The orzhov want control, and they also may very well have a strong undead element due to being black (and in that GP picture a while back it looked like they have vampires amongst them) I was thinking cards that use the graveyard for control. For example:
The price of victory - 1WBB
sorcery
Tap X target creatures and those creatures do not untap during their controllers's next upkeep where X is equal to the number of creatures in your graveyard.
I was thinking about this, about what we know of the Izzet and of how they represent their colors. Izzet are impulsive, innovative, quick to leap off a cliff if they think they can fly, and grand thinking. The propensity for impulsivness coming from red, and grand scale coming from blue. They are always going from one idea to the next. This makes me think of blue's ability to gather more knowldege, combined with red's propensity for chaos and explosiveness.
In other words, it takes the card cycling ability of blue, which is like moving from one idea to another, and combines it with the impulsive, uncontrolled urges of red, so it would be cycling on a grand scale that is triggered rather than activated.
Mindmoil makes me think its similar in design to the way Izzet mechanic will work. So here was my idea for the mechanic.
Innovate X (Put X cards from your hand on the bottom of your library, then draw X cards.)
So for example:
Macgyver - 1RU
legendary creature - human inventor
Whenever you take damage, Innovate X, where X is equal to the amount of damage you took.
1/1
Inspiring Research - 1RUU
sorcery
Draw 2 cards and reveal them to all players, if neither is a land then Innovate 2
From your description of their leader it sounds like the Gruul will be the red/black guild. Cyclops are usually red, and so is chaos, and he weilds a hammer called "skullflame" which sounds very much red/black.
ligerjack, you're a ****ing *******, you know that? I'm glad that you are confident in how awesome you think you are, but please, spare me and the rest of MTGSalvation the agony of having to read your douchebag rants crying about how someone else doesn't share your (misinformed) opinions. That is all.
Dredge could be really good if you have multiple dredge cards in your deck, since essentially every dredge card in your graveyard is on top of your library and each time you dredge you get more cards in your graveyard to choose from.
So does this apprentice have card arts, or is it still a generic artwork thingy? I always hated that, but then I guess there probably isn't a good solution to that
I decided to go blue/black in my draft, although i'm not sure why, only to find out that blue appears pretty weak in saviors (in terms of draft, not constructed) First round went good with me wrecking havoc with my kami of the crescent moon + scroll of origins combos, but in 2nd round got beat down by a deck consisting of almost literally nothing of cowed by wisdoms and sokenzen spellblades, and ghost-lit raiders. YUCK! I pull a reverence though which i was quite happy with. Oh yeah, and o-naginata is freaking sick in limited.
I'm thinking that going green/black and picking up lots of deathmask nezumi and okina night-watch could be a good strategy. Yes, you have to keep lots of cards in hand to make them effective, but 4/3 fears for 4 and 7/6s for 5 are always good.
The price of victory - 1WBB
sorcery
Tap X target creatures and those creatures do not untap during their controllers's next upkeep where X is equal to the number of creatures in your graveyard.
In other words, it takes the card cycling ability of blue, which is like moving from one idea to another, and combines it with the impulsive, uncontrolled urges of red, so it would be cycling on a grand scale that is triggered rather than activated.
Mindmoil makes me think its similar in design to the way Izzet mechanic will work. So here was my idea for the mechanic.
Innovate X (Put X cards from your hand on the bottom of your library, then draw X cards.)
So for example:
Macgyver - 1RU
legendary creature - human inventor
Whenever you take damage, Innovate X, where X is equal to the amount of damage you took.
1/1
Inspiring Research - 1RUU
sorcery
Draw 2 cards and reveal them to all players, if neither is a land then Innovate 2
etc.
Hello threshold.
Redspellthing
R
Target Creature you control gets +3/-3 until end of turn
Radiate
And good workin Wolfwood
EDIT: hhaha I meant wizards.