Challenge Slots

{gateways7} It was a very interesting choice to make your monocolored General increase devotion potentially for other colors as well – to be honest I'm not completely sure whether I think it was a good or bad one Considering its restrictions, I would have preferred the second ability to be a bit more than a Battle cry (which to be fair also buffs the toughness) as it feels a bit underwhelming compared to the first one's potential (even though it's obviously nice how well the two fit together).

{viriss} Have to admit, while it wasn't really received that well back then, I totally have a soft spot for Exploit and would love to see its return some day. It really is quite tricky to evaluate though – especially with this design Best possibly scenario obviously would be you sacrificing a mere 1/1 token – being as weak as possibe while not increasing your devotion as well – but there obviously will be times when you will exploit a black creature and thus lower your devotion before creating the Horror token. In a vacuum, I'd say your Ritualist is costed just fine – but depending on the set it's contained in, I could totally see it being a Limited bomb or a junk uncommon.

{FLAREdirector} I love me some symmetrical downsides that are totally not symmetrical at all. And yeah, while I agree your Sorcerer allows some really powerful plays (and would probably be a Commander and/or Casual allstar), I agree it seems to be costed absolutely reasonable. The Scarab God kind of already has the same ability (can even so it at instant speed) – but if you know me it should come to no supprise I totally prefer your clean design over that nine-lined god

{gluestick248} I'm quite curious what rarity you have in mind for your soldiers.. Secure the Wastes at rare obviously comes into mind first, except your card is so color intentive, it'd probably be fine at uncommon as well. I am a bit unsure about the tokens all being copies, though. I mean, it's obviously a clever way to fulfill LIMIT #127– but outside of this challenge's context, creating normal 1/1 Soldier tokens would probably be the more common approach I guess? Especially keeping in mind how for example Embalm intentionally not copied the mana cost as well.

{thegoldenscarab} And we have a second card going the „tokens now increase your devotion too“ approach except this one is indeed limited to its own color. Absorb is a tricky mechanic to evaluate, though. On the one hand it often works just like a simple +0/+1 buff, but sometimes it can be so much more.. MaRo even puts it at 8 on the Storm Scale for being „very powerful and hard to develop“. Anyway, even though I'm actually not really sure about your Dryad's power level, I definitely like its design. Minor nitpick: Absorb shouldn't be capitalized in your rules text.

{inferno390} On its own on an empty board a simple Knight of the Keep, but it has a Crusader of Odric-like ability to grow in size – interestingly Aspect of Hydra and Reverent Hunter are the only cards tying a creature's stats to your devotion but checking only when they resolve / enter the battlefield so far. Your Inspirator however has another really powerful tool with its Heroic ability – which really allows to to craft your own Phalanx, basically (while at the same time making the entire phalanx grow because of the further increased devotion). Definitely worth of being a mythic for sure, even if the costs obviously would require some heavy playtesting – personally I think I'd love to see some white mana as part of the Heroic cost.

{xylophone} I love this design for its cleanness – and obviously cards like this are rather hard to balance, but I think it's too pushed at only. Sure, Evangel of Heliod only costs six mana because it adds two to your devotion by itself, but let's compate Quench/Mana Leak and Thassa's Rebuff. I'd say the rebuff is costed with having around 2.5 devotion in mind – so in comparison your Recruit should probably cost three mana instead.

{Lady Mapi} So all the way to the end, this remained the only card particularly using / caring about noncreature tokens. Your Sleuth looks like a clean and flavorful arcun – it could probably be a 2/3 just fine but other than that, I really don't have much to say other than I really like this one.

{ameisenmeister} Nice to see Embalm being pushed into other colors considering it has never been used on a black card and only once on a red one. That aside, this design obviously reminds me of Aven Wind Guide – in a good way. In both cases I really like the concept of being a token lord at first, but then profiting from one's own buff later on. Also rather intriguing flavor text, by the way.

{Boogymanjunior} First of all, adding to viriss' remarks: Since MtG started with their New World Order, expert level mechanics required reminder text except maybe on mythics – however this indeed has been slightly expanded to rares as well. That aside, your Rekindler definitely is an interesting design – even if it feels like there is a way to break it somehow? Even without really breaking it, creating copies of itself to attack (so the original can always stay behind) as well as from the other creature (with potential ETB or death triggers) sounds scary – even though at that cost and with only a single toughness by itself, it's actually probably fine the more I think about it. Still, it really makes me want to brew with it

{melono} inferno390 basically already commented on your Pod reading rather complicated while feeling rather weak, so I don't actually have that much to add. I think Soul Foundry has to mentioned in this contect though – which only costs more but is cleaner and (obviously) much more powerful in three different ways.. I do like the concept of creating token copies with Vanishing and I think it could lead to an interesting design – however this is not that design.

{And the winner is..} We surely had a lot of entries this time, and I liked quite a few of them quite much. But in the end, I decided to give the win to FLAREdirector!