Devil's Gate

[RootRanger]

Devil’s Gate - Rules
When the Devil’s Gate was opened, all hell broke loose. Fight for the survival of your species in the PvP Event themed around the show Supernatural.
1. SIGN-UPS
- To sign up, make a post in the separate sign-up topic.
- Once you sign up, select your Allegiance and 3 Support Elements.
- Players may sign up with “No Preference,” which means they will be given the Allegiance with the fewest sign-ups, and tentatively randomized Support Elements.
- After sign-ups end, all Allegiances will be revealed, and players will have three days to change their Support Elements.
- There is a maximum of 8 players per Allegiance, and 32 players total.
2. CUSTOMIZATION AND DECKBUILDING
-There are 7 Allegiances: Demons, Hunters, Angels, Reapers, Shapeshifters, Vampires, and Deities.
-Each Allegiance corresponds to a different Main Element. Players are allowed to use any card from their Main Element, except for banned cards.
-There are 7 banned cards, one for each Allegiance. They are Immolation, Blue Nymph, Light Nymph, Poison, Discord, Devourer, and Dimensional Shield. Under no conditions may any banned card be used.
-In addition to picking an Allegiance, players are allowed 3 Support Elements, which are chosen during the sign-up phase. Players may use any non-banned card from their Support Elements, except for pillars and pendulums. Mark cards are counted as pillars.
-Players may not use any card outside of their Main Element or Support Elements.
-Decks may have 6 upgrades.
-Each Allegiance has an ability, which provides a small deckbuilding advantage by bending one of the above rules.
3. ALLEGIANCES
Demons
Possession: You may use the opponent’s Main Element as a fourth Support Element.

Spoiler for Lore:

Demons are corrupted human souls who have been trapped inside Hell for centuries. On rare occasion, Demons escape Hell to possess human bodies and commit murders. When a powerful Demon named Azazel succeeded in his plan to open the Devil’s Gate, hundreds of Demons were freed. Since then, most of the Demons have been exorcised back into Hell, but the strongest ones remain.
“Oh, I’ve already got my army. Or, I will soon, anyway.” - Azazel

Hunters
Versatility: You may use weapons of any Element, with the exception of Discord.

Spoiler for Lore:

The army of Demons was combatted by Hunters, select humans who are aware of the supernatural. Hunters are skilled in fighting any sort of supernatural monster, with the goal of saving as many fellow humans as possible.
“So what do you say we kill some evil sons of bitches and we raise a little hell, huh?” - Dean Winchester

Angels
Wisdom: If your Mark is Light, you are permitted to use Pendulums of your Support Elements.

Spoiler for Lore:

Once thought to be no more than a myth, Angels are the servants of Heaven who have returned to Earth to fight Demons and save the world. The Angels hope to stop the Demons from releasing Lucifer and starting the apocalypse.
“Angels are warriors of God. I'm a soldier” - Castiel

Reapers
Dark Magic: The upgrade limit does not apply to spells.

Spoiler for Lore:

The Reapers exist for the sole purpose of bringing death. They had no concern with the affairs of Angels and Demons, until the Demons began to control Reapers with dark magic. The Reapers are now fighting back.
“I've been around death from the get-go.” - Tessa

Shapeshifters
Adaptability: You may use 1-cost and 2-cost cards of any Element, with the exception of Poison and Devourer.

Spoiler for Lore:

Shapeshifters are similar to humans but possess the power to change their appearance at will, disguising themselves as any person. Rejected by society, Shapeshifters cause chaos and destruction out of revenge.
“Everywhere I ran, everywhere I tried to hide, people found me, dragged me out, attacked me.” - Shapeshifter

Vampires
Vampiric Link: The upgrade limit does not apply to the “Vampire” card.

Spoiler for Lore:

The Vampires were hunted nearly to extinction, but the few survivors are rebuilding their species. They have heightened senses and incredible strength but require human blood to sustain themselves.
“I do what I have to. We're a dying breed.” - Dixon

Deities
Arrogance: You may use a total of 9 upgrades.

Spoiler for Lore:

Deities are ancient beings whose powers come from their worshippers. In the modern day, most Deities are only a shadow of their former self. They are vengeful and uncontrollable, longing for the time when they used to rule the world.
“Listen, pal, back in the day, we were worshiped by millions.” -  Hold Nickar

4. MATCHES AND ELIMINATION
- If there are 28 or more players, pairings are determined by a double-elimination bracket. The bracket will be set up randomly, on the condition that players will not face an opponent of their own Allegiance in the first two rounds.
- If there are fewer than 28 players, pairings are determined by double-elimination swiss. Pairings will be set up randomly, on the condition that players will not face the same opponent twice, nor face the same allegiance consecutively, nor face their own allegiance, in order of priority.
- Matches are best-of-five. The first player to win three games wins the match.
- At the beginning of each round, players are paired against 1 opponent. Players have 7 days to make the fight happen. They must contact their opponent using a private message and try to find a time that suits them both.
- Players are expected to play the entire match at once, rather than spacing out the individual games over the course of multiple days. Players are not allowed to spend more than 10 minutes deckbuilding in between games.
- In the event of a desync, both players finish the game against the AI. If only one player defeats their AI opponent, that player is the winner. If both (or neither) players win, the game is replayed with the same decks. Upon defeating the AI opponent, a screenshot of the turn of the win must be provided.
- If the fight doesn't happen, both players lose by default, unless one player is clearly more active in trying to find a suitable time.
- After the match, both players must submit their results and decks in the official thread for the round.
- The winner of the event is awarded 1 Mark/Nymph, 5,000 electrum, and a reward icon. The second place player is awarded 1 Mark/Nymph and 5,000 electrum.

[Zawadx]

Thoughts on Balance: Demons, Reapers, Angels and Deities seem good. Hunters are iffy, but I'd say they're strong enough.

Vampires have a strong element, but I believe they're UP due to their ability... have you considered the effect on the Daleks during Trenzalore? Imo allowing free upgrades on all vampiric cards (Vdagger, Liquid Shadow, maybe even Black Nymph!) would fix it.

Shapeshifters seem too weak. They have a niche, but imo too few support elements to be viable. They'll need a stronger ability than access to other... maybe one deck using any support elements per match?

[iancudorinmarian]

Shapeshifters so weak

[Zyardran]

Shapeshifters so weak

Don't worry iancu! We have the power of rainbow!

[Shantu]

Looks interesting.

If Adaptation is considered weak, maybe you could change it so that Shapeshifters can change one of their support elements to a different one before the beginning of every (or every other) round. This could be very powerful, so two ideas as limitation:
- at least one of the other Shapeshifter (or chosen allegiance at start?) players must have the desired new element (less and less choice as the event goes on) or
- can't change to an element the Shapeshifter already had (more weight behind each decision, since there is no return)

I like the first much more. It could also be limited to changing to the main elements of other races.

[Solaris]

Shapeshifters so weak

Don't worry iancu! We have the power of rainbow!

A rainbow with Entropy and 3 other Elements..

[RootRanger]

Thanks for the feedback. Most people have said that the Shapeshifters are UP, and this is something I can agree with. The ability was done hastily, and I had been overestimating the strength of a 4-Element rainbow. I have a new ability in mind for which I would like feedback.

Adaptability: You may use 1-cost and 2-cost cards of any Element, with the exception of Poison and Devourer.

Although it adds new strategy to have an ability that involves modifying your setup (ie, switching out a support Element), and this was certainly an aspect of Conquest I really enjoyed, there are also some issues with that. The biggest concern is that the Shapeshifter will always have more time for deckbuilding than their opponent - who won't be able to deckbuild at full potential until he knows which Element the Shapeshifter has chosen. I don't really think there's any way around this. If I set a deadline to have the Shapeshifter make his choice within the first day of matches, that's still one less day for his opponent to deckbuild. But even aside from this concern, I think the ability would be too weak, and I don't want to over-complicate it further by adding another part to it.

The ability I've suggested is very strong in my opinion, because it allows for both splashes with any Element as well as better Nova rainbows. Quantum Pillar would not be allowed though, because a Grabbow with Quantum Pillars would be much too powerful. I think this ability is warranted because without a strong ability, Entropy is very weak in this environment. It's best cards - Discord, Nova, Pandemonium - are either banned or missing a key component of their typical combo (QP for Nova, Poison for Pandemonium.) But now, Entropy is the Element with versatile splashes as well as semi-gimmicky rainbows. I think it should have a place in the event without being overpowered.

Lastly, what would ya'll think of a rule that rewards bonus upgrades for Allegiances with fewer players? For example, an Allegiance with 1-2 players would have +3 bonus upgrades, 3-4 players would have +2, and 5-6 players would have +1. The advantage of this rule is that it could balance out differences in strength between the classes, but the disadvantage is that it could backfire if players avoid picking a class perceived to be OP because they would not want to miss out on an upgrade bonus - causing the OP class to have the highest upgrade bonus of all!

[iancudorinmarian]

way better, nice idea

[Zawadx]

I like that change for Shapeshifters, though it might make them very strong compared to the others. Maybe prevent them from upgrading cards which aren't from their main/support elements? I believe this change is very urgent if we increase upgrades based on players too, since then their bows have the potential to be very powerful.

Increasing the power of low player teams is a great idea! I think your fear will not happen; the appeal of a few extra upgrades is often not enough to drive someone out of what they find strong or their comfort zone. But the numbers are quite off. At 25 players (which is the most I'd expect given the state of forums) you'll have most teams at 3-4 players given how balanced these races are. And 8 upgrades just might change the meta a lot. I think +3 ups for 1-2 players and +1 up for 3-4 players would be better.

[Jen-i]

I like that change for Shapeshifters, though it might make them very strong compared to the others. Maybe prevent them from upgrading cards which aren't from their main/support elements? I believe this change is very urgent if we increase upgrades based on players too, since then their bows have the potential to be very powerful.

I completely agree, sneaking a 3 cost card into a deck by upgrading it doesn't seem to be the purpose here, just access to a little extra versatility.

Increasing the power of low player teams is a great idea! I think your fear will not happen; the appeal of a few extra upgrades is often not enough to drive someone out of what they find strong or their comfort zone. But the numbers are quite off. At 25 players (which is the most I'd expect given the state of forums) you'll have most teams at 3-4 players given how balanced these races are. And 8 upgrades just might change the meta a lot. I think +3 ups for 1-2 players and +1 up for 3-4 players would be better.

Instead of giving a flat bonus to teams with 1-2 players make the difference in team size the critical factor, +1 upgrade for each person less your team has than the largest team

[theelkspeaks]

I like that change for Shapeshifters, though it might make them very strong compared to the others. Maybe prevent them from upgrading cards which aren't from their main/support elements? I believe this change is very urgent if we increase upgrades based on players too, since then their bows have the potential to be very powerful.

I completely agree, sneaking a 3 cost card into a deck by upgrading it doesn't seem to be the purpose here, just access to a little extra versatility.

Increasing the power of low player teams is a great idea! I think your fear will not happen; the appeal of a few extra upgrades is often not enough to drive someone out of what they find strong or their comfort zone. But the numbers are quite off. At 25 players (which is the most I'd expect given the state of forums) you'll have most teams at 3-4 players given how balanced these races are. And 8 upgrades just might change the meta a lot. I think +3 ups for 1-2 players and +1 up for 3-4 players would be better.

Instead of giving a flat bonus to teams with 1-2 players make the difference in team size the critical factor, +1 upgrade for each person less your team has than the largest team

Instead of no upgraded cards in the off-element section, wouldn't it be easier just to say that cost is determined by the cost of the unupped version for that rule?

Also, am I correct that there are no restrictions on how many times you can use any given support element card per match?

[RootRanger]

Changed Entropy's ability to the one I suggested previously, as well as a few other new rules.

- Players may sign up with “No Preference,” which means they will be given the Allegiance with the fewest sign-ups, and tentatively randomized Support Elements.

There will be a much more even distribution of Allegiances if there are a few "No Preference" sign-ups, and I think there will be. Being an Allegiance with the fewest number of players gives a small advantage, due to the rule below.

- After sign-ups end, all Allegiances will be revealed, and players will have three days to change their Support Elements.

The idea here is that players will change their Support Elements in order to counter the decks from the most popular Allegiances. It's not a gamebreaking rule by any means, but it provides the minor handicap to the more popular Alleigances that I was looking for.

- If there are fewer than 28 players, pairings are determined by double-elimination swiss. Pairings will be set up randomly, on the condition that players will not face the same opponent twice, nor face the same allegiance consecutively, nor face their own allegiance, in order of priority.

Although I'm really hoping to get 32 players again, I need to account for the very real possibility that I won't get nearly that much. In this case, the double elimination bracket will be ditched, because that system would result in too many byes. Instead, players will still be matched up against opponents with the same win-loss record, but there will only be a handful of byes throughout the event.

EDIT: Also, yes, you may use support element cards an unlimited amount.