Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Like many players in this game, I think defense needs a boost.  And I'd really like to see consideration given to something like one Artifact Slot, and one Curse Slot.  Either this, or just allowing 2 artifacts activated at one time.  The reason I don't want it as broad as "2 artifacts" though is that this would also help offense, which doesn't need any more help.

Now I will admit that the game has made great progress in this regard, with cards like Magic Charms, Tabernacle/Temple Artifacts, High Priest's Palace, Pithom, etc.  But it's just not enough.  Most of those require specific cards or themes.  With each new set the boosted offenses outpace the defenses.  Cards like Holy Grail are still devastating to themes like Philistines and so many others, who either need to use up an Artifact Slot to protect against it, or whose "themed fortress" does not protect against conversion.  ET + AOCP will still devastate those defenses who cannot protect their territories from discard (and strongly discourages anyone from going with a variety of ECs instead of pre-defined themes).  The problem is that there are too many curses and artifacts that would really help defenses, but not enough places to put them.  With just one slot, one well-timed DON or Capture Ark (both of which are evil cards, ironically) takes away that artifact you were hoping to stop them with.

So I guess I'm just asking if there is a lot of interest out there in increasing the number of artifact/curse slots in the game.  Having 7-10 artifacts/covenants/curses in a deck with one place to put them, only to see them discarded or shuffled away by DON and CA, is not very enjoyable.

Defense is awesome.  Problem is, offense is even more awesome.  A couple themes already have forts that can hold an artifact (but who uses Temple of Dagon?).

Who would tech against Heroless?  Actually, that sounds like a fun challenge...

I agree with the wish for more ways to activate curses.  Pol has the right idea.  I've had a "Cursed Ground" site or fortress on my "future cards list" for years.  It searches for a curse, then allows up to 2 curses to be activated on it.

But I think some sort of in-battle protection/insteading of good discard abilities is a more urgent need at this point.  NT human defenses have Herod's Temple, but OT human defenses have little against Angel of the Lord, Grapes, Bravery of David, Samuel's Edict, AoCp, Zeal on a CBN guy, etc.

I think your answer to Part 2 above is found in Part 1.  God cursed the ground after Adam and Eve sinned and said that they would only see fruits of their labor through painful toil and sweat.  I see a striking similarity in CBN discards - Bravery of David, for example, is the lone WC hero "toiling" for the fruit of a redeemed soul, so maybe Cursed Ground could solve two problems at once.

Cursed Ground
Evil fortress
Identifier:  May hold 2 active curses
"When placed in territory, may search deck for a curse.  Protect from opponents'.  If your OT human evil character is discarded by an opponent, you may have opponent discard an evil card from your hand instead."

It's always a 1 for 1 trade, just like Herod's Temple when you have no redeemed souls, but your opponent gets to look at your hand and choose the card, so if you are holding CM, DoN, or a critical EE, your opponent will choose the card that hurts you the most.  Thoughts?

That is a neat idea.  It would take some balancing work, since I can easily have a 39/39 King Ahab in a deck that is 80% evil cards, and many of my opponents' decks would never be able to beat him.  With an ability like Herod's Temple, I'd eventually run out of brown cards in hand, or cards in my deck, so I'd eventually lose the ability to "instead" the discard.  In other words, evil might need a higher # of cards in its cost.

I do like the combination idea, though.  And letting opponent choose the evil card to discard does help to balance it somewhat.

Easy fix: Make Offensive cards that capture instead of discard.

That is a neat idea.  It would take some balancing work, since I can easily have a 39/39 King Ahab in a deck that is 80% evil cards, and many of my opponents' decks would never be able to beat him.  With an ability like Herod's Temple, I'd eventually run out of brown cards in hand, or cards in my deck, so I'd eventually lose the ability to "instead" the discard.  In other words, evil might need a higher # of cards in its cost.

I do like the combination idea, though.  And letting opponent choose the evil card to discard does help to balance it somewhat.

Whatever the cost ends up being, it needs to be able to be paid fairly easily by a player playing a balanced deck who is playing a player using a speed/offensive heavy deck.  Otherwise, it won't get played, because it will be better to play speed.  Cards like this already have the obstacle of being drawn in time, so they shouldn't have a cost that is more difficult to be paid while playing a slower/balanced deck.

Maybe make the cost much lighter if the opponent has drawn cards via special ability this turn...

Heh, I actually had Temple + Altar in a deck in 2008.


It was a Zebulun-Hero-lite deck. I had them in to stop conversion of my dudes to mess up my Zeb, but I actually did win a game at NC regionals, because my opponent thought I was playing a heroless like he was, and was stunned when I flipped up Altar and proceeded to troll with Zeb for 5 turns.

Who would tech against Heroless?  Actually, that sounds like a fun challenge...

JSB23 would...dirty little...

Nevermind. I still won the tournament. I'm over it now.

Not really. I still have a recurring nightmare where I replay that game in my head.

Sounds like a fun story.  I hate it when my opponent makes a play that would be a terrible mistake, except in this exact situation, where it destroys me.

QFT!  When I am teaching RLKs this happens to me alot.