If a resolving spell or ability instructs a specific creature to connive but that creature has left the battlefield, the creature still connives
that rewards you with a lore whenever you place a card into your inkwell
I think this is a fun almost reverse Rakdos, Lord of Riots, where you want to force people to sacrifice things to chuck him on the board for cheap and beat face as a win condition
What's not to like about an enchantment that can stop attackers, save your blockers, make your creatures invulnerable to removal, give you free morphing, and allow recursion of comes-into-play abilities -- for free
Evolving Door is pretty cool
Whats neat about Lightning is that she enables this not only through opponents attacking that player, but also through spells and abilities used in your second main phase (or an opponents turn), but also and this is key on regular damage after first strike damage