Shade of the Devoured Emperor (VOTE NOW!)

[Ken Pilcher]

At Megacon we did the Live Open RnD for a card from Shade of the Devoured Emperor. You can get some pictures and info about Megacon in this thread:
http://www.thespoils.com/spoils/show...d-Megacon-2012

During the Live Open RnD session we all discussed some of the story that will be coming in the Shade, "Be", "Quiet" block as well as some overall design concepts. We talked about the player types, Dominic, Victor, and Deckster as well as touching a big on Artimus and Archibald. (More on these can be found here. As a group we tried to design 3 very different cards that would appeal to each of the player types.

Coincidentally enough the card we were to be designing was the namesake of the set. Shade of the Devoured Emperor is the ghost of Padamose, the great emperor from Seed that ended up being "eaten" by one of the Swords of Great Justice, turned Barduse.

So what is Padamose doing 200-300 years later in the world of 1st edition? He seems to be dropping some hints off to a few select individuals regarding information that may or may not be important to their futures. Eustace and Ignatious... Who are these guys and who are the other 3 individuals!?!?
Shades.jpg
Click on the above image to see the cards!!

Some notes on the cards:
Shade 1 - This version interacts with the number of staple resources in play. He costs between 0 and 5 (depending on the number of different staple resources in play). However, he can get MUCH larger then just 5. He gains strength, life and speed for EACH number of different staples EACH player controls. This means in a 2 player game, if one player has a Rage and Greed, while the other has an Obsession and Greed, he is a 4/4/4 for... 3! If you are both playing mono Warlord, he will only ever be a 2/2/2 for 1. Now think about this in multiplayer! If we have 4 players, and each player is playing 2 trades, he will be an 8/8/8 for a cost of 2-5. Now if everyone has 1 of each staple in play... this guy gets nuts, let's try a 20/20/20 for a cost of 5!

Shade 2 - In this version the group tried to go as flavorful as possible. This shade tries to make contact with the individuals of note. If he can stick around for the turn you play him and the opponents turn you can use him to call out to one of the characters of importance. Even if they are in your opponent's hand or deck you can convince them to fight on your side in support of the Shade! Naturally you would also have your own copies of the key players to give the Shade plenty of targets to visit.

Shade 3 - The last version was designed to protect your faction until the VIP's showed up. The Shade will sit in play and dissuade any aggressive actions your opponents characters may want to take against your faction. While he can not attack in any way, he is the ultimate blocker. However, once any of the key characters show up (under any factions control) the Shade kind of fades off and let's Eustace and friends take care of business. If the Shade ends up in the discard pile and any of the listed characters are not in play, you can call up another copy of the Shade and put it directly into play, protecting your faction once again, until any of the "heroes" arrive.

YOU, OUR PLAYERS, GET TO DECIDE WHICH ONE MAKES IT! DISCUSS IT BELOW!

As a disclaimer (because I have to...) I will state that while we will try our hardest to keep the winning card's final version the same as shown here, it may be sightly different in the end. We obviously have hidden some information on the cards and balancing and testing is always an ongoing process.

[W4nT4n]

I have to admit, that with Seed III almost upon us, the first Shade got my vote. Dunno, for a Tournament with constructed, I think, I would go for the second one. To have a Warlord-Character that cant attack seems strange to me, as I have never seen a defensive warlord player...

[gr8bookworm]

Shade 1 for me...

[t3hj00]

Spoils is a game all about the flavour, so I have to vote for the 2nd one

[kallisti]

I don't really like any of these as currently worded.

Shade 1: Too much variation in power level based on what your opponent is playing. And most of the effects just add clutter and won't be relevant 95% of the time. I also don't like the speed changing.

Shade 2: If you search your opponent's deck and they don't have any of the relevant cards, you don't get a card and you've still lost your shade.

Shade 3: 13 is way too many lines of rules text.

[Brad Meine]

I'm with kallisti. I don't like any of these. Too many words. Let's keep it short and sweet here.

[Asuryan]

I voted #3. I love Warlord Control, it's nice to see cards that don't need to be in a super aggressive Warlord deck.

[Zwidar]

Wait... Kallisti the person that designed Contrabulous Fabtraption a card that couldn't afford space for art, says a card has to much text? That seems rather ludicrous.

[Brad Meine]

The difference is that fabtraption's abilities made sense and added flavor to the card. Shade 1's proposed abilities seem tacked on.

[Brad Meine]

I voted #3. I love Warlord Control, it's nice to see cards that don't need to be in a super aggressive Warlord deck.

I think this is a great point and I'd also like to see more warlord control love. I'm just not crazy about this card.