Here's the Gatherer Random Card link.

For the purposes of this challenge, a "tight cycle" means a five-card cycle where cards have the same mana cost except for colour (e.g. , , , , ). They should have generally have names that are clearly related as well, and obviously the mechanics should be related.

If you get a card where you're not sure if it's in a cycle, that'll do. If you get a multicoloured card, you could expand that into a cycle, or keep hitting Random till you find a monocoloured card. Similarly, if you get a colourless card, feel free to either use that one or to keep clicking random cards until you get a coloured card (although there are some colourless cards in cycles: for example, Aeolipile, Balm of Restoration etc are references to the boons from Alpha).

Hmm. OK, not sure how workable this is...

My first random card was Tolaria West. That's in a cycle, and I don't think I could expand it into another cycle any more interesting than the Future Sight cycle it was part of, so I clicked Random again. Then I got a couple of colourless cards - Magebane Armor and Time Vault... Then Changeling Berserker, which isn't very interesting; Forest, which is, shall we say, already in a tight cycle; and finally Mind Rot. So I guess I'll create a cycle around Mind Rot. Some elements of that (blue) will be easier than some others...

I got Wargate which I didn't even want to think about, and then Wizened Snitches, which I'll try and do something with.

I don't know. A cycle of tricolour X spells could be interesting. There's already Lavalanche as well. Just need the , and elements.

Created Mind Boost, Yes, I Do Mind, Mined Terrain and Mind the Webs. (Er, I seem to be letting out my silly side on the naming front.)

Given this experience, I think it might be sensible to allow people to choose a new name with which to reprint the random card they get, so that they can choose a name which allows variations a bit more than many MtG names will.

I've been given Advanced Hoverguard. Will have a ponder about that. 3C, Drone, Evasion + C: Ability for a 2/2. Getting common-ness right is tricky.

­: Advanced Canopyguard ­: Advanced Armorguard

For Challenge # 023, a tight cycle based on Wizened Snitches. I kinda got lucky on getting an adjective-noun name to call a cycle after - and it even had a creature type-subtype.

­Wizened Snitches is an uncommon utility creature, of slightly unusual but quite nice effect, that affects all players equally - and at the time had a synergy with clash.

I chose to focus mainly on the clash aspect.

The entries are Sneezing Snitches, Doom Snitches, Guardian Snitches and Wirewood Snitches.

BTW: Just looked what my third card would be Countersquall. Yeesh.

Hit the 'Random' Button and got Mana Flare. I thought about doing something a bit in the vein of no-longer in color mechanics, but I felt there may be some groans over that, so I pretended that it's perfectly natural for Mana Flare to re-replace Heartbeat of Spring in Magic 2013, and added Muscle Flare, Performance Flare, Allegiance Flare and Pustulence Flare to the mix. I also griped a couple of times about having to stick to the converted mana cost of Mana Flare. That's not a stab against you, Alex... it says a lot more about how Mana Flare is probably a touch undercosted. Or, maybe, what it notices is that while most every deck can use the extra mana, most of these other cards can't be abused by the opponent as easily...

Also, missing from my challenge: Rick Flair.

Oh, interesting question.

My first random was Sunweb, and I was sure I could find a cycle of walls, but probably not a really interesting one.

My second was a zubera

My third was Angelfire Crusader, which looked like it was probably a cycle already and/or would be difficult to cycle-ify without finding five different interpretations of firebreathing, which has proved tricky in the past.

My fourth was Thraben Sentry which seemed a lot more ripe. My biggest worry was that it was strange to have R/G transform cards that weren't werewolves. I could have made the cycle include werewolves, but it felt better to stick to the same transform trigger, and Innistrad already has several colors with other transform cards, so it seemed ok, even if most of the R/G transforms were werewolves.

­Guardian Spirit ­Vampire's Thrall ­Guard Dragon ­Werewolf Pet

First choice: Masters Edition II Disenchant. This has already basically been done, with various utility spells like Doom Blade.

Second choice: Innistrad Ghost Quarter. It would be quite difficult to turn a colorless land into a cycle.

Third choice: Mirage Misers' Cage. If this wasn't an artifact, I think I could do something with it.

Fourth choice: Nemesis Ensnare. My first thought was that this would be great. My second was that it was probably already a cycle. But it wasn't, so I'm in luck! If I could, I would add "Creatures don't untap during their owners' next untap steps."

I knew I wanted to keep the bounce land alt cost and universal effect. The full cycle is Autoclave, Ensnare, Revivify, Ignite, and Galvanize.

­Necrite

Pyrite Aquite Lumite Arbite

I made them all Thrulls because I wasn't sure what they would be flavor-wise. Except for Arbite, because that was so obviously Treefolk (Tree? And then seeds?) that it wasn't even funny.

I got a few artifacts and cards in cycles before I settled on Vexing Beetle. Hopefully this isn't in a cycle that I missed, because I'm unfamiliar with Legions. Also, since I'm unfamiliar with Legions, I decided to design this cycle in a vacuum and not in relation to what it would have been like in that set.
The rest of the cycle is Prevailing Beetle, Evading Beetle, Conniving Beetle, and Skittering Beetle.

I like this challenge. Giving it another go.

• First I rolled Jester's Cap, which would be pretty difficult.
• Then Ward Sliver, which was one of five uncommon slivers from Legions, and it'd be pretty hard to do a tight Sliver cycle that keeps that one element while bringing anything interesting or new.
• Next came Feedback. That's a pretty weird card, and rather outside the modern colour pie, but yeah... possible... There were a few ways I could have gone with that. I could go for a tight cycle of "Enchant enchantment" auras that do something; a tight cycle of "Enchant [foo]" auras varying the [foo]; or treat Feedback as "a way for blue to interact with enchantments since it's not allowed to destroy them", and expand that into a cycle.
  
  The cycle of damagers is particularly tempting because Wanderlust would fit right into the cycle as well, where green's not allowed to destroy creatures (directly). Curse Artifact suggests black do this with artifacts, but what would white do? White can hit almost any permanent it likes... I guess lands are the exception. But is it white to punish you for playing with lands? Not really.
  
  In the end I gave up on Feedback as well because it's too far out of the modern colour pie: it makes it really hard to generate equivalents in other colours within the modern colour pie. Instead I rolled:
  
  
• Broodhatch Nantuko.

That seems pretty reasonable. A cycle of creatures with "when this is dealt damage" triggers, and morph so that you get one surprise hit on them. The only other such existing is Thrashing Mudspawn, which is not really very similar! Other precedents without morph include:

• Coalhauler Swine "deals that much damage to each player"
• Grollub "each opponent gains that much life"
• Jackal Pup "deals that much damage to you" vs Mogg Maniac "deals that much damage to target opponent"
• Phyrexian Negator "sacrifice that many permanents" vs Phyrexian Obliterator "opponent sacrifices that many permanents"
• Kami of the Honored Dead "gain that much life"
• Souls of the Faultless "you gain that much life and opponent loses that much life".

Can they all be 1C 1/1 with morph 2C? We'll have to see based on the abilities, but I hope so.

Created Balmhatch Aven, Voidhatch Cephalid, Bilehatch Zombie, and Flamehatch Goblin. There were plenty more options: ping that many target creatures? (Somewhat fiddly to template.) Add that much to your mana pool?

Ooh, very nice! You're right, this is interesting.

­Grave Bramble -> Mouse Valiant, Dark Rider, Watcher in the Water, Tivadar's Phalanxmate

Grave Bramble seemed apt for a cycle. It's not that tight, but is hopefully tight enough. Each is the same stats, with a colour-appropriate combat drawback and protection from the characteristic race of one of the enemy colours.

Since Grave Bramble is reference to the plants in Plants vs Zombies, I made the others references as well, to Reepicheep from Narnia, Black Riders and Watcher in the Water from Tolkien, and Tivadar of Thorn respectively.

Unfortunately, I think "can't block" is less of a drawback than "can't attack", so I wasn't sure I could make these all 3/4, so some are 3/2, although I'm not sure I picked the right ones or not.

Yay! The return of Challenge #23! I originally rolled up Forest, and honestly gave it some thought. I was thinking of doing a "What if Magic basic lands provided different effects." Like tapping Swamps always did damage to you, and tapping Islands always milled you a card, and the card power was reflected in the spells. Ultimately, I decided against it, since, whether or not it's a good idea (probably a bad one, to be honest) the cards just wouldn't stand on their own without explanation.

So I rolled again and got Roar of the Wurm. I used to hate that card, because it was so obviously 'cheating'. It really drove my Johnny sensibilities nuts. "You're supposed to hide that sort of thing. How am I supposed to be clever with this?"

So I tried to use a bit of that, and made four cards that interacted a bit more with the casting and flashback costs. Clacking of the Crabs is a strong mill card... the sort that could fuel this whole cycle... but it asks for to find a way to get the ball rolling. Wail of the Banshee is intended to work with a deck that dumps oodles of cards into the graveyard. Chorus of the Angels is an excellent spell at four, but by putting in your graveyard, you killed the surprise. I figured this made the most sense in White, who's the least likely to try to cheat a spell into play... White would prefer to cast the spell twice, if it could. Meanwhile red would much prefer to cheat and rush spells, so Shriek of the Horde comes with a bonus if you discarded it this turn.

I also rolled Telepathy and Akroma, Angel of Wrath which I think should make good cycles, but I'm having difficulty filling them out.

It's hard to make 1-CMC enchantments at all, although that means almost any effect would make them a recognisable cycle.

And Akroma, Angel of Fury suggests the form of the cycle: all 6CC 6/6 flying trample angel, protection from enemy colours, and with three other abilities which may or may not be on-colour. But I'm not sure I can make three more that fit, especially a flying green angel. Unless there's a different pattern, where only two are flying angels??

Mm, building a five-colour cycle around a flier is always tricky. There's precedent for "the other four have flying, green has trample and is bigger" (Gaea's Embrace vs Serra's Embrace etc); for "green gets flying too, it's just bigger or harder to cast" (Bounteous Kirin, Jugan, the Rising Star); or I have a feeling there's one or two examples of "2-3 of the colours get flying, but 2-3 including green don't fly", though I can't bring it to mind right now.

Hm. There's plenty of cycles where only one flies, although more with small creatures than splashy set-headliners. The problem seems to come when one tries to make a cycle of of dragons, or in this case angels.

IIRC Rosewater's conclusion was "don't do that, but ok, once every ten years you can have a splashy green flying angel or dragon". It's one reason to have loose and/or multicolour headline cycles.

If it wasn't for Akroma, Angel of Fury, I might have made it a cycle of iconics: dragon, angel, sphinx, demon and hydra. It might be a rare case where it would be justified being 4/5 flying and not look odd, as everyone expects all angels, sphinxes and dragons to fly, and most demons, and no hydras. It might still be easiest to ignore AAoF, after all, they can't all be called "Akroma, angel of X" :)

I can't think of any 2-3 flying cycles. There's cycles where the stats or rarities are duplicated, but it seems rare for there to be three keywords not 1 or 5. Unless there's dual-colour cycle where each keyword appears twice, but that's not twice the same.

I suppose you could always take a big step outside the box, and give the green creature flying, but make it so that flying is irrelevant on that creature. For example, add the line "~ can't attack or block." Flying just becomes a liability there. I'm pretty sure MaRo would let that swing.

Alternatively, it could just be a very small utility creature, that happens to have a very high cost and keeps flying for flavor reasons. For example, a 2/2 flying Angel that taps to give another creature +4/+4, trample, vigilance, haste, pro black and pro blue. The flying at that point is rather irrelevant.

Went again and rolled Avatar of Woe. I was going to ship it back, since I've already worked with this cycle of avatars 3 times in the past, plus the Avatar of Woe already has a cycle... but I don't like to ship back.

So, I stepped back and tried to see the card through the eyes of a person who never saw the rest of the cycle. What would they fixate on? 'Ten creatures' seemed like an interesting jumping off point, so I patterned these four Avatars off of needing ten creatures to be somewhere: Avatar of Acquisitions, Avatar of Loyalty, Avatar of Tantrums and Avatar of Silence.

A couple spins got me Devil's Play, which really feels like it should be part of a cycle! Let's round it out with Geist's Play, Anesthetist's Play, Butcher's Play, and Behemoth's Play to keep it Innistrad-flavored.