Zanz's Christmas Present - Foraker

[Foraker]

NAME: Grinch's Little Helper ELEMENT: Entropy COST: 3 TYPE: Creature ATK|HP: 1 | 2 TEXT: 4: Hate Absorb 1 quantum from your opponent. This skill can be used multiple times per turn.	NAME: Grinch ELEMENT: Entropy COST: 5 TYPE: Creature ATK|HP: 2 | 4 TEXT: 4: Hate Absorb 1 quantum from your opponent. This skill can be used multiple times per turn.

ART: This guy who made the background IDEA: Foraker NOTES: Imo entropy fits the thematic better than any other element. Also does hatred always cost you much more than you can ever profit of it. The ability works the same way, the devourer mechanic does, except that it doesn't convert the absorbed quanta. I'm not sure about the creature/ability cost or the creature stats, because it's the first card I've ever submitted. SERIES: -

[Treldon]

Lower the skill cost to 3 quanta and it might be useable. With current cost it simply isn't worth the effort

[Foraker]

Lower the skill cost to 3 quanta and it might be useable. With current cost it simply isn't worth the effort

Even a cost of 4 was imo not enough.
Because with a cost of 4 one Quantum Pillar/Tower pays the skill cost once.
It is intended as a card for a mono entropy quanta denial deck, in which novas/supernovas are useful.
A nova lets you use the skill 2 times and a supernova 5 times (with a skill cost of 5).
With discord together and the possibility to use both cards with butterfly effect, the cost of 5 seemed reasonable to me.

If the skill cost would be 4, I also think that a dischole gravity/entropy duo would benefit too much from this card.
Long story short: Imo is a cost of 3 way too cheap. But 4 could be better than the actual 5.

[Espithel]

Format the ability cost to  "5: Hate" or "5 - Hate:".
Without an element, a number already means and adding in random quanta is redundant. And causes confusion.

[DoubleCapitals]

[CuCN]

With SoR I would expect it to work like Rustler, allowing the ability to be used only twice (iirc) per turn.

[DoubleCapitals]

Once, I checked. Sorry for the mistake Carry on

[Foraker]

Format the ability cost to  "5: Hate" or "5 - Hate:".
Without an element, a number already means and adding in random quanta is redundant. And causes confusion.

Good to know. I was sure, if I don't add it, the first reply would be: 5 what?

[Devourer]

Consider that devourer uses 2  for an indefinite 1 quanta drain each turn. Black Hole uses 4 for up to 36 quanta drain. Compare those to Grinch, 5 quanta for 1 drain. Imo it doesn't matter so much that it can be used so much each turn, because the efficiency is still not worth it. A supernova that costs 2 gives 5 uses of the skill and drains almost all your quanta gained, and doesn't even do much to the opponent. And supernova only lasts one turn. If we talk about quantum pillars, 2 of them barely covers the cost of 1 use. So for each 2 quantum pillars, you get 1 use per turn. That does almost nothing to the opponent in the vast majority of decks.

I support lowering the cost to 4. 3 would be too much considering the skill can be used more than once per turn.
EDIT: I'm also confused about what form the quanta returns in. Absorbing quanta is used in devourer to mean returned as quanta, and used in black hole to mean returned as health. The wording is a bit ambiguous.

[Treldon]

Have to agree, currently it is not clear what it does with the quanta it takes from opponent.

On first read I though it is simply removed from the opponent, but it might as well give you 1 . At least then it would be partly self-supporting

[Foraker]

EDIT: I'm also confused about what form the quanta returns in. Absorbing quanta is used in devourer to mean returned as quanta, and used in black hole to mean returned as health. The wording is a bit ambiguous.

Have to agree, currently it is not clear what it does with the quanta it takes from opponent.

On first read I though it is simply removed from the opponent, but it might as well give you 1 . At least then it would be partly self-supporting

It works the same way, the devourer mechanic does. Except that it doesn't convert the quanta it absorbs.
It absorbs  , you get  . I'm going to write that into the notes.

Consider that devourer uses 2  for an indefinite 1 quanta drain each turn. Black Hole uses 4 for up to 36 quanta drain. Compare those to Grinch, 5 quanta for 1 drain. Imo it doesn't matter so much that it can be used so much each turn, because the efficiency is still not worth it. A supernova that costs 2 gives 5 uses of the skill and drains almost all your quanta gained, and doesn't even do much to the opponent. And supernova only lasts one turn. If we talk about quantum pillars, 2 of them barely covers the cost of 1 use. So for each 2 quantum pillars, you get 1 use per turn. That does almost nothing to the opponent in the vast majority of decks.

I support lowering the cost to 4. 3 would be too much considering the skill can be used more than once per turn.

I support lowering the cost to 4, too. I just don't want it to be able to shutdown monos too easily.
Especially in unupped PvP, which is for me the primary thing to consider, when it comes to balance.
Upped it's even easier to produce  . And as a pure PvE player, the decision was a bit tough.

What lead me to 5 was:

Spoiler for unexperienced PvP argumentation/theory:

Imagine running Grinch's Little Helper only with quantum pillars.
You've got the first turn and you start with one Grinch's Little Helper and 6 quantum pillars.
You play the quantum pillars and end your turn.
We assume that they produce 3 (best case scenario) and your mark 1 .
So you've got 15 and your 4 needed for playing the card.
On your 2nd turn you draw a pillar, you play it and the creature, then end your turn.
You get another 21 and an from your mark, which makes a total of 37 .
On your 3rd turn (also assuming, that your enemy has no CC or quanta denial), you can use the ability 9 times.
If you've drawn a pillar again, you can use the ability from now on at least 6 times every turn.
That's the denial from 6 devourers starting at the 3rd turn. Even that was imo much to handle for a mono.
With a cost of 4, you can use the ability in the same scenario 12 times at the 3rd turn and on every following turn 8 times.
I know that this scenario is unrealistic and that you shutdown yourself, but it lead me
to the thought, that a ability cost of 4 would be too op against monos in unupped PvP.
I'm still not sure if a cost of 4 or 5 is better, I just wanted to explain why I chose 5 over 4.
If you guys still think, that 5 is too much, then I'll change the cost to 4.

[Devourer]

My response is that 1 Grinch and 6 QP is relatively unlikely, as is the luck implied in gaining the necessary 3  quanta on the first turn. Besides which, at that point, many monos will also have enough quanta generation to hold you off, or use control to kill the Grinch. I don't think the card is OP, at least not more so than such commonly used cards as Black Hole or SoFo, but it does lead to another thought.
I think the health should be lowered, because it is potentially so devastating if not taken care of quickly. 3|4 health puts it out of the range of many CC cards, and I think that this creature that has the potential to be so powerful under the right circumstances, if a bit weak under the wrong ones, should be more fragile than 3|4.