Dragon's maze

[Farandar]

First candidate, a lesser version of Kaervek

Name: Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
Cost: 4rg
Type: Legendary Creature - Ogre Warrior
Pow/Tgh: 6/6
Rules Text: Vigilance, reach
Ruric Thar, the Unbowed attacks each turn if able.
Whenever a player casts a noncreature spell, Ruric Thar deals 6 damage to that player.
Illus. Tyler Jacobsen
Rarity: Rare

Ruric is a reasonable beater, its ever-attacking stance is not such a problem since it has Vigilance. Its symetrical ability is a tough-one : 6 damage at a time is a hard beat.

But I do prefer Kaervek still. If you don't have your copy of the legendary shaman...

[Farandar]

Name: Render Silent
Cost: WUU
Type: Instant
Rules Text: Counter target spell. Its controller can't cast spells this turn.
Flavor Text: "We have confiscated your spells as evidence. Once we conclude our investigation, you may petition to have them returned."
Rarity: Rare
Set Number: #96/166

Nice unconditionnal counter, with a bonus you won't use if your stack doesn't include a lot of freebies. Can be tutored with Sunforger and Firemind's Foresight, too. Nice, really.

[Farandar]

Ok, new mechanic : Fuse. This applies to dual cards, Fire/ice style, and gives the caster the ability to play both halves of such cards rather to choose. Nice. But the cards including this option are so tremendous so far.

Name: Wear // Tear
Cost: 1R // W
Type: Instant // Instant
Rules Text: Destroy target artifact.

//

Destroy target enchantment.

Fuse (You may play one or both halves of this card from your hand.)
Rarity: ?

Seems the most playable. It reads : destroy target artifact AND/OR target enchantment. The main interests are : there were no such card allowing to destroy an artifact AND an enchantment in a single blow to this day. That you are not forced to have both targets are a great bonus. Moreover, Wear/tear is a Sunforger target. For Firemind's Foresight it can a 2CMC or a 1CMC target, allowing you to have two 3CMC spells !
Love it.
The other ones are way less powerful, IMHO.
Beck//Call gives four 1/1 flyers and a Draw4... At sorcery speed...
Toll // Trouble makes a player draw 2 for 2 life, and can also inflict 1 point per card in hand for this player... Not that thrilling.

Name: Melek, Izzet Paragon
Cost: 4UR
Type: Legendary Creature - Weird Wizard
Pow/Tgh: 2/4
Rules Text: Play with the top card of your library revealed.

You may cast the top card of your library if it's an instant or sorcery card.

Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell from your library, copy it. You may choose new targets for this copy
Rarity: Rare

Weak body. Let's see the utility abilities : a free twincast... Mhm. Not sure that's such a big deal, since you won't be able to use it right now (unless you managed to get Melek on board for free).

[Vennie]

Ok, new mechanic : Fuse. This applies to dual cards, Fire/ice style, and gives the caster the ability to play both halves of such cards rather to choose. Nice. But the cards including this option are so tremendous so far.

Name: Wear // Tear
Cost: 1R // W
Type: Instant // Instant
Rules Text: Destroy target artifact.

//

Destroy target enchantment.

Fuse (You may play one or both halves of this card from your hand.)
Rarity: ?

Seems the most playable. It reads : destroy target artifact AND/OR target enchantment. The main interests are : there were no such card allowing to destroy an artifact AND an enchantment in a single blow to this day.

This is not true, read Hull Breach...

[Farandar]

At instant speed ?
But I didn't precise in the first place, I agree.

[A.-1.]

Return to Dust?

Nothing too exciting yet 

[Wagner]

Return to Dust?

Nothing too exciting yet 

Really?

We have a auto-include counterspell, a great Kaerverk #2, an upgrade to Tidings and an upgrade to Hull Breach, all that in 8 non-land cards spoiled, I think this is boding extraordinarely well

[A.-1.]

Render Silent is a generic counterspell the majority of the time. Our stack doesn't have any non-freebie, generic counters. The second ability is cute, but I won't be adding it. Ruric Thar isn't even close to the power level of Kaervek. I probably won't bother. Tidings isn't good enough for our stack and neither is Beck // Call.

Wear // Tear will be added. I'll probably cut Hull Breach. Utility removal isn't anything to get excited about.

I'm sure for some stacks these cards are fine, but, for better or worse, these cards don't measure up to the power level of our stack.

[Farandar]

Return to dust is a removal two at sorcery speed...

Wear // Tear is really a speedy-upgrade of Hull Breach.

Render silent is interesting in a certain stack : mine contains lots of freebies so all "counter everything and stop trying to cast anything" is a good addition. And I try to favor instants over sorceries, so Tidings and its Beck // call upgrade isn't for me.

The nice thing is : we have cards for every kind of stack, which is the best, I think.

Here are some news we could consider.

Name: Turn // Burn
Cost: 2u // 1r
Type: Instant // Instant
Rules Text: Target creature loses all abilities and becomes a 0/1 red Weird until end of turn.

//

Burn deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
Illus. Ryan Barger
Rarity: Uncommon

Instant removal for every creature you can target with a blue spell. It can kill things like dark/blightsteel colossus, can be tutored by a lot of things, and can even be a combat trick with a 2 ping flavor Really polyvalent.

Don't know what to think about this one :

Name: Breaking // Entering
Cost: ub // 4br
Type: Sorcery // Sorcery
Rules Text: Target player puts the top eight cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.

//

Put a creature card from a graveyard onto the battlefield under your control. It gains haste until end of turn.
Rarity: Rare

It's a sorcery, but a milling effect for 8 + stealing permanently a hasted creature from an opponent's graveyard is not that bad. Potent effect. Question is : Potent enough ?

Name: Varolz, the Scar-Striped
Cost: 1bg
Type: Legendary Creature - Troll Warrior
Pow/Tgh: 2/2
Rules Text: Each creature card in you graveyard has scavenge. The scavenge cost is equal to its mana cost.

Sacrifice another creature: Regenerate Valroz, the Scar-Striped.
Illus. Adam Paquette
Rarity: Rare

Rest of the spoiler so far isn't that tremendous. Varloz the scar striped is a graveyard converter, but I don't know if it's better than Lord of extinction and other Mortivore... It somehow protects itself, allowing itself to grow bigger in the same process but... Scavenge is a sorcery-speed thing, so I don't know, really. Chances are the cost of this card will sky rocket in standard and may be in Legacy...

Any thoughts ?

[Wagner]

I like the first 2. Troll is not great, it will be a 20/20 with no evasion most of the time, which is ok, but meh.

Breaking and Entering is about on par with Beacon of Unrest to me since it gives the creature haste. Pretty much better all around than Animate Dead and others even though it can't target your graveyard. Late-game, milling 8 cards can be quite devastating.

Obzedat's Aid
   3wb
Sorcery    Rare
Return target permanent card from your graveyard to the battlefield.

This seems very playable.

Master of Cruelties
   3br
Creature - Demon    Mythic Rare
First strike, deathtouch
Master of Cruelties can only attack alone.
Whenever Master of Cruelties attacks a player and isn't blocked, that player's life total becomes 1. Master of Cruelties assigns no combat damage this combat.
Illus. Chase Stone   1/4

This guy is just hilarious! I'd play him any day over Mindleech Mass and those other guys with a fun effect when they connect.

[A.-1.]

Return to dust is a removal two at sorcery speed...

Technically, it's still Instant speed.

Anyway, I finally looked at a picture of a card with the Fuse mechanic. I didn't realize they looked exactly like the old split-cards. Can you cast both sides at the same time in Type 4? Wouldn't that count as playing two spells a turn? It doesn't fit under the ACC rule, so I guess you could make a house rule that allows it.

[Wagner]

Return to dust is a removal two at sorcery speed...

Technically, it's still Instant speed.

Anyway, I finally looked at a picture of a card with the Fuse mechanic. I didn't realize they looked exactly like the old split-cards. Can you cast both sides at the same time in Type 4? Wouldn't that count as playing two spells a turn? It doesn't fit under the ACC rule, so I guess you could make a house rule that allows it.

Come on, they FUSE, they are only one spell
(Very little Storm in Type 4, so I think we can avoid that can of worms, but I'd said it counds for 2 spells anyway!)

[A.-1.]

Hunting Pack!!!! hahaha

It's one of my favorite Type 4 cards.

[Wagner]

Hunting Pack!!!! hahaha

It's one of my favorite Type 4 cards.

Yes, Hunting Pack and Wing Shards are the only 2 that even have a chance of being good enough.

I always get stuck with Hunting Pack and never can do more than 2 dudes with it

[A.-1.]

I don't know how, but it seems like someone always finds a way to cast Hunting Pack for value in our playgroup.

A common scenario will go: Player A casts a bomb, Player B counters, Player C tries to sneak an instant-speed bomb in, and then Player D plays Hunting Pack.

[Farandar]

And player D ends up with 4 4/4 with no evasion or ability whatsoever, while C gets his bomb. My.

Anyway.

Name: Far // Away
Cost: 1U//2B
Type: Instant // Instant
Rules Text: Return target creature to its owner's hand.
//
Target player sacrifices a creature.
Fuse (You may cast one or both halves of this card from your hand.)
Illus. Greg Staples
Rarity: Uncommon
Set Number: #127/166

Not that tremendous, but a polyvalent card is alwats good. The good thing is you can target two creatures on the board, not from the same controler. Could turn very political or nasty combat trick.

[A.-1.]

And player D ends up with 4 4/4 with no evasion or ability whatsoever, while C gets his bomb. My.

My? My what? I guess something gets lost in translation, but I can assume you're not a fan of Hunting Pack.

I really didn't think I had to spell this out so simply but to clarify:
Player D is obviously going to wait until the end of turn to play Hunting Pack. Players A, B, or D can still use a freebie counter on Player C's bomb. Or if there are more than four players, any number of additional players could counter Player C's bomb. Player D ends up with at least 16 power on board, which is nothing to scoff at.

[Farandar]

16 power on board in the form of four 4/4 critters is quite nothing in a powerful stack. They can be an annoyance but most of the time they will swiped before they can do anything meaningful. But anyway, enough of this : Question of taste.

Here's something big and nice :

Name: ~Progenitor Mimic
Cost: 4ug
Type: Creature - Shapeshifter
Pow/Tgh: 0/0
Rules Text: You may have ~ enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield except it gains “At the beginning of your upkeep, if this creature isn’t a token, put a token onto the battlefield that’s a copy of this creature.”
Rarity: Mythic Rare
Set Number: #92/166

It doesn't target, juste as a Clone. But it brings little brother every turn. Love it.

Name: Possibility Storm
Cost: 3rr
Type: Enchantment
Rules Text: Whenever a player casts a spell from his or her hand, that player exiles it, then exiles cards from the top of his or her library until he or she exiles a card that shares a card type with it. That player may cast that card without paying its mana cost. Then he or she puts all cards exiled with Possibility Storm on the bottom of his or her library in a random order.
Illus. Jason Felix
Rarity: Rare

An auto-include for a Chaos deck.

Name: ~Plasm Capture
Cost: uugg
Type: Instant
Rules Text: Counter target spell. At the beginning of your next precombat main phase, add X mana in any combination of colors to your mana pool, where X is that spell’s converted mana cost.
Rarity: Rare
Set Number: #91/166

If you play with the ACC rule saying : "if the mana doesn't come from your infinite pool, it's a freebie", this one's for you. If not, well, it's juste an expensive counterspell.

Name: Tajic, Blade of the Legion
Cost: 2rw
Type: Legendary Creature - Human Soldier
Pow/Tgh: 2/2
Rules Text: Tajic, Blade of the Legion is indestructible.
Battalion — Whenever Tajic atttacks with at least two other creatures attack, Tajic gets +5/+5 until end of turn.
Flavor Text: "I run the maze alone, but I fight with the full might of the Legion."
Illus. James Ryman
Rarity: Rare

I mention this one juste for the flavor. Ok, it's a 2/2. But it's indestructible. It's the kind of superblocker that can stick quite a long time, and turn into big troubles, forcing the opponent to keep a blocker available since it can gnaw its way 2 points after 2 points. Not immune to sacrifice effect, not big, not impressive, but the little something you forgot and bother you to death (and to victory).
The Battalion ability is a bit overkill, since attacking with 3 creatures in T4 is like having 20 horsepower on its way. It's still nothing to scoff at.

[Mr. Type 4]

I think being able to play both halves of a Fuse card is fairly intuitive - if you didnt want them to work that way most of them would be unplayable.

Runic Thar seems a lot more fun than Karavek, but is much weaker.  I really dont like Karavek much, he makes people not want to play cards or allows two people to tag team kill everyone - neither of which I think is very fun, but it depends on how long you like games to last.  It's actually pretty tame compared to things I've seen in some stacks.

I like Obzedat's Aide.  Finally something worth doing at Sorcery speed.
  

[Farandar]

Name: Catch // Release
Cost: 1UR//4RW
Type: Sorcery // Sorcery
Rules Text: Gain control of target permanent until end of turn. Untap it. It gains haste until end of turn.
//
Each player sacrifices an artifact, a creature, an enchantment, a land, and a planeswalker.
Fuse (You may cast one or both halves of this card from your hand.)
Illus. Kev Walker
Rarity: Rare

Let me stole you this and sacrifice it, allowing me to keep my own stuff. Thanx !

Otherwise, it's a sort of wrath, with the sacrifice bonus.

[Farandar]

Name: Blast of Genius
Cost: 4ur
Type: Sorcery
Rules Text: Choose target creature or player. Draw three cards and discard a card. Blast of Genius deals damage equal to the converted mana cost of the discard card to that creature or player.
Rarity: Uncommon

Ok, this one is huge. Only flaw : sorcery speed. But draw 3, discard one and deal a LOT of damages in a single card is pretty awesome. You can easily kill a player with that. Love it.

Name: Ready // Willing
Cost: 1gw//1wb
Type: Instant // Instant
Rules Text: Creatures you control are indestructible this turn. Untap each creature you control.
//
Creatures you control gain deathtouch and lifelink until end of turn.
Fuse (You may cast one or both halves of this card from your hand.)
Rarity: Rare

This one basically reads : "counter target wrath effect". But not only. It can be a game breaker combat trick ("I'm not left handed ! err... without blockers, I mean"). Not huge, but tasty polyvalence. Flaw : wrath-likes that exiles or demands sacrifice are not bothered by this one (and they are more and more nowadays).

[Wagner]

Ætherling
   4uu
Creature - Shapeshifter    Rare
: Exile Ætherling. Return it to the battlefield under it's owners control,at the beginning of the next end step.
: Ætherling is unblockable this turn
1: Ætherling gets +1/-1 until end of turn.
1: Ætherling gets -1/+1 until end of turn.
Illus. Tyler Jacobson   4/5

This is one amazing, but annoying dude. Mist Dragon is always pretty good in my stack since it's so hard to get rid of, this guy is even better!
You get 8 attack unblockable, always ready to block with infinite defense and can't abused if stolen like Mist Dragon can.

With this much power and it being impossible to kill or block, should be a contenter ever for strongest stacks.

[Farandar]

And we know everything of this extension.

Here's my short list :
Aetherling : A new morphling, quite as good, may be even better since it can evade sacrifice abilities.
Blast of genius : Missing coffee, but quite good nonetheless.
Catch / release : A sacrificing wrath + some stealing capability. Nice. EDIT : Will upgrade my old Confiscate...
Progenitor Mimic : A spawning Clone, can become a real problem very quickly. And like every clone, a legend killer.
Wear / Tear : Dual removal at instant speed. Hull Breach auto-upgrade.
Obzedat's aid : does nothing in early game, but a permanent in your yard is something people bothered to counter or removed, so should be quite worth the effort to bring it back.
Far/away : autoupgrade for diabolic edict if you still had it.

Worth at least to try it :
Ready / Willing : Love this combat trick / protection. Have to try it just to see if it's worth it.
Gaze of granite : I have to ckeck my wrathes list to see if this one can upgrade any. It destroys every kind of permanent BUT land so is something to consider for those having more and more planeswalkers. EDIT : can upgrade Planar Cleansing since you can play around your own stuff with the X cost.
Render silent : not sure to include this one, but I'll look to get him some place.
Turn / Burn : Destroys industructibles. Is it enough ?
Breaking / Entering : You can play entering with a target in mind, Breaking is then a bonus. Or you can offer yourself a chance to get something you don't know yet. Have to notice that effects that remove cards from the graveyard can't prevent Entering from working, thanx to Breaking (unless you have bad luck )

[Mr. Type 4]

From what I understand about the Fuse cards, when casting it "Fused" it only counts as one spell (for the purposes of fighting it with counter magic and storm etc) so no house rules would be needed for these to work in your Type 4 games.