Is this a color bend?

Probably not. It's just Sign in Blood plus "each opponent loses 2 life", which isn't really a combination that combines together to do anything strange. Although it might read as blue + black effect, more likely.

What about:

"As an additional cost to cast ~, pay 2 life.

Each opponent loses 2 life and you draw two cards."

Essentially the same thing, but super black now.

Turned this back into an instant now that I changed the Weave Fate reprint into Spin a Tale. That probably makes this feels even more but I'm not that worried. I can see it fitting well with all the other cards in the set, Bitter Cold and False Counsel for example, that are also rather quirky themselves compared to the usual repertoire gets.

@ttt3142: I ended up evaluating it that way myself as well. It's a very novel twist on 's drawing that I found interesting.

@dude1818: That seems like going backwards. In design work general, we want to approach the simplest solution possible. It does bring up a point though how one can interpret the card's effect as either or very .

Needs to be a sorcery. Other than that, cool card.

(Black doesn't get instant speed card draw without sacrifice. Also it's just too strong at instant.)

Just because something hasn't been done before doesn't mean it can't be done.

Power wise, it's pretty close to Inspiration, but more color intensive. That life loss can be a boon or curse depending on the situation.

To make a good set though, you can't deviate from the norm TOO much though or people dismiss it. In an ironic way, custom sets receive more scrutiny from players because you aren't any authority.

WotC does something crazy and breaks a rule? People accept it. A custom card does something crazy and breaks a rule? People question it. A custom set does something crazy and breaks a lot of rules? People reject it.

That's why I'm critiquing these things. I see the time you put into this, I care about LOTR, and most importantly I see that you're actually taking time to deliver (make it playable). I want to see this succeed.

So please listen. Overall you're breaking too many rules. And this here is an easy one to fix:

Just put the card at sorcery.

It will still functionally fill the same role in the set. You're not compromising anything.

And the "It's too strong" point still stands. Suicide black always views even life loss as a boon, since winning at 1 life is just as good as winning at 20.

> Suicide black always views even life loss as a boon, since winning at 1 life is just as good as winning at 20.

If we're speaking of aggro here, I doubt it would be that interested in running a 4 CMC "draw two" card. For control, to which the instant speed would gear this card towards, 'each player loses 2' is likely to be a drawback.

Okay, so on this 'craziness' - that kind of strict thinking will do you more harm than good in a creative tasks such as mtg design. Seriously, think about these things. Why haven't there been a black instant speed draw spell without sacrifice? Could there be and why not? Would it be a problem and why would it?

This has never been rule enforced or official stated by WotC as far as I know. Even if it were it shouldn't stop you from doing it if it makes sense in the context.
The amount of people who care or know about these kind of supposedly existing rules is so niche it's almost non-existing. Then take a subset of that group for the people who would in any way be 'offended' by this card or whatever. So what you're saying is nonsensical.

Plus, you've probably heard this phrase by MaRo:

> "It's better to make something that somebody loves, rather than something that everyone likes and no one hates." (paraphrased)

In any case, at least on the 'instant speed black draw' department, it seems that I was already 'behind the trends' since Succumb to Temptation was printed just last year. Also, looking at that card, this seems pretty bad as I suspected. Like I said, it's hardly better than Inspiration, which is why there's a card like this in the custom "Dreamscape" set that has seen much scrutiny and playtesting. For being an uncommon, it also gets that new variation of suspend on it. So I'm considering making this more splashable at , but I really like the theme of '2s' here.

As opposed to the instant vs. sorcery thing that I don't get and never did, taping enchantments are an explicitely stated rules, that not only exists, but has been broken as a test and then reinforced, because it was actually srewing with gameplay (players apparently actually like having not to care about tapping certain cards).

I think that relates more directly to having tapping Auras and Equipment which is messy, as in attachable permanents, as people tend to tap those alongside the creatures they are attached to (which is what makes Second Wind a bad idea); but nobody's complaining about artifacts there or maybe they did nobody cares (for example, think bunch of Equipment + Improvise). Regardless, because of that, I was wary about giving any Auras to the Chant colors in this set and generally strayed away from them. There was even this white Aura that itself in this set had chant which was really messy and I scrapped it quickly.

Obviously, having tappable enchantments in a set means it's the type of special concern a set has (like having to constantly fluff through graveyards with sets that have flashback) and not something to do as an evergreen thing.