what do you guys think of this as a one-per-deck

[The Dude]

I just printed this as a homemade today for the first time so I haven't playtested it yet, but I'm curious what people think of this.


"For each Hit on (Hero)'s Permanent Record & Current Battle: draw 1 card, keep duplicates. Or For each card in Opponent's Completed Missions Pile: draw 1 card, discard duplicates."

Right now I made it for a Cyborg (in my ongoing effort to fix heroes from Marvel 1 and DC 1) Clearly it would not be a card for an X-Babies or even Deadpool (with his 30 points to KO opd). I think its self-balancing but I wouldn't mind feedback.

[BigBadHarve]

I like it. Though I would break it up into two cards. Both options are highly usable, and it's not necessary to combine them into a 'super-card.'  Plus, that way you can give two cards to characters that need a boost.

-BBH

[Bios]

In my opinion, the first effect is not so good. It is probably useless in the first battle and most of times it will allow you to draw only 1 or 2 cards, unless you are playing with a card like Vertigo and shifting attacks to Cyborg.
I think it would be much more usable if used against a target opponent, allowing to draw according to the hits in the target opponent. You could terrify a opponent with a Marauders deck!
The Marvels set had something similar to Deadpool, but instead of drawing it makes the opponent discard.

[Karmanal of Zert]

Interesting idea that I look forward to hearing your play-test results of. Trying them as separate cards is probably smart, but I think you should also try it in its original form. Sometimes with home-made OPD ideas they seem a lot stronger than they are until you actually use them, but that usually winds up as a good thing because then you know you have a balanced card idea. Would you mind if I used this thread to pose similar questions about my own home-made OPDs? My friend and I have a couple interesting ones for Darth Bane I'd like to get everyone's reaction to, think we can consolidate threads?

[The Dude]

See I was looking for an alternative for the Draw 4, keep duplicates effect. Because when I build homemades I try to stick to the spirit of fleer/marvel and if they picked an effect that went only to one hero in each skill, I don't add to that as a rule. With the Draw 4 every skill (and even multis) were used as a trigger in their design already. I and already finished off the Draw 5's that Vision/Madrox had in seperate skills as well (For those curious they went to Doc Ock (E), Dr. Horrible (I) and the Wonder Twins (M)).

So originally I was thinking just the first effect of drawing and keeping duplicates for each hit as that has the potential to match a Draw 4 (obviously only late in the game) and without a trigger card you net more cards, but then I realized that chances were much better than half that many times the card would be useless if there was no hits on the hero who had it. (And since I would only give it to heroes who need massive help, the easy strategy would be to ignore that hero and not attack them--certainly Cyborg as he stands now is no real threat and could easily be ignored until this special went away or they game ended by Venture). So then I decided on the second effect but clearly that would have to discard duplicates since you could concievably get 5 or 6 cards with it (although since it is based on a foe's completed missions if you are drawing that many you probably need all the help you can get). So Finally I went with the mixed effect because maximum flexibility is the secret to playability. (I mean isn't that why negates and ccs are so useful ?, or even why many people prefer battlesites to any heroes). I don't think splitting them works because that first effect can't really stand on its own, but mixed it makes a nice choice if things aren't going your way: do you go with less cards but keep duplicates (based on hits) or more cards when you draw but lose duplicates (based on mission cards)? And even with the flexibility if it comes up early its not much of a card but at least the odds are more likely to get you at least 1 card.

[The Dude]

Oh and Mr. Zert I don't know what the heck a Darth Bane is (a Batman villain using the force?) but its a free country feel free to post away

[The Dude]

okay here's two more. The question is should they be one per deck ?

Card 1 - "Choose 1 Any Hero card from Draw Pile and place in hand. Cannot be a duplicate. Reshuffle Draw Pile."

The idea is to create a counter-point for Morlocks : Caliban that works with Any Heroes instead of Activators. However, since Any Heroes tend to all be OPDs including potential game changers in DOW, Power Leech and to a lesser extent Web Head Wizard or Savage Land; should it be OPD even though Caliban is not ?

Card 2 - "[Hero] may cause any two Frontline heroes on the same team to switch 2 placed cards of the same card type. Both heroes must have a card placed."

In this case I'm looking at Invisible Woman's Marvels card which prevents an oppoenent from "moving" her team's cards; an effect which does not exist as the game stands and so we can infer something like this may have planned for Absolute Evil. While in many cases the effects of this card (especially on your own team) would be negligible, if two Specials are switched you now have two heroes stuck with unusable cards placed to them thus preventing the opponent from placing Specials for them for the rest of the game (plus they could duplicate and cause discards of those Specials from hand for remainder of game as well). While that is clearly a powerful effect, there is an obvious solution open to every hero in the game: use Marvel Manhatten homebase and discard the offending placed cards in two turns. (as well as negating and the aforementioned Invisible Woman special being able to prevent this effect from landing).

thoughts?

[BigBadHarve]

okay here's two more. The question is should they be one per deck ?

Card 1 - "Choose 1 Any Hero card from Draw Pile and place in hand. Cannot be a duplicate. Reshuffle Draw Pile."

The idea is to create a counter-point for Morlocks : Caliban that works with Any Heroes instead of Activators. However, since Any Heroes tend to all be OPDs including potential game changers in DOW, Power Leech and to a lesser extent Web Head Wizard or Savage Land; should it be OPD even though Caliban is not ?

Card 2 - "[Hero] may cause any two Frontline heroes on the same team to switch 2 placed cards of the same card type. Both heroes must have a card placed."

In this case I'm looking at Invisible Woman's Marvels card which prevents an oppoenent from "moving" her team's cards; an effect which does not exist as the game stands and so we can infer something like this may have planned for Absolute Evil. While in many cases the effects of this card (especially on your own team) would be negligible, if two Specials are switched you now have two heroes stuck with unusable cards placed to them thus preventing the opponent from placing Specials for them for the rest of the game (plus they could duplicate and cause discards of those Specials from hand for remainder of game as well). While that is clearly a powerful effect, there is an obvious solution open to every hero in the game: use Marvel Manhatten homebase and discard the offending placed cards in two turns. (as well as negating and the aforementioned Invisible Woman special being able to prevent this effect from landing).

thoughts?

I quite like them both.

#1 - I think keeping it as a non-OPD is acceptable. Using Caliban to call up a powerful activator (say Dazzler for Absorb sound) can be a potentially round winning move. Why not have the same option for Any Heroes? You could say Call up 1 Any Hero and play immediately - though that would have to be an OPD.

#2 - That can be a very evil tactic to switch placed cards like that, and you're 100% right about the effects, not only does it make them unusable, but it also means any duplicates of those cards will get pitched and lock down placed card spots. A great way of really screwing with a defense deck. (Hmm, let's have Spawn and Invisible Woman trade their teammate avoids and completely kill my opponent's defense.)  I like it very much. And most certainly a One Per Deck. (Just make sure it goes to a deserving character.) 

-BBH

[Karmanal of Zert]

Yes I quite like both new ideas as well. I'm on the fence about whether the first ought to be an OPD; the point that you made that all Any-Heroes are OPDs (and good ones at that) is significant. Then again, if you can only have one in your deck and you draw it after all your Any-Heroes it's worthless, though that's actually a problem that has the potential to increase the more you have in your deck. I honestly think it could work either way.

The second one I agree with BBH should be an OPD. It has the potential to be used in a lot of different ways and to a lot of different ends. And in the example BBH mentioned let us not forget that your opponent in that situation could only draw a maximum of 6 cards per Battle for the remainder of the game (assuming no one is playing with Pym Particles), even more drastically crippling them than simply rendering their Avoids unusable. It has the potential to be one of the strongest cards in the game under certain circumstances. Please keep us updated as to how they are play-testing.

Darth Bane is a Star Wars character from thousands of years before Luke Skywalker. He killed all the known Jedi warriors of his age along with every single one of his own Sith allies with a Thought Bomb. He is considered the Sith's "Chosen One", having forced the Sith to start over as Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader) forced the Jedi.

One of the OPD's is actually:

Thought Bomb - Acts as a level 8 Intellect attack. If successful, Target Character and Darth Bane's Frontline Teammate of choice are immediately KO'd

I already explained the story behind the Thought Bomb, so this is basically an attack that becomes an Event card, though you of course still get the 8 points for the Venture that battle which is why it's not neutral like the similar Event. At first it was going to be opponent of choice that got KO'd, but then it would be too easy to attack weaker people and then KO the strongest, and it just makes more sense that person receiving the Intellect attack would be the one tricked into the Thought Bomb trap.

And the other:

Orbalisk Armor - All hits on Darth Bane's Permanent Record have their numeric value cut in half (round down) and become Any-Power card hits for remainder of game.

This card has play-tested really nicely. It's better than unlimited Cumulative or 4-type Spectrum without getting too ridiculous. Hits on the Current Battle are as is, so it's still possible to Spectrum KO Darth Bane the old-fashioned way, it just has to be all in one battle. Once you get a number of hits on him, say 20 on the Permanent Record that counts as 10, it's really easy to get 10 points on him in the Current Battle and finish him off since the hits don't get cut in half or turned to Any-Power until the Battle is over. I worried that this card was going to be too powerful (full disclosure - I wasn't the one using it), but it wound up being just we wanted - it's better than unlimited Cumulative or 4-type Spectrum without getting too ridiculous.

I'll be posting the pics for these soon, I have them I just need to get them online! Your thoughts, gentlemen?

[Karmanal of Zert]

So not-a-one of you gentlemen (or ladies, just in case) have any thoughts on either of those OPD ideas? 

[Onslaught]

okay here's two more. The question is should they be one per deck ?

They should be zero per deck.

[drdeath25]

Kermanuel,

On #2 what happens when you cut the venture total in half, if its an odd number?

[Karmanal of Zert]

That's really all you have to say, Onslaught? Seems a bit rude. You could at least share your opinion as to why. By the way, you never answered my questions about your home-mades in the pertinent thread.

@Dr. Death
The hits only become Any-Power hits and have their numerical value cut in half after being moved to the Permanent Record, therefore all hits make their contribution to the Venture total before being altered. This card basically has no effect on the Venture total whatsoever, just like it's unlimited-Cumulative and 4-type-Spectrum counterparts.

[drdeath25]

Kermanel,

In that case, I love that card. I might start playing with it in my home game sometime soon.

[Onslaught]

That's really all you have to say, Onslaught? Seems a bit rude. You could at least share your opinion as to why. By the way, you never answered my questions about your home-mades in the pertinent thread.

For the first card, even if it was one per deck you are looking at a >50% chance of having access to DoW in the first two turns. 'Nuff said.
(H (n) = C (X, n) * C (Y - X, Z - n) / C (Y, Z))  where X= 2 Y=56 Z=16.2 N=0

I worked for a card game company for years on multiple different games, and one of the most important aspects of design besides making sure a card is balanced is making sure that it is FUN. To certain degrees you need cards that are higher on the power scale, cards that are less interactive than others, and so on. The second card is bad not only from a power level standpoint (2 for 1 that generates virtual card advantage of +2 for the rest of the game), but also from an interactivity standpoint. It's not fun for the other player, at all. Taking away a fundamental aspect of gameplay (and the most important strategic part of the game) is ridiculous, boring, and too powerful.