MtG - You Make the Card II: Wrath of Karn

[AgentPaper]

This thread is over, please check the next one for the current contest.


Other contests:
You Make the Mini-Set!

Previous thread:
Magic the Gathering - You Make the Card!


The purpose of this thread is to make custom cards for Magic, the Gathering. If you haven't heard of that, it probably won't appeal to you!

Each week, the current judge will post a challenge. You then need to make your very own magic card to fit that challenge. At the end of the week, the judge will select a winner, who becomes the judge for the next week.

Entries can be made at any time before the judging is posted.

In the event that a judge does not immediately post results on judging day, please allow them a 3-day grace period to post their results. If there are still no results 4 days after the judging day, anyone can announce a winner other than themselves.

Each entry must have at least a text representation of their card, in the following format:

Name Mana Cost
Type - Subtypes Rarity
Card text
Power/Toughness

For example:

Saint Ayilen, the Lunarblade 2WW
Legendary Creature - Human Knight M
Lifelink
When Saint Ayilen, the Lunarblade dies, put a legendary 4/4 white Spirit Knight creature token with flying and first strike named Saint Ayilen, the Lunarblade onto the battlefield.
4/4

You may also post an image representation of your card if you wish, but make sure you also post the text version, in case of issues with hosting or image clarity.


Finally, I would strongly suggest reading the following articles. They are written with novice designers in mind, but even veteran designers will likely learn something from them (or at least be reminded of something they forgot).

Design 101
Design 102
Design 103
Design 104

[tgva8889]

I almost posted a card for this contest before realizing that it's my contest. Wow.

[HypoSoc]

Azalathe, the Ideal 3W
Legendary Creature - Angel Spirit - M
Flying, Lifelink
Zeitgeist - As long as ~ is the only legendary permanent you control, other creatures you control get +1/+1 and flying.
With perfection in the lead, the army's steps trod lighter and heads held higher.
4/4

Zeitgeist - As long as ~ is the only legendary permanent you control, [ability]

So, the Zeitgeist ability is based on the philosophy that a single idea or movement can shape an age, and is related strongly to the great person theory of history. Other ideals that would exist at the same time would interfere with its dominance. Thusly, Zeitgeist abilities only work when the card with them stands out alone. They would only exist on legendary permanents.

[onasuma]

Cape Keeper 1U
Creature - Homunculous R
Conceal - When ~ comes to play, you may exile target equipment with converted mana cost 3 or less from your hand underneath ~.
3: Returned all equipment exiled through ~'s ability to play and attach them to a creature you control other than ~
Somewhat quicker than looking for it yourself.
1/1

(Art depicts a blue mage rushing down the street, massive cape flowing behind him. On closer inspection, a small Homonculous is sticking out the back of his trousers, holding a knife.)

[Binks]

Lord of the Unliving 6BBBB
Legendary Creature - Skeleton
Raise - When ~ enters the battlefield return up to 5 target black creatures from your graveyard to the battlefield. When ~ leaves the battlefield sacrifice those creatures.
5/5

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Ability Word - Raise

Only on permanents. 'When ~ enters the battlefield return [number] target [types of creatures] from your graveyard to the battlefield. When ~ leaves the battlefield sacrifice those creatures.

Goal is to represent a world where the boundary between life and death is easy to cross but requires an anchor. So you have a card that brings back some of your other cards of a certain type (I'm imagining some would say 'creatures with CMC X or less', others 'color creature', and maybe even some 'creatures with deathtouch' or the like) but is the anchor for those cards, lose the anchor, lose the card.

[Beacon of Chaos]

Volcanic Bombardment 1RRR

Sorcery U

Destroy target land.

Focus- For each spell named Volcanic Bombardment cast before this one this turn, deal 4 damage to that land's controller.

"Concentrate your power! Only together can we win this fight!"

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Keyword: Focus. Only on instants and sorceries. For each spell named ~ cast before this one this turn, do thing.

Loosely based on Grandeur, with a hint of storm thrown in. So for 16 mana and 4 specific cards you can destroy 4 lands and deal 24 damage. I think this is reasonable, but might be too powerful with any kind of spell copying. The restriction on having to cast the spell should help though.

[Oromis1]

Archon of Recompense 3WWW
Creature - Archon R
Flying, vigilance
Retaliation - Whenever a source deals damage to Archon of Recompense, if that source is still on the battlefield, destroy it. Then, if it's in a graveyard, exile it.
3/5

Keyword: Retaliation - Whenever a source deals damage to CARDNAME, [ACTION] to source or source's controller. Found primarily in White, Red, and Black, but can be found in other colors as well.

[mystic1110]

Edited

The Threads of Royalty 1G
Enchantment [R]
Heuristics - Whenever a player casts a creature spell, if they cast a sorcery spell this turn, then they may search their library for a creature with power greater than a creature they control, then shuffle their library and put that card on top of it.
"We are all connected by knelt knees."

Keyword:
My vision would be the keyword would only appear on enchantments and that their would only be one card for each possible combination (excluding tribal and planeswalker since they are so rare, and lands since you don't cast them that leaves: Instants, Sorcieries, Creatures, Enchantments and Artifacts. Meaning exactly 25 Heuristic cards if you allow [Card Type #1] to [Card Type#1]
This is all Inspired by the gramerie system by Kellus from these boards.

[AgentPaper]

The Threads of Royalty 1G
Enchantment [R]
Heuristics - Sorcery to Creature: Search your library for a creature with power greater than a creature you control on the battlefield, shuffle your library and place that card on top of your library. (If a player casts a Sorcery spell this turn the next Creature spell cast this turn triggers this ability)
"We are all connected by knelt knees."

Keyword:
Heuristics - [Card Type #1] to [Card Type#2]: [Ability] (If a player casts a [Card Type #1] spell this turn the next [Card Type#2] spell cast this turn triggers this ability.)
My vision would be the keyword would only appear on enchantments and that their would only be one card for each possible combination (excluding tribal and planeswalker since they are so rare, and lands since you don't cast them that leaves: Instants, Sorcieries, Creatures, Enchantments and Artifacts. Meaning exactly 25 Heuristic cards if you allow [Card Type #1] to [Card Type#1]
This is all Inspired by the gramerie system by Kellus from these boards.

Ability words are only aesthetic to help players connect similar abilities, and reminder text (in parenthesis) are only to remind players of the rules. Neither of them actually has any effect on how the card works, so your card doesn't actually do anything.

A correct wording would be something like:

Heuristics - Whenever a player casts a creature spell, if they cast a sorcery spell this turn, search your library for a creature with power greater than a creature you control, then shuffle your library and put that card on top of it.

Note that this also triggers if your opponent casts a sorcery and then a creature, allowing you to search up a creature. Not sure if this was intended or not.

[mystic1110]

Ability words are only aesthetic to help players connect similar abilities, and reminder text (in parenthesis) are only to remind players of the rules. Neither of them actually has any effect on how the card works, so your card doesn't actually do anything.

A correct wording would be something like:

Heuristics - Whenever a player casts a creature spell, if they cast a sorcery spell this turn, search your library for a creature with power greater than a creature you control, then shuffle your library and put that card on top of it.

Note that this also triggers if your opponent casts a sorcery and then a creature, allowing you to search up a creature. Not sure if this was intended or not.

Thanks for the corrected wording and I wanted it to work for both people. I will edit it ASAP

[AgentPaper]

Thanks for the corrected wording and I wanted it to work for both people. I will edit it ASAP

Looks good, just switch the "your" to "their".

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Phew, still made it.

Dawn of Wild Unity 2WRG
Creature - Elemental Elf Angel R
Flying, Trample
Charge! - At the beginning of your combat step, each creature you control gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
3/5

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"Charge!" just indicates something that happens at the start of your combat step. Nothing fancy enough to warrant a whole new mechanic, but enough to support a theme within a set, I'd expect.

[AgentPaper]

Added four articles by Maro (Mark Rosewater, the guru of Magic card design) to the first post. They cover some of the most common mistakes made by novice and pro designers alike, and I'd suggest everyone give them a read.

[AgentPaper]

@Sethman27:

Keywords are different from Ability Words.

[Ninjaman]

Steel Hood Priest - 2W
Creature - Human Cleric - U
Martyr - When Steel Hood Priest dies, creatures you control gains indestructible until end of turn.
Defenses greater than steel or iron. A shield of pure faith.
2/2

[tgva8889]

HypoSoc:

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Azalathe, the Ideal 3W
Legendary Creature - Angel Spirit - M
Flying, Lifelink
Zeitgeist - As long as ~ is the only legendary permanent you control, other creatures you control get +1/+1 and flying.
With perfection in the lead, the army's steps trod lighter and heads held higher.
4/4

Zeitgeist is a pretty interesting mechanic. But my biggest problem is that it is completely dependent on Legendary permanents, which can't be lower than Rare. As a result, the mechanic is very limited in the amount of it that will be in any particular set. This makes it a very poor choice to name, in my opinion. At least Grandeur could be used on a non-Legendary permanent in theory. This just can't be on anything below rare, so I would rather see this as maybe a cycle of some kind without the ability word.

The card as a whole is fine. Nothing too special, a pretty good and effective mythic. I'm not sure how interesting this card actually is.

onasuma:

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Cape Keeper 1U
Creature - Homunculous R
Conceal - When ~ comes to play, you may exile target equipment with converted mana cost 3 or less from your hand underneath ~.
3: Returned all equipment exiled through ~'s ability to play and attach them to a creature you control other than ~
Somewhat quicker than looking for it yourself.
1/1

My biggest problem with Conceal is that at the end of the day, it may as well be Imprint. Nothing about it appears to be special, exiling something underneath a card doesn't really do anything different than imprinting a card. I should note that 1) it should be "enters the battlefield," not "comes into play," and 2) you can't target cards in hands, because hands are hidden zones.

The card itself isn't particularly interesting. You can cheat a small equipment into play. Mostly, you get to cheat on the equip cost. There aren't that many for which that's worth it. Also, I would make the second ability target personally.

Binks:

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Lord of the Unliving 6BBBB
Legendary Creature - Skeleton
Raise - When ~ enters the battlefield return up to 5 target black creatures from your graveyard to the battlefield. When ~ leaves the battlefield sacrifice those creatures.
5/5

I'm not sure what the ability word Raise does based purely on the ability. That's a problem for me; I think just by reading an ability word, I should be able to tell what all variations of it are supposed to do. But I can't really tell what Raise is supposed to do. My best guess is that it does something when it enters the battlefield and undoes it when it leaves, but that works to varying capacities on different cards.

Lord of the Unliving would actually be pretty cool were it not for the ability word. I probably wouldn't have made it a Legendary creature, since these kinds of large creatures are fun enough without that and this card isn't really the kind of card I would push as a Commander. 10 mana is a lot for a Commander, but not really a lot for a fatty in your deck.

Diego Havoc

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Volcanic Bombardment 1RRR

Sorcery U

Destroy target land.

Focus- For each spell named Volcanic Bombardment cast before this one this turn, deal 4 damage to that land's controller.

"Concentrate your power! Only together can we win this fight!"

Focus has the problem of being really, really parasitic. You have to twist your deck pretty far to get this kind of effect to work, and even if you do twist your deck you'll only very rarely get it to happen. As a result, I think this mechanic overall fails.

The problem with this card is that you just won't get the benefit enough. For 4 mana, you can destroy a land: not really a good deal. For 8 mana and two cards, you can destroy two land and deal 4 damage. 4 damage is definitely worth a card these days, but you're paying 8 mana to destroy two lands, which is probably not a good deal. So you have to have played 3 of these in the same turn for it to be worth it, at which point you are only ever going to do this rarely, and even then only once per game. Pretty poor on its own. You'd have to provide some really great support in set for this to be exciting, and that would result in a really parasitic design, to the point where you wouldn't want to play any cards that didn't synergize with it. You did, however, make the bonus good enough. I would have liked flipping the abilities, because 4 damage for 4 mana is probably worth it in some format, and the added land destruction as a bonus would come up and be useful but not make me feel like I had to jump through hoops for my cards to be playable.

Oromis1:

Spoiler

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Archon of Recompense 3WWW
Creature - Archon R
Flying, vigilance
Retaliation - Whenever a source deals damage to Archon of Recompense, if that source is still on the battlefield, destroy it. Then, if it's in a graveyard, exile it.
3/5

I assume that the mechanic is "Whenever a source deals damage to ~, do something," in which case it's actually kind of interesting. White certainly has some history of "if you hurt me, I'll hurt you back," and I think you could do interesting things with this mechanic in several other colors. Black and Red certainly seem like colors to place this mechanic in.

Unfortunately, your wording is problematic. For example, what happens if I Shock your Archon of Recompense? The answer is nothing. In fact, I'm pretty sure the whole second sentence of this card does nothing. From my understanding, once something changes zones, the ability can't track that that the card in the graveyard is the same source that dealt damage while on the battlefield. So, the ability sort of fails and just ends up creating questions. It's also very confusing to refer to destroying the source of the damage, because sometimes the source of the damage is a spell, so it can't be destroyed, and sometimes the source of the damage isn't on the battlefield after it deals the damage (say, because it died in combat to your 3/5), so even attempting to destroy it is nonsensical. Instead, I would have chosen a reaction ability that didn't depend on knowing the source. For example:

Retaliation - Whenever a source deals damage to Archon of Recompense, exile target permanent or card in a graveyard.

mystic1110:

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The Threads of Royalty 1G
Enchantment [R]
Heuristics - Whenever a player casts a creature spell, if they cast a sorcery spell this turn, then they may search their library for a creature with power greater than a creature they control, then shuffle their library and put that card on top of it.
"We are all connected by knelt knees."

What is the ability word here? I'm really confused and don't know what it is. If it's "Whenever a player casts a creature spell, if they cast a sorcery spell this turn, something happens," okay. But I don't think this could ever work as an ability word, because that's just too many steps. You want it to be obvious, and I don't know that people will get the leap you're making.

This card is actually pretty interesting and got my gears turning. Worldly Tutor is certainly something worthwhile, and being able to do it more than once is certainly interesting. Remember that Gitaxian Probe is a legal card and that there are always some cheap cantrips like Serum Visions, Sleight of Hand, Ponder, and Preordain. There are plenty of cheap creatures with little or no power, namely Birds of Paradise and Noble Hierarch. It feels like this card should be easy to trigger. But I can definitely see the work required. I might have made this cost 3 just to make it a little harder, but I like it a lot. I think it's just worded WAY too confusingly and way too complexly.

Also, when you format cards, please do not include the rarity in brackets. For cards with color indicators, we generally use parentheses to indicate the color, so it can be confusing. Instead, I suggest you simply list the rarity letter by itself, as the template in the first post of this thread suggests.

Dr.Gunsforhands:

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Phew, still made it.

Dawn of Wild Unity 2WRG
Creature - Elemental Elf Angel R
Flying, Trample
Charge! - At the beginning of your combat step, each creature you control gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
3/5

Good simple mechanic, I could easily see this being the major mechanic for a set, or at least the kind of mechanic that could show up as a guild mechanic. Good job!

This card is also very simple and effective. Your creatures get bigger at the beginning of combat: awesome. A simple, effective card. What confuses me is why this card is an Elemental Elf Angel. I think it would have been fine as just an Elemental or an Avatar or something, and would have made way more sense that way.

Ninjaman:

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Steel Hood Priest - 2W
Creature - Human Cleric - U
Martyr - When Steel Hood Priest dies, creatures you control gains indestructible until end of turn.
Defenses greater than steel or iron. A shield of pure faith.
2/2

I assume this ability is just "When ~ dies, do something." Which begs the question: Why is this worthy of being an ability word? I don't think this is, and I don't think making it an ability word does anything interesting with it. You still get the same interactions, because ability words don't gain any special rules meaning, and I don't think we need a special name for these. "Dies triggers" is simple enough as it is. Mechanic names are a limited resources that can be better spend than on what amounts to an evergreen trigger.

The card itself is pretty interesting. I could easily see this being a rare, as Indestructible is pretty exciting. The wording is off, it should say "creatures you control gain indestructible," you had the wrong conjugation.

Winner:

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Dr.Gunsforhands, for making the best card with the best mechanic. While some mechanics were interesting, Charge was the best clear example of an ability word and the card itself was both a good, clear example of Charge and a good card on its own.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

I couldn't think of any flavor text for Dawn, so I started thinking of other ways to represent having those three colors. The result: angelic elven elemental silliness.

Anyway, whoa, I won? Legitimately? Sweet!

For this week's YMTG, you have two options:

A: Make a card that's good in limited, but bad in constructed.

or

B: Make a card that's good in constructed, but bad in limited.

(A limited format, for those who may need explanation, would be a draft, sealed deck, or other situation where you're making a deck on the fly with some random assortment of cards. Constructed, by contrast, would be a situation where you're allowed to build exactly the deck you want ahead of time.)

You may include an explanation of how your card meets the selected criterion, and you probably should since I'm a big doofus and might not notice what you're trying to do right away.

Go go go!

[Binks]

Well, I'm usually better at making Constructed cards than limited anyways...

I will leave the explanation for why she's better in constructed than limited to the card itself.

Rohia, Herald of Dawn - 3WW
Legendary Creature - Angel / MR
Flying
When ~ enters the battlefield you may reveal any number of Angel cards from your hand. Put a +1/+1 counter on ~ and you gain 2 life for each card you reveal.
When ~ enters the battlefield put a +1/+1 counter on it and you gain 2 life for each other angel you control.
"Gather together, my sisters, for tonight we fly."
2/2

[HypoSoc]

Hydalgo of Name's Mirror 4UU
Legendary Creature - Spirit - Mythic
~ cannot be copied.
When ~ enters the battlefield, for each Legendary creature you don't control, put a creature token onto the battlefield that is a copy of it.
5/5
Your life, your image, and your very Name are mine to peruse.

Well, there won't be many legendary creatures in limited, but EDH multiplayer?

@Binks, do you mean Amplify?

[Misothene]

Limited bomb you wouldn't want in Constructed... hmm...

Lonely Nihilist 1U
Creature- Human Wizard R
When you have 25 or fewer cards in your library, transform Lonely Nihilist.
His only companion was the constant grinding of the millstones. "One day, friends," he thought. "One day."
1/1
/////////////////////////////////////
Master of Lucidity (blue)
Creature- Human Mutant Wizard
Flying, hexproof
"We've done it, friends! We've disproved logic itself! To the skies, why not?"
6/6

[Fleeing Coward]

Limited bomb you wouldn't want in Constructed... hmm...

Lonely Nihilist 1U
Creature- Human Wizard R
When you have 25 or fewer cards in your library, transform Lonely Nihilist.
His only companion was the constant grinding of the millstones. "One day, friends," he thought. "One day."
1/1
/////////////////////////////////////
Master of Lucidity (blue)
Creature- Human Mutant Wizard
Flying, hexproof
"We've done it, friends! We've disproved logic itself! To the skies, why not?"
6/6

I normally just lurk but I've got to say that I'd definately play a copy or two of that in my standard control decks.

[Binks]

@Binks, do you mean Amplify?

*Glances at Amplify* Huh. Well I guess it's too obvious to not have been already done :P. I wasn't playing in Legions, and I guess I've just never happened upon an Amplify card before (now that I think about it I think I might have a kilnmouth dragon, but I haven't played my dragon duel deck in over a year at this point, so not sure). But this, while close to amplify, isn't an exact match (lifegain attached).

I suppose I could rewrite it with 3 abilities (amplify, +1/+1 for each other angel on the battlefield, and gain life = +1/+1 counters on it) but that seems to be adding a decent amount of complexity to the card for very little gain in my opinion. I like the symmetry of the two abilities right now, so I'll stick with the current card, but thanks for pointing that out.

[onasuma]

Minotauroch 3R

Creature - Minotaur Auroch U

Trample

When ~ attacks, Minotaurs and Aurochs you control gains +1/+0 for each other attacking Minotaur or Auroch.

Each successful stampede is followed by a jam session on masterfully crafted digereedoos

3/3


Do I need to explain why? I just like mild puns.

[mystic1110]

Gathering Specter 3BB
Creature - Specter R
Flying
When Gathering Specter enters the battlefield, you may search your library for up to three cards named Gathering Specter, reveal them, put them into your hand, then shuffle your library.
Whenever Gathering Specter attacks, place any amount of cards named Gathering Specter from your hand onto the battlefield tapped and attacking.
Whenever Gathering Specter deals damage to a player, that player discards a card.
2/3

[Oromis1]

Purest flame R
Instant U
Purest flame is colorless and can't be countered.
Purest Flame deals 1 damage to target creature. That creature can't be regenerated, and the damage can't be prevented.
"Only the ghost dragon or one who follows his ways may recieve the gift of purest flame." -Eye of Ugin, inscription

My logic is that while it's a great sideboard card, most people won't choose it or use it well in limited, because what it's good at - bypassing defenses - is useless when no one can really plan a deck out.

[Ragamander]

Re: bad in limited, but good in constructed:

I can think of numerous ways to make things bad for limited but good for constructed, but here's the most interesting one I've thought up so far:

Corroborated Research
Instant R
Shuffle your library. Then reveal the top ten cards of your library. Put each card other than a basic land with the same name as another card revealed this way into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
The more you see it, the truer it becomes.

Honestly though, I didn't do the necessary math to ensure that the card is balanced. (My experiences with Summoning Trap suggest that seven isn't high enough, but I suspect going much higher than ten might break the card.)

Here are some other ones I thought of, in case multiple submissions are allowed:

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Time Enough for Love
Instant M
Take two extra turns after this one. You get an emblem with "If you would begin a combat phase, skip that phase instead."
Better a life of peace than a quick death in battle.

Resonator Gauntlet
Artifact - Equipment R
Resonator Gauntlet can be attached only to a nontoken creature.
Equipped creature gets +5/+5 for each other creature you control with the same name as equipped creature.
Equip
"There is strength in numbers, but only in my numbers."
—Narsis Imbest, Simic biovisionary

Re: good in limited, but bad in constructed:

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Most things that are good in limited can be made to be good in constructed merely by lowering their cost (or they are already good in EDH), so it's tough to find another way to do it. I immediately thought of doing something based on library size, but Misothene kinda beat me to the punch. Here it is anyways:

Mindwrack Phantasm
Creature - Nightmare Illusion R
Fear, shroud
Mindwrack Phantasm has power and toughness each equal to 30 minus the number of cards in your library.
Whenever Mindwrack Phantasm attacks or blocks, put the top two cards of your library into your graveyard.
30-*/30-*
Deep within our crumbling minds lurk horrors far beyond our dwindling comprehension.

So, maybe something like this?

Pact with Dragonkind
Enchantment - Aura R
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has flying and gets +X/+X, where X is half the number of permanents you control, rounded up.
When Pact with Dragonkind leaves the battlefield, sacrifice half the permanents you control, rounded up.
Just as the power granted through trust is vast, so too is the price paid for betrayal.

The drawback is a huge liability when there's easy access to removal, meaning it's probably too risky for constructed play. However, limited tends to have both relatively little removal and a dearth of enormous flying creatures, so this card will dominate games fairly safely.

Backup mana costs in case of broken image links:

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Corroborated Research {UU}
Time Enough for Love {2WWU}
Resonator Gauntlet {(2/G)(2/U)} Equip {2}
Mindwrack Phantasm {2UU}
Pact with Dragonkind {3RR}

EDIT: Brought my actual entry out of spoiler tags per instruction.

[Fable Wright]

Crack in Reality {U/B}
Enchantment R
Whenever you would draw a card, you may instead look at the top X cards of your library and put one of them into your hand, where X is the number of cards in exile. If you do, put the rest on top of your library in any order.

[tgva8889]

Domain Theft UG
Sorcery R
Search target opponent's library for a nonbasic land card, reveal it, and put it onto the battlefield under your control tapped. Then that player shuffles his or her library.
The last thing the king expected them to take was his castle.

It seems like there's few "good in limited, bad in constructed" cards here.

[AgentPaper]

Lord of Thralls 2BB
Creature - Vampire U
Whenever a creature dealt damage by ~ this turn dies, put a 1/1 black Vampire creature token onto the battlefield.
2/3

[Ragamander]

It seems like there's few "good in limited, bad in constructed" cards here.

That's because what makes a limited bomb unplayable in constructed is usually the mana cost, and once mana costs get too high even for EDH, then the card is unplayable in limited as well.

Here's another try at "good in limited, bad in constructed," as long as no one's getting angry about multiple submissions:

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Novelty Grinder
Artifact M
, : Target player reveals cards from his or her library until he or she reveals a nonland card with the same name as another card revealed this way. That player puts the last card revealed this way into his or her hand and the rest into his or her graveyard.
Wise is the mage who acquires important knowledge more than but a single time.

Why isn't it good in EDH?
Because (hopefully) it would get banned from the format in an instant.
It's still broke as a joke in limited, though, and I can't think of a decent way to fix it. (I don't consider pushing the mana cost higher to be "a decent way.")
Backup mana cost: {5} to cast and {5}, {T} to activate.