This gives you a lot more control over what gets manifested than Lightform/Cloudform/Rageform, with correspondingly higher chance (100%) of being able to turn your manifest face up. That's made up for, though, by making the base creature rather less impressive: Severed Legion is unexceptional at common, while a Wind Drake/Wild Griffin with hexproof or lifelink for 1CC are uncommon power level. The rest of the difference is justified by this being black: you're getting something like a Gravedigger, except that when you actually cast the creature the 2/2 disappears.

So all told, this looks spot on, actually. :)

Thanks for the analysis, sir. :-).
I'm a bit sad we didn't see a reanimation manifest spell of some sort in Fate Reforged. I think it would have been a good chance for something cheap and balanced. I could be wrong but I don't think manifest will be in Dragons of Tarkir.

Well... there was Ghastly Conscription. Not cheap, certainly, but I think it does count as a reanimation manifest spell...

That card just tantalizes me with what could have been.

Maro talked about this over here. It seems like they really wanted manifest to feel like a mystery as much of the time as possible.

> [Why not manifest from the] Graveyard?
> This misses the mystery component that makes manifest shine. The graveyard is a public zone, so what card you manifest would always be known. Note that the one card that does manifest from the graveyard [Ghastly Conscription] takes steps to hide what each manifest creature is.

That's a sensible goal. I also realize that the form cycle was purely Jeskai. I hope they revisit manifest with a flavor that allows this card.