Ratform UB
Instant (U)
Until end of turn, target creature loses all abilities and becomes a black rat with base power and toughness 1/1 and deathtouch.
Tombstone Piledriver 3BG
Sorcery (U)
Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield, then it fights target creature an opponent controls.
Prescient Recollections UG
Sorcery (U)
Put the top 4 cards of your library into your graveyard, then draw a card. Then choose a card in your graveyard and put it into your library third from the top. Then choose a card in your graveyard and put it on top of your library.
Mutual Libation 1WU
Instant (U)
Each player chooses a nonland permanent they control and shuffles it into their library, then draws two cards.
Prescribed Burning GR
Sorcery (U)
Target opponent may have you search your library for up to two basic land cards, reveal them, put them into your hand, and then shuffle your library. If they don't, deal 4 damage to any target.
Impulsive Extortion 1BR
Sorcery (U)
Target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a card from it. That player discards that card.
Exile the top card of your library. Until the end of turn, you may play that card.
Friends' Return 2BW
Sorcery (U)
Return two target creature cards with total converted mana cost 4 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Ancestral Protection 3GW
Instant (U)
Prevent all damage a source of your choice would deal to you this turn. Exile a creature card from your graveyard for each 1 damage prevented this way. For each card exiled this way create a 1/1 green and white spirit token.
Humble the Strong 4WR
Instant (U)
Destroy target creature with power 4 or greater, then Humble the Strong deals 4 damage to that creature's controller.
Three Dimensional Tactics 1UR
Instant (U)
Creatures with first strike you control gain flying until end of turn and creatures with flying you control gain first strike until end of turn .
Prescient Recollections is very weak. I would change it to "Put the top 4 cards of your library into your graveyard, then draw a card. Then choose a card in your graveyard and put it into your library third from the top. Then choose a card in your graveyard and put it on top of your library." At two different colors and sorcery, it isn't cost effective without negating the inherent card disadvantage in casting it. Alternately, make the card an instant.
Ancestral Protection should probably only prevent damage from one source.
Snakeform: This wants to use the creature type Rat if i'm not mistaken—right? We already have Snakeform.
Tombstone Piledriver: Really getting to the bottom of the barrel if you're using wrestling moves as sorceries. I think this wants to be mono-black. It's really unnecessary to splash green. I'm guessing you think it looks cooler that way and has more flavor, but that's not really the case here. I think you should drop the cost to three, put it onto the battlefield tapped, and then have it fight target creature at the beginning of your next upkeep/precombat main phase. Getting the cost down is the most important aspect as to how playable this is going to be. And of course, that's the make-or-break element good this design is going to be. It has amazing potential, but only really if you can get the cost down I would suggest.
Prescient Recollections: The third from the top function isn't necessary. You mine as well just stack them on the top at that cost. The event of getting a land in-between those is only hopeful really—and not necessarily what will be needed if-and-when you're casting this spell to begin with. Four for two at 2CMC is a great exchange. I'm not sure this really wants to be blue either. Blue wouldn't need this as much as say white would (especially for recouping low CMC creatures or removal). Also, Clairvoyant Recollections?
Mutual Libation: This is just a try-hard removal spell. It's not as selective as it needs to be—or better said not as cheap as it needs to be for the lack of selection.
Prescribed Burning: Very neat take on Lava Blister meets Explosive Vegetation. It's a touch under-cost, even at only 4 damage. The greater effect takes precedent, and the cost also enables you to increase the damage by 1 point as well. As a rule of guiding thumb, you always want to be hugging the curve as closely as possible when mimicking other really prominent spells or their effects. The only exception to this is when you're doing something fancy, and adding conditions and limitations to bring the cost down. But this isn't really doing any of that—it remains very free form and unrestricted.
Impulsive Extortion: Possibly at a lack of words here (as with the last one)—but I'm not sure why you're going to be impulsively extorting someone. The flavor is way off. There's also nothing impromptu or impulsive about the effect. It's not as random as it would need to be. These types of act are also extremely liable, so you mine-as-well have it cost you a card or permanent or something at random as well. The double benefit here is just power-hungry, and loses touch with respecting balance, interactivity, and realism of fantasy.
Friend's Return: Other than the flavor lacking on this one (it's too monotone PG-friendly), the design isn't really bad, but not groundbreaking or interesting either. Two for one with the cost and CMC restriction isn't bad, but it's multicolor (and not self-enabled), so it's kind of under-whelming as well. It'll bring back just one most of the time. WhiteKnights can't use it because it's black. Black can't really use it because they want to bring back CMC 5 or greater. You don't really have to tinker with it, but if you want to make it more appealing, then consider making it more open or interactive some how.
Ancestral Protection: The flavor here is a nice throwback to the likes of Masumaro, First to Live. The second effect though is super hopeful, and at this cost, mine as well just put spirit tokens on the battlefield in some way without having to remove anything from the graveyard. For just one more mana, you can make it unlimited as well, operating as a Hallow or Reverse Damage with spirit tokens instead. But otherwise, I would say one spirit token for each source of damage.
Humble the Strong: Might I suggest Humble the Mighty as the name for this one? Just seems to flow off the tongue so much better than what you've got. It also befits the fantasy that would be invoked by a signaturecatalog of greencreatures as well. As for the effect, what you're looking at is a double Reprisal. It currently doesn't prevent regeneration, so a lot of mighty creatures ain't going to be too humbled by it. I would suggest having it shuffle the card back into the deck, then deals a hit to the controller's pride. This makes it much more effect removal, and you could bring the cost down at least one mana (but maybe even by two mana at most).
Three Dimensional Tactics: This is a super hopeful effect, but sad reality is you're not likely going to have enough of either creatures to make the ideal use out of this. I would suggest something way more dynamic, such as searching the deck for two creatures (one with flying and one with first strike) and put them onto the battlefield tapped and attacking, then shuffle them back into the library at the end of turn if they're still around.
Black doesn't get it's own fight cards so this needs green to work . . .
Not sure I get your critism for recollection? The effect mills (blue) and then return to the top (green) and third (blue). Third is not the best, but is a minimal effect that plays on the flavor of a memory (coming from the graveyard) being a premonition (third from the top).
Mutual Libation was made to be a Oblation type card. Doesn't target and becomes mutual to account for the shift in power level from rare to uncommon. All told it is a bit weak - but you can break the symmetry of it by not running permanents such as UW control decks.
Searching for 2 basic lands is about 3 mana depending on the set and dealing 4 damage is about 3 mana? 5 damage seems way too much for 2 mana. Even for a punisher type card. Browbeat was 3 mana afterall. Lava blister is IMO an anomaly because that was back when land destruction was only 2R instead of 3R or more that we have now. Not sure about the damage, but I could be very wrong.
This card is a redshifted Brainbite. Replacing the draw for impulse draw. Lowering mana because impulse draw is so much worse than draw. Not sure how it can be seen as overpowered?
I feel creatures in grave give this card its flavor - ancestors coming from beyond the veil. . .
Sure it can shuffle back into the library, but these effects usually destroy (and not many cards regenerate anymore - but I can just add the anti-regeneration text in). And just going off angraths fury, even if this card only effects creatures with power 4 or more, seems like 5 mana is a hard limit on removal plus damage.
The search effect sounds like a rare ability not an uncommon. But I could probably drop the cost and have this be a really unusual combat trick?
Black doesn't get it's own fight cards so this needs green to work . . .
Mutual Libation was made to be a Oblation type card. Doesn't target and becomes mutual to account for the shift in power level from rare to uncommon. All told it is a bit weak - but you can break the symmetry of it by not running permanents such as UW control decks.
There's is nothing to say that Black shouldn't be able to tap into the Fight mechanic. That really makes no sense whatsoever and is a totally unnecessary restriction. I personally feel that there are a lot of biased restrictions placed within the "color pie" as they have designed it, and enabled it to subtly evolve over the years. Some of the designations are under-thought, and entirely unintelligible, because they are restricting core dynamics and interactions with huge amounts of influence over the game (ex. flow of the cards—hand or board advantage). There is no truly equal check for the implications of these large-scale effects other than implementing them fairly into every color by some means. Naturally, this is where the flavor and fantasy aspect should ring in (they do it according to their flavors)—but you'll find the devs over the years have chosen to be aggressively biased and very unimaginative instead.
Good example of a bad example.
Moving on, despite what you had envisioned for Mutual Obliation, note that in this form it operates more like a Innocent Blood, and therein lies the whole of the explanation I had originally given. Innocent Blood was successful because the cost made it efficient. In the case of Tremble, it wasn't as successful because the liability was harder to get around for many players. You design wants to take both scenarios into consideration. In its current form—it's just not going to be as proficient as it needs to be—to be successful.
Ratform doesn't very efficient. It's not very good on either your opponent's creatures or your own, and though it has the flexibility of working with either, I don't think that's enough to pay this over more standard combat tricks. Maybe if it had a small bonus like scry 1 or if it cost more and drew a card like Snakeform. That said, this card could just stay as is and not be designed as a competitive card and it would be fine. Not every card needs to be very good.
Tombstone Piledriver looks good, except it *might* be a little strong in limited for an uncommon.
Prescient Recollections seems a little overpowered. Compare with Noxious Revival. This gets you another card into your library, draws you a card and mills in a way that *also* adds to the selection pool. All this for , sorcery speed and losing the phyrexian mana advantage. And Noxious Revival is quite a good card. The amount of different bits and pieces to this card's effect is also a bit much, so I would consider removing the extra card to the top third of the library or make it an instant and remove the draw a card text.
Mutual Libation seems a bit too quirky for an uncommon. I would make it rare.
Prescribed Burning is quite strong but I'm not sure if it *needs* changing or what I would change if I were to nerf it slightly.
Impulsive Extortion feels a little tacked on to me. Yes, Brainbite exists, but 'draw a card' (like scry or gaining life) is a simpler, cleaner rider to add to a mostly unrelated effect than impulse drawing. I suggest making this exile the card from your opponent and allowing you to cast it until end of turn (with a 'spend mana as though it were mana of any type' clause, of course)— similar effect, but feels more organic of a design when you combine the effects like that. This should also only hit nonland cards to avoid manascrew, as with most cards of this sort in recent sets.
Friends Return is a bit weak. I would make it 'return any number of target creatures' so it can hit one larger creature or multiple smaller ones.
Ancestral Protection feels much too complicated, especially for an uncommon, in a not particularly interesting way. It's an odd design I just don't think works.
Humble the Strong is just plain good removal design. Could be changed to if you wanted to push it a little. I don't know why @ReapThaWhirlwind is insisting that stopping regeneration is significant at all because there aren't many strong regenerate cards in older formats and regenerate is no longer printed in standard, let alone limited, where this card is most naturally inclined to fit.
Three Dimensional Tactics seems overly specific in effect. It could certainly be costed cheaper, but I just don't think it's that great of a design. Looks more novel than it is fun or practical.
Instant (U)
Until end of turn, target creature loses all abilities and becomes a black rat with base power and toughness 1/1 and deathtouch.
Tombstone Piledriver 3BG
Sorcery (U)
Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield, then it fights target creature an opponent controls.
Prescient Recollections UG
Sorcery (U)
Put the top 4 cards of your library into your graveyard, then draw a card. Then choose a card in your graveyard and put it into your library third from the top. Then choose a card in your graveyard and put it on top of your library.
Mutual Libation 1WU
Instant (U)
Each player chooses a nonland permanent they control and shuffles it into their library, then draws two cards.
Prescribed Burning GR
Sorcery (U)
Target opponent may have you search your library for up to two basic land cards, reveal them, put them into your hand, and then shuffle your library. If they don't, deal 4 damage to any target.
Impulsive Extortion 1BR
Sorcery (U)
Target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a card from it. That player discards that card.
Exile the top card of your library. Until the end of turn, you may play that card.
Friends' Return 2BW
Sorcery (U)
Return two target creature cards with total converted mana cost 4 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Ancestral Protection 3GW
Instant (U)
Prevent all damage a source of your choice would deal to you this turn. Exile a creature card from your graveyard for each 1 damage prevented this way. For each card exiled this way create a 1/1 green and white spirit token.
Humble the Strong 4WR
Instant (U)
Destroy target creature with power 4 or greater, then Humble the Strong deals 4 damage to that creature's controller.
Three Dimensional Tactics 1UR
Instant (U)
Creatures with first strike you control gain flying until end of turn and creatures with flying you control gain first strike until end of turn .
Prescient Recollections is very weak. I would change it to "Put the top 4 cards of your library into your graveyard, then draw a card. Then choose a card in your graveyard and put it into your library third from the top. Then choose a card in your graveyard and put it on top of your library." At two different colors and sorcery, it isn't cost effective without negating the inherent card disadvantage in casting it. Alternately, make the card an instant.
Ancestral Protection should probably only prevent damage from one source.
Otherwise, the cards seem pretty well made.
I'll make your edits to Recollections and Protection.
Tombstone Piledriver: Really getting to the bottom of the barrel if you're using wrestling moves as sorceries. I think this wants to be mono-black. It's really unnecessary to splash green. I'm guessing you think it looks cooler that way and has more flavor, but that's not really the case here. I think you should drop the cost to three, put it onto the battlefield tapped, and then have it fight target creature at the beginning of your next upkeep/precombat main phase. Getting the cost down is the most important aspect as to how playable this is going to be. And of course, that's the make-or-break element good this design is going to be. It has amazing potential, but only really if you can get the cost down I would suggest.
Prescient Recollections: The third from the top function isn't necessary. You mine as well just stack them on the top at that cost. The event of getting a land in-between those is only hopeful really—and not necessarily what will be needed if-and-when you're casting this spell to begin with. Four for two at 2CMC is a great exchange. I'm not sure this really wants to be blue either. Blue wouldn't need this as much as say white would (especially for recouping low CMC creatures or removal). Also, Clairvoyant Recollections?
Mutual Libation: This is just a try-hard removal spell. It's not as selective as it needs to be—or better said not as cheap as it needs to be for the lack of selection.
Prescribed Burning: Very neat take on Lava Blister meets Explosive Vegetation. It's a touch under-cost, even at only 4 damage. The greater effect takes precedent, and the cost also enables you to increase the damage by 1 point as well. As a rule of guiding thumb, you always want to be hugging the curve as closely as possible when mimicking other really prominent spells or their effects. The only exception to this is when you're doing something fancy, and adding conditions and limitations to bring the cost down. But this isn't really doing any of that—it remains very free form and unrestricted.
Impulsive Extortion: Possibly at a lack of words here (as with the last one)—but I'm not sure why you're going to be impulsively extorting someone. The flavor is way off. There's also nothing impromptu or impulsive about the effect. It's not as random as it would need to be. These types of act are also extremely liable, so you mine-as-well have it cost you a card or permanent or something at random as well. The double benefit here is just power-hungry, and loses touch with respecting balance, interactivity, and realism of fantasy.
Friend's Return: Other than the flavor lacking on this one (it's too monotone PG-friendly), the design isn't really bad, but not groundbreaking or interesting either. Two for one with the cost and CMC restriction isn't bad, but it's multicolor (and not self-enabled), so it's kind of under-whelming as well. It'll bring back just one most of the time. White Knights can't use it because it's black. Black can't really use it because they want to bring back CMC 5 or greater. You don't really have to tinker with it, but if you want to make it more appealing, then consider making it more open or interactive some how.
Ancestral Protection: The flavor here is a nice throwback to the likes of Masumaro, First to Live. The second effect though is super hopeful, and at this cost, mine as well just put spirit tokens on the battlefield in some way without having to remove anything from the graveyard. For just one more mana, you can make it unlimited as well, operating as a Hallow or Reverse Damage with spirit tokens instead. But otherwise, I would say one spirit token for each source of damage.
Humble the Strong: Might I suggest Humble the Mighty as the name for this one? Just seems to flow off the tongue so much better than what you've got. It also befits the fantasy that would be invoked by a signature catalog of green creatures as well. As for the effect, what you're looking at is a double Reprisal. It currently doesn't prevent regeneration, so a lot of mighty creatures ain't going to be too humbled by it. I would suggest having it shuffle the card back into the deck, then deals a hit to the controller's pride. This makes it much more effect removal, and you could bring the cost down at least one mana (but maybe even by two mana at most).
Three Dimensional Tactics: This is a super hopeful effect, but sad reality is you're not likely going to have enough of either creatures to make the ideal use out of this. I would suggest something way more dynamic, such as searching the deck for two creatures (one with flying and one with first strike) and put them onto the battlefield tapped and attacking, then shuffle them back into the library at the end of turn if they're still around.
Yep Rat form makes a rat
Black doesn't get it's own fight cards so this needs green to work . . .
Not sure I get your critism for recollection? The effect mills (blue) and then return to the top (green) and third (blue). Third is not the best, but is a minimal effect that plays on the flavor of a memory (coming from the graveyard) being a premonition (third from the top).
Mutual Libation was made to be a Oblation type card. Doesn't target and becomes mutual to account for the shift in power level from rare to uncommon. All told it is a bit weak - but you can break the symmetry of it by not running permanents such as UW control decks.
Searching for 2 basic lands is about 3 mana depending on the set and dealing 4 damage is about 3 mana? 5 damage seems way too much for 2 mana. Even for a punisher type card. Browbeat was 3 mana afterall. Lava blister is IMO an anomaly because that was back when land destruction was only 2R instead of 3R or more that we have now. Not sure about the damage, but I could be very wrong.
This card is a redshifted Brainbite. Replacing the draw for impulse draw. Lowering mana because impulse draw is so much worse than draw. Not sure how it can be seen as overpowered?
I feel creatures in grave give this card its flavor - ancestors coming from beyond the veil. . .
Sure it can shuffle back into the library, but these effects usually destroy (and not many cards regenerate anymore - but I can just add the anti-regeneration text in). And just going off angraths fury, even if this card only effects creatures with power 4 or more, seems like 5 mana is a hard limit on removal plus damage.
The search effect sounds like a rare ability not an uncommon. But I could probably drop the cost and have this be a really unusual combat trick?
There's is nothing to say that Black shouldn't be able to tap into the Fight mechanic. That really makes no sense whatsoever and is a totally unnecessary restriction. I personally feel that there are a lot of biased restrictions placed within the "color pie" as they have designed it, and enabled it to subtly evolve over the years. Some of the designations are under-thought, and entirely unintelligible, because they are restricting core dynamics and interactions with huge amounts of influence over the game (ex. flow of the cards—hand or board advantage). There is no truly equal check for the implications of these large-scale effects other than implementing them fairly into every color by some means. Naturally, this is where the flavor and fantasy aspect should ring in (they do it according to their flavors)—but you'll find the devs over the years have chosen to be aggressively biased and very unimaginative instead.
Good example of a bad example.
Moving on, despite what you had envisioned for Mutual Obliation, note that in this form it operates more like a Innocent Blood, and therein lies the whole of the explanation I had originally given. Innocent Blood was successful because the cost made it efficient. In the case of Tremble, it wasn't as successful because the liability was harder to get around for many players. You design wants to take both scenarios into consideration. In its current form—it's just not going to be as proficient as it needs to be—to be successful.
Tombstone Piledriver looks good, except it *might* be a little strong in limited for an uncommon.
Prescient Recollections seems a little overpowered. Compare with Noxious Revival. This gets you another card into your library, draws you a card and mills in a way that *also* adds to the selection pool. All this for , sorcery speed and losing the phyrexian mana advantage. And Noxious Revival is quite a good card. The amount of different bits and pieces to this card's effect is also a bit much, so I would consider removing the extra card to the top third of the library or make it an instant and remove the draw a card text.
Mutual Libation seems a bit too quirky for an uncommon. I would make it rare.
Prescribed Burning is quite strong but I'm not sure if it *needs* changing or what I would change if I were to nerf it slightly.
Impulsive Extortion feels a little tacked on to me. Yes, Brainbite exists, but 'draw a card' (like scry or gaining life) is a simpler, cleaner rider to add to a mostly unrelated effect than impulse drawing. I suggest making this exile the card from your opponent and allowing you to cast it until end of turn (with a 'spend mana as though it were mana of any type' clause, of course)— similar effect, but feels more organic of a design when you combine the effects like that. This should also only hit nonland cards to avoid manascrew, as with most cards of this sort in recent sets.
Friends Return is a bit weak. I would make it 'return any number of target creatures' so it can hit one larger creature or multiple smaller ones.
Ancestral Protection feels much too complicated, especially for an uncommon, in a not particularly interesting way. It's an odd design I just don't think works.
Humble the Strong is just plain good removal design. Could be changed to if you wanted to push it a little. I don't know why @ReapThaWhirlwind is insisting that stopping regeneration is significant at all because there aren't many strong regenerate cards in older formats and regenerate is no longer printed in standard, let alone limited, where this card is most naturally inclined to fit.
Three Dimensional Tactics seems overly specific in effect. It could certainly be costed cheaper, but I just don't think it's that great of a design. Looks more novel than it is fun or practical.
RUNIN: Norse mythology set (awaiting further playtesting)
FATE of ALARA: Multicolour factions (currently on hiatus)
Contibutor to the Pyrulea community set
I'm here to tell you that all your set mechanics are bad
#Defundthepolice