Soradyne Laboratories v1.2: Recent Activity
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| Mechanics | Skeleton |
Recent updates to Soradyne Laboratories v1.2: (Generated at 2025-08-23 03:23:17)
Okay, that's not a terrible way to go.
I'm looking at doing a physical play testing of some dummied cards in the near future. Who's in the Seattle area?
Yeah, I'd much rather see a take on uh... that 4/4 wall of birds from Shadowmoor.
EDIT - Looked it up, Plumeveil; I remember it being constructed-playable, right?
Agreed with Houlding: at 1/5 with Hexproof, this card is insane. There is no global removal for it, short of Wrath effects, as it can easily be enchanted/equipped with anything-and in this set, Wonder Wings makes this thing a nigh-invincible blocker and it can attack!
Needs to have shroud or have that ability removed, toughness lowered to 4, etc. It's too good as is.
You could make it a 1/5 with Flash and it would probably do what you wanted.
Given that randomness should be part of the mechanic of this card, maybe it should be bumped to Rare. It opens up the possibility of doing more weird stuff-something in F&D's bailiwick-as well as being more appropriate to where random effect tend to reside.
@ Alex - I think part of why "damage + card draw" arises so much is that a lot of the other, outside-the-box, solutions often appear overly complex.
I tried hard, so hard, to think of a concise "observational" concept that avoided such typical effects, but I just kept spiraling out into essay-length puzzle cards.
I like where Houlding started going with each player revealing something. I each player reveals their top card, you still get a game of even/odd combined CMC. I like this as a device simply because it's too many variables to accurately manipulate, and it leaves the opportunity for someone to actually say, "well, that's odd". Still, what to do with that?
Wow, everyone does default to thinking "red and blue" translates into "damage and/or draw cards", doesn't it?
How about something more along the lines of Odds // Ends:
Each player reveals the top five cards of his or her library, and casts an instant or sorcery card from among them if able. Then put all other cards revealed this way on the bottom of their owners' libraries.
Might be more suitable for rare than uncommon, sadly.
Reveal the top card of target player's library. If it's a creature card, draw cards equal to that card's power and ~ deals damage to that player equal to that card's toughness.
(Only really any good if you're deck-stacking; not that great a commentary on the scientific method ;) )
Random Observation
Instant
Each player reveals a card from his or her hand at random. If the revealed card is a creature, ~ deals 4 damage to that player. Otherwise that player draws two cards.
Shuffle your library, then reveal the top three cards of your library. If the combined converted mana costs of those cards is odd, put them in your hand. If the combined CMC is even...
I don't have an effect worked out for the last part.
Draw a card, then reveal a player at random's hand. If that player has two cards with the same name in their hand, draw a card.
Return all non-land permanents to their owner's hands. You may play this spell only when there is exactly one creature, one enchantment and one artifact in play.
Name a card type. Players cannot cast spells of that type until a spell of another type is cast. (Okay, admittedly, that last one was really a blue/white enchantment. Ignore it, and it will go away.)
Well, it has to be random in some way. I think "Choose a (blank) at random. If (blank), do (blank)."
So here's an opportunity. In the overall structure of the block story, I've got these Izzet-born planes walkers named Fezzit and Dyble. They'll get their own Planeswalker card, but that's not what I want help concepting right now.
The role Fezzit and Dyble play is that of the outside observer. Specifically, they're the ones with the best actual view of all the politics and machinations surrounding Debronia and the Soradyne Corporation. They see a lot, more than any of those in te middle of it, but they don't ever actually let on. To them, it's all one hell of an entertaining show.
So here's the challenge: I want a card that reflects the name “Random Observation”. It will be a blue and red instant or sorcery. It will be an uncommon, and it will not tie directly to any pre-existing "faction" in the set. It just needs to be an interesting effect that relates to the idea of noticing something at a seemingly unrelated juncture.
Throw 'em at me.
That was kind of my point though. W/U control always needs a piece or two to handle really aggressive, beefy decks. SOR is a set where feint can just churn out beef. In order for "get this dude by unblocked" to have any kind of tension, somebody has to have a blocker that can keep handling a repetitively aggressive attacker.
The difference here is that the wall was an 0/8 and survived a head-on with damn near anything short of an Eldrazi. Teridan's Guard gets eaten by less than a Craw Wurm.
I would nix the hell out of this design. Wall of Denial is one of the least fun cards ever conceptualized and this is its little brother, codename "Party Pooper".
Strongly considering making him a 1/6, but with Hexproof he could just be too damn tough to kill. Would also look at flying as an option, possibly activated.