A Question about the Gameplay Mechanics

[ThorFolklore]

Hi, people,

I'm new here and I was wondering: Imagine this scenario - I play a Erika Shadowhunter. Then I cast a Warrior's Training on her. Would that result in a total lockdown of the field in terms of creatures? See, if she can't be attacked, then wouldn't making her a Protector make your other allies and hero invulnerable?

I tried putting 2 Aeons on the field together and the opponent could still attack each of them but not the hero. Which is good or Aeons would be terribly broken. Anyway, I just moved here from Yu-gi-oh! and was wondering whether some of the more similar gameplay mechanics were the same. This question should probably have already been asked and addressed, so sorry if I'm repeating old stuff.

[Calmdown]

First one - correct.

Second one - yep, by the letter of the rules you should be unattackable,

[ThorFolklore]

Alright, I see. So, shouldn't they nerf this Erika + WT combo? Right now, IMHO, there are many imba cards out there. Apart from the high resource cost, shouldn't players be required to pay a little bit extra cost (like discarding a card or skipping your next draw or even paying some hero HP) before being allowed to cast cards like Transference and Mind Control? Ignore the Sandra Trueblade argument for now.

I'm not sure about MtG, but in Yu-gi-oh!, every card effect has a cost to activate and if they're still deemed to powerful, the number of copies of them that you can have in your deck gets limited.

As it is, I've learned the hard way to defend against Transference and MC. Against Elementals, I tend to leave just 1 lousy card in my hand whenever I can and it's worked wonders - so many times today the opponent stole my Puwens or Blakes. Meanwhile, for MC, I usually have a Crippling Blow ready if I'm going to play an Aeon. Are there better defences (although I admit, playing such intense mind games is FUN!)?

[AnAdolt]

Just to clarify on the Erika + Warrior Training combo, creatures can still use their abilities, like Plasma Behemoth, to take Erika out.

As for Transference an Mind Control, currently, they're changed on the test server. You can try it out and participate on the discussions of whether a change should be made or not.

There's also currently a bug with Aeon and once an Elemental plays it, either through Transference or Mind Control, after it dies, you're unable to engage in combat for the duration of the game. So against them, it's best to sacrifice Aeon; cause chances are your opponent will abuse the bug; knowingly or not.

[Calmdown]

Alright, I see. So, shouldn't they nerf this Erika + WT combo? Right now, IMHO, there are many imba cards out there. Apart from the high resource cost, shouldn't players be required to pay a little bit extra cost (like discarding a card or skipping your next draw or even paying some hero HP) before being allowed to cast cards like Transference and Mind Control? Ignore the Sandra Trueblade argument for now.

I'm not sure about MtG, but in Yu-gi-oh!, every card effect has a cost to activate and if they're still deemed to powerful, the number of copies of them that you can have in your deck gets limited.

As it is, I've learned the hard way to defend against Transference and MC. Against Elementals, I tend to leave just 1 lousy card in my hand whenever I can and it's worked wonders - so many times today the opponent stole my Puwens or Blakes. Meanwhile, for MC, I usually have a Crippling Blow ready if I'm going to play an Aeon. Are there better defences (although I admit, playing such intense mind games is FUN!)?

Erika is super easy to take out, which is why she rarely sees play.

[ThorFolklore]

Just to clarify on the Erika + Warrior Training combo, creatures can still use their abilities, like Plasma Behemoth, to take Erika out.

As for Transference an Mind Control, currently, they're changed on the test server. You can try it out and participate on the discussions of whether a change should be made or not.

There's also currently a bug with Aeon and once an Elemental plays it, either through Transference or Mind Control, after it dies, you're unable to engage in combat for the duration of the game. So against them, it's best to sacrifice Aeon; cause chances are your opponent will abuse the bug; knowingly or not.

Yep, I can handle Erika easily. I notice most of the decks that beat me don't have Erika in them whereas most of those that I beat do, lol. However, just ignore creature and hero abilities for a while. In fact, ignore everything. If a player is stuck in a situation, e.g.: P1 - Erika + WT and many allies. P2 - Hero with a passive abilitiy and no creatures with special abilities.

Wouldn't the above scenario mean invulnerability for P1? It would at the very least be temporary invulnerability until P2 finds a way to counter, yes?

This is another part of Erika that I'm unsure of. If she can't be attacked physically, but attacks an enemy, can they counterattack or is she also a Dirk Saber when attacking others as well? I'm curious about her because she seems somewhat popular amongst newbs (I don't run any myself - currently building up a Jasmine-Raven platoon)...

[Calmdown]

She can be hit back, yep, she just cant be 'targeted' for an attack.

[ThorFolklore]

Great, thanks!

[AnAdolt]

Yeah, there's been discussion about the Wulven class being particularly vulnerable to Erika + Warrior Training. It's seemingly balanced by the lack of usage for that combo at the time being though.

[ThorFolklore]

How are Wulvens vulnerable to it? Haven't thought of it myself yet.

BTW, there seems to be a bug with the AI, specifically, Gravebone. I just confirmed my suspicions by completely manipulating the flow of the match in a few separate games. Every time an ally dies, Gravebone would use his ability and bring that ally back. So, I waited till his shadow counter was very high (8-10) and then started killing his creatures. The very next turn, he would use his ability to bring back that ally (Belladonna). I kept on killing her alone, and he kept on using it until he had no counters left on him. In another match, I confirmed that the AI doesn't choose the better of allies that gets revived. I killed Darkbone, he revived him, rinse and repeat, then I decided to change targets and kill Keldor, which resulted in him being brought back to life instead. Rinse and repeat again. If the AI was meant to choose the better ally (based on situation) to bring back, it wouldn't have let me kill them in my order of preference or revive them right after. This made it extremely easy for me to dodge him reviving Darkbone by only killing Keldor and the rest of his allies.

I wonder if anyone else has noticed this habit? It is just me or is this a tad glitchy?