TappedOut Community Set (Voting for Irindu's Planeswalker)

Community Set

mistergreen527

23 June 2010

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Where Have We Been?

As you may have noticed, our TappedOut Community Set project has been on hiatus the past few weeks. While a decrease in my own personal free time certainly didn't help, the main factor was deciding just how to handle the past two challenges. With the Irindu's Basic Land art submission, we reached a snag that I hadn't considered. What art are we allowed to use? I'm used to an academic world where you can basically take words, images, and ideas from anywhere and anyone, as long as proper citation is given. I guess that TappedOut probably doesn't fall within the academic realm, so this assumption doesn't hold much ground. So, while a decision is being made on what parameters must be used in art selection, placing art on our cards will temporarily be placed on hold.

The Irindu Planeswalker contest faced a different set of issues. While the Design Team did an excellent job judging the entries, they felt that choosing a definite winner excluded the community too much. So, it was decided that the top ten entries would be presented and that the community could vote on the winner. The issue, however, was HOW to present them. “Should they be shown exactly as they were submitted?” “Should we change the rules text to how Wizards would print them?” “What if the winning card is too overpowered compared to the rest of the set?” “Should we balance the cards ourselves?” “What if the people that submitted the cards don't like the way we change them?” Compromises were made and this is what was decided upon: The only changes to the entries would be to reflect the way that Wizards would print the rules text and to limit the number of abilities to three. However, after each entry, concerns about each card would be addressed. Then, the community could vote on which card they like the best. Along with each person's vote, proposed edits for that vote could be made. The Design Team will look at the proposed edits of the winning card to create the final card (which might still change during playtesting, by the way).

The Top Ten Entries

So, let's take a look at the top ten entries (in alphabetical order). The user that submitted each card has been excluded for this article, as that should not be a factor to consider when voting.

The main concern here is that players may have trouble keeping track of the changes caused by Babaganoosh's abilities. The idea to change Babaganoosh's starting loyalty to 2 also came up to prevent the second ability from being used on the same turn it enters the battlefield.

Intet's first ability seems powerful, compared to Chandra Nalaar's first ability, though Intet is also more difficult to cast, so it may be okay. The second ability was proposed to be changed to just “Draw two cards.” The third ability is tricky. Currently, whenever an exiled card is put into a player's hand, it just goes there (see Mangara's Tome and Parallel Thoughts). Cards are only drawn from the library. Also, giving cards Flow means that it is possible for a land to have Flow, which is problematic since Flow is an alternative casting cost and land aren't cast. Here's one idea that was presented from the Design Team for the third ability: “Shuffle your library. Then, reveal the top card of your library. You may cast this card without paying its mana cost. Repeat this process three more times.” The final concern was whether Intet should be on our plane or if we should change the name.

Josiah's first ability seems underpowered for a planeswalker. Perhaps it should also grant a boost to the creature's power or it should affect all creatures you control. The last ability looks like it'd be an exciting goal to reach, but the ability seems too wordy. One proposal for the third ability was “-6: Put an X/X Elemental creature token into play where X is the number of lands you control.” There was also a little bit of concern that blue wasn't really represented here, so maybe it should be removed from the mana cost.

Kara's first ability seems too overpowered, so the lands should probably enter the battlefield tapped. The second ability, on the other hand, may be underpowered. Without help from other cards, you'll only be drawing one card. Perhaps the ability should be changed to “-2” instead of “-3.” Finally, the third ability takes 7 turns to activate, so it should either the loyalty cost should be decreased or Kara's starting loyalty should be increased.

Depending on how powerful Flow proves to be, Killike's second ability may need to be changed. Perhaps to “-1: Draw a card.” There is also concern that the third ability is underpowered. By the time you have the five mana to play Killike and have the eight loyalty to activate the ability, it's about turn nine. So, perhaps the last ability needs to be cost less loyalty. Another idea is to make it “For the rest of the game, whenever you cast a creature spell, you may draw a card.” This still makes it related to creatures and gives it a blue feel though card draw instead of flash. However, this change may be too much of an alteration from the original.

Mika's first ability doesn't seem to fit the colors in the casting cost (see Sign in Blood). The second ability may need a little work. The third ability may also need to be changed, depending again on how powerful Flow proves to be. Finally, since all of the loyalty costs have a common denominator, they could probably be changed to “+1,” “-1,” and “-4.” Though, if this is done, the last ability should probably be changed to either “-5” or “-6.”

Nerrut's second ability was proposed to be changed to “-4: Copy the next instant or sorcery spell you cast this turn.” Another idea was presented to alter Nerrut's loyalty costs to “+0,” -3,” and “-9” in order to prevent the player from being able to increase Nerrut's loyalty counters. If this is done, Nerrut's starting loyalty would be changed to “-9” and the third ability would draw cards OR deals damage.

The main concern with Nisitha is that the abilities seem to be off-color. The first ability is just like Consume Strength, while the second ability is just like Slave of Bolas. Both of these spells have colors that are not included in Nisitha's casting cost. The third ability seems way too overpowered. Perhaps the player should have to shuffle his or her library first and/or the Flow cost should be increased.

The main concern here is the trickiness of Razwit's third ability. It seems too close to being an infinite loop; The player goes to draw a card and it gets replaced with drawing two cards. The card is drawn. The player goes to draw the second card, it gets replaced with drawing two card. Etc. etc. Perhaps the third ability should be “For the rest of the game, you may draw an additional card during your draw step” or “For the rest of the game, if you pay a Flow cost, you may draw an additional card.”

Yvet's second ability may be overpowered. It should perhaps only draw two cards and shuffle one back into the library (See Beyond). The third ability is kind of wordy and it makes it confusing on whether the player gets to draw the card every time the ability triggers, or only when you first activate the third ability. If it happens every time, it is too overpowered when combined with Flow. So, to eliminate both confusion and the possibility of being overpowered, perhaps the “Draw a card” part of the third ability should be removed.

So, What Are We Looking For?

For this article we're looking for three things from you.

1) Which one of the top ten entries do you like the best?

2) What edits would you make to the card for which you voted? You can agree/disagree with the edits the Design Team suggested or you can create your own. Remember, only edit the card that you're voting for. Don't go bashing the competition by saying how bad you think they are.

3) How involved should the community be in the card creation process? In other words, should the Design Team have just picked the winner of the contest or do you like getting to vote and have a say in the final decision? When it comes to creating commons, how much input would you like?

The deadline for input will be 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, June 29.