Below are some custom land designs for my FF9 inspired set. Once completed this will be a 10 land legendary cycle. All of the lands are legendary painlands that cannot be tapped for colorless, but do have an added ability that only requires tapping.
Cleyra, the Spinning Sands
Legendary Land (R)
: Add G or W. Cleyra, the Spinning Sands deals 1 damage to you.
: Untap target attacking creature with flying. Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to and dealt by that creature this turn.
In FF9, Cleyra is a city protected by a massive sandstorm. Cleyra trades off some pros and cons with Maze of Ith. Unlike Maze, Cleyra is Legendary and can only target flying creatures. Cleyra has the upside of being able to also tap for mana however.
Lindblum
Legendary Land (R)
: Add R or W. Lindblum deals 1 damage to you.
: Reduce the crew number for target vehicle you control by 1 until end of turn. That vehicle gains haste until end of turn.
Lindblum is the city of industry -- famous for airships. Added a pair of abilities that are powerful due to being free, but still require you to have both a creature and vehicle to take advantage of the ability.
Kuja's Desert Palace
Legendary Land (R)
: Add B or R. Kuja's Desert Palace deals 1 damage to you.
: Exile the top card of your library. You lose life equal to its converted mana cost plus two and you may cast that card from exile until end of turn.
Really wanted to play off of the Antlion traps in the game. FF9 adds some intrigue to finding Kuja's Desert Palace by making it one a handful of sinkholes but if you pick the wrong one you are attacked by an Antlion. I interpreted that idea into Magic as an impulse draw mechanic, with a potentially substantial life penalty depending upon the card drawn. This is the one I'm the most iffy as to whether it could see print -- even with the "plus two" clause.
I could see these being quite strong as your not paying for the second abilities of these lands, but the drawback of using these for mana will be a growing issue, so does balance these a bit, though maybe a cost of 1 or 2 may be needed?
I do think that Cleyra is reasonable of an ability, and i think that Lindblum may be better making a 0/1 token that rides for +2 (similar to the new Kamigowa stuff) but can understand the want to make it different. Maybe if not making a creature make the minimum reduction to 1 rather than to 0 (ie reduce by 1 to a minimum of 1)
As for KDP, i think that wording is very clunky and defiantly needs a rework and maybe some slight change.
As the area is a kind of 'trap' zone, maybe something like: t Reveal the top card of your library, if the revealed card is a non-land, target opponent creates a 3/3 Red/Black Creature token called Antlion. You may play the revealed card this turn.
This way if you hit something useful, your opponent gets a 3/3 to add pressure to you, rather than the life cost right away.
I can't comment on lore accuracy, so I'm just looking at the cards in the game design vacuum.
Cleyra seems fine, though having a white producing land that hoses flyers is odd. Red and Green are the most anti-flyer colors, so that may be better for the land.
Lindblum seems fine, the wording may need tweaked but they've not doesn't that specific crew modificationbbefore so I don't know that theres a better way.
The original version of KDP is very undesirable, between the high life cost of the ability and the inability to play lands that are exiled (not sure if that was intentional). Funk Pirates version that sometimes gives the oppt a creature is a definite flavor win (the token might need to be a 3/1 though for balance), and I'd definitely us "play" instead of "cast" to allow lands to be accessed.
Life sapping lands are played out. You should experiment with new things.
Ingenuity.
Consider duals that can't be played from the hand. They can only enter the battlefield from another zone. When it becomes tapped, it doesn't untap during your next untap step.
Does this wording for Lindblum's second ability work better?
Lindblum may be tapped to crew a vehicle as though it were a creature with 1 power. If a vehicle is crewed by Lindblum it gains haste until end of turn.
If you're gonna do that, which I think does work, then the first sentence should be a passive, and the second a triggered ability ala Speedway Fanatic template. Also I think that "may be tapped" is implied with crew.
Lindblum
Legendary Land (R)
Lindblum may crew Vehicles as though it were a creature with 1 power.
Whenever Lindblum crews a Vehicle, that Vehicle gains haste until end of turn.
: Add R or W. Lindblum deals 1 damage to you.
Cleyra, the Spinning Sands
Legendary Land (R)
: Add G or W. Cleyra, the Spinning Sands deals 1 damage to you.
: Untap target attacking creature with flying. Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to and dealt by that creature this turn.
In FF9, Cleyra is a city protected by a massive sandstorm. Cleyra trades off some pros and cons with Maze of Ith. Unlike Maze, Cleyra is Legendary and can only target flying creatures. Cleyra has the upside of being able to also tap for mana however.
Lindblum
Legendary Land (R)
: Add R or W. Lindblum deals 1 damage to you.
: Reduce the crew number for target vehicle you control by 1 until end of turn. That vehicle gains haste until end of turn.
Lindblum is the city of industry -- famous for airships. Added a pair of abilities that are powerful due to being free, but still require you to have both a creature and vehicle to take advantage of the ability.
Kuja's Desert Palace
Legendary Land (R)
: Add B or R. Kuja's Desert Palace deals 1 damage to you.
: Exile the top card of your library. You lose life equal to its converted mana cost plus two and you may cast that card from exile until end of turn.
Really wanted to play off of the Antlion traps in the game. FF9 adds some intrigue to finding Kuja's Desert Palace by making it one a handful of sinkholes but if you pick the wrong one you are attacked by an Antlion. I interpreted that idea into Magic as an impulse draw mechanic, with a potentially substantial life penalty depending upon the card drawn. This is the one I'm the most iffy as to whether it could see print -- even with the "plus two" clause.
I do think that Cleyra is reasonable of an ability, and i think that Lindblum may be better making a 0/1 token that rides for +2 (similar to the new Kamigowa stuff) but can understand the want to make it different. Maybe if not making a creature make the minimum reduction to 1 rather than to 0 (ie reduce by 1 to a minimum of 1)
As for KDP, i think that wording is very clunky and defiantly needs a rework and maybe some slight change.
As the area is a kind of 'trap' zone, maybe something like:
t Reveal the top card of your library, if the revealed card is a non-land, target opponent creates a 3/3 Red/Black Creature token called Antlion. You may play the revealed card this turn.
This way if you hit something useful, your opponent gets a 3/3 to add pressure to you, rather than the life cost right away.
~Funk Pirate
Cleyra seems fine, though having a white producing land that hoses flyers is odd. Red and Green are the most anti-flyer colors, so that may be better for the land.
Lindblum seems fine, the wording may need tweaked but they've not doesn't that specific crew modificationbbefore so I don't know that theres a better way.
The original version of KDP is very undesirable, between the high life cost of the ability and the inability to play lands that are exiled (not sure if that was intentional). Funk Pirates version that sometimes gives the oppt a creature is a definite flavor win (the token might need to be a 3/1 though for balance), and I'd definitely us "play" instead of "cast" to allow lands to be accessed.
Ingenuity.
Consider duals that can't be played from the hand. They can only enter the battlefield from another zone. When it becomes tapped, it doesn't untap during your next untap step.
Lindblum may be tapped to crew a vehicle as though it were a creature with 1 power. If a vehicle is crewed by Lindblum it gains haste until end of turn.
Lindblum
Legendary Land (R)
Lindblum may crew Vehicles as though it were a creature with 1 power.
Whenever Lindblum crews a Vehicle, that Vehicle gains haste until end of turn.
: Add R or W. Lindblum deals 1 damage to you.