July 2008 - MCC - Discussion

[Cashew]

Welcome to the July MDV Monthly Card Design Contest. This month's theme is not too simple, yet not too complex. It's going to be all about a particular set of keywords - called ability words. What's an ability word? You already know them (maybe not all) as a specific subset of keywords. They are the keywords that merely group similar cards instead of have a distinct meaning.

The ability words are:
Channel
Grandeur
Hellbent
Kinship
Radiance
Sweep
Threshold

and most recently Chroma.

Do not try to use Gotcha! (an Un-set ability word).

Your card must have at least one of these ability words. The other trick is since it's an ability word, and not a keyword it must actually fit into that group of linked cards. Some creativity is appreciated as always, but fundamentally destroying the ability word itself will probably be frowned upon. Don't mess with the core of the concept unless you simply just want to enter just for fun and don't care about the win.

Feel free to discuss entries/contest itself in this thread.

[fayaballard]

I was thinking about ability words some days ago: they are useless!!! I think WoC has a sort of obsession for keywords...

[Maleficent]

Basically.

Well... they sometimes help add a label to things, so instead of saying "cards that want 7 cards in your grave," you say "cards with threshold." Plus hellbent and some others add to flavor. *shrugs*

[CoglineErro]

The reason for keywords is to be flashy and help define a set. Should the cards be in set or can we pull out of the set. I won't enter for serious I don't think, but I might enter just for fun.

[Insidious]

What about Forecast? ^^

[Cashew]

What about Forecast? ^^

Forecast is a keyword ability.


502.53 Forecast
502.53a A forecast ability is a special kind of activated ability that can be played only from a player's hand. It's written "Forecast — [Activated ability]."
502.53b A forecast ability may be played only during its controller's upkeep step and only once each turn. The controller of the forecast ability reveals the card with that ability from his or her hand as the ability is played. That player plays with that card revealed in his or her hand until the upkeep step ends or until it leaves the player's hand, whichever comes first.

[final_press]

< feverishly searches gatherer for 'Channel' cards because he'd forgotten what the hell it does!

Oh yeah... never did like that one much. :ahem:

[Insidious]

Forecast is a keyword ability.

Ah right, thanks for the clearing up. I'll see what I can come up with :)

[erkilomp]

Probably gonna take part in this months contest, although I surely aint gonna win :D

[Insidious]

b4g3r, wouldn't it be easier and more aesthetic to have it say This land is all basic land types instead of listing them all? Just my 2 cents :)

[Niv-Mizzet_Rulez!]

Probably gonna take part in this months contest, although I surely aint gonna win :D

Thats what I thought last month. And I won. I only entered last month because I saw the really cool art, and I really wanted to make a card to it.

I'm really liking Rat Infestation. It's quite evil in the right deck. Aggro Rat FTW.

[Insidious]

Yeah I too love the Rat Infestation and would love to have it as a real card. If only :(

[_b4g3r_]

Changed my entry, the land was meh...

What do you think?

[Your Worst Nightmare]

Changed my entry, the land was meh...

What do you think?
It is an abomination even to Shadowmoor's weird color pie distribution.

First of all, an uncounterable Shock for the exact same mana? Second, Index (sorta) in red? And third, direct damage in blue?

Tsk-tsk...

[_b4g3r_]

It is an abomination even to Shadowmoor's weird color pie distribution.

First of all, an uncounterable Shock for the exact same mana? Second, Index (sorta) in red? And third, direct damage in blue?

Tsk-tsk...

Planar Chaos existed, so why cant this?

1. yes thats the bonus for a rare shock in my eyes
2. go ahed and pay RR for looking at three card if youl like
3. psionic blast dude, is slaping his head

[Maleficent]

I love how since the release of Planar Chaos it's suddenly ok to do completely wacked out things that make little to no sense whatsoever. At least use the Planeshifted layout or something. :rolleyes: The art thing is cool, though.

Zee Fate Mimic iz MINE!! XD

[erkilomp]

What do you think of my card?? :o

[final_press]

Planar Chaos existed, so why cant this?

1. yes thats the bonus for a rare shock in my eyes
2. go ahed and pay RR for looking at three card if youl like
3. psionic blast dude, is slaping his head

All the same, the card would seem so much better to me if the cost on each half was :u::u: and :r::r:. It's still then a good use of channel (I like it more than the Kamigawa creatures that had it).


What do you think of my card?? :o

I don't really get the whole flavour of the card, but it's an interesting combination of the two abilities. Kind of like what they did with Ichor Slick, only not as lame as Ichor Slick.

[Maleficent]

What do you think of my card??

I... think... make channel Black and madness Red? Mechanically it looks alright. Flavorwise, there's nothing really Vampiric about it, or Assassin-like either... :/ and the name needs fixing (capitalization and spelling - Assassins aren't just asses, they're double-asses :P).

[fayaballard]

Planar Chaos existed, so why cant this?

1. yes thats the bonus for a rare shock in my eyes
2. go ahed and pay RR for looking at three card if youl like
3. psionic blast dude, is slaping his head

I think it would be more balanced if Sneak could target only players and channel ability only creatures. Peak probably could work on 4 or 5 cards instead of 3...
For the mana cost I agree with final press: RR & UU.
Anyway your idea in principle is great and the art is really nice!!!

[_b4g3r_]

ok, I changed my card...

[fayaballard]

ok, I changed my card...

You card is really good now in my opinion (but my opinion is completely unreliable as you can also realize from my submission)...
Anyway the art is really inspiring to me. Looking at it I was thinking that the two channel ability could also be some kind of red and blue elemental blast. I think that with that image we can open an entire card contest...

[Insidious]

Well, my entry for this month is up. Awesome art is awesome.

[Your Worst Nightmare]

What do you think of my card?? :o
Instant speed discard is usually frowned upon. But other than that slightly big detail, it's nice. Madness should come below channel though. :)



ok, I changed my card...
And it's much better now. Don't you think so?

You could probably change each half's mana cost to 1C without any problems too. :)



Well, my entry for this month is up. Awesome art is awesome.
The flavor text would also be, if without all the omission points. (Is that how those are called? o.O)


I have posted my entry as well. Tell me what you think and stuff!!1!!11 :B

[fayaballard]

I was a little bit sceptic about the topic of this MCC but I must say that I like a lot the entries. Excluding a couple of cards tha rest it's really good...

For CASTLE:
Double strike seems to me a red ability. Maybe the card could be BR or you can change it a little bit. Anyway the art it's fantastic and I like the idea of double strike with the ability. And 4/4 is maybe a little bit too big...3/4 or 2 /4 with haste? Blazing Specter was 2/2 for 2BR. Your could be 2/4 flying, haste, discard ability for 2BBR considering that is legendary and that with threshold it will be devastating...but in this case you will need to add some fire in your art :D

[Castle]

I was a little bit sceptic about the topic of this MCC but I must say that I like a lot the entries. Excluding a couple of cards tha rest it's really good...

For CASTLE:
Double strike seems to me a red ability. Maybe the card could be BR or you can change it a little bit. Anyway the art it's fantastic and I like the idea of double strike with the ability. And 4/4 is maybe a little bit too big...3/4 or 2 /4 with haste? Blazing Specter was 2/2 for 2BR. Your could be 2/4 flying, haste, discard ability for 2BBR considering that is legendary and that with threshold it will be devastating...but in this case you will need to add some fire in your art :D


i would agree that double strike is in the red section of the pie chart but it was the only ability i could think of that would be quite devistating but not too op with the specters
i toned down the p/d to a 3/2 ,added haste, and the cc too :2mana::b::manabr::manabr:
and tx for the feed back ^.^

[SoftWarewolf]

castle: i think its weird having haste and flying explained but not threshold? its the most advanced, least known ability.
you could probably remove all the explanation text from that card.. the text is a bit small.

what you guys think of my "Incentive"? :)

[SoftWarewolf]

i played around with your card.. got completely different but i still want to show you.

http://www.softwarewolf.net/permanent/Keen%20Phantom.jpg

[Castle]

castle: i think its weird having haste and flying explained but not threshold? its the most advanced, least known ability.
you could probably remove all the explanation text from that card.. the text is a bit small.

what you guys think of my "Incentive"? :)

well the program i used to render the card automatically did it and was lazy to rid of it so w/e on that

i like your version my tinkered card (keen phantom) and seems balanced to me all though i would do draw 2 discard 3 so the hand gets smaller if he hits

as for my card i tried to some what combine some of my favorite specters (hollow and hypnotic) and evolved from there. and i hope you dont mind me tinkering with your idea ^.^ ill post it later

as for my card i tried to some what combine some of my favorite specters (hollow and hypnotic) and evolved from there

[SoftWarewolf]

yeh, could be "draw cards equal to ~'s toughness" and "discard cards equal to ~'s power" then you can do fun stuff with it :P

[GG Crono]

I want the record to show that I was the first one here to use both regular and hybrid mana symbols. XD

[Maleficent]

I want the record to show that I was the first one here to use both regular and hybrid mana symbols.

That's a bad thing. Bad Crono! *whacks* XD

[final_press]

castle: i think its weird having haste and flying explained but not threshold? its the most advanced, least known ability.
you could probably remove all the explanation text from that card.. the text is a bit small.

what you guys think of my "Incentive"? :)

SoftWareWolf raises a good point. It sometimes feels nice leaving reminder text on cards, but it leaves the card a little crowded. Also, a rare card (or anything outside of core set) wouldn't need those abilities explaned on it.

Now I might be wrong about this... but as Threshold is only an ability word, isn't it considered necessary to write the "if there are 7 or more cards in your graveyard" part, as the word Threshold by itself doesn't really do anything?

Someone help me out here!

[Maleficent]

Yeap and yeap.

[SoftWarewolf]

mm.. guess my card is no good too then, i got a better one anyway, il change it soon.

i also had to make something with gotcha :P this pretty much brakes all the rules of the competition but I'll just post it here ;)

http://www.softwarewolf.net/permanent/Unthinkable%20Stupidity.jpg

[Insidious]

Hey Rynor, I really like the idea behind your card but it just feels a bit clunky the way it is now. Personally I'd probably have made the kinship ability putting the land in play, netting you a free land and a possible extra land drop. It would be a little more fluent wordwise that way.

Anyway, my favorites so far are Sneak/Peek and Rat Infestation :)

[fayaballard]

An idea: What about a contest for trying to guess what will be the exact Sarkhan Vol abilities???

[final_press]

Putting my submission up now to hold my place... but I think the wording needs to be corrected. Maybe something like "For each Forest returned this way, target creature you control gains shroud"... however it's late so I'll do it tomorrow.

With Cashew stressing how it should fit into the core of each set of cards with the same ability word, I wanted to make something that really felt like it came from the same set that ability word came from, both in design and flavour. To acheive this I've tried to correct what I see as an error in Kamigawa's design... the lack of a green sweep card. With many green cards allowing you to put extra land into play each turn, maybe they thought it was too open to abuse, I just see an oppurtunity for a good combo. The flavour of the card and the choice of shroud as the ability given by the card are both my attempt to make it slot as seamlessly as possible into the green portion of Kamigawa. First card entry for a while I may be truly proud of.

@Cashew: I added the Saviours expansion symbol to try and emphasise its intended place in the set, although if this poses some kind of legal issue I'd be more than willing to replace it.

[SoftWarewolf]

yeh i like the flavor of retreat to Jukai.. i would say its underpowered, however since its a common card it has its place in sealed\draft tournaments =)

[CoglineErro]

Hey, FP. Did you mean X target creatures gain shroud until end of turn where X is the number of forests returned type of thing, or did you mean that the creature your targeting gains multiple instances of shroud?

[akashmar]

lots of excellent submissions this round, i wonder how they'll pick one.

FP said he's going to edit it, coz right now it doesn't make any sense.

[final_press]

yeh i like the flavor of retreat to Jukai.. i would say its underpowered, however since its a common card it has its place in sealed\draft tournaments =)

Actually I'd say it's very underpowered looking back at it now (curse late night card designs!). XD
I've changed the expansion symbol (just in case), changed the rules text so it actually makes sense, and changed the title to better suite the flavour. But I'm sure I'll be making further revisions before the closing date. Right now I'm thinking changing the cost to 2G and making the effect "gains protection from spirits", which is far more flavourful, and certainly more useful, as there were only a few cards in Kamigawa that targetted multiple cretures.

[silverwolf]

How do you post the card image so it's large in the post

[final_press]

How do you post the card image so it's large in the post

It must depend on how you've imbedded it in the post. Personally I first upload my cards to a Photobucket account (very good site), then copy and paste the IMG code from there directly into the post.

[silverwolf]

It must depend on how you've imbedded it in the post. Personally I first upload my cards to a Photobucket account (very good site), then copy and paste the IMG code from there directly into the post.

Thanks I didn't know you could do that with photobucket

[Your Worst Nightmare]

FrycHiKn, in case you don't know (which apparently you don't), offering is a keyword ability, not an ability word...

[KlassyReborn]

Just to be sure, this one isn't based on rarity right? because I forgot to change the rarity of my card. It's just a common, and if you look at it, it's a pretty powerful common. So if they are, i'll change it, but if not, i don't think i'll go upload an entire new image ya know?

Also, if you think my card is abusing the ability...it is. Ways around a counter ;) But it does come at a price. You see, It's like that one dragon where you have to sacrifice cards up to it's power, i really didn't want to see an artifact deck abuse this with Cranial Plating. (GOD I HATE THAT CARD!)

[Your Worst Nightmare]

I has submission updates! Comment for great justice!

[Insidious]

I like your card YWN, just the 'dark' side of the art is a little plain compared to the white one. Other then that it's good imo :)

[Your Worst Nightmare]

I like your card YWN, just the 'dark' side of the art is a little plain compared to the white one. Other then that it's good imo :)
I couldn't find any good art for the dark side, so that one will have to do. :P I hope that doesn't factor when Cashew judges the submissions... :paranoid:

[VampyrLestat]

First of all I want to thank all of you that liked my card Rat Infestation. XD

Then I want to comment some of the cards for this round.
@bf43r: You card is awesome, and after reading this thread it is interesting how you improved it. I think you nailed it.
@Erkilomp: Channel should be before Madness
@Insidious: Love your flavor text, your card is interesting, but you should lose the space between both paragraphs.
@SoftWarewolf: I think that the correct wording of your card should be:
Threshold - As long as seven or more cards are in your graveyard and there are no cards named Incentive in any graveyard target creature gets +5/+5 instead.
@RynOr: I think that shuffling every (or each other) upkeep its no fun at all, is easier just put the card revealed directly in play.
@Azrael Subucni: You have an interesting card, the discard effect makes easier to get Threshold, too bad we could not use Overrun or Garruk and still have the creatures being undestructible.
@YWN: Love you card, it reminds me of a card I made a couple of months ago for MTGSalvation forums. I present them here (the idea was a knight that when entered in battle becomes a vampire and when he feeds returns to knight).

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm108/zorbaelbudha/CursedTemplar.jpg http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm108/zorbaelbudha/Duskhunter.jpg

[fayaballard]

I've changed the entry. Please tell me what do you think about!!! Is cating cost right??? and Wording?
Chromatog is still in my heart but I didn't find an art (I really liked the version with funny flavor text but I don't know if somebody else liked it...). This new card represent exactly what I think blue red gold and hybrid cards should be: something tremendously powerfull and crazy!!!!
The art is inspired by psionic blast of course and is a modern and more aggressive version of it.

[Insidious]

I like the idea of the card Faya. The art is great but I don't really like the name, it could use something more magic-like. The copy ability is horribly overpowered, I'd say make it something like copy this spell once if there were x hybrid symbols in the cards you discarded. The way it is now in a hybrid U/R deck you're going to kill someone dead with one spell.

[fayaballard]

I like the idea of the card Faya. The art is great but I don't really like the name, it could use something more magic-like. The copy ability is horribly overpowered, I'd say make it something like copy this spell once if there were x hybrid symbols in the cards you discarded. The way it is now in a hybrid U/R deck you're going to kill someone dead with one spell.

Yes I know is overpowered... The fact is that is really hard to imagine how much. You have to discard at random and if you don't hit blue cards you will run out of cards in hand and it will just mill your deck. there is also the possibility of losing because of deck milling before killing the opponent. This card becomes letal as you said because of hybrid mana that can activate all the effects togheter. We have also to consider that at the moment blue red doesn't seem a good combination of colors and that probably your deck will suck if full of U/R cards.
Anyway I will probably change it allowing only 1 copy if in the discarded mana costs there is at least 1 hybrid mana. Another possibility is to remove the "draw one card" at the beginning and leave only the discard effect. That will increase the risk of stopping the process.
About the name honestly I like it. I could use words like "volley" or "barrage" already used in other cards but they don't seem to me better. I don't know, i really want to give the idea of a machine gun that uses your brain as bullets.
What do you think?


I changed the card. I know that my card is too risky and can be a bomb anyway more I read it and more I think this card is really amazing. I like the concept the name and the image. I think it's just 5 or 6 years in advance respect to magic. The name and the image have really somethin new for magic standards but I think they are still credible and the effect is exactly what I think they should do with UR. Wizard is really scared (and probably they are right) of givin to UR some possibility of staying togheter because they are simply the best colors in magic. I think they can find some cool way (like the one I found :D) to realize some card that can unify card drawing and fire in an accettable but cool way. DAJEEEEEEEEEEE

[_b4g3r_]

@bf43r: You card is awesome, and after reading this thread it is interesting how you improved it. I think you nailed it.


it's b4g3r BTW ;)

and I'm glad you like it :cool:

[Cashew]

Last 2 days, get your stuff in.

[final_press]

Aww man, and here I was thinking Shaky might miss the submission date :P

[ShaKadelic]

Haha. i`ve yet to miss a deadline, though i`m always late, you`re right. :P

[MystaC]

good luck everyone.
i didnt see many black submissions. by the way , this is my first card that i had to create, other than fit the flavor. so yeah im pretty exited about my entry. i had a hard time thinking bout what to do for the threshold ability, i was gonna go for a flying creature but it looked a little like a dark mutavault :p.

[akashmar]

The results should be out today or tomorrow right?

[akashmar]

hey cashew my 9/9 card could have a been a bit higher :) you didn't have to put me in 8th place, I feel betrayed :(