Duals and Workshop alternatives

[Sabujihn]

Trying to get around the reserved list, but remaining competitive,
I created alternative versions of the famous duals and Mishra's Workshop.
The idea is that they can still be fast, but not too broken or too similar
(well, i don't think the duals are THAT broken, but ok)

In the dual example, it still benefit from the fetch lands,
but without increasing its drawbacks.

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Volcanic Reefs
Land - Island Mountain
When Volcanic Reefs comes into play,
if it was played from your hand, lose 1 life.
(: Add or .)

Workshop alternative:

Thran Power Plant
Legendary Artifact Land
: Add , It doesn't
untap during your next untap step.
Spend this mana only to cast artifact spells.

Edit:

Volcanic Reefs
Land - Island Mountain
When Volcanic Reef enters the battlefield,
you lose 1 life.
(: Add or .)

Workshop alternative:

Thran Power Plant
Legendary Land - Power-Plant
: Add , It doesn't
untap during your next untap step.
Spend this mana only to cast artifact spells.

[Krishnath]

Both seem fine to me, the Volcanic Reefs, although better than Shocklands, it doesn't give you an option to opt out of the damage, so it is naturally better to play from your hand in earlier turns. The only real issue I have is with the Thran Power Plant, and it is two fold: Firstly, giving the artifact type is not necessary, and indeed makes the card better in decks that want to play it. The other is purely for flavor: Give it the Power-Plant subtype. (And yes, that is indeed a land type.)

[spacemonaut]

I recommend against word wrapping your cards like that. It decreases legibility, especially considering we need to understand where a single paragraph begins or ends.

When Volcanic Reefs comes into play, if it was played from your hand, lose 1 life.

"Played from your hand" is not a phrase that gets used so I don't think it's available here. I'd note there will be confusion around it too: putting a land card onto the battlefield from my hand with Arboreal Grazer is not playing it. Note that Phage the Untouchable|LGN's original print from Legions is a poster child for why we don't use this wording.

I think it should just say "When Volcanic Reef enters the battlefield, you lose 1 life."

Although, that makes it much better than all the shocklands most of the time, which are already very powerful.

Legendary Artifact Land
: Add CCC. Thran Power Plant doesn't untap during your next untap step. Spend this mana only to cast artifact spells.

This lets me turn 1 a lot of good things and turn 2 a lot more. (Turn 2: tap my power plant, play the next one, remove the old one, tap the new one well. The same one-two we use for Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx.)

My understanding is lands that add 2+ mana are generally considered almost always broken, even if it's legendary, so bear in mind this is also pretty powerful.

Note that as Krishnath says the artifact type makes this a lot more powerful. The existing artifact lands from Mirrodin are all banned in Modern for this reason.

[Sabujihn]

You both made really good points! Mainly about the artifact type, that could be really abused and about the wording, simplifying understanding without making it too punishing.

[SecretInfiltrator]

I don't see how Thran Power-Plant shouldn't enter the battlefield tapped.

[Mookie]

Yeah, Thran Power-Plant seems developmentally problematic, assuming you're talking about a Modern-legal card. Lands that produce multiple mana generally need to either not come online until lategame (Castle Garenbrig, Urzatron, Shrine of the Forsaken Gods), have a high cost (Lotus Vale), or be extremely limited (Untaidake, the Cloud Keeper, Eldrazi Temple).

Having it enter tapped would be a good starting point. Another potential limitation would be to limit the spells the mana can be used to cast (ex: only artifacts with CMC 3 or less) or limiting the situations in which it could be used (ex: require 3+ artifacts, similar to Mox Opal).

Volcanic Reefs seems fine. Might be a bit too strong, but the printing of Pathways implies that they're pushing the boundary of what 'strictly better than a basic' means. Stronger than a shockland in the early game, weaker in the lategame.