MTG Salvation

I just finished Neal Stephenson's Seven Eves and am now reading Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End. These are not new, but they are classic science fiction and awesome even though quite different in style from each other.

I agree exactly. Why print this at all? Do other products do this? Does a car company intentionally make a worse model (the key here is 'intentionally')? So how is this rubbish justified. I don't even really like Overrun, but why not a functionally identical reprint?

The ability is very cool IMOP. However, it also seems a bit too strong for the cost. A cost of WUBRG isn't really that hard to accomplish in this day of Magic; that said, it really feels like a 5-drop becoming anything. ANYTHING! I would suggest either upping the colored/colorless mana cost of this monster, or maybe something else like: "As Maika enters the battlefield search your library for exactly three creature cards, reveal them, and exile them. Then shuffle your library. Choose one of the cards at random exiled this way. Miaka becomes a copy of the exiled card...

Gifts from the Grave 2BB
Sorcery -- Mythic

You get an emblem with: "Whenever you would draw a card, draw that card from the bottom of your library instead of from the top."

I like the flavor of "Kahaline, Goddess of Love" but it seems to want to do too many things in addition to being somewhat under-costed. Sure, the "can't attack or block" which is common to gods is a drawback, but it really isn't enough to make this a 7/4 with those stats for RWG. I can turn two something like Dragon Fodder and it is already online. In addition, I get that the "non-artifact creature" part fits with flavor, but it could be simplified by removing this portion and making it simply "Tap two untapped creatures you control that share a creature type:"


Fugacious Corpuscle BUG
Creature - Germ (R)
At the end of turn, transform Fugacious Corpuscle.
-2/-2
Though newly cultivated specimens expire quickly without proper care...
///
Athanasia Decoction
Artifact Enchantment
At the end of your turn you win the game.
...with a steady supply of spores life can be extended indefinitely.

The name on my card ("Operation Dumbo Drop") is a joke, but the ability, like all Epic cards, is intended to be highly none-interactive as a drawback. It is hard to develop cards that are not insanely overpowered and many MANY rares and mythics are strait up chafe.

I like your card flavor. Demons are great fun and I could see this seeing some play in a weenie limited build even without demons since the alternative equip cost allows you to still curve out on creatures. It might even need a little more, like giving the creature death touch or something equally flavorful.

I could see this as a very good limited card, or possibly a player in a standard deck in a slower format. I think this could even be pushed a little more by costing 1WB or even WBB without calling it broken; after all, it still needs to connect to do anything and it itself is not a spirit so other copies won't gain you life. Additionally, spirits are usually UW as a tribe, so it would have to likely be in an Esper shell to really abuse the life gain triggers. Overall, I like the spin on these older concepts!

Operation Dumbo Drop 2G
Sorcery [Mythic]
Create a 3/3 green Elephant creature token.
Epic (For the rest of the game, you can't cast spells. At the beginning of each of your upkeeps, copy this spell except for its epic ability.)
Just visualize: One elephant climbs up on top of another elephant, until finally, all seventeen elephants have constructed an enormous pyramid of pachyderms! -- Dumbo, 1941

A good common land ramp card. It would seen play in limited, but the cost is too high I think to push it into constructed. The cantrip helps, as does the instant speed. This feels like the kind of card WOTC gives us now as an instant at common.

Octorantula 3UG
Creature - Octopus Spider (U)
Reach
Octorantula can block X creatures each combat, where X is the number of islands you control.
3/5

I like the Statesman card. It works with blue as a politician (though white or black also fits this often enough depending on the morality of the statesman). The abilities are probably pushing the power a bit; I think it would also be still playable if the activated abilities costed an additional 1 or if the power/toughness of the creature were reduced instead. BTW, I really like the "Explore" mechanic!

Delay the Rapture 1B
Instant - R
Return all cards in exile to their owners' graveyards.
This dish is not yet ready. Send it back.

Thanks! I'm glad you liked the card! By the way, what card generator do you use to make the your cards?

I think this dragon is, as you yourself observed, right between uncommon and rare. It is just big enough with enough key words to make it a "good" draft pick finisher, but not really a constructed playable. If WOTC ever recommences the yearly base editions, I expect Shivan Dragon to get a downgrade to uncommon like Serra angel so this is similarly positioned if power creep continues (though recently I believe it has begun to level off somewhat).

Dungeon Passage
Artifact Enchantment Creature Land - Ooze
0/1
Rusted swords and broken bottles litter the slimy stench of the deepest dark.

Back in Invasion block a friend of mine and I opened three boxes and only got 1 Fact or Fiction. It happens and has nothing to do with special WOTC sneakiness.

The flavor is undeniable and the cost for such a unique effect seems right, though it might be even more realistic if you amend it to read: "Whenever a spell or ability an opponent controls causes a vehicle you control to leave the battlefield."

End of Days 1UB
Sorcery

When you cast End of Days, you get an emblem with: "Players play with the top card of their libraries revealed and cannot search libraries. At the Beginning of your upkeep if a card named End of Days is revealed on the top of your library target opponent loses the game."

Shuffle End of Days into its owner's library.

A deck can have only one card named End of Days.

I like the flavor of "Hoofprint Amulet" especially as it refers directly to Craterhoof Behemoth, one of my favorite EDH face-smashers. The flavor is running rampant as well, but I get hung up on it being an amulet. I kinda see it as a fossilized hoof-print instead; also, why does breaking it draw cards? Again, i love the flavor, and I also think it is well-costed since it requires an additional ETB trigger to be useful. Uncommon is a good call for this card.

In light of the recent statement WOTC made regarding the future of "expedition" and "masterpiece" cards in upcoming sets (namely, that they will continue to milk this cash cow for the foreseeable future) it occurs to me that, since they have been releasing these in formulaic batches based on card type (lands, then artifacts) it can be assumed that in the next few years we will likely see a planeswalker cycle of these ultra-mythics. For that to happen, and to fit with flavor, wouldn't the set they are tied to need to be thematically planeswalker-heavy? I imagine something like what we had with Champions of Kamigawa in that we will see an insurgence of planeswalker-related cards and even, dare i say it, uncommon and even common planeswalkers! They would naturally have to be somewhat deprived of their current power however...

Wikish, The Strand Traveler 3BG

Planeswalker--Wikish (Uncommon)

{-1}: Create a 1/2 green Spider creature token with reach.

{-4}: You get an emblem with "Each Spider creature you control assigns combat damage equal to its toughness rather than its power."

{4}

I won't deny the flavor of this card is appealing, but there are a few weak points to consider. Firstly, Outside of The Arabian Nights set, Magic has not used existing cultural references as card names (though they did use existing cultural references as flavor text up until a few years ago). Since the worlds of Magic, the Gathering are outside of our own, it makes more sense for them to make their own characters even if they do often draw heavily from our own mythology (such as Chained to the Rocks). I suggest a name change. Secondly, a creature cannot simply become a creature token as the idea of a token is fundamentally opposite to being a card. The blocking creature could either die or be exiled to be replaced with a Golem token, or the creature could simply become a Golem creature with no abilities instead. I do, however, love when an ability of a card can be activated by any player!

Here is a card I have been brewing since the unveiling of Paradox Engine:

Mass Production 5

Sorcery (R)

As an additional cost to cast Mass Production, sacrifice all lands you control.

Search your library for a number of nonland artifact cards with "T: add C to your mana pool" equal to the number of lands sacrificed when Mass Production's additional casting cost was paid and put those cards onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library.

You can't see the forest for the chimneys.

I like the flavor of "Pirate Fleet." However, it would make more sense to only be able to activate the damage ability of it is crewed as well, not only for flavor, but also because it otherwise does enough damage to not really ever need to be crewed at all.

As for the card with "Eager" mechanic too, it seems well costed for its abilities and the mechanic feels like a good variant of miracle.

Since I really like spider tribal, here's another wish list card in the vein of Mobilization But for arachnids!

The Great Web 2G

Legendary Enchantment


Prevent all damage that would be dealt to Spider creatures you control by creatures with flying.

2G: Create a 1/2 green Spider creature token with reach.

"It doesn't fill the WHOLE sky; look, if I turn back the way we came I can't even see it."