Druid vs Necro Spoilers

[DeckBuilder]

It reminded me that I haven't fed my flying monkeys yet today.

Is this a knowing hint about the classic fantasy literature reference that can't be named? There was the will-sapping Lotus plant in the Odyssey's Lotus Eaters encounter. Deadly nightshade is Belladonna, or Wolvesbane. There's just too many references, even the card imagery is a blatant homage.

it's a conjuration that attacks. Anyone writing it off without playing it is ignoring this game's history.

Do you mean Akiro's Hammer? (Hey, it's great against control Epics, those rare mana drain match-ups.)

This is no Wizard's Tower, Temple of Light or Ballista, ring. Those were all repeatable benefits (we should not be complaining that a card is not brojen or near-broken but be happy they haven't indulged in excess). This is just a weak Poison Gas Cloud with 1 use of Sleep.

[Laddinfance]

If memory serves, Black Lotus was a flower in the original Conan novels.

[DeckBuilder]

Yep. My OCD thanks Google once more...

Lotus = group of opiate drugs in Conan's Hyboria
Black Lotus - soporific hallucinogen
Emerald Lotus - sorcery enhancing (Stygian fave)
Purple Lotus - paralysis (curare)
Gray Lotus - homicidal/suicidal (PCP)

From the few I've read, when Conan visited the immortal Hyperboreans (elves) who jump from the High Tower when eternal life gets too dull, the decadent locals took Black Lotus to while away the years in blissful euphoric sleep.

[ringkichard]

Well, look at that on facebook. Another flower.

[Memnaelar]

That thar's a purty flower.  A one-time dissolve with a regular corrode attack?  I'll take it. 

Weird that it's a 2 over the 3 for the Lotus.  If I took the Pepsi Challenge, I'd assume those levels were reversed...

[DeckBuilder]

Yes, I agree that Corrosive Orchid is good in a vacuum. It could be very good (but not broken), for example if there was a card like...

"Renewing Rain"
16 mana, full action, range infinity symbol, Nature Level 4 incantation (crucially no Hydro subtype)
For each of your Plant conjurations in the arena, you may remove it from play then return it to play in that same zone and attached to any object it was previously attached to.

This removes all damage and conditions (like burn) and resets these flowers with Mist tokens, not broken as it's only Plant conjurations. The "may" is because in some cases it will be worse off e.g. mana accumulated on spawnpoints. Magic players will be very familiar with "flicker" effects - leveraging coming-into-play effects is a blue/white strength (my favoruite colours). Here we have a very expensive (>1 turn of mana), uncommon (4 spell points investment), action-intensive (full action) but powerful effect if you build around it to leverage potency.

The fact Mist tokens appear in 2 cards so far indicates there'll probably be a mechanic to refresh. If so, this makes level 3 Lotus good and Level 2 Orchid very good (lower level as Druid has access to Corrode, Dissolve is 1 spell point whilst Sleep is a new frontier for Nature).

If there is a refresh mechanic for Mist tokens, then I offer an apology, Aaron, for slating Nightshade Lotus. Cards in a vacuum eh?

[Koz]

Can someone post the Corrosive Orchid please?  No access to FB at the moment...

[sIKE]

Can someone post the Corrosive Orchid please?  No access to FB at the moment...

[HomelessJoe]

Druids area control is going to be very annoying. Mage wand/firestorm anybody?

[DeckBuilder]

On reflection, 2 great benefits of (both of) the Flowers are

1. Vine range for Druid Only (with her Ring discount)

Dissolve's main drawback is range 1 (hence why Regrowth Belt was generally better than Regrowth, also can Nullify a Dissolve but not a Dispel, all Wizards cast Dispel cheaper with ring at lower spell point cost, and there is no Purge for equipment). But that doesn't hold true anymore. You pay 6 extra for Explode add-on. Here you pay 6 extra (7-1 ring) for a weak 2 dice corrode attack that persists in the zone until removed. Orchid also helps to address the dominance of Battle Forge as the best spawnpoint for many builds. All clever meta-changers.

2. Bypasses Nullify

Both Dissolve and Sleep can be Nullified but not these Flowers. So no need to first scout if that hidden enchant is a Nullify with Decoy etc. This weakens Wizards' denial-control (especially with Transfusion as a timed counter) which is probably for the best as they dominate the meta currently.


Obviously they could leverage any (yet-to-be released) flicker or unsummon mechanics as they are objects with an incantation attached.


Does anyone spot any other hidden benefits (apart from the obvious spell point cost for Nature mages)?

[Koz]

Can someone post the Corrosive Orchid please?  No access to FB at the moment...

Thank you sir!

[sIKE]

Here is an update on what I did a couple weeks ago. For those who are not keeping up and are interested with the DvN spoilers. Over the last 28 days we have seen 25 of the cards (not counting the mage cards). If you dig around a bit, you have seen 45% of the new cards in the set of 56 new cards. Spells broken down by Type:

Attack = 1 (5)
Conjurations = 7 (9)
Creatures = 13 (16)
Enchantments = 2 (9)
Equipment = 1 (11)
Incantations = 1 (10)

The last time I wrote this up, I put the numbers of each Type of Spell from the FvM release in parenthesis. This is so we can gauge where we are compared to the DvN release.

So looking where things stand as of today. We are getting close to the release of DvN and here is the break out as of today:

Attack = 1 (5) [3]
Conjurations = 9 (9) [13]
Creatures = 15 (16) [24]
Enchantments = 2 (9) [4]
Equipment = 2 (11) [8]
Incantations = 1 (10) [4]

I have added Square brackets this time. These are my guesses for the number for that spell Type in DvN. This is for new cards only, the Conjurations and Creatures, are a strong probable number, may go up by one but I doubt it. The others are more guesses than anything else, like for equipment there will be at least five pieces but I am guessing a bit more. The last three Attack/Enchantments/Incantations are purely a SWAG...

Braaaiinnnsss!!!!!

[baronzaltor]

Does anyone spot any other hidden benefits (apart from the obvious spell point cost for Nature mages)?

Neither are Zone exclusive.. you can put both in the same zone for 5 dice of combined bonus attack.  Or you can grow them under an opponents spawn point, or under your own spawnpoints/treebond to help protect them.

Not really a "hidden" benefit, but a useful aspect.

[DeckBuilder]

Yes, it is useful. Like Mokhtari or Wizard's Tower being a supplementary feature to their zones. But there must be a finite number of flower varieties. Otherwise you get ready marker stacking issues. For example, say you had this third flower...

Adhesive Lily
7 mana, quick range 1. nature 2, plant flower vine conjuration
0 armour, 7 life, flame +2, hydro immune
range 0-0 hydro 2 dice, 7+ slam, unavoidable
after damage + effects, spend its Mist token to give it Stuck if non-flying (note: slam may drop a flyer)

This would give you 3 poison + 2 acid + 2 hydro dice attack as free actions (ready markers) right after a push or teleport into that zone. Adhesive Lily may spend its Mist to keep the victim there for the horde of Rooted Trees also there to attack. But enough theory-crafting fantasies...



I just thought of a few other benefits of the 2 existing flowers.

3. Hopefully expending Voltaric Shield (at vine range for Druid)

All you need is 1+ critical damage, with 2 dice = 5/9 chance, with 3 dice = 19/27

4. Wastes any Block / Reverse Attack (at vine range for Druid)

Any such defences are wasted as the attack is unavoidable



I like how designers made it Range 0-0 to prevent them being used to distract Guards as it would be too useful. I also note how Sleep and Dissolve are muitually exclusive targets to minimise any stacking abuse. I just got this feeling a ready-marker range 0 attacking conjuration with an incantation attached to it has a lot of hidden utility that I'm not fully appreciating at the moment.

I still think Lotus is 1 level too high if there is no "refresh Mist token" mechanic. But Orchid is sweet in a vacuum, and meta-changing too.

[Wiz-Pig]

Does anyone spot any other hidden benefits (apart from the obvious spell point cost for Nature mages)?

Not entirely hidden, but they aren't unique or legendary etc. either you could have multiples of the same flower in play in the same zone or different zones.