Cactus Game Design Message Boards

So for I Am who I Am:  Everyone will have to play me in my office from now on, and I'll keep a nice stack of cards in there! 

So you do need to change desk to deck.  Also, there is no need for the first sentence at all.  You don't have to interrupt or negate captured characters, because they aren't doing anything.  You just need to change that sentence to "Release all captured Heroes and band to them."

Seven Years of Plenty? AUO?

angel under the oak

angel under the oak

AUtO is frequently brought up in discussions about cards that are too good or unhealthy so that kinda proves my point but in this instance AUtO isn't really comparable to the kind of cards I'm talking about. AUtO is a powerful, probably overpowered card but it's unhealthy for different reasons that a territory class draw 2 enhancement would be.

what about this wording??

Place in territory: To draw 2. If your Hero is discarded you can discard one of your animals instead and draw 1. Protect Isaac.

Even if it just said "draw 2" it would be overpowered and unhealthy. Having extra utility on top of that just makes it worse.

Actually, I think that a placed enhancement that allowed you to instead a discard for the price of an animal might be pretty good as it is, even without any drawing or protecting Isaac. Not as strong nowadays since we've branched out from discards being the primary battlewinner, but still playable.

I agree. If the card only allowed me to instead discard and protect Issac I'd at least attempt to build a deck around it.

But cards should not be designed because "priest need X." Cards should be designed because that culture does something. This is why the "sacrificing" animals is great! It feels like something that priest would do. This makes for better game play (this is why AutO has issues. It's a card made to "give" something instead of "doing/being" something.)

I think Kevin is pretty much on point with his evaluation about the initial D-2.

Let me help by saying it like this. If this TC card allowed you to draw 2 cards, every deck would be "forced" to play it because it increases the chances for combos/SoG. In CCG world, drawing cards is among the most powerful of mechanics (and of course searching for specific cards is even more powerful as it combines the the other powerful mechanic synergy between cards) - because CCGs are statistics games. The faster I can trim my deck, the faster I get to the powerful combos. I believe this is Kevin's point. This too easily "Warps" the number game.

All that being said, card should be tested before simply being dismissed. I would be surprised that a decent testing seasons would find this card "balanced." But I could be wrong.

Quote from: dstair2002 on August 24, 2018, 03:26:42 PM

what about this wording??

Place in territory: To draw 2. If your Hero is discarded you can discard one of your animals instead and draw 1. Protect Isaac.

Even if it just said "draw 2" it would be overpowered and unhealthy. Having extra utility on top of that just makes it worse.

Miraculous Catch as a comparable card?  Don't think that sees much play, and that is a situational draw 3 discard 1 of those!  Maybe this card should say 'if used by Abraham, draw 2'...

 

The Boaz d2 and the Gabriel d2 also come to mind but those are draw 1s most of the time. The condition of being used by a specific Hero reduces the consistency and makes them balanced.

Consistency is key.  Consistency > Raw potential power

Otherwise, Isaiah > AUTO