The Spell That Never Ends Sorcery (U)
If you've ever cast a spell named
The Spell That Never Ends in a prior game that included at least one of your opponents, you may cast this without paying its mana cost.
Create a 1/1 colorless Verse creature token with "This creature can't block."
Mega Rebound
(Exile it as it resolves. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile without paying its mana cost. Forever.)It just goes on and on, my friends. I do like the idea of a card that simply cares if it ever happened, but I wish the effect was something else. a 1/1 every turn forever is probably worth at least 3 on its own, and while the block restriction does clear up the most egregious use case, I dunno, I just want it to be something more... annoying? like, cost it at
and make it drain 1 life. infuriating, and so frustrating to see pop up again turn 1 in the next game. (also, caring across multiple games makes the "Forever" in Mega Rebound's reminder text ambiguous, but I assume it's still intended to stop after the current game ends.)
3/5Beginner's Luck SorceryChoose one at random. If this is your first time casting this spell ever, choose one instead:
- ~ deals 5 damage to each opponent.
- Discard your hand, then draw three cards.
honestly I liked the original version better, even if it was less likely to come up. this is still nice, but it adds a mildly annoying memory issue (and the potential to lie) and the flavor doesn't land as effectively. I also wish the effects were a little more pushed, even if I do get to choose I don't feel like I'm getting much value. (for what it's worth this doesn't technically work, since modes are chosen before costs are paid so you can just keep attempting to cast it and then failing to pay in order to rewind the game to before you cast it, then cast again until you get the mode you want, but can you imagine losing points for wording in an Un set round?)
3/5Revenge Play
Instant
Destroy target creature an opponent controls. If they won their last game of
Magic against you, that creature's controller loses life equal to its toughness. Otherwise, you do.
Nothing evens the odds quite like subtracting a crucial factor from a prime foe.solid. I like how this works on the sideboard, coming in when you lose and maybe going out when you win. extremely strong removal when it's on, which is a fun position to be in. not sure I get the math references in the flavor text, but this feels like the sort of thing they'd absolutely do in a traditional Un set to make it actually work as a draft format. pushes the boundaries far enough to need the affordances of a silver border, but not so much it becomes difficult to actually manage.
4/5Timeline Hopper -
Creature - Human Detective
As you lose the game, if the next game has the same players, you may choose ~ and a nonland permanent you control and set them aside for the next game. At the beginning of the next game, exile ~ and the nonland permanent with time counters equal to their mana cost. They gain suspend.
When ~ enters the battlefield, scry 3.
2/1
seems like a fairly obvious approach, basically an expansion of the
double dip cycle, but I don't think that's a bad thing. I like how the next game has to be immediate, although maybe not super fun in that it encourages your opponent to just, like, decide to stop playing with you for a bit. I doubt that'll come up in an un-set context, though. also nice to make it only work on losing. I know I said the focus was on design, but I do wish there was
something funny here to mark it as an Un card. (not that many of those are successfully funny, but you know what I mean.)
4/5Mugshooter Creature - Human Photographer
Flash
When this creature enters, target opponent may have you photograph them along with this creature and target nontoken creature they control. If they don't, exile the creature they control until this creature leaves the battlefield.
: Reveal a photo made for a card you own named mugshooter that shows a creature card with mana value X not named Mugshooter. Create a token copy of that card.
1/4
I do like the choice between taking the hit now and just making it a problem for everyone else, forever, and the card feels a lot more doable these days now that most people have camera phones. also cool that it gets progressively weaker as you play it more and more against the same deck, since once you have a photo, you get nothing for taking a second one. it does get a pretty huge power spike once you get even a single photo, since the token ability is pretty nuts, but I think that's in the spirit of the round. I wish the wording weren't so clunky, but that's the only thing I don't like about this card.
4/5Loxodon Sniper |
Creature - Elephant AssassinWhenever a creature deals damage to you, note its name. Cards remain noted this way until the end of the match.
,
: ~ deals 5 damage to target tapped creature you noted with cards named ~.
An elephant never forgets. A hitman never misses.2/5
match is an interesting length to measure, in that it could be a while, especially in a casual setting where you're just playing a series of games with a friend, but it still has enough of a cutoff that you don't have to track the thing forever. flavor's really fun, and the card is interesting. it can always fire back against an attacker that hit you, but as it accumulates names, it gets to start taking them out preemptively. overall a really nice, effective design that feels Un without being too hacky about it.
5/5Biblically Accurate Angel -
Enchantment Creature - Angel Horror |
RWhen
Biblically Accurate Angel enters, an opponent checks one —
☐ first strike ☐ flying ☐ lifelink
☐ vigilance ☐ ward
☐ protection from creatures
Biblically Accurate Angel has all checked abilities.
Some eye witness accounts describe it as sharp and/or winged and/or heavenly and/or militant and/or unapproachable and/or immortal.4/4 flavor's really cute, but I think it's a bit of a bummer how quickly it reaches its final form and then just, like, stays there. I know most people's experience of Un sets is probably just gonna be the occasional draft when the set comes out, but it'd be nice if the card continued to be interesting for players who do stick with it, and this a) doesn't really do that, and b) gets pretty dang overpowered once you start ticking boxes. I dunno. I wish there was some way for marks to fade over time, so you could keep making choices with it.
3/5Tempo Responder Creature - Human Buzzkill (U)
Lifelink
Whenever an opponent casts a spell except for the first spell they cast on their turn, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
This card cannot be mainboarded.
(You can only sideboard it in.)1/1
I'm 100% certain that if they did this, even just for a cycle, they'd keyword that ability. maybe something like Sideboard Savior? but I like it, and specifically the Buzzkill type is
exactly the sort of thing they'd do for a cycle like this. I do feel like it'd be more interesting, though, if the card wasn't a hoser. this probably starts on your sideboard anyway:
nip gwyllion isn't playable, and unlike something like
ledger shredder you can't trigger this yourself, so it's a dead card in a lot of matches, making the restriction kinda meaningless. make it a more maindeckable card, though, and suddenly there's tension. do you give up a specialized sideboard slot for a generalized threat that you'll always bring in but will never be your silver bullet? do you draft it knowing it'll increase your chances in games 2 and 3 but that you're giving up some power in game 1? those are choices this card doesn't ask you to make, and I think that's too bad.
2/5Urza's Safety Deposit Box Legendary Artifact: Move an artifact you control underneath ~
: Put a card underneath ~ onto the battlefield.
Cards remain underneath ~ when it changes zones or the game ends
logistically speaking, how does this work? do the cards remain underneath it as you shuffle it into your deck? how do you keep them in position when you pack up your things and leave? like, I'm willing to give extra leeway on making things work in this round for obvious reasons, but more than most designs, Un cards are meant to interact with physical space, and this simply fails to cohere physically. that's maybe solvable, but I don't know if the card is doing enough interesting stuff to be worth solving: there's an appeal to carrying a card through to the next game, but there's other versions of that (including in this round) that don't come with so many problems.
1/5Regular Customer Creature - Human Citizen (C)
When Regular Customer enters, punch a hole.
(Every fourth hole you punch across games, draw a card.)2/2
ooh, I like the idea of making it a set mechanic. honestly, flavor aside, this could work in black-bordered magic, kinda like what Unfinity did with stickers and whatnot. (although don't get me wrong, I do not like stickers, but I like this) my one thing is that, if you're gonna premiere a mechanic on a basic vanilla common, I'd love to see you use that space for flavor or something. a solid one-liner would've elevated this card a lot, but without it it's still a solid piece of design.
4/5Record Elemental Wins|Losses
______|______Creature - Elemental (U)
Trample
Record Elemental gets +X/-Y, where X is your win record for the day and Y is your loss record for the day.
At least you'll know when to quit.7/7
fun. I'm a bit torn on the body: it gets better with more wins, but not in a way that has any real impact on whether you get more wins. if it was, say, an 0/7 for 4, the ability would matter more, but a 7-power 7-drop is kinda already maxed out in terms of the practical benefits of increased power. but is that a bad thing? is this more fun if it lets you snowball your whole gaming group when you get on a hot streak, or is it better as more trinket text on a body that's already just gonna do its thing? I'm not sure.
4/5Duel of Wit SorceryYou and target opponent each search their library for exactly three cards and play a
Three Card Magic subgame with those cards. Each player may put one of those cards into their hand for each subgame they won this way, then shuffles the rest into their library.
(You both play one game as the start player.) technically speaking, this cares about events in a
simultaneous game, not a previous one, but I'm not gonna be too much of a stickler in an Un round of all places, and I like this a lot. relatively easy to get two cards if you build for it and your opponent didn't, but then how do you build a 3CM hand with two cards that you actually
want? 3CM's meta is so radically different from normal magic that, like,
dryad arbor is a series shout for MVP, and things only get sillier when you add in silver-bordered options, so the value you can get from this becomes extremely contingent on some very clever deckbuilding restrictions. plus, if the deck it's in becomes too dominant, running a couple 1-ofs to give yourself a counterstrategy is pretty easy, so while a card that tutors two things for two mana is a lot, I think it balances itself really nicely.
5/5Quantum Trailblazer —
Creature — Human Wizard Gamer (C)
If a card named Quantum Trailblazer has ever dealt combat damage to an opponent you're playing against, Quantum Trailblazer gets +1/+0 and has haste.
(And we do mean ever.)“I'd like to thank the mes who came before me!”1/2
seems pretty clean and straightforward, in an effective sort of way. I wonder if it's too much of a memory issue, but I think for the sorts of players who are likely to need to know, it should come up regularly enough to not be a problem. it's also interestingly worse in a prerelease format, where most people will engage with Un sets, because no one will have had time to get hit yet, so you have to decide if it's worth trying to be the first. might still pay off, since it still upgrades if it hits in-game, and if you happen to find someone who
has been hit (and who tells the truth about it, although I think in silver-bordered land that's ok to assume) you get an over-curve but not broken body as a reward. neat!
5/5Grace Tesseract
Creature - Angel
Flying
When ~ enters the battlefield, choose one for each match you have lost this tournament.
- Create a 2/2 knight token.
- scry 5
- Gain 5 life.
3/3
I like the idea of the ability a lot, but the execution is a bit lacking for me. the three abilities just feel like generic things white does, and without any flavor throughline it doesn't land as strongly as it could. I'm also a little concerned that Un sets, more than most Magic, are designed for casual play, so a thing that
only works in a tournament setting might be a miss for most players. maybe not, though, as I've mentioned elsewhere I think the majority of players really only interact with Un sets at a prerelease event, so maybe this can just be a junk rare outside that context. I dunno. still feels like it'd be a little disappointing.
3/5solid round for Un stuff! my expectations were admittedly low, but I think you all did great. still, have to pick a winner, and I think that's gonna be
Tekk! congrats!