Unbound Evolution/Orosei transformations and Gift mechanics

Balance Discussion
#1

Right the gift keyword is not applied to the creatures transformed by Unbound Evolution/Orosei.

56 out of 188 creatures have gift. That means almost 30% of all unbound evolutions would result in a creature with a decreased value. Due to this UE is better as a removal and Orosei is weaker than it could be.

Which cards have gift and targets, per mana cost

1-cost cards

0 out of 3 cards have gift.

2-cost cards

3 out of 17 cards have gift.

2 of those cards can have a target.

3-cost cards

11 out of 43 cards have gift.

6 of those cards can have a target.

4-cost cards

15 out of 43 cards have gift.

9 of those cards can have a target.

5-cost cards

12 out of 35 cards have gift.

5 of those cards can have a target.

6-cost cards

7 out of 26 cards have gift.

2 of those cards can have a target.

7-cost cards

3 out of 8 cards have gift.

2 of those cards can have a target.

8-cost cards

1 out of 3 cards have gift.

9-cost cards

0 out of 2 cards have gift.

10-cost cards

4 out of 6 cards have gift.

1 of those cards can have a target.

Targeted effects

Less than half of cards with gifts (24 out of 56) can have a target.

UI-wise it is impossible (I guess) to allow assigning the targets for those cards, but what if we’d make those target random?

We can somehow mark the effects as positive, negative and neutral:

  • Positive effect can be randomly applied to any friendly target.

  • Negative effect can be randomly applied to any random enemy.

  • Only neutral effects should be avoided (for example, “move a land twice” from a Prophet of Tides, or any “you may sacrifice” cards), as they can cause a negative effect for the creature’s owner.

There can be cases when negative/positive effects can be unwelcome on some of the targets (buffing a creature that can deal with Sharra), but in most cases they would be welcomed.

Overall

  • Right now 30% of UE/Orosei would have a lesser effect, which means UE is much more effective as a removal and Orosei is weaker than it could be.
  • Enabling at least “basic” gifts would make the effect of UE/Orosei less random in terms of transforming the value of cards.
  • Enabling the random non-neutral targets could allow for keeping even more value, and also would make the UE/Orosei much more interesting.
#2

Orosei would be so much better if he would transform the enemy minions into minions that cost 2 less - that would probably be OP though…

#3

A lot of people agree on that after the patch UE become too powerful. With a very few 8-9 drops it converts 6-7 drops to creatures with a very good stats.

I’d say that I’d still would want to see the gift implemented + I propose another change: differentiate the effect as it was done with the Flash Wind. But not in mana cost, as right now its effect is better for your own creatures and making it cost more for your own wouldn’t make much sense, but changing the effect.

So, what if UE would transform your creatures into those that cost 1 more, and opponent’s — to those that cost 2 more?

If you’d make it trigger gifts as I proposed, then it would be around the same power level as before the patch, but would be slightly less viable as a removal, and less random for buffing your creatures, as you won’t get bad gift results.