This challenge is a bit odd, I know, but hopefully someone finds it interesting. Sorry for taking so long to post, I got completely caught up in school work.

Not gonna try and come up with cards - but I had two thoughts for the mechanic.

The first was 'evasion' as a numeric score rather than flying/fear/landwalk/unblockable etc. But that loses quite a lot.

My second thought, however, is loyalty. All creatures have it - most have a lot of it, but some don't and lose it unless you do things to placate them. When a creature becomes disloyal, the opponent takes control of it (and refreshes the loyalty) (This thought started as 'how about an unsummoning cost')

Funny thing is, when Richard Garfield first designed Magic, it had three stats in the lower right hand corner (so, presumably, Grizzly Bears would be a 2/2/2). I thought about using that, but that seemed like cheating to me. I also think I won't explain what it was either, in case someone happens to stumble upon it by accident. I don't want to go about removing options from a difficult challenge.

I just added Uprooted Oakling, and will come back with the second shortly.

Added Behind the Scenes. Instead of stealing from Magic, I stole from Star Wars. Go me.

Hm, maybe a "number allowed in deck".

Relentless Rats: oo
Shock: 30
Lightning Bolt: 4
Ancestral Recall: 1
Shahrazad: 0

Honestly, I hate the idea. I wish all cards were balanced to have as many as you like in your deck (even though that makes it harder to have cards that don't totally unbalance constructed formats). But it would be an interesitng twist that when they design the cards, that some cards would be just overpowered if you could play 15 (eg. stone rain would be REALLY ANNOYING), but others might be interesting if you could build an archetype from one card without waiting for 3 near-functional-reprints of it to be printed at the same time.

(Also, it's not really in the spirit of the challenge because it's not a creature number, its a card number.)

Hm. Maybe a "spell resistance X" number, elevating the "can't be the target of spells or abilities unless their controller pays X" or "can't be the target of spells or abilities costing less than/more than X" to a major mechanic, so instead of having an X/1 non-hexproof or an X/1 hexproof, you can have something in the middle...

Designed Mated Dragon and Endless Hordes for this challenge.

The new number is deck limit and appears on the typeline, before the cardtypes.

Created Grizzly Bears and Bloodlord Revenant as a vision of Magic where recursion was a bit more of an automatic part of the game. The idea is that every card has a Recover number. As an activated ability at sorcery speed, you can discard N cards to return a creature with Recover N from your graveyard to your hand. This provides an automatic use for late-game lands or unneeded early drops. Most recover numbers will be vaguely close to the card's CMC.

I think on balance Magic is probably better as it is, but it's an interesting thought experiment.

This concept I ripped off Duel Masters...:P Basically, you can play these cards as lands that you discard after a turn. Oh, and they don't count towards your land limit. Probably needs a better name than "Fertilizer," but I have a sick sense of humor and not much time, so what the heck. It's more a mechanic for a set or two than a permanent thing, but for what it is, it's fine.

­Energy Grizzly Blast Bug

Today's Savo[u]r the Flavo[u]r provides a hilariously fantastic suggestion for this: Power / Toughness / Eyeball Count:

> Grizzly Bears are the simplest at 2/2/2. Bloodshot Cyclops would be a 4/4/1. Reassembling Skeleton is a 1/1/0. Primordial Hydra gets +1/+1/+2 counters. Dark Tutelage gets reworded to include "Creatures you control get +0/+0/–2." Ocular Halo provides the enchanted creature an additional +0/+0/+20...

All for the sake of one little jar.

­

ROFL. Yes, that's perfect.

­Eye of Ugin - 0/0/1
­Thoughtweft Trio - 5/5/6
­Evil Eye of Urborg

6/

3/
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1

Do telescope, eyeglass, spectacle and sunglasses themed artifacts need a creature with eyes to work?

That guy wins this challenge.

­Venomous Dragonfly - 1/1/30,000
­Mind's Eye - Whenever an opponent draws a card, you may pay . If you do, draw a card and gain +1 eye.
­Evil Eye of Orms-by-Gore - Creatures you control cannot attack unless they have at least one eye. Creatures your opponent control cannot block ~ unless they have no eyes.