Thank you for all the awesome round 1 submissions.

(Legendary Creature - Phyrexian Lord) - (rare)

Other Phyrexian's you control get +2/-1
First Strike, Deathtouch
Bleed 3 (whenever this creature attacks, you may give target creature -3/-3 until end of turn)

So these were some fantastic entries. I was super happy with all of it. But it's a contest, so I guess I need scoring, and prizes and all that stuff or nobody will keep going, so here we go:

Merlot

Toshiro, Samurai Paragon:

Art: 5/5 Quite fantastic. I can absolutely picture the complete image in my mind's eye. Very on theme for the character, and just solid all around.

Mechanics: 8/10 While I do really like the abilities of the card, I think at rare it might be a bit too good. Sort of an improved eight-and-a-half tails -and- abuse of etb abilities, PLUS Sphinx's Revelation all at instant speed, no tapping? Maybe if the Revelation ability had an additional cost, or could only be done if you had a certain amount of honour (though that makes it feel a LOT like a planeswalker)

Overall Design: 4/5 I'm also not sure how I feel about someone killing themselves to protest the actions of their master "helping" their owner to gain power and knowledge. But overall, I really like this guy.

Agony of Disgrace:

Mechanics: 5/5 I really like this in limited and block. 3 mana at common where it won't actually kill anything, but will set you back a lot is really good. Distributing the -1/-1 counters equal to the lost honour is very much on theme and very black.

Flavour Text: 5/5 Relevant to the effect of the spell, on theme for the type of character Toshiro is. Good stuff.

Zealous Retainers

Mechanics: 4/5 I think given the overall feel of the card and Toshiro, and Bushido as a thing, I'd like this better if it was only exiling attacking creatures. I do enjoy how it gives honour to its allies or master when it sacrifices itself. Otherwise, it's a solid uncommon.

Flavour Text: 5/5 All of your flavour text is super solid. Fits the card, fits the flavour of the concept in the set.

Tactical Superiority

Mechanics 4/5: On one hand, I would have liked this better if it was Samurai creatures only getting the first buff, but that would severely limit the appeal outside limited and -maybe- standard. But this is an awful lot of effect for 6 mana, even at mythic. vigilance, hexproof, and most of your creatures also getting unblockable and +2/+2? That would be a solid combat-based Mythic. But then we add in bouncing a permanent every time a creature attacks or blocks? At 7 or 8 it would be solid, at 6 I think it might be a little -too- good. I'd argue in a vacuum, it's better than omniscience, which is 10.

Flavour Text: 5/5 I think the best part of this flavour txt is that you've got the section and chapter number of the book the quote came from. It hints at a greater deeper lore underpinning the story which is excellent.

17/20 + 10/10 + 9/10 + 9/10 = 45/50

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AEther Storm

Kroth, the Ignited

Art: 4/5 I dig the image of the creature being all elemental and only somewhat humanoid, but I would have liked a little more description of the surrounding area besides just "a lava stream"

Mechanics: 8/10 Given your entry below for Volcano, where it has the type 'Mountain Volcano' you missed the chance to give Kroth 'Volcanowalk' instead of spelling it out. I really like Flare as an ability, and the fact that his Pro Red protects himself from flaring. I actually think he might be a little too -weak- for his cost/rarity. a 3/3 for 4, with pro red, and limited unblockability that has the potential to cause you as much harm as your enemy could stand to be stronger. Solid entry though.

Design: 4/5 The art and name go well together with the effect, and while the flavour text made me chuckle, the plane sounds really serious and 'hard times'y, so the goofy text caused a bit of a disconnect.

Draghan Mirror/Bearer

Mechanics: 5/5 I really like this guy. As a Bear goes, D'Avenant Archer is a solid common. Useful in groups, not a horrible draw in limited. Blocking for 2 and dealing 2 more to take down something harder is good without being too good.

Flavour Text: 1/5 It is somewhat topical, and works coming from this guy, but the instructions for the round were that the flavour text had to be a quote -attributed to- the legend. Not just about him.

Volcano

Mechanics: 4/5 I think I'd like this better if the eruption effect were 2 or 3 damage to one creature rather than 1 or 2 to the ground. Pyroclasm's an uncommon for 2 mana, and a repeatable pyroclasm for 1, multiple times in a turn is pretty strong for a common. Also, since it's a land, two of them actually kill Kroth, which probably shouldn't be able to happen.

Flavour Text: 5/5 This is great. Works well with every element of the card and its impact while Kroth is on the field.

Remayan Cultovator

Mechanics 4/5: A full-on keyword that lets you search your library for land and put it right into play? already appearing that way on a common? That's -really- good. I know it's dead against non-red, but you describe this as a very Red-heavy block like Torment was black, so especially in Limited and Standard, this is -super- good. I'd either put it at uncommon, or put the lands to your hand, or maybe split it off where creatures or enchants put land in your hand, and sorceries or instants put a land from hand to play or something would balance it out a little better.

Flavour text 2/5: Again, unfortunately, this isn't a quote attributed to Kroth which were the instructions. It is absolutely fantastic, however, outside the directions, to be on this card.

16/20 + 6/10 + 9/10 + 6/10 = 37/50

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skizzikmonger

Amondeus, Master Torturer

Art 4/5: I really like the image, and the detail, but the giant sword with a pike blade on the end of the handle loses me on 'master torturer' where's the wicked curved knife, or the cat-o-nine-tails or something besides a giant "mow the guys down" weapon?

Mechanics 8/10: Very Rakdos. Love the sacrifice on etb to manage the powerlevel, and the fact that in edge cases, you can abuse LtB and Madness and Unearth and Dredge etc to turn it into a benefit. Same issue as with the art though, where's the torture? No -1/-1 counters? No punishing hand size? He's an excellent "Big beefy sui black demon" it's just at odds with the name.

Design: 4/5 Same as above. The card as a whole is great, but it doesn't mesh together as neatly as it could/should. Still a solid entry.

Throne of Flesh and Bone

Mechanics 4/5: Honestly, I think this is underpowered. 5 to play, 5 to use, to put a card into hand and then lose a bunch of life? And it gets exiled? At that cost, especially at mythic, I'd put the card right into play. Compares very unfavourably to anything with 'tutor' in the name. but balance aside, mechanically I love it.

Flavour Text: 5/5 Pretty much bang on. It explicitly describes the function of the card in the thematic purpose it was clearly intended.

Choice of Evils

Mechanics 4/5: I can see where you went. Black for drain, Red for Quake, and I like it. But drain on a red spell, even if it's from "the black half" is thematically off. maybe if instead of an X spell, it were 6 or 7 mana to cast, and drained equal to swamps, and quaked equal to mountains, it would stay better on theme. Still a nice card.

Flavour text: 5/5 Once again, directly on theme with the who motif of the cards, topical, interesting. Continuing the flavour text where the other one left off is a nice touch as well.

Bloodletting

Mechanics: 5/5 Pretty much the epitome of a giant splashy mythic Rakdos card. Low cost for three Xs all happening at once is mitigated by also hitting you. Again, in Rakdos colours, sacrificing the creatures and pitching the cards might well leave you in a better position than you started, which is great too. Mythics you can build around are nice.

Flavour text: 3/5 The best score for a flavour text that missed the requirement to be spoken -by- the legend, because again, it just fits perfectly with the whole set of cards. I really want to know who/what the Reaper is now, and flavour text should drop hints like that where it can.

16/20 + 9/10 + 9/10 + 8/10 = 42/50

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Zarfolos132

Keldron, King of Gavony

Art 5/5: Absolutely love it. I can already feel exactly what this character is like. His kingdom and the people are more important than anything else, and the only reason he wants to be a king is so he can help them. Great!

Mechanics 10/10: Simple, Gruff, Splashy and Powerful. The mechanics fit perfectly with the character we're seeing. 3/4 for 6 with big combat splashy powers is right in line with Rare white legends. Tribal is always great.

Design: 5/5 Really nothing bad to say about this card. Flavour text and art work with mechanics and style. Very well designed.

Battle Strategy

Mechanics 5/5: Solid uncommon. Sorcery gives them a chance to fiddle with their creatures or yours before combat phase, which balances it down to uncommon.

Flavour Text 5/5: I'm definitely seeing him up in front of his men giving inspiring speeches. Good stuff.

Keldron's Protection

Mechanics 4/5: The spell on its own is great. A sort of leg-less Master Apothecary, but so far Keldron's been all about combat, attacking and tactics. This is a little off theme to be named for him.

Flavour Text: 5/5 Simple and gruff flavour text for a simple and gruff guy is bang on.

Sword of the Holy

Mechanics 3/5: Name is kinda off. 'Holy' isn't really a vibe I'm getting from Keldron. Outside the cheat to equip it, 3 drop and 4 equip for +1/+3 and Vigilance is a little high. I'd like it better if the free equip triggered off an equipped solider dying, rather than a new solider coming into play with the old one is still alive. Especially with the flavour text.

Flavour text: 5/5 Given how I'd have liked the sword to work, which was largely informed by Keldron's character and this flavour text, it's great.

20/20 + 10/10 + 9/10 + 8/10 = 47/50

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Fluffycow

Domino, the Prodigy

Art 4/5: The image is cute, in the sense of how you described him in the notes above, but as actual art, there's not enough here about what he actually looks like. Makes it hard to imagine.

Mechanics: 9/10 He's quite solid mechanically. Spellshaping is a time-honoured tradition that should come back now and then. Turning cards into creature-damage and not player-damage keeps the powerlevel alright. Both abilities having tap in their cost keeps the second from being too powerful. I like it.

Design 4/5: It mostly all fits together nicely, but a character that is the class clown, and bully, who is, as you say, more full of himself than his skill would indicate, should have some kind of "he cheats or is lazy" drawback in there.

Ill-Gotten Stamina

Mechanics 4/5: I like that this begs to be a combo piece, and that sorcery speed gives opponents time to respond, which keeps it good at uncommon. Turning everything into Goblin Sharpshooter is interesting, and it obviously comboes well with the Spellshaping of Domnio.

Flavour text: 3/5 Someone who hasn't also seen/read Domnio might have a bit more trouble figuring out why this text is clever, even though it is sort of implied by the extension of what you could do with the card.

Alchemist of Plata

Mechanics 5/5: Solid recursion card. Works well with the fact that Madness is making an appearance in the set.

Flavour text 3/5: I think Domino sounds too respectful here. He should be talking about how he can do better, not how their results are inarguable :P

Wild Blast

Mechanics 5/5: Utility spot removal, with the potential mid/late game to be a nice alpha strike. Goes well with the other elements we're seeing in the set with spellshapers and madness. Exiling the cards keeps it nicely in common.

Flavour text 5/5: There's the bit of stupidity to go with the intelligence that was missing in the last card.

17/20 + 7/10 + 8/10 + 10/10 = 42/50

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nfg2240

Kitch, Silent Slayer

Art 5/5: Fantastic description. No complaints at all.

Mechanics 8/10: Assassins traditionally only destroy tapped creatures. I also feel like, given that he has deathtouch, it could have been 'deals 1 damage' and then with lifelink would have already gained a life, and not needed that second clause in the rules text.

Design: 4/5 The lifelink is the only thing about this guy that is making me feel BW, everything else feels BB or maybe even UB

Dagger of Kitch

Mechanics 4/5: I really like that this basically turns any creature into Kitch, but it's pretty redundant on Kitch himself, which also ends up giving the idea that it's Kitch's magic knife that gives him his powers, and not himself.

Flavour Text 5/5: Works well. Topical, on theme, goes on the card with the text of the card.

Assailant's Strike

Mechanics 3/5: This is a -really- good kill spell. For BB it's a flat upgrade to Devour in Shadow, Death Stroke, Grasp of Darkness, or Victim of Night. An unrestricted kill for 2 mana is quite good, and with exile, it's even better.

Flavour Text 2/5: Great text, works with the card, but not actually a quotation from Kitch.

Strength in Shadow

Mechanics 4/5: +2/+0 and Intimidate is perfectly on flavour to have just been mono-black. Not really sure why this is also Green.

Flavour text 4/5: The read is a little clunky, could be phrased more smoothly, and really, if death is what is hiding in the shadow, it's totally reasonable to be afraid of all shadows.

17/20 + 9/10 + 5/10 + 8/10 = 39/50

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ryan2754

K'rrik, Fortress Lord

Art 5/5: The thing that sold the art for me is that Jhoira's keep is suspended/split seconded. Awesome.

Mechanics: 8/10 I'm a big fan of how it makes two kinds of creature, and they both have their drawbacks. Feels very mono-black which is great. The only thing is that I'd rather this either spellshape, or at least tap to use, so you can't ramp your way into an alphastrike so easily. Enough Negators don't care if your board is now empty.

Design 5/5: The slight degree of overpoweredness of the abilities aside, the overall effect is solid. He's sort of one step removed from sui black by enabling it which is cool.

Send to the Void

Mechanics 5/5: When you know that you want to get something with it, it's great spot removal. It's a great hell-bent enabler if you want it to be, and can help fill your bin with dredgers etc. I like it.

Flavour Text 2/5: Text is a little extended away from the function of the spell. Sounds more like it would be on a card giving hexproof or unblockable or shadow or something. Also not an actual quote by K'rrik.

K'rrik's Call

Mechanics 5/5: I like it. It's an edict, with the tutor to bump it up to rare. Gets K'rrik out.

Flavour Text 5/5: Works for the character, works for the spell, has a nice direct reference to the function of the card.

K'rrik's Minion

Mechanics 5/5: This is a nice solid common. The drain isn't too powerful since it's a 4-drop on a smallish body. The 2 power on deathtouch discourages multiple blockers, which works really well with the flavour text.

Flavour text 3/5: You get 2/5 for a great bit of flavour text that works great for the card but wasn't a quote by the legend as required. You get the third point entirely for 'lassitude'

18/20 + 7/10 + 10/10 + 8/10 = 43/50

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Ficksquoose

Dysis, Herald of Ruin

Art 5/5: I really like this art. It's subtle, yet disquieting. Trouble is on the way.

Mechanics 10/10: I enjoy creatures that have disincentives to block that aren't just evasion, it creates more interesting game states. Is not taking damage worth empowering the removal effect? How big do you need to make Dysis before it's worth throwing blockers in front? Good stuff.

Design: 5/5 Yeah, this is a fantastic card. Everything goes great together.

Destructive Purge

Mechanics 4/5: Pretty strong for a common, even at sorcery speed. Exiling one card and destroying another for 3 at common is really good. It's rare to get a full-on 2-for-1 like that at common, let alone with exiling. Makes a lot of decks suffer a lot by exiling an equipment/aura and killing the man as well. I'd bump it to uncommon or cost it at 2WR

Flavour Text 5/5: Text tied directly to function, which also matches art. Dovetails with the whole theme I'm picking up from Dysis (which is more than a little Cthonic. Intentional?)

Invocation of Mortality

Mechanics 5/5: Very very Rakdos and I love it. It's very strong, but not grossly overpowered for 4 mana at Mythic.

Flavour text 5/5: I'm pretty much going to have to sing the doom song now. Dysis is a beast, and bad bad things are happening here. Awesome.

Tendril of Ruin

Mechanics 5/5: A 2/2 for 4, that is also reusable vindicate on a stick. Would be really powerful, but the "3 spells" clause makes it eminently play-around-able, which was needed for an uncommon.

Flavour Text 5/5: Pretty much dead-on. Ties directly into the effect of the spell, feeds into the theme of the set, implies more interesting information available elsewhere.

20/20 + 9/10 + 10/10 + 10/10 = 49/50

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Atog

Oduo, The Lost Child of Alara

Art 4/5: I like where you're going with this, but it needs more description than just "Like these two cards stuck together"

Mechanics 9/10: It does feel a little too similar to the original Child of Alara. I know that kinda follows given the theme of the card, but as a new creation, that's a little bit of an issue. The colour split on the abilities, and the size of the body for the cost are dead-on though.

Design 5/5: Great card overall though. I like, as above with Ficksquoose's entry, enjoy the disincentive to block that isn't just evasion.

Purest Intent

Mechanics 3/5: Needing to reveal, choose, and discard multiple times in a row is pretty clunky as written. You could maybe try something like "Each player reveals his or her hand, the owner of the three cards among them with the highest converted mana cost discards them. If there is a tie, you choose which card or cards are discarded" so it could be done all at once.

Flavour text 2/5: Text works well for the mechanics, but this isn't a quote from the legend, as required.

Reverse Reality

Mechanics 2/5: I get what you were trying to do, I do. I like the concept. But mechanically this really just falls flat. Checking every time someone taps a land for mana that turn, which colours they can produce (given things like Fellwar Stone, River of Tears, Nimbus Maze) is really awkward. As well, what happens if they can produce every colour of mana? The land fails to produce mana?

Flavour text 1/5: Also not a quote from Oduo, and doesn't really speak to the effect of the spell, especially given how similar Oduo already is from the other Child of Alara

Everlast Abandon (meant to be Everlasting? Abandonment?

Mechanics 4/5: I do really like this card, and the mechanic where it hangs around for someone else to use is novel and I like it. But there MUST be a better way to handle passing the spell around besides having to manually remember who cast it last. Maybe you can exile it under control of target opponent, and it can be cast from exile? sort of a counterspell hot potato?

Flavour text 2/5: Really, same as above. Sort of clunky, not really relevant to the card and not a quote by the legend.

[b] 18/20 + 5/10 + 3/10 + 6/10 = 32/50

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Jesus, that was a long post, but I felt like I should give the responses as much attention as the submissions. Hopefully nobody is now furious at me, and everybody will want to get in on the next round, which I'll post shortly.

Ficksquoose: 49/50
Zarfolos132: 47/50
Merlot: 45/50
ryan2754: 43/50
Skizzikmonger: 42/50
Fluffycow: 42/50
nfg2240: 39/50
AEther Storm: 37/50
Atog: 32/50

Round 2

So now that you all have a legend, and have put some thought into what kind of person they are, and what kind of theme surrounds them and their block, it's time to develop them a little more deeply. This round is going to be two cards only.

1. A Legendary Land - I want a Legendary land at Mythic Rare. It has the following design constraints: The land must have at least one activated ability. The land must meet the color-identity restraints of the legend you created in round one.

(For anybody unfamiliar with EDH/Commander, the colour-identity of a card is determined by the presence of any mana symbol in the casting cost or rules text of the card. If your Legend is U/W, for example, your land cannot contain any B/R/G mana symbols anywhere in the rules text.)

2. Elevate your Legend to a Planeswalker - The time has come for your Legendary creature to find their spark and become a Planeswalker. Mythic Rare, ideally in the same colour(s) as the Legend, as we lack the world detail/progression to explain why that would change (as in Tezzeret)

Scoring

1. Legendary Land:

10 points for the mechanics of the land, powerlevel/balance etc.

5 points for the theme/flavour as being a legendary land representative of your Legend.

2. Planeswalker

10 points for the mechanics of the land, powerlevel/balance etc.

10 points for the theme of the planeswalker, showing the progression from their creature form into a PW, remaining in flavour for how the Legend functioned.

Total points for the round: 35

This round will end in 10 days, on Monday July 15th at 10:00pm EST. Same as in round one, any edits made after that time will be summarily ignored, and you may face disqualification.

Get designing!

The owner of 3 highest cost cards will get confusing. I tried going that direction.

__________________
I'm a geek, you're a geek. Let's trade.

Land-Legendary Land Mythic Rare

T: Add 1 to your mana pool.

T:W: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool

T: 2WW: Creatures you control get +1+4 and vigilance until end of turn.

"From the Township grew the Kingdom, and now even the lowliest of beggars can be safe from the creatures that stalk the night." Inscription on the archway above the city's open portcullis.

Keldron, Hope's Bastion 3WW

Planeswalker-Keldoren Mythic Rare

+1 Put 3 1/1 white Soldier Tokens onto the battlefield
-3 Creatures you control get +1/+2, gain doublestrike, and vigilance until the end of the turn.
-7 Exile all permanents your opponents control until the end of the turn.

Valley of Death
Legendary Land-Swamp Mountain (M)
T: Add B or R to your mana pool
Valley of Death enters the battlefield tapped.
1BR, T: Destroy target creature.
2BR, T: Valley of Death deals 3 damage to
target player. That player discards a card at
random then discards a card.

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2. Elevate your Legend to a Planeswalker

Art: A massive Volcano that dwarfs the others on the plane. Birthplace of Kroth. With its immense underground magma reserve it can fuel volcanoes around the planet and create new ones out of ‘regular’ mountains, thrusting the magma from underground upward causing an eruption.

Legendary Land – Volcano – Mythic

Krak’tau, House of Magma comes into play tapped.
Tap: Add RR to your mana pool for each Volcano you control.
RR: Target Mountain you control becomes a Volcano in addition to its other types and gains: R, Tap: Deal 1 damage to each creature and player. Use this ability as a sorcery and only once each turn.
Tap, sacrifice Krak’tau, House of Magma and 4 other Volcanoes you control: Krak’tau deals 5 damage to each creature and player. If a creature named Kroth, the Ignited is put into your graveyard in this way, you may search your library for a card named Kroth, the Molten One and put it into play, then shuffle your library.

Flare.

Ages ago people worshipped Krak’tau, believing it to be the creator of Ramogg. Now they fear it, believing to be its destroyer.

Planeswalker

Kroth, the Molten One 2RRR

As Kroth’s anger rises due to him not being able to eradicate Ramogg of the inhabitants of the Blind Spot and the subterranean caves (where the Blue and large amount of Black creatures/folk dwell), he decides to merge himself with the supervolcano Krak’tau, something even he has feared not knowing if it would destroy the plane completely. Though he came to be there, he had never dared to return there remembering the overwhelming power he had felt then, almost consuming him. As he flows through the lava streams and finally merges himself with Krak’tau which, a chain reaction starts that makes all volcanoes erupt simultaneously, with Krak’tau being the last one. A massive eruption is sent out, followed by a shockwave (by the now elevated Kroth as a result of the eruption, him being so powerful now), that destroys the supervolcano and any nearby volcanoes. The power of Krak’tau now flows through him, but his ties now reaches further. He is able to feel the warmth of mountains that are not or not yet Volcanoes, similar to what Krak’tau was able to do.

Art: A humanoid form hovering over a crater with magma dancing around him, bending to his will

Planeswalker – Mythic

+2: Kroth, the Molten One deals 2 damage to each creature and player.
+1: For each Mountain you control, add R to your mana pool.
-8: Sacrifice all Mountains you control, then destroy that many lands.
Loyalty: 3

”I am now the mother and the son. You will burn before me”.

__________________
I'm a geek, you're a geek. Let's trade.

Legendary Land Mythic Rare

T: add 1 to your mana pool

1WU, T: Put an Honor Counter on target creature you control.

1WUU, T, sacrifice Kenkyu, The Library of Virtue: Search your library for an artifact or enchantment card with converted mana cost X or less, where X is the number of Honor Counters on creatures you control, and put that card onto the Battlefield under your control.

“In times of greatest adversity, it is almost always more useful to put your hand to a book than a blade.”
- Toshiro Furikami, On Scholarly Virtue, preface dedicated to Renzo Furikami

Toshiro Furikami, Martial Scholar 1WWUU

Planeswalker – Toshiro Mythic Rare

+2: Until your next turn, creatures you control gain “whenever this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, you may return it to your hand.”

-2: Search your library and graveyard for three cards with different names and reveal them. Target opponent chooses one of those cards. Put that card into your hand, then exile the rest.

-8: You get an emblem with "Whenever a creature attacks, you may draw a card."

1. K'rrik's Fortress
Legendary Land - Mythic Rare
T: Add B to your mana pool.
1B, Sacrifice a creature, T: Destroy target creature.

Tosei, Prison of Fire and Ice
Legendary Land (mythic)

At the beginning of your upkeep flip a coin, if you lose, shuffle a creature you control at random into its owner’s library.

Tap: add R or U into your mana pool

2RU, tap, discard an instant or sorcery card: Gain control of target creature. Activate this ability only as a sorcery.

There is only one escape.

The story continues with Domino’s affairs in the prison and of course, he finds a way out.

Domino, Ascended
2UURR (Mythic)

+1: Target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn.

-2: ~ deals damage equal to the number of loyalty counters on ~ to target creature or player.

-6: You get an emblem of “you may play instant and sorcery spell from exiled as though they were in your hand”

8

Temple of the Apocalypse

Legendary Land - Mythic Rare

An ancient stone temple in disrepair sits on a landing of a cliff face. There is no path to access it, yet firelight blazes from one of the windows, and the gate stands ajar.

Flavour text for both cards deliberately omitted, as I don't expect that there is room to template that.
When Temple of the Apocalypse enters the battlefield, sacrifice 3 non-token permanents, or sacrifice Temple of the Apocalypse

Remove a doom counter, T: Add WBR to your mana pool.

Whenever a non-token permanent goes to an opponents graveyard from the battlefield, put a doom counter on Temple of the Apocalypse.

Remove 3 doom counters, T: You may search your library for a Horror card, reveal it, and put it into your hand.

WWBBRR, Remove 20 doom counters, T: Target player loses the game.

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Dysis Rue, Bringer of the End 1WBR

Planeswalker - Dysis - Mythic Rare
The image perspective shows Dysis looking down at the viewer, the expression on her face is cold and bleak. The mane of the horse she is sitting on is barely in frame. Behind and above her looms an indistinct and somewhat luminescant mass, also only partially in frame. She points forward, past the viewer, as though showing the way for the monstrosity behind her.

+2: If target permanent is put into a graveyard this turn, you may draw a card.
+0: Put a divinity counter on another target permanent. It is indestructible as long as it has a divinity counter.
-8: Destroy all permanents, then remove all divinity counters from all permanents.

Atog

Aeon Frontier

Mechanics 8/10 - I actually really like this land. It's a great call back to Crystal Quarry, and while you forgot to actually template it as a Legendary Land as instructed, its legendary status and mythic rarity help justify the fact that Crystal Quarry needs 5 mana every time you want to make WUBRG. Also needing to feed a full WUBRG into it to activate it does the same.

Theme 4/5 - Being WUBRG centered is an obvious choice for a land based around your legend, though you set the tone with the legendary creature for splitting up the colours into multiple abilities that fit the full colour pie, so this feels more like a good choice for the original Child of Alara rather than the Lost version.

Oduo of the Void

Mechanics 7/10 - Generally I like him. I think he's fairly costed at 8 for how powerful he could be solely runnig down his -2 ability. I'm not sure how I feel about him being able to set you aside 14 cards plus two hands the turn after he hits the board, having bounced more stuff into the hands. If the ultimate took 1 more turn even to go off, I'd be happier. There's also a couple of syntax problems. I'm a little leery of the fact that with a bit of protection, 3 turns later the opponent is basically locked out of playing anything by that effect. Maybe if they were +1/-3/-8

Flavour 8/10 - I dig where you've gone with this. I like that he's basically decided he's just going to put a stop to everything. It doesn't mesh as well with the legendary land making WUBRG as I'd have liked, since he's now pretty heavily colourless, but overall, I can follow how we got here from where we started, and that narrative is important.

12/15 + 15/20 = 27/35

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Zarfolos132

Gavony Kingdom

Mechanics 8/10 - Solid card. Pretty much bang on for the white/soldier/defensive aspect. The only quibble I have is the mana filtering. Tapping for colorless instead of white is odd but fine, and +1/+4 Vigilance is pretty powerful but costing 4 white and a tap, on a mythic legendary land is fine for something of that power. Piling toughness onto weenies is a very white ability.

Flavour 4/5 - Really my only issue as I said above is the mana filtering. Needing white in is fine, but I'm not really feeling this land being the city of this mono-white stalwart solider type being able to make black or blue mana. Everything else is bang-on.

Keldron, Hope's Bastion

Mechanics 6/10 - This card draws obvious comparisons to Elspeth. Jesus is this powerful. Elspeth for the same casting cost makes three soliders as a MINUS 2. Elspeth for 4 mana only makes 1 solider as a plus one. Three as a plus one is I think, too much. Likewise, +1/+2 Doublestrike and Vigilance for all creatures is really powerful. 3/3 and flying on only one creature is a +1 on the 4-cast Elspeth. I don't have a huge problem with the ultimate. They're supposed to be flashy, and this is quite flashy. It also means that if they have an answer in response to you activating the ability that ruins your alpha strike, they get all their ETB abilities again, and might well ruin your day.

flavour 10/10 - Since flavour ignores the powerlevel, much higher marks. I really like the whole suite of abilities for Keldron. He trains his mans, he makes them powerful, and when he wants to end the battle, he does it in a way that actually saves the lives of the enemies. Solid.

12/15 + 16/20 = 28/35

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Skizzikmonger

Valley of Death

Mechanics 9/10 - Coming into play straight tapped no matter what is a nice balance on being dual land ++, I like the abilities. I like the costs for them. Blightning and Terminate, while strong, work well at one extra mana each, with the tap. Given that it comes into play tapped, it gives opponents the chance to see it coming and play around it.

Flavour 3.5/5 - I really like the flavour of this card as a Rakdos card. It's very nicely Black/Red in a compelling way. I had the criticism of Amondeus that with the name 'the torturer' that he didn't feel very torture-y. This land feels the same way. I'd have maybe liked to see instead of destroy a creature, put 3 -1/-1 counters on a creature or something similar. Still a strong card.

Amondeus, Slayer of the Innocent

Mechanics 8/10 - The design of this planeswalker is great. I love the interaction between the -1 and the -8 ability, setting up a boardwipe and alpha strike. I also like how it takes two turns to set up, so opponents can see it coming and take steps to stop it. I feel like perhaps it should only have 4 or 5 starting loyalty, because that ultimate punch is pretty powerful especially if you're specifically working with -1/-1 counters so you don't need to spend a turn putting the counters out. I'd also perhaps consider having the +2 just deal 3 damage or destroy/no-regenerate rather than exile.

Flavour 10/10 - Now HERE is the torturer I was looking for. Damages creatures, except the ones he hates the most which he kills. Makes creatures weaker. Harvests the souls of his victims to fuel dark draining energy. Great stuff.

12.5/15 + 18/20 = 30.5/35

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AEther Storm

Krak'tau, House of Magma

Mechanics 9/10 - This is, to me, a very solid entry mechanically. Comes into play tapped, incentivises using the mana for things besides obvious acceleration, gets incremental utility over time, but as the only one that gets more mana from volcanos, doesn't cascade out of control. I think it doesn't need flare, given how much else it does, and how busy the card is all along. I'd have to play with it a while to see if I wanted it to only tap for R per volcano, or perhaps tape for RR for each OTHER volcano you control, so you need some other mountains to start the chain.

Flavour 5/5 - Having this fetch out your PW if you control the legendary creature version is absolutely wonderful. The theme is fantastic. I can picture the whole thing in Michael Baysean explosive glory, and Kroth rises out of the explosion bigger and badder.

Kroth, The Molten One

Mechanics 9/10 - 3 starting loyalty on a 5 mana planeswalker seems like it will consign it to unplayability, except for the fact that the +1 is such solid acceleration. As a -2 on Koth it was pretty good, and while that makes it pretty strong, it's balanced by the +2 also hitting your own stuff (And Red often has smaller creatures that don't like pyroclasm) and the fact that to ultimate lands either 6 turns later, or 4 turns later if you're smacking yourself in the face. Giving red what is most likely going to be Bust (which costs 6) as the ultimate is pretty reasonable too.

Flavour 10/10 - I wasn't really buying into the whole Kroth motif in the earlier entry, but these entries really round it out and make it a lot more interesting. There's a solid design throughout these cards that all dovetail together and it makes for an engaging concept.

14/15 + 19/20 = 33/35

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Merlot

Kenkyu, the Library of Virtue

Mechanics 9/10 - The biggest question for the rest of the set is how easily you get to 10 honor counters among creatures you control. If this is a turn 3 or 4 "Put Omni onto the battlefield" it's pretty great :P But really, this is a very good card. Not making coloured mana is a great drawback for the rest of the utility. The sacrifice on the tutor as well. Abilities obviously synergize very well. Mirror Gallery came from Kamigawa too, and that with the fact that it doesn't take the honor away with it would be good encouragement to run multiples, which is another good check.

Flavour 5/5 - What can I say, you're nailing all the flavour scores here. You've obviously put a lot of thought into this and it is showing in the design. The abilities are working with the name and the theme, they synergize and complement. Awesome.

Toshiro Furikami, Martial Scholar

Mechanics 9/10 - So, I like all of these abilities. 5 mana for a 3 loyalty PW is a good balancing point. The ability to choose to bounce anything targetted is quite strong, but play-around-able. The tutor is balanced by the exile consequence for the unchosen cards. You need to pick three cards you'd like to see or you get left with the crap, but it also means two cards you'd like to see go away. The ultimate drawing on any creature attacking is pretty strong though. I know, it's an ultimate so it is supposed to be, but that is so very much advantage. Maybe if it were whenever one of their creatures attacked, or one of yours, but not both? Still, minor issue.

Flavour 10/10 - Yup. Another solid flavour entry. Carries the martial element of white and samurai via the combat tricks at +2, and the combat based functinos of the emblem. Gets the scholarly elements of blue with the card draw and tutor. Very nice.

14/15 + 19/20 = 33/35

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ryan2754

K'rrik's Fortress

Mechanics 8/10 - Simple, to the point, on theme. Honestly, could be stronger. I'd consider making it also type Swamp, or some other extra ability to really crank it up to mythic. I mean, 1B, tap: Destroy a creature as its only function would have probably been fine even without the sacrifice.

Flavour 5/5 - Yup, you go to his fortress, you get yourself killed. That's what happens. He decides to leave his fortress, you get killed too. I like it.

K'rikk, Invader of Tolaria

Mechanics 10/10 - This is just a really solid Planeswalker. I don't think it's too strong, or too weak. 4 loyalty for 5 mana in double black is fine. The drain is great in multiplayer and reasonable in single-player. Ultimate suffers a bit from not doing much to the game state immidiately, but it does have some serious consequences as play continues. Very well done.

Flavour 8/10 - A solid entry flavour-wise. Imagining the life loss on a creature going to +1 being connected to his sort of killing the creature before it even has a chance to live is pretty awesome. The drain is a little off to me, but not enough to really dock you much. Maybe something more connected to direct creature kill. Emblem is pretty solid.

13/15 + 18/20 = 31/35

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Fluffycow

Tosei, Prison of Fire and Ice

Mechanics 9/10 - Actually I really like this land. The coin toss is both in keeping with Domino's U/R nature, and the potential to be losing your creatures is a good balance to being an automatically in-untapped Dual land, and to balance out the spellshaping into control. Also encourages you to dump your hand to minimized your own creatures going away. Synergizes with the abilities of other cards shown in the set as well.

Flavour 4/5 - On the one hand, the flavour of the card with the mechanics is fantastic. On the other, in what world do you send people to a concentration camp to show you -aren't- a heartless tyrant? There's some potentially quite dangerous consequences to presenting the flavour in this way.

Domino, Ascended

Mechanics 7/10 - Comes into play with WAAAY too much starting loyalty. Even though he costs 6, he says, the turn he drops into play "You can flashback everything forever" with no other drawback? That as the only ability of something that cost 6 would be hideously powerful. Add in getting to give other things flashback? So you can flash back a normal spell, which exiles it, and you can already play it again with that emblem. I actually really like all of the powers of this guy, thus the 7 in spite of the fact that even with the high cost he is Bah-Roh-Ken. I'll Show and Tell this guy all day long.

Flavour 9/10 - Powerlevel aside, the actual function of the card is really great thematically. I'm seeing Domino being tried by his hardships and maybe chilling out on being so full of himself. He's willing to sacrifice his power to get the job done. The old Domino we saw as a legend would probably wanted a +1 and a +0 ability so as not to weaken himself. I like seeing the development of the story being reflected in the card.

13/15 + 16/20 = 29/35

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Ficksquoose

Temple of the Apocalypse

Mechanics 10/10 - Pretty much everything about this card is great. It costs a lot to get into play, except in these colours you'll likely not mind sacrificing creatures too much. This portion of the set is all about destruction, so you have plenty of ways to build up Doom counters. Using killing creatures as the power source for the powers is really interesting, and I think your costs are about bang on. Do you sit on counters hoping to build up to the game loss? Do you use it for tutor? Acceleration? Lots going on, but sharing currency keeps them balanced.

Flavour 5/5 - This is exactly the kind of card I'd want in foil just to keep in a folder and look at. Alternate win con, super thematic. You can see this temple up on the cliff, and some bad stuff is going down in there. Sometimes a flare of energy heralds some new misfortune, sometimes a horrible beast shuffles out to menace everybody, and sometimes you are just screwed. I really like this card.

Dysis Rue, Bringer of the End

Mechanics 10/10 - Man, I was really not planning to hand out a perfect score on any round unless I was totally blown away, but here we are. +2 is well balanced. You get +2 which is enough of a benefit even if you can't get the target binned. Drawing a card is pretty fair for basically calling your shot. Passing divinity counters around coupled with the ultimate is nicely Oblivion Stone-y with the added benefit that you get incremental bonuses from the counters, balancing the fact that the PW isn't getting any closer to ultimating off, and can't protect herself either. The ultimate is as splashy as it should be, but it can be seen coming a mile away which gives opponents a chance to spend a few turns working towards holding it off.

flavour 10/10 - Yup. Everything about this card is just great. She's calling out doom, gaining power from the proof of her abilities to declare someone's doom. She's setting aside the chosen ones, the people that will serve her master after the end has come. And most importantly, she utterly cannot save herself with any of her powers. She's a tool, and she's fulfilling her purpose and that's the end of it. Great card.

Alrighty folks, thanks so much for your awesome entries in round 2! Some great stuff in there!

So now we're onto the third and final round. Big points available here, so don't feel like you're out of it!

Now that our Planeswalker has a home and a spark, they've gone and attracted the attention of a powerful enemy. Maybe they're from the same plane, maybe they have become aware of our hero and are setting out to stop them. In any event, it's time for a DUEL DECK.

So this one is going to be a -little- content heavy (But don't worry, I won't be asking you to design the whole product:P) There are going to be 3 cards to design and then a special extra bit. So without further ado, here's the final round!

An Enemy Planeswalker

I want to see a new original Planeswalker to be the opposition in this Duel Deck. That means no existing PW even in a new form. Completely new design. Ideally they will be in at least one enemy colour to your PW, if not exactly opposed. Remember, part of designing a Duel Deck is that you don't want to necessarily be putting blue against blue, as they become too samey. That said, you aren't going to be penalized if for example, your legend was WUBRG and your PW is colorless (Looking your way atog) because 'enemy colours' don't really exist in that case, but I want to see some philosophical opposition here. They are coming after your PW in particular, on purpose.

A Trademark card

For both Planeswalkers, I want to see a new card, at rare or mythic rare, but any kind of spell/creature/artifact etc. This card is going to be featured on the box with the PW as their trademark card, in foil. It should be as thematic and unique to the PWs as possible.

A small list of topical reprints

Here's the oddball of the round. Duel Decks are also a great chance to reprint old cards and bring them back. I want a list of 3 each of already existing commons, uncommons and rares in the colour/colours of each planeswalker (So that's 9 cards per PW, 18 cards in total) that make, in your opinion, the most thematic and topical reprints to add into the decks. Remember, I'm actually looking for reprints, not new designs.

Scoring for Round 3

1. Enemy Planeswalker

10 points for the mechanical design of the planeswalker. This will be based on balance, costs, powerlevel etc etc.

10 points for the theme of the planeswalker as pertaining to being the enemy of the PW from round 2. This will be based on your description of this PW and why they are coming after your PW (A short paragraph is fine) and the degree to which the mechanics work thematically with the concept for the PW and as an enemy of the round 2 PW.

2. Trademark Card

10 points for mechanical design of the trademark card. This is based on balance, costs, powerlevel etc etc.

10 points for the theme of the card. How well does it fit mechanically with the planeswalker? Does it further their goals? enable their powers? Is this card unquestionably something they would use themselves at every opportunity?

NOTE: THAT IS 10/10 = 20 POINTS PER CARD. SO EACH PW'S TRADEMARK CARD GETS A SCORE OUT OF 20 FOR A TOTAL OF 40

Topical Reprints

For each card (18 in total, 9 per PW, 3 each at common/uncommon/rare per PW) I want just a sentence or two explaining why you think this is one of the better choices for a reprint in this duel deck. You'll get 1 point per card that fits and that you effectively argue fits. I'm generally expecting this to be 18/18 for everybody, but remember, I'm a hardcore Vorthos, and you can be topical and flavourful without being painfully obvious. Try to find some things that are at least slightly interesting, and don't just give your mono-red spellcaster lightning bolt.

There is a bonus of 5 points for the reprints which is based on how far-reaching your choices are that still fit. So if you just list a bunch of straight burn spells for your red mage, that's more of a 1/5. If you pick cards whose effects work and whose -theme- fits as well, you'll be more towards 5/5. I know this is pretty subjective to my tastes, but it's only 5 points out of 83 total points in the round, so nuts to you :P

So that's my third round, hopefully everybody is still having fun, and we'll see some great entries!

Good luck!

quote:

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Originally posted by fluffycow:
Just a suggestion for the next round, if you make each round worth less than the round before, those that didn't do too well won't really participate and you may end up with a blackmage scenario on your hands, and nobody wants that.

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I agree with this really. Perhaps you're not critical enough on the entries, as approximately everyone is given more or less the same score. I feel it's impossible for me to make up for lost ground (even though I feel my first entry could have been scored better, looking at the others, and my misinterpretation of your meaning regarding the flavor text), but I will still put up an entry as I like this kind of thing.
Cheers,

PS: glad you're now digging my (first) entry. I already had the full story in my head as you started this so his evolvement was planned.

__________________
I'm a geek, you're a geek. Let's trade.

And while I feel really bad about the people who lost a bunch of points from the flavour text rules in round 1, I stated, very clearly, that the onus was on you to read my instructions and follow them correctly.

That's part of any design submission, and you're being judged on your ability to follow directions in addition to executing those directions well.

quote:

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The most important feature of these three cards is that they must all have flavour text attributed to the Legendary creature you made.

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I guess there's a chance people had trouble with the phrase 'attributed to' ? But then even in my description for scoring for that round I included as a criteria

quote:

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Does it make sense to be said by the Legendary creature?

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Edit: And I guess I'll address this issue with scoring the entries "too similarly"

So here's the thing. I'm making a very distinct effort to set criteria for what I'm looking for, and then judge each entry by those criteria, without paying any attention to the comparison between entries.

The decision to see three out of 8 people get a 10, and the other five get a 9 and decide that this is not good, and that we need to spread the scores out is called grading on a curve. That's when you have a predetermined distribution of scores that you must map everybody onto. Many college courses are graded this way, and it absolutely infuriates me.

The idea that my great mark is going to be pushed down just because a bunch of other people also did great work is almost as bad as the idea that my crappy work is going to be pulled up because a bunch of other people also suck.

To have set out thinking with 9 people that I was going to give out one 10, one 9, two 8s, two 7s, two 6s, and a 5 (or any other distribution) is pretty insulting to the designers. It says to them that the objective quality of their work is worthless, and that their entire score is based on the subjective comparison to the work of others.

And honestly, if I was "more critical" in my scoring of entries, this would be much less of a competition. If my worst marks were 1s and 2s instead of 6s and 7s out of 10, the people currently leading (whose 9s and 10s would likely have stayed 9s and 10s, maybe with a few 8s here and there) would be insurmountably ahead of people who got 8s and 9s (who might have gotten 6s and 7s if I was 'curving' the scores) judging each entry without considering how it 'compares' to the others, and just scoring it in a vacuum has actually made it a -more- competitive competition.