Ask the Idea Guru

[OldTrees]

opinion on impact pump | impact buckler?

Solar Shield
Shifted to gravity (balanced)
Quanta generation changed to quanta drain (balanced)
Quanta drain doubled (stronger)
Quanta drain changed from  to random  (weaker due to chance of failure)

Upgrade to +1DR for +2 casting cost
(depends on the quanta drained per DR. 0 quanta drained per DR gets a +1 casting cost for +1 DR upgrade)

Fits thematically.
I do not know why you deviated from Devourer's version of quanta drain.

[ZephyrPhantom]

What do you think of a permanent that added a Heal to the bottom of your deck when an allied creature died?

[Zaealix]

What do you think of a permanent that added a Heal to the bottom of your deck when an allied creature died?

I find the idea interesting, I've been wanting to do something like this, but  has death effects and scavenger, so it was hard figuring out something that wouldn't seem more thematically fitting of  instead of  .
Now as for balancing...
That's easier said then done: I suppose the first place to look for comparisons is  's mindgate, Shard of Serindipity, and Fractal, as well as possibly Eternity for the cost of anti-deckout.

[OldTrees]

What do you think of a permanent that added a Heal to the bottom of your deck when an allied creature died?

I find the idea interesting, I've been wanting to do something like this, but  has death effects and scavenger, so it was hard figuring out something that wouldn't seem more thematically fitting of  instead of  .
Now as for balancing...
That's easier said then done: I suppose the first place to look for comparisons is  's mindgate, Shard of Serindipity, and Fractal, as well as possibly Eternity for the cost of anti-deckout.

I don't have much to add other than
Cards at the bottom of the deck are a long term plan. They only matter if you would have decked out. So cards added to the bottom should be useful in that situation.

[Zaealix]

Arctic Squid: Reusable Freeze for 2 that costs 3 + 1 card to play, has to wait 1 turn to Freeze, is a 2hp creature, and has 1 attack.
Freeze: One time Freeze for 1 + 1 card, no delay, no vulnerability, no attack.

Spells are one of the areas that I did not have a good enough technique/comparison list to create a cost theory.
I would love to see someone create the next generation of the cost theory (just as I did when I expanded on PhantomFox's).

Hrm...So the biggest issue with Spells, is that their effects are too varied to create a unifying 'balance table' like what creatures have. But that's my take on how to figure out the price of spells!
For example, for the balance of Freeze, in addition to the card itself, I'll use the creature Artic Squid, and it's vanilla companion, Blue crawler.
Blue crawler is 3 , for a 3|3.
Artic Squid, has the same price, but has 1|2 as stats.
So, the price for attaching a repeatable 'Freeze', in addition to the 2 cost of activation, is -2|-1 on the creatures stats.
In effect, we now have 'attack' and 'defense' stats for the spell-what must be removed to make it worth attaching to a creature and enabling the repeatable function.
This should enable the addition of 'creature' abilities as 'faux spells' and help the issue of a lack of data.

[OldTrees]

@Zaealix
You will still want a method for converting between activated skills and spells

[eaglgenes101]

Different spells have different exploitabilities. Some are highly exploitable when repeated (black hole, nightmare, freeze), and some are barely exploitable at all (most shields, aflatoxin, sky blitz). How would we factor this exploitability into the formula?

[OldTrees]

Different spells have different exploitabilities. Some are highly exploitable when repeated (black hole, nightmare, freeze), and some are barely exploitable at all (most shields, aflatoxin, sky blitz). How would we factor this exploitability into the formula?

How do we factor this in for Dimensional Shield?

Value of the average number used in the average game / average number used in the average game = theoretical value

Do note that integration is preferable to averaging.

[Zaealix]

Converting between spell and ability is tricky...
But that's kinda what I was getting at.
The idea was, you take 'Creature with ability', remove the cost of the ability, and add stats until the creature is a vanilla creature 'balanced' for it's cost...And then from there...I guess I didn't think this through.
I suspect the cost of the recastable ability, plus the cost teh ability adds to the creature's price, but minus the cost for the stats lost from the creature to balance it, should equal the creature's version...But at this point I'm half-guessing, half following my train of thought from earlier.

[eaglgenes101]

I'm trying to find a thematic for a light card that heals you every time your opponent plays a card. Help?

[Rutarete]

I'm trying to find a thematic for a light card that heals you every time your opponent plays a card. Help?

Something along the lines of gaining courage or something to face the outnumbered odds?

[Annele]

I'm trying to find a thematic for a light card that heals you every time your opponent plays a card. Help?

Does it have to be light? imo, light has too much healing. It could also work thematically in life, where if a creature is played then you get healed. (vitality).
Though if you do want it to be light, it could be something along the line of keeping order/justice.