#people keep making sunny really menacing its awesome

[magicarasa]

CFAC 09 Entries -- Part 1

First image by SpaceWeaver

Second image by Rob Joseph

Third image by Diego Gisbert Llorens

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so many innovative designs. You all are really hitting this challenge hard. It’s awesome!

@amtgplayer

This is one bizarre take of the “PvE” idea: it fits in a normal game of multiplayer Magic, and mostly act as a normal Magic card — except with some probability, the players will then need to fight a monster together. (I took care that it only triggers in multiplayer.)

A major downside of this idea is that it is hard to describe a formidable adversary on a Magic card. Still, I think this example reasonably simulates a prison player that sits behind Ghostly Prisons. (Disclaimer: I don’t actually play multiplayer, so maybe I’m off by a lot.) Other “environmental players” can replace drawing cards with more interesting actions, like exiling cards from its owner’s library and casting some without paying the mana cost.

I don’t know how many rule problems will come with this idea, but I imagine the rule of thumb “the owner of the card makes all possible decisions” should eliminate most of them. (Yes, that means it “turns on” things like Fact and Fiction.)

This design is incredibly bizarre and absolutely nothing I ever expected to see. Masu will always have at least one intervention counter so it does become a big hurdle players have to commit to pretty quickly in order to take her down. Furthermore they have to do this after having their fields wiped. I think that task might be a little too difficult as is, but this is just so weird that I couldn’t say for sure. It does make for an interesting addition to a pillow fort deck--essentially telling players to attack this instead of the pillow fort player (though if they eliminate the real player this card leaves the game anyway so maybe it just means they should put more pressure on that player).

There are definitely a ton of rules issues but the concept here is really exciting. Well done!

Two points!

@dimestoretajic

Okay, here’s the thing.

I have no clue how Rain would affect the battlefield. None. I 100% believe it could work for the fan block, possibly in the same way weather affects combat in Pokémon, but how it would work outside of “things happen when it’s raining, or sunny, or snowing, or windy”, I have no clue. But… enjoy this “weather matters” card anyway? ^^;

Also Native American block FTW. :D

So basically the Steamflogger Boss of this contest. ;p The stats are reasonable, all depending on how Rain actually functions but even it’s easy to turn on, I’m imagining something a la world enchantments or planechase planes--you only have one active at a time so other players could make it sunny or whatever to negate the bonus. Weather matters is an intriguing concept.

Two points!

@morbidlyqueerious

So, this tackles two separate things, namely “angels that don’t care” from @nine-effing-hells and darkbond from @conorace .  I’m honestly not certain if this card even needs to be black, actually.  Also, the artifact thing is mostly from the art, but maybe it’s also unneeded?

I love the story that the flavor text adds to the effect here. As far as the effects go, I think it could be either WU or WB--white typically exiles while both blue and black steal things. If you wanted to push it, since the exile is creature removal, this could be bent into mono black. But at the same time it makes it even more iconic to have an unusual mana cost like this. Basically development can tweak that knob so it fits best in whatever set it’s in, which is nice.

The effects make sense but it’s in a bit of a weird space--just exiling one creature isn’t a huge play for a big investment on an otherwise vanilla creature, whereas if you get to steal a creature (and get an ETB trigger if it has one) for the same cost it’s a much bigger play without actually investing more (aside from running stuff that gets your opponent’s cards into exile first). Other than that I think an angel without flying would confuse a lot of players and that the art here is ambiguous enough that it could fly probably.

Two points!

@origins15

My thought process was inspired by the creation of atraxa from a lore perspective, how each praetor had a keyword of their color put into the creation. This is a collaborative effort between Sheoldred and Vorinclex. Their creation is ravenous, and is only sated through blood or mana.

I chose Phyrexian mana for flavor reasons, and I also felt that having the only payment option being two life would have been a little strong.

This is clearly a rattlesnake (rattle-gorgon?) something that’ll be a great defensive option, but can get some attacks through when necessary.

Nice use of Phyrexian mana. Cards that want other players to pay for something always run into this sort of problem and being able to pay two life instead of colored mana is an interesting option.

The problem is this is a lot of text to read sitting across the table, upside down, on an opponent’s card. Most players will accept it as a menace and deathtouch wielding gorgon and forget they can change that. However I think perhaps you could make effects like this a small focus in a set and perhaps give them a special frame in order to draw attention to them and clue players into the fact that they should be reading them pretty explicitly and keeping them in mind.

Two points!

@outerspace-messiah

Reading the creative bit, I figured story telling was a very important part of this plane, so I wanted to create a story telling mechanic. Chronicle acts like haunt or cipher in that it’s exiled and attached to the creature, but when it dies, it passes the story to another. Of course, not having another creature to pass the card to means the story is lost.

For the card itself, it looks like a lot because of ETB effect, but I was merely going for something flavorful based on the art that other Chronicle cards don’t have to have. The ETB turned out to work mechanically well with Chronicle though!

And of course, my only worries for the mechanic are the same as the problems with Haunt and Cipher, but that be a lesser problem since this is an unofficial set.

Which plane? We have a few we’re deciding from but no decision has been made yet. Chronicle is a neat mechanic, and it does have its issues. For one, being a permanent type that would remain on another creature but which is technically in exile is a big headache.

While mechanically quite different, my first thought was what if you had a Bestow variant that went on enchantment creatures and basically did what Chronicle does, except it would be attaching the aura to another creature (and thus it would still be on the battlefield).  Cool card, but it’s a lot to unpack and a tough area to play in.

Two points!

@sphinxs-revelation

I hope you recieved my lengthy submission for the Arcana mechanic on MtGFanset. This card is obviously intended as an enabler for it, though even without it, it leads to some interesting choices, espescially in multiplayer. It lets you help your teammates or appease would be enemies. You might want to reveal something harmeless… or better show them why not to mess with you?

Arcana actually posted from the queue, either earlier today or late yesterday, I’m not sure which.

Numbers on the card are solid here, especially since the lifegain is symmetrical. It is really cool to see just how many cards support this sort of effect, how innate they are to the game, and how the presence of such a mechanic can totally change how you evaluate those cards.

As for Arcana, it seems like it could be big trouble developmentally. Maybe a one-off fan set can skirt that trouble. Hedron Alignment gives free reveal triggers on your entire hand each upkeep. Madcap Experiment makes this totally broken by loading Arcana cards while putting in only as many artifact cards as are necessary to keep from dying. Just something people would definitely have to be aware of when working with this.

Two points!