#I’ll be honest - I really only put aria in this so that I could justify it being on my selfship blog to myself >w<< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[flowering-darkness]

happy two years of being your true self, Clio!!! ^-^

(comments/reblogs are appreciated but never required. further context is under the readmore!)

Today marks two years, in real time, since I started associating Clio with a specific species of butterfly - namely, the largest known species in the world, Ornithoptera alexandrae. I started making this association because Clio briefly took the form of a butterfly in an RP campaign I was in, and I was looking for butterflies that resembled my pāua shell necklace I've had for years; in doing so, this species popped up! However, only the male form has the right iridescent green-teal colour to match my necklace; the female form is brown. To reconcile this conundrum, I decided that Clio was trans now. And so that's how that came about!~

From an in-setting perspective, Clio's already been out for a few years by the time my self-insert meets her, but this date marks the point at which she first comes out and chooses the name Clio for herself. So, I still think it's something she would celebrate in her own way, because she loves being who she is and is proud of how far she's come!!

I hope that this makes sense - and that you like the render! Thank you for taking the time to read this ^-^ (I was supposed to have gone to bed by now, but I really wanted to make something to commemorate the day, since.. I just feel like it's something she herself would do, you know? So, here we are!)

[violetosprey]

BTD/TDDUP:  Who’s the most dangerous human character?

There is a counterpart post to this for the supernatural BTD characters already posted here if you want to check that out :P

I love the human characters in the BTD/TDDUP series.  Probably a little more than the supernatural characters to be honest.  When it comes to who I think is the most dangerous in regards to the public/humanity, I had to put quite a bit of thought into this.  I don’t really have a ranking system for these, but the main things I thought about were body count, level of sadism, and physique/intellect.

 I’m also going to be thinking about the difference here between who is actively the most dangerous vs. others who are potentially more dangerous.  But the real rating will be based on who’s “actively” more dangerous.

*major spoilers below*

I’m going to do this post from LEAST dangerous to MOST dangerous (opposite of my supernatural post because while the winner there was obvious, there is more to debate here I think).  Remember that these are only my personal opinion.  All decisions are up for debate.

7) Chris

I think it’s easy to explain why I have Chris at the bottom of the list.  He’s a sweet guy.  Unlike any other the other characters in these games, he was never looking to actively harm anyone.  He only snapped and seriously beat up one person.  And said person was HIS abuser so…yeah it’s even a little justified here (he just takes it a little too far).  There’s no indication either that Chris is quick to snap like this.  It’s implied that the MC and he were married for quite some time.  So he’s a rather gentle and timid guy who endured the abuse for a while.  If we’re talking “actively” most dangerous, Chris is the weakest here. If we were considering his potential to be a danger to society, he doesn’t really display any strong/consistent sadistic tendencies, or a high intellect to make him a common criminal or a mastermind of any kind.  I’ll give him this; he’s probably one of the physically strongest of the humans on this list.  I’d say the strongest physically here are probably Chris, Lawrence (if you still count him as human), and Marcus.  I don’t think his physique alone is enough to say he’d be a severe menace to society though.

6) Aria?

So we don’t learn a WHOLE lot about Aria.  She doesn’t look all that intimidating.  She doesn’t give me the impression that she sure works out enough to be able to take some of the guys on this list either.  But between her and Chris, Aria I’d say is capable of being a lot nastier. Chris has a right to be mad when he’s beating you down, but Aria seems SO much more vile when she tortures you. Yes, she has a right to be mad as well, but I always felt more uncomfortable with Aria torturing the MC. I found myself wondering if she took it too far.  I wrote a post long ago on Aria and my thoughts on her. There I go into more detail on why she makes me feel so uncomfortable (she’s actually the one character in the ENTIRE BTD/TDDUP series that made me have to take a break from the game for a bit).  But while she scares ME a whole lot, I have to put her lower on this list realistically.  Other than her sour relationship with the MC, I don’t really think she’s constantly tormenting other human beings in her spare time.  At least not as far as I’m concerned.  She’s an attorney for her main occupation, and very intelligent. So she’s definitely someone you don’t want to be on the opposing side at least.  So her “active” danger level is more that she’s likely cutthroat in the judicial system, but not really offing people on the side.  She does have a higher “potential” danger level though because not only COULD she possibly screw you over in the court of law to land you in jail…but apparently she has connections to HUMAN TRAFFICKERS. That.is.terrifying.  

5) Marcus?

Those who have wandered around my blog tumblr for a bit know I ADORE Marcus.  I think he makes a fantastic villain and a complete jerk :P He is INCREDIBLY intimidating.  He’s got a strong build and police training under his belt, so good luck overtaking him.  My money is actually on him being the physically strongest on this list.  He IS the tallest, and has the muscle to fill out the space.  I think his training could beat out Lawrence’s build (which just comes from manual labor). Chris is the only one I think who could give Marcus a run for his money (depends on Chris’s boxing skills and how well Chris keeps in shape honestly).  And intellect?  He’s both a good actor out in public, and calculating enough to plan a kidnapping and permanent captivity situation for his ex.  Yikes!  While I don’t think Marcus is a complete sadist (compared to some other BTD/TDDUP characters), he DOES show some enjoyment in tormenting the MC too.  So then, why don’t I have him higher on this list? Well if this was a list for “potentially” most dangerous, Marcus would win.  Can you imagine if Marcus was a full blown serial killer while working as a cop?  He could cover his tracks REALLY well.  He probably does cover his tracks after kidnapping the MC (AND he killed John to avoid witnesses).  But the thing to remember here is that Marcus ISN’T usually an active murderer.  He’s got one murder and one kidnapping under his belt, but as far as we know that’s pretty much it.  He’s a good cop most of the time.  He spends most of his time putting criminals away, not being one himself. The MC just makes him crazy.  So “actively,” he’s not usually as dangerous as some of the other human characters.  He could be more dangerous I think if people try to intervene and take the MC away from him. Otherwise, he’s on the public’s side most of the time.  Like with Aria, probably will leave you alone unless you cross him.

4) Ellen?

So Ellen doesn’t have a strong build to make her impossible to fend off, and she doesn’t have any scary connections like Aria does.  Plus, she’s only a college student.  So why should I place her higher than people like Marcus or Aria? One word: Unstable.  Oh she’s an intelligent young woman who carries on a conversation just fine.  She has a lot of insight as well.  But she also: Is interested in getting closer to a person she KNOWS is a serial killer AND necrophiliac, experiences catharsis by seeing others in pain, kidnaps Jack’s spouse and treats them like her pet dog, and has quite a bit of interesting ways to kill you both accidentally and intentionally.  This type of behavior indicates she’s more likely to cause harm to others.  The only problem is I don’t know is she’s really…done a whole lot of damage to other people at this point in time.  She may be too young yet (her potential victim count simply hasn’t had a chance to climb yet).  If she was willing to help Jack with his work though, something tells me she’s on the wrong track.  Still, since I don’t know how often she’s gone out of her way to hurt others in her daily life, she could move up or down on this list in regards to “actively” dangerous.

3) Lawrence

So if you want to disregard the bit about Lawrence being rotted by the river and turning into a lich, Lawrence was indeed born a human.  You can take him out of this list otherwise (I have him also in the supernatural post to cover my bases).  Similar to Ellen, I’m placing Lawrence higher on this list because of how unstable he is. And unlike Ellen, we actually ARE given hints that the MC in BTD2 is not Lawrence’s first victim.  If you’ve read my supernatural post counterpart to this, you know what I have to say about Lawrence.  I’ll just cheat a little and grab from that post :P

“ He might freak out/snap at people more frequently that we realize.  When he is upset too, unfortunately it’s not just that he’s letting his frustration out on whoever is standing next to him.  Remember at the beginning of BTD2, how Lawrence got upset when Ren left?  MC left the bar first, and Lawrence followed them OUT with the intention of beating them up.  He’s dangerous.  And when he kidnaps you (cuz he freaked out that he’d get in trouble for hurting you)…it’s kind of implied this isn’t the first time he’s done this.  He’s not as big a sadist as the others, but sometimes he does take a little more enjoyment in cutting you up than he should if you’ve managed to send him over the edge.  Not an intellectual himself, and he’s a little difficult to reason with. His physique also makes it hard to overtake him (you have to kill him when he’s sleeping).”

So yes, unstable, physical threat, small hints of sadism, and bigger body count makes Lawrence a greater danger to society.

The REAL Debate:  Strade vs. Jack

If we’re talking “who’s the most dangerous to society”…of course the ones most ACTIVELY dangerous would be the serial killers.  The only question is, which one is MORE dangerous? This can be a little tricky to answer. The problem is we have one serial killer who’s very straightforward and we know EXACTLY how he operates (Strade), while we have another who we hardly know anything about his methods of killing (Jack).  Strade is openly charming and cheery, but takes extreme pleasure in tormenting and killing individuals he usually tricks/kidnaps from local bars.  Jack is more of an enigma:  You don’t know where he finds his victims, how he interacts with them, his method of killing them, and  how often he kills them.  We know that young Jack is pretty sadistic, but older Jack doesn’t appear to share that same level of sadism.  Jack’s a big mystery overall.  Both Strade and Jack seem to show no remorse in regards to what they do either. Physique, they’re…probably not too different strength wise to be honest.  I don’t know their exercise routines to be able to choose one properly over the other.  I’d say Jack is probably more intelligent (he at least shows his education more than Strade does).  But since we don’t know how Jack operates when he’s killing, I don’t know to what extent he utilizes his intellect as a serial killer.  For all we know, he could be a little more primal with his killings, and just uses his wits to cover his tracks.  Who has more kills by the way either?  Strade kills for a living, so he probably has a large body count considering that’s how he makes his money.  Jack on the other hand lets the corpses rot away for quite a while, so I don’t know how frequently he feels the need to replace them.  So how do I choose between the two of these killers then?  Well there’s something I almost forgot about: longevity.  We actually have CANON timelines for these guys.  Strade is age 34 in BTD, and in BTD2 Ren is 2 years old than in BTD.  I apologize if you haven’t played BTD2 yet but…Strade’s dead in BTD2.  Gato confirmed that eventually one of his victims became too much to handle (in fact I think even one of the death endings in BTD can be taken as the canon ending that leads to BTD2- MC dies, but they’re able to take Strade out with them). So the oldest Strade ever lived to be would have been 36 at most.  Jack in TDDUP is 50 years old.  Young Jack in the extra scene is 25 years old.  Electricpuke DID confirm that by that time at least, Jack had already killed. So he’s been a killer for a bare minimum of 25 years.  Strade, I don’t know when he started killing, but let’s say maybe age 18 at the youngest (is it 18 or 19 you can go drink in bars in Canada?)  So killing for 18 years possibly.  Maybe he started younger, who knows.  Even then, the numbers look pretty close.  Just no way to really know the body count comparison between the two. Now in TDDUP, depending on your head-canon preference, Jack either gets away (I always consider the “You are alone” ending the canon one myself), or MC does successfully kill Jack.  And really the only reason I think Jack gets killed is because the MC is his weakness.  Strade bit off more than he could chew with his chosen victim, and Jack got caught by the one person he lets his guard down with.

Overall, I think this is a very close race, and maybe should be judged by who YOU think is the kind of person you’d hate to come across more, and who you think has killed more.  For me, I think I’ll go…

2) Strade

1) Jack

Personally, I’d hate to be caught by Strade more I think, but I don’t know if Jack does any torture either.  I decided to base this more off of Jack’s ability to get away with what he does for so long.

This was fun!  Please do feel free to disagree though and even add your own thoughts.

[sulietsexual]

Its been a while since I asked you meta related things so I just had a random idea - top 5 characters which you just dont understand, top 5 ch which are well writen but you cant connect or like, top 5 ch storylines you would like to alter, top 5 traits of your disliked chracters that you like, top 5 traits of your loved characters you dislike, top 5 ways your disliked characters contributed to the main storyline that youre fine with. For males and females separately so theres room for thought :)

Top 5 Characters I Don’t Understand

Male

Wesley Wyndam Pryce - okay, so this is only from mid-Season 3 onward, but I cannot fathom Wesley’s actions in stealing Connor, consulting with Holtz and doubting/not believing in Angel to the point where he didn’t realise that Angel would do everything in his power to protect Connor. Then his self-righteous attitude post-kidnap is appalling, the fact that he acts like the wronged party and refuses to acknowledge his own wrongdoings and never apologises for his actions all drive me crazy. Just can’t.

Luke Danes, I mean, buddy, pull it together. You say you want Lorelai, yet never make a move and then bitch about her boyfriends and act like a jerk. You say you’re “all in” and then you run at the first sign of trouble and make Lorelai feel like she did something wrong. You tell Lorelai you want her to be honest with you and then you hide your daughter from her for two freakin’ months. You say you want to spend your life with her, yet you shut her out of it. Like, wtf??

Fitzgerald Thomas Grant III, omg, why is he such an abusive asshole? Why does he treat every woman he’s with like crap? Why does he treat Mellie as if she’s insignificant and stupid? Why does he act entitled to everyone’s time and affections? Why does he continually try to give up the most powerful position in America? Why doesn’t he have any ambition? Why does he resent anyone who does??? I don’t understand.

John Winchester. Dude’s always going on about how he “did the best that he could”. Nope. The best he could would have been to raise his boys in a stable freakin’ environment, not push adult responsibility onto his eldest, not treat his youngest like an outcast/freak for wanting a better life and actually being an adult and being there for his boys. How does he justify the way he treated his sons? Don’t get it.

Finn Collins. Dude, you cheat on your girlfriend, neglect to tell the girl you’re cheating with that you even have a girlfriend, don’t tell your girlfriend you cheated on her and expect both girls to still want you? Plus the whole massacring eighteen unarmed people and then ignoring their bodies as the girl you want walks in horrified and look at her as if she’ll love you for your actions? Yikes.

Female

Lorelai Gilmore, she constantly puts her mother down for her privilege and sense of entitlement, yet displays the exact same behaviour. She rejected Chris, then bitches about how he “wasn’t ready”. She thinks all her behaviour is cute but it’s actually really annoying. And she honestly seems to believe that her parents were the absolute worst parents in the world, when it reality they were really good to her and always try to be a part of her life. Pull it together, woman!

Octavia Blake, why does she blame her brother for everything? Why is her solution always violence? Why does she proudly cannibalize people? Why does she think she knows more about a culture she’s been a part of for two seconds than the people actually raised in said culture? 

Nancy Wheeler. Why does she want Jonathan so badly? Why does she screw over Steve? What makes her neglect her brother and run off with the guy she just banged? Why doesn’t she think through the consequences of her actions? Why did she offer her brother zero comfort when his friend “died”? What made her think it was okay to chase down Jonathan while he was picking out a coffin for his brother’s funeral to talk about Barb? Girl drives me bonkers.

Joey Potter, so many of her actions make no sense. She pines after Dawson for years and then breaks up with him for literally no reason. She blames him for telling her the truth about her father, after repeatedly saying they need to be honest with one another. She can’t decide between two guys for years. She constantly rejects Pacey yet picks him in the end. She believes she’s entitled to be a bitch to people just because she’s had a tough life.

Aria Montgomery, if your creepy-ass relationship really so important to you that you would lie to your friends and family, threaten your parents, risk your partner going to jail, threaten to walk out on your family and basically cease to exist outside of your boyfriend? Yikes.

Going to put the rest under the cut, otherwise we’re going to end up with a post a mile long.

Top 5 Characters Who Are Well-writen But I Can’t Connect To or Like

Male

John Locke, a great-written character who drives me up the wall with his over-zealousness and delusions of grandeur.

Spike, he really does have a great character arc and characterisation but his over-exposure and the fandom’s adulation of him drive me crazy, plus I hate how his narrative overtakes Buffy’s.

Jack Shepherd, such a great arc, such an amazing journey but his douchey behaviour and the way he treats certain characters means I just can’t like him.

Perry Cox, I find him amusing and do occasionally like him but his lack of self-awareness and overall mean attitude and sexism bugs me.

Dean Winchester, so well-written with a great arc but also abusive, violent, self-righteous, sexist and overall annoying as hell.

Female

Regina Mills, her redemption arc is sloppy but her characterisation was always strong and she’s a fantastic villain, which is why I love to hate her.

Robin Scherbatsky, very well-written with a great arc (until the finale) but I just cannot like her, probably due to her arrogance and meanness.

Rachel Green, now, I don’t hate Rachel or anything but she’s one of my least-favourite Friends characters and I’ve never been able to connect with her.

Katniss Everdeen, a great-written character whose personality I find very hard to reconcile and who I just cannot connect with.

Kate Austin, great arc, great characterisation, full of traits I can’t stand and makes choices that make me want to throttle her.

Top 5 Characters Storylines I Would Like To Alter

Male

Neal Cassidy, he was done so dirty by that damn show!

August Booth, another one screwed over by OUAT and there was so much left to explore with his character!

Dean Forrester, I really hate how much Gilmore Girls dumbled down and assassinated his character.

Boyd Langton, Dollhouse’s weird out-of-nowhere reveal that he was the bad guy completely changed his character and he didn’t deserve that.

Jake Ballard, he deserves better than being second-choice for Olivia Pope.

Female

Laurel Lance, who deserved the fucking world and got nothing, I would change so much about her storyline and eventual fate.

Mellie Grant who, like Laurel, deserved so much and got shit.

Emma Swan, who was character assassinated in order to box her into a toxic ship which decimated everything about her.

Juliet Burke, who should have lived and had a happy life and finally made it off that damn Island!

Effy Stonem, who deserved better than to be sandwiched between two guys who treated her like a prize and blamed her for their rivalry, not to mention the shitty “friends” who used her as their scapegoat.

Top 5 Traits Of My Disliked Characters That I Like (I’m not going to pick my absolute most disliked characters for this, but just 5 characters I dislike in general. Also, probably can’t come up with five for each, so I’ll go with as many as I can list).

Male

Going with Wesley again - love his intelligence, his surprising confidence when he allows himself to show it, his thirst for knowledge and his goofiness.

Spike - I like his bravado, his confidence and his loyalty.

Dean Winchester - similarly to Spike, his bravado, his loyalty and his confidence, as well as his humour and love of fun.

Luke Danes - I like that he’s good at the big gestures, I like his snark and his homebody nature.

Jess Mariano - I like intelligence, his snark and the fact that he sorts himself out later on in life.

Female

Anya Jenkins - love her work ethic and the fact that she handles money well and knows how to budget, save and invest.

Betty Cooper - she’s got gumption, I’ll give her that and she is intelligent and hardworking.

Felicity Smoak - like Betty, she’s intelligent and has gumption.

Cassie from the Animorphs series - she’s compassionate and does try to understand people, which I like.She also has a lot of empathy.

Alison DiLaurentis - she is ruthless and strategic and highly intelligent, all of which I admire, even if her actions are truly sociopathic.

Top 5 Traits Of My Loved Characters I Dislike (again, this may not reach five but I’ll do my best)

Male

Angel - his tendency to make decisions for others, his jealousy, the way he can completely cut off those he cares about.

James Ford - the way he lets his self-hatred affect others, his self-centredness, the way he can be deliberately cruel at times.

August Booth - he lies way too much, his self-hatred, his selfishness.

Neal Cassidy ………….. nope, I love Neal too much, can’t think of any traits I dislike.

Charles Gunn - the way he diminishes himself for others.

Female

Prue Halliwell - that damn pride, her self-righteousness, her judgmental streak.

Juliet Burke ……………. nope, as with Neal, love her way too much to dislike anything about her.

Lana Lang - her Mary Sue traits (this lies more on the writing of her character than her), her tendency to project her own feelings onto others.

Lilah Morgan - well, she’s an evil bitch, but you’re supposed to hate her for that, so I more hate her actions than her herself, such as when she gives Cordy the visions which almost kill her or when she sends people to drill into Lorn’s head.

Jo March - her lack of propriety at times, her judgemental streak, her refusal to adhere to convention (at times)

Top 5 Ways My Disliked Characters Contributed To The Main Storyline That I’m Fine With (I am running out of steam and not sure if I can come up with 5 males and 5 females, so gonna combine them for this last one and again might not make it to Top 5)

Alison DiLaurentis - I like her as a villain, her murder kicks off the whole series which worked well, and I liked that she works as a foil for all the girls, in particular Hanna and Mona.

Spike - love him as a villain in Season 2, love that he works as a foil for Angel in AtS Season 5, liked him stirring things up in Lovers Walk in Season 3.

Regina Mills - love her as a villain, love her as the Curse Caster, liked her dynamic with Emma, liked her as a foil for Snow and Emma.

……. I actually might be out, as usually when I hate a character it’s because of the way in which they negatively impact the storyline.

Whew, I’m knackered. Hope you enjoy my answers, even if they’re not 100% what you asked for!

[bub-the-voidling]

Custom Card Competition wk 18: Investigate

(This is a post about a private Card Brewing competition. Entries were not open to the public.)

This week of CCC or CCL! I still don’t know what the real name is honestly!

Before this all starts, I’m just going to have to say sorry that the quality of this write up is worse than the others (not that they were good judging on the minimal amount of people who actually read these. No need to lie, I know you’re here for your own cards.) but that’s for a very good reason! It was rushed, and if you don’t know yet why it was rushed. Please go to the CCL chatroom and read the latest message I sent with @card-makers. So the ratings in this write up may be a bit off or I might miss obvious stuff. Sorry guys.

This week we’re being the scoobygang and making investigation cards! Sadly no one made the scooby snox card, but I can always wish. **This is where you imagine me snapping my fingers** First card!

I’ll be honest, I’m starting off with this card because I just find it funny. Just look at the art and then despair when you realize that it’s somehow fitting. It fits the name, the flavor, and the effect. I love and hate it.

But what about the actual card? It’s like a Rhystic Study you have to pay for with benefits. Which in my opinion is how it should work, but even if you disagree with it this effect could be explained as different as it lets you sacrifice some clues for free to get the the dimir scry. Which is a pretty neat effect. The more I look at this card the more I like it. I’m also not sure that this is worse than Rhystic Study either since the power is now in your hands instead of the opponent.

9.4/10, Ape, I’m mad about how good this card is.

And after Long-Term we have another card which would be super fitting with that picture. But this would probably have some serious picture about the Scooby Doo gang being after Emrakul with a mask or something.

Anyway, actual card! A late-ish game slow card engine that if synergized with lets you tutor for “free” any card in your deck and eventually win. I like it, no I love it. This might be my control bias showing (I play Goblin control for crying out loud.) but I just like this card. If you’re in need of a specific card you can sac 5 of your needed 15 to win the game just to get a card that’ll help you secure the win, if you’re desperate you’ll actually read the tokens and use their effect to draw cards. The win part seems like something for against the odds, but still fun. Some games will be janked out by that line and I’m all for it.

This card should’ve been further down if they go in order of points. But I just wanted to tell you guys that this could have the artwork from “Idfk lol”

9.2/10, Don’t have much to say, I just like it.

This… this just screams mill mill, yummy yummy!

Like… If you really want to ruin someone, Ghost Quarter (before playing this to bait the opponent to search), play this card into Archive Trap. From there you basically win the game as you can take an extra turn while gaining 8 life, and in that extra turn you can mill the opponent and get a million clues that you turn into extra turns. The mana shouldn’t honestly be a problem given that some mill players already go Esper to have a stronger sideboard and better interaction in general.

This card honestly needs some extra lines that prevents some general mean things like letting you get clues from mill, or from the enemy casting spells (which is debatable), stopping the life gain from saccing clues to himself. Or just remove the extra turn thing, but that seems like the whole gist of the card, so please don’t. Also, holy moly On The Trail with this would be so silly. Actually this card plays well with all the cards here that alter the use of clues.

6.7/10, Wait… you can draw with clues?

More creatures! Looks like we’re assembling the scooby gang! And it’s a promo version at that.

Feels a bit strange to me that this isn’t a legendary, but she does seem fun in multiples. So, what does she do? She copies artifact tokens, be that Servos, Ancient Stone Idol tokens, or maybe even the intended Treasures and Clues. I must say I find it quite funny that this is not the only “Clues matter, but so does treasures/gold.” Which is quite fitting to both this card and the future card’s flavor.

I like the card but honestly it could pack more of a punch, I love how she can turn clues into mana if you’re in an excess of them (or infinite comboing with something like Whitemane Lion, Bygone Bishop, and this.) but it could do more without breaking the game imo, it’s rare so it’s allowed to have some more punch to it. Maybe it makes either a clue or a treasure upon hit and then makes a copy of target, maybe she copies each differently named artifact token, or maybe she even has some sort of evasion like most Scroll Thief effect cards.

But being a lord for specific tokens seems cool anyway :P

7.6/10, “She either trades information for gold or gold for information.“

Enough creatures for now! Let’s go to something less permanent, a sorcery!

So, the flavor here. Yummy, we have either an enraged creature that gets stronger with their rage for each piece of evidence or an impulsive punch to the face for each piece of evidence gathered this turn. I love it. And the effects? Eeeeh… Not sure. Now I’m no card designer but as far as I know the consensus is that if the when the mana cost is split the card itself should be printable as either color. Like, it should only do things that both colors can do. Investigate, unconfirmed for R as there hasn’t been a single red investigate card but it doesn’t feel off flavor for our impulsive color. Gaining attack, yeah that R/W. And going face… The elephant in the room. Dealing damage to face. There are next to no white cards that can deal pure damage to face, and the only ones I do know about are from waaaay back in the day. Back when red still destroyed creatures. So when colors didn’t have their identities yet. Even if you’re okay with red investigators, it’s hard to justify the last effect.

So, how do we fix the color identity problem? Deflecting Palm. As much as I love hybrid mana, this card should really be RW. That would also allow you to lower the CMC to 2 without making the card too… “I do everythingy.” It’s weird to not have a combat trick at instant speed, but I do know that the creator didn’t want to make to too powerful as it’s a common. So I’ll kind of let it slide.

7.4/10, Questionable artist tag imo.

Literally last-minute submission we have this! :D Another card that cares about Clues and Money!

So a colorless land that can produce clues? Interesting, funnily enough we do know the going rate for normal colorless lands drawing cards. It’s 5 mana, thanks Arch of Orazca. So that means this one is balanced, right? 3 mana to investigate and then 2 to draw, 5 mana total. That’s where the nature of clues comes in and ruins stuff. Creating a clue for 3 leftover mana is immensely better compared to simply not drawing a card if you don’t have 5. Clues are permanents, permanents you can cache in whenever you want for that 2 mana (And technically they can be shattered, but come on.) which makes investigating quite a bit stronger than drawing if it costs less. I’m not sure if I made sense as I can barely think myself right now, but the cost to investigate should be at least 4, even if you want to power-creep Arch of Orazca as it has a secondary effect which is both “Turn those clues we made into mana.” and “You can’t shatter any clues as I’ll just turn them into gold if you do.”

7.3/10, just like this write up. A bit too rushed. It’s still just common.

Flavor bomb time, you even have the right icon for where this would thematically be set.

Card effect! Basically, Cabal Therapy but stronger added to all clues if you pay an additional two mana. Which is spooky when it’s at instant speed, even if the whole ordeal is 4 mana. It’s still probably balanced as you have to play a 3 mana do nothing and then spend 4 mana next turn to draw a card and guess what’s in their hand. Good play and deck building can get around this, like sacrificing clues to some effect for free or Peek-ing into their hand beforehand.

Personally I think the losing life seems like a silly thing to add onto the card, punishing good play isn’t my forte.

8.3/10, “afaik Avacyn won the 1v1.” Also, how is the icon misaligned?

Hearthstone time! I couldn’t think of a longer joke!

Wow… Now this is something unique. It’s roughly a 4 mana 4/4 that makes 1-2 clues with the potential up to 4. The etb is so weird to evaluate. If you use cards such as Brainstorm you can get the MAXIMUM VALUE. 4 cards in the future for 8 mana. Nice. Even the second ability seems fun to play with. Manipulating the top to make Aria stronger and stronger.

The only drawback with this card I can think of is that some people will find the revealing top 4 and putting back in the same order confusing. I’ll be honest and admit I missed that interaction until I was doing the write up. Sorry, Xyrillow. And I’m name dropping you because you were really close to being the winner this week and you should be proud of your craft.

9.8/10, you do know they’re a Nightelf and not Veldaken right?

Next card!

This week it was hard to decide a winner. The last card and this one went back and forth and there was even a while I was thinking about maybe sharing the winning slot. But that feels like cheating, so I have to give the edge over to this card. I love this card. Super elegant. The flavor and flavor text is on point, the effect is on point, all the way down to the evasion that costs a card to gain two cards eventually later on in the game… I just love everything.

This is without a doubt the best designed card, proud to be in any set with investigation.

Perfection is impossible, but this is pretty damn near to it.

10/10, could maybe be uncommon. Idk.

I’m lacking words, but please congratulate DrKungFu for such an amazing card. And Xyrillow for being such a close second. And actually a lot of people as this week was quite stacked.

But Mainly DrKungFu.

Now, the next prompt is to make your own guild mechanic, something like Riot, Surveil or maybe even Dredge if you’re ballsy. Sorry that this is rushed, I didn’t even proof read it for crying out loud. But please do read the update in the chat. It’s important.

Thank you for all your submissions, you’re all lovely. Love, Sami.