Interference - Entropy card like Sundial

[Lanidrak]

Hey everyone, been a while since i'v posted any crazy ideas, so here goes, just text for now - art will come later!

Interference: Permanent for 1 Turn
Cost: 3 Entropy
Ability: All cards have a 50% chance of failing while Interference is in play.


Nice and simple. It is a card like sundial but instead of stopping creatures from attacking, it stops your opponent from casting things, albeit on a 50% ratio. Also, note that this card will affect you as well, so it will be a noob-ish thing to do, to cast this card first in your turn and then have all your pillars/novas/abominations fail.

When a card is affected by interference, eg. I click on a card to play it, it goes through a boolean yes/no check, where the yes/no is completely random (like tossing a coin). If the check returns a no, that card is removed from play, my quanta is removed and the card does nothing. If yes, the card is removed from play, my quanta is removed but the card does its effect as per normal.

So, an example, I could play Interference AND a Sundial in the same turn, and then if my opponent tries to Deflagrate/Steal/Destroy either one of them, there is a 50% chance that it fails. All pillars my opponent plays in the next turn will have a 50% chance of failing. Any creature, spell or creature-ability my opponent plays will have a 50% chance of failing. Deja Vu's copying, Lava Destroyers growing, Mind-flayers lobotomizing, Otyughs devouring, and Shriekers burrowing ALL have a 50% chance to fail.

So this card, in my opinion, is unique in the sense that it is the only card to offer a sort of counter-spell effect. A prime example being Miracle or Black Hole, which have no way of being stopped except through pillar denial (which this card also can do on a 50% ratio)

Your thoughts, please.

[Kamietsu]

But then on your turn after the opponents, you'd suffer the same effects. One turn is both you and your opponents phases. Doesn't sound too bad. It's not OP and grants a chance at protection for a turn.

[Lanidrak]

Hmm Kam, didn't think about that.

I was picturing it to work like so:
Cast in your turn.
Ability is active.
End your turn.
Opponents turn starts.
Ability is still active.
Opponent ends turn.
Interference is removed.
Your turn starts again.

That way, I guess it only lasts half a turn. Cheating a bit, but oh well .

An alternative would be to give it a 3 Random Quanta, ability: Remove. So, when you play this, it stays in play for ever, but you can remove it when you want, but the 'Remove' ability is also affected by the 50% fail-rate but can be cast more than once per turn.

[Scaredgirl]

Canceling cards would be pretty cool but I don't like the random element.

CCG's like Elements have a big luck element already and cards like this one only make the situation worse. Soon we can just throw away the cards and use dice to see who wins.

Yes, Entropy is about randomness but there's enough of that already imo. The less randomness there is, the more it is about skill which is how it should be. This is why I'm generally against all randomness card ideas unless they have to be random to fit the theme.

This kind of card would work much better if you could play it in secret and it cancels the next card your opponent plays, OR if you could somehow "interrupt" your opponent when you see what he is going to play (old CCG trick). But I don't see how that could be done in Elements.

[Lanidrak]

True, that was my initial idea. But I didn't want to bend too far from what the game already has.

Ideally, if cards could be played in secret, as you say, that'd be awesome. Then this card would sort of be 'stealthed' (also, see my post on Invisibility buff). So when the opponent plays a card, Interference would become un-stealthed only 'if' his card fails. Or if it is a definite counter to any card being played, it will be revealed and then removed.

I hope something like this can be implemented, would add a nice new dynamic to gameplay.

[ftbhrygvn]

Agreed with SG. Randomness is an essential element for games but too much would throw the game out of balance. And I think the randomness of Elements is already a bit over. Fog and Dusk Shields are worst imo cuz I'd like the attack value to be able to calculated accurately.(I always wanted to make games with accurately calculated attack values, but it's a bit out of my capabilities)