I figured that after doing so many crazy goofy challenges that people might want something a bit simple before we go into Crazy-town again. This one's got something a bit odd going on... I can't think of many cycles that operate this way, spinning around color and rarity at the same time... but still wades in the 'shallow end' of the design pool. Also, if you wish to add the fourth rarity, knock yourself out. I would suggest against adding a fifth rarity (such as timeshifted) however. The challenge is to deal with the lopsided nature of this cycle... fixing that defeats the point.

So by "cycle based on rarity", you mean something like a common, an uncommon and a rare? What's normally called a "vertical cycle", except different because that would also imply they're in the same colour?

Pretty much. Though, I left it open if players want to throw in a Mythic instead and cut out one of the other rarities.

Huh, keeping the cycle identity whilst shifting across colour - that's gonna be interesting.

The cycle is Llanowar Banshee, Diasporan Elf and Llanowar Regrets.

I figured increasing levels of evasion was a simple enough thing to do in multiple colours - and then realsied that to keep the cost I'd need to add a little something. Hexproof is in both green and blue, so I started there; but am not so happy with the result in black - it's too wordy for a common.

And yes. Red burned down llanowar; and white let them do it. I have no regrets

Goood challenge. I really liked this one. I didn't really address the lopsided nature though.

I did a minor three-color cycle with trees in Gentlemen Magicians ( Chattan Plane Tree, Nich's Oak, Fury Cedars ). I see I had all those at common, but they could have been something else.

I created Eivolar's Servant, Eivolar's Apprentice, Eivolar's Familiar, an Eivolar, Master Spellmaker. If I'm not supposed to do colorless, I could shift that one to green.

­Potential Slayer
­Vampire Slayer
­Buffy, the Vampire Slayer

One option for three colors is to show a character at three stages of development. But that probably means two of them have to be non-legendary, hence the progression from potential to buffy.

Hmm... I considered a cycle through blue, black and red, something like Target player draws 2 cards, Target player draws a card then discards a card, Target player discards 2 cards; but then I realised that although it's a fun three-way-mirror that's inherently restricted to three cards, those would all be common, and definitely none of them is rare or mythic. So time to try another tack.

Oh, you're right, that's a great 3-cycle. You could maybe add a symmetric rider that could justify different rarities depending which card it was on(I think they would ideally do something more than just "UU draw 2 cards") but I think it's a lot nicer as it is.

(I approve of brainstorming round the challenges, so long as they seem in spirit, do people agree?)

I often don't like it when people post half-ideas to challenge threads, actually. If someone says "Let me brainstorm: you could do A or B or C or D", where each of those is the germ of an idea without putting in the time to flesh it out, it feels to me like people are "grabbing" the best ideas without putting in the effort to create a proper submission.

On the other hand, I think it's normally okay if there's what feels like a major problem with an idea such that (the person posting the comment thinks) it probably can't be made to work in this form; that's not grabbing a good idea because you've already tried and failed to make it fit the challenge.

As for Divination, I'm sure it'll be printed sooner or later. If anything it may be slightly on the strong side.

Oh, sorry - I do the brainstorming thing a lot. I pretty much write down my thought process as I have it on these challenges.

Another cycle: Limpid Burst, Dawnglow Burst, Twilight Burst, Verdant Burst.

Ha! Not to remove good ideas from the table, but you started it Alex. If you really wanted to keep that cycle, you could just increase the number of times you use the number two for each rarity. So for example:

­
Sorcery
Common
Draw two cards.

­
Sorcery
Uncommon
Draw two cards, discard two cards, then deal two damage to target creature or player.

­
Sorcery
Rare
As an additional cost to cast ~, sacrifice two creatures and lose two life.
Target player sacrifices two creatures and discards two cards.

Added Telescoping Homunuculus, Seat of Command and Tyrranax Cannon to the mix. The plan is to assemble a gigantic cannon made out of various creatures, point it at your opponent and fire. I wasn't sure if 'collect me' technically made up a cycle, so I tightened the cycle by giving each creature a "Whenever this creature becomes tapped" ability, which plays into the fact that you tap them all to fire the cannon.

Alex: Yeah, I was thinking more of posting nearly-valid things like your UU RR BB cycle, that I'm generally interested to see, but don't quite fit the challenge, and someone might be able to finish even if they probably can't. I agree it can be a problem if people post half-finished ideas that could be finished, although I think it should be ok to post a suggestion if it's understood that it's fine for someone else to make it concrete, and that they were probably thinking the same thing, possibly after waiting a day or something.

Re: UU. Draw a card. I didn't mean it needed to be stronger, I just thought that UU draw 2 and BB discard 2 might be a tad too good, although I agree they'll probably be made eventually, and I thought a small rider (lose/gain 1 life or something) might make them more of a cycle. But I think I'm probably wrong, I think the simplicity of the original suggestion should win out (although I like jmg's suggestions too)

As a second cycle, I created Emblem of the Poor, Emblem of the Bourgeoisie, and Emblem of the Nobility.
...and then I realized that both my cycles are the same colors. I really don't do well at designing green and red cards.