What exactly do you want WOTC to do here? They don't have direct control over the metagame, they can't just say "Lets add more blue decks today". All they can do is make new cards or ban ones that get out of hand, beyond that its the community that decides what gets played.
You could say the matchmaker is the problem, but it is already like that because it is trying to prevent other problems. A Bronze player vs a Mythic player is a match neither side wants, so the matchmaker tries to pair you against people of a similar ranking first. The people around you were playing mono-red, so that's what you get. The meta often changes by the hour, just because one time you hit a bad luck streak doesn't mean the system is broken.
And yes, they could add some sort of archetype limit so you don't get the same matchup too many times in a row, but then you'll just wind up sitting in the queue for longer, as will the players of the "limited" archetype. Players wind up waiting more and playing less, is that better?
Your Surtland Flinger doesn't trigger until you've declared it as an attacker. Who/what you are attacking at is already locked in at that point, and one of the opponents being dead just means that any creatures attacking them do nothing. Combat otherwise proceeds as normal.
Compare the wording on Flinger to something like Dire Fleet Warmonger which happens "at the beginning of combat" which is just before attackers are declared. If the game state changed because of the Warmonger trigger and an opponent was no longer alive, they wouldn't be a valid target to attack.
Both abilities trigger from you casting the Muralists, which invokes the APNAP rule:
101.4. If multiple players would make choices and/or take actions at the same time, the active player (the player whose turn it is) makes any choices required, then the next player in turn order (usually the player seated to the active player’s left) makes any choices required, followed by the remaining nonactive players in turn order. Then the actions happen simultaneously. This rule is often referred to as the “Active Player, Nonactive Player (APNAP) order” rule.
So the answer is: depends whose turn it is. If it is your turn, your trigger is put on the stack first, meaning it resolves last, and you lose. If you are casting it on your opponent's turn, then their trigger resolves last, so you go up to 3 and back down to 1. And if its a multiplayer game and you are casting on a 3rd player's turn, then you have to be after the Liesa player in turn order or you lose.
There's a ruling on the OG Theros Gods that should apply here:
The type-changing ability that can make a God not be a creature functions only on the battlefield. It's always a creature card in other zones, regardless of your devotion to its color. It's always a creature spell while it's on the stack.
Inversely here, Grond is never a creature spell, only ever "Legendary Artifact - Vehicle". So in this case, yes it triggers Saruman.
And since that trigger resolves first, you should have an Army by the time Grond resolves, meaning it will etb as a Creature for anything that cares about that.
I have no official source, but I think these are the relevant bits and how they fit together.
702.140c As a mutating creature spell resolves, if its target is legal, it doesn’t enter the battlefield. Rather, it merges with the target creature and becomes one object represented by more than one card or token;
725.2a A merged permanent has only the characteristics of its topmost component;
109.3. An object’s characteristics are name, mana cost, color, color indicator, card type, subtype, supertype, etc.;
305.6. The basic land types are Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, and Forest. If an object uses the words “basic land type,” it’s referring to one of these subtypes. An object with the land card type and a basic land type has the intrinsic ability “{T}: Add [mana symbol],”
As soon as it merges with the mutate creature card on top, it stops having the land card type or basic land subtype, therefore 305.6 cannot apply to it. The basic land underneath is no longer a distinct object, and has no innate abilities to contribute to the merged object.
I would agree with you, presuming the land is something like a basic or dual which has no intrinsic text box. The land only has a mana ability due to having the land card type and basic land type, but if the mutate overwrites those, then the rules should stop granting it the ability to tap for mana.
edit - wrote that and realized this is just Mutate + Dryad Arbor, and everything I find on that says the Arbor loses the mana ability if it isn't on top.
Voidtouched seems very easy to turn on. Perhaps change the requirement to "cards you own in exile"? Also seems a slight flavor fail that an opponent casting Escape to the Wilds turns on your voidtouched.
Gylta effect lets you use all mana as any color, Void Titan only allows for colorless. IMO change Gylta for consistency.
Gylta & Puzzlebox cast-from-exile effects need some rewording. For one, it should probably specify "face-up" cards in exile. An effect like Foretell specifies face-down, if you target a Foretold card in exile you don't own, how do you know what you're casting?
Also the templating on Gylta/Puzzlebox is a bit wrong, should be more like "Choose target face-up card in exile. You may cast that card (without paying its mana cost)." I would also add "until end of turn" or "as long as it remains exiled" or some other window of time, because as it stands now, both cards only allow you to cast as a part of the resolution, ignoring timing restrictions. In other words, everything cast off it would have flash. Or perhaps restrict your Void cards to only activate at sorcery speed.
And one last thing, those effects work really well with cards that self-exile on resolution. I haven't looked at the cube, so this might not be relevant, but something like Time Stop + Gylta could lock someone out real quick. Be careful of what you add I suppose.
And one more really last thing, why Tribal for the Puzzlebox? You may have future plans, but nothing here cares about "Void" cards, so its just +1 card type.
Both abilities on Wand of Orcus would trigger for the controller of equipment, which Irenicus doesn't change. If its equipped on a creature an opponent controls, when it attacks the equipped creature gets deathtouch, and all zombies you control, not the controller of the equipped creature. Similarly if the equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you still get the zombie tokens, not your opponent.
The main key isn't the word "you" but rather that the abilities are triggered from the equipment itself. Compare to Ceremonial Knife where the equipment grants the ability to the creature. If you had a creature equipped with the Knife, and gave that to your opponent, then they would get the Blood Tokens because the creature itself is making them.
Given that the example card just turned 25, and you found so few cards like that, I'd assume this is a rule to preserve functionality on older cards, rather than something that is used a lot nowadays. A band-aid for something that is probably already on R&D's no-no list.
Even in your example, a non-planeswalker losing loyalty, wouldn't really break anything. The game would try to remove some amount of loyalty counters, if there weren't any present, it would just move on. There's a lot that the game can try do before it "breaks" and most of those things involve some type of infinite loop - Worldgorger Dragon combos, or Garruk Relentless + Fractured Identity, etc.
If you have specific strange interactions, there might be a way to clarify what happens. But I imagine that a lot of them will fall under "weird but okay" and the game doesn't really care. Kinda like how The Ozolith can get Flying from a counter, but it doesn't mean anything on a noncreature artifact, and since a flying noncreature permanent isn't any expected game outcome, cards like Whirlwind always specify "creatures with flying" and wouldn't affect it.
No. If a spell/effect specifies that you may cast it without paying the mana cost, then you can't choose to pay mana instead. The "you may" part refers to the whole "cast it without paying its mana cost". There's a few niche circumstances where say you Mind's Desire into a Misthollow Griffin, you could choose to cast the Griffin for its normal cost, but that is separate from the "free cast" effect of Mind's Desire.
For any such effect where you don't pay mana to cast it, X is always 0, and you can't pay any sort of alternative costs like Kicker.
Edit: due to the wording on the reminder text, I'm thinking (1) this battle type doesn't trigger things that trigger on cards transforming or entering the battlefield transformed (unless "cast transformed" also means it "enters transformed"), and (2) this is another mechanic that gets hosed by Teferi, Time Raveler. I'll wait for a rules expert to chime in on both of these, though.
This is correct. For a permanent to "transform" it must stay on the battlefield throughout, it stays the same object for summoning sickness or being tapped. When a battle is defeated and triggers, it actually changes zones a few times (Battlefield->Exile->Stack->Battlefield) and is a new object. It wouldn't trigger something like Cult of the Waxing Moon. It does though "enter transformed" for anything that cares (could find/think of any).
And yes, Teferi does hose this because it specifies you "exile it, then cast it." Even if you used something like Vampire Hexmage to do it in your main phase, its still trying to cast during the resolution of the ability, which isn't a time you can cast a sorcery. If it said you could cast it until end of turn, or some other window, it could get around that. But since it doesn't, you need to cast it while the defeated trigger is resolving.
It looks like it still enters the battlefield under its owner's control, so a non-bo with Doubling Season. And if your opponent has Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider out, he makes your battles easier.
You could say the matchmaker is the problem, but it is already like that because it is trying to prevent other problems. A Bronze player vs a Mythic player is a match neither side wants, so the matchmaker tries to pair you against people of a similar ranking first. The people around you were playing mono-red, so that's what you get. The meta often changes by the hour, just because one time you hit a bad luck streak doesn't mean the system is broken.
And yes, they could add some sort of archetype limit so you don't get the same matchup too many times in a row, but then you'll just wind up sitting in the queue for longer, as will the players of the "limited" archetype. Players wind up waiting more and playing less, is that better?
Its more likely that you just need to read Hidetsugu and Kairi all the way to the end.
Super powerful card is suddenly way derpier in my mind.
Compare the wording on Flinger to something like Dire Fleet Warmonger which happens "at the beginning of combat" which is just before attackers are declared. If the game state changed because of the Warmonger trigger and an opponent was no longer alive, they wouldn't be a valid target to attack.
101.4. If multiple players would make choices and/or take actions at the same time, the active player (the player whose turn it is) makes any choices required, then the next player in turn order (usually the player seated to the active player’s left) makes any choices required, followed by the remaining nonactive players in turn order. Then the actions happen simultaneously. This rule is often referred to as the “Active Player, Nonactive Player (APNAP) order” rule.
So the answer is: depends whose turn it is. If it is your turn, your trigger is put on the stack first, meaning it resolves last, and you lose. If you are casting it on your opponent's turn, then their trigger resolves last, so you go up to 3 and back down to 1. And if its a multiplayer game and you are casting on a 3rd player's turn, then you have to be after the Liesa player in turn order or you lose.
The type-changing ability that can make a God not be a creature functions only on the battlefield. It's always a creature card in other zones, regardless of your devotion to its color. It's always a creature spell while it's on the stack.
Inversely here, Grond is never a creature spell, only ever "Legendary Artifact - Vehicle". So in this case, yes it triggers Saruman.
And since that trigger resolves first, you should have an Army by the time Grond resolves, meaning it will etb as a Creature for anything that cares about that.
702.140c As a mutating creature spell resolves, if its target is legal, it doesn’t enter the battlefield. Rather, it merges with the target creature and becomes one object represented by more than one card or token;
725.2a A merged permanent has only the characteristics of its topmost component;
109.3. An object’s characteristics are name, mana cost, color, color indicator, card type, subtype, supertype, etc.;
305.6. The basic land types are Plains, Island, Swamp, Mountain, and Forest. If an object uses the words “basic land type,” it’s referring to one of these subtypes. An object with the land card type and a basic land type has the intrinsic ability “{T}: Add [mana symbol],”
As soon as it merges with the mutate creature card on top, it stops having the land card type or basic land subtype, therefore 305.6 cannot apply to it. The basic land underneath is no longer a distinct object, and has no innate abilities to contribute to the merged object.
Wastes should still work. Murmuring Bosk would still tap for B/W. Gingerbread Cabin could still etb off a blink, but not tap for mana.
edit - wrote that and realized this is just Mutate + Dryad Arbor, and everything I find on that says the Arbor loses the mana ability if it isn't on top.
Gylta effect lets you use all mana as any color, Void Titan only allows for colorless. IMO change Gylta for consistency.
Gylta & Puzzlebox cast-from-exile effects need some rewording. For one, it should probably specify "face-up" cards in exile. An effect like Foretell specifies face-down, if you target a Foretold card in exile you don't own, how do you know what you're casting?
Also the templating on Gylta/Puzzlebox is a bit wrong, should be more like "Choose target face-up card in exile. You may cast that card (without paying its mana cost)." I would also add "until end of turn" or "as long as it remains exiled" or some other window of time, because as it stands now, both cards only allow you to cast as a part of the resolution, ignoring timing restrictions. In other words, everything cast off it would have flash. Or perhaps restrict your Void cards to only activate at sorcery speed.
And one last thing, those effects work really well with cards that self-exile on resolution. I haven't looked at the cube, so this might not be relevant, but something like Time Stop + Gylta could lock someone out real quick. Be careful of what you add I suppose.
And one more really last thing, why Tribal for the Puzzlebox? You may have future plans, but nothing here cares about "Void" cards, so its just +1 card type.
The main key isn't the word "you" but rather that the abilities are triggered from the equipment itself. Compare to Ceremonial Knife where the equipment grants the ability to the creature. If you had a creature equipped with the Knife, and gave that to your opponent, then they would get the Blood Tokens because the creature itself is making them.
Even in your example, a non-planeswalker losing loyalty, wouldn't really break anything. The game would try to remove some amount of loyalty counters, if there weren't any present, it would just move on. There's a lot that the game can try do before it "breaks" and most of those things involve some type of infinite loop - Worldgorger Dragon combos, or Garruk Relentless + Fractured Identity, etc.
If you have specific strange interactions, there might be a way to clarify what happens. But I imagine that a lot of them will fall under "weird but okay" and the game doesn't really care. Kinda like how The Ozolith can get Flying from a counter, but it doesn't mean anything on a noncreature artifact, and since a flying noncreature permanent isn't any expected game outcome, cards like Whirlwind always specify "creatures with flying" and wouldn't affect it.
For any such effect where you don't pay mana to cast it, X is always 0, and you can't pay any sort of alternative costs like Kicker.
And yes, Teferi does hose this because it specifies you "exile it, then cast it." Even if you used something like Vampire Hexmage to do it in your main phase, its still trying to cast during the resolution of the ability, which isn't a time you can cast a sorcery. If it said you could cast it until end of turn, or some other window, it could get around that. But since it doesn't, you need to cast it while the defeated trigger is resolving.
Too bad they future-proofed Solemnity.