This months challenge was to design a card, a creative master piece that would fit perfectly with the Light/Water Spell card-art provided. This was the first ever Spell card in CCC challenge in CCC history, and as always the winner will get an original, one of a kind card image featuring the art and more importantly their card design. And not just that, they will also get a achievement added to their KP Profile as the Winner of this CCC.
It was a long month full of entries, some good, some not so good, and some great! The top four or so cards were neck-in-neck till the very finish.
The first entry was Judgement House, Dance of Dragons by Burner, the card's effect was neat, but it didn't come across as a winner. Though the judges really responded well to the flavor text. Bell wrote that she "likes anything that assumes that shining lady is a Channeler of Suns".
Next was Bhav,the creep dragon helper by Devil, it was felt that the flavor text/name didn't do the cards effect justice. The effect was nice, but the theme needed to be much better for this entry to be considered a winner.
Then came Holy Day by eezz, it was a strong entry but the usability considering the cost was questionable. Kyuukei pointed out that it required a massive build up. I personally felt the name could have been better and that Water civilizations attributes could somehow have been represented in the effect itself. But over all we applaud you on being daring and taking a risk.
After eezz came Relinquished's Harmonical Petrification, the was clearly one of the better entries in the contest as expected from a person who already holds one CCC title to her name. The card was beautifully made, the concept was genius in my opinion. The cards usability was questionable, although it seems like a simple enough card, when a person comes to actually using it, its one of those cards that demands a lot of changes in a deck to become truly useful. Although one still needs to work very hand to get a decent amount of draws with this, I feel that the non-rainbow tap makes it worth it. Another thing was that it didn't directly reflect the battle happening in the card art itself which would've been nice because the main challenge of this contest is to reflect the art. But that said I feel the concept was brilliant, a very good job indeed.
Next was Miraculous Reinforcement, The Judgment Day by Dr Quack. We all thought the theme for this one was very cool, the flavor text, the name, all very well thought out. The major issue with the entry that we all noticed was that the way the effect was worded it did nothing while no Dragons out. This sadly made its effect very narrow but you did also picked a Channeler of Suns for the flavor text, and specifically one that is known for its Dragon-hate, good job with the theme.
Mighty's Miraculous Thunderstorm was one of the odd entries that went for a cross gear theme, although the concept of the card was unique, we felt that it wasn't well polished enough, and more importantly wasn't reflecting the art well enough. I personally think this had one of the better names though.
The Awakened Spirit Storm by Palas was a creative entry, the idea was very interesting but the overall effect was not as fitting to the card art, and DM as a whole to be considered as the winner. But for me out of all the entries this one had the best name.
Dimensional Warp by Prince_of_light, was very interesting. We expected something great from one of the past CCC winners, and this cards theme for me did meet the standards, but the other judges felt that it wasn't as usable in effect as they had hoped. Bell felt you were too cautious with the card over all, to an extent that it became underpowered. Kyuukei did also think it could've been stronger in some way, or maybe you could make it cost less. But all the judges did agree that the flavor text was EPIC.
Spatial Flux by Crimson Brawler was comparable to Death Smoke in a way, since as far as what happens when it is casted is more or less the same. All the judges liked this card. I love the flavor text, and the choice of creature for the flavor text makes me only love it more. The card design was ranked very high and was definitely among the cards in the running for the win.
Miraculous Synergy by mYsTeRiOuS was one of the daring entries, the effect was very different from Spells that are in KP atm, which made it stand out, but we didn't feel that it stood out in a good way. Though, the flavor text was intriguing, I enjoyed the scene you had imagined in your mind.
The Mistress of Shock Therapy by Cap'n had an effect that Bell felt was simple and taken straight from the basics so you can't give it any creativity points there and we all agreed that it was over-costed. At first I felt that the name didn't go with the DM theme of naming Spells, since it felt more like a creatures name to me, but then Bell pointed out a future DM Spell called Snarling Old Man of Earthquakes and Fire. Other than that the flavor text was really nice and sweet, good job with that and the name.
Lightning Hurricane by Master of Universe, this card was incomplete, although the effect seemed like something that had potential, an incomplete just can't win.
Swashing Spark by Anik was simple, well presented, crispy (if that makes any sense) and very usable. This card was given a whole lot of credit just because of its effect, but then with its epic flavor text the judges, especially Bell and Kyuukei, really gave this one very high credit.
Shift Change by Kizuna-96, this was another daring entry, I liked the risk taken but although it was interesting Bell pointed out that DM should never ever ever be given a 'change of heart' [ ygo card ] effect. But that aside, I love how this the theme of the card was reflected in the flavor text, and greatly respect that you tried to introduce a new mechanism to the game. I hope you won't be discouraged because it is these sort of entries that make judging these contests all the more interesting. I thank you for the taking this risk.
Empyreal Portal by GoGo was interesting but the gear theme was not reflected in the art, and over all the effect was very strange if you consider what it does practically. For future my advice for you would be either to not take risks or to take risks but keep it simple and sharp. You have to be clever, after you are done look at the final result again and think to yourself if you would use the card, if the answer to that is no, start over.
Gods sents Water slashes by Grimjacker was seen as imbalanced, so that might be something to be careful about in future.
Ignatius's Tsunami Temple was one that Bell felt loses points on effect but name and flavor are good to go. But it was also imbalanced, so you should be careful about that in the future as well.
Outcast's Hellfire Quencher was seen as one of the winning designs by Bell but she couldn't explain why she felt it should win. Kyuukei also loved it, he said its the type of civhate *he* would use [Yes he used the *s]. He felt it was *perfectly* [yep used them again] executed. Bell said that you can't really say that the tap is too heavy because Light always could tap this heavily or close to this heavily anyway. I personally didn't like this as much as the other judges, but it was a creative effective way to use civ-hate, the card was complete, polished and well presented. Read on.
King_of_duel's Neo Wave Technology was a tricky one. The effect to me was one that stood out from the rest, the name made sense with relation to both the effect and the flavor text. I loved the concept. This got REALLY high points for creativity in Effect. Also it was remarkably balanced to perfection. Bell agreed with me that the flavor text wasn't the best as compared to a few of the other really good ones and she felt there was something missing from this card. For me personally I felt it should've gotten the win if it had a speaker at the end of the flavor text. Honestly any Channeler of Suns would do, but I noticed that if you had specifically went for Marianna, Channeler of Suns I would've totally fallen in love with this entry because of the genius in the connection between Marianna, Channeler of Suns effect to that of Neo Wave Technology. But over all this is a good example of why people need to use Support more. Just a minor support edit can help your favorite entry win, as well as gain you a win at the same time.
Miraculuos Judgement's Day by Night Master was imbalanced because it functioned as a 5 cost Holy Awe that killed gears and had a metamorph that draws cards for the gears killed. In future you should be very very careful about the balance of your card design.
Tidal Aura by Miar was comparably to CrimsonBrawler's entry in a way, but due to the creatures cost/effect balance and over all impact of the card it was felt that it was weaker to CB's entry. I think you did a fine job connecting the effect to the flavor text but this card also brought around the change of hearts thing that has been mentioned before in this post earlier, it doesn't work for DM. Better luck next time.
Darkcrusader's Fire Extinguisher was another good example of well balanced successful civhate card. Because of the nature of the card design and the link to the art this entry gained some solid points and the balance of the card gained it even more points. The only place where this card was truly lacking was the impact of the card effect [compared to other entries] as well as slightly on the flavor text. Again this is why Support is very important, a minor change from the current flavor text to something like "I'll take it from here, Thrumiss" takes the entry to a whole other level. Bell ranked this number 4 in her ranking. Good job.
Now for the actual result. The winning entries of CCC#3 are?...............Anik's Swashing Spark and Outcast's Hellfire Quencher.
The Achievement of Winning this CCC has been added to their KP Profile. Congrats!
From this CCC those will include of course the winning cards as well as Spatial Flux by Crimson Brawler, Reliquished's Harmonical Petrification and King_of_duel's Neo Wave Technology.
The next CCC#4 is now Open for Entry. Good Luck!
