Mutual Mistrust U
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, you and another target player each look at the top card of each other's libraries. You may each put that card on the bottom of the player's library. 3B, sacrifice Mutual Mistrust: Name a card other than a basic land card. Target opponent reveals their hand and discards all cards with the chosen name. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.
Iiw: counters on cards not on the battlefield or suspended
Convergence of Leylines
Enchantment Land
If Convergence of Leylines is in your opening hand, you may begin the game with it on the battlefield tapped with X charge counters on it, where X is the number of other permanents with different names that you control. T: Add C. T: Add X mana in any combination of colors.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have no cards in hand and Convergence of Leylines is untapped, tap it and draw X cards.
IIW: Counters on cards not on the battlefield (and not suspend)
Nobility W
Instant
As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a creature.
Choose 1. If a legendary creature was sacrificed to cast this spell, choose both instead.
*Target creature with power greater than the sacrificed creature's gets +2/+2 and gains hexproof and indestructible until end of turn.
*Creatures you control with power less than the sacrificed creature's power get +1/+1 and gain vigilance and lifelink until end of turn. Nobility, a birthright or a mindset. So rarely do the two overlap.
IIW: Counters on cards not on the battlefield (and not suspend)
Ancestral Recall1B
Enchantment {R}
At the beginning of your turn, remove 3 cards from the top of your library from the game.
Whenever a creature you control is destroyed, put it into your hand at end of turn. If it has the same name as at least 2 cards you have removed from the game, put it into play under your control instead.
IIW: Put counters on cards not on the battlefield.
Ripley Vance, Spitfire Captain
A 4 drop 4/1 that turns all your creatures into pingers and essentially shocks at the beginning of the upkeep. A cool concept, but I think most people would pretty much always choose to take 2 damage rather than give you back a creature that can ping any target.
Curse of Neglect
This is a cool concept, but it seems extremely strong, and the choice of casting spells vs not casting spells is a little lackluster, as you can't really choose to not cast spells if that lands on turn 3
Maddening Musings
I like that this card makes them either take the safe route, or a 50/50 chance on getting screwed. It seems balanced as they do get the choice.
The Physician's Choice
While an interesting card, the challenge was to give your opponents choices, not yourself.
A cool multiplayer card, this is one of those choice cards that probably is never that difficult. Either you can afford to sac a land because its lategame and you're flooded, or you pay 2 life because you need the mana. It seems powerful and a cool card nonetheless.
Narset's Justice
A passive tax of 3 against creature decks seems really powerful as a sideboard tool for control. Like, really powerful. If it somehow hit itself so that its owner had to pay to keep it on the field, like if it was for "creatures and enchants" or "nonland permanents" then I could see it, but it's too easy to bust the symmetry here.
Gatewatch Assembled
This seems like your opponent is dead to rights either way. In a deck built to take advantage of this, tutoring up 5-8 powerful walkers, even if only for a turn, is pretty much GG.
Stonevalley Seraph
This creature seems very pushed and the second choice is definitely more at home in black than white. However, I do like the choice aspect as they're either giving you filtering or the option to thin their board.
Sephon19
Next up: Remake a card from Alpha/Beta. You can change anything but you must keep its name and you must change its card type.
Daretti, Maniacal Scrapper 2RR
Legendary Planeswalker- Daretti [U]
Whenever you sacrifice an artifact, draw a card.
{-1]: Sacrifice an artifact. If you do, Daretti, Maniacal Scrapper deals 2 damage to any target.
[5]
Visions of Impermanence 2UU
Sorcery {R}
Create 2 2/2 blue Illusion creature tokens with "When this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, sacrifice it."
Lieutenant- As long as you control your commander and Visions of Impermanence is in your graveyard, Illusion creatures you control have flying and "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, draw a card."
Flashback 1UU
Ok, judging. Sorry for tardiness, 6 hours of finals can really drain you.
Xaethier, the Mana-Starved
I like big rainbow-colored snake gods as much as the next guy, but I don't know if the bad is worth the good with Xaethier. Either you cast him on turn 5, next turn you exile lands, and the turn after that you can flip him, assuming he hasn't been removed in which case you just timewalked yourself twice. Maybe if the downside was a little less harsh, like the lands coming back at your precombat main phase so you could at least use the mana, I could definitely get behind this.
Everted Valley
Plain old "screw with everybody's game plan" cards are always fun (I mean that sincerely, I have a Norin, the Wary EDH deck), and Everted Valley does it well. Aside from some issues with can't/can overrulings, I really like the chaos ability, because opponents can't respond once you roll, so they have to risk playing their cards at an inopportune time or losing the ability to play them at all.
Machinations of Ezuri
I like this card conceptually a lot, gaining some experience and clearing the board or buying back etb/cast triggers. I can't decide if it feels more Ezuri or Mixxix though, between flashback and being an instant with high generic cost. It feels extremely strong, however, especially as the fact that it doesn't target means it ignores hexproof/shroud and your opponents can't really interact with it besides just countering it.
Dreamscapes
I'm always a sucker for bestow, and putting it on lands feels very interesting. Some, like Placid, seem overcosted and very typical of what you'd expect, but the ramping benefit can't be overlooked, especially in red, where Thunderflash becomes "Sac a creature: Ping 1 and put a land into play", which is an interaction that seems just abusable enough to be fun.
Hammar Awakened
I'm reviewing this one instead of Council's Decision as it's newer and I didn't much care for the sorcery speed counterspell regardless. Better-than-basic lands are always powerful, and hammar is no exception. A land that can become a big creature and swing t6 with no ramp is a very powerful threat, especially with as much blocker dissuasion as it has.
Fortified Clearing
This feels like a spiritual relative of the bouncelands, but comparing the two isn't quite as fair. This is a tapland that ramps and fixes, and is resilient to destruction, whereas the bounces smooth out curves by floating your playable land count. Regardless it's a solid, robust card, but not the most exciting thing ever.
Marken, Twisted Predestinator
I had to reread a few times to figure out the flavor, but I got there. The tradeoffs of your opponents being able to pump their creatures vs making them vulnerable to Marken's purge ability are interesting, but I think being a 2 mana 4/4 might be a tad bit strong for everything he does. If he lands on curve, he's swinging on t3 and your opponents are forced into a bad monstrous to trade or they just get punched, and if Marken lives, they're gonna be on the back foot for a while. Plus, in white, cards like path and swords make having your opponents creatures become bigger no big deal. Very interesting concept though, favorite flavor.
Mergatroid_Jones
Being able to provide an effect as well as disincentivize your opponents from killing a certain creature, plus the possibility of using it as a way to ramp in big red combined all just pique my curiosity, and casting lands definitely fits the unusual bill.
That makes our next challenge: Any planeswaker who wasn't uncommon in War of the Spark as a WAR uncommon planeswalker (One static ability and one loyalty ability).
Hey so I've never actually won one of these before, what is judging supposed to be based on? Quality, design, flavor, whether it meets the challenge?
And how strict am I supposed to be on wording/ rules viability of the cards?
And how long should I wait to judge?
Flittering Sneeze (W/U)
Creature- Fairie {U}
Flying T:Tap another target creature. At the beginning of the next end step, each player draws a card. Though sneezes could be involuntary and inconvenient, they were seen as omens of good fortune from the gods of Theros, promising a pleasant surprise in the near future.
1/1
IIW: Use an existing mechanic in a new or unusual way
Aeon, Time's End 6UUU
Legendary Creature- Avatar{MR}
Suspend 7- 1U 1U, exile 3 cards from your hand: Remove a time counter from Aeon, Time's End. Activate this ability only while Aeon is suspended.
When Aeon enters the battlefield, each player shuffles their hand and graveyard into their library, then draws 7 cards. End the turn.
Whenever Aeon would leave the battlefield, you may instead exile Aeon with two time counters on it.
6/8
Live Long X(G/W)(G/W)
Instant {R}
You gain twice X life. Create X 0/2 green and white Plant Wall creature tokens with defender.
Fuse (You may cast one or both halves of this card from your hand.)
//
Prosper 1(U/B)
Sorcery {R}
Sacrifice any number of creatures. For each creature sacrificed this way, draw a card and create a colorless Treasure artifact token with "T, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color."
Fuse (You may cast one or both halves of this card from your hand.)
Decentralize W
Instant
Kicker 1WW
Exile target creature. That creature's controller creates X 1/1 white Rebel creature tokens, where X is the exiled creature's power. If this spell was kicked, you create that many of those tokens instead.
Melira, Incorruptible Hope 1WGG
Legendary Creature- Human Cleric
You and Melira, Incorruptible Hope have protection from permanents with infect.
Whenever one or more +1/+1 counters are put on another creature you control, put a +1/+1 counter on Melira. T: Remove all -1/-1 counters from target creature. Put that many +1/+1 counters on that creature. 3WG, remove X +1/+1 counters from Melira: Other creatures you control get +X/+X and gain protection from permanents with infect until end of turn. You gain twice X life. X can't be 0.
1/4 "As I sacrificed myself, I saw a future burgeoning with hope, where the Mirrans banded together instead of tore each other apart, and brought forth a finally pure Mirrodin. But even as I watched, I knew it would never come to pass." -- Venser the Sojourner
IIW: Give your opponents choices, the more difficult the better.
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, you and another target player each look at the top card of each other's libraries. You may each put that card on the bottom of the player's library.
3B, sacrifice Mutual Mistrust: Name a card other than a basic land card. Target opponent reveals their hand and discards all cards with the chosen name. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.
Iiw: counters on cards not on the battlefield or suspended
Enchantment Land
If Convergence of Leylines is in your opening hand, you may begin the game with it on the battlefield tapped with X charge counters on it, where X is the number of other permanents with different names that you control.
T: Add C.
T: Add X mana in any combination of colors.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have no cards in hand and Convergence of Leylines is untapped, tap it and draw X cards.
IIW: Counters on cards not on the battlefield (and not suspend)
Instant
As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a creature.
Choose 1. If a legendary creature was sacrificed to cast this spell, choose both instead.
*Target creature with power greater than the sacrificed creature's gets +2/+2 and gains hexproof and indestructible until end of turn.
*Creatures you control with power less than the sacrificed creature's power get +1/+1 and gain vigilance and lifelink until end of turn.
Nobility, a birthright or a mindset. So rarely do the two overlap.
IIW: Counters on cards not on the battlefield (and not suspend)
Enchantment {R}
At the beginning of your turn, remove 3 cards from the top of your library from the game.
Whenever a creature you control is destroyed, put it into your hand at end of turn. If it has the same name as at least 2 cards you have removed from the game, put it into play under your control instead.
IIW: Put counters on cards not on the battlefield.
A 4 drop 4/1 that turns all your creatures into pingers and essentially shocks at the beginning of the upkeep. A cool concept, but I think most people would pretty much always choose to take 2 damage rather than give you back a creature that can ping any target.
This is a cool concept, but it seems extremely strong, and the choice of casting spells vs not casting spells is a little lackluster, as you can't really choose to not cast spells if that lands on turn 3
I like that this card makes them either take the safe route, or a 50/50 chance on getting screwed. It seems balanced as they do get the choice.
While an interesting card, the challenge was to give your opponents choices, not yourself.
A passive tax of 3 against creature decks seems really powerful as a sideboard tool for control. Like, really powerful. If it somehow hit itself so that its owner had to pay to keep it on the field, like if it was for "creatures and enchants" or "nonland permanents" then I could see it, but it's too easy to bust the symmetry here.
This seems like your opponent is dead to rights either way. In a deck built to take advantage of this, tutoring up 5-8 powerful walkers, even if only for a turn, is pretty much GG.
This creature seems very pushed and the second choice is definitely more at home in black than white. However, I do like the choice aspect as they're either giving you filtering or the option to thin their board.
Next up: Remake a card from Alpha/Beta. You can change anything but you must keep its name and you must change its card type.
Legendary Planeswalker- Daretti [U]
Whenever you sacrifice an artifact, draw a card.
{-1]: Sacrifice an artifact. If you do, Daretti, Maniacal Scrapper deals 2 damage to any target.
[5]
IIW: Give your opponents difficult choices
Sorcery {R}
Create 2 2/2 blue Illusion creature tokens with "When this creature becomes the target of a spell or ability, sacrifice it."
Lieutenant- As long as you control your commander and Visions of Impermanence is in your graveyard, Illusion creatures you control have flying and "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, draw a card."
Flashback 1UU
Xaethier, the Mana-Starved
I like big rainbow-colored snake gods as much as the next guy, but I don't know if the bad is worth the good with Xaethier. Either you cast him on turn 5, next turn you exile lands, and the turn after that you can flip him, assuming he hasn't been removed in which case you just timewalked yourself twice. Maybe if the downside was a little less harsh, like the lands coming back at your precombat main phase so you could at least use the mana, I could definitely get behind this.
Everted Valley
Plain old "screw with everybody's game plan" cards are always fun (I mean that sincerely, I have a Norin, the Wary EDH deck), and Everted Valley does it well. Aside from some issues with can't/can overrulings, I really like the chaos ability, because opponents can't respond once you roll, so they have to risk playing their cards at an inopportune time or losing the ability to play them at all.
Machinations of Ezuri
I like this card conceptually a lot, gaining some experience and clearing the board or buying back etb/cast triggers. I can't decide if it feels more Ezuri or Mixxix though, between flashback and being an instant with high generic cost. It feels extremely strong, however, especially as the fact that it doesn't target means it ignores hexproof/shroud and your opponents can't really interact with it besides just countering it.
Dreamscapes
I'm always a sucker for bestow, and putting it on lands feels very interesting. Some, like Placid, seem overcosted and very typical of what you'd expect, but the ramping benefit can't be overlooked, especially in red, where Thunderflash becomes "Sac a creature: Ping 1 and put a land into play", which is an interaction that seems just abusable enough to be fun.
Hammar Awakened
I'm reviewing this one instead of Council's Decision as it's newer and I didn't much care for the sorcery speed counterspell regardless. Better-than-basic lands are always powerful, and hammar is no exception. A land that can become a big creature and swing t6 with no ramp is a very powerful threat, especially with as much blocker dissuasion as it has.
Fortified Clearing
This feels like a spiritual relative of the bouncelands, but comparing the two isn't quite as fair. This is a tapland that ramps and fixes, and is resilient to destruction, whereas the bounces smooth out curves by floating your playable land count. Regardless it's a solid, robust card, but not the most exciting thing ever.
Marken, Twisted Predestinator
I had to reread a few times to figure out the flavor, but I got there. The tradeoffs of your opponents being able to pump their creatures vs making them vulnerable to Marken's purge ability are interesting, but I think being a 2 mana 4/4 might be a tad bit strong for everything he does. If he lands on curve, he's swinging on t3 and your opponents are forced into a bad monstrous to trade or they just get punched, and if Marken lives, they're gonna be on the back foot for a while. Plus, in white, cards like path and swords make having your opponents creatures become bigger no big deal. Very interesting concept though, favorite flavor.
Mergatroid_Jones
Being able to provide an effect as well as disincentivize your opponents from killing a certain creature, plus the possibility of using it as a way to ramp in big red combined all just pique my curiosity, and casting lands definitely fits the unusual bill.
That makes our next challenge: Any planeswaker who wasn't uncommon in War of the Spark as a WAR uncommon planeswalker (One static ability and one loyalty ability).
And how strict am I supposed to be on wording/ rules viability of the cards?
And how long should I wait to judge?
Creature- Fairie {U}
Flying
T:Tap another target creature. At the beginning of the next end step, each player draws a card.
Though sneezes could be involuntary and inconvenient, they were seen as omens of good fortune from the gods of Theros, promising a pleasant surprise in the near future.
1/1
IIW: Use an existing mechanic in a new or unusual way
Legendary Creature- Avatar{MR}
Suspend 7- 1U
1U, exile 3 cards from your hand: Remove a time counter from Aeon, Time's End. Activate this ability only while Aeon is suspended.
When Aeon enters the battlefield, each player shuffles their hand and graveyard into their library, then draws 7 cards. End the turn.
Whenever Aeon would leave the battlefield, you may instead exile Aeon with two time counters on it.
6/8
Instant {R}
You gain twice X life. Create X 0/2 green and white Plant Wall creature tokens with defender.
Fuse (You may cast one or both halves of this card from your hand.)
//
Prosper 1(U/B)
Sorcery {R}
Sacrifice any number of creatures. For each creature sacrificed this way, draw a card and create a colorless Treasure artifact token with "T, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color."
Fuse (You may cast one or both halves of this card from your hand.)
Instant
Kicker 1WW
Exile target creature. That creature's controller creates X 1/1 white Rebel creature tokens, where X is the exiled creature's power. If this spell was kicked, you create that many of those tokens instead.
IIW: Use an existing mechanic in an unusual way
Legendary Creature- Human Cleric
You and Melira, Incorruptible Hope have protection from permanents with infect.
Whenever one or more +1/+1 counters are put on another creature you control, put a +1/+1 counter on Melira.
T: Remove all -1/-1 counters from target creature. Put that many +1/+1 counters on that creature.
3WG, remove X +1/+1 counters from Melira: Other creatures you control get +X/+X and gain protection from permanents with infect until end of turn. You gain twice X life. X can't be 0.
1/4
"As I sacrificed myself, I saw a future burgeoning with hope, where the Mirrans banded together instead of tore each other apart, and brought forth a finally pure Mirrodin. But even as I watched, I knew it would never come to pass." -- Venser the Sojourner
IIW: Give your opponents choices, the more difficult the better.