Senility
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant Player
When Senility becomes attached to a player, they discard two cards
If a card would be put into enchanted player's graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead.
He remembered being an archmage, but not any of the spells that earned that title.I feel like this could cost 3, it's comparable to
go blank except looking forward instead of back. maybe stronger, but if you just do
I think that balances out fine. probably doesn't need to be an enchant player either, could just say "an opponent's graveyard", but then again does anything need to be an enchant player? not really, at least not beyond the typal implications of Curses. I get it as a flavor choice, though, since it's supposed to represent a state for your opponent. and I do like the flavor. it seems like a solid card.
3/5Retire InstantExile target creature. It's controller creates a Food token.
No longer able to lift his steel sword in service to his king, Marcus now wields a wooden spoon much to the delight of his grandchildren. I feel like this should cost 3, given how much stronger it is than, say,
last breath: instant-speed creature exiling at less than 3cmc typically comes with a pretty steep drawback or restriction. but I really like the design. the flavor's wonderful, and it feels like a really effective staple common in the vein of
swords to plowshares. (inclduing a nice allusion in the flavor text.) just a little aggressive on cost.
4/5Remembering the Years -
Sorcery
Draw until you have seven cards in hand.
Each player gets an emblem with "At the beginning of your end step, if the number of cards in your hand is less than your hand size, reduce your hand size by 1."
I'm gonna assume you mean maximum hand size. anyway it's nice, drawing up to 7 is potentially very powerful but at 5cmc the baseline is
tidings and it's not guaranteed that this will draw more than that. the emblem is tricky, hard to say how relevant it'll be in the long run and maybe a little fiddly to track, but evocative and potentially impactful at least. certainly changes the dynamic of the card in an interesting way. is that way good or bad? I'm genuinely not sure. I wonder if this should be an enchantment? it'd make tracking the ability easier but then you can bounce it and replay it for another go at the etb trigger so maybe not. (also technically you can't say "draw until you have X cards in hand" because something like
spirit of the labyrinth stalls out the game, you have to say "draw X cards, where X is 7 minus the number of cards in your hand" or something, but whatever.)
3/5Wisdom of Years Enchantment - Aura (U)
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets -2/-2 and gains "
: Draw a card."
Age determines your definition of victory. aw dang that's hella cute. underwhelming but not unworkable removal spell that can also turn into a massive card engine in a stalemate. and the flavor's lovely. really nice take on the criteria.
5/5Fogeyfy |
InstantExile target creature. Its controller creates a 1/1 creature token with the same name, types, subtypes, and colors, except it is also an Elder.
crib swap but flavor-swapped? sure. not the most compelling, and the name is a little Un-set for my tastes, but I think it's a printable common. although I think the use of Elder is a little off: typically in Magic, Elder denotes a being of ancient power, not just an old character.
2/5Dutiful Twinhorn Creature - Minotaur Warrior (U)
Cumulative upkeep - Exile the top card of your library
Dutiful Twinhorn gets +1/-1 for each card you own in exile.
When Vhon was young, he was chosen to guard the sacred burial grounds of his people. When the Frilian war tribes came, he was chosen to stand against them in battle. And when his horns had cracked from years of toil, he was chosen to join his ancestors in rest.0/11
story's great. card's interesting. I dunno if it's good enough to be worth exiling 10 cards from your library, but at every step along the way it's a pretty impressive body for a 3-drop. I like how the accelerating effect of the cumulative upkeep means it's pretty hard to kill before it gets to that final 10/1. it's a shame to use exile though 'cause it means that even one card exiled for any other reason cuts off that form entirely and breaks the cohesion of the story. I don't know how to do this with counters without getting really ugly in practice, but I wish there was a way to localize the effect to the particular copy of the twinhorn, especially since one going all the way means that all the others in your deck are blank.
3/5Witch’s Pantry -
Artifact |
RWhen
Witch’s Pantry enters, create a Food token.
At the beginning of your end step, put an age counter on each Food you control.
Whenever you sacrifice a Food, choose one. For each age counter on it —
- Ripen — You gain an additional life.
- Ferment — You mill a card.
- Rot — Each opponent loses a life.
ooh, fun. I suppose I never did specify that it had to be a creature getting old. this does have a bit of the classic
disciple of the vault problem where it feels very natural to juxtapose life gain and life loss but they are far from equal in power, and this will most often just be a source of damage, but I don't think it's an overpowered one, and access to the other options can be conditionally useful. it feels a little silly that you decide which thing it was doing
after you sac it but obviously the mechanics don't work any other way so I don't mind that. overall I think this would be a fun card for a set with a food theme.
4/5The Passing of Generations Enchantment (R)
Whenever a player casts a creature spell, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature that player controls.
Each creature with three or more +1/+1 counters on it can't attack or block.
"You've had enough adventures for one lifetime. Let us handle it now." seems tough to play with but in an interesting way. dangerous to just run as a moat, since your opponent's stuff gets bigger for a while first, and hard to handle on your own things 'cause even with token swarms you eventually get boxed out. probably your best bet is the token thing, especially with non-spell token sources, and then once most of your things are at 2 counters just stop casting spells and take the double anthem until they answer your board, then reset. seems like a fun deck to mess around with, and also a difficult one to work against. kind of annoying to stack counters on things forever once they've hit the limit but the wording to get around that is annoying and it can still matter with, like,
spikeshot goblin. flavor's nice, too.
4/5Wash to the Sea —
Sorcery (R)
Destroy target Mountain. Its controller searches their library for an Island card and puts it onto the battlefield, then shuffles.
I like the story concept a lot, but I have some pretty serious issues with the design. if I'm running a red deck without islands, this is a one-mana
stone rain. that's enough to hose those decks out of the format. and yeah, you can just start packing a couple, like heavily gold decks do with basics in formats with
field of ruin and the like, but it feels a lot less interesting to mess up the manabase of, like, RDW. you could probably get around that by making an island token instead, so they don't have to have brought their own. my other issue with it, though, is that I maintain the least interesting aspect of the metagame to make hate spells for is the colors. this is dead in most matchups, but becomes extremely scary if your opponent happens to be running red. (and not blue) it doesn't really punish a strategy, it just punishes a land type, and I think it's a good thing that we're seeing a lot less of those sorts of designs these days: as far as I can find, the last card to punish an opponent for running mountains is...
glacial crasher if you count that, otherwise
peak eruption. either way, about a decade ago. maybe if it hit any land and made an island token? might have to cost 2 in that case, but I don't think that's essential to the narrative.
2/5Age's Wisdom Enchantment - Trait (R)
(This trait's value is equal to) The number of time counters among permanents you control.
Whenever this Trait's value increases, scry 1.
Value 5+ - Creatures you control have vigilance.
Value 10+ - If you would draw a card, instead draw two cards, then discard a card.
Value 15+ - Sacrifice this Trait.
how do I feel about traits? not sure. I don't get the reminder-text nature of the first line but I can figure out what you mean. I worry this isn't as interesting an enabler as it's trying to be: time counters take a solid amount of work to keep up, since they're mostly on Vanishing creatures that tick down, (with a few largely-irrelevant exceptions like
time bomb.) so it feels odd to incentivize you to try to get that number up pretty high but then suddenly punish you if it gets too high. doesn't seem like a mechanic that's interesting to thread the needle with. the effects also don't feel that connected. scry becomes less useful if you're already drawing a lot, and vigilance doesn't tie in with either of the other mechanics in an obvious way. I think the parts of this that are interesting are getting covered up but I don't wanna say it's bad 'cause it's a big swing and there's something about it that keeps catching me. like I want to like it and it just needs another pass to get to something exciting.
2/5Ardel Demeter, Storyteller of Fortune
Creature - Human Mercenary Bard
: Ardel Demeter gains Menace until end of turn.
: Ardel Demeter gains +2/-1 until end of turn.
[[[[Ward - Perform a stanza from The Love Song of Night and Day, that has not yet been performed this game.
(This ability only apples in Un-Games)]]]
When Ardel Demeter dies, put it onto the battlefield transformed.
4/3
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Ardel's Corner at Red River Inn
Enchantement
At the beginning of your upkeep exile the top card of your library. You may cast that card until end of turn.
"Wrap yourself in your best bright clothes, your red and purple scarves of silk.
Run with me to the festival, where we will dance until sunrise.
The dwarves will beat their funny drums of zebra skins and hollowed trees,
while stiltwalkers perform, and the musician blows his bamboo flute." -Ardel, performing at the Red River Inn, post-injury retirement,
The Love Song of Night and DayI like the idea here a lot. I'm torn on the execution. a minor thing, but I'd say "If ~ would die, transform it instead" captures the flavor better. more significantly though I think the front side is just doing too many distracting things. even ignoring the Ward joke, it's got two extra activated abilities, neither of which are that unusual but both of which add complexity, especially since they don't relate to the back side. that could convey her attitude changing when she retires, but since you already list her as a storyteller and a bard, that feels off. I dunno. there's a great idea here but the front half is getting in the way of seeing it.
3/5Fading Memories Enchantment - Aura (R)
Enchant opponent
Imprint — At the beginning of enchanted opponent's upkeep, they exile three cards from their graveyard. Then, if there are no cards in their graveyard, transform
Fading Memories.
//TDFC//
Fading Identity Enchantment - Aura
Enchant opponent
At the beginning of enchanted opponent's upkeep, they mill a number of cards equal to the number of cards exiled with this enchantment.
(Imprinted cards persist through transforming.) interesting. earlier in this post I made the claim that very few cards
need to enchant a player, but this is a solid counterexample. at the very least, it's clear why you'd want it to latch on to a single player, and the wording would be a little more awkward otherwise. and it's a really interesting design, too. hard to find a great use case for it, since you need to be enough of a mill deck to want a mill effect but not enough that you're gonna have a hard time emptying their yard, but you also need it to be at least a little full to start... but I think that's an exciting tightrope, and even if you don't wind up with all that many cards, it still doesn't take that long to kill. seems more like a hard-to-solve win con for a control deck than a tool for a mill deck, but a wincon that also punishes (or at least slows down) graveyard decks is pretty cool.
5/5cute! numbers seem about right: a 3/3 for 2 isn't unusual these days, and if you want it on curve you have to skip your 1-drop, but it gives white weenie a lot of sticking power in exchange. is white weenie still a deck? no idea. but I like this and it tells a great story.
5/5I always feel weird when the last couple cards get 5/5s 'cause it feels like I got lazy but hey sometimes that's just how it goes, anyway I think my favorite entry this round was
Shaz! congrats, nominating now, go join the next round you nerds.