Cactus Game Design Message Boards

My first question before trying a rewrite is: Do the characters side battle each other? What happens if 2 sets of linked characters are removed from the same battle, do you start 2 separate side battles or do they somehow join each other in one side battle?

Along those lines, it may just be easier to skip the placing and have a side battle right then and there rather than waiting for the main battle to finish.

Maybe something like this:
"Once per turn, if two linked characters are removed from battle, unlink them instead and they fight each other. Losing character is discarded, winning character is topdecked."

Unlink - Remove the connection made by a link ability. Not a negate, it just undoes the linkage.

I couldn't figure out a smooth way of wording the "losing character pretends they weren't insteaded" so I just defaulted to discard but you could change that if you wanted.

Okay that explains some things. It would be difficult to word it that way without having longest-card-effect-of-all-time, though, as you'd have to allow for possibilities of same-alignment characters versus opposite-alignment ones.

Stab in the dark but maybe something like this?
"After battle, if any linked characters were removed from battle prior to resolution, return them to play, unlink them, and cause them to fight (Heroes versus Evil Characters, if applicable). Topdeck characters that survive this battle, return the rest to their previous location."

It cuts out the place wording to save space, allows all linked characters to participate, provides for all character combinations (I think), and puts them back if they lose. It's still a long ability but I'm not sure how to shorten it further (short of creating a keyword ability for Fight, lol).