OP or no?

Seems not great, actually. A 1/1 that keeps coming back is pretty good (3 mana traditionally?), but losing your next draw is brutal

Maybe third from the top? that would be cool and good

My idea would be to increase it to 1UU and change the trigger to "when ~ dies, draw a card, then put ~ on top of its owner's library"

As a rule of thumb, I would much rather have a Flying Men that went to my graveyard when it dies. After round 1, I don't want to draw into a one casting cost creature. Even if I end up drawing an unnecessary land, it's still better than drawing Drifter and then an unnecessary land before getting to my business spells.

Dude's idea is valid. I'd argue that, on a rare, you could cut that cost down to . Or alternatively, make it a 'draw a card, then discard a card, put put Drifter on top' effect to keep the cost at . To be honest, that might still qualify as a weak rare, since putting the Drifter on top of your library is a drawback.

Alternative idea:

"When ~ dies, each player puts the top two cards of their libraries into their graveyard, then put ~ on top of your library."

Or something along those lines. Maybe 3 cards? At least this way you're getting value every time you recycle this spirit, even if it requires a certain archetype to take advantage of it.

this ain't white, i don't see any reason to limit it's power by narrowing what decks it can work in...

So far dude's idea seems the clearest, and about as clean as mine, just with an extra, probably better-than-not step

> ... would died, you may put it on top of it's owner's library instead ?

Also, why is it a replacement effect? I would make it a trigger. Ie. Mortus Strider

> When ~ dies, you may...

If you really want to make it a mandatory, then I think it would be wise to look it as a drawback. So perhaps its stats could be pumped up to a 1/3 or even a 2/1 - or perhaps still a 1/1, but with flash or so.

Hmm; it's less of a disadvantage than it seems, in a skill-testing way. Because early on that's pretty much great. And then later on, sure, it's pretty painful but you can stop putting it at risk. And an opponent can deliberately kill it to nerf your next draw.

I like it.

It still forces you to skip a draw, even if you choose not to play it.

Yes; but you don't let it die :)

The most certain way to do that would be not to play then even if it meant lessening your board presence and aggressive pressure. So it's a harsh drawback at that point. The advantage of you getting this as your next draw, instead of whatever other similar early drop you may have (ie. Judges Familar or whatever) doesn't seem that great tbh.

Actually, given how much it can mess up your tempo, it makes me think that maybe it having haste even as a mono- would be quite interesting and not too color pie breaking. Kinda like Glitterfang / Lightning Berserker, but with a layer of Fencer Clique on top of it.

Except the only blue card ever printed with haste is Bonded Fetch, and that doesn't even count, so that totally breaks the color pie

... but if it's killed it bestows upon you "anti-haste" so it balances out :) You have to think about it in more conceptual terms. For example, I've played around with the idea of a 0/0 with haste for that has "~ gets +1/+1 for each card you've drawn this turn."

EDIT: Things have to be considered in the context they exists. For an overly simple example, "Destroying creatures? surely that's . Wait, you mean explicitly creatures with flying? Oh, then that's mono-."

I think you mean "began"

inb4 Tahaz publishes "The Theory of MTG Concepts and How to Grow Past a Color Pie Absolutist Phase"

Heh. It's certainly not absolute. But it's a good guide to stick to unless you have a good reason not to. Flavouring it as stealing time could indeed be a good reason.