MArcomage

Here is a preview of current balance changes and new cards.

Keyword changes:

Beast - effect changed to "grants additional turn with no bricks and gems production"
Frenzy - trigger condition changed to "if played card is a rare card or is a neighbour of a Frenzy card"
Skirmisher - secondary effect condition changed to "Recruits only attack card" from "Recruits only card"
Undead - keyword effect changed to "a part of the total cost of the played card will be returned. Returned amount is based on number of different resources present in the card cost (3 - third, 2 - half, 1 - two thirds)."

Card changes:

Battle rager - changed primary effect condition to reflect recent Frenzy changes
Call of the wilds - removed additional recruits cost
Centaur champion - added Beast keyword
Dark forest - cost changed to 10G 9R from 17R, effect changed to gems and recruits gain, each based on different keyword
Darkforge - tower gain added
Emissary of the afterlife - removed trigger condition, added limit on number of replaced cards
Forest guardian - minimal attack value added
Giant spider - removed Beast keyword, added Horde keyword
Griffin - cost changed to 4B 7R from 10R
Nightmare owl - removed Beast keyword
Orc engineer - can no longer lower player's tower
Spirit of Earth - attack lowered and is no longer conditional, added conditional bricks production
Templar castle - can no longer lower player's tower
War elephant - recruits production added
Will o' wisp - (former Wisp) reworked completely
Wolf mistress - cost lowered to 8R from 10R, attack raised to 8 from 6
Wolf raiders - cost raised to 12 from 9, N now works with both Beast and Horde keywords

Feedback is appreciated. Hopefully, I'll be posting new cards preview later this week ;-)

I really like the changes to the frenzy cards. Hopefully they will return the usability of the frenzy decks.

We had much discussion on the Emissary, and I dont like how it works now, but the proposed changes will kill the card.

I also believe that Dark forest in its current revision should cost a 1-2 gems and recruits more.

Any fixes applied to the Orc engineer should also be applied to the Tamplar castle, as these cards have the same effect of accidentally lowering the tower.

I also have some doubts that Call of the wilds boost will reanimate the card. Since the beast effect now does not depend on rarity it will still have very little use.

I'd raise max N for Wolf raiders to 8 (I don't want a new Zealot, but 18 attack or 6 stock for 12 recruits is kinda meh), or raise its stock gain to 3N/2 or even 2N.

Please, don't do that with Emissary of afterlife. Change it to "discarding or replacing Undead support", if you want to get rid of Whirlwind/Evolution side effect on this one, and reword Necromancy amplifier effect to "Replace Undead cards in hand with Undead of higher rarity" to work properly with it.

Call... well, I'd like to see how will it work with Beast and Frenzy keyword changes before I can say anything. But the fact that Call will become cheaper is definitely good. Also, now there's another reason to raise Dungeon when playing Beast deck, apart from Byakko.

I suggested 9G/8R cost for Dark forest because of Nature keyword on this card. So you'd still pay 1G/7-8R with 8 Nature cards, and 7-8G/1R with 7 Beasts in hand. It can cost 10G/9R, but not more.

Wisp rework is really interesting both for Aria and Undead.

Aaaand Frenzy rares are here again, and I'm almost happy. :)

Dislike the Emissary change. It's currently a really unique and fun card that fits the Undead theme very well. Attempting to "fix" it by making it more standard is a huge step back. There are ways of mending its current issues without giving up and designing a boring card to replace it.

Taking the complete opposite stance with Will o' wisp. I like it. Seems much more useful and fun than current Wisp.

Almost forgot: can you make Skirmisher working only on attack cards in case if opponent doesn't have a Charge? Because discarding Sacrifice or Elven market with Skirmisher doesn't make any sense.

Balance changes updated (opening post was edited to reflect the changes). These changes were added:

Skirmisher and Undead keyword changes. Dark forest cost was raised, Emissary change was modified, Templar castle bugfix added (thx for reporting) and upper limit was raised to Wolf raiders to 7 from 6.

New cards preview added to opening post.

Ok.
about keywords:
Beast: I'm still not sure about its "play again" feature. but now it's a little better. I'd like to have more token's gain per card.

Frenzy: the change is ok, but this keyword is a bit complex depending on cards in hand, rarity and cost of played card. I want to propose something different:
"if last played card was frenzy attack:+N; N based on played card rarity (c-2;u-5;r-10)".
I think that a chain combo better fits the idea of "frenzyness".

Undead: again I think simple is better, but the change is good.

I like the changes to individual cards.

I love also the new cards, I'd just change Phantom Unicorn discarding ability with a replacing one:
"replace all discarding and replacing cards from opponent hand with..." commons from enemy deck or a specific common. I suggest this one

Will Emissary still replace New cards, or will card positions be entirely random after the change?

I like the Undead keyword change as it seems to me that it will almost always grant more than it does currently. But then, I wonder if this is actually necessary.

Emissary's effect remains unchanged, only the trigger condition has been removed and upper limit added.

With Cheshire, Phantom unicorn and Kitsune, Illusion deck is funnier than ever.
And Illusion vs Illusion is simply crazy.

I like this update: you can see in this few new cards how Marcomage is a great melting pot of different cultures: we have one nordic god, one yokai, one cat from english litterature,one biblical beast and even a dragon from a manga.
and there are so many other references in the cards we already have, like greek mythology, arabian creatures, european folklore, many things from japan, LOTRish stuff,even Pyramids from Egypt. I love this boundless fantasy stuff.