Incredibly weird for a common.

I can't disagree, but often do see somewhat unusual effects on these kind of mechanics. Brainspoil or Crushing Pain come to mind. A corner case spell that can be turned into a Nessian Courser seems pretty damn good in any case.

Um. So, if you Incarnate this, it DOESN'T do the first effect at all? I don't like that.

It's a bimodal spell I guess; either a pretty niche Shatterstorm variation; or a creature when you don't need that.

But this way round, rather than a creature with evoke feels really odd.

I designed the mechanic specifically so it allows the UR deck to ramp on instants and sorceries. Making them creatures would kind miss the point.

But you DID make it into a creature; you just gave it funky wording to try and obfuscate it. Leaving you with a card that's hard to process and hard to file (is it red? Not reallly... it's expensive, useful and colour intensive cost is blue; but it has an alt red mode)

There are cards like that; but there needs to be a really good reason for the added complexity. This just has way too many words for a common.

The way I read it, it's one of those keywords that become a lot simpler if you don't read the rule text. "Incarnate X" ultimately means "Put a X/X weird token onto the battlefield".

And it's not a creature-type spell, and in Izzet, that's a damn important distinction. I wanted a mechanic that could be used with the typical izzet cards like Goblin Electromancer, Fluxcharger, Nivix Cyclop etc. without having to give up creatures to do so.

Sure; but that still makes the majority of the card background, and the symbols in the top right of the card, misleading. Which happens sometimes; but it seems painful here.