mmm, that seems a little too complex and low damage. I would suggest starting with something like the following, and adding complexity/adjusting damage as needed from playtest
My version of Cal
HP: 90
4 cp
X.6 speed attacks and throws. Throws are 2 cp, 7 damage, KD
Murkwood Allies - After combat, if you hit with any Face Cards, (Aces aren’t Faces) attach those cards to Cal as Allies. You may use your Ally cards to pump your attacks. Whenever you are Thrown, discard one of your Allies.
Behind The Ferns (2 ability) - Draw Phase: discard one of your Allies to deal 5 damage.
Jack - Summon Allies: Attach the cards used to pump either side of this attack to Cal as additional Allies
Frogs - 2cp Linker; 1+1 damage, +1 any. Speed 2.0
Beast - Can’t Combo; 6+1 damage, +4 any. Speed 4.0
Yeah, I felt like it was too complex (and I suspected the damage output was too low), so this seems a lot better. What spread of normal attacks, throws, blocks and dodges would you suggest?
Seems good at a glance. Though that raises the question of what the stats of the command throw are? Unless I’m missing something, that’s all that needs to be defined to have a version we can test.
OK, that was what I was thinking too. One thing I’d like to clarity is whether Allies used to pump a Summon Allies attack will be reattached to Calamandra? I’m guessing yes, but it’s one of those things (like Firehouse) that looks like a misprint when you first read it. “It can’t really work that way… Right?” Sure, they only do meaningful damage if you pump Beast of Murkwood, but being able to add free damage is never bad!
Edit: Also, can cards still be attached to Calamandra (either from Murkwood Allies or Summon Allies) if the opponent uses a Rewind Time Joker? That seems ambiguous right now.
My intent was for the cards to get re-attached after pumping (so, kind of like a more limited Giant Growth effect), and that everything would attach regardless of Rewind Time (since you still hit with things, even if the damage is prevented).
She probably needs an ability on one of her Normals to search for her Face cards. Maybe something like:
Power-up Phase: Discard this card and a Pair from your hand to search your Deck for up to 2 Face cards and add them to your hand.
Sounds good! I guess that keeps her from being too weak, since you only get so many opportunities to get Allies per game.
Oh, what Midori would give to have this ability… If you think it’s fine for her to have a fourth ability, let’s go for it! Maybe this gets the name Ferocity?
I haven’t been in a position to test her yet, but I’d like to! The only thing that I think is still in the air is which rank gets the retrieve a face card ability, and that’s not an essential part of the character, so feel free to test her out with some friends if you want. Sometime next week I might compile all the details of how she works and format it nicely, just for ease of use.
This Calamandra design looks interesting, but I’m slightly worried about this part! I haven’t actually tested it, but getting a damage boost + access to virtual Aces sounds slightly too good to me. (I could easily be wrong, though!) I think that Gigadon could actually cost more than four Aces, given the Allies clause. Like… six, or so? Not sure if the damage/speed would change with that. Would that be too wild?
And the Behind The Ferns ability seems flavorful (ye allies are hanging out in the forest after helping ye & occasionally dash out & strike), but I don’t think ye just want it to be, “Discard an attached Ally and this card to deal 5 damage to the opponent.” Lum’s 7 has to hit an Ace to get 7 damage & another card, Poker Flourishes require a bit more setup (Though four-of-a-kind-ing with Aces seems somewhat reliable to do about once per game, the damage could actually be dealt to Lum himself), Persephone’s counters can be used as a fireball of sorts against an unaware Geiger, but that requires dealing damage with a 3.0 speed attack, and Gloria can trade ten life of hers for ten life of the opponent - but that doesn’t do much unless she’s pretty far ahead. It seems weird how reliable & easily accessible the damage from Behind the Ferns could be while costing not that much (One normal attack/dodge in a lategame-ish situation & a card that may have already dealt damage?).
It’s probably best to test out this version before changing anything, though, to see what the most solid pieces are!
You gave up some damage on the front end to get things attached (relative to what other characters face cards can do or enable), and then you’re giving up a little bit of damage on the back end (compared to using them as a pump/ace) to get gauranteed damage.
Also, the first pass is aimed high in power level, because that’s the easiest way to find out how fun something is. The un-fun parts can be toned down or scrapped later.
Yeah, I suspected it was like that. Even without thinking through the whole process of getting and using Allies, it’s obvious that Behind the Ferns is inefficient compared to Gigadon (only one Ally does damage per BtF compared to up to three Allies being used as pseudo-Aces, and 5 damage per Ally seems small when the damage to card ratio for Gigadon is 10:1).
That said, is there something to the claim that Gigadon might be too good? Obviously it shouldn’t be nerfed until it’s been tested, but comparing it to True Power of Storms is weird… 40 for four “Aces” (only one of which has to be an Ace) vs 45 for three Aces (all of which have to be real Aces). In theory, if you get enough Allies attached, you can play Gigadon four turns in a row without powering up to get any Aces back from the previous Gigadons. Overkill, of course, since none of the characters have 160 HP, but it does indicate that it might end up being too reliable for that level of power. Still, only time (and testing) will tell for sure!
Anyway, did you have a particular rank in mind for the ability that would let you search for face cards?
Oooh, yeah, that makes sense! I prefer shooting for too powerful during this phase! If she seems broken that can be fixed later on! Better to shoot for powerful now than to try to make her powerful later!
Sounds good for now. Here’s what I’ve compiled from previous posts:
Version 0.4 (or something)
Calamandra Moss
Tiger Magus
HP: 90
Max Combo: 4
Normal attack speed: x.6 (x = card rank)
Normal throw speed: x.6 (2 cp, KD)
Normal throw damage: 7
Attacks: 2*, 3, 4, 5, 8, J*, Q, K, A
Throws: 4, 7, 8, 9, T, K
Blocks: 5, 6*, 7, 9
Dodges: 2*, 3, 6*, T
Abilities
Murkwood Allies
If you won combat and hit with any face cards, attach those cards to Calamandra as Allies. You may use your Allies instead of cards from your hand as pump cards. Whenever you are Thrown, discard one of your Allies.
2 - Behind the Ferns [Draw Phase]
Discard one of your attached Allies to deal 5 damage to the opponent.
6 - Ferocity [Power-up Phase]
If you would retrieve any Aces this turn, you may search your deck for a face card instead of one of those Aces. (You can only retrieve a single face card per turn this way. You cannot retrieve face cards from your discard pile.)
J - Summon Allies [During Combat]
If either side of this card hit, you may attach any cards used to pump this to Calamandra as additional Allies.
AAAA - Gigadon [Combat Reveal]
You may discard Allies instead of Aces to pay for this attack’s Ace cost.
Attacks
Jack Frogs of Murkwood - Speed 2.0; 2cp Linker; 1+1 damage (+1 any) Beast of Murkwood - Speed 4.0; Can’t Combo; 6+1 damage (+4 any)
Ooh, I forgot about the bot section of the rulebook… I’m not sure what changes you’d have to make for a Calamandra bot, so at least for now it would probably be best to use Cala against a bot. I might even try that tonight myself!
I haven’t been able to pry myself away from Zelda try out Calamandra yet, but I do have a couple things I’d like @EricF to clarify:
First, when I was compiling everything together, I noticed that you listed Stalking Tiger as pumpable with a Queen. At the time I assumed that you meant for it to be pumpable with King (since most characters pump a rank of face cards with more of the same rank). Did you actually mean for K to be pumpable with Q? And if so, what was the reasoning?
Second, while this might turn out to be fine after testing, I’ve noticed that Cala has fewer Blocks than I expected (right now she’s more similar to Jaina with a spread of 4 ranks of blocks and 4 ranks of dodges, compared to Grave’s 6 and 3, respectively). Again, was there a reason for this? I think she should have more blocks for flavor reasons if nothing else, since a high number of Dodges feels similar to having haste in Codex.
Innate
I’m a boulder:
All Ardra’s blocks take no chip damage and reflect the damage back to the attacker
(this does return to hand after blocking, Max 10 damage reflect)
2*-10 block/throw
2 - if this blocks a normal attack the reflected damage is x3. In addition when blocking normals there is no max reflect. Discard this card after use and don’t draw a card for blocking
J,K throw speed 1.0 damage 12 can’t combo
this grabs normals speed 5.0 and faster
Q throw speed 0.0 damage 12 can’t combo
this grabs face cards 2.0 speed and faster
A/AAA
A side:
block
if the opponent plays a block heal 3 life. If this blocks an ace attack there is no max reflect.
-bot, but I will practice some stuffs this week!