MTG Salvation

It's Zoomba vs. Am Shegar here!

---

You make your way home, your wife in tow with her voice returned. Waiting just outside, jaw slightly agape, is the sinister being whose book started this whole process. "Good to see you," he offers. "And I see you've recovered your lovely wife."

"No thanks to you." You shrug and try to move past him into your home, but he continues blocking the doorway and laughs.

"Entirely thanks to me. I gave you something of value, and I want payment now."

Your wife glares at him. "He wouldn't have signed his soul over to you--" You put a finger to your lips, and your wife stops in mid-sentence.

"I want out. As you may have guessed, I've been stuck doing this for a very, very long time. Not even a tiny bit of a vacation. I want to see places I've never seen before - and I've seen everywhere around here. And you? You've seen many places. What I want for payment is for you - and your wife, if you and she would like - to take up my job..."

You raise an eyebrow. "You want us to rule over the lesser demons while you're free to wreak mischief among thousands of worlds." Your wife laughs gently, and you continue, "If I take this position, there will be one additional proviso: we get your immortality. You get to wander the worlds for fifty or a hundred years, and then, well..." Shrugging, you point at your assistant. "Just because I'm stuck there if I accept doesn't mean I can't call in favors to drag you back."

He laughs. "So I assume we have a deal, then?"

You nod and shake his hand, and your wife shakes his hand as well. He disappears moments later in a flash, and you start laughing.

Your assistant looks at you curiously. "What's so funny?"

"Well, let's just say I have a little bit of a task for you. Find out who I have to bribe, or whatever, to take over Cierou's purview over the afterlife for so many planes."

---

Two years pass. The job of building Hell - such as it is - goes slowly, but it's something different to do, and you and your wife are reasonably happy despite the dismal conditions.

Then your assistant returns, smirking. "Contract, boss. They want a sign of good faith that you're actually up to the job, and there's a bond of some ungodly amount that needs to be posted as well--"

You wave one hand in a gesture of dismissal, amused. "Of course they wouldn't want it to be easy. Let's get this started, shall we?"

Challenge: Design five cards - a land, two other permanents, and two spells - with a common color identity and flavor theme relating to the afterlife you'd be in charge of. There must be some obvious progression between mana costs (including the "0" of the land), and none of the cards can be white.

The entries:

Quote from Am Shegar »

Machinarium Halls
Land (U)
Pay 1 life, T: Add 1 to your mana pool. When you spend this mana on an artifact spell, untap Machinarium Halls.
Conflict of life and death is not a battle of good and evil, but of chaos and order.
- Overseer I

Torment of Crooked Mirrors B
Enchantment (R)
Each creature's base power and toughness is equal to lowest number among its base power and toughness.
Unfortunate souls of Machinarium are all parts of a giant engine, and unfitting details are sent to processing.

Clockwork Incubus 3UB
Artifact Creature - Demon (R)
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature with a +1/+1 counter on it, then destroy each creature with three or more +1/+1 counters on it.
2: Put a +1/+1 counter on another target creature. It becomes an artifact in addition to its other types.
4/4

Cogs in the Machine 2B
Instant (U)
Creatures your opponents control can't attack or block this turn unless each creature their controller controls attacks or blocks. At the end of this turn, if they don't, return Cogs in the Machine to your hand.
"Free will" is a word that your rationality hides behind so that you'll listen to it. Choice doesn't exist. Here, you have only one course of action - and you will follow it.
- Machinarium wall inscription

Turn The Valves of Despair 2UUBB
Sorcery (R)
Target player distributes three +1/+1 counters among creatures he or she controls, than all creatures he or she controls become 0/0. (This effect is permanent)
The most efficient work. The others serve as fuel.
- Overseer II

Quote from Zoomba »

Respawning Peat
Land (U)
t: Add 1 to your mana pool.
Morbid - 1BG, t: Put a 1/1 black and green Worm creature token onto the battlefield. Activate this ability only if a creature has died this turn.
Those in Korrek who seek release in a second death are stymied, instead finding themselves reawakening to a form more befitting their sins.

Redistribute Life 3BG
Sorcery (R)
Destroy target creature. Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a creature card. Put that card onto the battlefield, then shuffles all other cards revealed this way into your library.
"Life is precious gift. Best that yours be given to someone more worthy." - Levain, Korrek grovetender.

Copse Seeder 1G
Creature - Spirit (U)
G, t, exile a creature card from your graveyard: Search your library for a basic land card and put it into your hand. Shuffle your library.
2/1
Many of Korrek's charges end up as part of its scenery. Much to the gorvetenders' amusement, the thickets composed of arsonists are particularly vibrant.

Endless Rebirth BG
Enchantment - Aura (R)
Whenever enchanted creature dies, return it to the battlefield at end of turn with Endless Rebirth attached to it.
At the beginning of each upkeep, destroy the enchanted creature.
As the 2,376th cycle began, Elim began to wonder if he'd made the best choices in life.

Crush the Upstart 1B
Instant (U)
Destroy target creature that doesn't have the greatest power.
In life, Dreza used his strength to lord over others. Yet as one of Korrek's beasts bore down upon him, he realized the true scope of his insignificance.

And the June winner is Zoomba! Congratulations, everyone who participated.