Ok, in the official Shadows of Innistrad trailer, Jace is concerned about the twisting madness that is corrupting Innistrad. Specifically he mentions that he's worried it might consume him personally. https://youtu.be/GopkHUg2XCY?t=45s
So, here's my hypothesis. Jace finds the secret evil force on Innistrad and is tainted or corrupted by it, seemingly not a big deal at the time, his spark protects him. Later he returns to Ravnica to fulfill his duties in the Guildpact, and the mad taint passes from him into one or more guild leaders via his telepathy, and that's the impetus for the next Ravnica plot.
"9/22/2011 If Fiend Hunter leaves the battlefield before its first ability has resolved, its second ability will trigger and do nothing. Then its first ability will resolve and exile the targeted creature indefinitely."
I believe you they made this rule how ever I do not find the logic. The second ability says: When it lives the battlefield... All the cards that blink remove a creature from play and then they return it. In other words the creature returns into play after it leaves, so yeah, the second ability should trigger. The rule is artificial as colorless mana is.
I like playing with blessed and I do not think it needs this rule to win. So when I am playing with my friends, when you blink it, it will leave the battlefield and trigger his second ability. It makes no sense to may otherwise, as much as it makes no sense to play colorless mana with generetic mana. Play as you like because it is your game. Happy playing and enjoy this product!
It's a stack ordering trick, placing the return clause above the exile clause so when the return ability resolves, there is no exiled card to return. The quoted ruling did not establish a new function, but clarified the existing rules. This trick was used extensively in Innistrad standard, it makes Fiend Hunter significantly better and led to the reformatting of similar exile effects going forward. If you don't want to use the trick then don't, but don't be surprised if someone uses it against you.
Marchesa wore rings before, it seems most likely that the rings are hers.
The crown's glow is probably more artistic choice than deep meaning. The glow calls attention to the crown, otherwise it wouldn't really stand out amongst Marchesa's rather gaudy outfit.
I'd split Adyra's ability into two lines, like it is on the original Silent Arbiter.
Jerda makes me very happy, that is such an intriguing ability, might border on broken. I wonder if it should be mandatory instead of optional, THAT would make for an interesting and complex card to build around.
Convoke is fine in Tiny Leaders, hydras and such with X in their cost are fair game after all, but it does kinda railroad the card into a fairly specific deck.
I'd put Brain Damage at BR, it's like a mini Blightning.
World enchantments are effectively just Legendary enchantments unless there are several of them in a given environment to worry about the World rule kicking in, Great Deluge would be fine as a Legendary.
Nidrom's Key is a very interesting effect. I'd probably drop the cost to 0 and make the activation X choosing X cards to shuffle, or make it a fixed number of cards. Either way, it should ETB tapped and should probably self-exile too, since it is effectively a Wish. As Iabarith noted, "from outside the game" is appropriate here.
Juniper Order Scout's ability is very white, and it kinda sucks on it since the creature itself is so nonthreatening AND costs mana to use.
Fyndhorn Pixies feels so old. Weirdly off-color abilities, high cost, pixies, and Fyndhorn. It's like its right out of Ice Age! Well done if that's what you were aiming for.
Sword of the Valkyrie seems undercosted for a colorless effect, and the graveyard effect is rather random unless you're pairing it with some sort of artifact sacrificing theme.
Wall of Rubble worries me, its way to easy to abuse it to fill your own graveyard, and it rewards you for doing so! Also the flavor is off, bashing the pile of rubble makes it bigger? I'd flip the concept on its head, exile stuff from your graveyard as it takes damage.
You don't need to specify face-up in the ability, all exiled cards are face-up unless specified to be face-down.
Also, it's fine to have an ability active in the exile zone so long as it specifies that it is active in that zone, see Torrent Elemental. But does it really need to be in exile to accomplish what you want the card to do? Having things active in exile is usually a big no-no, thus far reserved to two mythics, which only affect themselves in exile, not the rest of the game zones.
Aerophobia seems kinda janky. It would probably serve it purpose more smoothly as an Aura with an ETB effect for the damage, less extra info to keep track of that way.
I don't see how this is substantially different from Offering.
Non tribal for one. No grafting of instant speed either.
It seems like you'd seldom want to feed multiple nontoken creatures into one spell unless you pushed them into the Delve or Affinity level mana costs.
What about when you have death synergies going? There will be a major theme in set of death stuff.
Offering doesn't need to be tribal, no reason 'Creature offering' wouldn't work. Fair point about the flash though, I forgot Offering did that.
I'd have to see what death synergy you have in mind, of the samples, only the snake warrants multiple sacs on its own, I'd even say you should cost it 3BBB to make it a little harder to drop turn three.
Also, if I may suggest less infringing names: Harvest or Consume seem to fit. It feels like a cousin to Devour to me.
I don't see how this is substantially different from Offering. It seems like you'd seldom want to feed multiple nontoken creatures into one spell unless you pushed them into the Delve or Affinity level mana costs.
The "free" mechanic was always one of the most abusable and difficult to balance abilities in the game. The fact that it's in blue makes it all the worse, I'm surprised they let Cloud of Faeries hang around this long.
Twin getting banned is meh to me, I always just assumed there would be a twin deck in modern, and preparing for a known entity is fairly easy in my opinion.
https://youtu.be/GopkHUg2XCY?t=45s
This thread
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/the-rumor-mill/673934-4chan-poster-claims-egypt-theme-then-another
indicates that another return to Ravnica may be upcoming.
So, here's my hypothesis. Jace finds the secret evil force on Innistrad and is tainted or corrupted by it, seemingly not a big deal at the time, his spark protects him. Later he returns to Ravnica to fulfill his duties in the Guildpact, and the mad taint passes from him into one or more guild leaders via his telepathy, and that's the impetus for the next Ravnica plot.
It's a stack ordering trick, placing the return clause above the exile clause so when the return ability resolves, there is no exiled card to return. The quoted ruling did not establish a new function, but clarified the existing rules. This trick was used extensively in Innistrad standard, it makes Fiend Hunter significantly better and led to the reformatting of similar exile effects going forward. If you don't want to use the trick then don't, but don't be surprised if someone uses it against you.
The crown's glow is probably more artistic choice than deep meaning. The glow calls attention to the crown, otherwise it wouldn't really stand out amongst Marchesa's rather gaudy outfit.
Jerda makes me very happy, that is such an intriguing ability, might border on broken. I wonder if it should be mandatory instead of optional, THAT would make for an interesting and complex card to build around.
Convoke is fine in Tiny Leaders, hydras and such with X in their cost are fair game after all, but it does kinda railroad the card into a fairly specific deck.
World enchantments are effectively just Legendary enchantments unless there are several of them in a given environment to worry about the World rule kicking in, Great Deluge would be fine as a Legendary.
Nidrom's Key is a very interesting effect. I'd probably drop the cost to 0 and make the activation X choosing X cards to shuffle, or make it a fixed number of cards. Either way, it should ETB tapped and should probably self-exile too, since it is effectively a Wish. As Iabarith noted, "from outside the game" is appropriate here.
Juniper Order Scout's ability is very white, and it kinda sucks on it since the creature itself is so nonthreatening AND costs mana to use.
Fyndhorn Pixies feels so old. Weirdly off-color abilities, high cost, pixies, and Fyndhorn. It's like its right out of Ice Age! Well done if that's what you were aiming for.
Sword of the Valkyrie seems undercosted for a colorless effect, and the graveyard effect is rather random unless you're pairing it with some sort of artifact sacrificing theme.
Wall of Rubble worries me, its way to easy to abuse it to fill your own graveyard, and it rewards you for doing so! Also the flavor is off, bashing the pile of rubble makes it bigger? I'd flip the concept on its head, exile stuff from your graveyard as it takes damage.
Also, it's fine to have an ability active in the exile zone so long as it specifies that it is active in that zone, see Torrent Elemental. But does it really need to be in exile to accomplish what you want the card to do? Having things active in exile is usually a big no-no, thus far reserved to two mythics, which only affect themselves in exile, not the rest of the game zones.
Aerophobia seems kinda janky. It would probably serve it purpose more smoothly as an Aura with an ETB effect for the damage, less extra info to keep track of that way.
Offering doesn't need to be tribal, no reason 'Creature offering' wouldn't work. Fair point about the flash though, I forgot Offering did that.
I'd have to see what death synergy you have in mind, of the samples, only the snake warrants multiple sacs on its own, I'd even say you should cost it 3BBB to make it a little harder to drop turn three.
Also, if I may suggest less infringing names: Harvest or Consume seem to fit. It feels like a cousin to Devour to me.
If you want a check against a specific deck, you need to hit the linchpin of that deck, not blow up the whole thing.
I would prefer a Torpor Orb-like effect that blocks the cast triggers, that would knock down some of the challenge of dealing with them.
Legal where? It's not in standard at all.
I'm hoping for Brain Gorgers.
Twin getting banned is meh to me, I always just assumed there would be a twin deck in modern, and preparing for a known entity is fairly easy in my opinion.
You can surprise someone with a tap ability on a creature they thought was still sick. Endbringer springs to mind.
Predicting this to be a breakout uncommon.