It started simple enough, a daily challenge with the prompt "Lands with keywords". I looked at the list of keywords and my eyes randomly focused on "Level up". I thought "Huh, I rather liked level up, but it seems the majority of people didn't. Let's do something with this."
So, naturally, I thought, Level up requires you to pump mana into something in order to get a bigger effect. What if I made it so you pumped mana into the land and it grew to be a powerful locus of mana? Well, I can't have it tap for green right away, that makes it better than a basic, but what if I made it only tap for colourless first, then if you pump enough green into it it can tap for... TWO green! Then the gain 1 life was inspired by effects such as Essence Warden and The Great Henge, and thats where I got the idea for the land.
Cycle #1: The obvious thing to do.
So, the obvious thing to do is, well, just do the same for each colour. So I did exactly that. Not much else to say. I want to point out now that the Colourless land being able to pump itself and in fact being able to be pumped by other basic lands is intentional, not an oversight. Adding {C}{C} is overall weaker than adding {M}{M} so I thought it would be fair to do so.
Cycle #2: Electric Boogaloo The Rebalancing
Naturally, I got feedback that "Red and Blue gaining life is weird and bad." Ignoring the fact that Lands are ACKSHUALLY Colourless, and Refuge Lands exist, I tweaked the cycle to have a tribal theme, requiring you to have a characteristic creature to get the life gain. Strictly worse than the original cycle for sure, but perhaps might be more on the level of an uncommon land cycle. Colourless obviously cares about wastes, so gains life if you have a Wastes instead of a creature.
Cycle #3: Colour Pie Effects; or how I learnt that not much is able to be balanced with "You gain 1 life."
So this cycle had me tearing my hair out for two days. At one point I was performing combat tricks, scrying 1, giving things evasion, sacrificing to make an earth shattering kaboom and even now I am not totally happy, so any and all feedback is appreciated! To be honest, I am happy with the Green, Black and Red effects, they all mirror each other well. The White and Blue effect I am having a really difficult time coming up with anything. I think the two effects I picked are, while not really compatible, somewhat balanced.
This is the one I really struggled on, I genuinely would love your feedback and advice!
Cycle 4: The "why not" cycle.
After I made the colourless "filter" effect, I thought the cycle might work if it granted that static ability to other basic lands. It would allow you to filter your colourless mana into two of the same coloured mana, which makes the ability a sidegrade from the Shadowmoor/Eventide lands and Ravnica Signets. Not overly happy with this cycle, but it is what it is and hey, it was easy to balance.
The Conclusion
Thank you all for your feedback. I truly want feedback on which cycles you like and how I could improve them, especially the colour pie effect cycle or if you feel I should just scrap the concept.
Full album link for those who want it: https://imgur.com/a/SwmXiHE
