Consider all cards and mechanics that have been previously printed, but don't focus on the Standard or Limited formats of any one time period. Treat each of these designs as a vacuum between designs (Design 1 would not coexist with Design 3, for example).
DESIGN 1 Poison Needle3G Instant {C}
~ deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
DESIGN 2 Toxic Fluid3BB Sorcery {C}
Destroy target creature. Its controller loses 3 life.
DESIGN 3 Sun's Rays1W Instant {R}
Exile target black or red creature.
DESIGN 4 Muddy Swamplurker1BB Creature - Elemental {U}
Awaken 2BB(You may play this face-down as a land with "T: Add 1 to your mana pool." Turn it face-up any time for its awaken cost.)
When ~ awakens, put two +1/+1 counters on it.
2/2
DESIGN 5 Shining Waterblade1(W/U) Instant {U}
~ deals 2 damage to the controller of target red instant spell.
DESIGN 6
Fury [cost] (You may cast this for its fury cost. IF you do, it gains haste, and it's sacrificed at the beginning of the next end step.)
DESIGN 7
Draintouch (Damage that this deals to a creature also causes that much damage to be removed from this creature.)
DESIGN 8
Megamorph N (You may cast this face-down as a 2/2 creature for 3. Turn it face-up any time for its megamorph cost and put N +1/+1 counters on it.)
DESIGN 9
Overgrow (At the beginning of your upkeep, if this creature has the lowest power among creatures you control, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature and each other creature with the same power as this creature.)
For this one, ignore any concerns about power level and how this mechanic could get out of control too quickly.
I'm curious to see whether you guys' ("your guys'"? "you guy's"?) opinions and mine differ, and if they do, by how much.
How to use card tags (please use them for everybody's sanity)
[c]Lightning Bolt[/c] -> Lightning Bolt
[c=Lightning Bolt]Apple Pie[/c] -> Apple Pie
Vowels-Only Format Minimum deck size: 60 Maximum number of identical cards: 4 Ban list: Cards whose English names begin with a consonant, Unglued and Unhinged cards, cards involving ante, Ancestral Recall
Design 1 - Not green and overcosted if it was in the right colour (Red).
Design 2 - Fine. Strong removal in Limited as it is both defensive (kills something) and helps you win (causes loss of life). Way too good if black has a viable aggro strategy, as this will both shut down any midgame response and accelerate an aggro victory. Should probably be uncommon as it is all upside and destroying a creature for 4 is fair in Limited.
Design 3 - White doesn't like black or red (check), exiles rather than destroys (check), and unconditional removal should cost 4+ or be rare (check). However that last point is an issue. This is unconditional removal for 2 in white. White is the third best colour for removal (after red and black) which leads me to believe that this would most likely be in a format with better rare (or mythic) black and red options (also because this hoses black and red). After targetting restrictions, cost is the most important part of a removal spell. As such I'd either increase this card to 3cmc or restrict the targetting further (only attacking/blocking, not during combat, sorcery speed, etc).
Design 4 - Doesn't work unless you introduce a land zone, as all face down cards on the battlefield are 2/2 creatures.
Design 5 - Neither white or blue deals noncombat damage to players (ever).
Fury - Fine as Dash exists and this is the same just worse. However the worse nature and the sacrifice increases graveyard interactivity and allows for much more aggressive costs.
Draintouch - Absolutely unprintable post M10 as it interacts with combat damage directly. Lifelink is abstractly similar, but the high grokability and simplicity means less math and less weird rules interactions. This is a "plays bad, feels bad" version of lifelink, aka KILL ME.
Megamorph N - Uses the N clause, which abstractly opens up design space but in practice all it does is increase the comprehension complexity of the mechanic. Mechanics with N require comprehending independently every single time they appear, so unless they are as simple as Scry it's better to fix N and use the "When blah triggers, additional N" as an additional ability.
Overgrow - This is too niche and too strong to appear on more than a couple of cards, and at that point it might as well not be a named mechanic. However if the ability was focused to just one creature, it becomes very printable. SingleOvergrown is halfway between Evolve and Bolster, two of the best +1/+1 counter mechanics ever printed so I'd imagine you could make some interesting cards. However as this design space is already crowded, so it must just be better to use an unnamed form of SelfBolster.
Grammar - "Your guys' opinions" would be the phrase you are looking for. All elements of the clause must be in the possessive (we own our opinions) and plural (you're asking for more than one opinion).
Design 1: It is a violation of the current color pie. Unconditional burn is too defining of red to be in any other colors. Also, this is surprising not like Hornet Sting as 1 damage is super narrow like Plummet.
Design 2: It's a fine design, for a removal-friendly limited format.
Design 3: Color hatred have been loosing space on modern magic. Hating what the colors do (such as green having creatures that can't be countered and red hating on life gain) is a far more elegant way of caring this over then simply hating on a color. It's a card that could exist, but for development reasons (white decks needing a hand against red and black specifically), not for design one.
Design 4: I like it. I'm one player that likes improvements in mana consistency such as cycling and scry. I also like anything that makes LD more playable. Land interaction is crucial to this game and among the reason why Legacy is so much better then Standard.
Design 5: It's a color pie violation that accomplishes very little. Redirecting damage or the spell target is within white and blue pie (respectively) and punishes red in a similar way.
Design 6: It could be a good mechanic but it's risky. It can be really feel bad for people who miss evaluate. The best way to carry this over is to make it as modal as possible. Low Fury cost on high CMC creatures instead of making the Fury mostly about the haste.
Design 7: The wording is bad. I suggest "Whenever this creature deals combat damage, prevent the next of that much of damage that would be dealt to it this turn". Not so sure how much this ability brings to game play.
Design 8: I like it better then Megamorph. Mostly because it helps set it apart from normal Morph.
Overgrow: Does not work very well in multiples. It's a cool ability in one or two creatures, but simply isn't the kind of stuff that needs a keyword.
Poison Needle - Green's key defining feature is that it is supposed to have the best creatures and be the best at using creatures. (This isn't always the case, but it is supposed to be.) A drawback to this is that it is reliant on having creatures to do somethings that other colors can do innately. The biggest example is that green needs to use its own creatures to remove other creatures. I would be more comfortable with green getting cards like Fall of the Hammer, Soul's Fire, Dogpile, or Massive Raid. Sometimes those kinds of effects can get too wordy though, so that might be a reasonable argument (although still not very convincing imo) for trying to shove something like this into green. Note that Unyaro Bee Sting is a sorcery so it can't be used as easily as this.
Toxic Fluid - Unconditional removal without any restrictions can be dangerous if a format is trying to push creature-based strategies. Making it a sorcery and slightly overcosted lowers its power a little, and then adding an extra effect like life loss helps make it not obviously just a strictly-worse Murder.
Sun's Rays - Each of the elements white can do, so it is generally fine. Usually white is punishing for actions like attacking, but just hating on its enemy colors is okay if this is part of a loose cycle of enemy hate. Color hate usually goes at uncommon, and there is no particular reason why this should be rare. Celestial Purge did this with any black or red permanent, but depending on the format a future card limited to just creatures would be okay if you didn't want to also hit enchantments for whatever reason.
Muddy Swamplurker - Using hidden face down mechanics are already tricky. It is better if all face down permanents function the same while face down.
- Having a keyword mechanic that allows you to freely play larger creatures as a land during the early game then still get them as pseudo-haste creatures later would greatly increase deck consistency in a way that might be dangerous. It would probably need to be tested a lot.
Shining Waterblade - It seems like this is trying to look like it is mirroring a red effect, but there are a lot of different effects that can be on red instants other than just direct damage. Just mirroring an out of color enemy effect is not a very good way to do hate anyway. They used to do that with cards like Tsunami, but it makes for really weird looking effects that are by their nature obviously out of color.
- A better on-color way to do this with just a slight shift could be to redirect damage. Reverberation is certainly too old of a card to reasonably site as precedent, but for a hybrid color hate cycle it seems reasonably close enough: "The next 2 damage that target red instant or sorcery would deal this turn is dealt to that spell's controller instead."
Fury [cost] - Seems a bit limited in its uses. Very similar to dash, but sacrificing is a big difference and it might look too much like a drawback. You can get evoke-like uses with this, but it can't be used in all colors since it gives haste. Maybe useful as a small set mechanic that is only going to go on a handful of cards.
Draintouch - Does this protect it in combat against damage that is being dealt at the same time to it? This is an interesting idea, but might be too complicated and rules-y to work.
Megamorph N - You mislabeled this. It would have to have two parameters like suspend: Megamorph N--[cost]. Throwing extra parameters onto a keyword should only be done when absolutely necessary. Sure this adds more design space to megamorph, but it also makes it a lot more complicated forcing you to always check one extra little thing. And megamorph already has a lot of new design space anyway.
Overgrow - This might be interesting for a single card. The problem is that it pushes the card toward a higher rarity. I doubt if it could fit at common. If it only put the counter on itself, then that might be okay. Either way, the trigger and the effect are a little weird since the trigger sort of looks like it should only work if it has the lowest power and not if you control another creature with the same power. It should probably explicitly say "or tied for lowest power" so it is obvious.
- Another good single card variation would be to just get a +1/+1 counter if you controlled any creature with greater power.
Consider all cards and mechanics that have been previously printed, but don't focus on the Standard or Limited formats of any one time period. Treat each of these designs as a vacuum between designs (Design 1 would not coexist with Design 3, for example).
DESIGN 1 Poison Needle3G Instant {C}
~ deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
This isn't green, but it's a low enough power level that artifacts can do it (Moonglove Extract) so I have no objection to it if the card is a top-down flavor design. However, this isn't one - there's nothing green about a poison needle that doesn't reference creatures.
I have no issue with Unyaro Bee Sting, as it's clear that the card is doing the damage with a creature (in flavor if not mechanics) and it is weaker than Moonglove Extract.
DESIGN 2 Toxic Fluid3BB Sorcery {C}
Destroy target creature. Its controller loses 3 life.
Fine limited-only removal card; every set needs these.
DESIGN 3 Sun's Rays1W Instant {R}
Exile target black or red creature.
Feels like a disappointing card to open as a rare (and I'd say the same even if its power level was high). Rares should have a higher board impact. Fine at uncommon which is the usual precedent for 1 for 1 colour hosers that aren't dead in Limited.
DESIGN 4 Muddy Swamplurker1BB Creature - Elemental {U}
Awaken 2BB(You may play this face-down as a land with "T: Add 1 to your mana pool." Turn it face-up any time for its awaken cost.)
When ~ awakens, put two +1/+1 counters on it.
2/2
This doesn't work without a considerable change to the Morph rules. If it can be made to work via (very) different templating, I'd be interested to try this. I'd try it as a Kamigawa style split card and see how well it plays. If it plays well, then try to solve the mechanical issues. I think it will.
DESIGN 5 Shining Waterblade1(W/U) Instant {U}
~ deals 2 damage to the controller of target red instant spell.
This card is too weak to be played anywhere, even against its narrow targets. Precedent for this is Blue Ward - a narrow hoser that sucks even against blue. Then there's other color pie issues with WU doing damage.
DESIGN 6
Fury [cost] (You may cast this for its fury cost. IF you do, it gains haste, and it's sacrificed at the beginning of the next end step.)
I like this. Skizzik was a hugely popular card back when a 5/3 haste for 5 didn't suck. Played well.
DESIGN 7
Draintouch (Damage that this deals to a creature also causes that much damage to be removed from this creature.)
Too narrow to work. Even if it is worded to work properly, it just becomes an alternative to first strike.
DESIGN 8
Megamorph N (You may cast this face-down as a 2/2 creature for 3. Turn it face-up any time for its megamorph cost and put N +1/+1 counters on it.)
Much better than what was printed. Hooded Hydra had Megamorph 5 and as a result plays very differently to the Megamorph 1 creatures. Despite not being very strong, it's a card a lot of people really like.
DESIGN 9
Overgrow (At the beginning of your upkeep, if this creature has the lowest power among creatures you control, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature and each other creature with the same power as this creature.)
For this one, ignore any concerns about power level and how this mechanic could get out of control too quickly.
This says 'Play tokens, and go wide then go big'. I really don't like it at all. It makes a lategame 1/1 extremely detrimental to your board too - if you have three 4/4s and one has Overgrow, your opponent will do everything they can to give you a 1/1.
Consider all cards and mechanics that have been previously printed, but don't focus on the Standard or Limited formats of any one time period. Treat each of these designs as a vacuum between designs (Design 1 would not coexist with Design 3, for example).
DESIGN 1 Poison Needle3G Instant {C}
~ deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
This isn't green, but it's a low enough power level that artifacts can do it (Moonglove Extract) so I have no objection to it if the card is a top-down flavor design. However, this isn't one - there's nothing green about a poison needle that doesn't reference creatures.
I have no issue with Unyaro Bee Sting, as it's clear that the card is doing the damage with a creature (in flavor if not mechanics) and it is weaker than Moonglove Extract.
Green shouldn't get direct damage, period. Every colour needs to have things they just flat out can't do, and damage is one thing green can never do. However as Silvercut pointed out effects which deal damage based on a creature related statistic is probably a fine addition to green. Blue also never does damage, so I think it's fine to bleed creature-based damage into green.
DESIGN 2 Toxic Fluid3BB Sorcery {C}
Destroy target creature. Its controller loses 3 life.
Fine limited-only removal card; every set needs these.
As I pointed out earlier, this is a beast in limited. Can you imagine this being in Khans? Black goes from being the worst colour, to being one of the best.
DESIGN 3 Sun's Rays1W Instant {R}
Exile target black or red creature.
Feels like a disappointing card to open as a rare (and I'd say the same even if its power level was high). Rares should have a higher board impact. Fine at uncommon which is the usual precedent for 1 for 1 colour hosers that aren't dead in Limited.
Unconditional removal this strong is waaay too good for uncommo white. I could see it at rare, but as I suggested earlier I think this card as is is just too good.
DESIGN 8
Megamorph N (You may cast this face-down as a 2/2 creature for 3. Turn it face-up any time for its megamorph cost and put N +1/+1 counters on it.)
Much better than what was printed. Hooded Hydra had Megamorph 5 and as a result plays very differently to the Megamorph 1 creatures. Despite not being very strong, it's a card a lot of people really like.
This is so much worse than what was printed. As I pointed out earlier Megamorph doesn't prohibit unflipping for more than one counter (such as with Hooded Hydra), instead it makes it easier to understand the mechanic and appreciate the added value of MegaMegamorphs.
DESIGN 1
Poison Needle 3G
Instant {C}
~ deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
DESIGN 2
Toxic Fluid 3BB
Sorcery {C}
Destroy target creature. Its controller loses 3 life.
DESIGN 3
Sun's Rays 1W
Instant {R}
Exile target black or red creature.
DESIGN 4
Muddy Swamplurker 1BB
Creature - Elemental {U}
Awaken 2BB (You may play this face-down as a land with "T: Add 1 to your mana pool." Turn it face-up any time for its awaken cost.)
When ~ awakens, put two +1/+1 counters on it.
2/2
DESIGN 5
Shining Waterblade 1(W/U)
Instant {U}
~ deals 2 damage to the controller of target red instant spell.
DESIGN 6
Fury [cost] (You may cast this for its fury cost. IF you do, it gains haste, and it's sacrificed at the beginning of the next end step.)
DESIGN 7
Draintouch (Damage that this deals to a creature also causes that much damage to be removed from this creature.)
DESIGN 8
Megamorph N (You may cast this face-down as a 2/2 creature for 3. Turn it face-up any time for its megamorph cost and put N +1/+1 counters on it.)
DESIGN 9
Overgrow (At the beginning of your upkeep, if this creature has the lowest power among creatures you control, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature and each other creature with the same power as this creature.)
For this one, ignore any concerns about power level and how this mechanic could get out of control too quickly.
I'm curious to see whether you guys' ("your guys'"? "you guy's"?) opinions and mine differ, and if they do, by how much.
[c]Lightning Bolt[/c] -> Lightning Bolt
[c=Lightning Bolt]Apple Pie[/c] -> Apple Pie
Vowels-Only Format
Minimum deck size: 60
Maximum number of identical cards: 4
Ban list: Cards whose English names begin with a consonant, Unglued and Unhinged cards, cards involving ante, Ancestral Recall
Design 2 - Fine. Strong removal in Limited as it is both defensive (kills something) and helps you win (causes loss of life). Way too good if black has a viable aggro strategy, as this will both shut down any midgame response and accelerate an aggro victory. Should probably be uncommon as it is all upside and destroying a creature for 4 is fair in Limited.
Design 3 - White doesn't like black or red (check), exiles rather than destroys (check), and unconditional removal should cost 4+ or be rare (check). However that last point is an issue. This is unconditional removal for 2 in white. White is the third best colour for removal (after red and black) which leads me to believe that this would most likely be in a format with better rare (or mythic) black and red options (also because this hoses black and red). After targetting restrictions, cost is the most important part of a removal spell. As such I'd either increase this card to 3cmc or restrict the targetting further (only attacking/blocking, not during combat, sorcery speed, etc).
Design 4 - Doesn't work unless you introduce a land zone, as all face down cards on the battlefield are 2/2 creatures.
Design 5 - Neither white or blue deals noncombat damage to players (ever).
Fury - Fine as Dash exists and this is the same just worse. However the worse nature and the sacrifice increases graveyard interactivity and allows for much more aggressive costs.
Draintouch - Absolutely unprintable post M10 as it interacts with combat damage directly. Lifelink is abstractly similar, but the high grokability and simplicity means less math and less weird rules interactions. This is a "plays bad, feels bad" version of lifelink, aka KILL ME.
Megamorph N - Uses the N clause, which abstractly opens up design space but in practice all it does is increase the comprehension complexity of the mechanic. Mechanics with N require comprehending independently every single time they appear, so unless they are as simple as Scry it's better to fix N and use the "When blah triggers, additional N" as an additional ability.
Overgrow - This is too niche and too strong to appear on more than a couple of cards, and at that point it might as well not be a named mechanic. However if the ability was focused to just one creature, it becomes very printable. SingleOvergrown is halfway between Evolve and Bolster, two of the best +1/+1 counter mechanics ever printed so I'd imagine you could make some interesting cards. However as this design space is already crowded, so it must just be better to use an unnamed form of SelfBolster.
Grammar - "Your guys' opinions" would be the phrase you are looking for. All elements of the clause must be in the possessive (we own our opinions) and plural (you're asking for more than one opinion).
GWU Rafiq
RWB Zurgo
WBG Ghave
WUB Oloro
WBR Kaalia (Archived)
My Blog, currently working on series about my custom set Cazia.
Steam Trades - I play Dota 2, CS:GO, TF2, and trade cards heavily. Add me if you like.
Design 1: It is a violation of the current color pie. Unconditional burn is too defining of red to be in any other colors. Also, this is surprising not like Hornet Sting as 1 damage is super narrow like Plummet.
Design 2: It's a fine design, for a removal-friendly limited format.
Design 3: Color hatred have been loosing space on modern magic. Hating what the colors do (such as green having creatures that can't be countered and red hating on life gain) is a far more elegant way of caring this over then simply hating on a color. It's a card that could exist, but for development reasons (white decks needing a hand against red and black specifically), not for design one.
Design 4: I like it. I'm one player that likes improvements in mana consistency such as cycling and scry. I also like anything that makes LD more playable. Land interaction is crucial to this game and among the reason why Legacy is so much better then Standard.
Design 5: It's a color pie violation that accomplishes very little. Redirecting damage or the spell target is within white and blue pie (respectively) and punishes red in a similar way.
Design 6: It could be a good mechanic but it's risky. It can be really feel bad for people who miss evaluate. The best way to carry this over is to make it as modal as possible. Low Fury cost on high CMC creatures instead of making the Fury mostly about the haste.
Design 7: The wording is bad. I suggest "Whenever this creature deals combat damage, prevent the next of that much of damage that would be dealt to it this turn". Not so sure how much this ability brings to game play.
Design 8: I like it better then Megamorph. Mostly because it helps set it apart from normal Morph.
Overgrow: Does not work very well in multiples. It's a cool ability in one or two creatures, but simply isn't the kind of stuff that needs a keyword.
BGU Control
R Aggro
Standard - For Fun
BG Auras
Toxic Fluid - Unconditional removal without any restrictions can be dangerous if a format is trying to push creature-based strategies. Making it a sorcery and slightly overcosted lowers its power a little, and then adding an extra effect like life loss helps make it not obviously just a strictly-worse Murder.
Sun's Rays - Each of the elements white can do, so it is generally fine. Usually white is punishing for actions like attacking, but just hating on its enemy colors is okay if this is part of a loose cycle of enemy hate. Color hate usually goes at uncommon, and there is no particular reason why this should be rare. Celestial Purge did this with any black or red permanent, but depending on the format a future card limited to just creatures would be okay if you didn't want to also hit enchantments for whatever reason.
Muddy Swamplurker - Using hidden face down mechanics are already tricky. It is better if all face down permanents function the same while face down.
- Having a keyword mechanic that allows you to freely play larger creatures as a land during the early game then still get them as pseudo-haste creatures later would greatly increase deck consistency in a way that might be dangerous. It would probably need to be tested a lot.
Shining Waterblade - It seems like this is trying to look like it is mirroring a red effect, but there are a lot of different effects that can be on red instants other than just direct damage. Just mirroring an out of color enemy effect is not a very good way to do hate anyway. They used to do that with cards like Tsunami, but it makes for really weird looking effects that are by their nature obviously out of color.
- A better on-color way to do this with just a slight shift could be to redirect damage. Reverberation is certainly too old of a card to reasonably site as precedent, but for a hybrid color hate cycle it seems reasonably close enough: "The next 2 damage that target red instant or sorcery would deal this turn is dealt to that spell's controller instead."
Fury [cost] - Seems a bit limited in its uses. Very similar to dash, but sacrificing is a big difference and it might look too much like a drawback. You can get evoke-like uses with this, but it can't be used in all colors since it gives haste. Maybe useful as a small set mechanic that is only going to go on a handful of cards.
Draintouch - Does this protect it in combat against damage that is being dealt at the same time to it? This is an interesting idea, but might be too complicated and rules-y to work.
Megamorph N - You mislabeled this. It would have to have two parameters like suspend: Megamorph N--[cost]. Throwing extra parameters onto a keyword should only be done when absolutely necessary. Sure this adds more design space to megamorph, but it also makes it a lot more complicated forcing you to always check one extra little thing. And megamorph already has a lot of new design space anyway.
Overgrow - This might be interesting for a single card. The problem is that it pushes the card toward a higher rarity. I doubt if it could fit at common. If it only put the counter on itself, then that might be okay. Either way, the trigger and the effect are a little weird since the trigger sort of looks like it should only work if it has the lowest power and not if you control another creature with the same power. It should probably explicitly say "or tied for lowest power" so it is obvious.
- Another good single card variation would be to just get a +1/+1 counter if you controlled any creature with greater power.
DESIGN 1
Poison Needle 3G
Instant {C}
~ deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
This isn't green, but it's a low enough power level that artifacts can do it (Moonglove Extract) so I have no objection to it if the card is a top-down flavor design. However, this isn't one - there's nothing green about a poison needle that doesn't reference creatures.
I have no issue with Unyaro Bee Sting, as it's clear that the card is doing the damage with a creature (in flavor if not mechanics) and it is weaker than Moonglove Extract.
DESIGN 2
Toxic Fluid 3BB
Sorcery {C}
Destroy target creature. Its controller loses 3 life.
Fine limited-only removal card; every set needs these.
DESIGN 3
Sun's Rays 1W
Instant {R}
Exile target black or red creature.
Feels like a disappointing card to open as a rare (and I'd say the same even if its power level was high). Rares should have a higher board impact. Fine at uncommon which is the usual precedent for 1 for 1 colour hosers that aren't dead in Limited.
DESIGN 4
Muddy Swamplurker 1BB
Creature - Elemental {U}
Awaken 2BB (You may play this face-down as a land with "T: Add 1 to your mana pool." Turn it face-up any time for its awaken cost.)
When ~ awakens, put two +1/+1 counters on it.
2/2
This doesn't work without a considerable change to the Morph rules. If it can be made to work via (very) different templating, I'd be interested to try this. I'd try it as a Kamigawa style split card and see how well it plays. If it plays well, then try to solve the mechanical issues. I think it will.
DESIGN 5
Shining Waterblade 1(W/U)
Instant {U}
~ deals 2 damage to the controller of target red instant spell.
This card is too weak to be played anywhere, even against its narrow targets. Precedent for this is Blue Ward - a narrow hoser that sucks even against blue. Then there's other color pie issues with WU doing damage.
DESIGN 6
Fury [cost] (You may cast this for its fury cost. IF you do, it gains haste, and it's sacrificed at the beginning of the next end step.)
I like this. Skizzik was a hugely popular card back when a 5/3 haste for 5 didn't suck. Played well.
DESIGN 7
Draintouch (Damage that this deals to a creature also causes that much damage to be removed from this creature.)
Too narrow to work. Even if it is worded to work properly, it just becomes an alternative to first strike.
DESIGN 8
Megamorph N (You may cast this face-down as a 2/2 creature for 3. Turn it face-up any time for its megamorph cost and put N +1/+1 counters on it.)
Much better than what was printed. Hooded Hydra had Megamorph 5 and as a result plays very differently to the Megamorph 1 creatures. Despite not being very strong, it's a card a lot of people really like.
DESIGN 9
Overgrow (At the beginning of your upkeep, if this creature has the lowest power among creatures you control, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature and each other creature with the same power as this creature.)
For this one, ignore any concerns about power level and how this mechanic could get out of control too quickly.
This says 'Play tokens, and go wide then go big'. I really don't like it at all. It makes a lategame 1/1 extremely detrimental to your board too - if you have three 4/4s and one has Overgrow, your opponent will do everything they can to give you a 1/1.
Green shouldn't get direct damage, period. Every colour needs to have things they just flat out can't do, and damage is one thing green can never do. However as Silvercut pointed out effects which deal damage based on a creature related statistic is probably a fine addition to green. Blue also never does damage, so I think it's fine to bleed creature-based damage into green.
As I pointed out earlier, this is a beast in limited. Can you imagine this being in Khans? Black goes from being the worst colour, to being one of the best.
Unconditional removal this strong is waaay too good for uncommo white. I could see it at rare, but as I suggested earlier I think this card as is is just too good.
This is so much worse than what was printed. As I pointed out earlier Megamorph doesn't prohibit unflipping for more than one counter (such as with Hooded Hydra), instead it makes it easier to understand the mechanic and appreciate the added value of MegaMegamorphs.
GWU Rafiq
RWB Zurgo
WBG Ghave
WUB Oloro
WBR Kaalia (Archived)
My Blog, currently working on series about my custom set Cazia.
Steam Trades - I play Dota 2, CS:GO, TF2, and trade cards heavily. Add me if you like.