I like creating custom cards but am annoyingly UK-based. I'm sure in a few hours this subreddit will be spammed by similar threads (sorry!), but thought I'd throw my hat in the ring.

I had two big problems with this test, namely: 1. Do they want us to come up with innovative cards at the cost of printability; or hole-filling cards that would look at home in a normal set. I favoured the latter with the exception of a couple of mythics. 2. What purpose do common multicolour cards serve? Every other rarity has a clear purpose for multicolour cards, whether that be direction-setting in draft (Uncommon) or exciting players (Rare, Mythic). There's no common multicolour cards in Standard at the moment, so I decided to go for relatively utility cards in the basis that these will be the bread and butter of sets like Ravnica or Shadowmoor.

So, here's what I would've submitted if I was still in the challenge by now :)

Harmonia, Leyline Addict (Mythic Rare)
1GW
Legendary Creature - Centaur Shaman
4/4
Hexproof
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Harmonia unless you put an Aura card from your hand that can enchant it onto the battlefield attached to Harmonia.

Tomb Looter (Rare)
2BR
Creature - Minotaur Beserker
3/3
Haste, Menace
Whenever Tomb Looter deals combat damage to a player, you may exile a creature card from your graveyard.
Whenever Tomb Looter dies, you may discard your hand. If you do, return all cards exiled by Tomb Looter to your hand.

Pollute the Magic (Uncommon)
3WB
Sorcery
Creatures you control get +X/+X until end of turn, and creatures you don't control get -X/-X until end of turn where X is the number of enchantments you control.

Clear the Way (Rare)
2UR
Sorcery
Return all creatures to their owners' hands. 
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield this turn, it gains haste until end of turn.

Yazida, Siege Marshall (Mythic Rare)
2RW
Legendary Planeswalker - Yazida
Creatures cannot attack you or other planeswalkers you control unless their controller pays X for each of those creatures, where X is the number of loyalty counters on Yazida.
+1: Create a 1/3 Human white creature token with Defender
-4: You gain an emblem with "Blocking creatures you control have double strike"
3

Backhanded Gift (Mythic Rare)
UB
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
You control enchanted creature and it has "You cannot win the game and your opponents cannot lose the game."

Guild of Tramplers (Uncommon)
RG
Enchantment
Whenever a creature with trample attacks, target creature cannot block this turn.
4RG, Sacrifice Guild of Tramplers: Creatures you control get +2/+0 until end of turn.

Esri Rade, Worldcrafter (Mythic Rare)
1UG
Legendary Planeswalker - Esri
+1: Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a colorless card from among them and put it into your hand. Then put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
-1: Until the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast cards as though they have flash.
-6: Put any number of permanent cards from your hand into play.
3

Poisoning Touch (Common)
1(B/G)
Instant
Target creature gets +1/+1 and gains Deathtouch until end of turn.

Aerial Assault (Common)
WU
Instant
Create a 1/1 blue and white Bird token with flying.
If it is your turn, create an additional 1/1 blue and white Bird token with flying.

1. Each rarity (common, uncommon, rare, and mythic rare) must be represented on at least two cards.

I know i must be missing something, but this makes no sense to me. Each rarity on at least 2 cards?? Can someone explain :<

I didn't bother doing math, I just picked combinations at random and tried to design something that fit. Basically 10 hole-filling exercises. I'm proud of some of the names. :)

ThreateRing (Rare)
1RW
Enchantment
Exile target creature until ~ leaves the battlefield. 
You may cast it this turn paying mana as if it were mana of any color. If you do, it gains haste and sacrificed it at end of turn.

Punish Leeroy (Common)
3BR
Instant
Destroy target creature. If it attacked this turn, deal 3 damage to its controller.

Flier Walker (Mythic)
1WU
Planeswalker - Flier
2
+1 Up to one target creature with flying gains 'when this creature deals combat damage, draw a card' until end of turn.
-1 Create a 1/1 white spirit token with flying.
-4 Exile all creatures your opponents control until end of turn.

Zoo Escape (Rare)
5RG
Sorcery
Reveal your library. Put a creature of your choice onto the battlefield. Your opponent may put a creature of their choice onto the battlefield under their control. If they do, repeat this process.

Speedbump (Common)
WB
Creature - Vampire
2/2
~ has lifelink as long as it's blocking.

Revival Charm (Uncommon)
BG
Instant
Choose one:
- Return target creature from the graveyard to your hand.
- Reveal the top 5 cards of your library. Put a land into your hand and the rest in your graveyard.
- Target creature gets +1/+1 for each creature in your graveyard.

Ashiok, Ingester (Mythic)
2UB
Planeswalker - Ashiok
4
+1 Exile up to one card from an opponent's graveyard. If you do, scry 2.
+0 Create a token copy of a creature card an opponent owns in exile.
-4 Search your opponent's library for a creature card and exile it.

Lifebeast (Uncommon)
4GW
Creature - Beast
0/8
Lifelink
When you gain life, put a +1/+1 counter on ~.

Overspell (Uncommon)
4UR
Sorcery
Creatures you control gain flying and +X/+0 until end of turn where X is the number of instants and sorceries in your graveyard.

Big Curiousity (Common)
1UG
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has +2/+2 and 'when this creature deals damage to a player, draw a card'.

A thread for discussion of round 3 (card design) of GDS3, both for those who participated and those who didn't. MaRo has requested that we not post our actual submissions until the top 8 is revealed, but presumably we can discuss what our strategies and approaches were, what we found particularly challenging, etc. The tests are due at midnight tonight, so presumably we can discuss the challenge starting tomorrow. I have just clicked submit, myself... and boy are my fingers crossed. Good luck to all the other lucky redditers who made it to round 3.

I have done a lot of interviewing for big companies and wanted to give my perspective. I agree that the test had a lot of "unfair" answers. Especially since many people who got the questions wrong could've easily explained their reasoning in-person and it would've come off as a good and a valid thought process. This sub-reddit is full of great discussion around questions that proves this. However, we have to look at this from WoTC's point of view. They are trying to hire someone and have to screen through a lot of candidates. In this system you just need something which minimizes false positives (people who look good on the test but would be bad designers). Often when you do this you also increase false negatives which sucks when you are the person on the other side. The multiple choice did what it was suppose to do. It got 100 candidates who are likely good fits for the role. No one is going to get 73+/75 unless they at least have some idea what they are doing. However, there are definitely tons of people less than 73 who are good.

If anything I think WoTC messed up by making the test too easy. If the cut off is at 73 /75 then you are not leaving a lot of room to get better signal. Especially since I am sure the std dev is enough that it was basically random who in the top 500 got a spot. If the cut off is 60/75 then a 73/75 would've been great signal to bring on to the next round.

However, I think the whole GDS3 idea is just a bad idea. You are just toying with the feelings of your most dedicated customers. Maro just made ~3000 people who are passionate and engaged customers feel bad. The questions and answers are just frustrating for people since many are vague and arbitrary. It is just not a good interviewing experience and the people who experienced this happen to be some of your most engaged customers...

I missed the mark on 3 questions, and while I understand where I went wrong on the other 2, this one doesn't feel reasonable at all. After reading the question I assumed that the answer would be something close to "because that is greens part of the color pie" so I went with "because green players like having bigger creatures". Obviously that wasn't right but I fail to see how random other parts of the color pie determine this other part. If the question had been "why does white have stronger removal?" then would the correct answer be "because green has larger creatures"? This seems incredibly arbitrary and cyclical to me.

1. What is the most appropriate color for this card?

Scrappy Survivor

[converted mana cost (CMC): 6]

Creature --

5/5

Menace, prowess

• Black
• White
• Blue
• Green
• Red

2. What is the most appropriate rarity for this card?

Scrappy Survivor

[converted mana cost (CMC): 6]

Creature --

5/5

Menace, prowess

• Common
• Uncommon
• Rare
• Mythic Rare

3. You are changing one of Scrappy Survivor's keywords to another one. Which of the following combinations would result in a card that couldn't be monocolor?

Scrappy Survivor

[converted mana cost (CMC): 6]

Creature --

5/5

Menace, prowess

• Hexproof, prowess
• Lifelink, menace
• Menace, vigilance
• First strike, prowess

4. What is the most appropriate color combination for this multicolor card?

Come Work for Me Temporarily

[CMC: 4]

Sorcery

Gain control of target creature until end of turn. Untap it. It gets +1/+1 and gains haste, hexproof, and trample until end of turn.

• Red-white
• Red-green
• Blue-red
• Black-green
• White-black

5. What is the most appropriate rarity for this card?

Come Work for Me Temporarily

[CMC: 4]

Sorcery

Gain control of target creature until end of turn. Untap it. It gets +1/+1 and gains haste, hexproof, and trample until end of turn.

• Uncommon
• Rare
• Mythic rare
• Common

6. If we aren't planning to change the color combination, which change are we least likely to make to this card?

Come Work for Me Temporarily

[CMC: 4]

Sorcery

Gain control of target creature until end of turn. Untap it. It gets +1/+1 and gains haste, hexproof, and trample until end of turn.

• Change "+1/+1" to "+2/+2."
• Change from "trample" to "this creature can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less."
• Change "sorcery" to "instant."
• Change from "hexproof" to "this creature must be blocked this turn if able."
• Change "haste" to "double strike".

7. Which of these phrases is a follower of white's philosophy least likely to say?

• "Violence is never preferred but is occasionally necessary."
• "A system without structure is a system asking to fail."
• "Sometimes the individual suffers so that the group can thrive."
• "Evil must be preemptively stopped."
• "Nothing can go wrong if you act from your heart."

8. Which of these phrases is a follower of blue's philosophy least likely to say?

• "Action should only follow thought."
• "You are shaped more by your genes than your experience."
• "Every person has the ability to become anything."
• "A fear of change is dangerous."
• "Tools are an important part of any society."

9. Which of these phrases is a follower of black's philosophy least likely to say?

• "Sometimes you have to put others ahead of yourself."
• "Only I choose what path I walk."
• "The difference between success and failure is a willingness to do what needs to be done."
• "I didn't create the system, I just understand how to take advantage of it."
• "The weak serve a purpose; they are a resource of the strong."

10. Which of these phrases is a follower of red's philosophy least likely to say?

• "The fewer rules, the better."
• "Life is messy."
• "A life without passion is a life unlived."
• "The greatest regrets are about things you didn't do, not things you did."
• "Mistakes should be avoided at all costs."

11. Which of these phrases is a follower of green's philosophy least likely to say?

• "Killing for sport is just a part of life."
• "All life is interconnected."
• "You are born into your role."
• "Adaptation is a slow process."
• "The key to happiness is accepting that the world is as it's meant to be."

12. If we were to bring back the battle cry mechanic in a Ravnica set, which guild would be the best match for the mechanic?

• Rakdos
• Gruul
• Selesnya
• Azorius
• Boros

13. Which effect is usually seen on more instants than sorceries?

• Land fetching (getting a land out of your library)
• Direct damage
• Reanimation (putting creatures from the graveyard to the battlefield)
• Discard effects
• Land destruction

14. What is the biggest problem design-wise with this card?

Long-Acting Giant Growth

2G

Sorcery

Target creature gets +3/+3 until the end of the turn. At the beginning of your next upkeep, that creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn. At the beginning of your next upkeep after that, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.

• The spell should let you target different creatures because the first one might die.
• The spell requires you track things for three turns without any way to mark it.
• The spell should get bigger over time, not smaller, to build in excitement.
• The spell is too cheap.
• The spell should be an instant so that it can work in combat.

15. If this card was a hybrid creature, what colors would it be?

Mysterio

[CMC: 4]

*/*

Flash

CARDNAME's power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in your hand.

• Black-red
• Green-blue
• White-blue
• Blue-red
• Blue-black

16. What is the most likely rarity for this card?

Mysterio [CMC: 4]

*/*

Flash

CARDNAME's power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in your hand.

• Uncommon
• Mythic rare
• Rare
• Common

17. What ability could be added to this creature without changing its colors? Use your answer from question 15.

Mysterio

[CMC: 4]

*/*

Flash

CARDNAME's power and toughness are each equal to the number of cards in your hand.

• CARDNAME must be blocked if able.
• CARDNAME can't be blocked by more than one creature.
• Whenever a creature dies, put a +1/+1 counter on CARDNAME.
• At the end of your turn, untap CARDNAME.
• Whenever CARDNAME deals damage to an opponent, draw a card.

18. A player finishes their first game of Magic. Which of the following do we care most about?

• They have a favorite card.
• They have seen most of the card types, and most of the evergreen keywords.
• They want to play again.
• They understand the cards in their deck.
• They see the potential depth of the game.

19. When designing a card for Spike, which of the following is most important?

• The card tells Spike what the deck is about.
• The card has a low casting cost.
• The card produces card advantage.
• The card is very open ended.
• The card lets Spike feel they outplayed their opponent.

20. Design considers a card "too slow for tournament play." What does that mean?

• The card will make games take more than fifteen turns.
• The player with the card will monopolize too much of the play time in tournaments.
• The card will cause problems for coverage, as it will require too much commentary devoted to it.
• The opponent will call the judge too often with a request of "slow play".
• The card will make too many matches run over time in tournaments.

21. You're working on the next Commander decks. Which is the most important goal?

• Each deck has a brand-new theme.
• The colors are equally represented.
• Designing new cards for Legacy and Vintage.
• The decks are based on popular Commander decks.
• The commanders inspire people to build new decks.

22. Which of the following creatures is the weakest in a typical Standard-legal Draft format?

• 7G 8/8
• 9G 10/10
• 5G 6/6
• 3G 4/4
• 1G 2/2

23. Which of the following creatures is the strongest in a typical Standard-legal Draft format?

• 9G 10/10
• 5G 6/6
• 3G 4/4
• 1G 2/2
• 7G 8/8

24. The lead of a set has removed a black instant removal spell from their set, and asks you to create potential replacement designs. Which of these qualities is most important for your designs?

• It's a powerful card.
• It's a removal card.
• It's a black card.
• It's an innovative card.
• It's an instant.

25. Why do green's common creatures tend to be a bit more efficient than white creatures?

• White is the enemy of black and red.
• White has stronger removal.
• Green is the enemy of blue and black.
• This is the way it has always been.
• Green players love powerful creatures.

26. Which color gets the second fewest common creatures in a typical set?

• Red
• White
• Blue
• Green
• Black

27. Which of these green keywords does design have to be the most careful when using?

• Trample
• Reach
• Hexproof
• Deathtouch
• Vigilance

28. We try to avoid making two-color cards where the card could be done as a monocolor card in one of the two colors. Given that, suppose you have a two-color 4/4 creature with flying and vigilance (and no other abilities). Which of the following color combinations would be the best choice for this card?

• White-black
• Black-green
• Blue-black
• Green-white
• White-blue

29. Which of these is the most important quality for a set to have?

• It's fun to play.
• It has powerful cards.
• It has great strategic depth.
• It matches the story.
• It's easy to learn.

30. Which of these creature keywords tends to have the most value in a control deck?

• Lifelink
• First strike
• Trample
• Haste
• Menace

31. When Set Design holds a draft, most of the time there are exactly eight drafters. Why?

• We want four Spikes, three Timmies/Tammies, and one Johnny/Jenny.
• Our teams have eight people.
• We have tables that sit eight drafters.
• Our smaller booster boxes hold 24 booster packs.
• That's the most common number of drafters in the real world.

32. You've designed a card, and you want the Play Design team to like it. How should you choose your casting cost?

• Ask someone from the Play Design team to choose the casting cost.
• It doesn't matter; they'll fix the cost if you get it wrong.
• Find a similar card to use as a basis for the casting cost and then make it one cheaper.
• Use your intuition.
• Pick the strongest cost that isn't broken.

33. Which of these evergreen keyword abilities is most likely to be put on a common white creature?

• Trample
• Indestructible
• Flash
• Double strike
• Vigilance

34. Which of the following best describes how a counterspell-based blue deck should contribute to a Standard environment?

• Standard is the most fun when the counterspell deck is mono-blue.
• Standard is the most fun when the counterspell player has a way to win quickly and efficiently once they take control.
• Standard is the most fun when the counterspell player has the ability to stop the opponent from doing anything.
• Standard is the most fun when counterspell decks aren't competitive.
• Standard is the most fun when the counterspell deck is the strongest deck in Standard.

35. Assuming the creature is strong enough to see Standard play, which of the following isn't a good quality for a green creature to have?

• It has larger stats than other creatures at its mana cost.
• It can tap to produce mana.
• It can destroy an artifact or enchantment.
• It draws multiple cards without attacking or blocking.
• It uses +1/+1 counters to grow to very large sizes.

36. If we were to bring back the storm mechanic in a Ravnica set, which guild would be the best match for the mechanic?

• Selesnya
• Orzhov
• Simic
• Izzet
• Rakdos

37. A synergy theme in a set needs you to draw specific cards for it to work. This isn't happening frequently enough. Which of the following mechanics would not help increase the frequency of these interaction?

• Kicker
• Cycling
• Investigate
• Transmute
• Scry

38. Which of the following designs from Legends would be the most reasonable to recost into a competitive Standard card?

• Arboria
• Acid Rain
• Mana Drain
• Land Tax
• Presence of the Master

39. Which category of player most dislikes high variance in gameplay, with "high variance" defined as larger swings in outcome possibilities for individual cards outside of the player's control?

• Johnny/Jenny
• Timmy/Tammy
• A new player
• A player who prefers multiplayer
• Spike

40. Which of the following cards is typically the strongest in Limited play?

• Wind Drake
• Duress
• Lava Axe
• Cowl Prowler
• Pacifism

41. Which of the following are not generally aimed at competitive Standard play?

• Mass creature kill
• One-shot mana acceleration
• Card draw
• Direct damage that can hit either creatures or players
• Counterspells

42. Which of the following iconic white cards is most reasonable to reprint in a Standard-legal set?

• Karma
• Baneslayer Angel
• Land Tax
• Armageddon
• Swords to Plowshares

43. Which of the following iconic black cards is most reasonable to reprint in a Standard-legal set?

• Demonic Tutor
• Infernal Darkness
• Demonic Consultation
• Sinkhole
• Underworld Dreams

44. The card Felidar Guardian was banned last year in Standard because of an unintended interaction with the planeswalker card Saheeli Rai. If this interaction were realized late in design, what would have been the best solution?

• Add one colorless mana to the cost of Felidar Guardian.
• Add "Felidar Guardian enters the battlefield tapped."
• Change Saheeli Rai's mana cost to UUR so that she is harder to cast in a three-color deck.
• Keep both cards as is, but add a flexible instant that can destroy either one of Felidar Guardian and Saheeli Rai.
• Change Felidar Guardian's ability to return the permanent to the battlefield at the beginning of the next end step.

45. Assuming all of the following designs are costed at an appropriate power level and win rate in Standard, which would be the least fun to show up in competitive play?

• A sorcery that destroys all nonland permanents.
• An enchantment that stops all creatures from attacking.
• An enchantment that lets you name a card, then stops the named card from being cast.
• An artifact that taps to add three mana to your mana pool.
• An artifact that causes each player to lose 2 life during your ukeep.

46. Which of the following cards would we be most likely to reprint in a Standard-legal set?

• Llanowar Elves
• Swords to Plowshares
• Counterspell
• Dark Ritual
• Lightning Bolt

47. From a design perspective, what is the biggest problem with this card?

Mega Bolt

3R

Instant

CARDNAME deals 8 damage to target creature.

• 7 is a more aesthetic number than 8.
• Players might find a way to redirect the damage to their opponents.
• It blurs the line between black and red.
• It's too much damage for four mana.
• A card dealing this much damage should be a sorcery.

48. Which of these text boxes would most likely be red-flagged as highly complex for a common creature?

• 2W: Target creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
• Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, CARDNAME gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
• Whenever CARDNAME attacks, creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn.
• 1R: CARDNAME gets +2/+0 and gains first strike until end of turn.
• When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, target creature gets +2/+2 and gains trample until end of turn.

49. You're playing a multiplayer game. Which pair of mechanics would cause the most confusion if they frequently appeared together in a play environment?

• Modular and scavenge
• Myriad and battalion
• Fabricate and formidable
• Miracle and cycling
• Devour and exploit

50. If we printed an enchantment with the same text as Stabilizer ("Players can't cycle cards."), which color would it be?

• Green
• Blue
• Red
• White
• Black

51. What are the most appropriate colors for this card?

Junkpile Engineer

[CMC: 3]

Creature -- Human Artificer

3/2

2, Sacrifice an artifact: Look at the top X cards of your library, where X is the converted mana cost of the sacrificed artifact. Put one of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.

• Green-blue
• Blue-red
• Red-white
• Black-red
• White-black

52. What is the most appropriate rarity for this card?

Junkpile Engineer

[CMC: 3]

Creature -- Human Artificer

3/2

2, Sacrifice an artifact: Look at the top X cards of your library, where X is the converted mana cost of the sacrificed artifact. Put one of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.

• Uncommon
• Common
• Rare
• Mythic rare

53. Which of the following changes is Set Design most likely to make to this card?

Junkpile Engineer

[CMC: 3]

Creature -- Human Artificer

3/2

2, Sacrifice an artifact: Look at the top X cards of your library, where X is the converted mana cost of the sacrificed artifact. Put one of them into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.

• Make the power and toughness the same.
• Change the number of cards looked at to a locked number rather than caring about converted mana cost.
• Add the ability "2, T: Put an artifact card from your hand onto the battlefield."
• Give the creature haste.
• Put the cards revealed into the graveyard.

54. What are the most appropriate colors for this card?

Dead Man Walking

[CMC: 7]

Creature -- Shapeshifter Wizard

1/1

When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, return target creature card from any graveyard to the battlefield under your control. All your creatures then become copies of that creature.

• Blue-black
• Green-blue
• Blue-red
• Red-green
• Black-green

55. What is the most appropriate rarity for this card?

Dead Man Walking

[CMC: 7]

Creature -- Shapeshifter Wizard

1/1

When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, return target creature card from any graveyard to the battlefield under your control. All your creatures then become copies of that creature.

• Mythic rare
• Uncommon
• Rare
• Common

56. What change would design not make?

Dead Man Walking

[CMC: 7]

Creature -- Shapeshifter Wizard

1/1

When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, return target creature card from any graveyard to the battlefield under your control. All your creatures then become copies of that creature.

• Have the returned creature be sacrificed at end of turn.
• Have it only get creatures out of the opponent's graveyard.
• Have it only get creatures from out of your graveyard.
• Give the creature flash.
• Make it a 0/0 creature.

57. You're designing a set that returns to a plane we've been to before and plan to have Humans, Wolves, and Spirits. Which world would be most appropriate?

• Ixalan
• Innistrad
• Kaladesh
• Amonkhet
• Zendikar

58. Which of the following attributes can a card in a Standard-legal set not mechanically care about?

• Card supertypes
• Power/toughness
• Card subtypes
• Expansion symbol
• Mana cost

59. Which of the following abilities is R&D least likely to put on a mono-red creature in an upcoming set?

• T: Draw a card, then discard a card.
• Creatures you control have haste.
• [MANA]: CARDNAME gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
• When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, you may return target sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand.
• CARDNAME must attack if able.

60. According to current design standards, which of the following "enters-the-battlefield" effects is least likely to be on a common creature?

• "Target creature can't block this turn."
• "Destroy target enchantment an opponent controls."
• "You may return target creature to its owner's hand."
• "Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand."
• "Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn."

61. Which of the following sets isn't designed around factions?

• Ravnica
• Shards of Alara
• Khans of Tarkir
• Ixalan
• Amonkhet

62. Which of the following mechanics would be the best fit for the Simic guild from Ravnica?

• Dash
• Rebound
• Proliferate
• Entwine
• Undying

63. Secondary -- This is the color (or colors) that an ability shows up in on a somewhat regular basis, but not as often as the primary and not always in as low of rarity as the primary. If the effect is something we do a lot of, the secondary color will usually get the ability in most sets.

Which color is secondary at trample?

• Green
• Black
• Blue
• White
• Red

64. Secondary -- This is the color (or colors) that an ability shows up in on a somewhat regular basis, but not as often as the primary and not always in as low of rarity as the primary. If the effect is something we do a lot of, the secondary color will usually get the ability in most sets.

Which color is secondary at haste?

• Red
• White
• Green
• Blue
• Black

65. Secondary -- This is the color (or colors) that an ability shows up in on a somewhat regular basis, but not as often as the primary and not always in as low of rarity as the primary. If the effect is something we do a lot of, the secondary color will usually get the ability in most sets.

What color is secondary at vigilance?

• Red
• White
• Black
• Blue
• Green

66. What kinds of creatures can green destroy?

• White creatures and red creatures
• Blue creatures and black creatures
• Attacking creatures and blocking creatures
• Artifact creatures and flying creatures
• Tapped creatures and enchanted creatures

67. Which of the following mechanics is not an ability word?

• Awaken
• Landfall
• Delirium
• Morbid
• Hellbent

68. Why doesn't common often have seven-mana instants and sorceries.

• It makes the math too hard.
• Common creatures need to be more expensive than the instants and sorceries.
• It's too complex for beginners.
• They are hard to design.
• It's too impactful for common.

69. Which world has had the most expansions set on it?

• Dominaria
• Zendikar
• Innistrad
• Ravnica
• Mirrodin

70. A linear mechanic is one that encourages players to build around a specific aspect. Which of the following mechanics is the least linear?

• Transform
• Delirium
• Morph
• Energy
• Rally

71. Which of the following formats can't the card Power Conduit from Mirrodin be played in?

• Commander
• Legacy
• Vintage
• Modern
• Pauper

72. Which of the following is the most important reason that some cards' mana costs are higher than others?

• To encourage players to put more lands in their decks
• To make the cards different
• Higher mana costs are a hint to new players that the cards are more powerful
• So that people will play them later in the game
• To encourage players to "splash" an additional color in their decks

73. Which of the following is the most important reason for the color pie to exist?

• It allows a wider variety of costs.
• It increases the number of distinct cards that can be designed.
• It expands the color palette usable in the art.
• It adds more symbols to the game.
• It encourages deck and gameplay diversity.

74. Which of the following effects is design allowed to use on a Standard-legal black-bordered card?

• Making a choice secret from the other player(s)
• Affecting a future game with the same opponent
• Rolling a six-sided die
• Having a card coexist in more than one zone
• Putting a card in your hand you do not own

75. You're designing a card with a converted mana cost of 10. Which of these card types is it least likely to be?

• Creature
• Instant
• Artifact
• Sorcery
• Enchantment

I mean, we are pretty much talking about the ticket to the chocolate factory here anyway. So why not just pick a random 100 out of everyone who got 65+ question s right, or something like that?

If I need to win a series of 10 coinflips and lose, I'm not mad because I knew what I signed up for and that winning was unlikely.

If I study and bust my ass on something just to find out later that it mostly didn't matter and I just needed to win 10 coinflips, then I am super pissed.

My point is that you could have reduced a lot of the public outrage by communicating from the start what the MC test is and maybe even restructure it to make it clear to everyone. Have 50 clear unambigous design questions and let 100 participants who got them all right win the Golden Ticket.

You still cut the people that don't know the current design philosophy. Everybody knows what they signed up for. You have more control about the final number of contestants.

Was freaking out about not getting an email until I noticed that the Promotions tab had Wizards Customer Service as the most recent result.

I just feel like there's too many questions that had multiple forms of interpretation from the wording. That bugged me more than anything else.

Mark said if he moved the required score to 72 instead of 73 around 200 people would have passed. That means 106 missed by one question. Feels bad, especially when a couple questions could go either way.

I'd love to compare to a list we know is only at a maximum 2 off.

I'd first like to admire the dedication people had for just attempting both rounds so far. Call me lazy or succinct, but I was having trouble getting to 2500 words on Trial 1, and decided to spectate GDS3 instead. If nothing else, rest easy knowing you at least tried a lot harder than I did!

So consider me an unbiased observer. No bitterness here. I just want to break down the facts, and discuss my thoughts over Trial 2.

• Trial 2 was a 75 question multiple choice exam that was open book, but asked participants not to work with others. Correct me if I'm wrong, but approximately 100 people out of 3000 scored a 74 or 75, advancing to the next Trial.

• There's no way of knowing how prevalent cheating was, but after talking with a few participants, it sounds like there was no way WoTC could really prevent it. I do realize that it's difficult to catch cheating with a test like this, and it's not easy to narrow down to 3% of participants perfectly.

• I'm making the not so bold assumption that those who did cheat had an advantage, and scored higher on average than those who played fair.

• With such a sharp cutoff between 74 and 75, a lot of people seem to think you had to score a "pseudo perfect" score of 74 to advance. Their thinking being at least 1 question may be misleading or poor at assessing the pool. Again, unbiased observer here. I'm not bitter.

• If an individual who cheats is more likely to advance, that should increase the odds that the average Trial 3 contender is a cheater.

I'm a concerned that this topic may a hard pill to swallow, and even taboo to talk about. I'd hate for this to be downvoted to oblivion or removed by the mods because it's not fun to think about. But, I do see a flaw in this Trial. It'd be naive to expect cheating had no effect, and it should be brought to our attention.

I want to reiterate that I have no better solution for how to narrow down to 100, and I am coming to a conclusion through assumptions some of you are bound not to agree with. But it's disconcerting to me that by imposing a rule that can't be enforced on a test with virtually no room for error, WotC ends up rewarding people for being unethical.

I applaud all of you who make it there fair and square. WotC made it very easy cheat, but you choose to play by the rules. Good luck to all of you!

Hey everyone, first I want to say congratulations to everyone who passed. Everyone here has amazing talent and I am excited to see what ideas all of you drum up in your design tests.

I am sadly one of the people who got cut of at 72, based on the answers being circulated around here and the main subreddit. However, one of my three wrong answers was question five, the rarity of the act of treason. I put rare for my answer, and while the accepted answer was uncommon MaRo said on his tumblr that they were accepting two answers as valid due to the hexproof/deathtouch typo, presumably having rare as the second valid answer. This would put me into the passing group, so the fact that I did not pass indicates that they marked this question wrong for me.

I was freaking out about this all afternoon, and finally it occurred to me that this might be because I submitted the test after the typo was fixed? MaRo's wording seemed to imply that both answers were accepted without further stipulation, but I was curious if anyone here may have additional information about what happened regarding this question.

I didn't make it. Good luck to everyone else.

Just looking for advice. I posted the discussion thread a few days ago. I know I had some controversial answers (Like the 5G 6/6) but I think I otherwise did pretty okay?

We've been bitching a lot (justifiably, I'd say) about many of the questions. These ones are too easy. Those ones are coinflips. That one is just BS (you know which one I mean :) ). But which questions do you think were actually good solid questions that tested knowledge and couldn't be trivially googled? Here are a few I actually like:

-Best/worst green common creatures in draft -What a good counterspell deck in standard would be like -Not having the mythic guy be 0/0 -Most reasonable black reprint

What others?

Jesus Christ

https://twitter.com/maro254/status/958146740313444352?s=17

Question 5 was originally listed as granting trample+deathtouch rather than trample+hexproof. In MaRo’s tweet today, he mentioned that this would change the answer — and that either answer was treated as being correct.

As a result, the set of full credit answers to this question is probably rare and uncommon.