A Regen Cards's Overall Balance

[ZephyrPhantom]

SoG is almost always banned in PvP tourneys.  Now with the release of Sanctuary, we have a whole new ruckus that seems to be just about as heated as SoG itself since they have such powerful effects.

For Emphatic Bond, note that it is dependent on creatures staying out on the field. Emphatic may able to be protected, but it's healing won't be effective as long as the opponent maintains a steady source of CC (which just became easier with the release of the Vanadium Wardens)  It's also slightly more expensive.

So I  am just wondering - are Regen cards overly strong without some kind of extra limit? I am not suggesting any changes here (There is a reason the Buff and Nerf threads exist), but I would like to start a discussion about how regen cards overall impact the game and the state of the current ones.

Current Regen Cards Ingame :
SoG - Heals you for 5 HP each turn. Cost 3 .
Emphatic Bond - Heals you X, where X is the number of creatures. Cost 5 | 4
Vampire Dagger - Drains 4 | 6 health per turn from opponent. Cost 1 | 2 .
Druid's Staff - Deals 2 | 4 damage and heals you for 5 HP for each attack instance (even when frozen or delayed healing still occurs). Cost 2 | 2
Purify - Clears all Poison and gives you +1 | +2 HP regen. Cost 1 | 1

In development:
Sanctuary - Currently Heals you for 4 HP each turn and protects your hand and quanta pools. Cost 4 | 3

[BluePriest]

I think the only problem is there not being enough PC. Theres a reason bonds are so weak. Its the CC. Vampires arent a threat because of how much CC there is. If there was more PC, then these cards wouldnt cause the fuss they do.

[pikachufan2164]

There's also Purify -- +1|+2 stackable HP regen per turn for 1 that can't be PC'ed away.

It's not so powerful as to be banned in PvP events.

[OldTrees]

You forgot the Staff and Vampire (in all its 4 forms)

[Glitch]

As someone who prefers the element of life, light's new stream of lifegain spells infuriates me.

I always believed that life was to be the element of healing, and light was about preventing damage.  That's why it has three shields.  However, when I see cards like miracle, luciferin, and now sanctuary, I wonder if life is even about life at all.

When I play light, my ability to heal is ridiculous.  I have holy light as potential CC and healing, I have luciferin to buff my creatures and heal, I have miracle to instantly jump back to 99 health, and I have sanctuary to heal me for four per turn and protect the quanta I need to have that much healing.

When I play life, I either get 20 healing per spell, and hope I draw them/can play them, or I have to play empathic bond, protect it, and play creatures and protect them.  Believe me, it takes a lot longer to get four healing per bond than it does to get four healing per sanctuary.

I'm not saying things like purify, black hole, and vampire aren't fair.  On the contrary, the more healing elements the better.  But life has become the element of spamming cheap creatures, and that doesn't represent how life should be.

[LongDono]

Well first of all I think SoG might get nerfed due to our new light card.
Second of all the only time I think regen is an issue is when I see 3+ SoG's stacked. A simple solution to this would to not allow SoG to stack. XD This is not a solution thread though so I will keep those thoughts to myself.

Currently in PvP1 regen is not too much of an issue, seems balanced as it is hard to make it worth it, and whatever you do to start the regen can be countered. Vamps, Bonds, and whatever else can be countered by any well built PvP1 deck. PvP2 though, it is play SoG and go! No skill, no setup, only 1 real counter.... get rid of SoG.... or kill fast... The worse part is that SoG is other.... and only 3....

[TStar]

Bravo.  Couldn't have said it better myself.  When I selected my first element I look Life because, well, Life seems like the most rational choice for a healing element.  Now it seems like Life is going to be a distant second to Light for healing and is being pretty shoehorned into a cheap rush element with some healing potential.  It just seems like giving Light so much healing AND so much damage prevention at the same time really turns Life into a one-trick pony.

[The_Mormegil]

As someone who prefers the element of life, light's new stream of lifegain spells infuriates me.

I always believed that life was to be the element of healing, and light was about preventing damage.  That's why it has three shields.  However, when I see cards like miracle, luciferin, and now sanctuary, I wonder if life is even about life at all.

When I play light, my ability to heal is ridiculous.  I have holy light as potential CC and healing, I have luciferin to buff my creatures and heal, I have miracle to instantly jump back to 99 health, and I have sanctuary to heal me for four per turn and protect the quanta I need to have that much healing.

When I play life, I either get 20 healing per spell, and hope I draw them/can play them, or I have to play empathic bond, protect it, and play creatures and protect them.  Believe me, it takes a lot longer to get four healing per bond than it does to get four healing per sanctuary.

I'm not saying things like purify, black hole, and vampire aren't fair.  On the contrary, the more healing elements the better.  But life has become the element of spamming cheap creatures, and that doesn't represent how life should be.

QFT.

[OldTrees]

I would slightly disagree with Gl1tch.

Life, Light and Darkness all seem to have reasons to have healing as a major component.
Life is about growth (your health should grow and repair)
Light is about inward focus ignoring the opponent (automatic and massive expensive healing promote ignoring the opponent)
Darkness is about using the opponent's resources (steal their health)

However I agree with Gl1tch that Life and Darkness have too few healing methods compared to Light (especially Life) and thus the next few cards should include more healing for Life and perhaps some more for Darkness.

[ZephyrPhantom]

Updated the cards section with Vampire Dagger, Druid's Staff, and Purify.

I agree with Gl1tch and OT, to a point. While I do want to have Life be more healing-oriented, it should not go so far as to become the essential element of the stall decks. Darkness already has healing with Drain Life, Vampire, Liquid Shadow, and Vampire Dagger.  I don't think it needs another source of healing yet to compensate for the growing card pool. 

Life could definitley use another method of regen, or possibly even some sort of creature that provides regeneration or healing of a sort.

[Kamietsu]

I don't find Life to be too terribly much about healing orientated. I agree more with OT that it's more about growth. But I also feel it's more about living, alive. Life is about creatures to me and stuff surrounding their growth while maintaining one's own well-being. While there should be healing, Life should stay more creature centered. Mitosis is a great addition to help it stay like that, though I feel creature spammer should have been one of the more original things for Life.  Empathetic Bond also demonstrates the player's connection with the creatures. I has the creatures, in a sort, heal the player. More things like that should be present where the player gains from the creatures/nature sort of thing.