Hmm...
I think a good idea to start with will be utility cards.
Many elements have them, and they are obvious right away, because they all have that same Unique cost that makes them simple support to any deck and very splashable.
The important thing about utilities is that they are just so darn useful. They can ALL be used in any kind of deck, meaning that every single utility opens up 11 different duos to worry about.
Lightning | Thunderbolt
Shockwave | Shockwave, also Fog Shield | Fog Shield (Although Fog is limited by Permanent slots)
Nightmare | Nightmare (Least useful of the utilities IMO, not enough versatility, but useable.)
None (You could say that Poison is close)
Basilisk Blood | Basilisk Blood
None (Chaos Seed | Chaos Power is close)
Deflagration | Explosion
Momentum | Unstoppable, Gravity Pull | Gravity Force
None (Nothing even close)
None (Luciferin, Holy Light, and Blessing come close but aren't quite the same)
Reverse Time | Rewind, Precognition | Precognition
None (Freeze comes close)
Many decks are complimented extremely well by the simple addition of a utility spell.
They make the element much more useful to include in decks, and allow many more useful combinations to be pulled out of thin air.
Between decks that are both based around them and cards that simply use them for support, nothing can go wrong when using them.
This series of cards is IMO one of the best in the game.
Break down of existing utilities:
- Lightning | Thunderbolt is a simple damage spell, but it is the best in the game for it's simplicity. The sheer denial it causes can be immense, as it 1KOs a large variety of creatures and can occasionally let you gain card advantage. Even in cases where you can't use it on creatures, 5 damage to your opponent's HP can add up and can easily win you the game.
- Shockwave | Shockwave is a damage spell one step below Lightning, but it serves a much larger versatility in uses. The added instakill and Permanent Control effects give it a larger variety of uses than a simple Lightning, and performs it's damage capabilities ALMOST just as well.
- Fog Shield | Fog Shield is simply the easiest to add shield in the game to add to a deck. It has the potential to mitigate a lot of damage, for only a very small quanta cost. However, it's shield slot limit means that it can't be splashed in quite the same way as other Utilities (You won't find a deck with Air mark and 6 Fog Shields).
- Nightmare | Nightmare is simply put, a tide-turner. A single draw and a bit of drain can mean that you're winning instead of your opponent. Enough of these chained together can deny your opponent a draw for quite some time. However, I don't feel it is versatile enough stand-alone to really take up that utility slot.
- Basilisk Blood | Basilisk Blood combines 2 uses that are both amazing. It is the best unconditional CC in the game, putting out a monster for the majority of a quick game, making it both deal no damage or be able to use it's ability. It's also a buff card that's extremely useful to a few decks, In particular Voodoo Doll and Gravity Pull.
- Deflagration | Explosion is quite possibly one of the best cards in the game. Quick PC that lets you take down so many more different decks, and is a welcome, or even sought after addition to many decks. There are just so many powerful permanents in the game that this card almost always finds a use that will win you the duel.
- Momentum | Unstoppable is a very cheap buff card and gives what's considered to be one of the most powerful abilities in the game. It singlehandedly lets you bust past many a stall. Also considered to be one of the best cards for buffing scorpion, since it gives you a guaranteed chance to deal poison damage.
- Gravity Pull | Gravity force is a utility that I think is underestimated. It can be a great method of defense combined with cards like Titan or Voodoo Doll, letting you stop the enemy creatures indefinitely. It also acts as one of the most powerful Creature Control spells in the game, letting you kill almost any creature in the game in 1-2 turns, albeit at the cost of your own damage (This is why it is so underused.) Also, Momentum is a much more powerful utility card so this is often overshadowed.
- Reverse Time | Rewind is the ultimate card for gaining advantage in general. In any buff deck it gives a crushing amount of card advantage, making your opponent lose any and all buffs put on the creature, lose it's growth, make your opponent lose a draw, and makes them need to pay for it again. It's an extremely powerful card against many decks that are designed to pay costs only once like Novabows and Immolation decks, as it can put a creature on hold for who knows how long.
- Precognition | Precognition is used generally as a deck thinner. It lets you cut the size of your deck in order to find the cards you need much easier. It's second effect is also useful, but less so IMO. Since it only benefits rushes primarily, it is generally overshadowed by Reverse Time in usefulness.
That's my break down of the existing cards. They can be put into these basic categories:
- Damage Spell
- Permanent Control
- Buff
- Draw Denial
- Damage Prevention
- Deck Thinning
- Unconditional Creature Control (HP is a non-factor).
As such these are the kinds of things, or similar, that we want to include in our own utilities.
My ideas:
is strangely lacking creature control. For an element so intent on triggering death effects it's extremely bad at doing so. All of it's CC is DoT, and it could use a good damage spell that fits in thematically.
has a lot of potential in thematic ideas for Utilities. However, we must be careful not to overstep boundaries and give it something that could be considered to powerful in conjunction with other Entropy cards.
really, really, REALLY, needs some kind of control. Either PC or CC works, but it needs a Utility cards desperately to gain some power in any kind of environment. Being a passive element it should be designed as soft control, and possibly given a dual purpose that increases it's versatility. In particular I think another way to deal with permanents is important to the metagame.
similarly needs some sort of control, but can be given some harder control thematically, depending on how we approach it.
is an interesting element to put a utility card in, because I don't think it needs any more control. It's already one of the more powerful stall elements, and can synergize well with control decks anyways. With that said, things like Buffs or Draw Denial would do well to compliment the game meta.
