Lift The Ban Challenge

Giving the win to gluestick248

Doing this just as text as my understanding is we are modifying the existing card. In my mind that means new text box, but the rest is as printed.

New text box:

While this creature is in play you don't lose unspent mana in your mana pool as phases change.
When this creature enters and when it attacks, reveal the top card of your library. Add {R} for each unique vowel on the revealed card. (The vowels are A, E, I, O, U, and Y.)

And time’s up!

sciophobia: This is a clever way to care about vowels without using the sticker sheet, keeping it firmly in Un territory. Adding mana every attack and keeping that mana through combat is very strong.

ZephyrPhantom: You really did your homework on this one. One thing you didn’t mention is that hitting a Muxus means you’re up 8 mana, but that Muxus is exiled forever.

There are two very different designs here, but I’ll give the win to ZephyrPhantom for staying closer to the original. Sciophobia’s Goblin is powerful, but it provides consistent mana rather than giving you one explosive turn.

Congratulations ZephyrPhantom!

Both of these fixes are pretty straightforward, but hydraheadhunter wins by staying closer to the original intention of a value engine that a deck can be built around. I see what Bouncearama's take is getting at but I think the use cases for this version are very limited to the point it might not even be worth running as a Commander (outside of one very specific type of political deck).

Valid point but Michael Majors states that "After removing the [flash] ability, it wasn't clear that the card would have an audience or a home, something that is important for every card we make. Ultimately, my intention was to create a build-around aimed at Commander play, which resulted in the final text."

I don't think lifting the ban is very impactful if the card is going to have a hard time seeing play in its new iteration. Your version has good intent behind it but your choice of 2nd ability ("Play with the top card of your library revealed.") to replace the flash-granting one doesn't actually add much to the card itself. If anything, if I understand it right, it actually gives the opponent free information on when they should hold back removal so you can't get free cards off the revised Nadu, which makes it very hard for the player to get any cards out of it, let alone use it as a key part of a deck.

I think I would've looked at this version a lot more optimistically if it looked something like this:



This way, it avoids the original design's concerns of being a constant flash value machine, but it can act as a one time punish against removal that you play at the end of a large stack. That way, you either surprise your opponents with it in Modern or hold it around ominously in the Command zone to play politics with it (at the cost of not being able to do much with it once it's actually out.)

Dockside Extortionist 
Creature — Goblin Pirate
When ~ enters, create X Treasure tokens, where X is the number of opponents you have that control an artifact or enchantment. (Treasure tokens are artifacts with “{T}, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color.”)
2/2

I would change the name to Dockside Extortion, the ist suffix makes me think of a creature.

Dockside Extortionist
Creature — Goblin Pirate
When ~ enters, create X Treasure tokens, where X is the number of enchantments your opponents control.
2/1

Thanks hydraheadhunter!

For the next challenge, unban Blazing Shoal in Modern. This was banned for enabling turn 2 wins in infect decks, so let’s see something a bit more reasonable.

March of Impassioned Souls
Instant - Arcane
As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may exile any number of red cards from your hand. This spell costs less to cast for each card exiled this way.
Target creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn.

Giving it a Neon Dynasty style rework that keeps the original idea intact without making it too easy for Infect to exploit.

And this challenge is closed. Your judgment awaits:

Idea: This reminds me of From Under the Floorboards and Welcome to the Fold, but in reverse. +3 power is still good for no mana, but the turn 2 win is much harder (you’d need 3 of these and 3 other red cards). I also like how you get 3 power if you cast it for free another way, like with cascade.

ZephyrPhantom: I appreciate the reference to that NEO cycle (which itself may have been a reference to the Shoals). However, to get any significant power buff you need to pay at least 2 mana and exile multiple cards, which doesn’t seem worth the cost. Adding some keywords (like Lunar Frenzy) or another upside would make this more appealing, although farther from the original card.

vizionarius: Splice onto Arcane is a very interesting way to balance this effect, since you need to be playing an Arcane spell, but the Shoal only costs you the one card since the original stays in your hand. Assuming this was supposed to be Arcane, you could even cast this for X=0 and splice another copy onto it.

I’ll give the win to idea for their smaller version. Turn Inside Out saw some Standard play, so 3 power for cheap seems powerful but reasonable. Congratulations!