I did a RTR sealed last night and got this pool. I think it is pretty interesting, and has a few directions that it could go. I want to get a sense of how other people would build it to compare to my own final decision. I'll post my own deck and record after some other people have commented, since I don't want to bias anyone in their choices.
The pool (each category is sorted by rarity, so look along the first entries in each to find the rares):
Here are the judgings. Creativity, balance, and flavor are worth 5 points each.
wilsonbiggs
Creativity: That's just boring. It's Cancel, with cycling. 1/5
Balance: It's pretty fair. Cancel isn't overpowered, so adding a bit of utility to it is fine. 4/5
Flavor: I get that it's the quintessential blue card, but you can come up with a better name than that. Plus, no flavor text on a card that has plenty of room for it; on cards like this, that's where most of the flavor comes from. 1/5 Total: 6/15
Brofaux
Creativity: First of all, this has been done before, but only once. The thing is, this just isn't very new and exciting. Flashback plus cycling is an interesting interaction, but that's all you did with the card. 2/5
Balance: This card is extremely overpowered. I honestly think it is better than Counterspell and might even see heavy play in Legacy, since it's two counterpspells for one. Not only that, it has cycling for very cheap too in case you have too many counters in your hand...but you can still use it afterward to counter a spell! Relatively cheap cards with tons of utility are super good. This is the most broken card of this round, and there are other broken cards too. 1/5
Flavor: The name is god and fits, but as with wilsonbiggs's card, no flavor text on a card that could easily fit it. I understand cards like this don't lend themselves to great flavor, but some of my favorite flavor text has been on counters, and you could have at least put in that effort to get a few more points. 2/5 Total: 5/15
Atogaholic
Creativity: Nice combination of abilities. My lone issue is that it feels like you played mix-and-match with a bunch of abilities (two with interesting synergy), but nothing itself is completely original. 4/5
Balance: This is a tough one. In limited, this is certainly amazing since it's almost impossible to get rid of permanently, but it's a rare so it's ok for it to be a bomb. In constructed, it seems slow and expensive--even with an enabler to discard it so you can just cast it on turn four, it's usually just a 3/2 that keeps coming back. I suspect it might be a junk rare, but a fun one that would be great in casual. 4/5
Flavor: The flavor all makes sense with the name, but...the name is a bit underwhelming. And no flavor text. On this card there might not be room for it, so that's not too terrible. All in all, solid flavor, but nothing special. 3/5 Total: 11/15
bloodyspasm
Creativity: Pretty good, and it makes for interesting play decisions when you have two in hand. Do you cycle one and then get two creatures for one card? Or do you play one and wait for it to die, and then get it back? 4/5
Balance: Fair, although on the weak side--good in limited if you can get a few, probably unplayable in constructed. I think it would probably be fine at 1WW, and that would maybe even make it constructed playable in the right decks. 3/5
Flavor: Very good flavor between the name, vigilance, and ability, but yet again no flavor text! This card really really wants flavor text; it has strong flavor as it is, and adding flavor text would really tie everything together. 4/5 Total: 11/15
Trabant777
Creativity: Feels a lot like a black Eternal Dragon. As a matter of fact, it pretty much is a black Eternal Dragon. Credit for making the switch, but not completely original. 3/5
Balance: I think this card is underpowered. You would pretty much never actually want to cast it, since it's a 3/3 flyer for 5, which isn't very good even when it can keep coming back, especially with Wizards pushing the power level of creatures these days. And the repetitive swampcycling is good, but expensive, and requires creatures to die. Now if you pushed it to something like a 4/4 or even 5/4 flyer or gave it some other in-play abilities, that would be something different, but as is it doesn't seem too great. 2/5
Flavor: Finally some flavor text! The card fits together well ,although I'm not sure Demon is the best creature type for him. The flavor text is very bland, but it's still there. Good job on this overall. 4/5 Total: 9/15
Artificer Andy
Creativity: The Chandra's Phoenix ability, but with cycling. The interaction between the two is cool though, and gives an entirely new element to the card. 4/5
Balance: Well, in terms of being a beater it's pretty much strictly worse than the Phoenix. The interesting part here is the cycling. It feels right that the cycling cost is so expensive; otherwise this essentially makes every spell in a burn deck a cantrip, which would be ridiculous. This still might be great at costing 5 to cycle since it gives burn a lot of reach late game. I'd be very interested in seeing if it were played competitively. Good job. 4/5
Flavor: Great name. Works perfectly with the abilities. And no flavor text. Come on, there's even tons of room on the card! This is the second card where even half decent flavor text would have earned a 5. 4/5 Total: 12/15
Moonleaf
Creativity: Cool card. Nothing groundbreaking, but nice overall. And I like the "can't block" as an elegant solution to prevent you from chump blocking and getting cards. 4/5
Balance: First, I'm assuming that you meant whenever it enters the graveyard from anywhere (which I think is safe because the new template for from play is "dies" now). So that being said...you do realize this card is essentially 2UU Instant, draw three, this cant be countered, right? Because every monoblue control player (and I count myself among those) would absolutely love this card. Everyone else (including Wizards, who have been trying to get rid of any decent instant speed draw) not so much. 1/5
Flavor: Good name, fits with the abilities. And no flavor text. Seriously, why is nobody including flavor text on these cards? 3/5 Total: 8/15
Squirrel_Bear
Creativity: Very original. I can see lots of interesting stuff happening with this. 5/5
Balance: Although lots of interesting things can happen with this, I'm having trouble seeing much good happening. It goes to the top, not your hand, so there's no card advantage there; if you discard something to an opponent's spell, for example, you get this as your next card and then...play it? It's a 1/1 with no abilities for 2. Cycle it? You just paid mana for a card that you would have drawn if this weren't in the way. You might have had something in mind when you designed this, but from what I can see this card is just terrible. 1/5
Flavor: I love the Kamigawa flavor, and the name and ability match perfectly, but you're like the fifth or sixth person with no flavor text on a card that needs it. The flavor here is already extremely strong, and flavor text would have made this a definite 5. 4/5 Total: 10/15
Whitemage57
Creativity: Nothing particularly original here; the [CARD=Decree of Pain]Decree ability was done before, and not exactly on old, esoteric cards either. And the card itself (minus the cycling) has been done too. 2/5
Balance: The main card is kind of pushing the curve a bit; compare to Flame Wave. So I would say it's a bit overpowered there. The cycling is also really good; it's costed competitively, and will usually be three for destroying a creature and drawing a card. If the cycling ability said creature or player, I'd say it's much too powerful; as is, I still think it's pushing it. 3/5
Flavor: The flavor here seems a bit disjointed and generic. Yes, I get the raging flames--good name for a burn spell, by the way--but the flavor text seems like it feels like it should be on a creature, probably an elemental. And the flavor text also isn't so great, it doesn't read nicely and confused me the first time I read it. 3/5 Total: 8/15
GideonJur@
Creativity: Very cool. This wants to be in a cycling deck, and it would be amazing in one too. 4/5
Balance: So, first off there's a major templating issue, which I'll cover in this section. The card's ability says "Whenever ~ or another card is cycled, put two +1/+1 counters on target creature." So I'm assuming that means when you cycle this card, you get to put the counters on something. But, whenever you cycle something else, for the ability to work this needs to be in play, right? Because abilities on cards only work when the card is in play, unless specifically stated otherwise. So, this needs to be split into two abilities; one for when you cycle this card, and one for when you cycle another card.
Having said that, it's the first ability that's a problem. I think that almost any deck that plays creatures would auto-include a playset of 1, Instant, put two +1/+1 counters on target creature and draw a card. And it can't be countered. There was another card in this round with a similar problem, which I guess people tend to gloss over when designing card with abilities when cycled--you need to cost it higher than a normal spell, since it's an uncounterable cantrip. This isn't as egregious as the other one, but I still think it's too powerful. IF you made the cycling cost even 2, this would be much fairer. 2/5
Flavor: Why is this a hellblood scythe? That makes no sense at all with the abilities; not only that, the name seems very red, and playing around with cycling does not seems like red's thing to do. Other than the name, there nothing to base the flavor off of without art, so the card is essentially flavorless. 1/5 Total: 7/15
And the winner, with a score of 12 our of 15, is:
Artificer Andy!
Congratulations. The next challenge is: come up with a mechanic that encourages monocolor decks.
Mana Check 4
At the beginning of your upkeep, choose a number. Players can't play spells with converted mana cost equal to that number until the beginning of your next upkeep. "Come on down!"
Fanatic Gambler 1R
Creature-Human Berserker
Haste, Trample
Whenever ~ deals combat damage to an opponent, you may sacrifice it. If you do, each player discards his or her hand and draws four cards.
2/1 "Sure, I'll spin again."
It's not broken, but in the right deck it is super powerful. It also fits into a lot of decks, which is an important piece of the other two.
Figures in the Mist 1UU
Enchantment 3: Put a 0/1 blue Illusion creature token into play blocking target unblocked creature. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step. Any player may play this ability. Those who wander in seldom come back out.
IIW: a card with cycling. And the more creatively you use cycling the better, of course.
Spawner Thallid 1G
Creature-Fungus
Madness 1GG
When ~ enters the battlefield, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token into play.
Grandeur-Discard another card named ~: Put three 1/1 green Saproling creature tokens into play.
1/1
My favorite song in terms of lyrics has always been Time, by Pink Floyd:
Ticking away, the moments that make up the dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.
And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same, in the relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines,
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say...
It captures the way that time just slips by so poetically. Always sends a chill down my spine when I hear it.
Feraligator :3mana::symu::symu::symu:
Creature--Alligator
Islandwalk
Whenever ~ attacks, red creatures your opponents control get -X/-0 until end of turn, where X is the number of Islands you control.
6/4
Recycling Equilibrium :symb::symb:
Enchantment
Cumulative upkeep: shuffle target card in your graveyard into your library, then put the top card of your library into your graveyard. Every night the undead rise, but by morning they've killed enough that the graveyard's full again.
Last Resort :2mana::symu:
Sorcery
If you have no cards in your library, you win the game. Apprentice wizards quickly learn that the best spells are always in the very back of the book.
Reckless Ruckus :3mana::symr::symr::symr:
Instant
Play ~ only during the beginning of combat step.
Set aside all creatures on the battlefield. The active player sets aside a creature, then another player of your choice sets aside a creaure. Repeat this process until all creatures have been set aside. Each player gains control of each creature he set aside until end of turn. Those creatures gain haste until end of turn. Each creature must attack or block if able this turn. At its most basic level, war is just attacking to guy in front of you.
Reforge Weapons :symr::symw:
Instant
Target creature +0/+X until end of turn, where X is its power. Another target creature gets +Y/+0 until end of turn, where Y is its toughness. Both shield and sword can be remade into the other, when need arises.
Singing Siren :3mana::symu:
Creature--Illusion
Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a creature, gain control of that creature.
1/1 Men who sail these waters are often never seen again.
The pool (each category is sorted by rarity, so look along the first entries in each to find the rares):
1x Arrest
1x Bazaar Krovod
1x Swift Justice
2x Keening Apparition
2x Sunspire Griffin
1x Eyes in the Skies
2x Armory Guard
1x Hover Barrier
1x Skyline Predator
2x Dispel
1x Inaction Injunction
1x Crosstown Courier
2x Tower Drake
2x Cancel
1x Isperia's Skywatch
1x Shrieking Affliction
1x Assassin's Strike
1x Deviant Glee
1x Grim Roustabout
1x Mind Rot
2x Ogre Jailbreaker
1x Perilous Shadow
1x Catacomb Slug
1x Destroy the Evidence
1x Terrus Wurm
1x Electrickery
1x Bellows Lizard
1x Gore-House Chainwalker
1x Splatter Thug
1x Survey the Wreckage
1x Tenement Crasher
1x Death's Presence
1x Oak Street Inkeeper
1x Gobbling Ooze
1x Druid's Deliverance
1x Aerial Predation
1x Rubbleback Rhino
1x Axebane Stag
1x Detention Sphere
1x New Prahv Guildmage
2x Dramatic Rescue
1x Search Warrant
1x Vassal Soul
1x Nivmagus Elemental
1x Izzet Charm
2x Frostburn Weird
2x Essence Backlash
1x Risen Sanctuary
1x Sundering Growth
2x Centaur Healer
1x Common Bond
1x Coursers' Accord
1x Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
1x Lotleth Troll
1x Grisly Salvage
1x Sluiceway Scorpion
1x Rakdos, Lord of Riots
1x Rakdos Cackler
1x Rakdos Ragemutt
2x Rakdos Shred-Freak
1x Spawn of Rix Maadi
1x Rakdos Keyrune
1x Golgari Keyrune
1x Azorius Guildgate
2x Izzet Guildgate
3x Golgari Guildgate
wilsonbiggs
Creativity: That's just boring. It's Cancel, with cycling. 1/5
Balance: It's pretty fair. Cancel isn't overpowered, so adding a bit of utility to it is fine. 4/5
Flavor: I get that it's the quintessential blue card, but you can come up with a better name than that. Plus, no flavor text on a card that has plenty of room for it; on cards like this, that's where most of the flavor comes from. 1/5
Total: 6/15
Brofaux
Creativity: First of all, this has been done before, but only once. The thing is, this just isn't very new and exciting. Flashback plus cycling is an interesting interaction, but that's all you did with the card. 2/5
Balance: This card is extremely overpowered. I honestly think it is better than Counterspell and might even see heavy play in Legacy, since it's two counterpspells for one. Not only that, it has cycling for very cheap too in case you have too many counters in your hand...but you can still use it afterward to counter a spell! Relatively cheap cards with tons of utility are super good. This is the most broken card of this round, and there are other broken cards too. 1/5
Flavor: The name is god and fits, but as with wilsonbiggs's card, no flavor text on a card that could easily fit it. I understand cards like this don't lend themselves to great flavor, but some of my favorite flavor text has been on counters, and you could have at least put in that effort to get a few more points. 2/5
Total: 5/15
Atogaholic
Creativity: Nice combination of abilities. My lone issue is that it feels like you played mix-and-match with a bunch of abilities (two with interesting synergy), but nothing itself is completely original. 4/5
Balance: This is a tough one. In limited, this is certainly amazing since it's almost impossible to get rid of permanently, but it's a rare so it's ok for it to be a bomb. In constructed, it seems slow and expensive--even with an enabler to discard it so you can just cast it on turn four, it's usually just a 3/2 that keeps coming back. I suspect it might be a junk rare, but a fun one that would be great in casual. 4/5
Flavor: The flavor all makes sense with the name, but...the name is a bit underwhelming. And no flavor text. On this card there might not be room for it, so that's not too terrible. All in all, solid flavor, but nothing special. 3/5
Total: 11/15
bloodyspasm
Creativity: Pretty good, and it makes for interesting play decisions when you have two in hand. Do you cycle one and then get two creatures for one card? Or do you play one and wait for it to die, and then get it back? 4/5
Balance: Fair, although on the weak side--good in limited if you can get a few, probably unplayable in constructed. I think it would probably be fine at 1WW, and that would maybe even make it constructed playable in the right decks. 3/5
Flavor: Very good flavor between the name, vigilance, and ability, but yet again no flavor text! This card really really wants flavor text; it has strong flavor as it is, and adding flavor text would really tie everything together. 4/5
Total: 11/15
Trabant777
Creativity: Feels a lot like a black Eternal Dragon. As a matter of fact, it pretty much is a black Eternal Dragon. Credit for making the switch, but not completely original. 3/5
Balance: I think this card is underpowered. You would pretty much never actually want to cast it, since it's a 3/3 flyer for 5, which isn't very good even when it can keep coming back, especially with Wizards pushing the power level of creatures these days. And the repetitive swampcycling is good, but expensive, and requires creatures to die. Now if you pushed it to something like a 4/4 or even 5/4 flyer or gave it some other in-play abilities, that would be something different, but as is it doesn't seem too great. 2/5
Flavor: Finally some flavor text! The card fits together well ,although I'm not sure Demon is the best creature type for him. The flavor text is very bland, but it's still there. Good job on this overall. 4/5
Total: 9/15
Artificer Andy
Creativity: The Chandra's Phoenix ability, but with cycling. The interaction between the two is cool though, and gives an entirely new element to the card. 4/5
Balance: Well, in terms of being a beater it's pretty much strictly worse than the Phoenix. The interesting part here is the cycling. It feels right that the cycling cost is so expensive; otherwise this essentially makes every spell in a burn deck a cantrip, which would be ridiculous. This still might be great at costing 5 to cycle since it gives burn a lot of reach late game. I'd be very interested in seeing if it were played competitively. Good job. 4/5
Flavor: Great name. Works perfectly with the abilities. And no flavor text. Come on, there's even tons of room on the card! This is the second card where even half decent flavor text would have earned a 5. 4/5
Total: 12/15
Moonleaf
Creativity: Cool card. Nothing groundbreaking, but nice overall. And I like the "can't block" as an elegant solution to prevent you from chump blocking and getting cards. 4/5
Balance: First, I'm assuming that you meant whenever it enters the graveyard from anywhere (which I think is safe because the new template for from play is "dies" now). So that being said...you do realize this card is essentially 2UU Instant, draw three, this cant be countered, right? Because every monoblue control player (and I count myself among those) would absolutely love this card. Everyone else (including Wizards, who have been trying to get rid of any decent instant speed draw) not so much. 1/5
Flavor: Good name, fits with the abilities. And no flavor text. Seriously, why is nobody including flavor text on these cards? 3/5
Total: 8/15
Squirrel_Bear
Creativity: Very original. I can see lots of interesting stuff happening with this. 5/5
Balance: Although lots of interesting things can happen with this, I'm having trouble seeing much good happening. It goes to the top, not your hand, so there's no card advantage there; if you discard something to an opponent's spell, for example, you get this as your next card and then...play it? It's a 1/1 with no abilities for 2. Cycle it? You just paid mana for a card that you would have drawn if this weren't in the way. You might have had something in mind when you designed this, but from what I can see this card is just terrible. 1/5
Flavor: I love the Kamigawa flavor, and the name and ability match perfectly, but you're like the fifth or sixth person with no flavor text on a card that needs it. The flavor here is already extremely strong, and flavor text would have made this a definite 5. 4/5
Total: 10/15
Whitemage57
Creativity: Nothing particularly original here; the [CARD=Decree of Pain]Decree ability was done before, and not exactly on old, esoteric cards either. And the card itself (minus the cycling) has been done too. 2/5
Balance: The main card is kind of pushing the curve a bit; compare to Flame Wave. So I would say it's a bit overpowered there. The cycling is also really good; it's costed competitively, and will usually be three for destroying a creature and drawing a card. If the cycling ability said creature or player, I'd say it's much too powerful; as is, I still think it's pushing it. 3/5
Flavor: The flavor here seems a bit disjointed and generic. Yes, I get the raging flames--good name for a burn spell, by the way--but the flavor text seems like it feels like it should be on a creature, probably an elemental. And the flavor text also isn't so great, it doesn't read nicely and confused me the first time I read it. 3/5
Total: 8/15
GideonJur@
Creativity: Very cool. This wants to be in a cycling deck, and it would be amazing in one too. 4/5
Balance: So, first off there's a major templating issue, which I'll cover in this section. The card's ability says "Whenever ~ or another card is cycled, put two +1/+1 counters on target creature." So I'm assuming that means when you cycle this card, you get to put the counters on something. But, whenever you cycle something else, for the ability to work this needs to be in play, right? Because abilities on cards only work when the card is in play, unless specifically stated otherwise. So, this needs to be split into two abilities; one for when you cycle this card, and one for when you cycle another card.
Having said that, it's the first ability that's a problem. I think that almost any deck that plays creatures would auto-include a playset of 1, Instant, put two +1/+1 counters on target creature and draw a card. And it can't be countered. There was another card in this round with a similar problem, which I guess people tend to gloss over when designing card with abilities when cycled--you need to cost it higher than a normal spell, since it's an uncounterable cantrip. This isn't as egregious as the other one, but I still think it's too powerful. IF you made the cycling cost even 2, this would be much fairer. 2/5
Flavor: Why is this a hellblood scythe? That makes no sense at all with the abilities; not only that, the name seems very red, and playing around with cycling does not seems like red's thing to do. Other than the name, there nothing to base the flavor off of without art, so the card is essentially flavorless. 1/5
Total: 7/15
And the winner, with a score of 12 our of 15, is:
Congratulations. The next challenge is: come up with a mechanic that encourages monocolor decks.
At the beginning of your upkeep, choose a number. Players can't play spells with converted mana cost equal to that number until the beginning of your next upkeep.
"Come on down!"
EDIT: And IIW, cards with cycling.
Fanatic Gambler 1R
Creature-Human Berserker
Haste, Trample
Whenever ~ deals combat damage to an opponent, you may sacrifice it. If you do, each player discards his or her hand and draws four cards.
2/1
"Sure, I'll spin again."
It's not broken, but in the right deck it is super powerful. It also fits into a lot of decks, which is an important piece of the other two.
Enchantment
3: Put a 0/1 blue Illusion creature token into play blocking target unblocked creature. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step. Any player may play this ability.
Those who wander in seldom come back out.
IIW: a card with cycling. And the more creatively you use cycling the better, of course.
Creature-Fungus
Madness 1GG
When ~ enters the battlefield, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token into play.
Grandeur-Discard another card named ~: Put three 1/1 green Saproling creature tokens into play.
1/1
Ticking away, the moments that make up the dull day
Fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way
Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
And you are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.
And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same, in the relative way, but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death
Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines,
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought I'd something more to say...
It captures the way that time just slips by so poetically. Always sends a chill down my spine when I hear it.
Creature--Alligator
Islandwalk
Whenever ~ attacks, red creatures your opponents control get -X/-0 until end of turn, where X is the number of Islands you control.
6/4
Next: Tyranitar
Enchantment
Cumulative upkeep: shuffle target card in your graveyard into your library, then put the top card of your library into your graveyard.
Every night the undead rise, but by morning they've killed enough that the graveyard's full again.
Sorcery
If you have no cards in your library, you win the game.
Apprentice wizards quickly learn that the best spells are always in the very back of the book.
Instant
Play ~ only during the beginning of combat step.
Set aside all creatures on the battlefield. The active player sets aside a creature, then another player of your choice sets aside a creaure. Repeat this process until all creatures have been set aside. Each player gains control of each creature he set aside until end of turn. Those creatures gain haste until end of turn. Each creature must attack or block if able this turn.
At its most basic level, war is just attacking to guy in front of you.
Templating guided by Struggle for Sanity.
Instant
Target creature +0/+X until end of turn, where X is its power. Another target creature gets +Y/+0 until end of turn, where Y is its toughness.
Both shield and sword can be remade into the other, when need arises.
Congrats to Acolyte.
Creature--Illusion
Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a creature, gain control of that creature.
1/1
Men who sail these waters are often never seen again.