We have arrived at the end. No more tricks, no more subtle hits. It is time to answer the question of who Question Mark really is. But before that, I'd like you to stop, and appreciate your previous submissions. They have gotten you this far, but it is through them that your final submissions will be molded. Have they set you up for failure?
As this undertaking proceeds, I will grant you clues about myself, and in the end, your final task will be to design me. For this very reason, I am going to let you know your every challenge right at the start: Design a card that meets the challenge restrictions and encompasses me, given all of the information you will have been provided. Note that future submissions will be based off of your earlier ones, so be careful not to assume too much and design yourself into a hole.
Finish this. [Final Hint] I will post immediately below this with my real username. [Final Challenge] Design two cards, one based around me, the other based around my alter-ego, Question Mark. Your submissions must meet three of the following:
Include all of the colors you have used this far.
The mana cost of at least one submission must the same as that of a previous submission.
You may only use card types you have already used.
You may only use keywords/mechanics you have already used.
[-End Communication-]
THIS MESSAGE WILL SELF-DESTRUCT ON NOVEMBER 18TH, AT 9:00 PM PST.
Finalists: Jimmy Groove, Moss Elemental I would like to thank all of this month's participants. If you have been eliminated, I urge you to test yourself once more when the CCL stops by again!
Howdy Balefire. Welcome back. Now let's hope I don't flub designing you.
Holder
Secret-Veiled Figure1UB
Creature - Illusion (R)
When Secret-Veiled Figure enters the battlefield, search your library for a card and exile it face down. Shuffle your library.
Whenever Secret-Veiled Figure becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls or becomes blocked, you may reveal a face-down card exiled by it. If that card shares a name with a creature card in your graveyard, sacrifice Secret-Veiled Figure and put the exiled card onto the battlefield. "I was the aven all along!"
3/3
Consult the Witch-DoctorUBG
Sorcery (U)
Choose a card in your graveyard at random and exile it. If the exiled card is a creature card, put a token copy of it onto the battlefield. If the exiled card is a land card, put four 1/1 green Saporling creature tokens onto the battlefield. If the exiled card is neither a creature nor a land card, draw 3 cards. "I feel most comfortable working with fungus." - Bili, Witch-Doctor of Daughtkom
Guardian Default3UG
Creature - Mutant (U)
Hexproof, reach
If a creature token would enter the battlefield under your control, you may have it enter the battlefield as a copy of Guardian Default instead. After the destruction of Ravnica at the hands of the Phyrexians, the surviving Simic who relocated to Dominaria developed ways to industrialize their processes, creating stock krasis models called defaults and spreading the knowledge of how to make them out of fusions of a wide variety of different donor organisms.
3/5
Rapid AdaptationUG
Instant (U)
Link UG(3, Exile this card face down linked to a creature: Draw a card. You may cast this card for its link cost while exiled, but only targeting the linked creature.)
Target creature gets +2/+2 and gains flying or hexproof until end of turn. If Rapid Adaptation was linked, it gets +4/+4 and gains flying and hexproof until end of turn instead.
Zygos, Fleshwarper2UG
Planeswaker - Zygos (MR)
[+1]: Target creature gets +1/+1 and gains "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, draw a card." until end of turn.
[-2]: Target creature you control becomes a copy of another target creature until end of turn.
[-6]: You gain an emblem with "If a creature you control has flying, all creatures you control have flying. The same is true of first strike, double strike, haste, hexproof, intimidate, reach and trample."
{4}
A magician creates powerful and unique creatures, then is seemingly gone for good only to reappear as a mysterious and powerful figure. Let's see what we can do with that.
Mechanics 1, 2, and 3.
Balefire, Master of MutantsUBG
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (MR)
At the beginning of your upkeep, but a 2/2 blue and green Mutant creature token on the battlefield. 2B: Regenerate target Mutant creature.
When Balefire, Master of Mutants dies, you may exile it and search your library for a Balefire planeswalker card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. If you do, shuffle your library.
3/3
The Enigma3BU
Planeswalker - Balefire (MR)
[+2]: Target player sacrifices a creature. If that player does, he or she puts a 3/3 blue and black Zombie Mutant creature token onto the battlefield.
[-1]: Return target creature or creature card in a graveyard to its owner's hand.
[-6]: Reveal each player's hand. For each player choose a creature card in that player's hand or graveyard and exile it. If you do, that player gains an emblem with "All creatures this player controls are copies of the creature card exiled with this ability."
[3]
Lore:
Balefire, Master of Mutants was once a mage of average power and above-average cleverness on a strange plane where powerful magic is commonplace and wizards compete in games where they design new spells or creatures for amusement. One day, his latent planeswalker spark flared up, causing him to transport against his will to the distant plane of Ravnica, where his spark became dormant again. Finding himself deep in the undercity, he assumed a low profile and skulked in the shadows, using the more subtle and clever of his magics to learn the basics of the guilds and to infiltrate the secret Dimir, eventually assuming the identity of a masked assassin known only as "The Enigma" and developing the art of producing an illusionary duplicant of himself, a Secret-Veiled Figure, to assassinate foes at a distance.
Eventually he learned of a Golgari Death-Shaman who could revive both dead bodies and dead memories. Hoping this man might hold the key to helping him regain the ability to walk the planes and return home, Balefire consulted the witch-doctor. The old elf was unable to re-awaken the planeswalker's dormant spark, but he did have a vision that Balefire would find his path home through the Simic.
Balefire had to make many complicated arrangements and go through many adventures, but years later he was free of the Dimir and a rising star in the Simic, helping to refine many of the best krasis designs. It was in his sixth year of study that the ports opened and the Phyrexians attacked. Two years and many horrible stories later, Balefire's spark flared back to full life as the last of the Simic rallied against Glissa's hoard. Unable to stop the carnage, he saved all that he could, a few dozen Simic and a handful of renegade survivors of other guilds, and planeswalked away to Dominaria.
Wasting no time, he set the Simic to work creating an army out of everything they could get their hands on, creating default krasis patterns to help them. He then left the Ravnican survivors to seek out allies on Dominaria, leading to two more years full of adventures. Returning to the Simic encampment two years later with a small band of brave and diverse adventurers, he found that his pupil Zygos had managed to create a sizable and powerful kingdom comprised of a few hundred wizards and tens of thousands of mind-linked servitor mutants. The reunion seemed quite pleasant at first, with Balefire proud of his student if slightly disturbed by the alienness of the kingdom he created, and Zygos seemingly quite eager to hear and participate in plans to fight the Phyrexians.
That night Balefire consulted Zygos in the library tower, planning to discuss battle plans, and when a few strange quirks in Zygos' disposition caused the planeswalker to become suspicious he told Zygos to give him a sample of his blood for testing, since he was afraid he had been compromised. Zygos merely smirked and raised his hand to unleash a spell, but Balefire was quicker and threw a bolt of paralyzing force at his pupil. When the bolt contacted Zygos, it triggered a spell he had woven into his flesh, causing him to grow into a huge flying monster and the spell to roll off his hide. He batted Balefire into a wall, then flew out a window. Balefire ran to the window and jumped from it as he unleashed a spell upon himself to transform into a guardian default, a huge crocoscorpian with a web-producing tail. Shooting a stream of webbing at Zygos, he caught his pupil and dragged him from the sky, slamming the mage into the ground just as Zygos was reverting to human form but before Balefire did.
Looking over the broken body of his pupil, Balefire reverted to human form, his brow furrowed as he wondered just how bad the situation was. He remembered just how many mutant creatures were in this city, and that all of them were ultimately mentally linked to Zygos, and he looked back to the keep in horror as he realized just how outnumbered his allies were. He started to rush to help them when he heard a gurgling laughter from what should have been Zygos corpse, and looked back to see his pupil's body stitch together, black oil reaching out from his wounds to pull his flesh back into a single solid piece. "I... killed... them... the second you knew." Zygos said as he finished pulling together. "And this is the part where you run." Although he raged and grieved at the same time, Balefire was not foolish enough to contradict Zygos, and he planeswalked away, reaching farther through the darkness between planes than he ever dared before, past things with maddening forms and profane presences, and he found a familiar plane. He was home.
He wasted no time, and gathered together all of his old friends in the greatest game yet. Reassuming his Dimir diguise, the Enigma hosted a contest to gather all of the best and brightest. The prize would be all of the knowledge he had collected throughout his travels, as well as transportation to any plane the winner wanted to visit after gaining this knowledge. The community of wizards rose to the occasion, and through many difficult trials they were down to the last two...
And this is where our next story begins, before it is revealed that Zygos is a planeswalker and has infiltrated the game, and now stands poised to win it.
Balefire, Speaker of Nature2GG
Planeswalker - Balefire (M)
+1: Put three 1/1 green Saproling creature tokens onto the battlefield.
-1: Search your library for a creature or land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.
-6: You get an emblem with "Creatures you control get +2/+2 and have trample" and "Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, draw a card."
[3]
Enigmatic Being2U
Creature - Shapeshifter (M) 2UU: Enigmatic Being becomes a copy of any nonland permanent on the battlefield and gains this ability.
3/3
Criteria met: 1, 2, 3.
Questions:
Include all of the colors you have used this far.
Can we use other colours in addition to the ones I used?
You may only use supertypes you have already used.
I didn't use any supertypes. Does this mean I can't satisfy this?
PREVIOUSLY.
......
.oOOOOOOo.
.oOOOOOOOOo.
.OOOO'......'OOOO.
OOOO'........'OOOO
OOOO..........OOOO
..................OOOO'
.............OOOO'
........OOOO'
.....OOOO'
...OOOO'
..OOOO
..OOOO
...OO.
..OOOO
..'OO'
We have arrived at the end. No more tricks, no more subtle hits. It is time to answer the question of who Question Mark really is. But before that, I'd like you to stop, and appreciate your previous submissions. They have gotten you this far, but it is through them that your final submissions will be molded. Have they set you up for failure?
As this undertaking proceeds, I will grant you clues about myself, and in the end, your final task will be to design me. For this very reason, I am going to let you know your every challenge right at the start: Design a card that meets the challenge restrictions and encompasses me, given all of the information you will have been provided. Note that future submissions will be based off of your earlier ones, so be careful not to assume too much and design yourself into a hole.
Finish this.
[Final Hint] I will post immediately below this with my real username.
[Final Challenge] Design two cards, one based around me, the other based around my alter-ego, Question Mark. Your submissions must meet three of the following:
I would like to thank all of this month's participants. If you have been eliminated, I urge you to test yourself once more when the CCL stops by again!
Holder
Creature - Illusion (R)
When Secret-Veiled Figure enters the battlefield, search your library for a card and exile it face down. Shuffle your library.
Whenever Secret-Veiled Figure becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls or becomes blocked, you may reveal a face-down card exiled by it. If that card shares a name with a creature card in your graveyard, sacrifice Secret-Veiled Figure and put the exiled card onto the battlefield.
"I was the aven all along!"
3/3
Consult the Witch-Doctor UBG
Sorcery (U)
Choose a card in your graveyard at random and exile it. If the exiled card is a creature card, put a token copy of it onto the battlefield. If the exiled card is a land card, put four 1/1 green Saporling creature tokens onto the battlefield. If the exiled card is neither a creature nor a land card, draw 3 cards.
"I feel most comfortable working with fungus." - Bili, Witch-Doctor of Daughtkom
Guardian Default 3UG
Creature - Mutant (U)
Hexproof, reach
If a creature token would enter the battlefield under your control, you may have it enter the battlefield as a copy of Guardian Default instead.
After the destruction of Ravnica at the hands of the Phyrexians, the surviving Simic who relocated to Dominaria developed ways to industrialize their processes, creating stock krasis models called defaults and spreading the knowledge of how to make them out of fusions of a wide variety of different donor organisms.
3/5
Rapid Adaptation UG
Instant (U)
Link UG (3, Exile this card face down linked to a creature: Draw a card. You may cast this card for its link cost while exiled, but only targeting the linked creature.)
Target creature gets +2/+2 and gains flying or hexproof until end of turn. If Rapid Adaptation was linked, it gets +4/+4 and gains flying and hexproof until end of turn instead.
Zygos, Fleshwarper 2UG
Planeswaker - Zygos (MR)
[+1]: Target creature gets +1/+1 and gains "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, draw a card." until end of turn.
[-2]: Target creature you control becomes a copy of another target creature until end of turn.
[-6]: You gain an emblem with "If a creature you control has flying, all creatures you control have flying. The same is true of first strike, double strike, haste, hexproof, intimidate, reach and trample."
{4}
A magician creates powerful and unique creatures, then is seemingly gone for good only to reappear as a mysterious and powerful figure. Let's see what we can do with that.
Mechanics 1, 2, and 3.
Balefire, Master of Mutants UBG
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (MR)
At the beginning of your upkeep, but a 2/2 blue and green Mutant creature token on the battlefield.
2B: Regenerate target Mutant creature.
When Balefire, Master of Mutants dies, you may exile it and search your library for a Balefire planeswalker card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. If you do, shuffle your library.
3/3
The Enigma 3BU
Planeswalker - Balefire (MR)
[+2]: Target player sacrifices a creature. If that player does, he or she puts a 3/3 blue and black Zombie Mutant creature token onto the battlefield.
[-1]: Return target creature or creature card in a graveyard to its owner's hand.
[-6]: Reveal each player's hand. For each player choose a creature card in that player's hand or graveyard and exile it. If you do, that player gains an emblem with "All creatures this player controls are copies of the creature card exiled with this ability."
[3]
Balefire, Master of Mutants was once a mage of average power and above-average cleverness on a strange plane where powerful magic is commonplace and wizards compete in games where they design new spells or creatures for amusement. One day, his latent planeswalker spark flared up, causing him to transport against his will to the distant plane of Ravnica, where his spark became dormant again. Finding himself deep in the undercity, he assumed a low profile and skulked in the shadows, using the more subtle and clever of his magics to learn the basics of the guilds and to infiltrate the secret Dimir, eventually assuming the identity of a masked assassin known only as "The Enigma" and developing the art of producing an illusionary duplicant of himself, a Secret-Veiled Figure, to assassinate foes at a distance.
Eventually he learned of a Golgari Death-Shaman who could revive both dead bodies and dead memories. Hoping this man might hold the key to helping him regain the ability to walk the planes and return home, Balefire consulted the witch-doctor. The old elf was unable to re-awaken the planeswalker's dormant spark, but he did have a vision that Balefire would find his path home through the Simic.
Balefire had to make many complicated arrangements and go through many adventures, but years later he was free of the Dimir and a rising star in the Simic, helping to refine many of the best krasis designs. It was in his sixth year of study that the ports opened and the Phyrexians attacked. Two years and many horrible stories later, Balefire's spark flared back to full life as the last of the Simic rallied against Glissa's hoard. Unable to stop the carnage, he saved all that he could, a few dozen Simic and a handful of renegade survivors of other guilds, and planeswalked away to Dominaria.
Wasting no time, he set the Simic to work creating an army out of everything they could get their hands on, creating default krasis patterns to help them. He then left the Ravnican survivors to seek out allies on Dominaria, leading to two more years full of adventures. Returning to the Simic encampment two years later with a small band of brave and diverse adventurers, he found that his pupil Zygos had managed to create a sizable and powerful kingdom comprised of a few hundred wizards and tens of thousands of mind-linked servitor mutants. The reunion seemed quite pleasant at first, with Balefire proud of his student if slightly disturbed by the alienness of the kingdom he created, and Zygos seemingly quite eager to hear and participate in plans to fight the Phyrexians.
That night Balefire consulted Zygos in the library tower, planning to discuss battle plans, and when a few strange quirks in Zygos' disposition caused the planeswalker to become suspicious he told Zygos to give him a sample of his blood for testing, since he was afraid he had been compromised. Zygos merely smirked and raised his hand to unleash a spell, but Balefire was quicker and threw a bolt of paralyzing force at his pupil. When the bolt contacted Zygos, it triggered a spell he had woven into his flesh, causing him to grow into a huge flying monster and the spell to roll off his hide. He batted Balefire into a wall, then flew out a window. Balefire ran to the window and jumped from it as he unleashed a spell upon himself to transform into a guardian default, a huge crocoscorpian with a web-producing tail. Shooting a stream of webbing at Zygos, he caught his pupil and dragged him from the sky, slamming the mage into the ground just as Zygos was reverting to human form but before Balefire did.
Looking over the broken body of his pupil, Balefire reverted to human form, his brow furrowed as he wondered just how bad the situation was. He remembered just how many mutant creatures were in this city, and that all of them were ultimately mentally linked to Zygos, and he looked back to the keep in horror as he realized just how outnumbered his allies were. He started to rush to help them when he heard a gurgling laughter from what should have been Zygos corpse, and looked back to see his pupil's body stitch together, black oil reaching out from his wounds to pull his flesh back into a single solid piece. "I... killed... them... the second you knew." Zygos said as he finished pulling together. "And this is the part where you run." Although he raged and grieved at the same time, Balefire was not foolish enough to contradict Zygos, and he planeswalked away, reaching farther through the darkness between planes than he ever dared before, past things with maddening forms and profane presences, and he found a familiar plane. He was home.
He wasted no time, and gathered together all of his old friends in the greatest game yet. Reassuming his Dimir diguise, the Enigma hosted a contest to gather all of the best and brightest. The prize would be all of the knowledge he had collected throughout his travels, as well as transportation to any plane the winner wanted to visit after gaining this knowledge. The community of wizards rose to the occasion, and through many difficult trials they were down to the last two...
And this is where our next story begins, before it is revealed that Zygos is a planeswalker and has infiltrated the game, and now stands poised to win it.
Round 2
Round 3
Top 8
Top 4
Two cards.
Planeswalker - Balefire (M)
+1: Put three 1/1 green Saproling creature tokens onto the battlefield.
-1: Search your library for a creature or land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.
-6: You get an emblem with "Creatures you control get +2/+2 and have trample" and "Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, draw a card."
[3]
Creature - Shapeshifter (M)
2UU: Enigmatic Being becomes a copy of any nonland permanent on the battlefield and gains this ability.
3/3
Criteria met: 1, 2, 3.
Questions:
Can we use other colours in addition to the ones I used?
I didn't use any supertypes. Does this mean I can't satisfy this?
I meant to say card type (Instant/Sorcery/Creature/etc). I'll edit that.
Also, please list which restrictions you've chosen, just for simplicity's sake.