Deck of Many Things Legendary Artifact , : Target opponent picks a random card from your library and exiles it. If it was a land card, that opponent may search their library for a card and play it without paying its mana cost, then shuffle their library. Otherwise, you may play the exiled card without paying its mana cost. Shuffle your library.
I remember running into one of these back when I played. It gave someone a wish spell and then killed my character. Either way, it was pretty randomly good or bad. Its possible to break the card, or even just heavily favor it with land ramp, but I think the trade off is game breaking enough to still be ok.
Ebony Frame | Artifact Imprint - When Ebony Frame enters the battlefield, exile target creature you control. : Put a token on the battlefield that's a copy of the imprinted creature. That token has "sacrifice this permanent at the beginning of the end step" and can't trigger abilities. Sivaci's greatest masterpiece wasn't a painting, but a compartment for a soul that echoes on.
I'm both chaotic and orderly. I value my own principles, and am willing to go to extreme lengths to enforce them, often trampling on the very same principles in the process. At best, I'm heroic and principled; at worst, I'm hypocritical and disorderly.
: Draw three cards. Discard your hand at the beginning of the next end step unless your graveyard has 20 or more cards in it. Activate this ability only any time you can cast a sorcery.
Only the most experienced can read from the blood tome without losing their mind.
I'm both chaotic and orderly. I value my own principles, and am willing to go to extreme lengths to enforce them, often trampling on the very same principles in the process. At best, I'm heroic and principled; at worst, I'm hypocritical and disorderly.
OK, the forum just "ate" the long post I had just finished with all of the ratings. :-( I wish I had clipboarded it first instead of getting cocky like I did!
I'm feeling very demoralized at the moment. In another sad development, my n00bishness has foiled me and I neglected to dig up my passport till today--finding that it expired back in february. So I won't be driving to the Grand Prix. :-(
I thought about just posting what I remember of the scores I gave everyone, but that wouldn't be right. I know that genuine feedback that's thoughtful is what makes these contests fun, so back to square one on working on these for me. Ratings sometime late Sunday or early next week, I think.
OK, at long last here we are! Learned two lessons the hard way:
1. Never edit a long post in my browser. 2. Use excel to create large groups of only slightly-different tags. This will save me tons of time in the future.
Thanks, of course, to everyone who participated! Very sorry about the wait on this!
Equipped creature gets -1/-1. If a player cast two or more spells this turn, until the end of turn Aetherbond gains"Equipped creature gets +5/+3" and "Equip ."
This unwieldy blade is drawn to those with a magical aptitude.
Were-equipment, huh? I can dig it! The application of werewolf mechanics to an equipment is interesting enough to score you some points for creativitiy.
I wish it had some name like "mageblade" or something similar to drive its flavor home even more than it does. Also, I was hoping for something a little more flashy and epic, but when all is said and done I can't really gripe about this card. Very solid design, and mission accomplished! This thing would wreck face in a Delver deck.
Closing thought: Legendary is a plus for this contest generally, but I'm not sure I see why *this* card had to be legendary? Fi: 6/10 B: 7/10 C: 8/10 E: 7/10 Fl: 7/10 Total: 35/50
Equipped creature gets first strike, deathtouch, and "At the beginning of each of your end steps, if this creature didn't attack this turn, sacrifice it." Equip - Pay 2 life.
"I grant you my sword, mortal. Feed it well, for it will feed one way or another." -Ravensoul, Ghost Captain
This is a very straightforward, elegant design. The flavor builds from the mechanics in a great way. Still didn't quite hit me with the "wow" factor I was hoping for, but excellent card nonetheless. Fi: 6/10 B: 7/10 C: 6/10 E: 9/10 Fl: 8/10 Total: 35/50
I couldn't make a workable Hand or Eye of Vecna so instead:
Edge of Slaughter Legendary Artifact - Equipment
Equipped creature gets +4/+4 and doublestrike. Whenever another creature comes into play or attacks, Equipped creature fights them, equip ~ to the winner.
Equip
"The edge of a woodcutter's axe holds honesty, an executioner's justice. This axe holds no truth, no purpose, only death. To hold it is to hold death itself, to become death. As you drink in the blood of your foes and the screams of you friends you will come to realise that death is just a message and the message is thus: there is no truth, no hope, no purpose, no rest. There is only You. This is the message and you, You are the Deliverer."
There's that THUD I was looking for these things to make! Very cool!
Wording critique -- "Wins" isn't, AFAIK, a supported MtG keyword, and what does the card do if both creatures are still on the battlefield after they fight? Who "won" in that case? There are a few different ways to word what you're going for, but each of them might have unintended consequences. Also, this thing really starts to gum up the stack if a bunch of creatures are attacking--it could even turn into an unintended(?) board-wipe.
Unfortunately, this card gets dinged in its elegance for these problems.
As for everything else about it, this card would rock in many sorts of limited in environments, but I'm not sure 4cmc+4cmc to equip would see a ton of play. Still I wanted you to design something very strong with a very strong drawback and you did, so solid props for that.
Equipped creature gets +3/+3. Whenever equipped creature deals damage, you lose that much life.
Equip
With every strike it seals your doom. Gogo suicide aggro! Probably not splashy enough to score terribly well but I'm OK with that, splashy isn't really my thing anyways.
My first thought was how broken this thing would be either in or against an infect deck! I also like the thought of throwing this on a lifelinker. For even more fun: Phyrexian Unlife .
You're right that it doesn't meet the mark on being epic enough, but I appreciate that you submitted the card that you thought worked best rather than bastardizing your vision to fit into the contest. This is a crisp, elegant design and a good card.
Yethixiraal's Tome Legendary Artifact When Yethixiraal's Tome comes into play choose a permanent that you control. All spells that share a color with that permanent cost more to cast.
When you control 9 or more permanents that share a color with the chosen permanent transform Yethixiraal's Tome.
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Yethixiraal, the Glutton Legendary Artifact Creature - Demon Flying, Trample Spells your opponents cast cost more to cast.
"Sometimes, studying pays off."
9/9
This thing hits every checkbox for the contest so any analysis already starts on a very positive note!
I see this, in some ways, as a more playable Winthegar Unbound . It would be insanely fun to abuse with Painter's Servant or shrine of loyal legions . For myself personally, I like the fact that unlike so many uber-fearsome big baddie demons, this guy doesn't just turn into a ton of pointless sound and fury with the next removal spell your opponent draws. Removal resistance for demons is something WotC needs to do a much, much better job with--and I appreciate how you've found a unique way of doing it (as opposed to just giving it shroud), so creativity points for that. Excellent card overall!
Broken Amulet Artifact : Add to your mana pool. When you cast a spell with converted mana cost of seven or more, if Broken amulet is an artifact, it becomes an enchantment with enchant player. Attach it to yourself. Spells cast by enchanted player cost three mana of any combination of colors less to cast. At the end of enchanted player's turn, that player loses two life and draws a card.
This thingy is really, really powerful! The two life per turn cost definitely pinches as well. I can only complain about the drawback not being something more interesting than life loss, because in a lot of ways this thing just ends up playing like Phyrexian Arena + Semblance Anvil with some tweaks.
Points for balance because of the 7 cmc spell cost requirement. This has the right amount of limitations that leave some doors open to creative deck-building and abusability. This is totally what I look for when scoring for balance. Finally, when this thing gets going, it's really epic--which is what I wanted.
Overall, you've done an amazing job. At first I wondered if the card was too wordy, but I just threw the text into MSE and it turns out that it's just fine.
Totem of Anahi Artifact R Other sources you control can produce colorless mana only : Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. You lose 1 life unless you control a basic land of each basic land type. The dryads imprisoned within the cold and unnatural device can still find peace if the totem is brought to the regions they once loved.
My first thought when looking at this was "this is so cool--I just wish it were more playable!" It is, however a great design. Gives a 5-color deck a lot more flexibility to play color-heavy spells. The power and drawback are both significant and will probably be a factor in any game its in.
I also wish there were something more about the mechanics that told me about the "trapped dryads," but overall great flavor and great card!
Hellscape Portal Legendary Artifact Sacrifice a creature: Put an X/X black Demon creature token with flying into play, where X is the sacrificed creature's converted mana cost. If you do, any opponent may put X 1/1 red Devil creature tokens into play.
In a nutshell: I think *something* more needs to be done with this card to make it playable. It's not necessarily true that it needs to be viable in a competitive format (or we'd only design silly, broken, things here) to be a good design, but I don't even think I'd put it in a casual deck. To be worth playing, it needs a LOT of support and "build-around-me" and most of the combos I can think of seem to be fragile and run into some of the same problems that some Heartless Summoning decks are having in standard.
On the other hand, I know from experience to never underestimate a no-mana, no-tap sac power to neutralize o-rings and Mind Control types of effects, so maybe I'm wrong. All in all, I would've liked this more if it gave you the choice of if you want the big demon or the little devils and maybe if it were a little cheaper. Great flavor though.
When ~ enters the battlefield, exile the top ten cards from you library.
You can't cast spells with the same name as cards in your exile zone.
Creatures you control get +2/+2, double strike and must attack each turn if able.
We were walking up toward a village when one of our men tripped over something in the ground. We thought it was just a tree's root, but he claimed it was stone, not wood. We dug the thing out, only to find that it was a statue, about a meter tall. I don't really know what happened next. I looked into its jewel eyes, and then all I saw was black. When I came out of the blackness, the village had been burnt to the ground, and there was blood on my hands.
Journal entry # 7
"Whoa-ha-ha-ho! Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting!" This thing is (pardon the pun) deliciously flavored! Name, mechanics, and text flow so seemlessly together!
Btw, exile the top ten cards from "YOUR" library. ;-) Sorry, I'm a nitpicker. That's probably why most people think I'm a jerk. ;-)
Anyhow, this card hits on everything. The flavor of the insanity theme is perfect as I said. Only gripe is that this might be broken in a token or infect deck, but it's hard to say for sure. It certainly leaves you very vulnerable to turbo-fog so maybe it evens out.
Deck of Many Things Legendary Artifact , : Target opponent picks a random card from your library and exiles it. If it was a land card, that opponent may search their library for a card and play it without paying its mana cost, then shuffle their library. Otherwise, you may play the exiled card without paying its mana cost. Shuffle your library.
I remember running into one of these back when I played. It gave someone a wish spell and then killed my character. Either way, it was pretty randomly good or bad. Its possible to break the card, or even just heavily favor it with land ramp, but I think the trade off is game breaking enough to still be ok.
I want to start by offering props for taking something that in D&D was insanely complex and simplifying it for this game. Elegance points for pulling off a complex effect without turning the card into a Tolstoy book. There's literally no limit to how powerful the gift or drawback of this might be, so you've hit dead-on in that criteria. Finally, you can build around this card to address the drawback (just design a deck that's light on land!)--so it clearly earns its card slot in the right kind of deck and it doesn't ask too much of the other cards in doing so.
Only gripe--why does the opponent need to pick something from your deck at random? What if Jace 2.0 played his +1 on you and "randomly" chose your top card? Maybe "shuffle your library, then exile the top card" (obviously dropping the final shuffle)? Nitpick--target opponent doesn't search "their library"--"he or she" searches "his or her" library.
Ebony Frame | Artifact Imprint - When Ebony Frame enters the battlefield, exile target creature you control. : Put a token on the battlefield that's a copy of the imprinted creature. That token has "sacrifice this permanent at the beginning of the end step" and can't trigger abilities. Sivaci's greatest masterpiece wasn't a painting, but a compartment for a soul that echoes on.
"Can't trigger abilities" by entering the battlefield, dying, attacking, or blocking? By being targeted or blocked? When I started scratching my head about what this meant, I also started to think, "Why do I even need to do so much guesswork on this?" I can appreciate how you wanted to reduce some of the abuse that comes with stuff like Mimic Vat , but in doing so, this lost points on elegance.
Have to ding on fitness as well since the exiling your own creature doesn't have the same sort of feel of the drawback that I'm looking for here. It just feels like Fling . Otherwise this was a solid design. Good balance. Good flavor.
Infernal Locket - Artifact , , You lose half of your life, rounded up: ~ deals 4 damage to target creature or player.
When I first read this card, I missed the part of it and was going to say that it might have been a little unbalanced, but boy did it look fun!
Now seeing, the , I clearly see it's balanced, but now it's coming off a bit dry. Still, big cost, big gain. Usual caveat of "I'd need to proxy this to be sure," but I think you could've costed this more aggressively and still not have had a problem. Overall, this is a good, if somewhat boring, design. Fi: 6/10 B: 7/10 C: 4/10 E: 6/10 Fl: 6/10 Total: 29/50
: Draw three cards. Discard your hand at the beginning of the next end step unless your graveyard has 20 or more cards in it. Activate this ability only any time you can cast a sorcery.
Only the most experienced can read from the blood tome without losing their mind.
Last nitpick of the thread: Ugh! "Singular 'their' strikes again." I think "their minds" was meant.
Anyhow, I actually LOVE this card. Insanity theme is awesome just like it was for an_endless_epidemic's card. High score on "fitness" for having both an epic power, an epic drawback, AND a way to overcome the drawback! Plus, you can design your deck to maximize this thing's potential without making the rest of your deck necessarily suck! Solid, solid WIN!
Huge congrats to an_endless_epidemic. Unfortunately I wasn't at the Grand Prix, but if you're ever in the Seattle/Tacoma area, PM me and I'll happily buy you a beer. :-)
I'm loving doing these contests! Already know what my next one will be. Will post a link for those of you who are subscribed to this one.
, You lose half your life, rounded up: [ABILITY].
