all sets should have a fog, but i'd like to really push mine and see if it can be playable.

I like Tangle a lot (and it was tournament playable in its day), but I'm not sure it's a good idea at common. I guess it might be quite hard to trigger the Synthesis so you might be okay.

Mmm, the set seems to have a LOT of counter placement; but it's motly in your own turn. Triggering in an opponents turn is by no means impossible; but will usually need a second instant.

I'd be more worried about the one-sided nature; it's a pretty nasty trade this will arrange, even without the no-untap part.

Maybe flip the two bits? Always no-untap (seems fair for 3, as tangle did it) and prevent all damage unless synthesis, in which case prevent one side damage?

thanks for the feedback guys.

alex you might be right about the rarity, just had it at common because fog is always at common. maybe i'll dial it back a bit to make it fit the rarity more.

i actually wanted the synthesis trigger to be difficult on this one for the reasons you mentioned (there will likely be uncommon instant counter manipulating/creation), but i'll work on addressing your criticisms.

really like your solution vitenka, seems like a good one.

Let me help you with the wording once again here as it is not as easy to word as it might seem at first glance.

The card as it is would have to be "Prevent all damage that would be dealt by creatures target player controls this turn.". The second part is tricky since there is no precedent for it afaik. I would go for "Synthesis - If the damage a creature would have dealt is prevented this way, that creature doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step." though that might be too complicated/unintuitive to be common.

Vitenka's solution, as far as I understand it, would go like this: "Prevent all damage that would be dealt by creatures this turn. If the damage a creature would have dealt is prevented this way, that creature doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step." maybe the latter part can also be "Those creatures don't untap during their controller's next untap step" though I recon that wouldn't be clear enough. The Synthesis part would be a wordy mess here if you want to make it intuitive, by which I mean most ways to word it shortly would probably not make clear, that the untap effect still happens and it only changes whos creatures are affected. I suggest you go for "Synthesis - If a counter was placed on a permanent you control this turn, damage dealt by creatures you control can't be prevented this turn." That would have a nice situational upside against protection. Also if you push the card to playability the "Strangling Vines mirror match" wouldn't become as boring because one Strangling Vines "counters" another instead of just making it so nothing happens.

The only thing I'm not sure here is if "damage can't be prevented" is in green's slice of the color pie. Except for Whippoorwill, which doesn't seem like a good example, it's been exclusively red. Yet with 17 cards total I guess it's mostly untapped designspace.

I think "Those creatures don't untap during that player's next untap step" would do well. It's slightly more powerful (it stops their Archivist untapping even if it hadn't got into combat at all) but it's following Tangle's precedent, and it's much simpler.

edited to make it a situational Tangle, which should make it fine at common.

added this to the gaze cycle, which i particularly like because of its parallels to odyssey's desire cycle (see: patriarch's desire)