MTG Salvation

Arabal traveled the lands for much of his adult life, seeking and destroying many of the evils of the world with his mysterious shining fist. Some of his most notable accomplishments were the destruction of the Demon Queen, Borlexa and turning the tide in the War of Six Spears. He eventually retired to the seclusion of the Gorgekia Summit where he taught new heroes the lesson of his adventures. However it was never his fate to discover the truth behind his power and it's terrible origins. Perhaps the next in the cycle of reincarnation would break it.

Arabal, the Shining Fist 1URW
Legendary Creature - Human Monk (M)
Protection from black
When Arabal, the Shining Fist attacks, tap up to X target nonland permanents, where X is Arabal's power.
As long as an opponent controls 4 or more tapped nonland permanents, Arabal has double strike.
3/2

Arabal met Fyernok eyes as he cursed and mourned. It was not the first he heard of the past use of his powers. What little he had gathered was his light reincarnated from generation to generation, leaving a legacy of greatness and a wealth of enemies. Regardless the vampire left him little time to discuss the matter.

"If you know my light, you know your darkness can't best it!"

Arabal shot out his fist as the vampire decended from above, sending a shimmer that highlighted the trees and stars above. But the forest protected Fyernok, the light forcibly bending around him. The vampire bit into the young monks neck. Despite his anger-fueled ferocity, the fangs didn't pierce the skin. Arabal struck the monster repeatedly to the gut until it released him, showing the sear of the monks punches. With a blow to the face, Fyernok turned to dust.

That's when the forest itself erupted.

"So it was you that tried to protect that creature!" Arabal turned. Then turned again. It was all around him. No. It was the woods itself that sought vengeance!

The leaves whirled and withered, emitting a scent of death. Suddenly, they lashed out him, but as the vampire could not pierce his skin before, neither could the leaves. But how could Arabal fight the woods itself?

He left seeking the power to change that.

Arabal, the Shining Fist 1URW
Legendary Creature - Human Monk
Protection from black
When Arabal, the Shining Fist attacks, tap up to X target nonland permanents, where X is Arabal's power.
3/2

Arabal seeks the greatest of foes to test his Shining Fist on, a mysterious power for which he naturally had a birth. He has always had a strong desire to destroy the darker forces of the world not only to test his mettle, but to prevent others from suffering a worse fate. With that in mind Arabal seeks the more dangerous Haunted Woodlands not out of foolishness but to help rid the forest of the evil within.

None of the threats, be it death-touching insects, poisonous mosquitoes, nor a pair of trolls could overcome the fierce aura of Arabal's fist. It's light forced them aside and left him to pass unscathed.

Arabal, the Shining Fist 1URW
Legendary Creature - Human Monk
When Arabal, the Shining Fist attacks, tap up to X target nonland permanents, where X is Arabal's power.
3/2

Veterans Virtue 2W
Instant (R)
Choose one plus a mode for each experience counter you have. You may choose the same mode more than once.
• You get an experience counter.
• Create a 1/1 white Soldier creature token with lifelink.
• Creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn.
Flashback 3WW

Twin seems solid, might be fair at 6.

Balan is a 9/9 indestructible with "attack, destroy target permanent" thanks to Argentum Armor. Constructed decks would only run the pair. Kinda a discounted eldrazi. Lose indestructible and have it gain first strike and it'd be more in character with his first card and more answerable.

Elia is a cool card, but no the wanderer.

Jazine, of the Last Stand 3WWW
Legendary Creature - Angel (M)
Suspend 15 - W
Whenever you lose life, if Jazine, of the Last Stand is suspended, remove a time counter from her for each life lost. Otherwise put a +1/+1 counter on Jazine.
Flying, double strike, lifelink, vigilance
3/5

Varfex, Rushflow Initiator 2RR
Legendary Creature - Elemental (M)
Partners with Paleska, Flow Surveyor
Haste
Instant and sorcery spells you control cost 2 less to cast while ~ is attacking.
5/4

Paleska, Flow Surveyor 2UU
Legendary Creature - Faerie Wizard (M)
Partners with Varfex, Rushflow Initiator
Flying, Prowess
When Paleska enters the battlefield, return target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand.
When you cast your second instant or sorcery spell on a turn, if you both own and control Paleska, Flow Surveyor and a creature named Varfex, Rushflow Initiator, exile them, then meld them into Parfex the Skyflow.
2/2

Parfex the Skyflow
(••) Legendary Creature - Avatar (M)
Flying, haste, prowess
Whenever an instant or sorcery would be put into your graveyard from anywhere, exile it.
When ~ attacks you may cast a copy of any number of instant and sorcery cards exiled with it without paying their mana cost.
6/7

You already break the general rule by making the keyword abilities of the Eidolon different then what it is enchanting. I feel if you're already ok breaking it, there are more intuitive ways to do it closer to my suggestion.

I like the concept, but I feel this does too many things and over-complicates. Nixing some of the extra abilities and getting rid of the "become a spirit" clause (it's already a spirit) would help. Something like:

Kluxion, Eidolon of Vengeance WBR
Legendary Enchantment Creature - Spirit (M)
Bestow 2WBR
Enchanted creature gets -4/-4 and attacks each turn if able.
Kluxion, Eidolon of Vengeance attacks each turn if able.
WBR: Kluxion becomes an aura enchantment with enchant creature attached to target creature. It becomes a creature again if it's not attached to a creature.
4/4

Arenvol, Contract Binder 2WB
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor (M)
At the beginning of each opponents upkeep, they choose friend or foe.
* Friend - That opponent gains 3 life and draws a card. Prevent all damage sources they control would deal to you and permanents you control until your next turn.
* Foe - That opponent loses 3 life and discards a card at random.
3/4

Trelzaya, Planar Conscious 2WUG
Legendary Creature - Avatar (M)
Vigilance
At the beginning of your upkeep, each opponent chooses strength, knowledge, or health.
* Strength - You and that opponent create a 3/3 green Beast Token.
* Knowledge - You and that opponent draw a card.
* Health - You and that opponent gain 4 life.
4/5

Krenton, Mastermind for Hire 1WUB
Legendary Creature - Veldalken Artificer (M)
At the beginning of your upkeep, each player may bid life. You start the bidding with a bid of any number. In turn order, each player may top the high bid. The bidding ends if the high bid stands. The high bidder loses life equal to the high bid. If you have the high bid, create a X/X colorless Doomsday artifact creature token with indestructible and trample, where X is the life lost this way.
4/4

Quote from Ebline »

Quote from user_938036 »

Balan, Leonin Captain, I think at 6 mana you get the equipment to your hand, not the battlefield. At least based on similar cards; Godo and Nazahn. It being a 'random' tutor helps in that regard but because you can easily make it a guaranteed tutor it doesn't help much. Probably would have to cost at least 7, or 8 and have a larger body or more abilities.

I would take another read of Godo and Nazahn. One is a direct tutor to the battlefield for 5R and the other is to hand, EXCEPT if it meets a specific condition (the condition of being Hammer of Nazahn), in which case it is also directly to battlefield and because of the condition, equipped too. I'm really not seeing how either card is a good example for an argument that 6 CMC with two of it colored can't tutor to field with limitations - one tutors to field unconditionally, the other tutors to field based on a specification.

Godo has the same body, a better tutor, and can be argued to have a more impactful other ability. Nazahn has a noticeably better body, a usually worse tutor, and an other ability that works with your whole board and can provide some evasion. Balan's tutoring seems perfectly fine, but he's probably overall weaker than the two examples that share the similar tutoring. He'll usually be just a very straightforward beater, and without deck manipulation he could often be an expensive beater that isn't actually that big a threat. He might be able to get away with a 4/4 body, or a more interesting secondary ability.

I will admit I miss read Godo. However I believe Nazahn being more recent and multicolored has significantly more weight in the argument and there ability is tutor to hand unless you "play fair". That play fair bit is why it's hard to argue that Balan isn't a significantly stronger tutor. Yes it could get something as unassuming as leonin scimitar but why the hell are you playing those cards together. You play Nazahn with his hammer because with them together it is worth playing both. Rating "technically conditional" indestructible against on attack tap is hard. I would rate the indestructible significantly higher because you have invested a lot into the guy and indestructible is a significant safety while the tap on attack I would rate almost as highly as trample.


Edit: the fact that he is meant for a cube is fairly significant when evaluating his tutor. What kind of equipment is he getting? Reasonable fair equipment or Argentum Armor? Is his tutor going to be actually random or are you likely to only have one or two equipment.

So if you win off the Ancestral Recall, both you and your opponents will leave feeling like it was on a fluke.

...which is exactly the whole point and concept of the card. Gambling must be something you don't have control over, and that's exactly what excite the gamblers.You feel good exactly because you won your mini-lottery, like a miracle from heaven. Sure, the card maybe it's not your coup of tea, but from here to say "it's no fun for anyone" there's an abyss.

"You may put THIS from the command zone onto the battlefield" instead of casting. Easy, peasy.

Quote from CX316 »

She's a member of the gatewatch. You can't really pin garruk entirely on her, he's the one that came after her first and she was still rather under demonic influence at the time, as well as the chain veil.

To be fair, she is in the gatewatch mostly because they are better minions than zombies.

Quote from Legend »

Thick Light (Uncommon)
4W
Sorcery
Spectra — Distribute X +1+1 counters among any number of target creatures you control, where X is the number of colors among cards in your graveyard.

I consider this unfitting for white. White shouldn't be able to pile up to five counters at once onto a single creature. The effect is green. A white varaint would be (cheaper): "Put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to X target creatures, where X is [...]"

Veteran Reinforcements (Common)
W
Instant
Spectra — Create X 1/1 white Warrior creature tokens with vigilance, where X is the number of colors among cards in your graveyard.

In any given situation spectra should be cost as if you expect it to be at least two, preferably three. If that single white mana is a mana cost, then this is undercost.

Spectral Blast (Common)
1U
Instant
Spectra — Counter target spell unless its controller pays X, where X is the number of colors among cards in your graveyard.

This one strikes me as nice since it can scale Mana Leak in such a way that it becomes valid as something that cannot be played around for longer, but it would need to come with serious support to be online in time.

Vivigoyf (Uncommon)
G
Creature — Lhurgoyf
0/0
Spectra — Vivigoyf enters the battlefield with X +1+1 counters on it, where X is the number of colors among cards in your graveyard.

Isn't it a hallmark of the Lhurgoyf tribe to have static abilities that dynamically set the p/t?

---

Overall you might want to go for more mechanics that have a ceiling like -X/-X effects and "Look at X cards. Choose one" Than effects that grow proportionally in power like +X/+X effects and "Draw X cards." It's a neat technique to avoid swinginess without entirely sacrificing utility.

Gallendra is a fun design. I second the wish to include black, perhaps instead of green? I'm not entirely sure what green is bringing to the design as it is, other than green being the distantly secondary color for unicorns.

Holcrood is a very fun idea, but certainly needs a rethink. He currently can violate timing restrictions of sorceries as well as bypass mana costs on your side, and also hoses all of your opponents instants and sorceries with a very strong pseudo-counterspell. The first problem would be fixable by Anachonity's suggestion of X, but the second would not.

Pulcron is very strong, even if the "can't be reduced to less than one mana" clause is added, it's a near limitless cost reduction, one that's applying to artifacts, which is where the real danger lies for the stupidly broken combos. It's probably OK with the up-front cost of 4UU, but I would keep an eye on this one during testing.

Zaf'yld needs a total overhaul in my opinion. A big, blunt beater doesn't strike me as "The Inevitable" nor as very godly. Since you're designing directly for commander, I would say that it's a very dull commander design, one I would have little interest in building a deck around. It feels like a mythic beater for standard, or even for draft, rather than a tailor-made commander.

Gallendra is cool, and I'm sad there's no 'lifegain matters' commander that isn't also black so it checks that box as well.
EDIT: though I think the correct wording is "with a number of +1/+1 counters on it equal to the life you've gained this turn."

Holcrood has potential to be a bit busted (my Ponder becomes Enter the Infinite!). He should probably either cost more to field, not have haste, or have an X in the ability cost equal to the CMC of the card in the graveyard (it could just cost X, since he's already RU himself).

Pulcron needs the "can't be reduced to less than 1" clause. "Analytic" is also misspelled.

Being indestructible, Zaf'yld isn't going to accrue a very high commander tax anyways. I would give him lifelink instead (since Amonket demonstrates that not all gods need indestructible; they just need to be hard to get rid of)

Editing after the deadline - and certainly after judge brackets have been posted - is 100% a DQable offense. Don't do it.

Yeah, the Orzhov half of this card could definitely have 1 or 2 CMC shaved off. It's a harder piece of mass treasure creation to use than Brass's Bounty, which itself is pretty overcosted, and it doesn't do anything else, unlike Spell Swindle.

Mechanically, Fame sounds like a card that would be much more at home in Boros than Rakdos, given that Rakdos is generally much less concerned with gaining back self-inflicted life loss than mono-black is. Boros, by contrast, is the (Sun)home for draining burn spells. Counting creatures further increases the Boros feel.

Isperia's Enforcer (W/U)(W/U)(W/U)(W/U)(W/U)
Creature - Human Knight {R}
Flash
Flying, vigilance
When Isperia’s Enforcer enters the battlefield, if only blue mana was used to cast it, counter target spell.
When Isperia’s Enforcer enters the battlefield, if only white mana was used to cast it, exile target creature.
Some matters have to be settled outside the court of law.
3/3