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Recent updates to Multiverse Design Challenge: (Generated at 2025-12-14 04:59:30)
For Challenge # 126 and a companion to And I'll Form of the Head!
For Challenge # 126. Sadistic Mystic beat me to the name three months ago. This is what I get for slowly coming up with the concept in my mind while I read other people's entries.
Also related: Blazing Sword of Power.
Thank you!
I agree about "black cat". Maybe "black and white cat", which I like the sound of, although doesn't hit the "evil" trope as well as "black cat". It feels like it should work -- it's a cat, it's a familiar... but it's not perfect. Maybe two tokens of different sorts...?
My logic for the emblem is that Eternity Vessel's problem is not just needing a land drop (although that's a problem after turn 6), but also that it doesn't help you if your life total is already low. Whereas the emblem can help you immediately if you're low on life, and if not, isn't a dead card because you can use the +1 or +0 abilities lots. So your opponent always needs to make a 10-damage swing, which is quite hard for many decks.
Come to think of it, maybe I should tack on "else, gain 1 life". I quite like how that feels, that once you get back to 10 life you slowly creep up, so your opponent has to keep trying, not just to hold back until they have 10-damage at once. But it makes the ability wordy.
Otherwise, I could decrease the activation loyalty, or make it a non-ultimate (eg. "0: Your life total becomes 10.), or increase the set-point to 13, 15, or even 20.
On TVTropes, Strange Bedfellows or Enemy Mine are the names for this kind of pairing. But I think your "Reluctant Allies" is more comprehensible without the trope name context.
The first and second abilities are great. (Though "black Cat" doesn't quite work. I encountered a similar problem trying to choose a creature type that both would be happy with in my Kiora & Garruk, Behemoth Hunters.)
I'm not sure about the emblem. It's sometimes useful, certainly, but it doesn't feel very "ultimate". I dunno... it might be stronger than I think. Eternity Vessel is a very good card, and this is half of one of those but without the "will I draw a land" factor. It does manage to feel both white and black, and both Ajani(ish) and Sorin.
Reluctant Allies, Ajani and Sorin hybrid!
See Challenge # 129.
I realised that Ajani and Sorin have a REALLY different flavour, but quite a lot of mechanical overlap, so I started trying to design a card, but it wasn't really "both" as much as "either" so I went with hybrid, although I don't expect we'll really see a hybrid planeswalker!
I'm not quite happy with the abilities. The first feels like it needs a little more for flavour. And I'm missing a "drain" like ability which was very Ajani and Sorin, originally I had an ability "Destroy target tapped creature. Gain life equal to its toughness."
But I thought for ages before finding an ability that played with life totals in a way that felt both white and black, and both ajani and sorin, but I felt ok with the last ability in the end.
I also wanted a better name, something that emphasises the "both acting honorably and working together for a temporary shared value, but disapprove of each other".
Ral & Dack, Ultimate Hucksters
See Challenge # 129.
I'm not sure if the flavour actually fits, but our two UR planeswalkers Ral Zarek and Dack Fayden both had a rogue-ish vibe and I played that up to the hilt. I wanted to squeeze more in (eg. "Flip a coin with target player...") but couldn't fit much on the card.
That art is distressingly suited to a red / whiteblackgreen phoenix.
This is also an intriguing possibility for how Wizards might be able to do 4-colour commanders...
Lawrego, Eternal Jewel
For Challenge # 125.
To be honest, I just thought the idea of hybriding a phoenix into the 3 colors that are supposed to return from the graveyard is cute. Bonus for green and black supplying haste. I might come back again and try for a phoenix that's a bit more unique.
Sorrow: :D
At first I read it as "Nahiri and Koth, Rockstars", HECK YEAH.
It's interesting to see G and U abilities be similar to a card RW card. It reminds of your ((C46885)).
I prefer the choice of searching out creatures and putting them onto the battlefield. I always felt actual creature cards felt like one was more skilled at summoning monsters than tokens (more likely to summon in mass rather than carefully selecting their creatures).
See Challenge # 129.
Okay, it feels taboo to do my own challenge, but science team.
The -4 ability is my favorite off of this. I think I really combined Tamiyo's tapping abilities with Ral's damage.
The +2 seemed like a cool idea when I thought of it. I still like the concept, but it seems awfully wordy for a planeswalkers first ability. I honestly think this would be better as a UR instant. This ability also has the problem of having a high chance not to do anything. In the original design it was look at the top 5 cards, which is probably too good. Maybe top 2 might be okay.
The ultimate was kind of thrown together after looking at Tamiyo's and Ral's ultimates.
I really like the +2. It's something I'd definitely like to see printed on a card in the future.
Nahiri turns some rock into a stone sword. The enemy looks intimidated. Koth smirks and asks to borrow the sword. The geomancer turns the sword into molten monstrosity. The enemy's jaw drops in confusion before trying to flee.
Oh, cool! Yes, it makes sense they would be teamed up, given their very different take on a similar sort of magic :)
See Challenge # 129. Karn and Tezzeret are another odd pairing of planeswalkers: their loyalties are fairly opposite, but their mechanical schtick is very similar (as long as you remember what Karn used to be like before his spark awoke). They particularly align when it comes to animating artifacts: Tezz makes things 5/5s, while Karn makes them CMC/CMC, but 5/5s works better for an emblem.
See Challenge # 129. One of the stranger pairings, in one sense, but the similarity between Nahiri's and Koth's powers is striking even though the mechanical reflection of that is rather divergent.
This planeswalker is unusual in that it doesn't really have an ultimate. The -X becomes more potent the more you use the +, but that's not quite the same thing. All the other -X planeswalkers have had a separate ultimate.
I feel that the third ability should be "Search target player's library for a planeswalker card with CMC X or less and put it onto the battlefield." That would be more standard wording.
Otherwise, this is quite fun! I particularly like the first ability. It's a bit narrow in scope, though. I really don't think the middle ability needs to cost 4 loyalty.
I created Kiora & Garruk, Behemoth Hunters and Elspeth & Ajani Reunited. Then Nahiri & Koth, Rockshapers and Karn & Tezzeret, Metalshapers.
See Challenge # 129. Elspeth and Ajani are two good friends, currently separated by Elspeth being trapped in the realm of the dead on Theros. I'm assuming she gets out somehow.
They both like swarm strategies. I wanted the ultimate to put +1/+1 counters on creatures, but after a few tries to template it I realised a double Glorious Anthem was simpler to template. Bizarrely there hasn't been an enchantment like that printed - the closest thing is Homura's Essence!
The middle ability is original. I'm a little worried it's rather powerful, especially in a swarm deck. It neutralises quite a lot of blockers. But it has no use to defend you at all.
See Challenge # 129. I've decided for my entries to this challenge to allow the word "and" on type lines. French cards already do this on creatures: Sakura-Tribe Elder has type line "Créature : shamane et serpent".
Garruk (freed from the curse of the Chain Veil) and Kiora seem to have things in common to me. In particular: they love huge creatures.
The first ability is a typical card-selection probably-card-advantage ability for a planeswalker, as seen on Garruk, Caller of Beasts (creatures), Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas (artifact), Narset Transcendent (noncreature spells), and several others. It's annoyingly wordy but that's fairly inevitable. I allowed lands too (as on Gift of the Gargantuan) because Garruk Wildspeaker and Kiora, the Crashing Wave both like land cards.
I wanted to use the middle ability from Garruk, Primal Hunter as well, because it's nice, and it's mainly green but it's also got a bit of a blue feel to it. But that'd make the first two abilities are both variations on "draw a card", and all three abilities get things out of your library onto the battlefield.
So instead I came up with that weird middle ability. Something like Predatory Focus, something like Distortion Strike, something like Lure. (Also something like Master Warcraft unfortunately.)
Finally, the ultimate for these two really needs to be making huge creatures. I wasn't sure whether I should let that be your choice of huge creatures from your library, or just make a bunch of huge tokens. These guys have more normally made tokens, but they'd fight over what creature types the tokens should have, so this approach makes them both happy.
I designed this without the second ability and then looked around for something else that would fit, so this is more blue than I originally intended. I would quite like it if this was BBU or BUU, given Bolas' other planeswalker card. But BU seems appropriate, given that #1 is B, #2 mostly U, and third black but with a heavy blue influence.
Yes, search opponents' libraries. That won't usually make a large difference but is a lot lot more Bolas-y :)
It would be cute if the third ability allowed you to blow up opponents' planeswalkers with the legend rule, but it would be a lot of extra complication and mostly superfluous given the second ability.
"Any library"