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 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.
A dream again. Or implanted vision. Or telepathic eldritch powerpoint slide. Whatever you call it, you were expecting it. Perhaps you could say anticipating it. You've got into the spirit of the competition and you're invested in the work you've been doing. Your designer's skills have been put to extraneous challenge and you think you haven't done half bad: You've modeled the raw magical energies of a newborn plane into an inhabitable and powerful land and manipulated the relentless impulse of life into a shape that pleases you. Now for the inevitable next step...
You wake up hundreds of years in the future. The creatures their genesis you were in charge of have grown and multiplied and now are the dominant species in the plane. Their accumulated genetic experience and the lack of competition have developed their primitive minds to the point they're ripe for the apparition of consciousness; an event that will make them become something entirely different. That's where you enter the picture again. You smile.
Your task is clear:
Create a nonmythic, nonlegendary creature card that will showcase the evolution of your token creature from last round into higher, sapient beings.
-The creature must start as a version of the token(s) creature you created last round. You can change their p/t and add an evergreen keyword if you must, but otherwise they must retain the creature type, colors and abilities they previously had.
-It must have a mechanic that allows it to evolve into a different creature. E.g. Is a flip card, a leveler, changes modes with kicker/threshold/etc, is replaced by a token like Tuk-Tuk, etc. This mechanic has to tie somehow with the cards you've done before.
In addition you may try your hand at these optional requirements for your chance at bonus points:
1. The "evolution" mechanic is a new keyworded (or "abilityworded") mechanic of your creation.
2. The creatures goes through more than one stage of evolution: i.e. becomes something and then something else.
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.
Temple of Ancient Dreams
Legendary Land (M)
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool for each +1/+1 counter on a red creature you control.
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool for each +1/+1 counter on a green creature you control. In this land, one philosophy rules: power begets power. The land itself is not unaware of this fact.
Eruption of Life4RRGG
Tribal Sorcery - Hydra (U)
Affinity for +1/+1 counters.
Put X 1/1 red and green Hydra creature tokens with X +1/+1 counters on each of them where X is the number of +1/+1 counters that reduced the cost of this spell.
Consume X (Sacrifice a creature with less +1/+1 counters on it than this: put X +1/+1 counters on this for each +1/+1 counter on the sacrificed creature.)
Painspire Hydra4RG
Creature - Hydra (R)
Consume 2
If Painspire Hydra has ten or more +1/+1 counters on it, it gains "Put a 1/1 red and green Hydra creature token with devour 2 and consume 1 into play for each 1 damage dealt to Painspire Hydra."
1/1 The law of the land, manifest.
editing
In this world, power suffuses all from the instant it begins to exist. This creature is no exception. When conjured, his natural instincts kick in immediately, feeding on whatever fauna he can find, to bolster his strength. As time progresses, he continues to satiate his need to grow and defend himself through aggression. Sometimes he will have to roam for days on end to find other creatures large and powerful enough to feed his expanding appetite and another, nameless, faceless need. Then, when the 'meager' offerings provided by this land can no longer sate his hunger, he realizes he can emulate the land by creating life and, therefore, sustenance. He sheds a part of himself, infusing it with his own essence, giving it the opportunity to grow as he has, to become strong as he has, to become food for his new and inextinguishable appetite for power.
-Keyword exemplifies the evolution described in the flavor.
-Sapience is leaning more towards self-awareness with this card. Realizing things like the fact that he can use other things to defend himself and that he can create things to eat to make himself stronger. Addressing the fat that his hunger is no longer strictly for food, but power also.
-Multiples of this creature would evolve armies of sorts, waging wars for dominance of territory. At least, that's how I see this all going down in my plane.
-Note that they'd never allow any of their own spawn to grow stronger than themselves.
-Thinking about adding "T: Put a +1/+1 counter on Painspire Hydra.". Not sure.
-I wanted a card that's somewhere between the usual +1/+1 counter hydra and Sprouting Phytohydra.
-As for tokens with +1/+1 counters, I have to use them. The whole focus of this plane for me and the cards I've made is +1/+1 counters. In the last round, a lot of critics said I should have made the tokens X/X instead of 1/1 with +1/+1 counters. But where would the tie-in to my land have been then?? I have to use +1/+1 counters because that's the way my stuff works. So please keep that in mind when critiquing.
Evolutionary Precursor :symg::symg:
Creature - Fungus Plant (R)
:1mana::symg::symg::symg:, Exile Evolutionary Precursor: You may exile target creature card in your graveyard. Put a creature card with converted mana cost of 6 or less that shares a color with either of the exiled cards from your hand onto the battlefield.
:1mana::symg::symg:: Return Evolutionary Precursor to your hand. Play this ability only if Evolutionary Precursor is exiled.
1/1
Although a brand new keyworded mechanics would be pretty cool, I still want to try a leveler in a different way, partly because I have thought of this kind of design before. The primary aim of this card is to tie with my previous design to form a reasonable combo or synergy.
Might of the PrimordialRG
Creature - Elemental (R)
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may put a level counter on Might of the Primordial.
2/2
LEVEL 1-4
Might of the Primordial is an Elemental Shaman. T: Put an 1/1 red and green Elemental creature token onto the battlefield.
3/4
LEVEL 5+
Trample
Might of the Primordial is an Elemental Avatar.
Other Elemental creatures you control gets +2/+2.
5/6
FYI, the previous cards..
Surge of the Nature4RG
Sorcery (U)
Surge of the Nature costs 1 less for each Forest you control.
Put X 1/1 red and green Elemental creature tokens onto the battlefield, where X is the number of Mountains you control.
Sons of the Primordial emerge, as the wild Kal Sanda bellows for its awakening.
Kal Sanda, the Primordial
Legendary Land (MR) T: Add RG to your mana pool. Activate this ability only when you control a Mountain and a Forest. 2,T: Search your library for a Mountain or Forest card and put that card onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library.
Primary requirements.
1) The creature must start as a version of the token(s) creature you created last round. You can change their p/t and add an evergreen keyword if you must, but otherwise they must retain the creature type, colors and abilities they previously had.
Okay, so the creature is, at its base, a 1/1 blue and red Orb with flying. This is going to get interesting real quick.
2) It must have a mechanic that allows it to evolve into a different creature. E.g. Is a flip card, a leveler, changes modes with kicker/threshold/etc, is replaced by a token like Tuk-Tuk, etc. This mechanic has to tie somehow with the cards you've done before.
This is still Otaria, so Level Up or Flip cards make no sense from a flavor POV. Thankfully, this is the continent of Dominaria where Threshold and Flashback made their debuts.
Optional requirements:
1) The "evolution" mechanic is a new keyworded (or "abilityworded") mechanic of your creation.
Yeah, this was needed to make the other optional requirement (there's an oxymoron for you) viable.
2) The creature goes through more than one stage of evolution: i.e. becomes something and then something else.
Hmmm.
New keyword: Synergism (Whenever a player casts an instant or sorcery spell, put a charge counter on CARDNAME.)
El'tch Mystic :symu::symr:
Creature - Orb {R}
Flying
Synergism (Whenever a player casts an instant or sorcery spell, put a charger counter on El'tch Mystic.)
As long as El’tch Mystic has three or more charge counters on it, it gets +2/+2 and has hexproof.
As long as El’tch Mystic has seven or more charge counters on it, it has ":symur::symur:: Until end of turn, you may cast target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard."
{1/1}
And, yes, Synergism can trigger while the card with it is still on the stack. See: Lightning Storm.
Eldritch Awakenings :3mana::symu::symr:
Sorcery {U}
Put X 1/1 blue and red Orb creature tokens with flying onto the battlefield, where X is the total number of sorcery and instant cards in all graveyards.
Flashback :2mana::symu::symu::symr::symr: Even echoes of power can still call forth life.
Riptide Archive
Legendary Land {R}
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool.
:symtap:: Add two mana in any combination of colors to your mana pool. Spend this mana only to cast spells from your graveyard.
Glyphstone Circle
Legendary Land (R) 2, T: Add :symrg::symrg: to your mana pool.
Creature spells paid for with mana produced by Glyphstone Circle cost 1 less to cast for each of their colors. "Within the Circle, a sublime clarity of mind can be achieved, closing the gap between the druid and the savagery of nature."
- Okoma, fang druid acolyte
Essence Fracture1R
Sorcery (U)
Sacrifice a permanent. For each of that permanent's colors, put a 3/1 red Elemental creature token with haste onto the battlefield. Exile those tokens at the beginning of the next end step. Long before the druids drew power from the circles of predator and prey in the Feeding Grounds, primal forces whirled in the dance of consumption and reproduction.
Prismshard Ancient1RR
Creature - Elemental (R)
First strike, merge (When a creature dealt damage by this creature this turn dies, exile it merged with this creature.)
Prismshard Ancient gets +1/+0 for each creature merged with it and is all colors of those creatures.
As long as Prismshard Ancient is all colors, it's a Shaman in addition to its other types and has “T: Prismshard Ancient deals damage equal to its power to target creature or player." From the First Flame's dying coals, the Ancients rose.
3/1
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.
Nak' Ricarah, the Primal Spire
Legendary Land {R} T: Add one mana of any color among creatures you control. T, Sacrifice a creature: Add X mana of a single color among the sacrificed creature's colors to your mana pool, where X is the sacrificed creature's converted mana cost.
"It feeds off of surrounding creatures, and yet it seems in balance with it's surroundings... it's almost as if it were alive."
I understand that last round people were concerned for sacrificing multicolored creatures would cause an abnormal amount of mana. That said, I only meant for you to pick one, so... i tweaked it to fix that.
If you sacrifice a colorless creature, then you will not generate any mana, as there are no colors to choose from.
Primal Essense2GG
Instant {U}
As an additional cost to cast ~, sacrifice a creature.
Put 4 0/1 Elemental Tokens with "When this dies, you may add two mana of any one color to your mana pool." and "This creature is all colors" onto the battlefield.
Harmonious Entity2
Creature - Elemental {R}
Spend only colored mana to cast ~.
~ is all colors.
When ~ dies, add two mana of any one color to your mana pool.
Whenever you add colored mana to your mana pool, put a level counter on ~.
1/1
[5-13]: 2/3
[14+]: At the beginning of your upkeep, put a token into play that is a copy of ~. 3/4
As I began my first task, the slag-like, thrashing hunk of Zendikar to be known as Murasa lay before me, and I felt an unfathomable sense of despair. They say an empty canvas holds infinite possibilities, but even the most enlightened of artists has no use of such a canvas without inspiration, the tiny thread from which the tapestry of imagination unravels. Like a maddened Loredelver, I scour my mind for anything, any memory that would be the inspiring stroke. But for days, nothing.
The next few days went by quickly, and I had all but given in to the hopelessness. My mind drifted aimlessly, mesmerized by the mighty and unpredictable power of Zendikar, rock and magma whirling around in a dance of the elements. It reminded me so much of Zendikar in my time, but not driven by the destructive rage it is to have then; rather, peaceful, yearning to create. I remembered a conversation with one of the old invokers while resting at Enatu - she told me that the land was once always this way, and it was enraged by -
I snapped out of my trance.
false gods.
Yes, the Eldrazi are to change this land forever. But I have been on a fair few expeditions in my time, and one of them was now especially focused in my mind's eye. We were exploring one of the many cavern systems which made up the Maw of Lorthos when we stumbled across an ancient ruin (this was one of the most vivid memories I have, as our trapfinder Edil lost his third appendage here - the details of which make me laugh to this very day). At first glance, nothing out of the ordinary - until our loremaster Roya pointed out there were no hedrons in here. The implications were unimaginable - we may have been the first to discover a ruin older than the hedrons, and one the Roil has left untouched for aeons too! Treading carefully, we began exploring this wondrous find. Apart from a few escaped nulls and a faceleecher that unwisely tried to clamp onto Hix, there were no unwanted surprises. For most of us it was a disappointment that no treasures were found to be carried back to the expeditionary house, but Roya walked out wild-eyed with excitement. All the way back, she was telling us tales of ancient gods, far predating the gods we pray to now and even the Roil.
It was the one she called Kalara I tried to recall now - the name seemed familiar at the time, but it is only now I finally make the connection to the myth the Tuktuks used to tell us up near murasa. From what the petroglyphs had told Roya, Kalara was a walking monument to the reign of nature in Zendikar - like the farguides we spent years tracing, it would rove the continents, growing with each step as stone and vine yearned to become one with it. Man and beast alike would stand well clear of Kalara to avoid being crushed. One day, Kalara disappeared, never to be seen again, but the elves and goblins believe that if one was foolhardy enough to stand in the roil near Murasa, one would hear the ancient Stoneheart's words.
Perhaps, then, my goal was not to create Murasa, but rather the being that is to become Murasa. I began mustering up the mana to start shaping the stone, but it seems the land knew my intentions. Eagerly, almost hungrily, it churned like a cauldron of magma, erupting, cooling, infusing mana, this cycle repeated dozens of times. After two days of this, when my obsession started to give way to weariness, it finally emerged - a flawless, colossal heart of basalt glowed viciously with Zendikar's wild mana. As the ground beneath it cooled, a carpet of vegetation was racing towards the heart on the horizon. Tendril after tendril sought out the stone, caressing it, growing thicker. As the first hand unfolded, I knew my task was completed. I smiled, and closed my eyes...
Kalara the Stoneheart
Legendary Land Creature - Elemental {R} (Kalara the Stoneheart isn't a spell and is affected by summoning sickness.) ,T:Add RG to your mana pool. Put a +1/+1 counter on Kalara the Stoneheart. Kalara was the first true god zendikar's people knew. Murasa's spires now mark her tomb, her words still said to be howled by the Roil.
0/1
Tokenizens:
For many adventurers, a peaceful afternoon dozing in the sun is a price far more coveted than the most hallowed relic. As I awoke to a splitting headache, I realized that what had felt like a few moments of reprieve had passed as centuries below my feet. Glimpsing down from my ethereal perch, I saw that the land had begun emulating life - vicious Zendikons were preying upon each other, vegetation bursting forth behind them as they demolished the forest in their path. A form of crude ecosystem had established itself in the land, and countless varieties of ferns, trees and other plants had taken hold. Yet no animals were in sight, no trace of civilization present or otherwise. My next task was clear enough, but I didn't even know where to begin - Oleu once tried to teach me how to animate life, and even at that I failed spectacularly. And now I'm supposed to conjure living flesh from nothing?
Whatever was putting me up to this had made it pretty clear that failure was not an option, and the dull, persistent throbbing in my skull served as a reminder that giving up was equally futile. Pulling myself together, I began experimenting. It took a few hours for the experiments to show promise, but it didn't take an oracle to predict they weren't about to build temples and explore ruins. I could really use some help here, I thought to myself...
Hey, why not? I may not be able to whip up an elf of gorger yet, but nothing's stopping me from making things a little....simpler. After all, the Zendikons crawling around the place were animated by raw mana. All I needed was a catalyst, and with the right leverage, I should be able to make some form of golem or elemental familiar. Scanning the terrain for anything to shape, I began, once again, to experiment. I tried some local bramble and vines first - somewhat unsurprisingly, the resulting creatures weren't in any condition to think deep thoughts.
Next, stone - but that just made more Zendikons walk around assaulting each other. It did present an interesting opportunity though - by stroke of luck, two of the zendikons I raised were composed mainly of flint. As tooth and hide began smashing into each other, they showered the shrub below them with sparks. Taking careful aim, I channeled a bolt of ambient red mana into the resulting brushfire. A titan of an elemental rose from the blast, and although it seemed more intent on setting the remaining plants in the clearing on fire, its humanoid figure showed promise. Swiftly extinguising the elemental, I tried again, this time infusing the fire into a chunck of obsidian that had been exposed by the two thrashing Zendikons. Needless to say, a disaster (although it escaped before I could deal with it. Anyway, I'd be highly surprised if it was still around).
Preparing for my third attempt, I once again drew mana from the land beneath me. As sparks flew, I waited for the right moment to strike - when one of the flint elementals struck devastating blow on the other. Years of narrowly avoiding traps caused me to fire the mana-bolt too early, incinerating most of the shrapnel on its way down. it hit too early, and seemed to mingle with the sparks themselves. Curious and hesitant, I approached. When the dust cleared (it appeared one of the zendikons was slayed, and the other was busy adding the mana-infused stone shards to itself), four eerily human-like beings stood motionlessly in the battle's wake. Sparks crackled, dancing, merging, creating a lattice-like skin of living lightning. One heard me coming, and whistled a shrill warning to the others. Yes, these showed promise.
I lost track of time as each attempt to instill knowledge within them failed. I tried showing them how to start a fire with flint, but they just ended up attempting to each the shards. If they did grasp the concept of language, they weren't showing it. Frustrated to no end at this latest failed attempt, I prepared to start anew - and would have done so, if the intervention by a certain splitting headache telling my my task was done. This confused me, but I'm not one to say no to an afternoon nap in the sun...
Stonespark Summons4RR
Sorcery {U}
Put four 1/1 red Elemental creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Whenever a creature you control attacks, if it's a land, you may return Stonespark Summons from your graveyard to your hand. Between grinding tectonics and raw mana are living sparks born.
Elementolution
EDIT => Aagh, annoying - dwaynedu pretty much has the same card as me. Might try think of something else later.
EDIT II => Slightly different. Still fun.
Sparkborn AwakenerR
Creature - Elemental {R}
[L0-2] At the beginning of your upkeep, put two 1/1 red Elemental creature tokens onto the battlefield.
{4/2}
/\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\
Develop 3 - 3R(This creature enters the battlefield with three level counters on it. 3R: Add or remove a level counter from this. Develop only as a sorcery.)
{1/1}
\/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/
[L4+] Other Elemental creatures you control get +2/+2 and have haste.
{2/4}
I REALLY like the bonus challenges. They actually help me in a way by getting my creative juices flowing.
Team Agyrem
Round 1 Agyrem, City of Ghosts
Legendary Land T: Add W to your mana pool.
Whenever a creature you control dies, put a spirit counter on Agyrem, City of Ghosts. WW, T, Remove X spirit counters from Agyrem, City of Ghosts: Return target creature with converted mana cost X from your graveyard to your hand. If that creature is white, you may put it onto the battlefield instead.
Round 2 Soul Burst3W
Sorcery (U)
As an additional cost to cast Soul Burst, sacrifice a creature.
Put X 1/1 white Spirit creature tokens with flying onto the battlefield, where X is the sacrificed creature's toughness. If you could choose between being mortal and tangible or being immortal and intangible, which would you choose?
experimenting on new version...
Phantom SojournerWW
Creature - Spirit (R)
Flying Reincarnation - When this creature dies, until end of turn you may pay WWW. If you do, exile it from your graveyard and return it to the battlefield at the beginning of your next upkeep as a 3/3 white Spirit Shaman with flying and your choice of a +1/+1 counter, hexproof, or lifelink. Any counters or abilities gained this way remain on Phantom Sojourner as it moves to any zone other than a player's hand or library. This ability costs 1 more to activate each time after the first. Death is to be paid but a single visit.
1/1
I expect with this [Transform] mechanic that everyone playing a Werewolf tribal deck will say "Autobots, rollout!" whenever the majority of their army transforms.
Terra Prima
Legendary Land MR
Whenever a land would enter the battlefield under your control, that land enters the battlefield tapped instead. Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, add RG to your mana pool. Nowhere else in the multiverse does the land compete for its own dominance.
Packhunter BroodG
Sorcery U
As an additional cost to cast Packhunter Brood, return four lands you control to their owners' hands.
Put four 2/2 green Wolf creature tokens onto the battlefield. Having long adapted to the land's temperament, Zendikar's creatures learned to make their own hunting grounds.
Round 3 card:
Timberguide Wolf1G
Creature - Wolf U
Evolve (At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a level counter on this.) [2/2]
Level 1-3: Whenever Timberguide Wolf attacks, you may put a basic land card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped. [2/2]
Level 4+: Whenever Timberguide Wolf attacks, you may search your library for a basic land card and put that card onto the battlefield tapped. Then, shuffle your library. [3/4]
Create a nonmythic, nonlegendary creature card that will showcase the evolution of your token creature from last round into higher, sapient beings.
-The creature must start as a version of the token(s) creature you created last round. You can change their p/t and add an evergreen keyword if you must, but otherwise they must retain the creature type, colors and abilities they previously had.
-It must have a mechanic that allows it to evolve into a different creature. E.g. Is a flip card, a leveler, changes modes with kicker/threshold/etc, is replaced by a token like Tuk-Tuk, etc. This mechanic has to tie somehow with the cards you've done before.
In addition you may try your hand at these optional requirements for your chance at bonus points:
1. The "evolution" mechanic is a new keyworded (or "abilityworded") mechanic of your creation.
2. The creatures goes through more than one stage of evolution: i.e. becomes something and then something else.
So what I want is:
1. A creature that's nonlegendary and nonmythic, which represents a more advanced Wolf.
2. It must be playable as something relatively close to a 2/2 (with maybe an evergreen keyword and a p/t change).
3. At some point, it must also become or be playable as two different creatures via a new keyworded mechanic.
It strikes me that Skinshifter would come close to these requirements, but I'm not sure if I want to go in that direction.
Research time. The following keywords are the most obvious ones that can allow for "evolving" creatures, i.e. creatures that are playable in one form or another:
- Kicker
- Threshold
- Morph technically fits, since the creature can start out as a nameless 2/2.
- Hellbent
- Domain
- Multikicker
- Level Up
- Metalcraft
Apart from these, flip cards can also be used, as can cards that get replaced by tokens or other cards. Heck, creatures that get a permanent change in some manner would also work. However, these would be difficult if our aim is to make a creature that goes through two different states.
The keywords above can be classified into two categories:
1. Keywords where the conditional effect reflects the current state of a game zone:
- Threshold: Depends on number of cards in graveyard
- Hellbent: Depends on number of cards in hand
- Domain: Depends on basic land types in play
- Metalcraft: Depends on number of artifacts in play
2. Keywords where the conditional effect hinges on a voluntary payment
- Kicker / Multikicker: The additional cost must be paid when you cast the creature
- Morph: The additional cost is paid at a time of your choosing, but only once
- Level Up: The additional cost is paid at a time of your choosing, and can be paid multiple times
If I want a keyword that follows the first direction, I need a measurable quantity or state of play that I can use. If I want a keyword that follows the second direction, I need an event or trigger at which point the additional cost must be playable.
Taking the second approach, level counters seem pretty good for this. I mean, it's "Level Up" that's the keyword, which happens to be shorthand for "Pay a cost: Put a level counter on this creature". I recall a similar mechanic from the old You Make the Set thread, Experience, which was "Whenever this creature attacks, put a level counter on it"; my biggest issue was that it didn't allow for alternate abilities that could place a level counter as well. Say:
Amateur Archaeologist1W
Creature - Human Cleric 1W,T: Put target artifact card in your graveyard on the bottom of your library. Put a level counter on Amateur Archaeologist.
Level 3+: 1W,T: Return target artifact card from your graveyard to your hand. 1/3
1/1
The catch is that this might be too complex for a keyword / ability word, particularly if you want three different versions of the creature. However, triggered abilities might work... (I mean, they worked for Flip cards.)
Serial Killer2B
Creature - Human Minion
Whenever a creature is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, put a level counter on Serial Killer. B,T: Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
Level 3+: 1B,T: Destroy target creature. 3/2
2/1
That doesn't look bad, actually. And you can attach an ability word to the first clause, something like...
CARDNAME (cost)
Creature - ???
Evolve - Whenever (event happens), put a level counter on CARDNAME.
Level X-X: (ability)
Level X+: (ability)
*/*
Heck, why not just go for the obvious route? It looks like this hasn't been done yet...
CARDNAME (cost)
Creature - ???
Evolve - At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a level counter on CARDNAME.
Level X-X: (ability)
Level X+: (ability)
*/*
It sort of resembles a Suspend for cards in play; you're paying a minimal cost for something that will reach its full potential X turns from now. Note that it's a "may" clause - I don't want the possibility of creatures with a lot of level counters running around. In addition, it also allows you to "control" the evolution to a certain degree - you don't have to attain that third ability if you don't want to. In short, this makes it open to making conflicting abilities between the second and third incarnations.
The abilities, mind you, are something else entirely. I can think of one obvious mechanical tie to the past two cards:
CARDNAME (cost)
Creature - Wolf
Evolve - At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a level counter on CARDNAME.
Level X-X: Put a basic land card from your hand onto the battlefield. (Or "You may play an additional land this turn", or something like that.)
Level X+: Search for basic lands?
*/*
Now I want this to start as a 2/2, and if it involves putting lands into play, I want to keep the cost low. Beastbreaker of Bala Ged says that we can make an uncommon that is strictly better than Grizzly Bears...
CARDNAME1G
Creature - Wolf
Evolve - At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a level counter on CARDNAME.
Level X-X: Put a basic land card from your hand onto the battlefield. (Or "You may play an additional land this turn", or something like that.)
Level X+: Search for basic lands?
2/2
I'm not sure if I want this to tap for a basic land card, and doing the "you may play an additional land" approach may bump it up to rare (because it would otherwise be Exploration). Maybe if I trigger it via attacking?
CARDNAME1G
Creature - Wolf
Evolve - At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a level counter on CARDNAME.
Level 1-X: Whenever CARDNAME attacks, you may put a basic land card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped.
Level X+: Search for basic lands?
2/2
The natural progression, I think, involves pulling lands from your library:
CARDNAME1G
Creature - Wolf U
Evolve - At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a level counter on CARDNAME.
Level 1-X: Whenever CARDNAME attacks, you may put a basic land card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped. [2/2]
Level X+: Whenever CARDNAME attacks, you may search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library. [?/?]
2/2
That looks fairly good as an uncommon, I think.
So how long should I let it have that first ability? Technically you can likely have it attack at least once, but each turn after that it becomes a lot more obsolete. I think three levels is fine - it gives you three turns to play whatever additional lands you want, as long as you're willing to risk the creature. Turn six is fair enough for you to begin filtering lands out of your deck, and it won't automatically solve mana-screw problems that way.
CARDNAME1G
Creature - Wolf U
Evolve - At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a level counter on CARDNAME.
Level 1-3: Whenever CARDNAME attacks, you may put a basic land card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped. [2/2]
Level 4+: Whenever CARDNAME attacks, you may search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library. [3/4]
2/2
I would prefer an upgrade to 3/4 as opposed to 3/3, because that puts this guy out of Bolt range that way. And it's more substantial on the sixth turn.
No objections at this point, I think - let's package this. I'm disappointed that there's obviously no room for flavor text, though.
Unfortunately, (or rather, fortunately), my time is short since I recently got a job. Although I think I could still try to keep up with the contest, I'm not 100% sure, so rather than leave things in limbo, I'm afraid I'll be dropping. However, so as not to leave you hanging, here is my Top 3 for Team Otaria:
Round 1: Site of the First Haunting
Legendary Land
Whenever a creature you control dies, put a charge counter on Site of the First Haunting. T, Remove X charge counters from Site of the First Haunting: Add X white mana to your mana pool.
You may cast white creatures from your graveyard if you use only mana produced by Site of the First Haunting to do so.
Round 2: Fragile Wisps1W
Instant
Put 5 0/0 white Spirit creature tokens onto the battlefield. The first flickers of life flashed and dwindled like flames without candles. But some found wicks of hope upon which they could grow
Ascendant Essence1WW
Creature - Sprirt (R)
As Ascendant Essence enters the battlefield, you may remove a +1/+1 counter from a creature you control. If you do, Ascendant Essence enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it. Mourning - When another creature you control dies, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Ascendant Essence. If Ascendant Essence has four of more +1/+1 counters on it, put a +1/+1 counter on each other creature you control instead. Our birth a gift from the living, our growth a gift from the dead, our strength in turn a gift to others
0/0
Mourning is intended to be a potential ability word for a graveyard-themed set where all mourning abilities trigger on other creatures you control dying, but the abilities do different things - similar to landfall.
It must have a mechanic that allows it to evolve into a different creature. E.g. Is a flip card, a leveler, changes modes with kicker/threshold/etc, is replaced by a token like Tuk-Tuk, etc. This mechanic has to tie somehow with the cards you've done before.
(emphasis mine)
Do you mean that the mechanic has to tie to one of the cards we've done before, or to both of them? It seems like it could be read either way.
@Ikeda: that made my day
@brazil_dude: thanks. If you find yourself some time to submit before the eve of Friday, feel welcome to stay in the contest.
@CodGod: any, though I'm mostly hoping that you'll keep some kind of conductive thread that makes all your submissions seem as part of the same creative effort. Emphasis on "hoping".
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: My token generator could produce both saprolings and wurms. Hardcasted for saprolings, wurms with flashback. How can I choose the base creature? Saprolings since it was the 'normal' way, wurms to represent some sort of evolution already, or I'm free to choose as I want?
@Maokun: My token generator could produce both saprolings and wurms. Hardcasted for saprolings, wurms with flashback. How can I choose the base creature? Saprolings since it was the 'normal' way, wurms to represent some sort of evolution already, or I'm free to choose as I want?
Feel free to choose whichever. I'd go for the most exciting ones, personally. (Hint: wurms)
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.
Twilight TravelerBW
Creature R
Flying, lifelink Devolution - As long as your life total is even, Twilight Traveler is a 1/1 Spirit. Evolution - As long as your life total is odd, Twilight Traveler is a 3/3 Bird Nomad.
*/*
Saproling Runner G
Creature -- Saproling (R)
Level up G 1/1
Level 3-7
If Saproling Runner would be damaged, prevent 1 of that damage.
2/3
Level 8+
Trample
Saproling Runner can't be destroyed by lethal damage.
5/4
Child of Ndoba
Land Creature - Forest Elemental
At the beginning of your end step, if three or more lands entered the battlefield under your control, you may flip Child of Ndoba.
1/1
///////////////////////////// Farseeder Weirwood
Creature - Elemental Treefolk T, return a forest you control to its owner's hand: Search your library for a land card and put that card onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library. The farseeders shape raw forest into elegant spires for their awakening brethen.
3/4
Way wordier than I wanted, but not sure I can do that much about it. Since
-The creature must start as a version of the token(s) creature you created last round. You can change their p/t and add an evergreen keyword if you must, but otherwise they must retain the creature type, colors and abilities they previously had.
I had to start with a land creature. A strict upgrade to Dryad Arbor, which worries me, but it was already so stuffed full of text... The condition should be pretty hard to accomplish, unless you use my previous spell or save up a fetchland so you can crack two at once. However, it preserves constant use landfall without losing tempo, and builds other copies of itself. My legendary land digs the extra landfall this wants to play with, and loves making sure it can tap for 2+ every turn (Bounce a land to search, untapping it, then playing the bounced land).
Flavorwise, treefolk here are trees animated by the elemental energies around them. The kind of wispy elementals get a hard physical body, and begin to build civilization (non-basic lands). Weirwood... well, I just finished G.R.R. Martin's Dance of Dragons, and it's on the brain.
Ndoba, Pillar of the Sky
Legendary Land
Ndoba, Pillar of the Sky doesn't untap during your untap step. t: Add G to your mana pool.
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, untap Ndoba, Pillar of the Sky.
Natural Defenses2G
Sorcery (c)
Put two 1/1 green Forest Elemental land creature tokens onto the battlefield. Ndoba's roots draw from the land to empower it.
Alpha Firecat -- 3RR
Creature - Elemental Cat (R)
Haste, trample Augment — Whenever you cast a spell, if you did not cast it from your hand, choose blue or white. Alpha Firecat is now the chosen color in addition to its other colors.
If Alpha Firecat is blue, it has “Whenever Firecat Elder deals damage to an opponent, you may draw a card.” If it is white, it has first strike. If it is three or more colors, it gets +2/+4.
4/2
@ the upper left mana symbols: These are meant to be used to help indicate what color(s) the creature has become without having to remember as much as it can be marked with a token. It would have something more like the Future Sight manacost to frame the symbols, but my meager Paint skills should suffice to get the point across.
So an evolved firecat with haste is the challenge. While it is easy enough to make a multi-stage evolution, it is hard to make into a new keyword. I started with a pretty good design IMO:
2RR
Creature - Elemental Cat
Haste, trample
When ~ deals combat damage to a player, put a token onto the battlefield that is a copy of it with two +1/+1 counters.
2/1
It evolves by splitting itself, but becoming stronger at each step. However, this could not be keyworded well and it didn't fit with any of my previous cards, so it had to be discarded. I then stumbled on this design:
1RR
Creature - Elemental Cat
Haste, trample
Whenever you cast a spell, if it was not from your hand, exile it when it resolves. ~ gets +2/+2 for each red card exiled this way and gains "Whenever ~
deals combat damage to an opponent, draw a card" if a blue card is exiled this way.
3/1
This is closer to the final one, and made me decide to reintroduce the aspects of the different colors. It interacts with my Round 2 submission well...but not so much with other permanent spells I cast this way. Also, the pseudo-imprint mechanic wasn't really what I was looking for. Think about other colors gave me a great idea for a keyword ability which I incorporated in the final design. The ability is: Augment - Whenever [some condition is met], choose [some choice of colors]. ~ is now the chosen color in addition to its other colors.
I had this image of a creature learning about colors different to its own and incorporating that magic to become stronger. I made this obvious with the Alpha Firecat, but the mechanic can prove to be used in a much more subtle way.
EDIT: Changed name and creature type to reflect the challenge properly.
Just a reminder to everyone: your card must represent the token creature before evolution (and after). Meaning that your card shouldn't have a "class" (warrior, shaman, etc.) You can have the card gain a class in the evolution, like for example the way Figure of Destiny does.
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.
Gaea's Temple
Legendary Land (R)
Tap an untapped red or green creature you control,:symtap:: Add :symr::symg: to your mana pool. If that mana is spent on a creature spell, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature and it gains haste until end of turn. Those who know where and how to worship nature can give the greatest of gift.
Frenzy of Wurms :symrg::symrg::symrg:
Sorcery (U)
As an additional cost to cast Frenzy of Wurms sacrifice any number of forest and/or mountains you control. For each forest or mountain sacrificed this way put a 3/3 red and green wurm creature token onto the battlefield. For each land sacrificed this way choose one - put a +1/+1 counter on a creature you control or target creature gains haste until end of turn.
This round's card:
Tilling Wurm1RGG
Creature - Wurm (U)
Ravage - Land (Sacrifice a land - Put a +1/+1 counter on Tilling Wurm. You may use this ability once each turn.)
If Tilling Wurm has 2 or more +1/+1 counters it gains trample.
If Tilling Wurm has 3 or more +1/+1 counters it gains "Whenever Tilling Wurm deals damage to an opponent return target land from your graveyard to your hand.
3/3
Y = Total number of Possible Points (3 * Number of Judges + Additional Points)
Previously in the CCL... ! !!
A dream again. Or implanted vision. Or telepathic eldritch powerpoint slide. Whatever you call it, you were expecting it. Perhaps you could say anticipating it. You've got into the spirit of the competition and you're invested in the work you've been doing. Your designer's skills have been put to extraneous challenge and you think you haven't done half bad: You've modeled the raw magical energies of a newborn plane into an inhabitable and powerful land and manipulated the relentless impulse of life into a shape that pleases you. Now for the inevitable next step...
You wake up hundreds of years in the future. The creatures their genesis you were in charge of have grown and multiplied and now are the dominant species in the plane. Their accumulated genetic experience and the lack of competition have developed their primitive minds to the point they're ripe for the apparition of consciousness; an event that will make them become something entirely different. That's where you enter the picture again. You smile.
Your task is clear:
Create a nonmythic, nonlegendary creature card that will showcase the evolution of your token creature from last round into higher, sapient beings.
-The creature must start as a version of the token(s) creature you created last round. You can change their p/t and add an evergreen keyword if you must, but otherwise they must retain the creature type, colors and abilities they previously had.
-It must have a mechanic that allows it to evolve into a different creature. E.g. Is a flip card, a leveler, changes modes with kicker/threshold/etc, is replaced by a token like Tuk-Tuk, etc. This mechanic has to tie somehow with the cards you've done before.
In addition you may try your hand at these optional requirements for your chance at bonus points:
1. The "evolution" mechanic is a new keyworded (or "abilityworded") mechanic of your creation.
2. The creatures goes through more than one stage of evolution: i.e. becomes something and then something else.
Teams and standings
CodGod 11.8 +[(2+2+3+1+2+3+1+1/22)*100] +4.5 = 84.5
Vexing Arcanix 61.8 +[(1+1/22)*100] +4.5 = 75.4
Zoomba 25.5 +[(1+1+3+2/22)*100] = 57.3
Monkey Playing MTG 23.6 +[(3/22)*100] +4.5 = 41.7
Mundus 26.5 +[(2+1/22)*100] = 39.8
Hyral 17.6 +[(3+1/22)*100] = 35.8
Rimeshade 23.6 +[(2/22)*100] = 32.7
ParaSiempre 17.7 +[(3/22)*100] = 30.3
KarmicNoose 11.8 +[(1+1/22)*100] +9 = 29.9
Rudyard 3 +[(3+1+1/22)*100] = 25.7
Jimmy Groove 35.4 +[(2/22)*100] +4.5 = 49Team Otaria
Eventide Sojourner 56 +[(1+3+3+2+2+1+2/22)*100] +4.5 = 123.8
Benjammn 41.2 +[(1+3+3+1+3/22)*100] +9 = 100.2
Solesticio 8.8 +[(3+2+2+1+1+1/22)*100] +9 = 63.3
Timothy, Mimeslayer 20.5 +[(2+1/22)*100] +9 = 43.1
NotoriusLynx 29.5 +[(1+1/22)*100] = 38.6
Man-Eating Donkey 30.4 +[(1/22)*100] = 34.9
CrustaceanCrusader 17.7 +[(1/22)*100] +4.5 = 26.7
Phyrexian Editor 11.8PsiJet 3 +[(0/22)*100] = 3Team Feeding Grounds
shadowfuryix 54 +[(2+1+2+3+1+1+3+2+1+3+2/31)*100] +6.4 = 128.1
Twilight Kiwi 16 +[(3+3+1+3+2+3+1+1+3/31)*100] +3.2 = 83.7
Gerrard's Mom 36 +[(1+2+1+3+1+1+1+1+1/31)*100] +3.2 = 70.9
Morguloth 36 +[(3+2+3/31)*100] +3.2 = 65
MagicBrains 56 +[(1/31)*100] = 59.2
Krey 24 +[(2+1+2/31)*100] = 40.1
DeusofCalamity 4 +[(2+1+1/31)*100] +3.2 = 20.1
CrimsonCrossfire 28Team Murasa
Ikeda 60+[(2+2+3+3+3+1/25)*100] +8 = 124
Oculus 48+[(3+1+1+1+1/25)*100] +4 = 80
dwaynedu 20 +[(2+3+3+3+2+1/25)*100] +4 = 80
Pocketwatch 24 +[(1+2+2/25)*100] = 44
void_nothing 24 +[(1+1/25)*100] +4 = 36
Brasil_dude101 8 +[(1+2+2+1+3/25)*100] +4 =48Piar 24 +[(1/25)*100] +4 = 32Paradigm Eighty 28 +[(0/25)*100] = 28Miccu, Agent of Serra 20 +[(0/25)*100] = 20~Aura~ 16Brofaux 4This round will be open until thursday's midnight, when it becomes friday (GTM 0)
Temple of Ancient Dreams
Legendary Land (M)
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool for each +1/+1 counter on a red creature you control.
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool for each +1/+1 counter on a green creature you control.
In this land, one philosophy rules: power begets power. The land itself is not unaware of this fact.
Eruption of Life 4RRGG
Tribal Sorcery - Hydra (U)
Affinity for +1/+1 counters.
Put X 1/1 red and green Hydra creature tokens with X +1/+1 counters on each of them where X is the number of +1/+1 counters that reduced the cost of this spell.
Consume X (Sacrifice a creature with less +1/+1 counters on it than this: put X +1/+1 counters on this for each +1/+1 counter on the sacrificed creature.)
Painspire Hydra 4RG
Creature - Hydra (R)
Consume 2
If Painspire Hydra has ten or more +1/+1 counters on it, it gains "Put a 1/1 red and green Hydra creature token with devour 2 and consume 1 into play for each 1 damage dealt to Painspire Hydra."
1/1
The law of the land, manifest.
editing
-Keyword exemplifies the evolution described in the flavor.
-Sapience is leaning more towards self-awareness with this card. Realizing things like the fact that he can use other things to defend himself and that he can create things to eat to make himself stronger. Addressing the fat that his hunger is no longer strictly for food, but power also.
-Multiples of this creature would evolve armies of sorts, waging wars for dominance of territory. At least, that's how I see this all going down in my plane.
-Note that they'd never allow any of their own spawn to grow stronger than themselves.
-Thinking about adding "T: Put a +1/+1 counter on Painspire Hydra.". Not sure.
-I wanted a card that's somewhere between the usual +1/+1 counter hydra and Sprouting Phytohydra.
-As for tokens with +1/+1 counters, I have to use them. The whole focus of this plane for me and the cards I've made is +1/+1 counters. In the last round, a lot of critics said I should have made the tokens X/X instead of 1/1 with +1/+1 counters. But where would the tie-in to my land have been then?? I have to use +1/+1 counters because that's the way my stuff works. So please keep that in mind when critiquing.
This is for me more than it is for anyone else. I sucks at colors.
Legendary Land
Token Generator
Evolutionary Precursor :symg::symg:
Creature - Fungus Plant (R)
:1mana::symg::symg::symg:, Exile Evolutionary Precursor: You may exile target creature card in your graveyard. Put a creature card with converted mana cost of 6 or less that shares a color with either of the exiled cards from your hand onto the battlefield.
:1mana::symg::symg:: Return Evolutionary Precursor to your hand. Play this ability only if Evolutionary Precursor is exiled.
1/1
Although a brand new keyworded mechanics would be pretty cool, I still want to try a leveler in a different way, partly because I have thought of this kind of design before. The primary aim of this card is to tie with my previous design to form a reasonable combo or synergy.
Might of the Primordial RG
Creature - Elemental (R)
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, you may put a level counter on Might of the Primordial.
2/2
LEVEL 1-4
Might of the Primordial is an Elemental Shaman.
T: Put an 1/1 red and green Elemental creature token onto the battlefield.
3/4
LEVEL 5+
Trample
Might of the Primordial is an Elemental Avatar.
Other Elemental creatures you control gets +2/+2.
5/6
FYI, the previous cards..
Surge of the Nature 4RG
Sorcery (U)
Surge of the Nature costs 1 less for each Forest you control.
Put X 1/1 red and green Elemental creature tokens onto the battlefield, where X is the number of Mountains you control.
Sons of the Primordial emerge, as the wild Kal Sanda bellows for its awakening.
Kal Sanda, the Primordial
Legendary Land (MR)
T: Add RG to your mana pool. Activate this ability only when you control a Mountain and a Forest.
2,T: Search your library for a Mountain or Forest card and put that card onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library.
Currently Playing:
Standard: Bant Tokens / Jeskai Tutelage
Modern: Temur Twin / GR Tron
Legacy: Miracles / Grixis Delver
Primary requirements.
1) The creature must start as a version of the token(s) creature you created last round. You can change their p/t and add an evergreen keyword if you must, but otherwise they must retain the creature type, colors and abilities they previously had.
Okay, so the creature is, at its base, a 1/1 blue and red Orb with flying. This is going to get interesting real quick.
2) It must have a mechanic that allows it to evolve into a different creature. E.g. Is a flip card, a leveler, changes modes with kicker/threshold/etc, is replaced by a token like Tuk-Tuk, etc. This mechanic has to tie somehow with the cards you've done before.
This is still Otaria, so Level Up or Flip cards make no sense from a flavor POV. Thankfully, this is the continent of Dominaria where Threshold and Flashback made their debuts.
Optional requirements:
1) The "evolution" mechanic is a new keyworded (or "abilityworded") mechanic of your creation.
Yeah, this was needed to make the other optional requirement (there's an oxymoron for you) viable.
2) The creature goes through more than one stage of evolution: i.e. becomes something and then something else.
Hmmm.
New keyword: Synergism (Whenever a player casts an instant or sorcery spell, put a charge counter on CARDNAME.)
El'tch Mystic :symu::symr:
Creature - Orb {R}
Flying
Synergism (Whenever a player casts an instant or sorcery spell, put a charger counter on El'tch Mystic.)
As long as El’tch Mystic has three or more charge counters on it, it gets +2/+2 and has hexproof.
As long as El’tch Mystic has seven or more charge counters on it, it has ":symur::symur:: Until end of turn, you may cast target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard."
{1/1}
And, yes, Synergism can trigger while the card with it is still on the stack. See: Lightning Storm.
Eldritch Awakenings :3mana::symu::symr:
Sorcery {U}
Put X 1/1 blue and red Orb creature tokens with flying onto the battlefield, where X is the total number of sorcery and instant cards in all graveyards.
Flashback :2mana::symu::symu::symr::symr:
Even echoes of power can still call forth life.
Riptide Archive
Legendary Land {R}
:symtap:: Add to your mana pool.
:symtap:: Add two mana in any combination of colors to your mana pool. Spend this mana only to cast spells from your graveyard.
Also, can we get a clear definition on sapient? Thanks.
This is for me more than it is for anyone else. I sucks at colors.
Legendary Land (R)
2, T: Add :symrg::symrg: to your mana pool.
Creature spells paid for with mana produced by Glyphstone Circle cost 1 less to cast for each of their colors.
"Within the Circle, a sublime clarity of mind can be achieved, closing the gap between the druid and the savagery of nature."
- Okoma, fang druid acolyte
Sorcery (U)
Sacrifice a permanent. For each of that permanent's colors, put a 3/1 red Elemental creature token with haste onto the battlefield. Exile those tokens at the beginning of the next end step.
Long before the druids drew power from the circles of predator and prey in the Feeding Grounds, primal forces whirled in the dance of consumption and reproduction.
Creature - Elemental (R)
First strike, merge (When a creature dealt damage by this creature this turn dies, exile it merged with this creature.)
Prismshard Ancient gets +1/+0 for each creature merged with it and is all colors of those creatures.
As long as Prismshard Ancient is all colors, it's a Shaman in addition to its other types and has “T: Prismshard Ancient deals damage equal to its power to target creature or player."
From the First Flame's dying coals, the Ancients rose.
3/1
My First (And Probably Only) MCC Perfect Score: December 09 (Round One)
No, nonlegendary everywhere, at all times.
Sapient: human-like intelligence/self-awareness, etc.
Legendary Land {R}
T: Add one mana of any color among creatures you control.
T, Sacrifice a creature: Add X mana of a single color among the sacrificed creature's colors to your mana pool, where X is the sacrificed creature's converted mana cost.
"It feeds off of surrounding creatures, and yet it seems in balance with it's surroundings... it's almost as if it were alive."
I understand that last round people were concerned for sacrificing multicolored creatures would cause an abnormal amount of mana. That said, I only meant for you to pick one, so... i tweaked it to fix that.
If you sacrifice a colorless creature, then you will not generate any mana, as there are no colors to choose from.
Primal Essense 2GG
Instant {U}
As an additional cost to cast ~, sacrifice a creature.
Put 4 0/1 Elemental Tokens with "When this dies, you may add two mana of any one color to your mana pool." and "This creature is all colors" onto the battlefield.
Harmonious Entity 2
Creature - Elemental {R}
Spend only colored mana to cast ~.
~ is all colors.
When ~ dies, add two mana of any one color to your mana pool.
Whenever you add colored mana to your mana pool, put a level counter on ~.
1/1
[5-13]: 2/3
[14+]: At the beginning of your upkeep, put a token into play that is a copy of ~. 3/4
Take a mechanic from the pre-mirrodin era, and a mechanic after the mirrodin era, and create a card that flavorfully melds both mechanics.
Flav-o-plot! 2/3 complete
Origin Land:
As I began my first task, the slag-like, thrashing hunk of Zendikar to be known as Murasa lay before me, and I felt an unfathomable sense of despair. They say an empty canvas holds infinite possibilities, but even the most enlightened of artists has no use of such a canvas without inspiration, the tiny thread from which the tapestry of imagination unravels. Like a maddened Loredelver, I scour my mind for anything, any memory that would be the inspiring stroke. But for days, nothing.
The next few days went by quickly, and I had all but given in to the hopelessness. My mind drifted aimlessly, mesmerized by the mighty and unpredictable power of Zendikar, rock and magma whirling around in a dance of the elements. It reminded me so much of Zendikar in my time, but not driven by the destructive rage it is to have then; rather, peaceful, yearning to create. I remembered a conversation with one of the old invokers while resting at Enatu - she told me that the land was once always this way, and it was enraged by -
I snapped out of my trance.
false gods.
Yes, the Eldrazi are to change this land forever. But I have been on a fair few expeditions in my time, and one of them was now especially focused in my mind's eye. We were exploring one of the many cavern systems which made up the Maw of Lorthos when we stumbled across an ancient ruin (this was one of the most vivid memories I have, as our trapfinder Edil lost his third appendage here - the details of which make me laugh to this very day). At first glance, nothing out of the ordinary - until our loremaster Roya pointed out there were no hedrons in here. The implications were unimaginable - we may have been the first to discover a ruin older than the hedrons, and one the Roil has left untouched for aeons too! Treading carefully, we began exploring this wondrous find. Apart from a few escaped nulls and a faceleecher that unwisely tried to clamp onto Hix, there were no unwanted surprises. For most of us it was a disappointment that no treasures were found to be carried back to the expeditionary house, but Roya walked out wild-eyed with excitement. All the way back, she was telling us tales of ancient gods, far predating the gods we pray to now and even the Roil.
It was the one she called Kalara I tried to recall now - the name seemed familiar at the time, but it is only now I finally make the connection to the myth the Tuktuks used to tell us up near murasa. From what the petroglyphs had told Roya, Kalara was a walking monument to the reign of nature in Zendikar - like the farguides we spent years tracing, it would rove the continents, growing with each step as stone and vine yearned to become one with it. Man and beast alike would stand well clear of Kalara to avoid being crushed. One day, Kalara disappeared, never to be seen again, but the elves and goblins believe that if one was foolhardy enough to stand in the roil near Murasa, one would hear the ancient Stoneheart's words.
Perhaps, then, my goal was not to create Murasa, but rather the being that is to become Murasa. I began mustering up the mana to start shaping the stone, but it seems the land knew my intentions. Eagerly, almost hungrily, it churned like a cauldron of magma, erupting, cooling, infusing mana, this cycle repeated dozens of times. After two days of this, when my obsession started to give way to weariness, it finally emerged - a flawless, colossal heart of basalt glowed viciously with Zendikar's wild mana. As the ground beneath it cooled, a carpet of vegetation was racing towards the heart on the horizon. Tendril after tendril sought out the stone, caressing it, growing thicker. As the first hand unfolded, I knew my task was completed. I smiled, and closed my eyes...
Kalara the Stoneheart
Legendary Land Creature - Elemental {R}
(Kalara the Stoneheart isn't a spell and is affected by summoning sickness.)
,T:Add RG to your mana pool. Put a +1/+1 counter on Kalara the Stoneheart.
Kalara was the first true god zendikar's people knew. Murasa's spires now mark her tomb, her words still said to be howled by the Roil.
0/1
Tokenizens:
For many adventurers, a peaceful afternoon dozing in the sun is a price far more coveted than the most hallowed relic. As I awoke to a splitting headache, I realized that what had felt like a few moments of reprieve had passed as centuries below my feet. Glimpsing down from my ethereal perch, I saw that the land had begun emulating life - vicious Zendikons were preying upon each other, vegetation bursting forth behind them as they demolished the forest in their path. A form of crude ecosystem had established itself in the land, and countless varieties of ferns, trees and other plants had taken hold. Yet no animals were in sight, no trace of civilization present or otherwise. My next task was clear enough, but I didn't even know where to begin - Oleu once tried to teach me how to animate life, and even at that I failed spectacularly. And now I'm supposed to conjure living flesh from nothing?
Whatever was putting me up to this had made it pretty clear that failure was not an option, and the dull, persistent throbbing in my skull served as a reminder that giving up was equally futile. Pulling myself together, I began experimenting. It took a few hours for the experiments to show promise, but it didn't take an oracle to predict they weren't about to build temples and explore ruins. I could really use some help here, I thought to myself...
Hey, why not? I may not be able to whip up an elf of gorger yet, but nothing's stopping me from making things a little....simpler. After all, the Zendikons crawling around the place were animated by raw mana. All I needed was a catalyst, and with the right leverage, I should be able to make some form of golem or elemental familiar. Scanning the terrain for anything to shape, I began, once again, to experiment. I tried some local bramble and vines first - somewhat unsurprisingly, the resulting creatures weren't in any condition to think deep thoughts.
Next, stone - but that just made more Zendikons walk around assaulting each other. It did present an interesting opportunity though - by stroke of luck, two of the zendikons I raised were composed mainly of flint. As tooth and hide began smashing into each other, they showered the shrub below them with sparks. Taking careful aim, I channeled a bolt of ambient red mana into the resulting brushfire. A titan of an elemental rose from the blast, and although it seemed more intent on setting the remaining plants in the clearing on fire, its humanoid figure showed promise. Swiftly extinguising the elemental, I tried again, this time infusing the fire into a chunck of obsidian that had been exposed by the two thrashing Zendikons. Needless to say, a disaster (although it escaped before I could deal with it. Anyway, I'd be highly surprised if it was still around).
Preparing for my third attempt, I once again drew mana from the land beneath me. As sparks flew, I waited for the right moment to strike - when one of the flint elementals struck devastating blow on the other. Years of narrowly avoiding traps caused me to fire the mana-bolt too early, incinerating most of the shrapnel on its way down. it hit too early, and seemed to mingle with the sparks themselves. Curious and hesitant, I approached. When the dust cleared (it appeared one of the zendikons was slayed, and the other was busy adding the mana-infused stone shards to itself), four eerily human-like beings stood motionlessly in the battle's wake. Sparks crackled, dancing, merging, creating a lattice-like skin of living lightning. One heard me coming, and whistled a shrill warning to the others. Yes, these showed promise.
I lost track of time as each attempt to instill knowledge within them failed. I tried showing them how to start a fire with flint, but they just ended up attempting to each the shards. If they did grasp the concept of language, they weren't showing it. Frustrated to no end at this latest failed attempt, I prepared to start anew - and would have done so, if the intervention by a certain splitting headache telling my my task was done. This confused me, but I'm not one to say no to an afternoon nap in the sun...
Stonespark Summons 4RR
Sorcery {U}
Put four 1/1 red Elemental creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Whenever a creature you control attacks, if it's a land, you may return Stonespark Summons from your graveyard to your hand.
Between grinding tectonics and raw mana are living sparks born.
Elementolution
EDIT => Aagh, annoying - dwaynedu pretty much has the same card as me. Might try think of something else later.
EDIT II => Slightly different. Still fun.
Sparkborn Awakener R
Creature - Elemental {R}
[L0-2] At the beginning of your upkeep, put two 1/1 red Elemental creature tokens onto the battlefield.
{4/2}
Develop 3 - 3R (This creature enters the battlefield with three level counters on it. 3R: Add or remove a level counter from this. Develop only as a sorcery.)
{1/1}
[L4+] Other Elemental creatures you control get +2/+2 and have haste.
{2/4}
[Clan Flamingo] Tier Archivist
[15:21] <@CC> Remember, if you argue, you are an idiot.
Untrophied Wins:
Perfect MCC Scores: 2
---------------------------------------------------------------
I REALLY like the bonus challenges. They actually help me in a way by getting my creative juices flowing.
Team Agyrem
Agyrem, City of Ghosts
Legendary Land
T: Add W to your mana pool.
Whenever a creature you control dies, put a spirit counter on Agyrem, City of Ghosts.
WW, T, Remove X spirit counters from Agyrem, City of Ghosts: Return target creature with converted mana cost X from your graveyard to your hand. If that creature is white, you may put it onto the battlefield instead.
Round 2
Soul Burst 3W
Sorcery (U)
As an additional cost to cast Soul Burst, sacrifice a creature.
Put X 1/1 white Spirit creature tokens with flying onto the battlefield, where X is the sacrificed creature's toughness.
If you could choose between being mortal and tangible or being immortal and intangible, which would you choose?
Phantom Sojourner WW
Creature - Spirit (R)
Flying
Reincarnation - When this creature dies, until end of turn you may pay WWW. If you do, exile it from your graveyard and return it to the battlefield at the beginning of your next upkeep as a 3/3 white Spirit Shaman with flying and your choice of a +1/+1 counter, hexproof, or lifelink. Any counters or abilities gained this way remain on Phantom Sojourner as it moves to any zone other than a player's hand or library. This ability costs 1 more to activate each time after the first.
Death is to be paid but a single visit.
1/1
Amazing banners made by Brofaux.
Terra Prima
Legendary Land MR
Whenever a land would enter the battlefield under your control, that land enters the battlefield tapped instead.
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, add RG to your mana pool.
Nowhere else in the multiverse does the land compete for its own dominance.
Packhunter Brood G
Sorcery U
As an additional cost to cast Packhunter Brood, return four lands you control to their owners' hands.
Put four 2/2 green Wolf creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Having long adapted to the land's temperament, Zendikar's creatures learned to make their own hunting grounds.
Round 3 card:
Timberguide Wolf 1G
Creature - Wolf U
Evolve (At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a level counter on this.) [2/2]
Level 1-3: Whenever Timberguide Wolf attacks, you may put a basic land card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped. [2/2]
Level 4+: Whenever Timberguide Wolf attacks, you may search your library for a basic land card and put that card onto the battlefield tapped. Then, shuffle your library. [3/4]
So what I want is:
1. A creature that's nonlegendary and nonmythic, which represents a more advanced Wolf.
2. It must be playable as something relatively close to a 2/2 (with maybe an evergreen keyword and a p/t change).
3. At some point, it must also become or be playable as two different creatures via a new keyworded mechanic.
It strikes me that Skinshifter would come close to these requirements, but I'm not sure if I want to go in that direction.
Research time. The following keywords are the most obvious ones that can allow for "evolving" creatures, i.e. creatures that are playable in one form or another:
- Kicker
- Threshold
- Morph technically fits, since the creature can start out as a nameless 2/2.
- Hellbent
- Domain
- Multikicker
- Level Up
- Metalcraft
Apart from these, flip cards can also be used, as can cards that get replaced by tokens or other cards. Heck, creatures that get a permanent change in some manner would also work. However, these would be difficult if our aim is to make a creature that goes through two different states.
The keywords above can be classified into two categories:
1. Keywords where the conditional effect reflects the current state of a game zone:
- Threshold: Depends on number of cards in graveyard
- Hellbent: Depends on number of cards in hand
- Domain: Depends on basic land types in play
- Metalcraft: Depends on number of artifacts in play
2. Keywords where the conditional effect hinges on a voluntary payment
- Kicker / Multikicker: The additional cost must be paid when you cast the creature
- Morph: The additional cost is paid at a time of your choosing, but only once
- Level Up: The additional cost is paid at a time of your choosing, and can be paid multiple times
If I want a keyword that follows the first direction, I need a measurable quantity or state of play that I can use. If I want a keyword that follows the second direction, I need an event or trigger at which point the additional cost must be playable.
Taking the second approach, level counters seem pretty good for this. I mean, it's "Level Up" that's the keyword, which happens to be shorthand for "Pay a cost: Put a level counter on this creature". I recall a similar mechanic from the old You Make the Set thread, Experience, which was "Whenever this creature attacks, put a level counter on it"; my biggest issue was that it didn't allow for alternate abilities that could place a level counter as well. Say:
Amateur Archaeologist 1W
Creature - Human Cleric
1W,T: Put target artifact card in your graveyard on the bottom of your library. Put a level counter on Amateur Archaeologist.
Level 3+: 1W,T: Return target artifact card from your graveyard to your hand. 1/3
1/1
The catch is that this might be too complex for a keyword / ability word, particularly if you want three different versions of the creature. However, triggered abilities might work... (I mean, they worked for Flip cards.)
Serial Killer 2B
Creature - Human Minion
Whenever a creature is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, put a level counter on Serial Killer.
B,T: Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
Level 3+: 1B,T: Destroy target creature. 3/2
2/1
That doesn't look bad, actually. And you can attach an ability word to the first clause, something like...
CARDNAME (cost)
Creature - ???
Evolve - Whenever (event happens), put a level counter on CARDNAME.
Level X-X: (ability)
Level X+: (ability)
*/*
Heck, why not just go for the obvious route? It looks like this hasn't been done yet...
CARDNAME (cost)
Creature - ???
Evolve - At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a level counter on CARDNAME.
Level X-X: (ability)
Level X+: (ability)
*/*
It sort of resembles a Suspend for cards in play; you're paying a minimal cost for something that will reach its full potential X turns from now. Note that it's a "may" clause - I don't want the possibility of creatures with a lot of level counters running around. In addition, it also allows you to "control" the evolution to a certain degree - you don't have to attain that third ability if you don't want to. In short, this makes it open to making conflicting abilities between the second and third incarnations.
The abilities, mind you, are something else entirely. I can think of one obvious mechanical tie to the past two cards:
CARDNAME (cost)
Creature - Wolf
Evolve - At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a level counter on CARDNAME.
Level X-X: Put a basic land card from your hand onto the battlefield. (Or "You may play an additional land this turn", or something like that.)
Level X+: Search for basic lands?
*/*
Now I want this to start as a 2/2, and if it involves putting lands into play, I want to keep the cost low. Beastbreaker of Bala Ged says that we can make an uncommon that is strictly better than Grizzly Bears...
CARDNAME 1G
Creature - Wolf
Evolve - At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a level counter on CARDNAME.
Level X-X: Put a basic land card from your hand onto the battlefield. (Or "You may play an additional land this turn", or something like that.)
Level X+: Search for basic lands?
2/2
I'm not sure if I want this to tap for a basic land card, and doing the "you may play an additional land" approach may bump it up to rare (because it would otherwise be Exploration). Maybe if I trigger it via attacking?
CARDNAME 1G
Creature - Wolf
Evolve - At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a level counter on CARDNAME.
Level 1-X: Whenever CARDNAME attacks, you may put a basic land card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped.
Level X+: Search for basic lands?
2/2
The natural progression, I think, involves pulling lands from your library:
CARDNAME 1G
Creature - Wolf U
Evolve - At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a level counter on CARDNAME.
Level 1-X: Whenever CARDNAME attacks, you may put a basic land card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped. [2/2]
Level X+: Whenever CARDNAME attacks, you may search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library. [?/?]
2/2
That looks fairly good as an uncommon, I think.
So how long should I let it have that first ability? Technically you can likely have it attack at least once, but each turn after that it becomes a lot more obsolete. I think three levels is fine - it gives you three turns to play whatever additional lands you want, as long as you're willing to risk the creature. Turn six is fair enough for you to begin filtering lands out of your deck, and it won't automatically solve mana-screw problems that way.
CARDNAME 1G
Creature - Wolf U
Evolve - At the beginning of your upkeep, you may put a level counter on CARDNAME.
Level 1-3: Whenever CARDNAME attacks, you may put a basic land card from your hand onto the battlefield tapped. [2/2]
Level 4+: Whenever CARDNAME attacks, you may search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library. [3/4]
2/2
I would prefer an upgrade to 3/4 as opposed to 3/3, because that puts this guy out of Bolt range that way. And it's more substantial on the sixth turn.
No objections at this point, I think - let's package this. I'm disappointed that there's obviously no room for flavor text, though.
2. Eventide
3. Solesticio
Site of the First Haunting
Legendary Land
Whenever a creature you control dies, put a charge counter on Site of the First Haunting.
T, Remove X charge counters from Site of the First Haunting: Add X white mana to your mana pool.
You may cast white creatures from your graveyard if you use only mana produced by Site of the First Haunting to do so.
Round 2:
Fragile Wisps 1W
Instant
Put 5 0/0 white Spirit creature tokens onto the battlefield.
The first flickers of life flashed and dwindled like flames without candles. But some found wicks of hope upon which they could grow
Creature - Sprirt (R)
As Ascendant Essence enters the battlefield, you may remove a +1/+1 counter from a creature you control. If you do, Ascendant Essence enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it.
Mourning - When another creature you control dies, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Ascendant Essence. If Ascendant Essence has four of more +1/+1 counters on it, put a +1/+1 counter on each other creature you control instead.
Our birth a gift from the living, our growth a gift from the dead, our strength in turn a gift to others
0/0
Mourning is intended to be a potential ability word for a graveyard-themed set where all mourning abilities trigger on other creatures you control dying, but the abilities do different things - similar to landfall.
Quick question:
(emphasis mine)
Do you mean that the mechanic has to tie to one of the cards we've done before, or to both of them? It seems like it could be read either way.
@brazil_dude: thanks. If you find yourself some time to submit before the eve of Friday, feel welcome to stay in the contest.
@CodGod: any, though I'm mostly hoping that you'll keep some kind of conductive thread that makes all your submissions seem as part of the same creative effort. Emphasis on "hoping".
Thought of the Month:
I gave up from trying to require the 'i' on my name: SolesticIo
Feel free to choose whichever. I'd go for the most exciting ones, personally. (Hint: wurms)
Current entry:
Twilight Traveler BW
Creature R
Flying, lifelink
Devolution - As long as your life total is even, Twilight Traveler is a 1/1 Spirit.
Evolution - As long as your life total is odd, Twilight Traveler is a 3/3 Bird Nomad.
*/*
Creature -- Saproling (R)
Level up G 1/1
Level 3-7
If Saproling Runner would be damaged, prevent 1 of that damage.
2/3
Level 8+
Trample
Saproling Runner can't be destroyed by lethal damage.
5/4
Child of Ndoba
Land Creature - Forest Elemental
At the beginning of your end step, if three or more lands entered the battlefield under your control, you may flip Child of Ndoba.
1/1
/////////////////////////////
Farseeder Weirwood
Creature - Elemental Treefolk
T, return a forest you control to its owner's hand: Search your library for a land card and put that card onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library.
The farseeders shape raw forest into elegant spires for their awakening brethen.
3/4
Way wordier than I wanted, but not sure I can do that much about it. Since
I had to start with a land creature. A strict upgrade to Dryad Arbor, which worries me, but it was already so stuffed full of text... The condition should be pretty hard to accomplish, unless you use my previous spell or save up a fetchland so you can crack two at once. However, it preserves constant use landfall without losing tempo, and builds other copies of itself. My legendary land digs the extra landfall this wants to play with, and loves making sure it can tap for 2+ every turn (Bounce a land to search, untapping it, then playing the bounced land).
Flavorwise, treefolk here are trees animated by the elemental energies around them. The kind of wispy elementals get a hard physical body, and begin to build civilization (non-basic lands). Weirwood... well, I just finished G.R.R. Martin's Dance of Dragons, and it's on the brain.
Ndoba, Pillar of the Sky
Legendary Land
Ndoba, Pillar of the Sky doesn't untap during your untap step.
t: Add G to your mana pool.
Landfall - Whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, untap Ndoba, Pillar of the Sky.
Natural Defenses 2G
Sorcery (c)
Put two 1/1 green Forest Elemental land creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Ndoba's roots draw from the land to empower it.
My Previous Cards: Round 1 and Round 2
Round 3
Creature - Elemental Cat (R)
Haste, trample
Augment — Whenever you cast a spell, if you did not cast it from your hand, choose blue or white. Alpha Firecat is now the chosen color in addition to its other colors.
If Alpha Firecat is blue, it has “Whenever Firecat Elder deals damage to an opponent, you may draw a card.” If it is white, it has first strike. If it is three or more colors, it gets +2/+4.
4/2
@ the upper left mana symbols: These are meant to be used to help indicate what color(s) the creature has become without having to remember as much as it can be marked with a token. It would have something more like the Future Sight manacost to frame the symbols, but my meager Paint skills should suffice to get the point across.
2RR
Creature - Elemental Cat
Haste, trample
When ~ deals combat damage to a player, put a token onto the battlefield that is a copy of it with two +1/+1 counters.
2/1
It evolves by splitting itself, but becoming stronger at each step. However, this could not be keyworded well and it didn't fit with any of my previous cards, so it had to be discarded. I then stumbled on this design:
1RR
Creature - Elemental Cat
Haste, trample
Whenever you cast a spell, if it was not from your hand, exile it when it resolves. ~ gets +2/+2 for each red card exiled this way and gains "Whenever ~
deals combat damage to an opponent, draw a card" if a blue card is exiled this way.
3/1
This is closer to the final one, and made me decide to reintroduce the aspects of the different colors. It interacts with my Round 2 submission well...but not so much with other permanent spells I cast this way. Also, the pseudo-imprint mechanic wasn't really what I was looking for. Think about other colors gave me a great idea for a keyword ability which I incorporated in the final design. The ability is:
Augment - Whenever [some condition is met], choose [some choice of colors]. ~ is now the chosen color in addition to its other colors.
I had this image of a creature learning about colors different to its own and incorporating that magic to become stronger. I made this obvious with the Alpha Firecat, but the mechanic can prove to be used in a much more subtle way.
Gaea's Temple
Legendary Land (R)
Tap an untapped red or green creature you control,:symtap:: Add :symr::symg: to your mana pool. If that mana is spent on a creature spell, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature and it gains haste until end of turn.
Those who know where and how to worship nature can give the greatest of gift.
Frenzy of Wurms :symrg::symrg::symrg:
Sorcery (U)
As an additional cost to cast Frenzy of Wurms sacrifice any number of forest and/or mountains you control. For each forest or mountain sacrificed this way put a 3/3 red and green wurm creature token onto the battlefield. For each land sacrificed this way choose one - put a +1/+1 counter on a creature you control or target creature gains haste until end of turn.
This round's card:
Tilling Wurm 1RGG
Creature - Wurm (U)
Ravage - Land (Sacrifice a land - Put a +1/+1 counter on Tilling Wurm. You may use this ability once each turn.)
If Tilling Wurm has 2 or more +1/+1 counters it gains trample.
If Tilling Wurm has 3 or more +1/+1 counters it gains "Whenever Tilling Wurm deals damage to an opponent return target land from your graveyard to your hand.
3/3
Sapient.
This is for me more than it is for anyone else. I sucks at colors.