Case of the Ransacked Lab

The cost reducer that funds its own solve condition. A one-mana discount on instants and sorceries is the kind of static ability spellslinger decks have chased for years, from Baral, Chief of Compliance to Goblin Electromancer; the wrinkle here is that the discount and the payoff live on the same permanent, staged behind a threshold the reduction is directly built to help you clear. Casting four spells in a single turn is a tall order at full price, but each one costing a mana less compresses the math until the fourth becomes reachable, and once the Case solves it becomes a draw-on-cast engine for every spell that follows. That is the design tension worth noting: an unsolved Case is a modest cost reducer, while a solved one snowballs, paying for each subsequent spell in cards. The timing is where the mechanic asks for precision. Solving is not a mid-turn event: the check happens only at the beginning of your end step, and the intervening "if" clause means it fires solely when you have already cast four or more instants and sorceries by then. Clear the count during your main phase and the Case sits idle for the rest of that turn, only flipping on at end step; every spell after that draws. Fall short and nothing carries forward: the tally resets to zero, and next turn begins the climb again. It is the difference between a threshold you clear before the window closes and one that quietly resets on you.