Big apologies for taking this long. I ended up not having finished my judgments before my flight, but I managed to get them done in the air (with a few edits).
Stille-Nacht: This doesn't feel very Orzhov as black has very limited artifact removal. The flavor is fun but I'm sad to see it doesn't involve Walls or Defenders when it's in the name.
Mr.Rithaniel: This does some very strange things, and the "in any order" aspect means you can mix and match the effects you want and it's a really cool twist on it. It's possible that effect is too strong when it's cast at three mana because you could discard a huge creature like Emrakul or Griselbrand and immediately reanimate it, but it's pretty color intensive and it's symmetrical so you never know what shenanigans may ensue.
TheRavenManIsSquee: These all seem like fairly balanced modes. I don't think the Bird token needs vigilance, and I would probably argue that you should be able to tap any permanent in these colors not just a land for versatility. 4 life might also be steep when you compare this to Absorb as well. It's a good set of modes that control decks would absolutely love.
Phyrexian Editor: Unfortunately this doesn't fit the challenge, but I've always liked the design of a DFC castable from both sides although logistically there are issues. The white half is really strong and reminiscent of Mentor of the Meek, and the red half (kithkin in red?) works great for spellslinging decks, and so herein lies the problem: what kind of deck that runs this card wants to transform it? It seems like one half is great for creatures and the other noncreatures. There's a lack of overlap here that makes the mechanic a bit useless, these may as well be two separate cards. Although this is definitely better than your old submission, I would also argue about timing restrictions to transform too.
Eventide Sojourner : I think that 90% of the time this will exile two creatures for 2WW. Vraska's Contempt is already strongly played and this is similar and probably better because of removal quality. I think the other modes are fine, he the exiling is just a bit too powerful for an instant.
Mergatroid_Jones: This also doesn't fit the challenge sadly but I see what you were trying for and it's a good way to design a one mana walker. Ashiok seems fine although I don't think that last ability works because of SBE. Wrenn seems odd if not a little powerful for one mana. Estrid seems fine to me. Dovin is overpoweres. His first ability is nuts and the taxing emblem being a -1 makes it super frustrating. Tibalt seems good but I'd make the discard/draw a may effect so as to not be too disruptive for one mana.
chetoos I think the best way to word this card would be like the Siege cycle from Fate Reforged. You could even choose Nature or Nurture as the choices and it would fit great. I have flavor qualms though as Marwyn has been a very competent midwife to the elves for generations and having her suddenly be Nissa's pupil betrays her age and experience.
Morphic_Tide : I'm beginning to think people don't know what modal spells are. This card does so much and is honestly quite messy. Combining keywords from a whole load of sets, having some nonsensical creature type changes, and using energy, +1/+1 and - 1/-1 counters on the same card. It's trying to do way too much and needs a lot of dialing back.
Sephon19: There are a lot of different modes here, possibly too many for an uncommon. You either get a 0/1 mana dork, two blockers and a bit of life or a 2/3 vigilance. By themselves they'd be perfectly fine, and being one of two of these would also be fair I think, but three options is a little too much variety for an uncommon. I think having creatures gain abilities as a mode hasn't been done yet for a reason (mainly memory issues) and so for a card like this I might opt for the Primal Clay approach instead.
Cardz5000: This does some interesting things. One side is a group hug effect and the other is more like a punisher for exactly the same thing it's trying to hug. I like that it's able to work with multiple copies of itself on different modes.
JuanCu : It's hard to evaluate the rarity of this card but I like that it self limits at 7 mana. It's not super powerful but it's interesting at least.
TotallyHaywire: I quite like the noble sacrifice aspect of this card and how sacrificing a legendary is an out to motivate all your troops.
I'm going to give the win this round to Mr.Rithaniel, making the next challenge Lands with the text "the game" on them.
Commander Academy
Legendary Land
If you have a commander, you may begin the game with this card in your command zone and choosing a color. This game, your commander is that color in addition to its colors, and costs 2 more to cast.
You may play this land from the command zone if you casted your commander this turn. T: Add a mana of the chosen color.
Ah I made my card an uncommon early in the process and forgot to change it back. Memorywise it uses the same technology as eg Anavolver where no counters mean one state, one counter means another and two counters means a third. (Anavolver itself had a fourth possible state with three counters on it.) Primal Clay is an example of how *not* to do it because you can't tell what it is by virtue of just looking at it. I'm fine with the loss ofc.
I think the deck that wants it is a deck that wants to draw cards off casting Young Pyromancer and other copies of this card and then make a bunch of elementals, or pretty much any limited deck. I thought nontraditional "modal" cards were ok, but you're the boss.
Heart of Muraganda
Legendary Land {R}
At the beginning of your end step, exile a land you control. Then, if you have exiled at least one basic land of each land type with Heart of Muraganda, you win the game. t: Add one mana of any color.
Ruinous Chasm
Land {R}
Cumulative Upkeep: Sacrifice a Land
When you would put Ruinous Chasm from the battlefield into the graveyard, you lose the game.
t:Each player sacrifices a land. If a player has no lands, that player loses the game.
The chasm swallowed everything around it, friend and foe alike. It spread like a cancer across the face of Phyrexia.
Shrine of the Unseen
Land (U) T: Add C. 3,t, Sacrifice Shrine of the Unseen: Put a land card you own from outside the game onto the battlefield tapped.
Nexus of the Lich
Legendary Land M T, Pay 1 life: Add C.
If you would lose the game, instead exile Nexus of the Lich, discard your hand, sacrifice all lands you control and your life total becomes 1.
NEXT: Wizards have announced they're experimenting with black enchantment destruction. Show me what that looks like at common in a core set.
Ruined Colosseum
Land (R) : Add , , or .
If you would win the game or an opponent would lose the game, instead sacrifice Ruined Colosseum.
When you sacrifice Ruined Colosseum, until the end of your next turn, You can’t win the game and your opponents can’t lose the game.
IIW: Treasure Tokens! (Remember Rapacious Dragon updated the wording!)
Temple of Zacama
Legendary Land (mythic)
Temple of Zacama enters the battlefield tapped. Add , , or
At the beginning of your upkeep, reveal the top card of your library. If it is a dinosaur card, put a might counter on Temple of Zacama, then if Temple of Zacama has 5 or more might counters on it, you win the game.
As you reveal the top card of your library with Temple of Zacama, if that card is a dinosaur, you may sacrifice Temple of Zacama. If you do, put the revealed card onto the battlefield.
IIW: Un cards (silly)
Convergence of Leylines
Enchantment Land
If Convergence of Leylines is in your opening hand, you may begin the game with it on the battlefield tapped with X charge counters on it, where X is the number of other permanents with different names that you control. T: Add C. T: Add X mana in any combination of colors.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have no cards in hand and Convergence of Leylines is untapped, tap it and draw X cards.
IIW: Counters on cards not on the battlefield (and not suspend)
JuanCu with Commander Academy
I like the flavor of this card. You have a univerity that trains highly skilled individuals, where your commander is a student. A very neat idea. However, the issue is with the card's balance. It ensures that you always have an extra land in your opening hand, which needless to say is a huge thing, particularly if all that it costs is the fact that a card which you might not ever cast costs 2 more than it otherwise would. However, there is also the issue that this card doesn't function as what I believe was intended. At the beginning of the game, it jumps into the command zone and gives the commander an extra color. However, this is an action that takes place after deck construction, so you still have a deck which is the same colors as it originally was, but now you have a land that can produce a color not in your color identity. Of course, looking past that, if this card actually allowed you to build the deck differently, it would completely revamp the way the game of commander even works, becoming an auto-include in any deck and partially invalidating the defining deck building restriction of commander.
Phyrexian Editor with Heart of Muraganda
This card is difficult to evaluate. At first glance it seems a bit overpowered, but when you actually consider how a game would progress with it, it could very easily lose the game for you. You can't play it by itself, as it would then exile itself at the end of the turn. If you play it with just one other land on the battlefield, now you have to hit every land drop for the rest of the game to avoid ending up at zero lands. This could be very tricky to play around with this card. Though, as a win condition: Your opponent might have difficulty stopping you, as opposing lands are notoriously difficult to interact with. As a result, gameplay with this card might end up as a game of solitaire, as you'd be mainly fighting with the land itself. Still, I can imagine a deck which could win with this card with moderate consistenty. Just load up on evolving wilds, rampant growths, and any other kind of cheap basic land search you can get. Now, such a deck doesn't give you much to defend against your opponent's strategy, and there are always faster decks than what this would be, so this card might ultimately be underpowered. Then again, it also be overpowered. Like I said, this card is difficult to evaluate.
Stille_Nacht with Ruinous Chasm
This thing is trying to kill it's controller. It can only possibly be a tool to use in your favor if you control more lands than your opponent, but with that cumulative upkeep, keeping more lands than your opponent is not going to happen. So, what we want is to use it to make opponents lose the game, which means that you have to activate that tap ability when an opponent has exactly one land on the battlefield. However, you also don't want to lose the game to it, so you need to have a second land in play. Lets not get into the math of what you would need to do in order to survive the cumulative upkeep and come out on top, but suffice to say that the situation where you can do so will be rare. Therefore the best case scenario is one where you play first and this card and one other land is in your hand, in which case this is a turn 2 win. So, we have either a turn 2 win or a completely dead draw. There is also consideration to be given that this card could be used as sidedeck material against vintage or legacy decks which don't play lands, which is a redeeming quality, but I don't think it's enough of one. (Also, a land which doesn't tap for mana is not good design, in my opinion. I know they've existed in the past.)
Mergatroid_Jones with Shrine of the Unseen
Hmmmm, a wish-land? That is very interesting. The fact that it can fetch a non-basic land and put it straight onto the battlefield instead of into your hand makes me slightly dubious about the cost. Though, thinking about how it would actually play out, traditionally "outside the game" means "in your sideboard." So, since you can only have four copies of a card between your main deck and your sideboard, you would likely end up with a situation where you have three copies of a particular land in your deck and one in your sideboard with four of these in your deck, significantly increasing your chance of getting the one land that you want. However, in that build, you have to pay 4 and sacrifice a land over half the time in order to get that land. So it doesn't seem too powerful. You could also use it as a toolbox, fetching one of many different lands from your sideboard, but the cost ultimately seems fair. Trying to compare it to already-printed cards, the most similar effects would be Living Wish and Crop Rotation. While those are both restricted to green, the mana cost seems to be line with what we see in them. The potential color bleed is also fine as no other card has an effect like this, so it would be setting a precedent. I like this design.
Sephon19 with Nexus of the Lich
Intruiging. I like this idea, it's really cool, even if I'm not the biggest fan of sweeping "I'm gonna nuke my own side" effects. Of course, the biggest thing that stands out to me is that this land doesn't touch nonland permanents and leaves cards in your graveyard, so you can make some big plays with this. One example would be where you swing out, leaving yourself open to counterattack, but when that counterattack reduces you to just your creatures, you still get one more turn to swing for the fences. This land being on the battlefield really changes the way the game is played. Perhaps it might even be too much for a land to give, though, since the effect is essentially a "free" extra turn. It's not quite free, of course, as it destroys your land base and your hand, but that might not really be enough. My inner Johnny also really likes this design, as it can potentially form a two-card combo with Barren Glory, and has a mechanism which allows you to lose the game "on your own terms." Really, this is a cool idea, but perhaps a bit too powerful.
Cardz5000 with Ruined Colosseum
Now that's an interesting mechanic. A three-color land whose drawback is that, at the end of the game, if you would win, your opponent gets an extra turn. I wonder if this would be intended as a cycle of three-color lands. If so, I have a suspicion that having too many of these on the battlefield at the same time would confuse veteran and new players alike. While I like the idea of the interplay these kinds of cards could create, having a set with even five different cards with the same effect could turn the end of the game into a job of accounting for whoever's "stall" is still active. So let's assume that this card is a stand-alone, and not intended as one in a cycle. Though, considering the balance, I think this card might be a bit underpowered. You give your opponent an extra turn at the end of the game in exchange for some mana fixing. In fact, it could tap for one mana of any color and still be underpowered. Also, there is an issue with the wording as it is, I believe. Since triggered abilities are put onto the stack when state based actions are checked and checking if a person has lost the game is a state based action, this card would play out as "Player's life is reduced to -9. Instead of player losing the game, Colosseum is sacrificed. Put triggered ability on stack. Before ability resolves, player loses the game."
TheRavenManIsSquee with Temple of Zacama
Well, that second ability is a bit of an issue. You could easily get a "free" giant creature (such as Zetalpa, Primal Dawn) on turn two or three, which then allows you to win the game much faster than the other ability would allow you to. Technically, it wouldn't be free, because you have to sacrifice a land to get the effect, but that's such a low cost that it is effectively free. Anyways, as a result, you wouldn't really try to use the "win the game" ability, because you'd be sacrificing the land when possible, and so that second ability could be safely removed. Though, if you removed that ability, you'd be in a better state, overall, but still probably a bit too powerful, I think. The 'win the game' ability is a bit too easy to win with. It doesn't require any sacrifice or real strategy on your part, just that you built your deck with mostly dinosaurs and that you get lucky with what is on top of your deck. Keep in mind that lands and their abilities are notoriously difficult things to interact with, so this would end up being a countdown that your opponent might not be able to stop.
TotallyHaywire with Convergence of Leylines
Now this is a crazy card. There is a bit to unpack with it. Obviously, it's meant to be played in a deck with many leylines, but it's honestly a bit much. Even by itself, assuming that you managed to get it onto the battlefield with no leylines anywhere, you now have one more land than your opponent, and it cost you nothing. Compare against Chancellor of the Tangle, which only gives you the mana for one turn. Imagine if you managed to get two or three of these in your opening hand, and start at 3 or 4 mana on turn one. Meanwhile, if you manage to get it into play with one other card, now you have a land which taps for any color of mana and, if you have no cards in hand, allows you to draw extra cards every turn. If you managed to get two or three types of leylines into play, now you have a land which taps for many lands worth of mana, and can draw you several cards per turn so long as you keep your hand empty. Also, the drawing cards effect is way too much. Lands that repeatedly draw cards for free are famously overpowered. Look at Bazaar of Baghdad and Library of Alexandria. Both are cards which cost over $1,000 apiece and whose designs have never been repeated. Also you have some wording issues. The first ability should say "where X is the number of names among other permanents you control" and the two abilities which refer to X need to specify what X is in their text. So, the tap ability would be "Add X mana in any combination of colors, where X is the number of charge counters on Convergence of Leylines."
WINNER: Mergatroid_Jones NEXT CHALLENGE: One mana enchantments
Caress of Winter
Enchantment (R)
At the beginning of each player’s upkeep, that player puts an ice counter on a nonsnow permanent they control of their choice. That permanent becomes snow for as long as it has an ice counter on it.
IIW: Lands that tap for multiple mana types with a single basic land type (like Murmuring Bosk).
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
May your games be chaotic and your decks be Rogue.
Expanded Recruitment W
Enchantment
If one or more tokens would be created under your control, create that many plus one instead.
Or
Nature's flourishing G
Enchantment
If one or more tokens would be created under your control, create that many plus one instead.
(Basically, I think this card would fit easily under either umbrella.)
IIW: Choose an uncommon walker from WAR and turn them into a rare or mythic walker (static, plus, minus). I want at least one Kiora entry, since she's awesome.
Blank Space
Enchantment {C}
When Blank Space enters the battlefield, draw a card. The decay of Zhalfir started small — a wall suddenly bare, a vase suddenly empty — provoking a moment of wonder or déjà vu.
Lightning InsigniaR
Enchantment {U}
Whenever Lightning Insignia enters or leaves the battlefield, it deals 2 damage to any target. 3R: Destroy Lightning Insignia.
Evoke 2RR(You may cast this spell for its evoke cost. If you do, it’s sacrificed when it enters the battlefield.)
IIW: Treasure Tokens! (Remember Rapacious Dragon updated the wording!)
Curse of NeglectB
Enchantment - Aura Curse (Common)
Enchant player
At the beginning of enchanted player's upkeep, that player exiles two cards from their graveyard. If they can't, they lose 1 life. Abandoning ones past is more painful than you might expect.
Root’s Defense
Enchantment (R)
2 : Creatures you control get +0/+1 until end of turn.
2 :Until your opponents next turn, each creature loses flying.
Even the dinosaurs do not rule the forest.
IIW: Your pet card. (Something you would love as a commander, a cube card, or a card to breath new life into an existing archetype or create a new one.) Be sure to put what you designed this card for under the card itself.
Note: Megiddo has said that we are moving to the nexus website when it launches, and the whole staff team is moving too, so Club Flamingo will be restarted on the nexus site.
Consigned SoulB
Enchantment
When Consigned Soul enters the battlefield, discard a card, then pay X life and exile the top X cards of your library face down in a pile.
At the beginning of your upkeep, put the top card of the exiled pile into your hand.
Mutual Mistrust U
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, you and another target player each look at the top card of each other's libraries. You may each put that card on the bottom of the player's library. 3B, sacrifice Mutual Mistrust: Name a card other than a basic land card. Target opponent reveals their hand and discards all cards with the chosen name. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.
Iiw: counters on cards not on the battlefield or suspended
Eventide Sojourner: Caress of Winter
It's just a marker, but it triggers pretty often. There are some snow hate cards in Ice Age, but a quick gatherer search didn't turn up anything that could really lock somebody out. It mostly ends up increasing the count of things that count snow permanents. Honestly, I'm not sure this needs to cost S. It make an already niche card even more niche. I could see it being white or red, or even a colorless artifact. I don't think there's anything crazy to be done with this, and if there is, more power to you.
Juan Cu: Flaming Rune and Consigned Soul
Flaming Rune is nice and effective. The bonus is a little bland for an unprecedented enchant equipment, but I don't have a problem with that. It's harder to remove an equipment than a creature, so you don't get two-for-oned as much as you would with a creature enchantment.
Consigned Soul is pretty nuts. If you have enough life, you can exile the library for a Laboratory Maniac win, but that's little more than cute. It's Necropotence and Honden of Seeing Winds stapled together, and I think the idea is pretty neat. However, this just does too much on turn one. Requiring a discard is a big deal, and this can be completely dead in the late game. Nevertheless, it's an easy first turn to discard something that's good to discard, pay around five life (more in commander) and enjoy an absurd level of card advantage. For an effect like this, I don't think one mana is appropriate, simply because of degenerate turn ones. The card's really cool though, and I bet if it got extensive testing, it wouldn't end up being broken (but it might).
Chetoos: Expanded Recruitment/ Nature's Flourishing
The concept is great, but I absolutely think this should cost more than one mana. I could see an argument for 1G, 1W, GW, WW, (G/W)(G/W), or 2(G/W), but definitely not G or W. 1G and 1W are iffy. I do think this is slightly more white than green.
Phyrexian Editor: Blank Space
I like this. It's a whole lot weaker than Mishra's Bauble, but it's not terrible. Colorless matters means that enchantress won't really get to do anything with this. Will anybody have a use for this? I'm not sure, but I don't mind for it to exist. A lot of the appeal of this is its simple text box, but it's really on the weak side. I wouldn't mind if it had something like "4C: Return Blank Space to its owner's hand."
Stille Nacht: Deontology
I would say most deontological systems don't take pacifism as a categorical imperative (though I would as a strict pacifist). Certainly the Greeks wouldn't. Why in hell is this rare? It's a basic removal spell that would probably be uncommon (common would lead to too much inactivity in limited games). Balance wise, I have no issue with this. It can lead to some interesting situations and combat decisions. The flavor is a little weird, but it works out in the end. "I am honor bound not to attack unprovoked." It works, but "Deontology" is such a high concept (and sounds like a high concept even if you don't know what it means) that this little mini-pacifism doesn't necessarily do it justice. I think "Honor Bound" is actually more accurate to the card. Note, I did take philosophy 101, but I still had to google deontology to remember which vocabulary word it was. I had it mixed up with epistemology, which is mostly unrelated. The jargon really bleeds together.
Cardz 5000: Lightning Insignia
Now that's a Shock variant! Or a Seal of Fire variant, I suppose. It's really good, but it's definitely not overpowered. There's a lot to do with this than a typical burn spell. Well done. Did Seal of Fire really need a strictly better version? No, but it's not overpowered, so I don't see a problem.
Subject 16: Curse of Neglect
This is a subtly powerful card, and I think it should be uncommon. The one life per turn is eventually going to start being really problematic, and enchantments can be hard to deal with. But they can deal with that simply by filling their grave. I like grave hate cards, and this is more subtle than a blunt instrument like Grafdigger's Cage. Nice card.
The Raven Man is Squee: Root's Defense
This is actually the kind of card I had in mind with this challenge. It's a cheap little toolbox that does some nice things. Maybe it could stand to be a little less conservative on the abilities, but cards like this always play better than they look. I always liked Spidersilk Armor, and it was always almost decent. I think this would be the same way.
Totally Haywire: Mutual Mistrust
Okay, this card is insane. I don't think there are too many ways to break parity. You don't want to replace islands in a Treasure Hunt deck, and I don't know of many other ways to get around it. They still haven't printed the card that says "You may draw cards from the top or bottom or your library". I feel like this should be overpowered, but I don't think it is.
Totally Haywire
Next: Counters on cards not on the battlefield or suspended
Nevinyrral, the Eternal 2WWBB
Legendary Planeswalker — Nevinyrral {MR}
You may activate loyalty abilities of Nevinyrral, the Eternal while it is in your graveyard.
+1: Exile target creature card from a graveyard. Gain 2 life.
-4: Return Nevinyrral, the Eternal from your graveyard to your hand.
-7: Destroy all artifacts, creatures, enchantments, and planeswalkers.
<7>
Release notes: When Nevinyrral, the Eternal dies, it enters your graveyard with no counters on it. If you cannot target a creature card with Nevinyrral's first ability, it cannot be activated.
Stille-Nacht: This doesn't feel very Orzhov as black has very limited artifact removal. The flavor is fun but I'm sad to see it doesn't involve Walls or Defenders when it's in the name.
Mr.Rithaniel: This does some very strange things, and the "in any order" aspect means you can mix and match the effects you want and it's a really cool twist on it. It's possible that effect is too strong when it's cast at three mana because you could discard a huge creature like Emrakul or Griselbrand and immediately reanimate it, but it's pretty color intensive and it's symmetrical so you never know what shenanigans may ensue.
TheRavenManIsSquee: These all seem like fairly balanced modes. I don't think the Bird token needs vigilance, and I would probably argue that you should be able to tap any permanent in these colors not just a land for versatility. 4 life might also be steep when you compare this to Absorb as well. It's a good set of modes that control decks would absolutely love.
Phyrexian Editor: Unfortunately this doesn't fit the challenge, but I've always liked the design of a DFC castable from both sides although logistically there are issues. The white half is really strong and reminiscent of Mentor of the Meek, and the red half (kithkin in red?) works great for spellslinging decks, and so herein lies the problem: what kind of deck that runs this card wants to transform it? It seems like one half is great for creatures and the other noncreatures. There's a lack of overlap here that makes the mechanic a bit useless, these may as well be two separate cards. Although this is definitely better than your old submission, I would also argue about timing restrictions to transform too.
Eventide Sojourner : I think that 90% of the time this will exile two creatures for 2WW. Vraska's Contempt is already strongly played and this is similar and probably better because of removal quality. I think the other modes are fine, he the exiling is just a bit too powerful for an instant.
Mergatroid_Jones: This also doesn't fit the challenge sadly but I see what you were trying for and it's a good way to design a one mana walker. Ashiok seems fine although I don't think that last ability works because of SBE. Wrenn seems odd if not a little powerful for one mana. Estrid seems fine to me. Dovin is overpoweres. His first ability is nuts and the taxing emblem being a -1 makes it super frustrating. Tibalt seems good but I'd make the discard/draw a may effect so as to not be too disruptive for one mana.
chetoos I think the best way to word this card would be like the Siege cycle from Fate Reforged. You could even choose Nature or Nurture as the choices and it would fit great. I have flavor qualms though as Marwyn has been a very competent midwife to the elves for generations and having her suddenly be Nissa's pupil betrays her age and experience.
Morphic_Tide : I'm beginning to think people don't know what modal spells are. This card does so much and is honestly quite messy. Combining keywords from a whole load of sets, having some nonsensical creature type changes, and using energy, +1/+1 and - 1/-1 counters on the same card. It's trying to do way too much and needs a lot of dialing back.
Sephon19: There are a lot of different modes here, possibly too many for an uncommon. You either get a 0/1 mana dork, two blockers and a bit of life or a 2/3 vigilance. By themselves they'd be perfectly fine, and being one of two of these would also be fair I think, but three options is a little too much variety for an uncommon. I think having creatures gain abilities as a mode hasn't been done yet for a reason (mainly memory issues) and so for a card like this I might opt for the Primal Clay approach instead.
Cardz5000: This does some interesting things. One side is a group hug effect and the other is more like a punisher for exactly the same thing it's trying to hug. I like that it's able to work with multiple copies of itself on different modes.
JuanCu : It's hard to evaluate the rarity of this card but I like that it self limits at 7 mana. It's not super powerful but it's interesting at least.
TotallyHaywire: I quite like the noble sacrifice aspect of this card and how sacrificing a legendary is an out to motivate all your troops.
I'm going to give the win this round to Mr.Rithaniel, making the next challenge Lands with the text "the game" on them.
Legendary Land
If you have a commander, you may begin the game with this card in your command zone and choosing a color. This game, your commander is that color in addition to its colors, and costs 2 more to cast.
You may play this land from the command zone if you casted your commander this turn.
T: Add a mana of the chosen color.
IWW: from the end of days
Heart of Muraganda
Legendary Land {R}
At the beginning of your end step, exile a land you control. Then, if you have exiled at least one basic land of each land type with Heart of Muraganda, you win the game.
t: Add one mana of any color.
IIW: Steve Buscemi is a wizard
Land {R}
Cumulative Upkeep: Sacrifice a Land
When you would put Ruinous Chasm from the battlefield into the graveyard, you lose the game.
t:Each player sacrifices a land. If a player has no lands, that player loses the game.
The chasm swallowed everything around it, friend and foe alike. It spread like a cancer across the face of Phyrexia.
IIW: Original Superheroes
UWUW ControlUW
UGWSpiritsUGW
GHardened ScalesG
WGRUKiki PodWGRU [RIP]
Land (U)
T: Add C.
3,t, Sacrifice Shrine of the Unseen: Put a land card you own from outside the game onto the battlefield tapped.
IIW: One mana enchantments
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
Legendary Land M
T, Pay 1 life: Add C.
If you would lose the game, instead exile Nexus of the Lich, discard your hand, sacrifice all lands you control and your life total becomes 1.
NEXT: Wizards have announced they're experimenting with black enchantment destruction. Show me what that looks like at common in a core set.
Land (R)
If you would win the game or an opponent would lose the game, instead sacrifice Ruined Colosseum.
When you sacrifice Ruined Colosseum, until the end of your next turn, You can’t win the game and your opponents can’t lose the game.
IIW: Treasure Tokens! (Remember Rapacious Dragon updated the wording!)
Legendary Land (mythic)
Temple of Zacama enters the battlefield tapped.
At the beginning of your upkeep, reveal the top card of your library. If it is a dinosaur card, put a might counter on Temple of Zacama, then if Temple of Zacama has 5 or more might counters on it, you win the game.
As you reveal the top card of your library with Temple of Zacama, if that card is a dinosaur, you may sacrifice Temple of Zacama. If you do, put the revealed card onto the battlefield.
IIW: Un cards (silly)
Enchantment Land
If Convergence of Leylines is in your opening hand, you may begin the game with it on the battlefield tapped with X charge counters on it, where X is the number of other permanents with different names that you control.
T: Add C.
T: Add X mana in any combination of colors.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have no cards in hand and Convergence of Leylines is untapped, tap it and draw X cards.
IIW: Counters on cards not on the battlefield (and not suspend)
I like the flavor of this card. You have a univerity that trains highly skilled individuals, where your commander is a student. A very neat idea. However, the issue is with the card's balance. It ensures that you always have an extra land in your opening hand, which needless to say is a huge thing, particularly if all that it costs is the fact that a card which you might not ever cast costs 2 more than it otherwise would. However, there is also the issue that this card doesn't function as what I believe was intended. At the beginning of the game, it jumps into the command zone and gives the commander an extra color. However, this is an action that takes place after deck construction, so you still have a deck which is the same colors as it originally was, but now you have a land that can produce a color not in your color identity. Of course, looking past that, if this card actually allowed you to build the deck differently, it would completely revamp the way the game of commander even works, becoming an auto-include in any deck and partially invalidating the defining deck building restriction of commander.
Phyrexian Editor with Heart of Muraganda
This card is difficult to evaluate. At first glance it seems a bit overpowered, but when you actually consider how a game would progress with it, it could very easily lose the game for you. You can't play it by itself, as it would then exile itself at the end of the turn. If you play it with just one other land on the battlefield, now you have to hit every land drop for the rest of the game to avoid ending up at zero lands. This could be very tricky to play around with this card. Though, as a win condition: Your opponent might have difficulty stopping you, as opposing lands are notoriously difficult to interact with. As a result, gameplay with this card might end up as a game of solitaire, as you'd be mainly fighting with the land itself. Still, I can imagine a deck which could win with this card with moderate consistenty. Just load up on evolving wilds, rampant growths, and any other kind of cheap basic land search you can get. Now, such a deck doesn't give you much to defend against your opponent's strategy, and there are always faster decks than what this would be, so this card might ultimately be underpowered. Then again, it also be overpowered. Like I said, this card is difficult to evaluate.
Stille_Nacht with Ruinous Chasm
This thing is trying to kill it's controller. It can only possibly be a tool to use in your favor if you control more lands than your opponent, but with that cumulative upkeep, keeping more lands than your opponent is not going to happen. So, what we want is to use it to make opponents lose the game, which means that you have to activate that tap ability when an opponent has exactly one land on the battlefield. However, you also don't want to lose the game to it, so you need to have a second land in play. Lets not get into the math of what you would need to do in order to survive the cumulative upkeep and come out on top, but suffice to say that the situation where you can do so will be rare. Therefore the best case scenario is one where you play first and this card and one other land is in your hand, in which case this is a turn 2 win. So, we have either a turn 2 win or a completely dead draw. There is also consideration to be given that this card could be used as sidedeck material against vintage or legacy decks which don't play lands, which is a redeeming quality, but I don't think it's enough of one. (Also, a land which doesn't tap for mana is not good design, in my opinion. I know they've existed in the past.)
Mergatroid_Jones with Shrine of the Unseen
Hmmmm, a wish-land? That is very interesting. The fact that it can fetch a non-basic land and put it straight onto the battlefield instead of into your hand makes me slightly dubious about the cost. Though, thinking about how it would actually play out, traditionally "outside the game" means "in your sideboard." So, since you can only have four copies of a card between your main deck and your sideboard, you would likely end up with a situation where you have three copies of a particular land in your deck and one in your sideboard with four of these in your deck, significantly increasing your chance of getting the one land that you want. However, in that build, you have to pay 4 and sacrifice a land over half the time in order to get that land. So it doesn't seem too powerful. You could also use it as a toolbox, fetching one of many different lands from your sideboard, but the cost ultimately seems fair. Trying to compare it to already-printed cards, the most similar effects would be Living Wish and Crop Rotation. While those are both restricted to green, the mana cost seems to be line with what we see in them. The potential color bleed is also fine as no other card has an effect like this, so it would be setting a precedent. I like this design.
Sephon19 with Nexus of the Lich
Intruiging. I like this idea, it's really cool, even if I'm not the biggest fan of sweeping "I'm gonna nuke my own side" effects. Of course, the biggest thing that stands out to me is that this land doesn't touch nonland permanents and leaves cards in your graveyard, so you can make some big plays with this. One example would be where you swing out, leaving yourself open to counterattack, but when that counterattack reduces you to just your creatures, you still get one more turn to swing for the fences. This land being on the battlefield really changes the way the game is played. Perhaps it might even be too much for a land to give, though, since the effect is essentially a "free" extra turn. It's not quite free, of course, as it destroys your land base and your hand, but that might not really be enough. My inner Johnny also really likes this design, as it can potentially form a two-card combo with Barren Glory, and has a mechanism which allows you to lose the game "on your own terms." Really, this is a cool idea, but perhaps a bit too powerful.
Cardz5000 with Ruined Colosseum
Now that's an interesting mechanic. A three-color land whose drawback is that, at the end of the game, if you would win, your opponent gets an extra turn. I wonder if this would be intended as a cycle of three-color lands. If so, I have a suspicion that having too many of these on the battlefield at the same time would confuse veteran and new players alike. While I like the idea of the interplay these kinds of cards could create, having a set with even five different cards with the same effect could turn the end of the game into a job of accounting for whoever's "stall" is still active. So let's assume that this card is a stand-alone, and not intended as one in a cycle. Though, considering the balance, I think this card might be a bit underpowered. You give your opponent an extra turn at the end of the game in exchange for some mana fixing. In fact, it could tap for one mana of any color and still be underpowered. Also, there is an issue with the wording as it is, I believe. Since triggered abilities are put onto the stack when state based actions are checked and checking if a person has lost the game is a state based action, this card would play out as "Player's life is reduced to -9. Instead of player losing the game, Colosseum is sacrificed. Put triggered ability on stack. Before ability resolves, player loses the game."
TheRavenManIsSquee with Temple of Zacama
Well, that second ability is a bit of an issue. You could easily get a "free" giant creature (such as Zetalpa, Primal Dawn) on turn two or three, which then allows you to win the game much faster than the other ability would allow you to. Technically, it wouldn't be free, because you have to sacrifice a land to get the effect, but that's such a low cost that it is effectively free. Anyways, as a result, you wouldn't really try to use the "win the game" ability, because you'd be sacrificing the land when possible, and so that second ability could be safely removed. Though, if you removed that ability, you'd be in a better state, overall, but still probably a bit too powerful, I think. The 'win the game' ability is a bit too easy to win with. It doesn't require any sacrifice or real strategy on your part, just that you built your deck with mostly dinosaurs and that you get lucky with what is on top of your deck. Keep in mind that lands and their abilities are notoriously difficult things to interact with, so this would end up being a countdown that your opponent might not be able to stop.
TotallyHaywire with Convergence of Leylines
Now this is a crazy card. There is a bit to unpack with it. Obviously, it's meant to be played in a deck with many leylines, but it's honestly a bit much. Even by itself, assuming that you managed to get it onto the battlefield with no leylines anywhere, you now have one more land than your opponent, and it cost you nothing. Compare against Chancellor of the Tangle, which only gives you the mana for one turn. Imagine if you managed to get two or three of these in your opening hand, and start at 3 or 4 mana on turn one. Meanwhile, if you manage to get it into play with one other card, now you have a land which taps for any color of mana and, if you have no cards in hand, allows you to draw extra cards every turn. If you managed to get two or three types of leylines into play, now you have a land which taps for many lands worth of mana, and can draw you several cards per turn so long as you keep your hand empty. Also, the drawing cards effect is way too much. Lands that repeatedly draw cards for free are famously overpowered. Look at Bazaar of Baghdad and Library of Alexandria. Both are cards which cost over $1,000 apiece and whose designs have never been repeated. Also you have some wording issues. The first ability should say "where X is the number of names among other permanents you control" and the two abilities which refer to X need to specify what X is in their text. So, the tap ability would be "Add X mana in any combination of colors, where X is the number of charge counters on Convergence of Leylines."
NEXT CHALLENGE: One mana enchantments
Second Place: Sephon19
Thid Place: Cardz5000
Enchantment (R)
At the beginning of each player’s upkeep, that player puts an ice counter on a nonsnow permanent they control of their choice. That permanent becomes snow for as long as it has an ice counter on it.
IIW: Lands that tap for multiple mana types with a single basic land type (like Murmuring Bosk).
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Equipment
Enchanted Equipment has "Equipped creature has +3/+1"
IIW: From the end of days
Enchantment
If one or more tokens would be created under your control, create that many plus one instead.
Or
Nature's flourishing G
Enchantment
If one or more tokens would be created under your control, create that many plus one instead.
(Basically, I think this card would fit easily under either umbrella.)
IIW: Choose an uncommon walker from WAR and turn them into a rare or mythic walker (static, plus, minus). I want at least one Kiora entry, since she's awesome.
Enchantment {C}
When Blank Space enters the battlefield, draw a card.
The decay of Zhalfir started small — a wall suddenly bare, a vase suddenly empty — provoking a moment of wonder or déjà vu.
Iiw: Whatever you want, but make it weird
Enchantment - Aura{R}
Enchant creature.
Enchanted creature can't attack unless its controller was attacked last turn.
Some deontological systems do not take Pacifism as a categorical imperative.
IIW: Original superheroes
UWUW ControlUW
UGWSpiritsUGW
GHardened ScalesG
WGRUKiki PodWGRU [RIP]
Enchantment {U}
Whenever Lightning Insignia enters or leaves the battlefield, it deals 2 damage to any target.
3R: Destroy Lightning Insignia.
Evoke 2RR (You may cast this spell for its evoke cost. If you do, it’s sacrificed when it enters the battlefield.)
IIW: Treasure Tokens! (Remember Rapacious Dragon updated the wording!)
Enchantment - Aura Curse (Common)
Enchant player
At the beginning of enchanted player's upkeep, that player exiles two cards from their graveyard. If they can't, they lose 1 life.
Abandoning ones past is more painful than you might expect.
IIW: Blinking shenanigans
Enchantment (R)
2
2
Even the dinosaurs do not rule the forest.
IIW: Your pet card. (Something you would love as a commander, a cube card, or a card to breath new life into an existing archetype or create a new one.) Be sure to put what you designed this card for under the card itself.
Note: Megiddo has said that we are moving to the nexus website when it launches, and the whole staff team is moving too, so Club Flamingo will be restarted on the nexus site.
Enchantment
When Consigned Soul enters the battlefield, discard a card, then pay X life and exile the top X cards of your library face down in a pile.
At the beginning of your upkeep, put the top card of the exiled pile into your hand.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, you and another target player each look at the top card of each other's libraries. You may each put that card on the bottom of the player's library.
3B, sacrifice Mutual Mistrust: Name a card other than a basic land card. Target opponent reveals their hand and discards all cards with the chosen name. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.
Iiw: counters on cards not on the battlefield or suspended
It's just a marker, but it triggers pretty often. There are some snow hate cards in Ice Age, but a quick gatherer search didn't turn up anything that could really lock somebody out. It mostly ends up increasing the count of things that count snow permanents. Honestly, I'm not sure this needs to cost S. It make an already niche card even more niche. I could see it being white or red, or even a colorless artifact. I don't think there's anything crazy to be done with this, and if there is, more power to you.
Juan Cu: Flaming Rune and Consigned Soul
Flaming Rune is nice and effective. The bonus is a little bland for an unprecedented enchant equipment, but I don't have a problem with that. It's harder to remove an equipment than a creature, so you don't get two-for-oned as much as you would with a creature enchantment.
Consigned Soul is pretty nuts. If you have enough life, you can exile the library for a Laboratory Maniac win, but that's little more than cute. It's Necropotence and Honden of Seeing Winds stapled together, and I think the idea is pretty neat. However, this just does too much on turn one. Requiring a discard is a big deal, and this can be completely dead in the late game. Nevertheless, it's an easy first turn to discard something that's good to discard, pay around five life (more in commander) and enjoy an absurd level of card advantage. For an effect like this, I don't think one mana is appropriate, simply because of degenerate turn ones. The card's really cool though, and I bet if it got extensive testing, it wouldn't end up being broken (but it might).
Chetoos: Expanded Recruitment/ Nature's Flourishing
The concept is great, but I absolutely think this should cost more than one mana. I could see an argument for 1G, 1W, GW, WW, (G/W)(G/W), or 2(G/W), but definitely not G or W. 1G and 1W are iffy. I do think this is slightly more white than green.
Phyrexian Editor: Blank Space
I like this. It's a whole lot weaker than Mishra's Bauble, but it's not terrible. Colorless matters means that enchantress won't really get to do anything with this. Will anybody have a use for this? I'm not sure, but I don't mind for it to exist. A lot of the appeal of this is its simple text box, but it's really on the weak side. I wouldn't mind if it had something like "4C: Return Blank Space to its owner's hand."
Stille Nacht: Deontology
I would say most deontological systems don't take pacifism as a categorical imperative (though I would as a strict pacifist). Certainly the Greeks wouldn't. Why in hell is this rare? It's a basic removal spell that would probably be uncommon (common would lead to too much inactivity in limited games). Balance wise, I have no issue with this. It can lead to some interesting situations and combat decisions. The flavor is a little weird, but it works out in the end. "I am honor bound not to attack unprovoked." It works, but "Deontology" is such a high concept (and sounds like a high concept even if you don't know what it means) that this little mini-pacifism doesn't necessarily do it justice. I think "Honor Bound" is actually more accurate to the card. Note, I did take philosophy 101, but I still had to google deontology to remember which vocabulary word it was. I had it mixed up with epistemology, which is mostly unrelated. The jargon really bleeds together.
Cardz 5000: Lightning Insignia
Now that's a Shock variant! Or a Seal of Fire variant, I suppose. It's really good, but it's definitely not overpowered. There's a lot to do with this than a typical burn spell. Well done. Did Seal of Fire really need a strictly better version? No, but it's not overpowered, so I don't see a problem.
Subject 16: Curse of Neglect
This is a subtly powerful card, and I think it should be uncommon. The one life per turn is eventually going to start being really problematic, and enchantments can be hard to deal with. But they can deal with that simply by filling their grave. I like grave hate cards, and this is more subtle than a blunt instrument like Grafdigger's Cage. Nice card.
The Raven Man is Squee: Root's Defense
This is actually the kind of card I had in mind with this challenge. It's a cheap little toolbox that does some nice things. Maybe it could stand to be a little less conservative on the abilities, but cards like this always play better than they look. I always liked Spidersilk Armor, and it was always almost decent. I think this would be the same way.
Totally Haywire: Mutual Mistrust
Okay, this card is insane. I don't think there are too many ways to break parity. You don't want to replace islands in a Treasure Hunt deck, and I don't know of many other ways to get around it. They still haven't printed the card that says "You may draw cards from the top or bottom or your library". I feel like this should be overpowered, but I don't think it is.
Next: Counters on cards not on the battlefield or suspended
Looks like a tough challenge to me.
HM to Cardz5000 and Subject16.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
Legendary Planeswalker — Nevinyrral {MR}
You may activate loyalty abilities of Nevinyrral, the Eternal while it is in your graveyard.
+1: Exile target creature card from a graveyard. Gain 2 life.
-4: Return Nevinyrral, the Eternal from your graveyard to your hand.
-7: Destroy all artifacts, creatures, enchantments, and planeswalkers.
<7>
Release notes: When Nevinyrral, the Eternal dies, it enters your graveyard with no counters on it. If you cannot target a creature card with Nevinyrral's first ability, it cannot be activated.
IIW: A legendary merfolk and her dolphin friend