Elements 1.26

[Malduk]

You know "don't use FGs to determine balance"?  Let me add a corollary:  "Don't use EMs to determine balance."  It's idiotic.  Now, feral bond should really have its nerf undone anyway, NOT because of this change, but because it's UP.  FB was only used so much because it was the only decent form of healing widely available.  Miracle is a rare, so it wasn't used in beginner's FG decks, and it doesn't let you EM, so people didn't want to use it solely.  With the FFQ nerf its only other use was nipped in the bid anyway.

Similarly, FFQ didn't really need the nerf.  It was and is used so much because it was the only way to make lots of creatures.  Even now, what else are you going to use?  Pharaoh?  Even more expensive, less damaging, and of a worse element.  Aflatoxin?  Requires two cards and more time to set up.  Also doesn't do much damage.  Low substitutability makes for high usage.

What he said, with slight remark: Feral Bond is UP only due to current metagame where building up an army in practice is possible only with Fractal. And you usually dont need Bond after Fractal.
Afla, creature generating creatures, or simply playing creatures from hand, is too slow for the game, so people generally take overpowered SoG.

Give us means to spam our board fast, even with 0|X creatures, and Feral Bond will be a super strong card. If we had a card that say generates 5 0|4 creatures on the field when played, hell yeah I'd use Feral Bond. Nothing else heals for up to 23 per turn, per Bond.
IMO, no need to lower cost on Bonds; I'd rather have a decent way to spam creatures. Maybe Flood will see some use then too.

[Falcon4415]

The Bond nerf also prejudices the player using them in the (very specific) scenario of a Bonds vs Gravity Pull Voodoo Dolls, so this is good for everybody grinding with Shak'ar's revenge or similar, and as Bonds don't see light that much in PvP, this is in theory good for everybody.

[EvaRia]

Fractal will not be the only alternative to spawn copies soon.

Zanz mentioned a Life card that will give a creature the ability to spawn copies of itself.

[Memorystick]

. The cards that can cause infection are: virus|retrovirus, plague|improved plague, aflatoxin, grey nymph|death nymph (although afla and the nymph replace it with a malignant cell), chaos seed, pandemonium, parasite|bloodsucker, liquid shadow, black nymph|dark nymph, and thorn carapace|spine carapace (that's 4 elements with access to mass/reusable infection, and others can splash).

I think you missed Toadfish. But also, Aflatoxin/Death Nymph wouldn't affect Feral Bond, since you would be replacing the creature 1:1 anyway. The rest are valid, though, and I agree that maybe a 1 decrease in cost could be warranted.

Ah, yes, I did forget toadfish (mainly because I don't use it ) I included afla and death nymph because, while they won't affect feral bond, they do cause infection, which I was listing. I'll edit in / toadfish now.

Fractal will not be the only alternative to spawn copies soon.

Zanz mentioned a Life card that will give a creature the ability to spawn copies of itself.

Really? Epic. Did he say if it'll overrwrite the existing ability or be a passive? *imagines using this card on scarabs*

[EvaRia]

It will overwrite the ability, and I think it will spawn in your hand to prevent SoR Abuse.

[Malduk]

Fractal will not be the only alternative to spawn copies soon.

Zanz mentioned a Life card that will give a creature the ability to spawn copies of itself.

It will overwrite the ability, and I think it will spawn in your hand to prevent SoR Abuse.

It is unlikely that will be a good option for fast creature swarm. Creature that gives you copies of already played creatures is epic regardless (well, depending on its implementation).

[confetti]

first of all thanks to zanz for doing a great job!!!

looks lika an new great update to come...

just about the idea of t500 i am not so sure - of course the stupid farming should be somehow limited. on the other hand: the idea of rare cards that you might get very difficult is not a good one (especially if you realy need them to build competitive decks).

In my point rare cards (if this "rare thing" really is a must) should be more like collectors cards - quite "useless" 

so if zanz puts a lot of effort in relizing new ideas - why limit players using them?

so...

greetings,
c.

[Marvaddin]

Just let me ask again... is there a reason for Bonds nerf? Is it needed? I think the card is not broken, so no need to fix. Want to reduce turn time, use low quality settings.

[suxerz]

Just let me ask again... is there a reason for Bonds nerf? Is it needed? I think the card is not broken, so no need to fix. Want to reduce turn time, use low quality settings.

I might be wrong about this, but I'm pretty sure that this is to correct few bugs; namely the voodoo dolls  (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,16712.msg237768#msg237768)and vampire  (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,16131.msg220331#msg220331)bugs.

With that said, I don't like the nerf either, but killing bugs is more important.

[Kamietsu]

Just let me ask again... is there a reason for Bonds nerf? Is it needed? I think the card is not broken, so no need to fix. Want to reduce turn time, use low quality settings.

It's an indirect nerf, I believe. It was causing a few bugs, so in order to fix that, the mechanic was slightly changed.

Edit: Ninja'd

[Essence]

Give us means to spam our board fast,

Alpha Wolf should make it into the Armory within the next 24 hours.  Maybe Zanz'll see it before he decides to be done with this round of card creation.

[BluePriest]

bond changing is not a nerf... Not allowing you to get EMs does not nerf the card. It just changes the mechanics. It effects the battles in NO way whatsoever. the only thing it effects is your electrum... If anything, Zanz mentioned actually BUFFING bond i do believe... (cant find the reference, so maybe I was imagining it... hmmm..)