I tend to agree with Mown. I'll compliment things if I feel it's called for but for the most part the shortcomings are the much more important piece of information, since they're where work is needed.
You do need to strike a balance between the two, though. In some cases, everything about the card may seem wrong about it and it makes sense for there to be nothing positive to say. But, if every comment was negative, it would be impossible to tell how much the judge actually thought of the card. I could describe Oblivion Ring in a totally negative light without mentioning any of its positives, like this: "O-ring just costs too much mana as a removal spell. The best removal spells either get rid of multiple things or cost less mana. Plus, you can even destroy it and they get their thing back. So bad! You can't even play it during your opponent's turn!"
See what I mean? Anyone who tries to argue that about O-ring is going to deserve a facepalm. It's a bit extreme, but I think it illustrates my point well.
Werewolves Invade YMtC!: Town-aligned Rotworm Mass, Survived, Mafia Victory Heroes Mafia: Angela Petrelli, Town-Aligned Undercover Revengeful Mother, Win for Me, Mafia Victory Super Smash Bros. Mafia: Town-Aligned Mason, Survived, Town Victory Bear Mafia: Town-Aligned Vanilla, Lynched Day 1, Mafia Victory YMtC Mafia II: Henry-Stern, Town-Aligned Vanilla, Town Victory, Town MVP Time Fracture Mafia: Mafia-Aligned Nero, the Last Romulan, Lynched Day 3, Borg Victory Touhou Mafia III: Tenshi Hinani, Town-Aligned Vanilla, Survived, Mafia Victory, Town MVP Mafia 2010: Lynched Day 1, Town-Aligned Vanilla, Mafia Victory Dragonball Z Mafia: Goku, Town-Aligned Charismatic Townie, Mafia Victory Quarantined Mafia: Lynched Day 4, J. Walter Weatherman, Infected-Aligned Administrative Assistant, Mr. T (so basically mafia) Victory Glass Box Mafia: Killed Night 2, Icthys, Town-Aligned Networker, Town Victory Battle Royale Mafia: Killed Night 3, Zipperflesh and Dark Stryke Victory Scars of Mirrodin Mafia: Killed Night 3, Town-Aligned Charismatic, Mafia Victory Portal Mafia: Lynched Day 3, Test Subject #2, Mafia-Aligned Rolestopper, Town Victory (that was utter BS) Toxic Waste Mafia: Survived, Violet, Hive (Cult)-Aligned Powerless Taskmaster, Hive Victory PK Hatez You Mafia: Survived, Town-Aligned Goth, Mafia Victory Dreven City: A Wild West Mafia: Town-Aligned "Los Angeles" Reed, One-Shot Vig, Survived, Town Victory (just barely, major props to Just a Cleric) YMtC Mafia III: Killed Night 2, Mafia Victory Vampire Mafia: Mafia-Aligned Pander, Mafia Victory Touhou Border Collapse: Bill Cosby, Town-Aligned, Killed Night 1, Mafia Victory Harry Potter Mafia: Argus Filch, Town-Aligned Tracker, Lynched Day 5, Mafia Victory [Basic #5] Bandit Mafia: Town-Aligned Vanilla, Survived, Mafia Victory Borderlands Mafia: Town-Aligned Mason, Killed Night 1, Town Victory eBay Mafia: Mafia-Aligned, Survived, Mafia Victory Full Metal Alchemist Mafia: Alphonse Elric, Town-Aligned Mason, Killed Night 1, Town Victory Sunflowers for Ragnarokio: Lynched Day 3, Town/Just a Cleric/Tevish Szat/Faux-Razor Victory True Blood Mafia: Lynched Day 4, Mafia Victory My Mafia Diary: Skyhunter, Mafia-Aligned Emo, Survived, Flawless Mafia Victory Paper Mario Mafia: Blue Goomba, Town-Aligned Lover, Killed Night 2, Mafia Victory Small Town Mafia: Pigsticker Mafia-Aligned Coward, Killed Night 2, Caveman Mafia and Zipperflesh Victory Stuff on my Desk Mafia: Lotus Cobra, Town-Aligned Vanilla, Survived, Mafia Victory Order of the Chaos Rose Mafia: Lord Dagol Ji'Lovik, Town-Aligned Hypnotist, Mafia Victory, Town MVP Camp Crystal Lake Mafia: Ongoing A Certain Magical Mafia: Killed Night 1, Town-Aligned The Siege of Balignor Mafia: Ongoing, Killed Day 4 Mafia of Ancient Egypt: Replaced in for Murica day 2, Ra, Town-Aligned Charismatic, Town Victory, Town MVP Lord of the Rings Mafia: Replaced in for Dr Demento, Town-Aligned Mason/One-Shot Self-Doc, Town Victory, Town MVP Internet Stars Mafia: Town-Aligned Vanilla, Mafia Victory Mythos Mafia: Ongoing
Please Please Please Autocard/// / / / [c]Protean Hydra[/c] => Protean Hydra / / / I can't read the cards you reference without it... / Well, ok, I CAN read the cards, but it involves opening Gatherer, looking your card up by name, hoping it's spelled right, and...
I'm just too lazy to do it, alright? Please Autocard.
So, green Wrath. I mean, sure, there's the indestructability rider, but situations where that is ever relevant seem few and far between (and they all involve Indomitable Ancients ). It's basically "Destroy each creature with toughness less than the total power of all creatures in play". I think my biggest problem is that all the creatures on the same team fight each other, which means it is A) Really mechanically good when your opponent has creatures and you don't and B) Really flavorfully wierd if you cast it when you have lots of creatures, and your opponent has only a few (but you want them dead). As a programmer, I'm inclined to interpret the wording that when creature A fights 'each other creature', that includes creature B, then when creature B fights 'each other creature', that includes creature A, meaning everything fights twice. I think. Then it's DEFINATELY a wrath. Lastly, the creature that is best-suited to survive this bloodbath has a high toughness, rather than the power associated with 'Predatory' in the name.
Mental Brawl The 'different opponent' part really affects this. In normal duels, this is, at best, a conditional, cantripping Glimpse the Unthinkable . But, when you get into multiplayer, this can, potentially, mill players out of the game (by bouncing between two people. Unlikely, but possible). That's a pretty big difference in effects, and I don't think I like how limited it is in duels, especially with the chance of whiffing completely by getting a land. Could make for some interesting/tense multiplayer moments, which is nice, I guess.
Colossus Fields Well, it's a six-mana legendary enchantment that does nothing by itself, gives a turn to be answered, and can potentially backfire, even. Does this balance out the fact that you can drop mad junk for free every turn? I'm willing to say yes. I mean, if I were playing competitively, I think I'd rather ramp to actual things (6 mana creatures are preeeeeetty good nowadays) instead of building a deck that can ramp up to 6 while still having enough stuff in hand to make use of this. HOWEVER. I really super disagree with not limiting it to creatures. For one, the flavor screams CREATURES CREATURES CREATURES (and I almost didn't catch that it was for anything until reading more). Also, Time Stretch . Could be some good crazy fun in EDH (like Hypergenesis !) without being supes-broke with other cards (like Hypergenesis !). But seriously though. Creatures.
Tzactal, Dark Arbiter Fight to the death! I really like this. It's very simple to 'get', the 'my champion against yours' scheming pit-boss flavor is great, and it opens up lots of cool mechanical interactions to gain extra value out of it (other Fight cards, deathtouch, on-damage triggers, etc).
yeah I think I overestimated potential power concerns, and I didn't limit it to creatures to attempt to balance those out, but in retrospect I agree with you.
I promise to do commentary later. I have, however, reviewed each of the submissions, and thus nominate Imidazoline for elimination. As per the Idol rules, in the rounds with only a single elimination, if all judges can't agree on which submission to exile, it moves to a vote. That thread will be opened momentarily. Good luck, Yushang and Imidazoline!
now that judging is over and he is safe from elimination, I want to point out that Detek's card does not work within the rules. I would've pointed it out during the round but I didn't notice until it closed and didn't want to be a dick and sabotage him.
first of all, it tries to use a triggered ability to modify events. this doesn't work. this could be solved by making it a replacement effect, but then you have the problem of never actually checking whether a creature dies, since that won't happen until the end of the ability. the best way to get the effect is a trigger that just makes a new fighting instance. "whenever two creatures fight, those two creatures fight." does the job. or, if you want, you can drop an intervening if to make it make more sense. "whenever two creatures fight, if both creatures are on the battlefield, they fight."
this, however, does not solve the problem of the game ending in a draw if my ornithopter ever fights your phyrexian walker . or if our darksteel gargoyle s get in a tiff. I don't know how to solve that elegantly.
