A move from Aether to Air: Electricity/spark/lightning

[Lanidrak]

This has bugged me for a while, the description for Aether says that Aether has 'the power to manipulate electricity'.

I have long thought that electricity is caused from friction and static build up in clouds, which are with out a doubt, part of the Air element. Air being gaseous and clouds being water-vapor which is a gas.

Now, Air is also, without a doubt, the weakest of the elements. The only three cards of note being Thunderstorm (1 Damage to all enemy creatures), Firefly Queen (needs Life to spawn Fireflies) and Owls Eye (3 direct damage to target creature).

For me, personally, Thunderstorm epitomizes the strength of air, and it has always bugged me that Spark and especially Lightning belong to Aether, instead of Air.

I'm not so sure what this post will achieve other than making people aware of my thoughts .

Simply what I propose is that Spark and Lightning become part of the Air elemental arsenal. And maybe, a card which has been suggested in the past by various people:

Tesla Generator / Stormcloud
Cost: 
Permanent
Ability:  Static Discharge : Spawn either 1 Spark or cast Thunderstorm or randomly cast Lightning Bolt against an enemy creature.

The upgraded ability will simply upgrade the cards/effects it generates, and reduce the ability cost to .

Maybe the chances for a certain effect to occur could be

50% - Spark
30% - Thunderstorm
20% - Lightning Bolt

Also, Air did not have ANY permanents before the Alchemy/Nymphs were added. Unstable gas it it's only permanent, and as a permanent it is designed to be destroyed.

Your thoughts on my suggestion/idea (ranting) are more than welcome

[xdude]

NO. Aether already is the element with the least cards and NO permanents even with the alchemy cards. Not even the shield is permanent. So you want to let aether have like what...5 cards? Sorry, not a good idea.

[Boingo]

I think electricity belongs to Aether  and that Thunderstorm is a terrible fit for Air  .  That's why I proposed dropping that name and giving it a true air spell:  Twister/Tornado.  In essence, you lose nothing that Thunderstorm does currently and gain some additional potential damage to higher hp creatures:
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,2901.0.html

To match up with your proposal, you could make a permanent card ("Summer storm" or whatever you want to call it) that would create Twisters for a some cost:  ?.


For what it's worth, I've already proposed a change to Lightning to give Aether a boost:
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,2885.0.html

Aether could then have a "Tesla coil" permanent (there are likely better names) to generated Lightning (which could randomly strike either the opposing player with Lightning or a creature in play.)  Maybe at a cost of  .

What do you think of that, Lanidrak?

[Lanidrak]

Why not suggest some cards to replace Aethers' Spark and Lightning Bolt then?

This is the card ideas section of the forum after all.

In my opinion, Aether is one of the strongest elements (Quintessence, Phase Shields and Parallel Universe). Air, on the other hand, is quite possibly the weakest, with no creature control, no permanents or permanent control, no outstanding creature abilities.

Before the Alchemy update (Nymphs + Nymphs Tears) - Aether and Air both had 9 cards. Aether gained Turquoise Nymph - a more expensive Anubis, pretty much. and Air gained 2 cards, Blue Nymph and Unstable Gas.

So, xdude, how about some card suggestions for Aether? You seem very opinionated that it has the least cards in the game.

[Lanidrak]

@Boingo (being a ninja and posting while I was replying to xdude)

I guess that makes sense. But I still can't get over how Air = Gas = Clouds = Static Electricity = Lightning.

Just makes sense to me

As mentioned in my above post, Aether is already extremely powerful.

[ScytherLoL]

Aether is and I am looking forward to this discussion over what to do about Air.

Air as you know has its inherent weaknesses which from what I gather Lanidrak you are attempting to balance out.

I like the idea of the genration and it doesn't necessarily mean you have to take the Sprak etc out of Aether just have the Air card produce them. That would bring that issue out of the fore.

As to what else to add to assist creature/permanent control I am working on something that will hopefully not be too OP to use in that area as well as I am sure half a dozen other cards in this forum that would be of great use.

Sometimes I wish that each element had alinks page for the new cards for that element to be put into.

Anyway I like the idea you have, your reasoning is right so how can we do this.

Scyther

[Glitch]

NO. Aether already is the element with the least cards and NO permanents even with the alchemy cards. Not even the shield is permanent. So you want to let aether have like what...5 cards? Sorry, not a good idea.

Aether's low amount of cards stems from it's beautiful mono.  Aether mono is arguably the best in the game, and I think Zanz has been giving more cards to elements that need them.  Did you notice how many cards Earth has?

[icybraker]

Gl1tch and Lani, yall are using the same picture. Can one of you change the picture just to clarify things a little bit? Thanks

Um, yeah. Air is definitely one of the weaker elements in the game; however, it is a powerful assist element. Supported with Life, it can spawn Fireflies which in turn create either Light or Fire quanta. Supported with Fire, it can do 20 DAMAGE with each permanent it uses (Unstable Gas). It has mediocre creature control with its Owl's Eye and Thunderstorm. And its most beautiful card - Flying Weapon - is indispensable to some decks.

I have to disagree with your statement that electricity cards belong in the Air section. Air is all about flowing, floating, gaseous, light substances. Electricity may be "flowing" in a sense, but it is not floating, gaseous, or light at all.

Aether concerns itself with "immaterial" substances; substances that seem to be beyond the scope of the material universe. In Classic Greek sciences, Aether was a divine material even higher in the universe than Air. Undoubtedly, electricity fits this category. It is not material, and seems to operate on a whole different level than material objects; indeed, the Elements description of Aether encapsulates Electricity.

[Glitch]

Yea, I'll swap.  I've been meaning to...

[Boingo]

@Boingo (being a ninja and posting while I was replying to xdude)

As mentioned in my above post, Aether is already extremely powerful.

Thanks for the ninja props.  Now what watch out for my ninja throwing stars.....

Aether is a powerful mono-deck and can grind lvl 5 AI ok, but definitely not fast and will be beat by any half-way decent rush deck.  (Trust me, I used to be mono-aether.)

And not to pat myself on the back TOO hard but if my proposed Twister/Tornado were implemented, I'm sure every  deck would have a handful of them and pwn.  It'd be that good.

(Off topic:  Gl1tch--love the new avatar.  Mr. Pringles meets Monopoly or something...)

[xdude]

NO. Aether already is the element with the least cards and NO permanents even with the alchemy cards. Not even the shield is permanent. So you want to let aether have like what...5 cards? Sorry, not a good idea.

Aether's low amount of cards stems from it's beautiful mono.  Aether mono is arguably the best in the game, and I think Zanz has been giving more cards to elements that need them.  Did you notice how many cards Earth has?

Heh, weird for you to say that, Earth is also one of the best and quite versatile element and also arguably the fastest (though probably fire is faster)

Why not suggest some cards to replace Aethers' Spark and Lightning Bolt then?

This is the card ideas section of the forum after all.

In my opinion, Aether is one of the strongest elements (Quintessence, Phase Shields and Parallel Universe). Air, on the other hand, is quite possibly the weakest, with no creature control, no permanents or permanent control, no outstanding creature abilities.

Before the Alchemy update (Nymphs + Nymphs Tears) - Aether and Air both had 9 cards. Aether gained Turquoise Nymph - a more expensive Anubis, pretty much. and Air gained 2 cards, Blue Nymph and Unstable Gas.

So, xdude, how about some card suggestions for Aether? You seem very opinionated that it has the least cards in the game.

Well, I'm not too good in card designing. That doesn't mean that I can't have an opinion or something, does it?

P.S. I luvz aether. I started with it <3

[Essence]

Air has some of the best creature control in the game -- it's called Owl's Eye.  Air has at least four good cards -- FFQ, EE, Animate Weapon, and Unstable Gas.   Wyrm, Firefly, and Damselfly have their place in specific decks as well.  Really, it's just Dragonly, Fog Shield and Thunderstorm that really suck badly.  Air also has one of the best if not THE BEST non-mutant creature ability: Queen.  Dive has it's place as well, though admittedly only in one specific deck. 

It's nowhere near as limited as Life, Light, or Time monos.