I woke up this morning to find myself listed on the "Road Warriors" ballot for the Magic: the Gathering Invitational. I was quite surprised, especially when I looked at the other names sharing the ballot. Jeroen Remie, a really positive ambassador for the game, both Ruel brothers, two of the most charming and nicest professional players, Masahiko Morita, who has become one of the most consistent and powerful players on the Pro Tour, and then I look at my lowly 5 Pro Tour points, and I feel quite a bit humbled. Still I saw my well-received Barbie travelogue on the ballot, and I do travel to play Magic more than I should (or at least that's what my boss says), so I do have some hopes of winning this invitational slot.

First of all I have to explain what the Invitational means to me. It really does mean just about everything in the game to me, as it is one of the pinnacles of Magic. I know that other pros have poo-poo-ed the Invitational, saying there's no money in it. But there is the supreme prize, and that prize is, designing your own Magic card and becoming a part of the game itself. It's too easy to forget how much we owe to Richard Garfield for thinking up this game that we all love, too easy to pretend that this or the other player is the most important. To actually have a card, to become part of the game - to me that's the greatest honor of them all.

I have many ideas for cards I would like to see play... For instance, one card I idea I made is my "Morph Dinosaur":

Morph Dinosaur - 1G
2/2
When this creature is in play you may play any creature, land or artifact as a 2/2 morph creature and morph it up for the card's casting cost.

There are so many cool tricks with this card. For starters, if you have Morph Dinosaur in play you can play a land as a 2/2 morph, use it to block, damage on stack, then morph it up, the land won't die after you flip it, and you get an extra land in play.

Another card I like is the "Poisoned Chapin." This is a card that I saw Pat Chapin design when he was at my house one day. I like it because I think this card is one which finally finds a way to use poison right.

"Poisoned Chapin" - 2BB
5/5
When this card deals damage to a player, instead of dealing damage, that player receives 2 poison counters.

Typically Wizards has made poison an ability that you have to pay extra for, so they make these fear guys or fliers and then cost it an extra mana because the creature deals both regular damage and poison damage. This new idea is one where when a card has poison it's not an advantage, it's a drawback (because you make the creature able to deal regular damage to creatures but only poison to opponents). So the poison creature can cost less than a regular creature. In play, the Poisoned Chapin acts a bit like a wall because there's little point in sending him over to only deal 2 damage to your opponent, but in the middle or late game he's a wonderful victory condition even if he's a bit slower than using regular damage.

Another card I made is a kind of Stasis on a stick.

"Stasis Cat" - 4
Artifact Creature
2/2
When Stasis Cat is in play, the only phase which exists is the attack phase. Discard a card at the beginning of your turn. If you have no cards in hand, bury Stasis Cat. Creatures do not tap to attack.

So you can drop the Stasis Cat, nothing untaps, nobody draws cards, creatures don't heal up damage at the end of cleanup, and everything turns into little Serra Angels. You can drop this guy both for a plain creature rush deck for that final kill, or you can build an entire stasis theme around him. I added a discard ability to the card to make the effect a bit more limited.

Those are just three ideas of cards I might like to see. I understand of course due to design constraints cards don't come out exactly as planned. But the possibility of going to the Invitational and designing or proposing a card for the game of Magic I think is one of the highest honors of the game. I would appreciate it so much if you would give me your vote.

--- edt