Much better on the cards this time around. 26 pages * 4 is way better. I will build a deck or two and playtest them tonight. :)

As much as would love to help this time round, I shall be away for a week or so. Good luck with the playtesting this time round. :)

One thing looking quickly through the card images; Arachnic Executor isn't nearly as depressing now. Good job, I guess? Also, Pathcutter Zombie is probably right sitting at that CMC. But BY FAR the biggest improvement is Sources of Knowledge. For a start, the amount of card text doesn't look so ugly anymore now it's paragraphed (same for Symbiotic Meltdown)! And the high CMC cost is right for such a complex effect (regardless of power or not).

This community set project has inspired me to, for the first time, finish my own set on Set Editor (based off the plane Iquatana, how original :$), so I'm really looking forward to seeing how it progresses.

Hey this one might be up for a couple weeks so, if you have time please contribute. Glad to hear it inspired you.

Somethings to take note of, more equipment has been added and gemstone subtype has been deleted.

Here are some corrections to wording and flavor text, a bit longer than 3000 characters.

I will post playtesting results later.

Also, PM me if you want to test draft or sealed with me. Make this a Coalition Victory with the spirit of the community!

Is there a three-letter abbreviation for this set? If not, come up with one quick.

Per you comments about bagan's "+" ability. See the new ajani

Per comments related to dasvol.

110.5d If a spell or ability would create a token, but an effect states that a permanent with one or more of that token's characteristics can't enter the battlefield, the token is not created.

Ah you could say "Switch up to one target creatures power and toughness until end of turn." Yeah that would work better.

That's a wonderful rule. I don't understand why "Tokens can't enter the battlefield" isn't simpler and easier to comprehend. Besides, the rule seems written to address a different sort of issue.

Rejuvenating Boon is misspelled. I had a whole bunch of others, but they got lost in the comment box.

I made a Cockatrice patch for the Community Set (complete with card images)! With it, you should be able to use cards from the community set in Cockatrice and play online against other people that have the set downloaded. If you don't have Cockatrice, you can get it here. It's much better than Magic Workstation in my experience while still retaining the key features and interface. Although it doesn't let you draft within the program, you can simulate the draft with Magic Set Editor and copy the deck over.

Download this file and put it under C:UsersYour_Username_HereAppDataLocalCockatriceCockatrice, which is the default directory for cards.xml (be sure to back up the old cards.xml just in case). Or just put it anywhere and tell Cockatrice where it is in the Settings menu.

You have been a great help. Thanks for that.

Great job !

Here are some minor problems with texts. I've stopped on page 11 but I'll try to come back later.

Collector Stone says : "X is equal to the number artifacts you control" and should say : "X is equal to the number of artifacts you control."

Every description of cleaver says "damage to that creatures controller" and should say : "damage to that creature's controller".

Just Retribution says : "Destroy all permanents with the chosen card type with the chosen permanent" and should say : "Destroy all permanents that share a card type with the chosen permanent".

Volcanic Priest says : "to target creature or players" and should say : "to target creature or player".

Avatar of War says : "It lives and breathes" and should say something else, because the subject of the first sentence is plural ("war and conflict") and therefore can't be expressed with a singular "it".

Lingering Pursuit says "Return target creature card from your graveyard onto the battlefield" and should say : "Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battefield" (see recently : Defy Death or Breath of Life ).

Lingering Pursuit says : "They defile life" and probably wanted to say : "They defy life".

Undead Ravager's flavor text sounds very weird to me, but I couldn't quite tell why.

On Undead Ravager, I would move "until the end of the turn" after "+X/+X".

Unending Death has no rule text explaining what Memento is.

Life Force of Morglen : I'll put the period after "Memento" rather than after the rule text explaining what Memento is.

Same thing for Essence of Ulgris.

Bondof Cavest says "Creatures you controlattack" and should say : "Creatures you control attack".

Flow of Irindu : see Essence of Ulgris.

Recurring Curse says "return Recurring Curse to its owner's hand as it." and should say "return Recurring Cruse to its owner's hand as it resolves."

I'm not positive but I think when Venifucian Forcemage's flavor text says "harness", it means "harvest".

Lumbering Brute's flavor text is a little clumsy when it says "it was like when".

Ulgrisian Fly says "into your graveyard from The battlefield" and should say : "into your graveyard from the battlefield".

Same thing with "If you do, Shuffle your library".

Thoughts Forgotten says "If a creature is put into a graveyard" and should say : "If a creature card is put into a graveyard".

Back and done.

Everywhere : there's some confusion as wether the set uses "can not", "cannot" or "can't". The same is true for "elder" and "Elder". There's an overwhelming amount of "then" on cards with multiple effects.

Dwarven Firelancer : "prevent all combat damage that would be dealt by Dwarven Firelancer this turn" would perhaps be more intuitive than "Dwarven Firelancer assigns no combat damage this turn." (But it's not exactly the same thing, of course.)

Dissolution Blade and its "this" and "that" creature" may be a little confusing. "Enchanted creature" would perhaps help to clarify the text.

Juror of Euro (a very economic name by the way shouldn't it be "Eruo" ?) says in its flavor text : "Our suffering and confusion continues" and, though it can be argued, it should rather say "Our suffering and confusion continue"

Wouldn't be more common for Chains of Chavest to say : "This creature has : "Sacrifice a land : Attach Chains of Chavest to target creature" ?

Blightburst : the whole text sounds weird. I would say : "Destroy target land. That land's controller may pay 4 life to copy this spell. He or she may choose a new target for this copy."

Doreer's Judgment : Flavor text sounds unbalanced. Why not : "I too if I must can delve into the dark to abate the progress of the unnatural" ?

Rise Again : There's no precision as to the controller of the creature thus returned.

Ilusory Carapace doesn't explain what wither is (all other cards do).

Miremind says "Target player puts the top four cards of their library" and should say either "Target players put the top four cards of their library" or "Target player puts the top four cards of his or her library".

Mental Slough : Same problem as Miremind's.

Chaven Priest says "When Chaven Priest dies gain 3 life" and would rather say "When Chaven priest dies, you gain 3 life."

Celebration of the Lost says "Whenever a permanent you control is put in the graveyard" and should either say "whenever a permanent you control is put in your graveyard" or "whenever a permanent you control is put in a graveyard" (which, obviously, isn't quite the same).

Favorable Firebombing says "If your used" and should say "If you've used".

G'reil's rules says "if its converted mana cost is more than" and should say "if its converted mana cost is higher than" (see for instance clash ability in Woodland Guidance ).

The wording of Flameweilder's Determination seems a little strange to me.

Asphirith's Bogborn's flavor text says "are those who brought back". "are those he brought back" or 'are those who came back" seem more intuitive.

Needs of the Glade : "Return target basic land card from your graveyard into the battlefield" would be "Return target basic land from your graveyard to the battlefield" (cf. Defy Death ).

Dwarven Striker's flavor text says : "till they are dead" and would be more coherent whit "till they're dead".

Diret Impact doesn't explain what Cleave is.

Sorok's Call : see Miremind.

Dwarven Bull Rusher's flavor text has an extra "is".

Gladeparter's Chant : Putting "until end of turn" at the beginning would be swifter.

Essence Flicker misses a "and" between "Auras" and "Equipments". There is also a problem with the grammar, since the text says we "return those cards" and we attach the auras and equipments to "it". Maybe replace "it" with "the exiled creature" ? The wording also implies that we acquire control of every Auras attached to the creature, which perhaps was not intended.

The last ability of Sources of Knowledge is a little confusing (and there's problems with the grammar). Maybe : "If Sources of Knowledge leaves the battlefield, target opponent chooses a pile. Put all the cards of the chosen pile in your graveyard."

Changes made and will be posted replacing the files above soon. Like in an hour

Undo Death would be much easier to use if it said "Return UP TO two cards with the same name from your graveyard to your hand." That way you almost always use it, and sometimes get the big upside.

Sprawling Thoughts should put the second land on top after you shuffle your library. Something like: "Search your library for up to two basic land cards. Reveal those cards, put one onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library and put the other card on top of it. Draw a card,"

Blast Radius should "deal 1 damage to each other creature that shares a color with it." Otherwise it deals 4 damage to the main target.

Impartial Forest Dweller should have cost 1G rather than GG, since it's trying to fix your mana. Could make it a 0/1 to make it less powerful.

Quakespawn depends on casting creatures with flow, and yet there are only 2 creatures with flow in the set. If this was itself an awesome dragon/elemental with flow rather than enchantment that might be good, or could trigger off all flows, or both. This also sort of goes for Meadow Dancer, but it seems better to make cards that themselves have the mechanic, rather than making cards that depend on the mechanic.

Generally, the changes seem great! Hoping to playtest again soon.

If you update the MSE file with all the changes proposed so far and post the DL link here on on my wall, I will update the wording inconsistencies that I notice to be in line with current MTG wording patterns. When I design my own cards, I often consult Oracle texts of similar, existing cards and go from there.

I believe that it is updated except for hubatish so feel free

Is Undulating River meant to be sacrificed after ETB or are you supposed to pay 1 as it enters (see Oracle for Scorched Ruins ).

It is meant to play similar to Rupture Spire . But it can pay for itself.

Pickaxe of the Suterran gives the equipped creature protection from red, but Pickaxe itself is red. I can add a clause to override this. However, Pickaxe also gives the equipped creature the ability to deal 1 damage to everything. I don't know if these two abilities make much sense together, since the protection won't necessarily prevent it from damaging itself.

The wording on Palus Lizard Tail is odd. It doesn't follow the convention for if clauses. If clauses are used to indicate an ability will continue to resolve provided something happened earlier in the turn or is currently true. It typically doesn't relate to events that would happen in the future. I changed it, but now it is "when ETB, when . . ."

Also, I am going to change the wording of flow. It currently says "as you draw this card, you may reveal it and cast it for 1U. If you do, draw a card."

It will become "you may cast this card for its flow cost when you draw it." Revealing the card is done when you put the ability on the stack. It effectively works like miracle, but applies to all draws. The new wording will reflect that.

War of Attrition seems broken. It's like something I'd expect to see out of ABUR.

I feel like Varhas, Flayer of Flesh should cost more.

Unending Death should definitely cost more.

Shiob, Weigher of Souls should cost more or its ability should be tweaked.

I feel like Just Retribution should be a nontarget spell that destroys all permanents of the chosen type or a targeted spell that destroys all cards that share permanent types with the target nonland permanent. It's halfway between and feels oddly worded.

In general, saying "sacrifice a permanent you control" is redundant because you can only sacrifice permanents you control.

Journey to Revelation currently gives a nontoken creature memento and a token creature vigilance, and when the enchanted creature dies Journey to Revelation can be returned to play attached to target token creature. The wording of the ability makes it impossible to attach JtR to the creature it gave memento because you have to target the creature when the ability triggers, which is before that creature could be returned to play. Was this intentional?

Flow of Irindu currently has a nontarget ("choose") effect. Such effects are exceedingly rare. Is this intentional?

Eccentric Foliage is a wording nightmare. I'm not sure how to properly word it while maintaining the effect, so I did my best.

Spellform Mutant seems kind of busted. You might consider changing the activation cost of its second ability to "remove a counter" instead of "remove all counters."

I removed the may clause from Sources of Knowledge's second paragraph since you can't actually opt not to choose a pile. You have to pick one of the two. I also changed the third paragraph from

If an effect causes a player to search your library, sacrifice Sources of Knowledge.

to

If an effect would cause a player to search your library, that player chooses which pile to search instead. Sacrifice Sources of Knowledge.

because the former was a triggered ability that did not immediately address the problem of choosing which pile to search (since you can't search until that choice is made). It's another wording nightmare because of complexity.There seems to be an excessive use of X values and "where X is" across the set. This hurts readability and makes a lot of cards more complex than they need to be.

Undo Death seems to be inappropriate for its color. It's a black card that can recur any two cards with the same name from yard to hand. If it can bring back noncreature spells, blue or green should be added to it. But that's just flavorwise. It is also a nontarget card. Is that intentional?

Sprawling Thoughts currently reads:

Search your library for up to two basic lands, reveal those cards, and put one onto the battlefield and one on top of your library. Then shuffle your library.

Why does the effect shuffle the second basic back into its owner's library? What is the point of searching for it at all?I don't think it's necessary for Sinking Ambitions to also target the creature that is the source of the ability it is targeting/countering.Tweaked Miremind to not be an instant mill for 1U if you control a Swamp, because that seemed busted as all hell.There is an Insect token without a P/T (#6/8)Something about the activation cost of Forced Sanction's last ability seems very wrong. Gaining life is almost never the activation cost for an ability and this could lead to some really dumb scenarios in multiplayer games where one player can repeatedly activate the ability and give another player a ton of life.I'm noticing a lot of nontarget effects going on here. I don't necessarily think that these effects (Rising Earth; Death Barterer; etc.) need to be nontarget; it doesn't really make sense for them not to be targeted when the overwhelming (if not complete) number of cards with similar effects are targeted, including other cards in the community set.Also, when writing number and number words, follow the conventions for their use. Numbers are only used to indicate damage and the values of +/- effects or counters. Number words are used to denote how many of something there is or should be. For example, these statements follow proper convention: "Put two 2/2 white Griffin creature tokens with flying onto the battlefield," and "Draw two cards. ~ deals 2 damage to target creature or player."Also, "when" is generally used to indicate a trigger event that is only expected to happen once while "whenever" is used for trigger events that are likely to happen more than once. For example, "When ~ enters the battlefield" versus "Whenever ~ attacks."

"If" is used in triggered abilities to indicate that there is a conditional clause that must be true for the ability to trigger. "As long as" is used to indicate that something is true or effective while a conditional clause is true. For example, "Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, if it is a token, put a +1/+1 counter on it" versus "As long as enchanted creature is a token, it gets +1/+1 and has flying."

I'm about to begin my second run to catch any errors I missed before. I should have this done later today.

Another note as I finish up the revisions: whenever an effect instructs you to search a hidden zone for a card of a certain type or property, you MUST reveal that card. This is to prove that you actually found a card of the specified type and is part of all specified search effects.

I'm sorry I haven't commented about it earlier, but I'm concerned about Elves of Anarchy's power. As it is currently a 1-mana 1/1 Elf that taps to produce G, W, or B (not to mention the Memento-granting stuff), it is strictly better than Llanowar Elves , and I'm not sure Wizards would ever create a card like that. I suggest reducing its power to 0 to balance it.

In the meantime, a lot of Modern and Legacy decks would pick up Elves of Anarchy in a heartbeat, even if its power was 0. My Modern Melira Pod deck with this expansion would replace all 4 Noble Hierarch s with 4 Elves of Anarchy, as protecting Melira, Sylvok Outcast from removal with the Melira Combo out (if she faces exile effects, sacrifice her to Viscera Seer to guarantee Memento) is paramount. My Legacy Maverick deck would replace 4 Hierarch with 4 Elves of Anarchy again, as they are mana dorks that sort of do Mother of Runes and Sylvan Safekeeper 's jobs.

I also believe Dasvol would be a good addition to Melira Pod, as he hoses Empty the Warrens (so he sort of hoses Storm), Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker (so he hoses Exarch Twin and Twin Pod), Splinter Twin (so he hoses Exarch Twin), and W/x Tokens (a bad match-up for Pod decks, what with all the Lingering Souls flying around with their pumps) and does not affect Melira Pod itself.

I'll see how good the other cards are later. I look forward to a G'reil Tvoul EDH deck. Strip Mine , Wasteland , Ghost Quarter , Tectonic Edge , Dust Bowl ...

Oh yeah, you might want to use alternate art for Venifuca Timepiece. I recognize that art as special promo Time Walk art.

I've never seen a promo Time Walk besides the CE edition (if you can really call those promos) and certainly not one with art other than the original. Can you source that information?

Yeah if that is really an mtg image I will certainly take it off. Please let me know

Yup, http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/764 has the Time Walk picture.

Sprawling Thoughts can be re-worded like this.

"Search your library for up to two basic land cards and exile them, then shuffle your library. Choose one of the cards exiled with Sprawling Thoughts and put it onto the battlefield, then put the other on top of your library. Draw a card"

@ Lectrys - good call will take it off of there. Thank you

I agree with Lectrys about Elves of Anarchy. A better choice might to up it's casting cost. See Druid of the Anima .

I don't necessarily think Elves of Anarchy needs to be toned down; I like the idea of every set having a few bomb rares that are good even outside of limited, and this certainly is one such card.

Note Noble Hierarch and Birds of Paradise are rare and still are not strictly better than Llanowar Elves .

Elves of Anarchy should remain rare, and I still do not believe it should be strictly better than Llanowar Elves. Even if it had 0 power, I would run it as a 4-of in Legacy Combo Elves to protect Heritage Druid (and it's still a 1-drop Elf that taps for green mana!). Giving me absolutely no qualms about replacing all my Llanowar Elves and Fyndhorn Elves with this guy is a bad thing, in my opinion.

Also, after twiddling Elves of Anarchy for a bit, that guy behaves a lot like the 2-cmc otherwise-vanilla Saffi Eriksdotter . All the better reason to push it down to 0 power.

I'm not a Magic expert... and I only glanced at the set... but I had an issue looking at Sinkhole Dweller. As is, 7/7 Trample, Flyer is powerful... As a demon, there needs to be huge drawbacks... and there is... you could kill yourself, but I think the stakes may need to be upped... possibly, put the upkeep cost to 4 or 5... and/or the damage should be upped three per land. In general, that late in the game, (7 mana) considering no ramp, I am going to be swinging for 7 every time... tapping to destroy a land and deal 2 damage is almost nothing compared to that... but I am almost positive I am wrong on this... what are your thoughts or justifications?

...

Noble Hierarch and Birds of Paradise are rare and are strictly better than Llanowar Elves .

I mean, look at them! The bird has FLYING! It can chump-block a dragon!

And the other was, and is, SO GOOD. Naya Lightsaber used them even though there was no blue in the deck! That extra 1 damage was crucial against Jund.

Considering that EOA basically has a built-in Undying Evil and is a mana producer at the rare level, it's completely justified that it will be a $20-30 bomb rare

Started testing out cards in Cockatrice against myself. Yeah, Elves of Anarchy was the nuts. Elvish Swamphand helped out ritual-based combo decks quite a bit--she loves being sacced to Cabal Therapy and Culling the Weak . Dasvol, Tharin'l Superior should hose what he hoses. Lingering Pursuit should strengthen Modern Reanimator decks a lot (is it the 3 cmc version or the 2 cmc version? The Cockatrice version is 3 cmc, but the PDF version is 2 cmc), as it's cheap enough to rival card:Goryo's Vengeance, and it's similarly an instant. Fetid Evolution is a very easily abused Johnny card in Modern, Legacy, and possibly Vintage. (Seriously, all the green creatures with cycling, card:Multani's Acolyte, Sakura-Tribe Elder , Wild Cantor , Spore Frog --heck, Elves of Anarchy did neat Memento tricks with the self-saccing guys). The G'reil Tvoul EDH deck is fun.

What really impressed me in practice is Shiob, Weigher of Souls. I put him in as a lark in my G'reil Tvoul EDH deck and he completely took over the board. Even if he probably should have "this turn" added to the end of his "prevent damage" clause, his "Pay X life: Destroy target nontoken creature with cmc X or less" ability kept smiting and smiting and smiting. He was a continuous Plague Wind on legs. In his current state, he is probably good enough to become a Modern and maybe even Legacy staple. Perhaps he needs an "if damage is prevented this way" clause. (Well, at least he's shut off by Linvala, Keeper of Silence ...)

In the meantime, if anyone else testing these cards plays Cockatrice, post here! I'd love to try out the decks against others!

Awesome feedback. Any further input is very appreciated too.

Btw in the next draft there are some changes to shiob. He will be slightly increased cost and I thing the if clause is also appropriate.

Ulgris's Blightforce should be a very good (if very restrictive) land in Modern and Legacy. Its drawback is pretty noticeable (no reviving Dark Confidant or Delver of Secrets  ^Flip ), but it has a powerful effect, and Legacy's BUG Nic Fit should be able to abuse it to no tomorrow with Eternal Witness , Deranged Hermit , and Bone Shredder .

I'm testing it and may get back to you.

I'm also testing Zyanth'l. She seems like a pretty promising planeswalker, at least because of her Genesis -like ability. Of course, her restrictive mana cost is a fairly big turn-off.

Okay, I was having a look at the statistics of the set in the Set Editor file. Here's what I found:

The ratio of Power to Toughness has imrpoved since last time. On the first file, the mean ower was 2.23 and the mean toughness was 2.43; a difference of 0.20. That seemed pretty big when I compared it to my set with a difference of 0.03, so that may have had an impact on creature combat. The second (current) file has it reduced down to a gap of 0.10 (Power is 2.28 and Tougness is 2.38). It might still be a significant difference, so playtesters, keep an eye out if combat is still chunky.

I was also looking at the instances of your keywords. Your wedge-specific ones (Resolve, Memento, etc.) come out to about 9-11 cards, which is a good number for a small mechanic. BUT Resolve is one you will struggle to see regularly in boosters as 8 of its 11 cards are rare and above; 2 are common and 1 are uncommon. Compare to Mememto which has double the number of commons/uncommons. Or Flow, which has 4 commons and 4 uncommons in 11 cards; this mechanic will pop up a lot! This may affect how well the resolve mechanic is represented in your set; it's up to you whether this is important information, and whether you want to try out the Random booster pack function on the Set Editor to see how much Resolve pops up.

All of the mythics (and several rares) on the Magic Workstation file are mistakenly marked as common. I tried changing those to M's, but it didn't seem to work. I'm not sure what the letter for mythic is, or if I'm just doing something wrong, but all the mythics seem to be commons. Annoying for making sealed pools.

Also, to download HTTP04's Cockatrice file, I highly recommend Right clicking it & choosing "Save Link As..." Otherwise your browser will try to open the xml file in a format it can't recognize & just load forever.

Draft with Magic Set Editor. Test with Cockatrice. Ditch MWS, it sucks and is out of date.

I won't update the XML until the next major release. Too much trouble. Yeah, browsers might freak out if you try to open that.

I might write up a guide to testing the set if I have time.

That would be cool. Sorry I actually don't know much on either program. The mws file is there because mse actually has an export function for it. I usually just print them to test.

Get any final comments in. You should see version 3 very soon (next couple days)

Did some playtesting with http404Error yesterday. Format's still kinda slow and grindy, but better than before. I played white/red aggressive and 404 played some kind of GU mill (or at least, he killed me with Blightforce Suppression twice). Card is probably too good. Anyway, I've got a ton of comments that exceeds the 3000 character limit, so here: http://pastebin.com/XG6LSqkA

I ran Miremind too, just never drew it. Suppression is good enough to warrant a defensive blue green deck.

Suppression is a nice buildaround uncommon for limited. I think maybe costing it at 1GU would balance it better? Or make it only affect either you or your opponent.

Ulgris does not have very effective ways of putting -1/-1 counters on opposing creatures. The Phyrexians from Scars block were FAR better at that than Ulgris. More cheap creatures with Wither. Having high power and Wither is redundant, since it just kills what it hits.

Green is very good in Limited. Green was the keystone in all of my Sealed pools so far. This is to be expected to some extent however due to the mana fixing capabilities.

Why aren't there green cards that produce red and blue or black and blue? Green is not the solo color in Morglen, Black is. You need to think about the colors and their places in the shards more carefully.

I think the set could use a common Coldsteel Heart type artifact where you pick a color. And the lands need another looking at.

The set's removal stinks pretty badly. Red should have flow burn and cleave-type burn. Black should have some sort of mass debuff like card:Black Sun's Zenith, Mutilate , or Cower in Fear as well as better spot removal. Everything needs to use the set mechanics more.

Editing cards to balance them I can do, but I can't delete cards that community members designed or drastically change them. It's odd that one of the first complaints we heard was that there was too much reusable removal. Now not enough removal.

Morglens central color is black but the fixing is in green. The only fixing in irindu (urg) is from the search for land cards and radiant elemental.

How do you link? Read:

http://pastebin.com/XG6LSqkA

There are a lot of small changes to cards (commons mostly) that I think would be good, especially on some of the black commons. Like, make Jeweled Viper cost 2 so black can have a 2 drop. And make Chaven's Groundskeeper 2/1 flying cause flyers are awesome (except perhaps in white, where there might be too many).

In regards to removal and mana fixing, I think black and white could use slightly better removal, but I don't think there's a particular lack of it. I mean, usually (in most sets) you only get a few removal spells in a Sealed pool or draft. I just generated a pool and got around 10 removal spells. I think the common lands should provide access to different colors on more than one turn.

But the format is actually pretty decent. It needs a lot more tweaking and testing and iteration, but all the cards are basically there.

That we read and certainly made some of the changes.

I was reading the comments on this article, and someone said maybe the Alara triland cycle (Crumbling Necropolis , etc...) could have been common rather than uncommon. That would certainly fix mana issues in this set, though it would also break precedent. The common lands could then be uncommon; they might be playable in constructed formats, since they essentially don't enter the battlefield tapped. Probably a bad idea, but commons are for making good Limited environments right?

Well, I did suggest in that same article that the Panorama cycle could be used (they WERE originally at common, after all). While I don't approve of putting the Tri-lands at common exactly, I think both Tri-lands and Panoramas could be wirth trying out if the current common lands aren't working, unless these options have already been considered and dismissed.

Ooh, no, not THAT article. I didn't even look at it before I posted, I thought thee was referring to the Common Land design challenge before the set playtesting began. To be fair, I think someone DID suggest having the trilands in at common there too.

Well the uncommons that we have in there work effectively like the uncommon cycle from the alara set. For the next playtesting, maybe we will change the common cycle to panoramas to see if that helps. That article should be up tonight. It will include all changes from this article, more art and 4 out of the 5 shard watermarks on cards.

The panoramas always struck me as rather bad Evolving Wilds . There were plenty of common lands suggested though.

The Panoramas aren't bad... but there absolutely needs to be some sort of mana fixing that involves fetching basic lands.

Ok we will put them in the next playtest set. Or should we just do a reprint of terramorphic expanse. I mean adding one common slot would not be a big deal. Then we could keep the common land as designed and have fetch. I am fine with either. The original plan was to have panoramas. But that plan was changed about a year ago. We can always go back to it.

Well, having both Expanse and a land cycle seems sort of awkward, but could work. Guess we can try both ways (this land cycle w/ expanse & panoramas) in playtest. I also like some of the ones in the common land challenge .

Maybe not exactly, but with tweaks:

Festerwood Tributary

t: add G to pool. T, Sacrifice: search for Island or Swamp and put onto battlefield tapped. Activate only if you control a blue or black permanent.

This limits mana fixing strictly to tri colors. Instead the activation cost could be G, T, sacrifice: Search for an Island or Swamp and put onto the battlefield tapped.

That way it supports splashing, but only if you have enough of the main color. It's still very similar to Panoramas, but I guess feels a little different.There were also a couple that riffed off of Shimmering Grotto instead of Evolving Wilds , but that might not be as good as a permanent fix.

I think we are gonna toss the panoramas in there at first. The above land cycle seems a little slow too because you may end up mana screwed for a color and never be able to meet the condition. That puts you in the same position as before.