Did anyone else realize that with the release of M14, Standard will be at the largest pool it's had since Shards was legal?
Six large sets --> (249)(6) = 1494
Two small sets (Dark Ascension and Dragon's Maze) --> (171)(2) = 342
for a whopping 1836 cards available until the rotation.
It is the biggest since M10 came in, but your estimate is about 200 cards bigger than the real size due to counting many reprints multiple times. The actual size etc discussed here: http://mtgfacts.tumblr.com/post/54952582622/cards-count
Ok, so here’s how my entry will work. I’ve looked over the set so far and have picked out a few different directions / themes we could take the set in. Each of the boosters I'll be posting each round has some content that supports one of those directions (as well as a few generic Core set cards that could go in any set). The themes aren’t mutually exclusive, so the boosters are also compiled to be inter-compatible with one another.
The uncommon Warcaster cycle shows a potential featured mechanic for the set. This mechanic can either exist with or without the Warcaster creature type as a label, but I’ve chosen to go with one as I think it helps stamp out the cards as belonging to a group, and also is consistent with the Spellshaper echo.
This booster contains both some more Warcasters, and some support for the set that contains that mechanical theme.
Sankai Fighter-Scholars 3G Creature – Human Warcaster (C)
Whenever Sankai Fighter-Scholars attacks, you may pay G. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
1/4
Errant Thought 1U Creature - Illusion (C)
When Errant Thought dies, return target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand.
1/1
“Hey, get back here!” – Varo, Mindmage
Battle-Hymn Priest 3W Creature – Human Cleric Warcaster (C)
Whenever Battle-Hymn Priest attacks, you may pay 1W. If you do, you gain 5 life.
2/2
Death by Fall 2B Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature At the beginning of enchanted creature’s controller’s upkeep, that player sacrifices enchanted creature.
Don’t look down? Where else is there to look?
Combat Outrunner G Creature – Elf Scout (C)
Whenever Combat Outrunner attacks, add G to your mana pool. (This mana must be used before blockers are declared or it is lost.)
Whenever Goblin Researcher attacks, you may pay RR and discard a card. If you do, draw two cards.
2/1
They are very good at finding new ways to hit you.
Joy of Flight 1W Sorcery (C)
Target creature you control gains flying until end of turn. You gain 3 life.
Previously a flightless species, the Natan aven were quick to embrace flight magic when they learned it from the Sankai.
Return to Æther 2U Instant (C)
Return target attacking creature to its owner’s hand. Draw a card.
Manabond Elf 1GG Creature – Elf Druid (U)
When Manabond Elf enters the battlefield, search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library.
2/1
Stunning Betrayal 3RR Sorcery (U)
Gain control of target creature an opponent controls until end of turn. Untap that creature. It gains haste until end of turn. Choose up to one other target creature controlled by that opponent. That creature can’t block this turn.
Ritual Tribute 3RR Sorcery (U)
Ritual Tribute deals 6 damage to target nonred creature.
“Heathens! Throw them into the volcano!”
Sacker of Graves 3BB Creature – Zombie Warcaster (R)
Intimidate Whenever Sacker of Graves attacks, you may pay 4B. If you do, return target creature card from a graveyard to the battlefield under your control. That creature is a black Zombie in addition to its other colors and types.
5/5
Tamiyo, Lady of Tides 3UU Planeswalker - Tamiyo (M)
+1: Tap all lands target player controls and empty that player’s mana pool. -3: Untap all lands you control. -8: Put a 20/20 legendary Moon artifact creature token onto the battlefield.
An interesting Vampire cycle here. The whole lot did feel connected, and I liked how they each retained what the one beneath them had and added some more on the top. Each felt right for its rarity. Card-specific comments:
Dark Child - Strict upgrade from Pulse Tracker in 2-player. This is overall a very aggressively costed 1-drop and makes me a bit nervous as a result.
Blood Baron - Name is a bit familiar. The card itself is again very strong; an attack trigger version of Bloodhunter Bat, already a very strong Limited card without the potential for recursion.
Vampire Overlord - This guy is my favourite of the three. Here the strength and splash feels deserved and appropriate. Minor point: It would be better if the drain and the P/T were lined up like the other two cards are.
Maokun - dropped
I really liked your idea of a crime syndicate cycle. The names did a reasonable job of tying up this connection, too. The intimidate connection meant that this was a relatively weakly connected cycle mechanically, as intimidate isn't so unusual as to mark these out on their own. But I think that's probably OK. Card-specific comments:
Krana Gang Footpad - A very weak Tormented Soul; a second power would probably be fine here. Nothing wrong with just being an updated Nezumi Cutthroat as you mention.
Krana Gang Killer - I do like my Nekrataals so this is appealing. Also a good catch on making this optional so it never has to FTK itself.
Krana Gang Kingpin - It didn't feel necessary to have a Demon here - the specific card didn't feel especially Demonic and I think that a human Kingpin would have been just fine. Otherwise, the 'grand larceny' flavour was neat and this effect was certainly interesting.
This cycle was... odd. The flavour text implies the progression of a necromancer from being a local threat to a continental disaster, which is a cool three-part story. I'm not sure that a real player would pick that these cards were connected or understand that story if they saw them in a semi-random order, though. The use of symmetrical life loss to tie them together didn't click for me as I didn't get a flavour drive for it. And also many new players hate these kinds of effects, which is why core sets nowadays tend to have Magmaquake-style effects instead of Earthquake-style effects. Anyhow, onto the card-specific comments:
Execute the Villagers: This is probably my favourite of the bunch. At the right kind of place for common removal, with a life loss rider that means that you're pushing towards playing this in aggressive rather than controlling Limited decks.
Besiege the Castle - The flavour here for this name seems flat. The siege concept just isn't being carried. Also this card reads like it's going to be a Stone Rain but really it's an expensive symmetrical Lava Axe variant.
Thralldom for the World - Great name, but let down by an execution that asks the player to pay life and mana on the one hand, but then takes away those same things on the other. This kind of tension didn't feel necessary and spoilt an otherwise cool repeatable reanimation card concept.
Trample, haste
At the beginning of the end step, sacrifice Kindling Spark and it deals 2 damage to target player.
2/1
Stoked Flame 3RR
Creature - Elemental (U)
Trample, haste
At the beginning of the end step, sacrifice Stoked Flame and it deals 4 damage to target creature or player.
4/1
Raging Inferno 4RRR
Creature - Elemental (R)
Trample, haste
When Raging Inferno enters the battlefield, it gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the total power of Elemental creature cards in your graveyard.
At the beginning of the end step, sacrifice Raging Inferno and it deals damage equal to its power to target player and each creature the control.
I'd like to start off by saying that we're supposed to be designing a Core Set. We're not trying to make flashy cards for the sake of being new, cards with new keywords, cards that should have been in either the previous set or the following set or cards the new player doesn't understand or like. This set is an introduction to the base ideas of each color and done very simply and with few words. Some of the submissions so far and even some of the cards that have made it into the skeleton are simply not Core Set cards. We don't get to have any reprints, so we're not going to get bread and butter simplicity, but that shouldn't stop you from making very simple cards. Again, people shouldn't be getting
points for flashy in a Core Set, you should get points for practicality, purpose, simplicity in the face of no reprints and effects conscious of newer players. Look at the average "M" set card and tell me how many lines of text it has. Common, Uncommon, Rare, Mythic - they're usually extremely simple unless trumped by flavor. That should be what we're making. I'll end this by saying that, for example there are only four other cycles of cards out of this entire lot of submissions that I would consider even close to Core printable. If it were kosher, I would review each and every submission.
Snipped from the current review thread - I think Sven's sentiments here are well worthy of discussion. What does the fact that this is a Core Set mean to the group - both as designers and as reviewers / voters? Do you think that it is important or that it is just a backdrop? Should new mechanics be excluded? Limited just to suggested 'returning' mechanics a la Exalted? Or be encouraged?
Incidentally I personally love feedback and so would welcome a critique of my submission here or via PM or wherever else you want to put it.
A cycle of double-Lords in the vein of Aven Brigadier. These do create quite a lot of board complexity - the doubling-up on creatures that have the exact right creature types is nice, but hard to track and easy to miss. The actual choice of which races and classes to pump is good however, sticking to the core types of each colour. The random extra abilities were a nice nod to making these cards relevant even when they haven't got any buddies to hang out with. They do also do a good job of feeling rare.
Ultimately though, I felt this cycle was probably a little too tight; once I'd read the first of these guys I felt I could have guessed the other four pretty accurately. A template such as "Other creatures you control that are Elves and/or Druids get +1/+1" loses out on the double-bonus, but does make playing with them less complex.
A very interesting take on a monocolour-rewarding cycle here, with cards that are generally fair at their cost, or very strong if 'kicked' by spending all mana of the right colour. It is worth noting that these cards probably 'kick' if played for no mana off of e.g. a Cascade card, depending on how the templating and rules changes work out around them. I felt these cards did the best job of being rares out of the submissions.
As a whole, I felt that the costs of this cycle were a little too colour-heavy. There's no need to have 3 symbols in the cost of one of these cards, as the cards are already heavily intended for players of their colours already. I think having only one required mana like the blue member of the cycle would have been better. I also didn't feel that the 3/6 split was necessary; doubling the effect is nice but a mixture of different numbers could have worked too.
Card-specific comments:
Kindle Hex - A smashy and fun burn spell. Feels right at rare.
Memory Hex - A super Mind Funeral. Another well-chosen effect.
Primal Hex - Non-trample granting Overruns are a bit off-putting to me, but this is so ridiculously smashy when 'kicked' that I can forgive that.
Blight Hex - This is the stumble for me. The doubling doesn't really work because the 'vanilla' version will kill 80%+ of creatures, and the kicked version about 95%, so it doesn't feel like as strong of an incentive.
Seirei Hex - Random Kamigawa flavour felt out of place for me here. The effect is fine, however.
A cycle loudly and clearly designed to reward mono-colour decks here - with each card requiring as much mana of its colour as possible. This is sort of an attempt at a rare Initiate cycle. I did like the use of the Mox names in the card names, too. However, these mostly felt common or uncommon, and the effects tended to echo the Initiates very closely. Not enough variety in the bodies, either - either these should line up at 2/2 (as three of them do) or have more variety.
Card-specific comments:
Pearl Paladin - A nice strong start to the cycle, this does an excellent job of feeling rare and powerful.
Sapphire Sentinel - A little too efficient for a blue creature, especially one that's encouraging a milling strategy. Also, the triggered ability is directly Drowner Initiate.
Jet Judge - Nice use of the low power / deathtouch trick here. The ability is very powerful, too, although it overlaps a bit too much with your red entry for my liking.
Ruby Ravager - Another powerful card, although not feeling all that rare. Note overlap comment made above.
Emerald Evangelist - Very close to being a bigger Nurturer Initiate here on effect.
A cycle of Spellshapers is a nice idea (and obviously I'm biased as my idea was pretty similar to that). This particular cycle is concentrated on 1-drops both in their cost, and in the cost of the card being spellshaped, which I think does make them all a bit too similar for not much reason - some variety in size either of the creatures or of the effects would have been nice. Some of these feel rare and other's don't, so a mixed batch on that measure.
As for the specific cards, my feelings are as follows:
Condemning Visionary - Very powerful effect here, which when repeatable can make attacking almost impossible to profit from. I would feel uncomfortable printing this as many attacking decks (especiialy green decks) will never be able to clear this guy off the board and won't want to attack either, which can make for a pretty difficult board state and not a fun one either.
Piercing Visionary - Reactive cards like this aren't the best choice for Spellshapers, as the on-board nature makes it easy for one player to feel bad for having missed it. That said this is a compelling Counterspell spellshaper that isn't overly oppressive.
Seizing Visionary - I'm happy to see the sorcery-only rider here as that keeps this from being a Time Walk spellshaper in the late game. Thoughtseize is another fine card to spellshape and I think this is my favourite of the cycle.
Faithless Visionary - A lot of moving pieces here, with cards going down and then up and then down again. I'd have been more tempted to have this spellshape something like Wild Guess so that all the discarding was together.
Paradise Visionary - A bit thrown to have a single Llanowar Mentor-style 'creatureshaper' in this batch when the rest of the cycle is otherwise so tight. Don't feel like this innovates enough to be worth deviating from the expected pattern.
So, I'm going to make my uncommon cycle using my Warcaster mechanic concept. This cycle happens to all ape 1-mana spells, but obviously that's not the plan for all Warcasters.
Whenever another creature enters the battlefield, Kalonian Bruiser fights it. (That creature and Kalonian Bruiser deal damage equal to their power to each other)
3/3
"Violent-tempered, dangerous, and almost impossible to control. Recommend immediate deployment." - Report of Anshiv, Bestiary Captain
Flying, haste
Dragon of Living Fire's power and toughness are each equal to the number of Mountains you control. R: Dragon of Living Fire gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
You and an opponent secretly choose either "Wisdom" or "Ignorance", then reveal your choices. If both players choose "Wisdom", put a 5/5 blue Sphinx creature token with flying onto the battlefield. If both players choose "Ignorance", that opponent puts the top twenty cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard. Otherwise, return Sphinx's Riddle to its owner's hand.
A vague idea I came up with for the Winter PT that didn't get explored was a more proactive take on the Spellshaper concept: Warcasters. These creatures have attack triggers which mimic famous spells. My card today is pitching the Warcaster concept as a potential set feature / mechanic. Incidentally, by my definition, Flameblast Dragon is a Blaze Warcaster.
These cards are labelled through a new Warcaster creature type to keep up the Spellshaper analogy, but could easily have an ability word instead. I like this mechanic for Core sets because it encourages newer players to attack but embeds some interesting choices for more experienced players. I think this belongs in RGW but we'll see if people agree if the concept is voted for
Anyhow here's a nice splashy rare implementation:
Angel of Banishment 3WW
Creature - Angel Warcaster (R)
Flying
Whenever Angel of Banishment attacks, you may pay W. If you do, exile target creature. That creature's controller may search his or her library for a basic land card, put that card onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle his or her library.
Just to back up: the tournament rules, at least, don't allow you to take the whole pack of cards. You don't own those cards from an MTR perspective - you can take one of them. The rest are the tournament's property and will then be passed around and allocated to other players from there.
Whilst we aren't empowered as judges / TOs to physically prevent you from taking the rest of the cards, we can consider if we want you to be attending future events at our stores, and can DQ and report you if we feel that the DCI would like to prevent you attending future events in general.
Personally, I think taking the entire pack is theft. I don't make a distinction between doing this and, say, taking your neighbour's entire pack out of their hands and leaving with it because they opened a valuable card. There is a distinction between "cards I own" and "cards I'm holding / looking at".
It is the biggest since M10 came in, but your estimate is about 200 cards bigger than the real size due to counting many reprints multiple times. The actual size etc discussed here: http://mtgfacts.tumblr.com/post/54952582622/cards-count
The uncommon Warcaster cycle shows a potential featured mechanic for the set. This mechanic can either exist with or without the Warcaster creature type as a label, but I’ve chosen to go with one as I think it helps stamp out the cards as belonging to a group, and also is consistent with the Spellshaper echo.
This booster contains both some more Warcasters, and some support for the set that contains that mechanical theme.
Sankai Fighter-Scholars
3G
Creature – Human Warcaster (C)
Whenever Sankai Fighter-Scholars attacks, you may pay G. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
1/4
Errant Thought
1U
Creature - Illusion (C)
When Errant Thought dies, return target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand.
1/1
“Hey, get back here!” – Varo, Mindmage
Battle-Hymn Priest
3W
Creature – Human Cleric Warcaster (C)
Whenever Battle-Hymn Priest attacks, you may pay 1W. If you do, you gain 5 life.
2/2
Death by Fall
2B
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature
At the beginning of enchanted creature’s controller’s upkeep, that player sacrifices enchanted creature.
Don’t look down? Where else is there to look?
Combat Outrunner
G
Creature – Elf Scout (C)
Whenever Combat Outrunner attacks, add G to your mana pool. (This mana must be used before blockers are declared or it is lost.)
1/1
Sankai Guards
4W
Creature – Human Soldier (C)
3/5
Goblin Researcher
2R
Creature - Goblin Warcaster (C)
Whenever Goblin Researcher attacks, you may pay RR and discard a card. If you do, draw two cards.
2/1
They are very good at finding new ways to hit you.
Joy of Flight
1W
Sorcery (C)
Target creature you control gains flying until end of turn. You gain 3 life.
Previously a flightless species, the Natan aven were quick to embrace flight magic when they learned it from the Sankai.
Return to Æther
2U
Instant (C)
Return target attacking creature to its owner’s hand.
Draw a card.
Manabond Elf
1GG
Creature – Elf Druid (U)
When Manabond Elf enters the battlefield, search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library.
2/1
Stunning Betrayal
3RR
Sorcery (U)
Gain control of target creature an opponent controls until end of turn. Untap that creature. It gains haste until end of turn. Choose up to one other target creature controlled by that opponent. That creature can’t block this turn.
Ritual Tribute
3RR
Sorcery (U)
Ritual Tribute deals 6 damage to target nonred creature.
“Heathens! Throw them into the volcano!”
Sacker of Graves
3BB
Creature – Zombie Warcaster (R)
Intimidate
Whenever Sacker of Graves attacks, you may pay 4B. If you do, return target creature card from a graveyard to the battlefield under your control. That creature is a black Zombie in addition to its other colors and types.
5/5
Tamiyo, Lady of Tides
3UU
Planeswalker - Tamiyo (M)
+1: Tap all lands target player controls and empty that player’s mana pool.
-3: Untap all lands you control.
-8: Put a 20/20 legendary Moon artifact creature token onto the battlefield.
{4}
Dark Child - Strict upgrade from Pulse Tracker in 2-player. This is overall a very aggressively costed 1-drop and makes me a bit nervous as a result.
Blood Baron - Name is a bit familiar. The card itself is again very strong; an attack trigger version of Bloodhunter Bat, already a very strong Limited card without the potential for recursion.
Vampire Overlord - This guy is my favourite of the three. Here the strength and splash feels deserved and appropriate. Minor point: It would be better if the drain and the P/T were lined up like the other two cards are.
Maokun - dropped
Krana Gang Footpad - A very weak Tormented Soul; a second power would probably be fine here. Nothing wrong with just being an updated Nezumi Cutthroat as you mention.
Krana Gang Killer - I do like my Nekrataals so this is appealing. Also a good catch on making this optional so it never has to FTK itself.
Krana Gang Kingpin - It didn't feel necessary to have a Demon here - the specific card didn't feel especially Demonic and I think that a human Kingpin would have been just fine. Otherwise, the 'grand larceny' flavour was neat and this effect was certainly interesting.
Execute the Villagers: This is probably my favourite of the bunch. At the right kind of place for common removal, with a life loss rider that means that you're pushing towards playing this in aggressive rather than controlling Limited decks.
Besiege the Castle - The flavour here for this name seems flat. The siege concept just isn't being carried. Also this card reads like it's going to be a Stone Rain but really it's an expensive symmetrical Lava Axe variant.
Thralldom for the World - Great name, but let down by an execution that asks the player to pay life and mana on the one hand, but then takes away those same things on the other. This kind of tension didn't feel necessary and spoilt an otherwise cool repeatable reanimation card concept.
2. Koopa
3.void_nothing
Better leave some blockers back!
Kindling Spark
1R
Creature - Elemental (C)
Trample, haste
At the beginning of the end step, sacrifice Kindling Spark and it deals 2 damage to target player.
2/1
Stoked Flame
3RR
Creature - Elemental (U)
Trample, haste
At the beginning of the end step, sacrifice Stoked Flame and it deals 4 damage to target creature or player.
4/1
Raging Inferno
4RRR
Creature - Elemental (R)
Trample, haste
When Raging Inferno enters the battlefield, it gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the total power of Elemental creature cards in your graveyard.
At the beginning of the end step, sacrifice Raging Inferno and it deals damage equal to its power to target player and each creature the control.
6/1
Snipped from the current review thread - I think Sven's sentiments here are well worthy of discussion. What does the fact that this is a Core Set mean to the group - both as designers and as reviewers / voters? Do you think that it is important or that it is just a backdrop? Should new mechanics be excluded? Limited just to suggested 'returning' mechanics a la Exalted? Or be encouraged?
Incidentally I personally love feedback and so would welcome a critique of my submission here or via PM or wherever else you want to put it.
Ultimately though, I felt this cycle was probably a little too tight; once I'd read the first of these guys I felt I could have guessed the other four pretty accurately. A template such as "Other creatures you control that are Elves and/or Druids get +1/+1" loses out on the double-bonus, but does make playing with them less complex.
As a whole, I felt that the costs of this cycle were a little too colour-heavy. There's no need to have 3 symbols in the cost of one of these cards, as the cards are already heavily intended for players of their colours already. I think having only one required mana like the blue member of the cycle would have been better. I also didn't feel that the 3/6 split was necessary; doubling the effect is nice but a mixture of different numbers could have worked too.
Card-specific comments:
Kindle Hex - A smashy and fun burn spell. Feels right at rare.
Memory Hex - A super Mind Funeral. Another well-chosen effect.
Primal Hex - Non-trample granting Overruns are a bit off-putting to me, but this is so ridiculously smashy when 'kicked' that I can forgive that.
Blight Hex - This is the stumble for me. The doubling doesn't really work because the 'vanilla' version will kill 80%+ of creatures, and the kicked version about 95%, so it doesn't feel like as strong of an incentive.
Seirei Hex - Random Kamigawa flavour felt out of place for me here. The effect is fine, however.
Card-specific comments:
Pearl Paladin - A nice strong start to the cycle, this does an excellent job of feeling rare and powerful.
Sapphire Sentinel - A little too efficient for a blue creature, especially one that's encouraging a milling strategy. Also, the triggered ability is directly Drowner Initiate.
Jet Judge - Nice use of the low power / deathtouch trick here. The ability is very powerful, too, although it overlaps a bit too much with your red entry for my liking.
Ruby Ravager - Another powerful card, although not feeling all that rare. Note overlap comment made above.
Emerald Evangelist - Very close to being a bigger Nurturer Initiate here on effect.
As for the specific cards, my feelings are as follows:
Condemning Visionary - Very powerful effect here, which when repeatable can make attacking almost impossible to profit from. I would feel uncomfortable printing this as many attacking decks (especiialy green decks) will never be able to clear this guy off the board and won't want to attack either, which can make for a pretty difficult board state and not a fun one either.
Piercing Visionary - Reactive cards like this aren't the best choice for Spellshapers, as the on-board nature makes it easy for one player to feel bad for having missed it. That said this is a compelling Counterspell spellshaper that isn't overly oppressive.
Seizing Visionary - I'm happy to see the sorcery-only rider here as that keeps this from being a Time Walk spellshaper in the late game. Thoughtseize is another fine card to spellshape and I think this is my favourite of the cycle.
Faithless Visionary - A lot of moving pieces here, with cards going down and then up and then down again. I'd have been more tempted to have this spellshape something like Wild Guess so that all the discarding was together.
Paradise Visionary - A bit thrown to have a single Llanowar Mentor-style 'creatureshaper' in this batch when the rest of the cycle is otherwise so tight. Don't feel like this innovates enough to be worth deviating from the expected pattern.
2. Sir Karn
3. Big_Cal
So, I'm going to make my uncommon cycle using my Warcaster mechanic concept. This cycle happens to all ape 1-mana spells, but obviously that's not the plan for all Warcasters.
Loxodon Shieldcaster
3WW
Creature - Loxodon Warcaster (U)
Whenever Loxodon Shieldcaster attacks, you may pay W. If you do, prevent all damage that would be dealt to target creature this turn.
3/3
Vedalken Trickcaster
3U
Creature - Vedalken Warcaster (U)
Whenever Vedalken Trickcaster attacks, you may pay U. If you do, target creature becomes 1/1 until end of turn.
2/2
Vampire Cursecaster
2B
Creature - Vampire Warcaster (U)
Whenever Vampire Cursecaster attacks, you may pay B. If you do, target creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
3/1
Goblin Paincaster
1R
Creature - Goblin Warcaster (U)
Whenever Gobline Paincaster attacks, you may pay R. If you do, target creature gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
2/1
Elvish Thorncaster
G
Creature - Elf Warcaster (U)
Whenever Elvish Thorncaster attacks, you may pay G. If you do, put a 1/1 green Saproling creature token onto the battlefield.
1/1
3
Artifact - Equipment (U)
Equipped creature has ",T: Put a 0/1 white Goat creature token onto the battlefield."
Equip 2
2G
Creature - Beast (R)
Whenever another creature enters the battlefield, Kalonian Bruiser fights it. (That creature and Kalonian Bruiser deal damage equal to their power to each other)
3/3
"Violent-tempered, dangerous, and almost impossible to control. Recommend immediate deployment." - Report of Anshiv, Bestiary Captain
2RR
Creature - Dragon (M)
Flying, haste
Dragon of Living Fire's power and toughness are each equal to the number of Mountains you control.
R: Dragon of Living Fire gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
*/*
BB
Creature - Leech (R)
Pay 2 life: Put a +1/+1 counter on Xathrid Leech.
1/1
2UU
Sorcery R
You and an opponent secretly choose either "Wisdom" or "Ignorance", then reveal your choices. If both players choose "Wisdom", put a 5/5 blue Sphinx creature token with flying onto the battlefield. If both players choose "Ignorance", that opponent puts the top twenty cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard. Otherwise, return Sphinx's Riddle to its owner's hand.
These cards are labelled through a new Warcaster creature type to keep up the Spellshaper analogy, but could easily have an ability word instead. I like this mechanic for Core sets because it encourages newer players to attack but embeds some interesting choices for more experienced players. I think this belongs in RGW but we'll see if people agree if the concept is voted for
Anyhow here's a nice splashy rare implementation:
Angel of Banishment
3WW
Creature - Angel Warcaster (R)
Flying
Whenever Angel of Banishment attacks, you may pay W. If you do, exile target creature. That creature's controller may search his or her library for a basic land card, put that card onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle his or her library.
3/4
Whilst we aren't empowered as judges / TOs to physically prevent you from taking the rest of the cards, we can consider if we want you to be attending future events at our stores, and can DQ and report you if we feel that the DCI would like to prevent you attending future events in general.
Personally, I think taking the entire pack is theft. I don't make a distinction between doing this and, say, taking your neighbour's entire pack out of their hands and leaving with it because they opened a valuable card. There is a distinction between "cards I own" and "cards I'm holding / looking at".