You are right about these things. Just from a mental appropriateness point of view (totality of cost is not the only consideration), even if mythic rarity were preserved for the good things it does for limited versus rarebomb sliding scale vis-a-vis color pie and power creep that even exists with a LOW number of cards playable in Standard (see original Why Bad Cards/Bad Rares Exist articles), it doesn't excuse those kinds of price tags for rotating cards, even if that particular one will stay good. They did that on purpose and everyone who stinkeyes on it while still playing is just bound to be like the buildup of steam that eventually leads to a steam whistle outburst. Such a valuation is disconnected from the alleviation of boredom that making more inconspicuously good cards would entail and the concentration of them into the scheme that was foisted here could even be seen as coherent and that it doesn't matter. But creative factors suffer. Whether the whole thing is any good suffers massively, where "is any good" has a LARGE stake in "Standard is good". Modern is making the designers screw up Standard in terms of cards like these. Simply decreasing the scarcity of the mythics and working with that in a flatter bomb rare superbomb rare limited spectrum would have to be the level 1 answer. Whether new good cards go into Modern seems like a question that should share its stake in "card is good or card is not good at ALL, downvote into oblivion classic saltiness thread" with Extended. Clearly this.
***** FIVE STARS IDEA INCOMING, JUST GIVING A HEADS UP OKAY *****
I think that with deck slot rarity restrictions, the most sensical block system that splits the difference between old and new would be that plus year of release by as much as possible. Being pick UP TO three blocks with one being the main one, and not having possibly degenerate commander mechanics and having some more variance to play. In Commander, always having a certain card really works a lot more, with singleton ideas put to the stratosphere of 100.
This kind of already exists as Build Your Own Standard type ideas. With the structure of "next three adjacent blocks, forward or backward, with shifting of future to past where the future doesn't exist." costing -2 rares and -2 uncommons, and outside of that scope they cost -2 rares and and -2 uncommons more each. Blocks have a basis of 3, 2 or 1 now. So using a block that has 2 or 1 is +1 or +2 in the count respectively.
So counting time, and also counting the block system of use. So, Seven-Block Standard (Extended), with options of 12 rares and 12 uncommons, 10 rares and 10 uncommons, 8 rares and 8 uncommons within 7-block before block size adjustment. Then with options of 7/7 and 2/2. (Once this became totally ridiculous, there would be Eternal format analogousness)
And with the deck size being 52 and the slots being up to 12 rares and 12 uncommons and with that same 2-slot restriction.
This format could probably use a conspiracy-type printing. As cool as it is, stuff like Sphinx's or Rakdos's is just degenerate and you would play it fewer times than the effort to create your deck would warrant, possibly (if you were to say perhaps ADD a player, not go backwards but ADD a new player). IF, however, you could say "I'm using cards from Ravnica, Tempest, and Time Spiral, centered on Ravnica", then it might not be true. That would be close to Standard. Then it could be "Draw the 53rd card, which is a Conspiracy, and it would use something a lot like that, just not exactly that.
So public information would be "Main Set" and "Conspiracy". The exact visual pass of format legality would be gone but the basic premise of a player getting to play a Standard-type game rather than a Legacy-type game while keeping their value would hold true. Currently the Conspiracies just say Conspiracy (remindertext use this face up in command zone) or Hidden Agenda THEN (remdindertext that it's hidden). So Conspiracy card type - and then reminder text of Planecraft (This card is played in your deck but only in planecraft, and goes to the command zone when used.) They could even have mana costs at that point and be different colors, or colorless with no cost. With the one rule that a planecraft-fused card has to be a singleton. Would kind of have to be "active revealed" and "passive revealed" and work like Miracle, when drawn IMMEDIATELY revealed (making sure to show what cards you draw a bit more slowly), and then casting the buried card is another technical revelation (the card under could be seen by the rules). If it ever went to the graveyard or had to be used with an impulsive draw effect, both of these things would still work, with the casting and then active-passive rules. (Visually liked tapped or untapped.) ACTUAL rule = passive revealed equals sits on top of your library or graveyard tapped-style and doesn't count as a card but as command zone.
This would be restricted to the most basic possible of effects of doing even fewer than other Conspiracies; simply establishing a vocabulary like set up the attached card as a planecraft with these exact casting rules if it would go to any zone other than the battlefield. So a planecraft could be a thing that was separate from even the planecraft cards. You could also just say play planecraft with drawing the card as your standard idea. (Another long roundabout circle).
You could even include initial planecraft EXACTLY as you have it here, just as a COST rare-uncommon-wise. (Probably the least divergent suggestion of course).
These would be fancy double faced cards where you have to use a single-faced card with them, because they are minutely thinner than normal! And you get to put any one card in your deck with it.
Then you wouldn't have to draw BOTH your Sphinx's or Rakdos's, just the one card. And you could do more than just play it again for more mana, though obviously that would be card. Would go down this whole road JUST to do that very thing but not cause the irrevocable dealbreaker that it just stopped being played. Could only play sleeved, and would even have to make double sleeving necessary with a design where one sleeve takes up space with filled plastic and another holds the place of a planecraft card. But that would be worth it! So this would be triple-faced cards. So you could do fancy flips where you couldn't get your planecraft card back anymore, but then effect B was something crazy (and effect A could be mercifully almost always the same kind of thing - but variety could also creep into the system... some plodding thing like get a dumb 3/3 on side A.)
The whole spiel here is not against this, it's pro-this and just thinking about how it's generally regarded. If it was for use only by your group, why post it right? You're at least tacitly saying how about play this format, as many as we can get. Or it's just sharing, in which case ignore it. Like does it become 5% as popular as even Pauper, let's say (which is fair wheelhouse to judge it by) If you could roll a die and then MODIFY even THAT result by reintroduction of player choice somehow and then see IF THE PLANECRAFT CAN EVEN BE USED THIS GAME, by BOTH players, that might be well-regarded indeed! One sleeve would have to swap back to a fully filled one but that'd be fine. So, that, until that other aspect.
So get to work Wizardy people and give us Conspiracy: Planecraft. As long as that might take.
This card is good but it is hardly insane or a huge mistake in any way. You are 2 for 1 with this card. It cannot be ignored. Scenario 0 of use when at one mana is out. Scenario 1 of "why does it even cost 2 mana", as part of the equilibrium of its usage... is downright bad. Path to Exile exiles the creature and costs 1 mana. Beyond Scenario 1 the card gets better but it chips away at its auto-slam dunk obsolescence assessment of other possibilities. The card gets a peerage for what it does. When this does the wrong thing, it just loses you the game. Your opponent gets to double-spell or impact-spell twice in a turn 3/4/5/6 scenario at a two-turn "whoops, game loss" level. It puts some hurt on for unfair mana and is the actual thing that alpine moon just misses on. If there is any kind of mistake to this card, it is a mild one in the 10-15% above threshold level.
The best reason not to allow this is the decision paralysis that it helps with, and also exacerbates. There are serious issues, very deep lines where obviously ridiculous things do not come into play but things within 10 more, or MAYBE even 20 more come into play. It's not supposed to be competitive constructed and this would introduce a shade of optimization (especially with well-established mana ratio reasons that sometimes decks have played 61 cards in constructed or 41 in limited). The limitation could indeed be considered a core identity. The optimizer's game could go on endlessly, massively increased by the dimension of having ONE card that you DO always have. Think about it. Already can do it, but HAVE one card... this is supposed to be more about having fun. One could also look at this through a lens of 120-minimum with 8 cards in hand, and then look at all of the various advantages of mulliganing through iterations of 5-less tolerance spheres. You can't play Battle of Wits or some of these things is a loss. Playing by the same library size rules helps on the design side as well. This would become a massively warped possibility space... what about mechanics like dredge plus past in flames, howling mine and mesmeric orb, actually quite a lot of ways this could be broken at the conceptual balance level. You've got two more cards, let's say. Hardly a massive hit to mana and overall power level of hand. But then deep factors of tutoring and massive dig could mean you are playing a super-complex Oath into Gaea's Blessing type idea while someone who doesn't have QUITE the same skill threshold ISN'T, wants to master archetypal play rather than crazy combo-control lines, will play the minimum, which WILL probably be right, but then you prove them wrong... this could just be a feel bad. Tutoring toolboxes plus all of this... it should not be about super ridiculous constructed. This would increase sweating bullets for what Commanders could be printed, and also the pure simplicity of a bounded field says that this probably should not change. Only if you LIKE the ideas I call bad here and could get everyone to be VERY upset that it is not so, could that change.
This is awesome. You can't beat confidence. And where it applies, looks like it's going well. However, there may be those among the casual passerby who might care to tell you just one more time that this isn't "the most consistent, most awesomest deck ever, where I just win, win, win." It's not important that anyone do so, but there is a thing where the scientific method of mutual consent applies to these decks. People do crazy detailed deck primers on here. Maybe take a look at them.
Though they dodge Fatal Pushes, the White Shield Crusaders are almost certainly too slow. You would have to play ALL one-drop creatures other than the Selfless Spirits, which should be four. This helps your Windbrisk Heights by max power.
I would play 4 Judge's Familiars for sure, might not be too far off.
What's notable with White at this time is of course that it has a Mox:
4 Legion's Landing
3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
3 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
3 Rhys the Redeemed
3 Gideon's Lawkeeper
3 Goldmeadow Harrier
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Mox Amber (this is somewhat of a nonbo, but actually this is hardly bad, you pay 1 for a Mox and most are creatures.)
1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
4 Selfless Spirit
1 Spear of Heliod (color, anthem, kill anything. Ramp into it makes it better on both ends)
1 Godsend (color; relevant ability if you come up against Vengevines or Hollow One)
4 Path to Exile (Those just-mentioned cards are way too scary not to play 4)
4 Lodestone Golem (really painful as a de facto 3cmc play, and an awfully large creature combined with Thalia... gotta have a reason to play your mox. Flipping a one mana ramp spell also helps with it. Would be bad except 8 slots faster here, you get compound danger and can just tap down their threats... classic Winter Orb beatdown play)
2 Thorn of Amethyst (a miser's duplicate)
2 Weatherlight (The overall puzzle of scooping out the middle and just smashing power cards and lock pieces here is strong)
4 Windbrisk Heights
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Flagstones of Trokair
4 Ghost Quarter (as already you have, etc.)
etc. Other flex slots/strategic ideas.
I'm just saying that you shouldn't have even had to ask for these particular cards, they probably already should have been made exactly as they are more or less. I'm just saying that for someone other than a mega dragon-enthusiast who perhaps plays Scion of the Ur-Dragon, Wizards should slot in "Time Spiral Dragons" with the exact attack trigger type play that these exemplify. The fact that you want this is telling and worth zooming in on, that's all. There is an overlap between amplitude of preferred concept at your end and whether that concept will yield a "favorite card(s) of all time" in the larger ecosystem. It's the same reason that Magic with its color pie and eternally iteration spinning cogency is better than the clone CCGs that were pretty much obligated to be put to market after it.
As cards that hew close to their cycle, they are B+ level cards that work but do little to recommend themselves as the lure that pulls the fish that gets it out of the water. But this is hardly their fault; those ones are just... OTHER two-color versions that are weaker than the other versions of the same dragons. Which ALSO were constrained by having to be okay for Standard-level play.
All of which is to say, you could hardly have made them that great picking system A of B. Ojutai is good but the others are fairly weak and strange for their colors.
Along the same naming scheme, 10 two-color dragons seem very much indicated. And yes, significantly more complex. Would want to pull out all of the stops in some special Commander product that did them specifically, or included them.
Something like even better than Ojutai but dies to removal, with dethrone and monarch mechanics, eminence/forecast, spellshaper mechanics, Invasion dragon triggers, manifest or morph, subdivided. That's gotta be it I think. As Shivan Dragon was the mascot, pick a spot and say "It Could Be Time Spiral", for 10 dragons, and maybe 10 others, and four color versions, too. Wherever simplicity overlaps with complexity and as already noted "bolster 2", etc. All of that. Phasing. Bands with other dragons. Snow-covered Wak-Walk. Taking some guidance from "if your theme's not at common, it's not your theme" as done in Masters sets, when the bar fills up and you could do something both obvious and unexpected at the same time, bust out these dragons/dragon decks.
Yeah, that's exactly what that should be. Relentless Assault costs 4, creature has to be gimped, card has to not suck. This card could be 3 and 3 but it would actually be gross there, and fiddling with 3/4 or 4/3 looks worse. It basically has double strike, if it doesn't die. So colorless Relentless Assault is 4 and 4. However... maybe just a touch of spice. If this had sacrifice two lands: attach this to target creature, you might see it somewhere outside of exact Standard printing comprehension level cards. People would cube it at that point, and then it would be a reasonable access point as you state the goal already.
10/10, take this template and pick 11/10 at these exact points.
Honestly, it might not be terrible. The issue is that boy are these cards expensive (Meaning the HELPERS, even) and would this just be able to be hit by all kinds of things by the time you pull it off. You might have Emrakul but not be able to attack because of Ensnaring Bridge. It might NOT be ridiculous though. What if you played FOUR Quicksilver Amulet AND four Thran Temporal Gateway, AND also Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger. This would just be the BANNED Aetherworks Marvel deck, except in Modern. (More like strongly suggest ONLY those ones, and STILL this hilarious Emrakul.)
Let's see:
4 Thran Temporal Gateway
3 Quicksilver Amulet
3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn (These would be good
3 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
2 Karn Liberated (Thran Gateway cheat for him, but not for Amulet; remove Ensnaring Bridge)
4 Utopia Sprawl (Ghost Quarter hedging, but too good not to play)
4 Garruk Wildspeaker (chain Time Walks; "turns" style of deck)
4 Savor the Moment
4 Search for Tomorrow
4 Explore (The four casting cost cards demand ramp just for themselves)
4 Remand (This is disgusting, is Time Walk, may as well try to truly break it)
2 Spreading Seas (begging the question; awful lot of other things could just get hardcast)
Nearly all basics:
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Breeding Pool
7 Forest
7 Island
Something like that could be fun. I don't know about the Oracle's Vault though... I think try it in EDH probably
What I think are unobtrusive and have frequency-amplitude of thematic repetition, and not on the scale of "wow, that's just legacy.", that aren't preconstructed decks.
Obviously imposssible are:
Force of Will, Misdirection
Stifle
Force Spike
Daze
Foil
Thwart
Circular Logic, Forbid, Capsize
Priest of Titania (may as well just say Rofellos)
Accumulated Knowledge (may as well also say Intuition with it right?)
Dark Ritual, Cabal Therapy, Hymn to Tourach (hilarious)
Sylvan Library, this is just Necro (? how can this be suggested? May as well say Bazaar of Baghdad)
Wasteland
Rishadan Port
True-Name Nemesis (BARF)
Entomb, Recurring Nightmare, Survival of the Fittest (banned in Legacy! also others HAVE been suggested as jumpy on/off... like Black Vise=barf)
Goblin Welder, Daretti (hilarious)
Swords to Plowshares, Armageddon (may as well just say Balance)
Goblin Matron, Goblin Ringleader (Vial or this, just wins, may as well say lackey.)
Cursed Scroll (hilarious)
Price of Progress (LOL take 8, already you took 3, so, white loses out)
Back to Basics
Council's Judgment
Berserk
Snuff Out, Fireblast, Pyrokinesis, Sumberge, Ramosian Rally, Reverent Mantra
Winter Orb
Tectonic Break, Bend or Break
Bind (not here, it can't. Not as "only slot", compared to Squelch.. with Goyf)
Land Tax, Scroll Rack (draw that many cards and it's not just a Serum Powder?)
Psychatog, Upheaval (just no.)
Animate Dead, Exhume, Reanimate, Necromancy
Red Elemental Blast, Blue Elemental Blast, Pyroblast, Hydroblast
Ancient Tomb, City of Traitors, Crystal Vein
Smokestack
Standstill
Lotus Petal, Elvish Spirit Guide
Questionable: #1 card: Counterspell, #2 card Arcane Denial/Power Sink (theme!guess the card), #3 card Mishra's Factory...oh, kind of cool, yeah? except variance, except instantspeedsinkhole, yeah this card earns its spot. Fact or Fiction, Flametongue Kavu, Absorb + Undermine+ Recoil+Gerrard's Verdict+Temporal Spring(awfully good actually!)
Goblin Bombardment (is a full-combo insert due to Time Spiral, and might be even better things)
Putrid Imp, Carrion Feeder (is quite zombie-forced and stronger than just scry 1; they might literally just die after you rip their hand)
Innocent Blood, Diabolic Edict (on top of Fatal Push? You can already Cruel Edict. Card could arguably get its day... more like new card@pay4lifefor instant)
Control Magic
Buried Alive, Unearth, Dance of the Dead
Primal Order
Wild Growth, Argothian Enchantress, Enchantress's Presence (doesn't take much)
Astral Slide, Lightning Rift, Eternal Dragon (kind of a package deal)
Propaganda
Really questionable:
Exploration, Horn of Greed (bloom?type..deck)
Baleful Strix
Mother of Runes
Toxic Deluge
Veteran Explorer
Wall of Blossoms
Shardless Agent
Fire/Ice (this card is disgusting)
Ankh of Mishra (way pushy)
Vindicate (with Snapcaster Mage? SO filthy)
Cataclysm (close... maybe)
Sulfuric Vortex (you just die. Practically Cursed Scroll)
Pox (where's the barf bag?)
Moment's Peace, Nature's Lore, Constant Mists
Careful Study (reanimator was best deck in extended, red cannot be compared)
Enlightened Tutor (weakest... most answer/staxy oriented... but strongest too?)
Land Grant (Goblin Charbelcher still exists... may as well say Severance)
Tradewind Rider
Thawing Glaciers
Serendib Efreet, Serendib Djinn, Juzam Djinn, Maze of Ith (ummmm)
Riptide Laboratory
Imperial Recruiter (just bring back Twin...they never stop saying it)
Mox Diamond. Because how well-made is this one. This one is awesome. You can almost allow it.
Devastating Dreams
Cards almost impossible to put in the other categories:
Deep Analysis (draw 4... but cost 6 mana and 3 life... yeah. Just barely yeah, just barely no)
Ichorid (because poke the bear.)
Doomsday
Good ideas:
Rogue Elephant
Caller of the Claw
Pillage
Terravore
Prohibit (this is perfect); ask for this and ALSO get Memory Lapse at 1 more (Timeshifted near-miss)
Anurid Brushhopper
Meekstone (considering Ensnaring Bridge... could be fair. Was fair when you had to play 4x Disenchant 4x Shatter in the 75 to deal with Winter Orb etc.)
Gorilla Shaman
Cursed Totem
Containment Priest
Spore Frog
Impulse (just barely though)
Prophetic Bolt
Mana Flare (just barely though)
Hull Breach
Nimble Mongoose, Werebear, Basking Rootwalla, Arrogant Wurm
Divert
Silver Knight
Artifact Mutation
Chaos Warp (because Beast Within, it's only fair *thhhhhhhbt*)
Obsessive Search
Krosan Reclamation
Sylvan Safekeeper
Hollow Specter, Nether Spirit
Cabal Coffers (what cabal? Ahhhh... just local cabal. Local scab gangsters 301)
Ghastly Demise
Pernicious Deed (just barely though... big impact.)
Smoke
Tangle Wire (these counted effects like Ancient Hydra and you could respond and it wouldn't be insta-dead... space still exists.)
Shielded by Faith
Flickering Ward
Krosan Wayfarer
Tsabo's Web
Terrain Generator, Myriad Landscape, Petrified Field, Deserted Temple
Tangle
Unexpectedly Absent
Noetic Scales
Saprazzan Skerry, Remote Farm, etc.
Dack Fayden
Dismiss (oooh... what if it was White... and no other card was. That'd be another Spell Pierce maybe)
Stay classy. "What's up nerds". "We take exception to that."
Although the cards are overpowered, they are not so overpowered that they fall into the category of ruination that is not solvable in the future. For example, Emrakul, the Aeons is overpowered to the extent that it is banned in Commander, and it is only ever cheated into play in the most stringent of Vintage and Legacy play. They have pushed the envelope, and what becomes possible at the multicolor, triple color, or even maybe 7 mana spectrum is now expanded. Next section; Bane of Bala Ged section, what can you get for 6 mana, or maybe 5 mana... inclusive of planeswalkers. Their flavor is pretty win, and is also historical even if you don't like that history. Let's say... mistake on a scale of 7 out of 10. Look at the M11 Titans. That is too much, too, but also it's not for the barest of outliers. Typically you could just Disenchant or Shatter a creature as ridiculous as that, so you are completely correct. Let's say "100% put on the brakes, and also, pretty played out for existing at all" is how you would have to evaluate the possibility of these being increased to the point that you quit Magic. Design would know beyond a shadow of a doubt what the takeaway from Eldrazi winter is, far be it from only kitchen table. Eldrazis don't bestow, they don't evoke, and they don't morph. That's something. Is that not something? You can get an Avenger of Zendikar and a Craterhoof Behemoth in the ramp section and population wise that section will only improve, and multicolor would include marquee cards usually. You will probably not quit Magic, I am guessing, am I right?
I could see this one, but it has some issues. Temporal just UTTERLY synonymous with "Time", one is adjective one is noun, but SO close... and is Legendary as a strange point of comparison. Another issue is that skip your next turn is a feature, not a drawback. This would be the lowest-costed "skip your next turn" in the game, that doesn't make you lose at the end of the next turn. With a Smokestack ramped to two, it definitely would see play. Weaker card without it, but also stronger. More "hoser" in flavor.
Random artifacts can get copied by Sculpting Steels and Prototype Portals and unless it makes sense not to have it this is incongruous.
You know what NOTHING does? "Skip your next turn", UNLESS anyone else ISN'T okay with it. Then it could just have Impulse for 7 with ability to leave some of them on top, and when it dies and you didn't sacrifice it or target it this turn, shuffle your library and TAKE an extra turn.
And also probably just 7, tap, sack: Take an extra turn after this one. Skip your next turn that is after that turn. (Like Emrakul the Promised End plays with that original first iteration), like Unstable Obelisk but less good and randomly nearly always playable in battlecruiser.
The price spike issue is real here. The manabases should have worse "tango" lands that are worth little. Three would be only a hair different but different enough that they are total bulk bin. And also the checklands, they could be worse bulk bin cards as well. They could require two, be and/or, be "other", and have the land types themselves. This then would have tension, would build more or less out of basics, but three colors works well, and four and five are possible. The latter are a somewhat established Standard-set policy, and this would be appropriate here. And also the Mirage fetchlands, with an activation of 1, where the land is tapped if you don't pay the 1. Would all be bad, would all be $0.25 cent cards and could move on to more clever value distribution. This would be very clever and you just have to wonder sometimes. (Actually, probably just all 10 Mirage-fetch. This is a similar to drop value of other cards by reprint like Masters-Jace, where those were only going to go up and the MSRP can be ignorable. Where EV includes "we're going to do this each time" as a standard idea, those can be treated as also being worth $0.25.) Not often, but this is possible. The Rupture Spire ones could be 3-color.
This feels uncharitable to the hypotheticals. At four mana or two mana activation, you actually play this in Legacy by Pentad Prisming into it. This has super special instant speed use. Put a whole bunch of... actually this is... nuts? Anyway? This Mind Twists your opponent ANYWAY with the same exploit. Some laughs. And your Bazaar of Baghdad / Throw Down A Bunch of Moxes like it's '94... just wipes out your opponent harder than Mind Twist, which remains banned. They can kill it. But if they don't, you Optstorm them into the dirt. Nobody digs Wrath/Armageddon/Mind Twist in one card anymore?
Obviously, but to zoom in on it, Divine Insight is (could be) "wombo combo" level of cartoonishness... the line of them being so, as not being completely dead within a nested structure of lower version-higher version (where one may as well be the other... it's very good). The enchantments cost colored mana but can all be crazy color pie inclusive cards that black and red cannot kill. (What is at issue is what they CAN be, not the record of artifacts actually being nuttier... being Skullclamps and whatnot). Three would be the actual similarity. Two would maybe be print Divine Insight at draw only three cards. Maybe it would be safe as is, and maybe not. Zero mana not helping very much the case. And yet maybe you do have it exactly right here. I am drawn to comment by the difficulty of evaluating Divine Insight within the thought experiment of total similarity and what's the point to the card if it's only three. Meditate makes you skip a turn. Divine Insight asks you to cast Sylvan Library after casting Unbridled Growth or Land Tax on turn 1. At which point you go into stratospheric card territory. Let's say you had gotten City of Solitude out. This would be no joke. All you'd need is something like Earthcraft. Time Spiral would be possible. You might High Tide with this.
You are right about these things. Just from a mental appropriateness point of view (totality of cost is not the only consideration), even if mythic rarity were preserved for the good things it does for limited versus rarebomb sliding scale vis-a-vis color pie and power creep that even exists with a LOW number of cards playable in Standard (see original Why Bad Cards/Bad Rares Exist articles), it doesn't excuse those kinds of price tags for rotating cards, even if that particular one will stay good. They did that on purpose and everyone who stinkeyes on it while still playing is just bound to be like the buildup of steam that eventually leads to a steam whistle outburst. Such a valuation is disconnected from the alleviation of boredom that making more inconspicuously good cards would entail and the concentration of them into the scheme that was foisted here could even be seen as coherent and that it doesn't matter. But creative factors suffer. Whether the whole thing is any good suffers massively, where "is any good" has a LARGE stake in "Standard is good". Modern is making the designers screw up Standard in terms of cards like these. Simply decreasing the scarcity of the mythics and working with that in a flatter bomb rare superbomb rare limited spectrum would have to be the level 1 answer. Whether new good cards go into Modern seems like a question that should share its stake in "card is good or card is not good at ALL, downvote into oblivion classic saltiness thread" with Extended. Clearly this.
I think that with deck slot rarity restrictions, the most sensical block system that splits the difference between old and new would be that plus year of release by as much as possible. Being pick UP TO three blocks with one being the main one, and not having possibly degenerate commander mechanics and having some more variance to play. In Commander, always having a certain card really works a lot more, with singleton ideas put to the stratosphere of 100.
This kind of already exists as Build Your Own Standard type ideas. With the structure of "next three adjacent blocks, forward or backward, with shifting of future to past where the future doesn't exist." costing -2 rares and -2 uncommons, and outside of that scope they cost -2 rares and and -2 uncommons more each. Blocks have a basis of 3, 2 or 1 now. So using a block that has 2 or 1 is +1 or +2 in the count respectively.
So counting time, and also counting the block system of use. So, Seven-Block Standard (Extended), with options of 12 rares and 12 uncommons, 10 rares and 10 uncommons, 8 rares and 8 uncommons within 7-block before block size adjustment. Then with options of 7/7 and 2/2. (Once this became totally ridiculous, there would be Eternal format analogousness)
And with the deck size being 52 and the slots being up to 12 rares and 12 uncommons and with that same 2-slot restriction.
This format could probably use a conspiracy-type printing. As cool as it is, stuff like Sphinx's or Rakdos's is just degenerate and you would play it fewer times than the effort to create your deck would warrant, possibly (if you were to say perhaps ADD a player, not go backwards but ADD a new player). IF, however, you could say "I'm using cards from Ravnica, Tempest, and Time Spiral, centered on Ravnica", then it might not be true. That would be close to Standard. Then it could be "Draw the 53rd card, which is a Conspiracy, and it would use something a lot like that, just not exactly that.
So public information would be "Main Set" and "Conspiracy". The exact visual pass of format legality would be gone but the basic premise of a player getting to play a Standard-type game rather than a Legacy-type game while keeping their value would hold true. Currently the Conspiracies just say Conspiracy (remindertext use this face up in command zone) or Hidden Agenda THEN (remdindertext that it's hidden). So Conspiracy card type - and then reminder text of Planecraft (This card is played in your deck but only in planecraft, and goes to the command zone when used.) They could even have mana costs at that point and be different colors, or colorless with no cost. With the one rule that a planecraft-fused card has to be a singleton. Would kind of have to be "active revealed" and "passive revealed" and work like Miracle, when drawn IMMEDIATELY revealed (making sure to show what cards you draw a bit more slowly), and then casting the buried card is another technical revelation (the card under could be seen by the rules). If it ever went to the graveyard or had to be used with an impulsive draw effect, both of these things would still work, with the casting and then active-passive rules. (Visually liked tapped or untapped.) ACTUAL rule = passive revealed equals sits on top of your library or graveyard tapped-style and doesn't count as a card but as command zone.
This would be restricted to the most basic possible of effects of doing even fewer than other Conspiracies; simply establishing a vocabulary like set up the attached card as a planecraft with these exact casting rules if it would go to any zone other than the battlefield. So a planecraft could be a thing that was separate from even the planecraft cards. You could also just say play planecraft with drawing the card as your standard idea. (Another long roundabout circle).
You could even include initial planecraft EXACTLY as you have it here, just as a COST rare-uncommon-wise. (Probably the least divergent suggestion of course).
These would be fancy double faced cards where you have to use a single-faced card with them, because they are minutely thinner than normal! And you get to put any one card in your deck with it.
Then you wouldn't have to draw BOTH your Sphinx's or Rakdos's, just the one card. And you could do more than just play it again for more mana, though obviously that would be card. Would go down this whole road JUST to do that very thing but not cause the irrevocable dealbreaker that it just stopped being played. Could only play sleeved, and would even have to make double sleeving necessary with a design where one sleeve takes up space with filled plastic and another holds the place of a planecraft card. But that would be worth it! So this would be triple-faced cards. So you could do fancy flips where you couldn't get your planecraft card back anymore, but then effect B was something crazy (and effect A could be mercifully almost always the same kind of thing - but variety could also creep into the system... some plodding thing like get a dumb 3/3 on side A.)
The whole spiel here is not against this, it's pro-this and just thinking about how it's generally regarded. If it was for use only by your group, why post it right? You're at least tacitly saying how about play this format, as many as we can get. Or it's just sharing, in which case ignore it. Like does it become 5% as popular as even Pauper, let's say (which is fair wheelhouse to judge it by) If you could roll a die and then MODIFY even THAT result by reintroduction of player choice somehow and then see IF THE PLANECRAFT CAN EVEN BE USED THIS GAME, by BOTH players, that might be well-regarded indeed! One sleeve would have to swap back to a fully filled one but that'd be fine. So, that, until that other aspect.
So get to work Wizardy people and give us Conspiracy: Planecraft. As long as that might take.
This card is good but it is hardly insane or a huge mistake in any way. You are 2 for 1 with this card. It cannot be ignored. Scenario 0 of use when at one mana is out. Scenario 1 of "why does it even cost 2 mana", as part of the equilibrium of its usage... is downright bad. Path to Exile exiles the creature and costs 1 mana. Beyond Scenario 1 the card gets better but it chips away at its auto-slam dunk obsolescence assessment of other possibilities. The card gets a peerage for what it does. When this does the wrong thing, it just loses you the game. Your opponent gets to double-spell or impact-spell twice in a turn 3/4/5/6 scenario at a two-turn "whoops, game loss" level. It puts some hurt on for unfair mana and is the actual thing that alpine moon just misses on. If there is any kind of mistake to this card, it is a mild one in the 10-15% above threshold level.
The best reason not to allow this is the decision paralysis that it helps with, and also exacerbates. There are serious issues, very deep lines where obviously ridiculous things do not come into play but things within 10 more, or MAYBE even 20 more come into play. It's not supposed to be competitive constructed and this would introduce a shade of optimization (especially with well-established mana ratio reasons that sometimes decks have played 61 cards in constructed or 41 in limited). The limitation could indeed be considered a core identity. The optimizer's game could go on endlessly, massively increased by the dimension of having ONE card that you DO always have. Think about it. Already can do it, but HAVE one card... this is supposed to be more about having fun. One could also look at this through a lens of 120-minimum with 8 cards in hand, and then look at all of the various advantages of mulliganing through iterations of 5-less tolerance spheres. You can't play Battle of Wits or some of these things is a loss. Playing by the same library size rules helps on the design side as well. This would become a massively warped possibility space... what about mechanics like dredge plus past in flames, howling mine and mesmeric orb, actually quite a lot of ways this could be broken at the conceptual balance level. You've got two more cards, let's say. Hardly a massive hit to mana and overall power level of hand. But then deep factors of tutoring and massive dig could mean you are playing a super-complex Oath into Gaea's Blessing type idea while someone who doesn't have QUITE the same skill threshold ISN'T, wants to master archetypal play rather than crazy combo-control lines, will play the minimum, which WILL probably be right, but then you prove them wrong... this could just be a feel bad. Tutoring toolboxes plus all of this... it should not be about super ridiculous constructed. This would increase sweating bullets for what Commanders could be printed, and also the pure simplicity of a bounded field says that this probably should not change. Only if you LIKE the ideas I call bad here and could get everyone to be VERY upset that it is not so, could that change.
This is awesome. You can't beat confidence. And where it applies, looks like it's going well. However, there may be those among the casual passerby who might care to tell you just one more time that this isn't "the most consistent, most awesomest deck ever, where I just win, win, win." It's not important that anyone do so, but there is a thing where the scientific method of mutual consent applies to these decks. People do crazy detailed deck primers on here. Maybe take a look at them.
Though they dodge Fatal Pushes, the White Shield Crusaders are almost certainly too slow. You would have to play ALL one-drop creatures other than the Selfless Spirits, which should be four. This helps your Windbrisk Heights by max power.
I would play 4 Judge's Familiars for sure, might not be too far off.
What's notable with White at this time is of course that it has a Mox:
4 Legion's Landing
3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
3 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
3 Rhys the Redeemed
3 Gideon's Lawkeeper
3 Goldmeadow Harrier
4 Judge's Familiar
4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
4 Mox Amber (this is somewhat of a nonbo, but actually this is hardly bad, you pay 1 for a Mox and most are creatures.)
1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
4 Selfless Spirit
1 Spear of Heliod (color, anthem, kill anything. Ramp into it makes it better on both ends)
1 Godsend (color; relevant ability if you come up against Vengevines or Hollow One)
4 Path to Exile (Those just-mentioned cards are way too scary not to play 4)
4 Lodestone Golem (really painful as a de facto 3cmc play, and an awfully large creature combined with Thalia... gotta have a reason to play your mox. Flipping a one mana ramp spell also helps with it. Would be bad except 8 slots faster here, you get compound danger and can just tap down their threats... classic Winter Orb beatdown play)
2 Thorn of Amethyst (a miser's duplicate)
2 Weatherlight (The overall puzzle of scooping out the middle and just smashing power cards and lock pieces here is strong)
4 Windbrisk Heights
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Flagstones of Trokair
4 Ghost Quarter (as already you have, etc.)
etc. Other flex slots/strategic ideas.
Try this out, might improve the results. Enjoy.
I'm just saying that you shouldn't have even had to ask for these particular cards, they probably already should have been made exactly as they are more or less. I'm just saying that for someone other than a mega dragon-enthusiast who perhaps plays Scion of the Ur-Dragon, Wizards should slot in "Time Spiral Dragons" with the exact attack trigger type play that these exemplify. The fact that you want this is telling and worth zooming in on, that's all. There is an overlap between amplitude of preferred concept at your end and whether that concept will yield a "favorite card(s) of all time" in the larger ecosystem. It's the same reason that Magic with its color pie and eternally iteration spinning cogency is better than the clone CCGs that were pretty much obligated to be put to market after it.
As cards that hew close to their cycle, they are B+ level cards that work but do little to recommend themselves as the lure that pulls the fish that gets it out of the water. But this is hardly their fault; those ones are just... OTHER two-color versions that are weaker than the other versions of the same dragons. Which ALSO were constrained by having to be okay for Standard-level play.
All of which is to say, you could hardly have made them that great picking system A of B. Ojutai is good but the others are fairly weak and strange for their colors.
Along the same naming scheme, 10 two-color dragons seem very much indicated. And yes, significantly more complex. Would want to pull out all of the stops in some special Commander product that did them specifically, or included them.
Something like even better than Ojutai but dies to removal, with dethrone and monarch mechanics, eminence/forecast, spellshaper mechanics, Invasion dragon triggers, manifest or morph, subdivided. That's gotta be it I think. As Shivan Dragon was the mascot, pick a spot and say "It Could Be Time Spiral", for 10 dragons, and maybe 10 others, and four color versions, too. Wherever simplicity overlaps with complexity and as already noted "bolster 2", etc. All of that. Phasing. Bands with other dragons. Snow-covered Wak-Walk. Taking some guidance from "if your theme's not at common, it's not your theme" as done in Masters sets, when the bar fills up and you could do something both obvious and unexpected at the same time, bust out these dragons/dragon decks.
Yeah, that's exactly what that should be. Relentless Assault costs 4, creature has to be gimped, card has to not suck. This card could be 3 and 3 but it would actually be gross there, and fiddling with 3/4 or 4/3 looks worse. It basically has double strike, if it doesn't die. So colorless Relentless Assault is 4 and 4. However... maybe just a touch of spice. If this had sacrifice two lands: attach this to target creature, you might see it somewhere outside of exact Standard printing comprehension level cards. People would cube it at that point, and then it would be a reasonable access point as you state the goal already.
10/10, take this template and pick 11/10 at these exact points.
Honestly, it might not be terrible. The issue is that boy are these cards expensive (Meaning the HELPERS, even) and would this just be able to be hit by all kinds of things by the time you pull it off. You might have Emrakul but not be able to attack because of Ensnaring Bridge. It might NOT be ridiculous though. What if you played FOUR Quicksilver Amulet AND four Thran Temporal Gateway, AND also Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger. This would just be the BANNED Aetherworks Marvel deck, except in Modern. (More like strongly suggest ONLY those ones, and STILL this hilarious Emrakul.)
Let's see:
4 Thran Temporal Gateway
3 Quicksilver Amulet
3 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn (These would be good
3 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
2 Karn Liberated (Thran Gateway cheat for him, but not for Amulet; remove Ensnaring Bridge)
4 Utopia Sprawl (Ghost Quarter hedging, but too good not to play)
4 Garruk Wildspeaker (chain Time Walks; "turns" style of deck)
4 Savor the Moment
4 Search for Tomorrow
4 Explore (The four casting cost cards demand ramp just for themselves)
4 Remand (This is disgusting, is Time Walk, may as well try to truly break it)
2 Spreading Seas (begging the question; awful lot of other things could just get hardcast)
Nearly all basics:
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Breeding Pool
7 Forest
7 Island
Something like that could be fun. I don't know about the Oracle's Vault though... I think try it in EDH probably
What I think are unobtrusive and have frequency-amplitude of thematic repetition, and not on the scale of "wow, that's just legacy.", that aren't preconstructed decks.
Obviously imposssible are:
Force of Will, Misdirection
Stifle
Force Spike
Daze
Foil
Thwart
Circular Logic, Forbid, Capsize
Priest of Titania (may as well just say Rofellos)
Accumulated Knowledge (may as well also say Intuition with it right?)
Dark Ritual, Cabal Therapy, Hymn to Tourach (hilarious)
Sylvan Library, this is just Necro (? how can this be suggested? May as well say Bazaar of Baghdad)
Wasteland
Rishadan Port
True-Name Nemesis (BARF)
Entomb, Recurring Nightmare, Survival of the Fittest (banned in Legacy! also others HAVE been suggested as jumpy on/off... like Black Vise=barf)
Goblin Welder, Daretti (hilarious)
Swords to Plowshares, Armageddon (may as well just say Balance)
Goblin Matron, Goblin Ringleader (Vial or this, just wins, may as well say lackey.)
Cursed Scroll (hilarious)
Price of Progress (LOL take 8, already you took 3, so, white loses out)
Back to Basics
Council's Judgment
Berserk
Snuff Out, Fireblast, Pyrokinesis, Sumberge, Ramosian Rally, Reverent Mantra
Winter Orb
Tectonic Break, Bend or Break
Bind (not here, it can't. Not as "only slot", compared to Squelch.. with Goyf)
Land Tax, Scroll Rack (draw that many cards and it's not just a Serum Powder?)
Psychatog, Upheaval (just no.)
Animate Dead, Exhume, Reanimate, Necromancy
Red Elemental Blast, Blue Elemental Blast, Pyroblast, Hydroblast
Ancient Tomb, City of Traitors, Crystal Vein
Smokestack
Standstill
Lotus Petal, Elvish Spirit Guide
Questionable: #1 card: Counterspell, #2 card Arcane Denial/Power Sink (theme!guess the card), #3 card Mishra's Factory...oh, kind of cool, yeah? except variance, except instantspeedsinkhole, yeah this card earns its spot. Fact or Fiction, Flametongue Kavu, Absorb + Undermine+ Recoil+Gerrard's Verdict+Temporal Spring(awfully good actually!)
Goblin Bombardment (is a full-combo insert due to Time Spiral, and might be even better things)
Putrid Imp, Carrion Feeder (is quite zombie-forced and stronger than just scry 1; they might literally just die after you rip their hand)
Innocent Blood, Diabolic Edict (on top of Fatal Push? You can already Cruel Edict. Card could arguably get its day... more like new card@pay4lifefor instant)
Control Magic
Buried Alive, Unearth, Dance of the Dead
Primal Order
Wild Growth, Argothian Enchantress, Enchantress's Presence (doesn't take much)
Astral Slide, Lightning Rift, Eternal Dragon (kind of a package deal)
Propaganda
Really questionable:
Exploration, Horn of Greed (bloom?type..deck)
Baleful Strix
Mother of Runes
Toxic Deluge
Veteran Explorer
Wall of Blossoms
Shardless Agent
Fire/Ice (this card is disgusting)
Ankh of Mishra (way pushy)
Vindicate (with Snapcaster Mage? SO filthy)
Cataclysm (close... maybe)
Sulfuric Vortex (you just die. Practically Cursed Scroll)
Pox (where's the barf bag?)
Moment's Peace, Nature's Lore, Constant Mists
Careful Study (reanimator was best deck in extended, red cannot be compared)
Enlightened Tutor (weakest... most answer/staxy oriented... but strongest too?)
Land Grant (Goblin Charbelcher still exists... may as well say Severance)
Tradewind Rider
Thawing Glaciers
Serendib Efreet, Serendib Djinn, Juzam Djinn, Maze of Ith (ummmm)
Riptide Laboratory
Imperial Recruiter (just bring back Twin...they never stop saying it)
Mox Diamond. Because how well-made is this one. This one is awesome. You can almost allow it.
Devastating Dreams
Cards almost impossible to put in the other categories:
Deep Analysis (draw 4... but cost 6 mana and 3 life... yeah. Just barely yeah, just barely no)
Ichorid (because poke the bear.)
Doomsday
Good ideas:
Rogue Elephant
Caller of the Claw
Pillage
Terravore
Prohibit (this is perfect); ask for this and ALSO get Memory Lapse at 1 more (Timeshifted near-miss)
Anurid Brushhopper
Meekstone (considering Ensnaring Bridge... could be fair. Was fair when you had to play 4x Disenchant 4x Shatter in the 75 to deal with Winter Orb etc.)
Gorilla Shaman
Cursed Totem
Containment Priest
Spore Frog
Impulse (just barely though)
Prophetic Bolt
Mana Flare (just barely though)
Hull Breach
Nimble Mongoose, Werebear, Basking Rootwalla, Arrogant Wurm
Divert
Silver Knight
Artifact Mutation
Chaos Warp (because Beast Within, it's only fair *thhhhhhhbt*)
Obsessive Search
Krosan Reclamation
Sylvan Safekeeper
Hollow Specter, Nether Spirit
Cabal Coffers (what cabal? Ahhhh... just local cabal. Local scab gangsters 301)
Ghastly Demise
Pernicious Deed (just barely though... big impact.)
Smoke
Tangle Wire (these counted effects like Ancient Hydra and you could respond and it wouldn't be insta-dead... space still exists.)
Shielded by Faith
Flickering Ward
Krosan Wayfarer
Tsabo's Web
Terrain Generator, Myriad Landscape, Petrified Field, Deserted Temple
Tangle
Unexpectedly Absent
Noetic Scales
Saprazzan Skerry, Remote Farm, etc.
Dack Fayden
Dismiss (oooh... what if it was White... and no other card was. That'd be another Spell Pierce maybe)
Stay classy. "What's up nerds". "We take exception to that."
Although the cards are overpowered, they are not so overpowered that they fall into the category of ruination that is not solvable in the future. For example, Emrakul, the Aeons is overpowered to the extent that it is banned in Commander, and it is only ever cheated into play in the most stringent of Vintage and Legacy play. They have pushed the envelope, and what becomes possible at the multicolor, triple color, or even maybe 7 mana spectrum is now expanded. Next section; Bane of Bala Ged section, what can you get for 6 mana, or maybe 5 mana... inclusive of planeswalkers. Their flavor is pretty win, and is also historical even if you don't like that history. Let's say... mistake on a scale of 7 out of 10. Look at the M11 Titans. That is too much, too, but also it's not for the barest of outliers. Typically you could just Disenchant or Shatter a creature as ridiculous as that, so you are completely correct. Let's say "100% put on the brakes, and also, pretty played out for existing at all" is how you would have to evaluate the possibility of these being increased to the point that you quit Magic. Design would know beyond a shadow of a doubt what the takeaway from Eldrazi winter is, far be it from only kitchen table. Eldrazis don't bestow, they don't evoke, and they don't morph. That's something. Is that not something? You can get an Avenger of Zendikar and a Craterhoof Behemoth in the ramp section and population wise that section will only improve, and multicolor would include marquee cards usually. You will probably not quit Magic, I am guessing, am I right?
I could see this one, but it has some issues. Temporal just UTTERLY synonymous with "Time", one is adjective one is noun, but SO close... and is Legendary as a strange point of comparison. Another issue is that skip your next turn is a feature, not a drawback. This would be the lowest-costed "skip your next turn" in the game, that doesn't make you lose at the end of the next turn. With a Smokestack ramped to two, it definitely would see play. Weaker card without it, but also stronger. More "hoser" in flavor.
Random artifacts can get copied by Sculpting Steels and Prototype Portals and unless it makes sense not to have it this is incongruous.
You know what NOTHING does? "Skip your next turn", UNLESS anyone else ISN'T okay with it. Then it could just have Impulse for 7 with ability to leave some of them on top, and when it dies and you didn't sacrifice it or target it this turn, shuffle your library and TAKE an extra turn.
And also probably just 7, tap, sack: Take an extra turn after this one. Skip your next turn that is after that turn. (Like Emrakul the Promised End plays with that original first iteration), like Unstable Obelisk but less good and randomly nearly always playable in battlecruiser.