The Card Creation League is a monthly contest in which players compete over seven rounds. Each month has an overall theme and/or story, determined by that month's host.
Each round, the host will assign a card creation task to the players. This task may vary between teams or players.
The first three rounds are open to everyone who joined in the sign-up thread, which will be posted near the end of the previous month. After these rounds, the Top 8 players will move on to three single elimination rounds to determine a winner.
Rounds usually last three to four days for submissions and about two days for critiques, but the host has final say in making the schedule.
For the first three rounds, players are divided into teams. Four teams is standard, but there may be more or less depending on the number of players. Each team will review another team's cards during the critique period of that round.
Each player must submit a Top 3 ranking for the team he or she critiques at the end of each round. Each First Place is worth 3 points; Second Place is 2 points; and Third Place is 1 point.
Additionally, each player can receive up to 2 additional points per round. One point is given for posting a Top 3, and one point for providing critiques for that team's cards.
Suggested areas to critique include creativity, balance, printability, and relation to the overall theme or that player's previous cards.
Players who do not post a card or a Top 3 will be put on "probation." Top 3 violations for a round can be removed by posting or PMing the host with your Top 3 before the end of the next round. Any player that would receive a second violation is disqualified from further competition that month.
At the end of the first three rounds, the Top 8 players will be selected by points (usually the top 2 from each team). In the case of ties, there may be more than 8 players advancing. The host will determine matchups for single elimination. At the end of each elimination round, remaining players not in that matchup will choose a winner to advance. The host will break any ties.
The final round is determined by public poll.
Prior to Top 8, players have a chance of getting a total of 100 points toward their score each Scoring Round. Scores for each Round are determined by the following equation:
Total points of Player A in round N = 100 * X/Y, where:
X = Total number of Scoring Points (Judge Points + Additional Points from Top 3 & Critiques)
Y = Total number of Possible Points (3 * Number of Judges + Additional Points)
3 points are given for a First Place Top 3 finish, 2 points for a Second Place, and 1 point for a Third Place. 1 additional point is awarded if a Top 3 is submitted. 1 additional point is awarded if Critiques are given for all entries to be judged.
This way the grading is more streamlined in the fact that all rounds prior to Top 8 are graded equally, and there is no handicap for any team that has fewer judges.
Each player accumulates points from each Scoring Round until the end of Round 3.
The Narrative
As you prepare to launch a counterstrike against your dark reflection, it lunges forward, pouring itself into you. Your cerebellum flares as a myriad of possibilities race through your consciousness, awakening dreams long buried and solutions to ideas once thought improbable. Your eyes fill with light, and you instinctively know that the light is from within, not without. Your mind continues racing, and the world around you shatters as the stream of concepts becomes overwhelming.
You awaken, floating in a void of brilliant colors. You can make out three other shapes in the void, each roughly the same distance from yourself. As your awareness increases, a name springs unbidden to your mind: Blind Eternities. You're in the Blind Eternities. You're a freaking Planeswalker! While the hows and whys are a little baffling, right now you also need to get your feet on solid ground. There hasn't been a great deal written about the Blind Eternities, but staying too long was never recommended. Not sure if you can return home, you think of a safe place, one where you can recover while you decide what to do next. You focus your energies, and feel yourself start to shift...
The Challenges
1) Design a Mythic Rare Planeswalker with three abilities, incorporating your Round 0 submission and at least one of your other submissions from Rounds 1-3. The abilities do not need to be a direct lift, but the link should be visible. The colors of your Planeswalker should be based off your Round 0 submission. However, you may change your colors in the following fashion, should you so choose.
A) If your Legend was two colors, you may either change one of those colors, or add a third color.
B) If your Legend was three colors, you may either change one of those colors, or drop a color.
2) Design a Rare Legendary Land. This should be able to produce one or more of the colors of your Planeswalker, and should also have an activated ability that compliments one of the abilities of your Planeswalker (no Proliferate).
Critiques
You will have up to three days after the end of the submission period to post Top 3 and/or Critiques for the other three contestants. The two highest scoring submissions will advance.
Round 5/Top 4 ends at 23:59 Eastern on 4 August 2011. Top 3/Crits will be due by 23:59 Eastern on 7 August 2011.
Twilight KiwiRWU
Legendary Creature - Human Guardian (M)
Whenever a permanent or player becomes the target of a spell or ability, if you or Twilight Kiwi could be targeted by that spell or ability, you may pay 2. If you do, choose one - Redirect that spell or ability to you or Twilight Kiwi; or you may copy that spell or ability, and you or Twilight Kiwi must be a target of the copy.
1/3
Because someone asked. Within the context of Magic:
I feel red- and blue-flavored because I'm drawn to and entertained by the unnecessarily complicated, especially when a game devolves into the kind of crazy fun that stories are made of - there are a bajillion tokens on the board? Everytime I play a creature, a dozen different triggers go off? Someone just lost to a deck centered around One With Nothing? Sign me up! I care much less about winning often than I do about winning (or losing!) in interesting and different ways. I like to try new, less straightforward strategies rather than sticking to the same surefire ones all the time.
These two colors are tempered by white - I prefer multiplayer to duels, and more so than my other motivations, I care less about winning than I do about everyone having fun. I will help other players even when there's nothing in it for me if they're stuck in an annoying situation, and (red bleeding in a bit here) I'll take risky moves to break a stale game state even if it means leaving myself vulnerable. If one of my weird decks seems unfun for others to play against, I won't use it very often. I am definitely not a poor loser or winner (and I try not to give my opponents the opportunity to do either if they seem inclined to). Blue bleeds into the white part of me here - after a game I will try to offer what constructive advice or comments I can, and will eagerly take any another player has to give me. I have a vested interest in helping my opponents improve and improving myself, because when everyone is a better player, games become more challenging, interesting, and fun.
Okay, so I'm inside the CCL somehow. This isn't so bad, actually! I wonder what all these shiny bits do. Maybe I should poke around, see if anyone on the outside notices me... or if this has happened to anyone else. Though come to think of it... if I'm not alone in here, and this is the CCL, won't most others be looking for a fight..? I should have something prepared to dissuade any violence, just in case...
Diplomatic Solution1W
Sorcery (U)
Target player chooses a creature you don't control. Exile that creature. "I'm certain we can reach a compromise that serves everyone's best interests."
- Lioka, Grand Ambassadrix
Art: A council room filled with bureaucrats who, by their attire, are obviously from different nations; one of their number seems to be arguing heatedly about something and pointing an accusing finger at another. An impassive-looking council member stands between them.
Seems my diplomatic solution wasn't enough to keep the more aggressive folk off my back, and... hey, those guys are getting a little too close for comfort. Hrrrrm... summoning creatures is actually kind of hard! I don't have time to be really creative, need something familiar I can quickly bring to mind... my dog? I don't really want to see my loyal companion slaughtered in front of me though... ah, that's it! Instead of solid flesh and blood, I just need him to be able to protect me and still be able to recover easily if he gets overcome...
Hound Umbra1W
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1.
Whenever a creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, if Hound Umbra is in your graveyard, you may pay 1W. If you do, return it to the battlefield enchanting that creature.
Totem armor
I figured an aura with totem armor would be the perfect compliment to a spell magnet like my legend; this way I can eat removal or direct damage without losing him (myself?) in the process. And of course, man's best friend will always return to his master's side.
Dawn's Light1W
Instant (R)
Whenever a nonblack creature becomes the target of a spell or ability this turn, it's indestructible this turn.
Whenever a black creature becomes the target of a spell or ability this turn, exile it. "The welcoming warmth of the Light is a harsh, burning glare to those who thrive in the shadows."
- Lumaros, the Resplendent
Kiwi, the Closed Circle3BG
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (M)
Whenever a creature an opponent controls is dealt combat damage, its controller sacrifices it.
The first time a card goes to a graveyard from anywhere each turn, you may put that card on top of its controller's library instead.
2/2
Kiwi, Twilight Guardian1GWU
Planeswalker - Kiwi (M)
/+1\ Until the beginning of your next upkeep, target player and permanents he or she controls can't be the target of spells or abilities you don't control.
\-2/ Choose a player. Until the beginning of your next upkeep, spells and abilities must target that player or permanents he or she controls if able, and creatures must attack that player or planeswalkers he or she controls if able.
\-6/ You gain an emblem with "Whenever a permanent would be destroyed, you may return it to its owner's hand instead."
[4]
Twilight Sanctuary
Legendary Land (R)
Twilight Sanctuary enters the battlefield tapped. T: Add 1W to your mana pool. GWU, T: Target permanent gains hexproof until end of turn and is indestructible this turn.
Whenever you or a creature you control becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, untap Twilight Sanctuary.
Sweet, I just squeezed through. Good luck to all for this round.
CodGodRUW
Creature - Human Avatar (M)
Whenever CodGod becomes the target of a spell or ability, put an 1/1 colourless Construct artifact creature token onto the battlefield, and change a target of that spell or ability to that creature.
0/2
Colours: I'm very driven by my emotions, and by a desire to learn. I try to follow rules in general, but will break them if I feel they're wrong - sometimes going out of my way to do so. I try to understand why a rule is in place before I draw conclusions about it. I believe that rules are important and that life would be much worse if people have them, but I don't venerate rules just for them being rules - if a particular rule holds us back more than it helps, it should be discarded. And I think rules shouldn't be applied completely hard and fast, but mitigated by emotional compassion and intellectual understanding of the circumstances.
Ability: I like redirection effects and weird interactions, and I love cards which have one effect, but which is applied in multiple ways - in this case, against opponent's spells the ability functions like a psudo hexproof, while working as a token generation engine with your own spells (or at least the beneficial ones). I love enemy colour pairs, and the wedge combinations even more so. I like tokens which aren't just creatures, because they interact with a wider variety of other cards, and also the tokens made sense as artifacts because I'm a computer programmer with a keen interest in AI and robotics.
I feel this ability isn't out of place here - white has a good history of token producing, and redirection is red/blue. But It could also could work in RGU - the other colour combination I think best fits me after RUW. I do have times where I care less about what the rules are and more about just finding my place in the world as it is. So in that way I feel it's doubly fitting for me, as it fits in either of the two colour combinations I most identify with.
Also, I know I have a tendency to become evasive when I feel threatened, and try to shift blame and/or aggression away from myself as an almost automatic response at times - although I do try to force myself to accept and admit when I am in fact at fault. And the ability works with that, as well as the fact that when I'm in over my head, I often rely on calling on my friends to come help me out.
Power and Toughness: I don't like to fight, and in all honesty probably wouldn't be very good at it, but feel I can at least take a small amount of punishment. And yes if I had the ability, I'd have robots do the fighting for me
Raging Reiforecements3WR
Sorcery (U)
Put three 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens into play. Each of those tokens deals damage equal to it's power to target creature or player.
I like cards which seem straightforward but offer way to enhance their effect by combining them with other cards. In this case, the card is designed to be reasonable by itself, but better if you have a glorious anthem or similar to pump the token with.
Machine Mastery1UW
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant Creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control. W: Return ~ to owner's hand.
Part of my avatar's design is it's interaction with auras - it removes card disadvantage by automatically shifting auras cast on it to their own token creature - thus preventing you losing two cards (creature and aura) to a single removal spell. So I've made an aura which works well with that ability - when cast on my avatar, it'll be automatically shunted onto a 1/1 token, making that token bigger for each friend it has. In addition, if you're low on tokens, you can just return it to hand and cast it again to generate a new one.
Repel the Unrighteous4WWW
Instant (R)
For each creature without flying attacking you, put a 2/2 white Knight creature token with first strike and protection from black and from red onto the battlefield.
I like my hosers to still have at least some use when opponents aren't playing those colours, so at it's very worst, this is a 7-mana fog that doesn't affect flyers.... Okay that's pretty bad, I'll admit. But luckily, it won't be at it's very worst most of the time. If any of the attacking creatures have 2 or less toughness, then the knights which kill those ones will survive to either defend another day, or attack on your turn. And if the opponent is playing black/red all those the tokens for attackers of those colours will hang around, ready to either block again turn after turn, or swing in revenge, with those colours not being able to block them.
This card fits me/my playstyle in four ways:
1) I like token creation effects (In case you hadn't picked that up from my previous cards)
2) I play almost exclusively multiplayer, and like cards which provide a disincentive to attacking me, so that other players will look elsewhere when deciding who to attack. After the first assault is blunted, leaving the knight tokens on defense will ensure any black/red creatures swing at other people rather than me.
3) I've been playing since Ice Age, and I like like when new cards make references to older cards (I loved Time spiral block). One I worked out the basics of the card, I had to add the first strike to the tokens as well so that they'd be Palladin en-Vec. It just wouldn't have felt right otherwise. This meant I had to increase the cost slightly, and makes it a less full-on hoser since that change makes it more useful against decks not running the hosed colours, but if I hadn't done it it wouldn't have felt like I'd been making a card which fit me nearly so much as it does now. And it's still much more effective against red/black decks than others, so I think it's still reasonably hoser-y.
4) I love EDH, and have a soft stop for big, expensive spells with splashy effects (I'm a Johnny-Timmy). They're not so useful in hardcore constructed tournaments, but that's not how I like to play the game.
SalmonDeity3BBG
Legendary Creature - Human Reflection
When SalmonDeity enters the battlefield, you may search target opponent's library for a number of nonland cards less than or equal to the total power of creatures you control and exile those cards. If you do, that player shuffles his or her library.
Spells with the same name as cards exiled by SalmonDeity cost an additional "Sacrifice a creature" to cast.
2/2 "Feel the might that opposes you... Let the fear of it drive you from sanity" - SalmonDeity
I don't tend to dislike strategies in general, as I think pretty much everything's fine in moderation. Counterspells, mill, discard, land destruction are all fine by me, provided you put that deck away for the next game and do something different. But I do have a certain dislike for having the ability to have ever tried to play my spells taken from me - I have a tendancy to make decks around one or two cards I think are cool (I have a Spellbound Dragon deck, for example, based pretty much entirely around Spellbound Dragons). I don't mind that someone's probably going to remove or counter my stuff if it looks like a threat, but pulling all of them out of the deck before I see them removes a lot of the fun.
I couldn't really decide whether it was worse to simply remove all copies of a thing or remove one and then stop others from being played, so to increase the versatility of the card, it can play both games - if you remove only one of each card, you prevent a lot more spells being cast, but lose that when he dies. If you take all copies of something you're not blocking further copies, but they won't have any even after he dies.
This card prevents other people from drawing the cards they want, or being able to even try to get them out. It picks on one opponent in a big way, where I prefer my nastiness to be able to be more evenly distributed, as I play multiplayer and prefer not to have one guy get all the pain and then sit there uselessly while the rest of the game finishes. The card punishes running random one-off interesting cards in favour of playsets, where I love throwing a couple of singleton cards int he deck to spice things up and add variety.
CodGod, Ludomancer2RWU
Planeswalker - CodGod (M)
[+1]: The next time you cast an aura apell this turn, you may put a 0/1 colourless artifact creature token onto the battlefield, then change that spell’s target to that creature.
[-X]: Put X 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens with "When this enters the battlefield, it deals damage equal to it's power to target creature or player" onto the battlefield.
[-7]: You get an emblem with "Whenever you or a permanent you control becomes the target of a spell or ability, you may change the target of that spell or ability".
[4]
Shia'ri, the Enchanted City
Legendary Land (R) T: Add W to your mana pool.
At the beginning of your end step, if you control no auras, return Shia'ri, the Enchanted City to it's owner's hand.
Auracycling 2(2, Discard this card from your hand: Discard this card: Search your library for an Aura card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.)
My avatar's ability has three purposes - it turns repeatable abilites like Ghitu War Cry in token producing machines, it negates the inherent card disadvantage of Auras by allowing them to be cast onto their own tokens, so you don't lose the aura and a creature card to a kill spell, and as a nice bonus it works as a sort of pseudo-shroud to protect my avatar from targeted spells and effects. Of these I think my favorite is the aura interaction, so my planeswalker takes that as it's first ability. I also referenced the spell redirection and pseudo-shroud of my avatar with the ultimate ability.
The second ability is a version of my round 2 card, fixed to work as intended, which I didn't get on the original in time for the round, and also made more versatile by varying the number of tokens you can produce - although I like that the planeswalker can drop at 4 loyalty, activate this ability for 3, mimicking the original, and survive.
For the record, "Ludomancer" I made up from the Latin word for play/games + mancer.
My land slots neatly into place in any aura deck, and can help out the planeswalker by fetching an aura out of your deck so you can get the benefit from the +1 ability. If it's out and all your aura's are destroyed, it pops back to your hand, where it can be cycled to find a new one - hopefully you have all the mana you need by this point, but of course it can't be all upside :P. It could also potentially be used in landfall decks a a repeated landfall trigger.
@CodGod: While your original ability doesn't work directly on a Planeswalker, your ability created a pseudo-Flagbearer token. I knew not all the abilities would work, which is why I stated that it doesn't have to be a straight port, so long as we can see the connection. Twilight Kiwi has almost the exact same "problem," but there are other ways to illustrate that type of effect.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
May your games be chaotic and your decks be Rogue.
@CodGod: While your original ability doesn't work directly on a Planeswalker, your ability created a pseudo-Flagbearer token. I knew not all the abilities would work, which is why I stated that it doesn't have to be a straight port, so long as we can see the connection. Twilight Kiwi has almost the exact same "problem," but there are other ways to illustrate that type of effect.
Don't get me wrong, I do realise that, and I wasn't trying to complain. I welcome the challenge of working out the best way to work the ability into something at sorcery speed.
PS: thanks for all your work running this thing, it's been really fun.
Mother of Gerrard(G/W)
Legendary Creature - Human Designer (M) (G/W)(G/W): Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn. You may target each creature only once each turn with this ability. A mother's love is strong enough to transcend barriers of space, time, and even species.
1/1
DeposeW
Sorcery (U)
Exile target creature if you control fewer creatures than that creature's controller. Rule with justice, and rule long. Rule with tyranny, and rule no more.
-Inscription on the Heartcrown of the Vaderan Kings
Spore Glands1G
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Whenever you activate an ability of enchanted creature, you may pay G. If you do, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield. Saprolings have developed unusual symbiotic relationships with many other creatures of the forest.
Shielding Vitality 3GW
Instant (R)
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to you this turn from nongreen, nonwhite sources. For each 1 damage prevented in this way, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
The Allmother3GW
Planeswalker - Allmother (M)
+1: For each loyalty counter on The Allmother, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
-1: Exile target permanent with converted mana cost equal to or less than the number of creatures you control.
-7: You get an emblem with "At the beginning of your upkeep, search your library for a creature card, put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library."
[3]
Wildhome
Legendary Land (R)
Tap an untapped creature you control, T: Add GW to your mana pool. GW: Put target creature you control on the bottom of its owner's library, then draw a card.
Maokun of a Thousand Skills :symg::symw::symu:
Legendary Creature - Human Rogue (M)
Vigilance
You play with your hand and the top card of your library revealed.
Maokun of a Thousand Skills has all activated abilities of nonplaneswalker permanents you control and nonplaneswalker permanent cards in your hand and on top of library.
1/3
Profitable BanishmentWU
Sorcery (U)
Exile target creature. That creature controller's draws a card.
Draw a card.
Alertness1
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature.
Enchanted creature has hexproof.
:symgu:, return Alertness to its owner's hand: Untap enchanted creature.
Discerning Justice1W
Instant (R)
Exile target permanent, then choose one - Return that permanent to the battlefield under its owner's control, or return that permanent to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the end step.
If that permanent is black or red, you may choose not to return it to the battlefield instead
Omanage, the Odious1BR
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (M) Imprint - When Omanage, the Odious enters the battlefield, look at target opponent's hand. Exile a nonland card from it.
Whenever that player casts a spell that shares a card type with the exiled card, Omanage deals 3 damage to him or her.
2/3.
After my humble beginning as a rogue, a thief of talents and through my adventures and perils, until ultimately facing the dark side of myself and embracing it, I realize the error of my ways: this power and these abilities, must be used to the betterment of the universe rather than my selfish whims. With this realization, I ascend...
Maokun, Gifted Benefactor1GWU
Planeswalker - Maokun
[+1]: Target creature you control gains any number of abilities from among other creatures on the battlefield until end of turn.
[-2]: Exile target creature. When Maokun, Gifted Benefactor leaves the battlefield, return all permanents exiled this way to the battlefield under their owners' control.
[-6]: You gain an emblem with "Creatures you control have hexproof and '1: Exile this creature. Return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.'"
[4]
My first act as a Planeswalker, is to create a lush paradise where my followers will be forever safe.
Cova, the Mangrove Haven
Legendary Land - Forest Island (R)
Cova, the Mangrove Haven enters the battlefield tapped.
Whenever a nontoken creature enters the battlefield under your control, you may untap Cova. 1:symgu::symgu:, T: Counter target spell or ability that targets a creature you control.
(small reminder that being a forest-island, the line "T: add G or U to your mana pool." is implied.)
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.
2) Design a Rare Legendary Land. This should be able to produce one or more of the colors of your Planeswalker, and should also have an activated ability that compliments one of the abilities of your Planeswalker (no Proliferate).
Do these have to be two separate abilities, or can the land have one activated ability which produces mana in one of the planeswalker's colours which also compliements one of the planeswalker's abilities?
ES: I'm pretty sure it mustn't. They added it on those because there was room, but not because is a formatting rule. See how it appears in italics between parentheses? That means is reminder text, which means that it doesn't need to appear in higher rarities, especially if there's little room for it and makes the card look cluttered.
See how basic lands don't need it. The rule goes that any land card with a basic land type, produces mana of the color associated to that basic land.
I'm calling it right now- worst rare in the set. Even good limited players will find better bombs at common and uncommon no sweat. Worst. Episode. Ever.
I really do predict this to be our worst rare in set award winner. I'd be happier opening a jar of eyeballs, so I think anything worse is highly unlikely. This card wont just have zero constructed potential, but not be significantly better than a mass of ghouls in a draft.
@Maokun: I never noticed that Tropical Island and its ilk have no Oracle text. Huh. Well, thanks for that. Greater awareness is something I strive for.
Just over 7 hours until the submissions should be locked in. Good luck to all.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
May your games be chaotic and your decks be Rogue.
Well, I make it past the end of the round, so I guess we start posting crits next. I'll hold of on doing so until Eventide Sojourner gives official word to start critting, but I've been doing all the copy-pasting to set up my crits for Round 1 of the August CCL, so I figured while I was doing so I'd go ahead and prepare my crit template again for the everyone here to use when we do our crits. If last-minute edits get made to any of the card before we get the official order to begin critting, I'll try to notice and edit them in, but feel free to let me know if you want to make sure I see them and copy the into the template.
Congrats to everyone for getting this far, and good luck for the rest of the contest
Round 0: CodGodRUW
Creature - Human Avatar (M)
Whenever CodGod becomes the target of a spell or ability, put an 1/1 colourless Construct artifact creature token onto the battlefield, and change a target of that spell or ability to that creature.
0/2
[I]Colours[/I]: I'm very driven by my emotions, and by a desire to learn. I try to follow rules in general, but will break them if I feel they're wrong - sometimes going out of my way to do so. I try to understand why a rule is in place before I draw conclusions about it. I believe that rules are important and that life would be much worse if people have them, but I don't venerate rules just for them being rules - if a particular rule holds us back more than it helps, it should be discarded. And I think rules shouldn't be applied completely hard and fast, but mitigated by emotional compassion and intellectual understanding of the circumstances.
[I]Ability[/I]: I like redirection effects and weird interactions, and I love cards which have one effect, but which is applied in multiple ways - in this case, against opponent's spells the ability functions like a psudo hexproof, while working as a token generation engine with your own spells (or at least the beneficial ones). I love enemy colour pairs, and the wedge combinations even more so. I like tokens which aren't just creatures, because they interact with a wider variety of other cards, and also the tokens made sense as artifacts because I'm a computer programmer with a keen interest in AI and robotics.
I feel this ability isn't out of place here - white has a good history of token producing, and redirection is red/blue. But It could also could work in RGU - the other colour combination I think best fits me after RUW. I do have times where I care less about what the rules are and more about just finding my place in the world as it is. So in that way I feel it's doubly fitting for me, as it fits in either of the two colour combinations I most identify with.
Also, I know I have a tendency to become evasive when I feel threatened, and try to shift blame and/or aggression away from myself as an almost automatic response at times - although I do try to force myself to accept and admit when I am in fact at fault. And the ability works with that, as well as the fact that when I'm in over my head, I often rely on calling on my friends to come help me out.
[I]Power and Toughness[/I]: I don't like to fight, and in all honesty probably wouldn't be very good at it, but feel I can at least take a small amount of punishment. And yes if I had the ability, I'd have robots do the fighting for me
Round 1: Raging Reiforecements3WR
Sorcery (U)
Put three 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens into play. Each of those tokens deals damage equal to it's power to target creature or player.
Round 2: Machine Mastery1UW
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant Creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control. W: Return ~ to owner's hand.
Round 3: Repel the Unrighteous4WWW
Instant (R)
For each creature without flying attacking you, put a 2/2 white Knight creature token with first strike and protection from black and from red onto the battlefield.
Round 4: SalmonDeity3BBG
Legendary Creature - Human Reflection
When SalmonDeity enters the battlefield, you may search target opponent's library for a number of nonland cards less than or equal to the total power of creatures you control and exile those cards. If you do, that player shuffles his or her library.
Spells with the same name as cards exiled by SalmonDeity cost an additional "Sacrifice a creature" to cast.
2/2
[I]"Feel the might that opposes you... Let the fear of it drive you from sanity" - SalmonDeity[/I]
CodGod, Ludomancer2RWU
Planeswalker - CodGod (M)
[+1]: The next time you cast an aura apell this turn, you may put a 0/1 colourless artifact creature token onto the battlefield, then change that spell’s target to that creature.
[-X]: Put X 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens with "When this enters the battlefield, it deals damage equal to it's power to target creature or player" onto the battlefield.
[-7]: You get an emblem with "Whenever you or a permanent you control becomes the target of a spell or ability, you may change the target of that spell or ability".
[4]
Shia'ri, the Enchanted City
Legendary Land (R) T: Add W to your mana pool.
At the beginning of your end step, if you control no auras, return Shia'ri, the Enchanted City to it's owner's hand.
Auracycling 2 [i](2, Discard this card from your hand: Discard this card: Search your library for an Aura card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.)[/i]
My avatar's ability has three purposes - it turns repeatable abilites like Ghitu War Cry in token producing machines, it negates the inherent card disadvantage of Auras by allowing them to be cast onto their own tokens, so you don't lose the aura and a creature card to a kill spell, and as a nice bonus it works as a sort of pseudo-shroud to protect my avatar from targeted spells and effects. Of these I think my favorite is the aura interaction, so my planeswalker takes that as it's first ability. I also referenced the spell redirection and pseudo-shroud of my avatar with the ultimate ability.
The second ability is a version of my round 2 card, fixed to work as intended, which I didn't get on the original in time for the round, and also made more versatile by varying the number of tokens you can produce - although I like that the planeswalker can drop at 4 loyalty, activate this ability for 3, mimicking the original, and survive.
For the record, "Ludomancer" I made up from the Latin word for play/games + mancer.
My land slots neatly into place in any aura deck, and can help out the planeswalker by fetching an aura out of your deck so you can get the benefit from the +1 ability. If it's out and all your aura's are destroyed, it pops back to your hand, where it can be cycled to find a new one - hopefully you have all the mana you need by this point, but of course it can't be all upside :P. It could also potentially be used in landfall decks a a repeated landfall trigger.
INSTER CRIT HERE
Round 0: Twilight KiwiRWU
Legendary Creature - Human Guardian (M)
Whenever a permanent or player becomes the target of a spell or ability, if you or Twilight Kiwi could be targeted by that spell or ability, you may pay 2. If you do, choose one - Redirect that spell or ability to you or Twilight Kiwi; or you may copy that spell or ability, and you or Twilight Kiwi must be a target of the copy.
1/3
Because someone asked. Within the context of Magic:
I feel red- and blue-flavored because I'm drawn to and entertained by the unnecessarily complicated, especially when a game devolves into the kind of crazy fun that stories are made of - there are a bajillion tokens on the board? Everytime I play a creature, a dozen different triggers go off? Someone just lost to a deck centered around One With Nothing? Sign me up! I care much less about winning often than I do about winning (or losing!) in interesting and different ways. I like to try new, less straightforward strategies rather than sticking to the same surefire ones all the time.
These two colors are tempered by white - I prefer multiplayer to duels, and more so than my other motivations, I care less about winning than I do about everyone having fun. I will help other players even when there's nothing in it for me if they're stuck in an annoying situation, and (red bleeding in a bit here) I'll take risky moves to break a stale game state even if it means leaving myself vulnerable. If one of my weird decks seems unfun for others to play against, I won't use it very often. I am definitely not a poor loser or winner (and I try not to give my opponents the opportunity to do either if they seem inclined to). Blue bleeds into the white part of me here - after a game I will try to offer what constructive advice or comments I can, and will eagerly take any another player has to give me. I have a vested interest in helping my opponents improve and improving myself, because when everyone is a better player, games become more challenging, interesting, and fun.
Round 1: Diplomatic Solution1W
Sorcery (U)
Target player chooses a creature you don't control. Exile that creature.
[I]"I'm certain we can reach a compromise that serves everyone's best interests."
- Lioka, Grand Ambassadrix
[I]Art: A council room filled with bureaucrats who, by their attire, are obviously from different nations; one of their number seems to be arguing heatedly about something and pointing an accusing finger at another. An impassive-looking council member stands between them.[/I]
Round 2: Hound Umbra1W
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1.
Whenever a creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, if Hound Umbra is in your graveyard, you may pay 1W. If you do, return it to the battlefield enchanting that creature.
Totem armor
Round 3: Dawn's Light1W
Instant (R)
Whenever a nonblack creature becomes the target of a spell or ability this turn, it's indestructible this turn.
Whenever a black creature becomes the target of a spell or ability this turn, exile it.
[I]"The welcoming warmth of the Light is a harsh, burning glare to those who thrive in the shadows."
- Lumaros, the Resplendent[/I]
Round 4: Kiwi, the Closed Circle3BG
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (M)
Whenever a creature an opponent controls is dealt combat damage, its controller sacrifices it.
The first time a card goes to a graveyard from anywhere each turn, you may put that card on top of its controller's library instead.
2/2
Kiwi, Twilight Guardian1GWU
Planeswalker - Kiwi (M)
/+1\ Until the beginning of your next upkeep, target player and permanents he or she controls can't be the target of spells or abilities you don't control.
\-2/ Choose a player. Until the beginning of your next upkeep, spells and abilities must target that player or permanents he or she controls if able, and creatures must attack that player or planeswalkers he or she controls if able.
\-6/ You gain an emblem with "Whenever a permanent would be destroyed, you may return it to its owner's hand instead."
[4]
Twilight Sanctuary
Legendary Land (R)
Twilight Sanctuary enters the battlefield tapped. T: Add 1W to your mana pool. GWU, T: Target permanent gains hexproof until end of turn and is indestructible this turn.
Whenever you or a creature you control becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, untap Twilight Sanctuary.
INSTER CRIT HERE
Round 0: Mother of Gerrard(G/W)
Legendary Creature - Human Designer (M) (G/W)(G/W): Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn. You may target each creature only once each turn with this ability.
[I]A mother's love is strong enough to transcend barriers of space, time, and even species.[/I]
1/1
Seems like as good a time as any to repeat my "origin story:" Gerrard's Mom is the nickname friends and I had given to Ramirez DePietro because of the similarity to Gerrard Capashen's art and the fact that the Italian copy of DePietro made the gender somewhat unclear. I'm not any kind of mother, or female even, but it's been a fun forum identity. I am pretty supportive though, both in Magic where I am always trying to get my play group to do things better (casting in Main Phase B!) and in non-gaming life, where I'm currently teaching Japanese. The restriction on the ability was mostly inspired by Rootwalla stuff, but I do prefer to help a bunch of people in turn instead of one person forever. It used to be 2/2 and give +2/+2, but I didn't think that was mythic enough, so I added an ability to make non-creatures lose abilities, reflecting my ability to question and critique, but Eventide says only one ability, so I'll go with this. I guess I'll have to go 1/1 also, definitely not physically a 3/3. On the current Wizards logic that Watchwolf could be mostly outdone (there is the legendary drawback) by a mythic the same way that Baneslayer Angel outdoes Serra Angel.
Round 1: DeposeW
Sorcery (U)
Exile target creature if you control fewer creatures than that creature's controller.
[I]Rule with justice, and rule long. Rule with tyranny, and rule no more.
-Inscription on the Heartcrown of the Vaderan Kings[/I]
Round 2: Spore Glands1G
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Whenever you activate an ability of enchanted creature, you may pay G. If you do, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
[I]Saprolings have developed unusual symbiotic relationships with many other creatures of the forest.[/I]
Round 3: Shielding Vitality 3GW
Instant (R)
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to you this turn from nongreen, nonwhite sources. For each 1 damage prevented in this way, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
Round 4: Mother of Vuel2UBR
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor (M)
If a card would be put into an opponent's graveyard from a zone other than the battlefield, exile that card instead.
You may play cards exiled with Mother of Vuel.
2/4
Thanks Phyrexian Editor, it does appear that the wording requires me to use red as well. Truth be told, I may prefer red to white in many cases, what I like least is the sneakiness and trickery of blue and black, but I guess red occasionally has aspects of that as well. This card lets you steal cards which you mill (UB), discard (B), or counter (U), and also any instants or sorceries that opponents play (UR). My avatar shows how I prefer to win through creature combat; coming out with a good curve, buffing/protecting your creatures, straight beatdown. My card for this round cares about everything but the battlefield, the antithesis of that strategy, and it is particularly good with counterspells, which are probably my least favorite major mechanic to face.
The Allmother3GW
Planeswalker - Allmother (M)
+1: For each loyalty counter on The Allmother, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
-1: Exile target permanent with converted mana cost equal to or less than the number of creatures you control.
-7: You get an emblem with "At the beginning of your upkeep, search your library for a creature card, put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library."
[3]
Wildhome
Legendary Land (R)
Tap an untapped creature you control, T: Add GW to your mana pool. GW: Put target creature you control on the bottom of its owner's library, then draw a card.
INSTER CRIT HERE
Round 0: Maokun of a Thousand Skills :symg::symw::symu:
Legendary Creature - Human Rogue (M)
Vigilance
You play with your hand and the top card of your library revealed.
Maokun of a Thousand Skills has all activated abilities of nonplaneswalker permanents you control and nonplaneswalker permanent cards in your hand and on top of library.
1/3
Round 1: Profitable BanishmentWU
Sorcery (U)
Exile target creature. That creature controller's draws a card.
Draw a card.
Round 2: Alertness1
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature.
Enchanted creature has hexproof.
:symgu:, return Alertness to its owner's hand: Untap enchanted creature.
Round 3: Discerning Justice1W
Instant (R)
Exile target permanent, then choose one - Return that permanent to the battlefield under its owner's control, or return that permanent to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the end step.
If that permanent is black or red, you may choose not to return it to the battlefield instead.
Round 4: Omanage, the Odious1BR
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (M)
[I]Imprint[/I] - When Omanage, the Odious enters the battlefield, look at target opponent's hand. Exile a nonland card from it.
Whenever that player casts a spell that shares a card type with the exiled card, Omanage deals 3 damage to him or her.
2/3
After my humble beginning as a rogue, a thief of talents and through my adventures and perils, until ultimately facing the dark side of myself and embracing it, I realize the error of my ways: this power and these abilities, must be used to the betterment of the universe rather than my selfish whims. With this realization, I ascend...
Maokun, Gifted Benefactor1GWU
Planeswalker - Maokun
[+1]: Target creature you control gains any number of abilities from among other creatures on the battlefield until end of turn.
[-2]: Exile target creature. When Maokun, Gifted Benefactor leaves the battlefield, return all permanents exiled this way to the battlefield under their owners' control.
[-6]: You gain an emblem with "Creatures you control have hexproof and '1: Exile this creature. Return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.'"
[4]
My first act as a Planeswalker, is to create a lush paradise where my followers will be forever safe.
Cova, the Mangrove Haven
Legendary Land - Forest Island (R)
Cova, the Mangrove Haven enters the battlefield tapped.
Whenever a nontoken creature enters the battlefield under your control, you may untap Cova. 1:symgu::symgu:, T: Counter target spell or ability that targets a creature you control.
(small reminder that being a forest-island, the line "T: add G or U to your mana pool." is implied.)
Kiwi Walker: I'm not sure when you would want to use the first ability on anyone but yourself, and it's a lot worse than Leyline of Sanctity since it gives them a window to hit you with instants every turn. The second ability is a lot more interesting, but I feel like it should include some red for some reason, and both of the first two are pretty bad outside of multiplayer. I'm not sure why the emblem triggers on destroying, not being put into a graveyard, and it's really reactive, but I can see uses.
Land: I have no idea why this produces an extra colorless. The last ability feels very tacked on for walker interaction, I would have cut that or the activated ability.
CodGod
Walker: Aw, I was going to be impressive by knowing the root of Ludomancer, but you gave it away in your notes. Giving your auras Living Weapon is a really strange thing for a walker to do as an activated ability, I think this should just be a trigger on an enchantment or creature. The second ability is cool, but has nothing blue in it, and producing two different kinds of tokens is weird. Like Kiwi, your ultimate is really reactive, preventing you from losing instead of really helping you win.
Land: Interesting question of how much it should cost to search for an Aura. I guess less than Idyllic Tutor makes sense, but any color is a little suspect. Any deck with even a minor Aura theme should probably run 4 of these, since multiples are not a problem.
Maokun
Walker: No real need for green here. I don't know how the first ability works when it can get any ability, not just activated abilities or keywords or whatever, I'm sure there's something broken to do with it. The second ability is great for a white planeswalker. The emblem here is a little bizarre, I guess it can help you win if the deck is built right, but I don't like that the last ability likes ETB triggers, while the first one doesn't do much for them.
Land: This has two really powerful abilities, like Kiwi's, I don't see the connection between the untap effect and the activated ability, and the activated ability becomes useless after your ultimate.
1. CodGod - Land is by far the best of the three, even though I only like the 2nd ability of the walker.
2. Maokun - 2nd walker ability is the best among all three walkers.
3. Twilight Kiwi - It has my favorite ultimate, but I thought the land was awkward and the walker colors seemed odd.
Round 0: Twilight KiwiRWU
Legendary Creature - Human Guardian (M)
Whenever a permanent or player becomes the target of a spell or ability, if you or Twilight Kiwi could be targeted by that spell or ability, you may pay 2. If you do, choose one - Redirect that spell or ability to you or Twilight Kiwi; or you may copy that spell or ability, and you or Twilight Kiwi must be a target of the copy.
1/3
Because someone asked. Within the context of Magic:
I feel red- and blue-flavored because I'm drawn to and entertained by the unnecessarily complicated, especially when a game devolves into the kind of crazy fun that stories are made of - there are a bajillion tokens on the board? Everytime I play a creature, a dozen different triggers go off? Someone just lost to a deck centered around One With Nothing? Sign me up! I care much less about winning often than I do about winning (or losing!) in interesting and different ways. I like to try new, less straightforward strategies rather than sticking to the same surefire ones all the time.
These two colors are tempered by white - I prefer multiplayer to duels, and more so than my other motivations, I care less about winning than I do about everyone having fun. I will help other players even when there's nothing in it for me if they're stuck in an annoying situation, and (red bleeding in a bit here) I'll take risky moves to break a stale game state even if it means leaving myself vulnerable. If one of my weird decks seems unfun for others to play against, I won't use it very often. I am definitely not a poor loser or winner (and I try not to give my opponents the opportunity to do either if they seem inclined to). Blue bleeds into the white part of me here - after a game I will try to offer what constructive advice or comments I can, and will eagerly take any another player has to give me. I have a vested interest in helping my opponents improve and improving myself, because when everyone is a better player, games become more challenging, interesting, and fun.
Round 1: Diplomatic Solution1W
Sorcery (U)
Target player chooses a creature you don't control. Exile that creature.
[I]"I'm certain we can reach a compromise that serves everyone's best interests."
- Lioka, Grand Ambassadrix
[I]Art: A council room filled with bureaucrats who, by their attire, are obviously from different nations; one of their number seems to be arguing heatedly about something and pointing an accusing finger at another. An impassive-looking council member stands between them.[/I]
Round 2: Hound Umbra1W
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1.
Whenever a creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, if Hound Umbra is in your graveyard, you may pay 1W. If you do, return it to the battlefield enchanting that creature.
Totem armor
Round 3: Dawn's Light1W
Instant (R)
Whenever a nonblack creature becomes the target of a spell or ability this turn, it's indestructible this turn.
Whenever a black creature becomes the target of a spell or ability this turn, exile it.
[I]"The welcoming warmth of the Light is a harsh, burning glare to those who thrive in the shadows."
- Lumaros, the Resplendent[/I]
Round 4: Kiwi, the Closed Circle3BG
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (M)
Whenever a creature an opponent controls is dealt combat damage, its controller sacrifices it.
The first time a card goes to a graveyard from anywhere each turn, you may put that card on top of its controller's library instead.
2/2
Kiwi, Twilight Guardian1GWU
Planeswalker - Kiwi (M)
/+1\ Until the beginning of your next upkeep, target player and permanents he or she controls can't be the target of spells or abilities you don't control.
\-2/ Choose a player. Until the beginning of your next upkeep, spells and abilities must target that player or permanents he or she controls if able, and creatures must attack that player or planeswalkers he or she controls if able.
\-6/ You gain an emblem with "Whenever a permanent would be destroyed, you may return it to its owner's hand instead."
[4]
Twilight Sanctuary
Legendary Land (R)
Twilight Sanctuary enters the battlefield tapped. T: Add 1W to your mana pool. GWU, T: Target permanent gains hexproof until end of turn and is indestructible this turn.
Whenever you or a creature you control becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, untap Twilight Sanctuary.
Was initially puzzled by the first ability being able to target others, but then I realised that you can prevent them from using pump/protective spells on their guys, or targeted draw/lifegain on themselves. And it's a wonderful political tool in multiplayer. I like that versatility, and also the way it mirrors the second ability - "target player can't target themselves" to "target player must be targeted by everyone". Both will lead to lots of fun in big multiplayer games, and I love that. I don't like that you seem to have worded the second ability so that you target them without technically targeting them - you're throwing around enough shroud/hexproof yourself, you should let theirs help them if they have it. But that's only a minor issue, and I'm not sure if it was intentional. I'm not that much a fan of the ultimate, because it seems to me like it's just not impressive or powerful enough. It doesn't feel like it's going to be worth using all that often - I'd have loved to have it trigger on when things were targeted rather than destroyed (a sort of mega- Cowardice) since that would fit with the targeting theme of the rest of the card, and also made it possible to use the ultimate offensively to some extent. I think the third ability is the weak point of this card, but the first two are definitely strong points, so that's not so bad all up.
I can see the spirit of your avatar's redirection in the first two abilities of the planeswalker, but I'm a bit lost as to which of your other previous cards you're trying to go on here. The totem armor on your aura and the indestructible-granting of your hoser both prevent destruction, which I suppose is a bit similar to your ultimate, but both of them trigger on targeting, and neither of them bounce things, so I'm not sure if that's it. I guess I don't think you did a particularly good job of incorporating another of your previous cards beyond your avatar, because if the connection is there it's not clear to me.
Your land is nuts. Legendary and starting tapped don't justify a land which taps for 2 mana every turn, with no other drawback. This should just tap for W.
The land is supposed to have an activated ability that compliments the walker, but this doesn't feel like it's filling that role too well. Your activated ability makes something hexproof and indestructible, but your walker can already make things hexproof, so that seems to be redundant. I guess it can protect the things you want to save if you use the planeswalker's -2 ability on yourself, but why would you? I can see there'll be some situations where the planeswalker limits their options and then you can use the land to limit them further, but it feels like the planeswalker is making the land redundant rather than the two complimenting each other. There are definitely some complimentary interactions between the two, but it seems to me that there are more where it doesn't feel complimentary, so while you meet the requirement, I think you could have done a better job here. All in all, I like the planeswalker much more than the land.
Round 0: Mother of Gerrard(G/W)
Legendary Creature - Human Designer (M) (G/W)(G/W): Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn. You may target each creature only once each turn with this ability.
[I]A mother's love is strong enough to transcend barriers of space, time, and even species.[/I]
1/1
Seems like as good a time as any to repeat my "origin story:" Gerrard's Mom is the nickname friends and I had given to Ramirez DePietro because of the similarity to Gerrard Capashen's art and the fact that the Italian copy of DePietro made the gender somewhat unclear. I'm not any kind of mother, or female even, but it's been a fun forum identity. I am pretty supportive though, both in Magic where I am always trying to get my play group to do things better (casting in Main Phase B!) and in non-gaming life, where I'm currently teaching Japanese. The restriction on the ability was mostly inspired by Rootwalla stuff, but I do prefer to help a bunch of people in turn instead of one person forever. It used to be 2/2 and give +2/+2, but I didn't think that was mythic enough, so I added an ability to make non-creatures lose abilities, reflecting my ability to question and critique, but Eventide says only one ability, so I'll go with this. I guess I'll have to go 1/1 also, definitely not physically a 3/3. On the current Wizards logic that Watchwolf could be mostly outdone (there is the legendary drawback) by a mythic the same way that Baneslayer Angel outdoes Serra Angel.
Round 1: DeposeW
Sorcery (U)
Exile target creature if you control fewer creatures than that creature's controller.
[I]Rule with justice, and rule long. Rule with tyranny, and rule no more.
-Inscription on the Heartcrown of the Vaderan Kings[/I]
Round 2: Spore Glands1G
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Whenever you activate an ability of enchanted creature, you may pay G. If you do, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
[I]Saprolings have developed unusual symbiotic relationships with many other creatures of the forest.[/I]
Round 3: Shielding Vitality 3GW
Instant (R)
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to you this turn from nongreen, nonwhite sources. For each 1 damage prevented in this way, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
Round 4: Mother of Vuel2UBR
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor (M)
If a card would be put into an opponent's graveyard from a zone other than the battlefield, exile that card instead.
You may play cards exiled with Mother of Vuel.
2/4
Thanks Phyrexian Editor, it does appear that the wording requires me to use red as well. Truth be told, I may prefer red to white in many cases, what I like least is the sneakiness and trickery of blue and black, but I guess red occasionally has aspects of that as well. This card lets you steal cards which you mill (UB), discard (B), or counter (U), and also any instants or sorceries that opponents play (UR). My avatar shows how I prefer to win through creature combat; coming out with a good curve, buffing/protecting your creatures, straight beatdown. My card for this round cares about everything but the battlefield, the antithesis of that strategy, and it is particularly good with counterspells, which are probably my least favorite major mechanic to face.
The Allmother3GW
Planeswalker - Allmother (M)
+1: For each loyalty counter on The Allmother, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
-1: Exile target permanent with converted mana cost equal to or less than the number of creatures you control.
-7: You get an emblem with "At the beginning of your upkeep, search your library for a creature card, put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library."
[3]
Wildhome
Legendary Land (R)
Tap an untapped creature you control, T: Add GW to your mana pool. GW: Put target creature you control on the bottom of its owner's library, then draw a card.
I think this is my favourite walker design ever, including actual printed walkers. I love that it actually has two ultimates - in that by the time you have 7 loyalty to pop the last ability the first ability has gotten to the point that it's legitimately scary on it's own, and the second will be able to hit pretty much anything. So you can chose how to use it based on what you need when/if you get the loyalty that high. Keying the size of the effect of the number of loyalty counters works really well here, I love it. It seems to be reasonably balanced as well, and you didn't forget to give it some inbuilt way to protect itself from attackers, which is important on a walker which needs to charge up for as many turns as this does.
However, while I love the design, it doesn't seem to meet the challenge very well. I can see you round 1 sorcery in the second ability, and the saprolings link back to your cards from rounds 2 and 3, but we were specifically required to incorporate our round 0 submissions, and I don't see your avatar in this at all. Perhaps you've made some subtle connection I'm missing (let me know if so), but I can't see any real link there.
As for Wildhome, I'm quite surprised that name hasn't been taken already by an actual card, because it's a good one. The mana ability seems balanced to me - it's basically a land with attached Springleaf Drum, which seems fine. The 'tuck' ability is cool - I love the interaction with the planeswalker's emblem, and there's enough other creature-tutor effects out there that there's other cards it can play nicely with as well. I think you really nailed this half of the challenge, well done.
Round 0: Maokun of a Thousand Skills :symg::symw::symu:
Legendary Creature - Human Rogue (M)
Vigilance
You play with your hand and the top card of your library revealed.
Maokun of a Thousand Skills has all activated abilities of nonplaneswalker permanents you control and nonplaneswalker permanent cards in your hand and on top of library.
1/3
Round 1: Profitable BanishmentWU
Sorcery (U)
Exile target creature. That creature controller's draws a card.
Draw a card.
Round 2: Alertness1
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature.
Enchanted creature has hexproof.
:symgu:, return Alertness to its owner's hand: Untap enchanted creature.
Round 3: Discerning Justice1W
Instant (R)
Exile target permanent, then choose one - Return that permanent to the battlefield under its owner's control, or return that permanent to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the end step.
If that permanent is black or red, you may choose not to return it to the battlefield instead.
Round 4: Omanage, the Odious1BR
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (M)
[I]Imprint[/I] - When Omanage, the Odious enters the battlefield, look at target opponent's hand. Exile a nonland card from it.
Whenever that player casts a spell that shares a card type with the exiled card, Omanage deals 3 damage to him or her.
2/3
After my humble beginning as a rogue, a thief of talents and through my adventures and perils, until ultimately facing the dark side of myself and embracing it, I realize the error of my ways: this power and these abilities, must be used to the betterment of the universe rather than my selfish whims. With this realization, I ascend...
Maokun, Gifted Benefactor1GWU
Planeswalker - Maokun
[+1]: Target creature you control gains any number of abilities from among other creatures on the battlefield until end of turn.
[-2]: Exile target creature. When Maokun, Gifted Benefactor leaves the battlefield, return all permanents exiled this way to the battlefield under their owners' control.
[-6]: You gain an emblem with "Creatures you control have hexproof and '1: Exile this creature. Return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.'"
[4]
My first act as a Planeswalker, is to create a lush paradise where my followers will be forever safe.
Cova, the Mangrove Haven
Legendary Land - Forest Island (R)
Cova, the Mangrove Haven enters the battlefield tapped.
Whenever a nontoken creature enters the battlefield under your control, you may untap Cova. 1:symgu::symgu:, T: Counter target spell or ability that targets a creature you control.
(small reminder that being a forest-island, the line "T: add G or U to your mana pool." is implied.)
That first ability seems like it could be broken in the right deck. Even Experiment Kraj only takes activated abilities, and you have to untap with him(/her/it) to start pulling that off a lot of the time. There will be situations where you just drop this guy and win on the spot off that ability because you set yourself up with a Wall of Blood and a Ghitu Fire-Eater. Okay, probably some other combo which is in the colours of your walker, but I picked that because I managed to think of that one in about 10 seconds (plus, admittedly, a bit longer to find out the fire-eater's actual name. I can't make autocard links for "that guy that taps and sacs to hit something for it's power" :P). That won't be the only situation where the first ability lets you combine abilities together in a way that can win, or nearly win, the game on the spot. I know you had to incorporate the abilities of your avatar, but this strikes me as needing to be a - ability on the planeswalker, and you needed a less powerful + ability - maybe untapping (up to) one creature, as a riff on your aura?
(EDIT: I accept that I probably overreacted to how powerful this is, but I maintain it would need a lot of testing to be safe, and I still think it shouldn't be a + ability because of how swingy it is/can be.)
That said, I like the rest of the walker, including the current second ability, fine. It's just the first one which seems too good. You do have to build around it to break it, but it can be broken. The emblem is less protective than, say, Elspeth's, but you can get it much sooner, so that seems right to me. I like that the flicker effect can be used to repeat enters-the-battlefield effects of your creatures, as well as to help them dodge removal.
I think your land is a bit too good. Having the basic land types is really useful, since it lets it be tutored for easily, especially when one of those types is forest. The countering seems fairly costed if taken on it's own, but is another good ability on the land, and combined with the basic types and being able to untap when you play a creature I think this needed more than just being legendary and starting tapped to be balanced. That untap could be really useful in an elf deck of something where you could play multiple creatures in a turn - it's like a significantly better Tangleroot, and that cost three mana. I like the idea of the countering ability, but it feels weird being able to do it in mono-green. I think granting hexproof would have felt better as something in both blue and green, and would have the same effect in many cases. I guess it's supposed to help protect the ubercreature you make by stacking all the abilities using the planeswalker's first ability? I would have preferred to see a more direct interaction with the planeswalker's abilities, but that does work fine. Some really cool cards, all in all, but I think pushing the power level a bit too far.
1: Maokun
I maintain the land is too powerful, but you did a great job of meeting the challenge for the round, and I liked the ideas behind the designs for the most part - just had issues with details of the implementation. Loved the walker ultimate. 2: Gerrard's Mom
Really good cards in a vacuum, but I didn't feel they fit the challenge quite as well as Maokun. I had a tough time making the call of which of you to give first place to, but I have to make a judgement call one way of the other. 3: TwilightKiwi
You didn't do badly, I just felt the others did a bit better.
Hmm, I guess I read "incorporate" to mean "I would want to play those two cards together." I had pump in at one point, but it was too close to original Garruk, so I cut it. If it's worth anything, I initially had an exiling ability on my avatar, but it got cut too. Everything worked together in my head, but it may not have come out connected in the cards; judge as you will
While I probably didn't think carefully of my planeswalker's first ability's risk I'd like to posit that to do something really broken you need at the very very least: 2 specific creatures, and the walker, who's three-colored. If you think that the game-winning Twin-Exarch combo that uses only two cards in two colors, can be pulled off in turn 3 and protects itself (the exarch tap the mana source or permanent with tap ability you'd use to stop the combo next turn) and it exists in standard and no one bats an eyelash, I don't think that my Planeswalker will be that efficient.
@Memnarch: the land has an untap ability because, like the rest of my cards, it's meant to be played in a "blink" deck. Meaning that you could tap the land for mana during your turn, and when a blinked dude returns at the end of turn, it would untap and be ready to counter spells the next turn.
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.
While I probably didn't think carefully of my planeswalker's first ability's risk I'd like to posit that to do something really broken you need at the very very least: 2 specific creatures, and the walker, who's three-colored. If you think that the game-winning Twin-Exarch combo that uses only two cards in two colors, can be pulled off in turn 3 and protects itself (the exarch tap the mana source or permanent with tap ability you'd use to stop the combo next turn) and it exists in standard and no one bats an eyelash, I don't think that my Planeswalker will be that efficient.
I guess what I'm worried about is the potential for you to not need specific creatures - rather a combination of say, something with evasion or damage dealing and something with the ability to get larger quickly, or something which taps for mana and something which untaps for a cost, such that you could stand a good chance of pulling something off which if it doesn't win is at least very powerful just by getting a few of your toolbox of various creatures out and having some which interact really well. There are so many abilities that it seems like this might be a possibility. I do like the idea of the ability, but planeswalker loyalty increase abilities tend to be things which just advance you a little bit without being big or swingy, and I don't think this ability fits there - which is why I suggested it might have been better as a second ability. I'll admit I might have overreacted initially, but I still think while it's (probably) not too broken, it's too swingy for a + ability.
In looking at it again, however, I've noticed a flaw in the ability - it requires a target creature, so if you control no creatures there's no way to gain loyalty. It would be better to have said "up to one" like Tezzeret the Seeker does to avoid this and allow you to still gain loyalty if there are no targets - although that's only a minor issue, really.
@Gerrard's Mom - I think I can understand where you're coming from a bit better now, thanks. Also, you're right, I have no idea what I was thinking with the auracycling cost, it should have been 1W not 2. My bad.
On the making two different tokens thing I can cite the new Garruk as precedent (admittedly, his are more different than mine, but I was trying to make sure I was incorporating my cards mechanically, and most of my cards this month made different kinds of tokens). I feel confidant that my sorcery from round 1 is the best card I've designed in the contest this month, so I felt I had to include (and fix) it, and incorporating my avatar meant using the construct tokens. I suppose I could have changed that ability to also use soldiers (wouldn't work the other way because they need power for the second ability) but I didn't think of it at the time, and I felt that might have made the mechanical link to my avatar a bit hard to see - it's already had to be cut down to just a part of it to work on a planeswalker.
In fact, I purposefully made it so the first ability targets, to balance the walker a bit (especially because his -2 can be quite devastating if activated more than once without making him leave the battlefield.) So yeah, you need a creature to be able to raise his loyalty.
Critique times were had!
Twilight Kiwi:
Planeswalker - It took me a while to figure this guy really serves a higher purpose in multiplayer. In duels he's kind of wasted and not very good. His ultimate, however is no good anywhere. For 6 hard-earned loyalty you get the ability to recast your guys when they die... and your opponents as well? Not only by that point you should be getting a game-winning ultimate; it also should not benefit your opponents.
Land - I only now see how similar were your entry and mine. While quite different technically, in practice they do almost the same, so I cannot find much fault to it, except that I don't think it should produce two mana. A land with so many powerful abilities should keep the mana production simple.
Codgod:
Planeswalker - While I like the ideas in your planeswalker, it kind of rubs me the wrong way that "caring about auras" that came from nowhere, an ability that I believe should be GW. Also, the ultimate may be too busted; the only other ultimates more throw-your-hat-in-disgust-and-scoop I can think of are Nicol Bolas' and Karn's which are the most expensive PWs yet. If it had said "the first time in a turn" I'd have loved it to bits.
Land - Again the unexpected aura theme crops up :/ Nothing in your past submissions hinted that you cared about auras, except that one aura card that was required from everyone. Anyway, it doesn't feel splashy enough to be legendary, especially since the return-to-hand is mandatory, becoming a bad drawback in the first turns.
Gerrard's Mom:
Planeswalker: I really, really like the ideas behind the first and second abilities. However! I strongly suspect that starting with loyalty 3 (yielding 4 tokens the turn you cast it, 5 next and basically exiling whatever you want from then on, if you haven't won with Overrun, anyway,) is way too powerful. I think for these abilities she needs to cost 3 mana and start with 1 loyalty -which is okay, at the speed she diarrhea's tokens she's basically impervious to combat damage. The ultimate, is easily the most balanced and fun in the round.
Land: Sometimes its mana ability will be fabulous, sometimes it will screw you horribly. Its second ability, however is so good that you'll want to brave the possible screw.
1. Gerrard's Mom, the clear winner in my opinion.
2. CodGod. Good cards but kind of failed in feeling like a continuation of the previous rounds.
3. Twilight Kiwi. Good and worthy cards of being in the semifinals but ultimately fail to excite, especially the PW.
I'm calling it right now- worst rare in the set. Even good limited players will find better bombs at common and uncommon no sweat. Worst. Episode. Ever.
I really do predict this to be our worst rare in set award winner. I'd be happier opening a jar of eyeballs, so I think anything worse is highly unlikely. This card wont just have zero constructed potential, but not be significantly better than a mass of ghouls in a draft.
I'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.
Codgod:
Planeswalker - While I like the ideas in your planeswalker, it kind of rubs me the wrong way that "caring about auras" that came from nowhere, an ability that I believe should be GW. Also, the ultimate may be too busted; the only other ultimates more throw-your-hat-in-disgust-and-scoop I can think of are Nicol Bolas' and Karn's which are the most expensive PWs yet. If it had said "the first time in a turn" I'd have loved it to bits.
Land - Again the unexpected aura theme crops up :/ Nothing in your past submissions hinted that you cared about auras, except that one aura card that was required from everyone. Anyway, it doesn't feel splashy enough to be legendary, especially since the return-to-hand is mandatory, becoming a bad drawback in the first turns.
It wasn't explicit, but the fact it gave out tokens to auras to prevent card disadvantage is my favorite part of my Avatar card, and that's where it came from. Initially I mainly wanted it to turn cards like Ghitu War Cry into token producers, and the aura thing was a nice bonus - but the more I thought about it as the round went on, the more it became my favourite part of the card - I've always loved auras, and like ways to reduce their inherit card disadvantage. The aura card I made was specifically made to interact with the shifting-onto-a-token ability. So while the planeswalker doesn't do all the things my avatar did, it does one of them, and the ability did come from there. And moving the repeatable-abilities-into-tokens thing into a way which worked on a planeswalker required lots of text - I tried mocking it up in MSE and it was a tiny font. I felt this was the better part of the effect to move onto a planeswalker. As for the colours, while white and green care about auras, shifting them onto other creatures is predominately blue.
The ultimate requires 3 turns of using the +1 before you can pop it on the 4th turn, and I was judging the power level based on Elspeth, Knight-Errant. Your things can still die to mass removal and edict effects, and you can still be attacked - the emblem doesn't even help you keep your blockers around, unlike Elspeth's. I really don't see how it's broken.
Oh I did say that I liked the idea. What I didn't like was that it's a totally different theme that you introduced in this round and basically became the main point of your submission.
As for the ultimate, in a vacuum it may seem to have holes for your opponent to recover, but in reality, you'll have a wall to stop his attackers and a counterspell to stop his mass removal. As GM said, it doesn't win you the game but it prevents you from losing it, making it a frustrating and pointless effort for your opponent. I personally would only NOT scoop to that ultimate if at that time both your hand and side of the board are empty.
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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Round 5/Top 4: Mind/Yourself
Y = Total number of Possible Points (3 * Number of Judges + Additional Points)
What Has Gone Before
Round 0: Be Yourself
Round 1: Channel Yourself
Round 2: Steel Yourself
Round 3: Indulge Yourself
Round 4/Top 8: Face Yourself
Top 4
CodGod
Gerrard's Mom
Maokun
Twilight Kiwi
The Narrative
As you prepare to launch a counterstrike against your dark reflection, it lunges forward, pouring itself into you. Your cerebellum flares as a myriad of possibilities race through your consciousness, awakening dreams long buried and solutions to ideas once thought improbable. Your eyes fill with light, and you instinctively know that the light is from within, not without. Your mind continues racing, and the world around you shatters as the stream of concepts becomes overwhelming.
You awaken, floating in a void of brilliant colors. You can make out three other shapes in the void, each roughly the same distance from yourself. As your awareness increases, a name springs unbidden to your mind: Blind Eternities. You're in the Blind Eternities. You're a freaking Planeswalker! While the hows and whys are a little baffling, right now you also need to get your feet on solid ground. There hasn't been a great deal written about the Blind Eternities, but staying too long was never recommended. Not sure if you can return home, you think of a safe place, one where you can recover while you decide what to do next. You focus your energies, and feel yourself start to shift...
The Challenges
1) Design a Mythic Rare Planeswalker with three abilities, incorporating your Round 0 submission and at least one of your other submissions from Rounds 1-3. The abilities do not need to be a direct lift, but the link should be visible. The colors of your Planeswalker should be based off your Round 0 submission. However, you may change your colors in the following fashion, should you so choose.
A) If your Legend was two colors, you may either change one of those colors, or add a third color.
B) If your Legend was three colors, you may either change one of those colors, or drop a color.
2) Design a Rare Legendary Land. This should be able to produce one or more of the colors of your Planeswalker, and should also have an activated ability that compliments one of the abilities of your Planeswalker (no Proliferate).
Critiques
You will have up to three days after the end of the submission period to post Top 3 and/or Critiques for the other three contestants. The two highest scoring submissions will advance.
Round 5/Top 4 ends at 23:59 Eastern on 4 August 2011. Top 3/Crits will be due by 23:59 Eastern on 7 August 2011.
Legendary Creature - Human Guardian (M)
Whenever a permanent or player becomes the target of a spell or ability, if you or Twilight Kiwi could be targeted by that spell or ability, you may pay 2. If you do, choose one - Redirect that spell or ability to you or Twilight Kiwi; or you may copy that spell or ability, and you or Twilight Kiwi must be a target of the copy.
1/3
I feel red- and blue-flavored because I'm drawn to and entertained by the unnecessarily complicated, especially when a game devolves into the kind of crazy fun that stories are made of - there are a bajillion tokens on the board? Everytime I play a creature, a dozen different triggers go off? Someone just lost to a deck centered around One With Nothing? Sign me up! I care much less about winning often than I do about winning (or losing!) in interesting and different ways. I like to try new, less straightforward strategies rather than sticking to the same surefire ones all the time.
These two colors are tempered by white - I prefer multiplayer to duels, and more so than my other motivations, I care less about winning than I do about everyone having fun. I will help other players even when there's nothing in it for me if they're stuck in an annoying situation, and (red bleeding in a bit here) I'll take risky moves to break a stale game state even if it means leaving myself vulnerable. If one of my weird decks seems unfun for others to play against, I won't use it very often. I am definitely not a poor loser or winner (and I try not to give my opponents the opportunity to do either if they seem inclined to). Blue bleeds into the white part of me here - after a game I will try to offer what constructive advice or comments I can, and will eagerly take any another player has to give me. I have a vested interest in helping my opponents improve and improving myself, because when everyone is a better player, games become more challenging, interesting, and fun.
Diplomatic Solution 1W
Sorcery (U)
Target player chooses a creature you don't control. Exile that creature.
"I'm certain we can reach a compromise that serves everyone's best interests."
- Lioka, Grand Ambassadrix
Art: A council room filled with bureaucrats who, by their attire, are obviously from different nations; one of their number seems to be arguing heatedly about something and pointing an accusing finger at another. An impassive-looking council member stands between them.
Hound Umbra 1W
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1.
Whenever a creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, if Hound Umbra is in your graveyard, you may pay 1W. If you do, return it to the battlefield enchanting that creature.
Totem armor
I figured an aura with totem armor would be the perfect compliment to a spell magnet like my legend; this way I can eat removal or direct damage without losing him (myself?) in the process. And of course, man's best friend will always return to his master's side.
Instant (R)
Whenever a nonblack creature becomes the target of a spell or ability this turn, it's indestructible this turn.
Whenever a black creature becomes the target of a spell or ability this turn, exile it.
"The welcoming warmth of the Light is a harsh, burning glare to those who thrive in the shadows."
- Lumaros, the Resplendent
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (M)
Whenever a creature an opponent controls is dealt combat damage, its controller sacrifices it.
The first time a card goes to a graveyard from anywhere each turn, you may put that card on top of its controller's library instead.
2/2
Planeswalker - Kiwi (M)
/+1\ Until the beginning of your next upkeep, target player and permanents he or she controls can't be the target of spells or abilities you don't control.
\-2/ Choose a player. Until the beginning of your next upkeep, spells and abilities must target that player or permanents he or she controls if able, and creatures must attack that player or planeswalkers he or she controls if able.
\-6/ You gain an emblem with "Whenever a permanent would be destroyed, you may return it to its owner's hand instead."
[4]
Twilight Sanctuary
Legendary Land (R)
Twilight Sanctuary enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add 1W to your mana pool.
GWU, T: Target permanent gains hexproof until end of turn and is indestructible this turn.
Whenever you or a creature you control becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, untap Twilight Sanctuary.
My First (And Probably Only) MCC Perfect Score: December 09 (Round One)
Creature - Human Avatar (M)
Whenever CodGod becomes the target of a spell or ability, put an 1/1 colourless Construct artifact creature token onto the battlefield, and change a target of that spell or ability to that creature.
0/2
Colours: I'm very driven by my emotions, and by a desire to learn. I try to follow rules in general, but will break them if I feel they're wrong - sometimes going out of my way to do so. I try to understand why a rule is in place before I draw conclusions about it. I believe that rules are important and that life would be much worse if people have them, but I don't venerate rules just for them being rules - if a particular rule holds us back more than it helps, it should be discarded. And I think rules shouldn't be applied completely hard and fast, but mitigated by emotional compassion and intellectual understanding of the circumstances.
Ability: I like redirection effects and weird interactions, and I love cards which have one effect, but which is applied in multiple ways - in this case, against opponent's spells the ability functions like a psudo hexproof, while working as a token generation engine with your own spells (or at least the beneficial ones). I love enemy colour pairs, and the wedge combinations even more so. I like tokens which aren't just creatures, because they interact with a wider variety of other cards, and also the tokens made sense as artifacts because I'm a computer programmer with a keen interest in AI and robotics.
I feel this ability isn't out of place here - white has a good history of token producing, and redirection is red/blue. But It could also could work in RGU - the other colour combination I think best fits me after RUW. I do have times where I care less about what the rules are and more about just finding my place in the world as it is. So in that way I feel it's doubly fitting for me, as it fits in either of the two colour combinations I most identify with.
Also, I know I have a tendency to become evasive when I feel threatened, and try to shift blame and/or aggression away from myself as an almost automatic response at times - although I do try to force myself to accept and admit when I am in fact at fault. And the ability works with that, as well as the fact that when I'm in over my head, I often rely on calling on my friends to come help me out.
Power and Toughness: I don't like to fight, and in all honesty probably wouldn't be very good at it, but feel I can at least take a small amount of punishment. And yes if I had the ability, I'd have robots do the fighting for me
Raging Reiforecements 3WR
Sorcery (U)
Put three 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens into play. Each of those tokens deals damage equal to it's power to target creature or player.
I like cards which seem straightforward but offer way to enhance their effect by combining them with other cards. In this case, the card is designed to be reasonable by itself, but better if you have a glorious anthem or similar to pump the token with.
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant Creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control.
W: Return ~ to owner's hand.
Part of my avatar's design is it's interaction with auras - it removes card disadvantage by automatically shifting auras cast on it to their own token creature - thus preventing you losing two cards (creature and aura) to a single removal spell. So I've made an aura which works well with that ability - when cast on my avatar, it'll be automatically shunted onto a 1/1 token, making that token bigger for each friend it has. In addition, if you're low on tokens, you can just return it to hand and cast it again to generate a new one.
Repel the Unrighteous 4WWW
Instant (R)
For each creature without flying attacking you, put a 2/2 white Knight creature token with first strike and protection from black and from red onto the battlefield.
I like my hosers to still have at least some use when opponents aren't playing those colours, so at it's very worst, this is a 7-mana fog that doesn't affect flyers.... Okay that's pretty bad, I'll admit. But luckily, it won't be at it's very worst most of the time. If any of the attacking creatures have 2 or less toughness, then the knights which kill those ones will survive to either defend another day, or attack on your turn. And if the opponent is playing black/red all those the tokens for attackers of those colours will hang around, ready to either block again turn after turn, or swing in revenge, with those colours not being able to block them.
This card fits me/my playstyle in four ways:
1) I like token creation effects (In case you hadn't picked that up from my previous cards)
2) I play almost exclusively multiplayer, and like cards which provide a disincentive to attacking me, so that other players will look elsewhere when deciding who to attack. After the first assault is blunted, leaving the knight tokens on defense will ensure any black/red creatures swing at other people rather than me.
3) I've been playing since Ice Age, and I like like when new cards make references to older cards (I loved Time spiral block). One I worked out the basics of the card, I had to add the first strike to the tokens as well so that they'd be Palladin en-Vec. It just wouldn't have felt right otherwise. This meant I had to increase the cost slightly, and makes it a less full-on hoser since that change makes it more useful against decks not running the hosed colours, but if I hadn't done it it wouldn't have felt like I'd been making a card which fit me nearly so much as it does now. And it's still much more effective against red/black decks than others, so I think it's still reasonably hoser-y.
4) I love EDH, and have a soft stop for big, expensive spells with splashy effects (I'm a Johnny-Timmy). They're not so useful in hardcore constructed tournaments, but that's not how I like to play the game.
Legendary Creature - Human Reflection
When SalmonDeity enters the battlefield, you may search target opponent's library for a number of nonland cards less than or equal to the total power of creatures you control and exile those cards. If you do, that player shuffles his or her library.
Spells with the same name as cards exiled by SalmonDeity cost an additional "Sacrifice a creature" to cast.
2/2
"Feel the might that opposes you... Let the fear of it drive you from sanity" - SalmonDeity
I don't tend to dislike strategies in general, as I think pretty much everything's fine in moderation. Counterspells, mill, discard, land destruction are all fine by me, provided you put that deck away for the next game and do something different. But I do have a certain dislike for having the ability to have ever tried to play my spells taken from me - I have a tendancy to make decks around one or two cards I think are cool (I have a Spellbound Dragon deck, for example, based pretty much entirely around Spellbound Dragons). I don't mind that someone's probably going to remove or counter my stuff if it looks like a threat, but pulling all of them out of the deck before I see them removes a lot of the fun.
I couldn't really decide whether it was worse to simply remove all copies of a thing or remove one and then stop others from being played, so to increase the versatility of the card, it can play both games - if you remove only one of each card, you prevent a lot more spells being cast, but lose that when he dies. If you take all copies of something you're not blocking further copies, but they won't have any even after he dies.
This card prevents other people from drawing the cards they want, or being able to even try to get them out. It picks on one opponent in a big way, where I prefer my nastiness to be able to be more evenly distributed, as I play multiplayer and prefer not to have one guy get all the pain and then sit there uselessly while the rest of the game finishes. The card punishes running random one-off interesting cards in favour of playsets, where I love throwing a couple of singleton cards int he deck to spice things up and add variety.
Planeswalker - CodGod (M)
[+1]: The next time you cast an aura apell this turn, you may put a 0/1 colourless artifact creature token onto the battlefield, then change that spell’s target to that creature.
[-X]: Put X 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens with "When this enters the battlefield, it deals damage equal to it's power to target creature or player" onto the battlefield.
[-7]: You get an emblem with "Whenever you or a permanent you control becomes the target of a spell or ability, you may change the target of that spell or ability".
[4]
Shia'ri, the Enchanted City
Legendary Land (R)
T: Add W to your mana pool.
At the beginning of your end step, if you control no auras, return Shia'ri, the Enchanted City to it's owner's hand.
Auracycling 2 (2, Discard this card from your hand: Discard this card: Search your library for an Aura card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.)
The second ability is a version of my round 2 card, fixed to work as intended, which I didn't get on the original in time for the round, and also made more versatile by varying the number of tokens you can produce - although I like that the planeswalker can drop at 4 loyalty, activate this ability for 3, mimicking the original, and survive.
For the record, "Ludomancer" I made up from the Latin word for play/games + mancer.
My land slots neatly into place in any aura deck, and can help out the planeswalker by fetching an aura out of your deck so you can get the benefit from the +1 ability. If it's out and all your aura's are destroyed, it pops back to your hand, where it can be cycled to find a new one - hopefully you have all the mana you need by this point, but of course it can't be all upside :P. It could also potentially be used in landfall decks a a repeated landfall trigger.
Don't get me wrong, I do realise that, and I wasn't trying to complain. I welcome the challenge of working out the best way to work the ability into something at sorcery speed.
PS: thanks for all your work running this thing, it's been really fun.
Legendary Creature - Human Designer (M)
(G/W)(G/W): Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn. You may target each creature only once each turn with this ability.
A mother's love is strong enough to transcend barriers of space, time, and even species.
1/1
Depose W
Sorcery (U)
Exile target creature if you control fewer creatures than that creature's controller.
Rule with justice, and rule long. Rule with tyranny, and rule no more.
-Inscription on the Heartcrown of the Vaderan Kings
Spore Glands 1G
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Whenever you activate an ability of enchanted creature, you may pay G. If you do, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
Saprolings have developed unusual symbiotic relationships with many other creatures of the forest.
Shielding Vitality 3GW
Instant (R)
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to you this turn from nongreen, nonwhite sources. For each 1 damage prevented in this way, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
Planeswalker - Allmother (M)
+1: For each loyalty counter on The Allmother, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
-1: Exile target permanent with converted mana cost equal to or less than the number of creatures you control.
-7: You get an emblem with "At the beginning of your upkeep, search your library for a creature card, put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library."
[3]
Wildhome
Legendary Land (R)
Tap an untapped creature you control, T: Add GW to your mana pool.
GW: Put target creature you control on the bottom of its owner's library, then draw a card.
Legendary Creature - Human Rogue (M)
Vigilance
You play with your hand and the top card of your library revealed.
Maokun of a Thousand Skills has all activated abilities of nonplaneswalker permanents you control and nonplaneswalker permanent cards in your hand and on top of library.
1/3
Profitable Banishment WU
Sorcery (U)
Exile target creature. That creature controller's draws a card.
Draw a card.
Alertness 1
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature.
Enchanted creature has hexproof.
:symgu:, return Alertness to its owner's hand: Untap enchanted creature.
Discerning Justice 1W
Instant (R)
Exile target permanent, then choose one - Return that permanent to the battlefield under its owner's control, or return that permanent to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the end step.
If that permanent is black or red, you may choose not to return it to the battlefield instead
Omanage, the Odious 1BR
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (M)
Imprint - When Omanage, the Odious enters the battlefield, look at target opponent's hand. Exile a nonland card from it.
Whenever that player casts a spell that shares a card type with the exiled card, Omanage deals 3 damage to him or her.
2/3.
After my humble beginning as a rogue, a thief of talents and through my adventures and perils, until ultimately facing the dark side of myself and embracing it, I realize the error of my ways: this power and these abilities, must be used to the betterment of the universe rather than my selfish whims. With this realization, I ascend...
Maokun, Gifted Benefactor 1GWU
Planeswalker - Maokun
[+1]: Target creature you control gains any number of abilities from among other creatures on the battlefield until end of turn.
[-2]: Exile target creature. When Maokun, Gifted Benefactor leaves the battlefield, return all permanents exiled this way to the battlefield under their owners' control.
[-6]: You gain an emblem with "Creatures you control have hexproof and '1: Exile this creature. Return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.'"
[4]
My first act as a Planeswalker, is to create a lush paradise where my followers will be forever safe.
Cova, the Mangrove Haven
Legendary Land - Forest Island (R)
Cova, the Mangrove Haven enters the battlefield tapped.
Whenever a nontoken creature enters the battlefield under your control, you may untap Cova.
1:symgu::symgu:, T: Counter target spell or ability that targets a creature you control.
(small reminder that being a forest-island, the line "T: add G or U to your mana pool." is implied.)
Do these have to be two separate abilities, or can the land have one activated ability which produces mana in one of the planeswalker's colours which also compliements one of the planeswalker's abilities?
@CodGod: They should be two seperate abilities, like you find on Karakas or Academy Ruins.
See how basic lands don't need it. The rule goes that any land card with a basic land type, produces mana of the color associated to that basic land.
Just over 7 hours until the submissions should be locked in. Good luck to all.
Congrats to everyone for getting this far, and good luck for the rest of the contest
CodGod RUW
Creature - Human Avatar (M)
Whenever CodGod becomes the target of a spell or ability, put an 1/1 colourless Construct artifact creature token onto the battlefield, and change a target of that spell or ability to that creature.
0/2
[I]Colours[/I]: I'm very driven by my emotions, and by a desire to learn. I try to follow rules in general, but will break them if I feel they're wrong - sometimes going out of my way to do so. I try to understand why a rule is in place before I draw conclusions about it. I believe that rules are important and that life would be much worse if people have them, but I don't venerate rules just for them being rules - if a particular rule holds us back more than it helps, it should be discarded. And I think rules shouldn't be applied completely hard and fast, but mitigated by emotional compassion and intellectual understanding of the circumstances.
[I]Ability[/I]: I like redirection effects and weird interactions, and I love cards which have one effect, but which is applied in multiple ways - in this case, against opponent's spells the ability functions like a psudo hexproof, while working as a token generation engine with your own spells (or at least the beneficial ones). I love enemy colour pairs, and the wedge combinations even more so. I like tokens which aren't just creatures, because they interact with a wider variety of other cards, and also the tokens made sense as artifacts because I'm a computer programmer with a keen interest in AI and robotics.
I feel this ability isn't out of place here - white has a good history of token producing, and redirection is red/blue. But It could also could work in RGU - the other colour combination I think best fits me after RUW. I do have times where I care less about what the rules are and more about just finding my place in the world as it is. So in that way I feel it's doubly fitting for me, as it fits in either of the two colour combinations I most identify with.
Also, I know I have a tendency to become evasive when I feel threatened, and try to shift blame and/or aggression away from myself as an almost automatic response at times - although I do try to force myself to accept and admit when I am in fact at fault. And the ability works with that, as well as the fact that when I'm in over my head, I often rely on calling on my friends to come help me out.
[I]Power and Toughness[/I]: I don't like to fight, and in all honesty probably wouldn't be very good at it, but feel I can at least take a small amount of punishment. And yes if I had the ability, I'd have robots do the fighting for me
Round 1:
Raging Reiforecements 3WR
Sorcery (U)
Put three 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens into play. Each of those tokens deals damage equal to it's power to target creature or player.
Round 2:
Machine Mastery 1UW
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant Creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control.
W: Return ~ to owner's hand.
Round 3:
Repel the Unrighteous 4WWW
Instant (R)
For each creature without flying attacking you, put a 2/2 white Knight creature token with first strike and protection from black and from red onto the battlefield.
Round 4:
SalmonDeity 3BBG
Legendary Creature - Human Reflection
When SalmonDeity enters the battlefield, you may search target opponent's library for a number of nonland cards less than or equal to the total power of creatures you control and exile those cards. If you do, that player shuffles his or her library.
Spells with the same name as cards exiled by SalmonDeity cost an additional "Sacrifice a creature" to cast.
2/2
[I]"Feel the might that opposes you... Let the fear of it drive you from sanity" - SalmonDeity[/I]
Planeswalker - CodGod (M)
[+1]: The next time you cast an aura apell this turn, you may put a 0/1 colourless artifact creature token onto the battlefield, then change that spell’s target to that creature.
[-X]: Put X 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens with "When this enters the battlefield, it deals damage equal to it's power to target creature or player" onto the battlefield.
[-7]: You get an emblem with "Whenever you or a permanent you control becomes the target of a spell or ability, you may change the target of that spell or ability".
[4]
Shia'ri, the Enchanted City
Legendary Land (R)
T: Add W to your mana pool.
At the beginning of your end step, if you control no auras, return Shia'ri, the Enchanted City to it's owner's hand.
Auracycling 2 [i](2, Discard this card from your hand: Discard this card: Search your library for an Aura card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.)[/i]
The second ability is a version of my round 2 card, fixed to work as intended, which I didn't get on the original in time for the round, and also made more versatile by varying the number of tokens you can produce - although I like that the planeswalker can drop at 4 loyalty, activate this ability for 3, mimicking the original, and survive.
For the record, "Ludomancer" I made up from the Latin word for play/games + mancer.
My land slots neatly into place in any aura deck, and can help out the planeswalker by fetching an aura out of your deck so you can get the benefit from the +1 ability. If it's out and all your aura's are destroyed, it pops back to your hand, where it can be cycled to find a new one - hopefully you have all the mana you need by this point, but of course it can't be all upside :P. It could also potentially be used in landfall decks a a repeated landfall trigger.
Twilight Kiwi RWU
Legendary Creature - Human Guardian (M)
Whenever a permanent or player becomes the target of a spell or ability, if you or Twilight Kiwi could be targeted by that spell or ability, you may pay 2. If you do, choose one - Redirect that spell or ability to you or Twilight Kiwi; or you may copy that spell or ability, and you or Twilight Kiwi must be a target of the copy.
1/3
Because someone asked. Within the context of Magic:
I feel red- and blue-flavored because I'm drawn to and entertained by the unnecessarily complicated, especially when a game devolves into the kind of crazy fun that stories are made of - there are a bajillion tokens on the board? Everytime I play a creature, a dozen different triggers go off? Someone just lost to a deck centered around One With Nothing? Sign me up! I care much less about winning often than I do about winning (or losing!) in interesting and different ways. I like to try new, less straightforward strategies rather than sticking to the same surefire ones all the time.
These two colors are tempered by white - I prefer multiplayer to duels, and more so than my other motivations, I care less about winning than I do about everyone having fun. I will help other players even when there's nothing in it for me if they're stuck in an annoying situation, and (red bleeding in a bit here) I'll take risky moves to break a stale game state even if it means leaving myself vulnerable. If one of my weird decks seems unfun for others to play against, I won't use it very often. I am definitely not a poor loser or winner (and I try not to give my opponents the opportunity to do either if they seem inclined to). Blue bleeds into the white part of me here - after a game I will try to offer what constructive advice or comments I can, and will eagerly take any another player has to give me. I have a vested interest in helping my opponents improve and improving myself, because when everyone is a better player, games become more challenging, interesting, and fun.
Round 1:
Diplomatic Solution 1W
Sorcery (U)
Target player chooses a creature you don't control. Exile that creature.
[I]"I'm certain we can reach a compromise that serves everyone's best interests."
- Lioka, Grand Ambassadrix
[I]Art: A council room filled with bureaucrats who, by their attire, are obviously from different nations; one of their number seems to be arguing heatedly about something and pointing an accusing finger at another. An impassive-looking council member stands between them.[/I]
Round 2:
Hound Umbra 1W
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1.
Whenever a creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, if Hound Umbra is in your graveyard, you may pay 1W. If you do, return it to the battlefield enchanting that creature.
Totem armor
Round 3:
Dawn's Light 1W
Instant (R)
Whenever a nonblack creature becomes the target of a spell or ability this turn, it's indestructible this turn.
Whenever a black creature becomes the target of a spell or ability this turn, exile it.
[I]"The welcoming warmth of the Light is a harsh, burning glare to those who thrive in the shadows."
- Lumaros, the Resplendent[/I]
Round 4:
Kiwi, the Closed Circle 3BG
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (M)
Whenever a creature an opponent controls is dealt combat damage, its controller sacrifices it.
The first time a card goes to a graveyard from anywhere each turn, you may put that card on top of its controller's library instead.
2/2
Planeswalker - Kiwi (M)
/+1\ Until the beginning of your next upkeep, target player and permanents he or she controls can't be the target of spells or abilities you don't control.
\-2/ Choose a player. Until the beginning of your next upkeep, spells and abilities must target that player or permanents he or she controls if able, and creatures must attack that player or planeswalkers he or she controls if able.
\-6/ You gain an emblem with "Whenever a permanent would be destroyed, you may return it to its owner's hand instead."
[4]
Twilight Sanctuary
Legendary Land (R)
Twilight Sanctuary enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add 1W to your mana pool.
GWU, T: Target permanent gains hexproof until end of turn and is indestructible this turn.
Whenever you or a creature you control becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, untap Twilight Sanctuary.
Mother of Gerrard (G/W)
Legendary Creature - Human Designer (M)
(G/W)(G/W): Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn. You may target each creature only once each turn with this ability.
[I]A mother's love is strong enough to transcend barriers of space, time, and even species.[/I]
1/1
Seems like as good a time as any to repeat my "origin story:" Gerrard's Mom is the nickname friends and I had given to Ramirez DePietro because of the similarity to Gerrard Capashen's art and the fact that the Italian copy of DePietro made the gender somewhat unclear. I'm not any kind of mother, or female even, but it's been a fun forum identity. I am pretty supportive though, both in Magic where I am always trying to get my play group to do things better (casting in Main Phase B!) and in non-gaming life, where I'm currently teaching Japanese. The restriction on the ability was mostly inspired by Rootwalla stuff, but I do prefer to help a bunch of people in turn instead of one person forever. It used to be 2/2 and give +2/+2, but I didn't think that was mythic enough, so I added an ability to make non-creatures lose abilities, reflecting my ability to question and critique, but Eventide says only one ability, so I'll go with this. I guess I'll have to go 1/1 also, definitely not physically a 3/3.
On the current Wizards logic that Watchwolf could be mostly outdone (there is the legendary drawback) by a mythic the same way that Baneslayer Angel outdoes Serra Angel.Round 1:
Depose W
Sorcery (U)
Exile target creature if you control fewer creatures than that creature's controller.
[I]Rule with justice, and rule long. Rule with tyranny, and rule no more.
-Inscription on the Heartcrown of the Vaderan Kings[/I]
Round 2:
Spore Glands 1G
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Whenever you activate an ability of enchanted creature, you may pay G. If you do, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
[I]Saprolings have developed unusual symbiotic relationships with many other creatures of the forest.[/I]
Round 3:
Shielding Vitality 3GW
Instant (R)
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to you this turn from nongreen, nonwhite sources. For each 1 damage prevented in this way, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
Round 4:
Mother of Vuel 2UBR
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor (M)
If a card would be put into an opponent's graveyard from a zone other than the battlefield, exile that card instead.
You may play cards exiled with Mother of Vuel.
2/4
Thanks Phyrexian Editor, it does appear that the wording requires me to use red as well. Truth be told, I may prefer red to white in many cases, what I like least is the sneakiness and trickery of blue and black, but I guess red occasionally has aspects of that as well. This card lets you steal cards which you mill (UB), discard (B), or counter (U), and also any instants or sorceries that opponents play (UR). My avatar shows how I prefer to win through creature combat; coming out with a good curve, buffing/protecting your creatures, straight beatdown. My card for this round cares about everything but the battlefield, the antithesis of that strategy, and it is particularly good with counterspells, which are probably my least favorite major mechanic to face.
Planeswalker - Allmother (M)
+1: For each loyalty counter on The Allmother, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
-1: Exile target permanent with converted mana cost equal to or less than the number of creatures you control.
-7: You get an emblem with "At the beginning of your upkeep, search your library for a creature card, put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library."
[3]
Wildhome
Legendary Land (R)
Tap an untapped creature you control, T: Add GW to your mana pool.
GW: Put target creature you control on the bottom of its owner's library, then draw a card.
Maokun of a Thousand Skills :symg::symw::symu:
Legendary Creature - Human Rogue (M)
Vigilance
You play with your hand and the top card of your library revealed.
Maokun of a Thousand Skills has all activated abilities of nonplaneswalker permanents you control and nonplaneswalker permanent cards in your hand and on top of library.
1/3
Round 1:
Profitable Banishment WU
Sorcery (U)
Exile target creature. That creature controller's draws a card.
Draw a card.
Round 2:
Alertness 1
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature.
Enchanted creature has hexproof.
:symgu:, return Alertness to its owner's hand: Untap enchanted creature.
Round 3:
Discerning Justice 1W
Instant (R)
Exile target permanent, then choose one - Return that permanent to the battlefield under its owner's control, or return that permanent to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the end step.
If that permanent is black or red, you may choose not to return it to the battlefield instead.
Round 4:
Omanage, the Odious 1BR
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (M)
[I]Imprint[/I] - When Omanage, the Odious enters the battlefield, look at target opponent's hand. Exile a nonland card from it.
Whenever that player casts a spell that shares a card type with the exiled card, Omanage deals 3 damage to him or her.
2/3
Maokun, Gifted Benefactor 1GWU
Planeswalker - Maokun
[+1]: Target creature you control gains any number of abilities from among other creatures on the battlefield until end of turn.
[-2]: Exile target creature. When Maokun, Gifted Benefactor leaves the battlefield, return all permanents exiled this way to the battlefield under their owners' control.
[-6]: You gain an emblem with "Creatures you control have hexproof and '1: Exile this creature. Return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.'"
[4]
My first act as a Planeswalker, is to create a lush paradise where my followers will be forever safe.
Cova, the Mangrove Haven
Legendary Land - Forest Island (R)
Cova, the Mangrove Haven enters the battlefield tapped.
Whenever a nontoken creature enters the battlefield under your control, you may untap Cova.
1:symgu::symgu:, T: Counter target spell or ability that targets a creature you control.
(small reminder that being a forest-island, the line "T: add G or U to your mana pool." is implied.)
Walker: I'm not sure when you would want to use the first ability on anyone but yourself, and it's a lot worse than Leyline of Sanctity since it gives them a window to hit you with instants every turn. The second ability is a lot more interesting, but I feel like it should include some red for some reason, and both of the first two are pretty bad outside of multiplayer. I'm not sure why the emblem triggers on destroying, not being put into a graveyard, and it's really reactive, but I can see uses.
Land: I have no idea why this produces an extra colorless. The last ability feels very tacked on for walker interaction, I would have cut that or the activated ability.
CodGod
Walker: Aw, I was going to be impressive by knowing the root of Ludomancer, but you gave it away in your notes. Giving your auras Living Weapon is a really strange thing for a walker to do as an activated ability, I think this should just be a trigger on an enchantment or creature. The second ability is cool, but has nothing blue in it, and producing two different kinds of tokens is weird. Like Kiwi, your ultimate is really reactive, preventing you from losing instead of really helping you win.
Land: Interesting question of how much it should cost to search for an Aura. I guess less than Idyllic Tutor makes sense, but any color is a little suspect. Any deck with even a minor Aura theme should probably run 4 of these, since multiples are not a problem.
Maokun
Walker: No real need for green here. I don't know how the first ability works when it can get any ability, not just activated abilities or keywords or whatever, I'm sure there's something broken to do with it. The second ability is great for a white planeswalker. The emblem here is a little bizarre, I guess it can help you win if the deck is built right, but I don't like that the last ability likes ETB triggers, while the first one doesn't do much for them.
Land: This has two really powerful abilities, like Kiwi's, I don't see the connection between the untap effect and the activated ability, and the activated ability becomes useless after your ultimate.
2. Maokun - 2nd walker ability is the best among all three walkers.
3. Twilight Kiwi - It has my favorite ultimate, but I thought the land was awkward and the walker colors seemed odd.
Twilight Kiwi RWU
Legendary Creature - Human Guardian (M)
Whenever a permanent or player becomes the target of a spell or ability, if you or Twilight Kiwi could be targeted by that spell or ability, you may pay 2. If you do, choose one - Redirect that spell or ability to you or Twilight Kiwi; or you may copy that spell or ability, and you or Twilight Kiwi must be a target of the copy.
1/3
Because someone asked. Within the context of Magic:
I feel red- and blue-flavored because I'm drawn to and entertained by the unnecessarily complicated, especially when a game devolves into the kind of crazy fun that stories are made of - there are a bajillion tokens on the board? Everytime I play a creature, a dozen different triggers go off? Someone just lost to a deck centered around One With Nothing? Sign me up! I care much less about winning often than I do about winning (or losing!) in interesting and different ways. I like to try new, less straightforward strategies rather than sticking to the same surefire ones all the time.
These two colors are tempered by white - I prefer multiplayer to duels, and more so than my other motivations, I care less about winning than I do about everyone having fun. I will help other players even when there's nothing in it for me if they're stuck in an annoying situation, and (red bleeding in a bit here) I'll take risky moves to break a stale game state even if it means leaving myself vulnerable. If one of my weird decks seems unfun for others to play against, I won't use it very often. I am definitely not a poor loser or winner (and I try not to give my opponents the opportunity to do either if they seem inclined to). Blue bleeds into the white part of me here - after a game I will try to offer what constructive advice or comments I can, and will eagerly take any another player has to give me. I have a vested interest in helping my opponents improve and improving myself, because when everyone is a better player, games become more challenging, interesting, and fun.
Round 1:
Diplomatic Solution 1W
Sorcery (U)
Target player chooses a creature you don't control. Exile that creature.
[I]"I'm certain we can reach a compromise that serves everyone's best interests."
- Lioka, Grand Ambassadrix
[I]Art: A council room filled with bureaucrats who, by their attire, are obviously from different nations; one of their number seems to be arguing heatedly about something and pointing an accusing finger at another. An impassive-looking council member stands between them.[/I]
Round 2:
Hound Umbra 1W
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1.
Whenever a creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, if Hound Umbra is in your graveyard, you may pay 1W. If you do, return it to the battlefield enchanting that creature.
Totem armor
Round 3:
Dawn's Light 1W
Instant (R)
Whenever a nonblack creature becomes the target of a spell or ability this turn, it's indestructible this turn.
Whenever a black creature becomes the target of a spell or ability this turn, exile it.
[I]"The welcoming warmth of the Light is a harsh, burning glare to those who thrive in the shadows."
- Lumaros, the Resplendent[/I]
Round 4:
Kiwi, the Closed Circle 3BG
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (M)
Whenever a creature an opponent controls is dealt combat damage, its controller sacrifices it.
The first time a card goes to a graveyard from anywhere each turn, you may put that card on top of its controller's library instead.
2/2
Planeswalker - Kiwi (M)
/+1\ Until the beginning of your next upkeep, target player and permanents he or she controls can't be the target of spells or abilities you don't control.
\-2/ Choose a player. Until the beginning of your next upkeep, spells and abilities must target that player or permanents he or she controls if able, and creatures must attack that player or planeswalkers he or she controls if able.
\-6/ You gain an emblem with "Whenever a permanent would be destroyed, you may return it to its owner's hand instead."
[4]
Twilight Sanctuary
Legendary Land (R)
Twilight Sanctuary enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add 1W to your mana pool.
GWU, T: Target permanent gains hexproof until end of turn and is indestructible this turn.
Whenever you or a creature you control becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, untap Twilight Sanctuary.
I can see the spirit of your avatar's redirection in the first two abilities of the planeswalker, but I'm a bit lost as to which of your other previous cards you're trying to go on here. The totem armor on your aura and the indestructible-granting of your hoser both prevent destruction, which I suppose is a bit similar to your ultimate, but both of them trigger on targeting, and neither of them bounce things, so I'm not sure if that's it. I guess I don't think you did a particularly good job of incorporating another of your previous cards beyond your avatar, because if the connection is there it's not clear to me.
Your land is nuts. Legendary and starting tapped don't justify a land which taps for 2 mana every turn, with no other drawback. This should just tap for W.
The land is supposed to have an activated ability that compliments the walker, but this doesn't feel like it's filling that role too well. Your activated ability makes something hexproof and indestructible, but your walker can already make things hexproof, so that seems to be redundant. I guess it can protect the things you want to save if you use the planeswalker's -2 ability on yourself, but why would you? I can see there'll be some situations where the planeswalker limits their options and then you can use the land to limit them further, but it feels like the planeswalker is making the land redundant rather than the two complimenting each other. There are definitely some complimentary interactions between the two, but it seems to me that there are more where it doesn't feel complimentary, so while you meet the requirement, I think you could have done a better job here. All in all, I like the planeswalker much more than the land.
Mother of Gerrard (G/W)
Legendary Creature - Human Designer (M)
(G/W)(G/W): Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn. You may target each creature only once each turn with this ability.
[I]A mother's love is strong enough to transcend barriers of space, time, and even species.[/I]
1/1
Seems like as good a time as any to repeat my "origin story:" Gerrard's Mom is the nickname friends and I had given to Ramirez DePietro because of the similarity to Gerrard Capashen's art and the fact that the Italian copy of DePietro made the gender somewhat unclear. I'm not any kind of mother, or female even, but it's been a fun forum identity. I am pretty supportive though, both in Magic where I am always trying to get my play group to do things better (casting in Main Phase B!) and in non-gaming life, where I'm currently teaching Japanese. The restriction on the ability was mostly inspired by Rootwalla stuff, but I do prefer to help a bunch of people in turn instead of one person forever. It used to be 2/2 and give +2/+2, but I didn't think that was mythic enough, so I added an ability to make non-creatures lose abilities, reflecting my ability to question and critique, but Eventide says only one ability, so I'll go with this. I guess I'll have to go 1/1 also, definitely not physically a 3/3.
On the current Wizards logic that Watchwolf could be mostly outdone (there is the legendary drawback) by a mythic the same way that Baneslayer Angel outdoes Serra Angel.Round 1:
Depose W
Sorcery (U)
Exile target creature if you control fewer creatures than that creature's controller.
[I]Rule with justice, and rule long. Rule with tyranny, and rule no more.
-Inscription on the Heartcrown of the Vaderan Kings[/I]
Round 2:
Spore Glands 1G
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
Whenever you activate an ability of enchanted creature, you may pay G. If you do, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
[I]Saprolings have developed unusual symbiotic relationships with many other creatures of the forest.[/I]
Round 3:
Shielding Vitality 3GW
Instant (R)
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to you this turn from nongreen, nonwhite sources. For each 1 damage prevented in this way, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
Round 4:
Mother of Vuel 2UBR
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor (M)
If a card would be put into an opponent's graveyard from a zone other than the battlefield, exile that card instead.
You may play cards exiled with Mother of Vuel.
2/4
Thanks Phyrexian Editor, it does appear that the wording requires me to use red as well. Truth be told, I may prefer red to white in many cases, what I like least is the sneakiness and trickery of blue and black, but I guess red occasionally has aspects of that as well. This card lets you steal cards which you mill (UB), discard (B), or counter (U), and also any instants or sorceries that opponents play (UR). My avatar shows how I prefer to win through creature combat; coming out with a good curve, buffing/protecting your creatures, straight beatdown. My card for this round cares about everything but the battlefield, the antithesis of that strategy, and it is particularly good with counterspells, which are probably my least favorite major mechanic to face.
Planeswalker - Allmother (M)
+1: For each loyalty counter on The Allmother, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
-1: Exile target permanent with converted mana cost equal to or less than the number of creatures you control.
-7: You get an emblem with "At the beginning of your upkeep, search your library for a creature card, put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library."
[3]
Wildhome
Legendary Land (R)
Tap an untapped creature you control, T: Add GW to your mana pool.
GW: Put target creature you control on the bottom of its owner's library, then draw a card.
However, while I love the design, it doesn't seem to meet the challenge very well. I can see you round 1 sorcery in the second ability, and the saprolings link back to your cards from rounds 2 and 3, but we were specifically required to incorporate our round 0 submissions, and I don't see your avatar in this at all. Perhaps you've made some subtle connection I'm missing (let me know if so), but I can't see any real link there.
As for Wildhome, I'm quite surprised that name hasn't been taken already by an actual card, because it's a good one. The mana ability seems balanced to me - it's basically a land with attached Springleaf Drum, which seems fine. The 'tuck' ability is cool - I love the interaction with the planeswalker's emblem, and there's enough other creature-tutor effects out there that there's other cards it can play nicely with as well. I think you really nailed this half of the challenge, well done.
Maokun of a Thousand Skills :symg::symw::symu:
Legendary Creature - Human Rogue (M)
Vigilance
You play with your hand and the top card of your library revealed.
Maokun of a Thousand Skills has all activated abilities of nonplaneswalker permanents you control and nonplaneswalker permanent cards in your hand and on top of library.
1/3
Round 1:
Profitable Banishment WU
Sorcery (U)
Exile target creature. That creature controller's draws a card.
Draw a card.
Round 2:
Alertness 1
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature.
Enchanted creature has hexproof.
:symgu:, return Alertness to its owner's hand: Untap enchanted creature.
Round 3:
Discerning Justice 1W
Instant (R)
Exile target permanent, then choose one - Return that permanent to the battlefield under its owner's control, or return that permanent to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the end step.
If that permanent is black or red, you may choose not to return it to the battlefield instead.
Round 4:
Omanage, the Odious 1BR
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (M)
[I]Imprint[/I] - When Omanage, the Odious enters the battlefield, look at target opponent's hand. Exile a nonland card from it.
Whenever that player casts a spell that shares a card type with the exiled card, Omanage deals 3 damage to him or her.
2/3
Maokun, Gifted Benefactor 1GWU
Planeswalker - Maokun
[+1]: Target creature you control gains any number of abilities from among other creatures on the battlefield until end of turn.
[-2]: Exile target creature. When Maokun, Gifted Benefactor leaves the battlefield, return all permanents exiled this way to the battlefield under their owners' control.
[-6]: You gain an emblem with "Creatures you control have hexproof and '1: Exile this creature. Return it to the battlefield under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.'"
[4]
My first act as a Planeswalker, is to create a lush paradise where my followers will be forever safe.
Cova, the Mangrove Haven
Legendary Land - Forest Island (R)
Cova, the Mangrove Haven enters the battlefield tapped.
Whenever a nontoken creature enters the battlefield under your control, you may untap Cova.
1:symgu::symgu:, T: Counter target spell or ability that targets a creature you control.
(small reminder that being a forest-island, the line "T: add G or U to your mana pool." is implied.)
(EDIT: I accept that I probably overreacted to how powerful this is, but I maintain it would need a lot of testing to be safe, and I still think it shouldn't be a + ability because of how swingy it is/can be.)
That said, I like the rest of the walker, including the current second ability, fine. It's just the first one which seems too good. You do have to build around it to break it, but it can be broken. The emblem is less protective than, say, Elspeth's, but you can get it much sooner, so that seems right to me. I like that the flicker effect can be used to repeat enters-the-battlefield effects of your creatures, as well as to help them dodge removal.
I think your land is a bit too good. Having the basic land types is really useful, since it lets it be tutored for easily, especially when one of those types is forest. The countering seems fairly costed if taken on it's own, but is another good ability on the land, and combined with the basic types and being able to untap when you play a creature I think this needed more than just being legendary and starting tapped to be balanced. That untap could be really useful in an elf deck of something where you could play multiple creatures in a turn - it's like a significantly better Tangleroot, and that cost three mana. I like the idea of the countering ability, but it feels weird being able to do it in mono-green. I think granting hexproof would have felt better as something in both blue and green, and would have the same effect in many cases. I guess it's supposed to help protect the ubercreature you make by stacking all the abilities using the planeswalker's first ability? I would have preferred to see a more direct interaction with the planeswalker's abilities, but that does work fine. Some really cool cards, all in all, but I think pushing the power level a bit too far.
1: Maokun
I maintain the land is too powerful, but you did a great job of meeting the challenge for the round, and I liked the ideas behind the designs for the most part - just had issues with details of the implementation. Loved the walker ultimate.
2: Gerrard's Mom
Really good cards in a vacuum, but I didn't feel they fit the challenge quite as well as Maokun. I had a tough time making the call of which of you to give first place to, but I have to make a judgement call one way of the other.
3: TwilightKiwi
You didn't do badly, I just felt the others did a bit better.
@Memnarch: the land has an untap ability because, like the rest of my cards, it's meant to be played in a "blink" deck. Meaning that you could tap the land for mana during your turn, and when a blinked dude returns at the end of turn, it would untap and be ready to counter spells the next turn.
In looking at it again, however, I've noticed a flaw in the ability - it requires a target creature, so if you control no creatures there's no way to gain loyalty. It would be better to have said "up to one" like Tezzeret the Seeker does to avoid this and allow you to still gain loyalty if there are no targets - although that's only a minor issue, really.
@Gerrard's Mom - I think I can understand where you're coming from a bit better now, thanks. Also, you're right, I have no idea what I was thinking with the auracycling cost, it should have been 1W not 2. My bad.
On the making two different tokens thing I can cite the new Garruk as precedent (admittedly, his are more different than mine, but I was trying to make sure I was incorporating my cards mechanically, and most of my cards this month made different kinds of tokens). I feel confidant that my sorcery from round 1 is the best card I've designed in the contest this month, so I felt I had to include (and fix) it, and incorporating my avatar meant using the construct tokens. I suppose I could have changed that ability to also use soldiers (wouldn't work the other way because they need power for the second ability) but I didn't think of it at the time, and I felt that might have made the mechanical link to my avatar a bit hard to see - it's already had to be cut down to just a part of it to work on a planeswalker.
Critique times were had!
Twilight Kiwi:
Planeswalker - It took me a while to figure this guy really serves a higher purpose in multiplayer. In duels he's kind of wasted and not very good. His ultimate, however is no good anywhere. For 6 hard-earned loyalty you get the ability to recast your guys when they die... and your opponents as well? Not only by that point you should be getting a game-winning ultimate; it also should not benefit your opponents.
Land - I only now see how similar were your entry and mine. While quite different technically, in practice they do almost the same, so I cannot find much fault to it, except that I don't think it should produce two mana. A land with so many powerful abilities should keep the mana production simple.
Codgod:
Planeswalker - While I like the ideas in your planeswalker, it kind of rubs me the wrong way that "caring about auras" that came from nowhere, an ability that I believe should be GW. Also, the ultimate may be too busted; the only other ultimates more throw-your-hat-in-disgust-and-scoop I can think of are Nicol Bolas' and Karn's which are the most expensive PWs yet. If it had said "the first time in a turn" I'd have loved it to bits.
Land - Again the unexpected aura theme crops up :/ Nothing in your past submissions hinted that you cared about auras, except that one aura card that was required from everyone. Anyway, it doesn't feel splashy enough to be legendary, especially since the return-to-hand is mandatory, becoming a bad drawback in the first turns.
Gerrard's Mom:
Planeswalker: I really, really like the ideas behind the first and second abilities. However! I strongly suspect that starting with loyalty 3 (yielding 4 tokens the turn you cast it, 5 next and basically exiling whatever you want from then on, if you haven't won with Overrun, anyway,) is way too powerful. I think for these abilities she needs to cost 3 mana and start with 1 loyalty -which is okay, at the speed she diarrhea's tokens she's basically impervious to combat damage. The ultimate, is easily the most balanced and fun in the round.
Land: Sometimes its mana ability will be fabulous, sometimes it will screw you horribly. Its second ability, however is so good that you'll want to brave the possible screw.
1. Gerrard's Mom, the clear winner in my opinion.
2. CodGod. Good cards but kind of failed in feeling like a continuation of the previous rounds.
3. Twilight Kiwi. Good and worthy cards of being in the semifinals but ultimately fail to excite, especially the PW.
Top 3
1. Gerrard's Mom
2. Maokun
3. CodGod
My First (And Probably Only) MCC Perfect Score: December 09 (Round One)
It wasn't explicit, but the fact it gave out tokens to auras to prevent card disadvantage is my favorite part of my Avatar card, and that's where it came from. Initially I mainly wanted it to turn cards like Ghitu War Cry into token producers, and the aura thing was a nice bonus - but the more I thought about it as the round went on, the more it became my favourite part of the card - I've always loved auras, and like ways to reduce their inherit card disadvantage. The aura card I made was specifically made to interact with the shifting-onto-a-token ability. So while the planeswalker doesn't do all the things my avatar did, it does one of them, and the ability did come from there. And moving the repeatable-abilities-into-tokens thing into a way which worked on a planeswalker required lots of text - I tried mocking it up in MSE and it was a tiny font. I felt this was the better part of the effect to move onto a planeswalker. As for the colours, while white and green care about auras, shifting them onto other creatures is predominately blue.
The ultimate requires 3 turns of using the +1 before you can pop it on the 4th turn, and I was judging the power level based on Elspeth, Knight-Errant. Your things can still die to mass removal and edict effects, and you can still be attacked - the emblem doesn't even help you keep your blockers around, unlike Elspeth's. I really don't see how it's broken.
As for the ultimate, in a vacuum it may seem to have holes for your opponent to recover, but in reality, you'll have a wall to stop his attackers and a counterspell to stop his mass removal. As GM said, it doesn't win you the game but it prevents you from losing it, making it a frustrating and pointless effort for your opponent. I personally would only NOT scoop to that ultimate if at that time both your hand and side of the board are empty.