Hello, Nation! A month ago, I issued a challenge to all of you folks out there in Virtual Magic Land. I asked you to build a core set—or a part of one—and send it in. Then, the submissions would be judged and discussed in today’s article.

You really responded. While we left the door open for submissions of just one color or a few colors, virtually every single person who took the time to send me their choices went with the full set. Great! That means most of our submissions are eligible for all of the awards that we will be handing out today.

A few months ago, I e-mailed back and forth with Trick various ideas for this challenge. Knowing that I would be doing it, I also built a core set a few months ago—right after Innistrad came out. I built my core set and then left it alone for a few weeks. When I brought it back up, I was able to objectively look at it and move some things around. With the clarity of time, I was able to truly ask, “What was I thinking putting that in my set?”

As part of today’s article, we will be looking at some of the submissions . . . as well as my own core set. Remember, you are not judged by how close you came to me, but by how well your submission did against my metrics.

Here are the scores each category has:

Limited – How well does this set appear to play in Limited?

Marketability – How marketable is this set based on the cards it includes?

Feel – Are the mechanics, cards, and names such that they reflect a core set?

Balance – Do the cards have too much power?

Tilt – Is the set spicy? Does it do something fun, interesting, and core-set-able? Is it realistic?

The first four scores represent hard and definable conditions, so they are ranked 1–3 points each. The final one, Tilt, is a bit more subjective and includes all of the subjective categories together. It is scored 1–5 points. The maximum score is 17.

There are seven awards today: Best Blue, Green, White, Red, Black, Colorless, and Best Overall Set.

Meet the candidates who submitted a full set:

Shoe Wooberg –  . . . who did this in less than a day. He submitted his set before my article was moved down the main page by another day of articles. He struck first, but will he take it all home?

John Dale Beety – Our second contestant is writer John Dale Beety from SCG. He also submitted his set lightning-fast, and I suspect some of these players may have already had sets they were working on. He has some interesting choices for cards and a cycle at rare we’ll need to talk about later . . .

Daniel Miley – Daniel was the third and final person to submit during the first week of the contest. He also has some normal choices alongside some wild ones, and we’ll look to see what happens.

Kevin Montour – Our fourth entrant has a very unusual entrant in his Black mythics, which really throws me, because I would never have suspected it. But . . .

Jacob Munford – The fifth contestant to submit a full set is Jacob. Like many of our folks, he chose to add one mechanic to the main set. However, he chose the exact same mechanic as I did. What will that mean in the end?

Tsuyoshikentsu – The sixth contestant does something I really like. He put the reasons—Melvin and Vorthos—behind the cards. I really like it. I have notes left in mine as well, so for example, I put the casting cost beside every card and sorted by creatures and spells to make sure we had a mixture of cards at various costs. I can follow along with his thoughts, which is really interesting.

Nicolau Maldonado – Our only contestant who submitted a single color. He tried for more, but in the end, he only had a comfortable Black, but he also does something interesting with it. Will it be enough to win Black?

Scott Alvis – His has the most intricate set of notes of any submission. He’s got tables and all sorts of information for me, including color coding. Scott, you are a J on the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator.

Ryne Thornberg – He shoots for the moon. His Blue alone would change tournaments for years to come. You’ll see. But is it too much?

Vincent Borchardt – The final entry came in on the last day. It will be interesting to see if the later entrants—who used a full month—will score higher than our first three entries, who submitted in the first week.

All right, let’s start by looking at Blue:

The Blues are Playing

The color of countermagic, bounce, tapping, unblockabilty, Flying, drawing, and Merfolk. I expect to see basic Blue mechanics in every set, like Sea Monsters and Looters. Let’s see what our candidates did and see who the best ones were. We’ll do Blue very detailed, so everybody has his name in lights (and by lights, I mean bolded) with comments here. Then, we’ll slide into just the top three for the other categories.

Shoe Wooberg – 13

His commons are solid. I like Spiketail Drakeling as a common. It combines countermagic and Flying well, and it gives you the obligatory Drake in Blue. I wish I had thought of it for my Blue. I also had Primal Plasma as a common in mine, but I had to pull it out late when I switched to Cycling as my mechanic to add. It was the one card I missed that I pulled. You will never lose points for playing an expected card, like Cancel, Merfolk Looter, or Boomerang. In his commons, Compulsive Research is interesting, and Rootwater Mystic is unexpected, but nice. I don’t like Flying Men, however. They have no class creature type. I’d prefer something like Manta Riders.

The uncommons are where I take issue. Cerulean Wyvern gives protection from a color to a core set Blue, and that seems out of place to me. (And why a hoser for Green in the uncommon (but not really that much since it has Flying), and yet not one for Red?). Animate Artifact feels too weak. Control Magic seeing print as an uncommon may be too much. Mind Control and Persuasion are bombs at 5 mana. Shape Stealer is interesting but requires too much memory for the core set in uncommon.

For rares and mythics, we have some standard choices. Lord of Atlantis is odd these days, but okay. Evacuation, Time Warp, and others appear. He has a card I love in my core set—Stifle—which is cool. Tidespout Tyrant as a rare and Show and Tell as a mythic are really brave choices.

John Dale Beety – 11

The commons are interesting. He also has Flying Men and Spiketail Drakeling. I think Sea Gate Oracle is a brilliant choice for a creature. Vex is an odd choice for his main common counter. Not Cancel, Dissipate, Mana Leak, or even Counterspell. He also has some very expensive cards—Veldaken Dismisser, Quicksilver Geyser, and Mnemonic Wall among them. I’m a bit disappointed to be missing some basic card types. Reprinting the familiar cycle (Stormscape Familiar, et al.) in common is a bold move. It helps the card types a bit, and I love Treasure Hunt. I considered Ingenious Thief as well, but it seems a bit similar to Flying Men in art. I’d want new art commissioned. Why are all of these Humans flying? Let’s get some birds or something in here. I’m confused about why Jhessian Lookout and Deeptread Merrow are in the same common set. Why two 2/1s for?

JDB’s uncommons are equally interesting. Biting Tether giving something -1/-1 each turn seems off. Academy Researchers is certainly out of left field, but not inappropriate. We have some by-the-numbers cards: Tidings, Levitation, and Squelch. No hosers. I like Fallowsage and Plasma Elemental as unusual choices that make total sense.

For rares and mythics, let’s talk. I’m not a super-big fan of the planeswalker enchantments from Planeshift. This guy must really like Planeshift to have included two cycles from it. In my opinion, Planeswalker’s Mischief has too many words for not enough fun. I’m not a big fan of Second Chance as a mythic rare. When you are making mythics that come prior to the mythic era, you really have to feel mythic, you know? It’s a bad Time Warp. Just toss that in. Then, add that to cards like Avatar of Will, Gravitational Shift, and Sky Swallower, and we have a really weak set of rares.

Daniel Miley – 8

You want to talk about taking risks? This guy has Balshan Collaborator at common. That is gutsy. I do like Cerulean Wisps as a one-of. Using one card from a cycle is fine if it’s in the right color, and this is. Dissipate is his common choice of countering power. I actually think using Flight is a missed opportunity. So many cards have been printed with this ability over the years, and to use the basic one is a loss of having something like Shoe’s Shimmering Wings or my Phantom Wings. It won’t ding you, but you missed a shot. He also rocked the PS Familiars. I think Frostwind Invoker is an interesting choice for your 5-mana 3/3 flyer. If you notice, a ton of sets have that in their common Blue section. I used Spire Monitor. No one else has had one yet, but that’s a good catch to include. You also won’t have to run Levitation effects later—you’ve already included it. Okay, here’s my biggest surprise at Daniel’s Blue commons other than a Shade at common: Aven Fogbringer. That’s just not something that has ever said, “Core set,” to me. It feels off. Cursecatcher at common is powerful and interesting. I actually like it there. I hadn’t thought of it, but it’s a good, solid 1-drop.

One of the things that Daniel did was to reprint Spellshapers that he liked. Say hello to Waterfront Bouncer at uncommon. It was among the most dominant creatures of its era in Limited, and I would expect similar results here. Daniel really likes to bounce things. You can tell, because right alongside Waterfront Bouncer is Turbulent Dreams, being downgraded to uncommon. We have Cache Raiders, too. However, I’m not a fan of Aquamoeba at uncommon . . . or really any other place. Discarding cards for the effect is not something I feel works for a core set. Benthicore is an . . . unusual choice. Would you ever expect to see it in a core set? Nope, but I’m not sure why. As I think about it more, it’s just an Elemental from the deep that has some fish friends.

Rares and mythics include Alexi, Zephyr Mage at mythic. It definitely feels mythic, but again, I’m not sold on all of this discarding, and we’ve got yet another major bouncer here. However, he builds a theme for it with Telekinetic Bonds, and I have to admit that’s clever. Oh, and don’t worry too much, because we have Quicksilver Dragon, and yes, that’s a creature with Morph running around. Rhystic Study was double-upgraded to rare, and that’s interesting. We also have Beacon of Tomorrows (how is that not mythic?), Grimoire Thief, and Commandeer running around, with a pitch card joining the fun. This is just way too chaotic—rhystic cards, Spellshapers, a creature with Morph, and another with pitch mechanics.

Kevin Montour – 12

I love some of these commons. Flux? That’s a great choice for your common draw spell that distinguishes you from the mass of cards out there. Repulse? A similarly interesting choice of bounce spells. I don’t mind a cantrip theme as long as we are consistent throughout the set. He does not have a hard counter, but he rocks both Essence Scatter and Negate. I also am not sure why I’m looking at both Repulse and Disperse. He’s another Spiketail Drakeling and Primal Plasma adherent. Then, he has some underwhelming choices. Storm Crow? I love Snapping Drake, because it’s not sexy, but it sees the job through until the end. You need some of these in commons. Like JDB, we have card to see another player’s hand—this time, it’s Telepathic Spies. Twiddle seems like a missed opportunity for something better, but I’m okay with it. Sage of Epityr was not on my radar, but I like it in retrospect.

The uncommons are weird. Before we talk about anything else, blow me over with the reprinting of Fylamarid. It’s so . . . Kevin! I love it. I also like that we are seeing hosers again—even the basic Flashfreeze. Dismal Failure’s discard is odd in Blue. Spiketail Drake carries the theme from common. Imaginary Pet drops one rarity and still sucks. Trinket Mage is an interesting choice. I don’t even know what to do with Aven Fateshaper. In combination with Sage of Epityr, it feels like a missed opportunity.

I didn’t think anyone else would have a cycle of creatures in their rares that I had: the rare Incarnations from Lorwyn, like Guile and Dread, but Kevin does. I don’t like Diminishing Returns as a mythic, because you could just run Time Reversal for 1 more mana and no restriction. For interesting card choices, see Desertion, Stifle, Equilibrium, Sigil Tracer, and Cognivore. I like breaking out of the mold and not bringing in another Jace with Tezzeret the Seeker. (Oh, and Guile does not like Desertion.)

Jacob Munford – 12

He’s the only person to run AEther Adept. So far, everyone else went with Man-o’-War if they wanted it. We have a good, solid 5-mana 3/3 flyer in Aven Windreader. Cancel is the counterspell of choice. As you’ll recall, he went with Cycling. We have Constricting Tendrils, Keeneye Aven, and Choking Tethers. I went with Rescind, Pendrell Drake, and the Tendrils as well. Narcolepsy is powerful creature removal for a color that’s supposed to not be super-good at it. We have Spell Pierce, Snapping Drake, Sage of Epityr, and Spreading Seas. While I like the use of a Portal: Three Kingdoms card in the form of Forced Retreat, I’d always go with something more in flavor of Magic for bounce. Time Ebb is always useful. He is among the few people to submit a common Blue set with milling in the poor quality, but flavorful, Tome Scour. I’m disappointed by the lack of a card-drawing spell at common; we don’t even Divination or something—just Opt.

He kept the 2/1 uncommon Mage cycle from M12, so Azure Mage is here. Borrowing 100,000 Arrows is an interesting choice. I like Cloud Dragon as a reprint. Puppeteer is a card I think people miss a lot when making sets, but it’s perfect at doing what you want an uncommon to do. However, I think Jacob went a bit too far off the Cycling train. Complicate, Shoreline Ranger, and Gempalm Sorcerer all appear. I never ran colored Cycling costs in my core set, but I’m not going to ding Jacob for it. However, I don’t feel Gempalm Sorcerer as an uncommon a core set . . . you know? Cycling triggers might be a bit much (see also Choking Tethers) . . . and a Landcycling card? Also, Whiplash Trap and Tidal Wave are wacky. I wouldn’t print a Trap in the core set ever, and certainly not alongside a Cycling theme.

If you were to print Standstill in a core set, what color symbol would it have? Silver? Gold? What about Red? Jacob feels Standstill is a good choice for mythic status. I don’t. Alongside some by-the-numbers cards (Jace, Visions of Beyond, the Consecrated Sphinx that virtually half of the entrants are running, and Redirect), we have some unusual decisions made. We have a Wizard lord—Supreme Inquisitor—that makes sense alongside Gempalm Sorcerer . I like Phantasmal Image as much as the next guy, and I love Draining Whelk. +1/+1 counters at rare is doable. I’m not a fan of cards named after someone being in a core set unless that someone is in the set, too. Cosi’s Trickster feels like a miss. I do appreciate more milling in the form of Memory Erosion. Just two mill cards feels perfect, and many others really skipped this part of Blue.

Tsuyoshikentsu – 11

Good suitable choices abound: Tome Scour, AEther Adept, Cancel, and Divination. Gossamer Phantasm is now in flavor for Blue and a perfect choice for a reprint. I felt that some recent reprints are missed opportunities to dig deeper into the past of Magic for more interesting choices—like Ice Cage. Many people chose other cards from the history to reflect the typical Blue lock-something-down common. Again, Flight and Unsummon are a bit too by-the-numbers for my tastes. Omen is a nice choice. I actually prefer Remove Soul to Essence Scatter title-wise, but that’s just me being picky. Sage's Knowledge as a common is interesting. It initially feels more uncommon, but let’s see the rest of the color later. I think it’s among the several cards that are a bit too underpowered for Limited. Merfolk Thaumaturgist and Ice Cage and the common choice of Kraken Hatchling and others are not achieving victories easily. We have just two flyers: Gossamer Phantasm and Azure Drake. Phantasmal Bear is a fragile beater. Then, add Merfolk of the Pearl Trident and utility creatures. This common set needs something bigger to hit with.

Say hello to Sailmonger. An activated ability that anyone can use is . . . weird. Flashfreeze, Mind Control, Sleep, and Tidings fill important roles. Summoner's Bane is nice, especially in the Illusion environment. (Lord of the Unreal is a rare here). I don’t like Vertigo Spawn that much, but I understand its inclusion as an Illusion. It’s an odd Defender Illusion card.

Adding to the usual Jace and Consecrated Sphinx, we have Denying Wind at mythic, which does feel right. I feel that it’s a successful upgrade. Chameleon Spirit looks to be an attempt to push the Illusion tribe too far. Why is Blue suddenly the friend of other colors? Personal Tutor has a nice price tag to it right now, and it perfectly suits Sage's Knowledge back at common. You will never see me complaining about Sphinx of Uthuun, but do we have one Sphinx too many? Here’s the rare that throws me: Minds Aglow. He has added the whole Join Forces cycle mechanic to the rares. That’s his right: to bring back one thing. It feels a bit underwhelming. It is a card that will play horribly anywhere but really extreme Johnny decks and multiplayer decks. It adds no financial value to the set. I just don’t see it being core-set material.

Scott Alvis – 10

AEthersnipe is an interesting choice for common because it indicates that Scott is using Evoke in his core set. Then, he has Cycling with Keeneye Aven and Mage's Guile. That’s two new mechanics already. He has several counters: Essence Scatter, Spell Blast, and Cancel. I like someone who manages to push Zombie Pirates into his set—say hello to Reef Pirates. In addition to Reef Pirates, we have Piracy Charm, so get your Arrr on. We have both Reef Shaman and Sea Snidd, which has the same tap ability, plus Streambed Aquitects. Vapor Snag is in. I like something other than bounce, but I’m not sure life loss on a common Blue spell is right for the core set. Then, just wrap things up with some basics like Sage Owl, Inspiration, and Tome Scour.

At the uncommon slot, Scott gave us Flux, which I like as a common, and at 3 mana, it doesn’t compete with head space of Inspiration’s 4-mana cost like it would with Divination as a 3-mana sorcery. Then, add Lingering Mirage, because we really want you to change your lands. I don’t like it in combination with fellow uncommon Mana Breach. That’s a big, old nombo. I wouldn’t want to crack both in a Sealed deck, for example. Primoc Escapee fits the Cycling theme rather nicely. Then, we have Merfolk lords at uncommon. One thing missing from most sets is tribal lords at rare. It’s not required, but it looks odd. But not here; say hello to Tidal Courier and Merrow Reejerey.

Time for those rares and mythics. Like virtually everyone else (including me), he goes with one of the two non-broken Jaces and then rocks Quicksilver Gargantuan and Sphinx Ambassador. In rares we have Grozoth, which has Transmute and brings our total of abilities added to the core set to three. With all of those Birds in common spots and Primoc Escapee, we manage to fit in Keeper of the Nine Gales. I do like the synergy, but I’m not sure about dueling tribal elements within a single color. Other rares of note are Mindshrieker, Rootwater Thief, and Memory Erosion.

Ryne Thornburg – 10

All right, let’s start by discussing the big stuff now. Ryne believes that we should have a Blue set that includes the following cards at various rarities: Brainstorm, Force of Will, Counterbalance, and Counterspell. Since we’ve hinted at the end a bit, let’s look at rarities. For common, we have Brainstorm meeting Divination for card-draw. A lot of typical cards are included, like Spiketail Drakeling, Merfolk Looter, Skywinder Drake, Negate, and Tome Scour. I’m still not sold on Merfolk Thaumaturgist; it seems a bit weak. He’s a big fan of Scry, and we have Augury Owl and Condescend in the common slots. I don’t mind seeing a new take on Scry at all. Claustrophobia is his I-am-a-Blue-removal-spell-that-locks-something-down card of choice.

Counterspell is back at uncommon. Some basics like Turn to Frog and Mind Control are featured. We also have Fallowsage. I think Fog Bank is an interesting choice. I’m not certain that Arcane Laboratory is a Blue card anymore—after it was moved to White—plus, it’s a really annoying mechanic for uncommon. Invisible Stalker is a solid card for being unblockable, but we also have Deepchannel Mentor. Finally, we have the original Recall from Legends at uncommon.

Rares and mythics feature Bribery and Force of Will, each with a red symbol. The rares have Counterbalance. Then, add Future Sight as a card-advantage engine. A few repeats from others, like Lord of Atlantis and Body Double are here. I think Polymorph is an interesting return. It’s not my style, but it’s always a fun card. While he achieves the best marks for marketability, I feel the cards would dominate Standard as too powerful.

Vincent Borchardt – 12

Our final Blue entrant is Vincent. Every color needs at least one 1/1 creature for 1 mana. Vincent’s choice is the insightful Caller of Gales. It has a nice generic name, and it has the Jump ability built in. It counts as a Merfolk. It frees you from having to use Jump or Flight as a spell. It’s a rather clever choice, and I adore it. I totally hadn’t thought of it, but it perfectly fits. We also have Scroll Thief, Ingenious Thief, Merfolk Looter, AEther Adept, Aven Fisher, and other basic dudes. Vincent isn’t the first to do it, but I’m not a fan of a fifty-fifty split between creatures and non-creatures at common in any color. Limited is built around creature combat, and most modern sets have more creatures. M12, for example, has twelve creatures and eight spells. If you wanted to have more creatures—like thirteen and seven or something—I’d probably be okay with it, but ten and ten will play oddly. Other than that, his choices are suitably adequate for the commons—things like Frost Breath and Disperse and Cloak of Mists and Spell Pierce.

He moved Merfolk Sovereign to uncommon and Merrow Reejerey to rare. That’s two lords for Merfolk. This isn’t Lorwyn, and I feel that we missed the opportunity for a more diverse selection of cards by having one too many lords. It also compounds the paucity of creatures at common when you have a creature-based theme. Merfolk Wayfinder is an unusual choice. I’m not sure that land gathering is a basic Blue ability. Volition Reins gives you that expected stealing card in the set. Tidings is there for card drawing, and Call to Mind for recursion. Azure Mage and Merfolk Seastalkers round out the group.

At the higher levels of rarity, in addition to Merrow Reejerey, we have Time Warp, Guile moved to Mythic (which I toyed with for a while, too), Future Sight, and Draining Whelk. He is the first and only person to have Mind Spring, which I think is a fairly good choice. In addition to fellow Merfolk Surgespanner, we see Changeling as the mechanic added to this set with Shapesharer. I do think Changeling is simple enough for the core set at higher rarities, so I support it.

White Christmas

Our top three, in reverse order (in case of a tie, the entrant with the highest tilt score wins):

Vincent Borchardt – 13

He was tied with Tsuyoshikentsu for third with 13 points, but a higher tilt gave it to him. What made Vincent stand out to me? In the commons, I love that he included good, interesting cards that fit the theme of the color of White . . . and yet were different. I think Elite Javelineers is a good example of fitting White in flavor, if not perfectly in design. We have some expected cards, like Goldmeadow Harrier, Pacifism, and Stormfront Pegasus. I also really like Rebuke in a core set. I couldn’t find room, but I wanted to. I prefer having something other than the weak Holy Strength and Unholy Strength as commons, and he went with Divine Favor. The one common that strikes me as being against the grain of an otherwise-great White common selection of cards is Stonybrook Schoolmaster. I grok what he’s doing there, but I’m not a super-big fan.

If you’ll recall, Vincent is super-tribal boy, and he has Field Marshal at uncommon and Preeminent Captain at rare. It’s easy to include great cards in your core set. Then, you have everything good or above. What’s hard to do is to find cards that aren’t good, but which have uses. He did this very well with things like Seasoned Marshal. It’s perfect for a core set, and yet it’s not that powerful in Limited or elsewhere. You have to be willing to include cards like that in your core sets. I also like some typical reprints, like Serra Angel and Timely Reinforcements.

For the higher level of rares, Vincent is among the few entrants to not put Felidar Sovereign in the set as a mythic. Almost everyone else did, and I like that he fought against the grain (for the record, my three mythics were Serra Avatar, Elspeth, Knight-Errant, and Blazing Archon). He used Elspeth Tirel, Purity, and Pristine Angel. That’s not a bad set of mythics at all. I think Mirror Entity is a bit confusing as a rare—not because of Changeling, but because of its ability—but perhaps I am underestimating core-set abilities. Every other rare is perfect. Endless Horizons is awesome, Day of Judgment expected, Knight of the White Orchid great, although perhaps a bit redundant with Endless Horizons in the same set of rares, Honor of the Pure, and Vengeful Archon. Great stuff.

Ryne Thornberg – 14

We had a tie for first place, so again, tilt is the tiebreaker. I half-expected to see Armageddon and Balance in the set after seeing his Blue. For commons, he did a lot of things right like Vincent did. Mistral Charger instead of Stormfront Pegasus is no biggie, and it’s fine to include. Soul's Attendant is a better Soul Warden (because it is a “may” ability). I don’t think Raise the Alarm must be uncommon, and clearly neither does Ryne. There is a sour note here, though. I don’t think Disenchant, as a common of a core set, makes sense anymore. Sorry, Ryne.

I do like his uncommons, and in particular, I like the pairing of White Knight and Silver Knight fighting side-by-side like they always should have. It also means he doesn’t have to include a hoser, and that’s a great way of dealing with that issue. The one question I have is why he downgraded Serra Angel to Angel of Mercy. I think there are a few cards that begin in the slot of every color at that rarity, and it’s hard to pull them for something else—unless that thing is better for that set somehow. Examples include Giant Growth, Serra Angel, Day of Judgment, and Mind Control or Persuasion. Props for going with the powerful Path to Exile, which was just really good and proves that a 1-mana exiling spell can be reprinted without breaking anything. I also like Wall of Omens and Ghostly Prison.

Serra Avatar makes an appearance as a mythic, alongside Felidar Sovereign and an Elspeth. I think Serra Avatar is a brilliant choice for a new mythic. He replaces Day of Judgment with Martial Coup, which is interesting with its mechanic of destroying everything if you put enough mana into it. Blessed Reversal sucks, but it perfectly represents White at the rare level, and I adore putting it in. The rest is a bit-by-the numbers—Glorious Anthem, Captain of the Watch, Luminous Angel (which was a common card to choose for rares in this challenge), and so forth. Overall, a very solid set.

Scott Alvis – 14

Our winner, with a tie-breaker over Ryne, is Scott Alvis and his White. I believe he has the most consistent and core-set-able cards in the White section of any contestant. Here are some commons that I think are very clever: Guard Duty, Yoked Plowbeast, Gustcloak Runner, and Capashen Knight. Take Guard Duty, for example. Giving something Defender is a perfect way to force creatures to not attack, and yet the creature can block and use abilities. Its ability appears minor and yet quite interesting. Then, we have some normal cards, like Loxodon Mystic and Echoing Calm. I do question a card, though. If Parapet was just an enchantment that did not Flash at all, I’d be okay with it as a common. If it flashed out and that was it, I’d still be okay with it. But it’s wordy. Flash it out, and it’s temporary; play it normally, and it’s permanent. That’s hard to explain on a common for the core set, and I don’t like it.

I prefer Scott’s uncommon Enlistment Officer to Vincent’s uncommon Field Marshal. One feels more uncommon than the other. Knight of Dawn is great. I really think Peace Talks is a clever choice. I like reprinting Castle, but not in the same set as Parapet—I feel that it’s wasting precious space. You only have room for nine uncommons to demonstrate what White is. I do like Swords to Plowshares a lot. Once we’ve proved that a 1-mana removal spell will work, why not print the big bad again?

We have the common Elspeth and her Felidar Sovereign again, with Angelic Destiny as the final mythic. It certainly feels mythic, although a bit too light in power for many tastes. It fits right in. I think Hold the Line is a very obvious and strong choice for rare. Wrath of God returns, and I was wondering how many entrants would bring it back . . . only two. We also have Preeminent Captain here, too. The rest of the stuff is by-the-book, save the oddball Windbrisk Raptor. I don’t like it in the same set as Victory's Herald. I feel that’s another missed opportunity. Anyway, another great entry.

Green Machine

What are the three best Green entries?

Vincent Borchardt – 14

While this was his highest score so far, it’s still not enough for more than third. I love some of his common choices, but a few strike me as unusual—Gloomwidow in particular. Replacing Giant Spider with it just seems off. I could accept a set that doesn’t have Giant Spider if it has replaced it well. I don’t think Gloomwidow does that. Sylvan Ranger is a perfectly fine card. Alluring Scent is an insightful choice since it is simpler than Lure in many ways, making it a good common selection when Lure is usually uncommon. We have some good usual suspects like Cultivate, Giant Growth, Naturalize, and Llanowar Elves. I really appreciate that Vincent was among only a few people to fully embrace Prey Upon as the new standard of Green creature removal.

Elvish Champion is an uncommon along with good choices like Bramblecrush and Hunter's Insight. Windstorm is the Flying hoser of choice, since he left the common slots bereft of things like Plummet. We both have Skyshroud Elite in our uncommon slots. I think it’s a powerful card in the right environment without being too powerful. I see what Vincent is doing moving Great Sable Stag down to uncommon to be his color hoser instead of other options. Is it a bit too powerful?

Chameleon Colossus is a powerful choice for a rare printing. It’s a banner card, and Protection from Black is acceptable, but I’m not sure I want two Protection-from-Black creatures in Green. Immaculate Magistrate helps Elf decks go, “Rawr!“ I’m surprised by Engulfing Slagwurm because I thought I was among the few who really thought it fit in well with Green. Some other cards include Vigor as a mythic, Birds of Paradise, and Overwhelming Stampede making up for the lack of Overrun at uncommon. Nice stuff!

John Dale Beety – 15

JDB had a great Green set. Let’s look at the commons first. It’s clear that WotC has been allowing Green to have a lot of Pacifism variants recently. Take a look at the most recent core set with Arachnus Web for an example. Several people took that to its natural conclusion and added Utopia Vow to the common section. I can respect that. I like that he wasn’t afraid to send Llanowar Elves to the wayside for Arbor Elf. Frankly, Arbor Elf might be more in-flavor for Green than Llanowar Elves. I wasn’t brave enough to do that in my set, but I respect it a lot. I really enjoy Leaf Arrow as a common Green spell. We see a lot of these very good cards that do things you want, but in slightly different ways. Sure, you have your common Flying hoser, but not Plummet or Wing Snare—but instead Leaf Arrow. I think the flavor of Salvage is better than Reclaim, but I’m not sure it was worth dropping to sorcery speed for a card already rarely played in Limited. Wellwisher was too much for me. I think if you are reprinting what might be the single most popular Elf of all time, good for you, but we need to tick it up to uncommon. I also think Overgrown Battlement is a fine choice, but Vine Trellis is cleaner and does virtually the same thing every time. Sure, the Battlement’s ability is stronger, but I think I prefer the cleaner one.

Elvish Harbinger is the sort of tribal card I expect at uncommon. I adore Elephant Guide here, and think it’s a brilliant choice. We have some usual stuff, and then the controversial Imperiosaur. I feel that JDB is trying too hard to be different with this choice. Why is that in a core set? I admit that it is solid in Draft, but outside of it, it stinks.

JDB was among several people to include Berserk in his set. These people all have the right idea. I think it’s a solid choice, and I appreciate the desire. It’s here as mythic. Primeval Titan and Nissa Revane are here, too. No entrant chose the Titan cycle to reprint, but a few wanted P Titan around. I can respect that. Other than Planeswalker's Favor, all of the rares are good choices. Abundance? Genesis Wave? Terra Stomper? I love them all (especially with Stomper Cub as a common). Good job!

Jacob Munford – 16

With virtually a perfect score, Jacob nailed Green so well it’s hard to pick at anything here. My only issue is a Cycling trigger at common (Krosan Tusker) and Hunting Cheetah’s power at common. Other than that, the commons are very nice indeed. We have Prey Upon here as well. I really appreciate Giant Warthog, Elvish Berserker, and he’s among the few who kept the very good Trollhide. (Much better than Regeneration). You can welcome back friends like Llanowar Sentinel. He is among several to pull all Bears for Cylian Elf, so he has a tribal card in there. I also don’t mind pulling Giant Spider for Cloudcrown Oak. It’s more powerful and fits the cards. I miss Spiders, but I’ll live.

Cobra Trap is basically where he lost a point, in addition to those two common cards I felt made more sense at uncommon. As I’ve said before, Traps plus Cycling is too many mechanics for the core set. I like Lhurgoyf as an uncommon, especially considering a certain mythic he chose to include. He kept the useful Stingerfling Spider and added a very acceptable Pelakka Wurm, along with normal stuff like Bramblecrush.

Okay, I was wondering if anyone would have the courage to toss Tarmogoyf into his set. With it as a mythic, in addition to Lhurgoyf as an uncommon to show what it is, I think we have a winner. Just tossing it in wouldn’t have been enough to earn free points or anything, but he set it up, and I like that. It joins a Garruk and a Hydra in the mythic section. He chose to keep Fauna Shaman and add winners like Glimpse of Nature and Mossbridge Troll. The result is a powerful selection of cards from common to mythic that really represent some good thinking. Pull out the Trap, bump up the Cheetah to its spot, and massage a few cyclers, and you have a 17 score easily.

Red Sky at Morning, Sailrs Take Warning

One thing that divided the Red selections was a decision to commit to or shy away from land destruction as a mechanic. I am biased toward LD because it’s a mechanic, and I feel that WotC has pushed too far away from it. Since they laid the groundwork for a light LD section, I can’t punish someone who chooses a 5-mana sorcery as his only common LD for not fully embracing the mechanic. Therefore, no one scores extra points for being really good at LD or really bad at it.

Tsuyoshikentsu – 13

Red is always among the hardest colors to design. It’s also hard to find great cards for the core set from it. Tsuyoshikentsu did a good job trying to find those good cards. This is where the research helps and the rubber meets the road, so to speak. You want to make Red just as good as the other colors, but all of the cards that aren’t burn tend to suck. Take Firebreathing. You could print this creature, and it would not be drafted highly: , 0/1, Firebreathing. Most decks get by with one or two firebreathing creatures at most. You usually just see sets with powerful burn, and then they move on to crappy other cards. By severely pushing burn, Tsuyoshikentsu pushes himself to this extreme, but it’s what a lot of people have to do. He has Shock and Volcanic Hammer and Chandra's Outrage and Sizzle and Lava Axe. We have Canyon Minotaur repeating as the Hill Giant of choice. I like Dragon Fodder at common. Enrage won’t give you much, but at least it’s something other than burn for Red. He doesn’t ignore the good cards like Prodigal Pyromancer and Lightning Elemental.

Once you arrive at uncommon, the choices are much better, and we have a good selection of cards. I like Extra Arms—it’s flavorful and clever. Fire Imp is a great card, and Incinerate is even more burn that’s playable in tournaments, and I feel it’s just one too many. I’m unconvinced that Winds of Change is an uncommon, but it’s certainly a good choice for Red. Volcanic Dragon being reprinted is nice as well.

A trio of Dragons awaits you at rare and mythic. As a reminder, he added Join Forces to the core set, so we have Mana-Charged Dragon. Balefire Dragon is here as a mythic and joins Chandra and Searing Wind. I love the reprint of Gamble. I had to double-check the Reserve List just to make sure it wasn’t on it, but it’s not. That’s a smart card choice. I wonder why others didn’t see it. Chandra's Phoenix and Knollspine Dragon sort of make me see Red as a flying color here. Two flying uncommons (Chandra's Spitfire, Volcanic Dragon), and three at the higher levels is five flyers. Is that a tad too much? This is good stuff!

Ryne Thornburg – 14

Ryne committed to land destruction. We have Stone Rain at common along with Goblin Gardener. Flame Slash and Lightning Bolt are his sole burn spells. I like to pretend that Quenchable Fire is not there. I love the inclusion of Fireslinger instead of the Pyromancer, and Power of Fire as an Aura. Other cards I appreciate include Maniacal Rage, Act of Treason, Dragon Fodder, and Halberdier (I have Halberdier in my set, too). I’m particularly entranced by Rock Jockey seeing print in a core set. The efficient-creatures-with-a-major-disadvantage theme of Red really comes through with it.

Every uncommon Red should have an spell of some sort. Fireball is par for the course and works sufficiently. Demolish really pushes the LD theme. I love Browbeat here, and Dragon Whelp is always a solid choice for any core set. AEther Flash is not something I expected to see, but I do enjoy it. I’d want to play-test any set with it to make sure everyone has answers, but I’m in conceptually. Round things out with Volcanic Fallout, Goblin Ringleader, and Arc Trail for a core of great cards.

Form of the Dragon is not an unusual core-set reprint, but as a mythic? Surely there would be better choices, right? Shivan Hellkite, Hellkite Charger, and Balefire Dragon fill your draconic quota. Goblin Guide is a powerful card for any format. There are some normal things like Obliterate, Fervor, and Insurrection. I do want to discuss Mana Flare. For a while, it seemed out of flavor for Red, but now that rituals have been added back, perhaps it’s back in style again. I’m not sure, but I wouldn’t punish anybody for either Heartbeat of Spring or Mana Flare in his core set. I do have Heartbeat in my core set Green, and it was barely touched by the contestants, as was Mana Flare. They are very popular mechanics with a significant amount of power, so I’m not sure why they were largely ignored, and Ryne manages a star (no points, but a gold star!) for that selection. Great stuff!

Kevin Montour – 15

As you may recall, Kevin brought back Echo as his core-set mechanic. While I’m not super-sold on that, it’s nice to see cards like Avalanche Riders back. For his commons, I like a few choices—like Ember Beast. The burn includes Shock, Incinerate, and that’s it for commons. I appreciate that restraint. He finds different ways to give Red removal in flavor. For example, he doesn’t have Firebreathing, but he does have Flowstone Blade. Interesting cards for Constructed include Fire Bowman and Simian Spirit Guide. Despite new faces like Keldon Vandals and Coal Stoker, we still have some basics like Shatter, Act of Treason, and Goblin Piker. I like the embracing of Red’s ability to make mana temporarily at the common slot.

At uncommon, we have Avalanche Riders and Firemaw Kavu as the echo cards. Chaotic Backlash slides into the role as the new hoser. I don’t feel that we have enough of Red’s earth flavor in a lot of sets, but here we have Jaws of Stone in an uncommon slot. Pyrohemia is an interesting choice, but I’m not sure we would ever see it in a real-life core set. The one uncommon I find jarring is Thoughtbound Primoc. I’d prefer a more traditional Red flyer here, like Dragon Whelp, Chandra's Spitfire, Furnace Whelp, Volcanic Dragon, and so forth. I find its presence here a bit jarring. I also feel that this Red set really feels the loss of an burn spell.

I don’t know what it is about Obsidian Fireheart, but a large number of entrants chose it for one of their three Red mythics. The most commonly selected planeswalker is Koth, and Kevin (and I) went with him. Then, add Shah of Naar Isle as the final mythic. That blew me away when I saw it. I’m not sure it works, but I admit a fondness for anyone who goes for it. A lot of people had at least three rare and mythic Dragons, and some had more. While I can totally accept two, three seems a bit much. Kevin chose a very classic Dragon for his set that few others submitted, and then moved on to cooler things, and I like that. We have Two-Headed Dragon here. It gives him room for fun things like Magus of the Scroll, Fatal Frenzy, and Hostility. I really like Thoughts of Ruin as a core-set rare for Red’s land destruction. I never thought about it due to the Saviors of Kamigawa cards-in-hand mechanic, but it fits. It’s not too powerful, but it is interesting. Tooth and Claw fills the crazy-red-rare-enchantment quota nicely. The result is a strong Red submission from beginning to end.

Black Attack

Who’s got the best Black selection? The most likely card to be missing from people’s selection, in my opinion, is Relentless Rats. You can certainly have something better, but when I see some weak cards in the uncommon slots, I wonder why the Rats were pulled. Virtually everyone who did not include them had nothing better. They aren’t in M12, so it’s not like they are super-essential, but there is a reason they’ve been in three out of the last four core sets, and I was surprised that only two people included them in their sets (besides me).

Ryne Thornburg – 14

Tortured Existence is among my favorite all-time cards. While I appreciate Ryne including it as a common, perhaps uncommon is a better home. Black has a problem. Fear is no longer supported, but we haven’t had many Intimidate cards yet. Do I ding someone for including a Fear card in his set? I removed Avatar of Woe as a mythic in my set because of it. After consideration, I chose not to punish people. Ryne has some interesting commons like Augur of Skulls for his common regenerator and Innocent Blood for his Edict. It’s also good to make sure that you have some basics and don’t get too crazy with every card—Ravenous Rats, Sign in Blood, and Mind Rot. I think Gravedigger is a virtual essential, and any submission that does not include it needs to make up for it elsewhere. We have Duress and Doom Blade. I like Kjeldoran Dead as a common in a core set with its sacrifice of a creature. I’m okay with Phyrexian Ghoul as the common rather than Nantuko Husk or Vampire Aristocrat.

While I think Corrupt is a fine choice for uncommon, and Tendrils of Corruption for common, I’m not sold on both in the same set. Diabolic Tutor is perfectly suited to an uncommon slot in virtually every core set from here on out. Gluttonous Zombie is fine, as are guys like Rise from the Grave and Black Knight. I’m fond of Pestilence as an uncommon reprint. However, Black Knight alone is not a sufficient way to demonstrate Black’s anti-color theme. Where is it’s hatred of Green?

A few people chose to reprint Pox, and I respect that a lot. It’s a card that surprised me at first, but the more I think about it, the more I like it. It’s easy to read, but rough to play. You’ve got to fear if it would dominate a generic Standard, but with the right cards, I doubt it. Virtually every color has a lord in a rare slot. Normally, you expect to see Cemetery Reaper or Lord of the Undead here, so I respect Death Baron instead. It works just as well and gives cards like Reassembling Skeleton, Skeletal Crocodile, and Augur of Skulls something powerful to do. False Cure is a totally awesome reprint. I had Havoc Demon as a mythic for a while, but I respect it being reprinted as a normal rare. Ryne’s mythics are Liliana of the Veil, Devouring Strossus, and Abyssal Persecutor. I had Strossus in my mythics, so I hear ya. I do want to discuss Liliana of the Veil, though. A lot of people went with her over the other two mono-Black options (Liliana Vess, and Sorin Markov), and I’m disappointed by that. Liliana of the Veil’s first ability is not as strong in a neutral environment outside of Innistrad. The next two abilities are fine, but outside of sets that want you to discard and fill your graveyard, I’m not sure she’s a winner. I’d prefer one of the other two—unless your set has good support for her. However, this was a very nice selection of Black cards!

Nicolau Maldonado – 14

He is tied for second with Ryne, but Nicolau wins the tiebreaker due to a higher tilt score (4 against 3). Let’s talk about the controversy up front. Nicolau chose to include Shadow as his core-set ability. There are three things about this I have to comment on. First, Shadow certainly meets WotC’s requirement for an ability added to be easily understood. Bloodthirst and Scry have been relatively easy to handle. Shadow certainly is as well. However, Shadow is only in three colors, and by its nature, it creates a new front. How do Green and Red fight it? Green is not the color of flying, but historically, it has Reach and card like Plummet and Leaf Blade. As such, it’s just not going to see print, and thus Nicolau’s score dropped due to a low Feel score. However, the other cards make up for the Shadow creatures. I like Disfigure in the core set, and not very many put it in. Going back to Terror was a fine choice for flavor purposes. Foul Imp is a nice way of showing what Black will do for a fast creature. Cards like Mass of Ghouls and Bog Raiders are perfectly fine choices.

I’m disappointed by how many sets pulled Hypnotic Specter and did not replace it with any Specter, but Nicolau made up for it with Abyssal Specter at uncommon. I like Despise in a core set as a way to fight planeswalkers that otherwise may get out of hand. (To be fair, Duress does that, too, but if you don’t want it for power reasons, I understand.) We’ve started to see these little engine cards in uncommon slots a lot more often, so Falkenrath Noble fits. I do not like Filth, though. Its ability is a bit out there for a core set uncommon.

Liliana of the Veil meets the Demon of Death's Gate for a walk in the Death Cloud of mythics. Apparently, yet another Pox mechanic made the cut for a contestant. My favorite and yet most questionable card to see reprinting is Living Death. It’s not on the Reserve List. Is it too powerful? I have to admit that it might be. The rest of the cards in the set do not appear to set up a powerful LD though. It’s not as though he loaded it down with Putrid Imp and Buried Alive. Lord of the Undead is fine, and Grave Pact is always good for the casual side of life. One of my favorite unusual reprints is Greater Harvester. It’s perfectly in the theme for Black and yet not something you normally expect to see in a core set. Good stuff!

Tsuyoshikentsu – 15

I actually prefer Raise Dead to Disentomb, but I won’t argue that point-wise. You’d be surprised by how many submissions I received that didn’t have a common recursion spell of any sort. Thanks for including it along with Gravedigger. I love Giant Scorpion here. I didn’t think of it as a common, but it works perfectly. He dropped Reassembling Skeleton to common and did not have a common regenerator—which works fine. Uncommons are so pressed for space (just nine of each color, compared to a roomy twenty of each color in commons) that I understand moving mechanics around to free up a precious uncommon slot. It’s the hardest place to fit everything in with every color. So many colors have core-set mechanics that don’t work at common (such as Mind Control in Blue or Fireball in Red) that need space in the uncommon. Unfortunately, this space is used for Corrupt when we have Tendrils at common again. (Cough, add Relentless Rats, cough.) The only common that tings my radar is Encroach. It’s just too limited a card for common or, frankly, any core set save in a Zendikar or a Lorwynish environment with all of those nonbasics played.

Do we have a hoser for both colors? Deathmark, check. Do we have a recursion spell? Rise from the Grave, check. Do we have an uncommon flyer? Howling Banshee, check. Do we have a tutor at uncommon? Diabolic Tutor, check. Do we have some random rare from way back when dropping to uncommon? Midnight Ritual, check. Wait, what? Yeah, it threw me, too. See also: Endbringer's Revel. These two cards just threw me. It’s not that Midnight Ritual isn’t core-set material—it was reprinted in Tenth. It just doesn’t feel uncommon to me. Other than those two cards (and Scandalmonger, but we’ve talked about the ’Mongers earlier), everything else is fine. With Corrupt duplicating Tendrils, this seems to be the only weak point of his submission—everything else save Encroach is money.

Let’s talk about that money now, because there isn’t a single sour note in the rares and mythics chosen. Lord of the Pit upgrades to mythic and joins Liliana Vess and Plague Wind. Plague Wind is indicated as the pre-release promo for his set, and I agree that it’s quite mythic in feel and marketable to boot. It’s a great card because it adds marketability to the set without adding very expensive and powerful cards that might be too powerful in Standard, such as those Dark Confidants two entrants submitted. He did reprint a sorta-money card, but I don’t think it will ruin anything: Cruel Tutor. Few sent me a submission with Phyrexian Arena, and I love it. He kept Rune-Scarred Demon, and I’m totally okay with that, although that’s three tutors in Black for the set, which might be a bit too much. We have just great choices across the board.

The World of Colorless

This is the final category before Best Overall Set. Are you ready? The major issue here is rare lands. With just thirteen slots of colorless cards at rare, anyone who chooses to print an entire cycle of ten lands can only have three other cards. It’s sorta hard to convince me that you are a great picker of cards with just three running around at rare.

Also, the most interesting idea in the whole submission happened here, and I want to talk about it because he didn’t grab a top-three spot. Shoe chose to have a cycle of lands at uncommon that tap for a colored mana—one in each color. But what he did was select a different one from five different cycles. It appears that he chose one to reflect the nature of each color. For example, Vivid Grove probably represents Green’s ability to make all five colors, and Dwarven Ruins probably represents Red sacrificing things for short-term gains. It was a very interesting and clever take on lands.

Since we have just one common, no mythics, and a lot of cycles, I’ll be discussing all of the cards in one paragraph for each contestant.

Ryne Thornburg – 14

Ryne was among several people to use all ten rares for each color combination of nonbasic lands. He included the cycle from Innistrad and M12. With just three more rare slots, Solemn Simulacrum, Lightning Greaves, and Altar of Dementia made the cut. I was surprised by how few people included Solemn Simulacrum for their sets. He had some basic cards, like Crystal Ball, Icy Manipulator, Fellwar Stone, and Tormod's Crypt. With all ten nonbasics in the set, I’m not sure why we have Pilgrim's Eye at common and Fellwar Stone at uncommon. Those feel like missed opportunities for something else. He’s not the only one to do that. I saw other sets with all ten nonbasics, and yet still had mana-sorting at the common or uncommon slot. I felt Greatsword was a bit uninspired, but I appreciate choosing Accorder's Shield instead of Kite Shield to go along with it. It made that duo more interesting. A lot of people pulled out the lucky charms, but no one replaced them with anything. I still think there is a role for lucky charms, just not as a five-of. There’s nothing similar, like Fountain of Youth or Spellbook. I thought that was a miss. However, the clever choice of Accorder's Shield and good selections like Solemn Simulacrum and Reliquary Tower shored up any weaknesses and turned this into a nice selection of cards.

Vincent Borchardt – 14

I wrestled with whether I should include Lumengrid Gargoyle in my uncommons. Ultimately, I decided not to risk it, but I appreciate that Vincent felt the other way and added it. Vincent pulled the lucky charms and added the perfect card in their place: Paradise Plume. (Jeweled Torque would work, too). It’s a great selection. He put the enemy-colored lands at rare and the friendly-colored ones at uncommon, which I thought was very clever. Because he included Changeling in his set, he was able to include Mutavault as a rare without messing up the set. He also kept a card from M12, which I love for every single core set in the future ever: Adaptive Automaton. He kept the Empires trilogy from M12 as well, which I love, but I wouldn’t want them mucking up my ideal core set. I also like Ivory Tower and Stuffy Doll here. It’s a good selection of cards for fun and profit.

Scott Alvis – 15

Let me tell you how brave Scott Alvis is. One of the hardest things to do when building a core set is trying to find space for all of these awesome artifact rares you need while also finding space for the lands. It’s very tight. Let me give you an example: Howling Mine. I feel that this card should go in virtually every core set. You won’t be dinged for not including it, but it’s my personal baby. I can’t put it in when I have a limited number of rare slots because I have too many nonbasics. Scott solves this by being brave. He includes Wanderer's Twig as a common, a set of five enters-the-battlefield-tapped lands at uncommon, and none at rare. That’s a real risk, and in this case, it pays off. It enables him to add cards like Caged Sun, Ratchet Bomb, Venser's Journal, Defense Grid, Solemn Simulacrum, and Jester's Cap. These are great core set cards in many ways. He also can have some unusual choices, like uncommon Book of Rass, without ruining the other things running around. Now, there are a few choices I would pick at. I would suggest Thran Foundry over Feldon's Cane so that it can be aimed at other graveyards. I’d prefer Coat of Arms or Adaptive Automaton as an artifact tribal enabler over Urza's Incubator. However, these are minor issues and do not bring down the great entry Scott has here.

Who Is the Best Overall?

My decision criteria for this was simple. Who had the most overall points? Everyone was ranked with the same criteria and score on every entry, so assuming that I consider Black cards and Red cards and colorless cards are on the same level, I can just tally things up and declare a winner.

And, at 79 points, our winner was Ryne Thornburg. You started off with some way-overpowered Blue stuff, but you simmered down and never had fewer than 13 points in any subsequent category—and four 14s! Nice set!

Thanks to each of our winners and all of our participants!!!

Expect an article in a few weeks in which I break down the various things I saw and learned from this exercise. I want to talk about trends, observations, ideas, and more. We are just out of time today.

And, at over ten thousand words and twenty hours of work, I’m calling it. Whew! Thanks again to everyone!

See you next week,

Abe Sargent