See Challenge # 121.

I looked for a UW mechanic flavoured as cunning that didn't feel out of place in W and played nicely with Prowess. I'm not completely convinced by this, but I like the idea.

It would need a shorter name. And I need to check if it's too similar to delve.

And I'm not sure if it needs a mana payment as well. I chose toughness-breathing as it's almost impossible for it to be broken if you have too much of it, and complicates combat calculations only half as much as pumping power. So it might be ok at instant speed without a mana requirement. But normally that's a bad idea.

I'm not sure if it conveys the flavour well enough, I imagine a smug monk knowing the secret lore that lets her dodge everything. But that's a bit of a complicated concept to convey. But I wanted something that felt W, and "knowledge" felt like a W sort of U thing, and toughness-breathing has WU written all over it, but hasn't fit any of the previous UW guilds.

I don't think the alternate history mechanics need to actually play well with each other, do they? I guess they'll always meet in FRF, so maybe.

This does indeed feel nicely WU. But it's very weak. This would be a weak card if it cost just ; in most cases it'll be similar to Sanctuary Cat. I do quite like the idea of being able to use spent instants as "shield points" or something, but... Imagine a 3/1 with this. That's not going to be anywhere near as appealing as Bloodfire Expert.

"I guess they'll always meet in FRF, so maybe."

I assumed that playing together wasn't required, but was a plus, partly for fate reforged + dragons draft, partly for casual players who want to build a jeskai deck, and I just felt like doing that if I could.

"But it's very weak."

I really can't evaluate power level very well!

(And remember, if I forget to put flying on a bird, that's me screwing up the templating, not designing a cassowary :) Oops, sorry :( )

I figured, you could use this a lot more often than prowess, since prowess means hoarding your spells in hand to cast/threaten at the right moment, and potentially leaving mana open. Whereas with secret lore, you can attack and threaten to pump any of your creatures.

But, well, I'm often wrong power level :) Maybe it's just not worth it as a mechanic, it didn't seem that promising, I just really liked the idea :)

Oops, I did completely neglect to notice that the name and type really suggested this should have flying. I should have twigged that really!

I should have noticed, I designed it! :)

It's not quite like "flying" should be a supertype, but... :)