There's still plenty of design space left with Rebound. But the mechanic seems to only pop up on infrequent occasions, so it will take Wizards time before they get to it all.

But here's a curious example. This spell is a Festival when you cast it on your opponent's turn, but becomes a... um... thresholded Demoralize when it bounces back on your turn.

The fact that I had to reach for Demoralize shows how determining a casting cost for NTC #044 is a challenging affair. Maybe this should cost ? Unclear. Awe for the Guilds seems to infer that. But Magmatic Chasm/Falter has seen three printings, and infers this 3-cost model is probably okay. I'm going to pretend that since you have to wait a round for the more powerful 'can't block' effect on NTC #044, that the card has a drawback. ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

I really wanted this to be a common (presuming there were other commons that played with rebound like this in the set.) But since red never gets "creatures can't block" without exception, it seemed wrong to make it a common ability. Meh.

Oh right. But what is this card called?

Hmmm

Biased Ruling, perhaps? I might come back to this.

­Switched Orders

I find it hard to judge the development, I'd guess this is about right.

­Overawe

Confounding Warcry

Dual Gambit

Also, does Rebound ever let you cast this from your hand (IDK how the mechanic works)? Because the reminder text (here, at least) isn't worded to make the exile part optional...

Oh... wait, it says 'exile it as it resolves'... does that mean the effect you pay for still happens, and the exile takes place after (as-in instead of going to the graveyard?)

Wow... If so, that's a pretty awesome mechanic!

Now I have another idea, Follow-Up Maneuver

@Froggy: Yes, basically, the first time it's just like a normal spell, but then you get the effect again in your next turn.

I never thought of this before but the comp rules sound like you ONLY get the rebound if you cast it from hand the first time round, not through anything that lets you cast a spell from graveyard or library (or exile).

@jmg: Although now I think of it, they might tweak the rules so the templating can explicitly say "if it rebounded" instead of "if you cast from exile" to avoid edge cases where you cast it from exile due to some other effect. For simplicity, not because it would be a play problem.

PS. I really like Confounding Warcry. I was trying to think of something similar but it didn't quite come together.

Rearranging what Froggychum had, what about Dual Maneuver

@Jack V: "If it rebounded, instead" would also solve another problem I had when designing this card. If NTC #044 is cast some other way than from your hand or exile, then nothing happens. For example, if I was to cast Snapcaster Mage then cast #044 from the graveyard, it would just blank. Wouldn't even rebound. So sad.

I figured it wasn't worth fixing the corner case. But I wouldn't mind patching it up with a natural expression. I'll wait until after the challenge is over, though, to prevent confusing contestants.

A different flavour: Chasm of Isolation

Art shows Nahiri opening up a canyon around a barbarian encampment.

And yeah, rebound is an awesome mechanic, and this cost seems fine. I think this might actually be at least playable in Limited... though it's interesting that of course it'd be rather stronger if you could get the effects in the other order. Of course then it's just Sleep.

Commandeer Initiative

The polls are open. Vote for your favorite name here!

Jack's name of 'Switched Orders' was tied for first, but I acted as tiebreaking vote and gave it to Froggychum this week.

See you all in (((NTC #045)))!

­:happy dance: