MTG Salvation

Thats definitely an interesting ponder/rampant growth variant. The fact that it can whiff means it might be -1 CA, but the odds of it working are pretty high for normal decks (~70%). Although I guess not being able to scry them to the bottom would mean its very brutal to be reliant on this for a land drop and see 3 non-land cards, having no choice but to draw them for 3 turns. But that besides, when it does work, I think it might be slightly too strong to combine ramp and dig for just 2 cmc, it still has to compete with the low power level of allowed 2+ cmc dorks that wizards prints these days.

speaking of 2 cmc dorks:

Peregrine Forager 1G
Creature - Elf Druid (U)
T: Tap up to two target lands. Add G to your mana pool. Activate this ability only on your turn.
1/1

What if green combined its hatred for enemy shenanigans during your turn (Eyes of the Wisent, Hermit of the Natterknolls, Seedtime, Witchstalker, etc) with the inefficient 2 cmc ramp? Makes your spells harder to counter, or do tricks, etc, and isn't useless when you're out of cards in hand.

Hmm. The fact that you have to have him out for a turn before you can use him rather ruins the surprise value, plus any competent blue deck will already know if you're holding a legitimate threat or not. It's probably more powerful against non-blue decks; I'm thinking specifically of red or white decks that might be reliant on combat tricks to win against green. Still, not an interesting twist on a well-harvested concept.


Seferet's Bargain -- B
Instant
Add BBB to your mana pool. This mana doesn't empty from your mana pool as phases and turns end. When your mana pool is empty, you lose the game.

That's a pretty interesting idea, though unless I'm missing something it's OP, as long as you keep at least 1 mana in your mana pool each turn, while you still effectively get BB for free each turn. It's a much more powerful Dark Ritual.

Blood Tax WB
Instant (R)
Until end of turn, spells and activated abilities cost an additional 1 life, and creatures can't attack unless their controller pays 1 life for each attacking creature.

Hmmm... seems fine. Should be ok since it's a one-turn thing. Worst case scenario it kinda works as a Fog or something.


Next

Enlightening Agony B
Instant (U)
Put two -1/-1 counters on target creature. Its controller draws a card.
"There is always a lesson learned in pain. It doesn't have to be yours."

So, either an emergency kill spell that compensates your opponent, or use it on your beefier creature if you must draw. Too weak, I think?

Remember that if you must draw, then all the card is doing is cycling itself in a particularly harmful fashion- any time a card does nothing for you but replace itself it could have been any other card without wasting the mana and card selection. For something you'd almost always want to use on an opponent's creature, it could be an unconditional kill spell and it might still be too weak, since it would be worse than path to exile.

Gold Mine
Land (U)
Gold Mine enters the battlefield tapped.
When Gold Mine enters the battlefield, each player creates a colorless artifact token named Gold. They have "Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool."
T: Add C to your mana pool.

Hmm. The Gold token is fine, but because the effect is symmetrical it's very weak. It strikes me as more of a Forbidden Orchard type card, where it encourages players to turn it into a disadvantage for the opponent. It might also find a home in improvise decks.

A stronger variant would just add the mana to an opponent's mana pool.

It's odd that the Gold Mine runs out of ore so quickly! I'd expect Mine cards to use something like the depletion counter mechanics.


Fidget Cube -- 1
Artifact
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have four or more cards in hand, discard a card and lose one life.
At the end of your turn, if you have less than seven cards in hands, draw a card and gain one life.

The second line needs a wording fix (should be "in hand" or "in your hand"). Otherwise, pretty cool card. It's like a quasi Black Vise against yourself if you have lots of cards in your hand, and it's more like a quasi Ivory Tower effect if you have less than a full hand, except you draw a card. I'm not entirely sure how this might play out in practice, as the abilities cancel each other out in a sense, but as long as you keep your hand size below four each turn, it gives you some pretty nice advantage (card draw and life gain). It might just be a little two powerful for only one colorless when the card works in ideal conditions, as you are effectively getting to draw a card each turn for only 1 mana. With the right deck and strategy, the drawback isn't that hard to overcome and means less in the mid to late game. But it's as an early drop that the drawback can potentially be felt most.

Adept Animist 1GU
Creature - Human Shaman (R)
Land creatures you control gain +1/+1 and untap during each player's untap step.
Tap target land creature you control, T: Put a +1/+1 counter on target land creature.
1/3

Hmm..... Hmm.... Comparing this to Prophet of Kruphix (which is admittedly busted)... I suspect it may be ok, as by itself he can't do anything, and manlands generally won't stay creature long enough for his untap ability to fire. So yeah, Good job.


Next

Battlesworn Mirror 2
Artifact - Equipment (R)
Whenever equipped creature blocks or becomes blocked, you may have it become a copy of target creature blocking or blocked by it.
Equip 2
"So you're saying nobody can equal your power? Well, let's see about that."

I kinda don't like making this card rare, but since most copy effects are rare, I guess I'll bite. Too cheap, maybe?


EDIT: Forgot the EOT; that was the original intention.

Battlesworn Mirror 2
Artifact - Equipment (R)
Whenever equipped creature blocks or becomes blocked, you may have it become a copy of target creature blocking or blocked by it until end of turn.
Equip 2
"So you're saying nobody can equal your power? Well, let's see about that."

Due to the complextiy, rare seems to be the most appropriate place for this.
In many circumstances, this is going to amount "Equipped creature has deathtouch," with more complication. I honestly think the costs are fine, but that perhaps the copy effect should only last UEOT.

Pareidolic Lens 2
Artifact (R)
T: Until end of turn, target noncreature permanent card in a graveyard becomes a creature card with base power and toughness 0/0 in addition to its other types.

I'm not sure whether I like this or not. I feel that the values of a card shouldn't be able to be modified elsewhere than on the battlefield, but if ever it should be, that seems like the right wording for it. Making them all 0/0 though, it makes me wonder what sort of purpose you'd give it?

Whispers of the Dead 1B
Sorcery (Mythic)
Search your library for a card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. You lose half your life total, rounded up.
"Listen to them too much and you might end up among them."

Whispers of the Dead -- A "fixed" Demonic Tutor? It's a bit of a paradox; you want that sort of effect early in the game, to capitalize on it, but that maximizes the life loss; later in the game, "half your life total" might be quantitatively smaller, and being so cheap means you can tutor + cast that card in the same turn. Still, there are enough other tutors or straightforward draw options that losing half your life total is too steep a drawback.


Blood Hunt -- 1BG
Sorcery
Target creature gains "Whenever a creature dealt damage by this creature dies this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature."
Then that creature fights target creature. You may pay 1BG to repeat this process.

Love this. It's basically Prey Upon, but more awesome. This would go really well in a Gulgari Rot-fest deck with Corpsejack Menace.

Just FYI, the Replicate ability would work just as well as saying "repeat this process".


Urborg, the Forgotten Crypt
Legendary Land
T: Add C to your mana pool.
T, Sacrifice a creature: Add BB to your mana pool.

So a strictly identical reprint of phyrexian tower as a new urborg? I guess it works but there's not much to say about it since its word for word the same. I guess if you're making a point about the phyrexians burrowing a crypt out of a tower beneath urborg, but that didn't really happen in the invasion block lore, yawgmoth crash landed there but otherwise it wasn't really in phyrexian hands. Was probably the least broken of the uber-cycle of legendary lands from across multiple sets.

Forlorn Asylum
Land (R)
T: Add C to your mana pool.
T: Draw three cards, then discard three cards. Activate this ability only if you have no cards in hand.

contrast Geier Reach Sanitarium / desolate lighthouse- this never gives you card selection, just an enabler

..... Ooookay... Well, aside from enabling things like Niv Mizzet, the Firemind, it feels bizarre that this doesn't just mill yourself. but eh, I guess combos are combos; this still works with Madness and a few other things.


Next

Vanaris, Charming Diplomat 1UR
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor (R)
Nontoken creatures you control but don't own get +3/+3.
"Oh, yes, you are from the Western Hills, I presume? Why, it's a charming place, and I can help you deal with homesicknessif you would give me some time."
3/3

Insurrection ftw?

Yes!!! I've always wanted a deck that is basically stealing creatures and then Flinging them back to the owner! Nothing more infuriating than getting killed by your own cards lmao. Although i'm not sure why it has to be blue. If it were black, it could be used in a Rakdos-esq deck where cards like Act of Treason plus other sac cards are accessible for effective removing. I still like that it focuses on stealing creatures though.

Procrastination2UU
Enchantment
At the beginning of each draw step, each opponent can choose to skip their draw step. If they do, each player skips their next draw step.

During your draw step, draw an additional card.

An infectious laziness have stricken the scholars in the academy.


A blue Desecration Demon anyone?

Interesting idea. The phrasing is perhaps a little vague/confusing (is it at the beginning of your draw step or each player's draw step?), and it would seem like the drawback has the potential to allow players to infinitely get rid of the draw step for everyone, though likely no one would want to do that. I see what you're going for, though maybe it's not quite as good of a design as Desecration Demon when taken in this direction.

Riffing off of the theme brought up by Magac's card above:

Use and Abuse 1UR
Sorcery (U)
Gain control of target creature until end of turn. Untap that creature. It gains haste until end of turn. That creature doesn't untap during its owner's next untap step.

Just adding on an extra negative condition for the creature's owner, assuming the creature survives the round. Is the extra bit about not untapping next turn too narrow in its conditions to be reliable? And still viable as a common?

Use and Abuse -- I don't see that this changes too much; often you grab an opponent's creature just to sacrifice it, or attack with it in an alpha strike to win the game. It's useful if you need to get, say, an Eldrazi out of the way for a while, so maybe worth 1 more.

It also has some unfortunate phrasing, in that it untaps the creature but prevents it from untapping (since there's a silent recognition that you'll probably attacking with it, or tap it to activate an ability).


Planar Companion -- 5
Artifact Creature - Golem
Planeswalker spells cost 1 less to play.
Whenever a loyalty ability of a Planeswalker you control is activated, Planar Companion gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of loyalty counters added or removed to activate that ability.
3/3

That's a pretty cool idea. Part of me wants it to be colored, but it being colorless actually helps make it compatible with any planewalker of any color(s). Only thing I might say is that 5 mana is a bit much or late for the first ability, though is probably justified given that it's colorless.

Anarchist in the Ranks 1RG
Sorcery (R)
Gain control of target creature until end of turn. Untap that creature. It gains trample and haste and gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is its power. At the beginning of the next end step, sacrifice that creature.

Act of Treason meets Berserk.

Given that Berserk is an undercosted card (see Fatal Frenzy), and that we have Slave of Bolas, I fear this needs to be at least 6 mana to be balanced. Though, that said, green feels somewhat unnecessary for this card.


Next

Dedicated Plower 3G
Creature - Human (U)
T, sacrifice a nonbasic land: Search your library for two basic land cards and put them onto the battlefield, then shuffle your library. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.
He won't rest until the entire field is ready for cultivation.
2/2

Comments?

Dedicated Plower -- Four mana is means his mana ramp ability comes pretty late, but it does net you three mana off of one land, which should certainly catch you back up. And with Crucible of Worlds the lost lands aren't necessarily lost -- and there are some lands, like the Amonkhet Deserts, that are actually handy to have in the graveyard. The nonbasic-for-basic trade means you can't loop this guy endlessly on his own, though, which is a good thing.


Punishing Flames -- 1RR
Instant
Remove all +1/+1 counters from target creature. Punishing Flames deals three damage to that creature.

I like the general idea of removing +1/+1 counters, though this card feels a bit odd to me by also being a burn spell and the removal of +1/+1 counters feels more black than red. The burn part seems to make the card practically amount to "destroy target creature with toughness 3 or less", or to make a creature that normally has toughness 3 or less lose its +1/+1 counters so that you can destroy it. The removing of +1/+1 counters is a setup to burning the creature. I don't know, it just seems odd to me that the card is trying to do two different things, though I suppose it works as a niche card against smaller creatures with +1/+1 counters on them. It would be more direct to just have a card like "destroy target creature with +1/+1 counters on it", or a less powerful card that just removes +1/+1 counters from a creature.

Hadrian, Paragon of Purity 5WW
Legendary Creature - Human Spirit (R)
Flying
When Hadrian, Paragon of Purity enters the battlefield, destroy all nonhuman creatures. They can't be regenerated.
Behold! I bring you the superman!
5/5

Hrmm the flavors a bit wonky between the roman emperor, the nietzsche, and using both 'human' and 'spirit' subtypes- its always just one or the other, there's no creature with both. But in terms of having a mostly one-sided board wipe- somewhat conditional- and leaving some bodies on your side, this is right up there with martial coup, deathbringer regent, desolation giant, Dread Cacodemon, Magister of Worth Kindred Dominance, kirtar's wrath etc. I think deathbringer regent is the closest comparison since you're getting 5 flying power, but wizards put that into a non-standard set where they could push it more, and still attached both an anti-recursion clause and a hurdle to jump through. At 7 CMC, I think at a minimum this would need a 'if cast from your hand' clause because it could be pretty oppressive to keep getting one sided board wipes off every reanimate

Towering Bulbkin 3GG
Creature - Saproling Wurm (R)
Scaled 5 (This creature enters the battlefield with five +1/+1 counters. Damage up to the number of +1/+1 counters on it is dealt to it in the form of removing +1/+1 counters)
Whenever you remove any number of +1/+1 counters from Towering Bulbkin, create that many 1/1 green Saproling creature tokens.
As long as Towering Bulbkins has two or more +1/+1 counters it has trample.
As long as Towering Bulbkins has four or more +1/+1 counters it has reach.
0/0

5/5 trample reach which can create Saprolings. Well, I guess in the current power level, there shouldn't be any problem.


Next

Refuge Seeker 1G
Creature - Human Scout (U)
Whenever you lose life during an opponent's turn, add that many G to your mana pool.
3GG: Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped, then put all other cards revealed this way at the bottom of your library in random order.
Legend has it that her ancestors have been seeking an elysium somewhere in the wartorn lands.
1/1

The land fetch ability I think might be a tad too expensive, but what do you say, anyway?

That first ability is pretty cool. I'm not entirely sure how to gauge its balance, since it could potentially pump out a lot of mana, though it doesn't necessarily seem OP, maybe a little pushed in the right circumstances. The second ability is a bit expensive for what it is, though repeatable activated abilities of that nature do tend to be higher costed.

Dark Treachery 1BR
Sorcery (U)
Gain control of target creature until end of turn. Untap that creature. It gains haste and deathtouch until end of turn.
A wise king trusts no one, not even their own court.

As far as act of treason riffs go, this one's a lot more tame than your berserk variant, but I'd say this falls onto the maybe underpowered side of the spectrum, it would be a fine limited uncommon but its not too often the deathtouch will make any difference, and if it doesn't then its just a harder to cast version of the same thing. For limited wizards have often been going 4 cmc with significant upsides at uncommon, but for the curve its cards like Harness by Force and hijack that show you can go above the act of treason baseline, especially when making it a bit harder to cast. But Kari Zev's Expertise really pushes it by comparison, and for 2 colors your sorcery could use a little extra oomph.

Sewer Scavengers BB
Creature - Rat (U)
Deathtouch
When Sewer Scavengers enters the battlefield, each player discards a card, then you lose 2 life and draw a card.
1/1

Too much compared to baleful strix?