Reylan let out a string of curses as he landed amongst the lush jungle floor of Naya. He still hadn’t quite mastered this new skill of ‘walking between realms. He wasn’t sure just where he was, he walked through the thicket until his eyes drifted upward he could get a better look from up above, granted he’d need to climb a tree roughly the size of a building.
Well then, no pain, no gain.
He worked up a sweat scaling the tree as he came to a rest on top of a large branch. Looking out into the vast expanse, he saw a fire out into the distance. He walked along the vine getting closer. He saw elves gathered in a circle some sort of mystic in the center as he was chanting and chanting, getting louder. Reylan could see the magis swirling in the elf’s hand. He moved closer to observe.
Then the world shook. At least that’s what it felt like. The shaking didn’t seem to faze the elfs as the shaman kept chanting. Then Reylan saw the monstrous behemoth crashing through the trees., and the branch he was standing on was square in it’s path. He moved,running, however as he was running that was when the shaman finished his spell and a wave of mana pread out and hit him.
He stopped moving, and just stood, filled with a sense of dread and surprise. He couldn’t move despite the large creature that was coming towards him in great strides. Couldn’t move,could only watch.
No. He wasn’t going down like this.
Finally he wrested control freeing himself from the spells influence, and leaping onto a nearby vine swinging away from the behemoth’s path.
He breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the behemoth pass. Though his focus was now more on the shaman and the others gathered by him. That spell he saw was dangerous, but could come in handy….
The Card: Behemoth Awestriker1RG
Creature-Elf Shaman (C)
Whenever a creature with power 5 or greater enters the battlefield under your control, target creature can't block this turn.
1/3
The Ability:
[+1] Target creature can't block this turn
Since I wasn't around for round 0, here's my character:
Arph Ullob
Colour identity: UG
Race: Rhox
Plane of origin: Bant
Arph Ullob was a noble, if somewhat simple warrior monk in Bant. When the conflux occurred, he found himself alone, facing a ragged army of grixian horrors. One of the best warriors of his order, he fought valiantly, smiting dozens and dozens of bloodthirsty monstrosities before being overrun. As the sea of claw and fang closed in on him, his planeswalker spark ignited and a moment later he was in a place totally alien to him. Ever since, he has tried to gain control of his little-understood planeswalker powers with little result and keeps planeswalking indiscriminately from plane to plane hoping to some day be able to return to his beloved Bant.
Round 0
Summoning Displacement2UU
Enchantment (R)
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, if it was cast from your hand, you may exile another target creature you control. If you do, return that creature to the battlefield at the beginning of the next end step.
Round 1: Traipse to Innistrad
Soulbind1U
Enchantment - Aura (U)
Enchant creature you control
Enchanted creature has Soulbond. (You may pair this creature with another unpaired creature when that creature enters the battlefield. They remain paired for as long as you control both of them.)
As long as enchanted creature is paired with another creature, each of those creatures has all the abilities of each other in addition to their own.
Planeswalker ability:
+1: You may return target creature you control to your hand. If you do, add mana to your mana pool equal to its mana cost.
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.
Soil Swarm 1G
Sorcery - Arcane (C)
Reveal the top four cards of your library. Put a land card from among them onto the battlefield tapped and the rest into your graveyard.
Splice onto Arcane GG(As you cast an Arcane spell, you may reveal this card from your hand and pay its splice cost. If you do, add this card's effects to that spell.)
Planeswalker Ability
[+?]: Return target land card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
After Thoros spark awakened he found himself on a strange new plane. He decided to explore this plane, which he found out was called Alara, and discover his new abilities. Upon walking through a great forest thinking of the teachings of Razia a strange looking bird screeched in a metallic tone bent on attacking Thoros. Thoros saw that the bird was made of something resembling meta, remembering his beloved Sacred Foundrys a blast of light emerged from his eyes and all that was left of the bird were smoking pieces of half melt metal. Thoros decided it was better to find cover before the night fell on this plane.
Purifying Fire1W
Sorcery (C)
Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
Cycling 1WR (1WR, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
When you cycle Purifying Fire, Destroy up to two artifacts and/or enchantments.
Under 12 hours left for submissions. In response to queensauce's question, yes, you should consider the planeswalker abilities in your critique, as they correspond to color identity and theme. Obviously, you won't be able to consider cost or the full synergy of the card yet.
Serrated Recycler2R
Artifact Creature - Construct (C)
Whenever Serrated Recycler or another artifact creature you control dies, Serrated Recycler deals 1 damage to each player.
Undying
1/1
+ Up to one target artifact is indestructible this turn.
Name: First, the only son of the Tarell Chieftain. Loxodon tradition dictates he will get his true name when he becomes a man. Colour Identity:(G/W) Race: Loxodon Home Plane: Shandalar. He comes from the Loxodon outcamp of Tarell, far from their main settlement in Thune. Tarell is so distant that some say it counts as part of Kalonia.
Kami of the Hollow2W
Creature - Spirit (C) W,T: Tap target creature.
Channel — WW, Discard Kami of the Hollow: Tap up to two target creatures.
1/2
Bhoya, the Voiceless
Planeswalker - Bhoya +2: Up to one target creature doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step.
About my planeswalker, Bhoya, the Voiceless:
I did not write much in Round 0, so here it goes.
Bhoya was a deaf (not mute as the name suggests) Loxodon born in Mirrodin. As a white Loxodon, he was meant to be a strong leader and cleric from birth. However, as a baby, he got sick and lost his voice. Because of this, he did not learn to speak and other Loxodons thought that he was mute. Hence, he was given the name Bhoya, the Voiceless.
Just before the war for Mirrodin, Bhoya was poisoned by the Phyrexian oil. At this very moment, he heard Phyrexia call for him. Hearing sound for this first time in his life, his spark ignited and he turned into a planeswalker. He planeswalked to Kamigawa, and he is now trying to realize where he is and what his purpose is on this peculiar plane.
He is a Loxodon cleric warrior by birth, so he is very well rehearsed in arts of healing and pacification. However, he realizes that the Phyrexians promise so much more than that. And, he is willing to follow the voice in his head and see where that leads him.
Because he is a Loxodon, he has a very strong memory and does not forget anything ever. He remembers who treated him how, and also for that reason, he is very connected to his roots. Before his spark ignited, he would never do anything to hurt his family or ancestors but recently he is feeling the same way about forces of Phyrexia. This forces him to question himself, his past, and he is unsure what he will be in the future.
As time passes, I would expect him to be drawn more towards his Phyrexian side and use more of the white's control oriented spells than white's healing magic.
Cythare - Alright... I like your spell, but it confuses me... unless you planned on doing it on a creature with deathtouch or a Basilisk, I don't see the point. Your PW ability could use a bit of rewording, but I do like the idea behind it.
Random_Nation - I rather like your card, its perfect for one of the shards of Alara and would fit in well with them. The PW Ability is also very good for an aggressive deck, all around I enjoy.
Ninja Caterpie - I rather like your spell, and the fact that depending if you cast or cycle it, you get a different card, though the first part of the ability should require you to reveal the card if you are putting it in your hand, to prove its an instant, I know its minor, but still. The PW ability is great, I rather like it and it has precedent considering one of the new cards.
Krey - Purifying Fire is perfect, though I might reverse the cycle effect and cost with the normal effect and cost, because if you have to chose between paying 2 for 1 artifact or paying 3 for 2 artifacts AND a draw, you are almost never going to pick the former. The Planeswalker ability is rather good as well, though limited if your opponents don't play any artifacts or enchantments.
queensauce - As much as I like your card, it doesn't fit the requirements. However, the Ability of your planeswalker is unique and I can see it being rather useful in the right deck... and depending on the ult, OP in a Token deck.
Rithaniel - Death Scout is interesting, multi-useful, and well powered... but a bit to strong I think for a common, having unearth, lifelink, and a token making ability all in one card. The PW ability is quiet interesting and I like it, either you get a token or they lose a creature, seems like a win win... unless they don't care about the token, but still, love it.
foo_intherain - Your spell I actually quiet like, either you just have blue and can use it to get one of your other colors, or a bit later in the game it can stall up there main unit. The PW ability is also quiet nice, giving you quiet a bit of control of what you draw without over doing it.
Preemptive response, of the few that have reviewed my card... not one has mentioned or noticed how the ability and card actually work together... oh well though.
@Willows: I can see your problems with it, but my whole idea with him is being a rather aggressive kind of Planeswalker, for a deck where you want to get out several big creatures as soon as you can, and then ending it in a fell swoop if he can.
Socrates:This has potential to be horrible, but it is conditional to having the creatures, and it's not that powerful without it's ability kicking in. So good common, skirting the edge of uncommon. Planeswalker ability, man that's mouthful. And at any cost it still is a little heavy handed, because ridiculous tribal synergy ridiculous LyzL: Dropped...so, that's it. Aethermage: Its mulch, that you can splice, not bad. The PW ability is a solid +1 ability Charut: Creature is good as is the planeswalker, ability. The Phrexian oil thing in your lore is bugging the crap out of me, but I'll have to see how it plays out in the next rounds. Cardz500: This creature does not meet the requirements for the round.
Planeswalker ability, it's kind of useless, unless this is a low cost walker, even then it's pretty weak. Phrexian Editor: Not here...that was easy. Koopa: Dropped, damn this is an easy critique round
Solid card, flashback seems on-target. Redundant with Crippling Chill, though. I'd have liked to see a card that plays on the chill theme in a different way rather than repeating the mechanic you used in your pre-round card.
PW ability has a meaningless ice counter? Don't like it.
void_nothing with Cull the Unfit:
Per Misguided Rage, I think this may be undercosted, particularly with its Instant-speed combat trick potential. That said, I like it. It's a good clean use of mechanics we've seen before.
The +1 needs a bit of work. I'm sad that it links up thematically with your card but they don't interact. It also only works when you might lose a permanent, which you don't necessarily have the ability to cause to happen every time you want to pump your 'walker. Good job on color identity.
Arcel with Blood Fury:
I'm not sure you need the "also" in your morbid text. It seems fairly costed for its effect, and it works well with red's ability to directly damage creatures before combat so you can get the morbid trigger to go off, which gives red morbid its own flavor.
PW ability needs rewording. Should be:
"+?: Sacrifice a creature. If you do, target creature you control gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the sacrificed creature's power."
Not so good. Highly situational, probably should be a – ability rather than a + given red's propensity for efficient, high-power creatures, and you definitely can't guarantee that you control two creatures every turn. PWs should have + abilities they can use at any time. Seems on-color though.
Chadly Whiplash with Funeral Specter
Should be "Specter Rogue" unless your spirit is a kind of makeup. Specters have their own creature type! They also don't appear in Innistrad block. Your card needs a new name, possibly including "Geist" since it has flying.
The morbid ability seems all right, it's mildly reminescent of Morkrut Banshee since it does black-style aggro on its morbid trigger.
I'd like it better if it were 2/1; black evaders don't usually have a defensive posture.
Your PW ability is pretty decent, certainly less dependent on controlling permanents than the other two I've seen so far. Still, should say "Up to one," so you can use it even if there are no creatures on the board. Cf Ajani, Caller of the Pride or Tezzeret the Seeker. It's straightforwardly black, I'd like to see more blue in there.
Maokun with Soulbind
This card has problems. Just using block mechanics, it's going to cause severe issues if you soulbond a non-transforming creature with a transforming one. What happens if you try to transform a Lantern Spirit?
PW ability needs "up to one," and "owner's hand," unless you are literally trying to make a card that lets you put opponent-owned cards in your hand, which is itself problematic. I am not sure you can actually add "the mana cost" to your mana pool, because circled numbers in mana costs mean "generic mana" not "colorless mana;" should probably be colorless equal to CMC or maaaybe a color that creature has equal to its CMC. This ability is quite strong for a +1, also, since you can use it to bootstrap up on cost-reduction effects (see the obvious combos with affinity, convoke, Khalni Hydra...)
KoolKoal with Serrated Recycler
FOR THE RECORD I don't get what is with all these off-color Rhoxes. There is literally one Rhino-type card with red in it, and it's multi-green. Anyway,
I'M SO HAPPY that your card and PW power are on-color and on-theme with your artifact thing. Serrated Recycler is RAD. I want to put him in a deck. I think he should maybe be an Uncommon, with a common counterpart that doesn't have "or another artifact creature you control" on it. Aesthetically, I'd have liked for it to have a type other than Construct but that does not affect my critique. Text needs to say "to each player."
I like how this thematically connects with Pain Sigil's mechanic, it makes it seems like all of your artifacts might potentially explode.
Your PW ability is solid but it's sad that it directly comes into conflict with the Recycler's ability. I'm really glad you used the "up to one" wording.
This card has problems. Just using block mechanics, it's going to cause severe issues if you soulbond a non-transforming creature with a transforming one. What happens if you try to transform a Lantern Spirit?
Uh, I don't understand how those are "problems". If so, Clone has problems, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker has problems, etc, etc. Transform cards didn't ruin ability copy effects forever. A card without a physical card on its back simply cannot transform, no issue there. And what's the problem with Lantern Spirit? Seriously, haven't you seen the myriad of cards that allow copying abilities -or straight cloning the whole thing- from other cards?
PW ability needs "up to one," and "owner's hand," unless you are literally trying to make a card that lets you put opponent-owned cards in your hand, which is itself problematic. I am not sure you can actually add "the mana cost" to your mana pool, because circled numbers in mana costs mean "generic mana" not "colorless mana;" should probably be colorless equal to CMC or maaaybe a color that creature has equal to its CMC. This ability is quite strong for a +1, also, since you can use it to bootstrap up on cost-reduction effects (see the obvious combos with affinity, convoke, Khalni Hydra...)
You are right on the "owner's" issue, bad oversight of mine. However I'm pretty sure that my "may" wording obviates the need of "up to one" specially since it's more intuitive to make an effect conditional on a thing happening or not rather than saying "ok I returned 0 creatures so I add 0 to my mana pool."
I agree is quite strong if you build around it, but in most cases I don't see it producing a real advantage of more than 2 mana like Garruk Wildspeaker does with his own +1 (and which could be abused as well.)
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.
I dunno if I'll make it to the next round because I failed to read the challenge correctly, but here are critiques anyway. Also, I think they may be a little late....
West critiquing North
Socrates
Samurai that likes more samurai. Nice rehash of the bushido mechanic. Excellent flavor text. The pw ability took a couple times of ready to understand what it actually did, but it's cool. Definitely a new way for a pw to protect itself.
Lyzl - drop
Æthermage
A variation on Mulch with a Kamigawa twist. Looks believable. That pw ability seems nuts though. Says "abuse me" without actually being Crucible of Worlds.
charut
I've always had a soft place in my heart for channel. This looks believable. Not too powerful, but still very playable. Cool. The pw ability is just another version of Ajani/Tamiyo but only hits creatures. Okay I guess.
Cardz5000
You made the same mistake I did with not respecting the rarity challenge. As far as the mechanics go... I have no idea if this would actually work. Wouldn't they become un-paired when it flips because neither has the bond mechanic? Interesting idea, but might be a little swingy. The pw ability is interesting. Idk if it should be a + or - though. Turning your opponent's lands into creatures and then nuking them or the board seems rude, especially when you can keep repeating it.
Phyrexian Editor - no entry
Koopa
Unfortunately, you were supposed to use a Kamigawa mechanic on your card... You taped together Unsummon and Evacuate and made it sorcery speed. Probably would be uncommon, but who knows. Not the most clever card, but i wouldnt be surprised if we get something similar to this spoiled over the next week. I really like the pw ability. It has "shenanigans" written all over it.
U// Sedris and the Traitor Kings U// G Seshiro, the Appointed G B// Vaevictus Asmadi - "I'm 'exy and I know it" B// W// Treva, The Renewerer W// B/ Rakdos, Lord of Grouphate B/ W//// Cromat the Charmer W////
I am reviewing Team East and their cards / planeswalker abilities.
Your card wants to show Drozu's attitude - "the strong survive"- transported to Innistrad. Your returning mechanic was flashback, which is a little flavourless, but it is made up for by some good flavour of the weak dying to protect the strong. The effect is odd and I am not sure how it fits into red and green, except that those were the colours you had to use. Indestructibility is in green, white and artifacts; sacrificing to protect tends to be in black or white. The card didn't feel on colour for me.
I was also feeling that the symmetrical nature of the spell didn't really make sense for me. In terms of play value, I want to use this card to save a creature in combat most of the time - but I have to let my opponent piggyback on it, leading to a disappointing feeling. The other use is making a guy safe before a sweeper, and again I have to let my opponent play along. Maybe this was too fair. Given your flavour a Morbid card might have been a better choice.
Your planeswalker represents a plant / nature shaman who lives in a Jund-esque world where the weak can't survive. I liked the strong-climbing-over-the-bodies-of-the-weak feel here. Sorcery speed regeneration is however awkward. Having it be universal does help make it more relevant in combat, as you can suit up all your guys so your opponent can't just ignore it.
The ability (correctly) allows a null activation just to pump loyalty if that's what you need. Overall I have mixed feelings on the ability, but am intrigued to see what kind of rewards the next abilities are going to give me for sacrificing my weak.
Your planeswalker is an ice mage that loves beauty and preserving it eternally. They've ended up on Innistrad - let's see what they have to look at there.
The ice flavour is definitely there so far - and the name is a great fit for Innistrad. The card doesn't sell "beauty" to me but it's such a good horror name that I don't mind too much It is mixing the literal and figurative meanings of "cold" a little.
Functionally your card is fine. The block has a tapping flashback spell in Feeling of Dread already but this tap-locker probably plays differently enough to feel justified. The costs feel about right - good work keeping the flashback expensive to stop this becoming an instant-speed Sleep.
Your +1 ability is a little odd. Tapping is a fine +1 but has been touched by Tamiyo and Ajani already; I'd hope that your seemingly extraneous ice counter is leading somewhere interesting. And hopefully not just tapping!
Not much to go on from your signup post - your character is apparently a red rhox artificer from Alara. That's an interesting mix of backgrounds and a little fleshing out would give me more of an idea who your planeswalker is.
You have brought a coloured artifact to Innistrad, which seems justified given your flavour. The card only triggers on artifact creatures dying, which is going to be pretty rare in Innistrad except itself, and I'm not sure of the flavour here. I get the impression that maybe the card is chopping up artifact creatures to make spikes - but why damage both players? I think that maybe your flavour disconnect points are better spent on triggering more often, e.g. from all creatures. It is also not a common card.
Undying doesn't add much to the flavour here but is a nice functional addition as it makes a more persistent damage source.
I'm not a fan of your +1 - it's a purely defensive ability that I have to use proactively. It doesn't do anything on its own and my opponent is either going to destroy the artifact in response or not care. A real miss.
Timothy, Mimeslayer - did not submit a card.
Your planeswalker is a hardy, angry Ogre. Let's see what he makes of his new location.
Blood Fury is a good name for your planeswalker, and could be concepted to carry off a Vampire flavour, too. You've also wisely made use of Morbid, which fits the feel of your character.
The actual card reads well, but I suspect that it would play very awkwardly. The majority of the time that creatures die, it's in combat - too late for that delicious first strike. Look at the actual morbid cards in Innistrad - they avoid this problem by not being direct combat pump.
It's also strictly worse than Slaughter Cry, which is not a problem but perhaps implies you could have done a little more research.
Your + ability is difficult; it gives a temporary bonus to one guy at the cost of losing another permanently. Unless the second guy has some evasion, which in red isn't all that likely, I probably am not going to get my pumped guy through. I also can't really activate it on a board where I don't have at least two creatures. The amount of loyalty I get from this is going to have to be pretty high to make me want to activate it.
Also not much to draw from your initial post. Your character is a human from Kamigawa and likes deathtouch.
Your card mechanically is very solid. It has a morbid ability that will trigger when I play it after combat, which is correct. It has a reasonable body. My only tweak would be to line up the card's power and the life loss to make it feel more natural.
Flavour wise, your card has a little problem: his name says he's a Specter but he is not a Specter, either in creature type or abilities. He flies like a Specter but doesn't have a discard-related ability like a Specter. He is also a "Rouge" rather than a "Rogue" - a simple spell check before submitting your card shows that you care about quality
Your + ability is fine. It needs to have the "up to one" wording to allow it to activate when my opponent isn't kind enough to furnish me with creatures to target, but otherwise fine. It doesn't tell me much more about your character - I wish I knew more about someone with such a cool name!
Your character is a warrior monk, but also UG. This tension in colours is interesting and I trust you have a plan to play up the UG elements of your character over the predominantly white description you gave him - see words like "warrior", "valiant", "smiting", and "noble". Let's see what he makes of Innistrad.
First off, the challenge was to make a common card and your card is clearly not common - you made a rare card in terms of complexity and posted it with an uncommon rarity.
Mechanically, the card lets you graft soulbond onto a creature and then graft its abilities onto another creature's. This is a pretty complex effect but does fit with the general idea of what soulbond is all about. I can envisage some awesome combinations (Visara and Windreaver, anyone?) and could have fun with it.
Flavourwise your name is not great; Soulbind is a letter different from the ability it grants for some reason - it'd be more comfortable to either be something completely different (a la Gruesome Deformity) or be the exact same (like Lifelink). This is a small nitpick, though.
Your + ability is my favourite from this batch. Your planeswalker has a sort of blinking flavour (judging from your round 0 card) and this is an interesting way of approaching it. The effect is potentially extremely powerful though - see what happened with Food Chain - so do be careful. This lets you ramp from Solemn Simulacrum straight into Kozilek, Butcher of Truth.
3rd - Maokun. A strong planeswalker ability concept with some balance issues, held back by a non-common and low flavour card.
2nd - void_nothing. Not a great common card but decent flavour and a good concept for your planeswalker pull it up.
1st - yewlas. You kept it simple and sold flavour. I think that's the right approach for the first week (common spells and + abilities).
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Previously...
Round 0: Reylan Boacrd
The Adventure Continues....
Reylan let out a string of curses as he landed amongst the lush jungle floor of Naya. He still hadn’t quite mastered this new skill of ‘walking between realms. He wasn’t sure just where he was, he walked through the thicket until his eyes drifted upward he could get a better look from up above, granted he’d need to climb a tree roughly the size of a building.
Well then, no pain, no gain.
He worked up a sweat scaling the tree as he came to a rest on top of a large branch. Looking out into the vast expanse, he saw a fire out into the distance. He walked along the vine getting closer. He saw elves gathered in a circle some sort of mystic in the center as he was chanting and chanting, getting louder. Reylan could see the magis swirling in the elf’s hand. He moved closer to observe.
Then the world shook. At least that’s what it felt like. The shaking didn’t seem to faze the elfs as the shaman kept chanting. Then Reylan saw the monstrous behemoth crashing through the trees., and the branch he was standing on was square in it’s path. He moved,running, however as he was running that was when the shaman finished his spell and a wave of mana pread out and hit him.
He stopped moving, and just stood, filled with a sense of dread and surprise. He couldn’t move despite the large creature that was coming towards him in great strides. Couldn’t move,could only watch.
No. He wasn’t going down like this.
Finally he wrested control freeing himself from the spells influence, and leaping onto a nearby vine swinging away from the behemoth’s path.
He breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the behemoth pass. Though his focus was now more on the shaman and the others gathered by him. That spell he saw was dangerous, but could come in handy….
The Card:
Behemoth Awestriker 1RG
Creature-Elf Shaman (C)
Whenever a creature with power 5 or greater enters the battlefield under your control, target creature can't block this turn.
1/3
The Ability:
[+1] Target creature can't block this turn
The Anabyn
Stay Hungry My Friends....
Arph Ullob
Colour identity: UG
Race: Rhox
Plane of origin: Bant
Arph Ullob was a noble, if somewhat simple warrior monk in Bant. When the conflux occurred, he found himself alone, facing a ragged army of grixian horrors. One of the best warriors of his order, he fought valiantly, smiting dozens and dozens of bloodthirsty monstrosities before being overrun. As the sea of claw and fang closed in on him, his planeswalker spark ignited and a moment later he was in a place totally alien to him. Ever since, he has tried to gain control of his little-understood planeswalker powers with little result and keeps planeswalking indiscriminately from plane to plane hoping to some day be able to return to his beloved Bant.
Round 0
Summoning Displacement 2UU
Enchantment (R)
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, if it was cast from your hand, you may exile another target creature you control. If you do, return that creature to the battlefield at the beginning of the next end step.
Round 1: Traipse to Innistrad
Soulbind 1U
Enchantment - Aura (U)
Enchant creature you control
Enchanted creature has Soulbond. (You may pair this creature with another unpaired creature when that creature enters the battlefield. They remain paired for as long as you control both of them.)
As long as enchanted creature is paired with another creature, each of those creatures has all the abilities of each other in addition to their own.
Planeswalker ability:
+1: You may return target creature you control to your hand. If you do, add mana to your mana pool equal to its mana cost.
I was probably thinking instants or sorceries when I wrote it, but some people have submitted other types, and I have no problem with that.
Round 0
Round 1 -
Common Spell
Soil Swarm
1G
Sorcery - Arcane (C)
Reveal the top four cards of your library. Put a land card from among them onto the battlefield tapped and the rest into your graveyard.
Splice onto Arcane GG (As you cast an Arcane spell, you may reveal this card from your hand and pay its splice cost. If you do, add this card's effects to that spell.)
Planeswalker Ability
[+?]: Return target land card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Round 0
After Thoros spark awakened he found himself on a strange new plane. He decided to explore this plane, which he found out was called Alara, and discover his new abilities. Upon walking through a great forest thinking of the teachings of Razia a strange looking bird screeched in a metallic tone bent on attacking Thoros. Thoros saw that the bird was made of something resembling meta, remembering his beloved Sacred Foundrys a blast of light emerged from his eyes and all that was left of the bird were smoking pieces of half melt metal. Thoros decided it was better to find cover before the night fell on this plane.
Purifying Fire 1W
Sorcery (C)
Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
Cycling 1WR (1WR, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
When you cycle Purifying Fire, Destroy up to two artifacts and/or enchantments.
For the planeswalker:
[+?] Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
As long as it isn't a land. :-P
Draft my cube! (630 cards)
Sets - Arcania
Competitions - CCL: March 2011, April 2011
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Serrated Recycler 2R
Artifact Creature - Construct (C)
Whenever Serrated Recycler or another artifact creature you control dies, Serrated Recycler deals 1 damage to each player.
Undying
1/1
+ Up to one target artifact is indestructible this turn.
Colour Identity: (G/W)
Race: Loxodon
Home Plane: Shandalar. He comes from the Loxodon outcamp of Tarell, far from their main settlement in Thune. Tarell is so distant that some say it counts as part of Kalonia.
Memento:
GW,T: Regenerate target creature.
A well-trained cleric can eke out a single pot of healing tonic to the point where it seems neverending.
Regenerate all creatures you control.
As with any melody, it only becomes complete when every voice joins the chorus.
Level 1 Judge
Kami of the Hollow 2W
Creature - Spirit (C)
W,T: Tap target creature.
Channel — WW, Discard Kami of the Hollow: Tap up to two target creatures.
1/2
Bhoya, the Voiceless
Planeswalker - Bhoya
+2: Up to one target creature doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step.
About my planeswalker, Bhoya, the Voiceless:
I did not write much in Round 0, so here it goes.
Bhoya was a deaf (not mute as the name suggests) Loxodon born in Mirrodin. As a white Loxodon, he was meant to be a strong leader and cleric from birth. However, as a baby, he got sick and lost his voice. Because of this, he did not learn to speak and other Loxodons thought that he was mute. Hence, he was given the name Bhoya, the Voiceless.
Just before the war for Mirrodin, Bhoya was poisoned by the Phyrexian oil. At this very moment, he heard Phyrexia call for him. Hearing sound for this first time in his life, his spark ignited and he turned into a planeswalker. He planeswalked to Kamigawa, and he is now trying to realize where he is and what his purpose is on this peculiar plane.
He is a Loxodon cleric warrior by birth, so he is very well rehearsed in arts of healing and pacification. However, he realizes that the Phyrexians promise so much more than that. And, he is willing to follow the voice in his head and see where that leads him.
Because he is a Loxodon, he has a very strong memory and does not forget anything ever. He remembers who treated him how, and also for that reason, he is very connected to his roots. Before his spark ignited, he would never do anything to hurt his family or ancestors but recently he is feeling the same way about forces of Phyrexia. This forces him to question himself, his past, and he is unsure what he will be in the future.
As time passes, I would expect him to be drawn more towards his Phyrexian side and use more of the white's control oriented spells than white's healing magic.
Good luck all. Looks to be a fun month.
Generals meant to be drafted first in a single pack of 6 cards.
And here is the actual cube, meant to be drafted in 4 regular sized packs. (60 card decks)
Random_Nation - I rather like your card, its perfect for one of the shards of Alara and would fit in well with them. The PW Ability is also very good for an aggressive deck, all around I enjoy.
Ninja Caterpie - I rather like your spell, and the fact that depending if you cast or cycle it, you get a different card, though the first part of the ability should require you to reveal the card if you are putting it in your hand, to prove its an instant, I know its minor, but still. The PW ability is great, I rather like it and it has precedent considering one of the new cards.
Krey - Purifying Fire is perfect, though I might reverse the cycle effect and cost with the normal effect and cost, because if you have to chose between paying 2 for 1 artifact or paying 3 for 2 artifacts AND a draw, you are almost never going to pick the former. The Planeswalker ability is rather good as well, though limited if your opponents don't play any artifacts or enchantments.
queensauce - As much as I like your card, it doesn't fit the requirements. However, the Ability of your planeswalker is unique and I can see it being rather useful in the right deck... and depending on the ult, OP in a Token deck.
Rithaniel - Death Scout is interesting, multi-useful, and well powered... but a bit to strong I think for a common, having unearth, lifelink, and a token making ability all in one card. The PW ability is quiet interesting and I like it, either you get a token or they lose a creature, seems like a win win... unless they don't care about the token, but still, love it.
foo_intherain - Your spell I actually quiet like, either you just have blue and can use it to get one of your other colors, or a bit later in the game it can stall up there main unit. The PW ability is also quiet nice, giving you quiet a bit of control of what you draw without over doing it.
2) Random_Nation
3) Ninja Caterpie
@Willows: I can see your problems with it, but my whole idea with him is being a rather aggressive kind of Planeswalker, for a deck where you want to get out several big creatures as soon as you can, and then ending it in a fell swoop if he can.
Artist: //gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?action=advanced&artist=[%22Daniel%20Ljunggren%22">"]Daniel Ljunggren
Socrates:This has potential to be horrible, but it is conditional to having the creatures, and it's not that powerful without it's ability kicking in. So good common, skirting the edge of uncommon. Planeswalker ability, man that's mouthful. And at any cost it still is a little heavy handed, because ridiculous tribal synergy ridiculous
LyzL: Dropped...so, that's it.
Aethermage: Its mulch, that you can splice, not bad. The PW ability is a solid +1 ability
Charut: Creature is good as is the planeswalker, ability. The Phrexian oil thing in your lore is bugging the crap out of me, but I'll have to see how it plays out in the next rounds.
Cardz500: This creature does not meet the requirements for the round.
Planeswalker ability, it's kind of useless, unless this is a low cost walker, even then it's pretty weak.
Phrexian Editor: Not here...that was easy.
Koopa: Dropped, damn this is an easy critique round
Top 3
.Aethermage
. Charut
. Socrates
The Anabyn
Stay Hungry My Friends....
1: KoolKoal
2: void_nothing
3: Arcel
yewlas with Blood Run Cold
PW ability has a meaningless ice counter? Don't like it.
The +1 needs a bit of work. I'm sad that it links up thematically with your card but they don't interact. It also only works when you might lose a permanent, which you don't necessarily have the ability to cause to happen every time you want to pump your 'walker. Good job on color identity.
PW ability needs rewording. Should be:
"+?: Sacrifice a creature. If you do, target creature you control gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the sacrificed creature's power."
Not so good. Highly situational, probably should be a – ability rather than a + given red's propensity for efficient, high-power creatures, and you definitely can't guarantee that you control two creatures every turn. PWs should have + abilities they can use at any time. Seems on-color though.
The morbid ability seems all right, it's mildly reminescent of Morkrut Banshee since it does black-style aggro on its morbid trigger.
I'd like it better if it were 2/1; black evaders don't usually have a defensive posture.
Your PW ability is pretty decent, certainly less dependent on controlling permanents than the other two I've seen so far. Still, should say "Up to one," so you can use it even if there are no creatures on the board. Cf Ajani, Caller of the Pride or Tezzeret the Seeker. It's straightforwardly black, I'd like to see more blue in there.
PW ability needs "up to one," and "owner's hand," unless you are literally trying to make a card that lets you put opponent-owned cards in your hand, which is itself problematic. I am not sure you can actually add "the mana cost" to your mana pool, because circled numbers in mana costs mean "generic mana" not "colorless mana;" should probably be colorless equal to CMC or maaaybe a color that creature has equal to its CMC. This ability is quite strong for a +1, also, since you can use it to bootstrap up on cost-reduction effects (see the obvious combos with affinity, convoke, Khalni Hydra...)
I'M SO HAPPY that your card and PW power are on-color and on-theme with your artifact thing. Serrated Recycler is RAD. I want to put him in a deck. I think he should maybe be an Uncommon, with a common counterpart that doesn't have "or another artifact creature you control" on it. Aesthetically, I'd have liked for it to have a type other than Construct but that does not affect my critique. Text needs to say "to each player."
I like how this thematically connects with Pain Sigil's mechanic, it makes it seems like all of your artifacts might potentially explode.
Your PW ability is solid but it's sad that it directly comes into conflict with the Recycler's ability. I'm really glad you used the "up to one" wording.
Uh, I don't understand how those are "problems". If so, Clone has problems, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker has problems, etc, etc. Transform cards didn't ruin ability copy effects forever. A card without a physical card on its back simply cannot transform, no issue there. And what's the problem with Lantern Spirit? Seriously, haven't you seen the myriad of cards that allow copying abilities -or straight cloning the whole thing- from other cards?
You are right on the "owner's" issue, bad oversight of mine. However I'm pretty sure that my "may" wording obviates the need of "up to one" specially since it's more intuitive to make an effect conditional on a thing happening or not rather than saying "ok I returned 0 creatures so I add 0 to my mana pool."
I agree is quite strong if you build around it, but in most cases I don't see it producing a real advantage of more than 2 mana like Garruk Wildspeaker does with his own +1 (and which could be abused as well.)
West critiquing North
Socrates
Samurai that likes more samurai. Nice rehash of the bushido mechanic. Excellent flavor text. The pw ability took a couple times of ready to understand what it actually did, but it's cool. Definitely a new way for a pw to protect itself.
Lyzl - drop
Æthermage
A variation on Mulch with a Kamigawa twist. Looks believable. That pw ability seems nuts though. Says "abuse me" without actually being Crucible of Worlds.
charut
I've always had a soft place in my heart for channel. This looks believable. Not too powerful, but still very playable. Cool. The pw ability is just another version of Ajani/Tamiyo but only hits creatures. Okay I guess.
Cardz5000
You made the same mistake I did with not respecting the rarity challenge. As far as the mechanics go... I have no idea if this would actually work. Wouldn't they become un-paired when it flips because neither has the bond mechanic? Interesting idea, but might be a little swingy. The pw ability is interesting. Idk if it should be a + or - though. Turning your opponent's lands into creatures and then nuking them or the board seems rude, especially when you can keep repeating it.
Phyrexian Editor - no entry
Koopa
Unfortunately, you were supposed to use a Kamigawa mechanic on your card... You taped together Unsummon and Evacuate and made it sorcery speed. Probably would be uncommon, but who knows. Not the most clever card, but i wouldnt be surprised if we get something similar to this spoiled over the next week. I really like the pw ability. It has "shenanigans" written all over it.
1. Socrates
2. charut
3. AEthermage
Custom Race: Guaroga
G Seshiro, the Appointed G
B// Vaevictus Asmadi - "I'm 'exy and I know it" B//
W// Treva, The Renewerer W//
B/ Rakdos, Lord of Grouphate B/
W//// Cromat the Charmer W////
I was also feeling that the symmetrical nature of the spell didn't really make sense for me. In terms of play value, I want to use this card to save a creature in combat most of the time - but I have to let my opponent piggyback on it, leading to a disappointing feeling. The other use is making a guy safe before a sweeper, and again I have to let my opponent play along. Maybe this was too fair. Given your flavour a Morbid card might have been a better choice.
Your planeswalker represents a plant / nature shaman who lives in a Jund-esque world where the weak can't survive. I liked the strong-climbing-over-the-bodies-of-the-weak feel here. Sorcery speed regeneration is however awkward. Having it be universal does help make it more relevant in combat, as you can suit up all your guys so your opponent can't just ignore it.
The ability (correctly) allows a null activation just to pump loyalty if that's what you need. Overall I have mixed feelings on the ability, but am intrigued to see what kind of rewards the next abilities are going to give me for sacrificing my weak.
The ice flavour is definitely there so far - and the name is a great fit for Innistrad. The card doesn't sell "beauty" to me but it's such a good horror name that I don't mind too much It is mixing the literal and figurative meanings of "cold" a little.
Functionally your card is fine. The block has a tapping flashback spell in Feeling of Dread already but this tap-locker probably plays differently enough to feel justified. The costs feel about right - good work keeping the flashback expensive to stop this becoming an instant-speed Sleep.
Your +1 ability is a little odd. Tapping is a fine +1 but has been touched by Tamiyo and Ajani already; I'd hope that your seemingly extraneous ice counter is leading somewhere interesting. And hopefully not just tapping!
You have brought a coloured artifact to Innistrad, which seems justified given your flavour. The card only triggers on artifact creatures dying, which is going to be pretty rare in Innistrad except itself, and I'm not sure of the flavour here. I get the impression that maybe the card is chopping up artifact creatures to make spikes - but why damage both players? I think that maybe your flavour disconnect points are better spent on triggering more often, e.g. from all creatures. It is also not a common card.
Undying doesn't add much to the flavour here but is a nice functional addition as it makes a more persistent damage source.
I'm not a fan of your +1 - it's a purely defensive ability that I have to use proactively. It doesn't do anything on its own and my opponent is either going to destroy the artifact in response or not care. A real miss.
Timothy, Mimeslayer - did not submit a card.
Blood Fury is a good name for your planeswalker, and could be concepted to carry off a Vampire flavour, too. You've also wisely made use of Morbid, which fits the feel of your character.
The actual card reads well, but I suspect that it would play very awkwardly. The majority of the time that creatures die, it's in combat - too late for that delicious first strike. Look at the actual morbid cards in Innistrad - they avoid this problem by not being direct combat pump.
It's also strictly worse than Slaughter Cry, which is not a problem but perhaps implies you could have done a little more research.
Your + ability is difficult; it gives a temporary bonus to one guy at the cost of losing another permanently. Unless the second guy has some evasion, which in red isn't all that likely, I probably am not going to get my pumped guy through. I also can't really activate it on a board where I don't have at least two creatures. The amount of loyalty I get from this is going to have to be pretty high to make me want to activate it.
Your card mechanically is very solid. It has a morbid ability that will trigger when I play it after combat, which is correct. It has a reasonable body. My only tweak would be to line up the card's power and the life loss to make it feel more natural.
Flavour wise, your card has a little problem: his name says he's a Specter but he is not a Specter, either in creature type or abilities. He flies like a Specter but doesn't have a discard-related ability like a Specter. He is also a "Rouge" rather than a "Rogue" - a simple spell check before submitting your card shows that you care about quality
Your + ability is fine. It needs to have the "up to one" wording to allow it to activate when my opponent isn't kind enough to furnish me with creatures to target, but otherwise fine. It doesn't tell me much more about your character - I wish I knew more about someone with such a cool name!
First off, the challenge was to make a common card and your card is clearly not common - you made a rare card in terms of complexity and posted it with an uncommon rarity.
Mechanically, the card lets you graft soulbond onto a creature and then graft its abilities onto another creature's. This is a pretty complex effect but does fit with the general idea of what soulbond is all about. I can envisage some awesome combinations (Visara and Windreaver, anyone?) and could have fun with it.
Flavourwise your name is not great; Soulbind is a letter different from the ability it grants for some reason - it'd be more comfortable to either be something completely different (a la Gruesome Deformity) or be the exact same (like Lifelink). This is a small nitpick, though.
Your + ability is my favourite from this batch. Your planeswalker has a sort of blinking flavour (judging from your round 0 card) and this is an interesting way of approaching it. The effect is potentially extremely powerful though - see what happened with Food Chain - so do be careful. This lets you ramp from Solemn Simulacrum straight into Kozilek, Butcher of Truth.
2nd - void_nothing. Not a great common card but decent flavour and a good concept for your planeswalker pull it up.
1st - yewlas. You kept it simple and sold flavour. I think that's the right approach for the first week (common spells and + abilities).
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