Pliers -
Artifact
As ~ enters the battlefield, name a card.
Whenever an opponent discards a card with the chosen name, that player loses 4 life.


All the names of torture devices already exist as artifacts in Magic

Attack the Objective

Sorcery
Attack the Objective deals 6 damage to target battle or planeswalker.

Vampiric Ritual
Instant (C)
Target player loses 3 life. You gain 3 life and add

Die Already -
Instant
Destroy target creature X times.

Is that meant to be a balanced version of Lotus Cobra?

Not particularly, it was an enchantment at first.

Fractal Elf —
Creature — Elf Fractal (U)
Flying, vigilance
: Add , , or .
2/2

I would generally have these type of cards trigger off from combat damage - as is more the standard nowadays - but I tailored this card to be specifically reminiscent of 7th edition, so I went with the trigger of Thieving Magpie as it had a printing in the set.

Yeah weird that they never made a bigger Curiosity. Not that I expect them to print Ice Scream

Speaking of bigger...

Induce Migrane
Sorcery
Target opponent reveals his or her hand. You choose up to two cards from it. That player discards those cards.

That's Extortion. Well, strictly worse if for some weird reason you wanted to spend five mana to make yourself or one of your teammates discard two cards. Also "reveal" vs "look" where it can hard to say which is better.

ITT: Cards that apparently exist

No reason to stop there, is there?

So we already have Charge Through for trample, Leap for flying, and Expedite for haste. That means...

EDIT: Added the awesome flavour texts suggested by Tevish Szat.

Quote:

Batter

Sorcery (C)

Target creature gains double strike until end of turn. (It deals both first-strike and regular combat damage.)

Draw a card.

"If violence didn't work the first time, try it again."

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Quote:

Climb

Instant (C)

Target creature gains reach until end of turn. (It can block creatures with flying.)

Draw a card.

A peak no bird can fly over, climbers still surmount.

Visual render

Quote:

Persevere

Instant (C)

Target creature gains indestructible until end of turn. (Damage and effects that say "destroy" don't destroy it.)

Draw a card.

"Endure. In enduring, grow strong."

—The Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon

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Quote:

Pacify

Instant (C)

Target creature gains defender until end of turn. (It can't attack.)

Draw a card.

For a moment, at least, Gartraz the Wicked really thought about his unlife.

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Quote:

Spook

Sorcery (C)

Target creature gains menace until end of turn. (It can't be blocked except by two or more creatures.)

Draw a card.

"I hate the playful ones. Always send the interns running."

—Heinrich, Geistcatcher of Nephalia

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Quote:

Sheen

Sorcery (C)

Target creature gains first strike until end of turn. (It deals combat damage before creatures without first strike.)

Draw a card.

A glint of steel. A flash of flame. Silence lingers.

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Quote:

Conserve

Instant (C)

Target creature you control gains hexproof until end of turn. (It can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.)

Draw a card.

"We could learn a thing or two from that one."

—Jinara Kudro

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Quote:

Vigil

Sorcery (C)

Target creature gains vigilance until end of turn. (Attacking doesn't cause it to tap.)

Draw a card.

The World Tree burned. The realms shattered. The Omenpaths opened. He would keep watch.

Visual render

Batter: Made it a sorcery for less swingy plays at common (no giving double strike for an unblocked creature during combat). Related cards: Psychotic Fury, Assault Strobe, etc...

Persevere: Could have a 1-cost sorcery version I think. Rather 2-for-1 like as antiremoval measure so a more conservative costing would be like or . I think Survive the Night is currently the closest to this design. I first had this card's name be Endure.

Pacify: Basically a strictly worse Niveous Wisps.

Sheen: Again a sorcery since this at 1 cmc would be kinda scary of a combat trick at common. Closest similar cards are Guided Strike and Lightning Blow. I would have preferred to call this Outflank or something like that but bunch of those names had already been used.

Conserve: This annoyingly (since it sort of breaks the pattern here) ought to have the "you control" clause since giving creatures your opponents' control can be unintuitive. Also this has the same thing as with "Persevere" where it can be rather 2-for-1 antiremoval so maybe 3 cmc might be more reasonable at lower rarity - or perhaps it ought to be an uncommon? Dunno. I would have preferred to call this something like Safeguard but that's already used as a name. "Shield" was what I had this for a while until I remembered that shield counters are a thing now which this has nothing to do with.

Spook & Vigil: These are sorceries because giving these keywords to your creatures on your opponents' turns or at mid-combat doesn't do much of anything. Hmmm, then again, Expedite is also an instant for whatever reason so maybe these should be as well? It does make them easier to cycle so there would be that at least...

...

EDIT: If anyone is interested in coming up with flavour texts for these, I can add edit them in later on. Thx Tevish

Batter: "If violence didn't work the first time, try it again."
Climb: A peak no bird can fly over, climbers still surmount
Persevere: "Endure. In enduring, grow strong" - The Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon
Pacify: For a moment, at least, Gartraz the Wicked really thought about his unlife.
Spook: "I hate the playful ones. Always send the interns running." - Heinrich, Geistcatcher of Nephalia
Sheen: A glint of steel. A flash of flame. Silence lingers.
Conserve: "We could learn a thing or two from that one." - Jinara Kudro
Vigil: The World Tree burned. The realms shattered. The Omenpaths opened. He would keep watch.

Also, Shadow Rift is a card that fits the pattern