Community Designs 2

      Welcome to part 2 where we look at the designs for Muna, Ordis and Ymzir. I’m going to use the same criteria as I did in part 1 and the usual disclaimer that I’m not an expert game designer applies. 

     Okay so this design by [CVN] Komah is quite an interesting one. Zauni and her dinosaur pal don’t look especially Muna like but the abilities I can see in Muna. A bit more Muna tailored clothing and a more serene pose and I think she could pass the Muna entrance exam.

     As to the ability, here we have something that is allowing us to retain a card over multiple turns. To do this you can send one of your characters asleep and gain two boosts. It’s a bit reminiscent of Waru and Mack in some ways, but the creature gets stronger next turn. What you’re looking at are places where you are losing and be able to reuse that card on the next turn with a boost. Now I’d have said two boost was too much if I hadn’t spotted that Zauni only have a reserve allowance of 1, meaning that if you don’t save your characters in this way they’ll likely be discarded. I think that this is an interesting design and around on power but would need to be tested.

     The ability is not unique, but its quite an interesting spin on Waru that uses the asleep ability to save static effects rather than losing characters. 

     The second Muna design by Exalts Ilad also uses the asleep keyword, but this time at noon instead of at dusk. The character with a giant spider could be Muna, though the clothing may need to look more like that seen in Altered.

     The token it creates also only has 2/0/0 for stats which is worth about 2/3 mana. However, you only get this in non-forest expeditions. Considering that out of the 8 regions only three of them don’t contain the forest biome, you’ll only get Omu a maximum of 3 times over the game and you won’t get to just her the turn she’s created either. I rate this one as pretty weak to be honest and think it would need a bit of a boost to be playable.

     As before, I don’t think this design is especially unique.

     Another design by [CVN] Komah for Ordis. This one looks more like an Ordis bureaucrat than a soldier and Melloz reminds me a bit of Blofeld’s cat in James Bond. Dealing with spells in not really an area that Ordis really excels at. They do get some card draw so I’d say this has some flavour connection, but it looks more of a Ymzir design to me.

     Giving your spells fleeting is not the biggest issue in the world. Many of the common versions of spells already have fleeting, so this drawback will only target a very few cards in your deck. Wanting to play lots of spells in an Ordis deck is unusual though. The spell trigger to let you pay 1 to draw a card though I think is undercosted and it should cost 2 rather than one. Drawing an extra card every turn in a spell heavy deck is a snowballing thing and I think it may be a bit strong at 1 mana.

     Is the ability unique? Not really, but it’s a very interesting choice for an Ordis ability.

     Solnis is another design by [CVN] Komah and its probably my favourite one. The picture of a young mage lady with a crystal ball and a dragon is pretty fitting. The abilities all relate to spells which really fits Ymzir, so I give this one a big tick for flavour.

     The power level of this allows you to cast a spell for 3 mana or less for free at dusk by spending three counters. The counters are gained by casting spells that remove your opponent’s characters, so you are encouraged to play a removal heavy deck by playing Solnis. I think that 3 counters may be too few for a free spell after all the turns have ended (a super After You effect). I’d be tempted to say 4 or 5 might be more balanced, but I don’t think its too far off and it would need serious testing.

      The ability to play a free spell at dusk is quite interesting and unique, but needs serious testing. 

     Kredle, a design by Isilua is a mage with glowing eyes and a shadowy dragon (very much like Arfanas’ friend Senka). It very much looks like a Ymzir character, and the ability relates to spells which is Ymzir. Playing with the reserve not so much, but we’ll give that a pass for now.

     So, the first part of the ability gives you a free half card draw (worth 1 mana a turn) to put a card from your deck into reserve. That is already on a par with other heroes. The ability to duplicate another spell though for free by discarding 3 cards from your reserve is gravy on top. Plus, the fact that Ymzir doesn’t really use its permanent slots, means that the unbalancing of reserve and permanent allowance is another positive not costed into the card’s ability. This is therefore an overpowered hero.

     In terms of uniqueness, the ability to duplicate a spell is pretty cool and unique, I think I’d just like to see a different way of activating it.

      Samual with his spooky shadowy pal Sable is a design by rarecuisine is probably my favourite I’ve seen so far. The serious looking wizard and spooky shadow are definitely Ymzir and the ability involves drawing cards which is also Ymzir.

     This is probably the hardest one for me to judge power wise. In a vacuum drawing 3 extra cards is worth 6 mana over the course of the game, but the initial boost you get is pretty good. Your first character you play each turn is fleeting for the first 4 turns (effectively losing you 4 half draws) which means the net effect is around 2 mana positive. If anything, I think the card is a little weak but it would need some serious testing as the extra cards would allow for far more combo potential.

     The extra cards at game start are a very interesting idea and probably the most unique idea I’ve seen so far even though it’s so simple.

     The last design of Suraya and Jema is by Eazy. The elf looking mage and the icy dragon are definitely close to Ymzir vibes. The abilities relating to preventing moving and reducing spell costs are also Ymzir, so the design ticks the flavour box.

     Power level though is absolutely through the roof here though. Locking out one biome every turn for your opponent (and you can do this late on in the turn) is a broken ability that can stop your opponent moving on that biome on both sides. Sakarabru’s ability to block an expedition is worth 3 mana for one side. Now you do have to spend 3 mana to block an opponent, but this as a repeatable effect is going to be back breaking for your opponent, especially if they are on a single biome space. You can stop them ever moving that expedition again. Then you are also getting a discount for your spells being played from reserve on top of that. This is way overpowered in my view.

     Both the effects are Ymzir abilities that could be the basis of a hero. The reduction of costs from reserve might be a nice ability for a hero on its own. A build up counter ability to block a biome on its own might work also but would need testing. However, the card as it currently is written is way too strong.