Soradyne Laboratories v1.2: Recent Activity
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Recent updates to Soradyne Laboratories v1.2: (Generated at 2025-08-18 15:05:34)
But what if he has Platinum Angel out? Or he casts Angel's Grace? Or Phyrexian Unlife + Melira?
What if it's Magical Christmas Land every day?
But yeah, I wouldn't be concerned about it being too easy. It's still a puzzle to put together. And if we're talking too easy, let's talk about Swans of Bryn Argoll. SICK BURNS!
I had actually considered that very idea, and that's what led to this. My concern was that it would be too easy to find ways to hit yourself with it ( (((Rage Bomb))), for one). Probably not as big a deal as I was afraid of.
There's a whole in your last scenario; if Johnny finds a way to hit an opponent with this enough to mill them out, then the opponent is, in 99% of cases, already dead from actual damage.
I'll rework the cricket's ability. I'd rather see people look at a card and go, “Huh, well....”, than see them say “Ugh. Crappy pack”. In which case, yes, the copy probably needs to change as well.
Well, I recommend two things:
Fix the flavor. Considering that drawing four cards is basically the best feeling in the world, I don't understand its association with migraines or cricket-crack dens.
I notice you've pumped it up to a 4/1. Which does make this a bit more analogous to a punisher-effect, but I think the Johnnies of the world would appreciate it if this didn't exclusively trigger off of combat damage. Instead:
Whenever CARDNAME deals damage to a player, that player draws that many cards.
It will still be befuddling to the average player, and there's no way in hell Spike would give this a chance, but you'd at least allow Johnny to come with ways to get it damage himself, or find some combo to give it infinite power and force their opponent to draw their whole deck.
I kind of feel like this is the sort of debate that actually justifies a design like this. Sets need bad cards, and if not bad cards, cards that look bad enough that a Johnny somewhere wants to break them. (See Previous comments about Forced Fruition and Underworld Dreams. Jace's Archivist also seems appropriate here. )
I'm not saying it's perfect. Just that somebody is going to get some weird-ass idea sparked, and will find a way to make it a key piece in a rogue deck. That's how these things happen.
Perhaps "You may make that player draw four cards"? Otherwise, I don't think that even the Forced Fruition players would pack it. For a card like this to be relevant, I fear you'd need to add some really broken cards to your set. For example, I could see this as a decent follow up to Black Vise, but Black Vice shouldn't be reprinted. It's too good at what it does. The same with mill... if your mill cards are so good that you think this card is playable, your mill cards are probably too good.
You had used it on Soradyne Central Matrix on May 13, 2011. I googled the phrase and found that it's also the slogan of the Body Bank, from another game.
Personally, I love the slogan. I think Better Living Through Technomancy™ would be great flavor text by itself.
Two mana of any color?
I guess it could be used in some strange Forced Fruition mill deck, or in conjunction with an Underworld Dreams effect.
Maybe you should add that clause.
"Whenever an opponent draws a card, he or she loses 1 life."
I don't know: Gaea's Cradle does pretty well for itself.
That said; it is a lot of work for a pretty small effect and unlike the cradle, it doesn't help ramp up. Might want to make it easier to play or more rewarding once the goal is met.
Isn't this something you'd never want to play? What am I overlooking?
Here's perhaps a more modern comparison to illustrate this card's power level:
For
I can get a 10/10 Apocalypse Hydra, that — for an additional expenditure of 
— will allow me to distribute 5 damage how I see fit and leave me with a 5/5.
Or, for
I can get a 7/7 Trampling Blitzhorn that will let me Lava Axe someone a question or turn my opponent's best creature into a Beacon of Destruction.
This doesn't mean this design is completely outrageous, it just means this is something to keep an eye out for during playtesting.
That was "Better Living Through Technomancy", but I think we might have already put that on something.
It still works but I think we came up with a Soradyne motto and this might be the place for it. If not, then I'm getting on that posthaste.
My instinct is that the second clause will be relevant so infrequently, that you'd be better off tying the first restriction to the function. i.e:
Newbridge
: Add 1 to your mana pool.
: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Activate this ability only if you control X creatures.
Land
Keep in mind that it's REALLY hard to have 5 creatures in play without serious assistance from token makers (or you're playing Onslaught block), unlike how Temple of the False God is restricted by a condition that naturally flows into its function.
But limited is not the only format and as a result the comparison to Maga is perfectly relevant. As a rare, R/G beast, this fits in very well. Yes, it's super good but it's a rare. They're supposed to be good.
It also costs a lot of mana if you want to get somewhere and dies to every Black removal spell ever printed. I think it's awesome and I don't believe it's broken.
If the pushback is strong enough, set it to a 1/1. It'll loose a lot of wow factor and be less green but sometimes that's just how it breaks.
Thumbs up from me. Maybe reduce the requirement to 4 creatures?
Okay, this is either really cool or really lame, but I'm not sure which. Just running it up the flagpole to see.
I think the flavor text still works. Dan?
Even excising that sentence it's very flat.
And maybe change the name to something like "Massacre at Darrowhill". It'd be a good companion to Burning of Xinye.
You really can't compare this to Maga, as the versatility of being able to target a player OR a creature is what really puts this over the top, not to mention its "physical" characteristics are strictly better than Maga's.
And
is a much friendlier cost than 
. Monoblack is historically a trap in limited formats not named Urza's Block, whereas R/G Beats is almost always a "thing", and this is splashable in R/x or G/x.
It's playable for every value of X, and only gets better as X get's bigger? Yow. I guess something has to be "First pick and now I know what colours I'm in"; and this card is it.
Maga, Traitor to Mortals was BBBX. That card kinda sucked. This has one paying 4 to do 2 damage and get a 4/4. I'm good with that.
I think you could have that 2nd activation cost put the card into play. 10 mana to put out a Rancor is fair.
I'd take the last sentence off of the flavor text. We need to show how this is a moment for Serix, not tell. Players will figure it out.
I really like the flavor text, which technically makes the most sense if the land is conceptualized as the nation's capital. But mechanically it does seem a bit more like it'd belong to Soradyne. I'm sure you and Dan can suss out what seems best.