Undisputable Denial
Instant
Blue color identity
You may cast ~ by discarding 2 Blue cards from your hand.
Cannot be countered.
Counter target spell.
Terror of the Pinnacle
Creature - Demon
Black color identity.
You may cast ~ by discarding 2 Black cards from your hand and losing 5 life.
Flying Trample BBB: Terror of the Pinnacle gains indestructible until end of turn.
4/3
Heightened Senses
Instant
White color identity
You may cast ~ by discarding a White card from your hand.
Untap target creature you control. Put a +1/+1 counter on it. It gains indestructible and may block an additional creature until end of this turn.
Unexplored Path
Sorcery
Green Color identity
You may cast ~ by discarding a Green card from your hand.
Search your library for 3 basic land cards and put them into your hand.
Reckless Onslaught
Instant
Red color identity
You may cast ~ by discarding 2 Red cards from your hand.
Creatures you control gain Trample and Doublestrike until end of turn. At the end of the turn sacrifice all creatures you control that attacked this turn.
None of these would be format breaking, but could add a new dimension to the game. I see no reason they couldn't have mana costs, but would basically be 1 more than a similar spell. In order they could cost 4,5,2,4,5... Probably double color and rest generic, but I do like the concept of only being able to be cast in a certain way to prevent them from being too broken. The ones that cost more than 4, if they had a cost, have an additional downside to make them more balanced. The green one would probably cost 4 but only gets basic lands from the deck so a single colored card does feel like an acceptable cost for the effect.
The counterspell would be good, because its a slightly less powerful Force of will, so of course it would.
The black one is strong, but risky if the environment has lots of removal. And since it has no manacost, it dies to fatal push right away.
The white one is the most balanced of the bunch. Might have been better for the Force cycle in Modern Horizons than the one printed.
Green one isn't worth the card loss, especially since these cards want to be run in mono-colored decks its just filling your hand with mostly forests. If it was a Cultivate effect it might be more worth pitching a card for.
Red's isn't worth it. By the time red has enough creatures out for Trample/Doublestrike to matter, its going to have an empty hand, and being unable to cast this for mana means its almost always going to be a dead draw.
I'd suggest tightening up the cycle. You have two that can be cast of one card, two for 2 cards, and one for two and and extra life payment. Also, having 4 spells and one creature is awkward. Pitching two cards is a good spot. The Blue and White ones are good because those are abilities you would want to keep mana open for, so I recommend finding similar niches for your other cards.
If you up the white pitch to two cards, and have it hit up to two creatures.
Black could be some sort of reactive reanimation, maybe for a creature that died this turn.
If any of them should get a creature, it would be green, maybe a spell that ramps and then makes a token equal to your number of lands.
Red is tough, I don't have a great idea right now, maybe some reactive kind of fight with damage or something.
Weaker force of will is fine. There are several weaker force of wills already and they haven't destroyed the game. This might be the best weaker force of will yet but its still fine. Its hard to say if they should have mana costs but if they do this one gets the same as force 3UU.
Free demon is neat. It fits black well but its also really bad. Its too small and fragile for the cost. If it stays as fragile as it is it needs as least 6 power. Keeping it as 4/3 it needs a lot more umph. Instead of BBB pay 4 life to make indestructible. And add you can cast from graveyard. I wouldn't add a cost as the point is this demon requires blood not mana.
Free protection is great but very limited in uses. Apostle's Blessing is highly coveted by the one deck that uses it and this is highly similar. Being indestructible instead of protection has important differences. I don't know if a deck actually wants this but it is the best of your designs. Cost either WW or 2W.
Unlike bad force of will bad Land Grant isn't really good. It wants to fulfill the same purpose but getting only basics and needing to have another green card is harsh. It would definitely see play in legacy and might even make monogreen blecher better but otherwise it isn't doing anything interesting. If you give it a real cost it could be played. Probably 1GG.
Reckless Onslaught looks the most powerful simply because doublestike is a crazy powerful effect. But its actually the weakest. If you are encouraging attacking you need an effect that helps you with this strategy. A huge problem with this strategy is lacking damage and waiting a turn to attack. So make a card that covers the problem. Give +2/+0 and haste. If giving a mana cost it is RRR.
I appreciate the kind words from you two. It appears you mostly evaluated the cards correctly. They aren't meant to be back breaking or too powerful. Just fun illustration of alternative casting costs. They don't fit into my plane at all so I was more or less making good but not broken cards for others to maybe get ideas from.
Especially liked the first comment about the white one. You guys rock!
The black one is actually intended to be a gamble. The life loss and card disadvantage can be huge against a deck packing bolts or pushes or paths but can be really good against decks unprepared or just green decks in general. Turn 1 IoK and play this. Your hand is spent but they have a hell of a clock looking staring them down. Could also go nicely in a 1 drop black recursion deck with all the easy reanimation they get. That's the main reason I feel it's okay. Turn 1 dropping this and pitching something like Bloodsoaked Champion and a Bloodghast wouldn't be the end of the world. Making it any stronger could push it to Hogaak levels... Which I clearly do not want.
The green one admitted is weak, but was intended to be more of a value card. I considered putting one of the lands into the battlefield tapped, but turn 1 doing that just feels too good. IDK if losing 2 cards for 3 lands is worth it. BUT a deck packing 4 of these and maybe 9 lands could exist. Just getting 1 in a stompy deck means your Mana issues are solved entirely. Imagine a curve of land, elf, play this. Turn 2 you can start the curve of any amazing 3 drop like the elf knight or Lovestruck Beast, next turn play another and another elf or got straight into Questing Beast. Your Mana issues would be totally taken care of. That feels a little too strong, but maybe a cultivate effect isn't out of the question after all.
The blue one seems like it's on par if not slightly stronger than most of the free counters. Excluding Force of Will, Daze, and possible Force of Negation obviously.
The red one also doesn't have a deck built for it, but it's not impossible to image this can steal games if you build a good 3/1 for 2 and 4/2 for 3 Mana deck. Just 3 or 4 of those guys attacking can deal some serious damage.
White one is obviously well balanced from y'all's comments. Thank you again.
I played around with these a little on my own and two things came to me.
First, if you let them discard coloed cards or relevant land type, they are a lot more playable late game, and you just save the lands you don't need.
Second, for red I thought of a reactive Act of Treason, to steal a creature on their turn, block and swing back.
Red Spell
(Red)Instant
You may cast CARDNAME by exiling two red and/or Mountain cards from your hand.
Gain control of target creature until its owner’s next turn. Untap it. It gains haste until the end turn.
The green card of the cycle, the triple lay of the land effect is actually quite broken, when considering 7 land belcher exists as a deck in modern. Alternatively, it could enable a 3-land spy deck based on Balustrade Spy in modern as well, which would be quite difficult to interact with. If these cards were printed such that they were legacy legal only, like in a commander set I think they would be mostly fair.
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Instant
Blue color identity
You may cast ~ by discarding 2 Blue cards from your hand.
Cannot be countered.
Counter target spell.
Terror of the Pinnacle
Creature - Demon
Black color identity.
You may cast ~ by discarding 2 Black cards from your hand and losing 5 life.
Flying Trample
BBB: Terror of the Pinnacle gains indestructible until end of turn.
4/3
Heightened Senses
Instant
White color identity
You may cast ~ by discarding a White card from your hand.
Untap target creature you control. Put a +1/+1 counter on it. It gains indestructible and may block an additional creature until end of this turn.
Unexplored Path
Sorcery
Green Color identity
You may cast ~ by discarding a Green card from your hand.
Search your library for 3 basic land cards and put them into your hand.
Reckless Onslaught
Instant
Red color identity
You may cast ~ by discarding 2 Red cards from your hand.
Creatures you control gain Trample and Doublestrike until end of turn. At the end of the turn sacrifice all creatures you control that attacked this turn.
None of these would be format breaking, but could add a new dimension to the game. I see no reason they couldn't have mana costs, but would basically be 1 more than a similar spell. In order they could cost 4,5,2,4,5... Probably double color and rest generic, but I do like the concept of only being able to be cast in a certain way to prevent them from being too broken. The ones that cost more than 4, if they had a cost, have an additional downside to make them more balanced. The green one would probably cost 4 but only gets basic lands from the deck so a single colored card does feel like an acceptable cost for the effect.
The black one is strong, but risky if the environment has lots of removal. And since it has no manacost, it dies to fatal push right away.
The white one is the most balanced of the bunch. Might have been better for the Force cycle in Modern Horizons than the one printed.
Green one isn't worth the card loss, especially since these cards want to be run in mono-colored decks its just filling your hand with mostly forests. If it was a Cultivate effect it might be more worth pitching a card for.
Red's isn't worth it. By the time red has enough creatures out for Trample/Doublestrike to matter, its going to have an empty hand, and being unable to cast this for mana means its almost always going to be a dead draw.
I'd suggest tightening up the cycle. You have two that can be cast of one card, two for 2 cards, and one for two and and extra life payment. Also, having 4 spells and one creature is awkward. Pitching two cards is a good spot. The Blue and White ones are good because those are abilities you would want to keep mana open for, so I recommend finding similar niches for your other cards.
If you up the white pitch to two cards, and have it hit up to two creatures.
Black could be some sort of reactive reanimation, maybe for a creature that died this turn.
If any of them should get a creature, it would be green, maybe a spell that ramps and then makes a token equal to your number of lands.
Red is tough, I don't have a great idea right now, maybe some reactive kind of fight with damage or something.
Free demon is neat. It fits black well but its also really bad. Its too small and fragile for the cost. If it stays as fragile as it is it needs as least 6 power. Keeping it as 4/3 it needs a lot more umph. Instead of BBB pay 4 life to make indestructible. And add you can cast from graveyard. I wouldn't add a cost as the point is this demon requires blood not mana.
Free protection is great but very limited in uses. Apostle's Blessing is highly coveted by the one deck that uses it and this is highly similar. Being indestructible instead of protection has important differences. I don't know if a deck actually wants this but it is the best of your designs. Cost either WW or 2W.
Unlike bad force of will bad Land Grant isn't really good. It wants to fulfill the same purpose but getting only basics and needing to have another green card is harsh. It would definitely see play in legacy and might even make monogreen blecher better but otherwise it isn't doing anything interesting. If you give it a real cost it could be played. Probably 1GG.
Reckless Onslaught looks the most powerful simply because doublestike is a crazy powerful effect. But its actually the weakest. If you are encouraging attacking you need an effect that helps you with this strategy. A huge problem with this strategy is lacking damage and waiting a turn to attack. So make a card that covers the problem. Give +2/+0 and haste. If giving a mana cost it is RRR.
Especially liked the first comment about the white one. You guys rock!
The black one is actually intended to be a gamble. The life loss and card disadvantage can be huge against a deck packing bolts or pushes or paths but can be really good against decks unprepared or just green decks in general. Turn 1 IoK and play this. Your hand is spent but they have a hell of a clock looking staring them down. Could also go nicely in a 1 drop black recursion deck with all the easy reanimation they get. That's the main reason I feel it's okay. Turn 1 dropping this and pitching something like Bloodsoaked Champion and a Bloodghast wouldn't be the end of the world. Making it any stronger could push it to Hogaak levels... Which I clearly do not want.
The green one admitted is weak, but was intended to be more of a value card. I considered putting one of the lands into the battlefield tapped, but turn 1 doing that just feels too good. IDK if losing 2 cards for 3 lands is worth it. BUT a deck packing 4 of these and maybe 9 lands could exist. Just getting 1 in a stompy deck means your Mana issues are solved entirely. Imagine a curve of land, elf, play this. Turn 2 you can start the curve of any amazing 3 drop like the elf knight or Lovestruck Beast, next turn play another and another elf or got straight into Questing Beast. Your Mana issues would be totally taken care of. That feels a little too strong, but maybe a cultivate effect isn't out of the question after all.
The blue one seems like it's on par if not slightly stronger than most of the free counters. Excluding Force of Will, Daze, and possible Force of Negation obviously.
The red one also doesn't have a deck built for it, but it's not impossible to image this can steal games if you build a good 3/1 for 2 and 4/2 for 3 Mana deck. Just 3 or 4 of those guys attacking can deal some serious damage.
White one is obviously well balanced from y'all's comments. Thank you again.
First, if you let them discard coloed cards or relevant land type, they are a lot more playable late game, and you just save the lands you don't need.
Second, for red I thought of a reactive Act of Treason, to steal a creature on their turn, block and swing back.
Red Spell
(Red)Instant
You may cast CARDNAME by exiling two red and/or Mountain cards from your hand.
Gain control of target creature until its owner’s next turn. Untap it. It gains haste until the end turn.