A Collection of Card Draw Ideas

[Seth]

As an unfinished set, there is a noticeable lack of draw options for some classes in Shadow Era. Especially moving to 40 cards, each hero class is most definitely going to need at least one additional option with which to draw cards (some probably need 2). This is a sort of brainstormed list of unique and fun ways to accomplish this in each class:

Hunters

Flesh Seeker
5
Hero Weapon (Hunter)
Att: 2 / Dur: 3
Whenever Flesh Seeker kills an ally, you draw a card.

---OR---

Resourceful Tactics
3
Hunter Item
Ongoing: Whenever a trap you control is activated, draw a card.


Mages

Sudden Inspiration
4
Mage Ability
Draw 3 cards.

(Ducky's note: If you respond to this post, please post nothing saying anything like "Majiya would be broken with this card!" With a 40 card deck, the mages who are not named Majiya need more options than just Research. If Majiya has too much draw, let that be dealt with separately. I thank you for not polluting the thread with this debate.)

Priests

Devoted Disciple
3
Priest Ally
1/4
2: Draw a card.


Elementals

Wisp
2
Elemental Ally
1/2
When Wisp is killed, draw a card.


Warriors

Blade of Insight
5
Att: 1 / Dur: 4
2SE, Sacrifice Blade of Insight: Draw 2 cards.

Wulven

Printed on any of the new Wulven cards: "When this card is sacrificed for a resource, draw a card."

[danae]

How about a neutral one that doesn't benefit your opponent's card draw:

Neutral?

Team Player
4
Neutral Ability
For each ally selected, draw one card. The allies selected are exhausted.

[rumsey]

I was just having this discussion in IRC, we need more draw engines for the various classes.

The problem is, Priests, Mages, and Warriors already have their draw engines working fine (Wizent's, Research, and Blood Frenzy).
Hunter draw engines are supposed to come from their armors, but they are not too great in the majority of circumstances (and are too great in the other minority).
Rogues have some, but they aren't out yet so its too early to pass judgment on them.

That leaves Wulven and Elementals without proper engines. Your Elementals suggestion seems too weak (similar to how Bella is not a proper draw engine for all Shadow heroes), and your Wulven suggestion seems far too powerful, having 8-12 cards that give you both a resource and a free card draw at the same time.

I also think draw engines like Bazaar, Bad Santa, and Bella make poor (reliable) draw engines (but not poor cards), and that the (reliable) draw engines should all be Class specific (so you're on the right trail, here).

[Pretty Pretty Princess]

These are some cool ideas NinjaDucky
I like how the Elemental one fits within their theme and the Warrior one plays better in late-game.
The Mage one should cost 5 for two reasons: first, it's powerful enough, and second it would balance better in late-game. As a cost 4 I could see people omitting Research entirely. It would be more interesting if you had to use both. The Priest one could serve to be more expensive as well, though it's power would need to be increased in order to compensate. The Hunter one…well… they've got enough bows as it is. What they really need is a cheap form of card draw that's more reliable than Surprise Attack. Hunters/Wulven are getting a revamped Wrath of the Forest (which is actually pretty spiffy) but a better non-conditional draw option would be nice for them. I like the Wulven idea, so of the two I'd say only the Hunter one needs some work.

And Danae, my initial reaction was that yours was too powerful. But, it actually has a nice element of risk. It would be interesting to play with.

[Seth]

@Rumsey - I provided one for all the classes because while you're right about where the state of draw engines are today, when the incoming 40-card minimum hits, you will need more than 4x of a draw engine in order to consistently draw it early enough to make a difference. Also, the Wulven suggestion was meant to only be printed on one card, so you could only have 4x not 8-12 of them. That would most DEFINITELY be overpowered. How might we change the Elemental suggestion to be better? I think a creature that dies and provides cards is very properly themed for Elementals.

@PPP - Why thank you! I cost the mage one at 4 because these were designed with the idea of the 40-card minimum. In 1.25, you're totally right, mages would just omit Research and play only that card. But in a 40-card deck, you won't be able to do that because you still won't have the guarenteed level of consistency. Mages will have to play both cards at that point, and will have to decide how their decks balance out the proportions of them. It's possible the card would need to be bumped to 5 if playtesting showed it was too strong, but I suspect that 4 is the right cost for it (too expensive to play too early, cheap enough that in the late game you can play it AND afford to cast a card you draw; this is very much how Research works as well). What would you suggest for the Hunters besides bows? I couldn't come up with anything besides traps, and trying to keep an actually useful card-drawing trap at 3-cost (so it's a mind game for Death Trap) is difficult. (My best solution to this was that trap I already posted, which is good, but not a draw engine).

[Pretty Pretty Princess]

What would you suggest for the Hunters besides bows? I couldn't come up with anything besides traps, and trying to keep an actually useful card-drawing trap at 3-cost (so it's a mind game for Death Trap) is difficult. (My best solution to this was that trap I already posted, which is good, but not a draw engine).

I get your reasoning on the mage card now, thanks for clarifying.

It would be interesting if Hunters could draw cards either when they kill something, or when one of their allies is killed. I dunno, seem too powerful?

Refined Technique
cost 4
Every time you destroy an enemy ally, draw a card

Wrath of the Forest
cost 4 (amended to the 1.26 version)
Every time a friendly ally is destroyed, draw a card

It would give hunters a choice, and provide momentum for purist weapon builds.
The other option is:

Refined Technique
Cost 3
Every time one of your traps is activated, draw a card

[danae]

I get your reasoning on the mage card now, thanks for clarifying.

It would be interesting if Hunters could draw cards either when they kill something, or when one of their allies is killed. I dunno, seem too powerful?

Equipping Wrath of the Forest (v1.26) and NinjaDucky's Flesh Seeker would do just that.

[Seth]

Yeah, I wanted to trigger on enemy allies' deaths rather than friendly because I firmly believe people should not be forced into playing with more allies than they want to. Refined Technique (kill allies version) is really good and I like it, but it would have to have some sort of limit on how many times it would work unless every hero has access to item destruction, I think.

However, I will say I REALLY like the trap version. Combined with adding another trap or two to the game, and that gives rise to a VERY good trap-based Hunter archetype that could vary from what we've seen up 'til now. I'm adding it to the OP.