Well, I’ve finally got a few spare hours at uni, so I can grade this. I apologise for the late grading, I’m normally not quite this bad (I am pretty bad) at being punctual on grading, but it’s done now, enjoy:
Squinty_eyes – Worked to Death: Seems incredibly resource intensive just to let black do something outside of its colours. No reason why the creatures have to share a type either.
KunouNoHana – Manifest Destiny: Seems decent, a twist on a basic ramp spell that helps stabilise against fast aggro. Don’t quite get the flavour behind the fewer creatures check (you have more space to expand?), but a solid, if not terribly exciting, card. If you want a western set, I will be (hopefully) working with F&S to make cards out of theuir Western setting, Jakkard, so pop over to that board if you’re interested in joining.
Ty – Peakstamping Factory: Fortifications are cool and this one especially so. Great flavour, great mechanics. I was going to say it was a bit to expensive, but it’s an infinite mana combo with
Stone-Seeder Hierophant so it seems fair.
Glasir – World Engine: Given that
Chromatic Lantern exists, this is severely overcosted. Nice flavour, though the name is a little generic.
Dudibus – Only What You Can Carry: Sounds like a scheme card, which is sort of cool. It probably should be ‘Until end of turn, whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, gain control of target land they control.’ I like the idea behind it, but
Goblin Rally with haste and mass land steal seems very powerful. Also, the name implies leaving with a few possessions while the mechanics imply a mass conquest of new lands, so there’s some disconnect.
AzureShade – Barn Raising: Two lands for five with convoke seems solid. Shouldn’t be hybrid, though, even with convoke mono-white doesn’t get land ramp like that.
Ko – Lioneye’s Watch: Great Legendary land, very elegant and I really like the flavour text, especially as I keep hearing it being voiced by the narrator from Bastion.
PeregrineV – Homestead Cycle: This isn’t really building a new home as it is living in an established one and I feel that having tribal lands that get more powerful when you have your tribe out is a good idea, but one that would be more interesting with different abilities, as once you have five guys out you don’t need the extra mana so much.
Altimis – Regroup, Rebuild: As a six mana, double green sorcery, this seems sort of weak – there are too many hoops to jump through to get a decent amount of lands from it and often they will be too late for most strategies. It also has a flavour disconnect, as the name suggests a rebuilding, but this needs 6 mana to cast, so it doesn’t seem to fit so well.
Tony3 – Uprisal: I’m not sure this fits the criteria brilliantly, but the mechanics are quite cool. I like the way that choosing the life gain will render the enchantment useless, so you’re encouraged to go for the riskier, more vengeful option.
Temjen – Homestead: Given that there are only 3 cards which make Citizens, and no non-shapeshifter citizen creatures, this is pretty damn niche as cards go. The name is also incredibly generic and the effect is a little odd, as all Citizens are white, so why do you need the extra colours?
YingLung – Denwarp Thieves: I don’t really get this card. It makes swamp tokens, which is strange in itself, but this card makes them (for no flavourful reason I can see) under an opponents’ control and then uses them to attack that opponent unblockably. So this card fits the criteria by building a new home in the enemies’ land? This card gives you opponent token lands, enables swampwalk and draws cards on death, which is a little too much and not connected smoothly enough, but there are interesting ideas in there.
LilyStorm – Settle: I like procedural cards and this is a good, solid example, if a little basic in the choice of effects.
Terthann – Goblin Renovator: Not really fitting the criteria here, more of a steal than a homebuilding, sort of
Conquer meets
Faceless Butcher. The flavour needs some more work too.
Imidazoline – As I said to Terthann, I’m not sure stealing counts for the criteria properly, though your flavourtext does a good job making it feel appropriate. There are no instant or sorcery land control spells I can find, so judging the power of this is hard. Seems decent.
Tevish Szat – Embark: I have no idea how powerful restart the game spells are, but this seem like it could be incredibly annoying, although you’ve limited that by removing the card after casting so there’s less chance of drawing into another copy. It’s the sort of card that someone will certainly find a way to abuse, but lots of people will try to, which is a plus in my book. Certainly gets the feel across strongly.
Miss_bun – Lumber Yard: This is interesting, though possibly underpowered, but I don’t think it matches the criteria very well, being more of a general building, rather than being focused on the new home aspect. I also don’t feel the name matches brilliantly with the mechanical ability.
PlaneShaper – Emigrant Builder: An odd card (and another citizen, must be a resurgence somewhere) that I’m not sure I get. Mechanically it doesn’t feel white and the ‘if you control another creature’ limit feels oddly tacked on for some reason. I also don’t like how it can sac other creatures with the same name. The flavourtext is good though.
Metalevolence – Uncharted Territory: It’s an interesting way to allow for omnicolour granting land and a new use of soulbond, but I think the name needs work, as I can’t see why uncharted territory would give a paired creature that ability.
Confused – Settle: This is pretty cool, it really gives the idea of wandering around until you find the right place. Though I have a hunch people will use it to pull out powerful legendary lands, so it could possibly be called lost tourists.
Cato – Homestead: The idea that something called homestead is a sorcery is a little odd, but the card is solid and gives some interesting options which is what kicker is for.
Phew, done. Now I can’t use Sblocks on these forums yet so the places are….
3rd place – A tie between Confused and Tevish Szat! I don’t normally do ties, but I had to here, both were too good to move one to 4th.
2nd place – Ty’s Peakstamping Engine! I always like to see good fortifications.
1st place – Ko, with Lioneye’s Watch! Elegance is often an overused buzzword here, but this was a clear example and a deserved win. Congratulations.
Thanks to everyone for entering, hope you all stick around and that my next contest is graded on time (the last one is unlikely though). Cheers!