The world needs more kung fu moves as card names.

Trespassers
Instant
Put a bounty counter on each creature attacking you.

//
Will Be Persecuted
Sorcery
Aftermath (cast only from graveyard)
Destroy up to X target creatures with bounty counters.

Eerie Pantomime
Creature - Horror Performer
Flash
When this creature enters, create a 1/1 black illusion wall with deathtouch and defender.
1/1


Astounding Puppeteer
Creature - Human Performer
Flash
When ~ enters the battlefield create 2 toy tokens (they're artifacts with "sacrifice this artifact, : tap target creature and remove it from combat.)
Sacrifice an artifact, : Target noncreature artifact you control becomes a 3/3 artifact creature until end of turn. You may activate this ability as if this creature had haste
0/2

Sharpened Scribe |
Creature - Human Warlock Advisor

Flash
Deathtouch
Addendum - When ~ enters, if you cast it during your main phase, create a 2/1 white and black Inkling creature token with flying.

"That is a well-spoken argument, but you will come to see things from my point of view soon enough."

1/3

just to check, assuming this is a reference to Strixhaven's inkling tokens, those have flying. is this meant to have flying as well?

Doh!

I know it's the correct templating, but "create a white and black creature token" (as opposed to "a black and white creature token") feels so wrong

Glittering Gallant
Creature - Human Knight (R)
Flash, first strike
If it's the declare blockers step, Glittering Gallant enters the battlefield blocking each unblocked creature that's attacking you.
"Behind me!" bellowed the cavalier, crashing suddenly through the bandits' back ranks to join the beleaguered travelers. "No harm will come to you while I draw breath!"
3/3

Territorial Hydra
Creature - Hydra (R)
Flash
Territorial Hydra costs less to cast, where Y is the greatest power among creatures attacking you or a permanent you control.
Trample
Territorial Hydra enters with X +1/+1 counters on it.
Bigger prey, more heads.
0/0

Return to Sender
Instant (U)
Remove two target attacking creatures from combat. They deal damage equal to their powers to the attacking player.

Teyo, Holding Back Darkness —
Legendary Planeswalker — Teyo (U)
Flash
When Teyo enters the battlefield, exile target attacking creature until Teyo leaves the battlefield.

The world needs more cards that actually work, and I'm not sure mine does. Do I need to specify that you can only cast it during the declare attackers step? Can the creature block? I sure hope so.

starting grades!

It should afaik. It is like a flash creature. If casted during attackers step, it can block.

I don't get the colors. this is basically justice strike/repentance, but with some added riders (attacking-only and remove-from-combat) that make it feel even more white. I guess black did get kiku's shadow, but that was a one-off thing 20 years ago. every other version of this is white or red. the remove-from-combat thing also seems unlikely to come up since you're probably not gonna aim this at anything it won't kill, but I do like it flavorfully so I don't really mind that part. but beyond that it's just a card that already exists but in colors that make less sense.
2/5

ha, fun. I like how it's a high-toughness flash creature that you kinda don't actually want to block with. I mean, you do, if it kills something, but if there's a 3/3 maybe you just let it through to bounce it. body seems fine by modern standards, and it's interesting that it affects your creatures too, which you can potentially build around. would love some flavor text.
4/5

I really like the first part of the ability. the second half feels a little unnecessary and makes the card a little more cluttered than I'd like, but I get what you're going for. and the flavor's very evocative. I just wish you'd left it at the simpler version, but still it's very cute.
4/5

I'm kinda at a loss here on how to evaluate this. like, it's so potentially high-impact, but also so high-cost that it feels more like a relic of really old-school Magic than a modern design, but I also like it as that? like it's such a cool card but also just straight out of Prophecy. I genuinely can't decide if I like this or think it's completely unprintable but it's making me think a lot and that's a good thing.
4/5

seems reasonably solid. interesting to raise their toughness as well so it's not such a brutal ambush but also still keeps you pretty safe. also lets you avoid all the layers nonsense that would come from directly setting their power. the body is reasonably strong, but not overtuned. I am gonna have to dock you for the missing flavor, though: I know you meant to come back for that, but I can only grade the cards that are actually submitted.
2/5

feels very strong for its cost. they've done a couple instant-speed threatens over the years, and even disharmony back in the day that specifically targets attackers, so the idea is solid but not super novel. I do like the damage component, I think that's a fun twist, but it makes this a pretty solid shot at an instant-speed 3-for-1. I'd either have it damage its owner or cost a couple more mana.
3/5

I love the card, but does it really punish attackers? feels more like a pump spell in most cases. maybe not a great one, but as removal it means taking a lot of damage or losing a strong blocker, whereas on the attack it lets you cash in a blocker you were gonna lose anyway, or upgrade a small evasive creature for the final blow. so, like, it's a great design, but I don't know that it fits the spirit of the round, y'know?
3/5

I'm not in love with the card punishing you if it gets too good. I don't know if you really need the clause at all, since you can't really plan on it making a lot of tokens and it costs the same as join the ranks which sets a floor, but if you're really worried about how it scales, I'd just have it always sac the tokens. they've done some versions of this before, like arachnogenesis, but flurry of wings is the only comparison I can find from a real set. that costs more, but it can also be used aggressively and it makes fliers. beyond the balance question the design seems fine, reasonably effective as a holy day-type effect that's more flexible in its execution, but I'm not super inspired by it.
2/5

cute! I like how it does different things depending how you play it, rather than just replicating the same effect with different timings. I'm surprised they've never done a noncreature banishing light effect before, but they haven't. (or, at least, not any noncreature. there is consulate crackdown, I guess.) good catch on that. the morph trick is really fun, too.
5/5

like I said with Otu, there's been a solid number of instant-speed threatens over the years, including one (disharmony) that specifically targets attackers, and this doesn't really feel like it's doing much of anything beyond that. the flavor is strong, but mechanically the whole point seems to be "what if threaten could steal an attacker and block with it?" which is a good idea in principle but as someone who got into drafting back when blind with anger and flash conscription were around, it doesn't really feel novel to me. the reach thing is fun trinket text, but how often will it come up? (also I'm curious if you considered granting flying instead, it's the same effect but I think it'd fit the colors better.) anyway, I think it's a pretty printable card, but I'm not seeing anything that really excites me about it, and that's too bad.
3/5

ha. nice. that's really fun. I like how it sort of effortlessly fits the criteria: it doesn't even say the words "attacking" or "creature", and yet obviously it's a really effective solution to the problem. and it's really cool as a play option as well, as another in a long line of solutions to the aura card-disadvantage problem. (not that this provides explicit advantage, but it's powerful enough to justify having strong auras, and it'll often win a combat for you anyway.)
5/5

oh, that's lovely. dunno if Aftermath is ever coming back, but if it does I like this execution a lot. maybe it could be done as an enchantment? but that'd take a lot more words to do what this does. anyway, this is really cute. I like how it doesn't require you to leave much mana open to use (although in exchange you do still have to take the hit) which lets it fill a meaningfully different role in deckbuilding than, say, settle the wreckage.
5/5

that's fun. resolute reinforcements but different. and the flavor's really nice. I can imagine what the art would look like, which is impressive without any italics. very solid, highly draftable, and elegant card.
5/5

Addendum's a weird mechanic 'cause it's kind of an anti-mechanic: I look at something like this and I'm excited by flash-deathtouch, but if I want to actually use the card to its fullest I have to not get that advantage. which, like, I know that means I'm just choosing between upsides, but I've never really been a fan, and I don't think this is changing my mind. a 1/3 deathtouch with a 2/1 flier attached is interesting, I just feel like Addendum is a bad mechanic and the card is getting sunk a bit by its association with it.
3/5

this is keep watch erasure, how dare you. I mean, card draw power levels have wavered over the years, but Keep Watch was never that strong and it's strictly better than this in two ways while also doing basically the same idea. I think this is plausible but I think if they wanted it, they'd just reprint that one instead.
3/5

are we at a point where benalish knight can just be a 3/3? I mean, probably, yeah. they haven't done it yet, but it's only a matter of time. I'd still appreciate if this was, like, a 3/2 instead or something, especially given its fog-like capacity. I'm intrigued that the blocking isn't optional, though: if I want to flash this out to ambush one thing, I can't. I have to either telegraph it, or block everything, and I might lose my Gallant to the latter, so it's not actually strictly better than Knight. (although, again, lowering the toughness would probably make that dynamic more interesting.) flavor's really good.
4/5

they've never done a Hydra with flash before, seems pretty scary although voracious hydra does a kinda similar thing at least so maybe it's ok. I feel like the cost reduction thing might push it too far, but I dunno, make it a mythic and all bets are off. maybe just drop trample, though? dunno, feels like this is needlessly strong in one too many ways and I don't know which one is the biggest problem but I do know it feels like it'd be extremely annoying to play against a midrange deck with this and I think trample's expendable on the way back down to being a more reasonable balance. but I do like the idea.
3/5

seems powerful, but like, the good kind of powerful that you want from a 5-mana reactive spell. like, easy to imagine this utterly blowing up the race, but also hard to actually create a situation where that's true, so that potential is managed by the opportunity cost of running the card in the first place. I'm curious about the decision to do two creatures for 5 mana instead of, like, one creature for I dunno, maybe 3 or so, but I actually think I like this version better. should probably be "up to", though: if you're paying that much, only getting one target's worth of damage is punishment enough for your opponent playing around it.
4/5

I've seen a bunch of banishing light-as-walker designs, but this is a neat twist. numbers seem about right, and the flavor of using Teyo fits well. I also like the subtle interaction of the flash component: since it targets attackers, it can't be attacked on the turn you play it. the wandering emperor has a similar sort of thing going on, but in this case since they can get the creature back eventually it takes on a new dynamic. I don't know how I feel about a walker with no loyalty abilities whatsoever, but I think the flavor does an ok job justifying it.
4/5

seems like a really printable piece of limited removal. not the strongest, but doesn't need to be. not sure I have a lot specific to say, I just think it's a good example of really solid common design.
5/5

I feel weird about having five 5/5s, but this seems to have just been a really high-entry round and the distribution isn't skewed or anything so I'm just gonna leave it. apologies to the CotW voters. anyway, I think the winner for me is gonna be... Dudibus! congrats, nominating now, go join the next round.

I feel like criteria is a breeding ground for ideas more than a strict measuring tool. Sure, I wouldn't want someone to submit Time Walk to this criteria and say "Hey, an extra turn for me is one less attack for them, ergo, punishing attackers." But my card actually kills a creature when you need it to. (Or upgrades your own attacker as a sacrifice; the criteria never said "punish opposing attackers".) And while that certainly isn't its primary function, it nevertheless is a real function. Berserk has killed plenty of opposing creatures in the last 30 years. I'm not actually upset, but I do think I've been graded unjustly! (Next week will be a different story completely and I expect harsh judgment.)

As for spirit of the round: