MArcomage

Hi everyone, Zograf here.
I'm quite new to Marcomage, joined just a few weeks ago. I'm not an expert but I have a suggestion for a new keyword.

I read in another thread that some find the rare cards hard to use, due to their low probability of appearing. The chance of getting one specific rare card is extremely low.
I feel that this is a part of the game and that "rare cards" are supposed to be, just like they say, "rare", just being an additional bonus when they actually appear.
Although I agree with others at one point, you're not able to make a deck that depends on your rare cards nor make them a part of your tactic. No, they are as I said before, just a bonus.
I for example, don't even care about what rare cards I have in my best deck since they are almost never of any use too me.

That's why I suggest this new keyword, "Imperial".
Almost every card with the Imperial keyword will have an additional keyword (Holy, undead, etc.).

The Imperial keyword will work like many other keywords. When a card with the specific keyword is played, player gain 'X' Imperial tokens for each Imperial card in hand. When the the player has 100 tokens, the side effect comes into act.
The side effect is as such:
When 100 tokens have been gathered, a rare card, in player's deck, of the same "secondary" keyword like the card just played, will appear. For example, I play an Imperial soldier and the next card received will be the "King's elite guard" card if I had that one in my deck.
If no rare card of that keyword exists in player's deck or if the used card had no secondary keyword, a random rare card from players deck will appear.
This making some cards with no keyword harder to get depending on the structure of the deck.

With the help of this keyword, those who want to can include rare cards in their tactics and build an Imperial deck focused on doing few but powerful blows instead of many and weak.

Sorry if it was a lot to read but, what do you think?

I really like the idea of a new keyword that does affect the chances of drawing a rare card. It could be a great solution for the "non strategic" rares.

Even though I think the idea still needs lot of improvement since it's going to be quite difficult to get it into the game balanced.

I like it :)

I disagree on rares beeing hard to include into deck's strategy. There are lot's of summoning cards (Golden scepter, Scepter of summoning... - general summoning cards, Crypt, Mage guild... -specialized summoning cards) that might help you get rares more often. I even built one deck with this strategy - commons and uncommons are only used for defense and resource accumulation and summoning cards are played to get rares. Only rares are used to fight the enemy (and also the orc regiment ;)).

Your new keyword idea is interesting, but I think it needs some refinement. (what happens if there is no secondary keyword present?, what happens if there are more secondary keywords present?, should it summon rares from your deck, or from the card pool?)

I think the idea is that ALL Imperial cards would have a second type.

Mojko Said: "I disagree on rares beeing hard to...idea is interesting, but I think it needs...from your deck, or from the card pool?)"


Yes, it's true that there are some cards that can boost your probability of getting rare cards.

"Golden scepter" --> "Scepter of summoning", to get any rare card for your deck.
"Beastiary" and "Necromancy amplifier", to receive a rare card of a specific keyword.
"Centaur trainer" and "Stonehenge", to get another rare card form the current rare card.
"Crypt", "Mage guild" and a lot more cards, to get either a new uncommon or a new rare.

I so won't deny that you can build a deck on it (I also have a rare card deck based on the same strategy ;)) but I still find it hard. Because it is quite hard to get rare cards with other keywords than those that appear in combination of other cards.


And to anwer you questions, let me quote myself:
"If no rare card of that keyword exists in player's deck or if the used card had no secondary keyword, a random rare card from players deck will appear."
That answered two out of three questions and for the third question, what about that the game perhaps randomly chooses between the two keywords? So that the chance is 50/50?

But yes, it will require some refinement before it could actually be used ingame (but hey, probably any keyword that's no an extra damage keyword needs extra work before it would be ready for the game). But I felt that I perhaps should ask and see if people liked it before I went and made a complete plan for it :P

Sounds good to me ;) now more questions :)

Can all keywords be used as secondary, or only some? (since we have more groups of keywords)

- general keywords (divided into token (Undead, Holy) and non-token keywords (Dragon, Legend))
- effect keywords (such as Skirmisher, Banish, Rebirth...)

I think your idea is to target only general keywords, or only it's subgroup - the token keywords.

Is it really good idea to pick from more secondary keywords at random? One keyword can be present in your rare cards, but the other one doesn't have to be. Shouldn't it pick the keyword with most rare cards in your deck?

There are also other options how to implement this. We could have it this way: Imperial(Soldier) for example.

Or just Imperial and it will take the secondary keyword from a card that was played right before this card.

I really like this idea, so I want to consider all possible options we have ;)

Another idea is that Imperials (all or just some) could have modes. Example:


3G 3R
Imperial Soldier Mage - Mode 1 - Recruits +3. If Token reset: Receive a rare Soldier card. Mode 2 - Gems +3. If Token reset: Receive a rare Mage card.

I really don't like the idea of being able to nab a rare that frequently on top of being able to draw a rare randomly.

i think having the cards make "imperial tokens" is a poor execution of a good idea. i say this because you would need to play many iomperial cards to ever get the trigger to happen, which dilutes the ability to create a coherent keyword strategy beyond the impperial one ie, there would have to be a great number of imperial brigands to make an imperial brigand deck, otherwise it just becomes an imperial deck. i would suggest the following: all imperial cards have a second keyword which triggers tokens, and whenever an imperial card played causes you to reach 100 tokens, triggering the bonus effect of its second type, it will also fetch a rare of that type to replace itself with. a hypothetical imperial card with two other types would get a rare of of the keyword it triggered, and if it triggere both, it would get a rare4 with either type determined randomly. the imperial cards would have to have average to bad abilities so as not to overpower a particular strategy.

Very good point Tom. That would be a workable system. However, I doubt that that version of Imperial would work well together with the potential "Token"/"Chromatic" that I came up with (and DPsycho had a similar idea).

If I had to choose between Imperial and Token/Chromatic, it's without a doubt the latter. I think a better choice than Imperial would be to limit (as someone mentioned before) the amount of Rare cards in a deck to maybe 7.

i think they would work together. chromatic is basically a keyword which is every keyword, so a chromatic card which triggered a token ability would fetch a rare of the trigger's type. i guess it would also mean that any imperial trigger would possibly get a rare chromatic card, which in retrospect is probably what you were talking about. that would be kind of annoying i guess, but could be fixed by just not including chromatic cards in the list of 'rare soldier cards' for instance. and also i see chromatic as more of an enabler for hybridizing keywords so you can finally make that holy/undead deck for instance, and as such i think it would be most important at the common/uncommon rarities, and practically never relevant on a rare card. in short, i dont think that the two mechanics clash if executed properly.

I wasn't thinking in the way that they'd be summoned, more of that I think it'd be a bit overkill with both of them in the game.

I'm not saying they're mutually exclusive, just that I think Imperial wouldn't be as interesting for gameplay as Chromatic would be.

A problem with Imperial having a Keyword to trigger the Rare is that most decks don't have many Rares with keywords. But I guess the Imperials with a combining (or more) Keyword would grab only chosen Keyword(s) Rares, and if its without a second Keyword, you'd get a random Rare from your deck (unless the description says otherwise).

i was thinking it would fetch a keyworded rare from the cardpool, not the deck.

i think both ideas are interesting, and would diversify decks a lot more than currently. right now, a good keyword deck like soldiers or alliance needs a lot of keyworded cards to support them and only certain other keywords combine well with those deck (for instance, soldiers pair well with beasts, holy with barbarian, titan with nothing ;), etc.). chromatic would solve a lot of that repetitive deck construction, while imperial would give more of an incentive to stay focused on one keyword (and would probably make the titan construction deck semi-playable). the tension this creates during deck building is, in my opinion, a good thing.

I think I've got to clarify, because that's what I meant:

If the Imperial ability strikes when the card has following Keyword:
"Imperial, Soldier" - You get a random Rare card with Keyword Soldier. (doesn't have to be in deck)
"Imperial, Unliving, Titan" - You get a random Rare card with Keyword Unliving or Titan (same as above)
"Imperial" - You get a Rare card from your deck.
However there could be a card with the text 'Receives a Rare card _not in players deck_/_in opponents deck_/_in players deck that doesn't have a Keyword_/_chosen at random_/'

Maybe even add the cost of the Rare card in there? zero cost, mixed, gems, bricks, recruits.

That's what I meant, to diversify. Not all those should be used preferrably, but just as suggestions to make interesting cards.