Greener Pastures1GG
Enchantment [R]
Land cards you own that aren't on the battlefield are basic lands.
Staring Contest2BB
Enchantment [MR]
Players skip their draw steps.
Exile Staring Contest: You skip your next turn. Any player may activate this ability.
Resko, Meticulous Magus2UUU
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard [MR]
Sorcery spells you control can't be countered.
Sorcery spells you control cost 2 less to cast.
"Persistent tutelage offers boundless insight and knowledge."
2/3
Deal With The DjinnBBB
Instant [MR]
Deal With The Djinn can't be cast unless your life total is greater than five. Draw five cards. Your life total becomes 1. You can't gain life for the rest of the game.
Greener Pastures - Basic Plains? (This way you can tutor them out with fetchlands). Otherwise, great design. I wonder if it could cost 1G; but that's for testing.
Staring Contest - I think you're thinking commander here, but this is basically game over in a good control build. I don't think this design can be fair or fun. It's well designed othwerwise though.
Legend: Sorcery spells you control can't be countered and cost 2 less to cast. Generally red gets sorcery bonuses, and blue instant bonuses. Maybe make it RU and give the bonus to both types?
Deal With The Djinn - This has to be a sorcery; at instant it just means EOT stuff. Maybe "You get an emblem with "You cannot gain life.""? I don't like emblems, but it's better than memory issues. As for the effect; it feels too strong. It's a combo finisher; having 1 life doesn't matter. Testing, testing, and more testing. But really? I think having another combo piece of this power level is just going to constrain future designs.
STaring contest + pithing needle = game over; also unacceptable amount of drawn games. Not that powerful, but just unfun.
My suggstion -- rather than an activated exile clause, make it an optional trigger.
"An the beginning of each player's upkeep (or whatever if eon hub is a concern), that player may exile ~."
That makes it very difficult to combo into.
Deal -- just another combo piece that will end up being restricted/banned (or will get other cards restricted/banned). At thev very least, it has to be a sorcery. That should prevent EOT shenanigans.
Greener Pastures is neat, although it could cause some confusion with any effect that says "whenever you play a basic land card", since lands don't use the stack. I'm not sure if there are any effects like that?
Staring Contest is too similar to Standstill which is overpowered.
For Resko,
Generally red gets sorcery bonuses, and blue instant bonuses. Maybe make it RU and give the bonus to both types?
That's for old cards like Anarchist and Magnivore. The most recent card I can think of that cares about one over the other is Surreal Memoir which exhibits the opposite behavior, and does so only to avoid getting back other copies of itself and being busted in limited. (and Hypersonic Dragon, but that's just because instants don't need flash )
EDIT: actually, while most red cards don't care about sorceries anymore or are inconsistent, there are a lot of blue cards still that care specifically about instants (or playing things on opponents' turns). In any case it's not a strong trend, and Resko could be UR or mono-U depending on the block.
Generally effects that care about one care about both, and though most effects that do only care about one are red, I don't think it's especially well-defined. In this case it's explicitly sorceries-only so that the effect can be extremely strong and still not be Teferi-levels of unfun. I don't see an issue with that.
Deal with the Djinn, especially at instant speed, is basically Doomsday mk. II. Maybe it's possible to balance Doomsday, but I feel like this card will just get offset by massive lifegain in any commander deck that plays it (right, can't gain life...), and get offset by immediately winning the game in any constructed deck that plays it.
I get what you're going for with Greener Pastures, and it's a creative idea, but I simply don't like it, seems too blunt and specific to me.
Staring Contest is an interesting twist on Lethal Vapors, but I agree that blocking the draw step is too harsh. With Vapors, you can draw into an answer to avoid skipping the turn, with Staring Contest you would need to have it in hand already, and it's harder to work around if you can't afford to skip a turn.
Sorcery dude seems fine, I'd rather it be Split Second though. Many spells can still be countered by making their targets invalid, if he's really so meticulous, he should account for that, which Split Second does.
Dream is kinda nuts. It's like Doomsday, but really it's more like Final Fortune, you toss it out when you're certain to win that turn. I'm bad at judging cards of that tier, they all look really overpowered, but most skew terrible in practice.
Magus of the Pastures1G
Creature - Human Monk (R)
Land cards you own that aren't on the battlefield are basic plains.
2/2
That'd be pretty interesting, no?
As for costing it; the ability to fetchland (assuming it also gives a basic land type, hint hint) any unbasic land with a fetchland is pretty good. As is, it works with Evolving Wilds, and that's pretty useful. The one worry is that it allows you to get 2-land combos in modern relatively easily, but HOD's land tutor does this, too.
Putting it on a creature improves its usability certainly, so would a cantrip. I disagree with granting them a subtype. Fetchlands already have a lot going for them, this systematically improves the other land search that get passed over in favor of the Fetchlands, like Evolving Wilds. If it makes those land tutors better but also makes the Fetchlands better, that wouldn't change the preference for them.
As worded, it works with Evolving Wilds. A fair creature with ability would turn evolving Wilds into a great tutor card. I don't know if I like denying X or Y basic land type fetches from having the same potential.
Right now, Rampant Growth works, but Farseek doesn't. I don't know if I'm okay with that.
That's what saneatali said. The problem is still you're letting fetches get them. The OP's version allows Evolving Wilds to grab any land in your deck, giving it an advantage over fetches, because they still work as normal. If you slap the plains type on it, now my Windswept Heath can grab any land in my deck, and it doesn't force it to come in to play tapped. The advantage of running Evolving Wilds over a fetch because of Greener Pastures has now been rendered useless because my fetchland can still do it better.
If that's your intent, fair enough. It feels... janky to me; as if the rules and the flavor are disconnected. But that's probably unavoidable with anything that distinguishes between basic lands and basic land types. Hence why I wanted it to grant both (besides, "pastures" are certainly plains, right?), so that it would work with both.
End of the day, I think Cultivate's probably the measure we need to evaluate this by, not any of the fetchlands. Besides letting you get 2 Urzatron pieces in one go, it could also play a better Hour of Promise combo - Dark Depths + Vesuva/Thespian's Stage on turn 4.
This is probably why putting it on a creature is better. In addition to making it "not crap" in limited, it also gives your opponent a way to halt the combo by shocking in response.
@entomedhydra, I originally designed Greener Pastures as a legendary creature but changed it to an enchantment because I felt I was designing to many legends recently. When it was a creature, the CMC was 2. I played around with the idea of allowing it to search for a specific basic land type, but it didn't sound as elegant or simple. I think if I were to change the design, it would say something like all "lands you own that aren't on the battlefield are basic Forests." The benefits you get from it are good, but it is already a very powerful effect. This card makes effects like Cultivate and Explosive Vegetation incredibly powerful. My intuition is similar to saneatali's, the card is already very powerful, does it need to be stronger?
@mondu_the_fat I don't think the converted mana cost or the power of a card should be determined to be high solely because of one card that isn't even in Standard (For example, I don't think Wizards would insist on making Eternal Scourge cost 6 because Food Chain exists). Mark Rosewater has said many times before we do not hold the past responsible for new designs. While the interaction you mentioned would be oppressive, to really take advantage of it, a player would need those two cards plus a draw engine to put themselves in a strong position. Alternatively a player could potentially end the game in a draw with these two cards. But I don't think that's a good enough reason to say the card is broken because of one interaction. Your idea of changing the design to a delayed triggered ability is interesting, but I feel it changes some of the game play aspects of the original design.
I'm not sure Deal With The Djinn would be amazing powerful or comparable to Doomsday although it is difficult to design cards of this level. Infernal Contract to my knowledge doesn't seem competitive play anywhere. While this card is better because it is instant speed and draws one extra card, the drawback is much more severe. I think this card can be compared to Fatal Fortune. entombedhydra makes a solid point about the memory issues, but while there is no precedent for non planeswalker cards creating emblems, there is precedent for "rest of the game" effects (i.e. Stigma Lasher, Praetor's Counsel).
I'm not sure about Resko, Meticulous Magus. The idea of adding Red is a good idea. There are some great red sorcery spells, but there are also some amazing blue ones. I deliberately omitted instant spells matter because the flavor of the card being a meticulous magus means the wizard specializes complicated, comprehensive, detailed magic that is potentially slower and time consuming. I feel a "sorcery matters" card is unique and special mechanic we see much less of compared to "instants and sorceries matter" because the card doesn't reward players for playing instant spells, it can also be pushed a little more (maybe the body could even be a 3/4?)
@mondu_the_fat I don't think the converted mana cost or the power of a card should be determined to be high solely because of one card that isn't even in Standard
Given that I SPECIFICALLY said it WASN'T powerful, I'm not sure what your reply is going on about power it being broken. I never claimed such things. I said it was UNFUN, and it is. I also never mentioned anything about converted mana cost.
to really take advantage of it, a player would need those two cards plus a draw engine to put themselves in a strong position.
I also said it would result in drawn games, which it will. You don't need some sort of setup, just those two cards.
But I don't think that's a good enough reason to say the card is broken because of one interaction.
Again, I never said anything about it being broken.
Are you sure you are replying to me? The only accurate thing you said was that pithing needle isn't in standard, which I consider a short sighted excuse for creating bad interaction. You and Rosewater may not care interactions in formats like modern, EDH, and eternal, but some people do.
@mondu_the_fat I don't think the converted mana cost or the power of a card should be determined to be high solely because of one card that isn't even in Standard
Given that I SPECIFICALLY said it wasn't powerful, I'm not sure what your reply is going on about power it being broken. I never claimed such things. I said it was UNFUN, and it is. I also never mentioned converted mana cost.
to really take advantage of it, a player would need those two cards plus a draw engine to put themselves in a strong position.
Except I never said anything about taking advantage of it. I said it would result in drawn games, which it will.
But I don't think that's a good enough reason to say the card is broken because of one interaction.
Again, I never said anything about it being broken.
Are you sure you are replying to me? The only accurate thing you said was that pithing needle isn't in standard, which I consider a short sighted excuse for creating bad interaction. You and Rosewater may not care interactions in formats like modern, EDH, and eternal, but some people do.
So to be clear, you are concerned about the design because you believe that players would deliberately run two unique cards in tournaments for eternal formats to deliberately create draws in games?
It is very common for new cards to be designed with potential faulty synergies in older formats. That's the nature of having a TGC with 20,000 cards. Your criticism of the design seems to be "it's an unfun design because of Pithing Needle."
So to be clear, you are concerned about the design because you believe that players would deliberately run two unique cards in tournaments for eternal formats to deliberately create draws in games?
If you're implying people will just toss those cards in a deck, of course not. What they'd run a deck specifically to try to take advantage of the interaction, then just bomb the board if it looks like they can't win. Or you already won game 1.
That's how worldgorger.dec was (and still is where legal) played. Can't win because the opponent has some sort of defense or your kill card was nuked? Draw the game.
Beyond the tournament scene, it's simply unfun, even without the pithing needle interaction.
It is very common for new cards to be designed with potential faulty synergies in older formats. That's the nature of having a TGC with 20,000 cards. Your criticism of the design seems to be "it's an unfun design because of Pithing Needle."
So, to make it clear, you don't care about other formats other than standard?
Pithing needle is not on the reserved list, and is a viable card for standard.
Also, where on earth did you get the "converted mana cost" and "broken" comnments?
Staring Contest unfun because making it so players can't ever draw is a turn off to 99.9% of people since it makes so they can no longer play the game. The built-in work around of skipping a turn is also pretty unfun. Staring Contest is not a card that would be consider for printing based on the past decade of design philosophy. It encourages terrible gameplay.
Greener Pastures has a lot of merit, and I like the idea of having it on a body. Easier to balance.
Resko is fine, though it could be red/multicolored too. It's the least exciting of these.
Deal with the Djinn would make more sense as a sorcery. As for how balanced it is, hard to judge, but I'm leaning to not unreasonable in older formats.
The lead designer for Magic the Gathering and the design team generally doesn't care about other formats other than limited and Standard (with the exception of Commander sometimes) when designing cards for standard legal sets. When designing cards, I often look at things through the lense of how Wizards designs cards (At least to some extent). Wizards doesn't design cards with the mentality of saying, we can't print cards like Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, Eternal Scourge or Temple Bell because of one other card we printed years ago. If they were to do that, their hands would be tied and they would have way less design space. Yes Pithing Needle is not on the reserve list. If Pithing Needle was in the same standard set as Staring Contest it would encourage a negative environment (although I still don't think it's a particularly degenerate interaction, there are way more powerful and practical two card interactions, especially in eternal formats).
The built in skipping a turn you may consider unfun, but is Worst Fears an unfun card too (or similar cards because it is an effect that has been printed multiple times)? Outside of the interaction with one card, I think the card is interesting because it's like an actual staring contest. Eventually someone is going to have to sacrifice their next turn which is a bummer, but it might be you, it might be your opponent(s) depending on the circumstances and that tension until then can be exciting (i.e. using your current board and the cards in your hand to exert pressure on your opponent to skip their next turn).
I mentioned the converted mana cost to highlight that it wouldn't be a particularly impactful in a Standard or Limited environment. I mentioned the word broken because I don't feel the card would be degenerate in any other instance aside from an interaction with Pithing Needle (broken can be described in design to mean needs to be fixed or problematic without being incredibly overpowered).
@IcariiFA, I agree that it probably is for the better to play it safe and make Deal with the Djinn a sorcery, however it does make it a much weaker card that already has a severe drawback. Do you believe if it were in the current Standard/Limited environment it would be too powerful
Worst Fears is an 8 mana, one time use sorcery that takes over a turn. It's a very different feeling at a very different cost.
Not being able to draw cards isn't fun. It's also silly to pretend that Staring Contest would be played in a deck that wasn't built to draw cards outside the draw step anyway. So the skip a turn option would fall to the opponent.
If you think this card is fun, you are the .1%. Bringing the game to a standstill is something game designers should actively avoid. Standstills are boring. They are uninteractive. They don't give a player meaningful decisions. They are not fun.
Deal with the Djinn would never really be a limited all star, but it could be a combo aid in the ride standard. As an instant it would be too good in standard for sure. It's ok to design cards that aren't going to define formats, and as a sorcery it would be an interesting yet safe card johnny/spikes would want to test the waters with and maybe have some casual fun.
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Enchantment [R]
Land cards you own that aren't on the battlefield are basic lands.
Staring Contest 2BB
Enchantment [MR]
Players skip their draw steps.
Exile Staring Contest: You skip your next turn. Any player may activate this ability.
Resko, Meticulous Magus 2UUU
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard [MR]
Sorcery spells you control can't be countered.
Sorcery spells you control cost 2 less to cast.
"Persistent tutelage offers boundless insight and knowledge."
2/3
Deal With The Djinn BBB
Instant [MR]
Deal With The Djinn can't be cast unless your life total is greater than five. Draw five cards. Your life total becomes 1. You can't gain life for the rest of the game.
UBRKess, Dissident MageUBR - Controlling Dissidents
GRhonas the IndomitableG - Indomitable Four Drops
WUBOloro, Ageless AsceticWUB - Loot & Renanimate
Staring Contest - I think you're thinking commander here, but this is basically game over in a good control build. I don't think this design can be fair or fun. It's well designed othwerwise though.
Legend: Sorcery spells you control can't be countered and cost 2 less to cast. Generally red gets sorcery bonuses, and blue instant bonuses. Maybe make it RU and give the bonus to both types?
Deal With The Djinn - This has to be a sorcery; at instant it just means EOT stuff. Maybe "You get an emblem with "You cannot gain life.""? I don't like emblems, but it's better than memory issues. As for the effect; it feels too strong. It's a combo finisher; having 1 life doesn't matter. Testing, testing, and more testing. But really? I think having another combo piece of this power level is just going to constrain future designs.
My suggstion -- rather than an activated exile clause, make it an optional trigger.
"An the beginning of each player's upkeep (or whatever if eon hub is a concern), that player may exile ~."
That makes it very difficult to combo into.
Deal -- just another combo piece that will end up being restricted/banned (or will get other cards restricted/banned). At thev very least, it has to be a sorcery. That should prevent EOT shenanigans.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
Staring Contest is too similar to Standstill which is overpowered.
For Resko,
That's for old cards like Anarchist and Magnivore. The most recent card I can think of that cares about one over the other is Surreal Memoir which exhibits the opposite behavior, and does so only to avoid getting back other copies of itself and being busted in limited. (and Hypersonic Dragon, but that's just because instants don't need flash )
EDIT: actually, while most red cards don't care about sorceries anymore or are inconsistent, there are a lot of blue cards still that care specifically about instants (or playing things on opponents' turns). In any case it's not a strong trend, and Resko could be UR or mono-U depending on the block.
Generally effects that care about one care about both, and though most effects that do only care about one are red, I don't think it's especially well-defined. In this case it's explicitly sorceries-only so that the effect can be extremely strong and still not be Teferi-levels of unfun. I don't see an issue with that.
Deal with the Djinn, especially at instant speed, is basically Doomsday mk. II. Maybe it's possible to balance Doomsday, but I feel like this card will just get offset by
massive lifegain in any commander deck that plays it(right, can't gain life...), and get offset by immediately winning the game in any constructed deck that plays it.- Rabid Wombat
Staring Contest is an interesting twist on Lethal Vapors, but I agree that blocking the draw step is too harsh. With Vapors, you can draw into an answer to avoid skipping the turn, with Staring Contest you would need to have it in hand already, and it's harder to work around if you can't afford to skip a turn.
Sorcery dude seems fine, I'd rather it be Split Second though. Many spells can still be countered by making their targets invalid, if he's really so meticulous, he should account for that, which Split Second does.
Dream is kinda nuts. It's like Doomsday, but really it's more like Final Fortune, you toss it out when you're certain to win that turn. I'm bad at judging cards of that tier, they all look really overpowered, but most skew terrible in practice.
Magus of the Pastures 1G
Creature - Human Monk (R)
Land cards you own that aren't on the battlefield are basic plains.
2/2
That'd be pretty interesting, no?
As for costing it; the ability to fetchland (assuming it also gives a basic land type, hint hint) any unbasic land with a fetchland is pretty good. As is, it works with Evolving Wilds, and that's pretty useful. The one worry is that it allows you to get 2-land combos in modern relatively easily, but HOD's land tutor does this, too.
Right now, Rampant Growth works, but Farseek doesn't. I don't know if I'm okay with that.
End of the day, I think Cultivate's probably the measure we need to evaluate this by, not any of the fetchlands. Besides letting you get 2 Urzatron pieces in one go, it could also play a better Hour of Promise combo - Dark Depths + Vesuva/Thespian's Stage on turn 4.
This is probably why putting it on a creature is better. In addition to making it "not crap" in limited, it also gives your opponent a way to halt the combo by shocking in response.
@entomedhydra, I originally designed Greener Pastures as a legendary creature but changed it to an enchantment because I felt I was designing to many legends recently. When it was a creature, the CMC was 2. I played around with the idea of allowing it to search for a specific basic land type, but it didn't sound as elegant or simple. I think if I were to change the design, it would say something like all "lands you own that aren't on the battlefield are basic Forests." The benefits you get from it are good, but it is already a very powerful effect. This card makes effects like Cultivate and Explosive Vegetation incredibly powerful. My intuition is similar to saneatali's, the card is already very powerful, does it need to be stronger?
@mondu_the_fat I don't think the converted mana cost or the power of a card should be determined to be high solely because of one card that isn't even in Standard (For example, I don't think Wizards would insist on making Eternal Scourge cost 6 because Food Chain exists). Mark Rosewater has said many times before we do not hold the past responsible for new designs. While the interaction you mentioned would be oppressive, to really take advantage of it, a player would need those two cards plus a draw engine to put themselves in a strong position. Alternatively a player could potentially end the game in a draw with these two cards. But I don't think that's a good enough reason to say the card is broken because of one interaction. Your idea of changing the design to a delayed triggered ability is interesting, but I feel it changes some of the game play aspects of the original design.
I'm not sure Deal With The Djinn would be amazing powerful or comparable to Doomsday although it is difficult to design cards of this level. Infernal Contract to my knowledge doesn't seem competitive play anywhere. While this card is better because it is instant speed and draws one extra card, the drawback is much more severe. I think this card can be compared to Fatal Fortune. entombedhydra makes a solid point about the memory issues, but while there is no precedent for non planeswalker cards creating emblems, there is precedent for "rest of the game" effects (i.e. Stigma Lasher, Praetor's Counsel).
I'm not sure about Resko, Meticulous Magus. The idea of adding Red is a good idea. There are some great red sorcery spells, but there are also some amazing blue ones. I deliberately omitted instant spells matter because the flavor of the card being a meticulous magus means the wizard specializes complicated, comprehensive, detailed magic that is potentially slower and time consuming. I feel a "sorcery matters" card is unique and special mechanic we see much less of compared to "instants and sorceries matter" because the card doesn't reward players for playing instant spells, it can also be pushed a little more (maybe the body could even be a 3/4?)
UBRKess, Dissident MageUBR - Controlling Dissidents
GRhonas the IndomitableG - Indomitable Four Drops
WUBOloro, Ageless AsceticWUB - Loot & Renanimate
Given that I SPECIFICALLY said it WASN'T powerful, I'm not sure what your reply is going on about power it being broken. I never claimed such things. I said it was UNFUN, and it is. I also never mentioned anything about converted mana cost.
I also said it would result in drawn games, which it will. You don't need some sort of setup, just those two cards.
Again, I never said anything about it being broken.
Are you sure you are replying to me? The only accurate thing you said was that pithing needle isn't in standard, which I consider a short sighted excuse for creating bad interaction. You and Rosewater may not care interactions in formats like modern, EDH, and eternal, but some people do.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
So to be clear, you are concerned about the design because you believe that players would deliberately run two unique cards in tournaments for eternal formats to deliberately create draws in games?
It is very common for new cards to be designed with potential faulty synergies in older formats. That's the nature of having a TGC with 20,000 cards. Your criticism of the design seems to be "it's an unfun design because of Pithing Needle."
UBRKess, Dissident MageUBR - Controlling Dissidents
GRhonas the IndomitableG - Indomitable Four Drops
WUBOloro, Ageless AsceticWUB - Loot & Renanimate
If you're implying people will just toss those cards in a deck, of course not. What they'd run a deck specifically to try to take advantage of the interaction, then just bomb the board if it looks like they can't win. Or you already won game 1.
That's how worldgorger.dec was (and still is where legal) played. Can't win because the opponent has some sort of defense or your kill card was nuked? Draw the game.
Beyond the tournament scene, it's simply unfun, even without the pithing needle interaction.
So, to make it clear, you don't care about other formats other than standard?
Pithing needle is not on the reserved list, and is a viable card for standard.
Also, where on earth did you get the "converted mana cost" and "broken" comnments?
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
Greener Pastures has a lot of merit, and I like the idea of having it on a body. Easier to balance.
Resko is fine, though it could be red/multicolored too. It's the least exciting of these.
Deal with the Djinn would make more sense as a sorcery. As for how balanced it is, hard to judge, but I'm leaning to not unreasonable in older formats.
The built in skipping a turn you may consider unfun, but is Worst Fears an unfun card too (or similar cards because it is an effect that has been printed multiple times)? Outside of the interaction with one card, I think the card is interesting because it's like an actual staring contest. Eventually someone is going to have to sacrifice their next turn which is a bummer, but it might be you, it might be your opponent(s) depending on the circumstances and that tension until then can be exciting (i.e. using your current board and the cards in your hand to exert pressure on your opponent to skip their next turn).
I mentioned the converted mana cost to highlight that it wouldn't be a particularly impactful in a Standard or Limited environment. I mentioned the word broken because I don't feel the card would be degenerate in any other instance aside from an interaction with Pithing Needle (broken can be described in design to mean needs to be fixed or problematic without being incredibly overpowered).
@IcariiFA, I agree that it probably is for the better to play it safe and make Deal with the Djinn a sorcery, however it does make it a much weaker card that already has a severe drawback. Do you believe if it were in the current Standard/Limited environment it would be too powerful
UBRKess, Dissident MageUBR - Controlling Dissidents
GRhonas the IndomitableG - Indomitable Four Drops
WUBOloro, Ageless AsceticWUB - Loot & Renanimate
Not being able to draw cards isn't fun. It's also silly to pretend that Staring Contest would be played in a deck that wasn't built to draw cards outside the draw step anyway. So the skip a turn option would fall to the opponent.
If you think this card is fun, you are the .1%. Bringing the game to a standstill is something game designers should actively avoid. Standstills are boring. They are uninteractive. They don't give a player meaningful decisions. They are not fun.
Deal with the Djinn would never really be a limited all star, but it could be a combo aid in the ride standard. As an instant it would be too good in standard for sure. It's ok to design cards that aren't going to define formats, and as a sorcery it would be an interesting yet safe card johnny/spikes would want to test the waters with and maybe have some casual fun.