Rankle, Master of Pranks seems worth a look. I know you don't generally like attackers, but costing each player two cards a turn is pretty good value.
Fires of Invention is a dead flip, but kind of ridiculous for us anyway. We've been looking for decent discard outlets; this just lets us cast them straight up, while leaving ALL our mana available for Grenzo. It feels too strong to not include.
Reborn Guildgate
Tribal Land - Dragon Gate (U)
As Reborn Guildgate enters the battlefield, you may reveal a card that costs at least WUBRG from your hand. If you don't, Reborn Guildgate enters the battlefield tapped. T: An opponent chooses three colors. Add one mana of a color chosen this way. Niv-Mizzet couldn't help but rebuild some of Ravnica in his new image.
Hemlock - There's some formatting issues, like the flavor text not being in quotation marks, but we were both rushed. As to the card, this is one of the most aggressively costed 3/3's I've seen. Gatherer has 39 3/3 creatures for two mana, and this compares favorably with most of them. It's definitely the strongest one with colorless mana in the cost. The out-of-combat-two-toughness is not insignificant, but the flexibility and potential more than make up for that. I wish this cost GG; it would be more in line with what WotC has printed, and create a nice internal tension. I do like the interactions with cards like Yeva that gives creatures flash.
Artorias - I have a soft spot for volvers, and I like the idea of multikicker on one, although the 4 CMC is going to really hamper that. Both options feel weak to me, but I do also have a tendency to undervalue those abilities, so maybe they're fine.
RaikouRider - Fantastic. Wonderfully versatile and balanced. I love the choices this would bring to each game.
Subject16 - I love the interactions; it's a very clever card. I'm not sure that making Unhinge / Mind Ravel gold is enough of a downside to make it a turn two play. What really worries me is how much easier it is to recur creatures than spells. The creature side of the card is perfectly reasonable.
Eventide Sojourner - Making Upheaval instant speed, harder to counter, and cantrip is giving me flashbacks. Power creep definitely demands at least some of that, but all three? I like the other half of the card, and I'm a little surprised it hasn't already happened.
kwanyeegor - That...is a lot of card draw. Making outlast instant speed is good on it's own, and something I'd like to see on a real card. Adding the card draw to all your creatures feels like too much.
I'm at exactly your amount of expertise. There's a lot of conversation about the format around here and a severe lack of actual decks.
I was going to use more ramp in my version, use all the appropriate dual swamps and swamp doublers, and run it more as MBC with some splashes. You're going to be pretty mana hungry. I was also thinking Pentad Prism, Dark Ritual, Basal Thrull and other ways to play Nicol turn 3, but I suspect that might be a mistake with people being more likely to draw kill cards.
BlackWaltz3 - I don't think that should be reminder text, since it changes the effect of the ability (making it stronger, actually). Consider having both shivan wurm and craw wurm; with the reminder text, it costs four less; without it, two less. And artifact creatures are their own category either wording. The ability is neat but really strong, like, in-the-conversation-with-Griselbrand strong. Maybe if you couldn't trigger it with things like Last Laugh or Pandemonium....
RaikouRider - Very similar to Burning-Tree Vandal, but being able to use it turn one is massive. I think it's unbalanced, but the kind of unbalanced that might make the game more fun. It should definitely be uncommon, though.
kwanyeegor I like it. I love how the vigilance interacts with the activated abilities, and that protection on a basilisk is just evil. The flavor text might be a stretch to include on the card, though.
Algernone25 Fun. A fixed tarmogoyf for all colors. Nice use of imprint.
Hemlock I admit the doubling makes me nervous, but it's such a tightly self-controlled design... I've been sitting here for ten minutes trying to break it, and the best I can come up with is Homura's Essence. Kudos.
Kumlekar (Here....we....go.) Layer 6c could just be, "~ power doesn't change due to counters." You could possibly make this work as an ability of a set with the unnamed sequence distributed on the token inserts. Even then, I think we're still not talking black borders here, maybe not even silver ones, but a new border, made entirely of fractal images.
Hexel, Father of Loss2BB
Legendary Creature - God (M) 2B: Exile the top card of your library. If it doesn't share a name with another face-up card you own in exile, draw a card. 2BB, Exile a creature you control: Return Hexel, Father of Loss from your graveyard or from exile to the battlefield.
Hexel, Father of Loss can't attack or block unless you own a card in exile named Hexel, Father of Loss.
5/8
Your pack has 16 cards: 1 basic land, 1 token, 10 commons (or 9 commons and one foil of any rarity), 3 uncommons, 1 rare or mythic rare.
One of your nonland cards is a reprint of any card that was Standard legal, thematically reflavored to fit your set. Pull From Eternity
One of your cards has a keyworded/named mechanic that was Standard legal and not evergreen. Suspend
Your pack has one or more cards with at least one new keyworded/named mechanic made by you. Anachronistic
At least one of your cards is multicolored. Jutwood Beserker
These restrictions may overlap or not overlap each other on one card.
Make sure to include a rarity, name of the set and name of the world.
Plane: Adina, a world where a mage has just fractured time.
Adinian Chronographer2U
Creature - Human Scout (R)
Suspend 4 - U
When Adinian Chronographer enters the battlefield, draw a card. UU: Flip three coins. Exile Adinian Chronographer with a number of time counters on it for each flip you won. A few souls embraced Adina's shattered timeline, risking everything to explore everywhen.
2/1
The Untethering1UUUU
World Enchantment (M)
At the beginning of each player's end step, if that player controls exactly one tapped creature and/or exactly one untapped creature, put those creatures on the bottom of their owner's libraries in any order.
If The Untethering would be put into a graveyard from play, instead exile it with four time counters on it and it gains suspend. After the Untethering, to be unobserved on Adina was to find oneself in another time.
Set Name: Adina
Expansion code: ADA
Common:
False Escape1W
Instant (C)
Exile target creature you control and each creature blocking or blocked by that creature.
Janel nervously opened the cabinet door. The monster was no longer in the house, and neither was the cabinet.
Porcine Throwback2GG
Creature - Boar (C)
Anachronistic 3 (This spell can’t be cast unless you own 3 or more cards in exile.)
Trample A number of Adina’s ends look like its beginning.
5/5
Jutwood Berserker3RG
Creature - Giant Berserker (C) 2RG: Jutwood Berserker gets +3/+3 and gains trample. At the beginning of your end step, exile it with 3 time counters on it and it gains suspend. (At the beginning of its owner's upkeep, remove a time counter from Jutwood Berserker. When the last is removed, the player plays it without paying its mana cost. It has haste.)
Tharg lost all sense of time, and time returned the favor.
4/3
Aetherfrost
Land (C) T: Add C T, Exile Aetherfrost: Add one mana of any color.
Necrograft Mage2BB
Creature - Human Wizard Zombie (C)
Deathtouch
Pay 2 life: The next time Necrograft Mage would be put into a library or exile from the battlefield this turn, instead sacrifice it, then return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control. Some went to disturbing lengths to never be alone.
3/3
Segmented AutomatonX
Artifact Creature - Horror (C)
Anachronistic X (This spell can’t be cast unless you own X or more cards in exile.)
Segmented Automaton enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it. Some of the futures ravaging Adina are darker than others.
0/0
Survivor Colony1WW
Sorcery (C)
Create three 1/1 white Human token creatures with lifelink and “Exile this creature if you control no other token creatures.” Groups quickly started banding together to avoid slipping in time. Sometimes it worked.
Timestream Harvester1G
Creature - Elf (C)
Whenever a time counter is removed from a card you own, add G. Until end of turn, you don't lose this mana as steps and phases end. “Imriel was right. Potential can be its own energy.” ~ Rhygi, Jutwood heretic
2/2
Timeshadow2RR
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature with anachronistic
Enchanted creature has double strike and haste.
Suspend 5 - R(Rather than cast this card from your hand, you may pay R and exile it with five time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When the last is removed, cast it without paying its mana cost.)
Uncommon:
Gray2B
Legendary Creature - Human Rogue (U)
A deck can have any number of cards named Gray.
If Gray would die, you may exile him instead. If you do, you may search your library for a card named Gray, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library. A man with a talent for not being noticed is now a man that need not fear.
2/2
Pull From EternityW
Sorcery (U)
Put target face-up exiled card into its owner's graveyard. When you break the world, you don’t leave yourself anywhere to hide.
Academy Studies3U
Sorcery (U)
Draw two cards.
Suspend 3 - UU
When you remove a time counter from Academy Studies while it’s exiled, you may add a time counter to target suspended card. Students no longer feared being late to class, but being years too early.
Rare/Mythic:
Imriel, Breaker of Days1UU
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (M)
The "legend rule" doesn't apply.
Legendary spells have Anachronistic X, where X is the total converted mana cost of permanents their owner controls with the same name as that spell.
Legendary creatures you control with the same name as another creature you control get +2/+2 and gain hexproof.
2/4
Foil:
Chronal Pools
Land (U) T: Add C T: Add one mana of any color of which you own a face-up card in exile. Each ripple shows a different reflection.
Land:
Plains
Basic Land - Plains (Fixed)
Token:
Human (white)
Token Creature - Human (Fixed)
Lifelink
Exile this creature if you control no other token creatures.
1/1
Subject16 - Love the name and flavor. The effect is going to get kind of ridiculous with scrying, which wouldn't even need another color. Decks would be built around this. It's definitely strong, but I'm leaning towards not too strong.
mirrodin71 There's a lot of formatting work needed, but the card underneath that? That would be immense fun. Persistent Petitioners is the obvious option, but things like Saltskitter, Mirror Image...
Artorias - Great card. Good flavor, especially since it flows into those colors' way of dealing with it (sacrifice the creature for some benefit).
Eventide Sojourner - This seems dramatically undercosted compared to Dread Shade and Primalcrux. It's definitely not uncommon.
netn10 - A 6/6 non-trampler for five green and some life gain seems fair. I would still groan every time it hits the table in commander.
kwanyeegor - Nice sideboard card for Phoenix. The johnny shenanigans that spring to mind whenever I see this effect are complicated by those triggers usually happening on a different turn (eg: Summoner's Pact). Still, not bad (besides the templating).
For "One of your cards is a reprint of any card that was Standard legal, thematically reflavored to fit your set," are you looking for a functional reprint a la Llanowar Elves -> Fyndhorn Elves, or something with the same name with just different flavor text?
Raptorchan, I think there was some confusion on the time zones there. It's currently 5:10 EST and your message about the time having gone by is listed at 7 hours ago. We left it to the last second, well, hour, but both RaikouRider and I got ours in.
Residual Shade2(W/B)(W/B)
Creature - Shade (U) B: Residual Shade gets +1/+1 until end of turn 1W: Put a +1/+1 counter on Residual Shade. Activate this ability only if Residual Shade's power is 4 or greater.
1/1
Artorias
World - Yeah, opalescence effects should be legendary, if just to have mercy on the poor rules team. I also like the flavor of it - when it dies, it really feels like a world is ending (in-game). The wording of the activated ability seems off; the way I'm reading it, there is exactly one target and whoever owns that card returns it, meaning that the only difference between it and a standard any-player clause like Endbringer's Revel is that you can force opponents to return dead enchantments to their hand? There are some fun things you can do with that, like Lobotomy and Isperia the Inscrutable, but I'm not sure that's worth the wording. If each player was supposed to choose and return one, that's more interesting.
Card - Interesting upgrade to Heliod, and it could possibly work flavor-wise (an old-gods-new-gods story). That story team would definitely have some work to do, though. I feel like it should be beefier than Heliod, if a) she's supposed to supplant him and b) she's so much more expensive.
RaikouRider
World - It's an interesting take on something like Cryptolith Rites, making it symmetrical and not usable on abilities, but with all the shenanigans of convoke writ large. Spells like Raise the Alarm and Hordeling Outburst become essentially free, while spells like Goblin Gathering or Promise of Bunrei become rituals. The effect is symmetrical but not the impact. Lots of interesting ways to play with this. You could even lure people in to over-committing before a wipe.
Card - Yeah, it's pretty in keeping with what we've seen. Reminds me of Voice of Resurgence with added blinking tricks. A nice spin on a familiar formula.
Algernone
World - Interesting card. I like the use of split-to-colorless mana there, although I wish the difference in costs was more pronounced. The flavor text is nice; it made me reread that part of the Innistrad story. I think the wording might be a little off for the meld half; when a melded card is no longer in play, it doesn't exist, thus this should refer to the constituent cards.
Card - What's here, I like. A new set of melds, perhaps without the eldrazi influence... but it's really, really hard to evaluate this. Strictly speaking, it falls in the criteria, but does so in the vaguest way possible. I kind of wish you had done the other side of the meld, so that we'd have a more complete picture. Judging just what's here...I'm guessing that there are multiple different wisps, which result in different resultant meld creatures? That is an awesome, awesome idea, and I'd love to see more of it. But I can only judge what's been submitted. There are other explanations that could fit the parameters set by this card, some of which are terrible.
Top 3:
1) RaikouRider. Solid set of cards.
2) Artorias. I'm surprised you haven't been doing this long; I've enjoyed your entries.
3) Algernone25. I like the flavor, but I needed more from the creature you submitted.
Saw a gem from Mystery Boosters: Kulrath Knight. It shuts down many staples and strategies straight up - Avenger of Zendikar, Korvald, Fae-Cursed King, Sarkhan the Masterless... It may depend a bit on your meta but it's definitely a useful tool for the box.
Fires of Invention is a dead flip, but kind of ridiculous for us anyway. We've been looking for decent discard outlets; this just lets us cast them straight up, while leaving ALL our mana available for Grenzo. It feels too strong to not include.
1. Hemlock
2. Sojourner
3. Kwanyeegor
Tribal Land - Dragon Gate (U)
As Reborn Guildgate enters the battlefield, you may reveal a card that costs at least WUBRG from your hand. If you don't, Reborn Guildgate enters the battlefield tapped.
T: An opponent chooses three colors. Add one mana of a color chosen this way.
Niv-Mizzet couldn't help but rebuild some of Ravnica in his new image.
Artorias - I have a soft spot for volvers, and I like the idea of multikicker on one, although the 4 CMC is going to really hamper that. Both options feel weak to me, but I do also have a tendency to undervalue those abilities, so maybe they're fine.
RaikouRider - Fantastic. Wonderfully versatile and balanced. I love the choices this would bring to each game.
Subject16 - I love the interactions; it's a very clever card. I'm not sure that making Unhinge / Mind Ravel gold is enough of a downside to make it a turn two play. What really worries me is how much easier it is to recur creatures than spells. The creature side of the card is perfectly reasonable.
Eventide Sojourner - Making Upheaval instant speed, harder to counter, and cantrip is giving me flashbacks. Power creep definitely demands at least some of that, but all three? I like the other half of the card, and I'm a little surprised it hasn't already happened.
kwanyeegor - That...is a lot of card draw. Making outlast instant speed is good on it's own, and something I'd like to see on a real card. Adding the card draw to all your creatures feels like too much.
Top 3:
1. RaikouRider
2. Hemlock
3. Artorias
Creature - Avatar (R)
Defender
Whenever a player taps a land for G or U, gain 1 life.
3/7
I was going to use more ramp in my version, use all the appropriate dual swamps and swamp doublers, and run it more as MBC with some splashes. You're going to be pretty mana hungry. I was also thinking Pentad Prism, Dark Ritual, Basal Thrull and other ways to play Nicol turn 3, but I suspect that might be a mistake with people being more likely to draw kill cards.
RaikouRider - Very similar to Burning-Tree Vandal, but being able to use it turn one is massive. I think it's unbalanced, but the kind of unbalanced that might make the game more fun. It should definitely be uncommon, though.
kwanyeegor I like it. I love how the vigilance interacts with the activated abilities, and that protection on a basilisk is just evil. The flavor text might be a stretch to include on the card, though.
Algernone25 Fun. A fixed tarmogoyf for all colors. Nice use of imprint.
Hemlock I admit the doubling makes me nervous, but it's such a tightly self-controlled design... I've been sitting here for ten minutes trying to break it, and the best I can come up with is Homura's Essence. Kudos.
Kumlekar (Here....we....go.) Layer 6c could just be, "~ power doesn't change due to counters." You could possibly make this work as an ability of a set with the unnamed sequence distributed on the token inserts. Even then, I think we're still not talking black borders here, maybe not even silver ones, but a new border, made entirely of fractal images.
Top 3:
1) kwanyeegor
2) Hemlock
3) RaikouRider
Legendary Creature - God (M)
2B: Exile the top card of your library. If it doesn't share a name with another face-up card you own in exile, draw a card.
2BB, Exile a creature you control: Return Hexel, Father of Loss from your graveyard or from exile to the battlefield.
Hexel, Father of Loss can't attack or block unless you own a card in exile named Hexel, Father of Loss.
5/8
Plane: Adina, a world where a mage has just fractured time.
Creature - Human Scout (R)
Suspend 4 - U
When Adinian Chronographer enters the battlefield, draw a card.
UU: Flip three coins. Exile Adinian Chronographer with a number of time counters on it for each flip you won.
A few souls embraced Adina's shattered timeline, risking everything to explore everywhen.
2/1
The Untethering 1UUUU
World Enchantment (M)
At the beginning of each player's end step, if that player controls exactly one tapped creature and/or exactly one untapped creature, put those creatures on the bottom of their owner's libraries in any order.
If The Untethering would be put into a graveyard from play, instead exile it with four time counters on it and it gains suspend.
After the Untethering, to be unobserved on Adina was to find oneself in another time.
Expansion code: ADA
Common:
False Escape 1W
Instant (C)
Exile target creature you control and each creature blocking or blocked by that creature.
Janel nervously opened the cabinet door. The monster was no longer in the house, and neither was the cabinet.
Porcine Throwback 2GG
Creature - Boar (C)
Anachronistic 3 (This spell can’t be cast unless you own 3 or more cards in exile.)
Trample
A number of Adina’s ends look like its beginning.
5/5
Jutwood Berserker 3RG
Creature - Giant Berserker (C)
2RG: Jutwood Berserker gets +3/+3 and gains trample. At the beginning of your end step, exile it with 3 time counters on it and it gains suspend. (At the beginning of its owner's upkeep, remove a time counter from Jutwood Berserker. When the last is removed, the player plays it without paying its mana cost. It has haste.)
Tharg lost all sense of time, and time returned the favor.
4/3
Aetherfrost
Land (C)
T: Add C
T, Exile Aetherfrost: Add one mana of any color.
Necrograft Mage 2BB
Creature - Human Wizard Zombie (C)
Deathtouch
Pay 2 life: The next time Necrograft Mage would be put into a library or exile from the battlefield this turn, instead sacrifice it, then return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control.
Some went to disturbing lengths to never be alone.
3/3
Segmented Automaton X
Artifact Creature - Horror (C)
Anachronistic X (This spell can’t be cast unless you own X or more cards in exile.)
Segmented Automaton enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it.
Some of the futures ravaging Adina are darker than others.
0/0
Survivor Colony 1WW
Sorcery (C)
Create three 1/1 white Human token creatures with lifelink and “Exile this creature if you control no other token creatures.”
Groups quickly started banding together to avoid slipping in time. Sometimes it worked.
Timestream Harvester 1G
Creature - Elf (C)
Whenever a time counter is removed from a card you own, add G. Until end of turn, you don't lose this mana as steps and phases end.
“Imriel was right. Potential can be its own energy.” ~ Rhygi, Jutwood heretic
2/2
Timeshadow 2RR
Enchantment - Aura (C)
Enchant creature with anachronistic
Enchanted creature has double strike and haste.
Suspend 5 - R (Rather than cast this card from your hand, you may pay R and exile it with five time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When the last is removed, cast it without paying its mana cost.)
Uncommon:
Gray 2B
Legendary Creature - Human Rogue (U)
A deck can have any number of cards named Gray.
If Gray would die, you may exile him instead. If you do, you may search your library for a card named Gray, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.
A man with a talent for not being noticed is now a man that need not fear.
2/2
Pull From Eternity W
Sorcery (U)
Put target face-up exiled card into its owner's graveyard.
When you break the world, you don’t leave yourself anywhere to hide.
Academy Studies 3U
Sorcery (U)
Draw two cards.
Suspend 3 - UU
When you remove a time counter from Academy Studies while it’s exiled, you may add a time counter to target suspended card.
Students no longer feared being late to class, but being years too early.
Rare/Mythic:
Imriel, Breaker of Days 1UU
Legendary Creature - Human Wizard (M)
The "legend rule" doesn't apply.
Legendary spells have Anachronistic X, where X is the total converted mana cost of permanents their owner controls with the same name as that spell.
Legendary creatures you control with the same name as another creature you control get +2/+2 and gain hexproof.
2/4
Foil:
Chronal Pools
Land (U)
T: Add C
T: Add one mana of any color of which you own a face-up card in exile.
Each ripple shows a different reflection.
Land:
Plains
Basic Land - Plains (Fixed)
Token:
Human (white)
Token Creature - Human (Fixed)
Lifelink
Exile this creature if you control no other token creatures.
1/1
mirrodin71 There's a lot of formatting work needed, but the card underneath that? That would be immense fun. Persistent Petitioners is the obvious option, but things like Saltskitter, Mirror Image...
Artorias - Great card. Good flavor, especially since it flows into those colors' way of dealing with it (sacrifice the creature for some benefit).
Eventide Sojourner - This seems dramatically undercosted compared to Dread Shade and Primalcrux. It's definitely not uncommon.
netn10 - A 6/6 non-trampler for five green and some life gain seems fair. I would still groan every time it hits the table in commander.
kwanyeegor - Nice sideboard card for Phoenix. The johnny shenanigans that spring to mind whenever I see this effect are complicated by those triggers usually happening on a different turn (eg: Summoner's Pact). Still, not bad (besides the templating).
Top 3:
1. Artorias
2. Subject16
3. Mirrodin71
Creature - Shade (U)
B: Residual Shade gets +1/+1 until end of turn
1W: Put a +1/+1 counter on Residual Shade. Activate this ability only if Residual Shade's power is 4 or greater.
1/1
World - Yeah, opalescence effects should be legendary, if just to have mercy on the poor rules team. I also like the flavor of it - when it dies, it really feels like a world is ending (in-game). The wording of the activated ability seems off; the way I'm reading it, there is exactly one target and whoever owns that card returns it, meaning that the only difference between it and a standard any-player clause like Endbringer's Revel is that you can force opponents to return dead enchantments to their hand? There are some fun things you can do with that, like Lobotomy and Isperia the Inscrutable, but I'm not sure that's worth the wording. If each player was supposed to choose and return one, that's more interesting.
Card - Interesting upgrade to Heliod, and it could possibly work flavor-wise (an old-gods-new-gods story). That story team would definitely have some work to do, though. I feel like it should be beefier than Heliod, if a) she's supposed to supplant him and b) she's so much more expensive.
RaikouRider
World - It's an interesting take on something like Cryptolith Rites, making it symmetrical and not usable on abilities, but with all the shenanigans of convoke writ large. Spells like Raise the Alarm and Hordeling Outburst become essentially free, while spells like Goblin Gathering or Promise of Bunrei become rituals. The effect is symmetrical but not the impact. Lots of interesting ways to play with this. You could even lure people in to over-committing before a wipe.
Card - Yeah, it's pretty in keeping with what we've seen. Reminds me of Voice of Resurgence with added blinking tricks. A nice spin on a familiar formula.
Algernone
World - Interesting card. I like the use of split-to-colorless mana there, although I wish the difference in costs was more pronounced. The flavor text is nice; it made me reread that part of the Innistrad story. I think the wording might be a little off for the meld half; when a melded card is no longer in play, it doesn't exist, thus this should refer to the constituent cards.
Card - What's here, I like. A new set of melds, perhaps without the eldrazi influence... but it's really, really hard to evaluate this. Strictly speaking, it falls in the criteria, but does so in the vaguest way possible. I kind of wish you had done the other side of the meld, so that we'd have a more complete picture. Judging just what's here...I'm guessing that there are multiple different wisps, which result in different resultant meld creatures? That is an awesome, awesome idea, and I'd love to see more of it. But I can only judge what's been submitted. There are other explanations that could fit the parameters set by this card, some of which are terrible.
Top 3:
1) RaikouRider. Solid set of cards.
2) Artorias. I'm surprised you haven't been doing this long; I've enjoyed your entries.
3) Algernone25. I like the flavor, but I needed more from the creature you submitted.