Silent Rigmaster-make it a 1/3. Make the equipment stay on it until death.

Griffin Firelancer

Out of the Rubble- reduce cost to WWUURR

Goblin Manipulator

Griffin Firelancer

Mighty Sledge of Sorok

U/B: River Raider. For balancing it I originally wanted the effect to add it to your hand so as to more flavor fully simulate the idea of the pirate stealing the first shiny thing he sees from the people he attacks but you can't do that. Maybe have it exile the artifact then add a "you can cast artifacts exiled this way as though they were in your hand" clause though its wordy enough as it is, that might make it more so.

R/W: Dwarven Griffin Master. Personally I would keep the hacthling sup type and keep them at 1/1. Your already getting 4 p/t + abilities for 4 manna, more than that if you blink it. Something white is easily able to do. I would instead make the tokens r/w and keep the haste but that's just me.

R/W/U: Zylectium Dexterity Bands. Up the draw back to -2/-2 at least and I think double strike and unblockable together on one card is too powerful. I'd either change unblockable to shroud or double strike to first strike.

You left out the P/T on Essence of Sorok.

Frozen Fire This card looks fun but needs some work.

Suggest -

Drop legendary, I know this means it needs to powered down but didn't it already and I think we should try and keep the gemstones nonlegendary this way we encourage players to run a high count of them.

I think the 1st ability is solid but up the cost too (1Rtap)

As far as the 2nd ability goes I like what the design team suggested but to remove legendary I would have the second ability also return it to its owners hand.

Dwarven Griffin Master Love the style

My guess is that The Griffin Master rides a griffin thus it's ability to fly.

His power toughness should be higher than the tokens he puts into the battlefield.

Sugested solution would be to change the masters power/tough to 3/2 and make the tokens 2/1.

Final Vote

Aqubod, the Source

I think Cairn Wanderer is a clumsy card and "all static abilities" is ease to understand and explain.

Also "the source" should coppy everything even complex abilities (Example: Myrsmith )

ok if I'm going to vote for Darvit then it needs some changes as I'm just now realizing.

First it needs Legendary, that was the intent from the start somehow I forgot it.

Second it needs a P/T change to 6/4 or 4/6? Other wise it feels like "wow I'm paying 6 mana and not getting a 6/6 titan? Then I'm not playing it"

Lastly it should have haste and vigilance. This addition would justify the WWRR in the mana cost.

With those changes it gets my vote.

I think the design team is 100% correct on this card. CMC should be at least 1UR

Second I love the design teams idea on making it reveal cards from the top of the library until an artifact with cmc equal to the combat damage dealt by River raider. Should be under the players control and remove first ability.

And it seems like most equipment being submitted says equipped creature gets doublestrike resolve haste flying vigilance. Where is our creativity?

Not saying anyones submissions are bad, I'm not trying to be mean its they aren't to my liking.

RU: River Raider. I support the design team's idea of maxing the CMC to the damage.

RW: Griffin Firelancer. I'm not a fan of any of the red/white rares, but I guess this is okay. I think it's a knight on a griffin.

RWU: Mighty Sledge of Sorok. I have to vote for my own. I was thinking that as a RWU legendary gemstone, this would be epic and eternal (indestructible).

Silent Rigmaster

Dwarven Griffin Master

Out of the Rubble

I will give my vote to "Out of the Rubble Mountain of Jewels". Combine them both I say!!! Imagine it (changes in RED:

Out of the Rubble 2RRWU

Sacrifice any number of artifacts you control.

Put an X/X red, white, and blue gemstone construct token with haste, vigilance, and shroud onto the battlefield where X is the total converted mana cost of all artifacts sacrificed in this way.

This way, it fixes concerns of both cards

Tough calls. I wanted two from each category.

1) River Raider

2) Dwarven Griffin Master

3) Zylectium Dexterity Bands

Suggestions.....

RIVER RAIDER:

Make it RU1, and set artifact cost limit to 4. RU2 is too much because opponent may not have anything to steal.

GRIFFIN MASTER:

Replace flying with resolve. As is, there is nothing about this card that makes it any less strong or playable in the R/B/W shard. So resolve helps a little with that.

Also, I really think storywise it makes sense for Sorok dwarves to have resolve.

Make tokens 1/1 flying, monowhite, no haste, probably resolve on them too, to further help it be a Sorok card. Hatchling subtype seems fine.

ZYLECTIUM:

Going for a real BOMB 3-color gemstone equipment for Sorok. Is it bomby enough w/o double strike? I'm inclined to say just ramp up the power penalty. -4/-1. Or raise equip cost. If it goes onto a creature with resolve, it looks like they are tending to be small dudes anyway. If you can get that thing equipped onto Blightsteel Colossus , then you have spent 18 total mana, with 3 specific colors. So that SHOULD be obnoxiously powerful. I think it works with cost/penalty increases, keeping double strike.

If you feel strongly about it, then I suggest replace double strike with first strike. I would really like unblockable to stay. This way, I think -2/-1 should be fine. Please don't set the creature at 1/1. That would kill the interaction with Resolve.

Other cards suggestions...

Frozen Fire(my close 2nd pick):

Does not need legendary. Otherwise works as is. Yes, I think we can get the # of gemstones. Not a huge amount(unless we get token maker), but I think we could certainly have 3 or 4 on the board for stuff like this.

Aqubod:

I actually think -4/-4 it too severe, as I could well imagine getting, on average, 2 abilities. It gives no abilities itself. Even if you get flying, vigilance, and first strike, we're talking R/U/W, plus 2 to equip. I say -1/-2.

Mighty Sledge:

I think 6 cmc is too much. I guess indestructible is considered the huge one. Still too high, I think. Also I don't understand why resolve is on there. I don't think that an equipment giving a creature resolve is helpful(and it's questionable, storywise). The equipments would be the source of the penalties, which is what makes it good if the critter has resolve.

I say drop resolve, and make it 4cmc, same equip cost. I like the idea of an indestructible legendary gemstone. I think it could make sense that there is one type of gem(or a mix of more than one) that cannot be destroyed.

Mountain of Jewels:

Works as is. Yes, I do think we can get that number of gems on the board(barely), and that this one would probably wipe ALL of your gems(including itself) to get that creature. Just right.

Essence of Sorok:

I don't see why there can't be a special elemental in the shard. I say make it 4/4. It would be very fun to have a cycle with this and other 3-color rare creatures that give an ability of each color(like Rot Liege from Ulgris). One per shard. These creatures could be outside the shards' normal types, too.

Edit post 12:

OOPS. Yes, making it 1/1 would indeed work with Resolve. Got so used to seeing -x/-x stuff. Yeah, that's a good idea. We haven't yet seen it done that way for a card that's meant to interact with resolve. I like it.

@vic regarding Aqubod

I disagree with you regarding its ability granting limits. If fitted into a typical Sorok deck it will grant everything from flying and double strike to indestructible unblockable and shroud. Not to mention whatever badass complex static abilities we come up with.

Certainly those abilities will all be in Sorok. What I meant was: How many creatures am I going to have on the board at one time(when my opponent is working to remove them)? And what will be the sum of their abilities?

Believe me, in a best-case scenario, I see Aqubod as a real bomb. But other times, realistically, I see having 2 or 3 dudes, and between them they have a total of flying and resolve. And btw, I hope I don't ever have one guy with defender on the board with Aqubod! : ) God, could you imagine the disappointment?

I'm not saying for sure you would get a low total of abilities. But I think it's a very realistic possibility to consider. That's why I thought -4/-4 might be too severe. Perhaps the previous idea of setting the creature to 1/1 is a good way to go with this card, too.

@ vic

I can see your point

River Raider-however it should have islandwalk instead of haste and its main ability should look at the top 10 cards then have attacking player should have the ability to cast that card like it was from his hand at the next main phase if combat damage was dealt.the rest of the cards go to the bottom of the library in order of owner's choosing.

Dwarven Griffin Master-take away his vigilance,haste,flying make him 1/2.change his second ability to bringing in 2 1/1 guys with flying.Make a third ability where he gives all griffins first strike and haste.

Out of the Rubble- Reduce the cost to 2RUB and change the drake's abilities to Flying,haste and shroud.

Red/Blue: River Raider

I like the feel of this guy, but he definitely does need to be limited somehow. I kinda like the idea of making it based on power to incentivize pumping him, but a set number would be more balance-able. Your call.

Red/White: Dwarven Griffin Master

Drop the flying, make them 2/2 white Griffins.

However, here's a thought: What if you gave him "T: Target Griffin gains Haste or Vigilance until end of turn"? This would accomplish several goals - he'd feel more like a griffin master (giving them buffs) and it would still let the player get a hasty griffin that turn should they want to.

Red/White/Blue: Essence of Sorok

Make all the abilities into 'target creature' abilities (i.e. "R: Target creature gains haste until end of turn.") Balances better because it scales with the size of the army they have, and allows for interesting interactions - give other players buffs in multiplayer, or give an opponent's creature flying for some shenanigans.

Another thought:

I had a really hard time deciding between Dwarven Griffin Master and Griffin Firelancer.

Ultimately, I decided on Griffin Master because it feels like the Firelancer could be something that could be an Uncommon card. Not as it currently exists, but perhaps if it dealt a fixed amount of damage to a creature (2 maybe?) and a couple other tweaks. I really think it could be a cool uncommon for the set, giving the feel of a member of a dwarven air force. Oh, yeah, and it should be a Dwarf knight.

I think vic's changes to Dwarven Griffin Master are quite feasible. I had imagined the Master to be riding on his own griffin, thus having flying. But he can just as well be in charge of them on the ground, no problem there. Giving him resolve then makes perfect sense as he is a dwarf.

Giving the hatchlings resolve is a bit odd, since not only are they not (hardened) dwarves, but they are young, and thus vulnerable. Perhaps flying, vigilance?

Happy to see two of my cards make it into voting...

R/U: Frozen Fire

I know its not real cool to vote for your own card but with some work it could be very strong. Upon more thought it doesn't need legendary but with the other gemstones that have been submitted and the possibility of common or uncommon gemstones in the set its not broken and not underpowered

R/W: Darvit

He just seems like he could be fun to play. I could see him as a legendary and the second either needs to be changed to target player/creature or needs a little rewording.

R/U/W: Mountain of Jewels

With the possibility of common gemstones and maybe even a gemstone token generator to work with this and Frozen Fire this could be a little OP for its cost. If there are a lot of gemstones in the set I would recommend the cost being changed to 8 or 10 stones... depends on the number of gemstones in the set

winners posted in the new article. Community card B/W/R shard brainstorming session is not in order. Join the debate: http://bit.ly/ePKo26