Honorable Martyr is there to fight combo decks like storm and eggs that 'go off' on a single turn. With this, they have to use removal on it on a turn other than their combo turn. Perhaps if I gave gave it hexproof and lowered it to 2/1?
Shield is there to fight things that use Echoing Truth, while at the same time to be less punishing against burn than Leyline is.
Storm and Eggs can just use their enormous amounts of mana to exile Shield, making it somewhat useless. Martyr is bad since Storm already would be removing it on another turn. Giving it hexproof would mean that Storm couldn't kill it and would lose whenever it resolved.
Embarrassing ConsultationUU Instant
Reveal the top 4 cards of your library. Target opponent picks two of them. Put those two into your hand, and shuffle the rest into your library.
Rapid Planning1U Instant
Scry 3. Draw a card.
Blood Slaying1B Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast this spell, you must pay 2 life.
Destroy target creature.
Slaughter UnderlingB Instant
Destroy target creature with converted mana cost 3 or less. If this spell destroys a token creature, gain 1 life.
PickleBG Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Zombie.
When Pickle enters the battlefield, tap enchanted Zombie.
Enchanted Zombie gains hexproof, swampwalk, and +0/+4. Vinegar and Zombies mix surprisingly well.
Protected Status1W Enchantment - Aura
Enchant permanent.
Sacrifice a creature: Enchanted permanent gains Indestructible until end of turn.
Slaughter Underling doesn't need the token bonus. It is already a better Smother. Embarrassing Consultation should put the cards in the graveyard for Snapcaster Mage. Blood Slaying isn't playable. Doom Blade already hits almost everything in the format except for Bob and Vault Skirge and sees very little play. Rapid Planning seems fine. Pickle is amusing. Protected Status is underpowered.
Haste
When Gambling Berserker enters the battlefield, search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, discard a card at random, then shuffle your library.
Sword of Nature and Artifice 3
Artifact-Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from white and green
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you may put a +1/+1 counter on target creature that you control and search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. If you do, then shuffle your library.
Equip 2
Sword of Ego and Power 3
Artifact-Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from blue and black
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you may return target creature to its owner's hand and choose target nonland card in the damaged opponent's graveyard and search its owner's hand, graveyard, and library for all cards with that name. Exile those cards, then shuffle that player's library.
Equip 2
Sword of Rage and Ferocity 3
Artifact-Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from red and green
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you may deal 1 damage to each creature target that that player controls and have equipped creature fight target creature that that player controls
Equip 2
Sword of Knowledge and Order 3
Artifact-Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from white and blue
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, target permanent doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step and look at the top 5 cards of your library and put them back in any order
Equip 2
Sword of Death and Destruction 3
Artifact-Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from black and red
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you may have target creature get -2/-2 until end of turn and Sword of Death and Destruction deals 3 damage to that player
Equip 2
So what I'm getting at is that you want to complete the "Sword of" cycle, basically to have one for each guild? That actually sounds like a pretty good idea.
So what I'm getting at is that you want to complete the "Sword of" cycle, basically to have one for each guild? That actually sounds like a pretty good idea.
So what I'm getting at is that you want to complete the "Sword of" cycle, basically to have one for each guild? That actually sounds like a pretty good idea.
What do you think of them?
The black/red one looks like the best amongst those. Having protection from black/red is very beneficial because those colors have the most creature removal (though granted, the strongest creature removal in Modern is Path).
So what I'm getting at is that you want to complete the "Sword of" cycle, basically to have one for each guild? That actually sounds like a pretty good idea.
What do you think of them?
The black/red one looks like the best amongst those. Having protection from black/red is very beneficial because those colors have the most creature removal (though granted, the strongest creature removal in Modern is Path).
I based the black/red one on Sword of Fire and Ice. I think that it is probably a little worse than that, but with better protections.
Having a 2 mana hard counter would matter a lot. Cards like Mana Leak become much less powerful in the late-game, and Control always goes to the late-game. Having a counter smother would greatly help with that.
So what about this then:
Late Game Counter-spell - UU
Instant
Counter target spell. If the spell is countered that way and it is turn 5 or earlier, return the spell to it's owners hand.
or
Counter target spell. Do not cast this spell before turn 5.
[quote from="AvalonAurora »" url="http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/490802-print-this-wizards-so-i-can-play-it-in-modern?comment=2592"]Embarrassing ConsultationUU Instant
Reveal the top 4 cards of your library. Target opponent picks two of them. Put those two into your hand, and shuffle the rest into your library.
Rapid Planning1U Instant
Scry 3. Draw a card.
Blood Slaying1B Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast this spell, you must pay 2 life.
Destroy target creature.
Slaughter UnderlingB Instant
Destroy target creature with converted mana cost 3 or less. If this spell destroys a token creature, gain 1 life.
PickleBG Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Zombie.
When Pickle enters the battlefield, tap enchanted Zombie.
Enchanted Zombie gains hexproof, swampwalk, and +0/+4. Vinegar and Zombies mix surprisingly well.
Protected Status1W Enchantment - Aura
Enchant permanent.
Sacrifice a creature: Enchanted permanent gains Indestructible until end of turn.
Slaughter Underling doesn't need the token bonus. It is already a better Smother. Embarrassing Consultation should put the cards in the graveyard for Snapcaster Mage. Blood Slaying isn't playable. Doom Blade already hits almost everything in the format except for Bob and Vault Skirge and sees very little play. Rapid Planning seems fine. Pickle is amusing. Protected Status is underpowered.
Maybe dropping the token bonus is fine, although it isn't necessarily always better than Smother, Smother has the stopping regen aspect, I'm just nit picking though. The point is being something in black to compete with Lightning Bolt and Path to Exile. Embarrasing Consultation would be OP at that mana cost if it fed the graveyard IMO, because of recursion effects like Snapcaster, the idea of it was something to fill up the hand at instant speed at low CMC. Blood Slaying has some potential if there are meta shifts IMO, having a sure-kill spell at 2 cmc to compete with Go for the Throat seems like a good idea to me, although Throat has the advantage of slipping past Spellskite, if there were a non-artifact creature that turned up with Spellskite's ability that was played, it would negate part of the reason to favor Go for the Throat. Protected Status I balanced the CMC based on Indestructibility and Spirit Bonds.
[quote from="AvalonAurora »" url="http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/490802-print-this-wizards-so-i-can-play-it-in-modern?comment=2592"]Embarrassing ConsultationUU Instant
Reveal the top 4 cards of your library. Target opponent picks two of them. Put those two into your hand, and shuffle the rest into your library.
Rapid Planning1U Instant
Scry 3. Draw a card.
Blood Slaying1B Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast this spell, you must pay 2 life.
Destroy target creature.
Slaughter UnderlingB Instant
Destroy target creature with converted mana cost 3 or less. If this spell destroys a token creature, gain 1 life.
PickleBG Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Zombie.
When Pickle enters the battlefield, tap enchanted Zombie.
Enchanted Zombie gains hexproof, swampwalk, and +0/+4. Vinegar and Zombies mix surprisingly well.
Protected Status1W Enchantment - Aura
Enchant permanent.
Sacrifice a creature: Enchanted permanent gains Indestructible until end of turn.
Slaughter Underling doesn't need the token bonus. It is already a better Smother. Embarrassing Consultation should put the cards in the graveyard for Snapcaster Mage. Blood Slaying isn't playable. Doom Blade already hits almost everything in the format except for Bob and Vault Skirge and sees very little play. Rapid Planning seems fine. Pickle is amusing. Protected Status is underpowered.
Maybe dropping the token bonus is fine, although it isn't necessarily always better than Smother, Smother has the stopping regen aspect, I'm just nit picking though. The point is being something in black to compete with Lightning Bolt and Path to Exile. Embarrasing Consultation would be OP at that mana cost if it fed the graveyard IMO, because of recursion effects like Snapcaster, the idea of it was something to fill up the hand at instant speed at low CMC. Blood Slaying has some potential if there are meta shifts IMO, having a sure-kill spell at 2 cmc to compete with Go for the Throat seems like a good idea to me, although Throat has the advantage of slipping past Spellskite, if there were a non-artifact creature that turned up with Spellskite's ability that was played, it would negate part of the reason to favor Go for the Throat. Protected Status I balanced the CMC based on Indestructibility and Spirit Bonds.
I am fine with Slaughter Underling, but the token bonus just seems unnecessary. Consultation just really isn't good if your opponent will just always give you the worst cards. There are already 5 monoblack kill spells that outclass Blood Slaying (Go For the Throat, Smother, Dismember, Doom Blade, and Victim of Night). It wouldn't see play. What would you be killing with it that you can't just Dismember at instant speed for the same manacost and same amount of life? As for Protected Status, since Indestructibility doesn't see play in Modern and Spirit Bonds is mainly good because of the first part not the second, it is still underpowered.
Reprogram 3UB
Sorcery
Target player discards all the cards in his or her hand. Search that player's library for that many cards. The player puts those cards into his or her hand, then shuffles his or her library.
Reprogram 3UB
Sorcery
Target player discards all the cards in his or her hand. Search that player's library for that many cards. The player puts those cards into his or her hand, then shuffles his or her library.
It seems like it costs too much mana to be useful. At that point, you could just cast Mind Shatter and probably still get every card in their hand.
The idea is that you can also target yourself to sculpt your hand. It's flexible and Head Games is just too bad for constructed Modern. For example, in Grixis Control, you can use it to give an all-lands hand to your opponent, or search up your Cruel Ultimatum + Snapcaster Mage finisher.
Regenerating Dose - W
Sorcery
Gain <Some Amount of> life. Draw a card.
So my question is this: no one plays Reviving Dose, so how much life should be gained to make this card tier one good without making it Tarmogoyf good. What if it cost more? What is it was an instant? What if the card draw happened on the next upkeep instead of immediately?
This is actually an interesting question. Any spell which can cantrip cheaply is always of interest in a format with Snapcaster mage. The problem is in order to gain a maindeck slot it has to gain enough life to pretty much destroy aggro in the format forever. As a sideboard card against aggro and burn I would say 3 life would be about right. Even that can be pretty brutal. Imagine a UWR player going bolt>this+bolt>snapcaster one of them.
The idea is that you can also target yourself to sculpt your hand. It's flexible and Head Games is just too bad for constructed Modern. For example, in Grixis Control, you can use it to give an all-lands hand to your opponent, or search up your Cruel Ultimatum + Snapcaster Mage finisher.
I didn't realize that it was target player, not opponent. In that case it is decent enough.
Regenerating Dose - W
Sorcery
Gain <Some Amount of> life. Draw a card.
So my question is this: no one plays Reviving Dose, so how much life should be gained to make this card tier one good without making it Tarmogoyf good. What if it cost more? What is it was an instant? What if the card draw happened on the next upkeep instead of immediately?
This is actually an interesting question. Any spell which can cantrip cheaply is always of interest in a format with Snapcaster mage. The problem is in order to gain a maindeck slot it has to gain enough life to pretty much destroy aggro in the format forever. As a sideboard card against aggro and burn I would say 3 life would be about right. Even that can be pretty brutal. Imagine a UWR player going bolt>this+bolt>snapcaster one of them.
How about:
W
Instant
Tap target nonland permanent. You gain 2 life. Draw a card.
Regenerating Dose - W
Sorcery
Gain <Some Amount of> life. Draw a card.
So my question is this: no one plays Reviving Dose, so how much life should be gained to make this card tier one good without making it Tarmogoyf good. What if it cost more? What is it was an instant? What if the card draw happened on the next upkeep instead of immediately?
This is actually an interesting question. Any spell which can cantrip cheaply is always of interest in a format with Snapcaster mage. The problem is in order to gain a maindeck slot it has to gain enough life to pretty much destroy aggro in the format forever. As a sideboard card against aggro and burn I would say 3 life would be about right. Even that can be pretty brutal. Imagine a UWR player going bolt>this+bolt>snapcaster one of them.
The lifegain has to be enough to buy you a turn against aggro in the early game, so 3 seems decent for a 1-mana spell. I figure: W - Gain 3 Life, Draw a card. 1W - Gain 6 Life, Draw a card. 1WW - Gain 10 Life, Draw a card. 2WW - Gain 15 Life, Draw a card.
Is probably fair.
I see lifegain as a form of control in that it increases the control player's resources. But unlike counterspells and hand disruption, people generally don't complain about it.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Things WotC cares about:
-making certain Standard cards can be played in Modern, therefore increasing their value and increasing WotC's profit margin
Things WotC does not care about:
-keeping the ban list as short as possible
-taking chances with an entire format for the benefit of a single card
-catering to play styles that newer players generally don't like and will lose them more players than it will gain
-keeping the meta balanced between archetypes/colors/whatever
-keeping cards on the secondary market cheap (available yes, but not cheap)
-keeping the meta diverse (as long as a single deck doesn't threaten the popularity of the format)
Regenerating Dose - W
Sorcery
Gain <Some Amount of> life. Draw a card.
So my question is this: no one plays Reviving Dose, so how much life should be gained to make this card tier one good without making it Tarmogoyf good. What if it cost more? What is it was an instant? What if the card draw happened on the next upkeep instead of immediately?
This is actually an interesting question. Any spell which can cantrip cheaply is always of interest in a format with Snapcaster mage. The problem is in order to gain a maindeck slot it has to gain enough life to pretty much destroy aggro in the format forever. As a sideboard card against aggro and burn I would say 3 life would be about right. Even that can be pretty brutal. Imagine a UWR player going bolt>this+bolt>snapcaster one of them.
The lifegain has to be enough to buy you a turn against aggro in the early game, so 3 seems decent for a 1-mana spell. I figure: W - Gain 3 Life, Draw a card. 1W - Gain 6 Life, Draw a card. 1WW - Gain 10 Life, Draw a card. 2WW - Gain 15 Life, Draw a card.
Is probably fair.
I see lifegain as a form of control in that it increases the control player's resources. But unlike counterspells and hand disruption, people generally don't complain about it.
Given that Renewed Faith saw Constructed play, I'd say these are a bit pushed.
The 1-mana one might be fair.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I don't care if you're a moderator but you sir have said a very, very stupid thing.
Regenerating Dose - W
Sorcery
Gain <Some Amount of> life. Draw a card.
So my question is this: no one plays Reviving Dose, so how much life should be gained to make this card tier one good without making it Tarmogoyf good. What if it cost more? What is it was an instant? What if the card draw happened on the next upkeep instead of immediately?
This is actually an interesting question. Any spell which can cantrip cheaply is always of interest in a format with Snapcaster mage. The problem is in order to gain a maindeck slot it has to gain enough life to pretty much destroy aggro in the format forever. As a sideboard card against aggro and burn I would say 3 life would be about right. Even that can be pretty brutal. Imagine a UWR player going bolt>this+bolt>snapcaster one of them.
The lifegain has to be enough to buy you a turn against aggro in the early game, so 3 seems decent for a 1-mana spell. I figure: W - Gain 3 Life, Draw a card. 1W - Gain 6 Life, Draw a card. 1WW - Gain 10 Life, Draw a card. 2WW - Gain 15 Life, Draw a card.
Is probably fair.
I see lifegain as a form of control in that it increases the control player's resources. But unlike counterspells and hand disruption, people generally don't complain about it.
Given that Renewed Faith saw Constructed play, I'd say these are a bit pushed.
The 1-mana one might be fair.
I wasn't around for the standard where Renewed Faith saw play, so I have to ask: was it played in anything that didn't get something out of cycling cards (like Astral Slide). Even so, this is for decks to be played in Modern. Is Renewed Faith played a lot in Legacy now without it's cycling being used? Also, keep in mind the cards I proposed are sorceries, not instants.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Things WotC cares about:
-making certain Standard cards can be played in Modern, therefore increasing their value and increasing WotC's profit margin
Things WotC does not care about:
-keeping the ban list as short as possible
-taking chances with an entire format for the benefit of a single card
-catering to play styles that newer players generally don't like and will lose them more players than it will gain
-keeping the meta balanced between archetypes/colors/whatever
-keeping cards on the secondary market cheap (available yes, but not cheap)
-keeping the meta diverse (as long as a single deck doesn't threaten the popularity of the format)
At the very least the 3 and 4 costing ones are imbalanced- they pretty much guarantee you survive to Wrath, or Rev, while digging for it. It's just game over for any aggro deck.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I don't care if you're a moderator but you sir have said a very, very stupid thing.
At the very least the 3 and 4 costing ones are imbalanced- they pretty much guarantee you survive to Wrath, or Rev, while digging for it. It's just game over for any aggro deck.
Perhaps. Maybe 3 life per mana is a good rule of thumb for cantripping sorcery. But consider this, if you are playing aggro, and your opponent taps out 4 white mana, would you rather they gain 15 life, or wrath the board?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Things WotC cares about:
-making certain Standard cards can be played in Modern, therefore increasing their value and increasing WotC's profit margin
Things WotC does not care about:
-keeping the ban list as short as possible
-taking chances with an entire format for the benefit of a single card
-catering to play styles that newer players generally don't like and will lose them more players than it will gain
-keeping the meta balanced between archetypes/colors/whatever
-keeping cards on the secondary market cheap (available yes, but not cheap)
-keeping the meta diverse (as long as a single deck doesn't threaten the popularity of the format)
Decree of VicissitudesUW
Instant
Counter target spell. If the countered spell has a CMC of 4 or greater its controller draws a card. If the CMC is 3 or less you may untap a basic land you control.
We definitely need a non-conditional 2 mana counter, so I thought it'd be interesting to try and have a drawback and a benefit.
Decree of VicissitudesUW
Instant
Counter target spell. If the countered spell has a CMC of 4 or greater its controller draws a card. If the CMC is 3 or less you may untap a basic land you control.
We definitely need a non-conditional 2 mana counter, so I thought it'd be interesting to try and have a drawback and a benefit.
U Tron
GW Bogles
RG Loam
UR Blue Breach
RBU Grixis Goryo
BRU Grixis Delver
GBR Jund
GBW Junk
Active Legacy Decks
BR Reanimator
Storm and Eggs can just use their enormous amounts of mana to exile Shield, making it somewhat useless. Martyr is bad since Storm already would be removing it on another turn. Giving it hexproof would mean that Storm couldn't kill it and would lose whenever it resolved.
Slaughter Underling doesn't need the token bonus. It is already a better Smother. Embarrassing Consultation should put the cards in the graveyard for Snapcaster Mage. Blood Slaying isn't playable. Doom Blade already hits almost everything in the format except for Bob and Vault Skirge and sees very little play. Rapid Planning seems fine. Pickle is amusing. Protected Status is underpowered.
I like this.
Dismember is already an almost strictly better Ulcerate. Ulcerate is just a bad card that won't see any Modern play.
It's too good. I'd add 1 colorless mana to it. It also isn't green. Countering spells is blue and drawing cards is blue.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Artifact-Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from white and green
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you may put a +1/+1 counter on target creature that you control and search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. If you do, then shuffle your library.
Equip 2
Sword of Ego and Power 3
Artifact-Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from blue and black
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you may return target creature to its owner's hand and choose target nonland card in the damaged opponent's graveyard and search its owner's hand, graveyard, and library for all cards with that name. Exile those cards, then shuffle that player's library.
Equip 2
Sword of Rage and Ferocity 3
Artifact-Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from red and green
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you may deal 1 damage to each creature target that that player controls and have equipped creature fight target creature that that player controls
Equip 2
Sword of Knowledge and Order 3
Artifact-Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from white and blue
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, target permanent doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step and look at the top 5 cards of your library and put them back in any order
Equip 2
Sword of Death and Destruction 3
Artifact-Equipment
Equipped creature gets +2/+2 and has protection from black and red
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you may have target creature get -2/-2 until end of turn and Sword of Death and Destruction deals 3 damage to that player
Equip 2
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
What do you think of them?
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
The black/red one looks like the best amongst those. Having protection from black/red is very beneficial because those colors have the most creature removal (though granted, the strongest creature removal in Modern is Path).
I based the black/red one on Sword of Fire and Ice. I think that it is probably a little worse than that, but with better protections.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
That's similar to delay
Currently playing:
GCasual 8-post
R Casual Land Destruction
UBRWG Legacy Dredge
WGB Modern Melira Pod
RUG EDH
Maybe dropping the token bonus is fine, although it isn't necessarily always better than Smother, Smother has the stopping regen aspect, I'm just nit picking though. The point is being something in black to compete with Lightning Bolt and Path to Exile. Embarrasing Consultation would be OP at that mana cost if it fed the graveyard IMO, because of recursion effects like Snapcaster, the idea of it was something to fill up the hand at instant speed at low CMC. Blood Slaying has some potential if there are meta shifts IMO, having a sure-kill spell at 2 cmc to compete with Go for the Throat seems like a good idea to me, although Throat has the advantage of slipping past Spellskite, if there were a non-artifact creature that turned up with Spellskite's ability that was played, it would negate part of the reason to favor Go for the Throat. Protected Status I balanced the CMC based on Indestructibility and Spirit Bonds.
I am fine with Slaughter Underling, but the token bonus just seems unnecessary. Consultation just really isn't good if your opponent will just always give you the worst cards. There are already 5 monoblack kill spells that outclass Blood Slaying (Go For the Throat, Smother, Dismember, Doom Blade, and Victim of Night). It wouldn't see play. What would you be killing with it that you can't just Dismember at instant speed for the same manacost and same amount of life? As for Protected Status, since Indestructibility doesn't see play in Modern and Spirit Bonds is mainly good because of the first part not the second, it is still underpowered.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
Sorcery
Target player discards all the cards in his or her hand. Search that player's library for that many cards. The player puts those cards into his or her hand, then shuffles his or her library.
GWUB 4C Gifts Control
Commander:
GWU Derevi
BGW Ghave
BUG Muldrotha
Tiny Leaders:
BGW Doran
BGU Leovold
It seems like it costs too much mana to be useful. At that point, you could just cast Mind Shatter and probably still get every card in their hand.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
GWUB 4C Gifts Control
Commander:
GWU Derevi
BGW Ghave
BUG Muldrotha
Tiny Leaders:
BGW Doran
BGU Leovold
This is actually an interesting question. Any spell which can cantrip cheaply is always of interest in a format with Snapcaster mage. The problem is in order to gain a maindeck slot it has to gain enough life to pretty much destroy aggro in the format forever. As a sideboard card against aggro and burn I would say 3 life would be about right. Even that can be pretty brutal. Imagine a UWR player going bolt>this+bolt>snapcaster one of them.
I didn't realize that it was target player, not opponent. In that case it is decent enough.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
How about:
W
Instant
Tap target nonland permanent. You gain 2 life. Draw a card.
Niveous Wisps+ basically.
OR
But that might be too greedy. :D:D
The lifegain has to be enough to buy you a turn against aggro in the early game, so 3 seems decent for a 1-mana spell. I figure:
W - Gain 3 Life, Draw a card.
1W - Gain 6 Life, Draw a card.
1WW - Gain 10 Life, Draw a card.
2WW - Gain 15 Life, Draw a card.
Is probably fair.
I see lifegain as a form of control in that it increases the control player's resources. But unlike counterspells and hand disruption, people generally don't complain about it.
-making certain Standard cards can be played in Modern, therefore increasing their value and increasing WotC's profit margin
Things WotC does not care about:
-keeping the ban list as short as possible
-taking chances with an entire format for the benefit of a single card
-catering to play styles that newer players generally don't like and will lose them more players than it will gain
-keeping the meta balanced between archetypes/colors/whatever
-keeping cards on the secondary market cheap (available yes, but not cheap)
-keeping the meta diverse (as long as a single deck doesn't threaten the popularity of the format)
Given that Renewed Faith saw Constructed play, I'd say these are a bit pushed.
The 1-mana one might be fair.
I wasn't around for the standard where Renewed Faith saw play, so I have to ask: was it played in anything that didn't get something out of cycling cards (like Astral Slide). Even so, this is for decks to be played in Modern. Is Renewed Faith played a lot in Legacy now without it's cycling being used? Also, keep in mind the cards I proposed are sorceries, not instants.
-making certain Standard cards can be played in Modern, therefore increasing their value and increasing WotC's profit margin
Things WotC does not care about:
-keeping the ban list as short as possible
-taking chances with an entire format for the benefit of a single card
-catering to play styles that newer players generally don't like and will lose them more players than it will gain
-keeping the meta balanced between archetypes/colors/whatever
-keeping cards on the secondary market cheap (available yes, but not cheap)
-keeping the meta diverse (as long as a single deck doesn't threaten the popularity of the format)
Perhaps. Maybe 3 life per mana is a good rule of thumb for cantripping sorcery. But consider this, if you are playing aggro, and your opponent taps out 4 white mana, would you rather they gain 15 life, or wrath the board?
-making certain Standard cards can be played in Modern, therefore increasing their value and increasing WotC's profit margin
Things WotC does not care about:
-keeping the ban list as short as possible
-taking chances with an entire format for the benefit of a single card
-catering to play styles that newer players generally don't like and will lose them more players than it will gain
-keeping the meta balanced between archetypes/colors/whatever
-keeping cards on the secondary market cheap (available yes, but not cheap)
-keeping the meta diverse (as long as a single deck doesn't threaten the popularity of the format)
Instant
Counter target spell. If the countered spell has a CMC of 4 or greater its controller draws a card. If the CMC is 3 or less you may untap a basic land you control.
We definitely need a non-conditional 2 mana counter, so I thought it'd be interesting to try and have a drawback and a benefit.
This actually seems pretty interesting.
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.