The key is that custom doesnt mean from scratch and painful. You can start from an existing card and edit from there, which is the fast lane
Stealing cards directly from your opponent's hand might be the dirtiest form of card advantage in the game
Instead of paying 1 life to tap for any color, it taps for 1 of any color of mana, with the idea that you would often suffer point of mana burn making it a slightly better City of Brass
Here are some prompts to get the brain juices flowing: Tribal: Humans, Goblins, Spirits, Barbarians, Ninjas, Sea Creatures, Constructs, Eldrazi, Plants, Hydras Keywords: Lifelink, Flying, Deathtouch, First Strike, Horsemanship (its real I promise), Menace, Shadow Synergies/Card Effects: Historic, +1/+1 Counters, -1/-1 Counters, Blink (exiling permanents), Tokens, Superfriends (Planeswalkers), Aristocrats (sacrifice with [Card]Zulaport Cutthroat[/Card]), Lands Matter, Counterspell Tribal, X-Spell Tribal Archetype: Control, Aggro, Midrange, Combo Determining Your Colours With no Commander yet, were still open to build in any direction
And things change quickly