Project: The 13th Element

[Scaredgirl]

Disclaimer: I don't generally start projects in this section. This is just a an example of what kind of projects we could have in Idea Factory, and it's a good way to get things started. After this one, all projects will be started by Idea Guru or Idea Factory members.

The 13th Element

Although Elements getting a 13th element any time soon is highly unlikely, it's still and interesting thing to consider. If there was a 13th element, what should it be called? What kind of strengths and weaknesses it would have? What kind of cards it would have? etc.

It's time for the brilliant minds of the Idea Factory to come up with a 13th element that would fit Elements.

Project goals:

• Name and theme for this new element
• Strengths and weaknesses
• Synergy with other elements
• 12 new cards from this new element (6 creatures, 3 spells, 3 permanents)
• Optional: Since all current elements have their counterparts, find a name and theme for that opposing element (14th element)

Because the Idea Factory is new, there is absolutely no rush with this project. It can take weeks or even months, no problem.

Lets get started. Please post your ideas here. Thanks.

Update:
Mind Mark
by Flayne

Mind Cards
Designed
Mental Pillar | Mental Tower
     Each turn is generated.
     (upped:Gain 1 extra when you play this card.)

Mind Pendulum | Mind Pendulum (upped)
     Alternatively generate and 1 quanta matching your mark.
     (upped:Gain 1 extra when you play this card.)

Mind Mark | Mind Mark (upped)
     Each turn is generated.
     (upped:Gain 1 extra when you play this card.)

Meme
     Cost: 3
     Stats: 2|3
     :Generate a Meme that enters play delayed for 1 turn.
Viral Thought
     Cost: 2
     Stats: 2|5
     :Generate a Meme that enters play delayed for 1 turn.

Psionist
     4
     Stats: 3|4
     This creature deals spell damage instead of physical damage. It is reflected but not blocked.
Psion
     4
     Stats: 5|6
     This creature deals spell damage instead of physical damage. It is reflected but not blocked.

Dementia (alchemy)
     5|4
     Target creature or permanent (excluding pillars) has a 50% chance to delay itself for 3 turns whenever it attacks or uses a skill.

Mind Hunter
     3
     Stats: 2|2
     : Hypnosis: Use target creature's activated ability.
Mind Hunter (upped)
     3
     Stats: 2|4
     : Hypnosis: Use target creature's activated ability.

Psi Nymph
     Casting Cost: 8
     Stats: 4|4
: Dementia
Mind Nymph
     Casting Cost: 8
     Stats: 5|7
: Dementia

Confusion Guard
     6|4
     Shield: damage dealt to you from physical damage sources is reduced by 1. Attacking creatures have a 30% chance to attack the opponent instead.

Psi Dragon
     9
     Stats: 8|6
Mind Dragon
    11
     Stats:11|6

Forget (spell)
     1|0
     Discard a card, and gain 5 and 1/3 its casting cost.

Joy (spell)
     4|3
     Heal 4 HP per card in your hand.

Psychometabolism | Psychometabolism (spell)
     2 |1
     Target creature gains +1|+0 for every 2 cards in your hand.

To be balanced
Dream Edge (permanent:weapon)
     4|4
     Weapon: Deal 6 damage at the end of every turn
     Creates a random Mind Card in you hand each turn
     (upped:Creates a random upgraded Mind Card in you hand each turn)

Spectre of Imagination (creature)
     6|5
     Atk: 7|7
     HP: 1|1

[OldTrees]

Pillar: Mental Pillar|Mental Tower
     Each turn is generated.
     Gain 1 extra when you play this card.

Pendulum: Mind Pendulum|Mind Pendulum
     Alternatively generate and 1 quanta matching your mark.
     Gain 1 extra when you play this card.
Shield: Confusion Guard
     7|5
     Shield: The attacking creatures have a 30% chance to attack the opponent instead.

Shield: Mind Shield
Cost: 6 psi
Ability:Creatures with an attack higher than 9 are unable to reach you.

Weapon: Dream Edge
     4|4
     Weapon: Deal 6 damage at the end of every turn
     Creates a random Mind Card in you hand each turn
     Creates a random upgraded Mind Card in you hand each turn

Weapon: Psi Blade | Mind Blade
     4|4
     Weapon: Deal 5|7 damage at the end of every turn
     This weapon deals spell damage not physical damage. It is reflected but not blocked.
     HP (when flown): 4|5
Bonus Permanent: Revenge
     5|4
     All creatures gain +1|+0 for every 10 HP you have lost.
     All creatures gain +1|+1 for every 10 HP you have lost.

Bonus Permanent: Morale
     4|5     
     All your creatures gain +1|+1.
     All your creatures gain +2|+2.

Bonus Permanent: Psi Link
     3|5
     Gain per creature per turn.
     Gain per creature per turn.
     Absorb

Bonus Permanent: Psi Spire | Psigate
     3 |2
     You can see the top card of your deck.
      : Reveal the top card of your opponent's deck.

Bonus Permanent: Biofeedback | Biofeedback
     4 |3
     Every time you play a spell, you gain 5 hp.
Bonus Spell: Joy
     3|2
     Heal 5 HP per card in your hand.

Bonus Spell: Forget type 1
     0|0
     Discard a card, and gain 10
     Discard a card, and gain 12

Bonus Spell: Forget type 2
     0|0
     Discard a card, and gain double its cost in

Bonus Spell: Psychometabolism | Psychometabolism
     4 |3
     Target creature gains +1/+0 for every card in your hand.
Alchemy: Dementia
     5|4
     Target creature or permanent (excluding pillars) has a 30% chance to delay itself for 3 turns whenever it attacks or uses a skill.

Nymph: Psi Nymph|Mind Nymph
     Casting Cost: 9|9
     Atk: 2|3
     HP: 2|7
     |: Dementia
Dragon: Psi Dragon|Mind Dragon
     10|12
     Atk: 9|12
     HP: 6|6Bonus Creature: Mind Hunter
     3|2
     Atk: 2|2
     HP: 3|3
     : Hypnosis: Use target creature's activated ability.

Bonus Creature: Spectre of Imagination
     6|5
     Atk: 7|7
     HP: 1|1

Bonus Creature: Meme
     4|3
     Atk: 2|3
     HP: 4|5
     :Mitosis

Bonus Creature: Projection | Projection
     3|4
     Atk: 3|6
     HP: 4|4

Bonus Creature: Psionist
     3|4
     Atk: 3|5
     HP: 2|2
     This creature deals spell damage instead of physical damage. It is reflected but not blocked.

Creature: Psi Slayer
Cost: 5
Passive ability: Mind clog: Attacks opponents quanta.

Creature: Hypnotic Wanderer
Cost: 4
Ability (repetitive use):
: Mental dissipation: Target creature gains dream state. 40% chance it attacks itself.

Creature: Dream Creator.
Cost: 5
ability (repetitive use):
: Sleep: Creature gains sleep status: is delayed for 2 turns
If creature with sleep status is targeted by nightmare, 6 hp (max) is drained from creature.

Ideally this new element can be designed so that, like Void, it does not necessitate but leaves open the possibility for the quanta system of ETG to be changed to include an additional quanta resource.

So with this in mind lets open the discussion to ideas.

One possibility is an Element based around sacrifice.
Name: Blood?

• Each Card would cost 0+hp to cast.
• Some would reduce your max hp
• At least half to would require a targeted sacrifice of a Creature, Permanent or Card in your hand.

[moomoose]

blood isnt a bad idea, it seems like it could fit somewhere between life and death theme-wise.  sacrifice does sound like the logical thread to go with, as death with upon death mechanics.  sacrifices could be made of/by creatures, owners HP and possibly quanta or permanents.

personally i would think that if there were to be a 13th element, it should have/use its own new designated quanta resource, or it will seem more like a psuedo-element, or baby brother element.

my spit-balling for another possibility for a new element would be another abstract/intangible element.  something along the lines of "emotion".  stringing that idea out, since some emotions can be linked to existing elements, that would leave plenty of room for synergy with such decks.

[ZephyrPhantom]

I would like to link my Compilation of Pseudo-Elements (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,24822.0.html) thread where I have gathered some promising suggestions for Pseudo-elements as well as being a thread where Pseudo-elements and sub-elements can be suggested and discussed by the general forum.  We could use this to suggest new-pseudo elements every now and then and see what others think of it.

[OldTrees]

To make the intentions of this thread clear. We will be producing 1 new element/pseudo element/other name. We probably should differentiate between these options by the type of resource used for the Cost. Once we decide on a cost then we can develop the theme of the effects and types of cards. For suggestions that would create a new quanta pool please provide a name for that resource.

Also I would like only suggested ideas to be discussed. If it is worth discussing, suggest it.

[ZephyrPhantom]

I think that previous Pseudo-elements may help inspire us.

I would like to suggest Blood's counterpart as a possible pseudo-element of sacrifice - Spirit.

• Card costs Max HP as opposed to normal HP. (This does not change your current HP if your Max HP is not reduced far enough. For example I have 50 HP and 100 Max HP. I play a 7-cost Spirit card and lose 7 Max HP, but no current HP.)
• Some Spirit cards damage your current HP to restore your Max HP. Spirit Pillar | Spirit Tower (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,24827.0.html) is a rough idea of this concept.
• "Catch" Mechanic : Requires quantum of your mark, or may alter or delay your mark - in order to prolong your spirit you will need to make bodily sacrifices.

[OldTrees]

When I suggested Blood I tried to combine all forms of sacrifice (borrowing from past ideas like blood and Spirit) as costs to make it so it was a single type of cost. Hence it would be able to sacrifice max hp, or quanta.

Unlike the pseudo-elements I borrowed from, Blood's strategy is still undefined for a later stage in this process.

Current suggestions:
Blood: sacrificing resources as an energy source
Spirit: sacrificing max hp or mark quanta as an energy source

(We can leave deciding strategies till after an element is picked. But the names will have some impact down the road on what strategies fit with the name. Choose a name carefully.)

[Flayne]

I find that the Spirit Idea is very interesting.
In most cases, a spirit can be defined as an immaterial being that transcends the laws of physics, In other words, not the same as aether which needs certain laws of physics and has its way with universal properties (dimensions, phasing, etc.) even though being immaterial is, correct me if i'm wrong, mostly associated with aether, at the moment.
However, since a spirit is most likely hard to challenge or even touch as an immaterial being, It may represent immortality even more so than aether.
When I think of a creature card set for Spirit, I think of immaterial creatures with draw backs or limits, such as hp draining as stated by OT and upkeep costs, as spirits may be in someway associated with souls but not the same;
since they are summoned from their realm, they don't come cheap.

here's my general view on spirits:

Spirits are inhuman immaterial beings, in more modern terms demons, angels, deitys etc.
these beings have access to where souls run about, they may intermingle amongst them but aren't necessarily souls themselves, however they are able to be summoned by elementals and have the option to serve them, though from doing so, the elemental must also pay tribute to them for their services,
in other words hp or quanta upkeep, to keep them connected with the mortal world.

A Spirit elemental, even though being a type of Spirit, conditions in summoning other spirits apply to them just as they do to other elementals from different elements; just as how humans are "paid" to do jobs for other humans.

Thats my view on the Spirit element.


I am a little skeptical on the Blood idea, since Blood is composed of plasma, which in turn is composed of water and salt.
It's not as independent as one would think, possibly being a property of water itself in the case of elements.
However, we could associate Blood with Spirits in some sense.
Spirits may require hp sacrifice, life force, blood.
It doesn't necessarily mean they are vampires or live on blood in anyway, no. It simply means they are taking up the entire life force of whomever has summoned it in order to stay connected to the mortal world, even perhaps being some kind of a new taste or energy source for them.
Spirits in necromancy for example.
There is a rule when summoning a non-human spirit:
The spirit you are summoning must not be stronger than the summoner, otherwise the spirit may drain all life force from the summoner, killing them. Same applies to summoning multilple spirits at once, more spirits, more life force drained, summoning too many is obviously going to kill the summoner.
The Life force (hp) Is simply a way to keep the Spirit in the mortal world, and maybe even give the spirit pleasure or satisfying some kind of hunger with life force.

I reckon we could merge both the Blood and Spirit ideas according to what I said, both being a factor of sacrificial mechanics.

[OldTrees]

You are right that Blood is not a good name to describe the general Sacrifice cost based Element idea. For now lets just refer to it as Sacrifice until someone has a better name.

[Essence]

'Soul' would be a term that could capture both the sacrifical elements of blood and the transcendent elements of Spirit.

Also makes for a good 'separated' Element that would, by nature, be apart from the normal oppositional-pairs nature of the existing 12 Elements. 

[OldTrees]

So far all suggestions point to [Soul -- Costs:Multiple types of sacrifices].
Do we have any other element suggestions?

[Essence]

Machinery.

Abstraction/Language/Runes.

Phosphorous.

Imagination.

Humanity.

Divinity.

Heart.

Synergy.