Random generator gave me Fighting Drake and Mortiphobia. I have three black common slots open, so I'm filling them up.

Mortiphobia is... not good on multiple levels. Graveyard exiling isn't particularly interesting, and only makes sense in common when there's a heavy graveyard theme going around.

So I tried to flip this card around and theme it around a drake who fights to escape a fear of dying. That's cute, but most of the fear of dying mechanics have kind of been done. I kind of want to reprint Timid Drake here... but since it isn't a natural mashup from its parts, it doesn't seem right.

I did realize I could flip the abilities, and have the drake exile cards from graveyards to force a discard. That's cute, and I do like black using the graveyard as a resource. But this card is kinda stupid right now. 2/4 flyers shouldn't have sorcery speed activated abilities. And I'm not happy that Mortiphobia's second line isn't being used for sake of simplicity on this creature.

I'm coming back to this card and making something radically different... I don't know what. For now, though, I'm just posting what I got. I'll get there, I'm sure... but it's going to take a lot of prodding.

(Oh, btw, when looking up 'Mortiphobia' on Wikipedia, I found out it wasn't really a word. Who knew? Fear of Death is Necrophobia (coffins, dead bodies and whatnot). Fear of Dying is Thanatophobia (after the Greek personification of death itself, Thanatos). I never understood the phobia cards anyway. If you fear something, why are you surrounding yourself in it?)

The syntax is wrong here. It should be ", , Exile a card from your graveyard: [Effect]." It seems alright, other wise. However, I would expect the mashup to be a 2/4 drake for that lets you exile cards from a graveyard by sacrificing itself.

Switched. Thank you.

I agree... it would probably be a better card. I just don't like graveyard exiling at common. Answer cards for uncommon problems should stay uncommon. I've probably said the opposite at some other point and time, though, so don't dig through my past posts. Alternate reality John-Michaels are all jerks. ¬_¬‎

Truth told, I kind of like the direct mortiphobia + drake matchup. I might just make this card that one, and send it to the workbench. I need common black creatures... but I don't think I can force this one.

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You don't like Faerie Macabre and Beckon Apparition and Vile Rebirth and recent printings of Cremate, then?

I don't have a real problem with Cremate since it's a cheap cantrip. And the Apparition and Vile Rebirth seem fine as flash creatures with an additional cost (though I was forced to call a judge over when a player tried to play Beckon Apparition on round one in a pre-release. Both those cards are problem cards in common, but for a different reason.) The Faerie Macabre, though, isn't the sort of card I'd put at common.

You cited good, flexible cards Alex. I'm talking about the kind of cards that seem to have no purpose than to exile cards from graveyards. Martyr of Bones, Merrow Bonegnawer, Gravegouger, Rag Dealer, Rats' Feast and Sewerdreg are the type of cards I'm talking about (which, admittedly, some of them have their place in the blocks they were in. Odyessey, Kamigawa and probably Ravnica block should all have some form of graveyard exiling at common, because the graveyard themes were common in those sets).

Though, the funny thing is, the more I think about it, the more I realize that most sets have a graveyard theme at common nowadays. Maybe not in the core set, but Martyr of Bones could hunt recover, and Merrow Bonegnawer could hit retrace... it never occurred to me that those two might be answer cards. They just look like horrible cards in a draft.

In comparison, Zendikar and Rise of the Eldrazi didn't really have a graveyard theme, and therefore, didn't really have a graveyard exiler. This seems really obvious in hindsight, but I never really noticed this before...

I'm not sure what I want to do with this card, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't belong in the set. So it's hanging out on the workbench for now.