Eternal Spells

[OldTrees]

Something you seem to be emphasing is the idea of being able to use these eternal spells near infinitely. I suppose spell effects normally too weak to be worth creating could be made into eternal spells, but 'weaker' spells tend to lend themeselves to situational use, which in turn, renders the purpose of eternal spells useless.
That last question was a brainstorming question. Not an emphasis. Situational spells obviously would not be useful as eternal spells. Weak effects like "Delay 1 turn" are too weak to be a spell but are not situational.

The core mechanic appears to be reusablity, But I find this reuseablity to be an extremely powerful tool, in that even a relativly minor skill of granting target creature +1/+0 could be extremely powerful and dangerous if repeatable.
Perhaps instead of thinking of 'Eternal Spells' as light abilities that are reusable, we should work from the other end, making them very powerful, but perhaps less effecient then their normal counterparts, useful if repeatedly used or needed to last a long time, but otherwise not worth it.
Higher cost was mentioned in the OP. If we select the effects that are abnormally powerful as Eternal, they will need abnormally high costs. (Beyond paying for mere card advantage) If we select effects that are powerful but not abnormally powerful, they would have a higher costs but not abnormally higher costs.

Light Infusation:4
gives all creatures biolumence and heals you for 10 HP.
Reads roughly the same as it's counterpart, but less repeatable. It also may be cheaper in the long run to have a Light Nymph, as that creature's skill would be cheaper then the 'eternal spell' cost.

This is a good theoretical example. (In practice the specific effect might overlap rather than expand the metagame due to Light Nymph.)

[Zaealix]

Hrm...After going back and checking the OP, perhaps we should look at the discard effects, or the slow implementation.
Perhaps:
Disease:5
create a weakened virus.
Said virus could have 0/1 (I'd make it 0/0 so it dies, but that wouldn't work out well.)
And this could thus be a delayed poison target creature eternal spell.
For Discard effects, perhaps it could be a 'passive' so as to reduce wording complexity...
Perhaps, if you discard an Eternal spell, it grants a boost to the opponent?
Like, discard a eternal, and your opponent gets some  quanta.
The idea is, Eternal spells are so potent, that when you discard them, it releases quanta matching that eternal spell's element...Thought we could make it match the opponent's mark, so as to make the extra quanta easier to use and actually helpful to the opponent.
Another effect might be spawning a creature on your side of the field that acts like a weaker version of Singularity.

[OldTrees]

Hrm...After going back and checking the OP, perhaps we should look at the discard effects, or the slow implementation.

It is not meant to be an "or". The 4 suggested restrictions were a recipe to prevent a series of problems.
Card advantage -> Higher cost
Rainbow Eternal metagame influence -> Discard penalties
Not removable -> Slow implementation and Constructive allow after the fact counters (I was later convinced that either or relevant per use negative effects would work here.)

Perhaps:
Disease:5
create a weakened virus.
Said virus could have 0/1 (I'd make it 0/0 so it dies, but that wouldn't work out well.)
And this could thus be a delayed poison target creature eternal spell.
For Discard effects, perhaps it could be a 'passive' so as to reduce wording complexity...
Perhaps, if you discard an Eternal spell, it grants a boost to the opponent?
Like, discard a eternal, and your opponent gets some  quanta.
The idea is, Eternal spells are so potent, that when you discard them, it releases quanta matching that eternal spell's element...Thought we could make it match the opponent's mark, so as to make the extra quanta easier to use and actually helpful to the opponent.
Another effect might be spawning a creature on your side of the field that acts like a weaker version of Singularity.

Why not create a regular virus so it would have multiple uses? (I like this better than the Swarm idea earlier.)

Giving the opponent boons is an interesting penalty. 
Mark quanta would probably be ideal. Especially since they would have access to that quanta immediately.

[Zaealix]

Well, quanta loss could be planned for to migitate the effects, like discarding an  eternal spell after playing fractal.
HP loss has healing effects.
Losing creatures MIGHT be doable, but also not always a minus, due to AM and death triggered effects.
However, boons for the opponent makes for a much harsher penatly-depending on the situation, it could tip the scales in their favor.

[OdinVanguard]

I actually had a whole series of spells like this planned about a month ago, but I've been waiting to get started till after this quarter ends. I was thinking along the lines of "Words of Power" series (harking to the D&D spells) My original ideas all read:
"Repeatable spell (N per turn)" along the first line, and were meant to function much like eternal spells but would be limited in the number of times they could be cast (as a means to limit / balance them).
Several of them would probably still work under the "Eternal" mechanic (no limit on number of castings per turn).

What about the following eternal spell ideas (if I may run them by you):
 1) Command Word - Defend:
Target ally creature gives up attack to block and retaliate against enemies in its column.

2) Command Word - Assault:
Target ally creature redirects its attack against nearest viable enemy in its column

These do damage, but require you putting your creatures at risk to do so. E.g. for defend, the creature must survive the hit before it can retaliate and with assault, if the attacked enemy survives it gets a chance to fight back. They also require strategic planning of creature placement (play order) in the field. This inherently limits their usage, so it should limit capability as "impenetrable defense".
Also, flying and ranged mechanics could be worked in as well (e.g. flyer's attacks could only be blocked by other flyers, and could only be damaged if the responding creature was ranged or flying as well)

3) Focus Word - Kiai
Add 1 spell damage to your weapon's attack this turn. Cost is equal to the current damage added + 1.

Although it is a damage type eternal, the rapid rise in cost will limit its usage in a given turn.

4) Power Word - Alacrity
Reduce frozen or delay counter on target card by 1.

[Camoninja]

What about making Dissipation Shield | Field an eternal spell that generates/fuels the shield?
1 adds 3 counters to it, or 1 :other adds 1 counter to it, like Bonewall but for damage instead of attacks.
Then, you can always choose not to refuel it in favor of playing an expensive card, but depending how you use it, you might be in for an OTK.
And you also remove the need for the Sanctuary extra rule.

[OldTrees]

Good reasoning Zaealix


@OdinVanguard
Defend & Assault - Probably too situational. Assault is less so.
Kiai - OTK potential to be balanced around (Eternal + weapon + animate + PU). Cost could probably be decreased or simplified to a constant.
Alacrity - Too situational

@Camoninja
That is possible (suggest it in GS&F?) but wouldn't adding a card be preferred over changing a card?

[storyteller]

Im think there should be 1 Eternal Spell for each element, like a given Power for elementals of high level. Possibly 3 per element, representing a different aspect, defensive, offensive, utility as they apply to each element. However 1 is probably enough.

[storyteller]

Consider:


Momentary Pain
8-10
Permanent
When this card is discarded, heal yourself for an amount of HP equal to the number of counters on this card, deal that much damage to your opponent.
Lasts only 1 turn. Only one in play at a time.

Eternal Suffering
2
Spell-Eternal
Add one counter to Momentary Pain. If momentary pain is not in play, take 2 damage. If this card is discarded, take 12 damage.


A dual card system, using eternal and another card in conjunction for a possibly very powerful effect.

[OldTrees]

@Storyteller
36 or even 12 cards is probably too many at this time. It would not be beneficial for eternal spells to dominate too large a fraction of the card pool. (See the reaction to the Shards being expanded to 12 cards)

Eternal Suffering suffers from a forced combo with Momentary pain. Forced combos result when a card cannot be used alone and has a low number of enabling partners (1 in this case compared to the 4 partners Shard of Wisdom has)

(Momentary Suffering has other problems: Cards in play cannot be discarded. It has no reason to be played. Even if it did have a reason to be played it causes dead draws.)

[storyteller]

by discarded I mean at the end of the turn it is played, I guess destroyed is better.

The idea is an Eternal Spell, that must be used with another permanent. Not really the best example, but you get the idea, a way of limiting Eternal spells, or giving them alternate effects based on other cards in play. Just a thought on my way to sleep

[Shantu]

Trio helper idea:

1
Generate .

Idea is that you turn a quanta into its opposite. Turning it into the opposite of the mark's element could work as well.
It is weaker than Rustler intentionally, because Rustler is vulnerable to control while this isn't.