The Dreaded: Mass-buff Creature Skill

[Jyiber]

I've witnessed several attempts at this idea, and each is received with negative criticism.

A creature that buffs another (or an all) creature(s).

My recent idea was using military terms for creature skills like battle tactics.  Off the top of my head;
Entrench: All creatures do not attack and gain +0|+2
Phalanx: All creatures do not attack and gain +1|+0

Why do you think such ideas won't work, and if you know why, what's the best way to approach it?
At this point, compared to SoP, a creature skill requires constant quanta-per-turn making it, in my opinion, inferior.

[stereohelix]

I like it. What element would you put it in? Or a cross-element card?

Seems to fit best thematically with Earth or Gravity. Entrench would be interesting in combination with Acceleration.

Also fits thematically with the battlegrounds series I've been developing -- I'll follow this thread to see what you come up with.

[Jyiber]

Entrench sounds like a Earth skill, I admit.

The elements I see this fitting in are Earth, Light, and Gravity. Coincidentally elements that have humanoid creatures already. On reflection this just thematically goes with a humanoid, I just don't see another creature using military strategy...

Last time I brought this subject up was before SoP was around, and now that it is I can use it as a frame of reference. Compare a 2-3 quanta per turn creature skill to a 3 quanta permanent. Plus SoP buff-rate is larger that my suggested buff-rate.

[jsrjohnny]

Seems really neat, and excellently (is that a word?) balanced. Would be cool if the creatures with these skills were rares. Maybe even a new False God who used these creatures, to introduce them.

[OdinVanguard]

I've witnessed several attempts at this idea, and each is received with negative criticism.

A creature that buffs another (or an all) creature(s).

My recent idea was using military terms for creature skills like battle tactics.  Off the top of my head;
Entrench: All creatures do not attack and gain +0|+2
Phalanx: All creatures do not attack and gain +1|+0

Why do you think such ideas won't work, and if you know why, what's the best way to approach it?
At this point, compared to SoP, a creature skill requires constant quanta-per-turn making it, in my opinion, inferior.

The biggest arguments against these types of effects tend to revolve around a few specific situations.

For giving out attack bonuses
1) Giving out bonus attack en masse or repeatedly can be very powerful in scorpion decks because creatures with venom have low or zero attacks as part of balance.
2) Mass attack damage buffs tend to overly enhance swarm type strategies. This makes skeleton and fractal decks problematic in terms of balance.

For giving out defence bonuses, the main worry is fractal spark... although this is a little less important now that it already is happening under SoPa. (to paraphrase a "House" quote: Since the vase is broken, you might as well keep playing ball in the house)

[stereohelix]

Since the vase is broken, you might as well keep playing ball in the house

This seems a bit fatalistic. It seems like we should be critical about whether or not the mass delay on SoPa is actually a sufficient drawback. If not, it should be changed.

[eaglgenes101]

For giving out defence bonuses, the main worry is fractal spark... although this is a little less important now that it already is happening under SoPa. (to paraphrase a "House" quote: Since the vase is broken, you might as well keep playing ball in the house)

This can easily be circumvented by giving the attack buff after the creature attacks.
And if the vase is broken, there are still windows, TV's, computers, etc. that could still be broken.

And why aren't already-there (sort of) mass buff cards like eclipse and Sky Blitz criticized as much as the above posts would imply? I wouldn't run a mass dune deck, as each extra dune scorpion wouldn't add very much. If I were running a mass buff deathstalker deck, I would use nightfall.

[mesaprotector]

The closest we currently have to a creature buffing other creatures is this deck:

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fk 5fk 5fk 5fk 7dg 7dg 7dm 7dm 7f2 7f2 7ju 7ju 7ju 7ju 7ju 7ju 7la 7la 7la 7la 7la 7la 7la 7la 7la 7la 8po

It's definitely a mechanic that should be expanded though! Something like: Elf Mage, Vitalize: Target creature gains +1|+2.