For Challenge # 030.

This should probably have some mana added to the flip, but I made the simpler version. As it is, it can be played as an untapped colourless land, or as a tapped dual land.

I'm not sure about using DFC for utility stuff like lands. On the one hand, once they're in play, you can have the massive advantage of having a modal land without keeping track of counters. OTOH, it's obviously a real pain to keep taking it out of its sleeve or substituting it for a checklist card.

Oh, interesting take on Coastal Tower. It can give mana the turn you cast it, but that delays getting coloured mana for another turn. I like it a lot.

And yeah, I'm treating this challenge as if it had an implicit "Suppose DFCs weren't a really really bad idea" rider :)

Thanks.

By the way, I noticed I don't think I can move cards from this set to cards with no home, I'm not sure if that's an issue with the cardset options on cards with no home, but it would be convenient for cards like this that get made for a challenge and then don't quite fit. I'm not sure if the answer is I missed an obvious setting somewhere, or most community sets should be "everyone is an admin", or if it should be a tweak to how the permissions work reported as a feature request?

When I first came up with the idea, I set it for any signed in user to have admin privileges. I'm not sure if that includes being able to move cards though
Alex? is that a possibility/easy to implement ?

As to DFC's being a good or bad idea, I'm not sure yet personally but they exist now so why not explore the design space a bit? hence this challenge.

Oh yes, wrt DFC, I think that once they're in play, everyone thinks the possibilities are interesting (Alex, would you agree?), but people would disagree whether the benefits are worth the hassle of not having the backside visible in the library.

Ah, interesting. You do have permission to move cards out of this set (because indeed any signed-in user has admin privileges), but you don't have permission to move cards into Cards With No Home (because I'm the only one with admin privileges on that cardset). I'm slightly cautious of granting full admin privileges to everyone there, but it's worked okay over here, so maybe I should.

If you have some specific cardset of your own that you want to move cards into from here, then yes, you can do that.

And yes, I definitely agree DFCs have lots of design space and interesting possibilities. If there was a way around the fifteen logistical problems with DFCS then I'd love them. MTGO or other forms of virtual Magic are a good solution to most of those issues, so in purely-digital contexts, DFCS work rather well. It's only when the physical card back becomes relevant that it's a problem. Get rid of these pesky people who refuse to move to playing online, and we'd be fine...

I really don't get the problem. People don't seem to think too hard when it comes to continuously shuffling their decks, so I don't know why they complain so much about DFCs. As far as I'm concerned, after a break of two years or so, Wizards should just put 10 DFCs in every set, to get people used to it being a regular part of the game. It's only a problem if it comes up rarely.

And please! I'll think about playing online again when they bring back Leagues. Why they dumped such an awesome function is beyond me... I know they've lost my $30 per month since then.

You "don't get the problem"? Which of the fifteen problems don't you get?

...Eh, maybe we don't have to have this discussion here. It's not like either of us is going to change the other's mind, after all ;)

(EDIT: I'm going to store my list of those problems here so they're not lost next time WotC change their forums software.

> (1) DFCs force people to use either (1a) opaque sleeves or (1b) checklist cards.
> (1a)'s problems include (1a1) financial implications especially for players with lots of decks; (1a2) it leaves an ugly taste when you recall Wizards' recent promotional ties with UltraPro; (1a3) it leads to scratching cards when putting them into and out of sleeves potentially several times each game; (1a4) it has risks such as putting a DFC back in its sleeve the wrong way round; and (1a5) it means you can't see all the details of the card when it's in your hand (e.g. what's Kruin Outlaw's second ability once she's flipped?).
> (1b) is a horrible hack which nobody likes; it means (1b1) you can't see the details of the card when it's in your hand (nor its artwork or flavour text), (1b2) to check those details you have to look in an out-of-game pile which is a painfully obvious tell, (1b3) even if you don't look in the pile when you draw a checklist card, you have to look elsewhere on the card for its identity than with most cards, leading people to state they can tell when people draw a checklist card by watching them; and (1b4) it's possible for someone to open and want to play more DFCs than they get checklist cards.
> (2) In-game, a DFC's back side is potentially relevant public knowledge, but not visible on the table.
> (3) Drafting becomes a dexterity game where (3a) there are strategic benefits to waiting to make your first pick (or any other pick) until you see what everyone else has picked, and where (3b) it's very easy to cheat accidentally or deliberately by seeing neighbours' current choices when trying to look at their piles for the permitted DFC info; also (3c) drafting becomes very different between f2f and MTGO, which impairs the usefulness of MTGO to practice f2f drafters or vice versa.
> (4) The flavour and immersiveness of the set is impaired because there are (4a) far fewer basic lands opened in boosters, and (4b) fewer basic land arts in total, even for players who don't use the checklist card.
> (5) There's no reminder text for "transform".

I don't get the problem. Magic players are a bit spoiled in my opinion, and the game can't advance unless we're willing to add some complication somewhere. That being said, I'll save the rant. You're right that this isn't the best format for it. Maybe I'll read that post then write an article about it ;)