Guild: Golgari
Mechanic: Harvest (whenever a creature card is put into your graveyard from anywhere, if it has a greater power than this creature’s, put a +1/+1 counter on on this creature).
Golgari Gravefarmer 1B
Creature - Plant Zombie
Harvest (whenever a creature card is put into your graveyard from anywhere, if it has a greater power than this creature’s, put a +1/+1 counter on on this creature).
When ~ enters the battlefield, put the top card of your library into your graveyard. ”The Golgari tend to blur the line between ‘Farmer’ and ‘Crop’”
1/1
Name of the mechanic is a placeholder. Another possible name for the mechanic is Compost, but I like it less.
This feels significantly stronger than skysoverign, perhaps enough to make it dangerous for standard. It costs 1 less, and in comparison you lose no more than 1 power (effectively, since crew is always at least one), and potentially game some power. The damage is variable instead of a fixed 3, but triggers on being crewed rather than attack, meaning that it can be done at instant speed. I think that the most common play pattern for this card would be to hold it back with a bunch of tokens, then crew it either in response to attacks or at the end of the turn, unless you threaten lethal.
Warden of Choices WW
Creature - Human Cleric
Players can’t play additional costs for spells (Spells that require an additional cost be payed can’t be cast)
2/2
Mechanic: Allignment
Allignment X- When you cast a spell with a CMC equal to this permanents alignment, EFFECT
Misthand Striker
1U
Creature - Human Rogue [uncommon]
Alignment 1 - whenever you cast a spell with a CMC of 1, ~ gets +1/+0 and is unblockable until end of turn.
2/1
It took me a few reads over to understand what implosion is doing, and to be honest I think that the card is way too complex for what it wants to be doing. Tracking total damage prevented and comparing it to CMC feels weird. I also don’t see any red in this, if I were to give it a second colour it would probably be black.
In short: too much complexity for two little payoff.
Mass Amplification
4RR
Instant - Rare
Copy target spell you control. You may choose new targets for the copies.
Storm
Izzet Aethermancer
3UR
Creature - Weird Wizard
Prowess
When Izzet Aethermancer enters the battlefield, create two 1/1 Blue and Red weird creature tokens with prowess.
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, Populate.
3/3
New Version
Izzet Aethermancer
3UR
Creature - Weird Wizard [Rare]
When Izzet Aethermancer enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 Blue and red Weird Wizard creature tokens.
When you cast an instant or sorcery spell from your hand, populate.
Sacrifice a Weird or a Wizard: you may cast target instant or sorcery spell from your graveyard this turn. If you do, Exile that spell as it resolves.
3/3
IIW: Take an UN-card of your choice and tweak it so that it is printable in black border.
Cheetos: you definitely gave me a mono colour matters card, but I’m not really inspired by a strictly worse [card]Overwhelming Stampede[/c].
Trabant777: I don’t think the command zone line technically works the way you want it to, since it doesn’t gain its colour until the start of the game, at which point you will already have to have made your decklist choices (so essentially in commander it still locks you into colourless). Additionally, while going mono colour helps with this card, I feel like, practically speaking, this goes better in decks that play few permanents, or more likely colourless decks like Tron. Furthermore, I think that having this kind of effect on an ‘Omnicolour’ card is a dangerous colour break. Even at 7 mana I don’t like mono blue or mono green getting Plague Wind on a 5/5. There is ‘precedent’ in All is Dust so I understand why you do it, but I still don’t like it.
Mergatroid: I like the idea, but the cost seems off for what you get (especially being restricted to taxing creatures). I’ll also point out that this is more of a white effect (it should probably be no -white spells cost 2 more to cast). A couple of more points where I’m docking you are the fact that the wording doesn’t tax gold spells with blue in them (since they aren’t non-blue), and that having the blue mana hybrid seems to want to encourage you to play non-blue spells, since it helps you break the effects symmetry. Cycling makes sense here to avoid the card being dead vs blue decks.
JacetheBodySculptor:
I like this, the card is interesting and really rewards you for being mono blue. I’m worried about power here, but there are knobs that can be turned with the cost of the activated ability.
Totallyhaywire:
This card suffers a bit from wall of text syndrome. Again it rewards being mono colour but at the cost of ignoring half the card and adding a ton of text and complexity. I think this would be better if you split it in half, with separate white and black X spells. You have a spell that rewards you for having a big X and rewards you for being mono coloured, so you sometimes have the tension between making X larger or getting the bonus for being multi coloured.
Cardz5000:
I like your card. It’s clean, rewards playing a lot of swamps (close enough to mono black that I’d consider it acceptable along the line of Cabal Coffers or Tempest Djinn. It feels very black, although part of me thinks it should maybe somehow have a ‘number of swamps’ threshold mechanic instead.
JacetheBodySculptor wins.
Honorable mentions go to totallyhaywire. I think conceptually your card was very interesting, but it really needed to be cleaned up.
I’m not quite clear what the nature of the second line of Jedissa’s ability is. As is, it looks like it is tied to the ETB ability, and while I don’t think it’s the intention, it’s dangerous for me to assume that and I could see how somebody could interpret it differently from me. If it’s supposed to be a static ability, it should be on a different line and read ‘As long as you Control more permanents than any opponent, other permanents you control are indestructible’.
As for the card itself, I think that it’s a bit too pushed. For 6 mana this is almost always 8 power of lifeline across 5 bodies, plus the biggest body is evasive and makes your smaller bodies indestructible.
Blanket indestructibility is also confusing, and there is a reason we see it less often than blanket hexproof. For example, Blasphemous Act still kills everything, as does a well timed combat trick, but Wrath of God still only kills one creature.
I also think that blanket indestructibility is quite dangerous. Unlike hexproof, where you at least have the option of blocking the creature, blanket indestructibility means that you can just protect Jedissa and ride your other creatures to victory.
In short, I think it’s undercosted at 6. The card is powerful, remarkably easy to ‘turn on’, and way too often will make games just resolve around it.
Edit: also, there’s no way that this card would be a rare and not a mythic, it takes over limited games too completely.
Anyways, on to a card
Call of the Hollow WU
Enchantment (Rare)
If a creature token entering the battlefield causes the triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.
Rite of Replacement
3UU
Instant (Rare)
Create a token that is a copy of target non-token creature you control.
Buyback - Sacrifice a non-token Creature (You may sacrifice a non-token creature as you cast this spell. If you do, return it to your hand as it resolves). There’s something off with Jim today...
Fourimer of the 4th WWWW
Legendary Creature - Human Lord
At the beginning of your upkeep, if there are exactly 4 cards in your library, exactly 4 cards in your hand, and if you control exactly 4 creatures and exactly 4 lands, you win the game.
4/4
Devastating Plague 2BB
Enchantment - Aura [Mythic]
Enchantment creature
The enchanted creature has “at the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice this creature. If you do, create two tokens that are copies of Devastating Plague and attach them to two different creatures not enchanted by a permanent named Devastating Plague.”
Wedge design:
Purify the Profane WWBR
Sorcery
Escalate W or (B/R)(B/R) - This card costs W or (B/R)(B/R) more for each mode chosen beyond the first.
Choose one or more, you may make the same choice more than once:
-Exile a creature of your choice with the greatest CMC on the battlefield
-Exile an artifact of your choice with the greatest CMC on the battlefield
-Exile an enchantment of your choice with the greatest CMC on the battlefield.
-Exile a planeswalker of your choice with the greatest CMC on the battlefield
The idea is that this would be part of a cycle. It’s very much centered on its ‘white’ abilities but it showcases how it gets to be ‘better’ by overlapping with its enemy colours.
For multi-coloured saga:
Mirridin Beseiged 3UBG
Enchantment - Saga
1: Each player gets a poison counter.
2: Proliferate, then create a 1/1 green insect creature token with infect for each poison counter on each player.
3: Creatures you Control with infect get +1/+1 until end of turn.
3GB
Creature - Horror
Sacrifice a land: add one mana of any colour.
GB: ~ gets +2/+2 until end of turn
3/3
IIW: Asuming Flavor text (that makes sense on the card it is on)
Guild: Golgari
Mechanic: Harvest (whenever a creature card is put into your graveyard from anywhere, if it has a greater power than this creature’s, put a +1/+1 counter on on this creature).
Golgari Gravefarmer
1B
Creature - Plant Zombie
Harvest (whenever a creature card is put into your graveyard from anywhere, if it has a greater power than this creature’s, put a +1/+1 counter on on this creature).
When ~ enters the battlefield, put the top card of your library into your graveyard.
”The Golgari tend to blur the line between ‘Farmer’ and ‘Crop’”
1/1
Name of the mechanic is a placeholder. Another possible name for the mechanic is Compost, but I like it less.
IIW: Cards for Battlebond 2
Warden of Choices
WW
Creature - Human Cleric
Players can’t play additional costs for spells (Spells that require an additional cost be payed can’t be cast)
2/2
Allignment X- When you cast a spell with a CMC equal to this permanents alignment, EFFECT
Misthand Striker
1U
Creature - Human Rogue [uncommon]
Alignment 1 - whenever you cast a spell with a CMC of 1, ~ gets +1/+0 and is unblockable until end of turn.
2/1
IIW: Design two cards that meld together.
In short: too much complexity for two little payoff.
Mass Amplification
4RR
Instant - Rare
Copy target spell you control. You may choose new targets for the copies.
Storm
3UR
Creature - Weird Wizard
Prowess
When Izzet Aethermancer enters the battlefield, create two 1/1 Blue and Red weird creature tokens with prowess.
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, Populate.
3/3
New Version
Izzet Aethermancer
3UR
Creature - Weird Wizard [Rare]
When Izzet Aethermancer enters the battlefield, create a 1/1 Blue and red Weird Wizard creature tokens.
When you cast an instant or sorcery spell from your hand, populate.
Sacrifice a Weird or a Wizard: you may cast target instant or sorcery spell from your graveyard this turn. If you do, Exile that spell as it resolves.
3/3
IIW: Take an UN-card of your choice and tweak it so that it is printable in black border.
Cheetos: you definitely gave me a mono colour matters card, but I’m not really inspired by a strictly worse [card]Overwhelming Stampede[/c].
Trabant777: I don’t think the command zone line technically works the way you want it to, since it doesn’t gain its colour until the start of the game, at which point you will already have to have made your decklist choices (so essentially in commander it still locks you into colourless). Additionally, while going mono colour helps with this card, I feel like, practically speaking, this goes better in decks that play few permanents, or more likely colourless decks like Tron. Furthermore, I think that having this kind of effect on an ‘Omnicolour’ card is a dangerous colour break. Even at 7 mana I don’t like mono blue or mono green getting Plague Wind on a 5/5. There is ‘precedent’ in All is Dust so I understand why you do it, but I still don’t like it.
Mergatroid: I like the idea, but the cost seems off for what you get (especially being restricted to taxing creatures). I’ll also point out that this is more of a white effect (it should probably be no -white spells cost 2 more to cast). A couple of more points where I’m docking you are the fact that the wording doesn’t tax gold spells with blue in them (since they aren’t non-blue), and that having the blue mana hybrid seems to want to encourage you to play non-blue spells, since it helps you break the effects symmetry. Cycling makes sense here to avoid the card being dead vs blue decks.
JacetheBodySculptor:
I like this, the card is interesting and really rewards you for being mono blue. I’m worried about power here, but there are knobs that can be turned with the cost of the activated ability.
Totallyhaywire:
This card suffers a bit from wall of text syndrome. Again it rewards being mono colour but at the cost of ignoring half the card and adding a ton of text and complexity. I think this would be better if you split it in half, with separate white and black X spells. You have a spell that rewards you for having a big X and rewards you for being mono coloured, so you sometimes have the tension between making X larger or getting the bonus for being multi coloured.
Cardz5000:
I like your card. It’s clean, rewards playing a lot of swamps (close enough to mono black that I’d consider it acceptable along the line of Cabal Coffers or Tempest Djinn. It feels very black, although part of me thinks it should maybe somehow have a ‘number of swamps’ threshold mechanic instead.
JacetheBodySculptor wins.
Honorable mentions go to totallyhaywire. I think conceptually your card was very interesting, but it really needed to be cleaned up.
Next: A Ravnica/RTR mechanic in the wrong colours
As for the card itself, I think that it’s a bit too pushed. For 6 mana this is almost always 8 power of lifeline across 5 bodies, plus the biggest body is evasive and makes your smaller bodies indestructible.
Blanket indestructibility is also confusing, and there is a reason we see it less often than blanket hexproof. For example, Blasphemous Act still kills everything, as does a well timed combat trick, but Wrath of God still only kills one creature.
I also think that blanket indestructibility is quite dangerous. Unlike hexproof, where you at least have the option of blocking the creature, blanket indestructibility means that you can just protect Jedissa and ride your other creatures to victory.
In short, I think it’s undercosted at 6. The card is powerful, remarkably easy to ‘turn on’, and way too often will make games just resolve around it.
Edit: also, there’s no way that this card would be a rare and not a mythic, it takes over limited games too completely.
Anyways, on to a card
Call of the Hollow
WU
Enchantment (Rare)
If a creature token entering the battlefield causes the triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.
3UU
Instant (Rare)
Create a token that is a copy of target non-token creature you control.
Buyback - Sacrifice a non-token Creature (You may sacrifice a non-token creature as you cast this spell. If you do, return it to your hand as it resolves).
There’s something off with Jim today...
IIW: mono-colour matters
WWWW
Legendary Creature - Human Lord
At the beginning of your upkeep, if there are exactly 4 cards in your library, exactly 4 cards in your hand, and if you control exactly 4 creatures and exactly 4 lands, you win the game.
4/4
IIW: mono-colour matters
Devastating Plague
2BB
Enchantment - Aura [Mythic]
Enchantment creature
The enchanted creature has “at the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice this creature. If you do, create two tokens that are copies of Devastating Plague and attach them to two different creatures not enchanted by a permanent named Devastating Plague.”
Edit: Better IIW - Mono colour matters
Wedge design:
Purify the Profane
WWBR
Sorcery
Escalate W or (B/R)(B/R) - This card costs W or (B/R)(B/R) more for each mode chosen beyond the first.
Choose one or more, you may make the same choice more than once:
-Exile a creature of your choice with the greatest CMC on the battlefield
-Exile an artifact of your choice with the greatest CMC on the battlefield
-Exile an enchantment of your choice with the greatest CMC on the battlefield.
-Exile a planeswalker of your choice with the greatest CMC on the battlefield
The idea is that this would be part of a cycle. It’s very much centered on its ‘white’ abilities but it showcases how it gets to be ‘better’ by overlapping with its enemy colours.
For multi-coloured saga:
Mirridin Beseiged
3UBG
Enchantment - Saga
1: Each player gets a poison counter.
2: Proliferate, then create a 1/1 green insect creature token with infect for each poison counter on each player.
3: Creatures you Control with infect get +1/+1 until end of turn.