Speedrunner's Charm R
Sorcery
Choose one - Target creature gains haste until end of turn; or target creature gains double strike until end of turn; or target creature cannot be blocked by walls this turn.
Zap Technician 1(U/R)(U/R)
Creature - Human Wizard T: ~ deals 0 damage to any target.
Increment (Except for casting costs, add 1 to every number on cards in your hand and cards or abilities you control on the stack.)
1/1
So this makes Bolt deal 4 damage and Divination draw 3 cards. It would not affect power and toughness because they revert to normal on the battlefield. Adds extra targets when a number is involved, for example Early Frost. Does nothing with single targets or instances of "draw a card" (which can be used to your benefit with effects like Desperate Ravings
Solemn Seer: Nice rare. Very efficient. Very green. This would trigger the "groan test" in limited for me. It's difficult, often impossible, to interact with something in an opponent's hand. Forecast tends to get around this by being low impact or expensive. Although the mana cost seems fair, considering it can help hit land drops the ability soon pays for itself and approximates a one-sided howling mine you can't remove. That said, I'm sure constructed and edh players would love it. Forecast feels reasonable in green which gets ramp and some card advantage.
Cull: Great manipulation of the wording of Overload to turn a single target removal spell into a symmetrical board wipe. Colors are on point. Mana costs look correct both in terms of CMC and how much colored mana needed. Bonus points for a fresh wrath effect that gets around indestructible with sacrifice. Name of the keyword feels out of place in Orzhov, but I can see it being renamed with a shared guilt/duty theme if a lot of cards change modes from target player to each player.
Tactical Brutality: This is just far too good to print. The last time we got a cipher creature token spell it was a 1/1 flier for the same mana cost, and it was a respectable card in limited. Beyond the overshoot in power level, I can see cipher in gruul, again not so much in name but in mechanic.
Izzet Aethermancer: I'm glad you changed this from the original design because it reminded me too much of Monastery Mentor. I like how you justify populate with what izzet are already known to create, the weirds. I do worry that the range of creature tokens would be narrow in izzet. After all, the most diversity in creatures would be expected to come from the simic. Mechanically, I like that you blend rewards between instants and sorceries and token creation, because you could design the set to have several token creating instants and sorceries.
Indulgent Lord: This is my favorite in regards to flavor. I love how you turned convoke, a mechanic designed to represent teamwork, into a selfish black mechanic. Interesting tension between drawing blood for bloodthirst and keeping some creatures back to pay into convoke. Good flavor text.
My top 2 picks are Cull and Indulgent Lord. I give the win to Cardz5000's Cull because it is an innovative design in so little text.
Next: Cards from Vryn, preferably with a new mechanic.
I'd play the wizard deck and I'd swap out Weight of Memory for Goblin Barrage.
This format is very bomby and although your first deck is plenty powerful, it only has a couple Eviscerates and an Icy for removal. Because I expect everyone's decks to have lots of powerful cards that win the game on their own unanswered, I think your removal heavy deck will perform better.
Don't forget that you can sideboard into the GWb deck after game 1 if you are underwhelmed by your opponent's best cards.
Phyrexian Assimilator UUUU
Artifact creature - Shapeshifter
You may have ~ enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature, except any activated ability costs (including tapping) are replaced by UU.
0/0
IIW: a Ravnica block (or RTR block) mechanic in the wrong color(s)
Cloudspite Dasher 2RR
Creature - Giant (U)
~ has haste as long as an opponent controls a white permanent or a blue permanent.
~ costs 2 less to cast if an opponent controls a white permanent and a blue permanent.
4/4
IIW: A Zombie with another creature type that hasn't been paired with Zombie before
Liquidate 2R
Instant
Destroy all equipment. For each equipment destroyed this way, create two colorless Treasure artifact tokens with "Tap, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color."
IIW: Replace a card from Dominaria limited that you found to be too weak or too strong. The new card should be the same color and rarity and should correct the original (for example, do not replace a card that is too strong with another very strong card unless you aim to support a disjoint archetype), but otherwise, anything goes.
Two-Face's Justice - Pros: feels like it ought to be printed at some point, mana cost at the right spot, has high potential for Chance Encounter (maybe a good reason to slap nonenchantment on there), quite good with Krark's Thumb, worded properly to make you the flipper to take advantage of such cards. Cons: can be hell on large EDH boards, and the other side of the "feels like it ought to be printed some day" is that it doesn't feel original or special.
Fomori Watch Captain - My problem with this card is that I don't expect it to be fun to play /against. It's probably too weak for constructed. In limited I expect it to stall the ground and get in for 3 every turn. If there's supposed to be a fun minigame in double blocking it and hoping it doesn't gain backswing, that's lost on its 7 toughness, which is quite a lot in most limited formats, so in most cases I see this as a near-must remove threat and nothing else. I think reducing the toughness to 6 goes a long way in making it more interactive, which would make it more powerful in situations where you have plenty of instant removal to blow out double blocks.
Conclave's Charge - I don't think a card like this should be printed unless it's provided an accommodating context. Reading it made me appreciate the Watch Captain above a little more, because that card does attempt to set up a game of risk assessment. This card just feels random. There's not much play to it beyond making sure both vigilance and trample are things your token deck is interested in. It feels like adding RNG to the game for no reason.
Pyrochemister - Here is a good case of a game of risk and reward. Using it on your own creatures risks killing them, and using it on enemy creatures risks buffing them. It also plays well with Chance Encounter and Krark's Thumb. The card is interesting and powerful enough to exist without the tap ability. The stats were designed mindful of the fact that the expected number of flips to get one success is 2, so you can often use its ability on itself to give it haste without killing it. Good power level, good cost, good stats, fun use of randomness. If anything is wrong, it's that it may lead to too many coin flips, like Two-Face's Justice. Maybe the ability could be adjusted to be an X ability and have the creatures get +X/+0 or dealt X damage so you don't have to spam so much, but that changes the math (for example, you would have a 50% chance to kill a 6/6 if you used an X ability, while you'd have to win 6 flips to kill it as it reads, quite unlikely).
Goblin Gambler - This is Pyrochemister's lil bro. Nice simple design, fun minigame, like Tavern Swindler only more suspenseful. If it exists in a set without synergy, I think it ought to be costed RR and be a 2/2 otherwise it will be quite weak, and I'd love a card like this to see limited play. The one weird thing about this card is that it's red but it's better on defense than offense since you can block and tap until you lose, but to attack you have to stop before you lose.
Rakdos Impugner - This card comes across as too volatile/powerful to see print at two mana. I was a fan of Spawnwrithe and I know the power of exponential growth. The coin flipping may lower the average speed of that growth, but there will still be games where you win the first 3 flips and those will not be fun games, and the games when you lose the first 3 flips will also feel bad for one player.
Winner is Mergatroid_Jones with Pyrochemister. The repeatable ability reduces the natural high variance of flipping coins, while attaching a downside to the result of the flip keeps the randomness meaningful and suspenseful.
Invention of the Thopter UR
Enchantment - Saga (U)
I- Create two 1/1 colorless Servo artifact creature tokens.
II- Servos you control gain flying until end of turn. Sacrifice each Servo you control at the beginning of the next end step.
III- Create two 1/1 colorless Thopter artifact creature tokens with flying.
Zo-Zu's Charioteer 1R
Creature - Goblin Warrior
Flash, haste
When Zo-Zu's Charioteer enters the battlefield, it deals 2 damage to each player who played a land this turn.
2/2
Well this round was a bust. I'm not sure if my challenge was bad or if the regular Flamingo people are all at Coachella, but we ought to move on.
Cardz5000 wins, though it's close. I like how white and pillowy the art is. Something about the symmetry of...whatever you call that stuff...air glyph?...plus the hand gesture makes it look like some kind of protection spell. The card itself is a novel take on a regular trope of white removal, so that's nice.
Cheetos' Sharpening Knowledge - The one thing that I didn't like about this card was its mana cost. 4 CMC feels like too much when we have Military Intellgence at 2 mana. And this card doesn't even draw cards, it just scries. I'd like to see this at around 2 CMC. It pains me to find a flaw in the cost of this card because the use of art is more daring than the other submission, and the effect is more interesting to build around as it adds scry to all your draws which can provide some serious digging for a combo deck on a single turn.
next: Wild West Mechanics (If you can't stand guns in your MTG, just make wand slinging pyromancers)
Sorcery
Choose one - Target creature gains haste until end of turn; or target creature gains double strike until end of turn; or target creature cannot be blocked by walls this turn.
IIW: let's see some Echo
Legendary Land
~ enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add B.
When ~ is put into your graveyard from anywhere, add BBB.
IIW: A legendary permanent that transforms into a nonlegendary permanent
Creature - Human Wizard
T: ~ deals 0 damage to any target.
Increment (Except for casting costs, add 1 to every number on cards in your hand and cards or abilities you control on the stack.)
1/1
So this makes Bolt deal 4 damage and Divination draw 3 cards. It would not affect power and toughness because they revert to normal on the battlefield. Adds extra targets when a number is involved, for example Early Frost. Does nothing with single targets or instances of "draw a card" (which can be used to your benefit with effects like Desperate Ravings
Creature - Bird
Rescue - When ~ enters the battlefield, return a permanent you control to its owner's hand.
Flying
2/1
IIW: a legendary permanent that transforms into a nonlegendary permanent
Cull: Great manipulation of the wording of Overload to turn a single target removal spell into a symmetrical board wipe. Colors are on point. Mana costs look correct both in terms of CMC and how much colored mana needed. Bonus points for a fresh wrath effect that gets around indestructible with sacrifice. Name of the keyword feels out of place in Orzhov, but I can see it being renamed with a shared guilt/duty theme if a lot of cards change modes from target player to each player.
Tactical Brutality: This is just far too good to print. The last time we got a cipher creature token spell it was a 1/1 flier for the same mana cost, and it was a respectable card in limited. Beyond the overshoot in power level, I can see cipher in gruul, again not so much in name but in mechanic.
Izzet Aethermancer: I'm glad you changed this from the original design because it reminded me too much of Monastery Mentor. I like how you justify populate with what izzet are already known to create, the weirds. I do worry that the range of creature tokens would be narrow in izzet. After all, the most diversity in creatures would be expected to come from the simic. Mechanically, I like that you blend rewards between instants and sorceries and token creation, because you could design the set to have several token creating instants and sorceries.
Indulgent Lord: This is my favorite in regards to flavor. I love how you turned convoke, a mechanic designed to represent teamwork, into a selfish black mechanic. Interesting tension between drawing blood for bloodthirst and keeping some creatures back to pay into convoke. Good flavor text.
My top 2 picks are Cull and Indulgent Lord. I give the win to Cardz5000's Cull because it is an innovative design in so little text.
Next: Cards from Vryn, preferably with a new mechanic.
This format is very bomby and although your first deck is plenty powerful, it only has a couple Eviscerates and an Icy for removal. Because I expect everyone's decks to have lots of powerful cards that win the game on their own unanswered, I think your removal heavy deck will perform better.
Don't forget that you can sideboard into the GWb deck after game 1 if you are underwhelmed by your opponent's best cards.
Artifact creature - Shapeshifter
You may have ~ enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature, except any activated ability costs (including tapping) are replaced by UU.
0/0
IIW: a Ravnica block (or RTR block) mechanic in the wrong color(s)
Sorcery
Target creature must be blocked this turn if able. If it attacks and is not blocked this turn, draw a card.
Rebound
IIW: a Ravnica block (or RTR block) mechanic in the wrong color(s)
Creature - Giant (U)
~ has haste as long as an opponent controls a white permanent or a blue permanent.
~ costs 2 less to cast if an opponent controls a white permanent and a blue permanent.
4/4
IIW: A Zombie with another creature type that hasn't been paired with Zombie before
Instant
Destroy all equipment. For each equipment destroyed this way, create two colorless Treasure artifact tokens with "Tap, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color."
IIW: Replace a card from Dominaria limited that you found to be too weak or too strong. The new card should be the same color and rarity and should correct the original (for example, do not replace a card that is too strong with another very strong card unless you aim to support a disjoint archetype), but otherwise, anything goes.
Fomori Watch Captain - My problem with this card is that I don't expect it to be fun to play /against. It's probably too weak for constructed. In limited I expect it to stall the ground and get in for 3 every turn. If there's supposed to be a fun minigame in double blocking it and hoping it doesn't gain backswing, that's lost on its 7 toughness, which is quite a lot in most limited formats, so in most cases I see this as a near-must remove threat and nothing else. I think reducing the toughness to 6 goes a long way in making it more interactive, which would make it more powerful in situations where you have plenty of instant removal to blow out double blocks.
Conclave's Charge - I don't think a card like this should be printed unless it's provided an accommodating context. Reading it made me appreciate the Watch Captain above a little more, because that card does attempt to set up a game of risk assessment. This card just feels random. There's not much play to it beyond making sure both vigilance and trample are things your token deck is interested in. It feels like adding RNG to the game for no reason.
Pyrochemister - Here is a good case of a game of risk and reward. Using it on your own creatures risks killing them, and using it on enemy creatures risks buffing them. It also plays well with Chance Encounter and Krark's Thumb. The card is interesting and powerful enough to exist without the tap ability. The stats were designed mindful of the fact that the expected number of flips to get one success is 2, so you can often use its ability on itself to give it haste without killing it. Good power level, good cost, good stats, fun use of randomness. If anything is wrong, it's that it may lead to too many coin flips, like Two-Face's Justice. Maybe the ability could be adjusted to be an X ability and have the creatures get +X/+0 or dealt X damage so you don't have to spam so much, but that changes the math (for example, you would have a 50% chance to kill a 6/6 if you used an X ability, while you'd have to win 6 flips to kill it as it reads, quite unlikely).
Goblin Gambler - This is Pyrochemister's lil bro. Nice simple design, fun minigame, like Tavern Swindler only more suspenseful. If it exists in a set without synergy, I think it ought to be costed RR and be a 2/2 otherwise it will be quite weak, and I'd love a card like this to see limited play. The one weird thing about this card is that it's red but it's better on defense than offense since you can block and tap until you lose, but to attack you have to stop before you lose.
Rakdos Impugner - This card comes across as too volatile/powerful to see print at two mana. I was a fan of Spawnwrithe and I know the power of exponential growth. The coin flipping may lower the average speed of that growth, but there will still be games where you win the first 3 flips and those will not be fun games, and the games when you lose the first 3 flips will also feel bad for one player.
Winner is Mergatroid_Jones with Pyrochemister. The repeatable ability reduces the natural high variance of flipping coins, while attaching a downside to the result of the flip keeps the randomness meaningful and suspenseful.
Next: Board wipes (anything from Tranquility to Sunder to Apocalypse).
Invention of the Thopter UR
Enchantment - Saga (U)
I- Create two 1/1 colorless Servo artifact creature tokens.
II- Servos you control gain flying until end of turn. Sacrifice each Servo you control at the beginning of the next end step.
III- Create two 1/1 colorless Thopter artifact creature tokens with flying.
IIW: coin flipping
Creature - Goblin Warrior
Flash, haste
When Zo-Zu's Charioteer enters the battlefield, it deals 2 damage to each player who played a land this turn.
2/2
IIW: a Saproling with another creature type
Cardz5000 wins, though it's close. I like how white and pillowy the art is. Something about the symmetry of...whatever you call that stuff...air glyph?...plus the hand gesture makes it look like some kind of protection spell. The card itself is a novel take on a regular trope of white removal, so that's nice.
Cheetos' Sharpening Knowledge - The one thing that I didn't like about this card was its mana cost. 4 CMC feels like too much when we have Military Intellgence at 2 mana. And this card doesn't even draw cards, it just scries. I'd like to see this at around 2 CMC. It pains me to find a flaw in the cost of this card because the use of art is more daring than the other submission, and the effect is more interesting to build around as it adds scry to all your draws which can provide some serious digging for a combo deck on a single turn.
next: Wild West Mechanics (If you can't stand guns in your MTG, just make wand slinging pyromancers)