It’s our penultimate Qualifier challenge! Let’s dive in!
Qualifier 5 – Prufrock
At Sorcerers of the Red Bay, we’ve partnered with an exciting cutting-edge media property to feature for our new Universes Beyond set: T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”. For this qualifier challenge:
Design a card that uses flavor text and/or card name directly from Prufrock. Additionally, that card should be a member of a new cycle.
- One card submission.
- No rarity or card type restrictions.
- Your card must be named from the poem and/or include flavor text from the poem. You can find the poem here
- For the purposes of this flavor text, you may attribute it just to —T.S. Eliot, Prufrock
- Your design needs to be part of a larger cycle of cards. You can learn about Magic Card cycles by clicking here
Juliet had this to offer on the poem:
Prufrock as a poem is a cipher for what you bring to it. It’s full of as many poetic turns of phrase as you’ll find in 20th-century-English’s imperial tongue, but many of them are cryptic enough to be a fit for many kinds of cards. And as far as Universes Beyond properties go, this is one all of our contestants are likely to be equally familiar (and unfamiliar) with.
You can read the full judge commentary for Season 3 Qualifier 5 by clicking here.
Redbay: For this qualifier, we have not one, not two, not three, but four runners up to discuss before revealing our winner!
Qualifier 5 – Runners Up
One with the Flowing Way by Provocative and Do I Dare // Eat a Peach by Qirn
platypeople, on One With the Flowing Way: Love the idea for a cycle here, love the effect on this card in particular, great art find, simple but effective flavor text, no notes!
Juliet, on Do I Dare // Eat a Peach: This would certainly be breaking new ground for rate on Aftermath, with both halves being an Instant for the first time, and interacting together well for a straightforward removal at a cost many decks would be willing to pay. The idea of the card name, the synergy between the two halves, and the ease of making a five-card cycle like this are all cleverly found.
Regret by Sagebeez and Let Us Go by MonoWhiteBorder
Ludos, on Regret: Oh this is good! The flavor text works wonders with the creative of the card; I can also easily believe in a cycle of Incarnations. The top-down design is also very sound; they will REGRET not casting spells. It’s nice, but I wish the trigger was more impactful. Maybe life loss, or mill+life loss? Anyway, this is very cohesive and on-point for the challenge!
Kayiu, on Let Us Go: The use of Escalate and the non-mana cost there would definitely clue me in to the fact this was part of a cycle. (I’d even assume it was adding to the Collective cycle, but the green collective card in MH robbed us!) While I’m not wholly sold on the configuration of modes here, I do like that the first two play into the grave/self-mill theme implied by the cost. The middle mode being either recursion or hate – and even in its recursion, not giving you additional card advantage – is a neat way to balance the potentially free escalate cost. Honestly, I think the only mode I have beef with is the last one – it potentially being removal and not having the cohesiveness the other two do, mechanically and flavorfully, does make it feel a bit out of place. Overall though, a solid design that meets the brief well!
Qualifier 5 – Winner
Duskfall Envoy by Janahwhamme
Kayiu: Off the bat, I like that it’s immediately obvious what mechanical aspect is defining the cycle. I think it’s the best place for a low-rarity cycle to end up, where it’s very flexible as to the payoffs the other members could have, but also undeniable/easily identifiable as being related. I also like that it’s a condition that tells us more about the environment around itself, insinuating that the draft environment is heavily multicolor enough that there are incentives for it outside of just arcuns – implying perhaps density of hybrid cards or multicolor commons as well. My one qualm is that it kills terrifyingly fast if you manage to trigger it twice in a turn, even if that only happens once. Would’ve maybe preferred the evasion on this to be menace or trample, where it’s less binary “do they have the thopter” and instead allows you to push through damage/force favorable trades in more boardstates, while also giving opponents more angles to defend against it with. I’m a fan of the interpretation of the poem – literalizing someone of the metaphorical canine elements, but also using the name to add to the overall flavor of “approaching metaphorical death/” to retain the thematic connection as well. Overall, I’m high on this card, both in general and for how it addresses the challenge.
Ludos: It clearly reads as part of a Quirion Dryad-like cycle! I like how aggressive this is; though, I cannot left it unsaid that the flying here is quite the bend, I would’ve preferred something like menace or trample to keep this in-color. The Prufrock flavor on this feels like the real-world flavor text on old school cards, and I think it’s a perfectly fine way to incorporate it. Uncommon is the best rarity for this.
Redbay: Congratulations, Janah! You’re joining our Design League Season 3 Tournament with khord22, Garduu, perryk, and Bradley Rose!
The Qualification Points Race
At the end of Q5, our top two designers in CryptRat and Pat maintain their lead on the rest of the competition, but we now have a host of designers closing in as we enter our final challenge. They now have to worry about Craftedlavaistrue, Wobbles, Sagebeez, and MonoWhiteBorder, each with 4 Qualification Points!
| Designer | Qual Points |
| CryptRat | 7 |
| Pat | 6 |
| Craftedlavaistrue | 4 |
| Wobbles | 4 |
| Sagebeez | 4 |
| MonoWhiteBorder | 4 |
| JamesDaltonBell | 3 |
| Qirn | 3 |
| Provocative | 3 |
| Northern Gun | 2 |
Watch the Discord for our final Qualifier!