Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Herodias
Gold 5/5
Royalty
May search deck for Herod Antipas or Salome. If a Herod is in play, draw 1 card or have a male Hero withdraw from battle. Cannot be prevented.

Herod Antipas
Gold 7/6
WC, Herod, Royalty
Search deck for Herod's Dungeon and place in territory. May band to Herodias to topdeck a Mark 6 card from deck or discard pile. Cannot be Prevented.

Dance of Death
Gold 2/2
May discard a male human Hero in play or set-aside to draw 2. Cannot be negated if used by a N.T. female Evil Character.

More to come

Herodias--Not very useful apart from the search, as ignore abilities on Evil cards are rarely helpful. Although Herodias wouldn't necessarily need to be too useful, as she is best used to clear out Dungeon and to be banded in by Salome CBN.

Herod Antipas--I like this one a lot. Herods often live or die by Dungeon, but they don't have a reliable way to fetch it.

Dance of Death--I like this one too, as it gives Herods their own Stone of Thebez essentially, as well as a bit of speed that they generally lack. I would probably specify NT female though, so that it isn't abused with Foreign Wives. It's powerful enough to make up for the fact that it will only ever be used by two different ECs. 

Herod Agrippa I--Very powerful, but maybe not OP. I think of all the cards that have an instead option, this should be one of them.

Herod the Great--Not sure what X is, but overall this would be worse than the current one. The only Fortress that he'd probably ever want to search for apart from Herod's Temple is High Priest's Palace for a Herod/Sadducee (maybe Gates of Hell, but only in defensive-heavy decks that would use both Herods and demons). Giving your opponent an instead option weakens him considerably.

Salome--Again, not as good as the current one. I have used Salome's discard from top of deck ability far more often than her discard a captured a Hero ability, and the underdecking top of deck ability I don't see as useful at all, except in rare circumstances.

Massacre of Innocents--I think it needs to be reworded to make it work as you suggest, but I'm not sure exactly how. Basically, you need a way to have each player discard 3 to save his own Heroes, and I'm not sure if the current wording does so.

Maybe this wording for Massacre:

"Discard all male Heroes in play. A player may discard the top 3 cards of their deck to protect their Heroes from this card. Put Lost Souls in play instead. Cannot be negated if used by a Herod or Pharaoh."

Quote from: Professoralstad on June 17, 2013, 10:56:20 AM

Herod the Great- The only Fortress that he'd probably ever want to search for apart from Herod's Temple is High Priest's Palace for a Herod/Sadducee (maybe Gates of Hell, but only in defensive-heavy decks that would use both Herods and demons).

Now he tutors TGT!  Staple for sure.

Also, I'm saddened by the cards that make Herodias an evil character, when a study of the Biblical text shows her to be a girl, probably 8 or 10 years old, and that her "dance" was not lascivious in any way, shape, or form.  It probably would have been something like a school play.  She was young, and Salome, being the evil person she was, took advantage of her and made her ask for John's head.  Herodias probably didn't even know what she was asking.

You have the two ladies confused, but otherwise I kind of agree. However, there are really only two options for characters, and it would be hard to justify Salome as a Hero. So since she did aid (willingly or not) Herodias in her plot against John, there is at least some justification for her being evil (or at least being supportive of evil).

I'd change Dance of Death to "If used by a NT female...  ...Cannot be negated."  Otherwise it will be splashed in with Am Slave and Gold KoT and Egyptian Magicians as a way to discard an opponent's hero AND draw 2. 

Gold KoT would negate it due to it gaining the CBN only if it was played on a NT Female EC. It is easily negateable when played on any character besides Salome and Herodias or any converted NT Female Hero.

My bad, I thought it was TC.