MTG Salvation

As per my tradition of personally handing out tokens at every GP I judge, if you had met me at GP Nagoya last weekend you would have received a pair of these.

One explanation I can think of for showing Master the Way EOT instead of casting it during his turn is to show the opponent that "Look, I didn't topdeck it, I had the win in my hand all the while."

Personally I find it to be a very small matter, and if your opponent feels offended, just give a friendly smile and don't do it next time

For the past two GPs I attended (as a judge) I've been giving out tokens with art by myself. So far they're pretty well-received. The Twin token was for GP Chiba (gave out about 100), and the Thopter for GP Hong Kong (gave out about 300).

Graceblade Artisan. Even without Auras he's already stopping morphs, and putting an Aura on him is just bonus. I'd play him even if I only hav one Aura in the deck. Once slapped Jeskai Runemark on him, game ended pretty fast after that.

Ugin vs Ugin in prerelease. My Ugin won.

Here's a hack, using Overload's wording:

Strength of the Wilds
2G
Instant
Put two +1/+1 counters on target creature.
Embody 2GG (If you cast this spell with its Embody cost, replace the first instance of "target creature" with "the spawned creature", and add "Spawn a 2/2 colorless Elemental." before this spell's effects.)

There's a lot of metaphorical duct tape involved. 'Spawn' is just a short hand of mine, don't mind it.

This creates tokens only upon the resolution of the spell. It also gets around ugly rules interactions involving shroud, redirecting or forking.

Koth: Probably should untap the land as well, so at least it makes sense to drop him on turn 4.

Compare his -3 to Ajani Vengeant's, which functions as though you have 3 Mountains and 3 Plains. I could safely put this at -2.

His ultimate takes 5 turns to build up and on top of that you need to pay additional cost in the form of lands. I'd put it at: "-7: For each Mountain and/or Plains you control, put a 3/1 Elemental token with first strike and haste."

Quote from ="IcariFA" »

Your explanation of CR 406.3 makes it clear that Anelian Archivist doesn't work, since your creating a shared hidden zone with other cards that catch. How do I tell the difference? Do i need to start making separate cache piles for different card that cache? That seems really sloppy/adds unwanted complexity.

It works the same way how multiple Pyxes of Pandemonium or Windbrisk Heights works; you just put them under the card. In fact in a normal game of Magic it's very usual to see multiple piles of cards in exile. For example, players who play UB control in Standard would keep these piles separate even though they're in the same zone: Cards exiled by Treasure Cruise or Perilous Vault go into one pile, cards exiled by Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver can go into two piles: creatures and non-creatures, and if you played multiple Detention Spheres and Oblivion Rings back in RTR you would have even more piles in exile. We've already done that since a long time ago; it's nothing new, I'm just exploiting the fact that we all keep our exile piles separate.

I can understand the desire to want to creature a new type of resource for magic, but what does this accomplish in terms of new interactions? It just creates a zone for the sake of creating a zone. A very non interactive one outside of cards that specifically reference it, which is parasitic.

My fault for not mentioning this: I'm a big fan of cubes and especially custom card cubes. Whenever I make cards now, it's for a custom card cube, which is why I'm entirely fine with it being parasitic. Again I'm not creating an entirely new zone, I'm just using an under-utilized one as a resource. Interactions with exile zone is very limited for a very good reason: the designers at Wizards don't want it to be an 'extended graveyard', and I respect that design decision.

In fact, let me tweak the 'put face-down cards in exile' mechanic a little:

Pulseblade Elf
G
Creature - Elf Warrior
Flip a face-down card in exile you own face up: Pulseblade Elf gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each turn.
1/1

Paldrick, the Right Hand of Justice
3WB
Legendary Creature - Avatar
Energize - Whenever Paldrick attacks, reveal the top two cards of your library and cache them. Paldrick gets +2/+2 for each land card revealed this way.
Flip five face-down cards in exile you own face up: Exile target permanent.
4/4

Ionize
2RR
Sorcery
Ionize deals 3 damage to each creature. If a creature would die this way, its controller caches it instead.

Anelian Architect
1W
Creature - Human Advisor
When Anelian Architect enters the battlefield, you may cache up to two cards from your hand.
Progress - T: Cast a card exiled with Anelian Architect. That card costs 2 less to cast. Activate this ability only if you own five or more face-down cards in exile.
2/2

Only in the last card there's a need for a separate exile pile.

Quote from willows »

1) do we need a new word for "exile face down"
2) is it important that the exiled cards be face down

The default is for exiled cards to be face up, so it's important for players to understand why they're face down instead.

Yes, it is important that the cards are face down, so that they're differentiated from cards that are exiled face up. For that I used another action word to indicate that it's a little different from normal exiling.

Quote from void_nothing »

Yeah, this could make for an interesting resource, as your progress ability word shows. Unfortunately, the cache keyword action is almost always a straight drawback.

Indeed, the idea behind the mechanic is that "face down cards in exile" can be used as a resource, just like how some colors use cards in the graveyard as a resource. Caching from hand is indeed a drawback, but it's entirely possible to cache from other zones (as seen in Trap Between Pages and Flesh Reprocessing).

Just another bunch of cards to illustrate that it's not always a drawback:

Windrider Lancer
1R
Creature - Human Warrior
Energize - Whenever Windrider Lancer attacks, reveal the top card of your library and cache it. If it's a land card, Windrider Lancer gets +2/+0 and gains first strike until end of turn.
1/1

Paldia, the Crimson Storm
2RR
Legendary Creature - Human Knight
Double strike
Energize - Whenever Paldia, the Crimson Storm attacks, reveal the top card of your library and cache it. It it's a land card, creatures you control get +1/+0 until end of turn.
Put three face-down cards in exile you own into your graveyard: Creatures with power 2 or less can't block this turn.
2/3

Cached cards used as a resource. The card games by Bushiroad (Cardfight! Vanguard, Future Card Buddyfight, Weiss Schwarz) use this as their resource system.

Anelian Archivist
3U
Creature - Human Wizard
T: Cache the top card of your library.
When Anelian Archivist dies, return all face-down cards exiled with Anelian Archivist to your hand.
1/3

In this sense, cached cards are used as charge counters without the need for pennies or beads.)

Gather From Dust
2G
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast Gather From Dust, cache two cards in your graveyard.
Return target card in your graveyard to your hand.

Pulseblade Elf
G
Creature - Elf Warrior
Put a face-down card in exile you own into your graveyard: Pulseblade Elf gets +2/+2 until end of turn. Activate this ability only once each turn.
1/1

Reconstruction from Null
3B
Sorcery
Choose a face-down card in exile and reveal it. If it's a creature or land card, return it to the battlefield under your control tapped.

The idea is that players can't look at face-down cards in exile (CR 406.3, the most famous example being Pyxis of Pandemonium). You can use it to return one of your creature cards that you cached from your hand, or try to take a stab at your opponent's face down cards (which will most likely be lands I guess?).

Again,stealing mechanics from other card games.

Unseen-Eye Aven
2W
Creature - Bird
As an additional cost to cast Unseen-Eye Aven, cache a card from your hand. (To cache a card, exile it face down.)
Flying
3/1

Unseen-Eye Bear
1GG
Creature - Bear
At the beginning of your upkeep, cache a card from your hand.
Unseen-Eye Bear gets +1/+1 for each face-down card in exile you own.
3/3

Flesh Reprocessing
B
Enchantment
Whenever a creature you control dies, cache it.
Progress - Creature spells you cast cost 2 less to cast for as long as you own five or more face-down cards in exile.

Reach Beyond
2UU
Sorcery
Choose a face-down card in exile owned by an opponent and reveal it. You may cast that card without paying its mana cost.

Joint Research
3UU
Enchantment
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player may cache a card from their hand.
At the beginning of each player's draw step, that player draws additional cards equal to the number of cards exiled with Joint Research.

Trap Between Pages
3W
Instant
Cache target attacking creature and Trap Between Pages.

Discharge
2R
Instant
As an additional cost to cast Discharge, put a face-down card in exile you own into your graveyard.
Discharge deals 4 damage to target creature or player.

Quote from Thought Criminal »

So if I'm understanding you correctly, you want the sharing to undergo the same process as priority passing -- players may opt into the sharing, and once each player has had an opportunity to opt in but passes (due to either already having opted in or because they don't want to at all), then the effect occurs.

It's actually more of how MtG rules work (CR 101.4) that players make their choices in turn order. The issue I'm concerned with Share is that each player's choice is independent from each other, so it doesn't make too much sense that one player has to wait for another to make the choice. Similar scenarios would be, for example, "Each player sacrifices a creature.". You don't see Innocent Blood saying "Starting with you, each player chooses a creature. Then each player sacrifices the chosen creatures." That's how it's technically supposed to be played, but it's alright to take a few shortcuts.

Will of the council is worded more precisely probably because they wanted to emphasize on the voting order, that the last one or two players have "the final say" in the outcome. The only Share card that potentially cares about turn order is Share Ammunition (Post #4), and if that's the case it's just a matter of designing effects that can be independent. The "Accept/Reject" wording looks fine though I'm a little wary of having to read three lines of the same boilerplate text before reaching the effect.

Avalanche Herald - Sure. Could be 4/3 even.

Avalaunch - Should have mana activation cost. 2?

Bloodshed Arena - Indeed, why not target? Don't see why it has to get around hexproof and shroud (especially when most if not all other fight cards target).

Fodder Bomb - For red it feels more like "Sacrifice all Goblins".

Furywing Hellkite - I think it's fine as it is.

Heretical Ceremony - Spelling! 1R sounds good.

Roaring Lavavore - Doesn't really feel like a rare. Could be a 5/1 for RRR, Berserk 1RRR?

Wulgor Hellkite - Unlike the card above, this one won't be played in a monored deck. It looks fine to me. Wording: "Deals 5 damage divided as you choose among any number of target creatures."

Dragonlord Atarka/
4RG
Legendary Creature - Elder Dragon
Flying, trample
At the beginning of combat on your turn, you may have target creature's base power become 8 until end of turn.
4/5

Tomb Excavation is colorshifted Remember the Fallen. I could see it in black but should cost 1 more.

Honing Thunder - As mentioned above a little too cheap. 2-for-1 deals aren't too common in common rarity.

Blinding Eclipse and Astronomic Planning - Unlike the previous three cards I don't see any connection between the two modes. Feels like two effects slapped on the same card.

How is Punisher of Isari white? Even if you make it a 0/4 it's still black as black does low power high toughness now.

Is it clearer in the updated wording in Post #4?