Hidden costs would be things that one pays for to make the card better, but that don't appear in the casting cost at the top right hand corner of the card. For example, Skitter of Lizards only costs one mana, but no self-respecting Timmy would ever play it for 1. That card roughly costs +. Songstitcher, likewise, doesn't cost , since the whole point is to use her ability over and over again... thus she costs more. Dragonmaster Outcast also fails this test, since he requires 6 lands to use properly. To Timmy, he might as well cost .

Those cards are easy to point to. When you're no longer talking about mana, though, it's a bit trickier. Is Zuran Orb fine? Umm, maybe? Gaze of Justice? I'm not going to touch that. The key point here is that you want a card that Timmy is happy just paying that one colored mana for. Good luck!

For those having some problems, Mark Rosewater's article Designing for Timmy can be found by clicking on the link.

Nice follow up to Challenge # 043. And darn you for telling me to avoid hidden costs, because my first thought was to make a Level Up creature. :-P

I made Caller of Greatness.

Hee hee. It's too easy to 'fake' a Timmy spell with a casting cost of 1. I'm just keeping us legit.

Made Crystal Lotus, Ambitious Plans, Untame Lightning, Young Treefolk, Reaper's Call, Echoes of Power, and Mercenary Troops.

Cymerdown stumbled upon one of the outs, so I couldn't help but add Cursed Lightning to the list. I can think of two more approaches that open up large fields to work with. I know Timmy loves his fatties, but there's more to Timmy than "Hulk Smash!"

Hmmm hard. We want something that screams "Yes! Yes! look at me! Whee! Look ma, Ma! NO HANDS!" but only costs 1, and presumably isn't allowed to utterly break the game; though technically that wasn't stated in the challenge so I could suggest reprinting an eldrazi at cost 1 ;)

There's a whole space of "This is impressive under {condition}" ... yeah; why not, let's go for that. Dragoneer.

­Mocking Flattery, similar to Cymerdown's Echoes of Power

Created Tomb of Demon Sealing inspired by Goblin Bomb, Rage Stoker which ended up similar to Stromkirk Noble, and Chapel of Inspiration inspired by Tomb of Urami.

I had a great idea for a green growing one-drop, but after I'd written out the text I realised it had ended up pretty much a direct colourshift of Champion of the Parish or Hada Freeblade. Those both fit the terms of this challenge pretty well, I think.

­Young Cheetah, small rather than big.
­Lightning Cascade, drawing from the random theme.
­Young Zur, a genuine 1/1 :)
­"Best" Wishes, a silver-bordered card.
­Little Griefer, a griefer card.
­Blessing of Life, a simple aura

Unfortunately, I'd hoped for a colour cycle, but now I doubled up on red and don't have white yet. Oh well :)

Also Blade of Ascension.

I made another attempt with Noble Aspirant.

­Sentinel Beast

By the way, this is kind of awkward for me because my first name in real life is Timothy, and most of my friends call me Timmy.

There wasn't enough tribal going on for my tastes, so I dropped a Constant Gardener on the battlefield.

Ha! Well, if we're talking tribal: Wirewood Dragoncaller

Oh yeah, tribal is a really good vein for Timmy. Although I think we need more "All goblins get +1/+1 and are awesome" cards rather than ones which make Tammy go "Huh?"

I tried to make some tribal cards, but they ended up non-suitable for the challenge, so they're in cards with no home ( MetaSliver and Pigeon Feeder).

Fun challenge. I made Shrapnel Flinger.

This is probably too easily broken, but Time-Bound Dragon

Wizards just printed their own answer to this challenge: Slumbering Dragon

Yes, they did! I really like that card.

­Dragon Rage, inspired by the tribal theme. I think my previous efforts (other than Blessing of Life ) were trying too hard.