#runner-ups

Name of the Game: Runner-Ups

A round of applause for @teaxch, @misterstingyjack,and @corporalotherbear.

Again thanks  everyone for participating. Before I get to each card, I would like to explain my reasoning behind the evaluation of all the entries for this challenge. Costing, balancing, color identity were taking into account as always, but the most important element was the name-effect connection and whether the card can tell a story, without being a top down representation of the video game in MTG. Now,let’s talk cards!

Time Dilemma is one of those cards that are so nice and simple that make you wonder why aren’t they already printed. The only reason I didn’t pick it for the winner’s post was that it lacked the “wow” factor.

Trials of Mana has a really unique effect and the name really ties into the effect, which determines your stats according to your cost! My objection (npi) is about the colors.The word trial is thematically tied to Azorius, and Green is the color that has the best stats/ mana cost ratio. Those facts, and the existence of cheap token makers like Seller of Songbirds, make me believe that it would feel/play better if it was WU instead.

Here are the runner-ups for the rock and roil contest! This was a very difficult contest to pick runner-ups for, so congratulations to the ones that got there!

-

@ignorantturtlegaming - Seraph of Immolation

Hot mama that’s a spicy angel. So at its base its a 4/3 flying first strike haste for four mana. That’s already very playable. I like the first strike anthem, that’s a cool way to give it some landfolk synergy. The land wakening ability probably didn’t need to untap, since that makes it pretty easy to go infinite with cards like Market Festival. Otherwise, though, two mana to turn a land into a 3/1 is a good cost-risk ratio, and the first strike interacts with that in a very cool way. The last ability is pricey enough that it won’t come up often, but interacts really well with every other part of the card (the keywords on her, going wide, the first strike). Honestly, if you dropped the untap from the activated ability and added a mana to the cmc it would easily have made it to the top. It’s still really cool, but I can’t ignore that it’s a touch too strong.

-

@whuh-oh​ - Morkrut Mists

This card is crazy! I jest, it’s actually just a nice card. It’s pretty smart to make a delirium card that’s an enchantment, since that’s one of the harder types to get into the graveyard so milling or discarding duplicates turns it on. I really like how +2/+2 and lifelink is a huge bonus, but having the delirium condition and only affecting horrors, a fairly weak tribe, balances it out. You have to put a lot of work into this card to make it strong, but ho boy is it strong once it gets there! The animation ability is also pretty clever, because while you will rarely use it before delirium is active, you can if you need a land in the graveyard. And then once it is active, it’ll probably be late enough in the game that you’ll have lands you don’t mind losing. I do have a few gripes about the card: I wish that it granted haste so you don’t get punished by misclicks, I wish it had more ways to help delirium other than just putting lands in the graveyard considering that’s one of the easier types to get in there anyway, and I think a +2/+2 buff is maybe too good for an uncommon if there are any other decently playable horrors in the set. But those are all still pretty minor or assumptive, so I still really like the card!

-

@wolkemesser - Flowstone Flunkies

What a weird card! You can give all of your creatures +1/-1 until your next upkeep for a red mana, and you get to turn a land into a creature while you’re at it. So turn one you play this, next turn you attack for 4? Not a bad rate, but not overpowered. Similarly swinging for 10 on turn 4 but opening up your lands to 1-toughness kill spells seems like exactly the risks red should be doing. I like how this encourages you to play a lot of higher toughness red cards, something you don’t see a lot. In practice it’d probably be a lot of the 1 mana 1/2s they’ve been printing like ghitu lavarunner, soul scar mage, and swiftspear, but that’s still a deck worht making. This is a hard card to judge because of all its moving parts, but I really like how genuinely unique it is, and it’s a great take on the prompt. My only issue is I wish it gave the lands haste, because nobody wants to have to keep track of that. This was the very first card entered, and it never really left the back of my mind. The only thing that kept it from the winners circle was the complexity and possible power concerns.

-

Commentary is all written up and should be out to you all soon. Good jobs all around though!

Running in cycles: Cycle Challenge runner ups

Hello everyone. Again sorry for being late. Today we will see all the cards you submitted and in this post, the runner ups for the cycle challenge. The group commentary will be posted either later today or tomorrow.

Like with the winners, I wanted to showcase a colorless and a colored card, Oblivion Pact from @snugz and God Eternal Hazoret from @mistershinyobject.

Oblivion Pact was an extremely splashy choice for a cycle expander. If only the cost was more welcoming it would rank higher but exactly 5 colorless mana is extremely hard to pull in any  format. Love the ironic flavor text, it fits the rest of the cycle too!

I wanna be the very best runner ups

Congrats @quillpaw, @shakeszx, @yarana-stonescale​ for your fantastic designs! Fantastic as they were though, I think they needed a minor tweak to get an A+ score. Let’s talk about them.

The Winged Mirages was a nice surprise, using a multicolored card to showcase all three of the legendary birds of Gen1 in one card. Caring about the color of  spells you cast to determine the bonus effect was also  smart but I think the card itself is very restricting with its high cost and the fact that it cares only about noncreature spells.

Jirachi, the Wish Maker is on point flavorwise however its body is too good to give up so you can make the third wish. The card is good and functional as it is, but I would like it more if it had a limited amount of time on the battlefield

Zero to Hero: Runner ups!

@fractured-infinity A sweet twist on the level up mechanic, using triggers instead of the costly, sorcery speed activated ability that drags it to oblivion. Wish we see more cards like it in the future! On the card itself,  I think it’s a bit harsh to ask for two noncreature spells every turn, since you did a good job balancing devoted scholar by giving her a high cost for her initial stats.

Forecast runner ups and thoughts

Hello! Let me start by thanking everybody for participating. At first I thought that I threw you in “deep waters” because forecast is damn hard to design but you all gave it your best shot!

The trick about forecast is that it creates “infinite” value. Each forecast trigger should be treated as “Do thing X, then draw a card” and if the main effect doesn’t urge you to actually cast the card, you end up with a card of emblem like status as it will just sit in your hand forever (black’s the only answer to forecast). Given that, it’s easy to drop the ball and create an unfun/ unfair card.

And we only covered the forecast trigger. There is also the main card and the connection it has the trigger. Cards that cannot be relevant without the trigger feel unnecessarily complicated. There is also the power level issue all cards have and there were cases where one half of the card outsigned the other.

Now let’s get to the runner ups and the runner ups for forecast support cards. I thought that asking for a support card would make things a bit easier for you given forecast is hard to design.

First up, we have @demimonde-quasigoddess and Tetzimoc’s Hunger! First up, let me commend you for realizing that Tetzimoc is the secret “11th” Forecast card and playing up to that. Neat design, you made it usable without even activating the forecast ability. The ability exists to support the main effect, and I like that it has this alternative and also really fair cost. All in all a very smart design!

Next, @mistershinyobject and Veiled Gnarlbark. As you can see, it’s a high specialized anti blue/black, with a forecast ability that stretches a bit more, allowing all your creatures to be cast without worrying for counterspells. Narrow design but very well made. The bonus haste is a nice bonus for when you use the forecast and then cast the card itself for a total of 2GGGG. Can’t picture a hasty treefolk though but all is possible in the multiverse XD

On to the forecast support cards! From the 35 designs we got, the 10 belong in this category. Forecast is a strategy that appreciates stalling in a sense, so for me the ideal support card is something that helps you either survive so you can use your cards, or rewards you for running the ability with something that helps the flow of the game like in Magus’s Evocation from @i-am-the-one-who-wololoes. Flying tokens are not to be underestimated! My only concern is that you might not have mana to spare, given that forecast tends to be pricey in many cases.

Then we have arcane weatherman by @horusiswatching. It also involves paying an extra mana but it’s a creature rather than an enchantment. I like the fact that it incentivizes you to cast something the turn you revealed a card, maybe the revealed card itself if you don’t have something with matching colors. The reward is very nice and keeps the game going!

Perfect 10: Thoughts and Runner ups

Hello everyone! Before announcing the winners, I would like to share my thoughts about the challenge and talk about cards that were almost there.

I hope everyone had fun in this one, creating a 10 mana card is about making a big splash, turn some heads, maybe finish the game. Some designs we got did too much, or too little for that price, but either way they were all noble efforts and I thank you all for participating!

Among my expectations for this challenge were a 10 mana planeswalker, a rebound card, a bestow card and a card with a crazy tax effect in the likes of Angel of Luminosity, a card designed by fellow judge @abelzumi​ that I didn’t use as an example design because I was 99% sure someone would go for.

Let’s discuss the runner ups before posting the winners

With Decimation, @teaxch​ paid homage to a hilarious and flavorful called from the 1st Ravnica block, Hex. The numbers went up but the pun is still the same and the card is pretty nice! Unlike Hex however, Decimation might be impossible to pull off in 1vs1.

Not gonna lie to you @koth-of-the-hammerpants , One with Frontier is probably my favorite design for this challenge. 3 great abilities for 3 colors with the aggressive nature of Temur was a really nice way to execute a ten mana card. But the sum of the card felt a bit too good for the 10 mana.

What’s more I would rather see this card in an ultimatum spell and not an enchantment because the continuous boost feels overwhelming, and losing the benefits of you spending 10 mana for a card to naturilize would drain all the excitement.