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[loreholdlesbian]

Analyzing Invention: Jan-April 2024

The first four months of 2024 have come and gone. Along with wind, snow, solar eclipses and rain, there have been 16 challenges with the Inventor's Fair, a Magic: the Gathering card design contest blog here on Tumblr.

For the uninitiated, each week, a design challenge is announced on the blog and members of the community create cards meeting the design specifications. At the end of the week, a few winners and runner-ups are selected from the submission.

Similar to what I did at the end of last year, let's take a look at some of the trends so far this year - January through April.

Art. Katerina of Myra's Marvels. Illustrated by Gaboleps

The Contests

So far, there have been 16 contests over 17 weeks, with one off-week for a call for new judges from the community. In Week 6, spooky-bard moved from contestant to judge and had their first time in the judgement seat with a contest all about Nothing.

There have been 78 distinct participants, with 3 participants submitting a card each contest thus far. On average, there have been 21 participants per contest, with the highest being Week 3 - For the Spikes! (28 participants) and the lowest being a tie between Week 7 - My Better Half and Week 11 - War Never* Changes (16 participants).

A big shout-out to the IF team for their work in planning and judging each week's contest: @abelzumi, @follower-of-liliana, @gollumni, @loreholdlesbian, Mr. ShinyObject, and @spooky-bard!

Speaking of the contests...

The Submissions

Over the 16 contests, there have already been 350 unique submissions. And with some contests having multiple cards per submission, that results in 377 cards, enough for a draftable cube.

Let's look at some of the stats behind these cards, starting with Card Type.

Fig. 1 - Bar graph of card submissions by card types. Artifact, 51. Battle, 16. Creature, 205. Enchantment, 41. Instant, 30. Land, 2. Planeswalker, 1. Sorcery, 48. Other, 0.

By far, the most popular card type to design are Creatures, with a fair few of them also falling into the Artifact and Enchantment buckets. Planeswalkers have seen the least amount of love, with only one having been in the contest thus far: Leucina of Dark Desire by @mudthing in the For the Spikes! contest of Week 3.

For color, I've decided to stick with the overall Color Identity of the cards created, rather than those represented in the mana cost. I've also just separated the submissions by single colors; parsing them into pairs, wedges, and shards would be possible, but a little more convoluted.

Fig. 2 - Donut graph of card submissions by color identity. White, 103. Blue, 99. Black, 117. Red, 100. Green, 80. Colorless, 20.

Black colored card submissions are slightly edging out white, red and blue with 22.5% of submissions being at least partial black. This is especially interesting as one contest, All the Colors of the -1/-1 Counter in Week 15, was explicitly to NOT have any black cards.

Of the five main colors, green is lagging behind with only 15.4% of card submissions being at least partial green. Sounds like we are in need of some lichens and tigers and bears ...

Image - George Takei, Oh My

For Mana Value (MV), there is a similar bell curve to what we saw last year.

MV 0: 7 cards

MV 1: 24 cards

MV 2: 76 cards

MV 3: 116 cards

MV 4: 83 cards

MV 5: 37 cards

MV 6: 14 cards

MV 7+: 10 cards

Cards at MV 3 are the most popular to design, with MV 4 and MV 2 close behind. Seeing these numbers, it really does make it seem like there could be a draftable cube, albeit a wonky one with some crazy drafting strategies.

Finally, let's jump into Rarity.

Fig. 3 - Donut graph of card submissions by rarity. Common, 51. Uncommon, 140. Rare, 151. Mythic Rare, 24.

At around 40% for each, Rare and Uncommon are the card rarities most often designed. This is right in the sweet spot for a decent amount of complexity, really allowing designers to show off their design skills.

Winners and Runner-Ups

Starting in this section, we have to give a shout-out to the 31 card designers who have had cards selected as either a Winner or Runner-Up in the contests. In particular, put your hands together for the top 3 entrants so far this year:

@izzet-always-r-versus-u: 10 submissions selected

@nine-effing-hells: 8 submissions selected

@horsecrash: 7 submissions selected

Data-wise, we see some similar patterns with what has been submitted. Creatures are crushing it (67 entries), MV 3 is ahead (32 entries), and Uncommons and Rares are close (although Uncommon is slightly ahead with 41 entries to Rare's 38).

But a shake-up between submissions and selections is in the works with Color Identity.

Fig. 4 - Donut graph of winner and runner-up card selections by color identity. White, 21. Blue, 33. Black, 30. Red, 25. Green, 22. Colorless, 3.

In a big surprise, Blue jumps to the front of the pack, followed closely by Black. Red sits in third place, with Green and White close behind (and to each other). In my analysis last year, Red was the color to beat, but it looks like Blue's allure of card draw, bounce effects and flying creatures has wowed the judges this time around.

But really, the biggest take-away is that we have a community of wonderful card designers and judges who give us a little something to look forward every week. Thank you everyone for your hard work! There will be another data analysis at the end of August.

And I'll see you in the weekly submissions!

[loreholdlesbian]

Thought I'd make art for the first plane Sango went to in the Planechase game I'm in, Ixalan! She kinda just chilled with the Merfolks for a bit tbh it was a bit relaxing.

[loreholdlesbian]

Art link

Card transcription

Captain Vraska 3B Legendary Creature- Gorgon Pirate [mythic] Menace, deathtouch If a creature an opponent controls would die, exile it instead. When you do, create a Treasure token. 1B, Sacrifice a Treasure: Create a 2/2 black Pirate creature token with menace. Activate only as a sorcery. 3/4

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[loreholdlesbian]

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Card transcription

Piggyback Rider 1WW Creature- Human Pilot [rare] Each other creature you control is a Mount in addition to its other types and has saddle 2. (Tap any number of other untapped creatures you control with total power 2 or more: That Mount becomes saddled until end of turn. Saddle only as a sorcery.) Whenever a Mount you control attacks while saddled, it gains double strike until end of turn. 2/3

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[loreholdlesbian]

Card transcription

Grist, Devouring Swarm 2B P/B/G G Legendary Planeswalker- Grist [mythic] Compleated (P/B/G can be paid with B, G, or 2 life. If life was paid, this planeswalker enters with two fewer loyalty counters.) +1: Surveil 2. 0: Create a number of 1/1 colorless Phyrexian Mite artifact creature tokens with toxic 1 and “This creature can’t block” equal to Grist’s loyalty. Those tokens gain haste. Sacrifice them at the beginning of the next end step. -X: Target creature gets twice -X/-X until end of turn. 4 loyalty

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Compleat Grist

I often fall back on more humanoid designs for these, it’s nice to draw a real fucking thing for once

I want to be clear, the porcelain plating is completely stolen. Technically there’s a little compleated Grist inside this, but the whole exoskeleton is either stolen, scavenged, or absorbed from some poor centurion who fell prey to the Hunger Tide.

[loreholdlesbian]

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Ascendant Egotist 8/U Creature- Elemental [common] (8/U can be paid with any eight mana or with U. This card's mana value is 8.) Flying 1/1 "Once I was a simple mage. Now I am far more."

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[loreholdlesbian]

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Card transcription

Coszcatl, Warherald 1RGW Legendary Creature- Cat Warrior [mythic] Haste Other Cats you control have haste. Whenever a Cat you control attacks, you may attach an Equipment you control to it. 4/4

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[loreholdlesbian]

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Card transcription

Griselbrand Unbound 4BBBB Legendary Creature- Demon [mythic] Flying, lifelink Exile the top thirteen cards of your library: Search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, then shuffle. 8/8

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[loreholdlesbian]

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The Maelstrom Spawn 1GUR Legendary Creature- Elemental [rare] Spells you cast with cascade have cascade. (Do it again.) Whenever you cast a spell from exile, put a +1/+1 counter on The Maelstrom Spawn. 2/2

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[loreholdlesbian]

Card transcription

Lanternlight Storyteller W Enchantment Creature- Fox Bard [rare] Lanternlight Storyteller gets +1/+1 for each lore counter among permanents you control. Whenever a Saga you control leaves the battlefield, put its lore counters on Lanternlight Storyteller. 1/1

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[loreholdlesbian]

Card transcription

Dovin, Perfected 1W P/W/U U Legendary Planeswalker- Dovin [mythic] Compleated (P/W/U can be paid with W, U, or 2 life. If life was paid, this planeswalker enters with two fewer loyalty counters.) +1: Proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players with counters on them, then give each another counter of each kind already there.) -2: Create a 1/1 colorless Phyrexian Thopter artifact creature token with flying. -X: Tap target artifact or creature. Put X stun counters on it. 4 loyalty

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Compleated Dovin? I feel like he would love it it would be great enrichment for him

Rest in pieces Dovin you would have loved being a phyrexian

He gets killed again because he keeps challenging the praetor’s flawed definitions of perfection 🫤

[loreholdlesbian]

Card transcription

Liliana, Thane of Death 3B P/B Legendary Planeswalker- Liliana [mythic] Compleated (P/W/U can be paid with W, U, or 2 life. If life was paid, this planeswalker enters with two fewer loyalty counters.) +1: Mill three cards. Then you may pay 1 life. If you do, draw return a card milled this way to your hand. -2: Exile target creature card from a graveyard. Incubate X, where X is that card’s power. (Create an Incubator token with X +1/+1 counters on it and “2: Transform this artifact. It transforms into a 0/0 Phyrexian artifact creature.) -X: Target creature gets -X/-X until end of turn. 6 loyalty

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I've always thought a Liliana compleation would be a compelling alternate way for her immortality quest to culminate, and I wonder how you'd design her? 👀

I feel like I got possessed for this 💀

[loreholdlesbian]

Art link

A bit back I posted some cards using the team convoke mechanic, here's another

Card transcription

Great Ally 4W Creature- Giant Warrior [rare] Team convoke (Your team’s creatures can help cast this spell. Each creature a player on your team taps while casting this spell pays for 1 or one mana of that creature’s color.) Great Ally enters the battlefield with a flying counter on it if a creature with flying convoked it. The same is true for first strike, double strike, deathtouch, hexproof, haste, indestructible, lifelink, menace, reach, trample, and vigilance. 4/4

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[loreholdlesbian]

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Ghoulish Disposition 2BG Enchantment [rare] If you would be dealt damage, instead prevent that damage and you get that many rad counters.

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[loreholdlesbian]

bloomburrow tezzeret please please please please (literally no pressure at all)

You’ve heard of Tezzerat…. but consider…. Tezzebat!!! (dramatic gasp)

Or, tezzeflying fox, I guess (infer from that what you will). I wanted to try something I hadn’t seen before, and I liked the bat design from the released art.

Also here’s fanart I drew last month of Tezzerat dying in a glue trap 😌

[loreholdlesbian]

(No Pressure!) Bloomburrow-fied Teyo? He's charmed me since his first appearance and now I gotta imagine him w new shield counter mechanics!

he’s a charming young man!

Or in this case, young armadillo ☺️

[loreholdlesbian]

As promised—compleated Teyo

Turns out one of the only bits of art we have from teyo’s home plane of Gobakhan is a compleated white mage (Infected Defector, art by Nino Vecia, check it out) so I was inspired by that ❤️