Magic the Gathering - You Make the Card!

[Grimsage Matt]

Editing them. Changing what happens if destroyed for a second time, adding the other 2 sages, then the Void Sage, which requires the 3 to be exiled first.

[tgva8889]

I think the idea of the contest is that you make exactly 1 card for it.

[AgentPaper]

Originally Posted by tgva8889

I think the idea of the contest is that you make exactly 1 card for it.

Yes. Unless the contest rules specifically call for multiple cards, you can only enter 1 card. You can feel free to provide additional cards in spoilers if you want, but they won't have any bearing on the contest itself.

[Grimsage Matt]

Put the 3 sages ina spoiler, but you still need 'em exiled to summon it.

[DMofDarkness]

Alright, we have an on-time judging for once. Somehow.

Binks:

Spoiler

This is an interesting card. It's cheap converted mana cost makes it seem like it wants to be used in the early stages of the game, but the damage it does is dependent on resources that accumulate slowly over the course of the game. Unfortunately, it doesn't do enough with the exiled zone to make it worth running. It doesn't have the reach to end a game, and it's basically conditional removal, dependent on a zone of the game that's barely used.

Duos:

Spoiler

This is a solid hatebear with good flavor text behind it. It's a solid, balanced card, and that's pretty much all there is to say about it.

Istari:

Spoiler

I like this card. It has a unique ability and good lategame reach. By itself, it can grind you significant advantage over the course of a game, just by exiling him for 1, and then getting a Soldier out of it. You can also pop him out in response to removal or right before a wrath. It's a good build-around-me card.

AgentPaper:

Spoiler

This is a really versatile card with a simple ability. Points for elegance. However, this is one of those cards where it's straddling the borderline between underpowered and broken. It's basically an artifact version of Mysterious Maze that, lategame, could begin to take over the game. That could alternatively save one of your creatures. The problem is, at 8 mana, this thing just takes over a game; it gets rid of 2 attackers/blockers, and then keeps one permanently. You just sit behind this and rack up advantage. If they try to remove it, you can just use Reality Gun on itself and keep the exiled cards exiled. On the other hand, it does cost 4 to cast, so in Standard, the most we could expect from it is as a control deck finisher. In casual and EDH, though, this card could just become degenerate and lead to some unfun gamestates.

Lord_Gareth:

Spoiler

This is an interesting card. A solid beater/blocker with a built-in replacement mechanism. I'm reminded of Keiga, the Tide Star, and then I realize that this is basically Keiga, minus the Legendary rules abuses and without a chance of reanimation. After that, it's still a solid card, but it's design space that's been used before.

Frankelshtein:

Spoiler

I like the flavor of the card, and how you try to work with it. That's all I like. When it enters the battlefield, you win, barring an Emrakul or sacrifice removal. It leads to some very unfun games. For example, turn 2: "I take 3, go to 17. At the end of your turn, pay 10 life, exile The Unknowable from hand. On my turn, exile my board and cast it. Got the Sacrifice removal? No? GG." I like what it's trying to do, but the execution is lacking. It's very all in, to the point where you win or lose on it, without any chance of turning things around.

Ninjaman:

Spoiler

This is a neat little Time Spiral card. Suspend, Flash, Split Second, all very fitting with time related things. It allows for playing a very Draw-Go based deck, being able to put things you don't want to deal with (especially counterspells) on hold, and then at the end of the turn you can Flash in your cards with any spare mana. The abilities take a lot of mana to work with, but they have a powerful effect to back them up. All in all, a solid card.

Grimsage Matt:

Spoiler

I'm just going to ignore the other Sages. They're riddled with off-wedge abilities, some effects are too powerful, and some effects make no sense. (How do creatures or players have tokens attached?)

So, the Voidsage.
...
Wording and templating is a nightmare, to say the least. "Voidsage cannot be exiled." What exactly happens when someone tries to exile him? Say, from your deck? From the battlefield? From your hand? You need to clarify what happens if some effect tries to exile him from anywhere. Even if it's something as simple as "If an effect would exile Void Sage from anywhere, instead do not exile Voidmage," while odd-sounding, makes it clear exactly what would happen if someone tried. "Exile a number of permanets whose base toughness is 0." What? So, just 0: Exile all noncreature permanents? Or do you mean, X: Exile target creature with toughness X? (Which can be activated to exile multiple targets, getting the same effect.) Or Exile target nonland permanent with Converted Mana Cost X? Also, how would the Voidsage get tokens in the first place? It's a neat idea, but frankly, the templating is just terrible.

tgva8889:

Spoiler

This is a nice, deceptively simple card. I like it. You need to build around it, but it could give you a good payoff if you do. For example, in a Flashback-based deck, it acts as a Runic Repetition, when you pay time instead of mana. Or it could act as a combo piece after you exile a large amount of your own deck. It's simple, does its job, and requires a good buildaround to work.

The Winner.

Spoiler

Istari, with Duran, Exiled King!

I really like the flavor of this card, how well it works by itself, and how well it could do in a deck built around it. Good job!

[Istari]

Thank you, I was worried about the card text being a bit awkward, but it looks like it came across fine.

For this week's challenge Design a card to fit in with the sword cycle
Feel free to change any number of things around as long as it is recognizable as connected to the originals.

[radmelon]

Sword of Plague and Balm 3
Artifact - Equipment - M
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has infect and protection from creatures with infect.
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you may remove a poison counter from yourself.
Equip 2

[Binks]

Armor of Mind and Body 3
Artifact - Equipment - R
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has Trample and Shroud
Whenever equipped creature is deals combat damage to a player you may draw a card and put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
Equip 2

[Grimsage Matt]

Blade of the Undying- 6
Artifact - Equipment - R
Equipped creature gets +X/+X and has Undying
Equiped Creature gains- Remove a +1/+1 token and the Blade of Unending gains a Charge.
X is equal to the number of Charge counters on the Blade of the Undying
Blade of the undying has Shroud
Equip 4 (When a creature under your control returns from the graveyard to the field with a +1/+1 counter, you may equip Blade of the Undying to it as a instant for 0)
"Please, stop killing me. The more you do it, the stronger I get." Ted the commoner, before killing a epic wizard.

[tgva8889]

Sword of Nature and Law 3
Artifact - Equipment M
Enchanted creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from green and from white.
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you may put a land card from your hand or graveyard onto the battlefield and detain target nonland permanent.
Equip 2

In other news, trying to make a really powerful cycle not broken is surprisingly difficult.

[Androgeus]

Hmm let's give this a whirl.

Sword of Knowledge and Power 3
Artifact - Equipment R
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and protection from blue and from black.
Whenever equipped creature deal combat damage to a player, you may up to one destroy target non-black creature and look at the top two cards of your library, then put them back in any order.

Equip 2

[DMofDarkness]

Armor of Fire and Darkness 3
Artifact- Equipment MR
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from Red and Black.
Whenever equipped creature attacks, it gains Shadow until end of turn.
Whenever equipped creature blocks, Armor of Fire and Darkness deals 2 damage to each creature and player.
Equip 2

[AgentPaper]

Sword of Eye and Storm 4
Artifact - Equipment M
Equipped creature gets +3/+3 and has protection from blue, red, and green.
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, return target creature to it’s owner’s hand, then Sword of Eye and Storm deals 3 damage to each creature.
Equip 3

[Duos]

Shield of Grace and Charm 3
Artifact-Equipment M
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from white and from blue.

Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, return target non-land permanent to its owners hand, then return target artifact or enchantment from your graveyard to your hand.
Equip 2

[Frankelshtein]

Sword of Mirth and Misery {3}
Artifact-Equipment M

Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from white and black.

Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, each player gains 3 life and sacrifices a creature.

Equip {2}

[Ninjaman]

Sword of trickery and deceit - 3
Artifact - Equipment - M

Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from black and from blue.

Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, return target permanent that player controls to its owners hand, then that player discards a card.

[Istari]

I'll get the judging up sometime tonight, feel free to submit in the meantime.

[Istari]

radmelon

Spoiler

While the rider effects aren't the most powerful and removing poison counters usually isn't done, the card fills a nice niche roll. Giving the creature infect is probably a bit on the strong side, but I think combined it balances nicely to the approximate power of the swords set and credit for the original idea.
tl:dr Despite flaws, overall a pretty good card.

Binks

Spoiler

Very simple and elegant. I think the fact that it gives the creature shroud instead of hexproof does a great job of keeping the card from being overpowered. A very good fit for the average equipment deck.

Grimsage Matt

Spoiler

This card suffers from a couple flaws. Primarily the equip cost, since there isn't an easy way to tell if a creature has benefited from undying late into the game if the effect has occurred several times. Additionally I think the blade could go without the double strike and indestructibility, with those, its hard to counter and very powerful even without charge counters, in addition to being too cheap. If you take those off though, it simply becomes a very strong card where the opponent either must remove it, or focus on blocking the creature equipped without killing it.

tgva8889

Spoiler

Despite the difficulty, you managed to do a great job of balancing it, the additional effects are definitely in line with the others.

Androgeus

Spoiler

I like the blue library checking effect but I think the black side ends up a bit too powerful. Repetitive kill effects are very dangerous. A simple change that I can think of to reign it in while making the flavor more interesting might be to expand the destroy effect to any type of creature, but make it mandatory so if the opponent has no creature out you would lose one of your own. Just a personal thought.

DMofDarkness

Spoiler

I like the bringing back of shadow, and while I'm a tad leery of the second power I think it ends up working well as a build around me card without being obnoxiously powerful, especially as a mandatory effect.

AgentPaper

Spoiler

The protection from an entire shard worries me somewhat, but as I mentioned earlier the mandatory rider effect makes the card very interesting. I also really like how you could bounce one of your weak creatures back to your hand to spare it from the storm.

Duos

Spoiler

I think the name could use a bit of work, but its a minor nitpick, however I think the card suffers most from blandness, the card has some very good use in an equipment/aura deck, but for whatever reason, nothing about the card particularly excites me. I think going for AgentPaper's route and adding green to the card might have been better, especially since the rebirth effect is very much in green's domain.

Frankelshtein

Spoiler

Interestingly, this sticks out as one of the weaker cards here, which is probably a good thing. You did a very good job of reigning in the powers of the sword while keeping them classic. You could probably do a lot of interesting things with the the effects, but I'm not sure you needed to give your opponent life when you attacked them, another effect or trigger for it might be better.

Ninjaman

Spoiler

A bit generic, the card fits the mold well with a pair of classic effects, but I would have liked for something that toed the line a bit more. Not a bad card by any means though.

And the winner is

Spoiler

AgentPaper, the card does a great job of being an important aspect of any game its played in without being completely overwhelming. Congratulations!

[Grimsage Matt]

I'll just edit the equip cost, and remove the doublestrike abillity.

[AgentPaper]

Thank you very much.

For this contest, I want to see Planeswalkers.

Planeswalkers tend to be one of the hardest designs to hit, though, so I'd also like to encourage you all to help each other out as much as possible. Give advice, make suggestions, have discussions, and overall help each other out as much as you can. To help make it easier to have ongoing discussion, feel free to discuss without spoilers. My only request is that if you post a card that isn't meant to be an entry (IE: showing an example), put that card in a spoiler. Entries themselves should be in bold.

Just a note, if you do change your entry, make sure that you edit your original post, rather than posting it again. Edit as much as you like until I post that judging has begun, which should be sometime next Sunday.

[Grimsage Matt]

Planeswalkers... I have a idea.

Final draft. A Planeswalker based around that That most Broken of land cards.


Matthazar Grim, The Locus Lord- 9
Planswalker- Matthazar Grim

+2; Search your library for a land with the Locus type and add it to your hand, then shuffle your Deck.

-2; Search your libray for a Colorless non-land card and add it to your hand, then shuffle your library.

-5; You gain a Emblem with; All permenats on the field gain the Locus type in addtion to their other types.

5

[Binks]

Rhyia, Orzhov Advocate - 2WWBB
Planeswalker - Rhyia
+1 - Name a card type. Target opponent reveals their hand and loses life equal to the number of cards of the named type they revealed. (the card types are artifact, creature, enchantment, instant, land, planeswalker, sorcery and tribal)
-2 - You get an emblem with 'Spells your opponents cast cost {1} more to cast'
-10 - Destroy all nonland permanents you don't control
5

Originally Posted by Grimsage Matt

Matthazar Grim, The Canadian- 4SSSS (4 and 4 Snow, snow mana can be paid by taping snow permanants)
Planswalker- Matthazar Grim

+2; Chose one; Create a 2/2 Snow Human Solider token. It can be of any color, so long as you control at least 1 of those lands.
Or a Permanant you control adds Snow in addtion to it's other types.
Amusingly enough I don't think the rules currently provide any support for assigning supertypes (like snow) to tokens or for granting supertyes to permanents. I went with what seems like the most reasonable template for this but just an FYI that I couldn't find an actual template for it.

Having the creatures have different colors is a recipe for a memory nightmare and will only very rarely have an impact on the game so I would personally recommend against doing that. The fact that it would require a huge template is a side concern.

+2; Choose one - Put a 2/2 White Snow Human Solder creature token on the battlefield; or target permanent becomes Snow (this effect does not end)

-2; All Snow creatures you control gain +1/+1 for every snow permanant on the battlefield intill the end of the turn. You may use this anytime you could use a instant.
*cringe*. Planeswalkers with instant abilities are a rules and templating nightmare. I would heavily, heavily, heavily recommend you don't go there. This is perfectly workable as a normal sorcery speed planeswalker ability.

-2; Snow creatures you control get +1/+1 for each snow permanent you control until end of turn.

-6; You gain the Canadians Emblem. The Emblem has a effect based on what lands you control;
W- All snow creatures gain Battlecry
G- All Snow creatures have Reach
R- All Snow Creatures have Haste
B- All Snow Creatures Gain Trample
U- All Snow Creatures have Hexproof
S- All snow creates gain Regenerate [s]
C (Colorless lands)- All Snow creatures gain +1/+1 for each other Snow permanent on the battfield when defending.
A very complex emblem, probably way to big to ever print, but maybe workable. Lands don't have colors, so I'm assuming you mean basic lands that produce the appropriate colors.

A few other issues I'd note:
Battlecry is not evergreen. The rest are. Might be best to switch it out for something else white that is evergreen (first strike or vigilance come to mind).
Black doesn't grant trample, only green does. It can grant regen with some stretching, or deathtouch, or some other things possibly
S is snow I assume? Why does snow grant regenerate? I would just drop this and the colorless one entirely to reduce the emblem's complexity.
All lands are colorless, so the last 1 basically reads 'you control a land, get this benefit'

-6; You get an emblem with 'As long as you control a Plains, snow creatures you control have Vigilance. As long as you control a Forest, snow creatures you control have Reach. As long as you control a Mountain, snow creatures you control have Haste. As long as you control a Swamp, snow creatures you control have Deathtouch. As long as you control an Island, snow creatures you control have Hexproof.'

5

Added some templating possibilities and some other suggestions to see if I can help out a bit. Looks like a cool idea, if a bit long to actually print.

[radmelon]

Grazan the Chronarch - 3UW
Planeswalker - Grazan - M
+5 - Skip your next turn.
+1 - Exile target creature. Return it to the battlefield at the beginning of the next end step.
-3 - Exile target creature.
-12 - Take another turn after this one.
5

[tgva8889]

Spoiler

Apprentice Planeswalker 3
Planeswalker R
+1: Put a loyalty counter on target Planeswalker you control.
-X: Put X loyalty counters on target Planeswalker you control.
-4: Whenever you activate the ability of another Planeswalker this turn, copy it.
1

Go thought experiment, go!

Trample is I think tertiary in Black, since I think Red has it secondary. This doesn't mean it can't have it, but it does mean that it rarely ever does.

Edit: Decided against my thought experiment, however amusing it might be.

Aditi the Copycat 1UUB
Planeswalker - Aditi M
+2: Search your library for a card and exile it. Aditi gains one of its activated abilities until the end of your next turn.
-4: Put a token onto the battlefield that is a copy of target nonplaneswalker permanent.
-4: Search target player's library for a card and put it onto the battlefield under your control with 3 loyalty counters on it. It becomes a Planeswalker and gains all of Aditi's abilities.
3

I wonder if this card is balanced...I guess rather than deciding against my previous thought experiment, I came up with a completely different one.

[Grimsage Matt]

Will do the formating for the first abillity, thanks

And ya, the second one... was ment to be a "In the thick of battle booster", but ya, will change.

On the emblem.

Droping colorless and snow lands from it. And ya, based of types of mana generated.

Plains.. white mana, this set is rifew with Battlecry In fact, it's a White/Red abillity. Might Tweak Red so it Grants Battle Cry, and White gives First Strike.

Black don't have Trample Check out Oni Possession and Devient desires for the two enchantments. Plenty of creatures.

[Duos]

Straaken, The Clonesage UUG
Planeswalker-Straken M
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, if it shares a name with another creature you control, put a loyalty counter on Straaken, The Clonesage.
-0: Search your library for a creature with the same name as a creature you control and reveal it. Shuffle your library then put that card on top.
-3: Put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of target creature you control.
-20: You get an emblem with "At the beginning of your upkeep, for each creature you control, you may put a token onto the battlefield that is a copy of it."
4

I'm interested in seeing planeswalkers with static abilities. Either ones like this, that force you to play around certain restrictions to get the most use out of your 'walker, or ones that simply affect the battlefield in a meaningful way while they exist on the battlefield (enchantments you cast cost (1) less to cast. or soomething like that). To me, it makes playing with or against them feel more interactive.

Binks: While I really, really like the idea of an Orzhov 'walker that 'taxes' your opponent, I feel like by the time this one sticks, your opponent will have mana to spare, rendering it mostly just a useless clock that ticks up to the ultimate.
I would suggest dropping the mana cost and starting loyalty, then revisiting ways to 'tax' your opponents. Mana Tithe is't very good on turn six, perhaps you could nickle and dime them with small, irritating emblems? Sorin 2.0 paved the way for that, maybe something like "Spells your opponents control cost (1) more to cast" for the negative loyalty ability? I think this guy has potential.

Radmelon: This guy has a neat concept, but he feels kind of disjointed. I don't think anybody would ever activate his first ability, since skipping turns is kind of huge, and his ultimate is kind of bland, if thematic. The other two are soooort of in flavor (getting stuff lost in time) but he seems kind of generic overall. Maybe browse gatherer for other time-related cards? I feel like this guy could do a bunch of neat stuff if you were a little more daring with him.

tgva: Oooooh, I like this. It's colorless and TYPEless, too, so you can play more than one of them at a time. Really interesting. Past that, though, it just feels like a way to make other Planeswalkers work slightly more efficiently. I think that was what you're going for but I feel like there could be a little more... Interactivity? I dunno, there's something about it that throws me off. But the concept is really cool.

Grimsage Matt: I feel like you're trying to do waaaay too much with your guy. He's really wordy in a negative way, and honestly, that emblem is a nightmare. His power level is also kind of disjointed for his cost (8 mana to get a 2/2, then get an emblem that makes the 2/2 slightly better is not a super good deal.). The one thing I like is that he's a colorless walker you can't just shove into your deck, he needs to be built around. I'd urge you to focus less on creating the Canadian ideal and more on making an innovative snow-based 'walker.

[Ninjaman]

Tibalt the trickster - 2UR
Planeswalker - Tibalt - M

+1: Draw a card, then discard a card, then if an instant or sorcery card was discarded this way draw a card or deal 2 damage to target creature

-1: Return target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand, if the returned card was blue draw a card, if the returned card was red deal 2 damage to target creature

-6: You get an emblem with “When you cast an instant or sorcery, draw a card then deal 2 damage to target creature”
3

[Binks]

Originally Posted by Grimsage Matt

Black don't have Trample Check out Oni Possession and Devient desires for the two enchantments. Plenty of creatures.

Black doesn't grant trample. It gets it very rarely, but tertiaries almost never grant that ability. Just a color pie suggestion based on what I know from following Rosewater's articles.

Originally Posted by Duos

Binks: While I really, really like the idea of an Orzhov 'walker that 'taxes' your opponent, I feel like by the time this one sticks, your opponent will have mana to spare, rendering it mostly just a useless clock that ticks up to the ultimate.
I would suggest dropping the mana cost and starting loyalty, then revisiting ways to 'tax' your opponents. Mana Tithe is't very good on turn six, perhaps you could nickle and dime them with small, irritating emblems? Sorin 2.0 paved the way for that, maybe something like "Spells your opponents control cost (1) more to cast" for the negative loyalty ability? I think this guy has potential.

Ohh...I like that idea. Going to modify accordingly. Thanks.

[Grimsage Matt]

Originally Posted by Binks

Black doesn't grant trample. It gets it very rarely, but tertiaries almost never grant that ability. Just a color pie suggestion based on what I know from following Rosewater's articles.

Oni Possession disagrees with you

[Binks]

Originally Posted by Grimsage Matt

Oni Possession disagrees with you

Almost never . I hadn't seen that card before. I suppose it's not as far off as I had thought, but it still seems like there are more black abilities you could be granting based on controlling a swamp. But you are correct that there is a prescient.