Sodkar are giving me hell in Suvnica. I want them to have a graveyard mechanic because they're the only black guild where I can still fit one, but I suck a B/R design! Thankfully they are set for set 2 of the block, so I got some room to work with.

Constraints:

• The mechanic should be at least simpler than my (godawful!) climb the ranks
• The mechanic should have a significant graveyard componet. Mostly that means it should interact well with red looting and black mill.
• The mechanic (sadly) cannot use counters. The block currently does not use +1/+1 counters and the counter type in use is a poor fit for the guild.
• Bonus point for a mechanic that works best on instants and sorceries, or at least can go on any card type rather than only creatures.
• Flavorwise, that mechanic should represent ruthless opportunism.

If you can tweak and/or reflavor Graverush or the unnamed spell unearth mechanic, feel free to go that way.

That makes me think:

Carpe Diem (When this is put into your graveyard from anywhere except by casting it, you may cast it for )

Except that does nothing by itself :(

Ah! I guess it's going to be difficult to do something else than a variation on madness... Think a graveyard transmute works?

Rakdos Transmute (, Exile this card: Return from your graveyard target card with the same converted mana cost as this card. Transmute only as a sorcery.)

The red costs would go mostly on instants and sorceries, and the black on creatures...

Those both work. Though Rakdos Transmute may be a bit too 'thinky'. How about something that gives Black/Red some reach?

Grudge (, Exile ~ from your graveyard: Target opponent loses 1 life.)

It doesn't look very special. But when you start milling and looting, this could really add up.

I think this is my favorite so far. I'm tentatively using "Vindictive" for it and "Grudge" for the rebound one. (Vindicitive is my tentative final name). Gonna design a couple cards now...

Rebirth (Whenever another creature you control dies, you may exile it. If you do, you may cast this from your graveyard.)
This might be a good fit with a more "ruthless" name.

Rebirth seems a little too close to a worse Flashback for comfort. I would have to avoid recreating flashback cards and I would be threading very close to a well-loved, famous mechanic.

For now I'm considering your Grudge as a very good front-runner to experiment with, with "spell unearth" as my second.

Link's "Rebirth" seems not so much flashback as recover (Krovikan Rot). In particular, it's not limited to happening just once.

"Spell unearth" seems very close to rebound (Virulent Swipe).

I guess the better comparison might ultimately be to Retrace. In any case, I wasn't too enamored of the idea both on repetitive play grounds and for the guild.

I've explained how the spell unearth mechanic differs elsewhere: Yes it has a "rebound" element, but it is linked to going into the graveyard, not being cast.