Howard vs. Ardam: Heaven or Hell

This might sound stupid, but I don't really want our little 3 Howard to completely overshadow the 9 Abrasis Mindlef. Just because nobody's mentioned any mana restriction for a while (and some posts look as if this was deliberate).

Nacho Wrote:Thought I deleted that part... anyway, my problem is that no mater what the cost, a 3 mana monster shouldn't be able to give you infinite card advantage like that, bringing back a monster a turn. Actually, why not drop the cost to 3+mana without dragabo and copy mindleaf, 25% life and all?

It's not as if a 3 mana monster being able to give you "infinite card advantage" via a specific synergy would somehow be unprecedented or completely overbroken.

masamunemaniac Wrote:This might sound stupid, but I don't really want our little 3 Howard to completely overshadow the 9 Abrasis Mindlef. Just because nobody's mentioned any mana restriction for a while (and some posts look as if this was deliberate).

I didn't mention any mana restrictions and I don't really want any. Two reasons: One - he's limited to heroes, which means no eternals; two - he's paying full mana cost anyways, so the bigger the creature you're trying to get, the better off you'd be just using Life.

Also, in case this wasn't clear, I'd rather not his ability be usable only with Dragobo in play. It's fine if it's cheaper with Draggy out, but I don't want him to be required.

masamunemaniac Wrote:Restricting by total mana cost is the only option for Life-type abilities. Scope can't be restricted to just hero types or colour or anything else. Just total mana cost.

How about a mana cap of 10 mana?

Is resurrecting I-Karn at 15 or Victor at 18 19 really that overpowered?

No, not really, though it doesn't seem very flavourful for Howard to bring back something that huge and it might get a little ridiculous when Columns and Eternals get added into the mix. Though I honestly don't really care if there is a cap or not.

Eternals aren't heroes, and Life is quite a bit better anyways if your deck is aimed at resurrecting Eternals (surprise value, lower mana cost, and easier to protect).

Nacho Wrote:

masamunemaniac Wrote:Restricting by total mana cost is the only option for Life-type abilities. Scope can't be restricted to just hero types or colour or anything else. Just total mana cost.

This means that if he can revive monsters then he can revive any monster. Hero or not.

Oh, right. I definately did not completely miss that.

Still, I don't think reviving eternals is that big of a deal.

The cost cap is more or less reliant on whether you want the cost for Howard's ability to be a flat amount like 8, or scaling to the life'd creature's cost (like 3+cost).

My take:
If Howard's ability is given a flat cost, then it should definitely have a low-medium cap for it as well, and 25% life+token is also fine. After all, lower-level revival spells in RPGs usually only restore allies with partial life anyway.

If Howard's ability is cost-scaled and generally worse than Life, then neither a cost cap or tokenization is necessary, in comparison to Life.

I prefer, of course, cost-scaled.

I'm going to say I support scaled cost as well. Usually we run into problems/abuses with fixed cost (thus why we had to cap Abrasis). It just seems easier to work with if the cost is scaling.

Scaled cost is fine for me, too.

Scaled cost works for me.

Scaled

I guess I'm ok if it's scaled.

Changing it to a reuseable scaled life was considered a "pretty radical change". He gave the suggestion of:

webrunner Wrote:[22:17:34] <webrunner> i dunno. maybe add target-based switch to it? like, if target isn't damaged ___

Which as an ability translates to something like:
" If target is damaged, heal it, otherwise it gains ten attack" or something.

Not that I'm suggesting we go for that ability, it's just an example. We can change the concept without changing it entirely.

So there you go.

I like that idea actually, but I'd prefer if it were "arrow: if target is damaged, heal it, otherwise it gains ten life", otherwise it would be getting too close to Chook Xao's ability. And since Chook Xao costs 2 more than Howard, I think its ability should be a bit better.

I like that, actually. Heal or gain 10 life.

If the ability is going to be free, +5 life if the target isn't damaged.

It's still only a 3 cost monster after all.