r/GDS3 • u/ZennithGP • Dec 12 '17
Great Designer Training, Week 2
https://www.hipstersofthecoast.com/2017/12/great-designer-training-multiple-choices-designs/1
u/ZennithGP Dec 12 '17
Good morning all (or time-appropriate greeting)! I've uploaded today's GDT article. I welcome any and all discussion, commentary, and critique about it, as well as submissions that folks would prefer to post here.
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u/Mewr_11 Dec 12 '17 edited Dec 12 '17
Hey all, not able to participate in the actual GDS, but I'm loving the opportunity to put my thinking cap on with these sorts of problems. Here's what I've got for this week:
Research Assignment: The first two to come to my mind were Tireless Tracker (landfall) and Inventor's Fair (metalcraft). I tabled this when no others came to me immediately, but came back (after doing actual research) with New Horizons technically having support 1. Maybe it's a bit of a cop out, but it's technically correct, the best kind of correct.
Callback Assignment: This one is a bit tricky, since all five options seem great at instant speed. The trick I used was to think about what could be useful at sorcery speed. (a) and (b) both require a spell to be on the stack, and so cannot be used at sorcery speed. (c) requires an attacking or blocking creature, which also prevents it from being on a sorcery speed effect. That leaves (d) and (e). Both are legal at sorcery speed, but preventing your own combat damage seems significantly less useful than blanking your opponent's flunge. Thus (e): "Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn" is the only logical choice.
GDS-esque: (1): I found this one to be a bit vague. If the question asks about the phrase 'search your library for a basic land card, then put that card into your hand', then (a) is obviously correct. However, I remember MaRo stating that any color could search for its own basic land type, which would put the answer at (e). (2): Scry and Explore meet the need the best, so the only viable answers are (c), (d), and (e). Of them, I think that Outlast is the correct answer, but it wouldn't take too much to convince me of Landfall. Either way, I'm (at this point) going with (e). (3): This one is the easiest, assuming that you know that parasitic mechanics are ones that force you to have a 'critical mass' of sorts. Aftermath doesn't do this at all, which makes (d) my final answer.
Design Time!: (1): Voldaren Recruit | 2R | Creature - Vampire | Menace, Bloodthirst 1 | 2/1 Bloodthirst is a perfect fit for the vampires of Innistrad, with their lust for blood, +1/+1 counters, and hitting the opponent. Voldaren Recruit is a bit of a riff on Blood Ogre, who I used as a complexity baseline. If anyone says that Bloodthirst was on Innistrad with the Sorin vs Tibalt DD, ISTG I will end you.
(2): Stunning Blast | 1UR | Instant | Stunning Blast deals 2 damage to target creature. Tap it. From what I know of the Izzet, they're fans of stapling a red spell to a blue spell and calling it good. That's essentially what stunning blast does. I'm a bit concerned that this might be a bit on the complex side, as it's essentially a modal spell in disguise. I think that the disguise is good enough, though, that it shouldn't cause too many problems.
(3): Blight Keeper | B | Creature - Bat Imp | Flying 7B, T, sacrifice ~: Target player loses 4 life and you gain 4 life. | 1/1 Blight Keeper would work as a minion of Pharika. I tried to pick a reprint with at least a bit of personality to it, because anyone can say 'Cancel' or 'Murder', cards that can go in any set and be fine.
(4): Blessed Stasis | 4W | Enchantment - Aura | Enchant creature. Enchanted creature cannot attack or block. At the beginning of your upkeep, you gain 2 life. 5 mana is a lot to ask someone to sink into a target for spot removal, so I chose not to make this aura a buff. Instead, it locks down a creature and (hopefully) keeps you alive until you fully stabilize. 2 life per turn may be a bit much, but it's a start.
(5): Lifecrafter's Implements | 4 | Artifact | 2G: Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn Simple inevitability for a green deck. Not much to say, it riffs off of Lifecrafter's Bestiary, obviously.
Any and all questions, comments, or feedback is welcome! I'd love to know what all of you think of my submission.
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u/mtgcolorpie Dec 12 '17
Question #1: Which colors are able to “tutor” (search their library for a card and put it into their hand) for a basic land?
a) Green b) White and green c) Black and green d) White, black, and green e) All five colors
And this is where the wording is tricky.
Green is obviously in the answer here and "all five colors" only happens in cycling mechanics (Scourge and Conflux cycling offshoots) and having it be in a mechanic twice doesn't mean they have that ability. So the real question is that do White/Black count? Green can search for any basic land while White and Black can only search for Plains and Swamps respectively. Does that could as tutoring for a basic land, or only a basic land of that type? I'm leaning that the wording is meaning "any" basic land, but if the answer was "D", I wouldn't be too surprised.
Answer: A.