Pestilence, First Horseman of the Apocalypse 2G
Legendary Creature - Avatar Knight
Infect
Deathtouch
When this creature enters the battlefield, search your library for a card named "War, Second Horseman of the Apocalypse" and put it in your hand, then shuffle the library.
1/3
War, Second Horseman of the Apocalypse 3R
Legendary Creature - Avatar Knight
First Strike, Trample, Haste
When this creature enters the battlefield, search your library for a card named "Famine, Third Horseman of the Apocalypse" and put it in your hand, then shuffle the library.
3/1
Famine, Third Horseman of the Apocalypse 4U
Legendary Creature - Avatar Knight
Shroud
When this creature enters the battlefield, for each non-Knight creature, its controller pays 2 or they must return it to their hand, then you search your library for a card named "Death, Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse" and put that card in your hand. Afterwards, shuffle your library.
3/3
Death, Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse 5B
Legendary Creature - Avatar Knight
At the beginning of your upkeep, destroy target creature opponent controls. It can't be regenerated.
3/3
Rise of the Apocalypse 3GRUB
Instant
You may only cast this spell if you have "Pestilence, First Horseman of the Apocalypse", "War, Second Horseman of the Apocalypse", "Famine, Third Horseman of the Apocalypse", and "Death, Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse" on the battlefield tapped and attacking.
You win the game.
This spell cannot be countered.
Edit: Changed the cards to try and make them balanced.
Edit 2: Another balance change.
If the cards don't look balanced, please don't smash hard. It's only my first attempt to make such an archetype of cards related to some 4 horsemen and the end of the world.
Pestilence, both hexproof and infect are very powerful. With either one this could be an aggressively costed creature with both it is significantly undercosted. To keep it cheap and scary it could drop to 1/3.
War, Vigilance doesn't block in these colors. Beyond that, this is a very strong card with a very weird cast restriction. It skews towards difficult to remember after the first few turns making it a hard sell but not impossible.
Famine, this is an even weirder cast restriction. It's not blue in the least which makes it stand out among the other cards with tried really hard to be their main color.
Death, while super immortal creatures sound fun they aren't.
Rise of the Apocalypse, alternate win cards are supposed to be a mini-game that makes you play differently from normal magic. This is just "play the card you drew and the card it tutored" which isn't fun in the least.
On this whole design. First a simple problem, the creature type. For every word on the type line its a creature type so if you really wanted the whole thing it needs to be hyphenated. Horseman-of-the-Apocalypse. Second, why don't they scale properly? If your first one is a 3 drop why isn't the next one a 4 drop and so on? And why does it end at 8 instead of 7? As they stand they are just really good collected company hits that accidentally wound up in your deck.
Pestilence, First Horseman of the Apocalypse 2G
Legendary Creature - Horseman-of-the-Apocalypse
Infect
Hexproof
When this creature enters the battlefield, search your library for a card named "War, Second Horseman of the Apocalypse" and put it in your hand, then shuffle the library.
1/3
Hexproof feels a bit off-theme; you might try Deathtouch instead, to make blocking a trickier prospect. Overall it feels fine.
War, Second Horseman of the Apocalypse 3R
Legendary Creature - Horseman-of-the-Apocalypse
First Strike, Trample
If you cast this spell when a creature you control dealt combat damage last turn, it also has haste.
When this creature enters the battlefield, search your library for a card named "Famine, Third Horseman of the Apocalypse" and put it in your hand, then shuffle the library.
3/1
Just give it haste, honestly. No reason for the 'dealt combat damage last turn' oddness. (plus, technically 'last turn' would be an opponent's turn). Feels fine otherwise
Famine, Third Horseman of the Apocalypse 4U
Legendary Creature - Horseman-of-the-Apocalypse
When this creature enters the battlefield, your opponent must sacrifice a nonland permanent they control and discard a card, then you search your library for a card named "Death, Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse" and put that card in your hand. Afterwards, shuffle your library.
3/3
This isn't blue. It could bounce those permanents back to hand, but blue can't generally cause things to be sacrificed. You could phrase it similarly to Pendrell Mists, i.e. "When ~ enter the battlefield, for each non-knight creature, its controller sacrifices it unless they pay 1.
However I will point out that even that, and other cards like Reality Acid or Rishadan Footpad are outdated and not good references. Words of Wind or Curfew are better templates for this sort of thing.
Death, Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse 5B
Legendary Creature - Horseman-of-the-Apocalypse
At the beginning of your upkeep, destroy target permanent opponent controls. This bypasses Hexproof.
3/3
Black can't destroy enchantments. This should probably just say 'creatures'. Also I would argue against it randomly ignoring hexproof. Compare: Avatar of Woe. Bypassing things that prevent the thing you're doing is a touchy subject.
Rise of the Apocalypse 3GRUB
Sorcery
You may only cast this spell if you have "Pestilence, First Horseman of the Apocalypse", "War, Second Horseman of the Apocalypse", "Famine, Third Horseman of the Apocalypse", and "Death, Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse" on the battlefield tapped and attacking.
You win the game. This cannot be prevented.
This spell cannot be countered and exiled.
As a sorcery you aren't able to cast this during your combat step, when the horsemen would typically be 'tapped and attacking'. Otherwise I would say the condition for this is fine. If an opponent lets you build up four creatures on the board and then swing with all four, then you deserve the win.
"This cannot be prevented" should probably be removed. Firstly, that doesn't have a clear rules meaning since no cards "prevent" winning, they simply say you "can't" win. There's a difference. Second, again, bypassing things that prevent the thing you're doing is a touchy subject. Cards that prevent opponents from winning are rare and splashy. It feels bad to be punished for going through the effort to cast one.
"This spell cannot be countered" is probably fine, however, since unlike "can't win" effects, there are many counterspells at every mana cost. Plus, there's already counterplay in the form of removing literally any of the horsemen before they can all attack and this spell resolves. The additional "and exiled" part is dangerous territory though simply because there are manyreasons a card might be exiled aside from just effects like Mindbreak Trap.
Legendary Creature - Avatar Knight
Infect
Deathtouch
When this creature enters the battlefield, search your library for a card named "War, Second Horseman of the Apocalypse" and put it in your hand, then shuffle the library.
1/3
War, Second Horseman of the Apocalypse 3R
Legendary Creature - Avatar Knight
First Strike, Trample, Haste
When this creature enters the battlefield, search your library for a card named "Famine, Third Horseman of the Apocalypse" and put it in your hand, then shuffle the library.
3/1
Famine, Third Horseman of the Apocalypse 4U
Legendary Creature - Avatar Knight
Shroud
When this creature enters the battlefield, for each non-Knight creature, its controller pays 2 or they must return it to their hand, then you search your library for a card named "Death, Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse" and put that card in your hand. Afterwards, shuffle your library.
3/3
Death, Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse 5B
Legendary Creature - Avatar Knight
At the beginning of your upkeep, destroy target creature opponent controls. It can't be regenerated.
3/3
Rise of the Apocalypse 3GRUB
Instant
You may only cast this spell if you have "Pestilence, First Horseman of the Apocalypse", "War, Second Horseman of the Apocalypse", "Famine, Third Horseman of the Apocalypse", and "Death, Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse" on the battlefield tapped and attacking.
You win the game.
This spell cannot be countered.
Edit: Changed the cards to try and make them balanced.
Edit 2: Another balance change.
War, Vigilance doesn't block in these colors. Beyond that, this is a very strong card with a very weird cast restriction. It skews towards difficult to remember after the first few turns making it a hard sell but not impossible.
Famine, this is an even weirder cast restriction. It's not blue in the least which makes it stand out among the other cards with tried really hard to be their main color.
Death, while super immortal creatures sound fun they aren't.
Rise of the Apocalypse, alternate win cards are supposed to be a mini-game that makes you play differently from normal magic. This is just "play the card you drew and the card it tutored" which isn't fun in the least.
On this whole design. First a simple problem, the creature type. For every word on the type line its a creature type so if you really wanted the whole thing it needs to be hyphenated. Horseman-of-the-Apocalypse. Second, why don't they scale properly? If your first one is a 3 drop why isn't the next one a 4 drop and so on? And why does it end at 8 instead of 7? As they stand they are just really good collected company hits that accidentally wound up in your deck.
Hexproof feels a bit off-theme; you might try Deathtouch instead, to make blocking a trickier prospect. Overall it feels fine.
Just give it haste, honestly. No reason for the 'dealt combat damage last turn' oddness. (plus, technically 'last turn' would be an opponent's turn). Feels fine otherwise
This isn't blue. It could bounce those permanents back to hand, but blue can't generally cause things to be sacrificed. You could phrase it similarly to Pendrell Mists, i.e. "When ~ enter the battlefield, for each non-knight creature, its controller sacrifices it unless they pay 1.
However I will point out that even that, and other cards like Reality Acid or Rishadan Footpad are outdated and not good references. Words of Wind or Curfew are better templates for this sort of thing.
Black can't destroy enchantments. This should probably just say 'creatures'. Also I would argue against it randomly ignoring hexproof. Compare: Avatar of Woe. Bypassing things that prevent the thing you're doing is a touchy subject.
As a sorcery you aren't able to cast this during your combat step, when the horsemen would typically be 'tapped and attacking'. Otherwise I would say the condition for this is fine. If an opponent lets you build up four creatures on the board and then swing with all four, then you deserve the win.
"This cannot be prevented" should probably be removed. Firstly, that doesn't have a clear rules meaning since no cards "prevent" winning, they simply say you "can't" win. There's a difference. Second, again, bypassing things that prevent the thing you're doing is a touchy subject. Cards that prevent opponents from winning are rare and splashy. It feels bad to be punished for going through the effort to cast one.
"This spell cannot be countered" is probably fine, however, since unlike "can't win" effects, there are many counterspells at every mana cost. Plus, there's already counterplay in the form of removing literally any of the horsemen before they can all attack and this spell resolves. The additional "and exiled" part is dangerous territory though simply because there are many reasons a card might be exiled aside from just effects like Mindbreak Trap.
- Rabid Wombat