This seems like a failure due to the reversal of the three-theme. "I get to draw three cards, but that changes to a dynamic value when I reach my threshold of three" is less intuitive than "something happens, but something three-related happens if I reach my threshold of three".

Changed 3U and Align XU to XU and Align 2U. Reversed the rewards to match.

The relation to threes was unintentional, but now it represents that a bit better with a equal mana to card value with it's align cost.

I'm not sure what the theme of three is, but in a vacuum I'd suggest making this cost XUU with align XU. Then the upgrade is obvious for any X, plus they print minor upgrades to Mind Spring pretty regularly.

Mm. It's also kind of weird that if you have five land and three creatures, you're probably better off tapping five land. for four cards still gives you an incentive to only tap three lands and forgo the last card.

Much cleaner comparison with braingeyser, too. Seems fine to improve on that nowadays, though.

I still feel that align is gonna eat up design space "Why would I play this tribe-specific card when I can play this any-tribe card?"

I don't see how exactly. At base level redundancy with cards seems ok, and Align mostly is a value and mode changer that fits into a tribal deck and hopefully can support some lesser filled out tribes.

That's the point- it massively eats design space. Once an effect exists in align; there's never any reason to print that effect as specific to a single tribe.

Which means that, to really exist, you'd need to have crappy low-power-only effects in align. Which would make it a feel-bad mechanic.

Gotta be honest... I don't get Vitenka's argument. The same could be said about how kicker eats into design space. But I don't think Kicker in a Tribal set would be inherently bad.

Anyhow, I'm less of a fan of tribal cards that ask me to be as linear as possible. Too many effects like Wellwisher or even Goblin Warchief tends to cut into the complexity of draft, and makes constructed choices too obvious. I much prefer cards like Silvergill Adept, which asks for you to play with 'enough' Merfolk... which could lead to a Merfolk/Goblin hybrid deck. A lot more interesting choices to be made there IMO.

If it was me, I'd let Align make the set feel like traditional 'dump all you creatures' tribal, and give a little support with a few Wellwishers, but mostly focus on the on/off tribal cards. But... well, you know... I'm not you.

http://www.magicmultiverse.net/cardsets/1440/details_pages/1294

A breakdown of the mechanic and tribe elements of the set align comes from. It was designed to push players to pick from the creatures with creature type in mind for two of the mechanics, one mechanic drawing you to a one or two creature types and the other to as many as you could have out.