So I have an interesting question for you all:
How would you make this card playable?
As part of my invitational program (Drafters who either 3-0 or 0-3 my cube get to add a custom card to the cube) I often get more open ended submissions from those who don't do as much design work as I do. "I like
sphinx's revalation, something like that" or "A defensive black 2 drop, I'll pitch some ideas", "Earl of Squirrel inspired", to name a few.
Clockspinning is my roommate's favorite card, no matter how many times we explain how bad it is. His submission, 3 drafts ago, was "a playable clockspinning", and this was my initial attempt:
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Sure. Take the buyback down to 1, see how it goes.
And yeah, it's cheaper now. It's got a decent tenure as
how to keep an izzet mage busy, for all that's worth, but being limited to enhancing one permanent you control (or pinging off +1/+1 or loyalty counters from your opponent's stuff) just isn't really a winning card to make, no matter what it costs.
I
could drastically change the cards in my cube to make this better, but that doesn't seem good or worth it. I can now remove "or suspended card" now that
epochrasite has left my cube, but I'm unsure of what to try next.
I could make it one of the modes on a charm, I suppose. I could make it a one shot effect that is far stronger, doubling down on the niche-ness of it but offering something maybe powerful enough to entice.
Here's a link to my current list in case you want to check what cards this might combine with
I want to give it a fair shake before I give up. What would you do?