The "Let's Design a Set Together" Game

[Ransac]

Explosive Goblin - Submitted by turgy22
1R
R: Sacrifice Explosive Goblin to have it deal damage equal to its power to target creature or player.
1/1

I like this card, but I think the costs are wrong. Comparing to Mogg Fanatic, you've given it a similar ability, but given it two downsides. You've increased the cc AND the activation cost. I agree that the ability is better, but do you need to increase both? Maybe have it cost just R, or make the ability a simple sacrifice. That's just me, though


Constant Gardner – Submitted by Limited
1GG
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay (1). If you do, return a basic landcard from your graveyard to your hand.
Change by Limited and mooseman:
"1: At the beginning of your upkeep, you may return a basic landcard from your graveyard to your hand unless any opponent pays 1 life"
1/1

I think both of these wordings are a bit off. Why would you have a “you may” wording on an ability requiring an activation cost? I would get rid of the "you may" and word it like this.

1: Return a basic land card from your graveyard to your hand unless any opponent pays 1 life. Play this ability only during your upkeep.


Ransac, cpa trash man

 

[Limited]

Constant Gardner – Submitted by Limited
1GG
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay (1). If you do, return a basic landcard from your graveyard to your hand.
Change by Limited and mooseman:
"1: At the beginning of your upkeep, you may return a basic landcard from your graveyard to your hand unless any opponent pays 1 life"
1/1

I think both of these wordings are a bit off. Why would you have a “you may” wording on an ability requiring an activation cost? I would get rid of the "you may" and word it like this.

1: Return a basic land card from your graveyard to your hand unless any opponent pays 1 life. Play this ability only during your upkeep.

The wording by Mooseman is a bit flawed: its an activated ability which creates a delayed triggered ability. My original intent was to make it a triggered ability to avoid abuse. I think, no matter how bad the card, paying 1 to return a basic land card to your hand is pretty good, and forces your opponent to pay the life.
I'm stuck.. wil revisit this card later

@Darth Ferret: I loved the quote.. I wasn't thinking about flavor texts yet, but this fits perfectly

 

[Ransac]

Okay, churning out some new/old ideas.


Rider's Trade
Enchantment
3U
Tap three untapped creatures you control: Return target permanent to it's owner's hand.


Ransac, cpa trash man

 

[Limited]

Rider's Trade
Enchantment
3U
Tap three untapped creatures you control: Return target permanent to it's owner's hand.

Good card. Feels balanced, but abusable..
I would maybe change the casting cost to 2UU, because I feel its not an ability colors other than blue should have easy acces to.

 

[Ransac]

Fair enough.

Rider's Trade
Enchantment
2UU
Tap three untapped creatures you control: Return target permanent to it's owner's hand.


Ransac, cpa trash man

 

[Mooseman]

Constant Gardner – Submitted by Limited
1GG
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay (1). If you do, return a basic landcard from your graveyard to your hand.
Change by Limited and mooseman:
"1: At the beginning of your upkeep, you may return a basic landcard from your graveyard to your hand unless any opponent pays 1 life"
1/1
The wording by Mooseman is a bit flawed: its an activated ability which creates a delayed triggered ability. My original intent was to make it a triggered ability to avoid abuse. I think, no matter how bad the card, paying 1 to return a basic land card to your hand is pretty good, and forces your opponent to pay the life.
I'm stuck.. wil revisit this card later

Try:
At the begining of your upkeep, if there is a landcard in your GY, pay 1 and return target land card from your GY to your hand. Any player may pay 1 life to stop this ability.

 

[turgy22]

Hey guys. I haven't visited this thread in a while since I wasn't coming up with any new ideas and man, did I miss a lot! Anyway, here's a recap of my thoughts and opinions on specific cards and the whole direction of the set:

Landcasting and RFG
Maybe one of the rules gurus can back me up on this, but I think abilities and effects based on cards removed from the game is really tricky. To the best of my knowledge all RFG cards are considered to be in the same "zone" as your sideboard or any other card you own for that matter. I think there's three possible solutions to this problem.
1) Specify that the cards must be removed from the game this game. I'm not sure how easy that is to keep track of and enforce this, but that's basically what we're trying to do in the first place.
2) Create a new zone. Perhaps call it the "void" or something. Again, it's purpose is to differentiate between a cards in the sideboard and cards removed from play during the current game.
3) Use the graveyard. I made landcasting RFG because I thought it would be too abusable with cards like Crucible of Worlds. But maybe playtesting will show that it's not that bad. This would really keep the rules in order and make the mechanics easier to understand, but then we might have too much of an Odyssey feel. Also, Mudhole would be fantastic sideboard tech.

So anyway, I'm not sure which way we should go, but I think we need clarification. I also love the cycle of "void" cards (more on them later) but I think we need to define the limitations a bit better in order to make them viable.

Cards by Limited
"Wandering" creatures - I absolutely love this idea. It's sort of like the Dissension creatures that you lose if you don't use the second color of mana to cast them, but I actually like your idea even better. I think we should flesh this out into a full cycle of 5-10 cards. Here's some other ideas:
Wandering Knight WW
Creature - Knight
First Strike
Fear
Sacrifice ~ if you don't control a Swamp
2/2

Wandering Shade 2BB
Creature - Shade
Trample
B: ~ gets +1/+1 until EOT.
Sacrifice ~ if you don't control a Forest.
1/2

Wandering Sprite GG
Creature - Faerie
Flying
Sacrifice ~ if you don't control an Island.
2/2

Wandering Wizard 1UU
Creature - Wizard
T: ~ deals one damage to target creature or player.
Sacrifice ~ if you don't control a Mountain.
1/2

I also like the "intimidated" idea, but I don't have any other card ideas based on that right now.

Kickback creatures - I like them. A lot. At first, I thought they were ridiculously broken, but now I think they're pretty balanced. If anything, I think they could be made even better, since the life lost happens at your EOT.

Enhanced spells (e.g. Contort) - Another great idea IMO. I think the biggest problem with these is going to find a good balance between the regular and enhanced abilities. For example, I don't think Contort would EVER be playable without black mana, even in limited. Blue's ability to tap creatures has always been dirt cheap. Five mana was WAY too much and I even think three mana is too much. I think Subjugate and Subvert are good balances, though. Here's some other ideas:
Burning Death 2BB
Instant
Destroy target non-black creature. Deal one damage to target creature or player for each R spent to play ~.

Intimidating Growth 1G
Instant
Target creature gets +3/+3 until EOT. Tap a target creature for each U spent to play ~.


Cards by Mooseman
Goblin Pingers - I love Goblin Rock Thrower. I love everything about it - the name, the mechanic, the way it fits in with the set. I love it. Goblin Scattershot, I'm not so big on. I think it's a little too complicated and not innovative enough to justify its complexity.

The Void Cycle - I love it, but again, it creates some complexity issues when trying to define what exactly counts for RFG. For most of the cards, I think we could use the graveyard for essentially the same effect. I think Echo from the Void would be especially cool since it could hose decks that like to put giant monsters in the graveyard for reanimation. ("I see Akroma is in your graveyard and you're playing a mono-black deck. Take 8 damage, please.")

Seal of Time - Too good. This is basically Time Warp for two less mana. I think we need to add a mana cost in addition to the sacrifice ability. For Example:
Seal of Time 1UU
Enchantment
UU, Sacrifice Seal of Time: Take an extra turn after this one.

Cards by Lythand
Quaren, Master of Mutation - This guy is crazy cool. In fact, I actually think he's underpowered right now.

Lythand's Treasury - I have never in my life said any that card is ever unplayable. Congratulations for finally making one.

Cards by Ransac
Black evolution cycle - I actually really like this cycle. I think the first one is completely and utterly broken, but we can probably put some small restriction on that to make it more balanced. Some suggestions:
1) During your upkeep, if ~BC1~ is in your graveyard and you control no creatures, you may return it to play.
2) During your upkeep, if ~BC1~ is the only creature in your graveyard, you may return it to play.
3) During your upkeep, if ~BC1~ is your graveyard and you have less than 10 life, you may return it to play.

Ragnarok - Personally, I love Mooseman's idea that each player loses life equal to the number of lands they lost. Instead of this being an "I win, game over" card, it's a "let's speed things up" and "build around me" card.

Self-Inflict - I think this can really be a great mechanic for a black cycle of cards. But I like Limited's idea the best of giving you the choice of either controlling the spell or having your opponent control the spell. Either way, though, the spell's controller needs to be able to choose the targets. I just think it would allow for more flexibility that way. We could probably do a three-card cycle, each having a helpful and harmful ability and then you can choose if the helpful outweighs the harmful or if you want to to hit your opponent instead.

Rider's Trade - This just seems too good to me. I suppose tapping three creatures is a high enough cost, but I think some playtesting will be required to see if bouncing permanents is too powerful an effect.

Cards by Zigathon
Zigathon's cards are all over the place, so I'll just take them one at a time.
Strength from Soil - Good card. I like it.
Final Charge - Needs to be better. Relentless Assault gives you an additional combat phase without requiring you to sacrifice all your creatures and it costs one mana less.
Unholy Battlefield - Another good card.
Time Paradox - Yeah, it's essentially already been printed.
Scales of Justice - I'm not sure how I feel about this one.
Fusebreaker - Weird. Maybe broken, but I'm not sure. Does it hose other decks or does it hose itself? I just can't tell. In other words, I think I love it.

DarthFerret's Card
Atog's Weirding - I really like this one. Maybe we could do another one for enchantments.


And Ransac - about Explosive Goblin, I know it's grossly underpowered compared to Mogg Fanatic. But Mogg Fanatic is a REALLY good card! I don't think every card in a set should try to compete with the best cards of past sets.

 

[Mooseman]

Another land and staying with the norse mythos

Rainbow Bridge – submitted by mooseman
Land
~ comes into play tapped.
While ~ is in play, it's controller can not play land cards
Land-Echo 2
T: Add x mana of any combination of colors to your mana pool, where X is the number of basic lands you control.


Is this too broken? I tried to restrict the heck out of it.
BTW - the Rainbow bridge connects Midgard and Asgard

 

[turgy22]

Another land and staying with the norse mythos

Rainbow Bridge – submitted by mooseman
Land
~ comes into play tapped.
While ~ is in play, it's controller can not play land cards
Land-Echo 2
T: Add x mana of any combination of colors to your mana pool, where X is the number of basic lands you control.


Is this too broken? I tried to restrict the heck out of it.
BTW - the Rainbow bridge connects Midgard and Asgard

Too broken? Actually, I think it sucks right now. You didn't try to restrict the heck out of it, you did restrict the heck out of it. But let me just get this straight:
1) While it's in play, you can't play lands.
2) When it comes into play, you have to return two lands to your hand.
3) During your next upkeep, you have to return another two lands to your hand.
4) It comes into play tapped.

Let's see how it plays out:
Turn 1: play a land
Turn 2: Play a land + Rampant growth (3 lands in play)
Turn 3: Play a land + Explosive Vegetation (6 lands in play)
Turn 4: Play Rainbow Bridge, returning 2 lands to your hand. (4 other lands in play)
Turn 5: Untap Rainbow Bridge, return another 2 lands to your hand. (2 other lands in play - RB can create 2 mana)

Yeah, I just think that's pretty bad right now. I like the idea of creating mana based on number of lands in play. And remember that unlike Tolarian Academy, lands are naturally limited in the number you can get in play. Here's a proposed fix:

Rainbow Bridge
Land
~ comes into play tapped.
Sacrifice all lands that come into play under your control.
T, return an untapped Basic land you control to its owner's hand: Add x mana of any combination of colors to your mana pool, where X is the number of basic lands you control.

Let's see if it plays out any better or if it's too broken:
Turn 1: Play a land
Turn 2: Land, Rampant Growth (3 basics in play)
Turn 3: Rainbow Bridge, Kodama's Reach (4 basics in play)
Turn 4: Rainbow Bridge active and capable of generating 3 mana.

I don't think 6 mana on the fourth turn is too broken. Of course, the later you cast it the better it is, but then it gets progressively worse the more you use it. I'm not sure. Just an idea.

 

[Mooseman]

Too broken? Actually, I think it sucks right now. You didn't try to restrict the heck out of it, you did restrict the heck out of it. But let me just get this straight:
1) While it's in play, you can't play lands.
2) When it comes into play, you have to return two lands to your hand.
3) During your next upkeep, you have to return another two lands to your hand.
4) It comes into play tapped.

Let's see how it plays out:
Turn 1: play a land
Turn 2: Play a land + Rampant growth (3 lands in play)
Turn 3: Play a land + Explosive Vegetation (6 lands in play)
Turn 4: Play Rainbow Bridge, returning 2 lands to your hand. (4 other lands in play)
Turn 5: Untap Rainbow Bridge, return another 2 lands to your hand. (2 other lands in play - RB can create 2 mana)

Yeah, I just think that's pretty bad right now. I like the idea of creating mana based on number of lands in play. And remember that unlike Tolarian Academy, lands are naturally limited in the number you can get in play. Here's a proposed fix:

Rainbow Bridge
Land
~ comes into play tapped.
Sacrifice all lands that come into play under your control.
T, return an untapped Basic land you control to its owner's hand: Add x mana of any combination of colors to your mana pool, where X is the number of basic lands you control.

Let's see if it plays out any better or if it's too broken:
Turn 1: Play a land
Turn 2: Land, Rampant Growth (3 basics in play)
Turn 3: Rainbow Bridge, Kodama's Reach (4 basics in play)
Turn 4: Rainbow Bridge active and capable of generating 3 mana.

I don't think 6 mana on the fourth turn is too broken. Of course, the later you cast it the better it is, but then it gets progressively worse the more you use it. I'm not sure. Just an idea.

Correct me if I am wrong, but......

everytime you use the RB you lose a basic land.
So, sooner or later you only have RB in play and it would produce 0 mana......


Try this.

Rainbow Bridge - submitted by mooseman
Land
~ comes into play tapped.
Land-Echo
While ~ is in play, it's controller can not play land cards
T: Add x mana of any combination of colors to your mana pool, where X is the number of basic lands you control.

This way, you can still get lands into play.... Cartographer...... but, not the usual way and you don't bounce land everytime you use it and end up with nothing.

Yeah- the land-echo 2 was a bit severe.......

 

[Ransac]

I'll finally cave in to the suggestion of how to fix Ragnarok. Having each playing lose life equal to how much land they lose works. BUT, let's reduce the cost back to 3RWB.

Also, I like turgy22's 1 suggestion on how to fix ~BC1~. I'm almost finished with the last evolution cycle (green), but I'm still not happy with it. I'll hopefully have that finished by this weekend.

IN THE MEANTIME, he's the Blue and White Evo cycles I've come up with.

~UC1~
2UU
Flying
Whenever you draw 3 or more cards outside of your draw phase, you may sacrifice ~UC1~. If you do, search your library or hand for a ~UC2~ and put it into play.
2/2

~UC2~
4UU
Flying
At the beginning of your upkeep, draw 2 cards.
Whenever you have 12 or more cards in your hand, you may sacrifice ~UC2~. If you do, search your library or hand for a ~UC3~ and put it into play.
3/3

~UC3~
6UU
Flying
Sacrifice all creatures you control except for ~UC3~: Discard your hand. Then draw 7 cards.
4/4


~WC1~
2WW
First Strike
Whenever you gain life, you may sacrifice ~WC1~. If you do, search your library or hand for ~WC2~ and put it into play.
2/2

~WC2~
4WW
First Strike
Whenever this creature deals combat damage, gain that much life.
Whenever you gain life, if your life total is 40 or higher, you may sacrifice ~WC2~. If you do, search your library or hand for ~WC3~ and put it into play.
4/3

~WC3~
6WW
First Strike
Whenever this creature deals combat damage, gain that much life.
Sacrifice a creature: Destroy target creature with power equal to or less than the power of the sacrificed creature. Gain life equal to the power or toughness of the destroyed creature.
5/4



Yeah, I know that ~UC3~'s ability is a bit too much. These were created a little while ago, back when I was still on my kick of "Timmy"-ing the cards. Let the fixing continue.


Ransac, cpa trash man

 

[Mooseman]

Change Rainbow Bridge to BiFrost, which seems to be the name for the rainbow bridge.

 

[turgy22]

Correct me if I am wrong, but......

everytime you use the RB you lose a basic land.
So, sooner or later you only have RB in play and it would produce 0 mana......

No, silly. You combo it with Ragnarok when you go down to three basic lands. Anyway, it was just an idea. I liked the tension with the diminishing lands, though, and the potential combined with Landcast. Maybe I'll just make my own land. Also, I think the single land echo is good enough, although I still think having the ability to put more lands into play may prove too powerful.


A point of clarification for Ransac:
~UC1~
2UU
Flying
Whenever you draw 3 or more cards outside of your draw phase, you may sacrifice ~UC1~. If you do, search your library or hand for a ~UC2~ and put it into play.
2/2

Does this mean whenever you draw your third non-draw phase card after it's in play you can use it's ability or is the intention to have the player draw 3 cards all at once or in one turn? I gathered that you meant for three cards to be drawn at once (Brainstorm for 3, Compulsive Research, Concentrate, etc) and if that's the case, you might want to change the wording to something like this:
"Whenever you draw 4 or more cards in one turn, you may sacrifice, etc..."

 

[Ransac]

Yes, it was intended for drawing the cards at once. And upping the number from 3 to 4 doesn't bother me.


Ransac, cpa trash man

 

[Limited]

Constant Gardner – Submitted by Limited
1GG
At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay (1). If you do, return a basic landcard from your graveyard to your hand.
Change by Limited and mooseman:
"1: At the beginning of your upkeep, you may return a basic landcard from your graveyard to your hand unless any opponent pays 1 life"
1/1

Try:
At the begining of your upkeep, if there is a landcard in your GY, pay 1 and return target land card from your GY to your hand. Any player may pay 1 life to stop this ability.

Seems like an awfull lot of text for something that feels like it could be very simple..

Constant Gardner 3GG
At the beginning of your upkeep, return target basic landcard from your graveyard to your hand.
3/2

The ability is still kinda nasty (and does combo with stuff like Solitary Confinement) but by upping the casting cost and giving it only two toughness, I think its balanced. I mean, it doesn't hit the board early game, and is susceptible to all kinds of removal.

 

[Limited]

Landcasting and RFG
Maybe one of the rules gurus can back me up on this, but I think abilities and effects based on cards removed from the game is really tricky. To the best of my knowledge all RFG cards are considered to be in the same "zone" as your sideboard or any other card you own for that matter. I think there's three possible solutions to this problem.
1) Specify that the cards must be removed from the game this game. I'm not sure how easy that is to keep track of and enforce this, but that's basically what we're trying to do in the first place.
2) Create a new zone. Perhaps call it the "void" or something. Again, it's purpose is to differentiate between a cards in the sideboard and cards removed from play during the current game.
3) Use the graveyard. I made landcasting RFG because I thought it would be too abusable with cards like Crucible of Worlds. But maybe playtesting will show that it's not that bad. This would really keep the rules in order and make the mechanics easier to understand, but then we might have too much of an Odyssey feel. Also, Mudhole would be fantastic sideboard tech.

Helas, this quote is brimming with truth.
I've been discussing how to make this work, and came to similar conclusions. Referring to cards that have been removed from the game this game (1) requires people to remember what happened the entire game, because there's no guarantee that the removed cards stay there.
I'm very opposed to making a new zone (2) because it would just be 'another graveyard' and it would have no interaction whatsoever with cards outside of this set/block.
And using the graveyard (3), though it scares me, seems like the only option. But can you imagine a game starting with someone dropping a landcast creature and playing a Planar Birth on turn two? It would put even more emphasis on graveyard removal and tempo..
But I agree with turgy: lets see what playtesting brings us..

Cards by Limited
"Wandering" creatures - I absolutely love this idea. It's sort of like the Dissension creatures that you lose if you don't use the second color of mana to cast them, but I actually like your idea even better. I think we should flesh this out into a full cycle of 5-10 cards. Here's some other ideas:
Wandering Knight WW
Creature - Knight
First Strike
Fear
Sacrifice ~ if you don't control a Swamp
2/2

Wandering Shade 2BB
Creature - Shade
Trample
B: ~ gets +1/+1 until EOT.
Sacrifice ~ if you don't control a Forest.
1/2

Wandering Sprite GG
Creature - Faerie
Flying
Sacrifice ~ if you don't control an Island.
2/2

Wandering Wizard 1UU
Creature - Wizard
T: ~ deals one damage to target creature or player.
Sacrifice ~ if you don't control a Mountain.
1/2

Cycle done

Kickback creatures - I like them. A lot. At first, I thought they were ridiculously broken, but now I think they're pretty balanced. If anything, I think they could be made even better, since the life lost happens at your EOT.

I stopped liking that ability actually; it seems fun to make one rare with such an all-or-nothing ability.. but its to complicated to dedicate an entire cycle to it. Can I retract ideas?

Enhanced spells (e.g. Contort) - Another great idea IMO. I think the biggest problem with these is going to find a good balance between the regular and enhanced abilities. For example, I don't think Contort would EVER be playable without black mana, even in limited. Blue's ability to tap creatures has always been dirt cheap. Five mana was WAY too much and I even think three mana is too much. I think Subjugate and Subvert are good balances, though. Here's some other ideas:
Burning Death 2BB
Instant
Destroy target non-black creature. Deal one damage to target creature or player for each R spent to play ~.

Intimidating Growth 1G
Instant
Target creature gets +3/+3 until EOT. Tap a target creature for each U spent to play ~.

I've got a soft spot for the 2U version of Contort, but you make a valid point: without black mana, it makes no sense. Thats why, at first, I went for four colorless mana; it becomes blue removal. Contort 2U would sooo be Anti-White Knight-Tech for black.

On your additions: I read in a Dissension article somewhere that they choose to limit Hellbent to the same targets as the original version of the spell.. this avoids a lot of rules issues and confusion. Therefore, I propose:

Burning Death v2 3B
Instant
Destroy target non-black creature. ~ deals one damage to that creature's controller for each R spent to play ~.

The other one (Intimidating Growth) is a brilliant card! Unfortunately, because it has only one colorless mana in its casting cost, its more like a normal Ravnica bleed spell. And it also has additional targets for each mana paid. But I really like the mechanic this card is implying: for two mana its either a Giant Growth or a Giant Growth plus a way to remove a blocker..
Making it cost 2G might just make it better

Perhaps something like this
Intimidating Growth v2 XGG
Instant
Target creature gets +X/+X until end of turn. For each U spent to play ~, each opponent taps an untapped creature he or she controls.


Perhaps this too good... its a hell of a finisher. Perhaps the following is 'safer':
Intimidating Growth v3 4G
Instant
Target creature gets +5/+5 until end of turn. For each U spent to play ~, each opponent taps an untapped creature he or she controls.


This would see some limited play, wouldn't it?

Cards by Mooseman
Seal of Time - Too good. This is basically Time Warp for two less mana. I think we need to add a mana cost in addition to the sacrifice ability. For Example:
Seal of Time 1UU
Enchantment
UU, Sacrifice Seal of Time: Take an extra turn after this one.

Still too good, in my opinion. At least, its a timewarp (already a good card) and now you've given people acces to an enchantment which does the same. I can just hear the Replenish fan club crying sweet tears of joy over this card...

Cards by Ransac
Black evolution cycle - I actually really like this cycle. I think the first one is completely and utterly broken, but we can probably put some small restriction on that to make it more balanced. Some suggestions:
1) During your upkeep, if ~BC1~ is in your graveyard and you control no creatures, you may return it to play.
2) During your upkeep, if ~BC1~ is the only creature in your graveyard, you may return it to play.
3) During your upkeep, if ~BC1~ is your graveyard and you have less than 10 life, you may return it to play.

This should all be "At the beginning of your upkeep, " to avoid abuse.

Self-Inflict - I think this can really be a great mechanic for a black cycle of cards. But I like Limited's idea the best of giving you the choice of either controlling the spell or having your opponent control the spell. Either way, though, the spell's controller needs to be able to choose the targets. I just think it would allow for more flexibility that way. We could probably do a three-card cycle, each having a helpful and harmful ability and then you can choose if the helpful outweighs the harmful or if you want to to hit your opponent instead.

Rider's Trade - This just seems too good to me. I suppose tapping three creatures is a high enough cost, but I think some playtesting will be required to see if bouncing permanents is too powerful an effect.

Really? And what if we add "You can only play this ability whenever you could play a sorcery"?

Cards by Zigathon
Fusebreaker - Weird. Maybe broken, but I'm not sure. Does it hose other decks or does it hose itself? I just can't tell. In other words, I think I love it.

Like I said, i think it can be broken because it produces more mana than it costs. I do love it though.. How about it? Up the casting cost to three?

 

[Limited]

Rainbow Bridge - submitted by mooseman
Land
~ comes into play tapped.
Land-Echo
While ~ is in play, it's controller can not play land cards
T: Add x mana of any combination of colors to your mana pool, where X is the number of basic lands you control.

This way, you can still get lands into play.... Cartographer...... but, not the usual way and you don't bounce land everytime you use it and end up with nothing.

Yeah- the land-echo 2 was a bit severe.......

You two have already proposed a lot of variations for this card. An important difference I see is whether it should block you from playing more lands or block from getting. Another is, whether activating it sets you back in some way or that the come-into-play restrictions are enough.

So, here I present my version:

Bifrost v3
Land
Whenever Bifrost or another land comes into play under your control, sacrifice a land.
return an untapped Basic land you control to its owner's hand, T: For each basic land you control, add a mana of any color to your manapool.

I like the tension this creates: once you play it, you can never have more land than you currently have. Given that this could be a very large amount, activating the land should definitely set you back a land. So slowly, you'll approach a point were it isn't all that usefull anymore. Than you can simply play a land and sacrifice Bifrost to keep it in play.

A question though: how is this connected to Bifrost? You know, flavor wise? Bifrost is the bridge the slain warriors cross to get to the halls of Asgard, right? How does this mystical place refer to the number of basic lands you control? Shouldn't it tap for mana equal to the number of creatures that were put into the graveyard during combat ?

If I am severly lacking in my knowledge on Norse Mythology, blame Tim Robbins.

(PS Actually, thats not a bad card)
Asgard
Land
Whenever a nontoken creature is put into your graveyard during a combat phase, put a counter on ~.
T: For each counter on ~ add a red mana to your manapool. This mana can only be used to play Warriors or Berserkers.


(edit: Carthographer doesn't let you put lands into play)

 

[Ransac]

Rider's Trade - This just seems too good to me. I suppose tapping three creatures is a high enough cost, but I think some playtesting will be required to see if bouncing permanents is too powerful an effect.

Really? And what if we add "You can only play this ability whenever you could play a sorcery"?

Or maybe upping the cost to 3UU? But, let's just see how it works in playtesting.


Ransac, cpa trash man

 

[Limited]

Random thought for a fun creature:

Stray Giant 3RR
Trample
If an opponent gains control of another creature you control, that player also gains control of this ~
5/5

 

[Mooseman]

So, here I present my version:
Bifrost v3
Land
Whenever Bifrost or another land comes into play under your control, sacrifice a land.
return an untapped Basic land you control to its owner's hand, T: For each basic land you control, add a mana of any color to your manapool.

Lets make all three lands and playtest them.

A question though: how is this connected to Bifrost? You know, flavor wise? Bifrost is the bridge the slain warriors cross to get to the halls of Asgard, right? How does this mystical place refer to the number of basic lands you control? Shouldn't it tap for mana equal to the number of creatures that were put into the graveyard during combat ?

In Norse mythology, Bifröst is the bridge leading from the realm of mortals, Midgard, to the realm of the gods, Asgard, which the gods travel daily to hold their councils and pass judgements at Urdarbrunn (Well of Urd) under the shade of the tree Yggdrasil. The bridge itself is the rainbow and its guardian is the god Heimdallr, whose hall of Himinbjorg is located at the upper end of the bridge. The red color was the flaming fire, which served as a defense against the giants. The bridge is destroyed at the end of the world, Ragnarök. It was built by the Æsir.

Asgard
Land
Whenever a nontoken creature is put into your graveyard during a combat phase, put a counter on ~.
T: For each counter on ~ add a red mana to your manapool. This mana can only be used to play Warriors or Berserkers.

Might be better to name it Valholl:
Valhalla (Old Norse Valhöll, "Hall of the slain") is Odin's hall in Norse mythology, the home for those slain gloriously in battle