Guest posts by Manipul8r

13

Card Idea Competition Submissions / Re: New Slot Submission Thread

« on: October 31, 2011, 08:10:41 am »

Idea By: Manipul8r

The soul is an incorporeal essence of every Elemental and the eye is regarded as the window to the soul.  Until the slot has been filled, an Elemental's soul is still unfocused and immature.  The soul is a major influence in the world of Elementals and can have far reaching effects that can even enhance the Elemental itself if nurtured and amplified.  A soul has no form, so it can not directly damage the opponent or prevent damage to its Elemental, but it can affect nearly everything else. Ageless Soul - A time elemental has the distinct advantage of being able to influence its deck, and its soul can enhance this ability if developed.  The mechanic has two powerful effects that help during specific circumstances.  A fast, aggressive deck can draw an extra card each turn by playing every card it draws.  In a long match, Ageless Soul can keep time itself in check and save you from decking out by drawing.  The skipped draw occurs at the beginning of the turn and the extra draw occurs at the end of the turn. Heavy Soul - The weighty nature of gravity Elementals make them knowledgeable and wary, improving their resilience and at times their offensive ability.  Heavy Soul brings out focused strength by toughening creatures and sometimes even granting them penetrating power.  The chance of gaining Momentum is 160/(ATK+1)%. Soulless - The truly sinister Elementals of darkness eventually refuse to embrace the idea of the soul, but in this clarity, their nature is revealed and soullessness becomes their defined essence.  Soulless Elementals can take advantage of the power of their soul's void, using their own devoid permanent field to keep the opponent's setup at bay and control the field. Notes: You may ask why Soulless doesn't reduce in cost when upgraded, and the answer is that I didn't want Supernova/Nova rushes pushing a Soulless out with very few other permanents out.  Admittedly, these ideas have not been thoroughly balanced.  I apologize if others have created similar cards before, I've been gone for a while and haven't read many of the ideas around.  I've brainstormed for the other Elements' souls as well and I may post them eventually.

14

Introduce Yourself / Re: this game is too hard.

« on: October 30, 2011, 03:23:13 pm »

You know what else is hard?

Chocolate chip cookies.

I like soft cookies better.

On topic, when I run mono aether in arena I like to have a fire mark with all aether pillars/towers so I can run a few deflagrations/explosions and/or a couple rage potions.  Certainly helps in a mirror match, but it mostly just depends on what's hot in the arena.

15

Harry Potter: House Cup Competition / Re: HPPvP Sign Up

« on: October 30, 2011, 10:45:30 am »

In Game Name	Forum Chat Name	House You Want To Join	Position
Manipul8r	Manipul8r	Hufflepuff Gryffindor Slytherin	Student

16

Forge Archive / Re: Charon's Bribe | Charon's Bribe

« on: October 30, 2011, 02:29:40 am »

Found an interesting loophole. What if the opponent kills his/her own creature during his/her turn, when the hand has 8 cards?

I would assume they repay the cost, and if they can't, nothing happens.

well im under the impression that having a full hand and killing your own creatures is impossible. (since you would have to use a card in your hand to kill that creature)

however, your comment brings up a good point about creatures dying of poison. they technically die during your opponents turn i believe. which means that quanta drain resulting specifically from poison caused death (as opposed to lightning or firestorm etc) will not be specifically countered by sanctuary (which protect your opponents hand and quanta only during your turn when you are attacking them). this side effect may boost the use in mono decks now that i think about it. although granted the opponent will have a chance to generate more quanta before before their next turn (because pillars activate after creatures attack) so it wont be a complete form of denial.

Virus|Retrovirus, or you can Owl's Eye your own creature, or they can die to a Skull Shield.

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Forge Archive / Re: Charon's Bribe | Charon's Bribe

« on: October 29, 2011, 11:52:37 pm »

Found an interesting loophole. What if the opponent kills his/her own creature during his/her turn, when the hand has 8 cards?

I would assume they repay the cost, and if they can't, nothing happens.

18

Deck Help / Re: Bone Wall/Scarab's deck main weakness: Momentum

« on: October 29, 2011, 03:22:08 am »

There are only 4 hard counters to Titan - Deflagration, Steal, Butterfly Effect, and Pulverizer.  You'll just have to win before the Titan kills you I guess.

If you gravity pull the monster WITH momentum, your creatures can kill it.

Yeah I totally misunderstood. 

19

Design Theory / Re: Ask the Idea Guru

« on: October 29, 2011, 01:19:51 am »

What are your thoughts on Algrator | Logthregor (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,30712.0.html) ?
If it is to be working with active abilities, how do you think the Crusader loop can be balanced?

"Cannot gain Endow."?

20

Deck Help / Re: Bone Wall/Scarab's deck main weakness: Momentum

« on: October 28, 2011, 08:46:39 pm »

You can put Gravity pull on creatures with Momentum. I guess that's what he meant.

Creatures with Momentum deal damage directly to a player and bypass Gravity Pull itself in addition to shields.

21

Deck Help / Re: Deck help, trying to beat shields in earth rush deck

« on: October 28, 2011, 07:10:04 pm »

Further than streamlining, you need to focus on rushing if you're making a rush deck.  You don't want to have to build quanta up for the hourglass because by the time you have enough quanta to start drawing. you could have played a graboid and evolved it instead of playing the hourglass and activating it.  Just pillars and creatures plus a time mark is enough to start with, and it's usually best to have 30 cards in rushes so you get exactly what you need.  Check out other rush decks in the forum and you'll get a better sense of the general deck structure you want.

P.S., there's always a counter for everything, but even if you find a way to counter shields you might start losing to something else and/or there will be a new counter to your counter. 

22

Design Theory / Re: Ask the Idea Guru

« on: October 28, 2011, 05:42:59 pm »

Hey OT, I've been gone for a while and I'd like to know about any new insights you've made, and/or a brief summary of any important happenings since I've been off the forum (about 3-4 months I believe).  If you don't really feel like it, or just have a couple highlights you'd rather summarize, that's cool too.

I'm also curious on how your card cost theory and balancing techniques would apply to the Shard of Sacrifice if it was assumed to be a card currently in development.  It seems to me to be an arduous card to balance.

@Zaealix, that's a really cool idea and OT provided some excellent and exciting examples.  Look forward to seeing what you come up with.

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Forge Archive / Re: Polymorph | Polymorph

« on: August 08, 2011, 01:50:29 am »

"I like this idea, except that it rewards an opponent for playing Supernova rainbow."
how? supernova doesnt generate , costs 2, makes 2, net 0 change in , the only relevant quanta to this card
-Because they'll have an entropy mark, and usually have entropy lying around.  Same goes for most decks running entropy.

"I agree with Anarook, you should have the Bunny be a card as well.  Just needs a balanced cost to play, then we can make Bunny armies with Fractal."
thats pretty much exactly what i didnt want to have happen.
-Why exactly? Having new cards is good in my opinion.  If you're concerned about the permanency of the played Bunny, it could have a line saying 'Dies in 5 turns'.

"Why does the activation cost increase so much for the upgraded Bunny?  It makes it less useful to Polymorph your own creatures because of that, and then Chaos Seed would often be better as CC."
the activation cost increased by x2 because the duration of the bunny increased by x2.5
-I see.

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Forge Archive / Re: Polymorph | Polymorph

« on: August 07, 2011, 10:55:25 pm »

If a creature is rewound/PU'd/mitosis'd/fractal'd/etc while under the effect of Polymorph, the base creature which was turned into the Bunny will be the result, but not Bunny itself.

Why exactly?  This would be unlike any other card shift, whether it's Mutated, a Fate Egg, or something turned into a Skeleton.  I'd actually prefer to see the Bunny as a result of PU'ing or Fractaling...and in any case, it should be given some sort of costing cast.

think of it this way- the bunny doesn't exist, it is just the creature with a status for a short duration, and this status cannot be copied, it needs to be cast.

Dude, I'd make the bunny a standalone card.
The bunny is actually a very good idea on its own.

i wanted bunny to be on a timer- its skill is too good for a stand-alone mono entropy card.  and it added a wrinkle to polymorph, so it can be used offensively (make your own bunny) or defensively (make of of their creatures a bunny).  this sufficiently differentiates it from freeze


on a side note, originally i was going to make it a newt (she turned me into a newt! - a newt? - i got better...) and not a bunny, but i had a hard time drawing the newt, and realized that i had already made art which could be used for polymorph and had permission from zules to use the modified bunny art, so i made that switch.

I like this idea, except that it rewards an opponent for playing Supernova rainbow.

I agree with Anarook, you should have the Bunny be a card as well.  Just needs a balanced cost to play, then we can make Bunny armies with Fractal.

Why does the activation cost increase so much for the upgraded Bunny?  It makes it less useful to Polymorph your own creatures because of that, and then Chaos Seed would often be better as CC.