Yes, the common one should have had the T: Add C, but I forgot to copy it over. And I stuck the trample on forgetting these weren't sorcery speed like the deserts were, so you're right there too. I've updated the above.
Since there seems to be a posting flurry today, I'll throw one up too.
For my Arkham Horror/Lovecraft themed set, wanted to make some lands to represent portals from the alternate dimensions (like R'yleh or the Dreamlands in Lovecraft) influencing the material world. This would probably be just the one uncommon cycle plus the common, and I took a bit of a cue from the Hour of Devastation but thought on costing/balance or ideas for effects are welcome.
City of Wandering Lights
Land - Portal
City of Wandering Lights enters the battlefield tapped with a portal counter on it.
T: Add W.
3WW, T, Remove a portal counter from a land you control: Return target creature card with converted mana cost 2 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Pool of Blinding Murmurs
Land - Portal
Pool of Blinding Murmurs enters the battlefield tapped with a portal counter on it.
T: Add U.
2UU, T, Remove a portal counter from a land you control: Tap target creature. It does not untap during its controller’s next untap step.
Cairn of Crying Hands
Land - Portal
Cairn of Crying Hands enters the battlefield tapped with a portal counter on it.
T: Add B.
3BB, T, Remove a portal counter from a land you control: Target opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.
Spire of Grasping Winds
Land - Portal
Spire of Grasping Winds enters the battlefield tapped with a portal counter on it.
T: Add R.
1RR, T, Remove a portal counter from a land you control: Target creature gains double strike until the end of turn.
Garden of Restless Dreams
Land - Portal
Garden of Restless Dreams enters the battlefield tapped with a portal counter on it.
T: Add G.
2GG, T, Remove a portal counter from a land you control: Target land you control becomes a 4/4 Elemental creature with haste. It’s still a land.
And the common:
Unknowable Realms
Land - Portal
Unknowable Realms enters the battlefield tapped with a portal counter on it.
T: Add C.
1, T: Add one mana of any color.
The big challenge with this will be the templating. Even with a frame like Level Up they were pressed for space with three fairly simple text lines, so fitting four "levels of empowerment".
These are kind of like a restrictive dredge card, and so you'd only want 1-2 in your deck in limited (since a limited deck usually has only 6-8 non-creature spells) and even then they will be tough to cast for max effect.
What if you made them have a small/big effect instead of multi-step, where you get the big effect by exiling a set number of spells (say, 3 instants or sorceries)?
The limitation with aftermath split cards is that you can't have a Artifact // Sorcery split card. However, a template like Aftermath for the rules and reminder text of your Salvage ability would be good on the half of the card that is cast from the graveyard.
The only oddity is that I can't find any reference in the comp rules to how MDFCs in the graveyard are "seen" by the game. Which is to say, like how you can't get Turntimber, Serpentine Wood with a card that searches your library for a land, I'm not sure there is a statement on casting the back of a MDFC from the graveyard. Since I'm sure we are going to see cards with instant/sorcery backs somewhere between Kaldheim and Strixhaven, that should be clarified soon enough.
I'm just going to give a templating feedback. The tapping needs to be an additional cost, not and activated ability. Also, Subtypes need to be a single word, so signature spell would have to be hyphenated, though you should probably choose something shorter.
Commander's Bolt
Instant - Signature-Spell
Commandable
As an additional cost to cast Commander's Bolt, tap an untapped commander you control.
Target commander you control deals damage equal to its power to target opponent.
It also depends on what type of tribal it is. If its tribal the spreads a lot of buff around, this will be way over power. If its tribal that relies more on checking numbers of creatures in play or triggers on the Tribe ETB, its not as bad.
Mono-green has Kalonian Tusker at 3/3 for GG, so this for two different colors and legendary is reasonable. Any more toughness would ne too much, but 5/3 is a VEEERY big maybe.
Looking for precedent, there is one card that does something similar, Goblin Kaboomist.
It does push into a different play space than clues and food did, so that's a plus. Your ability is definitely Red and not a big bend for Black, but it doesn't fit in white if it can hit players. If you do plan for it to show up in more than just RB, it needs to be 3 to activate instead of 2, and not mana efficient to create in Blue or Green (like how food didn't show up in red and barely in blue)
I'm still in the planning stages. You are right that scrying would add utility, but its always the option to draw where so adding a scry effect is both more complex and basically another half a card advantage. The mechanic is not meant to be a filter, but more a cantrip with alt upside.
I'm planning to scale the effects, if you peek a land or 1-2 drop, you're always better to draw. You'll probably also be able to play that card right away in the same turn.
If you peek a 3 or more you can choose which is better. If its high cost and you're mostly tapped out, drawing doesn't help much anyway so the bigger reveal effect is better and just draw the card next turn to play it.
On one hand, I don't see tri-lands being much better than this, but the strength of Shocks and whatnot is the turn 1-3 flexibility. You cannot fetch this turn 1-2 for a turn 2 play, and by turn three the ability to fetch a multi-type land is becoming less relevant than being able to cast something immediately.
So, these might get printed, but i doubt theyd see heavy play.
Disagree. It's not always a desirable effect. Can you make a deck where it is? Sure, but not always. Even One with Nothing can have a desirable effect.
A wheel effect that costs 7 is fine in any color. All you need is to make it have a color pie name and do something the color does. This costs you your library. You may get blown out from a whir on crypt for example. It's totally fine as is.
Yes, but why would you play it if your deck wasn't built to utilize it?
I agree with the poster that said it doesn't make sense to design around a price point, and your design goal is so very niche with this card that the rest of the cycle would be even less useful since Dryad Abor only exists in one color. This would need to exist in a context where a set had cycles of cards like Sapseep Forest and Gingerbread Cabin to see print.
For my Arkham Horror/Lovecraft themed set, wanted to make some lands to represent portals from the alternate dimensions (like R'yleh or the Dreamlands in Lovecraft) influencing the material world. This would probably be just the one uncommon cycle plus the common, and I took a bit of a cue from the Hour of Devastation but thought on costing/balance or ideas for effects are welcome.
City of Wandering Lights
Land - Portal
City of Wandering Lights enters the battlefield tapped with a portal counter on it.
T: Add W.
3WW, T, Remove a portal counter from a land you control: Return target creature card with converted mana cost 2 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Pool of Blinding Murmurs
Land - Portal
Pool of Blinding Murmurs enters the battlefield tapped with a portal counter on it.
T: Add U.
2UU, T, Remove a portal counter from a land you control: Tap target creature. It does not untap during its controller’s next untap step.
Cairn of Crying Hands
Land - Portal
Cairn of Crying Hands enters the battlefield tapped with a portal counter on it.
T: Add B.
3BB, T, Remove a portal counter from a land you control: Target opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.
Spire of Grasping Winds
Land - Portal
Spire of Grasping Winds enters the battlefield tapped with a portal counter on it.
T: Add R.
1RR, T, Remove a portal counter from a land you control: Target creature gains double strike until the end of turn.
Garden of Restless Dreams
Land - Portal
Garden of Restless Dreams enters the battlefield tapped with a portal counter on it.
T: Add G.
2GG, T, Remove a portal counter from a land you control: Target land you control becomes a 4/4 Elemental creature with haste. It’s still a land.
And the common:
Unknowable Realms
Land - Portal
Unknowable Realms enters the battlefield tapped with a portal counter on it.
T: Add C.
1, T: Add one mana of any color.
These are kind of like a restrictive dredge card, and so you'd only want 1-2 in your deck in limited (since a limited deck usually has only 6-8 non-creature spells) and even then they will be tough to cast for max effect.
What if you made them have a small/big effect instead of multi-step, where you get the big effect by exiling a set number of spells (say, 3 instants or sorceries)?
The only oddity is that I can't find any reference in the comp rules to how MDFCs in the graveyard are "seen" by the game. Which is to say, like how you can't get Turntimber, Serpentine Wood with a card that searches your library for a land, I'm not sure there is a statement on casting the back of a MDFC from the graveyard. Since I'm sure we are going to see cards with instant/sorcery backs somewhere between Kaldheim and Strixhaven, that should be clarified soon enough.
Commander's Bolt
Instant - Signature-Spell
Commandable
As an additional cost to cast Commander's Bolt, tap an untapped commander you control.
Target commander you control deals damage equal to its power to target opponent.
It does push into a different play space than clues and food did, so that's a plus. Your ability is definitely Red and not a big bend for Black, but it doesn't fit in white if it can hit players. If you do plan for it to show up in more than just RB, it needs to be 3 to activate instead of 2, and not mana efficient to create in Blue or Green (like how food didn't show up in red and barely in blue)
I'm planning to scale the effects, if you peek a land or 1-2 drop, you're always better to draw. You'll probably also be able to play that card right away in the same turn.
If you peek a 3 or more you can choose which is better. If its high cost and you're mostly tapped out, drawing doesn't help much anyway so the bigger reveal effect is better and just draw the card next turn to play it.
So, these might get printed, but i doubt theyd see heavy play.
Yes, but why would you play it if your deck wasn't built to utilize it?