The Creature Summon Feature Dilemma
lykos
Posts: 19 ✭
So recentl--light gray is too light, so I'll type this up in notepad++.
So recently, they changed the game up to where you no longer draw creature spells you already have copies of. This is something I thought I wanted. I really did, but during the testing phase of it some weeks ago, I realized it kinda broke things.
I noticed that even more over the last few days with certain spells. And least we forget, there are the passive summons like the summon 2 2/2 zombies for 15 gear when you pick up a health globe. We should address that here.
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Zoom out. What's the basics to creatures?
DPS, HP, Power, Toughness, abilities, and in some cases, timed duration.
As I understand it, the P/T of a creature act as multipliers to their DPS/HP.
A 100 dps / 1000 hp creature, which is a 4/2, would have 400 dps/2000 hp. Pretty simple.
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Back on main topic. What's the big problem with not drawing a creature you have on the field?
Well 3 examples from a Simic G/U player here
- Thought Cadence
- Saproling Swarm
- Wolf Pack
Thought Cadence is a cool idea. For 30 seconds, whenever you cast a spell of a different type than the last spell you cast, draw a spell.
Well what happens when all your creatures are out? All you got left now are sorceries and enchantments. This greatly diminishes the effectiveness of this spell. The spell is pretty much a wiff at this point. You're too strong at this difficulty to lose anything but too week to move up to where stuff would actually die.
Saproling Swarm and Wolf Pack. These are summon X spells based upon how much you spend. Well great. Now most of them died after summoned and that one Lt Dan is hanging on. You ain't summoning any more wolves for a while unless you kick the spell from your library and add it back. You've lost a bunch of DPS and loadout potential by not being able to summon the creatures back.
Idea! Draw those creatures anyways, and buff your corresponding alive creatures.
How would this work? It's simple, For any excess summoned, add P/T to that many creatures to them.
Scenario: You have 2 2/2 wolves remaining on the battlefield. You summon 5 more. Only 3 appear though in this case. The last living two (or maybe 2 of the 3 summoned), gain 2/2 each either A, definitely, or B, for a duration of time. That's the trick for the devs to figure out.
Originally, the old summon lasted for a short while while the new summoned remained. That was to keep the battlefield a bit cleaner I imagine. Should this new effect act as a permanent multiplier buff, or to make you not hyper strong, be lost over a short time? Also, should the already alive creatures get the P/T buff? What if they're about to die, eh? Mayber it should go to the new summons. Great quesitons, Bob.
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What about the passive summons? I have some arm gear that summons 2 2/2 zombies for 15 seconds if pick up HP globes. Those are great. My head gear buffs all my sub 3 power creatures with 2/1 if pick up HP globes too, which is great for passive buff chest item that gives me lesser mana regen / 1 sec for each creature if I cast my secondary. It's a magical combo. Sorry for the ramble.
But yeah, I got so many spells 4+ with my rare artifact that I can summon wads and wads of battlefield filling zombies. I've seen other screen shots. Some of you are hording the battlefield with endless summons. It's insane. What about this idea?
Idea: Rather that endless body counts, you simply buff (like above). Give those 2 2/2s 2/2 more, making them 2 4/4s. Yeah, this is breaking hearts and loadouts. I get it. Or maybe, it caps out at a much lower count than inifinity. Adjust all the gear and such to only summon so many. maybe for this particular arm guantlets, it can summon up to 4 2/2s, then you simply buff the living.
Back to how long the P/T buff lasts. What if it's simply a stack? Crazy idea, but imagine it like Amass. Make it permenant. Then when it comes to you Sackdos players, you simply remove the appropriate P/T stack off your creatures. Oh yeah, that 15 second duration. Maybe it should, I dunno, overlap.
Effectively, for temp summons, the P/T and duration overlap, making those two seem like they're living longer, but the are slowly losing P/T stacks and duration. And when it comes to sacrifing them or dying (if they count as dying), you simpy remove what would have been sacked anyways
Example time
pick up hp globee
summon 2 2/2 zombies for 15
pick up hp globe
add a 2/2 stack per zombie and add a 15 second timer stack
(effectively, at this point, those two dudes are gonna live up to 30 seconds, and they are 4/4s for up to 15 seconds until sacrified, or a duration stack expires)
Obviously, enemies killing them will not be the same, They cannot simply attack off a P/T stack, But what if they get debuffed by a -x/-x spell? Is that gonna be a problem, or can you cod wizards figure that out?
An additional idea may be to add P/T stack and DPS/HP stack. Then if a summon is dealt enough HP damage, a P/T counter is removed. That might solve some sacrifice problems.
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Don't pass this up, devs! This is some prime feedback I hope.
Comments
Good Idea, I hope they listen.
Oh my, yea, i hope they listen to their tester
Granted that I am max levelled, but my 4 creature decks would be ridiculously good under the old rules. The rules are fine as is.
There is a max already. My UR deck would create "infinite" goblins if there wasn't some sort of max. There is - it's 10.
For those interested, it's goblin offensive + fuming onslaught (with attire of the dark wanderer, of course). Just press down the correct button, and hold it down. Each goblin cost 1/4 red mana, but you regen mana as fast as you use it. You can do this for as long as fuming onslaught stays on the board. You quickly get to 10 dorks, but keep holding down the button, as you will then automatically replace any dorks that die.
If you want power, use UB.
If you want fun, use UR.
If you want a decks that 1-buttons easily, use UG
If you want big dorks, use UW (cast zealous charge over and over again. Amulet of deception gives you lots of dorks)
I'm mostly a UG player right now since that's where the mana rush and draw is for me right now. Living on the verge of level 3 difficulty in solo since I cannot group with others yet. I just feel like they had some sort of potential under the old draw rule, and now all the spells that benefited from it are broke. like I get it if If my creatures would die easier and I just summon them back, but that's now how every deck should be played unless we just wanna roll sacrifice decks. One of my setups do that, but I don't always wanna play it.