I didn't want to read it, and I felt obligated too, I was very conflicted. Thanks guys!

And yes pich, our version, with the mana cost, is the one I think we should go with.

Vinyacoire had a suggested wording change. I'll contact you about it before I send it in.

he showed it to me...it's good to go. If you have time today hope on yahoo

okay, sorry for the delay, but welcome to:

Round 2: Mechanic Design

The challenge is this: Design a mechanic that fits on artifacts. Design two artifacts that use this mechanic; one which uses it in a 'normal' way, one which stretches the design space that mechanic creates. Submission needs to be in the form of two cards, either in text or render form, emailed to the address in the firstpost. Please send both cards in the same email, and indicate which is which. Don't forget to stick your team name in the subjectline as well!

Hints for judging
- This round is intended to test your raw design skills, so things like prettyness of renders or specifically exact wording/spelling aren't a problem.
- Nevertheless, the mechanic you design must *work* within the rules of the game, and the cards must be playable and fairly balanced.
- Remember, while the mechanic can be a keyword, it doesn't have to be.
- The specifics of this contest indicate that the mechanic should be for Artifacts. While this doesn't mean that you can't design a mechanic that technically works on nonartifacts (Modular, for instance), simply designing a creature mechanic and sticking it on two artifact creatures is not good enough.
- Bonus credit is available if the mechanic has a nice flavour behind it and that flavour is borne out in the cards submitted, but this contest is primarily a test of how innovative you are, how well you can find new areas of design space.
- As an example of the difference between the normal/stretch cards, compare Goblin Patrol with Volcano Hellion. The first demonstrates a normal, common, use of a simple mechanic; the second, a much more interesting one-off way of using the mechanic to do something cool.

If you have any problems post them in this thread as usual. Note: submission for the last round are not closed, I don't like to run the competition like that, but be aware that the rounds won't necessarily be this far apart in the future and i've only recieved one submission so far, thanks a lot to Team Wolfden.

Good luck!

Pich and/or vinyacoire, if you have time today we can work on this, just get on yahoo

@Idle Muse - A tougher challenge than before! We (the Undead Team)'ll do our best! When are you going to post next challenge? Next week? Just want to know.

I think I might be able to help out with this round of the competition, Monkey and Lord of 13.

Round 2 has begun! I've already started brainstorming.

Sorry to everyone about the whole spoiler text thing. I totally understand at Pich about how you need to look through everything.

@Aurora - I sent our card to Idle Muse with my email. If you send him an email, he can get us in contact w/o these spoiler text blocks.

Yes, I sent him my email address too.

The fun thing is - I don't know which of two cards Cizzle sent, and I'm not going to ask him. I'll wait to be surprised when you release the results of part 1. Part 2 is proving tricky!

@fafnir: I will get to email you tonight. Challenge 1 has proven tricky. I am really into challenge 2, with more than 1 idea swirling around in my head.

@everyone else: Wait until you see my entry for challenge number 4. I have no clue what the challenge is, but I am so in love with my new card!

Don't worry, I just got back too. Challenge one is a mess.
P.S.: If you can, send me any cards you made, I'll put everything into a single fileset for the final design submission.

Aurora, I forwarded his email address for you, yell if you don't receive it.

@Picks: I'll only be releasing the results of part 1 at the end of the whole contest, same with 2 3 and 4.

That's okay, I got it.

@DM: Regarding your mail, since it's easier for you to read my answer here... I'll let you know about the first challenge; let's just say I was thinking about it in a completely different way. What do you think, for the artifact challenge, of a *stealing* version of Choice 2? Choice 1 could be easily abused with Master Transmuter, but I like it too. I'm torn.

You can still put this stuff in spoiler tags!
Cheers, PaF

Keep in mind, I'm still going to read it in spoiler tags. We (Sky Grove) have our first submission finished (not submitted), but our second is not yet decided on. Just ideas so far.

Pichoro, you flickered in and out of Messenger too quick for me to nab you today; did you have an idea for the second submission, or are we planning on using Innuendo's cards as of right now?

Shoot me an e-mail if you have any detail to go into...

I sometimes have messenger problems. I have no ideas for the second challenge.

Double posting for notice that I'm moving this thread, as it really isn't a Make-A-Set. Despite being run for the mini-planes people, this really is a game, and all other games are in the Card Showcase forum. I'm putting this one there.

Thread Moved.

@Pich: Hey, why'd you move the thread!!!! just kidding.

@Fafnir: I will be checking my email in the next 36 hours. I'll respond there.

Yeah, sorry I haven't posted the next round yet people - I'm actually moving out of my flat for the easter this week, so lots of packing etc. to do. Still only recieved entries for the first round from Teams Chaotic, Skygrove, and Wolf, and only from Team Skygrove for round 2.

Round Three will be posted soon. Maybe tonight if I've got some free time, so get to work on the rest of those entries!

Don't worry. I am quite busy myself, as you can guess from the lack of submissions.

Round 3: Finding Art

This round is pretty simple; all custom sets need art for their cards, and most don't have the luxury of being able to hire or ask artists to paint bespoke art. Therefore, some of the valuable talents in set creation is actually the ability to find appropriate art for specific cards. This round, I'm asking you to each find a piece of art for this one card. It's a fairly simple card, a Sorcery (one of the more difficult subjects. Lands are really easy, Creatures can be okay, and Artifacts usually are). The setting isn't obvious, and the colour is green:

Hints on judging:
- The card is setting-independant, so you won't have to dismiss certain arts out-of-hand because of the prescence of certain races or whatever.
- However, I'm expecting it to stay within the realms of Traditional Fantasy; submitting sci-fi or anime art, or something along those lines, under the assumption that I said setting-irrelevant is not acceptable. For instance, a picture of a samurai holding a sword would be fine, but a picture of a mechsuit would not. Look at existing art for guidlines on this.
- You don't need to render the art into the card; if you feel like a specific part of the art should be cropped to, use an image editor to do so. However, this challenge is all about finding the art in the first place, not how it is presented, so the focus of the judging will be on how well the art fits the card, while still being recognisable and interesting.
- A useful hint would be this: Keep in mind that just because it is a green card, the art doesn't have to be 'green' in tone, although it may be simply because of the usual green settings (forests etc.)
- IMPORTANT! As part of your submission, you must include the NAME of the artist who created the piece; as always, art on these forums must be credited, and any submission which does not include a name I feel is suitably identifying (handles such as from deviantart are acceptable to a certain degree. Initials are not), will not be acceptable and I will return it with strong wording.
- As always, emails to the address on the first post must include the name of the team in the subject line. The submission for this round should be in the form of an attached image in any normal image format, and the name of the artist in the email.

Thanks, and good luck with your hunt. The next round will be up soon, and after that I will announce a FINAL DEADLINE for all entries from all rounds.

Can we change the name / add flavor text in order to better tie the card with the image?

by the way, Aurora check your email in a few

No, but if you want you can write a little bit explaining why the art would fit with this spell in a particular setting, although such a description isn't going to earn you any marks in itself; it should be mostly self-evident from the art. This round's goal is to find a piece of art for the card, not for the mechanic.

For example, if you choose a picture of a man writing a scroll, you could write a description explaining that in this setting, spells are cast by writing them on scrolls. However, I will mark this low, because the art doesn't tie in with the card well on its own.

The reason behind this is that art needs to be instantly recognisable as what it is - sure, one can rectify the actual flavour with a name and flavour text, but when a player sees the card, they identify with the art, not with the name or flavour text.

I don't know how to make that set symbol. Is that required on the submission?

I repeat, for this round, you should not submit a render, just the art and artist name.

Next question then, and I apologise for making this difficult: is the whole image being judged, or can we specify a particular section we would use? (Yeah, I found lots of art that might be good cropped, but not whole.)

Quoted from the rules for the round:

Did you try reading?

Sorry, you're right it's there. I was flummoxed by the update/clarification that we weren't submitting renders - my mind was having difficulties changing gear.

Idle Muse - After judging is complete are we going to get to see everyones submissions? I would like to see what we battled up against.

Yes, unless anyone asks specifically for a submission not to be shared, they will all be posted at the end.

Here's an update of what's been submitted so far:

Skygrove: 1, 2
Undead: 1
Wolf: 1
Chaotic: 1, 2
Pilgrimage: NOTHING
Angrium: NOTHING

So yeah, teams Pilgrimage and Angrium, get a move on, the final round is coming up soon, and a deadline will be posted after that. I'm predicting maybe about 2-3 weeks left total? And you haven't submitted anything so far.

Sorry about that.
I didn't send anything yet because I wanted to brainstorm with Darkmouse, but while he keeps saying he'll contact me, he has all but disapperared and I'm basically designing alone.
If I don't hear from him within a few days I'll take the whole matter into my hands.

(Too bad I suck at creativity. Outside the rare stroke of genius, my specialty is rules, balancing and templating.)

Aww.. poo. I had a wonderful artifact ability.. too bad i didn't check this one out till it hit R3.

Well, that and this is only open to Mini-Plane teams.

Ack! Sorry, I'd completely forgotten about this! Sorry Pichoro, sorry contestants, and here comes the Final Round!

Round 4

Design three red, common, creatures from the same set. They can be any set, even your miniplane if you so wish, as long as you explain the concept of the set to me. The three creatures should show the breadth of your design skills, within the bracket of a set dynamic.

Judge Hints:
- This round is about showcasing an environment through very few cards. Use artwork, flavour text, and mechanics to demonstrate how well you can design cards that tell a story to someone who might have just opened this card in their firt booster.
- This round is also about understanding variety and balance. The cards you submit must be balanced and fair, and fit within the mandate of what a common should be.
- Unlike previous rounds where you were limited to a fairly 'normal' set, you're perfectly welcome to choose ANY set you want, but I do expect a few lines of explanation so I can fairly judge how well they represent that idea.

As always, post submissions to the email address in the first post, including your team name in the subject line.
Submission needs to be in the form of either three renders, or the text for three cards (art is optional).

I'm also gonna set the FINAL DEADLINE as WEDNESDAY next week. That is, in about 9 days time. The actual deadline (timewise) will be set closer to the time when I know what lectures I have and whatnot.

I'll also start posting what I have and haven't recieved from each team soon.

Good Luck, sorry this has dragged on a fair bit, I tend to do that to contests (oops).

Mmmm, deadline, and I haven't heard anything from Darkmouse yet, so I'll take the matter in my hands. I'll start sending you the renders ASAP.

EDIT: Wait, mono-red? Or just red?

Just red. For instance, if you focussed your entry on a hypothetical set with a similar premise to Ravnica, I'd maybe expect a red+anothercolor multicolour common from each of three guilds, for instance. However, if it would be a fairly normal set, colourwise, a random multicolour red common might seem out of place. It's up to you to impress me, but no, it's not limited to monored.

Just letting you know that the deadline is in TWO DAYS TIME and I'm missing a fair few entries. Don't worry if you're swamped with work and can't do them, I won't penalise TOO heavily for absent entries, as long as you have _most_ of them in. That said, there won't be NO penalty either.

Idle Muse - You should now have all the submissions from Team Undead. Thank you.

Team Sky Grove should all be in as well. Are you going to share the submissions with us, so we can see what others did?

I sent you everything too. Did you get it?

If I'm lucky you might get some stuff from me. *screams No Time*

I have a report to write this afternoon, so you've got probably until around midnight (GMT) to submit.

So far, I have everything from Pilgrimage, Sky Grove, and Undead, all but the last challenge from Chaotic, and only the first challenge from Wolf. nothing from Angrium.

Yeah, Team Angrium doesn't seem to exist anymore. Don't worry about them.

Woah, done. I hope this isn't how I finish my dissertation!

I must admit, that was impressive speed Picks; all in from Team Wolf now.

Okay, contest now closed. I have a busy weekend ahead of me, so it might be a couple of days before I actually judge.

Okay, I understand that people are busy. But, are you going to share the submissions?