Event Card Brainstorm

[The_Mormegil]

Battle Formation... I don't understand how it is supposed to be used. You "fix" the elements involved, then players choose who to assign to a "slot"? Nobody knows what the other elements have declared, I suppose...

[plastiqe]

Battle Formation... I don't understand how it is supposed to be used. You "fix" the elements involved, then players choose who to assign to a "slot"? Nobody knows what the other elements have declared, I suppose...

Yeah, for example... you know your matchups during this round are  .  So during deckbuilding phase your team decides; we'll send Master vs Time, Lt vs Entropy 1, Deckbuilder vs Gravity etc.  And you wouldn't know which member of the opposing team you'd be facing either.

[Essence]

Battle Formation won't work because in theory both teams get to choose their battles - - but which team gets priority if they disagree?

[plastiqe]

For Battle Formations, Elements are still matched against each other, only thing that changes is which player fights which match is left up to the teams.



During deckbuilding, along with each player choosing cards from their vault to build their decks, teams would decide which player to send against which opponent... in turn not knowing which player from that element they'd be facing.

Darkness has a Gravity, an Air, a Death, a Time, a Fire, a Light, and a Life this round.

Darkness builds a deck for each of their players: Doc (Master), Grumpy (Lt.), Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, and Dopey

Darkness decides to send Doc vs Fire, Grumpy vs Light, Happy vs Time, Sleepy vs Death, Sneezy vs Life and Dopey vs Air (Battle Formations step).

Each other team does the same thing, so only after you've built your deck and finalized your Battle Formations picks do you find out who you're matched against this round.  Simple enough?  I'm not sure how else to explain it... maybe it makes no sense and I've gone off the deep end.  : P

[moomoose]

http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1128837

[The_Mormegil]

challenge: http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/4425879/2/istockphoto_4425879-unique.jpg
sacrifice: http://www.sxc.hu/pic/m/s/sc/scapture/877824_crown_of_thorns.jpg
run: http://www.sxc.hu/pic/m/b/bu/bury-osiol/809062_run.jpg
desert: http://www.sxc.hu/pic/m/p/pd/pdufour/1077454_child_in_sunset.jpg
sniper: http://www.sxc.hu/pic/m/s/sa/sabercat/892423_the_soldier.jpg
EDIT: a couple clarifications. By "match" I mean a full set of "best of 3" battles. By "battle" I mean a single PvP duel. So, Desert Fighting could end up making you discard 0, 5 or 10 extra cards.
Also, wording on Self Sacrifice originally required a keyword to be concise enough. Martyr can be substituted by "player" now, I believe.

[suxerz]

For "Backup Plan", I'm assuming that a round consists a set of matches and a match consists a set of duels. It enables teams to create a pair of decks for every matches - it's optional but all decks must be legal. Once switched to the 'backup' deck in a match, the player can't use the first deck in the next duel. Switching to 'backup' decks can only be used twice in a round.

Backup Plan (http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=view&id=1095604) and Luminous Crafting (http://www.sxc.hu/photo/275413). Edited by myself.

[Sir Valimont]

Some Event Card suggestions. All images are royalty-free and may be used at will.

1. Shatterwatch

Shatterwatch prevents all pendulums from being used for one round. This doesn't necessarily favor specific elements over others but rather favors teams based on their distribution of quanta-production cards. To prevent really hurting teams, they can substitute pendulums for pillars until the end of the turn.

(http://imageplay.net/)

2. Clockmaker

Everyone enjoys a free bonus. This one is good for quanta but doesn't add cards that other teams don't know about. There is also the option for teams to take less than the total bonus so that the new vault total doesn't force them to play another deck if they don't want to.

(http://imageplay.net/)

3. Execution  |  Warmonger

After some feedback I've added a second version of this card, Warmonger. Explanation below.

This is an event card that forces teams to plan carefully. If it is a late round, weaker teams will benefit from this card because they are likely guaranteed fewer total cards' discard. Interesting strategy will be in play for all teams, since they could easily predict which cards would be discarded upon losses, and control their total card supply with accurate predictions. This way a team can prevent a "bad" vault total, like one that forces extra decks to be played.

In the case of Warmonger, teams are given an incentive to build decks that do have creatures ... with Execution it's very tempting to just make a creatureless deck ... and probably in the round few overall cards would be lost. With Warmonger, suddenly, building a deck with 15 creatures is very risky but could majorly pay off with 15 cards from salvage.

(http://imageplay.net/)  (http://imageplay.net/)

4. Rainbow Cache

This may seem like a complex card but in actuality it's a wonderful wrinkle for game strategy. It's also one of the few cards that disadvantages rainbows, instead of the opposite. Basically, teams count the total number of elements used in their decks, and get a bonus equal to the number of non-used elements. That means up to 11 cards per team ... but of course it would be very difficult for a team to get more than 8 or so. Another interesting aspect of this event card is that weaker teams field fewer decks ... so it is much easier for them to get a big bonus than teams that have to field nine decks.

(http://imageplay.net/)

5. Spoils of War

With this card, every victory gives you a salvage of 3 cards, even if you lose the overall match. It's a light event card ... which I think is important. In order not to have event cards overrun the overall strategy of war, several of them should have minor effects only. This is a good example ... but it does give a consolation prize for those losers of close fights.

(http://imageplay.net/)

6. Vengeance

Vengeance is a nice card because it actually gives a little attention to those players who have been unlucky so far. Suddenly winless players are as powerful as masters (or in the unlikely event that a master or lieutenant hasn't won yet, he or she is extra powerful for one round). It's a nice little benefit to less successful teams and definitely to less successful players. It's also, although unlikely, a card which may have no effect if it occurs later in War when everybody has won at least once.

(http://imageplay.net/)

7. Offset  |  Standout

Another minor event card ... very important to offset (pun intended!) the event cards that have greater effects. This simple event affects generals and lieutenants slightly in that it might alter their strategies. It doesn't completely prevent them from playing mono-colored decks, but if they choose to do so they won't be able to upgrade much (unless they splash "other" cards).

Note: I've added a second version of this card that I think is clearer and looks a little sleeker.

(http://imageplay.net/)  (http://imageplay.net/)

8. Rain of True Colors

This is an interesting card because it affects deckbuilding strategy. Teams will be incentivized to use decks that have relatively useless cards of their main element alongside other-element cards that are effective. As much as I like creative and powerful event cards, I also like event cards that have only subtle influences on overall strategy. War will work best if most rounds the basic strategy applies, with a few exceptions here and there. This is more a wrinkle than a major exception, but an interesting one to consider.

(http://imageplay.net/)

9. Spirit Sting

This might be my favorite card in this listing. Spirit Sting is a relatively powerful event card (which is why it's important for there to be some less powerful ones as well). This card prevents a team from using cards belonging to elements of the teams that they lost to in the previous round. It's an excellent card because it adds layers of battle planning for everyone ... teams will be looking over exactly what their opponent can and can't use, and will adjust accordingly, while simultaneously being disadvantaged themselves. What's great about this effect is that a team is indirectly rewarded for victories -- a different team is dealt a slight disadvantage on the first team's account -- but the effect does not necessarily come back to benefit them directly. Yes, this card does help teams that did well in the previous round more than others ... but overall in the late-game teams fighting more battles will have much more chance to suffer from this card than teams playing a single or two decks.

NOTE: a) A special provision will be made if teams are unable to field enough decks without using some banned cards ... basically they will be allowed to if they have no other choice, overriding the event's effects ... and b) This event can only occur as of Round 2.

(http://imageplay.net/)

10. Animate Armor

This event card has potential ... but it's not overpowered, as it might seem. The only situation where it is really very useful is when a team happens to have shields lying around, or when they've just beaten an opponent with tons of shields they can salvage. As it is, shields are fairly limited commodities and converting them may not always be in a team's best interest. However, it would be nice to have some events that allow for a bit better customization of vaults, to counteract all the difficulties of keeping strong vaults in War as it is. A shield is a good target for this conversion especially because it is always something valuable that one may not want to lose, and it is unlikely for a team to have tons and tons of them.

(http://imageplay.net/)

11. Stroke of Luck

Time for a totally random bonus! Nothing happening for most teams is a comfortable shift from major-effect events ... normal strategy can be focused on. And in some teams' cases, they might benefit from a stroke of pure luck!

In terms of probability: There is about a 10% chance that no one benefits from this card. About 29% that one team does, and 31% that two teams do ... more than two teams is 30% likely.

To give you an idea, if this card was used last War, these teams would have gotten the bonus:

Round 1 -
Round 2 -
Round 3 -
Round 4 -
Round 5 -
Round 6 -
Round 7 -
Round 8 -
Round 9 -

(http://imageplay.net/)

12. Seizure

The rules of this event card are explained as clearly as possible. Teams are not required to declare their salvage publicly ... but if they do within 24 hours of the card's posting, they basically STEAL those cards from their opponents by forcing the opponents' discard to include those cards. It is a harsh punishment in early rounds to target key cards ... at the cost of making part of one's vault (the new salvage) public.

To implement this card, the Warmaster will simply have to create a thread in which each team, if they choose, may post ONCE to indicate their salvage within the time slot.

(http://imageplay.net/)

13. Dragonfire

A fun card that plays on the theme of dragons without favoring any particular element. This is a great card in later rounds especially, when the discard per lost deck is at 30 cards, because a player can use 6 dragons without fear of losing them (or he can sacrifice them and save 6 other cards).

(http://imageplay.net/)


14. Chemist's Hour

Some optional conversion for teams with extra quanta, or for extra pillars that are otherwise useless in a team's vault from previous salvage. With this card a team has more options for this round's salvage as well, since they can take pillars from losers' decks and immediately convert them into potions if they want to. In general all potions are pretty useful so this card does not really favor one element over the others. The potion cards are:

Quintessence, Unstable Gas, Liquid Shadow, Aflatoxin, Basilisk Blood, Antimatter, Rage Potion, Black Hole, Adrenaline, Luciferin, Precognition, Nymph's Tears


(http://imageplay.net/)

15. Gambler's Hour

Adding a little element of risk into War ... and forcing teams into actions and reactions. Obviously winning with the bet-on player is a nice bonus, but beating another team's bet-on player is even more beneficial. The great thing about an event card like this is it adds suspense to some matches but doesn't change the overall strategy of the round otherwise.

(http://imageplay.net/)

16. Mage's Hour

Another deckbuilding-strategy card. With this sort of event, teams have to consider the makeup of their own decks as well as their chances of winning with said decks. Unlike the Execution / Warmonger card, there is no direct drawback for using a spell-heavy deck with this card; it just exposes a player's team to giving away extra salvage to another.

(http://imageplay.net/)

17. Espionage

Knowing opponents' vaults is critical in War strategy. Here is a card that plays on that theme, while also adding a bit of battle importance to someone besides the General or Lieutenant. As keeper of the team "library," the Deckbuilder is the keeper of secrets ... and capturing him in battle has its advantages! Knowing all of the cards another team has in two of its non-main elements is a decent advantage but not such an overpowering one that they can no longer beat you. I think it is the right balance of information to keep the event card interesting.

(http://imageplay.net/)

18. Hyperdrive

I think this is a necessary Event Card. In general there are several deck types whose success is largely based on surprise ... and that surprise is often lost once the opponent learns a player's deck. This event will make a round more intense because RNG will have its way in some matches, and surprise attacks will be numerous.

(http://imageplay.net/)

19. Reclamation

This is one of the few cards I am proposing that "piles on" the loser -- but I think there should be at least a few such cards. It's a reward for winning a match ... and a pretty good one. The biggest annoyance with salvaging is very frequently salvage cards are pretty useless -- and as War drags on inevitably running out of cards of one's own element is the biggest issue. This card allows a little bit more incentive for winning battles this round by guaranteeing a useful prize ... and slightly damaging the opponent's vault as well. Personally I think in a middle-round (round 4, 5, 6) this would be a super card, but it works any time really.

After feedback, I added a newly-worded version of the card (I hope it's not confusing). Because some elements are less popular, there will be fewer teams that can give cards of that element away ... so to compensate those teams, if a team you've beaten CAN'T give you a card of your element, you instead get a bonus card, which of course means it can be anything. So it's actually better for you (this helps less-popular elements). It's a balanced advantage, though, because it's ALSO better for the losing team, since they don't have to give up an extra card.

(http://imageplay.net/)  (http://imageplay.net/)

20. Monster Nest

I thought for a while about the current event cards rules ... and since the community is going to see the 24 cards (although not know which ones or when they will appear) ... there will be a little bit of vault strategy based on that. I love Monster Nest because if it's in the 24, suddenly a neat little wrinkle in strategy appears: teams should probably stock one or two lone creatures they might not want to use for a while in their vaults ... and when Monster Nest appears (if it does) suddenly they will have several copies of the card to use! It could also be a fun surprise for unsuspecting teams that had an odd salvage they ended up not being able to use. Finally I'd like to point out one lesson from last War: as it drags on, creatures start growing shorter and shorter in supply ... quanta is gradually replaced ... but creatures are mostly irreplaceable in most deck builds and so they gradually are lost. A bit of creature reinforcement -- even in an unpredictable way like with this card -- is a good thing.

(http://imageplay.net/)

21. Last Stand

This is an especially intense card near the end of War when teams have one deck left. If they lose a match, they have one last-ditch chance to stay alive. In general this is also a nice card for those unfortunate players who lose to RNG ... probably they can pull off a win in a rematch and save themselves a painful discard. Note that the rematch this card allows does not in any way change the victory of the match winner, or alter his salvage.

(http://imageplay.net/)

22. Parley

Argh! My team has to fight 3 generals AGAIN! Well, this little card gives a possible advantage to teams that are pitted against generals. If a team is fighting 3 fights against the same opponent, and one battle is the general, that team can opt out of the other 2 battles and not risk any discard. What's interesting about this card also is that in the (extremely rare) event that two teams fight each other's generals in separate fights, they can also cancel the against-generals fights.

Overall I think it is a good idea to have a couple cards that enable battles to be canceled. It adds a new spin to a War round ... basically giving a sudden, unexpected bye. After all a bye is incredibly useful as War drags on...

(http://imageplay.net/)

23. War Council

I don't know what to say except: This card has to be in War! It's just an excellent mechanic. So often when a team has a "good" round there is one deck they want to salvage a lot from, and several useless decks. This event card suddenly makes a round's salvage SO much more interesting, and enables teams to strategize over a much larger pool of cards. As of writing this, this is my personal favorite card in the listing (sorry Spirit Sting).

(http://imageplay.net/)

24. Safety in Numbers

This card might seem complicated at first read. In fact I think it's an excellent mechanic. If you look at how the card works, a team that sends out 3 copies of the same deck risks only half the discard! I think there definitely should be a mechanic that takes advantage of multiple copies of the same deck. If by some unbelievably crazy strategy a team can use 6 copies of the same deck, they automatically don't discard from any of them. (Not that any team will ever be able to do that). I think this would be a fun card to play with.

Note: A General or Lieutenant should be able to upgrade some cards in a deck and have it still be considered identical to a deck with the same cards but a few unupped versions.

(http://imageplay.net/)

25. Alms

There's always a small luck factor in any good strategy game, and War should be no exception. In general, event cards tend to reward success ... that's just the nature of things. This card, however, finally gives a break to the last-place team. Even though they will receive a whole slew of not-that-great cards, they will get up to 24 of them, which is a major bonus for any team that's struggling. (They might get fewer than 24 cards because some teams might have already been eliminated). Meanwhile, all other teams are only slightly impaired by a 2-card loss.

(http://imageplay.net/)

26. Foraging

Having a mostly opposite effect to Alms, this card gives a bonus to any team that eliminated other teams from War. If more than one team helped eliminate another (if they both beat that team in the round when it was eliminated), both teams get the bonus. The eliminated team's endgame vault is all of the cards left over in that team's vault after its last discard. (The total will be less than 30).

(http://imageplay.net/)

27. Merchant's Hour

One of the struggles of War is that it's difficult to acquire useful cards, especially in later rounds. A few event cards here and there that give a bonus would improve the enjoyment of the whole experience. That said, gifts are always better when they require some strategy to use best. In the case of Merchant's Hour teams can take many different possible combinations of cards, according to their strategy.

(http://imageplay.net/)

28. Trade Fair

Another event which doesn't change the strategy of War itself. I think it's critical to have several of these. In this case I've chosen a bonus which is not random. Each team gets 11 cards (team Underworld gets 12). I can't decide which version I prefer, so I've included both. The first version does not present an open choice for teams; the non-pillar card that they have the most copies of in their own element is selected to be given to every other team. The only choice will be in breaking a tie if necessary. I like this version because it guarantees that the cards given will be somewhat useful in deckbuilding (even though they will by definition be off-element for the recipients). A nice thing about this first version is there is a little bit of information given to every other team about each other's vaults as well, because it will be obvious which card each other team has the most copies of.

The second version of the card has its own wrinkle: teams choose the card to be distributed to others. This adds a little strategy but in all likelihood makes the bonus more annoying than useful. I'm leaning towards the first version but included both for the community to consider.

It should be noted that this card is somewhat advantageous to team Underworld, because they are probably the only team to be able to realistically use every card they receive. I don't think this is a problem, but when selecting which Event Cards to use in War, one should be aware of overall balance.

(http://imageplay.net/)  (http://imageplay.net/)

29. Counter Force

Some of the most fun events will be the ones that affect deckbuilding in ways that create new thinking and new decks, but which don't completely change the strategy of War. Counter Force is a great example. The 50%-own-element limitation is altered slightly, but in a way that encourages innovative deckbuilding: basically teams have to create decks that have at least 50% of the cards shared between their own element and their opposing element.

(http://imageplay.net/)

30. Immunity

I love this card. Immunity is one of those events that can be handled in many different ways, affect many different parts of strategy, and can work differently based on how early it is during War.

Basically each team chooses a card from their own element, and that card is "blocked." It's up to the Council whether team Underworld should be allowed to choose any card (advantage) or automatically have Quantum Tower be their protected card (slight disadvantage). When a card is blocked, no other team may salvage it from any battle, and at the same time the main-element team cannot lose it from discard, even if the discard normally would force a loss.

There are so many great wrinkles with this card:

Teams can choose valuable cards like dragons, and feel safer putting them into their decks especially in later rounds. Or, they can instead choose to protect pillars. Protecting pillars has the advantage especially in the late game of not running out of quanta -- but it's less offensive because other teams will not care about not being able to salvage them.

There are even some situations where teams should be careful about what they choose so they don't hurt themselves. In very early rounds, choosing to protect pillars might mean that a team would have to discard more valuable cards when losing. In some cases a team might even decide to choose a card that they aren't using in any of their own decks, so that they don't create any unpredictable tough situations during the round.

(http://imageplay.net/)

31. Life Insurance

Something to turn the tide! When a team takes heavy losses and starts losing players, sometimes the tendency is to keep going down. This Event Card will help stem that problem, by giving a nice little advantage to any team that's recently suffered. Of course by definition having this card occur in later rounds would be preferable to early rounds where there's a decent chance nothing will happen.

Probably the Warmasters should make sure that this event occurs only after Round 3.

(http://imageplay.net/)

[Sir Valimont]

Well, as I suggested last war too:
Reïnforcements

Art by ScaredGirl. Event card from war 2, but; I like it.

This is a very good suggestion as a basic event card, but it should be changed to creatures rather than any cards. It balances the card a little better (I would also reduce the number of cards to 10) and makes it a bit more interesting. 12 completely free "anything" cards is really, really powerful ... it's enough to build a single deck. Restricting the bonus to creatures (which also matches the theme of "reinforcements" a bit better) forces some more strategy into the decision.

[QuantumT]

@ Sir Valimont. A lot of those are really good. I particularly like 4, 5, 6, and 8.

For number 3, what happens if you have no creatures to discard?

[Sir Valimont]

@ Sir Valimont. A lot of those are really good. I particularly like 4, 5, 6, and 8.

For number 3, what happens if you have no creatures to discard?

If a deck with no creatures loses, it discards nothing. But the opponent still salvages from it, of course. One obvious side effect is you get a free sacrifice without penalty if you want it.

[Essence]

Valimont, you might want to co-ordinate with some newbs and have them turn in a few of your card ideas for you.  The OP specifically limits each poster to 5 card ideas.  It's even in big, yellow text there.