November CCL, Top 8: Double Results

[void_nothing]

CCL November Round 3/Top 8

"Double Results"


Bloodbraid Elf, taken from Pinterest, by Dominick Domingo and Wizards of the Coast

Welcome to the Card Creation League! Everyone is free to participate in either or both of the first two rounds. Come join us!

Theme

It's Classic Deck Archetypes Month in the CCL - and a more specific deck we'll be focusing on, paving the way for decks using high-value midrange creatures today, is Jund!

Challenge

Design a card with cascade that is black, red, and/or green.

Clarifications

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• Make sure to include a rarity.

Contestants
[mention]spacemonaut[/mention]
[mention]Gateways7[/mention]
[mention]Subject16[/mention]
[mention]slimytrout[/mention]
[mention]Ryder[/mention]
[mention]Ink-Treader[/mention]
[mention]barbecube[/mention]
[mention]bravelion83[/mention]

Your submissions are due Thursday, November 21st, 23:59 EST.

Schedule

• Round 1 — Open to Everyone (November 1st–7th)
• Round 2 — Open to Everyone (November 8th–14th)
• Rounds 1 and 2 Critiques (Due November 17th)
• Top 8 — Open to top 8 finishers (November 18th–21st)
• Top 8 Critiques (Due November 23rd)
• Top 4 — Open to top 4 finishers (November 24th–27th)
• Top 4 Critiques (Due November 29th)
• Final (End of month, winner determined by public poll)

[bravelion83]

General comment on Jund and CR change needed for this card to work

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The Standard version of the Jund deck is up to this day my absolute favorite deck that I've ever played in any Standard format. I did it for the whole two years that the deck was viable (aka that Shards of Alara was legal in Standard). Now the Modern version of it is my deck of choice in Modern. 90% of the times that I play Modern it's either that or Naya Burn (a very close second). I'm so excited to design a card for that deck now! And the challenges this month are (I guess intentionally) so open, which gives you plenty of room for your designs but also leaves you with no direction. It's neither a good nor a bad thing, just something I noticed.

I think that the concept of "the spell you cascaded into" is intuitive, but it requires an adjustment to the CR to actually work:
702.84. Cascade
702.84a is the definition of cascade, and that stays as it is.
The current 702.84b ("If a spell has multiple instances of cascade, each triggers separately.") becomes 702.84c. The new 702.84b is:
702.84b Some cards with cascade refer to "the spell you cascated into". That means "the spell that you cast without paying its mana cost while you were resolving the cascade ability of this spell or of the spell that became this permanent as it resolved."

Golden Thrash 1BRG
Creature — Viashino Warrior (M)
Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom of your library in a random order.)
If the spell you cascaded into was multicolored, Golden Thrash enters the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters on it.
Trample, haste
3/3

[slimytrout]

Come XB
Sorcery
Return target creature card with converted mana cost X from your graveyard to the battlefield.
\\\
Go 3R
Sorcery (U)
Cascade
Creatures you control get +1/+0 and gain haste until end of turn.
---
Fuse (You may cast one or both halves of this card from your hand.)

[Ryder]

Mayael, Soul of Naya 1RGW
Legendary Creature — Elf Shaman (M)
Hexproof
Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom of your library in a random order.)
3/3
\\\
Call Upon {r/w}G
Instant — Adventure
Search your library for a creature card with power 5 or greater and reveal that card. Shuffle your library, then put the card on top of it.

[Subject16]

Krosan Summons 3RG
Sorcery (Rare)
Creature Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a creature card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom of your library in a random order.)
Creatures you control and gain trample, haste and "This creature can' t be blocked by more than one creature" until end of turn.
"I call, and Krosa answers."
—Zyd, Kamahlite druid

[Gateways7]

Attendant of Yidris 3BR
Creature - Ogre Warlock (rare)
Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom of your library in a random order.)
When Attendant of Yidris enters the battlefield, you draw a card and you lose 1 life for each card you exiled with it's cascade ability.
4/3

[spacemonaut]

Stormcharger 3RR
Creature — Elemental Beast (R)
Trample, haste
Stormcharger enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each spell cast this turn.
Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom of your library in a random order.)
3/3

(Gatherer notes would include: The number of spells cast this turn is checked as Stormcharger enters the battlefield. If Stormcharger was cast, it will count itself and enter the battlefield with at least one +1/+1 counter.)

[barbecube]

Surging Fluxmage 3UR
Creature — Human Wizard (R)
Cascade
When Surging Fluxmage enters the battlefield, it deals X damage to target player or planeswalker, where X is the number of instant and sorcery cards in your graveyard.
2/2

[Ink-Treader]

Ravenous Surge 2BG
Instant (U)
Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile the top card of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast that card without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom of your library at random.)
Choose a creature you control. It deals damage equal to its power to target creature or planeswalker and you gain that much life.
Flashback 2BR (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)

[void_nothing]

And of course the round is now closed. Please critique and provide a top 3 for all of the other contestants.

[Ink-Treader]

Surprisingly tricky challenge to think about really. Cascade is just so wordy, and kind of difficult to make more interesting (which is fine really, it's pretty interesting all on its own.)

bravelion83

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It's a fine card to be sure, but I've always been rather unfond of such straight forward cards being mythic. At least it's not as egregious as Rowdy Crew

slimytrout

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I like what's going on here, but I feel combining two quirky ways of bolstering Cascade is a mistake. The Fuse interaction is already complicated, and throwing X costs on top is a bit much.

Ryder

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Hi there Woolly Thoctar summoner. And some other cards too. I feel like this should have just been a rare. I do like the cuteness of spending 6 mana to cascade into 5 (or more) power.

Subject16

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I like the idea of narrower Cascade, but am concerned that it being narrower makes it far easier to abuse. Beyond that, it is an interesting way to ensure you get something that benefits from the meat of the spell.

Gateways7

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I almost wanted to say this could be uncommon, but then I realized that spell you cast also gets exiled, and therefor counts. With that in mind, this could be a little confusing, but it's a pretty solid card.

spacemonaut

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A 5/5 with trample and haste is already quite solid value, and it comes with a free spell and a higher ceiling. Part of me wants to see this as a Ball Lightning variant.

barbecube

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Seems alright. Doesn't have to be blue, but that's not an issue. I do like that it makes subtle use of cascade to add some damage to its ETB. The only notable concern might be the ability to come in late and end the game without much interaction.

Top 3

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1. Gateways7
2. bravelion83
3. barbecube

[slimytrout]

Man, a lot of these were bustedly powerful cards. I feel like maybe people forgot just how good a free extra spell is.

bravelion83

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Golden Thrash: This is too strong. If you build your deck right, you're getting a 5/5 trample haste and another spell for only 4 mana – that's nuts. And even if you happen to miss, you're getting a BBE (i.e., one of the strongest midrange creatures ever) that has trample and one more point of toughness in exchange for adding B to the mana cost.

Ryder

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Mayael, Soul of Naya: Unless your deck is built around Woolly Thoctar, Mayael is a weird non-bo with Call Upon. There are fewer than 30 creatures in all of magic that have 5 power in these colors for 3 mana or less, and only about half of them are legal in modern, many with pretty substantial downsides. The card would make a lot more sense if Mayael were one mana more, since that would open up a lot more deckbuilding space. EDIT: After looking through adventure cards more, I'm willing to concede that they don't always have quite as much synergy as I'd thought, so I've reevaluated this.

Subject16

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Krosan Summons: Creature cascade is a much more dangerous mechanic than cascade, since it allows you find exactly one card in your deck while still having spells that cost less than 5 mana. I would be very surprised if this card wasn't very breakable in larger formats.

Gateways7

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Attendant of Yidris: Talking about broken cards. This would be an extremely unfun card if it existed, because virtually none of the possible outcomes lead to fun magic. Worst case, you go through enough cards to kill you from playing it. Second worst case, you get a 4/3 that draws you a card and casts a spell, all for 5 mana and 1 life – i.e., an incredibly good card. Best case, you refill your hand and get a 4/3 and a free spell and you run away with the game. Spikes will particularly despise this because it's so good they have to play it but also so incredibly and obviously random that they'll hate the luck element.

spacemonaut

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Stormcharger: Yet another card that's way too good. Once again, if you compare this to BBE – a card that was once banned in modern due to sheer efficiency – you virtually always get +2/+3 (it counts itself and the card it cascaded into) and trample for just one extra mana. That's an insane deal.

barbecube

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Surging Fluxmage: Okay, this is a more balanced card. It would still be very good in any eternal format, but at least it has a little bit of tension in deck-building to help balance it out – the type of deck that can take advantage of the ETB trigger is one that plays lots of cheap cantrips and burn, but then you're likely to waste a lot of your cascade value. Again, still very strong – could easily represent be a 5-mana 2/2 that deals 8 to their face in an Izzet Phoenix deck – but at least it wouldn't singlehandedly kill control decks in virtually every format.

Ink-Treader

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Ravenous Surge: I like it. It's also a strong card – up to a 4-for-1 if it's set up properly - but it requires some time and setup to do so, unlike many of the other entries, which makes it way more balanced. It does have some weird targeting interactions though, since you have to pick the creature you're damaging but not the creature you control...

T3

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1. Ryder
2. Ink-Treader
3. barbecube

[bravelion83]

Done.

slimytrout

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Come XB
Sorcery
Return target creature card with converted mana cost X from your graveyard to the battlefield.
\\\
Go 3R
Sorcery (U)
Cascade
Creatures you control get +1/+0 and gain haste until end of turn.
---
Fuse (You may cast one or both halves of this card from your hand.)

Obvious right choice not to include reminder text for cascade on a split card, even if this is not a mythic, and not even a rare. This is not technically the correct way to put fuse on a text card (you should just put it at the end of each half of the card instead of using the hyphens to simulate the fuse frame), but let's ignore that. Feeling generous today. Let's also ignore the missing rarity in Come. Yeah, extra generous today! Without cascade, I would have said this card was perfect, each half makes sense by itself and there is extra synergy when fused. Perfect! That's the way fuse cards should be designed. But then... why does this card have cascade? I'm trying to think if there are some interactions I'm missing, which is definitely possible knowing my brain... But I can't see them. Yes, if you cascade into a creature, Go will give it haste, but then Go could have been a monored card by itself, it wouldn't have needed the Come half. Overall, this is a very good fuse design, but I feel like the presence of cascade takes away something from the very elegant fuse design instead of adding to it.

Ryder

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Mayael, Soul of Naya 1RGW
Legendary Creature — Elf Shaman (M)
Hexproof
Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom of your library in a random order.)
3/3
\\\
Call Upon {r/w}G
Instant — Adventure
Search your library for a creature card with power 5 or greater and reveal that card. Shuffle your library, then put the card on top of it.

Well, I didn't expect an Adventure... And if I check with MSE using the same guidelines I've used for the "Adventure" option last month in the MCC, the Adventure itself fits even if just barely, but as for the creature there is no doubt unfortunately. It wouldn't fit in the right half of the Adventure frame. This is exactly the case of a mythic with no room for reminder text, so this is actually the one case when you can (and in the case should) not include reminder text for the non-evergreen keyword (in this case, cascade). But this is a detail, let's go beyond that. Let's go in the order you'd cast them, Call Upon first. It's a creature tutor in green, that's perfect. Let's say we accept the white because of the precedent of Eladamri's Call, which anyway I've never understood why is white. But red? There's no red here. Creature tutoring is just a green ability. There are a few things my Mel eyes really like though. This is an easier to cast Eladamri's Call (thanks to the hybrid mana symbol you can cast this for RG, which you can't do for Eladamri's Call) but with restrictions: the creature goes to the top of the library instead of into your hand, so you'll kinda waste your next draw drawing the creature you tutored for (yes, there are already several tutors in this line of design), and the creature has to have power 5 or greater, which was exactly the Naya mechanic in Shards of Alara. So, both positive and negative points on the Adventure. Now let's look at the creature that goes on that Adventure. Hexproof is certainly green, and cascade in all colors, and the mana cost looks appropriate to me. But again, no red or white. As a whole this does make sense to me, but the paradox is that this could have really just been a monogreen card. Overall, not bad, even though I do feel like the idea is better than the execution here, especially regarding colors.

Subject16

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Krosan Summons 3RG
Sorcery (Rare)
Creature Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a creature card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom of your library in a random order.)
Creatures you control and gain trample, haste and "This creature can' t be blocked by more than one creature" until end of turn.
"I call, and Krosa answers."
—Zyd, Kamahlite druid

Ok, typecascade (provided that's its name, I'm just using the pattern of typecycling) is very intuitive. I know what it did even before reading the reminder text, which is very good. It means this card is extremely easy to grok. Too bad the word "cascade shouldn't be capitalized, but I've said I feel generous today... As for the second ability, I think that trample and haste would have been enough. Yes, the "only one blocker" ability is green, but it feels kind of win-more to me in a way. Maybe you could even have just haste without trample either, after all that's what the creature you cascade into wants. And haste is already an ability red and green share, so yes, it could have been by itself even in a RG card. Nothing to say about the flavor. It's good. Overall, a very easy card to understand and very intuitive, but that maybe does a little bit too much in the second ability? I don't know...

Gateways7

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Attendant of Yidris 3BR
Creature - Ogre Warlock (rare)
Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom of your library in a random order.)
When Attendant of Yidris enters the battlefield, you draw a card and you lose 1 life for each card you exiled with it's cascade ability.
4/3

So, Yidris was the creature with double cascade, right? Let me check... *checks on Gatherer* Oh, good thing I did. No, it's not that. That's a non-W 5/4 trample that gives cascade to your spells for the rest of the turn when it connects. Ok. If Yidris is every color but W, it makes total sense that his attendant is the two enemy colors of W and the two central colors of that 4-color combination at the same time. Yidris is an Ogre (even though is doesn't really look one to me in the art... but what matters is the type line), and his attendant is too. Good. And the ETB trigger interacts with cascade very nicely, as cascade is on cast instead. And then... AHHH!!! *screams in pain* NOOO!!! Why? Once more the wrong one in the eternal struggle of "its" versus "it's". Really, is it that hard?
"Leo, weren't you feeling extra generous today?"
Yes, brain, I was, but... Ok, let's ignore that too. But beware! You're asking me a huge effort, brain!
"I know. Just do it. Leo, listen to me! They. Used. The right. One!"
*breathes heavily* No, they didn't but... Ok, brain. Let's end it here. It won't be a typo to ruin an otherwise very good card... *Leo's breath slowly goes back to normal* Ok, moving on!
(It's being able to write things like this that makes me feel like I've grown so much as a self-taught writer.)

spacemonaut

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Stormcharger 3RR
Creature — Elemental Beast (R)
Trample, haste
Stormcharger enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each spell cast this turn.
Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom of your library in a random order.)
3/3

(Gatherer notes would include: The number of spells cast this turn is checked as Stormcharger enters the battlefield. If Stormcharger was cast, it will count itself and enter the battlefield with at least one +1/+1 counter.)

Yes, those are both correct. But I really think that a shortened form of that should have been included as reminder text after the third ability (trample is the first, haste is the second, cascade the fourth, mind to count abilities in the correct way). But I have a hunch you had to include them as Gatherer rulings because the reminder text for cascade (that's rightly there) is so long that it wouldn't have fit. Let me check in MSE... *checks* Yes, one line max of reminder text would have fit. How can you condense all of that in one single line? I have no problem with the design of this card, but the fact that you had to include those extra rulings is probably a clue that this card is a little too complicated, especially for beginners? I guess so...

barbecube

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Surging Fluxmage 3UR
Creature — Human Wizard (R)
Cascade
When Surging Fluxmage enters the battlefield, it deals X damage to target player or planeswalker, where X is the number of instant and sorcery cards in your graveyard.
2/2

I've just checked in MSE to be sure, but I already knew before doing that: here there is all the room you need to include reminder text for cascade (you don't wanna know how I was about to spell it by typing fast...), especially without flavor text, so it should have definitely been there. It's 9 lines and one break if you add it in. Still well within limits. Uhm... ok, I've just read the second ability. Sure. That works and fits the colors, but... I don't see the interaction with cascade. I expected that. As is the two abilities are each fine in a vacuum, but they feel disconnected to me when put together. I've got no other problems with this card except for these (the missing reminder text and the abilities feeling disconnected.

Ink-Treader

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Ravenous Surge 2BG
Instant (U)
Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile the top card of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast that card without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom of your library at random.)
Choose a creature you control. It deals damage equal to its power to target creature or planeswalker and you gain that much life.
Flashback 2BR (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)

This is another card that would have been perfect as is without cascade, and actually very interesting. Finding an ability that makes sense in two different color pairs sharing a color isn't an easy task, yet you managed it perfectly. Red and green both have one-sided fight and the black is for draining. Now, the problem is not that this has cascade, actually the interaction between cascade and flashback is also very interesting, but... Cascading once is already a pretty good bonus. Cascading twice is just too much at uncommon. This has to be rare at the very least. I see no realistic way that this card could be printed at uncommon. Too bad. If this card would have been rare, it probably would have gotten my first place pretty easily... But not as an uncommon. I'm sorry.

Top 3 (Wow, that's a really hard choice this time... I wish I could just put everybody in... The little details make the difference here. They are the tiebreaker.)

1st place: Subject16 (typecascade is so intuitive but also original)
2nd place: Ink-Treader (a very interesting card, if it had been actually rare I think the first and second place would have been swapped)
3rd place: slimytrout (in my opinion, the closest one to printable as is among the others)

(virtual 4th place: everybody else. Really, people, very good job this round in my opinion.)

[Gateways7]

Crits

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bravelion83 - This is a really interesting use of cascade, and I think the theory of having effects based on what you cascade into is really cool, if not a little uninspired on the card itself. Seems pretty powerful though, as a 4-mana 5/5 trample haste and an additional spell is suuuuuuper broken.
slimytrout - While trying to make your cascade cost higher using an X cost is an interesting concept, I think that it would be incredibly confusing for newer players to determine how to determine what the converted mana cost of spells you can hit off of the cascade effect (I had trouble with it myself.) This is the kind of card that works better as a concept than a printable effect, in my opinion.
Ryder - I like the adventure on this card a lot as a reference to the old Naya mechanic, and Mayael itself seems like a pretty fine card. Probably the most printable and fair out of all the cards in the contest.
Subject16 - I don't like Creature Cascade (especially in terms of the contest, as it's not really cascade), as it seems like a less interesting and variant version of cascade, who's entire purpose is variance. If the card had normal cascade, I would have really liked it. Good balance, though.
spacemonaut - I love playing off of the idea that cascade lets you cast multiple spells in a turn, and allows you to go further with other spells or even other cascade spells in the same turn. It is too powerful though, as it's a 5 mana 5/5 trample haste plus another spell at minimum.
barbecube - This is a pretty cool card, and I think that it's interesting to have a card that wants you to hit an instant or sorcery to get big damage off.
Ink-Treader - This seems pretty powerful, especially because you get two cascade triggers, two fight spells, and two instances of lifegain. Also, why is the main cost GB but the flashback cost BR? It doesn't really make sense to me.

T3

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1. Ryder
2. bravelion83
3. barbecube

[spacemonaut]

Critiques

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bravelion83 (Golden Thrash)
I like the "what you cascade into matters" thing you're going for here and this uses it well. Whatever set this card has probably has lots of two- or three-color going on, so Multicolor Matters works great as a theme.

slimytrout (Come // Go)
So this lets you Cascade at an arbitrarily high number if you fuse it. Clever! The two halves work well independently and together.

Ryder (Mayael, Soul of Naya // Call Upon)
I like what you're doing here with the Adventure --> Anima, and I'm thinking of Woolly Throctar as I read this card as one of the cmc-3 power-5 options I could get out if I cast Mayael the same turn. Otherwise, Call Upon just supports any other Cascade card I might be holding onto, or just gets me creatures to play.

Subject16 (Krosan Summons)
Creature cascade is a nice development, and this spell works really nicely! 10/10 would play it.

Gateways7 (Attendant of Yidris)
Pretty shiny card advantage mechanic. At CMC 5 it would take some luck to draw a large number of cards, but it'll sometimes have its explosive moments if I hit a land clump. Looks like it'd be fun to take for a spin.

barbecube (Surging Fluxmage)
This looks made for a deck high on instants/sorceries to cascade into, to hopefully amp up X by 1 or 2 by the time Surging Fluxmage hits the battlefield. I like what you're going for here and it's nice package deal.

Ink-Treader (Ravenous Surge)
It took a moment to click together how this was working with Cascade: if I get lucky, I might cascade into a better creature to choose to perform the bite. I like the design, and this is an effect I'd enjoy seeing even without cascade or flashback stapled on. Good call making the flashback cost the same CMC as the original cost; that will help newbies avoid confusion.

Top 3

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Y'all made it pretty difficult to pick and choose for a top 3. I enjoyed all of your designs. You all made some good inventive choices and made cards I'd enjoy playing.

1. Subject16
2. Ryder
3. barbecube

[Ryder]

Crits

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bravelion83 - Cascade into is a very clever and natural design. But I was an active player in the Bloodbraid Elf era in standard. This is so much stronger, it would warrant an early emergency ban.

slimytrout - I love how Go has a different Cascade effect than Come&Go. Looks very well balanced, since paying more for Come doesn't affect the cmc. Good work.

Gateways7 - Attendant of Yidris has some rules issues with the second ability (not sure if that wording would work), but overall a quite reasonable (in relation to others' designs) Rare. Still extremely strong, but sane.

Subject16 - While Creature Cascade seems like a nice variant, it allows some broken stuff to happen, like you could make it tutor the only creature you have in your deck. To the battlefield. With haste. I'm not sure what to think about it. If it wasn't for this, I would give your card 10/10.

spacemonaut - Basically 5/5 trample haste... this alone warrants 5 cmc, and you add cascade, which tosses all the balance through the window. Would be much nicer as a 3cmc 0/0.

barbecube - Well balanced, I like how you don't allow it to hit creatures, which might be slightly too much considering cascade.

Ink-Treader - Reusable removal with lifegain and with cascade. At uncommon. Extremely powerful. Way too good, even if it was a Rare.

Top 3

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1. slimytrout
2. barbecube
3. Gateways7

[void_nothing]

[mention]Subject16[/mention] and [mention]barbecube[/mention] - you have another day to get in your critiques and T3s (normally with six out of eight sets of critiques I'd just move on, but unfortunately the current result is kind of unfair and kind of... unusual).

[barbecube]

Sorry, I was on vacation! Critiques incoming.

And done!

Crits

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bravelion83: I'm a bit leery of cards that require CR changes but, ok.

slimytrout: There must be something clever about this that I'm missing.

Ryder: I can't imagine this being printed. Adventure and cascade together is a really high degree of complexity.

Subject16: Again I'm a little leery of rules changes that are required to make a card work. This is pretty compelling, though.

Gateways7: This is a really interesting use of cascade.

spacemonaut: I really like this!

Ink-Treader: The interaction with cascade here is really pleasing.

Top 3

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1. Ink-Treader
2. spacemonaut
3. Subject16

[Subject16]

bravelion83

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Interesting way to check the cascade spell. It's decent without the cascade check and very powerful with it. If it weren't for Rowdy Crew I'd say this should probably be rare.

slimytrout

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It's almost a shame that this doesn't put the card on top of the library instead of straight to the battlefield, but cascade from the graveyard is great.

Ryder

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I do like this card, but it's hard to get Mayael and Call Upon to synergize as there aren't that many 5+ power creatures with CMC 3 or less. Hexproof is nice, but it probably takes up extra word spacing.

Gateways7

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Oh this can be a nasty spell. Definitely a worthwile curve topper and can replenish your hand extraordinarily well under the right circumstances. I like it a lot, but it might be too good to get a free spell, a 4/3 AND potential card draws for only five mana.

spacemonaut

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So on its own, it's a five mana 5/5 trample and haste that gives you a free spell as well. That's quite powerful I find, especially at that cost and in mono red. I like the design idea behind it though.

barbecube

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I like how you ideally want to cascade into an instant or sorcery, but there's no certainty behind it. A 2/2 that potentially kills something when it hits the board is good value, and at 5 mana you're mainly playing it for the cascade.

Ink-Treader

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Flashback and Cascade is interesting, but I don't know how I feel about needing a target to cast the spell each time. It is cool that you can potentially choose the creature you cascaded into though. I'm not sure if the flashback feels especially BR either, especially with the life gain.

Top 3

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1. Gateways7
2. Bravelion83
3. Ink-Treader

[void_nothing]

And here are your top 4!

Ink-Treader
Ryder
Gateways7
Subject16

Round to come soon.