now that I've had a chance to really dig into the new balrog set, I would like to weigh in on a few things...
eggmceye wrote: ↑Sat Mar 28, 2020 3:34 pm
backstab was coded such that target had to be sleeping - have changed it so backstab always attacks for double damage
I think this was a mistake, to put it bluntly. If lime mephit is OP, then junior cutthroat is on it's own separate level.
king shit of fuck mountain Much like lime mephit and will o wisp, it has haste which allows it to potentially attack through an already developed board state. However, backstab is where junior cutthroat really gets nasty. Because backstab doubles damage, junior cutthroat is even stronger than the previously mentioned monsters. It is miles ahead of any removal/burn spells spells at 2 mana, and any buffs it could be getting also get doubled in effectiveness. Simply put, junior cutthroat trumps most 5+ cost cards in the game for simply 2 mana. In MTG this would be a 2 mana 2/1 with haste and double strike. Personally I would like to see backstab changed back to dealing x2 damage to sleeping monsters rather than cut throat's mana cost adjusted. This change has warped balrog's meta.
LaughingCoyote wrote: ↑Fri Apr 17, 2020 4:45 pm
Lime mephit is OP. 3 mana for 3/2 with haste. Compare that with Wil o Wisp - 2 mana for 3/1 and dies automatically. Will o wisp should probably be 4/1 or something.
Nothing at 2 mana should have 4 power without any kind of buff imo. 4 damage has the capability to kill 4-6 cost creatures. Will o wisp's "downside" also plays nice with bloody plains, a fairly used card. If junior cutthroat gets nerfed and will o wisp gets buffed, we wouldn't have changed much about the state of balrog. While I do agree lemon mephit is fairly strong, I don't think it is OP or needs to be changed. With only having 2 toughness, lime mephit can be killed by 1 & 2 cost sorcery cards (XMP, VF, and lightning strike) on top of being defeated by a good share of creatures. Traps and any monster that isn't sleeping will put a stop to lime mephit's threat to a heart stone before it even hits the field. In this way I think it's pretty comparable to VF. It stays on the field, has a decent body to it, but also costs 1 more mana. Also following this logic, will o wisp is really nothing more than a functional copy of VF that has great synergy with cards that trigger when things die. A safe move would be to adjust lime mephit to 3/1 or 2/2, but I'm not sure a change is necessary.
Also, LC mentioned that unholy flight is over costed in the discord. I agree, but unsure what it should be costed at. My gut says 3-4 because ignoring board state for a turn is quite huge.(it's an effect that will likely be used to end games) This would also fall inline with other cards that can heavily alter the momentum of game such as wrath of god, VOG, or tribal artifacts.
Mino chieftain is also a bit over costed, He could probably do with being a 6 cost creature.
Cows and bovines being different creature types feels a bit weird, though it could be left alone for future design space depending on how much you care about developing balrog
Wanting to end this on a high note, I hope my feedback never comes off as entitled or pissy. Balrog is surprisingly balanced and healthy with the perfect amount of complexity in deck building and game play choices for a small project inside of EUO. You've done an excellent job with it, egg. It's very approachable because it's easy to learn, builds off of games players are likely to be familiar with, and players probably have a stockpile of cards from chests to add to their starter deck. As a huge fan of both EUO and card games, it's a blast playing Balrog with other community members. I hope that with my experience with MTG I can provide some useful insight to keep Balrog going this strong for years to come.
PS
would it be possible for me to design, code, and submit cards to you to be implemented into the game? Even if most of them rot and don't get added into the game, It would be a fun programming exercise.