NEXUS FLAMINGO ☆ Exclusively For Custom Card Connoisseurs and Gnomes

[Megiddo]

AI Ball 2U
Artifact Creature - Equipment Eye {R}
At the beginning of your upkeep, scry 1. If you put a card on the bottom of your library this way, put a +1/+1 counter on equipped creature.
Reconfigure 1
0/3

IIW: fun and exciting bureaucracy (wow this is the first time in my life I spelled that word correctly on the first try)

[Mergatroid_Jones]

Dearly Beloved 5W
Creature- Human Noble (U)
When Dearly Beloved enters the battlefield, gain 5 life and draw a card.
2/5
//////
Search for the Slipper 2R
Instant- Adventure
Discard a card, then draw a card. You may repeat the process up to twice.

The Woodcutter's Sons 3GG
Creature- Human Warrior (U)
Trample
When The Woodcutter's Sons enters the battlefield, create 2 1/1 white Human Peasant creature tokens.
2/2
//////
Youngest Son's Quest G
Sorcery- Adventure
Creatures you control enter the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter this turn.

IIW: Eldraine

[Megiddo]

oh disturbed is good. pretend I made a disturbed card too.

[spacemonaut]

what a good disturbed card you made, meg. didn't think of doing that with the mechanic

[void_nothing]

what a good disturbed card you made, meg. didn't think of doing that with the mechanic

It's really down with the sickness

[Megiddo]

thanks, I try.

[Stapler]

i couldn't pick just one

Ruffles, Guild Mascot 3
Legendary Creature - Giant Dog (R)
Companion — Your starting deck contains at least four separate full parties. (A party consists of up to one each of Cleric, Rogue, Warrior, and Wizard.)
Ruffles, Guild Mascot enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each creature in your party.
Whenever a Cleric, Rogue, Warrior, or Wizard you control dies, you may remove a +1/+1 counter from Ruffles. If you do, return that card to the battlefield under your control.
3/3

IIW: stop time

[wizyard]

Flumaflid 1UG
Creature - Frog Mutant (U)
Flash
Gating - When Flumaflid enters the battlefield, return a creature that shares a color with Flumaflid to its owner's hand.
You may cast creature spells as though they had flash.
4/3

iiw: old school video games

[NinjaCaterpie]

As I am a benevolent judge, I will only be judging the merit of your cards and not your taste in mechanics.

Unless it's really bad.

SPOILER

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Fated Recovery WB
Sorcery (R)
Casualty 2
Return a creature or planeswalker card with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.

iiw: Bards

Interesting. The natural extension of Dig Up The Body, right? The fact that this doesn't target means you can, like Dig Up, bring back the creature you sacrificed, right? Can make some cute plays in an aristocrats deck, and the stretch into white fits well, too.

Forgive me.

Eerily Quiet Grove
Land (R)
T: Add .
T: Add {G}. Eerily Quiet Grove deals 1 damage to you.
Daybound
===============
Nepenthes Yateveo
Land Creature - Swamp Forest Island Plant {BGU}
(T: Add , , or )
Reach
Nightbound
1/2


Tropical Sporefall
2{G}{G}
Sorcery (M)
Cleave {G}{G}{G}
Search your library for up to two [Forest] nonartifact permanent cards, put them into your graveyard, then shuffle.
Return up to two [Forest] nonartifact permanent cards from your graveyard to the battlefield [tapped].


IIW: Unconventional Oozes

Eerily Quiet Grove: Interesting and flavorful, but I dislike that it can't tap for mana when you play it during the night. Probably exacerbated a bit by the perpetual day/night and associated memory issues.
Tropical Sporefall: The baseline version seems a bit cheap for what it does, but it's an exciting card overall. Honestly doesn't even need the nonartifact (it's probably in the wrong place as well) since you've made it full Sultai colors.

Travelling Mimic 2w
Creature - Shapeshifter
Mutate 2WW
First Strike
Whenever this creature mutates, venture into the dungeon.
Mimics hide in plain sight, able to attack at a moment's notice. This variety, however, will choose to hitch a ride on other monsters if they are around.
2/3

IIW: The wolves are at the door

oh man, this is two very linear mechanics joined to become... even more linear. Cute and flavourful, though mechanically not super inspiring. Can only imagine this being very difficult to make playable, though...

Endless Cycles of Ash 1BB
Enchantment- Saga (R)
I: Each player sacrifices a nonland permanent and discards a card.
II: Each player loses 2 life and and exiles two cards from their graveyard.
III: Exile this saga, then return it to the battlefield transformed under your control.
/////\\\\\
Ashborn of Akuta
Enchantment Creature- Spirit
Haste
Sacrifice two swamps: Return Ashborn of Akuta to its owner's hand.
4/2


IIW: Be a griefer. But not TOO much.

I like this. The first ability is big, but because it's a Saga it's forced to be mostly symmetrical - clever. The recursion is interesting but costly, so it's probably not too abusable (and dies to removal!). I don't typically like griefing cards, but it's definitely a cleanly assembled grief.

Draftwinds Wizardt 2U
Creature - Human Wizard
Flying
Draft Draftwinds Wizard face up.
As you draft an instant or sorcery card, you may remove it from the draft face up. Cards removed from the draft this way are part of Draftwinds Wizard's Spellbook. (It isn't in your card pool.)
When Draftwinds Student enters the battlfield, draft a card form Draftwinds Wizard's Spellbook.
1/2

Draftwind's Spellbook

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Updraft
Just the Wind
One With the Wind

IIW: Cards that Play with the draft

getting semantic satiation from the word "draft". I like the idea of it - especially nice with a few sideboardy cards that make the wizard a toolbox. Having some (bad) cards already in the spellbook helps balance too, though I can imagine it feeling bad if you throw a few cards in the spellbook and get shown the three default ones lol

Wait, is surveil recent enough?

Concoct a Plot
{U}{B}
Sorcery (U)
Surveil 2, then you draw a card and lose 1 life. Choose a card in your graveyard. You may play that card this turn. If a spell cast from your graveyard this way would be put into your graveyard, exile it instead. Exile Concoct a Plot.


IIW: Unconventional Oozes

2018 is a bit of a while ago. I was more thinking things in Standard, or maybe that rotated last cycle.
Is it just me, or this Expressive Iteration but in Dimir and probably more juiced because it fills your grave and can flashback anything? Believe it or not, it's banned in Pioneer and it's pretty cracked.

I'm assuming Amonkhet isn't "recent", so my favorite recent mechanic is ward. Shroud is, apparently, unintuitive, and hexproof can die in a fire.

Theoretical Biologist GG
Creature — Elf Shaman (U)
Ward—Sacrifice a token permanent
When Theoretical Biologist enters the battlefield, each player investigates.
T: Add G for each token you control.
2/2

IIW: Suspend

That's cute. Gives them a card or lets them kill it. Definitely an interesting extension to ward, though effectiveness would vary a lot based on what you're facing. In practice, it feels like this would give a bit too much value for an uncommon, but I guess it depends on the kind of format you have.

It's not exactly a groundbreaking mechanic, but I really enjoyed Boast.


Immersturm Raider 1BR
Creature — Vampire Berserker (R)
Trample, menace
Immersturm Raider can't block.
Boast — 5BR: Target opponent loses life equal to the amount of life they've lost this turn. (Activate only if this creature attacked this turn and only once each turn.)
"And we left the rest with a message to send home!"
4/3


IIW: Player counters (experience, poison, etc)

A fun thing to throw on a Boaster. As a card, it seems kinda fun, though expensive enough that you can't play around with other boasters

Though, diving into the design philosophies a bit, I think boast is most interesting when it's not just a damage trigger with a cost but rather plays around with how you think about combat. Ones you can activate during combat add an extra dimension, but even the simplicity of having an ability that you can activate even without landing your creature (ie. send it into certain death just to activate boast) can add interesting dimensions. This doesn't really make use of boast at all - the ability is (mostly) unusable until after combat, and the creature can't block anyway.

AI Ball 2U
Artifact Creature - Equipment Eye {R}
At the beginning of your upkeep, scry 1. If you put a card on the bottom of your library this way, put a +1/+1 counter on equipped creature.
Reconfigure 1
0/3

IIW: fun and exciting bureaucracy (wow this is the first time in my life I spelled that word correctly on the first try)

Interesting. I struggle a little to see why you'd want to keep this as a creature - though I suppose like The Reality Chip it's almost more of a downside Reminds me of that card a little, and I like the kinda connive-ish twist to scry.

Dearly Beloved 5W
Creature- Human Noble (U)
When Dearly Beloved enters the battlefield, gain 5 life and draw a card.
2/5
//////
Search for the Slipper 2R
Instant- Adventure
Discard a card, then draw a card. You may repeat the process up to twice.

The Woodcutter's Sons 3GG
Creature- Human Warrior (U)
Trample
When The Woodcutter's Sons enters the battlefield, create 2 1/1 white Human Peasant creature tokens.
2/2
//////
Youngest Son's Quest G
Sorcery- Adventure
Creatures you control enter the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter this turn.

IIW: Eldraine

Dearly Beloved is very nice. Excellently flavourful take on the old fairytale and a nice amount of card advantage / selection for a RW deck.
The Woodcutter's Sons feels a bit off. The power difference between spending one extra G and not is immense, and it's hard to imagine ever casting this without the adventure on the same turn.

oh disturbed is good. pretend I made a disturbed card too.

Love this one. Really makes use of the mechanic and I like the way it plays with other disturb cards, even though it's not in typical disturb colors. Might be a little strong in limited, but I could see wizards printing this the next time we see disturb.

i couldn't pick just one

Ruffles, Guild Mascot 3
Legendary Creature - Giant Dog (R)
Companion — Your starting deck contains at least four separate full parties. (A party consists of up to one each of Cleric, Rogue, Warrior, and Wizard.)
Ruffles, Guild Mascot enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each creature in your party.
Whenever a Cleric, Rogue, Warrior, or Wizard you control dies, you may remove a +1/+1 counter from Ruffles. If you do, return that card to the battlefield under your control.
3/3

IIW: stop time

This better be ironic.

It's a bit unclear to me whether the companion clause require a 4 differently named cards or if a playset of one full party enough. The card is fun though and delves into some interesting space with party. I'm not sure if it's a particularly good design to make such a linear companion, but maybe that's actually better than the generic jam-them-everywhere ones that we got...

Flumaflid 1UG
Creature - Frog Mutant (U)
Flash
Gating - When Flumaflid enters the battlefield, return a creature that shares a color with Flumaflid to its owner's hand.
You may cast creature spells as though they had flash.
4/3

iiw: old school video games

erm, do you live in an alternative timeline? The card is interesting (and has some neat tricks with "in response to the trigger, flash in ..."), but I'm not sure this fits the challenge.

Winner: Mergatroid_Jones
Next: Be a griefer. But not TOO much.

[Sporegorger_Dragon]

Eerily Quiet Grove: Interesting and flavorful, but I dislike that it can't tap for mana when you play it during the night. Probably exacerbated a bit by the perpetual day/night and associated memory issues.

But the backside does tap for mana, it's a Swamp Forest Island land creature. Or do you mean the backside can't tap for mana the turn it comes into play? A fair trade-off that I think is in line with the other lands that tap for 3+ colors of mana; they enter the battlefield tapped.

Honestly doesn't even need the nonartifact (it's probably in the wrong place as well) since you've made it full Sultai colors.

I really didn't want players searching up Mindslaver. EDIT: Although now that I think of it, the cleave cost needs to be upped because this thing can search out and put Eldrazi titans and Karn/Ugin/Bolas planeswalkers into play, or bring back two Karn/Ugin/Bolas planeswalkers from the graveyard.

[Megiddo]

does wizards still print griefer cards?

[chetoos]

Narset, Parter of Veils 1UU
Legendary Planeswalker - Narset
Each opponent can't draw more than one card each turn.
-2 - Look at the top four cards of your library. You may reveal a noncreature, nonland card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
5


IIW: Don't

[Sporegorger_Dragon]

Vicious Dandân
{U}{R}
Creature - Fish (U)
Whenever Vicious Dandân deals combat damage to a player, that player gains control of Vicious Dandân.
Whenever Vicious Dandân becomes the target of a spell, that spell's controller gains control of Vicious Dandân.
Creatures you control not named Vicious Dandân get -3/-0.
4/1


IIW: A more fair Emrakul

[Ulka]

Taxation Enforcer W
Creature - Gnome Soldier (M)
The first spell each players casts each turn costs 1 more to cast.
2/1

IIW: Atogs are back

[wizyard]

Curse of Grief 4B
Enchantment - Aura Curse (R)
Enchant player
Whenever enchanted player casts a spell, that player sacrifices a permanent unless they exile a card from their graveyard.


iiw: sagas from earth

[Megiddo]

Ryuki, the Earthcracker R
Legendary Creature — Spirit {M}
When Ryuki, the Earthcracker enters the battlefield, each player sacrifices a permanent.
2/1

IIW: telepathy

[Juancu]

Germude Arati, Stern Aunt 2B
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor (U)
When Germude dies or you grieve for this card, target opponent discards a card.
Grief 2B (If this card is in your graveyard, as a sorcery, you may pay all grief costs in your graveyard, then discard a card. When you do, exile your graveyard and grieve for those cards. )
2/2

Grief is like jump-start, but you can grieve for many cards with a single discard. And if the card you discard has grief, you get to grieve for it for free.

IIW: finally complete

[Cythare]

Thought Police B
Creature — Human Soldier (R)
Whenever Thought Police deals combat damage to a player, you may discard a nonland card. When you do, defending player reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card. You lose 2 life.
2/1

IIW: Suspend

[lookingupanddown]

Burning Leylines 1RR
Enchantment
Nonbasic lands enter the battlefield tapped and have "Whenever this land is tapped, it deals 1 damage to its controller."
Whenever an opponent sacrifices a nobasic land, you may pay RR and discard a card. If you do, draw two cards.
"It was my last trip to Zendikar that taught me how some wilder forms of mana can leave a lasting impression on one's ability to draw it. Of course I'd test it out on you!"
—Tibalt

Port Authority 1WWW
Creature - Human Advisor
Flash
Whenever an opponent would draw a card except the first one they draw in each of their draw steps, instead you create a Treasure token.
, Exile five Treasures: Port Authority phases out until end of turn.
"I must remind you that taxes here are measured based on percentages, not merely a set amount. We'll need to take... much more."
3/2

IIW: ally-color partners (regular partner, not partner with)

[Mergatroid_Jones]

I'll judge some time this evening (it's morning here now).

[Ulka]

I'll judge some time this evening (it's morning here now).

YEA IT IS!

Morning by the Lake 1WUG
Enchantment
It is Day. It can't become Night.
At the beginning of each players upkeep, you gain life equal to the number of creatures you control.
Creatures can't attack.

IIW: DON'T

[Megiddo]

oh i have a good one

Wildgrowth Scion 4GG
Creature — Treefolk {R}
Hexproof
When Wildgrowth Scion enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you don't control.
Creatures you don't control have graft.
2GG: Create a 1/1 green Saproling creature token.
4/5

IIW: A new form of magic

[Mergatroid_Jones]

Cards

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Narset, Parter of Veils 1UU
Legendary Planeswalker - Narset
Each opponent can't draw more than one card each turn.
-2 - Look at the top four cards of your library. You may reveal a noncreature, nonland card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
5


IIW: Don't

There's something familiar here.

Vicious Dandân
{U}{R}
Creature - Fish (U)
Whenever Vicious Dandân deals combat damage to a player, that player gains control of Vicious Dandân.
Whenever Vicious Dandân becomes the target of a spell, that spell's controller gains control of Vicious Dandân.
Creatures you control not named Vicious Dandân get -3/-0.
4/1


IIW: A more fair Emrakul

Fun fact: Dandan is the name or more than one individual in the Thousand One Nights. I kept thinking "hey why isn't this dude turning into a fish monster?"

Egads, that last ability is some serious grief. Luckily this 4/1 is pretty easy to kill. Hold on, does the change in ownership cause the spell to whiff? Surely not. A control deck is very happy to sit there and not attack with this, and even if it gets stolen, they are fine with letting the rest of the creatures be tiny.

This is griefy. But it's quite answerable, so it's not TOO griefy.

Taxation Enforcer W
Creature - Gnome Soldier (M)
The first spell each players casts each turn costs 1 more to cast.
2/1

IIW: Atogs are back

Yuck! Blech! Ptooey! That's so mean, but so symmetrical. It's like a way more scary Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. My issue with this card isn't the design, it's the meta. There's no way this card doesn't warp formats in some way. And yet, I can't really say the balance is wrong.

Curse of Grief 4B
Enchantment - Aura Curse (R)
Enchant player
Whenever enchanted player casts a spell, that player sacrifices a permanent unless they exile a card from their graveyard.


iiw: sagas from earth

This is most similar to Painful Quandary. But by the time you're dropping a five-drop, the opponent probably has some stock in their graveyard to use (which is the opposite of Painful Quandary, which benefits from hands being emptied by then). Used together with grave hoses, I could see this being very cruel. But by itself, it's kinda tame.

Ryuki, the Earthcracker R
Legendary Creature — Spirit {M}
When Ryuki, the Earthcracker enters the battlefield, each player sacrifices a permanent.
2/1

IIW: telepathy

This is an upgraded version of the following card:

Cardname R
Sorcery
Target player sacrifices a permanent.

Frankly, I don't feel like that card is very red. The only really red thing about it is that it usually acts as a one mana Stone Rain in the early game. And that's not a good thing.

Germude Arati, Stern Aunt 2B
Legendary Creature - Human Advisor (U)
When Germude dies or you grieve for this card, target opponent discards a card.
Grief 2B (If this card is in your graveyard, as a sorcery, you may pay all grief costs in your graveyard, then discard a card. When you do, exile your graveyard and grieve for those cards. )
2/2

Grief is like jump-start, but you can grieve for many cards with a single discard. And if the card you discard has grief, you get to grieve for it for free.

IIW: finally complete

This is not what I expected from grief. But it's a pretty neat idea. The main thing I don't like is that it's so similar to jump-start. But tying it to permanents rather than non-permanents answers that issue pretty nicely. Neat little mechanic. I like it.

Despite the name of the ability, this card itself is not that much of a griefer. That's why I'm giving it the HM instead of the win.

Thought Police B
Creature — Human Soldier (R)
Whenever Thought Police deals combat damage to a player, you may discard a nonland card. When you do, defending player reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card. You lose 2 life.
2/1

IIW: Suspend

Another scary 2/1 for 1. Since when was grief so aggro focused? Yeah, this is pretty damn scary. Everybody and their uncle would be scrambling to jam it into their cubes. But gee shucks, it's not a card I'd like to see exist.

Burning Leylines 1RR
Enchantment
Nonbasic lands enter the battlefield tapped and have "Whenever this land is tapped, it deals 1 damage to its controller."
Whenever an opponent sacrifices a nobasic land, you may pay RR and discard a card. If you do, draw two cards.
"It was my last trip to Zendikar that taught me how some wilder forms of mana can leave a lasting impression on one's ability to draw it. Of course I'd test it out on you!"
—Tibalt

Port Authority 1WWW
Creature - Human Advisor
Flash
Whenever an opponent would draw a card except the first one they draw in each of their draw steps, instead you create a Treasure token.
, Exile five Treasures: Port Authority phases out until end of turn.
"I must remind you that taxes here are measured based on percentages, not merely a set amount. We'll need to take... much more."
3/2

IIW: ally-color partners (regular partner, not partner with)

I'm a big fan of Burning Leylines. Nonbasic land hate is always a nice place to put grief, since the decks that are ruined by it knew full well that they were leaving themselves open to that kind of hate. It was a calculated risk, and this is what they got for it. Compared to Back to Basics, this is nothing.

For Port Authority, I think Wizards has learned their lesson. No more of that Windfall skullduggery. It's not fun, it's frankly not a very clever way to build a deck. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about the concept of turning people's extra draws off. But I'm tired of the main mode being Wheel of Fortune effects.

Morning by the Lake 1WUG
Enchantment
It is Day. It can't become Night.
At the beginning of each players upkeep, you gain life equal to the number of creatures you control.
Creatures can't attack.

IIW: DON'T

It turns out my deck needs to attack with creatures to win.

oh i have a good one

Wildgrowth Scion 4GG
Creature — Treefolk {R}
Hexproof
When Wildgrowth Scion enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you don't control.
Creatures you don't control have graft.
2GG: Create a 1/1 green Saproling creature token.
4/5

IIW: A new form of magic

I'm a little puzzled here. Graft is an upside. A 4/5 hexproof that makes saprolings is good, and hexproof is indeed an intensely griefy ability, but this has such a benefit to the opponent that it's more group-hug than grief.

Winner and next

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Winner: Sporegorger Dragon
HM: JuanCu for a not-so-griefy grief ability and Lookingupanddown for Burning Leylines
Next: A more fair Emrakul

[Mergatroid_Jones]

The Moon Heron 0
Legendary Creature- Eldrazi
Kicker
Flying
When The Moon Heron would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, instead put it into your library thirteenth from the top.
When you cast The Moon Heron, if it was kicked, you get an additional upkeep step followed by an additional draw step after this phase.
The Moon Heron enters the battlefield with 9 +1/+1 counters if it was kicked.
0/1

IIW: Sweet combat tricks

[Megiddo]

to explain my second entry (and slightly date myself) i leave you this link: https://magic.wizards.com/en/mtgo/advanced