Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Library at Alexandria



Egyptian Site (Gold Pyramids)

"If Egypt is in play and an opponent rescues a lost soul from this site, holder may search deck for one card and add it to hand."

Verse: Acts 28:11 - "And after three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux."

Nice card!  I was inspired so I mocked up a copy for you.  Hope to see you at NC Regionals!  Enjoy!!!

Thank you !! I hope this makes it as a card in the future.

Just one minor thing. Can you change it to read "Library at Alexandria." Thanks...

-EgYpTiAn

Doh!  My bad.  I used to play MTG...

It's fixed now.

Your correct that Library at Alexandria makes more sense.  My brain just reverted back to what it knew and put of instead of at, thus my mistake.

Thanks again! Now, how can we get it printed as a card? :-D

Will you be at Regionals this Saturday?  If you will I'll bring you a real copy of this.

Brian,

Could you please make one more modification to the mock-up, so that the ability reads:

"If holder has Egypt in play, and an opponent rescues a lost soul from this site, holder may search deck for one card and add it to hand."

The reason is, if it just reads "Egypt in play," then people will use it as a splash card against Egypt decks (which does not jive with the theme). The modification above would not prevent this, but would make it somewhat less desirable to do so, especially in T1, since you'd have to use at least two slots instead of one (one for an Egypt, one for this card).

Actually you know what, I like it just the way it is. My bad. Please disregard.

Only suggestion would be except a dom.

Reason?

(Search, False Peace, and similar cards do not have this restriction.)

I don't want to restrict the search because

(1) Holder's "library" (deck) includes ALL the cards in that deck.
(2) The card already is quite conditional, as follows:

(a) A lost soul has to be in the site.
(b) The lost soul must be rescued by an opponent (e.g. holder can't play Son of God and then go search).
(c) An Egypt must be in play.

With all these conditions I do not want to put the "except a dominant" limitation.

I think the part of this card that isn't balanced is that it can be used over and over by any brigade.  If it was a one time use or only worked with Egyptians, I think it would be balanced enough. 

It still takes a 2 card combo (not counting the LS) to pull it off and it involves giving the opponent a LS.  For this very reason I've found Banks of the Nile to be a lot less useful than I originally expected it to be.  It's a pretty rare situation that you're going to be in the possition to give a free LS and need exactly one card (SoG/NJ/Aotl w/e) to win.

I'd be ok with allowing multiple searches if it's changed to use with an Egyptian defense so that it cannot be splashed into any site deck that wants to use LaA and Egypt.  Possibly by tweaking the requirement "If Egypt is in play and you control an Egyptian, when an opponent rescues a lost soul from this site..."

I love Egyptians but I just don't like the idea of pulling out sog/nj/aotl to win a game because someone won a rescue attempt is a good card. I could be wrong though.

I love green prophets but I just don't like the idea of using Hidden Treasures and non-negatably pulling out sog/nj/aotl to win a game before I even have a chance to block.

I love gray brigade but I just don't like the idea of using False Peace with Sabbath Breakers and pulling out sog/nj/aotl to win a game before I can make the rescue.

Actually, I don't really love green prophets or gray brigade (though some of the new Roman Emperors are decent). But I'm just sayin'... :-)

I always thought that the Muslims destroyed the library; however, according to Plutarch, Julius Caesar accidentally destroyed it. Got to love Wikipedia.

I belive a Caesar (reprint?) is in order that discards this card 

Quote from: Smokey on July 13, 2009, 03:46:31 PM

Quote from: Colin Michael on July 13, 2009, 03:41:13 PM

I always thought that the Muslims destroyed the library; however, according to Plutarch, Julius Caesar accidentally destroyed it. Got to love Wikipedia.

I belive a Caesar (reprint?) is in order that discards this card 

We could add Brutus and Alexander while we're at it. We already do have some of the Ptolemies, I believe, but we could also pulls some more of them out of the Apocrypha.

The possibilities are endless!

Yep, Judas Maccabeus from the Maccabees, et. al.

"If you have

Quote

I'd be ok with allowing multiple searches if it's changed to use with an Egyptian defense so that it cannot be splashed into any site deck that wants to use LaA and Egypt.

"If holder plays an Egyptian defense...."

LOL. In other words, you're suggesting

"If opponent rescues a lost soul from this site, Egypt is in play and holder controls an Egyptian evil character, then holder may search deck for one card and add it to hand."

That's quite a mouthful. Would it even fit on the card? The problem is that then someone could put in an Egyptian, LaA, Egypt and splash those three cards, etc. ("Hey, I've got an Egyptian in play!")

How do you restrict a card to work only when a certain defense is played?

I understand the concern with pulling SoG to match NJ already in hand, but you can do the same thing with search and false peace.

In type 1, you don't HAVE to give them a lost soul in the Library if you have others out. In T2, the opponent doesn't have to attempt to rescue a lost soul in the Library.

Sorry, that didn't make sense. If you have to give up a LS, you give one up from the Library. Nix the first comment above. I agree in type 1 it would be pretty powerful. Interestingly enough, here is a case where you would perhaps NOT want to RA with site access!

I (still) like the card as you picture it above. 

If Egypt is in play, and opponent rescues a lost soul from this site, you may search draw pile for a card. Discard this card if you control a non-Egyptian"

That is how I would word it so that it cannot be splashed.

Quote from: Colin Michael on July 14, 2009, 01:26:54 AM

"They will either contradict the Koran, in which case they are heresy, or they will agree with it, in which case they are superfluous."
-the caliph Umar, when asked what to do with the library (according to the Muslim account of events).

Actually, the passage above is from Western European accounts that date about 1000 years after the fact and are widely regarded as false.

Regarded as false unless you go to FCS, that is.

It was nice of the Muslims to allow us to let Julius off the hook for a while though.