MTG - You Make The Card VII: Your Custom Planeswalker Card Died in War of the Spark

[LastCenturion]

Sequestering Barrier -- WW
Creature -- Wall -- Rare
Defender
Sequestering Barrier can't be the target of spells or abilities you control.
You can't be the target of spells or abilities.
If you would choose a target, an opponent chooses that target instead. (It must still be a legal target.)
0/6

I'd've loved to use Hexproof here, but I realized halfway through that Hexproof doesn't protect against your own stuff, even if it's not you choosing the target. This is intended to be an alternative to Leyline of Sanctity. I'd give the thing Shroud, but then it's too hard to interact with. I'd give it "You have shroud", but Shroud is deprecated so it seems better to just spell it out.

[Necroticplague]

Unceasing Top 5
Artifact
When the stack is empty, if you have no cards in hand, you may place a spin counter on this card and draw a card. Then, take damage equal to one less than the amount of spin counters on this card .
At the end of each turn, remove all spin counters from this card.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Spoiler: Okay, I guess "Sacrifice a creature: Discard a card" is TECHNICALLY all upside

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Irreverent Aristocrat 2B
Why is is he belching??
Creature - Vampire C
Whenever you discard a card, Irreverent Aristocrat gains Indestructible until end of turn.
Sacrifice a creature: Discard a card.
2/2

Alluvium Tumor 1GG
Creature - Ooze R
Deathtouch, Hexproof from enchantments
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice a land. If you do, put 2 +1/+1 counters on Alluvium Tumor.
1/1

[Mister Tom]

Spoiler: original wording

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Pestilential 1BBBB
Creature - Nightmare Horror R
Menace, Deathtouch
Image: a gap in reality filled with pesudopods and cryptosporidia
Creatures you control don't heal and can't be regenerated.

4/7

Pestilential 1BBBB
Creature - Nightmare Horror R
Menace, Deathtouch
Image: a gap in reality filled with pesudopods and cryptosporidia
You can't remove damage from, or regenerate, creatures you control.
4/7

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

By, "don't heal," I assume you mean, "Damage dealt to creatures you control is not removed from the creature at the end of each turn."

[Mister Tom]

Yes, although I'd hoped it possible to use significantly fewer words. I'll see what I can find on actual MTG cards [Edit: I can't but I think the edit is unambiguous]

[Ninjaman]

Spoiler: original wording

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Pestilential 1BBBB
Creature - Nightmare Horror R
Menace, Deathtouch
Image: a gap in reality filled with pesudopods and cryptosporidia
Creatures you control don't heal and can't be regenerated.

4/7

Pestilential 1BBBB
Creature - Nightmare Horror R
Menace, Deathtouch
Image: a gap in reality filled with pesudopods and cryptosporidia
You can't remove damage from, or regenerate, creatures you control.
4/7

Damage isn't removed from your creatures during the cleanup step.

I think I would word it like that.

[Mister Tom]

Damage isn't removed from your creatures during the cleanup step.

I think I would word it like that.

That would play slightly differently! But it flows ok, so feel free to judge the card based on that :-)

[Ninjaman]

That would play slightly differently! But it flows ok, so feel free to judge the card based on that :-)

How is it different if you also add a no regeneration clause?

I can't think of anything else that removes damage.

[Ninjaman]

Spoiler: Comissar - Rebalance the Scales

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Rebalance the Scales - 2WW
Sorcery - R
Choose up to 2. Then, target opponent chooses up to 2 that have not already been chosen. Your opponent chooses the targets for their choices.

• Exile target Creature with power 4 or greater

• Destroy target Artefact or Enchantment

• Put a +1/+1 counter on each Creature target player controls

• Until the end of your next turn, Creatures can't attack target player unless that creature's controller pays 1 for each creature

This is definitely interesting design space, I find it very difficult to judge, but it is probably weak, considering that none of the combinations are that powerful for a 4 mana sorcery even without the downside.

Spoiler: gauntlet - Loki, Trickster God

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Loki, Trickster God - UBRR
Legendary Creature - God - Mythic

Flash

Whenever Loki, Trickster God enters the battlefield from a non-exile zone or dies, exile him until a player casts their second spell in a turn.

Whenever Loki enters the battlefield, you may pay R. If you do, gain control of target spell. You may choose new targets for it and you lose life equal to its converted mana cost.

3/1

This card is interesting, and super weird.
One thing to note is that while red can change targets of spells and copy instant and sorceries, it cannot gain control of spells, as that is effectively countering the spell, and only blue can do that. This card is blue too, but I think that means it should be primarily blue, not primarily red.
The card also seems like a headache. It took me a couple readings to figure out what it actually does.

Spoiler: redjinx - Transfer of Debt

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Transfer of Debt WB
Enchantment - Aura U
When Transfer of Debt enters the battlefield, sacrifice a creature.
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and indestructible.
The name on the contract had been crossed out and replaced. The debtor watched as his wife dissolved into ash.

I don't see the flavor behind the card, why does someone else taking on your debt make you indestructible?
Mechanically it seems fine, indestructible is obviously a really powerful effect, but sacrificing a creature is definitely relevant, and compared to Indestructibility it seems fair.

Spoiler: Personification - Undefeatable Lone Survivor

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Undefeatable Lone Survivor WWWBBB
Art: human figure silhouetted against a mushroom cloud explosion
Enchantment - Aura MR (Un)
Enchant target human
Enchanted human has Indestructable and Hexproof
Ascend
At the beginning of each upkeep, destroy all humans. Then, if you have the City's Blessing, gain X life and place X +1/+1 counters on enchanted creature where X is the number of humans you control destroyed this way.

I really only made this because I wanted to use the phrase "destroy all humans".

Zombie Apocalypse already uses the phrase "Destroy all Humans", and does so in a more interesting way.
I think this is a victim of the common design flaw of trying to do too much on one card.

Spoiler: Durkoala - Overwhelming Power

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Overwhelming Power 2RR
Art: a wizard blasting wild streams of lightning out of his hands and eyes. He might either be laughing or screaming.
Enchantment R

Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery, copy it. You may choose new targets for the copy. If the spell can target a player, create a copy that targets yourself. If not, or if there would be no effect to you, ~ deals damage to you equal to the spell's converted Mana cost.

There are two schools of thought about the aquisition of arcane power: one that it is possible to gain too much power and one that says it isn't.

"or if there would be no effect to you" doesn't make sense rules wise.
This is supposed to be played exclusively with spells that target only yourself, that do something positive? So draw spells, but only the draw spells that actually targets, which is like a fourth of them or something?
This seems unbelievably narrow, with a massive downside strapped on, to the point of probably being unplayable.

Spoiler: mythmonster2 - Dire Epiphany

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Dire Epiphany UU
Sorcery (R)
You may only cast Dire Epiphany if you have 5 or less life.
Draw three cards.
Cycling 1U

This card seems too dangerous. A sorcery for UU isn't allowed to draw two cards, so one that draws three is dangerous, even if it has a downside. It becomes even less likely to see print when that downside means it is probably only ever going to see play in some degenerate combo, or Death's Shadow, which is kind of a degenerate combo in its own right.

Spoiler: TurboGhast - Icy Vei

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Icy Veil 1U
Enchantment - Aura U
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has "2: Untap this creature."
Enchanted creature doesn't untap during its controller's untap step.
"If you can make your movements glide along with the ice, then the cold will stop bothering you."

I like the attempt at being a modal card, the problem is that using it on an opponent's card it is so inefficient that it will almost never be good.
It's quite cool on your own creature, both allowing some infinite mana combos with stuff that taps for 3+, or just allowing you to reuse tap effects.

Spoiler: Quiddle - Soul Negotiator

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Soul Negotiator BB
Creature - Demon R
Pay 5 life: Counter target spell unless that spell's controller pays 5 life. Only your opponents may activate this ability.
4/4

I see what you are trying to do, the problem is that if you are playing this then you are an aggro deck, and you don't care about your own life total, while you do care about the opponent's, so that downside probably isn't going to be relevant, at which point you just have a 4/4 for 2.

Spoiler: ben-zayb - Form of the Angel

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Form of the Angel 3WW
Enchantment R
WW: ~ deals 4 damage divided amongst any number of attacking and/or blocking creatures. Activate only once each turn.
At the beginning of each end step, your life total becomes 4.
Creatures without flying can't attack you.

This card is pretty dull to be honest. Both the life setting and only being able to be attacked by fliers are both just copied right off Form of the Dragon, and the first ability is just a lot less interesting than what Form of the Dragon is doing.
And Form of the Dinosaur showed that you didn't have to follow that formula, so I am not sure why you did.

Spoiler: Unavenger - Panchromatic Array

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Panchromatic Array 5
Legendary Artifact MR
Spells cost WUBRG less to cast.
The focus of a world's magic. The centre of an aeon's struggle.

It does make all your stuff free if you play fist of suns, but even though that is more powerful than Omnipotence, since it works on all spells, not just the ones cast from your hand, if you assemble those two and one of the cards that can with with it, that is hard enough of a combo that it's not dangerous.
Outside of combos it can obviously make a few cards super busted, but needing to build around it that heavily probably balances it.

It probably shouldn't work for the opponent. I understand that is is because of the challenge, but that's not really how wizards design cards now.

Also, good job on coming up with this before Morophon was spoiled.

More coming

- - - Updated - - -

Spoiler: mystic1110 - Distant Meteorite

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Distant Meteorite 1
Artifact - U
At the beginning of your upkeep, choose one that hasn't been chosen —
• Draw a card.
• Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Until end of turn, you don't lose this mana as steps and phases end.
• Sacrifice Distant Meteorite and Distant Meteorite deals 4 damage to You.
Never wish that a star comes to you - because stars love granting wishes and they are very very hot.

I like the design space this fills, but I feel it is too cheap of a card to really do anything interesting.
In order for it to do anything you play it, and then two turns after it will have paid itself in, not gained anything, just broken even, and then you need to get rid of it to not get domed. It's just way too hard to actually win anything with this card.

Spoiler: BasketOfPuppies - Treacherous Dig

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Treacherous Dig 1R
Sorcery-C
As an additional cost to cast Treacherous Dig, discard a card.

Exile the top 3 cards of your library. Until the end of your next turn, you may play those cards.

Yes, it’s a tormenting voice/cathartic reunion knockoff.

I'm not a fan of discarding a card for impulsive draw. Kind of the purpose of impulsive draw is that it gets around red's need to discard cards in order to draw cards. It also means that the only decks that will probably play this will be decks trying to do something unfair.

Spoiler: Sgt. Cookie - Unified Research

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Unified Research 1U
Sorcery R
Each player draws three cards.
The only thing more dangerous than knowledge, is shared knowledge.

It's better than Vision Skeins, but that's not a very good card anyways. However, since Vision Skeins already exists, this isn't really doing anything unique.

Spoiler: Tom the Mime - Chain of Insight

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Chain of Insight UR
Instant U
Tap target creature an opponent controls. It doesn't untap during it's controllers next upkeep. Draw a card. It's controller may copy this spell and choose a new target for that copy. Chain of insight cannot target the same creature more than once per turn.

You write that collusion is a big problem with this card, and that is absolutely true, and I don't think that can be ignored. For that reason alone this kind of design can never actually get printed.

Spoiler: Randuir - Field Experiments

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Field Experiments - 1UG
Enchantment-R
Whenever a creature you control deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card.
skip your draw step.
Sacrifice ~: If you control no creatures, draw a card.

Skipping your draw step is a thing wizards do very rarely, and for good reason. It's good that you can get rid of this when you have no creatures, but if you have creatures that can't connect for whatever reason, this card can easily lock you out of the game. I think the sac should be usable even if you had creatures.

Spoiler: LastCenturion - Sequestering Barrier

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Sequestering Barrier -- WW
Creature -- Wall -- Rare
Defender
Sequestering Barrier can't be the target of spells or abilities you control.
You can't be the target of spells or abilities.
If you would choose a target, an opponent chooses that target instead. (It must still be a legal target.)
0/6

I'm not sure what I would actually want to use this card for, but the design is cool, I can appreciate that.

Spoiler: Necroticplague - Unceasing Top

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Unceasing Top 5
Artifact
When the stack is empty, if you have no cards in hand, you may place a spin counter on this card and draw a card. Then, take damage equal to one less than the amount of spin counters on this card .
At the end of each turn, remove all spin counters from this card.

This should probably be worded as an activated ability that costs 0.
This should probably deal damage equal to the number of spin counters, since it can draw a whole lot of cards.

Spoiler: Dr.Gunsforhands - Alluvium Tumor

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Alluvium Tumor 1GG
Creature - Ooze R
Deathtouch, Hexproof from enchantments
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice a land. If you do, put 2 +1/+1 counters on Alluvium Tumor.
1/1

This seems way too slow and detrimental to ever be good. It has no evasion and pretty irrelevant protection, and opens you up to getting card disadvantage so hard.

Spoiler: Mister Tom - Pestilential

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Pestilential 1BBBB
Creature - Nightmare Horror R
Menace, Deathtouch
Image: a gap in reality filled with pesudopods and cryptosporidia
You can't remove damage from, or regenerate, creatures you control.
4/7

I think with where creatures are to today, a 4/7 menace deathtoucher for 1BBBB would be fine, and adding that downside just makes it bad.
There are very few cards that cost 1 colorless and four colored symbols. I think that at that point you can either make it 2BBB if you want it to be very black but still splashable, or BBBBB if you don't, but I don't think there is a good reason to make it 1BBBB.

Spoiler: Winner

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Gauntlet with Loki, Trickster God

[Durkoala]

Overwhelming Power 2RR
Art: a wizard blasting wild streams of lightning out of his hands and eyes. He might either be laughing or screaming.
Enchantment R

Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery, copy it. You may choose new targets for the copy. If the spell can target a player, create a copy that targets yourself. If not, or if there would be no effect to you, ~ deals damage to you equal to the spell's converted Mana cost.

There are two schools of thought about the aquisition of arcane power: one that it is possible to gain too much power and one that says it isn't.

"or if there would be no effect to you" doesn't make sense rules wise.
This is supposed to be played exclusively with spells that target only yourself, that do something positive? So draw spells, but only the draw spells that actually targets, which is like a fourth of them or something?
This seems unbelievably narrow, with a massive downside strapped on, to the point of probably being unplayable.

The primary intent was to increase the power of red damage spells at a cost: If you cast lightning bolt, you get hit by a lightning bolt but also get another three damage you can throw anywhere on the board. There's definitely other uses, such as creating twice as many tokens or copying buff spells, that don't do anything if they are targetting you, so I added the 'deals damage to you equal to the spell's converted Mana cost' so there would still be a downside to playing this card no matter how you built your deck.

'or if there would be no effect to you' was an attempt to prevent abuse with white removal such as Dispense Justice as otherwise you can force your opponents to sacrifice twice the usual amount of creatures with no cost to yourself. It is poorly worded now I look at it, though.

[Comissar]

Spoiler: Comissar - Rebalance the Scales

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This is definitely interesting design space, I find it very difficult to judge, but it is probably weak, considering that none of the combinations are that powerful for a 4 mana sorcery even without the downside.

I was struggling with both costings and abilities. Briefly had it where the target had to pay 1 to attack or block, but was worried by the blowout potential. Taking that away, was again unsure at if I had it priced right.

[Ninjaman]

The primary intent was to increase the power of red damage spells at a cost: If you cast lightning bolt, you get hit by a lightning bolt but also get another three damage you can throw anywhere on the board. There's definitely other uses, such as creating twice as many tokens or copying buff spells, that don't do anything if they are targetting you, so I added the 'deals damage to you equal to the spell's converted Mana cost' so there would still be a downside to playing this card no matter how you built your deck.

So it makes three copies of the spell, two which you choose and one with targets you? That's confusing and not really clear from reading it.
Also, if I cast a spell on myself that is positive, don't I then get three positive spells targeting myself?

'or if there would be no effect to you' was an attempt to prevent abuse with white removal such as Dispense Justice as otherwise you can force your opponents to sacrifice twice the usual amount of creatures with no cost to yourself. It is poorly worded now I look at it, though.

The problem is that it just straight up doesn't work. It's not something that makes sense from the rules.
What you were trying to do was probably:

Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery, each player copies it. Each of those players may choose new targets for their copy.

Though that runs into similar problems as hivemind.

[Gauntlet]

Here's your next challenge:

Modern Horizons is being spoiled currently, so let's look at the things it's bringing back.

Make a card with one of the following mechanics:
Buyback, Changeling, Convoke, Cycling, Flashback, Hellbent, Kicker, Pitch spells (like Force of Will), Replicate, Snow, Storm, Vanishing

Bonus points if it's a reference to previous magic cards - Horizons has been described as Time Spiral 2.0, so callbacks are everywhere.

[DeTess]

I'd just like to point out that you can sac 'field experiments' with creatures on the field, you just don't draw a card. Otherwise its a fair ruling though.

[Comissar]

Echoes of Insanity - 2R
Sorcery - C

As an additional cost to cast this spell, discard a card. Draw two cards.

Cycling - 2U (2U, Discard this Card: Draw a card)

Hellbent - When you cycle this card, if you have no cards in hand, draw a card.

Art - The Sarkhan of the Dragons of Tarkir timeline has a hand to his head, a faintly pained expression as he squints his eyes closed, head tilted slightly away from the camera. In the background, we see ghostly memories of him from the Khans of Tarkir timeline where he is bending his knee to Nicol Bolas, fighting Chandra and Jace at the Eye of Ugin, and finally freeing Ugin at Ugin's Nexus.

Spoiler: Challenge Note

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I'm aware this technically breaks the rules of the challenge by having both Cycling and Hellbent instead of just one. If I need to pick one or the other, let me know and I'll do a different design.

Edit - Cleaned up the Hellbent templating a little. Concern was that it read as though you drew two cards in addition to the one from cycling.

[DeTess]

Storm of memories - 2UUU
Instant - R

You may cast target instant or sorcery card from a graveyard without paying its mana cost.

storm (When you cast this spell, copy it for each spell cast before it this turn. You may choose new targets for the copies.)

If this card would go to the graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead.

[Personification]

Storm of memories - 3UU
Instant - R

You may cast target instant or sorcery card from a graveyard without paying its mana cost.

storm (When you cast this spell, copy it for each spell cast before it this turn. You may choose new targets for the copies.)

Doesn't this go infinite with itself?

[mystic1110]

Hypothermia UB
Sorcery - U
Tap target creature. It gets -1/-1 and it doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step.
Flashback - (S) ((You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it. (S) can be paid with one mana from a snow permanent.)

[Comissar]

Hibernating Hydra XG
Snow Creature - Hydra R
Hibernating Hydra enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it, then place a +1/+1 counter for each other snow permanent you control.
At the beginning of your upkeep you may return a snow permanent you control to your hand if you do place a +1/+1 counter on Hibernating Hydra.
Hibernating Hydra can't attack or defend if you control any other snow permanent.
0/0

Nitpick, 'Defend' isn't a recognised action in magic. Should be 'Block' instead.

[mystic1110]

Nitpick, 'Defend' isn't a recognised action in magic. Should be 'Block' instead.

Thanks!

[TurboGhast]

Doesn't this go infinite with itself?

You'd need another copy of the card already in the graveyard to go infinite because the storm copies will have to select their target before the original card is sent to the graveyard, but casting this spell with another "Storm of Memories" in your graveyard goes infinite without any additional input. Each time, you keep the chain going by having the card version of the spell target the other card version, getting infinite storm count and infinite casts of any instant or sorcery in either player's graveyard.

[DeTess]

You'd need another copy of the card already in the graveyard to go infinite because the storm copies will have to select their target before the original card is sent to the graveyard, but casting this spell with another "Storm of Memories" in your graveyard goes infinite without any additional input. Each time, you keep the chain going by having the card version of the spell target the other card version, getting infinite storm count and infinite casts of any instant or sorcery in either player's graveyard.

Hmmm, you're right, let me fix that.

[Sgt. Cookie]

Throw Ten Thousand Knives XRR
Sorcery R
Throw Ten Thousand Knives deals 1 damage to X targets. (You can target the same thing more than once)
Flashback: RR, Exile a card with converted mana cost X from your hand.
A ninja can dodge any attack. A master ninja can dodge EVERY attack.

[Tom the Mime]

Spoiler: old idea - assisted growth

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Assisted growth 1G
Sorcery U
Convoke
Buyback 3
Proliferate

[TurboGhast]

Spoiler: Joke

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Force of Ash 2R
Instant - R
If it's not your turn, you can exile a red card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
This turn, your opponents can't search libraries.
There's no escaping the 5head, even in a different card game.

[Necroticplague]

Perpetuate Agony BB
Instant
Create a 2/2 black zombie creature token under your control.
Buyback:Sacrifice a creature.

[BasketOfPuppies]

Think Again 1U
Instant- C
Draw a card.
Cycling 3U
When you cycle Think Again, draw a card.

[ben-zayb]

Mind Drowse U
Instant U
Tap target permanent.
Buyback 3U
Storm

[mythmonster2]

Champion of All 3WW
Creature- Shapeshifter (R)
Changeling
Champion of All gets +1/+1 for each creature type among other non-Shapeshifter creatures you control.
If another creature you control has flying, Champion of All has flying. The same is true for vigilance, lifelink, first strike, double strike, indestructible, and hexproof.
0/0
The limited list is on purpose, mostly to make sure the card could fit the text.

Spoiler: Too similar to the legendary changeling

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Champion of All 3WW
Creature- Shapeshifter (R)
Changeling
When Champion of All enters the battlefield, choose a creature type among other creatures you control.
Other creatures of the chosen type you control get +1/+1.
Sacrifice Champion of All: Creatures you control of the chosen type gain indestructible until end of turn.
3/3