Need Help With Mana Cost

[Watchwolf]

I have two main questions about the following card:

Legendary Creature (R)
You can't cast creature spells.
Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, draw a card.

My first question is: What colors should this card be? My first thought is monowhite. I know the card draw ability is normally green, but the first line puts that ability in a completely different context. It pushes the playstyle of the card a lot harder toward making tokens or flickering, which are a bit more white than green. Of course there are other ways to abuse the payoff, including reanimation and cheating creatures into play, which are both a bit more green than white, but generally relegated to higher rarities. It could also be multicolored, but given the number of ways this effect can be used, I'd want this card to be as splashable as possible. There's also something to be said about white not usually getting powerful card draw, but exceptions have been made in the past when it comes to build-around cards. I think this falls under that category.

My second question is: How much should this cost? Usually, drawing cards off creatures entering warrants a fairly high mana cost. The cheapest that I can think of is 4cmc. But again, not being able to cast creature spells puts a unique limitation on that effect. It does open it up to drawing cards off tokens, though, which hasn't happened before, I think, without some kind of condition or cost. Still, if you don't build specifically around this effect, the downside of not being able to cast creature spells is significant. This is the kind of card I'd want to be powerful enough to see play in formats like Pioneer or Modern, so I'm inclined to push the mana cost down as much as possible. Specifically, Steel Golem seems like a good starting point for the cmc and p/t.

Given those thoughts, here's what I'm thinking:

Cool Card

2W

Legendary Creature — Spirit

You can't cast creature spells.

Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, draw a card.

3/4

Anyway, what do you guys think? Is white the right color to go with? Is this too cheap? What about its other stats?

[Pygyzy]

The second ability seems really green however I'm in the camp that green has stolen a lot of whites pie and should be thrown a bone or two especially in the card draw department. Saying white doesn't get card draw has always seemed like a dumb decision in a game where drawing more cards = higher chance of winning. I'd be fine with this in white or G/W hybrid. 3 mana seems about right.

[user_938036]

The cost of such a card is a very complex question. As for color, it's obviously green. If you wanted to force it into white then it needs a restriction on the type of creature it cares about. Either low cost, low power, or even specifically only Tokens.

The stats to cost is definitely off. It has a significant downside but its also the kind of downside that technically doesn't matter because it can be 100% negated by deck design. This makes the downside look a lot more like a high color restriction rather than an actual downside. I have no idea what to cost this at to make it see play in either modern or pioneer because it's possible that even at a mana cost of 1 it wouldn't be playable because the rest of the deck is still hot garbage. All I can tell you is that a reasonable cost is probably 4 with a smaller body, probably 2/2 like Eidolon of Blossoms.

[Mirage Xel]

@user_938036 You basically contradicted yourself.
In my view, most if not all of what this is going to trigger off of is tokens. If you think only triggering off of tokens would make it white, which you implied, this is a fine white card.

[Mookie]

This is... a very interesting card. As a general rule, I'd say that any color can get access to most downsides. Every color has access to paying life, discarding cards, and sacrificing creatures as a cost to do various effects. Some colors certainly do these things more than others, but every color has access. When the downside is being unable to cast spells, that doesn't change. As previously mentioned, Grid Monitor and Steel Golem are colorless, but every color has access to the superset of this effect from Epic spells. So the first line of text is colorless.

The second line of text is definitely green. Green does usually limit it to nontoken creatures though, with some exceptions for large creatures (ex: power 4+). If you wanted it to trigger off every creature, you'd need it to be blue-green (see Beck // Call), although it may be possible to justify with a higher mana cost.

As for mana cost... I'd probably say 4-5 mana. This is a stronger effect than Beast Whisperer, but it also has a steep downside, so I wouldn't cost it as much as Soul of the Harvest. 3 mana feels too low. The downside does make it feel like it wants an oversized body to balance things out though. I'd suggest either a 5/5 for 2UG, or 6/6 for 3GG. I don't think this strong of a draw effect can be justified on a card with a single color pip, and unfortunately, white doesn't get this strong of an effect either.

[Lorn Asbord Schutta]

I would make a claim for black to this card. Green does not feel right with that restriction - it is the creature color! - and drawing is more readible in black then in white. While flicker is a valid strategy to this card, for me it screams "reanimator". Moreover, the inability to have a blocker - as creatures you control would eventually all be removed - is within suicidal part of black, while rule-setting provided by white are both-ways or even only applied to opponent. Maybe it could go into Orzohv and be symmetrical:

Players can't cast creature spells.
Whenever another creature enters the battlefield, its controller draws a card.

The above would require CMC of 5 or 4 with high color intensivity, as this is a soft-lock for any deck not prepared to deal with it right away.
In terms of cost, the version you provided is fine as it is. Freshly revealed Garruk's Uprising is very similiar "build-around me to draw" and is stronger without any doubt, but if this stays as white, then the extra hoops for drawing are understandable. Maybe offer it flying, as it is evasion associated both with color and tribe and it would allow it to be used as a beater.

[spacemonaut]

Putting aside color or cost, this card kind of has three modes: you can get creatures another way (tokens/reanimation), you can't get creatures at all, or you don't care about having creatures.

If you don't care about having creatures, you won't be playing this card because you can't be taking advantage of its upside.

If you can't get creatures at all with this card out, you're not playing this card.

If you can get creatures, you're probably self-milling with reanimation, or you're generating tokens. Of the two, tokens are going to be easier to accomplish, and most token generators generate multiple tokens. I can play cards like Raise the Alarm and Goblinslide and now draw a card for every token I generate.

To color: that card draw is insane for white, and it's probably too much, especially given it's the best color at token generation. Compare that Mentor of the Meek was recently considered a break for its card advantage and now (in the era of Mangara, the Diplomat from Core Set 2021) it's being re-evaluated as possibly in color. This will outstrip Mentor of the Meek trivially in card advantage. Others have pointed out this is more Black, but even black doesn't get draw like this. Green could have this kind of card advantage, but I couldn't see Green ever saying "you can't cast creature spells" without some significant additional feature to lean into.

But even token generation decks want to play creatures. Some of the best token generators are tied to creatures. Heck, you're playing creatures right now: this one.

Basically I think that this card will either be not worth trade-off or in the right deck will generate insane amounts of card advantage.

I feel like to make this card more manageable and less swingy, this card should see itself for what it is: it is now a new minigame. It's saying "you're playing the game this way now." It should lean into that and provide you with tools to play that way. That means it should, in fact, lean into reanimation (perhaps in BG) and help you self-mill and reanimate, or it should help you generate tokens but provide not quite a 1-for-1 card draw effect.

[user_938036]

user_938036 You basically contradicted yourself.
In my view, most if not all of what this is going to trigger off of is tokens. If you think only triggering off of tokens would make it white, which you implied, this is a fine white card.

There is no contradiction. If you feel that tokens are the most likely way this ability is going to trigger that doesn't somehow mean you can treat it as though it only triggers off of tokens. White has a strange history of caring about tokens so if you make this care about tokens there is an argument for it being white. If the card "technically works best with tokens" then the card doesn't actually have a claim to being white.