[Official] Reverse Time | Rewind

[Fayceless]

I feel the mechanic of Reverse Time has a negative impact on gameplay.  The only truly effective counter is to have a means of drawing extra cards: bravery or hourglass, mainly.  Mechanics like these, with such limited counters, are a big reason why rainbow/nova decks are so popular, and the more interesting possibilities in decks are sidelined in favor of quirky strategies and super-rushes.  There's nothing wrong with quirky strategies, that's part of the fun of Elements, but certain mechanics, like Reverse Time, can limit players' creativity in creating new decks.

The problem lies in the stall mechanics.  By placing a card on top of the deck, players can endlessly stall themselves or their opponents.  Both of these are detrimental to the game.  It sidesteps the possibility of decking out, and can create an impossible situation for decks that cannot draw more cards.  On top of that, the AI is practically unaffected by this, as they draw extra cards, plus it's even harder to counter their RT's, as a deck with 3x time and a protected Eternity can stall you forever.

My suggestion is this: change the mechanic.  Instead of returning a creature to the top of the deck, I believe we can make Reverse Time a more balanced and more interesting mechanic.  Rather than remove the creature, I suggest that the game return the target creature to it's original state.  This prevents the stall (annoying and broken...both by players and AI) while still maintaining much of the card's functionality and purpose.  Another alternative would be to put the card in the player's hand...but by adding certain exceptions I think even that can be avoided.

The following targets could be slightly different:
-Shard of Focus becomes a Black Hole
-A mutated/improved creature becomes the regular version of that creature.
-Skeletons still become random creatures.
-Possibly able to target invulnerable creatures - may or may not remove invulnerability. (probably not needed - but may be a compromise for losing stall functionality)
-Ash becomes a Phoenix?

Not sure what would be done with combination creatures(chimera, shard golem), but I feel that Reverse Time is one mechanic that is really limiting the game today.  It is most certainly NOT okay the way it is, not if you want the kind of deck variety and creative thinking that this game is really capable of.  I really don't get how this card slides by while much less potent cards and mechanics get people riled up.  What do you guys think?

[omegareaper7]

The problem lies in the stall mechanics.  By placing a card on top of the deck, players can endlessly stall themselves or their opponents.  Both of these are detrimental to the game.  It sidesteps the possibility of decking out, and can create an impossible situation for decks that cannot draw more cards.  On top of that, the AI is practically unaffected by this, as they draw extra cards, plus it's even harder to counter their RT's, as a deck with 3x time and a protected Eternity can stall you forever.

This is not entirely accurate. Reverse time doesn't allow you to infinitely do anything, eternity does.  And there is a very fine way around a protected eternity. It is also a two card combo. I'll let others address that for now.
As for the proposed nerf. That pretty much removes any usefulness it might see. What about decks that don't buff creatures? Shall it do nothing against a good portion of decks and be super situational like purify was?

[AP579]

You need to allow nerf proposals, because all possible nerfs aren't only 5 options.

[Fayceless]

The problem lies in the stall mechanics.  By placing a card on top of the deck, players can endlessly stall themselves or their opponents.  Both of these are detrimental to the game.  It sidesteps the possibility of decking out, and can create an impossible situation for decks that cannot draw more cards.  On top of that, the AI is practically unaffected by this, as they draw extra cards, plus it's even harder to counter their RT's, as a deck with 3x time and a protected Eternity can stall you forever.

This is not entirely accurate. Reverse time doesn't allow you to infinitely do anything, eternity does.  And there is a very fine way around a protected eternity. It is also a two card combo. I'll let others address that for now.
As for the proposed nerf. That pretty much removes any usefulness it might see. What about decks that don't buff creatures? Shall it do nothing against a good portion of decks and be super situational like purify was?

I don't think it's that situational.  Many, many creatures change themselves or others, and my proposal would still allow for reversals on your own creatures - removing antimatter or gravity pull, freeze, or other negatives.  It would be a nice counter to CC - counters that this game is rather lacking in.  In any case, a cost increase would be more than welcome, in my opinion.

@AP579 - Slipped my mind, thanks! Added an "other" option.

[omegareaper7]

And what about the decks that don't use creatures that change? Such as a lot of more current immo rushes or quite a number of speedbows, or the many mono/duo decks around? 

[Fayceless]

And what about the decks that don't use creatures that change? Such as a lot of more current immo rushes or quite a number of speedbows, or the many mono/duo decks around?

I can still be used as an inefficient heal, if nothing else.  Not every card can, or should, fit every situation.  Nightmare can suck against quantum-heavy rainbows.  Freeze is useless against many mono-aethers(even if those decks are awful, lol).  Shields even become worthless against powerful momentum creatures.

But my main point is, something has to be done.  The mechanic is bad for the game in it's current state.  Perphaps the more simple solution of return a creature to the player's hand (or deck IF hand is full) would be best.  But I'm trying to suggest something a bit more interesting, maybe not perfect, but interesting.

[omegareaper7]

No one is going to pay 3 time just to heal a creature. Only use it would see is to negate buffs on opponents or debuffs on self. It would see marginal use at best. And not to mention, as is, i hardly ever see either of these two in decks. Only two decks come to mind with this, I gotp time, and ghostmare.

[Fayceless]

No one is going to pay 3 time just to heal a creature. Only use it would see is to negate buffs on opponents or debuffs on self. It would see marginal use at best. And not to mention, as is, i hardly ever see either of these two in decks. Only two decks come to mind with this, I gotp time, and ghostmare.

Negating buffs, debuffs, or changes...it has always seemed to me that's really the point of Reverse Time.  It's taken on a whole other functionality, though, one which I wholly disapprove of.  I don't like what it brings to the game at all.  Like I said, mechanics like these are just bad for the game.

[Naesala]

voted for return to hand, another alternative is a (partial?) refund of quanta heres my opinion

Zanz says no intant kill (ignoring HP) without a substantial reason:Maxwells demon requires Atk>Hp which high hp generally dont have and shockwave+freeze is a somewhat UP harder to pull of 2 card combo. This is instant death and in exchange you add 1 copy of card to deck. But, very rarely will you use every copy of a card in you deck anyways (OTK decks perhaps, but RT doesnt matter for an OTK)
Whats more, you dont gain any and all quanta/cards invested in said creature. One could argue reversing time would return all cards used on said creature to mind as well. The card makes HP meaningless and buffing a pointless endeavor. As the OP said, there is a major prevalence of cheap rush decks and fewer decks for building up giants, one reason being reverse tme doesnt affect them as much because little is invested in each card.
And you lose a turn to draw something vital.
And Eternity lets this be used on repeat, PAing it is not that hard to do, animate weapon lets you use multiple a turn
And you can use it to stall better
And its cheap (eternity is more expensive, but still fairly cheap)
And if you arent playing a deck giving tons of excess quanta (duo, trio, quartet) you refunded card is likely a dead card.

It is my most hated card(s) in the game. Assuming trials marks remain as is, this will most definately be my hated card. I've used it and fought against it and I despise it. Creature control, draw denial, quanta wasted, spells wasted all for 2 ? No way.

[Jenkar]

Voted no nerf for this card. While this card is strong, it's not op, imo.

[Captain Scibra]

I'd suggest have it undo two turns (maybe one turn that upgrades into two turns) that a creature has gone through.  I think that having the same mechanic, but limiting the potential, is the way to go.

[omegareaper7]

Negating buffs, debuffs, or changes...it has always seemed to me that's really the point of Reverse Time.  It's taken on a whole other functionality, though, one which I wholly disapprove of.  I don't like what it brings to the game at all.  Like I said, mechanics like these are just bad for the game.

So because you don't like it, it should be nerfed?