Site News CFB Store Credit Contest: Design a Cube Card

[Grillo_Parlante]

The cool things about it are:

1. bloodthrone vampire has never been quite good enough due to the small body and temporary nature of the buffs. This doesn't have that problem.
2. Cheap and good sacrifice outlets are a rare commodity. This is an excellent one.
3. Its a black two drop that can block, which means you can run it in a lot of different decks (unlike carrion feeder).
4. Relevant creature type.
5. The ninjutsu makes it a modal card: you can either run it out as a two drop, or hold it back as a finisher to convert blocked damage into actual damage. You can get cool interactions too with cards like cadaver imp.

My only complaint is that I would like the ninjutsu to be 3cc, so it can fit better in aggro shells, but its still a design I would be excited to play.

 

[Meltyman]

The cool things about it are:

1. bloodthrone vampire has never been quite good enough due to the small body and temporary nature of the buffs. This doesn't have that problem.
2. Cheap and good sacrifice outlets are a rare commodity. This is an excellent one.
3. Its a black two drop that can block, which means you can run it in a lot of different decks (unlike carrion feeder).
4. Relevant creature type.
5. The ninjutsu makes it a modal card: you can either run it out as a two drop, or hold it back as a finisher to convert blocked damage into actual damage. You can get cool interactions too with cards like cadaver imp.

My only complaint is that I would like the ninjutsu to be 3cc, so it can fit better in aggro shells, but its still a design I would be excited to play.

Yeah, this card definitely would find a place in my cube, but i just don't see the downside for the ninjutsu being B or 1B.
It wouldn't be overpowered in a cube setting, i just don't see it.
Ninjutsu is a fun mechanic, but about every ninjutsu dude is so bad that you never get to see the mechanic in action

 

[safra]

Yeah, this card definitely would find a place in my cube, but i just don't see the downside for the ninjutsu being B or 1B.
It wouldn't be overpowered in a cube setting, i just don't see it.
Ninjutsu is a fun mechanic, but about every ninjutsu dude is so bad that you never get to see the mechanic in action

when you're developing a combo strategy you've gotta balance sweetness and 'cheese' imo, where 'cheese' is defined as the feeling of a cheap win, one that renders earlier decisions meaningless. Making the Ninjutsu cost take up most of if not a whole turn lets the combo kill feel 'special' and incentivizes someone to play it fair.

I just don't see it.

 

[DreamPaint]

Hey everyone, thanks for the kind words. I originally designed the sacrifice clause to provide +2/+2 until EOT, but I thought that might create too large of blowouts. Ultimately I felt that +1/+1 counters would give it more staying power in games where it was a turn two play in addition to supporting some of the proliferate themes that people utilize. Since i've never played with this card, I am not sure if the ninjutsu is costed appropriately, but I wanted to err on the side of caution. My goal was not to make the most powerful custom cube card, but rather to create a card that provided synergies to as many commonly played Riptide themes as possible.

 

[Grillo_Parlante]

I think you would want to bring the ninjutsu down to 2-3?

For everyone still confused as to why I like it so much, in my beloved goblin decks, a pretty common finishing play is to go wide on the board, and than crack around their blockers with one of these guys in play:



Than sacrifice the blocked creatures onto one of the unblocked creatures (or any creatures you cast that turn with summoning sickness) to produce lethal. Really nice evasive play for those decks.

There is a similar interaction in higher power formats with this guy



But tragically, both cards are tribal in nature, which means they translate over poorly into cube

Its just neat to see a somewhat similar interaction, especially stapled onto a card with great utility as a flexible sacrifice outlet.

 

[Meltyman]

Not an aggressive black creature... sorry.

Forked Bolt with sweet token and death trigger synergy!

You were ahead of the curve with this one!
http://i.imgur.com/eZez9qS.jpg

 

[Chris Taylor]

You were ahead of the curve with this one!
http://i.imgur.com/eZez9qS.jpg

Not Quite so. His version can't kill a 4/4

 

[whydirt]

Yeah, Mogg Fanatic tokens =/= Goblin Arsonist tokens. The latter are a bit more interesting for aristocrats-style shenanigans.

 

[safra]

So the deadline's up - when are you announcing the results?

 

[Dom Harvey]

I really wish there was a non-'tribal' Ravager (or Robots deck in general, really)

 

[Laz]

I was thinking about this as I walked home today and realised the format I would like results in. Podcast (probably more accurately, a video with card visuals and talking over it). Whether it be Jason and Eric, Jason and Chris, Chris and Onder, I don't mind, but I would like to hear two reasonably sensible designers discussing aspects of the submissions, probably freeform, but with some emphasis on a couple of criteria (for instance overall design, how it works with the archetype emphasis, aesthetics, etc.). Maybe there is a scoring system, maybe just a 'Yeah, I would probably play this' or 'I probably wouldn't play this'.

I don't know why, but I find design banter really awesome.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I was thinking about this as I walked home today and realised the format I would like results in. Podcast (probably more accurately, a video with card visuals and talking over it). Whether it be Jason and Eric, Jason and Chris, Chris and Onder, I don't mind, but I would like to hear two reasonably sensible designers discussing aspects of the submissions, probably freeform, but with some emphasis on a couple of criteria (for instance overall design, how it works with the archetype emphasis, aesthetics, etc.). Maybe there is a scoring system, maybe just a 'Yeah, I would probably play this' or 'I probably wouldn't play this'.

I don't know why, but I find design banter really awesome.

Aw, thanks! I did submit an entry though (through PM), and having to rate my own card would be awkward

 

[Chris Taylor]

I'd be down for this. I'll critique the hell out of my own card, IDGAF

 

[Jason Waddell]

I was thinking about this as I walked home today and realised the format I would like results in. Podcast (probably more accurately, a video with card visuals and talking over it). Whether it be Jason and Eric, Jason and Chris, Chris and Onder, I don't mind, but I would like to hear two reasonably sensible designers discussing aspects of the submissions, probably freeform, but with some emphasis on a couple of criteria (for instance overall design, how it works with the archetype emphasis, aesthetics, etc.). Maybe there is a scoring system, maybe just a 'Yeah, I would probably play this' or 'I probably wouldn't play this'.

I don't know why, but I find design banter really awesome.

I'll be in London with James this weekend, maybe we can go over the submissions via stream then?

 

[Jason Waddell]

So the deadline's up - when are you announcing the results?

Uh.... soon. Sorry for the delays people, been really busy, as you may have gathered!

 

[Laz]

I'll be in London with James this weekend, maybe we can go over the submissions via stream then?

10/10 would listen. Maybe just record the session in OBS (you can capture power point slides of the cards right?) and upload to YouTube?

 

[Chris Taylor]

10/10 would listen. Maybe just record the session in OBS (you can capture power point slides of the cards right?) and upload to YouTube?

This sounds ligit. You want me and the bootman on, or no? (Was it me and bootman?)

 

[Jason Waddell]

This sounds ligit. You want me and the bootman on, or no? (Was it me and bootman?)

Why don't you guys PM me ways to contact you. I'm free Saturday evening London time or Sunday during the day. Will have to work out schedules with James.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

This weekend is already pretty busy for me, so I wouldn't mind sitting this out. To be honest, I love that Laz brought my name up, but I don't know that I'ld be comfortable participating in a stream

 

[Laz]

This weekend is already pretty busy for me, so I wouldn't mind sitting this out. To be honest, I love that Laz brought my name up, but I don't know that I'ld be comfortable participating in a stream

That is completely fair.
I was just throwing names out, and I thought that since you and Chris have a lot of experience using customs you two would be reasonably well qualified. That said, I only know each of you from your writing styles, I have no idea how anyone presents or how confident they feel about it. I was mostly throwing out an idea for a results format that I thought I would enjoy, not assembling a podcast-dream team.

Jason, I am excited that you are contemplating streaming a discussion of the submissions, but I didn't mean to be prescriptive about it. I know as well as anyone that assembling a video or audio response is oft-times more work than simply writing an article.

 

[Aoret]

I'm cool with whatever, but I will say that I do totally dig Laz' idea of streaming it. As for the technical question: yeah, you can use OBS to capture anything, including just looking at this thread.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Download all the images and flip through them it is
I love that somehow I've managed to convince you suckers I know what I'm doing with designing cards

 

[Jason Waddell]

Okay, I am trying to set up a time with Chris to stream the discussion this weekend (maybe today). Finally looked through all the submissions, there are some interesting cards here. Plan is to stream it + put it on youtube. Yes, you can stream a browser window.

 

[Jason Waddell]

I have an almost entirely custom cube, so choosing a card for this contest was kinda hard. Some of the cards I've made that I think are interesting might be tied too much to strategies specific to my cube. Anyhow, here's my submission:
View attachment 675
Human themes, lifegain, sacrifice for value, and generally recursive aggro decks all exist in my cube. This guy fits into all of them and has less of gravecrawler's swingyness in the sacrifice deck. It's possible that he should come directly to hand instead of at end of turn, or be able to block, but so far, I've been happy with him.

I never actually received this in my inbox. How do people feel about bending contest rules? I want to be fair to all contestants, but I don't want to punish you unduly for not following the rules to the letter.

 

[Jason Waddell]

Actually, there's like.... a half dozen cards on page 1 that were never officially submitted.