Buff Sinkhole/Tunneling

[Terroking]

I don't know if anyone thinks these cards are good, but I certainly don't see it. Sinkhole is mildly annoying sometimes when grinding champs but really lacks any sort of oomph to actually put it in a deck. Tunneling likewise.


Here are some proposed buffs for one or both cards:

Sinkhole, 4 cost, permanent
: Target creature is burrowed. Replace creature's skills with 0:unburrow.

Tunneling, 5 cost, permanent
Your burrowed creatures deal double damage and bypass shields.

Sinkhole, 9 cost, spell
Kill all creatures that are stronger than they are large.
(A very powerful spell, that works thematically, but has a lot of restrictions and is very poor in some matchups. Could also work as a single target 3/2 cost paradox spell, or be changed to affect only the opponent/target player)

Tunneling, 4 cost, permanent
Your burrowed creatures bypass shields
: Target creature is burrowed. Replace creature's skills with 0:unburrow
(Alternatively it could spawn antlions or something, call it tunnel nest/network maybe.)

The costs aren't really a big deal and should probably be adjusted, concept is the important part.

[timpa]

The biggest use I see for sinkhole is together with wings and draft, since it removes airborne. This new version of tunneling would turn sinkhole into quint + momentum.

[cg]

Sinkhole buff that was apparently decided on like six months ago but never implemented: Make all versions of sinkhole require earth quanta to unburrow (meaning that when offensively used against an opponent with no earth quanta, the target will never unburrow). This doesn't mean that another option isn't possible, just something to think about.

Alternate Tunneling buffs: Add "All own creatures with burrow ability enter play burrowed" so that it is both bypass and anti-cc. Note that "enter play" means "from hand", so that evolving graboids into shriekers are not autoburrowed. Serp mentioned possibly rather than autoburrow, giving it an active to burrow all creatures that have burrow, or a spammable (as in rustler) active to burrow target creature that has burrow.

[Shinki12345]

The last tunneling one would make a sweet weapon, especially if it entered play with the burrow ability too lol

[OdinVanguard]

I kinda like the last version of tunneling myself.
It would be very useful in conjunction with flooding since burrowed creatures could be placed into flood slots.

I would say that upped sinkhole probably doesn't need a big buff. Unupped sinkhole is a little weak since it is basically only good for a lobo at them moment.

An old idea I hade for a tunneling buff:
: Mine - Sacrifice a burrowed creature to destroy your opponent's shield.

Theme reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_(military)

[OdinVanguard]

Another idea for tunneling buff:
"An owned burrowable creature may avoid targetting by burrowing once per turn"

So for each tunneling you own, one creature you own that has burrow may evade being targetted by switching to burrowed mode.

Example:
I have 2 tunnelings and 3 unburrowed shriekers
my opponent casts shockwave on each one of them.
The first two switch to burrowed mode and escape unharmed.
The third dies.

Alternative would be to make this an active targeted ability if the blanket version is too strong:
"0: Target burrowable creature evades targetting this turn by burrowing"

Then you would have to activate tunneling on the creature you want to protect each turn.

In either case, tunneling is buffed and it becomes useful to have more than one in play at a time.

[timpa]

Another idea for tunneling buff:
"An owned burrowable creature may avoid targetting by burrowing once per turn"

So for each tunneling you own, one creature you own that has burrow may evade being targetted by switching to burrowed mode.

Example:
I have 2 tunnelings and 3 unburrowed shriekers
my opponent casts shockwave on each one of them.
The first two switch to burrowed mode and escape unharmed.
The third dies.

Alternative would be to make this an active targeted ability if the blanket version is too strong:
"0: Target burrowable creature evades targetting this turn by burrowing"

Then you would have to activate tunneling on the creature you want to protect each turn.

In either case, tunneling is buffed and it becomes useful to have more than one in play at a time.

So Tunneling = kind of SoFre for ?

[OdinVanguard]

Yep. A little more limited in some ways since burrowing is more limiting to have on creatures than flying, but in a way, its more powerful as a protective measure since the creatures becomes untargettable when burrowed.

[Zaranir]

 First: I suggest to reduce the cost of Tunneling by 2 in upped and unupped.

Reasoning:

1, Most of the time it's better to let your creatures unburrowed. Yes, it's like auto-win against Dim shield spam, but in general, you don't really want to play with a card what does something if the opponent has a shield, neither player has PC and it's worthy to halve your creature's attack to avoid the shield's effect.

2, There's not that much card to use with and it's not that effective with them. Graboid 1 dmg per turn for 3  , Antlion 2 dmg per turn for 3 and Shrieker 5 dmg per turn for 9  (or for 4  +  and 2 turn). And 2,5 card combos to sink your own creatures to evade shields.

3, You don't only pay 3|4, but 1 for every creature you want to be burrowed, so it's cost mostly 7-8 quanta to be effective.

Second: Upped Sinkhole should cost only 1 , but giving " : unburrow" as the unupped. Unburrowing from Sinkhole should cost 0, if cast on creature.

Reasoning: if the opponent has earth quanta, in most cases it's will be more than enough to unburrow the creature without causing mayor problems to the player, so there's no real difference between the unupped and the upped. The second sentence to give some additonal option to use on your creatures as well.

[serprex]

I prefer suggestions of having Tunneling give some sort of increased interaction to burrowed creatures over reducing cost. Also better creatures with burrow

[Zaranir]

I prefer suggestions of having Tunneling give some sort of increased interaction to burrowed creatures over reducing cost. Also better creatures with burrow

As I've seen, Graboid was nerfed intentionally and the Sinkhole buff is about something like that.

It could have an active ability like undermine or something, but I think the cost reduction still needed and the active effect will be compensated in the cost of using it.

[OdinVanguard]

I like the idea of allowing burrowed creatures to perform some kind of targeted effect upon unburrowing.
E.g. like attacking a chosen (probably non-flying) target or something.

[serprex]

Graboid was nerfed because it's OP

[timpa]

My 2 cents:

-Sinkhole is already an useful card as CC (lobo + attack halving that's hard to get around + losing airborne if you run wings with it). However it is stupid that the upped is the useless one.
-The one creature that has burrow and could use a buff is antlion. Odin's idea of attack on unburrow looks like a good starting point.
-Tunelling is only worth it if you must burrow your shriekers (the opponent has CC) and you need to get past a shield. This is so situational that it's not worth it to spend a slot in the deck for it. 2 ways of making tunelling more useful is to add some creatures that come in play burrowed with a decent attack (but can't unburrow), the other is to give more benefits to burrowed creatures, specially if we buff antlion together with it.

[OdinVanguard]

One nice and simple to implement option for tunneling buff:

" : Your creatures with the burrow skill enter play burrowed this turn."

This also side buffs flooding since players can play burrowable creatures into flooded slots because they will be protected from flooding while burrowed.
Similarly, SoPa is side buffed because the player will not need to wait a turn to burrow their creature. This is effectively giving a little needed speed boost since SoPa provides higher benefit to burrowed creatures.