Been taking a short brake on the commons for Dreamscape of Noctus so that I can make a few splashy cards to play with.
I just wanted to check that none of these are stupidly broken.
Begin Anew6WW
Sorcery (R)
Exile all creatures. Your life total becomes equal to your starting life total.
Keeper of Reminiscence5UU
Creature — Sphinx (R)
Flying
Whenever you cast a card from your graveyard, untap Keeper of Reminiscence, then draw a card.
5/6
Nightscape Overlord3BB
Creature — Demon (R)
Dreamwalk (This creature can’t be blocked by untapped creatures. Tapped creatures can block it.)
At the beginning of your end step, each player sacrifices a tapped non-Demon creature.
5/4
Somni, Dreamscape Nomad2RR
Legendary Creature — Human Wizard (M)
Instant and sorcery cards in your graveyard have flashback. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost.
2/2
Guardian of Sommeil3G EDITED
Creature — Elf Druid (R)
If a card would be exiled from your graveyard, shuffle it into your library instead.
If a card with flashback would be exiled, shuffle it into your library instead.
2/3
Dreamwalk is neat. I'm interested to see how it plays in practice (encouraging players to attack, I suspect, which is nice.) Nightscape Overlord seems to be at loggerheads with the tension that the mechanic naturally creates, though. Better if it forced players to sacrifice an untapped creature, I think.
Somni is probably nuts, but of a cost and size that it's probably answerable in most Constructed formats. But the fact that I'm debating whether its power level is closer to Snapcaster Mage (on the low end) or Yawgmoth's Will (on the high end) is maybe a yellow flag, here.
Begin Anew is a bit stall-y, but at that cost you're kind of allowed to do that. Is it exciting enough for Timmy, though? That's your target audience.
Dralnu, Lich Lord says that Somni is infinitely too strong. It was a 5 drop, multicolor legend with a massive drawback that had to tap in order to give flashback to a single card. The only way I can see your current version working is by making its ability:
1RR: Target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn flashback. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost.
And even then it would be more OP then Snapcaster Mage, which is a Modern staple.
Been taking a short brake on the commons for Dreamscape of Noctus so that I can make a few splashy cards to play with.
I just wanted to check that none of these are stupidly broken.
Begin Anew6WW
Sorcery (R)
Exile all creatures. Your life total becomes equal to your starting life total.
Balanced; like it.
Keeper of Reminiscence5UU
Creature — Sphinx (R)
Flying
Whenever you cast a card from your graveyard, untap Keeper of Reminiscence, then draw a card.
5/6
Balanced; like it.
Nightscape Overlord3BB
Creature — Demon (R)
Dreamwalk (This creature can’t be blocked by untapped creatures. Tapped creatures can block it.)
At the beginning of your end step, each player sacrifices a tapped non-Demon creature.
5/4
Balanced; like it.
Somni, Dreamscape Nomad2RR
Legendary Creature — Human Wizard (M)
Instant and sorcery cards in your graveyard have flashback. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost.
2/2
This is quite powerful. The obvious comparison is Past in Flames. This can be removed, which is quite relevant, and I guess is technically worse against counterspells and doesn't work with self mill. On the other hand, this can be played with a Cancel in the yard and then just sit there and take the game over. This might not have to be banned in any formats if WotC released it today, but it might, so you should probably add at least a mana.
Guardian of Sommeil3G
Creature — Elf Druid (R)
If a card would be exiled from your graveyard, shuffle it into your library instead.
2/4
New players will probably make the mistake of thinking this works with flashback, you might want some reminder text.
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I primarily play limited, so most of my spoiler season comments view cards through that lens.
Guardian of Sommeil3G
Creature — Elf Druid (R)
If a permanent or card you own would be exiled from anywhere, you may put that permanent or card on top of your library instead.
2/3
Guardian of Sommeil3G
Creature — Elf Druid (R)
If a permanent or card you own would be exiled from anywhere, you may put that permanent or card on top of your library instead.
2/3
I feel safer about shuffling but I don't want a ton of shuffling triggers.
Maybe this: Guardian of Sommeil v33G
Creature — Elf Druid (R)
At the beginning of each end step, you may shuffle each card you own exiled this turn into your library.
2/3
Does this mean you have to shuffle even if no cards where exiled?
Guardian of Sommeil3G
Creature — Elf Druid (R)
If a card would be exiled from your graveyard, shuffle it into your library instead.
2/4
New players will probably make the mistake of thinking this works with flashback, you might want some reminder text.
Not just new players it seems. This was actually designed to work with flashback but I only just realized that it doesn't.
I'll edit it.
I actually wondered whether that might be the case, but decided it was probably more polite to assume otherwise. I like the edited one from a conceptual standpoint, but IRL shuffling gets really tedious, and this makes you shuffle a lot, so I think it's unprintable. Maybe there's some way around that...
Guardian of Sommeil3G
Creature — Elf Druid (R)
If a permanent or card you own would be exiled from anywhere, you may put that permanent or card on top of your library instead.
2/3
... but I don't think it's exactly this. Being able to put cards right where you're going to draw them again is much more powerful than shuffling (especially because cards which are explicitly not supposed to recur tend to exile themself to accomplish that), and this feels like it's got to be busted somehow. Just off the top of my head, it's quite obnoxious with Temporal Mastery.
The obvious solution is to put them on the bottom:
Guardian of Sommeil3G
Creature — Elf Druid (R)
If a card would be exiled from your graveyard, put it on the bottom of your library instead.
If a card you own with flashback would be exiled, put it on the bottom of your library instead.
2/3
But I think this also has the same subtle issue as Scry 15, because (I believe) it implicitly lets you choose what order they go on the bottom in by deciding what order to apply the replacement effects in. If someone had this in play in a game of commander and nailed ~50 cards with a Tormod's Crypt, they would technically have an incentive to spend a bunch of time deciding what to put where in case it mattered, and then everyone would be annoyed when they shuffled anyway two turns later (in theory Terminus has a similar issue, but in practice it tends to only bottom ~15 cards at worst, all of which are creatures and therefore simpler to order).
I'd probably go for cascade style random order on bottom, but writing that out twice would be aesthetically unpleasing and not leave a lot of room for flavor text, so I'll try some adventurous templating.
"If any number of cards you own that have flashback or are in your graveyard would be exiled, you may put them on the bottom of your library in a random order instead."
Private Mod Note
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I primarily play limited, so most of my spoiler season comments view cards through that lens.
Guesswork's suggestion is too strong (as repeatable flashback is crazy strong), but it is workable.
"If a card you own would become exiled, you may instead put it on the bottom of your library."
No annoying repeated shuffling and no continuously drawing, casting, and flashbacking a single card every single turn. I will say one thing though: Make sure to try to not interfere with cards that are already exiled from outside effects. Stopping cards from being exiled is one (rather strong) thing, but retroactively cancelling it out is way too good, as those cards shouldn't be able to be interacted with once exiled. After all, thats what being 'removed from the game' is supposed to mean.
I think v3 is pretty good, but there's some ambiguity as to how you want it to work.
Version A: At the beginning of each end step you face a binary choice: 1) do nothing
2) shuffle in every card you own exiled this turn
Version B: At the beginning of each end step choose a subset of the cards that you own which were exiled this turn, and shuffle that subset into your library.
if you go with B I'm not sure if it presently makes you shuffle when choosing the null set, but I'm sure there's a way to phrase it so it doesn't.
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I primarily play limited, so most of my spoiler season comments view cards through that lens.
I think you can probably improve Guardian of Sommeil by just taking out the part of about exiling cards from your graveyard. I assume it's really supposed to be about flashback. So instead make it, "Whenever you cast a spell by paying its Flashback cost, if that spell would be exiled this turn, instead shuffle it into your library." I don't think that will actually be too much shuffling in any reasonable game. In a broken combo that actually uses this it might be annoying, but I don't really see that happening.
Dralnu, Lich Lord says that Somni is infinitely too strong. It was a 5 drop, multicolor legend with a massive drawback that had to tap in order to give flashback to a single card. The only way I can see your current version working is by making its ability:
And even then it would be more OP then Snapcaster Mage, which is a Modern staple.
Dralnu seems pretty terrible. They were being super cautious with that card and it shows. This card is far more comparable to Past in Flames. Snapcaster is Snapcaster because it has flash and costs 2. This card would never see the kind of play Snapcaster does. The only problem I see with it is that it is an extra Past in Flames for combo decks in eternal formats. I'd probably make it cost 5.
Dralnu, Lich Lord says that Somni is infinitely too strong. It was a 5 drop, multicolor legend with a massive drawback that had to tap in order to give flashback to a single card. The only way I can see your current version working is by making its ability:
And even then it would be more OP then Snapcaster Mage, which is a Modern staple.
Dralnu seems pretty terrible. They were being super cautious with that card and it shows. This card is far more comparable to Past in Flames. Snapcaster is Snapcaster because it has flash and costs 2. This card would never see the kind of play Snapcaster does. The only problem I see with it is that it is an extra Past in Flames for combo decks in eternal formats. I'd probably make it cost 5.
Dralnu saw significant constructed play in his day, but I don't see the cards as really comparable. Dralnu is more of a control card, where this is more appealing for combo. I agree that this costing 5 would be best. If you are being cautious, make it 2RRR.
Somni is more disruptable than Past In Flames, and also more powerful (it works on cards that enter your graveyard later in the turn, unlike PIF).
I cannot see a player losing the game if they build their deck around Somni, cast him with a bit of setup, and the opponent does not have instant-speed removal. As such, I'd also suggest costing him at Kiki-Jiki's mana cost, 2RRR.
I expect he would be a windmill slam first pick in Limited (on par with Cone of Flame), a solid Standard card that sees competitive play but doesn't dominate (on par with Fleecemane Lion) and a very strong Modern and Legacy card.
Nightscape overlord isn't broken, but I think I would prefer the following card instead...
Nightscape Overlord 3BB
Creature — Demon (R)
Dreamwalk (This creature can’t be blocked by untapped creatures. Tapped creatures can block it.)
At the beginning of your end step, you may destroy target tapped creature. If you don't, sacrifice Nightscape Overlord.
5/4
...I prefer this version for two basic reasons...
Flavor: I like the idea that this guy eats dreams. He will actively hunt down a sleeping creature to takes its dreams and kill it.
Mechanics: All your opponent has to do to answer the card is not attack.
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Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
- Manite
Mechanics: All your opponent has to do to answer the card is not attack.
Actually thats not really that great an answer at you are most likely gonna be smashed in the face for 5 unblockable damage each turn. Then if they counterattack you get the sacrifice trigger!
I really enjoy seeing how Somni is being evaluated.
One question, how much is Past in Flames played in each format? I don't play (or really design for) vintage or legacy so I'm not really familiar with the card too much.
I've seen it used in modern storm but I'm not super familiar with the storm deck as it isn't a large player in my local meta.
Modern it's a major component of Storm.
Legacy it's viable in Storm but far from universal. Storm in Legacy is really a few different decks, some of which use PiF and some of which do not.
Vintage, it's a weaker second copy of Yawgmoth's Will that can't recur Lotus, LED or other mana artifacts. If you are running Burning Wish, it's quite reasonable to have one of Will and PiF in your maindeck and the other in the sideboard, so you can always find a Will effect with either Demonic Tutor or Burning Wish. However, while you'd pretty much almost always Wish for Will if it's in the board, you'll often Wish for Timetwister or Diminishing Returns or Wheel of Fortune when PiF is an option, so playing PiF is not universal.
The basic sequence of plays for a PiF Storm win looks like this:
- Cast a bunch of mana rituals, ideally with a cost reducer in play (Goblin Electromancer). Cost reducers aren't important in Legacy/Vintage unless the opponent has cost increasers out because your rituals mostly cost 1. Drop a cantrip or two into the mix if you can.
- Much better than a cost reducer is Pyromancer's Ascension, if you untap with that active you should win on the spot.
- As about the 4th or 5th spell for the turn, cast PiF.
- Recast the rituals and any cantrips (Storm count now 7 or 9)
- In Eternal formats, Burning Wish into Tendrils of Agony, game over. In Modern, either cast a nonlethal Empty the Warrens and vomit out creatures, or cast Pyromancer's Swathe into a lethal Grapeshot.
Actually thats not really that great an answer at you are most likely gonna be smashed in the face for 5 unblockable damage each turn. Then if they counterattack you get the sacrifice trigger!
I was actually referring to my modified version. If your opponent isn't attacking(not producing tapped creatures) then my demon would die because it has no dreams to eat.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
- Manite
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I just wanted to check that none of these are stupidly broken.
Begin Anew 6WW
Sorcery (R)
Exile all creatures. Your life total becomes equal to your starting life total.
Keeper of Reminiscence 5UU
Creature — Sphinx (R)
Flying
Whenever you cast a card from your graveyard, untap Keeper of Reminiscence, then draw a card.
5/6
Nightscape Overlord 3BB
Creature — Demon (R)
Dreamwalk (This creature can’t be blocked by untapped creatures. Tapped creatures can block it.)
At the beginning of your end step, each player sacrifices a tapped non-Demon creature.
5/4
Somni, Dreamscape Nomad 2RR
Legendary Creature — Human Wizard (M)
Instant and sorcery cards in your graveyard have flashback. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost.
2/2
Guardian of Sommeil 3G EDITED
Creature — Elf Druid (R)
If a card would be exiled from your graveyard, shuffle it into your library instead.
If a card with flashback would be exiled
, shuffle it into your library instead.2/3
Are you designing commons? Check out my primer on NWO.
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My custom sets:
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Somni is probably nuts, but of a cost and size that it's probably answerable in most Constructed formats. But the fact that I'm debating whether its power level is closer to Snapcaster Mage (on the low end) or Yawgmoth's Will (on the high end) is maybe a yellow flag, here.
Begin Anew is a bit stall-y, but at that cost you're kind of allowed to do that. Is it exciting enough for Timmy, though? That's your target audience.
I have no qualms with the other two!
1RR: Target instant or sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn flashback. The flashback cost is equal to its mana cost.
And even then it would be more OP then Snapcaster Mage, which is a Modern staple.
Avant Block: Avant -- Stormfront
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My Cube:Cardinal Custom Cube
A custom version of a third modern masters: MM2019
(filter->rarity to see in set rarity).
Not just new players it seems. This was actually designed to work with flashback but I only just realized that it doesn't.
I'll edit it.
Are you designing commons? Check out my primer on NWO.
Interested in making a custom set? Check out my Set skeleton and archetype primer.
I also write articles about getting started with custom card creation.
Go and PLAYTEST your designs, you will learn more in a single playtests than a dozen discussions.
My custom sets:
Dreamscape
Coins of Mercalis [COMPLETE]
Exodus of Zendikar - ON HOLD
Guardian of Sommeil 3G
Creature — Elf Druid (R)
If a permanent or card you own would be exiled from anywhere, you may put that permanent or card on top of your library instead.
2/3
I feel safer about shuffling but I don't want a ton of shuffling triggers.
Maybe this:
Guardian of Sommeil v3 3G
Creature — Elf Druid (R)
At the beginning of each end step, you may shuffle each card you own exiled this turn into your library.
2/3
Does this mean you have to shuffle even if no cards where exiled?
Are you designing commons? Check out my primer on NWO.
Interested in making a custom set? Check out my Set skeleton and archetype primer.
I also write articles about getting started with custom card creation.
Go and PLAYTEST your designs, you will learn more in a single playtests than a dozen discussions.
My custom sets:
Dreamscape
Coins of Mercalis [COMPLETE]
Exodus of Zendikar - ON HOLD
I actually wondered whether that might be the case, but decided it was probably more polite to assume otherwise. I like the edited one from a conceptual standpoint, but IRL shuffling gets really tedious, and this makes you shuffle a lot, so I think it's unprintable. Maybe there's some way around that...
... but I don't think it's exactly this. Being able to put cards right where you're going to draw them again is much more powerful than shuffling (especially because cards which are explicitly not supposed to recur tend to exile themself to accomplish that), and this feels like it's got to be busted somehow. Just off the top of my head, it's quite obnoxious with Temporal Mastery.
The obvious solution is to put them on the bottom:
Guardian of Sommeil 3G
Creature — Elf Druid (R)
If a card would be exiled from your graveyard, put it on the bottom of your library instead.
If a card you own with flashback would be exiled, put it on the bottom of your library instead.
2/3
But I think this also has the same subtle issue as Scry 15, because (I believe) it implicitly lets you choose what order they go on the bottom in by deciding what order to apply the replacement effects in. If someone had this in play in a game of commander and nailed ~50 cards with a Tormod's Crypt, they would technically have an incentive to spend a bunch of time deciding what to put where in case it mattered, and then everyone would be annoyed when they shuffled anyway two turns later (in theory Terminus has a similar issue, but in practice it tends to only bottom ~15 cards at worst, all of which are creatures and therefore simpler to order).
I'd probably go for cascade style random order on bottom, but writing that out twice would be aesthetically unpleasing and not leave a lot of room for flavor text, so I'll try some adventurous templating.
"If any number of cards you own that have flashback or are in your graveyard would be exiled, you may put them on the bottom of your library in a random order instead."
Interested in Custom Card Creation.
My Cube:Cardinal Custom Cube
A custom version of a third modern masters: MM2019
(filter->rarity to see in set rarity).
"If a card you own would become exiled, you may instead put it on the bottom of your library."
No annoying repeated shuffling and no continuously drawing, casting, and flashbacking a single card every single turn. I will say one thing though: Make sure to try to not interfere with cards that are already exiled from outside effects. Stopping cards from being exiled is one (rather strong) thing, but retroactively cancelling it out is way too good, as those cards shouldn't be able to be interacted with once exiled. After all, thats what being 'removed from the game' is supposed to mean.
Avant Block: Avant -- Stormfront
I think v3 is pretty good, but there's some ambiguity as to how you want it to work.
Version A: At the beginning of each end step you face a binary choice: 1) do nothing
2) shuffle in every card you own exiled this turn
Version B: At the beginning of each end step choose a subset of the cards that you own which were exiled this turn, and shuffle that subset into your library.
if you go with B I'm not sure if it presently makes you shuffle when choosing the null set, but I'm sure there's a way to phrase it so it doesn't.
Interested in Custom Card Creation.
My Cube:Cardinal Custom Cube
A custom version of a third modern masters: MM2019
(filter->rarity to see in set rarity).
Dralnu seems pretty terrible. They were being super cautious with that card and it shows. This card is far more comparable to Past in Flames. Snapcaster is Snapcaster because it has flash and costs 2. This card would never see the kind of play Snapcaster does. The only problem I see with it is that it is an extra Past in Flames for combo decks in eternal formats. I'd probably make it cost 5.
Dralnu saw significant constructed play in his day, but I don't see the cards as really comparable. Dralnu is more of a control card, where this is more appealing for combo. I agree that this costing 5 would be best. If you are being cautious, make it 2RRR.
"A Plague on All Your Houses!" - Thespian's Stage Pox
I cannot see a player losing the game if they build their deck around Somni, cast him with a bit of setup, and the opponent does not have instant-speed removal. As such, I'd also suggest costing him at Kiki-Jiki's mana cost, 2RRR.
I expect he would be a windmill slam first pick in Limited (on par with Cone of Flame), a solid Standard card that sees competitive play but doesn't dominate (on par with Fleecemane Lion) and a very strong Modern and Legacy card.
Nightscape Overlord 3BB
Creature — Demon (R)
Dreamwalk (This creature can’t be blocked by untapped creatures. Tapped creatures can block it.)
At the beginning of your end step, you may destroy target tapped creature. If you don't, sacrifice Nightscape Overlord.
5/4
...I prefer this version for two basic reasons...
Flavor: I like the idea that this guy eats dreams. He will actively hunt down a sleeping creature to takes its dreams and kill it.
Mechanics: All your opponent has to do to answer the card is not attack.
- Manite
Actually thats not really that great an answer at you are most likely gonna be smashed in the face for 5 unblockable damage each turn. Then if they counterattack you get the sacrifice trigger!
I really enjoy seeing how Somni is being evaluated.
One question, how much is Past in Flames played in each format? I don't play (or really design for) vintage or legacy so I'm not really familiar with the card too much.
I've seen it used in modern storm but I'm not super familiar with the storm deck as it isn't a large player in my local meta.
Are you designing commons? Check out my primer on NWO.
Interested in making a custom set? Check out my Set skeleton and archetype primer.
I also write articles about getting started with custom card creation.
Go and PLAYTEST your designs, you will learn more in a single playtests than a dozen discussions.
My custom sets:
Dreamscape
Coins of Mercalis [COMPLETE]
Exodus of Zendikar - ON HOLD
Modern it's a major component of Storm.
Legacy it's viable in Storm but far from universal. Storm in Legacy is really a few different decks, some of which use PiF and some of which do not.
Vintage, it's a weaker second copy of Yawgmoth's Will that can't recur Lotus, LED or other mana artifacts. If you are running Burning Wish, it's quite reasonable to have one of Will and PiF in your maindeck and the other in the sideboard, so you can always find a Will effect with either Demonic Tutor or Burning Wish. However, while you'd pretty much almost always Wish for Will if it's in the board, you'll often Wish for Timetwister or Diminishing Returns or Wheel of Fortune when PiF is an option, so playing PiF is not universal.
The basic sequence of plays for a PiF Storm win looks like this:
- Cast a bunch of mana rituals, ideally with a cost reducer in play (Goblin Electromancer). Cost reducers aren't important in Legacy/Vintage unless the opponent has cost increasers out because your rituals mostly cost 1. Drop a cantrip or two into the mix if you can.
- Much better than a cost reducer is Pyromancer's Ascension, if you untap with that active you should win on the spot.
- As about the 4th or 5th spell for the turn, cast PiF.
- Recast the rituals and any cantrips (Storm count now 7 or 9)
- In Eternal formats, Burning Wish into Tendrils of Agony, game over. In Modern, either cast a nonlethal Empty the Warrens and vomit out creatures, or cast Pyromancer's Swathe into a lethal Grapeshot.
Note how *insane* your card makes cantrips here.
- Manite