I really, REALLY don't think that embedding a mechanic inside another is a viable idea. Not that the basic "return a card face down" idea is bad, but manifesting in here seems bad, since it's far too complex for potential evergreen status (only haste and flying, I believe, were ever mentioned in reminder text).

I suppose the real question is, "What's the point of keywording Possess?" The card could just read ", Sacrifice Dutiful Attendant: Manifest target card from a graveyard (This is the reminder for Manifest.)"

...not that I'm sure that using manifest here is right. Shouldn't 'manifest from a graveyard' be another keyword altogether? You know.. kind of like how Islandcycling doesn't say "Cycle this card for an Island from your library."

Manifest from a graveyard is indeed a possibility, since the whole point of manifest is that it can be from any zone, although they always designed so that the card was not known. Removing that sort of defeats the point of manifesting cards. A return face-down "mummify" mechanic has been proposed multiple times.

And part of the reason for manifesting unknown cards was power level issues, I'd assume. If you could intentionally cheat in big creatures with downside ETB effects, that would potentially be a problem. In an extreme example, you can manifest Phyrexian Dreadnought and turn it face up for . That's a 12/12 trample with no drawback for 1 mana.

(this is haldaraumo)

The reasoning behind making it manifest instead of something else was to force you to pay the mana cost if you wanted the creature proper, so that you couldn't just steal your opponent's 9U card in a mono-B deck or similar. I didn't consider how it might play with cards like Phyrexian Dreadnought though that have alternate costs.

Of course, that implies you specifically desire that the "pay to flip" be possible at all. If it were just "Return target card from a graveyard to the battlefield face down", this would be a problem at all (hence why variants of such have been proposed a couple times, including a persist/undying one that seems like a good fit for Sultai).

(this is haldaraumo)

The original flavor idea, as implied by the keyword "possess," is that you're using one creature to gain control of a bigger creature - a bit like Emerge. The BG Sultai in this set are more of a hivemind where different beings are constantly competing for mental and physical dominance. So they need a mechanic that allows them to exploit other people's stuff, but it had to be "a" graveyard so you could still use it even if your opponent wasn't putting cards in the bin. Manifest seemed to fit the bill because it could get you a 2/2, then if you'd picked a creature and if you could invest the mana you could get full value.

A variant on persist or undying might also work. I'll have to think about it.

Hi Haldarumo!

I don't think Wizards objects to the flavor/power level implications that putting a large non-black creature from an opponent's graveyard into play on your side evokes. This list of 8 cards from Gatherer seem to back up that theory.

here's the list

Sorry the link doesn't work. Brackets don't work well in this forum. Copy/Paste should still do the trick, though. (Admin edit: I fixed the link for you - Alex)

That said, I can definitely understand the impetus to prevent that from happening, if one has some element of control (there is also the Rise from the Grave option, which turns the card into a black zombie in the transfer.