I like your designs, especially the rare and the planeswalker. Both of them are well-balanced and seem fun to try out. The Golemancer is very fairly costed, and the art you chose was incredible (as well as the flavor text).

As for the planeswalker, I like his abilities. They're good, but not eighty-dollars good, and, well, that's fine by me. Fair cards are way better than OP cards.

The common and uncommon, though, I'd say, are a bit more powerful than they should be. Imo, looking at the top five cards with Mindlight is a fair effect, but making it so multiplayer friendly makes it incredibly powerful. In fact, in a two-player duel, you get to see a total of ten cards! It surpasses stuff like Peek by a country mile. I'd make it just 'target player' rather than 'every player.'

As for Voidlight, I'd say that 3 life wouldn't be enough. It's not like it's commonplace to be drawing all four in one game. I could see two or three being drawn, tops, and I'd gladly pay up to 9 life to counter up to three times for only a one-mana investment each time, seeing as how it frees up my other mana for other control stuff I'd wanna pull off. We all know blue has trouble with mana generation, and this spell would be freeing it up. I'd make the life payment 4 or 5 life. Sidenote (I don't wanna sound mean, but I had to mention): a one-mana counterspell has been done -Abjure .

My two cents. Please don't kill me!

The only problem I have is with mindlight. It is a well crafted little gem, but the "put them back in the same order" clause has me wondering if that can be done without someone yelling "cheat".

What I am saying is, how do you know your opponent isn't switching around the card order when he is playing this spell?

As a designer, I guess I would say that is the only flaw to the card, it is balanced, but on a social level of gaming it seems unfair. Usually looking at (not scyring) cards is limited to one, to avoid this problem, or cards are "revealed" to avoid this. Now, I have only been playing magic for a couple months, so if you can point me to a card that has a similar effect, I will say that it can be done, as Wizards has printed something like this already. I just worry.

On a more positive note, I think each card is well balanced. I like that the common has minimal use but could see certain decks. It also would table in a draft, but the blue player is happy for a cantrip on the second trip around. The uncommon fits right in with multiple deck concepts and could be widely played and popular. The rare is just right in that it is a late game combo-y card that could, in the right deck, be really destructive. Also, in limited it could own some face. The mythic rare is a powerhouse and the scry 4 is scary, if not downright insane. I would have to playtest it at "scy 2", "scry 3", and "scry 4" in multiple matches before I decided which one is worth 2 loyalty counters. His second ability is worth its weight in gold for any combo deck. He reminds me of Liliana Vess in cost and that I might just pump him to use his second 80% of the time, especially if I have another in hand.

I love Voidspell and can't wait to use it on a lightning bolt. =D

For Golemance i feel the its approaching OP, whether making it a 0/4 -0/6 instead of shroud to give it some protection, because that 1 dude she makes isnt going away anytime soon so yeah i think that its probably best to at least allow for her to be removed.

Wow, what? Your card designs are cool (I like the planeswalker), but the counterspell is unbelievably overpowered. Force of Will is phenomenal because it is 0 to cast, costs 1 life, and looses you a card! This is better or at least as good because it has no card advantage drawback. If Voidspell existed, it would cost about 70 dollars each.

To make it more fair, how about making it a modified spell pierce with life loss? Same thing as it is now, except "Counter Target Spell Unless It's Controller Pays 2"

great card ideas. nice article. Beware that this may be the 3rd or forth attempt at building a full set for the community.

I agree w/ the above about Voidspell being a touch OP'd. Considering you could splash it into any deck with any blue... that could get nuts. Abjure forces you to at least have a criteria before countering for 1 (blue permanents in your deck). I feel like the most powerful counter spells should be reserved for decks that are blue-focused.

How about: Counter target spell. If target spell is countered this way you must pay X life, where X is target spell's converted mana cost.

Otherwise I like them all overall. If you think Golemancer is OP, you could say 'indestructible creatures you control can't block'? Or something of the sort.

The art on the PW is my favorite though. Considering the cost of Knowledge Exploitation , maybe his ultimate could go down even? Or you can pull any card out?

Voidspell is by no means "very well balanced." For many decks that rely on counterspells, the only life point that matters is the last one. Force of Will is the gold standard for that very reason.

Even a counterspell version of Vendetta -- "Counter target spell. You lose X life, where X is the converted mana cost of that spell" -- is arguably too powerful, as you can shrug off Lightning Bolt s and Path to Exile s for the bargain price of one life.

Perhaps we might simply raise the price of Voidspell to five life, a la Dash Hopes . The steeper cost makes players think before including it in every blue deck; your average control deck can't afford to hand out free Lava Axe s all the time. It's best suited for combo decks that need to protect their combo pieces at all costs. Plus, paying five life feels more like an act of desperation -- "When you stare into the void, the void also stares into you."

@lotusreport:

Very well said.

I think paying 1 mana to deal 3 damage and paying 1 mana to basically negate 2 of that damage is pretty fair. And paying 1 mana to Path a creature and paying 1 mana and 1 life to basically shroud that creature ( Vines of Vastwood ) is pretty fair.

Vendetta 'shrugs off' Ball Lightning Hellspark Elemental Lotus Cobra etc for 1 life.

But, I think we're in agreement that countering a Cruel Ultimatum or any and all bombs with a U and -3 life uncommon would be nuts. The obvious solution is to bump up the cost to 4 or 5 life like Lotusreport said. I think CMC = life loss makes it a more powerful Vendetta (which definitely may make it still too powerful). Then you could break it up into a Negate /Essence Scatter type or something. Pay life = to CMC, counter target creature/non-creature spells.

Mindlight simply does too much in multiplayer for U. Compare to Opt , Peek , Spy Network , and other spells for the same cost. Either remove the cantrip clause, or make it target a single player. As an aside, I thought this article was an excellent demonstration of design concerns for multiplayer.

I will say this though: all the points made about set/card creation are right. It's just their interpretation that might be skewed without a lot of people playtesting/critiquing at the same time.

Also, sometimes you just need to sleep on a card and see if it's any good the next day.

Very well said guys.

You have sold me on the power level of Voidspell. In my defense, KrazyCaley wanted it to be 2 life and paid only if the counterspell resolved. He is the undisputed king of advocating overpowered counterspells. :D

I must step up to the defense of Mindlight however. I really can't think of a single pure library information card that has ever really been good or seen play. spy-network-anybody? Telepathy is only even ok because it sticks around and gives you a lot more than 5 cards worth of information that is much more immediately relevant. I added the cantrip at the last minute because otherwise that card was utter garbage that would not even see play in limited. I thought it would be challenging for the player who casts it to keep track of the cards coming up, and balances at "all libraries" because it is only good for information.

I knew that the Hive Mind would have good insight into these concepts.

I think that when you compare it with cards like Telepathy and Spy Network , you've just gotta see this: they don't cantrip. If either of those cards allowed you to draw one card upon being played, I'm terribly sure they would be a lot more popular. However, they don't.

Mindlight would not only interact with library shenanigans, it would replace itself in the process. To give that much information and a cantrip, that makes it a wonderful common and pretty overpowered.

@lotusreport: By the way. when voidspell gets re-made, this will be the new flavor text:

"When you stare into the void, the void stares into you." - Indra, nullmage of Vectis.

Respect for knowing your Nietzsche.

At this point I tend to lean towards the pay 5 life option. When compared with Force of Will it makes more sense.

Force of Will : 0 mana, 1 life, 1 card

Voidspell: 1 mana, 5 life, 0 cards

So let it be written, so let it be done.

Voidspell has been changed.

I bet you could open your own little digital shop here on TappedOut where you make people custom cards/Planeswalkers based off of them for money or feature tokens, and would probably get a lot of customers! Awesome as always; Cales' ultimate maybe a little underpowered but that middle ability is the bomb.

You do awesome work all the time; if I didn't know how busy you were then I would try to lasso you into helping the Creative and Design teams light a fire under our Build a Set Community Project!

agreed Zanven

I think the Indestructible 1/1's seems hugely powerful. It is similar to a blue online Elspeth.

I think it needs to lose the shroud. Very powerful.

Voidspell does give another force like spell to legacy and vintage. It seems very powerful in the Eternals but underwhelming in standard.