Well, I was completely unprepared for this one, so I'm just coming up with something entirely random.
Welcome to the June FCC. Round One's challenge is....
Make an enchantment card.
Bonus points:
Not white- 1 point Converted mana cost equal to or less than four- 1 point Usual bonuses: Use Mana Symbols in card (must be in both textcard and render (if submitted) in order to count) - 1 point Supply rendered card art - 1-2 points (1 for supplying art, 1 discretionary for judges)
Point Breakdown: Bonus: (x/5): Judge how the card fits the bonus parameters. Balance: (x/10): Judge how the card is balanced; its power level, and whether or not it could make or break a format. Flavour/Creativity/Quality: (x/10): Judge how flavourful, cool, and well-worded the card is. Basically, this is the "slickness" category.
Players may wish to reference the Players List . If you have questions about the FCC, check out the FAQ. If you have a question about using MSE, find your answer here.
This round will run until 12:00am EDT Saturday, June 7th (when Saturday becomes Sunday).
Judges, please don't begin judging until the round is over. You may start postings at 12:01am EDT, even if we (Moss_Elemental, Avatar of Kokusho, and Kraj) are not online then to close the round. In this round, the top four players from each grouping will advance to Round 2.
And yes, no incantatrix for you. Or anyone. That class makes puppies cry. Mostly because they are the former Big Bads who have been Baleful Polymorphed into said puppies. By you. Because you're an incantatrix.
Quote from Yukora »
This is Deraxas we're talking about.
Remember, the girl that just killed an aspect of herself before literally consuming her?
Yeah, I don't see her handling a pissing match in any way other than a duel.
Quote from RedDwarfian »
Yes mistress...
Quote from About epic-level D&D »
There are only so many epic, psuedonatural barbarian/blackguard half-dragon akutenshai vampire balor paragons they can throw at you, right?
Quote from Concerning breeding habits of humans in fantasy games »
I suppose it's true. Though the logistics implied in a human/Great Wyrm Prismatic Dragon pairing makes me shudder.
...Something tells me that even should all arcane casters in the world unite, that the Grease spell would NOT be sufficient.
Tomb of Second King - 1BB
Enchantment (R) B, Pay 2 life: Choose a card you own from outside the game and put
that card into your graveyard. “There lies the knowledge of ancient C’tis, in the tomb of second king.”
- Project Crescent Research Note
Phoenix Aspect :1mana::symr::symr: Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature or creature card in a graveyard
As long as enchanted creature is in play, it gets +3/+3 and has flying.
When enchanted creature attacks or blocks, sacrifice it at end of combat and attach Phoenix Aspect to it. 4RR: If enchanted creature is in a graveyard, return it to play and attach Phoenix Aspect to it.
1G
Enchantment (U)
Whenever a creature you control is tapped for mana, add one mana of the same color to your mana pool. “Our land is tired. With the help of our guiding spirits, we can allow it to rest.”
— Pulchan, Korim High Druid
Enchanting Forest
Land Enchantment- Forest Aura (Enchanting Forest isn't a spell, and it has "T: Add G to your mana pool.")
Enchanting Forest is green.
Enchant basic land
Enchanting Forest comes into play tapped.
Enchanted land has "T: Add W,U,B, or R to your mana pool."
Ravenous Sight 2BB
Enchantment - Aura (R)
Enchant Player (Target a Player as you play this. This card comes into play attached to that Player.)
Fading 2
When Ravenous Sight leaves play, enchanted player discards his hand. 1, Pay 2 life: Put a Fading counter on Ravenous Sight. Any player may play this ability.
Cyril Van Der Haegen
Whenever you draw a card, you may put a charge counter on Invisible Power. Whenever you discard a card, remove a charge counter from Invisible Power. T: Your life total becomes X, where X is the number of charge counters on Invisible Power.
When Sentient Reflection comes into play, if W was spent to play Sentient Reflection, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
When Sentient Reflection comes into play, if B was spent to play Sentient Reflection, target player discards a card.
Whenever a creature card is put into an opponent’s graveyard from anywhere, Sentient Reflection becomes a copy of that creature.
Ishtari Shadowcloak
:1mana::symbu::symbu:
Enchantment - Aura U
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature is unblockable and has ":2mana:: This creature gains shroud until end of turn." Ishtari shadowcloaks not only hide the wearer from sight, but from magic as well.
Shared Ressources :1mana::symg:
Enchantment(Rare)
Whenever a player adds mana to his mana pool add mana of an equal amount and type to each other player's mana pool.
Dread Entropy 1UB
Enchantment
Each spell costs 1 more to play for each card in its controller's graveyard that shares a card type with it.
Brief Visitation 1U
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Whenever a creature comes into play, if Brief Visitation is in your graveyard, return it to play enchanting that creature.
At the end of turn, return enchanted creature to its owner's hand.
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+0 and has fear. Inherit — When enchanted creature leaves play, you may attach Dark Lineage to another creature you control that shares a creature type with enchanted creature.
#29 - Cantripmancer
Versus the rest of the 22-32 Bracket
Honorable Seratonin Presiding
Card: Natural Ephiphany
Good luck, bracket!
Natural Epiphany 1G
Enchantment - Aura (U)
Enchant creature
When Natural Epiphany is countered, draw two cards.
If enchanted creature is blue or black, its power is 0. Otherwise, it gets +2/+2 and has trample. Some find inspiration in nature; others, chains.
Artist: Susan "Cosmosue" McKivergan
M_E vs. Morningstar81, Asrama, Praethus, Seeonee, fifthdawn521, FuriouslySleepingIdea, Jester20005, VampyrLestat, KoolKoal and Alabran
Judge Belgareth residing
Make an enchantment card.
Bonus points:
Not white- 1 point Converted mana cost equal to or less than four- 1 point
Reckless Battle 2BR
Enchantment (R)
All creatures have haste.
Whenever a creature attacks, it gets +2/+0 and its toughness becomes 1 until end of turn. In the midst of frenzy, caution is thrown to the wind.
Chains of Thought 1U
Enchantment-Aura
Enchant Permanent
Enchanted permanent is a blue enchantment with "1,t:draw a card" and loses all other types and abilities.
Thanks Darthmonkey at Damnation Studios for the sig.
(experiencing technical difficulties. If I weren't busy and tired, your eyeballs would be exploding due to excess magnificence)
Thanks mchief111 for the avvy.
When a permanent you control is put into the graveyard from play you may search your library for a card with the same name and put it into play. If you do, shuffle Capricious Puca into its owner’s library.
When Double Curse comes into play, target opponent reveals his or her hand. Choose a card from that player’s hand and remove it from the game.
The next time a spell with the same name as the removed card is played, sacrifice Double Curse. If you do, counter that spell.
PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE READING THE JUDGINGS
The scores are all on the low side. This is not because I believe the cards I judged this round are low quality, it's just the result of a combination of the way I judge and some side effects of the rubric I was trying out this round. Actually, I thought this was a fairly good round as far as first rounds go. While no card particularly wowed me, all of the cards had aspects that I liked, and there was only one no-show, which is pretty good.
As far as telling how well you did overall, I would say consider a 4 for bonus, a 7.5 in balance (7.5 power level, no discretionary points), and a 5 in F/C/Q (2.5 in flavor, 2.5 in creativity), for a total of 16.5, to be about average. Anything better than that is something that you did well on.
A few specific matters:
I treated the discretionary bonus point as a bonus, not as a "nothing wrong" point. That means that I only gave it if I found something about the render particularly impressive. It turns out that I'm difficult to impress with renders, so no card got the whole point and only one card got half of it. Essentially, don't feel bad that you didn't get this point.
I was generally on the generous side when it came to the first 8 power level points for the balance score, but I was extremely stingy with the discretionary points.
The F/C/Q scores are all very low. I'm very hard on flavor and creativity, and making them worth 5 points each instead of 3 only made this more noticable.
The length of the comments is fairly inconsistent. This is partly because I just had more to say on some cards, but also because I felt like a rambled a bit too much on the first few judgings I did (I didn't do them entirely in order), so I tried to be more concise in later ones.
If, after taking this into account, you still have objections, let me know, and I'll explain my reasoning or adjust the score accordingly.
Bonus (4/5) Basic Requirements (4/4): All good.
Discretionary Point (0/1): The art's definitely pretty, and the whimsical, mystical abstractness of it fits very nicely with a blue enchantment that deals with the removed from the game zone. While the mood and color are good, though, the subject matter is kind of unclear. It's just a person floating in mysterious nothingness. I guess that fits the removed from the game part, but it doesn't make me think of an enchantment (too much focus on the figure), the specific effect, or "persistent recall."
Balance (7.5/10) Power Level (5.5/8): The card seems kind of limited at first, but the number of things it combos with is just absurd. Doomsday, the wishes, graveyard hate, flashback, Kaho, Minamo Historian, Arc Slogger... it even combines well with two of the Planeswalkers submitted in last month's FCC finals (including mine). The list goes on and on. I can't find any interactions that would definitely break any formats, but some of the ones I've come up with are powerful enough to have me concerned, and there's definitely the possibility that I've missed something even worse. Even if there isn't anything printed that completely breaks this in half, it's the kind of card that Wizards would have to consider every card that design that uses the removed from the game zone and go "wait... let's make sure this doesn't break Persistent Recall first." Even if the card isn't broken right now, it's combo potential would probably make it too risky to print.
Discretionary Points (2/2): That said, this is an excellent, excellent casual Johnny card. For every combo that will ruin a tournament format, there are dozens, if not more, that will make Johnnies squeal with delight when they come up with them. Most of the interactions with this card are the kind that are perfect for casual combo decks, wacky enough to be fun, but not so powerful that they get banned from tournament groups. Those cards that I listed above? I didn't come up with those just for judging purposes. I came up with those because I enjoyed doing it. Thinking of Doomsday made me very happy, and if this card was real I probably would have started gathering together cheap flashback cards and looking up the current price of Arc Slogger. For this, you easilly get these two points.
F/C/Q (6/10) Flavor (2.5/5): The name works, but mainly because it's kind of boring and generic. It just kind of directly describes what it does. As far as the flavortext goes, the fabric of time is as good a flavor explanation as any for what the removed from the game zone represents, given what it's used for. It feels to me like cards preserved in the fabric of time would be stuck in the removed from the game zone, not come back, especially since when they die, they would just stay in the graveyard. I guess it makes some level of sense that they keep coming back, and thus can never truely be removed entirely, but I'm still not a fan. Creativity (3.5/5): At first, the card seemed like a straightforward varient on Epochrasite style effects. Triggering when cards get removed from the game instead of when they go to the graveyard just seemed like a simple switch. As I thought of combos with the card, though, I realized that getting removed from the game is very, very different from going to the graveyard, because the ways in which it happens are so varied. It's still a pretty straightforward switch from a design standpoint, and I think the reason that nothing like this has been done isn't necessarilly just because no one thought of it since the interactions are so bizarre, but still. While the design resembles existing cards, the way the card interacts with some cards is very unique. Quality (-0): -.5: Using "would" implies a replacements effect, but there's no "instead" to actually make it one. It seems like it should either be "you may instead choose to..." or "When a card you own is removed from the game from anywhere, you may put X time counters on it..." It's a minor mistake and I'm not 100% confident I'm right (you'll get this back if you can show me I'm not), but I think that's how it should be. I feel like people have a tendency to turn things that could be triggered abilities into replacement effect unnecessarilly.
Apparently, the card's wording has been approved by a judge, and I'll take a judge's word over mine on templating issues, unless someone has a reason to object to the wording and believes I was right.
-0 :There's some rules interactions that I could see causing headaches with this (madness), but I don't know the rules well enough to know that any will cause a problem big enough to penalize you for.
Total (17.5/25): Coming up with things that combo with this card was the most fun I had judging any card this round (and I do have fun judging in general, despite the work). It's not necessarilly the best card of the round, but it's probably my personal favorite, as I'm a casual Johnny and I really had a lot of fun coming up with ways to use it. I'm not sure if this card is printable as is, but if it was printed I would hunt down a playset and start building some decks.
Bonus (4/5) Basic Requirements (4/4): All good here. Discretionary Point (0/1): That looks like a nighteye, certainly, but it doesn't look like it's escorting. It looks to me like there's an undead knight observing it suspiciously. I guess that fits in with part of the sacrifice, but it doesn't work great overall. Also, no copyright text.
Balance (9/10) Power Level (8/8): Everything seems good here. The individual components are a bit weak on their own, but the versatility balances everything out and it seems about right. It seems like it would be unlikely to see much play in constructed, since the pump part, while nice, probably isn't worth the risk of a 2-for-1, and there are better creature kill options, but the versatility is enough that there's still some potential there. Meanwhile, this is a great casual card. It's strong enough that more serious casual players will enjoy using it, and the versatility will tend to make it insteresting and fun to play with, which is essential in casual. Timmies will love it, and other players can still put it to good use. In limited, it's great, to be sure, and would be way too good as a common, but at uncommon it's fine. It seems to be just the right power level for a strong limited uncommon. Discretionary (1/2): I'm giving this point for the card's potential to be used in lots of different ways. I mean both how it's versatility will make it play well, and the fact that it shines greatly in limited and casual and still possibly has a bit of standard or block constructed potential.
F/C/Q (5/10) Flavor (3/5): On the one hand, the idea of an escort being able to help a creature out in all these different ways is cool and works well. It can help out your creatures, scaring away most enemies and helping to fight off ones that do cause trouble. If your creature encounters a challenge that's too big to handle, the escort can sacrifice itself to save the creature. The trample even makes some level of sense because the creature can go on to fight the opponent while the escort deals with a blocker. Or, the escort can pretend to help an enemy, only to turn around and kill them. This part's cool, and the fact that I can come up with explanations for all three of the abilities on this card that all fit together without even flavor text is great. There's also some creativity here, going beyond merely magic based on the duality of growth or decay that I'd expect from a black/green aura that can pump or shrink creatures.
On the other hand, while having the aura represent an escort is creative, it feels weird. It's card an aura, after all. Nighteye Escort is a cool name, but really, it belongs on a creature. Furthermore, while an escort that kills the guys it's pretending to help is very black, and escort that protects your guy and helps them fight feels much more white. If that escort is a big glowing eye that follows you around and looks scary, it fits black better, since it would feel more like it's stalking you than escorting, but then it being able to turn the creature huge and give it trample makes a lot less sense.
Overall, the positives are still enough for this to get a pretty good flavor score, though. Creativity (2.5/5): I went back and forth a lot here. To start with, nothing the card does is really that new, so I can't say its incredibly creative. On the other hand, there are some interesting ideas here that are done differently from existing cards, so it's not too uncreative either. At first, I really liked the ideas here, but some of the aspects that seemed really elegant at first started to seem less so as I looked at the card. The duality of being able to sacrifice the aura to pump the creature or shrink it is cool, but the effects would be used for so completely different purposes that some of the elegance of that duality is lost. Most notable, if you put it on your creature, you're going to leave it there, taking advantage of the static effect, while waiting for the right time to sacrifice it. On the other hand, if you play it on your opponent's creature, 95% of the time you're just going to sacrifice it immediately. Having a modal sacrifice effect is elegant, and I'm not sure if there's a solution that's that much better, but I would prefer it if the static effect could somehow be done so that both uses are treated in the same way, putting the card on and then waiting for the right time to sacrifice it. I'm not sure what a good way to do this would be, but, well... the category's creativity. The ideas are supposed to be tricky to come up with. Quality (-.5):
-.5: There shouldn't be a comma after the "or" in the second option.
Total: 18/25
Good job overall. Excellently balanced. The flavor and creativity both try interesting things, even if both of the could have had a better execution. I especially admire the risks you took with flavor, using such an unusual concept for an aura with three abilities and no room for flavor text.
Bonus (4/5) Basic Requirements (4/4): All good here. Discretionary Point (0/1): The art works, but it's not great. The axes look like soul axes, but they do look a bit weird to me (also, theres two of them, but the card name is singular).
Balance (8/10) Power Level (7.5/8): It's hard to balance this card without knowing how many other playable synch cards there would be to go with it, but it seems fine. Without synching it, it's a weak but not terrible pump spell, with synching it, it's a powerful but not overpowered enchantment, which feels like exactly the right way for things to be. In limited, it's a solid common as long as you have enough synch cards. In constructed it probably wouldn't have enough power to be worth the card disadvantage risk, although if higher cost synch spells were powerful enough, it could be useful as just a 1 mana synch spell to power out more expensive ones more easilly. In casual it's nothing special, but I could see casual players building synch decks, and it would fit in with those. My one gripe is that first strike isn't black at all (Planar Chaos doesn't count), and this doesn't fit well enough flavorwise into black for it to get first strike on a hybrid card. Haste would probably work better. Discretionary Points (.5/2): A small reward for taking the risk of making a keyword whose balance depends entirely on what other cards with the keyword would exist.
F/C/Q (4.5/10) Flavor (1.5/5): Not so great. The name is pretty generic, and both the flavor text and art make me thing that this should give double strike, with the whole "weapon in each hand" bit. I guess the second axe could represent playing two of the spell for synching, but I don't think that's a strong enough representation of the mechanic. It's a difficult mechanic to represent flavorwise, but I'd like to see something. Also, the flavor just feels much more red to me and not black enough for a hybrid card. Creativity (3/5): Synch's a neat mechanic, but I really don't like how linear it is. Any mechanic that depends on using other cards that share the mechanic needs to be really awesome and compelling to make up for how narrow it is. Synch is cool, but not cool enough to do that. Using synch cards would be annoying for the same reason splice was annoying in Kamigawa: if you want to take advantage of a card pool any larger than block constructed, the cards limit you too much.
Total (16.5/25): Synch's interesting, I'm just not a fan of the linearity, and your card pretty much depends on synch to be anything special. Also, I think this card isn't a great hybrid design, as first strike is not black and power boosting enchantments only sort of are.
Bonus (4/5) Basic Requirements (4/4): All good. Discretionary Point (0/1): I like the art as a picture, but it only sort of fits the card. It works fine for land animation, but it looks like it should be on a monogreen or green/blue card. There's also nothing to represent the graveyard aspects of the card. I guess those stones around the creature could be tombstones, but that feels like a stretch. Also, you want a soft return (shift enter, instead of enter) between the quote and the name of the person being quoted in the flavor text (try it and you should see what I mean).
Balance (7.5/10) Power Level (7.5/8): This card seems a bit weak, but not too bad. The land animation isn't too powerful and could be a bit of a pain to use, but turning lands into 3/3s is good enough that I'll say this is an acceptable cost for doing it repeatedly. The second ability, seems more versatile, but also a bit weaker. For getting lands back, whether they died while animated or for other reasons, it's fairly weak, since you can only dredge one land per turn (as opposed to, say, Life From the Loam or Crucible of Worlds), and for filling up you graveyard, I'd probably rather use something that I can dredge directly like Stinkweek Imp or Golgari Grave-Troll, instead of needing to use this card and then get a land in the graveyard to dredge. Of course, the real point of this card is to use the abilities together, but even combined they feel like they'd be on the weak side. The first ability's cost is counterproductive to the second ability's graveyard filling, since a deck that wants to dredge cards into its graveyard probably has better uses for those cards than temporary land animation. It's still a cool card that would at least be fun in casual Johnny decks, but for more competetive environments, I think there are better alternatives to its purposes. Discretionary Points (0/2)
F/C/Q (7/10) Flavor (3.5/5): The flavor isn't too creative, but everything fits together very nicely. The name seems a bit generic for land animation, but the word "upheaving" does a good job conveying both land animation and recursion at the same time, which is cool. The flavor text also matches nicely with the way killing the lands lets you dredge them just to get more fuel for reanimation. It still doesn't fully convey what the card's doing, but it ties things together well. Creativity (3.5/5): Nothing here is really new, but there's a lot of subtle synergies going on that give it points for creativity. Having land animation combined with a way to get dead lands back, and having that in turn give you more fuel for land animation, is pretty cool. The fact that you made both abilities useful, if on the weak side, in their own right is also good. Quality (-0): I see no problems.
Total (18.5/25): The card feels a little bit difficult to grok, but despite that the synergies going on here are all cool and creative enough that it works in the end.
Bonus (4.5/5) Basic Requirements (4/4): All good. Discretionary Point (.5/1): I'm not a fan of the art, and that huge open space in the text box where the flavor text should be annoys me. Despite this, however, I feel I have to give you half a point for the way the coloring in the art syncs up almost perfectly with the frame. It looks cool, and it's incredibly hard to pull off using art you found on the internet.
Balance (8/10) Power Level (8/8): I think the card's definitely on the weak side, but that's more by nature of the design than because it's not well balanced. This isn't the kind of card that would be likely to become a powerhouse in tournaments unless some strange combo or metagame feature arises (it would be nice against Doran). It's the kind of card that casual players throw in a deck with some Kami of Old Stone or Serendib Sorcerer for some wacky shenanegins, and for that, it's great. Discretionary Points (0/2)
F/C/Q (1/10) Flavor (.5/5): The flavor here is lazy and almost nonexistent. With all that open space, this card desperately needs flavor text, especially with such a weird effect and a generic name. This name could just as easilly go on any other red chaos spell like Planar Chaos and Confusion in the Ranks, and may even be better suited for effects like that than it is on this card. Flavor for power/toughness switching works best when it implies some sort of inversion or something being backwards (such as About Face). Creativity (.5/5): A gatherer search for your card's entire rules text gives Mannichi, the Fevered Dream. Changing an activated until end of turn ability on a creature to a static ability on an enchantment isn't too creative. Quality (-0): Besides the lack of flavor text for a card with so little rules text, no issues here, and that issue's already been brought up in other categories.
Total (13.5/25): This would be a fun card if it were actually printed. I can even imagine wizards printing a card with this exact rules text. As a card to show off design skills, however, it's not as great. Most importantly, though, this card needs flavor text. Even on cards with plenty of rules text, a line or two of flavor text often fleshes out the card and is worth the smaller font size. On a card with less than two full lines of rules text, flavor text is absolutely necessary.
Bonus (4/5) Basic Requirements (4/4): All good. Descretionary Point (0/1): It may just be the size of it, but the spacing of the text in the render seems off. In particular, I think there should be more space between the rules text and the flavor text, and possibly less space between the text and the top and bottom of the text box. Also, the art just shows a corpse, which represents mulch fine but doesn't show any knowledge being gained from it.
Balance (8/10) Power Level (8/8): Seems fine. It feels a bit weak to me compared to Phyrexian Arena or Honden of Seeing Winds, but it's also green, which means it you probably should have to work a bit harder to draw an extra card every turn. The requirement for drawing the cards seems about right, not making it too expensive but still ensuring that you need a bit of work to draw extra cards every turn. The ability feels kind of black, but it works well enough in green and makes enough sense flavor wise that it's not a big deal. In terms of actually seeing play, the card seems like it would be fun in casual decks for players that just like to draw extra cards and fine in limited, but never outstanding. In more competetive constructed environments, it seems like Harmonize or Ohran Viper would usually be a better option for green card draw, but I can still imagine some situations where this would be preferable. Discretionary Points (0/2)
F/C/Q(4.5/10) Flavor (2/5): It makes some degree of sense and the name fits to the mechanic well, if fairly obviously and uncreatively, but it doesn't quite click for me. I'm unsure exactly how knowledge is being gained through the mulch. The flavor text describes that the decay gives knowledge, but not how, and the art and name don't help. Also, while studying rotting things could be green (or black), converting them to knowledge feels more blue. Green's card draw is often represented as growth, instead of knowledge like blue's card draw, and I feel that would be a much better angle to take here. Mulch turning into growth makes perfect sense and would fit the mechanic just as well, and would also be completely green, as opposed to having a hint of blue.
EDIT: While my comments are the same, I feel the score I gave the card for flavor the first time was a bit high. Creativity (2.5/5): Nothing wowing or unbelievably creative here, but providing green with non-creature-based card draw without being horribly out of flavor or out of color pie is a bit creative. Of course, that's mitigated by the fact that this could probably just as easilly be black with a different name and flavor, but it works nonetheless. Quality (-0): All seems good here.
Total: 16.5/25
A solid, if not exceptional, card design. Everything works besides my knowledge vs. growth gripe about flavor. It didn't wow me, but it's still not bad at all.
Bonus (4/5) Basic Requirements (4/4): All good. Discretionary Point(0/1): I see the gallows, but where's the tree? I think the art's generally a bit too silohuetted, and it doesn't look much like an enchantment. It's just gallows, and that's it.
Okay, with my new understanding of the flavor, the art makes sense now. It's still not great (a bit too dark and silohuetty), but it works a lot better.
Balance (7/10) Power Level (7/8): Compared to Last Life, probably the closest cart, this is clearly much stronger, being one sided and all, along with the ability to stay around after clearing your opponent's board and potentially reduce the damage of a big attack with a creature destruction spell. On the other hand, Last Laugh is definitely weak, so it's okay to be stronger than it. I don't think it's necessarilly too strong in general, the problem that I have is that it might be inconsistent enough or too difficult to set up for in constructed. In casual, meanwhile, it's probably the kind of card players would get really annoyed by, as it would probably be fairly frustrating to play against. Not as frustrating as land destruction or Simic Sky Swallower, maybe, but still frustrating. Discretionary Points (0/2)
F/C/Q (6/10) Flavor 4.5/5): I didn't get the flavor at first, but I think I'm starting to understand it. The idea seems to be that when a creature dies, the other creatures get angry and must be put down to stop any sort of insurgance. If creatures are killed in this process, that just makes everyone else rowdier, which means more quelling. It's kind of roundabout and not very enchantmenty, and there's no in-between step to represent the creatures resisting before they get punished, but it is very cool and creative. I got this from the flavor text, so I can't fault it too much, although it does still feel vague, and I'm not sure what the markers mean for the card.
Okay, after thelostandthedamned's explanation of what a Gallows Tree actually is...
The flavor here is very cool. Every time a creature dies, its body goes up as a warning which, in turn, weakens other creatures and discourages them from attacking. It's not perfect: I'd prefer a name that conveys its roll as a warning or a marker as opposed to the name just being the actual part of the gallows, but the coolness of it and how well it fits into the mechanic is great. Essentially, the historical background here that I missed the first time fills in most of the major complaints I had that time and makes it very cool. Also, using a real-world historical concept in a way that fits fine in Magic and doesn't feel like it's breaking the fantasy setting is difficult, and you did it very well. Creativity (2/5): It's a fairly unoriginal take on recursive killing effects like Last Laught and Blowfly Infestation, but I think those effects are cool enough that I still like it. Quality (-.5):
-.5: Missing punctuation at the end of the flavor text.
Total (17/25): A solid design. Recursive effects are tricky to make, and yours works fairly well, but also isn't a particularly interesting take on the concept. The flavor, on the other hand, is very cool and fits the effect well.
Bonus (4/5) Basic Requirements: All good. Discretionary Point (0/1): I'm not a fan of the art. I'm not really sure why, to be honest, as it fits the card, I just don't like it that much.
Balance (7.5/10) Power Level (7.5/8): This card feels like it could be a bit on the strong side sometimes, but overall I'd say it's balanced. The attacker boost can add a lot of damage, and it has me a bit worried, but since it requires your third turn drop not be a creature and will be played in decks that would want to play as many creatures and fill out their mana curve as much as possible, it shouldn't be too bad, especially with the symmetry and the current standard where even control and combo decks will have creatures to take some advantage of the symmetry. The first ability seems unnecessary, though. The second and third abilities already promoted attacking and blocking with lots of creatures. Not that there aren't situations where it will matter, but it feels redundant. This biggest problem, though, is that the third ability is most definitely white, not red. Discretionary Points (0/2)
F/C/Q (1.5/10) Flavor (1/5): This card doesn't feel like battlefield hysteria, it feels like strength in numbers and working together. Hysteria makes me think of a chaotic free-for-all, or at least a reckless charge, and this is the opposite. It makes sense how hysteria would give power boosts, but I'm not sure why more creatures would get a bigger boost. I'm especially unsure of why it helps blockers who are coordinated, which is completely a while thing to do. Overall, the name just doesn't work for me, and with no flavor text to help, that means the entire flavor doesn't really work. Creativity (1.5/5): It's all just extentions of things that have been done before, the first ability being taken directly from Ember Beast and the other abilities resembling things like Shared Animosity and not doing anything particularly interesting. Ember Beast is an interesting thing to take inspiration from, though. Quality(-1):
-1: The second two abilities should be worded as triggered abilities, like Shared Animosity.
Total (13/25): It's not awful, but the card really needed some extra creativity or flavor to make it more interesting. Also, it should really cost RW, because boosting the toughness of blockers isn't red in gameplay or flavor.
Bonus (4/5) Basic Requirements (4/4): All good here. Discretionary Point (0/1): This looks like a forest fire, which is the kind of thing that might cause Gaea's Rare, but I don't like it as the result of Gaea raging. It seems to me the earth itself should be attacking, not burning.
Balance (8/10) Power Level (8/8): The first ability's on the weak side, but the card's cheap enough that it's not too bad. At first, I thought the second ability was incredibly narrow, most of the time only just doing 1 damage if you play a land the same turn and occasionally punishing an enemy for using pain lands or helping boost a Keldon Megaliths, but then I realized how great it works with animated lands. The interaction's not tournament caliber, but it's a lot of fun with casual Earth Surge decks. As far as the two abilities combined goes, I'd say being able to sneak a bit of damage through with lands is nice, but probably not enough for constructed torunaments, and the second ability is too narrow, even taking animated lands and the first ability into account. It's a fun casual card, though, and potentially playable in limited, though nothing special for a rare.
EDIT: After taking into account some balance points made in a PM, specifically about the fact that the second ability can be activated multiple times per turn and the fact that land search can help the first ability, I'm bumping this score up. In light of those two factors, the card can be quite powerful when used in a deck built to abuse it, but the set up required is enough to not make it too bad. Discretionary Points (0/2)
F/C/Q (4.5/10) Flavor (2.5/5): The flavor works, although it feels a bit uncreative. A card that deals damage with lands, so the flavor is Gaea commanding the earth to fight. You do expand the flavor into attempting to add flavor to a world and go beyond the card, but it doesn't give me a great portrayal of the world this takes place in on its own, and I'd also be much more interested in seeing you create your own world than use already existing ones in Magic (not that the flavor can't work with those, but it's less impressive to convey a world that's already been conveyed plenty of times before). Also, the flavor text makes me think of animated lands, but I think that's inevitable, and not a fault of the flavor. Creativity (2/5): The first ability hasn't been done before, but it's simple and fairly boring. The second ability is just a different take on the Furnace of Rath effect, although applying it to lands is more interesting and creative than applying it to flavor. Earth Surge already existing as a card that boosts man-lands, albeit in a different and more straightforward manner, also hampers the creativity here a bit. Quality (-0): I don't see any issues here.
Total (16.5): The first part of the card is boring but practical. The second part is interesting but too narrow.
Bonus (4/5) Bonus (4/4): All good here. Discretionary Point (0/1): The art is a bit too abstract, and the name and mechanic don't make it any clearer what's going on there. Also, no copyright line and the MSE square expansion symbol.
Balance (8/10) Power Level 7/8): I'm hesitant about anything that has the potential to give this much card advantage. The fact that it's unpredictable and causes life loss with the card advantage helps, but I'd still be a bit worried. As far as playability goes, anything that lets you draw cards like this does has the potential to see tournament play, I think. Discretionary Points (1/2): 1 point for risk-taking. Anything that lets you draw this many cards is dangerous, and, while it has me concerned, I think you kept it fairly well balanced for how powerful effects like this can be.
F/C/Q (4/10) Flavor (1/5): The name's very generic for a black card that trades life for cards, and the art and lack of flavor text don't do anything to help bring it any deeper. Creativity (3/5): It's basically just a combination of Phyrexian Arena and Cragganwick Cremator, but that's a very interesting combination to make. Quality (-0): Looks good to me.
Total (16/25): I like this card a lot, actually, but the huge potential card advantage from it has me worried, and the lack of any real flavor hurt it a lot.
Bonus (5) Predetermined Criteria (4): The card is a non-white enchantment with converted mana cost 4 or less, and has mana symbols and a render with artwork. Discretionary Point (1): This point is for renders that go beyond what I normally expect for custom cards. Primarilly, I will give it to really great art (the kind that fits the card so well it looks like it was commissioned specifically for the card), but I will also reward anything that requires some image editing skills or other work beyond what MSE allows, such as planeswalker art going outside the frame or wacky things like un-cards. In addition, to get this point you must have a non-blank copyright, an expansion symbol other than the MSE square, and some form of artist credit ("Unknown" is okay, but it shouldn't be blank).
Balance (10) Overall Power Level (8): There are two parts to this. First, do all the numbers and abilities balance out? Are the mana cost, P/T, etc. right for what the card does? Second, where will the card be played. To do well here, a card should be likely to see play in at least one competetive constructed format (block, standard, extended, legacy, vintage) or casual (duals or multiplayer) without breaking any of them. For common, limited is also on that list, although if a common would only see play in limited it should really shine there. For uncommons and especially rares, I'll look at limited, but it won't count as much and the card's usefulness shouldn't depend on it. Unlike some judges, I won't weight things towards tournament play. If the card's unplayable in tournaments but would be great at kitchen tables, that's fine with me. Cards will also lose points here for breaking the color pie without a good excuse (Form of the Dragon would be okay). Discretionary Points (2): These points can be used for cards that are especially well balanced (such as Watchwolf), but I may also give them out for other things. Cards that seem like they would play very well by creating interesting gameplay decisions (like Fact or Fiction), would be especially fun to play with, or would have a strong appeal to players going beyond their power level (such as great Timmy or Johnny cards) might also get points here. Finally, I might occasionally give these points to cards that I feel took a risk with balance by using an especially hard-to-balance effect and still pull it off.
F/C/Q (10) Flavor (5): How well the name, mechanics, and flavor text fit together. To get full marks, the flavor should really be impressive, as opposed to just making sense. You'll also get a higher score here if you manage to go beyond merely conveying why the card does what it does and create a sense of a character or world. I will never penalize for bad art here, but if the art helps tie the flavor together, I won't ignore it. Creativity (5): How new is the card, and how interesting are the new aspects? The second part of that is important to keep in mind: a card can do something that has technically never been done before without being interesting or creative if the ability seems obvious. At the same time, a card can do something very similar to other cards while still being creative if it does it in a way that feels very different and interesting. This is my personal favorite category, so I'll probably be very harsh here. Quality: I haven't set aside any points for quality. Instead, I'll calculate the score from balance and creativity, and then apply penalties to that score for quality issues. Anything that makes the card seem less like a real card and is not render-related, such as typos and templating mistakes, will result in penalties. If the card does not work as intended, I will, if possible, do the balance score as if it did. However, you will be heavily penalized here. I will never take off more than 3 points total for quality.
A few notes to keep in mind:
-Don't post any comments about your card, especially unspoiled. Your card shouldn't require any background info or explanations. If you're worried I may miss some subtle aspect of the card, just wait until I do the judging, and then if I did miss it you can let me know and I'll change the judging accordingly.
-If the render and text card disagree, I'll use the text card.
Bonus (3/5): No mana tags in the text version, generic mana symbol, no copyright line, and an unusual gap in the render's text box.
Balance (3/10): Pretty lame card. Granting shroud is meh, sacrificing to counter a white spell will only be useful about a 1/5th of the time, and the last ability would only be good if it worked while the card was in the graveyard, which it doesn't specifiy, so by default only works while in play. Bad in Constructed, bad in Limited.
F/C/Q (4/10):
-Flavor (1/4): This murders the color pie. Black doesn't get shroud, nor does it get counters. Everything about this card is blue.
-Creativity (2/3): It's "unique" I guess, but not for good reasons.
-Quality (1/3): Massive errors: "Creature" wouldn't be capitalized in "Enchanted creature" at the beginning; "Enchanted creature has shroud"; the sacrifice ability wouldn't be granted to the creature, it would just be an ability of the aura; "Whenever a black creature you control is put in a graveyard from play, you may pay 1. If you do, return Unholy Aura to its owner's hand."
Total: 10/25
Bonus (5/5): All good.
Balance (10/10): Congratulations, tortazo; you just recieved my very first "perfect 10" in Balance. It's increadible if used correctly, but even has it's places in decks not specifically built for it. Strong synergy with black and green's basic stratagies... I have no problems with this card. Again, congratulations.
F/C/Q (9.5/10):
-Flavor (4/4): Very good.
-Creativity (3/3): Good.
-Quality (2.5/3): "Trample" wouldn't be capitialized, and there shouldn't be a space in "another."
Total: 24.5/25
Bonus (4/5): I realize that suitable "flip card" art is hard to come by, but this just doesn't look very good. If you'd put in a request in the Artwork area, I'm sure someone could have blended them together for you.
Balance (7/10): For this, I'm going to assume the card works the way you intended it to (see Quality below to find out what I mean). The two effects are decent. Not many decks will be able to really utilize both sides, but there will be the occational UBR deck that will be able to flip it to the appropriate side for the situation. It's good late game, when you have alot of free mana. BR decks can use it to squeeze through the last few point sof damage once they've run out of burn, and UB decks can use it to draw extra spells (most likely counters) right before their turn. A decent utility card, but noting perticularly "stand out"-ish.
F/C/Q (3/10):
-Flavor (0/4): Generic. Absolutely nothing unique or creative with the flavor whatsoever.
-Creativity (2/3): The two main effects are very simple and boring.
-Quality (1/3): As is, you card doesn't fully work. You basically tried to combine a flip card with a split card. Under current rules, a flip card can only be played on one side, and then under some condition flip to the other. Once flipped, it can't be flipped again, nor can it be "unflipped." You also couldn't play it as Caress of Darkness, only Caress of Fire. Your card would require massive changes to the Comp rules for flip cards.
Total: 14/25
Bonus (5/5): All good.
Balance (8/10): At first, I was going to say cumulative upkeep is pointless, but I got it; you have to pay X for each age coutner, but it still only targets one creature. In most cases, a player will pay the upkeep the first time, giving him a striaghtforward Blaze, then pay X next turn, removing the counter. Then pay mana the next time, skip, etc. This could become a staple in standard R mana ramp decks (like Dragonstorm decks).
F/C/Q (9.5/10):
-Flavor (4/4): Good.
-Creativity (3/3): Good.
-Quality (2.5/3): I don't think saying "X can be zero" is neccessary. X can always be 0. In any case, there would be aperiod at the end, inside the parenthases.
Total: 22.5/25
Bonus (4.5/5): The font on the render looks... weird.
Balance (7/10): This is a case that rarity effects balance; if this were a common or uncommon, it would be fine. The effect is decent, but not exactly a Limited bomb. If you're playing a WU deck with Mesa Enchantress, it's great, but outside that combo (and one's like it), it just "good." It didn't need to be a rare.
F/C/Q (9.5/10):
-Flavor (4/4): Good.
-Creativity (3/3): Good.
-Quality (2.5/3): The speaker of the quote would be on another line.
Total: 21/25
Bonus (4/5): It's white. But you knew that.
Balance (8/10): I compare this to Circu: I'm one of those people that thought he would be increadibly powerful, being a staple in all these Tier 1 decks... and then he turned out to be just average. That's how I think your card is. It has the advanage of giving you more control over the cards removed (or at least how many), and isn't as fragile as a creature, but isn't much more dangerous. Outside of Limited, it's a niche card.
F/C/Q (9/10):
-Flavor (4/4): Good.
-Creativity (2/3): A bit too similar to Circu and all those Meddling Mage type cards.
-Quality (3/3): No issues.
Total: 21/25
Bonus (4/5): The URL across the pic isn't that great, and the reminder text for "Enchant player" is unneccessary.
Balance (6.5/10): Like Reality Acid, this card could be very cruel with any form of bounce. The main problem is that by turn 7 (play this turn for, get's sacced turn 7), chances are there isn't much let in your opponents hand that they don't mind losing. The card could be good in multiplayer with the above-mentioned bouncing, but other than that, it's just too slow.
F/C/Q (7.5/10):
-Flavor (3/4): Thsi is a case where the card really would have benefited from some flavor text.
-Creativity (3/3): Good.
-Quality (1.5/3): Fading has been obsoleted by Vanishing, and there's no real reason to do fading on this card. Also some errant capitalizations.
Total: 18/25
Bonus (5/5): All good.
Balance (7.5/10): The first effect is probably the strongest, but is also only good in certain circumstances (upping power and granting temaple is generallyu best as an instant combat trick). If you stack triggers right, you get three effect for 3 mana over 3 turns. None of them are very strong, but their power comes from versatility (think the legendary Dragon charm cycle from Invasion). It's a good utility card, but will likely dissapear right before it really gets going.
F/C/Q (7.5/10):
-Flavor (2.5/4): Kind of all over the place. The name doesn't really fit any of the abilities.
-Creativity (2/3): A bit weak.
-Quality (3/3): No issues.
Total: 21.5/25
Bonus (5/5): All good.
Balance (7/10): It's problem is that it's a counter that lets your opponent know you have a counter. Drop it with 5 time counters on it? You opponent will know to wait a turn before playing their Oversoul of Dusk. It's not that bad, but sacrificing the element of suprise makes counterspells very limited in their use.
F/C/Q (9/10):
-Flavor (3/4): The reminder text fro Vanishing could have been left off, giving you plenty of room for some great flavor text.
-Creativity (3/3): Good.
-Quality (3/3): No issues.
Total: 21/25
Bonus (5/5): All good.
Balance (7/10): It's a Dream Leash that takes 3 turns to kick in. Dream Leash wasn't that strong to begin with (it's advantages over Confiscate were negligable), so slowing it down doesn't help either. It has the advantage of being cheaper, letting it run control prior to theiving the creature. But it also give your opponent a chance to kill the enchantment before you get a chance to use it for something.
F/C/Q (8.5/10):
-Flavor (4/4): Good.
-Creativity (1.5/3): Dream Leash. It's also two fairly basic blue abilities comboed together.
-Quality (3/3): No issues.
Total: 20.5/25
Bonus (4/5): No copyright line and generic set symbols.
Balance (7.5/10): Both halves are pretty solid, no real power concerns. They're simple and small enough they won't be breaking any formats, but they're hardly useless.
F/C/Q (6/10):
-Flavor (2.5/4): Another case where the reminder text is completely unneccessary, and could have made room for some flavor text.
-Creativity (2/3): A bit vanilla.
-Quality (1.5/3): I don't think the rules currently support split permanents... Also, I believe saying "this land" is unneeded, and it would be "Enchanted creature gets +2/+2 and has trample."
Total: 17.5/25
Snake Cult Channeling 2BG
Enchantment
: If target creature would deal combat damage to a player this turn, prevent that damage and the defending player gets that many poison counters. Enemies of the Cult often do not realize who their true antagonist is.
Call the Horde 1RR
Enchantment 1R: Put a 1/1 red Goblin Warrior creature token into play. 1RR: Put a 2/2 red Orc Warrior creature token into play. 2RR: Put a 3/3 red Ogre Warrior creature token into play.
Glorious Rampage (2/R)(2/W)
Enchantment (R/W)(R/W): ~ deals 3 damage to target creature or player and you gain 3 life. 1(R/W)(R/W): Put a 2/2 red and white Human Soldier token with first strike into play.
I've adapted Kraj's rubric for my purposes, and by "adapted" I mean "bloodily ripped off." I've reserved two points at the end to do with as I please, but otherwise this is Kraj's rubric.
8 - The card is both well-costed and constructed playable, or if it just doesn't quite cut the mustard in constructed by nature of the design (ie., it's a big Timmy card or a niche Johnny card) but couldn't possibly be better balanced.
7 - The card is really well-costed but is just a little too strong or a little too weak.
6 - The card is reasonably well-costed but clearly has room for improvement or is way too expensive or narrow to be playable.
5 - The card is not terrible but is clearly over or under the curve, or is well-balanced on its own but fairly easily breaks in combination with another card in Standard.
4 - The card is severely over or underpowered, or horribly broken in combination with another card.
3 - Borderline broken or hugely overcosted.
2 - Obviously broken or utterly useless.
< 2 - So broken or trashy it's obvious no thought went into it whatsoever.
+1 - It has the proper rarity. For this purpose there is no difference between rare and mythic rare. I would prefer nobody submit a card as mythic rare until we know what to expect from them, but in the meantime I'm treating them as just rare.
+1 - Discretionary.
Flavor, Creativity, and Quality are 3 points each, plus 1 discretionary point. I give out the discretionary point at my discretion, and the others categories work thusly:
Bonus: 4/5
Not white - 1 point.
CMC less than or equal to four - 1 point.
Used mana symbols - 1 point.
Supplied rendered art - 1 point.
Discretionary - 0 point.
You should have had something for artist and copyright. You can say "unknown" if you don't know, and you don't have to necessarily use the standard copyright line as it appears on printed cards, but being totally blank like that is worth taking off for.
Balance: 9/10
General 8/8
Rarity 0/1
Discretionary 1/1
Considering black gets removal at this cost range this seems week at first glance, and we all know it's a rule that auras are always weak, but this lets you null creatures that are a problem to remove normally. For example, this works on black creatures. It could probably cost 1B instead of BB, but ever since Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth any time you say that kind of thing it's officially just being petty.
My only complaint is that this feels like a common. I mean that in a good way actually, but in my rubric I reserve one point for proper rarity and I feel this is wrong at uncommon. That said, I like this card a lot and hope it gets officially ripped off by the Hasbro spy bots that we all assume steal the good ideas of MTGSal and put them into upcoming sets.
Flavor is solid. Black has no precedent making things colorless, but there is precedent of black just doing spiteful things that feel unnecessary and I can imagine this in a "color matters" set being quite annoying.
Creativity is also solid. It doesn't do anything completely new, but it is a nice bundle of preexisting debilitating effects. Making the creature colorless was a nice touch.
The wording is a little off. It should make the creature colorless, not make it loose all of it's colors. It was nice to try to put the whole effect into one list, but I believe it should be "Enchanted is colorless and looses all abilities and creature types." or something.
Bonus: 4/5
Not white - 1 point.
CMC less than or equal to four - 1 point.
Used mana symbols - 1 point.
Supplied rendered art - 1 point.
Discretionary - 0 point.
That is just a terrible render. It looks much worse than a MSE render, and I don't know what you were thinking with the art. I don't care for going that far outside of the border, especially outside of Un-land.
It's just too good at one cost. I know that auras suck because of the infamous 2 for 1's, so they have to be good enough to compensate for the inherent card disadvantage. That said, one mana for +3/+3 is too good, even if it taps you. It would have to cost two mana at least, and obviously it would have been garbage at three mana because Moldervine Cloak exists. I'm not going to say it should cost 1G or GG (or (2/G)(2/G) or whatnot) but I'm sure that it's wrong at just G.
I have no idea what rarity you had intended this card to be. The textcard doesn't give any clues, and it looks like either common or basic land. At any rate, I'm obviously not giving the point for having the right rarity if it is unclear what rarity you were trying for. If I had to guess I'd say you were trying for common and thus would be wrong because this kind of thing really feels more uncommon (mostly because of the dual usage as green tapper or armor.)
The flavor is weak. From a color pie perspective the tapping doesn't make a whole lot of sense. This feels a lot more like something black would get, as it can be used offensively with Royal Assassin. +3/+3 is extremely good for one mana, and if any color would get that with some kind of limitation it would be green, but this feels like the wrong drawback. I'm also wondering why your textcard had flavor text and you render didn't include it. I think this needed flavor text, and what you had on the text version would have been just the thing so I wonder why you left it off.
Flavor issues aside, the creativity is certainly there. I'm not sure this is good "design space" but it is thinking outside the box.
I have to disqualify you for posting two cards. You have to specify which card is your submission when you do this sort of thing. I'm sorry, but that's the rules.
Bonus: 5/5
Not white - 1 point.
CMC less than or equal to four - 1 point.
Used mana symbols - 1 point.
Supplied rendered art - 1 point.
Discretionary - 1 point.
I have to judge this based on current standard where it's has room for improvement. You just don't see decks that have more cards in hand than creatures in play past the first couple of turns, so it wouldn't do a whole lot. I think that once Lorwyn-Shadowmoor block passes, or in the context of extended and larger formats, this goes up in power quite a bit.
I remember watching the videos of the final round in the Time Spiral block constructed world tournament, and if in any of those games this card would have hit it would have been simply brutal. In those days it wasn't uncommon to have decks that didn't even have seven creatures, so when your only creature in play is Aeon Chronicler this can be quite vexing, but I think that today's standard isn't the place for this kind of thing.
Flavor is nice. It could almost be mono green in a Biorhythm kind of way, but anything that can lower your opponent's hand size should probably be black anyway. This card is in desperate need of flavor text though. This is mostly a complaint about how the render would look, but I feel the total lack of flavor text is a significant distraction.
Creativity is solid. It does something new but not completely alien, the right amount of creativity. I appreciate subtlety, and you have that in abundance here.
The only quality mark I could bring up is you should say "he or she" instead of "they" , but it's hard to care.
All in all I really dig this card. It works well with preexisting themes, it can be used in casual play or tournament play. It's just all around good design.
Bonus: 4.5/5
Not white - 1 point.
CMC less than or equal to four - 1 point.
Used mana symbols - 1 point.
Supplied rendered art - 1 point.
Discretionary - 0/5 point.
While it's a nice pic, there is much empty space for a magic card. You just don't see things like the original Terror anymore, and with good reason.
Balance: 8/10
General 6/8
Rarity 1 point.
Discretionary 1/1
It's significantly above the curve, but certainly not broken. It's pretty much strictly better than Skulltap, but skulltap was behind the curve. The thing you want to do is put it down on a 2/2 or bigger then block, which give you a good advantage when it works out like that. On the other hand it suffers from the problem of all auras, and if your opponent shocks the forementioned bear and you get nothing. On the other hand it's really nice when you can double enchant some 2/2 that has past it's purpose, but let's face facts: an aura has to be Rancor or pretty close to it before anyone really cares.
So it pushes the envelope on what you can get in the realm of auras, but I could seriously see this. It's right at an uncommon, as it's more complicated than most commons and as a rare it would be, well, vexing to open in a pack.
The flavor text feels really out of place, especially since nothing else about the card has anything to do with goblins in the least, but it's so well done that I just can't hold it against you. It feels like it was written by the same people as the rest of the Auntie Grub quotes, so I have to give you props. I've already said my piece about the art, but I'd like to add here that if this did have art of a general Lorwyn style (which I realize is impossible to find) that would be a stunning improvement.
You did tread a little bit into unsafe color pie realm. This seems a little too much like Bequeathal to me, with a hint of Cursed Flesh. I have to wonder if you played much during Exodus.
Finishing things off, I didn't find any mistakes so you're good terms of quality.
Bonus: 4.5/5 Not white - 1 point.
CMC less than or equal to four - 1 point.
Used mana symbols - 1 point.
Supplied rendered art - 1 point.
Discretionary - 0/5 point.
You didn't have a copyright line at all. Until recently I was taking off for not having the exact right copyright line, but now I've taken a more relaxed stance to where I only take off if you don't have anything. That or if you put "F*** you Kenaron!" there, but my point is that anything resembling the normal copyright line would have been been better than leaving it blank. Similarly, I used to take off for not having right artist credit, but you put Unknown which at least an acknowledgment that the art belongs to someone.
Balance: 8/10
General 6 points.
Rarity 1 point.
Discretionary 1 point.
A novel variation on Call to the Grave. On one hand it is significantly more powerful because it stays in play even if there aren't any creatures in play, but on the other hand if all one player does is drop high power creatures that don't get to attack that can win them the game. I do have a beef with this, and it's Ivory Mask / Imperial Mask. The life loss clause really shouldn't target.
Moving on though, this is clearly the proper rarity despite the aforementioned combo I could see this in print. It's fodder for the Enduring Ideal deck, but so is every card in this round and also I think extended could handle it
With a name like "Pyramid of Skulls" it should be an artifact, possibly a land depending on the quantity of skulls involved. Some better names off the top of my head would be "Curse of burning rage." or "Consuming hatred." With a name like "pile of head bones" we are left to guess what the spell is going in the imaginary game world. Call to the Grave is a good example of what to model this kind of card from.
Creativity was okay, but it didn't knock me off my chair. Again this is because I thought of Call to the Grave immediately, but the extra bit about the life loss is a nice touch.
You only made one quality mistake, and even though you made it twice I don't want to be petty and take off more than a half point for it. When you say "he" you should instead say "he or she." I don't know much about romantic languages like Spanish, so it could very well be that this isn't a problem in your native tongue, but English cards have to say "he or she" because there are some female magic players out there.
Bonus: 4/5
Not white - 1 point.
CMC less than or equal to four - 1 point.
Used mana symbols - 1 point.
Supplied rendered art - 1 point.
Discretionary - 0 point.
Not a good picture. I have to give you the point for supplying a render, but I would have preferred you just submit a textcard. I only spend five minutes looking in around in the late Polar Bear God's art thread and found not one but two good pics for this card, and that was only in the new stuff since the last time I looked. If you were willing to change the flavor text of the card or for that matter the flavor in general there were many more. Not only can good art get you an extra bonus point but it can make up for inadequacies in flavor as well, so you might want to put some emphasis into your renders in future. Anyway, I attached a render I made of your card to show you what I mean.Balance: 8/10
General - 6 points.
Rarity - 1 point.
Discretionary - 1 points.
I hate judging "I win" cards because in order to judge them properly you have to try to figure out exactly what combo would drive the deck and weigh that against anti-combo cards like Extirpate. Instead of doing that, I'll tell you what is obvious up front. This card makes milling not a winable strategy in much the same way that Gaea's Blessing does, so it has at the very least some sideboard potential if milling ever becomes viable. I have faith that there is some combo that makes this deck work, but can't for the life of me figure out exactly what it is. I'm not sure if it's Doomsday in legacy or Jace Beleren on self in combination with some kind of merfolk scheme involving Distant Melody and token merfolk production (and throw in Drowner of Secrets for good measure), but I'm sure there's at least one way to get this to work. I'm also reasonably sure there isn't any broken combos involved, so I'm just giving a six mostly out of apathy. It's not broken and it's not useless but I don't get the feeling that it hit the nail on the head, hence six.
Anyway, clearly this card deserves to be a rare, and I could see something like this working. It's low cost for "I win" but it has enough problems that it's interesting. If anyone can win with this on turn three I'd be more than a little bit impressed.
Flavor is weak. It seems to be a play on Battle of Wits, but I don't understand how drawing the last card of your library puts you in a position to win when traditionally it means that you are mentally exhausted.
You have creativity in spades here, and I didn't notice any quality mistakes so.
Bonus: 5/5
Not white - 1 point.
CMC less than or equal to four - 1 point.
Used mana symbols - 1 point.
Supplied rendered art - 1 point.
Discretionary - 1 point.
I realize how hard it is to find a pic including a viashino, and this would have been tons better if it had one, but it is a little bare. It fits the card well.
With the exception of effecient flash creatures, blocking is impossible once this hits. Token strategies are also pointless. It's like a two cost red Evacuation on a stick, and it's only saving grace is that it gives haste. If you run this with creatures with power higher than their mana cost (Ashenmoor Gouger, Tattermunge Maniac, Lightning Serpent) or that have a good coming into play effect (Keldon Marauders, Cragganwick Cremator) it becomes obvious how things will go for you. It's almost worth running Boldwyr Heavyweights all things considered. Spark Elemental is a clear must. This strategy is Wrath of God and Damnation-proof and requires very little change from typical red creature base to use. Okay most red decks don't use Lightning Serpent but I include it in the list of things that are good with it anyway.
Flavor was rife with issues. I appreciate "throwbacks" like Viashino Sandscout. It really shouldn't effect the creatures that are already in play if you want to stay in red's slice of color pie, as red bounce is highly suspect and red mass bounce is unheard of. It's a little too controlling for red.
I can't see the gain in wording it the way you did. It would seem you would want to say "Each creature has haste. At end of turn, return each creature to it's owner's hand." and making each creature individually gain the return text only means they leave one at a time. It would also mean that Stiffle can keep one creature on board instead leave them all out, but I'm pretty sure that would never happen.
Despite the issues stated, I did like the card. It could be worked into something very good. If, for example, whenever a creature came into play it gained haste and the return clause unless some condition was met that would be interesting. It just needs to not effect the creatures that are already in play.
Bonus: 3/5
Not white - 1 point.
CMC less than or equal to four - 1 point.
Used mana symbols - 1 point.
Supplied rendered art - 0 point.
Discretionary - 0 point.
It's a shame you could't get a render for this, as that cost you one or two points and quite often that's the margin of pass or fail. Well, I don't think you'll make that mistake next round.
It's like if Eyes of the Watcher didn't suck. Fun with Counterbalance and Sensei's Divining Top makes it pretty good, but just playing a land every turn gives you some control. I like it with Magus of the Future myself.
Part of me thinks it could a little further, but as it stands it is a good enough Johny card and right as an uncommon. You could glue on extra bits and make it a rare I suppose, but there's certainly nothing wrong with.
I don't get the sliver connection. There was never a scrying sliver. They did get one for fateseal, but I'm not getting this. If this card was for fateseal instead of scry I would understand, and promptly berate you for balance because you could quickly land-lock your opponent.
As for creativity, it's interesting but it's like Eyes of the Watcher but for permanents over spells. It's interesting, but hardly new territory.
Maybe because Quazifuji's cards from last round are so freshly in my mind, but I would enjoy playing this card quite a bit. It's a wonderful casual card for sure, and it engages my imagination with regard to how I might use it.
RainbowBrite, lord_of_obscurity, NightArcher, and Nagil move on.
Skull Harvest BB
Enchantment - Aura (Uncommon)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets -1/-1 and has deathtouch.
When enchanted creature is put into a graveyard, its controller may draw three cards.
"Auntie woke up the next morning to find a bouquet of flowers blooming on top of the skull. From that day onwards, her warren no longer needed any vases." —A tale of Auntie Grub
Landblast Frenzy 1RR Enchantment
Whenever a creature deals damage, its controller sacrifices a land. "We're driving them back!" "Yes, but our homes are gone..."
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Welcome to the June FCC. Round One's challenge is....
Make an enchantment card.
Bonus points:
Not white- 1 point
Converted mana cost equal to or less than four- 1 point
Usual bonuses:
Use Mana Symbols in card (must be in both textcard and render (if submitted) in order to count) - 1 point
Supply rendered card art - 1-2 points (1 for supplying art, 1 discretionary for judges)
Point Breakdown:
Bonus: (x/5): Judge how the card fits the bonus parameters.
Balance: (x/10): Judge how the card is balanced; its power level, and whether or not it could make or break a format.
Flavour/Creativity/Quality: (x/10): Judge how flavourful, cool, and well-worded the card is. Basically, this is the "slickness" category.
Players may wish to reference the Players List . If you have questions about the FCC, check out the FAQ. If you have a question about using MSE, find your answer here.
This round will run until 12:00am EDT Saturday, June 7th (when Saturday becomes Sunday).
Good luck, everyone
"I am in the arcane, and the arcane is in me."
Official Matron Mother of Clan Planar Chaos
Awesome Avatar and signature by DarkNightCavalier
Deraxas, Dark Maiden of Shimia,, still oddly obsessed with a mindmage.
Enchantment (R)
B, Pay 2 life: Choose a card you own from outside the game and put
that card into your graveyard.
“There lies the knowledge of ancient C’tis, in the tomb of second king.”
- Project Crescent Research Note
Render:
♪~~~♫~~~~
(\ /)
(♥.♥)
(> <)
Music, Love, Magic and Bunny.
Life is so beautiful...
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature or creature card in a graveyard
As long as enchanted creature is in play, it gets +3/+3 and has flying.
When enchanted creature attacks or blocks, sacrifice it at end of combat and attach Phoenix Aspect to it.
4RR: If enchanted creature is in a graveyard, return it to play and attach Phoenix Aspect to it.
Like freeform roleplaying? Try Darkness Befalls Us
Ryttare Kelasin Luna Orelinalei
Judge: Belgareth.
Spirit's Gift
Enchantment (U)
Whenever a creature you control is tapped for mana, add one mana of the same color to your mana pool.
“Our land is tired. With the help of our guiding spirits, we can allow it to rest.”
— Pulchan, Korim High Druid
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Land Enchantment- Forest Aura
(Enchanting Forest isn't a spell, and it has "T: Add G to your mana pool.")
Enchanting Forest is green.
Enchant basic land
Enchanting Forest comes into play tapped.
Enchanted land has "T: Add W,U,B, or R to your mana pool."
#61
Judge Howler Residing...Again
Enchantment - Aura (R)
Enchant Player (Target a Player as you play this. This card comes into play attached to that Player.)
Fading 2
When Ravenous Sight leaves play, enchanted player discards his hand.
1, Pay 2 life: Put a Fading counter on Ravenous Sight. Any player may play this ability.
Cyril Van Der Haegen
Enchantment (R)
Whenever you draw a card, you may put a charge counter on Invisible Power. Whenever you discard a card, remove a charge counter from Invisible Power.
T: Your life total becomes X, where X is the number of charge counters on Invisible Power.
I'll save this space for my work in the meantime. I hope Atrius likes it...
Best of luck to the 88-98 bracket.
Sentient Reflection
:sym2u::sym2u:
Enchantment (rare)
When Sentient Reflection comes into play, if W was spent to play Sentient Reflection, put a +1/+1 counter on it.
When Sentient Reflection comes into play, if B was spent to play Sentient Reflection, target player discards a card.
Whenever a creature card is put into an opponent’s graveyard from anywhere, Sentient Reflection becomes a copy of that creature.
Illustrated by Kadri Umbleja
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Current Pick: 1-6
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Current Pick: 2-5
Link to pick here.
:1mana::symbu::symbu:
Enchantment - Aura U
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature is unblockable and has ":2mana:: This creature gains shroud until end of turn."
Ishtari shadowcloaks not only hide the wearer from sight, but from magic as well.
Enchantment(Rare)
Whenever a player adds mana to his mana pool add mana of an equal amount and type to each other player's mana pool.
Judge: Kenaron
Dread Entropy
1UB
Enchantment
Each spell costs 1 more to play for each card in its controller's graveyard that shares a card type with it.
Brief Visitation
1U
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Whenever a creature comes into play, if Brief Visitation is in your graveyard, return it to play enchanting that creature.
At the end of turn, return enchanted creature to its owner's hand.
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+0 and has fear.
Inherit — When enchanted creature leaves play, you may attach Dark Lineage to another creature you control that shares a creature type with enchanted creature.
Versus the rest of the 22-32 Bracket
Honorable Seratonin Presiding
Card: Natural Ephiphany
Good luck, bracket!
Natural Epiphany 1G
Enchantment - Aura (U)
Enchant creature
When Natural Epiphany is countered, draw two cards.
If enchanted creature is blue or black, its power is 0. Otherwise, it gets +2/+2 and has trample.
Some find inspiration in nature; others, chains.
Artist: Susan "Cosmosue" McKivergan
Judge Belgareth residing
Enchantment (R)
All creatures have haste.
Whenever a creature attacks, it gets +2/+0 and its toughness becomes 1 until end of turn.
In the midst of frenzy, caution is thrown to the wind.
Chains of Thought
1U
Enchantment-Aura
Enchant Permanent
Enchanted permanent is a blue enchantment with "1,t:draw a card" and loses all other types and abilities.
(experiencing technical difficulties. If I weren't busy and tired, your eyeballs would be exploding due to excess magnificence)
Thanks mchief111 for the avvy.
:2mana::symbu:
Enchantment Creature - Shapeshifter
Rare
When a permanent you control is put into the graveyard from play you may search your library for a card with the same name and put it into play. If you do, shuffle Capricious Puca into its owner’s library.
0/3
How you should approach every game of Magic.
Mod Helpdesk (defunct)
My Flawless Score MCC Card | My Other One | # Three!
Double Curse
Enchantment (Rare)
When Double Curse comes into play, target opponent reveals his or her hand. Choose a card from that player’s hand and remove it from the game.
The next time a spell with the same name as the removed card is played, sacrifice Double Curse. If you do, counter that spell.
Illus: Unknown
The scores are all on the low side. This is not because I believe the cards I judged this round are low quality, it's just the result of a combination of the way I judge and some side effects of the rubric I was trying out this round. Actually, I thought this was a fairly good round as far as first rounds go. While no card particularly wowed me, all of the cards had aspects that I liked, and there was only one no-show, which is pretty good.
As far as telling how well you did overall, I would say consider a 4 for bonus, a 7.5 in balance (7.5 power level, no discretionary points), and a 5 in F/C/Q (2.5 in flavor, 2.5 in creativity), for a total of 16.5, to be about average. Anything better than that is something that you did well on.
A few specific matters:
orgolove
Bonus (4/5)
Basic Requirements (4/4): All good.
Discretionary Point (0/1): The art's definitely pretty, and the whimsical, mystical abstractness of it fits very nicely with a blue enchantment that deals with the removed from the game zone. While the mood and color are good, though, the subject matter is kind of unclear. It's just a person floating in mysterious nothingness. I guess that fits the removed from the game part, but it doesn't make me think of an enchantment (too much focus on the figure), the specific effect, or "persistent recall."
Balance (7.5/10)
Power Level (5.5/8): The card seems kind of limited at first, but the number of things it combos with is just absurd. Doomsday, the wishes, graveyard hate, flashback, Kaho, Minamo Historian, Arc Slogger... it even combines well with two of the Planeswalkers submitted in last month's FCC finals (including mine). The list goes on and on. I can't find any interactions that would definitely break any formats, but some of the ones I've come up with are powerful enough to have me concerned, and there's definitely the possibility that I've missed something even worse. Even if there isn't anything printed that completely breaks this in half, it's the kind of card that Wizards would have to consider every card that design that uses the removed from the game zone and go "wait... let's make sure this doesn't break Persistent Recall first." Even if the card isn't broken right now, it's combo potential would probably make it too risky to print.
Discretionary Points (2/2): That said, this is an excellent, excellent casual Johnny card. For every combo that will ruin a tournament format, there are dozens, if not more, that will make Johnnies squeal with delight when they come up with them. Most of the interactions with this card are the kind that are perfect for casual combo decks, wacky enough to be fun, but not so powerful that they get banned from tournament groups. Those cards that I listed above? I didn't come up with those just for judging purposes. I came up with those because I enjoyed doing it. Thinking of Doomsday made me very happy, and if this card was real I probably would have started gathering together cheap flashback cards and looking up the current price of Arc Slogger. For this, you easilly get these two points.
F/C/Q (6/10)
Flavor (2.5/5): The name works, but mainly because it's kind of boring and generic. It just kind of directly describes what it does. As far as the flavortext goes, the fabric of time is as good a flavor explanation as any for what the removed from the game zone represents, given what it's used for. It feels to me like cards preserved in the fabric of time would be stuck in the removed from the game zone, not come back, especially since when they die, they would just stay in the graveyard. I guess it makes some level of sense that they keep coming back, and thus can never truely be removed entirely, but I'm still not a fan.
Creativity (3.5/5): At first, the card seemed like a straightforward varient on Epochrasite style effects. Triggering when cards get removed from the game instead of when they go to the graveyard just seemed like a simple switch. As I thought of combos with the card, though, I realized that getting removed from the game is very, very different from going to the graveyard, because the ways in which it happens are so varied. It's still a pretty straightforward switch from a design standpoint, and I think the reason that nothing like this has been done isn't necessarilly just because no one thought of it since the interactions are so bizarre, but still. While the design resembles existing cards, the way the card interacts with some cards is very unique.
Quality (-0):
-.5: Using "would" implies a replacements effect, but there's no "instead" to actually make it one. It seems like it should either be "you may instead choose to..." or "When a card you own is removed from the game from anywhere, you may put X time counters on it..." It's a minor mistake and I'm not 100% confident I'm right (you'll get this back if you can show me I'm not), but I think that's how it should be. I feel like people have a tendency to turn things that could be triggered abilities into replacement effect unnecessarilly.Apparently, the card's wording has been approved by a judge, and I'll take a judge's word over mine on templating issues, unless someone has a reason to object to the wording and believes I was right.
-0 :There's some rules interactions that I could see causing headaches with this (madness), but I don't know the rules well enough to know that any will cause a problem big enough to penalize you for.
Total (17.5/25): Coming up with things that combo with this card was the most fun I had judging any card this round (and I do have fun judging in general, despite the work). It's not necessarilly the best card of the round, but it's probably my personal favorite, as I'm a casual Johnny and I really had a lot of fun coming up with ways to use it. I'm not sure if this card is printable as is, but if it was printed I would hunt down a playset and start building some decks.
Bonus (4/5)
Basic Requirements (4/4): All good here.
Discretionary Point (0/1): That looks like a nighteye, certainly, but it doesn't look like it's escorting. It looks to me like there's an undead knight observing it suspiciously. I guess that fits in with part of the sacrifice, but it doesn't work great overall. Also, no copyright text.
Balance (9/10)
Power Level (8/8): Everything seems good here. The individual components are a bit weak on their own, but the versatility balances everything out and it seems about right. It seems like it would be unlikely to see much play in constructed, since the pump part, while nice, probably isn't worth the risk of a 2-for-1, and there are better creature kill options, but the versatility is enough that there's still some potential there. Meanwhile, this is a great casual card. It's strong enough that more serious casual players will enjoy using it, and the versatility will tend to make it insteresting and fun to play with, which is essential in casual. Timmies will love it, and other players can still put it to good use. In limited, it's great, to be sure, and would be way too good as a common, but at uncommon it's fine. It seems to be just the right power level for a strong limited uncommon.
Discretionary (1/2): I'm giving this point for the card's potential to be used in lots of different ways. I mean both how it's versatility will make it play well, and the fact that it shines greatly in limited and casual and still possibly has a bit of standard or block constructed potential.
F/C/Q (5/10)
Flavor (3/5): On the one hand, the idea of an escort being able to help a creature out in all these different ways is cool and works well. It can help out your creatures, scaring away most enemies and helping to fight off ones that do cause trouble. If your creature encounters a challenge that's too big to handle, the escort can sacrifice itself to save the creature. The trample even makes some level of sense because the creature can go on to fight the opponent while the escort deals with a blocker. Or, the escort can pretend to help an enemy, only to turn around and kill them. This part's cool, and the fact that I can come up with explanations for all three of the abilities on this card that all fit together without even flavor text is great. There's also some creativity here, going beyond merely magic based on the duality of growth or decay that I'd expect from a black/green aura that can pump or shrink creatures.
On the other hand, while having the aura represent an escort is creative, it feels weird. It's card an aura, after all. Nighteye Escort is a cool name, but really, it belongs on a creature. Furthermore, while an escort that kills the guys it's pretending to help is very black, and escort that protects your guy and helps them fight feels much more white. If that escort is a big glowing eye that follows you around and looks scary, it fits black better, since it would feel more like it's stalking you than escorting, but then it being able to turn the creature huge and give it trample makes a lot less sense.
Overall, the positives are still enough for this to get a pretty good flavor score, though.
Creativity (2.5/5): I went back and forth a lot here. To start with, nothing the card does is really that new, so I can't say its incredibly creative. On the other hand, there are some interesting ideas here that are done differently from existing cards, so it's not too uncreative either. At first, I really liked the ideas here, but some of the aspects that seemed really elegant at first started to seem less so as I looked at the card. The duality of being able to sacrifice the aura to pump the creature or shrink it is cool, but the effects would be used for so completely different purposes that some of the elegance of that duality is lost. Most notable, if you put it on your creature, you're going to leave it there, taking advantage of the static effect, while waiting for the right time to sacrifice it. On the other hand, if you play it on your opponent's creature, 95% of the time you're just going to sacrifice it immediately. Having a modal sacrifice effect is elegant, and I'm not sure if there's a solution that's that much better, but I would prefer it if the static effect could somehow be done so that both uses are treated in the same way, putting the card on and then waiting for the right time to sacrifice it. I'm not sure what a good way to do this would be, but, well... the category's creativity. The ideas are supposed to be tricky to come up with.
Quality (-.5):
-.5: There shouldn't be a comma after the "or" in the second option.
Total: 18/25
Good job overall. Excellently balanced. The flavor and creativity both try interesting things, even if both of the could have had a better execution. I especially admire the risks you took with flavor, using such an unusual concept for an aura with three abilities and no room for flavor text.
Bonus (4/5)
Basic Requirements (4/4): All good here.
Discretionary Point (0/1): The art works, but it's not great. The axes look like soul axes, but they do look a bit weird to me (also, theres two of them, but the card name is singular).
Balance (8/10)
Power Level (7.5/8): It's hard to balance this card without knowing how many other playable synch cards there would be to go with it, but it seems fine. Without synching it, it's a weak but not terrible pump spell, with synching it, it's a powerful but not overpowered enchantment, which feels like exactly the right way for things to be. In limited, it's a solid common as long as you have enough synch cards. In constructed it probably wouldn't have enough power to be worth the card disadvantage risk, although if higher cost synch spells were powerful enough, it could be useful as just a 1 mana synch spell to power out more expensive ones more easilly. In casual it's nothing special, but I could see casual players building synch decks, and it would fit in with those. My one gripe is that first strike isn't black at all (Planar Chaos doesn't count), and this doesn't fit well enough flavorwise into black for it to get first strike on a hybrid card. Haste would probably work better.
Discretionary Points (.5/2): A small reward for taking the risk of making a keyword whose balance depends entirely on what other cards with the keyword would exist.
F/C/Q (4.5/10)
Flavor (1.5/5): Not so great. The name is pretty generic, and both the flavor text and art make me thing that this should give double strike, with the whole "weapon in each hand" bit. I guess the second axe could represent playing two of the spell for synching, but I don't think that's a strong enough representation of the mechanic. It's a difficult mechanic to represent flavorwise, but I'd like to see something. Also, the flavor just feels much more red to me and not black enough for a hybrid card.
Creativity (3/5): Synch's a neat mechanic, but I really don't like how linear it is. Any mechanic that depends on using other cards that share the mechanic needs to be really awesome and compelling to make up for how narrow it is. Synch is cool, but not cool enough to do that. Using synch cards would be annoying for the same reason splice was annoying in Kamigawa: if you want to take advantage of a card pool any larger than block constructed, the cards limit you too much.
Total (16.5/25): Synch's interesting, I'm just not a fan of the linearity, and your card pretty much depends on synch to be anything special. Also, I think this card isn't a great hybrid design, as first strike is not black and power boosting enchantments only sort of are.
Bonus (4/5)
Basic Requirements (4/4): All good.
Discretionary Point (0/1): I like the art as a picture, but it only sort of fits the card. It works fine for land animation, but it looks like it should be on a monogreen or green/blue card. There's also nothing to represent the graveyard aspects of the card. I guess those stones around the creature could be tombstones, but that feels like a stretch. Also, you want a soft return (shift enter, instead of enter) between the quote and the name of the person being quoted in the flavor text (try it and you should see what I mean).
Balance (7.5/10)
Power Level (7.5/8): This card seems a bit weak, but not too bad. The land animation isn't too powerful and could be a bit of a pain to use, but turning lands into 3/3s is good enough that I'll say this is an acceptable cost for doing it repeatedly. The second ability, seems more versatile, but also a bit weaker. For getting lands back, whether they died while animated or for other reasons, it's fairly weak, since you can only dredge one land per turn (as opposed to, say, Life From the Loam or Crucible of Worlds), and for filling up you graveyard, I'd probably rather use something that I can dredge directly like Stinkweek Imp or Golgari Grave-Troll, instead of needing to use this card and then get a land in the graveyard to dredge. Of course, the real point of this card is to use the abilities together, but even combined they feel like they'd be on the weak side. The first ability's cost is counterproductive to the second ability's graveyard filling, since a deck that wants to dredge cards into its graveyard probably has better uses for those cards than temporary land animation. It's still a cool card that would at least be fun in casual Johnny decks, but for more competetive environments, I think there are better alternatives to its purposes.
Discretionary Points (0/2)
F/C/Q (7/10)
Flavor (3.5/5): The flavor isn't too creative, but everything fits together very nicely. The name seems a bit generic for land animation, but the word "upheaving" does a good job conveying both land animation and recursion at the same time, which is cool. The flavor text also matches nicely with the way killing the lands lets you dredge them just to get more fuel for reanimation. It still doesn't fully convey what the card's doing, but it ties things together well.
Creativity (3.5/5): Nothing here is really new, but there's a lot of subtle synergies going on that give it points for creativity. Having land animation combined with a way to get dead lands back, and having that in turn give you more fuel for land animation, is pretty cool. The fact that you made both abilities useful, if on the weak side, in their own right is also good.
Quality (-0): I see no problems.
Total (18.5/25): The card feels a little bit difficult to grok, but despite that the synergies going on here are all cool and creative enough that it works in the end.
Bonus (4.5/5)
Basic Requirements (4/4): All good.
Discretionary Point (.5/1): I'm not a fan of the art, and that huge open space in the text box where the flavor text should be annoys me. Despite this, however, I feel I have to give you half a point for the way the coloring in the art syncs up almost perfectly with the frame. It looks cool, and it's incredibly hard to pull off using art you found on the internet.
Balance (8/10)
Power Level (8/8): I think the card's definitely on the weak side, but that's more by nature of the design than because it's not well balanced. This isn't the kind of card that would be likely to become a powerhouse in tournaments unless some strange combo or metagame feature arises (it would be nice against Doran). It's the kind of card that casual players throw in a deck with some Kami of Old Stone or Serendib Sorcerer for some wacky shenanegins, and for that, it's great.
Discretionary Points (0/2)
F/C/Q (1/10)
Flavor (.5/5): The flavor here is lazy and almost nonexistent. With all that open space, this card desperately needs flavor text, especially with such a weird effect and a generic name. This name could just as easilly go on any other red chaos spell like Planar Chaos and Confusion in the Ranks, and may even be better suited for effects like that than it is on this card. Flavor for power/toughness switching works best when it implies some sort of inversion or something being backwards (such as About Face).
Creativity (.5/5): A gatherer search for your card's entire rules text gives Mannichi, the Fevered Dream. Changing an activated until end of turn ability on a creature to a static ability on an enchantment isn't too creative.
Quality (-0): Besides the lack of flavor text for a card with so little rules text, no issues here, and that issue's already been brought up in other categories.
Total (13.5/25): This would be a fun card if it were actually printed. I can even imagine wizards printing a card with this exact rules text. As a card to show off design skills, however, it's not as great. Most importantly, though, this card needs flavor text. Even on cards with plenty of rules text, a line or two of flavor text often fleshes out the card and is worth the smaller font size. On a card with less than two full lines of rules text, flavor text is absolutely necessary.
Bonus (4/5)
Basic Requirements (4/4): All good.
Descretionary Point (0/1): It may just be the size of it, but the spacing of the text in the render seems off. In particular, I think there should be more space between the rules text and the flavor text, and possibly less space between the text and the top and bottom of the text box. Also, the art just shows a corpse, which represents mulch fine but doesn't show any knowledge being gained from it.
Balance (8/10)
Power Level (8/8): Seems fine. It feels a bit weak to me compared to Phyrexian Arena or Honden of Seeing Winds, but it's also green, which means it you probably should have to work a bit harder to draw an extra card every turn. The requirement for drawing the cards seems about right, not making it too expensive but still ensuring that you need a bit of work to draw extra cards every turn. The ability feels kind of black, but it works well enough in green and makes enough sense flavor wise that it's not a big deal. In terms of actually seeing play, the card seems like it would be fun in casual decks for players that just like to draw extra cards and fine in limited, but never outstanding. In more competetive constructed environments, it seems like Harmonize or Ohran Viper would usually be a better option for green card draw, but I can still imagine some situations where this would be preferable.
Discretionary Points (0/2)
F/C/Q(4.5/10)
Flavor (2/5): It makes some degree of sense and the name fits to the mechanic well, if fairly obviously and uncreatively, but it doesn't quite click for me. I'm unsure exactly how knowledge is being gained through the mulch. The flavor text describes that the decay gives knowledge, but not how, and the art and name don't help. Also, while studying rotting things could be green (or black), converting them to knowledge feels more blue. Green's card draw is often represented as growth, instead of knowledge like blue's card draw, and I feel that would be a much better angle to take here. Mulch turning into growth makes perfect sense and would fit the mechanic just as well, and would also be completely green, as opposed to having a hint of blue.
EDIT: While my comments are the same, I feel the score I gave the card for flavor the first time was a bit high.
Creativity (2.5/5): Nothing wowing or unbelievably creative here, but providing green with non-creature-based card draw without being horribly out of flavor or out of color pie is a bit creative. Of course, that's mitigated by the fact that this could probably just as easilly be black with a different name and flavor, but it works nonetheless.
Quality (-0): All seems good here.
Total: 16.5/25
A solid, if not exceptional, card design. Everything works besides my knowledge vs. growth gripe about flavor. It didn't wow me, but it's still not bad at all.
Bonus (4/5)
Basic Requirements (4/4): All good.
Discretionary Point(0/1):
I see the gallows, but where's the tree? I think the art's generally a bit too silohuetted, and it doesn't look much like an enchantment. It's just gallows, and that's it.Okay, with my new understanding of the flavor, the art makes sense now. It's still not great (a bit too dark and silohuetty), but it works a lot better.
Balance (7/10)
Power Level (7/8): Compared to Last Life, probably the closest cart, this is clearly much stronger, being one sided and all, along with the ability to stay around after clearing your opponent's board and potentially reduce the damage of a big attack with a creature destruction spell. On the other hand, Last Laugh is definitely weak, so it's okay to be stronger than it. I don't think it's necessarilly too strong in general, the problem that I have is that it might be inconsistent enough or too difficult to set up for in constructed. In casual, meanwhile, it's probably the kind of card players would get really annoyed by, as it would probably be fairly frustrating to play against. Not as frustrating as land destruction or Simic Sky Swallower, maybe, but still frustrating.
Discretionary Points (0/2)
F/C/Q (6/10)
Flavor 4.5/5):
I didn't get the flavor at first, but I think I'm starting to understand it. The idea seems to be that when a creature dies, the other creatures get angry and must be put down to stop any sort of insurgance. If creatures are killed in this process, that just makes everyone else rowdier, which means more quelling. It's kind of roundabout and not very enchantmenty, and there's no in-between step to represent the creatures resisting before they get punished, but it is very cool and creative. I got this from the flavor text, so I can't fault it too much, although it does still feel vague, and I'm not sure what the markers mean for the card.Okay, after thelostandthedamned's explanation of what a Gallows Tree actually is...
The flavor here is very cool. Every time a creature dies, its body goes up as a warning which, in turn, weakens other creatures and discourages them from attacking. It's not perfect: I'd prefer a name that conveys its roll as a warning or a marker as opposed to the name just being the actual part of the gallows, but the coolness of it and how well it fits into the mechanic is great. Essentially, the historical background here that I missed the first time fills in most of the major complaints I had that time and makes it very cool. Also, using a real-world historical concept in a way that fits fine in Magic and doesn't feel like it's breaking the fantasy setting is difficult, and you did it very well.
Creativity (2/5): It's a fairly unoriginal take on recursive killing effects like Last Laught and Blowfly Infestation, but I think those effects are cool enough that I still like it.
Quality (-.5):
-.5: Missing punctuation at the end of the flavor text.
Total (17/25): A solid design. Recursive effects are tricky to make, and yours works fairly well, but also isn't a particularly interesting take on the concept. The flavor, on the other hand, is very cool and fits the effect well.
Bonus (4/5)
Basic Requirements: All good.
Discretionary Point (0/1): I'm not a fan of the art. I'm not really sure why, to be honest, as it fits the card, I just don't like it that much.
Balance (7.5/10)
Power Level (7.5/8): This card feels like it could be a bit on the strong side sometimes, but overall I'd say it's balanced. The attacker boost can add a lot of damage, and it has me a bit worried, but since it requires your third turn drop not be a creature and will be played in decks that would want to play as many creatures and fill out their mana curve as much as possible, it shouldn't be too bad, especially with the symmetry and the current standard where even control and combo decks will have creatures to take some advantage of the symmetry. The first ability seems unnecessary, though. The second and third abilities already promoted attacking and blocking with lots of creatures. Not that there aren't situations where it will matter, but it feels redundant. This biggest problem, though, is that the third ability is most definitely white, not red.
Discretionary Points (0/2)
F/C/Q (1.5/10)
Flavor (1/5): This card doesn't feel like battlefield hysteria, it feels like strength in numbers and working together. Hysteria makes me think of a chaotic free-for-all, or at least a reckless charge, and this is the opposite. It makes sense how hysteria would give power boosts, but I'm not sure why more creatures would get a bigger boost. I'm especially unsure of why it helps blockers who are coordinated, which is completely a while thing to do. Overall, the name just doesn't work for me, and with no flavor text to help, that means the entire flavor doesn't really work.
Creativity (1.5/5): It's all just extentions of things that have been done before, the first ability being taken directly from Ember Beast and the other abilities resembling things like Shared Animosity and not doing anything particularly interesting. Ember Beast is an interesting thing to take inspiration from, though.
Quality(-1):
-1: The second two abilities should be worded as triggered abilities, like Shared Animosity.
Total (13/25): It's not awful, but the card really needed some extra creativity or flavor to make it more interesting. Also, it should really cost RW, because boosting the toughness of blockers isn't red in gameplay or flavor.
Bonus (4/5)
Basic Requirements (4/4): All good here.
Discretionary Point (0/1): This looks like a forest fire, which is the kind of thing that might cause Gaea's Rare, but I don't like it as the result of Gaea raging. It seems to me the earth itself should be attacking, not burning.
Balance (8/10)
Power Level (8/8): The first ability's on the weak side, but the card's cheap enough that it's not too bad. At first, I thought the second ability was incredibly narrow, most of the time only just doing 1 damage if you play a land the same turn and occasionally punishing an enemy for using pain lands or helping boost a Keldon Megaliths, but then I realized how great it works with animated lands. The interaction's not tournament caliber, but it's a lot of fun with casual Earth Surge decks. As far as the two abilities combined goes, I'd say being able to sneak a bit of damage through with lands is nice, but probably not enough for constructed torunaments, and the second ability is too narrow, even taking animated lands and the first ability into account. It's a fun casual card, though, and potentially playable in limited, though nothing special for a rare.
EDIT: After taking into account some balance points made in a PM, specifically about the fact that the second ability can be activated multiple times per turn and the fact that land search can help the first ability, I'm bumping this score up. In light of those two factors, the card can be quite powerful when used in a deck built to abuse it, but the set up required is enough to not make it too bad.
Discretionary Points (0/2)
F/C/Q (4.5/10)
Flavor (2.5/5): The flavor works, although it feels a bit uncreative. A card that deals damage with lands, so the flavor is Gaea commanding the earth to fight. You do expand the flavor into attempting to add flavor to a world and go beyond the card, but it doesn't give me a great portrayal of the world this takes place in on its own, and I'd also be much more interested in seeing you create your own world than use already existing ones in Magic (not that the flavor can't work with those, but it's less impressive to convey a world that's already been conveyed plenty of times before). Also, the flavor text makes me think of animated lands, but I think that's inevitable, and not a fault of the flavor.
Creativity (2/5): The first ability hasn't been done before, but it's simple and fairly boring. The second ability is just a different take on the Furnace of Rath effect, although applying it to lands is more interesting and creative than applying it to flavor. Earth Surge already existing as a card that boosts man-lands, albeit in a different and more straightforward manner, also hampers the creativity here a bit.
Quality (-0): I don't see any issues here.
Total (16.5): The first part of the card is boring but practical. The second part is interesting but too narrow.
Bonus (4/5)
Bonus (4/4): All good here.
Discretionary Point (0/1): The art is a bit too abstract, and the name and mechanic don't make it any clearer what's going on there. Also, no copyright line and the MSE square expansion symbol.
Balance (8/10)
Power Level 7/8): I'm hesitant about anything that has the potential to give this much card advantage. The fact that it's unpredictable and causes life loss with the card advantage helps, but I'd still be a bit worried. As far as playability goes, anything that lets you draw cards like this does has the potential to see tournament play, I think.
Discretionary Points (1/2): 1 point for risk-taking. Anything that lets you draw this many cards is dangerous, and, while it has me concerned, I think you kept it fairly well balanced for how powerful effects like this can be.
F/C/Q (4/10)
Flavor (1/5): The name's very generic for a black card that trades life for cards, and the art and lack of flavor text don't do anything to help bring it any deeper.
Creativity (3/5): It's basically just a combination of Phyrexian Arena and Cragganwick Cremator, but that's a very interesting combination to make.
Quality (-0): Looks good to me.
Total (16/25): I like this card a lot, actually, but the huge potential card advantage from it has me worried, and the lack of any real flavor hurt it a lot.
penguinwriter: 18.5
cardanme: 18
Orgolove: 17.5
lostandthedamned: 17
Echo: 16.5
Lorgalis: 16.5
muchsarcasm: 16.5
Simic_Mongoose: 16
memna: 13.5
mqstoud: 13
Bonus (5)
Predetermined Criteria (4): The card is a non-white enchantment with converted mana cost 4 or less, and has mana symbols and a render with artwork.
Discretionary Point (1): This point is for renders that go beyond what I normally expect for custom cards. Primarilly, I will give it to really great art (the kind that fits the card so well it looks like it was commissioned specifically for the card), but I will also reward anything that requires some image editing skills or other work beyond what MSE allows, such as planeswalker art going outside the frame or wacky things like un-cards. In addition, to get this point you must have a non-blank copyright, an expansion symbol other than the MSE square, and some form of artist credit ("Unknown" is okay, but it shouldn't be blank).
Balance (10)
Overall Power Level (8): There are two parts to this. First, do all the numbers and abilities balance out? Are the mana cost, P/T, etc. right for what the card does? Second, where will the card be played. To do well here, a card should be likely to see play in at least one competetive constructed format (block, standard, extended, legacy, vintage) or casual (duals or multiplayer) without breaking any of them. For common, limited is also on that list, although if a common would only see play in limited it should really shine there. For uncommons and especially rares, I'll look at limited, but it won't count as much and the card's usefulness shouldn't depend on it. Unlike some judges, I won't weight things towards tournament play. If the card's unplayable in tournaments but would be great at kitchen tables, that's fine with me. Cards will also lose points here for breaking the color pie without a good excuse (Form of the Dragon would be okay).
Discretionary Points (2): These points can be used for cards that are especially well balanced (such as Watchwolf), but I may also give them out for other things. Cards that seem like they would play very well by creating interesting gameplay decisions (like Fact or Fiction), would be especially fun to play with, or would have a strong appeal to players going beyond their power level (such as great Timmy or Johnny cards) might also get points here. Finally, I might occasionally give these points to cards that I feel took a risk with balance by using an especially hard-to-balance effect and still pull it off.
F/C/Q (10)
Flavor (5): How well the name, mechanics, and flavor text fit together. To get full marks, the flavor should really be impressive, as opposed to just making sense. You'll also get a higher score here if you manage to go beyond merely conveying why the card does what it does and create a sense of a character or world. I will never penalize for bad art here, but if the art helps tie the flavor together, I won't ignore it.
Creativity (5): How new is the card, and how interesting are the new aspects? The second part of that is important to keep in mind: a card can do something that has technically never been done before without being interesting or creative if the ability seems obvious. At the same time, a card can do something very similar to other cards while still being creative if it does it in a way that feels very different and interesting. This is my personal favorite category, so I'll probably be very harsh here.
Quality: I haven't set aside any points for quality. Instead, I'll calculate the score from balance and creativity, and then apply penalties to that score for quality issues. Anything that makes the card seem less like a real card and is not render-related, such as typos and templating mistakes, will result in penalties. If the card does not work as intended, I will, if possible, do the balance score as if it did. However, you will be heavily penalized here. I will never take off more than 3 points total for quality.
A few notes to keep in mind:
-Don't post any comments about your card, especially unspoiled. Your card shouldn't require any background info or explanations. If you're worried I may miss some subtle aspect of the card, just wait until I do the judging, and then if I did miss it you can let me know and I'll change the judging accordingly.
-If the render and text card disagree, I'll use the text card.
-Douglas Adams
Ooo, looks like there may be a bit of a fight for those last 2 spots...
tortazo 24.5
Niv 22.5
BlackBull 21
Dragoon26 21
Ikeda 21
arimnaes 20.5
Cubicks 20
ep. 18
The_American_Nightmare 17.5
JasonM9 14
Life Weaver 10
55. Life Weaver
Balance (3/10): Pretty lame card. Granting shroud is meh, sacrificing to counter a white spell will only be useful about a 1/5th of the time, and the last ability would only be good if it worked while the card was in the graveyard, which it doesn't specifiy, so by default only works while in play. Bad in Constructed, bad in Limited.
F/C/Q (4/10):
-Flavor (1/4): This murders the color pie. Black doesn't get shroud, nor does it get counters. Everything about this card is blue.
-Creativity (2/3): It's "unique" I guess, but not for good reasons.
-Quality (1/3): Massive errors: "Creature" wouldn't be capitalized in "Enchanted creature" at the beginning; "Enchanted creature has shroud"; the sacrifice ability wouldn't be granted to the creature, it would just be an ability of the aura; "Whenever a black creature you control is put in a graveyard from play, you may pay 1. If you do, return Unholy Aura to its owner's hand."
Total: 10/25
Balance (10/10): Congratulations, tortazo; you just recieved my very first "perfect 10" in Balance. It's increadible if used correctly, but even has it's places in decks not specifically built for it. Strong synergy with black and green's basic stratagies... I have no problems with this card. Again, congratulations.
F/C/Q (9.5/10):
-Flavor (4/4): Very good.
-Creativity (3/3): Good.
-Quality (2.5/3): "Trample" wouldn't be capitialized, and there shouldn't be a space in "another."
Total: 24.5/25
Balance (7/10): For this, I'm going to assume the card works the way you intended it to (see Quality below to find out what I mean). The two effects are decent. Not many decks will be able to really utilize both sides, but there will be the occational UBR deck that will be able to flip it to the appropriate side for the situation. It's good late game, when you have alot of free mana. BR decks can use it to squeeze through the last few point sof damage once they've run out of burn, and UB decks can use it to draw extra spells (most likely counters) right before their turn. A decent utility card, but noting perticularly "stand out"-ish.
F/C/Q (3/10):
-Flavor (0/4): Generic. Absolutely nothing unique or creative with the flavor whatsoever.
-Creativity (2/3): The two main effects are very simple and boring.
-Quality (1/3): As is, you card doesn't fully work. You basically tried to combine a flip card with a split card. Under current rules, a flip card can only be played on one side, and then under some condition flip to the other. Once flipped, it can't be flipped again, nor can it be "unflipped." You also couldn't play it as Caress of Darkness, only Caress of Fire. Your card would require massive changes to the Comp rules for flip cards.
Total: 14/25
Balance (8/10): At first, I was going to say cumulative upkeep is pointless, but I got it; you have to pay X for each age coutner, but it still only targets one creature. In most cases, a player will pay the upkeep the first time, giving him a striaghtforward Blaze, then pay X next turn, removing the counter. Then pay mana the next time, skip, etc. This could become a staple in standard R mana ramp decks (like Dragonstorm decks).
F/C/Q (9.5/10):
-Flavor (4/4): Good.
-Creativity (3/3): Good.
-Quality (2.5/3): I don't think saying "X can be zero" is neccessary. X can always be 0. In any case, there would be aperiod at the end, inside the parenthases.
Total: 22.5/25
Balance (7/10): This is a case that rarity effects balance; if this were a common or uncommon, it would be fine. The effect is decent, but not exactly a Limited bomb. If you're playing a WU deck with Mesa Enchantress, it's great, but outside that combo (and one's like it), it just "good." It didn't need to be a rare.
F/C/Q (9.5/10):
-Flavor (4/4): Good.
-Creativity (3/3): Good.
-Quality (2.5/3): The speaker of the quote would be on another line.
Total: 21/25
Balance (8/10): I compare this to Circu: I'm one of those people that thought he would be increadibly powerful, being a staple in all these Tier 1 decks... and then he turned out to be just average. That's how I think your card is. It has the advanage of giving you more control over the cards removed (or at least how many), and isn't as fragile as a creature, but isn't much more dangerous. Outside of Limited, it's a niche card.
F/C/Q (9/10):
-Flavor (4/4): Good.
-Creativity (2/3): A bit too similar to Circu and all those Meddling Mage type cards.
-Quality (3/3): No issues.
Total: 21/25
Balance (6.5/10): Like Reality Acid, this card could be very cruel with any form of bounce. The main problem is that by turn 7 (play this turn for, get's sacced turn 7), chances are there isn't much let in your opponents hand that they don't mind losing. The card could be good in multiplayer with the above-mentioned bouncing, but other than that, it's just too slow.
F/C/Q (7.5/10):
-Flavor (3/4): Thsi is a case where the card really would have benefited from some flavor text.
-Creativity (3/3): Good.
-Quality (1.5/3): Fading has been obsoleted by Vanishing, and there's no real reason to do fading on this card. Also some errant capitalizations.
Total: 18/25
Balance (7.5/10): The first effect is probably the strongest, but is also only good in certain circumstances (upping power and granting temaple is generallyu best as an instant combat trick). If you stack triggers right, you get three effect for 3 mana over 3 turns. None of them are very strong, but their power comes from versatility (think the legendary Dragon charm cycle from Invasion). It's a good utility card, but will likely dissapear right before it really gets going.
F/C/Q (7.5/10):
-Flavor (2.5/4): Kind of all over the place. The name doesn't really fit any of the abilities.
-Creativity (2/3): A bit weak.
-Quality (3/3): No issues.
Total: 21.5/25
Balance (7/10): It's problem is that it's a counter that lets your opponent know you have a counter. Drop it with 5 time counters on it? You opponent will know to wait a turn before playing their Oversoul of Dusk. It's not that bad, but sacrificing the element of suprise makes counterspells very limited in their use.
F/C/Q (9/10):
-Flavor (3/4): The reminder text fro Vanishing could have been left off, giving you plenty of room for some great flavor text.
-Creativity (3/3): Good.
-Quality (3/3): No issues.
Total: 21/25
Balance (7/10): It's a Dream Leash that takes 3 turns to kick in. Dream Leash wasn't that strong to begin with (it's advantages over Confiscate were negligable), so slowing it down doesn't help either. It has the advantage of being cheaper, letting it run control prior to theiving the creature. But it also give your opponent a chance to kill the enchantment before you get a chance to use it for something.
F/C/Q (8.5/10):
-Flavor (4/4): Good.
-Creativity (1.5/3): Dream Leash. It's also two fairly basic blue abilities comboed together.
-Quality (3/3): No issues.
Total: 20.5/25
Balance (7.5/10): Both halves are pretty solid, no real power concerns. They're simple and small enough they won't be breaking any formats, but they're hardly useless.
F/C/Q (6/10):
-Flavor (2.5/4): Another case where the reminder text is completely unneccessary, and could have made room for some flavor text.
-Creativity (2/3): A bit vanilla.
-Quality (1.5/3): I don't think the rules currently support split permanents... Also, I believe saying "this land" is unneeded, and it would be "Enchanted creature gets +2/+2 and has trample."
Total: 17.5/25
Snake Cult Channeling
2BG
Enchantment
: If target creature would deal combat damage to a player this turn, prevent that damage and the defending player gets that many poison counters.
Enemies of the Cult often do not realize who their true antagonist is.
Versus: Farmer, videjuegos, MindWrencher, mlacy03, Leman Russ, Dodavehu, The Orange Mage, V0id, Alacar Leoricar, & Pirateman
Judge: cannon
Call the Horde
1RR
Enchantment
1R: Put a 1/1 red Goblin Warrior creature token into play.
1RR: Put a 2/2 red Orc Warrior creature token into play.
2RR: Put a 3/3 red Ogre Warrior creature token into play.
Winner November 2008 CCL
Judge- Belgareth
Glorious Rampage (2/R)(2/W)
Enchantment
(R/W)(R/W): ~ deals 3 damage to target creature or player and you gain 3 life.
1(R/W)(R/W): Put a 2/2 red and white Human Soldier token with first strike into play.
8 - The card is both well-costed and constructed playable, or if it just doesn't quite cut the mustard in constructed by nature of the design (ie., it's a big Timmy card or a niche Johnny card) but couldn't possibly be better balanced.
7 - The card is really well-costed but is just a little too strong or a little too weak.
6 - The card is reasonably well-costed but clearly has room for improvement or is way too expensive or narrow to be playable.
5 - The card is not terrible but is clearly over or under the curve, or is well-balanced on its own but fairly easily breaks in combination with another card in Standard.
4 - The card is severely over or underpowered, or horribly broken in combination with another card.
3 - Borderline broken or hugely overcosted.
2 - Obviously broken or utterly useless.
< 2 - So broken or trashy it's obvious no thought went into it whatsoever.
+1 - It has the proper rarity. For this purpose there is no difference between rare and mythic rare. I would prefer nobody submit a card as mythic rare until we know what to expect from them, but in the meantime I'm treating them as just rare.
+1 - Discretionary.
3 - Perfect!
2 - Very good.
1 - Fair
0 - Failure
77. lord_of_obscurity
Not white - 1 point.
CMC less than or equal to four - 1 point.
Used mana symbols - 1 point.
Supplied rendered art - 1 point.
Discretionary - 0 point.
You should have had something for artist and copyright. You can say "unknown" if you don't know, and you don't have to necessarily use the standard copyright line as it appears on printed cards, but being totally blank like that is worth taking off for.
Balance: 9/10
General 8/8
Rarity 0/1
Discretionary 1/1
Considering black gets removal at this cost range this seems week at first glance, and we all know it's a rule that auras are always weak, but this lets you null creatures that are a problem to remove normally. For example, this works on black creatures. It could probably cost 1B instead of BB, but ever since Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth any time you say that kind of thing it's officially just being petty.
My only complaint is that this feels like a common. I mean that in a good way actually, but in my rubric I reserve one point for proper rarity and I feel this is wrong at uncommon. That said, I like this card a lot and hope it gets officially ripped off by the Hasbro spy bots that we all assume steal the good ideas of MTGSal and put them into upcoming sets.
F/C/Q 9/10
Flavor - 3 points
Creativity - 3 points.
Quality - 2 points.
Discretionary - 1 points.
Flavor is solid. Black has no precedent making things colorless, but there is precedent of black just doing spiteful things that feel unnecessary and I can imagine this in a "color matters" set being quite annoying.
Creativity is also solid. It doesn't do anything completely new, but it is a nice bundle of preexisting debilitating effects. Making the creature colorless was a nice touch.
The wording is a little off. It should make the creature colorless, not make it loose all of it's colors. It was nice to try to put the whole effect into one list, but I believe it should be "Enchanted is colorless and looses all abilities and creature types." or something.
Not white - 1 point.
CMC less than or equal to four - 1 point.
Used mana symbols - 1 point.
Supplied rendered art - 1 point.
Discretionary - 0 point.
That is just a terrible render. It looks much worse than a MSE render, and I don't know what you were thinking with the art. I don't care for going that far outside of the border, especially outside of Un-land.
Balance: 5/10
General - 5 points.
Rarity - 0 points.
Discretionary - 0 points
It's just too good at one cost. I know that auras suck because of the infamous 2 for 1's, so they have to be good enough to compensate for the inherent card disadvantage. That said, one mana for +3/+3 is too good, even if it taps you. It would have to cost two mana at least, and obviously it would have been garbage at three mana because Moldervine Cloak exists. I'm not going to say it should cost 1G or GG (or (2/G)(2/G) or whatnot) but I'm sure that it's wrong at just G.
I have no idea what rarity you had intended this card to be. The textcard doesn't give any clues, and it looks like either common or basic land. At any rate, I'm obviously not giving the point for having the right rarity if it is unclear what rarity you were trying for. If I had to guess I'd say you were trying for common and thus would be wrong because this kind of thing really feels more uncommon (mostly because of the dual usage as green tapper or armor.)
F/C/Q 6/10
Flavor - 1 points.
Creativity - 2 points.
Quality - 3 points.
Discretionary - 0 points.
The flavor is weak. From a color pie perspective the tapping doesn't make a whole lot of sense. This feels a lot more like something black would get, as it can be used offensively with Royal Assassin. +3/+3 is extremely good for one mana, and if any color would get that with some kind of limitation it would be green, but this feels like the wrong drawback. I'm also wondering why your textcard had flavor text and you render didn't include it. I think this needed flavor text, and what you had on the text version would have been just the thing so I wonder why you left it off.
Flavor issues aside, the creativity is certainly there. I'm not sure this is good "design space" but it is thinking outside the box.
Not white - 1 point.
CMC less than or equal to four - 1 point.
Used mana symbols - 1 point.
Supplied rendered art - 1 point.
Discretionary - 1 point.
I'm a fan of the blended multicolor frames, (Savra, Queen of the Golgari as opposed to Iname as One) but technically I don't think either is incorrect.
Balance: 8/10
General - 6 points.
Rarity - 1 point.
Discretionary - 1 points
I have to judge this based on current standard where it's has room for improvement. You just don't see decks that have more cards in hand than creatures in play past the first couple of turns, so it wouldn't do a whole lot. I think that once Lorwyn-Shadowmoor block passes, or in the context of extended and larger formats, this goes up in power quite a bit.
I remember watching the videos of the final round in the Time Spiral block constructed world tournament, and if in any of those games this card would have hit it would have been simply brutal. In those days it wasn't uncommon to have decks that didn't even have seven creatures, so when your only creature in play is Aeon Chronicler this can be quite vexing, but I think that today's standard isn't the place for this kind of thing.
F/C/Q 9/10
Flavor - 2 points.
Creativity - 3 points.
Quality - 3 points.
Discretionary - 1 point.
Flavor is nice. It could almost be mono green in a Biorhythm kind of way, but anything that can lower your opponent's hand size should probably be black anyway. This card is in desperate need of flavor text though. This is mostly a complaint about how the render would look, but I feel the total lack of flavor text is a significant distraction.
Creativity is solid. It does something new but not completely alien, the right amount of creativity. I appreciate subtlety, and you have that in abundance here.
The only quality mark I could bring up is you should say "he or she" instead of "they" , but it's hard to care.
All in all I really dig this card. It works well with preexisting themes, it can be used in casual play or tournament play. It's just all around good design.
Not white - 1 point.
CMC less than or equal to four - 1 point.
Used mana symbols - 1 point.
Supplied rendered art - 1 point.
Discretionary - 0/5 point.
While it's a nice pic, there is much empty space for a magic card. You just don't see things like the original Terror anymore, and with good reason.
Balance: 8/10
General 6/8
Rarity 1 point.
Discretionary 1/1
It's significantly above the curve, but certainly not broken. It's pretty much strictly better than Skulltap, but skulltap was behind the curve. The thing you want to do is put it down on a 2/2 or bigger then block, which give you a good advantage when it works out like that. On the other hand it suffers from the problem of all auras, and if your opponent shocks the forementioned bear and you get nothing. On the other hand it's really nice when you can double enchant some 2/2 that has past it's purpose, but let's face facts: an aura has to be Rancor or pretty close to it before anyone really cares.
So it pushes the envelope on what you can get in the realm of auras, but I could seriously see this. It's right at an uncommon, as it's more complicated than most commons and as a rare it would be, well, vexing to open in a pack.
F/C/Q 8/10
Flavor 3 points.
Creativity 2 points.
Quality 3 points.
Discretionary - 0 points.
The flavor text feels really out of place, especially since nothing else about the card has anything to do with goblins in the least, but it's so well done that I just can't hold it against you. It feels like it was written by the same people as the rest of the Auntie Grub quotes, so I have to give you props. I've already said my piece about the art, but I'd like to add here that if this did have art of a general Lorwyn style (which I realize is impossible to find) that would be a stunning improvement.
You did tread a little bit into unsafe color pie realm. This seems a little too much like Bequeathal to me, with a hint of Cursed Flesh. I have to wonder if you played much during Exodus.
Finishing things off, I didn't find any mistakes so you're good terms of quality.
Not white - 1 point.
CMC less than or equal to four - 1 point.
Used mana symbols - 1 point.
Supplied rendered art - 1 point.
Discretionary - 0/5 point.
You didn't have a copyright line at all. Until recently I was taking off for not having the exact right copyright line, but now I've taken a more relaxed stance to where I only take off if you don't have anything. That or if you put "F*** you Kenaron!" there, but my point is that anything resembling the normal copyright line would have been been better than leaving it blank. Similarly, I used to take off for not having right artist credit, but you put Unknown which at least an acknowledgment that the art belongs to someone.
Balance: 8/10
General 6 points.
Rarity 1 point.
Discretionary 1 point.
A novel variation on Call to the Grave. On one hand it is significantly more powerful because it stays in play even if there aren't any creatures in play, but on the other hand if all one player does is drop high power creatures that don't get to attack that can win them the game. I do have a beef with this, and it's Ivory Mask / Imperial Mask. The life loss clause really shouldn't target.
Moving on though, this is clearly the proper rarity despite the aforementioned combo I could see this in print. It's fodder for the Enduring Ideal deck, but so is every card in this round and also I think extended could handle it
F/C/Q 5.5/10
Flavor 1 point.
Creativity 2 points.
Quality 2.5
Discretionary - 0 points.
With a name like "Pyramid of Skulls" it should be an artifact, possibly a land depending on the quantity of skulls involved. Some better names off the top of my head would be "Curse of burning rage." or "Consuming hatred." With a name like "pile of head bones" we are left to guess what the spell is going in the imaginary game world. Call to the Grave is a good example of what to model this kind of card from.
Creativity was okay, but it didn't knock me off my chair. Again this is because I thought of Call to the Grave immediately, but the extra bit about the life loss is a nice touch.
You only made one quality mistake, and even though you made it twice I don't want to be petty and take off more than a half point for it. When you say "he" you should instead say "he or she." I don't know much about romantic languages like Spanish, so it could very well be that this isn't a problem in your native tongue, but English cards have to say "he or she" because there are some female magic players out there.
Not white - 1 point.
CMC less than or equal to four - 1 point.
Used mana symbols - 1 point.
Supplied rendered art - 1 point.
Discretionary - 0 point.
Not a good picture. I have to give you the point for supplying a render, but I would have preferred you just submit a textcard. I only spend five minutes looking in around in the late Polar Bear God's art thread and found not one but two good pics for this card, and that was only in the new stuff since the last time I looked. If you were willing to change the flavor text of the card or for that matter the flavor in general there were many more. Not only can good art get you an extra bonus point but it can make up for inadequacies in flavor as well, so you might want to put some emphasis into your renders in future. Anyway, I attached a render I made of your card to show you what I mean.Balance: 8/10
General - 6 points.
Rarity - 1 point.
Discretionary - 1 points.
I hate judging "I win" cards because in order to judge them properly you have to try to figure out exactly what combo would drive the deck and weigh that against anti-combo cards like Extirpate. Instead of doing that, I'll tell you what is obvious up front. This card makes milling not a winable strategy in much the same way that Gaea's Blessing does, so it has at the very least some sideboard potential if milling ever becomes viable. I have faith that there is some combo that makes this deck work, but can't for the life of me figure out exactly what it is. I'm not sure if it's Doomsday in legacy or Jace Beleren on self in combination with some kind of merfolk scheme involving Distant Melody and token merfolk production (and throw in Drowner of Secrets for good measure), but I'm sure there's at least one way to get this to work. I'm also reasonably sure there isn't any broken combos involved, so I'm just giving a six mostly out of apathy. It's not broken and it's not useless but I don't get the feeling that it hit the nail on the head, hence six.
Anyway, clearly this card deserves to be a rare, and I could see something like this working. It's low cost for "I win" but it has enough problems that it's interesting. If anyone can win with this on turn three I'd be more than a little bit impressed.
F/C/Q 7/10
Flavor - 1 point.
Creativity -3 points.
Quality - 3 points.
Discretionary - 0 points.
Flavor is weak. It seems to be a play on Battle of Wits, but I don't understand how drawing the last card of your library puts you in a position to win when traditionally it means that you are mentally exhausted.
You have creativity in spades here, and I didn't notice any quality mistakes so.
Not white - 1 point.
CMC less than or equal to four - 1 point.
Used mana symbols - 1 point.
Supplied rendered art - 1 point.
Discretionary - 1 point.
I realize how hard it is to find a pic including a viashino, and this would have been tons better if it had one, but it is a little bare. It fits the card well.
Balance: 5/10
General - 4 points.
Rarity - 1 point.
Discretionary - 0 points.
With the exception of effecient flash creatures, blocking is impossible once this hits. Token strategies are also pointless. It's like a two cost red Evacuation on a stick, and it's only saving grace is that it gives haste. If you run this with creatures with power higher than their mana cost (Ashenmoor Gouger, Tattermunge Maniac, Lightning Serpent) or that have a good coming into play effect (Keldon Marauders, Cragganwick Cremator) it becomes obvious how things will go for you. It's almost worth running Boldwyr Heavyweights all things considered. Spark Elemental is a clear must. This strategy is Wrath of God and Damnation-proof and requires very little change from typical red creature base to use. Okay most red decks don't use Lightning Serpent but I include it in the list of things that are good with it anyway.
F/C/Q 7/10
Flavor - 1 points.
Creativity - 3 points.
Quality - 2 points.
Discretionary - 1 point.
Flavor was rife with issues. I appreciate "throwbacks" like Viashino Sandscout. It really shouldn't effect the creatures that are already in play if you want to stay in red's slice of color pie, as red bounce is highly suspect and red mass bounce is unheard of. It's a little too controlling for red.
I can't see the gain in wording it the way you did. It would seem you would want to say "Each creature has haste. At end of turn, return each creature to it's owner's hand." and making each creature individually gain the return text only means they leave one at a time. It would also mean that Stiffle can keep one creature on board instead leave them all out, but I'm pretty sure that would never happen.
Despite the issues stated, I did like the card. It could be worked into something very good. If, for example, whenever a creature came into play it gained haste and the return clause unless some condition was met that would be interesting. It just needs to not effect the creatures that are already in play.
Not white - 1 point.
CMC less than or equal to four - 1 point.
Used mana symbols - 1 point.
Supplied rendered art - 0 point.
Discretionary - 0 point.
It's a shame you could't get a render for this, as that cost you one or two points and quite often that's the margin of pass or fail. Well, I don't think you'll make that mistake next round.
Balance: 10/10
General - 8 points.
Rarity - 1 point.
Discretionary - 1 point.
It's like if Eyes of the Watcher didn't suck. Fun with Counterbalance and Sensei's Divining Top makes it pretty good, but just playing a land every turn gives you some control. I like it with Magus of the Future myself.
Part of me thinks it could a little further, but as it stands it is a good enough Johny card and right as an uncommon. You could glue on extra bits and make it a rare I suppose, but there's certainly nothing wrong with.
F/C/Q 8/10
Flavor - 2 points.
Creativity - 2 points.
Quality -3 points.
Discretionary -1 point.
I don't get the sliver connection. There was never a scrying sliver. They did get one for fateseal, but I'm not getting this. If this card was for fateseal instead of scry I would understand, and promptly berate you for balance because you could quickly land-lock your opponent.
As for creativity, it's interesting but it's like Eyes of the Watcher but for permanents over spells. It's interesting, but hardly new territory.
Maybe because Quazifuji's cards from last round are so freshly in my mind, but I would enjoy playing this card quite a bit. It's a wonderful casual card for sure, and it engages my imagination with regard to how I might use it.
:rate5::rate5::rate5::rate5::rate2: RainbowBrite
:rate5::rate5::rate5::rate5::rate2: lord_of_obscurity
:rate5::rate5::rate1: NightArcher
:rate5::rate0.5: Nagil
:rate5::rate4::rate0: Temeraire
:rate5::rate5::rate5::rate3::rate0: MioCid
:rate5::rate2::rate0: Deathwing Phoenix
:rate5::rate0::rate0: GetItWrong
:rate0::rate0::rate0::rate0::rate0: chaosjuggler
:rate0::rate0::rate0::rate0::rate0: Red Angel
:rate0::rate0::rate0::rate0::rate0: Wisp
judge: Kenaron
Good luck to everyone!:)
text card
Skull Harvest
BB
Enchantment - Aura (Uncommon)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets -1/-1 and has deathtouch.
When enchanted creature is put into a graveyard, its controller may draw three cards.
"Auntie woke up the next morning to find a bouquet of flowers blooming on top of the skull. From that day onwards, her warren no longer needed any vases." —A tale of Auntie Grub
Landblast Frenzy 1RR
Enchantment
Whenever a creature deals damage, its controller sacrifices a land.
"We're driving them back!" "Yes, but our homes are gone..."
Judge: Kraj
Added bonus: we're holding a songwriting contest in march with a registry drive going on right now! Check it out, plus the opportunity to earn $50!