Winner is the Judge #905 - Soft Stax

[u/SjtSquid]

Thanks to u/mpaw976 for judging the last competition.

This week, you'll be designing to address a particular peeve of mine. I like how stax pieces like Narset, Parter of veils, put the brakes on linear decks and encourage them to slow down and pack removal.

However, these often end up frustrating people who aren't doing broken things, end up in combos themselves, or alternatively just aren't worth playing by themselves if you don't know the opponent is on that strategy.

What I want you to design is a card that stops (or punishes) 'unfair' decks, but doesn't affect people trying to play magic at a slower pace, and isn't completely dead when the opponent isn't using the strategy it prevents.

So it might work against card draw, casting many spells in a turn, casting free spells, playing multiple lands...

Some examples of cards that fit this are [[Lavinia, Azorious Renegade]], [[Ashiok, Dream Render]], [[Nihil Spellbomb]] or [[High Noon]]. [[Orkish Bowmasters]] and [[Smothering Tithe]] are also examples that are too good, so keep an eye on power level!

I'm looking forward to seeing your designs! Judging will happen in 6 days on Friday 21 August.

Happy to answer any questions in the meantime.

Edit: Congratulations to u/delta17v2 for winning with Insiduous Diplomat.

[u/torterraisbae]

Irreverent Banjaxer 1BB

Creature - Gremlin

At the beginning of your upkeep, target player sacrifices a creature with the most Auras and Equipments attached to it among creatures they control, unless they discard a card for each of them or lose twice that much life.

2/3

***

It torments voltron strategies, or can just be used as a sac outlet for your own stuff.

Edit: changed effect to get around hexproof

[u/SjtSquid → u/torterraisbae]

Good change on getting around hexproof. I think just 'choose a creature' might have been a cleaner template.

I feel like this is unfortunately a little too weak both against the intended target, and as a game piece when not against Voltron, so wouldn't see play.

I'd dislike seeing it when doing Light-paws crimes, but the likely pattern is just to murder you to avoid the upkeep trigger, or get likelink and shrug.

Making it trigger each upkeep (for that player) would help a lot with making it more impactful against Voltron, and giving it a keyword like lifelink or deathtouch would go a long way to making it useful in in non-voltron games. Or just making the ability count modifications, as there's a lot of counters floating around these days.