Here is my idea for a 5th “color”: Urban (greyish).
It’s defensive with poor mobility and a high structure focus. It has poor land-control, no hard removal, poor giants, but good survivability and lots of ranged damage.
It’s intended to have a kind-of sootpunk feeling, although there’s a bit of medieval stuff (that could possibly be sootpunk’d). Maybe a Hexxus feel too.
It took about a day to make. The idea came from responding to Ramora.
CONTENTS:
- Overview
- Card List
- Cards
- Synergies
- Image Credits
- The End
OVERVIEW
Urban is grey, but possibly more black + white, like smeared ash. The tiles are called suburbs.
Don’t think about it as modern earth urban - suburbs exist in fantasy medieval cities too.
It should be seen as largely disconnected from the four current colors. For instance, there are no suburb + color cards, and cards like day of the dragons are unchanged.
In order to avoid creating havoc with balance, I attempted to make it very separate by having high land costs so that adding almost all urban cards to current decks is prohibitively expensive land-wise.
You could potentially usefully borrow dirt walls, buoys, farm, oil well, spy. However, these don’t drastically change anything.
Primarily urban decks could usefully borrow from other colors, but that does mean very high land costs.
It adds some new concepts:
- Neutral entities - probably the biggest change, but pretty simple/obvious.
- Manipulating enemy cards (destroying, increasing cost, shuffling into deck, viewing opponent’s hand).
- Status Buffs: Pacify, Faeria Allergy (can’t harvest).
- Structures that don’t trigger combat effects (walls).
- Firing over friendlies.
- Repair (healing up to base stats, but no more).
- Plus a few unique single-unit effects.
It should work vs:
- Giants: Block, use ghosts, shoot, bribe, bribe & shoot, artillery.
- Burn: Walls, mines, arcane shield.
- Yellow Rush: Block. Taunt. Yellow rush will have a hard time vs Urban.
- Blue Jumper: Block. Taunt. Space-filling. Attack power reduction.
- Greedy: Use urban greedy faeria structures, or just shoot collectors.
How to defeat?
- Lots of high damage units to destroy all structures - more damage than health.
- Stay in ranged blind spots.
- Move land to create breaches.
- Starve land by using aggressive prairie tiles.
- Use ranged as buildings can’t move away.
Everything is up for debate - especially the names. I’m sure it’d need a lot of work to be balanced, fun, and suitable.
All criticism is appreciated. Questions welcome.
CARD LIST
There are 51 cards, which is about average.
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Structures [15]:
- Blocking [4]: Dirt Wall, Stone Wall, Tower, Arcane Shield.
- Structure Assist [2]: Quarry, Builder’s Yard.
- Offensive [2]: Artillery, Divine Exphulgator.
- Faeria [5]: Secret Tunnel, Exofaerial Siphon, Oil Well, Farm, Bank.
- Miscellaneous [4]: Smokestack, Tavern.
- Neutral [2]: Minefield, Buoys.
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Creatures [24]:
- Ranged [4]: Catapult, Mangonel, Ballista, Heavy Cannon.
- Normal-ish Melee [7]: Pikeman, Street Rat, Town Guard, Arachnoid Construct, Town Planner, Sootsilk Faerie, Colossus.
- Special Melee [5]: Militia, Constable, Sergeant, Conquistador, Animated Rubble.
- Special [5]: Saboteur, Ghost, Filth Dweller, Spy, Pacifist.
- Legends [4]: Foreman Harroth, Resillina, Xuth, Naxxoh.
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Events [10]:
- Anti-God: [2]: Heresy, Smog.
- Anti-Creature: [3]: Allergy, Bribe, Boiling Oil.
- Friendly Effect: [4]: Maintenance, Reinforce, Earthworks, Forecast.
- Miscellaneous: [1]. Ceasefire.
(My favorites are: Secret Tunnel, Animated Rubble, Spy, Ghost, Naxxoh, Boiling Oil).
CARDS
(The art is all just reuse-licensed placeholder images I found on the web (which are way harder to find than regular images). Pay little attention to it).
<[==== STRUCTURES ====]>
<== Blocking ==>
(eg: If two creatures are adjacent to it during firestorm it takes 6 damage and they take none, even if it only has 1 life left).
<== Structure Assist ==>
(I had to put the “repairable” qualifier there because it’s too powerful on Gabrian Cisterns, Derelict Towers, Imperial Drains.
<== Offensive ==>
(doesn’t activate if you have 0 faeria)
(note: as production happens at the start you lose your entire turn when it fires)
(a slow way to win if you can hold out and spare the faeria)
(also, you can’t control it and your opponent can prepare)
<== Faeria ==>
(triggers the same events as common harvesting)
(very risky. very profitable)
<== Miscellaneous ==>
(creatures are still considered flying for things like Golden Aviary, Windborne Emmissary, Drakkar Skycaptain).
<[==== NEUTRAL ====]>
(neutral - doesn’t trigger combat effects or get considered as a friendly or opponent creature/structure).
(annoying during early stages, pretty useless later (which is why you can draw a card)).
(see “mine” below)
(from minefield, not available in decks/collections)
<[==== CREATURES ====]>
<== Ranged ==>
<== Normal-ish Melee ==>
(Life does not go below 1 when bonuses expire)
(urban equivalent of elementals)
<== Special Melee ==>
(Filth Dweller still takes damage like normal)
(Opponent has at least one turn to defend their land).
<== Non Combat ==>
(useful for moving opponents for delaying or so you can put structures up)
(switching is considered a move)
(on opponent’s turn, can only switch once with opponent’s creatures)
(effect can trigger during summoning turn)
(pacified pacifists can’t pacify)
<== Legends ==>
(see repair above)
(gift: if there are multiple most-expensive cards, randomly pick one)
(pollution monster, Hexxus’s BFF)
<[==== EVENTS ====]>
<== Anti-God ==>
(if you die from this, you lose before any life is taken from your opponent).
<== Anti-Creature ==>
<== Friendly Effect ==>
(Note, works on opponent lands too).
(Repair means healing is capped at base life, ie the result of healing is the minimum of [base life] and [current life + healing]).
(unlike maintenance, this can improve any building)
<== Miscellaneous ==>
SYNERGIES
I’ve looked at other cards to try to avoid major synergistic OP-ness.
Neutral:
- Imperial Drain - OP if repairable. Pretty useful. (Fix: add non-repairable).
- Imperial Engineer - There’s a few production entities but nothing to make this OP.
- Famine & Plague bearer - These could be useful, but not OP.
- Shimmering Statue - probably a good synergy - not OP.
- Three wishes - this becomes pretty worthless when vs urban. You get info and life, but probably have unplayable cards. Possibly cast when holding 9 cards and just get info.
Blue:
- Gabrian Cistern - This becomes OP even with its cost. (Fix: add non-repairable).
- Gabrian Enchantment / enchantress - good on mayor.
- Aurora’s trick - good on mayor.
- Triton sanctuary - useful, not OP though as harvesting is hard and urban/blue is expensive.
Red:
- Architect - if some structures aren’t able to be repaired, this guy still needs to be able to add life.
- Combat (krog etc) - lots of structures to bash against. OK.
- Derelict tower - slightly OP. (Fix: add non-repairable).
- Bloodstone sprite - probably a good synergy with secret tunnel.
- Devouring plant - not too bad.
Green:
- Overgrown tower - slightly OP. (Fix: add non-repairable).
- Faeria tree - IMHO OP anyway. Doesn’t synergize enormously though as base life is 1 so no repair.
Yellow:
Yellow rush is probably very hard vs urban.
Attacking an urban god is really tricky.
- Celestial tower - probably not OP, as urban/yellow is expensive.
- Wind gate - possibly useful. Probably not OP.
- Soul pact + Ceasefire. Good, but not OP.
- Doomsday - could be devastating vs urban. Not OP though.
- Doomgate + reinforce: Good, but not OP.
Pandora:
- The World’s Tear: Slightly easy with so much range. OK, though. (Mangonel can’t attack god because of this card).
- Equinox Automaton: Killing the enemy one with Ceasefire on is a good idea. Still OK, though.
- Magda’s Rose: Fun on a newly summoned Spy with protection maybe. Still OK.
- Jeweled Magpie: Very hard to use vs urban.
Partly because of the maintenance synergies I added the repair concept, so that I could ban some action=damage structures from being endlessly repaired.
(Repair heals a structure whose HP is less than its base by X, but cannot repair past it’s base value).
Changes: Gabrian Cistern, Derelict Tower, Overgrown Tower, Imperial drain need to add the text “cannot be repaired”.
Reinforce and (red) Architect still work on them normally.
PICTURE LICENSES
(Disclaimer - all art is other peoples and the licenses are listed below - no promises it’s 100% accurate).
Structures:
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Dirt Wall: (CC-by-2.0) Todd Huffman - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mud_brick_wall,_Afghanistan.jpg
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Stone Wall: CC0 - http://maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com/Fort-Fort-Lewis-Ancient-Ramparts-Walls-Structure-1393252
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Tower: (CC-by-sa-2.0) Ramón - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rihemberk_Castle_tower.jpg
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Arcane Shield: CC0 - https://pixabay.com/en/soap-bubble-bubble-frozen-bubble-1975227/
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Builder’s Yard: (CC-by-sa-2.0) Jaggery - http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4587820
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Quarry: (CC-by-sa-4.0) Dr Tzeferis Peter - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ariston_marble_quarry.JPG
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Artillery: Atlantikwall - (CC-by-sa-3.0-de) Maier - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1986-104-10A,_Atlantikwall,Batterie%22Todt%22.jpg
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Divinatorial Expulgator: CC0 - https://pixabay.com/en/science-fiction-fantasy-futuristic-1758366/
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Smokestack: Pilsen - (CC-by-sa-2.0) Señor Codo - https://www.flickr.com/photos/senor_codo/352250460
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Tavern: Public Domain - https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bestand:Tavern_Scene-1658-David_Teniers_II.jpg
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Secret Tunnel: (CC-by-sa-3.0) Wolfgang Poguntke (assumed) - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Phillipstollen-7.jpg
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Exofaerial Siphon: (CC-by-nc-sa-3.0) fins-pl - http://fins-pl.deviantart.com/art/Energy-Ball-220433657
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Farm: CC0 - https://www.pexels.com/photo/agriculture-barley-field-beautiful-close-up-207247/
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Oil Well: CC0 - https://pixabay.com/en/belfast-oil-rig-harland-shipyard-953304/
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Bank: CC0 - https://pixabay.com/en/piggy-bank-coins-money-to-save-1759242/
Neutral
- Buoys: (CC-by-2.0) Michael Righi - https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelrighi/40547819
- Minefield: CC0 - http://maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com/Danger-War-Mine-Terror-Bomb-Blast-Weapons-Round-1627000
Creatures
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Catapult: (CC-by-nc-sa-2.0) fantasy-art.tel - https://www.flickr.com/photos/fantasy-art-and-portraits/3058522201
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Mangonel: (CC-by-3.0) Ron L. Toms - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stirling_Warwolf_Trebuchet.jpg
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Ballista: Reconstructed ballista at Warwick Castle (CC-by-sa-2.0) Ronald Preuß - https://www.flickr.com/photos/13653534@N06/4635321114
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Heavy Cannon: Cromwellian cannon, Ayr Citadel, South Ayrshire, Scotland (CC-by-sa-3.0) Rosser1954 - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cromwellian_Cannon_at_Ayr_Citadel.JPG
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Town Planner: (CC-by-sa-3.0) World Imaging - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_the_Old_City_of_Shanghai.jpg
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Sootsilk Faerie: (CC-by-sa-2.0) crayonmonkey - https://www.flickr.com/photos/crayonmonkey/5917760635
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Pikeman: (CC-by-nc-sa-2.0) Andrew Becraft - https://www.flickr.com/photos/dunechaser/174944400
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Town Guard: A yoeman of the guard (Beefeater) London England - (CC-by-sa-2.0) Snapshots Of The Past - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_yoeman_of_the_guard_(Beefeater)_London_England.jpg
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Street Rat: (CC-by-2.0) david pacey - https://www.flickr.com/photos/63723146@N08/18835332470
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Arachnoid: CC0 - https://pixabay.com/en/spider-arachnid-animal-robot-1615195/
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Iron Champion: CC0 - http://maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com/Warrior-Statue-Metal-2006772
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Militia: Public Domain - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Supplementary-militia,_turning-out_for_twenty-days_amusement_by_James_Gillray.jpg
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Constable: (CC-by-2.0) Dave Conner - https://www.flickr.com/photos/conner395/2169414464
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Sergeant: (CC-by-2.0) Dave Conner - https://www.flickr.com/photos/conner395/8558792822
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Conquistador: CC0 - https://pixabay.com/en/christopher-columbus-explorer-1296470/
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Filth Dweller: © Wellcome Images - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Devil's_mask_representing_leprosy,_14th_century_Wellcome_L0005942.jpg
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Saboteur: CC0 - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Papapishu-poison-bottle.svg
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Ghost: CC0 - http://maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com/Ghost-Halloween-Decoration-Car-Crash-Dead-Scary-1784629
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Pacifist: CC0 - https://pixabay.com/en/peace-art-artwork-love-dove-496093/
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Foreman: CC0 - https://pixabay.com/en/maurer-construction-workers-1019810/
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Resilina: Elizabeth Yates - Public Domain - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elizabeth_Yates,_New_Zealand.jpg
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Xuth: CC0 - https://pixabay.com/en/dragon-metal-fantasy-girl-gun-1940348/
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Naxxoh: (CC-by-2.0) - Tony Hisgett - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hot_Mud_Monster_(8043401678).jpg
Events
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Heresy: Thomas Cranmer - Public Domain - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pietro_Vermigli_by_Hans_Asper.jpg
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Smog: (CC-by-sa-2.0) Andrew Dunn - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LondonSmog.jpg
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Allergy: CC0 - http://maxpixel.freegreatpicture.com/Shake-Cloud-Pollen-Plant-Bloom-Blossom-Flower-692141
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Bribe: CC0 - https://pixabay.com/en/bag-money-wealth-revenue-finance-147782/
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Boiling Oil: CC0 - https://pixabay.com/en/cauldron-pot-cooking-boiling-41198/
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Maintenance: Public Domain - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UnderConstruction.svg
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Reinforce: CC0 - https://pixabay.com/en/stainless-wagon-trains-railway-old-230041/
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Earthworks: CC0 - http://www.pixnio.com/vintage-photography/workers-practicing-vector-control-by-digging-a-drainage-ditch-in-order-to-help-disperse-standing-water
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Forecast: CC0 - https://pixabay.com/en/warm-sunny-cloudy-clouds-sun-98534/
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Ceasefire: (CC-by-sa-3.0) Viktorvoigt & Dove - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:White_flag_waving.svg
The End!.
Tell me what you think.
Does it sound workable?
Does it sound fun?
Any questions?
All criticism is appreciated.