Elements the Game Forum - Free Online Fantasy Card Game

Elements the Game => Card Ideas and Art => Topic started by: dawn to dusk on July 16, 2018, 02:06:31 am

Title: Sappling | Sappling
Post by: dawn to dusk on July 16, 2018, 02:06:31 am
(https://imgur.com/GP4cutH.png)
(https://imgur.com/HaRD6CX.png)
NAME:
Sappling
ELEMENT:
Life
COST:
2 :life
TYPE:
Creature
ATK|HP:
0 | 3
TEXT:
:life : Drain 1 quanta from each player to generate a Fruit of Life. This skill can be used multiple times per turn.
NAME:
Sappling
ELEMENT:
Life
COST:
2 :life
TYPE:
Creature
ATK|HP:
1 | 5
TEXT:
:life : Drain 1 quanta from each player to generate a Fruit of Life. This skill can be used multiple times per turn.

ART:

IDEA:
Me
NOTES:
(https://imgur.com/xg60yQ0.png)
Stackable (not named on the card, but is intended. Similarly, the health gain is also stackable).
If quanta is not taken from at least 1 player, Fruit of Life will not generate.

Balance is probably off, name isn't great, FoL is more of a thematic add-on. This is more of a concept.

So historically, PC and CC for life isn't something looked highly on. Part of this is because giving a card like Explosion to life drastically increases Life's strengths. Life gains a -1 cost to creatures on average, which is why Emerald Dragon has 6 health instead of 5, and Horned Frog is 2 cost compared to Blue Crawler. Adding potent creature/permanent control almost breaks life as an element.

On the other hand, stalls with life aren't anything special. They are commonly overshadowed by Light due to the small amount of utility from Sanctuary, as well as max health gain from SoDiv, and especially, Miracle. Life has none of this, trading it for a slight CC in Thorn Carapace. This, however, isn't enough.

Enter Sappling. Giving Quanta Control to an element that doesn't want CC/PC, as well as a way to gain max health, which it will gladly take. This gives it a niche in a stall over Light, as well as being usable in other situations as general Quanta Control. It isn't too potent in many 30 card decks, because of how passive it is, and helps less in the way of damage than a Devourer would by generating quanta, but is less mismatched than Empathic Bond is (a purely defensive card requiring a predominantly offensive playstyle).

The card, as it's ability assumes, drains 1 quanta from the opponent, and 2 effective quanta from yourself. Life generally has cheap cards, so this isn't too great a problem, and controllable QC also generally heavily benefits the user. 1:1 would have been far too strong, so I settled on a 2:1 ratio.

Rainbow Stalls (the deck, etc) are definite examples of where to use the deck, but it seems rather strange to use a creature in a stall deck, as it seldom occurs normally. SoPa decks, or decks similar, appreciate the capability for the card to slow down the opponent, but can struggle in the quanta generation without cards like Dry Spell. Rustler Sappling semi-stall could be something to look into, but would be an incredibly strange thing to try to do.

I am unsure of the balance of the card. The ability to gain such high amounts of HP with such minimal effort seems strong, but considering you are spending your turn to do so, it seems to balance itself out. The card doesn't so much lock the opponent as it does slow them down, so it seems weak in that sense. But with Quantum Pillars and enough Life generation, locking the opponent is a possibility.
SERIES:

Title: Re: Sappling | Sappling
Post by: Aves on July 16, 2018, 02:23:53 am
I could see a strong combo with Leaf Dragon here. Lockdown by turn 5, maybe?
Title: Re: Sappling | Sappling
Post by: dawn to dusk on July 16, 2018, 02:27:19 am
I could see a strong combo with Leaf Dragon here. Lockdown by turn 5, maybe?
Leaf Dragon was something that I considered, though I didn't really take into account just how potent 6 Dragons, 6 Saplings, 18 Pillars could potentially be
blarg: