#runner up

Warm and Fuzzy: Judge's Pet Runner-ups

Not much else to say, so here's the runners! Reminder to check out our Discord if you weren't on the podium but still want feedback! (IT may be a bit delayed- I'll give more info in the server!)

Marchesa: Mutineer Exhorter by @thepeppermintpig

As any magic player with eyes could tell you, Mark of Mutiny is an absolute mainstay in any Marchesa deck wanting to get nasty with it. Steal a creature, pop a counter on it, sacrifice it, and guess who gets it back? Not the owner! This is pretty clearly a design that evolved from the intention of using Mutiny as a prepared spell, which is all well and good- but you did great work with the flavour, and the prepare condition caught my eye too. It intrigues me that this works off of an opponent attacking too- not sure if that was intentional, or if it would work better as your own attack trigger, but I kinda like the way it disincentivizes it.

Feather: On Angels' Wings by @chippyyyz

Oh hey, a card that fits in my last contest too! Small world, hehe. This one would be an absolute monster truck in feather. While my version doesn't use a crazy number of blinks, the fact that you can tack on any number of reanimates onto the blink effect is SWEET. Even just 3 mana for a repeatable one feels really good. I do think maybe some work needs to be done to dial in the base cost vs the strive cost, but I don't know if this is it- one mana just feels too cheap for a single target when you have the flexibility of adding more. Also, I'm assuming this is an oversight but this effect doesn't really feel common. Uncommon at least.

Nymris: Thought Catcher by @derplingvonderp

This one holds a special place of honor among the entries this week. While lots of people read through the deck briefs and offered up cards that are exactly what my decks want to do, I think this is the only card that made me realize what I'm missing out on. I only ever thought of Nymris as card draw, and have little to no ways to take advantage of the graveyard she pumps full of cards. All that to say, this card has a fun effect, and I will be off to scour scryfall for other ways I can beef Nymris up with this synergy in mind. What kept it off the winners podium is honestly power level- as a 3 mana manalith, the effect feels a bit too strong. If it was limited to playing them that turn, or for as long as you control the dream catcher, or otherwise tweaked, it would be fantastic, but a reliable source of surveil (or similar) turns this into a second hand that doesn't go away when someone blows up the artifact. I love the vision, it's just a touch too cheap.

And that's that for this week folks! See you next rotation!

Best of 2024: Game of the Year