Magic the Gathering: Brainstorming

[toapat]

I dunno, I think if you play this version in multiplayer then everyone just goes after you. Maybe it was the same way with the original?

yes, everyone tries to kill you because you play 1 drops that turn into deathshadows because of Leonidas + Gorgo. Choose should NEVER be given access to by a friendly effect.

The Madlands ere part of a larger project to present the idea of pushing shear value per card in hand. Not like the stupid cycle of Maro Kami, but actual Max Hand Size costs something

[toapat]

Double post because of time differential:

Thrones time!:

Spoiler

Show

[solidork]

Eddard Stark, Hand of the King 1GW
Legendary Creature - Human Knight Noble
When Eddard enters the battlefield, if you cast him from your hand, investigate. If a creature you control died this turn, investigate three times instead.
First Strike, Flash
When you sacrifice a clue, each creature you control gets +1/+1 until end of turn. Then if you control no clues, you play with your hand revealed until the start of your next turn.
3/3

Awkward, but matches what happens in the book pretty well imo. Flash was purely a nod towards playability and not a flavor thing, it took Robert forever to "summon" Ned.

Varys, the Spider 1UB
Legendary Creature - Human Rogue Advisor
At the beginning of combat on your turn, choose target creature. That creature gains Skulk until end of turn, and whenever it deals combat damage to an opponent this turn, investigate.
Sacrifice a clue: Choose one -
- Look at target player's hand.
- Tap target creature. If it's Legendary, it doesn't untap during it's controllers next untap step.
- Varys gains hexproof until end of turn.
1/3

[Ninjaman]

I'd like to offer a counterpoint.

Wizards has decided that untapped duals without any drawbacks are too strong for modern-era Magic. But consider the drawbacks of the lands they *do* deem acceptable:
- Painlands: Pay 1 life to get colored mana. Usually loses two, three life until you can tap them for colorless without worry, if you have to play one early - but can come in untapped and tap for free if you don't need the colors anymore. Upside: Is a triple-land in multicolored Eldrazi decks.- Shocklands: Pay 2 life. Upside: Also gets basic land types, can come in untapped to prevent life loss.
- Fetchlands: Pay 1 life, deckbuilding constraints (basic land types), vulnerability to shenanigans while the activation is on the stack (like Stifle). Upside: At will deck shuffling, combines with shocklands to give you untapped mana in virtually any color you need.

The only reason shocklands and fetchlands are so stupidly good is because they synergize extremely well. By themselves they are a lot less powerful. There are plenty of decks that wouldn't play typeless alpha duals over fetches and shocks, but that doesn't stop that they probably shouldn't be printed.

- Slowlands: Land doesn't untap next turn if you get colored mana. Upside: None. These are bad enough that nobody plays them.

Slowlands are terrible, I don't know why you mentioned them instead of fastslands or handlands.

The "handlands" are untapped duals without downside in a lot of decks?

Not sure you can call them handlands, that name is already taken for the shadows over innistrad duals. Some call them reveal lands, but I hear handlands more.

In most decks, in most games, losing a bit of life to get your untapped mana makes no difference either. The cases in which it does are outliers - have to be, otherwise these lands would not see any play - and you do have to take them into account, but that means you also have to take into account the outliers for the "handlands".

What makes me particularly wary of them - and feel like they're probably just fine power-wise - is that they're worse if you're on the draw (so while you're already under pressure to win!). If your deck consists of a lot of them (maybe a full eight for a three-color deck) and you end up with a hand that has three handlands and no one-drop, you have to start discarding cards as soon as turn 1.

I think you are missing the important distinction. In most games the life loss doesn't matter, at least not more than the faster mana, but in all decks it matters in some games. It doesn't matter what deck you play, sometimes you will play against burn or zoo, and when you do you will curse your deck for bringing you down 5 life the first two turns. There are many decks however where the "handlands" will pretty much never be a downside, like a burn deck for instance.
There is one other land I can think of for which this is true, and that is Grove of the Burnwillows, a card that fits into a cycle, yet there is only one, because in some decks it is basically a free inclusion. Red Green is one of the safest combinations the card could be in, yet it is still good. Imagine its blue black counterpart.
That is the exact problem that these "handlands" run into, and that is why they can't be printed.

I think control decks and combo decks straight up don't want them - there are plenty of decks that want a hand full of cards!

And there are plenty of decks that don't want to play Grove of the Burnwillows lands, but that doesn't stop them from being too powerful in some decks.
The amount of decks that Bazaar of Baghdad is good in is very low, but that doesn't keep it from being one of the most powerful lands in the game, if not the most powerful.

But fast, aggressive decks are already just fine and dandy with having shocklands, fetchlands or painlands.

I can't remember the last time I've seen an aggro deck play painlands outside of standard. I think the only modern decks that play painlands are some eldrazi and sometimes storm.
Also I think you are forgetting about fastlands.

There may be specific decks yet to be brewed that could turn the hand size reduction into an advantage - but Death's Shadow already does something like that, and nobody would consider banning fetchlands and shocklands because of it - at worst, they'd ban Death's Shadow.

It's not a question of there being decks that can break it, it is a question of there being decks that can just put it in as a dual land.

Personally I'd rank the "handlands" below painlands, shocklands and fetchlands, and well above slowlands, and I think that's a perfectly reasonable spot for a dual land to be in.

They are above painlands, and there are decks that will play them before shocklands and fetchlands, and definately before fastlands.

[Ninjaman]

Since we are doing game of thrones cards:

Lord Commander John Snow - 1WW
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier - R
First strike, vigilance
Giants and other Humans you control get +1/+1.

Varys, the Spider - 1U
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor - R
At the beginning of your upkeep, scry 2.
0/2

White Walker - 3BB
Creature - Spirit Warrior - M
Whenever White Walker blocks or becomes blocked by a creature, it gains indestructible until end of turn.
2B: Choose target creature card in an opponent’s graveyard that was put there from the battlefield this turn. Put that card onto the battlefield under your control.
3/4

Gregor ’the Mountain’ Clegane - 1RB
Legendary Creature - Human Knight - R
Menace
Gregor ‘the Mountain’ Clegane attacks each turn if able.
4/4

Ramsay Bolton - 1RB
Legendary Creature - Human Warrior - R
T: Put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.
2BB: Gain control of target creature with a -1/-1 counter on it.
2/2

Valyrian Steel Blade - 2
Artifact - Equipment - R
Indestructible
Equipped creature gets +2/+2.
Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a creature, that creature loses indestructible until end of turn.
Equip 2

[toapat]

Since we are doing game of thrones cards:

Lord Commander John Snow - 1WW
Legendary Creature - Human Soldier - R
First strike, vigilance
Giants and other Humans you control get +1/+1.

White Walker - 3BB
Creature - Spirit Warrior - M
Whenever White Walker blocks or becomes blocked by a creature, it gains indestructible until end of turn.
2B: Choose target creature card in an opponent’s graveyard that was put there from the battlefield this turn. Put that card onto the battlefield under your control.
3/4

Gregor ’the Mountain’ Clegane - 1RB
Legendary Creature - Human Knight - R
Menace
Gregor ‘the Mountain’ Clegane attacks each turn if able.
4/4

Ramsay Bolton - 1RB
Legendary Creature - Human Warrior - R
T: Put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.
2BB: Gain control of target creature with a -1/-1 counter on it.
2/2

3 of these are missing the Snow Supertype, and Gregor and Jon are missing Eternalize and Embalm respectively

[Silfir]

The only reason shocklands and fetchlands are so stupidly good is because they synergize extremely well. By themselves they are a lot less powerful. There are plenty of decks that wouldn't play typeless alpha duals over fetches and shocks, but that doesn't stop that they probably shouldn't be printed.

So why are shocklands and fetchlands okay and the handsizelands are not?

There are many decks however where the "handlands" will pretty much never be a downside, like a burn deck for instance.

"pretty much never" applies to the shockland/fetchland manabases as well. That's the point I was making: That getting your handsize reduced just for playing a land is a drawback that can very well lead to discarding cards (or having to play them prematurely) and losing the game as a result.

You're presenting a narrative in which the handsizelands are not okay because they are "untaplands without drawbacks". The premise is faulty; they do have a drawback. We're asking if the drawback is not big enough.

Burn decks perhaps may never feel the drawback, but burn decks are "pretty much never" going to lose to life loss either. Also, they have access to...

Also I think you are forgetting about fastlands.

If I was going to mention fastlands, I'd have to mention all of the conditional untaplands as well. (That's why I mentioned slowlands, by the way - as terrible as they are, they do come in untapped and tap for colored mana unconditionally, and those were the criteria I named before I listed the lands.)

But yes - fastlands exist. They're already free untaplands in burn decks (which tend to be devoid of even 3-drops and don't want to see a fourth land) and I'm not aware they're considered broken. They certainly have done nothing to unseat fetchland/shockland manabases for burn decks that involve three colors or more.

They are above painlands, and there are decks that will play them before shocklands and fetchlands, and definately before fastlands.

They might get played before fastlands in decks that absolutely never have to worry about the hand size reduction because they empty their hands right from the start - but only if those decks are 2-color. As soon as a deck involves 3 colors they lose to fetchlands hands down.

Does "will see play in some Modern decks" scream "must be broken" to you? If that was enough, fast lands should not have been printed. There's a *lot* of stuff you can't print if you're afraid of it being good enough to see Modern play!

Now, if your argument includes the position that fetchlands are too strong in the first place and should not have been printed either, I have an easier time understanding it.



To me the handsizelands are an excellent attempt to find a solution to the design conundrum of how to make new types of dual lands that are not simply worse than the ones that already exist, but also fall short of being as good as alpha duals or fetchlands in a way that hasn't been thought of before. Magic designers have been exploring this design space for about as long as the game existed - hence the cycle of "strange" dual lands from Future Sight that includes Grove of the Burnwillows.

[Ninjaman]

So why are shocklands and fetchlands okay and the handsizelands are not?

Why are shocklands and fetchlands okay and typeless alpha duals aren't? Because wizards say so.
Becuase Shocklands and Fetchlands are strong because of synergy, and handsizelands are strongbecause of power.

"pretty much never" applies to the shockland/fetchland manabases as well. That's the point I was making: That getting your handsize reduced just for playing a land is a drawback that can very well lead to discarding cards (or having to play them prematurely) and losing the game as a result.

You're ignoring my main argument against them. In all decks shockland/fetchlands will matter in some matches, like against zoo or burn. In some decks however, handsizelands will never, or effectively never, do anything.
You can build a deck that can play handsizelands at no disadvantage in any match under typeless duals very easily, but for every deck that plays shocklands and fetches there will be matches where the downside will be relevant. This is because fetches and shocks depend on the opponent's deck while handsize lands depend on your own deck.
Another difference is that fetches and shocks will make you lose life, it's not always your opponent will take advantage of this life loss, but it is always there. Handsizelands however will rarely make you lose anything at all in the decks that want to play them.

You're presenting a narrative in which the handsizelands are not okay because they are "untaplands without drawbacks". The premise is faulty; they do have a drawback. We're asking if the drawback is not big enough.

I'm saying it's not. It is too easy to build and play around.

Burn decks perhaps may never feel the drawback, but burn decks are "pretty much never" going to lose to life loss either. Also, they have access to...

Burn decks will sometimes feel the drawback. They will play against other burn decks, they will play against zoo decks. You can easily take 5 damage to your own lands, and that could very easily mean the opponent will kill you a turn before he would otherwise do, giving to a turn less to draw the final burn spell. Handssizelands however will only ever be a downside if you don't have a one drop, and then you are losing anyways.

If I was going to mention fastlands, I'd have to mention all of the conditional untaplands as well.

You actually wouldn't, because all the others, (buddylands, battlelands, filterlands), don't tap for colored mana turn 1, which fastlands do.

(That's why I mentioned slowlands, by the way - as terrible as they are, they do come in untapped and tap for colored mana unconditionally, and those were the criteria I named before I listed the lands.)

Then it seems like a completely arbitrary criteria, as fastlands are far more relevant for this discussion than slowlands.

But yes - fastlands exist. They're already free untaplands in burn decks (which tend to be devoid of even 3-drops and don't want to see a fourth land) and I'm not aware they're considered broken. They certainly have done nothing to unseat fetchland/shockland manabases for burn decks that involve three colors or more.

Only being able to keep 6 cards in hand smaller downside than not being able to play your fourth land untapped. Two color burn and elves are about the only decks that can play the fastlands without downside. They could use handsizelands instead, or along with, with pretty much no change. There are tons of other decks that play fastlands and do suffer from the downside, like all the Death's Shadow decks. A lot of those decks could play handsizelands instead for a smaller downside.

They might get played before fastlands in decks that absolutely never have to worry about the hand size reduction because they empty their hands right from the start -

Except they don't need to empty their hands, they just need to play a land and a spell every turn, which most decks are already doing.

but only if those decks are 2-color. As soon as a deck involves 3 colors they lose to fetchlands hands down.

There are three colored decks that play fastlands though, and they could play handsizelands instead.

Does "will see play in some Modern decks" scream "must be broken" to you? If that was enough, fast lands should not have been printed. There's a *lot* of stuff you can't print if you're afraid of it being good enough to see Modern play!

The moment a land will see modern play it is actually on the edge of being too good, since the powerlevel in modern is so high.
I think you compare them to fastlands they are better, and fastlands are some of the few lands that actually see a lot of modern play, so being better than them is worrying. The blue shadow decks might very well prefer But what is perhaps just as worrying is that they are good in the same decks. If you made a land that was the "opposite" of fastlands so you would only play it in slower decks that would probably be fine, but you're creating even more lands for the same decks that already have lots of lands.

Now, if your argument includes the position that fetchlands are too strong in the first place and should not have been printed either, I have an easier time understanding it.

But that's not how game balance works. Fetches and shocks together are more powerful than other lands we can print, this is fine. First of all fetches and shocks are strong because of synergy, not because of raw powerlevel.
Second of all magic has a limit of four of each card per deck, this means that redundancy matters. A card like:
Lightning Shot - R
Sorcery - U
Lightning Shot deals 3 damage to target creature or player.
Might not be too good, after all it is weaker than Lightning Bolt. The thing is Lightning Shot would be perfectly fine if Lightning Bolt didn't exist, but it does, and now wizards probably don't want to allow decks to play 4 Lightning Bolts and 4 Lightning Shots.
Handsizelands could run into that problem as they along with fastlands allow fast two color decks to play solid mana bases with a minimum of downsides. And it's actually worse as the handsizelands are in most cases better than the fastlands.
Just because Lightning Bolt doesn't get banned doesn't mean every card that is weaker than lightning bolt can be printed.

To me the handsizelands are an excellent attempt to find a solution to the design conundrum of how to make new types of dual lands that are not simply worse than the ones that already exist, but also fall short of being as good as alpha duals or fetchlands in a way that hasn't been thought of before.

And it's fine that you think that but I disagree, I think fastlands hit that nail right on the head, and the fact that they see play but haven't surpassed fetches and shocks is a testament to that. I think the handsizelands are too pushed for modern, and possibly for standard too, even if they work worse in that format.

Magic designers have been exploring this design space for about as long as the game existed - hence the cycle of "strange" dual lands from Future Sight that includes Grove of the Burnwillows.

And some of them were too good, (Grove or the Burnwillows, Horizon Canopy), for them to print the full cycle. I think the handsizelands fall into this category.

[Ninjaman]

3 of these are missing the Snow Supertype,

No they don't

and Gregor and Jon are missing Eternalize and Embalm respectively

They aren't actually missing it though. It could be that Milessandre and Maester Whatevs just got some kind of reanimation ability. And Jon becoming a zombie I don't think is too fitting, neither is the word embalm.

[toapat]

You're ignoring my main argument against them. In all decks shockland/fetchlands will matter in some matches, like against zoo or burn. In some decks however, handsizelands will never, or effectively never, do anything.

youre ignoring a very large part of deckbuilding. the Fetchlands/Shocklands are basically costless in real deckbuilding.

Storm's current incarnation has no issue passing 10 storm count, DSJ literally runs off of the fetch-shock combo. Aggro is basically 17 land, 12 creatures, and 31 lightning bolts.

No they don't


They aren't actually missing it though. It could be that Milessandre and Maester Whatevs just got some kind of reanimation ability. And Jon becoming a zombie I don't think is too fitting, neither is the word embalm.

Tarkir isnt exactly A World of Ice and Fire. If i was doing a full westeros set i would have to figure out how to add the Fire supertype.

[Gauntlet]

youre ignoring a very large part of deckbuilding. the Fetchlands/Shocklands are basically costless in real deckbuilding.

Storm's current incarnation has no issue passing 10 storm count, DSJ literally runs off of the fetch-shock combo. Aggro is basically 17 land, 12 creatures, and 31 lightning bolts.

Hand Size Lands have deckbuilding costs, but in actual gameplay they have no downsides once you've built to take advantage of them.

Fetch/Shocks have no deckbuilding costs, but in actual gameplay they have real downsides which will (occasionally) lose you games.

When a deck can trivially fulfil the Hand Size lands' deckbuilding costs, and doesn't need fetch/shocks for other reasons (i.e. Death's Shadow lists), the Hand Size lands are a major functional upgrade, which is probably not something you want to be giving to modern decks that are already reasonably strong.

[Cosi]

Some cards:

Crumbling Field
Land (U)
~ enters the battlefield tapped.
When ~ enters the battlefield, add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
T: Add W to your mana pool.

Would be a cycle. Trying to explore design space for uncommon fixing lands that produce mana on the first turn and can therefore go in aggro decks. This + Island Plains allows you to go either white 1-drop > blue 2-drop or blue 1-drop > white 2-drop, and still tap for white afterwards (disregard Island comment, I am dumb). Strictly better than Crumbling Vestige, but so is Aether Hub.

Better Pinecrest Ridge
Land (U)
T: Add 1 to your mana pool. Put a charge counter on ~.
T, remove a charge counter from ~: Add R or G to your mana pool.

Produces colored mana every other turn, but doesn't break your curve on off turns. Can also "bank" color mana for later.

Keep of Silence
Land (R)
When ~ enters the battlefield, name a land card.
Non-mana abilities of the named card can't be activated.
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.

Low-cost hoser for Thespian Stage combos.

Mage-Ring Aggressor
1R
Creature - Human Warrior (C)
Haste
Spell Mastery -- If there are two or more instant and/or sorcery cards in your graveyard, put a +1/+1 counter on ~ when it enters the battlefield.
2/1

Mage-Ring Guardian
2WW
Creature - Human Soldier (U)
Spell Mastery -- If there are two or more instant and/or sorcery cards in your graveyard, create two 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens when ~ enters the battlefield.
3/4

Spell Mastery on creatures.

Training Wheels
2
Artifact - Vehicle (U)
Whenever a creature crews ~, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.
Crew 1
0/4

Vehicle design space. Would kind of like to give it Crew 0, but not sure that works.

Attended Champion
2WW
Creature - Human Warrior (R)
When ~ enters the battlefield, create 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens equal to its power.
Eternalize 5WW
2/1

Slightly worse Beetleback Chief that comes back as an army-in-a-can.

Too Clever For My Own Good
2WW
Creature - Elemental (U)
Flying
Exploit
When ~ enters the battlefield, exile target creature.
When ~ leaves the battlefield, return the exiled creature to the battlefield under its owner's control.
3/1

I'm not 100% sure this works, but the idea is that this has three modes, depending on how you stack the triggers and what you sack. Obviously you can use it to O-Ring one of their creatures if you have something to sack. You can also stack the exploit trigger on to of the exile trigger, sacrifice it to its exploit, and permanently exile something. Or you can stack it the other way and blink something.

Fuel the Flames
1R
Sorcery (R)
Escalate R
Choose one or more. You may choose the same option more than once --
* ~ deals 1 damage to each opponent.
* Target creature can't block this turn.
* Exile the top card of your library. You may play that card this turn.

Pretty much speaks for itself. Not sure I like the damage mode. Could try 2 damage with escalate 1R, but then the no-block mode is pretty bad. Maybe change that to two target creatures?

Resupply
2W
Instant (U)
Choose one --
* Create two 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens.
* Destroy target enchantment.

Fungal Burst
2G
Instant (U)
Choose one --
* Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn.
* Prevent all damage that would be dealt this turn.

Completing the cycle of Supreme Will, Doomfall, and Abrade. Might be a little underpowered, but trying to err on the side of caution.

Rakdos Arena
2RB
Enchantment (R)
If you would draw a card, instead exile the top card of your library. You may play that card this turn.
At the beginning of your upkeep, exile the top card of your library. You may cast that card this turn.
Hellbent -- If you have no cards in your hand, you may cast exiled cards you own.

Potentially punishing if you aren't hellbent, but pretty powerful once you are. Might need to go up a mana, particularly in an environment with effects like Unearth or Flashback that naturally put cards in exile.

Myriad Reflections
3GW
Enchantment (R)
Whenever a non-token creature enters the battlefield under your control, populate.

Is this better or worse on a creature? Easier to remove, but also triggers off itself.

God of Wisdom
3UU
Legendary Creature - God (M)
Flying, Undying
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, scry 2.
4UU, remove a +1/+1 counter from ~: Return target instant or sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand.
4/3

Exploring some God design space a little close to Hour of Devastation's. You can't (usually) activate the ability until it dies, but once you do you reset Undying. Could maybe shave some mana off the activated ability on that basis.

Siren Oracle
2UU
Creature - Siren Wizard (U)
Flying
Tribute 2
When ~ enters the battlefield, if tribute was paid, each player draws two cards.
2/1

Playing around with tribute. Might be a little too underpowered in the "off" mode, making the choice too obvious for opponents. Maybe make it a 3/2 and move the tribute and the draw down to one each?

Rule Over Ashes
2BB
Enchantment (U)
Exalted
Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, other creatures get -1/-1 until end of turn.

Black Exalted. Trying to play into the "control exactly one creature" theme from Avacyn Restored (and also Deadly Wanderings).

Soulbond Lord
2GG
Creature - Human Druid (R)
Soulbond
Paired creatures you control get +1/+1.
2/2

Obvious design space is obvious.

Rotting Remnant
2B
Creature - Zombie (C)
Retrace
3/2

Obvious design space is obvious.

Thoughtweft Call
W
Sorcery (C)
Create a 1/1 white Kithkin Soldier creature token.
Conspire

Venture Out
2G
Sorcery (C)
Search your library for a basic land card and put it onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library.
Conspire

Simple conspire designs.

Rebel Encampment
3
Tribal Artifact - Rebel Fortification (U)
Fortified land has "4, T: Search your library for a Rebel card with converted mana cost 3 or less and put it onto the battlefield. Then shuffle your library."
Fortify 1

Irrigation System
1
Artifact - Fortification (C)
Whenever fortified land is tapped for mana, add one mana of any color it could produce to your mana pool.
Fortify 1

Fortify designs. The major problem here is "why do these go on lands?" Irrigation System is just a two mana rock that you pay for in installments.

Goblin Inciter
2RR
Creature - Goblin Shaman (U)
Haste
Other creatures you control with haste get +2/+0
3/1

Haste lord. Might be too good as a top end for an aggro deck. If you played hasty creatures turns 1, 2, and 3, this is nine power for 4 mana.

And some of them were too good, (Grove or the Burnwillows, Horizon Canopy), for them to print the full cycle. I think the handsizelands fall into this category.

The Grove of the Burnwillows cycle is too good because the drawback is dramatically less real in color pairs that want to play control.

[toapat]

Fetch/Shocks have no deckbuilding costs, but in actual gameplay they have real downsides which will (occasionally) lose you games.

Fetch/shock have a very high deckbuilding cost. OR do you never build your own decks? because you have to specifically tune each of them both to your deck's natural tempo and to your mana intensity base.

In fact Fetchlands almost exclusively have deckbuilding costs and not gameplay costs outside of the rare situation of successfully building a deck that can successfully stall the opponents reliably while it gains momentum. But ive rarely ever reached the scenario where i cant play a shockland and could still win the game

[Gauntlet]

Fetch/shock have a very high deckbuilding cost. OR do you never build your own decks? because you have to specifically tune each of them both to your deck's natural tempo and to your mana intensity base.

In fact Fetchlands almost exclusively have deckbuilding costs and not gameplay costs outside of the rare situation of successfully building a deck that can successfully stall the opponents reliably while it gains momentum. But ive rarely ever reached the scenario where i cant play a shockland and could still win the game

You have to tune the numbers of fetches / shocks / basics / etc to each other, but you can include a fetch/shock manabase in pretty much any deck (barring specific exceptions) and it will probably work just fine. The number of fetches vs shocks may change but it's not going to affect your non-land deckbuilding decisions in a particularly major way.

Throwing insults does not help you justify things.

[solidork]

Some cards:

Better Pinecrest Ridge
Land (U)
T: Add 1 to your mana pool. Put a charge counter on ~.
T, remove a charge counter from ~: Add R or G to your mana pool.

Produces colored mana every other turn, but doesn't break your curve on off turns. Can also "bank" color mana for later.

I actually quite like this. A very slight tweak to charge up lands, but I don't remember seeing it before.

Keep of Silence
Land (R)
When ~ enters the battlefield, name a land card.
Non-mana abilities of the named card can't be activated.
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.

Low-cost hoser for Thespian Stage combos.

Hmm. This is live against a lot more decks than just Dark Depths, but I think it might still be OK. You've dodged the really egregious stuff (if you used the Pithing Needle wording you could trap fetchlands) by making the trigger "when" instead of the standard "as". Still though, compared to things like Wasteland and Ghost Quarter: you get to keep your land, you get to stop multiple of their lands, but you have to guess beforehand what you want to name. On the other hand, it counters Wasteland. Interesting, to be sure.

Training Wheels
2
Artifact - Vehicle (U)
Whenever a creature crews ~, put a +1/+1 counter on that creature.
Crew 1
0/4

Vehicle design space. Would kind of like to give it Crew 0, but not sure that works.

Crew 0 should work. You can tap more creatures than you need to in order to crew a vehicle, so this will give all of your creatures a permanent +1/+1 every turn. That's really strong in a stall situation, probably too strong for an uncommon.

Too Clever For My Own Good
2WW
Creature - Elemental (U)
Flying
Exploit
When ~ enters the battlefield, exile target creature.
When ~ leaves the battlefield, return the exiled creature to the battlefield under its owner's control.
3/1

I'm not 100% sure this works, but the idea is that this has three modes, depending on how you stack the triggers and what you sack. Obviously you can use it to O-Ring one of their creatures if you have something to sack. You can also stack the exploit trigger on to of the exile trigger, sacrifice it to its exploit, and permanently exile something. Or you can stack it the other way and blink something.

Need to specify that it can't blink itself. It does work like you expect.

Resupply
2W
Instant (U)
Choose one --
* Create two 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens.
* Destroy target enchantment.

Fungal Burst
2G
Instant (U)
Choose one --
* Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn.
* Prevent all damage that would be dealt this turn.

Completing the cycle of Supreme Will, Doomfall, and Abrade. Might be a little underpowered, but trying to err on the side of caution.

I just realized that this is a Bolas-centric cycle, so only being in UBR was deliberate.

Probably have more comments later, lunch is over!

[Cosi]

Hmm. This is live against a lot more decks than just Dark Depths, but I think it might still be OK. You've dodged the really egregious stuff (if you used the Pithing Needle wording you could trap fetchlands) by making the trigger "when" instead of the standard "as". Still though, compared to things like Wasteland and Ghost Quarter: you get to keep your land, you get to stop multiple of their lands, but you have to guess beforehand what you want to name. On the other hand, it counters Wasteland. Interesting, to be sure.

Urgh. I forgot about fetchlands completely, actually. I really want the effect to just negate the secondary effects of e.g. Ghost Quarter without messing with people's curves at all, but there's no really elegant way to negate abilities without hitting fetches. Could try a different tack:

Keep of Silence v2
Land (R)
When ~ enters the battlefield, name a land card.
Lands with the chosen name gain "T: Add 1 to your mana pool" and lose all other non-mana abilities.
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.

It still screws fetches some, but I think that's probably okay. It gets better against passive abilities, so maybe make the land Legendary to compensate for added power?

Crew 0 should work. You can tap more creatures than you need to in order to crew a vehicle, so this will give all of your creatures a permanent +1/+1 every turn. That's really strong in a stall situation, probably too strong for an uncommon.

My concern with Crew 0 was activating it for free, which effectively makes it a wall. I did overlook the possibility of crewing with multiple creatures, which is probably too good. Maybe put a +1/+1 counter on a single creature?

I just realized that this is a Bolas-centric cycle, so only being in UBR was deliberate.

Quibble: I think it may be based on the Hour of Devastation Gods instead, though those are based on Bolas. Abrade depicts The Locust God and Supreme Will depicts The Scarab God, though it's not clear to me if Doomfall is The Scorpion God.

[Gauntlet]

Urgh. I forgot about fetchlands completely, actually. I really want the effect to just negate the secondary effects of e.g. Ghost Quarter without messing with people's curves at all, but there's no really elegant way to negate abilities without hitting fetches. Could try a different tack:

Keep of Silence v2
Land (R)
When ~ enters the battlefield, name a land card.
Lands with the chosen name gain "T: Add 1 to your mana pool" and lose all other non-mana abilities.
T: Add 1 to your mana pool.

It still screws fetches some, but I think that's probably okay. It gets better against passive abilities, so maybe make the land Legendary to compensate for added power?

If you want a Ghost Quarter / Wasteland hate card, why not just 'Lands are Indestructible / Have Hexproof/ Have Shroud'? Seems like a cleaner solution.

[JBPuffin]

Wynn, Debonair Songblade 2UR
Planeswalker - Wynn (MR)
+1: Reveal the bottom card of your library. Wynn deals damage to target creature equal to the revealed card's converted mana cost.
-2: Prophesy 3 (To prophesy 3, look at the bottom three cards of your library. Put any number of them on the top of your library in any order and the rest on the bottom in any order.)
-7: You gain an emblem with, "At the beginning of your upkeep, this emblem deals damage to each creature your opponents control equal to the number of cards in your hand."
Loyalty: 4

Crystal Visions UU
Instant (U)
Choose one:
*Draw a card, then scry 2.
*Draw a card, then prophesy 2.

OR

Crystal Visions 1U
Sorcery (U)
Choose one:
*Draw a card, then scry 2.
*Draw a card, then prophesy 2.

Great Balls of Fire 2R
Sorcery (U)
Great Balls of Fire deals 4 damage divided as you choose among one, two, three, or four target creatures.

Disco Inferno XXUR
Enchantment (R)
When Disco Inferno enters the battlefield, put X fever counters on Disco Inferno.
U/R: Move a fever counter from Disco Inferno to target creature and gain control of that creature until end of turn. At the beginning of your opponent’s next upkeep, Disco Inferno deals damage to each creature with a fever counter on it equal to the number of creatures with fever counters on them.

Song of Ice and Fire (NOT any relation to GoT, just a convenient music-related name) UURR
Sorcery (R)
Separate all creatures target player controls into two piles. Your opponent chooses one pile; each creature in that pile does not untap during its controller’s next untap step. Song of Fire and Ice deals 3 damage to each creature in the other pile.

Cantarn Academy
Legendary Land (R)
Instants and sorceries you control cost 1 less.

[Ninjaman]

Tarkir isnt exactly A World of Ice and Fire. If i was doing a full westeros set i would have to figure out how to add the Fire supertype.

If want to make that a mechanic of your Game of Thrones magic set then do go ahead, but I don't need to make anything snow, as shown by cards that could have been snow but aren't, and I'm not going to, as snow in quite parasitic and is not a very good mechanic.

[Silfir]

Wynn, Debonair Songblade 2UR
Planeswalker - Wynn (MR)
+1: Reveal the bottom card of your library. Wynn deals damage to target creature equal to the revealed card's converted mana cost.
-2: Prophesy 3 (To prophesy 3, look at the bottom three cards of your library. Put any number of them on the top of your library in any order and the rest on the bottom in any order.)
-7: You gain an emblem with, "At the beginning of your upkeep, this emblem deals damage to each creature your opponents control equal to the number of cards in your hand."
Loyalty: 4

Crystal Visions UU
Instant (U)
Choose one:
*Draw a card, then scry 2.
*Draw a card, then prophesy 2.

OR

Crystal Visions 1U
Sorcery (U)
Choose one:
*Draw a card, then scry 2.
*Draw a card, then prophesy 2.

Great Balls of Fire 2R
Sorcery (U)
~ deals 4 damage divided as you choose among one, two, three, or four target creatures.

Wynn seems extremely broken. You only have to set up the bottom card once, and end up with a 4 CMC walker that straight up kills creatures with his +1 every turn. It seems like, at the very least, the +1 and -2 should be swapped.

I have a knee-jerk unfavorable response to Red direct damage spells that can't hit players, particular one that mechanically and in name references cards that can do so just fine. It's really good creature removal - first pick in Limited barring a bomb rare - but it doesn't feel like a spell that shoots "great balls of fire" at all.

[JBPuffin]

Wynn seems extremely broken. You only have to set up the bottom card once, and end up with a 4 CMC walker that straight up kills creatures with his +1 every turn. It seems like, at the very least, the +1 and -2 should be swapped.

I have a knee-jerk unfavorable response to Red direct damage spells that can't hit players, particular one that mechanically and in name references cards that can do so just fine. It's really good creature removal - first pick in Limited barring a bomb rare - but it doesn't feel like a spell that shoots "great balls of fire" at all.

I'm cool with that change to Wynn.

It's largely because I don't imagine Wynn going after players that much, and as a "song spell," it's one of his spells. It's also cheaper than Pyrotechnics for this reason...at least, now that's the reason .

Gonna edit another card into that post - it and Disco Inferno are...well, weird.

[toapat]

If want to make that a mechanic of your Game of Thrones magic set then do go ahead, but I don't need to make anything snow, as shown by cards that could have been snow but aren't, and I'm not going to, as snow in quite parasitic and is not a very good mechanic.

Snow is basically as parasitic as tribal is. The problem in execution is putting it on lands which makes cards like Skred both omnipotent and massively problematic

[JBPuffin]

Dust Bowl is a mythic rare game-breaking effect...dear gods, I hope there are enough mana-producing artifacts in Magic: the Depressing to prevent this from being the last spell cast every game.

Tommy's probably alright - it's expensive, but damn it's potent.

[toapat]

Dust Bowl is a mythic rare game-breaking effect...dear gods, I hope there are enough mana-producing artifacts in Magic: the Depressing to prevent this from being the last spell cast every game.

Tommy's probably alright - it's expensive, but damn it's potent.

Dust Bowl is also already a strictly worse Wasteland. the effect isnt black either, its a mono red effect since really only red is SUPPOSED to be able to kill land.

Tommygun is an overpowered Grappling Hooks

[Svata]

Green can do it as well. Usually as a subset of noncreature permanents, but there is the occasional thing like Desecration Plague.

[Carl]

Your thinking land freezing which is mono red. That said they've started doing freezing as an alternative to outright land destruction so it wouldn't be surprising to see it turn up in other colours in future, in which case such mass effect everyone freezing is probably white. Still totally OP, it's basically a super armageddon.

Tommy, i don't know, it somehow just doesn't capture the flavour of the weapon for me.

[Cosi]

Tommy Gun is just Bonesplitter + Fireshrieker. That's probably slightly better than either card on its own (particularly because of the synergy, and the no extra cost), but neither of those are particularly broken. Maybe add a mana to either casting cost or equip.

If you want a Ghost Quarter / Wasteland hate card, why not just 'Lands are Indestructible / Have Hexproof/ Have Shroud'? Seems like a cleaner solution.

Because that's not what I want. It'd probably get used that way a decent amount, but the goal is a broader answer to spell lands and man lands and the like. Your suggestion is dead against e.g. Celestial Colonnade.

[Svata]

Why would one ever run it over Ghost Quarter?

[JBPuffin]

Why would one ever run it over Ghost Quarter?

I mean...it doesn't trigger landfall? It also can take out more than one land, which matters in non-Commander formats at least.

[toapat]

Green can do it as well. Usually as a subset of noncreature permanents, but there is the occasional thing like Desecration Plague.

Green is not a good example of anything because its list of barred mechanics is just "Mill and Hand Attack". WotC needs to learn this and fix this problem