Crud. I rather like that flavor text, but it, combined with the reminder text for salvage is taking up the whole damn card. Maybe I should just pitch the Salvage, and put it on another card. My original thought was to make a new Cessation, especially, since the wrath effect also Salvages... I thought that would be cute. But the flavor text says a lot of little things that I'd rather keep, and it really plays well on a pacifism effect. Mull, mull.

Removed the Salvage, added -2/+2 and reduced cost by one. That's arguable that white has -p/+t setting like that... but it probably does still.

The card is just kind of loose now. I like how it's marginally better and worse than pacifism in some decks, but it does ask the question: "Why not just reprint pacifism?"

Heck, make it +2/+2 and defender. (Or +1/+2 and bring back memories of Holy Strength]) Makes it something you might use on your own creatures; whilst also being something you can use to stave off a stompy attacker.

­Cagemail, unfortunately, already exists. But you're right... -2/+2 doesn't seem very impressive. So I changed it to -5/+5. That should help furrow the eyebrows some more.

Now -6/+6. I've gone mad with power.

I hate to ask; but why does an axe make him tougher but not more powerful?

I don't know. Even more confusing is the fact that I realized that there's no reason for this enchantment to grant defender, since it's already granting -6/+6. Granting defender almost makes the card worse. Maybe you wanted to enchant one of your sabotage creatures? I really shouldn't be getting in the way of that.

But, yeah, now Verger's got an axe and beefed up toughness. In theory, he's chained up, but he can attack. That just doesn't make sense. But now I like the spell. Go figure.

I removed the flavor text, which used to be:

'Give the thief an axe!' they said. 'Chain him to a rock. Let him cut wood. It will give him something to do!' Just wait. They'll see what I can do with an axe. - Vergen, Mephidross Survivor

It's still good. I'll probably use it somewhere more appropriate. Salvage readded and put back on. Man... this was supposed to be a simple "Pacifism + Keyword" effect, and I just ran this design in circles.

@Vitenka: I don't know if the last edit changed the flavour text, but presumably, having an axe makes him tougher, and being chained to a rock so he can't hurt you makes him less powerful? :)

@jmg, I like the flavour text, but my rule of thumb for flavour text is "see if you can tell the same message in half as many words", because often I find a more streamlined version which is both shorter and better.

@Jack: I agree, and often I boil down very long passages to its simplest parts. This one, for example, started off twice as long, and boiled down to where it is now. Looking at it again, I can see a few more loose words that I can carve off, but I don't want to chop it down to four words, which would be too many words as it stands, what with Salvage and "Enchant Creature" taking up all that space.

Part of the problem, also, is a sense of personality. I want Verger to come off as folksy and tad undereducated. That means he can't be abrupt... he kind of talks in circles the way real people do. That's a balancing act, I know.

Oh - he did have defender, I thought, when I made the comment; and that was the part I was attributing to being chained.

Sorry, I should have realised I was preaching the choir :) How about "'Make him cut wood,' they said. Just wait. They'll see what I can do with an axe. - Vergen, Mephidross Survivor"? That's shorter, but has a lot of the content? I agree you're not going to get it on the card as well as reminder text, though.

Removed salvage so I can put it on a more appropriate card.

Heh. That's quite a step up from Defensive Stance :P I.e. this is actually playable.