MTG Salvation

I like the idea, and seems to go nicely with things that manipulate the top of library (courser, divining top, ponder, preordain, yara yara yara). But I'm unsure what decks want this. Aggesive decks are the ones most in the market for a life-for-cards trade, but 4 cmc is too much for themI'd guess. Control decks, on the other hand, probably would use this, but you typically don't want to pay life and risk whiffing if you're control. Plus, at 4 mana, the control player want a huge board impact, and this does not produce it. Also, typically the cost function is that 1 mana = 2 life, but you are costing 1 mana at one life. That seems cheap, even when you factor in the random chance of missing.

Next,

I started a cycle of rare mythic lands that produces one mana of a color, gives allied color creatures you contorl a boost, and has big "I win" impact in the long game. The white one was a bit overpowered as one of you mentioned because i forgot the "sacrifice it" clause. Here is an example of how the blue one can work. It is quite powerful, but i think the legendary-ness of the land, and the sacrifice effect make up for it. For example, at X=1 you are paying 5 mana and a sacrifice in order to tutor an instant or sorcery. This is not breaking any records, but the upside is that the tutoring cannot be countered. And as the game goes longer, so sacrificing a land is not that relevant, this can end the game by just tutoring up 4 or 5 counterspells once you deploy your finisher.

EDIT: the "exile face down" clause is to protect form thoughtseize effects.
City of Illusions
Legendary land (MR)
Non red, non green creatures you control have flying.
tap: add U to your mana pool.
2XX, tap, sacrifice city of Clouds: search your library for up to X instant or sorcery spells. Exile these spells face down. You may cast spells exiled this was as though they were in your hand.

Quote from Draw_Gone »

City of Illusions
Legendary Land {M}
Non-red, non-green creatures you control have flying.
T: Add U to your mana pool.
XX2, T, sacrifice ~: Search your library for up to X instant or sorcery cards and exile them face down. You may cast those cards for as long as they remain exiled.

So I fixed the formatting and templating a bit. Now, I'm going to go out there and say it. This is too powerful. In the right deck it's "8: Win the game." Add to that the fact that it doesn't come in tapped and it produces U, and it's not even a dead draw early in the game. And I don't think you can really adjust the cost either. Raising it sufficiently to prevent abuse would raise it to the point where it's worthless.

Speaking of winning the game:

Grand Concordat WWWWUUUUBBBBRRRRGGGG
Sorcery {M}
You win the game.

Now to figure out how to fit that cost on a card...

Quote from Dimitriye98 »

Quote from Draw_Gone »

City of Illusions
Legendary Land {M}
Non-red, non-green creatures you control have flying.
T: Add U to your mana pool.
XX2, T, sacrifice ~: Search your library for up to X instant or sorcery cards and exile them face down. You may cast those cards for as long as they remain exiled.

So I fixed the formatting and templating a bit. Now, I'm going to go out there and say it. This is too powerful. In the right deck it's "8: Win the game." Add to that the fact that it doesn't come in tapped and it produces U, and it's not even a dead draw early in the game. And I don't think you can really adjust the cost either. Raising it sufficiently to prevent abuse would raise it to the point where it's worthless.

Speaking of winning the game:

Grand Concordat WWWWUUUUBBBBRRRRGGGG
Sorcery {M}
You win the game.

Now to figure out how to fit that cost on a card...

I don't think there's an acceptable cost for this. Alternate win conditions work best as objects that are a visible part of the game rather than something that comes out of nowhere.

Quote from tenangrychickens »

Bear Punch GG
Instant (c)
Put a 2/2 green Bear creature token onto the battlefield. It fights target creature.

This is nice, simple, and likable. I do think that it might cost more than two mana, though.

Martial Master RR
Creature — Human Monk (U)
First strike
Faze (Damage this deals considers a creature's power rather than toughness when determining lethal damage. )
2/2

Erm..... interesting idea.... but what about the case when this deals damage to a partially-damaged creatures? Like, if this guy gets blocked by a 1/6 first strike/deathtouch creature that has eaten a X=2 Bonfire of the Damned, what will happen? Otherwise, nice idea.


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Luscedra, The Fickle Fang 3RR
Legendary Creature - Dragon (M)
Flying
Luscedra, The Fickle Fang gets +X/+0, where X is the total converted mana cost of cards exiled by Luscedra.
2R: Shuffle all cards exiled by Luscedra into their owners' libraries, then exile the top four cards of your library.
0/5

Too swingy? I originally wanted to give this guy haste, but that may be a bit bonkers especially since those exiled cards may include a few Eldrazis, not to mention as is, the haste will be wasted anyway. And trample is right out, as it will make him way too powerful. Comments?


EDIT:

Luscedra, The Fickle Fang 1RR
Legendary Creature - Dragon (M)
Flying
Luscedra, The Fickle Fang gets +X/+0, where X is the total converted mana cost of cards exiled by Luscedra.
2R: Shuffle all cards exiled by Luscedra into their owners' libraries, then exile the top four cards of your library.
0/4

I really don't understand the point of this card pulling from the bottom, and the X factor makes it even more confusing. I'm not in favor of this design.

Tamiyo, Planar Scholar 2UU
Planeswalker — Tamiyo
[+1] Until your next turn, whenever target opponent taps target permanent he or she owns, draw up to two cards.
[0] Until your next turn, whenever target opponent casts a spell, you may draw a card.
[-6] You gain an emblem with "Play with the top two cards of your library revealed" and "You may play the top two cards of your library."
{3}

First ability probably can be worded: Until your next turn, whenever target permanent an opponent controls becomes tapped, draw up to two cards. Admittedly, that version can be abused with Icy Manipulator, but we are all aware that excessive amounts of cards in a combo makes the combo more fragile. Second ability probably needs to cost -2 at least, as while it's a soft-Silence, it still prevents an opponent from recklessly cast spells. Last one is ok.


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Flickering Boltwing BBRR
Creature - Dragon (M)
Flying
Whenever Flickering Boltwing or another creature you control attacks, if it entered the battlefield this turn, you may return it to its owner's hand. If you do, you may put a creature card with converted mana cost equal to or less than that creature from your hand onto the battlefield tapped and attacking.
Dash BBRR
5/5

Dash lord, sort of. Comments?

So a 5/5 flyer for 4 mana with Dash that also returns some attacking creatures to your hand if they're hasted or have Dash, in exchange for other creatures from your hand hasted for free. It effectively seems to give any hasted creature the equivolent of Dash (return to hand at end of turn). Interesting.

Spellthief 2UR
Creature - Human Rogue {R}
Flash
When Spellthief enters the battlefield, counter target instant or sorcery spell and exile it encoded onto Spellthief. Whenever Spellthief deals combat damage to a player, you may cast a copy of the encoded spell without paying its mana cost.
2/2

With card draw this could be a little overpowered I think. Maybe not a turn 2-3 win but one or two of these placed right means a player is dead. Otherwise its a cheap and quick way to kill off some creatures on top of that. I might be more interested in a somewhat more expensive casting cost (maybe you have to pay X mana too?) and making it give -1/-1 counters.

Jelinar, Arena Master 2GR
Legendary Creature - Human Warrior {R}
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, you may have it fight target creature you don't control. Whenever a non-token creature you control wins a fight against another creature, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.
4/4

"Winning" a fight isn't recognizable game terminology, unfortunately. See Foe-Razer Regent for the proper terminology.

Ara, Hope Unfound W
Planeswalker — Ara (M)
[+1] Until your next turn, ~ becomes a legendary 2/2 white Human creature.
[-2] You may put a creature card with CMC 2 or less from your hand onto the battlefield.
[-4] Search your library for up to four creature cards that share a name, reveal them, and put them into your hand. Shuffle your library.
{1}

The ultimate probably could stand at -6, but seeing how fragile this fella is, maybe it's ok. Otherwise, no issue.


Random

Grand-Serf of the Lich 4BB
Creature - Zombie (M)
When Grand-Serf of the Lich enters the battlefield, put four 2/2 black Zombie creature tokens onto the battlefield.
You can't cast spells.
If you would discard a card or lose life, sacrifice that many Zombie creatures instead if you can. (You discard cards or lose life as normal once you run out of Zombie creatures)
If you would draw a card or gain life, put a 2/2 black Zombie creature token onto the battlefield for each card you would have drawn or each 1 life you would have gained instead.
3/3

Comments?

I'm not much of a fan of Un-Set designs, but this strikes me as wrong in several ways. Why would Vorthos be white, not red? Red is the color that cares most about art. I'm also of the opinion that even Un-Sets shouldn't break the color pie, which this does with its repeated tutoring which isn't card type specific.
I'm not sure what the point is of naming an artist. This basically just says "Search your library for a card and put it into your hand," because you're always going to name the artist of the card your searching for.

Golden Sands
Land — Desert
Golden Sands enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add W to your mana pool.
Sift (You may reveal this card and put it on the bottom of your library when you draw it. If you do, put the top card of your library into your hand.)

Well, that card sounds like a normal tapland, but the Shift/Sift effect intrigues me. It's like it scries itself before the draw.

Banned in France 2URW
Instant (R-Unset)
Search in target opponent's library for any number of cards that haven't been printed in French and remove them from game. If any player says "Merci" and the name of any card removed this way translated to French, they may play that card without paying its mana cost.
"Mon dieu! C'est incroyable!"

Brain Pick UR
Sorcery (R)
Target player exiles the top card of his or her library. Until your next turn, you may play that card. You may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to cast it.


Command of the Demons B
Instant (R)
Split second
Target player reveals his or her hand and you choose an instant or sorcery card from it. Until end of turn, gain control of all that player's permanents that could produce mana. Mana produced by those permanents can only be spend to cast that instant or sorcery card and you choose targets for that spell.

Way too powerfull. As it stands, that card allows you to tap all his mana and just empty the opponent's mana pool. Since this is an instant and has split second it is basically uncounterable and you can tap the opponent out whenever you want so as to clear a path for you to resolve your big spell. In the right deck this reads "cannot be countered. You win the game" for B. I've been accused (rightfully so) of making way overpowered cards, but this takes the cake!

(Note: how do you do the "tap" symbol? could you let me know in the comment of my card? Thanks!)

Grove of the High Priestess
Land
tap: add 1 to your mana pool
3, tap: put a 1/1 blue wizard token creature onto the battlefield. It has "tap: draw a card, then discard a card."

The token-making ability needs to cost at least 2 or U more, seeing that while fragile, those tokens look pretty good to help filter out your deck, and that nca get out of hand.


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Squirming Reefbeast 2U
Creature - Serpent (U)
Squirming Reefbeast can't be blocked.
Whenever Squirming Reefbeast deals combat damage to a player, that player may pay 3. If that player does, sacrifice Squirming Reefbeast.
"Slipped past the nets, you think, little one?"
- Ronok, fisherman
3/3

Comments?

Seems like a very expensive targeted fog, and while it has pseudo-flashback (I like the idea of flashback for enchantments/artifacts!) the dream cost is sooooo restrictive. Could be useful in limited though.

I'm thinking alot about lands lately. Here is a land that mana ramps 1 turn, then just color fixes. I think it is powerful without being OP.

Mana Mine
Land (R)
Mana Mine does not untap during it's controllers untap phase.
T: add two mana to your mana pool in any combination of colors basic lands you control could produce.
T: add 1 to your mana pool.
1: untap Mana Mine.

This is a one card infinite mana loop. No.


Demonic Whims BBR
Sorcery (R)
Search your library for a card and exile it, then shuffle your library. You may play that card from exile this turn.

Decent. Powerful effect late game, but at least in a last ditch effort, you may probably use it for a Selective Memory, although that would really mean you are super desperate.... Otherwise, wonderful.


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Relicborn Ghast 3U
Creature - Spirit (U)
Relicborn Ghast can't be blocked.
Relicborn Ghast can only attack a player who controls three or more artifacts.
Some malevolent spirits only haunt those who possess worldly riches.
4/4

4/4 defender normally, but in Mirrodin or so this may become way too bonkers. Comments?

This should be ok. It's very similar to Needle Drop but a lot easier to activate though you trade the ability to ping players, also it's a sorcery. Unless I'm missing something this looks fine.

Augusta, Repentant Vampire RWB
Legendary Creature - Vampire (M)
First Strike Lifelink
Pay X life: Target creature gets +0/+X until end of turn.
3/2

For the price of your life it beefs up some creatures just enough for surviving, as it stands its easy to eliminate.

Hex Rod 1
Artifact (R)
Hex Rod is indestructible.
Whenever a permanent becomes the target of a spell or ability, Hex Rod deals 1 damage to that permanent's controller. Damage can't be prevented.

A more versatile Rebuff The Wicked. While obviously white counterspells are not normal, there is some precedent for it and I suppose it fits the flavor if we're going in that direction. Simple enough and makes sense for white.

Replicant Shaman G
Creature - Shapeshifter (R)
Changeling
When Replicant Shaman enters the battlefield, choose a basic land type. Lands you control are that type in addition to their other types.
T: Add to your mana pool one mana of any type that a land you control could produce.
1/1

This at one mana feels a tad ridiculous, as this is a mini-Prismatic Omen which only gives you one additional basic land type for your entire land, but also gives you mana. 2 cc should be minimum.


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Peresa, Forest Caller 2GG
Legendary Creature - Elf Shaman (R)
Creatures spells you cast cost 1 less to cast for each legendary creature or planeswalker you control.
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
She sang a song of nature, and her kin joined in the chorus.
2/3

Too expensive?

Perhaps Replicant Shaman would be more fair at 1G or GG? I originally just had it as a Changeling creature that had a Reflecting Pool effect, which is more balanced for one mana. But compared to Birds of Paradise and similar one mana creatures that tap for any color it seemed weak. Then I added on the other part to make it more versatile and powerful, which probably drove it over the top.

I like Peresa, Forest Caller. Not sure if it's too expensive, though anything that taps for mana at four mana feels a little late as far as the mana effect. The costing 1 less part probably makes it fair at that cost, but I could see it flying at 3 mana if you make it 2/2. Interesting that it's based on legendary and planeswalkers. Looks perfect for epic creatures and super-friends.

Eldritch Summoner 2G
Creature - Human Shaman {R}
When Eldritch Summoner enters the battlefield, you may search your library for a creature card with converted mana cost 3 or less and put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. You may only use this mana to cast creatures with converted mana cost 3 or less.
1/1

Kind of the weenie tutor alternative to Peresa.

Yes, I believe Replicant Shaman should be fine at 1G. Trades Prismatic Omen's sheer type versatility for a combat body and additional mana production.


Hmm..... in a sense the creature is phased out. Seems probably ok at that cost, but maybe I'm wrong.


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Messtra, Archmage of Negation 4UU
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (M)
Hexproof
Whenever an opponent casts a spell, you may search your library for an Instant card or a card with Flash, reveal it and put it into your hand. If you search your library this way, shuffle it.
2U: Put target Instant card or card with Flash in your graveyard at the bottom of your library.
3/3

Ridiculous?


EDIT:

Messtra, Archmage of Negation 4UU
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (M)
Whenever an opponent casts a spell, you may search your library for an Instant card or a card with Flash, reveal it and put it into your hand. If you search your library this way, shuffle it.
2U: Put target Instant card or card with Flash in your graveyard at the bottom of your library.
2/2

Change "when you cast Venser" to "When Venser enters the battlefield". Not entirely sure how I feel about it having flash, even considering that it's color shifted. Otherwise it feels decent.

Doom Meteor 2BR
Sorcery {R}
Each opponent must sacrifice a land and loses life equal to the total of lands sacrificed.

Simple one.