Idle Curiosity looks awkward compared to Telepathy. I assume it's secretly a discard enabler, but even then... Maybe just a B mana cost? Between all the targeted discard and Surgical Extraction-type cards out there, I don't think it's that off-colour.
Stylish Scion seems fine. Solid high-pick common in Limited. I like the flavour.
And for Necropolis Gallery Show, I think it could probably target any type. Even if you're making like 6 Statues, you're still unlikely to be activating more than 4 the following turn. Again, neat flavour.
Being able to fetch things like Mox and Lotus, then Brainstorm them into your hand for a single mana (and a non-effectual additional cost of exiling graveyard assets) holds tremendous power. That's how it would be broken.
To be fair, Enlightened Tutor does that at instant speed and without the graveyard restriction. It's far from broken and sees basically no play in Vintage (admittedly not a lot of Brainstorms in that format) and has mostly drifted beyond playability in Legacy as well.
I take your point about challenge etc. and more tutors means getting the same cards more consistently, which can lead to games feeling samey, but I think this one has enough hoops to jump through that there's still some challenge.
I think for Cyclone, you can include the regular draw as well. 1UUU to bounce 2 permanents at Sorcery speed feels like a fair baseline, then if you can jump through the hoop of drawing extra cards, you deserve extra bounces.
History Marches On is fine. It does fail my personal 'the card should do something on its own' test, but any kind of historic Vampiric Tutor in White is troublesome so I think it's fine, especially as it's straight card disadvantage.
Royal Shanghaier - that name is not going to fly on most planes (apart from its awkwardness in English). Consider 'Hijacker', 'Briber' etc. I also think it's a touch undercosted. You're getting 4 power and a card for 4 mana in Black, before even factoring the Ward. Probably less oppressive at 3BB. I do like this design most of these three, though.
I'm not gonna comment on the mechanics of the card except to say I think it might be a bit undercosted for EDH - I honestly don't play enough to say that confidently. Instead, I'm gonna comment on something this forum often skips over: the flavour texts.
I encourage you to remember less is more - the bigger, splashier and more board-changing a spell is, the less flavour text it needs. You've got some nice ideas in there, but let the spell speak for itself and consider, "The bindings of all things eventually tear away." or "Time destroys everything, even memory." These are not earth-shatteringly brilliant, but sound more confident because of their simplicity.
Your spells don't need multiple sets of flavour text, my friend - you have the ideas, you just need to believe in them.
I think Rezzahan skimmed that one, so just to be totally clear, Drivnod = two triggers (so 2 demons, 2 cards, 2 lifedrain, as you thought) and Teysa = two triggers. Drivnod and Teysa together would be three triggers (3 demons etc. as in Rezzahan's answer).
I'm not a fan of the flavour text of Paper Lotus. What does "there is an art to beauty" mean? Can't a sunset be beautiful? And I'm not clear where you're going with the perfect circle thing. Maybe something about how the human hand can make beautiful things in the shape of the natural world, but never capture perfection (lampshading that Paper Lotus is a pale imitation of Black Lotus).
Titillate seems like a harder counter than Rethink so it probably needs to cost more.
I also think you'll need to change the name. That's not what titillate means. The pile of synonyms for counterspells grows ever smaller, but Frustrate could work.
What happens if they can't pay because they don't have the mana? I assume it's countered, but the card doesn't actually say that.
And what happens if they can pay but can't change the target e.g. a Terror targeting the only creature on the field. (And please don't say it's obvious that it's unchanged or that the spell is countered or Terror goes back to the hand or some other wacky thing. If it was obvious, I wouldn't have asked.)
Of these two, I voted for 'untainted' because it's shorter. You may know that both have a negative connotation in English from being associated with racists/Nazis/etc. who use this idea for whatever their chosen 'master race' is vs. everyone else.
I'm guessing this is for Terranova, so if basic and non-basic lands aren't actually on the verge of a race war and you don't want that reading, consider something different. Options might include the idea of primitiveness (as with Imperiosaur), simplicity, insularity (although that can also end up in the racist-adjecent territory of 'parochial', or, at a push 'sectarian') or being isolated.
Target player chooses one creature they control, then sacrifices the rest. This spell costs 1 more for each creature that player controls.
I dislike that if your opponent has one creature, you'd pay 1BB and nothing happens, but I think 3B: Target opponent sacs 2 is probably too strong, even if they do get to keep their best one, so I pushed up the initial mana cost.
I agree with rowan. I get what you're going for, but you could make an enchantment with channel and it would be 90% functionally identical, but a lot simpler to understand.
I won't comment on the card mechanics, but I really don't think WotC would print a card named 'F Around'. You've sanitised it, but even in Un-, silver border, acorn land, I think it's still a step too far.
"Fool Around" would work within WOTC's PG spectrum and still maintain the original flavor.
I won't comment on the card mechanics, but I really don't think WotC would print a card named 'F Around'. You've sanitised it, but even in Un-, silver border, acorn land, I think it's still a step too far.
I don't know if they'd ever do split cards with the same first half and different second halves, but you could have Risk // Reward (which I think fits the card) or Risk // Consequences (which I think fits the flavour), maybe?
And now if not that, suggesting there is a way to "put this into color", what does one suggest? Say you had to redesign it.
Okay, I'll bite.
First up, Legacy decks play Ponder and Brainstorm. Those are good cards because they let you find what you need, at the point when you need it, at a low mana cost. Both cards come with the drawback of having to go through the cards you didn't want but 1) Legacy decks have pretty powerful cards and 2) the fetchlands fix that. This is at the core of the whole archetype (I'll concede Force of Will is also very important, but it's the manipulation and card draw that sticks the blue decks together).
So it can't do what Ponder and Brainstorm do - you'll note that all those blue decks play both because of their massive utility. And this is a really delicate balance for Legacy - too much manipulation, and the format gets too consistent. That's why both Brainstorm and Ponder are restricted in Vintage.
Onto my redesign
Blood Letter B
Sorcery
Mill three cards. You may return a creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
There we go. Better Raise Dead. Cheaper than Corpse Churn, but not instant, so probably fairly printable in a set that cares about the graveyard a bit. And on-colour.
If you want the lifedrain as well, I mean I guess? It makes the card feel a bit unfocused, but add 1 to the mana cost (and maybe it drains for 2).
And if you want to make the original version, make it cost UB. That keeps it well below Legacy power level so no worries about format balance (Expressive Iteration this thing is fortunately not). And maybe you can have it mill 4 or be an instant. Roughly on par with Tainted Indulgence and a bit stronger than Diabolic Vision. But not black Ponder.
This is Ponder. You made black Ponder. That's a blue card, Reap. Don't make black Ponder. Because of the colour pie. The colour pie, Reap. You've heard about the colour pie, right? Don't make black Ponder. Don't do it, Reap.
I could almost nearly conceive of a black Sorcery that milled 3 then let you return one of the milled cards to your hand. But that's one heck of a bend. And not at B. But this? Don't make black Ponder, Reap. Don't you do it.
I agree the mana cost is too low (probably needs to be MV 5), but this is the kind of neat little design I'm surprised doesn't exist already. Good work!
Okay, so my criticism is that drawing cards is much stronger than gaining life. The upside of Land Tax etc. is that you get to search for more lands when you're behind, with no downside. The upside of this is that you gain life when you're behind. The downside is your opponent drawing when they're ahead.
It gets stronger when combined with Smothering Tithe, but that's just because Tithe is very strong. And I personally would rather have Tithe and nothing in play than Tithe and this.
Idle Curiosity looks awkward compared to Telepathy. I assume it's secretly a discard enabler, but even then... Maybe just a B mana cost? Between all the targeted discard and Surgical Extraction-type cards out there, I don't think it's that off-colour.
Stylish Scion seems fine. Solid high-pick common in Limited. I like the flavour.
And for Necropolis Gallery Show, I think it could probably target any type. Even if you're making like 6 Statues, you're still unlikely to be activating more than 4 the following turn. Again, neat flavour.
To be fair, Enlightened Tutor does that at instant speed and without the graveyard restriction. It's far from broken and sees basically no play in Vintage (admittedly not a lot of Brainstorms in that format) and has mostly drifted beyond playability in Legacy as well.
I take your point about challenge etc. and more tutors means getting the same cards more consistently, which can lead to games feeling samey, but I think this one has enough hoops to jump through that there's still some challenge.
History Marches On is fine. It does fail my personal 'the card should do something on its own' test, but any kind of historic Vampiric Tutor in White is troublesome so I think it's fine, especially as it's straight card disadvantage.
Royal Shanghaier - that name is not going to fly on most planes (apart from its awkwardness in English). Consider 'Hijacker', 'Briber' etc. I also think it's a touch undercosted. You're getting 4 power and a card for 4 mana in Black, before even factoring the Ward. Probably less oppressive at 3BB. I do like this design most of these three, though.
I encourage you to remember less is more - the bigger, splashier and more board-changing a spell is, the less flavour text it needs. You've got some nice ideas in there, but let the spell speak for itself and consider, "The bindings of all things eventually tear away." or "Time destroys everything, even memory." These are not earth-shatteringly brilliant, but sound more confident because of their simplicity.
Your spells don't need multiple sets of flavour text, my friend - you have the ideas, you just need to believe in them.
Titillate seems like a harder counter than Rethink so it probably needs to cost more.
I also think you'll need to change the name. That's not what titillate means. The pile of synonyms for counterspells grows ever smaller, but Frustrate could work.
What happens if they can't pay because they don't have the mana? I assume it's countered, but the card doesn't actually say that.
And what happens if they can pay but can't change the target e.g. a Terror targeting the only creature on the field. (And please don't say it's obvious that it's unchanged or that the spell is countered or Terror goes back to the hand or some other wacky thing. If it was obvious, I wouldn't have asked.)
I'm guessing this is for Terranova, so if basic and non-basic lands aren't actually on the verge of a race war and you don't want that reading, consider something different. Options might include the idea of primitiveness (as with Imperiosaur), simplicity, insularity (although that can also end up in the racist-adjecent territory of 'parochial', or, at a push 'sectarian') or being isolated.
This is a black spell, not a blue one. Possibly if it hit all players, it could be a white spell.
That Y stuff is pretty clunky, and given I can't see a reason someone would want to cast it for X less than 6, I'd just make it cost X5U.
But the real issue is that I also can't see many situations where someone would want to cast it for X more than 6 either.
And stuff like Duneblast, Promise of Loyalty and Single Combat suggests it's probably slightly undercosted given you get to keep all your creatures.
So maybe something like:
Sole Survivor BB
Sorcery
Target player chooses one creature they control, then sacrifices the rest. This spell costs 1 more for each creature that player controls.
I dislike that if your opponent has one creature, you'd pay 1BB and nothing happens, but I think 3B: Target opponent sacs 2 is probably too strong, even if they do get to keep their best one, so I pushed up the initial mana cost.
I like that. Cute fix.
Un-,silver border, acorn land, I think it's still a step too far.I don't know if they'd ever do split cards with the same first half and different second halves, but you could have Risk // Reward (which I think fits the card) or Risk // Consequences (which I think fits the flavour), maybe?
Okay, I'll bite.
First up, Legacy decks play Ponder and Brainstorm. Those are good cards because they let you find what you need, at the point when you need it, at a low mana cost. Both cards come with the drawback of having to go through the cards you didn't want but 1) Legacy decks have pretty powerful cards and 2) the fetchlands fix that. This is at the core of the whole archetype (I'll concede Force of Will is also very important, but it's the manipulation and card draw that sticks the blue decks together).
Blood Letter has the same manipulation, with the bonus of putting even more fuel in the graveyard for Reanimate and Murktide Regent. In fact, those cards and the blue core are the basis of a tier 1 deck: https://mtgdecks.net/Legacy/ub-scam-decklist-by-patrick-fernandes-1806334 Oh look, a Top 8 from literally three days ago.
So it can't do what Ponder and Brainstorm do - you'll note that all those blue decks play both because of their massive utility. And this is a really delicate balance for Legacy - too much manipulation, and the format gets too consistent. That's why both Brainstorm and Ponder are restricted in Vintage.
Onto my redesign
Blood Letter B
Sorcery
Mill three cards. You may return a creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
There we go. Better Raise Dead. Cheaper than Corpse Churn, but not instant, so probably fairly printable in a set that cares about the graveyard a bit. And on-colour.
If you want the lifedrain as well, I mean I guess? It makes the card feel a bit unfocused, but add 1 to the mana cost (and maybe it drains for 2).
And if you want to make the original version, make it cost UB. That keeps it well below Legacy power level so no worries about format balance (Expressive Iteration this thing is fortunately not). And maybe you can have it mill 4 or be an instant. Roughly on par with Tainted Indulgence and a bit stronger than Diabolic Vision. But not black Ponder.
I could almost nearly conceive of a black Sorcery that milled 3 then let you return one of the milled cards to your hand. But that's one heck of a bend. And not at B. But this? Don't make black Ponder, Reap. Don't you do it.
It gets stronger when combined with Smothering Tithe, but that's just because Tithe is very strong. And I personally would rather have Tithe and nothing in play than Tithe and this.