Alright, so I was reading the topic idea for Dark Gift/Grim Charity (
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,4954.0.html), and thought it might be really interesting to have a card like this if there were permanents that existed that you may or may not want to have, but your opponent would almost definitely not want on their side of the field. I don't know what they should cost, but I would love to hear some input.
I realize that I do not have costs for these. I would more like to see what people think of the ideas before figuring out how expensive they would need to be in order to be fair but playable. Drawing up some ideas on the fly, this is what I've got:
Tortoise: You only draw a card every other turn(or two out of every three turns- could be good to avoid deckouts, but mostly just slows everything)
Upped could become Hare: Your opponent draws two cards every turn (maybe every other turn is more fair, I don’t know). This would be great for passing over to speed up your deck.
Mudslide: All of your creatures become burrowed. Pay 1
to unburrow.
----->I'm not sure it's possible to do this, as unburrowing is free as it stands now, but it could protect your creatures or halve your opponents attack force permanently if they have no earth quanta
Fighting Spirit: All creatures on your side of the field gain +1/-1 at the end of your turn.
------>The fiery spirits within your creatures make them fight harder, but exhaustion takes its toll. Use it to buff your own creatures, then pass it off before they die.
Inside Man: The top card of your deck is always turned face up.
------>This idea seems kind of weak to me, but it could give you some insight as to what's coming next and it is always useful to get a clue what the opponent is doing. I don't think the darkness one in this series should be very good if this Dark Gift idea would be darkness.
Open Air: The slots your creatures take up are redistributed randomly at the end of each turn.
------>Appealing to the description of air: "...take advantage of their freedom of movement....", could work well with Flooding (although that is three elements with Water/Air/Darkness.
Heavy Atmosphere: All of your creatures gain +0/+5, but are rendered unable to attack every third turn.
------->Would work as a time bubble effect for 1 turn after 2 consecutive turns of attacking. Not sure how this would work with something like Sundial, which prevents attacking for a turn.
Green Thumb: 1/4 of all quantum of your mark that you own at the end of your turn are converted to life quantum.
------->There are situations where this could be good, it would allow you to splash life without taking a life mark so it might be OP. I'm not sure how to balance it. The idea is to sabotage your opponent by giving them useless quanta though.
Ghost Catcher: A counter is added to this card for each creature that dies. Skeletons gain +1/+0 for every 8 counters. When the counter reaches 21, deal 10 damage to owner and Ghost Catcher is destroyed.
------->I don't know about this one.... I was trying to work out a sort of time bomb idea that wasn't just a straight up "Deal 15 damage to owner 5 turns after placement", because that's lame. Something like this could be a lot of fun though.
Divine Intervention: 10% chance that your creatures with skills will have their skill replaced with bioluminescence.
-------->Because bioluminescence has become too useful with the introduction of Hope, this works as an off-chance lobotomizer that makes creatures light-emitting. Enjoy your light quantums, non-hope decks!
Stasis: Your field is locked for three turns(or every third turn, for long-term effect). All of your creatures become immaterial, but no creatures may be added to the field during this time period.
Transfiguration: Redistribute the Att/HP of your creatures each turn. There can be no change greater than +/-5.
-------->Kind of lame, but I'm having a hard time thinking of one for entropy to be honest.
Panacea: Add 1 poison counter to 1 of your creatures per turn. You are immune to poison.
-------->Toss it in a deck with no poison.... just gives your opponent a poison counter on one of their creatures each turn. This seems OP, but I'm at the end and am too lazy to come up with something better for water.
Other; Corrupted shard: Deal 3 damage to the owner each turn.
-------->5 seems a bit much, but it could be made into a reverse SoG if it was seen fit.
Congrats if you actually made it through that wall of text. I hope this strikes a chord with someone, I think it could be an interesting idea.... although they would all rely on the spell that passes permanents so that's a bit shaky. I just thought this was a fun idea and I actually managed to come up with an idea for each element (although some are shakier than others)
I like the idea of making the opponent choose between blowing up your hourglass or some other such useful permanent or saving themselves the hassle of having one that just messes with their entire plan.