The trial

[BluePriest]

Remember that Zanz has said that they will be in pvp, and that its the community that said that they should be optional. Aka as of right now, assume its not turned off. Also remember, from the wording, this is mainly in the idea phase and zanz is trying to decide exactly how to do it.

[YoungSot]

First off, I'll add my voice to the choir of players singing their praises over all these new additions to the game. New content is the lifeblood of a game and community like this one, and I am excited to see so much activity. Thank you Zanz!
Now to the point. Others have already noted that in it's current form this rule would hopefully be optional, as it would otherwise have a negative effect on organized pvp. To explain: Events and tourneys have their own separate metagames determined by various special rules and deck restrictions, so that which card you want to have "countered" by your mark would change constantly, not only from event to event but even game to game. If the only way to change your countered-card is to replay a somewhat lengthy quest, it will be extremely difficult or impossible for many players to keep their enhanced mark competitive, especially if they are playing in multiple events. If the goal is to allow these marks to remain in organized pvp, then changing the target of your enhanced mark should be made a fairly quick process.

[moomoose]

maybe there could be alternate weak rewards, such as starting matches with a few quanta of your mark, or some such, instead of card countering, for events where the user would prefer not have a card counter bonus mechanic.  just a small something to have to show you completed the trial, but not something that would be objectionable in a pvp event.

[dragonsdemesne]

The trial bonus could always just be disabled in pvp, just like you can't take oracle pets into pvp, if it turns out to be an issue.

[inspector]

Idea: The trial upon completion should reward a mark re-attunement token which can be stored (in multiples) for later use.

This is important as it would let us do the trial even when we don't need to change the "hated" card immediately.

Still I have mixed feelings about this system as it would be in a way "paying" to change a deck - the correct choice of a hated card will be an integral part of a fully efficient deck.
I'm not even getting into implications on PvP, it can be huge.

[RavingRabbid]

Question: will the blessing pass on to different elements?

[BluePriest]

League of Legends ranked has "banned" champions that each team sets before a ranked match. This actually opens up more strategies than it closes because it allows you to target the weakness of your team. I feel even if enabled in pvp, it would help more than hurt as it would make certain decks more viable.

Edit:
Can anyone think of a card that is the only one in its niche? For example, explosion would not fit into this because steal fills a similar role. Mindgate is the only card I can think of that has no other cards that do what it does.

[sunyata]

Sounds interesting, and should provide another good angle to the game. It gets my support, but some thought needs to be given to how to deal with some of the valid critcisms in this thread.  E.g widening the gap between experienced and newbie players may put new people off from joining the game.  It already takes an enormous amount of grinding to get up-to-speed in EtG.  Something that further penalises new players should be treated with caution.  Still, the trial would probably infer only a small advantage so may not be too big an issue.

One question.  How would healing from Trial mark interact with SoSa?  Would your hated card cause you damage instead??

[Elite arbiter]

In general this seems like a very good idea. I do have a few suggestions to get it working. The first one is a point that has already been addressed, but I would like to point it out clearly.

*    Make your hated card alterable at will.

Now the argument here is that this will make your trial have very limited replay value, and my other suggestions primarily aim to fix this while still letting the hated card be changed so as to facilitate specialized tournament events.

*    Make it so that you have to do the trial separately for each element.

This both prevents people from choosing the optimal element to breeze through it, and guarantees that a massive amount of play-content is added, as to 'complete' the trials you have to be a master of all twelve elements. However I have one more suggestion on top of this to

*    Add a secondary bonus for defeating an element that you have already defeated.

And more than just coins since I imagine those will be gained through the trials anyway. My idea was something along the lines of a graphically altered version of a card. This way players who like specific cards can get their favorite cards selected to look unique. And considering you could get 6 unupgraded and 6 upgraded for a complete set, it guarantees that there is no 'end of content' anywhere in sight. No actual mechanics change with this would be implemented, it would just be a flavorful flair.

Of course, this might be a bit tricky and time consuming to even put a small sparkle into the pictures of all the elements cards unupgraded and upgraded. Other suggestions are welcome, but there should be at least 'some' key secondary stackable bonus to encourage continued trial use.

tl;dr: Read the Bolded things, these sum up the point and are the main purpose of the post.

[FlareGlutox]

Can anyone think of a card that is the only one in its niche? For example, explosion would not fit into this because steal fills a similar role. Mindgate is the only card I can think of that has no other cards that do what it does.

Sanctuary. Of course the healing aspect is similar to SoG and Feral Bond, but the immunity to denial is something unique to it.

[The_Mormegil]

In general this seems like a very good idea. I do have a few suggestions to get it working. The first one is a point that has already been addressed, but I would like to point it out clearly.

*    Make your hated card alterable at will.

Now the argument here is that this will make your trial have very limited replay value, and my other suggestions primarily aim to fix this while still letting the hated card be changed so as to facilitate specialized tournament events.

*    Make it so that you have to do the trial separately for each element.

This both prevents people from choosing the optimal element to breeze through it, and guarantees that a massive amount of play-content is added, as to 'complete' the trials you have to be a master of all twelve elements. However I have one more suggestion on top of this to

*    Add a secondary bonus for defeating an element that you have already defeated.

And more than just coins since I imagine those will be gained through the trials anyway. My idea was something along the lines of a graphically altered version of a card. This way players who like specific cards can get their favorite cards selected to look unique. And considering you could get 6 unupgraded and 6 upgraded for a complete set, it guarantees that there is no 'end of content' anywhere in sight. No actual mechanics change with this would be implemented, it would just be a flavorful flair.

Of course, this might be a bit tricky and time consuming to even put a small sparkle into the pictures of all the elements cards unupgraded and upgraded. Other suggestions are welcome, but there should be at least 'some' key secondary stackable bonus to encourage continued trial use.

tl;dr: Read the Bolded things, these sum up the point and are the main purpose of the post.

I love this idea. Really really really love it.


I imagine the implementation as follows:

You can take a Trial for each element. Each tests your ability against that element through various challenges. Easy mode with Hard mode available after you beat it once in easy mode.
When you complete the trial, you can select a reward from a list. Mark modification allows you to have a mark of the element of the trial tuned to a certain card. You can change the card at-will. Each mark modification grants you a certain benefit, and all mark modifications can be turned on and off at will. Other rewards are available and more can be added in the future. However, most are "unlocked" once and that's it. However, there are two more options that are useful multiple times: an upgraded card of your choice (not broken: farming gods with Liquid Antimatter is going to be faster, and Arena grants thousands of electrum if you have a decent farmer; however, it is good for newcomers who play on easy mode and want to get their hands on a RoL Hope deck), or a card with altered graphic effects. These graphic effects are not necessarily new art (that's hard to come by), but rather manifest when you play the card. A flash of light, a noise, something minor that is there just for collectors' sake.

Alternatively, you can grant a score boost. Something like +1000 score on easy mode and +20'000 score on hard mode? But I'd like the graphic effect better, it's cool and gives a purpose for farming trials.

[Rutarete]

I also like Elite Arbiter's suggestion