Beacon of Life | Beacon of Life

[AD TienzuStorm]

NAME: Beacon of Life ELEMENT: Life COST: 5 TYPE: Permanent TEXT: Every turn, there is a 50% chance for a vanilla creature of your mark to appear on your field	NAME: Beacon of Life ELEMENT: Life COST: 5 TYPE: Permanent TEXT: Every turn, there is a 50% chance for an upgraded vanilla creature of your mark to appear on your field

ART: No art this time.. too lazy now. IDEA: AD Storm Bolt NOTES: Alright, I know I haven't done this in a while, but I'm back! Yay. Celebrations. Whoo. FitG #4: Realm These cards are permanents that decide the place where the battle takes place. Examples that are in game are Flooding and Nightfall. This card, albeit not necessarily a place (although it technically could be.. I mean, why not), fits under the category of Realms. Disclaimer: This card cannot generate dragons, only smaller vanilla creatures like Blue Crawler, Photon, etc. Here's a list of cards that can be generated: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] 4ve 55n 58q 5bu 5c0 5f1 5i6 5l9 61p 6tu 747 77a 7ae 7ag 7gm 809 8pt For the elements that have no vanilla creature (Death, Time, and Darkness unupped and upped; Fire and Light upped only), semi-vanilla creatures will be generated: Hover over cards for details, click for permalink Deck import code : [Select] 52m 52t 5rt 5ru 5v0 716 71d 7ds 7jp 7qd 7qe 7tg 8pt The elemental synergy here goes with almost every element, since getting a free creature is pretty big (unless you're Aether, since.. whoo. Sparks.). But, a notable one is with Earth (upped), because you can get the sturdy Steel Golem that really packs a punch as well. One particular combo would be a trio with Life, Aether, and Death. Have a mark of Aether, Beacon of Life, and Soul Catchers along with Bonewall, Condor, Graveyard, etc. A steady stream of death effects from the Beacon would supply you with Death quanta, meaning that you'd only need Life pillars, which is rather queer in a trio. SERIES: FitG (Filling in the Gaps)

[Basman-1453]

Consider adding Phase Spiders (but unsure 'bout Phase Recluses) into the list of possible additions. Also, consider swapping Minor Phoenixes for Brimstone Eaters.

Also, Ghosts? They're pretty expensive, normally costing 6/7 and quite the bargain to randomly get (thus why I'm unsure about adding Phase Recluse).

Does the effect of multiple Beacons of Life occurs independently?

[AD TienzuStorm]

Well, the chances to get a GotP would be at 25%, since there's also the Dune Scorpion. Maybe I should add in Deja Vu to make the chance even lower? I just wanted to add the ghost in for some variety, since not all of life is weak, there are strong creatures that can be drawn in by the beacon as well.

Adding Phase Spider/Recluse would be interesting, I think I'll only add the spider just to keep the combo with Sparks and BLs.

I'm thinking about having only one take effect (similar to Nightfall|Eclipse) to prevent very powerful swarming decks with bonds (a mono Life deck could have the potential to fill the board very quickly with powerful attackers).

[iDaire]

Well, the chances to get a GotP would be at 25%, since there's also the Dune Scorpion. Maybe I should replace it with Deja Vu to reduce the power of the card.

Corrected. It's not OP, but that's powerful.

[Basman-1453]

Well, the chances to get a GotP would be at 25%, since there's also the Dune Scorpion. Maybe I should replace it with Deja Vu to reduce the power of the card.

Corrected. It's not OP, but that's powerful.

This. I'd also consider replacing one of Life's random critters with Rustler/Leaf Dragon, Earth's random critter with Gnome Rider/Gnome Gemrider, and probably Abyss Crawler (upped only, the unupped version is fine) with Ultiharid.

One free GotP (emphasis free) in an average of four turns is not something to be played with.

[OldTrees]

I would suggest keeping to Vanilla and Semivanilla creatures when possible so that the in game text matches the in game effect. I notice that your list of Semivanilla creatures has some non Semivanilla creatures on it (Dune Scorpion, Voodoo Doll, and Ray of Light) and excluded some others like (Deja Vu, and Gargoyle).

I will edit in a semi vanilla list.
Edit:
Guardian Angel|Archangel
Parasite|Bloodsucker (is a bit inefficient for a semivanilla and Death elementals might correct me on this one)
Gargoyle (mono Darkness ignores its ability with no regrets)
Firefly|Elite Firefly (the generated quanta is less likely to be used since it would be a 3rd quanta type)
anything with Burrow (Antlion, Shrieker)
Lycanthrope|Werewolf (only for some of the subtle variations in the semivanilla definition)
Phoenix|Minor Phoenix
Seraph|Seraph
Toadfish|
Flesh Spider|Flesh Recluse
Skeleton|Elite Skeleton
Mummy|Elite Mummy
Phase Spider|Phase Recluse
Phase Salvager|Phase Salvager
Deja Vu|Elite Deja Vu
Ghost of the Past|Ghost of the Past

Edit 2:
I notice having the unupped card only generate unupped creatures (and vice versa) makes for weird balance with things like Micro Abomination. An alternative would be to remove the restriction and raise the unupped cost a bit.

Edit 3:
Assuming the restriction was removed:
Entropy and Life give the least flexibility so let's take them as a baseline. We should be aiming at roughly a 3-4|3-4 average between options.
Earth is a bit strong as is, so I would add Antlion to adjust it downwards slightly.
Light is a bit weak so I would add in the Angels and remove Ray of Light.
Aether is weak so I would either add in Phase Spider|Recluse. Adding Phase Salvager would be an option.
Fire is looking good with Fire Eater + Minor Phoenix
Death would be fine with Skeleton, Spider, and Mummy
Darkness should not get Voodoo Doll(obviously not a semivanilla). Gargoyle for sure and maybe Parasite to tone it down a bit.
Time is a bit harder since you have Ghost to deal with. Ghost + Deja Vu is still a bit high in comparison to the other elements' options. Ghost(unupped) + Deja Vu + Elite Deja Vu (so a 1:2 ratio of Ghosts to Deja Vus) could work.

[AD TienzuStorm]

Spoiler for saving space:

I would suggest keeping to Vanilla and Semivanilla creatures when possible so that the in game text matches the in game effect. I notice that your list of Semivanilla creatures has some non Semivanilla creatures on it (Dune Scorpion, Voodoo Doll, and Ray of Light) and excluded some others like (Deja Vu, and Gargoyle).

I will edit in a semi vanilla list.
Guardian Angel|Archangel
Parasite|Bloodsucker (is a bit inefficient for a semivanilla and Death elementals might correct me on this one)
Gargoyle (mono Darkness ignores its ability with no regrets)
Firefly|Elite Firefly (the generated quanta is less likely to be used since it would be a 3rd quanta type)
anything with Burrow (Antlion, Shrieker)
Lycanthrope|Werewolf (only for some of the subtle variations in the semivanilla definition)
Phoenix|Minor Phoenix
Seraph|Seraph
Toadfish|
Flesh Spider|Flesh Recluse
Skeleton|Elite Skeleton
Mummy|Elite Mummy
Phase Spider|Phase Recluse
Phase Salvager|Phase Salvager
Deja Vu|Elite Deja Vu
Ghost of the Past|Ghost of the Past

Hm, but aren't Semi Vanilla creatures the ones that have an effect but doesn't need to be triggered at all? I've always thought of it that way, so that's why Dune and Voodoo are on there. RoL is only there because I didn't want to put on Archangel for the only upgraded Light creature (although I suppose Pegasi could work considering it would have to be a trio).

[Annele]

Abilities that don't need to be triggered are called passives, and if they can be lobotomised, they are passive actives.
The card's a neat idea, but imo 'vanilla' is too arbitary with the cards we have currently in-game. I personally would make the beacon just produce weak (low atk) and/or small (low hp) creatures, but I dunno if that fits the thematic values you had in mind.

[ddevans96]

Darkness should not get Voodoo Doll(obviously not a semivanilla).

Voodoo's only ability is the Voodoo passive, it has no active ability. I'd say that it's even closer to vanilla than semivanilla.

[OldTrees]

Hm, but aren't Semi Vanilla creatures the ones that have an effect but doesn't need to be triggered at all? I've always thought of it that way, so that's why Dune and Voodoo are on there. RoL is only there because I didn't want to put on Archangel for the only upgraded Light creature (although I suppose Pegasi could work considering it would have to be a trio).

No.
Vanilla means no abilities.
Semivanilla means no abilities that affect the balanced cost of the card. It was coined to describe cards that were balanced as if they did not have an ability but did have a flavorful ability (Burrow, Airborne, Undead, ...)
When it was coined some included effects that were one use that would leave a vanilla creature (Werewolf) to describe how the creature would become vanilla quickly.

Abilities that don't need to be triggered are called passives, and if they can be lobotomised, they are passive actives.
The card's a neat idea, but imo 'vanilla' is too arbitary with the cards we have currently in-game. I personally would make the beacon just produce weak (low atk) and/or small (low hp) creatures, but I dunno if that fits the thematic values you had in mind.

No. Passive abilities are the abilities that can't be lobotomized. Active abilities are the ones that are in the active ability slot (creatures can have as many passive abilities as they want but only 1 active ability like Vampire or Growth). The naming comes from the code, not from being "activated".

Darkness should not get Voodoo Doll(obviously not a semivanilla).

Voodoo's only ability is the Voodoo passive, it has no active ability. I'd say that it's even closer to vanilla than semivanilla.

Vanilla means no abilities.
Semivanilla means no abilities that affect the balanced cost of the card.
Voodoo Doll's entire point is its ability therefore it is neither Vanilla nor Semivanilla.

[Espithel]

What I would recommend is, instead of making it a vanilla/semi vanilla creature, making it a random creature of your element that costs 4 or less.

[Basman-1453]

What I would recommend is, instead of making it a vanilla/semi vanilla creature, making it a random creature of your element that costs 4 or less.

Anything 4 or less? No. There are quite a few mid-range hitmen that resides on the higher-end of that spectrum. The number of tides it can turn if it decides to turn something like that up early can be over 9000.