Io Void Leviathan

**huynguyenquang** · 05-22-2013, 07:00 PM

His ability is very interesting, shame to waste such a card.
However, I am concerned about his casting cost. Is the ability that good, so that it can justify a 2/4 for 5cc? In my opinion, no. He's 4cc at max.
Remember: you have to use at least 2SE and supporting cards to buff him to 4/6. Thats alot of card disadvantage. If you dont use supporting cards, you have to spend 3-4SE to buff him once, and that's it. And remember, once you have buffed him, if he is crippled, returned, or removed, you pretty much gonna lose because now you have card disadvantage and tempo disadvantage as well. Compared to FT, who has a decent stat and gives you card advantage should he be played at the right time, Io is not competitive at all.

Also, at 5cc he has to compete with many other good allie, such as FT or SK, or even DW or some 5cc class ally. Since I think he's worth 4cc at best, and the 4cc ally group does not have many competitive choices, why not make him 4cc? At 4cc, you can drop him on t4, and buff him with your ability. At 5cc, no shadow hero has 5SE ability, so you have to hold off until t5, and that is bad for tempo.
I can see him played in some decks where they don't have 4cc draw engines, or for Mages deck with many ways to buff him should he come out early.

**sh1va** · 05-23-2013, 02:43 PM

I"d say this ally is tailored for elementalis, when hero without ally removal is in trouble - problem is, that almost everyone has anything to deal with him (surprisingly mages are the worst class to get rid of buffed Leviathan, but even they can use Consuming fear).
Anyway if opponent is not able to get rid of Leviathan, elementalis would probably win anyway.. for other classes he is more or less useless.

I tried to build a couple of decks around him, decks with Aldmor Conduit

, Shadow font etc, looked nice on the paper, but the winrate was not good at all..
he is certainly underplayed compared to Furrion and old 5cc Shadows and it obiously has a reason

**Unruler** · 05-23-2013, 04:12 PM

I would rather pump Firesnake...

**huynguyenquang** · 05-23-2013, 04:51 PM

@sh1va: I still dont know if you agree with my proposal to buff Io to 4cc or not. There's a reason he's not seeing played, even in Elementalis

decks. I always see Elementalis

go with low cc allies. The highest cc I've seen in Elementalis

deck is 4cc: Wulven Tracker

and Wulven Savage

.

@Unruler: if only there was a way we could buff Firesnake lol.

**Unruler** · 05-23-2013, 04:57 PM

Originally Posted by huynguyenquang

@sh1va: I still dont know if you agree with my proposal to buff Io to 4cc or not. There's a reason he's not seeing played, even in Elementalis

decks. I always see Elementalis

go with low cc allies. The highest cc I've seen in Elementalis

deck is 4cc: Wulven Tracker

and Wulven Savage

.

@Unruler: if only there was a way we could buff Firesnake lol.

We can buff him but he's co powerful, that there's no point in it.

**huynguyenquang** · 05-23-2013, 05:28 PM

Originally Posted by Unruler

We can buff him but he's co powerful, that there's no point in it.

What I mean was that he's been released on physical already, so Wulven won't reprint, at least for now.
Anyway, this thread is about Io, not Firesnake lol. Forum admin should ban Firesnake discussion in any thread lol.

**Unruler** · 05-23-2013, 05:38 PM

Originally Posted by huynguyenquang

What I mean was that he's been released on physical already, so Wulven won't reprint, at least for now.
Anyway, this thread is about Io, not Firesnake lol. Forum admin should ban Firesnake discussion in any thread lol.

Should just ban me, would be easier xD

**Warr Byrd** · 05-23-2013, 05:54 PM

Originally Posted by huynguyenquang

What I mean was that he's been released on physical already, so Wulven won't reprint, at least for now.
Anyway, this thread is about Io, not Firesnake lol. Forum admin should ban Firesnake discussion in any thread lol.

Originally Posted by Demnchi

No, Fire Snake

would just unban them and eventually ban me. Not worth it.

To the discussion at hand, I think Io Void would be to powerful as a 4cc. At that price, he would be boosted by the first use of most SE abilities, and then he'd be too powerful for some decks to deal with. Not to mention that mages can boost his attack with Voltar's Ring

, and Elementals can block Crippling Blow

, Captured Prey

, and similar attachments with Super Focus

.

**huynguyenquang** · 05-24-2013, 05:22 AM

Well he can always be Returned, disabled, Mind Controled or Jasmin-kissed.
Super Focus

always creates a beast, be it a Garg, a Death Collector

, or a Io, you have to usethe same tools when going up against him. You dont have anything to deal with Elementalis

+Super Foucs, you are done. At 5cc, Elementalis

, and other heroes too, would rather use DC in any situation: DC can come out early, and for 3cc+2cc, you can create a more horrible beast.

If you look at the new 4cc ally in DP, Disciple of Aldmor

, I think that she is just as powerful as the 5cc Io Void: she is unable to grow, but much more durable; currently it is very hard to use Io Void because you cant hold off your hero ability until he comes out and without a buff he will die easily so you lose tempo either way; but Disciple of Aldmor

has the potential to delay the use of your opponent's ability and his tempo; even if Io Void is able to grow, he still might not be able to survive 1 turn (turn 5 can see a lot of action) while Disciple of Aldmor

will survive her first turn 4 most of the time.

In the current meta, if you make a 5cc ally, you should make a fat beast, or something as versatile as FT. The way I see it, Io Void is very situational, is unable to turn the tide of the game, and hence he belongs amongst the 4cc tier. You think his stat of 2/5 is too much for 4cc with that ability, fine, nerf his stat. But I believe how much a card should cost is mainly based on the role it is gonna play, not its body. Most 5cc Shadow allies currently in play are used for their ability a lot, not their body.