So Ling 素靈: Recent Activity
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Recent updates to So Ling 素靈: (Generated at 2025-08-18 10:41:39)
I would argue that exiling the auras is a bit different from what you're doing here, since those go away when a creature dies anyway while equipment does not. It's definitely a bit of a color pie break, though.
thank you Wizards for Silence the Believers (nonbelievers?). er i mean black never destroys, let alone exile auras and enchantments, right? for those who don't follow spoilers, Silence the Believers is a card from Journey to Nyx. It reads like this:
Silence the Believers
more to cast for each target beyond the first.
Instant
Strive -- Silence the Believer costs
Exile any number of target creatures and all Auras attached to them.
in conclusion, occasional color pie bleed is definitely fine if you follow the intent and not just blindly follow the color pie.
we've seen too much Azorius vs Jund already, in almost every standard ever (or so it seems). so I'm not sure there's new design or gameplay space there. that's why I'm not sold on arcs vs ally pairs.
loves equipments and 
are the best in returning artifacts from graveyard. so 
artifacts is not out of the question. that gives 
another direction besides control and tempo.
to me
Junk is too familiar and too played out. it would be more interesting to design around a less popular trio like America or Dega colors. OTOH 
seems limited in design space and flavor. even R&D don't have much clue about them. now personally I'm not fond of 
either, but its design and gameplay space is stronger, which is important for a 2-color faction.
of course, this is just my opinion as a player and designer. if you feel you can open up the design space for the challenging
pair and forge new gameplay and flavor with 
, I'm ready to be amazed.
Then there's Dega vs Simic, which seems like the combination where both factions aren't that popular or well-developed yet. But it could turn out to be the most interesting. One side is about huge armies, other side is about huge monsters. Destruction vs creation. This combination could end up being the most fun to design and to play.
I could see
versus 
. White-blue often loves artifacts, and Jund has a fairly solid identity that's quite opposed to white-blue.
I think if you're going to be putting
against 
, it'd be much more natural to make the artifacts affiliated with 
, leaving white to go with 
. The Izzet were the most artifact-loving of Ravnica's guilds, and a red-blue faction with a focus on spells and artifacts could naturally lean towards artifacts to provide most of their decent-sized creatures. (OTOH I'm not sure if that'd work in limited, since the 
/ etc players could snap up the artifacts too.) 
doesn't have to focus on the graveyard: they're also the colours that do lifegain, regeneration, and the most spiritual colours.
Looking back at the progress of this set's concept, I have to admit it was quite successful. A 3-color faction vs 2.5-color faction where each side has excellent flavor and design space.
That said, can the same concept applied to a different color combination be as successful? The 3-color faction can be arc or wedge, and the remaining two colors automatically side with artifacts. Which other color combinations would fare best for this concept? Odyssey block, specifically Torment and Judgment, sort of played out
vs 
. But not quite to the extent I went with So Ling.
At a glance, reviewing both So Ling and Torment & Judgment, I think wedge vs enemy pair should work better than arc vs ally pair. The main issue is that the 2-color faction has to have enough diversity. Ally pairs tend to have less diversity because too much of their color pies overlap. But if I were to choose such an ally pair, then probably
would be most interesting.
Now which wedge vs enemy pair would be most interesting, besides those already used in So Ling?
seems war-torn vs 
isolationist.
focus on graveyard vs 
artifact and spells.
control vs 
attrition.
permanent counters vs 
instant change.
Now wedges in general haven't been shown much in official cards. So looking at this list, I'd say
is one of the least popular and least understood. So an adventurous designer could try that route. OTOH 
is a very popular enemy pair with many established decks in every archetype (i.e. aggro, control, midrange, combo), so that would also appease Golgari and Rock fans. However, instead of artifacts, it would interact more with lands. So with 
favoring artifacts to some degree, it turns into 3.25 vs 2.5, which is still pretty fair given 
's long history. Also, instead of split cards, 
would be cool with double-faced cards, given that the only DFC planeswalker is from that combination. Most of the work would be to establish an identity for 
.
forgot Creature in type line
It'd probably resolve the way hybrid mana does, sadly. I think it's a neat idea. "Do you have red mana in your mana pool? Yup. Green mana? Yup."
One mana that is all colors? Do you mean one mana of any color? As I understand it, mana can't be more than one color.
Blog site for So Ling, with full paragraph exposition of the set and design process, and actual card images with art.
That final clause is pretty clunky. I fear it in fact would need to be templated even more clunkily - "all permanents named Lai Kaa-Ming" - though you could perhaps get away with "all Kaa-Ming permanents", referring to the subtype.
But I suspect development would just cut it and say simply "number of cards exiled by ~".
I really like the middle ability. I could see it as a sorcery costing
, along the lines of Disembowel, but it also reminds me of Excise.
I like that he casts Psionic Blast/Char :)
Interesting being able to "ultimate" the turn you cast him. The emblem isn't hugely overwhelming though. Which is balanced, but somewhat different to the way most planeswalker ultimates work.
On the other hand, there are planeswalkers that avert the build-up-to-ultimate pattern, like Sarkhan the Mad, so that doesn't have to be a problem.
To be honest, I kind of like the occasional 'doesn't make sense, but let's go with it' Chinese menu card.
Viewing it as the opposite of Smallpox makes a lot more sense.
It is supposed to be the opposite of Smallpox.
it was split from one of the split cards (the other half was Introvert ).
Actually you can check Banisher Priest for even more truncated wording.
My question still stands. Why jam so many things onto one card?
This is way more red than black.