#deepmire | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pokeprism · 1 year

Text

Sinker and No Line

This is my first short story! This story’s production cycle started 3/23/2023 and ended 4/7/2023! The word count for this story is 2,466!

Any questions, comments, concerns that you might have are best served to my Tumblr askbox!

The story itself is below the cut~!

The usually sleepy courthouse in Deepmire is full of guests today. The accused, a young twentysomething by the name of Zax Erickson, stands accused of associating with people outside Deepmire, but even worse in the jury’s eyes is that those people included the undead and their necromancing masters. Despite the nature of the accusations, no out-of-towners were brought into the trial due to the trial’s ‘special nature’... A textbook witch hunt.

An anxious jury quietly surveys Zax, the accused party, as he sits directly ahead of the judge, Caleb C Justice. Caleb has been Deepmire’s local judge since the most recent (and rigged in his favor) election, and he has a reputation to uphold…

Caleb clears his throat, and looks at Zax’s face. “Do you, Zax Erickson, admit to conversing with necromancers and their minions on friendly terms?”

Zax wrings his fingers. “Y-Yes…”

“And that our witnesses' testimony about your ventures into the Accursed Boglands were true as well?”

The accused pauses for a moment. Zax’s eyes narrow. “I never went there of my own accord. It was-”

Caleb rises from his seat as he loudly sets his hands on the podium, quickly silencing Zax mid sentence.

The judge raises his voice. “By your admission of speaking to unholy folk, I’m forced to turn you over to Deepmire’s Sage to be dealt your sentence, Zax. You’ve made too much trouble in town already by bringing unholy doctrine back with you.”

A tense silence edges into the courthouse. Much like the way in which Caleb procured his seat of power, a good portion of the jury slotted in upon hearing that the local oddball was in the hot seat, once again flying in the face of the state’s ‘dedication to true justice’.

Zax, already on high alert and worried he might get a harsher sentence if he speaks again, opts to quietly tremble in his seat as Caleb settles back into his seat.

Caleb looks directly into Zax’s eyes with a stoic expression. “Zax Erickson, you are at the mercy of Deepmire’s Sage. You are sentenced to a transformation at sunset two days from now.”

Zax trembles in the brief silence. At least it wasn’t a death sentence…

Caleb stands back up. “This affair is adjourned…”

The guards on duty in the courthouse escort Zax back to his holding space, his chains swaying as he walks in step with the guards. Caleb eyes Zax as the young man keeps pace with his escorts, then cracks a crooked smile in the quiet of his empty courtroom.

Two days have passed. The sun nears the western horizon as a crowd forms at the Deepmire’s Eastern docks around the city’s infamous transformation block. The last person who was sentenced to transformation was the former mayor of Deepmire, an advocate for teaching magic in public schools, before being confined to a monstrous new form for the crime of spouting ‘unholy doctrine’. So regardless of Caleb’s wishes, Zax’s transformation will be the first of many carried out by his phony sense of justice, and he knows this too well. Standing at the foot of the transformation block is Deepmire’s local sage and holy man, simply known as Seer Deepmire. Supposedly having been gifted his incredible magical power by the disguised supernatural he helped in his youth, Seer is a force in Deepmire’s conscience, but in this moment, he’s silently watching the procession carrying the accused.

At the head of the procession is a carriage containing the carriage driver and Judge Caleb C Justice, who came under so-called ‘professional obligation’, and behind the both of them is a wheeled platform with Zax, the accused, chained to it via some metal staples imbedded into the platform itself. Zax, having had two days to mentally prepare, is quietly sitting in the center of the platform swaying with each bump and ditch in the road below. The guards around the platform keep pace with it while walking around armed to deter any funny business from happening at the transformation. Zax, who has been absentmindedly looking at each of the dozen guards around him, shifts his gaze towards the docks. His anxiety begins to ramp up as he sees the size of the crowd gathering on both of the docks surrounding the ritual site…

Caleb’s carriage turns out of the way of the accused’s wheeled platform into a carriage sized slot close to the soon-to-be ritual sentencing. The crooked judge will get a clear view…

Now at the foot of the transformation block, the guards surrounding the wheeled platform stop to watch the contraption roll into position. The platform comes to a stop, and Zax, his back to the ocean, snaps to attention as Seer magically teleports to a place in front of Zax on the platform.

Seer, magically projecting his utterances to those within the vicinity of him, clears his throat, then looks into Zax’s eyes. “Son of Erickson, you sit before me guilty of association with unholy folk.”

Zax stares into Seer’s eyes, softly trembling in the silence after his first statement.

“For you, I believe the best new existence for you is one spent at the bottom of the sea!”

Seer raises his staff as it glows with arcane energy. The motion magically grabs Zax by his chest and lifts him up, to a point where the chains binding him to the platform are at their limit. Zax is powerless to stop the sage’s whims…

Seer begins waving the staff in a rhythmic pattern, readying the cocktail of spells Zax’s sentence entails. As the sage finishes preparing the magical sequence, Seer points the tip of the staff directly at Zax’s heart and fires a beam of pure magical energy. The glowing energy passes straight through Zax’s shirt, striking him in the core of his being, and begins to radiate throughout his body, making his whole being glow with a strange sea-green energy. The onlookers near to the transformation block squint at the glowing form of the accused, and at the peak of the transformation’s brightness, Seer raises his staff once again.

With a simple upward flick of Seer’s wrist, Zax’s chains snap as his reforming body is lifted slightly higher than it was a moment ago, and within two swift motions of Seer’s staff later, the mage magically forms a metallic crate around the accused and sends it flying towards the sea. Everyone in the vicinity around the transformation block follows the crate with their eyes, but even the onlookers at the ends of the piers can’t see where the barrel lands…

Out of the view of anyone in Deepmire and miles away from where Zax and his container were launched, the metal crate that the accused is in begins to lose altitude before dropping into the sea, quickly sinking like a stone into the sea as the sun fully disappears behind the horizon.

By the time the sun emerges from the eastern horizon the next morning, Zax, still inside the metal crate that formed around him, begins to slowly awaken. Confused by the near complete darkness around him, he takes his dominant hand and slides it across his forehead, revealing a spot of soreness as his hand gets close to his right temple. Still in almost complete darkness, Zax begins to feel around for the borders of the space he’s in…

Zax quietly speaks to himself as his hand glides over the surface in front of him. “What in the-”

Zax silences himself as he feels a strange indentation in what’s containing him. “... Am I in a coffin?” His eyes narrow as he attempts to see something…

A soft blue glow enters the space that Zax is in. The light reveals the inner indentations of the metal crate to Zax.

Zax begins to quietly read out what’s just in front of him. “ Hmm… ‘Zax Erickson, doomed to a life in the sea’.....”

He looks just below the sentence, and notices an image of a small fish below the statement. Zax’s mind suddenly freezes. He sets both hands on the now illuminated panel ahead of him, but instantly notices the webbing between his digits and jets backwards as a result, colliding with the back side of the crate. As Zax’s mind switches into hyperawareness, he very quickly comes to notice his scaly skin, lack of hair, new ear like protrusions, a tail, and a mess of glowing markings on his body in rapid succession.

The anxious, fearful, and frankly disoriented Zax then screams without too much thought, his bioluminescent markings lighting up even more at the peak of his volume…

His mind begins to wind down as his scream ceases to be, gradually bringing his breath and heart rate back to an average pace over the course of several ins-and-outs.

Zax heaves a sigh of relief. “At least nothing here will wanna eat me…” He softly says.

Zax then feels a knock on the upper corner of his odd container. He flips over and crawls toward where the sound came from and strikes the container in a similar spot. “Hello? I’m kinda trapped in here…” Zax says.

There’s a silence for a moment, then a set of three lighter knocks on the container, accompanied by a simple, slightly muffled message. “We’re gonna getcha out! Just give us a sec!”

Zax sighs in relief. “Thank the gods..!”

Zax makes out a fair bit of what those around him are saying…

“I wonder how this fish face got stuck in there…” one voice calmly says.

Another voice scoffs. “Did you NOT see the markings on this crate?! They’re clearly someone who came off the transformation block!”

Yet another voice chimes in. “Whoever they are, I’m the one with the cutting power, you two! Just lemme line it up��”

Zax heart rate ramps up at the mention of ‘cutting power’. Zax curls up into a fetal position as his anxiety returns with a vengeance, making his whole being twitch at the thought of being cut to ribbons…

Outside the crate, the person who mentioned their cutting power winds up to swing his sharp edged arm, and within an instant, the limb sweeps forward with immense upwards force.

The metal crate, previously embedded into the seabed, is ripped out of the ocean floor and cleaved clean in half, all while leaving Zax completely unharmed. A textbook embodiment of a skilled cleave. In the same moment of the masterful cleave, the air pocket inside the metal crate ruptures and rapidly escapes from the depths, exposing Zax’s new form to the lukewarm sea.

Zax snaps out of his fetal position near-instantaneously once in contact with the water just before the two halves of the metal crate settle back onto the ocean floor. He then faints from the shock…

The person who just freed Zax and his two cohorts, confused at the stranger’s sudden lack of motion, all drift close to Zax as he floats in place. The trio all get a good three hundred sixty degree look at this stranger as they slowly circle around them.

A serpentine sea dragon, the one who freed Zax in one stroke, senses something magical in one of the stranger’s pockets, and starts drifting closer to investigate…

The tentacled member of the surveyors, seeing their comrade’s motion and deciding to throw some caution into the current, jets to a place in front of his draconic cohort.

“Levi! We literally have no idea what this guy can do, so maybe let’s NOT get too close, alright?”

Levi rolls his eyes. “Well, you didn’t stop Brook…”

The cephalopod quickly looks over his shoulder to see Brook looming above the still motionless fishfolk at a place even closer to the stranger.

The merperson’s tail twitches before turning to face their two teammates. “Guys, chill out. They’re unconscious. They just got their senses overloaded…”

The tentacled person crosses their arms and puts on a pouty expression…

Brook swims to a place between this cephalopod friend and the out-cold stranger, with the stranger at Brook’s back, before speaking again. “Let’s just wait for this fellow to wake up, Doc. Moving them in this state would be rude, and we’ll learn more from talking to them.”

Doc’s anger subsides, but his arms remain crossed. “Fair enough…”

Levi’s attention drifts beyond Brook’s shoulder as the stranger begins to stir. Brook and Doc see the sudden motion of Levi’s eyes and turn to face the stranger as they re-enter consciousness…

Zax adjusts his position to have his feet face the ocean floor before catching sight of the trio watching him. He stammers as he addresses them. “Erm, h-hello?”

Levi is the first to respond. “Howdy, stranger! My name is Levi, and I’m the dragon that gotcha out of that crate. What’s your story?”

Brook greets Zax with a silent hand wave.

Doc simply looks on at Zax with a cautious expression…

Zax is taken aback, both by his onlookers’ appearances and their largely kind reactions to his presence. “Well… I just came off the transformation block in Deepmire, and I don’t know where to go…”

Brook and Levi look towards Doc.

Doc’s eyes narrow. “... Fine, I’ll fact check that.”

Doc sets his upper two tentacles on his temples and looks deep into Zax’s eyes. Zax merely matches the stare as Doc magically reads the stranger’s memory feed.

After a moment, Doc closes his eyes, then laughs. “I was SO right!!!”

Levi, annoyed, loudly sighs.

Brook drifts forward toward Levi before putting a hand on his shoulder. “Well, at least we know that this fishfolk isn’t any trouble, right?”

Doc nods to Brook, then shifts to a place just in front of Zax. “Anyways, you’re Zax, yes?”

A chill goes through Zax’s system. His name WAS mentioned before his transformation… “... Yes. I go by Zax.”

Brook finds a chance to speak. “Well, what’s stopping us from taking Zax to our humble abode for now? We do have a fourth sleeping chamber that’s not in use…”

Doc, Levi, and Zax all exchange looks.

Levi is the first to regain his bearing. “That’s not a bad idea, Brook! I mean hey, I took you two to live with me, so how much would it hurt to get another weirdo in there?”

Levi turns to face Zax. “So hey, follow us to our place, new friend.”

“We’ll get you acquainted with life down here!” Doc interjects.

Zax pauses for a moment to think. His eyes sparkle with hope as he smiles in acceptance of the trio’s offer.

Levi, Doc, and Brook all smile in turn. Levi gestures for the others to follow, then snakes through the water in the direction of their home. The rest of the party obeys Levi’s gesture as they begin to wonder what this new living situation will be like going forward…

#Jamie W. (Pokeprism)#short story #original fiction #writing #my writing #sinker and no line #4/19/2023

2 notes · View notes

inventors-fair · 4 years

Text

Rock and Roil Commentary

What a wild one! Everyone did a great job this week, I saw a lot of really creative cards, and I was happy that we same a very nice mix of lands and non-lands. I noticed a common trend in a lot of them. I wish in my article I had talked about the idea of giving the player the choice. We had a lot of entries that either forced the lands to become creatures, or turned them in to creatures permanently. I don’t know if people realized how dangerous that is, making players put their lands at risk of getting hit by removal or sweepers with very little way to protect them. I don’t think every card should have avoided it, I just worry that some people didn’t realise it was as much of a downside it is. Also, nobody wanted to make a lategame beater like most of the landfolk are, everyone wanted to make giant busted gods.

Anyway, here’s the commentary for everybody! It’s in alphabetical order based on your tumblr name.

@dabudder - Oran-Rief Awakening

I see you took this contest to its logical conclusion. What if they were all creatures? First things first, I like the first trigger. I like how it’s optional, I like how it trigger at combat, I like how it untaps the land as some sort of weird ramp, I wish it granted haste. I like how it can either be a sort of slow finisher in green ramp decks or a way to turn your ramp spells into blockers as you wait for your big stuff to come out. Pretty good. The win the game trigger, however, I do not like. A five mana enchantment that wins the game with nothing but a Zuran Orb is too strong in my book. It’s also not hard to ramp this out with creatures by turn 3, giving you only 3 lands you need to animate. I really wish this were more like a planeswalker ultimate, where it only MOSTLY wins you the game. Preferably something that scales with land creatures, such as “put X +1/+1 counters on each land creature you control.” Your heart’s in the right place, I just wish you would have made the payoff a little more interesting.

@deafeningsandwichpeach - Ranged Wildlands // Borlox

There is a LOT of text on this card. Enters tapped unless you control an animal, sure, though might be a little strong considering it’s already fine as a tapped triland. The Slate of Ancestry ability is REALLY strong on a land, considering it still seems some minor play when it cost 4 mana to play. And the Borlox, which admittedly does cost a lot to flip, is also really really powerful. I think you could remove half the abilities form both sides of this card and it would still see tons play. On non-power level concerns, I think the card may be trying to pull in too many directions. Try focusing it into doing just one thing well instead of a lot of things all at once.

@emmypupcake - Flooding Mire // Deepmire Serpent

One of the few untapped lands, but the fact that it can only flip on endstep is a really cool way to sidestep the haste issue. I also really like that mana fixing downside because it is a pretty major downside, especially in decks that are playing enough basics to flip it. But boy, that downside is really made up for on such a strong card. In a controlling shell, that guy can really do a lot of damage (figuratively). It might be decent in aggressive becks as well, but the unreliant nature of the mana and the creature might be more trouble than an agro deck wants. Which brings me to my biggest issue with this card, and it’s a big one: the flip isn’t optional. This means that a control deck might be forced to keep lands in hand to not flip it (either this land or basics), or play the land just to lose another. I know it can be played around with appropriate sequencing and deck building, but it just seems like an unnecessary problem. If you just put “may” on this card, it becomes a lot cleaner of an execution.

@fractured-infinity - Presence of Solara

I was expecting a lot more auras, but I’m happy with this one. So, at three mana this plays like a slightly worse Dungrove Elder, trading off hexproof for trample and some commander stuff, but I don’t think the trade-off is quite worth it. I really like the presence mechanic, and I like how you incorporated commander damage into it, though I’d be worried about Presence on an equipment. But as for the card itself, it seems fine, I could see a lot of decks using it, but it’s not really pushing any design space, and I don’t understand why it needs to be an aura as opposed to just a creature with the P/T ability. I know there’s stuff that can be done with that, like arbor elf to give it vigilance or animating a Nykthos so you can untap it with creature untap abilities, but those combos seem pretty minor as opposed to the headache of rules or losing a land every time someone kills your commander.

@dimestoretajic - Sower of Vengeance

Wow, that’s a card. This is a fun card to read as it just gets nuts the further you go. It’s in the right colors, the set symbol is good, the abilities all interact in cool ways, the theme is fun. I checked, though, and multi-blocking doesn’t grant more than one counter, so that’s awkward. I like the idea of storing up damage until it dies and you get a massive army of huge creatures, but I think there could have been a neater way to do it. As is, some lands will have different counters than others, and some won’t be able to attack but others might. I also wish it only lasted for a turn, instead of lasting forever. It’s bound to either win you the game or lose you it very quickly. All that said, as messy as a card it is to play, I can’t ignore the fact that there’s a lot of really cool ideas going on here, and out of all of the hard to gauge cards submitted, this was the one I most hope is playable.

@gofytomcat1 - Monument to the Ancient Way

Always nice to see jeskai representation. I like the strict upgrade to mystic monastery, a card that was just barely under playable in standard, but sees a lot of play in casual formats. I like the cost on the activation: a 3/2 flyer for 4 is good, but the three color restriction reins it in a bit. I like prowess here for the jeskai throwback but I think it plays a little bit against the card. The fact that you could activate the ability twice means you could get two instances of prowess, which will both trigger independently, and if you somehow activate a second time after casting spells, you will have to remember that some spells have been doubled up and some haven’t. Also, you’re usually going to be activating this late game when you’re out of cards in hand and have nothing better to do with your mana, so prowess won’t come up often, which I guess is good considering what I just mentioned. Anyway, good card! Prowess is a little awkward on it, but I like what it does in the colors it’s in.

@gollumni - Krug, Utmungr Worshipper

So it ramps when attacking, and has menace? Seems solid. I like how it’s not ramp unless your opponent’s board is clear enough, but maybe that’s fine because you can always choose to not do it. I’d almost suggest to give the land menace instead of trample to link it closer with Krug, but it’s fine as is. Very solid card, not much to say.

@i-am-the-one-who-wololoes - Dormant Earth

Lots going on here, but I think I like it for the most part. I like the bounce effect, it’s something you don’t see a ton but works really well in land-centric decks. It also helps balance the manaless activation cost. I like the simple ETB tapped effect to deal with haste problems and the colors are good. As for the main event, the landfall ability, I’m a little torn. I like using landfall as an animation tool, since if you’re topdecking lands, chances are you’re fine throwing one into combat. I really wish it didn’t trigger itself, but I know landfall has to trigger on all lands, so your hands were kind of tied there. Similarly, I wish it was optional, since getting your land hit by a bolt when it entered tapped anyway and wasn’t going to attack just feels bad. I think this card was just a scant few steps from being at the top.

@illharg-the-rave-boar - Tomb of the Buried Ancients

This card scares me. Any land that can tap for multiple mana is terrifying, and giving it to dredge is a whole other thing. The downside is paying life, which as we all know, is why no one play ancient tomb (hey wait a minute). But I said I’d be judging cards in a standard-level environment, and it’s much tougher to self-mill in standard, but a couple looting effects and you have an extra mana or two scarily easily. As for the animating ability, it seems by far to be in the background. Not being usable until you’re got 10 or 11 mana means it’s not going to see use except in some very long games (which if you’re acelerating with this, probably won’t happen). It’s also odd that the untap ability wants deserts in your graveyard but the animating turns them indestructible. I really wish that last ability weren’t on there, because otherwise I think this would be a great card, but with it there I just think it will break... everything.

@industrialsalad - Genju of the Future

Callbacks on callbacks on callbacks. I like the use of frame, considering it’s using a future sight mechanic (and has future in the name). I like the card! Paying two to make a land into a 2/2 is pretty good, especially at uncommon, and making it repeatable is nice. It’s a good way to deal with flood but has use in the early game if need be. I don’t understand the need for the unattach clause, other than to prevent animating multiple lands in a turn, but that doesn’t seem like THAT bad of an idea. Upping the fortify cost could have covered that, which I probably would have suggested anyway. I just worry that playing it, fortifying for free without intent to use it for a few turns, then getting hit with a naturalize that also takes out your land is rough. I know it’s flavorful, but it makes for some disheartening gameplay. I think this is a really cool idea and a lot of it is done really well and cleverly, but it just needed a little more time in the oven.

@kavinka - Face Island

I liked this card when I first read it, but the more I thought about it the less I liked it. At first I liked how it has a straightforward enters-tapped taps for blue base, and I like how the ability is really pricey, meaning it’s meant only for late-game decks (which is what blue usually wants). But there are a bunch of minor things that bug me. First, the last ability is worded such that it isn’t obvious if it needs to be a creature or not for it to “die.” If not, this is very strong with cards that let you sacrifice lands, but I don’t think that’s the intent. I like how it gives you a consolation prize if your opponent kills your expensive creature, but the prize is 2 more lands when you already had at least 11. And lastly, the fact that the giant has reach, while I’m sure it’s just for flavor, makes me think you’re going to block with it somehow, which seems... unlikely. So, as whole it’s very good, but starts to break apart after some thought.

mardu-lesbian - Barricade Inciter

In soviet gruul, gate crashes YOU. Old memes aside, a neat card. I like gate synergies, I like the menace. I don’t quite understand the 2brid mana, it seems kind of unnecessary, since at rare this is mostly going to be constructed, and you should be able to make triple green pretty easy by turn four in ravnica blocks. I also don’t quite get the untap. Usually animation spells that untap are nissa abilities that use them to generate mana. If it’s just there so you can target a gate that you already used to pay for the ability, I think that it’s okay to ask them to pay attnetion to what they’re tapping. As for the ability itself, I like it, but I really wish that fight were optional, especially with a three toughness creature. I know you could always just target a basic, but the fact that it could actually be a downside on a bad draw is a little awkward. I don’t know how I feel about it also being gate hate (since you can target opponent’s gates), but I don’t think it’ll come up except in super awkward mirror matches. There’s a lot of things I like on this card, but I wish it had just a few less quirky interactions.

@monoblue82 - Mountain Memorialist

Mount Rushmore maker? Cool concept. I get why you made it red: red gets land animating, red is the color of artists, and its got mountain in the name! But this is definitely a black card. Even though it’s happening to a land, this is a reanimation spell. It is taking a creature card in a graveyard and making it be in play. If it were black, I’d say the card was fine. It seems weird that the card would still be a land, but all of the land abilities would be overwritten. I think. I don’t know if keeping it as a land lets it keep its land subtypes. I think the ability might be a little overcosted, based on Obsessive Stitcher, but I’m not sure. This is a tough card to evaluate, but my main concern is just that it isn’t red.

@nine-effing-hells Hojamu, Quiescent Caldera // Rohojam, Raging Heart of the Land

The volcano requires a sacrifice. Nice. So, sacrifice a creature, get an 8/8 first strike trample? And your opponent can only stop it by sacrificing creatures? And if they don’t have any, they’re screwed? I think this might be a bit too good compared to effects like jinxed idol that also bounce back and forth by saccing creatures, but kill much slower than this. It also seems weird that this god isn’t indestructible, considering the amount of effort it takes to bring him out. I really like the story it’s telling, but I think it would have played better on an enchantment.

@reaperfromtheabyss - Sacellum of the Sun

I like what this card is trying to do. I like the very slight but not insignificant downside. I like how the color ability requires a permanent in play, and the animate ability also requires permanents in play. I also like that this is in white. I’m sure it’s meant to be a cycle, but white specifically has access to a lot of high-devotion permanents that are relatively hard to remove. I really like how this card helps enchantment (especially prison) decks close out the game, even getting through Enduring Ideal. There is a little bit of issue when it comes to summoning sickness, since you don’t want to give it haste as it’s sort of a white card, but if you have two in play, it’s very easy to misclick if you’re playing on a digital client. I’m also concerned on the blowout potential of removal in response to the activation, which isn’t fun, but I think if you’re at the point where you’re turning a land into a creature with only one card giving devotion, you know what you’re risking. so yes, a very well made card with a couple of random minor nitpicks.

@shakeszx - Standing Battlements

More fortify! Cool! I like the replacement effect, I think it is phrased correctly. It’s actually kind of cool how, even though damage doesn’t get removed, it’s no longer a creature, so if it dies in combat you’ll end up with a land with damage marked on it (just don’t attach another standing battlements to it). I also like how the replacement effect interacts with it being a fortification. If it was an aura, it would just have totem armor, but you instead give the player the opportunity to just lose out on a land if they would rather have the battlements out. I’m not sure on the cost of this fortification, since you’ve basically got a blackblade reforge that can attach to lands, but also costs colored mana, but also protects the user. If I were playing it safe I’d tack another mana onto the casting cost, but I kinda just like playing it safe. I also don’t know what deck outside of limited wants this, since it feels aggressive but kind of requires a lot of mana to make use out of. There’s some real cleverness to it, but I just don’t know where it goes.

@shandylamb - Consuming Marsh

You asked, and yes, this fits the bill. This card compares very favorably to Hissing Quagmire. gaining haste and dropping the cost but instead sacrificing a creature, which on its own isn’t a fair trade, but having the land itself enter more than makes up for it. In fact, it makes up for it a bit too much. Any land that enters the battlefeld untapped unconditionally already has some power concerns, but tapping for two different colors of mana and being able to turn into a creature pushes this way over the edge. That said, in a world where lands were allowed to be a little stronger than basics, I could see this being a very cool, fun, good card. Deathtouch and haste is a good way to get through board stalls, which is when sacrificing a creature is easiest. If it weren’t for power level, I think this card easily could have made it into the runner ups.

@shootingstarhunter - Soiled Spirit

I’m down with this bog. I like the tap condition (I would have been fine if you put the Morbid ability word on it) to power it down just a little, but still comes into play tapped if played on turn one or two. I like how powerful that last ability is, letting you slowly accumulate counters over time until you’re ready. I like how it still needs some building around, since you need to find a way to kill a creature before combat. I think in the deck that wants this, it’ll be a fun, good enough card, but requires enough to go your way that it’s not too powerful. I think it’s a nice card, but I do wish it had a bit more of an out if you’re going against hard control or something else creature light and counter heavy. I think this guy would end up stranded in play pretty often. Though thanks for making it a may! You were one of the few who caught that.

@snugz - Blackgrove Bastion

So, if you’re really flooding, you can use lands in hand to turn lands in play into big beaters. Honestly, you could have just stopped there. I don’t think having to bounce the land is necessary. You’ve already discarded a card, paid for the fortification, turned your land into removal bait, and risked your creature in combat. The fact that you can’t even tap it for mana without it bouncing is rough, too. I think you could afford to drop that ability or turn the equip into a mana cost and be fine. I appreciate the haste concern.

@socialpoison - Garom, the Loamwarden

I know plant thing when I see him. I like how this is a new type of land animation that plays on a few angles. If you ignore everything else, he’s a 5/5 for 5 that you can basically regernerate by paying 2 or more and sacrificing a land. I also like how it keeps getting pricier everytime you do it so he’s not too tough to kill, but he can make that cheaper, though even with that I think you didn’t need to up the price THAT much. It’s already pretty difficult to make sure it dies when you have mana open, I don’t think you also need to punish players who take advantage of its main mechanic. The flavor of him coming back is really cool, too. At first I didn’t really understand the last ability, but I get that it’s a way to offset the fact that you keep turning your land into creatures and having them die. It’s a little hard to judge how powerful that ability is on its own considering it’s a free sac outlet and graveyard recursion, but only for the weakest permanent type. Newer players might also think that they could return the land they sacrificed, but on a mythic (though I think this would be fine at rare) I think it’s fine to be a little counterintuitive. Altogether it’s a cool card, but for a legendary mythic I kind of expected something a little bolder.

@starch255 - Iotrene, Vengeful Arbor

So what if Urborg was alos dryad arbor? I’m not a judge (well, not that kind) so I’m just going to pretend that it will never cause rules problems. At least none of the effects take place in zones other than the battlefield. Anyway, the card itself seems... just kind of bad? It seems really risky to turn all of your lands into very tiny easily killable creatures, and if you’re not mono-green, then you’re just turning some of your lands into 1/1s. I think it has combo potential, but I don’t think this card is worth the headache to play. Points for trying though, your execution is perfect, no formatting issues I can see and you even got the reminder text in there!

@teaxch - Stalking Hemlock

What if Kamahl was a Stronghold Assassin? I actually like all of the intersections of abilities on this card and how many options it gives. Four mana and tap to sac a land/creature to kill a land/creature is cool from a design stanpoint, but it’s really hard for me to approve of repeatable land destruction in standard. This is one of those “if it survives, I win, if it dies, I don’t” that reminds me of cards like Mercurial Chemister and WAR Nissa. I think that makes it tough for this to see play in competitive formats, and the land destruction angle makes it hard to play in casual formats. A very clever card, but I just don’t know what to do with it. The flavor text, however, would have gotten you into the winners circle alone if I didn’t have the fair’s reputation to uphold.

@thedirtside - Unhallowed Ground

I like the understated nature of this card. It starts off as just a guildgate, and the ability is a little tough to activate, being two colors and requiring a card in a graveyard, and the size of the creature is a little small, but altogether it comes off as a neat little uncommon. As I said in my example post, graveyard hate in the land slot is always nice, and this serves as a great way to punish slower graveyard decks like some of the god-pharoah’s gift decks in historic right now. Even at uncommon, I think this card could afford to be pushed just a little more, perhaps by making a bigger creature, because as is it’s hard to reason spending effectively 3 mana for a 2/2 for a turn compared to cards like mutavault and Mishra’s Factory. Still, not a bad card, I like what you’ve done.

@tmstage - Facsimilake

Love the pun. The card’s pretty good, too! I like how it’s got a bit of a pricey activation compared to a lot of landfolk, but this one definitely needed it. Five mana reanimation on a land is very strong (Atzal comes to mind), and the fact that it doesn’t exile the card means you can do it again next turn. I think the enchantment nature of the card does more harm than good in both design and play: the fact that your land can be erased for a single mana at instant speed is a nice downside to bring the power down a bit, but there are going to be some decks that ignore its activated ability entirely ad just play it as a constellation enabler. It just seems a little unnecessary, at least before it transforms. I also think you probably could have skipped the “still a land” and mana ability since it’s unlikely to become relevant unless something has gone terribly wrong, in which case it’s fine to punish reanimator players. So yeah, a little unfocused and overpowered, but a neat card that has potential.

@walker-of-the-yellow-path Spine of Lasai // Lasair the World Eater

Getting some very nice hideaway land vibes, but what if valakut? I like random red rares that are just like “sorry you didn’t burn them out, have a consollation” like Valakut and dragonmaster outcast. Big red is also always fun. So this is already looking very good! I like the flying 8/8 trample, I like how it being a land is flavorful but also sneakily lets it avoid some removal considering it’s a finisher, and I like that its ability ties into its flip condition. I kind of wish the front half weren’t legendary, but I know that feels really weird, but legendary lands are just always a bit of a bummer, especially tapped ones that don’t even act as one-of mana. Making it fetchable kinda evens that out, meaning that you can have just one in the deck but still have 8. Anyway, the real meat of it: that activate ability. I think it is way too strong outside of multiplayer. If you do nothing but play mountains and this card, you can win as soon as it flips by tapping all of your mountains to pay for themselves and dealing 21 to your opponent’s face. I know that doesn’t make it that much stronger than valakut, but valakut is a broken card. I think if the mana cost was even just two mana this card might be fine. That’s my only problem with the card. otherwise I love it.

That’s all folks! See you at some point in the future

-Mod Mr. ShinyObject

#contest #entries #rock and roil #custom magic card #inventor's fair #mtg #commentary

11 notes · View notes