The ability is good, since it's restricted to interact against artifact creatures, and the 3-mana cost keeps it from being used in the first two turns of the game.
Brain Collector6
Creature - Eldrazi Horror (R)
Menace
Whenever Brain Collector deals combat damage to an opponent, you may pay 4 and sacrifice a permanent, if you do, choose one:
* That opponent discards three cards.
* Gain control of target creature that player controls, it becomes an Eldrazi Horror in addition to its other types.
The brave defenders tried their best to slay the abomination, but with a twitch, their brains were scattered apart.
(3/6)
Trying to emulate a D&D aberration monster that steals the brain of its victims, gave it a high cost on the ability because the effect is potentially devastating.
You are right, Morphic Tide, I completely overlooked the possibility of chaining four consecutive creatures there
About Hydra Servo: You cuold cut the creature-type tampering ability, because I don't see any other interactions by adding the Hydra creature type there.
About Rat Flood: You could balance it by either adding a mana cost to the trigger, such as 1B, or making a simpler 1/1 Rat token, because the "token copy" thing tends to get out of control rather fast as Pack Rat demonstrated some time ago.
That said, I repost the card, but with a fix:
Eye of Kozilek5CC
Legendary Creature - Eldrazi Portal(M)
Menace
When you cast Eye of Kozilek, you may search your library, hand or graveyard for an Eldrazi or nonartifact colorless card, reveal it and put it in your hand, if you search your library this way, shuffle it.
When Eye of Kozilek enters the battlefield, until end of turn, the next Eldrazi or nonartifact colorless spell you cast this turn costs you 5CC less.
"We saw Kozilek and Ulamog die in Zendikar!" Shouted Jace to the hooded person, who replied "You thought you saw them die, but one of them tricked you into believing so, did you seriously expect to destroy something that can mold reality itself to its whims?"
"What will we do now, Jace?" Asked Gideon.
Jace answered "We have no choice, we must get the help of Ugin..."
(4/7)
It's still a very risky card, since it allows you to get something like Emrakul or Ulamog at a discount, though it's tailor made to follow it up with a Kozilek, the Great Distortion, since the card's supossed to represent a portal which Kozilek uses to return from his apparent death.
I guess it would be too powerful if it searched for artifacts with any kind of mana ability, because that way you could replace your lands with Dreamstone Hedrons and Gilded Lotuses.
Also, the card could be blue, fully colorless non artifact spells are usually reserved for Eldrazi.
And speaking of Eldrazi:
Eye of Kozilek5CC
Creature - Eldrazi (M)
When you cast Eye of Kozilek, you may search your library, hand or graveyard for an Eldrazi or nonartifact colorless card, reveal it and put it in your hand, if you search your library this way, shuffle it.
When you cast Eye of Kozilek, until end of turn, the next Eldrazi or nonartifact colorless spell you cast this turn costs you 5CC less.
"We saw Kozilek and Ulamog die in Zendikar!" Shouted Jace to the hooded person, who replied "You thought you saw them die, but one of them tricked you into believing so, did you seriously expect to destroy something that can mold reality itself to its whims?"
"What will we do now, Jace?" Asked Gideon.
Jace answered "We have no choice, we must get the help of Ugin..."
I played a deck with four Blightspeaker, and I found quite that those things add up really fast, so the pirate vehicle here is even more powerful as after the second turn you'll be dealing 4 damage with no additional cost, that seems absurdly powerful, and you don't even need to crew it, why should I crew a pinger that dispenses free Shocks anyway?
Even at 1 damage per ping, the ability to secure the three copies makes it too much powerful.
Midnight HunterBB
Creature - Nightstalker (U)
Intimidate
Whenever Midnight Hunter deals damage to a player, you may put a +1/+1 counter on target Nightstalker. Throught the darkness of the night, they sense their prey's fear. (2/1)
Well, the problem with cards that grant infect is that the card itself didn't have infect before, so you now have to deal 10 damage, which could be in some cases more than you needed to finish the duel, maybe making the infect granting ability an activated one or giving wither instead could work (Anyway wither could be redundant since there's already deathtouch there...)
AEther GlitchCUR
Instant (R)
Devoid (This card has no color)
Target spell becomes colorless, then choose one:
* Counter that spell.
* Gain control of that spell, you may choose new targets for it, if that spell would become a permanent, you put that permanent onto the battlefield under your control.
* Copy that spell, you may choose new targets for the copy.
With a mere gesture, Kozilek could torn reality asunder, reversing the flow of everything.
The effect is too powerful, it'll usually lend itself to situations as frustrating as having to face the infamous annihilator ability, maybe change it to just sac one permanent or two at max, you can make it smaller and cut the crew cost by some points too.
Sludge MinionB
Creature - Mercenary Minion Ooze (U)
At the beginning of your end step, if Sludge Minion is in your graveyard, you may pay BB, if you do, put Sludge Minion onto the battlefield tapped.
All mercenaries demand some sort of payment for their services, some payments are more extravagant than others. (1/1)
Made it a rare because it's recursive, but I guess it could be uncommon.
Rath's Edge wasn't entirely bad, it allowed you to reach the final points of damage needed to finish an opponent if you got mana flooded, not every land can be Tolarian Academy.
Also, creatures were so laughably bad in the old days, that stuff like Morphling or Masticore were deemed as the best creatures ever printed, even when they would be hilariously useless in today's standard, in fact, due to the insanely powerful removal that uses Swords to Plowshares as the "reference", now every creature above 2 mana is considered an useless waste of cardboard, one example was Phyrexian Obliterator, a brutally powerful creature, that was never used in standard because every deck was "4 Jace, The Mind Sculptor, 4 Gideon Jura, 4 Dismember"
And let's not talk about the flood of planeswalkers, there are like 5 or 6 new ones every set, someone said "Magic: The creaturing", boy, it should be called "Magic: I drop my planeswalker first so I win"
The difference between Indestructible and Regeneration would be that you could:
* Remove the indestructible ability from the creature with lethal damage marked to destroy it later in the same turn, you could try to kill again the regenerated creature later in the turn.
* Regeneration was much more flavorful than temporary indestructibility, or at least evokes a different flavor (The regenerating creature is recovering from its wounds, that's why it's tapped and removed from combat, while indestructible could he that the creature hardens as rock or surrounds itself with a magical shield)
* Reassembling Skeleton was BROKEN, as it replaced "Sacrifice a creature" with "1B", letting you to do hilariously powerful stuff with that ability, still, it WAS flavorful, because skeletons can shatter and then reassemble as soon as you turn your back on them, they just had to rise the cost as they did on Shadows over Innistrad cycle.
The "if I don't pay for this then the creature's gone for good but not as good as Reassembling Skeleton but not regeneration" would be Tenacious Dead, a card that had you to have mana open for it, much like renegeration, and whose ability was a mixture between Reassembling and traditional regeneration.
The additional step for regeneration was kinda clunky, I had to admidt that the rules got a bit easier in 6th Edition, save for the whole "combat damage goes to stack" thing, glad to see that one gone, because now THAT was difficult to explain to newer players
Maybe there's a rule that says that a Vehicle that turns into a creature falls off the creature it was attached onto.
Also, why not make the bonus the same amount as the P/T? The Bestow creatures from Theros block worked that way and those designs were pretty easy to understand.
Sellsword UnderlingB
Creature - Goblin Mercenary (U)
Haste, lifelink. "Hiring goblins is always more profitable, because you can tell them to collect their pay from your target." (1/1)
Maybe the art description was "draw a vampire controlled by the Eldrazi headbutting another vampire", so the artist to be sure drew all the "eldrazified" features there.
Also, was this card that much reviled then? I mean, when the set came out, I thought it was a good card, a cheap discard to throw it at your opponent's early hands that guaranteed you to get something, because people tends to keep the cheap cards for their first hands in the game; I mean, I bought my playset for a single dollar then o_O
A couple of other thoughts I had after reading the story:
1) Emrakul could have locked herself in the Silver Moon for two possible reasons: One might be that she knew that the Gatewatch destroyed Kozilek and Ulamog via mind-probing Jace, that's how she knew about chess and that stuff, she was peering and poking inside Jace's mind, and thus decided that she had to become even stronger to defeat them, lest she would risk being pulled completely into the physical realm and be destroyed as it happened with her brothers (The full power of the Chain Veil hurt her presence after all), this way she could feed off Innistrad's mana until completely depleting it and become more powerful. The second reason might be that she forced the Gatewatch's hands to seal her, taking what they considered their only way to deal with her, and now she has time to plot how to defeat them, specially overpowering the Chain Veil and the Mana-Genkidama from Chandra and Nissa. I'm really glad that the Gatewatch won't be capable of using the same super-powered flamethrower trick again, because the only plane whose leylines were so trong and aligned to be useful for Nissa was Zendikar.
2) Tamiyo got mind raped, and hard, the metaphor's shown when Jace watches how her mind is almost completely consumed by Emrakul (also, freaking damn flavor win there, the writer completely nailed the mindslaver effect from the physical card in the story), and also the moonfolk lost more than just the control over herself for a brief time, we don't know what was the promise she made, and why the scroll shouldn't be exactly opened, which leaves us the possibility for a story hook in her home plane Kamigawa.
3) Emrakul's mutation assimilation powers will affect the victims first on their minds, and if their minds fail, then the physical changes occur later.
4) We have seen the Eldrazi as mindless idiot juggernauts that were just manipulated by being pointed in a direction by the planeswalkers (Bolas orchestrated their release, Ob Nixilis directed Kozilek against the Zendikari, and Nahiri brought Emrakul to Zendikar) But, having seen the extent of Emrakul's powers, I begin to wonder, if wasn't it the REVERSE? Could it be that Emrakul influenced the planeswalkers to take such choices that brought the story to this point? After all, Nahiri was about five thousand years besides them, Emrakul could've worked her mind for enough time to make it so frail that it resulted in the triggering of her omnicidal overreaction against Sorin. And most ominous and scary, could Emrakul have been able to influence BOLAS (AKA the most powerful planeswalker by this point) to plot what eventually became their release because SHE wanted to take revenge on the Three???
Remember, part of Emrakul is now locked, not resting, not asleep, and much less dead, within the Silver Moon, she's completely aware from all of the stuff happening around. She could decide to "insert" another portion of her within Innistrad to destroy the Silver Moon later, we don't know for sure.
Well, Black Knight always was a fine mono black critter, but it was the exception.
Brain Collector 6
Creature - Eldrazi Horror (R)
Menace
Whenever Brain Collector deals combat damage to an opponent, you may pay 4 and sacrifice a permanent, if you do, choose one:
* That opponent discards three cards.
* Gain control of target creature that player controls, it becomes an Eldrazi Horror in addition to its other types.
The brave defenders tried their best to slay the abomination, but with a twitch, their brains were scattered apart.
(3/6)
Trying to emulate a D&D aberration monster that steals the brain of its victims, gave it a high cost on the ability because the effect is potentially devastating.
About Hydra Servo: You cuold cut the creature-type tampering ability, because I don't see any other interactions by adding the Hydra creature type there.
About Rat Flood: You could balance it by either adding a mana cost to the trigger, such as 1B, or making a simpler 1/1 Rat token, because the "token copy" thing tends to get out of control rather fast as Pack Rat demonstrated some time ago.
That said, I repost the card, but with a fix:
Eye of Kozilek 5CC
Legendary Creature - Eldrazi Portal(M)
Menace
When you cast Eye of Kozilek, you may search your library, hand or graveyard for an Eldrazi or nonartifact colorless card, reveal it and put it in your hand, if you search your library this way, shuffle it.
When Eye of Kozilek enters the battlefield, until end of turn, the next Eldrazi or nonartifact colorless spell you cast this turn costs you 5CC less.
"We saw Kozilek and Ulamog die in Zendikar!" Shouted Jace to the hooded person, who replied "You thought you saw them die, but one of them tricked you into believing so, did you seriously expect to destroy something that can mold reality itself to its whims?"
"What will we do now, Jace?" Asked Gideon.
Jace answered "We have no choice, we must get the help of Ugin..."
(4/7)
It's still a very risky card, since it allows you to get something like Emrakul or Ulamog at a discount, though it's tailor made to follow it up with a Kozilek, the Great Distortion, since the card's supossed to represent a portal which Kozilek uses to return from his apparent death.
Also, the card could be blue, fully colorless non artifact spells are usually reserved for Eldrazi.
And speaking of Eldrazi:
Eye of Kozilek 5CC
Creature - Eldrazi (M)
When you cast Eye of Kozilek, you may search your library, hand or graveyard for an Eldrazi or nonartifact colorless card, reveal it and put it in your hand, if you search your library this way, shuffle it.
When you cast Eye of Kozilek, until end of turn, the next Eldrazi or nonartifact colorless spell you cast this turn costs you 5CC less.
"We saw Kozilek and Ulamog die in Zendikar!" Shouted Jace to the hooded person, who replied "You thought you saw them die, but one of them tricked you into believing so, did you seriously expect to destroy something that can mold reality itself to its whims?"
"What will we do now, Jace?" Asked Gideon.
Jace answered "We have no choice, we must get the help of Ugin..."
(4/7)
Even at 1 damage per ping, the ability to secure the three copies makes it too much powerful.
Midnight Hunter BB
Creature - Nightstalker (U)
Intimidate
Whenever Midnight Hunter deals damage to a player, you may put a +1/+1 counter on target Nightstalker.
Throught the darkness of the night, they sense their prey's fear.
(2/1)
AEther Glitch CUR
Instant (R)
Devoid (This card has no color)
Target spell becomes colorless, then choose one:
* Counter that spell.
* Gain control of that spell, you may choose new targets for it, if that spell would become a permanent, you put that permanent onto the battlefield under your control.
* Copy that spell, you may choose new targets for the copy.
With a mere gesture, Kozilek could torn reality asunder, reversing the flow of everything.
Sludge Minion B
Creature - Mercenary Minion Ooze (U)
At the beginning of your end step, if Sludge Minion is in your graveyard, you may pay BB, if you do, put Sludge Minion onto the battlefield tapped.
All mercenaries demand some sort of payment for their services, some payments are more extravagant than others.
(1/1)
Made it a rare because it's recursive, but I guess it could be uncommon.
Also, creatures were so laughably bad in the old days, that stuff like Morphling or Masticore were deemed as the best creatures ever printed, even when they would be hilariously useless in today's standard, in fact, due to the insanely powerful removal that uses Swords to Plowshares as the "reference", now every creature above 2 mana is considered an useless waste of cardboard, one example was Phyrexian Obliterator, a brutally powerful creature, that was never used in standard because every deck was "4 Jace, The Mind Sculptor, 4 Gideon Jura, 4 Dismember"
And let's not talk about the flood of planeswalkers, there are like 5 or 6 new ones every set, someone said "Magic: The creaturing", boy, it should be called "Magic: I drop my planeswalker first so I win"
* Remove the indestructible ability from the creature with lethal damage marked to destroy it later in the same turn, you could try to kill again the regenerated creature later in the turn.
* Regeneration was much more flavorful than temporary indestructibility, or at least evokes a different flavor (The regenerating creature is recovering from its wounds, that's why it's tapped and removed from combat, while indestructible could he that the creature hardens as rock or surrounds itself with a magical shield)
* Reassembling Skeleton was BROKEN, as it replaced "Sacrifice a creature" with "1B", letting you to do hilariously powerful stuff with that ability, still, it WAS flavorful, because skeletons can shatter and then reassemble as soon as you turn your back on them, they just had to rise the cost as they did on Shadows over Innistrad cycle.
The "if I don't pay for this then the creature's gone for good but not as good as Reassembling Skeleton but not regeneration" would be Tenacious Dead, a card that had you to have mana open for it, much like renegeration, and whose ability was a mixture between Reassembling and traditional regeneration.
The additional step for regeneration was kinda clunky, I had to admidt that the rules got a bit easier in 6th Edition, save for the whole "combat damage goes to stack" thing, glad to see that one gone, because now THAT was difficult to explain to newer players
Also, why not make the bonus the same amount as the P/T? The Bestow creatures from Theros block worked that way and those designs were pretty easy to understand.
Sellsword Underling B
Creature - Goblin Mercenary (U)
Haste, lifelink.
"Hiring goblins is always more profitable, because you can tell them to collect their pay from your target."
(1/1)
The effect is fine too, because they'll either give you two cards, or a card and a land.
Maybe the art description was "draw a vampire controlled by the Eldrazi headbutting another vampire", so the artist to be sure drew all the "eldrazified" features there.
Also, was this card that much reviled then? I mean, when the set came out, I thought it was a good card, a cheap discard to throw it at your opponent's early hands that guaranteed you to get something, because people tends to keep the cheap cards for their first hands in the game; I mean, I bought my playset for a single dollar then o_O
1) Emrakul could have locked herself in the Silver Moon for two possible reasons: One might be that she knew that the Gatewatch destroyed Kozilek and Ulamog via mind-probing Jace, that's how she knew about chess and that stuff, she was peering and poking inside Jace's mind, and thus decided that she had to become even stronger to defeat them, lest she would risk being pulled completely into the physical realm and be destroyed as it happened with her brothers (The full power of the Chain Veil hurt her presence after all), this way she could feed off Innistrad's mana until completely depleting it and become more powerful. The second reason might be that she forced the Gatewatch's hands to seal her, taking what they considered their only way to deal with her, and now she has time to plot how to defeat them, specially overpowering the Chain Veil and the Mana-Genkidama from Chandra and Nissa. I'm really glad that the Gatewatch won't be capable of using the same super-powered flamethrower trick again, because the only plane whose leylines were so trong and aligned to be useful for Nissa was Zendikar.
2) Tamiyo got mind raped, and hard, the metaphor's shown when Jace watches how her mind is almost completely consumed by Emrakul (also, freaking damn flavor win there, the writer completely nailed the mindslaver effect from the physical card in the story), and also the moonfolk lost more than just the control over herself for a brief time, we don't know what was the promise she made, and why the scroll shouldn't be exactly opened, which leaves us the possibility for a story hook in her home plane Kamigawa.
3) Emrakul's mutation assimilation powers will affect the victims first on their minds, and if their minds fail, then the physical changes occur later.
4) We have seen the Eldrazi as mindless idiot juggernauts that were just manipulated by being pointed in a direction by the planeswalkers (Bolas orchestrated their release, Ob Nixilis directed Kozilek against the Zendikari, and Nahiri brought Emrakul to Zendikar) But, having seen the extent of Emrakul's powers, I begin to wonder, if wasn't it the REVERSE? Could it be that Emrakul influenced the planeswalkers to take such choices that brought the story to this point? After all, Nahiri was about five thousand years besides them, Emrakul could've worked her mind for enough time to make it so frail that it resulted in the triggering of her omnicidal overreaction against Sorin. And most ominous and scary, could Emrakul have been able to influence BOLAS (AKA the most powerful planeswalker by this point) to plot what eventually became their release because SHE wanted to take revenge on the Three???
Remember, part of Emrakul is now locked, not resting, not asleep, and much less dead, within the Silver Moon, she's completely aware from all of the stuff happening around. She could decide to "insert" another portion of her within Innistrad to destroy the Silver Moon later, we don't know for sure.