Inspired by Slide into Obscurity.

Neat. The even division is the hardest part. It is probably for the best that everyone knows what every card is (as it is).

Originally this was also going to have the cast ability from (((Resonate Portal))), hence the random distribution. As it is, I may as well make it manifest. As for even division, I figure you take the exile pile, shuffle it, and deal it out. That seems easy enough

This "exile pile" will contain cards from all over the field, tucked underneath cards etc. owned by several players which may have different sleeves, or identical sleeves and probably want their own cards back.

Exiled cards are far less a singular "pile" than cards in a single graveyard.

Now if the "cards in excess" contains a card exiled by an effect like Banishing Light you will also want to use a method that makes certain the card remains associated with Banishing Light after the random division effect. I mean, it's turned face-down, but it still could go back to the battlefield, right? I'm not certain there has been an effect before that could turn a card in exile face down and then just leaves it there.

And remember that the current wording means that while cards are randomly assigned to players every card needs to remain trackable i. e. I might not know who gets the exiled Exalted Angel before the spell resolves, but I'll know who gets it afterwards.

The way it is worded also doesn't specify that the cards remain face-down as they enter the battlefield.

You probably wanted a wording closer to Ghastly Conscription, but I personally still would advise against shuffling together cards owned by several players on such a large scale.

Absolutely not. As soon as Across the Veil gets a hold of them, all the exiled cards lose any association with what exiled them in the first place. It's like using a processor on a flickered card. By turning them face-down, no one gets to know what the card is, only who owns it

> Absolutely not. As soon as Across the Veil gets a hold of them, all the exiled cards lose any association with what exiled them in the first place.

Source?

> It's like using a processor on a flickered card.

Processors move the cards to a different zone (and don't turn them face down AFAIK). That removes any previous association. I'm specifically talking about the cards that remain exiled.

> By turning them face-down, no one gets to know what the card is, only who owns it

That is... wrong. If the card was face-up and then is turned face down, the public knowledge of what the card was remains public.

I think it would also be really hard to track who owns which card if e. g. there three copies of the same card exiled by two different players and you use the "take the exile pile, shuffle it, and deal it out" solution. Even the player receiving a copy wouldn't be able to know the owner for certain.

And if you have to shuffle the cards of different owner's separately that screws with the random division process.

There are only two cards that use "shuffle, then manifest" design space - one of them shuffles only two cards, so the resolution of the ownership tracking is relatively easy (if both are owned by the same player, shuffle, otherwise don't bother shuffling, because the owner is public information); the other makes certain all shuffled cards are owned by the same player (taking them all from a single player's graveyard).

If you changed it to "all exiled cards you own" you would have an easier time making this effect logistically possible, but obviously less interesting.