Hey, I'm sure other people have worked on 4-color Commander sets and whatnot, I see at least one other attempt by Lef on the front page of the forum right now. I don't know if this thread is going to actually make many cards, but I was trying to figure out if there are any mechanics that are actually limited to all but one color, or close to that. We might then be able to use those examples to inform some themes for Commander sets or factions in a full set or something. I know the arguments that 4-color is close to meaningless, just trying to scrape any signs of meaning out of the existing card pool.
Basically, I'm trying to come up with a list of mechanics (broadly defined) that appear exclusively or almost exclusively in 4 colors, plus maybe some that only appear in 3 colors but could reasonably be extended to one but not both of the other colors. I'm focusing on the Modern card pool to try to weed out weird bleeds.
WUBR Flying
Green gets flying bleed fairly often, but the other colors get it pretty much every set. Not a very good tip to build anything around, but I guess a faction or commanders in this combination could use flying. Imprint
Has never appeared in black or green, but black is quite a bit more likely to exile cards in general, and some of the artifacts like Mimic Vat feel pretty black. A focus on manipulating exiled cards works well for the not-green group since green is the most earthy and grounded, whereas exile kind of represents abstraction and being removed from the natural order. Rebound
Green has only Prey's Vengeance, while black has two rebound cards. I don't think there is anything mechanical or flavorful to keep rebound out of green though, except that green is the most creature-focused and this is a spell mechanic. Gain control
Green only has Gilt-Leaf Archdruid in the modern pool, and its reliance on destiny means it wants you to make do with what you have in your own deck. White is sparse, but all of the nongreen colors are capable of stealing stuff.
In general it feels like this group should have smaller, evasive creatures, with good spell support in removal and tricks. It can exploit your resources by exiling or stealing them. A civilized but volatile group.
UBRG Drawing
White gets cantrips and occasionally draw triggers for things it likes to do, but all the other colors are better at drawing in their various ways. Madness
White, blue and green are tied at 2 madness cards each, but I think blue has a lot more "mad scientist" flavor and is far better mechanically at cycling through cards and UG Madness was an actual deck. I can't really think of any good reason for green to have madness though, unless you reflavor it a bit as recycling or making use of discarded stuff. Undying
This is slightly surprising since white gets some kinds of reanimation, but I guess it never got any actual undying cards, basically to reinforce the white humans vs other monsters in Innistrad. Mana Manipulation
Red and green are the main colors to ramp or ritual into mana, but black and blue also have histories of manipulating mana types and gaining mana from nonland sources. White only rarely can search out some lands, usually with an equality stipulation. Delve could extend from Sultai into red easily.
Based on the ideas above, this group should be churning through a lot of cards finding the best ones, but also having plenty of ways to take advantage of its spent resources. Mid to large sized creatures, a lot of organic growth fueled by dark and dangerous secrets.
BRGW Destroy
Blue basically never destroys anything, except in Polymorph and cards with related flavor. This group could have triggers off of the actual destroy action, or more broadly on things going to the graveyard from the battlefield. First strike
A couple of weird mono-green examples put this here, but I don't know if it's much to go with. I guess the idea is that blue doesn't care too much about combat damage; infect, wither, lifelink, and for the most part trample also fall in this group. Intimidate
Obsolete, but I guess with Spectral Rider it technically fits here. Menace kind of works but isn't particularly white. Echo
There is only one mono-blue echo card, and echo kind of goes against blue's philosophy of planning ahead and using resources well. Convoke Chief Engineer is blue's only convoke card, and doesn't have it itself. I don't think this one is particularly good since blue seems like it could have reasonable flavor of working together on convoke, or exploiting the tricky nature of convoke for counterspells and whatnot. I guess blue is the worst at making tokens, so the other colors have more inconsequential bodies around to use for convoking.
This group is most focused on the battlefield. It wants to get a lot of its own things there as quickly as possible, and remove other people's stuff. Go wide and stay on the offensive. A reckless, instinctual horde, perhaps bound together through unquestioned religion or dogma.
RGWU Soulbond Miracle
The color balance in Avacyn Restored gave us these two options. Soulbond is a great fit since black only trusts itself, but the other colors are willing to forge meaningful relationships. Black is probably better at top of deck manipulation and drawing than white is mechanically, so it's basically only flavor that put miracle in these colors. Provoke
Only here because of Greater Morphling, and would probably fit better in the non-black group.
This one is a bit tough to figure out based on what I have found so far. I guess these colors as a group are looking for synergy, so things like Slivers and Allies fit well. Share with the whole group instead of focusing on one individual. There is room for individuality and improvement, but a majority focus, so perhaps something like a democracy would fit.
GWUB Exalted
This is the one that prompted this line of thought. After appearing on Bant and then jumping to black in M13, exalted has appeared everywhere except red. This makes pretty good sense. White is all about volunteering to help the group, and black exalted can either be pulling all the attention to themselves or flavored as servant type creatures. Blue has no problem contributing to another for strategic advantage, and I guess green exalted is just about natural cooperation and the mechanics of pumping a big attacker. Red, being the most individual-focused, just wants to do what it wants to do without worrying about the social constraints of being expected to help out another attacker, and mechanically it usually wants to put out a lot of guys and attack all at once. Red is much more about the infectious emotion of combat, not calculating the benefit of having one person go to battle. Hexproof/Shroud Xathrid Slyblade gives black one entry here and white has a couple of things that give you hexproof or can get hexproof as kind of a protection-lite. Red has no hexproof cards at all. I'm not entirely sure what to make of this, I guess red just isn't very careful about protecting itself. Enchantment bonuses
Enchantments are red's major blindspot or weakness, but the other colors all have various rewards for playing enchantments, but red has almost none outside of the thematic bleed for Forgeborn Oreads.
This group of colors focuses on building up and protecting one powerful threat, through contributions from other creatures, Auras, etc. A strict hierarchical society, working for the benefit of a single or few powerful entities. They also seek to limit the freedom of their opponents through rules and denial.
Super Obvious Exalted GuyGWUB
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard Warrior (M)
Creatures you control have exalted.
No more than one creature can attack each turn.
No more than one creature can block each turn.
3/3
The enchantment theme could also be put towards RGWU, as black has pretty much nothing to deal with enchantments once they hit the board.
Artifacts as a theme can go towards WUBR, because other than a few cards from cards, green has no synergies when it comes to artifacts that you control.
Though you mentioned it under Convoke, tokens can be a theme to go under BRGW.
Reanimator could go into either GWUB or BRGW, but overall. I'd probably give it to BRGW for Daretti, Scrap Savant and Feldon of the Third Path alone.
Vistabel, Seer of the EdgesWUBR
Legendary Creature - Vedalken Wizard (R)
Whenever a card would be put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere, exile it until end of turn instead.
You may play cards exiled with Vistabel, Seer of the Edges.
3/4
Kon-Kon Two-Tails1UB
Legendary Creature - Fox Ninja (R)
Creatures you control have skulk. RW: Target creature gets +1/+0 and gains double strike until end of turn. That creature can't attack you this turn.
2/2
Chroda, Kukemssa TrawlerUBRG
Legendary Creature - Human Pirate (R)
Islandwalk
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, return a creature card at random from your graveyard to your hand.
Whenever you cast a creature spell, return an instant or sorcery card at random from your graveyard to your hand.
3/2
Petro, Necro-Alchemist3BR
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (R)
Attacking creatures you control have undying. GU: Move all counters from target creature you control to Petro, Necro-Alchemist.
2/2
Haima, Dune-Brood CallerBRGW
Legendary Creature - Elf Shaman (R)
Token creatures you control have menace and vigilance.
Tap an untapped token creature you control: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
3/3
Urgeld, Fomori Herald4RG
Legendary Creature - Giant Cleric (R)
Whenever a spell or ability you control destroys a permanent an opponent controls, Urgeld deals 2 damage to that player. 3WB, sacrifice a permanent: Destroy target permanent that shares a type with the sacrificed permanent.
5/5
Elyxarus, Boon SharerRGWU
Legendary Creature - Centaur Shaman (R)
Whenever an Aura enters the battlefield attached to Elyxarus, Boon Sharer, you may choose any number of other target creatures you control and pay 2 for each creature chosen this way. If you do, put a token that's a copy of that Aura on each of the chosen creatures.
3/3
Karena, SoulshifterGW
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (R)
Soulbond (You may pair this creature with another unpaired creature when either enters the battlefield. They remain paired for as long as you control both of them.) UR: Return the creature paired to Karena to its owner's hand, then you may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield. If you do, pair it to Karena.
2/2
Knight-Captain Wyhorn1GWUB
Legendary Creature - Rhino Knight (R)
Creatures you control have exalted.
At the end of combat each turn, each player sacrifices all but one of the creatures he or she controls that attacked or blocked this turn.
4/4
Actara, Verdigris Sphinx2WU
Legendary Creature - Sphinx (R)
Flying 3BG: Monstrosity 3. (If this creature isn't monstrous, put three +1/+1 counters on it and it becomes monstrous.)
As long as Actara, Verdigris Sphinx is monstrous, it has vigilance and deathtouch.
3/3
My enchantment idea ended up working better in the non-red group and the last design is totally uninspired, but this was a fun exercise.
Shu Yun, Master of the Four Winds2U
Legendary Creature - Human Monk (R) 1W: Shu Yun gets +1/+1 and gains first strike until end of turn. 1U: Shu Yun gets +1/+1 and gains flying until end of turn. 1B: Shu Yun gets +1/+1 and gains deathtouch until end of turn. 1R: Shu Yun gets +1/+1 until end of turn. Regenerate him.
3/2
Experiment Pobožan4G
Legendary Creature - Shade Mutant (R) 1U: Experiment Pobožan gets +0/+2 and gains flying until end of turn. 1B: Experiment Pobožan gets +1/+1 and gains menace until end of turn. 1R: Experiment Pobožan gets +2/+0 and gains first strike until end of turn.
5/5
Sephona, Season's TurnBRGW
Legendary Creature - Avatar (R) 2G: If there are no season counters on Sephona, put a season counter on her and untap all lands you control. 2W: If there is one season counter on Sephona, put a season counter on her and put two 1/1 white Human creature tokens onto the battlefield. 2R: If there are two season counters on Sephona, put a season counter on her and put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. 2B: If there are three season counters on Sephona, remove all season counters from her and each player sacrifices a creature.
4/4
Dubious on space for that one and could conceivably swap blue in for winter with some other effect (bounce a permanent?), but the four seasons would be cool to see.
Vistabel - Very nicely done. Pretty elegant little package; I'm just concerned it feels not especially white, but it fits in a Sen Triplets kinda way.
Kon-Kon - This does... so... much. Stopping attacks on you, stopping blocks thanks to the skulk + power increases, making your own guys better beaters that are still rather evasive... Alas it's a Ninja without ninjutsu and its activated ability breaks the pattern, both of which offend my sense of taste. Also, Kon-Kon is more an... akki name than a kitsune one.
Chroda - LMAO landwalk. Trinket text though, so it gets a pass, since I'm guilty of using it that way too. I'm not sure this feels especially piratical, or at least not like a living person from Kukemssa on Jamuraa; I get more of a vibe of Zeki's Reef Pirates of Ulgrotha.
Petro - Easily one of my faves here, I only wish that the undying lasted until end of turn so that it also guarded against post-combat-casted removal spells, but hey, high risk/high reward is what the primary color combination there is all about. Also I think your font mighta done something funny.
Haima - Menace for tokens felt off at first, but then brilliant: Halving the pool of blockers means that your swarm can largely get through if you have lots of them. A real workhorse of a design.
Urgeld - Bruising and neat. The Fomori flavor is a nice touch. The closest Magic will ever get to Balor himself.
Elyxarus - Oh man is this HILARIOUS with bestow.
Karena - Easily my other favorite. Fragile but so tricky.
Wyhorn - Perhaps out of character for the character represented. Wyhorn is known to freak out about atrocities rather than be a stone killer, as seen on Zealous Persecution. You think the Conflux made him a changed rhox and hardened him?
Actara - Not sure why you dislike this design; it's pretty genius as far as I'm concerned. The perfect marriage of combat abilities. Deathtouch on a 6/6 even actually matters in EDH a lot of the time!
Shu Yun - Despite the "Tempest" in his name, the man would probably consider himself a master of "Fires" rather than "Winds". The regeneration in the red ability is throwbacky but kind of fits; does the Tarkiri bloodfire heal flesh at all? Off topic a bit, but I'd like to see a legendary Ravnican Firemane with a similar ability.
Pobozan - You know what that word means in Slavic languages, right? How is a Shade "saintly"? Anyway, a fine execution of the keyword-soup design much like Nu!Shu is.
Sephona - I'm not sure I like the "spring" ability considering it lets you proceed to "summer" straightaway. "Autumn" as red is... maybe not the best fit, but I can see a kind of harvest festival and bonfires flavor working with the mass +1/+1 counter effect, which is, again, only really tertiary in red.
I dropped the hybrid off of Kon-Kon. Her name is the sound of kitsune barking in Japanese, which is kind of dumb but I asked my wife for a name and all of her suggestions were using Kon, but I thought Konmaru was too close to Konohamaru from Naruto and Konda was already a name.
Yeah Kukemssa just came up as I was looking around the Burning Isles and figured that ranging around Jamuraa and that area in the sea could fit those colors. I wanted to make her a Pirate Wizard actually but I don't think three types fit on a legend. Zeki would be a cool choice to fill out, red and green are a bit of a stretch though. I need some kind of database of creature types that only appear in 4/5 colors or almost that.
Urgeld should maybe deal damage equal to the CMC of the destroyed thing? But then destroying lands sucks.
Ha I didn't even know Wyhorn was on another card, just noticed him on Rockcaster Platoon when I was trying to figure out which group should get a Rhino. I figure Siege Rhino is more of a pull into black than Rhox Brute into red. Maybe with some massaging this could be a dark version of Roon of the Hidden Realm instead.
Actara just doesn't do anything that gives you direction in deck-building. I want some kind of weird Azorius/Golgari combination like detaining creatures and then eating them or something. I wanted to get a "strange bedfellows" two-character legend in here somewhere but couldn't figure out how to pull it off right, I guess one of the CDEF cost guys would work the best.
New Shu Yun is referring to the Feng Shui animals, but I was just kind of stapling it onto an Asian character for kicks. I'd rather like make him turn into the animals, but I don't think there is enough space as is.
Pobožan apparently also means "pi"? I was looking for a weird number.
Yeah the seasons guy is pretty rough, I'd rather dig for land on spring but again, space concerns...maybe I need like, a level-up DFC? A flip DFC? Red was definitely a stretch mechanically and was going for flavor of red leaves, harvest fires, etc.
Sephona, Spring Maiden 5G
Legendary Creature - Avatar (R)
At the beginning of each upkeep, reveal the top card of your library. If it's a land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, otherwise, put it into your hand. Then flip Sephona.
4/4
///
Sephona, Summer Maiden
(white) Legendary Creature - Avatar
At the beginning of each upkeep, put two 1/1 white Human creature tokens onto the battlefield. Then transform Sephona.
4/4
Sephona, Autumn Maiden
(red) Legendary Creature - Avatar
At the beginning of each upkeep, add X mana in any combination of colors to your mana pool, where X is the number of lands you control. Then flip Sephona.
4/4
///
Sephona, Winter Maiden
(black) Legendary Creature - Avatar
At the beginning of each upkeep, each player sacrifices a creature. Then transform Sephona.
4/4
I vaguely recall having designed something like this before.
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Basically, I'm trying to come up with a list of mechanics (broadly defined) that appear exclusively or almost exclusively in 4 colors, plus maybe some that only appear in 3 colors but could reasonably be extended to one but not both of the other colors. I'm focusing on the Modern card pool to try to weed out weird bleeds.
WUBR
Flying
Green gets flying bleed fairly often, but the other colors get it pretty much every set. Not a very good tip to build anything around, but I guess a faction or commanders in this combination could use flying.
Imprint
Has never appeared in black or green, but black is quite a bit more likely to exile cards in general, and some of the artifacts like Mimic Vat feel pretty black. A focus on manipulating exiled cards works well for the not-green group since green is the most earthy and grounded, whereas exile kind of represents abstraction and being removed from the natural order.
Rebound
Green has only Prey's Vengeance, while black has two rebound cards. I don't think there is anything mechanical or flavorful to keep rebound out of green though, except that green is the most creature-focused and this is a spell mechanic.
Gain control
Green only has Gilt-Leaf Archdruid in the modern pool, and its reliance on destiny means it wants you to make do with what you have in your own deck. White is sparse, but all of the nongreen colors are capable of stealing stuff.
In general it feels like this group should have smaller, evasive creatures, with good spell support in removal and tricks. It can exploit your resources by exiling or stealing them. A civilized but volatile group.
UBRG
Drawing
White gets cantrips and occasionally draw triggers for things it likes to do, but all the other colors are better at drawing in their various ways.
Madness
White, blue and green are tied at 2 madness cards each, but I think blue has a lot more "mad scientist" flavor and is far better mechanically at cycling through cards and UG Madness was an actual deck. I can't really think of any good reason for green to have madness though, unless you reflavor it a bit as recycling or making use of discarded stuff.
Undying
This is slightly surprising since white gets some kinds of reanimation, but I guess it never got any actual undying cards, basically to reinforce the white humans vs other monsters in Innistrad.
Mana Manipulation
Red and green are the main colors to ramp or ritual into mana, but black and blue also have histories of manipulating mana types and gaining mana from nonland sources. White only rarely can search out some lands, usually with an equality stipulation. Delve could extend from Sultai into red easily.
Based on the ideas above, this group should be churning through a lot of cards finding the best ones, but also having plenty of ways to take advantage of its spent resources. Mid to large sized creatures, a lot of organic growth fueled by dark and dangerous secrets.
BRGW
Destroy
Blue basically never destroys anything, except in Polymorph and cards with related flavor. This group could have triggers off of the actual destroy action, or more broadly on things going to the graveyard from the battlefield.
First strike
A couple of weird mono-green examples put this here, but I don't know if it's much to go with. I guess the idea is that blue doesn't care too much about combat damage; infect, wither, lifelink, and for the most part trample also fall in this group.
Intimidate
Obsolete, but I guess with Spectral Rider it technically fits here. Menace kind of works but isn't particularly white.
Echo
There is only one mono-blue echo card, and echo kind of goes against blue's philosophy of planning ahead and using resources well.
Convoke
Chief Engineer is blue's only convoke card, and doesn't have it itself. I don't think this one is particularly good since blue seems like it could have reasonable flavor of working together on convoke, or exploiting the tricky nature of convoke for counterspells and whatnot. I guess blue is the worst at making tokens, so the other colors have more inconsequential bodies around to use for convoking.
This group is most focused on the battlefield. It wants to get a lot of its own things there as quickly as possible, and remove other people's stuff. Go wide and stay on the offensive. A reckless, instinctual horde, perhaps bound together through unquestioned religion or dogma.
RGWU
Soulbond
Miracle
The color balance in Avacyn Restored gave us these two options. Soulbond is a great fit since black only trusts itself, but the other colors are willing to forge meaningful relationships. Black is probably better at top of deck manipulation and drawing than white is mechanically, so it's basically only flavor that put miracle in these colors.
Provoke
Only here because of Greater Morphling, and would probably fit better in the non-black group.
This one is a bit tough to figure out based on what I have found so far. I guess these colors as a group are looking for synergy, so things like Slivers and Allies fit well. Share with the whole group instead of focusing on one individual. There is room for individuality and improvement, but a majority focus, so perhaps something like a democracy would fit.
GWUB
Exalted
This is the one that prompted this line of thought. After appearing on Bant and then jumping to black in M13, exalted has appeared everywhere except red. This makes pretty good sense. White is all about volunteering to help the group, and black exalted can either be pulling all the attention to themselves or flavored as servant type creatures. Blue has no problem contributing to another for strategic advantage, and I guess green exalted is just about natural cooperation and the mechanics of pumping a big attacker. Red, being the most individual-focused, just wants to do what it wants to do without worrying about the social constraints of being expected to help out another attacker, and mechanically it usually wants to put out a lot of guys and attack all at once. Red is much more about the infectious emotion of combat, not calculating the benefit of having one person go to battle.
Hexproof/Shroud
Xathrid Slyblade gives black one entry here and white has a couple of things that give you hexproof or can get hexproof as kind of a protection-lite. Red has no hexproof cards at all. I'm not entirely sure what to make of this, I guess red just isn't very careful about protecting itself.
Enchantment bonuses
Enchantments are red's major blindspot or weakness, but the other colors all have various rewards for playing enchantments, but red has almost none outside of the thematic bleed for Forgeborn Oreads.
This group of colors focuses on building up and protecting one powerful threat, through contributions from other creatures, Auras, etc. A strict hierarchical society, working for the benefit of a single or few powerful entities. They also seek to limit the freedom of their opponents through rules and denial.
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard Warrior (M)
Creatures you control have exalted.
No more than one creature can attack each turn.
No more than one creature can block each turn.
3/3
Artifacts as a theme can go towards WUBR, because other than a few cards from cards, green has no synergies when it comes to artifacts that you control.
Though you mentioned it under Convoke, tokens can be a theme to go under BRGW.
Reanimator could go into either GWUB or BRGW, but overall. I'd probably give it to BRGW for Daretti, Scrap Savant and Feldon of the Third Path alone.
Legendary Creature - Vedalken Wizard (R)
Whenever a card would be put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere, exile it until end of turn instead.
You may play cards exiled with Vistabel, Seer of the Edges.
3/4
Kon-Kon Two-Tails 1UB
Legendary Creature - Fox Ninja (R)
Creatures you control have skulk.
RW: Target creature gets +1/+0 and gains double strike until end of turn. That creature can't attack you this turn.
2/2
Chroda, Kukemssa Trawler UBRG
Legendary Creature - Human Pirate (R)
Islandwalk
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, return a creature card at random from your graveyard to your hand.
Whenever you cast a creature spell, return an instant or sorcery card at random from your graveyard to your hand.
3/2
Petro, Necro-Alchemist 3BR
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (R)
Attacking creatures you control have undying.
GU: Move all counters from target creature you control to Petro, Necro-Alchemist.
2/2
Haima, Dune-Brood Caller BRGW
Legendary Creature - Elf Shaman (R)
Token creatures you control have menace and vigilance.
Tap an untapped token creature you control: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
3/3
Urgeld, Fomori Herald 4RG
Legendary Creature - Giant Cleric (R)
Whenever a spell or ability you control destroys a permanent an opponent controls, Urgeld deals 2 damage to that player.
3WB, sacrifice a permanent: Destroy target permanent that shares a type with the sacrificed permanent.
5/5
Elyxarus, Boon Sharer RGWU
Legendary Creature - Centaur Shaman (R)
Whenever an Aura enters the battlefield attached to Elyxarus, Boon Sharer, you may choose any number of other target creatures you control and pay 2 for each creature chosen this way. If you do, put a token that's a copy of that Aura on each of the chosen creatures.
3/3
Karena, Soulshifter GW
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (R)
Soulbond (You may pair this creature with another unpaired creature when either enters the battlefield. They remain paired for as long as you control both of them.)
UR: Return the creature paired to Karena to its owner's hand, then you may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield. If you do, pair it to Karena.
2/2
Knight-Captain Wyhorn 1GWUB
Legendary Creature - Rhino Knight (R)
Creatures you control have exalted.
At the end of combat each turn, each player sacrifices all but one of the creatures he or she controls that attacked or blocked this turn.
4/4
Actara, Verdigris Sphinx 2WU
Legendary Creature - Sphinx (R)
Flying
3BG: Monstrosity 3. (If this creature isn't monstrous, put three +1/+1 counters on it and it becomes monstrous.)
As long as Actara, Verdigris Sphinx is monstrous, it has vigilance and deathtouch.
3/3
My enchantment idea ended up working better in the non-red group and the last design is totally uninspired, but this was a fun exercise.
Shu Yun, Master of the Four Winds 2U
Legendary Creature - Human Monk (R)
1W: Shu Yun gets +1/+1 and gains first strike until end of turn.
1U: Shu Yun gets +1/+1 and gains flying until end of turn.
1B: Shu Yun gets +1/+1 and gains deathtouch until end of turn.
1R: Shu Yun gets +1/+1 until end of turn. Regenerate him.
3/2
Experiment Pobožan 4G
Legendary Creature - Shade Mutant (R)
1U: Experiment Pobožan gets +0/+2 and gains flying until end of turn.
1B: Experiment Pobožan gets +1/+1 and gains menace until end of turn.
1R: Experiment Pobožan gets +2/+0 and gains first strike until end of turn.
5/5
Sephona, Season's Turn BRGW
Legendary Creature - Avatar (R)
2G: If there are no season counters on Sephona, put a season counter on her and untap all lands you control.
2W: If there is one season counter on Sephona, put a season counter on her and put two 1/1 white Human creature tokens onto the battlefield.
2R: If there are two season counters on Sephona, put a season counter on her and put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.
2B: If there are three season counters on Sephona, remove all season counters from her and each player sacrifices a creature.
4/4
Dubious on space for that one and could conceivably swap blue in for winter with some other effect (bounce a permanent?), but the four seasons would be cool to see.
Vistabel - Very nicely done. Pretty elegant little package; I'm just concerned it feels not especially white, but it fits in a Sen Triplets kinda way.
Kon-Kon - This does... so... much. Stopping attacks on you, stopping blocks thanks to the skulk + power increases, making your own guys better beaters that are still rather evasive... Alas it's a Ninja without ninjutsu and its activated ability breaks the pattern, both of which offend my sense of taste. Also, Kon-Kon is more an... akki name than a kitsune one.
Chroda - LMAO landwalk. Trinket text though, so it gets a pass, since I'm guilty of using it that way too. I'm not sure this feels especially piratical, or at least not like a living person from Kukemssa on Jamuraa; I get more of a vibe of Zeki's Reef Pirates of Ulgrotha.
Petro - Easily one of my faves here, I only wish that the undying lasted until end of turn so that it also guarded against post-combat-casted removal spells, but hey, high risk/high reward is what the primary color combination there is all about. Also I think your font mighta done something funny.
Haima - Menace for tokens felt off at first, but then brilliant: Halving the pool of blockers means that your swarm can largely get through if you have lots of them. A real workhorse of a design.
Urgeld - Bruising and neat. The Fomori flavor is a nice touch. The closest Magic will ever get to Balor himself.
Elyxarus - Oh man is this HILARIOUS with bestow.
Karena - Easily my other favorite. Fragile but so tricky.
Wyhorn - Perhaps out of character for the character represented. Wyhorn is known to freak out about atrocities rather than be a stone killer, as seen on Zealous Persecution. You think the Conflux made him a changed rhox and hardened him?
Actara - Not sure why you dislike this design; it's pretty genius as far as I'm concerned. The perfect marriage of combat abilities. Deathtouch on a 6/6 even actually matters in EDH a lot of the time!
Shu Yun - Despite the "Tempest" in his name, the man would probably consider himself a master of "Fires" rather than "Winds". The regeneration in the red ability is throwbacky but kind of fits; does the Tarkiri bloodfire heal flesh at all? Off topic a bit, but I'd like to see a legendary Ravnican Firemane with a similar ability.
Pobozan - You know what that word means in Slavic languages, right? How is a Shade "saintly"? Anyway, a fine execution of the keyword-soup design much like Nu!Shu is.
Sephona - I'm not sure I like the "spring" ability considering it lets you proceed to "summer" straightaway. "Autumn" as red is... maybe not the best fit, but I can see a kind of harvest festival and bonfires flavor working with the mass +1/+1 counter effect, which is, again, only really tertiary in red.
I̟̥͍̠ͅn̩͉̣͍̬͚ͅ ̬̬͖t̯̹̞̺͖͓̯̤h̘͍̬e͙̯͈̖̼̮ ̭̬f̺̲̲̪i͙͉̟̩̰r̪̝͚͈̝̥͍̝̲s̼̻͇̘̳͔ͅt̲̺̳̗̜̪̙ ̳̺̥̻͚̗ͅm̜̜̟̰͈͓͎͇o̝̖̮̝͇m̯̻̞̼̫̗͓̤e̩̯̬̮̩n͎̱̪̲̹͖t͇̖s̰̮ͅ,̤̲͙̻̭̻̯̹̰ ̖t̫̙̺̯͖͚̯ͅh͙̯̦̳̗̰̟e͖̪͉̼̯ ̪͕g̞̣͔a̗̦t̬̬͓͙̫̖̭̻e̩̻̯ ̜̖̦̖̤̭͙̬t̞̹̥̪͎͉ͅo͕͚͍͇̲͇͓̺ ̭̬͙͈̣̻t͈͍͙͓̫̖͙̩h̪̬̖̙e̗͈ ̗̬̟̞̺̤͉̯ͅa̦̯͚̙̜̮f͉͙̲̣̞̼t̪̤̞̣͚e̲͉̳̥r͇̪̙͚͓l̥̞̞͎̹̯̹ͅi͓̬f̮̥̬̞͈ͅe͎ ̟̩̤̳̠̯̩̯o̮̘̲p̟͚̣̞͉͓e͍̩̣n͔̼͕͚̜e̬̱d̼̘͎̖̹͍̮̠,͖̺̭̱̮ ̣̲͖̬̪̭̥a̪͚n̟̲̝̤̤̞̗d̘̱̗͇̮͕̳͕͔ ͖̞͉͎t̹̙͎h̰̱͉̗e̪̞̱̝̹̩ͅ ̠̱̩̭̦p̯̙e͓o̳͚̰̯̺̱̰͔̘p̬͎̱̣̼̩͇l̗̟̖͚̠e̱͉͔̱̦̬̟̙ ̖͚̪͔̼̦w̺̖̤̱e͖̗̻̦͓̖̘̜r̭̥e͔̹̫̱͕̦̰͕ ̗͔̠p̠̗͍͍̱̳̠r̰͔͎̰o͉̥͓̰͚̥s̟͚̹̱͔̣t͉̙̳̖͖̪̮r̥̘̥͙̹a͉̟̫̟̳̠̟̭t͈̜̰͈͎e̞̣̭̲̬ ͚̗̯̟͙i͍͖̰̘̦͖͉ṇ̮̻̯̦̲̩͍ ̦̮͚̫̤t͉͖̫͕ͅͅh͙̮̻̘̣̮̼e͕̺ ͙l͕̠͎̰̥i̲͓͉̲g̫̳̟͈͇̖h̠̦̖t͓̯͎̗ ̳̪̘̟̙̩̦o̫̲f̙͔̰̙̠ ̹̪̗͇̯t͖̼̼͉͖̬h̹͇̩e͚̖̺̤͉̹͕̪ ͚͓̭̝̺G͎̗̯̩o̫̯̮̟̮̳̘d̜̲͙̠-̩̳̯̲̗̜P̹̘̥͉̝h͍͈̗̖̝ͅa͍̗̮̼̗r̜̖͇̙̺a̭̺͔̞̳͈o̪̣͓̯̬͙̯̰̗h̖̦͈̥̯͔.͇̣̙̝
I dropped the hybrid off of Kon-Kon. Her name is the sound of kitsune barking in Japanese, which is kind of dumb but I asked my wife for a name and all of her suggestions were using Kon, but I thought Konmaru was too close to Konohamaru from Naruto and Konda was already a name.
Yeah Kukemssa just came up as I was looking around the Burning Isles and figured that ranging around Jamuraa and that area in the sea could fit those colors. I wanted to make her a Pirate Wizard actually but I don't think three types fit on a legend. Zeki would be a cool choice to fill out, red and green are a bit of a stretch though. I need some kind of database of creature types that only appear in 4/5 colors or almost that.
Urgeld should maybe deal damage equal to the CMC of the destroyed thing? But then destroying lands sucks.
Ha I didn't even know Wyhorn was on another card, just noticed him on Rockcaster Platoon when I was trying to figure out which group should get a Rhino. I figure Siege Rhino is more of a pull into black than Rhox Brute into red. Maybe with some massaging this could be a dark version of Roon of the Hidden Realm instead.
Actara just doesn't do anything that gives you direction in deck-building. I want some kind of weird Azorius/Golgari combination like detaining creatures and then eating them or something. I wanted to get a "strange bedfellows" two-character legend in here somewhere but couldn't figure out how to pull it off right, I guess one of the CDEF cost guys would work the best.
New Shu Yun is referring to the Feng Shui animals, but I was just kind of stapling it onto an Asian character for kicks. I'd rather like make him turn into the animals, but I don't think there is enough space as is.
Pobožan apparently also means "pi"? I was looking for a weird number.
Yeah the seasons guy is pretty rough, I'd rather dig for land on spring but again, space concerns...maybe I need like, a level-up DFC? A flip DFC? Red was definitely a stretch mechanically and was going for flavor of red leaves, harvest fires, etc.
Sephona, Spring Maiden 5G
Legendary Creature - Avatar (R)
At the beginning of each upkeep, reveal the top card of your library. If it's a land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, otherwise, put it into your hand. Then flip Sephona.
4/4
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Sephona, Summer Maiden
(white) Legendary Creature - Avatar
At the beginning of each upkeep, put two 1/1 white Human creature tokens onto the battlefield. Then transform Sephona.
4/4
Sephona, Autumn Maiden
(red) Legendary Creature - Avatar
At the beginning of each upkeep, add X mana in any combination of colors to your mana pool, where X is the number of lands you control. Then flip Sephona.
4/4
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Sephona, Winter Maiden
(black) Legendary Creature - Avatar
At the beginning of each upkeep, each player sacrifices a creature. Then transform Sephona.
4/4
I vaguely recall having designed something like this before.