This is a thought experiment I've had on my hiatus from here, while designing other card games. What is the strongest possible card in Elements? This is more of a philosophical exploration of what constitutes "power" in a card game, because there are several approaches one could take to answer that question.
Obviously, there are cards that can claim to be the "strongest", such as Sundial being a ridiculous defensive option, Fractal single-handedly winning games, and Nova being astronomically efficient for its generation...
But Sundial, Fractal, and Nova are all
non-comparable: They are put into different decks for different reasons and do different things. Surely, the strongest card would be supreme to all other obvious - without question.
Here are the rules:
- You can invent any new mechanic you want. We don't care if the card even works.
- The textbox can be as crammed as you want. We don't care if the card even fits on an elements card.
So, let's start simple. You're probably thinking of four very simple, elegant words right now:
But, we can go one better. What if you don't draw the card?
Now, we've degenerated the game into a coinflip. Whoever goes first casts this card and wins. But, even this can be made stronger.
This is where things get weird. This card is obviously "stronger" than the above card.
However, think about the previous iteration. Both players would obviously play 6 copies of that card, because why wouldn't they?
What happens if two of this card is cast at the same time?
Either:
1) The person who goes first resolves their copy before or after the other player. This is more powerful in the sense it wins "quicker", but the result is the exact same as the previous iteration.
2) All players play and resolve their copy at the same time, resulting in either a draw or nothing happening. This is blatantly weaker than the previous iteration.
However, even still, we can go one stronger.
Now you don't even have to put the card in your deck! You just automatically win! Take that, Plat decks!
... Except this doesn't deal with the problem. Both players have equal access to this card, meaning that this card results in a draw, or absolutely nothing.
And, finally, do you want to know a card stronger than this?
...We've come full circle. This is stronger than the previous iteration because the previous iteration makes the game either a draw, or does absolutely nothing. This card does something if it doesn't draw, and is an answer to the "do we get to play a game or not" mindgames meta of "is this card in your possession or not", should it draw.
But, can we get even stronger? Yes, most likely.
I'm going to leave this here for everyone else to chime in.
If this sparks a good discussion, then maybe we'll do other topics like "What is the longest possible Elements effect text?" or "What is the most average card possible?" or "What if there were 50 elements?" I'd be interested to see how this goes.
