­Gemstone Mine + Aether Hub + The Vivid Lands.

Is this supposed to ETB tapped?

Inspired by Challenge # 152 in a roundabout way.

Obviously you don't gain a lot by this, except your opponent not knowing when to react with a counterspell (or combat trick of their own).

It was closer to workable under the rules than I thought, but I think there's still rules issues (modal spells? others?)

Obviously life gain is to prolong oneself against red's fast creatures and burn. This creatures helps on both fronts. If it dies in combat (chump block) or from their burn, that slows down red player's strategy.

The sacrifice is crucial to provide an instant outlet to trigger the other ability in emergencies. That is, to get back some life as a last resort. What that effect does is not important, as long it falls within the pie. In actuality, this particular one is to test the boundary of getting Vindicate. It also paints itself as a threat that red may want to get rid of ASAP, but in doing so is not without risk for the red player.

The 4-color idea naturally came up as I thought about how opposes . Rakdos opposes white, and I conjecture that Simic also opposes white. Bam, put them together and you get a 4-color card with one color neglected--the common enemy for these two pairs. So, not only does my theory expand the 2v1 pie, it falls right into 4-color pie as well. As a result everything fits nicely.

This could be another method to design 4-color cards. I havent thought about 4-color much, but I'm sure other designers out there have created similar concepts within that limited area.

I don't want all of these "hosers" or anti cards to be too direct or cheesy. Some should be playable on their own right, but somewhat better against the color they oppose. Trample is great against white's weenies and hexproof against white's targeted removal.

Why is this anti-red beyond gaining some life, something green occasionally does and black can do via drain? Blowing up any permanent seems like an ability that would hate on all colors equally (though I could see red and blue being equally more disadvantaged since they might only have lands as choice targets).

Yeah paying 4 colors deserves rewards, and while it's cool that you can get potentially get a 5/5 trample hexproof for 4, you could also just have something straightforward like Sagu Mauler which doesn't require playing an extra color to get the evergreen mechanics already in its colors.

Also the only part of the card that feels anti-white is that you need to pay a red and black for the +1/+1 counters and evergreens, and not even what the creature would actually gain by having the mana paid.

Simic anti-white

With chaotic factor.

Orzhov anti-blue

Orzhov anti-blue