For Call to Glory, some love for haste, as part of my "evergreen keywords matter" subtheme:
Hou-Ou3RR
Creature - Phoenix Spirit [R]
Flying, haste
3RR, Sacrifice a creature: Return target creature card with haste from your graveyard to the battlefield. Activate this ability only during your upkeep and only if Hou-Ou is in your graveyard.
[3/2]
Akki RockjumperRR
Creature - Goblin [U]
Haste
Whenever Akki Rockjumper or another creature with haste enters the battlefield under your control, that creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is its power.
[1/1]
Are there any other kinds of mechanics you'd like to see for the "haste matters" subtheme?
Fast DudeRR
Creature - Scout (U)
Haste
Fast Dude can't be blocked except by other creatures with haste.
2/1
Obligatory haste-matters design. Doubly good because red needs some more evasion.
I like it a lot, but it treads on the set's intimidate subtheme more than a little... maybe I'll save this design for the 2nd or 3rd set in the block? (Intimidate won't be going forward as a block subtheme, but some other evergreen keywords will.)
[EDIT] In fact, let me just stick it in the Murmurs from Beyond design pool for now:
Akki Outrunner3R
Creature - Goblin [C]
Haste
Akki Outrunner can't be blocked except by creatures with haste.
Akki Rockjumper: http://magiccards.info/ts/en/212.html the creature doesn't need haste to get the bonus but it can only use the bonus if it has haste.
Alternatively, it lets you take advantage of Flash as well. My opinion is it is better to make cards that play well with keywords as support cards than explicitly mention them. Of course, sometimes you do need to mention them as well.
Interesting designs. Here are some of my thoughts, in order of relevance:
Outrunner
Ah, yes, haste and evasion. Surely a winning combination for obvious reasons. But here's the thing - "haste" as a requirement in blockers seems flimsy, for two reasons; 1) it draws from a very small pool of creatures, and 2) it's usually a good trade for an opponent to use an "expired" hastey creature to block yours, so it has this "feel bad" effect attached to it, you'd attack with your brand new haster and they'd use their haster who already sneaked in for damage and now just sits back unable to punch through damage to deal with yours. Seems like a suboptimal design.
Rockjumper
The thing with small hastey creatures is that they are absolutely disposable after they are cast. Maybe one way to counteract this would be "can't be blocked except by hasters", but I think finding either some way to use "expired" hastey creatures as a way to sneak in a few more points of damage would be more interesting design.
Phoenix
Nobody wants to keep their legend in their graveyard, plus - haste is about surprise. This is also a boat of feel bads.
As usual, if I'm interested in original designs I post my view of how these cards could work better. You are free to agree or disagree with me, and in no way are my cards inherently better than yours --- except that they are better in my own eyes. Of course, their inspiration is drawn from your design intent so I don't consider these designs mine in any way, just riffs on yours.
Akki Outrunner l 3R Creature - Goblin Scout
Haste
When Akki Outrunner attacks, it can't be blocked unless defending player taps an untapped creature he or she controls. 3/1
Takes another creature to catch him. It's upping the ante on Goblin War Drums, kind of. It provides a way to sneak in the first time you play it, and on the second turn complicates attacking for your opponent.
Akki Rockjumper l RR Creature - Goblin Scout
Haste
When Akki Rockjumper or another creature with haste enters the battlefield, target creature can't block this turn. 1/1
This makes Rocky more relevant along a long game and improves its surprise element. You could hold a hand with two of these and splash 'em out on the same turn for a quick Panic Attack. With two of them in play, it gets even better. I'd love this card to exist 'cause its also pretty cute.
Hou-Ou l 4RR Legendary creature - Phoenix
Flying, haste
When Hou-Ou enters the battlefield, reveal the top three cards of your library. You may put any number of creatures with haste revealed this way onto the battlefield and exile the rest.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if Hou-Ou is in your graveyard, you may exile a creature with haste from your graveyard and pay 5RRR. If you do, return Hou-Ou to the battlefield. 6/3
Haste is all about surprise. This guy gives you a surprise every time he hits the board.
Akki Rockjumper: http://magiccards.info/ts/en/212.html the creature doesn't need haste to get the bonus but it can only use the bonus if it has haste.
Alternatively, it lets you take advantage of Flash as well. My opinion is it is better to make cards that play well with keywords as support cards than explicitly mention them. Of course, sometimes you do need to mention them as well.
Well, I'm doing "evergreen keywords matter" the same way tribal does "creature types matter." So, transpose the tribal mentality onto evergreen keywords. In that context, I think calling out the keywords by name helps support the theme.
And regarding Primal Forcemage, that card existed in a block where suspend, haste, and flash were all green mechanics. In this set, of those abilities, red is only getting haste. So there's something of a good fit for just naming haste, again.
"feel bad"
...
This is also a boat of feel bads.
...
Haste is all about surprise.
I think you're applying "feel bad mechanics" too liberally, here. Just about any card can be situationally bad. Just because an upside mechanic doesn't always work as desired, that doesn't make it a downside mechanic.
Now, on the Phoenix, "Sacrifice a creature" is a downside mechanic, certainly. And I can see where that, plus the linearity of "creature with haste," creates a feel-bad experience. So I might change that.
To your last point, in particular, I totally agree that haste is all about surprise. So, while I could be printing mechanics to give hasty creatures somewhat longer lifespans, or more to do on turns after they first hit the board, I feel like that doesn't get at the essence of haste. I want to create "haste matters" effects that still play like what you'd expect from haste. For the Phoenix, maybe I'm missing that "surprise" element, so I might reconsider it.
Creature - Phoenix Spirit [R]
Flying, haste
3RR, Sacrifice a creature: Return target creature card with haste from your graveyard to the battlefield. Activate this ability only during your upkeep and only if Hou-Ou is in your graveyard.
[3/2]
Creature - Goblin [U]
Haste
Whenever Akki Rockjumper or another creature with haste enters the battlefield under your control, that creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is its power.
[1/1]
I like it a lot, but it treads on the set's intimidate subtheme more than a little... maybe I'll save this design for the 2nd or 3rd set in the block? (Intimidate won't be going forward as a block subtheme, but some other evergreen keywords will.)
[EDIT] In fact, let me just stick it in the Murmurs from Beyond design pool for now:
Creature - Goblin [C]
Haste
Akki Outrunner can't be blocked except by creatures with haste.
[2/2]
Alternatively, it lets you take advantage of Flash as well. My opinion is it is better to make cards that play well with keywords as support cards than explicitly mention them. Of course, sometimes you do need to mention them as well.
Outrunner
Ah, yes, haste and evasion. Surely a winning combination for obvious reasons. But here's the thing - "haste" as a requirement in blockers seems flimsy, for two reasons; 1) it draws from a very small pool of creatures, and 2) it's usually a good trade for an opponent to use an "expired" hastey creature to block yours, so it has this "feel bad" effect attached to it, you'd attack with your brand new haster and they'd use their haster who already sneaked in for damage and now just sits back unable to punch through damage to deal with yours. Seems like a suboptimal design.
Rockjumper
The thing with small hastey creatures is that they are absolutely disposable after they are cast. Maybe one way to counteract this would be "can't be blocked except by hasters", but I think finding either some way to use "expired" hastey creatures as a way to sneak in a few more points of damage would be more interesting design.
Phoenix
Nobody wants to keep their legend in their graveyard, plus - haste is about surprise. This is also a boat of feel bads.
As usual, if I'm interested in original designs I post my view of how these cards could work better. You are free to agree or disagree with me, and in no way are my cards inherently better than yours --- except that they are better in my own eyes. Of course, their inspiration is drawn from your design intent so I don't consider these designs mine in any way, just riffs on yours.
Akki Outrunner l 3R
Creature - Goblin Scout
Haste
When Akki Outrunner attacks, it can't be blocked unless defending player taps an untapped creature he or she controls.
3/1
Takes another creature to catch him. It's upping the ante on Goblin War Drums, kind of. It provides a way to sneak in the first time you play it, and on the second turn complicates attacking for your opponent.
Akki Rockjumper l RR
Creature - Goblin Scout
Haste
When Akki Rockjumper or another creature with haste enters the battlefield, target creature can't block this turn.
1/1
This makes Rocky more relevant along a long game and improves its surprise element. You could hold a hand with two of these and splash 'em out on the same turn for a quick Panic Attack. With two of them in play, it gets even better. I'd love this card to exist 'cause its also pretty cute.
Hou-Ou l 4RR
Legendary creature - Phoenix
Flying, haste
When Hou-Ou enters the battlefield, reveal the top three cards of your library. You may put any number of creatures with haste revealed this way onto the battlefield and exile the rest.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if Hou-Ou is in your graveyard, you may exile a creature with haste from your graveyard and pay 5RRR. If you do, return Hou-Ou to the battlefield.
6/3
Haste is all about surprise. This guy gives you a surprise every time he hits the board.
Well, I'm doing "evergreen keywords matter" the same way tribal does "creature types matter." So, transpose the tribal mentality onto evergreen keywords. In that context, I think calling out the keywords by name helps support the theme.
And regarding Primal Forcemage, that card existed in a block where suspend, haste, and flash were all green mechanics. In this set, of those abilities, red is only getting haste. So there's something of a good fit for just naming haste, again.
I think you're applying "feel bad mechanics" too liberally, here. Just about any card can be situationally bad. Just because an upside mechanic doesn't always work as desired, that doesn't make it a downside mechanic.
Now, on the Phoenix, "Sacrifice a creature" is a downside mechanic, certainly. And I can see where that, plus the linearity of "creature with haste," creates a feel-bad experience. So I might change that.
To your last point, in particular, I totally agree that haste is all about surprise. So, while I could be printing mechanics to give hasty creatures somewhat longer lifespans, or more to do on turns after they first hit the board, I feel like that doesn't get at the essence of haste. I want to create "haste matters" effects that still play like what you'd expect from haste. For the Phoenix, maybe I'm missing that "surprise" element, so I might reconsider it.