Static Shock Enchantment (U) Whenever a player installs an installment, Static Shock deals 2 damage to that player. Failure to follow instructions can result in injury.
Conspiring Plot Sorcery Look at the top three cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand and keep the other two secret. (To keep a secret, if you have no secrets, set the top three cards of your library aside to become them. Then shuffle that card into your secrets.) Julius never knew what the hooded figures' hushed voices discussed in his tavern's dank basement. Then again, he never really cared to find out either.
Release the Lion - Sorcery Destroy target tapped creature with toughness 3 or less. Put a 3/3 white Cat creature token onto the battlefield. The sound of roars resounded on the colosseum walls, a beacon from the beast within.
Contest-Specific Redeemable Prizes: DaytimeLantern - +5 points on any score-based contest. Redeemable once. If contest is multiple rounds, only redeemable in a single round.
Why the long wait? I went to see the snow festival in Sapporo. It was cold. A statue of snow Miku collapsed on top of an old woman and sent her to the hospital. I ate some takoyaki. Then, three days later, I returned and was crushed under a pile of work my professors assigned.
Lingering Reverie Creature - Spirit Advisor Flying At the beginning of your upkeep, you may return Lingering Reverie from the battlefield to your hand. If you do, return an aura card from your graveyard to your hand. "Every day for the past week, I've slipped off into flights of fancy. Strangely enough, every time I awake from the haze I find I have remembered a long forgotten spell." -Trium, Magus 2/3
I like the mechanic here. It's an interesting way to mitigate the natural weakness of auras, though it can get a bit expensive over time. Then again, it is a 2/3 with flying, so perhaps it all balances out in the end. The flavor is decent and the overall flavor feels like it would fit into the set well enough; in particular, the mechanical flavor, which really resonates with the idea of a world of fleeting dreams. Not extremely exciting, but certainly interesting and printable.
Minotaur Hoplite Creature - Minotaur Warrior Retainer - Minotaur Hoplite gets +2/+2 and has Haste as long as you control a Legendary Creature. Every herd has a bull to lead the charge, and every other memember of it will go to hell itself to follow. 3/3
Ooh, I like this. Retainer might be a bit parasitic, but in a set similar to Kamigawa, where legends matter, I could see justification for it. So, it's a slightly red-heavy Hill Giant most of the time, and a 5/5 hasty for if you control a legendary creature. This would make a solid common for the set and an excellent design for limited environments. People often design big, flash rares and mythics while ignoring the lower end of the spectrum. A well designed common or uncommon, while not necessarily very exciting, is something that is vital to a set, so seeing one from time to time is rather refreshing. Anyway, simple and printable.
Dead Time | Instant Target creature phases out. When it phases in, destroy it unless it's an artifact. As more and more rifts opened, the timescape became littered with areas where no living thing had the time to breath.
A nice black kill spell. Nothing much to say really, it's a bit powerful, given that it skips the normal "nonblack" aspect of black, but it does cost four mana, takes a turn to work, and doesn't work on artifacts, which would be weird but is justified by the flavor. So, it's balanced, has decent flavor, and fits fairly well into the set. There we go.
Current 1 (When this permanent enters the battlefield, add to your mana pool.) : Exile Vubiri Tiller, then return it to the battlefield tapped.
No sooner has he plucked the ripened berries than the vines grow heavy once more.
Yes, a Llanowar Elves variant that is actually interesting. The blink effect does feel a bit white, or blue, but that's not so set in stone that it's a problem. I do like that it triggers EtB and LtB abilities, which sort of makes it an interesting build around card. Good flavor as well. If I don't seem to have much to say, it's because there isn't much to say. It's a common and fits the bill fairly well, though I do feel the ability is a bit more justifiable at uncommon. None the less, it's fine; even if I think it would be better as a druid.
Saersvail seems to have something of a nostalgia theme, which to me means making cards similar to existing cards. And so:
Arbiter of Knowledge Creature — Giant Wizard R
Vigilance When Arbiter of Knowledge enters the battlefield, each player discards his or her hand, then draws cards equal to the most cards a player discarded this way. Cycling When you cycle Arbiter of Knowledge, each other player draws a card.
5/5
Windfall on a 5/5 body. With vigilance. In blue. Oh, and a free cycling effect. That's quite the package, but then again, is not that easy to reach. Then again, again, it refills everyone's hands or cycles for free; two things that scare me. You know what though? I kind of like it. Windfall is a cool, if somewhat powerful effect, and the cycling ability is actually fairly interesting; if not a bit worrisome because of Living End . Overall, interesting.
Xilykz, New Breed Legendary Creature - Eldrazi Praetor Annihilation 2 Whenever a permanent is put into an opponent's graveyard, proliferate. The only results are corruption or oblivion. 6/5
Well, the flavor certainly is a reflection of the set. As for the rest of the card, it is an odd, yet epic, marriage of the iconic Eldrazi and the almost equally iconic Praetors. Now, for a 6/5 is a bit much, even if it does have annihilator 2 and proliferates like nobodies business. Just a bit though, so that isn't much of an issue. I'm really torn here. On the one hand, it is fun, silly, and the sort of thing I'd almost expect with something as strange as Phyrexian Eldrazi. On the other, I want a bit more oomph from my horrible doomsday creatures. Just look at Emrakul, the Aeons Torn . Yes, he's (she's, it's, whatever) got no elegance and is a bit too much overkill but that's the sort of thing you want when you merge Lovecraftian horrors with whatever Phyrexians are.
Static Shock Enchantment (U) Whenever a player installs an installment, Static Shock deals 2 damage to that player. Failure to follow instructions can result in injury.
I love the flavor text and the overall flavor. It is a bit punishment heavy, which I kind of look down on in a set. You really want to encourage people to use the sets various mechanics, and providing a card that can punish them can be a bit counterproductive. Though, if Mirrodin kills its own artifacts and Rise of the Eldrazi provided a way to mitigate annihilator, then I can't really knock you too much. Anyway, a solid little card.
Conspiring Plot Sorcery Look at the top three cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand and keep the other two secret. (To keep a secret, if you have no secrets, set the top three cards of your library aside to become them. Then shuffle that card into your secrets.) Julius never knew what the hooded figures' hushed voices discussed in his tavern's dank basement. Then again, he never really cared to find out either.
I'm going to keep this simple because there's nothing much to say. It's a solid card for the set. It utilizes the secret keeping mechanic and is a decent blue draw spell. The overall flavor of the card feels just a bit more black than blue but not so much that it really detracts from the card in any significant way. Nothing fancy, but a very printable card.
Release the Lion - Sorcery Destroy target tapped creature with toughness 3 or less. Put a 3/3 white Cat creature token onto the battlefield. The sound of roars resounded on the colosseum walls, a beacon from the beast within.
This is beautiful. It's got fantastic mechanical flavor that goes great with the name and flavor text. The effect is cool too. You get to kill something and you get a 3/3 cat out of it. Honestly, this is just a fantastic card.
Score: 120
And ulyth is eliminated by just a slight margin. Thanks for competing, and better luck next year.
My Trade Thread Any tree can drop an apple, I'll drop the freakin' moon!
Whispered Spelltheft Instant Gain control of target spell. You may choose new targets for it. If it becomes the target of a spell or ability, exile it. "Despite your rather... unexpected interference, it is good to know your ability is so limited as to allow me to disperse the spells you seek to steal with the merest pulse of arcane energy." -Twilil, Academy Prefect
Intimidate Whenever Malodorous Perversion deals combat damage to a player, that player discards a card. Whenever an opponent discards a card, you may pay 2 life. If you do, draw a card.
Aaaaaargh. You know this is the Criteria that cost me Champs right?
Mana Storm | Sorcery Mana Storm deals damage to target creature or player equal to the amount of mana in your mana pool. "The dragon swims in lightning." - Femeref saying for a coming storm
Think of how Neo couldn't beat the robots, but they kept him around anyways to defeat Agent Smith. Sure, the robots might not like having a Neo running rampant because instead of playing their favorite 4 drop fatty robot, they have to play a bunch of one mana Matrixs to contain him, but at least Neo keeps Agent Smith from reanimating an Iona on turn two.
I really enjoy imagining this from Kevin's perspective. Because in Kevin's world, Rosewater actually reads everything he types. Mark is sitting there right now, reading this, and thinking "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled. . ." Or some such. He chuckles low, then clicks on "The Best Of KEVINSET" and says "Yes, this'll do just fine. A busty lady with banding who deals direct damage to Zones!? Why this will be the star of my next set, and no one will ever believe you Kevin." Then he closes his Macbook, so his servant may move it out of the way, while another servant puts a Fetal Richard Garfield Clone lathered in Steak Sauce in front of him. Then Mark Feasts.
I mean, In KevinWorld, Mark is reading the very words I'm typing as well. Heck, in KevinWorld maybe I am Mark.
[In response to a thread about how hard grading is]
Upon reading this, I've found myself completely unable to operate in the world. I tried to decide what to eat for breakfast, and pondered the vast consequences of my choice. How do I balance my dietary needs against my desire to eat good-tasting food? Should I factor in how long it takes to prepare? Cereal is ready in moments, but bacon takes longer to cook.
Then there is the impact on other industries. Do people in the cereal industry deserve to be employed more than people in the bacon industry? Which industry should I support? I don't even have the data regarding HOW MUCH the cereal industry benefits from me eating a bowl of cereal, or how much the bacon industry benefits from me eating a side of bacon. How can I compare two qualities I can't even quantify?
And let's not forget the milk on the cereal. In addition to determining whether or not milk is healthy for me, how much that benefits the milk industry, and how much the people in the milk industry deserve my support, we have to factor in the fact that cows are put under brutal conditions in order to collect thier milk. Of course, the same goes for the pigs, and then they get killed. Of course, I really like bacon. So I need to come up with a scale that compares the value of cow happiness to pig happiness to my happiness. What trade-offs am I willing to make here? Does the fact that the pig gets put out of its misery count as a plus or a minus? Isn't bacon bad for me anyway?
Deciding what to eat for breakfast (or any meal) is impossible. Help me!
Anyway, you'd be surprised about Time Stop. When I first saw that card as a relatively new player I didn't see its full potential until I read the reminder text. Is it that unintuitive, though? Mine I mean. What is possibility? Is it possible for me to type these words with my tusks? No, because I don't have tusks. Although I am now tempted to go buy some - obviously not from poachers or whatever - and use them as typing apparatus. I could be the best secretary ever. "What's your words per minute sir?" "Well, only six, but I use these tusks to type them." "You're hired!" That was the interview. And is anyone else disappointed that "apparati" is not the plural form of apparatus? I just could strangle a dictionary, because "apparatuses" is a real word. I guess it sounds pretty cool. I'll call them my Apparatusks.
