On infuse: I think that the mechanic would work better if it was reversed to work like an Evoke variant for enchantments. Essentially make it:
Infuse - Cost: You may cast aura for its infuse cost. If you do, sacrifice it after it enters the battlefield.
It’s a bit cleaner since it doesn’t result in cards changing their card types, which pushes down the complexity particularly at common. For effects that you want to be instants you can just give the Aura flash.
As for the card itself, I think that it’s a bit to complex for what it does. Giving +/- stats while also putting -1/-1 counters on the card it’s enchanting just makes it confusing for what it’s actually doing. I think it would be cleaner to just have this directly put counters on the target instead of dealing damage with Wither (a bit of a bend in red but likely exceptable in the context of the block) and have it give no P/T modification (or only modify power). It’s a fine idea, but it needs some refinement and cleaning.
Gideon, Knight of Sacrifice
2WWW
Legendary Planeswalker - Gideon
+2: Until your next turn, target creature can’t attack or block and it’s activated abilities can’t be activated.
0: Gideon becomes a 5/5 Human Knight Creature with indestructible until the end of the turn. Prevent all damage that would be dealt to Gideon this turn.
-14: Exile Gideon and all permanents target player controls.
4
Alchemists second ability triggers when a creature is put into a graveyard from an opponent’s library. This is different from Kalitas’s ability, which creates a replacement effect when a creature dies (is put into a graveyard from the battlefield).
Basically, the two abilities are completely unrelated, even though they both produce 2/2 Zombie creatures.
Borborygmos REALLY Enraged
5RRGG
Legendary Creature - Cyclops
Trample
When Borborygmos REALLY Enraged deals combat damage to a player, you may throw any number of permanents you control onto the table from a distance of at least 3 ft (1m). Destroy each permanent thrown this way, and each permanent that is both touching one of the thrown permanents when it stops moving and shares at least one card type with it.
7/7
Edit: Thought of a more fun version.
Borborygmos, the Strongest
4RRGG
Legendary Creature - Cyclops
Trample
When Borborygmos enters the battlefield, you may challenge target opponent to an arm wrestle. If you win, Borborygmos gains protection from Non-Creatures that player controls. If that opponent wins, exile Borborygmos (a player must be physically able to arm wrestle to be a legal target).
8/7
I think this card is way too wordy. It does weird things of making things different colours, making colourless things uncounterable but more expensive... it feels like two or three solid ideas for cards mashed together for an inelegant result. That being said, I think the component ideas of this card could be quite interesting on their own, and I’ll also add that this is the only appropriately costed entry.
Cheetos:
Yeah, this is underpriced for draw 3 plus mind control plus conditionally winning the game. I also feel like the mind control effect is mechanically disconnected from the other two effects. Apart from this disconnect and the fact that this is massively under costed, I really like this though. The hand size as a win con is interesting and as I said I would love this if it wasn’t for the random mind control tacked on.
Mergatroid Jones:
I like the cleanness of the effect but I think that as an instant this card would lead to a lot of unfun moments. All of a sudden, as soon as Your Mardu opponent hits 5 mana, you are all of a sudden in a really bad spot if you don’t play countermagic. You can’t try to win, since your opponent could just cast this and win in response. I personally think that this effect is interesting, but would work better on a Sorcery (which forces you to actually loose the game rather than just wait for your opponent to try to kill you), or on a creature (which then your opponent can at least kill to try to get back into the game).
I’m going to give to cheetos with an Honorable Mention to Mergatroid.
Up next: UN4 is on Ravnica. Design a silver border legendary creature for a guild. Use Unstable as a reference.
I’m not sold on Unstable (the mechanic). It sounds like just having ‘at the beginning of your upkeep’ trigger but with extra steps. Yeah, it does trigger ‘when something else ETB’s’ and cast triggers, but I’m not convinced it’s worth the extra complexity.
As for the card itself. It’s broken. 2 life a turn for free ramp is way too effecient, especially since any deck that runs his will he trying to kill you before the life loss is relevant. Storm in particular loves this card, since it is a ramp card early that continues to contribute to the decks storm count. Probably leads to a T2 kill in storm in modern and makes legacy storm more consistent.
I’m any case:
Mechanic: Frost Counters (when a permanent with 1 or more frost counters on it would become untapped, instead remove a frost counter from it).
Frost counters are a new type of counter with innate rules meaning. They create a replacement effect whenever a permanent with one or more frost counters on it would become untapped, which causes a counter to be removed instead of that permanent untapping.
Blood Frost
1UR
Enchantment
When a non-basic land is tapped for any amount of mana, put that many frost counters plus one onto it. (When a permanent with one or more frost counters on it would become untapped, instead remove a frost counter from it.
).
Possess the Dead 3BBB
Sorcery (Rare)
Exile target creature card from your graveyard. Create a token that’s a copy of that creature, except that is a black spirit and has “When this creature dies, exile target creature card from your graveyard and create a token that is a copy of it, except that it is a black spirit and has this ability”.
IIW: Cards that day ‘Win the game’ or ‘lose the game’.
Gravewaker Mage
BB
Creature - Human Wizard
Flash
When Gravewaker Mage enters the battlefield, return target creature card with a power less than the number of swamps you control from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step.
2/1
IIW: cards that say “win the game” or “lose the game”
Mechanic - Ambush:
Under certain conditions, you may cast this card as though it had flash by paying its Ambush cost.
Hidden Sharpshooter
1R
Creature - Human Rouge (Uncommon)
Ambush 2RR- When one of your creatures becomes blocked, you may cast this card for its ambush cost as though it had flash.
When Hidden Sharpshooter enters the battlefield, if it’s ambush cost was paid, it deals 3 damage to target blocking creature.
2/1
Pit-Trappers
1WW
Creature - Dwarf Soldier (Uncommmon)
Ambush 3WW - When your attacked by 2 or more creatures, you may cast Pit-Trappers for its Ambush cost as though it had flash.
When Pit Trappers enters the battlefield, exile target creature. Return that creature the the battlefield tapped at the beginning of the next end step.
2/3
Suddenly Sandguins
3UU
Sorcery (Uncommon)
Ambush UUU - If an opponent had 3 or more cards enter their graveyard from their library this turn, you may cast suddenly Sandguins for its ambush cost and as if it had flash.
Create three 1/1 blue penguin creature tokens with ‘When this deals damage to a player, that player puts that many cards from the top of their library into their graveyard’
Ambush Fighter
1R
Creature -Human Rogue (common)
Whenever you pay a cards ambush cost, ~ gets +1/+1 until the end of the turn.
2/2
Big Old Bear
2G
Creature - Bear (Common)
Ambush GG - when an opponent casts a creature spell, you may cast this spell for its ambush cost and although it had flash.
3/3
Grim Raddigan
2BB
Legendary Creature - Zombie Rogue (Mythic)
Ambush 4BBB - When a creature you control dies, you may cast Grim Raddigan for his Ambush Cost and as though he had flash.
When Grim Raddigan enters the battlefield, return each creature that you own that died this turn to the battlefield. They are black zombies in addition to their other colours and types.
Other zombies you control have menace.
3/3
Edit: IIW: cards that say ‘lose the game’ or ‘win the game’.
Return to sender is a fine card, if a little narrow. I do think that it's a little awkwardly worded. I'd maybe push up a little bit in CMC to just make it spells that target a player, rather than its controller.
Mysterious Disappearance W
Instant
Exile target creature. It's controller investigates (they create a colourless Clue artifact token with '2, Sacrifice this: Draw a card' "No body, no signs of forced entry, the doors locked from the inside. A perfect crime. But ah-HA! The killer was foolish enough to leave his cigarette butt on the floor."
1. I think that the power level difference between the two ‘modes’ is too large. Gaining 1 life a turn is a lot less impactful than getting an extra mana.
2. This might be a little too good with lands with two land types, such as Temple Garden. While getting 1 life a turn isn’t great on its own, getting 1 life and 1 mana for a 1 CMC enchantment is quite strong.
Run and Hide URG
Sorcery - Rare
Reveal your hand. Target opponent chooses a permanent card from your hand, then you choose a different permanent card from your hand. Each player puts the chosen card onto the battlefield under their control. ”Reinstating show and tell was a bad idea” - Naban, Dean of Iteration
Going back to discussing the mechanic, I think that a cleaner implementation would be just to give the creature a power boost based on blocking/becoming blocked. This isn't quite the same thing mechanically, but it keeps the mechanic a little cleaner since you don't have to worry about replacement effects, and it also cleans up certain interactions like Trample (I think with the current interaction, if a 2/2 with trample is blocked by an 0/2, and you have 2 lands in your graveyard, this would deal 4 damage to the creature and zero would trample over). So essentially something like this:
Raze (as long as this creature is blocked or blocking, it gets +1/+0 for each land in your graveyard). I choose to steal the wording from Adanto Vanguard to avoid having to deal with a large number of triggers during combat.
Burning Moon
RR
Enchantment - Aura Curse
Enchant Opponent
Whenever the enchanted player taps a non-basic land for mana, if it doesn’t have a blaze counter on it, put a blaze counter on it.
As long as a land enchanted player controls has a blaze counter on it, it has ‘At the beginning of your upkeep, if this land has a blaze counter on it, it deals 1 damage to you’ (The land continues to burn even after Burning Moon leaves the battlefield).
IIW: A card with a mechanic that is a twist on your favourite existing mechanic.
(B/R)(B/R)(B/R)
Creature - Demon Shaman
(B/R)(B/R): Creatures you control get +1/-1 until end of turn.
0/4
2WW
Sorcery
For each creature you control with a power or toughness of 1 or less, create a token that’s a copy of it.
3BBBB
Enchantment
Whenever a non-demon creature you control dies, create a 6/6 black demon creature token with Flying and Trample.
Infuse - Cost: You may cast aura for its infuse cost. If you do, sacrifice it after it enters the battlefield.
It’s a bit cleaner since it doesn’t result in cards changing their card types, which pushes down the complexity particularly at common. For effects that you want to be instants you can just give the Aura flash.
As for the card itself, I think that it’s a bit to complex for what it does. Giving +/- stats while also putting -1/-1 counters on the card it’s enchanting just makes it confusing for what it’s actually doing. I think it would be cleaner to just have this directly put counters on the target instead of dealing damage with Wither (a bit of a bend in red but likely exceptable in the context of the block) and have it give no P/T modification (or only modify power). It’s a fine idea, but it needs some refinement and cleaning.
Gideon, Knight of Sacrifice
2WWW
Legendary Planeswalker - Gideon
+2: Until your next turn, target creature can’t attack or block and it’s activated abilities can’t be activated.
0: Gideon becomes a 5/5 Human Knight Creature with indestructible until the end of the turn. Prevent all damage that would be dealt to Gideon this turn.
-14: Exile Gideon and all permanents target player controls.
4
Alchemists second ability triggers when a creature is put into a graveyard from an opponent’s library. This is different from Kalitas’s ability, which creates a replacement effect when a creature dies (is put into a graveyard from the battlefield).
Basically, the two abilities are completely unrelated, even though they both produce 2/2 Zombie creatures.
5RRGG
Legendary Creature - Cyclops
Trample
When Borborygmos REALLY Enraged deals combat damage to a player, you may throw any number of permanents you control onto the table from a distance of at least 3 ft (1m). Destroy each permanent thrown this way, and each permanent that is both touching one of the thrown permanents when it stops moving and shares at least one card type with it.
7/7
Edit: Thought of a more fun version.
Borborygmos, the Strongest
4RRGG
Legendary Creature - Cyclops
Trample
When Borborygmos enters the battlefield, you may challenge target opponent to an arm wrestle. If you win, Borborygmos gains protection from Non-Creatures that player controls. If that opponent wins, exile Borborygmos (a player must be physically able to arm wrestle to be a legal target).
8/7
IIW: CMC of 3.
Totallyhaywire:
I think this card is way too wordy. It does weird things of making things different colours, making colourless things uncounterable but more expensive... it feels like two or three solid ideas for cards mashed together for an inelegant result. That being said, I think the component ideas of this card could be quite interesting on their own, and I’ll also add that this is the only appropriately costed entry.
Cheetos:
Yeah, this is underpriced for draw 3 plus mind control plus conditionally winning the game. I also feel like the mind control effect is mechanically disconnected from the other two effects. Apart from this disconnect and the fact that this is massively under costed, I really like this though. The hand size as a win con is interesting and as I said I would love this if it wasn’t for the random mind control tacked on.
Mergatroid Jones:
I like the cleanness of the effect but I think that as an instant this card would lead to a lot of unfun moments. All of a sudden, as soon as Your Mardu opponent hits 5 mana, you are all of a sudden in a really bad spot if you don’t play countermagic. You can’t try to win, since your opponent could just cast this and win in response. I personally think that this effect is interesting, but would work better on a Sorcery (which forces you to actually loose the game rather than just wait for your opponent to try to kill you), or on a creature (which then your opponent can at least kill to try to get back into the game).
I’m going to give to cheetos with an Honorable Mention to Mergatroid.
Up next: UN4 is on Ravnica. Design a silver border legendary creature for a guild. Use Unstable as a reference.
As for the card itself. It’s broken. 2 life a turn for free ramp is way too effecient, especially since any deck that runs his will he trying to kill you before the life loss is relevant. Storm in particular loves this card, since it is a ramp card early that continues to contribute to the decks storm count. Probably leads to a T2 kill in storm in modern and makes legacy storm more consistent.
I’m any case:
Mechanic: Frost Counters (when a permanent with 1 or more frost counters on it would become untapped, instead remove a frost counter from it).
Frost counters are a new type of counter with innate rules meaning. They create a replacement effect whenever a permanent with one or more frost counters on it would become untapped, which causes a counter to be removed instead of that permanent untapping.
Blood Frost
1UR
Enchantment
When a non-basic land is tapped for any amount of mana, put that many frost counters plus one onto it. (When a permanent with one or more frost counters on it would become untapped, instead remove a frost counter from it.
).
3BBB
Sorcery (Rare)
Exile target creature card from your graveyard. Create a token that’s a copy of that creature, except that is a black spirit and has “When this creature dies, exile target creature card from your graveyard and create a token that is a copy of it, except that it is a black spirit and has this ability”.
IIW: Cards that day ‘Win the game’ or ‘lose the game’.
BB
Creature - Human Wizard
Flash
When Gravewaker Mage enters the battlefield, return target creature card with a power less than the number of swamps you control from your graveyard to the battlefield. It gains haste. Sacrifice it at the beginning of the next end step.
2/1
IIW: cards that say “win the game” or “lose the game”
Under certain conditions, you may cast this card as though it had flash by paying its Ambush cost.
Hidden Sharpshooter
1R
Creature - Human Rouge (Uncommon)
Ambush 2RR- When one of your creatures becomes blocked, you may cast this card for its ambush cost as though it had flash.
When Hidden Sharpshooter enters the battlefield, if it’s ambush cost was paid, it deals 3 damage to target blocking creature.
2/1
Pit-Trappers
1WW
Creature - Dwarf Soldier (Uncommmon)
Ambush 3WW - When your attacked by 2 or more creatures, you may cast Pit-Trappers for its Ambush cost as though it had flash.
When Pit Trappers enters the battlefield, exile target creature. Return that creature the the battlefield tapped at the beginning of the next end step.
2/3
Suddenly Sandguins
3UU
Sorcery (Uncommon)
Ambush UUU - If an opponent had 3 or more cards enter their graveyard from their library this turn, you may cast suddenly Sandguins for its ambush cost and as if it had flash.
Create three 1/1 blue penguin creature tokens with ‘When this deals damage to a player, that player puts that many cards from the top of their library into their graveyard’
Ambush Fighter
1R
Creature -Human Rogue (common)
Whenever you pay a cards ambush cost, ~ gets +1/+1 until the end of the turn.
2/2
Big Old Bear
2G
Creature - Bear (Common)
Ambush GG - when an opponent casts a creature spell, you may cast this spell for its ambush cost and although it had flash.
3/3
Grim Raddigan
2BB
Legendary Creature - Zombie Rogue (Mythic)
Ambush 4BBB - When a creature you control dies, you may cast Grim Raddigan for his Ambush Cost and as though he had flash.
When Grim Raddigan enters the battlefield, return each creature that you own that died this turn to the battlefield. They are black zombies in addition to their other colours and types.
Other zombies you control have menace.
3/3
Edit: IIW: cards that say ‘lose the game’ or ‘win the game’.
Mysterious Disappearance
W
Instant
Exile target creature. It's controller investigates (they create a colourless Clue artifact token with '2, Sacrifice this: Draw a card'
"No body, no signs of forced entry, the doors locked from the inside. A perfect crime. But ah-HA! The killer was foolish enough to leave his cigarette butt on the floor."
1. I think that the power level difference between the two ‘modes’ is too large. Gaining 1 life a turn is a lot less impactful than getting an extra mana.
2. This might be a little too good with lands with two land types, such as Temple Garden. While getting 1 life a turn isn’t great on its own, getting 1 life and 1 mana for a 1 CMC enchantment is quite strong.
Run and Hide
URG
Sorcery - Rare
Reveal your hand. Target opponent chooses a permanent card from your hand, then you choose a different permanent card from your hand. Each player puts the chosen card onto the battlefield under their control.
”Reinstating show and tell was a bad idea” - Naban, Dean of Iteration
Raze (as long as this creature is blocked or blocking, it gets +1/+0 for each land in your graveyard). I choose to steal the wording from Adanto Vanguard to avoid having to deal with a large number of triggers during combat.
RR
Enchantment - Aura Curse
Enchant Opponent
Whenever the enchanted player taps a non-basic land for mana, if it doesn’t have a blaze counter on it, put a blaze counter on it.
As long as a land enchanted player controls has a blaze counter on it, it has ‘At the beginning of your upkeep, if this land has a blaze counter on it, it deals 1 damage to you’ (The land continues to burn even after Burning Moon leaves the battlefield).
IIW: A card with a mechanic that is a twist on your favourite existing mechanic.