I understand my first entry is invalid -- no big deal, I wasn't sure what you wanted. Now I know.

--card one "Revolution" is rare
--card three "Planescape Prodigy" is uncommon
--on step three of the 2nd combo run through Havengul Lich cost UB, not 1UB
--one of the decks looks like it only has 58 cards, but if you count there is actually 60 (forgot to change +2 to creatures)

quote:

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Originally posted by Jtrade77:
Apparently I can edit something all day and still miss stuff. For my entry:

--card one "Revolution" is rare
--card three "Planescape Prodigy" is uncommon
--on step three of the 2nd combo run through Havengul Lich cost UB, not 1UB
--one of the decks looks like it only has 58 cards, but if you count there is actually 60 (forgot to change +2 to creatures)

Sorry.

---

We all have this. I could've elaborated more on the use of my card 3, or explained further why my black ability could fit into white. Oh well.

__________________
/Thunder in the wind/No rain/Peace mourns its passing/

quote:

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Originally posted by B14ckM4g3:
Just to update:

I understand my first entry is invalid -- no big deal, I wasn't sure what you wanted. Now I know.

I have card 3 ready. just working on cards 1 and 2 (and 2 is almost done. card 1 is a doozy fluffycow). I'll have these up as soon as I can.

---

suspense is killing me, get on with it!

__________________
/Thunder in the wind/No rain/Peace mourns its passing/

So this was quite the difficult card entry, as everyone I am sure agrees. took me awhile, and at first I was fiddling with some chaotic red/blue discard spell. but I couldnt seem to balance out the mana cost and effects. Then I tried working some kind of artifact but that fell apart before I could make it. then, like a freight train of caturday kittens, I was nailed with it.
Green has no board wipe. And it shouldn't. Cause green doesn't do that thing. Until today. I unveil to you the new green board wipe:

Ah Nuts
1GGG
Enchantment

When ~ enters the battlefield, destroy all creatures. For each creature destroyed this way, it's controller puts a 1/1 squirrel token into play.

All squirrels have exalted.

Alright so allow me to explain. The Board is wiped. Green doesn't do this. But green does allow for the flourishing of creatures. Especially forest creatures -- Which squirrels happen to be. I chose squirrels as there hasn't been an squirrel deck see the light of day in forever. This affects everyone (almost) equally, as everyone still has a creature, and can still attack. And everyone can still block. Which makes for some very interesting strategies depending on what kind of decks are on the field. I gave them all exalted to add to this, to further the chaos and annoyance that squirrels bring to the field. The casting cost I think is self-explanatory, as it should be a green-heavy (or mono) deck. I chose enchantment over sorcery as something that I feel moreso fits green. A blasting wave of squirrels doesn't quite make sense to me. But a calling to a fertile ground that attracts squirrels does. And I can see the creatures that are currently on the board either becoming overrun or abandoning the area.

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Card 2: New mechanic for old cards

So this took awhile to get the wording right, but I think I have it correct. The card is a series of cards, each with their own subtype. They have some modified rulings for the subtype. So here is:

-X-Name
0
mythic rare
Artifact - Relic

You may only have one relic in play at any given time.
You may only have one copy of ~ in your deck at any time.

Vintage - When you have no cards in hand, you may pay X. If you do, you may do (this). Play this ability only as a sorcery. then, Exile ~

As you can see, the artifact itself is free. but is also destructible. The vintage mechanic is termed for the types of cards that are being played (the only format they are currently legal in). I chose an artifact as I spent a full day (literally) trying to get the wording correct on how to have a card in your hand become exiled with the vintage mechanic. But it just didn't seem to want to work for a variety of reasons (what if its in your opening hand? When you draw it? Just chuck it? Flip card? Reveal or face-down? etc etc etc), mostly the reason that I couldn't decide which route to go. But then the idea of a set of artifacts with their own unique abilities and modified rules just for them could make this work. So I thought it over and started trying it out. Here are the results.

Card 1 - Time walk variant

Schrodinger's Clock
0
mythic rare
Artifact - Relic

You may only have one relic in play at any given time.
You may only have one copy of ~ in your deck at any time.

Vintage - When you have no cards in hand, you may pay 1U. If you do, take an extra turn after this one. Play this ability only as a sorcery. Then Exile ~.

"The clock with no hands tells all time"

Card 2 - Black Lotus Variant

Tesla's Flower
0
mythic rare
Artifact - Relic

You may only have one relic in play at any given time.
You may only have one copy of ~ in your deck at any time.

Vintage - When you have no cards in hand, you may pay 0. If you do, Sacrifice ~ and put a 0 cmc artifact token into play named "Tesla's Lotus". This artifact has: Tap: Sacrifice Tesla's lotus. Add 3 mana of any one color to your mana pool. Play this ability only as a sorcery. Then, Exile ~.

Card 3 - Demonic tutor variant

Einstein's Novel
0
mythic rare
Artifact - Relic

You may only have one relic in play at any given time.
You may only have one copy of ~ in your deck at any time.

Vintage - When you have no cards in hand, you may pay 1B. If you do, search your library for one card and put it into your hand. Shuffle your library afterwards. Play this ability only as a sorcery. Then, Exile ~.

---

Tesla's flower:

'Such energy in such beauty. I wonder what will come of it when it blooms?'

Einstein's Novel

So this guy needs a friend to make his worth a couple of dollars. So here's the idea of a card that could make him (and possibly a few others) big-ballas.

Surreal of Nevermore
U/W U/R U/B
Enchantment

You may cast cards from exile.
If a creature spell is cast, that creature comes into play with a -1/-1 counter on it.
If a planeswalker is cast, it comes into play with 1 loyalty counter.
If a non-creature, non-planeswalker is cast, You lose 1 life.

Alright so there's the idea. Creatures that became exiled are no longer dead forever. Creatures that have undying.... will never die. A few creatures could be recast for ETB or LTB triggers for combos (looking at you, perilous myr). And all the while Skaab Ruinator has lots of fodder to exile from the graveyard, just to have it come back again. This could work in a few deck ideas (coming up shortly) to make a lot of combos.
I went with the split mana cost for the RtR set release's flavor of multi-color spells. I think this is playable as the m13 solo card as there are several 'exile friendly' cards in play right now (Karn, Oring, Fiend hunter, temporal mastery, everything with flashback, moorland haunt, etc.). This card is not really mono-colored friendly. But, IMO, neither is skaab ruinator. I know he has two blue, but blue isn't well-known for being the aggressor with 20+ creatures in a deck. blue splashed around is. With this, I can see very aggressive decks utilizing the RFG pile as a safezone for their threats while holding the board with Skaab Ruinator. For instance:

Blue/Black Variant (zombies!)

4x Skaab Ruinator
4x Surreal of Nevermore
3 appetite for brains (you can cast any card from exile)
3 night terrors (see above)
2 crypt creeper
2 Nihil spellbomb (oh yes)
2 cemetary reaper (damn-near infinite tokens and creature spawning)
4 gravecrawler
1 descent into madness (hurt opponent, help self)
2 Grimgrin, Corpse-Born
1 gloom surgeon (oh yea, this guy would probably gain some value)
1 temporal mastery (possibly a lot of turns happening here)
3 snapcaster mage (snag that spell again and again)
3 go for the throat
3 mana leak
2 surgical extraction (for yourself or for threats from opponent)

So the above deck is a little basic, but it gets the point across. Control your opponents hand a bit, their board a bit, and drop a few zombies. Deal a bit of damage, drop the skaab ruinator, and start casting cards from exile. Crypt Creeper and Cemetary reaper make this happen fast. And with cards exiled and bouncing back to the graveyard, skaab ruinator comes out again and again. Would make for a very annoying control and constant board presence. Could combo quite nicely if your opponent is playing any variation of a black or a blue deck (Surgical their mana leak, have 4 sitting in reserve, for example). GrimGrin also keeps up a threat and keeps your graveyard full. Board wipes are no longer a problem with skaab ruinator and a graveyard full of creatures. Surgical extraction, appetite for brains, Night terrors, and Nihil Spellbomb all keep a fresh supply of cards or control available. Descent into madness, gloom surgeon, and temporal mastery can all have devastating effects on the board-state (and your opponent). Bloodflow connoisseur also allows for a sac-outlet and a big fatty. Snapcaster keeps those control spells coming back, and is a quick-shot blocker and more fodder for the exile engine.
The sideboard I think I would use a few blood artists, mortarpods, and some more control spells. Just in case it's that fast r/w humans deck or something similar, lets start the lifetoss around for a variant of this deck.

Deck Idea two - Blue/Red

4 Skaab Ruinator
4 Surreal of Nevermore
2 think twice (never gonna give you up!)
1 temporal mastery (more turns!)
2 pillar of flame (hit that creature and cast it?)
2 incinerate (searing spear or thunderbolt) (just some control/damage)
2 red sun's zenith (more exiling/damage)
2 harvest pyre (exiling/creature kill)
1 faithless looting (discarding may help this deck a bit, as does the card draw)
3 mana leak (obvious choice)
3 snapcaster mage (same as above. Cast that spell two more times!)
2 grim lavamancer (damage and feeding the enchantment)
2 stormbound geist (undying makes this guy come back over and over and over)
2 fettergeist (great blocker/attacker, easy to get into graveyard to upgrade for a skaab ruinator)a
4 vexing devil (drop this fatty a few times and see how long it takes for him to stick)
3 oculist (graveyard fodder and card draw)

So it's a basic creature/burn deck that just doesn't run out of steam like most. Constantly dropping guys for low costs and gaining benefits from them. lots of damage and graveyard/RFG feeding, skaab ruinator has plenty of creatures that can hit the graveyard fast for him to beef up. Vexing devil makes a comeback as a dirty threat (one mana for a 3/2 is still damn mean), oculist fills the graveyard fast and gives some more card advantage. Fettergesit is in case the skaab isn't ready yet but gives you some board presence and is easy to get rid of at will (refuse to pay 0 mana. MagicOnline makes ya do it, so I'm sure you can). Stormbound just never dies for good. Grim Lavamancer is a big threat with constantly exiling cards to be recast to be exiled for constant damage. Snapcaster might not be entirely necessary for this deck, but his utilization as an instant blocker, re-burn, leak or what may need to be cast at the moment makes him too valuable to pass up in this deck full of spells.
The burn spells are simply that - burn spells. control the board or hurt your opponent. Anything exiled with them is game for casting again. Think twice may be a little expensive to cast repeatedly, but in this deck the card advantage may be too much to pass on (such a low mana curve).
All in all, I think it would be a competitive deck to play against. Fast and hard, mid-game and late-game with lots of steam still in the engine.

Deck 3 - White and blue (final deck)

4 Skaab Ruinator
4 Surreal of Nevermore
2 phyrexian metamorph (copy that... thing!)
3 mistraven (bouncing repeatedly)
3 misthollow griffin (never gonna die)
3 oculist (card draw and blocker and graveyard filler)
3 doomed traveller (blocker and token)
3 cathedral sanctifier (1 mana for 3 life repeatedly when exiled)
3 silverblade paladin (double-striking that skaab)
2 geist of saint traft (he's going to die, might as well cast him again!)
3 feeling of dread (tapdown forever)
2 think twice (never gonna give you up!)
3 oblivion ring (basic control and possibly recasting)
2 artful dodge (unblockable when it counts)

So this deck is a constant gain. The low cast creatures (doomed traveler, sanctifier, oculist) all serve advantages when cast from exile (spirit token, life gain, card draw), silverblade gets to help with the beatstick (skaab ruinator is extra mean). Mistraven can help with the bouncing and usually dies fairly easily. Misthollow is similar but will be coming back with a skaab ruinator pretty quickly. Metamorph can help by copying that legend that hurts or the sword of this and that or just copying one of your own awesome guys. Combo artful dodge in the deck for constant unblockable guys. Twink twice and feeling of dread just give a constant board advantage and opens your opponenet up or helps to shut them down.
I think that this version would be the most powerful. While lacking in control, the board presence is constantly there. Lifegain, card advantage, lots of creatures and your opponent would just be overwhelmed rather quickly with all the 2-for-1's that your popping out.

quote:

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Originally posted by fluffycow:
It looks like everyone has submitted! Please take the next 24 hours to read over your entry and make any changes if necessary. Since this is the final round, I will not be assuming anything even if I think you mean something else, I will go by your wording on the card since it wouldn't be fair otherwise to the other contestants that did proof read. So for example if your card reads "counter target spell" when it's clearly a card to counter an ability, I will go by your card and not your intent.

Thanks guys and I will start the grading process as soon as I get confirmation that there will be no more changes.

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heres the original

Tesla's Flower
0
mythic rare
Artifact - Relic

You may only have one relic in play at any given time.
You may only have one copy of ~ in your deck at any time.

Vintage - When you have no cards in hand, you may pay 0. If you do, Sacrifice ~ and put a 0 cmc artifact token into play named "Tesla's Lotus". This artifact has: Tap: Sacrifice Tesla's lotus. Add 3 mana of any one color to your mana pool. Play this ability only as a sorcery. Then, Exile ~.

Heres the edit:

Tesla's Flower
0
mythic rare
Artifact - Relic

You may only have one relic in play at any given time.
You may only have one copy of ~ in your deck at any time.

Vintage - When you have no cards in hand, you may pay 0. If you do, put a 0 cmc artifact token into play named "Tesla's Lotus". This artifact has: Tap: Sacrifice Tesla's lotus. Add 3 mana of any one color to your mana pool. Play this ability only as a sorcery. Then, Exile ~.

'Such energy in such beauty. I wonder what will come of it when it blooms?'

I think that should fix it. Just removed the one part of that sentence saying sacrifice ~ and then exile ~. It should still only be able to be used once, as it can only be done as a sorcery. I think that is the only error I came cross in my entry, second to the flavor texts being forgotten.

Einstein's Novel
0
mythic rare
Artifact - Relic

You may only have one relic in play at any given time.
You may only have one copy of ~ in your deck at any time.

Vintage - When you have no cards in hand, you may pay 1B. If you do, search your library for one card and put it into your hand. Shuffle your library afterwards. Play this ability only as a sorcery. Then, Exile ~.

'When the idea comes, put it to paper. Then do the math and find what you seek.'

And just to clarify in case I didn't make it clear:

Relic - You may only have 1 relic with a certain name in your deck (IE, 1 eintstein's novel, 1 tesla's flower, etc), and you may only have 1 relic in play at any given time.
They are not legendary so I may have one in play and you may have the same relic in play and they do not negate each other.
If a relic on the field is copied by the controller, both are put into the graveyard as a 'game state' ruling effect (so no phyrexian metamorph your own Schrodinger's Clock).
If I have a relic in play and attempt to play another (different) relic, the 'game state' ruling will put both in the graveyard. (this also doubles as a weakness for someone playing multiple relic cards in their deck, as if you have one on the field and one in hand it could prove difficult to activate).
After activating the vintage ability, the relic will be exiled. This is part of the ability cost. It may be responded to (stifle) and the relic will still be exiled.

So in short, this 'relic' would be similar to the legendary/planeswalker/world ruling, with a slight modification to it. Like the above mentioned rulings, this 'relic' would be added to the game-state rulings page.
Relic is also a subtype, not a supertype. It would not account for abilities found in tarmogoyf.

If I have not made this clear in the above card description, Please allow this post to clarify the rulings for it.

As for the third card entry, I left out the land slots. they are rough-makes of 40 cards that could be modified and entertain the idea of Scars/M/Ava-dual lands. I sincerly hope this isn't a problem. if it is, allow me to add:

Decklist 1 manabase

4 drowned catacomb
4 darkslick shores
6 island
6 swamp

decklist 2 manabase

4 sulfur falls
7 mountains
9 islands

decklist 3 manabase

4 glacial fortress
4 seachrome coast
7 island
5 plains

And to clarify because I didn't mention this and REALLY should have:

Surreal of Nevermore
U/W U/R U/B
Enchantment

You may cast cards from exile.
If a creature spell is cast, that creature comes into play with a -1/-1 counter on it.
If a planeswalker is cast, it comes into play with 1 loyalty counter.
If a non-creature, non-planeswalker is cast, You lose 1 life.

Should read:

Surreal of Nevermore
U/W U/R U/B
Enchantment

You may cast non-land cards from exile.
If a creature spell is cast, that creature comes into play with a -1/-1 counter on it.
If a planeswalker is cast, it comes into play with 1 loyalty counter.
If a non-creature, non-planeswalker is cast, You lose 1 life.

Lands were never an intention for this card to bring back. that would make it far too crazy good.

quote:

---

Originally posted by AEther Storm:
Here goes. Looks like I am the first to put in all cards. Huzzah! Bonus points?

Card 1: Create a card that:
Has an ability it normally wouldn’t have;
Impacts standard at least;
Is from Return to Ravnica;
Flashy and outside the box are preferred (turning crazy pretty easy with this), but simple and elegant beats crazy.

Jeez fluffycow, I had a hard time just finding an ability, let alone meet the other requirements. First off, before I read the whole description, I was going for coin flipping in black. It’s the perfect color for it, getting result a or b doesn’t matter to black as it enjoys its victim agony one way or the other. Then I read, it has to impact standard. Scratch that. So I thought a LONG time and came up with a mostly black, sometimes blue effect: Looking at your opponents hand, graveyard and deck and removing cards from them (Extirpate, Thought Hemorrhage, Sadistic Sacrament were cards that inspired me).
There was only one conclusion, this could be a white treat as well. White is the color of healing, protection, lifegain, angels, soldiers, etc, but white also has a nasty side, Wrath of God, Armageddon, law-based spells, where players are met by the awesome stopping and delaying powers it has. We all have issues with bureaucracy, and I thought of the following.

Customs Inspector (Rare)
Creature – Human Soldier 1WW
2/2
First strike, Vigilance
When Customs Inspector comes into play, target opponent reveals his or her hand. Choose a nonland card from it. Search its owner’s graveyard, hand, and library for all cards with the same name as that card and remove them from the game. Then that player shuffles his or her library. You gain 1 life for each card removed this way.
“Those are not allowed in our nation and are hereby confiscated. They are now deemed property of the state.”

I’ll explain the whole card. I made him a Soldier in the end as Custom Inspectors are kind of police officers, which could be compared to soldiers. They carry firearms and uphold the law. Plus, making him a Soldier could make him have more impact on other formats than standard (good in Tribal).
Vigilance is easy, Customs never sleeps. First strike was harder, but in the end, you need to declare goods first when travelling, and you go through customs first when arriving, so they’ll get their hands on your stuff even before you’re actually in the place you’re travelling to. There is no escaping Customs.
Seizing the card speaks for itself. They found something that is illegal and confiscate it, putting it in storage and sometimes destroying it if they have to. The life gain reflects this somewhat, but also that (corrupt) officials could/would use impounded items for their own use (drugs, illegal movies, etc), reaping the benefits.

He fits fine into white weenie decks, and maybe even into U/W. He buys you time with the life gain while taking out a threat, and has a great set of stats. First strike and vigilance combined are just plain nasty.
Hope I elaborated enough. It’s 01.00 hrs here and I need to go to sleep now..

Oh, I know Scour has a similar ability, but that doesn’t let you look into your opponents hand first and only works if they have an enchantment in play. Hope that doesn’t count.

Card 2: Time Walk, Demonic Tutor, Black Lotus

As these are all epic cards and cornerstones of many Vintage deck, I wanted to do something so that you had to earn the right to get that desired effect, and not be able to simply cast something and do it. You need to meet some requirement before pulling it off. So, here comes Require (couldn’t think of a better keyword). There’s a little like Evermind on there as well, I thought it was the perfect way of making the card pay tribute to the power of the cards of old.

Require – Spells with require do not have a casting cost. Require is an activated ability but in order to be able to use it, you need to meet a set requirement before you can actually use its effect. It can only be activated if the card is in your hand.

Do the Time Walk (Mythic Rare)
Sorcery
Do the Time Walk is blue.
Cards without a casting cost can not be played.
Require: If you have exactly 7 cards in your hands, you may reveal Do the Time Walk from your hand and pay 1U. If you do, take another turn after this one. Exile Do the Time Walk.
“This takes forever.”

For clarification, you need 6 cards in your hand and this, total 7. This might seem easy, but in the Eternal formats, how do you get 7 cards in your hand? If you’re on the draw, sure you could play 2 lands at first and do nothing. No counter, brainstorm, etc. Seems easy.
Well, excuse me? Do nothing on turn 1 and 2 in Vintage? You’ll lose the game if you don’t. At least counter something! So it’s tough enough, but with Jace, cantrips and a battery of draw spells this could work, especially if you have a good board position. If you can pull it off, you will probably win. And if you don’t, you’ve probably lost anyway.

Bargain Deal (Rare)
Sorcery
Bargain Deal is black.
Cards without a casting cost can not be played.
Require: If you have lost 3 or more life this turn, you may reveal Bargain Deal from your hand and pay 1B. If you do, search your library for any card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Exile Bargain Deal.
“You know you want it, no pain, no gain”.

Very flavorful in my opinion. You need to hurt yourself (or be Bolted by your opponent during your turn) and ‘pay the price’ for reaping the rewards. 1 Fetchland is not going to cut it, you need to work for the price. You could Bump in the Night yourself I suppose.. or Dark Confidant could help out. Phyrexian Arena. Pox. Necropotence. To name a few.
I decided to make it non-Mythic, as it is the least impressive of the 3 and is an uncommon originally.

Flourishing Lotus (Mythic Rare)
Artifact
Cards without a casting cost can not be played.
Require: If you control 3 lands whose mana abilities can produce at least 3 different types of colored mana, you may reveal Flourishing Lotus from your hand and pay 0. If you do, add 3 mana of any color to your mana pool. Exile Flourishing Lotus.
“So beautiful you dare not touch it”

This rules out cards like Undiscovered Paradise or Crystal Quarry. You could have 2 Savannah and a Taiga in play for instance, having access to W/G/R. It’s accessible as of turn 2 with Rampant Growth for instance, but you get an acceleration of 1 as your land is tapped. So I don’t think this is too broken, though 6 mana on turn 3 is nothing to sneeze at.

Card 3: Improve a crap standard card

Molten-Tail Masticore
Card Type: Artifact Creature
Creature Type: Masticore
Power/Toughness: 4/4
Casting Cost: 4
Card Text: At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Molten-Tail Masticore unless you discard a card.
4, Exile a creature card from your graveyard: Molten-Tail Masticore deals 4 damage to target creature or player.
2: Regenerate Molten-Tail Masticore.

Explanation below

Infinite Slime (Rare)
Creature – Ooze 1G
2/2
Trample
When this would be exiled from anywhere, return it to your hand.
1G, sacrifice a creature: put x +1/+1 counters on this, where x is the sacrificed creatures’ power.
When this is put into a graveyard from play, put x 1/1 green Ooze creature tokens into play, where X is the number of counters on Infinite Slime.

It was pretty tough deciding on the final version, but here it is. About the synergy with Masticore, that’s obvious. It’s a recurring discard and damage engine, so that’s quite nasty. Then came the hard part, to make it a card that on itself would be interesting enough to play.
Trample: Goo has the ability to not be stopped by any obstacles and just slide over stuff.
Return to your hand: Everybody knows some kind of sticky candy, glue or other sticky muck that once it’s on your hands, that sticky feeling is there for the rest of the day, right? That’s where his ability came from.
Sac ability: It ‘eats’ and adds to its strength anything in its path.
Token ability: When you step in a pile of goo, it splats all over the place. See your average bad horror movie or a random Scooby Doo episode). You got the main body, but you still have to deal with the mess you made with the splatters.

I am not an expert in Standard, correction, I suck at Standard (Legacy rules!), but here it is. I think it has a bomb of synergy in it. Basically you run quickly with some smallies and destroy any blockers, until you can finish it with Masticore. Finishers are the Slime, Masticore, Demonlord. I didn’t put any planeswalkers or BoP’s in here, didn’t want to make it too bomby, this seems fun on its own. I also don’t think it’s just for this deck. Monogreen aggro, maybe Wolf Run, Naya Pod or any Token deck could use this, maybe G/R aggro too.

4 Infinite Slime
4 Molten-Tail Masticore
4 Altar’s Reap
2 Glissa, the Traitor (recur Masticore)
3 Birthing Pod
4 Bone Splinters
2 Demonlord of Ashmouth
4 Young Wolf
2 Green Sun’s Zenith
4 Ambush Viper (removal, fodder for Masticore)
4 Ulvenwald Bear (Hello, tech)

1 Buried Ruin
2 Grim Backwoods
4 Woodland Cemetery
9 Forest
7 Swamp

Cheers, off to bed now..zzz…zz….zzzzz

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__________________
/Thunder in the wind/No rain/Peace mourns its passing/

The mechanic I'm choosing is mass-bounce, specifically represented by cards like Upheaval and Devastation Tide. This is a blue ability. I want it in white. White has precedence for doing global resets, so why not global bounce too? I miss the days when white weenie wasn't dependent on tokens, could actually play 2/1's for W and enjoy them, and had a 'reset the game button'. I don't want this ability splashable, but I am sick of yet another overcosted wrath of god in the generic white rare spot. It's not Armageddon, because LD is too 'non-interactive' now; it's a true reset. I was tempted to add 'end the turn' onto the end of this card, but I'd rather avoid that if I can. You can still break the symmetry, but I think not being splashable means it is fair.

Original Card -- rare in the ODY expansion set, saw play in Psychatog decks:
Upheaval
Sorcery
4UU
Return all permanents to their owners' hands.
"The calm comes after the storm."

Card 1, Color-shifted Card:

Revolution
Sorcery (rare)
WWWW
Return all permanents to their owner's hands.
"Do not be too severe upon the errors of the people, but reclaim them by enlightening them."
--Thomas Jefferson

By making it *extreme* white, that is a heavy white commitment, the objective is to play a bunch of small white guys, beat down, and if board gets complicated, call Revolution and do it again! White weenie shall rise again (no tokens, just original cardboard flavor)! Give white players an excuse to O-ring their own men! If printed, this card would revive an archetype which isn't in standard right now.

Card 2: Give me a new mechanic, that I can pay 1U for time walk, pay 0 for a black lotus and pay 1B for demonic tutor.

My mechanic is this section is called 'Presence'.

Presence X (This spell is countered unless you control X permanents).

To be clear, you don't need exactly X permanents, you can have more, so long as you do have at least X.

Certain effects are so powerful that I don't believe they deserve a place in the early game at a reduced cost (in standard) unless you can survive and still be present in the game for them. In standard, depending on the environment, games *usually* last 5th turn and result in having both players control less than 10 permanents. For example, the lotus effect is really great early, but if you can only get the mana when you are already controlling a bunch of lands and guys, it is less broken, almost fair. At presence 8, the lotus might power out a big spell, but it won't give you ridiculous earlier tempo. If Tutor can't fix a turn two mana screw, it also is less useful... you aren't likely to play it until you'd be able to Diabolic Tutor anyway.

Finally by the way presence is worded, it is possible to counter it if you can remove an opponent's permanents while it is on the stack. For the reminder it could easily be "This spell is countered unless you control X permanent when it resolves." but I'm not sure the 'When it resolves' is really necessary for understanding it. Extra turn spell is costed to 'suck' since I don't really want tempo decks using it as an alpha strike on turn four or five. Even then with the right token support it could be a metagame contender. You could redo the moxes (or a mox) at presence 6 or 7 if desired. Here are cards to demonstrate the mechanic, my entry for this round is the cards you specified, the first three. Consider the rest as additional demonstrations of what the mechanic can do:

2.1
Opening Lotus
Artifact (mythic)
0
Presence 8 (This spell is countered unless you control 8 permanents.)
T), Sacrifice Opening Lotus: Add three mana of any one color to your mana pool.

2.2
Devilish Tutor
Sorcery (rare)
1B
Presence 6 (This spell is countered unless you control 6 permanents.)
Search your library for a card and put that card into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

2.3
Triskaidekaphobia
Sorcery (mythic)
1U
Presence 13 (This spell is countered unless you control 13 permanents.)
Take an extra turn after this one.
Flavor: "Marin feared a certain symmetry so much, she moved time and space to avoid it."

Extras showing the mechanic 'Presence' can carry a full block:

Stubborn Wildchild
Creature -- Elf (uncommon)
G
Presence 3 (This spell is countered unless you control 3 permanents)
T) Add 1G to your mana pool.
0/1
(Can't accelerate on turn 1... on turn two not so broken since you can't tap it until t3. Also, risky in constructed on t2 if you had a one drop.)

Territorial Captain (common)
Creature -- Soldier
1W
Presence 3 (This spell is countered unless you control 3 permanents.)
4/1

I'd definitely try reprinting Darksteel Relic with the 'Presence' set to see if it gets played this time around.

Card three == Havengul Lich, design a support card to make it good

To make Havengul Lich playable.
--5 mana is pretty high; I want to drop Lich on turn 3 but NOT enable insane shenanigans with low cost guys
--Need to get creatures in the yard
--Enabler must stick around past Vapor Snag
--Wanted Enabler to have an activated ability.

First I had issues with cost reduction. If black spells cost B less, suddenly you don't even want the Lich, you load up on B cost zombies and drop your hand turn 2. If Wizard spells cost U less, then suddenly free delvers; even if blue is one less, hello cheapo Snapcasters. I definitely did not want Diregraf Captain going under UB. Finally I settled for the multi-color aspect -- reduce gold/hybrid spells by 3 -- because it allows the creature's purpose to diversify. You don't have to go for Havengul Lich with this guy; he makes Drogskol Reaver into a house too. I'd play him in EDH with at least 5 different generals. This part of the card is tricky because I didn't want to pigeon-hole him into Lich-land, but at the same time wanted people to notice 'hey, this guy is great with Havengul Lich'. (He's also great with Grim-Grin, but that's not my card entry.) Standard right now has a decided lack of gold, so I felt ok with a 3 reduction, which I would not want entering a gold-heavy environment. (Seems fun for about a year with Rav 2.0 coming though.)

In regards to reductions, the cycle of apprentices in invasion, the medallions in tempest, and even Urza's Filter make it clear to me that any color can have casting cost reduction, though it has been an artifact ability (usually). I'm not worried about putting 'gold' casting cost reduction on a 'gold' card.

For getting guys in the yard, I picked a drawback in the line of Hidden Horror/Bodysnatcher, a fine tradition in black, also allowing an extra ability for being a drawback. Ye older 'come into play discard a guy or sac this'. Havengul Lich likes creatures in the graveyard.

For the enabler to stick, I went with shroud. I really hate hexproof because it is so non-interactive, and I was loading up abilities so the one-sidedness of hexproof is too much. Shroud on the other hand, can also be seen as a drawback, so I don't feel too bad tossing on top. I don't want this guy to get a t2 vapor snag, t3 snapcaster-snag leading into delver-based blowouts. I also didn't want him taking up swords and stuff to go aggro... he's not supposed to be a win condition as much as an enabler.

Ha-ha, next day I decided card was getting too busy and just cut the extra ability. It was the 'cherry on top' (looting with untap symbol) but the card was already strong. The multi-color reduction should be good enough, even if he doesn't have an extra ability for Lich to exploit.

Here's my entry for card three:

Planescape Prodigy
Creature -- Zombie Wizard (uncommon)
UB
When Planescape Prodigy enters the battlefield, sacrifice it unless you discard a creature card.
Shroud
Your multi-color spells cost 3 less to cast.
2/2

Art description -- this is a dark wizard's apprentice who wanted power by combining colors so badly that he became a zombie when the energies of mind and undeath mingled inside him. He did find the power he sought. His precautions only protected him from external energies, not from himself.

Note, it's got 2 power so it's a competitive aggro zombie, and it's got 2 toughness so it can play well with Heartless Summoning, which is another Lich-based archetype.

You can go u/b zombies with this, note that the lich is just there to recur -- his most important role being a t3 beatstick 4/4 zombie, not use abilities. It's pretty cool that it gives the deck a great deal of inevitability, since you basically put your graveyard (an sometimes your opponent's) back into play with him. Some versions of the deck might also run x4 Cemetary Reaper, but I chose to exclude since the ability conflicts with what Lich is doing.

Deck 1 -- Zombie Beatdown
(23 land)
4 Darkslich Shores
4 Darkwater Catacombs
2 Island
13 Swamp
4 Gravecrawler (great to discard to the prodigy, it should always come right back)
4 Diregraf Ghoul
4 Planescape Prodigy
4 Diregraf Captain
4 Havengul Lich
2 Grim-Grin Corpse Born (truly a beatstick with Prodigy + Gravecrawler, attacking t4)
3 Blood Artist
2 Geralf's Messenger
3 Sword of Feast and Famine
4 Go for the Throat
3 Mana Leak

Alternatively, you could go u/b/w reanimate, with the idea of t2 Prodigy discard reanimation target, t3 Alchemy dropping unburial rites, t4 flash unburial rites on target. Note the Lich's prime role is Unburial Rites 5-8 in here, because you can go t2 Prodigy (drop Prodigy), T3 Lich, t4 lich out prodigy from yard, t5 hardcast Drogskol Reaver OR lich it out if discarded from the 'yard prodigy. That seems good. Prodigy gives a way to discard your reanimation target early if you just have Unburial Rites in Hand (hopefully still t4 off sphere accel). Sphere of the suns maximized so Lich can cast their graveyard too.

Deck 2 -- Lich Reanimation
24 land
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Darkwater Catacombs
3 Isolated Chapel
3 Glacial Fortress
3 Swamp
3 Islands

4 Sphere of the Suns
4 Snapcaster mages
2 Phantasmal Image
4 Planescape Prodigy
4 Havengul Lich
4 Drogskol Reaver
2 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

4 Unburial Rites
3 Mana Leak
3 Go For the Throat
2 Oblivion Ring

Additional, this guy might be that final impetus to make a five color Lich-Birthing Pod Deck. That deck already has enough creatuers to play the Prodigy. In this case, the Lich is there to use abilities of other creatures; could probably get away with less than 4 copies, and Lich back out an Image for CIPT trigger is pretty good....

Deck 3 -- Lich-Pod
24 lands (u/b/g duals and basic mix)
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Planescape Prodigy
3 Phantasmal Image
2 Phreyrexian Metamorph (40 cards)

4 Havengul Lich
4 Birthing Pod
1 Sun Titan
1 Elesh Norn
3 -- One copy each of those Avaycn Restored Legendary Angels
2 Acidic Slime
1 Solemn Simulacrum
5 Good Cards With Abilites For Lich to Use:
--Ulvenwald Tracker
--Spellskite
--Bloodline Keeper
--Merfolk Looter
--Jace's Archivist (good for stealing guys from their graveyard after the discard)

Finally here's the prodigy in a combo-deck with the Lich. Note that this deck has been around already, but the hardest part is having a Lich stick. With the additional enabler to t3 a lich, with a combo element in the yard, it becomes *far* more consistent and may break through into a real combo archetype. Note it must be creature heavy so the Prodigy can stick on the table.

Deck 4 -- Lich-combo
4 Planescape Prodigy
4 Havengul Lich
3 Perilous Myr
4 Priest of Urabrask
3 Solemn Simulacrum
2 Bloodflow Connoisseur
2 Phyrexian Metamorph
3 Wurmcoil Engine
Creatures [25]
1 Devil's Play
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
4 Faithless Looting
1 Forbidden Alchemy
4 Heartless Summoning
Spells [11]
4 Darkslick Shores
4 Dragonskull Summit
4 Drowned Catacomb
4 Sulfur Falls
3 Island
2 Mountain
2 Swamp
1 Uncharted Lighthouse
Land [24]

With Heartless Summoning on the battlefield, Perilous Myr dies when it comes into play. But it's ability activates. Therefore, it's a free Shock when played from the hand, and a 1 cost Shock from the graveyard with Havengul Lich on the battlefield, which then becomes reusable for as many times as you want! Additionally you can use Priest of Urabrask with Summoning out to accrue infinite mana for an infinite Devil's Play. Hope that explains the unconventional choices here. The key is to stick that Lich T3 off Prodigy/Summoning and get those guys in the yard... allowing for a t4 kill if you get the right pieces.

In case it's not clear, here's the combo.

(1) Have Heartless Summoning in play.
(2) Cast Priest of Urabrask for R.
(3) Cast Havengul Lich for 1UB (still floating R).
(4) Use R to cast Priest from your graveyard.
(5) Repeat for infinite mana.
(6) Kill your opponent with Devil's Play or mill them with Blue Sun's Zenith.

Alternately:
1) Have Planescape Prodigy t2, dropping the Priest
2) Cast Lich t3 for UB
3) Cast Heartless Summoning t4
3.5) Spend 1 to get back Priest producing RRR (priest dies via H.Summoning); repeat process, digging with Faithless Looting for X spell if necessary
4) Infinite X spell
The above is a rough outline, but I really believe with Planescape Prodigy, it would be established as a real contender. It could use Bonfire from AVR rather than Devil's Play if preferred. Oh, and it can run Myr Superion in the SB for a cute trick with the Summoning. Unsure if Bloodthorn Vampire in the base set, so I picked one from AVR, but there could be something better. With an outlet, you can partially combo off Perilous Myr with only the Prodigy, not needing a Summoning in play. (It's better to have Summoning to re-yard the creatures though.)

So there you have 4 different archetypes with the amazing Havengul Lich, super-charged by my card entry of Planescape Prodigy. Four copies of each. I think one of them would get tier one if the card were printed, likely the combo or B/U aggro version.

This concludes my edited entry. Thanks for running the contest.

quote:

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Originally posted by fluffycow:
Awesome! The posting for the final round is now closed! I hope I can have a winner by Sunday!

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That showed up while I was editing.

quote:

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Originally posted by Jtrade77:
That showed up while I was editing.

Hope I hit the deadline for final edit in time. Just edited in stuff I made note of later; no substantial changes.

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1. Go on, no changes
2. Drop the lowest score
3. Give another question to replace the lowest score

Option 1 would leave some of you with a bad taste in your mouth. Option 2 would give a tie right now and works out horribly for one of you. With that in mind, please post how you would like to continue. Resubmission would be unfair and would bring too many technicalities so I would rather not go that route. If you have something better, please suggest it and we can visit that.

We do want to know who got it all correct though, because if it wasn't me, I would like to know what I did wrong. Then again, the one who got it right and meant it would be bummed for sure.

__________________
/Thunder in the wind/No rain/Peace mourns its passing/

Please do it in such a way that the 'replaced lowest score' can be from a different question for the person who got it right, rather than just dropping out a question entirely for everyone. As in 'replacing the lowest score' for the good answerer will be dropping whatever question they are lowest in, including the bonus question, if they are lowest in that.

I don't know if I'm the 'good answerer' -- I tried to read everything multiple times before answering, but I'm bad at mind reading too.

quote:

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Originally posted by Jtrade77:
I'm Ok with the additional question to replace the lowest score, choice three.

Please do it in such a way that the 'replaced lowest score' can be from a different question for the person who got it right, rather than just dropping out a question entirely for everyone. As in 'replacing the lowest score' for the good answerer will be dropping whatever question they are lowest in, including the bonus question, if they are lowest in that.

I don't know if I'm the 'good answerer' -- I tried to read everything multiple times before answering, but I'm bad at mind reading too.

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Work on that mind reading thing.

Finals!
Scoring: For this round, the scores will all be relative. The best submission will receive a score of 10, while the other two will a percentage of it compares to the winning submission. In the event that there is a tie, I will have one final question for sudden death or the finalist can agree on a voting system by members that are following this thread to decide a winner with a minimum of 9 votes total within a week. But let’s hope we don’t get to that.

Card 1: If I were to make a card like this, I would think the easiest way would be to take a card that does two or more things and see if any other color has that ability and if yes, then just make a multicolor card with the other colors. What each of you did was just take a card and moved it to another color, that is much harder to justify using magic terms, and that’s really more of a “I changed a color identity” than anything else. Using the example in the reference article of essence drain and lightning helix, if you simply said red does damage and what gains life, so I shifted essence drain to lightning helix. An example of what I had in mind:

Cool Card Name
2WWB
Enchantment

At the beginning of your upkeep, you may search your library for a card and put it into your graveyard. Shuffle afterwards.

At the beginning of your upkeep, you may return a creature card from your graveyard and put it into play.

Green can search library its owner’s library and put creature(s) into play directly (zenith, tooth and nail, natural order). Now I shifted that to white and black (which should be self-explanatory).

**From everyone’s submissions it seems that I didn’t get what I wanted across because everyone just moved an ability to a different color. I thought the reference article made things pretty clear, but I guess not.

Aether:
Card 1: You basically moved cranial extraction to white. But there’s nothing in white that searches an opponent’s library outside of scour was part of a cycle and the color pie has shifted a bit since the time of Urza.. If you made this W/U then it might have made sense.

Score: DQ

JTrader:
Card 1: Outside of that witch, the only white cards that bounce are the ones that only let you do it to your own stuff. It would be cool to mass bounce in white, but I don’t think you can explain it in magic terms.

Score: DQ

Black:
Card 1: Green doesn’t destroy all creatures, but changing them into squirrels is a way to go, and we have seen this on beast within. From your description, it didn't at all justify this in terms of magic, so I don't know you even intended for this to work out like it did.

Make me these 3 cards, the first 2 cards are to promote fun and interactions and the last card should be a well balanced good card:

1.A five color sliver spell (note – this does not have to be a creature but it should be tribal unless you make a planeswalker or something that can’t be tribal) and a simple explanation of your thought process

2.A huge powerful spell – can be anything (creature, sorcery, etc), think omniscience big

3.A new mox – you can put in your own twist, like legendary on Mox Opal, but the end result should feel like a mox. I think this is super self-explanatory, but please ask if you have any doubts. I have prepared an example of what I think an 8-9 should be.

Mox on a Tree
0
Artifact
Imprint – When Mox on a Tree comes into play, you may exile a land card in your hand. If you do, Mox on a Tree becomes a copy of that land.

“I thought you said your seeds popped out lotuses? Why am I only getting brass?”
- Goblin Agricultural Specialist

This would receive a high score because it follows the mox path of a zero mana artifact that can tap for 1 mana. It provides a mana acceleration at a cost. Since it counts as a land it doesn’t help affinity or academy. In theory you can live the dream of putting a bounce land or even lotus vale on it, but only testing can show if the wording should be changed to “As it comes into play…”

Exploring drawback other than discarding a card is encouraged.

This is something that meets all the mox qualities but just don’t feel like a mox:

Mox Ephemeral:
0
Artifact
Tap, exile ~: Put a land from your hand into play tapped.

This feel much more like a spell than an artifact, again, please ask if I am not being clear somewhere.

Each card is weighed the same in terms of points. These 3 cards will only have a combined score (not individual), replacing your lowest score from the previous questions.

Good luck!

1.)Five color sliver spell

Sliver Metamorphosis
1WUBRG
Tribal Sorcery -- Sliver (mythic)
Put a token copy of every non-token, non-silver creature onto the battlefield under your control. These tokens gain the creature type "Sliver" and lose the creature type "Legend".
"Everyone may become my child." --Sliver Queen

From a flavor standpoint, this is a spell used by a hive when they are faced with superior foes from all directions, and must adapt fast. I didn't want to legend rule off enemy commanders, so the added the legend clause. Being five colors and six mana, this type of huge effect is worth the cost.

2.) Huge power spell.

Singularity Prison
XUWB
Enchantment (mythic)
Imprint -- Exile X target non-land cards in play or in graveyards. Copies of cards imprinted on Singularity Prison may not be played or put into play.
"Eternal imprisonment for an entire clan."

This is one sort of inspired by the Phantom Zone in the superman mythos. You get to exile anything in play or in a graveyard that bothers you, it won't be back, and even if the enchantment goes away, what you managed to exile is still gone. It can stop instants, planeswalkers, artifacts, etc.. Storywise, it would be imprisioning some big force in MTG mythos, likely a family of planeswalkers that got in the way of Bolas.

3.) Mox

Mox Mystery
0
Legendary Artifact (mythic)
Imprint -- When Mox Mystery enters the battlefield, you may remove the top card of any library from the game.

T) Add a mana of any of that card's colors to your mana pool. (Colorless is not a color.)

"Surprise!"

In standard, will hit land or artifacts and be useless occasionally, making it balanced. In legacy/vintage, you can check with Brainstorm. Also liked the 'hit your opponent's library if they just tutored' possibility. Would print this in a set where blue/white put things on top of library. Made it legendary to stop abuse with multiple copies. Also, mystery boxes and moxes becomes pedestrian if too many are in play.

Could easily have done a mox with the Presence mechanic, but I liked the top-down flavor of asking myself, "What if this mox were mysterious and unknown?" and going from there.

quote:

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Originally posted by Jtrade77:
Make up question:

1.)Five color sliver spell

Sliver Metamorphosis
1WUBRG
Tribal Sorcery -- Sliver (mythic)
Put a token copy of every non-token, non-silver creature onto the battlefield under your control. These tokens gain the creature type "Sliver" and lose the creature type "Legend".
"Everyone may become my child." --Sliver Queen

From a flavor standpoint, this is a spell used by a hive when they are faced with superior foes from all directions, and must adapt fast. I didn't want to legend rule off enemy commanders, so the added the legend clause. Being five colors and six mana, this type of huge effect is worth the cost.

2.) Huge power spell.

Singularity Prison
XUWB
Enchantment (mythic)
Imprint -- Exile X target non-land cards in play or in graveyards. Copies of cards imprinted on Singularity Prison may not be played or put into play.
"Eternal imprisonment for an entire clan."

This is one sort of inspired by the Phantom Zone in the superman mythos. You get to exile anything in play or in a graveyard that bothers you, it won't be back, and even if the enchantment goes away, what you managed to exile is still gone. It can stop instants, planeswalkers, artifacts, etc.. Storywise, it would be imprisioning some big force in MTG mythos, likely a family of planeswalkers that got in the way of Bolas.

3.) Mox

Mox Mystery
0
Legendary Artifact (mythic)
Imprint -- When Mox Mystery enters the battlefield, you may remove the top card of any library from the game.

T) Add a mana of any of that card's colors to your mana pool. (Colorless is not a color.)

"Surprise!"

In standard, will hit land or artifacts and be useless occasionally, making it balanced. In legacy/vintage, you can check with Brainstorm. Also liked the 'hit your opponent's library if they just tutored' possibility. Would print this in a set where blue/white put things on top of library. Made it legendary to stop abuse with multiple copies. Also, mystery boxes and moxes becomes pedestrian if too many are in play.

Could easily have done a mox with the Presence mechanic, but I liked the top-down flavor of asking myself, "What if this mox were mysterious and unknown?" and going from there.

This concludes my extra question entry, thanks.

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