I can appreciate the flavor of an hourglass that accelerates time for whoever touches it, it doesn't exactly make sense that in the midst of a battle (even a battle of wits), you'd pick up an hourglass (causing you to "grow older") and hit your adversary with it (causing him/her to "grow older"). The name doesn't seem to further function, nor does it adhere to the standard ____stone naming standard of similar artifacts (not that it has to). The flavor text is evocative, but doesn't hit home with any punch. (2.5/4) Creativity: This is really just Whetstone with a slightly smaller cost and unrepeatability. Sorry...not much to say here. (.5/4) Quality: No issues. (2/2)
Total: 17.5/25
Balance: 7.5/10. -2/-2 for and a fraction, repeatedly, in any color, with a residual/cumulative effect...seems a little powerful to me, even at sorcery speed. Constructed would have little use for this, but any player in limited would take it in a heartbeat. Definate 2nd-3rd pick, if not 1st. Replacing a single colorless mana with a black mana in the activation cost (or better yet, balancing the costs to (mana cost and activation cost :2mana::symb::symb:) or (mana cost and activation cost :3mana::symb:)) would have done wonders for keeping this in check while maintaining a powerful artifact.
FCQ: 7.75/10. Flavor: The (somewhat bland) name and ability carry this far...but not quite far enough to get full marks. Flavor text would have earned you higher marks here, but a dock in quality for microtext... It's also odd to think of the creation of a suit of armor like this to only cost 1, but 5 to put it on a creature...not too far a stretch, but a bit of one, flavorfully, and it feels like it's only here to meet round criteria.(2.75/4) Creativity: Cute concept, and while not entirely innovative, it's spiffy enough in execution to pass. (3.5/4) Quality: There's an extra space 'tween the first and second sentences, and -1/-1 counters are a thing of the past (as exhibited by Timespiral 'shifted cards like Serrated Arrows). (1.5/2)
Total: 19.25/25
CobyChin: 17/25
ShadowWaveInc: 18.5/25
ShinyMan: 21/25
Treble252: 20.5/25
Silent Prophet: 22/25
InsaneZeroG: 21/25
Azhur: 22/25
Nemcon: DQ'd
Jaxal1: 17.5/25
strongbad56: 19.25/25
Many of the name submissions seemed to be very blah this round. C'mon people! Spice them up!
Good job to all the entrants. Sorry it took so long.
Judge: PlanesJaywalker
Seratonin Reporting with
Argentum Killjoy 5BB
Artifact Creature-Lizard Construct (Rare)
Sunburst
Fear, frenzy 2
As long as Argentum Killjoy has ten or more +1/+1 counters on it, it has lifelink.
XB,T: Put a +1/+1 counter on Argentum Killjoy for every color of mana used to activate this ability.
Artist: Kerem Beyit
Copyright 2007
Winner of the First and Fourth Double Dare Single Elimination Contests
2009 July CCL: COMING THIS JULY
2008 December CCL: The Mechinations of Fate
Double Dare to Design: The 5th Single Elimination Contest
Double Dare That Designer: The 2nd Single Elimination Contest
Cloak of Thieves 1
Artifact – Equipment
Equipped creature has “T: Draw a card, then discard a card.”
Discard a card: Attach Cloak of the Thieves to target creature you control.
Equip Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery.)
Winner of the 2nd Design Survivor Contest
Creator of the Vorthos Card Contest
Winner of 12th and the 18th Short Story Contests
Creator of the Vs. Tournament.
--Runner of the Superhero Vs. Tounrament
--Runner of the Villian Vs. Tournament.
My first FCC entry, and second post! Good luck to everyone.
Lunatic Gate 7
Artifact (Rare)
T: Choose a card type. Reveal a card at random from your hand. If it’s of the chosen type, you may play it without paying its mana cost. If it isn’t, remove it from the game. Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery. (The card types are artifact, creature, enchantment, instant, land, planeswalker, sorcery, and tribal.)
A portal best used by those with little mind to lose.
Artifact Creature-Construct
Mobile Factory doesn’t untap during your untap step.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay 3. If do, untap Mobile Factory
,T: Choose a creature type. Put two 1/1 artifact creature tokens into play with the chosen creature type.
4/8
Cyberman: We have five million Cybermen. How many are you?
Dalek Sec: Four.
Cyberman: You would destroy the Cybermen with four Daleks?
Dalek Sec: We would destroy the Cybermen with one Dalek! You are superior in only one respect.
Cyberman: What is that?
Dalek Sec: You are better at dying!
Judge - ShadowStarshine
Brimstone Colossus :4mana::symr::symr::symr:
Artifact Creature - Golem Berserker 6/5
Trample, haste
When ~ comes into play, up to three target creatures cannot block this turn.
It's the perfect fusion of cold steel and the hellish forge that birthed it.
And the extended
And since Future Sight had them (meaning a true colored artifact, sorry Transguild Courier),
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Artifact creature - Golem (R)
Whenever Cityscape Golem is dealt damage, put that many 1/1 Construct artifact creature tokens into play under your control.
,T, Sacrifice a Construct: Search your library for a land card and put it into play tapped. Then shuffle your library.
“These golems can build entire cities single-handedly. What are we going to do when they realize they can just as easily demolish them?” -- Kwen, Soldevi architect
4/7
Level 1 DCI Judge
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Has an activated ability with a activation cost that is not a mana ability – 1 pt.
Has a converted mana cost lower than 2 or more than 6 – 1 pt.
Mana Symbol bonus (both in render and text) – 1 pt.
Has card art – 1 pt. (Additional 1 pt. Discretionary)
Discretionary point:
Quality of art: 0.75 pts. Note: This includes how well the art fits with your card as well as the actual quality of the art.
Artist Credit: 0.25 pts. Note: Basically, all I ask is that you give SOME sort of artist credit. Do note that if you use something from an artist who uses a screenname I do ask that you link to where you got the art from. I DO NOT ask that you search for the artists real name unless it's given on that page in obvious fashion. Use common sense.
Balance: 10 pts total
Competitive Constructed: 4 pts. Total
Standard format – 2 pts.
Extended and Classic formats – 2 pts.
Limited formats – 3 pts.
Multiplayer formats – 2 pts.
Casual formats – 1 pt.
Note: I am NOT an authority on competitive formats so don't expect me to be too far reaching when it comes to the competitive format portion of the grading.
F/C/Q:
Flavor: 3 pts. Total
Flavor Text – 1 pt. (If included. If no flavor text due to space constraints or if inappropriate (e.g. Planeswalkers), this point gets shifted to general flavor)
General Flavor – 2 pts. - The flavor of the card itself.
Creativity: 2 pts. - Is it something new and/or keenly done?
Quality: 5 pts total
Templating/wording: 2 pts - How well is it worded? Is it clear and easy to understand? Does it use modern wording so it's consistent with the way cards are worded today?
Feel: 1.5 pts. total
Mythos – 0.75 pts – Does it fit/belong in the mythos – whether already established or yet to be created.
Color Pie – 0.75 pts – Is it too much of a stretch or does it actually belong solidly in said pie? I'm not asking for a perfect fit for full points in this category – just whether, considering the flavor as well, it would fit in the pie, even stretched. Remember: Stretch - don't break the rubber band.
Space Constraints – 0.5 pts. - The microtext problem.
Slickness: 1 pt. - Is this something players will Ooh and Aah for when they first see it?
Judgings finished!
Balance:
Note: There's HUGE mistake in this card (see Templating grading). I'm grading it on as it would be errata'd since common sense says it should belong.
Standard format: 1.75/2 – It pumps out birds, gives some a bonus, but doesn't stay around forever.
Extended/Classic format: 1/2 Well there isn't much this can contribute to to my knowledge. An obvious Johnny combo of this + Dovescape comes to mind but Dovescape by itself wouldn't be easy to get out and stay out... It would need some help of which there's plenty in Classic – not as much in Extended. Don't think it would make a splash in these formats though it might try.
Limited: 1.25/3 – Upside: It keeps critters coming out. Never can have too many of them in limited (assuming they don't totally stink). Downside: It asks you to be heavily in birds which is hard to do in draft and sealed. Of course, I don't mean having birds as your sole drafted/built tribe but I do mean about half of the deck probably needs to be birds in all likelihood just so you can keep them pumping out and applying the bonus the equipment brings to the table. And then it isn't a permanent upgrade. It will probably be enough for a win though if you drop it at the right time... but it won't auto-win for you.
Multiplayer: 1/2: Nothing interesting in multiplayer. It's pretty much a single player card. However, it could work in an interesting beats deck in team games. Probably will be the one that gets you targeted in non-team games, though.
Casual: 1/1 – Easily will be a fun card to play. Nothing like getting cards you want/need AND getting a small bonus. The afforementioned Dovescape combo should be fun too...
F/C/Q:
Flavor Text: 0/1 – An idiom that's overdone and too obvious for the card.
General Flavor: 1.25/2 – I'm only sorta feeling this one. I mean all the parts are there and its easy to understand but it's nothing spectacular.
Creativity: 1.25/2 – It definitely hasn't been done before but this feels like a card that was designed “backwards.” That is, you found the art first and created the card from that.
Templating/Wording: 0/2: There is a MAJOR mistake on this card. You forgot to have the player reveal the card he/she searched for before he/she put it into his/her hand. Otherwise, there's absolutely no problems but the problem is so large (it probably would cause cheating) that I can't give even a single point for this since it was something that should come automatic when making cards.
Mythos: 0.5/0.75 – Not a perfect fit – something just feels off. But overall it does feel and (mostly) act like a Magic card.
Color Pie: 0.75/0.75 – The question is whether birds are, as a majority, blue. The answer to that is an overwhelming yes. The search ability fits fairly well as well considering the artifact status of this.
Space Constraints: 0/0.5 – When I shrunk this down to the size of an actual card on my screen, it had the microtext problem. And adding that clause wouldn't help matters...
Slickness: 1/1 – This does A LOT. I can easily see people drool a little for it.
Total: 13.75/25
Balance:
Standard: 0.5/2 Mostly unplayable. The requirement to give it trample will be filled VERY rarely unless you can make it happen yourself since it's easier to just chump block it if you can. The tap ability won't be used as often unless you somehow give it vigilence OR for the game winning damage, as it will do more damage if you simply attack with it. The cost of 8 makes it prohibitive, as well.
Extended/Classic: 0/2 – Even less playable here. There are bigger artifact creatures that you can fetch and play or just simply play from your hand for cheaper. The same reasons as above make it nearly useless here.
Limited: 1.25/3 – It's got SOME beef but it probably won't be taken unless someone's hurting for size. Probably a mid-round pick.
Multiplayer: 0.5/2 – It can't really stand up to bigger stuff and is especially easily removable here.
Casual: 0.25/1 - Not a bad card for beginners but I don't think this would even see much play in serious casual.
F/C/Q:
Flavor Text: 0/1 – Really awfully generic.
General Flavor: 1.25/2 – Card overall isn't that bad. It enforces the Phyrexian battlesense but not much of their drawbacks.
Creativity: 1 /2 – Not bad, again. Just really simple.
Templating/Wording: 2/2: No problems.
Mythos: 0.5/0.75 – Established but lacks the drawback ability on the majority of Phyrexian artifact creatures. Not all of them do have drawbacks though so this is still almost perfect.
Color Pie – 0.75/0.75 – Yup. Yup.
Space Constraints – 0.5/0.5 – No microtext problem here.
Slickness: 0.25/1 – Probably no amazement from the audience on this. It doesn't really have any potential behind it that can be explored because it's rather straightforward.
Total: 11.5/25
Balance:
Standard: 1.5/2 Decent card, especially for an uncommon. The “cheapness” of it certainly makes it usable in this format and since it can double as creature removal I can see it having a place in one or two decks. Nothing that will show up in everything though, I think.
Extended/Classic: 1.0/2 - I don't think this card will show up in Classic format because of the need for 3 mana every turn (minimum). Extended this could have a home though to deal with smaller annoying creatures (Meddling Mage, for example). Again, I'm not sure it would show up much (and if so maybe 2 copies) but it'd show up.
Limited: 2.5/3 – As an almost solid rule, draft and sealed likes repetitive removal. It might not be the best but it will in fact work sometimes since removal in decks doesn't come up very often. It wouldn't be “broken” though because of it's rarity (you'd probably see three tops at one draft).
Multiplayer: 1 /2 – Team games this might come in handy because of its ability to hit pretty much any creature (assuming it can be targeted). However, I'm not entirely sure of its use in non-team games. Resources are at a premium and trading card for card isn't very good there...
Casual: 0.5/1 – Another stompy loving card. Or at least something that loves big numbers in creature's defenses... Might show up here and there but not sure of it's “fun” value.
F/C/Q:
Flavor Text: 0.75/1 - I actually do kinda like the flavor text. A little obviously descriptive but it gets its point across elegantly.
General Flavor: 1.75/2 – The name doesn't fit it's ability perfectly but it certainly does a very good job of coming close. I can almost see the wince on the face of its user now...
Creativity: 1.5/2 – The ability has been done before but not very often and certainly not in this way.
Templating/Wording: 1 /2 – I don't find anything necessarily wrong with the way you've worded it since it does work the way it's supposed to but the current template (from the Timeshifted Arena) can shorten up the text a bit to “Choose target creature. Equipped creature and that creature deal damage to each other equal to their power.”
Mythos – 0.75/0.75 – No problems here.
Color Pie – 0.75/0.75 – No color pie problems (and not prohibitive to every color for being in an artifact) so full points.
Space Constraints: 0.5/0.5 – No problems.
Slickness: 0.25/1 – There might be a few but because the ability itself ended up on a couple of weak cards in the past, I don't see many, if any.
Total: 18.5/25
Balance:
Standard: 0.5/2 - Clockworks never got any use in Mirrodin and when one showed up in Time Spiral, it didn't get use either. And those were aggressively costed. This guy costs 9. For a good reason, I say, but still I can't see it getting use. Especially when it's non-Clockwork counterpart isn't getting any play either.
Extended/Classic: 0.5/2 – Same as above. Except they STILL aren't getting use.
Limited: 1.75/3 – Beef + Evasion. Nothing wrong with that. Still can't see it being picked up early though because it does have a drawback and there are likely to be other cards at lower rarities that will be used over this. In sealed, this will probably get used unless some bomb gets opened, however.
Multiplayer: 0.5/2 – Definitely gonna have to be built around and with it specifically in mind that it eats up soooo many resources.
Casual: 0.25/1 – I don't think it's unreasonable to say people will consider Tidal Kraken over this if they're already in blue. And if they're not there's definitely other beaters in colors that are far more useful than this.
F/C/Q:
Flavor Text: 0.75/1 – I don't like the flow of the text itself (the second part is kinda clunky on it) BUT I do have to say that I like it overall. Gives it some context...
General Flavor: 1.5/2 – It fits well with its predecessors and has that “je ne sais quoi.”
Creativity: 0.5/2 – Idea's been killed to death by now, IMO.
Templating/Wording: 2/2 – No problems.
Mythos: 0.75/0.75 – Same comment as with general flavor...
Color Pie: 0.75/0.75 – Fits as an artifact very well.
Space Constraints: 0/0.5 – It shrinks a little too poorly.
Slickness: 0.25/1 – After seeing the 9 cost on it most will shy away but there will be a few that will be willing to overlook that since it can be unblockable and in any color.
Total: 14/25
Balance:
Standard: 0.5/2 - This one's kinda hard to rate because it's use is so narrow since it becomes a creature after it's already tapped. I really can't see this getting much use at all just because it's so incredibly weak. When your best option with this creature is just to Fling it, it's not that good... I'm just gonna skip to the scores since the same thing hurts most other formats as well.
Extended/Classic: 0.5/2
Limited: 0.5/3
Multiplayer: 1/2 – This has more interesting applications here since there are Threaten effects that your teammate can use on this creature for a cheap early beater. Is it worth the use of the card? Maybe, if there's nothing else to do. Especially early game when it's unlikely that there's going to be bigger creatures on the field.
Casual: 0.25/1 – Same as other singles formats.
F/C/Q:
Flavor Text: 0.5/1 – It's just OK. A little humourous.
General Flavor: 1.5/2 – It really gives that feel of incompleteness.
Creativity: 1.25/2 – You just don't see an artifact that becomes a creature with a activation as part of that ability's cost. It's for a reason, IMO, but it definitely hasn't been done OR explored really.
Templating/Wording: 1.75/2 – Really minor but “artifact creature” not “creature artifact.”
Mythos: 0.5/0.75 – Ahhhh, Urza's Saga. I don't remember you well since I didn't play when you came out but I think it makes enough sense in context from what I've heard...
Color Pie: 0.75/0.75 – Nothing wrong with it here.
Space Constraints: 0.5/0.5 – No problems
Slickness: 0/1 – I hear way more “EWWW”'S than “Ahhh”'s.
Total: 12.25/25
Balance:
Standard: 1.5/2 - Six mana in one turn for a repetitive use Thoughtseize-like effect sounds about right and could get use since it IS a free artifact. Might only be SB material against Control decks but it will still be useful even just to see what the opponent has in his or her hand sometimes. Could lock late-game but I have no problems with that since six mana is quite a bit to pay every turn for that.
Extended/Classic: 1.5/2 – Telepathy never got much use but paying the six mana one time for ability it doesn't lose might just be worthwhile. However, by that time, as quick as it may be, it might be too late. Still I see more upside in having an artifact Thoughtseize than the downside of ramping up the mana quickly for it...
Limited: 0/3 – I can see this being last pick material since it isn't removal or a critter and doesn't do much in the early game. Nor does it really do much to protect your creatures. Besides discard isn't really that useful in Limited (unless its amazing).
Multiplayer: 1.25/2 – This one strikes a weird balance here. One one hand it's nice to be able to look at a few different hands in this format before you get to use the ability. On the other you'd likely need to leave quite a bit of mana open to protect what you do have sometimes so playing it at the right moment is CRUCIAL even if it is just a one turn payment.
Casual: .5/1 – A nice little card that might get some use but only in “protective” cases (i.e. To plan ahead). Same lock probably applies here as well...
F/C/Q:
Flavor Text: 0.25/1 – This really doesn't sound like something a dark magic book would say but rather something that would be casual conversed with another person in reality.
General Flavor: 1.5/2 – I really like the name used here as well as the actual feel of its abilities in combination with the name.
Creativity: 1 /2 – The recent elementals come to mind when I see this so it does feel a bit dull for that reason. However the way it's executed is interesting.
Mythos: 0.75/0.75 – Perfectly fine.
Color Pie: 0.75/0.75 – Artifacts getting discard like this is fine I think, color pie-wise.
Space Constraints: 0.5/0.5 – It shrinks a bit when I saw it but nothing that's unreadable.
Slickness: 0.75/1 – This might raise a few eyebrows and get some Spikes interested in it, even if just for a little while.
Total: 14.5/25
Balance:
Standard: 1.25/2 - Obviously, to use this you have to also have a fair amount of enchantments in your deck. Presumably, you'd see this in a set with quite a few of them as well. The ability itself is definitely useful but not sure how many slots it would get devoted in a deck. Lifegain tends to be most useful when it's an additional effect on top of one that already helps you. As such, I'm not sure this gets more than two slots in any deck this will be in. Note: I doubt playing with the hand revealed will make too much of a difference to your opponent in a one-on-one matchup, as I think there'd be very little instant control in the decks this would go in.
Extended/Classic: 1.25/2 – There's definitely one or two decks that this could go in, at minimum. Again, the question is, would this be more useful than what those decks are already using. Honestly, I don't think so. It WOULD get a tryout though, I think. Some might even prefer it over some of the more useless stuff.
Limited: 1 /3 - As I said before the set this is in depends on how much use it's getting. With my presumption, it wouldn't be such a bad card. I think it'd probably be a late round pick, however, since it's purely defense AND conditional.
Multiplayer: 1.5/2 – In a format where having permanents and a little defense will probably win you the game, this works well. Not awesome because of it's hand revealing clause, but still pretty darn well.
Casual: 1/1 – Did anyone say Test of Endurance among other uses for this thing?
F/C/Q:
Flavor Text: 1/1 – Simple but not too simple. Gives it a nice aura about it.
General Flavor: 0.5/2 – There's a big disconnect between the name and what it does to me. Doesn't really “come off the card” because of that.
Creativity: 1.25/2 – An interesting application for this card. Having the hand revealed all the time instead of just at the time the ability resolves makes it worse but at the same time more interesting.
Templating/Wording: 2/2 – No problems.
Mythos: 0.75/0.75 – I'd think this thing would fit well even though it's both precise and generic at the same time.
Color Pie: 0.25/0.75 – While this card isn't broken because of it's high requirements, I'm not sure this is a good thing for “the pie.” Life in artifacts tends to come at a very high cost comparatively to this thing.
Space Constraints: 0.5/0.5 – No problems.
Slickness: 0/1 – Life gain has never been something to be excited about, on it's own.
Total: 17/25
Balance:
Standard: 2/2 - First, in general balance, I understand why you made this thing tap. I think to give it any use without making the equip cost too high or making it broken, you kinda HAD to make it that way. On one hand, it can only protect one creature for one spell a turn. On the other, it's probably better to have that much protection considering how cheap and reusable this thing is. It would probably show up in every aggro deck to help deal with the control elements (assuming there aren't a lot of global destruction cards).
Extended/Classic: 1.25/2 – I'm wondering if this does a BETTER thing than equipment currently in existence. Right now I have to say no. With the ability just being one time between both players turns, I'd have to say pass. There probably would be a niche for it though in Weenie decks, hence the score.
Limited: 2.25/3 – A very useful mid-round, and possibly early, pick. Helps keep those important creatures around and away from what few removal spells there might be.
Multiplayer: 0.5/2 – It might help here and there but a player will eventually get around it with the help of another.
Casual: 1/1 – For all the same reasons, it did well in Standard.
F/C/Q:
Flavor Text: 0.25/1 – “Meh” flavor text. It's uses a lot of clunky words in a less than elegant way.
General Flavor: 1.5/2 – In relation to the other Glasskite objects, it really has a good feel to it.
Creativity: 1.5/2 – Equipment don't usually tap but this was done for all the right reasons.
Templating/Wording: 1.75/2 – Instead of “in a turn,” “this turn” might be more appropriate here so confusion doesn't come up to when the delayed trigger would end.
Mythos: 0.75/0.75 – Fits well with the Betrayers Glasskites.
Color Pie: 0.75/0.75 - This doesn't harm the color pie in any noticable way so I see no harm in it.
Space Constraints: 0.5/0.5 – Fine by me.
Slickness: 0.5/1 – I don't see it being greatly hyped but it might get some eyebrows...
Total: 18.5/25
Balance:
Standard: 0.5/2 – Really, I think this is too strong in general as it's size for being free is ridiculous. Fresh off the Tarmogoyf craze, I'm wary on undercosted, oversized creatures. And with this thing, it just gets crazier when you think that, should be you lucky enough, you could plunk down two or three of these things when ONE of your creatures leaves play. This needed to be a 1/1, I think... It will get use in everything aggro, just overly so.
Extended/Classic: 0.75/2 – Same grade for same reasons. I think it might even be really powerful in Classic, but I also think it would be a little less broken there...
Limited: 2.5/3 – Being a rare saves this card. A singular copy of this in a deck wouldn't be as ridiculous as four would be.
Multiplayer: 0.5/2 – When everyone at the table is playing four, somethings wrong...
Casual: 0/1 – Same problems as above.
F/C/Q:
Flavor Text: 1/1 – Describes it perfectly and was indeed a bit humorous...
General Flavor: 2/2 – I really am feeling this one. It kinda “pops” itself off the card.
Creativity: 1.5/2 – Pretty new and a bit different.
Templating/Wording: 0/2 – As it's currently worded, it doesn't work at all. The “Whenever” ability is triggered and therefore must go on the stack (and thus able to be Stifle'd, etc). However, an opponent wouldn't be able to know the ability goes onto the stack until the card's already been revealed and/or put into play. Funnily enough, if you just replaced “Whenever” with an “If” it would have been just fine since “If”'s can't be responded to.
Mythos: 0.75/0.75 – Fits well in there.
Color Pie: 0/0.75 – It's all wrong for the same reasons as balance. Having any color get a “free” attacker is a bit off in the card advantadge department...
Space Constraints: 0.5/0.5 – No probs.
Slickness: 1/1 – I think enough people would get this and be like... “WOW.”
Total: 15/25
infernotsu: 13.75
SquareDragon: 11.5
arimnaes: 18.5
Murpheus: No Show
TheFooFish: 14
elathel trom: 12.25
Nakraton: 14.5
Athani: 17
Pseudofate: 18.5
1T4: 15
Maelstrom Star
Artifact (RARE)
When Maelstrom Star comes into play, it deals 1 damage to each creature with flying and each player.
:symg::symw:, :symtap:: Remove Maelstrom Star from the game. Then return it to play under its owner’s control. You may play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery.
“Creating an absolute defence does not always mean defending yourself.” -Oriss, Samite Guardian
Thanks to spiderboy4 for the great avatar and sig from High Light Studios!
Balance (6/10): This is definitely too good. Granted, we sometimes see potent artifact creatures that push the curve like Platinum Angel, but this goes way too far. First, it has Delve, which is worth a premium of at least 2 - 3 on the cost if not more, meaning this card should have the power level that costs around 4 or 5 at the most. Even completely vanilla, a 5/5 for 5 is passable; add one kick-ass ability and it's pretty darn good. This has two kick-ass abilities with no drawback at all. I would say this should cost 9; without Delve it would probably be fine.
The one saving grace here is that the activated ability is not easy to use multiple times and is anti-synergistic with Delve, which helps keep this vrom being completely insane.
F/C/Q (7/10):
-Flavor (2/4): Decent name, decent flavor text, would have liked to see some flavor of the copying ability.
-Creativity (2.5/3): The activated ability's cost has never been done before. The rest is decent.
-Quality (2.5/3): I understand why you put "total of" in the templating but I don't think it's necessary.
Total: 18/25
Balance (5/10): This is pretty weak. For 8 you get nothing; for another x2B a pop you get a creature with CMC X back into play. That's a huge mana investment just to get a decent creature. We're talking 12B to nab a Tarmogoyf. Worse, it can't touch all those creatures racked up in the 'yard before you got this monstrosity on the table, so something still has to die after you play it to get anything out of it.
What it has going for it: it can steal opponent's creatures, it shuts down decks that like to get creatures out of their graveyard, giving the ability a cost prevents scary combo shenannigans, and you could combine this with creatures that want to be recurred, like say Avalanche Riders. But the bottom line is just doesn't do enough to justify the cost.
F/C/Q (5/10):
-Flavor (3/4): Solid but not amazing.
-Creativity (0/3): It's an artifact Purgatory.
-Quality (2/3): Like Purgatory, this uses a dated "under" wording. See Purgatory for the proper templating.
TOtal: 15/25
Balance (7/10): This is rather undercosted. Artifacts that can tap creatures are much more difficult to use than this. Leonin Bola, Cyclopean Snare, for example. Granted, those suck so you've got a bit of room to improve, but tapping down creatures as early as turn two with no colored mana investment is just a bit too fast. I would cost this at 3 and keep the other costs the same.
F/C/Q (9/10):
-Flavor (4/4): I love it. The name is evocative, the art is fitting, the mechanics are wonderfully flavorful, and the flavor text adds to the story the card is telling. Every piece here works wonderfully together. This is one of the best cards I've seen in the FCC as far as flavor is concerned.
-Creativity (2.5/3): The individual abilities are standard fare but the way the second builds off the first is very cool and gives the card a very fresh feel.
-Quality (2.5/3): I probably would have worded the flavor text as "...weeds out the squeamish." Feels a little tighter that way, but I wouldn't deduct for that, I deducted for misspelling squeamish. I'd have passed it off as a reference to Squee, but not in a ninja setting.
Total: 21/25
Balance (6/10): I don't see this cutting the mustard. I want to like this, but the thing is there's not much you can't outright cast with 7 mana on the table. Sure, you could have a deck that packs a bunch of expensive stuff from all colors and cheat the mana base with this, but those kinds of decks usually suffer to much in the early game to be playable. What this really does is let you play your spells and sink your mana somewhere else, and the thing is I don't see many cards in Standard that can take advantage of the mana well enough to be worth it.
I had to think a lot about this one and I may be wrong.
F/C/Q (7.5/10):
-Flavor (3/4): Not bad. Decent name and the flavor text is somewhat clever.
-Creativity (1.5/3): Sort of a cross between Cursed Scroll and Temporal Aperture. Not a lot new here but decent.
-Quality (3/3): No complaints.
TOtal: 18.5/25
Balance (6/10): OK, so Magus of the Jar hasn't been breaking any formats (or been played for that matter) but it's certainly a baseline for what WotC believes the cost of this effect should be. This ability is much better than Memory Jar and only costs a little more without having the important drawbacks of not being able to activate the turn you play it and be easily removed. My instincts wanted to scream broken at the first sight of it, but ultimately I think it's too cost prohibitive to be broken. However, the ability is very much "I win" and abilities like that aren't really balanced at any cost.
F/C/Q (6.5/10):
-Flavor (3/4): Not bad. Decent name and flavor text, decent connection to the abilities. Not really wowing though.
-Creativity (1.5/3): The package as a whole strikes me as a bit creative but the abilities are nothing new.
-Quality (2/3): No big problems but there are several punctuation errors in the flavor text and the text card has the Tilde of Carelessness.™
TOtal: 17/25
Balance (3/10): Maybe I'm missing something but this card seems God-awful to me. So, whenever a permanent would go to your 'yard you can sack it to get a charge counter instead. Fine. Then it costs you another permanent or 5 life for every 1 point of damage it deals. In the FCC we often see cards of the "win more" variety, but I don't think I've ever seen a "lose more" card before.
If I have time, I will revisit this to see if I can come up with some suggestions to improve this design.
F/C/Q (6.5/10):
-Flavor (2/4): Art and name are both rather generic, but the abilities definitely have a lot of flavor.
-Creativity (2/3): Well, it's certainly something we haven't seen before. Nothing truly innovative but there's some creative thinking here.
-Quality (2.5/3): The last ability is overly complicated. I'm not sure what the ideal way to do this is, but at the very least it should be, "Gem of Destruction deals 1 damage to target creature or player. Then sacrifice a permanent or lose 5 life. Repeat this process for every charge counter on Gem of Destruction."
Total: 14.5/25
Balance (9/10): While the price tag limits its playability, this is something I would pay the mana for without it being ridiculous. It's basically a colorless version of Stonewood Invocation where the p/t boost sticks around. Once it's on the table it makes killing any creature very, very hard. Not bad at all, sir.
F/C/Q (6.5/10):
-Flavor (2.5/4): The name and abilities have an interesting connection; I get it but I'm not sure how well most people can be expected to. In any case, not bad. The flavor text feels very wrong to me. There's a not-so-fine line between doing something suicidal for fun in goblin-esque fashion, and literally committing suicide for fun.
-Creativity (1.5/3): Not a lot here, but the concept of using instant-speed indestructibility is novel.
-Quality (2.5/3): The flavor text should have quotes around each line.
Total: 19.5/25
Balance (0/10): I hate to say this but: Bah-roken. This is a cheap two-card combo for infinite cards with Chromatic Star (or even Mishra's Bauble, but that's inferior). Standard can tolerate three-card combos but not two-card. Especially not on turn 2. This is just as bad in Vintage where it can combine with Black Lotus or Lotus Petal for infinite mana.
The lesson here: no matter how nonthreatening it seems, beware of the free effect. A change as tiny as making it cost 1 instead of 0 would have made a world of difference.
F/C/Q (8.5/10):
-Flavor (4/4): Clever concept, good name, decent flavor text, strong mechanical ties. It's all here.
-Creativity (2/3): It's a Welding Jar and Rootwater Diver with a new ability all rolled into one tidy package. Not bad but not wowing.
-Quality (2.5/3): The last ability should be "is put into a graveyard" instead of "goes to the graveyard".
Total: 13.5/25
Balance (5/10): This will single-handedly shut down any aggro deck. An unkillable blocker for two mana is grossly unfair. Even toughness-reducing effects like Nameless Inversion and lockdown effects like Bound in Silence are worthless against this since it can just tap and sac itself to make a copy. Ditch the indestructible and put a cost on the copy-making at you're in the ballpark.
F/C/Q (7.5/10):
-Flavor (3.5/4): This does have quite a lot of flavor, but the name is barely different than Wall of Junk.
-Creativity (2/3): Some creative thinking here with the copy-making being the most unique ability.
-Quality (2/3): "Put a token into play that's a copy of Junk Wall."
Total: 16.5/25
Balance (7/10): A fair bit worse than Runed Stalactite, which is handy but not great in limited and irrelevant in constructed, but still strictly better than Leonin Scimitar. It's reasonable.
F/C/Q (4.5/10):
-Flavor (1.5/4): Great name for the art. The rest is completely boring.
-Creativity (.5/3): Technically hasn't been done yet due to being a tribal equipment, but nothing about this shows any creativity.
-Quality (2.5/3): "Gains" should be "has"; otherwise is fine.
Total: 15.5/25
Fortune's Hourglass 1
Artifact (unc)
,T: Name a card other than a basic land. Target player reveals the top card of his or her library. If that card is the named card, choose one — Put that card into its owner’s graveyard or draw two cards and sacrifice Fortune’s Hourglass.
4: Target player shuffles his or her library.
“Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.” - Harvey MacKay
Artifact
2,T, Sacrifice ~:Target player discards seven cards, or target player draws seven cards.
The touch upon a memory can trap one's mind in it's mist, or it can rekindle old dreams, and make them a possibility
F-Shifted
Sigil: an MMORPCCG ">Mexus: An MMORPCCG
Ersatz Rose 0
Artifact
:symtap:, Sacrifice Ersatz Rose: When target creature is put into your graveyard from play this turn, return that card to play.
With each paper petal she fastened to the wire stem, Azala pondered, "Perhaps he loves me," or, "Perhaps he does not."
Artist: archsoul1 from www.deviantart.com
~ fissionessence
Legendary Artifact
You may choose not to untap Teferi’s Eternal Clock during your untap step.
At the beginning of your upkeep, put an age counter on Teferi’s Eternal Clock.
,T, remove an age counter from Teferi’s Eternal Clock: Creature spells you play have split second as long as Teferi’s Eternal Clock remains tapped.
“Tick. Tock. The two most powerful words one can utter” — Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
It is my personal goal in life to create a dragon card that will win the MCC.
"The dragon has no pretense of compassion, no false mask of civilization—just hunger, heat, and need." —Sarkhan Vol