Gah, I'm usually so careful about templating. Guess I've been playing too much Hearthstone.

Yeah, I can definitely see this card falling most often into "removal with a downside", but I like that in the right circumstances, it can also take a larger creature out of the way for a turn or do something cute with one of your own creatures. 4 damage felt right for the cost, though.

Made famous by Fact or Fiction, the "piles" mechanic involves one player separating some cards into two or more piles. Then one of those piles is chosen by another player or at random, and something happens with that pile (and/or something else happens to the other pile).

In every occurrence of this mechanic, there's tension in the pile creation, because you don't know for sure what pile will get chosen. While that can be fun, I wonder if there's a different approach to piles that would feel different.

Demon's Judgment
Sorcery (R)
Target player separates the creatures they control into two piles, then chooses a pile with the highest total converted mana cost or tied for the highest. Destroy all creatures in the chosen pile.

That's my original idea, but there are some other effects it could work with as well. Maybe we make an homage to the classic.

Sphinx's Judgment
Sorcery (R)
Reveal the top five cards of your library and separate them into two piles. Choose a pile with the lowest total converted mana cost or tied for the lowest. Put that pile into your hand and the other into your graveyard.

The main things I don't like here are that ties make the wording awkward and the power level is hard to gauge. They also feel kind of random in that their power varies a lot based on what cards are involved. Still, I like the idea, and I'm curious what it would be like to play with.

So these count combined converted mana cost? I read these first as just choosing the pile with the highest individual converted mana cost, which would make the cards very unexciting in play.

Yes, although I did forget the word "total" in the second card.

Nissa's Home
Land (M)
Nissa's Home enters the battlefield tapped.
: Add .
After fighting many battles on many worlds, Nissa returned to Zendikar to find peace.
<------>
Nissa, One with Zendikar
Legendary Planeswalker - Nissa (M)
: Untap all lands you control.
: Create a 3/3 green Forest Elemental land creature token.
: Creatures you control get +X/+X and gain trample until end of turn, where X is the number of lands you control.


I know I broke the convention of having the land on the back, but I wanted an expensive planeswalker that could be a land, and I didn't want Flickerwisp shenanigans.

Serra's Warship
Artifact - Vehicle (R)
Flying
As long as Serra's Warship is a creature, damage that would reduce your life total to less than 1 reduces it to 1 instead.
Crew 1
3/3

Single Out
Sorcery (R)
Choose X target creatures. Each opponent sacrifices a creature that wasn't chosen this way.
The Orzhov never run out of scapegoats.

or maybe just...

Tragic Betrayal
Sorcery (U)
Target creature's controller sacrifices another creature.
"I can't imagine the kind of guilt one feels after taking a life. That's why I make others do it for me."

Scoutmaster
Creature - Human Scout (R)
At the beginning of your upkeep, target opponent separates all creatures they control into two piles.
• Attack — Until your next turn, creatures in this pile attack each combat if able.
• Defend — Until your next turn, creatures in this pile can't attack.
3/4

Just for fun, what's the cleanest possible removal spell that fits into every color's color pie at once?

Deploy the Gremlin
Sorcery (R)
Exile target artifact creature. Its controller creates a 2/2 red Gremlin creature token.

Red, green, and white can all exile artifacts. Black can exile creatures. And blue can (occasionally) Pongify creatures. It's a silly card, but a fun exercise.

Misch, Director of Moderation
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor (R)
Each creature with power greater than its mana value can't attack.
Each creature with toughness greater than its mana value can't block.
: Until end of turn, target creature you control has base power and toughness X/X, where X is its mana value.
"Excuse me, demon, but this riot is at least twice as loud as it needs to be."
3/3

Ah, the type of effect that colorless cards should IMO more be actually about instead of **** on the color pie lel.

I did a similar design back in the day:

Surge of Disdain
Sorcery (R)
Choose one or both for target creature —
• Destroy all creatures with lesser mana value than that creature.
• Destroy all creatures with greater mana value than that creature.

Easy Kill
Sorcery (U)
Destroy target creature with lesser mana value than a creature you control.

Protect the Cenobite
Instant (U)
Create a 0/0 black Phyrexian Germ creature token. It gets +3/+3 until end of turn.
"Every minute of your short life will be spent fighting for the glory of Phyrexia. That is my gift to you."
-Elesh Norn

While I like the design, this effect seems ... really weak tbh. It essentially reads, "Deal 3 damage to target attacking creature. Prevent all combat damage that creature would deal to players this turn." before taking into account evasion.

I think it'd be decent limited removal at one mana. It's above rate compared to Righteous Blow or Impeccable Timing, which helps offset the extra limitations a bit. It also has niche upsides like giving you a dies trigger or providing an equipment target in a pinch. I think maybe I overestimated its power when making it uncommon, though.

Impeccable Timing and Holy Day are the two cards I would compare this to. That said, I can see this as is at common; makes evasion more of a premium pick in limited.

Lingering Ambivalence
Enchantment - Aura (U)
Enchant creature
When Lingering Ambivalence enters the battlefield, enchanted creature can't block this turn.
Enchanted creature has defender.

Lingering Barrier
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Flash
Enchant creature
When Lingering Barrier enters the battlefield, enchanted creature gains hexproof until end of turn.
Enchanted creature has ward .

Lingering Immortality
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Flash
Enchant creature
When Lingering Immortality enters the battlefield, enchanted creature gains indestructible until end of turn.
When enchanted creature dies, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control.

Lingering Pain
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature, player, or planeswalker
When Lingering Pain enters the battlefield, it deals 3 damage to enchanted permanent or player.
At the beginning of your upkeep, Lingering Pain deals 1 damage to enchanted permanent or player.

Lingering Strength
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Flash
Enchant creature
When Lingering Strength enters the battlefield, enchanted creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
Enchanted creature gets +2/+2.

---

At first I just came up with Lingering Barrier (which was originally white), and thought it was a neat thematic design, but then I just had to see if I could make a whole cycle with the concept. Some of these work better than others, but I think I ended up with some interesting ideas here.

Made this for the rarity game, but it turned out to be the wrong rarity.

Population Curve
Enchantment (R)
At the beginning of your upkeep, create X 1/1 green Insect creature tokens, where X is the half the number of creatures you control, rounded down.
At the beginning of your end step, choose a number of creatures you control equal to the number of lands you control, then sacrifice the rest.

Spotless Mind
Sorcery (R)
Target opponent chooses a card name, reveals cards from the top of their library until they reveal a card with that name, then puts all cards revealed this way into their graveyard.
"Wouldn't it be easier to just forget?"

Underworld Smuggler
Creature - Human Rogue (R)
Underworld Smuggler can't block
Sacrifice Underworld Smuggler: Return Underworld Smuggler from your graveyard to your hand.
3/2

Prodigal Aethermancer
Creature - Human Wizard (U)
: Prodigal Aethermancer deals 1 damage to another target creature. If that creature would die this turn, return it to its owner's hand instead.
"Fascinating. My turbo murder death ray seems to instead be safely transporting its target to another location."
1/1

Lieutenant Outpost
Land (C)
Lieutenant Outpost enters the battlefield tapped.
: Add one mana of any color in your commander’s color identity.
Discard Lieutenant Outpost: Draw a card. Activate only if you control your commander.

Inspired by:


Expose Weakness
Instant (U)
Target spell's controller may pay . If they do, return that spell to its owner's hand. Otherwise, counter that spell.
"Would you like to try that again?"
-Dovin Baan