CCF Design Contest?

[Anusien]

I thought it would be a fun idea to come up with a series of challenges for a TMD Design Contest, sort of like the Wizards one.  Give the challenges on Monday, have them due by Friday or so, and have them graded and the new one up by next Monday.  Maybe even put it on a two-week cycle.  We could have the winner of each week give the next design challenge, and him/her and the top two finishers acting as judges.  Maybe even give 1-10 scales and keep averages (that way being in the top 3 wouldn't harm you).  Thoughts?

[Godder]

That's pretty cool. I'd love to either 'compete' or judge one of these .

[Anusien]

I'll start.  If anyone wants to help judge, post here, otherwise I'll do it, and let the next person come up with a challenge.

We'll start simple.  The deadline is Friday, December 8th.  PM me Anusien all submissions.  I'll try to have comments up by Monday.

The challenge:
Design a common cycle of creatures.  You can choose, tight or loose cycle.

Common creatures are among the hardest things I've found to design, personally, because you have to find something elegant, uncomplicated and yet interesting.  All the obvious ones it seems like are already made.  Also, this will help fill a unique hole in the set, since it seems like we have fewer staple common creatures than anything else.  I would estimate we have fewer commons than uncommons and rares.

[parallax]

I'll go ahead and volunteer to give the next challenge on Monday.

[Marco]

I've submitted my common cycle of creatures.

[Anusien]

I have submissions from DanDan and Marco.  If there's sufficient demand, we can push the deadline back, seeing as how I'm in the middle of finals anyway.

[parallax]

I'll have my submission in by Friday. I'm still tweaking the last couple cards.

[Godder]

My entry is in.

[Anusien]

Submission by MarcoElvish Construct
1
Artifact Creature – Elf
1/1
G, Sacrifice Elvish Construct: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.

Goblin Construct
1
Artifact Creature – Goblin
1/1
R, Sacrifice Goblin Construct: Goblin Construct deals 1 damage to target creature or player.

Soldier Construct
1
Artifact Creature – Soldier
1/1
W, Sacrifice Soldier Construct: The next 1 damage that would be dealt to target creature this turn is dealt to another target creature instead.

Wizard Construct
1
Artifact Creature – Wizard
1/1
U, Sacrifice Wizard Construct: Return target creature to its owner's hand.

Zombie Construct
1
Artifact Creature – Zombie
1/1
B, Sacrifice Zombie Construct: Target opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life.


Submission by Dandan
Name
X
Creature - Beast
You may use only colour mana to pay the casting cost of this spell
X/X

Black - Swamp Thrasher
Blue - Island Fish
Red - Mountain Boulder
Green - Forest Treant
White - Plains Wanderer

Room for flavour text but I don't want to lose credit by writing Dandan flavour text!!


Submission by Godder
1W
Creature - Soldier
1/1
Flying
Powerup W ([CARDNAME] comes into play with +1/+1 counter on it for each W used to pay its cost.)
Whenever [CARDNAME] attacks or blocks, remove a +1/+1 counter from it.

1R
Creature - Elemental
1/1
Haste
Powerup R ([CARDNAME] comes into play with +1/+1 counter on it for each R used to pay its cost.)
Whenever [CARDNAME] attacks or blocks, remove a +1/+1 counter from it.

1U
Creature - Elemental
1/1
Powerup U ([CARDNAME] comes into play with +1/+1 counter on it for each U used to pay its cost.)
Whenever [CARDNAME] attacks or blocks, remove a +1/+1 counter from it.

1B
Creature - Imp
1/1
Swampwalk
Powerup B ([CARDNAME] comes into play with +1/+1 counter on it for each B used to pay its cost.)
Whenever [CARDNAME] attacks or blocks, remove a +1/+1 counter from it.

1G
Creature - Elf Warrior
1/1
Trample
Powerup G ([CARDNAME] comes into play with +1/+1 counter on it for each G used to pay its cost.)
Whenever [CARDNAME] attacks or blocks, remove a +1/+1 counter from it.


Submission by Parallax
Glider Scout
2U
Creature -- Vedalken Scout
2/2
Whenever CARDNAME attacks, target attacking creature gains flying until end of turn.

Luring Scout
2G
Creature -- Elf Scout
2/2
Whenever CARDNAME attacks, target attacking creature must be blocked this turn if able.

Ambush Scout
2R
Creature -- Human Scout
2/2
Whenever CARDNAME attacks, target attacking creature gains first strike until end of turn.

Funeral Scout
2B
Creature -- Zombie Scout
2/2
Whenever CARDNAME attacks, target attacking creature gets +1/-1 until end of turn.

Chivalrous Scout
2W
Creature -- Human Scout
2/2
Whenever CARDNAME attacks, target attacking creature gains flanking until end of turn.

[diopter]

Submission by Marco

When I first saw this, I thought it said "Submission by Maro" :shock:

[parallax]

Are we supposed to be commenting on, ranking, or grading these or are you in the process of judging them yourself? I'm not clear on how this is supposed to work.

[dandan]

Godder thinks like me. Poor Godder 

[Anusien]

Since I started it, I was planning on naming a winner, but I've been in a finals crunch and haven't had a moment.  In the meanwhile, feel free to comment on them yourselves.

[Illissius]

I'm not sure how much liberty I have to be critical, seeing as I didn't submit anything myself (due to lack of laptop). In any case, I like Marco's the best. It's a blatant ripoff the Replica/Spellbomb mechanic, while the others are blatant ripoffs of TGDS submissions, but at least it's the nicest and most elegant. (The black one is below the curve compared to the rest, and the blue one probably above it, but that's fixable.)

[Anusien]

I find it interesting that 4 people entered, and two chose to do an artifact cycle.

Marco's cycle I like because it mirrors the artifact creature cycle from Mirrodin, however I'm not sure the creatures are all in balance.  The blue once feels the strongest, and the green one has been done at common.

Dandan's submission really gives flexibility to the player, and I find that flexible cards are generally.  That said, his submission is pretty poor for limited (oftentimes these will be bears or something) and it is the sort of card that not so subtly encourages monocolor play, which as Maro is fond of pointing out, the rest of Magic does fairly well.  I'm not also sure I get whether the thing after the land type is the name or name and type or both (the simplest explanation is name, and type is beast).  In any case, Island Fish is too close to Island Fish Jasconius, and I'm uncomfortable with having a cycle of beasts.

Godder's submission actually seems to get a lot of flexibility that Dandan was shooting for, but it's not obviously clear if pay CC whether I get a 2/2 or a 3/3.  3/3s for CC seem bad, especially in every color, and I'm concerned that the blue one doesn't have an ability at all.  Also, having the blue and red ones have the same creature type was a distractor.

Parallax's submission seems pretty balanced, except for the green one.  We don't see lure effects much, and I like them, but I really don't know how to deal with it.  It's the only one that may or may not be a positive (the black one is also on the verge here).  If it gave provoke, it would be much more interesting, but that would push you into a weak cycle.  Then again, it's possible that would be a better direction.

I think I like Dandan's idea the best, but I have to agree that Marco's submission seems done the best.  They're pretty solid for limited play, being the kind of 1 drops that people actually do want to play.  Parallax's execution was also very good, but the idea behind it wasn't as strong.

So I'm prepared to give it to Marco.  What is everyone else's thoughts?

[Godder]

I couldn't think of a decent creature type for the Blue one, and Blue does Elementals, so that was my stopgap effort. Also, the Blue one didn't get an ability because a 3/3 for UU is not something Blue sees much, even without abilities. The reason for making them 1/1 with counters was so that they don't die on you when they shrink (any time they attack or block) until they become 1/1.

Of course, none of that is intended to make my submission better, because I didn't spend ages on it anyway .

[Anusien]

That's fair.  I just think these are fun and will really help generate a lot of cards for the set.  For that matter, we ought to find some actual holes in the set and fill them this way.

[parallax]

I think Marco wins.

[Marco]

Yay! What do I win?

Designer's Notes: My common cycle of creatures is obviously based on the Replicas from Mirrodin (another common cycle of creatures), which I thought were very clever. Especially Goblin Replica, a colorless artifact creature that counts as a Goblin (and interacts with other Goblins such as Goblin Lackey, Goblin Matron, and Goblin Ringleader). I didn't really think of the similarity to the Spellbombs from Mirrodin. Or to the Seals from Nemesis for that matter.

I set out to give each of them abilities that had been printed as commons and as instants.

Elvish Construct = Battlegrowth
Goblin Construct= Death Spark, Lava Dart, Spark Spray, etc.
Soldier Construct = Carom
Wizard Construct = Unsummon
Zombie Construct = Ebony Charm

I hope this doesn't come as a shock to anyone. Some of these effects had already been attached to creatures. (Mogg Fanatic, Waterfront Bouncer, Entropic Eidolon, etc.)

I liked the symmetry on the creatures: 1/1s for 1 with combat abilities revolving around the number 1 (+1/+1, 1 damage, 1 life, etc.)

I don't really think the black one is all that bad, but as an afterthought something like "B, Sacrifice Zombie Construct: Zombie Construct deals 1 damage to target creature and you gain 1 life" might work out better. I just didn't want it to be too similar to Goblin Construct (I was thinking of making Goblin Construct deal 1 damage to creatures only).

As for the blue one, I don't think "U, Sacrifice Wizard Construct: Return target creature you don't control to its owner's hand" or "U, Sacrifice Wizard Construct: Return target creature you control to its owner's hand" would be a suitable fix, so how about something like "U, Sacrifice Wizard Construct: You may tap or untap target creature" (Teardrop Kami). That is, if people really think the blue one is too good...

[Illissius]

I don't think it's too good per se -- eg, I doubt it would be a Constructed powerhouse -- it's just better than the rest of the cycle. If blue gets Unsummon, red should get Shock; otherwise, make it Twiddle.
I'm not sure what the black one could get which doesn't conflict with either Necrogen Spellbomb or Goblin Construct. Maybe a Raise Dead/Unearth or Innocent Blood variant. How about "put target creature card from your graveyard on top of your library"? (That might still be terrible, I'm not sure).