2B
Creature - Vampire (Class)
Reverse Vampire enters the battlefield with three +1/+1 counters.
When Reverse Vampire deals combat damage to a player, remove a +1/+1 counter from Reverse Vampire.
1/1
Whenever equipped creature attacks, the defending player must share a fact about themselves. If they don't, equipped creature gets an additional +1/+1 until end of turn.
I tried phrasing it as "ask the defending player a question", but that seems like it could get awkward (questions designed so that the opponent doesn't answer).
Liliana's Sock Puppet
(Image: Liliana with a Griselbrand sock puppet and a sad-looking Jace playing a game of Magic.)
1
Artifact
You make all Third Party decisions for both players.
I'm sorry, Jace, but Grizzy says that penguins can't fly. That would be a flavor fail, and nobody wants a flavor fail.
Flavor Fail
W
Enchantment - Aura
If enchanted creature is white, it gains +2/+2 and haste.
If enchanted creature is green, it gains +2/+2 and flying.
If enchanted creature is blue, it gains +2/+2 and trample.
If enchanted creature is black, it gains "at the beginning of your upkeep, you lose one life and each opponent gains one life."
If enchanted creature is red, it gains defender.
Very Tall Wall
3W
Creature - Wall
Reach
Defender
0/99
It was big -- no, bigger than that! It was... never mind, this isn't a very interesting story.
Draw Smoother
1U
Enchantment
Whenever you cast a spell, scry 1.
Sacrifice Draw Smoother: Reveal the bottom three cards of your library. If all of them are lands, draw three cards. Your opponent also draws a card, for being such a good sport.
LSV's Key
3
Artifact
T: Add (1) to your mana pool
2, T: Draw a card, then discard a card
6, T: Draw a card
Generating mana is important. So is drawing cards. Playing spells that do something? Secondary.
-- Luis Scott-Vargas, Planeswalker
Fair Creature
Creature - Beast
3G
If you are playing Standard, Fair Creature costs (1) less to cast and has trample.
If you are playing Modern, Fair Creature costs (2) less to cast.
If you are playing Legacy, Fair Creature costs (3) less to cast and gains "when Fair Creature enters the battlefield, you lose four life".
4/4
Only Morph In The Set
Creature - Platypus
4G
Morph 2G
Islandwalk
4/4
Surprise!
As an addendum to this last one, I think that "Platypus" could be a good creature type for the set's "theme" (a la chickens or donkeys).
Perodesquo: Using Gold tokens is interesting! After all, everyone loves fast mana, and maybe it's better not to have something so Clue-like immediately after the Clue set.
Just came here to post this:
Hatebear Hatebear
WW
Creature -- Bear Soldier
First Strike
If an effect an opponent controls would increase the cost of a spell you cast, it instead decreases the cost of that spell by the same amount.
If an effect an opponent controls would stop you from casting a spell, you may cast that spell anyway.
2/2
(Art: A bear wearing armor is shaking hands with Griselbrand, as a Containment Priest nurses a black eye nearby.)
Alternate names: "Fairbear", "Bear of Love", "Meta-Hatebear".
* * * * *
Keep the card ideas coming! Especially if they involve some animal that could be thematic for the set. (Rabbits? Penguins?)
Put a token onto the battlefield that’s a copy of a creature with at least one female in its art.
If you and at least one other player disagree whether there is a female in that creature’s art, exile that creature instead unless a third party agrees that there is at least one female in its art.
squiggleart: Perhaps collusion could be avoided for Third Party through one of the following methods?
"Choose a third party you haven't chosen this match."
"All players choose a third party together."
"Target opponent chooses a third party." (So you can't take too much advantage of having a friend.)
"Shout 'Third Party!' at a reasonable volume. The first person who replies "How can I help?" becomes your third party."
...or something totally different.
Vault: Not that Wishful Thinking needs to be saved, but here are some thoughts on improving it:
Change the concept to "any number of words in this creature's flavor text become rules text": It adds more variety to what the flavor text can be, while avoiding the "legal" awkwardness -- if an actual quote "becomes rules text", nothing happens. Plus, cards from outside of this set may have flavor text with surprising applications if you choose your words carefully.
Make all of the cards playable on their own (e.g. Bird or Angel is a 2/2 flyer and just gains lifelink/vigilance), so that they're less terrible outside the set.
Forget about flavor text altogether. Make Wishful Thinking sort of like a Kamigawa flip card: It's an extra line of text that can be "turned on" and "turned off" by various cards. This would turn it into just another version of flipping/transforming/etc., but with unique flavor (players wishing they had better cards, were luckier, etc.).
As for that last point: Un sets definitely need to do things that can't be done in black-border -- but I'd argue that this isn't what exclusively happens. S.N.O.T. is essentially Meld before Meld. Clambassadors, aside from the art, is a card that could be printed in any set today. Staying Power would be a reasonable Johnny card in any set. (Of course, without art, these mechanics might need to work harder than they would for other sets, so my excuses aren't perfect.)
Thanks for the commentary and card ideas, everyone!
Xyx: I love "Tango Down". Thanks for the contribution!
Vault: Good thoughts on collector numbers. Something to keep in mind is that collector numbers go in order by color (WUBRG, I think, then colorless cards and lands). The set would have to be carefully balanced between "high numbers good" and "low numbers good" to keep color balance. And Down the Ramp would either be blank or be Super Sylvan Scrying depending on the high/low decision. I guess collector numbers for the set could be random -- that doesn't seem like it would be harmful, since I'd guess the numbers have mostly outlived their original purpose. Probably better to keep the flavor/history of having colors duke it out, though!
As for Logarithmic Growth: My hope is that every game will contain one player who has a calculator app on their phone -- those are generally easy to find, though I suppose many calculator apps might not be capable of cube roots. Having a solid theme of "digits matter" rather than "value of number matters" is probably best.
Listing out cubes in flavor text is also a fun idea -- or, better yet, listing them on a special card inside a pack (like a flip checklist). There could be all kinds of "special cards" in this set that would make casual players wonder what the heck their opponent could have.
Chesterspeed: Regarding "Common Pot": It's a really fun ability, especially if we take away the money. I love the idea of a communal "counter pool" that lets both players squabble over resources, decide whether they want the pot to be bigger or smaller, etc. If we want to preserve the flavor of "money", we could have the "chip counters" in the common pot be redeemable when players "withdraw" them.
For example (not an actual card):
Daretti's Dreidel
Artifact
T: Spin Daretti's Dreidel on the table. If it makes at least two rotations and comes to a stop facing you, remove all Chip Counters from the communal pot and put a Chip token into play for each counter removed this way.
Here are a few more cards. Please post your own! Even cards totally unrelated to anything else here!
Hypothesize (Wishful Thinking support card)
U -- Instant
Choose one:
The rules text of target creature becomes flavor text.
The flavor text of target spell or creature becomes rules text. Choose this mode only if the flavor text of that spell or creature is also legal rules text.
The awkward division between "creature" and "spell or creature" may require that only creatures gain Wishful Thinking. After all, taking away the "rules text" of a spell essentially means countering it (or would, for any reasonable definition of that ability).
Logarithmic Growth
2G -- Instant
Target creature gains +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the cube root of its collector number.
One of the fun parts of an Un set is using the entire card. I don't know if I'd want collector numbers to be a huge part of the set, but they haven't gotten much attention (if I recall correctly) from the other Un sets.
Odd or Even
2U -- Sorcery
Choose a card in your hand. Target opponent guesses whether that card's collector number is odd or even. You may reveal the card. If you do, and your opponent guessed wrong, draw three cards. Otherwise, draw a card.
The original version of this card cost 1U and was either "draw three" or "draw zero". But I feel like modern Limited tries to avoid anything quite that punishing, and I want to stay true to the way the game is designed now. Will probably need tweaks to cost and/or numbers.
Red Wedding
3RR -- Sorcery
Red Wedding deals 2 damage to each of up to two target creatures or players. Put a legendary 1/1 Human Shaman Baby creature token into play named Baby Chandra Nalaar with "T: Baby Chandra Nalaar deals 1 damage to target creature or player".
Another fun aspect of Un set design is playing with flavor from the most recent Magic stories. I picture the art for this card being a passionate kiss between Mom and Dad Nalaar -- but the church is on fire. Could be made cheaper and without the baby token (since I'm not sure Baby Chandra was a canonical fire-user anyway).
Pushed Green Common (Third Party)
2G -- Creature: Beast
Third Party: When Pushed Green Common enters the battlefield, have your third party decide whether this card is fair. If they decide that it isn't, put a -1/-1 counter on it.
3/4
Not much to say here -- just more support for the set's basic themes. My hope is that Third Party plays out like Investigate or Cycling -- helping more games play out competitively, with fewer runaway massacres. (I'd guess that most third parties will make decisions that lead to close, exciting games -- especially since trying to screw someone over may result in payback later on in the tournament.)
Preventative Measures (Third Party)
1B
Third Party: Target opponent reveals his or her hand. Choose a nonland card in it. Explain to your third party why you should be allowed to discard that card. If your third party agrees with you, the chosen opponent discards that card. Otherwise, that player discards a card at random.
"Honestly, Thought-Knot Seer was never a fair card. And wouldn't the irony be simply delicious?"
City of Stars
Land
As City of Stars enters the battlefield, you may pay (2). If you do, City of Stars enters the battlefield with a premium counter on it.
T: Add (1) to your mana pool.
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Use this ability only if there are one or more premium counters on City of Stars.
"Huh. I wouldn't have guessed that Sam Black plays Kobold tribal in Modern."
The nice thing about not being WOTC-affiliated is that we can reference other gaming companies! For another example, see:
Channel Fireball (edit: wrote out the text wrong, realized that when Vault pointed it out)
GGR - Sorcery
Cast Channel Fireball only if your life total is at or below 10.
As an additional cost to cast Channel Fireball, pay X life, where X is your life total minus 1.
Channel Fireball deals X damage to target creature or player.
The "at or below X" number can be adjusted, of course. This would be crazy overpowered if you could play it at 20, but it might go from "janky fun" to "respectable" without being overpowered if players could pay any amount of life instead.
I'm trying to flesh out the very basics of the mechanics, but you're right that even the "vanilla" cards for a given ability need to be interesting. Hopefully, some of that interest could be done through art, but we don't have that luxury yet.
The point of Durdle Charm (as I had intended it) is that it does a lot of different "useless" things -- I was trying to find the smallest effects you could add to a card. Ideally it would have even more modes, and the average mode would be even weaker, letting players durdle even harder. The joke might not come across, though. More troublesome is that I can't just pull the same trick for every color -- not sure what the variations for WBRG would be.
I'm sure this has been done before: If you know of any good examples, links would be appreciated!
We may never see a sequel to Unhinged. I've been "working" on my own sequel instead. That is, I've drafted ~50 cards or so, with the beginnings of a few cycles and themes.
If you were a fan of Unglued and Unhinged -- or even if you've never heard of them -- I'd like your help in finishing "Unbelievable" (provisional name).
That is: Add cards! Improve cards! Make up your own cards and cycles! Just keep everything fair and balanced (this needs to work as a Sealed format), and brainstorm in the spirit of Unglued and Unhinged. I can't wait to see what you come up with.
(With enough interest, I might commission some art, clean up the rules text, and try adding it to pseudo-drafting websites. It would at least be cheaper than buying a Modern deck.)
Here are examples of a few cycles, alongside some singleton cards:
The Baby Legend Cycle
Magic's greatest overpriced legends -- as kids.
Baby Akroma, Angel of Wrath
WWW -- Legendary Creature: Baby Angel
Flying, first strike, vigilance, trample, haste, protection from black and from red
1/1
Baby Lorthos, the Tidemaker
UUU -- Legendary Creature: Baby Octopus
Whenever Baby Lorthos, the Tidemaker attacks, you may pay (3). If you do, tap up to three target permanents. Those permanents don't untap during their controllers' next untap step.
1/1
The Subjectivity Cycle
One of the set's major themes. Since Un sets are only released in paper, this should be feasible, though it may be too frustrating to be practical. I'd be glad to see better wordings and other suggestions!
Keyword: Third Party (when this card's Third Party ability is activated, ask one or more people who are not you, nor your opponent, to judge the outcome. If no other people are present, flip a coin instead.)
Decapitate
1B -- Instant
Third Party: Choose a creature on the battlefield. If your third party believes that the creature has a neck, destroy it. Otherwise, it gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
"Some people would say that a snake is one big neck."
"Well, Heidegger would say that there is a distinction between having and being."
Controversial Penguin
2U -- Creature: Bird
Third Party: When Controversial Penguin enters the battlefield, it gains flying if, according to your third party, it seems like it ought to be able to fly.
2/3
Sneaky Snake
1G -- Creature: Snake
Third Party: Sneaky Snake cannot be blocked as long as, according to your third party, it could successfully hide within one of the defending player's lands.
G: Regenerate Sneaky Snake.
2/1
The Wishful Thinking Cycle
Creatures that start off mediocre but could become awesome! So it's like kicker. Or monstrous. Or EMN werewolves. Or... well, no one says these things have to be completely original. The twist: All the added abilities live in the creature's flavor text, and can only be turned on by certain spells and abilities.
Bird or Angel
2W -- Creature: Bird Illusion
2/2
"Flying, first strike, lifelink."
--Gil, Wishful Thinker
Gil, Wishful Thinker
1UW -- Legendary Creature: Human Wizard
If the flavor text of a spell or permanent you control is also legal rules text, that flavor text counts as rules text.
2/2
"Aw, man! One more point of damage would've done it."
A few more cards:
Durdle Charm
Instant -- U
Choose one --
Target creature gains or loses a creature type of your choice.
Change the text of target spell or permanent by replacing all instances of one color word with another.
Tap target creature.
Look at the top card of target player's library.
Draw a card. Then, if you drew a card, discard that card.
"Draw three cards."
--Gil, Wishful Thinker
Big Blink
5W -- Instant
Exile target player, then return that player to the game.
(In the following order: Exile all permanents that player controls from the game, then return them to play. Counter all spells targeting that player or a permanent that player controls. Remove all cards in that player's hand, library, and graveyard from the game, then return those cards to their respective zones. Place all face-up exiled cards that player owns into their owner's graveyard.)
Third Party: If any rules questions arise that Wizards of the Coast hasn't addressed within this card's rules text, have your third party figure it out.
So: What do you think? What cards should be a part of this set?
Reverse Thraben Inspector
Creature - Human Solider
When Reverse Thraben Inspector enters the battlefield, discard a card unless you pay (2).
2/3
Reverse Elf
Creature - Elf Warrior
G: Untap Reverse Elf.
2/2
Reverse Vampire
Creature - Vampire (Class)
Reverse Vampire enters the battlefield with three +1/+1 counters.
When Reverse Vampire deals combat damage to a player, remove a +1/+1 counter from Reverse Vampire.
1/1
Not great specific ideas, but I like the concept.
Also:
Icebreaker
2
Artifact - Equipment
Equip (2)
Equipped creature gets +2/+1
Whenever equipped creature attacks, the defending player must share a fact about themselves. If they don't, equipped creature gets an additional +1/+1 until end of turn.
Liliana's Sock Puppet
1
Artifact
You make all Third Party decisions for both players.
I'm sorry, Jace, but Grizzy says that penguins can't fly. That would be a flavor fail, and nobody wants a flavor fail.
Flavor Fail
Enchantment - Aura
If enchanted creature is white, it gains +2/+2 and haste.
If enchanted creature is green, it gains +2/+2 and flying.
If enchanted creature is blue, it gains +2/+2 and trample.
If enchanted creature is black, it gains "at the beginning of your upkeep, you lose one life and each opponent gains one life."
If enchanted creature is red, it gains defender.
Very Tall Wall
Creature - Wall
Reach
Defender
0/99
It was big -- no, bigger than that! It was... never mind, this isn't a very interesting story.
Draw Smoother
Enchantment
Whenever you cast a spell, scry 1.
Sacrifice Draw Smoother: Reveal the bottom three cards of your library. If all of them are lands, draw three cards. Your opponent also draws a card, for being such a good sport.
LSV's Key
Artifact
T: Add (1) to your mana pool
2, T: Draw a card, then discard a card
6, T: Draw a card
Generating mana is important. So is drawing cards. Playing spells that do something? Secondary.
-- Luis Scott-Vargas, Planeswalker
Fair Creature
3G
If you are playing Standard, Fair Creature costs (1) less to cast and has trample.
If you are playing Modern, Fair Creature costs (2) less to cast.
If you are playing Legacy, Fair Creature costs (3) less to cast and gains "when Fair Creature enters the battlefield, you lose four life".
4/4
Only Morph In The Set
4G
Morph 2G
Islandwalk
4/4
Surprise!
As an addendum to this last one, I think that "Platypus" could be a good creature type for the set's "theme" (a la chickens or donkeys).
Just came here to post this:
Hatebear Hatebear
Creature -- Bear Soldier
First Strike
If an effect an opponent controls would increase the cost of a spell you cast, it instead decreases the cost of that spell by the same amount.
If an effect an opponent controls would stop you from casting a spell, you may cast that spell anyway.
2/2
(Art: A bear wearing armor is shaking hands with Griselbrand, as a Containment Priest nurses a black eye nearby.)
Alternate names: "Fairbear", "Bear of Love", "Meta-Hatebear".
* * * * *
Keep the card ideas coming! Especially if they involve some animal that could be thematic for the set. (Rabbits? Penguins?)
Here's a Third Party card someone created:
Parthenogenesis
Put a token onto the battlefield that’s a copy of a creature with at least one female in its art.
If you and at least one other player disagree whether there is a female in that creature’s art, exile that creature instead unless a third party agrees that there is at least one female in its art.
...or something totally different.
Vault: Not that Wishful Thinking needs to be saved, but here are some thoughts on improving it:
As for that last point: Un sets definitely need to do things that can't be done in black-border -- but I'd argue that this isn't what exclusively happens. S.N.O.T. is essentially Meld before Meld. Clambassadors, aside from the art, is a card that could be printed in any set today. Staying Power would be a reasonable Johnny card in any set. (Of course, without art, these mechanics might need to work harder than they would for other sets, so my excuses aren't perfect.)
What was it like? Which cards/mechanics were cool and fun? Which cards/mechanics were weak or impractical? What can we learn from Wizards' attempts?
Xyx: I love "Tango Down". Thanks for the contribution!
Vault: Good thoughts on collector numbers. Something to keep in mind is that collector numbers go in order by color (WUBRG, I think, then colorless cards and lands). The set would have to be carefully balanced between "high numbers good" and "low numbers good" to keep color balance. And Down the Ramp would either be blank or be Super Sylvan Scrying depending on the high/low decision. I guess collector numbers for the set could be random -- that doesn't seem like it would be harmful, since I'd guess the numbers have mostly outlived their original purpose. Probably better to keep the flavor/history of having colors duke it out, though!
As for Logarithmic Growth: My hope is that every game will contain one player who has a calculator app on their phone -- those are generally easy to find, though I suppose many calculator apps might not be capable of cube roots. Having a solid theme of "digits matter" rather than "value of number matters" is probably best.
Listing out cubes in flavor text is also a fun idea -- or, better yet, listing them on a special card inside a pack (like a flip checklist). There could be all kinds of "special cards" in this set that would make casual players wonder what the heck their opponent could have.
Chesterspeed: Regarding "Common Pot": It's a really fun ability, especially if we take away the money. I love the idea of a communal "counter pool" that lets both players squabble over resources, decide whether they want the pot to be bigger or smaller, etc. If we want to preserve the flavor of "money", we could have the "chip counters" in the common pot be redeemable when players "withdraw" them.
For example (not an actual card):
Daretti's Dreidel
T: Spin Daretti's Dreidel on the table. If it makes at least two rotations and comes to a stop facing you, remove all Chip Counters from the communal pot and put a Chip token into play for each counter removed this way.
Chip
Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 2 life.
2, sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.
Hypothesize (Wishful Thinking support card)
Choose one:
The awkward division between "creature" and "spell or creature" may require that only creatures gain Wishful Thinking. After all, taking away the "rules text" of a spell essentially means countering it (or would, for any reasonable definition of that ability).
Logarithmic Growth
Target creature gains +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the cube root of its collector number.
One of the fun parts of an Un set is using the entire card. I don't know if I'd want collector numbers to be a huge part of the set, but they haven't gotten much attention (if I recall correctly) from the other Un sets.
Odd or Even
Choose a card in your hand. Target opponent guesses whether that card's collector number is odd or even. You may reveal the card. If you do, and your opponent guessed wrong, draw three cards. Otherwise, draw a card.
The original version of this card cost 1U and was either "draw three" or "draw zero". But I feel like modern Limited tries to avoid anything quite that punishing, and I want to stay true to the way the game is designed now. Will probably need tweaks to cost and/or numbers.
Red Wedding
Red Wedding deals 2 damage to each of up to two target creatures or players. Put a legendary 1/1 Human Shaman Baby creature token into play named Baby Chandra Nalaar with "T: Baby Chandra Nalaar deals 1 damage to target creature or player".
Another fun aspect of Un set design is playing with flavor from the most recent Magic stories. I picture the art for this card being a passionate kiss between Mom and Dad Nalaar -- but the church is on fire. Could be made cheaper and without the baby token (since I'm not sure Baby Chandra was a canonical fire-user anyway).
Pushed Green Common (Third Party)
Third Party: When Pushed Green Common enters the battlefield, have your third party decide whether this card is fair. If they decide that it isn't, put a -1/-1 counter on it.
3/4
Not much to say here -- just more support for the set's basic themes. My hope is that Third Party plays out like Investigate or Cycling -- helping more games play out competitively, with fewer runaway massacres. (I'd guess that most third parties will make decisions that lead to close, exciting games -- especially since trying to screw someone over may result in payback later on in the tournament.)
Preventative Measures (Third Party)
Third Party: Target opponent reveals his or her hand. Choose a nonland card in it. Explain to your third party why you should be allowed to discard that card. If your third party agrees with you, the chosen opponent discards that card. Otherwise, that player discards a card at random.
"Honestly, Thought-Knot Seer was never a fair card. And wouldn't the irony be simply delicious?"
City of Stars
As City of Stars enters the battlefield, you may pay (2). If you do, City of Stars enters the battlefield with a premium counter on it.
T: Add (1) to your mana pool.
T: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Use this ability only if there are one or more premium counters on City of Stars.
"Huh. I wouldn't have guessed that Sam Black plays Kobold tribal in Modern."
The nice thing about not being WOTC-affiliated is that we can reference other gaming companies! For another example, see:
Channel Fireball (edit: wrote out the text wrong, realized that when Vault pointed it out)
Cast Channel Fireball only if your life total is at or below 10.
As an additional cost to cast Channel Fireball, pay X life, where X is your life total minus 1.
Channel Fireball deals X damage to target creature or player.
The "at or below X" number can be adjusted, of course. This would be crazy overpowered if you could play it at 20, but it might go from "janky fun" to "respectable" without being overpowered if players could pay any amount of life instead.
I'm trying to flesh out the very basics of the mechanics, but you're right that even the "vanilla" cards for a given ability need to be interesting. Hopefully, some of that interest could be done through art, but we don't have that luxury yet.
The point of Durdle Charm (as I had intended it) is that it does a lot of different "useless" things -- I was trying to find the smallest effects you could add to a card. Ideally it would have even more modes, and the average mode would be even weaker, letting players durdle even harder. The joke might not come across, though. More troublesome is that I can't just pull the same trick for every color -- not sure what the variations for WBRG would be.
We may never see a sequel to Unhinged. I've been "working" on my own sequel instead. That is, I've drafted ~50 cards or so, with the beginnings of a few cycles and themes.
If you were a fan of Unglued and Unhinged -- or even if you've never heard of them -- I'd like your help in finishing "Unbelievable" (provisional name).
That is: Add cards! Improve cards! Make up your own cards and cycles! Just keep everything fair and balanced (this needs to work as a Sealed format), and brainstorm in the spirit of Unglued and Unhinged. I can't wait to see what you come up with.
(With enough interest, I might commission some art, clean up the rules text, and try adding it to pseudo-drafting websites. It would at least be cheaper than buying a Modern deck.)
Here are examples of a few cycles, alongside some singleton cards:
The Baby Legend Cycle
Magic's greatest overpriced legends -- as kids.
Baby Akroma, Angel of Wrath
Flying, first strike, vigilance, trample, haste, protection from black and from red
1/1
Baby Lorthos, the Tidemaker
Whenever Baby Lorthos, the Tidemaker attacks, you may pay (3). If you do, tap up to three target permanents. Those permanents don't untap during their controllers' next untap step.
1/1
The Subjectivity Cycle
One of the set's major themes. Since Un sets are only released in paper, this should be feasible, though it may be too frustrating to be practical. I'd be glad to see better wordings and other suggestions!
Keyword: Third Party (when this card's Third Party ability is activated, ask one or more people who are not you, nor your opponent, to judge the outcome. If no other people are present, flip a coin instead.)
Decapitate
Third Party: Choose a creature on the battlefield. If your third party believes that the creature has a neck, destroy it. Otherwise, it gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
"Some people would say that a snake is one big neck."
"Well, Heidegger would say that there is a distinction between having and being."
Controversial Penguin
Third Party: When Controversial Penguin enters the battlefield, it gains flying if, according to your third party, it seems like it ought to be able to fly.
2/3
Sneaky Snake
Third Party: Sneaky Snake cannot be blocked as long as, according to your third party, it could successfully hide within one of the defending player's lands.
G: Regenerate Sneaky Snake.
2/1
The Wishful Thinking Cycle
Creatures that start off mediocre but could become awesome! So it's like kicker. Or monstrous. Or EMN werewolves. Or... well, no one says these things have to be completely original. The twist: All the added abilities live in the creature's flavor text, and can only be turned on by certain spells and abilities.
Bird or Angel
2/2
"Flying, first strike, lifelink."
--Gil, Wishful Thinker
Gil, Wishful Thinker
If the flavor text of a spell or permanent you control is also legal rules text, that flavor text counts as rules text.
2/2
"Aw, man! One more point of damage would've done it."
A few more cards:
Durdle Charm
Choose one --
"Draw three cards."
--Gil, Wishful Thinker
Big Blink
Exile target player, then return that player to the game.
(In the following order: Exile all permanents that player controls from the game, then return them to play. Counter all spells targeting that player or a permanent that player controls. Remove all cards in that player's hand, library, and graveyard from the game, then return those cards to their respective zones. Place all face-up exiled cards that player owns into their owner's graveyard.)
Third Party: If any rules questions arise that Wizards of the Coast hasn't addressed within this card's rules text, have your third party figure it out.
So: What do you think? What cards should be a part of this set?