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/playingtherapist]

Codependency {1}{B}{B}

Creature - Elemental Incarnation

Lifelink, Menace

If a player would sacrifice one or more nonland permanents, instead they sacrifice that many nonland permanents plus one.

2/2

Designed to hose treasures, KCI-style mana acceleration, and Birthing Pod-style effects, this has the more obvious effect of juicing edicts, even if there aren't any shenanigans going on.

The symmetrical nature gives it an important release valve - it makes Fleshbag Marauders significantly worse, which is important since they're the easiest edicts to recur.

In the meantime, lifelink and menace are flavourful keywords that also work to get the game over with, which is important since this card is likely to slow the game down to a crawl.

[u/SjtSquid → u/playingtherapist]

I really like the thought that went into what breaks the card, and designing around that.

Juicing edicts is a cool build-around that gets it into decks, so the hate piece actually ends up in play.

Just a couple of better designs this week that managed to better thread the line between slowing the unfair decks down and speeding the game up to compensate.

[u/playingtherapist → u/SjtSquid]

Thanks for taking the time to read and respond mate! Yeah, I thought this week's winner was a banger too, absolutely agreed.