MTG Salvation

Emrakul, the Vast Devourer has flavor, gameplay and templating issues.

• Flavor - Eldrazi are native to the Blind Eternities (the space in between planes) so it doesn't make sense for one to have a planeswalker spark.
• Gameplay - The -3 ability is severely overloaded. It needs to do less and be a lot more powerful given the mana cost. Speaking of which, the mana cost is entirely too restrictive and feels odd for the sake of being odd. Needing every color of mana and 5 colorless mana is pretty contradictory from a deck-building standpoint.
• Templating - "Exile target card," is far too broad. Since it does specify a zone or card type, it can literally target any card, even cards in hidden zones or exile. "Activate Emrakul's +1 targeting the 32nd card from the top in your library," would be a legal way to play that ability, for example. The card text for the -3 ability alone wouldn't even fit on a normal-sized card.

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Back Alley Brawler 2R
Creature - Human Rogue
As long as Back Alley Brawler is equipped, it has haste and menace.
3/2

I feel the 1st ability isn't necessary as this card tries to do everything by itself as the last ability is the worth of playing it. Making tokens out of its other copies in your GY makes this that good.

Temple for Summoning
Land (R)
As Temple for Summoning enters the battlefield, reveal your hand, then name a creature card that isn't among the cards in your hand.
t: Add 1 to your mana pool.
t: Add two mana in any combination of colors to your mana pool. Spend this mana only to cast the named card or activate abilities of the named card.

Cool card. I think reveling your hand is a proce that you wouldn't want to pay, and you're revealing a creature card that you have that you might not even get for the whole game (unles you use other spells). Also, don't you mean Temple of Summoning rather than for?

Infecting Virus XBBB
Sorcery
Sacrifice X human creatures, and put X 2/2 Zombies with "This creature can't lose or gain abilities." under their owners' control.
Draw a card.

Actually, it's a miswrite, Temple. I meant to say destroy instead of sacrifice.


This card feels weird. I see the consistency with the five colors, but the abilities seems too powerful. This card can be abused with lands that add any color of mana to your mana pool.

Recycling Plant GB2
Enchantment
Whenever you would draw a card, draw two instead.
Whenever you cast a spell, discard a card. If you can't discard a card, sacrifice Recycling Plant.
Out with the old, in with the new.

Seems a bit too powerful. Thought Reflection (or whatever it is that Shadowmoor enchantment that doubles your draw) costs 7 mana if I'm not mistaken; even considering the drawback, this should cost 5 mana at least.


Next

Reverted Shambler GU
Creature - Zombie Werewolf (U)
Reverted Shambler enters the battlefield tapped.
At the beginning of each upkeep, if no spell was cast last turn, tap Reverted Shambler and transform it.
"I am intrigued to find out if whatever caused death reversion among werewolves can be reapplied to their necrotic tissues."
- Geralf
2/3
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Wereskaab
Creature - Zombie Werewolf (GREEN/BLUE)
At the beginning of each upkeep, if a player has cast two or more spells last turn, tap Wereskaab and transform it.
"First, we must find out internal factors that trigger the transformation, and check how death affects them and how they can be restored."
- Ludevic
5/6

Comments?


EDIT:

Reverted Shambler GU
Creature - Zombie Werewolf (U)
Reverted Shambler enters the battlefield tapped.
At the beginning of each upkeep, if no spell was cast last turn, tap Reverted Shambler and transform it.
"I am intrigued to find out if whatever caused death reversion among werewolves can be reapplied to their necrotic tissues."
- Geralf
2/3
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Wereskaab
Creature - Zombie Werewolf (GREEN/BLUE)
At the beginning of each upkeep, if a player has cast two or more spells last turn, tap Wereskaab and transform it.
"First, we must find out internal factors that trigger the transformation, and check how death affects them and how they can be restored."
- Ludevic
4/6

Reverted Shambler seems fine for constructed, but is probably too strong for limited. If this comes down on turn 2 and your opponent doesn't have a follow up, it gets out of hand very quickly. It's also a bit strange with some of the cards that check for "non-human" transformation, like Immerwolf and Cult of the Waxing Moon

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Determined Pragmatist 2B
Creature - Human Warrior
Survivor 1B (When this dies you may pay 1B and sacrifice another permanent. If you do, return this to the battlefield tapped.)
Each other creature you control has Survivor. Its Survivor cost is equal to its mana cost.
3/2

Interesting mechanic that I'm seeing again. This card seems like it would be too strong in decks that use the graveyard, but the design is very good.

I decided to remake the Helvault, 'cause why not.

The Helvault 4
Legendary Artifact
The Helvault enters the battlefield tapped.
Whenever a creature dies, exile it instead of putting in a graveyard.
When Helvault leaves the battlefield, return all cards exiled by Helvault.
7 Tap Helvault: Exile a permanent that you don't control.

Lol, how do you add a tap symbol with a mana cost.

[ mana ] tag will usually solve most of your mana formatting problem: [ mana ] t [ / mana ] = T

As for your new Helvault, first, Helvault is an important piece of object, so making it legendary is mostly required. As for the ability, it's a tad too powerful. You can mass kill some creatures, then blow up this helvault for a massive EtB trigger wave, unlike the slower original version. If you insist on the on-death trigger, higher casting cost (in addition to legendary) is a must.


Multiplayer fun?

Cerebrodynamic Flow 5UB
Sorcery (R)
Choose target player. Each other player who has more cards in hand than the targeted player discards cards equal to the difference. The targeted player then draws cards equal to the total number of cards discarded this way.
Like heat and water, intellect can flow from a saturated mind into an scant one.

Casting this on someone with no cards in hand can easily be catastrophic, so what do you think?

Seems reasonable at that cost. Boring to me personally, but a humdinger of a rattlesnake, for certain! Would make it a 2/2 or a 1/3, though. Also, Plant and not treefolk.

Womb Bole - 2G
Creature - Plant
Flash, Defender
Transfigure 1GG
0/5

Seems fine. Flash does make it dangerous as you can bring this out at opponent's EOT, then transfigure on your turn, but otherwise, seems ok. Of course, considering today's creature power level, Transfigure as a mechanic can be a problem.


Next

Icescale Behemoth 3W
Snow Creature - Beast (U)
Creatures you control have "S, remove an ice counter from this creature: This creature gets +0/+2 until end of turn".
2S: Put an ice counter on target creature.
The cold is its own shield.
2/4

Comments?

If you are running a lot of snow lands it becomes crazy. If you run only enough to get it working then it's kinda 'meh'.

Neverending Swarm 3GGGG
Creature - Insect
Flying, Infect, Epic (For the rest of the game, you can't cast spells. At the beginning of each of your upkeeps, put into play a copy of this creature except for it's Epic ability)
Discard a card: Populate.
1: Populate.
Sacrifice a creature: Return target card in your graveyard to your deck.
2/2
Sometimes entire Planes are consumed by a perfect storm of insects.

I don't know how I feel about this card. On one hand, it's ridiculously powerful and can quickly get out of control if you have lots of mana to populate (which you will if you casted the card). On the other hand, since this is only a 2/2, it can be poked by a damage-dealing instant. And not casting other spells sucks.

Vigilant Guard 4WWW
Creature - Angel
Flying, Vigilance
Vigilant Guard can't be countered.
Vigilant Guard can block any amount of creatures. It gets +2/+2 for each creature it blocks until end of turn.
4/4

The trick is that the Epic effect doesn't go away at all, even when you kill the original. How many can you get rid of? How long can you last against the tide? It's an unusual 'I win' card. If your opponent can't kill you fast enough, they lose. Although Tatterkite can stop one indefinitely. In regards to Vigilant Guard, that's not gonna stop the swarm for more than one turn thanks to Infect. Outside of Infect, it's an amazing anti weeny card.

Now, for a card to show how crazy Epic can get without breaking the theme of the original Kamigawa Sorceries. Look up the Epic keyword to see what it does here

Unceasing Growth 2GGGWW
Instant
Populate once for each card in your hand.

Epic.

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Seriously, look up the Epic keyword, I'm not typing up the wall of text. Next up is an Un-set style keyword to let you win the game turn one if you go first. Every time.

Unceasing Growth is an interesting effect, but I've never really been a fan of Epic as a keyword. In this case, one board wipe will mean a game loss unless you have non-spell based way to make tokens. It does lead to interesting deck-building decisions.

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Call the Conjurers UR
Instant
Put a 1/1 blue and red Wizard creature token with Flying and Prowess onto the battlefield.
Flashback 2UR (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)

Hmm..... strange, but passable. Mass prowess can be a slight problem all in all, but maybe ok.... or maybe not. Maybe give it a slight limitation like "target warrior without prowess gains prowess". One mana per prowess, even if temporary, seems potentially abusable like hell.


Next

Obsession Of Servitude 1W
Enchantment - Aura Curse (U)
Enchant player
Creature spells enchanted player casts costs 1 more to cast if that player controls a creature with higher converted mana cost than that spell.
A celebrated idol is a curse upon those who seek to seek such fame themselves.

Comments?


EDIT:

Obsession Of Servitude 2W
Enchantment - Aura Curse (U)
Enchant player
Creature spells enchanted player casts costs 1 more to cast if that player controls a creature with higher converted mana cost than that spell.
A celebrated idol is a curse upon those who seek to seek such fame themselves.

It's a great way to cripple weeny decks, as well as such away mana advantage. A bit too cheap for how much it screws in the early game.

Now, to one-up an Un-set keyword!

Warp Blitser 1RRU
Creature - Goblin Wizard Ninja
Super Duper Haste (This creature is unaffected by summoning sickness and may attack from the deck or hand. If it does attack from the deck or hand, you lose the game if it is not cast by the end of your next turn)
Ninjutsu RU
5/1
Rocket-Powered Turbo Slugs? Those simpletons could never catch up to me!

Erm.... ok, fair enough I guess? Fun times. The blue feels rather unwarranted given that haste is almost never a blue ability, but eh, if you're being weird I guess I let that pass.


Sandbreak Cliffs
Land (U)
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
1, T: Add W to your mana pool. If you spend this mana to cast a creature spell, that creature enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it.

Too meh?

This card is a bit overpowered. As a control player I think it would be awesome if wizards printed this, but I doubt it. When a card generated +1 card advantage, it generally costs at least 4. Your card costs 3, and mostly always generated +1 CA: either by choosing the second mode twice or by countering and drawing. about this last combination: you get a card that, in the early game, is strictly better than cryptic command, without the downside of being dead in the late game. This is definitely something wizards would never print.

Keeping in the spirit of control, I'm advoctating that, since proactive strategies are getting so much better, rather than a 3-mana hard counter with an upside model, wizards should move to a 2-mana hard counter with a drawback model. I made a card like this a while back, that allowed the opponent to scry. Here is another one, what do we think?

Time reversal UU
Counter target spell. The controller of that spell untaps all lands used to cast the spell countered this way.

Mmm, hard counters for anything at two mana are very powerful and possibly unbalancing, yet the drawback makes it less prone to be basically a Time Walk for UU like the original was.

Krallenhorde Shaman 1GG
Creature - Human Shaman Werewolf (U)
Whenever this creature transforms into Krallenhorde Shaman, you gain 1 life.
At the beginning of each upkeep, if no spells were cast last turn, transform Krallenhorde Shaman.
(2/2)

Krallenhorde Howler
(G) Creature - Werewolf (U)
Whenever this creature transforms into Krallenhorde Howler, you may destroy target enchantment.

Its howling reverberates and pierces the very fabric of magic woven around it.
(3/4)

That is to dependent on what your opponents do. Though the effect it causes when it transforms into a Werewolf is a big incentive to keep your opponent casting spells.

Splintering Lie1UU
Creature - Illusion
Multikicker 2

Splintering Lie comes into play with a +1/+1 counter on it for each time it was kicked.

When Splintering Lie leaves play, put a number of tokens that are a copy of it into play equal to how many +1/+1 counters it had on it.

1/1
A strangely resilient and flexible illusion, instead of simply fading away it shatters into many pieces.

Splintering Lie feels off in several ways. The default case isn't a card you'd ever want to play. 3 mana for a 1/1 with no evasion or other notable abilities is far below the curve. When it feels like you have to kick something to make it useful, it defeats the purpose of kicker. but, even kicked, this feels pretty weak. You can pay 5 mana for a 2/2 that leaves behind a 1/1 or 7 mana for a 3/3 that leaves behind two 1/1s. Compare to Carrier Thrall or MaUSolEUmGUaRd

Lastly, this card feels more GU or even mono-G than mono-U. Blue typically copies other creatures, while green will make copies of itself (see Giant Adephage, Sprouting Phytohydra, Spawnwrithe & Essence of the Wild). Blue also typically gets its card advantage via card draw, not creature replacement.

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Council of Dusk 1UB
Creature - Vampire Advisor
1UB, T, Pay X Life: Scry X, then draw a card.
1/4

Well, an important thing to note about Splinering Lie is that it gets to make those copies from all the +1/+1 counters on it. Use something to add +1/+1 counters to it and it makes more copies. And if you have one of the counter doublers out, it's a lot stronger. And the tokens are a copy of it, so any +1/+1 counters on them make more. It's best it a blue/green deck, but is kept mono blue as a way to let it into decks that have use for its trick. It's a thing that needs to be part of a combo, but it is a pile of exponential tokens when you do. Lastly, Sharding Sphinx is a similarly off color card, yet it's not complained about.

In regards to your card, it would be crazy in an Extort deck. Thankfully, most Extort is in white, which means that you'd need three colors to make it work with that. It's good in a life drain deck, but Extort is a big boost to that.

Twinned Evolution UUUGG
World Enchantment
Whenever counters would be put on a creature, put twice that many counters on it.
Whenever creature tokens would come into play, put twice that many tokens into play.

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The effect aides all players, so it's a double edged sword. And it does not discriminate about what type of counter, so your -1/-1 counters are doubled as well. And yes, this is made specifically to combo with my previous card.

That seems unnecessarily specific. And rather overpowered.

Lively Swamp
Land - Swamp Forest
When Lively Swamp comes into play, you lose 4 life

: Add to your mana pool. (This can be used to pay for B or to pay 2 life.

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Remember, the basic land types define that it can produce or .

While useful, it's a bit too OP when you start mixing in multicolor dragons, or use a Riptide Replicator.

Eldritch Zendikon 2CCCC
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant land
Enchanted land is a 4/5 colorless Eldrazi Drone creature with Annihilator 2 and Injest.

This is a card I can't imagine myself using. That mana cost is not worth it for the other combos you can pull off, but otherwise this card seems well-rounded. Annihilator is so ovepowered though.

Prayer of Mayhem RRRR4
Planar Enchantment (Only one Planar card may be on the battlefield. If another Planar permanent would enter. the battlefied, exile all Planar permanents.)
Prayer of Mayhem can't be countered.
Creatures can't block and attack each turn if able.
RRRRRRRR: If a player would lose, they win this turn. Any player may use this ability. This ability's mana cost can only be paid with basic lands.


Oh wow this wording is horrible but oh well.