No one remembers the first being to travel the Blind Eternities, but whoever it was named it very aptly. A wild maelstrom of nothing. A violent flood of void. Blind and Eternity are fair descriptors, for the blackness that exists between planes has never once seen light. It's darkness is pure and undisturbed, and one who sees it may wonder if they ever could see at all. And yet this ombral region is not devoid of life, though few planeswalkers may ever become aware of their presence. Within the great blackness exists an entire ecosystem, sustained by the chaotic energies that persist there. Great beasts the size of leviathans and other organisms smaller than a faerie, each composed entirely of the chaos, time and mana that makes up this world. Any zoolomancer or ecolomancer would be confounded to label the vibrancy present in this lifeless region. But there is one aspect of the Blind Eternities that is noticed. Just like any other world, very rarely shifting polarities and temporalities will combine to form a tempest so great it puts even the infamous Roil of Zendikar to shame. Even the oldest planeswalker cannot remember it's last occurance, but every so often a Netherstorm will form. At it's most basic form, it's a storm like any other, for a storm is produced by changes in pressures that are violently balanced. However, where-as in another world a storm might be made simply of air, in the Blind Eternities, this borasco is made of violently shifting time, mana, and chaos! It is merciful that a Netherstorm occurs so seldomly, for the havoc that it wreakes upon the multiverse cannot be overstated.
This story is a story of woe and joy, of strength and weakness. This is a story of the temporality of one's triumphs but the permanence of one's resolve. This is a story of eighteen souls, each a champion of their worlds, their fall from greatness, and through perseverence, their triumphant return. The different heroes are as varied as the stars in a Kamigawan sky. One, a scrollmaster who even now is frantically searching a scroll with a fervency that belies its race. Another a great lord, troubled in his sleep by dire omens. Still another a wizard from a particularly advanced plane, beginning his day unawares of where it will bring him. The Netherstorm's path is indiscriminate it takes each of these and more.
What an incredible sight one of these victims must have perceived before their collection. To most eyes, it would be entirely indescribable. How might the royalty of a playing card perceive the motions of it's player? When a Netherstorm passes, it perturbs time and chaos itself beneath it. As one human shaman stood upon the farmgrounds she worked so hard to found, what expression crossed her face as the lands around her shifted simultaneously into the past and to the future leaving her ultimately standing in the midst of a jungle not unlike the forest she once cleared? When Celrius Rane saw his world change before him, did he even suspect the truth of the phenomena?
When the Netherstorm passes, these eighteen beings find themselves in an alien world within sight of another similarly dazed and confused being. A quick scan of the surroundings reveal a world so bizarre none of the poets or storymakers from their world could even conceive of it. The only thing you know is, if you plan to thrive in this new world you'll have to get as much help as you can get. For only with aid might you find a level of respect, a level of power. A level you possessed, before you were...
Misplaced.
Welcome to October CCL 2009, I'll be your host this month and it should be an exciting one, so I'll get started.
The Short Version
-I'll give you a task, and each leaguer has 3.5 days to submit a card. (We have a deadline, so try to adhere to this.)
- Then, the round closes, and each of you will have 1.5 days to post a Top 3 and reviews (And I shall do my best to have the next round up every 5 days.)
- We'll have at least 2 teams. Each team will review the opposing team's cards. After 3 rounds, we will cut to the top 8 players as determined by points.
- Each 1st place earns you 3 points, 2nd place earns 2 points and 3rd place earns 1 point
- Additionally, each player who posts a review for at least half the cards gains 1 point. Anyone who submits a Top 3 within deadline also receives a point.
- At the end of the third round, we go to a Top 8, where each session becomes a 1 vs. 1 (or not, it can sometimes be a 1 vs. 1 vs. 1 battle royal) elimination, until we have our champion.
- We have a "probation" procedure, which means that if you don't post a card or a Top 3, you are on probation. For Top 3 violations, if you didn't have time to post your T3 in time, PM it to me before the following round closes and I'll remove the probation.
- Some rounds I will vary the teams and scoring policies. I'll do my best to inform everyone what those changes entail.
- Here is a long, but very old version of the rules (thanks to Jau for finding this). Read at your own peril.
The CCL is among the more fun games on the MtGSalvation forums due to its inherent aspect of interactivity among the Leaguers (that’s you). We actively critique each other’s card designs at the end of each round, putting a more personal interest into our cards and generally making us all better designers. Typically, we build worlds more complete than many games, as each round builds on the designs and ideas of previous rounds in the month. The CCL allows for Leaguers to plumb the depths of creativity, as the point schedule aspect allows for three full rounds without fear of elimination.
* Schedule
o The CCL will run six rounds, each lasting five days.
+ Rounds 1, 2 & 3 will be free-for-alls with each leaguer fighting for the most points during critiques. At the beginning of each of these rounds. The host will divide the league members evenly into two teams and each team will be assigned their design challenge. At the challenge deadline, the round will elapse into the critique section (see Critiques below). Once the critique section ends, the host will tally points and post the next round. Team rosters are likely to change between rounds; the new rosters will be included in the initial posting for the next round.
o Each round will last five days: 3.5 to finalize designs, 1.5 for critiques.
o The schedule will usually operate according to US Easter time zone (GMT -5) We will stick to this schedule as closely as possible, adjusting as necessary.
* Challenge Rounds
o At the start of each round, the host will post the challenge for the round. This may be, at the host’s discretion, a single challenge for all leaguers, a list for each leaguer to choose from, challenges assigned to each leaguer, or other challenge variation.
o Each Leaguer will post his/her entry by the deadline, 3.5 days after the round is posted.
* Critique Rounds
o At the end of each challenge round, the host, or an individual the host designates, will officially close the round and open the forum for critiques. After this point, modifying the post containing your entry for the round will incur penalties (see Penalties section).
o Each Leaguer will thoroughly critique at least 50% of the entries given by the leaguers on the other team.
o In addition to the critiques, each Leaguer generates his/her list of the Top 3 entries for the round. The Top 3 listings are the chief source of points within the CCL and are therefore required to complete. Even if critiques are not completed, Top 3’s must be listed to avoid penalties (see Penalties for penalty schedule). Regardless of the cards actually critiqued by a given Leaguer, Top 3’s can be drawn from any valid entry of the round. Submitting Top 3’s grants one point.
o A valid critique does not need to be lengthy. A few constructive sentences will do as long as they are meaningful. Neither “Hated it,” “Too expensive,” nor “Bahhrokken!!!” are valid critiques.
Example:
The following card is submitted by Fitzgerald:
A few decent critics:
from Tiberius: Templating issue with “nonpermanent card,” it's confusing and should just read “instant or sorcery card.” And the cost seems steep: I’m giving up a mana, a card, and immediate access to the card I looked for. Creative, but not bad.
from Wilhelmina: I hate the name. Also the shuffle part should be right after removing the tutored card instead of on a separate line. Seems powerful as an instant, play it on the opponents turn and you get basically a free draw, but you get to pick it.
from Beauregard: A bit complicated for uncommon. It doesn’t go to microtext on a render (sans flavor text) but it still isn’t all that intuitive.
* Valid Entry Constitution
o A valid entry in a given round cleanly delivers all required components of the challenge. The CCL is based around card design, so each challenge will direct Leaguers to design one or more cards, but other components may be given according to the judge’s discretion. Historically, these non-card components have included such things as keyword mechanic designs, story pieces, and various ideas for the judge to incorporate into later rounds. Include only what is described by the challenge requirements, as superfluous items may sway judgings unfairly and will incur penalties.
o It is customary to include card renders in entries. This is not required. Some Leaguers may not have access to render design software and therefore will not be penalized for posting an entry without a render. However, it must be understood that a proper render is easier to judge/critique as it is more pleasing to the eye, more memorable and allows for Leaguers to judge the card by its wordiness, a very important aspect of a card’s design. Common rendering software used include Magic Set Editor (free program, the standard that most amateur designers use), PhotoShop (not free), and GIMP (free PhotoShop knockoff).
* Scoring
o The bulk of available points will be derived from Top 3 listings, as is League custom. Within each Top 3 listing, the choice for 1st place will be awarded 3 points, the choice for 2nd place will receive 2 points, and the choice for 3rd place will receive 1 point. It is common for Leaguers to post an Honorable Mention or two along with their T3 listings. Honorable Mentions are not awarded points. Posting T3s is required and awards one point for completion of the requirements. There are penalties for failure to post T3s (see Penalties section).
o Critiques are an optional aspect of the CCL, therefore no penalties are given for failure to complete critiques. Any Leaguer completing critiques for at least 50% of the other team's entries will receive 1 bonus point. An additional point will be awarded if a Leaguer critiques all valid entries in the round.
o As noted in the section on Valid Entry Constitution, entries are encouraged to contain proper card renders. Some Leaguers may not have access to render design software and will not be penalized for posting an entry without a render.
* Penalties
o Failure to post Top 3s as required during the Critique section of any round will put a Leaguer on probation. While on probation, failure to post an Top 3 in any later round will disqualify that Leaguer for the remainder of the month.
o Once a Round elapses into its critique section, any Leaguer modifying their entry after any leaguer has posted a critique, will be disqualified for the round.
o Failure to post an entry within the Challenge round will put a Leaguer on probation. While on probation, failure to post an entry in any later round will disqualify that Leaguer for the remainder of the month.
* Resources
o This is a templating guideline compiled by Kraj. It is quite concise and very useful.
o Making Magic by Mark Rosewater, current head of Magic Design at Wizards of the Coast. Making Magic is a weekly article detailing the trials, tribulations and achievements of Magic R&D in riveting prose.
o Magiccards.info is the database mtgsalvation draws upon when you use the [card] tag. The advanced search functionality is useful for searching all cards officially printed by WotC.
o Gatherer is the database maintained officially by WotC. It has slightly different functionality than magiccards.info, but the differences are too numerable to list here. (Someone should write an article about that)
o Your other Leaguers are fantastic resources. We, more than the players of other games on this forum, are a community, as can be seen by the dialogue of any CCL thread.
+ Question, consult with, challenge and encourage each other at every opportunity.
o Credits
Team Pavan
Twilight Kiwi
BlackMegatog
Cardamne
Venser
Gerrard's Mom
Zas
Team Tejas
KoolKoal
Flappy
Krey
Jimmy Groove
MagicProfessor28
Dranith
Team Jala
Myrix
Nekyia
Arcadeus88
Lanxal
Mobiusman
Maokun
You see before you another being who seems just as alien as the lands around you. You realize you'll need help to survive and thrive in this new environment, so it's in your best interest to befriend, train, tame, or otherwise indoctrinate this new being to aid you against this new environment.
Your first challenge:Find your name in the roster above and look one name down (If you're at the bottom of your group, instead go to the top) you have received that player's lackey which can be found from the sign-up page here. You have also appeared on the plane created by the person two names beneath yours (Again, wrapping around to the top of your group). Glean as much about your new plane as you can from the cards submitted on the sign-up page and recreate your new lackey, combining it's cultural flavor, and that of your Avatar, to best help you on this new plane.
If I was Zas, I would look at the list of Team Pavan and see that I am now on BlackMegatog's plane with TwilightKiwi's lackey. I would then go to BlackMegatog's cards on the sign-up page here, glean as much about his plane from there. Then, I would find TwilightKiwi's lackey here and recreate it in the style of my Avatar so-as to be best prepared on BlackMegatog's plane.
=====
Team Pavan will critique Team Tejas Team Tejas will critique Team Jala Team Jala will critique Team Pavan
The deadline for submitions is the 8th of October, at 12:00 Noon of Thursday, UTC - 8.
The deadline for critiques is the 9th of September, at 12:00 Midnight of Friday, UTC - 8.
Flying through the Cloudwreath. Rain pelting at my face. Lightning bolts searing great holes in the clouds, threatening every person aboard the Skyblazer with each thunderclap.
What a life, Rynx thought, harvest pipe in hand. A great mechanical object of wires and metal, the harvest pipe would attract lightning and send the bolts straight into the hold in the center of the Skyblazer, where it would then be converted into mana to be stored for trade. It was the life.
Rynx was standing on the board, his harvest shift on for the rest of the night. Being the captain of the Skyblazer had it's privileges, but Rynx always took at least three shifts a journey. Although it was often considered a suicidal job, Rynx had survived five years in the buisness and he wasn't about to look back.
A lightning bolt exploded across the sky. For a second, Rynx thought it looked... different. Jet black, almost. But before he could contemplate the matter, another lightning bolt shot across the sky, ripping a hole in the very air itself. Beyond that hole was a strange nothingness, a place of complete chaos that was churning like the storms in the Cloudwreath.
"What the-" Rynx began, but then he was stopped but a gushing, sucking sound from the hole in the sky. The wind picked up heavily, like a whirlpool into nothingness, and Rynx was in the very middle. Without warning, Rynx was picked off his feet and began to get pulled straight into the void. He yelped and latched onto the harvest pipe, his only lifeline against getting sucked out of the world.
The pull got stronger, and Rynx's hands were already wet with rain. He tried to pull himself down, along the pipe, but the void would not take no for an answer, and the pull got stronger. Rynx couldn't fight it anymore; his hand slipped and he was dragged screaming from the Cloudwreath, into the nothingness.
Into the Blind Eternities.
And out, straight into another world.
Rynx was only faintly aware of his surroundings at the beginning. There was a thick, greenish fog, a dry cloud that covered almost everywhere and clinged to the soul. He coughed a bit, thanking the gods that the fog didn't taste any different to normal air. Getting up, Rynx tried to look around, but the Smog cover hazed his senses. He could make out a strange being close to him. Although the Smog covered a bit of the smell, Rynx could tell that the figure was not living. An undead.
"Forsaken, can you hear me?" Rynx asked. The zombie groaned, then got up. Rynx stepped back, not sure if the undead was friendly... or not.
The zombie looked at Rynx straight through the haze, and there was a moment of silence when the zombie decided on whther Rynx was a master or a meal. He decided on the former and bowed clumsily.
Strange events make even stranger allies.
Day by day in the forsaken Smog land, Rynx and the wight would get up and travel through the Smog, but the very act of walking through the Smog sapped strength. Rynx discovered the mana plants, discovered the towns that seemed to survive through the Smog, and learned the nature of the fog that didn't end in any direction. His new zombie servant volunteered himself heavily whenever Rynx had to do another experiment on distorting the Smog, which was a clouder of magic. Several sucesses transformed the wight into a being that could nullify and combat the fogcover.
The days went by, with the unlikely duo attempting day and night to find an escape from this world and to return to their own. Recently, a few manuscripts had turned up about an interesting myth, pertaining to a place called the Blind Eternities and beings called planeswalkers who could traverse worlds.
Madmen's dribble, but a lead nonetheless.
● ● ●
Fogcutter Wight 1WBB
Creature - Zombie Rogue Minion
Sacrifice ~: Remove all counters from target permenant. Add X to your mana pool, where X is the number of counters removed this way. 1WBB, Discard a card: Return ~ from your graveyard to the battlefield. "Stormscouts learn of the importance of conversion, the changing of forces from one to another. With these thoughts in hand, I will fashion a weapon to nullify this Smog and it's inhabitants."
2/3
Thrashing Golem(G/W)B
Artifact Creature - Golem (u)
Sacrifice a land: ~ gets +2/-1 until end of turn.
Whenever a land is put into a graveyard from play, you gain 2 life. "His elf bodyguard was slaughtered by angry farmers, but Omalon took revenge by setting loose a Golem with an unholy appetite for crops."
2/2
Celrius Raine watched time and space morph, twisting themselves into intricate weaves and tangles before quickly unraveling, zooming forward and back, left and right. Celrius never blinked once. Intrigued by the the new materials, fine and fair for shaping, he reached out to touch one, and as he did, the flashing blue auras, the white strands of angel's hair known as time dissolved before his fingertips, but not before he grasped one solitary strand. Pocketing it, he found himself standing upon a pristine tiled walkway. It was dark, and it was narrow. Buildings surrounded him both from left and from right. He made a mental note to examine the strand, which felt warm and comfortable in his pocket, later. Stepping forward, he found his steps to make a dull, clanging sound, like rubber hitting metal. His shoes kicked up rock and sand from their soles, polluting the pure air. He took in the scent of earth and the scent of home. His pupil was gone. Lost to the streams of time, no doubt. But that was a different matter. He would worry about her later.
Gazing down the narrow alley path, he saw where the sideway merged into the main street. Stepping into the light, he took in his surroundings. It appeared to be a city. People walked back and forth among the streets, disappearing into structures and emerging from alleyways and bends. Indiscernible noise floated outward from every direction. The angry sounds of bartering taken too far. The wailing racket of a crying infant. It was all so very boring. They gave Celrius odd looks as he passed by. Never before had they seen garments so lavish...so original...so...unique.
The architecture was relatively uninspiring as well. Rectangular tower upon ectangular tower stretched off into the distance, all made of the same metallic material with the same vaguely orange hue, reflecting the light from the sun, refracted from the enormous glass dome above. All the buildings seemed to converge upon the one hint of creativity in the city: a tower, cast upwards towards the heavens, grazing the bright yellow sky as it passed through the hole in the center of the dome. It had a blue tinge to it with a white spiral staircase twisting round and round the construct as far as the eye could see. It was there he would go, Celrius decided. He needed to know where he was. Why had he arrived here? How would he return home? Among all these questions however, there were two he could solve immediately.
The first was the matter of his powers. He was no planeswalker. He had never walked the lines between the worlds of the multiverse before. He had no idea what kind of mana ran through these skies. He walked into a dark building. It was pristine on the outside like the others, but one could clearly see it was not yet complete. Framework ran up and down, crisscrossing everywhere. Light filtered through the doorway, vacant of its door. Casting his arms upward as he had done minutes ago on his homeland, he took in the air of this new world, tasting the mana upon his tongue. He felt the energy flowing through his body, and as silver light ran through the runes upon his arms once more, he smiled. All was well. He stared at a pile of wood a few feet away, twisting his arms, breaking down the timber's form. Once dissolved, he twisted his hands once more, reshaping and reforming it into a walking staff. He strided over to his creation, taking it in hand. Twirling it around, he came to the doorway of the building, and gazing out, he noticed something. Something about the people here. They were all the same.
His eyes flickered from face to face. What kind of world was this? Why did everyone look the same? Turning his head, he looked around at the various groups of people in the crowd. They all wore the same clothes, corresponding to their jobs, he guessed. Grey clad construction workers ate and stared at passerby in silence, their bald heads, pale complexions, and bright blue eyes essentially copied and pasted upon face after face. The women filing out of the building adjacent to his were very much the same in their conformity. Black robes, plain and simple clad all their slim bodies. Brown hair flowing downward across their narrow faces were all cut at the exact same length, in the exact same way. Grimacing, he looked around. He still had his other problem to solve. He needed a companion. Someone who could follow him unquestioningly. Someone whom he could mold. Someone who broke the mold of this twisted hivemind of a planet. It was then that behind him, a bright blue aura flashed. Twirling around, he saw the time stream once again, fading away, bringing a cowering form into view. It was a young man. Brown, matted hair covered his face. Sweat trickled down his forehead into his dirt laden clothes. As the young man cast his eyes upward, gazing into Celrius' face, he knew. Those innocent, blank, simpleton eyes were one he had seen many times before. This was the one he would use. This is the one he needed. He was young. He was strong. He would be loyal to anyone who showed him kindness in a cruel, unforgiving world. He was perfect.
Mindshaper ApprenticeWU
Creature- Human Rebel Wizard
Players can't copy cards that share a name with Mindshaper Apprentice or put copies that share a name with it onto the battlefield. 1U: Target creature's name becomes Mindshaper Apprentice. "This world disgusts me. Everyone shares the exact same face, mind, and mold. Like them, your master taught you how to follow the leader. I will teach you how to be the leader."- Celrius Raine
1/2
Warped RebelUR
Creature - Illusion Rebel [u]
Haste, protection from creatures with haste
Whenever Warped Rebel becomes reinforced, you may put a token that's a copy of Warped Rebel onto the battlefield.
Reinforce 1 - 1R "When you can't wait for backup, you have to make your own" - Caden
2/1
The story continues...
Tellos magic sent him airborne at the side of his golem, which had reconfigured itself for flight. As the magic cut through the powerful winds that surrounded Pharos Island, Tellos encountered a dense fog and lightning. "This is very strange", he tought.
After Tellos cleared the fog, he saw land. Tellos tought "This is wrong, this is not the continent of Aurealis." A voice came from someone at his side, "Were am I?" Tellos was shocked, "Who is this creature? Where it came from?, Where is my Golem?" but the time for answers was not now, the creature fell to the ground, shaking and convulsing. Tellos had not noticed because his wards had engaged automatically and protected him from the harsh enviroment of this plane, but that poor soul had no protection to the enviroment of... this... plane?
Tellos used his magic and changed the creature's structure to fit in this enviroment, better than having to use an aura that could fail or be removed. The creature screamed in shock "Lady Grieta, Keep back..." he looked around and told Tellos "Who are you, where is the lady?" Tellos looked at him and told him "Sorry friend, I am as lost here as you are. I don't think we are not in our home planes anymore... and to tell the truth I don't even know where we are right now."
A splash of water silenced both of them, and a raspy inhuman voice was heard "You offend us by not knowing of the Venom Mongers of Xotic, the best place for you to die today." Tellos and his newfound companion looked toward where the voice was heard, this was going to be a long day for both of them.
The "New" Second-in-Command:
Runetamer
Creature - Human Druid (R)
Whenever you draw Runetamer, you may reveal it to all players and pay XW. If you do, remove X counters from the game.
When Runetamer enters the battlefield, search your library for an instant or sorcery card and put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.
1/1 "His connection to the lands, amplified by magic allowed him to control forces he once tought were uncontrollable."
@ Alabran: Thanks for the compliment at the end of the signup thread, it was pretty clever if I do say so myself.
Minion — Gerrard's Mom
Location — Zas
Downpour CaptainUR
Creature - Elemental Soldier (U)
Haste, desertwalk
Dounpour Captain can't attack unless defending player controls a Desert. R: Cracklebolt Captain gets +2/+0 until end of turn. Sacrifice Cracklebolt Captain at the beginning of the next end step.
1/1
Grieta the Keeper2GG
Legendary Creature - Human Shaman (R)
Permanent cards you own have conserve. (If this card would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, you may put it on the top of your library instead.)
"Wildness is not the best possible state. Nature is a wonderful thing, but it best serves humanity when a will and a mind guides it."
4/4
Lacky - MagicProfessor28
Toxin Injector1 Creature-Jellyfish {U} Deathtouch B, T: Target player gets a poison counter. The touch of anything on the plane of Xotic could be enough to liquefy your body. 1/1
Plane - Dranith
A land of high and pulpish adventure, Dranith's plane resembles something you would expect from a Doc Savage or Indiana Jones story.
Lackey Modified for Groovian Flavor on the new plane:
Pittrap Cobra1G
Creature - Snake (U)
Flash, Deathtouch Finding herself competing with other adventurers, Grietta realized that the easiest way to deal with her foes was to lure them into one of the many traps set in every temple or dungeon. Some, like the cobra traps, proved very well suited to this trick.
1/1
@ Alabran: Thanks for the compliment at the end of the signup thread, it was pretty clever if I do say so myself.
Minion — Mobiusman
Location — arcadeus88
Oh, Venser, I'm sorry this wasn't clearer. By the roster I meant the list of teams in the first post of this thread, not the order of submissions in the sign-up thread. You should be receiving Gerrard's Mom's minion, and be on Zasz' plane.
Edit: I just added "above" after Roster. Hopefully that will keep anyone else from being confused.
Waziid Keen-Tongue :1mana::symb::symb:
Creature - Human Advisor (R)
Creatures you control have intimidate.
At the beginning of your end step, sacrifice a creature. You gain life equal to the sacrificed creature's toughness. The humans of the Waziid tribe, as the most useful to the rulers of All, are among the only free members of the Race of Slaves.
2/2
Plane - Flappy: Vague plane; dominated by balance? Has elves and humans.
Maxwell Odinos, Explorer Extraordinaire 1GUR
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor (R)
Creatures have haste
At the beginning of each upkeep, each player may search their deck for a permanent and put it into play. If they did, that player then shuffles their library.
3/3 "I have faced serpents, tigers, crocodiles, malaria, ghosts, mutiny, hunger, pirates, politicians, savage islanders and every other enemy of the explorer under the sun and stars. A lack of cartography will not stop the EXPLORER EXTRAORDINAIRE!"
Veteran Navigator1RU
Creature - Human Advisor (R)
Creatures you control have Swampwalk, Forestwalk and Plainswalk
At the beginning of each end step, shuffle a creature into your library. You gain life equal to that creature's toughness.
2/2 "I'd appreciate his presence a lot more if he'd shut his trap for more than two seconds at a time." - Maxwell Odinos
I'm both a valiant and clever person; abrasive and quick-witted with my own unique set of standards. What I value in my life is autonomy, power, and righteousness; I do whatever I want so long as I fell that it is justified by my own principles, damn what others think. At my best I am glorious, exciting, and courageous; at my worst I am merciless, destructive, and violent.
Voyaging Sailors1RR Creature - Human Soldier {?} Islandwalk Sacrifice a land: Voyaging Sailors deals 3 damage to target creature. "Most of the navy's sailors are reliable, loyal and neccessary allies for all explorers. Just never let them near the specimens you're bringing back." - Maxwell Odinos, Explorer Extraordinaire. 2/2
A plane ruled by an overzealous, white-aligned, xenophobic bird lord who seeks preservation of his kingdom from intruders. (Kamigawa much? ;))
Septoxia, Venom Expert1GUB Legendary Creature- Merfolk Wizard {MR} Creatures you control get +X/+X, where X is equal to the amount of poison counters among all opponents. XXGU: Search your library for a creature card with poisonous X or less, and put that card into your hand. Then shuffle your library. She has studied the most potent poisons to the most deadly drafts and how to maximize their effectiveness. 2/2
Envenomed Centipede1BB Creature-Insect {R} Forestwalk Sacrifice a land: Target player gains a poison counter and you lose 3 life. One hundred legs each infused with a deadlier type of poison than the last. 1/2
"Were the blast am I" said Resu glaring at his surroundings. He could feel the white mana bristling aginst his skin, its power unfathomable. Glancing to his side he spotted a drake coming in fast. As he braced for combat the drake landed softly and signaled to it's back. Carefully, Resu stepped up to the drake and removed the container from its back. As he opened it he recconized the writing as angelic. "Bah, to pure for my tastes. Now i got an angelic scroll in a new pure location. If there was only something I could do to make this place a little more like home." He took another look at the drake and got a sinister grin on his face. "Now drake, forget about your home of purity and knowledge and get a taste of my home's brew." He stretched his hand out and put his palm against the drake. It writhed with the touch of the mana seething from Resu's hand and changed into a darker being. Resu climbed onto his new mount and set off to explore the new local, and possibly discover the purpose of the mysterious scroll.
Tinged Drake2:symwb::symwb:U
Creature- Drake Assassin(U)
Flying, First Strike
Whenever ~ attacks, reveal the top card of your library. If you reveal a creature card this way, exile target creature with toughness less than the revealed creature's power. With new power seething through its veins, it discovered a new life.
3/5
Plane: Twilight Kiwi's enchanted winter land of Ost.
Sidekick: ZasZ234's Emberdune General
Emberdune General :2mana::symr::symw:
Creature - Elemental Knight
Haste
Whenever ~ attacks, you may tap target creature. Few trespass in the land of burning sands, but those that do know to hide when they hear the hooves of a thundermare.
2/2
Avatar: Azvra the Impatient
Azvra the Impatient :2mana::symr::symu:
Legendary Creature - Djinn (M)
Flash, flying, haste
Skip your main phases.
5/5
The impetuous nature of his new servant suited Azvra well. A fickle creature of fire, used to riding the dunes - it was not so different from the Cracklebolt attendant that he seemed to have lost. Having quickly established his sovereignty over this new underling, he immediately dispatched it to gather news of this world and undertake to attain the accouterments that passed for fashion here.
Frostburn Crusader 1RW
Enchantment Creature - Elemental Knight (U)
Haste
Whenever Frostburn Crusader attacks, target creature controlled by the defending player becomes an enchantment until end of turn. (It's no longer a creature.) 2/2
That blasted scroll. If I had just let it go...perhaps I'd still be at the S****ep, facing only a reprimand and perhaps suspended pay, instead of stranded here. But, stranded I am-in a land of fiendish monstrosities aided only by a complete stranger...and a wingless one at that! Even a few days ago, I would have scoffed at the idea of a ground-walker with such magical prowess, let alone an entire nation of them.
Listening to tales of his homeland, our peoples are not so different. Both seek knowledge in the skies, but his kind do so by way of sorcery and ingenious devices. He is a mage among his kind, capable of using his magics to lull even great armies into a deep sleep. All he requires is enough energy to do so. Unfortunately, he cannot utilize energy from the land as many mages do. That is likely for the best. This fetid realm's magic is foreign to both of us.
He says he can harness the energy of mystical objects. I presented him with my pack. Luckily I had brought with me supplies for a long journey. My maps, charts, and history scrolls were mere mundane texts, and useless in this place besides. But, he found promise among my scrolls of spells. They were full of power words and runic symbols, which had inherent mystical power of their own. After several attempts, trials, and errors, he discovered a method to draw power from them directly. Another unfortunate reality of our situation is the nature of our enemies here. They are relentless, and our separate powers are not enough to fight them. My warding spells are powerful, but too narrow in focus. His sleep magics can drop an entire army to it's knees, but are not strong enough to hold them for long. Perhaps there is a way to combine these disparate aspects of our skills...
We decide our best option is to scout this desolate place first. In knowledge, there is strength. The more we know ahead of time, the better prepared we will be for the arduous journey ahead. Some force brought the both of us here, so there must be a way to harness that force again to return from whence we came. We will seek out such a way to do so, and set off for it as soon as we can.
From the lineny parchment of my now-useless maps and history scrolls, as well as what materials we can scavenge from the area, my companion fashioned a crude version of a device he calls a "glider". He says it is meant to catch the wind for flight. Upon hearing this, I produced a few vials of ink and a writing-brush from my pack. Upon the surface of the glider, I wrote a blessing of my people. It calls for favorable flying winds. With any luck, it will come true.
Each day, we fly outward from where we camped. Everything we see, any bit of information that may be useful, i record. I write much of what we see in runic ink. In this way, he can harness it's power as he does that of my spell scrolls. The more we learn, the stronger we become. The journey will be difficult, but I believe that we will survive.
Stormscout Windwarder Creature-Human Wizard Scout
Flash, flying
Whenever Stormscout Windwarder enters the battlefield, for each card in your hand, prevent the next 1 damage a source of your choice would deal this turn.
:1mana::symu:: Return Stormscout Windwarder to its owner's hand.
2/2 Each day, we fly out into this forsaken land. Each night, we record the day's events. In this way, we prepare for each new horror we meet.
Traversus has taught Lanxal's Stormscout Mage a lot. And they'll both need all they have at their disposal to survive mobiusman's world of undead fiends.
This is incredible, Arcadeus. I love reading the story that you provide with your submissions, it's really fascinating and breathes life into your character.
Orawn, Winterlord of Ost2WB
Legendary Enchantment Creature - Spirit (M)
When Orawn, Winterlord of Ost enters the battlefield, each player chooses five permanents he or she controls and sacrifices the rest.
Whenever an artifact, creature, or land enters the battlefield, if its controller controls five or more nonenchantment permanents, its controller sacrifices a permanent. "The Age of Winter has persisted for centuries. But I know better than anyone that all things must come to an end. The cycle of seasons inexorably turns."
3/3
Memory Reader :1mana::symu::symb:
Creature- Human Wizard
Mindscape 2 (When this creature comes into play, you may shuffle target permanent you control into its owner's library. If you do, then look at the top two cards of your library, choose a permanent card that has a converted mana cost less than or equal to the shuffled permanent and shares a supertype with it, and put it into play. Put all other cards on the bottom of your library in any order.) Whenever you mindscape, you may put target card in your graveyard on the top of your library. "No one worthy of surviving ever truly dies here. Their bodies, their memories, their very souls are preserved in memory, soon taking the place of the undesirables."- Myria, Memory Reader
2/3
A desert world where those in power seek to regain lost glory at the expense of the lower classes - but discontent is growing, and a charismatic young warrior is rallying an army to rebel against them.
Memory Hibernator WUB
Enchantment Creature - Human Wizard Aurafall - Whenever an enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, you may choose a card in a graveyard. If you do, its owner reveals their hand, then shuffles the chosen card and all cards in their graveyard, hand, and that they control that share a name with it into their library. "This world must rest. Only when its people set aside their obsession with the past can the cycle of rebirth begin again." - Orawn, Winterlord of Ost
2/3
It was the most foreign place Orawn had ever visited. Although its barrenness suited him, the wasteland was not just devoid of life but the promise of it as well. Blistering extremes of temperature and a literal drought of natural resources had made this an almost-dead world. Its leaders looked to the past for answers, in their selfishness not realizing it was their own efforts driving their home further into oblivion.
"Summer has reigned far too long in this desolate place," the Winterlord finally observed to himself - for he had none of his lesser children to aid him here, even his firstborn winterwright, the ever-loyal Avarrn. "It may be too late for the natural cycle to reassert itself."
But he had to try. It would be going against the very purpose of his existence not to do so. A monumental task, to be sure, especially without the seasonal deity's three siblings to play their parts - but at the very least he could bring to this world the rest it so desperately needed, and hope that its people would be able to guide it through eventual renewal on their own.
Narrowing his focus, Orawn searched for a suitable candidate through which to act. As it was in Ost, so must it be here - despite his vast power and influence, weakened though it might be now, the ultimate fate of the mortal races must always be in their own hands. It wasn't long before he found a being like himself, in several ways - a stranger to this world through events unforeseeable and unpreventable, brought low from a grand destiny. A destiny about to end entirely. Upon her arrival, she had been accosted by a small army.
"What have you done with Caden, witch!?" They screamed accusations and taunts at her as they tested her ability to defend herself.
"I don't know who you're talking about!" she gasped, bewildered. Her fledgeling ability to manipulate the world around her had disappeared almost entirely, a few minor dust-whirls the best she could manage from the unresponsive terrain. Her mind-magic kept a few rebel soldiers at bay, but more reinforcements were pouring in by the minute. "Where am I? Why have you brought me here, and where is Master Celrius?"
Orawn intervened.
Before the woman's eyes, the last thing she expected to see in a desert - a gentle flurry of snow - stirred around the rebels, and in an instant they were frozen in more than one sense of the word. The Winterlord made his glorious and terrible corporeal form manifest, and his voice was the creaking echo of barren limbs in a winter gale as he spoke.
"Fear not, child, for I mean you no harm. I only seek to help you; and perhaps you can help me. Like you, I have been torn away from my own world to this imbalanced, starving one. I hope to restore its dessicated resources, but to do so I must convince its leaders to stop wasting what little life and power remains here in pointless and greedy pursuits. I believe your ability to manipulate the memories of others will aid me considerably, with proper guidance." The woman simply stared in awe, unable to find the words to respond. Despite the god-like power her masters wielded, her world had no true gods or spirits; never had such a being stood before her. "I see that you do not understand. Let me open your eyes." And with a touch, her form was enveloped in a terrible light, her physical body fading to be replaced by one of pure magic.
"Come with me, and I will show you what must be done."
Minutes later, the soldiers stirred under the harsh desert sun, staring around at each other in confusion. Each possessed by the strong desire to return home, to their families, and prepare for a change in seasons.
kiwi if you are trying to emulate landfall, shouldn't your card say "Whenever an enchantment enters the battlefield under your control" ? I'm just saying this so it would conect better with landfall, if thats what you are aiming at
Twilight Kiwi, that narration was terrific. I'm so pleased how much people are getting into this!
About a day and a half to go, hopefully Zas, KK, Myrix, and Maokun will submit theirs before then.
I'm really excited to see how some of these will go down, too. Zas' in particular, who seems to be a living sun, is getting TK's sidekick, an entity of winter. That will be interesting!
Shadoweave (During your end step, you may pay and exile Xorothil Duskblade. If you do, at the beginning of your upkeep return Xorothil Duskblade to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it. It gains Haste and Intimidate until end of turn. Use this ability only once per turn.)
When Xorothil Duskblade enters the battlefield, it deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
"Stand aside, men! Mundane weapons are of no use against a foe that exists between worlds!" - Ulnar, Archmage of Elsia
2/1
Unfortunately Nekya provided almost nothing to construe the plane =/ I'll have to improvise.
Figneous Blinked. Then he blinked intently four times more, following his little rite of awakening. He opened his eyes.
"Dammit, so this is not a dream!" he said looking around. The panorama of metallic roofs and glittering greenish fog he had been looking at seconds before, had vanished, as well as the messy but comfortable bedroom around him. Now he found himself standing on a vast and desolate heath, familiar to him only in the skyless dome above his head and the grim undertones of the scene. In stead of the coloured soaring fog of his home, a dark motionless miasma clinged in the air, coiling loathsomely around the scattered few half-dead trees in the distance, like the viscous tendrils of a lazy, diseased monstruosity. Far away, a massive, ruinous cathedral protuded jaggedly against the mists with its seemingly dozens of spires and towers. Around it, a blurred outline of a town could be seen.
His finely trained senses warned him immediately that the miasma was ridden with plague and death, and though the stench of continued bilogical decay was overbearing, he could tell the malignant disease was of magical origin. He quickly created a magical cloud of pure air around himself and started wandering towards the town.
It was then when he stumbled upon the thing. A small, almost shapeless form, scurring above the ground, its malicious eyes filled with confusion and fear. Upon being spotted, the malformed thing approached him with sudden jerky motions and a murderous intent, but fell to ground whriting and convulsing just before reaching him.
Figneous pondered for a second about what he should do. The abhorrent little thing was undoubtedly hostile, but judging by its sudden reaction to the noxious miasmal vapours, he concluded it was not from this hateful place, but, like himself, a foreigner stranded in it by some mischief of fate. He knelt besides the writhing figure and created another magic cloud around it, then proceeded to extract as much as he could of the poison from the creature, who instantly opened its eyes and leapt aside brandishing a strangely runed dagger seemingly made of the same strange, shifting matter of its owner.
The wizard and the creature stared into each other eyes for an eternity. Finally, the misshapen thing sheated its dagger and hissed: "I'm not going to thank you, filthy human, but I'll spare your life for this time. Just hope that we do not meet again," then turned its back and started crawling away.
"Wait!" called Figneous voice after him. "Where are you going? I can tell you are as lost int his strange place as I am! Shouldn't we perhaps try to collaborate?"
The creature stopped for a second, but after letting out a racuous sound that could have been confused with laughter, it resumed his departure. Figneous shouted a last time. "That magic bubble will last for 3 hours at best, you know. Then I'll have to make another one."
This time, the thing stopped fully and turned to look at him with eyes shining with malice. "Fine!" it spat after a short consideration, "you can come along. Keep me alive and I won't kill you."
Figneous smiled but his thoughts were interrupted by a clattering as of thousand mounstrous bells which came from the cathedral. The deafening echo reverberated through that dead expanse and the miasma seemed to be washed over by the tide of sound.
"When bells call, a gathering is formed," murmured Figneous, his heart cold with a sudden and unexplainable aprehension. "Let's get going."
Miasmal SmogcutterBB
Creature - Shade Scout
Wither
Smog 1 (This creature enters the battlefield with one Smog counter on it. Spells you cast cost more for each Smog counter on this creature. If there are no Smog counters, on this creature, sacrifice it at the end of turn.) 1B, put a smog counter on Miasmal Smogcutter: Miasmal Smogcutter deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
3/2
I'm calling it right now- worst rare in the set. Even good limited players will find better bombs at common and uncommon no sweat. Worst. Episode. Ever.
I really do predict this to be our worst rare in set award winner. I'd be happier opening a jar of eyeballs, so I think anything worse is highly unlikely. This card wont just have zero constructed potential, but not be significantly better than a mass of ghouls in a draft.
Well, with the extra spare time I had, I created some critique formats for October. Just a heckload of copy and pasting and namechanging from my September Critique formats.
Enjoy~
Hey sweet, thanks Maokun!
I was a little worried that you might just not do it since you kind of got the short end of the stick as far as flavor went (I'm sorry about that, it was entirely random.) Looks like you constructed something great out of what little you got though! Nice job!
I'm calling it right now- worst rare in the set. Even good limited players will find better bombs at common and uncommon no sweat. Worst. Episode. Ever.
I really do predict this to be our worst rare in set award winner. I'd be happier opening a jar of eyeballs, so I think anything worse is highly unlikely. This card wont just have zero constructed potential, but not be significantly better than a mass of ghouls in a draft.
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No one remembers the first being to travel the Blind Eternities, but whoever it was named it very aptly. A wild maelstrom of nothing. A violent flood of void. Blind and Eternity are fair descriptors, for the blackness that exists between planes has never once seen light. It's darkness is pure and undisturbed, and one who sees it may wonder if they ever could see at all. And yet this ombral region is not devoid of life, though few planeswalkers may ever become aware of their presence. Within the great blackness exists an entire ecosystem, sustained by the chaotic energies that persist there. Great beasts the size of leviathans and other organisms smaller than a faerie, each composed entirely of the chaos, time and mana that makes up this world. Any zoolomancer or ecolomancer would be confounded to label the vibrancy present in this lifeless region. But there is one aspect of the Blind Eternities that is noticed. Just like any other world, very rarely shifting polarities and temporalities will combine to form a tempest so great it puts even the infamous Roil of Zendikar to shame. Even the oldest planeswalker cannot remember it's last occurance, but every so often a Netherstorm will form. At it's most basic form, it's a storm like any other, for a storm is produced by changes in pressures that are violently balanced. However, where-as in another world a storm might be made simply of air, in the Blind Eternities, this borasco is made of violently shifting time, mana, and chaos! It is merciful that a Netherstorm occurs so seldomly, for the havoc that it wreakes upon the multiverse cannot be overstated.
This story is a story of woe and joy, of strength and weakness. This is a story of the temporality of one's triumphs but the permanence of one's resolve. This is a story of eighteen souls, each a champion of their worlds, their fall from greatness, and through perseverence, their triumphant return. The different heroes are as varied as the stars in a Kamigawan sky. One, a scrollmaster who even now is frantically searching a scroll with a fervency that belies its race. Another a great lord, troubled in his sleep by dire omens. Still another a wizard from a particularly advanced plane, beginning his day unawares of where it will bring him. The Netherstorm's path is indiscriminate it takes each of these and more.
What an incredible sight one of these victims must have perceived before their collection. To most eyes, it would be entirely indescribable. How might the royalty of a playing card perceive the motions of it's player? When a Netherstorm passes, it perturbs time and chaos itself beneath it. As one human shaman stood upon the farmgrounds she worked so hard to found, what expression crossed her face as the lands around her shifted simultaneously into the past and to the future leaving her ultimately standing in the midst of a jungle not unlike the forest she once cleared? When Celrius Rane saw his world change before him, did he even suspect the truth of the phenomena?
When the Netherstorm passes, these eighteen beings find themselves in an alien world within sight of another similarly dazed and confused being. A quick scan of the surroundings reveal a world so bizarre none of the poets or storymakers from their world could even conceive of it. The only thing you know is, if you plan to thrive in this new world you'll have to get as much help as you can get. For only with aid might you find a level of respect, a level of power. A level you possessed, before you were...
Misplaced.
Welcome to October CCL 2009, I'll be your host this month and it should be an exciting one, so I'll get started.
The Short Version
-I'll give you a task, and each leaguer has 3.5 days to submit a card. (We have a deadline, so try to adhere to this.)
- Then, the round closes, and each of you will have 1.5 days to post a Top 3 and reviews (And I shall do my best to have the next round up every 5 days.)
- We'll have at least 2 teams. Each team will review the opposing team's cards. After 3 rounds, we will cut to the top 8 players as determined by points.
- Each 1st place earns you 3 points, 2nd place earns 2 points and 3rd place earns 1 point
- Additionally, each player who posts a review for at least half the cards gains 1 point. Anyone who submits a Top 3 within deadline also receives a point.
- At the end of the third round, we go to a Top 8, where each session becomes a 1 vs. 1 (or not, it can sometimes be a 1 vs. 1 vs. 1 battle royal) elimination, until we have our champion.
- We have a "probation" procedure, which means that if you don't post a card or a Top 3, you are on probation. For Top 3 violations, if you didn't have time to post your T3 in time, PM it to me before the following round closes and I'll remove the probation.
- Some rounds I will vary the teams and scoring policies. I'll do my best to inform everyone what those changes entail.
- Here is a long, but very old version of the rules (thanks to Jau for finding this). Read at your own peril.
Custom Card League Rules Compendium
* Overview
* Schedule
* Challenge Rounds
* Critique Rounds
* Valid Entry Constitution
* Scoring
* Penalties
* Resources
* Credits
------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Overview
The CCL is among the more fun games on the MtGSalvation forums due to its inherent aspect of interactivity among the Leaguers (that’s you). We actively critique each other’s card designs at the end of each round, putting a more personal interest into our cards and generally making us all better designers. Typically, we build worlds more complete than many games, as each round builds on the designs and ideas of previous rounds in the month. The CCL allows for Leaguers to plumb the depths of creativity, as the point schedule aspect allows for three full rounds without fear of elimination.
* Schedule
o The CCL will run six rounds, each lasting five days.
+ Rounds 1, 2 & 3 will be free-for-alls with each leaguer fighting for the most points during critiques. At the beginning of each of these rounds. The host will divide the league members evenly into two teams and each team will be assigned their design challenge. At the challenge deadline, the round will elapse into the critique section (see Critiques below). Once the critique section ends, the host will tally points and post the next round. Team rosters are likely to change between rounds; the new rosters will be included in the initial posting for the next round.
o Each round will last five days: 3.5 to finalize designs, 1.5 for critiques.
o The schedule will usually operate according to US Easter time zone (GMT -5) We will stick to this schedule as closely as possible, adjusting as necessary.
* Challenge Rounds
o At the start of each round, the host will post the challenge for the round. This may be, at the host’s discretion, a single challenge for all leaguers, a list for each leaguer to choose from, challenges assigned to each leaguer, or other challenge variation.
o Each Leaguer will post his/her entry by the deadline, 3.5 days after the round is posted.
* Critique Rounds
o At the end of each challenge round, the host, or an individual the host designates, will officially close the round and open the forum for critiques. After this point, modifying the post containing your entry for the round will incur penalties (see Penalties section).
o Each Leaguer will thoroughly critique at least 50% of the entries given by the leaguers on the other team.
o In addition to the critiques, each Leaguer generates his/her list of the Top 3 entries for the round. The Top 3 listings are the chief source of points within the CCL and are therefore required to complete. Even if critiques are not completed, Top 3’s must be listed to avoid penalties (see Penalties for penalty schedule). Regardless of the cards actually critiqued by a given Leaguer, Top 3’s can be drawn from any valid entry of the round. Submitting Top 3’s grants one point.
o A valid critique does not need to be lengthy. A few constructive sentences will do as long as they are meaningful. Neither “Hated it,” “Too expensive,” nor “Bahhrokken!!!” are valid critiques.
Example:
The following card is submitted by Fitzgerald:
A few decent critics:
from Tiberius: Templating issue with “nonpermanent card,” it's confusing and should just read “instant or sorcery card.” And the cost seems steep: I’m giving up a mana, a card, and immediate access to the card I looked for. Creative, but not bad.
from Wilhelmina: I hate the name. Also the shuffle part should be right after removing the tutored card instead of on a separate line. Seems powerful as an instant, play it on the opponents turn and you get basically a free draw, but you get to pick it.
from Beauregard: A bit complicated for uncommon. It doesn’t go to microtext on a render (sans flavor text) but it still isn’t all that intuitive.
* Valid Entry Constitution
o A valid entry in a given round cleanly delivers all required components of the challenge. The CCL is based around card design, so each challenge will direct Leaguers to design one or more cards, but other components may be given according to the judge’s discretion. Historically, these non-card components have included such things as keyword mechanic designs, story pieces, and various ideas for the judge to incorporate into later rounds. Include only what is described by the challenge requirements, as superfluous items may sway judgings unfairly and will incur penalties.
o It is customary to include card renders in entries. This is not required. Some Leaguers may not have access to render design software and therefore will not be penalized for posting an entry without a render. However, it must be understood that a proper render is easier to judge/critique as it is more pleasing to the eye, more memorable and allows for Leaguers to judge the card by its wordiness, a very important aspect of a card’s design. Common rendering software used include Magic Set Editor (free program, the standard that most amateur designers use), PhotoShop (not free), and GIMP (free PhotoShop knockoff).
* Scoring
o The bulk of available points will be derived from Top 3 listings, as is League custom. Within each Top 3 listing, the choice for 1st place will be awarded 3 points, the choice for 2nd place will receive 2 points, and the choice for 3rd place will receive 1 point. It is common for Leaguers to post an Honorable Mention or two along with their T3 listings. Honorable Mentions are not awarded points. Posting T3s is required and awards one point for completion of the requirements. There are penalties for failure to post T3s (see Penalties section).
o Critiques are an optional aspect of the CCL, therefore no penalties are given for failure to complete critiques. Any Leaguer completing critiques for at least 50% of the other team's entries will receive 1 bonus point. An additional point will be awarded if a Leaguer critiques all valid entries in the round.
o As noted in the section on Valid Entry Constitution, entries are encouraged to contain proper card renders. Some Leaguers may not have access to render design software and will not be penalized for posting an entry without a render.
* Penalties
o Failure to post Top 3s as required during the Critique section of any round will put a Leaguer on probation. While on probation, failure to post an Top 3 in any later round will disqualify that Leaguer for the remainder of the month.
o Once a Round elapses into its critique section, any Leaguer modifying their entry after any leaguer has posted a critique, will be disqualified for the round.
o Failure to post an entry within the Challenge round will put a Leaguer on probation. While on probation, failure to post an entry in any later round will disqualify that Leaguer for the remainder of the month.
* Resources
o This is a templating guideline compiled by Kraj. It is quite concise and very useful.
o Making Magic by Mark Rosewater, current head of Magic Design at Wizards of the Coast. Making Magic is a weekly article detailing the trials, tribulations and achievements of Magic R&D in riveting prose.
o Magiccards.info is the database mtgsalvation draws upon when you use the [card] tag. The advanced search functionality is useful for searching all cards officially printed by WotC.
o Gatherer is the database maintained officially by WotC. It has slightly different functionality than magiccards.info, but the differences are too numerable to list here. (Someone should write an article about that)
o Your other Leaguers are fantastic resources. We, more than the players of other games on this forum, are a community, as can be seen by the dialogue of any CCL thread.
+ Question, consult with, challenge and encourage each other at every opportunity.
o Credits
Team Pavan
Twilight Kiwi
BlackMegatog
Cardamne
Venser
Gerrard's Mom
Zas
Team Tejas
KoolKoal
Flappy
Krey
Jimmy Groove
MagicProfessor28
Dranith
Team Jala
Myrix
Nekyia
Arcadeus88
Lanxal
Mobiusman
Maokun
You see before you another being who seems just as alien as the lands around you. You realize you'll need help to survive and thrive in this new environment, so it's in your best interest to befriend, train, tame, or otherwise indoctrinate this new being to aid you against this new environment.
Your first challenge: Find your name in the roster above and look one name down (If you're at the bottom of your group, instead go to the top) you have received that player's lackey which can be found from the sign-up page here. You have also appeared on the plane created by the person two names beneath yours (Again, wrapping around to the top of your group). Glean as much about your new plane as you can from the cards submitted on the sign-up page and recreate your new lackey, combining it's cultural flavor, and that of your Avatar, to best help you on this new plane.
=====
Team Pavan will critique Team Tejas
Team Tejas will critique Team Jala
Team Jala will critique Team Pavan
The deadline for submitions is the 8th of October, at 12:00 Noon of Thursday, UTC - 8.
The deadline for critiques is the 9th of September, at 12:00 Midnight of Friday, UTC - 8.
Flying through the Cloudwreath. Rain pelting at my face. Lightning bolts searing great holes in the clouds, threatening every person aboard the Skyblazer with each thunderclap.
What a life, Rynx thought, harvest pipe in hand. A great mechanical object of wires and metal, the harvest pipe would attract lightning and send the bolts straight into the hold in the center of the Skyblazer, where it would then be converted into mana to be stored for trade. It was the life.
Rynx was standing on the board, his harvest shift on for the rest of the night. Being the captain of the Skyblazer had it's privileges, but Rynx always took at least three shifts a journey. Although it was often considered a suicidal job, Rynx had survived five years in the buisness and he wasn't about to look back.
A lightning bolt exploded across the sky. For a second, Rynx thought it looked... different. Jet black, almost. But before he could contemplate the matter, another lightning bolt shot across the sky, ripping a hole in the very air itself. Beyond that hole was a strange nothingness, a place of complete chaos that was churning like the storms in the Cloudwreath.
"What the-" Rynx began, but then he was stopped but a gushing, sucking sound from the hole in the sky. The wind picked up heavily, like a whirlpool into nothingness, and Rynx was in the very middle. Without warning, Rynx was picked off his feet and began to get pulled straight into the void. He yelped and latched onto the harvest pipe, his only lifeline against getting sucked out of the world.
The pull got stronger, and Rynx's hands were already wet with rain. He tried to pull himself down, along the pipe, but the void would not take no for an answer, and the pull got stronger. Rynx couldn't fight it anymore; his hand slipped and he was dragged screaming from the Cloudwreath, into the nothingness.
Into the Blind Eternities.
And out, straight into another world.
Rynx was only faintly aware of his surroundings at the beginning. There was a thick, greenish fog, a dry cloud that covered almost everywhere and clinged to the soul. He coughed a bit, thanking the gods that the fog didn't taste any different to normal air. Getting up, Rynx tried to look around, but the Smog cover hazed his senses. He could make out a strange being close to him. Although the Smog covered a bit of the smell, Rynx could tell that the figure was not living. An undead.
"Forsaken, can you hear me?" Rynx asked. The zombie groaned, then got up. Rynx stepped back, not sure if the undead was friendly... or not.
The zombie looked at Rynx straight through the haze, and there was a moment of silence when the zombie decided on whther Rynx was a master or a meal. He decided on the former and bowed clumsily.
Strange events make even stranger allies.
Day by day in the forsaken Smog land, Rynx and the wight would get up and travel through the Smog, but the very act of walking through the Smog sapped strength. Rynx discovered the mana plants, discovered the towns that seemed to survive through the Smog, and learned the nature of the fog that didn't end in any direction. His new zombie servant volunteered himself heavily whenever Rynx had to do another experiment on distorting the Smog, which was a clouder of magic. Several sucesses transformed the wight into a being that could nullify and combat the fogcover.
The days went by, with the unlikely duo attempting day and night to find an escape from this world and to return to their own. Recently, a few manuscripts had turned up about an interesting myth, pertaining to a place called the Blind Eternities and beings called planeswalkers who could traverse worlds.
Madmen's dribble, but a lead nonetheless.
Fogcutter Wight 1WBB
Creature - Zombie Rogue Minion
Sacrifice ~: Remove all counters from target permenant. Add X to your mana pool, where X is the number of counters removed this way.
1WBB, Discard a card: Return ~ from your graveyard to the battlefield.
"Stormscouts learn of the importance of conversion, the changing of forces from one to another. With these thoughts in hand, I will fashion a weapon to nullify this Smog and it's inhabitants."
2/3
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Thrashing Golem (G/W)B
Artifact Creature - Golem (u)
Sacrifice a land: ~ gets +2/-1 until end of turn.
Whenever a land is put into a graveyard from play, you gain 2 life.
"His elf bodyguard was slaughtered by angry farmers, but Omalon took revenge by setting loose a Golem with an unholy appetite for crops."
2/2
( 0.0 )
=O ((U/R)) O=
(")(")
I'm an AI making Magic cards.
http://www.staalmedia.nl/nexus/#generate
Celrius Raine watched time and space morph, twisting themselves into intricate weaves and tangles before quickly unraveling, zooming forward and back, left and right. Celrius never blinked once. Intrigued by the the new materials, fine and fair for shaping, he reached out to touch one, and as he did, the flashing blue auras, the white strands of angel's hair known as time dissolved before his fingertips, but not before he grasped one solitary strand. Pocketing it, he found himself standing upon a pristine tiled walkway. It was dark, and it was narrow. Buildings surrounded him both from left and from right. He made a mental note to examine the strand, which felt warm and comfortable in his pocket, later. Stepping forward, he found his steps to make a dull, clanging sound, like rubber hitting metal. His shoes kicked up rock and sand from their soles, polluting the pure air. He took in the scent of earth and the scent of home. His pupil was gone. Lost to the streams of time, no doubt. But that was a different matter. He would worry about her later.
Gazing down the narrow alley path, he saw where the sideway merged into the main street. Stepping into the light, he took in his surroundings. It appeared to be a city. People walked back and forth among the streets, disappearing into structures and emerging from alleyways and bends. Indiscernible noise floated outward from every direction. The angry sounds of bartering taken too far. The wailing racket of a crying infant. It was all so very boring. They gave Celrius odd looks as he passed by. Never before had they seen garments so lavish...so original...so...unique.
The architecture was relatively uninspiring as well. Rectangular tower upon ectangular tower stretched off into the distance, all made of the same metallic material with the same vaguely orange hue, reflecting the light from the sun, refracted from the enormous glass dome above. All the buildings seemed to converge upon the one hint of creativity in the city: a tower, cast upwards towards the heavens, grazing the bright yellow sky as it passed through the hole in the center of the dome. It had a blue tinge to it with a white spiral staircase twisting round and round the construct as far as the eye could see. It was there he would go, Celrius decided. He needed to know where he was. Why had he arrived here? How would he return home? Among all these questions however, there were two he could solve immediately.
The first was the matter of his powers. He was no planeswalker. He had never walked the lines between the worlds of the multiverse before. He had no idea what kind of mana ran through these skies. He walked into a dark building. It was pristine on the outside like the others, but one could clearly see it was not yet complete. Framework ran up and down, crisscrossing everywhere. Light filtered through the doorway, vacant of its door. Casting his arms upward as he had done minutes ago on his homeland, he took in the air of this new world, tasting the mana upon his tongue. He felt the energy flowing through his body, and as silver light ran through the runes upon his arms once more, he smiled. All was well. He stared at a pile of wood a few feet away, twisting his arms, breaking down the timber's form. Once dissolved, he twisted his hands once more, reshaping and reforming it into a walking staff. He strided over to his creation, taking it in hand. Twirling it around, he came to the doorway of the building, and gazing out, he noticed something. Something about the people here. They were all the same.
His eyes flickered from face to face. What kind of world was this? Why did everyone look the same? Turning his head, he looked around at the various groups of people in the crowd. They all wore the same clothes, corresponding to their jobs, he guessed. Grey clad construction workers ate and stared at passerby in silence, their bald heads, pale complexions, and bright blue eyes essentially copied and pasted upon face after face. The women filing out of the building adjacent to his were very much the same in their conformity. Black robes, plain and simple clad all their slim bodies. Brown hair flowing downward across their narrow faces were all cut at the exact same length, in the exact same way. Grimacing, he looked around. He still had his other problem to solve. He needed a companion. Someone who could follow him unquestioningly. Someone whom he could mold. Someone who broke the mold of this twisted hivemind of a planet. It was then that behind him, a bright blue aura flashed. Twirling around, he saw the time stream once again, fading away, bringing a cowering form into view. It was a young man. Brown, matted hair covered his face. Sweat trickled down his forehead into his dirt laden clothes. As the young man cast his eyes upward, gazing into Celrius' face, he knew. Those innocent, blank, simpleton eyes were one he had seen many times before. This was the one he would use. This is the one he needed. He was young. He was strong. He would be loyal to anyone who showed him kindness in a cruel, unforgiving world. He was perfect.
Mindshaper Apprentice WU
Creature- Human Rebel Wizard
Players can't copy cards that share a name with Mindshaper Apprentice or put copies that share a name with it onto the battlefield.
1U: Target creature's name becomes Mindshaper Apprentice.
"This world disgusts me. Everyone shares the exact same face, mind, and mold. Like them, your master taught you how to follow the leader. I will teach you how to be the leader."- Celrius Raine
1/2
Altered Art Cards! | Commissions currently Closed
Minion (Venser)
Warped Rebel UR
Creature - Illusion Rebel [u]
Haste, protection from creatures with haste
Whenever Warped Rebel becomes reinforced, you may put a token that's a copy of Warped Rebel onto the battlefield.
Reinforce 1 - 1R
"When you can't wait for backup, you have to make your own" - Caden
2/1
Jimmy Groove
Plane:
MagicProfessor28
The story continues...
Tellos magic sent him airborne at the side of his golem, which had reconfigured itself for flight. As the magic cut through the powerful winds that surrounded Pharos Island, Tellos encountered a dense fog and lightning. "This is very strange", he tought.
After Tellos cleared the fog, he saw land. Tellos tought "This is wrong, this is not the continent of Aurealis." A voice came from someone at his side, "Were am I?" Tellos was shocked, "Who is this creature? Where it came from?, Where is my Golem?" but the time for answers was not now, the creature fell to the ground, shaking and convulsing. Tellos had not noticed because his wards had engaged automatically and protected him from the harsh enviroment of this plane, but that poor soul had no protection to the enviroment of... this... plane?
Tellos used his magic and changed the creature's structure to fit in this enviroment, better than having to use an aura that could fail or be removed. The creature screamed in shock "Lady Grieta, Keep back..." he looked around and told Tellos "Who are you, where is the lady?" Tellos looked at him and told him "Sorry friend, I am as lost here as you are. I don't think we are not in our home planes anymore... and to tell the truth I don't even know where we are right now."
A splash of water silenced both of them, and a raspy inhuman voice was heard "You offend us by not knowing of the Venom Mongers of Xotic, the best place for you to die today." Tellos and his newfound companion looked toward where the voice was heard, this was going to be a long day for both of them.
The "New" Second-in-Command:
Runetamer
Creature - Human Druid (R)
Whenever you draw Runetamer, you may reveal it to all players and pay XW. If you do, remove X counters from the game.
When Runetamer enters the battlefield, search your library for an instant or sorcery card and put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.
1/1
"His connection to the lands, amplified by magic allowed him to control forces he once tought were uncontrollable."
Minion — Gerrard's Mom
Location — Zas
Downpour Captain UR
Creature - Elemental Soldier (U)
Haste, desertwalk
Dounpour Captain can't attack unless defending player controls a Desert.
R: Cracklebolt Captain gets +2/+0 until end of turn. Sacrifice Cracklebolt Captain at the beginning of the next end step.
1/1
Legendary Creature - Human Shaman (R)
Permanent cards you own have conserve. (If this card would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, you may put it on the top of your library instead.)
"Wildness is not the best possible state. Nature is a wonderful thing, but it best serves humanity when a will and a mind guides it."
4/4
Lacky - MagicProfessor28
Creature-Jellyfish {U}
Deathtouch
B, T: Target player gets a poison counter.
The touch of anything on the plane of Xotic could be enough to liquefy your body.
1/1
Plane - Dranith
Lackey Modified for Groovian Flavor on the new plane:
Pittrap Cobra 1G
Creature - Snake (U)
Flash, Deathtouch
Finding herself competing with other adventurers, Grietta realized that the easiest way to deal with her foes was to lure them into one of the many traps set in every temple or dungeon. Some, like the cobra traps, proved very well suited to this trick.
1/1
Oh, Venser, I'm sorry this wasn't clearer. By the roster I meant the list of teams in the first post of this thread, not the order of submissions in the sign-up thread. You should be receiving Gerrard's Mom's minion, and be on Zasz' plane.
Edit: I just added "above" after Roster. Hopefully that will keep anyone else from being confused.
Waziid Keen-Tongue :1mana::symb::symb:
Creature - Human Advisor (R)
Creatures you control have intimidate.
At the beginning of your end step, sacrifice a creature. You gain life equal to the sacrificed creature's toughness.
The humans of the Waziid tribe, as the most useful to the rulers of All, are among the only free members of the Race of Slaves.
2/2
Plane - Flappy: Vague plane; dominated by balance? Has elves and humans.
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor (R)
Creatures have haste
At the beginning of each upkeep, each player may search their deck for a permanent and put it into play. If they did, that player then shuffles their library.
3/3
"I have faced serpents, tigers, crocodiles, malaria, ghosts, mutiny, hunger, pirates, politicians, savage islanders and every other enemy of the explorer under the sun and stars. A lack of cartography will not stop the EXPLORER EXTRAORDINAIRE!"
Creature - Human Advisor (R)
Creatures you control have Swampwalk, Forestwalk and Plainswalk
At the beginning of each end step, shuffle a creature into your library. You gain life equal to that creature's toughness.
2/2
"I'd appreciate his presence a lot more if he'd shut his trap for more than two seconds at a time." - Maxwell Odinos
Voyaging Sailors 1RR
Creature - Human Soldier {?}
Islandwalk
Sacrifice a land: Voyaging Sailors deals 3 damage to target creature.
"Most of the navy's sailors are reliable, loyal and neccessary allies for all explorers. Just never let them near the specimens you're bringing back." - Maxwell Odinos, Explorer Extraordinaire.
2/2
A plane ruled by an overzealous, white-aligned, xenophobic bird lord who seeks preservation of his kingdom from intruders. (Kamigawa much? ;))
Septoxia, Venom Expert 1GUB
Legendary Creature- Merfolk Wizard {MR}
Creatures you control get +X/+X, where X is equal to the amount of poison counters among all opponents.
XXGU: Search your library for a creature card with poisonous X or less, and put that card into your hand. Then shuffle your library.
She has studied the most potent poisons to the most deadly drafts and how to maximize their effectiveness.
2/2
Envenomed Centipede 1BB
Creature-Insect {R}
Forestwalk
Sacrifice a land: Target player gains a poison counter and you lose 3 life.
One hundred legs each infused with a deadlier type of poison than the last.
1/2
Plane- Lanxal
Placeholder, feels sorry for whoever got my plane
"Were the blast am I" said Resu glaring at his surroundings. He could feel the white mana bristling aginst his skin, its power unfathomable. Glancing to his side he spotted a drake coming in fast. As he braced for combat the drake landed softly and signaled to it's back. Carefully, Resu stepped up to the drake and removed the container from its back. As he opened it he recconized the writing as angelic. "Bah, to pure for my tastes. Now i got an angelic scroll in a new pure location. If there was only something I could do to make this place a little more like home." He took another look at the drake and got a sinister grin on his face. "Now drake, forget about your home of purity and knowledge and get a taste of my home's brew." He stretched his hand out and put his palm against the drake. It writhed with the touch of the mana seething from Resu's hand and changed into a darker being. Resu climbed onto his new mount and set off to explore the new local, and possibly discover the purpose of the mysterious scroll.
Tinged Drake 2:symwb::symwb:U
Creature- Drake Assassin(U)
Flying, First Strike
Whenever ~ attacks, reveal the top card of your library. If you reveal a creature card this way, exile target creature with toughness less than the revealed creature's power.
With new power seething through its veins, it discovered a new life.
3/5
Sidekick: ZasZ234's Emberdune General
Creature - Elemental Knight
Haste
Whenever ~ attacks, you may tap target creature.
Few trespass in the land of burning sands, but those that do know to hide when they hear the hooves of a thundermare.
2/2
Legendary Creature - Djinn (M)
Flash, flying, haste
Skip your main phases.
5/5
Frostburn Crusader 1RW
Enchantment Creature - Elemental Knight (U)
Haste
Whenever Frostburn Crusader attacks, target creature controlled by the defending player becomes an enchantment until end of turn. (It's no longer a creature.)
2/2
Listening to tales of his homeland, our peoples are not so different. Both seek knowledge in the skies, but his kind do so by way of sorcery and ingenious devices. He is a mage among his kind, capable of using his magics to lull even great armies into a deep sleep. All he requires is enough energy to do so. Unfortunately, he cannot utilize energy from the land as many mages do. That is likely for the best. This fetid realm's magic is foreign to both of us.
He says he can harness the energy of mystical objects. I presented him with my pack. Luckily I had brought with me supplies for a long journey. My maps, charts, and history scrolls were mere mundane texts, and useless in this place besides. But, he found promise among my scrolls of spells. They were full of power words and runic symbols, which had inherent mystical power of their own. After several attempts, trials, and errors, he discovered a method to draw power from them directly. Another unfortunate reality of our situation is the nature of our enemies here. They are relentless, and our separate powers are not enough to fight them. My warding spells are powerful, but too narrow in focus. His sleep magics can drop an entire army to it's knees, but are not strong enough to hold them for long. Perhaps there is a way to combine these disparate aspects of our skills...
We decide our best option is to scout this desolate place first. In knowledge, there is strength. The more we know ahead of time, the better prepared we will be for the arduous journey ahead. Some force brought the both of us here, so there must be a way to harness that force again to return from whence we came. We will seek out such a way to do so, and set off for it as soon as we can.
From the lineny parchment of my now-useless maps and history scrolls, as well as what materials we can scavenge from the area, my companion fashioned a crude version of a device he calls a "glider". He says it is meant to catch the wind for flight. Upon hearing this, I produced a few vials of ink and a writing-brush from my pack. Upon the surface of the glider, I wrote a blessing of my people. It calls for favorable flying winds. With any luck, it will come true.
Each day, we fly outward from where we camped. Everything we see, any bit of information that may be useful, i record. I write much of what we see in runic ink. In this way, he can harness it's power as he does that of my spell scrolls. The more we learn, the stronger we become. The journey will be difficult, but I believe that we will survive.
Stormscout Windwarder
Creature-Human Wizard Scout
Flash, flying
Whenever Stormscout Windwarder enters the battlefield, for each card in your hand, prevent the next 1 damage a source of your choice would deal this turn.
:1mana::symu:: Return Stormscout Windwarder to its owner's hand.
2/2
Each day, we fly out into this forsaken land. Each night, we record the day's events. In this way, we prepare for each new horror we meet.
Traversus has taught Lanxal's Stormscout Mage a lot. And they'll both need all they have at their disposal to survive mobiusman's world of undead fiends.
Sig and Avatar by Rivenor of Miraculous Recovery Shop!
This is incredible, Arcadeus. I love reading the story that you provide with your submissions, it's really fascinating and breathes life into your character.
Legendary Enchantment Creature - Spirit (M)
When Orawn, Winterlord of Ost enters the battlefield, each player chooses five permanents he or she controls and sacrifices the rest.
Whenever an artifact, creature, or land enters the battlefield, if its controller controls five or more nonenchantment permanents, its controller sacrifices a permanent.
"The Age of Winter has persisted for centuries. But I know better than anyone that all things must come to an end. The cycle of seasons inexorably turns."
3/3
Creature- Human Wizard
Mindscape 2 (When this creature comes into play, you may shuffle target permanent you control into its owner's library. If you do, then look at the top two cards of your library, choose a permanent card that has a converted mana cost less than or equal to the shuffled permanent and shares a supertype with it, and put it into play. Put all other cards on the bottom of your library in any order.)
Whenever you mindscape, you may put target card in your graveyard on the top of your library.
"No one worthy of surviving ever truly dies here. Their bodies, their memories, their very souls are preserved in memory, soon taking the place of the undesirables."- Myria, Memory Reader
2/3
Enchantment Creature - Human Wizard
Aurafall - Whenever an enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, you may choose a card in a graveyard. If you do, its owner reveals their hand, then shuffles the chosen card and all cards in their graveyard, hand, and that they control that share a name with it into their library.
"This world must rest. Only when its people set aside their obsession with the past can the cycle of rebirth begin again." - Orawn, Winterlord of Ost
2/3
It was the most foreign place Orawn had ever visited. Although its barrenness suited him, the wasteland was not just devoid of life but the promise of it as well. Blistering extremes of temperature and a literal drought of natural resources had made this an almost-dead world. Its leaders looked to the past for answers, in their selfishness not realizing it was their own efforts driving their home further into oblivion.
"Summer has reigned far too long in this desolate place," the Winterlord finally observed to himself - for he had none of his lesser children to aid him here, even his firstborn winterwright, the ever-loyal Avarrn. "It may be too late for the natural cycle to reassert itself."
But he had to try. It would be going against the very purpose of his existence not to do so. A monumental task, to be sure, especially without the seasonal deity's three siblings to play their parts - but at the very least he could bring to this world the rest it so desperately needed, and hope that its people would be able to guide it through eventual renewal on their own.
Narrowing his focus, Orawn searched for a suitable candidate through which to act. As it was in Ost, so must it be here - despite his vast power and influence, weakened though it might be now, the ultimate fate of the mortal races must always be in their own hands. It wasn't long before he found a being like himself, in several ways - a stranger to this world through events unforeseeable and unpreventable, brought low from a grand destiny. A destiny about to end entirely. Upon her arrival, she had been accosted by a small army.
"What have you done with Caden, witch!?" They screamed accusations and taunts at her as they tested her ability to defend herself.
"I don't know who you're talking about!" she gasped, bewildered. Her fledgeling ability to manipulate the world around her had disappeared almost entirely, a few minor dust-whirls the best she could manage from the unresponsive terrain. Her mind-magic kept a few rebel soldiers at bay, but more reinforcements were pouring in by the minute. "Where am I? Why have you brought me here, and where is Master Celrius?"
Orawn intervened.
Before the woman's eyes, the last thing she expected to see in a desert - a gentle flurry of snow - stirred around the rebels, and in an instant they were frozen in more than one sense of the word. The Winterlord made his glorious and terrible corporeal form manifest, and his voice was the creaking echo of barren limbs in a winter gale as he spoke.
"Fear not, child, for I mean you no harm. I only seek to help you; and perhaps you can help me. Like you, I have been torn away from my own world to this imbalanced, starving one. I hope to restore its dessicated resources, but to do so I must convince its leaders to stop wasting what little life and power remains here in pointless and greedy pursuits. I believe your ability to manipulate the memories of others will aid me considerably, with proper guidance." The woman simply stared in awe, unable to find the words to respond. Despite the god-like power her masters wielded, her world had no true gods or spirits; never had such a being stood before her. "I see that you do not understand. Let me open your eyes." And with a touch, her form was enveloped in a terrible light, her physical body fading to be replaced by one of pure magic.
"Come with me, and I will show you what must be done."
Minutes later, the soldiers stirred under the harsh desert sun, staring around at each other in confusion. Each possessed by the strong desire to return home, to their families, and prepare for a change in seasons.
Edit: Thanks for the reminder, cardamne.
My First (And Probably Only) MCC Perfect Score: December 09 (Round One)
About a day and a half to go, hopefully Zas, KK, Myrix, and Maokun will submit theirs before then.
I'm really excited to see how some of these will go down, too. Zas' in particular, who seems to be a living sun, is getting TK's sidekick, an entity of winter. That will be interesting!
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
Creature - Shade Assassin
Shadoweave (During your end step, you may pay and exile Xorothil Duskblade. If you do, at the beginning of your upkeep return Xorothil Duskblade to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it. It gains Haste and Intimidate until end of turn. Use this ability only once per turn.)
When Xorothil Duskblade enters the battlefield, it deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
"Stand aside, men! Mundane weapons are of no use against a foe that exists between worlds!" - Ulnar, Archmage of Elsia
2/1
Unfortunately Nekya provided almost nothing to construe the plane =/ I'll have to improvise.
Figneous Blinked. Then he blinked intently four times more, following his little rite of awakening. He opened his eyes.
"Dammit, so this is not a dream!" he said looking around. The panorama of metallic roofs and glittering greenish fog he had been looking at seconds before, had vanished, as well as the messy but comfortable bedroom around him. Now he found himself standing on a vast and desolate heath, familiar to him only in the skyless dome above his head and the grim undertones of the scene. In stead of the coloured soaring fog of his home, a dark motionless miasma clinged in the air, coiling loathsomely around the scattered few half-dead trees in the distance, like the viscous tendrils of a lazy, diseased monstruosity. Far away, a massive, ruinous cathedral protuded jaggedly against the mists with its seemingly dozens of spires and towers. Around it, a blurred outline of a town could be seen.
His finely trained senses warned him immediately that the miasma was ridden with plague and death, and though the stench of continued bilogical decay was overbearing, he could tell the malignant disease was of magical origin. He quickly created a magical cloud of pure air around himself and started wandering towards the town.
It was then when he stumbled upon the thing. A small, almost shapeless form, scurring above the ground, its malicious eyes filled with confusion and fear. Upon being spotted, the malformed thing approached him with sudden jerky motions and a murderous intent, but fell to ground whriting and convulsing just before reaching him.
Figneous pondered for a second about what he should do. The abhorrent little thing was undoubtedly hostile, but judging by its sudden reaction to the noxious miasmal vapours, he concluded it was not from this hateful place, but, like himself, a foreigner stranded in it by some mischief of fate. He knelt besides the writhing figure and created another magic cloud around it, then proceeded to extract as much as he could of the poison from the creature, who instantly opened its eyes and leapt aside brandishing a strangely runed dagger seemingly made of the same strange, shifting matter of its owner.
The wizard and the creature stared into each other eyes for an eternity. Finally, the misshapen thing sheated its dagger and hissed: "I'm not going to thank you, filthy human, but I'll spare your life for this time. Just hope that we do not meet again," then turned its back and started crawling away.
"Wait!" called Figneous voice after him. "Where are you going? I can tell you are as lost int his strange place as I am! Shouldn't we perhaps try to collaborate?"
The creature stopped for a second, but after letting out a racuous sound that could have been confused with laughter, it resumed his departure. Figneous shouted a last time. "That magic bubble will last for 3 hours at best, you know. Then I'll have to make another one."
This time, the thing stopped fully and turned to look at him with eyes shining with malice. "Fine!" it spat after a short consideration, "you can come along. Keep me alive and I won't kill you."
Figneous smiled but his thoughts were interrupted by a clattering as of thousand mounstrous bells which came from the cathedral. The deafening echo reverberated through that dead expanse and the miasma seemed to be washed over by the tide of sound.
"When bells call, a gathering is formed," murmured Figneous, his heart cold with a sudden and unexplainable aprehension. "Let's get going."
Miasmal Smogcutter BB
Creature - Shade Scout
Wither
Smog 1 (This creature enters the battlefield with one Smog counter on it. Spells you cast cost more for each Smog counter on this creature. If there are no Smog counters, on this creature, sacrifice it at the end of turn.)
1B, put a smog counter on Miasmal Smogcutter: Miasmal Smogcutter deals 1 damage to target creature or player.
3/2
Enjoy~
My Pauper Cube ♤ The Pauper Cube Thread Common Knowledge — 1 2
I was a little worried that you might just not do it since you kind of got the short end of the stick as far as flavor went (I'm sorry about that, it was entirely random.) Looks like you constructed something great out of what little you got though! Nice job!