#I have an ETB on the way

[skyedancer2006]

The feeling when you have pokemon cards you can’t open bc you don’t have any sleeves in case you pull good cards 😭

[bliss-wily]

Like I know I’ve posted these but the artwork on these cards is just utter perfection. I know I’m biased as he’s my favourite but I can’t help it.

[markrosewater]

In regards to rooms and doors. I read a couple of posts how flavour in reminder text affects them. My concern is, that these are very set specific. A mechanic „committing a crime“ fits in a western world, but not very well in another setting.

My concrete question is, why you named the half’s of a room „doors“. You could just have written „that half unlocks“, instead of door. Was it purely a flavour reason, or where you concerned about other half cards, rule wise?

(Also what happens, if the card enters without being cast? Should it not unlock one half on etb?).

Many planes have rooms. That flavor is not that limiting. Also, most worlds have people committing crimes, by the way.

[niuttuc]

My Favorite Cards of 2024: Bloomburrow

The year is pretty close to over, so let’s go back over the sets released this year (with new cards at least), and go through a few of my favorite cards from that release. I’ll group together stuff released together, in this case it’ll be the main Bloomburrow set, and the commander precons. Extra reprints as courageous critters or special guests might also get a mention. I’ll probably go through one set a day for the next week, though I might skip some days for personal reasons.

I'll start with a bunch of talents that I like, a stellar second outing of the Class type in this set, outshining even their first appearance in D&D. In constructed, limited and commander, they impress and have a range of different designs, and I like them very much.

Offspring was also a very neat ability, and it's always nice when we get something to extend new abilities in a more open fashion, to older cards and sets. Of course, Zinnia goes infinite with Palinchron, but so does a worn down half-tire. Maybe someday I'll even build a deck around Zinnia, but we'll see, I tend to come back to sets a year or two down the line.

I love creative clones, and Mockingbird delivers! And a one-mana clone that can scale definitely hits the mark, a clone you never overpay for is a really good concept, and this was a good way to execute on it without shirking color.

Staying with birds for a bit, Scrap Trawler is a fun design that unfortunately breaks in half with a look. Adding colored mana certainly helps Jackdaw Savior lot, and restricting to flying creatures also narrows down what can enable it significantly. The dream of combining this with a Broodmoth or Valkyrie's Call to create oodles of value out of dying creatures is also a neat addition.

A new Wood Elves always deserves a mention, and one that can grab nonbasics definitely solidifies its role. Clifftop Lookout will stick around in commander decks of mine for years to come, at least until they print much better cards. Plus, it has sneaky reach, gotta respect the sneaky reach that will save my life at some point.

Still on frogs, Dour Port-Mage is here to exemplify the "leave the battlefield without dying" ability that was granted to frogs and was an excellent way to make an ability that's both narrow and a bit open-ended. There is some play in how to achieve that, yet it's pretty unique, and happens to play well in the colors with bouncing, which ties it well with Frogs, but also blinking, exile removal, tucking, and more. Overall, it allowed them to mostly do regular creature things, having ETBs and all, yet still feel like they belonged to the Frogs' synergies.

Gift is a fun ability that works well in both 1v1 and takes a new political dimension in multiplayer (mostly commander). Cruelclaw's Heist is a nice version of the two mana hand attack spell with upside, allowing it to be hand attack that isn't dead when the opponent is empty-handed, lowering the downside of its gift, and gift becomes even more fun in multiplayer when you can gift a separate opponent you're targeting.

Sunspine Lynx is costed fairly, punishes greedy manabases, and looks incredible in foil. Price of Progress can be a bit too brutal, but stapling half of one on the back of a creature that has a solid rate makes for a fun card in commander and constructed both. I've domed a Domain player for 13 damage with this in Standard, and I can tell you that felt very good and would have earned this cat a spot on this list by itself.

I've already said a few times in the past week that I love to have options, and Fountainport as a pseudo-trading post on a land gives me just that. For sure, I love selling my Offsprings for knowledge, my life for fish or my mana for mana. A lot more tokens around these days for this to incidentally draw cards from, and generally a useful card to spawn surprise blockers.

Catch-up cards that are good enough to be played are generally pretty neat, and Beza being a mythic legend version of that effect delivers on it. Stabilizing with life and bodies against aggressive decks, but not a dead card in grindy games, Beza does stellar work and left me trying to see if a commander deck could be viable with more opponents to compare to to make it more likely to get the full suite of effects.

Between the snazzy art and the flashy effect, Cruelclaw makes the list alongside his heist. Look at this guy/weasel! He casts spells for free! My main nitpick about the card is that given his story and flavor, I expected him to be casting those spells for free from the opponents' library, not my own. But I can forgive that, it makes the card stronger, even if slightly less fun imo.

Scavenging Ooze is an excellent design, and Keen-Eyed Curator being a variation on it plays great as well. It was neat to get it right before a delirium set, and the slight differences don't detract from its power much. It was a bit hurt by actual Scavenging Ooze being in Foundations only a couple months later, but it still manages to split the deck time with Scooze in some archetypes in Standard, and that's exactly where it should be.

That Jeskai precon was good enough to get BOTH its commanders on my list. Temporary creatures to get their etbs or other effects early is my jam, as well as attacking for value, and Arthur does both in a nice package. We were missing on neat Jeskai commanders, but with its half dozen of Jeskai precons, the year definitely delivered!

Similar to Cruelclaw's Heist, Long River's Pull makes use of the Gift mechanic. This allows a rate well above what we see in standard, a clean Counterspell, while being an interesting political tool in Commander where actual Counterspell is legal. Giving cards to people can buy an ally very quickly in commander, or make sure a player missing land drops is in the game, and this actually makes me consider this card over the classic counterspell in more than one deck.

The Calamity Beasts have a good hit rate of unique and powerful designs. The Viper has spawned a few decks around it in standard and beyond, and that's impressive considering it's a punisher effect that warps your own deckbuilding to enable. As it turns out, a 6/6 that basically wins the game if you untap with it is pretty good if you can get it for two or three mana, even if it's not on turn 2 and it dies to removal.

Making bats relevant in standard and being a pseudo-sun titan for half the cost, Zoraline handily makes it into my list. When she's around and not asleep, she's a card with a very good rate by herself that does something I like. And then she also enables the main mechanic of bats in the set enough to be one of the best card in their deck too.

Prosperous Bandit is the kind of unusual ramp I like. Creating that many treasures whenever it deals damage on a three drop captures my attention. Getting through for damage on a 3 mana 2/2 sure ain't easy, but buffing it isn't that difficult and the payoff is definitely there.

Finally, the art corner, Bloomburrow had some incredible art that struck home for me. Which isn't to say other sets in the year didn't, but these marked me a bit more, particularly as a new setting for Magic that felt richer than the other stuff we got. With art and story, Bloomburrow felt both rich and yet a small part of something bigger that could easily be expanded later on. Plus, there is a bonus category that'll be in a reblog in a few minutes, I'm running out of image slots on tumblr.

[glngrbred]

Counterspells are a toxic game mechanic that manopolize interaction slots and force all control decks to play very similarly.

they also have the problem of being much easier to use than targeted discard and ""stax"" (the broadest possible term, and only 'harder' to an extent :/). I think the only times you should be able to effectively counter an effect on the stack/being played are to counter a literal spell, like instants and sorceries, since the only ways to have "spell removal" are hand interaction, which is obviously only ok when limited, and counterspells. I straight up think that no creature or artifact/enchantment counterspells should exist in a healthy card game, because those other mechanics should be inherently interactable-enough to not necessitate counterspells, and the shear dominance of counterspells as the vehicle of control decks in MTG is evidence enough that they aren't good for a game.

also the reason I care is because I'm making a card game, and effects like counterspells are something you have to choose to have at some point, since they MANOPOLIZE DESIGN SPACE >:()

if you want to see an example of counterspells used well, play the game "unstable unicorns" which is entirely Balanced around counterspells, exclusively. but even then, you have to entirely balance the game around counterspells, exclusively

Also this isn't to say "counterspells bad :(" they have a place, and that place is in games who have not balanced the power of "instantly accessible" effects (so that counterspells aren't necessary). like yeah, craterhoof behemoth and Ghalta often can't be interacted with outside of counterspells, cuz once they ETB you win the game

that is bad design and necessitates the creation, use, and frustration of counterspells. Also, designers only want to make cards like "that" if they can say "just counter it" its just an unhealthy system that necessitates itself existing the moment you let counterspells be anything more than the most simple and direct "spell removal" effects.

thats all

[franticbindings]

Doing some draft simulators for Bloomburrow, and I'm really appreciating how well they've subtly interwoven synergy between all the different archetypes. There could be a fly in the ointment that shows up after people get more experience with the set but this really feels like a master class in designing a limited environment.

And I don't think that's more clearly demonstrated than with this common:

We've had cards just like this before, plenty of times, but never have I seen this design do so much work or have so much interplay with so many different draft strategies. In the past, if you're picking up your Elvish Visionary and drawing a card or saving another creature from a Pacifism then you're capital 'D' Doing It. There is so much more going on in this set though. (Also, being optional is innately a big step up from the Invasive Species of the past)

Obviously, re-use enters the battlefield effects. But several cards that aren't normally ETB effects are in this set. The common basic land ramp spell (Heaped Harvest), the common non-creature token maker (Carrot Cake), the common colorless land searching artifact (Fountainport Bell) and the common colorless "deal with any permanent for a lot of mana" artifact (Bumbleflower's Sharepot) all interact with this.

Also obviously, blue green cares about your stuff leaving the battlefield. This is the other obvious use.

There is a lot of play with Offspring. You can play your Offspring card early for cheap, then return it and recast it for full value later. You can return a less valuable offspring token and hold onto the better base creature if you've got a 'leaves' trigger. You can go full value and get more than one offspring token out of the same card.

Lots of the common enablers for other strategies are enters effects. Picking up your 2 drop that makes a food feels pretty good if you're in B/G and there is a common and uncommon creature that do that.

It makes it easy to trigger Expend - if you return something cheap you can cast it immediately and trigger Expend, or you can bounce something 4 or more to cast again later. Picking up Alania's Pathmaker in the late game to impulse draw a card and trigger any Expend effects is going to feel so good!

It even targets to trigger valiant, though this is pretty narrow since most of the valiant triggers are better if the creature is in play, but there are still 5 that it could make sense to do this. It's not impossible that you replay the creature and then can trigger valiant again in another way.

To come back to the first point, there being a bunch of non-creature etb effects (the Class enchantments also count for this) mean that if you're in U/G or G/R then the Red and Blue cards that care about casting non-creature spells (at their best in U/R) are stronger than they'd normally be out of their designated archetype. Caring about "non-creature" instead of "instant or sorcery" on most of these cards is also a deliberate decision to make them play better outside of their dedicated archetype.

And lastly, of course, if you're out of lands in your hand then you can always return and replay a land and make this effectively cheaper. You might even get a surveil out of it.

There's a lot of stuff like this. I love that Polliwallop costing 4 but getting cheaper with frogs makes it best in frogs but means you might also be able to Expend 4 with one spell if you're in that archetype.

[n7punk]

2024 Writing Wrapped

Buckle your asses in because this is a long one (when has it ever been a short one)

Stats:

Fics posted this year: 32 (it honestly feels like way more)

AUs: 25 Canon: 7

Updates (chapters, one-shots, etc): 97 (damn I thought that was higher too lol but that's an average of posting every 3.14 days for the 10 months I wasn't on hiatus and and posting 1.87 times a week if you include my hiatus period, and my goal this year was to hopefully update 1.5-2x a week on average, so that goal was definitely met!)

Total word count: 600,179 (my goal was 600k and I got it in with only a few hours left)

AUs: 400,695 Canon: 41,235

Fandom events: 4! (Big Bang, Sapphic September, AU-ctober, Sheratober)

Novels: 1

Personal projects: 2 (misc)

Writing streak: 730* days

I haven't actually written every day in there, I have a couple of rest days thrown in that I only allow myself if there are extenuating circumstances (power outage, sick, etc) where I give myself a word count of 0 because my counter still picks that up as writing. Having this streak is extremely motivating to me so it's worth the "inaccuracies" to have it force me to write on the days I normally wouldn't because I don't want to break it. Removing the freebie days from this year, they're 6, and going back to 2023 it looks like I had 1 since the streak started, so the "real" count is 723. When I port over my streak to next year I'll use the reduced number so it will be more "accurate". I want to keep those freebies in the single digits every year and I'm happy with that.

Retrospective:

1% of Catradora fics!!

that's how I started the year, posting 'stardust, glitter, and love', which let 'freak occurrence: confluence' become my 117th Catradora fic that took me to 1% of the tag (as of writing this I'm 1.17% even after taking nearly two months off lmao). This was a huge goal of mine I was honestly hoping to hit at the end of last year, but kicking the new year off with it was great too.

In late January/February I was working on EtB(LtF), but I got a little ahead and as I was slowly posting the final chapters, I also joined my first fandom event EVER! and wrote Lightbeam for the Big Bang.

The Big Bang was so fun. I want to shout out karo-lynn again for the absolutely GORGEOUS art that went above and beyond with multiple illustrations. Kitten Catra is soooo cute and the way the glowing effects came out is just 🤩 Getting to do Lightbeam for the Big Bang was really great because it was a "milestone" event for the 4th anniversary and the fic I got to write for it was almost a follow-up to my "milestone" fic because they were the only couple in freak occurrence: confluence that hadn't had their "home universe" fic come out, and Lightbeam was the genesis of a long-standing idea (kinda headcanonish) about Adora being the goddess of Etheria that I had, so thank you so much to Tippenfunkaport for arranging it because the final fic and art means so much to me <3 (and also even if I'm still working my way through them, there were a lot of good other fics that came out of it I loved reading!)

To my memory, February/March was a little slower working on MMaM and SYE, but I went a little crazy with OLIG in April/May and had so much fun on that project. I really, really needed it. I'm not going to get into it, but with stuff that happened in my family... this was honestly one of the scariest years of my life. I was trying to figure out why I have vague negativity associated with the OLIG project and then I remembered what was happening around then and realized it had nothing to do with the project itself and in fact that was the only thing that kept me sane. That's probably why I was having one of my troughs in mid/late-May through July. Everything I picked up after OLIG/the Big Bang I just couldn't spark my interest the same and I was tired, but I eventually settled on Slipstream and slowly wrote that for... ages. But I don't want to make it sound like I was depressed that whole time. March-June were really hard, but the main reason I didn't write much in July was actually because I was having so much fun, because I got to meet up with a bunch of friends IRL for almost two weeks. It was so incredible and ugh, I'm committed to making a meetup happen again because I miss them so much.

I think I finally finished Slipstream in August, and that's when it happened. I saw the Sapphic September prompts. I already did individual retros on Sapphic September and Sheratober/AU-ctober, but needless to say: I went fucking insane. The unhinged era returned. And I had a fucking blast. I do want to do more fandom events in the future, but we'll get to that in the future plans section.

I will say, after those events, I honestly felt a little tapped for solid fic ideas. So like, I have a list of 7 ideas I'm interested in (and 1 WIP I'll try to finish and post in January), but I have no thoughts for an actual plot for those 7, it's literally just a tagline, like "Wedding Crashers AU" and that's it (using What a Beautiful Wedding as an example). So there's something there but plot calling to me. The Catradora whirlwind combined with future plans I'll get into later (I promise I'm not going to keep saying that) motivated me to finally pickup my novels again as my next project after the month was over.

I also did something new this year and wrote fanfics without the intention to publish them at any point. I talked about how I lied to myself I wouldn't do it with SB,WCFM to make me start it but lowkey knew the whole time I was going to. That wasn't the case with these other two. One I knew would be bad and had no interest in making good, and the other was for my OCs. For both I wrote 10k in one day. And it was bad. But it was also good. It felt good and the quality or missing scenes didn't matter since no one but me would ever read them. I'm not going to make this a "habit" but I'm definitely open to doing it again, especially for my OCs lol. And though one day I would love to turn them into published characters, I think there's some kind of conflict of interest issues or something with me posting fic of them on the internet, so they will probably continue to stay just for me, but hey, let's talk about novels!

Novels: Oh My God What The Fuck is NaNo Doing

Alright. So, if you don't know, NaNoWriMo used to be a huge thing for me. I won it 4 years straight 2012-2016, and picked it back up in 2020 when I got into writing again because of Catradora. In 2020 I just did a collection of fanfic for it (SLAS/OTOS/misc), and in 2021 I did my first original novel since 2016 in it. When 2022 came around I was burnt out from writing a whole novel that year already, revising the one from NaNo, and trying and failing to start a third novel that summer, so I didn't do NaNo. And, uh. Well. In 2023 there was no way I was finishing even a fanfic project at 50k with adjusting to my new job, so I ignored it.

And can I say, what the fuck. Shit went down. If you don't know, there are plenty of rundown posts and like a 2 hour video essay on it. It's fucking insane. A lot of people lost the motivation to participate, and thus the motivation to write at all for some of them. Not me. I got these emails throughout the year begging and pleading they've changed and it made me actually consider writing a novel on my own - outside of Nano - for the first time in 2 years. I hit my stride and was feeling really high during Sapphic September and was like you know what I can actually do this, and god knows NaNo is continuing to pull garbage every day to keep that motivation up. Once I knew I was doing the events for October I thought it was perfect to do those two theme months and then take a break for my novel on my own.

I now have a week to finish the last two chapters by the end of the year (my goal) and I swear to god I'm going to do it. I'm at almost 90k (I know, I'll trim it in revisions, y'all know how I am). My Novelember 2024 retro post has more details on how that has been going. I just hit a run of writers block over ONE SCENE, but I'm past it now and hopefully these last two chapters will be fast. That's like 3 days each I should be able to do that.

And then... let's talk about

Future Plans:

For the first part of January, I'm actually going to be working on outlining a second draft for that novel I wrote back in 2021. It's a sister book to this one so I want to get it to a stronger place. I do want to finish and post the one Catradora WIP I have tho (brace yourselves it's very stupid). Once the Femslash February prompts go up, I'll start working on those and posting throughout February. I miiiiiiiighht do the Big Bang again if I have an idea I think will be long enough and "cinematic" enough for art. I know I'm going to be super busy 2025-2026 (doing a training course for work 6 hours a week this spring, probably changing roles in the summer, hopefully going full-time in winter of 2025/2026, definitely moving in 2026 and maybe doing a smaller move in summer 2025, etc) so I'm trying to be realistic about what I have time for while also trying to set myself up to hit my big goals anyway because I'm honestly so scared to go full-time because I worry I won't have any motivation or time to write. After the last year and a half of letting my novels languish I'm really concerned I'll never write them if I'm fighting through the difficulty of a full-time job while disabled too, so I want to set myself up for success with being ready to query by then because if I had an actual agent/book deal I think it would keep me motivated (or at least force me to work on them lol) and I want to get these novel out there, the characters are super important to me and the thought of never trying is horrifying.

My big goals for next year are this:

Participate in Femslash February of course, hopefully for at least 20 prompts, though I'd love to do them all if they're good ones for me (After February, I'll either work on Big Bang fic - which means I won't be posting anything - or I'll go back to revising novels).

Participate in one more writing/fandom event (whether it ends of being the Big Bang or something else like Sheratober).

Update/post fic at least 32 times (usually my goal is 1-2x a week, but I'm probably going to be on hiatus working on novels for a few months, so I'm kind of halving 52 weeks and then adding a bit more to it for this goal, hopefully I actually still end up with a weekly "average" but I don't want to set up myself for disappointment).

Revise my novel from 2022 at least once.

Get one novel to the state where it's ready to query by the fall (probably requiring 2-3 revisions, unsure if it will by my current novel or the 2022 one yet).

That's all I can think of right now, but I do want to end as I always do with my thank you for reading because without y'all I don't think I ever would have gotten the confidence to actually pursue publishing but all your kind comments and messages have really changed my life and helped with my imposter syndrome so much <3 Ignoring the confidence thing, I would not have written as much as I do with the motivation I do without those comments, so thank you so much 💖

[lewdcookies]

Picture 1: Hugin & Munin, paired Sicaran Battle Tanks of the Raven Guard. Their machine spirits seem to be linked to each other in ways the Tech Priests can't fully explain, as every attempt to split them up has led one vehicle refusing to operate unless their companion is close by.

Picture 2: Amarok, Kratos Battle Tank of the Space Wolves. The vehicle has gained a reputation of preferring hunt by itself, seemingly ignoring or shunning other Legion vehicles in the need to kill.

Picture 3: Fides, Kratos Battle Tank of the Ultramarines. The name stemming from the vehicle's steadfast loyalty to its crew and pulling them through thick and thin without failing.

***

More tanks! Tiny ones too!

Not much to say, they're a bunch of 3D printer Epic/Legions Imperialis scaled tanks I managed to win a couple of months back.

One of two annoying parts were probably trying to magnetise the Kratos'. but that was mostly because I first glued in the turret plugs and then changed my mind after I noticed how much they scraped the inside of the mounting socket. The second one were the autocannons on the first one, both of those snapped off at a point during magnetisation, but thankfully I had spares so I could just glue those on instead.

Otherwise they were very nice to paint and got done in a couple of hours each.

The Raven Guard transfers are technically from the Thunderbolt sheet, because I didn't have any others in the right scale. And for the Ultramarines I was lucky the Intercessor sheet that came with the ETB ones had small enough emblems I could use.

[bittenrabbit]

Rakdos Blows Up

I'm so happy with my new deck! It's a potential turn 4 combo win if you get lucky! It's a combo deck that abuses the legend rule, akin to Sharuum Clone decks in EDH :D The three pieces that matter are Abuelo's Awakening, Rakdos Joins Up (Shortened to RJU), and Hulking Metamorph!

Once you have RJU and Metamorph in the graveyard, you can cast Abuelo's Awakening to reanimate it as a 1/1 spirit, and on RJU's ETB you can reanimate Metamorph as a 9/9 copy of that RJU spirit! The legend rule will force you to sacrifice one, as long as you pick the 9/9 Metamorph you can repeat the reanimation loop to ping for 18 each cycle!

The rest of the deck is filled with self mill and ways to force through the combo! I'm aiming to switch the deck up a bit to focus less on the combo, through cards like Ledger Shredder and perhaps Duelist of the Mind! :D Of note! With the Irencrag in this decklist, you could combo off as early as turn 3! I prefer having removal but you could go so hard in on it :) https://archidekt.com/decks/7395674/rakdos_blows_up

[devilkittydeckbuilding]

HELLO ALL

today i will be talking to you about one of my more recent decks that has very quickly become one of my favorites!!

it is...

GANDALF THE WHITE POLYARMORY

now, this deck name might sound confusing. but its really quite simple. this is a mono white grouphug deck with the sole purpose of copying the etb of wedding ring to give one to the whole table and marry every player. the goal of the deck is to put everyone in the game into a polyamorous relationship!!

the rest of the deck is a mixture of typical group hug elements, such as shared card draw (secret rendezvous, howling mine, font of mythos) and general etb abuse (elesh norn mother of machines, panharmonicon) and when you combine these two aspects the deck helps out all players but can also effectively control the board by triple copying a meteor golem or loran of the third path!!

i havent had the chance to play this deck all that often but when i have played it it has some real killing power surprisingly. the main thing i realized playing this deck is that doubling or tripling your etbs gets out of hand fast. like obviously it does, but youll be surprised if you decide to play with it.

this deck is rather weighted on the artifact side. i couldnt find a large amount of legendary creatures that copy with gandalf so artifacts were the obvious choice. most of them draw cards on etb or add mana, while the rest copy etbs and are just general group hug cards. this deck could easily be changed to be much more competitive if you removed some of the group hug elements and added more interaction (most of my decks have an emphasis on fun and therefore the interaction might be lacking in some of them).

there are a few cards in this deck id like to talk about as overperformers. this deck does some silly things and these cards felt especially strong from my games with the deck-

eriette's charmed apple: this card when doubled with a panharmonicon type effect (aka your commander 👀) is disgusting. nobody expects the mono white deck to untap and steal their creatures for a turn, which results in turns where you steal the biggest creatures on board and swing for lethal on someone. i nearly killed my girlfriend this way out of nowhere in her life gain deck and it doesn't seem far fetched to do that most games. there is also some graveyard artifact recursion in this deck which allows you to loop this which, in the late game, really adds up.

master of ceremonies: this one is probably obvious to anyone who has played the card before, but this was my first time. if you stick this and no one kills it (which they aren't initially inclined to do) it just spits out so much value. you get three things every one of your upkeeps, whether that be three treasures (broken), three cards (broken) or three creature tokens (yay blockers!!) or some combination of the three. this adds up so fast and gives you a huge advantage for the small price of helping your opponents a bit.

tenuous truce: this card single handedly kept me in the gane by enchanting the player with the biggest board. its crazy what people will do when they get an extra card every turn. obviously gets worse the more people know about your deck cause one card a turn wont stop your average player from swinging at who they deem a threat, but still. its still really good and much better then it seems!!

as for how to play the the deck, its mostly stay alive till its you and one other player. you can do this by killing key targets with your etbs (this deck deals with artifacts and enchantments especially well) or getting people to believe you are not a threat cause you are feeding their card draw. this deck can very easily be ran over if you don't pull a board wipe for the creature decks or if you lose to something that you couldnt interact with cause you are mono white. thats just kinda the brakes. but this deck has more staying power then i ever gave it credit for when i built it.

in closing, this deck is probably around a 6 or so in power level and i wouldnt play this at a high power table but if you and your friends want to have fun then you should give it a try!! i got to marry most of the table in my first game with the deck and it was so satisfying, plus when everyone has a wedding ring the amount of card draw and life gain going around gets out of hand fast. especially if you have extra card draw effects out everyone can be drawing upwards of two cards every single turn lmao

(also dont tell anyone but this deck has another thing in it thats fun to do with your transfem friends, and that is jinxed choker. this is an artifact that is in the deck purely to joke about how whoever has control of it at any given time is collared up. you can marry and collar your friends with this deck and both will make your gay friends go nuts at the edh table lmao)

[inventors-fair]

By Any Other Era: Set Name Winners! ~

Our winners this week are @bergdg, @curiooftheheart, and @theninjaphoenix!

@bergdg — Agent of Sidisi

That's the legacy: choking someone out with a tail. All Khans-splash-art aside, the mechanical impetus plays well into the old-school graveyard shenanigans of the Sultai brood from a different angle, a sorta-flashback with the ETB effects. I think that the instant-speed biting of this particular creature is quite strong in green and would push someone into these colors if they needed the boost. I assume that a GU shell would be the absolute best place for it, and the best part is if you needed to both slam it down and chump to later get a 2-for-one with another creature the turn after. Plus, if you needed to you can kill one of your own legacy creatures to have the Agent get a better ability for the next turn!

I really like the one-turn effects that seem to be implied by Legacy here. Getting a pseudo-Scavenge is one thing, but with a combination of ETBs and perhaps keyword abilities you have the option to mix and match in a grokable way at higher rarities. Further on in the game and/or with strong self-mill and discard, your graveyard becomes a resource where you can use your mana the most effectively. I'm a big fan of this direction and I think it groks quite well. I'm sure there are cool combos of entering triggers at uncommon, smaller keyworded effects at common, and big blowouts in rare (like an Overrun effect!) that could see strong designs.

@curiooftheheart — Tenuous Control

This is probably one of the more "hear me out" mechanics on the podium, but here's what I like about it: this particular ability word is one of those things that tells me about the upside-versus-downside aspects of itself. Like, how there were cards in ONE that were drawbacks unless an opponent was poisoned, y'know? I can clearly envision a world where, after you have your tenuous control over the creature, you want to use the beneficial aspects of your other cards to get in with the advantage. Like, another blue creature with "Unstable — When this creature attacks, if you've sacrificed a permanent this turn, draw a card." Things like that!

My point is that this perhaps isn't the most directly beneficial of the possible cards that could use Unstable, but it's a card that ensures I should worry about the other cards around me in the environment that would use it. Honestly, depending on how sacrifice-heavy the format is, I would add a clause that this thing couldn't block either, but that's a whole other part of it. My first thought is...Time Spiral, of all things: that kind of environment when you're using a whole lot of random resources to sacrifice lands, sacrifice eggs, etc. I dunno, it hearkens to a really specific era of MTG and the kind of limited environment that lends itself to players wondering: how can I utilize my cards in the best possible way?

@theninjaphoenix — Seer of Hidden Stars

And here we are: a strange place where I'm feeling the frenetic energy of resource control. As I'm writing this, I just got out of an Innistrad Remastered draft where my deck performed quite well due to the fact that I knew how to use all my cards' strengths and drawbacks—and more importantly, every turn was spent using my mana in the best way possible. This card starts out quite strong as a body by itself, and then turns into more card advantage after swinging in. Quite reasonable by itself! The flavor that goes along with your chosen name is a really cool choice as well. Those tangible parts of these manifestations may leave, but the power remains... Super sweet stuff.

The questions I have are about the rest of the conditions and of the environment around it, because there are SO many awesome possibilities. Perhaps there are cards that work best with the Vanishing ability, but it would be equally cool if there were enchantment creatures with different mirage conditions. Like, one that's not a creature if you're hellbent but you can sacrifice it to return cards from your graveyard to your hand, or one that's a mirage if your opponents don't have any creatures but turns online to give an anthem to your team. Like, I want to know so much more about this keyword ability, but the tangible/intangible sensations it's conjuring are stellar.

Really strong stuff this week. Runners to follow... @abelzumi

[pantheraleo04]

I'm calling it now, Aetherdrift is going to have a new gate card called "finish line" that taps for a color of manna chosen on ETB to replace thran portal when it rotates out this summer. They just reprinted maze's end and the guildgates in Foundations, so I'm sure they're gonna print some more support in the upcoming sets. Especially since trying to pull off maze's end with only 10 gates available would be way too fragile.

Secondary prediction: there will also be a "starting line" gate. I think starting line will enter untapped when you have <3 other lands, and finish line will enter untapped when you have >2 other lands.

[jones-friend]

I think everyone should try building these commanders once (electronic, not in paper)

When I built each of these I learned a whole lot about deckbuilding and piloting these decks. I have notes below the cut, just in case you want to go into this unspoiled. I also would love if you do try building these show me the link!

Rashmi 1.0 is about understanding mana curve and cheating mana value for gains. You need a balanced curve with some scry and topdeck tech to keep freecasting the top card of your library. Cards like Elder Deep Fiend with high mana values you discount to UU while having flash are huge.

I have played aristocrat strategies before. None of them operate like Athreos. The pay 3 life or I get it back trigger makes your creature selection matter, because if you sacrifice a 6 mana sun titan for someone else to let it go to hand you now need 6 free mana to recast which is hard to come by. If built wrong you end up bouncing expensive creatures instead of sending them to the gy for easy reanimation.

I recommend a lot of low to the ground etb’s that are in the 2 drop range, 3 mana maximum, who give value after cast and etb not on death. Cards that exile from hand are clutch ways of keeping power out of the game until you can drill life totals. Then play smart with Ath triggers to deal bolt damage or recur creatures as you need them.

The Jori En Two-Step. You can argue better commanders exist from Thunder Junction but being 3 mana is hugely important for the strat. Ideally you are casting 2 spells on each player turn, letting turns go around as you cast smaller cantrips for value. Jori En flies under the radar with more pressing threats netting you tons of cards per game.

OTJ commander has some new tricks but I would look into mana efficient control spells like Memory Lapse, Izzet Charm, and Stifle. You don’t need to 100% solve the problem, a Suspend on an attacking creature will take them out of the game for exactly as long as you need. Play fast and smart and needle strats to keep them at bay as your cast triggers become overwhelming.

Kathril is a precon I fell in love with in 2020 and despite not getting new additions very often at all its still a fun as heck deck! The key is to mill some while building a boardstate, drop your commander, then swing with kitted up creatures. Bonus points if you don’t go voltron.

When I built Kathril I had to establish some rules to make it work:

Creatures must have two keywords minimum. If they don’t there needs to be a very good reason to include them (like Odric 2.0)

Creatures I intend to swing with need minimum power 3+. A doublestrike 2/2 or 1/1 isnt pressing enough of a threat

Creatures should have a mana value smaller than Kathril. Some adds like Carnage Tyrant are too juicy not to, but if your whole curve is above Kathril you’re in for a slow game.

There must be a good distribution of keywords. Flying and trample are easy to come by, dig deeper for good reach and menace options.

Early game, mana efficient mill sets up the gy for Kathril to exploit. Be sure to run some mill. Carrion Grub makes for an amazing early game play, it mills, will have decent P/T, and curves into Kathril.

[icarusfrommars]

Custom MtG Destiny Card Day 4: Classes and Subclasses

Design notes and card text format below!

Sorry for not writing these ones out. There's a lot of words on them and I have a lot to say about these. I'll put the full write out for all of them below the design notes.

First, I want to discuss the classes and how I made each of them, especially regarding their colors. Each of them share a color in white, with each class taking a different color slice that white is in. Titan is Bant (WUG), Warlock is Esper (WUB) and Hunter is Naya (WGR). I felt like each of these color combinations really fit each class's identity as well, with Titans seen as the stalwart defenders, Warlocks seen as the intellectual strategists, and Hunters seen as the swift opportunists.

I also tried to lean heavy into promoting three different playstyles for each class.

-Titans in-game use the light to enhance their bodies and protect their allies, so their card is focused on maintaining a board presence, putting up blockers to protect yourself, and promoting a certain creature which can lead the charge for the rest of your board to follow suit.

-Warlocks in-game manipulate the light to decimate their enemies and understand the fundamentals of paracausality, so their class card is interested in spell slinging and deck manipulation in order to control the board and the game.

-Hunters in-game imbue their tools and weapons with light in order to venture out into the wilderness and take care of humanity's threats before they get the chance to become one, so their class card is interested in getting your creatures equipped and scouting out new locations. Along with that, the Hunter card cares about exotics, which will be shown off at a later date.

Along with the base class enchantments, there are also subclass token enchantments based on each of the five (released) elements within Destiny 2: Arc, Solar, Void, Stasis, and Strand.

I knew that as soon as I started work on this set, each of these elements was immediately going to be color coordinated. Each of them play in ways that fit extremely well into the established color of Magic the Gathering already, so I knew that utilizing them this way was perfect, especially for promoting mono-color options. However, they also improve immensely if you have a corresponding class enchantment, meaning that their ETB trigger will occur on each of your upkeeps for as long as you have one of the three class enchantments.

Solar is represented by White, and they fit perfectly together. Solar is all about two things: taking down big targets and healing through any damage that comes your way. Both of those easily fit into White's own color identity in a very neat and tidy way. The Solar Subclass, then, gives you life for having a strong board presence, along with taking down any large threats on your enemy's board.

Stasis was pretty easy subclass to nail down the color for as Blue. Stasis is all about slowing, freezing, and incapacitating your enemies. Blue is very well known for being associated with the cold, which is often seen in magic as tapping down creatures to keep them out of action. Pair that with being able to keep those tapped creatures down thanks to stun counters, and Stasis and Blue easily go hand in hand together.

Void was extremely tricky to tie down its actual abilities, since even in-game it's a bit murky exactly what Void does and what its role is. It's pretty much a jack-of-all-trades subclass, able to lifesteal, go invisible, provide protection, and weaken targets all at the same time. Which is why it fits well with Black, which is similarly Magic's jack-of-all-trades color (from my perspective). I felt like the Void Subclass option should be one that's more subdued and focused more on gaining the advantage for yourself and preparing for the best time to strike through manipulation, since that mentality fits well with Black as a color. I'll probably take a second or third look at Void to change it around, but its current iteration is fine for now.

I'll be honest, Arc annoys me. Not because I don't think it fits very well in Red, since both are interested in both dealing with their problems through high bursts of damage and aggressive, reckless playstyles that can put you in high tension danger up close and personal with your opponent. No, I think Arc and Red are perfect for each other. Arc annoys me because of the fact that it's colored blue in Destiny, which mean the art has a tendency to clash with the borders of cards which it is found on. This token is pretty simple though, but then again so is Arc. Chain lightning and going fast are what Arc is all about, and both of these effects are meant to speed up the game and put pressure on your opponent, just like a good red deck should.

Strand is Green and the reason I started making this set. It's the greeniest Green to ever green and yet it was surprisingly difficult to make a subclass that felt like it was properly Green. In recent years, going wide has kind of become White's playstyle while Green has specialized in going tall, but with Strand's focus being very much on weaving the fabric of the universe to the user's will, creating elemental constructs like tangles and threadlings, it felt weird to not allow this to be a token making machine. That's why I think I found a pretty healthy middle, where the subclass token can make Threadlings, which can then be buffed to deal more damage.

I know that not all aspects of the Destiny elements fit nice and neatly into the MTG color pie. Solar has elements of fire and burn to it, Stasis is also good at clearing out large groups of enemies with high bursts of shatter damage, Void places a big focus on shields and protection, Arc uses a lot of blinding effects to its advantage when in the heat of combat, and Strand really likes to have controlling effects on enemies like suspending and severing. However, that's why I've added a second layer to subclasses which directly rewards the player for utilizing a certain subclass and sticking with it, which I'll reveal in the next few days with the common rarity Lightbearers, each with a Charged with Subclass ability which expands upon both what the creature can do and how the subclasses are portrayed in card form.

And remember, all of these cards are unofficial and are not in their final designs yet. I'm still working on finishing the set as a whole, and so far we've barely scratched the surface on it. I'm very excited to keep showing off my work and I hope you've enjoyed it so far!

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The Immovable Titan Cost: 1WUG Uncommon Enchantment - Class (Gain the next level as a sorcery to add its ability.) When this card enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, choose a subclass (Create a subclass token enchantment for the subclass you choose.) Level 1: At the beginning of combat on your turn, choose a creature you control. That creature gains indestructible until end of turn. Level 2 (2W/U): Create a 0/3 white Wall creature token with Defender Level 3 (3WU/G): Add the following ability to level 1: “The chosen creature also gets +0/+3, Reach, and Vigilance until the end of turn. Untap that creature. It may block an additional creature until your next turn.”

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The Learned Warlock Cost: 1WUB Uncommon Enchantment - Class (Gain the next level as a sorcery to add its ability.) When this card enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, choose a subclass (Create a subclass token enchantment for the subclass you choose.) Level 1: Whenever you cast your first instant or sorcery each turn, you may scry 1. Level 2 (2U/B): Return up to 2 target instant or sorceries from your graveyard to your hand. Whenever a creature you don’t control dies, you gain 1 life. Level 3 (4UW/B): Search your library for an instant or sorcery with converted mana cost 4 or less. Reveal that card, shuffle your library, then put that card on the top. If you draw that card this turn, you may cast it without paying its mana cost.

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The Observant Hunter Cost: 1WRG Uncommon Enchantment - Class (Gain the next level as a sorcery to add its ability.) When this card enters the battlefield and at the beginning of your upkeep, choose a subclass (Create a subclass token enchantment for the subclass you choose.) Level 1: Tap an untapped creature you control: Prevent the next 3 combat damage that would be dealt to you this turn. This may only be activated once per turn. Level 2 (1W/G): Search your library for a land or equipment. Put that card into your hand then shuffle your library. You may play one additional land on each of your turns. Level 3 (2GR/W): Put a land or equipment card from your hand onto the battlefield. If the equipment is an exotic, you may equip it to a creature you control without paying its equip cost.

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Solar Subclass Token Enchantment - Subclass (You may not have more than one subclass at a time) When this token enters the battlefield, if you control a class enchantment, you gain 1 life for each creature you control. 3WW: Destroy target creature with power 4 or greater.

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Stasis Subclass Token Enchantment - Subclass (You may not have more than one subclass at a time) When this token enters the battlefield, if you control a class enchantment, you may place a stun counter on up to three target tapped creatures. 2UU: Tap target creature. It does not untap on its controller’s next untap step.

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Void Subclass Token Enchantment - Subclass (You may not have more than one subclass at a time) When this token enters the battlefield, if you control a class enchantment, you may surveil 2. (Look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on top of your library in any order.) 1BB: Draw 2 cards. You lose 3 life.

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Arc Subclass Token Enchantment - Subclass (You may not have more than one subclass at a time) When this token enters the battlefield, if you control a class enchantment, deal 3 damage to any target. 1RR: Deal up to 5 damage to up to 3 target creatures, divided how you choose.

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Strand Subclass Token Enchantment - Subclass (You may not have more than one subclass at a time) When this token enters the battlefield, if you control a class enchantment, target creature you control get +1/+0 for each other creature you control and gains reach until end of turn. GG: Create a 0/1 green Threadling creature token.

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Threadling Token Creature - Threadling Whenever this creature deals combat damage to any target, it deals that same amount of damage to that target. Then, sacrifice this creature. P/T: 0/1

[niuttuc]

My Favorite Cards from 2024: Foundations

The year is pretty close to over, so let’s go back over the sets released this year (with new cards at least), and go through a few of my favorite cards from that release. I’ll group together stuff released together, in this case it’ll be the main Foundations set and the Foundations Jumpstart cards. Particularly welcome reprints might also get a mention.

I've been having a lot of fun with Raise the Past, and it's an excellent example of what new Foundations cards should be: a card that's simple, yet still powerful and at a rate we haven't really seen before. In the wake of Rally the Ancestors and Return to the Ranks. A mass of small creatures is a very white way to use the graveyard, and very fun.

A very splashy 3-drop, if you'll pardon the pun, Kiora has made an impact in quite a few decks. The base rate of a 3/2 that loots twice on etb isn't bad, but then the opponent has to deal with it anyway even if you've already gotten your value, because they can't just let you have a free 8/8 from your three drop. The looting helps to get to Threshold, wrapping the entire card into a nice package.

Doubling minor graveyard hate with fun copying and stealing effects is a good way to my heart. Abyssal Harvester does that, sadly it's held back by its fragile body on a creature that doesn't do anything until you untap with it. Still, I like the design!

Look at the kitty! It's like the cute dog but not an enchantment! I also love the cute dog, and I love cantripping bodies in the color that can best use them! A cat that'll make its way into plenty of my decks.

A lot of graveyard stuff in this list, but we don't see those kinds of rewards too often in blue, and a card every time is really good. Neerdiv does her best River Kelpie impression for half the cost and available in the command zone, and then she even enables herself!

I do not know why green got this card, but Spinner of Souls sure exists and is good! Not every green creature deck will reliably have creatures dying enough to make it worth the inclusion, but considering that Fecundity sees a decent amount of commander play, and Foster should see a bit more, there are definitely homes there. I do love an Evolutionary Leap. All of that on a body big enough it gets a chance in competitive formats? I'll take it!

Efficient engines that can both attack and draw cards at 2 mana are a really nice place to be in mono-white. Brigone is niche enough to get the counters with her own effect that she's not oppressive, and adds a nice tension between keeping her able to smack people with a lot of counters and getting cards to trigger her. Using her in other counter decks that don't rely on her Heroic effect is also possible, and makes her not just confined to those very few decks.

Twinflame Tyrant is the big mythic dragon for Foundations, and it passes the muster! Not oppressive without haste by itself, it pushes up an effect two mana from when we last saw it this widely on a body with Angrath's Marauders. It's simple, which is a plus, and impressive and gets people excited! Also an art that looks great in foil.

Sadly, I'm not the only one that likes Rev's design, and as a result she's currently at an unreasonable price. Moving past that, getting mana and cards out of every attack is very much something that's worth the four mana, and I do love stealing other people's cards. Being able to get up to three cards and treasures per turn in commander by attacking multiple opponents seals the deal on the design for me... If I can ever get some copies for a price I'd pay for a card in a commander deck.

I like Celestial Armor more than Maul of the Skyclaves, which it compares to. Targeted protection spells are generally too situational to warrant a slot in decks, so one that pulls its own weight by also being a decently threatening equipment in decks that would want that allow this one to be played. This in turn makes the game more interactive, because now players have to play around the possibility of the opponent running some protection spell. Everybody wins! Except the player who's removal spell just got fizzled.

Again, Archmage of Runes is simple, clean and effective. Combining two popular effects into one, not prohibitively expensive card, repaying the one mana more you spend on this compared to an Archmage Emeritus by the time you cast your first discounted spell.

A new Alesha! Who wouldn't love old lady Alesha, still turning sideways and still bringing back creatures to fight. Getting some potential immediate value compensates well the loss of some of the tricks of the original Alesha, but it's still a card I love being in the foundational set of magic.

Reprints:

Seeing this angel package return in Foundations is a welcome sight. Plenty of players love angels and that's a great entry point. Plus Youthful Valkyrie gets an ACTUAL printing this time which should help greatly with supply.

The vegetables package! Duress and Negate kinda HAD to be in the set, it avoids them having to reprint it in a standard set every couple years. Burst Lightning is a welcome surprise in this package of efficient base spells for standard.

In blue, we got the return of Witness Protection, which still holds some of the best trinket text in the game, beautifully tying together the design. Just for the sake of that, it deserves a place here. Brineborn Cutthroat is just a solid way for a flash deck to actually finish the game, and plays into the aspects of blue that appeals to many players (and gets it hated by many other players.)

Vampire Nighthawk more than any other card in Foundations sent a pang of nostalgia through me, and I wasn't even actively playing last time around!

Liliana, Dreadhorde General is a great card that sees play in plenty of commander decks and has seen play in standard, and seeing another reprint to keep the price low is very encouraging!

Scooze is back! I love Scooze! As long as it's not exiling my perfectly fair graveyard strategy, of course. Anyway, it's very funny that Scavenging Ooze started as a card from a commander precon and went on to become a "Foundational part" of Standard.

[loreholdlesbian]

Murders at Karlov Manor Booster Challenge

With every* set since zendikar rising, I've done a booster of custom cards meant to be a part of the set. This is based on a challenge from GDS3, so my goals are to not just to make cards that feel like a part of the set but also ones that Innovate which is a rather difficult balance to strike. I try to cover a wide variety of themes, colors, and mechanics. This is the first set using the new play boosters which I thought would make things more different than it did; it's basically just one fewer card and one slot that's flexible in rarity- I decided to make it uncommon, and I grouped it in with the other uncommons because it really doesn't matter which takes the flex slot.

Rare

Worldsoul's Justice 3WW Sorcery Choose one or more- * Destroy all colorless creatures. * Destroy all monocolored creatures. * Destroy all multicolored creatures. “You all profited while Ravnica screamed! You are all guilty!” -Oba

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This is a flexible board wipe that takes advantage of the variety of colors you might have on board in this set between the light multicolor theme and the disguise mechanic to let you sculpt it to your needs.

Uncommons

Increased Surveillance 1U Instant Surveil 1, then surveil 2, then surveil 3. (To surveil, look at that many cards from the top of your library. Put any number into your graveyard and the rest back on top in any order.) Rumors of the Dimirs’ fall only aid their all-seeing eyes.

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We've seen something kinda like this before in Cryptic Annelid, but i think scry vs surveil makes a big difference here. This is a great card for filling up your yard to collect evidence, while sculpting your future draws.

Midnight Investigator 1BB Creature- Vampire Detective When Midnight Investigator enters the battlefield, each player may collect evidence 5. If a player doesn’t, they lose life equal to the total mana value of cards in their graveyard. (To collect evidence 5, exile cards with total mana value 5 or greater from your graveyard.) 3/2

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One thing that's cool about collect evidence that only one card played with is that it's something anyone *can* do. I made this symmetrical rather than just opponents to reward building around the mechanic, but i like the way that the life loss effect essentially has a cap.

Chaos Seal 3B Enchantment Sacrifice Chaos Seal: Exile the top three cards of your library. You may play those cards this turn. Disguise 1R (You may cast this card face down for 3 as a 2/2 creature with ward 2. Turn it face up any time for its disguise cost.) The Rakdos excel at finding novel uses for Azorius containment spells.

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In theory this card could be part of a cycle but I wasn't finding a lot of other effects that fit the bill. I needed something that wasn't problematic as an on board trick but also that you don't always want to use immediately after playing, and that benefited from being able to come out "cheaply" with a disguise cost. Impulse draw was a good fit because the amount of mana you have available really matters.

In Hiding G Enchantment Ward costs of permanents you control cost an additional 1 to pay. When In Hiding enters the battlefield, you may cloak a card from your hand. (To cloak a card, put it onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature with ward 2. Turn it face up any time for its mana cost if it’s a creature card.)

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I went back and forth between white and green for this card. White is a little better at this kind of weenie and I feel like the re-ward fits it a little more, but neither is a bad fit for green and green is more of the disguise color so in this particular set it might make sense there. In the end I went green to differentiate this card a little more from the white common that is a noncreature permanent that has a minor effect and makes a 2/2 on ETB.

Commons

Compiled Case Notes 1W Artifact When Compiled Case Notes enters the battlefield, create a 2/2 white and blue Detective creature token. 1, T: Surveil 1. Activate only if a Detective entered the battlefield under your control this turn or was turned face up under your control this turn.

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I like the detective typal stuff and wanted to make a card for it; here's one that works fine in a vacuum as essentially a bear with kicker 1: Surveil 1, but gets a lot more interesting if you have other detectives which is a place I like my common typal rewards.

Detain the Suspect 1U Sorcery Tap target creature then choose two. You may choose the same mode more than once. * Put a stun counter on that creature. (If a creature with a stun counter on it would become untapped, instead remove a stun counter from it.) * Investigate.

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One cool thing you can do with stun counters that you couldn't with old "doesn't untap" effects is make a variable amount of turns. Investigate is clearly the better option synergy wise in this set, but being sorcery means tapping doesn't stop an attacker, and stopping an attacker for a turn or two can be *very* valuable. I think this card's in a good spot of how often you choose each of the three modes (two stun counters, two clues, counter and clue)

Kidnap 4U Instant This spell costs 1 less to cast for each card you drew this turn. Target creature’s owner puts it on top or bottom of their library. In a city as big as Ravnica, it’s all to easy to fall through thr cracks.

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The set already has some of this with the split cards and morphs, but I just wanted to add another spell that's expensive but can be cast cheaply to fill up your yard with expensive stuff for the sake of evidence collection. This was the cost reduction effect I found I liked best for this set.

Golgari Scapegoat 3B Creature- Elf Assassin 3B: Suspect Golgari Scapegoat. (A suspected creature has menace and can’t block.) Whenever Golgari Scapegoat deals combat damage to a player, if it’s suspected, surveil 2. 3/4 After the Invasion, the other Guilds are quick to blame the Swarm.

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This is a kind of design I always love doing with a set mechanic- give it a way to turn itself on so it works fine on its own, but cost it such that you'd much rather find another way to turn that effect on if you can.

Mysterious Bloodstain B Artifact- Clue When Mysterious Bloodstain enters or leaves the battlefield, suspect up to one target creature. (It has menace and can’t block.) 2, Sacrifice Mysterious Bloodstain: Draw a card.

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This is a cycle of clues that all do an effect when they enter or leave the battlefield. This is the one I like best because I think a card like this would do a lot of work in getting the BR suspect deck online; more than any of the others this one feels the most like a card you can only make here.

Covert Operations Head 1R Creature- Goblin Soldier Face-down creatures you control have haste. 2/1 Though once goblins filled only the lowest Boros ranks, after the Invasion devastated Boros numbers those who survived quickly rose.

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Fairly straightforward disguise reward here. I wanted to cost it to be 2 mana, since coming down before turn 3 is hugely important for this particular card, so it basically built itself from the initial idea.

Anzrag's Escape 2G Sorcery Choose one- * Return target card in your graveyard to your hand * Return target card you own in exile that you collected as evidence this turn to your hand.

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Simple enough idea here, it's a regrowth that doesn't compete with the set's graveyard mechanic. I don't think this breaks the spirit of the rule that cards shouldn't be able to get cards back from exile because of how specific it is; it doesn't at all prevent using exile as a safety.

Elephant in the Room 4G Creature- Elephant Detective Disguise 4G. This cost is reduced by 2 if Elephant in the Room is attacking and isn’t blocked. (You may cast this card face down for 3 as a 2/2 creature with ward 2. Turn it face up any time for its disguise cost.) 5/5

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I wanted a card that lets you use disguise to sneak a big creature out early without breaking the rule of five, and I came up with a design I quite like to get around it.