Team Card Design: New Weapons

[Turlututu]

Cards that are fine as they currently are, in my opinion:

Sun Blade - One of my favourite cards from the batch. Works well on its own as a beatstick-with-a-drawback, but truly shines (like the sun) if you take advantage of that drawback.

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Infested Log - Simplified version of the original design. I like it. Great Spiritual synergy (hard disagree with Septima :-p), good at gradually taking over.

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Fishing Rod - It's a Golden Hourglass or a Clepsydra for aquatic creatures (and weapons). Provides a lot of stability. It's good.

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Cyberweapon - Great at slowing down the opponent early, buying you time, terrible at actually locking them down. I like it.

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Cards that may need minor adjustments for balance, but that are otherwise fine:
Scythe - Replaces Possessed Sword, which had too limited uses. Good with CC and with creatures that die on their own.

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Scepter of Ruling - Strong and fun, another personal favourite. Might be in nerfable range, unfortunately.

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Magic Wand - Significant departure from the original design. I find Time and Earth creatures work best with it due to having a good mix of rush and control. Also combines well with mutants / spider cows.

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Skeleton Axe - Good finisher in a Skeleton swarm deck, I suppose. I actually like it better in non-skelly decks.

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Cards that need significant changes IMO:
Amulet - Another modified design. I'm not entirely convinced by it, I think this is the kind of card that will always be either over- or underpowered and may never hit the sweet spot. I do like that it enables meme combos with GotP.

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Great Maul - Used to be too strong in rushes and got massively nerfed, ironically still much better in rushes than in defensive decks. For a supposedly defensive card, that hurts. Main problem IMO is that "defense mode" (with a shield equipped) is usually not worth the damage loss.

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No opinion / haven't played much with them: Bo Staff, Fierce Feathers

[Niharia]

I might as well share the decks I've been using. Unupped decks tested against mages, upped against champions. New cards unnupped (even in upped decks) unless otherwise noted.

Axe to Rule

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Blanks: 3 skeleton axe / 3 scepter of ruling / 1 cyberweapon (that probably should be pulled out}
This is a fun little mess. Once you get a scepter and an axe in play, beguile -> bonesharper -> reinforce one of your creatures, preferrably the vamp. The most hilarious match I had the AI PUed my vamp only for me to merge the copy back into the original, three turns in a row. The deck is vulnerable to hush, immaterial monsters, mill, and bad draws.

Scepter of Fire

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Blanks: scepter of ruling x 4
I'm not much of an immolation fan, but I had to try scepter+wicked, and this works. Scepter does most of the damage, so it's kinda slow. Weak against immaterial, mill, unstable gas. To do: upgrade and test vs champs.

Command and Control

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Scepter of Ruling x 4
The idea is to use chimera to keep your opponent's creatures on your side. Not sure why I put the regrades in, I think I have a regrade problem. Also flying weapon is mostly useless when your scepter gets glommed into the chimera. Still viable, though.

Axe You Over

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Blanks: skeleton axe x 3
Not beguiles for me to feel comfortable playing this. I try to beguile too aggressively and waste my spells on small creatures, I think.

Mono Axe

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Blanks: skeleton axe x 3
It works, but I found it boring.

RainBug

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Blanks: infested log x 3
My first attempt at a log deck. Pillarless. It only started working after the log got nerfed (phase recluse + nightshade + rejuv + bugburst was so overpowered it was hillarious). Maybe I should put in a flying weapon, so I can see if two logs makes double poison? Or mitosis?

EpiLog UU

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EpiLog +

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log x3 - upped for the + version.
EpiLog is a good pun and an okay deck. But it has so many weaknesses. Maybe if I was smart enough to use self-plague, or include dry spell mycologist-style? This requires further study.

Wicked with a Scythe

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Blanks: scythe x 2
This is basically the Wicked mage but with scythe x2 instead of vampire stiletto.

Wicked 2

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Blanks: scythe x 3
Streamlined to get better results.

desert Sun UU

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Sun blade x 4
I was lurking when a fully-upped version of this deck was posted into the chat (and I forgot to make a note of whose work it was, either asdw or... whoever asdw was talking to). I haven't gotten enough of the new weapons to test up (other than log), so I downgraded the deck, added the regrades (to get the 2 def appreciation), and made a few other tweaks. Pretty nice mage farmer. I can't to ouei to save my life, but with the max health + unupped + deckout, this might be something to watch out for.

DISCARD EVERYTHING

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amulet x 3
Okay, not my best deck name, but it burns through your opponent's cards like nobody's business. Regrade clepysdras for longer function, or to just get cards out of your hand so you can keep stealing the opponent's deck. Hard countered by pulvy, struggles against PC in general. Mist shield because I can play them all without 'wasting' the card.

BoSader

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Bo staff x 4
This was a good deck when I first put it together, then something changed so that if I let even one Bo-endowed crusader attack, it reset my shield. Afterwards it struggled to do damage and maintain wallhood.

VR Whales

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cyberweapon x 3
The first cyberweapon deck I made. For a while I was getting an acceptable W/L against champions, but I think it may have been a fluke. Or the AI not having a reasonable threat evaluation for cyberweapon? Don't know if those numbers have been put in.

Bootlegged Readiness

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Cyberweapon x4
The idea is, by reducing the cost of your creatures, you get 0: mitosis. But it takes too long to set up to ever be reliable, and one rewind will undo your hard work.

I remember making a fierce feathers deck, but I can't find it in my decklist and I don't remember if/how well it worked. I didn't notice the remade magic wand until I was looking through this thread, so I'll try exploring the new shazzam.

[Septima Rhay]

Missing cards are Scepter of Ruling. F.elf interacts with: butterly (the monarch type of course), Phantoms, Blobs, and scepter controlled targets (to reset on own board).  Blobs can be applied to Butterfly for increased quanta production.  I may be tired as hell as a parent, but I can still come up with creative decks and deck names.  Decks play surprisingly well vs. Mages (so far) and seem balanced.  Please note the scepter and Fallen monarch pun.

Fallen Monarch

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Missing cards are Magic Wand.  Fun Decks. This is a great weapon, functions uniquely from other cards, very versatile, and much less confusing then the dove, rabbit version...lots to explore here.  Entropy will always be fun.  I like that wand can pair with 'peep' cards and disrupt heavy control or stall. Transform to common creature is right balance. This weapon looks ready to hit the streets.  Step right up see some magic!

Sopa Wardens

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gnome-wand-CP warden, Rol-wand-Sader, Skelly-wand-CP Stalker; just showing versatility of Magic Wang

example rabbit hole exploration

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[Septima Rhay]

cyberweapon stacks?  doesn't seem right.  each weapon on board increases all non-pillar cards cost, guess it hurts OTK decks. description confusing.  don't see why one would ever decrease an opponent's card costs. old scattering wind would pair nice here, let's up sw cost and reinstitute draw power

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[Manuel]

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not fun as amulet but if it got nerfed, sun blade new favourite weapon

Spoiler for Hidden:

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[Niharia]

Here are my magic wand decks:

Magic spider cow

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Magic wand x3
I have long been a fan of using regrade on micro spider cattle to 'reroll' a bad ability and get a stat boost in the process. Magic wand feels similar, with the added ability to reroll draws and being on a stick in exchange for a higher cost and an inability to target immaterial. Shazzam on a spider cow keeps bug and mutant tags, but shazzaming a non-cow into a cow does not give it mutant. Also, shazzaming a magic wand in hand into a monster gives that monster psionic. Haven't tested whether shazamming a cow in hand into another monster keeps mutant on play or not, but worth investigating. This deck could use more quanta.

Gooshazam!

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magic wand x3
Similar to the classic mut-an-egg, except using shazzam instead of mutate to get dejas, scarabs, hognoses, and ghosts of the past. A nice rush. Extra cards can also be zapped into miscelaneous goodies.

And my feather decks:

Fierce Feathers:

Material Weapons

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feathers x3
There have been a few times when feather-throwing has earned me a win, but I'm not convinced that fierce feathers are more valuable than owl's eye in this. Mages don't have/use that many shields where feathering will make a huge difference.

Mono rush

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feathers x3
I'm not much of a user of mono air in general, so I went to standard (non-test) oEtG and played exactly this but with short bows instead of feathers and felt that I was doing just as well with a cheaper, equal damage weapon.

Spoiler for 'Feathers came in handy once':

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Conclusion: feathers need some help. Unless someone has a feathery doom deck that I haven't come up with yet?

[Septima Rhay]

Conclusion: feathers need some help. Unless someone has a feathery doom deck that I haven't come up with yet?

I agree and I barely tested it.  In fact, I found it boring and not incentivized to test. But not every card needs to be cool or versatile at the same point.  Some shallow thinking here (since I didn't put in the design thinking as others did) but it seems redundant with SoFree. I'd be curious to see if it could incentivize off-element airborne synergies.

Perhaps this is not the time to introduce full on new ideas but I'm intrigued by the concepts of haze or vacuum for an weapon.  Haze might have 'obscure playing field' effects either vision (like cloak or partial field cloak) or an AOE like flood that impacts creatures.  Vacuum can be seen as 'sucking out of air' but also in the ecology sense of 'removing animals from the environment'.  Say an effect such as limiting number of copies of a creature on the board, more than that and they die upon entry.  For the sucking effect, perhaps quanta denial of some sort.  Or the opponent's non-air quanta is partially distributed to their air element when weapon does damage.  For Ecology effect, perhaps a limit of 3 copies of a creature on each playing field when weapon is in play. Example, own board you could only have 3 damsels, 3 wyrms, etc.; it's a mild counter to mitosis/fractal/wide creatures like wolves.

[Turlututu]

Fierce Feathers - The damage calculation is confusing and possibly broken, and I wish there was something else to do with it than dump all your "feathers" at once. Also I agree the card is kind of bad when just slotted into a generic wind rush.

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Bo Staff - Works well in stall. Seems fine to me.

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[Manuel]

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missing card= log

tried some fractal damsel with log and is pretty underwhelming. Tried a trio with wings, with log + spiders the only creatures hard to stop is phase dragon, spell damage like air nymph and flying titan. Can decently farm champions. It lacks pc and is a little slow to start doing damages

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missing card= log

sometimes does not start at all, sometimes can easily reach 50 damages in a turn and outrush champions. Seraph over dragon because is a lot easier to play, log probably does not add nothing than use fractix

[Septima Rhay]

I like Bo Staff as is.  Description needs cleaning up.  Seems if you don't chain the active the DR drops back to original. 

3 Bo splash in Sadthorn

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[Manuel]

tried cyberweapon

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decently fast to win against champions, i use gryphon because they end up being cheap, sofree got nerfed but if u can fractal easily 2 times does not really matter. Almost old feeling of using old etg sobr air rush.  Air mark because is better have less aether than the hand locked with sofree if a damsel dies too soon

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tried only 2 sky blitz but if u draw them is easy cast one every turn, 0  pc lol

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is a trio and it is destined to not be realiable but quanta lock arena 1 decks and some champions isn't that hard. Almost same levels of old DBH, does not matter the matchup in a bo5 u start by default every match with a 60% chance of winning

not broken as amulet but maybe for fractal should be added "drain all quanta if cost less than 12/10  "

[Manuel]

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so far the best deck for winrate against champions and arena 1, very solid for farming both

chain dims while using fractal and playing psions is very easy, decent speed, after a while dims cost 1  or 0  , psions 3 

even with cyberweapon is still a psiontal and autolose against heavy pc/reflective shields/titan decks but it make it x10 effective. I used psiontal for farming with my alt and is ok for mages, decent against champions, like 40% winrate. With cyberweapon for now the winrate is a lot higher, like 60-70%

[Septima Rhay]

Wicked with a Scythe

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Blanks: scythe x 2
This is basically the Wicked mage but with scythe x2 instead of vampire stiletto.

Wicked 2

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Blanks: scythe x 3
Streamlined to get better results.

2x scythe

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2x scythe

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tried cyberweapon

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is a trio and it is destined to not be realiable but quanta lock arena 1 decks and some champions isn't that hard. Almost same levels of old DBH, does not matter the matchup in a bo5 u start by default every match with a 60% chance of winning

not broken as amulet but maybe for fractal should be added "drain all quanta if cost less than 12/10  "

Problem I have with cyberweapon is what it does to opponent upon hit and that effect stacks over time.  I'm thinking it should inflate opponent cost then reset next turn vs. stack.

2x cyber

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[Septima Rhay]

My gut says sunblade mill effect is too strong despite little testing or thinking on the card. Cost could go up to 3 . Possible HP reduction from 3->2.  Here's an example of fast mill:

First one similar to Turlu's test deck.

6 sunblade empty slots

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3 sunblade

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3x blade

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Scorch, 3x blade

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[serprex]

Deployed some adjustments:
1. Scepter of Ruling active cost raised by 1 & stats changed from 7|5/8|5 to 4|8
2. Unupped infested log also gets infect(2), & 3 attack, while upped costs 2
3. Sun Blade cost raised to 3, Mirage is 3|6 instead of 2|8
4. Amulet active cost raised from 1/0 to 2/1
5. Haunt gets removed from creatures when they die (specifically tones down scythekitty)
6. Cyberweapon cannot target players

scythekitty

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