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I could see this being a green Ooze.
Flavor is a never-ending amount of soldiers. Not sure what color the ability would actually be.
See Ochatzin Rebel. Test mechanic 2 for a return to Coaxkika.
I think this mechanic might be more viable. I took inspiration when I tried out Harness on Waveskater.
Point 1: Should binding only affect the next instant or sorcery cast instead of all instants and sorceries UEOT?
Point 2: Should binding only be limited to sorcery speed?
Test 1 of a mechanic for the eventual return to Coaxkika. Coaxkika was big on instants and sorceries, however this mechanic is probably too powerful too appear on many cards.
Huh, so I literally did the same mechanic on creatures about 10 months prior to this example.
Edit: Nah forget it. I rescind this comment because I'm probably wrong.
Actually you can respond to the trigger written this way - it's the intervening if-clause that stops the ability to trigger in the first place.
The problem that players will not know which is true is the real issue though - also the floating of mana at inappropriate times leading to bad gameplay AND the fact that a mechanic that only works once you have ten mana is also not going to play that well.
Note: Why is blackswell a keyword? Shouldn't the reminder text belong to the triggered ability? Compare devotion.
Yeah, unfortunately you can't respond to the trigger if written this way. Though you could write it this way:
"Whenever another creature you control dies, if you have Blackswell, each opponent..."
The problem is that you have to target with the way it's written, and I'm pretty sure that target will fail if you don't have Blackswell. If you don't target, though, the ability will only check for Blackswell on resolution.
I should point out, these details will be lost on many players. Even if the ability does work, some people will assume it doesn't unless you Blackswell before the creature dies. Thankfully, creatures rarely die for no reason, and enough people will get the idea that they can blackswell in response to a spell or ability. A few won't know that.
Another thing that many people don't understand is how and when mana stays in your pool. This creature is going to confuse a lot of players when they Blackswell in combat, trigger the ability, then empty their pool at the end of combat.
I will say, for what it's worth, I find the ability interesting, and could be fun. Wizards development team would probably shoot it down. But if you're cool with the ability not being realistic in the real world, it might be the sort of ability that makes custom sets worth playing.
Also, missing p/t (assuming you weren't going to add that in later.)
This probably has rules issues. Also, it asks players to float mana around as if everyone knew exactly when the mana pools are emptied.
Blackswell is a hold name. This mechanic will exist for all 5 colors, so there'd be Redswell, Blueswell, Whiteswell, and Greenswell.
Yes, I am attempting to create a mechanic for a set.
While one could ransom their own assets, I wasn't intending that direction with these designs.
Where are you going with this? Are you planning on having this as a block/set mechanic?
It reminds me of that mechanic were the cards were exiled and instead of drawing you could choose of the cards you owned that were exiled this way. It has appeared in a couple of custom sets as well as in GDS2 if I recall correctly.
See Snatch.
To example that ransom wouldn't always be from the same zone.
I forget if it's spectre or specter.
I did want to include that the ransom could alternatively end by Starsilent Kidnapper dying, but that looked weird in the reminder text. (.... If Starsilent Kidnapper leaves the battlefield or that card's owner pays
return the ransomed card to it's owner's hand.)?
The intention for Ransom isn't just the library, but any zone, barring graveyard and exile, and graveyard only from an expected lack of graveyard interaction. The top card of the library just happened to be used for the first test.
Oh, the reminder text makes it seem like ransom would only be the top card of a library.
Huh. Please ransom me a lot! Ideally, almost my entire deck. That way, I can tutor for
any time I need to draw a card.
It's a lovely idea; and I do think it's a great flavour for a red mechanic. But this particular implementation, uh, missed. A lot.
I'm not actually sure of an alternative. My thoughts so far:
Preventing them from drawing entirely would be too evil... What you really want is them to have to give you something, not just pay it to the air.
I'm tempted to suggest "They cannot draw a card until they pay" but that's way too good. Feels close to the aim though.
Perhaps something like hate-scry; where they get the worst card of the top few (your choice), unless they pay?
I was thinking narrowly. Ransom for mill won't do much without your opponent organizing their top card or playing with the top card revealed.
I guess I should also ask what is doing the ransoming. I think if permanents ransomed cards I could very the cost and have the ransomer permanent exit the battlefield as an alternate way to get the ransomer card back. Something like Ransom target creature- Pay three life (Exile target creature until ~ leaves the battlefield or if ransomed creatures controller pays three life.)
I bet that's still probably memory issues though.
Seems quite pointless. Milling a single card isn't that painful, it's comparable to what, 1/3 of a single point of damage or something (~50 cards vs 20 life)?
At which point is the cost supposedly need to be paid? At any point afterwards? I'm kinda reading it like you should pay it immediately or not at all.
This card especially just doesn't do anything. It's kind of like
scry 1, if you want to keep it, pay 
since targeting yourself with this is the best thing really barring some obscure cases like after Vampiric Tutor or indeed, after other people scrying though using it after scrying still really isn't worth 
- especially when they can just pay 
anyway.
If I'm getting this right, this seems like it should be more like
> Target player ransoms the top card of his or her library. (To ransom a card, exile it. It gains "
: Put this card on top of your library if you own it.")
or something.
The ransom cost should definitely be static since otherwise you will face memory issues with cards ransomed with different costs - at least if it is meant that you can pay that cost at any point of the game afterwards.
Regardless of ransom cost, this card is going to read as "badly scry 1 or badly mill opponent for 1". Maybe ransom for four or so? I don't think it feels particularly
at that point though since it starts to slow down the game when before each draw (actually you have to "plan" your opponent's turn ahead as well if you can do it as an instant) you have weight out whether drawing a random card is better than drawing one of the ransomed cards. Too deliberate for 
is what I'm saying.
See Senseless Rager for my first attempt at giving red temporary discard. Well, this is temporary mill instead of discard.
First attempt at a Ransom mechanic. This probably would work more easily with permanents on the battlefield (return to the top of the library from exile just sounds whack).
Assuming the move to only ransom permanents was made the question becomes to have a static ransom payment or ransom payments vary from card to card. If a static ransom payment is used, what should the payment be? Mana seemed the simplest way to pay a ransom. Going that route, gold or treasure tokens might make for flavorful mechanics to appear in the set, though I'd be happy if the addition of gold or treasure tokens would be considered "too much."
Alternatively, I like the idea of donating permanents, though that may not work if this mechanic was to appear at common.
See Flametipped Hunter.
Second attempt at a mechanic to add
to the mana pool. White likes combat tricks, enchanting, and equipping creatures, so maybe a heroic mana gen ability?
The first con is that this iteration would go infinite with zero cost artifacts. Noting that, I will make the requirement be the creature must be the target of a white spell or ability. At that point, I think it may be possible to discard the "you control" clause, because is having this creature get Oblivion Ringed or Sunlance'd really going to be a problem?
According to Gatherer Sweep was on just 4 cards, but two of them were white.
Convoke is unfortunately not the kind of mechanic that I'm looking for. There's nothing wrong with convoke, but I'm looking for a way for white to get a big mana pool, not necessarily cast its spells for cheaper.
Wasn't sweep just a 5 card cycle? Wouldn't call that primary for any of them