Mind Read | Mind Control

[Xenocidius]

NAME: Mind Read ELEMENT: Other COST: 1 TYPE: Spell ATK|HP: TEXT: You can see your opponent's hand.	NAME: Mind Control ELEMENT: Other COST: 12 TYPE: Spell ATK|HP: TEXT: Play as your opponent for one turn. You are Silenced. Drains all your quanta.

ART: Mind Read (http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2008/12/new-advances-in/), Mind Control (http://www.squidoo.com/hypnosis_mind_control) - both temporary IDEA: Xenocidius NOTES: I haven't heard that much about Mind Control cards. But they're supposed to be devilishly hard to balance, so I thought I'd give it my best shot. Unupped is basically a weaker Precognition. It's there because any difference in power between upped and unupped would create balancing problems in an already unbalanced idea. Plus it fits thematically. When you play Mind Control, your turn immediately ends. Your creatures do not attack, you generate no quanta, and you gain the Silenced icon. Your counters (on shields, sundial) do decrease, however. Then either the board rotates or you just see your opponent's hand. Either way you play as you normally would, except you control your opponent's cards, creatures and permanents. Then you would wreak total havoc with whatever they have, destroying them as thoroughly as possible. When you press spacebar, the opponent's pillars generate, his creatures attack, etc (you may discard any of their cards if need be). Then you become yourself again. You are still Silenced. You cannot play any cards, nor do you have any quanta to use creature skills. You invariably press spacebar having done nothing, and your opponent attempts to recover. Your opponent therefore gains one/two turns of advantage. Possible further balancing: Raising cost to say, 15; having Silence last longer; only being able to use their cards (not creature skills); only being able to use their creature skills (not cards); and open to suggestions. Also buffs Nightmare. Yay! Post all your criticism. I'm ready. SERIES:

[moomoose]

no.  just all around no.

there have been various mind control cards, the vast majority were also rejected outright.  the only one which cut mustard was on which allowed you to gain access to using a creatures abilities, or forced them to use them themselves.

[davidy22]

Just because it's failed before, doesn't mean it'll fail this time. Instead of dimissing the card at first glance, give it a fair look.

One supernova can play this, raise the cost to 15 or make it specific to a single element. The theme fits in nicely with darkness, it'll buff a weak element nicely.

[Xenocidius]

Just because it's failed before, doesn't mean it'll fail this time. Instead of dimissing the card at first glance, give it a fair look.

One supernova can play this, raise the cost to 15 or make it specific to a single element. The theme fits in nicely with darkness, it'll buff a weak element nicely.

Weak element? *puffs chest*

Darkness is the most versatile and balanced element, with most decks able to be taken down by a generalized mono darkness and virtually any by a specialized mono darkness.

Anyway, ranting aside, I did consider making it specific to an element - Darkness and Aether came to mind (see what I did there?). But the main thing that comes even close to making this balanced is the total quanta drainage and turn advantage your opponent gains. I'm not sure whether the Darkness version should drain all quanta or just . Thoughts, people?

[ZephyrPhantom]

The unupped is basically a very weak Precog. I think it could use a better effect.
As for the upped:
I'm more worried about how many bugs playing as your opponent could cause than the balance.
Would everything literally swap, or would you just see and play cards from your opponent's hand?

As for element and casting cost problems, this card seems like a very good fit for Mirror Pseudoquanta (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28215.0.html).

[Xenocidius]

The unupped is there for a similar purpose as Shard.

As for pseudoquanta, I've always been somewhat wary of that, but it would be useful here. Mirror quanta would work quite well, although copy quanta could fit better thematically. That would also make it gain use with Mindgate, which just makes sense.