Falling Empire - Rules

[The_Mormegil]

I'm not a fan of a possible 2 round win.
I'd limit the ability to start from Round 2-3+.

Hmmm... not the point there. As I said, Heroes are supposed to have easier win conditions in order to compensate for weaker abilities. But, maybe I missed the point. Hmmm... What about this:
Save the Cheerleader, Save the World!: If at least one Hero is still alive at the end of Round 7, Heroes win.

[Onizuka]

I like the current one, I just don't like the possibility of a 2 round win. Its easy enough to accomplish, probably won't happen first round, but just to make sure of that by limiting it to work 2nd round+.

Besides, all current abilities besides Zombies need at least one round to work.
And 7 rounds of straight wins is much much harder.

[The_Mormegil]

Ok, limited to Round 3 win, which is possible for other teams as well. Not as likely, but that's ok as Heroes are not that strong to begin with.

[TStar]

You should probably develop a list of what exactly is considered a "Spell" card.  Would Nova be a spell?  Immolation?  What about PC like Deflagration and Steal?  Then you have buffs like Plate Armor, Blessing, Momentum, etc.  Even with their benefits I wonder how competitive the zombies can be if all they get is critter spam with no CC or PC cards (Bolts, Drains, Steal, Deflag, etc) and no damage mitigation abilities (Shields, AM).  Taking away Steal, Deflag, and Momentum will already severely hinder their abilities to bypass any type of stall if not make it impossible altogether.

[The_Mormegil]

You should probably develop a list of what exactly is considered a "Spell" card.  Would Nova be a spell?  Immolation?  What about PC like Deflagration and Steal?  Then you have buffs like Plate Armor, Blessing, Momentum, etc.  Even with their benefits I wonder how competitive the zombies can be if all they get is critter spam with no CC or PC cards (Bolts, Drains, Steal, Deflag, etc) and no damage mitigation abilities (Shields, AM).  Taking away Steal, Deflag, and Momentum will already severely hinder their abilities to bypass any type of stall if not make it impossible altogether.

That is why I originally thought to include only Shields. I think that cutting them from accessing Spells is a little harsh too. By the way, Spell is defined in-game as the category of cards with instant effect. The lightning symbol ones.

[TStar]

You should probably develop a list of what exactly is considered a "Spell" card.  Would Nova be a spell?  Immolation?  What about PC like Deflagration and Steal?  Then you have buffs like Plate Armor, Blessing, Momentum, etc.  Even with their benefits I wonder how competitive the zombies can be if all they get is critter spam with no CC or PC cards (Bolts, Drains, Steal, Deflag, etc) and no damage mitigation abilities (Shields, AM).  Taking away Steal, Deflag, and Momentum will already severely hinder their abilities to bypass any type of stall if not make it impossible altogether.

That is why I originally thought to include only Shields. I think that cutting them from accessing Spells is a little harsh too. By the way, Spell is defined in-game as the category of cards with instant effect. The lightning symbol ones.

That would eliminate all PC options except Pulverizer, and all non-creature based CC options (aside from OE).  With Zombies needing 18 cards it will be incredibly difficult for them to incorporate and duo-PC card like Pulvy into a deck and it will force them into some very clunky duos and trios if they want creature-based CC.  You'll need to do some testing but banning all Instant cards might be too harsh when coupled with the element restriction.  A Vampire, for example, would just ban Pulverizer and play a Dimensional Shield stall against them and be unkillable since the only creature who can bypass that is a Sapphire Charger and those are easy to kill.

[Onizuka]

While it is agreed that banning all spells is too much, I do feel a banning of at least some spells is justified. There are certainly both control, rush, and in between spells. Eliminating most, if not all of the control spells is what I'm currently leaning towards.
These are just my suggestions:
 
Unupped Chaos Seed
Mutation
Antimatter
Pandemonium

Plague
Aflatoxin
 
Gravity Pull
Black Hole
Acceleration

Enchant Artifact
Earthquake
Stone Skin
Basilisk Blood

Heal

Fire Bolt
Rain of Fire
Rage Potion
 
Freeze
Ice Bolt
Purify
Flooding
 
Holy Light
Miracle
Luciferin
 
ThunderStorm
 
Reverse Time
 
Steal
Drain Life
Nightmare
Liquid Shadow
 
Quintessence
Silence

[The_Mormegil]

While it is agreed that banning all spells is too much, I do feel a banning of at least some spells is justified. There are certainly both control, rush, and in between spells. Eliminating most, if not all of the control spells is what I'm currently leaning towards.
These are just my suggestions:
 
Unupped Chaos Seed
Mutation
Antimatter
Pandemonium

Plague
Aflatoxin
 
Gravity Pull
Black Hole
Acceleration

Enchant Artifact
Earthquake
Stone Skin
Basilisk Blood

Heal

Fire Bolt
Rain of Fire
Rage Potion
 
Freeze
Ice Bolt
Purify
Flooding
 
Holy Light
Miracle
Luciferin
 
ThunderStorm
 
Reverse Time
 
Steal
Drain Life
Nightmare
Liquid Shadow
 
Quintessence
Silence

That would lead towards a complexity that I feel is not needed. We already have different rules for every team, I don't want to do card-banning lists unless it's strictly necessary.

What about banning all permanents? That would leave them with creatures, weapons and spells. Not easy to stall, but it leaves open most CC / PC options. They might still be at a little advantage there...

[SnoWeb]

It's cliché not clichè ...

[Onizuka]

There isn't that much in the way of permanents that actually hurts them. Nightfall, cloak, sanctuary, empathic Bond are the only real ones that hurt (possibly sundial).

But what can (somewhat hurt) without making things too complicated is make the 10 upped cards either:
1) One element over the game
2) Different element(s) each round
3) Giving them a list of cards that they can use upped each round (40 at random maybe?)

Right now that 10 card advantage throughout most of the game needs some kind of balancing that doesn't kill Zombies.

[The_Mormegil]

What about up to 10 upped creatures? Or up to 10 upped death cards. Or even up to 8 upped creatures.

[Onizuka]

That could work too.