Best art, worst card for a Mental Magic cube. Me and my friend are building this and coming up with a list of preferred rules.
Art notes:
Modern card frame is much preferred.
Storm Crow, Bee Sting, Squire have older frames
Sin Collector with FNM art
Tibalt Duel Decks Art
Grisly Salvage FNM art
Altar of the Brood with Alternate Ugin art
Ravenous Demon with Prerelease Art
Celestial Archon with Prerelease Art
Brain Maggot with horrifying FNM art
From Magic Origins:
Blessed Spirits
Managorger Hydra
Veteran's Sidearm
I've tried to clarify some rules. This is what me and my friend use to play so that there can be no rule disagreements.
Basic rules:
1. You can play a card as any card with the same mana cost.
To be more specific: You may play a physical card as if it were any different card from Magic the Gathering with the same mana cost. To do so, you Name the physical card the same name as the other card and accurately describe the other cards' characteristics. Note the difference between Name (verb) and name (noun). It is discouraged to use a card as itself, but acceptable because the cards in this cube are fairly low powered.
2. Cards can be played facedown as a basic land called a Utopia.
Utopias have:
Tap: Add 1 to your mana pool.
0: This land becomes the basic land type of your choice and loses all other basic land types. Activate this ability as a mana ability. Activate this ability only once per turn.
3. Once a card has been Named, it cannot be Named for the rest of the game.
More advanced rules, mostly expanding on 3:
4. Cards only have a name in one of two situations: Either they are in play or there is an effect on the stack. When cards do not have a name, they are only distinguishable by their mana cost and type. The type of the unnamed card is the same as that of the physical card. Some people play without types, but this makes cards like Tarmogoyf, Duress, and Faerie Mechanist very hard to rule on.
5. When a card that is not being played from hand is Named, the type must match that of the physical card.
6. Some cards have printed on them text that says, "name a card." This is not the same as Naming a card in Mental Magic.
***example: Even if an opponent plays Cabal Therapy and Conjurer's Ban naming Brainstorm and then puts a Meddling Mage in play naming Brainstorm, you could still play Brainstorm by using a card with the mana cost U and Naming Brainstorm (assuming you removed the Meddling Mage and it's not the same turn that the Conjurer's Ban resolved). No one has disobeyed rule 3 in this example.
7. This is the hard one. Another way to Name a card as another card without playing it as a spell is if you have an effect that allows you to manipulate/reference that card or are activating an effect of that card from your hand or graveyard. This is subject to fuzzy rulings and hard to play with strictly. If an issue comes up, have the playgroup create a vote for the ruling and always air on the side of fun.
***example: If you have a creature card with the mana cost 3WW in your graveyard, you may Name it Glory if you use the ability of Glory that can be activated from the graveyard. If you don't have the ability to activate Glory's ability or do not do so at the time of naming Glory, you never named it. If you do Name Glory and activate its ability, you may not play another 3WW spell from your hand as Glory because you would need to Name it.
***second example: You may discard a creature card with the mana cost 3R by Naming the card Rubblebelt Maaka and paying the bloodrush cost of Rubblebelt Maaka. If you do, you may not play another 3R spell as Rubblebelt Maaka.
***third example: You may play a reanimation spell like Reanimate targeting any creature card in the grave if the card that you Name is a legal target of Reanimate. It will transition into the battlefield without losing its name.
***fourth example: A card with the mana cost 2R can be Named Squee, Goblin Nabob in the graveyard at the beginning of upkeep. This will allow him to be returned to your hand, but you cannot play him as Squee or name another 2R spell in the grave Squee. Similarly, Punishing Fire can be named once.
***fifth example, drawing from rule 5: If you play Cursed Scroll and activate its ability when the only card in your hand has the mana cost B you may name "Crippling Blight". However, when you reveal the card in your hand is when you actually Name it. And you do not necessarily have to Name it the same card as the one you named (although that would be strange). You can activate Cursed Scroll, naming "Crippling Blight" and then reveal a card that you Name Confusion in the Ranks. But Cursed Scroll will do no damage. Confusing, right? But wait- if you activate Cursed Scroll a second time with the same card in hand you may name "Crippling Blight" or "Confusion in the Ranks" but you may not Name the card that you reveal Confusion in the Ranks for a second time. That would break rule 3.
8. Cards in Exile and the Graveyard that have been Named lose their names at the end of the turn. Cards in your Hand or Library lose their name as soon as they are no longer revealed.
example: You may Name a card in your graveyard with mana cost 3WW Glory to activate its ability, but it will only be Glory until the end of the turn. After that you can no longer use the ability or play Glory from hand.
example: Cards revealed with Domri Rade need to be Named as a creature in order to be put into your hand, but then they cannot be played as that creature.
9. Persist, Undying, Adarkar Valkyrie, Oblivion Ring, Second Sunrise, and the like flicker or delayed trigger effects function as R&D intended on permanents. Rebound works as intended on Instants and Sorceries.
Power levels (Ordered so that each banlist also contains the bans from previous lists)
High Power
Banlist: Vintage banlist + Wishs + Citanul Flute.
Dredge is banned.
Any effect that refers to lands in your library is banned.
Flashback/Recursion/Incarnations allowed. To use them you must Name the card in your graveyard.
(Note: to play this like vintage you need more 0 mana artifacts and blue and red cards)
Normal Power
Banlist: + Legacy banlist + Solfatara + Turf Wound
No Flashback/Unearth.
No Domain.
Low Power
Banlist: + Modern Banlist
Cards in the grave are only mana costs. Only sources from outside of the grave can manipulate them.
Information:
http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/feature/129
http://www.starcitygames.com/article/5512_Laying-The-Rules-For-Mental-Magic.html
http://www.channelfireball.com/home/twoo-cents-breaking-mental-magic/