Fixing the Create Leaders
I think it's generally agreed that Whispering Hillock, Adda, Eist and Filavandrel are borderline worthless additions to the game. Usurper I'm uncertain about but I like the idea and he seems to be a card that offers worthwhile utility. So I'd like to discuss possible ways of making them better.
Eist: The fact he doesn't create a random card but has a pick of what he wants is quite nice, but limiting it to soldiers essentially limits it to a lot of cards we don't need more than 3 of. Back when he could create veterans Eist was at least worth considering, so what if he could either create ANY SK bronze, or any SK support? That would - at least theoretically - give him value as a consistency pick. He can guarantee greatswords have their central engine ready to go, or provide more pieces if the deck comes up against mass removal. Or maybe a Crach variant for the graveyard? Resurrect the weakest card in your graveyard and buff it by x amount? That would stop him being Sigrdrifa x 2, or with the new restrictions on her, even just let him resurrect anything in the graveyard. Perhaps even a super-duel ability, given his soldier flavour? Either a really big body on him, or a ton of armour a la Seltkirk? Or smallish/standard body but he deals double damage in duels?
Adda: In theory I like her as the cursed deck leader, like the Arachas Queen is the consume deck leader. It seems to me then that she ought to be able to create any cursed NR unit without restrictions. Why she's limited to just a pick of three, I don't know. I don't think there's anything broken in there. It'd probably mean everyone and their mother just runs double olgierd, but at least people would RUN HER then. I don't see anything more broken in that than the good old days of Crach an Craite into Morkvarg, and the NR leaders are all really powerful anyway (20+ points out of Henselt is normal, Radovid shuts down engines like a psychopath with a vendetta against machines and gives you a 14 point swing into the bargain, Foltest buffs your entire deck, so he normally gets 20ish points as well...).
Whispering Hillock: Criminy, I have no idea what they had in mind with this card. Some added synergy with the crones would make sense, given [removed because of spoiler]. What if she had the option of essentially being one of the three gold crones? All three are good but none are broken, and the Hillock being able to 'double up' on one's abilities would be something worth trying at least, and might make a relict deck quite a feasible option. It might even make deathwish viable, since she could double dip on the double deathwish resurrection, or she could Eithne for alchemy cards; thus making her reliable at least. Or maybe a reverse Cahir. Cahir resurrects your leader card. What if the Hillock resurrects the last gold crone you played? Or even shuffles the silver crones back in your deck, allowing monsters to 'reload' one of their oldest finishers? I'm not sure that would be broken in the current environment, where 20ish point plays are pretty normal and plenty of leaders get that amount of value from their ability. I feel crone/relict synergy is the way forward with the Hillock. There aren't enough relicts - or good relicts - for create-a-relict to be worthwhile in my opinion. If you want to get super flavourful, maybe when you play her she's auto-sacrificed if all three crones are in your graveyard and they're resurrected? I seem to recall in the game they explicitly say that they bound her to the tree because she was nastier and scarier even than them.
Filavandrel: Uhhhhhhhhhh... create-an-elf? Elves have a lot of good tech cards that people don't like to be up against like the Vrihedd Dragoons. Maybe being able to get more of them would make elven handbuff more viable? Or at least create a proper elf deck. He's supposedly an elven king, so this might work as an idea. He seems the most directionless of all the new leaders, and I can't see an obvious home or future for him.
Some thoughts I've had swirling for a while. Have at it.
I think it's generally agreed that Whispering Hillock, Adda, Eist and Filavandrel are borderline worthless additions to the game. Usurper I'm uncertain about but I like the idea and he seems to be a card that offers worthwhile utility. So I'd like to discuss possible ways of making them better.
Eist: The fact he doesn't create a random card but has a pick of what he wants is quite nice, but limiting it to soldiers essentially limits it to a lot of cards we don't need more than 3 of. Back when he could create veterans Eist was at least worth considering, so what if he could either create ANY SK bronze, or any SK support? That would - at least theoretically - give him value as a consistency pick. He can guarantee greatswords have their central engine ready to go, or provide more pieces if the deck comes up against mass removal. Or maybe a Crach variant for the graveyard? Resurrect the weakest card in your graveyard and buff it by x amount? That would stop him being Sigrdrifa x 2, or with the new restrictions on her, even just let him resurrect anything in the graveyard. Perhaps even a super-duel ability, given his soldier flavour? Either a really big body on him, or a ton of armour a la Seltkirk? Or smallish/standard body but he deals double damage in duels?
Adda: In theory I like her as the cursed deck leader, like the Arachas Queen is the consume deck leader. It seems to me then that she ought to be able to create any cursed NR unit without restrictions. Why she's limited to just a pick of three, I don't know. I don't think there's anything broken in there. It'd probably mean everyone and their mother just runs double olgierd, but at least people would RUN HER then. I don't see anything more broken in that than the good old days of Crach an Craite into Morkvarg, and the NR leaders are all really powerful anyway (20+ points out of Henselt is normal, Radovid shuts down engines like a psychopath with a vendetta against machines and gives you a 14 point swing into the bargain, Foltest buffs your entire deck, so he normally gets 20ish points as well...).
Whispering Hillock: Criminy, I have no idea what they had in mind with this card. Some added synergy with the crones would make sense, given [removed because of spoiler]. What if she had the option of essentially being one of the three gold crones? All three are good but none are broken, and the Hillock being able to 'double up' on one's abilities would be something worth trying at least, and might make a relict deck quite a feasible option. It might even make deathwish viable, since she could double dip on the double deathwish resurrection, or she could Eithne for alchemy cards; thus making her reliable at least. Or maybe a reverse Cahir. Cahir resurrects your leader card. What if the Hillock resurrects the last gold crone you played? Or even shuffles the silver crones back in your deck, allowing monsters to 'reload' one of their oldest finishers? I'm not sure that would be broken in the current environment, where 20ish point plays are pretty normal and plenty of leaders get that amount of value from their ability. I feel crone/relict synergy is the way forward with the Hillock. There aren't enough relicts - or good relicts - for create-a-relict to be worthwhile in my opinion. If you want to get super flavourful, maybe when you play her she's auto-sacrificed if all three crones are in your graveyard and they're resurrected? I seem to recall in the game they explicitly say that they bound her to the tree because she was nastier and scarier even than them.
Filavandrel: Uhhhhhhhhhh... create-an-elf? Elves have a lot of good tech cards that people don't like to be up against like the Vrihedd Dragoons. Maybe being able to get more of them would make elven handbuff more viable? Or at least create a proper elf deck. He's supposedly an elven king, so this might work as an idea. He seems the most directionless of all the new leaders, and I can't see an obvious home or future for him.
Some thoughts I've had swirling for a while. Have at it.
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