Name: Constricting Vines
School: Nature 2
Range: 0-2
Target: Zone
Mana cost: 10?
Action cost: Quick
Type: Conjuration - terrain, plant
Whenever you place a vine marker in this zone, you may place it on a creature. A creature with vine markers is restrained and unmovable. These vine markers may only be targeted by melee attacks and share a pool of life equal to the amount of vines on the creature.

I actually prefer this last one, with vine tree and vinewhip staff you can place 3 vines per round, so could potentially be strong. For clarification you could still lesser teleport out of these vines since creatures are not attached directly to a conjuration. The vines lose the ability to be targeted by other vine spells when used in this manner.

I'm glad you understood it was a joke.  Sometimes things like that aren't clear over internet.

No because that detracts from time spent on testing new cards.

Quote from: Ravepig on March 02, 2017, 10:43:29 AM

Quote from: Reddicediaries on March 02, 2017, 10:10:29 AM

Most bad cards don't get buffed, only good cards get nerfed.

Agreed- we can still ask though. The worst they can say is no. If the community all agrees it's a terrible card, why not fix it (or re-fix it).

Other priorities. I think they'd rather bring new product to market than put effort into rebalancing and playtesting product included in the original core set.

Quote from: Halewijn on March 02, 2017, 10:56:37 AM

Bad cards can be altered with minor tweaks, but there is no way you can "fix" the gate without completely redesigning the card. At that point AW can probably better create a new card.

If they brought the casting cost down to 7 or 8 AND made it a quick-cast action (in line with the Totems), it might be worth playing. Then, the cost:benefit breaks down like this:

- 7 or 8 mana QC, targeting a zone at range 0-1: All demons (friendly and otherwise) get Melee +1.
- 12 mana and Full action, no range or LoS restriction: 4-dice Flame attack against all non-flying creatures in the Arena (friendly and unfriendly, including your mage), PLUS you turn the Gate into a "Garrison Post" for any future Demons you or your Pentagram summon.

This way, you at least get a "totem" for Demons at a reasonable cost even if you never "Open the Gate." ... Although I'm not sure it's worth 6 sbps... maybe 4?

Quote from: Ravepig on March 02, 2017, 10:05:49 AM

Any chance of including Gate to Hell in future errata to make it more playable?

You mean, in addition to the recent errata (included in 4th printing) that was intended to make it more playable?

Quote from: Rules Supplement v4.2

Gate to Hell
Current Text: "All demon creatures gain Melee +1. Gate to Hell enters play with a 'Closed' token. Once per game, as a full action, you may pay 12 mana to flip the token to the 'Opened' side, and make the above attack against each non-flying creature in the arena. Once opened, whenever you, or a spawnpoint or familiar you control, Summon a demon creature, you may place it in the Gate's zone."

Gate to Hell no longer has the Hydro +3 trait.

The action to “Open the Gate” must be performed by the controlling Mage, and may be performed from anywhere in the Arena. When the gate is opened, the controller decides the order for each attack to be resolved. Resolve the attacks one at a time, fully resolving the first one before going onto the next. These attacks do not require LOS as the gate is filling the entire board with this arena wide attack.

Quote from: Ravepig on March 02, 2017, 09:32:33 AM

I know there has been previous discussion around Gate to Hell, but thought I would revisit this topic as I'm just now really getting into the Warlock build. This particular card intrigues me, but it's so expensive to get into play- both sbp and mana costs. Has anyone had good luck with this card? Combined with the Warlocks new helm (can't think of the name offhand) that gives friendly demons +1 melee could be a pretty effective combo with Gate to Hell if played and activated at the right time. Thoughts?

I've got it in my multiplayer Domination Warlock book... and even in that environment where you can be guaranteed there will be lots of enemy level 1-2 creatures susceptible to the "Open the Gate" attack, and where I have lots of low-level demons popping out of a Pentagram that can benefit from both the Melee +1 and "Garrison Post" that the Gate provides, I still have never put it in play.

I definitely wouldn't play it in Arena. Far too conditional; rarely worth the sbp or mana, whether you open the gate or not.