I have to say, I'm really not a fan of that diamond symbol. All the other mana symbols have a round-stylized look, and this just looks like a... glitch. Like the font isn't rendering the character properly.
That's actually what I was thinking originally, but I thought it might be 'strictly better' than too many other cards. It is a much more playable card that way though.
Drinking Wisp X(G/U)
Creature - Spirit
Flash
When ~ enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on it for each green mana spent to cast it.
When ~ enters the battlefield, counter target spell unless its controller pays 1 for each blue mana spent to cast it.
0/0
Whenever you chose not to draw 3 cards you are in a situation where whatever your doing instead is better than drawing a card.
The problem is that 3 cards is not worth 5 mana and 3 life in black. You can get the same thing for 3 mana and some life. Yawgmoth's Will might give you 80% of what this card does for 60% of the cost. You gain some flexibility in what it can do, but lose flexibility in when you can cast it. It's a bit poor against aggro decks all around. Against control and mid-range, there are better spells to play at 5 mana.
It's an inefficient card that's only truly great when you won't be punished for playing inefficient cards (or they have some freakishly slow army of X/2s.) That isn't to say it's a bad card: it does a lot of things that are often desirable. I can see this card pulling up from behind in many games, and since flexibility goes a long way, I would definitely test it out.
If you aren't running planes walkers, and only run a small handful of artifacts then it's a LOT harder to make this card consistent 2 or 3 for 1, which is a huge part of the appeal for non hyper Agro decks.
In an aggro deck, doing 6 damage to a player for a single card is as good as a two-for-one. And unless you're playing no artifacts, the ability to kill swords and mana rocks and still dome them is a huge bonus when you can get it.
There are decks that this isn't great against, so it's not like Cryptic in that sense, but it is great probably against 70%+ of decks, and it fits into multiple archetypes. Anything that reduces red's over-saturation of dedicated aggro spells without weakening those builds is worth playing, in my opinion.
Any creature based deck really isn't going to want to pyroclasm often (and when you do, you are probably losing pretty badly). Super Lava Axe mode is fine as a finisher (but would you ever just run Lava Axe even for one mana cheaper and one more damage?).
This isn't Pyroclasm, it isn't Lava Axe, and it isn't Shatter. It is better than all three, and all three are things you'll regularly want at your disposal. When you need a Pyroclasm, you really need a Pyroclasm. When you want a Lava Axe, nothing is better. When you're looking for a Shatter, three for the price of two is more than enough.
This is an interesting card, but I think it might be better in constructed than in cube. Most of the spell you want to cast twice are removal and sweepers, in which case, I'd rather run another removal or sweeper, since it's easier to set up.
Waterfall Elemental U
Creature -- Elemental
Flying
~ gets +0/+1 for each forest or for each mountain you control, whichever is less. 1: ~ gets +1/-1 until end of turn.
1/2
Creature - Spirit
Flash
When ~ enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on it for each green mana spent to cast it.
When ~ enters the battlefield, counter target spell unless its controller pays 1 for each blue mana spent to cast it.
0/0
Creature -- Human Shaman
Discard a card: add R to your mana pool for each card you've discarded this turn.
1/1
It may be too strong with looting effects, so it might need to say "for each time you've activated this ability this turn."
The problem is that 3 cards is not worth 5 mana and 3 life in black. You can get the same thing for 3 mana and some life. Yawgmoth's Will might give you 80% of what this card does for 60% of the cost. You gain some flexibility in what it can do, but lose flexibility in when you can cast it. It's a bit poor against aggro decks all around. Against control and mid-range, there are better spells to play at 5 mana.
It's an inefficient card that's only truly great when you won't be punished for playing inefficient cards (or they have some freakishly slow army of X/2s.) That isn't to say it's a bad card: it does a lot of things that are often desirable. I can see this card pulling up from behind in many games, and since flexibility goes a long way, I would definitely test it out.
In an aggro deck, doing 6 damage to a player for a single card is as good as a two-for-one. And unless you're playing no artifacts, the ability to kill swords and mana rocks and still dome them is a huge bonus when you can get it.
There are decks that this isn't great against, so it's not like Cryptic in that sense, but it is great probably against 70%+ of decks, and it fits into multiple archetypes. Anything that reduces red's over-saturation of dedicated aggro spells without weakening those builds is worth playing, in my opinion.
"Cryptic Command isn't that good. Would you run a 4-mana Counterspell? A 4-mana draw 1? A 4-mana Boomerang? A bad Sleep?"
This isn't Pyroclasm, it isn't Lava Axe, and it isn't Shatter. It is better than all three, and all three are things you'll regularly want at your disposal. When you need a Pyroclasm, you really need a Pyroclasm. When you want a Lava Axe, nothing is better. When you're looking for a Shatter, three for the price of two is more than enough.
1UU
- Scry 1
- Counter target spell unless its controller pays 1
- Target permanent doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step.
Creature -- Ooze
Hexproof
Whenever ~ becomes blocked, put a token onto the battlefield that's a copy of ~.
2/1
Creature -- Elemental
Flying
~ gets +0/+1 for each forest or for each mountain you control, whichever is less.
1: ~ gets +1/-1 until end of turn.
1/2
A sort of two-sided, one-shot recurring nightmare. It does seem really strong, but it's printable in some formats.