@LordArcadian you're supposed to provide feedback on the previous card(s) before requesting review on your own. That said, a french vanilla 3/5 for 4 in white seems more like an uncommon than rare (especially since being a beast does it no favors). Also, most creatures with similar costs and abilities either have double white in their mana costs or an activated ability that costs white mana.
Giving your creatures shroud seems unnecessarily double-edged for a 6-drop legend. Since it doesn't provide any protection during your turn, all Volax really does is prevent you from using tricks on your creatures during an opponent's turn. Also, given the rarity of scenarios where a spell targets multiple permanents with the same name, Volax seems to be strictly worse than Shalai.
Is the last ability meant to be interpreted along the lines of "spells and abilities your opponents control can't target two or more permanents you control with the same name?"
Volax likely comes out too late for only having protection abilities. Instead of protecting you while you set up and/or reinforce your board, it's only there to protect them toward the end, at which point your key pieces have probably been removed.
Vzon, Tide of Mirrodin
This is extremely broken.
(Note – The activated abilities' costs are not well-defined, so I'm assuming they're meant to be "tap two/five [untapped] Islands [you control]'.)
The first activated ability is practically uncounterable Negate, but you don't even need that when the second activated ability outright wins you the game 99.9% of the time (bouncing 'all other permanents' includes lands). Your opponent(s) practically can't respond either, since you should have plenty of spare mana from the cast trigger.
Voldred, Swamp's Guardian
The triggered ability seems mildly obnoxious, but your opponent is not likely to trigger this ability, even if they play Swamps (or you play Urborg), since they can just choose to play their land during their second main.
Maybe serves as pseudo-removal in an extra combats deck? (No idea why you'd have black in an extra combat deck though.)
Is this supposed to be the only uncommon among the group?
Ribash, Ember of Mirrodin
Similar to Volax, both of Ribash's abilities aren't very useful this late in a game. Making things uncounterable only really matters during the first few turns or if you need it on a finisher like Banefire, and there are plenty of quicker, cheaper ways to cheat out your artifacts in red.
The source of the 2 damage for the last ability is undefined.
Kluvex, Primal Consumption
Consider Old Gnawbone. Kluvex costs G more, has a significantly smaller body, creates Food instead of Treasures, and doesn't even make that effect an anthem.
Honestly, I can't see any reason to play this card. (Maybe Meria could do something with it, but she'll be comboing off long before Kluvex becomes useful.)
Since Kluvex has flying, most of its kills are going to come from blocking or fight spells, which seems rather counterintuitive.
Why restrict to only Food tokens?
Perhaps Kluvex would make more sense as a 2GG 4/4 or 3GG 5/4. (That way it's a moderate threat that can make things bigger if you invest significant effort into it, rather than an overcosted do-nothing.)
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Volax, Duke of White Ash
Having pseudo-Karmic Justice on a creature is potentially pretty frustrating, but Volax's body is so small your opponent probably doesn't need to target it.
Is the last ability meant to be "players can't cast spells with the same name as a card in their graveyard," or "players can't cast spells with the same name as a card in a graveyard?"
As with Voldred from the other group, is this meant to be the only rare among these five?
Vzon, Duke of Progress
This card is pretty ridiculous, especially now that Powerstones exist. Free countermagic is extremely strong, and Vzon's is way too easy to activate. Giving Vzon an incredibly strong draw ability on top of that is excessive.
Even if you don't cheat Vzon out with something like Inspiring Statuary, it's an absurd control finisher for being able to easily provide extra countermagic & card advantage. Heck, it can even pivot any artifact deck into control by itself with cards like Unwinding Clock.
Voldred, Duke of Mechnark
The main ability seems fairly bad, since your opponent gets the choice. If they have lots of creatures, they sac one, and if you (and/or another opponent) have a better board, they wipe it and remove Voldred later.
Deathtouch + infect = a whole lot of overkill for no apparent reason.
The double phyrexian mana gives every deck easy access to a 5-mana 7/7 w/flying, deathtouch and infect, which is nuts. (It's easy to grant +3 power and haste, so Voldred becomes an instant kill out of nowhere in a variety of decks.)
Ribash, the Exiled Flame
An uncounterable ritual that effectively quadruples your mana is rather absurd. Casting this into any X burn spell (e.g. Banefire; also uncounterable) should end the game instantly. And then on top of that it's a 5/5 flying haste.
Note that lands are colorless, so the triggered ability only affects a handful of cards, the majority of which don't see much play.
Kluvex, Duke of Extinction
Green doesn't put -1/-1 counters on opposing permanents, so there should be some black in this card's mana cost. Alternatively, you could shift the second ability to removing counters or something similar to keep this in mono-green.
@cadstar369 Rakdos isn't really a color combination that mills, so I think "If you do, you draw a card and you lose 1 life." would be more of a Rakdos ability. Also, a minor note, typically on a legendary creature the first time it refers to itself it uses its name and title, and any following instances it just uses its name. So the first ability would be "Whenever Koku'en, Crimson Smith attacks, ..." Again, just a minor note, doesn't really matter too much, it's just something I've noticed. Also I feel the name "Crimson Smith" should play more into the second ability, like instead of paying mana you pay life to activate equip abilities. All in all, I think Koku'en would make an interesting Commander, or a nice inclusion in the 99. I definitely feel a Rakdos equipment voltron deck should be fun. Awesome card!
First of all, I appreciate you going into the process of reviewing all the cards. With that out of place, lets adress some purple elephants you mentioned.
Volax, White Ash Guardian
I did base the card a bit off of Shalai. I think that while the shroud ability smacks you in the face aswell, it does get around cards like shadowspear, which sees alot of play in instant/sorcery and shrine based decks. While you do lose the ability to do combat tricks, it ensures you have a solid base of defense during your opponent's combat phase should you happen to need it. I think it's ability to give itself shroud during yoiur opponents turn also ensures that your opponent can only target you, themselves or their permanents, but they can't do anything about your permanents.
"spells and abilities your opponents control can't target two or more permanents you control with the same name?" < That is what I meant, I think my wording conveys that alright but your suggestion works too.
Vzon, Tide Of Mirrodin
I was under the impression that tapped lands can't be tapped any more than they already are so I am confused a bit about the wording suggestion. I do agree with it being a little bit broken as a finisher, that being said if you don't have any late game preparations like hushbringer or a counter spell like negate, it's on you. Also the second ability makes you consider weather you also want to bounce your own permanents, especially since blue doesn't have ramp and if you do this against a green player they will ramp back and screw you over late game.
Voldred, Swamps Guardian
The only thing I have to say about this is that the ability also includes you dropping swamps since it said "a swamp enters the battlefield," so it shouldn't be that bad.
Also this is the only uncommon in the group because it didn't feel strong enough to warrant being a rare.
Ribash, Ember Of Mirrodin
The source of the damage was meant to be Ribash.
Kluvex, The Primal Consumption
I have to disagree with this being useless, you can run this a finsher in a counters deck. Not only does it offer you an outlet to spend left over mana and convert it into life, it also gives you tha ability to make it bigger while doing so. Green usually has alot of mana left over late game so it is not unreasonable to have left over mana to sacrifice three to four food tokens. So lets assume you fight a creature after this enters the battlefield, you create six food tokens, then sac three of them. You gain 6 life that turn, and you put six +1/+1 counters on it making it a 12/10 with flying and trample, while also leaving you with three food tokens for next turn. Not only is it a life outlet, it is a counter outlet for itself which makes food tokens more useful. If you have cards like hardened scales or branching evolution, this card can get out of hand really fast.
Volax, Duke Of White Ash
The wording of the ability is the former not the latter. I think if it said "a graveyard" it could have an even greater potential to lock out the game which wouldn't be fun for anyone.
Vzon, Duke Of Progress
Seems about right
Voldred, Duke Of Mechnark
Voldred's main ability is mostly meant for playing politics during a commander game, It has the potential to have a high salt value if a negotiation between an opponent with lesser creatures and an opponent with more creatures goes wrong. I agree as a stand alone ability it sucks, but in commander this will cause alot of chaos. Also opponents want to consider wether it is wise to have all other creatures destroyed leaving you with a 7/7 with flying, deathtouch and infect.
Ribash, The Exiled Flame
I agree with alot of things said about this card. The intent of the second ability was for mountains to punish opponents as well as other red sources but I forgot lands were colorless.
Kluvex, Duke Of Extinction
I agree with the second ability kind of being a color pie fracture without black, but I wouldn't think of it as a color pie break since infect exists within green with cards like Blight Mamba, Carrion Call, and Cystbearer and it does a similar thing.
@ShadowReign thanks for the feedback! For the first ability, I was thinking of it as a combination of black's self-mill and red's rummaging to help fill the graveyard for the custom ability I paired him with for the Stitia 666 saga (it's also incidentally nice for unearth decks). I really like your suggestion for converting the second ability into life payments (now to figure out how to word it).
With regards to Necrotheurgy, the Rivaz-style effect at instant speed is very powerful, but I like that exchanging the upfront payment on effects like Phyrexian Reclamation for a tax on cast can make the cost more impactful (cost reduction shenanigans aside). The recurring surveil might also be worth it even if you don't use the main ability much. I'd definitely like to see this in a few games to see if it's as strong as it looks, especially in superfriends.
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@Tonysparks with regards to a few of your counterarguments: Vzon, Tide Of Mirrodin
Considering the plethora of countermagic, instant speed removal, and even methods to make spells uncounterable available, I doubt the preparations your opponents might make to deal with Vzon will either be present or effective when it's cast, especially since it immediately untaps the majority of your mana.
Activating the mass bounce should be a non-issue an issue for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, you get first crack at rebuilding (you can recast the majority of your mana rocks, tax pieces, etc. via floating mana). Second, between the first activated ability and cheap countermagic, you can either shut down an opponent's ramp or counter their real spells at your leisure. Third, blue has access to cards that phase permanents out, allowing you to bypass the mass bounce. (Slow flicker effects such as Golden Argosy achieve a similar effect.)
It's also noteworthy that your opponents will likely have to discard a majority of their prior board state to hand size, making many of their most powerful cards unlikely to become a problem again. (You could also wheel to seal the deal.)
Kluvex, The Primal Consumption
Kluvex is definitely not a finisher. It does nothing on cast or ETB, utterly fails the vanilla test (in green!), lacks any sort of protection, hurts itself by having evasion, and requires significant additional mana and support to merely generate a modicum of +1/+1 counters and lifegain. I can't see a (reasonable) situation where this card has a meaningful impact on the board state, even against precons.
Voldred, Duke Of Mechnark
I don't see how you could reasonably politic with this. If you sacrifice a creature to Voldred, that signals the other players to wipe the board. Therefore there appears to be no correct answer other than choosing to wipe the board, hold up (or bluff) removal, and let your opponents worry about Voldred (especially if you're the player that goes right before Voldred's controller). What could a player possibly offer to prevent everyone from opting to wipe the board? (Clearly the dynamic changes slightly if everyone's playing creature decks, but this seems unlikely.)
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I'd appreciate feedback on these cards:
In particular, let me know if the story I'm trying to tell with Myriel's card is too obtuse. I'm also wondering if Myriel could be dropped down to uncommon.
@cadstar369 Myriel, Epic Enthusiast looks like a reasonable card. It seems made to be used with Sagas but can also be tailored to recoup potential card disadvantage from using Auras or enchantment-based removal. Selesnya's the right colour combination for the card's abilities, as well as to capitalize on effects that let you look at the top N cards of your library, take one, and put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. I'm not completely sure why the "nontoken" requirement is part of the trigger, as there are only so many cards that can create enchantment tokens. Even running those cards with Myriel wouldn't be OP without a reusable way to setup the bottom card of your library. I can see the card existing as an uncommon. It's hard to say if the story told through the card is obtuse until it's known what the intended story actually is.
Chillflame Whorls seems overcosted and very impractical in how it actually works. To have to choose both your target and the mode before knowing what the top card of your library is engenders way too much risk of the card doing nothing to justify losing a card and paying four mana for it (even if you get to reveal cards until you reveal a nonland card, which you don't). At least Erratic Explosion guarantees you damage as long as you don't play any 0-cost spells and it can target players. Typically, effects that rely on showing the top card of your library also require you to bottom or mill that card so you can't chain multiple copies of that effect with the same card, not sure if (presumably) putting the revealed card back on top of your library was intentional. Also, the name in the card in the first mode is written as Frostfire Whorls.
@SwedishChef - Apart from some spelling mistakes and wrong borders, Mysterious Footprints seems OK technically. Flavorwise though, it doesn't make sense to me, unless I'm missing some context. Why do footprints turn into aggressive creatures?
'Tis my birthday today, so I made this as a callback to my older BD card: Tenebris, Who Was Nothing. Thoughts?
@TenebrisNemo I love that this fuels Tenebris by emptying your hand. I can just imagine, turn one, Swamp, Tenebris's Chosen, discard 3. Turn 2, swamp, Tenebris, Who was Nothing. That's already swinging in for lethal on turn 3 with just those 2 cards, but it also leaves you completely open for a blowout since you don't have a hand. I love it. That being said, if I'd designed this card, I'd have probably given it a +1/+1 counter, deathtouch counter, and haste counter, rather than just saying, it has those atributes. That's not exactly the same, but I would have preferred that approach because I personally don't like having to just remember that a card's text isn't accurate anymore. Regardless, Happy Birthday! Great card!
I'm actually going to ask for feedback on a cycle I made for Christmas. Who knew yo could make this guy fit so nicely into each color?
(Nick is supposed to be legendary, I know. That was an oversight on my part.)
Myrel is indeed designed for Sagas, but I didn't want to make them that narrow. (I really like Satsuki, but there's only so many Sagas at the moment.) The nontoken clause is mainly a precaution, since I'm not sure how far I can push 'bottom of your library' interactions. (There's actually a bunch of cheap ways to setup the bottom card of your library, including most of the tools used in non-DoomsdayGrenzo, Dungeon Warden decks.) With regards to the card's story, I wanted to emulate how epic poems seem to go on forever, with the ability representing Myrel turning to the next chapter(s) of the text they're holding.
Chillflame Whorls was partially inspired by Riddle of Lightning, so both needing to choose the mode and target beforehand as well as leaving the card on top is intentional. I've made a number of changes to the card, if you wouldn't mind taking a look at the new version below. (Post-revisions, hitting a 2-drop is similar to choosing one mode for Winterflame, with the assumption being that you can regularly hit a 3-drop or higher.)
@TenebrisNemo Tenebris's Chosen is an interesting companion to Tenebris, Who Was Nothing, as well as a nice enabler for madness or hellbent. 4 cards for a 2/2 deathtouch haste seems excessively steep without some strong synergy behind it though, even if it is a 1-drop. (It's such a fragile creature I don't know if I'd ever actually want to risk playing it with any of the enhancements; might just be because I'm not a huge fan of graveyard strategies though.)
While this looks like a group hug commander, given how easy it is to gain large amounts of life (and how infrequently people play instant speed life gain), it's probably not actually worth playing this card unless you're going to trigger the lose condition, which seems to defeat the purpose of the card.
(For a quick example that doesn't require any synergies, you could do turn 1 creature, turn 2 Ordeal of Heliod & swing, turn 3 swing, turn 4 swing, trigger the Ordeal, then drop Saint Nickolas for the win.)
Kringle, Master Toymaker
Having a better Prototype Portal in the command zone is pretty nuts, but I suppose that only matters if you can give him haste or some protection, since he'd be a huge lightning rod for removal.
Santa, Lord of the North
This seems way more like a blue card than a green card. Green doesn't grant flying (perhaps consider "can't be blocked except by creatures with flying or reach", which is similar and very green), and it doesn't gain control of things either (with a couple old exceptions with very high costs).
Claus, the All-Seeing
This feels more like an uncommon to me, considering how little it does. You can gleam similar amounts of information with effects like Telepathy (and you can toss in a Lens of Clarity if people around you really like playing WAR Ugin or morphs and such). Additionally, with other effects that make your opponents reveal their cards, your opponents also gain access to this information, which can be even more important than having it yourself, as it'll draw attention away from you (especially since you won't have to keep asking to see everyone's cards).
Nick, Nighttime Prowler
This seems rather weak given how infrequently most decks deal noncombat damage to players (as well as the likelihood that, if they are dealing lots of noncombat damage to you, you'll die before the Coal tokens do much to them). You could probably get away with making this at least a 2/2 and/or allowing the ability to also trigger when permanents you control are dealt noncombat damage, since the only use I can see for this card at the moment is perhaps mono-black voltron.
@cadstar369 I can see the whole chaining one enchantment after another playstyle of Myriel to be like progressing through an epic. It works quite well with other "consumable" enchantments as well as removal Auras. Understanding the need to not make its trigger too much of a guarantee, the random nature of checking the bottom of your library obscures the connection a bit (you don't generally turn a page in a book and chance finding it blank) but there's give and take between flavour, playability, and power.
The new version of Chillflame Whorls looks much more playable. If nothing else (E.g., the top three cards of your library are lands), you'll have at least spent a card to remove two turns' worth of bad draws instead of do nothing. You probably don't need the minus two to the number of turns a creature gets tapped down, since it's temporary compared to the similarly-costed permanent tap down of cards like Charmed Sleep, Claustrophobia, Fall from Favor, and Stunning Strike. Granted, Chillflame Whorls is an instant, has flexibility, and can't be Disenchanted to end the tap down early, but it's also variable in its effect, two colours, and an uncommon.
I like that Banishing Distortion is at worst a discounted Temporal Spring and has the potential to be a big Unexpectedly Absent. Splitting the difference in rarity seems about right. Since both your library and the owner of the target's library are referenced, it would be clearer to end the card with "then shuffle your library" even though "then shuffle" has become the Oracle standard. This wording is still used on cards like Mangara's Tome and Parallel Thoughts and would help to immediately disambiguate who does the shuffling in the event the permanent's owner isn't also the controller of Banishing Distortion. Otherwise, it could lead to a Visions printing of Impulse-type scenario.
@cadstar369 - I concur with what Jade said before me. I'd also like to add how nicely you made the cards reflect the colors of their respective artworks, and how they're a bit more abstract than what we usually see on Magic cards. Always like seeing instants/sorceries here like yours.
I made a whole cycle based on Questing Beast! Ain't that horribly neat?
Originally their last abilities were all identical to Questing Beasts's, but recently we discussed how it would be better if each color had their own permanent type to hate on whenever the creature dealt combat damage to an opponent. I would have liked them to target permanents depending on the amount of damage dealt to the opponent (e.g. destroy target artifact with mana value X or less), but since there wasn't much text space left, I had to leave that part out on Angel, Sphinx, and Dragon.
First thing is first, you did a very good job of capturing the base essense of questing beast in each color. Now a few blessings and critisisms.
- Questing Demon
I like the explosive power behind questing demon, it matches the art really well. This bulky 4/4 demon representing a beast that some knights have to hunt at the end of the story, and it absolutely desimates them to the decimal proportian. Unstoppable as a gorilla due to menace, and whenever it deals damage debrees fly to another creature. Point is, it is a pretty strong card. Now it dealing damage to creatures with 2 pow or less in the form of -1/-1 counters has the potential to shoot you in the foot if an opponent drops a card like solemnity, or a vorinclex type effect. They could effectively get two 2 pow creatures and keep them as blockers for this guy and solemnity you or use a similar effect. It's kinda niche situation though so good card otherwise.
- Questing Angel
It is very hard to hate on questing angel, the card feels like something mtg would make. I think the enchantment ability in my opinion would be some kind of life increase ability for more syrenergy with both white and other angels, but enchantment destruct is also pretty solid.
- Questing Sphinx
Questing sphinx having vigilance is kind of a color pie fracture. The reason I don't call is a color pie break is because it is a legend and mtg recently released a teferi who creates 2/2 blue vig tokens. It could be argued that teferi is azorius in nature so it makes sense on him though. Other than that I think that the third ability can get pretty annoying real fast considering the fact that blue has many ways to evade blockers and can shut down games too fast for it's cost. This would most likely be in stax or countering decks too which makes it's salt value a little too high.
- Questing Dragon
Questing dragon is arguably the weakest of the pair here. It gains first strike only against 2 pow creatures essentially just making it weaker "for it's cost" than lightning shrieker. The artifact ability is also very niche since alot of decks only run a few big artifacts with the exceptions being treasure decks and the occasional steel overseer decks. I think red should be the most damage heavy of the pod. Maybe make it cost {r}{r} to cast if an opponent controls creatures with a converted power of 2 or less in the field to make it an aggro stapple and justify it's value instead of the occasional first strike.
Keep up the good work mate.
(The cards I need reviewed are)
- Tridius IV, The Legion Warboss (Boros, Go-wide commander)
@Tonysparks going back to review this intriguing trio of Boros Dragons, I like how you are playing around with old Boros mechanics and turning them into big dragon generals. In all three I really like how you capture the theme of your creatures rising through the ranks, becoming more experienced and powerful through war (and draconic inspiration).
Tridius IV, The Legion Warboss is my favorite card of the three. I really like how you embrace the idea of bringing together Mentor and Training. The two mechanics work well together and have the potential of growing a large army quite quickly. I also noticed that it does create an interesting bottleneck where most of your creatures will rocket up to becoming 4/4s, and then struggle to naturally grow much from there. I'm wondering what you might think of adding a 5th power to Tridius to help push some of your army to that next level. I also wanted to point out Tridius also technically has double mentor with your current wording, which could be confusing. I'd suggest either removing his own mentor for something like haste or trample (he's 6 mana, he deserves it), or having him grant mentor to other creatures only. Or maybe he's just that inspiring enough that he mentors twice, I'd take that as well.
I like how Tridius, The War Ember creates this almost aristocrat themed deck in Boros while still maintaining the color pair's aggressive position, but I also thing this version is currently weak. That's not a bad thing per say, but currently the seven mana plus the requirement to have a creature die for +1/+0 is going to push his stat buffing into the late game. While the experience counters keeping this buff permanent for the rest of the game is quite powerful, it doesn't have much of an immediate impact when it first comes out, and risks the big powerful dragon not having the desired impact on the board. It's a tough balance find, given that the late game potential is immense, but this feels like this is currently on the safe side. Jetmir, Nexus of revels is a card that will be competing with this version. So very original, high potential, maybe a little weak.
I love the story that Tridius, Maker Of Heroes tell, and that he turns legendary creatures into heroes or legends. Giving Legendary creatures heroic is just so fun and awesome that I'm wondering if you even need the renown step in here. Shave a mana or two off and just let your heroes reign. That being said, I could also see you playing around with the renown text also making the creature Legendary. This has heavy anti-synergy with tokens, but it would strengthen the idea of Tridius making heroes out of everyone, even the lowliest of goblins and soldiers. or maybe I just like the idea of having a legendary Pillerfield Ox going on heroic quests too much. Either way the renown text right now feels a little out of place to me in this card's current iteration.
Nice job on creating a great dragon general for your armies, and I hope that this insight is able to help you on your quest.
A friend of mine has been praying for Wizards to support Rabbit Tribal. Thinking of making a custom deck for his birthday, centered around this guy. It will feature a large number of fun rabbit gods that interact with ETBS and non-cast ETBs. I was inspired by the new Preston for this theme, and I think it fits rabbits.
Testing the waters (and getting back into the groove after being gone for years.)
No worries. Very profound and indepth feedback, thank you. The rules of the forum are burried so far in the cards we posted, it is not out of place for people to not know them at this point, so I help occasionally. I will get to your card, if no one else beats me to it.
@gterww123 I feel like your Rabbit Tribal Commander is unnecessarily 5 colors. I get that there are only a few rabbits in the game (I found 8 cards that are rabbits or that create rabbit tokens and only 2 legendary Rabbits and only the one that cares about creatures entering the battlefield). There is technically one red and one black rabbit, but neither really relates to your theme, nor even feel like traditional rabbits. If I were you, I'd make your Rabbit Bant (Green, White, and Blue). This keeps most of the good rabbit cards and most of the good cards for the flicker theme. Most of your Rabbits will be Changelings anyways (there are two more Legendary Rabbits in that case and you would loose Morophon if you weren't 5 colors, so I guess if you need him, then that's the only reason I'd go 5 color), so there will definitely need to be more Rabbit support before you could make this deck really feel too much like Rabbit tribal.
However, I do find the idea of Rabbits being themed as ETB tribal to be an interesting direction. I'd have expected Rabbits to be more about tokens and swarming the board (multiplying like rabbits seems an obvious direction) but I don't think there's a tribe out there with a flicker theme. That's a great space that would be really cool for Wizards to go with Rabbits. I didn't think I'd like it at first, but it's grown on me.
I really am curious to see how much you can abuse the fact that it targets Rabbits you own, not just control. I could see a deck using something like Cultural Exchange to swap all their creatures with an opponent and then just take all their creatures back with this. It sounds fun to play and to build around. Good luck!
That being said, I made a cycle of spells with Epic. I think they're all pretty interesting, but I'm most intrigued by the blue one. I think this may not be very fun to play against, but I generally feel that way about blue anyways.
@StuffnSuch I think I agree with you regarding Temporal Loop being unfun to play against. It's basically an instant game over. There's little reason to cast it before you're set up to take advantage of the infinite turns, and if you take a chance and play it too early, you end the game by running out of life instead. I think if someone played this against me I'd just instantly concede; the chances of my winning at that point are minimal. You could still make it work, I think, but an instant game over for 5 mana is a little too cheap. I'd put it at 4uuu, minimum.
Also, small note, but you've got enough extra space on the card to include Epic's instruction text; I had to look it up, as I'd never seen it before.
Quick notes on the other 4 in the cycle:
Nature's Defence - I'm not sure sacrificing a land is really a necessary cost, not when the spell itself already costs 8 mana. As it is, the cost can easily be worked around, but it does weaken it. Especially since one inevitable drawbacks of the card is that creatures in your hand can't be played. An easy way around that would be to hoard cards and discard down to 7 each turn, then use abilities to put cards back into your library from the grave, but that's hampered if you're playing lands each turn.
Reckless Flames - This is easily countered by playing a single creature of toughness 6 or higher, and getting rid of everything else. On the other hand, if you only cast it when your opponent has a full field, there's a chance they'll take you out before you can finish them off. Reckless is a good name for it, though I wouldn't say that's a bad thing. It certainly fits Red's ideals.
Unite in Valor - Best played when you have 4-6 creatures on the battlefield. However, creatures you control are still vulnerable to exile, toughness loss, return to hand, and instants that can kill before the cards effects come into play each turn. Playable, but risky.
Forbidden Pact - Love this, I'd absolutely play it. It may be a little cheap, 4bb might be better, but otherwise it's great.
For my card, I started out on this site making 4-color cards, and I'm not stopping anytime soon. I mostly want to know if this one is properly priced. It's meant to be a glass cannon, destructive but vulnerable.
At first glance, I was leery of Pyke due to how reminiscent of Atraxa they are, but I think this card might be a bit more reasonable. The cost seems perfectly fine for those four keywords plus the minor triggered ability. However, the keyword soup you gave Pyke is so lethal relative to the anthem trigger that they don't really present a dilemma in most situations. (If that's what you were going for mechanically. They certainly fit the "inspiring menace" vibe you have going in the flavor text.) Since Pyke doesn't hit particularly hard and doesn't have a punishing on-hit ability, they'll likely be ignored until someone wipes the board or takes a little too much commander damage.
I should note that I don't play many creature-heavy decks, so Pyke might be more fragile than I think they are. Regardless, I think it's a fine card, and you might even be able to get away with making it a 5/1.
@Korora12 Thanks for taking the time to look at the rest of the cycle! That's definitely going the extra mile. Your feedback was great. And sorry for not including Epic's reminder text. I forget not everyone has been playing for 20+ years. Also, I love Battlemaster Pyke's design. If I were to design it, I'd maybe give creatures a larger toughness boost ("none who stood beside him feared death") or even indestructible. It's a great 4 color commander, and would be fun to build around.
@cadstar369 Sari Lumenweave is an interesting concept. Selesnya is exactly right for it, as stopping attacking creatures without direct confrontation is very white (E.g., Trap Runner, Kor Haven) and triggering on a blocked creature dealing damage to a player is probably most easily achieved with green given the prevalence of trample and Thorn Elemetal/Rhox-style blocker bypassing. However, since it doesn't specify that the damage has to be combat damage (which I suspect is for space considerations), any creature with a non-tapping activated ability that can deal damage to a player can trigger Sari. Because Sari has vigilance, I wonder whether there's an expectation that you can attack with it and then activate its ability on itself to deal damage to the defending player and draw a card, which doesn't work. Even if that wasn't the intention, this combination of abilities could potentially lead players to make that leap of logic. Perhaps a clause to "activate only during an opponent's turn, after blockers are declared" like Nettling Imp + Trap Runner could help this, but that would require more card space.
Impassioned Improvisation is another card that's very well-suited for its colour. A high risk, high reward gamble with a very low floor seems extremely red. I imagine this card is red's response to countermagic or an attempt to fizzle a spell, but it's far better suited for proactive use in a combo deck. While I'm always wary of cards with unbounded cost circumventing potential (E.g., a turn one or two Omniscience, Enter the Infinite, Biorhythm, etc. could lead to an immediate win), Impassioned Improvisation needs a good amount of setup to work, so it's very much a "build around me" card rather than a situational, reactive one. It would probably fit well in a Miracle shell with cards that double as library both manipulation and card digging/filtering.
First of all, there is a bit of a wording error. The phrase "Choose X creatures under each player's control" has incorrect wording. Assuming you want this to target X creatures for EACH player, I would use "For each player, choose up to X target creatures that player controls." This is not only more clear, but the addition of "up to" allows for more flexibility. If you wanted this to target X total creatures, "Choose X target creatures your opponents control" would work well.
Other than that, this is a very interesting effect. Assuming this is designed for a multiplayer format (I'm going off of the set symbol here), I love that either you or your opponents can pitch in to pay costs. I also think that this is costed well. Instant speed exile for 4 mana in commander isn't too power, but is decent enough to use in a pinch. The rest of the options seem fair to me also, and fun to play around with.
As for other feedback, I think this should be white, maybe in addition to black or maybe exclusively. Black can very rarely exile creatures from play, but white does it all of the time. This would probably result in an art and name change, but I wouldn't worry about it. This card is great, I'm just trying to give some insights that might be helpful in the future!
Thank you for the feedback. I knew the wording felt a bit off. I kept it black a bit like eat to exstinction but white might be better. I will take that advice in future.
Now that I
look around, I'm totally off about black not exiling. Eat to Extinction is a
great example. Sorry about that error, choosing to keep it black looks good!
MTG Cardsmith Community Forums
Comments
@Tonysparks
Volax, White Ash Guardian
- Giving your creatures shroud seems unnecessarily double-edged for a 6-drop legend. Since it doesn't provide any protection during your turn, all Volax really does is prevent you from using tricks on your creatures during an opponent's turn. Also, given the rarity of scenarios where a spell targets multiple permanents with the same name, Volax seems to be strictly worse than Shalai.
- Is the last ability meant to be interpreted along the lines of "spells and abilities your opponents control can't target two or more permanents you control with the same name?"
- Volax likely comes out too late for only having protection abilities. Instead of protecting you while you set up and/or reinforce your board, it's only there to protect them toward the end, at which point your key pieces have probably been removed.
Vzon, Tide of Mirrodin- This is extremely broken.
- (Note – The activated abilities' costs are not well-defined, so I'm assuming they're meant to be "tap two/five [untapped] Islands [you control]'.)
- The first activated ability is practically uncounterable Negate, but you don't even need that when the second activated ability outright wins you the game 99.9% of the time (bouncing 'all other permanents' includes lands). Your opponent(s) practically can't respond either, since you should have plenty of spare mana from the cast trigger.
Voldred, Swamp's Guardian- The triggered ability seems mildly obnoxious, but your opponent is not likely to trigger this ability, even if they play Swamps (or you play Urborg), since they can just choose to play their land during their second main.
- Maybe serves as pseudo-removal in an extra combats deck? (No idea why you'd have black in an extra combat deck though.)
- Is this supposed to be the only uncommon among the group?
Ribash, Ember of Mirrodin- Similar to Volax, both of Ribash's abilities aren't very useful this late in a game. Making things uncounterable only really matters during the first few turns or if you need it on a finisher like Banefire, and there are plenty of quicker, cheaper ways to cheat out your artifacts in red.
- The source of the 2 damage for the last ability is undefined.
Kluvex, Primal Consumption~ ~ ~
Volax, Duke of White Ash
- Having pseudo-Karmic Justice on a creature is potentially pretty frustrating, but Volax's body is so small your opponent probably doesn't need to target it.
- Is the last ability meant to be "players can't cast spells with the same name as a card in their graveyard," or "players can't cast spells with the same name as a card in a graveyard?"
- As with Voldred from the other group, is this meant to be the only rare among these five?
Vzon, Duke of Progress- This card is pretty ridiculous, especially now that Powerstones exist. Free countermagic is extremely strong, and Vzon's is way too easy to activate. Giving Vzon an incredibly strong draw ability on top of that is excessive.
- Even if you don't cheat Vzon out with something like Inspiring Statuary, it's an absurd control finisher for being able to easily provide extra countermagic & card advantage. Heck, it can even pivot any artifact deck into control by itself with cards like Unwinding Clock.
Voldred, Duke of Mechnark- The main ability seems fairly bad, since your opponent gets the choice. If they have lots of creatures, they sac one, and if you (and/or another opponent) have a better board, they wipe it and remove Voldred later.
- Deathtouch + infect = a whole lot of overkill for no apparent reason.
- The double phyrexian mana gives every deck easy access to a 5-mana 7/7 w/flying, deathtouch and infect, which is nuts. (It's easy to grant +3 power and haste, so Voldred becomes an instant kill out of nowhere in a variety of decks.)
Ribash, the Exiled Flame- An uncounterable ritual that effectively quadruples your mana is rather absurd. Casting this into any X burn spell (e.g. Banefire; also uncounterable) should end the game instantly. And then on top of that it's a 5/5 flying haste.
- Note that lands are colorless, so the triggered ability only affects a handful of cards, the majority of which don't see much play.
Kluvex, Duke of ExtinctionI'd appreciate feedback on this card:
—
@cadstar369
First of all, I appreciate you going into the process of reviewing all the cards. With that out of place, lets adress some purple elephants you mentioned.
Volax, White Ash Guardian
- "spells and abilities your opponents control can't target two or more permanents you control with the same name?" < That is what I meant, I think my wording conveys that alright but your suggestion works too.
Vzon, Tide Of Mirrodin- I was under the impression that tapped lands can't be tapped any more than they already are so I am confused a bit about the wording suggestion. I do agree with it being a little bit broken as a finisher, that being said if you don't have any late game preparations like hushbringer or a counter spell like negate, it's on you. Also the second ability makes you consider weather you also want to bounce your own permanents, especially since blue doesn't have ramp and if you do this against a green player they will ramp back and screw you over late game.
Voldred, Swamps GuardianRibash, Ember Of Mirrodin
Kluvex, The Primal Consumption
Volax, Duke Of White Ash
Vzon, Duke Of Progress
Voldred, Duke Of Mechnark
Ribash, The Exiled Flame
Kluvex, Duke Of Extinction
With regards to Necrotheurgy, the Rivaz-style effect at instant speed is very powerful, but I like that exchanging the upfront payment on effects like Phyrexian Reclamation for a tax on cast can make the cost more impactful (cost reduction shenanigans aside). The recurring surveil might also be worth it even if you don't use the main ability much. I'd definitely like to see this in a few games to see if it's as strong as it looks, especially in superfriends.
~ ~ ~
@Tonysparks with regards to a few of your counterarguments:
Vzon, Tide Of Mirrodin
- Considering the plethora of countermagic, instant speed removal, and even methods to make spells uncounterable available, I doubt the preparations your opponents might make to deal with Vzon will either be present or effective when it's cast, especially since it immediately untaps the majority of your mana.
- Activating the mass bounce should be a non-issue an issue for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, you get first crack at rebuilding (you can recast the majority of your mana rocks, tax pieces, etc. via floating mana). Second, between the first activated ability and cheap countermagic, you can either shut down an opponent's ramp or counter their real spells at your leisure. Third, blue has access to cards that phase permanents out, allowing you to bypass the mass bounce. (Slow flicker effects such as Golden Argosy achieve a similar effect.)
- It's also noteworthy that your opponents will likely have to discard a majority of their prior board state to hand size, making many of their most powerful cards unlikely to become a problem again. (You could also wheel to seal the deal.)
Kluvex, The Primal Consumption- Kluvex is definitely not a finisher. It does nothing on cast or ETB, utterly fails the vanilla test (in green!), lacks any sort of protection, hurts itself by having evasion, and requires significant additional mana and support to merely generate a modicum of +1/+1 counters and lifegain. I can't see a (reasonable) situation where this card has a meaningful impact on the board state, even against precons.
Voldred, Duke Of Mechnark- I don't see how you could reasonably politic with this. If you sacrifice a creature to Voldred, that signals the other players to wipe the board. Therefore there appears to be no correct answer other than choosing to wipe the board, hold up (or bluff) removal, and let your opponents worry about Voldred (especially if you're the player that goes right before Voldred's controller). What could a player possibly offer to prevent everyone from opting to wipe the board? (Clearly the dynamic changes slightly if everyone's playing creature decks, but this seems unlikely.)
~ ~ ~I'd appreciate feedback on these cards:
In particular, let me know if the story I'm trying to tell with Myriel's card is too obtuse. I'm also wondering if Myriel could be dropped down to uncommon.
Myriel, Epic Enthusiast looks like a reasonable card. It seems made to be used with Sagas but can also be tailored to recoup potential card disadvantage from using Auras or enchantment-based removal. Selesnya's the right colour combination for the card's abilities, as well as to capitalize on effects that let you look at the top N cards of your library, take one, and put the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. I'm not completely sure why the "nontoken" requirement is part of the trigger, as there are only so many cards that can create enchantment tokens. Even running those cards with Myriel wouldn't be OP without a reusable way to setup the bottom card of your library. I can see the card existing as an uncommon. It's hard to say if the story told through the card is obtuse until it's known what the intended story actually is.
Chillflame Whorls seems overcosted and very impractical in how it actually works. To have to choose both your target and the mode before knowing what the top card of your library is engenders way too much risk of the card doing nothing to justify losing a card and paying four mana for it (even if you get to reveal cards until you reveal a nonland card, which you don't). At least Erratic Explosion guarantees you damage as long as you don't play any 0-cost spells and it can target players. Typically, effects that rely on showing the top card of your library also require you to bottom or mill that card so you can't chain multiple copies of that effect with the same card, not sure if (presumably) putting the revealed card back on top of your library was intentional. Also, the name in the card in the first mode is written as Frostfire Whorls.
'Tis my birthday today, so I made this as a callback to my older BD card: Tenebris, Who Was Nothing. Thoughts?
I'm actually going to ask for feedback on a cycle I made for Christmas. Who knew yo could make this guy fit so nicely into each color?
(Nick is supposed to be legendary, I know. That was an oversight on my part.)
Myrel is indeed designed for Sagas, but I didn't want to make them that narrow. (I really like Satsuki, but there's only so many Sagas at the moment.) The nontoken clause is mainly a precaution, since I'm not sure how far I can push 'bottom of your library' interactions. (There's actually a bunch of cheap ways to setup the bottom card of your library, including most of the tools used in non-Doomsday Grenzo, Dungeon Warden decks.) With regards to the card's story, I wanted to emulate how epic poems seem to go on forever, with the ability representing Myrel turning to the next chapter(s) of the text they're holding.
Chillflame Whorls was partially inspired by Riddle of Lightning, so both needing to choose the mode and target beforehand as well as leaving the card on top is intentional. I've made a number of changes to the card, if you wouldn't mind taking a look at the new version below. (Post-revisions, hitting a 2-drop is similar to choosing one mode for Winterflame, with the assumption being that you can regularly hit a 3-drop or higher.)
@TenebrisNemo
Tenebris's Chosen is an interesting companion to Tenebris, Who Was Nothing, as well as a nice enabler for madness or hellbent. 4 cards for a 2/2 deathtouch haste seems excessively steep without some strong synergy behind it though, even if it is a 1-drop. (It's such a fragile creature I don't know if I'd ever actually want to risk playing it with any of the enhancements; might just be because I'm not a huge fan of graveyard strategies though.)
@StuffnSuch
Saint Nickolas, Joyful Giver
- While this looks like a group hug commander, given how easy it is to gain large amounts of life (and how infrequently people play instant speed life gain), it's probably not actually worth playing this card unless you're going to trigger the lose condition, which seems to defeat the purpose of the card.
- (For a quick example that doesn't require any synergies, you could do turn 1 creature, turn 2 Ordeal of Heliod & swing, turn 3 swing, turn 4 swing, trigger the Ordeal, then drop Saint Nickolas for the win.)
Kringle, Master Toymaker- Having a better Prototype Portal in the command zone is pretty nuts, but I suppose that only matters if you can give him haste or some protection, since he'd be a huge lightning rod for removal.
Santa, Lord of the North- This seems way more like a blue card than a green card. Green doesn't grant flying (perhaps consider "can't be blocked except by creatures with flying or reach", which is similar and very green), and it doesn't gain control of things either (with a couple old exceptions with very high costs).
Claus, the All-Seeing- This feels more like an uncommon to me, considering how little it does. You can gleam similar amounts of information with effects like Telepathy (and you can toss in a Lens of Clarity if people around you really like playing WAR Ugin or morphs and such). Additionally, with other effects that make your opponents reveal their cards, your opponents also gain access to this information, which can be even more important than having it yourself, as it'll draw attention away from you (especially since you won't have to keep asking to see everyone's cards).
Nick, Nighttime ProwlerI'd appreciate feedback on these cards:
The new version of Chillflame Whorls looks much more playable. If nothing else (E.g., the top three cards of your library are lands), you'll have at least spent a card to remove two turns' worth of bad draws instead of do nothing. You probably don't need the minus two to the number of turns a creature gets tapped down, since it's temporary compared to the similarly-costed permanent tap down of cards like Charmed Sleep, Claustrophobia, Fall from Favor, and Stunning Strike. Granted, Chillflame Whorls is an instant, has flexibility, and can't be Disenchanted to end the tap down early, but it's also variable in its effect, two colours, and an uncommon.
I like that Banishing Distortion is at worst a discounted Temporal Spring and has the potential to be a big Unexpectedly Absent. Splitting the difference in rarity seems about right. Since both your library and the owner of the target's library are referenced, it would be clearer to end the card with "then shuffle your library" even though "then shuffle" has become the Oracle standard. This wording is still used on cards like Mangara's Tome and Parallel Thoughts and would help to immediately disambiguate who does the shuffling in the event the permanent's owner isn't also the controller of Banishing Distortion. Otherwise, it could lead to a Visions printing of Impulse-type scenario.
I made a whole cycle based on Questing Beast! Ain't that horribly neat?
Originally their last abilities were all identical to Questing Beasts's, but recently we discussed how it would be better if each color had their own permanent type to hate on whenever the creature dealt combat damage to an opponent. I would have liked them to target permanents depending on the amount of damage dealt to the opponent (e.g. destroy target artifact with mana value X or less), but since there wasn't much text space left, I had to leave that part out on Angel, Sphinx, and Dragon.
Card by @ShelkoDeux
First thing is first, you did a very good job of capturing the base essense of questing beast in each color. Now a few blessings and critisisms.
- Questing Demon
I like the explosive power behind questing demon, it matches the art really well. This bulky 4/4 demon representing a beast that some knights have to hunt at the end of the story, and it absolutely desimates them to the decimal proportian. Unstoppable as a gorilla due to menace, and whenever it deals damage debrees fly to another creature. Point is, it is a pretty strong card. Now it dealing damage to creatures with 2 pow or less in the form of -1/-1 counters has the potential to shoot you in the foot if an opponent drops a card like solemnity, or a vorinclex type effect. They could effectively get two 2 pow creatures and keep them as blockers for this guy and solemnity you or use a similar effect. It's kinda niche situation though so good card otherwise.
- Questing Angel
It is very hard to hate on questing angel, the card feels like something mtg would make. I think the enchantment ability in my opinion would be some kind of life increase ability for more syrenergy with both white and other angels, but enchantment destruct is also pretty solid.
- Questing Sphinx
Questing sphinx having vigilance is kind of a color pie fracture. The reason I don't call is a color pie break is because it is a legend and mtg recently released a teferi who creates 2/2 blue vig tokens. It could be argued that teferi is azorius in nature so it makes sense on him though. Other than that I think that the third ability can get pretty annoying real fast considering the fact that blue has many ways to evade blockers and can shut down games too fast for it's cost. This would most likely be in stax or countering decks too which makes it's salt value a little too high.
- Questing Dragon
Questing dragon is arguably the weakest of the pair here. It gains first strike only against 2 pow creatures essentially just making it weaker "for it's cost" than lightning shrieker. The artifact ability is also very niche since alot of decks only run a few big artifacts with the exceptions being treasure decks and the occasional steel overseer decks. I think red should be the most damage heavy of the pod. Maybe make it cost {r}{r} to cast if an opponent controls creatures with a converted power of 2 or less in the field to make it an aggro stapple and justify it's value instead of the occasional first strike.
Keep up the good work mate.
(The cards I need reviewed are)
- Tridius IV, The Legion Warboss (Boros, Go-wide commander)
Tridius, The War Ember (Boros, Anthem, Finisher)
Tridius, Maker Of Heroes (Boros, Midrange-Aggro)
Tridius IV, The Legion Warboss is my favorite card of the three. I really like how you embrace the idea of bringing together Mentor and Training. The two mechanics work well together and have the potential of growing a large army quite quickly. I also noticed that it does create an interesting bottleneck where most of your creatures will rocket up to becoming 4/4s, and then struggle to naturally grow much from there. I'm wondering what you might think of adding a 5th power to Tridius to help push some of your army to that next level. I also wanted to point out Tridius also technically has double mentor with your current wording, which could be confusing. I'd suggest either removing his own mentor for something like haste or trample (he's 6 mana, he deserves it), or having him grant mentor to other creatures only. Or maybe he's just that inspiring enough that he mentors twice, I'd take that as well.
I like how Tridius, The War Ember creates this almost aristocrat themed deck in Boros while still maintaining the color pair's aggressive position, but I also thing this version is currently weak. That's not a bad thing per say, but currently the seven mana plus the requirement to have a creature die for +1/+0 is going to push his stat buffing into the late game. While the experience counters keeping this buff permanent for the rest of the game is quite powerful, it doesn't have much of an immediate impact when it first comes out, and risks the big powerful dragon not having the desired impact on the board. It's a tough balance find, given that the late game potential is immense, but this feels like this is currently on the safe side. Jetmir, Nexus of revels is a card that will be competing with this version. So very original, high potential, maybe a little weak.
I love the story that Tridius, Maker Of Heroes tell, and that he turns legendary creatures into heroes or legends. Giving Legendary creatures heroic is just so fun and awesome that I'm wondering if you even need the renown step in here. Shave a mana or two off and just let your heroes reign. That being said, I could also see you playing around with the renown text also making the creature Legendary. This has heavy anti-synergy with tokens, but it would strengthen the idea of Tridius making heroes out of everyone, even the lowliest of goblins and soldiers. or maybe I just like the idea of having a legendary Pillerfield Ox going on heroic quests too much. Either way the renown text right now feels a little out of place to me in this card's current iteration.
Nice job on creating a great dragon general for your armies, and I hope that this insight is able to help you on your quest.
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/almuse-font-of-art
A friend of mine has been praying for Wizards to support Rabbit Tribal. Thinking of making a custom deck for his birthday, centered around this guy. It will feature a large number of fun rabbit gods that interact with ETBS and non-cast ETBs. I was inspired by the new Preston for this theme, and I think it fits rabbits.
Testing the waters (and getting back into the groove after being gone for years.)
However, I do find the idea of Rabbits being themed as ETB tribal to be an interesting direction. I'd have expected Rabbits to be more about tokens and swarming the board (multiplying like rabbits seems an obvious direction) but I don't think there's a tribe out there with a flicker theme. That's a great space that would be really cool for Wizards to go with Rabbits. I didn't think I'd like it at first, but it's grown on me.
I really am curious to see how much you can abuse the fact that it targets Rabbits you own, not just control. I could see a deck using something like Cultural Exchange to swap all their creatures with an opponent and then just take all their creatures back with this. It sounds fun to play and to build around. Good luck!
That being said, I made a cycle of spells with Epic. I think they're all pretty interesting, but I'm most intrigued by the blue one. I think this may not be very fun to play against, but I generally feel that way about blue anyways.
At first glance, I was leery of Pyke due to how reminiscent of Atraxa they are, but I think this card might be a bit more reasonable. The cost seems perfectly fine for those four keywords plus the minor triggered ability. However, the keyword soup you gave Pyke is so lethal relative to the anthem trigger that they don't really present a dilemma in most situations. (If that's what you were going for mechanically. They certainly fit the "inspiring menace" vibe you have going in the flavor text.) Since Pyke doesn't hit particularly hard and doesn't have a punishing on-hit ability, they'll likely be ignored until someone wipes the board or takes a little too much commander damage.
I should note that I don't play many creature-heavy decks, so Pyke might be more fragile than I think they are. Regardless, I think it's a fine card, and you might even be able to get away with making it a 5/1.
I'd appreciate feedback on these cards:
Also, I love Battlemaster Pyke's design. If I were to design it, I'd maybe give creatures a larger toughness boost ("none who stood beside him feared death") or even indestructible. It's a great 4 color commander, and would be fun to build around.
Impassioned Improvisation is another card that's very well-suited for its colour. A high risk, high reward gamble with a very low floor seems extremely red. I imagine this card is red's response to countermagic or an attempt to fizzle a spell, but it's far better suited for proactive use in a combo deck. While I'm always wary of cards with unbounded cost circumventing potential (E.g., a turn one or two Omniscience, Enter the Infinite, Biorhythm, etc. could lead to an immediate win), Impassioned Improvisation needs a good amount of setup to work, so it's very much a "build around me" card rather than a situational, reactive one. It would probably fit well in a Miracle shell with cards that double as library both manipulation and card digging/filtering.
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/specimens-examination?list=user
I left some feedback for this card on the card itself. . To answer your question it is far from junk and pretty powerful.
I would love some feedback on this card.
https://mtgcardsmith.com/view/beckon-of-the-abyss?list=user
First of all, there is a bit of a wording error. The phrase "Choose X creatures under each player's control" has incorrect wording. Assuming you want this to target X creatures for EACH player, I would use "For each player, choose up to X target creatures that player controls." This is not only more clear, but the addition of "up to" allows for more flexibility. If you wanted this to target X total creatures, "Choose X target creatures your opponents control" would work well.
Other than that, this is a very interesting effect. Assuming this is designed for a multiplayer format (I'm going off of the set symbol here), I love that either you or your opponents can pitch in to pay costs. I also think that this is costed well. Instant speed exile for 4 mana in commander isn't too power, but is decent enough to use in a pinch. The rest of the options seem fair to me also, and fun to play around with.
As for other feedback, I think this should be white, maybe in addition to black or maybe exclusively. Black can very rarely exile creatures from play, but white does it all of the time. This would probably result in an art and name change, but I wouldn't worry about it. This card is great, I'm just trying to give some insights that might be helpful in the future!
Now that I look around, I'm totally off about black not exiling. Eat to Extinction is a great example. Sorry about that error, choosing to keep it black looks good!