To all survivors of the first round, I'm very sure you want to let loose with the words... So I will quote my favorite politician:
"I don't leave anything up to chance, I make my own luck."- Harvey Dent
Choose one - Make a split card, or make a flip card where both sides can be played BUT NOT flipped.
For the second choice, here is an example...
Yes, it doesn't work under the current rules. Just for this challenge, assume that it does. The idea is pretty much to allow for a permanent with two distinct sides, and I don't think the split card template distinguishes which side is in play clearly enough.
Bonus points: +1: Both sides must not share a color. +1: Both sides must not share the same converted mana cost.
The winner of each duel advances to the next round. Judges, please avoid ties to the best of your abilities.
This round will end on midnight EST, December 15. (When Monday becomes Tuesday.) Judges, please do not begin judging until then, even if none of the CCC mods are available to close the round then.
I wish you the best of luck... rather, make your own luck.
Fun with spilts, flips, and now all sorts of craziness
Ire of the Sky3U
Creature-Djinn {R}
Flying, shroud U: Switch Ire of the Sky's power and toughness until end of turn.
Transmute 4B
1/3
/// Fury of the Earth5R
Creature-Efreet
First strike, haste R: Fury of the Earth gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
Unearth 4B
5/3
Art Cred: Xiaochen Fu
(Will try for the flipside render later)
Cease // Desist 1W // 1UU
Instant // Instant (U)
Target player can’t play spells this turn.
Flashback 1W It was futile of you.
//
Put target spell into its owner’s hand.
Flashback 1UU Even to try something.
Hope 4U
Sorcery (Rare)
Each player draws cards equal to the difference between the number of cards in their hand and the number of cards in the hand of the player with the most cards in hand.
Illus. Ben Wootten
//
Faith 2WW
Sorcery (Rare)
Each player’s life total becomes the highest life total among all players.
Illus. Ben Wootten
3WW, Sacrifice Angelic Invoker: Put a white Angel creature token into play with flying, lifelink, and “This creature’s power and toughness are each equal to your life total.”
1/3
///
Demonic Evoker 1BB
Creature - Human Monk
Pay half your life, rounded up, Sacrifice Demonic Evoker: Return target creature card from your graveyard to play.
Silvia, Dragon Tamer1W
Legendary Creature - Human (R)
Dragons you control have lifelink.
When Silvia, Dragon Tamer is put into a graveyard from play, Dragons you control get +1/+0 until end of turn. Her charges flew with renewed purpose. Eventually, they rebelled.
1/1
//
Glaurung, the Free4RRR
Legendary Creature - Dragon (R)
Flying
When Glaurung, the Free comes into paly, destroy all Human creatures.
Other Dragons you control have haste. His brethren flew with renewed passion. Finally, they were free.
--- BRG :: Hey, guess what? It's cool to reply to my private messages. I even prefer it! No, just because I'm judging the FFC doesn't make it awkward. Seriously. :: GRB
Flickerwisp UR
Creature - Elemental (R)
Flying, Haste
At end of turn, return Flickerwisp to its owner's hand. A Flickerwisp brings a warning fleeting.
2/1
/////////////
Thundercrash 2RG
Creature - Elemental
Trample, Haste
At end of turn, sacrifice Thundercrash. A Thundercrash brings a savage beating.
6/3
Flickerwisp art is from [EMAIL="Timmetrius@Deviantart.com"]Timmetrius@Deviantart.com[/EMAIL], Thundercrash art is from [EMAIL="davidnathan@Deviantart.com"]davidnathan@Deviantart.com[/EMAIL]
Bonus (1/2): Both cards technically have a CMC of 0 (X is 0 unless the spells on the stack), so they have the same CMC. Balance (8/10): GG for a better Rampant Growth (yours puts the lands into play untapped), and it basically has replicate. If the lands CIPT, I wouldn't have much issue, but it's pretty well considered Rampant Growth is the standard for land-seaching (and not the sub-par standard, kinda the best a card should do without costing more or having some sort of drawback). It's really only going to be useful/abusable in a monogreen deck, so it's mostly just a way to mana ramp, as opposed to color-fixing.
It's probably fairly costed; compared to Sickening Shoal, making it an instand and dropping the alternative cost probably makes up for being BB cheaper. A nice effect, and could see good constructed play (Disembowel did, and alot of people somewhat wrote it off until the saw it in action).
The green half is probably a bit overpowered (even adding an extra initial G would have helped, then it's at least "inferior to RG in some respects), but the black half is good. Both halves would likely see play. F/C/Q (10.5/13):
-Flavor (4/5): The art is good, but the flavor text doesn't really "move" me. Overall, good.
-Creativity (3/4): Both are failry generic effects for their colors. Your "spin" on them have been done before and don't really add much, but neither seem to have been done exactly.
-Quality (3.5/4): Missing copyright line on both halves of the render. Total:19.5/25
Bonus (2/2): All good. Balance (8.5/10): A 3/2 lifelinker for 4 is pretty agressively costed, especially adding in the toughness-boosing ability. Not the most effieicent beater, but it's the sacrifice you make for lifelink.
I don't know if it's fair to say the black half is "better" than the white, but it's probably going to win more games for you; shadow plus the shade ability allows you to push through alot of damage, which is perfect if the board is otherwise locked up.
Both halves are pretty good creatures, and if you happen to be be playing both colors, I'm sure one of them will be suitable to your needs (at the very least, either one will make other spells cheaper). F/C/Q (11/13):
-Flavor (4/5): The flavor (especially the flavor text) feels very cliche. It's good, but doesn't earn you any bonus points.
-Creativity (3/4): Good. Both are fairly french vanilla creatures.
-Quality (4/4): No issues. Total:21.5/25
Bonus (2/2): All good. Balance (6/10): The creature itself isn't anything special, nor doe it seem like it's meant to be. The token, however, is. For just 3WW, you get a flying, lifelinked Serra Avatar. Yikes. Getting one of these on turn 5 will end the game very quickly. Sure, it's suceptable to several forms of removal, but so is Tarmogoyf. The white half is way overpowered.
The creature itself is bleh. Paying half your life can net you some good things: four cards, something from your sideboard, even the chance to stack your deck. For some reason, a free Zombify doesn't quite measure up. It isn't horrible though, and I'm sure there are cases that paying 1 less for a Zombify will be worth half your life. F/C/Q (8.5/13):
-Flavor (3/5): I don't really know how fitting the art is. Both halves look pretty evil.
-Creativity (2/4): Eh. Both halves are basically one-time spellshapers.
-Quality (3.5/4): Sacrificing Demonic Evoker should be first in the cost for it's ability. Total:16.5/25
Bonus (2/2): All good. Balance (7/10): Giving everything dredge is quite powerful, especially in a fromat where a high dredge number is actually beneficial, and on card that has a cheap way to draw more cards. There are too many cards in the format that would just love to be played every turn (or maybe twice or more), even at the cost of parts of your library. It's resistant to alot of removal, but it is still "deal with"-able.
Well, it's better than Archivist... Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar found some niche decks, and this serves a very similar purpose (and in some ways, better). Potential in control decks that can handle the triple-U. F/C/Q (9.5/13):
-Flavor (3.5/5): Can't say I'm a fan of the "Christmas" flavor.
-Creativity (3/4): Good.
-Quality (3/4): Neither dredge nor scry should be capitalized, and it should be "...in your graveyard have dredge 4." No colon. Total:18.5/25
Bonus (2/2): All good. Balance (5/10): Very nice twist on green removal. However, this is extremely potent; it can effectively destroy any creature for 2G. Black would kill for that kind of efficacy. (Oh ho, see what I did there? I made a pun!) If it were an enchantment/aura, it could at least be reversed in some way, or if it had a built-in cancelation clause (see Soul Sculptor), then it would be fine at such a low cost. As-is, it's one of the most powerful removal spells in Standard, in a color not well-kown for it's creature-kill.
For 1 more, you get a Stone Rain with a small chance of drawing you a card. The draw wouldn't happen very often, since very few decks run very many basic lands (thanks to all the painlands, vivids, and shardlands running around right now). On the off-chance it does happen, that's great. But you're usually just paying more for the same. In limited, it might be useful.
So, we have a wonderful combination of one half being insanely powerful, and the other being very underwelming. Unfortunately, the law of averages won't help this card. F/C/Q (12/13):
-Flavor (5/5): I like it.
-Creativity (3/4): Good.
-Quality (4/4): No issues. Total:19/25
Bonus (2/2): All good. Balance (9/10): Well, normally I'd rather just save my creature from dying in the first plays via protection or blinking, but there are uses for persist instead. It's not a glorious ability, but in Limited, saving that one power creature you drafted, even at a slightly smaller size, is owrth it. Small price for a small effect.
Basically a Zombify that can be flashbacked if you're playing white (and I personally can't understand why you would play black without white. ;)). Another solid card in Limited, and might be good in Constructed.
F/C/Q (10/13):
-Flavor (4.5/5): What amazes me is that the flavor is fine as-is, but you could swap every W with a B (and vice versa), and the flavor would work just as well without changing anything else.
-Creativity (3/4): Good.
-Quality (2.5/4): This seems cheap, but I'm almost positive there is a very good reason why a card can't (or shouldn't) be an Instant/Sorcery. There's some timing rule that could allow you to play the sorcery half at instant speed in the right conditions (and other cards). Total:21/25
Coalition ExplorersU
Whenever a land comes into play under your control, scry 1.
Creature - Metathran Soldier 1/1
// Maro Sage2G
~’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of basic land types amongst lands you control.
Creature - Elemental */*
Bonuses: 2/2 – Self-explanatory. Note that failure to meet the round criteria will result in not getting the bonus points.
Balance: 10/10 – Also self-explanatory.
10 - The card is both well-costed and constructed playable, or if it just doesn't quite cut the mustard in constructed by nature of the design (i.e., it's a big Timmy card or a niche Johnny card) but couldn't possibly be better balanced.
9 - The card is really well-costed but is just a little too strong or a little too weak.
8 - The card is reasonably well-costed but clearly has room for improvement or is way too expensive or narrow to be playable.
7 - The card is not terrible but is clearly over or under the curve, or is well-balanced on its own but fairly easily breaks in combination with another card.
6 - The card is severely over or underpowered, or horribly broken in combination with another card.
5 - Borderline broken or hugely overcosted.
4 - Obviously broken or utterly useless.
1-3 - So broken or trashy, it's obvious no thought went into it whatsoever.
0 – There’s a fatal flaw.
Flavour: 5/5 – Things I look at: Art (if any), colour pie, name, flavour text (if any)
Creativity: 4/4 – Looking at originality and ingenuity.
Quality: 4/4 – Check for wording, spelling and render errors. Also, failure to meet the round criteria will result in deductions here.
- Render issues: extremely poor quality art, microtext, mismatches between render and text version, and any other problems exclusive to renders will result in a maximum of 1 point deducted.
- Text card issues: Templating mistakes, errors in grammar and/or punctuation, missing mana symbols, missing power/toughness on creatures, and any other issues relating to text cards or overall sloppiness will result in a maximum of 2 points deducted.
- Breaking design rules: design rules not directly covered by other categories will be covered here. Things like memory issues, cards that create counters or tokens of multiple types, etc., will result in a maximum of 1 point.
- Round requirements: failure to meet the round requirements, or technically meeting the requirements but doing so in a way that is obviously contrary to the round's intent will result in a loss of up to all 4 points.
Challenge: Make either a split card or a flip card where both sides can be played BUT NOT flipped.
Bonuses:
+1: Both sides must not share a colour.
+1: Both sides must not share the same converted mana cost.
Bonuses: 2/2.
Balance: 7/10.
Play the blue side first to draw a card. If you don’t like what you drew, play the green side, discarding the card you drew. Basically, with enough mana, you can go through your deck pretty quick. I won’t even mention the fact that it makes any GU madness deck powerful. Since the two sides work so well with each other, I think the mana costs on each side should be higher.
Flavour: 5/5.
I have nothing to complain about.
Creativity: 3.5/4.
The Sense half is original. We already have Whispers of the Muse.
Quality: 4/4.
No problems here.
TOTAL: 21.5/25.
Bonuses: 1/2. Unfortunately, both sides share a colour.
Balance: 8/10.
The Cease side is a conditional Unsummon. The Desist side would be used if your opponent’s trying to rescue one of his creatures. In other words, Desist hoses bounce cards like Unsummon, Excommunicate or even Turn to Mist. And if it doesn’t leave play, you still get to draw a card with that side.
Flavour: 3.5/5.
I feel the art doesn’t depict what the card does on either side. And, seriously, blue alone wouldn’t have access to creature destruction these days.
Creativity: 4/4.
No problems here, though I can’t imagine the Desist half ever being printed anytime soon.
Quality: 3.5/4.
I’m sure the Desist side could have easily read “if target creature would leave play this turn, put it into its owner’s graveyard instead.”
TOTAL: 20/25.
Bonuses: 2/2.
Balance: 8/10.
The Miss part is okay. I have one gripe with the Swing part, though. Picture this: You have creature with a pretty high power. Let’s say Nath’s Elite (note the Lure ability.) Attack with it. You opponent has no choice but to block it. Now play Swing. Your creature deals 4 damage to each creature blocking it. That’s one way to decimate an army. This is a bit much for a common.
Flavour: 5/5.
No problems here.
Creativity: 4/4.
No problems here.
Quality: 4/4.
I guess I can’t argue with Woapalanne on the wording. Still, I had to ask him how Swing works. If I had to ask, I’m sure there’ll be lots of people wondering how it works.
TOTAL: 23/25.
Bonuses: 2/2.
Balance: 9/10.
I’ve got two words for you: Suffocating Blast. The blue side would be overpriced, but easy to play. The red side at least lets you damage a player. Either way, the spell is effective.
Flavour: 4.5/5.
I’m not too crazy about the card names. Normally, a split card’s names are a pair, like Bait/Switch or Agony/Ecstasy.
Creativity: 2/4.
Regardless of which side you play, if you pay the kicker cost, you’re going to get Suffocating Blast.
Quality: 3/4.
Wording is wrong on both sides.
Psionic Silencing: “Counter target spell. If the kicker cost was paid, CARDNAME deals 3 damage to target creature.”
Consuming Denial: “CARDNAME deals 3 damage to target creature or player. The damage can’t be prevented.” See Pinpoint Avalanche.
TOTAL: 20.5/25.
genesys
As always, send any concerns by PM, but only if I misread your card or goofed on my math.
Block3W
Sorcery (U)
Put a 0/1 white Goat creature token into play for each tapped creature target player controls.
Buyback--1W, Tap three untapped creatures you control.
// Tackle2R
Sorcery (U)
Tackle deals 2 damage to each untapped creature.
Buyback--1R, Tap three untapped creatures you control.
Cantripmancer vs. Marco
Honorable "Lan" Presiding (Again...Not That I'm Complaining)
Card: Pride // Prejudice
Hey Marco, flip ya for it! (J/K, good luck!)
Pride :1mana::symgw:
Instant (U)
Target creature gets +3/+0 until end of turn.
Target creature gets +0/+3 until end of turn. The conviction to stand.
//
Prejudice
Instant (U)
Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn for each creature its controller controls. The conviction to condemn.
Artist (for both): Andrew "Njoo" @ DeviantArt.com
Several things to say before I start: I think that this round, due to its heavy regard for being split, that I will judge the card by both the individual parts and by how they connect together. This connection can be either via mechanical (i.e. the two sides work well together) or flavorful (whether or not the two cards coincide with the message they want to come across). This will weight into my creativity score for those that are judged. :3
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 3/10 – Spike POV
This card is incredibly broken. The cease part of the card is basically Orim’s chant with flashback, making a good card even better. Yes, that means you get to stop an opponent’s development for 2 turns with 1 card. For control, it means essentially 2 time walks against aggro during the turns when aggro is at its best. Desist is a 3 mana remand without the cantrip. While desist itself is on the weak side and acceptable for 3 mana on a split card, the instance of flashback pushes this over the curve as well (for a split card).
It really doesn’t help that you gave No-Stick chants 5-8 with counter backup all in a single card.
Flavor: 4.5/5 - (Breakdown: 0 rarity, 1.5 art, 3 flavor)
This card is definitely a rare due to its power. Refer back to Orim’s Chant if you really think otherwise. The art you have chosen work wonders. With Cease, it looks like it’s some form of an edict that’s being delivered, while desist looks very much like the person is frozen in time, like the spell is being frozen in time itself.
The naming of the card works well, and the mechanics mirror the legal term in a number of ways, strengthening your flavor. The flavor text is perhaps the weakest part of your card, though it works still very well with the flavor that you were trying to convey. Good job on getting the UW flavor down pat.
Creativity: 3/4
While the individual parts of the cards have all been done before, the sum of the parts creates very strong flavor, and melds perfectly with the ideologies of WU (especially on how controlling WU can be).
Quality: 4/4
Overall: 16.5/25
Bonus: 2/2
They share the same CMC???
Balance: 7/10 – Limited POV
While Yin/Yang won’t be winning any contests with regards to constructed, in limited, this is a nice card for the 5-6th pick slot. Yin is analogous to tidehallow stix, but trades the blue mana for black, and adds a drawback for 1 toughness. Yang is ironically last round’s Shepherd of Light. How does this measure up?
The issue here is that 4 life is a lot to lose for Yang’s side. For a 2/2 flying deathtouch for BB, I would not expect to lose that much life (perhaps 2 at most), so the costing of this part is under the curve, perhaps a bit too weak even for a split card.
On the other hand, the Yin gives a relatively negligible amount of life gain, and since you have lifelink with it, you can still race relatively safely even if you’re giving yourself a bit of a handicap in the beginning. The slightly weaker evasion plus the drawback, does make it a fair bit weaker, and justifies the cost choice for a split card.
The issue I have with the way you costed this card is that they don’t mesh well together in a BW deck. It’s impossible to be capable of playing either side on turns 2 or 3 because of the clash between WW and BB, and it’s not guaranteed that an early fixer can come in during a draft with usually 1 or 2 fixers once you’ve drafted. This means that usually you have a preference for one or the other. In this case, the white player (any white player) would pick this up relatively quickly, while the black player would have to think twice. The WB player honestly doesn’t care, since the black side would probably be the side that’s neglected.
Flavor: 3/5 - (Breakdown: 0.5 rarity, 1 art, 1.5 flavor)
The art itself works, but is also very bland. It’s ok to be bland (unlike what others say), as long as it does convey a message (such as the original terror being in a simple black background, but says so much about the card). Unfortunately, it seems like this time there is little meaning outside of “I am lazy” on the artist’s part. It’s not your fault that it is that way, but it is your fault for choosing this particular piece of art. It’ll give you something for the shape of the Yin Yang being present. The art also tells me that I should review this as a direct reference to Yin Yang.
Due to the card’s obvious reference to Karma, I have a heavy comparison on whether or not you’ve conveyed Yin Yang’s actual message across. According to wikipedia, 4 very important distinctions are made with Yin and Yang:
They are opposing. – You have shown this with your colour choices, the art to a certain extent, and the general mechanics being as such as well.
They are together – They are 1 card; they share flying, power, and toughness. Also, your flavor text also alludes to this fact as well.
They affect each other – Some indication of this was made on the card itself. Yang handles lifelink, while Yin causes life loss. Unfortunately, Yang’s ability undermines that aspect as well. I think the best way to convey this effect is to have the card be able to flip to one another.
They are balanced – The two sides aren’t balanced.
Two and a half out of four is your score. Not too bad. Except that Yang is associated more with aggression than life gain (the male), and Yin is more associated with birth and life, a softer side (the female).
Creativity: 2/4
Mechanically nothing new is present, but it’s not too bad at conveying the flavor. Sort of.
Quality: 2/4
- 2: The text and the render are completely different from each other. I’ve taken the render as your final product, but there is no excuse for the sloppiness.
Overall: 16/25
Bonus: 2/2
Jane Austen bonus!
Balance: 8/10 – Limited POV
First pick card. Inherently, the giant growth effect of pride much weaker than agony warp, making it perfectly reasonable for it to be priced at 1H. While reasonable, I think that on a split card, this should probably work with 3 mana instead (something like 1HH), as one should sacrifice efficiency for versatility.
The prejudice side of the card also suffers the same problem. The card is perfectly fine and well costed on its own, but it’s a split card, meaning that the price of the card should be closer to a black mana and a half a mana (rounded to two). In either case, you priced the cards at reasonable costs, but combined them to make it a limited powerhouse.
I don’t foresee this card making a splash on any of the three main archetypes, though Vorthos over there is drooling if it wasn’t for my comments next.
Flavor: 3.5/5 - (Breakdown: 0.5 rarity, 1.5 art, 1.5 flavor)
The art is very nice. You used one picture to depict two very different scenes and you made it work. Each side of the card also very much depicts each of their namesakes as well.
Pride doesn’t belong in GW hybrid. Mono-power pump is red and will always be red. The reason why agony warp works is because each colour handles each side perfectly on their own, and that the combination of both makes it work. Flavor-wise, green can do +X/+X as the base, while white has +0/+X as its base (neither does the +X/+0 part). What you made here is the perfect RW card, not a GW hybrid. I seriously think you should smack yourself for not getting the most obvious clues: your art depicts a dwarf (should scream red) and your card name is pride (should scream RW). Prejudice looks in flavor for black.
Your flavor text is strong and works very well for each side. Ironically, “the conviction to stand” reinforces the RW theme way more than a GW hybrid yet again.
Creativity: 4/4
Good job. Aside from the small hiccup on Pride’s part, one mechanic is a logical extension, and the other is quite new and welcomed. The two sides worked together flavorfully, giving that sort of a link the split cards need. The art worked so well with this card as well.
Quality: 4/4
Overall: 21.5/25
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 8/10 – Multiplayer POV
The entire card is inherently political in nature. Hope is slightly undercosted with slithermuse and balance of power as reference (it does the same as the two on a duel, while it becomes political in multiplayer). Faith also looks a little undercosted for what it does, though the only real reference point here is reverse the sands. I think faith should cost something closer to 4.5CMC, to which rounding down is fine as it is rounding up. The only issue I have here is that faith can really slow down games in multiplayer (hope speeds it up, usually), so I’d want it to cost a bit more so people won’t intrinsically go for faith every time. 5 mana I think is the best cost for faith. Overall, I think the card is fairly well costed.
Flavor: 3/5 - (Breakdown: 0.5 rarity, 1 art, 1.5 flavor)
Hope and faith sounds white on both sides. Bad name in hope. Hope is not a term associated with blue. In fact, the mechanic itself doesn’t convey much of hope either. I don’t believe that catching up on the knowledge of the guy with the most options is the embodiment of hope. Unfortunately, there is no flavor text to justify your account of using this name and mechanic for the card. Faith, on the other hand, works with white well. The mechanic itself I can sort of see a loose connection with, but only because of cards such as invincible hymn that shows that faith can heal a planeswalker’s soul.
In terms of the art, hope embodies what it’s supposed to be. It looks like the being is reaching out to whatever the glowing thing is, and is escaping the darkness through this glowing thing. In such a way, it shows some form of iteration of hope. On the other hand, faith just looks like a dwarf (naturally associated with red) who’s giving you something, which doesn’t feel like faith at all. I’d imagine that something that’s doing preaching would make it work.
Creativity: 3/4
Mechanistically, both seem to work fine on their own, and the connection between hope and faith are plain as day.
Quality: 4/4
Overall: 20/25
Bonus: 2/2
Balance: 7/10 – Limited POV
The issue I have with this card is that it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to most of the time. Attack lets you menace either weak creatures that they decide to hold back, creatures that they need to hold back for certain reasons, or force your opponent to tap a creature with a tap ability already. Of course, this depends on the environment, but tap abilities tend to be quite common, and attack basically does nothing most of the time with regards to removal against them. The fact that it’s a split card that costs 3 to cantrip makes it seem overcosted, especially when an enchantment is made at 1 mana that does the same thing (though it’s sorcery speed).
Block is a pseudo lure, which somehow costs less than attack. This boggles my mind, as block is the more potent of the two (very slightly), being able to actually destroy a weak tap creature the turn it pops into play (through combat), and nets you an extra card as well. Again, both abilities are situational removal that cantrips, with block being slightly better than attack. With that said, I think you flipped the mana costs.
Flavor: 3.5/5 - (Breakdown: 0 rarity, 1 art, 2.5 flavor)
Rarity should be common, though you can justify uncommon to a certain point. Both attack and block are in flavor. I can not fault it for anything per se, since there isn’t really anything there to go wrong with. I guess the only thing that I can say about this is that the naming of the card (attack and block) is very weak, but I’ll fault you there on creativity rather than double penalize you here.
In terms of the art, I can see attack being some guy being enraged and therefore killing the other guy. Works well. For block, it is rather difficult to convey the message of pulling a guy out to force a block. I don’t think the duel between those two dragons show that message very well.
Creativity: 1/4
I don’t think much of any creativity is involved in the card. The abilities of both sides are almost identical mirrors of each other, and the naming convention (attack and block) is rather bland. I think that adding more flare in your naming would have gotten you a better mark here.
Quality: 3.5/4
- 0.5: “You may” should be in the beginning of each line. If you do mean the other way around, your balance score would drop down 1 mark to make up for the increase in quality score.
Overall: 17/25
Bonus: 2/2
Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe bonus!
Balance: 5/10 – Spike POV
The Batman side of the card is almost too powerful. Batman automatically wins you the game if he comes into play turn 1 with dark ritual. I can see decks that would run Batman and attempt to play him turn 2 (acceleration on turn 1), since he destroys control, and 2/1 first strike means he can survive battles with almost every turn 1 or 2 creature in most environments. Optimally, his cost should be at least in the 4-5 range, due to the incredible power this guy has. The legendary status makes little to no difference here.
The Robin side is a random form of furnace of rath, and costs exactly the same, including a 3/2 body to go with it. Unfortunately, he is just completely overshadowed by Batman, and doesn’t complement Batman in any way. I think Robin is fairly well costed, except that he probably doesn’t need the RRR cost. 2RR is prohibitive enough so that only one kind of deck can run one of the two sides.
Of course, that just means monoblack.
Flavor: 2.5/5 - (Breakdown: 0.5 rarity, 1 art, 1 flavor)
The art you have there with Batman doesn’t really convey how (s)he can sever the link between a planeswalker and his or her orb/link/etc. with lands. Since flavor text is unlikely a proposition in this card, the weight of that becomes high for this. Robin looks like a lizard creature of some sort coming out of the lava. I think that elemental would have been a more fitting creature type for Robin. Case in point, dragons should fly even if they are spirits. Robin clearly doesn’t fly nor looks like it has wings.
I find it hard to justify the mechanic that Batman has to his/her art and name, and ditto for Robin when it comes down to the name.
Creativity: 2/4
There is a strong disconnect between the two cards. There is absolutely no reason why anyone would play both sides in any format, due to the cost prohibition of the two sides. In addition, it seems almost antagonistic between the two different sides of the card, which basically means that the only connection between your two cards is in its name, and not everyone would get that subtle response either.
The Robin side is basically a random furnace, while the Batman side is novel, but too powerful. I’ve penalized you on the power part, so I will give you the due when it comes to Batman’s ability.
It’s a good idea to get around the legendary problem by allowing you to play two different legends. This is why the problem of synergy and costing seriously undermined your idea. Again, it’s costing you creativity points.
Quality: 3.5/4
- 0.5: Art should at least bleed into each other a bit to make it look better. Honestly, it’s only an extra 15 minutes on photoshop, I don’t think it’s much of an excuse there.
Growth Sorcery
Growth is green.
Spend only green mana on X.
Search your library for up to X basic land cards and put them into play. Then shuffle your library. Embrace your world, love every day...
// Decay Sorcery
Decay is black.
Spend only black mana on X.
Target creature gets -X/-X until end of turn. ...for soon you’ll die, withered away.
"You threw your babies away. And you threw your swords away. And you threw away your golf clubs and your tasty treats. And you know what? i found 'em!"
-Charlie Kelly
Art is done by MewOfTheClouds on Deviantart.com
name of the Art is Black and White Contest
Lumen 2WW
Legendary Creature - Dragon Spirit
Lifelink
Black spells you play cost 1 less to play. W: Lumen gets +0/+1 until end of turn. Born from one another...
3/2
//
Umbra BBB
Legendary Creature - Dragon Spirit
Shadow
White spells you play cost 1 less to play. B: Umbra gets +1/+1 until end of turn. ...they carry a piece of the other.
2/3
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
SenseG
Instant
Buyback-Discard a card. (You may discard a card as you play this spell. If you do, put this card into your hand as it resolves.)
You may put a land card from your hand into play.
// Sensibility1U
Buyback-Return a land you control to its owner's hand.(You may return a land you control to its owner's hand as you play this spell. If you do, put this card into your hand as it resolves.)
Draw a card.
Kaaloghu, the Hellwolf1BB
Legendary Creature — Demon Wolf BB: Regenerate Kaaloghu.
Whenever Kaaloghu deals combat damage to an opponent, you may put a +1/+0 counter on it. 2BR: Return two target cards named Kaaloghu, the Hellwolf from your graveyard to your hand. 4/1
———————————————————————————— Infernal Fire of the HellwolfRR
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature named Kaaloghu, the Hellwolf
Enchanted creature has first strike and "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to an opponent, you may pay RR. If you do, it deals damage to each creature that player controls equal to the number of +1/+0 counters on this creature."
Artist: ShadowUmbre and Dave Allsop
Duck1(G/W)
Instant {U}
Target creature gains protection from creatures with flying until end of turn. "Look out..."
============== Cover2U
Instant {U}
Target permanent gains shroud until end of turn. "...they're coming!"
Round 2: Flip Permanents and Split Spells
Ahasver vs. Johm000
Judge: Ace Card:
Wilt2BB
Sorcery (R)
Destroy up to two tapped lands.
Flashback - Sacrifice two untapped lands. // BloomG
Sorcery (R)
Put up to two lands from your hand into play tapped.
Cycling - Reveal two land cards from your hand.
EDIT: Very sorry for not making it, but I have had and still have exams going on, and in addition to problems with the internet going on the last couple of days and Christmas right around the corner I was unable to find the time necessary. My apologies.
Cure :symgw::symgw::symgw:
Sorcery R
For each creature put into any graveyard from play this turn, put a 1/1 green and white Elf Druid creature token into play.
Stitch 2BB(You may pay an additional 2BB to play both side’s effects.)
/// Disease1:symbr::symbr::symbr:
Sorcery R
Choose a creature you don’t control. That creature deals X damage to each other creature and each player, where X is its power.
Stitch 1GG(You may pay an additional 1GG to play both side’s effects.)
I think Stitch works like Splice onto (-), where you can choose the order the abilities hit the stack. So the damage would be dealt first, then would come the tokens.
also, "Choose a creature you don't control = no protection, no shroud
To all survivors of the first round, I'm very sure you want to let loose with the words... So I will quote my favorite politician:
"I don't leave anything up to chance, I make my own luck."- Harvey Dent
Choose one - Make a split card, or make a flip card where both sides can be played BUT NOT flipped.
For the second choice, here is an example...
Yes, it doesn't work under the current rules. Just for this challenge, assume that it does. The idea is pretty much to allow for a permanent with two distinct sides, and I don't think the split card template distinguishes which side is in play clearly enough.
Bonus points:
+1: Both sides must not share a color.
+1: Both sides must not share the same converted mana cost.
Hyral
Necroticah - WhisperedThunder
Zaph - hex1206
Jozan
Quazifuji - Yare
Absolutionis - Wise Goldfish
Shepherd
Kenaron - Pseudofate
blacker lotus - Vishara
DarkNightCavalier
.handslikeguns - RedDwarfian
Kami of Randomness - Weirdling
berzerker
Glibe - MotionPicture13
Dumb Luck - mrrebel
Ace
Ahasver - Johm000
ACM - seratonin
Belgareth
DARKING - DarienCR
MagicProfessor28 - Dochetwas
Moss_Elemental
intreped - Phuzzy
genesys - Cypher28
Kenny "Lan" Karasu
SoronTheBeast - TerminusEst
Cantripmancer - Marco
ShinyMan - Silent Prophet
Howler13
Red Hot Pancakes - Dragon of cleansing fire
markino - Roja
Skajetolaf - cardamne
The Ice King
Fa+blimp - fissionessence
SquareDragon - Milldawg
Stubborn Boy - PlanesJaywalker
The winner of each duel advances to the next round. Judges, please avoid ties to the best of your abilities.
This round will end on midnight EST, December 15. (When Monday becomes Tuesday.) Judges, please do not begin judging until then, even if none of the CCC mods are available to close the round then.
I wish you the best of luck... rather, make your own luck.
- Shepherd
Link to current contents of Cube here.
SSC 8-Way Forum Draft
Current Pick: 1-6
Link to team assignments here.
SSC Forum Draft
Current Pick: 2-5
Link to pick here.
Ire of the Sky 3U
Creature-Djinn {R}
Flying, shroud
U: Switch Ire of the Sky's power and toughness until end of turn.
Transmute 4B
1/3
///
Fury of the Earth 5R
Creature-Efreet
First strike, haste
R: Fury of the Earth gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
Unearth 4B
5/3
Art Cred: Xiaochen Fu
(Will try for the flipside render later)
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
1W // 1UU
Instant // Instant (U)
Target player can’t play spells this turn.
Flashback 1W
It was futile of you.
//
Put target spell into its owner’s hand.
Flashback 1UU
Even to try something.
Opponent: SoronTheBeast
Yin 1BB
Creature - Elemental
Flying, Deathtouch
We are one.
2/2
//
Yang 1WW
Creature - Elemental
Flying, Lifelink
We are one.
2/2
Secondary artist link: twin-kamon.deviantart.com
Opponent: Cantripmancer
Good luck Cantripmancer.
Hope
4U
Sorcery (Rare)
Each player draws cards equal to the difference between the number of cards in their hand and the number of cards in the hand of the player with the most cards in hand.
Illus. Ben Wootten
//
Faith
2WW
Sorcery (Rare)
Each player’s life total becomes the highest life total among all players.
Illus. Ben Wootten
Judge: Howler13
Angelic Invoker 1W
Creature - Human Monk
3WW, Sacrifice Angelic Invoker: Put a white Angel creature token into play with flying, lifelink, and “This creature’s power and toughness are each equal to your life total.”
1/3
///
Demonic Evoker 1BB
Creature - Human Monk
Pay half your life, rounded up, Sacrifice Demonic Evoker: Return target creature card from your graveyard to play.
3/1
Rare
Art:http://xqua.deviantart.com/art/Monk-Of-Darkness-76112472
Opponent: MotionPicture13 (Insert obligatory "why so serious" joke here...good luck!)
Legendary Creature - Human (R)
Dragons you control have lifelink.
When Silvia, Dragon Tamer is put into a graveyard from play, Dragons you control get +1/+0 until end of turn.
Her charges flew with renewed purpose. Eventually, they rebelled.
1/1
//
Glaurung, the Free 4RRR
Legendary Creature - Dragon (R)
Flying
When Glaurung, the Free comes into paly, destroy all Human creatures.
Other Dragons you control have haste.
His brethren flew with renewed passion. Finally, they were free.
4/4
Gods, MSE, what have you done? D:
Bonus points if you get the reference.
---
BRG :: Hey, guess what? It's cool to reply to my private messages. I even prefer it! No, just because I'm judging the FFC doesn't make it awkward. Seriously. :: GRB
Flickerwisp UR
Creature - Elemental (R)
Flying, Haste
At end of turn, return Flickerwisp to its owner's hand.
A Flickerwisp brings a warning fleeting.
2/1
/////////////
Thundercrash 2RG
Creature - Elemental
Trample, Haste
At end of turn, sacrifice Thundercrash.
A Thundercrash brings a savage beating.
6/3
Flickerwisp art is from [EMAIL="Timmetrius@Deviantart.com"]Timmetrius@Deviantart.com[/EMAIL], Thundercrash art is from [EMAIL="davidnathan@Deviantart.com"]davidnathan@Deviantart.com[/EMAIL]
-Douglas Adams
Red Hot Pancakes
Balance (8/10): GG for a better Rampant Growth (yours puts the lands into play untapped), and it basically has replicate. If the lands CIPT, I wouldn't have much issue, but it's pretty well considered Rampant Growth is the standard for land-seaching (and not the sub-par standard, kinda the best a card should do without costing more or having some sort of drawback). It's really only going to be useful/abusable in a monogreen deck, so it's mostly just a way to mana ramp, as opposed to color-fixing.
It's probably fairly costed; compared to Sickening Shoal, making it an instand and dropping the alternative cost probably makes up for being BB cheaper. A nice effect, and could see good constructed play (Disembowel did, and alot of people somewhat wrote it off until the saw it in action).
The green half is probably a bit overpowered (even adding an extra initial G would have helped, then it's at least "inferior to RG in some respects), but the black half is good. Both halves would likely see play.
F/C/Q (10.5/13):
-Flavor (4/5): The art is good, but the flavor text doesn't really "move" me. Overall, good.
-Creativity (3/4): Both are failry generic effects for their colors. Your "spin" on them have been done before and don't really add much, but neither seem to have been done exactly.
-Quality (3.5/4): Missing copyright line on both halves of the render.
Total: 19.5/25
Balance (8.5/10): A 3/2 lifelinker for 4 is pretty agressively costed, especially adding in the toughness-boosing ability. Not the most effieicent beater, but it's the sacrifice you make for lifelink.
I don't know if it's fair to say the black half is "better" than the white, but it's probably going to win more games for you; shadow plus the shade ability allows you to push through alot of damage, which is perfect if the board is otherwise locked up.
Both halves are pretty good creatures, and if you happen to be be playing both colors, I'm sure one of them will be suitable to your needs (at the very least, either one will make other spells cheaper).
F/C/Q (11/13):
-Flavor (4/5): The flavor (especially the flavor text) feels very cliche. It's good, but doesn't earn you any bonus points.
-Creativity (3/4): Good. Both are fairly french vanilla creatures.
-Quality (4/4): No issues.
Total: 21.5/25
Match 2
markino
Balance (6/10): The creature itself isn't anything special, nor doe it seem like it's meant to be. The token, however, is. For just 3WW, you get a flying, lifelinked Serra Avatar. Yikes. Getting one of these on turn 5 will end the game very quickly. Sure, it's suceptable to several forms of removal, but so is Tarmogoyf. The white half is way overpowered.
The creature itself is bleh. Paying half your life can net you some good things: four cards, something from your sideboard, even the chance to stack your deck. For some reason, a free Zombify doesn't quite measure up. It isn't horrible though, and I'm sure there are cases that paying 1 less for a Zombify will be worth half your life.
F/C/Q (8.5/13):
-Flavor (3/5): I don't really know how fitting the art is. Both halves look pretty evil.
-Creativity (2/4): Eh. Both halves are basically one-time spellshapers.
-Quality (3.5/4): Sacrificing Demonic Evoker should be first in the cost for it's ability.
Total: 16.5/25
Balance (7/10): Giving everything dredge is quite powerful, especially in a fromat where a high dredge number is actually beneficial, and on card that has a cheap way to draw more cards. There are too many cards in the format that would just love to be played every turn (or maybe twice or more), even at the cost of parts of your library. It's resistant to alot of removal, but it is still "deal with"-able.
Well, it's better than Archivist... Tomorrow, Azami's Familiar found some niche decks, and this serves a very similar purpose (and in some ways, better). Potential in control decks that can handle the triple-U.
F/C/Q (9.5/13):
-Flavor (3.5/5): Can't say I'm a fan of the "Christmas" flavor.
-Creativity (3/4): Good.
-Quality (3/4): Neither dredge nor scry should be capitalized, and it should be "...in your graveyard have dredge 4." No colon.
Total: 18.5/25
Match 3
Skajetolaf
Balance (5/10): Very nice twist on green removal. However, this is extremely potent; it can effectively destroy any creature for 2G. Black would kill for that kind of efficacy. (Oh ho, see what I did there? I made a pun!) If it were an enchantment/aura, it could at least be reversed in some way, or if it had a built-in cancelation clause (see Soul Sculptor), then it would be fine at such a low cost. As-is, it's one of the most powerful removal spells in Standard, in a color not well-kown for it's creature-kill.
For 1 more, you get a Stone Rain with a small chance of drawing you a card. The draw wouldn't happen very often, since very few decks run very many basic lands (thanks to all the painlands, vivids, and shardlands running around right now). On the off-chance it does happen, that's great. But you're usually just paying more for the same. In limited, it might be useful.
So, we have a wonderful combination of one half being insanely powerful, and the other being very underwelming. Unfortunately, the law of averages won't help this card.
F/C/Q (12/13):
-Flavor (5/5): I like it.
-Creativity (3/4): Good.
-Quality (4/4): No issues.
Total: 19/25
Balance (9/10): Well, normally I'd rather just save my creature from dying in the first plays via protection or blinking, but there are uses for persist instead. It's not a glorious ability, but in Limited, saving that one power creature you drafted, even at a slightly smaller size, is owrth it. Small price for a small effect.
Basically a Zombify that can be flashbacked if you're playing white (and I personally can't understand why you would play black without white. ;)). Another solid card in Limited, and might be good in Constructed.
F/C/Q (10/13):
-Flavor (4.5/5): What amazes me is that the flavor is fine as-is, but you could swap every W with a B (and vice versa), and the flavor would work just as well without changing anything else.
-Creativity (3/4): Good.
-Quality (2.5/4): This seems cheap, but I'm almost positive there is a very good reason why a card can't (or shouldn't) be an Instant/Sorcery. There's some timing rule that could allow you to play the sorcery half at instant speed in the right conditions (and other cards).
Total: 21/25
Opponent: Psudofate
Whenever a land comes into play under your control, scry 1.
Creature - Metathran Soldier 1/1
// Maro Sage 2G
~’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of basic land types amongst lands you control.
Creature - Elemental */*
Balance: 10/10 – Also self-explanatory.
9 - The card is really well-costed but is just a little too strong or a little too weak.
8 - The card is reasonably well-costed but clearly has room for improvement or is way too expensive or narrow to be playable.
7 - The card is not terrible but is clearly over or under the curve, or is well-balanced on its own but fairly easily breaks in combination with another card.
6 - The card is severely over or underpowered, or horribly broken in combination with another card.
5 - Borderline broken or hugely overcosted.
4 - Obviously broken or utterly useless.
1-3 - So broken or trashy, it's obvious no thought went into it whatsoever.
0 – There’s a fatal flaw.
Creativity: 4/4 – Looking at originality and ingenuity.
Quality: 4/4 – Check for wording, spelling and render errors. Also, failure to meet the round criteria will result in deductions here.
- Text card issues: Templating mistakes, errors in grammar and/or punctuation, missing mana symbols, missing power/toughness on creatures, and any other issues relating to text cards or overall sloppiness will result in a maximum of 2 points deducted.
- Breaking design rules: design rules not directly covered by other categories will be covered here. Things like memory issues, cards that create counters or tokens of multiple types, etc., will result in a maximum of 1 point.
- Round requirements: failure to meet the round requirements, or technically meeting the requirements but doing so in a way that is obviously contrary to the round's intent will result in a loss of up to all 4 points.
Challenge: Make either a split card or a flip card where both sides can be played BUT NOT flipped.
Bonuses:
+1: Both sides must not share a colour.
+1: Both sides must not share the same converted mana cost.
intreped - Phuzzy
Balance: 7/10.
Play the blue side first to draw a card. If you don’t like what you drew, play the green side, discarding the card you drew. Basically, with enough mana, you can go through your deck pretty quick. I won’t even mention the fact that it makes any GU madness deck powerful. Since the two sides work so well with each other, I think the mana costs on each side should be higher.
Flavour: 5/5.
I have nothing to complain about.
Creativity: 3.5/4.
The Sense half is original. We already have Whispers of the Muse.
Quality: 4/4.
No problems here.
TOTAL: 21.5/25.
Balance: 8/10.
The Cease side is a conditional Unsummon. The Desist side would be used if your opponent’s trying to rescue one of his creatures. In other words, Desist hoses bounce cards like Unsummon, Excommunicate or even Turn to Mist. And if it doesn’t leave play, you still get to draw a card with that side.
Flavour: 3.5/5.
I feel the art doesn’t depict what the card does on either side. And, seriously, blue alone wouldn’t have access to creature destruction these days.
Creativity: 4/4.
No problems here, though I can’t imagine the Desist half ever being printed anytime soon.
Quality: 3.5/4.
I’m sure the Desist side could have easily read “if target creature would leave play this turn, put it into its owner’s graveyard instead.”
TOTAL: 20/25.
genesys - Cypher28
Balance: 8/10.
The Miss part is okay. I have one gripe with the Swing part, though. Picture this: You have creature with a pretty high power. Let’s say Nath’s Elite (note the Lure ability.) Attack with it. You opponent has no choice but to block it. Now play Swing. Your creature deals 4 damage to each creature blocking it. That’s one way to decimate an army. This is a bit much for a common.
Flavour: 5/5.
No problems here.
Creativity: 4/4.
No problems here.
Quality: 4/4.
I guess I can’t argue with Woapalanne on the wording. Still, I had to ask him how Swing works. If I had to ask, I’m sure there’ll be lots of people wondering how it works.
TOTAL: 23/25.
Balance: 9/10.
I’ve got two words for you: Suffocating Blast. The blue side would be overpriced, but easy to play. The red side at least lets you damage a player. Either way, the spell is effective.
Flavour: 4.5/5.
I’m not too crazy about the card names. Normally, a split card’s names are a pair, like Bait/Switch or Agony/Ecstasy.
Creativity: 2/4.
Regardless of which side you play, if you pay the kicker cost, you’re going to get Suffocating Blast.
Quality: 3/4.
Wording is wrong on both sides.
Psionic Silencing: “Counter target spell. If the kicker cost was paid, CARDNAME deals 3 damage to target creature.”
Consuming Denial: “CARDNAME deals 3 damage to target creature or player. The damage can’t be prevented.” See Pinpoint Avalanche.
TOTAL: 20.5/25.
As always, send any concerns by PM, but only if I misread your card or goofed on my math.
Sorcery (U)
Put a 0/1 white Goat creature token into play for each tapped creature target player controls.
Buyback--1W, Tap three untapped creatures you control.
//
Tackle 2R
Sorcery (U)
Tackle deals 2 damage to each untapped creature.
Buyback--1R, Tap three untapped creatures you control.
http://www.epilogue.net/cgi/database/art/view.pl?id=107283&genre=2
Hanna, Ship's Navigator - WU Enchantments Control
Wort, the Raidmother - RG Copy ALL the Spells!
Rakdos, Lord of Riots - BR Group Murder-Hug
Reaper King - WUBRG Token Copies
Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker - B Sacrifice Engine
Grenzo, Dungeon Warden - BR Randomized Toolbox
Karametra, God of Harvests - GW Ramp
Honorable "Lan" Presiding (Again...Not That I'm Complaining)
Card: Pride // Prejudice
Hey Marco, flip ya for it! (J/K, good luck!)
Pride :1mana::symgw:
Instant (U)
Target creature gets +3/+0 until end of turn.
Target creature gets +0/+3 until end of turn.
The conviction to stand.
//
Prejudice
Instant (U)
Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn for each creature its controller controls.
The conviction to condemn.
Artist (for both): Andrew "Njoo" @ DeviantArt.com
SoronTheBeast - TerminusEst
Cantripmancer - Marco
ShinyMan - Silent Prophet
Several things to say before I start: I think that this round, due to its heavy regard for being split, that I will judge the card by both the individual parts and by how they connect together. This connection can be either via mechanical (i.e. the two sides work well together) or flavorful (whether or not the two cards coincide with the message they want to come across). This will weight into my creativity score for those that are judged. :3
Balance: 3/10 – Spike POV
This card is incredibly broken. The cease part of the card is basically Orim’s chant with flashback, making a good card even better. Yes, that means you get to stop an opponent’s development for 2 turns with 1 card. For control, it means essentially 2 time walks against aggro during the turns when aggro is at its best. Desist is a 3 mana remand without the cantrip. While desist itself is on the weak side and acceptable for 3 mana on a split card, the instance of flashback pushes this over the curve as well (for a split card).
It really doesn’t help that you gave No-Stick chants 5-8 with counter backup all in a single card.
Flavor: 4.5/5 - (Breakdown: 0 rarity, 1.5 art, 3 flavor)
This card is definitely a rare due to its power. Refer back to Orim’s Chant if you really think otherwise. The art you have chosen work wonders. With Cease, it looks like it’s some form of an edict that’s being delivered, while desist looks very much like the person is frozen in time, like the spell is being frozen in time itself.
The naming of the card works well, and the mechanics mirror the legal term in a number of ways, strengthening your flavor. The flavor text is perhaps the weakest part of your card, though it works still very well with the flavor that you were trying to convey. Good job on getting the UW flavor down pat.
Creativity: 3/4
While the individual parts of the cards have all been done before, the sum of the parts creates very strong flavor, and melds perfectly with the ideologies of WU (especially on how controlling WU can be).
Quality: 4/4
Overall: 16.5/25
They share the same CMC???
Balance: 7/10 – Limited POV
While Yin/Yang won’t be winning any contests with regards to constructed, in limited, this is a nice card for the 5-6th pick slot. Yin is analogous to tidehallow stix, but trades the blue mana for black, and adds a drawback for 1 toughness. Yang is ironically last round’s Shepherd of Light. How does this measure up?
The issue here is that 4 life is a lot to lose for Yang’s side. For a 2/2 flying deathtouch for BB, I would not expect to lose that much life (perhaps 2 at most), so the costing of this part is under the curve, perhaps a bit too weak even for a split card.
On the other hand, the Yin gives a relatively negligible amount of life gain, and since you have lifelink with it, you can still race relatively safely even if you’re giving yourself a bit of a handicap in the beginning. The slightly weaker evasion plus the drawback, does make it a fair bit weaker, and justifies the cost choice for a split card.
The issue I have with the way you costed this card is that they don’t mesh well together in a BW deck. It’s impossible to be capable of playing either side on turns 2 or 3 because of the clash between WW and BB, and it’s not guaranteed that an early fixer can come in during a draft with usually 1 or 2 fixers once you’ve drafted. This means that usually you have a preference for one or the other. In this case, the white player (any white player) would pick this up relatively quickly, while the black player would have to think twice. The WB player honestly doesn’t care, since the black side would probably be the side that’s neglected.
Flavor: 3/5 - (Breakdown: 0.5 rarity, 1 art, 1.5 flavor)
The art itself works, but is also very bland. It’s ok to be bland (unlike what others say), as long as it does convey a message (such as the original terror being in a simple black background, but says so much about the card). Unfortunately, it seems like this time there is little meaning outside of “I am lazy” on the artist’s part. It’s not your fault that it is that way, but it is your fault for choosing this particular piece of art. It’ll give you something for the shape of the Yin Yang being present. The art also tells me that I should review this as a direct reference to Yin Yang.
Due to the card’s obvious reference to Karma, I have a heavy comparison on whether or not you’ve conveyed Yin Yang’s actual message across. According to wikipedia, 4 very important distinctions are made with Yin and Yang:
They are opposing. – You have shown this with your colour choices, the art to a certain extent, and the general mechanics being as such as well.
They are together – They are 1 card; they share flying, power, and toughness. Also, your flavor text also alludes to this fact as well.
They affect each other – Some indication of this was made on the card itself. Yang handles lifelink, while Yin causes life loss. Unfortunately, Yang’s ability undermines that aspect as well. I think the best way to convey this effect is to have the card be able to flip to one another.
They are balanced – The two sides aren’t balanced.
Two and a half out of four is your score. Not too bad. Except that Yang is associated more with aggression than life gain (the male), and Yin is more associated with birth and life, a softer side (the female).
Creativity: 2/4
Mechanically nothing new is present, but it’s not too bad at conveying the flavor. Sort of.
Quality: 2/4
- 2: The text and the render are completely different from each other. I’ve taken the render as your final product, but there is no excuse for the sloppiness.
Overall: 16/25
Jane Austen bonus!
Balance: 8/10 – Limited POV
First pick card. Inherently, the giant growth effect of pride much weaker than agony warp, making it perfectly reasonable for it to be priced at 1H. While reasonable, I think that on a split card, this should probably work with 3 mana instead (something like 1HH), as one should sacrifice efficiency for versatility.
The prejudice side of the card also suffers the same problem. The card is perfectly fine and well costed on its own, but it’s a split card, meaning that the price of the card should be closer to a black mana and a half a mana (rounded to two). In either case, you priced the cards at reasonable costs, but combined them to make it a limited powerhouse.
I don’t foresee this card making a splash on any of the three main archetypes, though Vorthos over there is drooling if it wasn’t for my comments next.
Flavor: 3.5/5 - (Breakdown: 0.5 rarity, 1.5 art, 1.5 flavor)
The art is very nice. You used one picture to depict two very different scenes and you made it work. Each side of the card also very much depicts each of their namesakes as well.
Pride doesn’t belong in GW hybrid. Mono-power pump is red and will always be red. The reason why agony warp works is because each colour handles each side perfectly on their own, and that the combination of both makes it work. Flavor-wise, green can do +X/+X as the base, while white has +0/+X as its base (neither does the +X/+0 part). What you made here is the perfect RW card, not a GW hybrid. I seriously think you should smack yourself for not getting the most obvious clues: your art depicts a dwarf (should scream red) and your card name is pride (should scream RW). Prejudice looks in flavor for black.
Your flavor text is strong and works very well for each side. Ironically, “the conviction to stand” reinforces the RW theme way more than a GW hybrid yet again.
Creativity: 4/4
Good job. Aside from the small hiccup on Pride’s part, one mechanic is a logical extension, and the other is quite new and welcomed. The two sides worked together flavorfully, giving that sort of a link the split cards need. The art worked so well with this card as well.
Quality: 4/4
Overall: 21.5/25
Balance: 8/10 – Multiplayer POV
The entire card is inherently political in nature. Hope is slightly undercosted with slithermuse and balance of power as reference (it does the same as the two on a duel, while it becomes political in multiplayer). Faith also looks a little undercosted for what it does, though the only real reference point here is reverse the sands. I think faith should cost something closer to 4.5CMC, to which rounding down is fine as it is rounding up. The only issue I have here is that faith can really slow down games in multiplayer (hope speeds it up, usually), so I’d want it to cost a bit more so people won’t intrinsically go for faith every time. 5 mana I think is the best cost for faith. Overall, I think the card is fairly well costed.
Flavor: 3/5 - (Breakdown: 0.5 rarity, 1 art, 1.5 flavor)
Hope and faith sounds white on both sides. Bad name in hope. Hope is not a term associated with blue. In fact, the mechanic itself doesn’t convey much of hope either. I don’t believe that catching up on the knowledge of the guy with the most options is the embodiment of hope. Unfortunately, there is no flavor text to justify your account of using this name and mechanic for the card. Faith, on the other hand, works with white well. The mechanic itself I can sort of see a loose connection with, but only because of cards such as invincible hymn that shows that faith can heal a planeswalker’s soul.
In terms of the art, hope embodies what it’s supposed to be. It looks like the being is reaching out to whatever the glowing thing is, and is escaping the darkness through this glowing thing. In such a way, it shows some form of iteration of hope. On the other hand, faith just looks like a dwarf (naturally associated with red) who’s giving you something, which doesn’t feel like faith at all. I’d imagine that something that’s doing preaching would make it work.
Creativity: 3/4
Mechanistically, both seem to work fine on their own, and the connection between hope and faith are plain as day.
Quality: 4/4
Overall: 20/25
Balance: 7/10 – Limited POV
The issue I have with this card is that it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to most of the time. Attack lets you menace either weak creatures that they decide to hold back, creatures that they need to hold back for certain reasons, or force your opponent to tap a creature with a tap ability already. Of course, this depends on the environment, but tap abilities tend to be quite common, and attack basically does nothing most of the time with regards to removal against them. The fact that it’s a split card that costs 3 to cantrip makes it seem overcosted, especially when an enchantment is made at 1 mana that does the same thing (though it’s sorcery speed).
Block is a pseudo lure, which somehow costs less than attack. This boggles my mind, as block is the more potent of the two (very slightly), being able to actually destroy a weak tap creature the turn it pops into play (through combat), and nets you an extra card as well. Again, both abilities are situational removal that cantrips, with block being slightly better than attack. With that said, I think you flipped the mana costs.
Flavor: 3.5/5 - (Breakdown: 0 rarity, 1 art, 2.5 flavor)
Rarity should be common, though you can justify uncommon to a certain point. Both attack and block are in flavor. I can not fault it for anything per se, since there isn’t really anything there to go wrong with. I guess the only thing that I can say about this is that the naming of the card (attack and block) is very weak, but I’ll fault you there on creativity rather than double penalize you here.
In terms of the art, I can see attack being some guy being enraged and therefore killing the other guy. Works well. For block, it is rather difficult to convey the message of pulling a guy out to force a block. I don’t think the duel between those two dragons show that message very well.
Creativity: 1/4
I don’t think much of any creativity is involved in the card. The abilities of both sides are almost identical mirrors of each other, and the naming convention (attack and block) is rather bland. I think that adding more flare in your naming would have gotten you a better mark here.
Quality: 3.5/4
- 0.5: “You may” should be in the beginning of each line. If you do mean the other way around, your balance score would drop down 1 mark to make up for the increase in quality score.
Overall: 17/25
Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe bonus!
Balance: 5/10 – Spike POV
The Batman side of the card is almost too powerful. Batman automatically wins you the game if he comes into play turn 1 with dark ritual. I can see decks that would run Batman and attempt to play him turn 2 (acceleration on turn 1), since he destroys control, and 2/1 first strike means he can survive battles with almost every turn 1 or 2 creature in most environments. Optimally, his cost should be at least in the 4-5 range, due to the incredible power this guy has. The legendary status makes little to no difference here.
The Robin side is a random form of furnace of rath, and costs exactly the same, including a 3/2 body to go with it. Unfortunately, he is just completely overshadowed by Batman, and doesn’t complement Batman in any way. I think Robin is fairly well costed, except that he probably doesn’t need the RRR cost. 2RR is prohibitive enough so that only one kind of deck can run one of the two sides.
Of course, that just means monoblack.
Flavor: 2.5/5 - (Breakdown: 0.5 rarity, 1 art, 1 flavor)
The art you have there with Batman doesn’t really convey how (s)he can sever the link between a planeswalker and his or her orb/link/etc. with lands. Since flavor text is unlikely a proposition in this card, the weight of that becomes high for this. Robin looks like a lizard creature of some sort coming out of the lava. I think that elemental would have been a more fitting creature type for Robin. Case in point, dragons should fly even if they are spirits. Robin clearly doesn’t fly nor looks like it has wings.
I find it hard to justify the mechanic that Batman has to his/her art and name, and ditto for Robin when it comes down to the name.
Creativity: 2/4
There is a strong disconnect between the two cards. There is absolutely no reason why anyone would play both sides in any format, due to the cost prohibition of the two sides. In addition, it seems almost antagonistic between the two different sides of the card, which basically means that the only connection between your two cards is in its name, and not everyone would get that subtle response either.
The Robin side is basically a random furnace, while the Batman side is novel, but too powerful. I’ve penalized you on the power part, so I will give you the due when it comes to Batman’s ability.
It’s a good idea to get around the legendary problem by allowing you to play two different legends. This is why the problem of synergy and costing seriously undermined your idea. Again, it’s costing you creativity points.
Quality: 3.5/4
- 0.5: Art should at least bleed into each other a bit to make it look better. Honestly, it’s only an extra 15 minutes on photoshop, I don’t think it’s much of an excuse there.
Overall: 15/25
燃える時計秘密めく花の香り
www.pokemoncrossroads.com
Judge: Jozan
Altruism WWW
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, you gain 2 life.
//
Avarice BB
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, you draw a card and you lose 2 life.
{R}
Magic Rules Advisor
How Creatures Die
Targets | Triggered Abilities | Priority and the Stack | Older Articles
Sorcery
Growth is green.
Spend only green mana on X.
Search your library for up to X basic land cards and put them into play. Then shuffle your library.
Embrace your world, love every day...
//
Decay
Sorcery
Decay is black.
Spend only black mana on X.
Target creature gets -X/-X until end of turn.
...for soon you’ll die, withered away.
Artists are:
Growth: Qinni.deviantart.com
Decay: 22zddr.deviantart.com
-Charlie Kelly
name of the Art is Black and White Contest
Lumen 2WW
Legendary Creature - Dragon Spirit
Lifelink
Black spells you play cost 1 less to play.
W: Lumen gets +0/+1 until end of turn.
Born from one another...
3/2
//
Umbra BBB
Legendary Creature - Dragon Spirit
Shadow
White spells you play cost 1 less to play.
B: Umbra gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
...they carry a piece of the other.
2/3
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
Nature's Dominion 2G
Enchantment (Rare)
All permanents have protection from artifacts.
Nature will always find a way to survive.
(art by andyp89 at deviantART.com)
//flip//
Dominion of Clarity 1W
Artifact (Rare)
All permanents have protection from enchantments.
"Your trifling auras will only slow progress."
(art by SesakaHeart at deviantART.com)
Instant
Buyback-Discard a card. (You may discard a card as you play this spell. If you do, put this card into your hand as it resolves.)
You may put a land card from your hand into play.
//
Sensibility 1U
Buyback-Return a land you control to its owner's hand.(You may return a land you control to its owner's hand as you play this spell. If you do, put this card into your hand as it resolves.)
Draw a card.
Legendary Creature — Demon Wolf
BB: Regenerate Kaaloghu.
Whenever Kaaloghu deals combat damage to an opponent, you may put a +1/+0 counter on it.
2BR: Return two target cards named Kaaloghu, the Hellwolf from your graveyard to your hand.
4/1
————————————————————————————
Infernal Fire of the Hellwolf RR
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature named Kaaloghu, the Hellwolf
Enchanted creature has first strike and "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to an opponent, you may pay RR. If you do, it deals damage to each creature that player controls equal to the number of +1/+0 counters on this creature."
Artist: ShadowUmbre and Dave Allsop
~ fissionessence
Instant {U}
Target creature gains protection from creatures with flying until end of turn.
"Look out..."
==============
Cover 2U
Instant {U}
Target permanent gains shroud until end of turn.
"...they're coming!"
Ahasver vs. Johm000
Judge: Ace
Card:
Wilt 2BB
Sorcery (R)
Destroy up to two tapped lands.
Flashback - Sacrifice two untapped lands.
//
Bloom G
Sorcery (R)
Put up to two lands from your hand into play tapped.
Cycling - Reveal two land cards from your hand.
Artist: dadrian at deviantART.com (for both)
Artist's Site: deviantART profile ; deviantARt gallary
Sorcery R
For each creature put into any graveyard from play this turn, put a 1/1 green and white Elf Druid creature token into play.
Stitch 2BB (You may pay an additional 2BB to play both side’s effects.)
///
Disease 1:symbr::symbr::symbr:
Sorcery R
Choose a creature you don’t control. That creature deals X damage to each other creature and each player, where X is its power.
Stitch 1GG (You may pay an additional 1GG to play both side’s effects.)
Cure Side by: Hungerartist ( http://hungerartist.deviantart.com/ )
Disease Side by: Gardenofbadthings ( http://gardenofbadthings.deviantart.com/ )
also, "Choose a creature you don't control = no protection, no shroud
Opponent: Glibe
Sorcery {U}
Target player gains control of target permanent you control.
It is now yours to behold.
//
Take X1RR
Sorcery {U}
Gain control of target artifact or creature with converted mana cost X.
It is now mine to withhold!
Go Go MS Paint!!!
"Sarcasm is the body's natural defense against Stupidity"