Life Card Competition.

[darkrobe]

bump bump

[The_Mormegil]

Tiebreaker?

[OldTrees]

The top 6 entries out of 18 are:
1st & 2nd (Tiebreaker)
Blast Spore | Deadly Blast Spore
Foliage | Foilage
3rd & 4th (Tiebreaker)
Forest Keeper | Forest Golem
Life Orb | Jade Orb
5th & 6th (Tiebreaker)
Battle Stripes | Battle Stripes
Rose Bush | Rose Bush

Round 3 (tiebreakers) is here

Notes	Inspired by Zebra Stripes, thought to confuse attackers by preventing predators from identifying a single animal, the "Striped" ability allows your striped creatures to protect one another by giving them an extra 25% chance to dodge. that translates to the following build up: Number of Striped creatures 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ... 19 20 Avoidance Rate of striped creatures 0% 25% 44% 58% 68% 76% 82% 86% 90% ... 99% 100% The Striped Ability gives creatures a chance to dodge direct damage. so lightning, rain of fire, fireshield, devour,sniper, etc can be avoided. Things that do not result in immediate damage cannot be avoided. for example: plague, infect, spine carapace, Reverse time, congeal, etc. This is a active skill and can be lobotomized. As such it does not overlap with things like mitosis or bioluminescence.
Problems	The main problem this tries to solve is the fact that life's creatures are incredibly susceptible to the Opponent's CC. Combined with the fact that many of life's most powerful spells and permanents rely on creatures (mitosis, feral bond, etc) this is a crippling problem for many mono life decks. its difficult to go into a match knowing that a single firestorm can wipe out your entire offense and defense in one shot.
Solution	This card (based off of my Zebra |Elite Zebra (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,33581.0.html) card) grants life the ability to protect its creatures by taking advantage of a perceived weakness. many of life's creatures do not have a skill associated with them, this makes them rather bland and unable to give the owner any benefit other that cheap attack). Now we can pull out a spell that will instantly make these cheap but weak creatures into a hard to kill mob. Pros: turns a weakness of life (lack of creature skills) into a strength (can use this spell to make them avoid damage) Protects against Mass CC and Direct CC, thus benefiting creatures in general and creature dependent cards like feral bond. Synergizes well with life's ability to put out a lot of creatures quickly. Cons: cannot be applied to skilled creatures (like ones with mitosis) so they will still be weak.
Read more:	http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,33665

Notes	Beware the mushrooms. If you aren't careful where you tread you may disturb these horrid things. Deadly poisonous, inhaling the spores from these mushrooms will quickly make you wish you hadn't. so the idea behind these is permanent defense. your opponent has to watch out. If they want to destroy (steal, butterfly effect, etc) one of your permanents they can do so, but they will be punished with poison as disturbing the mushrooms causes them to release deadly spores. This card protects all your permanents from being stolen or destroyed by your opponent. The poison effect stacks. so with 6 blast spores you can have a whopping 12 poison (24 poison upped) occur as punishment by end game if your opponent decides he wants to mess with your permanents. Blast spores protect themselves from being damaged, so you cannot simply destroy the stack without experiencing the effect of the poison. *note: this poison effect only occurs when your opponent messes with your permanents. these being your summon, they do not go off if you destroy one of your own permanents (for example: this does not synergize with unstable gas)
Problems	This trys to solve life's susceptibility to Permanent Control. It has good stalling cards, (like spine carapace and feral bond) but no way to protect them, this means that most life decks focus on quick rush of damage. a strategy that makes life prone to any mass CC.
Solution	This card gives Mono life a unique and original means of permanent protection (much different from PA). Throwing this card in a deck would allow you to focus on stalling with lifes healing skills, while building up damage with the tougher creatures in life's arsenal, like dragons and cockatrice. rather than focusing on the cheap rush aspect of life. Pros: Protects all your permanents in a unique way. lets life develop more stall strategies. Cons: cannot be used for offense. only a defensive card.
Read more:	http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,33813

Notes	Creatures in the first 5 slots are untargetable and invisible. Creatures in slots 6-23 are untargetable, but visible. (Idea being that foliage thins out on the edges.) Does not stack (playing while another is still active simply resets the counter).
Problem	Life's creatures are especially vulnerable to CC, strongly hindering its ability to effectively rush.
Solution	This Permanent provides protection for Life's creatures from most forms of CC in a cost effective manner. Pros Protects from direct CC Relatively cheap Lasts 4 turns per card Provides an additional target for PC, effectively protecting cards like Empathic Bond and Thorn Carapace. Cons Very similar to Cloak Does not protect from mass CC (Rain of Fire, Pandemonium, Plague)
Read more:	http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,33562.0.html

Notes	Thorns are removed when the creature is targeted instead of the intended effect. This card can protect your creatures in 2 ways: 1) When you put thorns on your creature you will be taking 2 damage per turn and it would require an additional source of CC to remove the thorns. This encourages your opponent to let you keep your creature and lose the 2 hp per turn. 2) When you put it on your opponent's creature it will deal 2 damage per turn that avoids shields. To remove the thorns your opponent would have to waste a source of CC. Multiple uses on the same creature will not stack. The second use targets the creature removing the first use.
Problem	Life is too vulnerable to creature control. Life has 3 win conditions it can employ. It can use creatures, Druidic Staff or stall until the opponent is decked out. Life's creatures have no defenses against CC. Adrenaline and Mitosis even reward the opponent with card advantage when CC is used. Druidic Staff has a small 2|4 attack that is insufficient to defeat an 100hp opponent in less than 50|25 turns. Most decks will deckout before Druidic Staff deals 100 damage. If Druidic Staff is animated then it is a creature win condition. Deckout requires stalling. Stalling requires the defense to remove, disable, mitigate or negate the opposing offense. Thorn Carapace can remove creatures after a while. Jade Shield can disable spell damage and slightly mitigate creature damage. Neither of these slows the opposing offenses enough for a deckout win condition. That leaves Life's healing to be used for stalling. Heal can more than double Life's effective hp however most decks can deal 220 damage easily without decking out. Druidic Staff heals 5hp per turn however to keep up with most offenses multiple Druidic Staves are required rendering them vulnerable to CC. Empathic Bond can heal a lot per turn however it is vulnerable to CC through the creatures it requires. All three of Life's win conditions can be defeated with CC.
Solution	This card reduces Life's vulnerability to CC by discouraging the opponent from using CC on Life's creatures. Pros Protects creatures from targeting CC including most AoEs. Can be used to deal damage to the opponent. Cons The card description can cause confusion to inexperienced players. Moderate-High cost.
Read more:	http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,33662

Notes	The skill is called Justified (I guess? O_o) and is passive.  The damage dealt is based on the creature's current attack stat and does not interact with poison, shields, statuses, sundial, and whatever else I forgot.
Problem	Life has two main components: a fast rush and and burst healing. Its 1) predictable 2) swarmy rushes are weak to 3) shields and 4) CC. Its healing is…well…a bit 5?) lacking… 6??) not sustained… 7?!) or something… 8/9/10/11/12) I really don't know.
Solution	^This card fixes Life’s problems in several ways. Props 1). The unupped version’s base stats can sort of counter the effects of DR shields. 2). The high HP makes it hard to kill. 3). The ability allows for Life to deal damage that can penetrate shields, or it can 4). indirectly protect your creatures from CC. 5). The ability allows for more healing.  And that is well, more healing. 6). Synergy within Life and with other elements!  Like Aether.  That’s usually good. 7). It is not overly situational as a card. Uncategorized 1). A bad cost/attack ratio.  Although that’s intended and means you should use other cards with it for efficiency.  And that might give Life decks a bit more diversity. 2). Bad wording/a bit complicated?  Iunno, “attack the opponent” seems a bit vague. 3). If it does solve most of Life’s problems, and gets in the game, chances are you’ll be seeing it very often. Slops There are none.
Read more:	http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,34195.0.html

Notes	This weapon deals spell damage, meaning it isn't blocked like normal damage. It can be reflected by damage reflection shields and would deal damage to the owner of the orb. The bonus damage is also spell damage. has trouble with permanents. Too often are their swarms of creatures stopped by an opponent's shield. With this Orb, they can now swarm the opponent and still be able to do damage.
Problem	One of the major problems with is the lack of any kind of PC. Unless you're splashing it in from another element, you will flat out lose to a Dimensional Shield Deck. Wings will cause a similar problem. Any attempt to counter this weakness will usually make the deck too weak to be competitive. Druidic/Jade Staff is an okay card, but its damage is equal to Dagger and healing for 5 hp a turn is only decent, but nothing amazing compared to other Elements' weapons.
Solution	So, now I present Life Orb. By doing Spell Damage, any shield that would normally block all the damage of your creatures, would still get hit by Life Orb. If you have several creatures out, it increases the damage. Want to run a stallish deck with Life creatures, Mitosis, and Feral Bonds? Now you can hit for lots of damage. The card must only be creatures, otherwise, it could be abused with cards like: Aflatoxin, Boneyard, Fractal. (Although Fractal would still work with creatures. Life Orb also gives a 'change of pace' weapon. Druidic Staff just isn't very good in a rush and Jade Staff gets overshadowed by Long Sword. Now will have an on-element card that can also cover some of its weaknesses. If you're playing a rush, you can spam your creatures real quick, then plop the orb down and watch it hit for 6-8 damage through their Dim Shield. They'll have to be careful about not putting their Dim Shields down too late, since may cause a break in their shield chain, causing a big hit of damage from all your creatures. Obviously, the card can be tweaked as needed, but the basic concept is there.
Read more:	http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,33762.0.html

[darkrobe]

Im amused we needed tie breaking for 1st 3rd and 5th place. talk about close races.

[OldTrees]

The top 6 entries out of 18 are:

1) Foliage | Foilage
2) Blast Spore | Deadly Blast Spore
3) Forest Keeper | Forest Golem
4) Life Orb | Jade Orb
5) Rose Bush | Rose Bush
6) Battle Stripes | Battle Stripes

[darkrobe]

Gah, I miss 1st by 1 vote. Congrats UTAlan

[The_Mormegil]

Foliage is a very good card. Congrats.

[Cel]

Congratulations and good job everybody for making such interesting and balanced cards!

[EmeraldTiger]

is the next weak element gonna be done?

[artimies7]

Didn't win, but gratz to the winrars!

[UTAlan]

Yay Lots of good cards made for this competition. Glad to see Foliage was liked.

[darkrobe]

perhaps we should discuss what was good about the top ranked cards. so that others interested in life cards can see what is needed when they are designing.