(Mostly) Custom Cube: END

https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/END

psst hey kid wanna try some custom magic cards?




The End is a standalone draft-only spell-singleton* limited environment aimed to answer the question, “How could draft Magic be better if we didn’t have to design cards that would be played in constructed formats?” but I'll admit that's a little abstract. To put it a little more concretely, if you don't giggle with illicit glee after cracking a pack that looks like this, I guarantee you your money back:


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Do you want to draft these cards? I know I sure do.

The cube is designed to have the aesthetics of Foundations with the excitement of a Horizons set, and is guaranteed to be 80%+ custom Magic cards, ranging from tweaks to existing favorites that are a little outside of my power band, to token realignments, to outright novel designs.

Please feel free to give me feedback on individual cards--the more advice the merrier!


Fun features include:
--Land vouchers! Exchange these cards for fixing lands after the draft!
--Thrilling designs! These would snap Legacy in half! But they're fine here!
--All of my favorite planes! They’re probably ones you like too!
--No Universes Beyond! Everything fits into the same world, more or less!

*(i.e. fixing lands are duplicated to some degree, but there are no duplicate spells or lands with spell-like effects)





Table of Contents:
Introduction
Quick Draft Tips
Archetypes
Mechanics (from a player's perspective)
My Motivations and Goals
Pillars of Design for Individual Cards (Probably the most interesting part for us custom design sickos)
Why Customs?
Self-Imposed Limitations (Overall cube design notes)
Mechanics (from a designer's perspective)
Tokens
Planes
Art, Permissions, and an Expression of Gratitude



Quick Draft Tips

Archetypes are a suggestion, not a demand--there are plenty of Jeskai decks that won't be based around the Flurry mechanic--but if you're looking for guidance about what to expect during your first or second draft, they're good starting points!

Also, the fixing lands are good.

Archetypes

Jeskai Flurry: Jeskai know better than anyone else that there’s as much a time for stillness as there is a time for blistering action. Orchestrate your turns with plenty of cheap spells and cantrips to keep your opponent on the back foot.

Mardu Unearth: Keep the pressure on with creatures that just won’t stay dead. Whether through dedication, unspeakable sacrifice, or pure excitement, your creatures will get the last laugh—not to mention the final blow. See if you can figure out ways around their inevitable demise for even more staying power.

Sultai Proliferate: Do you have any idea how many different types of counters are in this set? You’ll find out once you start looking to proliferate them. These decks tend to be slower, but once they grow past a certain point, they’re unstoppable.

Temur Landfall: People don’t appreciate nature anymore. Your opponents sure won’t when you’re playing a Landfall deck. They might even groan when you topdeck a land on your eighth turn! Come up with clever ways to pull lands from many different zones in this fetchless twist on Landfall.

Abzan Counters: You know them, you love them, it’s Abzan Counters. Outgrow and outlast your enemies by nurturing your creatures’ strength. Just make sure to have a plan for opponents packing removal spells.

Bant Harmony: A new mechanic, Harmony rewards you for having four or more types of permanent on the battlefield. Bant decks can expect a massive power spike when their Harmony cards come online, so draft plenty of artifacts and enchantments!

Esper Blink: Another classic, Blink strategies reward you for the things that already reward you—pretty tempting, right? Think couponing, just in Ravnica instead of Kroger. These strategies typically benefit from crafting a toolbox of abilities stapled to creatures.

Grixis Madness: In general, Grixis decks are very comfortable with symmetrical resource denial. Madness cards are one great way to break parity, although many more exist. Paradoxically, while it’s tempting to load up on anything that says Madness, a powerful Madness deck will have a well-considered balance between enablers and payoffs.

Jund Delirium: Delirium, while often easier to achieve than Harmony due to instants and sorceries dropping into the graveyard as soon as their cast, can be a little more fragile when your opponent is packing targeted hate cards. So take advantage of how fast this archetype can go to eliminate them while they’re distracted!

Naya Valiant: Play creatures. Turn them sideways. Cast spells or activate abilities that target them. Fun and profit. Not much else to say, apart from being creative with what counts as targeting.


Mechanics (from a player's perspective)

As I mentioned briefly, the ten archetypes presented above are neither meant to be prescriptive nor comprehensive. For example, Mardu Unearth might work best as described within WR, but WB might play closer to a traditional Aristocrats deck. Also, there are other strategies outside those listed—Flashback is a great way to trigger Flurry abilities, so self-mill might be especially important to some Jeskai decks.

There are many such mechanics that show up throughout the set without being explicitly tied to major themes. By limiting my design space to a moderate number of flagship mechanics, I hope to keep my cube thematically cohesive (and also to keep my job as a designer manageable!). Additionally, the relative familiarity of these mechanics is intended to ease the transition into an environment with so many entirely-novel cards.

Major themes:

Blink
Counters
Delirium
Flurry
Harmony
Landfall
Madness
Proliferate
Unearth
Valiant


Featured non-theme mechanics:

Adventure
Convoke
Delve
Explore
Flashback
Kicker
Multikicker
Ninjutsu
Raid
Reconfigure
Retrace
Sagas
Storm (but just a little)
Tokens (Blood, Clues, and Treasure)


My Motivations and Goals

I've talked a bit on this forum about how I got into cubing, but the gist of it is that I hated Masters 25. I thought it was a cop-out, a pale shadow of what it should have been. I felt robbed. This was supposed to be a celebration of Magic and all of its quirky charm, not a collection of boxes to be checked.

So I built it myself. I'll share that spreadsheet eventually, but I set myself the same set of limitations: at least one card from every set up until that point, draft archetypes, color balance, respecting the Reserved List, and minimal rarity shifting, while tacitly acknowledging the price of each of these cards. And you know what? I think I did a better job than they did. This cube is an extension of that dissatisfaction.


Pillars of Design for Individual Cards

In designing these cards, my watchwords have been verisimilitude and parsimony. Verisimilitude, as applied here, is characterized by printing cards that WotC could have plausibly printed. There are a couple of notable exceptions (Sphinx of Black Quartz being the most egregious by far), but I don't want to introduce massively new ideas within a text box. Similarly, I want the art to reflect what could plausibly be Magic characters in what could plausibly be a Magic setting.

I do deviate in a couple of notable ways. Specifically,
--I will deviate from official wording templates when it's both innocuous and particularly expedient to do so ("up to three target creatures" vs. the traditional "one, two, or three target creatures" saves seven characters, for instance).
--I will deviate from official standard set formats of power distribution. I would rather have more power at lower rarities than would otherwise be acceptable. These rarities are mostly just formalities, to be frank--it's a mostly-singleton cube, after all!--but the cards would feel naked without a rarity symbol. Plus, it helps me think of each color's balance of staple effects and flashy buildarounds--and once again provides me a subtle way to communicate this to drafters.

Parsimony takes two forms for me:
--A card should do one thing and one thing only
--A card should use as few words as possible

These rules get broken a fair bit in service of individual cards, but as general principles they've served me well. If an idea begins to stretch the text box, it's better to make a second card than to try to overstuff one.


Why Customs?

I'll go into this a little more in the next section, but I haven't found new Magic cards speaking to me in 2024 and 2025. I suppose this means I'm a boomer.

However, I firmly believe that if I don't like something, my reaction should be to work to improve it, rather than just complain about it. This is easy enough to do with Magic cards, which are really just words, and soon enough I had three or four dozen designs. One thing led to another, and I finally challenged myself to make a full cube out of them.

That said, there are some designs I kept coming back to. Burst Lightning. Abundant Harvest. Thraben Inspector. Plumecreed Escort. Bone Shards. I disagree with a lot of things the WotC team does, but when they get it right, they really hit the nail on the head. I want to keep these cards to less than 20% of my design file, which is an arbitrary number, but I feel it'll help strike a nice balance when opening packs--some friendly faces to help people find their way in an otherwise entirely novel world.

A major caveat is that these customs are all works in progress. I've borrowed a couple from some of my favorite designers (thanks Chris Taylor and Safra!), but apart from that I don't have anyone else helping me iterate on these designs. Something will inevitably slip through the cracks, power-wise. To a certain extent, that's fine (something has to be the strongest card in the cube), but I'd like to keep an eye on things that are too many standard deviations away from the median power level. Similarly, I don't want my cards to fall flat--one major pull towards a largely-custom set is that I can make cards that would be incredibly broken if they were unleashed upon a Standard set. Players should feel like they're getting away with something.


Self-Imposed Limitations (Overall cube design notes)

Mechanics (from a designer's perspective)

I've talked about how I'm limiting myself to twenty-five-ish mechanics. Personally, these are the ones that I'd consider the greatest of all time (with the notable exception of Retrace, but it fits really well and I had enough compelling designs that it slipped through the cracks). I'm motivated here by spite; I think that WotC does a really miserable job of reusing their mechanics. For example, Adapt isn't the best mechanic, but why didn't it show up in Duskmourne as the W/G mechanic instead of Survivor? Also, why not use Reconfigure in Edge of Eternities? There are compelling reasons to make new mechanics (one of them being that the people who make these sets need to justify their continued employment, a reason I'm highly sympathetic towards), but there are also a ton of compelling reasons to reuse and update old ones. I'm pleased as punch to see the pendulum swinging back towards reincorporating this things (such as the newfound enthusiasm for putting a couple of guest mechanics in every set) and slapping a new coat of paint on things like the Void spells in EOE being a re-imagining of Revolt, but I don't think that WotC does enough. Therefore, it's my job to make these cards.

I gave myself a couple of parameters for each mechanic. I don't want one-offs, or even two-offs--each mechanic has to appear on no fewer than four cards (except Storm, which is flavorful and historic but not fun to balance). I do this because while I try to keep my cards relatively comprehensible, the fact of the matter is that a fully custom draft is going to be exhausting for players in a way they've not experienced since their first few days of Magic. Consider: when's the last time you've played with cards that you've literally never seen before? Some people go into draft blind, but that's getting to be more and more of a rarity these days. Given the cognitive overhead required to parse individual cards, I decided to cut back on the crunch power needed to analyze single cards, and repeating mechanics is an easy way to do that.

Plus, limiting the list means that I can fit the full reminder text on a single sheet (and I can put the reminder text on most cards!).


Tokens

Similarly, I’m limiting myself to a handful of creature tokens. Many of the cards in this set are very slight tweaks on existing cards, but a large fraction of those are what I think of as “token alignments,” because I don’t want to have a bunch of different mechanically identical token at the same power/toughness split. This is still more tokens than I’d strictly like to see, but it feels appropriate for a Horizons/Masters-level set with Foundations-like constraints. (Un-fun fact: did you know that Foundations included thirty-one different tokens outside of emblems?? That’s bananas! And Core Set 2021, the last Core Set proper, had fifteen to seventeen such, depending on if you count the tokens from Rin and Seri! This makes me feel alright about my personal cap, which I’ve decided is somewhere between fifteen and seventeen, inclusive.)

Tokens include:

1/1 white Human Soldier
1/1 white Spirit with flying
2/2 white Knight with vigilance
4/4 white Angel with flying and vigilance

2/2 black Zombie with decayed

1/1 red Goblin
1/1 red Elemental with haste until end of turn
5/5 red Dragon with flying

2/2 green Wolf
5/5 green Wurm

1/1 artifact creature Servo

Blood
Clue
Food
Treasure

Decayed Zombies are cool! WotC should come back to that mechanic!


Planes

My final logistical goal is to include the planes I like the most. The reasons are varied, ranging from the curmudgeonly hatred of Universes Beyond to a love for the Redwall books, but I want to have at least a couple cards from each of the following:

Alara
Amonkhet
Avishkar (née Kaladesh)
Bloomburrow
Dominaria
Eldraine
Fiora
Innistad
Ixalan
Kamigawa
Lorwyn
Ravnica
Tarkir


There are many more great worlds, and I’m looking forward to falling in love with others, new and returning. But for now, I’m hoping to create a cohesive Foundations-like experience by focusing on this set of planes. If you think that one of these is undersupported and you have the time to give feedback, I'd love to hear suggestions about what I might reflavor to rectify that issue!



Art, Permissions, and an Expression of Gratitude:

I got the art for all these cards from the internet, as anyone does in the 21st century. These are all pieces that I think are impressive, beautiful, or otherwise worthy of consideration, but they're by no means mine. Thank you to all these artists—and all artists—who share their work with the public in any way, shape, or form. I did my best to make sure that the artists of these pieces are generally okay with personal use of their art, but I'm human and can make mistakes. Therefore, if you are the artist who made these, or are the representative thereof, and you don't want me using your art for any reason at all, I'd be more than happy to remove it. Please just let me know! My one caveat is that this is a single-person, not-for-gain fan project, so my response time might be slightly slower than you might expect, especially if you get here several years after I write this.

Similarly, if I have attributed any of the art incorrectly, please let me know. These people have put in a ton of time and effort, and deserved to be recognized for it.

Conversely, if you are interested in using any of these designs--go for it! I made these things for free and would be flattered to see them used elsewhere. No need to check, but I'll happily send over the MSE file if you need it.

And speaking of which, I made some higher-resolution templates that should print a little nicer than the stock MSE ones. I'm happy to forward those to any with interest.



Huge thanks to @Chris Taylor @safra @anotak @Onderzeeboot @TrainmasterGT @Mown and Lady Lynn (forgot your handle here) for early feedback on the Discord and helping me dial in on what I wanted this cube to be!


...and yes, I know that I owe you all photographic evidence of Siege Rhino cookies. I swear a solemn oath that will deliver those photos to this forum by July 20th, 2025, midnight GMT, or forfeit my right to defend myself against mockery.
 
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First of all, apologies but this is going to be a quickly written down wall of text.

This looks like a cool project and you obviously put a lot of work into it, as it is already quite polished! I went through the visual spoiler and just took note of things that stood out to me. Mostly this is feedback on individual cards/designs with a bit of general feedback thrown in. I cannot really give feedback on archetypes, density of effects, interplay, broken combos that might arise, etc. as I don't even have time to iron out those things for my own cube :D .

Also, you've spent much more time with these cards than I have, so take my ideas with some handful of salt, they are really just some quick notes. I tried to sort cards into stronger and weaker, based on the cubes perceived powerlevel. I'll sort them by color and in order of your visual spoiler to make it easier to follow.

WHITE
Implacable Vanguard - seems very strong to me, as it also gets the counter. A 2/2 first striker that buffs your team and has unearth seems above par to me.
Nocturne Lancer - I really like this design. What's the reasoning for exactly two instead of the more flexible up to two?
Thalia, Inspiring Cathar - also seems strong to me, based on it triggering from both players. It's not only a synergy piece for flurry but also a stax piece for the opponent.
Lonely Heir - a bit on the weaker side, maybe? Very strong effect and protection but I'd guess white decks want to turn everyone sideways and it's very chump-blockable to the point that I don't see it triggering.
Abzan Strike Leader - Also a cool card but being an anthem on a 2/2 for 6 Mana without protection seems very fragile. Definitely big blowout potential. Could maybe use Ward 1 or 2?

In general white seems to have a lot of first strike and double strike. That's not bad in and of itself but can be very tough for getting through attacks. Especially for another deck with smaller creatures trying to get through multiple first strikers. But maybe it's not a problem at all. I really like the flashback and convoke cards.

BLUE
Sprocketsage - Seems a bit low impact?
Flitting Assistant - Having flying and granting prowess is a bit of a disconnect for me but there's nothing against it ruleswise ;).
Necksnapper - 4 mana for the base rate seems a bit prohibitive, especially since it's a combat damage trigger on a 2/1. Maybe it's ok though?
Brineborn Corsair - Understatted, weak abilities but maybe I'm underestimating the creature copy.
Sister of Silence - This card might be missing Flash.
Titan of Depths - Except for reanimator, this seems very expensive for the effect.
Jace, Emotionless Telepath - The -X looks a bit out of place/weak.
Some of the cantrips - Look strong, like Inevitable Progress and Timetelling, might not be a problem at all.
Spellweb - Seems a bit weak, maybe, but I could be underestimating the flashback.
Belated Revelation - Isn't this Ancestral Recall for 2 mana with flashback? (as long as the stack is empty, and they can't respond to it)
Interrupt - Might be ok? I would feel bad about spending 4 mana, unless I really really have to. Could be that the modality is good enough.
Arcane Grounding - On the other hand is a counterspell I would be very happy to play (stronger than the others).
Discern - looks cool and (quite) strong.
Leyline Deconvolution - Not quite sure what to do with this. Maybe it's good enough in a dedicated clue deck? Reduce activated abilities of artifacts in general?
Search for Answers - Seems on the weaker side (draw 3 discard 2 for 4 mana?).

Blue has a lot of 3 mana counterspells, which cought my eye. Since you have a lot of things happening on the lower part of the curve, these might be too weak against more aggressive decks. To me counterspells have to bring significant upside or trade up on mana to be worth the opportunity cost of being dead cards sometimes. I do like a lot of the designs but maybe some could be tweaked to work as 2 mana versions?

Blues creatures might be a bit understatted compared to other colors, making it difficult to survive (e.g. Evasion Cetacean). But maybe I'm just imagining it.

BLACK
Three-Tree Agent - Maybe ninjutsu could be cheaper? It will already be challenging to get this guy through otherwise.
Babbling Sycophants - I'm a bit afraid of putting a 2/2 in my deck, that might not do anything / is difficult to trigger.
Toshiro Umezawa, Ninja - As with the Agent, it's going to be difficult to get a 2/2 for three through blockers, maybe.
Phyrexian Culler - Seems a bit low impact for 4 mana (and triple black). Unearth is also astronomical. Maybe add non-token too?
Mindcutter - Neither too bad, nor too good but these effects tend to be very polarizing ("know thy playgroup").
Exhume Engine - I think I like decayed zombies as much as you do, but you might be valuing them too highly. A single 2/2 blocker for 5 Mana seems a bit measly. The 5 mana creature in the last Innistrad set was at least a 3/4 with some added gravehate. Maybe they were normal Zombies at some point (hence why it still says tapped on the card ;)?).
Barter with the Fates - The interaction is a bit strange. You don't draw a card with it but either rearrange the top 3 or mill them. Maybe "mill up to three"? Or give it a little more oomph?
Corpse Harvest - Also a bit restrictive as you can't choose what you get. Probably a fine card but also a sorcery, so it feels a bit clunky.
Pilfer / Witch's Price - Maybe a bit expensive for the effect? Maybe not.
Night Blanket's All - Seems stronger than the other discard (and is quite abusable with sac outlets). I like it.
Tormented by Conscience - Not sure what to do with this one, but probably a good build around?

I really like the "reveal three pick on" take on discard. Black looks fun in general.

RED
Squabbling Brood - While explosive, it does not seem that easy to have double land drops and a 1/2 blocker for when you have to, is not very good.
Spontaneous Reweaving - Looks a bit expensive for being so situational.
Inspiration Ritual - Looks a cut above other one mana cards!
Belch Flames - Also looks a bit clunky. It fries the creature you use it with (unless it has higher toughness). Also there is an "s" too much in creature.
Quest for New Beginnings - Looks quite potent.
The Perfect Heist - The flavor here is top notch! It seems a bit clunky for the effect and at 4 mana though. (Cast a 4 mana do nothing, that gives away a blocker, next turn you also don't get a blocker), you really need a strong board to use it.

Maybe reds low drops are a bit understatted? The dragons all look very strong, maybe too much top-end?

GREEN
Llanowar Explorer - It always feels a bit strange to be when there's a strictly better version alongside a weaker one (Cenote Scout), but it's by no means a problem.
Ferocious Nacatl - There is no real multicolor aggro deck, and I don't think 5 color goodstuff cares about this much. If the land box is filled with good cards, this might be too strong? Red gets some 1 mana 1/1s and green gets a 1 mana 5/5 :D?
Pugnacious Dimetrodons - This is a weird Stand Still. How do you use it?
Vicious Ambusher - The trigger is a bit at odds with Valian, since the trigger will resolve first. I like the idea. Maybe it's good enough to pick off 1/Xs?
Deeproot Pathfinder - The timing of combat damage and landfall is a little anti-synergistic with an aggor plan. I think I like the common Irascible Germinator better.
Granitehide Rhino - Looks like a certified bomb in a tokens deck. More so than most other cards, maybe? Even just ramping by 15 lands and not having any in your deck must be game winning.
Nissa, Greenbelt Tender - Cheap Planeswalkers with more starting loyalty than mana cost always have me on edge, as unkillable and game-warping.
Garruk, Territorial Hunter - He definitely got an upgrade with the two wolves! I like it, seems strong.
Warble a Ditty - I get that fight spells need to be a bit stronger than other removal to account for more difficult use cases but this seems quite strong!
Exploring - I felt that explore as a mechanic (though I like it) was weaker in the last Ixalan set, than I thought it would be. Therefore this card looks a bit weak to me. Could probably be one mana? Or have some other upside?
Struggle for Dominance - Cool card with funny artwork but as the ditty, it seems quite strong to me!

Green looks beefy and strong.

COLORLESS

Emrakul >>> Kozilek > Ulamog - Would be my guess. Emrakul seems by far the strongest and the other two a bit lackluster. Also, I'm not sure how to ramp or cheat them out easily.
Balduvian Exchange - Seems strong and flexible (especially at instant speed).
The Sword in the Stone - This on the other hand looks a bit weak. Scry 2 is not enough for the equip 5 downside. One instant speed removal and you might lose the game.
Universal Shunt - Seems a bit out of place / weak? Or strong, but definitely annoying to play around!
Infernal Chronometer - If you're in a bad spot, this can be worse for you than for your opponent. Not sure I would put it in my deck.

MULTICOLOR
Venser - See Nissa.
Sarcagor, Prince of Flames - The hoops seem to much for a 3/3 flample haste.
Zamithergo, the Ravenous - Might be infinite combat steps (= lands in grave) with the two cards that put lands into play from the grave. Intended? 5/5 trample haste is already quite good.
Sorin, Markov Heir - Seems strong. Strong body / keywords and good ability.
Sporogenic Sacrament - Seems a bit "do nothing", out of place, but I might be completely wrong.
Adaptive Krasis - I like the abilities but the rate might be a bit prohibitive. Maybe have it start as a 2/2?
Season's Turn - Something wrong with the templating. Either a chapter is missing and it should have 4. Also the untap all lands you control after draw step is a bit awkward.
Sphinx of Black Quartz - "At" should be upper case, no?

And that's it! If I didn't mention a card it's (most likely) because I liked it! Hope this helps.
 
Thanks so much for the detailed notes, Schafkurai!! This is incredible, I can't thank you enough.

Implacable Vanguard--You're probably right, but it's closer to Thalia's Lieutenant than you might think. The Unearth probably pushes it over the line, though, and I definitely intended for the counters to go on *other* creatures that share a type with it, so I'll add that word in. The first strike might also be able to go. Thanks!
Nocturne Lancer--Exactly two seemed more interesting than up to two, but it might be weird enough that I should go back to that version. I was actually A/B testing that with the discord, and I think it was split there? You might be the tiebreaker.
Thalia--I'm not happy with this card, if I'm being perfectly honest. Any recommendations?
Lonely Heir--Heard that the concept might be overwhelming playability. I'd originally put this at three mana otherwise unchanged, but that slot is a little crowded. Maybe it should have an adventure?
Abzan Strike Leader--I was worried it'd be too strong! This is my Captain of the Watch glow-up. Originally, the buff was +1/+1 and first strike, but that's definitely too much. I need a keyword or something in between these two extremes. I also definitely want an anthem effect. Four feels about right, because I think it should be a key part of White's identity.

Less first strike is probably a must. It'll make it a nightmare for Blue in particular.


Sprocketsage--Definitely weak.
Flitting Assistant--Repeated flying for just one mana while itself being flying felt like a little too much. Maybe I just crank up the equip cost? Hmm.
Necksnapper--Well, in its defense, you can ninjutsu it in for the first spell. It trades the flexibility of snapcaster, which can only ever get one spell, for the dream of getting a lot more. You're definitely not supposed to hardcast it, but maybe giving it flash to do a "big snappy" impersonation is okay.
Brineborn Corsair--The fact that you can't make it both unblockable and a copy is a little rough, but
Sister of Silence--is indeed mising flash, d'oh.
Titan of Depths--Yeah, this isn't satisfying. It needs a better ability. Blue needed something to close games with, and this was all I could come up with. I like the ability on something smaller--maybe another Hedron Crab riff?
Jace--The X feels a little weird to me too, but it lets you look really deep. I originally drafted this as scry X+1, but that seemed more complex than I really wanted from this set. Planeswalkers are hard, so I'm more than happy to hear suggestions!
Cantrips--Definitely strong, but that should be a highlight of what Blue does, I think.
Spellweb--So--I figure that the way this plays out is that it's close to a 1-mana tax on further spells your opponents cast, which seems strong. I guess I've always found Crystal Shard way more oppressive than most people do, though, so perhaps I should update my expectations!
Belated Revelation--I don't think that you can cast this without a target, and if you target your own spell, they can just counter that spell and deny you the cards. Unless I'm reading this very wrong? It could just be an example of me filling in what I meant to say, haha.
Interrupt--It's not a premierce counterspell, that's for sure. I'm aiming for something a notch or two above Prohibit.
Arcane Grounding--I think it's a ton of fun as well!
Discern--Enough people have told me now that this is too strong, so I'm going to tack another mana on to it (5U instead of 4U). Maybe that's still too much?

I've been burnt by too many 2-mana counterspells, so maybe I should just be the one casting them more often! Creatures are definitely intended to be smaller than what's normal for Standard-legal sets these days, but I may have overdone it.


Three-Tree Agent--Sure, ninjutsu cost could be 1B to put it in line with Ninja of the Deep Hours.
Babbling--Noted!
Toshiro--Yeah, he's definitely intended to be ninjutsu'd in. The Jitte triggers should help him in further combats, but it's intrinsically a snowballing mechanic.
Phyrexian Culler and Exhumer Engine are actually direct ports of 40K Necrons! Lokhust Heavy Destroyer and Royal Warden, respectively. They feel weird, and the former is lacking the flying, which I think is a big part of why the original costs as heavily B as it does. I'm not sure if they were the stronger cards in that set, though.
Mindcutter 's potential for feelsbads is...notable.
Barter with the Fates--I couldn't come up with a design for this card that satisfactorily used the number three, and I really wanted that last Black cantrip-ish card. I like milling any number of them, though I think that just reads as Surveil 3, which is Otherwordly Gaze but worse. Maybe if your opponent lost a life for each card milled? That seems way too strong, though. Hmm. Thoughts>
Corpse Harvest--Probably should be an instant!
Witches' Price--It's not *great*, but I'd say that you might want to consider Mind Rot a little more highly--it can be pretty alright with a little bit of juicing. This is definitely a weaker card, though, and is intended to be a sideboard option if you know there's something you just can't beat.
Night Blankets All--My first name for this was "You First." It might have to be 2 mana, though.
Tormented By Conscience--Yeah, I don't have specific ideas for this. Goes crazy with Delve, though, and I think that's probably good enough? I do like the idea of someone decking themselves with this. Note that it can be played on either player!


Squabbling Brood is definitely an aggro-only card, so I'm not too concerned about it being a blocker. I had drafted it at MV 2; think that would be okay? The flying seems scary.
Spontaneous Reweaving--Think this could be a RR card? I've always thought that these cards should see more play than they do, as they're usually a 2-for-1 when they hit, if not more. Maybe I overestimate the prevalence of removal/tricks.
Inspiration Ritual--This needs an "if you do" clause--urgh. Should be "Discard a card. If you do, draw two cards." Thank you!! I'll think about making it cost 2, even with that.
Belch Flames--Yeah
Quest for New Beginnings--Yeah. These cards always look super strong, but they get a lot weaker if they're not played on T1, and I like giving the opponent some time to get cards sorted before the wheel happens.
The Perfect Heist--Definitely needs some work. This is supposed to be one of the ways to "ramp," so maybe I can push it to MV 2. I'll gladly take suggestions about other ways to accomplish the goal of feeling like you've pulled off a heist!

Yeah, Red needs a little more pep in its step for sure. Useful to hear that high-CMC things seem fine--gives me a good direction to work in!


Llanowar Explorer--Okay, yes, this was meant to be an upgrade on Cenote Scout. I'll remove that. Thanks!
Ferocious Nacatl--This is one which is almost certainly over the line, but more than anything else I want it to be a Wild Nacatl that will work in any 3+ color deck, which I think is what it'll be. More than making a 5C aggro deck de novo, I'm hoping to drag existing 5C decks closer to aggro/midrange than control, if that makes sense.
Pugnacious Dimetrodons--No clue how you use it! But I think that's going to be kind of fun to figure out, won't it? The concept came when I was rewatching the original Jurassic Park.
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My best guess is that you hold this as a curve topper on like T5 after a MV3 thing, or you get out ahead and play it to buy a couple turns in a GW deck. But who knows! With a cube this size, I'll probably run packs of sixteen cards, which means that there's a little extra space for things to turn out badly and still be okay at the end.
Vicious Ambusher--Good point that the timing is weird. I'll think about this one.
Deeproot Pathfinder--It's a bit odd, but it's just a Deeproot Wayfinder that doesn't mention battles and is scaled up to MV3 because I had too many MV2 creatures in green. I'll think about it, though!
Granitehide Rhino--This one already needs to get changed because it's particularly nasty with the new Valakut (thanks to Safra for catching that). I'm thinking it'll draw any number of lands, which is similar, but doesn't oneshot the way this guy does.
Nissa--She's...a problem. I like the idea of having a 2-drop planeswalker, but maybe I should give up on that.
Garruk--He's definitely very very strong as-is. The other version I have is one in which he enters with 4 and the pair of wolves is a -3 (with the ult Overrun being -7), so I'll think about it.
Warble--Needs new flavor text, but yeah, should probably be either a charm or something else. There's gotta be a clean way to make a Foghorn Leghorn card.
Exploring--So, the joke is that you can discard the lands you draw into to pay the Retrace cost. I'm a little wary about making a card that says "{1}: Look at the top card of your deck. Mill it if it's a land, draw it if not." If Green needs a boost, I'll think about it!
Struggle--Glad that the art tickles you too! I think it's strong, but the downside of effectively having to sac your creature (or your other creatures) if your opponent can play around it seems brutal, and the wind-up is extensive. I think I'd rather have this be the strong fight card rather than Warble, so I'll shift some power out of Warble and eye bumping this to 2G.


RE: Green is beefy and strong--great, this is exactly what I want. I'm writing up what I want colors to do, but that's precisely my aim.
As a preview, White works best as a team, Blue can sculpt its hand and therefore dictate the pace, Black can trade resources freely, Red has more intrinsic flexibility, and Green gets the best rate on creatures. Nothing particularly novel, but I'm exploring what I want this to mean and how I want this to play out.

Kozilek and Ulamog--Yeah, Emmy is the most interesting out of the three. I'm trying to have these here mostly as cheat targets more than ramp, but it's surprisingly hard to design in this space!
Balduvian Exchange--Noted! I'll think about this, but I do want to keep it pretty close to Trading Post. Maybe it shouldn't be one mana.
Sword in the Stone--Conversely, I was worried that this was too much at 1 mana, though that's probably fine. I figure this is a twist on a cantrip in that it draws and plays something big that you can use later while fueling an artifact deck. You're definitely not supposed to equip it unless you're out of other options.
Universal Shunt is actually one of the first cards I designed! It's definitely an odd one, and I have no clue if it's going to be good or not. Probably good to put a sorcery speed rider on it, though.
Infernal Chronometer--Agreed that it's a double-edged sword, but I want anything stax-y to have a chance to bite you in the butt. I'm fine with this being the equivalent of a jank rare, but if you have ideas, I'm all ears!


Venser--Yup, okay, happy to knock him back to 2 or 3 loyalty. That was a casualty of tweaking numbers later in design and bringing him from cmc 4 (at which I think he's pretty weak) to cmc 3. I'm also interested in delaying the Fractured Identity ult a bit, so that's a-okay in my book.
Sarcagor--Already on my list of things to fix! I have no clue why I started him at 3/3, that makes no sense. He's tough to balance, though, as a Large/Large doubly evasive threat is always going to be a problem.
Zamithergo--Is the name dumb? I'm worried that my names are dumb. As for the N-combat problem...I'm reasonably okay with that, but it's not intended, so thanks for putting that on my radar!
Sorin--This is actually an Assault Intercessor/Vraan, Executioner Thane riff, but that card is very much designed for commander and probably isn't appropriate for this sort of game. If I had to tweak him, I'd either take away his first strike or make him cost 4 mana and be a 3/3. Thoughts?
Sporogenic Sacrament--As before, I like to have cards that are brew bait, but this isn't one of the designs I'm happier with.
Adaptive Krasis--I would be very happy to buff this guy.
Seasons' Turn--Should definitely have a fourth chapter, that broke in MSE and I didn't catch it. I had a bunch of weird bugs, likely due to having 300+ high-resolution cards in a program from 2006!
Sphinx of Black Quartz--Thanks!


Again, thank you so, so much for the detailed card notes! I'd love to hear about any specific design pockets that seem notably undersupported here, but this is incredibly helpful.
 
I'm happy to be of help! For context and readability I'll just copy your reply (minus the ones that are "done") and add my answers after.

Implacable Vanguard--You're probably right, but it's closer to Thalia's Lieutenant than you might think. The Unearth probably pushes it over the line, though, and I definitely intended for the counters to go on *other* creatures that share a type with it, so I'll add that word in. The first strike might also be able to go. Thanks! If you remove first strike, it might be ok as a 2/2? Or at least make him a 2/1, poor guy!
Thalia--I'm not happy with this card, if I'm being perfectly honest. Any recommendations? Well, the first question is, what do you want her to be? Currently ist a decent beat stick, a good go-wide enabler and a little bit of a "stax" piece. You already have a few creatures that help you go wide, she could be a payoff "whenever Thalia attacks, other creatures get +1/+1" with a reasonable body. I don't have any great ideas though.
Lonely Heir--Heard that the concept might be overwhelming playability. I'd originally put this at three mana otherwise unchanged, but that slot is a little crowded. Maybe it should have an adventure? I think that the restriction of only being able to attack alone goes against what most white decks want to do. You could make it a conditional attack trigger by adding "Whenever deals combat damage, if it attacked alone, ...". Not particularly clean but easier to use? You could also do the reanimation part as some kind of adventure, that might work.
Abzan Strike Leader--I was worried it'd be too strong! This is my Captain of the Watch glow-up. Originally, the buff was +1/+1 and first strike, but that's definitely too much. I need a keyword or something in between these two extremes. I also definitely want an anthem effect. Four feels about right, because I think it should be a key part of White's identity. First strike does seem a bit egregious for the anthem. It's always a bit difficult with white keywords, flying, lifelink and first strike are all too much, I think, that usually only leaves vigilance.

Less first strike is probably a must. It'll make it a nightmare for Blue in particular.


Sprocketsage--Definitely weak. Maybe give +1/+1 on reconfigure? That seems fine.
Flitting Assistant--Repeated flying for just one mana while itself being flying felt like a little too much. Maybe I just crank up the equip cost? Hmm.
Necksnapper--Well, in its defense, you can ninjutsu it in for the first spell. It trades the flexibility of snapcaster, which can only ever get one spell, for the dream of getting a lot more. You're definitely not supposed to hardcast it, but maybe giving it flash to do a "big snappy" impersonation is okay. Of course you'd rather ninjutsu it in but sometimes the game just does not play out that way or your deck is not 100% ninjutsu and you just can't play it because without ninjutsu it is not very good. I think flash would already help it but I'd still be a bit sad if my 4 mana 2/1 without an ETB just died to Shock :) .
Brineborn Corsair--The fact that you can't make it both unblockable and a copy is a little rough, but
Sister of Silence--is indeed mising flash, d'oh.
Titan of Depths--Yeah, this isn't satisfying. It needs a better ability. Blue needed something to close games with, and this was all I could come up with. I like the ability on something smaller--maybe another Hedron Crab riff? Or make it a 4-6 mana "finisher" with a similar ability on a reasonable body. You could weaken the ability either by only triggering through your spells, your opponents (though punisher cards often work wose than you'd think) or reduce the number of cards to 2-3.
Jace--The X feels a little weird to me too, but it lets you look really deep. I originally drafted this as scry X+1, but that seemed more complex than I really wanted from this set. Planeswalkers are hard, so I'm more than happy to hear suggestions! Not quite sure, but with the +1 already getting three cards deep, maybe the middle ability could play in a different space. Maybe something to defend itself a bit? -1 creatures your opponents control get -1/-0 until your next turn or "tap target creature and put a stun counter on it"? As a -1 it's also limited for how often you can activate it and doesn't go up in loyalty.
Cantrips--Definitely strong, but that should be a highlight of what Blue does, I think.
Spellweb--So--I figure that the way this plays out is that it's close to a 1-mana tax on further spells your opponents cast, which seems strong. I guess I've always found Crystal Shard way more oppressive than most people do, though, so perhaps I should update my expectations! Could be, if you're mostly an instant speed control deck. Keeping up 2 mana for it is not trivial for other decks. It might play better than I give it credit for.
Belated Revelation--I don't think that you can cast this without a target, and if you target your own spell, they can just counter that spell and deny you the cards. Unless I'm reading this very wrong? It could just be an example of me filling in what I meant to say, haha. You're right, you cannot cast it without another spell on the stack. Easy on Arena but more error prone in paper. For this one it depends on the playgroup, I guess. If your players are used to it, then go for it! Otherwise you could refrase it, maybe? "Choose target spell an opponent controls. They may counter that spell, if they don't you draw three cards." Not sure if this is the right wording but it might make it clearer to newer players.
Interrupt--It's not a premierce counterspell, that's for sure. I'm aiming for something a notch or two above Prohibit. It's probably very fine like this.
Arcane Grounding--I think it's a ton of fun as well!
Discern--Enough people have told me now that this is too strong, so I'm going to tack another mana on to it (5U instead of 4U). Maybe that's still too much? I mean, it's your cube, you don't need to listen to anyone! If it's just smaller tweaks like +-1 mana or P/T, you could just roll with it and adjust it later.

I've been burnt by too many 2-mana counterspells, so maybe I should just be the one casting them more often! Creatures are definitely intended to be smaller than what's normal for Standard-legal sets these days, but I may have overdone it. I understand that very low to the groud counters / control decks with many cheap answers are scary and they can really put a damper on more fair midrange decks or even other control decks, I just often find myself in the situation that against lower curving decks my more expensive counterspells are useless, as I cannot afford to keep the mana up because I'm under too much pressure. It depends on a lot of other factors too though.

I'll have to stop here for now but I'll get back to you with more answers on another day. I'm curious how your first trials will turn out though, the cube looks very fun and there were a lot of cool designs in there. Often when I see cards spoiled nowadays I think "this is a really neat card if it were just (insert some small change in P/T, cost, scry -> surveil, etc.)", which is similar to what you describe in your overview.

Keep it up!
 
Alright, let's clean this up with a nice short post!

White looks good with this advice.
Thalia is going to be Sanctum Prelate with an ability. Maybe first strike, maybe double strike?
Others are still under debate.


Sprocketsage is better with your recommendation. Thanks!
The thing about Jace is that stun counters are for Kaito, and I'm scared about -1/-0 team-wide (MH3 Tamiyo is NUTSO). This should probably be a bounce ability.
Belated Revelation: you worded it better than I did!!
Discern: Well, when everyone says it's egregious....I think I'm right about most things, but Treasure Cruise is undercosted if we're being honest, and this should be at least 2/3rds of that cost, probably more. So another mana is probably a good idea.
 
This is a neat project. Really appreciate the focus on parsimony here; that’s something I’ve felt the lack of a lot in recent magic design.

A few cards that stood out to me not mentioned above:
Elspeth Ascendant - This card seems really bad. A +1 only really useful against counterspells and combat tricks, and a sorcery speed pump spell for the -1. The best-case scenario is probably an aggressive deck getting in damage with the -1 three turns in a row, but that requires the opponent not to have anything that could attack her.

Etlan Shiis Guardmage - a one-mana lotus cobra in blue seems insanely strong. I assume it wasn’t meant to be able to untap your own lands.
Vodalien Hexcatcher - not seeing many merfolk for this.
Tangled Skeins of Dreams - Should be “enchanted creature” not “target creature.”
Search for Answers - Also seems really bad. Net neutral on card advantage for 4 mana. This could be 2 easily.

Morkut Gasbag - Gravecrawler is already a really good card and this has two major upsides over it. Any deck trying to attack into this thing on the ground is going to feel very sad. Also, unclear if it counts itself for Delerium.
Summoner’s Bane - Really cool design but probably too high delta. Some decks are going to have no outs for this thing coming down turn 1, some decks it’ll be basically unplayable against.
Ob Nixilis, Diabolist - At the same mana cost as your Liliana, who gets to draw with card selection for a +1. Meanwhile Ob has to -2 and sacrifice a creature to draw a single card.
Lure from the Grave - since you have another 2-mana animate I assume this is supposed to grant haste.

Juvenile Red Dragon - missing a creature type.
Ganax, Scaled Hoarder - another very underwhelming card. 3/4 for 5 is mediocre and ramp is not what I want my 5 drop to be doing.
Chandra of Avishkar - another super weak planeswalker. Drawing cards with the plus is nice but the zero is trash and having to pay for spells cast by the -2 makes it pretty rough to use given the already low starting loyalty.
Sarkhan, Dragon’s Fury - feels weird for this to reanimate permanently.
Fuel the Pyre - Looks pretty awful right next to Stoke the Flames. X=4 is nine mana/creatures, and it’s a sorcery to boot.

Quirion Adept - Insanely strong card, especially with the power level of cantrips here.
Sage of Abundance - That’s a lot of card selection for a 2-drop.
Spin a Yarn - This shouldn’t target, since the milled cards aren’t put into the graveyard until after targets are selected.

Unstable Psychometer - this feels a bit too free as a zero cost cantrip. Even the baubles make you wait for the card.
Arcum’s Orrey - Astrolabe is banned in three different formats for a reason. One mana to have perfect mana fixing is pretty absurd.

Reestablish Balance - this can’t do the most broken things balance can but it’s still consistent at being a 3-mana board wipe which is pretty scary.
Adaptive Krasis - in addition to being overcosted this really should not have both deathtouch and trample as options together.
Plumb the Depths - 2 mana to draw 2 and ramp is pretty absurd even with the saga delay, and it can potentially do even more.
Rkhav, Dread Hellion - another very weak planeswalker. Niche +1, -2 for a single card, -X is nice but low starting loyalty makes it hard to effectively use.
Rite of Eternal Renewal - Getting this to do anything is so incredibly conditional I can’t see it ever being worth building around.
 
Alright, let's clean this up with a nice short post!

White looks good with this advice.
Thalia is going to be Sanctum Prelate with an ability. Maybe first strike, maybe double strike?
Others are still under debate.


Sprocketsage is better with your recommendation. Thanks!
The thing about Jace is that stun counters are for Kaito, and I'm scared about -1/-0 team-wide (MH3 Tamiyo is NUTSO). This should probably be a bounce ability.
Belated Revelation: you worded it better than I did!!
Discern: Well, when everyone says it's egregious....I think I'm right about most things, but Treasure Cruise is undercosted if we're being honest, and this should be at least 2/3rds of that cost, probably more. So another mana is probably a good idea.
Right, I already forgot about Kaito.. how about "-3 put target creature/nonland permanent on top of it's owners library"?


Toshiro--Yeah, he's definitely intended to be ninjutsu'd in. The Jitte triggers should help him in further combats, but it's intrinsically a snowballing mechanic. I'm jt a bit wary of the worst case scenario, which is having no enablers on board and playing 2/2s for 3 that can neither attack, nor block profitably. You could give the ninjutsu creatures a bit more power (e.g. 3/2 for Toshiro). They still trade off easily but at least they have attacks.
Phyrexian Culler and Exhumer Engine are actually direct ports of 40K Necrons! Lokhust Heavy Destroyer and Royal Warden, respectively. They feel weird, and the former is lacking the flying, which I think is a big part of why the original costs as heavily B as it does. I'm not sure if they were the stronger cards in that set, though. Even with flying, the destroyer is not a very strong card in my opinion :D . I think Royal warden is a good card as is but has a few legs up over your Exhumer engine. It's a 3/2, has a much cheaper Unearth activation but most importantly it creates real 2/2 zombies. I like decayed zombies but for card design they are worth much less. They can be sacrificed and they are kinda "mini lavaspikes", but they are not 2/2 creatures. You could maybe increase the number to 3 tokens? Or change it a bit more drastically, if you wish.
Barter with the Fates--I couldn't come up with a design for this card that satisfactorily used the number three, and I really wanted that last Black cantrip-ish card. I like milling any number of them, though I think that just reads as Surveil 3, which is Otherwordly Gaze but worse. Maybe if your opponent lost a life for each card milled? That seems way too strong, though. Hmm. Thoughts> Isn't it already Otherworldly Gaze but worse? You could make it a kind of better Ponder "Look at the top three cards of your library. Put them back in any order. You may draw a card. If you don't, mill 3." How about it? It's strong but at least you have to decide between getting almost ponder or putting all cards into the grave.
Corpse Harvest--Probably should be an instant!
Witches' Price--It's not *great*, but I'd say that you might want to consider Mind Rot a little more highly--it can be pretty alright with a little bit of juicing. This is definitely a weaker card, though, and is intended to be a sideboard option if you know there's something you just can't beat. It's definitely ok and playable and having the modality is good. Lately (in retail limited) these types of cards only performed, when they had a little extra attached to them. Say a 1/1 token (maybe a 2/2 decayed Zombie?) or some life drain etc.
Night Blankets All--My first name for this was "You First." It might have to be 2 mana, though. I like it at 1 mana but 2 mana might be more prudent.
Tormented By Conscience--Yeah, I don't have specific ideas for this. Goes crazy with Delve, though, and I think that's probably good enough? I do like the idea of someone decking themselves with this. Note that it can be played on either player! Let the players figure it out!

Squabbling Brood is definitely an aggro-only card, so I'm not too concerned about it being a blocker. I had drafted it at MV 2; think that would be okay? The flying seems scary. Even if it's an aggro card only, the aggro deck can not always be the aggressor. I'd prefer my aggro decks to have a fighting chance, if they fall behind. Maybe a slight twist? It could have Double Strike and Landfall +1/+0. The scaling stays the same but without lands it at least trades with 2 toughness creatures. Combat tricks do get better with it though.
Spontaneous Reweaving--Think this could be a RR card? I've always thought that these cards should see more play than they do, as they're usually a 2-for-1 when they hit, if not more. Maybe I overestimate the prevalence of removal/tricks. I think it's not you overestimating the prevalence of removal/tricks but rather that situational cards cannot be judged by their best case scenario. Best case is obviously that you copy a removal spell and two for one them. But what if you pass with three mana up, hoping they play something worth copying but they see your open mana and just play a creature? All of a sudden you've been Time Walked and are very sad. It could be that there are other strong spells worth copying, that make the risk worthwhile.
Inspiration Ritual--This needs an "if you do" clause--urgh. Should be "Discard a card. If you do, draw two cards." Thank you!! I'll think about making it cost 2, even with that. It's an exciting card, you can always try with 1 mana, if other colors also get strong cantrips :).
The Perfect Heist--Definitely needs some work. This is supposed to be one of the ways to "ramp," so maybe I can push it to MV 2. I'll gladly take suggestions about other ways to accomplish the goal of feeling like you've pulled off a heist! I don't really have ideas for this card at the moment, but reducing the MV goes a long way in improving viability for more niche cards, I think. It it's MV 2, then 7 treasures on turn 4 is obviously a bit egregious.

Yeah, Red needs a little more pep in its step for sure. Useful to hear that high-CMC things seem fine--gives me a good direction to work in! I often hear people say that they try to make sure the aggressive decks work how they want them to, as that brings midrange and control in line. Currently Monastery Swiftspear looks like the stronges red one drop to me, maybe this is an area to revisit?
 
Llanowar Explorer--Okay, yes, this was meant to be an upgrade on Cenote Scout. I'll remove that. Thanks!
Ferocious Nacatl--This is one which is almost certainly over the line, but more than anything else I want it to be a Wild Nacatl that will work in any 3+ color deck, which I think is what it'll be. More than making a 5C aggro deck de novo, I'm hoping to drag existing 5C decks closer to aggro/midrange than control, if that makes sense. Probably best to just wait and see. Depending on how the cube plays out, it might also just be a very solid control card.
Pugnacious Dimetrodons--No clue how you use it! But I think that's going to be kind of fun to figure out, won't it? The concept came when I was rewatching the original Jurassic Park. My best guess is that you hold this as a curve topper on like T5 after a MV3 thing, or you get out ahead and play it to buy a couple turns in a GW deck. But who knows! With a cube this size, I'll probably run packs of sixteen cards, which means that there's a little extra space for things to turn out badly and still be okay at the end. Well, then by all means let your players figure it out! :)
Deeproot Pathfinder--It's a bit odd, but it's just a Deeproot Wayfinder that doesn't mention battles and is scaled up to MV3 because I had too many MV2 creatures in green. I'll think about it, though! I had Deeproot Wayfinder in my cube for a while, but somehow it was never very exciting. But a 2/3 statline is also difficult to get through more often. Maybe give it trample so the combat damage trigger is a bit more achievable?
Nissa--She's...a problem. I like the idea of having a 2-drop planeswalker, but maybe I should give up on that. You can always make a green Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded ;)
Exploring--So, the joke is that you can discard the lands you draw into to pay the Retrace cost. I'm a little wary about making a card that says "{1}: Look at the top card of your deck. Mill it if it's a land, draw it if not." If Green needs a boost, I'll think about it! There's always a cost though. If you have a non-land on top you're down a card, so you can only do this repeatedly if you draw lands.
Struggle--Glad that the art tickles you too! I think it's strong, but the downside of effectively having to sac your creature (or your other creatures) if your opponent can play around it seems brutal, and the wind-up is extensive. I think I'd rather have this be the strong fight card rather than Warble, so I'll shift some power out of Warble and eye bumping this to 2G. I did not consider that you have to fight your own creatures, that is scary! If you want it to be a finite amount of fights, you could add "damage is not removed from this creature". That would make it quite a bit worse already, but also is a very unconventional ability to have on a creature (a la Ancient Adamantoise).

Kozilek and Ulamog--Yeah, Emmy is the most interesting out of the three. I'm trying to have these here mostly as cheat targets more than ramp, but it's surprisingly hard to design in this space! Thinking about it, I do like Kozilek too, since you can target opponents things. Ulamog, I don't know... also, a keyword on each of them would also help, I guess.
Balduvian Exchange--Noted! I'll think about this, but I do want to keep it pretty close to Trading Post. Maybe it shouldn't be one mana. I think you're right.
Sword in the Stone--Conversely, I was worried that this was too much at 1 mana, though that's probably fine. I figure this is a twist on a cantrip in that it draws and plays something big that you can use later while fueling an artifact deck. You're definitely not supposed to equip it unless you're out of other options. I could see it at 1 mana.
Infernal Chronometer--Agreed that it's a double-edged sword, but I want anything stax-y to have a chance to bite you in the butt. I'm fine with this being the equivalent of a jank rare, but if you have ideas, I'm all ears! It would definitely be more playable at 2-3 mana. What I like about it is, that it has interesting play patterns with instants. If it's at 4 counters and you have mana open, your opponen should think twice if they want to cast something. If you respond your spell will resolve and theirs will get countered.


Sarcagor--Already on my list of things to fix! I have no clue why I started him at 3/3, that makes no sense. He's tough to balance, though, as a Large/Large doubly evasive threat is always going to be a problem. Keeping it a 3/3 is probably okay. The floor is just soo low, if you don't have much to sacrifice. Maybe make it {6}{B}{R} or {4}{B}{R}, get rid of the second part of the sacrifice clause. Make it nonland sacrifice if you drastically reduce the cost or discount only by {1} per sacrificed permanent? Could also have a little ETB if it's not too crowded already. Just some ideas.
Zamithergo--Is the name dumb? I'm worried that my names are dumb. As for the N-combat problem...I'm reasonably okay with that, but it's not intended, so thanks for putting that on my radar! If they are your friends, they will let you know!
Sorin--This is actually an Assault Intercessor/Vraan, Executioner Thane riff, but that card is very much designed for commander and probably isn't appropriate for this sort of game. If I had to tweak him, I'd either take away his first strike or make him cost 4 mana and be a 3/3. Thoughts? I would prefer the 3 mana no-first strike version.
Sporogenic Sacrament--As before, I like to have cards that are brew bait, but this isn't one of the designs I'm happier with. Not quite sure.. You could make it a version of Morbid Opportunist? "{1}{B}{G} When ~ enters, create a 2/2 decayed black Zombie token. Whenever a creature you control dies, draw a card. This ability triggers only once each turn."?


Again, thank you so, so much for the detailed card notes! I'd love to hear about any specific design pockets that seem notably undersupported here, but this is incredibly helpful. Happy to help!
 
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