And the winner of the May 2008 FCC is Quazifuji, with this card:
Gek the Obscure :2mana::symu::symu:
Planeswalker - Gek
+2: Look at the bottom three cards of your library. Put one on top of your library and remove the rest from the game.
-X: You may play a card with converted mana cost X removed from the game with Gek the Obscure without paying its mana cost.
-10: You may play any number of cards removed from the game with Gek the Obscure without paying their mana costs.
3
Very interesting card. Fairly well balanced it seems, although the +2 aspect of it seems too powerful. The ultimate is also very very strong. Reminds me of Yawgie's Will.
I said earlier that I thought making a planeswalker for this round was ballsy, but you pulled it off quite elegantly. I'll spare you my continual gushings, but I love every aspect of this card. Excellent job.
Asking out a girl is like trying to cast a first turn Necropotence. Sometimes the other player will have the Force of Will to say no. You shouldn't let that stop you from trying it.
As I followed the contest this month, I couldn't help thinking the judges kind of missed the mark on judging planeswalker balance. Existing planeswalkers with the exact same mana cost get this along with +1 loyalty:
-You gain 2 life.
-1 damage to target player.
-Untap 2 lands.
Yes it varies depending on what a planeswalker's loyalty can be spent on, but in general a +2 "cost" ability should be weaker than any of those +1s. In my opinion Gek's is quite a bit stronger than all of them. I saw some other planeswalker +2 abilities in the contest labeled by judges as "too weak" when I thought they were pretty clearly stronger than those as well.
Gek's other two abilities are fairly conditional and not overpowered, but I think they are strong and splashy enough that his amazing +2 ability pushes him over into unprintable territory. We only have 5 existing planeswalkers to compare him to, but I think in the world of Ajani and Liliana, Gek would not see print with a +2 ability that strong.
As I followed the contest this month, I couldn't help thinking the judges kind of missed the mark on judging planeswalker balance. Existing planeswalkers with the exact same mana cost get this along with +1 loyalty:
-You gain 2 life.
-1 damage to target player.
-Untap 2 lands.
Yes it varies depending on what a planeswalker's loyalty can be spent on, but in general a +2 "cost" ability should be weaker than any of those +1s. In my opinion Gek's is quite a bit stronger than all of them. I saw some other planeswalker +2 abilities in the contest labeled by judges as "too weak" when I thought they were pretty clearly stronger than those as well.
Gek's other two abilities are fairly conditional and not overpowered, but I think they are strong and splashy enough that his amazing +2 ability pushes him over into unprintable territory. We only have 5 existing planeswalkers to compare him to, but I think in the world of Ajani and Liliana, Gek would not see print with a +2 ability that strong.
But that's just me, am I alone on this?
From what I see in Wizards planeswalkers, the amount of royalty given isn't necessarily based on the power of that ability. It is more decided by the power of their 2nd and 3rd abilities.
Jace is a great example. You gain two royalty and everyone draws a card. But, you get 2 more cards out of that using his 2nd ability. His third ability is quite powerful, so it should take you a few turns to ramp up to it.
Lets say you want to make his first ability +1. This would drop the price of his 3rd ability down to 6 or so. However, it would make his 2nd too ineffective because your opp. will gain too much ca to be worth it. (+1 everyone draws, -1 you draw).
I agree with you that it is a balance of power, but not in a way that the +2 should be less powerful than +1.
Gek seems to be based off the "Jace system", but is a bit more powerful than Jace imo. Then again, look how often Jace is used. So good yes, but overpowerful, not in my opinion.
Hopefully that wasn't too confusing
From what I see in Wizards planeswalkers, the amount of royalty given isn't necessarily based on the power of that ability. It is more decided by the power of their 2nd and 3rd abilities.
Jace is a great example. You gain two royalty and everyone draws a card. But, you get 2 more cards out of that using his 2nd ability. His third ability is quite powerful, so it should take you a few turns to ramp up to it.
Lets say you want to make his first ability +1. This would drop the price of his 3rd ability down to 6 or so. However, it would make his 2nd ability too expensive. (+1 everyone draws, -1 you draw).
I agree with you that it is a balance of power, but not in a way that the +2 should be less powerful than +1.
Hopefully that wasn't too confusing
This was pretty much my thought process when balancing him. The first ability isn't +2 because it's weak, it's +2 because the second ability's fairly expensive relative to the effect you'll usually get out of it. Compare it to Garruk: 1 activation of Garruk's first ability gives you enough loyalty to generate 1 3/3 token. Gek's second ability is more versatile, but it'll also take a minimum of two activations for a 3/3. Also, keep in mind that Garruk's the only planeswalker that currently sees heavy play, meaning it's probably okay to be a bit stronger than any of the others.
The other thing is that most of the judges did say my card was at least slightly overpowered. F/C/Q scores contributed to my score much more than balance did.
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To everyone that says this guy is overpowered, I want to see a deck list that breaks him. I'm working on making a deck around him, but I don't think he's too strong. I just think he's good.
Asking out a girl is like trying to cast a first turn Necropotence. Sometimes the other player will have the Force of Will to say no. You shouldn't let that stop you from trying it.
free card draw + casting is always potentially abuseable. He's a hideaway land/mind's desire/brainstormish/Yawgmoth's will variant. You'd have to go 3>5>7>9>11 and wait 4 turns to use his ultimate and would have generated 0 free cards to get there (though lots of card filtering on the way so your draws were stacked), so that seems potentially ok...but the fact that the free ability is so good, and leads to free spells (neither drawn nor paid for) makes me think he is abuseable for sure. Notice the other fantasy Planeswalker like this had the second ability that costs loyalty be an effect very similar to this ones free ability...
I think that the biggest issue with this winning walker is that the second and third abilities are completely and entirely useless without the first one, creating a forced redundancy and interdependence not seen in, say, Ajani Goldmane with his life gain/Serra Avatar interaction, Jace with the draw en-masse/mill, Liliana Vess forcing discard/reanimating, Garruk creating tokens/making an Overrun, Chandra burning/burning more.
This "Gek", who happens to be "Obscure" for some reason even if he is a blue card ("the Arcanist"? sure; "the Unknown"? okay; "the Obscure"? no, too black) has an ability that might as well say "Put a sandwich counter on target creature" and the rest "Put a mayo counter on each creature with a sandwich counter" and "Eat target creature with a sandwich counter."
He is completely useless outside HIMSELF. He is a little combo engine, completely one-sided and unsynergistic but with himself.
I think that the biggest issue with this winning walker is that the second and third abilities are completely and entirely useless without the first one, creating a forced redundancy and interdependence not seen in, say, Ajani Goldmane with his life gain/Serra Avatar interaction, Jace with the draw en-masse/mill, Liliana Vess forcing discard/reanimating, Garruk creating tokens/making an Overrun, Chandra burning/burning more.
This "Gek", who happens to be "Obscure" for some reason even if he is a blue card ("the Arcanist"? sure; "the Unknown"? okay; "the Obscure"? no, too black) has an ability that might as well say "Put a sandwich counter on target creature" and the rest "Put a mayo counter on each creature with a sandwich counter" and "Eat target creature with a sandwich counter."
He is completely useless outside HIMSELF. He is a little combo engine, completely one-sided and unsynergistic but with himself.
that is the best argue i've seen for a while. in the outdated(?) nineteen rules they said this should not happen.
at this point i would say Gek is underpowered instead of seriously overpowered. The whole deck has to be built around him if you want to put him into some good uses.
I have to say that as a judge I'm fundamentally biased against planeswalkers, which is partly why I have this a good score. I felt it is closer to what they should be. I mean, Jace is just card draw and milling, and blue is about more than those two things and counterspells. Compared to Jace it lacks brute force but gains a great deal of subtlety, which is the whole point of a blue planeswalker methinks.
Gek the Obscure :2mana::symu::symu:
Planeswalker - Gek
+2: Look at the bottom three cards of your library. Put one on top of your library and remove the rest from the game.
-X: You may play a card with converted mana cost X removed from the game with Gek the Obscure without paying its mana cost.
-10: You may play any number of cards removed from the game with Gek the Obscure without paying their mana costs.
3
Congratulations and thanks for playing.
Here are the rounds:
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3
Final round
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Wow, that's very similar. Interesting.
It's funny, my favorite part of my card was actually the second ability, but I guess that ended up being too weak relative to the first and third.
I'm not sure if I do. Well, I kind of do, but that's a weird way if putting it :p.
I really wanted to do that, but then I would have needed a line that let you look at the cards, and that made the text too small.
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Nice to see both turned out false... Such an excellent design, you really deserved to win. Congrats!
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"Sarcasm is the body's natural defense against Stupidity"
-You gain 2 life.
-1 damage to target player.
-Untap 2 lands.
Yes it varies depending on what a planeswalker's loyalty can be spent on, but in general a +2 "cost" ability should be weaker than any of those +1s. In my opinion Gek's is quite a bit stronger than all of them. I saw some other planeswalker +2 abilities in the contest labeled by judges as "too weak" when I thought they were pretty clearly stronger than those as well.
Gek's other two abilities are fairly conditional and not overpowered, but I think they are strong and splashy enough that his amazing +2 ability pushes him over into unprintable territory. We only have 5 existing planeswalkers to compare him to, but I think in the world of Ajani and Liliana, Gek would not see print with a +2 ability that strong.
But that's just me, am I alone on this?
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First card revealed.
From what I see in Wizards planeswalkers, the amount of royalty given isn't necessarily based on the power of that ability. It is more decided by the power of their 2nd and 3rd abilities.
Jace is a great example. You gain two royalty and everyone draws a card. But, you get 2 more cards out of that using his 2nd ability. His third ability is quite powerful, so it should take you a few turns to ramp up to it.
Lets say you want to make his first ability +1. This would drop the price of his 3rd ability down to 6 or so. However, it would make his 2nd too ineffective because your opp. will gain too much ca to be worth it. (+1 everyone draws, -1 you draw).
I agree with you that it is a balance of power, but not in a way that the +2 should be less powerful than +1.
Gek seems to be based off the "Jace system", but is a bit more powerful than Jace imo. Then again, look how often Jace is used. So good yes, but overpowerful, not in my opinion.
Hopefully that wasn't too confusing
"Sarcasm is the body's natural defense against Stupidity"
This was pretty much my thought process when balancing him. The first ability isn't +2 because it's weak, it's +2 because the second ability's fairly expensive relative to the effect you'll usually get out of it. Compare it to Garruk: 1 activation of Garruk's first ability gives you enough loyalty to generate 1 3/3 token. Gek's second ability is more versatile, but it'll also take a minimum of two activations for a 3/3. Also, keep in mind that Garruk's the only planeswalker that currently sees heavy play, meaning it's probably okay to be a bit stronger than any of the others.
The other thing is that most of the judges did say my card was at least slightly overpowered. F/C/Q scores contributed to my score much more than balance did.
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Check out my Commons Cube.
it seems a little powerful, free search every turn,then in four turns, explode
for four mana
This "Gek", who happens to be "Obscure" for some reason even if he is a blue card ("the Arcanist"? sure; "the Unknown"? okay; "the Obscure"? no, too black) has an ability that might as well say "Put a sandwich counter on target creature" and the rest "Put a mayo counter on each creature with a sandwich counter" and "Eat target creature with a sandwich counter."
He is completely useless outside HIMSELF. He is a little combo engine, completely one-sided and unsynergistic but with himself.
that is the best argue i've seen for a while. in the outdated(?) nineteen rules they said this should not happen.
at this point i would say Gek is underpowered instead of seriously overpowered. The whole deck has to be built around him if you want to put him into some good uses.
anyway, congas to Quazifuji!
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