MTGNexus

Precise Shot R
Instant (C)
Precise Shot cost 0 to cast if a player has 1 life.
Precise Shot deals 1 damage to any target.
"Calculated"

Cross into the Unknown 4UR
Sorcery (R)
Put the top 5 cards of your library into a face-down pile. An opponent picks a card from the pile at random and exiles it face up. You may cast the exiled card without paying its mana cost. Then put the pile into your hand.
Sometimes the unknown is best left alone.

Lessons Lost 1BB
Enchantment (R)
Whenever one or more cards are put into your graveyard from anywhere, you may exile them. If you do, you lose 1 life and draw a card.
Does history repeat if no on knows it's repeated?

Writer of Rights WW
Creature - Human Advisor (U)
Creatures spells cost an additional X to cast, where X is that creatures power minus that creatures converted mana cost.
"Overwhelming force is not warranted in such case."
2/2

Divine Ascension 2WW
Enchantment - Aura (M)
Enchant noncreature permanent
Enchanted permanent is indestructible
As long as your devotion to white is 5 or greater, enchanted permanent is a 6/6 God creature in addition to it's other types that has "prevent all damage that would be dealt to this".

Precise Shot - This one is fun for its ability to decide close games. Most of the time Gut Shot will be better but this is in a good place imo.

Cross into the Unknown - This is a lot like Allure of the Unknown and with that in mind I think it might be too much for six mana; randomly possibly getting an Eldrazi Titan or something as a free cast is just gravy to the large amount of card draw.

Lessons Lost - This feels abuseable. Still obviously mostly Johnny territory. Could be interesting jank, could be insane, depends on the environment very heavily.

Writer of Rights - A perfectly fine hatebear; this, of course, just says "every creature spell costs at least as much mana as its power" which makes it, well, a pro-fairness card.

Divine Ascension - As written this doesn't work; hitting 5 devotion makes this card just fall off the enchanted permanent, given how its enchant ability is written. As intended it might be too much; five devotion isn't that hard to hit when this card itself has two pips of white and a 6/6 creature that's immune to infect and other shenanigans/a planeswalker creature that it's useless to attack is backbreaking.

[mention]void_nothing[/mention]

Precise Shot - Yeah I didn't want it to be better than Gut Shot, that's for sure!

Cross into the Unknown - Keep in mind CC6 draw 4 at instant speed with upside in mono blue is a thing (Dragonlord's Prerogative) as is sorcery speed draw 4 at 5cc in mono blue (Tidings). While you looked at the best possible scenario, the worst possible scenario is getting a land or some card with timing restrictions that dont work, so you end up drawing 4 cards for 6 duel colored at sorcery speed.

Divine Ascension - You right, needs a rewording. I did want it to make planeswalkers the ascend to be combat read without losing loyalty, but it perhaps is too much. Will reconsider the balancing too. I did really want it to play well with Elspeth though since she was the inspiration for the idea.

These are cool cards all around!

Some specific comments:

Precise Shot - The first line could probably be templated as "You may cast this spell without paying its mana cost if a player has 1 life." If this card is at common, avoiding the 0 mana symbol might be easier for newer players to wrap their head around (its not complex but paying a 0 cost might be slightly confusing or unintuitive to a beginner), plus the "without paying its cost" sounds a bit more exciting. All this is pretty minor, though. It's a cute card.

Cross into the Unknown - A cool mix between a Fact or Fiction -style card and Act on Impulse. It may be slightly undercosted, but Act on Impulse effects are often overcosted imo. To be more playable in limited (if you care), I would actually reduce the cost down and shrink the pile size to 4 or 3. Otherwise the mana costs required for casting this spell plus whatever you exile could be unreasonably tricky.

Lessons Lost - A simple and cool build around rare. We need more cards like this imo. Could be very powerful in the right deck or near useless - rewards smart drafting, and is basically exactly the kind of design most rares should be like I would say.

Writer of Rights - This could probably be placed at rare, as I imagine it can get hard to calculate in multiples, especially among newer players. But perhaps that's unnecessary.

Divine Ascension - I think this should be redesigned. The idea is cool but the implementation inelegant. As voidnothing pointed out, it doesn't work properly as written. You might consider exiling the card when the devotion threshold is reached; that way it works with the rules while also "feeling" like an aura (just keep the card under the permanent but change the orientation) ← still inelegant though.

Icarii wrote: ↑

4 years ago

void_nothing

Precise Shot - Yeah I didn't want it to be better than Gut Shot, that's for sure!

Cross into the Unknown - Keep in mind CC6 draw 4 at instant speed with upside in mono blue is a thing (Dragonlord's Prerogative) as is sorcery speed draw 4 at 5cc in mono blue (Tidings). While you looked at the best possible scenario, the worst possible scenario is getting a land or some card with timing restrictions that dont work, so you end up drawing 4 cards for 6 duel colored at sorcery speed.

Divine Ascension - You right, needs a rewording. I did want it to make planeswalkers the ascend to be combat read without losing loyalty, but it perhaps is too much. Will reconsider the balancing too. I did really want it to play well with Elspeth though since she was the inspiration for the idea.

The upside to Dragonlords Prerogative is conditional though, and compared to Cross into the Unknown it is rather weak. Cross into the Unknown is a really, really, really strong card. It basically says: Draw five cards, an opponent chooses one of those cards, you may cast it for free. Which is a very, very, very strong effect. Maybe is a mythic, but as a rare, the CC needs to be higher.

Dragonlord's Prerogative is an instant though, and that's a huge upside (plus mono color). Allure of the Unknown digs 6 cards deep for 5cc with downside. This digs 5 cards deep for 6cc with potential (random) upside. Costing it more would make it unplayable. As a 6cc spell it probably wouldn't make the cut in standard as is. I'd start the playtesting at 6cc 100%.

Icarii wrote: ↑

4 years ago

Cross into the Unknown 4UR
Sorcery (R)
Put the top 5 cards of your library into a face-down pile. An opponent picks a card from the pile at random and exiles it face up. You may cast the exiled card without paying its mana cost. Then put the pile into your hand.
Sometimes the unknown is best left alone.

Why is an opponent involved at all in the resolution of this effect? The choice is made at random anyway.

Good point haha.