Balance is an important part of card design though. Mana cost is just as important an element as anything else.

Actually discussions of what makes a good card and considerations for card design in general could be a pretty good thread.

Well, yes, I agree that mana cost is important. However, for the purpose of controlling the power level of the card, it's not really all that interesting. There are some corner cases where the cost of the card is vitally important, but in a lot of cases, it's just the means to control accessibility and efficiency. And at that point, it's for the most part entirely context dependent. Whether you want to push X theme, want it as a limited uncommon, want it as a roleplayer in standard, want to demote the use of some strategy, all of those things that needs a razorborne-lengthy essay to be explained, not a single card.

Too many people just tell you if a card is too powerful or not powerful enough, when that's something you're better off learning by just playing the game.

It is also possible to look at a card like yours and recognize that playtesting it would not lead to anything new

You're free to not care about the power level of your card but I'm also free to not grade it highly

And why is that?

Of course, it's an open forum. I feel that proper reasoning should be provided however, otherwise there's no need for comments. Would you indulge me in how you intend to break Legacy with that card of mine?

I'd consider it if you people could attempt to convince me that it's broken, instead of stating it like it's a law of nature.

After talking on facebook with someone who actually plays magic I revised my opinion slightly

your card is "really good" and possibly "too good" but if it cost more it would probably be balanced. The ability to search for land tax ez and how good it would be in enchantress decks was the reason I thought it was OP

I gotta back mown up, his card is pretty balanced.

Fair enough, that's all I wanted to hear.