The 2018 Community Created Card: Ability update

[ChristianSoldier]

I think I have to vote for Option 2. I think he's supposed to be in for Philistine Support, so the Unity kinda fits that idea and the CBN gives him some stability in a world full of Three Woes and it's artifact cousins. Plus I really like the Gath idea, even if it doesn't get printed in Fall of Man, it'll push for a printing down the road.

[Master Q]

I'm not running Philistines anytime soon, but if I were, I'd want Option 1, mainly for this reason:

Option 1 protects itself. Option 2 does not. CBN protect doesn't matter if the card itself is not protected. Holy Grail still works on option 2. CTB still works against option 2. I wouldn't waste my Woes on this guy if it were option 1. The reserve access is not even a factor for me.

Also, Philistines are much better as a splash given all the good canaanites/greeks/demons, and they're already pretty reliant on support cards with Outpost, so having to run another (Gath) seems like it would be restricting.

[Gabe]

FTR Holy Grail does nothing to stop option 2 from protecting Philistines. That’s one of the reasons we believe it’s more than adequate.

[Master Q]

FTR Holy Grail does nothing to stop option 2 from protecting Philistines. That’s one of the reasons we believe it’s more than adequate.

Right, other ones. You lose the Reserve access if Rapha's converted (I would think some people care about that). The protection being CBN doesn't matter so much in my mind since Philistines are already so recurable.

Honestly, both are perfectly fine. I rarely run into Holy Grail or territory destruction anymore. But I think the first can fit in better decks (also given that the draw/search condition is so easily met and doesn't require that I run an extra card).

[kariusvega]

Ah just realized option 2 is only other.

Voting option 1 with cbn lol seems futile at this point as clearly cbn protection himself and others will not become an option

[The Guardian]

Voting option 1 with cbn lol seems futile at this point as clearly cbn protection himself and others will not become an option

That is correct 

[The Guardian]

Personally I like option 1 as I believe it gives him more versatility (i.e. you could build a Black/Pale Green defense around him, Nephilim, [Edited by R.O.S.E.S] and War that could grab weapons from like everywhere). 

[goalieking87]

Hopefully I can get some more testing of this ability very shortly.

One thing I just noticed is that since option 2 is CBN, The new ANB dominant would not be able to hit “other” Philistines in territory. Not sure if that is good for balance reasons, or would keep ANB from seeing much play (doubtful) but wanted to throw it out there.

[The Guardian]

After some discussion with the team, we feel it is best to move forward with option #1. A couple reasons behind our thinking:
1) this will be a promo that is widely available--particularly to new and younger players. These players may not fully understand Unity right away or how to build a deck around Unity abilities, but they will definitely want to use this awesome looking character in their deck.
2) there are still many Philistine characters that can be printed or reprinted with a Unity ability in the future (Lahmi certainly comes to mind) if we feel Philistines still need another strong character to make them standalone worthy.
3) CBN protection is something we do want to start moving away from in general. Even though this guy only protects others (and not even ones in battle), we maintain a slower power creep each time we restrain ourselves from slapping CBN on something.

I want to thank everyone who was involved with the creation of Rapha of Gath--I know I'm excited to get my hands on one! 

[jesse]

Sounds great - I'm excited too to get a copy of Rapha of Gath!!