Rehabilitating Contract from Below

[jro]

Seeing the thread discussing ways of making ante cards legal made me think of what possibilities there are for allowing an effect as absurdly powerful as Contract from Below in a non-ante Magic game.  It's hard to find some equivalent because ante is a cost that's so far outside of the game.  I'm not sure how this would work for other ante cards, but perhaps a Contract-like effect could be made like this:

Contract from Further Below
B
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast Contract from Further Below, you get a game loss.  (This effect is immediate, and may result in a match loss.)
Discard your hand, then draw seven cards.

I would think this is at least printable in an un-set without significant changes.  I'm still not sure it's even close to balanced, or a desirable effect to have in tournament Magic, but it's at least functional under current tournament rules.

Perhaps another way to make this kind of effect work would be something like this:

Shadow Bargain
B
Sorcery
Exile your hand face down.  Do not return those cards to your deck at the end of the current game.  Return those cards to your hand at the beginning of the next game in this match.  (Cards set aside this way count towards the total number of cards in your deck, but may not be altered in any way between games.)

This sort of effect would effectively let you concede the current game for an advantage in the next game.

I'm not suggesting any particular card in this thread for now, but would like to hear others ideas about how to possibly allow dramatically undercosted effects like Contract from Below without the cost of anteing cards.

[Delha]

Contract from Further Below
B
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast Contract from Further Below, you get a game loss.  (This effect is immediate, and may result in a match loss.)
Discard your hand, then draw seven cards.

That sounds interesting to me, I'd be fine with seeing it in a silver bordered set.

Shadow Bargain
B
Sorcery
Exile your hand face down.  Do not return those cards to your deck at the end of the current game.  Return those cards to your hand at the beginning of the next game in this match.  (Cards set aside this way count towards the total number of cards in your deck, but may not be altered in any way between games.)

This could be broken pretty nastily. Off the top of my head, Bargain->Draw a ton->Vamp/Mystical/Seal->Cast CARDNAME->Draw->Win. I'm not saying it'll happen all the time, but it would contribute to seeing some back to back blowouts within the same match. Again, I'd be fine with this as a silver bordered card.

[Cyberpunker]

How about giving it the drawback that all   draw spells have? Life loss.

Contract from Below
 
Sorcery
Exile the top card of your library, then draw seven cards and lose 9/10 of your life rounded up.

[Killane]

not playable. Unless you're at twenty, that leaves you at one. This version is too nerfed imho.

[jro]

How about giving it the drawback that all   draw spells have? Life loss.

Contract from Below
 
Sorcery
Exile the top card of your library, then draw seven cards and lose 9/10 of your life rounded up.

I wish I could say where I heard it, who the parties to the conversation were, and exactly what the quote was, but it goes something like this: Evan Erwin asks Pat Chapin how much life loss would make Ancestral Recall an acceptable card to print.  Pat Chapin thinks for a minute, and then says "20 life, and it would still be a very good card in many formats."

(I'm gonna ask my friend Adam if he knows where that's from, cause I'm pretty sure he told me that story, although I'm not positive.)

Anyway, I think the key to making some kind of workable Contract like card is that the cost should be somehow outside the game, in the same way that ante is effectively outside the course of normal gameplay.

[theLastGnu]

How about giving it the drawback that all   draw spells have? Life loss.

Contract from Below
 
Sorcery
Exile the top card of your library, then draw seven cards and lose 9/10 of your life rounded up.

I wish I could say where I heard it, who the parties to the conversation were, and exactly what the quote was, but it goes something like this: Evan Erwin asks Pat Chapin how much life loss would make Ancestral Recall an acceptable card to print.  Pat Chapin thinks for a minute, and then says "20 life, and it would still be a very good card in many formats."

(I'm gonna ask my friend Adam if he knows where that's from, cause I'm pretty sure he told me that story, although I'm not positive.)

Anyway, I think the key to making some kind of workable Contract like card is that the cost should be somehow outside the game, in the same way that ante is effectively outside the course of normal gameplay.

exile, draw 7, then take 4 shots