Greetings!
This is an ability I came up with based on Conspire / Replicate
I think this effect could be in all colors, but primarily Blue and Red. So far I've only designed some blue cards with it.
Displacement 3U
Instant (U)
Recite (As you cast this spell, you may discard a card. If you do, copy this spell. You may choose new targets for it.)
Return target nonland permanent to its owner’s hand.
Grip of Inertia 1U
Instant (C)
Recite (As you cast this spell, you may discard a card. If you do, copy this spell. You may choose new targets for it.)
Tap or untap target permanent.
Insightful Incantation 1U
Instant {C}
Recite (As you cast this spell, you may discard a card. If you do, copy this spell. You may choose new targets for it.)
Target player draws a card.
Knowledge Rending U
Sorcery (C)
Recite (As you cast this spell, you may discard a card. If you do, copy this spell. You may choose new targets for it.)
Target player puts the top four cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
Arbitrary Disdain 1UU
Instant (U)
Recite (As you cast this spell, you may discard a card. If you do, copy this spell. You may choose new targets for it.)
Counter target spell unless its controller pays 2.
Semblance Crafting 2UU
Instant (R)
Recite (As you cast this spell, you may discard a card. If you do, copy this spell. You may choose new targets for it.)
Create a token that’s a copy of target creature.
This looks like a very difficult keyword to balance due to how few "knobs" it has to control power level. You basically have to consider every extra mana you add or subtract from each card's cost twice, and it doesn't have replicate's level of pinpoint control. Conspire was a wildly unpopular mechanic for similar reasons, plus the whole tapping creatures thing.
Displacment is a horribly weak Disperse variant. Making Into the Void and instant and letting it target noncreatures isn't near enough to justify the card disadvantage. Nobody will want to cast the card without recite.
Grip of Intertia is a bit better. You can't really drop the cost without it being strictly better than Twiddle.
Insightful Incantation feel like it's in a strange place in the color pie because it feels very blue without the discard (not that it's worth using normally), but with the discard it's Wild Guess, a red card principally because it discards first.
Knowledge Rending is a bad card no matter how you split it, especially compared to Memory Sluice. Most mill decks have better things to do.
I wouldn't ever see myself playing Arbitrary Disdain over Cancel. One of the problems here is that your own counters don't make good Fork targets in the first place. This one, at least, can have its cost reasonably dropped to 1U. There still aren't many opportunities for a player to 2 for 1 him/herself for a soft counter.
Semblance Crafting is the best of the bunch, actually to the point where it might be too pushed. Being a rare card opens up the mechanic opens up a lot of the restrictions that hold the common cards back. It's also free from the trend where it's strictly better in a given mode. It doesn't need to be an instant, though, or maybe you could have it only target your own creatures.
I think you can basically balance these on the assumption that the caster wants to discard. There are definitely decks that would rather play a Displacement than an Into the Void.
Out of curiosity, why is this only in blue? I could definitely see it in any grixis color.
I like a few of the singles, here. Insightful Incantation and Semblance Crafting are both quite powerful. I always get a kick out of Limited mill strategies, so Knowledge Rending piques my interest. All of these honestly might be too strong — milling for 8 at common is no joke against the typical 40 card decks of Limited formats.
The problem I'm seeing is that recite's decision tree is pretty narrow and straight. You either discard the card and get the extra copy, or you suck up the fact that you were forced to misplay the card and overpay for the effect.
That's not a riveting gameplay experience.
So really, the excitement here is going to have to come from whatever effects you seed into this meta to capitalize on recite's major discard engine. And, I can't evaluate those effects because they're not on display here.
I think this would be improved if it was basically just replicate with discard as a cost, that you could only pay for once. In other words:
Insightful IncantationU
Instant [C]
Recite U(You may pay an additional U and discard a card as you cast this spell. If you do, copy this spell and you may choose new targets for the copy.)
Target player draws a card.
Now you have two possible correct plays. And hey, maybe it feels like a knockoff replicate, but I bet there is some design space here that replicate can't touch, so as long as you go looking for that space, I don't see a problem with exploring.
This is an ability I came up with based on Conspire / Replicate
I think this effect could be in all colors, but primarily Blue and Red. So far I've only designed some blue cards with it.
Displacement 3U
Instant (U)
Recite (As you cast this spell, you may discard a card. If you do, copy this spell. You may choose new targets for it.)
Return target nonland permanent to its owner’s hand.
Grip of Inertia 1U
Instant (C)
Recite (As you cast this spell, you may discard a card. If you do, copy this spell. You may choose new targets for it.)
Tap or untap target permanent.
Insightful Incantation 1U
Instant {C}
Recite (As you cast this spell, you may discard a card. If you do, copy this spell. You may choose new targets for it.)
Target player draws a card.
Knowledge Rending U
Sorcery (C)
Recite (As you cast this spell, you may discard a card. If you do, copy this spell. You may choose new targets for it.)
Target player puts the top four cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
Arbitrary Disdain 1UU
Instant (U)
Recite (As you cast this spell, you may discard a card. If you do, copy this spell. You may choose new targets for it.)
Counter target spell unless its controller pays 2.
Semblance Crafting 2UU
Instant (R)
Recite (As you cast this spell, you may discard a card. If you do, copy this spell. You may choose new targets for it.)
Create a token that’s a copy of target creature.
Questions, comments, concerns, criticisms, conundrums?
Servien
Chaos' Realm
Escalation of Chaos
Tales of Cahdaria
Enigmatic Distrubance
Celestial Unveiling
Displacment is a horribly weak Disperse variant. Making Into the Void and instant and letting it target noncreatures isn't near enough to justify the card disadvantage. Nobody will want to cast the card without recite.
Grip of Intertia is a bit better. You can't really drop the cost without it being strictly better than Twiddle.
Insightful Incantation feel like it's in a strange place in the color pie because it feels very blue without the discard (not that it's worth using normally), but with the discard it's Wild Guess, a red card principally because it discards first.
Knowledge Rending is a bad card no matter how you split it, especially compared to Memory Sluice. Most mill decks have better things to do.
I wouldn't ever see myself playing Arbitrary Disdain over Cancel. One of the problems here is that your own counters don't make good Fork targets in the first place. This one, at least, can have its cost reasonably dropped to 1U. There still aren't many opportunities for a player to 2 for 1 him/herself for a soft counter.
Semblance Crafting is the best of the bunch, actually to the point where it might be too pushed. Being a rare card opens up the mechanic opens up a lot of the restrictions that hold the common cards back. It's also free from the trend where it's strictly better in a given mode. It doesn't need to be an instant, though, or maybe you could have it only target your own creatures.
Out of curiosity, why is this only in blue? I could definitely see it in any grixis color.
The problem I'm seeing is that recite's decision tree is pretty narrow and straight. You either discard the card and get the extra copy, or you suck up the fact that you were forced to misplay the card and overpay for the effect.
That's not a riveting gameplay experience.
So really, the excitement here is going to have to come from whatever effects you seed into this meta to capitalize on recite's major discard engine. And, I can't evaluate those effects because they're not on display here.
I think this would be improved if it was basically just replicate with discard as a cost, that you could only pay for once. In other words:
Insightful Incantation U
Instant [C]
Recite U (You may pay an additional U and discard a card as you cast this spell. If you do, copy this spell and you may choose new targets for the copy.)
Target player draws a card.
Now you have two possible correct plays. And hey, maybe it feels like a knockoff replicate, but I bet there is some design space here that replicate can't touch, so as long as you go looking for that space, I don't see a problem with exploring.