MTG Salvation

Nice, making players mill per upkeep.

Cursed Apostle 1B
Creature - Human Cleric (U)
Agony (Whenever this creature attacks, defending player gets an emblem with "Whenever you cast a spell, pay 1 or you lose 1 life."
2/1

Cursed Apostle: That ability seems way too powerful to be just an on-attack trigger, especially on multiple creatures as implied by it being a keyword. The emblems can't be removed once placed, so the only countermeasure is to remove the creature before it can declare an attack. Which would be fine if not for the possibility of multiple creatures with the same effect lying in wait.

And adding ways to get rid of emblems would just be finicky design and could potentially interact poorly with planeswalkers.

Analysis isn't usually my forte, but that just sounds too strong as a keyword on paper. Especially on a body that's already fairly efficient as it is, with no downsides.

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Garden of Thorns
Land
Whenever Garden of Thorns becomes tapped, put a thorn counter on target land you control not named Garden of Thorns.
Lands with thorn counters on them are copies of Garden of Thorns.
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. You lose 1 life.

Something I made a long time ago, from browsing my old posts. Not sure what its rarity should be, considering how quirky the drawback is despite its 'reward'.

I'm not sure, but maybe Garden of Thorns should say that lands with thorn counters on them can tap for one mana of any color for the life loss drawback instead. Something like the below ability or something, to avoid confusing with copying effects and layers, maybe?

Lands you control with thorn counters on them have "T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. You lose 1 life."

Otherwise, it definitely seems like either a rare or mythic. The flavor is also appropriate for the design. I like it.

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Vulgios, Wings of Heat 3RRR
Legendary Creature - Dragon {S}
Flying
When ~ enters the battlefield, you get an experience counter.
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, you may have @ deal damage equal to the number of experience counters you have to target creature or player.
4/5

This is intended for the Commander format, but is also designed to be played in a standard deck (particularly in UR or RW for their bounce and flicker effects).

Err.... while Equipments are more resilient than Auras, the drawback still feels far too harsh. If you are really worried that your may be thinking about making too many easily equipped Equipments to power up this card, just up the equip cost by 1, or the casting cost by 2, should be ok.


I have just finished Excel-cataloging my entire list of cards in this thread up to last week's entry, and boy howdy, 2440 (including some duplicates or slightly different versions of the same card) cards is quite some work to compile This card is for some minor celebration.

Archmage Of Eldritch Chronicles 3UU
Creature - Human Wizard (M)
At the beginning of your upkeep, if there are seven or more different converted mana costs among cards you own in exile, you win the game.
T: Exile the top three cards of your library, then shuffle up to three cards your own in exile into your library.
"If you wish to antagonize me, be informed that I have seen things from the unknowable, and your feeble attempt will be futile."
3/5

Kinda forced, I know, but hey...


EDIT:

Archmage Of Eldritch Chronicles 3UU
Creature - Human Wizard (M)
At the beginning of your upkeep, if there are seven or more different converted mana costs among cards you own in exile, you win the game.
T: Exile the top three cards of your library, then shuffle up to three cards your own in exile into your library.
"If you wish to antagonize me, be informed that I have seen things from the unknowable, and your feeble attempt will be futile."
3/4

Judging from Arcanis the Omnipotent i would reduce his body to 3/3 and add Flash. Love the flavor of the Archmage man. Well played magac.

This one is ispired from the thread ''Planeswalkers you would like to see'' where i posted 2 characters. One UB and one BR. The UB is loosely inspired from Serlock Holmes, as an Inspector Walker coming from a plane where magic is consider nonexistant (like our own) and greatly enjoying solving the wonderful mysteries of the universe.
Not name yet, so:

''Serlock Holmes'' 1UB
Planeswalker (MR)
+1: Until the end of your next turn, whenever an opponent casts a noncreature spell he or she loses 2 life.
+1: Until the beginning of your next turn, whenever an opponent casts a creature spell, if it is the first to cast counter it unless he or she pays 2
-3: Destroy target creature that dealt damage to you last turn.
3 Loyalty counters.

So, he is an inspector and mystery solver. Thus, his first two abilities pushes your opponent into making the play you want to see and his last is the epitome of crime series: finding the culprit behind the murder! I know the last ability is mechanicaly white but in my book flavor trumps over mechanics.

For the first ability, shouldn't "Until your next turn" enough? And considering this guy's low cost, 2 life per spell feels too high. 1 is punishing enough, especially this is on a + ability where you can spam over and over again. Second ability, again, 2 is too much on a + ability; 1 should be fine. Last ability is ok considering this guy's low cost.

On a second thought, though, seeing that it's limited (not all spells are hit), may be doable, but I still think 2 life/2 per noncreature/creature spell cast is a bit harsh, seeing that if you know what your opponent plays (especially in limited where creatures triumph), it's rather unlikely that your ability will whiff that easily.

As for your concern about last ability being mechanically white, see Vraska the Unseen and No Mercy.


Back to my cycle on eons past.

Vital Communion 2GW
Instant (R)
You gain life equal to target creature's power or toughness. If that creature is green and white, you gain life equal to the sum of that creature's power plus toughness instead.
"Every life is a vessel of something greater than life itself."

Or maybe I should just put "gain life equal to toughness, then if the creature is GW gain double" instead?


EDIT:

Vital Communion 2GW
Instant (R)
You gain life equal to the sum of target creature's power and toughness. If that creature is green and white, you gain twice that much life instead.
"Every life is a vessel of something greater than life itself."

Seems fair this way, don't see this card as rare though.

Vital Communion 2GW
Instant (U)
You gain life equal to target creature's power and toughness. If that creature is both green and white, you gain twice that much life instead.

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Radioactive Explosion 7RR
Sorcery (R)
Destroy target permanent. If you cast this card from your hand, destroy all permanents instead.
Suspend 1-2R(Rather than cast this card from your hand, pay 2R and exile it with a time counter on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When the last is removed, cast it without paying its mana cost.)

Radioactive Explosion deals with the great enemy of Red, Enchantments, and big creatures that cannot be burned. As a dedicated WR player and lover of R i would totally approve the creation of this card but Maro is, to say it politely, mulish regarding the color pie.
But! I would easily see this as a RW, RB or RBW instead without any problem. In the third option it would also be an instant without becoming too strong.

The reason for the ''Until the end of your next turn'' clause is to prevent them from spamming instants at your turn instead. If it is unnecessary because it does the same regardless of typing please let me know.
You are right though, considering the linear nature of many decks such as burn, storm, urza tron, eggs and the plethora of legacy decks, two life lose is too much. One is the best option.
About the second ability though i believe it is fine. Aggro decks will already have thrown 2-3 creatures, so you need an Infest type of card or his first ability better and midrange can just kill him before they cast their big butt creature. Abrupt decay easily dispatches of him. As you said though, not sure whether it is right to be a plus ability or not. Perhaps zero or negative one? I will go with the plus one for now. Decisions, desicions...
Thanks for the third ability examples. I knew my guts had to be true!

The revised version:

Resuming:
Stigmatizing Rain 1BR
Sorcery (R)
Wither
Stigmatizing Rain deals 2 damage to each creature
''His eyes wept Cinder's tears''-Kithkin phrase for skin burns.

4/4 hexproof infect is very powerful. Its a 3 turn clock (most likely 2 turn because you'd presumably have other infect creatures out) that is super hard to interact. On the other hand, its true that 5 mana is alot of mana and both infect and hexproof modern decks are not in the market for 5 mana cards, so this wont break modern. Bottom line, I think this could work, but only if the standard environment where this is printed has ways of dealing with hexproof (like this one, that can cast crackling doom, blighted fen, foul tongue invocation, etc).

The next card is like an attempt at a weird BR/grixis control finisher. The wording might need to change (wording/rules guru might help). The idea is that BR can remove opposing creatures, but your opponent is "cursed" with a "need for blood", so if he didn't attack (because he has no creatures, for example) then he looses life. It also works wonders vs control decks that can't remove it.

Need for blood 1BR
Enchantment (R)
At the beginning of each opponent's combat step, if no attackers are declared that player looses 2 life

Fangren Cystoderm: Seems like it would be a Limited bomb, but plausible.

Need for Blood: Given that B/R is usually aggressive, maybe this should be symmetrical? Also, I think this would trigger after combat instead of before...

Turn to Flame 3RR
Instant (U)
Cast CARDNAME only before combat.
Target creature becomes a 5/5 red Elemental with trample, haste, and "At the end of turn, sacrifice this creature."

Turn to Flame: Should be way cheaper in my opinion, though it could be a nice spot removal for your opponent's creatures. Hell it can even bypass indestructible. Depends on what you wanted this card to do.

Life 5GGGGGGGGGG
Creature - Beast Incarnation

Life costs G or 1 less to cast for each point of devotion you have for green.
Trample, Indestructible, Hexproof.

15/15

15cmc with tons of green, normally, but with a loaded field, this can easily drop down to near free. Considering Trample, Indestructible and Hexproof, I kinda think 15/15 is a bit too high a stat for this, but I may be wrong.


Next

Rampaging Strike 1RG
Sorcery (R)
Rampaging Strike deals 3 damage to each creature. For each creature that is red and green dealt damage this way, Rampaging Strike deals 1 damage to each opponent.
Lust for war fuels lust for blood, which in turn fuels conquest and devastation

Comments?

Rampaging Strike feels a bit strange. The second clause is super-specific. The design seems a bit schizophrenic. The way to get a lot of damage out of this is to run a lot of red and green creatures yourself, but if you have enough creatures for the second clause to be relevant, odds are you're not going to want to play a board wipe. If you're playing creatures big enough to survive this, odds are you're not going to have a lot of them in play, so the extra damage feels almost like trinket text.

I also don't feel like this card is green in any way. If this is meant to be a color-hoser, I think there are probably more interesting effects for the second clause. If this is supposed to be a color-boon, I think giving the surviving creatures a bonus is a lot more workable. Something like "For each creature that is red and green you control dealt damage this way, that creature gains first strike and trample until end of turn."

Quote from ArchSinccubus »

Life costs G or 1 less to cast for each point of devotion you have for green.

Just FYI, reducing the cost by colored mana also applies to generic mana costs unless the card says otherwise (see Ragemonger and Edgewalker.) So the ability could just be "~ costs G less to cast for each point of green devotion." and it'd still work the same, though it'd probably need reminder text, which sort of makes it a wash.

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Memory Queller U
Creature - Eldrazi Drone (U)
Devoid
At the beginning of each player’s upkeep, that player exiles the top card of his or her library.
0/4

Quote from Yeef »

Rampaging Strike feels a bit strange. The second clause is super-specific. The design seems a bit schizophrenic. The way to get a lot of damage out of this is to run a lot of red and green creatures yourself, but if you have enough creatures for the second clause to be relevant, odds are you're not going to want to play a board wipe. If you're playing creatures big enough to survive this, odds are you're not going to have a lot of them in play, so the extra damage feels almost like trinket text.

I also don't feel like this card is green in any way. If this is meant to be a color-hoser, I think there are probably more interesting effects for the second clause. If this is supposed to be a color-boon, I think giving the surviving creatures a bonus is a lot more workable. Something like "For each creature that is red and green you control dealt damage this way, that creature gains first strike and trample until end of turn."

There was actually a second version which I decided against posting and opted for this one, but looks like that version might end up being in your green light. Well, I'll post it soon.


For Memory Queller, I'm actually a bit worried about this. Sure, it hits you too, and the 0 attack means it can't even kill your opponent fast enough (only via mill). But in a Processor-heavy deck, this could be quite a nightmare since, even when compared to Benthic Infiltrator, this provides a more consistent Processed food (hee hee), for a third of the cost. Maybe if this is a 2/4 or hell 2/5 for 3 mana I may consider this ok, but at 1 mana this seems a wee too much.


Here's that second version my mentioned.

Rampaging Strike 2RG
Sorcery (R)
Rampaging Strike deals 4 damage to each creature. For each creature that is red and green dealt damage this way, creatures you control get +2/+2 until end of turn.
Lust for war fuels lust for blood, which in turn fuels conquest and devastation.

Original version is 3 damage and mass +1/+1, which means you need three RG creatures to soften the effect to +3/+0, whereas for this, you just need two to dampen the damage and give +4/+4. May end up being over the top, but what do you think?

Okay, Esther is super broken. There are so many ways you can just do nothing and just let those +1/+1 counters, charge counters, storage counters or whatever counters you need just pile up like crazy every turn. Combine this with a contagion engine and well, prolifirate X 4 every turn is not something that can easely be beaten. Also, using a hebrew name. I don't have anything to say really, just wanted to point it out.

Grasp The Darkness BB
Sorcery MR

Destroy target creature, It can’t be regenerated. If a creature was destroyed this way, return it to the battlefield under your control and you lose life equal to it’s converted mana cost.

Destroy + no regenerate + net 1 card advantage + any ETB shennanigans is insane. Even if you are paying life and even at sorcery speed. Think about it like this: 1 pay BB and 1 life to remove your rhino, get a 4/5 trampler on my side AND ping you for 3. That is ridiculous! Or in modern I can pay BB and 2 life to remove your snapcaster, get a 2/1 body AND flashback a spell. Seems a bit broken-ish.

Next, what happens when the battle is carried out on "cursed" territory? Everything diesssssss!! On a gameplay perspective, I'm not sure if this should be 3cmc or 4cmc. I'm playing it safe and going with 4: with things like urborg existing, 3 could be too cheap as this becomes a virtually unconditional wrath at instant speed.

Polluted battlefield 2BB
Instant
until the end of turn, attacking and blocking creatures get -X/-X, where X is the number of swamps in play.

Sure, why not.

Probably lower the cost by 1, though.

Military or tactics-themed name, IDK 1RW
Enchantment
Koskun Falls/Elephant Grass/Propaganda effect except it's 1.
Creatures cannot block attacking creatures you control unless their controller pays 1.

a 4/2 vanilla should cost a bit under 2R. You are paying 1 for the Rally power. What artifacts people play in standard? Hangarback doesn't count because he'll just die when he enters for 0... hmmmm... can't recall anything else. Seems a balanced card. If a good artifact were to be printed it'd be a good card. Else, it is a bit underpowered for a rare. My other question is why is this red? Returning an artifact form the GY is something I associate to blue. If you want to have red artifact recursion, you should sacrifice an artifact, but then the card really becomes underpowered.

Next, one thing i love is cards that are bad but, when certain conditions are met, they become (or approximate) one of the power 9. Think Treasure cruise or the suspended ancestral recall (forgot the name). This tries to be a bit of a late game black lotus. Late game, getting 3 free mana can really help slow decks turn a corner, without this being absolutely disgusting in the early game.

Rainbow Lotus 6
Artifact
Rainbow lotus costs 1 less to cast for each land you control.
t: add 3 mana of any one color to your mana pool

This may need to cost 9 or 10 just in case, taking Gilded Lotus into account. Put it this way: On turn 3, this already pays off its own mana cost without blowing up, something Lotus Bloom can't do.


Next

Ostentatious Mortician 4WB
Creature - Human Cleric (R)
Whenever another creature dies, each opponent loses 1 life. If that creature is white and black, each opponent loses 2 life instead. You gain life equal to the amount of life lost this way.
"Each passing life deserves a final celebration worthy of a king."
2/3

Basically this means whenever someone else dies, he auto-extorts, double if the creature is white-black. I deliberately take him out of his own ability so as to limit his usefulness, seeing that even without including himself, a Wrath of any kind can easily bleed other people dry in a single swoop. Comments?


EDIT:

Ostentatious Mortician 3WB
Creature - Human Cleric (R)
Whenever another creature dies, each opponent loses 1 life. If that creature is white and black, each opponent loses 2 life instead. You gain life equal to the amount of life lost this way.
"Each passing life deserves a final celebration worthy of a king."
2/3

He is fine. I would not mind him being having lower CMC with this body. Solid thumbs up here.

Palace of Kings
Legendary Land (R)
Palace of Kings enters the battlefield tapped.
The ''legend rule'' does not apply.
Taps for 1
Paying 2 life in addition taps for any color.

Just so that i know in the future how can i write the tap symbol?

Blistering Cascade: Having Prowess on an activated man-land doesn't seem that good when you consider you need to pay 4 mana up-front just to turn it on each turn. By comparison, we can get a 3/3 hexproof for 2GU or a 2/3 with lifelink for 1WB, which need no further investment.

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Procedural Evolution - XX2GU
Sorcery (M)
Sacrifice a creature you control, then reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a creature card with converted mana cost equal to that of the sacrificed creature plus 1. Put that creature card onto the battlefield under your control, then shuffle all other revealed cards into your library. Then repeat this process X times.

Birthing Pod as a spell, good thing here even at X=0 still effective and Bright to Light can grab this as well.

Succumb to Evil BB
Sorcery (R)
Discard your hand, then target player draws a card and loses 1 life for each card you discard this way.

Interesting..... I dunno about the feasibility of this at Instant, though; replacing your entire hand instead of drawing additional cards makes this rather expensive when targeting yourself, and when targeting other people, it's also a bit expensive since you need a lot of cards in hand to make them lose a lot of life. Maybe as instant at the same cost this may be doable.


Next

Biogenetic Mimicry 3GU
Instant (R)
You pay 2 less to cast Biogenetic Mimicry if you cast it targeting a creature that is green and blue.
Put a token that is a copy of target creature onto the battlefield under your control.
"We have striven to make our organic lifeform to be able to mimic any living thing to better study them without having to capture and dissect them without permission, but the result so far depends too much on the level of genetic similarities."

1GU instant creature copy, which means most of the time this is Cackling Counterpart since you will have your GU creature to copy, or either that, the normal 5 mana to copy anything else. COmments?

Just make it UR and a 1/1. It's already a mana investment of 3 (which includes the land itself if it's not being tapped for mana). With Prowess you kind of want to be able to, you know, cast spells.

Similarly, I'd lower numbers on Corrosive Glade to 1BG and, say, 1/3.

And now:

Connive 1R
Instant
Target creature can't block this turn.
Draw a card.

Mind you, "Connive" is a very black-sounding word so how about:

Conniving Wretch BB
Creature - Human Rogue
Conniving Wretch cannot block.
3/2

Connive is Stun, so yeah, obviously acceptable.

Conniving Wretch has perfectly fine stats. There's no reason you shouldn't be able to get a beater like that or a little better for two colored mana.

[SCRAPPED]