Having designed in this general space the question is always how much of a difference it really makes to simpler Raise Dead/Stir the Grave effects in context.

It can work as a gravehate in a pinch. Compared to Stir the Grave the effect is different that if you use this on some big baddie on turn 2, the dynamic is now that all the players know it's coming. This is somewhat similar to Raise Dead, but it can't be used on a creature card that's in an opponent's graveyard. The instant speed also changes its nature somewhat when compared to Stir again, in that you can use it on opponent's end step (enabling you to keep mana for instant speed removal or counterspells), but then end up draw something more relevant once your turn begins and decide to hold off casting the exiled creature. Going back to Raise Dead this card fixes your mana regarding casting the creature, which again is somewhat similar to what Stir does.

So I would say it's a nice mix between the two, that can at certain circumstances work as a gravehate. As an instant it has a lot of little nifty features, one of them being that you can cast flash creatures with it from a grave at instant speed.

You point out the obvious. But there are X variants that partially fulfill those as well. You can add a second black mana to Stir the Grave and make it instant speed - maybe allowing it to target cards in any graveyard etc.

As I state though the question is always which aspects really matter in context. Nothing about "Card Dump" gives that context - and in a vacuum no one can appreciate which aspects of this card actually matter.

I don't know why you point out the dynamic of casting this turn 2, when that dynamic... doesn't really seem all that different from using Raise Dead turn two - and usually not what you want to do, because a "big baddy" is a better target for Zombify variants (that ignore mana cost/converted mana cost) if you consistently get them into your graveyard turn 2.

Well, you can't use Raise Dead on a card in opponent's grave. So if you combine the aspects that you use it as a graveyhate on their Bloodghast, say at their end step, and then draw something else and go with that instead like with Raise Dead. There is no variation of those two existing cards/effects that could achieve such. Stir mandates that you have to have all that mana available + it would make it so that you would throw the creature card itself out on the battlefield on the same turn which this can't when cast it on opponent's turn unless that creature card also has flash. Instant reanimation can be quite swingy.

When it comes to actually getting the creature card out of the grave there are multiple differences as well when it comes to managing your mana. For one thing, this indeed fixes mana similarly to how Stir does, but Stir also would require you to have that additional mana when you want the creature itself out. A card having "costs an additional to cast" can make or break the game state.

So I think that "dump" does give the foundation to show what this can achieve that just isn't possible with neither of those two cards. They might be minor when parsed one by one, but when you start taking all of them into account they start to accumulate quickly. I'm quite certain there are many other scenarios that I haven't laid out where the differences would be crucial.

It's also noteworthy that all these nuanced differences increase its total flexibility when compared to those two cards. Like a charm with those two effects, but much more as well.

> As I state though the question is always which aspects really matter in context.

I'm not sure what are you trying to say here. All of the cards in this 'set' exist without context. The context itself also gives meaning (as to which particular differences to those two cards would be more or less important) so am I supposed to suggest an environment for it?

EDIT: For example, I could see this as an uncommon in a "Conspiracy 3" (like?) set that has a graveyard theme. A card that hoses and steals opponent's dead creatures with a low initial cost and doesn't skip mana costs entirely. This also adds the "players waiting/fearing/evaluating" aspect in multiplayer, especially if the spell was used on a large creature (that an opponent was about to reanimate).

I like this one myself. It has a lot of flexibility - either cast your own out-of-colour card, or snag your opponents.

While reanimate dead does both a lot cheaper; this is instant and can't be disenchanted.

And the card you steal is CAST. That's sometimes really valuable.

And on the flip side - you pay for that flexibility. I still like this card. It feels like a puzzle piece.