jmdt...great work. Looking forward to the rest of the sections.
I want to help clarify a portion of Section 1.
There are 2 general types of synergy: hard and soft synergy as I shall refer to them. With hard synergy, 2 cards together are much stronger than either of the cards by themself. The best example of a hard synergy is the combination of discord and black hole. Discord and black hole are both annoying cards individually, but when used together the effect is devastating to your opponent. Soft synergy is somewhat of a mono deck phenomena I have noticed. The fewer elements your deck uses, the more efficient your quanta usage will be.
Hard synergy and soft synergy. The first example you talked about individual cards, and the second example you are talking about decks -- mono decks. Apples to apples. Cards to cards.
I know what you're talking about, I'm not new to CCG's -- it may seem confusing to those that are new though. Using the decks you mentioned above, an example of soft-synergy cards would be: Giant Frogs/Elite Cockatrice ( I'll get into Flesh Recluse/Elite Mummy later). They have no special abilities. No overwhelming attack power to speak of. However...they have an efficient damage output per quanta spent. They are somewhat geared towards, or dependent on, decks that can bring them out quickly and/or in force(i.e. mono decks or Fractal).
It's not a great example of a soft-synergy card. Compared to Discord and Black Hole, Giant Frogs and Elite Cockatrice are noticeably strong cards -- or seemingly "stand-alones". Because like the first two, they need to be brought out early -- a late game Discord or Black Hole may not do much.
True soft synergy cards are things like Graveyard/Boneyard and Vulture/Condor. They are not only dependent on a deck that can use them, but also conditions that make them work -- you can't get a 15/16 Vulture if there are no creatures to kill. Or things that die. Or keep dying. I've used both of the above with cards like: Virus/Retrovirus, Plague, Pandemonium, Parasites/Bloodsuckers, etc. -- none of which are "great" stand-alone cards either, as far as our working definition of "soft synergy" goes. A truly GREAT "soft synergy" card is....drum roll please....Steal.
Yes, Steal is soft synergy card -- because it's dependent on an opponent with stuff to ste...er, "borrow" from. Late game, it's either gonna be a dead card (because the opponent had nothing worthy of stealing) or it could be a "game-changer".
Cool post jmdt. Keep it up.
-Heart
