You're not too off base, but obviously it's not uninhabitable on either side. I didn't give it a ton of thought when I suggested it, but now thinking about it I have some ideas. So lets say the plane/t slows down for however many years then eventually stops. Everything doesn't just freeze or burn up right away, it's at least a little gradual. Maybe a number of creatures choose to stay on their sides but a majority of them flock to the center band where life is a lot easier. Over time the center band dies off too and everyone has to adapt to each side, with maybe a very few crazy sects that stick to the middle clinging to the hope that something will change. The dark side would probably have special lights and bioluminesence and stuff.



Random idea: planet rotation is controlled by some sort of long forgotten planar engine that has broken down?

I was gonna say, maybe something keeps it in orbit and it broke.

So dangerous, but not uninhabitable. Got it.

Okay, so, my thoughts on the sides:
The sunny side up is a desert, turning into a black and charred wasteland as it approaches the center. The inhabitants are primarily religious, seeking the sun as some form of deity. Some occult communities lives dangerously close to the center, and nobody really knows how. The mechanical emphasis is on temporary benefits, and many of the cards lends themself towards sacrifice effects, a flavorful tie in to the religious tones. There's an inclination towards red and black cards in this area. I suggest Lizardfolk as one of the sentient races there.

Sunny side down is a tundra, with various glacial landscapes. Bioluminescence combined with ice crystals makes certain areas in this place absolutely stunning to look at. Relics of a bygone era are scattered around, treasures from a highly developed magical society that lived here before it all went winter. Many scavengers visit this place seeking these valuables. Many cards from this place has a "tapped" subtheme, like cards that do not untap, as a flavorful nod to the frost and permanency aspects. I'd actually like to see green and blue as the slightly favored colors. Biggest design hurdle at the moment: Making sure the permanency theme doesn't clutter the board too much.

Mown's view of the sun side is pretty much exactly how I imagined that side to be.

I like and thought about a sacrifice theme(ish) for the sunny side.
I'm still skeptical of relics, but that's opinion not "it's terrible", or "it has no design space". So deep down, I'm really okay with it. I just don't like to show it.

Any input on the names. I've suggest one for each, but as of yet people are keen on sunny side, forzen side, cold side, etc...

I'm not opposed to Illpyre or Frostwynde. It just seems a bit... straightforward.

Solaria and Cryvantium
(adjectives: Solarian and Cryvantine)

Voting will go on until Sunday Saturday night at midnight. Changed because we're getting so many votes, and I want to hurry up and design some cards!

Idea for a mechanic:

Mercurial – Whenever an artifact, creature, enchantment, or land enters the battlefield, this card becomes that card's card types in addition to its other types until end of turn. As long as it's a creature, it's a 2/2. As long as it's a land, it has ": Add to your mana pool."

Sunscape Shifter –
Creature – Shapeshifter (C)
Mercurial
2/2

Starstone –
Artifact (U)
Mercurial

Essence of the Earth –
Enchantment (C)
Mercurial

Mysterious Bog
Land (C)
Mysterious Bog enters the battlefield tapped.
: Add to your mana pool.
Mercurial

This is not my idea; I remember it from the old forums. I forget whose idea it was. The way he did it, all Mercurial cards had a printed P/T. I thought it would be simpler to just make them all 2/2s. I also gave them a mana ability, because lands feel much more land-y when they tap for mana. Because of this acceleration aspect, Green should be the only color to get Mercurial nonlands at 1 CMC, but all the other colors should be able to get them at CMC 2 or more.

I thought this would be a great mechanic for a card-type matters set in that all factions can be helped by the presence of a Mercurial card, just like how Changeling worked in Lorwyn. I'd love to hear all your thoughts.

Why not just say "Whenever a permanent enters the battlefield"?

I'm not absolutely fond of the clattering that makes lands produce or creatures become 2/2.
Also not sure what the flavor here is. An enchantment comes in and the thing becomes a little more magical, I can understand.
A machine comes in and it somehow becomes part machine? I'm not seeing it.

Planeswalkers, presumably.

That said, I don't like it. I can't tell you why, I just don't.

It's probably too complicated for common.

Ah, right.

Hmmm. Could there be a keyword like
[Some Keyword] (This permanent has all card types other cards with [Some Keyword] you control have)

Flavor is still not very clear.

What do you guys think we should do about ties?

Option A: I break the tie
Option B: Keep the voting open until the tie is broken
Option C: Put 'em both in the set, and the criteria setter is whoever posts first

You posted in the original (now blue) thread:

"I just figured, the person who sets the criterion should definitely be able to vote, because, not in spite of the fact that, they set the criterion—they should be able to vote for the thing they were most looking for."

And it is solid reasoning - I'd even take it a step further and say that the person who defined the criteria is also the ideal arbitrator between tied items. I would say that if there is a tie and the criteria-creator voted for one of the tied ones, that one should 'win'. If there is a tie and the criteria-creator voted for something else (or didn't vote at all), have the criteria creator decide between the tied ones which one wins. If the format can bear the extra delay that might bring.


(Not a single vote for any of my submissions this round. Ouch. There are some cards that were clearly better than mine, I agree, but there were also some cards that got votes for reasons I can't comprehend.)

Word, good thinking. That's what we'll do.

But I liked Exogoyf a lot! I was going between that and storyteller's for a while, and in the end cute flavor won by a hair. (I think Lhurgoyfs are kind of silly--they don't even feel like a real type of creature, more just a justification for whatever CDA the creator decided they liked. But Exogoyf grows in a really interesting way and I can appreciate a neat design.)

Magnitude Mage seemed a bit strong for three mana and a free activation (not to say that Mown's red card isn't overpowered ), but it's elegant and I think there's a cool idea there too. I think if it cared about instants instead, so that the interesting alternate use you talked about (using multiple spells at once to deal more damage to a target at the expense of getting fewer uses out of the same number of cards) would be more accessible, would be a fantastic design.

I think those two are fantastic ideas and would be great cards with a bit of polish.

As for the rest, Auratic Owl worries me somewhat because we have a limited amount of space to make enchantments matter and I think putting too much focus on auras would leave the rest of them in the dark a little bit.

The black criteria were tough this round--everybody sort of channeled the durdly, old-school kind of design with too much text and lots of special cases. I think it was a pretty weak round, your submission and mine included, but I voted for Confused's card because it was the most concise.

The other two, the blue one and the mana fixer, didn't really speak to me. I dunno what to say other than to invoke personal taste. (This is why they don't let me judge contests anymore. )

Stray thought: Does Chandra have a home plane already? Because if not, the sunscape would be a great fit for her.

I have high doubts that we can make the plane fit her backstory.

I am against using canon things in non canon works.