What Could Have Been, Volume 2: Battle Squadron

Been entirely too long, so let's get into it.

I love the card Battle Squadron. It's fantastic.

Look at that thing. Look at all those goblins, some of them are falling off the dang thing.

Know what else has lots of Goblins flying through the air with wacky flying things?
Izzet. 

Imagine a whole fleet of those?

That gives me an idea...

Color: Red

Location: the skies above the streets of Ravnica.

Action: Show a fleet of Izeet goblins, equipped with a variety of strange flying devices. Hoverboots, jet packs, hoverboards, gyrocopter, and things too bizarre to describe. They are all clearly of Izzet design, lots of brass and electrodes. They are swarming, so many in number they could block out the sky. Show the view from the street level to give a sense of scale.

Focus: The incredibly weird fleet of goblin flying machines.

Mood: Wacky, but still a threat.

Is there anywhere else you think Battle Squadron would fit in?

A Splice of Life

Disclaimer: This article contains custom card designs. If you are a Wizards of the Coast employee you have my full permission to use any designs or ideas within this article without my explicit written consent or prior knowledge, or without giving me any sort of credit. I love this game and I want to help it in any way I can.

Return to Ravnica has been pretty cool so far, I think there is consensus on that. The familiar sights and sounds and smells (yes, smells.). A set can never recapture the essence of what made Ravnica, Ravnica, but I think they're doing a darn good job trying.
The design sensability this time around isn't "Gold matters", its "Ravnica matters".
Many of the designs play off of familiar city tropes, or build off of the identities of the guilds rather than simply being powerful or interesting 2-color gold cards, and I think that RtR is better off for it, plus it helps to distinguish itself from Ravnica classic.

One way they're accomplishing this is to give each Guild an all new mechanic for each Guild. Last time the mechanics were built around color synergies, this time each one is tailor made to that Guild.

While these new mechanics are, scientifically speaking, totes bitching, I saw an interesting opportunity raised in one of Making Magic's mailbag articles. In it, Mark was asked that if each guild received a returning mechanic instead what would it be.
This is the list we're working with:
Azorius-absorb
Orzhov-morbid
Dimir-Morph
Izzet-Splice onto instant
Rakdos-Wither
Golgari-Unearth
Gruul-Frenzy
Boros-Battle Cry
Selesnya-Affinity for Creatures
Simic-Proliferate

Naturally, I took this as a challenge.

I hosted a contest on the Magic forums this week, and I came up with some more designs on my own.

Splice has a lot of opportunities in that it isn't restricted by things such as particular strategy or focus. All you need is an instant.
This lends itself like combat tricks:

Powerful utility effects

 

Limited workhorses

 

Weird "what will you do with me" effects

And poweerful splashy rares


What sort of things would you like to Splice onto Instant?