I've always been fond of Birthing Pod; I've played it in Standard, I play it in Modern, and I'm working to build a list utilizing it that will be competitive in Legacy, although I'm not confident that that will end up as a Tier 1 deck.
I'm fond of the Pod because I've always had a fascination with utility creatures and toolbox-style decks, and I do like playing more creature-oriented lists that can gain incremental advantage over an opponent. I do have a particular fondness of using Birthing Pod to turn Geralf's Messenger into Phyrexian Metamorph, copying Geralf's Messenger and causing massive life-loss between such interactions and Blood Artist triggers. One of the many versatile applications that the 3-and-a-half (if you will) mana build-around-me card can perform.
My guess is that people are saving up so they can pay inflated pre-release prices, but then again, I don't know. I don't remember this happening during Fate Reforged spoilers.
But here in Tucson, it's sunny and it's going to start getting really hot, really soon.
Wall of Channelling 0
Legendary Artifact
Pay 1 Life: Add 1 to your mana pool.
I think we can safely say that this is overpowered in all formats.
How about something like...
Choking Blast 1BRR
Instant (U)
Choking Blast deals 4 damage to target creature. Each creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
No.
I could change Glacial Peaks to be:
1UR : Glacial Peaks becomes a 1/4 blue and red Elemental creature with "Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, Glacial Peaks gets +3/+0 until end of turn." I think we've seen this on Kiln Fiend and Nivix Cyclops, so it should work.
Regenerate on Ghastly Woods could go down to if need be.
I could see 3/3 Lifelink on Suntouched Mire, but that seems very difficult to race effectively because of how strong lifelink is in a race.
My original idea for Scorched Steppe is 1/1 with Double Strike, but it seemed a bit strong. I want the R/W one to only cost 2 mana to activate, since those are predominantly the weenie rush colors and the land should reflect that. Similar to how green and blue tend to get the largest creatures, so Coral Grove is a 4/4.
Given the normal divide, I'd have the price on Snapcaster Mage closer to 4,750 than the 4,200 it is currently "valued" at, noting that TCG Mid is $45 and there are only a half-dozen under $40, most of which are not NM and the ones that are NM are only under $40 by a few cents each.
I mean, I have three extras, but 4,200 isn't enough to get me to offload them, especially knowing it's going to cost me $3.37 in postage to do so.
Scorched Steppe
Land
Scorched Steppe enters the battlefield tapped
: Add R or W to your mana pool
RW : Scorched Steppe becomes a 2/1 white and red Elemental creature with First Strike until end of turn. It's still a land.
Suntouched Mire
Land
Suntouched Mire enters the battlefield tapped
: Add W or B to your mana pool.
2WB : Suntouched Mire becomes a 2/4 white and black Elemental creature with Lifelink until end of turn. It's still a land.
Ghastly Woods
Land
Ghastly Woods enters the battlefield tapped.
: Add B or G to your mana pool.
1BG : Ghastly Woods becomes a 3/2 black and green Elemental creature with "BG: Regenerate Ghastly Woods" until end of turn. It's still a land.
Coral Grove
Land
Coral Grove enters the battlefield tapped.
: Add G or U to your mana pool.
3GU : Coral Grove becomes a 4/4 blue and green Elemental creature with Hexproof until end of turn. It's still a land.
Glacial Peaks
Land
Glacial Peaks enters the battlefield tapped.
: Add U or R to your mana pool.
1UR : Glacial Peaks becomes a 1/4 blue and red Elemental creature until end of turn. It's still a land.
Whenever Glacial Peaks deals combat damage to a player, draw a card.
Honestly, I had trouble with a good mechanic for Glacial Peaks. I wanted to go with a 2/1 with Prowess as it's the perfect mechanic for the two spell colors, but Prowess isn't an evergreen mechanic at present, so I went with a draw trigger, which is worded to prevent multiple activations from stacking as in the Raging Ravine mechanic. Maybe I should just allow multiple activations.
Was wavering on Regen / Deathtouch for Ghastly Woods and decided that Regen would potentially allow for more interesting mechanics in the later game. Maybe this is wrong.
I submit for feedback and constructive criticism.
Actually, I'm interested in SP/MP cards, at an appropriate discount for the decreased condition. It's not receiving an SP card that I have issue with, it's receiving a card that has some wear and being expected to pay the NM price on it that I take offense to. I want to offload lots of SP/MP cards myself, and this is a fantastic development on this front all around for me.
Suntouched Mire
Land (R)
Suntouched Mire enters the battlefield tapped.
: Add W or B to your mana pool.
2WB: Suntouched Mire becomes a 2/4 white and black Elemental creature with Lifelink until end of turn. It's still a land.
Is there any chance to make it an option to disable this "feature"?
2) I don't commit to sending cards if they don't want enough stuff that I have. There's a 30 minute window to cancel trades after you've committed and sometimes, it gets used for just this reason.
3) If you want foils, you'll have to pay. Being able to float points to another can be useful for sending less-than-NM and bounties as well.
4) I have had some trouble getting foil Flusterstorms and a second foil Overgrown Tomb that I want. If you're looking for foil C/UC's or Standard, it's probably easier.
2) CMC is what is printed on the card, and is never modified by any external effects that modify what cost you actually pay. There are no cards that affect the CMC of a card away from the printed value.
However, this is treated as an additional cost. Effects that can reduce this cost, such as Convoke or Delve, can be used to pay for this additional cost.
I don't think that NM duals move super fast, but played ones seem to move at a decent clip.