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

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Okay, so I made some changes! This one has:
- More reason to have B in its casting cost rather than the activation
- Doesn't need to exile your creatures in four different ways
- No longer burying the lead

Lazotep Wargear 4BB
Artifact - Equipment R
When Lazotep Wargear enters the battlefield, return target creature from a graveyard to the battlefield under your control. Attach Lazotep Wargear to that creature.
Whenever Lazotep Wargear becomes detached from a permanent, sacrifice that permanent.
Equipped creature gets +2/+2.
Equip 2

[Ninjaman]

Unless it's controller pays what?

I could have sworn I had written a 1. Thanks.

[Carl]

Okay, so I made some changes! This one has:
- More reason to have B in its casting cost rather than the activation
- Doesn't need to exile your creatures in four different ways
- No longer burying the lead

Lazotep Wargear 4BB
Artifact - Equipment R
When Lazotep Wargear enters the battlefield, return target creature from a graveyard to the battlefield under your control. Attach Lazotep Wargear to that creature.
Whenever Lazotep Wargear becomes detached from a permanent, sacrifice that permanent.
Equipped creature gets +2/+2.
Equip 2

Definitely feels a lot more black and a lot cleaner overall. I'd be happy to hear any thoughts you have on mine btw.

[DeTess]

Floodmare 3UU
Creature- Horse R
Floodmare gets +X/+X, where X is the number of cards in your hand
0/0

From nightmare, thundermare, and timbermare.

Are you aware that the current challenge is for creating a colored artifact? The cycle challenge is already over.

[BasketOfPuppies]

Are you aware that the current challenge is for creating a colored artifact? The cycle challenge is already over.

Somehow missed that, sorry. Gonna chalk it up to lack of sleep.

[Misothene]

Spoiler: LaZodiac- Amulet of Aclazotz

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Amulet of Aclazotz 2B
Legendary Artifact
{T}: Add B
1B: Target creature becomes a 1/1 black Bat with Flying and Deathtouch until end of turn.
Aclazotz blessing marks his servants for death. They fly with reckless abandon, spreading the fell demon's influence across the island.

Cool concept, and feels black, though the "turn anything into a 1/1" ability might be blue or dimir. Missing a rarity, I'm guessing rare or mythic. It's very powerful given that it can target the opponent's stuff. The payoff seems so large that it might have been a good idea to make this a double-faced thing with the mana rock on one side and the batcave on the other.

Spoiler: Laughing Dog- Armaments of the Gods

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Armaments of the Gods WUBRG
Legendary Enchantment Artifact- Aura Equipment MR
Enchant Creature
Enchanted Creature has "Creatures you control have +X/+X, where X is the number of other creatures you control that don't share a color with that creature."
Equipped creature get +X/+X where X is the number of other creatures you control that don't share a color with the equipped creature.
Equip WUBRG

I'm not entirely sure this works in the rules as intended, as if it were not attached to anything it would be put in the graveyard as a state-based effect due to it being an aura. If it does work, I think there would be confusion and memory issues as to whether it's equipping or enchanting. This is an interesting payoff for token strategies with different colors (e.g. mass squirrels and soldiers) but the execution is a bit hard to process.

Spoiler: Tom the Mime- Resonance Altar

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Resonance Altar 2B
Artifact - R
Sacrifice a creature, pay 1 life: proliferate. Activate this ability only when you could cast a sorcery.

Repeatable proliferate is cool, but it might be a little too good. It sets up combos with anything like Pentavus. Even absent combos, it enables early planeswalker ultimates if you can get out enough tokens to sacrifice. It could probably be fixed either requiring a tap to activate or with a higher mana cost.

Spoiler: Randuir- Parhelion III, Infinity War

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The Avenger, Boros skycarrier 2WWR
Legendary Artifact - Vehicle
flying, first strike

As long as ~ is a creature, you may cast planeswalker cards, legendary creature cards and creature cards with flying as though they had flash.
Whenever its crew cost is paid, ~ gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is equal to the total power of creatures used to pay its crew cost.
Crew 3
We're going to show that golden mother****** who's really in charge of Ravnica's skies!
-Nicholas the Furious, Wojek Commander-General
0/5

The repeatable crew bonus thing is cool, I feel like a smaller vehicle might have been able to highlight that more with Crew 1- as it is, you need to contribute at least 3 each time. The flash-granting ability just seems to make the card a little too busy.

Spoiler: Necroticplague- Shallow Grave Ambusher

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Shallow Grave Ambusher 2BBU
Artifact Creature-Zombie Construct R
Graveyard Ninjutsu BBUU
Undeathtouch
When Shallow Grave Ambusher deals combat to a player, that player discards a card and you make a 2/2 black zombie token.
1/3

Ok so graveyard ninjutsu isn't a real mechanic, and you didn't explain how it works so I'm a bit confused- do you sacrifice the original attacker or bounce it? Also, UNdeathtouch? Does this card only work with that one card from Unstable?

Even getting around those questions, I'm really unsure why this card is an artifact- that doesn't seem to contribute to the concept.

Spoiler: mystic1110- Planar Phylactery

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Planar Phylactery 1B
Artifact
Planeswalkers do not leave the battlefield if they have 0 or less Loyalty counters on them.
Planewalkers are indestructible.
If Planar Phylactery leaves the battlefield, you lose the game.

That's quite the drawback. The flavor here seems to be your lich-powers lock planeswalkers into serving you? Bolas could have used something like that.

I'm interested to know what situations planeswalkers can have fewer than 0 loyalty counters.

The effect itself lets you minus planeswalkers without killing them, keeping their statics around or letting you plus them on subsequent turns. That's powerful enough that opponents would want to blow this up, but not so powerful that you should just lose if they do- it just seems a bit much.

Spoiler: Archeoaevis- Tezzeret, Tidehollow Urchin

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Tezzeret, Tidehollow Urchin 2U
Artifact Creature - Human Artificer (Rare)
When Tezzeret enters the battlefield, look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal an artifact card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
1B, Sacrifice an artifact: Destroy target creature.
"Once, I begged for scraps on the street. No more."
2/2

This should probably be legendary, unless Esper was just swarming with Tezzerets. This is a good payoff for Treasures, Clues, etc. Seems fairly costed and is appropriately vulnerable as a 2/2.

Spoiler: Gauntlet- Souleater Engine

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Souleater Engine - 1BBW

Legendary Artifact - Mythic

Noncreature spells cost an additional "Sacrifice a creature" to cast.

2: Create a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying. Any player may activate this ability.

I feel like this could slow games down a lot, since it gives everyone an endless stream of chump-blockers in the air, and then makes it harder to use noncreature spells to break through. It nails the feel of being an Orzhov artifact though.

Spoiler: Bucky- Cicadid Nest-Wagon

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Cicadid Nest-Wagon 1GG
Artifact - Vehicle R
Crew 2
At the beginning of combat, if Cicadid Nest-Wagon is a creature, create two 1/1 green Insect tokens with Haste and "Insect must be blocked if able". Exile the tokens at the end of combat.
Cicadids emerge from the wagon at the end of their lifespan to mate, fight and die.
2/5

I think the templating on the tokens would be "This creature must be blocked if able." Temporary tokens aren't really green's thing- I think that's mechanically more red. I think this set of mechanics might go better on a Gruul thing that gives more powerful tokens to justify jumping through the hoops.

Spoiler: BlueGhost- Axe of Mogis

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Axe of Mogis 1BR
Legendary Enchantment Artifact (R)
Whenever a source you control deals noncombat damage to a player, Axe of Mogis deals that much damage to target creature.
2BR, T: Target creature gets +2/+0 and gains menace until end of turn. Axe of Mogis deals 2 damage to you.

Very cohesive flavor and mechanics, the two abilities work very well with each other and make sense, overall very cool card. Obviously it has problematic interactions with things like stuffy doll, boros reckoner, etc. but those aren't printed super-often so could be just out of standard while this is legal.

Spoiler: ben-zayb- Mirror Prison

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Mirror Prison 2W
Artifact R
When ~ enters the battlefield, exile target creature or planeswalker until ~ leaves the battlefield.
4UU, T: Return the exiled card into the battlefield under your control, then exile ~.
After an eternity of reflection, Tezzeret came out a changed person.

The combination of abilities is really cool- it feels sinister enough that black should be involved, but mechanically it's just an oblivion ring and a theft effect. My biggest problem is that this card just seems like it should be an enchantment, since the tapping doesn't seem necessary for the card to work.

Spoiler: mythmonster2- Livingwood Blade

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Livingwood Blade 1G
Artifact- Equipment (U)
Equipped creature gets +2/+0
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you may search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped.
Equip 1G

This is definitely a green effect, and it is very powerful. I'm concerned that it would be a little too strong for limited at uncommon- repeatable ramp and deck-thinning on top of the marauder's axe might be a bit much, even with the color restriction. This might be the sort of thing to push up to rare and bring the cost down for constructed purposes.

Spoiler: Comissar- Lightning Forge

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Lightning Forge - 2R

Artifact - U

R, T, Discard a card: Create a 3/1 red Elemental creature token with trample, haste, and 'Exile this creature at the beginning of your end step'.

RRR, T, Discard a card: Create a 6/1 red Elemental creature token with trample, haste, and 'Exile this creature at the beginning of your end step'.

Art Description - An overhead view of an anvil. At first glance, it looks to be normal, though sparking with electricity. A second look shows that the sparks are lancing toward humanoids at the base of the anvil, wreaking havoc as they do before sputtering into nothingness.

This is a cool effect for a red artifact, but I don't think uncommon is a good rarity for it, given how strong turning all your extra lands into ball lightnings would be in limited.

Spoiler: TurboGhast- Chromatic Cloak

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Chromatic Cloak U
Artifact - Equipment U
Equipped creature can't be blocked by creatures that share a color with it.
1: Equipped creature becomes the color of your choice in addition to its other colors until end of turn.
Equip 1

This generally doesn't seem all that worth jumping through the hoops, and seems to compare unfavorably with something like Cobbled Wings.

Spoiler: Quiddle- Eldrazi Emulator

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Eldrazi Emulator 3B
Artifact Creature - Eldrazi Construct U
Devoid
When CARDNAME attacks an opponent, you may put a card that player owns from exile into that player's graveyard. If you do, that player sacrifices a permanent.
BB: Target player exiles the top card of their library.
3/3
"While we were able to replicate the 'Waste Effect', our prototype has been unable to achieve the scale that we imagined." -Project Destroyer Notes

I mean, you could skirt the rules like that... but why? Overall, it doesn't feel like it needs to be an artifact, given that it's just playing in the same space as the processors.

Spoiler: Ninjaman- Statutory Statue

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Statutory Statue - 1W
Artifact Creature - Golem - R
Vigilance
Whenever a triggered ability an opponent controls is put onto the stack, counter that ability unless it's controller pays 1.
1/3

Interesting combination of white's hatebears (or 1/3s in this case) and artifacts' tendency to be niche hosers. I might have named it "Statue of Limitations" or something for maximum pun value. The effect is cool and appropriately costed.

Spoiler: Dr.Gunsforhands- Lazotep Wargear

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Lazotep Wargear 4BB
Artifact - Equipment R
When Lazotep Wargear enters the battlefield, return target creature from a graveyard to the battlefield under your control. Attach Lazotep Wargear to that creature.
Whenever Lazotep Wargear becomes detached from a permanent, sacrifice that permanent.
Equipped creature gets +2/+2.
Equip 2

Bring something back from the dead and give it a Vulshok Morningstar. I could definitely see WotC printing something like this. It could probably stand to be uncommon at this cost.

Spoiler: Sgt. Cookie- Dagger of Demon's Blood

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Dagger of Demon's Blood 1BB
Artefact - Equipment R
Equipped creature has menace.
1, Sacrifice another creature: Target creature blocking or being blocked by equipped creature gets -1/-1 until end of turn.
Equip - B
Even a drop of a demonlord's blood, when used to quench a knife of black metal, can be more potent than mortal magic.

This card seems really weak. You're paying 1BBB just to give something menace, and the rate on the sacrifice effect doesn't seem worth it. Your opponent can easily avoid the situations where that ability would be worth it by not blocking the equipped creature.

Spoiler: Carl- Slave Collar Stockpile

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First, I suggest writing out the card in text in addition to providing an image in future contests.
As for the card itself, the effect is very odd and requires a lot of exile effects that the card itself does not provide. I would suggest adding a mana payment to a card like this, and not just life, to avoid weird broken recursion or interaction that's too easy. It might also be a good idea to give it an activated ability that exiles something, so it doesn't just do nothing by itself.
Finally, red doesn't seem like the color that would do this. Black would definitely be involved, but probably paired with white or maybe blue.

Spoiler: Winner

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There were a lot of cool entries that I liked for different reasons, but I think I'll give it to BlueGhost with the Axe of Mogis.

[Quiddle]

@Eldrazi Emulator
I guess I should have made it more clear that this was meant to be in the same vein as Elf/Goblin/Sliver Replica..

[Laughing Dog]

snip

Yeah, it would probably need something along the lines of Bestow to function properly. And there would definitely would be memory and math issues with this thing. Oh well, live and learn.

[Carl]

Snip

Yeah the set it's yanked from doesn't do undead so figuring out how to do black return to battlefield effects was tricky, so i set it up so that a number of b/r spells would instead exile cards as an extra cost, (very red), and then certain effect's would return them, in this case i went b/r since red is the colour that would be doing the self exile in the set whilst black is the traditional return colour.

[Blue Ghost]

Huh, first time submitting an entry for the thread in a year, and it's a winner? Thanks!

Okay, next contest...
Make a card showcasing a new mechanic for an existing plane/faction.

[LaZodiac]

EDIT: New mechanic and card. This one could still fit Innistrad, but also Dominaria or Ravnica or really any plane with angels

Reincarnate (when ~ dies during combat, create a token that's a copy of it, except it's a white angel with flying and no mana cost. It loses Reincarnate.)

Sigarda's Faithful 1WG
Creature - Human Knight(R)
When ~ enters the battlefield, target creature gets +1+1 and lifelink until end of turn. If ~ is an angel, each creature you control gains +1+1 and lifelink until the end of your next turn.
Reincarnate
2/3
"Pick up a weapon, be it sword or spear or axe, and rise to the occasion. You will not be found wanting" - Agnes, Sigardian Exalt

[Carl]

Huh, first time submitting an entry for the thread in a year, and it's a winner? Thanks!

Okay, next contest...
Make a card showcasing a new mechanic for an existing plane/faction.

Ohhhh interesting, going to have to go away and have a think.

[Gauntlet]

The mechanic I've got in mind is for Innistrad, but could be used in the Golgari on Ravnica or really any place with necromancers.

Reanimate X (Activate this ability only in the graveyard. Pay X life, where X is the CMC of the creature. If you do, return this creature to the battlefield tapped. Activate this only as a sorcery.)

Unrelenting Skaab 1UB
Creature - Zombie Horror (U)
When ~ attacks, exile a creature from your graveyard. If you do, ~ can't be blocked until end of turn.
Reanimate 3
3/1

If X is always equal to the creature's CMC, you can just put "Reanimate" instead of "Reanimate 3".

[Carl]

Instrad Humans themed since they're in a bit of a pickle given how few angels they have left to help vs the various supernatural threats. It's all about that defiant last stand kin d of theme.

Spoiler: Safi, The Defiant One

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Safi, The Defiant One — 2WWW
Legendary Creature — Safi — Mythic Rare
Vigilance
Defiant 3 (When this creature dies to combat damage dealt by an opposing creature it deals 3 damage to each attacking or blocking creature that opponent controls.)
Creatures you control have: “You assign combat damage when this creature blocks”
Whenever Safi, The Defiant One blocks, create 2 1/2 white Human Soldier tokens with Defender and Defiant 1. They must block this turn if able.
2/3

[DeTess]

What I've got in mind would work for an 'untamed nature' plane like Ixalan. The mechanic would be solely on Dinosaurs in Ixalan, and the card provided is an example of that, but it could be used on suitable creatures on other planes as well, such as creatures found on Ixalan or Tarkir.

Hunt [cost]: You may cast ~ by paying its hunt cost rather than its mana cost. When ~ enters the battlefield, if its hunt cost was paid, it fights target creature, then sacrifice ~

Raptor pack RG
creature-Dinosaur U
enrage-whenever ~ is dealt damage, deal 1 damage to target creature.
Hunt R
3/2

edit: I'm not 100% on the templating for this ability, so if someone has a better suggestion for the wording, I'm all ears.

[Evil DM Mark3]

I have an idea that would work on either either Myrodin or any other plane where artefacts are common. Assuming Myrodin for now.

Salvage [value]

When an permanent with salvage is sent from play to the graveyard its controller can add the mana listed to their pool. The card must have successfully entered play for this ability to be used (ie, not countered, discarded etc).

Magmacore Myr 3
Artefact creature-Myr U
If destroyed in combat deal 1 to another creature in the same combat
Salvage [R]
Their unstable power-cores make them almost as dangerous as scrap are they are functional.
2/2

[Necroticplague]

Gonna revisit to corrupted Innistrad werewolves, or at least those that remain.

Sinuous Prowler 4g
Creature-Eldrazi Werewolf
Sinuous Prowler cannot be blocked by more than one creature.
Corrupt Creature (When this card would enter the graveyard from the battlefields, exile it corrupting chosen creature you control. When the creature corrupted by this card would be sacrificed, you may instead put this card in the graveyard and have the creature become no longer corrupted by this card. If the creature this card is corrupting would leave the battlefield, put this card in its owner's graveyard.)
Creatures corrupted by this card gain 'this creature cannot be blocked by more than one creature'.
4/4

[Comissar]

Gonna revisit to corrupted Innistrad werewolves, or at least those that remain.

Sinuous Prowler 4g
Creature-Eldrazi Werewolf
Sinuous Prowler cannot be blocked by more than one creature.
Corrupt Creature (When this card would enter the graveyard from the battlefields, exile it, transform it, and then return it to the battlefield attached to target creature you control)
4/4
//
Unnatural Agility
Attached creature gains ‘this creature cannot be blocked by more than one creature.’
When the permanent this card is attached to leaves play, sacrifice this card.

Unnatural Agility is missing a permanent type. Presuming it's an Enchantment - Aura..?

[Personification]

I might change this, but for now I'll do Guildless (You may cast this spell with mana from Gates as though it were mana of any color) for Ravnica. The idea is people who are willing to work with members of multiple guilds, despite not necessarily having powers/personalities connected to the guilds in question. For example...

Araithia Shokta, the Rat 1UR
Legendary Creature-Human Rogue (R)
Guildless (You may cast this spell with mana from Gates as though it were mana of any color), Haste, Hexproof
~ can't be blocked.
When ~ deals combat damage to a player, that player reveals the top card of their library.
1/1
"...those are my big three: Gruul, Rakdos, Selesnya. I’ll definitely join one of those. Probably. Are you in a guild? I don’t recognize the outfit...”

[LaZodiac]

Random aside having her flavor text being a run on sentence is really really good flavor.

[BasketOfPuppies]

Random aside having her flavor text being a run on sentence is really really good flavor.

I’m pretty sure it’s also a direct quote from the first story article.

[Necroticplague]

Unnatural Agility is missing a permanent type. Presuming it's an Enchantment - Aura..?

It’s not supposed to. The only way to get rid of it is permanent destruction, or (more easily) blowing up the creature it’s attached to. Think of it as being a step below Haunt or Cypher.

[Personification]

I’m pretty sure it’s also a direct quote from the first story article.

It's actually from the book, but same idea.

[Carl]

Hunt [cost]: You may cast ~ by paying its hunt cost rather than its mana cost. When ~ enters the battlefield, if its hunt cost was paid, it fights target opposing creature, then sacrifice ~

The above would be more in line with traditional wording IMO.

- - - Updated - - -

It's actually from the book, but same idea.

It's a good quote regardless of where it's from, heard of her, never read any of the lore with her in but i totally like her allready.

[Comissar]

It’s not supposed to. The only way to get rid of it is permanent destruction, or (more easily) blowing up the creature it’s attached to. Think of it as being a step below Haunt or Cypher.

Ah, ok. That makes sense. Though both Haunt and Cipher exile themselves and then use specific terminology (Haunt and Encode respectively) to attach the exiled card to the creature. Maybe have the card be exiled and 'Corrupt target creature'? The problem at the moment is that, if it's being returned to the battlefield, it does need a permanent type.

[DeTess]

The above would be more in line with traditional wording IMO.

Yeah, that works slightly better, though I did intentionally not specify that the hunter needs to fight an opposing creature.

[Tom the Mime]

Hunt reminds me a lot of bloodrush even if it is very different and potentially very powerful given how modal it could be as a beat stick/ point removal. And we have reverse bestow too.

Let's go for a kind of spell convoke for Izzet.

Harmonic
Instants and sorceries in your hand can help cast this spell. When casting this spell, each instant or sorcery you reveal from your hand pays for 1.

Mindfire 3R
Instant U
Harmonic
Deal 4 damage to target creature.
Scry X where X is the number of cards revealed casting ~


Let's you play something cheaper but given how much blue and/or red decks can like to keep you guessing about counters and removal, revealing cards can be costlier than it seems. Doesn't let you pay colours by revealing, otherwise you could feasibly dump way too much T1 with a full hand. Todd have to be careful to avoid low color weight cards that provide direct board presence though.

My other option was an overcosted burn spell which scries equal to the number of cards revealed. Might still go with that in the end. Or a variable mana cost card that taps down X creatures.

Edit: went with the burn spell given it does a bit more with the mechanic. The counter and draw ones are nice in how they'd be costed (compare to divination and cancel in standard) but are a little dull in the way vanilla creatures with convoke are.

Spoiler: A counter, draw, tap and more

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Rebuttal 1UU
Instant C
Harmonic
Counter target spell

Collaborative Insight 2UU
Sorcery U
Harmonic
Draw two cards

Resonant chains XU
Instant R
Harmonic
Tap X target creatures.

Shared ideas 2U
Instant R
Harmonic
Target player reveals 2*X cards from their hand at random, where X is the number of cards you revealed casting ~.
Draw a card
I'll show you mine if you show me yours

[Laughing Dog]

I'm giving my mechanic to the Abzan. While it doesn't really mesh with their previous mechanics, it would also fit with pretty much any faction that just doesn't quit fighting.

Remain [cost]: When this permanent would go to a graveyard from anywhere except exile, exile it. You may then cast it for its Remain cost. If you don't, send it to it's owner's graveyard.

Outcasts of Arashin GWB
Creature- Spirit Warrior U
Deathtouch, Lifelink
Remain 1GWB (When this permanent would go to a graveyard from anywhere except exile, exile it. You may then cast it for its Remain cost. If you don't, send it to it's owner's graveyard.)
We are not done.
2/2

[ben-zayb]

The idea is a general mechanic for Fiora that can be used by all colors. One part ability word, one part keyword

Telesfvrvs, Quill of History WWBB
Legendary Creature - Human Cleric Assassin M
Menace, Vigilance
Contract 4 - As long as ~ is attacking or blocking, it may assign all of its combat damage to any creature, planeswalker, or player with two or more contract counters on them.
4/4

Contract X (When you cast this spell, put X contract counters on any player or nonland permanent.) - [Additional effects]

Spoiler: Other colors

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Mark of the Hunted B
Enchantment - Aura C
Enchant creature
Contract 1 - Enchanted creature gets -1/-1 for each contract counter on it.

Burn the Evidence 1R
Sorcery U
Contract 1 - Destroy target artifact, then add R for each contract counter on it.

Disperso W
Instant R
Contract 2 - Exile target creature or enchantment, then return it to the battlefield at the beginning of the next end step if it had three or less contract counters on it.

Know your Enemy 5U
Sorcery C
Contract 3 - Draw a card for each contract counter on target opponent.

Knight of the Prey 3G
Creature - Elf Knight U
Vigilance, Trample
Whenever ~ attacks or blocks, target creature with one or more contract counters on it gains indestructible until end of turn.
3/3

[Ninjaman]

Cavalier Collector - 1WB
Creature - Vampire Knight - R
Debt (When this creature dies, return it to the battlefield if it isn't a Spirit, except it's a Spirit instead of its other creature types. It gains flying.)
Lifelink
Whenever Cavalier Collector or another creature enters the battlefield under your control, each opponent lose 1 life. If that creature entered the battlefield from a graveyard, or was cast from a graveyard, each opponent lose 2 life instead.
He collects the debts of others, in the hope he will not have to pay his own.
2/2