July CCL, Signups/Round 2: Go for Two

[void_nothing]

CCL July Signups/Round 2

"Go for Two"


Volcanic Hammer, taken from EchoMTG, by Ben Thompson and Wizards of the Coast

Welcome to the Card Creation League! Everyone is free to participate in either or both of the first two rounds. Come join us!

Theme

It's Increasing Month here in the CCL. The cards will get bigger as we go along!

Challenge

Design an instant or sorcery card that has mana value 2.

Clarifications

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• Make sure to include a rarity.

Anyone can enter this second round! Your submissions are due Tuesday, July 19th, 23:59 EST.

Schedule

• Round 1 — Open to Everyone (June 30th-July 8th)
• Round 2 — Open to Everyone (July 14th-19th)
• Rounds 1 and 2 Critiques (Due July 21st)
• Top 8 — Open to top 8 finishers (July 22nd–25th)
• Top 8 Critiques (Due July 27th)
• Top 4 — Open to top 4 finishers (July 28th–31st)
• Top 4 Critiques (Due August 2nd)
• Final (August, winner determined by public poll)

Please note: For this month we will continue asking first and second round contestants to evaluate seven other contestants during the critique and top 3 period, in order to increase the total number of evaluations each contestant gets.

[OneAndOnly]

Triple Twist -- UG
Instant
Choose one:
* Target creature's power becomes equal to the number of cards in its controller's hand;
* Target creature's toughness becomes equal to the number of cards in its controller's hand;
* Target creature's base power and toughness become equal to the number of cards in its controller's hand.
Was it weak as a worm, or as stout as an oliphaunt's trunk? As dry as a twig, or as swift as a whipcrack?

[netn10]

Compromise 1W
Instant (Uncommon)
Counter target spell unless its controller pays 2. If that player doesn't, each player draws two cards.

[slimytrout]

Treetop Skirmish 1G
Instant (C)
Choose target creature you control and target creature you don't control. If the creature you don't control has flying, put a +1/+1 counter on the creature you control. Then those creatures fight each other.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Bifurcating Bolt RR
Instant (U)
Bifurcating Bolt deals 4 damage divided as you choose among any two targets.
"That idiot, running into a storm like that! Luckily, I'll should be quite safe here." - Deidran, Elvish Safewright, Last Words

[Henlock]

Veil of Safety 1g
Sorcery (u)
Counter the next spell an opponent casts this turn.
Draw a card.

[void_nothing]

Keeping this open until 23:59 Eastern tomorrow (the 22nd) - get your last-minute entries in!

[kwanyeegor-ii]

Induce Betrayal BB
Instant (Uncommon)
Target creature deals damage equal to its power to another target creature or planeswalker its controller controls.

[MonoRedMage]

Shape into Shrapnel 1R
Sorcery {U}
Destroy target artifact. Shape into Shrapnel deals 1 damage to each creature.

[void_nothing]

Okay, please critique each other contestant and provide a top 3!

[OneAndOnly]

Reviews

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Compromise 1W
Instant (Uncommon)
Counter target spell unless its controller pays 2. If that player doesn't, each player draws two cards.

I know WotC wants white to have counterspells, but they still feel weird to me. White and green get "counterspells" by giving their permanents protection / hexproof ... or flickering them, or making spells more expensive to cast in the first place.

It's almost too fair to see play. You can't sue it on your own spells (a la Memory Lapse or Remand, and a third player drawing cards for a spell quarrel between two other mages seems a little ... weird.

Treetop Skirmish 1G
Instant (C)
Choose target creature you control and target creature you don't control. If the creature you don't control has flying, put a +1/+1 counter on the creature you control. Then those creatures fight each other.

Pretty straightforward Prey Upon variant. There are a lot of fight variants in this CMC.

Bifurcating Bolt RR
Instant (U)
Bifurcating Bolt deals 4 damage divided as you choose among any two targets.
"That idiot, running into a storm like that! Luckily, I'll should be quite safe here." - Deidran, Elvish Safewright, Last Words

Much better version of Arc Lightning and Pyrotechnics. I realize the second card is old, but it shows how off the MV of this card is.

Veil of Safety 1g
Sorcery (u)
Counter the next spell an opponent casts this turn.
Draw a card.

Interesting. The obvious comparison is to Hesitation (which totally shoulda been a Seal). Making this only affect an opponent, and draw a card, makes it much more one-sided, so the CMC should go up by at least 1

Induce Betrayal BB
Instant (Uncommon)
Target creature deals damage equal to its power to another target creature or planeswalker its controller controls.

So, a bit like Domri's Ambush ... It's a little reliant on your opponent's boardstate.

Shape into Shrapnel 1R
Sorcery {U}
Destroy target artifact. Shape into Shrapnel deals 1 damage to each creature.

I feel like this should be limited to just damaging creatures controlled by the artifact's controller, which would raise the MV some. 2CMC to destroy a mana rock and wipe the board of most tokens seems a little too much value.

Rankings

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1. Induce Betrayal
2. Veil of Safety
3. Treetop Skirmish
4. Shape Into Shrapnel
5. Bifurcating Bolt
6. Compromise

[kwanyeegor-ii]

crits

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Triple Twist -- UG
Instant
Choose one:
* Target creature's power becomes equal to the number of cards in its controller's hand;
* Target creature's toughness becomes equal to the number of cards in its controller's hand;
* Target creature's base power and toughness become equal to the number of cards in its controller's hand.
Was it weak as a worm, or as stout as an oliphaunt's trunk? As dry as a twig, or as swift as a whipcrack?

Why does one of these say base power but not the others? its a bit subtle but i guess the different modes could be interesting

Compromise 1W
Instant (Uncommon)
Counter target spell unless its controller pays 2. If that player doesn't, each player draws two cards.

So each player draws 2 if the spell is countered? That mode is probably strong but at least it is only a tax counter. I think white can get these more often

Treetop Skirmish 1G
Instant (C)
Choose target creature you control and target creature you don't control. If the creature you don't control has flying, put a +1/+1 counter on the creature you control. Then those creatures fight each other.

Pretty good simple fight spell. I like the name

Bifurcating Bolt RR
Instant (U)
Bifurcating Bolt deals 4 damage divided as you choose among any two targets.
"That idiot, running into a storm like that! Luckily, I'll should be quite safe here." - Deidran, Elvish Safewright, Last Words

Whoa I like how it has to have exactly two targets. A new type of burn variant is nice. Probably super powerful for its cost but great design

Veil of Safety 1g
Sorcery (u)
Counter the next spell an opponent casts this turn.
Draw a card.

I feel like this could cost 1 mana since the opponent can simply respond to it, but otherwise it's an interesting idea, an insurance counterspell for your turn

Shape into Shrapnel 1R
Sorcery {U}
Destroy target artifact. Shape into Shrapnel deals 1 damage to each creature.

This one is nice and honestly has a super fitting name

t3

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1 theamericanspirit
2 slimytrout
3 oneandonly

[TheAmericanSpirit]

reviews

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Triple Twist -- UG
Instant
Choose one:
* Target creature's power becomes equal to the number of cards in its controller's hand;
* Target creature's toughness becomes equal to the number of cards in its controller's hand;
* Target creature's base power and toughness become equal to the number of cards in its controller's hand.
Was it weak as a worm, or as stout as an oliphaunt's trunk? As dry as a twig, or as swift as a whipcrack?

I like it. It can be removal or a combat trick. 4/5

Compromise 1W
Instant (Uncommon)
Counter target spell unless its controller pays 2. If that player doesn't, each player draws two cards.

This seems very good in a very esoteric way. Maybe too good? 5/5

Treetop Skirmish 1G
Instant (C)
Choose target creature you control and target creature you don't control. If the creature you don't control has flying, put a +1/+1 counter on the creature you control. Then those creatures fight each other.

I swear this card has been printed somewhere. Eh, ngl I find it okay but kinda boring. 2/5

Veil of Safety 1g
Sorcery (u)
Counter the next spell an opponent casts this turn.
Draw a card.

Ah, the ye olde sorcery speed counter question. This seems kinda easy to bait though and looks real bad next to the various veils. 3/5

Induce Betrayal BB
Instant (Uncommon)
Target creature deals damage equal to its power to another target creature or planeswalker its controller controls.

The flavor is a home run. 5/5

Shape into Shrapnel 1R
Sorcery {U}
Destroy target artifact. Shape into Shrapnel deals 1 damage to each creature.

Brutal and clean. Perfectly printable too, but I wish it was an instant even though that might push it too far. 4/5

Rankings

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1. Netn10
2. Kwanyeegor-ii
3. MonoRedMage

[slimytrout]

OneAndOnly

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I don't think blue/green should get to shrink creatures to 0 toughness, even if their controller has no cards in hand. If you could avoid the removal aspect I'd like it though.

netn10

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Huh. It starts off as a white Quench, which is maybe a little stronger than white should get but not out of the question. But does the additional ability make the card stronger or weaker? I don't know, but it's interesting.

TheAmericanSpirit

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Pretty pushed -- can compete with Searing Blood on a pure damage-for-mana front, and offers way more flexibility than that. Still, it's a fun little card.

Henlock

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Green is only allowed to counter abilities and not spells, so this is a break, even if it is a weird sort of card that only works on combat tricks.

kwanyeegor-ii

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Love it. Only note is that it might (*might*) be better costing RB instead of BB.

MonoRedMage

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Nice! I like it.

T3

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1. kwanyeegor-ii
2. MonoRedMage
3. netn10

[void_nothing]

And your top six contestants:

kwanyeegor-ii
slimytrout
Henlock
OneAndOnly
netn10
TheAmericanSpirit

Next round to come shortly!