The Dandy Cube (Chris Taylor's Cube)

[Chris Taylor]

Every now and again I try and take a step back from my cube and see how we're doing on the old complexity budget.

Ah, well on into the red and plummeting, eh? Business as usual then.

But that doesn't mean I shouldn't try and keep things reasonable where I can. Inspired by an offhand comment on a recent lucky paper radio episode, I've done a bit of an audit of any keywords my cube is running, and weather or not they should stay.

First, let's discuss some broad categories:

Dual faced cards
both Tranforming (Search for Azcanta) and Modal (Spikefield Hazard) are a contentious topic in the cube community. Many people don't run them on principal, but I often treat the back side of a card as a mild downside when handled correctly.
I'm not one to shy away from a whole mechanic for the flaws of it's worst example, and I can absolutly see why people don't want to touch the omenkeel with a 10 foot pole, but I won't let that stop me from running truly excellent cards like The Restoration of Eiganjo and Spikefield Hazard.

At present, I'm running the following DFCs:

I think Malevolent Hermit could go, but that's on the back of it's individual design and power level.
I think I'd actually want more MDFCs in my cube if possible (provided the back was a land), but nothing has really come to mind as designs of my own I'd like to add.

Verdict: Positive

Artifact/Creatures


This one is a bit less unified, but I've put any card with For Mirrordin!, Living Weapon, and Reconfigure under the same umbrella of "this equipment is good actually because it's also a creature"
Each of these has their own benefits and drawbacks, and I like the effect all 3 have on the environment. I think if I wanted to switch entirely to one mechanic of the 3, it would probably be for aesthetic reasons only, which I think makes it a bad swap.
It's possible the singleton card I run with For Mirrordin! (Glimmer Lens) could change for other reasons though.

Verdict: Positive

Those two out of the way, lets discuss things I don't have strong feelings about:

Each of these is the lone example of their given keyword in my cube, and I'm kind of alright with it. I always make sure to get versions with reminder text (or else make them myself), and if someone's never seen a changeling before, it's not going to take a huge amount of mental load to parse that one out.

Orzhov Psychopomp is a glow up of a glow up of Bone Shredder, a card practically old enough to drive. I like echo in basically this specific case and no other: It has a desirable ETB you want to loop, it's cheap enough for unearth (And wouldn't be without echo), echo puts it in the graveyard for looping, and (unlike basically every echo etb creature thus far) there's an actual incentive to occasionally pay the echo cost, as deathtouch is a compelling reason to keep this in play.


Delirium is great in theory, frustrating in practice. Darcy has a reputation from eternal formats, but my experience in cube is that it's easy to get the first 3 card types, agonizing to get the 4th. As a result, I've leaned into delirium cards that help get themselves the rest of the way there (I don't run unholy heat, for eg), and I'm not sure I'd want to run more. I might add more on a card by card basis, which is sad given a whole 5th of my cube ( ) is dedicated to self-mill, graveyardy type gameplay.


These are all great standalones. Escape is interesting, I think I like it better on creatures than noncreatures, it lets the opponent interact with a well timed exile spell and loops less frequently, keeping gameplay interesting.

In terms of mechanics I found negative:

Amass: I think I wanted to cut Callous dismissal for other reasons, but for the trifecta of not that strong, unique token, unique keyword it really takes the cake.
Battle Cry: Technically this is inoffensive, but I think I want to cut this card for other reasons.
Boast: I understand why it is the way it is, and I like both of these cards, but UGH
Delve: Delve is inherrently frustrating. It's SO HARD to get the numbers right on these cards, and I hate asking my drafters to exile as many cards from their graveyard as they can while still keeping Tarmogoyf and Oversold Cemetery happy, so I've tried a few other things, but unfortunately delve is the only graveyard payoff blue gets, so here we are.
Eternalize: This mechanic has legs and these cards have been power crept out. For others, this might cause some reflection and a re-affirming of goals, but I am happy to ride the rising tide of power creep.
Chatterfang: Yeah this bastard has forestwalk, who knew
Mentor: You know, I can see this going. I like a free body each turn, but maybe I can find a better way.
Regenerate: I hate how much I love this card It's awkward, it's the only use of "regenerate" I've played in years, you can't sac it if you draw your card for turn, BUT it's on balance the 2 mana mind rot that isn't hymn to tourach, AND you can recur it with all the tasty black tools to really strip down an opponent's hand.
Suspend: I used to run Ancestral Vision as well, but epochrasite is getting less and less appealing when it's not in concert with a flicker card (And I don't have a ton of those either).
Vanishing: this card ends the game so well it might as well not have a keyword, but I don't think I'd gain by making a custom card here.


Positives:

Adventure does actually fit in with a few of my themes, and specifically where prowess is concerned, it's very useful to have both a threat and a spell to keep your cards active on a single card.
It is of course, powerful, and WotC does know that, so in general we're probably unlikely to get a large number of power outliers in the future.
I've made a few of my own, and I expect that to continue.

Evoke is another cube designers dream, and fits nicely into graveyard and aristocrats strategies quite nicely. Like kicker, this just fits in with playing good magic.

I'm a sucker for modal spells as much as the next person, and this mechanic is as good as any other kicker variant.

The whole previous post is a love letter to prototype, no surprise I love it.


Unearth is also excellent, in a lot of the same was evoke is (basically flashback to evoke's kicker).
I could add more of these, most of the unearth cards have been crept out over time.


With some one-offs to finish.
Revolt: I like it, could see some other usage, but it is a bit too easy with the amount of fetchlands I run, so I'd really have to consider the "on" version of the card.
Blitz: Love it, but nothing in actual new Capena spoke to me. This is another of "I'd like more but I'm not sure what to make"
Rebound: I'm a bit surprised there isn't more of this? It's another excellent mechanic for ensuring all your prowess cards are "on", but not every card lends itself well to happening twice in a row. Since the second casting is free, it also pushes itself further up on the curve, which can also limit space, given how few 5 drops a given deck (or cube) even wants.
Retrace: Honestly this is mostly just to be cute. For the uninitiated, if Refine the mind had flashback it would still exile itself when cast from the graveyard, so I've opted for another effect to make sure it keeps looping.
The impact here is minimal, since Refine shuffles in if you ever cast it, so this is only a concession to it being accidentally milled over. I guess this could be escape, but it barely matters.

All and all, this provided me with a few cuts and swaps I could make to improve the comprehensibility of my cube. It's something we can easily forget, it helps to take stock every now and again.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Oh also

 

[LadyMapi]

I'm presuming that flickering a Revelation just leaves it in exile?

 

[sigh]

If Obzedat is any precedent to work off of, it would successfully flicker back, since exile is where the flicker effect expects to find it already

 

[Chris Taylor]

Worth noting at that point since you didn't Coalesce it, you've got a sorcery on the battlefield. IDK where it goes in that case, HOPEFULLY back where it came from.

Also wait what happens if you flicker an unearth creature? Same wording.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

If Obzedat is any precedent to work off of, it would successfully flicker back, since exile is where the flicker effect expects to find it already

The problem is that Revelations aren’t creatures by nature. When you flicker a revelation, it tries to return a non-permanent card to the battlefield, which can’t happen. This situation is covered by the following two comp rules:

304.4. Instants can’t enter the battlefield. If an instant would enter the battlefield, it remains in its previous zone instead.
307.4. Sorceries can’t enter the battlefield. If a sorcery would enter the battlefield, it remains in its previous zone instead.

So, if you flicker a revelation, it stays in exile, as LadyMapi correctly presumed.

If you flicker an unearth creature, however, it re-(re?-)enters the battlefield as a new permanent with no prior knowledge of its unearthed existence, which means the creature survives the turn. Yay! I once built a Peasant deck around this loophole

 

[Chris Taylor]

The problem is that Revelations aren’t creatures by nature. When you flicker a revelation, it tries to return a non-permanent card to the battlefield, which can’t happen. This situation is covered by the following two comp rules:

304.4. Instants can’t enter the battlefield. If an instant would enter the battlefield, it remains in its previous zone instead.
307.4. Sorceries can’t enter the battlefield. If a sorcery would enter the battlefield, it remains in its previous zone instead.

So, if you flicker a revelation, it stays in exile, as LadyMapi correctly presumed.

If you flicker an unearth creature, however, it re-(re?-)enters the battlefield as a new permanent with no prior knowledge of its unearthed existence, which means the creature survives the turn. Yay! I once built a Peasant deck around this loophole

Okay good. That is how I wanted it to work.

Now hilarious: what happens if you Unsubstantiate it? I assume a spell "being returned to your hand" is it "not resolving", but can it get exiled properly if it's in your hand? (I ruled it gets exiled, I don't think magic has an equivalent situation)

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Okay good. That is how I wanted it to work.

Now hilarious: what happens if you Unsubstantiate it? I assume a spell "being returned to your hand" is it "not resolving", but can it get exiled properly if it's in your hand? (I ruled it gets exiled, I don't think magic has an equivalent situation)

If you Unsubstantiate an unearthed or coalesced creature, it gets exiled. I think coalesce might need some work, the reminder text looks a bit wonky. Playing D&D now though, so I’ll have to look at it later

Edit: Shit, I typed a whole thing, and then I realized it doesn't work as I wanted it to with the spells. Frick XD Back to the drawing board.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Ok, so it’s currently this:

Coalesce {M} (You may cast this from your graveyard for {M}. If you do, put it into the battlefield as a Horror creature after it resolves. Exile it if it would leave the battlefield or not resolve.)

There's a bunch of stuff happening here, which makes it a challenge to streamline into a satisfying reminder text, but I'm going to try anyway.

First, flashback and escape suggest that when a keyword lets you cast a card from the graveyard, the (alternative) cost isn't mentioned in the reminder text. Rather, it refers to the mechanic cost.

Second, these are non-permanent spells that have an effect as you cast them. My first idea was to have you cast them as Horror creatures, but that doesn't work, because instants and sorceries only do their thing while on the stack, while creatures by definitino don't do something on the stack (other than being a dumb creature spell). The problem with your current reminder text is "304.2. When an instant spell resolves, the actions stated in its rules text are followed. Then it's put into its owner’s graveyard." So you want the card to become a creature as it resolves, I think, not after it resolves, because "302.2. When a creature spell resolves, its controller puts it onto the battlefield under their control."

Third, the "or not resolve" bit trips me up. I couldn't find any examples of "not resolve" or "doesn't resolve". The only existing card that explicitly mentions spells not resolving, as far as I'm aware, is Nivmagus Elemental, which has the reminder text (That spell won’t resolve.), and that doesn't particularly help us. I think it reads weird because the ellipsis is a bit strange. It's supposed to parse as "Exile it if it would leave the battlefield or [if it would] not resolve", but for me the first thing I read was "Exile it if it would leave the battlefield or [if it] not resolve". If we look at unearth's reminder text, we see that no ellipsis is used, but Shield Broker suggests that you can use ellipsis in reminder text: (If it would be dealt damage or [if it would be] destroyed, remove a shield counter from it instead.) I would argue that this is a simpler sentence structure to interpret though, because it lacks negation and uses more readily equatable verbs. By which I mean that dealt damage and destroyed are more alike than leave the battlefield and not resolve. So, I would just write it out to avoid confusion.

If we roll all this into a new reminder text, we get the following.

Coalesce {M} (You may cast this from your graveyard for its coalesce cost. If you do, it becomes a Horror creature as it resolves. Exile it if it would leave the battlefield or if it doesn't resolve.)

The new reminder text is 187 characters long, versus 186 for the old one, so we should be fine on space for your designs!

Alternatively, you could do the following shorthand, which has no precedent afaik, but tries to sidestep the whole problem of trying to set two different exiling conditions.

Coalesce {M} (You may cast this from your graveyard for its coalesce cost. If you do, it becomes a Horror creature as it resolves. Exile it if it would be put anywhere other than onto the battlefield.)

This ends up being 188 characters, so still very close to the original. Sometimes it pays to be a little more clear though, so pick the one you think is most grokkable!

 

[Chris Taylor]

I love the second version, that makes it really clear if somehow the spell gets bounced or put on top of the library while on the stack without being countered.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

I wouldn't be surprised if WotC makes a reverse evoke in this vein.

Coalesce {M} (If you cast this card for its coalesce cost, it becomes a Horror creature as it resolves.)

No flashback double whammie potential, but a pretty clean way to make modal cards that act as noncreature spells on the stack for stuff like prowess but do count towards a healthy creature count in your draft deck.

 

[landofMordor]

I would be kinda surprised, frankly. Might as well make “sorcery: choose one: make a creature token, or …” and Kicker or other adjacent abilities could handle the modal casting cost too

but I say this knowing that WotC printed Mutate, so I guess anything can happen!

 

[Onderzeeboot]

but I say this knowing that WotC printed Mutate, so I guess anything can happen!

Mechanically, Ikoria was absolutely wild! Mutate, companion, three randomly colorless nonartifact creatures, keyword counters, a shards matter theme...

 

[Chris Taylor]

I'm going over what exiles in my cube and what doesn't, after feedback that the White vs graveyard matchup felt pre-game one sided, as essentially all of the white removal spells exile, and a few others besides.

Here's all the exile interaction I run:

So yeah, White in first place, Red in second place, and GREEN in 3rd off the dubious distinction of tangleweed's mostly-a-downside having extra value against vengevine.

Overall goals are to probably HALVE the amount of white removal that exiles, introduce some in other colors, and add some incidental graveyard hate where I can. (I've got a custom Graveyard Tresspasser that doesn't have daybound, for eg.)

So in the question of white:

These interact with themes I'm running, so I think they get to stay.

Of the remainder:

I think I'm cutting Oust, Ossification (Which is a shame, I like the basic restriction), Winds of Abandon, and both the customs

Well Event Horizon is just being re-worded to say "destroy" instead of exile, I like the puzzle it provides. Journey's End always felt extremely free, but that's MSE Modern designs for ya.
I could be convinced I should keep Winds of Abandon over Path to Exile, but I honestly don't think the power level is a concern, and the design space for cheap white removal is so small I kinda need to keep all the 1 mana candidates I can get.

Do you have any favorite white removal that isn't Pacifism or an Exile effect? I like Fateful Absence, and Sunlance is funny (And probably fine)

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Apparently I also run exile effects almost exclusively in white o_O

 

[blacksmithy]

Sunlance is a baller, and i like the new 2 mana arrest that also hits walkers and artifacts

 

[Chris Taylor]

Sunlance is a baller, and i like the new 2 mana arrest that also hits walkers and artifacts

I do as well, but while it doesn't exile it still doesn't put things in the graveyard, which ends up acting like exile in the specific situation I'm trying to adjust for.

 

[Chris Taylor]

To follow: the new kind of fucked up shit

To start us off, I've got some notes from last night's draft

Last patch when I introduced the coalesce mechanic, it was a huge hit with my drafters, even if we did acknowledge that just adding like 15 adventure style 3-for-1s to my cube is a poor way to buff an archetype.

So a friend of mine sat down and started coming up with ideas that weren't just midrange grind power, including a few that I'll talk about today.
This does have the whole "My hand has 3 cryptic commands in it so I get 4 combat phases to your zero" feel, but it also costs a LOT to do that.
What is less cool is getting to counter a removal spell for free on top of that by phasing the target + the rest of your opponent's board, so we're changing this to only target villain's creatures.

This also didn't come up with the rest of the coalesce cards, but the flashback on this is cheap enough that it is two young pyro triggers. The spellslinger colors are currently , but I can appreciate some bleed coming from open ended enablers like this.

It's also possible my friends have tricked me into putting moment's peace in my cube and I shouldn't let a cool name and mechanic trick me into making bad decisions

This card is worded somewhat confusingly. I don't think there is a pump spell that sometimes gives keywords in this kind of menu?
The wording for entwine here is borrowed from Kaya's Guile, so that part of the wording is official at least.

I don't know why this says choose a creature? I think when I was templating this I got hung up on it needed to start with the targeting like it was exactly as simple as giant growth? Choose Your Weapon is probably closest, but it only does one thing to one creature?


I think I'm going with V2 here. I don't love the tiny +2/+2 on it's own line, but v3 is possibly the most cursed templating I've put to pixel, so I'd be silly not to share it.
I'm also ditching the entwine. The original was envisioned as a sort of average between Vines of Vastwood, Predator's Strike, and Blossoming Defense, but (and make sure you're sitting down for this revelation) when you combine 3 cards, it's a lot more complicated than any of your starting points, even if they were simple.
The juice here was really not worth the squeeze.


This card just feels unbeatable, unless you have a specific type of removal spell I've trimmed on recently. I'll probably be swapping it for Seasoned Hallowblade or Bladed Ambassador, unsure which atm.

The blacksmithy special, coming recommended to me off it's synergy with Ledger Shredder (a card I do double up on. I wish we got more good cheap blue creatures, but I get why we don't considering what shredder/murktide are doing in constructed atm)

However, Danica coming back off your opponent's double spell is probably too much, so I'll change that. Otherwise powerful but fine.


Look I know y'all love this card, but I'm not convinced. Both modes are bad (Inspiration, reach through mists), and together I feel like they add up to a C-, which maybe you can bring to a C if you've got artifact things to lean on, or delirium to care about. I'm probably gonna give this one steroids, I just don't quite know how yet.

OH YEAH DELIRIUM

So the theme in my cube has been "Graveyard" for a while now, and it's always felt really unfocused. Some cards asked you to play as many creatures as possible, some involved you spreading out your card types, and there's also spell recursive elements (Think snapcaster mage. It's possible these just weren't on theme cards, but it was a bit confusing).

Also, recursion is a bad payoff in large quantities. Getting the full value from a second recursion spell either involves waiting until the best thing in your graveyard died again, or settling for the second best thing, neither of which are great.

Coalesce, while delightful is extremely free, and not graveyard reliant at all, you just get to enough lands and get extra value. It's not a solution.

Delirium has a lot of appeal from a design standpoint. It's much more interesting to try and balance the card types in your pool than just taking the mill cards and payoffs.

Delirium also has this tapering effect which makes scaling spells off it very easy to balance (but in a good way)
In a format like this with tons of fetchlands and cheap cantrips, it's really easy to get to 2-3 card types in the graveyard, but it's a lot harder to get over the hump to 4. Usually you need a creature to die, and hit the exact right mix of instants and sorceries, or something esoteric like tarfire or a spellbomb.
Something that varies between 0-8 but is mostly 3 is a lot less gamebreaking than say, devotion which could be anywhere between 0 and 11 with basically zero localization at all.

So, I'm gonna try delirium again. I've learned from last time that the cards I put in with extra card types actually need to go to the graveyard. Thankfully, there's a ton of great designs that have been printed since last time I tried this which I can delirium-ify (As there's been very little actual card type based cards, other than darcy and unholy heat. There's others in that limited format, but the blue cards aren't great)

Here's the initial batch of ideas:

Enablers:

The Fine Print is quite indulgent, but Safra has convinced me that the play patterns of "tutor almost your whole deck" are interesting, so I want to try it.
Lush Gift does look a bit odd next to abundant harvest in a pack, I honestly thought harvest was an instant. I don't think I care enough to change it though.
You don't need too much of these Tribal/Artifact/Enchantment cards to fill delirium spots, but the odd card like this fits in nicely. Plus, any artifact cards in blue and black offer some overlap for Esper Artifacts.

Payoffs:

Incongruous Predator is meant to be my format's Murktide Regent, so if it seems above the curve that's intentional.
Unwanted Secrets is Dig Through Time
Baleful Gaze is technically Overwhelming Remorse but nobody knows that card so pretend it's murderous cut instead.
Weakeness of Flesh is Unholy Heat with a side order of Alchemy balance and black exile effects that aren't Go Blank
Foul Garden is so god damn cool I wish I could actually take credit for it. When I first designed the card it was Oversold Cemetery but with delirium as a trigger instead, and then I remembered that oversold cemetery is a card that can almost drink in the united states, so I (like every modern card designer) slapped on a free 2/2 with the faint hope that would put it in the same stratosphere as Fable of the Mirror Breaker and Uro.
One of my saner players stepped in and proposed the above, which gets some sick loops if one of the things you're regrowing is eternal witness. You might not even die trying to pull that off.

Misc Other:

Here's more basic Coalesce designs that isn't technically worth a card as a baseline, to try and dial back the inherent 3-for-1 nature.
I'm also proud to announce that Torpor flows like rain is the first one of these incredible names I can actually take credit for, as every single other one is just copied whole cloth from Spirit Island, an excellent boardgame.
The 1/7 power/toughness is a complete meme and may change.
Spur on however is intentionally beefy because of how awful it is as an actual spell.
Scream Disease is unfortunately existing magic artwork, but it is existing magic art done by Peter Morbacher, the braingenius behind the rest of these amazing pieces.

Old habits die hard: I love recurring a mind rot with raise dead to make my opponents uncomfortable.
I usually die while attempting this because 3/5 of the archetypes in my cube are beatdown decks but hey.
Technically a glowup of Augur of Skulls.

Every time lingering souls is the best card in my artifact deck I feel like I've failed a bit as a cube designer, so maybe I should stop pretending that it's an aristocrats card.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

This card is worded somewhat confusingly. I don't think there is a pump spell that sometimes gives keywords in this kind of menu?
The wording for entwine here is borrowed from Kaya's Guile, so that part of the wording is official at least.

I don't know why this says choose a creature? I think when I was templating this I got hung up on it needed to start with the targeting like it was exactly as simple as giant growth? Choose Your Weapon is probably closest, but it only does one thing to one creature?

View attachment 8045View attachment 8046
I think I'm going with V2 here. I don't love the tiny +2/+2 on it's own line, but v3 is possibly the most cursed templating I've put to pixel, so I'd be silly not to share it.
I'm also ditching the entwine. The original was envisioned as a sort of average between Vines of Vastwood, Predator's Strike, and Blossoming Defense, but (and make sure you're sitting down for this revelation) when you combine 3 cards, it's a lot more complicated than any of your starting points, even if they were simple.
The juice here was really not worth the squeeze.

So, a creature "gets +2/+2", but "gains trample and hexproof". See, e.g., Whirling Strike.

Edit: I tried it out, and this fits nicely (and uses the correct reminder text, which also happens to be shorter ):

Choose two {-}
• Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
• Target creature gains trample until end of turn. {i}(It can deal excess combat damage to the player or planeswalker it’s attacking.){/i}
• Target creature gains hexproof until end of turn. {i}(It can’t be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.){/i}

Oh, and the artist is William Bonhotal, despite his ArtStation handle being the other way around

Payoffs:

Foul Garden is so god damn cool I wish I could actually take credit for it.

There's a small typo in Foul Garden, it should be "two target permanent cards", not "target two permanent cards".

Misc Other:

Here's more basic Coalesce designs that isn't technically worth a card as a baseline, to try and dial back the inherent 3-for-1 nature.

Scream Disease is unfortunately existing magic artwork, but it is existing magic art done by Peter Morbacher, the braingenius behind the rest of these amazing pieces.

So... I was trying to find alternative art for Scream Disease into the Wind, and thought maybe Hod would fit? There's also Suphlatus, Hasmed, and Asbeel, which could all fit, even though they don't really scream. You could always rename to "Dream Disease into the Wind"

https://www.angelarium.net/hod/
https://www.angelarium.net/suphlatus-angel-of-dust/
https://www.angelarium.net/hasmed-angel-of-annihilation/
https://www.angelarium.net/asbeel-angel-of-ruin/

But I also thought of two designs while looking through Peter's art... Feel free to steal if you do like them. If not, at least I had fun designing these

Spoiler

Art for the black one, which is relatively weak removal, so that it might fit your coalesce needs as a less egregious 3-for-1.
Edit 2: Oh hey, I just saw you have this exact effect in white. Oops!
Art for the red one, which is basically Pyretic Ritual (but sorcery speed) + Coal Stoker, which seems fun for a spellslinger archetype.

PS. If you ever find your text running into your P/T box when using Card Conjurer locally, like on Scream Disease into the Wind, try using {fontsize-2} at the start of your Rules Text, fiddling with the number until it looks nice

Edit 3: By the way, I like the new cards, exciting designs!

 

[Chris Taylor]

So, a creature "gets +2/+2", but "gains trample and hexproof". See, e.g., Whirling Strike.

Edit: I tried it out, and this fits nicely (and uses the correct reminder text, which also happens to be shorter ):

Choose two {-}
• Target creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
• Target creature gains trample until end of turn. {i}(It can deal excess combat damage to the player or planeswalker it’s attacking.){/i}
• Target creature gains hexproof until end of turn. {i}(It can’t be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.){/i}

So the issue with this is that now it looks like Martial Glory, and even if that is legal templating that sounds like a lot for 1 mana.
I think we put "target creature" outside the choice, and then just start the lines off with "Gains" or "Gets"?

Oh, and the artist is William Bonhotal, despite his ArtStation handle being the other way around

Ah, good call! I'm getting these reprinted, lets source this correctly.

There's a small typo in Foul Garden, it should be "two target permanent cards", not "target two permanent cards".

Ah, gotcha. Will update.

So... I was trying to find alternative art for Scream Disease into the Wind, and thought maybe Hod would fit? There's also Suphlatus, Hasmed, and Asbeel, which could all fit, even though they don't really scream. You could always rename to "Dream Disease into the Wind"

Yeah. I looked at those, but you're right about the screaming.
It's not a huge deal? I think if this art really bugs me in 2 weeks, I'm more likely to just cut the card rather than look for a solution

For reference, my drafters complained that this felt backbreaking:

So a creature punching itself seems wildly over the curve.
Don't get me wrong, I do love the creature punching itself idea, and there's some precedent for it in black, but I feel like black has enough tools to kill a creature.

As for Fuel to the Fire, it's kinda Priest of Urabrask on steroids? I've been reticent about the swingy power of Burning Tree Emissary, so I'm not sure I'd want a card like that which ALSO gives you two spell triggers.
Somewhere though, a vintage cuber just found the first ever Mono-Red/Storm glue card to ever exist

Good call on the fontsize thing, I am still making cards via Magic Set Editor for now, but I know the chop bottom trick as well.

Also MAN. Coalesce is just such a banger. Everyone I show this mechanic to just wants to make cards for it

 

[Onderzeeboot]

yeah, coalesce is a beauty for sure!

 

[Onderzeeboot]

So the issue with this is that now it looks like Martial Glory, and even if that is legal templating that sounds like a lot for 1 mana.
I think we put "target creature" outside the choice, and then just start the lines off with "Gains" or "Gets"?

Personally I like to stick to their patterns to make my own designs feel more authentic, but we're making custom cards, so we can do whatever we want Just for comparison, I'll throw out Borrowed Hostility, which somehow is the only official card (I can find) that comes close to your design. In that case WotC could have used your proposed trick to save words, but they chose not to.

For reference, my drafters complained that this felt backbreaking:
View attachment 8056
So a creature punching itself seems wildly over the curve.

This is wild to me! This card looks like it could have been an uncommon, and I can't imagine it being over the curve, let alone backbreaking, except maybe in a morph format o_O

I will say that the art is of a raven horror, so I don't think this should be a 4/4. You could make it a 2/2 flyer instead, which makes it much less of a clock and fits better with the art

Also, while trying to recreate this, I went looking for the art, and went down quite a rabbit hole. The original artist seems to be Nicole Altenhoff, and not Pierre Broissard. Nicole is very anti AI-art and has removed all her work from DeviantArt and ArtStation, except for some images protesting AI art. Unfortunately, the raven art isn't available on her own website, but it is still available on this ArtStation Pinterest page. Long story short, you might want to attribute this one to the right artist



Honestly, this still feels wildly underpowered to me. We've got bad Disfigure stapled to bad Keening Banshee (which are, fair, both great spells in limited). I would personally reduce the coalesce cost to , but then again, I wouldn't have guessed the original design felt overpowered in your format.

As for Fuel to the Fire, it's kinda Priest of Urabrask on steroids? I've been reticent about the swingy power of Burning Tree Emissary, so I'm not sure I'd want a card like that which ALSO gives you two spell triggers.
Somewhere though, a vintage cuber just found the first ever Mono-Red/Storm glue card to ever exist

It's Coal Stoker on steroids But yeah, it will only ever recoup its own mana. Effectively you can play two spells and get a 3/3 for free on turn two, which seems like a lot, but might be relatively tame depending on the rest of the cube.

Also MAN. Coalesce is just such a banger. Everyone I show this mechanic to just wants to make cards for it

I have to work, but otherwise I would have thought up some more designs. Any holes you're trying to fill?

 

[Chris Taylor]

Personally I like to stick to their patterns to make my own designs feel more authentic, but we're making custom cards, so we can do whatever we want Just for comparison, I'll throw out Borrowed Hostility, which somehow is the only official card (I can find) that comes close to your design. In that case WotC could have used your proposed trick to save words, but they chose not to.

So I think you can give +3/+0 to one creature and first strike to another?
I'm not sure there is a card that does what I want unnatural strength to do.

Long story short, you might want to attribute this one to the right artist

o.O
Oh. Welp, let's update that!
To be clear, I have cut Mortal Strength Fades, but good call.

It's Coal Stoker on steroids But yeah, it will only ever recoup its own mana. Effectively you can play two spells and get a 3/3 for free on turn two, which seems like a lot, but might be relatively tame depending on the rest of the cube.

Wait you can't do this on T2, right? 1R, gives you 3, it's 4 to coalesce?
This is why I was comparing to Priest, the net effect is you can Turn 2R into RRR and a 3/3

I have to work, but otherwise I would have thought up some more designs. Any holes you're trying to fill?

Not with Coalesce
I do need some sort of Blue Artifact Bauble for a delirium/artifact glue.
Think AEther Spellbomb on steroids.


Also, misc designs from last cube draft:

 

[Onderzeeboot]

So I think you can give +3/+0 to one creature and first strike to another?
I'm not sure there is a card that does what I want unnatural strength to do.

Ah, now I get what you want to do. Yeah, you can choose different targets. I don't think there is any card that does something like what you want, but "choose target creature" in combination with "do something to that creature" is reasonably common. I would word it like this:

Choose target creature, then choose two {-}
• That creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
• That creature gains trample until end of turn. {i}(It can deal excess combat damage to the player or planeswalker it’s attacking.){/i}
• That creature gains hexproof until end of turn. {i}(It can’t be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.){/i}

Wait you can't do this on T2, right? 1R, gives you 3, it's 4 to coalesce?
This is why I was comparing to Priest, the net effect is you can Turn 2R into RRR and a 3/3

Derp. I meant turn 3, I don't know why I wrote turn 2 XD

Not with Coalesce
I do need some sort of Blue Artifact Bauble for a delirium/artifact glue.
Think AEther Spellbomb on steroids.

I think Force Spike could be an interesting spellbomb. Make your opponent play off curve, cash it in when you don't need it any more. That said, it is relatively easy to play around, so maybe something more impactful, like Remand or Memory Lapse on a stick could do the trick.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Choose target creature, then choose two {-}
• That creature gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
• That creature gains trample until end of turn. {i}(It can deal excess combat damage to the player or planeswalker it’s attacking.){/i}
• That creature gains hexproof until end of turn. {i}(It can’t be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.){/i}

See, this is what I had initially, and drafters said it was confusing!