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Recent updates to Multiverse Design Challenge: (Generated at 2025-07-04 23:06:49)
You know, I didn't like that wording, but I was thinking about a lot of things when working on this card. Thanks for setting me straight, Mystic.
As for the creature type... huh. I did not realize that. Well, I don't want to put 1/1 Angels into play, and 1/1 Birds don't really solve the problem. Let's just say Radiant's been living with a lot of Spirits ever since her Serra's original realm imploded.
@Alex: Sure. But what you're really doing is fanning your library, and the opponent chooses one of them. It would be a rare game when exactly the 29th card mattered. I suppose the mechanic does have a problem when playing against jerks, though. Also problematic: stage magicians. But you have that same problem whenever somebody shuffles.
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.
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??
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...
"put a number of...for each"? Does that mean I get to choose the number, such as 700 billion new tokens for each attacker?
Interestingly as far as the choice of token type, there are only three Spirits in all of Urza block, which have all been updated to be Angels as well after the GCTU.
"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.)
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 :)
FWIW, "bottom" seems perfect to me. It's hard to manipulate, especially in standard, but there's a few obscure combos there if you look for them. Those both seem fine.
Wergle. Does it? Can they say "I choose... the twenty-ninth card down from the top"?
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?
This is definitely a secret engine card that would take me a few hours to break, yes. Something about having a creature that returns to your hand when damage is dealt to it...
Using a little New Mirrodin tech, you could always go "Reveal a card from your library of an opponent's choice." Weird, I know. But it works.
When I read the card, I wasn't sure if you were aiming for Spike or for Timmy. The truth is, this is kind of a Timmy/Spike hybrid. Spike loves to play mind games with the opponent, while Timmy loves to roll the dice and see what happens. I don't have a problem with that. The challenge didn't say "And can only be for that demographic." Once again: http://img-f.pinside.com/201305/846943/96752.jpg
Ha! I knew exactly who this card was for as soon as I saw the words 'planar die'. This almost reads a bit random, but I'm guessing that any Vorthos worth their salt would know that story. It doesn't really matter if the rest of us don't get it, eh?
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
Hmm... I tried
When ~ attacks, put a 1/1 white flying Spirit tokens onto the battlefield tapped and attacking for each attacking creature you control. Those Spirit tokens have "When this creature deals combat damage to an opponent, put a copy of this token onto the battlefield under your control."
But I think I just end up trading length for complexity, and don't really solve the problem in the end.
I also like the mind games of what happens if you get to fire off two of this in response to each other. If the first one succeeds, then Sorin's Sport hasn't yet been sacrificed, so does its controller choose an unlikely number like 13 in order to keep the enchantment around? If the first one failed, then does its controller choose the same number again in another attempt to kill the same creatures? And does the opponent guess the same number again?
Whew. This took some work. I created a cycle of Goblin Cannons, enchantments with an ability that might make you sac the enchantment, but with enough mana you can fire off multiple activations in response to each other.
Very, very interesting challenge.
alliterate
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.
turn to enchantment
Yeah, I don't think it helps to say "double", but if there's some way of avoiding having two separate abilities (either only one triggers but has a bigger effect, or it's "when either") it would be shorter.
I'm sorry for criticising without having a solution in mind, I'm not sure what wording would be best :)