MTG Salvation

Thing in the Ice has a ton of fun interactions. In UR with Bolt, snapcaster, git probe, and counter spells Thing seems really easy to pull off.
With a well sequenced Natural Affinity Thing becomes Upheaval of Tentacles.

Did we have a decent mono-white sac outlet before? Finks + Anafenza + Reaper of Flight Moonsilver would be fun to pull off. Reaper plus white tokens also seems fun.

I've been out of the loop for a while, but t4 sweeper into t5 Fatcaster + Bust seems pretty gross. Plus Boros has some pretty great 1 drops for early turns and post Bust. Abbot also works with all those 1 drops. I'd guess boom doesn't hurt you too much given all the 1 drops (and if their response is to counter it, you have 1 less counter spell to worry about and it still goes to the yard for Fatcaster). Kitchen Finks + Lightning Helix give you more reach to make it to turn 5.

How do these things match up against the current modern decks?

What about using it with Wheel of Fate or Restore Balance? Or how about split cards like Boom//Bust?

With 1 PW:
Overload is useless
Overload + Replicate is useless
Replicate without Overload is 1 dmg per R

With 2 PW:
Overload is 2 dmg for 1UR
Overload + Replicate is 4 dmg for 1URR
Overload + 2 Replicate is 6 dmg for 1URRR
3 Replicate is 4 dmg for RRRR
At 4 total mana both combos deal the same damage. Any greater and Overload + Replicate deals more dmg.

With 3 PW:
Overload dmg is equal to equivalent number of Replicates.
Overload + Replicate completely outpaces Replicate.

Against creatures the spell is much more effective.
Lowering the Overload cost or making it an instant would make it almost strictly better than that common overload spell. Doing both would definitely. Is there an mtg wording that would make it hit either creature or planeswalker normally, and all of both at overload? Would that be broken?
I guess if this were to ever be played it would need to do enough in one hit to outperform Staticaster.

Those are the concerns that I have.

Edit: I have yet to change Ripple Bolt's text

Quote from jokulmorder

Grave-Tiller is so stupidly broken (as mentioned above). It's almost strictly better than Hermit Druid.

Also, Ripple Bolt's replicate ability almost invalidates its overload. You need them to have ~4 planeswalkers in order to get any value out of it, not to mention that the card doesn't even work in the rules as you can't target planeswalkers for damage.

Yeah tiller was a mega-derp on my part.

As far as I can tell, overload changes the text of the spell and replicate makes copies of that spell. I would assume replicate copies the overloaded spell. As of innistrad nowhere in rule 306 does it state that planeswalkers cannot be targeted for damage effects (damage redirection from a player is entirely different).

I wanted to put more utility on Grave-tiller (which now a plant and called golgari grave-creeper instead). Obviously the draw 1 is stupid with dredge. Any suggestions that wouldn't break it?

I put in some rat-squirrels tht blur the Selesnya-Orzhov line. Everyone loves squirrels right?

Exiling creatures reanimated by rot devil upon leaving the battlefield might help balance it.

Quote from Izuki

Mixing counter types is bad design (Wizards thinks it's too confusing) and Magic cards don't use +n/-n counters anymore.
Couldn't you just give the devil a +/- bonus while hellbent?

Done. I assume the hellbent still takes effect even if the creature enters the battlefield without the unleash. I dropped 1 from the +m/-n. Seems more balanced and more black (they love their +2/-1s). Is the CMC reasonable? 5 to the face is no joke. Dropping your hand after swinging for 3 is a total of 8. Is that too much?

I thought it would be neat to make some ravnica cards with old and new keywords together. I have made 4 so far and will add more as I think them up. I might also mix some guilds up.

Old and new keywords:

Ravnican Rats (apparently South Park, Colorado is in ravnica):

A cycle or two of dimir agents would be cool. The flavor being they turn into each other and can infiltrate any guild. 4 color agents may be quite hard to use effectively.

Dimir Agents:

Cards are not currently designed with balance in mind. Feel
Free to respond with balance related posts, but give examples.

Esper/Orzhov humans with Blood Artist seems the most viable to me. Tons of drain. A field full of Blood Artist, at least 1 cartel aristocrat and a bunch of humans seems like a good win condition. The only question I have is what good cards do we have to fill the grave? With Snapcaster we don't need to worry if IS ends up in the grave.
In Modern we also have Golgari Thug to consider

I support fblthp as a where's Waldo flavor planeswalker, with his neowalker card being in an Un-set. That way we can enjoy the flavor without him taking up a walker in a real set. Plus I would enjoy a new Un-set.

True story: Fblthp gets so lost he finds his way through the dragons maze, finds some mystical power and saves Ravnica from guild warfare.

This + blood artist + cartel aristocrat + vizkopa guildmage + other 2cc humans seems good. Maybe a splash of blue for supreme verdict.

seems fairly unpredictable. I'd love to build a deck full of man lands and utility lands though, that might be very fun for casual.

Quote from Subhuman

I loved the Nephilim and maintain a 5 colour deck just for them. There are few things funner than morbidly Tragic Slipping an Ink-Treader Nephilim in multiplayer.

I would be happy if they put out some more 4 colour cards - and the mana fixing necessary - but happier still if they put out some 3 color wedge cards (Ana, Dega, etc style). Some 5 guild Angry Azorius, Beasting Dimir, Peaceful Rakdos, Tricksy Gruul and Bad Selesnya weirdness.

Personally I think that we'll find out that this is the culmination in a 10000 year plan of Niv-Mizzet to join Bolas and become a Planeswalker. He's been manipulating the Guilds and their wars to create the right conditions.

I had some similar ideas and some crazy ones. The craziest being Dimir is infiltrating the guilds to eventually destroy all traces of White and Green mana, as part of a plan by Nicol Bolas. Niv-Mizzet and Rakdos aren't real they're just creations made from/by Nicol Bolas.
Guilds like Simic and Golgari will join forces to deal with the dimir. A dimir sleeper agent will use the simic to make himself into a plant zombie (instead of a skeletal type) and gain favor over those guilds.
A Dimir Sleeper agent will die and infiltrate the ghost council. In desperation guilds will start to join forces.
Boros and Azorius to enact divine judgement on the grotesque Simic/Golgari beasts.
Gruul will be targeted by this justice and join forces with selesnya.
Niv will realize a great power is needed to stop this conflict and will join forces with rakdos due to his power. They will be compelled to get a simic mage (Dimir sleeper) to fuse them and unknowingly create an Avatar of Nicol Bolas. Bolas will crush the other guilds.
In response the remaining (blackness) guilds will join forces to create a being to destroy the avatar. They will get a simic to fuse many strong members of those guilds creating a 5-color Nephilim (Avatar of Ravnica?). It will throw Bolas' avatar into the void but drain many ravnican's to the point of death.
The guilds are now finished as the beast drains anyone who uses mana.

Then I remembered that the nephilim regained their power by eating dragons under the city. The Dragon's Maze probably refers to something like this rather than a crazy Nicol Bolas Plan.