The Card Creation League is a monthly contest in which players compete over seven rounds. Each month has an overall theme and/or story, determined by that month's host.
Each round, the host will assign a card creation task to the players. This task may vary between teams or players.
The first three rounds are open to everyone who joined in the sign-up thread, which will be posted near the end of the previous month. After these rounds, the Top 8 players will move on to three single elimination rounds to determine a winner.
Rounds usually last three to four days for submissions and about two days for critiques, but the host has final say in making the schedule.
For the first three rounds, players are divided into teams. Four teams is standard, but there may be more or less depending on the number of players. Each team will review another team's cards during the critique period of that round.
Each player must submit a Top 3 ranking for the team he or she critiques at the end of each round. Each First Place is worth 3 points; Second Place is 2 points; and Third Place is 1 point.
Additionally, each player can receive up to 2 additional points per round. One point is given for posting a Top 3, and one point for providing critiques for that team's cards.
Suggested areas to critique include creativity, balance, printability, and relation to the overall theme or that player's previous cards.
Players who do not post a card or a Top 3 will be put on "probation." Top 3 violations for a round can be removed by posting or PMing the host with your Top 3 before the end of the next round. Any player that would receive a second violation is disqualified from further competition that month.
At the end of the first three rounds, the Top 8 players will be selected by points (usually the top 2 from each team). In the case of ties, there may be more than 8 players advancing. The host will determine matchups for single elimination. At the end of each elimination round, remaining players not in that matchup will choose a winner to advance. The host will break any ties.
The final round is determined by public poll.
Prior to Top 8, players have a chance of getting a total of 100 points toward their score each Scoring Round. Scores for each Round are determined by the following equation:
Total points of Player A in round N = 100 * X/Y, where:
X = Total number of Scoring Points (Judge Points + Additional Points from Top 3 & Critiques)
Y = Total number of Possible Points (3 * Number of Judges + Additional Points)
3 points are given for a First Place Top 3 finish, 2 points for a Second Place, and 1 point for a Third Place. 1 additional point is awarded if Critiques are given for all entries to be judged.
This way the grading is more streamlined in the fact that all rounds prior to Top 8 are graded equally, and there is no handicap for any team that has fewer judges.
Each player accumulates points from each Scoring Round until the end of Round 3.
"Dreams." From the faints remains of your human memories, you are reminded of another meaning for that word: "aspirations" or "ambitions." That's fitting, you consider, as your journey between madness and a reality that cannot be contained by the waking mind has been defined by that word. And now it all comes to its fulfillment. To the ultimate realization of your wildest dreams.
By shaping the destiny of a brand new plane until the carefully engineered ascension of one of its best qualified lifeforms, you've become a locus of power and unbounded conscience, what is colloquially known as a "spark". Having found a worthy vessel among your mortal cohorts, and together you've become a Planeswalker. And since in your timeline the Mending hasn't occurred yet, you hold godlike power that only now you start to understand.
Similarly, now you start to understand the obscure plan your cosmic masters had for you from the beginning. You are to give birth to a new Plane which will be instrumental in the destiny of the whole Multiverse.
Your last task will be:
-Create a card that represents the birth of a plane.
-Create a Plane card. It's abilities must be related to those of your planeswalker.
-Create a card that showcases a new card type.
The finalists:
CodGod
Ikeda
This round will be open until thursday's midnight, when it becomes friday (GTM 0)
I'm calling it right now- worst rare in the set. Even good limited players will find better bombs at common and uncommon no sweat. Worst. Episode. Ever.
I really do predict this to be our worst rare in set award winner. I'd be happier opening a jar of eyeballs, so I think anything worse is highly unlikely. This card wont just have zero constructed potential, but not be significantly better than a mass of ghouls in a draft.
Round 1: Site of the First Haunting
Legendary Land
Whenever a creature you control dies, put a charge counter on Site of the First Haunting. T, Remove X charge counters from Site of the First Haunting: Add X white mana to your mana pool.
You may cast white creatures from your graveyard if you use only mana produced by Site of the First Haunting to do so.
Round 2: Fragile Wisps1W
Instant
Put 5 0/0 white Spirit creature tokens onto the battlefield. The first flickers of life flashed and dwindled like flames without candles. But some found wicks of hope upon which they could grow
Round 3: Ascendant Essence1WW
Creature - Sprirt (R)
As Ascendant Essence enters the battlefield, you may remove a +1/+1 counter from a creature you control. If you do, Ascendant Essence enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it. Mourning - When another creature you control dies, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Ascendant Essence. If Ascendant Essence has four of more +1/+1 counters on it, put a +1/+1 counter on each other creature you control instead. Our birth a gift from the living, our growth a gift from the dead, our strength in turn a gift to others
0/0
Mourning is intended to be a potential ability word for a graveyard-themed set where all mourning abilities trigger on other creatures you control dying, but the abilities do different things - similar to landfall.
Round 4: Spirit of Vengance4WWW
Legendary Creature - Spirit Avatar (MR) Mourning - Whenever a creature you control dies, put a +1/+1 counter on each other creature you control.
When Spirit of Vengance dies, remove any number or +1/+1 counters from creatures you control. For each counter removed this way, put a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying onto the battlefield. The strength to endure, the will to avenge those who do not.
6/6
Spiritual Shield0
Tribal Artifact - Spirit Equipment (MR)
Equipped creature gets +0/+X, where X is it's power.
Sacrifice equipped creature: Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.
Equip 3
Round 5: Inner EnergiesW
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant Creature
Whenever enchanted creature becomes tapped for the first time in a turn, untap it. Sometimes, having a great destiny can grant you the power to achieve it.
Demon's Scorn2BR
Sorcery (U)
For each opponent, that player may discard any number of cards, then Demon's Scorn deals X damage to each creature that player controls, where X is the number of cards in his or her hand. As the demon's foul laughter echoed through the valley, those in the academy refused to give up their secrets to save the screaming townsfolk.
Aelti, Renewed Light1WW
Planeswalker - Aelti (M)
[+1]: Put a 0/0 white Spirit creature token onto the battlefield.
[+1]: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control.
[-X]: Return target white creature with converted mana cost X or less from your graveyard to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it.
[-5]: You get an emblem with "Each creature you control gets +X/+X, where X is the total number of +1/+1 counters on other creatures you control".
[ 3 ]
Round 6 submission:
Birth of a Pure World2WW
Sorcery (R)
Exile each nonwhite, nonland permanent you control. For each permanent exiled this way, search your library for a white card that shares a card type with that the exiled card and put that card onto the battlefield.
Exile each nonplains land you control. For each permanent exiled this way, search your library for a plains card and put that card onto the battlefield. The 'walker smiled, and suddenly all was bathed in a brilliant light, stripping away imperfection and giving rise to a new world more suited to her tastes.
My initial though is it should put stuff into the battlefield. I figure I'll probably go white with this one - while we're not limited to the colours of previous submisions, I figure I'll go with tying my stuff to my previous entries in at least colour as long as I can. Also, white seems like a decent colour for an acto fo creation, although really I think red would be most thematically appropriate.
Looking at previous cards which represent the birth of a plane (see my reference section - I'm counting conflux since it was the creation of Alara as a whole from separate parts, so it's close enough), the common theme seems to be gaining resources, which makes sense. I sort of like the idea of putting things onto the battlefield rather than getting things into hand. I'm thinking maybe a reverse-balance style thing where you get new permanents until you have as many as an opponent, but I'm not sure yet - that's an interesting white way to do a mass influx of resources, but doesn't quite fit the "creation of a plane" feel.
Thinking about it more, this really only feels like adding new stuffto what you already have, and while Planar Birth fits that category as well, I don't think it's the best way to represent the creation of a new plane. I feel like on some level you should be replacing things with new things - this give a sense of transition. I like the idea thematically that the birth of a plane is a one-off even, rather that a slow process, so I'm sticking with it being a sorcery rather than a permanent of some kind with a repeatable ability.
If I want to keep it in white, I should find a way of replacing things that feels white. While it's not necessarily a major theme, white has the xenophobia thing going on, and has a tendency to hate on nonwhite stuff - perhaps the birth of a white-focused plane could be represented mechanically by replacing your nonwhite stuff with white stuff? Something like: "Exile each nonwhite permanent you control. For each permanent exiled this way, search your library for a white card that shares a card type with that the exiled card and put that card onto the battlefield."
I'll put that up on the card for now since it's the best I have, then come back and think over it again later.
Realised it was horrible for exiling all your lands, so fixed that as well. This is an interesting card, which appeals to my Johnny senses. One the one hand you want lots of white things, but on the other hand you want nonwhite things to exile. I suspect the best ways to use it are either mostly white decks with the ability to produce nonwhite tokens, or run cheap artifact creatures (plain artifacts will only be able to fetch other artifacts, and even then only if they're white). I think the current version is pretty good at thematically representing the birth of a plane, but mechanically it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. But there are certainly people out there who like cards like this, where there's a little puzzle to work out what kind of deck to use them in.
The Lightfields
Plane - Aeltirlos
When you planeswalk to The Lightfields or at the beginning of your upkeep, put two 0/0 white Spirit creature tokens into play.
Each creature gets +X/+X where X is the total number of +1/+1 counters on other creatures controlled by the same player. CWhenever you roll chaos, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
Obviously I wanted my planeswalker's ultimate here in some form - effectively making +1/+1 counters count for all your dudes, not just the ones they're one, is cool and exciting. Also, it works well with a few particular kinds of deck, while still having some effect on lots of other decks that don't focus on +1/+1 counters, but have a few in them. This is an aspect of a lot of fun plane cards - they work better with certain deck types than others, so only some players run them in their planar deck, or if playing with all the planes in a shared planar deck, which is quite common, some players want them to come up and stay there, while others will be frantically trying to planeswalk away. In my planechase games, I've found this kind of situation to be really fun.
With that ability as a given, I obviously needed a way for other players to get +1/+1 counters if they don't have any. The chaos trigger seems like the best one, and I like that a player with no +1/+1 counters will want to planeswalk away from here, but if they don't they might get a counter as a consolation prize instead. I also like that the counters it hands out remain after you leave the plane, but stop affecting other creatures, making them less powerful.
The 0/0 Spirits were a big hit in round two, and I love the way they work on the planeswalker, so I figured I wanted them in here as well. There's already several planes with multiple abilities in their non-chaos part (including my home plane for this CCL, Agyrem), so there's precedent for that. I think it's thematically cool that without global pump of your own, the spirits won't survive when you try to take them with you away from their home plane - they're to fragile to exist in harsher worlds. Also, they need something strong (i.e. with counters) nearby to survive even in their own home, which I could probably spin into a cool flavour text if planes had that.
Lightfield Spire1WW
Structure - Tower (R) (Structures can be attacked)
Creatures you control get +1/+1
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a 0/0 white Spirit creature onto the battlefield. It's light gives strength to the worthy.
[4]
Structure is a new card type (given the challenge, this was a no-brainer).
Structures are permanents, and can normally be played only during your main phase while the stack is empty.
Structues can be attacked just like planeswalkers.
Noncombat damage redirected to them in the same way as well.
Structures enter the battlefield with the number of integrity counters indicated by the number on the bottom-right of the card, but unlike planeswalkers, they don't use those counters to fuel abilities.
Damage dealt to a structure causes that many integrity counters to be removed from it.
A new card type ought to do something which can't be easily accomplished with existing types.
Looking at the two types most recently added to the game, Tribal has a very mechanical purpose and it's unlike I'll get anywhere doing something similar - sure, you'd need a new type in order to let enchantment subtypes be on nonenchantments, but why would you bother?
Planeswalkers do a whole host of things, but I think the most interesting is that for the first time, something other than a player can be attacked. It's hard to fit all the rules about attacking non-players on a card, so that kind of thing makes sense for a new card type to do.
So I'm going to look for design space and creative space in things which can be attacked, but which are mechanically distinct from planeswalkers in some way - they shouldn't feel like planeswalkers could just do the same things.
Okay, so clearly if I'm attacking these things they need an equivalent to either life or toughness - a life equivalent being something which doesn't regenerate at end of turn, a toughness equivalent being something which does. So far, players have life, and planeswalkers have loyalty, which fits in the life category since damage dealt to it doesn't 'wear off' at end of turn. So all things you can currently attack have 'life' to which damage is permanent. Therefore I should stick with that for the sake of consistency (which will help new players play the cards right) unless there's a pressing reason not to - for example if the things were themed as creatures it would make sense for them to function more like creatures.
..Actually, let's consider that one for a bit. Could there be a new type which can be attacked, but are also creatures? Maybe the new typye doesn't do anything on it's own (sort of like tribal) but is combined with the creature type so that creatures which also have this type can be attacked directly? The type could also be combined with artifacts and enchantments to allow them to be attacked, but since they can't be dealt damage, it would need to supply "toughness" for those types when combined with them. It would have to be toughness for the simple fact that adding a new stat would mean you couldn't combine them with creatures nicely - since then they'd have two stats for taking damage. So permanents of this type have toughness (but not power, unless they're also creatures), and can be attacked like a player or planeswalker. Damage is dealt to them and wears off at end of turn just like to planeswalkers, so you need to kill them in one attack. This type would clearly represent things being big or important enough that they would be targeted by the opponent's armies - for now I'm going to call the type "Focal", since it's flavour-non-specific and fits with all other permanent types. I'll probably change the name if I use this kind of type, but iot's nice to have something to refer to it as.
This would definitely fit being a new type (all the rules baggage regarding attacking it would be too much to spell out on the card, and making it a type allows that type to have toughness).
Example "Focal" cards: Ethnair, The Dancing Flame3RRRR
Legendary Focal Creature - Elemental (Focal permanents can be attacked) 1RR: Ethnair, The Dancing Flame deals 1 damage to each creature attacking you and 2 damage to each creature attacking it.
4/4
Nexus of StrengthGW
Focal Enchantment
Creatures you control get +2/+2
/2
Pros of the "Focal" type:
- Interacts with a wide variety of existing cards (creatures)
- Creates interesting decisions for the opponent when attacking - do they attack you or your focal card?
- Wide design space due to combining the type with creatures, artifacts, enchantments and lands for different cards.
Cons of the "Focal" type:
- It's a type which can't exist on it's own (well, it could, but there'd be very little mechanical difference between a Focal Enchantment and just a Focal, so it shouldn't -if it's going to be combined, it should be combined). Some people disliked this about Tribal.
- It doesn't sound like a type, but a supertype (Tribal complaints again).
- Toughness on non-creatures. You could write rules about -1/-1 counters affecting them so that would work intuitively, but burn spells can't target non-creature focals, and the planeswalker redirection thing isn't going to cut it here. It has toughness but isn't affected by global burn. I don't like that. Also, I suspect having toughness will make some newbies try to block with them, due to the similarity to creatures.
- Everything else which can be attacked (i.e. players and planeswalkers) has a life-style resource that doesn't have damage wear off at end of turn. I think allowing the opponent to wear down the thing is probably more interesting from a gameplay point of view.
- Would have to come up with a thematically appropriate way for a focal creature to deal damage to things which attack it and aren't blocked, based on it's power. Also, need to restrict focal creatures from blocking the creatures which attack them. These can be avoided by restricting focal to noncreatures, but that takes away some of the point of the type.
Contrast this against a type which represents a separate kind of thing which can be attacked. This type, unlike Focal, would be designed to be a separate type, not combined with other types. There are a few things I can think of which flavourfully might fit here, but the most obvious and resonant one is that it represents some kind of castle/fortress/wizard's tower - for now I'm going to call this type "Base" because it gets the idea across, but again I'll change the name to something cooler if I go with it.
This type would have a number of counters on it, which similar to loyalty on planeswalkers, would be removed as damage is dealt to it. Once they're all gone, it's destroyed. To distance these from planeswalkers and make them distinct, they won't use these counters as a resource for abilities. In general they'll have static/activated/triggered abilities which don't care about their counters, and the counters are only used to determine how much damage they can take. I suppose some designs could have ways for you to add more counters to represent repairing the base - but there could be a global rule preventing the from ever having more than the starting number. However, it might be allowable to have static abilities which grant a bonus based on how many counters are left.
To increase interactions with other cards, the planeswalker damage redirection rule would be expanded to bases as well. So you can effectively cast shock at the opponent's base in the same way you can at their planeswalker (I know you don't actually target planeswalkers with the shock, you target the player and redirect it - I'm more talking about thematically here).
Example "Base" cards: Spikey Battlements2WW
Base - Fortress
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a 1/1 soldier creature token into play.
Soldier creatures blocking creatures attacking Spikey Battlements get +1/+1 and have first strike.
[4]
Spellward Tower1(W/U)(W/U)
You and other permanents you control have hexproof.
[5]
Pros of the "Base" type:
- Thematically easy to get.
- Piggybacks on existing stuff so is reasonably easy to understand how attacking/damaging it works due to it being similar to planeswalkers.
- Is it's own type and doesn't need to be combined with other types to work.
Cons of the "Base" type:
- Might be considered to similar to planeswalkers.
- Flavourfully such things in the past have been made as Artifacts and Lands, rather than a separate type. Then again, Runesword and similar thing existed before they made equipment. So existing things which make sense as the type being something else isn't necessarily a strike against it. And I think there might be enough of a thematic distinction between these (which are actual physically present structures) and lands (which are, at least some of the time, thematically your bond with the land through which you draw mana).
- Treads really hard on the flavour of fortifications. (But those things are full of problems anyway - I destroy the mountain your building is on, so it moves to that island over there? Really?)
So from picking out "being attacked" a a property for a new type, I've worked out two very different options for how to take it. Not sure which one I'll go with, I think I'll go take a break for a bit and come back to this.
So a bit later I've come to the conclusion that the "base" type is probably a better idea. Making other types attackable is interesting, but leads to weird situations (such as a focal creature blocking creatures which aren't attacking it - or those which are, for that matter).
So I'm working with a type which can be attacked, and keeps track of damage using counters just like paneswalkers. To differentiate them from planeswalkers, they won't use the counters for abilities, but will instead have static/activated/triggered abilties. To an extent they're like attackable enchantments, but they can be more powerful due to the opponent being able to remove them by attacking.
For lack of a better word, I'm going with "Structure" as the type name - it's nice and generic, and I can use subtypes to add specific flavour (something I wish wizards would do more on non-creatures. Imagine if all 'charms' were "Instant - Charm", and we could have a legendary creature or something which referenced charm cards? Adding types for flavour now lets them be referred to mechanically in future, and is another way to get flavour across (not every 'charm' printed would need charm in the name if it was on the type line).
They should have powerful abilities which make the opponent want to attack them to get rid of them. I think a good option is getting tokens every upkeep, but really any upkeep trigger or powerful static ability is good here.
But since I've been going with token creation all this time, I might as well stick with my trusty 0/0 spirits. Which means it should also have a static anthem effect. I'm going with costing it the same as Glorious Anthem, with the token-making balanced out by it being removable by attacking. I decided not to give it many counters, since it'll drop early when the opponent might have a hard time getting lots of damage through by attacking.
And I guess that about wraps it up for that. I think there's a lot of interesting things which can be done with this type, but as far as one card to show the idea off goes, I think I did okay with this.
As a side-note, I think it's cool that they play like attackable enchantments, they're easy for red to remove (due to burn) - which fits flavourfully since "Structures" sound like something red would just burn down.
While I don't personally think the game needs a new card type right now, if it had to have one, I don't think Structures would be a bad choice.
Terra Prima
Legendary Land MR
Whenever a land would enter the battlefield under your control, that land enters the battlefield tapped instead. Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, add RG to your mana pool. Nowhere else in the multiverse does the land compete for its own dominance.
Packhunter BroodG
Sorcery U
As an additional cost to cast Packhunter Brood, return four lands you control to their owners' hands.
Put four 2/2 green Wolf creature tokens onto the battlefield. Having long adapted to the land's temperament, Zendikar's creatures learned to make their own hunting grounds.
Timberguide Wolf1G
Creature - Wolf U
Evolve (At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a level counter on this.) [2/2]
Level 1-3: Whenever Timberguide Wolf attacks, you may put a basic land card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped. [2/2]
Level 4+: Whenever Timberguide Wolf attacks, you may search your library for a basic land card and put that card onto the battlefield tapped. Then, shuffle your library. [3/4]
Scapechaser Pack4GGG
Legendary Creature - Wolf MR
When Scapechaser Pack enters the battlefield, search your library for any number of basic land cards, put them onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library. "I met them atop lonesome crags and dusty fields. I glimpsed them across empty shorelines and stagnant waters. And all those times I became the subject of their penetrating gaze, as though I was taking my first clumsy steps of a land they had long since mastered."—Samila, Murasa Expeditionary House
7/7
Heart of Murasa0
Tribal Artifact - Wolf Equipment MR
Heart of Murasa's equip cost costs 1 less for each land you control that entered the battlefield this turn.
Equipped creature gets +5/+5.
Equip 6 "Beyond the unyielding expanse. Beneath the unfathomable depths. Behind the unreachable horizon. Only there shall you find the source of this land's strength." —Moruul, Khalni druid
Grizzled Defiance1G
Enchantment - Aura C
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+2.
When enchanted creature would die, put it on top of its owner's library instead. "Your eyes have seen many a world that lies beyond," Nissa said, returning its gaze. "And I believe that you do not intend to let the Eldrazi spread to any of them."
Imminent ArrivalXRR
Sorcery R
Search your library for a creature card with converted mana cost X or less and put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library. That creature gains haste and "At the beginning of the end step, exile this creature." "The creature — if it could even be called one — was enormous, and it tore through the pack in a haze of blood, bone, and teeth. But the wolves... they never stayed their charge. Not until the last of them lay breathing in a bloody heap." —Wiedru, Kazandu survivor
Vargg, Scapechaser1GG
Planeswalker - Vargg MR
+1: Add G to your mana pool.
+1: Put a 2/2 green Wolf creature token onto the battlefield.
+1: Search your library for up to X basic land cards and put them in your hand, where X is the number of loyalty counters on Vargg, Scapechaser. Shuffle Vargg into your library.
Loyalty: 1
Round 6 Submissions:
Gradual Emergence2G
Enchantment U
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a nonland permanent you control on the bottom of its owner's library. If you do, search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library. "Zendikar may be home, but it has become far too old for the likes of me. Perhaps a change of scenery would be good." —Vargg, Scapechaser
Endless Glade
Plane - Nexus of Infinities
When you planeswalk to Endless Glade, search your planar deck for a plane card and reveal it. Endless Glade has that card's abilities as long as it remains revealed.
When you planeswalk away from Endless Glade, shuffle all cards it revealed into your planar deck. C: Search your planar deck for a plane card and reveal it. Endless Glade has that card's abilities as long as it remains revealed.
Primal Awakening
Objective S
[Condition] When you control seven or more creature tokens, you may turn Primal Awakening face up.
[Benefit] Whenever a spell or ability you control would put a creature token onto the battlefield under your control, put a 7/7 green Elemental creature token onto the battlefield under your control instead. "The otherworldly spawn remain, but Zendikar has children of its own... and they are far mightier." —Vargg, Scapechaser
Mechanics
1. Objectives are a new card type. They have a card back that is different from other Magic cards, which specifically identifies them as Objective cards. All Objective cards have the same card back.
2. You may start the game with up to three face-down Objectives in your Command Zone, no two of which should share the same name. At the end of the game, all face-down Objective cards must be revealed to all players.
3. Objectives are not considered to be spells or permanents, and do not enter the battlefield. Objectives do not have a mana cost. Face-down Objectives are considered to have no text, no name, no subtypes, and no expansion symbol.
4. Each Objective has a Condition and a Benefit, marked as [Condition] and [Benefit] respectively.
If you fulfill the Condition of a face-down Objective in your Command Zone, you may turn it face-up. This is a special action that does not use the stack.
An Objective's Benefit abilities take effect as long as it is face-up.
If a face-down Objective would have an "As [this card] is turned face up . . ." Benefit ability after it's turned face up, that ability is put on the stack as a triggered ability and uses the stack as normal.
Collation
Objectives are distributed as part of the Tokens sheet and therefore appear in the "token" / "rules insert" slot of a booster pack. Chances of getting an Objective card in a booster pack would be about 1 in 3.5.
Limited Play Restriction
During Booster Draft, Objectives are set aside along with other cards in the Token and Basic Land slots. These cards are kept by the player opening the pack and are not drafted as part of the normal booster drafting process.
-Create a card that represents the birth of a plane.
-Create a Plane card. It's abilities must be related to those of your planeswalker.
-Create a card that showcases a new card type.
No bonus points. For these small mercies, we are grateful.
This'll require a lot of background legwork, so I'll need to look over the current selection of Plane cards and analyze the Planechase mechanics.
On the new card type, the obvious approach is to look at the mechanics for other card games and see if there is a theme that can be mined. The first thing that comes to mind involves Legend of the Five Rings' enlightenment victory, which lets you play Elemental Ring cards only under very specific circumstances. An older example, translated into Magic-speak as much as I can:
Ring of the Void
Elemental Ring
If Ring of the Void is the last card in your hand, you may play it. T: If you have no cards in your hand, draw 4 cards. Activate this ability as a sorcery.
The catch is that this card can be translated rather easily into existing card types:
Ring of the Void4
Artifact
When you cast Ring of the Void, counter it if it isn't the last card in your hand. T: If you have no cards in your hand, draw 4 cards. Activate this ability as a sorcery.
But we can twist it by having it set the conditions when it enters the battlefield:
Seek Enlightenment
Cardtype
When you have no cards in hand, flip Seek Enlightenment.
// T: If you have no cards in your hand, draw 4 cards. Activate this ability as a sorcery.
Flipping seems a bit restrictive on the text, particularly if the requirements will be complex. What if we use the transform mechanic, though?
Seek Enlightenment
Objective
When you have no cards in hand, transform Seek Enlightenment.
// T: If you have no cards in your hand, draw 4 cards. Activate this ability as a sorcery.
Meh. It still feels like it can be translated into a standard enchantment card.
But what if the objective was secret? Then technically you would just need to have all the copy on one side of the card:
Seek Enlightenment
Objective
Turn Seek Enlightenment face-up only if you have no cards in hand. T: If you have no cards in your hand, draw 4 cards. Activate this ability as a sorcery.
I would imagine that the new card type would have a unique card back from other Magic cards, so that opponents can't mistake the fact that these are Objective cards that you aim to fulfill. With a unique card back that needs to be shown, though, you can't mix these up into a deck... but a better question would be, why would you mix these into a deck?
Basically, each player may start the game with up to three face-down Objective cards. As each Objective card's requirements are fulfilled, that card is turned face up and begins affecting the game in some way.
So you can have Objectives like:
First Blood
Objective
Turn First Blood face-up if you're the first player to deal damage to an opponent this game. T: Target attacking creature you control gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
And you can hypothetically have cards like:
Sneak Preview2U
Sorcery
Turn target objective face up. At end of turn, turn that objective face down.
Judging from the initial reception for Transform cards, though, this may have some backlash. And it'll cause issues with booster draft, considering that you have the same problem as the Transform debacle... although at least you won't know what Objective card it is right off the bat.
It bears some thinking out. I might as well have a look at other games first, but it's nice to have a default idea.
...
... Okay, controversial thought here. What if these things weren't available for booster drafts?
Technically, being able to use Objective cards means that you put your deck together and plan ways to fulfill the Objective. It's more Constructed than anything else, really. What if you simply disallowed the use of these cards for Limited?
You'd get riots, that's what. I don't want to open an Objective card as my mythic rare and not be able to use it during the Prerelease.
So what if Objectives didn't have rarity?
I'm not talking about putting them at one in each pack - similar to basic lands, of course. I'd still want some form of partial availability - you can open a pack and either get an Objective card or not. There's one packaging level that actually fulfills this - token cards.
So Objectives are randomly distributed among tokens in the card token slot. Whenever you open a pack for a booster draft, you set aside the cards in the token and the basic land slot, then draft the remaining cards. Whatever was in those token and basic land slots is yours to keep - including Objectives. Ditto with Sealed.
Hmm... that sounds like it might work, although it'll require rewriting some rulesets. But it might work.
So, okay... Objectives would work as follows:
- Objectives have a unique card back, one that identifies them as Objectives but otherwise makes them indistinguishable from each other.
- You may start the game with up to three face-down Objectives in your Command Zone. All three Objectives must be different from each other.
- At the end of the game, you must reveal all Objective cards in your Command Zone (to ensure that all of them are different Objectives).
- Objectives are applicable only for Constructed play. If you open an Objective in a Limited tournament, set it aside along with your tokens and lands. If card pools have to be passed without passing the tokens and lands, do not pass the Objectives.
- Objectives are not considered to be spells or permanents, and do not enter the battlefield. They're considered colorless cards.
- Each Objective has a condition and an effect. If at any point you fulfill the condition of a face-down Objective in your Command Zone, turn it face-up. Its static effects take place immediately.
- Turning a face-down Objective face-up does not use the stack (similar to Morph cards).
- If an effect takes place when you turn a face-down Objective face-up, this is considered to be a triggered ability and uses the stack as normal.
I'll have to write up a proper ruleset if I have the time. Meanwhile...
CARDNAME
Objective
[Condition] When you have ten or more lands on the battlefield, turn CARDNAME face up.
[Benefit] Creatures you control are 7/7.
With regards to the plane, it looks like this'll be a matter of flavor. Pools of Becoming gives a fair idea of what happens when a planeswalker shapes his own little corner of the multiverse; it reflects his personality in some way. Because we're working with Vargg here, it stands to reason that his plane would fit his character.
The only thing we've fleshed out about Vargg is that he's an explorer, like the rest of his once-existing pack. Given his experience at the hands of the Eldrazi emergence, he holds life quite sacred and actively opposes any force that would subjugate or suppress indigenous life. Basically - Vargg is the kind of planeswalker who wants to explore new worlds with his power, and do everything he can to keep them "pristine".
So if Vargg ever came up with his own plane, it would be a gateway to other worlds, I think. He would rest there, he would access every new worlds from there, and he would use it as an easy staging point if he ever needed to lead an assault against the invaders of any world. He won't actively fight evil, I think; he'll find a way to maintain a balance.
If you had a gateway to other worlds, the first thing that comes to mind is that you'll be able to access those other worlds' abilities. Pools of Becoming already covers the Chaos abilities, but what about the static ones?
CARDNAME
Plane - ???
When you planeswalk to CARDNAME, turn the top face-down card of your planar deck face up. CARDNAME has that plane's abilities as long as that plane remains face up.
When you planeswalk away from CARDNAME, shuffle all revealed planes into your planar deck. C: Turn the top face-down card of your planar deck face up. CARDNAME has that plane's abilities as long as that plane remains face up.
That's tricky to word, but it does capture the idea - you have access to the abilities of the nearest planes as long as you're at this "gateway" plane of Vargg's.
Hmm... "gateway"... "nexus"?
CARDNAME
Plane - Nexus
When you planeswalk to CARDNAME, turn the top face-down card of your planar deck face up. CARDNAME has that plane's abilities as long as that plane remains face up.
When you planeswalk away from CARDNAME, shuffle all revealed planes into your planar deck. C: Turn the top face-down card of your planar deck face up. CARDNAME has that plane's abilities as long as that plane remains face up.
It strikes me that the static ability just changes this into the next plane. Maybe the next two planes instead...
CARDNAME
Plane - Nexus
When you planeswalk to CARDNAME, reveal the top two face-down cards of your planar deck. CARDNAME has those planes' abilities as long as they remain revealed.
When you planeswalk away from CARDNAME, shuffle all revealed planes into your planar deck. C: Reveal the top face-down card of your planar deck. CARDNAME has that plane's abilities as long as it remains revealed.
Looks like the Plane card won't change - too short a time limit here. Just filling in some (temporary?) flavor, although this seems good already:
Endless Glade
Plane - Nexus of Infinities
When you planeswalk to Endless Glade, reveal the top two face-down cards of your planar deck. Endless Glade has those cards' abilities as long as they remain revealed.
When you planeswalk away from Endless Glade, shuffle all cards it revealed into your planar deck. C: Reveal the top face-down card of your planar deck. Endless Glade has that card's abilities as long as it remains revealed.
The requirements ask for its abilities to be related to the planeswalker card; the connection is flavor-based, but I hope that "searching for lands" can be equated to "adding additional planes to the mix". Perhaps an explanation would be in order.
Now there's the question of the "birth of a plane" card. This feels like it has to be top-down; so what does the creation of a plane involve? The possibilities:
- Adding new cards / resources to the table.
- Wiping away old cards / resources.
- Searching for cards from your library and putting them into hand / the battlefield.
- Searching for cards from outside the game and putting them into the game in some way.
That last one actually sounds cute:
CARDNAME4G
Enchantment
You may play basic land cards from outside the game as though they were in your hand.
In short, you get access to all colors of mana, Snow and non-Snow types, and you never miss another land drop for the rest of the game. Of note is that it actually doesn't give any sort of card advantage whatsoever, so it seems flashy and combo-oriented, but not insanely good.
My issue is that this doesn't necessarily feel like you're making a new plane - instead, it feels like you're just drawing in resources from a different plane. The feel needs to be more in the direction of "shifting" and "replacement" - as though you're changing your current surroundings with that of your new plane.
CARDNAME2G
Enchantment
Sacrifice a nonland permanent: Put a basic land card from outside the game onto the battlefield tapped.
That's closer to what we want, I think, but it's not a very Green thing to do:
CARDNAME2G
Enchantment
Reshuffle a nonland permanent into its owner's library: Put a basic land card from outside the game onto the battlefield tapped.
As attractive as the "outside the game" clause is, I'm going to have to change it. It simply feels bad for constructed, because you'd have to stock part of your sideboard with basic lands. I don't want to have to extend this to any lands either, because then you'd have a toolbox of nonbasics to work with.
CARDNAME2G
Enchantment
Reshuffle a nonland permanent into its owner's library: Search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library.
The cute part is that you can shuffle the enchantment itself, so 2G seems like the minimum cost for this one (otherwise it would be a Rampant Growth). Wording's a bit awkward, though.
Haaaaaaang on. Maybe I should restrict this to once per turn. As it stands, it's turn one creature, turn two creature, turn three CARDNAME for up to six lands on your side. Maybe an upkeep trigger:
CARDNAME2G
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may reshuffle a nonland permanent you control into its owner's library. If you do, search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library.
Okay, so you get an extra land once per turn, at the cost of your permanents. Wording's still a little off, though.
Meh. I guess it's not off - it's possible for you to reshuffle a nonland permanent you don't control into its owner's library, then shuffle yours after retrieving the land. Seems okay, then... and one note is that you can shuffle CARDNAME as well if you run out of stuff that you want to shuffle away.
One minor adjustment - since you're technically doing a delayed Rampant Growth on yourself, I don't see why the land should enter the battlefield tapped.
CARDNAME2G
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may shuffle a nonland permanent you control into its owner's library. If you do, search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.
Heck, why bother with the double shuffle? Let's make this cleaner:
CARDNAME2G
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a nonland permanent you control on the bottom of its owner's library. If you do, search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.
Back to the Plane card - waaaaaaaait a minute. The Vargg planeswalker card searches for lands; why doesn't the Plane card search for Planes?
Endless Glade
Plane - Nexus of Infinities
When you planeswalk to Endless Glade, reveal the top two face-down cards of your planar deck. Endless Glade has those cards' abilities as long as they remain revealed.
When you planeswalk away from Endless Glade, shuffle all cards it revealed into your planar deck. C: Search your planar deck for a plane card and reveal it. Endless Glade has that card's abilities as long as it remains revealed.
Heck, why not make it the whole point of the ability? Choosing which portal to jump through is far better than opening two at random.
Endless Glade
Plane - Nexus of Infinities
When you planeswalk to Endless Glade, search your planar deck for a plane card and reveal it. Endless Glade has that card's abilities as long as it remains revealed.
When you planeswalk away from Endless Glade, shuffle all cards it revealed into your planar deck. C: Search your planar deck for a plane card and reveal it. Endless Glade has that card's abilities as long as it remains revealed.
I'll need to check the Planechase mechanics one more time to make sure that the workings are consistent with the planar deck rules, I think.
Finishing up the Objective cards:
CARDNAME
Objective
[Condition] When you have ten or more lands on the battlefield, turn CARDNAME face up.
[Benefit] Creatures you control are 7/7.
That seems like a bit of a disconnect. On top of that, it's not that difficult to get to ten lands in the current environment... although you normally don't play a lot of creatures when you do so. What about:
CARDNAME
Objective
[Condition] When you have seven or more nontoken creatures on the battlefield, you may turn CARDNAME face up.
[Benefit] Creatures you control are 7/7.
Note the addition of the "may" clause - I think this adds a bit of timing to it. You may choose the right time to turn this face up.
The current benefit ability is growing on me less and less, probably because it brings about potential confusion (like Humility). The straightforward path is:
CARDNAME
Objective
[Condition] When you have seven or more nontoken creatures on the battlefield, you may turn CARDNAME face up.
[Benefit] When CARDNAME is turned face up, put a 7/7 green Elemental creature token onto the battlefield.
So it's just a one-shot benefit? I'd rather make it sillier:
CARDNAME
Objective
[Condition] When you have seven or more nontoken creatures on the battlefield, you may turn CARDNAME face up.
[Benefit] At the beginning of each of your end steps, if you control seven or more nontoken creatures, you may put a 7/7 green Elemental creature token onto the battlefield.
Meh. The benefit and the condition are too closely tied to each other. As it is, you can print the card as an Enchantment with just the Benefit clause. You want a slight disconnect between the two clauses - something that connects them, but also something that separates them clearly.
Token decks have an audience in the Casual crowd, so I'll try that:
CARDNAME
Objective
[Condition] When you have seven or more creature tokens on the battlefield, you may turn CARDNAME face up.
[Benefit] At the beginning of each of your end steps, if you control seven or more creature tokens, you may put a 7/7 green Elemental creature token onto the battlefield.
Fairly the same. So there's the twist - if you're likely to be playing a deck full of creature tokens to take advantage of this objective, the benefit might as well tie into the means by which you reach said objective.
CARDNAME
Objective
[Condition] When you control seven or more creature tokens, you may turn CARDNAME face up.
[Benefit] Whenever a spell or ability you control would put a creature token onto the battlefield, put a 7/7 green Elemental creature token onto the battlefield instead.
Seems workable. Let's put up the ruleset and flavor.
Ikeda: Unfortunately, rules state that any card in the battlefield that is face-down is a 2/2 creature as per Morph. Wizards have stated that they have looked into this and there's no way to make this rule go away without messing up a ton of other stuff, so it's not worth it.
I'm calling it right now- worst rare in the set. Even good limited players will find better bombs at common and uncommon no sweat. Worst. Episode. Ever.
I really do predict this to be our worst rare in set award winner. I'd be happier opening a jar of eyeballs, so I think anything worse is highly unlikely. This card wont just have zero constructed potential, but not be significantly better than a mass of ghouls in a draft.
Maokun: Actually, the reference is to "face-down permanents", as opposed to "face-down cards in the battlefield":
707.2a If a face-up permanent is turned face down by a spell or ability, it becomes a 2/2 face-down creature with no text, no name, no subtypes, no expansion symbol, and no mana cost. These values are the copiable values of that object's characteristics.
So interestingly, this would still work if the object in question would neither be on the battlefield nor be considered a permanent at all...
I'm calling it right now- worst rare in the set. Even good limited players will find better bombs at common and uncommon no sweat. Worst. Episode. Ever.
I really do predict this to be our worst rare in set award winner. I'd be happier opening a jar of eyeballs, so I think anything worse is highly unlikely. This card wont just have zero constructed potential, but not be significantly better than a mass of ghouls in a draft.
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Y = Total number of Possible Points (3 * Number of Judges + Additional Points)
Previously in the CCL... ! !! !!! !V V
"Dreams." From the faints remains of your human memories, you are reminded of another meaning for that word: "aspirations" or "ambitions." That's fitting, you consider, as your journey between madness and a reality that cannot be contained by the waking mind has been defined by that word. And now it all comes to its fulfillment. To the ultimate realization of your wildest dreams.
By shaping the destiny of a brand new plane until the carefully engineered ascension of one of its best qualified lifeforms, you've become a locus of power and unbounded conscience, what is colloquially known as a "spark". Having found a worthy vessel among your mortal cohorts, and together you've become a Planeswalker. And since in your timeline the Mending hasn't occurred yet, you hold godlike power that only now you start to understand.
Similarly, now you start to understand the obscure plan your cosmic masters had for you from the beginning. You are to give birth to a new Plane which will be instrumental in the destiny of the whole Multiverse.
Your last task will be:
-Create a card that represents the birth of a plane.
-Create a Plane card. It's abilities must be related to those of your planeswalker.
-Create a card that showcases a new card type.
The finalists:
CodGod
Ikeda
This round will be open until thursday's midnight, when it becomes friday (GTM 0)
Site of the First Haunting
Legendary Land
Whenever a creature you control dies, put a charge counter on Site of the First Haunting.
T, Remove X charge counters from Site of the First Haunting: Add X white mana to your mana pool.
You may cast white creatures from your graveyard if you use only mana produced by Site of the First Haunting to do so.
Round 2:
Fragile Wisps 1W
Instant
Put 5 0/0 white Spirit creature tokens onto the battlefield.
The first flickers of life flashed and dwindled like flames without candles. But some found wicks of hope upon which they could grow
Round 3:
Ascendant Essence 1WW
Creature - Sprirt (R)
As Ascendant Essence enters the battlefield, you may remove a +1/+1 counter from a creature you control. If you do, Ascendant Essence enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it.
Mourning - When another creature you control dies, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Ascendant Essence. If Ascendant Essence has four of more +1/+1 counters on it, put a +1/+1 counter on each other creature you control instead.
Our birth a gift from the living, our growth a gift from the dead, our strength in turn a gift to others
0/0
Mourning is intended to be a potential ability word for a graveyard-themed set where all mourning abilities trigger on other creatures you control dying, but the abilities do different things - similar to landfall.
Round 4:
Spirit of Vengance 4WWW
Legendary Creature - Spirit Avatar (MR)
Mourning - Whenever a creature you control dies, put a +1/+1 counter on each other creature you control.
When Spirit of Vengance dies, remove any number or +1/+1 counters from creatures you control. For each counter removed this way, put a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying onto the battlefield.
The strength to endure, the will to avenge those who do not.
6/6
Spiritual Shield 0
Tribal Artifact - Spirit Equipment (MR)
Equipped creature gets +0/+X, where X is it's power.
Sacrifice equipped creature: Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.
Equip 3
Round 5:
Inner Energies W
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant Creature
Whenever enchanted creature becomes tapped for the first time in a turn, untap it.
Sometimes, having a great destiny can grant you the power to achieve it.
Demon's Scorn 2BR
Sorcery (U)
For each opponent, that player may discard any number of cards, then Demon's Scorn deals X damage to each creature that player controls, where X is the number of cards in his or her hand.
As the demon's foul laughter echoed through the valley, those in the academy refused to give up their secrets to save the screaming townsfolk.
Aelti, Renewed Light 1WW
Planeswalker - Aelti (M)
[+1]: Put a 0/0 white Spirit creature token onto the battlefield.
[+1]: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control.
[-X]: Return target white creature with converted mana cost X or less from your graveyard to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it.
[-5]: You get an emblem with "Each creature you control gets +X/+X, where X is the total number of +1/+1 counters on other creatures you control".
[ 3 ]
Round 6 submission:
Birth of a Pure World 2WW
Sorcery (R)
Exile each nonwhite, nonland permanent you control. For each permanent exiled this way, search your library for a white card that shares a card type with that the exiled card and put that card onto the battlefield.
Exile each nonplains land you control. For each permanent exiled this way, search your library for a plains card and put that card onto the battlefield.
The 'walker smiled, and suddenly all was bathed in a brilliant light, stripping away imperfection and giving rise to a new world more suited to her tastes.
Reference: Planar Birth, Conflux
Looking at previous cards which represent the birth of a plane (see my reference section - I'm counting conflux since it was the creation of Alara as a whole from separate parts, so it's close enough), the common theme seems to be gaining resources, which makes sense. I sort of like the idea of putting things onto the battlefield rather than getting things into hand. I'm thinking maybe a reverse-balance style thing where you get new permanents until you have as many as an opponent, but I'm not sure yet - that's an interesting white way to do a mass influx of resources, but doesn't quite fit the "creation of a plane" feel.
Thinking about it more, this really only feels like adding new stuffto what you already have, and while Planar Birth fits that category as well, I don't think it's the best way to represent the creation of a new plane. I feel like on some level you should be replacing things with new things - this give a sense of transition. I like the idea thematically that the birth of a plane is a one-off even, rather that a slow process, so I'm sticking with it being a sorcery rather than a permanent of some kind with a repeatable ability.
If I want to keep it in white, I should find a way of replacing things that feels white. While it's not necessarily a major theme, white has the xenophobia thing going on, and has a tendency to hate on nonwhite stuff - perhaps the birth of a white-focused plane could be represented mechanically by replacing your nonwhite stuff with white stuff? Something like: "Exile each nonwhite permanent you control. For each permanent exiled this way, search your library for a white card that shares a card type with that the exiled card and put that card onto the battlefield."
I'll put that up on the card for now since it's the best I have, then come back and think over it again later.
Realised it was horrible for exiling all your lands, so fixed that as well. This is an interesting card, which appeals to my Johnny senses. One the one hand you want lots of white things, but on the other hand you want nonwhite things to exile. I suspect the best ways to use it are either mostly white decks with the ability to produce nonwhite tokens, or run cheap artifact creatures (plain artifacts will only be able to fetch other artifacts, and even then only if they're white). I think the current version is pretty good at thematically representing the birth of a plane, but mechanically it's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. But there are certainly people out there who like cards like this, where there's a little puzzle to work out what kind of deck to use them in.
The Lightfields
Plane - Aeltirlos
When you planeswalk to The Lightfields or at the beginning of your upkeep, put two 0/0 white Spirit creature tokens into play.
Each creature gets +X/+X where X is the total number of +1/+1 counters on other creatures controlled by the same player.
CWhenever you roll chaos, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
Reference: planechase cards, Aelti, Renewed Light
With that ability as a given, I obviously needed a way for other players to get +1/+1 counters if they don't have any. The chaos trigger seems like the best one, and I like that a player with no +1/+1 counters will want to planeswalk away from here, but if they don't they might get a counter as a consolation prize instead. I also like that the counters it hands out remain after you leave the plane, but stop affecting other creatures, making them less powerful.
The 0/0 Spirits were a big hit in round two, and I love the way they work on the planeswalker, so I figured I wanted them in here as well. There's already several planes with multiple abilities in their non-chaos part (including my home plane for this CCL, Agyrem), so there's precedent for that. I think it's thematically cool that without global pump of your own, the spirits won't survive when you try to take them with you away from their home plane - they're to fragile to exist in harsher worlds. Also, they need something strong (i.e. with counters) nearby to survive even in their own home, which I could probably spin into a cool flavour text if planes had that.
Lightfield Spire 1WW
Structure - Tower (R)
(Structures can be attacked)
Creatures you control get +1/+1
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a 0/0 white Spirit creature onto the battlefield.
It's light gives strength to the worthy.
[4]
Structures are permanents, and can normally be played only during your main phase while the stack is empty.
Structues can be attacked just like planeswalkers.
Noncombat damage redirected to them in the same way as well.
Structures enter the battlefield with the number of integrity counters indicated by the number on the bottom-right of the card, but unlike planeswalkers, they don't use those counters to fuel abilities.
Damage dealt to a structure causes that many integrity counters to be removed from it.
Looking at the two types most recently added to the game, Tribal has a very mechanical purpose and it's unlike I'll get anywhere doing something similar - sure, you'd need a new type in order to let enchantment subtypes be on nonenchantments, but why would you bother?
Planeswalkers do a whole host of things, but I think the most interesting is that for the first time, something other than a player can be attacked. It's hard to fit all the rules about attacking non-players on a card, so that kind of thing makes sense for a new card type to do.
So I'm going to look for design space and creative space in things which can be attacked, but which are mechanically distinct from planeswalkers in some way - they shouldn't feel like planeswalkers could just do the same things.
Okay, so clearly if I'm attacking these things they need an equivalent to either life or toughness - a life equivalent being something which doesn't regenerate at end of turn, a toughness equivalent being something which does. So far, players have life, and planeswalkers have loyalty, which fits in the life category since damage dealt to it doesn't 'wear off' at end of turn. So all things you can currently attack have 'life' to which damage is permanent. Therefore I should stick with that for the sake of consistency (which will help new players play the cards right) unless there's a pressing reason not to - for example if the things were themed as creatures it would make sense for them to function more like creatures.
..Actually, let's consider that one for a bit. Could there be a new type which can be attacked, but are also creatures? Maybe the new typye doesn't do anything on it's own (sort of like tribal) but is combined with the creature type so that creatures which also have this type can be attacked directly? The type could also be combined with artifacts and enchantments to allow them to be attacked, but since they can't be dealt damage, it would need to supply "toughness" for those types when combined with them. It would have to be toughness for the simple fact that adding a new stat would mean you couldn't combine them with creatures nicely - since then they'd have two stats for taking damage. So permanents of this type have toughness (but not power, unless they're also creatures), and can be attacked like a player or planeswalker. Damage is dealt to them and wears off at end of turn just like to planeswalkers, so you need to kill them in one attack. This type would clearly represent things being big or important enough that they would be targeted by the opponent's armies - for now I'm going to call the type "Focal", since it's flavour-non-specific and fits with all other permanent types. I'll probably change the name if I use this kind of type, but iot's nice to have something to refer to it as.
This would definitely fit being a new type (all the rules baggage regarding attacking it would be too much to spell out on the card, and making it a type allows that type to have toughness).
Example "Focal" cards:
Ethnair, The Dancing Flame 3RRRR
Legendary Focal Creature - Elemental
(Focal permanents can be attacked)
1RR: Ethnair, The Dancing Flame deals 1 damage to each creature attacking you and 2 damage to each creature attacking it.
4/4
Nexus of Strength GW
Focal Enchantment
Creatures you control get +2/+2
/2
Pros of the "Focal" type:
- Interacts with a wide variety of existing cards (creatures)
- Creates interesting decisions for the opponent when attacking - do they attack you or your focal card?
- Wide design space due to combining the type with creatures, artifacts, enchantments and lands for different cards.
Cons of the "Focal" type:
- It's a type which can't exist on it's own (well, it could, but there'd be very little mechanical difference between a Focal Enchantment and just a Focal, so it shouldn't -if it's going to be combined, it should be combined). Some people disliked this about Tribal.
- It doesn't sound like a type, but a supertype (Tribal complaints again).
- Toughness on non-creatures. You could write rules about -1/-1 counters affecting them so that would work intuitively, but burn spells can't target non-creature focals, and the planeswalker redirection thing isn't going to cut it here. It has toughness but isn't affected by global burn. I don't like that. Also, I suspect having toughness will make some newbies try to block with them, due to the similarity to creatures.
- Everything else which can be attacked (i.e. players and planeswalkers) has a life-style resource that doesn't have damage wear off at end of turn. I think allowing the opponent to wear down the thing is probably more interesting from a gameplay point of view.
- Would have to come up with a thematically appropriate way for a focal creature to deal damage to things which attack it and aren't blocked, based on it's power. Also, need to restrict focal creatures from blocking the creatures which attack them. These can be avoided by restricting focal to noncreatures, but that takes away some of the point of the type.
Contrast this against a type which represents a separate kind of thing which can be attacked. This type, unlike Focal, would be designed to be a separate type, not combined with other types. There are a few things I can think of which flavourfully might fit here, but the most obvious and resonant one is that it represents some kind of castle/fortress/wizard's tower - for now I'm going to call this type "Base" because it gets the idea across, but again I'll change the name to something cooler if I go with it.
This type would have a number of counters on it, which similar to loyalty on planeswalkers, would be removed as damage is dealt to it. Once they're all gone, it's destroyed. To distance these from planeswalkers and make them distinct, they won't use these counters as a resource for abilities. In general they'll have static/activated/triggered abilities which don't care about their counters, and the counters are only used to determine how much damage they can take. I suppose some designs could have ways for you to add more counters to represent repairing the base - but there could be a global rule preventing the from ever having more than the starting number. However, it might be allowable to have static abilities which grant a bonus based on how many counters are left.
To increase interactions with other cards, the planeswalker damage redirection rule would be expanded to bases as well. So you can effectively cast shock at the opponent's base in the same way you can at their planeswalker (I know you don't actually target planeswalkers with the shock, you target the player and redirect it - I'm more talking about thematically here).
Example "Base" cards:
Spikey Battlements 2WW
Base - Fortress
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a 1/1 soldier creature token into play.
Soldier creatures blocking creatures attacking Spikey Battlements get +1/+1 and have first strike.
[4]
Spellward Tower 1(W/U)(W/U)
You and other permanents you control have hexproof.
[5]
Pros of the "Base" type:
- Thematically easy to get.
- Piggybacks on existing stuff so is reasonably easy to understand how attacking/damaging it works due to it being similar to planeswalkers.
- Is it's own type and doesn't need to be combined with other types to work.
Cons of the "Base" type:
- Might be considered to similar to planeswalkers.
- Flavourfully such things in the past have been made as Artifacts and Lands, rather than a separate type. Then again, Runesword and similar thing existed before they made equipment. So existing things which make sense as the type being something else isn't necessarily a strike against it. And I think there might be enough of a thematic distinction between these (which are actual physically present structures) and lands (which are, at least some of the time, thematically your bond with the land through which you draw mana).
- Treads really hard on the flavour of fortifications. (But those things are full of problems anyway - I destroy the mountain your building is on, so it moves to that island over there? Really?)
So from picking out "being attacked" a a property for a new type, I've worked out two very different options for how to take it. Not sure which one I'll go with, I think I'll go take a break for a bit and come back to this.
So a bit later I've come to the conclusion that the "base" type is probably a better idea. Making other types attackable is interesting, but leads to weird situations (such as a focal creature blocking creatures which aren't attacking it - or those which are, for that matter).
So I'm working with a type which can be attacked, and keeps track of damage using counters just like paneswalkers. To differentiate them from planeswalkers, they won't use the counters for abilities, but will instead have static/activated/triggered abilties. To an extent they're like attackable enchantments, but they can be more powerful due to the opponent being able to remove them by attacking.
For lack of a better word, I'm going with "Structure" as the type name - it's nice and generic, and I can use subtypes to add specific flavour (something I wish wizards would do more on non-creatures. Imagine if all 'charms' were "Instant - Charm", and we could have a legendary creature or something which referenced charm cards? Adding types for flavour now lets them be referred to mechanically in future, and is another way to get flavour across (not every 'charm' printed would need charm in the name if it was on the type line).
They should have powerful abilities which make the opponent want to attack them to get rid of them. I think a good option is getting tokens every upkeep, but really any upkeep trigger or powerful static ability is good here.
But since I've been going with token creation all this time, I might as well stick with my trusty 0/0 spirits. Which means it should also have a static anthem effect. I'm going with costing it the same as Glorious Anthem, with the token-making balanced out by it being removable by attacking. I decided not to give it many counters, since it'll drop early when the opponent might have a hard time getting lots of damage through by attacking.
And I guess that about wraps it up for that. I think there's a lot of interesting things which can be done with this type, but as far as one card to show the idea off goes, I think I did okay with this.
As a side-note, I think it's cool that they play like attackable enchantments, they're easy for red to remove (due to burn) - which fits flavourfully since "Structures" sound like something red would just burn down.
While I don't personally think the game needs a new card type right now, if it had to have one, I don't think Structures would be a bad choice.
Terra Prima
Legendary Land MR
Whenever a land would enter the battlefield under your control, that land enters the battlefield tapped instead.
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, add RG to your mana pool.
Nowhere else in the multiverse does the land compete for its own dominance.
Packhunter Brood G
Sorcery U
As an additional cost to cast Packhunter Brood, return four lands you control to their owners' hands.
Put four 2/2 green Wolf creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Having long adapted to the land's temperament, Zendikar's creatures learned to make their own hunting grounds.
Timberguide Wolf 1G
Creature - Wolf U
Evolve (At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a level counter on this.) [2/2]
Level 1-3: Whenever Timberguide Wolf attacks, you may put a basic land card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped. [2/2]
Level 4+: Whenever Timberguide Wolf attacks, you may search your library for a basic land card and put that card onto the battlefield tapped. Then, shuffle your library. [3/4]
Scapechaser Pack 4GGG
Legendary Creature - Wolf MR
When Scapechaser Pack enters the battlefield, search your library for any number of basic land cards, put them onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library.
"I met them atop lonesome crags and dusty fields. I glimpsed them across empty shorelines and stagnant waters. And all those times I became the subject of their penetrating gaze, as though I was taking my first clumsy steps of a land they had long since mastered." —Samila, Murasa Expeditionary House
7/7
Heart of Murasa 0
Tribal Artifact - Wolf Equipment MR
Heart of Murasa's equip cost costs 1 less for each land you control that entered the battlefield this turn.
Equipped creature gets +5/+5.
Equip 6
"Beyond the unyielding expanse. Beneath the unfathomable depths. Behind the unreachable horizon. Only there shall you find the source of this land's strength." —Moruul, Khalni druid
Grizzled Defiance 1G
Enchantment - Aura C
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+2.
When enchanted creature would die, put it on top of its owner's library instead.
"Your eyes have seen many a world that lies beyond," Nissa said, returning its gaze. "And I believe that you do not intend to let the Eldrazi spread to any of them."
Imminent Arrival XRR
Sorcery R
Search your library for a creature card with converted mana cost X or less and put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library. That creature gains haste and "At the beginning of the end step, exile this creature."
"The creature — if it could even be called one — was enormous, and it tore through the pack in a haze of blood, bone, and teeth. But the wolves... they never stayed their charge. Not until the last of them lay breathing in a bloody heap." —Wiedru, Kazandu survivor
Vargg, Scapechaser 1GG
Planeswalker - Vargg MR
+1: Add G to your mana pool.
+1: Put a 2/2 green Wolf creature token onto the battlefield.
+1: Search your library for up to X basic land cards and put them in your hand, where X is the number of loyalty counters on Vargg, Scapechaser. Shuffle Vargg into your library.
Loyalty: 1
Gradual Emergence 2G
Enchantment U
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a nonland permanent you control on the bottom of its owner's library. If you do, search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.
"Zendikar may be home, but it has become far too old for the likes of me. Perhaps a change of scenery would be good." —Vargg, Scapechaser
Endless Glade
Plane - Nexus of Infinities
When you planeswalk to Endless Glade, search your planar deck for a plane card and reveal it. Endless Glade has that card's abilities as long as it remains revealed.
When you planeswalk away from Endless Glade, shuffle all cards it revealed into your planar deck.
C: Search your planar deck for a plane card and reveal it. Endless Glade has that card's abilities as long as it remains revealed.
Primal Awakening
Objective S
[Condition] When you control seven or more creature tokens, you may turn Primal Awakening face up.
[Benefit] Whenever a spell or ability you control would put a creature token onto the battlefield under your control, put a 7/7 green Elemental creature token onto the battlefield under your control instead.
"The otherworldly spawn remain, but Zendikar has children of its own... and they are far mightier." —Vargg, Scapechaser
Mechanics
1. Objectives are a new card type. They have a card back that is different from other Magic cards, which specifically identifies them as Objective cards. All Objective cards have the same card back.
2. You may start the game with up to three face-down Objectives in your Command Zone, no two of which should share the same name. At the end of the game, all face-down Objective cards must be revealed to all players.
3. Objectives are not considered to be spells or permanents, and do not enter the battlefield. Objectives do not have a mana cost. Face-down Objectives are considered to have no text, no name, no subtypes, and no expansion symbol.
4. Each Objective has a Condition and a Benefit, marked as [Condition] and [Benefit] respectively.
Objectives are distributed as part of the Tokens sheet and therefore appear in the "token" / "rules insert" slot of a booster pack. Chances of getting an Objective card in a booster pack would be about 1 in 3.5.
Limited Play Restriction
During Booster Draft, Objectives are set aside along with other cards in the Token and Basic Land slots. These cards are kept by the player opening the pack and are not drafted as part of the normal booster drafting process.
This'll require a lot of background legwork, so I'll need to look over the current selection of Plane cards and analyze the Planechase mechanics.
On the new card type, the obvious approach is to look at the mechanics for other card games and see if there is a theme that can be mined. The first thing that comes to mind involves Legend of the Five Rings' enlightenment victory, which lets you play Elemental Ring cards only under very specific circumstances. An older example, translated into Magic-speak as much as I can:
Ring of the Void
Elemental Ring
If Ring of the Void is the last card in your hand, you may play it.
T: If you have no cards in your hand, draw 4 cards. Activate this ability as a sorcery.
The catch is that this card can be translated rather easily into existing card types:
Ring of the Void 4
Artifact
When you cast Ring of the Void, counter it if it isn't the last card in your hand.
T: If you have no cards in your hand, draw 4 cards. Activate this ability as a sorcery.
But we can twist it by having it set the conditions when it enters the battlefield:
Seek Enlightenment
Cardtype
When you have no cards in hand, flip Seek Enlightenment.
//
T: If you have no cards in your hand, draw 4 cards. Activate this ability as a sorcery.
Flipping seems a bit restrictive on the text, particularly if the requirements will be complex. What if we use the transform mechanic, though?
Seek Enlightenment
Objective
When you have no cards in hand, transform Seek Enlightenment.
//
T: If you have no cards in your hand, draw 4 cards. Activate this ability as a sorcery.
Meh. It still feels like it can be translated into a standard enchantment card.
But what if the objective was secret? Then technically you would just need to have all the copy on one side of the card:
Seek Enlightenment
Objective
Turn Seek Enlightenment face-up only if you have no cards in hand.
T: If you have no cards in your hand, draw 4 cards. Activate this ability as a sorcery.
I would imagine that the new card type would have a unique card back from other Magic cards, so that opponents can't mistake the fact that these are Objective cards that you aim to fulfill. With a unique card back that needs to be shown, though, you can't mix these up into a deck... but a better question would be, why would you mix these into a deck?
Basically, each player may start the game with up to three face-down Objective cards. As each Objective card's requirements are fulfilled, that card is turned face up and begins affecting the game in some way.
So you can have Objectives like:
First Blood
Objective
Turn First Blood face-up if you're the first player to deal damage to an opponent this game.
T: Target attacking creature you control gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
And you can hypothetically have cards like:
Sneak Preview 2U
Sorcery
Turn target objective face up. At end of turn, turn that objective face down.
Judging from the initial reception for Transform cards, though, this may have some backlash. And it'll cause issues with booster draft, considering that you have the same problem as the Transform debacle... although at least you won't know what Objective card it is right off the bat.
It bears some thinking out. I might as well have a look at other games first, but it's nice to have a default idea.
...
... Okay, controversial thought here. What if these things weren't available for booster drafts?
Technically, being able to use Objective cards means that you put your deck together and plan ways to fulfill the Objective. It's more Constructed than anything else, really. What if you simply disallowed the use of these cards for Limited?
You'd get riots, that's what. I don't want to open an Objective card as my mythic rare and not be able to use it during the Prerelease.
So what if Objectives didn't have rarity?
I'm not talking about putting them at one in each pack - similar to basic lands, of course. I'd still want some form of partial availability - you can open a pack and either get an Objective card or not. There's one packaging level that actually fulfills this - token cards.
So Objectives are randomly distributed among tokens in the card token slot. Whenever you open a pack for a booster draft, you set aside the cards in the token and the basic land slot, then draft the remaining cards. Whatever was in those token and basic land slots is yours to keep - including Objectives. Ditto with Sealed.
Hmm... that sounds like it might work, although it'll require rewriting some rulesets. But it might work.
So, okay... Objectives would work as follows:
- Objectives have a unique card back, one that identifies them as Objectives but otherwise makes them indistinguishable from each other.
- You may start the game with up to three face-down Objectives in your Command Zone. All three Objectives must be different from each other.
- At the end of the game, you must reveal all Objective cards in your Command Zone (to ensure that all of them are different Objectives).
- Objectives are applicable only for Constructed play. If you open an Objective in a Limited tournament, set it aside along with your tokens and lands. If card pools have to be passed without passing the tokens and lands, do not pass the Objectives.
- Objectives are not considered to be spells or permanents, and do not enter the battlefield. They're considered colorless cards.
- Each Objective has a condition and an effect. If at any point you fulfill the condition of a face-down Objective in your Command Zone, turn it face-up. Its static effects take place immediately.
- Turning a face-down Objective face-up does not use the stack (similar to Morph cards).
- If an effect takes place when you turn a face-down Objective face-up, this is considered to be a triggered ability and uses the stack as normal.
I'll have to write up a proper ruleset if I have the time. Meanwhile...
CARDNAME
Objective
[Condition] When you have ten or more lands on the battlefield, turn CARDNAME face up.
[Benefit] Creatures you control are 7/7.
With regards to the plane, it looks like this'll be a matter of flavor. Pools of Becoming gives a fair idea of what happens when a planeswalker shapes his own little corner of the multiverse; it reflects his personality in some way. Because we're working with Vargg here, it stands to reason that his plane would fit his character.
The only thing we've fleshed out about Vargg is that he's an explorer, like the rest of his once-existing pack. Given his experience at the hands of the Eldrazi emergence, he holds life quite sacred and actively opposes any force that would subjugate or suppress indigenous life. Basically - Vargg is the kind of planeswalker who wants to explore new worlds with his power, and do everything he can to keep them "pristine".
So if Vargg ever came up with his own plane, it would be a gateway to other worlds, I think. He would rest there, he would access every new worlds from there, and he would use it as an easy staging point if he ever needed to lead an assault against the invaders of any world. He won't actively fight evil, I think; he'll find a way to maintain a balance.
If you had a gateway to other worlds, the first thing that comes to mind is that you'll be able to access those other worlds' abilities. Pools of Becoming already covers the Chaos abilities, but what about the static ones?
CARDNAME
Plane - ???
When you planeswalk to CARDNAME, turn the top face-down card of your planar deck face up. CARDNAME has that plane's abilities as long as that plane remains face up.
When you planeswalk away from CARDNAME, shuffle all revealed planes into your planar deck.
C: Turn the top face-down card of your planar deck face up. CARDNAME has that plane's abilities as long as that plane remains face up.
That's tricky to word, but it does capture the idea - you have access to the abilities of the nearest planes as long as you're at this "gateway" plane of Vargg's.
Hmm... "gateway"... "nexus"?
CARDNAME
Plane - Nexus
When you planeswalk to CARDNAME, turn the top face-down card of your planar deck face up. CARDNAME has that plane's abilities as long as that plane remains face up.
When you planeswalk away from CARDNAME, shuffle all revealed planes into your planar deck.
C: Turn the top face-down card of your planar deck face up. CARDNAME has that plane's abilities as long as that plane remains face up.
It strikes me that the static ability just changes this into the next plane. Maybe the next two planes instead...
CARDNAME
Plane - Nexus
When you planeswalk to CARDNAME, reveal the top two face-down cards of your planar deck. CARDNAME has those planes' abilities as long as they remain revealed.
When you planeswalk away from CARDNAME, shuffle all revealed planes into your planar deck.
C: Reveal the top face-down card of your planar deck. CARDNAME has that plane's abilities as long as it remains revealed.
Looks like the Plane card won't change - too short a time limit here. Just filling in some (temporary?) flavor, although this seems good already:
Endless Glade
Plane - Nexus of Infinities
When you planeswalk to Endless Glade, reveal the top two face-down cards of your planar deck. Endless Glade has those cards' abilities as long as they remain revealed.
When you planeswalk away from Endless Glade, shuffle all cards it revealed into your planar deck.
C: Reveal the top face-down card of your planar deck. Endless Glade has that card's abilities as long as it remains revealed.
The requirements ask for its abilities to be related to the planeswalker card; the connection is flavor-based, but I hope that "searching for lands" can be equated to "adding additional planes to the mix". Perhaps an explanation would be in order.
Now there's the question of the "birth of a plane" card. This feels like it has to be top-down; so what does the creation of a plane involve? The possibilities:
- Adding new cards / resources to the table.
- Wiping away old cards / resources.
- Searching for cards from your library and putting them into hand / the battlefield.
- Searching for cards from outside the game and putting them into the game in some way.
That last one actually sounds cute:
CARDNAME 4G
Enchantment
You may play basic land cards from outside the game as though they were in your hand.
In short, you get access to all colors of mana, Snow and non-Snow types, and you never miss another land drop for the rest of the game. Of note is that it actually doesn't give any sort of card advantage whatsoever, so it seems flashy and combo-oriented, but not insanely good.
My issue is that this doesn't necessarily feel like you're making a new plane - instead, it feels like you're just drawing in resources from a different plane. The feel needs to be more in the direction of "shifting" and "replacement" - as though you're changing your current surroundings with that of your new plane.
CARDNAME 2G
Enchantment
Sacrifice a nonland permanent: Put a basic land card from outside the game onto the battlefield tapped.
That's closer to what we want, I think, but it's not a very Green thing to do:
CARDNAME 2G
Enchantment
Reshuffle a nonland permanent into its owner's library: Put a basic land card from outside the game onto the battlefield tapped.
As attractive as the "outside the game" clause is, I'm going to have to change it. It simply feels bad for constructed, because you'd have to stock part of your sideboard with basic lands. I don't want to have to extend this to any lands either, because then you'd have a toolbox of nonbasics to work with.
CARDNAME 2G
Enchantment
Reshuffle a nonland permanent into its owner's library: Search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library.
The cute part is that you can shuffle the enchantment itself, so 2G seems like the minimum cost for this one (otherwise it would be a Rampant Growth). Wording's a bit awkward, though.
Haaaaaaang on. Maybe I should restrict this to once per turn. As it stands, it's turn one creature, turn two creature, turn three CARDNAME for up to six lands on your side. Maybe an upkeep trigger:
CARDNAME 2G
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may reshuffle a nonland permanent you control into its owner's library. If you do, search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library.
Okay, so you get an extra land once per turn, at the cost of your permanents. Wording's still a little off, though.
Meh. I guess it's not off - it's possible for you to reshuffle a nonland permanent you don't control into its owner's library, then shuffle yours after retrieving the land. Seems okay, then... and one note is that you can shuffle CARDNAME as well if you run out of stuff that you want to shuffle away.
One minor adjustment - since you're technically doing a delayed Rampant Growth on yourself, I don't see why the land should enter the battlefield tapped.
CARDNAME 2G
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may shuffle a nonland permanent you control into its owner's library. If you do, search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.
Heck, why bother with the double shuffle? Let's make this cleaner:
CARDNAME 2G
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a nonland permanent you control on the bottom of its owner's library. If you do, search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library.
Back to the Plane card - waaaaaaaait a minute. The Vargg planeswalker card searches for lands; why doesn't the Plane card search for Planes?
Endless Glade
Plane - Nexus of Infinities
When you planeswalk to Endless Glade, reveal the top two face-down cards of your planar deck. Endless Glade has those cards' abilities as long as they remain revealed.
When you planeswalk away from Endless Glade, shuffle all cards it revealed into your planar deck.
C: Search your planar deck for a plane card and reveal it. Endless Glade has that card's abilities as long as it remains revealed.
Heck, why not make it the whole point of the ability? Choosing which portal to jump through is far better than opening two at random.
Endless Glade
Plane - Nexus of Infinities
When you planeswalk to Endless Glade, search your planar deck for a plane card and reveal it. Endless Glade has that card's abilities as long as it remains revealed.
When you planeswalk away from Endless Glade, shuffle all cards it revealed into your planar deck.
C: Search your planar deck for a plane card and reveal it. Endless Glade has that card's abilities as long as it remains revealed.
I'll need to check the Planechase mechanics one more time to make sure that the workings are consistent with the planar deck rules, I think.
Finishing up the Objective cards:
CARDNAME
Objective
[Condition] When you have ten or more lands on the battlefield, turn CARDNAME face up.
[Benefit] Creatures you control are 7/7.
That seems like a bit of a disconnect. On top of that, it's not that difficult to get to ten lands in the current environment... although you normally don't play a lot of creatures when you do so. What about:
CARDNAME
Objective
[Condition] When you have seven or more nontoken creatures on the battlefield, you may turn CARDNAME face up.
[Benefit] Creatures you control are 7/7.
Note the addition of the "may" clause - I think this adds a bit of timing to it. You may choose the right time to turn this face up.
The current benefit ability is growing on me less and less, probably because it brings about potential confusion (like Humility). The straightforward path is:
CARDNAME
Objective
[Condition] When you have seven or more nontoken creatures on the battlefield, you may turn CARDNAME face up.
[Benefit] When CARDNAME is turned face up, put a 7/7 green Elemental creature token onto the battlefield.
So it's just a one-shot benefit? I'd rather make it sillier:
CARDNAME
Objective
[Condition] When you have seven or more nontoken creatures on the battlefield, you may turn CARDNAME face up.
[Benefit] At the beginning of each of your end steps, if you control seven or more nontoken creatures, you may put a 7/7 green Elemental creature token onto the battlefield.
Meh. The benefit and the condition are too closely tied to each other. As it is, you can print the card as an Enchantment with just the Benefit clause. You want a slight disconnect between the two clauses - something that connects them, but also something that separates them clearly.
Token decks have an audience in the Casual crowd, so I'll try that:
CARDNAME
Objective
[Condition] When you have seven or more creature tokens on the battlefield, you may turn CARDNAME face up.
[Benefit] At the beginning of each of your end steps, if you control seven or more creature tokens, you may put a 7/7 green Elemental creature token onto the battlefield.
Fairly the same. So there's the twist - if you're likely to be playing a deck full of creature tokens to take advantage of this objective, the benefit might as well tie into the means by which you reach said objective.
CARDNAME
Objective
[Condition] When you control seven or more creature tokens, you may turn CARDNAME face up.
[Benefit] Whenever a spell or ability you control would put a creature token onto the battlefield, put a 7/7 green Elemental creature token onto the battlefield instead.
Seems workable. Let's put up the ruleset and flavor.
So interestingly, this would still work if the object in question would neither be on the battlefield nor be considered a permanent at all...