Cactus Game Design Message Boards

I'm struggling with the Plague cards for The Promised Land, so I wanted to drop my rough concepts here and let you guys have at it. These ideas are pretty sketchy for the most part.

Water to Blood
Green Hero Enhancement / Crimson Evil Enhancement, TC
(The First Plague)
Choose 1
   -Underdeck an Evil Character.
   -Reveal opponent’s hand and discard a card.
   -Search deck for an Exodus Plague and play it.

Frogs From the Nile
Green Hero Enhancement / Pale-Green Evil Enhancement
(The Second Plague)
Place in your territory: Restrict players from making rescue attempts. Opponent may discard a Dominant to banish this.

Dust to Lice
Green Hero Enhancement / Grey Evil Enhancement
(The Third Plague)
You may discard an Artifact or search opponent’s deck for a Lost Soul.

Swarm
Green Hero Enhancement, TC
(The Fourth Plague)
Place in territory: For every Swarm in play, your Exodus Heroes gain 4/4. Cannot be negated.

Death of Livestock
Green Hero Enhancement
(The Fifth Plague)
Discard an animal or O.T. Evil Character.

Boils
Green/Red Hero Enhancement, TC
(The Sixth Plague)
Place on an Evil Character: All Evil Characters in opponent’s territory of matching brigade decreases 2/2 each turn.

Hailstorm
Green/White Hero Enhancement, TC
(The Seventh Plague)
Place in opponent’s territory: Discard all Fortresses and underdeck contents. Opponent is restricted from playing Fortress cards while Hailstorm remains.

Locusts
Green/Gold Hero Enhancement
(The Eighth Plague)
Banish all cards in a discard pile. Opponent must under deck their hand and draw an equal amount of cards.

Darkness
Green/Purple Hero Enhancement, TC
(The Ninth Plague)
Place in opponent’s territory: Any time opponent plays a card to their territory, you may draw a card. Each turn this remains, you may deactivate an Artifact.

Or this...

Spoiler (hover to show)

Death of the Firstborn
Green/Silver Hero Enhancement
(The Tenth Plague)
Reveal a good card in hand: Discard a human Evil Character. If it was O.T., you may discard up to 2 Sites. Cannot be negated if used by an Exodus Hero.

Blood on the Doorpost
Artifact
While opponent controls a human Evil Character or Site, your good cards are protected from discard. You may discard this Artifact to search deck for a Plague or Angel.

(Harsh) feedback needed!!!

Generally: The first two should be Pale Green/Gold on the defensive side (both were cast by Magicians from Egypt). It would also make more sense to me for the judgments on Egypt's gods to be gold rather than green (except for the first three because of Aaron's involvement) but that's a minor quibble.

1. A TC enhancement that underdecks any evil character is a bit much by itself, let alone when its also versatile. So is a TC reveal and discard any (arguably lightyears ahead of Confusion now that CoP exists). I also don't really care for the third option on that card (as it was just the first plague, not a specific ushering in like Seventh Seal). Since the impact of the plague screwed with the water supply, perhaps it would be a good idea to have an ability in the genre of Rain Becomes Dust. Maybe something like "Negate an Evil Character (except a Magician or Pharaoh). Place in an opponent's territory for seven turns: each time opponent uses a special ability to add cards to his hand, discard a card from his hand."

2. Way too good. With High Places, you could make a RA, place Frogs from Nile, then activate Shrine on your next turn so only your opponent suffered from the restriction. Perhaps restrict players from making a RA with a hero with "Cannot be Negated" in his SA?

3. Uninspired, albeit a unique pairing of abilities. Since this plague judged the god of Earth, perhaps some Site interaction? Discard a site to discard an artifact or withdraw all opposing characters?

4. That's pretty awesome, but I'd add an identifier letting you use multiple per 50. With two swarms out being beat by numbers is definitely not happening but a single swarm isn't that useful so it's got nice balance. I'd give it some offense for Coliseum interaction and (perhaps on a different plague) a way for Moses to ignore ECs with a protect ability.

5. Speaking of which, this is a judgment on a goddess whose duties also include protection! Maybe: "Discard an animal to interrupt and banish an Evil Character. If that character had a Protect ability, cannot be interrupted by that character?"

6. Is the extra brigade there just to be there? Too strong as-is with a Foreign Wives scattershot and a pairing with Crown of Thorns wiping out all  ECs */5 and lower from decrease (a particularly un-protected-against ability), although this mostly applies to T2 as in T1 its unusual to have enough ECs out for something like this to be truly painful. I don't really get the brigade matching thematically.

7. Again, why the white? I like this, but maybe a bit oppressive if you play it early and then get to have Forts all game while your opponent does not? Should be fine. Probably needs to lose the TC, though, so you at least have to get initiative to shower meteorites on everyone. A Goshen exception would be cool.

8. This one's really cool! Personally I'd have it draw one fewer card than was underdecked but that's just a power level tweak.

9. That's way too much drawing, even for the judgment against Ra. Maybe let you exchange a card in hand with one in the reserve or top or bottom card of deck instead? It'd be each upkeep, not each turn it remains.

10. Alright, now the extra brigade makes sense! It's definitely solid but feels a little boring and unsatisfying. I also think it should have some interaction with evil Kings since it is the judgment against Pharaoh himself.

11. The practically-always-active blanket protection from discard is a lot. Maybe make it so that if your good card would be discarded, it's underdecked instead?

Thanks! These cards are looking awesome! Green really needed another "all" battlewinner- they are very short on them