The Blind Eternities

[Lucifer, Sapere Aude]

The Blind Eternities

WWW

Enchantment

You may cast planeswalker cards you own exiled with The Blind Eternities.

3 : Exile target planeswalker you control.

2WW : Search your library for a planeswalker card and exile it, then shuffle your library.

Here we got the ambitious desire to reprent within a Magic card the very concept of the Blind Eternities themselves. Recurring things from exile is a "taboo" concept in Magic design (since it would just become a "second graveyard" and not a place to truly banish things forever), but I believe it's kosher to make a self-contained card that brings from exile only the stuff he "bottles", and not any card previously exiled by any means (and no weird exploitations and shenaningans with anything that use exile as a cost) . After all we have several precedents of this (Endless Horizons, Skyship Weatherlight, Parallel Thoughts and so on), so the mechanic of the card is just an extension of that concept.
Obviously, with such huge costs and so easy to disrupt, the card is not designed to be competitively viable, but to be an exciting tool for all Casual, Commander and Timmy players, that love big splashy stuff with crazy effects, no matter the mana costs on it.
From a flavor standpoint, you summon your fellow planeswalkers directly from the blind eternities or they leave to eventually come back again and I strongly believe that the word "exile" is absolutely necessary to capture the essence of the transcendental nature of those interstice between planes. I hope the execution is simple and intuitive enough that this flavor explanation is unnecessary but clearly evident to all.

[user_938036]

It's a cool card. I would 100% run it in commander. Cards that use Exile as a holding zone to do other things with them are a well-implemented use of exile and have been since exile became a thing. My problem is the flavor. The Blind Eternities aren't a place that walkers hang out in; which is what is being represented here. The Blind Eternities are the most inhospitable nonplace to exist.

For a card representing The Blind Eternities, I would expect a planeshift phenomena card that destroys all creature or nonland nonplaneswalker permanents. Because passing through the Blind Eternities destroys everything.

Another way to represent the Blind Eternities would be as the ultimate removal spell.
Swallowed By Eternity 2WW
Sorcery
Exile target creature face down.

[Lucifer, Sapere Aude]

I just realized the card costs too much even for casual games. Planar Bridge and Planar Portal which do similar things (and are similar even in flavor) are just strictly better in costs, much less fragile and not limited to planeswalkers....which is bad. Colorled cards should always be more efficent and aggressive than their colorless counterpart, so we need to to remake all the costs of this card as well:

So, if we follow the general rule that one colored mana cost usually equals to 2 colorless, WWW could be the casting cost of the card, while 2WW the activated cost of searching planeswalkers. Now the card, while still not competitive for eternal formats (because it eat you 2 turns in early game before you actually do something), it's definitely both appealing for EDH and even possibly Standard constructed I would say.
Also, could be a way for monowhite EDH decks to have card advantage without breaking the color pie.

My problem is the flavor. The Blind Eternities aren't a place that walkers hang out in; which is what is being represented here. The Blind Eternities are the most inhospitable nonplace to exist.

Well, the card is a "container" of PW for mechanical needs, but flavorfully what happens is just PWs travelling from a plane (your deck) to another (the battlefield) through the Blind Eternities (the enchantment). And viceversa the Blind Eternities "eating" up a PW, is just, from a flavor standpoint, the PW leaving the current plane because things are getting bad for him (and ideally going to another plane and then return again if you wish so).

The Blind Eternities are an inhospitable nonplace true, but yet, there are form of existence that lives there (like the Eldrazi), so that's why I believe it's fitting to treat it as a permanent but yet aetheral place (like an enchantment) and not as a phenomena (which in game would mean an istant or sorcery)

[SecretInfiltrator]

Colorled cards should always be more efficent and aggressive than their colorless counterpart, so we need to to remake all the costs of this card as well:

My proposed fix: Make this card colorless. It's the Blind Eternities after all - birthplace origin-nonplace of the Eldrazi. Why are they white?

[Lucifer, Sapere Aude]

Colorled cards should always be more efficent and aggressive than their colorless counterpart, so we need to to remake all the costs of this card as well:

My proposed fix: Make this card colorless. It's the Blind Eternities after all - birthplace origin-nonplace of the Eldrazi. Why are they white?

Because both "exile matters" and "planeswalkers matters" are in white domain, and also dunno, The Blind Eternities always felt white to me, because I imagine them visually as an infinite white "blank space". between planes. But yes, I also believe that as a colorless card should work just fine.

[chochky]

Maybe make the card colorless, but keep the Planeswalker tutor effect white?

[Lucifer, Sapere Aude]

This seems.....unelegant aesthetically. Am I the only one then that think of the Blind Eternities as a white concept? The whole card can be colorless, but it should cost at least less than a Planar Portal, so probably 4-5 mana in both cost and activated ability. Or maybe six like the Planar Portal, but it should tutor directly in the battlefield at that point and lose all the "exile matter" thing.

[spacemonaut]

I don't think this card is playable in its current form. Cards that cost 10 mana should be giving me an overwhelming advantage that help me start to close out the game, see others for a power level reference.

Unlike most CMC ~10 cards, this doesn't actually do anything to give me an advantage the turn I cast it, or even the first time I activate one of its abilities. Given a CMC 3 planeswalker, this card needs a 17 mana investment just to flicker that planeswalker (exile and cast it again), or 20 mana investment just to tutor and cast it. Before that expense it's a dead card or an elaborate way to weaken my own board state. That's way too much cost for those effects. I can already tutor for a planeswalker for 2W (Call the Gatewatch), letting me tutor and cast that same CMC 3 planeswalker for 6 mana. I can also flicker that planeswalker for 3W (Felidar Guardian) or 1WW (Flickerwisp). Being able to do either and repeatedly at instant speed is worth a mana or two more, but not 20 mana.

The timing is also not great. If I'm at turn 10 with planeswalkers out, it's likely I've already been able to protect them for a few turns and I'm ticking them toward their ultimates which will help me win the game. At this stage it's too late for an effect that helps me flicker planeswalkers. Really, I need to be able to flicker them at turn 4 or 5.

Now, flickering a planeswalker is fairly strong in the early game: it means I can use their loyalty abilities twice per turn, although I can't work toward their ultimate that way. That's a trade-off I make. I would put these effects on a white creature that could tutor a planeswalker out on ETB and could be tapped to flicker them. It wouldn't be the Blind Eternities, but it would do the things this card does in a timely manner. Something like this:

Conjurer of Eternities 3W
Creature — Human Wizard
1/3
When Conjurer of Eternities enters the battlefield, you may search your library for a planeswalker card, reveal it, and put it into your hand.
2W, T: Exile target artifact or planeswalker, then return it to the battlefield under its owner's control.

or

WB, T, Sacrifice Conjurer of Eternities: Exile target nonland permanent. Its owner may cast it for as long as it remains in exile.

Here we got the ambitious desire to reprent within a Magic card the very concept of the Blind Eternities themselves. Recurring things from exile is a "taboo" concept in Magic design (since it would just become a "second graveyard" and not a place to truly banish things forever), but I believe it's kosher to make a self-contained card that brings from exile only the stuff he "bottles", and not any card previously exiled by any means (and no weird exploitations and shenaningans with anything that use exile as a cost) . After all we have several precedents of this (Endless Horizons, Skyship Weatherlight, Parallel Thoughts and so on), so the mechanic of the card is just an extension of that concept.

This card is using exile correctly.

It's not that recurring things from exile is taboo — tons of things do that. Impulsive draw (exile a card from your library and can cast it until end of turn, e.g. Dream Pillager), flicker (Flickerwisp), Oblivion Ring-type effects, and other cards do that.

The idea is that exile is meant to be a holding cell for particular effects or cards. A card is meant to be able to exile something, hold onto it, and reference it later. You've got the above effects plus mechanics like Imprint which do that a lot. When a card can remove any card from exile at all, it breaks those cards, and that's a problem. So a card can interact with cards in exile it put there itself, but not that other cards put there.

It's the kind of design space that's theoretically possible but should be avoided.

They broke the rules majorly for Eldrazi Processors because they wanted Eldrazi to break the rules and feel alien. It didn't go down well, and IIRC Maro considers Processors to be a mistake.

[Lucifer, Sapere Aude]

I don't think this card is playable in its current form. Cards that cost 10 mana should be giving me an overwhelming advantage that help me start to close out the game, see others for a power level reference.

If you read the subsequent posts that's exactly the issue I was talking about. In fact I suggested for a much cheaper version costing WWW in mana cost and 2WW in the activated ability and that should make it fair and playable. Yes, is still slow, but not let us forget that this tutor Planeswalkers - the most powerful card type of all. And repeatedly.

I dont like the idea of the conjurer, not only because a creature is even much more vulnerable to removals compared to an enchantment and is stuck with summoning weakness even in late game, but mainly because we lose completely the idea of transposing to a card the concept of the Blind Eternities -substituded with a mundane and anonymous mage vaguely related-, wich is a huge part of what makes conceptually this card something really iconic and unique - mythic, in the very sense of the word. This card must directly represent what are the Blind Eternities, much like The Great Aurora or The Mending of Dominaria are the symbolic representations of the events themselves.


EDIT: fixed all the costs in first post.