inb4 Valerie players try to convince you they can get 5 aces with this.
More seriously, this is pretty interesting… I could see this being useful as a handicap of sorts when playing against a relatively inexperienced player.
rip Oni tho
Edit: Actually, maybe it would work better as a handicap if it limited the combo points of the one with the life lead instead. Now I’m thinking of splitting this into 2 cards:
Training Grounds:
The player with the life lead is treated as having 1 fewer combo points. If this would cause a player to have no combo points, their attacks and Throws instead deal half damage (rounded up).
(something related to Valerie idk):
Each player gets 2 additional combo points.
Im not sure if there’s an elegant way to make the second one not leave Oni out, though.
IMO Oni would just get “a” combo point. Valerie players, especially less experienced ones, suffer from having the right cards in hand in the first place.
In essence, all Oni’s combo-able combat reveals would act as linkers.
Literally all of Onimaru’s attacks and throws are labeled as Can’t Combo, so that’s not a good option. You’d either be making a special case that specifies Onimaru (which looks really bad) or changing everyone’s Can’t Combo moves (which might be OK, but it makes the card more about that than about the extra combo points).
Obviously not printing these out yet! Maybe in the distant future… (As if.)
You’re right, for the sake of simplicity it’s probably best to just not worry about whether a character won’t be affected by a card unless it’s trivial to fix. Instead, we should acknowledge that this is the case and decide whether that makes it no longer worth having that card (for example, my first attempt at Hard Times Mill wasn’t worth having because it needs to make everyone feel the pressure).
Nice! Though that picture made it sound like it wasn’t going to be a joke about difficult inputs. Maybe if the wall had the dragon punch input sequence engraved into it?
Maybe there could be a subliminal message about the inputs… Like shackles at different heights corresponding to the directions, with someone punching the wall at the end?
HP starts at 0 and damage counts upwards. (Healing moves reduce damage.) Once the opponent is at their maximum health, you must successfully hit them with a special or super move to finish them off. (Hitting with a special or super that raises the opponent’s damage to max, or hitting with such in a combo that brings their damage to max, does not finish off your opponent.)
EDIT: New version to accommodate and
HP starts at 0, and damage counts upwards. (Healing moves reduce damage.) Once the opponent is at their maximum health, you must hit them with an Ender or Can’t Combo move that deals more than 1 damage to finish them off. (Hitting with an Ender or Can’t Combo move that raises the opponent’s damage to max, or hitting with an Ender in a combo that brings their damage to max, does not finish off your opponent.)
This one I’m not that fond of for a few reasons. First, like I said in a previous post, making a special case on a card that refers to a specific character should be avoided (these should be as simple as possible, and it looks like a bandaid if a specific character needs an exception). Second, while it’s not a formal rule, I’d like to avoid having cards that give other characters lesser versions of another character’s innate. I’ll admit I broke that a bit with my own Fox’s Den School, but I’m thinking I might scrap that one and make a new one… Finally, it feels a bit redundant with EricF’s map card, since they both deal with the top card of the deck and both have a Blood Guard theme.
Thoughts on Dreadlands Swamp
This one, on the other hand, has some promise… I think it would work better with a Persephone theme instead, since it reminds me of her ability Do As Told. It does overlap a bit with my version of Hard Times Mill and also any map that does damage each turn (like my Snowy Mountains, though I’m planning to redo that and make it Murkwood themed instead). With that in mind, do you have any ideas on how to differentiate it from them? It’s fine if you can’t, but I’d like to keep the number of cards that deal with the same things to a minimum.
Glad you liked it, although I have now realized that and would have no way to land a finishing move onto an opponent who continually blodged. (I believe they are the only characters with this problem, as all others either have special/super throws or can combo off of a throw into a special/super attack.)
I’m not sure if there is an elegant solution to this problem.
Thanks for the feedback, @Hobusu. I was putting out some ideas. I too agree that Blood Guard Boot Camp was a bit lazy.
A Fox’s Den alternative
Dodges are only discarded when played if they are beaten by a throw.
Spring of Power
Whenever a player would power-up for Aces they retrieve one more Ace than normal.
You can only power-up if you would normally be able to do so.
Here’s an elegant solution: Change the definition of a launching move to be a move that does more than a certain amount of damage (Maybe 15? Needs testing). This can include the damage from pumping a move, which means that Lum and Oni could launch their opponents with fully-pumped throws (but only if their opponent doesn’t blue burst it), but separate moves in a combo don’t add together for launching. Maybe only the last move in a combo counts? You probably wouldn’t follow up with more damage if you’re comboing into a launching move anyway, so that seems reasonable.
Edit: This could be just as bad for some characters, now that I think about it… For example, if it’s a threshold of 15 damage, Grave can no longer throw into launch (max is 14 from K+). Still, maybe this is a step in the right direction? Part of why I suggested it is that I thought Clockwork Soldiers and Mistress’s Command shouldn’t be launching moves…
The damage solution is pretty good, though it’s more granular and technical than I would like from a purely aesthetic perspective. Perhaps we could just say, “special or super move, or any Can’t Combo move”?
On a side note, I totally get where you are coming from re: Mistress’s Command and Clockwork Soldiers, but personally, I kind of like the silliness of it. It reminds me of how Mr. Saturn can break shields even though he normally deals little damage.
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