I think the thing I'm missing here is the ability to look at the exiled cards. (and then probably make the middle ability return one at random.) otherwise, what reason do I have to make one choice or the other with the II-IV abilities unless I've manipulated the top of my library? I do love a long saga, but the middle part of this is mostly busywork if I don't have some information about whether the exiled cards are going to be particularly useful targets for the ultimate.
3/5

this is definitely a cute minigame. I wonder if doubling the number of decisions per card makes this too slow in practice, but I think you probably get into a rhythm pretty quickly. (at least in paper. lotta clicks on Arena but I don't care that much about that.) 2 life feels like the right number: it's small enough to be affordable when needed but not so cheap that you'll toss it around freely. I'm not sure if this can cost 3 in practice, might need to be higher for safety, but I don't really know. anyway I think it's a really cool design.
4/5

as you know, the history of YMtC is full of cards that let you draw from somewhere other than the top of your deck, but most of them don't really have an internal purpose to it. this does: it turns your brainstorm effect into a pseudo-catalogue until the creature dies. it can also do the other stuff you described, but I think that's an important part of making this design work when so many similar versions don't. does seem a little annoying from a physical perspective, and also maybe kinda difficult digitally if you have to decide every time you draw, but I think the former at least is probably solvable through card placement.
4/5

chain's an interesting mechanic, and I think this is a solid showcase for it. the stats seem about right, using mulldrifter as a rough comparison, and prowess is a nice way to utilize the found cards. there is the issue these sorts of things always have, in that by only running one of a particular kind of card you can just tutor for it, but that's solvable by just, like, not printing the mechanics on cards that cost less than 4 or so (especially if it just goes to hand, not the stack) and since this one costs 5 I don't see any reason to hold that against you. overall a pretty solidly effective design.
4/5

aw I really liked the version of this without the Clue rider. I think this has so much potential to draw so many cards that you really don't need to include compensation for failures. maybe just make it an instant if you want it to be stronger, but I think the main effect is super fiddly in a really engaging way and then the last ability kinda distracts from that game. which is really a shame.
3/5

I'm glad you added the look-at-them part 'cause I think that's necessary to make this work. it's now a really interesting sleight of hand-style card for combo decks, where if the thing you need is in those top 7 you can come back and dig through that until you get it, but if it's not you can just leave those cards exiled forever. I don't think I'd make it legendary is my only thing: maybe drop the mill if needed, but this is at its best as an enabling cantrip and I don't want to have to balance the number of those that I want to run with the legend rule. although maybe that's fine: after all, once you've found the cards you need from one, you don't need to keep it around anymore. also on formatting I'd let you keep looking at the cards but have the second ability put a random card, just so you're not stuck in a memory game. (or you can just write them down, but that adds time, and since that's an option you might as well just let them look.) still, I really like this.
5/5

I dunno, randomly picking a single card from my graveyard multiple times a turn seems like a lot of work. fortunately, it'll rarely be necessary: the correct way to use this is with one instant that I cast durning my opponent's turn, every turn, forever. like isochron scepter without the cost limit. silence or a similar thing is the obvious choice, or just fog in many matchups. or I could do a control shell, use this early to keep my yard empty, and eventually just start time stopping you forever in your upkeep. or in your draw step, because this stops me from drawing so it can eventually let me win from decking. I think, from the complicated trigger in the second ability, you recognized the potential for abuse and tried to work around it, but there's just too much potential, and I think the base, fair-play version is also just not very rewarding since it's so fiddly and hard to use.
1/5

it's an interesting minigame. I doubt the correct play will ever be to use the second ability: that requires you to a) have reliable attackers, and b) not care if they connect, all while c) being a slow, controlly enough deck that this sort of mana expenditure for card advantage is worth it. on the other hand, it's free cards every time you play a sweeper, which is maybe worth something on its own. I wonder if it could cost less given the amount of work it takes, but that's a playtesting question. I do think that's not really how Imprint works and I rather you'd have just left the ability word off, but I don't care much about that either.
4/5

so... it's not quite ": draw a card, any player may activate this ability", but it's pretty dang close. mana empties at the end of each step and phase, so you have an opportunity to float (and then lose) in the upkeep, draw, first main, beginning of combat, declare attackers, declare blockers, first strike damage, combat damage, end of combat, second main, and the end step. (and potentially the cleanup step if you can create a way to gain priority, but I won't count that.) that's 11 activation opportunities per turn, or 22 per turn cycle in a two-player game. but it also forces players to know when those phases happen: do they know end of combat is its own step? do they know whether the later combat phases still happen if you don't declare any attackers? do they know you lose mana now between upkeep and draw, even though you didn't used to? I think maybe there's a salvageable idea here, probably in the form of raising the cost and limiting timing ("A player losing three or more unspent mana at once at the end of a main phase..." or the like) but at that point it sorta returns to just being an activated ability. dunno. not sure how to fix it but I'd love to find a way.
2/5

cute! I will say I've never understood YMtC's obsession with phasing, but this is an interesting approach. it is blue making three 2/2s, which is a little weird, but the delay on them makes sense, and the option to return them to your hand is a fun twist to get back the non-creatures. I do wonder if it's just blue on the classic tricky-thus-blue principle, and I feel like this card would make at least as much sense in white, but it's nice.
4/5

this is one of those cards that feels imminently breakable without actually having an obvious way to break it, and that's really cool. like, this is a manaless engine for cards, but also it doesn't actually generate any sort of card or mana advantage, it just lets you mulligan your bad draws in the hopes of finding something better. there's probably still something silly you can do with it, but whatever that deck is sounds like a blast to play. and the flavor's great.
5/5

I'm trying to work out what the strategy is here, and I keep coming back to "it doesn't really matter". like, if I don't like the cards, I guess I leave them on top to delay the time until I get them, but since every card I'm looking at will end up in my hand soon anyway, the decision of where to put them feels kinda trivial unless I'm in the middle of comboing off or something. I suppose it has the classic brainstorm strategy where you leave bad cards on top, then force a shuffle to get rid of them, but ambition's cost has never been the cutting edge of card draw power anyway: I think adding blue could let you just do a normal scry and draw from the top, and then you wouldn't need extra work to get rid of the ones you don't want. maybe it's good if you see something you do want, but don't need for a couple turns.
2/5

I don't love the antisynergy scrounge has with other scrounge sources, especially if the triggers are gonna be this readily available and repeatable. these days keywords often wind up as themes, but here every scrounge trigger after the first in a turn cycle is weaker because it doesn't actually net you a card. which is kind of a balance problem because you have to treat scrounge as a lot weaker than drawing a card, but then individual scrounge cards in non-scrounge decks become really good. like, look at this: it's a leonin skyhunter that draws you a card every time it attacks. actually, better than draws, it gives you some selection. maybe not unprintably strong by modern standards, but an easy first pick and a serious constructed contender. but anyway the point is scrounge fights with itself in a way that I don't think makes it fun.
2/5

I'm not entirely sure if you can ask for a mana payment in the middle of a replacement effect like this, I couldn't find any examples of it but I feel like it can probably work within the rules. anyway I like the card: it does have some analysis paralysis issues in giving the player that many possible choices, but tying each one to a mana payment is a good way to keep those moments down, and using phyrexian mana specifically gives you another way around it if you really know what you're looking for. it's a neat little mix of mechanical narrative and playability. I might lose the first ability, though: I'm pretty wary of goblin spy effects these days 'cause of what it does to the information flow of the game, especially on a 1-drop like this. if you really need the player to know if the card is something they want in advance, I'd use the sphinx of jwar isle wording instead.
4/5

I like "search the top five cards". have they done that before? I guess kinda assemble the team but I'm not gonna insult you by comparing your design to an Alchemy-only card. anyway, more elegant way to do the anticipate effect. beyond that, seems like a fun card. I guess with the new Omenpaths thing or whatever, Kumano could find himself on Ixalan. getting lands into hand and then using retrace to spend them is neat. (should probably say non-land permanents, since retrace does cast, not play, but that's just formatting.) I do wish this did something to fill your graveyard, though: the two abilities feel not entirely disconnected, but not that connected either. if you, say, searched fewer cards but put the rest into your yard, I think it'd feel much more cohesive.
3/5

I like Stash as a mechanic, and this seems like a cute card for it. the return cost is expensive enough that it probably doesn't see much use, but I think that's where you want it: it's there more as a suggestion of how to use the mechanic than an actual tactical option. flavor's really nice, straightforward in a way that doesn't feel obvious. I like this card a lot as, like, an introductory common.
5/5

sorry for the delay, as I mentioned I was traveling and dealing with some family things. anyway this was an interesting round 'cause there was a lot of big, flashy ideas but all the 5/5s wound up being just, like, really solid and smooth designs. hard to pick a winner, but I think it's Parad! congrats, nominating now, go join the next round if you haven't already.

Part of the legendary status is flavor, but the mechanical reason is also to keep you from having all of these extra piles that matter lying around.

That's an excellent idea.

idk if that remark was sarcastic, but Kumano probably couldn't find himself on Ixalan since he's dead long before those opened, I was thinking of Kumena.

honestly I thought you were just doing a bit, but yeah, Kumena makes more sense.

You didn't rate my submission

I meant to drop my card to at some point. Funnily, I never even considered a control deck - I was stuck on the idea of "kill cards to draw them" and just compared it to Phyrexian Arena that you had to jump through a ton of hoops for.

Also, Parad's card is basically Harnfel, Horn of Bounty, no?

Yeah I really agonized over the mana cost. Obviously, it's a worse Ad Nauseam since it's pretty much Naus except your opponent can intervene. It is a hair less of a gamble, in that a bad flip will just end your run and not kill you, but "the other guy gets to say no" is pretty huge. Naus is 5. And extremely powerful, probably not a healthy card, but it's also not "miscost" at 5. Some effects are just up to no good no matter the cost. Div is much less up to no good, since it cannot combo dig, but it still feels like it would have to be cheaper to not just be "Bad Nauseam" I shaved off two mana, but maybe only one would have been appropiate? At 3 it's more pricey than Sign in Blood, but maybe 4 and comparable to Ambition's Cost would have been better. I guess it depends on just how deep you think somebody's going to go.

Tbh I deliberately used the goblin spy wording because it felt faster to resolve and the opponent would not know what card you added with the ability anyway, so it is not like a player has perfect information.

oh uh... yeah I didn't find that card but yeah more or less. I do still like the slimmer, tighter version that costs less but only gives you what you get.

I designed the card thinking it was good, and then it would creep into my thoughts over the next week with me liking it less and less. I even dreamed about how I fixed it but for some reason I never actually changed it (or remember how I fixed it in my dream).