Anyone else wanting to do some playtesting on these changes before the tourney?
Go on then, @FrozenStorm I’ll try monoRed vs anything u like
I suspect we’ll have time for at least a pair of games before the tourney so if you don’t mind going first, go ahead and start a thread 
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I really want to see someone running Present/Peace/Truth - combining a Sentry with two Debilitator Alphas could be epic, especially if you cast Silence…
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You know i just remembered a rule I’d like to see tested too, one that Sirlin talked about. A hero dying no longer gives two levels, but instead 2 gold.
How would Zane’s added effect work in that case? Still 3 gold?
Might not even be necessary
Maybe? I don’t know how useful instant Zane trade -> Pillage/Taxman would be.
When you say it like that, the current Zane change seems like a buff, no?
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Only if you’re going for very specific early tech choices, and it does stop Zane being used as a throwaway so often in the first two turns, unless you do turn 1 pirate into turn 2 Zane suicide -> 2nd hero -> Pillage, worker, tech up. Actually, that seems pretty doable, hmm. Either way, it’s yet another hasted option to make patrolling against Zane/Red even more stressful than it already is.
How is that more haste?
It’s more viable haste, since sudden suicide Zane doesn’t have as large a drawback.
Sudden Suicide Zane sounds like an action figure lol
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This sounds omegahard.
You’d need to summon Zane, trade Zane, Summon Jaina/Drakk, then cast Pirate+Pillage or Charge+Taxman.
Such play would occupy pretty much entire turn.
Unless you’ve left an alive Taxman from previous turn. But do we want to hose decks that can’t answer P1T3 Taxman by denying them an ability to play around Taxman’s trigger by spending all the gold?
Hilarious Tax Collector shenanigans notwithstanding.
Idk, I like how it gives levels. It creates a soft comeback mechanism that lets you use heroes as chump blockers (Sirlin hates when I call heroes “chump blockers” haha) without any sort of drawback against an overwhelming board with one/two max level heroes at hero count cap.
This does come up occasionally against certain heroes that like to levelup early i.e. Rook, Vandy, Oni, Cala, Arg, Sets, etc.
I don’t think it’s that hard to set up. You can play the pirate on the turn before, and Bombaster is not the worst turn 1 play.
Let’s also appreciate that Taxman is a Pirate, so Zane suicide -> Pillage -> Taxman attack lets you steal all the bounty gold. You effectively spend a card to do 2 damage (Zane) + 2 base damage (Pillage), assuming you’d attack with the Taxman anyway for no gold steal.
As you say, for the early non-Pirate version that’s all you’d be able to do that turn 2. With Pillage + Taxman, you only end up down a card and the gold you spend on the second hero. Not over-powered, but it could still be a nice early swing.
And no, we probably don’t want to hose decks that can’t answer early Taxman. That’s the sort of patrol decision stress I was considering. Making all hero deaths give 2 gold instead of levels actually makes this better for Red, because they can do it with any hero and can more easily steal the whole bounty.
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Don’t forget to consider the change in other situations… like where you don’t have gold-stealing capabilities lined up
Most obvious is that 3g>2 levels if the levels aren’t needed immediately (however if they would make an immediate difference this still be a buff (unless you were planning to make e.g. Garth’s maxband whiff))
Also this stops the ability to use Zane as a suicide 2g-> 2dmg whenever they have no heroes to gain levels as they will still get the gold - disadvantage here
I’d say if you manage to steal all the gold back, congrats, and if u get some of it off them then it about evens out
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On gold > hero levels, and specifically how it affects red/Anarchy’s gold-stealing?
I think it’s largely not a huge change, I don’t think Pillage is a huge problem with it, I agree that it would lightly buff Red (sometimes Zane suicide giving levels means a heal and a negation of Zane’s damage, and that’s important), but I’m happy with how we’ve changed Zane to 3g on death, just for this tourney. I’m not really interested in changing the whole tourney to “all heroes give 2g instead of 2 levels”
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