MArcomage

So Doppelganger basically works in the same pattern as ambush except it costs more and instead of disrupting your opponent's hand (maybe removing big threats) it allows you to maybe catch up with them (often grabbing cards that are only really useful for their deck). I assume I would see it more-- or much at all-- in non-Hidden games, but for a sorta-durable card it's current use rating of "0.54" is still really dang low.

(Oh, I know I maybe should be focusing on the other least-used cards since this is in 10th place and not first, but this is one whose problem I knew how to say succinctly.)

Oh, and current card details;

Common
Illusion
0/5/0(B/G/R)

263 / 4902 Played
430 / 6618 Discarded
792 / 13000 Drawn
(Also I don't know exactly what those last six numbers mean because I would expect the first/second pair to be a ratio of the times it's been played/discarded relative to when it could have been played/discarded but that doesn't match with "drawn".)

Effect
If targeting self and not New, summons the matching card, else replace a card in hand with self

if (!isset($mynewflags[$cardpos]) AND $mode == $cardpos)
$nextcard = $hisdata->Hand[$cardpos];
else
{
$mydata->Hand[$mode] = $card->id();
$mydata->NewCards[$mode] = 1;
}

263 / 4902 Played
430 / 6618 Discarded
792 / 13000 Drawn

Actually these numbers mean something different. The first number is always number of times it was played/discarded/drawn since the last statistics reset (which is done at major balance updates) and the second number is the total number of times it was played/discarded/drawn since the beginning of time (this is never reset).

Mojko: Ah, that isn't clear at all. I expected with the / it was some form of fraction.

Regarding the statistics, there are 3 figures:
1. drawn count
2. played count
3. discarded count

there's also a 4th invisible figure which is when a card is not played neither discarded it's just "dies" when the game finishes. I call this the "idle count".

Normally there is this relationship: drawn = played + discarded + idle
BUT, drawn counts only the normal draws. Summoning or special draws are not counted.
That's why most durable and persistent cards have relatively high played/discarded count comparing to drawn count.

In the past, I used to calculate the following 3 ratios, to somehow measure the usefulness of the cards (based on usage statistics):
- played/drawn ("playability" ratio)
- discarded/drawn ("discardability" ratio)
- idle/drawn ("idling" ratio)

e.g common cards with 70% or more playability are very useful in most cases.
On the other hand 40% idling ratio is usually not good for common cards.

This is only a very rough estimation though

How about changing the effect to "If targeting self and not New, summons the matching card, else replace a card in hand with self, Gems: +3"?

The gems gain would be applied in the secondary effect.

The problem isn't just gems though; it's time taken, and how all the cards in your opponents hand will often be more useful to them than they are to you. (So on average discarding them > copying them.)

And of course, for everything but rares, Barbz's pupil already copies the functionality of this card cheaper and faster.

I think Doppelganger's largest advantage is that it has the illusion keyword, and who knows, with the cost refunding it might turn popular as a discarder that can trigger that keyword cheaply, without ever using its effect to copy cards unless everything just happens to line up right.

What makes this card appealing is forcing your opponent to play or discard the card you're threatening to steal before you've done so. If I draw Dragon squadron but I don't yet have the recruits to play it, my opponent moving Doppelganger to match it might convince me to discard it rather than accumulate and play it later. If I'm playing my Unliving deck and draw a nice Rare, I'll want to wait until I have the tokens to trigger the keyword effect with its play, but if the opponent is about to copy it from me, I might play it out of sequence to prevent that and miss out on the bricks refund. (These cases assume the one with Doppelganger is playing a deck that focuses on facility and resource gain or crippling your opponent's same, so they are able to play the copied card sooner than the opponent would.)

It's also useful if you and your opponent are agreeing to play Titan decks to race for Titan victories for achievements.

Like DPsycho said, discarding a target opponent's card is good, but making them waste a turn discarding it themselves is even better. Also, the sole property of being a self-replicating illusion common allows illusion-based decks to run very few other common illusion cards. This is great because the fewer random high-gem-cost commons in a gem-starved deck, the better. I used Doppelganger in a very effective zero-cost deck with illusion that I constructed over a year ago. If anybody wants to take a look, it should be in the shared deck section now (note that almost all of my decks are intended for non-hidden long mode).

Where is GreatEmerald when you need him ? :D

Should reveal the summoned card

Working on it, don't worry ;)