Well, I'm really pleased with the amount of responses this is generated in just a day. Let me go ahead and address a few things that have come up a couple of times.
A few people have asked what qualifies you for this Elemental Affinity as it were. As xdude was kind enough to quote my original post, I'll just reiterate that I don't want it dependant on mark at all. While there are some (2) elements that require only their element to function, the vast majority need a splash of something else to access some of their most powerful abilities. Can you imagine playing Mono Earth and not being able to evolve your Graboids? That would be terribly limiting. I used the same definition required for decks in the Mono section of the forum, "Cards come from 1 element, mark doesn't matter." To clarify further, this exludes "other" cards. No shards, no generic weapons, no quantum pillars.
Common concerns about the the abilities themselves are that light is underpowered, and Aether is overpowered. With the help of xdude, the current Master of Light himself, I think that idea that "All healing spells activate when the player reaches 0 HP" is much better. It greatly enhances your use of healing cards. I'll go ahead and edit the original post to include this.
In regards to Aether being overpowered, I've actually tried mono aether against the False Gods. I've defeated 2. The reason I've lost in every match up was deckout or a a False God with permanent control destroying my shield. I included the original idea as a way to greatly increase Aether's damage dealing potential, which would have sped up games and allowed mono aether to kill them before decking out. The other way to take this would be to prevent permanent control. In other words, "Players permanents are untargetable." What does everyone think of that? Still leaves Aether open to being decked out by decks with large shields or healing, but allows them to beat steals and deflags.
Keep in mind that I'm trying to find the niche to where a Fully Upgraded Mono Deck has a 50% win potential against False Gods. Arguably, none of the "this is overpowered/this is underpowered" arguments can be put to rest until anything like this is playtested. That's where I see most balance issues being resolved. What I'd like to find within this thread is a coherant idea for all the elements that could be presented to the developer and if it's accepted, could be playtested before implementation.
So now, the comments that this would be horribly overpowered in PvP. While I don't necessarily disagree, I will say a few things about it.
1. At the core of this idea is fighting false gods, so I would accept this affinity only functioning in PvE game modes.
2. Nothing is overpowered in a game if both players have the option of using it. A queen is overpowered in Chess, but both players get one.
3. Most CCGs focus on two ways to win. The first is using the synergy present in two or more cards to create a combination that beats your opponent (example above of RoL/Hope) and then you grind out the rest of the game. The weakness inherant in this strategy is that there are cards present to counter your strategy (example Rain of Fire) and the inherant randomness of drawing your deck if all you're able to use to win is a couple of cards. The second strategy is to do something faster and better than you're opponent. Whether this means putting out bigger creatures, casting more damaging spells, denying your opponent quanta, or healing faster than he does damage. it's the same basic concept. You usually leave yourself open to whatever your opponent's strategy is, and count on your deck doing it's thing faster. All decks are a variation on this theme.
The advantages I've presented here fall squarely in the second category, but still leave your deck open to a great number of weaknesses...namely what the other 11 elements can do to it. Think Fire using phoenix to do 7 direct damage everytime it dies is overpowered? Talk to me again after you face a reflecting shield and all that extra damage comes back at you. Think Aether putting out 12 dragons for the low low price of 120 Quanta is overpowered? Talk to me again after Time decks you out using stasis to slow your damage, or Dark denial leaves you gaining 2 quanta per turn. There's a weakness inherant in each of these decks, and it's that you sacrifice any ability to adapt on the fly. Your mono deck does what it does, and hopes to do it faster than the other guy.
And yes, one of these days I will figure out how to write a short post.
