In general, it is true that the stronger cards are better. That is why Tarmogoyf amd Liliana of the Veil see a lot of play.
However, that doesn't mean you can play with "weaker" cards. A good deck example is probably Bogles. Bogles plays a lot of Auras that are typically "bad" but the deck is synergistic enough to make it work.
So, I would say that if the majority of your cards are more in the Average power level, see if there are any synergies between them that allow them to be better together. You can certainly win games using less than powerful cards but recognize that sometimes you will still get beat by players playing better cards, but that doesn't mean you can't build a workable deck using cards you may have if they just go together somewhat.
Your opponent is basically right for all the reasons he stated.
Once the ability triggers, your creature card is in the graveyard waiting for the ability to resolve. Once the ability resolves, that creature card will be returned to the battlefield as long as it hasn't changed zones. If your opponent exiles it, the trigger can no longer find it. Once an ibject moves from one zone to another (with some special exceptions regarding moving from the stack to the battlefield) it is a brand new object. It is no longer the object that died.
The ability itself doesn't actually "fizzle" (not a real rules term; it generally means "countered on resolution") because there are no targets. It just resolves and does as much as possible which, in this case, is nothing. The delayed trigger that will trigger at the beginning of the end step to bring Gift of Immortality back will also trigger and resolve but do nothing since the creature isn't on the battlefield.
Abilities like this track the first public zone it goes to. Since "dies" means to go from the battlefield to the graveyard the card has to actually get to the graveyard as the first zone in order for the ability to trigger. If it moves to another zone beyond that, the ability loses track.
This should be in the Rulings forum (not Rumored Card Rulings since these cards exist).
Improvise doesn't produce mana. It simply lets you pay the generic cost of a spell by tapping an artifact instead. At most, you can tap one artifact to pay the 1 cost of the spell. You will still need to pay the R cost with actual mana (of any color as Grenzo allows you to do).
I think Knight of the White Orchid is the best of the three (though it has its flaws), but Burnished Hart is better than Oreskos Explorer.
I personally run it in quite a few decks. I also don't run much artifact ramp in a lot of decks. I actually look at it more of a mid game play. Early game, the 3 & 3 cost is tough but as the game is going on it is easier to cast it and crack it. I also like it as a decent recursion target to get more lands.
If you look at it like a Farhaven Elf and a Yavimaya Dryad together, the 6 mana over two turns isn't that bad. It is obviously worse (there is no denying that), but it does help.
So, overall it is slow, but by no means is it bad. I have been cutting it back a little bit, but certain builds do like it and overall I include it in many non-green decks. In green decks there are better options.
Once Yahenni's Experise resolves, you end up with a 3/3 Midnight Entourage with -3/-3 and a 3/4 Gifted Aetherborn with -3/-3. State Based Actions are checked and sees Midnight Entourage with 0 toughness, so it dies and triggers. Then, before that trigger goes onto the stack, State Based Actions are checked again and now you have a 2/3 Gifted Aetherborn with -3/-3 so it will die due to having 0 toughness. Because the Entourage is already gone, it will not trigger for the Gifted Aetherborn dying.
In the end, both will die and you will draw 1 card.
You are correct (kind of; see below). No one can respond to costs being paid and no one case respond to activating a mana ability. So, no matter what order you generate mana (during the casting of the spell or "floating" mana beforehand) you will get the color of mana you tapped the land for.
There is no way for this play by your opponent to do anythng. You tap a Swamp for [mana]B[/c] and immediately get black mana. Changing it to an Island after the fact doesn't chage anything about the mana you already have.
To clarify your last paragraph; the first time someone can respond to a spell being cast is after it has been actually cast. So, the spell has been announced, targets and modes chosen, and costs are paid. There isn't a time between the spell being announced (put onto the stack) and costs being paid that a player can respond.
No, you are not correct in this case. Skinrender doesn't immediately give Necrotic Sliver 3 counters; the ability goes onto the stack targeting the Sliver and any player can respond to the trigger. So, it will go like this:
Skinrender enters the battlefield.
Trigger goes onto the stack and Necrotic Sliver is chosen as the target.
While the ability is on the stack, the controller of Necrotic Sliver activates its ability targeting skinrender.
Part of that cost is sacrificing the sliver, so now, you have Skinrender's triggered ability on the bottom of the stack and Necrotic Sliver's activated ability on top of it. And, Necrotic Sliver is in the graveyard.
Necrotic Sliver's ability resolves and destroys Skinrender.
Skinrender's ability goes to resolve and is countered due to all of its targets now being illegel.
Fireball isn't an instant, but the answer is still the same. You can't "block" them in game terms (that term is reserved for Combat), but you can counter them with Counterspell, Mana Leak, Negate, Dispel (for instants), and so on. Anything that says "Counter target spell" as long as the spell being countered is allowed by the spell trying to counter it (see Dispel).
This might be better off in Custom Card Rulings (definitely not in the Rulings Forum) and just basically create it like a Plane card that is always in play.
I really think you need to allow corner cases to exist. The big one is the Extra Turns corner case. It can be seen as a detriment to taking an extra turn. Your wording also doesn't seem to prevent players from Soulforging after the previous player since the Emblem isn't created until the beginning of the turn that Soulforge would wear off. For example, with your wording, I could Soulforge, but I don't get an Emblem that turn. Then, on my opponent's turn, they Soulforge too since there still is no emblem. I think you need to create the Emblem right away.
The other issue is that you can't really trigger something to happen right when your turn starts. It would need to be in the upkeep step (technically your wording already occurs in upkeep because of the way the rules work, but you might as well word it that way). This also means then that whatever you exchange won't be untapped for your current turn. I am not sure if you want it to be.
Are you trying to exchange control of just cards on the battlefield or cards in hands, libraries, graveyards, etc.? Your wording suggests the latter, but I am not sure that is what you want to do. Your wording also ignored tokens if you are just exchanging permanents. Magic doesn't use "cards" anymore for things on the battlefield, but when it did, it meant "nontoken".
Also, do you want it to be an Emblem so players can't mess with it? It seems like it might be better gameplay to give people the possibility of interrupting the exchange or ending it early. It also makes writing the rule easier.
Try something like this:
At the beginning of your upkeep, if no player controls an enchantment called "Soulforge" and you have 2 or fewer Soulforge counters, you may create a Soulforge enchantment token with "As ~ enters the battlefield, choose a player. You exchange control of all permanents you control with all permanents that player controls until ~ leaves the battlefield." and "At the end of your next turn, sacrifice ~." If you do, you get a Soulforge counter.
I am sure this isn't exactly what you want, but it highlights some differences that allow this to work. If you want to add in a clause about an extra turn, you can just change the last ability on the enchantment to be "At the end of your next turn, if it is not an extra turn, ...". I know being an enchantment introduces some other issues, but I am sure we can tweak it from here.
Thoughtseize goes ontot he stack and then all the costs associated with are paid. Then, Tidespout triggers on top of it. Tidespout trigger resolves and then Thoughtseize resolves.
They could end up discarding what was bounced to their hand.
1) You can cast Breaking on its own
2) You can cast Entering on its own. Since Breaking is CMC 2, but you don't choose which side to cast until you actually cast it, you can choose Breaking as the card in your hand, but then cast Entering.
3) You can fuse them since you are casting it from your hand.
Shizo isn't a swamp, but yes, almost all lands (except Dryad Arbor and animated creature lands) are colorless. Protection from Black will not prevent you from targeting Spirit of the Night with Shizo.
1) No. The ability is on the stack and, before it resolves, they bolt Saheeli. Saheeli will die and then the ability will resolve creating a copy of Guardian. Since Saheeli is no lonmger around, it is not a legal target for Saheeli.
2) No. Saheeli dies due to having 0 loyalty. This is a State-Based Action that occurs before anyone gets priority and will occur while Saheeli's -2 is still on the stack.
3) You will get a copy of whatever face is face up. In this case, you will get an Awoken Horror.
No. Once the trigger happens (which is immediately upon entering the battlefield before a player gets priority), it is on the stack. Getting rid of the Gearhulk will not prevent that trigger from resolving.
However, that doesn't mean you can play with "weaker" cards. A good deck example is probably Bogles. Bogles plays a lot of Auras that are typically "bad" but the deck is synergistic enough to make it work.
So, I would say that if the majority of your cards are more in the Average power level, see if there are any synergies between them that allow them to be better together. You can certainly win games using less than powerful cards but recognize that sometimes you will still get beat by players playing better cards, but that doesn't mean you can't build a workable deck using cards you may have if they just go together somewhat.
Once the ability triggers, your creature card is in the graveyard waiting for the ability to resolve. Once the ability resolves, that creature card will be returned to the battlefield as long as it hasn't changed zones. If your opponent exiles it, the trigger can no longer find it. Once an ibject moves from one zone to another (with some special exceptions regarding moving from the stack to the battlefield) it is a brand new object. It is no longer the object that died.
The ability itself doesn't actually "fizzle" (not a real rules term; it generally means "countered on resolution") because there are no targets. It just resolves and does as much as possible which, in this case, is nothing. The delayed trigger that will trigger at the beginning of the end step to bring Gift of Immortality back will also trigger and resolve but do nothing since the creature isn't on the battlefield.
Abilities like this track the first public zone it goes to. Since "dies" means to go from the battlefield to the graveyard the card has to actually get to the graveyard as the first zone in order for the ability to trigger. If it moves to another zone beyond that, the ability loses track.
Improvise doesn't produce mana. It simply lets you pay the generic cost of a spell by tapping an artifact instead. At most, you can tap one artifact to pay the 1 cost of the spell. You will still need to pay the R cost with actual mana (of any color as Grenzo allows you to do).
I think Knight of the White Orchid is the best of the three (though it has its flaws), but Burnished Hart is better than Oreskos Explorer.
I personally run it in quite a few decks. I also don't run much artifact ramp in a lot of decks. I actually look at it more of a mid game play. Early game, the 3 & 3 cost is tough but as the game is going on it is easier to cast it and crack it. I also like it as a decent recursion target to get more lands.
If you look at it like a Farhaven Elf and a Yavimaya Dryad together, the 6 mana over two turns isn't that bad. It is obviously worse (there is no denying that), but it does help.
So, overall it is slow, but by no means is it bad. I have been cutting it back a little bit, but certain builds do like it and overall I include it in many non-green decks. In green decks there are better options.
In the end, both will die and you will draw 1 card.
There is no way for this play by your opponent to do anythng. You tap a Swamp for [mana]B[/c] and immediately get black mana. Changing it to an Island after the fact doesn't chage anything about the mana you already have.
To clarify your last paragraph; the first time someone can respond to a spell being cast is after it has been actually cast. So, the spell has been announced, targets and modes chosen, and costs are paid. There isn't a time between the spell being announced (put onto the stack) and costs being paid that a player can respond.
Trigger goes onto the stack and Necrotic Sliver is chosen as the target.
While the ability is on the stack, the controller of Necrotic Sliver activates its ability targeting skinrender.
Part of that cost is sacrificing the sliver, so now, you have Skinrender's triggered ability on the bottom of the stack and Necrotic Sliver's activated ability on top of it. And, Necrotic Sliver is in the graveyard.
Necrotic Sliver's ability resolves and destroys Skinrender.
Skinrender's ability goes to resolve and is countered due to all of its targets now being illegel.
Fireball
Lightning Strike
Fireball isn't an instant, but the answer is still the same. You can't "block" them in game terms (that term is reserved for Combat), but you can counter them with Counterspell, Mana Leak, Negate, Dispel (for instants), and so on. Anything that says "Counter target spell" as long as the spell being countered is allowed by the spell trying to counter it (see Dispel).
I really think you need to allow corner cases to exist. The big one is the Extra Turns corner case. It can be seen as a detriment to taking an extra turn. Your wording also doesn't seem to prevent players from Soulforging after the previous player since the Emblem isn't created until the beginning of the turn that Soulforge would wear off. For example, with your wording, I could Soulforge, but I don't get an Emblem that turn. Then, on my opponent's turn, they Soulforge too since there still is no emblem. I think you need to create the Emblem right away.
The other issue is that you can't really trigger something to happen right when your turn starts. It would need to be in the upkeep step (technically your wording already occurs in upkeep because of the way the rules work, but you might as well word it that way). This also means then that whatever you exchange won't be untapped for your current turn. I am not sure if you want it to be.
Are you trying to exchange control of just cards on the battlefield or cards in hands, libraries, graveyards, etc.? Your wording suggests the latter, but I am not sure that is what you want to do. Your wording also ignored tokens if you are just exchanging permanents. Magic doesn't use "cards" anymore for things on the battlefield, but when it did, it meant "nontoken".
Also, do you want it to be an Emblem so players can't mess with it? It seems like it might be better gameplay to give people the possibility of interrupting the exchange or ending it early. It also makes writing the rule easier.
Try something like this:
I am sure this isn't exactly what you want, but it highlights some differences that allow this to work. If you want to add in a clause about an extra turn, you can just change the last ability on the enchantment to be "At the end of your next turn, if it is not an extra turn, ...". I know being an enchantment introduces some other issues, but I am sure we can tweak it from here.
They could end up discarding what was bounced to their hand.
Yes. You have three options here:
1) You can cast Breaking on its own
2) You can cast Entering on its own. Since Breaking is CMC 2, but you don't choose which side to cast until you actually cast it, you can choose Breaking as the card in your hand, but then cast Entering.
3) You can fuse them since you are casting it from your hand.
[c]Saheeli Rai[/c] = Saheeli Rai
Felidar Guardian
Thing in the Ice/Awoken Horror
1) No. The ability is on the stack and, before it resolves, they bolt Saheeli. Saheeli will die and then the ability will resolve creating a copy of Guardian. Since Saheeli is no lonmger around, it is not a legal target for Saheeli.
2) No. Saheeli dies due to having 0 loyalty. This is a State-Based Action that occurs before anyone gets priority and will occur while Saheeli's -2 is still on the stack.
3) You will get a copy of whatever face is face up. In this case, you will get an Awoken Horror.
Torrential Gearhulk
Stasis Snare
No. Once the trigger happens (which is immediately upon entering the battlefield before a player gets priority), it is on the stack. Getting rid of the Gearhulk will not prevent that trigger from resolving.