#nine-effing-hells

@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.

@nine-effing-hells:

Upon doing a bit of research on jackals I found that the only jackal which lives outside Africa (and would thus show up in an “Arabian-inspired set”) is the golden jackal, which has a habit of living in the ruins of cities. So it’s pretty clear that those humans in the art have been poking around somewhere they maybe shouldn’t have, and it’s about to bite them figuratively and literally. One of the classic “you’re out of line, buddy” cards is No Mercy, so I used that as a starting point. The rider that you have to have a creature is because, well, you’re safe attacking (i.e. going off into not-your-territory) if there aren’t jackals around. The second ability synergizes with the first, and represents the jackals eating carcasses. It’s a second ability because jackals can be scavengers, not just hunters.

The phrasing on the first ability was tricky, as just saying “Whenever a creature deals combat damage to you, if you control a creature, destroy it” is too vague; the entire statement refers to two different creatures, either of which could be the “it” in the last clause.

Ah, the joys of the English language and pronouns. Another option could’ve been to swap the ordering of the conditional and the “if”:

Whenever a creature deals combat damage to you, destroy it if you control a creature.

It may not be the usual way things like this are templated, but it’s grammatically sound, conveys the same message, and saves a full line of text.

There’s a fair chance this card is costed a bit too high, and could definitely be tuned down in cost. I’m not positive this effect is still considered Black mechanically, but it certainly fits flavorfully.

Thanks for the submission! For meeting the art prompt and the design challenge (title!) you’ll be awarded two points.

@noyan-dar:

I think this is interesting because of some of the flavour implications. The Jackal is hunting this lone human, and will kill it if given the chance, yet the human is powerless to this.

Mechanically it works interestingly because it’s a very good value creature that comes with a large downside.

Holy cow that’s a heck of a downside. I know 3/2 lifelinkers have costed four mana in the past, but man, that’s a heck of a way to balance it. I would certainly be interested in tweaking various numbers in various places to make this card a bit more reasonable. Definitely an interesting (and appropriate) design, though.

Thanks for the submission! For meeting the art prompt and the design challenge (flavor text!) you’ll be awarded two points.

@ubervores:

Rationale: Curses are cool and the art reminded me of Innistrad and thats it man

Well, can’t argue with that logic.

This is a really interesting angle for a Green “control” strategy, as it gives you blockers for opposing creatures to “fog” while you answer threats, and eventually works as a pseudo-win condition. I like the design quite a bit, and the costing seems fine for a start, and it has several knobs available to change if needed.

Thanks for the submission! For meeting the art prompt and the design challenge (rules text!), you’ll be awarded two points.

@ancient-chaos:

Jackals are generally red, and the art felt very Jund-y, unfortunately, anything tricolor felt forced and green was the odd color out, so hyper-aggressive Rakdos jackals it is!

Finding the right power and toughness to balance this around was a bit difficult but, as far as I can tell it should be fine - maybe slightly above curve. Regardless, it makes for some interesting choices by granting haste and, functionally, unleash. 

I’m always on board with an aggressive engine card like this. I like the thought behind the design and everything, and giving all of your creature spells Bloodthirst 1 is definitely a good way to push aggressive strategies. The problem, however, comes from the ability it grants to creatures with +1/+1 counters.

You see, the most common way to enable bloodthirst is by attacking and dealing damage, and this card can do that fairly well. However, if the rest of your creatures get bloodthirst through your creature attacking, then they will enter the battlefield after combat, meaning the haste is useless, so it’s basically a downside-balancing mechanic, which at that point is no fun.

Sure, there are ways to enable bloodthirst without attacking (like pingers and burn spells) but this card would play much better if it could just enable them on its own. Perhaps it could grant them trample, or the Ashmouth Hound ability to dissuade your opponent from blocking, or even Hellrider it?

Thanks for the submission! For meeting the art prompt and the design challenge (title and flavor text!), you’ll be awarded two points.

@voicesofchaos:

NOTE: For some weird reason my Magic Set Editor does not do italics! I click on the italics button and just nothing happens :( But obviously the bottom line is flavor text.

Pretty simple and straightforward design this time. It simply combines Prey Upon with Sorcery speed Might of the Masses. I think this card have easily been 2 CMC but I wanted it to be common and not push the power-level too much. Although I do feel the combination of cards does have a nice synergy and that in general Sorcery buff spells don’t get enough respect.

Power-level wise, it’s in a good place to start with, and may realistically need to be upped: with a couple of creatures, this is a straight-up removal spell, and may buff your creature enough that it can still attack without fear of death! It’s a solid card that fits the art quite well.