CKY and magicpablo666 combined ingenuity and silliness to win a Summer fUn contest each! vlord beat the rest to become the architect of a better tomorrow in Build it and they will come! CityofAs pranced masterfully to victory in Skipping Merrily! ConfusedAsUsual conquered both tropes and opponents ascend in Metafiction! FirstTurnKill condensed Success into Art form in Summing it Up!
I am both selfish and instinctive. I value growth and community, as long as they favour my own objectives; I enjoy nature, and I particularly enjoy watching parts of nature die. At best, I am resilient and tenacious; at worst, I'm uncontrollable and destructive.
Oh, but wait, there were multiple answers that fit my thoughts to some questions. What colors did they say I was?
I am Blue/Green
I am both rational and instinctive. I value self-knowledge and understanding of the world; my ultimate goal is self-improvement and improvement of the world around me. At best, I am focused and methodical; at worst, I am obsessive and amoral.
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.
I am both selfish and instinctive. I value growth and community, as long as they favour my own objectives; I enjoy nature, and I particularly enjoy watching parts of nature die. At best, I am resilient and tenacious; at worst, I'm uncontrollable and destructive.
Oh, but wait, there were multiple answers that fit my thoughts to some questions. What colors did they say I was?
I am Blue/Green
I am both rational and instinctive. I value self-knowledge and understanding of the world; my ultimate goal is self-improvement and improvement of the world around me. At best, I am focused and methodical; at worst, I am obsessive and amoral.
CKY and magicpablo666 combined ingenuity and silliness to win a Summer fUn contest each! vlord beat the rest to become the architect of a better tomorrow in Build it and they will come! CityofAs pranced masterfully to victory in Skipping Merrily! ConfusedAsUsual conquered both tropes and opponents ascend in Metafiction! FirstTurnKill condensed Success into Art form in Summing it Up!
Okay, it's 30 minutes past midnight, so I didn't finish on the same day I said I would, but hopefully you're all in different timezones and won't mind. Comments are quite long as there were several things to talk about, which almost makes me glad Avedomni forgot about this as it meant less work for me. I complain but really these were fantastic submissions and it was a pleasure to grade. Therefore, may I present:
Edacade: A story of a plague that isn't about zombies? There's something you don't see very often nowadays. Not a particularly tight plot, more of a scene setting, certainly this could easily be lost within a set that included many cards about the plague - especially as you didn't include any flavour text. I like Jakyyl a lot, he really epitomises elements of white that don't get enough screentime (as it were), the willingness to destroy anything corrupted, no matter if that means destroying his own allies or even himself for that cause. He possibly could be 1 cheaper and probably doesn't need to be both a cleric and an advisor, but those are minor tweaks for a fantastic card. I'm afraid that I'm less of a fan of Augment than you, because it seems like one of those mechanics that would fit into pablo's mathset (unfortunately for you both that's not a compliment) as in they work okay on these boards but become an algebraic nightmare to deal with when you sit down to play and create a lot of counter-intuitive situations, such as the Abomination becoming smaller when you put +1/+1 counters on as they remove the +1/+1 counters, or getting stronger off of feather or fuse counters. I'm sure it could see print, but it would have to be handled quite carefully to stop it causing headaches. In terms of presenting a mechanic Plagued Abomination is a solid card, a classic black vanilla made interesting. I don't really like Unseemly affliction very much, the first sentence makes it very parasitic and not really very strong, plus the use of Augment -1 exasperates the problem of having to do lots of maths in your head during the game. Natural cure is a decent card, albeit quite simplistic. It's probably overcosted, in a stretch you might even be able to put it at and it feels a little anticlimatic for this story. In fact, overall your story doesn't function brilliantly, the first two cards are well designed and set the scene quite well but there's no buildup or plot development, which leaves the story feeling a little blank. If Natural Cure was meant to be the conclusion then the whole thing comes across as futile, the plague eventually sorting itslef out regardless of the inquisitor any other character. There were good cards here and a new mechanic which are always hard to do, but it could really have benefited from some flavour text to tie everything together.
ConfusedAsUsual: Romance isn't something touched upon in Magic, so it was very interesting seeing how you handled it. Some of it was very cheesy and the flavour texts were in need of editing in regards to wording, but on a whole I really enjoyed this entry as a story. Magic needs more love in it - in fact I'm almost tempted to make that the theme of my next contest, but I digress. Saya is very nice, it can be hard to make lifegain relevant but using it to reduce mana costs makes her into a powerhouse and gives extra use to all of white/greens incremental lifegain effects. Her abilities remind me of Niv-Mizzet in the way that they are set up, which can only be a good thing and I am very fond of the extra flavour that having no power gives her. Nice work, but she should have a class. Fated Encounter is missing the letter X and is a little strange. Making it a creature aura has a subtle flavour, in that if the enchanted creature dies it becomes useless but it should really reference the enchanted creature in some way or it comes across as kind of odd. Using Miracle like this is an excellent use of mechanic names for flavour, turning something that was originally to make a card feel awe inspiring into something quite sweet. This is also probably a green spell, despite the name making it feel white, although an argument could be made for this being an acceptable colour bleed. Courtship is, fittingly, quite an old-fashioned feeling card, harking back to cards I remember seeing that used new counter types at will and had more control effects around. Now, I will point out that I'm against adding new counter types to the game that do nothing on their own but I'm mostly going to let it slide for this one, as I can't see any other counters that would fit and it wouldn't be on too many creatures for it to become annoying to handle. This would play quite oddly flavourwise though, as you'd likely use it on a small creature to nullify and eventually steal your opponent's finisher which would create amusing situations such as a darksteel colossus being courted by a 1/1. Violent Objections is more red/green than red/blue, as green has the 'counter if it targets a creature you control' section of the colour pie and really the whole feel of the card isn't particularly blue. I think this is my least favourite of the cards you've submitted this round, which is odd as I'm normally a countermagic fan, but this makes the mistake of bundling in an emblem into a spell. Emblems are annoying, they aren't interactive and exist in a semi-real zone of their own, which is why you tend to find them only on planeswalkers finishers. The second effect would have been fine on a creature or an enchantment (still not u/r though) and the first effect is fine on the instant on its own, though that would make it a little too simplistic. Chucking them together makes this seem kind of silly to me. Flavourwise it kind of works as an antagonist to romance - but only just. Love Eternal on the other hand, is awesome. That first line is the cutest line of card text I've ever read. I was waiting for a soulbond card whilst giong through your submission and this delivers, although I've got no idea if it would actually work as it should within the rules. It's a powerful effect, though not broken and the flavour is just really cute, nicely rounding off your story with a happy ending. Sorry I didn't give you enough space for the male counterpart, but the story works with him only implied.
Glasir: From romance to comedy. I have to admit that reading over your submission I was expecting a standard young boy rises to hero status (as seen in just about every fantasy story ever) and was pleasantly suprised by the twist ending. Dread Hellkite is a great dragon, although in the modern environment he could be a 6/6 easily. I really like the whole idea of burning everything else, it really helps to set it up as a villain that must be defeated. Very red, very dragon-y (is that a word?) and great flavour text. Humble Farmboy and Hone Skills are quite simplistic cards, which is fitting, but leaves me little to say. I like the repeated payment on Hone Skills, it really makes it fit the saying in the flavour text and helps it stand out from just being a repeatable battlegrowth. Humble Farmboy grows crops, which gain you life, a straightforward card that nevertheless could use a bit of flavourtext to tie it in better with the cycle otherwise it might be lost among the other cards in the set. I could see it being done all in the art, with an impending dragon in the backgroud of the Farmboy, followed by the same farmboy in the art for training and the sword. Speaking of the sword, it is a fantastic equipment, showcasing a weapon that strikes awe into the hearts of the enemies of whoever wields it. Elegant design on this and good flavour, the only thing I'd even suggest changin would be making it +3/+0 just to match the mana and equip costs. Now our hero has risen from his simple roots, trained hard and holding an epic weapon of great power. He is ready, he climbs up the great mountain to the very peak, the dark lair of the dragon. He draws his mighty sword and charges, he knows this is his moment to triumph, his fate, his destiny- -and he's gone. Scatter the Ashes has the strange position of seeming like a sad card in isolation, but quite an amusing one in conjuction with the story as it shows that the hero has merely been disintegrated by the dragon rather than winning as fairytale logic says he should. Unless I'm totally misreading your story of course and there was a great battle that wasn't shown - but I don't think I am. Tapping all creatures is more blue than black, but I'l treat it as acceptable bleed for here, especially as I really enjoy the flavour of the card as a whole. It really brings out the whole feel of 'a moment of silence for the departed' particularly since it's a throwback to Silence . Of course the knowledge that this hero was charred by a dragon makes this a bittersweet tragicomedy and weirdly, but effectively, ties off your story.
So, now you'll want to know who won? Well then: PlacesShow
In an unsuprising fourth place, with no actual submission, we have Avedomni!
In third place, with plagues and inquisitors, we have Edacade!
In second place, a tale about how even the lowliest can one day feed a dragon, it's Glasir!
And finally, in first place, a tale of two lovers amidst the endless war that is Magic, one massive congratulations to ConfusedAsUsual! If I ever put up a hall of fame on my sig you'll get a place there.
You've done brilliantly all the way through and didn't stop here, well done to you guys, I hope you enjoyed my first multiple round contest and to see you in my next one, which will happen (probably) some time before christmas.
CKY and magicpablo666 combined ingenuity and silliness to win a Summer fUn contest each! vlord beat the rest to become the architect of a better tomorrow in Build it and they will come! CityofAs pranced masterfully to victory in Skipping Merrily! ConfusedAsUsual conquered both tropes and opponents ascend in Metafiction! FirstTurnKill condensed Success into Art form in Summing it Up!
I think I had some of this in my workspace but got rid of it for the final submission because entries in a story-centric contest really ought to speak for themselves.
You got the intended story just right, yes. I wanted to do a standard storyline but give the ending a twist, and given my entry for Round 2 (Hero's Rise) the nobody-to-hero one seemed perfect.
The dragon could really be any big, scary monster, but hey, dragons are traditional, and this set the tone for the rest of the entry (elements of an incredibly stereotypical fantasy story). The name reinforces this by not saying anything about it other than it's a big scary dragon. As for the actual card, it's big 'n' red (and yeah, 6/6 would be better) and breathes fire, surprise. Wizards has done a lot of obligatory-dragons over the years so it took a bit to find a fiery ability that hasn't been used already -- even this one is sort of close to Scourge of Kher Ridges .
OK, now that we have the obvious antagonist of the story and are happily imagining it burning everything around, let's introduce the hero. Again, super-stereotypical -- he's (a) humble, (b) a farmboy, and (c) extremely common -- in short, the last person you'd expect to be going to save the countryside from the evil dragon in real life, and therefore exactly the person you'd expect to do so in this type of story. I agree that he really really needs flavortext, probably similar in thought to core-set Eager Cadet (but pre-cinders).
Clearly the hero won't be able to defeat the dragon without a lot of work -- he's still just a farmboy! -- so he spends some time getting better at fighting or whatever. Like you said, there's not really much to say about Hone Skills that it doesn't say for itself, so... yeah. If Daily Regimen weren't a thing already that's probably what I would have called this.
And of course the hero requires a magical sword to help him out! Once again it's got an extremely generic name and really just grants a pile of helpful-in-combat abilities (*cough* Sword of Vengeance *cough*). After cranking out the flavortext I thought about recosting it lower and getting rid of everything but the "other creatures get -N/-0" ability, because the idea of a sword that's basically not special at all (even less than Greatsword !) but that everybody is afraid of anyways amused me to no end, but it didn't feel right to get so obviously cynical just yet.
So now our nobody has worked hard to improve his fighting ability, found a powerful magical sword, and is riding off to defeat the evil dragon... time for the twist! He loses, he dies, he gets burnt to cinders and ash. And so his family, friends, and community, who were probably genre-savvy enough to expect him to win, have to mourn his death instead. Fortunately for his memory, per the flavortext he's not mourned as a foolish boy who attacked a terrible fire-breathing dragon armed with little more than conviction and a sword, but as a hero. With this one I had the name well before any other part of the card, and I still think that the name is by far the best part of the card (though the moment of silence references do make me happy).
... rereading that, I'm quite glad that Confused's rather nice love story won over my super-cynical tragicomedy. Wow.
"Go, then. There are other worlds than these." -- Stephen King, The Gunslinger
Some things to make the forums nicer -- Last updated 28 AprShow
Thx Glasir. Yay 1st~~~ Thanks, Morg, for judging and hosting the contest, really had fun with this one.
Well, can't believe I missed out the for the miracle, edited the second one but missed out on the first. Violent Objections is actually the first I completed even though I had doubts about slapping emblems onto instants and balancing one, maybe I should have tried for flash enchantments or something. I was envisioning the opponent to be the high-standards father opposing the love relationship. Glad to know the story works with the leading male implied.
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.
Well, I had a nice long reply set up, then my internet went out and erased what I wrote when I tried to send it. I don't feel like trying to remember exactly what I wrote, so I'm just going to put the last thing I said: I'm surprised I made it to the final round at all.
Rules Advisor as of 8-26-09 Joined the crowd and got an Avatar from zammm's Avatar Workshop on 5-6-2012 Currently Working on:Show
I am both selfish and instinctive. I value growth and community, as long as they favour my own objectives; I enjoy nature, and I particularly enjoy watching parts of nature die. At best, I am resilient and tenacious; at worst, I'm uncontrollable and destructive.
Oh, but wait, there were multiple answers that fit my thoughts to some questions. What colors did they say I was?
I am Blue/Green
I am both rational and instinctive. I value self-knowledge and understanding of the world; my ultimate goal is self-improvement and improvement of the world around me. At best, I am focused and methodical; at worst, I am obsessive and amoral.
Back to page 1 it shall go!
and it feels a little anticlimatic for this story. In fact, overall your story doesn't function brilliantly, the first two cards are well designed and set the scene quite well but there's no buildup or plot development, which leaves the story feeling a little blank. If Natural Cure was meant to be the conclusion then the whole thing comes across as futile, the plague eventually sorting itslef out regardless of the inquisitor any other character. There were good cards here and a new mechanic which are always hard to do, but it could really have benefited from some flavour text to tie everything together.
for the miracle, edited the second one but missed out on the first. Violent Objections is actually the first I completed even though I had doubts about slapping emblems onto instants and balancing one, maybe I should have tried for flash enchantments or something. I was envisioning the opponent to be the high-standards father opposing the love relationship. Glad to know the story works with the leading male implied.
