THE CARD CREATION LEAGUE
[ September 2011 ] FINAL ROUND CLASH "The Determinator"
Final Competitors Gerrard's Mom vs. Oculus
This month, players started as intrepid explorers taking their first steps into a broader world, unaware of the dangers awaiting them: a sinister plot to remake the Multiverse around a single being's massive ego. Matching wits with this manipulative monomaniac, our heroes rose to the challenge, becoming more than they could have possibly imagined as they too learned to harness the godlike power to rewrite history on a planar scale. Though many displayed vast wells of talent, ingenuity, and raw power, only two survived the conflict intact. Now, their foe fallen, the task of repairing the damage done to the timelines of every world is a heavy burden these masters of magic take upon themselves - but their realities cannot coexist. These two contradicting Multiverses will inadvertently destroy each other, undoing the careful and desperate work of their saviors, unless one can prove itself more stable - more perfect - than the other.
It falls to you, the silent watchers, to decide their ultimate fate.
Our finalists will be creating six cards this round, building a paradise-world from the fragments of the Multiverse.
One of these cards must be a card that can repair or undo the damage done to the Multiverse on a planar scale. It should reference at least two existing cards that represent healing, mending, or reversal.
Three of the cards must be a trio of any types that together showcase the core flavor and/or mechanical theme of your plane, built on the flavor of your first round card and the other cards you've made this month that reference it. You're drawing inspiration from the best the Multiverse has to offer here - each of these cards should also include flavor or mechanical themes from another, existing plane.
One card must be a land that represents the capital of your new plane. It should be an altered version of a location from an existing set. This can mean a legendary land, a nonlegendary land with a proper name (Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree), or a place mentioned in flavor text but not given an actual card.
And finally, one card will be a planeswalker to represent yourself, the being that will guide this new, perfected vision of your world to glory, capable of altering history at will.
Additionally, the first letters from the names of these six cards must spell the word UTOPIA.
Votes are appreciated, but so are even brief comments on our competitors' cards, as the final round does not afford the peer review present during the rest of the CCL.
THE CARD CREATION LEAGUE
[ September 2011 ] FINAL ROUND "The Design"
The Card Creation League is a monthly contest in which players compete over seven rounds. Each month has an overall theme and/or story, determined by that month's host.
Each round, the host will assign a card creation task to the players. This task may vary between teams or players.
The first three rounds are open to everyone who joined in the sign-up thread, which will be posted near the end of the previous month. After these rounds, the Top 8 players will move on to three single elimination rounds to determine a winner.
Rounds usually last three to four days for submissions and about two days for critiques, but the host has final say in making the schedule.
For the first three rounds, players are divided into teams. Four teams is standard, but there may be more or less depending on the number of players. Each team will review another team's cards during the critique period of that round.
Each player must submit a Top 3 ranking for the team he or she critiques at the end of each round. Each 1st place is worth 3 points, 2nd place 2 points, and 3rd place 1 point.
Additionally, each player can receive 2 bonus points per round. One point is awarded for posting a Top 3, and one point for providing critiques for that team's cards.
Suggested areas to critique include creativity, balance, printability, and relation to the overall theme or that player's previous cards.
Players who do not post a card or a Top 3 will be put on "probation." Top 3 violations for a round can be removed by posting or PMing the host with your Top 3 before the end of the next round. Any player that would receive a second violation is disqualified from further competition that month.
At the end of the first three rounds, the Top 8 players will be selected by points (usually the top 2 from each team). In the case of ties, there may be more than 8 players advancing. The host will determine matchups for single elimination. At the end of each elimination round, remaining players not in that matchup will choose a winner to advance. The host will break any ties.
The final round is determined by public poll.
Prior to Top 8, players have a chance of getting a total of 100 points toward their score each Scoring Round. Scores for each Round are determined by the following equation:
Total points of Player A in round N = 100 * X/Y, where:
X = Total number of Scoring Points (Judge Points + Additional Points from Top 3 & Critiques)
Y = Total number of Possible Points (3 * Number of Judges + Additional Points)
3 points are given for a First Place Top 3 finish, 2 points for a Second Place, and 1 point for a Third Place. 1 additional point is awarded if a Top 3 is submitted. 1 additional point is awarded if Critiques are given for all entries to be judged.
This way the grading is more streamlined in the fact that all rounds prior to Top 8 are graded equally, and there is no handicap for any team that has fewer judges.
Each player accumulates points from each Scoring Round until the end of Round 3.
Final Competitors Gerrard's Mom vs. Oculus
Against all odds, and with your not insignificant support, your carefully crafted hero has managed not only to repel the god-like entities who sought the destruction of your world, but to defeat the nemesis that set them against you as well. Now, you have taken it upon yourself to gather the pieces of the mangled Multiverse and set things back the way they were meant to be.
Still... the temptation is difficult to resist. You now possess the full means necessary to reshape the history of entire worlds as you see fit. What heights of glory, you find yourself wondering, could be achieved if such power was guided by a more benevolent hand?
Unbidden, a pattern of perfection begins to take shape in your mind, drawing from all the worlds you've seen - the possibilities are too wondrous to ignore.
Our finalists will be creating six cards this round, building a paradise-world from the fragments of the Multiverse.
One of these cards must be a card that can repair or undo the damage done to the Multiverse on a planar scale. It should reference at least two existing cards that represent healing, mending, or reversal.
Three of the cards must be a trio of any types that together showcase the core flavor and/or mechanical theme of your plane, built on the flavor of your first round card and the other cards you've made this month that reference it. You're drawing inspiration from the best the Multiverse has to offer here - each of these cards should also include flavor or mechanical themes from another, existing plane.
One card must be a land that represents the capital of your new plane. It should be an altered version of a location from an existing set. This can mean a legendary land, a nonlegendary land with a proper name (Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree), or a place mentioned in flavor text but not given an actual card.
And finally, one card will be a planeswalker to represent yourself, the being that will guide this new, perfected vision of your world to glory, capable of altering history at will.
Additionally, the first letters from the names of these six cards must spell the word UTOPIA.
Your submissions are due by midnight Pacific on Sunday the 9th, when it becomes Monday. Please include either a link to or a copy of your previous submissions in your post.
Alrighty, looks like everyone managed to get in on time! Let's get CRITIQUIFIED.
Each contestant must rate the other three from best to worst, and per CCL tradition the top two will face off in the final round. Critiques are due by midnight Pacific Tuesday, when it becomes Wednesday.
I'd rather not need to extend this round too, so if there are going to be issues finishing on time for some of you I'd prefer to just lower the round's complexity a bit and remove one of the required cards (most likely the third one).
What's the consensus? Are you folks good for all three cards?
THE CARD CREATION LEAGUE
[ September 2011 ] ROUND FIVE "The Destroyers"
The Card Creation League is a monthly contest in which players compete over seven rounds. Each month has an overall theme and/or story, determined by that month's host.
Each round, the host will assign a card creation task to the players. This task may vary between teams or players.
The first three rounds are open to everyone who joined in the sign-up thread, which will be posted near the end of the previous month. After these rounds, the Top 8 players will move on to three single elimination rounds to determine a winner.
Rounds usually last three to four days for submissions and about two days for critiques, but the host has final say in making the schedule.
For the first three rounds, players are divided into teams. Four teams is standard, but there may be more or less depending on the number of players. Each team will review another team's cards during the critique period of that round.
Each player must submit a Top 3 ranking for the team he or she critiques at the end of each round. Each 1st place is worth 3 points, 2nd place 2 points, and 3rd place 1 point.
Additionally, each player can receive 2 bonus points per round. One point is awarded for posting a Top 3, and one point for providing critiques for that team's cards.
Suggested areas to critique include creativity, balance, printability, and relation to the overall theme or that player's previous cards.
Players who do not post a card or a Top 3 will be put on "probation." Top 3 violations for a round can be removed by posting or PMing the host with your Top 3 before the end of the next round. Any player that would receive a second violation is disqualified from further competition that month.
At the end of the first three rounds, the Top 8 players will be selected by points (usually the top 2 from each team). In the case of ties, there may be more than 8 players advancing. The host will determine matchups for single elimination. At the end of each elimination round, remaining players not in that matchup will choose a winner to advance. The host will break any ties.
The final round is determined by public poll.
Prior to Top 8, players have a chance of getting a total of 100 points toward their score each Scoring Round. Scores for each Round are determined by the following equation:
Total points of Player A in round N = 100 * X/Y, where:
X = Total number of Scoring Points (Judge Points + Additional Points from Top 3 & Critiques)
Y = Total number of Possible Points (3 * Number of Judges + Additional Points)
3 points are given for a First Place Top 3 finish, 2 points for a Second Place, and 1 point for a Third Place. 1 additional point is awarded if a Top 3 is submitted. 1 additional point is awarded if Critiques are given for all entries to be judged.
This way the grading is more streamlined in the fact that all rounds prior to Top 8 are graded equally, and there is no handicap for any team that has fewer judges.
Each player accumulates points from each Scoring Round until the end of Round 3.
Remaining Competitors: Top Four CodGod Oculus Gerrard's Mom Rimeshade
You know the source of the warped Multiverse. You know the identity of the one pulling the strings. You know every extent of their plans. You know the goal behind the conspiracy: this monomaniacal mastermind intends to further unite the timelines until every world has merged, with themselves as the focal point at the center of a newborn mega-plane's power and history.
And now, unfortunately, you know too much.
The mastermind has caught on to your prying. Before you've had the chance to act on the intelligence your people have carefully gathered, your adversary has turned the vast powers at their command against you directly to snuff you out. You can see the signs; the history of your own plane is about to be warped.
The greatest threats the Multiverse has ever known are about to converge simultaneously on your homeworld. Before you can hope to save anyone else, you must defend your own people from utter annihilation. Against such impossible odds, you have little chance of success on your own.
Fortunately, you've also picked up a few of your enemy's tricks.
Your first card this round will represent the enemy bearing down on your world - a card of any type that combines flavor and mechanical elements of major threats or villains from at least three different Magic blocks.
You'll also need a champion to help you fight against it - a legendary creature combining traits and abilities of heroes or heroic organizations from at least three different Magic blocks. This card does not need to directly counter your first card, and can be either a new version of an existing heroic legend or an original character.
Your final card this round must be a defensive card of some kind, related to the flavor of your first-round card, to keep yourself and your people safe while your champion and the invaders duke it out.
Your submissions are due by midnight Pacific on Sunday the 2nd, when it becomes Monday. Please include either a link to or a copy of your previous submissions in your post.
Since more than half of you are still missing Top 3/critiques, I'm officially extending the deadline until midnight tomorrow, when it becomes Thursday. I really can't push it further than that, though, because I'm getting married next month and I really won't have the time to run the final rounds of the CCL if we get too far into October. >_<
Alright, looks like everyone's got an entry up, so it's critique time! Each contestant must choose their Top 3 from among the other seven, and the overall Top Four will be moving on to the next round.
You have until midnight Pacific on Tuesday, September 27th, when it becomes Wednesday.
[ September 2011 ]
FINAL ROUND CLASH
"The Determinator"
Final Competitors
Gerrard's Mom vs. Oculus
This month, players started as intrepid explorers taking their first steps into a broader world, unaware of the dangers awaiting them: a sinister plot to remake the Multiverse around a single being's massive ego. Matching wits with this manipulative monomaniac, our heroes rose to the challenge, becoming more than they could have possibly imagined as they too learned to harness the godlike power to rewrite history on a planar scale. Though many displayed vast wells of talent, ingenuity, and raw power, only two survived the conflict intact. Now, their foe fallen, the task of repairing the damage done to the timelines of every world is a heavy burden these masters of magic take upon themselves - but their realities cannot coexist. These two contradicting Multiverses will inadvertently destroy each other, undoing the careful and desperate work of their saviors, unless one can prove itself more stable - more perfect - than the other.
It falls to you, the silent watchers, to decide their ultimate fate.
One of these cards must be a card that can repair or undo the damage done to the Multiverse on a planar scale. It should reference at least two existing cards that represent healing, mending, or reversal.
Three of the cards must be a trio of any types that together showcase the core flavor and/or mechanical theme of your plane, built on the flavor of your first round card and the other cards you've made this month that reference it. You're drawing inspiration from the best the Multiverse has to offer here - each of these cards should also include flavor or mechanical themes from another, existing plane.
One card must be a land that represents the capital of your new plane. It should be an altered version of a location from an existing set. This can mean a legendary land, a nonlegendary land with a proper name (Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree), or a place mentioned in flavor text but not given an actual card.
And finally, one card will be a planeswalker to represent yourself, the being that will guide this new, perfected vision of your world to glory, capable of altering history at will.
Additionally, the first letters from the names of these six cards must spell the word UTOPIA.
Gerrard's Mom
Oculus
Votes are appreciated, but so are even brief comments on our competitors' cards, as the final round does not afford the peer review present during the rest of the CCL.
Round One - The Door
Round Two - The Divergence
Round Three - The Discovery
Round Four - The Deception
Round Five - The Destroyers
Final Round - The Design
[ September 2011 ]
FINAL ROUND
"The Design"
Gerrard's Mom vs. Oculus
Against all odds, and with your not insignificant support, your carefully crafted hero has managed not only to repel the god-like entities who sought the destruction of your world, but to defeat the nemesis that set them against you as well. Now, you have taken it upon yourself to gather the pieces of the mangled Multiverse and set things back the way they were meant to be.
Still... the temptation is difficult to resist. You now possess the full means necessary to reshape the history of entire worlds as you see fit. What heights of glory, you find yourself wondering, could be achieved if such power was guided by a more benevolent hand?
Unbidden, a pattern of perfection begins to take shape in your mind, drawing from all the worlds you've seen - the possibilities are too wondrous to ignore.
Our finalists will be creating six cards this round, building a paradise-world from the fragments of the Multiverse.
One of these cards must be a card that can repair or undo the damage done to the Multiverse on a planar scale. It should reference at least two existing cards that represent healing, mending, or reversal.
Three of the cards must be a trio of any types that together showcase the core flavor and/or mechanical theme of your plane, built on the flavor of your first round card and the other cards you've made this month that reference it. You're drawing inspiration from the best the Multiverse has to offer here - each of these cards should also include flavor or mechanical themes from another, existing plane.
One card must be a land that represents the capital of your new plane. It should be an altered version of a location from an existing set. This can mean a legendary land, a nonlegendary land with a proper name (Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree), or a place mentioned in flavor text but not given an actual card.
And finally, one card will be a planeswalker to represent yourself, the being that will guide this new, perfected vision of your world to glory, capable of altering history at will.
Additionally, the first letters from the names of these six cards must spell the word UTOPIA.
Your submissions are due by midnight Pacific on Sunday the 9th, when it becomes Monday. Please include either a link to or a copy of your previous submissions in your post.
Round One - The Door
Round Two - The Divergence
Round Three - The Discovery
Round Four - The Deception
Round Five - The Destroyers
Each contestant must rate the other three from best to worst, and per CCL tradition the top two will face off in the final round. Critiques are due by midnight Pacific Tuesday, when it becomes Wednesday.
I'd rather not need to extend this round too, so if there are going to be issues finishing on time for some of you I'd prefer to just lower the round's complexity a bit and remove one of the required cards (most likely the third one).
What's the consensus? Are you folks good for all three cards?
[ September 2011 ]
ROUND FIVE
"The Destroyers"
CodGod
Oculus
Gerrard's Mom
Rimeshade
You know the source of the warped Multiverse. You know the identity of the one pulling the strings. You know every extent of their plans. You know the goal behind the conspiracy: this monomaniacal mastermind intends to further unite the timelines until every world has merged, with themselves as the focal point at the center of a newborn mega-plane's power and history.
And now, unfortunately, you know too much.
The mastermind has caught on to your prying. Before you've had the chance to act on the intelligence your people have carefully gathered, your adversary has turned the vast powers at their command against you directly to snuff you out. You can see the signs; the history of your own plane is about to be warped.
The greatest threats the Multiverse has ever known are about to converge simultaneously on your homeworld. Before you can hope to save anyone else, you must defend your own people from utter annihilation. Against such impossible odds, you have little chance of success on your own.
Fortunately, you've also picked up a few of your enemy's tricks.
Your first card this round will represent the enemy bearing down on your world - a card of any type that combines flavor and mechanical elements of major threats or villains from at least three different Magic blocks.
You'll also need a champion to help you fight against it - a legendary creature combining traits and abilities of heroes or heroic organizations from at least three different Magic blocks. This card does not need to directly counter your first card, and can be either a new version of an existing heroic legend or an original character.
Your final card this round must be a defensive card of some kind, related to the flavor of your first-round card, to keep yourself and your people safe while your champion and the invaders duke it out.
Your submissions are due by midnight Pacific on Sunday the 2nd, when it becomes Monday. Please include either a link to or a copy of your previous submissions in your post.
Round One - The Door
Round Two - The Divergence
Round Three - The Discovery
Round Four - The Deception
You have until midnight Pacific on Tuesday, September 27th, when it becomes Wednesday.