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Recent updates to Multiverse Design Challenge: (Generated at 2025-05-14 15:50:40)
FWIW, I remember comments on Demonspine Whip on http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/ld/40 saying for repeatable abilities, wizards weren't sure between
and 
. But I agree, there's a benefit to being 
not 
so you don't have to spell out "spend only".
Fascinating challenge. I still mentally assume monocolour decks, so I have to remind myself that "spend only G" makes a real different to the strength of the effect, not only flavour :)
See Challenge # 117.
The Fate Reforged Oracle update bulletin mentioned
> Atalya, Samite Master; Crimson Hellkite; Crypt Rats >
> These three cards all have an activated ability with an X in the activation cost that's restricted to a specific color of mana.
Why has there never been a green X activation or a blue X activation? Put this to rights!
Note: There's not very much difference between an ability like Crypt Rats's and one like Pestilence. Crypt Rats is clearer that you can activate it for 10 even if the Rats only have 1 toughness: you could do that if the ability was just Pestilence's, but newer players might get confused. (Also it works better to give Crypt Rats lifelink this way.)
So ideally, you'd find abilities of the form "
: Do something with X" that have a justification for not being "
: Do something 1 time". That's the tricky bit here.
Added Punify.
See Challenge # 114. Decided to go escoteric and used Segovia, world of the dreaded Segovian Leviathan and The Hippodrome.
For those, that don't know, Segovia is a tiny plane. That 3/3 Islandwalker is huge in Segovia. In Dominaria, it's about the size of a sea bass. I wasn't really sure what mechanics Segovia would have, so I just took a stab at a flavorful instant.
I know I've seen a lot of 'you can't do that' remarks for 'creatures with toughness less than zero can't die'. But most of the time, someone is trying to use it as a creature ability. I'm just using it until end of turn, so it's a bit more like "prevent all damage that would be dealt to this creature." Truth is, the cost is a bit too high. Not sure how to make it gold and keep the ability. I chose -6/-6 specifically so that a Leviathan would still be a 3/3 post Punify... guess I could have increased the cost by one and made it a cantrip if I was being serious.
Hmm. Yes, given that the trigger is "exalted plus some other condition", I think that could work, but the bonus shouldn't be +X/+X.
I guess, it felt to me like, once you have the idea of exalted, having an ability which partially overlaps ("when this attacks or blocks alone", or "if this is the only attacking creature, it has") it would be really confusing, but this ability is clearly built for using a single creature attacking alone, but with an extra hurdle and bigger reward.
But if it feels off to everyone else, there's probably no point trying to preserve it.
It could be exalted plus a conditional bonus, but I think it would be confusing if that bonus was +X/+X as well.
In particular, Wizards seem to have found that it works to have lots of abilities with the same trigger but different effects. Cf Battalion, Raid, Finest Hour/Battlegrace Angel/Rafiq of the Many, etc.
I could see an argument that Finest Hour, Battlegrace Angel, Rafiq and Angelic Benediction should have been in a mini-cycle themselves.
I keep failing at #113, so I had to make one more card. Added Hemo Rage. Not perfect, but at least now I can move on.
For Challenge # 113. I'm hitting this challenge sideways. Challenge 113 mentions that the cost needs to be increased, but it never mentions that the cost must be mana. Instead, I'm making the card more powerful by paying more life. Funny side note: Winds of Change technically fulfills this challenge, since increasing the cost (discarding cards) makes the card more powerful (draw more cards).
Anyhow, I kept screwing up 113, so I needed to take one more swipe at it. I think one of the reasons why I was messing up at it is because it was kind of asking for something irrational. A lot of my designs ultimately could have been expressed with an
. Even this one... I just kind of got lucky in the fact that I wanted players to always pay at least one life. But I could have used X+1 (even if it is confusing.)
Granted there are other answers to this challenge. Kicker works. Fuse works. Flashback works, if the card is more powerful when you flash it back. Increase by an always static amount seems to do the job well. I tried playing in this ground, but bumped into this somehow.
Huh. Never saw Loreseeker's Stone before. Wizards beat me to the punch.
Which is fine, because I technically failed with this card, too. My fancy shenanigans just could have said
, 
: Discard X cards... where X is equal to the number of cards in your hand." My original version involved removing 
for each card in your hand... but that made the card worse as you paid more for it. So I flipped it and... failed the challenge in the process. Humpf.
I happened to mention the problem on the page for Challenge # 113. I just misunderstood the challenge, and had to go back and make a different card. I was making a card that got better 'as the card increases'. I should have realized that that meant there was a numerical increase in the cost involved, but my mind was already designing cards by that point.
I do think it's too similar to exalted without being exalted. I think there's a reason Wizards paired exalted with lots of "quasi-exalted" abilities like that of Rafiq of the Many.
Mini-cycle for Bant with exalted++, Sigilier of Awe, Sigilier of Valor and Sigilier of Heraldry
See Challenge # 116.
See Challenge # 116.
See Challenge # 116.
Mini-cycle with Sigilier of Valor and Sigilier of Heraldry. I looked for things that could be done in Bant, and one I missed was more focus on the sigils for especially prominent heros. Hence, a condition bonus mimicing exalted. I'm worried this dilutes exalted too much, maybe it should be a bonus in addition to exalted, or a larger bonus (+1/+1 counters?)
I guess I don't understand how this fits the challenge. Are you considering controlling certain permanent types to be a cost?
Very similar to Loreseeker's Stone.
See Challenge # 113. Right, right. Activation cost of
, 
. I figured it was easier than dealing with the question "What am I adding 
to?"