#zero contest

[inventors-fair]

From Nothing, Victory: The Origin Winners

~

Our winners this week are @genericaura, @horsecrash, and @nicolbolas96!

@genericaura — Nilix, Scholar of Nothing

First up is this curious specimen, taking a distinctly mathematical approach to the idea. D'you think their associates ever tease them about their title? At any rate, this is a fascinating piece of design. Copying spells is by no means untrodden ground in these colors, but the requirement for the spell to have been free is such a bizarre wrinkle that I can't help but be enthralled. It's a pretty hefty buy-in to get the effect online, too, so the card feels more fair than you'd think something centered around cheating mana costs to be. There's a decent amount of depth to the use cases, too. Sure, chaining this into a Mind's Desire is positively rapturous, but there are plenty of spells that are already free, or cast something for nothing as more of a formality, and suddenly those become worth their weight in gold. This really got the wheels in my head turning, and I can't really ask for more. Although, it is kind of odd to have a bird without flying. An ostrich aven, perhaps? That's just nitpicking, though. Good show!

@horsecrash — Hogaak, Tide of the Dead

Hogaak's back, baby! And hopeful not about to ruin a format this time. I saw a design like this tossed around several times this week, a card with a cost reduction mechanic that gets a bonus if you manage to shave it down to zero. None of them require quite this much reduction, though! The chance to get a huge beater that also traumatizes you (which is a sentence I don't get to say often) is a supremely tasty carrot on the end of the stick, though, and it sets my self-mill loving heart aflutter. Consume makes a fascinating companion to convoke here (although I'd also be interested in seeing what you can do with it by itself), allowing a real scale of quite how hard you want to commit. That's assuming you want the mill in the first place; an 8/8 trampler on the cheap is nothing to turn your nose up at. I appreciate the reminder text clearing up any confusion around the intersection of the mechanics, and I could see plenty of times when you'd rather tap but not sacrifice something. I'm not quite as sure about the inverse, but it's always good to keep the option open. My one concern is that the fact that any way to get this onto the battlefield without casting it (so reanimation, blink, or what have you) also counts for the effect feels a bit against the spirit of the card, but it's hardly a dealbreaker.

@nicolbolas96 — Desperate Necromage

Yeesh, desperate is right! This is one of those beautiful cards that completely reshapes the game around itself the second your opponent is aware of it, because now every single decision they make has to be made in respect to it. Cards with both first strike in deathtouch can often be unblockable if they don't give your opponent a compelling reason to interact with them, and while that's true of this for most of the game, boy does that flip on its head the second your life hits zero. It really does crystalize that feeling of being on the brink of death, but just one more good hit and you can take them out! I do really think the life loss on attack is deceptively important here. Obviously it advances the card's win condition, but by doing that it encourages you to be aggressive with a card that would otherwise sit back as a deterring blocker. Even more than that it introduces a real sense of riskiness, because if this is removed too early, even before you hit zero, you can suddenly find yourself in a very bad position. After all, a deck designed to lower your life total probably isn't packing many tools to raise it, and the lower you go, the more risk you run of being abruptly blown out. All in all, this is the kind of intersection of flavor and gameplay that just captivates me.

Runners-up to follow shortly, then commentary (hopefully) later today. See you then!

@spooky-bard

[rasticore]

Neds Declassified School Survival Guide was the best Nick live action show and I'm tired of it being snubbed

[sempiosoysauce]

theres something to be said here about karmic retribution and the loss of control but if there’s anything we’ve learned i think it’s to never underestimate a vindictive comedian with a budget

[dr0wn1ngless0ns]

! fake gun

figured i'd post these since i made the shirt just in time for ZERO DAY!

[mishoarts]

Made with love, sweat and tears,

Ladies and gentlemen I present my MASTERPIECE

MY SBG ANIMATION : Taste Of Me

Made with : IbisPaint , Procreate and InShot.

(This took a month of my life and was a risk for my educational state and smh my health it better be worth it ,,*dies*)

[barbed-snile]

Congrats to this loser or whatever

[aroaceleovaldez]

was thinking about next-gen kids and decided to doodle a couple. elaborated thoughts below:

Iphis is named with the same naming conventions that Sally used when naming Percy - primarily, mythological figure who had a good fate. Nice for Percy to honor his mom by naming his own kid the same way and Annabeth gets a fun nerdy mythology name. Also sending good vibes to their kid. Plus middle name directly in honor of Sally, of course.

Specific myth is Iphis and Ianthe, with the idea that a.) it's gender-neutral so works regardless of kid's gender and b.) not only does Iphis have a good fate, but arguably nothing bad happens to them ever and they get helped out by like three whole pantheons who show up in a literal parade and they live happily ever after. Percy and Annabeth are pushing for the BEST vibes possible.

(Also I am a very strong proponent of the "I don't think they'd name their kids after dead family/friends" so none of them have that)

Iphis of course inherited the Jackson family early grey hairs <3

Virginia is named after Juniper (cause Juniper is specifically implied to be Juniperus virginiana). She's probably been childhood bffs with Iphis since Iphis was born.

Chuck is Chuck. I gave him a Yankees jersey cause you know he's being raised as a sporty kid.

Do you ever think about how OP Frank and Hazel's kid would be. It's ridiculous. Quadruple legacy, including 2/3 of the Big Three. Frank by himself was already so OP the gods had to nerf him. Hazel came back from the dead and Frank kinda just said "nope" to dying that one time. Hazel presumably has every power that Nico has which is. A lot. Not to mention what Hazel has been shown to just be able to do on her own (including but not limited to SINKING AN ENTIRE SMALL ISLAND). Ares/Mars kids can functionally be completely invulnerable sometimes and also have some limited necromancy. Combo that with Hades/Pluto kids also being hard to kill and having necromancy as one of their main powers. Not to mention how Pluto geokinesis might combo with Chloris (goddess of spring) powers? And this kid is 100% being protected by both Nico (who is probably a deity by that point) and probably Pluto himself as well? Hello?

Anyways Hazel and Frank's kid is a total powerhouse. Possibly functionally immortal. Easily strongest demigod of her generation.

I like to think the latent Chloris legacy would crop up (probably in combo with Mars and Poseidon's plant aspects) and give them an accidental Persephone-type theme and that's fun. Frazel's goth daughter who takes after her grandmother (and uncle).

Figured since Frank is Canadian and Hazel is from Louisiana they'd go for a French name. The flower theme was not intentional on their part it just happened. Law of demigod naming conventions appears nonetheless.

I figure Leo might not have kids of his own but he probably still hangs around with Hazel and Frank so of course he's going to make their kid a cool thematic robot pet. He's probably her godfather or something.

Ronan is literally just some kid who showed up at the Chase Space who coincidentally was a legacy of Freyr and could shapeshift. Magnus and Alex obviously can't have kids cause they're dead, BUT some orphan with essentially a combo of their powers just shows up on their doorstep? Their kid now.

The ironic part is of course their shapeshifting powers just happen to be because they're distantly related to one of Annabeth's friends. Ronan finds himself suddenly gaining two parents and two cousins (Iphis and Lily) in rapid succession.

He only picks up Magnus' last name though cause Alex has 100% disowned her mortal parents.

He has a seal flipper cause shapeshifting and apparently "Ronan" means seal. I just wanted to draw those two showcasing their shapeshifting a lil bit.

Might try to doodle the other next-gen kid thoughts I had at some point but idk when. anyways yeah.

[quietwingsinthesky]

extremely funny how my mother is constantly trying to get me to enter into local writing contests. i write pornography online for freaks, ma’am. i’m not qualified to write adventure stories.

[inchidentally]

F1 driver who regularly returns the effort and travels thousands of miles for his partner even in the smallest breaks in his own job like !! if anyone claims an F1 boyfriend is better than Alex…. like yes true I get it it’s not a competition per se bc Alex has already won

[ampleappleamble]

Let us end this.

The Bad at Eoral Sex Championship: Final Round

the time has finally come and the extra special guest star pinch hitter contestants are here to be as bad as they wanna be (at oral sex) so come get your vote on and tell the world

previous polls: round 1 — round 2

[inventors-fair]

The Origin

Hello, everyone! So glad to be here on the other side of the bench.

As it stands, I'm very much fresh out of the box when it comes to judging, and so in honor of that, I decided to channel that feeling into my first contest. Because everyone has the start somewhere, and what's the step before one?

Design a card that mechanically uses zero.

So, what exactly am I on about? Essentially, that's any card that has either the number 0 or the word zero as part of its effects. But more than that, it's also any effect that uses the concept of there being nothing of something. So, a card that requires a player to control no creatures or have no cards in hand, an effect reliant on a permanent having none of a certain type of counter, and so forth. I'm intentionally leaving this as open as possible, so please, get weird with it.

That's about the long and short of it. I'm looking forward to everything you all come up with!

@spooky-bard

Submit nothing HERE!

Zero in on our discord HERE!

[definitelynotshouting]

favorite thing to do lately is go into the botting channel of my friend's server and ask carlbot to choose between two rigged answers so i can say somebody told me to do it. this will in no way ever have negative consequences or lead me astray

[dr0wn1ngless0ns]

andre kriegman whimpering and begging who agrees

[elizabeth-mitchells]

if anyone knows any tricks to add one or perhaps 10 extra hours to every day uh please let me know

[umathurwin]

When did people get so boring that Kiara and Rafe are such a controversial pairing oml ya’ll would not have survived tumblr in the 2010s

well of course they wouldn’t! they were 6

[darkfireumbreon]

This guy has to be a future character. Maybe not playable but certainly story wise. He’s far too detailed.

And with how suspicious Lycaon was hearing about this mysterious man, could it be the vampire looking twink from his backstory?!?

And who’s this rude bitch?!?