It doesn't seem likely that you would amount enough of those "whenever a creature you control spares a creature" effects that you would want to spare a creature with this - and without them this card hardly makes any sense on its own. I don't think that's particularly good design.

Hmmm; about the only time you'd ever want to use 'spare' would be if lethal damage didn't kill it. So you'd be 'sparing' indestructible creatures. Which is odd.

I think the reward for sparing needs to be a lot bigger. Damaging the opponent, gaining a tonne of life, untapping your stuff.

@Tahazzar @Vitenka thanks for the feedback. I'm not particularly a fan of the mechanic myself either :P but it's evocative of the "non-lethal choice" theme that I want to include in this set. I'm definitely still considering different mechanics, but I haven't come up with anything that's as flavorful yet. When I do, I'll be sure to experiment with them.

What if sparing a creature didn't mean that the creature gets away unscathed, but that it is bounced rather than buried?

> Spare (If a creature dealt damage by this creature would die, you may have it returns to their owner's hand instead.)

I'm not sold on the inherent life gain of spare due to the prohibitive reminder text length - even if having an inherent benefit to sparing a creature is certainly not stupid, but I think it is better to be able to vary the benefit, exploit style.

Ok, I like the idea of the bonus of sparing being it bounces the creature. And then this card would have just some lifegain as its bonus.

It's still not something you'd often want to do, mind you, not without more lifegain tacked on. But late-game a bouncing back to hand can be almost as good as sending it to the graveyard.

@SecretInfiltrator @Vitenka yeah, I like that idea, thanks for the brainstorm!