Doing this in chunks, on account of having to use mobile with spotty service.
Sub_Silentio: Appeal 2/3: Timmy doesn't like all the machinations. Johnny definitely does, and Spike sees a one-way ticket to Valuetown. Elegance 1/3: Transfigure is a confusing mechanic, and you've opted for no reminder text. The second ability is even more complicated, and in addition, it references comparative mana cost in a different way than Transfigure does. I like the effect mechanically, but elegant it ain't.
Viability 3/3: Colors are fine - very fitting. Rarity is correct and necessary. Balance 2/3: It's a slightly expensive bear with a gigantic upside. The fact that no additional cost is required to use the second ability could put this into Broken territory, depending on what cards it shares formats with. I fully expect this to see eternal play. Certainly commander. Limited is where this will have the best balance between value and fairness.
Uniqueness 1.5/3: I can't go digging through Gatherer right now, but this doesn't seem to be putting anything super fresh on the table. It's like a (very) fixed Birthing Pod-on-a-stick. I can't think of a case where this exact combination of trigger and tutor have been used, but it's another example of a Taco Bell card, imo. Flavor 3/3: Great job here. It all works towards the same mental picture. Effective flavor text that doesn't overdo it.
Quality 3/3: Looks good from here. Main Challenge 2/2: Definitely strong enough for competitive play. Sub-Challenges 2/2: It's the correct rarity at rare, and plays nice with other Transfigure creatures.
Total: 19.5/25
RickyRickster: Design - (2.5/3) Appeal: Timmy WOULD like it if he can get past the "tapped artifacts" clause. Johnny is all-in. Spike sees plenty of value. (3/3) Elegance: It all works together nicely. Though it might take a second reading to really understand the interactions, those interactions interlock in a satisfying way.
Development - (3/3) Viability: Very blue, and correct rarity. (2.5/3) Balance: It won't usually be relevant in limited, but could be draftable with enough artifact support. Constructed formats of all types love this thing.
Creativity - (3/3) Uniqueness: This interaction between tapped artifacts and improvise made me literally grin and chuckle. Quite clever, and very creative. (3/3) Flavor: Great flavor all-around. It's an ambush because it happens when it LOKS like you're all tapped out, or alternately, because you can cast it much sooner than it looks like you'll be able to. The flavor text expertly gets across the playful, rebellious mood of the Khaladesh block.
Polish - (2.5/3) Quality: The quote in the flavor text is missing a final period. (2/2) *Main Challenge: Great use of improvise, and definitely good enough for tournament play. (2/2) Subchallenges: Yep and yep.
Total: 23.5/25
*An entry with 0 points here is subject to disqualification.
LnGrrR: Design - (1.5/3) Appeal: Neither the effect nor the forward-thinking nature of the card appeals to Timmy. Johnny would have a tough time making good use of the effect itself, but likes cipher shenanigans in general. This was custom-designed just for Spike, and he appreciates it. (1/3) Elegance: Cipher is one of the least elegant mechanics in Magic to begin with. I ran Hidden Strings in my U/W Heroic deck during JOU standard, and every single time I played it, my opponent had to re-read the card, even sometimes more than once in the same game. Often, the whole match went by, and they asked me afterwards, "So WHAT does that card do exactly?" That, and it's a more-complicated Bamboozle, which is also a card that requires frequent double-takes. It is, at least, straightforward. It's a single effect that can be encoded. One-and-done.
Development - (3/3) Viability: Definitely blue. Definitely black. Uncommon seems fine. (2.5/3) Balance: This won't see much limited play, though I'm sure someone will get cheeky by putting this on a Triton Shorestalker clone and ruin the rest of his opponents draws. It's definitely not OVER-powered in any constructed format, though I wonder if it really would see tournament play.
Creativity - (1/3) Uniqueness: Everything minus the cipher ability is nearly identical to Bamboozle. It's changed in superficial ways, and cipher is a new addition. But it really feels like an existing card with an unrelated keyword tacked on. (3/3) Flavor: You picked an ability whose reminder text makes flavor text unfeasible, but the name of the card and its mechanical flavor fit very well.
Polish - (2.5/3) Quality: Extraneous line break between the two effects. (1.5/2) *Main Challenge: Cipher seems like an arbitrary choice here, but admittedly, most of the other cipher cards feel like that, too. (1/2) Subchallenges: If there's a synergy with other cipher cards, I don't see it.
Total: 17/25
*An entry with 0 points here is subject to disqualification.
IcariiFA: Design - (3/3) Appeal: Timmy loves being rewarded for playing sweet angels. Johnny can find all sorts of ways to make this a better Phyrexian Unlife. Spike likes it in limited, but that's good enough. (2.5/3) Elegance: Quite elegant. The only possible niggle I have is that The first ability and the fateful hour effect don't seem very related. There was a moment of "huh?" as I read the card the first time.
Development - (3/3) Viability: This card could only ever be white, and you keep it in rare territory by limiting the first effect to humans and angels. (3/3) Balance: I see no balance issues. It's a good card, in limited or standard, and even some fringe tribal modern decks might try it out. Maybe even Death's Shadow decks?
Creativity - (2/3) Uniqueness: It's a less-good Worship with a situational upside. That said, I like the card, and I like that it doubly rewards turning on fateful hour (or at least makes it less risky). Very neat interaction between the two abilities, although... (3/3) Flavor: While I quite like the card as a whole, none of the flavor elements are doing it for me. The name itself confused me for a few seconds. My initial thought upon reading "Last Till Dawn" was "Last WHAT till dawn?". Just changing "till" to "until" would have cleared this up (for me, at least). The two abilities don't seem to have much to do with each other, besides one helping turn on the other. All of the existing cards with fateful hour have a direct relation between the effect of the FH ability and some other attribute or effect of the card. The exception is Thraben Doomsayer, but token generation often goes hand-in-hand with anthem effects. Double strike just seems unrelated to a Worship effect. Also, I get that the imagery you're going for is a lone surviving soldier being granted extra prowess at the last minute, but that's not how this will be played most often. Exalted would have been a better ability to evoke a scene like that. To top it off, the flavor text strikes me as wooden and non-affecting. Even the slightest change - from past tense to present tense - would improve it drastically.
Polish - (2.5/3) Quality: All good. (2/2) *Main Challenge: It uses fateful hour well, and is definitely strong enough for tournament play. (2/2) Subchallenges: It's rare, and plays incredibly nicely with other FH cards.
Total: 23/25
*An entry with 0 points here is subject to disqualification.
RickyRickster - 23.5
Sub_Silentio - 19.5
IcariiFA - 23
LnGrrrR - 17
EDIT: I mistakenly gave IcariiFA 3 out of 3 points for flavor, and intended to give 1 point instead. It wouldn't have made a difference in the results; I'm just explaining why my critiques don't seem to match the score I gave. EDIT2: But then, I guess I also incorrectly docked half a point on his Quality score... Geez. Posting from an unfamiliar setup, but that's really no excuse for such sloppy copypasta. Luckily it didn't affect the results. I'll be back home at my own computer when I score Round 4.
Hi! I'm bored as hell, and happy to have something to do to pass the time. Will score my brackets as thoroughly as I'm able momentarily. Thank you for being flexible.
The round is closing early. Critiques and Top 3s are due Sunday, August 27, BUT...I might not have internet access then.
If I haven't posted the final round by first thing Monday morning, someone else will have to take over. Moss Elemental has the challenge in his inbox. Wish me luck as I stare down a category 3 hurricane =|
Thanks, Flatline. It's all cool. You weren't the only one with the same basic opinion, and you're entitled to have it heard. It's a tad disappointing that my challenges haven't been received well, but that's just how it turned out. Like I said, lessons learned.
In other news, if Raiku_Rider gives the go-ahead, I'll close the round.
In other OTHER news, I live directly in the path of Hurricane Harvey, which is projected to make landfall as a category 3 tomorrow afternoon. I've got a safe place to go a bit inland, but power might be out for some time. I'd love to be able to post the final round before that, but if not, I've PMed Moss Elemental the challenge I had planned, so someone else can take over hosting duty if I go AWOL for a few days.
I for one like these narrow challenges better than the regular "design a card, but it has to have words on it" challenges. I recognize that there's problems with them and apparently the larger portion of designers on here like the broad ones. But let it be known that I liked every round so far very much and I'm super happy with where the rounds got me. Sure, there's not much variance you can do with the Morphlings, but now the little details matter. Sure, indestructible seems like the obvious choice, as does menace for the black Morphling. But I actually replaced menace with skulk now, so maybe there's something else instead of indestructible which could make things different. That's still exciting and will show which of us can still be creative within little space.
Exactly this, yes. All of the challenges so far are ones I myself would enjoy banging my head against. It's when creativity is deemed impossible or irrelevant that mine is inspired the most. It appears that the prevailing preference for contest design differs substantially from this, and any future challenges I come up with will reflect this information.
On a totally unrelated note, I may be without power for much of the weekend. Would anyone not competing in the Top 5 be willing to act as backup host for scoring this round and posting the finals if I am conspicuously absent by the deadline?
EDIT: Actually, if all of the entrants would like, we can just end the round now, and get straight to critiques. It's gotta be unanimous, though.
I went to bed last night before round 4 was posted and when I woke up, pretty much every possible entry for the challenges had been made already...
Yeah, I kinda already warned about being too boxed in with challenge ideas. There is little creativity in designing another morphling, as the cycle is so strict. A contest without creativity and uniqueness doesn't leave room for any of us to show who has the talent.
It seems like everyone shares this same basic opinion. The criticism of this month's challenges has been duly noted, both by me, and I'm sure by other potential contest hosts. Hopefully, my unpopular challenges will end up improving the quality of subsequent CCLs for this reason. If you'll just soldier through this round, the finals will be free from the kinds of specific constraints of the previous rounds, and then I'll be waiting to try hosting again until I've had more time to observe and participate as a designer.
I feel like this challenge doesn't leave very much room for creativity. Especially with the Morphling cycle. I'm pretty sure I could create every possible iteration for each cycle. There isn't even enough room on either card to include flavor text.
Fair points. I've been picking challenges I'd personally enjoy, and that doesn't appear to be going over very well. Lessons learned. The finals will be more open-ended, at least.
Ancestral Mask, taken from MTG Art from Eternal Masters by Magali Villeneuve and Wizards of the Coast
Welcome to the Card Creation League Semifinals! Everyone is free to participate in either or both of the first two rounds, but this round is open only to those who have qualified.
August's Top 4 Top 5 includes the following designers:
Card cycles have been a mainstay of Magic design since the very beginning. They accomplish many varied goals, from highlighting the themes and flavor of an expansion set to exploring different approaches to a new mechanic. Card cycles call our attention to the form and function of cards in ways that wouldn't be possible without them.
Sometimes, cycles have to wait to be completed until another set in the same block. Other times it takes years, and some incomplete cycles were never even intended to be full cycles in the first place.
This round you'll be continuing incomplete horizontal cycles while pretending that several sets have gone by. The story has moved on, and this is NOT a return to a previous plane. As such, set mechanics and set flavor are irrelevant for this challenge, though you're free to use either if you think it's a good design decision.
Challenge Your challenge is to contribute one card each to two unfinished horizontal cycles:
The first consisting of Morphling, Torchling, and Thornling,
And the second from Hour of Devastation, consisting of Supreme Will, Doomfall, and Abrade.
You'll be designing one missing card from the first cycle AND one missing card from the second cycle.
You'll design 2 total cards.
One will be either a white or black card that's part of the Morphling cycle
The other will be either a green or white card that's part of the HOU cycle.
There are no other restrictions on name, color, rarity or anything else beyond whatever conventions for cycle design you think are appropriate.
PLEASE NOTE: This month we will continue with the mandatory Top 3 rule. Your card will receive NO POINTS in any round you fail to submit a Top 3 by the judging deadline. Submitting critiques will still be optional (but encouraged!), and will be worth 2 bonus points per round on its own.
Your Round 4 submissions are due before Sunday, August 27th, 23:59 EST.
Schedule
Round 1 — Open to Everyone (July 28th – Aug 4th)
Round 2 — Open to Everyone (Aug 5th-10th)
Rounds 1 and 2 Critiques (Due Aug 15th)
Top 8 — Open to top 8 finishers (Aug 16th–20th)
Top 8 Critiques (Due Aug 22nd)
Top 4 — Open to top 4 finishers from last round (Aug 23rd–27th)
Top 4 Critiques (Due Aug 29th)
Final (End of month, winner determined by public poll)
Judging is now finished, and we have our Top 4 desig. . . um. Interesting. Due to a tie for 4th place, the top 5 designers will be advancing to the semifinals this month. They are as follows:
Related note: I have been awarding 2 points for critiques per round, as-per my conversation with void-nothing earlier in this thread, and as-stated in each round I've posted so far. Regardless of what's decided going forward, I think it's only fair to continue that trend this month.
Sub_Silentio:
Appeal 2/3: Timmy doesn't like all the machinations. Johnny definitely does, and Spike sees a one-way ticket to Valuetown.
Elegance 1/3: Transfigure is a confusing mechanic, and you've opted for no reminder text. The second ability is even more complicated, and in addition, it references comparative mana cost in a different way than Transfigure does. I like the effect mechanically, but elegant it ain't.
Viability 3/3: Colors are fine - very fitting. Rarity is correct and necessary.
Balance 2/3: It's a slightly expensive bear with a gigantic upside. The fact that no additional cost is required to use the second ability could put this into Broken territory, depending on what cards it shares formats with. I fully expect this to see eternal play. Certainly commander. Limited is where this will have the best balance between value and fairness.
Uniqueness 1.5/3: I can't go digging through Gatherer right now, but this doesn't seem to be putting anything super fresh on the table. It's like a (very) fixed Birthing Pod-on-a-stick. I can't think of a case where this exact combination of trigger and tutor have been used, but it's another example of a Taco Bell card, imo.
Flavor 3/3: Great job here. It all works towards the same mental picture. Effective flavor text that doesn't overdo it.
Quality 3/3: Looks good from here.
Main Challenge 2/2: Definitely strong enough for competitive play.
Sub-Challenges 2/2: It's the correct rarity at rare, and plays nice with other Transfigure creatures.
Total: 19.5/25
RickyRickster:
Design -
(2.5/3) Appeal: Timmy WOULD like it if he can get past the "tapped artifacts" clause. Johnny is all-in. Spike sees plenty of value.
(3/3) Elegance: It all works together nicely. Though it might take a second reading to really understand the interactions, those interactions interlock in a satisfying way.
Development -
(3/3) Viability: Very blue, and correct rarity.
(2.5/3) Balance: It won't usually be relevant in limited, but could be draftable with enough artifact support. Constructed formats of all types love this thing.
Creativity -
(3/3) Uniqueness: This interaction between tapped artifacts and improvise made me literally grin and chuckle. Quite clever, and very creative.
(3/3) Flavor: Great flavor all-around. It's an ambush because it happens when it LOKS like you're all tapped out, or alternately, because you can cast it much sooner than it looks like you'll be able to. The flavor text expertly gets across the playful, rebellious mood of the Khaladesh block.
Polish -
(2.5/3) Quality: The quote in the flavor text is missing a final period.
(2/2) *Main Challenge: Great use of improvise, and definitely good enough for tournament play.
(2/2) Subchallenges: Yep and yep.
Total: 23.5/25
*An entry with 0 points here is subject to disqualification.
Design -
(1.5/3) Appeal: Neither the effect nor the forward-thinking nature of the card appeals to Timmy. Johnny would have a tough time making good use of the effect itself, but likes cipher shenanigans in general. This was custom-designed just for Spike, and he appreciates it.
(1/3) Elegance: Cipher is one of the least elegant mechanics in Magic to begin with. I ran Hidden Strings in my U/W Heroic deck during JOU standard, and every single time I played it, my opponent had to re-read the card, even sometimes more than once in the same game. Often, the whole match went by, and they asked me afterwards, "So WHAT does that card do exactly?" That, and it's a more-complicated Bamboozle, which is also a card that requires frequent double-takes. It is, at least, straightforward. It's a single effect that can be encoded. One-and-done.
Development -
(3/3) Viability: Definitely blue. Definitely black. Uncommon seems fine.
(2.5/3) Balance: This won't see much limited play, though I'm sure someone will get cheeky by putting this on a Triton Shorestalker clone and ruin the rest of his opponents draws. It's definitely not OVER-powered in any constructed format, though I wonder if it really would see tournament play.
Creativity -
(1/3) Uniqueness: Everything minus the cipher ability is nearly identical to Bamboozle. It's changed in superficial ways, and cipher is a new addition. But it really feels like an existing card with an unrelated keyword tacked on.
(3/3) Flavor: You picked an ability whose reminder text makes flavor text unfeasible, but the name of the card and its mechanical flavor fit very well.
Polish -
(2.5/3) Quality: Extraneous line break between the two effects.
(1.5/2) *Main Challenge: Cipher seems like an arbitrary choice here, but admittedly, most of the other cipher cards feel like that, too.
(1/2) Subchallenges: If there's a synergy with other cipher cards, I don't see it.
Total: 17/25
*An entry with 0 points here is subject to disqualification.
IcariiFA:
Design -
(3/3) Appeal: Timmy loves being rewarded for playing sweet angels. Johnny can find all sorts of ways to make this a better Phyrexian Unlife. Spike likes it in limited, but that's good enough.
(2.5/3) Elegance: Quite elegant. The only possible niggle I have is that The first ability and the fateful hour effect don't seem very related. There was a moment of "huh?" as I read the card the first time.
Development -
(3/3) Viability: This card could only ever be white, and you keep it in rare territory by limiting the first effect to humans and angels.
(3/3) Balance: I see no balance issues. It's a good card, in limited or standard, and even some fringe tribal modern decks might try it out. Maybe even Death's Shadow decks?
Creativity -
(2/3) Uniqueness: It's a less-good Worship with a situational upside. That said, I like the card, and I like that it doubly rewards turning on fateful hour (or at least makes it less risky). Very neat interaction between the two abilities, although...
(3/3) Flavor: While I quite like the card as a whole, none of the flavor elements are doing it for me. The name itself confused me for a few seconds. My initial thought upon reading "Last Till Dawn" was "Last WHAT till dawn?". Just changing "till" to "until" would have cleared this up (for me, at least). The two abilities don't seem to have much to do with each other, besides one helping turn on the other. All of the existing cards with fateful hour have a direct relation between the effect of the FH ability and some other attribute or effect of the card. The exception is Thraben Doomsayer, but token generation often goes hand-in-hand with anthem effects. Double strike just seems unrelated to a Worship effect. Also, I get that the imagery you're going for is a lone surviving soldier being granted extra prowess at the last minute, but that's not how this will be played most often. Exalted would have been a better ability to evoke a scene like that. To top it off, the flavor text strikes me as wooden and non-affecting. Even the slightest change - from past tense to present tense - would improve it drastically.
Polish -
(2.5/3) Quality: All good.
(2/2) *Main Challenge: It uses fateful hour well, and is definitely strong enough for tournament play.
(2/2) Subchallenges: It's rare, and plays incredibly nicely with other FH cards.
Total: 23/25
*An entry with 0 points here is subject to disqualification.
Sub_Silentio - 19.5
IcariiFA - 23
LnGrrrR - 17
EDIT: I mistakenly gave IcariiFA 3 out of 3 points for flavor, and intended to give 1 point instead. It wouldn't have made a difference in the results; I'm just explaining why my critiques don't seem to match the score I gave.
EDIT2: But then, I guess I also incorrectly docked half a point on his Quality score... Geez. Posting from an unfamiliar setup, but that's really no excuse for such sloppy copypasta. Luckily it didn't affect the results. I'll be back home at my own computer when I score Round 4.
If I haven't posted the final round by first thing Monday morning, someone else will have to take over. Moss Elemental has the challenge in his inbox. Wish me luck as I stare down a category 3 hurricane =|
In other news, if Raiku_Rider gives the go-ahead, I'll close the round.
In other OTHER news, I live directly in the path of Hurricane Harvey, which is projected to make landfall as a category 3 tomorrow afternoon. I've got a safe place to go a bit inland, but power might be out for some time. I'd love to be able to post the final round before that, but if not, I've PMed Moss Elemental the challenge I had planned, so someone else can take over hosting duty if I go AWOL for a few days.
On a totally unrelated note, I may be without power for much of the weekend. Would anyone not competing in the Top 5 be willing to act as backup host for scoring this round and posting the finals if I am conspicuously absent by the deadline?
EDIT: Actually, if all of the entrants would like, we can just end the round now, and get straight to critiques. It's gotta be unanimous, though.
Thanks for your patience.
Fair points. I've been picking challenges I'd personally enjoy, and that doesn't appear to be going over very well. Lessons learned. The finals will be more open-ended, at least.
“Revisitation”
Ancestral Mask, taken from MTG Art from Eternal Masters by Magali Villeneuve and Wizards of the Coast
August's
Top 4Top 5 includes the following designers:RaikouRider
Flatline
IcariiFA
void_nothing
doomfish
Theme
Card cycles have been a mainstay of Magic design since the very beginning. They accomplish many varied goals, from highlighting the themes and flavor of an expansion set to exploring different approaches to a new mechanic. Card cycles call our attention to the form and function of cards in ways that wouldn't be possible without them.
Sometimes, cycles have to wait to be completed until another set in the same block. Other times it takes years, and some incomplete cycles were never even intended to be full cycles in the first place.
This round you'll be continuing incomplete horizontal cycles while pretending that several sets have gone by. The story has moved on, and this is NOT a return to a previous plane. As such, set mechanics and set flavor are irrelevant for this challenge, though you're free to use either if you think it's a good design decision.
Challenge
Your challenge is to contribute one card each to two unfinished horizontal cycles:
The first consisting of Morphling, Torchling, and Thornling,
And the second from Hour of Devastation, consisting of Supreme Will, Doomfall, and Abrade.
PLEASE NOTE: This month we will continue with the mandatory Top 3 rule. Your card will receive NO POINTS in any round you fail to submit a Top 3 by the judging deadline. Submitting critiques will still be optional (but encouraged!), and will be worth 2 bonus points per round on its own.
Schedule
IcariiFA — 12 pts
Flatline — 11 pts
RaikouRider — 10 pts
void_nothing — 7 pts
doomfish — 7 pts
Congrats, guys. The round will be posted shortly.