Looking Towards Next Patch (v1.33)

[EmeraldTiger]

Most of feel what the game needs next is something for Life. I am asking everyone here. What does Life need? We have a few ideas in CI&A, but I am not certain if any of them are the thing that is needed. We need to move rather quickly on this so it can be ready when Zanz comes looking for something.

Discuss.

[whatifidogetcaught?]

The card Rejuvenation looks like a beaut. zanz should definitely look into that card. It gives Life both CC, PC, and inner element combos.

[Absol]

The card Rejuvenation looks like a beaut. zanz should definitely look into that card. It gives Life both CC, PC, and inner element combos.

Seconded this suggestion. Rejuvenation might backfire if you use too much, though. But i guess cautious use of it prevents that.

[willng3]

Posting here to monitor responses more easily.  When I'm done fixing up the Decks sections I'll have significantly more to add.

[EmeraldTiger]

Your input is most welcome, kind sir.

[Captain Scibra]

I'd say it could use a miniature Cloak idea, like Camouflage or something.  This would give it the anti-CC which I think is important.

[Avenger]

Rejuvenation is nice, but i think it will need some nerfing (cost increase).

[dragonsdemesne]

1) Some sort of midrange cost creature in about the 5-7 cost range.  Nothing but the nymph currently exists in between cockatrice and the dragon.  I'm thinking something along the power level of ghost of the past or archangel. 

2) Some sort of control card, even if a soft control card.  I don't have any specific ideas, but maybe something like a freeze/congeal effect for permanents.

Spell 3  // 2  = Delay target nonquanta permanent for 2 turns // 3 turns.  (or 3//4 or just 3 or whatever)

[EvaRia]

Theory time.

The top PvP elements have something in common. In particular, they get two classes of cards.

Number one is a selection of cards that are the absolute best at what they do. These are a combination of either top class efficiency (Lightning, Explosion, Arsenic, Pandemonium) or Niche filling/Unique cards that have very few if any competitors (Discord, Immolation, Fractal, Bone Wall).
These cards are the draw towards that particular element. You make room for that element in your deck to play these cards.

Second is a versatile support pool. Support cards don't mean PC/CC/non-creatures. Support means all the cards in each element that aren't in tier 1, but are playable and can therefore be used to support the use of the first cards. Some examples in the tier 1 elements are Plague, Butterfly Effect, Phase Spider, Rage Potion (as CC, it gets points for versatility).

So let's look at Life. What are its Tier 1 cards that draw you into playing life? ...
Not much.

Adrenaline is unique enough to have no real competitors, and is a powerful card.

Everything else is overshadowed.

So even before life's lack of a support pool needs to be considered, it needs a few tier 1 cards to make up for it.


It's of my opinion that life should get the most efficient lifegain. Right now it can't compete with Sanctuary.
I propose a Shard of Gratitude buff to 4/6 HPs for 3/2 . This will give life the most efficient lifegain card and that small adjustment shouldn't be broken, giving it another good tier 1 card.

Similarly, Heal should be buffed to be at least better than Shard of Divinity. I propose a buff to 25 HP gained. This will give it the strongest instant health boost as well.

This gives us three Tier 1 cards to work with now.

Heal, Adrenaline, Shard of Gratitude.

We need to now expand our bases a little bit. We've pushed Life to have the best lifegain. This makes sense, but we need to move on.

Life should be the best at "Creating" things. At a basic level, this essentially means that life should get the best methods of creating creatures. There are a few ways to go about this.

Number 1 is to simply have the best creatures. And while it does get some of the most efficient basic creatures, no basic damage dealer will be able to compete with Graboid. So we have to go towards a different option, unless we want something even better than Graboid.

Next is quanta acceleration. Putting creatures into play faster also falls under "Best at creating creatures". We already have Rustler, but that's too fragile. To be maximum competitive it needs to be in spell form. What do we have to compete with for Tier 1 instant quanta generation?
Immolation. Oh dear. Immolation's drawback enables some pretty crazy plays and Life's equivalent would have to have no drawback.
However, it's not impossible. Something like Genesis: 1 , Gain 5/7 is totally not impossible, and should be very playable. With the only other rituals being Immolation (Drawback) and Dessication (Situational), a simple efficient quanta ritual should be Tier 1.

Continuing our creature creating theme, Mono Life could easily have the simplest "Queen" effect as well. Some thing like Breeding Pool: 4 , : Generate a Horned/Giant Frog. In permanent form it would give life something a teensy bit more resilient than all it's creatures and would be the most efficient lord effect by far.

So our Tier 1 list has now quintupled in size with Adrenaline, Shard of Gratitude, Heal, Genesis, and Breeding Pool.

But we're still missing something.

Support cards! Life now is now fairly good in the Tier 1 department, but it needs some other options to support its strong cards.

Life's current support pool is a bit too narrow right now. All of its creatures. Mitosis. Thorn Carapace. Empathic Bond.

We're missing control!

My creative energy has temporarily expired, but I'll leave you with this. That Rejuvenation seems like a very good candidate.

Also, a resilient creature would be very good. Specifically, something similar to Seiryuu would be awesome.

[eaglgenes101]

*Cough* A sort of extra attack + Gravy Pull for an instant in one card thing perhaps?

[Pineapple]

Life should be the best at "Creating" things. At a basic level, this essentially means that life should get the best methods of creating creatures. There are a few ways to go about this.

I agree with this; in my honest opinion,Life should be the best at swarming, if not only to take full advantage of Empathic Bond. However, there is a problem with each of the three "vehicles" you've laid forth:

    1. Efficient/strongest creature in cost/ATK - As you said, the card it would have to top is Graboid, which is already pushing past OP. Clearly this is not an effective way to balance the game. Furthermore, this clashes my view that Life should swarm with small creatures (rather than have a small amount of large creatures).
    2. Quanta acceleration - The problem is, I believe that this is only a subset of the above. By increasing Life quanta generation, you are only decreasing the the cost of all Life creatures for decks that use this, and thus making them efficient creatures. Thus, it also has the same problems; it can easily veer into OP territory--not like Graboid, but like pre-1.29 Cremation.
    3. Creature production ability - The problem with this idea is that the mechanic is easily countered. Why? Assume the mechanic is used multiple times (exception below) to not be UP. This means that it must be an ability and cannot be a spell. If the mechanic is housed in an ability, then it must be placed on a creature or permanent. However, that would make it vulnerable to CC and/or PC much like Mitosis, FFQ, and Boneyard already are. Instead of creating 9 creatures in ten turns, you get countered in two turns and create just 1 creature.

As alluded to above, one suggestion is to make a spell effect (or even a one-time-use creature/permanent ability to give it a greater effect) that generates multiple creatures. But this goes back to the "efficient creature" problem (although slightly different because of vulnerability to DR/AoE and resilience to single-target) while stepping on the toes of Fractal.

So I suggest an alternative to creature production. This still maintains the idea of spamming small creatures, but takes out the fundamental vulnerability in the most basic form of the strategy (putting a lot of small creatures in the deck): Loss of card advantage. Something that does this, for example, is the card: Grateful Oak | Grateful Yggdrasil by Zblader

[eaglgenes101]

Or swarm, if card efficiency is important enough that cost efficiency can be sacrificed.