MTG Salvation

Revamped Thoughttheft Mage U
Creature – Human Wizard
When Revamped Thoughttheft Mage enters the battlefield, choose an opponent.
At the beginning of that player's upkeep, you may choose a card type other than land.
The chosen player reveals each card he or she draws in his or her draw step. If he would draw a card of the chosen card type, that player exiles it instead.
"Nice tutor"
(1/1)

So hard to word...

That's a lot more powerful than the original though. Which is good I guess, because the original was too weak... Combine with JTMS to make sure the opponent draws nothing but lands the rest of the game. Memory Lapse and Unexpectedly Absent become quite absurd. Still, I'm not sure if this is good enough for Cube.

The new version should probably be worded like Zur's Weirding.

Quote from Falcone1983 »

That's a lot more powerful than the original though. Which is good I guess, because the original was too weak... Combine with JTMS to make sure the opponent draws nothing but lands the rest of the game. Memory Lapse and Unexpectedly Absent become quite absurd. Still, I'm not sure if this is good enough for Cube.

The new version should probably be worded like Zur's Weirding.

I just worded it appropriately to the original idea without evaluating it too much and took the wordings from both Booby Trap and Notion Thief.

I think it is cubable, because it can help in topdeck wars (Afraid of Wraths? Choose Sorcery!) and peeks at every card the opponent draws and sometimes even nullifies the draw itself. So it's Telepathy on feet with card advantage potential à la Fatespinner and some light situational protection. I think it would be viable if it was a real card.

Um, you can't print that thing. Maybe if you also couldn't choose creature ...but even then. I don't think so.

Skyline Canopy
Land
T, Pay 1 life: Add 1 to your mana pool.
3, T, Sacrifice a land: Draw a card.

---

New Scrying Sheets
Land
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.
2, T: Look at the top card of your library. If that card is a basic land, you may reveal it and put it into your hand.

You're probably right, the average deck in Standard (not necessarily this particular Standard format, but in general) has too many creatures, and there are some decks against which this effectively reads: "Target opponent draws nothing but lands the rest of the game". That's too much hate on a 1-drop, and the ability is probably just altogether too unfun to see print at any Cube-relevant power level.

I really doubt that would be good enough, unless maybe you put it on a relevant body and give it Flash. We can lose the choice of opponent as well, since it's not really abusable in multiplayer now anymore.

Thoughttheft Clique - 1UU
Creature – Faerie Wizard
Flying, Flash
At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, choose a card type other than land, then that player reveals the top card of his or her library. If the revealed card has the chosen type, exile it.
3/1

This actually does what (I think) your original design was aiming for, i.e. hose topdeck tutors (but only if you Flash it in after the Tutor has resolved).

No idea if it's good enough.

How about something like this?


Barely Scary Faerie U
Creature -- Faerie Wizard
Flying
When ~ enters the battlefield, look at the top 3 cards of target player's library and put them back in any order.
1: Target player puts the top card of their library on the bottom of their library.
1/1

Quote from Falcone1983 »

I really doubt that would be good enough, unless maybe you put it on a relevant body and give it Flash. We can lose the choice of opponent as well, since it's not really abusable in multiplayer now anymore.

Thoughttheft Clique - 1UU
Creature – Faerie Wizard
Flying, Flash
At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, choose a card type other than land, then that player reveals the top card of his or her library. If the revealed card has the chosen type, exile it.
3/1

This actually does what (I think) your original design was aiming for, i.e. hose topdeck tutors (but only if you Flash it in after the Tutor has resolved).

No idea if it's good enough.

Hawkeye's design was aiming at tutors, but the card text itself wasn't able to achieve that, so I made a version for him that does what he intended.

The big problem with his intention are two things:
- He only wants to affect the regular card draw, not every draw.
- "At the beginning of your draw step" triggers after you actually drew your card for the turn. There is no response to that.

So it's quite hard describe in correct wording.

Thoughttheft Clique - 1UU
Creature – Faerie Wizard
Flying, Flash
If an opponent would draw a card in a draw step, you may name a card type other than land. If you do, that player reveals it instead. If the card has the named card type, he or she exiles it. Otherwise, he or she draws a card.
3/1

alternatively:

Thoughttheft Clique - 1UU
Creature – Faerie Wizard
Flying, Flash
If an opponent would draw the first card in a turn, you may name a card type other than land. If you do, that player reveals it instead. If the card has the named card type, he or she exiles it. Otherwise, he or she draws a card.
3/1

Quote from Retra »

How about something like this?

Barely Scary Faerie U
Creature -- Faerie Wizard
Flying
When ~ enters the battlefield, look at the top 3 cards of target player's library and put them back in any order.
1: Target player puts the top card of their library on the bottom of their library.
1/1

This seems fine power level-wise, unless I'm vastly underestimating the ETB trigger. The trigger is not great T1 since you won't have much of an idea what your opponent needs, but quite powerful later in the game. The body is the opposite. Is that good tension or bad tension? I'm still a little bit afraid how multiples of this can make your opponent draw lands or nonlands for quite some turns in a row.

Quote from Niphred »

Quote from Falcone1983 »

I really doubt that would be good enough, unless maybe you put it on a relevant body and give it Flash. We can lose the choice of opponent as well, since it's not really abusable in multiplayer now anymore.

Thoughttheft Clique - 1UU
Creature – Faerie Wizard
Flying, Flash
At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, choose a card type other than land, then that player reveals the top card of his or her library. If the revealed card has the chosen type, exile it.
3/1

This actually does what (I think) your original design was aiming for, i.e. hose topdeck tutors (but only if you Flash it in after the Tutor has resolved).

No idea if it's good enough.

Hawkeye's design was aiming at tutors, but the card text itself wasn't able to achieve that, so I made a version for him that does what he intended.

The big problem with his intention are two things:
- He only wants to affect the regular card draw, not every draw.
- "At the beginning of your draw step" triggers after you actually drew your card for the turn. There is no response to that.

So it's quite hard describe in correct wording.

Thoughttheft Clique - 1UU
Creature – Faerie Wizard
Flying, Flash
If an opponent would draw a card in a draw step, you may name a card type other than land. If you do, that player reveals it instead. If the card has the named card type, he or she exiles it. Otherwise, he or she draws a card.
3/1

alternatively:

Thoughttheft Clique - 1UU
Creature – Faerie Wizard
Flying, Flash
If an opponent would draw the first card in a turn, you may name a card type other than land. If you do, that player reveals it instead. If the card has the named card type, he or she exiles it. Otherwise, he or she draws a card.
3/1

Either I'm missing something or you're missing something. As I read them, all the versions you made has the opponent lose their draw step entirely if you guess right. Hawk's original and my latest version just exile the first card and make them draw a random one (that's why I went for the Vendilion Clique reference). Your versions are unprintably strong since they're repeated card advantage on a competitive body.

I *think* my design answers your two problems with the initial design. The only thing it doesn't do is hose topdeck tutors once it's already in play, but you can still "get" someone thanks to the Flash.

Quote from Falcone1983 »

Either I'm missing something or you're missing something. As I read them, all the versions you made has the opponent lose their draw step entirely if you guess right. Hawk's original and my latest version just exile the first card and make them draw a random one (that's why I went for the Vendilion Clique reference). Your versions are unprintably strong since they're repeated card advantage on a competitive body.

I *think* my design answers your two problems with the initial design. The only thing it doesn't do is hose topdeck tutors once it's already in play, but you can still "get" someone thanks to the Flash.

Yeah, you're right, I missed the top of deck vs draw.

Thoughttheft Clique - 1UU
Creature – Faerie Wizard
Flying, Flash
If an opponent would draw a card in a draw step, you may name a card type other than land. If you do, that player reveals it instead. If the card has the named card type, he or she exiles it. Then, he or she puts the top card of his or her library in his or her hand.
3/1

Is that fine and fits all intentions?

I came up with this idea today and since supporting GY strategies is close to my heart, I would probably not mind cubing it (if I were to build a normal cube):

Hoard Cascade

Instant
Delve (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting this spell pays for .)
Return all cards in your graveyard to your hand. Exile Hoard Cascade.

It might still be a bit underpriced for the effect, considering Temporal Trespass having an effect suitable for 5 mana (while this is closer to Preator's Counsel). However, I somehow like idea of balancing between delving and receiving more cards (although in most cases you would likely delve away useless cards like lands). The instant speed is to allow playing a few more cards before your discard phase.

Oh man, that's a super sweet design.

Quote from VariSami »

Hoard Cascade

Instant
Delve (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting this spell pays for .)
Return all cards in your graveyard to your hand.

I would add the "Exile Hoard Cascade" clause. I would also change the name. lol anyways good design.

Oh, true. In this case, it does actually matter quite a lot, unlike with some of the cards Wizards has added the clause to. Also, thank you both for the compliment.

Yesterday night, I was also thinking how sweet it would be to have a few kitchen sink cards for multiple non-evergreen mechanics. I really like Blast from the Past in a friend's cube, after all. These are cards Wizards would never actually print but I'll just share the one I came up with.

Demented Death Waltz

Sorcery
Madness , Cycling , Kicker , Flashback
Return the top creature card of your graveyard to the battlefield. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step or if it would leave the battlefield.
If the kicker cost was paid, the creature has haste.
Recover (When a creature is put into your graveyard from the battlefield, you may pay . If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand. Otherwise, exile this card.)

Hoard Cascade has no reason to be Black, and it would not be printed as an Instant.

It's definitely a nice design, though. Kind of like a reverse X-spell, in that the less you pay for it, the less you get. Very hard to say how much it should cost. My guess is "a lot", though.

Demented Death Waltz makes my head hurt.

I think it is playable and probably printable. I don't like that it doesn't help aggro strategies, but it is awesome for 3+ color slow decks. For any other deck, a filter land is preferable.

I can't exactly pin down how I would do this, but I'd like a Conspiracy-inspired Lore Seeker-esque card that pulls combo pieces (or simply other cards) from outside the game and adds them to the pack you are drafting.

Soulfire Dragon is neat, but the lifelink feels out of place and the mana discount seems hard to use on a card you're paying 5 mana for. But simply being a flametongue kavu with flying, haste and 2 more toughness for 1 more mana is probably good enough.

Quest is a neat design, but it's slow to trigger. Every 3 non-creature spells gives me an unsummon cantrip? Will it trigger more than once in the average game? Will I be able to trigger it when I need it to work? I think repulse is likely better on average.

Curse sure is a hard card to beat. I guess you disenchant it or you just lose?

Overflow is a neat design, but hard to use. In decks controlling enough to play a 4-mana counter, you've got to worry about cascading into other counterspells. Seems like decks that would play it would have to dodge a lot of blanks.

Mana Empath sure is a better llanowar elves.

Spell of Dominion is kinda neat, but master warcraft just kinda better? Unless you expect them to have a bunch of instants to use, I guess.

Qal-Sha ...I don't think 0-mana 2/2s are a good idea.

Soulfire dragon has 2 too many abilities. Any kind would be worth trying.

Mana Empath is cool but might be even more fun if it produced a mana of any color where you don't control a permanent of that color.

I think overflow is fun in tempoo where you drop cheap threats and cover with a counter.

The main problem I perceive with the Curse is how it prevents all combat damage without something like trample. Of course, this seems to be a part of its function. However, such a complete shut-down of the main method of winning in this game is inherently problematic.

Cycle of Life is already a 3cc green enchantment, lol.