MTG Salvation

Quote from Link

I'm not demeaning anyone or anything. I'm just giving a realistic statement of the facts. We wrote summaries.

You need to realize what you perceive as fact may be different from the reality. If you're seriously considering everything we did for lore in the first round as mere "summaries," I can only reach the conclusion that I should digress from putting up any lore posts at all - as it appears my literary abilities are so lacking that the efforts are being ridiculed by my own team, from whom there should be the most support.

Anyway, I just realized the nonland clause isn't needed in my commander, so that makes the rules text a bit more compact.

Any ideas on a shared style name to make the challenge III cycle a bit more cohesive?

Can anyone think of a good flavor/name theme for the cycle? Similar to the Kamigawa dscendant series? We can do the boring Feyrin this and Cloudwalker that, or we can do something more flavorful. I'm kinda out of ideas though...

I don't think it necessarily has to link directly with the ETB effect - i.e. my Kilnkeeper has add RRRR to your mana pool as an ETB ability and ambush cost that's much cheaper than the casting cost. The ambush isn't necessarily related to the dark ritual ability, but they have a reasonable synergy when both are activated, as a faster acceleration.

Yes we did. You don't need dialogue to make a story. Lets not demean our own team - we had enough lore, it just didn't fit the organizer's idea of taste. Since the whole first round was apparently dependent on a single judge's subjective criteria, I decided to not put too much weight on the points.

Anyway.

Chell sounds fine, but it doesn't feel like a good commander material - I think it'd fit much more for challenge 2, and not as a legendary but as a regular zookeeper creature.
The defender mythic is also fine power-wise and flavor wise, but I don't see it being the center of a deck - especially a commander deck. I've yet to see a defender-focused commander deck btw, or any competitive deck focused on defenders. It just doesn't "win games."
Iro Voi is very strong, as it's a repeatable counter and hand protection and protector all in one. Creature cost of 3WU, or decreasing the ability to 1 may be better. Increased creature cost can probably warrant increased P/T. The flavor also needs more clarification - it hungers for flavor text. But it definitely feels like a commander.
Norlan is insanely strong... It's basically a free multicard repeatable tutor and accelerator all in one. I can think of a hundred ways to win immediately after casting this card. Add a T cost in the ability, as I can't think of any other easy way to balance it without changing the flavor. But apart from that, great card and great idea.
Imrahim is fine balancewise, but compared to the previous two cards, I can't help but feel "meh."

I see what you're saying for Nalara, but I want to give her the capability of casting things on her own, given enough mana. Just granting Ambush UU to top card of your library wouldn't do it. (Translation - that would be too boring.)

Although...
UU,T: Until end of turn, the top card of your library has Ambush 0.

Also is possible...


Edit:
Wait, does that even work? Or does it cause too much memory issues? Is that the correct wording for saying that "until end of turn, whenever you reveal the top card of your library, you may cast it without paying its mana cost." Which can combo with Goblin Charbelcher, Demonic Consultation and the like.

I think I can figure something out with the evergreen. If it's a driver or an operator of a vehicle, a la an engineer, then he can be ground-bound and the card can represent the operator+enchantment/contraption rather than just the creature. Hmm...

I think taking out the evergreens and just going with ETB + racial ability might be best in terms of pure card mechanics and flavor.

so..

1CC
Uncommon
racial keyword
ETB ability that relates to the keyword in some way
P/T

I think is a good starting point. What do you think?


Flavor-wise, all of them can be some sort of a support? Healers, Engineers, Scavengers, Scouts, and the like.

It's such a pain when one of the designs of your race is that "all creatures from this race has an evergreen keyword" >.<

What's the "D" in your cycles?

Quote from Lanxal

Guys, a small change to the challenge yet again:

Challenge III, instead of the entire team, it's now 3 or more people. This is to give you flexibility of design (e.g. now it's easier to make a cycle.)

Apart from Link, is there anyone who would like to join in the cycle? Here's the example card:

And Small_Child, can we create a hybrid mechanically-modified Feyrin, sort of like your experimental subject? We can use that to satisfy challenge 2. I'm thinking along the lines of:


Magnetron Overseer -2GWU
Creature - Feyrin Vaelshii Construct (R)
Whenever Magnetron Overseer attacks, uncover 4, then attach all aura or equipment cards that were revealed this way on Magnetron Overseer.
Enhanced -Magnetron Overseer gains +2/+2 and trample as long as a permanent is attached to it.
"I'll gladly donate my body for your experiments if it will save my world and my family."
4/6

If you dislike it, then give an alternative suggestion/example instead of just shooting it down -_-

We did write actual stories. Plenty of them.

Re: Lore challenge, this is my potential commander:
Nalara, Feyrin Ambassador 2UU
Legendary Creature - Feyrin Advisor (M)
Flying
UU: Reveal the top card of your library. If it's a nonland card, it gains ambush 0 until end of turn.
Put a card from your hand on top of your library: Return Nalara, Feyrin Ambassador to its owner’s hand.
2/2
"My biggest surprise upon meeting the Feyrin were their astounding longevity. No wonder the humans lost, if leaders like her stuck around for a thousand years!" - Cloudkeeper Ivnarian, Journal Entry

note: Ambush 0 is (If a source would cause you to reveal this card from anywhere, you may cast it without paying its mana cost.)
Ambush is given after the revealing, so you have to trigger the ability again if you want to cast it immediately.




And an elite creature as part of a cycle:
Feyrin Kilnkeeper RRR
Creature - Feyrin Invoker (R)
Flying, haste
When Feyrin Kilnkeeper enters the battlefield, add RRRR to your mana pool.
Ambush R (If a source would cause you to reveal this card from anywhere, you may cast it for R instead of paying its mana cost.)
1/2
"Yeah, it's backbreaking work, but the pay's good and blasting at the furnace feels awesome!" - Mala Shrenan, Feyrin Taskmage

Basically, the cycle would be 3-color mana creatures with a CTP ability + racial ability.

I'm in love with Option III tbh. I can conceivably go with option 1 too, with Vaelshii modding us to increase our strengths.

Still pissed off that we got the lowest card score, but what can we doo. 27 and 29/30 aren't too big a gap that we can't catch up in later rounds (I hope).

And I don't see why they scored the map so highly. -_-Wasn't it one of the organizers that said he preferred that we did NOT follow the map? I didn't place much importance on it after he said that in the main thread, and look where that got us...

I just realized that I didn't vote for H. Can you add my vote to H in the tally?

Quote from Flabort

Oh, please not too late, not too late, please...

(League of Classy Gentlemons judging Team V)
1. Eskimo Rage
2. Trabant77
3. Lordschuft
4. MirrorEntity
5. Emocakes
6. CoiLiC

((Also apologizing for inactivity, my Bro has a tumor, pray or chant or do whatever you believe you can for him))

I hope your brother will make it out safe and sound.

Quote from Cypher28

Link: http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=§ion=&q=Ninja#/d1t73wj

Done by ~Eggar919.

Reminds me of the Guild Wars ninja.

Also Marco's submission is kinda awesome. Would love to see the card that came out of that.

I like this one.

Quote from Lanxal

Lanxal's Fun-Time Team Judgments

In these judgments, I don't penalise because of inactive team members, but know that having less people working on lore and cards does affect the quality of your lore.

Lore — Fairly intriguing storyline as built by Link and Komachi but the summary format could have been enhanced with some prose describing these meeting scenes. Focusing on individual leader-class characters and the political machinations of the races fits well with the wide-spanning alliance building that the lore challenge demands. Focusing on individuals sharpens the view of the race as the story develops and working out these characters sets good paving for further lore in the upcoming rounds. Additionally, with only two active members involved in the lore this Round, you were still able to achieve a sense of interaction between your races. This interaction could have had more focus, even just between the Cloudwalkers and the Feyrin. 13/15

Cards — Discussion focusing on power level and design choices (e.g. Shroud) leads to a strong design process. Use of team members for criticism has led to noticeably stronger card designs. A lack of implementation of these changes (Small Child's Borderguard Purist) makes this somewhat meaningless. There is a slight overcomplexity of the cards among a number of entries which I dislike, but they are justified by a proper uncommon rarity. On that note, there is a lack of strong, elegant common designs (exception: a beautiful card in Fleeting Burrower.) I feel like the themes and mechanics of the race, which was the point of this challenge, could have been better conveyed with more simple, common designs (noticeably Jimmy Groove's Annaki Warrior; while it's a good design, the mechanic itself might have been better presented in a less complex common.) 12/15

25/30

Lore — Beautiful pieces of prose by CrustaceanCrusader and Balefire, exploring the beginnings of conflict between races. Extremely well written. While in terms of prose, you don't include much in the way of inter-team interactions (which is disappointing, it would have been a fun read), your opinion posts do convey quite a lot of information and is one of the great ways of doing this challenge. I really wish it was a bit more expanded on during the Round's challenge, but it's fine as it is. Interesting format that CC presented his opinion post as well - it's funny but also a nice exploration of alternative ways of presenting lore. There's not enough lore about the movement of races in the making of alliances for coming conflict, in my opinion; it might have worked well if it had been more of a focus. 12/15

Cards — Good designs that showcase the races' flavor and mechanics. Overall I really like the designs - well done in terms of elegance, power level and flavor. Exactly the kind of designs I wanted to see for this Round. Not much else to say, haha. 15/15

27/30

Lore — Guys. This is beautiful. Lore that spans multiple races in your team at the same time showing the alliances that have been built, the start of conflict that simply draws me in as a reader, and real consolidation of the race's identities and moods. The quantity by itself doesn't matter because it's not a rubric I judge by (makes it unfair for other teams with inactive members), but the quality across the works is stunning. 15/15

Cards — Interesting concepts and designs across the cards. Some of the designs lookng somewhat clunky/complex and could have been improved in my eye (e.g. Uncle Istvan's Boneyard Marauders which really is a rare in disguise.) Strong flavor connections, especially in queensauce and Random's cards, which gives them context. I see one or two wording issues (UncleIstvan's Gravestrike wording and Raziel's Ravage). I see one or two cards that I really like such as Prophy's Ethereal Wraith (love the shuffle clause). 13/15

28/30

Lore — Disclaimer: the map basically gurantees you success from the beginning. Nicely done on Cardz's part, especially in talking with other teams to better make lore. This intra-team interaction is also eccentuated with the Ursks being all over the place, which is great. There's also good interaction within the teams, and I'm intrigued by the Pods and their shenanigans and the near-xenophobic characterisation of Rithaniel's Griosks. Very interesting, and makes for compelling story telling. 14/15 (and let's be honest, Cardz needs to get a HM. You know what, let's do it.)

Cards — Gerrard's Mom's strong design skills shows in solving the formatting issues among the cards, so nicely done there (I really like good formatting - hint, hint.) A lack of a rarity on Rithaniel's Griosk Stalker is disappointing given the Additional Requirement but it's such a minor thing that it won't affect my decision heavily. The inherent un-synergies between Battle Cry and Exalted is confusing to me, even if it may be on theme - I don't understand the flavor, and frankly it's confusing to all levels of players. Also, personally, I would have liked to see Avenge on a card instead of Battle Cry & Exalted. Beyond that, there are great designs in your team's portfolio. 13/15.

27/30

Lore — A lot of lore planning, especially involving getting the geography right and some map-manipulating, which I like. Trabant busts out another great example of alternative-format lore (the journal). The calamity-meteor is no doubt cliche but perfectly acceptable and tasty, and certainly fits the "alliances" mold; Danse is definitely going to get in there and mess about. I also like that you wrote up some prose about the Calamity - it would have been disappointing if you had planned it so well and then left it at that. Good job. In any case, you've done a good jobof crafting a grand underlying storyline for your team. 14/15

Cards — A number of interesting designs, including Flash + Champion, which I like. While these cards are certainly polished in terms of balance, I still feel they are a bit inelegant and clunky (it's no coincidence that I liked a card made up only of keyword mechanics so much.) There are a few formatting issues that make my skin crawl, but I'm biased against that kind of thing, so ignore my writhing about in anguish. It doesn't affect my decision, if you're worried. 13/15

27/30

HM: Cardz. Because, seriously.

I tried hard to make these judgments fair and constructive, so please don't argue or I might hyperventilate from stress. =D

Some recommendations on how to improve our lore scores would be great - especially seeing as some teams with lower post counts/activity apparently scored higher than us too. I honestly put a lot of effort into the lore, and don't see what more I can do.

Team Martini

Round 0: Planeswalker
Heaven's Firewater
Enchantment - Aura (U)
Enchant Planewalker
Enchanted planeswalker becomes a 0/0 Outsider creature with “This creature gets +1/+1 for each loyalty counter on it.” that’s still a planeswalker.
"Time for some mano a mano, eh Garruk?" - Gideon, the Inebriated