Cursed seems weird to me, because unlike Unleash, there's no option for this to put a counter on itself.

Do you think it should have one? I'll admit when I thought of Cursed I didn't know how to get the -1/-1 counters on the creature, which I why I included wither in the set (I was in need of another mechanic and I have trouble creating my own). Additionally, Alex suggested that the Hex mechanic put a -1/-1 counter on a creature instead of giving a creature -1/-1 UEOT.

If I went with your suggestion, how would you suggest I word it? "You may have Nnikivi Stalker ETB with a -1/-1 counter. If you do Nnikvi Stalker must be blocked."

That's my first thought, though this takes away the mechanic name (which is what happened with fetish) and then I worry if it doesn't seem like I have an actual mechanic going on.

I have three problems with "cursed" in its current implementation.

• It requires other cards to do anything at all, since the creatures don't gain -1/-1 counters naturally.
• The creatures don't seem to be cursed, because they are actually gaining a benefit.
• Cursed by itself doesn't do anything. It's just a marker for the card it's on, and possibly other cards in the set, to refer to.

You could fix two of those problems by changing cursed's functionality to "You may have this creature ETB with a -1/-1 counter on it." Then, presumably, all the creatures with that ability make up for it with some other bonus. This still has the problem of not really feeling like a curse, of course. Arguably, cursed still wouldn't do anything (by itself) except make the creature weaker, but it wound be more pay because it gives the illusion of doing something by giving you a choice.

Allowing the creature to enter with a -1/-1 counter does help the mechanic a lot. As for feeling cursed originally it was meant for the opponent to feel cursed dealing with the creature, when it came to drawing-up creatures, some didn't turn out that I way.