The Melvin element of my entry for Challenge # 093.

Designing a single card for Melvin is really difficult. Melvin's all about whole cycles, set structure, and so on.

I personally (as a Johnny-Melvin) also find it hard to distinguish Melvin traits from Johnny traits (in the same way that as an ENTP, I find it hard to distinguish N traits from T or P traits). I think cards like Torpor Orb and Strionic Resonator are quite Melvin-y, but they're clearly also very Johnny.

Well, here's an element of Melvinness that hasn't been explored so far. Triggered abilities and activated abilities clearly have a lot more in common with each other than they do with static abilities. Can the rules cope with turning activated abilities into triggered abilities? Maybe. Let's find out :) A few criteria (like Brion Stoutarm) will return 0 or "not applicable", but I think that'll work fine, and just make a few abilities not do anything.

I originally had this the other way round, turning triggered abilities into activated abilities, but that's quite a lot more problematic. So many triggered abilities refer to a particular object, such as Bloodbond March and the rest of these, Meglonoth and the rest of these, and so on.

You know, I read this 3 times and I still couldn't figure out exactly what it was supposed to be doing until I read your description. Normally, that would be a problem, but in Challenge # 093.Melvin, it means that you win--this card is full of Melvin. :D

I'd also say that I'm not sure what the point of this card is in normal Magic, since most of the time, it's only going to delay the inevitable for half a turn. But that would happen to make the card good for Johnny-Melvin. http://img-f.pinside.com/201305/846943/96752.jpg

The reason it doesn't just replace activation costs with "At end of turn" is because there are any number of activated abilities that are ludicrously hard and utterly game-winning, like Door to Nothingness and Spawnsire of Ulamog. This has to be something that's been activated once already. At which point, yes, I guess it doesn't achieve very much in a typical game. It can neuter effects like Crossbow Infantry or Brigid, Hero of Kinsbaile. Or go very nicely with expensive repeatable abilities like Treasure Trove, Centaur Glade and similar, because the text hacking doesn't stop at end of turn.

It can also get you all the effects from something that normally needs to tap for one of several effects. Obelisk of Alara is the poster child here; the green effect won't be very useful at end of turn, but the rest should be. Or, in fact, Spawnsire of Ulamog does kinda break with it, because you counter the ability and get a free copy of the ability.

Still. Yep, it seems to have ended up pretty squarely Johnny. I did say I find it hard to distinguish Johnny from Melvin :) Johnny likes finding ways to exploit the narrow effect; Melvin likes hacking card text in a way that's never been done before. As you say, why not both?

It's exceptionally broken with Magosi, the Waterveil :)

Perhaps it could say "change the text of that ability"?

I love the idea, though I agree it's more Johnny than it is Melvin -- but that's ok :)

"Broken with Magosi" - is it? As I read it, it'll create three "At end of turn" abilities, which will give you , put a counter on Magosi, give you an extra turn, and make you skip your next turn (which is that extra one). The counter on Magosi would be dangerous except it now has no use, because Magosi now has no activated abilities.

(It's pretty awesome with the original Time Vault itself. But I believe now so is Voltaic Key, after the errata dance went full circle and they decided to just let the combos exist.)

It may well be more Johnny than Melvin, but I don't think I can imagine a Melvin card that isn't. (A cycle, absolutely, easily. But one card?) Mark Rosewater claims that Mystic Speculation is Melvin, but I don't think I agree. The original article introducing Melvin was a preview article for Yixlid Jailer, which is very Melvin in the same way that Humility and Opalescence are, but they're all pretty Johnny as well.

Maybe this challenge should have been to just design a card for Melvin... I think that's a hard enough challenge in itself. (Flavour text that goes in cycles, as in jmg's entry or on the Words of Worship-Words of Wind-Words of Waste-Words of War-Words of Wilding cycle, is a great satisfaction to Melvin, but one card can't really do all that itself, only imply it.)

Doh, I forgot it would force the skip ability to trigger as well. And you can't use this to counter it because it's not an activated ability any more. Never mind, sorry :)

Lol. Good point, Melvin is hard to do on purpose...

Fwiw, I think a Melvin card might be "target creature gains death touch and trample". That's funny only if you know the rules. But it isn't johnny card because there's no puzzle left. Maybe that's it, Melvin is what you get when you ask "what cards does johnny enjoy designing" not "what cards does johnny enjoy paying with?" But obviously on multiverse (and in r&d) that line is completely blurred.

In fact, lots of cards age Melvin-y when their rules show through too much. It's hard to think of WELL DESIGNED Melvin cards??

Mmm. The problem with designing Melvin cards is that Magic, by its nature, is a messy game. Any card designed for Melvin is going to fail on some level, since the perfect Melvin card should wrap the entire game up into one card, and infers that no more cards will be made.

That said, I'm pretty sure there are plenty of cards for Melvin that aren't really for Johnny. Some of those cards are just plain simple. Darksteel Ingot and Akrasan Squire come to mind. The poster child for Melvin, Firemaw Kavu, is a little Johnny, true... but it's a lot more Melvin. ­

Part of the problem with naming cards that define Johnny is that he/she can use any card, really. A good Timmy-Melvin card would be Akroma, Angel of Wrath. A good Spike-Melvin? Steam Augury fits the bill. Johnny has no problem finding ways of abusing both those cards to meet his/her nefarious ends... but the truth is, he's got other cards to occupy him/her, like Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind and Treasure Hunt.

I don't quite see how Darksteel Ingot and Akrasan Squire are Melvin. Akrasan Squire fits neatly into a well-established category, "white one-drop that can attack for 2 on turn 2"... is that what you were going for?

Jack's point about removing the puzzle is an interesting one. I guess a card is Melvin if the reaction is "Oh, it's neat that that works". Like Firemaw Kavu, or... Sprout Swarm is a good example of what I'm thinking of. Sprout Swarm is a useful engine card for Johnny, but Melvin likes it because it has two keywords that synergise exceptionally well, and its mechanic plays into that synergy too.

In response to jmg's comment, I was thinking of something like Darksteel Relic or Progenitus -- they may be useful as a card, but what's really cool about them is "Oh, you can do that in the rules!"

Edit: Or Puncture Blast might be a good example of a card aimed at Melvin (with mixed success). Look, the rules for wither work equally well on creatures and instants! So, it's the sort of card Johnny would design but not the sort of card Johnny would especially play with :)

My thoughts on Darksteel Ingot and Akrasan Squire is that both the cards are elegant, doing exactly what they need to do for their cost and filling their niche roles. No extra levers, or fancy buttons. Just simple cards performing their functions. I'd assume that a number of Melvins must like Darksteel Ingot more than they like the very messy Coalition Relic, say, or that Akrasan Squire is more pleasing to a Melvin than Abu Ja'far.