#design examples

Solving Problems

Hi Nonny!

Let me preface this with that I have no idea if both of your brides wear dresses or not and whether or not there are one or two bridal bouquets. (Who said there only had to be one? Let both have their own bouquet if they want to. Who said a bride wearing a suit couldn’t have a bouquet? You do you, there are no laws to this. Make their wedding perfect for them.) So just edit to your own specifics darling, you’re the master of this wedding!

That’s a lovely theme, unfortunately, there are no flowers in navy blue and silver is only available when you spray paint them and uh, that’s… a matter of taste. Personally, I would not recommend it, but like I said: matter of taste.

The reason there are no flowers in navy blue is simply that there’s barely any actually blue flowers, to begin with. Like eight or maybe ten, no kidding. Despite that, you might have heard your local florist or gardener talk about blue campanula or blue irises or the likes, which is a little quirk people in this industry have. So a specific shade of purple is referred to as blue. No idea who came up with that, but it’s a Thing(tm.)

Flowers that come in blue are: Nigella, agapanthus, larkspur, gentian, hydrangea, forget-me-not, morning glory and cornflower. (I recommend you look them up to see the blues for yourself.)

Dyed flowers available in blue: Orchid, rose and kalanchoe. Although I have to say I’ve never seen specifically blue kalanchoe as cut flowers.

Ways to obtain navy blue or silver flowers: Spray paint them or use silk or paper flowers. Both are a question of taste.

Other ways to obtain navy blue or silver: tufts of cloth adorned with pretty pins, ribbons (the bow kind and the hanging kind), pins, flower picks with moons and stars on them.

Before you despair now, think of the colour of your brides’ dresses, because that’s going to play the most important role. Is it bright, white? Then you can go all white or with specks of colour. Is it navy blue? You’re good to go with all white, only add colour if it fits with the dress. Is it white and navy blue? Well, this time it depends a bit on colour placement. You wouldn’t want the bouquet to merge with the dress so it’s practically invisible, but you also never want it to stain the dress or vice versa.

White in an of itself is considered no colour at all, also it fits with basically anything so you’re good to go with white on any possible account. That being said be careful that the white flowers match your bride’s white dress. White, white requires white, white flowers, champagne white requires champagne white flowers. Simply because if you mix them up the white, white tends to visually dirty whatever isn’t its colour.

As for the blues, yes your brides can have them in their bouquet. In fact, since there is a lot of lighter blues they could form a nice colour gradient together with the dress. All I want you to know is that for this specific colour scheme isn’t available in nature.

Your brides should look for shapes that compliment their theme, either in the flowers themselves (stars could be agapanthus (bursts) or stephanotis (single stars), likewise round flowers could represent a full moon) or the shape of their floral arrangements (crescent or star-shaped.)

Now, in case your characters don’t want to spray painted flowers or buy their silk alternatives, there a lot of flowers available in white to begin with and they should rather substitute the blue in form of ribbons and pins.

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Look at the shape of it, it could easily resemble a crescent or the shape of a shooting star. Now imagine it in all white with silver and navy blue ribbons and some silver pins. Just to give you an example what you could shoot for.

In case they do want to use some of the blue flowers listed: Nigella, cornflower and hydrangea could be used for cute, round-ish bouquets. I have no idea how morning glory fairs as a cut flower, never used it as one and never seen it as one. Forget-me-nots makes an awfully pretty bouquet because they’re just so cute(!) but they last from noon till midday. Larkspur and gentian (not the same season) require bouquet forms that allow them to stand out without being the bouquets antennas. (Yes, that’s a larkspur bouquet, no, that’s just a coincidence.)

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As for the bridal parties, the bridesmaids should be fine with nosegays. Those tiny, cute, round bouquets. Or a toned down, much smaller version of the bridal bouquets in terms of shape. For the men present how about pins where the base is the shape of a shooting star in silver or navy blue, the decoration would be matched with the bouquets. Men and suits usually don’t get that much decoration, however, if one of the suits belongs to one of the brides, I’d say let her have whatever she wants. It’s not impossible to design a bouquet fit for a suit, it’s just a rare request that’s all.

- Mods Jana and Den

I’m You But Stronger

Check out some card made by our mods! I’ve been seeing some people having some trouble designing for this contest, so hopefully these cards can help illustrate how to design for this contest.

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Abel gives us a mass reanimation spell that gets cheaper if a bunch of your creatures died and/or if your opponent cast an expensive spell. It’s pretty clear what this is meant to do: protect against a wrath. If you’re playing a go-wide white deck, then if your opponent casts a Wrath of God you’re out of the game, and in the mirror where both players are playing white, it’s entirely possible! So here’s a way to get all your creatures back easy. It also has some utility against GW Collected Company versions.

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Follower of Liliana gives us Frenzied Cresento. This one takes a different angle at the prompt. Rather than stopping your opponent, why not benefit off of them? If both players are just going to smack each other with burn, then all of the sudden this card is going to be two mana for 4 damage, and the fact that it can be split means it’s great at taking out the small creatures your opponent has in play. I could see this being main-deckable as well, similar to Chandra’s Incinerator back in its heyday, and I love that “each player” effects like Flame Rift can cheat the system a bit.

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My card, Graveescourge is intended to be both simple and versatile. My first thought was “hey, exiling graveyards with a sac effect is a great way to hate on sacrifice decks while being one.” But then I realized that would be pretty weak, so I gave it Unearth. That means all of the sudden this card is also good in a dredge mirror! I aimed for one deck and got another one for free.

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Remember, for this challenge all you have to do is pick a deck, then make a card that beats it that can still be played in that deck. You can pick any type of archetype, broad or narrow. What I’ve seen so far from people I’m very impressed with!

Free sample : Example Designs

Hello everyone! Delivering three example designs designed by judges @abelzumi and yours truly.

Mycoloid Figment serves both as a chump blocked and as a “slow” Lotus Petal. Seems innocent but it’s pretty useful! Ipir was me trying to be as extravagant as I could while keeping it at a design to 0 mana. I bet it could find a home in a janky Rakdos guild theme deck.

Fresh Phases

Check out some cards made by me and the other judges! In order:

@thatboonguy - Chronocompressor @abelzumi - Resonant Lull @3smuth - Binding Accord Me - Kami of the Blue Moon

Brushing Up

Here’s some examples, one from @abelzumi, one from @3smuth and one from myself.

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Cornered Brushwagg tells a great story. Brushwaggs are famous for their tenacity, and even without the flavor text, just the name and text make it clear. This guy does not like being outnumbered, and will kill anything in it’s path on its way out. With the flavor text, you get a more specific tale that gives us a name and by extension a plane. Outside of flavor, the card is also really cool. Early game it’s an efficient body, a 2/3 for two, and in the late game it can either help you stay alive as the board gets full, or help you get in damage if your opponent had a bunch of big guys. A very solid card.

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Brushwagg Forager is a cool card that happens to be a brushwagg. I love mini-game style cards, where you and your opponent stare down and they have to make a decision and you get to blow them out or fall to your own hubris. Even though the text is cool on its own, it still feels like a brushwagg! The fact that it can puff itself up is a common effect of brushwaggs. The name helps explain the flavor: that a brushwagg is finding something and bringing it back to its... nest? cavern? dam? Whatever a brushwagg has. Or, I also like the interpretation that it’s incorporating it into its coat like a bird nest filled with twist ties. It’s also pretty efficient as a 3/2 for 2 that can effectively draw a card once for a little mana more. Very powerful, which makes it an understandable uncommon.

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Woolly Brushwagg was my attempt to show you guys that you can get creative. Even when it’s not green and even though it’s half sheep, this card still feels like a brushwagg. The first ability harkens back to the original brushwagg, and the second ability helps facilitate the first. This still feels exactly as territorial and defenseive as any other brushwagg, but it also feels new. It isn’t that destructive, it isn’t great at attacking, and the flavor text even says its a more docile breed. But that’s something I’d be happy to see. I’m especially excited to see what other creature types people roll into their brushwaggs. Dragon? Demon? Soldier? Warrior? Peasant? The possibilities are endless...

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Thank you for checking out my brushwaggs. If this has inspired you to make your own, you can submit it here. Or, you could come on the discord and pick my brain. Either way, good luck and keep working on those waggs!

Broken Spotlight example designs by @thatboonguy and @follower-of-liliana. One creature (group) and one event.

The Crew is a strong card statwise, with a high hoop to jump in but the reward cleverly gets around the color restriction of EDH so you can have a joyful reunion on the kitchen table.

As for my card, I feel it’s important to depict the deaths of characters in cards/ Wwhen that doesn’t happen, the set loses flavor points. With Luxa Massacre, I tried to capture the brutality of Liliana’s debt negotiations on Amonkhet.

Saturday December 28th, 2024. Kmart app.