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CardName: Envoy of Shepherd's Glen Cost: 3G Type: Creature - Human Archer Pow/Tgh: 1/4 Rules Text: Reach _Envoy_ -- When Envoy of Shepherd's Glen enters the battlefield, reveal the top four cards of your library. Put all Wolf cards revealed this way into your hand and the rest on the bottom of your library in any order. Flavour Text: Set/Rarity: [Assorted] Card Repository Uncommon |
Code: History: [-] |
References:Shepherd's Glen Ranger, Sylvan Messenger
Could be keyworded as "Envoy of Wolves" but I am not coding that keyword right now, so the ability word stands in for that option.
I like this "Envoy (type)" mechanic. Especially since you seem to be requiring it to be off-type, so it doesn't just devolve to "Draw the next 3 non-land cards"
Although the world building that leads to a shepherd being the envoy of the wolves, rather than, you know, the one that defends the sheep from them, boggles me.
One possible issue - would your set reall have enough differnet wolves, and differnet dinosaurs etc. to be able to support so many different envoys?
I also wonder a bit about the cost, you seem to have envoy costing about half a mana; but it seems like it should be worth more than that, since it might draw you 4 cards. Equally, of course, it might do nothing - but still, I'd think it'd be at least as expensive as cantrip.
I actually did the world building already: Wolf of Shepherd's Meadow (Note that I haven't settled on Glen vs. Meadow for the location's name). So did WotC: Watchwolf.
I personally at first assumed that Envoy costs about
or 
like drawing a card/cantrip, but looking at the existing envoys (e. g. Enlistment Officer) that might not be necessary - and as you note this card gets to be at the top end of the power curve for being off-tribe, so I went with (already obsolete) Rib Cage Spider + 
, which is still more than "half a mana".
One thing to always consider when assuming that this is even equal to a cantrip, that just getting a cantrip out of this is a tribal reward; so e. g. a variant that was more Commune with Dinosaurs and allowed you to get only one card (and no land) would be cost below a cantrip, even as a tribal reward, because even if you play an individual on-tribe card or two you are likely to miss.
You'll notice how I cost the above linked Shepherd's Glen Ranger much closer to a cantrip.
I think hitting more than two cards with this can be considered "the dream" with an outside chance (even in Constructed). I cost them as "likely 0-2 cards drawn" with a pinch of "you already need commitment to get even a reliable 0-1".
I guess I could enforce 0-2 by using a wording like Collected Company. It would feel bad though to turn "the dream" scenario into one of wasted potential.