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Lack of Bear
Jun 12, 2007

he couldn't bear it


I would take away the initial targeting restriction on that aura. Maybe you could up the cost and make it reduced if it would target a knight? It just seems more limited than what they usually like to do to have a card that you just can't cast without a knight.

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Eeevil
Oct 28, 2010

Well obviously he didn't see it, or he'd be wearing a hardhat :colbert:


Mechanic for witches, but actually for wizards because witches don't get their own type.

Eeevil
Oct 28, 2010

Well obviously he didn't see it, or he'd be wearing a hardhat :colbert:


Here's another one, an evoke inspired mechanic that lets you exert your elementals to get big ETBs.

Eeevil fucked around with this message at 11:53 on Jun 13, 2018

MartianAgitator
Apr 30, 2003

Damn Earth! Damn her!
I've been working on combining snakes and seasons forever and most likely will never get it 100%.



Currently every color has every season, but that's of course up in the air.

MartianAgitator fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Jun 13, 2018

TheChirurgeon
Aug 7, 2002

Remember how good you are
Taco Defender
Here's an idea I had for the demon tribe.

girl dick energy
Sep 30, 2009

You think you have the wherewithal to figure out my puzzle vagina?
This is already kind of a mechanic that exists, I mostly just gave it a little push.



girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 04:57 on Jun 14, 2018

Lone Goat
Apr 16, 2003

When life gives you lemons, suplex those lemons.




TheChirurgeon posted:

Here's an idea I had for the demon tribe.



I think this can just say "At the beginning of your end step, if ~this~'s Bargain cost was paid, you lose the game" or even "At the beginning of your end step, if ~this~ was Bargained, you lose the game."

MartianAgitator
Apr 30, 2003

Damn Earth! Damn her!
"...was Bargained, you lose the game." or "...was Bargained with, you lose the game."

Mystic Mongol
Jan 5, 2007

Your life's been thrown in disarray already--I wouldn't want you to feel pressured.


College Slice
Knights, a Black and White tribe, get a new mechanic, Chivalry. Chivalry means that knights, driven by madness or their ideals, rise to the occasion. A knight stands alone against a teaming horde!

Most knights with Chivalry also get First Strike, so they don't necessarily die from their wounds after defeating their foes.



You can also play around with the effects of it a bit. Black knights tend to interact more directly with other creatures you control somehow, while white knights tend to simply be stronger alone.



Notably, the Heroic Youth becomes a Knight when he's outnumbered--or just when he's given weapons and armor, that's good too.

Also you can dip into the deep end of the color pie, if you want.

Mystic Mongol fucked around with this message at 04:21 on Jun 15, 2018

MartianAgitator
Apr 30, 2003

Damn Earth! Damn her!


Proof-of-concept uncommons. Guay's Elk was originally named Bleeding Hart, which proves I am a bad person.



This is some of the clunkiest wording I've ever written, but hopefully it's clear and simple after three readings. Great design, I know. Maybe should be ETB trigger?



Power, toughness and mana cost for all these are complete shots in the dark.



The amazingly named Bloomhoof is a god so it has indestructible. Could also be a spirit and switch indestructible for protection from non-black creatures or some such.


This is basically one of those attempts to make enchantments suck less. I'm thinking about adding a clause to Lambent to make it only work for Auras of the same color, but left it out for simplicity reasons. The simplest version of this ability I could think of was "Your Auras targeting this creature costs 2 less." but that's so boring. Criticism welcome!

MartianAgitator fucked around with this message at 11:31 on Jun 15, 2018

AJ_Impy
Jun 17, 2007

SWORD OF SMATTAS. CAN YOU NOT HEAR A WORLD CRY OUT FOR JUSTICE? WHEN WILL YOU DELIVER IT?
Yam Slacker
Let's invoke the spirit of Licids and Bestow and give Chimerae an ability that matches their first appearance back in Mirage block.



Sorcery speed shuts down most Licid shenanigans, the Bestow clause getting them as creatures prevents card disadvantage. You can build your own monster with impunity.

Elyv
Jun 14, 2013



Contest ends in 8.5 hours

black potus
Jul 13, 2006
Germs!

For mechanical identity, germs get your equipment equipped faster. Living weapon was the first version of this, I added a mechanic called Contaminate which allows you to cast a germ for cheaper as you're casting an equipment, and then have the germ pick up the equipment for free! A couple of the cards also just fill out other slots with the tribal theme in mind as well.

Commons


Uncommons


Rare


Mythic that now I feel like should have been another rare

ChewyLSB
Jan 13, 2008

Destroy the core
Druids have a bit of a mechanical identity, they're tied with mana production to some degree but some of their more exotic abilities I feel like aren't represented in MTG very well.

In particular, they're shapeshifting abilities aren't often represented at all except on a few choice cards. In addition to that, their spellcasting abilities are often underused.

Because they are so tied to nature it seems natural (get it) that they would be a green tribe at least, but one of the most basic forms I could think of is a druid that transforms into a bird, but Green doesn't get access to flying! So thus, I figured that Blue would be a good addition to the tribe.

The use of DFC's seemed natural but I felt like it was important that Druids felt distinct from Werewolves. Thus, I came up with the ~Flexible~ mechanic (name pending).



So it is obviously pretty wordy but in my ideal world I think that these cards would have a unique DFC frame that signifies to the player that you can cast either side of the card (and while its in your graveyard or in your library you can treat either side as face up for the purposes of cards that care about those). In addition, I think that the flexible ability should only be able to be used at sorcery speed.

So the above card is pretty simple, but for the rest of the cards I came up with I wanted the Human side to have a 'spellcaster' feel, so I wanted to make sure they had an ability that felt like spellcasting.

Here are the remaining cards I designed.



The clone uses a bit of odd wording because it has to transform ~as~ it enters to not die to SBE's which is not wording that WoTC has used yet.

I wanted to design a G/U mythic thats gold on both sides but couldn't come up with anything that I loved.

MartianAgitator
Apr 30, 2003

Damn Earth! Damn her!

ChewyLSB posted:

I wanted to design a G/U mythic thats gold on both sides but couldn't come up with anything that I loved.

Cool idea! Can I help?



Although Aven Ley Scout is probably worded incorrectly, the idea (land-based Geist of St Traft), should be clear. Hurricane Elemental should probably draw cards somehow, but I didn't want to overword it and thought U/G has enough card draw to make this a "resource spender" rather than a "resource generator".



I think Flexible should probably have an "Activate this as a sorcery" clause, or each side should have the same P/T (which would probably suck).

Elyv
Jun 14, 2013



[Entries are closed!

I'll post winners later tonight.

Elyv
Jun 14, 2013



First off, thanks to everyone for the effort you put in. By including the mechanic I increased the workload needed, and you guys delivered. There were a lot of really neat ideas in this that I would never have even dreamed of. The individual cards I quoted were my favorites from each submission.

Honorable Mentions:


Mystic Mongol's Chivalry


Evocative mechanic, some cool cards. I especially like how this specific card lets you manipulate whether or not your dudes turn on their Chivalry. My issue was that I wasn't really convinced by how your mechanic would work in white, the go wide color, and none of your cards really jumped out at me.



I like these cards, one nice, simple, and clean common and a cool spin on Endless Ranks of the Dead. They fit in with the little we have of rats, too.

black potus' Germs


This fits thematically with the Living Weapons from MBS/NPH, but it feels like it can get kind of swingy. On the one hand you want good equipment to go with it, on the other hand if you have good equipment you can absolutely run people over.


Third Place: AJ_Impy's Chimeras:

It took me a little while to understand what was going on here, but I like it, it's a neat spin on Bestow. Tons of decisions to make, and I like that you took a step away from Bestow. However, I think this mechanic is difficult to do at common and I think this particular card is almost always going to be operating independently.


Second Place: TheChirurgeon's demons


This mechanic doesn't have a ton of depth to it, but that's more than fine because it's for a single tribe in a single set. It expands naturally; I can easily imagine an attorney or summoner type card with the text of "Whenever you Bargain" or "Whenever you pay an alternate cost" to make it a tribal mechanic rather than a mechanic in a tribe, and I thought it was incredibly evocative of the standard demonic tropes. I especially liked Demonic Reaver as a neat spin on Steel-Leaf Champion. The thing that ended up knocking you out of first is that I think it would be very hard to make Commons that wouldn't just run away with the game or be useless. It's not a major criticism given my judging criteria, but it was enough to drop you out of first.

First Place: ChewyLSB's Druids


At first, this was nowhere near, and then I read the tidbit where you said that it would only be possible at sorcery speed. I think this is a really neat spin on shapeshifting and Druids. Voluntary shapeshifting is a trope that's woefully underused in Magic(offhand, I can only think of Skinshifter?), and linking it with DFCs and Druids makes sense. I like these individual cards; I can see times when you would want to use either side, and I think it can go up and down rarity fairly easily.

Congratulations Chewy!

ChewyLSB
Jan 13, 2008

Destroy the core
Design a Cycle
I think this contest is going to be difficult to execute well, not only because I'm asking you to design 5 cards (quite a bit from the get go) but also because I spent about an hour trying to think of a good example of a cycle in MTG that I think exemplifies what I'm looking for and couldn't find anything.

When I'm looking at cycles I want cards that are similar in power level (which granted is more of a development thing) but also I want cards that I feel exemplify each color's strengths and weaknesses and feel distinct from each other. The best example of this I could think of was the M14 Color Hate Cycle.



This cycle almost gets there for me except that White and Green feel somewhat similar. Reading these cards though you can get a good feel for how each cholor uniquely accomplishes a similar goal. This cycle is also relatively close power wise, with the green one not being _too far_ behind the White/Red ones which both saw standard sideboard play which is not _too_ far behind the black/blue ones which saw standard maindeck play.

I'll be judging primarily on your cards feeling unique and also in-color-pie. Relative power level to each other will be a consideration as well but since this is a design thread I won't be focusing as much on that.

Since I spent so long thinking about this before hand I'll give some thoughts on some other cycles I was looking at while I was looking for a printed version of a good example:

Dominaria CCC Cycle:


My main issue with this cycle, besides the fact that the black one feels a little lame is that Chainwhirler doesn't feel red to me, mostly that red, as the second worst creature color, shouldn't be getting 3 mana 3/3's with upside. I know that this isn't the first time that they've printed them but it still feels very pushed to me and not at all red. Besides that, the black, blue, and green ones all feel somewhat similar as just very aggressive hard to block beat sticks.

M11 Titan Cycle:


I'm sure a lot of people thought about this cycle but my huge issue with this cycle is that the black one doesn't feel black at all. Since when does black get 10 power for 6 mana with no downside?

Coldsnap Color Hosers:


Yes, another color hosing cycle, but I promise that you don't have to submit one to win. The main thing I love here is that the cycle spans a wide variety of card types but they all have the same theme. That being said its mad weird that the green one is still bale to do anything against non blue/black decks whereas the other ones' cant, and also the fact that the power level of this cycle is all over the place. That being said, I love Flashfreeze and Deathmark.

Lorwyn Commands:


Yes, this cycle isn't nearly balanced power level wise but this is thge kind of cycle that a player can look at and get a super clear idea what every color is about since it literally is a laundry list of 'poo poo this color can do'. The cycle also does a good job appealing to different groups of players for different effects which I think is cool as well. Shame about the red one, though.

So, there you go. You'll have until next Tuesday, June 26th, 2018 and 6:00 EST to submit.

ChewyLSB fucked around with this message at 22:49 on Jun 19, 2018

girl dick energy
Sep 30, 2009

You think you have the wherewithal to figure out my puzzle vagina?
OP updated!

This is gonna be a tricky one.

AJ_Impy
Jun 17, 2007

SWORD OF SMATTAS. CAN YOU NOT HEAR A WORLD CRY OUT FOR JUSTICE? WHEN WILL YOU DELIVER IT?
Yam Slacker
Spreadsheet updated.

Here's a cycle that rewards playing into a colour's identity and strengths.

Nebalebadingdong
Jun 30, 2005

i made a video game.
why not give it a try!?
i'm still makin' robots

these robots are all intended to be universally useful. but if you have access to the appropriate color, you can get more use from them

black potus
Jul 13, 2006
Oh I might have misinterpreted the contest....

black potus
Jul 13, 2006
Ok for real. Pretend these all have the same front face collector number too. Also, two rules tweaks: you can have four cards w/ the same front face name, and your opponent can get the oracle text of any dfc's backside but you don't have to tell them which one you have.

MartianAgitator
Apr 30, 2003

Damn Earth! Damn her!

black potus posted:

Ok for real. Pretend these all have the same front face collector number too. Also, two rules tweaks: you can have four cards w/ the same front face name, and your opponent can get the oracle text of any dfc's backside but you don't have to tell them which one you have.



Okay, for real, this concept is awesome! But...what makes it different from morph? I'm not the most rules-competent. (And you picked the most complicated abilities abilities possible here, on both sides. That also hurts my already-struggling brain.)

black potus
Jul 13, 2006
There's some amount of "because I can" over morph but also the four of max in a deck and being able to make the front more things in theory. Also you can dodge some of the "show your opponent what it was when it leaves play" because there's not really a way to cheat it.

Also I just caught that drake says "a player" instead of "an opponent" whoops.

Lone Goat
Apr 16, 2003

When life gives you lemons, suplex those lemons.




My issue with this is if you're using a checklist card, there's no way to differentiate between two different ones in your deck so when you draw it you can just play whichever one is more convenient at the time. Could get a little grifty in limited.

ChewyLSB
Jan 13, 2008

Destroy the core
Reminder that the contest ends tonight at 6 PM EST.

ChewyLSB
Jan 13, 2008

Destroy the core
I knew that I would get fewer responses since I was asking a lot, but wow! Still, that's okay, I guess a full cycle of cards was just too much to ask.

AJ_Impy posted:

Spreadsheet updated.

Here's a cycle that rewards playing into a colour's identity and strengths.



I have a soft spot for defenders so I like a full cycle of them. Its likely that they would use the template "Can attack as though it didn't have defender" instead of making it lose defender so that players can still gain benefits from cards that care about defenders.

The cards fit their colors since they all care about things that each of their colors do classically. The black one is a bit weird, I'm not sure if black has ever had that specific line of text before but I think it could be justified. The main thing I would say is that I wish the Black and the Green ones had combat keywords that still worked while they were defenders, so I think I would've given the green one hexproof and the black one deathtouch (and made the black one a 1/2 and had it be the deathtouch variant in the set). Similarily, I would proabbly make the white one a 1/X so the lifelink can work while its still a defender.


Nebalebadingdong posted:

i'm still makin' robots

these robots are all intended to be universally useful. but if you have access to the appropriate color, you can get more use from them



These cards are quite complicated for uncommons and some of them feel like bleeds on colorless cards. In particular I don't think colorless would get access to the oblivion ring effect, and justifying the permanent white removal on the white one is a tough swallow for me. Its also unclear to me how to gain benefit from the black one, I guet that it lets you put your own exiled stuff back into your graveyard but I feel like there aren't a ton of effects that care about cards going to your graveyard that would make you want to exile a card from your own graveyard, then put it back again later. The blue one has a bit of an issue in that if you use its ability its no longer uncounterable.


black potus posted:

Ok for real. Pretend these all have the same front face collector number too. Also, two rules tweaks: you can have four cards w/ the same front face name, and your opponent can get the oracle text of any dfc's backside but you don't have to tell them which one you have.



In addition to the checklist card issue (although tbh I might be okay with just saying these can't be played with checklists but who knows) there would be another weird issue where if I have more than one type in my deck when I activate the ability I would have to check the back before I could be sure what it transforms into. In some ways this does seem not significantly different from morph although maybe thats not a bad thing and could be the new tech for morph-style cards going forward. The template on the white one seems a bit odd... does it gain flying after I use the first triggered ability? The red one strikes me as maybe being a bit annoying to know its exact P/T since it has its base p/t, the counters on it, and then the +1/-1 from its top ability, although I appreciate the name callback. My initial thought also is taht the green one seems very good since its an evasive growing threat that is very very difficult to remove, although four mana is quite a bit to ask.

Winner: black potus

I think that there are a few isuses with your cards as mentioned earlier but its certainly the boldest design. I think in general your cards do a good job of showcasing the varying strengths of each of the colors, which was one of the main things I was looking for with this contest. I feel like your blue one is the weakest because it being a hate card seems a bit random in the cycle as well as blue not usually being the color that hates drawing extra cards (usually its white or black). But I appreciate pushing the limits of existing design space.

Nebalebadingdong
Jun 30, 2005

i made a video game.
why not give it a try!?

ChewyLSB posted:


These cards are quite complicated for uncommons and some of them feel like bleeds on colorless cards. In particular I don't think colorless would get access to the oblivion ring effect, and justifying the permanent white removal on the white one is a tough swallow for me. Its also unclear to me how to gain benefit from the black one, I guet that it lets you put your own exiled stuff back into your graveyard but I feel like there aren't a ton of effects that care about cards going to your graveyard that would make you want to exile a card from your own graveyard, then put it back again later. The blue one has a bit of an issue in that if you use its ability its no longer uncounterable.


The black one is graveyard removal with colorless and graveyard protection with black. If someone were to use Relic of Progenitus on your yard, you could use this guy to preserve something in it.

The white one I agree is unorthodox for colorless, but I figured I could get away with it on an artifact creature. Oblivion Ring is an enchantment so hard to get rid of, but every color can deal with an artifact creature at common. With another turn and some white mana, it becomes a pseudo-Angelic Edict. (Also the card is a play on the phrase "lock them up, and then throw away the key")

AJ_Impy
Jun 17, 2007

SWORD OF SMATTAS. CAN YOU NOT HEAR A WORLD CRY OUT FOR JUSTICE? WHEN WILL YOU DELIVER IT?
Yam Slacker
For the purposes of bookkeeping, is that a first and two honourables, or did you fill the podium?

black potus
Jul 13, 2006
THE CONTEST

IT'S...GONNA BE HISTORIC

IT'S...

SAGAS!!!

Make a saga! End of contest prompt!

girl dick energy
Sep 30, 2009

You think you have the wherewithal to figure out my puzzle vagina?
When is end of contest!

girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 04:59 on Jun 27, 2018

black potus
Jul 13, 2006
You’re right!!! July 5th at 8 PM Eastern. Work on magic cards over the holiday to stick it to Trump.

Lack of Bear
Jun 12, 2007

he couldn't bear it


Link to MSE Saga Template:
http://magicseteditor.boards.net/thread/77/cajun-style-templates-m15-sagas?page=2&scrollTo=2293

girl dick energy
Sep 30, 2009

You think you have the wherewithal to figure out my puzzle vagina?
Yeah, that's way too much work. :effort:

Mystic Mongol
Jan 5, 2007

Your life's been thrown in disarray already--I wouldn't want you to feel pressured.


College Slice
Sagas are super fun to design because they're little stories.

Mystic Mongol fucked around with this message at 05:52 on Jun 27, 2018

Lack of Bear
Jun 12, 2007

he couldn't bear it


Lack of Bear fucked around with this message at 10:00 on Jun 28, 2018

Mystic Mongol
Jan 5, 2007

Your life's been thrown in disarray already--I wouldn't want you to feel pressured.


College Slice
Surely a Monarch card's power should follow the crown.

Lack of Bear
Jun 12, 2007

he couldn't bear it


I mean if you want to get literal

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MartianAgitator
Apr 30, 2003

Damn Earth! Damn her!


Cliche.



This is probably where The Eldest Reborn started. I trust that Wizards made a just-better card, but I like the simplicity here.



How did the guilds get to be in charge in the first place? Pooling their resources, calling their friends, and beating the poo poo out of everyone else.



This tries to resolve the dangling thread of how we went from Jhessian Infiltrator to Jhessian Zombies.

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