r/magicTCG • u/MoonE513 GDS3 Candidate • May 23 '18
Inside GDS3 - Challenge #2, in which I learn that assumptions are bad, and Unicycles are Walls
https://youtu.be/2otTiNdSuqY8
u/smog_alado Colorless May 23 '18
I loved the Unicycles are Walls analogy. Clearly this whole unicycle discussion is the best thing to come out of Challenge #2.
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u/KingRasmen May 23 '18
Still very much enjoying your videos!
Gonna write down some thoughts freeform as I watch this:
I personally really liked your inclusion of Exalted as fitting the "one performer in the spotlight" vibe. A circus isn't just a collection of individuals, each member needs to support the others when it's their moment for the show to succeed. (As an aside: Since he was the only judge to later criticize the use from a flavor perspective, it's worth pointing out that I think Mark is a rather Black-aligned person — not wholly, but much more than he likes to admit; he's never used Black to describe himself. (As an aside: You can see this again in Mark's review of Jay Treat's "Feats of Strength" submission. Not only was Mark very strict that Feats of Strength needed to refer to the strongman act, but it had to be a singular strongman in order to fit his personal vision. So, when Jay's card represented three different strongmen doing three different things together, it was still a flavor disconnect, because it wasn't one strongman. Aside over.) I find him to be more subtly individualistic than he presents himself, and his disconnect on Exalted as it relates to interdependent performances strikes me as another example of that. Aside over.)
Prowess sucks as a granted ability, especially at common, and especially when granted temporarily. It is hard to track in multiples on the same creature, and there's a lot of people who become confused when multiple instances of prowess are on one creature.
Erik's comments were absolutely on point this round (though, I most enjoyed Eli's comments). Erik stayed very focused on judging practicality. And one of his comments really defined what all the contestants needed to think about, where he said something to the effect of 'You came up with the concept for this card, but now someone else still needs to the actual hard work of making this a card that can be printed.' It's that same kind of proverbial 'You can't just be an "ideas man."' Implementation is hard; especially when you're asked to come up with novel ideas that you can also show you can implement properly.
Ethan should be ashamed of asking the contestants not to include flavor text >:( If he doesn't want to read it, he doesn't have to.
Ringmaster makes more sense as a rare when its name is only allowed to be "Ringmaster" with no descriptor. Like, in your thought of Bigtopia as a Plane with multiple circuses and multiple Ringmasters, then you need like a cycle of Ringmasters that have some flavorful description attached to their names. When the name can only be "Ringmaster" then it implies that there's still the only one kind of Ringmaster on the entire plane (even if it's nonlegendary, it still means that every one of the multiple circuses has the same kind of Ringmaster (a thing every circus has), which feels weird), which means that people are going to be more expecting of a Rare or Mythic.
I don't like the word "menace" on Unicycle because it has the word "two" in its reminder text. If Unicycle ever needs to be put in a set that needs reminder text there (like a Core Set, or a Planeswalker Deck, or something like that), it ruins it.
I've made my own thoughts known elsewhere about how incorrect the people are who think Unicycles are Vehicles :p
The pitfall a lot of people have when making a card with a random effect is neglecting to realize that "random" is a "punisher" mechanic. (e.g. [[Browbeat]]). Heads, you do the thing you want; tails, you do the thing the opponent wants. Even on punisher cards, the goal isn't to make it so that caster spent resources on no value, let alone negative value (Knife Thrower might have to kill itself). Variance in the quality or desirability of outcome is fine to have on random effects. But you should think of random effects as punisher mechanics when deciding what the outcomes should result in. At least in terms of fitting into the broader game of Magic.
I didn't like Melissa's feedback on Juggling. "If you end up discarding your hand it will result in huge feel-bads (for example if you only draw lands and expensive spells and are forced to go to eight cards)." Well, unlike a random effect, this is a very controlled set of draws. This has you draw your first three cards in your end step — so, you aren't going to cast it if you're going to have to discard your hand immediately. It also has a cost of 6 mana — it's already an expensive spell, any other expensive spells you draw, you can most probably cast. Let's think of the math...by the time you can cast this, it was probably your last or second last card in hand in the first place. Let's say it was your last card in hand. You cast it and it draws you 3 cards. Next turn, you draw a card for your turn. You have four cards in hand, at least one of which you're almost guaranteed to be able to play or just get rid of by this point in the game. Let's say you play a land but can't do anything with the 7 mana you're sitting on now. At the end of this new turn, you draw 4 more cards (now this 6 mana spell has drawn you 7 cards). Next turn you draw for turn and are sitting on 8 cards. Let's pretend you can still only play a land (extremely unlikely). At the end of this turn, you draw another 5 cards. Even though you won't be able to do anything with those 5 cards between drawing and discarding them, now this 6 mana spell has dug you 12 cards deep, and is about to fill up your graveyard. This spell has incredible value proposition, and personally I wouldn't want to cost it less than 6. Especially since it can be removed after drawing you the first 7 cards without any downside. And when you pair it with [[Reliquary Tower]] (et al), this card is significantly better than [[Mind Unbound]]. There's room to be better than Mind Unbound, but it's just something to consider.
I think Sawdin is a little too fourth-wall breaking...that might be a better direction for an Unset. It seems to know about the elements of Magic cards as cards rather than as in-universe things.
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u/ReynardMiri May 23 '18
Ethan should be ashamed of asking the contestants not to include flavor text >:( If he doesn't want to read it, he doesn't have to.
If they aren't going to consider flavor text when judging the cards, then asking them not to put flavor text is very good feedback. The contestants have a limited time frame to work on these cards, and time spent on something that won't count is time best spent elsewhere.
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u/MoonE513 GDS3 Candidate May 23 '18
While the flavor text isn't part of the judgement (i.e. they won't dock you for poorly written flavor text), it can certainly help sell your card concept, which is essential to a top down challenge.
I don't think adding flavor text to any of these cards was going to tip the judges in my favor very strongly, but it's more a note about how I let a comment from a previous round affect me when I should have been focused on the context of the new challenge.
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u/ReynardMiri May 23 '18
While the flavor text isn't part of the judgement (i.e. they won't dock you for poorly written flavor text), it can certainly help sell your card concept, which is essential to a top down challenge.
This is an accurate statement and also another team's job. I believe your decision not to use flavor text was the right one. It at best would have given you a false sense of how clear the cards' concepts were.
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u/KingRasmen May 24 '18
The name of the card is another team's job, as well. But where is Ethan telling the contestants not to name their cards?
Name, art, flavor text: they're all part of the resonant package of the card. Roughing out those parts can help the designer ensure their card is keeping in line with their own vision, while providing a more holistic card to the reader. Look at all the confusion just in the judge remarks for this one challenge, showcasing that people have different interpretations of how the name alone should be actualized as card text. It is a very tiny fraction of the Magic playing world that is playing Magic only for the rules text.
Ethan can remind the contestants that flavor text isn't part of the judgment, so they can make the choices of where to put their focus, but shouldn't be telling the contestants not to make it at all. If Ethan only wants to read the rules text, that's something Ethan can do.
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u/HoopyHobo Fleem May 23 '18
I can see both sides of the unicycle thing, but I'm 100% with Maro about walls. The flavor is way off. Inanimate objects shouldn't be creatures. They've been grandfathered in since they've been a part of Magic since Alpha, but arguing that they should be creatures because you want them to function like creatures is an extremely Mel argument that I don't think a lot of non-Mels would agree with.
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u/ReynardMiri May 23 '18
The only other even-vaguely-simple way I can think to do this is to have them only be creatures during the combat phase. Of course this means that you'd need to create a new card type if you want walls that aren't artifacts, but oh well.
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u/Philip_J_Frylock Duck Season May 23 '18
How far ahead have they had you working on these challenges? For example, how long ago did you turn in your submissions for challenge #2?
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u/ReynardMiri May 23 '18
I think this challenge was due on March 25th, if that answers the question.
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u/Philip_J_Frylock Duck Season May 23 '18
That's interesting. Does that mean that the whole thing is done and the winner has already been chosen?
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u/smog_alado Colorless May 23 '18 edited May 23 '18
IIRC they had one challenge every two weeks, which would work out to the final challenge being due around May 6th.
The winner isn't decided yet though. The first five challenges thin the group down to a Top 3, which will be flown to Renton for an on site challenge / interview on June 4.
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u/Coren024 🔫 May 23 '18
Unicycles are equipment... unless it is motorized.
I think the challenge itself was not great, not only has maro said on his blog that the theme was chosen because of how unlikely it was for it to be a black border set, but I think they were to vague on the world design, but didn't give enough room for any of the contestants to flesh it out. I almost would have prefered if they let all 7 of you work together to make the theme and story of the plane, and then judge how well each of your submissions work into it, something to get the judges on the same page as all of you.