Elements the Game Forum - Free Online Fantasy Card Game

Elements the Game => Card Ideas and Art => Topic started by: Yeelp on June 15, 2018, 03:11:55 am

Title: Bestow | Improved Bestow
Post by: Yeelp on June 15, 2018, 03:11:55 am

(https://imgur.com/lLgbGzk.png)	(https://imgur.com/gAnE6RZ.png)
NAME: Bestow ELEMENT: Light COST: 3 :light TYPE: Spell ATK|HP: TEXT: Give target permanent on your side of the field to your opponent.	NAME: Improved Bestow ELEMENT: Light COST: 2 :light TYPE: Spell ATK|HP: TEXT: Give target permanent on your side of the field to your opponent.

ART: IDEA: Yeelp NOTES: Behaves exactly like Steal in any situations where the behavior of Steal is relevant (Such as Steal refreshing timed items like Sundials, Steal being unable to steal protected items.), except it is as if your opponent had played Steal, and targeted the card you chose. When bestowing a shield or weapon, any previous weapon or shield your opponent has in play is immediately replaced by the new shield or weapon (as if your opponent just played it). Bestow does nothing if your opponent has a Cloak in play (Unless you are bestowing them a Cloak, in which case it resets the timer on their Cloak). The logic here is well, how can you give someone something if you can't even find them? SERIES:

Took a look around and I didn't happen to see this idea be done before. I may have missed it though - so I apologize if another card has been submitted with the same idea.

This is a form of soft PC for Light (An element that could benefit from some PC). It fits the theme of Light's kindness by literally being kind to your opponent. However, it doesn't mean that your opponent will always benefit from your gratitude. The card has some in-element synergies for Light but it has more out of element synergies. I'll go over a few synergies that I've discovered before doing what must be done - that is, comparing it to Steal and Deflag to see how it stands up.

For starters, in-element synergies:

• You can Bestow a Solar Shield to, for example, Chaos Lord to disable his Dissipation Field. While Bestowing a Reflective Shield would probably be nicer, since Light doesn't have any damaging spells and Reflective Shield blocks no damage at all, the Reflective Shield is immaterial and as such, can't be targeted for Bestow. All in all, this is only an okay synergy.
• Another option could be to bestow a Sanctuary to disable a Dissipation Field but again, it has the same problems the first synergy has. That is, you're helping your opponent by giving them 4 HP per turn, so unless you can counteract that damage, it hurts you more than it helps them.

Now, to the better synergies. The out of elements synergies:

• If you're using Flooding against a Water/rainbow deck, give them the permanent to force them to pay the upkeep cost for you while you reap the rewards of the Flooding.
• You could give an opponent a Dissipation Field to drain their quanta. If done right, they may not have the quanta left to replace it with a shield of their own, if they even have one.
• Bestow a weak shield to completely remove an opponent's Bone Wall.
• Play a Sundial, and on your next turn, Bestow it to your opponent, refreshing the Sundial and effectively doubling the length of your Sundial. This already works well with the Hasten ability of the Sundial. With upped Sundials, you could run a pseudo mono light with this strategy

Now to talk about Steal and Deflag:

Since it is a reverse Steal, I lowered this card's cost by 1 across the board to help it out a little more. This puts it on par with Deflag's cost. But Deflag seemed to outclass Bestow in every way so if you were using fire quanta in your deck (Or if you were running a rainbow deck), there wouldn't be much use to Bestow at all. However, I think the niche it has compared to Deflag make it worth it to keep it at its current cost and not reduce the cost further. That niche being the ability to completely remove Bone Wall.

And yes, this card is VERY situational. But situational cards seem to be part of the theme for Light - be it intentional or not. *Looks at Holy Light, Sanctuary, Luciferin and Guardian Angel* A good selection of cards in Light have either more situational uses than practical uses, or about an equal amount of situational uses and practical uses.

Title: Re: Bestow | Improved Bestow
Post by: InsignificantWeeaboo on June 15, 2018, 05:11:37 am

There's a card similar to this in openEtG called Give, the difference being any type of card can be chosen and it heals you 5/10 HP. Could be useful to look at that for a refernece.

Onto actual criticism: It seems underpowered, because it's too situational with little to no practical uses.

Yes, this card is as situational as most of Light's cards; thing is, there are enough practical uses in the other Light cards to be used in certain decks. Sanctuary is a key card in most stall decks (ex. Fire Stall), Guardian Angel can heal the damage done by Rage Elixir and Acceleration, Luciferen is a key card in Deja-Hope, and even Holy Light can be used in a OTK with Voodoo Dolls, Basilisk's Blood and Parallel Universe. I can't see any use for Bestow except with the Flooding synergy, and even then it only works if the opponent has enough :water to keep it running.

Title: Re: Bestow | Improved Bestow
Post by: Yeelp on June 15, 2018, 05:52:01 am

Quote from: InsignificantWeeaboo on June 15, 2018, 05:11:37 am

There's a card similar to this in openEtG called Give, the difference being any type of card can be chosen and it heals you 5/10 HP. Could be useful to look at that for a refernece.

Onto actual criticism: It seems underpowered, because it's too situational with little to no practical uses.

Yes, this card is as situational as most of Light's cards; thing is, there are enough practical uses in the other Light cards to be used in certain decks. Sanctuary is a key card in most stall decks (ex. Fire Stall), Guardian Angel can heal the damage done by Rage Elixir and Acceleration, Luciferen is a key card in Deja-Hope, and even Holy Light can be used in a OTK with Voodoo Dolls, Basilisk's Blood and Parallel Universe. I can't see any use for Bestow except with the Flooding synergy, and even then it only works if the opponent has enough :water to keep it running.

Well that, and its ability to completely remove a Bone Wall - which is something I'm sure most decks would like. Although I do agree - it seems situational. Perhaps some additional effects would be needed. The heal Give does in oEtG was something I didn't know about - since I haven't played much of it. But I'll take a look and see what I can come up with. The problem with the heal is that is seems like a "tacked on" solution to balance it out. Yeah sure it works, but it seems bland. I'm not quite sure what doesn't count as bland but a few thoughts come to mind:

• Somehow force the opponent to keep the bestowed item for a certain amount of time (That is, it gets a special form of immaterial where it can't be destroyed or replaced for a certain amount of turns). Perhaps the item is immaterial for X turns where X is your :light divided by 10. This helps the Dissipation Field synergy drain the opponents quanta for a guaranteed amount of turns. Alternatively, this helps break dim chains for up to 7 turns if you have 70-75 :light (Which is something Steal and Deflag can't do really well)
• Give the player :light based off the the card bestowed somehow. Perhaps gain :light equal to 2 times the card cost? Could help rushes get out light dragons faster. The idea or logic here is by doing a good deed (Giving something to someone for free) the divine spirits smile down on you and reward you for a good deed. (Kinda strange logic - but it works.)

But thank you for taking the time to look at my idea. I appreciate it!

Title: Re: Bestow | Improved Bestow
Post by: InsignificantWeeaboo on June 15, 2018, 06:44:03 am

Always happy to help.

Quote from: Yeelp on June 15, 2018, 05:52:01 am

*snipped a couple of times*

• Somehow force the opponent to keep the bestowed item for a certain amount of time (That is, it gets a special form of immaterial where it can't be destroyed or replaced for a certain amount of turns). Perhaps the item is immaterial for X turns where X is your :light divided by 10.
• Give the player :light based off the the card bestowed somehow. Perhaps gain :light equal to 2 times the card cost?

The first option is the less OP one without modifications, but it's less thematic with the card. I would make X the :light divided by 15; that way, X with 75 :light is only 5 turns, which is still a long time the Dim Shield chain is broken up for. Personally, I like this the most with the suggested change.

As for the other option, it's more OP while being a more thematic choice for the card. My main reasoning for this is that the highest cost for any material permanent is 7 :chroma , which gives the player 11 :light ([7x2]-3=11). Not only does it allow the player to spam both Golden Dragons and Emerald Dragons faster (11 :light x 2 = 22 :life via Rustler), but it also allows the player to cast Miracle faster. This is even deadlier with Bone Wall, since you end up bestowing one Bone Wall to the opponent while also obtaining 11 :light, meaning that the opponent can only block one attack that turn. A reduction could help, but anything below 1.5 ends up giving the player either less than or an equal amount of :light to the player, which could be a good thing depending on how Bestow should be balanced.

Balance wise, I would go for the first option. To allow access to more synergies, the second option could be chosen.

EDIT: In an upped format, the second option to balance Bestow gives 12 :light, which is enough to fuel an Improved Miracle in one turn and can be converted into 24 :life by a Rustler.