Well, alright, let's talk about shadow.
So uh, the thing I was going to bring up about shadow is that it seems like a hard mechanic to strike the right balance with. With too few creatures, it feels like it's just the
Tormented Soul rules text, and with too many, it can feel borderline-pointless, at least inside of limited/standard for that set. It also appears in only three colors outside of a single R/W in
Soltari Guerrillas. The remaining two don't have much in the way of dealing with it, with green providing
one creature and the aura
Aether Web to block shadows, and
Reality Anchor as an even more situational card to handle them. Meanwhile, red has
two blockers for shadows, and
Shadowstorm. Ultimately... it ends up feeling really, really small as it appeared in the Tempest block. But at least
Dauthi Embrace is pretty handy in EDH, and it's a good idea as an ability goes (and is fairly simple to grasp) -- not to mention pretty flavorful as regards what it represents.
Speaking of things that feel under-utilized: there are
very few Thalakos in general, with only 7 (except changlings,
Mistform Ultimus or other effects giving the creature type), compared to the Soltari and Dauthi having 10 each (except changelings blah blah blah). "Between" in every way, indeed. Of these, a whopping
three made it to Tempest Remastered, including
Thalakos Scout, whose similarities to today's card are awfully numerous. It's a shame, because they're one of the more interesting creature types in Magic. Honestly, most of the creature types from the Rath Cycle are really cool and I want to see more of them in general.
So, let's see what we can do here for these fellas.
Thalakos Mystic 1UU
Creature - Thalakos Wizard
Shadow
U,
T: Return another target Thalakos creature you control to its owner's hand.
2/2
Thalakos Wanderer 4U
Creature - Thalakos
Shadow
When ~ dies, shuffle it into its owner's library.
3/1
The Thalakos' main theme aside from being shadow creatures seems to be
escape. Well, that and "standard blue stuff" in general, but the fact that there's another creature so similar to today's card inspires me at least in that regard -- so I decided to continue along a similar theme.
