This is a strictly worse Last Gasp. Just saying, even if there's nothing inherently bad in that.

How about tapping an untapped black Cleric or Shaman to cast for free?

I really liked that idea of tapping "a level 3" shaman to cast spells that one WoW custom set had. Level up would be more of a Warcraft 3 / WoW thing rather than a Warcraft 1 / 2 thing though.

­Last Gasp is a spell I have made very good experiences with and hold in high regard. So high even that I consider strictly worse spells something you might be happy to play.

I specifically want the tribal boni of these spells to not be color-restricted. A feature of tribal design to me is that you can benefit from a tribe across its colors.

I would probably feel differently if I had a set with e. g. Clerics in all five colors and plenty in each, but for this product I might have less than four cards total for both of the mentioned tribes combined.

Flavorwise I would love to tap a Cleric to cast this spell for free though.

Last Gasp seems above the curve nowadays. I'd always play this in limited.

Yeah, Last Gasp is probably about typical power level for uncommon removal, but common removal has been drastically powered down to make Limited more interesting.

What if this was dropped to -2/-2 and the color restriction from that hypothetical Cleric requirement was dropped? How much of a color break would it be?

Somewhere between Dismember and Gut Shot? IMO the Cleric requirement would pretty much restrict it to white and black since the type really isn't used in other colors. So I would be okay with it.

EDIT:

Eh, that Shaman part of the requirement is a bit troublesome though. I totally forgot about it. Could it be dropped?

As far as the flavor goes, isn't Shadow Spear cleric-only spell? Warlock had like "Eldritch Hellfire Blast" instead, right?

@Tahazzar: I actually provide a complete list of spells here.

The Warlock basic attack spell in Warcraft 1 is called Fireball. I'm currently having a reprint in the set.

There is a single Cleric design in the deck and a single Shaman design. I feel combining them iss merited here. BTW, there is a monocolored Cleric of each color in Amonkhet (same for Lorwyn).

I personally am fine with experimenting with tribal pie, but Dismember is a straight mistake.

Initially I phrased that as

> (How much of a color break would it be?) Certainly less than Dismember.

You're going to have multiple copies of some cards, right? If you go with 2+ copies of Orcish Necrolyte then that combining isn't required. To me it looks like that both the design and flavor are not backing up that Shaman idea, so I personally would be very wary of that. Decisions made purely as "design hacks" don't sound nice to me. They might fit into the context at hand, but I would rather have solutions that also make sense when viewed in solitude after some years. Say, when considering reprints if this would ever be turned into a whole set / block.

Also, could be there be an Aura that adds Cleric / Shaman type to a creature in addition to some buff? Perhaps with some kind of training or conversion flavor...

I will have multiple copies of some cards - up to two copies of an uncommon. Preliminary decklists can be found here and here.

This also currently combos with the Shaman of the set since the Shaman is also an Anarchist that reduces the cost of sorcery spells.

The "design hack" was a conscious attempt to use the casters to both show the overlap between the sides (Clerics) as well as marking a distinction (Wizard vs. Shaman). (Further cards for reference: Holy Lance, Dark Vision)

If I decide to turn this into a whole block, then these cards support both in-faction decks (black-red Shamans/white-blue Wizards), as well as a (not-so-true-to-the-lore) faction-overlapping approach (white-black Clerics).

While I have no problem in principle with adding a flavorful Aura that trains a Cleric/Shaman/Wizard I am aware of no game mechanic or creative theme in Warcraft 1 that would translate to such an Aura.

Additionally I have a hard time understanding how adding an additional two words to an existing paragraph on a design is a "hack" and adding a whole new Aura card to manipulate the numbers of creature types is more straightforward (and means one more card contesting space with actual copies of Cleric/Shaman cards).

Here is a search of existing Auras in the set.

Unfortunately so far in playtesting not a single copy of Shadow Spear has been drawn, so I have little data to go on. I have hoped, and still do, to gain insight into whether this is well-situated at -3/-3.

I am keeping these comments marked for follow-up (unfortunately not visible), so they will be taken into consideration during my next iteration over the cards.

Well, it's getting rather vague here.

If there would be a flavorful way to create such an Aura, it would nice since I think exactly one type granted there would be the optimal from mechanical and flavor stand point (ie. Ghoulflesh and its ilk).

The "hacky" part is the more than one requirement. Like if we extend the idea/principle just a bit further it could read

> If you control a Cleric, green Dragon, and/or two nonbasic lands you may...

Now it's immediately recognizable as tacky since it meshes seemingly unrelated themes. But, I mean, between one type and two types which are slightly related... it becomes more of a personal choice. I would rather not, but I can't say without a doubt that it's unacceptable or anything. Just a slightly lesser choice in the long run IMO.

This and Poison Cloud both give -3/-3. I think at least one of the two should be able to clear out Great Sea Elemental.