Cards for Elements that Need More Cards

[Essence]

Most elements have 11 or 12 cards.

Air and Darkness have 10.
Aether has 9. 
The new Alchemy cards aren't going to fix the gap, just move it.  So let's fix it ourselves, shall we?


AIR

Air is an element that has a little of most everything: direct damage (OE/EE), mass damage (Thunderstorm), stompy creatures (Wyrm), mobby creatures (FFQ)...but let's be honest, most of it sucks.  Thunderstorm is just too little damage to make it into most decks, Wyrm continuously sucks your quanta supply and is expensive for a 3/3 creature if you don't use it's skill, and need I say "Fog Shield"?  Pretty much, if you see an Air card that's not FFQ, EE, or Animate Weapon, you think "Wow...a n00b."

So how do you make Air a viable element without adding Life Pillars or Morning Glories?  What one concept can unify this barrage of different ideas into a harmonious symphony of balance?  I have no idea.  So, let's toss something out and see if it sticks.


Inspiration  (For those of you who don't know, Inspiration literally means "to inhale", and thus is obviously Air-based.)
9 Air -- Shield  (Upgrade: 7 Air.)
For every 10 points of damage you take in a single round, you draw a card.  This ability does not function if you have 8 cards in your hand. 


Dangerous?  Absolutely.  You'll deck out often if you're not careful.  On the other hand, what better way to make room for those Thunderstorms and quanta (via more Pillars down) for those Wyrms?  The high Air cost will make it prohibitive for the rainbows that need Air for FFQs and EEs, and besides, they need the shield slot for Bone Wall.  This requires you to sacrifice all defense in hopes that the improved card drawing power will blow you away -- but then, if you're not actually moving significantly toward death every turn, you aren't getting Inspired. 



DARKNESS

Darkness is an all-round uber element, no doubt that's why it has fewer cards than most: it doesn't really seem to need it.  Steal, Vampire, Devourer, Dusk Shield, Drain Life -- it has creature control, permanent control, a great shield, and life gain.  What more could you want?

How about a basic, mid-range attacker?  Elements in general seems to be lacking efficiently-costed creatures in the 6-7 power range.  Abyss Crawler comes to mind, but basically between Elite Cockatrice and Stone Dragon, there's just...not much.  By offering Darkness a simple thug that's not as costly as Dark Dragon but not as...well, tiny...as Minor Vampire, you round out the element even more without offering it a huge dose of new talent, which it clearly doesn't need.  By making it 6 power, you give it a clever synergy with Eclipse+Adrenaline (8 power means maximum effect from Adrenaline), and by making it 5 Toughness, you evade Gravity Shield, which Obsidian Dragon fails to do.   Thus:


Great Python
5 Darkness -- Creature
5/3  (Upgrade -- 6/4)


Nice and simple.  Gives Darkness a mid-range, basic attacker which serves to bridge the gap between Vampires and Parasites and the Dark Dragon. 



Aether

Aether is a strange Element, often favored because it 'breaks the rules' by having creatures that can't be killed and offering near-complete immunity to damage for a limited time -- while still backing it up with Lightning Bolts and Lobotmizer to make enemy creatures dead or irrelevant.  What seems to be missing from Aether is any form of permanent control.  Now, I'm not a big fan of adding more actual permanent-removal from the game, so let's see if we can do something that will just make it a pain to play them.


Feedback Etherite
5 Aether -- Creature
3/2  (Upgrade: 4/4)
At the end of each turn, your opponent takes 2 damage for each non-Pillar permanent he has in play.



That should take Rainbow decks and a few of the False Gods down a notch or two.  Now, since Aether needs two cards to get up to the base of 11, let's add something that's been mentioned time and again, and really deserves a close look:


Normalize
3 Aether -- Spell  (Upgraded: 1 Aether)
Target creature is removed and immediately returned to play at no cost. 

(The effect of which is that anything that's changed about the base card is undone; Antimatter goes away, Mutants become normal, damage taken is reset, Otyughs are returned to 0/5, etc.)


That gives Aether a flexible tool that can be used for offense (removing antimatter from Phase Recluses) or defense (removing Growth from Forest Spirits), without giving it more damage to throw around and without violating the flavor of the element.



With these cards added, none of the elements are driven out of flavor or out of balance, each is given something useful but not too much so, and all of the elements are brought in line with the average number of cards per element.  Ideally, we could get an even 12 in each, but I'm happy with the 11-12 number for now.

[bobcamel]

This is thought out very well, seeing as you put SO MUCH text in here. I'd drop the Python's cost one bit, for it's frailer than a simliar Abomination, but aside from that good ideash.

[Piter De Vries]

Totally true analysis (plural of analysis? i dunno), and the cards are, imo, perfect (balanced, well thought). I would still add more to Air... has anyone really played mono Air? That makes sense. Maybe with your card-drawing shield and my "1-turn immortal for air-creature"-card , Air would be really better.

Do not hesitate to post more if you have more ideas. You really got good ideas & balance well cards.

[YoYoBro]

Guys, you have some really really nice and creative ideas there. Keep posting these card. I especially like the analisys on why THAT card should be implemented in THAT element card-set..

[Delreich]

I'd like to see Normalize have the ability of being able to target immaterial critters (though in that case cost should probably mirror Quint).
Other than that, these look great.

[YoYoBro]

That'd require quite a bit of coding i think..

[Chromanin]

I say that the water element needs Blizzard, a 2 damage mass effect spell which works like firestorm with the possibility to freeze any creature for 2 turns. Same quanta usage as firestorm, first 7 and upgrade to 5.

Aether needs a couple new cards.. perhaps a spell which immortalizes a creature. A new creature or 2, perhaps: Electro spirit with "Conduct"or"Generate" which grows in attack(A 2/2 which upgrades to a 3/4 or something) . Perhaps another which can electrocute any creature for 2 damage and upgrade to 3. Maybe even another with the ability to grant "Phase Shift" to target creature for 3 turns or so.

"Other" as an option in the bazaar should sell a creature. I was thinking something like a creature called "Mystic" Which requires quanta of any random element. In my opinion "mystic" should be able to choose a quantam pillar and then get an effect from the type of pillar you choose with it.  The stats with this ability should probably be weak. Maybe like a 0/5 or a 1/4 something without much damage. but great effects.

[YoYoBro]

Spell to immortalize? And what is quintessence?

[Chromanin]

actually that was from an old post that i thought i'd throw in. I wrote that before quintessence came out.

[YoYoBro]

That's why then nvm

[Koxeida]

Normalize will definitely own "growth" deck    but of course, there're quintessence to protect those creatures 

[Essence]

I kind of like the idea of Normalize being able to affect immaterial creatures.  Like an anti-Quintessence.  That would be cool.