Lucky Series Analysis

[doublecross]

In my opinion, the series is slightly underpowered.
However, I think this means that it is more favorable for being added to the game.
The point of new cards shouldn't be to force existing decks to be redone.
They shouldn't ruin old strategies, or make old cards obsolete.
Too many card suggestions are ones that, if added, would lead to many decks going obsolete.
It doesn't have to be that way!
Here is a link to the wonderful Lucky Series, whose cards are weak enough to not ruin existing decks, but strong enough that they would add a new richness, adding their own little bit of complexity.

http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,19030.0.html (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,19030.0.html)

This post is going to merge all my analysis.
Feel free to remove the individual posts. (not sure if that works... new to the forum)
Wishbone

Wishbone.

1 for either one creature gaining airborne or, in effect, casting thunderstorm is not OP.
Reasoning:
airborne is only useful in certain contexts (more so with the new cards), but in almost any scenario, whether or not a creature is airborne does not effect the game.
the other effect is essentially casting thunderstorm (which costs 2).

So, what this card is a half price thunderstorm, with a 50% chance of working. No one (intelligent) would argue that is OP. The airborne effect is nice, and makes the card worth playing.
As a upgraded card, it is much more useful, because to my knowledge, it is the only non-weapon, non-shield permanent that would be effective at countering an infestation.

Even then, it is not OP. Compared to upgraded thunderstorm, it is same damage, same cost, but this has only a 50% proc rate.

Verdict: Not OP. Not useful in all decks, but if you are playing against another air elemental, or against a Hope/RoL deck, or have built your deck around the recent card that temporarily buffs airborne creatures,
it would be a useful, but not OP card.

Suggest changes:
Replace "damage each enemy creature for 1", with "cast thunderstorm", to counter questions like "does it hurt immaterial creatures", which assume is no.

Horseshoe
Horseshoe:

Similar argument to Wishbone.


The creature buff is not OP, for it is the same cost as plate armor (which has the same effect), but, unlike plate armor, this does not always activate, and you cannot chose the target creature.
The bigger question is whether or not the pillar destruction is OP.  When considered in comparison to pulverizer, which can, for a cost of 3, destroy any permanent, or trident's tsunami, which 
for 3 (2 when upgraded) can destroy 3 pillars, OF YOUR CHOSING. This is not OP. Especially considering that the weapons deal damage and this does not.


Verdict:
This is not OP, because its cost is within the range of similar effects from other cards.

Plate armor has the same cost and effect, but is targetable.

Pulverizer can destroy any permanent for a cost of 3, but this can be aimed, and can be any permanent, not a random pillar. This also does damage.

Trident can destroy 3 pillars of your chosing for a cost of 3. This surely beats 50% chance of 1 random pillar, for the cost of 1.  Trident also does damage.

Explosion has an equal cost, but is not limited to towers, can be aimed, and costs fire, which, due to elite fireflies, immolation, and others is marginally easier to produce than earth.
Fish Scale

Fish scale.


This is well balanced as well.

Yes, it can cause a flood, which can insta-kill a number of creatures. However, the game, by default fills the middle row first. This middle row is immune to flooding. (Pets spawn in the lower right
hand corner, but they are not in PvP).    For your opponent to have creatures in the top/bottom rows, 1 of two things is happening.

1) They are kicking your sorry arse.   
In that case, this card gives you a chance to get back in the game. Although not a very good one.

2) They have some sort of infestation going on.
This then has two possibilities
   a)They are causing the infestation. In this case, it is likely the creatures will be replaced quickly, and thus a 1 turn flood didn't damage them that much. Or, they were in the process of
RoL/Hope, in which case they deserve to lose for being a jerk.
or
   b) You are causing the infestation to fill up their creature slots. In this case, it would be silly to call this card OP, because the flood would be working against you.


As to the effect of water generation.
Pay 1 water to maybe get 3 seems fair. True, it would give it better quanta generation than a pillar.  However, it doesn't cluster, and you may only have 6.

Verdict:
Balanced
Matchstick

Matchstick

Balanced. Balanced balanced balanced!


It costs 1 fire.

It may give a temporary +2|+0 to a random creature.

Compare with Chaos power.

It costs 1 entropy.

Gives a permanent {+1,2,3,4,5| +1,2,3,4,5} to a creature of your chosing.

Chaos power has proven itself to be very balanced over the years, and is more powerful than matchstick.






As to the other effect of dealing 3 damage, 50% of the time, there is a fire spell that does atleast 3 damage for 3 fire, and may be used on either creatures or on your opponent, fire lance.
Now, people have complained about fire lance, due to its increasing power based on your amount of fire.
This is clearly less poweful than that, being random and capped at 3 damage.


Verdict:

Slightly UNDERpowered.

Suggestion:
Either make the +2|+0 permanent (like ablaze ability of equal cost)
or
The damage effect chooses a random creature or the opponent (each creature and opponent has equal chance of being the target). That way, it may kill an enemy creature and do something worthwhile.


With either (or even both) of these changes, the spell will still be a weak, but not useless card (it could buff scorpions for example), and the permanent would be well balanced (if still slightly weak)
card compared to other upgraded permanents.

Rabbit's foot

Rabbits foot.


Again balanced, and, like the others, slightly leaning towards underpowered. (However they would be so fun, I personally would still use them)


Math-stuff you have come to expect from me:

Spell version:


1 light to maybe heal 3, and maybe do the effects of a sundial, is what this boils down to.


1 light to heal 3 is on par with other light based healing, but lacks the benefit of being able to heal a creature (or damage a dark one).

1 light for preventing 1 turn of attack is no more expensive than the cost of sundial, and, unlike sundial, doesn't let you draw a card.




Permanent version:

The heal effect makes it a weaker shard of Gratitude, that heals less, and costs quanta.

(To its' credit, it activates before the end of the turn, making it an option for people trying to get an EM)

The attack prevention averages to half of turns having no attack. In effect, this serves the same function as a procrastinate that effects you and you opponent, and also costs light.


Verdict:
Balanced, if slightly weak, just like every card in this series so far.
Loaded Dice

Loaded Dice

This card, like the others, is balanced, this time, refreshingly, leaning in the direction of being useful. (Not that the others are not useful. This one is just ... it could beat up the other
lucky cards so far)

Let me break it down.


Half of the time, it generates 2 darkness, and 1 life, taking 3 quanta and 1 life from your opponent.     [compared to life drain that lets you spend 2 darkness to gain 2+ life, and damage either
a creature or your opponent.)    Compare also to black hole, which, for a cost of 4 gravity, destroys up to 36 quanta, healing you for up to 36

Clearly, not OP

The other half of the time, it steals 3 life (marginally worse than the vampiric weapons), and destroys one of your opponents quanta (the gained darkness goes into paying for the activation)


Verdict: Still not better than cards that already exist, though more fun, and possibly more useful in compound strategies (especially if Gambler|Trickster is included).
Four Leaf Clover

Four Leaf Clover


To save time, I will simply go through each effect, and show why they are not more powerful per quanta than exisiting cards.


The summon Rustler effect spends 1 life quanta to summon a Rustler... which normally costs 1 life.
And this only happens 50% of the time.


The "1 creature attacks twice" effect, well, costs 1 life to make 1 creature attack 1 extra time.

Adrenaline, costs (4 life |3 upgraded), to make 1 creature attack up to 3 extra times, each turn until death do you part.

... I don't think I need to break out the graphs to show why this Four Leaf Clover is not OP compared to what already exists.



Suggestion:

I suggested this earlier, but in order to make this card better able to hold its own against other cards, the summoned rustler should have adrenaline.
Bone Domino

Bone domino:
Gives you a 2 half price skeletons, and puts a bone shield (1) in your shield slot (making it guaranteed to wipe out any other shield there)
or
Gives you 1 skeleton for the normal price, and replaces your current shield with 2 bone shields.


This one is more powerful than skeleton.

However, these days, pretty much anything is more powerful than skeleton.

I know it is not the unarguable mathematics you have come to expect from me, but I will do a simple pros v. cons for this card.
(The reason is the full analysis here is messy to show, and the result can be replicated with pros v. cons)


Pros:
For the cost of 1 skeleton, summons either 1 or 2.
Guaranteed to protect against at least 1 non-momentum'd hit.


Cons:
For 1 quanta, you can do better than an average 1.5 skeletons.
If you have a shield that is better than 1 bone shield, you cannot play this card, for your shield gets replaced.




Suggestion:
This card, as is, is a way to summon one or two skeletons essentially at the cost of your shield.


In non mono-death decks, this card would be next to useless in many scenarios, and I see no good way to salvage that, without re-doing the effect, which I am against.

So, I will focus on making it more useful within mono-death.

In a mono-death deck, you are likely to focus on having a bonewall of several.
As the card effect currently is, playing this when you had a bonewall of (7) would weaken it to a bonewall of either (1) or (2).
This. Is. Bad.


My suggestion is to be clear that, if you already had a bonewall in place when you play this, that you increment the bonewall counter, not replace it.

Thus, (7) would turn to (8 or 9), not (1 or 2)
Crystal Ball

Crystal Ball is balanced.

It is the only card in this set that leans towards OP as opposed to UP, because both of its effects are cheaper than equivalent effects done by other cards.


The reason I am willing to label it as balanced, and not OP, is, once again, that the effect is random.

You may be able to silence your opponent more cheaply than with the card silence.
You may be able to protect yourself from all (non-poison/voodo) damage for a turn for less than a third of a phase shield.

(It is 2 per turn, this is 1)


However, you can't choose, and if you need one of the two effects, you have no way of guarenteeing that you get the one that you need, which justifies the lower cost.



Let me give an example.



Say that there are two companies.

One is willing to heat or cool your house for 10$ per hour.


The other is willing to heat or cool your house for only 7$ per hour. The catch? You don't get to choose which.


'Nuff said.
Weighted Coin

 Verdict: Balanced
Is this surprising?: No it is not.
Will you explain why?: If I must.
Why this format?: Felt like it.

Right, so this card can either put gravity pull on a random enemy creature, or put momentum on a random friendly creature.


For the same cost, you can guarentee momentum for a creature of your choosing.
For the same cost, you can guarentee gravity pull for a creature of your choosing.


This card is clearly weaker than the individual cards.




This card's redeeming qualities come from the re-usable nature of the upgraded one.


The spell version is not useful. The permanent is quite useful.

Neither is OP, but the spell I am willing to call UP.


Suggestion: Assign quanta generation to each effect.

I would suggest that you choose two opposing elements.

(Probably not gravity and entropy)

Then, make it
50%: random enemy gets gravity pulled, and you generate 1 (element)
50%: random ally gets momentum, you generate 1 (other element).


Suggestion [part 2]

If the momentum effect doesn't include the +1|+1 that the momentum card has,
1) slap yourself for making a very weak card
2) fix it


if you don't do step 2), repeat step 1) until you do.


Metronome

Metronome:


Metronome is balanced.

The single use (spell) variant's randomness and untargetability more than makes up for the fact that... it has nothing it needs to make up for.


Rewind costs 1. Precognition costs 2, but it also lets you see your opponent's hand.


Like the rest of these cards (save crystal ball), the spell is leaning towards UP, and the permanent is just right.
Dreamcatcher

Dreamcatcher.

Guess what?
It catches dreams.
Guess what else?
It is balanced.


First off, this is why it is not OP.
It is like a discord that does no damage, costs quanta every turn, and only works 50% of the time.

The other 50% of the time, it inverts the attack of a random creature, which, unless you have pretty much the same number of creatures, and the opponents creatures are, on average, stronger, this
effect is going to tend to help both players equally.



Is this card slightly UP?
yes it is.
Do you have any suggestions?
Glad you asked!



For this card to be worth it, it needs to be more disruptive than discord.


Here is my proposed mechanic(s). [2 ideas = well, twice the ideas to work with]


When the effect is triggered, it takes up to 3 quanta from each of your opponents element  (like black hole does), and then distributes them randomly among the quanta pools of you and your opponent.
[Mild, random quanta steal.]
The reason(s) this isn't OP is/are:
1) Black Hole exists, and it isn't considered OP. That takes way more quanta than this, and turns it into lots of health.
2) Mono or duo decks stand to lose only about 6 quanta (the rest of their pool is safe), and stand to get half of it back
3) Rainbow decks wouldn't mind their quanta being scattered (same reason discord doesn't bother them), and other than the scattering, it only steals on average 1.5 quanta from each element. Not that
game breaking



Mechanic idea number 2

1) Take half of every element in your opponents quanta pool, and randomly distributes them among all the elements that don't match their mark.

This one would be a real nuisance to mono's duo's and even rainbows to a lesser extent.


This would be a powerful card, but not more so than, say, BLACK HOLE, or A GRAVITY NYMPH, or FRACTAL.

Also, if your OP sensor are tingling at mechanic 2, remember the antimatter effect, and how that not only does that bother both players equally, but it also means that this effect would only happen 50%
of turns.


Either way, the current mechanic makes the card slightly UP, but still, I feel it could be useful in emergencies.

A ~25% chance of antimattering your opponent for the cost of 1 antimatter would be something many people would like to have in their hand in case the match takes an ugly turn.
All or Nothing


You may be thinking "this is like a cheap miracle that might not work".
I may be thinking "whoever though that is kinda stupid"


So, person I think is stupid, let me ask you this.
When would you use miracle?
Uuuuuuuhhhhhh.... when your health is low?

what would happen if you used Miracle then?
you would get 99 health!

What would happen if you used All or Nothing then?
Uuuuuuuuhhhhh..... you would double your health. or, go down to 1 health.


How much would you have if you doubled your health?
uuuuuuuuuhhhhh.... Double your small amount?

So, if you are down to 10 health, this card will either take you up to 20 health, or down to 1?
Uuuuhhhh... yeah.

And miracle would always take you to 99?
yeah.


Still think this card is OP?
Yeah! You could use it when you had like, 50 health, then you would go to 100! which is more than 99!.

I hate you.
uuuuuhhhhh.....


You do realize that you would have a 50% chance of losing 49 HP if you did that?
Oh, right.


And that is why this card isn't OP. The only way it will heal a large amount of health is if you are playing against someone stupid enough to wager a large amount of health.

Oh, and a better name for All or Nothing would be Double or Nothing.

[Werdbooty]

Nice, and thank you. I'll have to request that all this be moved to a new thread under Series.

[doublecross]

Nice, and thank you. I'll have to request that all this be moved to a new thread under Series.

You're welcome. I do not give compliments unless they are deserved.

When you move it, could you put in the gambler|trickster ?
It should be low attack, 4 or 5 health, and have an active ability that is a 50% chance of putting a random lucky card in your hand (or just doing the effect, that is a choice you must make) and a 50% chance of some other effect.


Upgraded creature should probably make the upgraded lucky cards.
Other than that, it is entirely up to you.


If you want to not include the gambler|trickster, that works too.



My idea is that (if added) the lucky cards would appear in the bazaar, but the trickster would be a rare.

[EmeraldTiger]

this analysis belongs in design theory.
@doublecross please help OldTrees in the CCC thread.

[doublecross]

this analysis belongs in design theory.

Does it? It is a direct analysis of a specific series?

By the way, I know that my done was ambiguous there. That was not a "Oh, really now. I am challenging you, presenting new information to make you look silly."

Instead, my intended tone is "Does it? I really have no idea. Follow up question?"


So, if it should be moved, how does it get moved? Am I the one to do it?
Apologies for my noobishness when it comes to these matters.

[EmeraldTiger]

The curator can move it.

[doublecross]

The curator can move it.

Sorry for continuing to be a noob, but is the curator some sort of appointed position, or the person who started the thread, or the person whose series is being discussed, or what?

Also, I am voting your karma up for your superhuman patience.

[Werdbooty]

I've made the requests to move both threads to appropriate places.

I'd also like to second the motion that you help OldTrees with the Card Creation. There are a LOT of cards coming every day, and I wonder if any good ideas are getting passed over simply because they don't get seen.

[doublecross]

I've made the requests to move both threads to appropriate places.

I'd also like to second the motion that you help OldTrees with the Card Creation. There are a LOT of cards coming every day, and I wonder if any good ideas are getting passed over simply because they don't get seen.

I would love to help OldTrees.
I do not have infinite time, because my major takes up a decent portion of my time (you will notice that many of my posts are in the wee hours of the morning, for I am often still awake then), but whenever I am free, I am glad to tackle any challenge this forum community throws my direction.

Also, something occurred to me earlier, but it is rather off topic.

Do the rules explicitly forbid members from karma trading or the form "You give me +1, I give you +1".
If it isn't, it should probably be added to the list of minor offenses. I personally would like it to be a major one, but that might be a little harsh.

Also, someone could theoretically frame someone else. For instance, someone could quote me as having said "You give me +1, I give you +1", but leave out the rest of the context.

Hmmmmm.....

[doublecross]

Something I accidentally left out of my analysis is that the upgraded crystal ball is somewhat OP.
Even though no number of crystal balls working together could guarantee a silence every turn, just 3 would give a 7/8 chance of a silence every turn, which is not something we would want.


Several ideas:
1) Make the crystal ball last for a set number of turns (maybe 3)
2) Drastically increase the cost of its ability.
3) Make it such that only one may be active at a time (when you play a new one, the old one disappears)
4) Give them a cooldown.
5) This is similar to 3. Make the crystal ball a shield. Instead of requiring 1  for the ability,
it could have the effect "If you took physical damage this turn, 50% chance of silencing the opponent next turn, 50% chance of being immaterial next turn. Immaterial"


Personally, I like 5 the best. Not only does it make it such that only one may be in play at a time (per person), but it also incorporates aether's trademark "Immaterial."
My favorite part about option 5 is that is provides an additional subtle nerf, which is that it, and another shield cannot both be in play at the same time.  I think this would sufficiently balance the card, and would be add a fun, new dynamic to shields, which haven't seen much variation since wings.