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Hello everybody and welcome to this year's iteration of the You Make the Card Championship, one of the most prestigious contests in YMtC's history to win.  I'm your host, Gardevior!  Wait, no I'm not.

Let's take a little aside here.  Obviously, I'm not Gardevior.  He has been hosting this wonderful contest each year since 2006, but in recent times he has become a much more busy man, having better things to do than fantasy fantasy card design.  Now, for an aside in my aside (yo dawg, I heard you like asides, so I... never mind).  In around June of 2009, Q is 564453 (a winner of YMtC Idol and one of the most well-known names among YMtC's old farts) took a 2 year extended leave of absence from the boards, pursuing greater things.  By greater things, I mean he took part in a mission with his church, which was indeed a very noble cause.  He returned two years later, and for a time, he became active in the community again.  He was joining plenty of contests, winning lots of them, and even held a couple of contests himself.  He was talking to me about him hosting this very competition, since it was very clear at that point that Gardevior would not be returning any time soon.  But then, real life took its toll on Q and he told me privately that he would be taking another leave of absence, this time with no specified return date.  This left me in a weird spot.  I would have to be the one to make this happen if it were to happen at all.  And finally, I forced my lazy bum to get this started, though you have no idea how much easier it would be to simply ride on someone else's coattails!

Now, for the obligatory storytelling.  To make this easier for myself, I'll simply quote Gardevior, since he put it best and he knows the story better than I do since he was actually around when this started.

Nov 22, 2010 -- 2:40PM, Gardevior wrote:

On December 1,  2005, Vammm (not to be confused with zammm) posted a thread in You Make the Card entitled You Make the Card Championship. The premise was simple - people would nominate and vote people into four categories (Most Creative, Best Contest Host, Best Set Designer, and Most Likely to Obtain a Future Position at Wizards R&D) and the winners would design cards to be voted on. Whoever garnered the most votes would be declared champion. In the end, a million people tied for each of the four categories and battled it out for the top spot. Sharing the same amount of votes at the end, zammm and Dream Spinner had a showdown to determine the winner and Dream Spinner, with a join date of 2002, became the first YMtC Champ. People liked the contest so much that Vammm declared it would become a yearly contest, much like YMtC Idol (but about 9 months shorter). 

By the time December 2006 rolled around, Vammm had disappeared and it seemed that no one really thought about making a YMtC Champs 2006. A relative newcomer to YMtC named Gardevior jumped over all the older members who were more worthy to host a prestigious contest and decided to just go for it himself. The categories were expanded to seven, adding Best Judge, Contest Player, and Newcomer to the original four. However, this time, the final criteria of the contest came not from the super-inexperienced contest host Gardevior, but from last year's winner, Dream Spinner, setting a precedent for future years. And in the end, Tyranno6, from 2003, emerged triumphant.

In the following years, several amazing YMtCers earned the coveted title of YMtC Champ.  As the years went on, a pattern emerged with the winner.  Can you spot it?  If you can't, then I'm afraid you should double check your basic math skills.
In 2005, the first year of YMtC Champs, Dream Spinner won, who joined in 2002.
In 2006, the second year of YMtC Champs, tyranno6 won, who joined in 2003.
In 2007, the third year of YMtC Champs, Pegaweb won, who joined in 2004 (and interestingly, didn't normally ever join in on contests).
In 2008, the fourth year of YMtC Champs, Riorvard won, who joined in 2005.
In 2009, the fifth year of YMtC Champs, Detektor won, who joined in 2006.
In 2010, the sixth year of YMtC Champs, Elevate won, who joined in 2008.

Ah, look at that beautiful pattern.  If you can't already tell, the pattern is that each year, the person who has won the competition was someone who joined in the year three years earlier than when the YMtC Champs contest took place.  But wait, you say.  That last guy, Elevate didn't join in 2007, he joined in 2008.  He broke the pattern!  Technically speaking, yes, but further knowledge disagrees.  Elevate is the MuP (Multiple User Personality) of Crouch, someone who joined in 2007.  The pattern we lovingly call the Champs Curse carries on to this day.  Will someone finally be able to break the curse, or will one who joined in 2008 carry on the tradition?

Well, let's get on to the technical stuff, shall we?

You may nominate one person for each of the following categories.  You may nominate yourself.  It takes two nominations to move onto the voting round.


          Most Creative Mind
          Best Judge
          Best Contest Holder
          Best Set Designer
          Most Likely to be an Intern at R&D
          Best Newcomer
          Invitational (the anything-goes category)


This stage of YMtC Champs ends on December 12, 2011.

I wish I deserved one, but I don't think I do. I'll attmept to think of people to nominate.

On a related note, there should be a "worst judge" award so I can win something :3