Duelyst Forums

Faction Concept: The Zhakaxor Cluster

This kind of eternal roadblock has been around in design tinkering since Gate has been released.
A 4 mana 0/0 that can’t be affected by anything (including buffs and death) seems quite compelling, but I am sure it could be too good if you can lock yourself into a corner against a general that doesn’t use ranged damage.

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Space poet:
3 mana
Legendary
3/4
Cards that draw cards can only draw cards that draw cards when they draw cards. When a card that does not draw cards is drawn by a card that draws cards, draw a card.

~desu

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The second sentence makes no sense with the clause from the first one…

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It’s space poet, not space linguist you Baka
ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

~desu (◕‿<) *:・゚✧

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I can’t believe I forgot about the basic cards. :persevere:

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Huge update. I finished the Epic cards and relocated many of the card rarities to follow the template @akurane gave me. (Thanks! Many thanks to all of you who gave me inspiration as well.) I also made some new cards in the Rare and below category. These include:

  • 1 new Basic artifact.
  • 4 new Common spells.
  • 1 new Rare minion.
  • 3 new Rare spells.
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Finished the legendary minions in the Core set. Time to work on Shim’Zar!

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remember to make at least 1 stupidly overpowered card for each expansion and flip a coin to see if it gets nerfed.

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Of course. :wink:

critique time

pathfinder is a little too similar to OG abyssal crawler, just +1 mana with flying

satelite oprrant is basically a healing mystic with its og replaced with aerial rift

with those tiles is there even a point to having airdrop on anything in this faction?

interspace is literally just anti-zeal. doesnt feel unique

penumbra… feels like you could change its effect to dying wish and change nothing

anomoly… too much damage potential for 1 mana

infection needs to swap lines 1 and 2 so its clear that it checks for parasites before giving them one

wormhole is way too strong for 1 mana. especially since it doesnt say “until the end of your turn”

oddity is good. feels a bit too much like sanctify though

cerebellum-chirpuka? is that you?

beacon- is it a structure?

bloodsucker feels very unfair. its an immediate effect that wins games for 4 mana and has basically no counter. parasite should not be paired with “when taking damage” or similar things

juggernaut- +2/2 is way to big a buff for a 3 drop. its too swingy.bring it up to a 3/3 and cut the buff to +1/1

origin feels fine

malfunction feels wrong. but i guess its ok.

gravity sphere feels too powerful. it should target a specific parasite instead of doing it around all of them.

oort cloud feels fine

astrographer would be more interesting if it only got the buff while standing on the tile

is broodmother a structure? i just gotta ask

engineer looks cool. its also a win condition on par with jax razorback but could safely be bumped up to 7 mana

link needs to be nerfed. 3 health per attack is too strong especially for 1 mana

hive seems alright

virus is a cool card.

hyperparasite- grailmaster? is that you?

observer is too beefy to be ash mephyt 2.0

rift could be 3 mana and feel fine since its basically choking tendrils+essence sculpt

supernova = obliterate

enigma feels ok… maybe

disrupter is bonkers. when it breaks summon beefier jax?

lightworm feels like a sentinel trying its hardest not to look like a sentinel

quasar is too strong. drop the transform down to 1 since its literally replacing random enemy minions with detrimental minions. its better than even simply destroying random minions since the parasite minions are so harmful to the owner.

alpha is OP. potentially summoning 8 8/8s is broken. the staircase effect is nice but instead of increasing stats just keep the effects interesting and maybe throw in some detrimental effects

grandmaster just doesnt feel AWESOME enough. and it doesnt affect the enemy general in a unique way. its basically an aoe infest with limits

universe is a good payoff card. could do with a smidgen less stats, but its fine.

old god is just unfair. even doom has some ways to comeback or avoid it after played. literally writing “you cannot lose” is just toxic. although :thonk: it DOES kill your general for playing it and it says NOTHING about it becoming your general :thonk:

railgun- you might at well make it simpler and write +2 attack ranged celerity celerity cause thats what i read. maybe specify that it has to be 3 different targets, cause otherwise thats just 12 free face damage for 1 cqrd on 7 mana.

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At first: Great job!!!
Like the idea and the approach! Probably I’ll do smth myself now.
Also I think the a lot needs to be nerfed as it is kind of strong (bbs teleporting enemy minions plus give all your minions a limited airdrop while removing tiles and can’t be cornered… ouch) but I think it’s hard to balance a project of that size proper.
So dude I love the idea.

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Going a little bit off of what @oranos said (mainly focusing on legendaries, will probably edit or comment later for the rest of the core set):

  • I think you should either change the name of either the minion type Parasite or the keyword Parasite, as it can be hard to differentiate between the two with some of your cards.
  • I feel like your Grandmaster should focus more around either your general or the enemy general with its effect. Whie you do this somewhat to an extent, I think the effect on the general should be more direct (aka revolves directly around a general without requiring minions like Parasites on the board)
  • Parasite Quasar should have less stats (5/5?) and only target one enemy minion, since it can essentially act as a continuous removal if unanswered AND already has an immediate impact on the board if the opponent has a minion.
  • I would really consider streamlining the stats of the Planet tokens. While I like the scale in cost and stats, I think it would be much better if all the planets had the same stats but their ability involved a number that scaled with the planet (ex: all the tokens could be 3/3s but maybe each planet summons a certain # of parasites on random tiles when they die).
  • I really do not like the design of the Old God, I believe it limits the design space of Vortex Hyperwarp cards too much
  • I think Parasite Universe should be a spell (You currently have 5 legendary minions, 1 spell, and 1 artifact)
  • I feel like Antimatter Railgun should just have the same effect as Mortar-Maw for simplicity
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old god really is terrible design. i mean what if both players get one on the board. itll just go on until someone gets bored and quits

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Platinum Angel + Abyssal Persecutor

Call for judge, get stuck staring at opponent for all eternity.

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Path to exile.
Done.
Or in dooly terms
just use dispel damnit

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Yay a faction concept!

Great work pal, it is alot of work to put something like this together! Great effort!

I really like the conspet of an acient alien race, with lovecraftian shapes and hybrid organical/ mechanical beings. My initial idea of the last concept i made was something similar, so i realy liked to see a concept like this!

I realy liked the parasite keyword, and the thought of giving your opponent minions with negative effects is something i have wanted to see.

Vortex Hyperwarp is also a mechanic i realy liked, the idea of moving a minion from anywhere to a certian place is appealing to me.

Interspace I feel is somewhat lacklusting. To me it is not unique enough to be a keyword, and also realy simple to pull off? So i have a suggestion,
Interspace/: Whenever this minion moves away from your general activate an effect.
OR Spacebend: Whenever a minion moves next to this minion, activate an effect.

Card example:
arcane slinger (rare)
3 mana - 4/1
Interspace: Gain ranged until end of turn

Acient behemoth (Epic)
8 Mana - 8/10
Spacebend: If it is an enemy minion, attack that minion.

I have not looked enought into each card as a set and will give more feedback when i have looked it over.

Amazing job! Appreciate the time you did to make this!

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gravity well is already a card so while the effect is good, the name needs a change

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WOw, great job! but to me the “interspace” mechanic must be " whenever not nearby anything" to be balanced ^^

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Shoot, you’re right :sweat_smile:

Changed it to Spacebend

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Was OG Crawler too similar to this one? Either way, I think its fine. Crawler is something else now.

Pretty much? I don’t know how that is significant, as the same can be said about many other 2 drops with Opening Gambits.

I felt like the faction needed another method to proc Interspace other than the Hyperwarp tiles. For instance, not all Parasite decks should run the tile, but they’ll still need the Interspace minions.

Really? It may not the most interesting thing mechanically, but I think it fits the faction well. I wanted to illustrate the distance between objects in space, and establish a theme where the General and the minion retain a mental link even if they’re physically apart.

Penumbra original had 4 health, but it was nerfed to 2 mana. I think 3 health would be a reasonable adjustment. It isn’t too high but it’ll still survive a General attack.

Then 2 mana it is.

I took note of the wording of Inkling Surge when making this card, so I think the wording is fine. I’ll try to make it clearer though.

My mistake! It should only take effect for a turn.

I was already working on a change for Cerebellum to feel a little more interesting. Maybe it should summon Parasite tokens nearby the enemy minion?

Yes, it is. I’ll make sure to clarify.

I agree. Should I increase its cost to 5 mana?

Alright, I’ll make the changes.

Good idea!

I already thought about that, but I kind of gave the “stay on a Hyperwarp tile” mechanic to Engineer.

Nope! Although it cannot attack, it still can move fine. All minions with Parasite has 0 mana, as it would be awkward to allow the opponent manually remove Parasites via suicide.

Alright, I’ll increase the cost.

Makes sense. How does 2 health sound?

I am very open to possible changes to Hyperparasite at the moment. I will most likely rework it sooner or later.

It actually can summon more copies than Ash Mephyt. I’ll nerf the stats.

Alright then, I’ll make the change.

I experimented with many different effects with Supernova, but this one seemed the best yet. If the similarity to Obliterate seems too awkward, I’ll start looking for alternatives.

I’m not sure if it will be broken just yet. Although the Autolasers are powerful, they are extremely delayed.

I was actually trying to go for a Keshrai Fanblade vibe.

I’ll most likely nerf it to transforming one enemy minion at a time.

You’re right, Neptune really is too strong. I’m trying out ways to change it so that it gives detrimental effects to both generals.

So is it an unwritten rule that Grandmaster abilities should directly affect a General? Fair enough, I’ll rework this one. I did think the original effect was pretty cool though.

Alright. I was about to nerf its stats anyways.

It doesn’t have to become a General, because it prevents the player from losing. But I do agree that Old God is bad design, and is thinking of ways to make to make it fairer.

It’s different from Celerity, as Celerity also affects movement. As for the attack targets, it cannot target the same enemy twice. I’ll clarify that.