Ask the Idea Guru

[OldTrees]

Quick Heat | Quick Fire

http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,43779.0.html

1. What do you think about this kind of anti-PC ?

2. How much quanta should a semi-passive drawing ability cost ?

3. Would this card have too much impact against PC-oriented decks ?

4. Is the potential risk of decking out yourself significant enough to avoid abuse of this card ?

1. It allows you to replace destroyed permanents with quanta rather than quanta + draws.

2. Since it is a permanent, I would think it would be destroyed before its ability activated once. So you are paying X quanta + 1 card to make your opponent discard a PC card. If there are 2 of these out then you are paying 2X quanta + 1 card to make your opponent discard 2 cards. I would currently price it in the low 2-4 quanta range. Now if we add in self triggered permanent destruction we would see the price rise to 4-6 quanta.

3. No. 1-6 of these would usually cause such decks to have to use X+1-6 PC cards to destroy X permanents.

4. No. But balancing the card would make no use abusive.

[Annele]

Is Clock | Chronometer balanced? If not, how would you balance it?

[OldTrees]

Is Clock | Chronometer balanced? If not, how would you balance it?

The +3|-3 of Tick Tock is roughly the value of Snipe. (slightly better)
  : Snipe costs Owl's Eye roughly 3 + 1 card
  : Give 3 +1|-1s would cost around 3-4 + 1 card
So we are in the right neighborhood. But how to include Aging? (aka extra use of skills including non activated ones)
Probably worth +1-2 for a total of 4-6 + 1 card.


PS: How does your Puffer Fish example work? Venom requires an attack to trigger so it would not be repeated by Aging.
3 attack, 8 attack, 9 attack = 3, 11 and 20 total damage (Clock)
3 attack, 9 attack, 9 attack = 3, 12 and 21 total damage (Chronometer)

[Rutarete]

What do you think about a card using an active ability before it's been drawn? Or of having a passive ability be occurring before being drawn?

[Annele]

Is Clock | Chronometer balanced? If not, how would you balance it?

The +3|-3 of Tick Tock is roughly the value of Snipe. (slightly better)
  : Snipe costs Owl's Eye roughly 3 + 1 card
  : Give 3 +1|-1s would cost around 3-4 + 1 card
So we are in the right neighborhood. But how to include Aging? (aka extra use of skills including non activated ones)
Probably worth +1-2 for a total of 4-6 + 1 card.


PS: How does your Puffer Fish example work? Venom requires an attack to trigger so it would not be repeated by Aging.
3 attack, 8 attack, 9 attack = 3, 11 and 20 total damage (Clock)
3 attack, 9 attack, 9 attack = 3, 12 and 21 total damage (Chronometer)

So I've got the balancing right then? Oh, and my Puffer Fish example was about my new Puffer Fish (that furball kindly help balance) here. Thankyou for pointing that out, I will add that link to the Notes.

[OldTrees]

Is Clock | Chronometer balanced? If not, how would you balance it?

The +3|-3 of Tick Tock is roughly the value of Snipe. (slightly better)
  : Snipe costs Owl's Eye roughly 3 + 1 card
  : Give 3 +1|-1s would cost around 3-4 + 1 card
So we are in the right neighborhood. But how to include Aging? (aka extra use of skills including non activated ones)
Probably worth +1-2 for a total of 4-6 + 1 card.


PS: How does your Puffer Fish example work? Venom requires an attack to trigger so it would not be repeated by Aging.
3 attack, 8 attack, 9 attack = 3, 11 and 20 total damage (Clock)
3 attack, 9 attack, 9 attack = 3, 12 and 21 total damage (Chronometer)

So I've got the balancing right then? Oh, and my Puffer Fish example was about my new Puffer Fish (that furball kindly help balance) here. Thankyou for pointing that out, I will add that link to the Notes.

Yes with the existing Puffer Fish. Unknown with the alternative Puffer Fish.

What do you think about a card using an active ability before it's been drawn? Or of having a passive ability be occurring before being drawn?

A card using an ability before it's been drawn? Why not? However the types of abilities that would work would be limited. Things like "starts in the top 10 cards".

[russianspy1234]

can i get some help balancing the numbers with this?
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,43845.0.html

[Zaealix]

Hrm.
This mechanic has been used before in the bolt series, as well as  's fahrenheit, but not as  quanta...
I would presume simmilar balancing should be applied, however, this creature easily serves rainbows far better than it does  , so adjusting for that is a necessity.
I would reccomend a different attack table set-up, with a base amount of attack power and a slower attack scaling ratio, as a quanta pillar/tower could feed this creature more effectively than a fire pillar could feed fahrenheight, to encourage mono-use, instead of specifically being for rainbow use.

[OldTrees]

can i get some help balancing the numbers with this?
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,43845.0.html

Hrm.
This mechanic has been used before in the bolt series, as well as  's fahrenheit, but not as  quanta...
I would presume simmilar balancing should be applied, however, this creature easily serves rainbows far better than it does  , so adjusting for that is a necessity.
I would reccomend a different attack table set-up, with a base amount of attack power and a slower attack scaling ratio, as a quanta pillar/tower could feed this creature more effectively than a fire pillar could feed fahrenheight, to encourage mono-use, instead of specifically being for rainbow use.

Elemental equivalent:
It does 1 Fire Bolt of damage per turn for a casting cost of 1 + 1 card + Fire mark that is hard to cast before a the 4th turn.
Oh and it prevents Black Hole and Devourers.

Ideally you would convert this card to (Mono, Duo, Trio or Rainbow) Life rather than merely Rainbow Life.
The next thing to deal with is the low casting cost. It needs to be higher so we have more to work with. If it costs X then the elemental equivalent would be X/3 that is hard to cast prior to the (X+1)th turn.
Second the rate of increase needs to be reduced from a Fire Bolt per turn.
Fahrenheit is a permanent that costs 6 for 4+2/3rds Fire Bolt per turn.
Consider 1 attack per 15 quanta (1 attack per 5 ) and a cost of 6 (2 on the 7 turn)
This is a very rough estimate.

[russianspy1234]

hmmm i did originally have it at 15, not sure why i thought bringing it down to 10 was a good idea.  possibly because it can't be creature removal.  making it mono-life would be thematically awkward wouldn't it?  that was the main reason i did rainbow, couldn't think of a good theme for something that wasn't.

[OldTrees]

hmmm i did originally have it at 15, not sure why i thought bringing it down to 10 was a good idea.  possibly because it can't be creature removal.  making it mono-life would be thematically awkward wouldn't it?  that was the main reason i did rainbow, couldn't think of a good theme for something that wasn't.

Thematically awkward? That is not the first obstacle. Shifting it so all stages of Life usage (Mono, Duo, Trio and Rainbow) is a mechanically puzzle that I do not see a good answer to. (Maybe have it check the highest pool?) The thematic issue might change the ending element but would be a tiny obstacle.

[Absol]

Is this card balanced, mechanic-wise?

Spoiler for Hidden:

If it's OP, will reducing the effect to 1 turn balance it?