First pass at Denval. I don't think I captured him as best I could, so I'm going to take another pass later (I kind of like the idea of Denval having the words "Choose One" on him somewhere... forcing him to make decisions. We'll see if I can put that together tomorrow.)

The card to the left came about in an attempt to show a normal Leonin Elder who has stepped up from his duties. Now he's responsible for all permanents, not just artifacts, and with great exertion, can do momentous things. (I was going to make it a death trigger, but Denval doesn't die, so far, in the plot. ETB would make his base cost far too much. The ability itself roughly reads "Gain 20 life" before dealing with the flickering after-math).

After making the card, I realized that I'd have a 'Warp World doesn't quite work with auras' sort of problem. It took me a little while, but then I realized that not returning the enchantments looks like I'm giving Denval a bonus Cleanfall, while sweeping the awkward rules complication behind the sofa.

"Under owner's control" added.

The enchantment clause looks clunky. What if he returned all permanents, but you included reminder text "Auras with nothing to enchant remain exiled"?

That looks less clunky? the enchantment clause only takes up the word 'non-enchantments'. I can see a number of reasons why a player/designer would prefer to not have the non-enchantment clause there, but, in my mind, a lack of elegance isn't one of them. Makes your Melvin-sense tingle, though? Sure, I can buy that.

I certainly could use reminder text instead of non-enchantment... that's a reasonable option. Let's see what some of the other designers think around here. I should point out that reminder text will bump out flavor text. These things happen.

Permanents come back untapped, so if you have at least 12 mana worth of lands, this is a trivial loop that would work even if it just gained 1 life each time instead of 12+. Plus you can do it during someone else's turn (so all their creatures are summoning sick and/or removed from combat), and at 13 it becomes unlimited mana for all players.

The only way this ability isn't self-perpetuating is if some of the mana is provided by rituals, or non-haste creatures.

­The only way this ability isn't self-perpetuating is if some of the mana is provided by rituals, or non-haste creatures.

Or ETB tapped lands. But good point that it often will be infinite.

Well, that was silly, yes. Changed the card so it now returns everything into play, tapped. Though, now that I think of it, that doesn't really solve the problem. You can now activate this card during your opponent's upkeep, shutting him off for the rest of the game. That doesn't seem right. Hmm... I think the ability just needs to say "non-land". That means we have to go with Dude's plan. Reducing cost as well to .

Huh. I thought I'd have to cut the flavor text, but I guess that looks fine.