MTG Salvation

Ahh, good observations.

Moment of Contemplation UW
Instant
Tap target creature. Untap each creature tapped this way at the beginning of the next end step.
Overload 3UW

And on the angel... That's a pretty egregious error. Maybe it'd be best to make it an enchantment instead? That still opens it up to a combo with Tamanoa, but that's probably ok.

Reconstitution BG
Instant
Put target creature card in a graveyard on top of its owner's library.
Flashback-Sacrifice a creature
And the cat came back, the very next day.

It's a Reclaim, grave hate, sac outlet, draw denial, and more.

Desperate Binding WB
Enchantment
Flash
When Desperate Binding enters the battlefield, exile target creature an opponent controls until Desperate Binding leaves the battlefield.
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice a permanent.
"The offerings have taken a terrible toll on our people, but we know that if we don't, no one will survive."

It's removal, a blink effect, and a sac outlet.

Moment of Contemplation UW
Instant
Tap target creature. Untap it at the beginning of the next end step.
Overload 3UW

Stalls attackers, stops blockers, or gives vigilance.

Puriel of the Burning Light 2RW
Legendary Creature - Angel
Flying, Lifelink
If a player would gain life, Puriel deals that much damage to each player.
"The time for mercy has passed. Judgement is upon us."
5/3

Lifegain hate for an aggro deck or a win condition in a lifegain deck.

Nin's Lash UR
Instant
Deal 2 damage to target creature. That creature's controller draws 2 cards.

This one is pretty obvious but I think the gameplay applications would be interesting.

I don't know. Templating is the biggest problem with most of these cards.
"An opponent discards a card and you pay X life" is two separate actions, so it would be reasonable to interpret it as happening consecutively.

That makes sense. What a tricky puzzle. Are there any examples in Magic of simultaneous non-symmetrical effects?

Saying "each player reveals a card from his or her hand" works fine, but then has weird problems in multiplayer. (Either everyone needs to reveal the same kind of card, which makes it very bad, or you need just any two players to reveal the same kind, which makes it very good.) Changing it to just "you and an opponent" creates another weird problem of figuring out what the correct verbs and pronouns are following that. "You and an opponent each reveal a card from your hand and that opponent's hand"?

How appropriate that these cards should be puzzles, even in design!

Empathy - When Ogawa of the God's Garden enters the battlefield, you and an opponent each reveal a card from your hands. If two nonland cards are revealed in this way, search your library for a basic land, put it into your hand and then shuffle your library. If two land cards are revealed this way, gain 4 life.

Ok how about attacking creates copies that exile at the end of the next turn?

Mist Walker 2U
Creature - Spirit
Whenever this creature attacks, if it isn't a token, you may put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of that creature. Exile that token at the end of your next turn.
2/1

Or something like Geist of Saint Traft?

Eagle Speaker 1UU
Creature - Human Shaman
Spirit Animal - Whenever Eagle Speaker attackers, put a 2/2 flying bird creature token on to the battlefield tapped and attacking. Exile that token at the end of combat.
2/2

Though I guess that might be more of a white thing.

Silvercut: Ah! Again a very good job with simplifying my confusing language. Very elegant fixes on Destiny Guide and Zenpaku. I originally gave him Flash so that he wouldn't be as weak to removal (and so each member of the cycle would have a different CMC), but simply making him cost 2 sort of shores up that weakness.

Haha, I would have fun playing with Teribu. But yeah, kind of a horrible effect for people.

The idea with Ka Ki is that it punishes greedy manabases, like a more forgiving but more aggressive Blood Moon. You can play around it to an extent by feching more basics, but that opens you up to the activated ability more as you'll likely have less sources of each colour. The idea is to create tension in your decision making process. I think your version is more elegant but it misses a lot of the original gameplay. Would it be any better if the activated ability only hit basics?

Is it necessary to phrase the other cards like this? Because with Liliana of the Veil both players discard cards at the same time without anyone knowing each other's choices before they choose.

I really like switching the outcomes on Ogawa, that's a really good point about land light hands. I'm not sure whether he warrants a nerf, though. It's a very difficult card to evaluate I think because of how skill reliant and meta dependent he is. I think he would still be good in your version but I feel like it would create too many situations whether neither outcome is high impact, meaning that players wouldn't really care about the outcome and the mind game would fall apart.

Here are some counter spells:

Veto U
Instant
Counter target spell with converted mana cost X, where X is the number of cards in your hand.
Cycling U
"I planned my response before the thought had even entered your mind." - Jace, the Living Guildpact

Committee Rejection 2UU
Instant (U)
Convoke (Your creatures can help cast this spell. Each creature you tap while casting this spell pays for 1 or one mana of that creature's color.)
Counter target noncreature spell.
"We've come to a decision. Your idea is terrible." - Janice, Kinsbaile town council senior member

See, but it`s clear the discussion is no longer about the creation of knowledge (if it ever was). It is now a passive aggressive contest of dominance as evidenced in comments like "Yes, believe it or not but a discussion is actually helped by both parties weighing in on subjects." and other unkind insinuations from both parties.

You have asked for explanations and I have given them. I find it unfortunate that you don`t accept them but I expect you feel the same way about your claims. I don`t feel it is worth the effort to reiterate my responses.

I very much welcome criticism, that`s why I have this thread here. Many of the posters have brought up excellent points which have helped me improve my designs and my personal skills. If you have other suggestions I would love to hear them, but I don`t see any benefit to focusing our attentions on a repetitive shouting match. You have repeatedly asked the same questions and that hasn't done anything to change my mind, so I don`t see how repeating my responses will change yours.

Quote from Shadowfate »

But Mirror Mockery did not make a token that was attacking. It was specifically for defensive purposes or abusing ETB effects by itself. You need other cards to combine with it if you want to do something other than that (like Sundial of the Infinite). This mechanic (temporary offensive tokens) is a more of a red mechanic.

Ahh, very good point. I completely agree.

Maybe you could sort of do this with a Mirror Mockery type effect?

Shadowstep (Whenever this creature attacks, you may put a token onto the battlefield tapped and attacking that's a copy of that creature. Exile that token at end of combat).

The flavour is pretty hard to nail on this one though, maybe as a new Ninja mechanic or something.

Windwalker Shinobi 2U
Creature - Human Ninja (C)
Shadowstep (Whenever this creature attacks, you may put a token onto the battlefield tapped and attacking that's a copy of that creature. Exile that token at end of combat).
2/1

Nimbus Disciple 1U
Creature - Human Ninja (C)
Flying
Shadowstep (Whenever this creature attacks, you may put a token onto the battlefield tapped and attacking that's a copy of that creature. Exile that token at end of combat).
1/1

Or you could abuse ETB/damage effects:

Observant Geisha 3U
Creature - Human Advisor (U)
When Observant Geisha enters the battlefield, draw a card.
Shadowstep (Whenever this creature attacks, you may put a token onto the battlefield tapped and attacking that's a copy of that creature. Exile that token at end of combat).
0/2

Gut Stabber Gang 2B
Creature - Rat Ninja (U)
When Gut Stabber Gang enters the battlefield, lose 2 life.
Shadowstep (Whenever this creature attacks, you may put a token onto the battlefield tapped and attacking that's a copy of that creature. Exile that token at end of combat).
3/1

Bloodlust Oni 4BB
Creature - Demon Ninja (R)
When Bloodlust Oni deals combat damage to a player, that player sacrifices a creature.
Shadowstep (Whenever this creature attacks, you may put a token onto the battlefield tapped and attacking that's a copy of that creature. Exile that token at end of combat).
4/3

Doesn't "at the beginning of the next end step" mean that you can activate Seance during the opponent's end step and have your creature available to swing? I think making it Sorcery speed only solves this as well as the complexity.

To prevent Seance chaining, maybe make it require a non-spirit creature?

Séance 1W (1W, tap a non-spirit creature you control: Return this creature from your graveyard to the battlefield. At the beginning of the next end step, exile this creature. If it would leave the battlefield, exile it instead of putting it anywhere else. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.)

I've made a few other changes here, such as adding the mana cost into the reminder text and making the tap a payment and not a target. I also made it always exile to prevent sac outlet reuse.

Overall I think you have an amazing mechanic here. Very flavourful with a lot of design space, even if you make it sorcery speed.

You are asking me to explain something to you while simultaneously insisting you are the one who is explaining to me. I hope you can figure out how this impedes the transmission of knowledge. This discussion is no longer entertaining for me and it's making my thread very ugly.

From a lot of other threads where this kind of thing has been brought up, I think that a lot of Magic players are lacking experience in games that require mind reading, a core concept of the cards you don't understand. Maybe try learning a fighting game? Or here's a short article on it: Click.

Everyone else in this thread understands what we're exploring here, so please let us do so in peace.

Sorry, but I'm not really interested in trying to explain to you further. I probably didn't do the best job of explaining, but the pieces are there if you want to keep trying.

Anyways, here's another card:

Hymn of Negation U
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, add or remove a verse counter from Hymn of Negation.
Sacrifice Hymn of Negation: Counter target spell with converted mana cost X, where X is the number of verse counters on Hymn of Negation.

I have three problems with this card so far:
1. Helps combo too much for my liking. I'm considering making it so that it can only be activated on an opponents turn, or ends the turn if its your turn, or only hits creatures.
2. Doesn't do much against an opponent who's playing on curve. Which I'm not necessarily sure is such a bad thing.
3. Pretty bad going into the lategame. I'm thinking of maybe making it counter with a mana payment and allowing it to cycle itself. That turns it into more of a control engine than a tempo card. Or maybe make it `Sacrifice Hymn of Negation: Draw a card and counter all spells with converted mana cost X, where X is the number of verse counters on Hymn of Negation.

I think the thing you are missing is that people think before making decisions. You can't calculate odds and choose the statistically best decisions because your opponents will adjust accordingly. Even aside from that the card would be more complicated in practice because how much each card matters depends on the context.

Lets say you are playing Jund vs Grixis Twin. You have 8 life, they have 7. They have a Deceiver Exarch vs your tapped 7/8 Tarmogoyf on board. You each have all the lands you'll ever need.

You Interrogate them and see Terminate, Gurmag Angler, and Blood Crypt. Which do you choose? You're not going to calculate what the statistical best option is, you're going to make a decision based on your preferences. If you're good your decision will be informed by what your opponent is like and how they've played up to this point. What are the chances they have Splinter Twin concealed? What are the chances it's just a basic Island and they're screwing with you? How is this further complicated by how, in the previous game the exact same situation arose and you (correctly) nabbed their concealed Splinter Twin?

If the opponent chooses a random card you get to choose if you want half a Hymn to Tourach or a Thoughtseize. If the opponent chooses a card he doesn't care about it is at best a thoughtseize. I do not see the connection between FoF and that and even wondering if I think making random piles with it is outsmarting the system is just silly. With FoF you have perfect information about the cards to put in piles, FoF has nothing in common with interrogation apart from having players make choices.

With Fact or Fiction you don't have perfect information. You don't know what's in their hand and that is an important part of the decision making process. Both cards are about making decisions based on available information. Both cards require you to know the game and your opponent to make the best decision.

As for Cabal Therapy the first naming is most of the time simple guesses and flashing it back or leading with a thoughtseize is what gives it its power.

Cabal Therapy is not guessing. You do not name a random card. You don't even name a random card from their deck. If you're playing the card correctly you make a decision based on the available information. You try to intuit what they're holding from their line of play and consider what the value of taking each card is based on the game state.

As for Ogawa, that is where the game-theory comes in. Of course it would be stupid to pick a card at random if you are playing a burn deck. You don't really care all too much about ramping them, you do care a lot abour giving them 5 life. Still don't see the skill in thinking "I play burn, I don't care about the ramp but i DO care about giving them 5 life, let's reveal a land".

Ramp isn't irrelevant to burn decks. Delaying their Siege Rhino a turn is a big deal, so simply picking land every single time is giving them a lot of free value. Yes, an inferior player would choose land every time but a better player would never let an opposing Ogawa be anything but a bear.

You just said that Interrogation was worse than thoughtseize. But earlier you stated that it was stronger than thoughtseize if you are stronger than your opponent? What's it gonna be?

In my earlier post I said

it's often better than Thoughtseize if you are more skilled than your opponent

If both players are trying to gain advantage from the card, and you are better than your opponent, you get a Thoughtseize that sometimes doesn't lose you life. If your opponent is concealing a card at random, it's usually worse than Thoughtseize but much better than the case where they are playing better than you. That's the point of the cards, to give an advantage to more skilled players.

Mondu: Most of these are balanced for Modern play, but yeah Ka-Ki should probably be bumped up in activation cost or something.

hugseal: The thing is, if you simply pick at random all the cards become really good for your opponent. If you get Interrogated and you just hide a card at random, your opponent has Thoughtseize -1 random card. Which is better than the card actually is, given players of equal skill. Even then you could still have the intuition to put your opponent on having a certain card and you might correctly take the hidden one anyways.

Let's say you're playing Ogawa. You could choose at random, but say you're playing a burn deck. Once they've realized you're choosing randomly (which is not that hard to do) you've simply given them a 2/2 that heals them for 5 70% of the time (AND often causes the opponent to reveal cards they might not have wanted you to see). That's pretty unacceptable for a burn deck. And even then you could edge out even better percentages by reading whether your opponent is flooded or not based on verbal/nonverbal cues and play patterns.

Doranmu is even worse, you've upgraded their "discard a card" to "discard a card at random".

I wonder what you think of cards like Fact or Fiction and Cabal Therapy? Do you outsmart the system by picking a random pile or naming a random card every time?

Destiny Guide 2UW
Creature - Angel Spirit
Flying
When Destiny Guide enters the battlefield, target player exiles the top three cards of their library. Whenever that player would draw a card, you choose a card exiled with Destiny Guide and that player puts that card into their hand instead. When there are no more cards exiled with Destiny Guide, sacrifice it.
3/4

Kind of messy right now and plays poorly against draw spells. "Dies to Brainstorm" is a pretty awkward thing for a card.

Now for a random Kamigawa cycle:

Zenpaku, Towabara Blademaster 1WW
Legendary Creature - Human Samurai
Flash
At the beginning of your upkeep, name a card. Whenever an opponent casts a card of the last name chosen with Zenpaku, put a +1/+1 counter on him and he gains protection from that card until end of turn.
2/3

Teribu the Husher 2UU
Legendary Creature - Spirit
Flying
Whenever you cast your first spell of the turn, counter all other spells with the same converted mana cost.
0/6

Ka-Ki, The Ruiner R
Legendary Creature - Goblin
Whenever a player players a nonbasic land, Ka-Ki deals 1 damage to that player.
3R, sacrifice Ka-Ki: Destroy target land.
1/1

Doranmu, Butcher of Hope 3BB
Legendary Creature - Demon
Flying
Whenever Doranmu, Butcher of Hope does combat damage to an opponent that player discards a card and you pay X life. If the converted mana cost of the discarded card was less than X, draw a card.
4/3

Ogawa of the God's Garden 1G
Legendary Creature - Human Monk
When Ogawa enters the battlefield, each player reveals a card from their hand.
If both players revealed a land card, search your library for a basic land card and put it on to the battlefield tapped. If both players revealed a nonland card, gain 5 life.
2/2