Trying to figure out the UU/UUU mechanic was a bit tough. Obviously hard counters spring to mind, but this couldn't be a hard counter if it cost UU. Universal bounce is too subtle. Gaining control of creatures is... well, I'm passing. Leviathans are just big and sacrifice lands. I could have taken a page from the green one and asked for some land sacs afterwards, but the XUU cost is painful enough.

Taking an extra turn, however, is almost always UU (Thanks Time Walk for braking even that...). I'm not 100% sold that this ability isn't too good. I mean, at just UU, it's better than Final Fortune. But, um, Isochron Scepter not withstanding... that's not really a problem, right?

Oh. crud. Bounce. I can bounce this to my hand for infinite turns. Well, back to the drawing board.

XUU take 2. This time, were using "play your opponent's stuff" as the UU/UUU ability. Seems strong, but, really, it's worse than "Draw a card". Thank you Colfenor's Plans for showing me that the templating of this card didn't need to go nutso.

Oh, also, this cycle became rare, because this stuff is clearly too crazy for uncommon. That kind of happened when the phoenix jumped in, admittedly.

Eeenteresting. Oh, hang on, it's not Mill 'x' it's mill 1? And you can't use the x to pay for it.... Yeah, pretty weak. Potentially game winning if you get the right card - so probably a fine "Go on, you know you want to" card.

I did expect the X to be the number of cards exiled, though.

Strange and telling. I'm keeping this on alert and taking another look at it later.

oooh, hang on - another relook: You can play that card at some undefined later time? That's a nifty thing. You're still usually going to hit something you either can't cast, or land, or don't want to cast, though.

Changed to top two cards, that should simultaneously get people off of X and alleviate power level concerns. Right now, ins some decks, I'd call this card better than Divination when you play it for a 1/1 creature. In fact, I think it's too powerful, but people should have fun with it, so we'll test it there.

I'm confused as to why this doesn't exile a card for each color spent to cast it.

I'm not 100% sure myself. I think I thought that it hovered too close to Braingeyser-opponent-style for me to be comfortable with it there... but it's still pretty expensive, and would cap out.

I'm changing it over, then worrying about it later.

Edit: Oh, I just changed it over, then previewed it and saw the problem. The idea sounds easy, but the word count is way too high. "exile the top X cards of target opponent's library, where X is equal to the number of different colored mana used to cast this spell." is just too much compared to "Exile the top two cards of target opponent's library."

"for each ion counter on ~, exile the top card of target opponent's library"?

It's a bit odd without it. The interesting ability is entirely unrelated to the sunburst; the sunburst only affects the creature's P/T. Which really doesn't seem very blue.

So how about as an alternative, "You may play cards exiled with ~ that share a colour with an ion counter on ~"?

Also needs P/T.

"Exile a card from to top of target opponent's library for each color spent to cast it?"

Well, it brings me to the next font size, but, I agree, it's probably better to have the card do what you expect it to do. I think I'm going to dodge the 'sharing colors with ion' bit, though. There's enough sentences on this thing as it is. If it's too powerful, I'll just have to come up with some other mechanic.

Second stab at the difficult to pin down "can only be found in " mechanic. This time, I decided to invoke Reset. I figured blue was the only color that would allow an across the board reset like this. So... is a 1/1 for that untaps all your permanents when you deal combat damage broken?

Hmm. It feels like a green ability, since it's been seen most recently on Bear Umbra and Sword of Feast and Famine. I know this will untap your creatures too, but that's green too (Vitalize).

Mmm. I was hoping that 'untap everything' would feel uniquely blue, but perhaps it does not. It can only be found in blue... not many other colors are willing to untap all artifacts... but maybe I'll have to hit the drawing board again. It should seem obvious to the reader. Man, this one's a toughie.

Mmm. It probably is actually blue, but untapping my artifacts is not what I think of when I see "untap all permanents you control". That to me says lands first, creatures second, artifacts third. (Enchantments fourth, planeswalkers fifth.)

Fourth attempt, this time using Bribery/Aquire as an only blue mechanic, fails. That's way too many words. Pity... it's a good idea.

Fifth attempt. Charisma! How did I waltz past you the first time? I probably tried to make you some sort of global effect and failed... but you look perfectly fine doing a Tolarian Entrancer impression on this card. Shame that Tolarian Enchanter himself doesn't fit the description of 'super-blue', but most Control Magic effects do. I think we can swing this.