Syphon of the Kokoro

[Khahan]

Syphon of the Kokoro
Enchantment
2BB
Whenever a player puts a creature into play, that creature's controller may have target opponent lose 2 life.
..
"I put my heart and soul into creating that beast. And it ripped both from me."


I came up with this card a while back and it never quite seemed to fit, until now.  Kamigawa has the whole spirit/arcane thing going. Sorcery/magic/spirits/afterlife.  Kokoro translates to Mind, heart or soul.
This is mostly for the limited crowd, though it may see some attempts at constructed in block or T2.

Current wording
Syphon of the Kokoro
Enchantment
2BB
Whenever a creature comes into play, that creature's controller may have target opponent lose 2 life.
..
"I put my heart and soul into creating that beast. And it ripped both from me."

[Ephraim]

The wording's a little bit off and the flavour text doesn't mesh up with the ability. The flavour makes it seem like putting a creature into play will hurt the person who played it. The ability hurts others when a player plays a creature.

If you want to keep the flavour as it is, the analogous ability would be Whenever a creature comes into play, that player loses two life.

At any rate, the way it works now should be worded
Whenever a creature comes into play, that creature's controller may have target opponent lose 2 life.

I think that it should, indeed, be changed to the first wording, because the way it works now is very similar (although not identical) to [card]Furious Assault[/card]. You might also consider giving it a drain effect of some sort -- ie: having one player lose life and another gain life. That sort of effect is customary in cards containing the word "Syphon" in their names.

[Khahan]

Thanks for the feedback Ephraim.
I updated the wording so it is current with contemporary cards.

I started to add, 'and gain 2 life,' to the end of the ability, but it just did not feel right. Black usually does not benefit life gain by playing creatures, that is white's realm.  

I was actually thinking of aether flash and furious assault when I made this. Functionally, its the same. However the life loss is definitely a black ability.

For purely flavor reasons, it could be, "Whenever a spirit comes into play..." but then it gets too restrictive (on when it can function) and becomes mostly a block only card.  Perhaps we could get some ideas on a name change? Originally (before I updated it for Kamigawa) it was "Soul Energy."