Battery | Battery++

[memimemi]

I don't understand how this card fits  .  It feels more like  (stealing power from opponent's creatures [vampirism]);  (spell damage is  's thing, after all); or even  (for the inherent synergies with Fire Lance, Rage Pots, and RoF).

If you want it in  , specifically, I suggest changing the stats boost from +1/+1 to +0/+2 -  is about defense and indestructibility, not heavy attack.  Also, boosting just HP would prevent the abovementioned Aflatoxin/Condor combo from breaking the game, while still giving an inherent buff to Spark (which seems to be your main goal with this).

How would Battery interact with Plague, or any other Damage-over-time spell that targets creatures that may be created in the future?

[odideph]

Well the  part was more thematic than anything else: i imagined it as an underground device that would store spell power and convert it into buffs for your creatures.
At first i wanted it to be immaterial, to balance out the fact that it can't do anything by itself. That would be justified by it being buried deep in the ground. There was a  upkeep that stood for the energy you'd pay to protect it from being crushed by the mass of earth above it.

Now mechanically, it only fits earth by adding HP to creatures. The damage bonus and the whole "gather energy from spell damage" parts fit other elements much better. I can still modifiy the artwork if i find the best element to add this to, so i'll look into your suggestions further.
Adding only HP with no damage could be a solution too yeah, but removes the potential synergies with Deathstalker and Dune Scorp for example, so i'll do it if i find nothing better.

[Annele]

I like this idea. It's new (I think) and a creative way of increasing the use of underused cards.

Hmm right, malignant cells get owned nearly every time from my experience. Osiris devours them, every catapult user cata's them, stuff like that. Also it costs yourself a fair bit of HP to wait the 6 turns. something between 31 and 54 if i'm not mistaken (assuming enemy only has Cells, and you don't have a shield).

But yeah you found a good combo that i hadn't thought of, and i'm not sure how i can make the card focus back on what i wanted. It may not be such a big problem that this combo exists though, because the more i look at it, the more i see where things could go wrong preventing the combo altogether. I mean, just because an OTK exists, doesn't imply that every card involved is not balanced?

Exactly. I like your thinking.


Oh, and by the way, if it's free, you don't need a quanta icon on the card.

[Kuroaitou]

CURATOR COMMENT

This card will not be permitted to the Crucible due to one ore more of the following errors:

• The Card image's elemental icon is out of place.

Correct these errors as soon as possible and feel free to submit it again when ready.

Thank you.


If the card costs 0 quanta, as stated in your table, it should not have a lingering icon in the top right corner of the card (unupped version).

[odideph]

Oh, and by the way, if it's free, you don't need a quanta icon on the card.

Wow all that time i didn't realize that when the card costs just 1 it's never written as just " ".
Better late than never.

Fixed. Picture and table too.

[ARTHANASIOS]

For everyone complaining about this card being too situational (or even UP) consider the following:

1) Alfatoxin & Thunderstorm & Battery is a fine combo (Malignant Cells are not always lobotomised or killed early).
2) Thunderstorm, Plague and Rain of Fire just by themselves are also a fine combo with Battery (Flooding and Pandemonium may also work) and remember that you have to deal spell damage to target and not to kill it in order to harvest the benefits of a Battery.
3) Unstable Gas can do wonders with this card! It damages every creature on the field (including yours) so if you have 5 creatures and your opponent another 5, then your creatures will get +10|+10!!!
4) Thorn Carapace and Fire Shield can also help Battery's buffing abilities.

If you think about it, it is definitely a broken card.

EDIT: Ok, Thorn Carapace, Fire Shield and Plague won't work since they damage your opponent after the end of your turn, but still UG is enough to consider this card OP.

[odideph]

For everyone complaining about this card being too situational (or even UP) consider the following:

1) Alfatoxin & Thunderstorm & Battery is a fine combo (Malignant Cells are not always lobotomised or killed early).
2) Thunderstorm, Plague and Rain of Fire just by themselves are also a fine combo with Battery (Flooding and Pandemonium may also work) and remember that you have to deal spell damage to target and not to kill it in order to harvest the benefits of a Battery.
3) Unstable Gas can do wonders with this card! It damages every creature on the field (including yours) so if you have 5 creatures and your opponent another 5, then your creatures will get +10|+10!!!
4) Thorn Carapace and Fire Shield can also help Battery's buffing abilities.

If you think about it, it is definitely a broken card.

EDIT: Ok, Thorn Carapace, Fire Shield and Plague won't work since they damage your opponent after the end of your turn, but still UG is enough to consider this card OP.

Well this card can be powerful but it's a 3 card combo at the very least. 3 card comboes in Elements then to be very strong in the right situations, especially if they're all from different elements, which is why rainbow decks have a chance in the first place.
That makes up for the difficulty of getting all required quantas.

Battery needs at least:
-that the player who casts it has creatures to benefit from the bonus
-multi-target damaging spells to trigger the effect in any decent proportions
-valid targets for the damaging spell, which excludes burrowed or immortal creatures, and you better have many targets to hit

That's why it can be good if used in specific comboes but i wouldn't call it overpowered, really. It would be like calling Forest Spirit overpowered just because in some situations it can be 44/44 or more for example. If we make that a 3 card combo, we could talk about how "OP" a 44/44 forest spirit with momentum and immortality is, but it wouldn't make much sense. I'm not sure of the quality of that example but i hope it demonstrated what i meant.

[ARTHANASIOS]

Dear Odileph, rainbow decks are usually OP already, they don't need another buff. Furthermore, don't forget that in its upped form Battery ++ costs zero quanta, which means it fits into any element. Also, every element has creatures to benefit from the buff and CC are common to every kind of element.
Consider the following deck:

Mark of Fire (or even Air if you wish)
6x Wind Tower
5x Damesfly
5x Thunderstorm
5x Unstable Gas
5x Elite Firefly
4x Battery ++

If you have, let's say, 2 Damesflies, 2 Elite Fireflies and 1 Unstable gas on field, 1 Thunderbolt and 1 Battery ++ on hand and your opponent has at least a single targetable creature. Play your Battery ++, then your Thunderstorm, dealing 1 spell damage against the enemy creature, buffing your 2 Damesflies and 2 Elite Fireflies by +1|+1 each. Right after that, trigger your Unstable Gas, dealing 1 spell damage to every creature on the field and 20 spell damage to your opponent, buffing your creatures with +6|+5 (6 atk because 5 creatures and 1 player were taken spell damage, 5 hp because your creatures took 1 damage from UG). Right now, in just a single turn, your Damesflies have risen from 2|1 to 9|7 creatures and Elite Fireflies from 4|2 to 11|8, OMG!! Now, if your opponent had 2 creatures on field or 3, then just with a Thunderstorm your creatures would have risen from 2|1 to 4|3 or 5|4 and from 4|2 to 6|4 or 7|5, I won't even bother in calculating UG's buff in that case... (and all this in just a mono-Air deck with a fire mark)

[OldTrees]

Battery + Thunderstorm > 2x Blessing
Therefore imbalanced.

[odideph]

The most consistent point brought up in the critics seems to be the attack bonus, so i guess i'll just go ahead and change it to only HP bonus.

That should:
-adress the balance worries, since HP is just so much cheaper than attack;
-strengthen the thematic fitting with Earth (Heavy Armor, Basilisk Blood);
-still be useful in a quanta-free combination with Sparks and low-HP creatures, which remains my primary goal with this card;
-still make Thunderstorm more useful.

Please tell your opinions on this change (currently in progress).

[OldTrees]

The change from +1|+1 to +0|+1 is a good change.

Now you should look at Fractal Sparks and Catapult usages.

[OdinVanguard]

The upped version may make fractal psion nigh invulnerable.
FFQ with Owl's Eye (Owl's eye snipe skill is considered spell damage right?) will be VERY ugly.