Card Suggestions - Time Element

[Faustinian]

These are just random ideas I have had floating in my head since I began playing this most awesome and time consuming game. Ideas are more then likely NOT balanced - idea was to think of new concepts and explore the elements capabilities, at least from my perspective.

I will be doing several of these as a series of suggestions for each element. I chose Time arbitrarily to be #1.

Card Artwork is not included for now but will come with updates to the ideas. Suggestions for upgraded versions welcome.

Format is -

Name
Cost
Strength/Toughness
Ability

Concept

Creatures

Eternity Warden
4
2/3
: Stasis - Target creature does not attack for a turn.

Idea was to expand on the concept of Stasis, giving Time 3 very different ways to utilize it. A deck can now be built around stasis very successfully with Eternity Wardens.

Clockwork Golem
3
0/2
  :Wind Up - Clockwork Golem gains +1/+0
Immortal
Every time Clockwork Golem deals damage, your opponent discards the top card off of his deck.

There are no milling cards for Time, let alone any other element, which I found odd. Possibly overpowered in vast numbers.

Aeon Mage
4
1/3
Every time you draw a card, Aeon Mage gains +2/+0

Synergy with either number of turns or card drawing - simple, yet powerful.

Spells

Repeat
3
Repeats effect is the same as the last spell you played.

The idea was to capitalize on a lot of mimic abilities, except in the spell department.

Standstill
2
Neither you or your opponent draws a card until his/her next turn.

Further explore the concept of Time's dominance in being able to change the tempo with card drawing/milling.

Temporal Balance
3
Draw cards until your hand size is equal to your opponents.

An attempt to create a card that helps draw cards without being overpowering.

Futureshock
3
Opponent discards the top 2 cards off of his/her deck

Spell to introduce milling.

Artifacts

Hourglass Ebb
3
Return 1 creature to your deck to return 1 of your opponents creatures to his/her deck.

Somewhat of a permanent version of Rewind - maybe abuseable.

Hourglass Flow
5
:Redo - Target creature may use it's ability again.

Helps speed up creature ability usage for a cost.

Infinity Generator
N/A
Gain at the beginning of every turn. Sacrifice to return target card to it's owner's deck.

Supposed to be a quantum source alternative.

Thoughts and criticisms? 

[Lanidrak]

Note: This post contained pretty much what had been said (by BobCamel) while it was being typed up. It contained about 12 'quote' codes and took up a lot of space. Moderate and delete if y'please!

[bobcamel]

Ookay...

Eternity Warden: Similar to an Arctic Squid in its workings. I'd give 2 turns 2 cost or lower the playing cost, as this version may be a bit weak. Aside form that, normal "good" card. Nothing special, nothing to yell at furiously.

Clockwork Golem: Look, there are no Millhouse cards because Millhouse is not a meme. Also, it is vastly overpowered. I can destroy one card per turn, and I can destroy it BEFORE THE ENEMY MAKES IT VISIBLE, OR VULNERABLE EVEN? TOO FING STONG. 6 of those, Gravitymark, Momentum x6, possibly Quints and I can make the enemy...

You see, decks here are very, very small. Every card counts. Ditch the diea of milling, I suggest.

Aeon Mage: Simple good growing card. 3 HP will be hamper after a few turns due to high brittleness, but it's not tht costly and will be able to deal some damage before that.

Repeat: It sounds good, except for when you try to code it, probably. Still, sounds good.

Standstill: Sounds good also. Helps not deck out and keeps them Rewound creatures in the deck.

Temporal Balance: Awesome card, I must say. Very original idea and everything.

Futureshock: ...so, I can deprive the enemy of most of his deck for a very low price? Game-breaking.

Ditch the diea of milling, I suggest.

Hourglass Ebb: Look, with Eternity we have a permanent Rewind. Just, how does this work? Every turn? Activatable? You don't specify.

Hourglass Flow: Sorta cheap for that effect. You see, on ability-useful creatures this is like a Parallel Universe, AND you can use it on different creatures. Bump the playcost to 5 and it'll be okay, IMO.

Infinity Generator: This is very well a REPLACEMENT of the current pillar, as it does exactly that same thing PLUS something. Nah. Different cards are meant to be sidegrades, not upgrades.

[Faustinian]

Hmmm...no multiqoute...

Eternity Warden is designed to be different from Arctic Squid as a cheaper faster alternative, so I'm not sure if screwing around with the costs or duration will help. Possibly make it different by also making the card untargetable as well and then upping the cost.

Clockwork Golem is designed to be a vicious card, but vulnerable at the same time. I'm thinking of making it 2/1 or even 1/1. I dislike the idea of simply doing away with an ability simply because "everyone plays this way". However, either way, the ability will require activation now, either 1 or 2  .

Aeon Mage is supposed to be brittle - excessive drawing on your part can make a few of this a tad OP otherwise. However, the upgraded version should get a health bonus I believe.

Glad everyone likes Repeat and Temporal Balance. Standstill still allows you to draw using spells or abilities however, I should have clarified that. I kept repeat for spells only because then it simply becomes a more effective Universe card that can spam anything.

Futureshock will be updated to 2 cards for it's cost, which may be bumped up to 4. If you want more of it, play repeat. Again, deck destruction shouldn't simply be removed because, IMHO.

Hourglass Ebb stays on the field and can be used every turn. In a sense, it's designed to work with Deja Vu or decks that swarm and have plentiful amounts of creatures. Possibly to make it different from Eternity, have the card placed on the top of the deck, and reduce the cost to one creature. This way, multiple Hourglass Ebbs will allow you to spam it more effectively then Eternity can and have more staying power then Reverse Time/Rewind.

Hourglass Flow will allow creatures first turn use of their abilities, and will allow creatures that have an ability to use it again. It is different from either Universe card because you do not gain a new creature, your stuck with the same one.

Infinity Generator doesn't out and out replace the standard pillar. Time of generation matters. However, if you have a suggestion on how to make it different, that would be most helpful.

[Lanidrak]

Eternity Warden... not sure if screwing around with the costs or duration will help... making the card untargetable as well and then upping the cost.

Nah, if someone wants to make it immortal, they can splash Aether and run Anubis or carry a few Quintessences.

Clockwork Golem is designed to be a vicious card, but vulnerable at the same time. I'm thinking of making it 2/1 or even 1/1. I dislike the idea of simply doing away with an ability simply because "everyone plays this way". However, either way, the ability will require activation now, either 1 or 2  .

Alternatively, make it a 0/1 or a 0/2 card with Immortality, and every time it attacks it causes your opponent to lose 1 card from his deck. Then make it's ability add +1 to it's offense until end of turn (sort of like Dive/Growth - but costing a lot of  , maybe 5 or 7?). The reason for immortality is to stop yourself from playing a blessing or any other card which will give it the capability to attack each and every turn. Secondly - before BobCamel can jump in... immortals are vulnerable to shield effects - as in, a fire-shield will kill this in 1 or 2 turns. You would not be able to play momentum on this creature (due to immortality), so if your opponent puts a shield up (which blocks or negates damage) the card-in-deck-destroying ability wouldn't work.

Aeon Mage is supposed to be brittle - excessive drawing on your part can make a few of this a tad OP otherwise. However, the upgraded version should get a health bonus I believe.

I disagree. Lava Golem, Fire Spectre or Forest Spectre or any card with the Growth ability gains +2/+2 every turn for a minimal cost of quanta. This card only gains +1/+0 and only when you draw a card? That is +1/+0 a turn guaranteed, or up to +6/+0 - running maximum Hourglasses. This will mean you run out of cards damn quickly. At least make it gain +1/+1 every time you draw a card, it will still be brittle in the early stages, but I must agree, a Quintessence on this guy will make it powerful... but is that not the same with a Lava Destroyer?

As for Repeat - will still be a coding nightmare.
Futureshock - it's better at 2 cards in my opinion.

Hourglass Ebb - Hmm still unsure on this one, seems still a bit useless. You Protect Artifact on an Eternity and you can already stop your opponent from drawing new cards - as long as he doesn't have Hourglasses/Sundials (which are easily deflagrated, pulverized or stolen)

Hourglass Flow - perfect.
Infinity Generator - perfect, presumably you cannot have more than 6 in your deck?



And finally, ignore BobCamel, it's how we all survive ! Just kiddin of course, he prides himself on being a harsh critic - and in my opinion, you did damn well for a first post. The majority of first post card ideas we get are like:

"T0t4l ANNIhilatION"
Killz everything
cost 10 death
may be overpowered l0lz

No joke.

[bobcamel]

ignore BobCamel,

don't you dare ignore bobcamel, though.

And milling is bad in any sort of game where you can't have a thousand cards in a deck.

[Lanidrak]

It is bad in the sense that it removes the one thing in the game that previously was untouched: the cards in your deck, not yet in play.

An Otyugh played early in the game with a Quintessence can pretty much remove any creature from the game the turn after it is played (provided it is within the HP range and not immortal itself).

A Pulverizer with Protect Artifact can slowly but surely remove every single pillar and permanent in the game (again, provided they are not protected themselves) - Flying Pulverizer deck with a few Quicksands?

The niche then, is spells being played, which I already thought of an Interference card (Entropy, works like sundial, causes 50% chance of a card failing to be put into play). Even then, it is only a 50/50 chance and it affects both players. So it is still very much a niche of safe, untouchable cards. Eg. Improved Miracle, Deadly Poison, cards in the process of being played - have no counter. It is only after they have been played that you must some how counter what they have already done.

Therefore, the only two places (excluding spells being played) in the game where your cards are ultimately safe is 1) in your hand and 2) in your deck. And in these two places they do very little help to you. What is the beef with a card that can destroy 2 cards from one of these 'safe-places'? Sure, it might completely cripple a 30 card speed deck which relies on every card it can get. But on the other side of that balancing coin, to be a crippling force in 'milling' someone, you would need to keep 6 of these in your deck - thereby, limiting yourself from picking an alternative, more deadly 6 cards.

Most of the time you will destroy 1 pillar and maybe 1 creature. Sure in a deck that runs 18 Aether Pillars, 6 Phase Dragons and 6 Shields, this card(cards?) Clockwork Golem (Futureshock?) can and will most definitely cripple such a deck. But then again, won't a Gravity Shield or a few Steals or a Fire Shield also completely destroy this said deck?

[bobcamel]

The cards in the deck are safe, but they do nothing. This is balanced.

And then you break it with this.

[Faustinian]

Fixed the cards according to suggestions, trying to figure out balanced upgraded versions.

Changelog:
Made the Eternity Ward's ability cost one  more.
Made the Clockwork Golem Immortal, reduced power to 0 and gave it the "Wind-Up" ability.
Aeon Mage now gains +2/+0, instead of +1/+0
Futureshock cost increased to 3 , and number of cards discarded reduced to 2
Hourglass Ebb's cost reduced to 3 and ability cost reduced to 1 creature.
Hourglass Flow's cost increased to 5
Infinity Generator reclassied to Artifact - you can now have max 6 at most.

Also, I may have simply snip Hourglass Ebb - just realized that so long as you and your opponent have a creature to play, neither person can be decked. In essence, your opponent would beat by NOT having creatures in play.

[Lanidrak]

Nice changes. We like a poster who revisits his ideas and tends to them like a garden... A bit of a lame metaphor but meh, it's late....You're now officially a cultivator of ideas.

Be nice to see what ideas you have for the other elements.

[Faustinian]

Nice changes. We like a poster who revisits his ideas and tends to them like a garden... A bit of a lame metaphor but meh, it's late....You're now officially a cultivator of ideas.

Be nice to see what ideas you have for the other elements.

Why thank you  . I'm usually told that aspect of me is annoying, since I like to hover over something until I am absolutely satisfied with it.

I'll be getting to the Fire Element soon. I've decided to stick with a showcase of 10 cards per Element

[bobcamel]

Imma get ready for this.

Also, you might want to consider learning the art of card art. It adds much to the cards... the visuality. People don't have to imagine things up - you shove the exact image in their faces.