Goblin Skirmisher
Creature - Goblin
At the beginning of the game, if Goblin Skirmisher is in your hand, you may reveal it. If you do, you take the first turn of the game.
1/1
a. Can you re-determine who goes first during the game, or will it require completely rewriting comp rule 101.2, or maybe the entire 101?
b. What happens when two players reveal a Goblin Skirmisher? My intention would be that whoever originally was supposed to go first will go first, how do I best word it?
Diligent Researcher
Creature - Wizard
At the beginning of the game, if Diligent Researcher is in your hand, you may reveal it. If you do, do not skip the draw step of the first turn of the game.
1/1
Youthful Acolyte
Creature - Cleric
At the beginning of the game, if Youthful Acolyte is in your hand, you may reveal it. If you do, set your life total to 22.
1/1
- These two are less tricky, since at least there is no ambiguity as to what happens when multiples are revealed. Still, I suspect section 101 of the CompRules isn't exactly pleased.
BTW, in case you care, the black one is a Zombie that sets the opponent's life total to 19, and the green one is an Elf that adds to your mana pool at the beginning of your next main phase.
Goblin Skirmisher -- You can't use a triggered ability ("At the beginning of the game"), since the game doesn't handle stack-based events for a while yet. This is why Serum Visions uses the "any time you could mulligan" wording. But, deciding which player goes first (by rule 101.2) happens before deciding to mulligan (CR101.4).
You could have the card ability function during mulligan season, and simply cause the starting player to skip his or her first turn. That has a similar, but not identical effect (obviously not the same in multiplayers, plus the first draw.) If that doesn't suit you, you could devise wording to have it originate in the determine-starting-player moment or the set-life-to-20-and-draw-opening-hand moment, and make you the starting player. That sounds a little rules-ish, though, and there is no precedent to draw upon.
"Unless another player reveals a Goblin Skirmisher...." might handle the case of ties.
.
The others are mostly all right -- read the CompRules to find out how the proper events are described, and devise wording that interacts with them. Again, it can't be an activated or triggered ability (except the Elf's, which is a delayed triggered ability -- but created by the static ability so described.)
And in regards to the Elf - what prevents its ability from being played multiple times before the start of the game (or from multiple elves being revealed this way)?
EDIT: If Le Chat reveals a Youthful Acolyte, and you reveal a Set-Life-to-19 Zombie, what is Le Chat's beginning life total? This is even more problematic than the Goblin issue above.
Also, why the "if" clause, rather than "...you may reveal ~ in your hand"? You obviously can't reveal it if the card isn't in your hand, so it's unnecessary.
Goblin Skirmisher
Creature - Goblin
At the beginning of the game, if Goblin Skirmisher is in your hand, you may reveal it. If you do, you take the first turn of the game.
No, for a couple of reasons. A triggered ability can't trigger until a turn starts, too late to apply this effect. The second problem applies to all of them, and I'll explain it below.
It would be better to model it after Serum Powder: "Any time a game could start, you may reveal this card from your hand. If you do, the game starts with your turn." This is clear that you go first, not just take an extra turn before everybody else.
Then, the only problem you would have is what happens when more than one person does it, or one player has more than one such card. "Whoever originally was supposed to go first" may not be a realistic answer. And, since you can't determine an "active player" when you need to use it, there really isn't a good solution, in general, to ordering problems.
However, you can get similar results to what you want with something (this is weird, but should work because the step exists even if nothing happens in it) like "If the game's first untap step would start, you may instead reveal this card from your hand. If you do, unless any other player reveals a Goblin Skirmisher from his or her hand, end the current turn and skip all turns before your turn. Only one replacement from a card named Goblin Skirmisher may be applied each game." This isn't even in multiplayer, but it is doable with just one very unlikely problem (there is a Cleanup step in that aborted first turn).
Diligent Researcher
Creature - Wizard
At the beginning of the game, if Diligent Researcher is in your hand, you may reveal it. If you do, do not skip the draw step of the first turn of the game.
All of your cards have what is called an "intervening if" condition on the trigger. That means it gets "checked" both when the ability would trigger, and when it would resolve. But you don't reveal it until it resolves (and even then, it is optional), so how do your opopnents know it triggered? Do you just say "Oh, there's a triggered ability that goes on the stack now, that you can respond to, but you can't see and I don't have to tell you what it is" ?
You really can't do it. Abilities that get used have to be visible as you use them. Cycling accomplishes this by discarding the card in the cost. Splice does it by revealing the card when you choose to use it. You really can't do that with a trigger.
So, you need to find creative ways to get the same effect. "If you would skip your draw in your first turn of the game, you may instead reveal this card and draw a card. Use this ability once a game."
Youthful Acolyte
Creature - Cleric
At the beginning of the game, if Youthful Acolyte is in your hand, you may reveal it. If you do, set your life total to 22.
"Reveal this card from your hand in the first upkeep of the game: gain 2 life. Play this ability once a game." (Some game formats already start you at different totals than 20).
Also note that these must all be optional. You can't force a player to reveal a card from their hand (judges would have to check everybody's initial hand in every game.
I also didn't word them all to prevent multiple cards from worrking. You can add that.
Creature - Goblin
At the beginning of the game, if Goblin Skirmisher is in your hand, you may reveal it. If you do, you take the first turn of the game.
1/1
a. Can you re-determine who goes first during the game, or will it require completely rewriting comp rule 101.2, or maybe the entire 101?
b. What happens when two players reveal a Goblin Skirmisher? My intention would be that whoever originally was supposed to go first will go first, how do I best word it?
Diligent Researcher
Creature - Wizard
At the beginning of the game, if Diligent Researcher is in your hand, you may reveal it. If you do, do not skip the draw step of the first turn of the game.
1/1
Youthful Acolyte
Creature - Cleric
At the beginning of the game, if Youthful Acolyte is in your hand, you may reveal it. If you do, set your life total to 22.
1/1
- These two are less tricky, since at least there is no ambiguity as to what happens when multiples are revealed. Still, I suspect section 101 of the CompRules isn't exactly pleased.
BTW, in case you care, the black one is a Zombie that sets the opponent's life total to 19, and the green one is an Elf that adds
You could have the card ability function during mulligan season, and simply cause the starting player to skip his or her first turn. That has a similar, but not identical effect (obviously not the same in multiplayers, plus the first draw.) If that doesn't suit you, you could devise wording to have it originate in the determine-starting-player moment or the set-life-to-20-and-draw-opening-hand moment, and make you the starting player. That sounds a little rules-ish, though, and there is no precedent to draw upon.
"Unless another player reveals a Goblin Skirmisher...." might handle the case of ties.
.
The others are mostly all right -- read the CompRules to find out how the proper events are described, and devise wording that interacts with them. Again, it can't be an activated or triggered ability (except the Elf's, which is a delayed triggered ability -- but created by the static ability so described.)
And in regards to the Elf - what prevents its ability from being played multiple times before the start of the game (or from multiple elves being revealed this way)?
EDIT: If Le Chat reveals a Youthful Acolyte, and you reveal a Set-Life-to-19 Zombie, what is Le Chat's beginning life total? This is even more problematic than the Goblin issue above.
Also, why the "if" clause, rather than "...you may reveal ~ in your hand"? You obviously can't reveal it if the card isn't in your hand, so it's unnecessary.
Instant
Target spell or permanent's tone becomes playful.
No, for a couple of reasons. A triggered ability can't trigger until a turn starts, too late to apply this effect. The second problem applies to all of them, and I'll explain it below.
It would be better to model it after Serum Powder: "Any time a game could start, you may reveal this card from your hand. If you do, the game starts with your turn." This is clear that you go first, not just take an extra turn before everybody else.
Then, the only problem you would have is what happens when more than one person does it, or one player has more than one such card. "Whoever originally was supposed to go first" may not be a realistic answer. And, since you can't determine an "active player" when you need to use it, there really isn't a good solution, in general, to ordering problems.
However, you can get similar results to what you want with something (this is weird, but should work because the step exists even if nothing happens in it) like "If the game's first untap step would start, you may instead reveal this card from your hand. If you do, unless any other player reveals a Goblin Skirmisher from his or her hand, end the current turn and skip all turns before your turn. Only one replacement from a card named Goblin Skirmisher may be applied each game." This isn't even in multiplayer, but it is doable with just one very unlikely problem (there is a Cleanup step in that aborted first turn).
All of your cards have what is called an "intervening if" condition on the trigger. That means it gets "checked" both when the ability would trigger, and when it would resolve. But you don't reveal it until it resolves (and even then, it is optional), so how do your opopnents know it triggered? Do you just say "Oh, there's a triggered ability that goes on the stack now, that you can respond to, but you can't see and I don't have to tell you what it is" ?
You really can't do it. Abilities that get used have to be visible as you use them. Cycling accomplishes this by discarding the card in the cost. Splice does it by revealing the card when you choose to use it. You really can't do that with a trigger.
So, you need to find creative ways to get the same effect. "If you would skip your draw in your first turn of the game, you may instead reveal this card and draw a card. Use this ability once a game."
"Reveal this card from your hand in the first upkeep of the game: gain 2 life. Play this ability once a game." (Some game formats already start you at different totals than 20).
Also note that these must all be optional. You can't force a player to reveal a card from their hand (judges would have to check everybody's initial hand in every game.
I also didn't word them all to prevent multiple cards from worrking. You can add that.