Darkness

I'm really at a loss as to do with this card.

There's the Time Spiral update:

But even that's out of color; it makes sense thematically, but was only published in black (as opposed to blue and white) because Time Spiral, as a block, was all about shuffling up the color pie. Darkness is in a similar boat -- the tricksy black-magic wizard using cover of darkness to slip away from his enemies feels right, but its mechanics aren't very black.

Normally blue has this problem -- Amnesia, Deflection, Land Equilibrium can all be explained away as a wizard did it, since wizards are blue's wheelhouse. The problem is that, fundamentally, a wizard did everything in Magic, it's just that blue is most closely aligned with what we'd traditionally consider to be wizardy. If we took this "feels right" design aesthetic to its obvious limit, we'd end up with Alpha or Legends again -- sets full of cards that break flavor because they're kinda flavorful.

Urza's Saga tackled the idea of punishing / blunting opposing combatants with this gem:

That effect has one foot in white, too, through cards like Reciprocate and Divine Retribution; but black's pretty good at vengeance. White's vengeance is about justice and righteous fury; black's vengeance is about vindictiveness and pettiness. No Mercy is not well named -- the name would have fit Death Pits of Rath better -- but its effect and character are solidly black.

With that in mind, I think the Darkness retread is going to need to be instant, like the original. Enchantments have to be expensive to have the kind of impact a single foggy effect has on the board; we want that splash, but we don't want to pay retail for it.

There. Less fog, more splatter. It's a lot like Simulacrum, but not goofy. I guess I should have started there, but it's about the journey, you know?