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Didn't think about Egyptians since the only  N.T. one I'm aware of is the rebel, unless there are some more Egyptians being released.

Quote from: Arrthoa on June 27, 2015, 05:54:41 PM

Didn't think about Egyptians since the only  N.T. one I'm aware of is the rebel, unless there are some more Egyptians being released.

The ship that was caught in that storm is the Alexandrian Ship, which was Egyptian.

To expound on this, Egypt was the break basket of Rome, so there were many ships from there that would make the trip up to Rome carrying the food the Romans needed to survive.  This is why Julius was able to find the first Alexandrian Ship (that got caught in the storm and was destroyed) and later a second Alexandrian ship that was headed to Rome that had made a stop in Malta.

Wooof cool card but that instead is just worded funky

Viper almost didn't make the set list. It was on the first couple of set versions during our testing, but it was bumped to our "short list" of cards that we don't have room for (or can't get to work the way we want) when we added Doomed Conspirators.

About a month an a half before we were finished with testing, Rob came to us and gave us room to add 4 more cards. Viper was one of the first we used to fill those spots. It underwent a number of modifications at that point, including the name change to make it unique. That's why it's card #89.

Shortly after that, Rob also gave us an additional 4 cards to add to the set list, pushing it to 93 cards total.

I'm still boggled by Maltese Viper's ability... ok...

So the way it currently reads the first time you play it you can do the ability twice correct? If I'm not mistaken the way the card is worded those first two sentences are set up as two different abilities.

Why the crazy shenanigans with the card? Why not just set it up so it Poisons and Paralyzes every time it blocks? Maybe something like...

"Paralyze and Poison a Human Hero in territory. Each upkeep that Hero loses 0/2. Cannot be Negated."

Anything wrong with that? Ability reads easier, weak card is slightly stronger and I'm pretty sure the ability is shorter.

If you guys are worried about Paralyze decks becoming a thing don't worry they won't I tried I seriously tried haha. I took one to Boston Nats 2010 and it actually did pretty well considering it was a Red/Palegreen deck haha. I think I got like 13th out of 70+ in Type I Two Player and did fairly well in Teams. I think Gabe might remember playing the deck in Teams All Hope is Lost, Palsy and Five Foolish Virgins are still amazing cards!!!

If Viper blocks from hand, you target a Hero to decrease, but then the second ability immediately insteads that ability and you choose a Hero to paralyze and poison (the first Hero is then unaffected, unless you choose the same Hero).

If you guys are worried about Paralyze decks becoming a thing don't worry they won't I tried

In playtest discussions, we wanted to make paralyze a stronger sub-strategy without making too strong that it could stand on it own. The idea is that it can potentially neutralize the powerful Heroes of the top strategies (Judges for example are a lot less intimidating without AutO--same for Joseph and Genesis), thereby forcing players to use other options than just spamming their best Hero over and over.

Kinda hope the Maltese Viper creates a new Beast archetype in decks. 

Maltese viper is not a beast, it is an animal.  Beasts are demons in Redemption.

Pretty cool card. Kinda missed the boat on it being generic for type 2 purposes because it works perfectly with the ability.  Ironically the 0/2 decrease each upkeep the card makes it less powerful would have loved to see that ability cut to the front so people would consider him for a block from territory.

On the generic, this reference is to the singular snake that attached itself to Paul on Malta, so it would be a unique based on the reference.  However, the designation was still discussed from a playtesting perspective, and it was agreed that generic was the best option, particularly in T2.

We would disagree that it is less powerful, because the option to paralyze a Hero until it dies from the poison is very strong against certain deck types, particularly if they decide not to use healing.

Additionally, we very much liked the concept of a 'hidden' viper being more dangerous, because you don't know it is there.  This also fits with the story and gives it a unique flair.

All in all, this card actually dominated a lot of discussion among the playtesters to get to the final product

Really though the card is worded needlessly complicated ... I still think the card should be rewritten ...

I agree with Isildur that Viper's ability is worded so strangely (with the colon, and with the word "instead" coming at the end of the sentence). Is it too late to try to simplify that?

A new week brings a new theme of card reveals!

I'm interested to see what else is in the set that could possibly make that card useful!

Well, it helps out with Tossing, although I'm hoping that great care is taken when printing future Toss abilities on good cards.  Evil Tossing is not nearly as scary; good Tossing has potential to be abused in a Thaddeus-like manner.

Quote from: Isildur on June 28, 2015, 09:05:29 PM

Really though the card is worded needlessly complicated ... I still think the card should be rewritten ...

I agree with Isildur that Viper's ability is worded so strangely (with the colon, and with the word "instead" coming at the end of the sentence). Is it too late to try to simplify that?

I'm not sure what is so strange...instead is almost always at the end of a sentence. I guess the strange part is that you can "instead" your own ability on the same card, though I don't see that as being too much different then insteading an ability on a different card (such as when you use Wrath of Stan to send all of your angels to Chamber).  The colon is used to signify that you decrease the Hero only whilst it is paralyzed, similar to how the ability on a placed card after the colon is only active whilst the card is placed.

As for Paralyze in general, we are making an effort to be very careful with how that ability is used. Because there are relatively few useful Healing cards (and almost all of them can be stopped very easily by CwD) putting a paralyze ability on a character that can block multiple times could be a quick way to result in an NPE, kind of the reverse of pre-block ignore, where a player has multiple characters that they cannot use. So that is why the paralyze part can only be used once unless some sort of trickeration is done to return it to your hand (for which there are a few options).

I would almost like to see an identifier for enhancements that let's there abilities work through toss for that reason. Preferably on the defensive side. After the adverse affect that btn had on the game I am really surprised that something more powerful was created.

There will be quite a few new ways to deal with Peace in this set, and those cards will be useful in general as well. And there will not be any toss abilities on good cards in the set.