MTG Designs [EDH]

Cevise was a thought experiment on how energy might be utilized in a 4-player format, where players were extremely unlikely to be running support for the mechanic. This is no surprise, given that energy only shows up in about 70 cards from the Kaladesh block. Aside from proliferate, it's difficult to make energy matter to all players at the table.

Originally, Cevise wanted to convert attacks into energy to spend on an energy sink payoff in the form of damage to opponents. Looking through the options for this style of deck, the gameplay appeared to be unnecessarily linear, and I instead opted for a design that provided energy to all players involved, thus including the opponents into the energy counter minigame. Flash is a flavor choice that harkens to her affinity to energy.

Although a deck built around Cevise will no doubt be focused on exploiting energy and the proliferation thereof, this to be a very fair and fun card to play and play against. She breaks parity on her own, and that seems to be acceptable, considering the low amount of external support. I expect Gonti's Aether Heart and Aetherworks Marvel to be solid mainstays in this deck. Perhaps we might even see some decks lean into blinking some of the ETB creatures for energy.

Albeit I do not like eminence as a mechanic, Gyrvas was the product of a personal challenge to utilize different mechanics to trailblaze new designs under rougher constraints. I opted to use eminence to create a myriad commander with a unique cost reduction mechanic.

The most interesting part of this card is the deckbuilding restriction it creates. Generally speaking, Temur (GUR colors) has an affinity for creatures and their wild savagery, but this card incentivizes leaning into the spellflinging Izzet (UR) side of the card that cares about instants and sorceries, thus rewarding the casting of smaller, stormy spells into creature payoffs.

Of concern, eminence is a difficult mechanic to balance around. Storm builds that can exploit this ability are a focal point for scrutiny, but Storm 13 to windmill slam Emrakul, the Promised End feels acceptable and is fair game, considering the required setup. Ultimately, I intend for Gyrvas to encourage combining cheap storm or cascade spells with a heavy creature base that plays with myriad, and I expect some overlap with Maelstrom Wanderer decks. Stacking multiple instances of myriad to attack with should be a solid win condition.

Sultai (BGU) has a long history of being especially value-oriented graveyard recursion heavy decks. Revo is an alternate take on Sultai; Revo motivates a more combat-oriented mill strategy that still plays nice with standard graveyard-centric playstyles. Combat focus is something we generally see with Dimir (UB) cards, but adding green to facilitate a creature-combat gameplay loop.

Revo comes with evasion to connect with opponents, consistently milling cards. The twist here is that two avenues of gameplay are unlocked - milling yourself versus milling opponents. Access to enablers such as Fleet Swallower and Traumatize will allow both strategies to be viable, providing huge targets to reanimate or cast with Sultai's toolset and the mana to get there.

Revo decks will likely share similarities to some Phenax, God of Deception decks. Along with dredge, the influx of rogue support in 2020 offers Revo more success with this gameplan. The mill-to-draw/mana conversion on this card can potentially be too powerful or warping, and that would likely be the first area to target for changes in that event. Self-mill strategies will appreciate winning with a Thassa's Oracle effect.