Snitches Get Stitches Instant[Art: Similar pose to Silence but the figure is instead being 'silenced' by a sinister figure with a hand over their mouth and a knife to their throat.]Until end of turn, whenever an opponent casts a spell, this deals 3 damage to them.
Draw a card.
"Words are very unnecessary, so let's cut
to the chase: testify against the boss today, and you won't live to see tomorrow." cute! interesting value in a burn deck: if you get even one trigger, then it's worth it on damage, but if you don't then you still get the tempo advantage of slowing them down, and you don't lose a card. also a fun hate card against storm decks, maybe even better than
silence since if you cast it in response to their first ritual they still basically have to stop but now you also get to draw. I appreciate how deceptively balanced it is: it's easy to look at the trigger and think it's wildly overpowered, but of course they can just let themselves be
silenced and it does very little. or if you really need the silence effect, they can eat a little damage punisher-style to get the spell they needed, so while it feels very frisky, it's actually probably on the weak side, although the cantrip also does a lot of work to bump it back up to solid. the more I think about it the more I like it. I do think the flavor text is awkward, though, it's trying too hard to fit a Depeche Mode reference that doesn't really belong. (and isn't even from Stripped!)
4/5Depths of the Demhe
Instant
Mill cards equal to the number of cards in your graveyard.
Draw a card.
iiiiiinteresting. like, instinctively, I want to say it's super easy to make this better than
mental note, which was already very strong. but on the other hand, the one time it's weaker than Note is the one time Note is at its strongest: turn 1. I'm still a little nervous about how much this could mill even on turn, like, 3 or 4, but then again it's also a little self-limiting just because if it mills
too much, it kills you with the draw. I really don't know how to take this card, but I think it's exciting enough to be worth that effort.
5/5Split and sell
Instant
As an additional cost of casting this instant , sacrifice a creature,artifact or land.
Create your choice of a treasure, a map or a clue token.
Draw a card.
one-mana discount on
deduce in exchange for an
altar's reap condition seems fine. the card feels a little scattershot, though: you can sac three different things, it makes three different things, those things aren't all equally valuable, and it doesn't really seem to have much going for it in terms of cohesion. it just sort of does whatever. the mini-[mc]manamorphose[/c] option might be interesting for storm decks, and of course the clue is fine value on its own. map seems unlikely, since its ability has a sorcery-speed restriction, but overall I just don't really feel like this card is
for anything, which is too bad.
2/5Seed of Malice — [mc](br)[/mc]
Sorcery (C)
Seed of Malice deals 1 damage to each player.
Draw a card.
Cycling — Pay 2 life.
What started out as a simple rebellious thought soon grew into a wicked ploy, whose fruits would show that blood can only be repaid with blood.
I think I'd like this better without the cycling. cycling on a cantrip feels kinda redundant, especially when the cost is so similar to the outcome of actually resolving the spell. it's like a modal spell but both the modes are pretty much the same thing. which is a shame because I do quite like the rest of it: it seems like a fun little Spectacle enabler, and the flavor text is excellent.
3/5Muscle Research -
Instant |
CPut a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
If you haven't already drawn a card this turn, draw a card.
There's strength in knowing when to flex your knowledge. poor
battlegrowth. interesting condition. I still buy it as a cantrip, but lets the main effect be a bit more powerful because you
have to use it on their turn. maybe not the hugest deal, but as a combat trick, only working on defense is a big deal. (just ask
hold the line.) and it's not like it's terrible on your turn either, it's just better on theirs.
3/5Engrossed in Work -
Sorcery (R)
It becomes night. It becomes day.
Draw a card.
Richard blinked. The devices now hummed an alien tone, his research papers a daunting task. The clock claimed it is now the 24th. He deduced two days had flew by, his growling stomach concluded it was time to eat. ha. cute. flavor's fun. bit of a shame that if it's already night you only get one change, but I think wording it to make sure you always get two loses the impact of reading it as-is. I like it as a cantrip because it doesn't intrinsically
do anything but it's really clear how you could use it with other cards to make an interesting deck.
4/5Surging Rage Instant
Creaturres you control with trample get +1/+1 until end of turn.
Draw a card.
seems pretty serviceable.
charge is weak, but cantripping does a lot of work for it.
aggressive urge is maybe a better comparison, since this isn't likely to hit your whole board, but you also can't control who it does hit, and Urge is bad anyway, so I think this is pretty printable, especially in something like Rush's Karados set where keywords are a mechanical focus. wish it had some flavor text, but I think it's solidly printable.
3/5Perfect Morning [Art: a still life of a newspaper, steaming bagel, and a cup of coffee, shiny and transparent at places as though just conjured.]
Instant (C)
Create a Food token. Draw a card.
This spell doesn't do much, but then, it doesn't need to. more flexible
revitalize? cool! also gives you access to other food synergies like
hollow scavenger or whatever. flavor's nice, a little outside the realm of traditional magic but Duskmourn had
video game cabinets so I guess magic can just be anything now. anyway I like the card. very simple but in a way that works, and feels like a card that should already exist, or at least one that would fit perfectly into a set with the right combination of themes.
4/5Foxprints Instant (U)
Investigate. The next ability you activate this turn that isn't a mana ability costs
less to activate.
"I have never seen such beauty before in my life. I hope to experience it again someday."
—Vivien, of Zirda really pushing the boundaries of what counts as a cantrip, but I'll allow it. in its default form plays the role of, like,
reach through mists, where it's just cycling but carries space for interactions (in this case, things like
thorough investigation) but if you've got another ability you care about more, you can also redirect the discount over there and save the clue to be normal later. the flexibility is nice, although again it comes at the cost of really straining the definition of "cantrip". flavor's well-written.
3/5Loaded Luck |
InstantIf you would roll a die or flip a coin this turn, instead perform that action twice and ignore one of those results.
Draw a card.
krark's thumb in a lower-cost form is fun. still probably not competitively relevant but that's a good thing for these sorts of designs: they're more for casual decks, and this seems like a fun addition to those. probably doesn't replace thumb, but gives you more redundancy. would've loved to see some flavor to tie it together, though: thumb itself is a great example of how these sorts of designs are a perfect place for humor, since they're meant to be a little silly anyway, and this could've benefited from that.
4/5Perpetuating Gizmo :
/
:
Artifact (C)
When Perpetuating Gizmo enters, draw a card.
: Add :
/
:. Spend this mana only to cast spells named Perpetuating Gizmo.
It never stops running until it runs out. so... just to make sure I'm understanding correctly, the intent is for the design to let you pay either one blue mana or one obligate-colorless mana, correct? the reason it won't let you do that is there's no symbol for it: the colorless hybrid option that exists is
. I do like your idea, though, and now that we have obligate-colorless technology, why not do hybrids with it? anyway the card's fun. I wonder if it'd be worth letting you run more than 4? maybe not a full
relentless rats, since that just draws the perfect hand every time, but maybe like
seven dwarves or
nazgûl? put a clock in the art and let you run 12 of them? might also want to make them etb tapped, though, to slow down their perpetuation. or maybe not. maybe 4 is the right number, so you mostly get the one draw and the potential artifact synergy, and the mana activation is more a fun rider in case you find a second one. also worth noting you can't add hybrid mana: there are rules to handle it in case of
elemental resonance or something, but you'd be much more likely to say "add
or
." or, since they can only be used for one equivalent cost, just pick one of them.
4/5Bloodvine Seedling Creature - Plant (U)
When this creature enters, draw a card. Then sacrifice it unless there are six or more creature cards in your graveyard.
The tribes of Ezari do not mark their graves. In time, a bloodvine plant sprouts from the earth, both memorializing the dead and protecting them as they rest.3/3
ooh pretty. very fun lynchpin design, deceptively powerful but also probably deceptively balanced. lot of layers to this, and the flavor's gorgeous.
5/5Moratorium Sorcery
Exile target nonland permanent and put a time counter on it. If it doesn't have suspend, it gains suspend.
Each player draws a card.
if you're just doing one time counter, why not just "exile target nonland permanent until the beginning of its controller's next upkeep"? I like the group-cantrip thing, though, that's a fun twist that lets you make the effect a little more powerful than it would otherwise get to be. I'm not sure I see the flavor, though: Moratorium is a very evocative name and it doesn't quite come through the mechanics. I guess it's a temporary pause on whatever the permanent was doing.
3/5Maul Sorcery (U)
Target creature you control deals 1 combat damage to target creature you don't control.
Draw a card.
Gorah's blade took a week to forge. His training took months. His death at the claws of a five-hundred pound grizzly bear took about six seconds. fun fact I went to check if this was doable under the comp rules definition of combat damage and it doesn't have one. I guess it just assumes you can work it out from context. anyway I'm willing to assume that such a rule could be rewritten to work. I'm more concerned about the power level of the effect: my comparison is
needle drop, which admittedly wasn't
great, and could also hit face, which is kind of a big deal since you could use it for free damage in a burn deck (free from a card perspective anyway) but this lets you snipe any 1-toughness utility creatures they've got
and replaces itself. you do have to have a creature of your own, though, which isn't necessarily trivial, especially turn 1 where that sort of thing is most effective. I dunno. feels like maybe I'm overestimating but I'd definitely want to run this through some playtesting to see if it was too scary.
4/5Sheoldred's MercyInstant
Destroy target creature that had a -1/-1 counter put on it this turn.
Draw a card.
"The infection has started, it's best to put it out of its misery."
—Sheoldred to her executioner is that hybrid? I mean, it's a mana symbol you can pay in two different ways, so sure, I guess it is! anyway I love this card. love love love. I love cantrips that are actually really powerful in their effect but also really narrow in condition, and this takes work but the payoff is
annihilate for 1. maybe even free! great card.
5/5strong round, and I had to normalize scores downward a bit, but I think the winner is gonna be
vlord! congrats, nominating now, next round up in a bit.