Embers of Remembrance

[ghostchild]

Embers of Remembrance
 
Sorcery
Return target Red card with converted mana cost X from your graveyard to your hand.
Embers of Remembrance deals X damage to target creature or player.
Remove Embers of Remembrance from the game unless you pay  .

A powerful card, but with the limitation that the two effects are tied together very closely.

[asi]

I like it, but maybe the third ablity should be removed. It is usually a 2-for-one in red, but in a reddish way (because it is quite chaotic), so I think it could be printed, both power- as well as flavorwise.

[ghostchild]

I think the third ability is a very key part of the card actually. Let's say the card was just this, as you suggest (which is how I originally conceived it):

Embers of Remembrance
 
Sorcery
Return target Red card with converted mana cost X from your graveyard to your hand.
Embers of Remembrance deals X damage to target creature or player.

There is an obvious power level problem with this. With one of these in the yard and one in your hand, it effectively becomes a sorcery speed Searing Touch with buyback for  , because this card's converted mana cost is 1. Seems too good, especially with what else the card does for you by providing red some card advantage. So the solution is to have it remove itself. But, that got me to thinking that I didn't want to remove the Searing Touch aspect of it entirely. I did this by adding a pseudo-kicker to the removal clause. Sorcery speed Searing Touch w/buyback for    is much more fair, and still rather good actually. You can cycle between 2 of them for 4 a turn to wear down your opponent, and then break the loop by using it on a larger burn spell to finish them off.

[asi]

I think the third ability is a very key part of the card actually. Let's say the card was just this, as you suggest (which is how I originally conceived it):

Embers of Remembrance
 
Sorcery
Return target Red card with converted mana cost X from your graveyard to your hand.
Embers of Remembrance deals X damage to target creature or player.

There is an obvious power level problem with this. With one of these in the yard and one in your hand, it effectively becomes a sorcery speed Searing Touch with buyback for  , because this card's converted mana cost is 1. Seems too good, especially with what else the card does for you by providing red some card advantage. So the solution is to have it remove itself. But, that got me to thinking that I didn't want to remove the Searing Touch aspect of it entirely. I did this by adding a pseudo-kicker to the removal clause. Sorcery speed Searing Touch w/buyback for    is much more fair, and still rather good actually. You can cycle between 2 of them for 4 a turn to wear down your opponent, and then break the loop by using it on a larger burn spell to finish them off.

I would still prefer making it "Return target Red card not named Embers of Remembrance with converted mana cost X from your graveyard to your hand.

[Liam-K]

cleanest wording is just "remove ~this~ from the game" if you're going to stop it from being unlimited killing things with 1 toughness.  Which really is not cool unless it's costed into oblivion at which point it's not worth the wordiness (especially since it's nerfing the second one you draw).

This card raises an eyebrow slightly, but since it's fairly awkward to use except cheaply I say it's probably ok.  Maybe XRR is better?  Not every card needs to push power level boundaries.