Overpowered Cards etc.

[Demongod]

Ensnaring bridge had very little limitation around it.  If you put ensnaring bridge in a deck that was meant to use ensnaring bridge (burning bridge for instance aka ensnaring bridge, 20 mountains, and 36 spells to shoot at your face), it effectively read: "While this is in play, your opponent's creatures cannot attack.", all the while just throwing anything that was drawn at your head.

Sundial is more or less the same way.  In a deck designed to abuse it, it becomes very abusive not because it's a one-way street, but because one deck is designed to abuse it by building up something really damn scary behind it (EG slowly building up Otyughs, fireflies, mutants, etc... the way rainbow does, speed poisoning you, or building up a huge amount of fire quanta to burn you to death in one turn).

However, that doesn't mean sundial is broken.  If a card needs a special strategy to "abuse" it, then it's a good card!

In fact, what would happen if we nerfed sundial?  It'd more or less always be a race as to who can drop the biggest scariest critters first and outrace their opponents.

Heck, you can make the same whines about aether/time combos.  Mono aether time splash for hourglasses and anubis, anybody?

[Demongod]

WAAH WAAH WAAH SUNDIAL IS BORKED, NURF PLX KTHX!

Guys...it's not borked if you play around it.  "Waah I can't attack with my critters!  Nerf, nerf!"  Anyone remember moat from M:tG, for 2WW, only flying critters could attack you.  And what about ensnaring bridge?  "If a critter has greater power than the number of cards in your hand, it can't attack!"

Critters aren't the be-all-end-all way to win in this game.  Yes, sundial is powerful.  However, the only reason it *seems* overpowered is that there are few other ways to win besides mass critters.  Only fire and death really have other ways of winning besides smashing face, unless you can put together some sort of mega control deck that can win using its weapon only or something.

[Essence]

Any card is overpowered and should be removed or changed if it forces you to either pack hate against it or devote some number of cards to keep up just to be considered a viable deck.

Quoted for truth.

[jmizzle7]

Bone wall was nerfed when upgrades were introduced. Poison is only one deck archetype out of tons of viable ones. If anything is overpowered in the poison archetype, it's Congeal. Rainbow decks are most definitely powerful because of Supernova, not Quantum Towers, as many claim, although QTs help. Sundial pushes them way over the top.

Sundial is by far the most overpowered card in the game, because it potentially nets you two more cards apart from Sundial, and prevents creature attacks for two whole turns. Before Sundial came out, it was quite possible to farm gods, but winning wasn't at the ~80% that it is now. Also, before Sundial but after the Phase Dragon nerf, the top 50 had lots of variety. While Sundial has introduced many, many new deck types into the game, all of these decks are either designed to totally abuse Sundial (Fire-Light bolts, Death-Light poison, etc.) or as Anti-Sundial or Anti-Rainbow strategy (Earth-Gravity, Death-Water speed poison, any mono deck with 6 explosion and Mark of Fire, etc.). Any card is overpowered and should be removed or changed if it forces you to either pack hate against it or devote some number of cards to keep up just to be considered a viable deck.

[jmizzle7]

Demongod, you are only partially correct about Ensnaring Bridge et al. Those cards had specific limitations on them. Sundial is a blanket effect stopping all attack phases for two entire turns, with no preconditions, and it replaces itself. This is just ridiculous.

[jmizzle7]

I understand the Burning Bridge deck. I played it several times in Type 2 when it was in the rotation. What I'm saying is the card itself has a condition put on it. Sundial does not. Sundial does what it does no matter what cards you play with it. The reason Ensnaring Bridge was great was because of the other cards that made it work even better. Sundial doesn't need any help, but instead makes just about any deck much better if you put six in your deck. In a deck designed to abuse Sundial's effect, Sundial clearly is broken, unless you run pure hate.

Just to reiterate, Sundial doesn't require any special strategy, but only makes strategies that incidentally benefit directly from it that much better. The fact that it singlehandedly stops pure creature decks means that any aggressive strategy without permanent removal is completely out of the question, effectively removing a whole gamut of archetypes from the game. This is bad for the game.

[mightyhat]

sundial is too cheap. stall and card draw? for 1 time and activate for 1 light? that is way powerful for an unupgraded card. or for 0 and 2? the upgraded version is effectively single colored. compare that to pulverizer. at least it is a rare, so you have to work hard to get a couple. it is also cross-color to play and activate, even after upgrading.

as far as quantum towers being too powerful, i would love to see MORE sources for multi-colored quanta. instead of just dropping a new tower that produces 2 colors, it would be better balanced if you had to sacrifice one of your existing towers or pillars when it came into play. they could start by being developed just for complementary colors (death and darkness, light and life, earth and gravity, ect). if they worked out well, they could be added for other color combinations with later upgrades.

[plastiqe]

Which aspects of the game do you think are most overpowered? 

If you're fed up with Sundial one day and upgrade prices the next that's ok - you can change your vote.

Think something else deserves to be up there?  Lemme know.

[Scaredgirl]

Rainbow decks itself cannot be overpowered. It's the cheap cards and Sundial that make rainbow decks so powerful.

[Uncle Jellyfish]

WAAH WAAH WAAH SUNDIAL IS BORKED, NURF PLX KTHX!

Guys...it's not borked if you play around it.  "Waah I can't attack with my critters!  Nerf, nerf!"  Anyone remember moat from M:tG, for 2WW, only flying critters could attack you.  And what about ensnaring bridge?  "If a critter has greater power than the number of cards in your hand, it can't attack!"

Critters aren't the be-all-end-all way to win in this game.  Yes, sundial is powerful.  However, the only reason it *seems* overpowered is that there are few other ways to win besides mass critters.  Only fire and death really have other ways of winning besides smashing face, unless you can put together some sort of mega control deck that can win using its weapon only or something.

The problem here is that your comparison to Magic is flawed. In M:tG, there are many, MANY cards that can destroy permanents/artficats/enchantments/etc. In Elements, there are only two: Deflag/Explosion and Pulverizer. The lack of permanent control forces players to either play Fire or Gravity/Earth just to take out Sundials or other control factors.

[CB!]

Someone said this earlier, I think, but every card really does have an opposing strategy. The big problem is, are you playing that strategy? Its akin to the people who were saying how hard Scorpio and Morte were, but still refused to put purify in their deck. Or how difficult Seism is, but don't have Protect Artifact. Sometimes you have to lose....

I completely agree.  Well said.

[Cisco]

Bonewall nerf was increased mana. think it was 3 at the begining and is at 7 now. Like  Jmizzle and SG said it is sundial that is way overpowered. upgrade cost actually could be higher  its defnitly not to exspensiv. The decktypes mentioned are in no means overpowered.