New Lotuses

[netherspirit]

Hey all, I'm working on a new set and here are the very first two cards. I know that we're only really meant to post one card per thread, but these two go together, so I figured it'd be ok to post both of them together.

They use my new mechanic, Evolution, so hopefully you'll see the link between them. Anyway, without further ado here they are!

Steel Lotus
 
Artifact
Evolution 3 — White Lotus (At the beginning of your upkeep, put an age counter on Steel Lotus. When Steel Lotus has 3 or more age counters on it, remove it from the game. If you do, search your hand and library for a card named White Lotus and put it into play. Then shuffle your library.)
, Sacrifice Steel Lotus: Add to your mana pool.


White Lotus
{No Cost}
Artifact
, Sacrifice White Lotus: Add three mana of any one color to your mana pool.

Well there they are! Any thoughts, comments or criticism would be very much appreciated! And if you have anything to say about Evolution then please feel free.

netherspirit

[Ephraim]

Notwithstanding that we already have a card named White Lotus in the master list, this doesn't seem all that different from Lotus Bloom.  I appreciate that this card is somewhat weaker, since it can both be destroyed before it evolves and it requires you to play with a card in your deck that will frequently be a dead draw.  I do not, however, think that this is a very novel implementation of the Lotus family.

Furthermore, I am not a fan of cards that reference other cards by name.  Wizards does this very rarely and I am thankful for that.  In this case, I think it's an even greater misstep because the cards are not useful except when played together.  In instances where Wizards has referenced specific cards by name, all of the components usually have some purpose apart from the combined effect.  White Lotus, on the other hand, is unplayable without Steel Lotus.  Without White Lotus, Steel Lotus is strictly worse than Lotus Petal.

[Nydaeli]

This would work better as a flip card.

Steel Lotus
Artifact
At the beginning of your upkeep, put an age counter on Steel Lotus.  If there are three or more age counters on Steel Lotus, flip it.
T, Sacrifice Steel Lotus:  Add 1 to your mana pool.
---
White Lotus
Artifact
T, Sacrifice White Lotus:  Add three mana of any one color to your mana pool.

[netherspirit]

Whichever way I take the cards, should I either change Steel Lotus to require only 2 age counters or should I make White Lotus add 4 mana? That way White Lotus isn't strictly worse than Lotus Bloom.

[Darkenslight]

Why not make White Lotus add three mana of your choice to your mana pool?  Or would that be too strong?