Hi Haldarumo!

I don't think Wizards objects to the flavor/power level implications that putting a large non-black creature from an opponent's graveyard into play on your side evokes. This list of 8 cards from Gatherer seem to back up that theory.

here's the list

Sorry the link doesn't work. Brackets don't work well in this forum. Copy/Paste should still do the trick, though. (Admin edit: I fixed the link for you - Alex)

That said, I can definitely understand the impetus to prevent that from happening, if one has some element of control (there is also the Rise from the Grave option, which turns the card into a black zombie in the transfer.

(this is haldaraumo)

The original flavor idea, as implied by the keyword "possess," is that you're using one creature to gain control of a bigger creature - a bit like Emerge. The BG Sultai in this set are more of a hivemind where different beings are constantly competing for mental and physical dominance. So they need a mechanic that allows them to exploit other people's stuff, but it had to be "a" graveyard so you could still use it even if your opponent wasn't putting cards in the bin. Manifest seemed to fit the bill because it could get you a 2/2, then if you'd picked a creature and if you could invest the mana you could get full value.

A variant on persist or undying might also work. I'll have to think about it.

(this is haldaraumo)

Actually, after thinking about it a bit more, I think Renown would work well with the strategy and flavor of the RW deck - it encourages quick attacking and fits with the notion of honor and glory.

I think the Awaken + token mechanic is a great idea and with a couple changes it could replace Defer for the WB faction. The idea of Defer was to allow larger creatures to use smaller creatures to buff themselves. If the W cards create tokens and the high-cost B and WB cards can sac, that would create a similar effect. In that case I think I'd change the mechanic name to Conscript. The WB Abzan are an expansionist empire and the idea of them pressing into service their conquered peoples fits well.

Awaken + tokens seems just what you want:

Artillery Squad
Sorcery [C]
~ deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
Enlist -- 2 (If you cast this spell for , also create two 1/1 white soldier creature tokens.)

Of course, that implies you specifically desire that the "pay to flip" be possible at all. If it were just "Return target card from a graveyard to the battlefield face down", this would be a problem at all (hence why variants of such have been proposed a couple times, including a persist/undying one that seems like a good fit for Sultai).

(this is haldaraumo)

Making it sorcery-speed instead of instant was initially a mistake, but the more I thought about it the more I thought it would be less broken at sorcery-speed, so I kept it there.

(this is haldaraumo)

Soulwalk is intended to be sorcery-speed, yes, otherwise combat math just gets too awful. I may have forgotten to add that rider to some of the reminder text, though.

Enlist is the mechanic that's given me the most creative trouble and I still don't like it. It's hard to come up with a new RW army-type mechanic. At this point I'm thinking of just reusing Battalion.

(this is haldaraumo)

The reasoning behind making it manifest instead of something else was to force you to pay the mana cost if you wanted the creature proper, so that you couldn't just steal your opponent's 9U card in a mono-B deck or similar. I didn't consider how it might play with cards like Phyrexian Dreadnought though that have alternate costs.

That's still pretty uncomfortable. What about "whenever a creature you control deals combat damage, if ~ entered the battlefield this turn, draw a card"?

Why not just "Target creature can't block or be blocked this turn"? Only one of them will matter, but it's such a cleaner template.