Not really a fan of cards like these. It functionally does nothing other than trigger lifegain/lifeloss effects because SBAs aren't checked until after the trigger resolves. I'd much rather an ability have a purpose by itself rather than be a cute way to trigger an effect (but not really do anything other than trigger it).

Maybe if it could More or Less itself or something...

I had a similar 'non-effect' in an old set I made. It did this:

Sudden Fits
­
Instant
Tap target creature, then untap it, then tap it, then untap it, then tap it, then untap it.

The set had a mechanic which is now known as 'Inspiration' ("When this creature untaps...") For the life of me, I could never figure out if this was an example of good design, or bad design. I still don't know.

As for the Vicar... by biggest problem is that the ability is too cheap, oddly. Most of the time, it won't do anything. When it's paired with a card that triggers off life gain, though, watch out! This ability has the potentiality to create more dangerous combos than Horseshoe Crab and Psionic Gift, since killing the Vicar doesn't put you down 2 for 1, and the Vicar can trigger multiple cards at the same time. Vicar plus two Ajani's Pridemates is... well, if it isn't unfair, it's at least unfun.

Personally, I would either increase the cost to activate, or at least move vicar into uncommon. I wouldn't want every draft to be about who got the vicar. Not unless the rest of the set was just as crazy and comboriffic in its own way.

That Sudden Fits reminds me of this card by chinkeeyong at NGA I saw:

> Smokescrabble Fidget
> Creature – Mutant Insect (U)
> If ~ would become tapped, instead tap it. Then untap it. Then tap it again. Then untap it again. Then tap it again.
> 1/1
> Its characteristic spasming is tied directly to the beating of its chambered heart. When its movement ceases, its life does as well.

I think gimmicky designs are okay in moderation. This card's power is tied directly into the cards that surround it, so I wouldn't immediately mark it as overpowered.

As for Ajani's Pridemate... I mean, that kind of does sound fun - slam it down, pump your whole team for giggles, and smash face for huge damage. I still find it arguable whether it would be better than just straight-up sister package since that doesn't require any additional mana...
After taking a quick look at the soul sister decks, it seems that this wouldn't even be that good. It doesn't increase your life total, so it would strictly limited to Pridemate / Archangel of Thune in its interactions, while the sister deck would like to have its life total increased as well given it tends to run Serra Ascendant. It could be a good addition in some variants, but I doubt it's anything 'broken'.

Anyway... As I've planned it, this environment is going to have cards that trigger of life loss and/or life gain, I find the flavor really nice, it's a cute hybrid design, and yet it's simple but has additional (hidden?) depth. Seems all fine to me.

I'm really pushing the common rarity with bunch of cards at the moment btw. I'm kind of surprised anyone hasn't mentioned anything about regarding the rarity of Reveler in Chaos (gold tokens lol) or Ravenous Lastborn (crazy amount of tactical depth / interactions with everything grave and sac). Touch of Pandemonium also uses X, which it would get red-flagged for.

Given the set is at such an early state, I'm not that bothered about this though. There are so many slots open still that these cards can fling around rarities many times before the "dust settles".

Unfortunately, the common 'walker cycle already pushes the complexity quota quite a bit. So far I've seen it acceptable to balance this out by having a relatively few mechanics.

Your sets tend to defy most accepted parameters of NWO and power level, so I figure it'd be just beating a dead horse if I mentioned it.

Heh, that's kind of true. I'm going with the presumption that power level isn't tied to rarity, which is WotC's official stand on this as well even though their actions might speak otherwise. It should be noted that impact-fullness is a different thing. For example, Boulderfall is of high-impact (can take out the opposing board), but it sucks powerwise.

The currently is somewhat halted in development as I'm trying to come with a sensible composition of mechanics. At the moment, I'm working on making "Shimmer" more common friendly, which would certainly fill that void white currently has and would thematically fit the set as well.

I found out this "Carpe Arcanum" set exists, which has an incredibly good set of mechanics centered around the magical principles (except for "cadence" - that's whatever). I would be hard pressed to do better than that (and would perhaps still end with incredibly similar set of mechanics), but that made me realize that this set shouldn't really be strictly about that given all the 'walkers hanging around. So maybe more focus on invocations, truenames, clerical boons/worship - calling upon distant entities and powers - with themes of identity, correspondences and relation. Or something like that.