Yeah, a nicely breakable combo piece. And I always did have a soft spot for "And in response.. whirrrrrr. Ok, go on."

Infinite tapping/untapping. Turns on Quest for Renewal once it can tap. There are a number of enchantments that trigger when a creature becomes tapped, but they ping you. If you have some way of redirecting it (maybe Pariah's Shield and Boros Reckoner) for unlimited damage. Fun. Alternatively, Pentavus and Cathars' Crusade give infinite tokens of infinite size as well as making this huge.

Also, I keep vasilating between 3/2, because that's well-costed, and 2/3 because 0/1 + 2/2 = 2/3. Unfortunately, I can't make this cost unless I'm willing to make it a 1/1... and that seems less right to me...

Random Generator gave me Birds of Paradise and Glint Hawk Idol yesterday. I played with it in my head for a while, but couldn't get anything I like out of the combination, and didn't have many slots left on the skeleton to move it into.

Today, I figured I'd just force something togehter and leave it on the workbench to say I did it. Then I noticed that the results I had could fit the skeleton, being a rare piece of the White-Artifact deck. Strangely, though, I had to remove the white from its cost, since I'm sure people would criticize White making mana of any color... but I kept it slotted as a white rare, locking up all of White in the process (Activation was green, but now I'm changing it to white. I'm pretty sure that will swing).

It had flavor text, which read:

"How fascinating. The invasive species is taking on qualities of its prey."
—Yare-Tiva, warden of Gramur forest

But that was just too much text. The card isn't confusing, but it uses four line breaks.

I don't know. This still just seems like a mess of a rare. I keep tilting my head sideways when I look at it. It may need to go back to the bench.

Welll... it's potentially quite horrible if you've also got a lot of kobolds from another source. But even then, you need to cast this, and keep it and the kobolds alive till your next turn to use it. I'm not scared of the one-off "Blow up a land once I'm dead"; it costs a huge amount, and it's only the one.

For comparison sake, look at Dragon Mage. Now be honest with yourself. Which is better? Two Stone Rains for 4, or Wheel of Fortune for 0? Alternatively, this Dragon could instead be a 10/5 flying creature for 7. Which would be worse, if Malefaux hit you twice, or if a 10 power creature hit you twice?

I can easily accept that Malefaux has too many fiddly bits (great in tribal and still has an trick after being Doom Bladed), and is therefore too powerful, but I'm pretty sure the double Stone Rain is fair. In fact, the fact that it disturbs you that much, Joz, just tells me it's a great effect to have, since it isn't as powerful as it looks, and really scares players.

(JMG: Note that "mana ability" is not what you mean. I think you mean "second activated ability". "Mana abilities" are abilities that produce mana. I only bother to do this nitpick because people less practiced in the rules are reading and might get confused.)

And yeah, given this is a 7-cost dragon, destroying two lands a turn for is... it does sound pretty strong, actually. Especially given this would be played in EDH. Maybe Joz's idea of "nonbasic" isn't as excessive as I thought.

But I think the card as its text stands at the moment isn't unprintably strong. It's on the griefer side, but Wizards print cards for that demographic too.

Maybe move it to destroy target nonbasic?

I do wonder why I made him a 5/4 aproximately a year ago. I'm changing him to a square 5/5. I probably had a reason, but I don't see it.

I'm not sure what you're referring to, Joz. If you're saying that his 'Sacrifice a Kobold' trick is too cheap, then I think you play too much EDH. 7 cost dragons should half-win the game when they swing and hit. Maybe not immediately, but if unanswered, there should be hell to pay.

If by 'second ability', you mean second mana ability, and you're trying to say that it costs too much... yeah, I kind of agree. I know I wanted to match Earth Rift's flashback cost, but it does seem a bit silly to pay such a large cost to destroy one land, when the dragon himself cost 7. I'm changing that to "Destroy two target lands".

This card might need to be tested at that rate, but it still seems like a very mana intensive way to destroy some lands.

Eh, he does have to hit them first. Cost it at slightly worse than Annihilator 2, I'd say - this guy is a 7-drop after all.