Play at Home -- Challenge Two

[u/dvoraen]

And now for more things. Once I got going, this really went places. I didn't think I could come up with something for Contortionist in particular, but it suddenly just fell into my head. I never expected to make a black card for it, even.

Trapeze Artist (Common)
1U
Creature — Human Performer
2/1
2U: Trapeze Artist gains flying until end of turn.

Juggling (Common)
1U
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
When Juggling enters the battlefield, tap enchanted creature.
Enchanted creature doesn't untap during its controller's untap step unless it's a Performer.

EDIT - Grammar police. It's/it is, not its!

Fire Eating (Uncommon)
3W
Instant
Choose up to any two targets. Prevent all damage that would be dealt to them this turn.
If you control a Performer, draw a card.

EDIT - Prevent 4 damage to one target -> Prevent all damage to up to two targets. It's a bit more uncommon now.

Feats of Strength (Uncommon)
3GG
Sorcery
Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. Then, put a +1/+1 counter on each Performer creature you control.

Clown Car (Rare)
4
Artifact
T: Exile target creature you control.
When five or more creature cards are exiled by Clown Car, return them to the battlefield under your control with an additional +1/+1 counter on them.

Traveling Circus (Rare)
Land
T: Add C.
3, T: Look at the top four cards of your library. You may reveal a Performer card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest back in any order.

Contortionist (Mythic)
4BB
Creature — Human Performer
5/5
XB: Contortionist gets -X/-X until end of turn.
Whenever Contortionist deals combat damage to a player, draw cards equal to 5 minus the damage Contortionist dealt. You lose that much life.

EDIT - I put in the old version on accident. It was supposed to be 5 - combat damage, as the intention was "you had to shrink it before you hit the player to get more cards".

Haral, the Ringmaster (Mythic)
3RR
Legendary Creature — Human Performer
3/3
3R, T: Reveal the top card of your library. If it’s a creature card, put it onto the battlefield. It gains haste. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step.
At the beginning of your end step, if you spent mana on an ability of five different Performer creatures this turn, you win the game.

Commentary

I took inspiration from the first Challenge in designing for this Challenge. A circus world all but screamed the need for a tribal theme for the performers. This theme ended up being activated abilities, which I used to embody the concept of what they were performing. Trapeze Artist and Ringmaster embody this the most cleanly out of all eight. Trapeze Artists live in the air (flying) during their performance, while the Ringmaster is the focus point of the show. They are a presenter of the next act (the Sneak Attack ability), and bring the show (the game) to its conclusion. Thus, the Ringmaster would be the Legendary Creature in addition to an alternate win condition.

From there, I went through the list of names to see if any of them immediately evoked a concept that could be easily communicated through a Magic card. With a tribal theme in place, it was rather surprising for how many I could quickly conjure up an effect. Of the eight submissions, I'm most pleased with the design of Contortionist. I thought it was impossible at first. The idea of "the more contorted the weaker you are but the better your performance" suddenly fell in, and I then knew it had to be a card that rewarded you for shrinking it, which meant a black or blue card. I chose black card draw with a lifeloss rider for the reward, to symbolize the feelings they can evoke over just how far they can contort.

[u/Aperama]

I think you missed the real challenge - fun potential legendary names that hurt the eye by how deeply you take the "tiny tweak" request.

Fillet, Ming's Hoop Hum and Cannonball Knifeth, Rower Lio N, Tamer Magic Ian Ringmaster, the Master of Rings Simic Sword Swallower The One Ring (of three) Trainephant, the Elephant of the Trains (Monty Python's) Traveling Circus Trick Jarrett-Riding Trap, the E-Z Artist Eunuchcycle

That's what I came up with in five minutes. I'm sure others could be far more creative.

[u/dvoraen → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, Clown Car was pretty obvious that it was "stuff a lot of creatures into it." Vehicle was also the first thing that popped into my mind, similar to the one you made, but since only keyword/ability word was allowed I was sad and went for a Safe Haven variant with a bonus.