Wait first a question? - will you give peoples votes points based on how highly they rank an ability or is it straight voting? IE if i put my #1 ability on the list is that worth 5 points and the 5th ability worth 1 for the terms of this voting or is it straight 1 vote per? If it is 1 vote per then i may not want to vote for all 5 key words.

1. Bloodletting
2. Meld
3. Wither
4. Syphon
5. Clamp

My preference for clamp sorta depends on the other key words that we choose. Worthless if we don't have other things that add counters, more helpful the more counter adding abilities we include.

Good question. The point system that you've laid out makes sense, so we'll use it.

Everyone should rank your votes. Your highest ranking vote will get five points, your second vote will get four points, your third vote will get three points, your fourth vote will get two points, and your fifth vote will get one point. The five keywords with the highest number of points will be used.

"My preference for clamp sorta depends on the other key words that we choose. Worthless if we don't have other things that add counters, more helpful the more counter adding abilities we include."

Also a good point, and even though I'm on the creative team, I think I can shed a little more light on that. The abilities that are up there to be voted on are being done so as the main focus of the set but are by no means the only ones, just the NEW ones. There are always 'evergreen' words that can make it into every set since they just fit, like trample, first strike, etc. Also, creatures can still have abilities that work well with ones that may be added, that don't even have keywords, like paying mana to put a +1/+1 counter on them.

My best advice would simply be to just vote for the keywords you think are very interesting or that you'd like to see, and I have full confidence that the design team will be able to make them balanced, fun and relevant in the set.

Since I'm not really very affiliated with this project, I figure I'll just give my thoughts on the abilities

1) Bloodletting/Cleave: Whenever CARDNAME deals damage to a creature, CARDNAME deals that much damage to that creatures controller.

I like this ability, and think it should definitely be included. Not sure Cleave makes sense as a name though (or Bloodletting, for that matter). I think cards like this should be fast and should be the basis of a good speed deck that will set the pace for the set. It may fit in better with a "suicide black" feel if the card deals damage to both players equal to how much it does to the creature? Makes it a faster, and less broken ability, and it allows for the printing of basic cards like B to cast 1/1 Bloodletting, which would then not be overpowered.

2) Clamp: CARDNAMEs power and toughness are each equal to their printed values and cannot be changed.

This ability is terrible because it makes no sense. It changes the effects of way too many cards. I think this should be more of a Linvala, Keeper of Silence ability, where this thing is the ability of some specific card and affects the entire board (kind of like Godhead of Awe ). As an ability by itself, I don't like it.

3) Flow COST: As you draw this card, you may reveal it and cast it for its flow cost. If you do, draw a card.

This ability is really cool, but we need to be careful not to let it get overpowered. Flow costs should always be greater than regular costs. Also, be careful to avoid infinite mana combos, since Flow + Infinite Mana is a guaranteed win.

4) Meld: When you cast this spell, you may cast a spell from your hand that costs less without paying its mana cost.

This is like cascade without card advantage, which I think is fair. I'm looking forward to see how this will be used. Meld + Flow could be a scary combination.

5) Poisonous X: Whenever CARDNAME deals combat damage to a player, that player gets X poison counters. A player with ten or more poison counters loses the game.

This has been done, and didn't work. Poison counters were silly, and Wizards R+D knew it. I think we should avoid this.

6) Precision: Damage dealt by CARDNAME cannot be prevented.

This is a weird ability, because it will rarely have any effect. It's either a really weak ability or I don't understand the set enough. Again, I think that this should be an ability of a specific card (like Clamp) rather than a keyword.

7) Render: Each life you pay while casting this spell reduces its cost by 1.

This is cool, but could get broken really really fast. Maybe make the life cost 2 or limit the amount of life you can spend (Render X, you may spend up to X life when you cast this spell. If you do, reduce it's cost by 1), since even very expensive spells can be cast first turn with this ability, and could end up being unfair.

8) Revenge X: At the end of combat, if CARDNAME dealt combat damage to a creature, deal X damage to that creature.

This seems to be substantively the same as double strike in a number of ways (except that it's a little worse). I don't see how this one will be used, but I'll look at the cards and see how I feel about it later?

9) Syphon X: At the beginning of your upkeep, you may remove a counter from target player or creature. If you do, put a syphon counter on CARDNAME. If CARDNAME has X or more syphon counters on it, sacrifice it.

I barely understand this ability. It seems unnecessarily confusing and not terribly interesting. Messing with counters has been done before (in Lorwyn-Eventide and stuff), and it just lead to lots of Janky combos and weird manipulations that made games awkward. I'll say now that I don't think this ability will work unless we're really careful, but maybe someone will prove me wrong.

10) Wither: CARDNAME deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.

I like wither, so I like that it's being redone. I see that this is supposed to have some synergy with Syphon, and I'm not sure I'm a fan of that. As I said before, messing with -1/-1 tokens has been done, and I didn't like it. It's one of those things that is either overpowered or useless, and it's impossible to find a middle ground.

with render-It would mostly be on cards with multiple mana symbols, think of it as similar to affinity but with an actual draw back.

clamp isnt that broken look at shroud.

Lastly you need to vote...

the feed back is appreciated tough =)

I don't think clamp is broken, I think it just doesn't make sense as a card ability.

I still think Render is going to be unfair/OP, but okay. We shall see. I think it's cool, and while it may have to be changed, I will vote for it :-)

Here goes, my thoughts:

GRU - Flow RBW - Revenge? (Not sure anything really works here that we have above) BUG - Bloodletting UWR - Meld WGB - Render

Bloodletting/Cleave Meld Poisonous X Render Revenge X My five votes.

I think clamp is a cool ability it doesnt seam broken and its mostly defensive so it would be hard to brake. I have more on the topic but I dont think this is the current forum to discuss. Here is my list.

1 Wither - Its been done but never good enough I think its vary powerful if we can make it work correctly, I would love it.

2 Clamp - Its an obvious counter to Wither and protects you from de-buffs.

3 Flow - Hope you put this in the blue set and I dont think you can have Flow & Meld

4 Revenge - I like it although i can't undersand what would happen if the card is destroyed. Does the revenge still take place?

5 Precision - Please include lots of prevention in all shards if this is going to be included.

GRB- meld

URG -flow

RBW -revenge

GBU -poisonous

Don't get overly ambitious. You should only introduce one or two keywords for the set. I think you'll have trouble with 5. I'm glad you're having a vote to narrow it down.

I would go with Flow and Render. Meld is broken and you won't be able to control it. It's flawed design wise. Unlike cascade it lacks the element of chance, something that a lot of MTG is based on.

1) Precision 2) Clamp 3) Wither 4) Siphon 5) Revenge

To me poisonous seems a bit too specific and unique if not paired with something like syphon or "remove counter" abilities. But overall I like these keywords a lot.

1st vote: Flow. I think that this keyword can lead to some really fantastic decks. Tough to balance, but brilliant.

2nd vote: Clamp. Useful as both a beneficial ability or a detrimental one -- can't be Shrivel 'd but also can't be Giant Growth 'd.

3rd vote: Render. Very tough to balance, but a good solid idea for the flavor of the set.

4th vote: Wither. I don't really like this ability in a larger sense, but it does work well with a lot of the ideas we've had for the set.

I don't have a 5th vote.

My votes:

Syphon. I really like the idea of this, even though it would be completely useless against some decks, I think it could be really cool. Maybe let it affect suspended spells? And then make a small sub-theme of suspend along with whatever shard gets Syphon.

Wither: As much as I hate playing against it (what's that, Boggart Ram-Gang ?) I also like Wither, and it's a perfect include along with Syphon.

Clamp: Though I think it's even more situational than Syphon, I like the idea of Clamp, especially since it gives you the ability to just throw around -X/-X effects, which I love. Perhaps this shard could have a couple of Infest -type cards?

Flow: I basically just agree with everyone else regarding how awesome this ability is. Definitely very blue-flavored.

Render: Tough call here between this and Revenge, but Render just seems more useful to me. Revenge kind of just seems like kind of a different Double Strike, though of course Revenge + Double Strike would be pretty crazy. And then with Lifelink... but no, the vote for Render stands, though I think I prefer "Rend" better as a name. To Render something seems to mean, to me, to create or make something, whereas to Rend something is to tear it apart.

voting for keywords:

1 - Flow 2 - Render 3 - Clamp 4 - Bloodletting/Cleave 5 - Meld

as far as the set skeleton goes, looks reasonable. I'd definitly take a cue from Shards block in terms of mana fixing. Also note that if you use Precision or Siphon, you're going to have to include a lot of cards that use damage prevention and counters respectivly - just good to keep in mind. Syhpon DOES have interesting interaction with Poisonous.

Meld is a powerful ability and should never be given to just one wedge alone. It should be shared as cascade was. Although it would be cooler to put on the axis coloured cards. All meld spells need to be bad of their own accord then we give them meld. E.g. 1RU, Instant, Draw a card, Meld.

Flow and Meld should never be on the same card. Flow costs should usually be more than the cost of the spell when it is cast normally (obvioulsy).

Render needs to be balanced by expensive costs, think convoke.

Revenge is a bad doublestrike, so why bother.

Clamp or Syphon (but not both) need to be coupled with Wither. You either have two of them or none of them. Syphon is definitely a set specific keyword, but Clamp could be a new core keyword used in other sets.

Bloodletting/Cleave should be returned to its original form of life loss. Although more wordy it avoids abusive uses such as Furnace of Rath doubling it twice.

Precision requires a great deal of protection in order to exist the way it does otherwise it is pointless.

One thing I would like to add to the design skeleton was a cycle of ten tri-colour hybrid utility spells. e.g. R/U/G Instant Draw a card.

Votes

1 Meld

2 Render

3 Bloodletting

4 Wither

5 Flow

My votes are:

1- Render

2- Bloodletting

3- Meld

4- Flow

5- Clamp

1) Precision 2) Flow 3) Clamp 4) Syphon (To make it simpler, just make it transfer counters instead of an arbitrary new kind of counter? Especially if we want to use the ability throughout the set) 5) Meld

Bloodletting looks seriously overpowered, and I haven't seen it on a card yet.

What happens if a creature with Wither & Precision attacks a card with Clamp?

I would say that Precision would have no effect. The creature with Clamp would never feel the effects of the -1/-1 counters but they would still be on it.

Also say you have a 1/1 creature with clamp and you block a 2/2 with Wither. Does the creature with Clamp die? If I were to follow the above text I would say no because the Wither counters dont affect cards with clamp... Just asking

Meld Flow Bloodletting Precision Render

Wither is old and boring

Clamp will only be useful if wither was included so thats also out

Render is in on the condition that there is some sort of limit on how much you can pay.

1) Flow (love this for blue) 2) Render (i prefer the term Rend) 3) Meld 4) Wither 5) Syphon X- Change it from "player or creature" to 'target permanent', also it should read 'transfer up to X (type) counters from target permanent to CARDNAME'. Poison counters are stupid, so there's no need to remove them from a player.

Also, this change to targeting permanents would allow you to bring Planeswalkers with this ability into the playing field; think of a planeswalker whose goal is to devour/absorb other planeswalkers (BRU?, this also plays into the 'nega' theme).

This ability also needs to be counter-type-specific, such as 'transfer a charge counter', 'transfer a loyalty counter', or 'transfer a +1/+1 counter', etc. Otherwise, you could potentially convert a +1/+1 into a -1/-1, which feels broken.

If it proves to be too powerful to do every upkeep, you could change it to have the ability trigger only when it is brought into play. Then there's no need for the sacrifice.

You don't need a limit on Render. It's Convoke with life. All you need to do is make the spells cost more. Look at some convoke cards, okay people?

Wither is great. Should be included.

Syphon is stupid. It makes little sense.

Clamp is good. This set needs wither.

My votes are:

1 Meld 2 Flow 3 Render 4 Wither 5 Precision

Wow i love creating cards wen do we get 2 start??

my votes are

1 rend

2 meld

3 flow

4 clamp

5 bloodleting/cleave

well...mine may not count but i kinda wanna vote anyways

1) wither...allot of the keywords we have beside this are in a way dependent on this word 2)clamp-i really like this keyword i think its pretty balanced. 3)meld 4)syphon x 5) poisonous

1) Flow 2) Wither 3) Poisonous X 4) Precision: 5) Render

1. Flow
2. Cleave
3. Wither
4. Poisonous

The rest of the abilities are too situational, strange, or unusable for me to give a fifth vote. Revenge would be my fifth if it dealt damage equal to its power. It would be a slow Double Strike, and would make sense that way. A way to deal double damage without the inherent benefits of First Strike coming into play.