For Challenge # 080, based on Safehold Elite.

Had a big long discussion with Rachael about whether this is in flavour for white. White doesn't normally dig up creatures from graveyard to hand; she reckons it's more of a Golgari-style effect, especially since Rian gets the -1/-1 counters by dying and coming back to life herself. I was arguing it's probably okay based on things like Order of Whiteclay, but...

Well, white traditionally gets Resurrection rather than Raise Dead.

Indeed. White gets loads of Breath of Life straight onto the battlefield effects, but very, very few that return to hand. That was Rachael's argument, and I think it's probably stronger than mine.

I'm trying to think of a pie-based analogy but failing. It periodically happens that colour identity is strengthened when one colour gains a small fraction of something another colour can do. Like, red can deal damage to attacking creatures, or non-black creatures, but it almost never has a spell specifically for that. Whereas white or black can do.

This seems a case like that. Looking only at white, returning to hand can be seen as a weaker version of returning to play. (And one sufficiently useful and sufficiently weaker you can sensibly make cards for it, whereas red doesn't pay any more for "2 damage to anything" than for "2 damage to attacking".) But looking at black and green, they've staked a claim to "return to hand", so white could do it, but it would make the black/green portion of the pie more pointless.

It doesn't quite work, as returning to hand is something that is sometimes useful apart from a weaker form of resurrection. And also, it's exactly the situation where hybrid has bled before, so maybe it's ok in , even though W doesn't normally do it?

Well, green definitely gets this ability. I do agree that it would make excellent sense as a card, but I think makes sense, too. Look at Angel of Flight Alabaster, Remember the Fallen, and even Angel of Serenity. White doesn't get this ability very often, but it does happen.

­Proclamation of Rebirth
­Remember the Fallen

I've already cited Remember the Fallen, amuseum. If you read the discussion, you'll notice that we're all well aware that white gets Resurrection-style graveyard effects. The question is whether white gets Raise Dead or Nature's Spiral effects often enough to justify this being a hybrid creature.

I guess green gets Regrowth so as a hybrid splashing it whitewards is probably reasonable.