Black Panther | Midnight Panther

[PhantomFox]

NAME: Black Panther ELEMENT: Darkness COST: 0 TYPE: Creature ATK|HP: 0/4 ABILITY: Stealth: Black Panther enters play invisible.  Damage done to or by Panther breaks stealth 5 Pounce: Black Panther gains +N/+0.  N = 5 + half turns stealthed	NAME: Midnight Panther ELEMENT: Darkness COST: 0 TYPE: Creature ATK|HP: 0/4 ABILITY: Stealth: Midnight Panther enters play invisible.  Damage done to or by Panther breaks stealth 4 Pounce: Black Panther gains +N/+0.  N = 5 + half turns stealthed

ART: Unknown IDEA: PhantomFox NOTES: Black Panther and Midnight Panther do not trigger 'card played' animations to your opponent, although the quanta pools remain accurate. While stealthed, Panthers may not be singly targeted, but are vulnerable to area of effect spells such as plague, flood, and rain of fire.  Panthers are played into the 'last' available creature slot. SERIES: N/A

Version two
Old version:
http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/1075/blackpantherx.jpg
http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/108/midnightpanther.jpg

[dragonhuman]

the only problem with your idea is that they will think your haxing because card removed, quantum used yet nothing happened

also next to useleess against comp

but it does provide a medium amount of damage for its cost

edit: next time I need to read the notes first

[icybraker]

Any damage done by the panther breaks stealth as well.

This should be specified. Blessing your Panther isn't such a good idea, then. I'm assuming the ability can only be used once.

All in all, a great card. I'd increase the costs, actually, to 5 and 4 because it's a little on the strong side right now.

[wizelsnarf]

I really like the idea!

I had an idea in a similar vein but Kael Hate has major reservations about implementing any kind of invisibility because he believes it will increase the accusations of cheating/hacking....

Which is kind of a shame in my opinion. I feel like if it is revealed at some point what card was played then you can confirm there wasn't any cheating.

If we aren't accepting invisibility as possible/allowable then the next best thing is making the panther untargetable or immortal until it uses its skill.

I like the card as it stands though personally.

Also, can you fix the image of the upped card? The upped gradient is on top of the darkness cost mark and washing it out...

[PhantomFox]

The only other question I have is whether the current version is better than the alternative of having the card cost be free, but the ability be 5 (4 upgraded).  This will bypass having to code out the quanta cost generation.  However, I thought of this after I made the cards, and I hate dealing with pixlr. 

[icecoldbro]

this card has a few faults for starters the accusations of cheating and i think the cost should be decreased by one each so 3/2 to make this card usable and worth playing may i also add that the artwork is fantastic but normally the cards in the game show a full bodie shot of the creature

[PhantomFox]

Wait, so one person says increase the cost by one, someone else says decrease it, I'm confused...

[Kael Hate]

I'm wondering how this is different to just having a 5|4 darkness creature held in hand until I need to play it?

[PhantomFox]

Simple.  It doesn't clog up your hand.  It's designed to have several out to do surprise burst damage.  The key part being surprise.  No one would expect 3 creatures to come out of nowhere when you've got an empty hand or very little quanta.

One other strategy would be to put out several, and then play nightfall.  The added +2/+1 would break stealth, and then use Pounce on as many as you had the quanta for (depending on what the final version would be)

[Kael Hate]

I like that its not doing anything while it is invisble.
Don't think anyone would think cheat if isn't doing anything to them.

Can't think of any situation where I wouldn't rather just be doing the damage straight away rather than save it up but thats not to say it doesn't exist.

[unionruler]

If you buff its attack while it is in stealth mode, does it become visible? It would be quite imba if you could buff it and TU it while it (and all clones) remained invisible. The other concern I have is regarding withheld information so to speak. I am personally somewhat against introducing that idea into the metagame.

[PhantomFox]

Any damage done by the Panther breaks stealth, as mentioned in the notes.  I'll put that in the card text proper when I remake the image.

@Kael Hate: One situation that comes to mind where sudden burst damage is useful is fighting Miracle.  He won't Miracle if he doesn't think he's in danger of being killed.  The same applies to to human opponents.  Strategy changes depending on the perceived situation.  Another is for when they have creature control.  Playing creatures one by one will just get them sniped one by one.  Playing them en masse makes it longer for them to get rid of them all, and does more damage overall.
Example of concept:  Playing 5 fireflies vs. Eagle's Eye.  Playing one per turn gets them killed one turn each.  5+5+5+5+5 = 25 damage total as each hits only once.  Waiting to play them all at once increases swarm survivability.  25+20+15+10+5 = 75.  Three times the damage just for waiting for a tad!