MTG - You Make The Card VIII: Escape - Exile 7 MTG topics to create this thread

[TurboGhast]

Frozen Crossroads 2WU
Enchantment - R
Creatures enter the battlefield tapped with a stun counter on them.

1: Remove a stun counter from target creature. Any player may activate this ability. Activate only as a sorcery.

(I considered making the activated ability untap creatures but I didn't want the card to be a combo piece.)

[mystic1110]

Judging will be up sometime Wednesday evening.

[mystic1110]

Spoiler: Turboghast

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Frozen Crossroads 2WU
Enchantment - R
Creatures enter the battlefield tapped with a stun counter on them.
1: Remove a stun counter from target creature. Any player may activate this ability. Activate only as a sorcery.
(I considered making the activated ability untap creatures but I didn't want the card to be a combo piece.)

This is a tax on casting creatures with the benefit that you can pay the tax later and ETB effects still trigger. I like it, but am unclear how powerful it is - my sense is that at 4 CMC its actually underpowered and really only punishes Haste?

Spoiler: Dr. Gunsforhands

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Hangup Charm - 2(u/w)
Instant - U
Choose one -
- Counter target activated or triggered ability
- Remove target attacking or blocking creature from combat
- Return target enchantment to its owner's hand

This is an effective charm - my only qualm is that I think the middle ability makes sense as UW but not as U/W since paying it entirely with blue mana seems off

Spoiler: TiaC

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Mortuary Moratorium 3W
Enchantment
Whenever a creature you control would be dealt combat damage, prevent that damage and put that many destiny counters on that creature.
At the beginning of your upkeep, for each creature you control, remove all destiny counters from that creature, then Mortuary Moratorium deals damage to that creature equal to the number of counters removed from it.
Sacrifice Mortuary Moratorium: remove all destiny counters from creatures you control.

Assuming this is a rare? Otherwise, its very cool - delays death by one upkeep and lets you potentially get clever and save your creatures (either by sacrificing the Moratorium or with cards like Hexmage or other counter removers)

Spoiler: Ben-Zayb

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Perdeta, Bureaucracy Enforcer 3WUB
Legendary Artifact Creature - Drone Advisor M
Each permanent an opponent controls without exactly one file counter on it can't attack, block, or activate non-mana abilities.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may remove X file counters from ~. If you do, exile target permanent with mana value X or less until end of turn.
1: Put three file counters on a permanent you control or move a file counter from it to this creature. Only opponents may activate this ability.
0/3

So . . . you cast this - your opponent needs to start filing to get her creatures moving, so pays 1 to get 3 files on one creature, but then needs to pay 2 to move the files to Perdeta. So pays 3 mana to attack with one creature. Then perdeta can eventually remove any permanent as she accumulates files. It's kinda complex, and boy is that Tax huge. I think it might be more palatable with only 2 files to start with, since then opponents can activate creatures with 2 mana instead of 3, but it's tricky to balance IMO.

Spoiler: Quiddle

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Teferi, Who Turns Back Time 1UUBB
Legendary Planeswalker - Teferi MR
+1: Each player puts a card from their hand onto the top of their library.
-2: Return two target permanents controlled by different players to their owner's hands. You may activate another one of Teferi, Who Turns Back Time's loyalty abilities this turn.
-4: Each player shuffles all cards in their hand, exile, and graveyard into their library, then draws three cards.
4

Isn't Teferi's +1 a lock? unless they have a draw spell, they won't draw anything new for the entire game. I think that's brutal for a +1. Combined with Tefri's -2, I think this is not so much delay as it is a lockdown machine. Unrelated, but did he turn evil (the black in the cost)? I have not been following the plot lol.

Spoiler: Ironsmith

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[The Inevitable][5R]
A massive humanoid's silhouette strains against a set of chains, which are on the verge of snapping.
Creature - Giant (R)
The Inevitable enters the battlefield tapped.
During its controller's Untap step, any player may pay [3]. If they do, The Inevitable does not untap this turn.
Vigilance, Trample, Menace, Double Strike
6/6

This thing is beefy - I am a little afraid that the untap prevention only occurs during the Untap phase - there are so many cards that can untap this for 1 mana that it's almost a combo card. You can ignore the tax to keep it tapped since you can just untap it with other cards and hit for 12.

Spoiler: Tom the Mine

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Holding Cell W
Artifact U
Vanishing 2
When ~ enters the battlefield, exile target creature.
When ~ leaves the battlefield, return the exiled creature to the battlefield under its owner's control.
X, sacrifice a clue: Put X time counters on ~.
"We can only hold him for 48 hours without charging him so you'd best make them count"

The last ability is more for flavour but could extend the functionality mid-to-late game if there's something you need to stay gone more than you need card draw from a clue.

Honestly love the clue sacrifice to extend the timeline, this is a really well done delay card - cheap, and I can potentially see using this on your own creatures to get a delayed flicker

Spoiler: Winner

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Tom the Mine

[Tom the Mime]

Thanks. Quite a few interesting ones that round.

Challenge: Make a card that cares about or uses Treasure, Clue, Food and/or Blood

[Quiddle]

Special Ingredient 1B
Instant U
As an additional cost to cast Special Ingredient do one or more of the following:
Sacrifice a blood token, pay 3 life, sacrifice a creature.
Draw a card and create a food token for each additional cost paid while casting Special Ingredient.

[mystic1110]

Arterial Thaumaturge 1B
Creature - Vampire Warlock R
Flying
Whenever Arterial Thaumaturge deals combat damage to a player, create a Blood token.
Whenever you draw your second card each turn, each opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.
2/1

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Sabbat Shovelhead - R
Creature - Vampire Zombie C
Sabbat Shovelhead gets +1/+2 as long as you control a blood token.
1/1

Spoiler

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Ace Prosecutor - 1W
Creature - Human Advisor C
Vigilance
When Ace Prosecutor enters the battlefield,
create a tapped Clue token. (It's an
artifact with, "2, T, Sacrifice this artifact:
Draw a card.")
Whenever you sacrifice a clue, tap up to
one target creature.
2/1

Ace Attorney - 1U
Creature - Human Advisor C
Defender
When Ace Attorney enters the battlefield,
create a tapped Clue token. (It's an
artifact with, "2, T, Sacrifice this artifact:
Draw a card.")
Activated abilities of clues you control
cost 1 less to activate.
1/3

Tremere's Call - B
Sorcery - U
Kicker - Sacrifice 3 blood tokens.
Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand. If this spell was kicked, return it to the battlefield instead.

Force of Hunger - 1GGG
Creature - Elemental R
Trample
When Force of Hunger enters the battlefield, create a food token.
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice a food. If you can't, exile Force of Hunger and it deals 3 damage to you.
7/7

[Ironsmith]

[Vulpine Investigator][1[W/U]]
Creature - Kitsune (U)
When Vulpine Investigator enters the field, Investigate.
Whenever you draw a card as a result of a Clue Token's effect, draw again, then discard one of the two cards drawn.
"If you only come to the obvious conclusion, you aren't doing your job right."
1/2

[TiaC]

Pound the Pavement 1WU
Enchantment - R
Whenever you would scry, investigate instead.
Whenever you sacrifice a Clue, surveil 1.
"Keep your crystal balls and your diviners. There's no substitute for a good stakeout."

[somethingrandom]

Hoarding Goblin 1R
Creature - Goblin U
Hoarding Goblin gets +1/+0 for each Treasure, Clue, Food and Blood token you control
Whenever a Treasure, Clue, Food or Blood token under your control leaves the battlefield sacrifice ~ unless you pay 2
2/2

[Tom the Mime]

Spoiler: somethingrandom - Goblin Hoarder

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Hoarding Goblin 1R
Creature - Goblin U
Hoarding Goblin gets +1/+0 for each Treasure, Clue, Food and Blood token you control
Whenever a Treasure, Clue, Food or Blood token under your control leaves the battlefield sacrifice ~ unless you pay 2
2/2

I would have liked to see this have etb with a treasure, even if it might come at the cost of lowering the base power, especially given that it's not even pseudo cost reduction because if you use it, you lose the creaure. Still a nice design.

Spoiler: TiaC - Pound the Pavement

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Pound the Pavement 1WU
Enchantment - R
Whenever you would scry, investigate instead.
Whenever you sacrifice a Clue, surveil 1.
"Keep your crystal balls and your diviners. There's no substitute for a good stakeout."

Love the flavour but not a big fan of the effect. Played fairly it can give card advantage eventually but the tempo cost is massive - missing another 3 drop, 2 mana for any clue sac and losing out on smoothing out the draws from the scries. I feel like it would also need to reduce the cost of saccing clues by 1 and probably cost less to even start to be viable.
Janky combo with Contraband Kingpin and Reckless Fireweaver to go infinite but that's a 3 card combo in 4 colours so yeah. Otherwise you need a card to take advantage of the infinite clues (like grinding station) and a card to forcibly stop the clues as there is no may in either effect.

Spoiler: Ironsmith - Vulpine Invesitagtor

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[Vulpine Investigator][1[W/U]]
Creature - Kitsune (U)
When Vulpine Investigator enters the field, Investigate.
Whenever you draw a card as a result of a Clue Token's effect, draw again, then discard one of the two cards drawn.
"If you only come to the obvious conclusion, you aren't doing your job right."
1/2

Nice effect but the mechanism behind it needs tweaking - you never want cards touching the hand while still caring about specific cards, especially for a mandatory effect. When miracle was more commonly played, you had to keep the draw completely separate so it was unambiguous that that was the card you drew. If it was changed to "2, sacrifice a clue: Look at the top two cards of your library. Put one into your hand and the other into your graveyard", then it should work fine and more or less as intended.

Spoiler: Dr Gunsforhands - Sabbat Shovelhead

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Sabbat Shovelhead - R
Creature - Vampire Zombie C
Sabbat Shovelhead gets +1/+2 as long as you control a blood token.
1/1

Solid common design - 1/1 1 drop with a boost you can get easily but not T1 if you drop this T1 like Wild Nacatl, Kird Ape etc.

Spoiler: Arterial Thaumaturge - mystic1110

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Arterial Thaumaturge 1B
Creature - Vampire Warlock R
Flying
Whenever Arterial Thaumaturge deals combat damage to a player, create a Blood token.
Whenever you draw your second card each turn, each opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.
2/1

Nice synergy but feels like it might get out of hand fast for a flying 2 drop.

Spoiler: Secret Ingredient - Quiddle

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Special Ingredient 1B
Instant U
As an additional cost to cast Special Ingredient do one or more of the following:
Sacrifice a blood token, pay 3 life, sacrifice a creature.
Draw a card and create a food token for each additional cost paid while casting Special Ingredient.

Desperation cycling at 1 cost, reasonable value at 2 but not great (comparing to deadly dispute) good value at 3 but hard to reach. Seems a solid design.

Spoiler: Results

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Came down to Quiddle and DrGunsforhands...

Spoiler: Winner

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DrGunsforhands

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Whoa, really? I'm glad you liked it! I was partial to Arterial Thaumaturge personally.

Between March of the Machine and my having guns for hands, I feel like I've had my fill of the cybernetic themes permeating MtG. So, this week:

Make a colorless, non-creature, non-enchantment, non-equipment, non-vehicle artifact!

[Ironsmith]

[Detemperment Device][2]
Artifact (U)
[Tap, Pay 3] Add CCC.
"...But why, though?"

[mystic1110]

Throne of Perpetuity 4
Legendary Artifact M
When Throne of Perpetuity enters the battlefield, you become the monarch.
As long as you are the Monarch, “Until end of turn” and “this turn” effects don’t end.

[TiaC]

Here's one of these that hasn't been done before.

Insight Exploiter 4
Artifact - R
If a player drawing a card causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.

[ben-zayb]

Philosopher's Scone 1
Artifact - Food U
2,T, Sacrifice ~: You gain 3 life. Draw a card.
1,T: ~ becomes Gold, an artifact with “Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color.” Draw a card.
So close.

[Quiddle]

Zextrial, the Churning Fields
Legendary Artifact Land R
T: Add [1], discard a card.
T, Pay 3 life: Add [3], activate this ability only if you have no cards in your hand.

[Bucky]

Acerbic Chalice 2
Artifact - R
Acerbic Chalice enters the battlefield with three charge counters.
At the beginning of your upkeep, add or remove a charge counter from Acerbic Chalice.
Spells with Mana Value equal to the number of charge counters on Acerbic Chalice cannot be cast.

[Tom the Mime]

Bouncy Castle 4
Artifact R
Whenever a creature deals combat damage to you, return it to its owners hand.
2: Target player gains control of ~ until end of turn. Activate this ability only during your turn.

Not sure what the actual card name would be but I can't imagine the playtest name being anything else.

[TurboGhast]

Sculpture of Terror 5
Artifact R
Creatures can't attack you or a planeswalker you control alone.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Yuuugement! This is a good week to be the judge, too! Look at those entries!

What will we do today?

Spoiler: Detemper

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[Detemperment Device][2]
Artifact (U)
[Tap, Pay 3] Add CCC.
"...But why, though?"

Why indeed? To my mind, this would have been interesting in the limited format for that one Eldrazi set that introduced the colorless mana symbol, and basically nowhere else.

Spoiler: Perpetuate

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Throne of Perpetuity 4
Legendary Artifact M
When Throne of Perpetuity enters the battlefield, you become the monarch.
As long as you are the Monarch, “Until end of turn” and “this turn” effects don’t end.

This design is pretty cool! The ability is fun, easy to use asymmetrically yet nigh-impossible to instantly win with. The commander-style deck that really takes advantage still gives an opponent an out if they don't have a way to destroy artifacts, making it feel a bit like a planeswalker. The cost is probably correct. Competitive players will care more about being the monarch than extending the occasional effect. I'd like to see more about the setting and character that this ability reflects, but that it hooked me in that way is a good thing in itself.

Spoiler: Exploit

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Insight Exploiter 4
Artifact - R
If a player drawing a card causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.

I love the effect! The cost seems correct when measured against its contemporaries. The flavor might need another pass, I can't even guess what this thing might look like. One imagines you'd adapt it to whichever setting it happens to get printed into. Which existing sets had a lot of triggers-on-draw effects?

Spoiler: Philosophize

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Philosopher's Scone 1
Artifact - Food U
2,T, Sacrifice ~: You gain 3 life. Draw a card.
1,T: ~ becomes Gold, an artifact with “Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color.” Draw a card.
So close.

This one only works because of the pun, but you already knew that. In the food-and-also-gold-themed set that'd print it, you'd probably want to print it at common.

Spoiler: Churn

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Zextrial, the Churning Fields
Legendary Artifact Land R
T: Add [1], discard a card.
T, Pay 3 life: Add [3], activate this ability only if you have no cards in your hand.

This... works? I'm wary of printing a land that won't let you use it at all without discarding, but the person running this card's obviously not going to mind. It's funny, you'll want to print it in a set with a Hellbent theme, but in competitive magic it will probably be strongest when it's just a discard outlet. I feel like I only half-understand the flavor. I know it was my contest criterion, but how does it being an artifact serve its purpose? Just for game balance?

Spoiler: Sour

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Acerbic Chalice 2
Artifact - R
Acerbic Chalice enters the battlefield with three charge counters.
At the beginning of your upkeep, add or remove a charge counter from Acerbic Chalice.
Spells with Mana Value equal to the number of charge counters on Acerbic Chalice cannot be cast.

This is an old-school Stax card if I've ever seen one. It's good a keeping opponents a turn behind if you play it on curve, and at shutting down interaction if you don't. It might be fun as a puzzle, trying to guess what's in your opponent's hand while also making room for your own intentions.

Spoiler: Bounce

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Bouncy Castle 4
Artifact R
Whenever a creature deals combat damage to you, return it to its owners hand.
2: Target player gains control of ~ until end of turn. Activate this ability only during your turn.

Excellent playtest card, not sure if the second ability is necessary. I get that you can bounce your own stuff for ETB effects this way, but it's hard to imagine the deck that really wants both effects in one card. If the goal was to be able to turn it off so your opponents can't bounce their stuff on purpose, you'd probably want to redesign it as a cost to turn it on.

Spoiler: Sculpt

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Sculpture of Terror 5
Artifact R
Creatures can't attack you or a planeswalker you control alone.

The built-in flavor is cool! To me it really feels like you're giving yourself Menace, which adds an extra little layer of in-joke. Where Moat relies on flying being a common ability to make sense, this more correctly assumes that someone playing creatures will probably be playing more than one. It's enough to tip a board in your favor sometimes, forcing opponents to throw tokens to the wolves or keep back their one good attacker, but a medium-sized creature with Reach or Provoke would usually do the job better. As such, this could get away with costing less, I think. You'd want to get it out early and stay one step ahead on removal, or else use it to make your opponent over-commit to the board more than once over the course of the game.

Winner?

Spoiler: We will...

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...Perpetuate today! It was cool enough to hook me in like TurboGhast's and Tom the Mime's cards, and looks mechanically fun like TiaC's card. It just seems cool all around!

mystic1110 wins!

[mystic1110]

Thank you for the Win!

Let's get back to colors - Make a Non-Creature Enchantment with Two or More Colors.

[Ironsmith]

[Infamous][B/W]
Enchantment Aura (U)
Enchant target creature any player controls.
Enchanted creature gains Menace and "this creature must block if able".
"You need pictures? I can get you pictures."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Garden Path - 1WG
A bunch of armed goblins in a bright, flowery hedge maze, sampling a complimentary tea set.
Enchantment - U
Whenever a creature attacks you or a planeswalker you control, you gain 2 life.
-
There's no gas more poisonous than an air of civility.

[Quiddle]

Acceptance 1WWW
Enchantment R
When Acceptance enters the battlefield exile all graveyards.
Whenever a card would be put into a graveyard, exile it instead.
Whenever a card is exiled, gain 1 life.
///
Grief B
Sorcery - Adventure
Each player discards a card and loses 3 life.

[Tom the Mime]

Example 1R
Instant U
~ deals 3 damage to any target.
////////
Learn 1U
Enchantment - Curse U
Aftermath (Cast this spell only from your graveyard. Exile it when it leaves the battlefield.)
Whenever enchanted player draws a card, all other players may scry 1.

[mystic1110]

Judgement will be up tomorrow.

[TiaC]

Martial Flexibility UR
Enchantment R
Whenever a creature you control blocks or becomes blocked, you may switch its power and toughness until end of turn.

[mystic1110]

I apologize for the long delay and the lack of judgement - ran out of time. I can list the winner, which was Dr.Gunsforhands with Garden Path.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Real life comes first! Whatever you're doing out there, I hope it works out.

Meanwhile, this week, let's make a card that creates a token for an opponent.