I find this card to be OP. Granted this does require a player to play blue AND black, but it's basically "if you play dimir, draw two cards then discard a card" which is insane.
Helping Hand WX
Sorcery (U)
Put X +1/+1 counters on target creature. Scry 1.
Seems combo-y, but I like it. Soulbound is an outdated mechanic but if it were to be brought back then this card would be cool to see. Not sure I agree with it being red though -- white would fit better IMO.
Mind Thief 2BBUU
Sorcery (R)
Gain control of target plainswalker or creature. If it's a plainswalker, you lose life equal to the amount of loyalty counters on it.
Seems a little underpowered to me, though I would be very happy drawing this guy in draft, so if what you were going for was a fun draft card then this sounds good.
Here's a little companion to the Mind Swipe card I posted a page back:
Mind Thief 2BBUU
Sorcery (R)
Gain control of target plainswalker or legendary creature. You lose life equal to the amount of loyalty counters on it.
Interesting idea. Seems balanced, and like it would be a lot of fun to play.
Underworld Lion BB
Creature - Lion (R)
Indestructable
Whenever Underworld Lion attacks or blocks, defending player puts the top 6 cards of their library in their graveyard.
At the beginning of your upkeep, target opponent puts the top 2 cards of their library in their graveyard.
1/1
Seems a little underpowered to me. Considering Titan's Strength gives a creature +3/+1 until the end of the turn (plus a scry), try either lowering it to 3 mana and making it a cantrip or making it 2 mana.
Wurm of Destruction 4BGG
Creature - Wurm (R)
Indestructible
Whoever Wurm of Destruction deals combat damage to a player, that player discards a card
Whenever Wurm of Destruction deals combat damage to a creature, that creature gets a -1/-1 counter and gains defender
Crappity crap crap. I meant to make it a 3/2. Here I will repost him below.
About your card, it seems a little weak. IMO it would be fine without the thing about having to discard a card to activate abilities.
Pouncing Lion R
Creature - Lion (R)
Haste
At the beginning of your upkeep, Pouncing Lion gets a -1/-1 counter
3/2
Seems balanced to me. I dunno it would be constructed playable but seems fun in draft and the flashback would make things interesting. Flashback cost could probably be lowered to 4G, but then I guess it might have to be uncommon.
Interesting idea but it seems like it may be too easy to abuse. A lot of artifacts are sac-able and a lot of artifacts are cheap so combined it seems a little OP. Bumping it up to double blue would probably be fine though. Interesting idea, kinda like an old school magic card that's actually balanced. And glad you liked my card
Pouncing Lion R
Creature - Lion (R)
Haste
At the beginning of your upkeep, Pouncing Lion gets a -1/-1 counter.
This seems like the type of thing that has potential for being abused easily in control (see: Sphinx's Rev, though I admit it's more balanced then that) and it should cost more. Maybe add one more blue mana -- that's almost strictly worse then Spinx's Rev, but that was a broken card. It's an interesting idea, though, and would help control a lot.
About my card, "Liliana's Wake" was a typo, meant to type Curse of Liliana. I guess it is a little high costed, I just wanted it to cost 9 to be in line with all the other 9s in its effect. Maybe if I take away the you lose 9 life? And I thought about making it dimir, but I just thought it would be cool for black to have a board altering sorcery as opposed to one that interacts directly with life. Thanks for the feedback! Anyways...
Mind Swipe 1UU
Sorcery (R)
You control target plainswalker until the end of the turn. You lose life equal to its converted mana cost minus 1.
I would probably bump that up to uncommon because it sounds like a monster in draft. But cool card, sounds like it would be a lot of fun to play and I could see it getting play, or at least appearing in sideboards of in various midrange decks that run those colors. Great idea.
Curse of Liliana 8B
Sorcery (M)
Target player loses 9 life, sacrifices a permanent, then taps 9 permanents they control. At the beginning of the next upkeep, exile Curse of Liliana and that player may use mana of any color to cast a copy of Liliana's Wake. You lose 9 life.
Sorry for doing this card again. I just wanna refine it -- I really appreciate you guys's help in helping me develop this.
Balanced well enough. Wouldn't be fine at common for limited, but is great as an uncommon card.
Also, to note on the previous Wither card, it means that if you cast in on a player it'll deal 2 damage, but if you cast it on a creature, the damage will be -1/-1 counters instead, making a 4/4 a 2/2 permanently, not dealing 2 damage then putting a single counter on it. Still a good card though!
Oh gotcha. That's a super cool idea! I want that to be made.
In Nines has some templating errors. Should be "taps 9 permanents her or she controls" unless you want that player to be able to tap other players' permanents. Putting cards not owned by a player into another player's hand, graveyard or library is also something that's not done. It runs the risk of creating situations where someone can take another players card permanently (even if accidentally). A better way to do it would be to an opponent cast a copy the spell at the beginning of the upkeep. It should also probably be the next upkeep, rather than your next upkeep. Delaying a trigger for more than one turn can lead to memory issues.
---
The Third Degree1RR Sorcery
Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
The Third Degree deals 2 damage to each creature and each player.
Oops, I meant taps permanent they control. And yeah, I guess I should make it they cast a copy of the card and the next upkeep. Thanks!
As for your card, so basically if you were to say...cast it on a 4/4 it would become a 3/1 until the end of the turn and then stay a 3/3? I like it! Very interesting twist on the typical burn spell and seems balanced.
Chandra's Force 2R
Insant (U)
Deal 4 damage to target creature of player.
That's an interesting idea, putting +1/+1 counters on by untapping. I say it's good enough for a mechanic, but not just with counters -- maybe a black creature with deal 2 damage (3 if you felt damage this turn) or a green creature with add 1 colorless mana (add 2 if you dealt combat dage) would be nice for putting a spin on the mechanic.
The new version of a card I suggested last page:
In Nines 8B
Sorcery (M)
Target player loses 9 life, sacrifices a permanent, then taps 9 permanents. At the beginning of your next upkeep, target player puts this card in their hand and may use mana of any color to cast it. You lose 9 life.
EDH anyone?
That's really good. But I think it's balenced -- it's only for one turn. I think it would be more in flavor, though, to make it +4/+4, flying, first strike, and lifelink.
In Nines 8B
Sorcery (M)
Deal 9 damage to target player and target creature that player controls. That player taps 9 permanents. If they don't have 9 permanents, then they tap all their permanents. You get an emblem that says "At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 9 life."
That's true, it would help with those two. In general though, I would try to keep the mill spells to a minimum. And yeah, Gargoyle Sentinel is playable in limited, but 3 for a 3/3 defender which you can pay 3 mana to make it lose defender and give it flying is rather bad. Out of the cards you have, I would suggest putting in either Chasm Skulker or Indulgent Tormenter, neither of which are discard but both of which are very good cards.
Something I would consider, whether you move the mana curve down to go faster or stay with a midrange game, is to add early hand disruption like thoughtsieze or duress and pack rat. Thoughtsieze because you want to wreck their plans and gain information about what they can do, and pack rat because it is tough to remove and can win games all by itself. I would cut down to 23 or 24 lands, be sure to include mutavault and urborg. I would also try focus on a plan. For example, nighthowler is terrific if there are guys in the graveyard, but you aren't doing anything to ensure creatures will be there outside of removal. You aren't dredging or milling, you aren't sacrificing either. It's like he's there just to bestow and trigger heroic. You aren't really doing a whole lot to build devotion except throw some dudes out. Things like underworld connections and whip of erebos both make your nykthos more potent, give you card advantage, and make grey merchant much more effective if your guys get drilled. The whole list is loose and unfocussed. I would recommend checking out the other aggro list and compare it with the monoblack devotion deck to get ideas.
One card I wish would get a reprint for standard is Damnation. Bile blight and drown in sorrow is as close as black gets. Even mutilate would be alright.
First off, I'm trying to make this post rotation, as the set will rotate in about a month. I am running 2 thoughtseizes already -- great card. I forgot to add it (I typed up my deck list out of memory) but I am running two whips of erebos. Thanks for your feedback!
Helping Hand WX
Sorcery (U)
Put x +1/+1 counters on target creature.
What do you guys think minus the scry?
Helping Hand WX
Sorcery (U)
Put X +1/+1 counters on target creature. Scry 1.
Mind Thief 2BBUU
Sorcery (R)
Gain control of target plainswalker or creature. If it's a plainswalker, you lose life equal to the amount of loyalty counters on it.
Here's a little companion to the Mind Swipe card I posted a page back:
Mind Thief 2BBUU
Sorcery (R)
Gain control of target plainswalker or legendary creature. You lose life equal to the amount of loyalty counters on it.
Underworld Lion BB
Creature - Lion (R)
Indestructable
Whenever Underworld Lion attacks or blocks, defending player puts the top 6 cards of their library in their graveyard.
At the beginning of your upkeep, target opponent puts the top 2 cards of their library in their graveyard.
1/1
Wurm of Destruction 4BGG
Creature - Wurm (R)
Indestructible
Whoever Wurm of Destruction deals combat damage to a player, that player discards a card
Whenever Wurm of Destruction deals combat damage to a creature, that creature gets a -1/-1 counter and gains defender
About your card, it seems a little weak. IMO it would be fine without the thing about having to discard a card to activate abilities.
Pouncing Lion R
Creature - Lion (R)
Haste
At the beginning of your upkeep, Pouncing Lion gets a -1/-1 counter
3/2
Interesting idea but it seems like it may be too easy to abuse. A lot of artifacts are sac-able and a lot of artifacts are cheap so combined it seems a little OP. Bumping it up to double blue would probably be fine though. Interesting idea, kinda like an old school magic card that's actually balanced. And glad you liked my card
Pouncing Lion R
Creature - Lion (R)
Haste
At the beginning of your upkeep, Pouncing Lion gets a -1/-1 counter.
About my card, "Liliana's Wake" was a typo, meant to type Curse of Liliana. I guess it is a little high costed, I just wanted it to cost 9 to be in line with all the other 9s in its effect. Maybe if I take away the you lose 9 life? And I thought about making it dimir, but I just thought it would be cool for black to have a board altering sorcery as opposed to one that interacts directly with life. Thanks for the feedback! Anyways...
Mind Swipe 1UU
Sorcery (R)
You control target plainswalker until the end of the turn. You lose life equal to its converted mana cost minus 1.
Curse of Liliana 8B
Sorcery (M)
Target player loses 9 life, sacrifices a permanent, then taps 9 permanents they control. At the beginning of the next upkeep, exile Curse of Liliana and that player may use mana of any color to cast a copy of Liliana's Wake. You lose 9 life.
Sorry for doing this card again. I just wanna refine it -- I really appreciate you guys's help in helping me develop this.
Oh gotcha. That's a super cool idea! I want that to be made.
Oops, I meant taps permanent they control. And yeah, I guess I should make it they cast a copy of the card and the next upkeep. Thanks!
As for your card, so basically if you were to say...cast it on a 4/4 it would become a 3/1 until the end of the turn and then stay a 3/3? I like it! Very interesting twist on the typical burn spell and seems balanced.
Chandra's Force 2R
Insant (U)
Deal 4 damage to target creature of player.
The new version of a card I suggested last page:
In Nines 8B
Sorcery (M)
Target player loses 9 life, sacrifices a permanent, then taps 9 permanents. At the beginning of your next upkeep, target player puts this card in their hand and may use mana of any color to cast it. You lose 9 life.
EDH anyone?
In Nines 8B
Sorcery (M)
Deal 9 damage to target player and target creature that player controls. That player taps 9 permanents. If they don't have 9 permanents, then they tap all their permanents. You get an emblem that says "At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 9 life."
First off, I'm trying to make this post rotation, as the set will rotate in about a month. I am running 2 thoughtseizes already -- great card. I forgot to add it (I typed up my deck list out of memory) but I am running two whips of erebos. Thanks for your feedback!