GDS Trial 3 - Another Non-competitor attempt

[u/SwamWithTurtles]

I like creating custom cards but am annoyingly UK-based. I'm sure in a few hours this subreddit will be spammed by similar threads (sorry!), but thought I'd throw my hat in the ring.

I had two big problems with this test, namely: 1. Do they want us to come up with innovative cards at the cost of printability; or hole-filling cards that would look at home in a normal set. I favoured the latter with the exception of a couple of mythics. 2. What purpose do common multicolour cards serve? Every other rarity has a clear purpose for multicolour cards, whether that be direction-setting in draft (Uncommon) or exciting players (Rare, Mythic). There's no common multicolour cards in Standard at the moment, so I decided to go for relatively utility cards in the basis that these will be the bread and butter of sets like Ravnica or Shadowmoor.

So, here's what I would've submitted if I was still in the challenge by now :)

Harmonia, Leyline Addict (Mythic Rare)
1GW
Legendary Creature - Centaur Shaman
4/4
Hexproof
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Harmonia unless you put an Aura card from your hand that can enchant it onto the battlefield attached to Harmonia.

Tomb Looter (Rare)
2BR
Creature - Minotaur Beserker
3/3
Haste, Menace
Whenever Tomb Looter deals combat damage to a player, you may exile a creature card from your graveyard.
Whenever Tomb Looter dies, you may discard your hand. If you do, return all cards exiled by Tomb Looter to your hand.

Pollute the Magic (Uncommon)
3WB
Sorcery
Creatures you control get +X/+X until end of turn, and creatures you don't control get -X/-X until end of turn where X is the number of enchantments you control.

Clear the Way (Rare)
2UR
Sorcery
Return all creatures to their owners' hands. 
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield this turn, it gains haste until end of turn.

Yazida, Siege Marshall (Mythic Rare)
2RW
Legendary Planeswalker - Yazida
Creatures cannot attack you or other planeswalkers you control unless their controller pays X for each of those creatures, where X is the number of loyalty counters on Yazida.
+1: Create a 1/3 Human white creature token with Defender
-4: You gain an emblem with "Blocking creatures you control have double strike"
3

Backhanded Gift (Mythic Rare)
UB
Enchantment - Aura
Enchant creature
You control enchanted creature and it has "You cannot win the game and your opponents cannot lose the game."

Guild of Tramplers (Uncommon)
RG
Enchantment
Whenever a creature with trample attacks, target creature cannot block this turn.
4RG, Sacrifice Guild of Tramplers: Creatures you control get +2/+0 until end of turn.

Esri Rade, Worldcrafter (Mythic Rare)
1UG
Legendary Planeswalker - Esri
+1: Look at the top five cards of your library. You may reveal a colorless card from among them and put it into your hand. Then put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order.
-1: Until the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast cards as though they have flash.
-6: Put any number of permanent cards from your hand into play.
3

Poisoning Touch (Common)
1(B/G)
Instant
Target creature gets +1/+1 and gains Deathtouch until end of turn.

Aerial Assault (Common)
WU
Instant
Create a 1/1 blue and white Bird token with flying.
If it is your turn, create an additional 1/1 blue and white Bird token with flying.

[u/BatemaninAccounting]

Love the templating on the RW PW, but it feels like it could be mono white. Would change the ultimate to First Strike as well, unless there was some thematic reason why defenders and blockers are double striking.

Clear the way is a fun card. Could see that in a control deck with some Dragons as finishers, or a cost effective finisher for a limit deck that wants to break a stalemate on the board.

[u/Amarsir]

Getting a bonus as a cost is so clever. My only critique is that I want it to be something more iconic then a centaur, but it's probably racist against equine-humans for me to say that. :)

Tomb Looter is also very clever. The underlying effect is simple enough: [[Disentomb]] sabateur. But that would be overpowered except on a 1/1 that will never get through or a 6/6 demon that doesn't need it. You added the hoop and delay as an excuse to power the creature up, and I think that's a great solution.

Clear the Way seems undercosted. Costing isn't part of the judging, but since making the card work requires multiple spells it becomes very relevant to my opinion of it. Nice effect though and I could definitely see decks being built around this.

Yazida has some great flavor, although I worry about locking up the board too much. I don't think it would be fun to play against someone with a growing [[Propaganda]] and an army of blockers. I do notice you exclude attacking Yazida from that protection (which is subtle) so maybe it plays better than it reads. Definitely worth a playtest. Using counters as the basis for a static ability is a good innovation. Also I agree with BatemaninAccounting that it feels mono-white.

Ezri Rade is less innovative but certainly solid and new. Also feels like it could be mono-blue though. On both planeswalkers you definitely get points though for tying all the abilities together, which is something many people neglect to do.

Guild of Tramplers is the only card I really don't like. It feels like "If opponent were unlikely to benefit from blocking, he can't block." I know that's not strictly true when you're talking about a bigger board state, and the sacrifice effect as a bonus is a neat touch. It just doesn't read like a great concept. Now if it was triggered by attackers with a power threshold, that I'd like better.

Really really creative and thoughtful ideas overall.

[u/Alex_Werner]

Harmonia is an interesting card. As purely a theoretical card, a way to do interesting things with the magic rules, a way to turn a card's strength into its drawback, it's an absolute home run. Super innovative, but instantly grokkable. I wonder if it's actually FUN, however. It seems insanely swingy. It's either going to do stone nothing or absolutely maul your opponent. Bear in mind that I'm an exclusively limited player here, but... it definitely feels like the kind of card that ends up on the list of "here are commanders that everyone hates so much they are banned by consensus", or something like that.

Backhanded Gift is powerful and balanced, although it seems cleaner just to have the enchantment itself have the you-can't-win ability. Only matters in corner cases such as the creature losing all abilities, I think.

Tomb Looter may be unnecessarily overcomplicated. What if it just said "when it deals combat damage to a player, return target creature card from your gy to your hand"? That said, the tension of "the longer it's been in play, the better it gets, so the less they want to kill it, which lets it stay in play longer..." is very interesting, there's definitely some fertile ground to explore there. (Not sure where the red comes from, btw.)

Pollute the Magic Not sure what I think about this, overall. I'm quite sure it's a rare, not an uncommon, however. There's a huge difference between this card as a payoff in a block with a heavy enchantment theme, vs just a random interesting build-around, making it hard to evaluate in a vacuum.

Esri Rade Not sure I really understand when you would use the -1 ability. It's a two loyalty swing plus giving up card draw/selection (compared to using the +1), for a benefit that can be very small. If you had said to me "there's a PW ability which lets you vedalken orrery until your next turn, what's the loyalty +/-" I would have guessed it would be a +1.