MArcomage

Carrion crawler, Common, 4g3r
Undead
Attack 3
If opponent discarded a card last turn,
Attack 10


This has been argued before with another card concept, and my personal opinion on it hasn't changed. Having a card that punishes an opponent for discarding is unfair and not fun. For every other punisher, the opponent has a choice to either take the action or not to. You can always avoid actions such as increasing your wall, dealing damage, or playing a card from a particular position. Arguably, the opponent is also in control of the results of accumulating too much of a facility or resource (over time, not necessarily in one turn).

However, it is too easy for a player to actually force his opponent to discard. Brigand, Aqua, and Destruction are all very effective in causing the opponent to have no choice but to discard, not out of a desire to clear unwanted cards from the hand or to conserve resources for a finisher or to enable another card's mechanic such as Vulture, but because he literally cannot play any of his eight cards.

This kind of match tends to be long and tedious. Giving the player using this strategy a low-cost, hard-hitting Common would be detrimental to MArcomage as a whole. We shouldn't punish for what is, essentially, the "Lose a Turn" option.

I think this might be a bit of an exaggeration. In my experience, being forced to discard a card is not a common occurrence. More importantly, the punishment this card inflicts just isn't that strong. Compared to other common attack staples like Light infantry, Goblin Saboteur, or Battering ram, this card seems relatively weaksauce. I'd take it in an Undead deck, but not in any of the ones you mentioned (Brigand, Aqua, or Destruction).

Of course, the condition if satisfied could just as easily be production x2, making it more useful in other decks as well.

I agree with DPsycho. Destruction and Brigand decks already employ the strategy of not allowing the opponent to play anything due to limited resources, but their drawback (and balance) is that they do not achieve destruction victory as fast as other decks. On the other hand, if we put cards that will exploit the discard choice of the opponent, where he has no other choice but to discard, will make these decks way too powerful. Remember when we first implemented Aqua? They were powerful attacking cards, that could reduce massively the opponent's resources as well. Almost everyone made Aqua decks within a couple days and everyone used them. I remember rarely anyone won any matches unless they had an Aqua deck and it was discussed to reduce the effect.

Also, this was extensively discussed when EricHerboroso proposed a similar concept.

Finally, take a look at how overpowered Barbarian has become now with the new effect. It's a nice effect to destroy enemy's resources if wall=0 and barbarian tokens = 100, but the extent of the effect is too overwhelming. I have approximately 95% win ratio with my Barbarian deck (through the statistics I keep myself), because opponents can't react when I destroy their wall and then their tower is demolished within a couple turns.

This is an interesting idea in theory, but it would be too overwhelming in action.

Maybe it should act only on discards from Militia, Evolution et cetera, not on direct discards?

Can we keep in mind, though, that we're talking about a potential 13 attack? For 7 resources? I mean, gosh, Death Wave can do 20 damage for the same amount of resources, and the condition is a lot easier to fulfill. Dark Warrior does up to 12 damage for 6 resources, and it's easy to play at full power. Light infantry does 10 damage almost all the time for 5 recruits. Fanatic does 12 damage for 7 resources about 50% of the time. Angry mob does 9 damage for 7 resources out of the box, but after playing a few legends and/or facility builders, it can quickly achieve very high damage.

And yet, no-one has ever really complained that any of these cards is overpowered.

I understand if you object to any card with a bonus effect upon opponent discarding. But trying to argue that this card is actually overpowered is quite strange to me.

its not the power of the card thats concerning but the concept? all cards should be balanced somehow at some point anyway.