Faction Concept: The Zhakaxor Cluster

[akurane]

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

[oranos]

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

[saltystabwound]

Platinum Angel + Abyssal Persecutor

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

[loliconartist]

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

[2munk4u]

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!

[oranos]

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

[emperorofparadox]

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

[2munk4u]

Shoot, you’re right

Changed it to Spacebend

[halcyon98]

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

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

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

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

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

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.

interspace is literally just anti-zeal. doesnt feel unique

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

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.

anomoly… too much damage potential for 1 mana

Then 2 mana it is.

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

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.

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

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

cerebellum-chirpuka? is that you?

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?

beacon- is it a structure?

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

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

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

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

Alright, I’ll make the changes.

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

Good idea!

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

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

is broodmother a structure? i just gotta ask

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.

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

Alright, I’ll increase the cost.

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

Makes sense. How does 2 health sound?

hyperparasite- grailmaster? is that you?

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

observer is too beefy to be ash mephyt 2.0

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

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

Alright then, I’ll make the change.

supernova = obliterate

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.

disrupter is bonkers. when it breaks summon beefier jax?

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

Alright. I was about to nerf its stats anyways.

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 it DOES kill your general for playing it and it says NOTHING about it becoming your general

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.

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.

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.

[halcyon98]

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.

Parasite isn’t a Tribe! It’s a keyword ability and the name of a token.

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)

Right. I’m thinking of ways to change it at the moment.

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’m probably not going to nerf its stats, but I will make it target one enemy at a time.

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’m thinking of nerfing the Planets’ abilities overall, but their stats are probably going to stay the same. Anthelion is the point in a celestial object’s orbit in which it is farthest from the Sun, so it makes sense for the Planets to have escalating stats and costs in order of their distance from the Sun.

I really do not like the design of the Old God, I believe it limits the design space of Vortex Hyperwarp cards too much

Working on a rework right now!

I think Parasite Universe should be a spell (You currently have 5 legendary minions, 1 spell, and 1 artifact)

It was originally going to be a spell, but I thought it would be better as a minion. I didn’t notice that the change will mess with the card type ratios, so maybe I should revert it back to a spell.

feel like Antimatter Railgun should just have the same effect as Mortar-Maw for simplicity

Good idea! I’ll probably go with this change.

[halcyon98]

That’s a cool idea, maybe I can find a way to incorporate into this faction. As for Interspace, I’m probably not going to delete it because too many cards are already built around it.

[halcyon98]

You sure? That would mean that Interspace minions won’t even be able to attack with their abilities.

[oranos]

So is it an unwritten rule that Grandmaster abilities should directly affect a General?

yes.

apart from variax, all of them include “general” in the text, and even then variax effect changes based on what general you play.

[akurane]

Regarding the parasite thing, I know parasite is not a minion type/it’s just a token, but I still feel like it’s hard to differentiate between the token and the keyword with some cards. This is just a personal opinion, but maybe change the token name to something like Bioleech or something similar?

[halcyon98]

I see what you mean. Alright, I’ll change the name. I’ll probably change the name for the keyword though, because I like the sound of Parasite tokens too much. Bioleech seems fine, I might as well use that. Thanks!

[emperorofparadox]

In fact , its hard to balance this mechanic because in game ure practicaly never nearby your general , except with zeal…

[halcyon98]

That’s the point; these minions would become powerless without their Interspace abilities. They’re meant to be on most of the time, with help from synergies with the faction tile.