So I came up with a new concept and keyword. Basically modal spells but you choose them as an additional cost.
Empower X(Exile X instants and/or sorceries from your graveyard as you cast this spell.)
Disallow Wizardry UU
Instant
Choose target spell then Empower.
0: Return the targeted spell to it's owners hand.
1-2: Counter the spell unless it's controller pays 2.
3-4: Counter the Spell.
5: Counter the spell and return Disallow Wizardry to your hand.
Aeon Bolt 1R
Instant
Empower
Damage can't be prevented this turn then,
0: deal 1 damage to any target.
1-2: Deal 3 damage to any target.
3-5: deal 3 damage to up to 2 targets.
6: deal 3 damage to target player and every creature and planeswalker they control.
Ceremonious RejuvenationWW
Instant
Empower
0: Prevent the next 4 damage to any target.
1-3: Prevent the next 4 damage to any target and gain 4 life.
4: Prevent all damage that would be dealt this turn by sources you don't control and at the end of the turn gain life equal to the amount of damage prevented in this way.
Dramatic Augmentation G
Sorcery
Empower
0: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control.
1-2: Put a +1/+1 counter on up to 2 creatures you control.
3-5: Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.
6: Put 2 +1/+1 counters on each creature you control and creatures you control gain trample until end of turn.
Purity Through Decay 1BB
Sorcery
Empower
0: Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
1-2: Up to 2 target creatures get -2/-2 until end of turn.
3-4: All creatures get -3/-3 until end of turn.
5: All creatures you don't control get -3/-3 until end of turn.
These are the rares. Uncommon a would have less modes to have room for the reminder and flavor text.
Decry Form 1B
Instant
Empower X(Exile X instants and/or sorceries from your graveyard as you cast this spell.)
0: Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
1-2: Target creature gets -3/-3 until end of turn.
3: Destroy target creature.
Escalate Expanse G
Sorcery
Empower X(Exile X instants and/or sorceries from your graveyard as you cast this spell.)
0-1: Search your library for a basic land card and put it into your hand.
2-3: Search your library for a land card and put it into your hand.
4: Search your library for a land card and put it on the battlefield. If it enters tapped untap it.
Call For Reinforcements 1W
Instant
Empower X(Exile X instants and/or sorceries from your graveyard as you cast this spell.)
0: Put a 1/1 white human creature token onto the battlefield.
1-3: Put a 2/2 white human creature token with firststrike onto the battlefield.
4: Put 2 2/2 white human creature tokens with firststrike onto the battlefield. Creatures you control gain firststrike until end of turn.
Ascending Insight 1U
Instant
Empower X(Exile X instants and/or sorceries from your graveyard as you cast this spell.)
0: Scry 2.
1-2: Scry 3.
3: Scry 3 then draw a card.
Rubble Ruin 1RR
Sorcery
Empower X(Exile X instants and/or sorceries from your graveyard as you cast this spell.)
0: Destroy target artifact.
1-3: Destroy up to 2 target artifacts.
4: Destroy all artifacts and deal 4 damage to each creature for each equipment it had on it
The big challenge with this will be the templating. Even with a frame like Level Up they were pressed for space with three fairly simple text lines, so fitting four "levels of empowerment".
These are kind of like a restrictive dredge card, and so you'd only want 1-2 in your deck in limited (since a limited deck usually has only 6-8 non-creature spells) and even then they will be tough to cast for max effect.
What if you made them have a small/big effect instead of multi-step, where you get the big effect by exiling a set number of spells (say, 3 instants or sorceries)?
I like the mechanic, although I feel like they'd all be safe with 1, 2, and 3 for the number of instant/ sorceries exiled on cast.
A few of the individual cards a bit awkward, Ceremonious Rejuvenation and Aeon Bolt can be better at lower empowerment often enough, and Purity Through Decay doesn't really scale well for the steep cost of doing so, but the mechanic is a solid idea.
The big challenge with this will be the templating. Even with a frame like Level Up they were pressed for space with three fairly simple text lines, so fitting four "levels of empowerment".
These are kind of like a restrictive dredge card, and so you'd only want 1-2 in your deck in limited (since a limited deck usually has only 6-8 non-creature spells) and even then they will be tough to cast for max effect.
What if you made them have a small/big effect instead of multi-step, where you get the big effect by exiling a set number of spells (say, 3 instants or sorceries)?
For templating I envision it being done more like the saga cards. You get a bit more room for text this way.
The idea of them is to be only to use the big effect once a game on the rare cards. The uncommon cards, the ones you are more likely to have in limited, top out at 4 and most are just 3 for max effect.
I think they can fit everything in with the saga template. Effects may have to be worded a little different or cleaner to fit, but should be okay.
I like the mechanic, although I feel like they'd all be safe with 1, 2, and 3 for the number of instant/ sorceries exiled on cast.
A few of the individual cards a bit awkward, Ceremonious Rejuvenation and Aeon Bolt can be better at lower empowerment often enough, and Purity Through Decay doesn't really scale well for the steep cost of doing so, but the mechanic is a solid idea.
Most the uncommon and common cards as stated earlier do top out at 3 or 4. The more powerful effects are more game breaking so they have a higher cost. But when playing them you are most likely to have a deck in mind where they would be very strong. Such as modern Jeskai would like the blue one and the red one. Possibly a copy of the white one as well.
Some can feel awkward, but are very powerful effects. They were designed to be okayish early game, strong mid game and nearly back breaking late game. Like Rejuvenation. Can save a creature early in the game. Can save a guy and basically prevent the damage of a guy mid game and late game it's a blow out. You can either alpha them and when they do all their blocks play this for it's cheap coast and prevent all the damage they deal to your guys, allow your dudes to take some of their guys out, while probably getting in some damage, and then gain bunches of life at the end of the turn.
Aeon Bolt is another good example. If you are on the play you can kill a Mana dork or something small. Mid game it becomes a decent burn spell. Late game it'll knock out all small creatures they control.
I agree the black one's ultimate mode is a bit weak. I did up the last two modes, but it's possibly the strongest of the rare cycle, except maybe the blue one, at every stage it is a good card. Early it kills something, early mid game it is card advantage, late mid game or early late game (lol) it can wrath a board. Late game it's a limited Plague Wind effect.
All that said I don't want them too powerful where they just end the game outright. That is poor card design.
Thank you again for the kind words on the preview of the cards. I have all 15 made now. 1 each for each color at çommon, uncommon, and rare. Still thinking of mythic ones but those tend to be either too costly or game ending effects that I don't like. If you want I'll spoil the remaining cards and explain the set I've been creating to show how they fit in.
Exiting multiple cards of the same type is a pretty steep cost as is. Even in a deck loaded with cheap instants and sorceries, it is likely only able to be done a few times. None of these effects are really that back breaking. I still don't see why any of them could require 5 cards exiled. Think of Delve where essentially a card exiled in graveyard is worth a mana. None of these are worth 7+ mana.
The reason the red and white ones are awkward is as follows:
Aeon Bolt can hit two players, or two creatures controlled by different players, but not on the ultimate mode, which in multiplayer could leave that being the lesser mode.
With Ceremonious Rejuvination, on the ultimate you could potentially not gain any life at all (if they have a sacrifice outlet, for example.)
Both are corner cases sort of, but something to consider, especially with the once or twice a game cost.
I think these would be fair with a 0-4 cost and payout maximum, maybe a few that scale less or more. They feel right for a new frame, like someone else said.
It's a cool alternate take to Spell Mastery, i feel like you might be over estimating the strength a little bit.
I get you on this. A lot of cards scale differently in multiplayer vs head to head. Where the red one loses some aspects the white one can gain in a multiplayer setting. For instance the dominate player could swing out against another player and you save them while gaining lots of life and making an ally in the same action. I love playing this role in multiplayer games. That's said wouldn't the red one be better as you don't have to deal 3 to each opponent and each creature they control and each planeswalker they control? You may want to keep an ally safe. I'm sure there are times were you'd want to nuke all the opponents boards also. It's hard to word a card that can do both. I suppose you could choose any number of players as part of the spell... Idk if adding in all that extra wordage is worth it though. But that could be done.
But that does even it up not being able to do so. Right now the red one is conceivably better than the black one. As it can hit planeswalkers and the player. But the black one hits not your stuff in ultimate mode. The red one currently only nukes 1 player's board. I do try to have balance when designing cards. But what would your solution be?
And lastly, the idea is for them to only be cast at full strength only a few times in the game. Imagine drawing multiples of the full power red or green one in a game. Yes that would probably be very back breaking. But these cheap costs with the power level they can achieve makes them very strong cards. I can't think of another red spell that costs 2 Mana that can destroy 6 creatures, 2 planeswalkers, and deal 3 damage to the opponent AND at the same time is actually a fair spell. I can't think of another 1 drop in green that basically casts a better overrun and is also a fair magic card. But these because of the limitations are able to do it. 😁
I get you on this. A lot of cards scale differently in multiplayer vs head to head. Where the red one loses some aspects the white one can gain in a multiplayer setting. For instance the dominate player could swing out against another player and you save them while gaining lots of life and making an ally in the same action. I love playing this role in multiplayer games. That's said wouldn't the red one be better as you don't have to deal 3 to each opponent and each creature they control and each planeswalker they control? You may want to keep an ally safe. I'm sure there are times were you'd want to nuke all the opponents boards also. It's hard to word a card that can do both. I suppose you could choose any number of players as part of the spell... Idk if adding in all that extra wordage is worth it though. But that could be done.
But that does even it up not being able to do so. Right now the red one is conceivably better than the black one. As it can hit planeswalkers and the player. But the black one hits not your stuff in ultimate mode. The red one currently only nukes 1 player's board. I do try to have balance when designing cards. But what would your solution be?
Maybe find someway to unify what is scaling, either the intensity (more damage) or the scope (more things damaged.) Trying to do both will make one feel left behind, causing awkward inconsistencies.
Also, I am not in the mindset that there can be ally in a multiplayer game. Only one person wins. I know some people do politics at the table like that, but that's not usually how games are won or lost.
I'm beginning to notice that we are very different in terms of playing and evaluating magic cards. And differences are fine.
I don't see the need for cards to be uniform. As long as the effect is the right power level for the cost it is good in my opinion. These aren't Forces, or part of a cycle so to speak. They are just cards with a keyword.
I'm sorry you are missing a key aspect in multiplayer games. I'm always looking for the way to win. If there is a big bad guy I'm not going to just say oh well I guess I lose. I'll try to facilitate a way I can win. For instance I played a game a few years back where one opponent had just cast the legendary treefolk with kicker. Kicker was a huge number. Like 12 or 20 or something. That combined with the Garruk that gives Overrun it was game over for everyone. I had no way to win that turn, no way to kill that player, and no way to stop all that damage. So I looked at the other player and asked if he had sweepers. He said yes. I said in hand? He said no. So I cast Compulsive Research targeting him. He did draw the Wrath and I was able to walk away with the game in the end. Sometimes you have to fog an attack so you can use that player to alpha back to beat the big bad guy at the table. It's a great aspect that is oftentimes under appreciated.
I've also Mindslavered an opponent to make him kill someone that was their ally as I was the big bad at the table, but was losing ground. They were trying to team up on me. I made one an ally through force. Lol. Had him swing out so I was then able to swing through and take the remaining player out. Good times.
I'm beginning to notice that we are very different in terms of playing and evaluating magic cards. And differences are fine.
I don't see the need for cards to be uniform. As long as the effect is the right power level for the cost it is good in my opinion. These aren't Forces, or part of a cycle so to speak. They are just cards with a keyword.
I'm sorry you are missing a key aspect in multiplayer games. I'm always looking for the way to win. If there is a big bad guy I'm not going to just say oh well I guess I lose. I'll try to facilitate a way I can win. For instance I played a game a few years back where one opponent had just cast the legendary treefolk with kicker. Kicker was a huge number. Like 12 or 20 or something. That combined with the Garruk that gives Overrun it was game over for everyone. I had no way to win that turn, no way to kill that player, and no way to stop all that damage. So I looked at the other player and asked if he had sweepers. He said yes. I said in hand? He said no. So I cast Compulsive Research targeting him. He did draw the Wrath and I was able to walk away with the game in the end. Sometimes you have to fog an attack so you can use that player to alpha back to beat the big bad guy at the table. It's a great aspect that is oftentimes under appreciated.
I've also Mindslavered an opponent to make him kill someone that was their ally as I was the big bad at the table, but was losing ground. They were trying to team up on me. I made one an ally through force. Lol. Had him swing out so I was then able to swing through and take the remaining player out. Good times.
Ye, we are very different at this.
And yes I know that politics are a thing in card games, but more often than not just playing to win can cause that too. Designing cards with politics in mind isn't a bad thing, but designing them to be inconsistent for a fringe possible political benefit in games with exactly 3 players is making them worse for very little benefit.
How much have you playtested these? How often are you exiting 5 cards to spread a burn spell to a couple more targets? How often will a deck with 5 instant or sorceries in it's graveyard care about missing it's own creatures with a -3/-3 board wipe? These cards are weak because you're assuming that the ability on them makes them stronger than it really does. Cool ability, very off execution
They weren't designed for politics. You mentioned how they were not uniform and included the multiplayer aspect. That never crossed my mind until you brought it up. I don't design cards for anything except head to head in non Commander formats. I've been saying they are just cards with a keyword. They don't need to be uniform. They aren't Forces. They aren't a cycle. It's okay for one card to be better than another. Blue has the more powerful delve spells. And that is okay. So can we please get back on track here?
And lastly, no they weren't off on execution. The intent of the rare ones, once again, is to not be able to be spammed over and over again. The effects are far to strong for that. I'll show you... How often would missing your creatures with the -3/-3 board wipe matter? How many times have you played black in magic and used removal spells for large threats and played creatures to get the board on your side? Now imagine killing all those small opposing creatures with 1 spell late in the game. That should tell you how good it is. How many times have you played white x deck and used removal to keep the big bombs off the table then wanted to be able to alpha strike with no negative effects on your board or yourself? You think they are overcosted and that's okay. But they aren't supposed to be cast over and over for full value.
Here are the common Empower cards.
Escape the Tomb B
Sorcery
Empower X(Exile X instants and/or sorceries from your graveyard as you cast this spell.)
0: Put the top creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
1-2: Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
3: Return up to 2 creature cards from your graveyard to you hand.
Binding Flash 1U
Instant
Empower X(Exile X instants and/or sorceries from your graveyard as you cast this spell.)
0: Tap target creature.
1: Tap up to 2 target creatures.
2: Tap up to 2 target creatures and they don't untap during their controller's untap step.
Make Way R
Sorcery
Empower X(Exile X instants and/or sorceries from your graveyard as you cast this spell.)
0: Target creature without flying cannot block this turn.
1-2: Up to 2 target creatures without flying cannot block this turn.
3: Creatures you control cannot be blocked this turn except by creatures with flying.
Celestial Serenity W
Instant
Empower X(Exile X instants and/or sorceries from your graveyard as you cast this spell.)
0: Target creature you control phases out.
1: Exile target creature you control. Return it to the battlefield at end of the turn.
2: Exile target creature you control then return it to the battlefield untapped.
Sylvan Demolition 1G
Instant
Empower X(Exile X instants and/or sorceries from your graveyard as you cast this spell.)
0: Destroy target artifact.
1-2: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
3: Target artifact or enchantment loses indestructible then is destroyed.
Empower X(Exile X instants and/or sorceries from your graveyard as you cast this spell.)
Disallow Wizardry UU
Instant
Choose target spell then Empower.
0: Return the targeted spell to it's owners hand.
1-2: Counter the spell unless it's controller pays 2.
3-4: Counter the Spell.
5: Counter the spell and return Disallow Wizardry to your hand.
Aeon Bolt 1R
Instant
Empower
Damage can't be prevented this turn then,
0: deal 1 damage to any target.
1-2: Deal 3 damage to any target.
3-5: deal 3 damage to up to 2 targets.
6: deal 3 damage to target player and every creature and planeswalker they control.
Ceremonious RejuvenationWW
Instant
Empower
0: Prevent the next 4 damage to any target.
1-3: Prevent the next 4 damage to any target and gain 4 life.
4: Prevent all damage that would be dealt this turn by sources you don't control and at the end of the turn gain life equal to the amount of damage prevented in this way.
Dramatic Augmentation G
Sorcery
Empower
0: Put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control.
1-2: Put a +1/+1 counter on up to 2 creatures you control.
3-5: Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.
6: Put 2 +1/+1 counters on each creature you control and creatures you control gain trample until end of turn.
Purity Through Decay 1BB
Sorcery
Empower
0: Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
1-2: Up to 2 target creatures get -2/-2 until end of turn.
3-4: All creatures get -3/-3 until end of turn.
5: All creatures you don't control get -3/-3 until end of turn.
These are the rares. Uncommon a would have less modes to have room for the reminder and flavor text.
Decry Form 1B
Instant
Empower X(Exile X instants and/or sorceries from your graveyard as you cast this spell.)
0: Target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
1-2: Target creature gets -3/-3 until end of turn.
3: Destroy target creature.
Escalate Expanse G
Sorcery
Empower X(Exile X instants and/or sorceries from your graveyard as you cast this spell.)
0-1: Search your library for a basic land card and put it into your hand.
2-3: Search your library for a land card and put it into your hand.
4: Search your library for a land card and put it on the battlefield. If it enters tapped untap it.
Call For Reinforcements 1W
Instant
Empower X(Exile X instants and/or sorceries from your graveyard as you cast this spell.)
0: Put a 1/1 white human creature token onto the battlefield.
1-3: Put a 2/2 white human creature token with firststrike onto the battlefield.
4: Put 2 2/2 white human creature tokens with firststrike onto the battlefield. Creatures you control gain firststrike until end of turn.
Ascending Insight 1U
Instant
Empower X(Exile X instants and/or sorceries from your graveyard as you cast this spell.)
0: Scry 2.
1-2: Scry 3.
3: Scry 3 then draw a card.
Rubble Ruin 1RR
Sorcery
Empower X(Exile X instants and/or sorceries from your graveyard as you cast this spell.)
0: Destroy target artifact.
1-3: Destroy up to 2 target artifacts.
4: Destroy all artifacts and deal 4 damage to each creature for each equipment it had on it
These are kind of like a restrictive dredge card, and so you'd only want 1-2 in your deck in limited (since a limited deck usually has only 6-8 non-creature spells) and even then they will be tough to cast for max effect.
What if you made them have a small/big effect instead of multi-step, where you get the big effect by exiling a set number of spells (say, 3 instants or sorceries)?
A few of the individual cards a bit awkward, Ceremonious Rejuvenation and Aeon Bolt can be better at lower empowerment often enough, and Purity Through Decay doesn't really scale well for the steep cost of doing so, but the mechanic is a solid idea.
Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
Omnath, Locus of Rage
Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy
Toshiro Umezawa
Thraximundar
Jirina Kudro
Geist of Saint Traft
Krark, the Thumbless + Sakashima of a Thousand Faces
This site has me constantly saying "Some peoples' kids"
For templating I envision it being done more like the saga cards. You get a bit more room for text this way.
The idea of them is to be only to use the big effect once a game on the rare cards. The uncommon cards, the ones you are more likely to have in limited, top out at 4 and most are just 3 for max effect.
I think they can fit everything in with the saga template. Effects may have to be worded a little different or cleaner to fit, but should be okay.
Most the uncommon and common cards as stated earlier do top out at 3 or 4. The more powerful effects are more game breaking so they have a higher cost. But when playing them you are most likely to have a deck in mind where they would be very strong. Such as modern Jeskai would like the blue one and the red one. Possibly a copy of the white one as well.
Some can feel awkward, but are very powerful effects. They were designed to be okayish early game, strong mid game and nearly back breaking late game. Like Rejuvenation. Can save a creature early in the game. Can save a guy and basically prevent the damage of a guy mid game and late game it's a blow out. You can either alpha them and when they do all their blocks play this for it's cheap coast and prevent all the damage they deal to your guys, allow your dudes to take some of their guys out, while probably getting in some damage, and then gain bunches of life at the end of the turn.
Aeon Bolt is another good example. If you are on the play you can kill a Mana dork or something small. Mid game it becomes a decent burn spell. Late game it'll knock out all small creatures they control.
I agree the black one's ultimate mode is a bit weak. I did up the last two modes, but it's possibly the strongest of the rare cycle, except maybe the blue one, at every stage it is a good card. Early it kills something, early mid game it is card advantage, late mid game or early late game (lol) it can wrath a board. Late game it's a limited Plague Wind effect.
All that said I don't want them too powerful where they just end the game outright. That is poor card design.
Thank you again for the kind words on the preview of the cards. I have all 15 made now. 1 each for each color at çommon, uncommon, and rare. Still thinking of mythic ones but those tend to be either too costly or game ending effects that I don't like. If you want I'll spoil the remaining cards and explain the set I've been creating to show how they fit in.
The reason the red and white ones are awkward is as follows:
Aeon Bolt can hit two players, or two creatures controlled by different players, but not on the ultimate mode, which in multiplayer could leave that being the lesser mode.
With Ceremonious Rejuvination, on the ultimate you could potentially not gain any life at all (if they have a sacrifice outlet, for example.)
Both are corner cases sort of, but something to consider, especially with the once or twice a game cost.
I think these would be fair with a 0-4 cost and payout maximum, maybe a few that scale less or more. They feel right for a new frame, like someone else said.
It's a cool alternate take to Spell Mastery, i feel like you might be over estimating the strength a little bit.
Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
Omnath, Locus of Rage
Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy
Toshiro Umezawa
Thraximundar
Jirina Kudro
Geist of Saint Traft
Krark, the Thumbless + Sakashima of a Thousand Faces
This site has me constantly saying "Some peoples' kids"
But that does even it up not being able to do so. Right now the red one is conceivably better than the black one. As it can hit planeswalkers and the player. But the black one hits not your stuff in ultimate mode. The red one currently only nukes 1 player's board. I do try to have balance when designing cards. But what would your solution be?
And lastly, the idea is for them to only be cast at full strength only a few times in the game. Imagine drawing multiples of the full power red or green one in a game. Yes that would probably be very back breaking. But these cheap costs with the power level they can achieve makes them very strong cards. I can't think of another red spell that costs 2 Mana that can destroy 6 creatures, 2 planeswalkers, and deal 3 damage to the opponent AND at the same time is actually a fair spell. I can't think of another 1 drop in green that basically casts a better overrun and is also a fair magic card. But these because of the limitations are able to do it. 😁
Maybe find someway to unify what is scaling, either the intensity (more damage) or the scope (more things damaged.) Trying to do both will make one feel left behind, causing awkward inconsistencies.
Also, I am not in the mindset that there can be ally in a multiplayer game. Only one person wins. I know some people do politics at the table like that, but that's not usually how games are won or lost.
Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
Omnath, Locus of Rage
Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy
Toshiro Umezawa
Thraximundar
Jirina Kudro
Geist of Saint Traft
Krark, the Thumbless + Sakashima of a Thousand Faces
This site has me constantly saying "Some peoples' kids"
I don't see the need for cards to be uniform. As long as the effect is the right power level for the cost it is good in my opinion. These aren't Forces, or part of a cycle so to speak. They are just cards with a keyword.
I'm sorry you are missing a key aspect in multiplayer games. I'm always looking for the way to win. If there is a big bad guy I'm not going to just say oh well I guess I lose. I'll try to facilitate a way I can win. For instance I played a game a few years back where one opponent had just cast the legendary treefolk with kicker. Kicker was a huge number. Like 12 or 20 or something. That combined with the Garruk that gives Overrun it was game over for everyone. I had no way to win that turn, no way to kill that player, and no way to stop all that damage. So I looked at the other player and asked if he had sweepers. He said yes. I said in hand? He said no. So I cast Compulsive Research targeting him. He did draw the Wrath and I was able to walk away with the game in the end. Sometimes you have to fog an attack so you can use that player to alpha back to beat the big bad guy at the table. It's a great aspect that is oftentimes under appreciated.
I've also Mindslavered an opponent to make him kill someone that was their ally as I was the big bad at the table, but was losing ground. They were trying to team up on me. I made one an ally through force. Lol. Had him swing out so I was then able to swing through and take the remaining player out. Good times.
Ye, we are very different at this.
And yes I know that politics are a thing in card games, but more often than not just playing to win can cause that too. Designing cards with politics in mind isn't a bad thing, but designing them to be inconsistent for a fringe possible political benefit in games with exactly 3 players is making them worse for very little benefit.
How much have you playtested these? How often are you exiting 5 cards to spread a burn spell to a couple more targets? How often will a deck with 5 instant or sorceries in it's graveyard care about missing it's own creatures with a -3/-3 board wipe? These cards are weak because you're assuming that the ability on them makes them stronger than it really does. Cool ability, very off execution
Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
Omnath, Locus of Rage
Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy
Toshiro Umezawa
Thraximundar
Jirina Kudro
Geist of Saint Traft
Krark, the Thumbless + Sakashima of a Thousand Faces
This site has me constantly saying "Some peoples' kids"
And lastly, no they weren't off on execution. The intent of the rare ones, once again, is to not be able to be spammed over and over again. The effects are far to strong for that. I'll show you... How often would missing your creatures with the -3/-3 board wipe matter? How many times have you played black in magic and used removal spells for large threats and played creatures to get the board on your side? Now imagine killing all those small opposing creatures with 1 spell late in the game. That should tell you how good it is. How many times have you played white x deck and used removal to keep the big bombs off the table then wanted to be able to alpha strike with no negative effects on your board or yourself? You think they are overcosted and that's okay. But they aren't supposed to be cast over and over for full value.
Escape the Tomb B
Sorcery
Empower X(Exile X instants and/or sorceries from your graveyard as you cast this spell.)
0: Put the top creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
1-2: Return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
3: Return up to 2 creature cards from your graveyard to you hand.
Binding Flash 1U
Instant
Empower X(Exile X instants and/or sorceries from your graveyard as you cast this spell.)
0: Tap target creature.
1: Tap up to 2 target creatures.
2: Tap up to 2 target creatures and they don't untap during their controller's untap step.
Make Way R
Sorcery
Empower X(Exile X instants and/or sorceries from your graveyard as you cast this spell.)
0: Target creature without flying cannot block this turn.
1-2: Up to 2 target creatures without flying cannot block this turn.
3: Creatures you control cannot be blocked this turn except by creatures with flying.
Celestial Serenity W
Instant
Empower X(Exile X instants and/or sorceries from your graveyard as you cast this spell.)
0: Target creature you control phases out.
1: Exile target creature you control. Return it to the battlefield at end of the turn.
2: Exile target creature you control then return it to the battlefield untapped.
Sylvan Demolition 1G
Instant
Empower X(Exile X instants and/or sorceries from your graveyard as you cast this spell.)
0: Destroy target artifact.
1-2: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
3: Target artifact or enchantment loses indestructible then is destroyed.