Shifting Cultist | Shifting Priest

[Schattenfresser]

Hi,
here is the third card of the upcoming series. I'm not satisfied with the "Phase" in the name because it doesn't fit the ability of the card.

Discuss

NAME: Shifting Cultist ELEMENT: Aether COST: 6 TYPE: Creature ATK|HP: 3 | 2 ABILITY: Image: Target a creature. Generate an image with the same attack and 0HP.	NAME: Shifting Priest ELEMENT: Aether COST: 6 TYPE: Creature ATK|HP: 4 | 3 ABILITY: Image: Target a creature. Generate an image with the same attack and 0HP.

ART: Chris Parson (http://jade.epilogue.net/cgi/database/art/view.pl?id=115042), Lucie Strata (http://jade.epilogue.net/cgi/database/art/view.pl?id=110920) IDEA: Schattenfresser NOTES: *the ability of the target won't be copied SERIES: cult-series (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,7121.0.html)

[Kael Hate]

Ignoring the Human art I don't mind this.

Only concern is that it will generate lots of death triggers

[IStoneI]

i tried an aether deck with death mark (and 2 to 3 death towers) once in the trainer. it pretty much was based on a combination of bonewalls, vultures and fractal + ball lightnings.
imagine 6 or 7 ball lighnings, doing 30 to 35 damage in one round, while building up 12 layers of bonewall and pushing the vultures.

i think, it was much worse, than this card could ever be. of course, it had its weakness. if the enemy played a bonewall early, this deck was worth nothing.

i personally like the card. it fits the aether theme well and doesnt seem too powerful.

[Schattenfresser]

Ignoring the Human art I don't mind this.

Only concern is that it will generate lots of death triggers

I could change the HP of the created images to 1 but I think that the card would lose a lot of her usefulness.
Another way to go against the number of death triggers is to increase the ability costs and hope that the player don't use SoRs.
I would prefer not to change the ability for the time because I think like IStonel that the card has a nice synergy with bone wall and vultures but it isn't op. Unlike the first version of my bees.

[PuppyChow]

Seems UP to me. I'm going to make two comparisons here.

1) Damage giver. Phase recluse comparison.
---Let's say you have a 10 attack creature to generate an image of, which in itself is hard since it means using an opponent's dragon (which they may not have) or using lots of quanta of another element since aether has none.
---So, simplifying it, you generate a 5/0 attack creature every turn for 2  .
---Simplifying it more, Phase Priest = 7/2 for 6  + 2  upkeep every turn. Phase Recluse = 7/2 for 4  .
Seems underpowered in this respect.

2) "Death-effect" creator. Fractal'd ball lightning comparison.
---Both are two card combos the first time used, one card combo the second time. (Fractal + Ball Lightning first time, just Fractal second time; Phase Priest + Creature first time, just Phase Priest second time).
---Fractaling a ball lightning usually makes 6 or so. So assuming you play 5, that's 5 deaths for a total of 8  and losing the rest,  but usually you won't lose much more. So let's say 8-10  .
---To use this, to generate 5 deaths it will require 10  simply through the ability costs, not even including the play costs of the creature and creature you will image (and both are rather expensive).
---It will take at least 3 turns usually to use the ability 5 times (sometimes you'll have 2-3 priests out).
Seems underpowered in this respect too.

[Schattenfresser]

I think it's ok that it isn't the best source for death triggers. To have it as good source is enough to create a nice synergy.

The problem with balancing the damage of the 'images' is that the best source of images would be creatures with a growing attack (Ablaze, Growth, Scavanger). It would be to strong, when I let it copy the full attack.
Another possibility would be that I add a fixed value to the attack. It would be stronger with weaker creatures and it would make multiple imaging possible. (Photon->the image 1 has X attack -> target image 1 -> image 1 has 3/2X attack ->->...)
The last things I could change are the ability cost and the stats of the Cultist. It's the way i would prefer as it easier to balance and you wouldn't create new problems with the 'images'.


edit: I will change the name from Phase Cultist to Shifting Cultist. Is there something or somebody that speaks against this change? Or has somebody a better name?

[tinkady]

how about spirit cultist? or ghost cultist. or mirror cultist
and i agree that this is underpowered...maybe if the cost was only  or you got full attack it'd be better. orrr if you could use it to steal your opponent's abilities (aka theyre copied) that would be interesting. the cost would stay  and the ability cost would be converted into  . and maybe doubled in cost as well?

[Lifestream]

Starcraft hallucination ftw

[harakirinosaru]

I agree that this is underpowered...for 6 you can have that same creature and for 8 you can have a hand full of that creature. Why would I use this?

[tinkady]

agreed. definitely raise the attack to full (growing creatures wouldnt make it OP...they take a long time to grow and thats no better than twin universe) and/or copy abilities which would be usable on the first and only turn theyre out (converting the cost to ).  both might be too much...but for i think both would be fine. and how about spirit cultist/spirit warden or ghost cultist/ghost warden?

[PuppyChow]

I like the idea of full attack too. It has the death benefit, and basically you're replaying the creature every turn so if you use the ability on the same creature every turn its TUing it.

So you're paying 6  + 2  every turn for 1 death and a TU and an attacking creature.

Thinking about it, I would reduce the ability cost to 1 or increase its attack to 3 unupped 5 upped as well.

[tinkady]

I like the idea of full attack too. It has the death benefit, and basically you're replaying the creature every turn so if you use the ability on the same creature every turn its TUing it.

So you're paying 6  + 2  every turn for 1 death and a TU and an attacking creature.

Thinking about it, I would reduce the ability cost to 1 or increase its attack to 3 unupped 5 upped as well.

almost...but with TU you get the ability too. i'd say copy the ability and convert it to , and even then (probably) reduce the ability cost to