#cfac 50

@the-color-blue-izzet:

I didn’t even know this was the last challenge until i saw one of the showcases go by my dashboard. I should really check my tumblr more..

Anyway i decided for my final submission i should try to challenge myself. So i picked the artwork that i thought would be used the least. The card itself doesn’t have soulbond because i thought it was the most boring way to do it but seeing as this would probably be printed in a set with other soulbond cards it doesn’t seem a massive drawback to me. The reminder text for soulbond is on the card so that it doesn’t have to be on the token which i think would look weird.

Thank you for keeping this challenge going for as long as you have, it must have took a lot of work each week and i appreciate it.

Ooh, interesting. Let’s get to the breakdown:

1 point for your submission: Got that one! Point! 1 point for not breaking the color pie: Soulbond is open for any color, tokens are fine, reach, trample, Centaur, Elf...yep, all in color. Point! 1 point for not putting something broken on the card: It’s potentially strong, but I think it’s certainly not broken. Point! 1 point for using proper templating (or at least close to it): Yep, proper templating down to the Soulbond text. Point! 1 point for impressing me with a cool design: I’m actually genuinely impressed by this design. It encourages you to play more soulbond creatures on this one, but in a different way from the normal Soulbond way because this creature doesn’t actually have Soulbond. It’s a slight inversion, but one I quite like. Point!

Well, looks like that adds up to the full five! Thanks for the submission, participation, and the kind words : )

@mtg-philocalist:

I cannot believe this is the 50th Cards From Art Challenge and, sadly, also the last, apparently. I have had so much fun creating cards in this format and hope that there will be something similar in the future, as it gives me and probably everyone else who participated an outlet to express their creativity. Thank you so much, @blackdeckwins, for all the work and effort you have put into this!

Now, it was really hard to decide which artwork to choose for this final submission, as all five of them look awesome and provide great sources of inspiration. After much (so much) deliberation, I eventually went for Kim Sokol’s beautiful piece, which inspired me to create this legendary Elf, coinciding nicely with the upcoming release of the much-anticipated Commander 2016. I just like legendaries so much!

In any case, I do hope that she does this last challenge justice.

Thank you again for all the fun!

I personally hate having first strike a deathtouch on the same card without having to work for it, and it seems especially weird for a Black/Green card. Like, you basically have to double-block this with two large creatures to kill it. You even get to dodge removal by sacrificing lands! But, I’m getting ahead of myself: let’s break this down.

1 point for your submission: Got that. Point! 1 point for not breaking the color pie: First strike is tertiary in Black, so it’s close, but I’ll give it to you. Point! 1 point for not putting something broken on the card: Being small is the thing that’s keeping me from calling this broken. I would prefer to have an ability tied to this gaining first strike or deathtouch, but I think it could at least start as this. Point! 1 point for using proper templating (or at least close to it): All good here. Point! 1 point for impressing me with a cool design: Interesting, to be sure, but not quite getting them for me.

Four points! Thanks for your submission, participation, and kind words : )

@acting4life97:

Alright, I really took my time with this one because I wanted to make something unique and fun for the last CFAC (at least on this blog). I tried to make a creature that was unique, and looking at the piece of art I knew two things. One, this is one of few cards that has 3 creature types (not including changelings) where two are races instead of classes. Two, I wanted to make a creature that conveyed teamwork between the two races, in such that combining their power would make for stronger effects. The easier way to show this would be on a spell, but I wanted to challenge myself to figure out how it would work on a creature.

It took a while, but I think I finally found some middle ground that I’m happy with. I came up with the Kinsmanship mechanic while looking at the art itself, and placed on an appropriate plane. My one and only concern about it is that it might have a fate similar to Haunt, where it works slightly different on spells than on creatures. A spell with Kinsmanship would simply require you to control an Elf and a Centaur, whereas the creatures would require one of each, not including itself. It’s something that would probably have to be fleshed out in testing, but I believe this is the best wording for it right now.

I also want to take the time to say thank you for taking your time out of your weeks, months, etc, to help designers not only by critiquing their work, but also providing a deadline, which is something I personally struggle with if there is not one set. I’ve participated since about halfway through the contest, but if I had the ability I would have gone back to the start I would have. Thanks for your many weeks of hard work for us designers.

Kinsmanship has some potential, I believe, but a few notes about it: 

I would keep this to just creatures; less to worry about.

No real need to tie it just to Elves and Centaurs; it could be done for any combination of two tribes.

Now, breakdown:

1 point for your submission: Done. Point! 1 point for not breaking the color pie: Elf, centaur, flash, damage, trample, lifelink; we’re good here. Point! 1 point for not putting something broken on the card: Certainly strong, but not broken by any means. Point! 1 point for using proper templating (or at least close to it): I really dislike the wording for Kinsmanship. I think what you’re actually looking for is...”as long as you control another Elf and another Centaur.” But, I think that’s a minor tweak. Point! 1 point for impressing me with a cool design: I’ll call it cool, but not quite impressive enough for me. 

All in all, four points! Thanks for the submission, the participation, and the kind words : ) I’ve always struggled with deadlines, as well, and my best advice is to just set them on your own, and write them on something like a whiteboard that you’ll see literally every day (That’s how I was able to do this challenge!).

@nine-effing-hells:

The art had a sort of secluded, stationary feel to it; just some creature, standing there, waiting. So, I tried to make a card that represents a demon waiting for something. Specifically, they’re waiting until it can collect on that life you promised it. Please, by all means, draw those extra cards! They’ll be here, waiting. Tick tock.

Holy cow. This thing is really planning on killing you. Though, six turns with impressive card advantage and you haven’t won the game yet? It’s probably about time that it pours on the damage.

1 point for your submission: Yep, that’s submitted. Point! 1 point for not breaking the color pie: All clear here. Point! 1 point for not putting something broken on the card: I’m on the fence here. If this thing naturally kills itself, you are literally drawing twenty-one cards over those six turns, and you definitely won’t be able to use all of them, but that kind of selection could be just the kind of thing a combo deck needs to find its win-cons. Plus, in a normal game of Magic, this will basically kill you, but in a game of Commander, it’s less than half of your starting life total, and I’m sure about any Commander deck would trade that for twenty-one cards. The downside is great, but I think this might be simply too powerful right now.  1 point for using proper templating (or at least close to it): Looks pretty good to me. Point! 1 point for impressing me with a cool design: interesting, and there may be something here, but it’s not quite gripping me.

All together, three points. Thanks for the submission, and for your long-time participation in the challenge!

@retroactivelyours:

no commentary

I suppose I should’ve expected a Mono-Green Dragon at some point.

1 point for your submission: Yep, point! 1 point for not breaking the color pie: I want to dock you here for having a Green Dragon, but they do happen every now and then. Point! 1 point for not putting something broken on the card: Powerful effects, but not quite broken. Point! 1 point for using proper templating (or at least close to it): Straightforward. Point! 1 point for impressing me with a cool design: It’s clean and cut, but it’s not quite impressive to me.

Four points in total! Thanks for the submission, and for your participation in the challenge!

@noyan-dar​:

Who’s a good fiery boy?

Turning up the heat, I see?

1 point for your submission: Close to the deadline, but just in time. Point! 1 point for not breaking the color pie: Trample, Combat damage triggers, one-shot mana creation. All red. Point! 1 point for not putting something broken on the card: The base creature isn’t too powerful, and it takes quite a bit of work to get the mana out of it. Point! 1 point for using proper templating (or at least close to it): Everything checks out here. Point! 1 point for impressing me with a cool design: You’re pulling at my heart with the Red Aggro card here, but it’s not quite excited me.

@thricexandvii:

I may have just backed my way into an interesting, if somewhat convoluted, evasive overlap ability in U/B. The flavor of enthralling is that the creature exudes a presence that some people/creatures (those with focus counters) find completely enthralling and provokes an obsession in them, while in others, they have no interest whatsoever for the thing or might even go to lengths to avoid it. (Think in terms of a quality that could exist in something like Moby Dick that can somehow inspire a ridiculous life-ruining obsession in Ahab, but not in others. I admit that the ability isn’t named perfectly, but I think it works reasonably well.)

In terms of color-pie, black and blue both get a fair amount of evasion independently, and I feel like fiddling with blockers is something they could mess with. Especially since Blue has straight up unblockable, and Black has a slice of menace.

As for haste? It appears on some Black creatures, and a small smattering of Blue ones (mostly those with suspend). BUT, I feel that given the enthralling keyword, and him being Legendary, it helps to get one potentially unblockable attack in. This is a somewhat similar way that creatures with suspend gain haste almost as a work around even though they should still have summoning sickness.

Oh, one more thing! It’s a shark demon because, well, it looks rather shark-ish to me… and what could be cooler than a Shark that’s also a Demon? (Unless of course it also had a laser!)

Interesting effect here, a sort of unblockable that becomes progressively worse over time. I’m not sure how I feel about it as a keyword, but it’s certainly interesting as a one-off ability.

1 point for your submission: Point! 1 point for not breaking the color pie: You’re a bit close on this, but I think it slides by. Point! 1 point for not putting something broken on the card: A 6/6 that’s initially unblockable and becomes progressively less unblockable may be powerful, but not quite broken. Point! 1 point for using proper templating (or at least close to it): That name’s crazy, but Magic’s got some crazy names already, so I’ll take it. Point! 1 point for impressing me with a cool design (this will be the hardest point to earn): Interesting, yes, but not quite impressive enough for me.

Four points in total. Thanks for the submission, and for your long-time (and well-written) participation in the challenge!

@thanatyr:

We’re leaving together, But still it’s farewell And maybe we’ll come back To earth, who can tell? I guess there is no one to blame We’re leaving ground (leaving ground) Will things ever be the same again? It’s the final countdown!

This was fun while I was in it!

I know, small text, but I wanted it to try and fit. Aka, no reminder text. I’m honestly not sure if you can suspend a fused card two at once, so this was the ability I came up with in its place. Suspend either side for a lot of aggro to come your way. Suspend both? Control the wipe, then cause monstrously large creatures to come sweeping down from beyond the grave. Not positive on the wording, but I figured it would be having creatures re-animated getting said devour and ETB effect.

Here are the abilities in text form, since they’re quite small:

Final: Final is black and blue. Suspend 3 {3}{U}{U}{B}{B}. At the beginning of your upkeep, draw a card for each time counter on Final if it is suspended. Each player exiles all creatures from his or her graveyard, then sacrifices all creatures he or she controls, then puts all cards he or she exiled this way onto the battlefield.

Countdown: Countdown is red and green. Suspend 3 {2}{R}{R}{G}. Creature cards you own that aren’t on the battlefield have Devour 2 and “When this creature enters the battlefield, it may fight another target creature” until end of turn.

Coalesced Delay (You may suspend one or both halves of this card from your hand)

**insert rant about how much I dislike suspend**

**insert further rant about suspend and cards without mana costs**

**insert obligatory balancing problem about cascade**

There, I think I covered that. Now, for the breakdown:

1 point for your submission: Yep, got that one. Point! 1 point for not breaking the color pie: Both sides are appropriately in their color. Point! 1 point for not putting something broken on the card: So, have of this card is literally Living End but I guess if that’s the best you can cascade into, it isn’t that broken. However, suspending Final draws you six cards before you actually cast the spell, and then you get a shot at a ton of creatures out of your graveyard. More than I’m okay with out of that. 1 point for using proper templating (or at least close to it): Now, this isn’t templated the way you actually want, because other than on the stack, split cards are both halves, so even if you went for the Red/Green part, you’d be drawing cards, which is either a color pie break or a templating fail. Also, the abilities are on the wrong sides of the card: this has all of those creatures enter the battlefield, then the Devour and Fight ability grant happens but all of your creatures are already here. Add that with the tiny text, and I can’t give you the templating points. 1 point for impressing me with a cool design: Interesting. Weird. Complex. Lots of things I can say about this card, but it’s not quite in the impressive category.

Two points! Thanks for the submission, and for your participation in the challenge!

@thekillershrub:

What I learned from this experience. You love bi-model cards, references to old cards, and over the top design. You also like Skulk when there are decisions involved. So…ya…here is all that.

So for my final card I wanted to go as Crazy as possible. I wanted a kill condition, bi models, inspired by a Planeswalker, insane effect, and all within the rules! Neither modes are particularly game breaking, but you get choice! I know most of the time Rogue is the right choice, but not even close all of the time! Also there are mono-black elves, so a Dimir one shouldnt be too far off.

Thanks for all you have done with these, I looked forward everyday to doing these and seeing the results. Man…I will miss these contests. But enjoy your job and your awesome life ^.^

Ooh, you’re going meta with your decisions by targeting things you know I like. Though you should’ve anticipated, I hold those effects to a higher scrutiny ;)

1 point for your submission: Point! 1 point for not breaking the color pie: Everything here looks fine for Dimir. Point! 1 point for not putting something broken on the card: Four mana 4/4 Deathtouch is pushing it. Four mana 4/4 Skulk and Curiosity is also pushing it. Throw in the chance to auto-kill a player, and the choice between all of this...and I’m pretty sure this is a five-mana card. 1 point for using proper templating (or at least close to it): Templating is a little weird here, but as best as I can tell, it all works. Changing “gains” to “has” for the two abilities would probably be a little more clear, but you’re close enough. Point! 1 point for impressing me with a cool design: Definitely combined a lot of things I like, but it ended up being a little more of a mish-mash than I would like. Close, but no cigar.

All told, three points! Thanks for the submission, the participation, and the kind words : )

@ubervores:

Okay so ngl I made a few different designs for the arts and the Cerberus was my favorite but since you got like 80 of those I’m gonna use this instead.  It was a tough choice because I liked all of them but this was my first idea and took a lot of work to capture flavorfuly (and also it was the only one in a future sight border lol.)  So the idea is that this Whale looking monster uses the rifts and what not of wherever Future Sight takes place to stalk its prey I dotn know if its incredibly UG past the fact that the way it has evolved is strange but it is what it is i guess. Man im gonna miss this challenge :’(

S U S P E N D   Y   U   D O   D I S   T O   M E ?

Alright, okay, composing myself, deep breath...okay, I’m good. Let’s continue:

1 point for your submission: Yep, that’s submitted. Point! 1 point for not breaking the color pie: slightly-large creature, suspend, downside for being large, “blinking,” yeah, this is all in Blue/Green. Also Whale Beast. Point! 1 point for not putting something broken on the card: This might get a bit complex, but I don’t think I’d call it broken. Point! 1 point for using proper templating (or at least close to it): Here, we get a bit messy. You’re going to need to specify “attacked or blocked this turn” so it doesn’t try to look to see if it’s ever attacked or blocked. And when you reference time counters inside of abilities, you always write out the number instead of using the digit, or in this case, you would use “a” instead. You’re also missing a few commas. With that many small errors adding up, I can’t quite give that to you. 1 point for impressing me with a cool design: Even though this has suspend, and is a little blinky and complex, I do actually like it. It isn’t quite to the impressive mark, but I do think it’s a good card.

@outerspace-messiah:

A lot of people ask for triple strike, but it’s very hard to convey that mechanically. I wanted to try my hand at it and what better than to try it out on a Cerberus?

The flavor I decided to go with is to have one head deal first strike damage and the other two heads deal normal strike damage. Trample ensures that each head is useful and continues chomping through the first blocker. However, I had the +X/+0 effect only last until the end of combat in case of multiple combat phases.

Understanding that pump effects exist and this is 9 potential damage per combat by itself, I went with a steeper cost for this could be a potential game ender.

I and many others have had a lot of fun doing these and they give us opportunities to flex our creativity. Thank you so much for setting up these competitions!

It’s been my pleasure to host the challenges for everyone :)

So! Scoring for this card:

1 point for your submission - Ding! Easy point! 1 point for not breaking the color pie. - Double strike, trample, cerberus, +X/+0; all in Red’s color pie. Point! 1 point for not putting something broken on the card. - Here’s the tricky part: 3/3 double strike with a slight upside for five has precedent, and while I would be more comfortable with this at six mana, it isn’t quite “busted” at five. Point! 1 point for using proper templating (or at least close to it) - This is equally as tricky, though for a different reason. This templating works, but isn’t the cleanest, and the word “combat” is really good at breaking people out of the fantasy of the game. I would change it to “First time each turn” and “end of turn” and let it have some fun with multiple combat steps. That’s more of a preference, though; this templating is fine. Point! 1 point for impressing me with a cool design - This is certainly interesting and accomplishes the idea of triple-strike, but it’s not quite jumping out at me as “impressive.” Nice try, though.

Overall, solid card that I would certainly see being included in a set. Four points!

@palaguin:

Wow, it is the end of an era.  I have created 55 cards for this series of challenges (number includes doing cards for all 6 options in one challenge when only 2 were needed).   There was one other artwork I really liked, and another that screamed possibilities, but in the end I am a diehard Red player, so I had to go with a fiery red beat.  I was afraid 2/4 was too weak, and 4/4 was too string, so I made it a ¾.  With the possibility of doublestrike and rangestrike, it definitely fits the artwork in having 3 heads.

It’s been real, it’s been fun, and most of the time it’s been real fun.  Ta ta.

Quoth the penguin…evermore.

It’s been a pleasure having you and your blasted inverse frame along for the challenge :)

And it looks like we’re going to have a recurring theme for this artwork...

1 point for your submission - Submitted? Check! Point! 1 point for not breaking the color pie. - Menace, double strike, breathing fire on your opponent’s face, all in the color pie. Point! 1 point for not putting something broken on the card. - Mmm, this one’s close. I usually like to think of Menace as covering two “points” between power and toughness, so with an added ability that makes it a biiiiit much...but Legendary rounds it out a bit more so I’ll let it through. Point! 1 point for using proper templating (or at least close to it) - Part of me wants to dock you for the frame here, but I won’t; however, you do have a glaring templating problem here: this ability is phrased such that the creature is the one choosing whether to deal the damage or not, and creatures can’t make those decisions. It would have to change to “You may have it deal damage equal to its power to target player.” Sorry, no point this time. 1 point for impressing me with a cool design - Like I said before, working triple strike is interesting, but not exactly gripping. No point here.

All told, three points. Nice job, and thanks again for being such a long-standing figure in the challenge!

@amtgplayer:

Colorshifted Desecration Demon!

For some reason, this piece gives me a feeling that the giant dragon is blowing all those creatures away, but won’t actually attack any time soon. The problem is that bouncing one creature per turn sounds like it can get repetitive, so I decided to bounce progressively more and more creatures… If the opponent opts to do so.

This comes out of the gate slowly, but it will soon cost a lot of mana to keep it tapped down, so the opponent had better find an answer to this soon!

Ah, good ol’ Desecration Demon. I played one of these in my mono-Black deckback in RTR-THS Standard.

This is a pretty adorable color-shifted card, but let’s see how it stacks up!

1 point for your submission. - Easy-peasy! Point! 1 point for not breaking the color pie. - The closest thing to a break here is the Dragon card type, but that can bleed into other colors sometimes, so it passes. Could’ve made it a Leviathan, though :P. Point! 1 point for not putting something broken on the card. - Dessy Demon was strong but not broken, and this is arguably worse than it, so I think we’re good. Point! 1 point for using proper templating (or at least close to it) - Based on the Demon, this seems to be properly templated. Point! 1 point for impressing me with a cool design (this will be the hardest point to earn) - I do quite like the card, and I do like color-shifting cards properly, but it’s not quite the kind of “oomph” I’m looking for. A solid card, but no point here.

Four points! Thanks for the submission, and the long-time participation in the challenge!

@custommagiccardswithnonmagiclore:

I really like the idea of conditional keyword grant, so the first ability is a reflection of that. But because I feel the effect is a bit narrow, I give it something that can trigger itself easier in the form of Hordeling, which becomes active when you control five or more nontoken creatures.

The second ability is the reason I’m hesitant to give Hordeling ability to trigger off token creatures, because red can just spawn in a lot of Goblin tokens out of nowhere.

Interesting. Granting a keyword based on a specific symbol on the card is interesting...but not actually something normal Magic can do right now. But I’ll talk about that more when we break it down:

1 point for your submission. - There’s the easy part. Point! 1 point for not breaking the color pie. - Haste, damage; yep, this one works. Point! 1 point for not putting something broken on the card. - Certainly powerful, but I think calling it “broken” would be jumping the gun. Point! 1 point for using proper templating (or at least close to it) - Here, we run into a problem. Checking exact symbols on cards isn’t something normal Magic can do; that’s reserved for silver border. In fact, I’m not entirely sure if there is a way in normal Magic for this to work, outside of just giving everything haste. 1 point for impressing me with a cool design - interesting space, to be sure, but not quite enrapturing for me. No points here.

Three points! Thanks for the interesting submission, and for your participation in the challenge over the last few weeks!

@dimestoretajic:

What a ride.

I may have come into this midway through, but I’ve enjoyed making cards for every single challenge I’ve participated in. Honestly, BDW, thank you so much for creating such a great activity for all of us!

Seeing as how this is the last BDW CFAC ever, I wanted to make the card sufficiently epic. So, why not a card with that very mechanic? I looked it over a few times, and a couple of friends looked it over, and I THINK it’s balanced power wise for the drawbacks? I sure hope so. This is my last chance to impress you!

Thank you again for the Cards from Art Challenge, BDW. I am excited for what we can expect from you in the future!

HOW DID I KNOW IT WAS GOING TO BE YOU THAT DID THIS?

I don’t actually know how I knew, but I just had a weird feeling that you would be one of the ones that would.

1 point for your submission. - Ding! Point! 1 point for not breaking the color pie. - It’s...hard to break the color pie when you’re every color. Perhaps that was your scheme all along? Point! 1 point for not putting something broken on the card. - I reeaally want to dock you here because I dislike Epic, but I can’t exactly call this card broken when you have to pay Progenitus-mana to cast it. And no combination of the effects is too powerful for the cost either, so I suppose you’re good here. Point! 1 point for using proper templating (or at least close to it) - Each ability is properly templated. Point! 1 point for impressing me with a cool design - Cool, and certainly Epic (secretive points if you did that because Epic is literally the company I work for) but I’m not a huge fan of the mechanic itself, so I can’t give you this one.