Card Suggestion - Conduit

[akromat]

Conduit
3
Permanent
  :Channel - Steal the ability from target creature. That creature loses its ability and conduit gains it.

I'm pretty new to Elements and I'm surprised there isn't a card like this yet. It would serve to functionally strip a threatening creature of an ability or to retain the ability of a creature about to die. Say if your Mind Flayer is about to die from poison or fire shield. Obviously once used, it would lose the channel ability. Similar to a Fallen Elf mutating itself.

The quanta colors are more-or-less arbitrary but the numbers seem right.

[Kael Hate]

I like the idea but there are some complexities.

- Aether is the Element of Heavens and Alternate Universe the other side of the physical. What does Conduit mean to Aether? What actually is the Conduit?

- As a permanent what happens if it steals Growth or Devour which is an ability measured against Damage/Life? What about DejaVu?

[bobcamel]

Indead. Should be a creature to avoid such problems.

Aside from that, ether is the element of messing with abilities as of Lobotomizer, and Darknesse is the element of stealing. So, sounds fine.

Good card, I must say. Of course, suggested multiple times before, but

[akromat]

@Kael Hate - One of the definitions of Conduit: "A means by which something is transmitted." I only named it as such because it's transferring an ability.

As silly as it sounds, stealing growth/ablaze may not do anything for the permanent, but it may sometimes still be worth it if a creature is getting too pumped up. I would say just make it so it can have hp/ap but not attack. I guess it depends on if permanents can have hp or not. Since weapons can, I don't see it being to much of a problem to implement. Of course this would require adding some code but then again, that comes with the territory of adding and new mechanic.

@bobcamel - I wanted this idea to NOT be on a creature because currently, whoever gets their control pieces out first basically wins the game. Dropping a permanent can take care of a Otyguh or Mind Flayer that are already on the field. A creature usually can't unless you make it immortal as soon as it is played. I kind of wanted this to be an alternative to that.

[bobcamel]

Then do something about the Devour/Growth dilemma.

You see, they cannot have any stats, them permanents. Weapons, when flown, become a completely different card - think of it as of the Pillar-Nymph-Tears relation, this helps with understanding. On weapons, the damage comes from an innate ability, not from "stats".

[akromat]

True about the weapon's attack coming from the weapon's damage but what about the HP of the weapons? And as a suggested workaround, it could be added that permanents can have stats, but they can never attack. That way they can still use the Devour ability and keep it HP based. I'm aware that it would require a code alteration but as I said, adding any mechanic would require a code alteration.

[bobcamel]

I say

All Permanents, including Weapons, don't have HP. Instead, they are Destroyed by things like Deflagration and Pullverizer. If you really want to be picky, then you can say all permanents have 1 HP and said cards deal 1 damage to them.

AND.

Owl's Eye, as a wepon, is a permanent with the ability to deal 5 damage per turn and the Sniper ability.

Owl's Eye, as a creature, is a 5/7 creature with the Sniper ability.

Those are two separate cards.

[akromat]

I say

All Permanents, including Weapons, don't have HP. Instead, they are Destroyed by things like Deflagration and Pullverizer. If you really want to be picky, then you can say all permanents have 1 HP and said cards deal 1 damage to them.

AND.

Owl's Eye, as a wepon, is a permanent with the ability to deal 5 damage per turn and the Sniper ability.

Owl's Eye, as a creature, is a 5/7 creature with the Sniper ability.

Those are two separate cards.

I fully understand this. I was simply asking what is to stop the developers from allowing permanents to have hp but only under certain circumstances. Example: When this card is played. The difference between a permanent with HP/AP and a creature is that permanents still can't attack.

I think making a changes like this would open a large window to add more variety to the game rather than just think up ideas to make creatures/permanents with the existing mechanics.

Alternatively, it could just function as a lobotomy ability for deja vu, devour, ablaze, growth, gravity pull, dive, scavenge, hatch, momentum ect. Which is still not an undesirable effect, however the true power would be when it is used to steal lobotomy, heal, mutate, improve, poison, infection, nymph abilities, freeze, congeal, paradox, plague, photosynthesis, firefly, immortality.

[bobcamel]

Okay, it could just function as a lobotomy. No problem. I sort of was waiting for you to say it without prying on my side.

[Lanidrak]

How about if the permanent is used to steal an ability which is inherent to a creature, such as momentum, growth or devour - the permanent destroys itself. Not knowing how, as an inanimate object, to devour or grow - the many complexities of thought processes the inanimate 'artifact' or 'permanent' tries to undertake when 'stealing' an ability such as 'devour' cause it to self-destruct.

That way, you have your lobotomizer effect. A once off 'destruct card to lobotomize target creature'

Secondly, the card can still steal certain abilities (from creatures), most notable Heal, Mutate and Lobotomize. This will give you an added dimension of tactics to know whether or not to sacrifice your Conduit to make your opponents Otyugh useless, or wait until he plays a Mindflayer and then steal the lobotomize ability and have a Conduit which can lobotomize anything he plays in the future.

A quick question, this can steal the ability from another permanent right? In which case, it rocks. I think if it does steal the ability from your opponents permanent, that permanent should, for arguments sake, be removed from the game. What is the sense in having a Shard of Gratitude with no ability, or a Hourglass that does nothing.

The true strength in this card is the ability to duplicate 'any' (except devour/momentum/growth/dive etc) ability in the game, particularly Weapon Effects.

The Firefly Queen has 2 Fahrenheits and 6 Eagle Eyes (I think). She also carries a high ratio of Animate Weapons to Weapon Cards. If you could 'steal' the ability from a fahrenheit or a eagle eye, before the AI animates it. Perfect. It gives you so much more leverage in countering your opponent through using his abilities against him - the Darkness card Steal was the only method of doing this before, and that is highly rare (6 per deck...)

Nice idea Akromat, upping your karma for this.

[Avenger]

Why don't you like it as a creature?

[akromat]

It would get devoured/lobotomized/eternityed/firestormed/etc unless you quint it the turn you play it.