Lichenoid Eruption

[willng3]

Well, here's the issue as I see it.  Rustler and Leaf Dragon's stats are pitiful.  I figure there's a good reason that zanz made the creature responsible for Photosynthesis as fragile as glass and I suspect it's because of the overall power of Photosynthesis in itself.  Photosynthesis allows for the largest potential quanta gain in the entire game, so it would stand to reason that it would be somewhat difficult to actually be able to use this ability.  Rustler can be killed just by poking it.  Leaf Dragon isn't much better.  Altering this to be able to be used on any creature you want I feel would be too powerful, especially in the upped's case.  I could watch the opponent try in vain to kill my Photosynthesis Light Dragon (Archangel, Guardian Angel, etc.) as I swarm the field with Mitosis Emerald Dragons using only a Light Mark and Light Towers as my quanta sources outside of Photosynthesis. 

Bottom line is that it doesn't seem right to make Photosynthesis so easily usable.  If there were some way to make this card usable on a creature with a certain amount of HP then I feel that it might be more balanced, as the creature wouldn't be difficult to remove from the field to dispose of this powerful ability.  The upped card absolutely needs to cost to use; it's far too easily abused in a Light deck otherwise.

[Drake_XIV]

What if you removed the multiple usage just for this card?  Could that make it slightly more balanced?

And just for technicalities, cite the source of the art.

[bc247]

What if you removed the multiple usage just for this card?  Could that make it slightly more balanced?

And just for technicalities, cite the source of the art.

Oops. Thanks for heads-up about the art. Artist and licensing added.

[bc247]

Well, here's the issue as I see it.  Rustler and Leaf Dragon's stats are pitiful.  I figure there's a good reason that zanz made the creature responsible for Photosynthesis as fragile as glass and I suspect it's because of the overall power of Photosynthesis in itself.  Photosynthesis allows for the largest potential quanta gain in the entire game, so it would stand to reason that it would be somewhat difficult to actually be able to use this ability.  Rustler can be killed just by poking it.  Leaf Dragon isn't much better.  Altering this to be able to be used on any creature you want I feel would be too powerful, especially in the upped's case.  I could watch the opponent try in vain to kill my Photosynthesis Light Dragon (Archangel, Guardian Angel, etc.) as I swarm the field with Mitosis Emerald Dragons using only a Light Mark and Light Towers as my quanta sources outside of Photosynthesis. 

Bottom line is that it doesn't seem right to make Photosynthesis so easily usable.  If there were some way to make this card usable on a creature with a certain amount of HP then I feel that it might be more balanced, as the creature wouldn't be difficult to remove from the field to dispose of this powerful ability.  The upped card absolutely needs to cost to use; it's far too easily abused in a Light deck otherwise.

What do you think of the new tweaks? 

[willng3]

I'd bump it up to at least -2HP myself.  There's still a problem with Angels being able to heal off the damage though.

[Jocko]

If you want to restrict it, why not making it the same as Buttefly effect, only targeteable on creatures under 3 attack.

[rickerd]

poor rustlers 

[bc247]

Thanks for the feedback. I understood the concern about a high hit point creature with photosynthesis being too powerful. I thought the -1/-1 would work by reducing the full hit points (not just damaging the creature), but I did not know how to make that clear or if it was possible. I did not want to simply restrict the card to low HP creatures, because one of the motivations for this card was to enable something a bit more robust than a leaf dragon which are easy to take out before they even get to be used.

What do you think of infecting the creature each time it uses the ability? This means you can keep a high HP creature with photosynthesis in the wings, convert as much light quanta to life as you want for at least one turn, but, in most cases, the creature won't last too long. As willing3 pointed out, this card+light dragon + mitosis emerald dragon is too powerful. With the infection modification, you could only generate enough life quanta for two mitoses before the light dragon was dead.  And the infection keeps the card's theme of a lichen-like disease.   

[bc247]

The other idea I had was that if the ability was used multiple times in one turn, the creature would die at the end of the turn. But I did not know how to write that clearly within the space constraints.