I'm almost sure something similar has been thought of before, but strangely I've rarely seen examples of this.
So, the idea is that situational effects such as Blackwing Corruptor, Kill Command or Crystalsong Portal allow to make cards that are more powerful than normal. Rogue's specific "combo" mechanic is this as well, where the condition is to play another card first to get the full power of a card. However, such cards always have some functionality even if their specific condition isn't met, which means they can't be too powerful either. They have some flexibility to ensure that you never end up with a card that does nothing.
So, I was thinking, what kind of cards can you come up with, if these card can be used only if specific conditions are met? Think of them as "mini-quests" where you already hold the reward, yet need to find a way to meet the requirement. What if there were powerful cards, that require the right setup just to be played?
Here are a few examples:
Of course, many other things are imaginable, and I don't claim these are the best examples (just some of the first I came up with). But I think such a mechanic would allow for more interesting card designs that support and encourage specific strategies. The requirement gives another option to balance cards, and it ensures that cards don't turn into all-purpose tools that are generally too easy to utilize.
For example, Giggling Inventor could be changed back into a 5 mana version but with a setup like "Control no other minions".
I like the core idea. Annihilan sounds pretty fair, although I feel like he wouldn't be worth the effort (I get that you can just use him with things like Scarab Egg, but it still feels like he's bad if you don't get that). I would rather he'd be a 4/5 or 3/6.
Backup team seems either overstatted or undercosted. It's basically Doubling Imp on steroids and even thought the activation cost is pretty hard to pull off consistently I feel like a Zoo deck built around it would basically be a beefed up version of the old Heal Zoo package.
First Strike doesn't make much sense to me. It mostly seems to promote some sort of combo deck, but I can't see any Warrior deck that doesn't want to play minions over the course of the game.
Echo just seems pointless as well. I get the defensive effect of making your opponents minions useless, but the fact that it's a 6-mana combo that requires you to have 4 murlocs in hand, which you rarely want since you usually used them the turns before to establish a board control.
Overall I like the idea, but I feel like you're being a bit too conservative with cost and effect
It's interesting, so props for being creative, but considering they felt Enrage was too complicated for players, this has no chance of seeing the light. As Flagrents said, you can do any of these cards simply with the word IF.
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If you thought you knew what you think I know, then you'd know I knew you knew I know.
Why creating “setup” when you just need to use the word “if”?
"If" is used to make cards have a special effect under a specific circumstance, but the card is otherwise still playable. "Setup" is meant to make a card unplayable unless the condition is met, thus giving some more freedom to make cards that would be very strong at the cost of not having this flexibility to be weak or average cards otherwise.
It spells out as "This card can only be played if..." which would be new to the game, and a bit too much card text otherwise.
I like the core idea. Annihilan sounds pretty fair, although I feel like he wouldn't be worth the effort (I get that you can just use him with things like Scarab Egg, but it still feels like he's bad if you don't get that). I would rather he'd be a 4/5 or 3/6.
Backup team seems either overstatted or undercosted. It's basically Doubling Imp on steroids and even thought the activation cost is pretty hard to pull off consistently I feel like a Zoo deck built around it would basically be a beefed up version of the old Heal Zoo package.
First Strike doesn't make much sense to me. It mostly seems to promote some sort of combo deck, but I can't see any Warrior deck that doesn't want to play minions over the course of the game.
Echo just seems pointless as well. I get the defensive effect of making your opponents minions useless, but the fact that it's a 6-mana combo that requires you to have 4 murlocs in hand, which you rarely want since you usually used them the turns before to establish a board control.
Overall I like the idea, but I feel like you're being a bit too conservative with cost and effect
Since Annihilan is a common card, I think the power-level is fine. It's already like a smaller Sea Giant that gives you a lot of tempo on a wide board. Besides, it's scary enough when it's a random or not so random 2-drop, like from Piloted Reaper. ;)
Backup Team is most certainly too strong. But I think It's one thing to summon a lot of minions and another to have enough in play and a way to kill them off for the card to be played. Of course, just with cards like Unleash the Hounds it's already busted, but generally, the design makes you wonder if you can really get it out consistently and how bad it would be as a dead draw when you are behind with no way to have enough minions for this to work. That said, as a 2/2 or raising the setup to 4, it's probably still very good.
First Strike is intended as a combo card, of course, but one that comes at a bigger cost and suggests a different type of deck than Combo Warrior decks of old. You can still try to achieve an OTK, but you have to defend yourself with Weapons and Spells to pull it off. Besides, this allows techs like Hecklebot to make it useless.
As for Disturbing Echo... well, it was tricky for me to find a right version. Just having Murlocs on the board might have been enough, but a bit too good of an answer for an aggressive deck. It could be made a bit easier to pull off for control-oriented decks, but I think a mass transform effect should have a high requirement, especially when it can have further synergy with basic totems and of course Everyfin is Awesome, not to mention that there are multiple ways to summon a bunch of murlocs.
I had this same idea a couple years ago, but I later ditched it becasue it wasn't very interesting. I prefer conditional battlecries. For example, Reliquary Seeker could have been a 1-mana 5/5 with Setup: Control 6 minions. But with this keyword, you have removed flexibility from the card and completely screwed with random effects. I'd much rather see Annihilan as a 2 mana 2/1 with Battlecry: If you control 3 other minions, gain +3/+3.
The Setup keyword is not needed at all on spells. First Strike could be worded as, "If no friendly minions have died this game, give a friendly minion Charge." The only difference is that it can now be cast when it has no effect. This is important because it could be given off random effects like Blink Fox. It'd suck to be given a random card that is literally unplayable.
tl;dr - The cards themselves are good, but the keyword is not very interesting on minions, and completely unnecessary on spells.
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Hello everyone.
I'm almost sure something similar has been thought of before, but strangely I've rarely seen examples of this.
So, the idea is that situational effects such as Blackwing Corruptor, Kill Command or Crystalsong Portal allow to make cards that are more powerful than normal. Rogue's specific "combo" mechanic is this as well, where the condition is to play another card first to get the full power of a card. However, such cards always have some functionality even if their specific condition isn't met, which means they can't be too powerful either. They have some flexibility to ensure that you never end up with a card that does nothing.
So, I was thinking, what kind of cards can you come up with, if these card can be used only if specific conditions are met? Think of them as "mini-quests" where you already hold the reward, yet need to find a way to meet the requirement. What if there were powerful cards, that require the right setup just to be played?
Here are a few examples:
Of course, many other things are imaginable, and I don't claim these are the best examples (just some of the first I came up with). But I think such a mechanic would allow for more interesting card designs that support and encourage specific strategies. The requirement gives another option to balance cards, and it ensures that cards don't turn into all-purpose tools that are generally too easy to utilize.
For example, Giggling Inventor could be changed back into a 5 mana version but with a setup like "Control no other minions".
Let me know what you think.
Why creating “setup” when you just need to use the word “if”?
I like the core idea. Annihilan sounds pretty fair, although I feel like he wouldn't be worth the effort (I get that you can just use him with things like Scarab Egg, but it still feels like he's bad if you don't get that). I would rather he'd be a 4/5 or 3/6.
Backup team seems either overstatted or undercosted. It's basically Doubling Imp on steroids and even thought the activation cost is pretty hard to pull off consistently I feel like a Zoo deck built around it would basically be a beefed up version of the old Heal Zoo package.
First Strike doesn't make much sense to me. It mostly seems to promote some sort of combo deck, but I can't see any Warrior deck that doesn't want to play minions over the course of the game.
Echo just seems pointless as well. I get the defensive effect of making your opponents minions useless, but the fact that it's a 6-mana combo that requires you to have 4 murlocs in hand, which you rarely want since you usually used them the turns before to establish a board control.
Overall I like the idea, but I feel like you're being a bit too conservative with cost and effect
I tried having fun once. It was awful.
because the difference is that the card cannot be played otherwise, whereas the "if" condition allows regular play, just without the effect.
Annihilan can't be played at all unless you have 3 minions on board, and there'S no way to implement that using regular "if" text
I tried having fun once. It was awful.
It's interesting, so props for being creative, but considering they felt Enrage was too complicated for players, this has no chance of seeing the light. As Flagrents said, you can do any of these cards simply with the word IF.
If you thought you knew what you think I know, then you'd know I knew you knew I know.
"If" is used to make cards have a special effect under a specific circumstance, but the card is otherwise still playable. "Setup" is meant to make a card unplayable unless the condition is met, thus giving some more freedom to make cards that would be very strong at the cost of not having this flexibility to be weak or average cards otherwise.
It spells out as "This card can only be played if..." which would be new to the game, and a bit too much card text otherwise.
Since Annihilan is a common card, I think the power-level is fine. It's already like a smaller Sea Giant that gives you a lot of tempo on a wide board. Besides, it's scary enough when it's a random or not so random 2-drop, like from Piloted Reaper. ;)
Backup Team is most certainly too strong. But I think It's one thing to summon a lot of minions and another to have enough in play and a way to kill them off for the card to be played. Of course, just with cards like Unleash the Hounds it's already busted, but generally, the design makes you wonder if you can really get it out consistently and how bad it would be as a dead draw when you are behind with no way to have enough minions for this to work. That said, as a 2/2 or raising the setup to 4, it's probably still very good.
First Strike is intended as a combo card, of course, but one that comes at a bigger cost and suggests a different type of deck than Combo Warrior decks of old. You can still try to achieve an OTK, but you have to defend yourself with Weapons and Spells to pull it off. Besides, this allows techs like Hecklebot to make it useless.
As for Disturbing Echo... well, it was tricky for me to find a right version. Just having Murlocs on the board might have been enough, but a bit too good of an answer for an aggressive deck. It could be made a bit easier to pull off for control-oriented decks, but I think a mass transform effect should have a high requirement, especially when it can have further synergy with basic totems and of course Everyfin is Awesome, not to mention that there are multiple ways to summon a bunch of murlocs.
I had this same idea a couple years ago, but I later ditched it becasue it wasn't very interesting. I prefer conditional battlecries. For example, Reliquary Seeker could have been a 1-mana 5/5 with Setup: Control 6 minions. But with this keyword, you have removed flexibility from the card and completely screwed with random effects. I'd much rather see Annihilan as a 2 mana 2/1 with Battlecry: If you control 3 other minions, gain +3/+3.
The Setup keyword is not needed at all on spells. First Strike could be worded as, "If no friendly minions have died this game, give a friendly minion Charge." The only difference is that it can now be cast when it has no effect. This is important because it could be given off random effects like Blink Fox. It'd suck to be given a random card that is literally unplayable.
tl;dr - The cards themselves are good, but the keyword is not very interesting on minions, and completely unnecessary on spells.