MTG Salvation

Carnal fertalisation. I really like this. I think it would be ok with only the creature sac to activate.

Mind syphon xxBU
Sorcery
Each opponant puts the top x cards of his or her library into the graveyard, then draw a card for each card put into the graveyard this wsy.

I like Mind Syphon and it feels fairly balanced in that it is essentially scalable draw that gets better the more opponents you have. I don't see the mill aspect of the card being a win condition in most games since it's far too slow for that, but it is flavorfully great. I don't really have much else to say, it's pretty perfect as it is.

Static Bargain 2RB
Sorcery
Add R or B to your mana pool. Until the beginning of another player's upkeep you cannot win the game, your opponents cannot lose the game and their life totals cannot change.
Storm (When you cast this spell, copy of it for each other spell that was cast before it this turn)

(I tried to balance this, but it's probably still broken. I was wondering how a ritual spell with storm could be worded so that it wouldn't allow a player to combo out with it. I made it look at "another player's upkeep" to prevent extra turn shenanigans)

I think if you need to balance a combo piece by giving it a 'you can't win the game this turn' clause, its just not workable. I mean, I don't think the idea of a storm-based ritual is necessarily that broken if its so inefficient, but it would be hard indeed to balance in formats like vintage. And those decks would find ways to work around its drawback anyway, like take 100 extra turns and/or make infinite creatures. Just for it to be on curve it would need something like 6 spells cast that turn so it could be +3, which would be about right, but that's not at all attainable in standard in anything but the most degenerate decks. So then we have to ask, if it can't be balanced, should it exist?

Short Circuit 1U
Instant (U)
Counter target spell unless its controller pays X, where X is the number of untapped lands that player controls.
Draw a card.

An amusing punisher effect, to be sure, and that cantrip definitely improves it. I suspect it'd have to be 2U, but I do agree that that effect by itself isn't quite worth U. Hmm.

T...error variant? B
Instant
Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn. If you control a creature with menace, instead destroy that creature.

Nice. T...error variant? is a perfect for an early-game murder-style Zombie deck. Now that several zombie have menace.
Also something like this would be cool:
Dread's Reap - B
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Creature
Enchanted creature gets -1/-1.
At the beginning of your end step, if you control a creature with menace, destroy enchanted creature.
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God-Pharaoh's Bargain - 3UUBBR
Sorcery (R)
Gain control of target permanent, then create three tokens that are copies of it. The 'legend rule' doesn't apply to those tokens.

This is a pretty cool card. Think you're missing a R though. Think i'd rather see this at 8 mana, though - 2UUBBRR.

Strictly Better Unsummon I guess U
Instant
Return target creature to its owner's hand. If you control a creature with flying, you may instead put it in top of its owner's library.

The problem is that unsummon, even if it doesn't see competitive play, is a very close to playable card and even going slightly above the curve of it like vapor snag saw maindeck play- not overpowered on its own, but it gets oppressive next to recursion. Meanwhile whisk away is an effect at 4 because it is often a time warp- it can't be done so very cheaply. Requiring only a creature with flying is way too low a bar, blue has too many 1-2 drop flying creatures to get so undercosted an effect, something they only get at 3-4 cmc, often sorcery speed. Now that effect could be printed with a harder condition- even as a strictly better unsummon ala vapor snag- but it has to be a very high bar indeed. There has been Formidable, Ferocious, etc- or something like "If you control a dragon, instead ~" could work. But just flying alone its too powerful

Elusive Privateer 1UU
Creature - Human Pirate (U)
Elusive Privateer can't be the target of spells or abilities that could target any other permanent you control.
Elusive Privateer can't be blocked if any other attacking creatures you control are unblocked.
3/2

The first line seems fine. The second line probably could read "~ can't be blocked unless another attacking creature is blocked." I like the idea, a bit complicated sometimes, but.... well, 3/2 is a strong stat for something that is unblockable alone, and hard to target if you control something else. Still.... maybe doable. Maybe.


Random flavor-based creature

Agony Diva 2BB
Creature - Angel (R)
Flying, lifelink
Serf creatures you control get +2/+2.
At the beginning of your upkeep, each opponent may create a 0/1 black Serf creature token. You gain 1 life for each opponent who does, and put a +1/+1 counter on Agony Diva for each opponent who doesn't.
Pay 4 life: Gain control of target Serf.
2/2

So, she's an evil diva who demands you give her a fan. If you do, she's happy and you gain life, if not, she's angry and becomes stronger. And if needed she can entice her fans. Comments?

It's a bit complicated, but it works! I'd probably specify "Serf token creature" on that last one myself but hey. Hm, maybee not that mnay words. Sort of would like to see her be a bit bigger, while I'm at it. 3/3 for 3BB maybe? Up to you, of course.

On the note of "a bit complicated"...

Summit Tumbler 3RR
Creature - Elemental
Trample
When Summit Tumbler attacks, sacrifice it at end of combat.
When Summit Tumbler dies, you may pay R. If you do, Scry 2 then refveal the top card of your library. If it's a Mountain card, put it onto the battlefield tapped.
5/5

Plague Dealer seems like it would be a fine uncommon for limited. Getting -1/-1 taps from a tim is pretty good for limited, and it wouldn't be too oppressive on the block since he couldn't block a 3/3, tap to give it -1/-1 and survive combat- since he's giving it deathtouch. That versatility on your attack/blocking to turn any bear into a typhoid rats would make for some good gamestates, but the mana investment is appropriately intense. For comparison, fallen ferromancer is 2 cmc per activation, Vedalken Anatomist is 3

Transfiguration XUU
Enchantment - Aura (R)
Enchant creature
When Transfiguration enters the battlefield, search your library for a creature card with converted mana cost X or less and exile it, then shuffle your library.
Enchanted creature is a copy of the exiled card.

(Preferably not in a standard with any 0 cmc insta-dead creatures like endless one)

Transfiguration - It's definatly a neat card. I don't think it's to strong. It's definatly fun though.


White Planeswalker Removal - 1W
Sorcery
Exile target planeswalker. It's controller gains life equal to it's loyalty.

Black Planeswalker Removal - B
Instant
Destroy target planeswalker. You lose life equal to it's loyalty.

Green PW Removal - G1
Sorcery
Target creature you control deals damage equal to it's power to target planes walker. That planes walker deals damage equal to it's loyalty. (Damage is dealt simultaneously.)

Red PW Removal - XR
Sorcery
Deal X damage to target planeswalker. If that planeswalker would die this turn exile it instead.

Blue PW Removal - 2U
Instant
Put target planeswalker X cards from the top of it's owners library, were x is that planewalkers loyalty.

(I know.... I just wanted to toss out the entire cycle in a single shot.)

I mean, wizards had good reason to try to not create planeswalker-specific in the first place, and even once they started to include it as a modal option on removal, its still problematic to print cards that are simply dead in hand if the enemy has no planeswalker cards when planeswalkers remain so niche. But even if we jumped that, while it could be done at 2 cmc pretty safely, the red version sticks out there because its extremely weak compared to the others- you could just run any ol blaze and be able to hit creatures or players in addition to PWers. Exiling isn't nearly worth it. The blue one is an interesting riff though, penalizing high loyalty.

Eye of Oblivion 2WW
Enchantment (R)
When Eye of Oblivion enters the battlefield, exile all creatures until Eye of Oblivion leaves the battlefield.

Think this 'solves' the 4 cmc sweeper development hangup?

I like Eye of Oblivion, but I think wizards would still cost it at 5. There is the white enchantment that does the same thing for artifacts in Aether Revolt.

And, I do agree the Red one does feel a bit weak and uninspired But I do think the Power level on them varies a bit and that is a good thing as well. I think Planeswalkers in the game were a mistake overall, and then giving them, with very little to answer them is even worse. Imagine if there was no artifact or enchantment removal. I'm digressing, there are a lot of wizards design philosophy that I disagree with.


Immolation Aura - 3RR
Enchantment
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield, it deals 1 damage to each other creature.

On one hand, it seems awfully weak when used fairly, in that dropping 5 mana and then all you get is tiny pings on creatures might have zero effect at all on the board. But on the other hand, having the creature deal the damage means it turns every deathtouch creature into a Deathbringer Regent. Which is pretty nutty. I think if your goal was just the damage bit, having the enchantment be the source, but be way more efficient, would be key. Then 3CMC would be reasonable.

Rhinocaster 1UG
Creature - Human Shaman (R)
T: Create a 3/3 red beast creature token with haste. Exile it at the end of turn.
1/1

Were the Gustcloak creatures ever that good? They might work better nowadays, when triggered abilities are more prevalent, including ones that trigger off of attacking, blocking, and being blocked. But mostly they came across (to me, at least) as cushiony creatures for newer players, who didn't want to risk their creatures in combat.

Observe the Eclipse -- 3U
Sorcery
Tap all creatures. Non-Wizard Creatures that become tapped this way don't untap during their controller's next untap step. Draw a card for each Wizard creature that becomes tapped this way.

Hmmm... I guess this seems ok. Powerful in a Wizards tribal deck, tbu at the same time somewhat narrow. I think this should work as is.


A twist on Humble Defector

Loose Informant 1R
Creature - Human Rogue (U)
Haste
At the beginning of an opponent's upkeep, you may draw two cards. If you do, untap Loose Informant and that opponent gains control of it.
"Now, if you would excuse me, I have another plans to pilfer."
2/1

Comments?

Its a lot more powerful than Humble Defector- coming down a turn faster when haste on T2 is pseudoevasion means this might sneak in its damage, then letting you keep attacking with it and still have the option to pawn it over on a turn you attacked, that's far more aggressive. And if it winded up sneaking in 2-4 damage and then handing itself to an opponent for +1 CA, thats some value out of a 2-drop. Granted like defector, they have that same option, so its not like its a board development threat that you can pawn off when the board stalls since they'll do the same and get more CA than you, but I guess where this works well but defector doesn't is something like RDW where you turn into card into damage, and even if they stock their hand, it can swing in a few times, then use the cards you draw to end the game before they benefit.

Morass of Flesh BB
Enchantment (R)
Creatures you control are Swamps. (They are no longer creatures.)

That's a very interesting card. Perhaps a bit too good at 2 mana (I can imagine EDH players using it even at 3B), but the fact that you lose your creatures is perhaps a good payoff. Also I'm sure some flavour text would fit in nicely to add more overall logic to the card. How does a morass of flesh come about?

Crypt Delving 1BB
Enchantment (R)
Whenever a nontoken creature you control dies, excavate "Create a colorless Relic artifact token with “1, sacrifice this Relic: Draw a card, then discard a card."
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may sacrifice a Relic. If you do, you draw a card and lose 1 life.
"Explorers. Graverobbers. Doesn't matter what you call them when they don't come back."
- Galli, Bazaar Trader

I do like Cryp Delving. I would almost make the tokens, T, Sacrifice ~: Scry 1. That moves them a little further from being a reiteration of clue tokesn. Otherwise I like it a lot.


Edge of Oblivion - 2WWBB
Enchantment
Players may only play one card per turn.
At the beginning of each players upkeep, that player exiles any number of cards from his or her library greater than 1, then skips his or her draw step.
Each player may play a card from exile without paying it's mana cost.
If at anytime a player has no cards in his or her library he or she loses.

Is it that necessary to have the instant-lose clause? You could retemplate how the ability works to force the draw and implicitly lose the game instead, as long as you're adding extra text. Something like "if that player does...", while still making the ability mandatory, so they only skip their draw step if there are cards in the library. You could also make this replace the first draw of the turn, only if they have cards in their library- that way it wouldn't interact awkwardly with draw step triggers.
I think the idea is certainly interesting, let players dig through their library in any amount, but I'm not sure its safe to let you play *any *card in exile, as opposed to just those exiled by this enchantment, and the way you've templated it as only one card to *play* per turn means you could only drop one land and not be able to cast a spell, or cast a spell but not play a land- but if you made it only one spell cast per turn, players would get more than one card per turn from it, playing both a land and a spell. And in vintage with fastbond, you'd be able to drop 19 lands in one turn. Still an interesting concept.

Resonating Crystal 3
Artifact (R)
Whenever a player casts a spell, each other player draws a card.

Too dangerous at 3? I could see broken decks that don't have to *cast* cards, using discards, cycling, graveyard manipulation, etc. But in normal play it would positively flood both players hands

Dangerous, but especially in multiples -- it should be legendary. Especially at 3. Five is a more likely cost...


Flittering Sprite -- 1U
Creature - Sprite
Flying
Whenever Flittering Sprite becomes targeted by a spell or ability, it phases out until end of turn.
1/2

Pseudo-shroud, so-to-speak. I guess this works for the most part, I mean, we have like a few 1-mana creature with hexproof, so this shouldn't be too bad.


Ixalan card?

Treasure Gatherer 1R
Creature - Human Rogue (U)
Whenever Treasure Gatherer enters the battlefield or attacks, you may exile target artifact card in a graveyard.
When Treasure Gatherer dies, put all artifact cards exiled by it to their owners' graveyards. For each artifact card put into a graveyard this way, create a colorless Treasure artifact token with "T, sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool".
2/1

Comments?

That seems potentially broken in the right deck (for example, allowing Urza-tron to cast things like Progenitus). But hey, lots of cards are broken in the right context. Sounds good to me.

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Purity of Design W
Enchantment (R)
Players can't cast artifact spells that aren't colorless.

Just exploring unused design space. I actually think this is not that useful, only affects affinity marginally and you'd rather just play Stony Silence.

You have to be a bit careful with niche hosers like this. Remember that such a card is completely useless except in being a sideboarded in silver bullet against specific archetypes, and then you have to evaluate how oppressive it is when hosing someone. When a card like flashfreeze, its allowed to be more powerful than the baseline of open-scope cards, but its still only marginally stronger even when restricted to its niche- a cancel is just 1 less and unconditional. Here you've got a card that basically totally shuts down a deck running colored artifacts for W, permanently, turning off the entire deck until dealt with and can't be dealt with by colored artifacts. That's way too harsh, harsher than boil. For decks just running a few such artifacts like torrential gearhulk its not too oppressive but still.

Frost Knight UU
Creature - Human Knight (R)
When Frost Knight enters the battlefield or deals combat damage to a player, put an Ice counter on it.
Remove an Ice counter from Frost Knight: Tap target creature.
2/2

Seems like a pretty straight forward and good design. You have to work for it, other than when it enters the battlefield. It may feel slightly underwhelming for a rare rather than an uncommon because of that, though that may be a bad intuition on my part. The design itself is solid.

Explorer's Intuition GU
Sorcery (U)
Reveal the top three cards of your library. You may put a land card revealed this way onto the battlefield tapped, then put the rest of the cards revealed this way on top of your library in any order.