Guest posts by Hodari

25

Rainbow Decks / Re: The JMZ Classic [rainbow][Silver League][Gold League]

« on: July 23, 2011, 02:41:15 pm »

(Sorry for the written list, don't have all cards yet to make a deck image)

You can always use the trainer to make them.

26

The Arena / Re: Too much rating drop

« on: July 22, 2011, 08:55:26 pm »

The point values for winning or losing are calculated so that a rating of 0 will be right around 250th place(thus forcing newly submitted decks to enter approximately in the middle of the top 500).  Because the point values required for this are dynamic and decks are constantly winning, losing, or being submitted, it may not be exactly in the middle but it should be very close.  Therefore a deck which wins its first few games SHOULD be above 250th.  As for something like a 10-2 record, this will depend on how strong the rest of the decks in the league are.  If the average deck in the league has a 90% win rate, 10-2 would be well below that average and thus the deck SHOULD be below 250 for example.

27

The Arena / Re: what do you use vs. Arena?

« on: July 22, 2011, 04:08:07 pm »

Yeah, in theory, I thought LS + AM would be good but when I actually tried it...there's just too many counters for it to really be effective.

28

Patch Notes and Development News / Re: Elements 1.28x

« on: July 22, 2011, 03:42:29 pm »

1. Of course, I forgot about PC.
2. If the oponent antimatters his own creatures, well, i won't play a SoS anymore and I win.
3. Holly flash, true. 1 the only card that automatically counters it at 100%.
4. Thay can play sundial 6 times, not 30 (in case i have 6 SoS).

"MORE THAN HALF of the elements have at least 1 way to counter this, so it is hardly a case of being an automatic win unless they have one specific counter like you make it seem"

Even if you could mention them, it would be a 6 - card - counter or win. It's totally overpowered.

2. You can antimatter them AFTER he plays SoS though..

And I don't think I need to mention the full list of counters again as it has already been listed earlier.  Nor is it an automatic win if you don't have one of those counters any more than miracle is an automatic win(and with miracle, once it's been played, there is NO direct counter). It certainly would make it much harder to win if you don't have a direct counter for it, but isn't that true for almost any card/strategy?

ANd once again, I will certainly acknowledge that this card COULD be OP but at least take time to understand exactly how it works and what all the drawbacks and counters to it are first before saying it will completely break the game.  The idea of someone chaining 6 of them certainly might be a reason to say the number of turns it lasts should be reduced, but on the other hand..given how SoS would only be played at all if you are about to lose anyway AND given how easy it is to counter, I suspect in most cases you'd be better off only having a couple of them in the deck and using the other 4 spots for something that will help you win or avoid getting into such a desperate situation in the first place.

29

Patch Notes and Development News / Re: Elements 1.28x

« on: July 22, 2011, 03:08:47 pm »

So, i got a Shard of Sacrifice in my hand:

I am not so stupid and won't play it if i have Ferial Bonds, Shards of Gratitudes, Sanctuaries, Vampires, Druidic Staff or if i have played antimatter on the oponent.

In 5 turns, my health will go at least to 80.

But wait, i can loose the game! Only if the oponent has Antimatter. But wait! i can still win if the oponent puts enough antimatter to his own creatures so he heals me more than what he damages me. Must be a joke...

And i can do this 6 times!!!

The game will break if this card comes in.

"Win unless the oponent has few creatures and negative damage." it's more or less that, considering it's a Miracle and a 5 turn Phase shield in one card. And it's not a shield, so not even Momentum breaks it.

Zanzarino: you have made a great joke or you are gonna do a big mistake if this card comes into the game.

Or maybe you have just failed to actually read or comprehend what everyone is saying about all the different ways to counter it.
1. They can destroy, steal, freeze, or otherwise deal with the shard itself so you lose the effect.
2. They can antimatter THEIR OWN creature(s) so they damage instead of healing
3. They can use holy flash to kill you directly
4. They can play sundial or find some other way to stop their creatures from attacking and healing you.

MORE THAN HALF of the elements have at least 1 way to counter this, so it is hardly a case of being an automatic win unless they have one specific counter like you make it seem.  And I'll add that these counters are not some specialized card that you would only play specifically to counter SoS.  All of them are cards that are useful in general and in most cases are very commonly played anyway.  Holy Flash might be a little bit more unusual now but you can bet if SoS is added as is, a lot more people would be using them and it IS still useful otherwise as well.

30

Death / Re: Shard of Sacrifice

« on: July 20, 2011, 09:04:43 pm »

however, it think the gambling effect is too big: you get 5 turns of immortality, or your opponent has some counter and kills you immediately.

Yeah, definitely a big gamble.  It would be best saved for a point where you are about to die otherwise anyway and therefore have nothing to lose

31

Death / Re: Shard of Sacrifice

« on: July 20, 2011, 04:40:42 pm »

it was a quick list, so I probably missed something on both sections though...

Missed water being able to counter both by using its new shard(assuming it keeps the currently planned form)

32

Death / Re: Shard of Sacrifice

« on: July 20, 2011, 04:19:29 pm »

2, There will be a shard for ALL the elements, and one of those may counter this one perfectly, or be powerful in it's own way.

In fact if you read the chat logs, one already does..water's shard will probably be one that freezes permanents.  Also any other form of permanent control would work against this.
Freeze it, steal it, explode it, pulverize it, or otherwise deal with it and you have an easy win.  Unless of course they can play this, nova or tower to gain  , and then PA it all in one turn.  Even then, unless they also can "damage" themself somehow, you can still play holy flash or antimatter your creatures or find some other way to "heal" them for the last 1hp they have.  So at least half of the elements have a direct counter to this by either removing the effect of the shard from your opponent somehow or by simply "healing" the last hp to win directly.

Not saying this thing won't necessarily be proven to be OP at some point, but it will need to be tested carefully first.  It is far from being as obvious as it may seem from just a quick look at the effect of the card.

33

Crucible Archive / Re: Prophecy | Prophecy

« on: July 20, 2011, 11:43:07 am »

How much damage would this do for variable damage creatures, like chimera?

The notes indicate it would do 0, which makes sense.  The only other obvious choice would have been to make it deal damage equal to whatever attack it would have if it was in play which would clearly be OP.

34

Design Theory / Re: Steal My Idea!

« on: July 20, 2011, 11:37:30 am »

Welcome idirex!

Special Pillars!
Dark pact pillar
At the end of every turn add  and you lose 2life

Life bond pillar
At the end of every turn add  . If you have more than 3 creatures, gain 1 life

Fog pillar
At the end of every turn add  . Opponent creatures have a 5% chance to miss(no stack)

Deathly pillar
At the end of every turn add  .If you have more than 3 creatures, creatures you control are poisonous.

I'd say dark is slightly OP especially given that you can play vampires to regain the hp loss easily(or drain life it back).  Increase the hp loss a bit more(3-4 maybe) and it would be fine though
Life could probably go up to 2-3 hp gained
Fog is ok, though saying 2% chance and allowing it to stack might be better so having more than 1 out isn't redundant.
Death seems very OP.  Combine this with Fractal or Mitosis or even just any normal creature spamming deck and you'd easily be looking at 10+ poison counter per turn.  A platinum deck with Fractal + skeleton + any sort of pc + this would really be scary
In all cases, I'm assuming these would be limited to 6 per deck rather than unlimited like normal pillars.

35

Death / Re: Shard of Sacrifice

« on: July 20, 2011, 11:21:26 am »

Not sure why everyone is talking about how awesome holy flash will be.

SoS sets health to 1.  Opponent "heals" you for 10.  You lose.  and yes, I just tested HF in trainer on myself with death mark and it does heal you normally, not damage, so it would work.

36

Death / Re: Shard of Sacrifice

« on: July 20, 2011, 11:15:47 am »

So... I haven't seen any discussion on Stone Skin + Shard of Sacrifice. What happens if the shard is in play and you decide to cast Stone Skin? The hp added has, by and large, been considered a hp increase and not healing. What's the verdict?

I would certainly say it SHOULD damage you in that case.  I'm guessing that is likely to be one of the details Zanz hadn't considered yet though .  In any case, note that your quanta was reset when the card came into play so you probably won't have a huge amount of it to heal that much life until at least the third turn or so(by which point your opponent's attacks will likely have healed back much of your health anyway in most cases).  Odds are if you survived that long without SoS being destroyed or your opponent finding some way to kill you, you'd be able to wait until after the effect wears off anyway(in this case, might even be worth having some way to intentionally destroy SoS on the last turn so you can play SS immediately instead of ending turn, having it disappear, then waiting for the next turn)