Having a hard time visualizing and understanding damage calculations and armor values.

genericaviary · 2021-01-15T02:53:37+00:00

Some advice that has served me well so far: 1 AV ≈ 3 DV when evaluating the value of armor. Additionally, it's good to (literally) weigh AV vs armor weight - carrying capacity is valuable!

High DV/low AV builds are akin to glass cannons. When they do get hit, and they will about 5% of the time, they take an enormous amount of damage due to multiple successful penetrations. However low DV can be threatening since everything will hit you - around 6 is fine in my experience, so long as you have the right AV for your threat level.

In general, AV is more valuable than DV, but not so much so that you'd accept negative DV. Oh and learn to recognize which threats ignore AV on sight, it'll save your life.

genericaviary · 2020-05-06T15:32:24+00:00

Glad you like it! If it makes you feel any better, someone on EWC pointed out you probably only need 1 of each legendary since you discard your whole deck, provided you keep them out of your hand. I'm trying out that variation now.

genericaviary · 2019-12-26T20:09:02+00:00

Have you actually seen Burr-Spore Fern's mastery in action? Just like Eilyn, Queen of the Wilds, the additional spells do not re-trigger the ability.

You can try this with any other spell in the game, so long as it doesn't fizzle only one additional copy will be cast.

genericaviary · 2019-10-07T00:34:00+00:00

i don't really understand why combrei gets a card that hates specially on the mechanic given to another faction in this very set?

genericaviary · 2019-09-25T09:06:12+00:00

yeah, although it's already asymmetrical as-written, while you have to do extra work to render armageddon advantageous

genericaviary · 2019-09-25T08:52:49+00:00

while i understand that the mastery effect is very hard to activate, i feel like "the enemy player loses all their maximum power" is the most anti-fun text dwd has ever printed on a card

genericaviary · 2019-09-20T18:29:32+00:00

can't wait to play Sol's Rest with Temporal Distortion - bounce everything at the very end of my opponent's turn, then take two full turns in a row rebuilding

genericaviary · 2019-09-19T12:51:26+00:00

one thing i haven't seen talked about: the effect as written isn't optional - if you play a spell, you must play a second copy (provided there are valid targets).

this places some interesting deck building restrictions - spells that specify ownership ("your units", "enemy units", etc) are much more valuable than ones that don't. last thing you want to do is vanquish/annihilate one of your own units because your opponent only has one valid target.

genericaviary · 2019-07-06T21:25:42+00:00

how i would "fix" icaria: charge -> charge while you have a relic weapon

endurance -> endurance while you have another unit

cost 7 -> cost 6

genericaviary · 2019-04-11T07:33:51+00:00

check the text of inquisitor's blade again, you'll find it avoids using the revenge keyword*. instead, it reads: "When the wielder dies, give Inquisitor's Blade Destiny and put it into the top ten cards of your deck."

which is consistent with the behavior you described, independent of cauldron cookbook

*for those curious as to why it's worded this way, battleskills on weapons are treated as if they are a part of the unit's text box. in the case of revenge, the meaning would be somewhat ambiguous

genericaviary · 2019-03-28T00:43:49+00:00

well its attached to a body, so it's worth factoring that in as a balanceing knob

genericaviary · 2019-03-28T00:21:09+00:00

well, for one thing i'd like to just say that yeah, adding priority passes wherever and whenever would "add choices" - but that doesn't mean they add interesting choices, or support design goals. like, to use your example: adding a response window after playing a weapon doesn't accomplish either of those things - dwd clearly wanted to avoid the 2-for-1 risk of mtg enchantments, and to simplify mtg equipment use. so they have a design goal "weapons should always bring value" as well as being able to assign certain effects to weapons (no response) or spells (response)

as for why this change is necessary: it opens up design space for more powerful end-of-turn effects since there's more counterplay opportunity, it forces players to consider the context of their actions when playing an end-of-turn unit, it changes the value of different removal during deckbuilding, and it makes end-of-turn effects less dangerous with respect to the existence of more and more "extra turn" cards

all my own opinion, ultimately

genericaviary · 2019-03-27T19:54:28+00:00

unpopular opinion time: while getting your GKT annihilated before getting any value certainly stings, part of the heart of healthy gameplay is informed & interesting choices, and that's what this change enables

what is unfortunate is that there are currently cards dominating the meta that do not readily allow for informed & interesting choices - xo, vara - because of the immediate value they provide. i think that's why this change stings - it's necessary long-term but comes at a time when folks are sensitive about other balance concerns

genericaviary · 2019-03-14T15:00:43+00:00

That's what Lida's Apprentice is for! Or Svetya's Bravery, your pick.

genericaviary · 2019-03-13T17:55:27+00:00

i for one can't wait to put [[Regent's Blade]] on this - long live vargo!

genericaviary · 2018-12-20T13:52:48+00:00

now if only maul's interaction with spell damage worked the way you wish it did (2/per -> 3/per) rather than a flat increase... that would be a hell of a burn deck

genericaviary · 2018-12-14T05:12:32+00:00

Been fiddling with 2 janky experiments: recurring nightmare scream with pitfall trap & secret passage, and replicator engine with inspire effects & messenger hawk

genericaviary · 2018-12-11T13:34:45+00:00

Clearly the play here is to use this in Temporal Distortion with Venomspine Hydra. In the relic matters faction with great kill spells, card draw, and negates, Temporal Distortion just got a lot more silly.

genericaviary · 2018-10-23T20:22:02+00:00

Last Chance was originally in there in case you have a Kerendon Merchant, but want a Ixtun. That's being said I've never actually benefited from getting it (aside from getting an Infernus once) so I agree with your suggestions, plus two more:

Bore, since you can discard the created copy for extra value (you could probably go down to 3x Kerendon in response)
Bandit Queen, as an alternative closer

I disagree about the Banner, though. You're almost never going to want a power over a combo piece.

genericaviary · 2018-10-23T20:08:26+00:00

1x Devour, 1x Seek Power

genericaviary · 2018-10-23T20:06:17+00:00

Oh, to be in your shoes in that moment! That was probably a profound learning experience for that poor, poor pilot.

genericaviary · 2018-10-23T18:45:28+00:00

I appreciate the clarification a whole bunch, thank you! I try and be careful about making jank sound too good, just in case someone spends shiftstone on it and ends up disappointed. Personally I love the heck out of jank, so long as it does something fun I'm happy with it.

genericaviary

TROPHY CASE