Slippery Corpse --
Creature - Zombie (U)

Slippery Corpse can't be put into a graveyard.
(If Slippery Corpse would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, it stays where it was instead. If it's toughness is 0 or less, ignore it.)

2 / 2

==xx==

Short, simple, inelegant.
Another possibilty was "When Slippery Corpse is put into a graveyard from anywhere, put it onto the battlefield under its owner's control instead."
Or alternate reminder text:
(Slippery Corpse's with toughness 0 or less have their toughnesses treated as if they were 1, minus 1.)
But that was too many words for my taste.
My main question is how powerful is the ability? Staying power like that, seems REALLY good, at least in limited environments, so I'm not going to make it some enormous powerhouse; but at the same time I don't want to put it on a 1/1 body.

I think there needs to be some sort of delay or something, or else any ability with "sac a creature" as a cost goes arbitrarily large.
It might be better to say
"If Slippery Corpse would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead. At the end of turn, return Slippery Corpse to the battlefield under it's owner's control."

"The reason why zombies are so smelly is because their rotting flesh is already slippery, and soap just pops right out of their hands. It becomes tragic when they chase it with all the relentlessness of the undead."
-Komelek, Lim Dul's Hairdresser

Could you even sacrifice this as a cost? I'm not sure it that would work.

it doesn't really matter, the card makes any sacrifice outlet go infinite for no reason so it's not reasonable to entertain this idea

While I appreciate the flavor, I think 2/2 indestructible is a bit ridiculous.

To my knowledge, no, you can't.

Slippery Corpse
Creature - Zombie [U]
Slippery Corpse can't die.
2/2

Because we have a terminology for that effect now. Unless you want it to work from every zone.
You don't.

Not sure what I think about eternalbear for only 2 mana.

The thing is, if I make it work with a trigger, it breaks a bunch of triggers in half.
It basically replaces the "entering the graveyard" with ignore the result.

It means you can't mill out, because it would stay in the library.
It can't be sacrificed; see Platinum Emperion and paying life.
You can't Buried Alive it, which kinda makes me want to make it a big fatty, but as mentioned a big indestructible fatty isn't very fun.

I was originally worried about making it a bear, but at the same time, what harm does it do?
In eternal formats, and Indestructible 2/2 doesn't get you very far, with all the exile effects.
In standard, you would have to build around it (the format). For example: White can exile or pacify, Blue can bounce, super bounce, counter, Black would have difficulty andor be using it; but sever the bloodline would be perfect, Red would have the most problems, but you could give them ways around it (enchantments relating to combat). Green could pump defenders andor just place fatties in response. It's not perfect, but it's not earth-shattering either.

That being said, I think I'd cost it 3, probably . And it would probably be a rare for limited. I could see pushing it to 4, but then I think it should have some other ability as well which starts ruining the elegance wording.
I love that flavortext by the way. Well said!