#i recently fixed a lot of my main teams speed stats and at the sacrifice of damage and its smoother but the headache dkfhdsk

[prettyboykatsuki]

trying to speedtune hsr characters gives me a migraine dsfhsdkjsd

[inventors-fair]

Planar Combo  commentary

With the end of this week and a new challenge ahead of us, let’s wrap things up by looking at all the submissions for planar combo. In case you missed them, press the links for the winners and the runner-ups 

As I said in those posts I was very happy with the number and the quality of the entries, but here I will be a little bit more critical. One complaint I have is that some planes were over-represented (Ravnica) while others didn’t even get a card (Tarkir, Ixalan, Kaladesh). Also, while I gave permission to go nuts, some designs were a bit plain. That’s not an inherently bad thing but playing it safe can only get you so far. 

On to the designs...

@aethernalstars​ Good balance and an inventive use of mechanics. Combining two situational mechanics was a bit risky but the resulting bonus might end games quickly in a dedicated deck.

@dabudder​ An incredible Timmy card that it would be an obligatory include in the 99 of all 3+colored commanders if printed! It almost made it the winning posts but as I said it was hard picking the winners!

@gus-goose I love it how you wanted to mess with escape when it’s not even out yet. Someone’s hyped :p Tribute cards were generally weak, so adding recursion will force the opponent to choose twice during the game. Scaling down the card a bit would make it more intimidating.

@khyrberos​ The epitomy of a toxic card, both in terms of flavor and power level. Players almost surely would play this for 3 and then burn decks would kill people faster than Thano’s Snap. The death trigger is frightening as well, though being an enchantment, it’s a bit harder to exploit (the first exploit that comes to mind is just play a new one cause it’s legendary). If this was 5 regular mana, it would be a lot safer for everyone.

@shakeszx Transform ain’t technically a mechanic, but I appreciate the effort you put into trying to twist Miracle, as this card has a miracle cost higher than its normal cost! I’d rather having the enchantment part of the card be a trigger that produces the “front” effect each turn than a “new card” altogether because the sum of what I see here is a pretty stuffy design.

@starch255​ A selesnya megacard! It’s nice to see more convoke matters cards like Venerated Loxodon, so in theory it’s a neat card. However populate doesn’t work the way you want for this card’s purposes, and including the reminder text is like scoring a goal for the other team. A quick fix/power up would be ~ populate X times, where X is the number of tokens that convoked it.”

@reaperfromtheabyss​ I don’t usually care about whether entries have images or not but damn, this is a fitting image! A really solid and balanced card, though it lacked the wow factor (see below)

@partytimesdeluxe​ Nice mechanical combo and the name/ flavor text amplify the overall feel of the card. I kind of wish there was some hybrid white action in too because the UB color combo isn’t known for token making or cheap creatures in general. It would also give the feeling that Dimir’s reach into Selesnya is more “tangible” as it would spread into the gameplay itself.

@gollumni​ Great name and constellation ability, they create a really nice image . However there are tiny “flaws” on the card that drag it down. First as a general rule, graveyard effects appear later on the card, because they aren’t as relevant as the actual effect. Escape is new, and I understand you wanting to use it, but enchantments are generally hard to remove so I don’t know how important it is for the card. If this was an aura or if you introduced a second color in the main or the escape cost that encouraged self mill, this card would probably feel more “whole”.

@grornt​ The Simic were a favorite in this contest, and you did a great job combining it with bloodthirst. I also find it hilarious that you can give +1/+1 counters on your opponents creatures when they enter the battlefield so you can fight them. There’s a thin slice in the Green’s color pie for big weird creatures and you were spot on!

@i-am-the-one-who-wololoes​ There’s a fine line between risky and balanced and I think you might have crossed it with this one. Power level aside I would like to comment on your choice of mechanics. Storm creates copies of the spell, so if an opponent wants to somehow mess with your plans, they would have to interact with each copy, which is practically impossible save for specific storm hating cards, so regardless of the actual effect of the card, split second is kinda extra. An equally extra card would be an Eldrazi with Ingest and Annihilator 3.

@hypexion​ This is our only Kamigawa card, and it’s as bizarre as the artwork of its spirits! And you used the two weirdest mechanics from the plane too. It’s hard to grasp the power level but one thing I don’t like about the card is that it’s so overly specific it cannot exist by itself.

@vasnirada​ Graft 0 surely caught my attention but the shock value didn’t live up to the hype. It’s a great card for both early and late game, but it’s more complicated than it should be, and the Graft part of the card isn’t pulling its weight.

@top-hat-von-rattle-bones​ The combination was really unexpected and once you figure it out, it does put a smile on your face. However though the heroic trier nets you mana and gives you a stickier board, you accomplish it by weird gameplay and loss of cards, so the pros and cons kinda cancel out each other.

Let’s say you got Ajani’s pridemate and this on the battlefield and a giant growth in your hand. If you want to “cheat-attach” Najad to the pridemate you would have to sacrifice the giant growth, which would also fizzle because its target, Najad is no longer a creature. Maybe with some more work, a heroic bestow creature would better.

@coolflashyname​ If the recent standard format taught us anything, it’s that Undergrowth and Surveil go really well together. I like the spicy detail that Jerrav can shuffle itself in the library so you can repeat the etb (almost surely exile target creature). In a library with few remaining cards, it can be a real menace!

@greensunzenith​ Above we saw a tri colored card that combined two mechanics, and here we see the color shared by the two guilds being used! Simple and efficient design that requires some small setup. I wish there was a cycle of cross-guild oaths. You might as well consider this a side-challenge.

@snugz​ Isn’t it funny when you get similar designs from different people? @reaperfromtheabyss​‘s design lacked the wow factor, this bad boy on the other hand lacks the brakes for the valuetrain. a 4 mana 4/4 (practically) undying is already good enough and the trigger is both draw and burn for the opponent. Maybe with a tweak in the mana cost or the trigger are required.

@nine-effing-hells​ Yet another Simic card. But who can blame you? I love them too! A+ card type (which is the main quality of Simic cards) A+ flavor text, starting stats and abilities. If the challenge was about uncommon cards this would be an absolute winner!

@koth-of-the-hammerpants I didn’t count Skulk as an ability, it belongs in the things that could be evergreen but we don’t use them. The design is a bit busy and the end result, is you being able to refresh Eszti. Undoubtedly, it’s a good card, especially in grindy games but I think you overestimated it. The white part of the card and the mythic rarity are a bit extra.

@juggernaut-is-a-metalhead The second card with addendum today. Turns out it’s more popular than I thought. I really like the card, choosing between surprise kill and an army of small creatures to sacrifice etc. The combination of Bloodthirst and Addendum is a win more situation though, especially when you compare one token with flash vs 5 sorcery speed ones. Maybe it should care about power and not toughness.

@teaxch​ I can’t decide if the flavor text is sad or funny, guess old habits like grave looting never go away :p On the actual card, though simple it’s a really good common card, you can build a 3/3 flyer on turn 3! I would pick it early!

@morbidly-queerious​ Simic and Selesnya, this time on a hybrid card. This could make a really nice Bant commander, combined with the various +1/+1 counter lords from across recent mtg sets.

@karkavicious-vantas​ Last card... wow lots of entries! So Imprint and Metalcraft! And self metal replication from small creatures you control! Really nice value design and aggressively costed! What I like most about the card though is that metalcraft exists as a way to limit the value production! Unorthodox (because usually we have X thing matters to reminded ourselves for bonuses) yet very smart! Also pairs great with the name!