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isitaristocrats · 2 months ago

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Thanks for the flash tip on Effervescent Kelpie!

I chose the special rarity for the exact reason you mentioned, that it matched the color scheme. I'd likely put this at rare in a regular set. As for the each end step trigger, I chose it because I have unfortunately come down with the commander brain infection. For flavor text, I was having trouble coming up with something that would fit on the card and still fit the idea. That's all! Thanks for giving a moment to my card.

A Few Thousand Words: Artist Spotlight Commentary

Without a mechanic-specific angle or a sense of flavor direction, we really kinda went nuts this week, didn't we. And all the more power to it! I'm happy that we got this opportunity in the first place and that @bread-into-toast was willing to provide. Really, this was about the community and the importance of different creative works, a spotlight for an awesome artist and the way that our little corner of the internet all comes together.

Some of the pieces had a lot of cards with similar space, and some took place on the same worlds, and at the same time there were a lot of interesting interpretations that I didn't quite consider. It goes to show how some pieces of art can show action in ways that others don't capture, and others represent characters/objects in ways that can also open the pieces up to interpretation for other card types. I'm a huge believer in the importance of a fully-realized card even at these stages. How can one envision the piece as it would be held in the hand, played on the table? Maybe that's just me, though, because I know there are lots of other ways and reasons to make cards. Just the basis of a set's design is important enough, and sometimes just directing the art from a card that might not have the easiest depiction is someone's strength, too. So much goes into making cards, and y'all have the hardest job of putting it all together. Never forget that.

It was super hard to highlight some JUDGE PICKS from the submissions this week, but I'm gonna pinpoint a couple for the sake of consistency. Read on, learn on, and let's talk.

@bergdg — Seraph of Light and Shadow (JUDGE PICK)

There's something to be said for the really simple designs that say a lot without needing to say much, and it's difficult to really judge them in this kind of contest. This card is, of course, very good. It's a card that people would love to play and see played, and they'd be excited for the fact that they could open this in a pack, and it would definitely make waves in the applicable formats. Better than Baneslayer? The world may never know. But then also, oh man, there's the cycle of enemy cards, are they in the same set, is this something that'll get spread out over the years, etc. I feel that this card says less about you specifically as a designer, and a whole lot about your attunement as a MTG player.

Not to ramble too fully: that's a positive thing. Even though this card is all about the callback and doesn't specifically tread untested ground, it's a great example of what a good design looks like for the bigger picture of things. I can totally see how the art swayed you in that direction. I'm no professional, of course, and I'm not greenlighting any specific set in which this card would appear. I would 100% love to see a world in which this design and/or the rest of the cycle gets printed, though, and take that how you want to. It's sensible, that's what it is. A practical piece of power based off of player expectations, MTG history, and contemporary evolution.

@bread-into-toast — Sink or Swim

Of course I can't be too biased now, but also, hello! The clam was a popular one indeed, and for good reason. Is it a creature, an idea, or something strange in between? I'll be honest: the only two "strikes" against this card are the rarity and the lack of reminder text. As a rare, maybe you don't need the reminder text, but this card really feels like an uncommon to me. I was surprised that I couldn't find an exact analogous card, but we do have Vigean Intuition as a five-mana instant uncommon that does almost the same thing, and with comparable power I think that this card could've been a great uncommon indeed at sorcery speed.

I'm super curious about what you envisioned for the flavor aspect in the sense of a larger world, because that flavor text is pretty incredible. Is the background of the clam's ink supposed to reflect Towashi, or a city in general? That push and pull of technology is kind of interesting for sure, and the more I look to where MTG has gone the more I do appreciate some aspects of Neon Dynasty a lot more than I did at the time. What a gorgeous set, for real... Regardless though. I don't quite see the connection mechanically but there probably doesn't have to be one if this is a card advantage generator that needs to be in the set more than it needs to be a story spotlight or whatever. Overall: solid enough for me to be satisfied, if that means anything.

@corporalotherbear — False Hope

Duskmourn? Duskmourn. I think. I hope so, for the sake of context, because I cleared out the notes from earlier and I forget who adds extra detail and explanation. Regardless: this is a hell of an aggressive card and a really interesting perspective. I think that the idea of the character being the one spoken about in a distant context adds dimension here—unless it's—hold on. You know what? I actually don't know whether this card is implying that the character in the background is Flint being attacked, or if Flint has turned into a monster, having been turned while on his mission, now preventing other survivors from reaching the goal he once sought. Either angle works beautifully, and regardless of whether or not that was your intention, it's the strength of ambiguity that enhances the card.

Mechanics are another story, and I wonder if the pump is a little too much. It's quite aggressive, much more aggressive than we've seen in this color combo before. What kind of archetype would it play into, and for what purpose? That's a pretty broad set of questions—and it's a combat trick which kind of fulfills its own role in limited regardless. But all the same. I'm imagining the enchantress/aura/heroic style decks being able to use this with evasive and/or double-striking creatures to absolutely decimate much earlier than anticipated. I've been playing a lot of Pioneer... Illuminator Virtuoso would absolutely love this card. +4/+4 may be too much, and even +3/+3 may be pushing it a tad. Still, I don't...hate the concept? I feel that the numbers may need tweaking based on the environment, and the idea is definitely putting aggressive pressure on the field. Not bad pressure, but pressure that needs testing.

@cthulhusaurusrex —Overcome by Avarice

This card is easy enough to grok and also, as far as I can tell, has no precedent. Having both those creatures die makes sense, but when does it trigger? That's the actual problem: let's say that you choose two random creatures with death triggers that would both die if they fought. When exactly does the Treasure trigger go on the stack? It's intuitive enough, kind of, and I picked a simple example with a possible explanation of "you just put it after the death trigger of your choice," but...I mean, does it go there? It wants to go after one or the other, not both. The actual rules questions that try to see two things dying at once are...honestly stranger than I can explain from my middlingly-L1-judge-ish idea of how these things work.

Now this could easily be fixed with giving each creature the text of: "When this creature dies, create a tapped Treasure token." Which you should also capitalize, BTW. It's not the most exciting, but if you leave one creature alive, you still get a Treasure, right? And that's because the other creature fought and killed it. I feel that keeps part of the flavor while also not dealing with the specific weird rules baggage that's been accidentally made here. I feel the flavor you're trying to go for but to me it actually makes a little more sense to split it up. The cost could be 1BR without sacrificing too much. Additionally, I do like the flavor text a lot, and the connection to the art is quite interesting. I don't think you need the specific world to still get that sense of treasure hunting gone wrong, which is cool.

@dabudder — Clam Up

The name is, of course, appropriate to the concept. The connection between the name and the art is fine. The art to the concept? I'm not sure, for the sake of this contest, that I quite get what you were going for. I get the sense of someone is being tortured and/or staying silent under torture, and as a result of that they're forced by outside means to keep quiet magically. Right? A literal giant clam doesn't have much to do with what that's exactly depicting. That said: I do enjoy the concept of external silencing that can be interpreted as stubbornness, that's pretty cool. And I do think it's funny as a name. New Capenna really did have a good vibe to it when you got into the whole gangster vibe.

The gameplay of this, though, feels really nasty; if you're behind, it absolutely turns off your best threat for enough turns that it might as well be permanent, unless for some reason you're cashing it out super early. Losing all abilities is important, albeit slightly harder to track, but the stun counters do help, so that's fair. Doubling up on those threats is...whoof. Not that force-tapping or stunning is game-breakingly oppressive, but the fact that it's only a single XU means that you're getting a lot of value at parity, and if you're ahead then this is a win-the-game button. I think that XUU might've been a little more balanced for the sake of limited. With slightly more menacing flavor text, I could see this card with less literal art. Hm. You know, looking at it from another angle... Did you interpret the ocean floor as, like, someone's neck, with the clam as a head? If so, that makes more sense. If not, well, now I can't UNsee it.

@deg99 — Prophetic Hyppocamp

Omens on Theros got a lot of praise from me last time, and I'm still pretty down for it. It's a clear signal that the UR draft archetype and the general set archetype revolves around Izzet Omens and a little bit of spellcasting in that regard, and I think that that's pretty awesome. Really, just as that, it's a success of a card. You're not the only one to see this creature and think of the plane, so yeah, that's definitely a win for both you and the artist. Some art pieces are strong because of their wide interpretations, and some art pieces are strong because they really signal to a specific aesthetic. The latter is absolutely valid.

I think dealing 4 damage repeatedly (if you can reshuffle into it) is pretty wild for burn, but the fact that you have to then drop the five-mana creature and lose the omen to potentially find another one balances it out for sure. There's a lot of text on the right side of this card, and the left side, I feel, could've used the reminder text both for general aesthetics and for expert-level printing—per usual, insert "it's a me thing not a design thing" here. The name of it could've also been, I dunno, "Thunder Sign" without squishing the text in there, but that's small potatoes. Overall the card feels like it's combining the good parts of draft synergy and plane exploration with new mechanics, so yeah, I'm down for it!

@dimestoretajic — Abandon the Beast (JUDGE PICK)

I worry a little bit about this card, but not really, because strong exile is still something you can do at rare. It's a slow pseudo-version of "as an additional cost, return a creature you control to its owner's hand," but worded in a very smart and specific manner. Is that fine as a rare? For what you're going for, it's really difficult to tell, but I think that I actually like what you're doing here. Removal spells at rare can be a little bit of a feelsbad unless they're over the top and/or incredibly good. What we got here is a card that's efficient, synergistic with ETBs, allows your stuff to slowly reenter if it's been enchanted or stunned or whatever. Like...it's not perfect, but it's REALLY good, too good for an uncommon, and that's pretty hard to gauge. Definitely a notable balance.

"Battle explorer" is a heck of a title. And that flavor text, wow, I don't know the full context or if this is on an established world but I'm actually quite invested. This art, as it was pointed out, had some of the most variable interpretations out of any of the pieces that were submitted, and this is yet another interpretation that I'm enjoying the view of immensely. I mean, it's incredibly sad, and the implication that someone's companion has been abandoned to their fate in order for a battle-hardened survivor to find their way back to the surface is... Whoof. This was definitely a contender, and it was super close, and I appreciate the balance that went into this one. Not an easy choice to make but a great design overall.

@fluffycattens — Corpse Drifter

This piece of art was the one that I honestly thought was the hardest to go off of. And there were a lot of jellyfish, I'll tell you hwat. It's just literal enough to be a slightly difficult interpretation for an abstract spell, and it's just weird enough to necessitate a freaky creature design. That said, I wonder: did you intend for this to be something that can repeatedly copy? Or was this more about the ability to have a one-time copy effect? It's kind of hard to tell, because it feels on the surface (heh) that it could be a card that makes creatures attack into it so that it can copy them, and then do the same thing when new creatures die, but as it's worded it becomes a copy and then that's it. Maybe that's fine, then? If so, I would honestly put the activated ability first.

Giving protection from the attacking creature is a little weird, I'll be honest, but I get the idea that you're luring the creature into a trap. I almost feel that it would make more sense with, like, a wholly undersea bioluminescent creature, but there's some light there, perhaps? It's one interpretation! I mean, my own biases aside, I think that this creature is really hard to deal with, especially because at instant speed you can give it protection regardless of whether or not it's in a time window where the other creature can attack. I would for sure make that activated ability a once-per-turn sorcery thing. Still, I think I'd like to play with this creature all the same, and I want to know your thoughts about whether or not making it a copy until the end of someone's turn might be a cooler design for repeatable destruction rather than a one-off copy-and-done effect. I really want to hear what your intentions were.

@harunakonomi — Mourner-o'-War

An old card with slightly newer paint feels...less exciting than it should, honestly. Let me back up for a second, because I know that there's more than meets the eye. Unearth! Right. Getting the creature back from the graveyard as a hasty bouncer is a little bit better on the combat field than the original. Man-o'-War's ability to bounce things is good, and swinging in afterwards is good on a hasty body. You know, all things considered, I would've liked to have seen 2U for the unearth cost instead of UU, not just for the callback but also because UU feels pretty awkward for a common there. The main cost for bouncing is a fine way to secure a spot in limited, but having Man-o'-War from the graveyard for its original cost would've felt a little better to me.

The interpretation from the art is totally understandable, even though again it's not really titillating me. That's fine, and sometimes cards just need to be practical for the set that calls for them. Regardless, the fact that it's a spirit jellyfish is kinda cool, I'll admit. The way that it reverbs and has a little bit of a death bend, sure, I can get behind it. I suppose I wonder what you're imagining for how this jellyfish got to mourning in the first place, if indeed that's what it's all about. What's the general connection there? I'd like to see more of that thought process.

@helloijustreadyourpost — Compleation Pod (JUDGE PICK)

Yeah, that checks out—it's glowing green, it's shiny, it's menacing: must be Phyrexian. Wording-wise, the second ability should be "that player mills" instead of "they mill" but I'm only 90% sure of that. As far as the rest of it goes, the notion of pod-to-Phyrexian is really straightforward here. You can use it during your turn or during a crazy combat to get a creature that died somehow, or you can let the mill take everything away and get their biggest thing. Regardless of the incubation hits, the fact that you're milling them at two every upkeep is really great. This is a crazy powerful limited wincon and I'm on board, even at this aggressive cost.

Incubating really takes a toll on the mana resources, but once you get to three mana, it's mill, incubate, flip, boom, every turn, even if you never hit another land drop. That won't always win you the game of course. Could it win at least one against a do-nothing opponent? Absolutely. The way that the art feels Phyrexian does enough, even if it's a little small compared to the mechanics seem to want to fully process a body, IMO. Flavor text is...fine? A little purple? I dunno, "fear not" doesn't feel very Sheoldred to me. Not quite malevolent enough. I might just be reaching for my own version of Phyrexians, though, who knows.

@hypexion — Demonic Negotiation

Fun fact: this card is really great. The not-as-fun fact: this card is also combo potential when you're hellbent in a way that's ultimately way too good. Running out everything and then slamming this means that your next few draws are spoken for and you have the freedom to set up basically anything you need for the next couple of turns. Limited and casual play is another story. Getting those tutors off and getting some cards at the risk of life loss is really cool, although let's be real: you're not going to play this card if you're any kind of control deck or if you have any card advantage as the main theme of your build. This is combo, slamming hellbent tutors, go nuts with all the freedom you need. In that sense, it's a slow breaking, but it's still fairly broken in terms of combo tutoring.

But isn't combo tutoring always just a little broken... In a strict advantage-only deck, I'd say that this card's a little trickier than Castle Locthwain but not as tricky as some of the other tutors they've printed over the last few sets. It's really hard not to see a new tutor as more or less broken, especially when you can get around the clause like that, but the punishment, ooh the punishment, I want to work around that, because I really like the notion that you've come up with here. This aspect of drawing/losing and having that trigger revolve around a search is really interesting. I think there's a way to make it happen in a different way than how this card's currently presenting it, but it wouldn't reflect the card as it's envisioned... Lots of ways, I mean. These are a lot of words to say that combos are broken but the card's pretty neat, so I'm gonna end it at that before I write an accidental essay.

@isitaristocrats — Effervescent Kelpie

There's some unspoken templating on cards that you pick up on the more that you read them. For one, the keyword flash comes before any other relevant text, unless it's a cost reduction of sorts IIRC. It's the most relevant thing about the card! Additionally, you're gonna have to walk me through your rarity choice. I'm going to assume that this was rare, but without knowing exactly where you want that, it's real hard to tell. The "special" rarity does match the color scheme, at least; it's still there to give me more information that I'm not currently getting. Bubble beasts are the name of the game though, and with all those nitpicks aside, I actually quite enjoy the concept of this card.

What deck would love this the most? Soul Sisters Flash. Is that actually a deck? Well, no, but there's enough incidental lifegain that you can work with in these colors to really make it a pain in the butt. I'm picturing the flash shell for this archetype and how much this card would make it a real pain to play against in constructed—more than limited, if you can imagine. The limited side would be untapping some lands, but that's not actual advantage without ways to use the mana... Admittedly, flash helps with that a fair amount, even if it's not strictly advantage. The fact that it's each end step is a little odd and harder to track for me. If there's a specific reason for that, I'm curious, but that's about all I have to say. I wish there was a little more information behind the thought process and perhaps a line of flavor text just because.

@j2miner — Scyphozoa Rebirth

Alright, let's go through some templating wording. This card should read: "Delve [reminder text]" followed by "Destroy target creature you control. Create a token that's a copy of that creature, except it's a Jellyfish with flying and deathtouch in addition to its other types." See Will of the Temur and others. Cost reducers almost always come first, and Delve fits the bill. As far as the flavor text goes, don't forget to have the attribution on another line. If you're using MSE, I recommend jumping into their Discord server so you can download and get the right font choices. There was some bug for a while that prevented that from coming up. I also assume that "resisted" in the flavor text is supposed to be "rested" instead?

Lots of little snippets and motions around there. With the cost of this card, I'm a little impressed, weirdly enough, with how the flying/deathtouch works around the hybrid. If you're paying GB, then the black covers flying and green covers deathtouch, and if you're paying UB, then blue covers flying and black covers deathtouch. I think that's pretty neat. The flavoring of jellyfish hybridization between these guilds on Ravnica with Delve as an overlapping mechanic of sorts doesn't make much sense to me, I'll admit. Still, it's not the most egregious, and we're delving in Standard right now with that big old dragon, so. I kinda get the artistic bend here. You have to admit with me that it's a more unique interpretation—but that's kinda the point of this whole contest, isn't it? Fair's fair in love and jellyfish.

@melancholia-ennui — Mimicking Man-o'-War

About what I was saying one card earlier regarding interpretations—right. Heh, you know, it's kidna funny that despite some cards depicting the same event or character in radically different ways, this jellyfish has spawned two different o'-War names and three different clone effects. This one, I will say, reads the clearest to me in terms of artistic interpretation, mechanical cohesion, and straightforwardness. You surveil, you clone. How? Perhaps it's slurping up the bodies from the ocean. Boom, done, no questions asked. The defender clone is definitely less powerful than some other clones in its ilk. The ability to clone and block your opponent's creatures as well as surveil upon entering is still really good, though, and this is an uncommon control card to boot.

I think I'm picking up the shell that you're putting down here. A little self-mill and a little control with some defender kindred, perhaps? Blue/black defenders isn't an archetype with the most support outside of Dominaria United's five-color-kinda defender pile. And that was one heck of a deck, lemme tell you. Did I ever get to run it? I honestly don't think so. Did I ever try to? Stop asking so many questions. I'd give this card a go, I'll say that, although perhaps with a little more evasive control support than anything. Defender, despite being really cool to me, isn't the most powerful of the potential mechanics that a clone can have. I think I'd have to play with this card and/or see it played to fully grasp its potential.

@reaperfromtheabyss — Blazing Deathrattle (JUDGE PICK)

If there's any card I'd have loved to see flavor text for, it was this one. Really dang cool overall and really powerful as an effect. Dealing that damage is awesome, especially for three, and while this is a limited-only card for sure (unless, idk, mono-red mirror?) you're going to have some amazingly fun times with it. I think that it should've been any number of targets, honestly; what's the harm in this hitting players or planeswalkers for this amount of mana? Sacrificing to have an Exquisite Firecraft is pretty baller. Perhaps burn would have some fun with sacrificial mana producers like Wild Cantor, but not in any way that I feel is unbalanced.

This card really takes a simple idea and makes me want to brew with it and/or pick it up as it's going around the table. Let me drop the magical edits and say that this is just creatures—even then, boom, first strike gets punished, early removal to make the way for attackers gets punished, and even post-combat cleanup nonsense makes this card excellent. What if they play something on their second main, and you just had to chump? Boom, you go from behind to parity before you draw. I think that this card's really funky and I enjoy it a lot for what it is. Definitely needed some flavor text and possibly needed a minor burn boost, but this is just me wanting to expand upon the strengths that are already there. What a deceptively simple but glorious card.

@stareyedesper — Ichorbog Gash

For modern cards, annoying as it is, the name is replaced with "this card" or "this land" as it happens. Also, the land has to be the thing to deal the damage; you can't just write "Deal 7 damage" there. But, those are minor notes on top of a bloody-looking bog. I like how the first interpretation of this art as it appears is that of an abstract negotiation, and this one is just carnage spread out over a naturally horrific place on the shard of Jund. I do love Alara, as everyone knows, and I love me some Jundian nonsense. Removal on a land makes this card strictly better than Savage Lands, although Savage Lands has kinda been outclassed by Ziatora's Proving Ground, so what do I know—well, there is a rarity shift, but whatever.

The point is that sometimes the envelope gets pushed and sometimes that's okay. Uncounterable removal on lands is pretty massive, but you need the extra mana that the land can't produce in order to use it, so by that point I really hope you've had your fixing. Seven damage, whoof, that's quite an amount. Hm. You know, I just noticed that you say "that creature's controller" but it also allows damage to be dealt to planeswalkers. Did you want this to be just creatures? If not, then the wording should've been reflected to fit that, and either way, definitely sorcery speed. Just to cut to the chase, I think that maybe for five damage this card could be focused in and be something really cool once the wording gets cleaned up and the speed gets fixed. It's a cool art interpretation and I love the setting. There we go, send it to print.

@wildcardgamez — Zagothan Invocation

Exploration, thy name is...not exactly Zagothan Invocation. You know, based on the Mamba and Crystal, I think this could've just been "Zagoth Invocation" and it would've been just fine, y'know? Regardless. This is a weird little beastie. I think the planeswalker aspect of this makes it slightly weirder than it needs to be, and even as it stands, moose feel pretty weird on Ikoria. Or not, I suppose, it's more pointy and there are deer-like things on the plane, so what do I know. Regarding the card itself, it is just kinda explore on an ETB with an extra planeswalker addition, so I'm not exactly sold on that front. But, the map in the mouth does make that feel a little more on point, if on the nose as well. This was definitely one of the weirder art pieces of the lot, but if I have to admit it, it was my favorite, and I'm glad it got chosen.

The fact that Vivien doesn't know what it is seems a little strange. She knows what spirits are, and she knows what a moose is, and she might or might not know that the "its" in the flavor text should be "it's" instead. Vivien has always been a planeswalker that I've wanted to play with for a while, and she's just never quite worked out for my decks, and I don't know why. She's really strong! I'm digressing—point is, because the abilities are doing a longer version of a known effect with a flavor that's slightly disconnected from where the character might be, I'm really iffy on this card. A moose with a map is hard to design a card for, I'll say that straight-up. It's really whimsical! But hard. I thought about a sorcery for it, honestly, although that's where I stopped. I feel the pieces that you were putting together, but they're just not meshing in a way that gets me excited about this card.

@xenobladexfan — Convergent Evolution

With how this art piece was interpreted, I was really surprised to see this card with this kind of effect. Now, I know that you had mentioned the wording was weird on what this effect could do (IIRC, anyway), but here's what I would do: "Choose a creature you control. If that creature has [keyword soup] and/or [last keyword], search your library with a creature card with the same ability that doesn't share a name with that creature..." etc. There are some WEIRD ways to go about it, but that's how I would do it, and wow, you picked a challenge for yourself. I think that the flavor text is honestly really charming to me. I also think that playing a Rograkh and searching up Ghalta is pretty funny! There are lots of ways to make this work.

In limited, you can still find one or two fitting cards, but this is definitely a constructed rare, no doubt about it. You get yourself the best creature you can and you'll be all set. Honestly, this feels like a Commander design, and there's nothing wrong with that. Maybe there's a combo, I honestly don't care if there is—I just want to use my dragon to search for more dragons, and/or use a dork to search for...more dragons. It's a Timmy card through and through. The wording is something that needs to take into account a whole lot of other cards and precedent, but props for finding a functional way of going about it.

There we go! Thanks again to artist @bread-into-toast for their awesome pieces this week, and I hope that we can do something like this again in the future. If you're an artist who's interested, let us know!

@abelzumi

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