Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Spotlight Challenge 3 Initial Review—Devin E. Green

Here's the challenge Devin E. Green is taking lead on:

Design six cards that inject a clear flavor-identity into a returning mechanic—either by adding flavor where there is none (ala cycling), or by re-branding a returning mechanic (ala chroma and devotion). Include at least two commons, one uncommon, and one rare or mythic. Include at least two colors.

Devin was split on two directions, so he's submitted two (smaller) mechanics. Let's see how this goes.


Remember champion (see Mistbind Clique and friends)? That you couldn't play a champion without another creature in play caused the mechanic to suffer from one of auras' two biggest problems. Champion was worse, actually, because even if you had a creature in play, you wouldn't always want to replace it with your champion, and most of the champions could only replace creatures of a particular tribe.

Synthesis does away with the unnecessary tribal element, and is entirely optional. You can play Ambush Plasm without any other creatures in play, and if you do have some, you can still choose not to exile one. So why would you? A 3/3 is more valuable against a zombie horde than a pair of 2/2s, so that counter might be worthwhile. You could also block a Frost Ogre, trade your Plasm for it, but get your Runeclaw Bear back afterword.

You can also use synthesis (just as you could champion) to flicker your Duplicant or Palinchron, but unlike champion, you don't risk permanently losing your target if an opponent Murders your Plasm in response, thanks to the updated Banisher Priest template.

Ambush Plasm's flash allows you to 'save' a creature that was about to die, either from combat damage or removal (including Damnation). That's more of a white thing nowadays, but if synthesis is in blue—and this submission suggests it's primary in blue—Plasm seems quite reasonable.


Cephaloweft is much wordier despite being common, but that'll happen sometimes. This squid gives you a free Unsummon, whether you synthesize or not. For +{1}, Aether Adept gains flying and the option to be -1/-0 or +0/+1 depending on our ability and inclination to exile another of our own creatures. That's a bit better, but still reasonable power-wise, I think. Given the lack of set context that shows we need flying, though, I might leave that off to simplify this common.


Zameck Vitagor is green-blue Hill Giant that really wants you to synthesize, and cares what you synthesize. My dream scenario is to eat a Coiling Oracle, getting a 4/4 flying vigilance fungus that will net more card advantage when it dies. This is probably fine power-level.

On one hand, the conditional abilities have pretty good flavor and seem fairly natural for synthesis. On the other, they make the option of not synthesizing (or of synthesizing the wrong thing) unappealing to the point where you'll likely feel bad when you can't, which defeats a little of the advantage synthesis has over champion.


Add a green requirement to Clone's cost, and you get synthesis 4 as a bonus. Zonotic Mimic shows that we will see synthesis higher than 1 and I'd love to see a french vanilla example too, as those tend to illustrate a mechanics worth best of all. How good is synthesis 4? Probably pretty good. It's not exactly Magical Christmas Land to imagine exiling a creature smaller than 4/4 to net positive power. On a Clone, it's even better, because cloning your opponent's best creature often creates a stalemate, but Mimic can trump that creature and swing the game heavily in your favor. It could do that almost as often with synthesis 1, so I have to wonder if we should save synthesis 4 for a card where that's not true (or how fair Mimic is), but it's not necessarily a problem.

I like the choice to make synthesis appear in green and blue. The flavor's weird, but perfectly Simic. It's a very good sign for the mechanic that I have half a dozen ideas how to use it already.




Unearth returns unchanged from Grixis, except in application. Instead of appearing exclusively on creatures like Shambling Remains, it appears exclusively on artifacts here.

In a vacuum, Glittering Totem is a terrible example of this, since it's a card that will almost never leave the battlefield once it's there. Until you start thinking about older formats where it's a colorless Lotus Petal if you can just mill yourself. You probably run 4 of them, increasing your chances of getting one early in the process, or even getting multiple of them at once. But you also need a profitable way to discard, since you're obviously not casting a 3cc mana rock in that format.

So you need a particular kind of eternal deck to benefit from Glittering Totem? Thank goodness; we wouldn't want something like this to become ubiquitous. To get something like that out of a common is pretty impressive.


Runic Mortar is a really bad mill card, unless you've got a ton of artifacts to sacrifice, which clearly you do, if you're running it. A single copy of it allows you to sack itself for fuel and still use it for a big turn once more, though it doesn't help you get back the rest of the fuel. I don't know if this gets there, but I sure don't know that it can't. Hard to evaluate a terrible-looking combo piece without really trying to Jenny the hell out of it.


Timewarp Spellbomb is a two-color, three-ability spellbomb… with unearth. It's critical that it requires both colors to unearth, because that ability actually pushes this from charm-seal territory into card advantage. Where the other spellbombs were common, this is uncommon, which is sufficiently justified.


Academy Curator grants unearth to an artifact of your choice, which lets the player think of endless fun things to cheat into play. Awesome. Could be blue or even red, but white works too. I think you can simply say "gains unearth 3 until EOT."

Unearthing artifacts seems like a very flavorful thing to do in a world with archaeology. It's not a total flavor transformation of the keyword, but it is concrete, distinct, and a bit stronger than the original.



I'm delighted to see how many artisans contributed to this exercise.

In the abstract, I'm more excited to explore synthesis, but unearth is unambiguously an answer to the challenge, where synthesis is a stretch, given how significantly different it is from champion.

Devin, if you think you can prove that a set can make your unearth meaningful in Limited, that will be your strongest submission, but I'm skeptical you can, whereas I'm confident you can submit some exciting synthesis cards.

Whatever you choose, I'd like you to write a paragraph or so about your mechanic and its place in the set, and if you'd like to call out the artisans who were most helpful to you, that would be nice to read.

44 comments:

  1. Oh, interesting. I like synthesis quite a bit. I'm not sure how it will feel to play, I feel like +1/+1 may sometimes feel underwhelming for losing a creature, but I agree it's probably well balanced, (And the option to make a vanilla with synthesis 2 is quite exciting.) As Jay says, I have lots of different ideas for it, which is a good sign. And yes, very simic.

    Would it be shorter if the bonus were conditional instead of a counter? I'm not sure how people will physically represent the exiled creature, if it's "face down sideways under this", the counter may be unnecessary.

    For unearth, I have the same reaction as before. I really, really love the flavour on artifacts, but it feels always contrived if the artifacts don't naturally die: bad-combo-pieces-for-eternal-formats is a nice bonus use of a mechanic, but a bad primary use; Runic Mortar is the most natural, but only so many cards can say "sac an artifact:"; and cards which have sac as a cost make sense, but it feels tacked on, when they should just have an exile-from-graveyard ability a bit like flashback...

    Ooh, maybe *planeswalkers* should have unearth? But with a different name?

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    1. A slightly less Simic, but decidedly more Champion design might be:

      Gene Transfer (As this enters the battlefield, you may exile another nontoken creature you control until this leaves the battlefield. If you do, this creature is genetically superior)

      Zameck Vitagor 2GU
      Creature - Mutant Fungus (Uncommon)
      Gene Transfer
      As long as CARDNAME is genetically superior, it has flying and vigilance.
      3/3

      Ambush Plasm 1UU
      Creature - Mutant Jellyfish (Uncommon)
      Flash, Gene Transfer
      As long as CARDNAME is genetically superior, it has hexproof.
      2/3

      Cephaloweft 2UU
      Creature - Mutant Squid (Common)
      Gene Transfer
      When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, you may return target creature to its owner's hand.
      As long as CARDNAME is genetically superior, it has flying.
      2/2

      Name is clunky, I know. It's just for playtesting, to make sure the flavor is clear. Final names would be shorter.

      ----

      One thing to consider is that in a set with Ichor Wellsprings and Spine of Ish-Shahs in it, Manic Vandal become modal. We could find interesting ways of supporting Unearth in addition to Runic Mortar, but Runic Mortar needs to be there to support the other niche designs.

      Other options:

      An uncommon red creature with -
      "T, Sacrifice an artifact: CARDNAME deals 2 damage to target..."

      A U/W uncommon creature with -
      "When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, return target artifact or creature from your graveyard to your hand.

      When CARDNAME enters the battlefield, put target face-up exiled card you own into your graveyard."

      The Red/White/Blue mechanic - Tinker (Put a colorless Scrap artifact token onto the battlefield with " Sacrifice three Scrap tokens: Return target artifact from your graveyard to the battlefield.")

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    2. I think it's important to note that Shards of Alara had only four non-Unearth "return from the graveyard" effects below rare. One of those effects was on a Jund-colored card, one was a mode of Naya Charm, and the two others could only return artifacts.

      Tinker and cards like the WU uncommon don't synergize with Unearth for artifacts. They reduce its utility by giving options more useful than paying the Unearth cost for a one-time effect.

      "Sacrifice an artifact," self-mill effects, and artifact-leaves-play abilities all seem to me like good ideas.

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    3. Tinker isn't meant to synergize directly with unearth, it's meant to bolster strategies that work with artifacts and the graveyard in general. In fact, it would be good if there was a degree of anti-synergy, because that will mean that multiple draft-archetypes can be supported with some core cards, like Runic Mortar, in common, but with several unique cards to reward individual decks.

      I suppose recursion might be a rarer mechanical identity than I've previously thought. Regardless, I only proposed the mechanic hypothetically. It may or may not be good at what I intended, but the intent is what is relevant for our discussion.

      I don't understand how a card that recurs exiled cards doesn't work with a mechanic that exiles card for value?

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    4. Oh, I apologize. I didn't notice the second line of text on the WU card. I believe R&D is currently down on cards returning other cards from exile, but whether or not that matters is of course up to you and Jay.

      Inspired by your WU design:

      Flickering Relic (3)
      Artifact (U)
      3, T: Exile target artifact or creature you control, then return it to the battlefield under your control. If it's not your main phase, sacrifice CARDNAME.
      Unearth 0

      Not sure if it's clear enough how the effect interacts with Unearth, though. Maybe on a rare?

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    5. Oh, I really like the name "Gene Transfer", to me it sounds more Simic! I agree a slightly shorter word might be better.

      In fact, those could be the same mechanic.

      Common:

      1G
      2/2
      BIOLOGYWORD (As this enters the battlefield, you may exile another nontoken creature you control until this leaves the battlefield.)
      If ~ BIOLOGYWORDed a creature, it has +2/+2.

      Rare:

      3GU
      5/5
      BIOLOGYWORD (As this enters the battlefield, you may exile another nontoken creature you control until this leaves the battlefield.)
      If ~ BIOLOGYWORDed a creature, it has +5/+5, KEYWORD and BETTERKEYWORD.

      Also, is it necessary to restrict to non-token? I can see, that might be simpler (because you don't have to know tokens disappear), and maybe tokens would make it more powerful (though that's really a matter of support cards). But neither of those seems like a big difference.

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    6. Allowing tokens would make it way more powerful because many cards spit out (small) tokens at a greater than 1:1 ratio.

      Requiring you to give up a physical card every time seems more in the spirit of champion.

      Unfortunately "Splice" and "Fuse" are already taken. "Mutable"? Maybe just "Genetic"?

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    7. @Taresivon: I love that design! Flickering is my favorite thing to do in magic, so you've hit my sweet-spot. Still, that has to be a rare. We don't want flicker + unearth to be a common interaction, because that would require printing multiple cards to support it. If it's not supported, it shouldn't be able to come up very often, otherwise it will be even more confusing.

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  2. I'm gonna take it that you want me to write the paragraph now, and that you want both flavor and mechanical context.

    - Synthesis -
    Synthesis debuts in a splinter-set where elements from several of Magic's most popular locales would intermingle in a sort of petri-dish world where the inquisitive of the multiverse come to experiment. A tentacle of the Simic Combine is here, led by the planeswalking Merfolk Mawrth Vallis. They are trying to learn how to make organisms quickly adapt to new environments. The new Krasis-tech they've developed does so by absorbing local creatures in order to acquire their characteristics. These malleable new Krasi are non-invasive and bio-degradable! They don't actually consume what they synthesize, instead returning it to its original environment unharmed when the Krasis expires.

    Mechanically Synthesis will exist in a slow, 'build-up' environment instead of either rewarding players for going wide with many efficient cards or going big with many very strong individual cards. Strong, narrow removal spells like Smother and Lightning Strike and a relatively low power and toughness ceiling make Synthesizing early creatures a more stable way to go over the top in the late-game. Other color pairs might focus on auras, equipment or some specific synergy to leverage power of individual cards used in specific combinations. Individual card power level is less important than getting the right combination of cards.

    - Unearth -

    Unearth returns in a world of ancient ruins and archaeological wonder. Several super-universities compete here for prestige and mystical power by sending teams of adventurer researchers to unearth lost technology and ancient magics. Blue University endeavors to reverse-engineer what they find, Red-University simply goes for quantity over quality and barely tries to understand how the tech works before using it, White-University wants to preserve the past in museums, Black-University works through sabotage and Green-University seeks to adapt these old technologies for the benefit of all.

    Mechanically, this is for a Graveyards-AND-Artifacts matters set flavored as a search for buried treasure. Colored artifacts return in order to make enough space for the artifacts theme without dissolving the color-pie a la Mirrodin block. Artifact creatures are either non-existent, or very rare. To distinguish this plane from Grixis if they do appear, they do not have Unearth. Self-mill returns, reinforced by Runic Mortar which will be developed to be playable in decks with good synergy, but unappealing otherwise. Other strategies that benefit from Unearth include Red, which sacrifices artifacts, White, which recurs them, and Blue which counts the number of artifacts you control and produces a multiplicative effect a la allies.

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    1. I meant with the submission, but this is fine. Excellent, actually.

      Maybe some of the Krasis leave their subjects better off when their done?

      I would warn you against avoiding fun things (like artifact creatures with unearth) in the name of novelty.

      Don't count on Runic Mortar doing more for Limited than Dampen Thought did.

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    2. Hey, Dampen Thought was its own archetype in Kami Block.

      Throwing in a vote for unearth. Synthesis is great, but the awkwardness of flavoring it around Simic and then having to justify the rest of the set being something other than Ravnica doesn't do it for me. Unearth-ifacts works in all colors, there's a lot we can do and develop with Archeology World, and I'm sure we can make it feel different from other artifact sets.

      Here's how I envision each "university" using the 'yard:
      White: Worst color at getting things into the yard. Gets things out of the yard by unearthing. Gets bonuses for having things in the exile zone, making unearthing a net positive for white even after the unearthed thing is gone.
      Blue: Gets things into the yard by milling. Gets things out of the yard by unearthing. Can tutor and filter for artifacts, making it the easiest color to set up.
      Black: Gets things into the yard by killing and milling. To distinguish it from Grixis, is the worst at getting (noncreature) things out of the yard. Gets bonuses for having a stocked yard.
      Red: Gets things into the yard by killing and sacrificing. Gets things out of the yard by unearthing. Has the best ways to get value despite unearth's EOT exile effect.
      Green: Gets things into the yard by sacrificing. Gets things out of the yard by cycling them back into the deck, in a contrast to unearth's immediate but transient bonus.

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    3. Here my quick thoughts. I feel like trying to tie Synthesis to the Simic is wrong. It just sounds complicated, and people aren't giving a positive reaction. How about this:

      The mechanic for WUBG?

      Wizards might eventually do a four color set, and synthesis fits into the "Nonred" group pretty well. White already has flickering, and black will sacrifice their own guys to become stronger. Well?

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    4. I could also see Synthesis as a Phyrexian mechanic.

      Unwinding Drone (1UU)
      Creature - Drone (C)
      Synthesis (As this creature enters the battlefield, you may exile another creature you control until this creature leaves the battlefield.)
      When CARDNAME synthesizes a creature, you may return another target creature to its owner's hand.
      2/3

      Watcher with Stolen Eyes (2UG)
      Creature - Drake Horror (U)
      Synthesis
      If CARDNAME synthesized a creature, it has flying and vigilance.
      3/4

      I personally doubt the "nontoken" part of Synthesis is needed, since flicker effects appear in token-heavy sets at common all the time and never have that clause.

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    5. I'm worried we're getting hung up on the flavor I proposed. I imagined that purely to inspire myself. If it's easier for you, imagine that it's on Ravnica, or not Simic related. I chose them because of my affinity for the squidliest of the guilds, not because I feel that is an essential element of the design.

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    6. The nontoken clause is there to make the ability feel very distinct from sacrificing. If it caused a tangible problem I would be willing to part with it, or if you convinced me that it made things more confusing. Still, I really do like the idea of pulling a creature in, then replacing it, and I'd prefer if that always happened when you synthesized.

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    7. Flavor is part of the challenge. So I feel like establishing something will help the challenge and the cards.

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    8. Agreed, but I don't think not liking the flavor I proposed is a reason not to pursue a mechanic, especially since Synthesis has the most obvious and linear design as a almost completely new thing.

      The important thing about the Simic story was Synthesis being non-invasive, biological, adaptation technology. Unlike Devour, the goal isn't to show the ferocity of nature, but to add a small magico-sci-fi element to the biology of otherwise normal creatures, a guided evolution through sciencey-magic!

      The reason I'm saying we're hung up is because people were critiquing the way I thought of to make that happen, but not the actual flavor of the mechanic. Again, I agree that all critiques are welcome, but I don't want to get hung up on the extra work I did in worldbuilding that I could have just skipped.

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  3. For those interested in further helping, by Thursday night I want to have decided between Synthesis and Unearth. You can help by picking your favorite and arguing for it as well as continuing to develop the designs we have (or submitting new ones, obvi)

    If you like both, please soft-commit to one anyway. A discussion is more practical at this stage than continuing to generally comment on the relative strengths of both.

    By Friday I want to have a mini-design-skeleton for the final submission. Instead of outlining the mechanical identity of the set or balancing the colors, our skeleton will provide a concrete reason for each of the six submission cards. For example, Runic Mortar is very important to Unearth because it is the the load-bearer for two of Unearth's primary draft-archetypes, Blue/Black Artifact Self-Mill and Red Sacrifice. It can also be used as a win-con in a combo deck like you said Jay, but that is more of a tertiary purpose.

    One way of doing this that I will endeavor toward is to build support cards, including ineligible designs that do not include Unearth, just so that we can design with some more clarity. You are invited and encourage to submit ineligible context-designs of this sort. If you do, please include a statement explaining how and what they support.

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  4. Both ideas seem interesting to me. I agree that synthesis is probably the best bet, but perhaps the unearth-an-artifact idea still deserves more exploration.

    Unstable Totem (2)
    Artifact (U)
    T: Add 1 to your mana pool. When you cast a spell with converted mana cost 4 or greater this turn, sacrifice CARDNAME.
    Unearth 0

    Unstable Scroll (3)
    Artifact (U)
    3, T: Draw a card. Then, if you have two or more cards in your hand, sacrifice CARDNAME.
    Unearth 0

    Innovation Record (4)
    Artifact (U)
    Whenever CARDNAME or another artifact enters the battlefield under your control, put a charge counter on CARDNAME.
    T, Sacrifice CARDNAME: Draw a card for each charge counter on CARDNAME.
    Unearth 3

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    1. I really like Innovation Record, it seems like artifact-fall is a pretty obvious sub-theme now that you bring it up.

      Unstable Totem's sac clause is weird, but I like the idea, and it's possible that I'd want it in addition to Glittering Totem, to really push limited combo-options.

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  5. I'm strongly in favor of Synthesis. It's got great flavor and a lot of design space; the new version of Unearth doesn't have as much of either. Unless you're willing to print artifact creatures with Unearth, it will be relevant mostly on artifacts with sac effects-- and at that point it's basically a clunkier version of flashback.

    Synthesis, on the other hand, does something that's never quite been done before (champion and devour come the closest) yet is easy to grok, and it works very cleanly thanks to the new exile-until tech. There's so much design space with Vanilla / French Vanilla creatures alone that I think you should limit the designs at common to that space. Cephaloweft is uncommon at the very least.

    Also, I wouldn't be afraid of using Synthesis 2 or 3 at lower rarities. Banisher Priest-ing your own creature is no joke, even though it's technically card-advantage neutral. Most nontoken creatures have 2 power or greater, and I expect less experienced players would shy away from using the mechanic if it typically decreased the power available to them on the battlefield.

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  6. Updated both image galleries, same links as before:

    Synthesis - https://imgur.com/a/3Udh7
    Unearth - https://imgur.com/a/rKmtp

    Notably I rediscovered a mechanic from this very blog, Battery tokens. Batteries have "Sacrifice Battery: If it is your turn, untap target permanent."

    It supports both the Critical Mass of Artifact (a la Metalcraft) style blue cards, the brown and red sacrifice themes AND doubling your artifact tap abilities. Temporal Gate is a strong, but very slow common. Normally you can unearth it for one token, which is perfectly fine value, although maybe not worth it in decks that aren't ever gonna cast it. Once you have a Battery in play, cheating the card in becomes strong, with more than one, things get nuts. Thoughts?

    Also, yes, I included some unearth creatures, Jay is right, the novelty isn't worth constraining the designs so much.

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  7. I assume you decided to go with synthesis? If you have, I believe that you could expand it into more colors than blue and green.

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    1. I'm actually still designing cards for both mechanics. Any additional thoughts would be really appreciated.

      I'll be putting my final submission up tomorrow at Noon EST, where you'll have one last chance to comment, suggest, critique, and high-five myself and each other.

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  8. - Symbiosis -

    'On Galena the AEtherstorms can rapidly change an entire environment from desert to dense jungle in a few nights, or from saltwater lake to freshwater hot-spring. To survive in such a chaotic ecosystem, the flora and fauna must adapt much faster than would normally result from evolution.

    In one fascinating case, the animals and plants of Galena's Valley Basin have been observed to combine in a process I call symbiosis. Once the two organisms are working together, the resulting symbiote is hardier and more likely to survive. Over many generations, in a cunning subversion of the natural order of things elsewhere, some organisms' entire survival strategy depends upon being an ideal choice for symbiosis from a larger organism.'
    - From the journal of Mawrth Vallis, Explorer of Galena, Fourth Seat of the Interplanar Academy of Natural Philosophy

    Symbiosis is a keyword mechanic existing primarily in Blue and Green. It reads:

    Symbiosis N (As this enters the battlefield, you may exile another nontoken creature you control until this leaves the battlefield. If you do, this creature enters the battlefield with N additional +1/+1 counter(s) on it.)

    Image Gallery
    http://imgur.com/a/9R0A5

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    1. Design skeleton:

      SC01 - A reward for dedicated Symbiosis players that's still fringe-playable outside of the deck.

      Stalker Bush (Common) G
      Creature - Mutant Plant
      When Stalker Bush exiled through symbiosis, put an additional +1/+1 counter onto the creature exiling it.
      Symbiosis 3 (As this enters the battlefield, you may exile another nontoken creature you control until this leaves the battlefield. If you do, this creature enters the battlefield with three additional +1/+1 counters on it.)
      1/1

      Note: With synthesis, the phrase "when Stalker Bush is synthesized" was very clear, but there is no equivalent with Symbiosis. Is this templating too weird? Is there a better template?

      SC02 - Another basic card that supports a specific archetype, while still being perfectly playable in any blue deck. One note, this card has a really nice flavor interaction with other Symbiosis creatures, since it forcibly de-adapts them. Second note, creatures with enters the battlefield effects are very satisfying to synthesize, this set would include a Coiling Oracle.

      Cephaloweft (Common) 3U
      Creature - Mutant Squid
      Symbiosis 2 (As this enters the battlefield, you may exile another nontoken creature you control until this leaves the battlefield. If you do, this creature enters the battlefield with two additional +1/+1 counters on it.)
      When Cephaloweft enters the battlefield, you may return target creature to it’s owner’s hand.
      1/1

      SU01 - A simple, clean design which hammers home the flavor of Symbiosis being an adaptation to a harsh environment, this creature literally saves something from death.

      Ambush Plasm (Uncommon) 1UU
      Symbiosis 1 (As this enters the battlefield, you may exile another nontoken creature you control until this leaves the battlefield. If you do, this creature enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it.)
      Flash
      2/2

      SU02 - Another way of valuing Symbiotic creatures, this time you care about what you absorb.

      Luminescent Vitaspore (Uncommon) 2UG
      Creature - Mutant Fungus
      Symbiosis 2 (As this enters the battlefield, you may exile another nontoken creature you control until this leaves the battlefield. If you do, this creature enters the battlefield with two additional +1/+1 counters on it.)
      Luminescent Vitaspore has flying as long as it synthesized a blue creature.
      Luminescent Vitaspore has vigilance as long as it synthesized a green creature.
      3/3

      SR01

      Cnidarian Mimic (Rare) 2UG
      Creature - Mutant Coral
      You may have Cnidarian Mimic enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield except it gains symbiosis 4. (As this enters the battlefield, you may exile another nontoken creature you control until this leaves the battlefield. If you do, this creature enters the battlefield with four additional +1/+1 counters on it.)
      0/0

      SM01

      Biocollossus (Mythic) 5GG
      Trample, haste
      Symbiosis 3, symbiosis 3
      Whenever a creature exiled through symbiosis by Biocollossus returns to the battlefield from exile, it returns with three additional +1/+1 counters on it.
      4/4

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    2. Very good all around! The cards all take the mechanic and does interesting and fresh things with it. You also beautifully crafted and described the environment that you had, so well done!

      Don't forget there is nothing wrong with a simple "vanilla" creature to showcase and introduce your mechanic.

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    3. "Becomes a symbiont" for the exiled creature?

      Templating note - Symbiosis is an ETB replacement ability, so in the text block it should be above everything except flash.

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    4. I like it. I added a phrase to the ability (which is already a little bit long) to make that clear a la monstrous.

      Also, fixed the templating.

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    5. Oh yeah, I'm starting to really like this.

      I agree, if you're going to refer to key off the exiled creature, you need a shorter text. For the cards which care which cards they exile, they can maybe just say "As long as it exiled a blue creature"[1].

      Stalker Bush is confusing me a bit though, it probably needs (a) change to a different keyword that has a verb form (b) make up a verb for symbiosis (c) cut that card, or tweak it so it doesn't mention being symbiotised directly (which shouldn't take away from the rest of the mechanic).

      The fact there's so many different interesting options for this is very good. Even the vanilla and french vanilla cards not listed are interesting to me.

      [1] Or maybe "as long as a blue creature is exiled with ~". I'm not sure of the exact wording but I know there's one used on existing cards.

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    6. Symbiosis is a great mechanic, Ambush Plasm is the best of the bunch to me. Easy to understand, and you can keep discovering new uses for it.

      I don't like the mixed messages on Stalker Bush. If this were my first exposure to the mechanic, I would think that the two abilities have to work together, but they don't. I think the first ability alone as a regular leaves-the-battlefield ability would be a fine support card in its own right, without needing Symbiosis itself:
      G
      When this leaves the battlefield [put a +1/+1 counter on target creature] OR [Gain 2 life].
      1/1

      I liked the vanilla treefolk you had before as a common showcase of the mechanic (2GG Reach, Symbiosis 2, 2/4). The treefolk is a good blocker when you're behind (at which point you probably can't afford to exile another creature with the ability), and a good way to press your advantage when you're ahead as a 4/6. In general, cards that have value on Defense without symbioting and on offense when you use the ability are a win for me-- It reminds me a lot of Unleash in that way.

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    7. @Jay: I'm not sure when you want this to be done, but given the surge helpful notes, I'm going to submit again, but in case you've already started writing about this, you just consider this to be a continuation of the conversation.

      Also, one thing that I really struggled with here was trying to build a robust submission using only cards with the mechanic. I strongly suspect that is why Stalker Bush never seems right, because it really should be:

      Stalker Bush G
      Creature - Mutant Plant
      Whenever CARDNAME leaves the battlefield, [EFFECT].
      1/1

      Anyway, I'll update the image gallery, but I'll keep the originals in there in case you need them.

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    8. I think what helped was that he pinned it to the top of the page.

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    9. SC01 - Stalker Bush (Common) G
      Creature - Mutant Plant
      When Stalker Bush leaves the battlefield, choose one —
      • Put a +1/+1 counter onto target creature you control.
      • Gain 2 life.
      1/1

      SC02 - Root Guardian (Common) 2GG
      Creature - Mutant Treefolk
      Symbiosis 2 (As this enters the battlefield, you may exile another nontoken creature you control as symbiont until this card leaves the battlefield. If you do, this creature enters the battlefield with two additional +1/+1 counters on it.)
      Reach
      2/4

      SU01 - Cephaloweft (Uncommon) 1UG
      Creature - Mutant Squid
      Symbiosis 2 (As this enters the battlefield, you may exile another nontoken creature you control as symbiont until this card leaves the battlefield. If you do, this creature enters the battlefield with two additional +1/+1 counters on it.)
      When Cephaloweft enters the battlefield, you may return target creature to it’s owner’s hand.
      2/2

      SU02 - Ambush Plasm (Uncommon) 1UU
      Symbiosis 1 (As this enters the battlefield, you may exile another nontoken creature you control until this leaves the battlefield. If you do, this creature enters the battlefield with an additional +1/+1 counter on it.)
      Flash
      2/2

      SR01

      Cnidarian Mimic (Rare) 2UG
      Creature - Mutant Coral
      You may have Cnidarian Mimic enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield except it gains symbiosis 4. (As this enters the battlefield, you may exile another nontoken creature you control until this leaves the battlefield. If you do, the exiled creature is a symbiont and this creature enters the battlefield with four additional +1/+1 counters on it.)
      0/0

      SM01

      Biocollossus (Mythic) 5GG
      Trample, haste
      Symbiosis 3, symbiosis 3
      Whenever a creature exiled through symbiosis by Biocollossus returns to the battlefield from exile, it returns with three additional +1/+1 counters on it.
      4/4

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    10. New images: https://imgur.com/a/H8nJm

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    11. For some reason, I was thinking this was only due today.

      I'll review it today or tomorrow.

      Sorry about that, folks.

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    12. Hey it's fine, activity was low for the second week, so I mostly did my own thing. This week people showed up to make up for it.

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  9. Ambush Plasm: Shouldn't this be an Ooze?

    Biocolossus: Nix one L in its name, and the second ability can't be a trigger. Try Sage of Fables wording: "Each symbiont of CARDNAME enters the battlefield with three additional +1/+1 counters on it." By definition a card has to be in the exile zone to be considered a symbiont, so the "from exile" text isn't necessary.

    Cephaloweft: I'm not thrilled that I see a Spikey tempo dude first and a symbiotic creature second. If you want two uncommons, I'd rather have the Hill Giant that cares about what color your symbionts are.

    Stalker Bush: It's a neat card, but I'm not sure it fits the challenge. I'm not sure you even need it for the challenge, anyway; there's no two-drop symbiosis 2 creature in the set that you can get excited about curving into. I'd rather see another mono-blue common (perhaps with a mechanic that makes it feel like blue and green are using synthesis in different ways).

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    Replies
    1. What about something like this:

      Chambered Fanshark 1U (Common)
      Creature - Mutant Merfolk
      Symbiosis 2 (As this enters the battlefield, you may exile another nontoken creature you control as a symbiont until this card leaves the battlefield. If you do, this creature enters the battlefield with two additional +1/+1 counters on it.)
      1U, Return Chambered Fanshark’s symbiont to the battlefield: Draw a card.
      2/1

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    2. I considered proposing a Darting Merfolk-esque design, but that's definitely uncommon because it involves an on-board trick that can put a creature onto the battlefield midcombat :/

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    3. I wonder if it becomes common if we make returning the creature the point of it instead of a synergistic side-effect?

      Blue Guy 1U
      Creature - Merfolk Mutant
      Symbiosis 2
      1U: Return CARDNAME'S symbiont to the battlefield.
      2/1

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    4. Seems good if it costs a lot. Like 4UU or something, so if you leave up all the mana to use it at least there's a tempo cost.

      Would not want two of these repeatedly blinking each other.

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    5. Other potential abilities for a common blue symbiote:

      Illusory Symbiote 2U
      Symbiosis 2
      when CARDNAME becomes the target of a spell or ability, sacrifice it.
      3/3

      Evasive Symbiote U
      Symbiosis 1
      Creatures with power greater than CARDNAME's power can't block it
      1/1

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    6. Ooh, I like the evasive one. It can even use the squidly art.

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