Duelyst Forums

The Curious Case of Windstorm Obelysk

#1

Would you like a Jelly Baby? No, I don’t suppose you would.Alas, poor Obelysk.

wouldyoulikeajellybaby.png1270×790 658 KB

(Doctor Who is property of the BBC. This paraphrase and image qualify as fair use of public broadcast as an act of parody from Season 15, Episode 3b "Image of the Fendhal Part 2")

Can we think of a card with a design more awkward than Windstorm Obelysk? Mogwai perhaps, but even he threatens draw acceleration that pinches the opponent into answering him before he does more than cantrip- and his goofy “remove me” flag, tends to slow the opponent enough, for their desire to deny you cards. Serpenti? Well, he has a meme going for him. Orb Weaver and Fountain of Youth?.. Woe are we silly Vetruvians, who would beg for “trash” from other factions like Lasting Judgment, Sundrop Elixir and Consuming Rebirth.

At the heart of it, our curious friend- Windstorm Obelysk suffers from simply playing no real role. Dervish minions have tissue paper bodies (being 2/2s), and get virtually no benefit from the additional point of health (especially this Obelysk's own dervishes, who disappear at the of the player's turn.) So I constantly ask myself wondering... "Why?"

With the advent of Shim’Zar, we get to look forward to using a Vetruvian spin on the beloved Dioltas- Allomancer; who upon meeting it’s demise will be replaced by a random Obelysk… But I find myself confused when considering it’s playability- as Windstorm and Ethereal are both essentially the same roll (the low roll.) Which begged the question once more… “Why?”

So, here comes the awful suggestion portion of these rants. My suggestion is simply that Vetruvian gets another keyword “Sealed”. Why isn’t the Dunecaster effect more of a thing we pour our mana and cards into?

SEALED: A sealed Wind Dervish no longer disappears at the end of turn. (If Sealed is dispelled, the minion will disappear as usual.)

Windstorm Obelysk 3Mana
Structure
Summon Dervish
Wind Dervishes come into play Sealed

Why? It fundamentally changes the angle, and increases the variety of ways to play Dervishes. While Obelysks are still vulnerable, this one is encouraged to be protected for a tidal advantage of excess material building up (something Prismatic Illusionist and Firestarter have proven with faster triggers, isn’t going to ruin the game.)

Where Fireblaze would still be king (the Allomancer high roll,) this would add functionality to a brutally dysfunctional card, and increase the viability of playing cards like Ethereal Obelysk, Portal Guardian, and Scion’s Third Wish- without lacking the opportunity cost of defensive placement and being easily disrupted/unable to move. Making the Allomancer, and the Obelysk strategy something no longer easy to ignore, or deny by clumping up units far away from the Obelysks (to punish both Obelysks and Star’s Fury.)

Finally, it would give a lasting foundation for building decks around Whispers of the Sands and Star’s Fury. Where Allomancer would see it as a “mid roll” (better than Ethereal, worse than Fireblaze,) it would gently nudge the Dervish archetype with slow, low tempo, high value- but at a rate that can no longer simply be ignored.

2 Likes
#2

Why are people so insistent on making suggestions about how to change cards right before expansion hits which can easily change the way card is played. I agree the card has clunky design because the current card set doesn’t support it but that might change.

Also, why complicate things even further with new key words which will rarely be used. We already have “ephemeral” or whatever it is which indicates how devrishes disappear at the end of your turn so why not just implement that word into the card text instead?

About suggestion itself, I don’t like it as deverishes by themselves are supposed to disappear. That’s the whole idea behind their design. If you want them to stay on board you need use other resources rather then them just being spawned like that.

3 Likes
#3

Would it just make more sense to word it “Wind Dervishes that enter the battlefield lose Ephemeral”?

There really isn’t a way to support the card. Static health buffs attached to a minion’s survival means easy 2f1s. Giving the card simple utility to be functional on it’s own just makes sense.

#4

I would have agree with you before the Zirix nerf, but now windstorm obelisk makes your iron dervish 2/3 which is a big deal, also the card works with every dervish that are permanent. Yes it is not as good as ethereal or fireblaze but what can you do, there is always cards that are better than others.

With the expansion I am even expecting this card to even see play in competitive decks, wind slicer and whisper of the sands are going to reward you for having a lot of structures in your deck, also windstorm is super good with Pax. And of course a lot more will be shown soon.

Agree it is literally the worst moment possible for suggesting change.

5 Likes
#5

:smiley: Hey there

The issue with these kind of effects, has been pretty clearly illustrated in games like Scrolls and Hearthstone. When a game has persistent health, and an effect artificially raises it’s health (without being a sticking buff,) simply removing the source of the static health buff tends to lead to large wipes, where “the rug is pulled”.

So, even though Iron Dervishes get the bonus and are permanent, the extra point of health rarely matters, and often allows the opponent to undo several turns of building by simply disabling the Obelysk while multiple Dervishes are on their artificial point of health.

#6

I agree with you but nonetheless will force your opponent to deal with the windstorm which is something.

You will see, if structure deck is a thing in shim’zar this card will see play.

1 Like
#7

It is a very bad card but there is one thing worth noting is that it buffs your dervishes out of general and most 2 drop trading range. Its is still not worth running over fireblaze or standard obelysk under pretty much any circumstances though. I have a prismatic one that I dont want to disenchant, but whenever it comes up in my hand it is usually a very suboptimal option to play

#8

I’m not going to say that this is a bad suggestion (although the timing could have been better for this). However, while an obelysk that prevented a wind dervish from disapearing at the end of the turn sounds unique, people would then need cards to increase the HP of dervishes, as 2/2 bodies with rush will die when traded in anyways. If not, it’s just a 2/2 bodies that almost all 2 drops and some 1 drops can remove, hence cards like windstrom obelysk as it currently stands would be needed.

1 Like
#9

Didn’t windstorm use to give one extra movement to dervishes? I don’t see why they couldn’t give it back to windstorm, the health buff is just horrible design.

3 Likes
#10

Yea the movement increase would be so much better than +1 health, in fact the +1 health is a bad thing because you want the dervish to die so that another dervish can move in that spot and attack, it makes star fury weaker.

2 Likes
#11

Yeah, the first iteration gave flying (totally broken)
The second iteration and IMO the most balanced and best version have +1 movement and then it was nerfed into the useless pile of cool looking stone it is now.

3 Likes
#12

Inner Oasis, Astral Phasing, STW? The buffs exist without the awkward static effect dropping from underneath them.

#13