Azthor

Skill Drain: whether the TS or the SW variants, it is only circumstantially useful if your ritual's attack template (target and ability) have some advantage over your opponent's. In most real situations, that means having an overall inferior ritual with some measure of chance of defeating your opponent's, based on your creature's comparative VE and which creatures are frozen, as well as in what order.   Vitality Drain: the same as Skill Drain on the account of VE and Freezing. According to Burn's, furthermore, Vitality Drain is unable to make a meaningful difference against a properly a

This was originally going to be a beautifully politically correct post on how we cannot expect leaders to part with their humanity.   But, truly, we are always expecting leaders to demonstrate nothing of their humanity, unless it is a carefully articulated jest that exalts our own moral perceptions.   The opening post's character is somewhat mixed.   Should a leader express themselves as individuals openly?   Yes and no. If the head of state of a great power were to drop the dehumanizing pretense of a public figure, the results would be socially catastrophic. But th

Happy birthday!

While I could not change the post's size, given the number of points I must address and want to comment on, I have divided that text according to whom they primarily refer to. Similarly, I have further reduced my paragraphs, and at least tried to adapt my writing, though I may have failed in many regards. If double posting were acceptable, I'd have done so instead, but that was not a possibility.   @dst:   I would not say I have only insulted No one in that post, but I would say I was offensive not once, but twice, if not more so. I will write about the second part of y

Angiens and drachorns are readily available enough that, it being likely that a new player will acquire a set of them sooner rather than later, limiting their number in a ritual does little to enable a new player to contend with a stronger player. I cannot dispute that point, in and of itself - instead, where we to discuss such specifically, we'd have to speak of tokens, stats, Skill Drain, Vitality Drain and Freeze - but that is a discussion of its own, and to have it in this thread as a throwaway discussion would be facetious and impudent.   Nowhere in this thread, or set thereof, how

It may prove to be a design flaw by other accounts, such as those listed, indeed, but, isolated, the parallelism to negative stats is symmetry for the sake of symmetry. I will, however, add it to the list if others find it to be a compelling argument nevertheless.

That negative stats already commonly function as such has been pointed as a reason for Weaken Defense to not act as it does; I opted not to include it in the list after due consideration, however, for arguing Weaken Defense should not function as it does on that basis is an inherently weak argument - as its current function is not a bug, its current mechanisms are as intended as those that do not operate as such, and hence using those other mechanisms to dispute Weaken Defense's modus operandi is tentative at best.

Disclaimer: I have not, in any way or fashion, checked the veracity of the data below, it being taken directly from http://magicduel.inv...92-combat-talk/. Should you find any factual mistakes, inform me of such within this thread and this post will be edited accordingly. New suggestions, where pertinent to the topic, will likewise be added.   I - With Attack being more readily available than Power, it has been claimed that those support skills deriving from Power, such as Defend, Protect, Heal and Regenerate are hopeless to compete against the Attack based Weaken Defense. On these grou

It may also be worth noting that angiens, by having no access to Freeze, are vulnerable to one creature rituals if not properly supported; assuming one has sufficient personal initiative to beat the tokens' boost when employing a single creature. Similarly, Vitality Drain can affect the angiens before the initiative proper, and a drachorn ritual may have an inherent advantage through Freeze, even if further limited in numbers. While the angiens' defense may prove a challenge without as many Creature Boosts, that is somewhat lessened by the availability of Weaken Defense.   It is likewis

@Burns: could you further develop on why the amount of angiens in a ritual should be reduced?   @Dark Demon & No one: likewise, but the other way around, though I've already added DD's statement to the opening post.

Disclaimer: I have not, in any way or fashion, checked the veracity of the data below, it being taken directly from http://magicduel.inv...92-combat-talk/. Should you find any factual mistakes, inform me of such within this thread and this post will be edited accordingly. New suggestions, where pertinent to the topic, will likewise be added.   I - It has been suggested that Wind Dragons and GG drachorns Creature Boost each other, but not themselves, it held that their powerful base stats are rendered somewhat meaningless in view of personal stats and tokens, and their ina

Please, refer to http://magicduel.invisionzone.com/topic/15716-aurasbonuses-creature-boost-skill-drain-vitality-drain-freeze-antifreeze-tokens-availability-order-opportunity-value/ in directly discussing auras and bonuses such as Creature Boost, Moraleaura and Levelscare, as to maintain the topics relatively sectioned; while I recognize some measure of overlapping may prove unavoidable, the present situation is not one such a case.

Disclaimer: I have not, in any way or fashion, checked the veracity of the data below, it being taken directly from http://magicduel.inv...92-combat-talk/. Should you find any factual mistakes, inform me of such within this thread and this post will be edited accordingly. New suggestions, where pertinent to the topic, will likewise be added.   I - Drachorns: Target: All, Freeze, Antifreeze & Creature Boost: further reducing the maximum number of drachorns in a ritual has been suggested as a way of limiting the ultimate compounding of those factor. It has been suggested by multiple p

If none of the tests prove our expectations concerning Skill Drain untrue, we could assume securing as many of a given stat, as spread through a six creatures ritual, as a superior opponent should be impossible. If that is the case, then it is not possible to gain initiative advantage through Skill Drain and, strictly speaking, Skill Drain should be powerless to stop a first hit reliant opponent; that, of course, putting aside the freeze roulette, through which Skill Drain might enable a few circumstantial victories.   It might also prove determinant in a number of close calls, such as

  If the TS' boost is solely based on the absolute difference between the relevant stats in the appropriate slots, the effect should decrease with each boost, as the gap diminishes, making it so that TS cannot ever bring your stats above your opponent's. As they are irreconcilable, which of the aforementioned and the quoted are true?

I - lashtal killed Mur to fulfill the meaning/prophecy associated to his name. II - lashtal killed Mur to discover/confirm whether it was was his destiny to be his slayer. III - lashtal killed Mur to be a god slayer. IV - lashtal killed Mur to start a chain reaction. V - lashtal killed Mur to satisfy an urge. VI - lashtal killed Mur to further a belief. VII - lashtal killed Mur to build up to an event. VIII - lashtal killed Mur to show there are no limits in MD. IX - lashtal killed Mur to show his inner will. X - lashtal killed Mur to show the different between outer and inner 'darkne

Lashtal killed Mur to fulfill the meaning/prophecy associated to his name. Lashtal killed Mur to negate a god (god slayer). Lashtal killed Mur to discover/confirm whether it was was his destiny to be his slayer. Lashtal killed Mur to create a new path. Lashtal killed Mur to open a new path. Lashtal killed Mur to learn from him. Lashtal killed Mur to learn from his killing.

  If Freeze's targeting is random, and a Frozen creature may lose a chance to activate its aura even if is unfrozen, then the defender is unable to predict which of his creatures are likely to have their auras go into effect, at all.

I suppose how useful Vitality Drain is in such a scenario depends on the difference between the total amount of VE in the fight and the amount of damage being thrown around. For one, if the first one to attack ends the fight, Vitality Drain was entirely useless, other than whatever VE it may have sapped from the opponent if they didn't use a 0% slider. If, on the other hand, not enough damage was thrown around to wipe out either side, Vitality Drain might win the fight. Not that such is necessarily useful.   The aura is circumstantially more interesting against Energy Burn, I'd imagine.

While I do not begrudge the idea of one such a discussion, and even believe it to be necessary, to have it now may be precipitated. As an example, had we had this discussion a month ago, we'd likely have had a cyclic discussion around Freeze mechanics under myriad inaccurate notions on how Freeze & Antifreeze apply and interact with tokens and other auras, potentially culminating in the discussion dying out.   Without a sufficient lead-up to this, we risk having another variant of that very example happen.

I'd like to bring another two aspects into consideration, pertaining directly to the topic at hand. Again, I'd like to refrain from discussing more extensive redesigning until further discussion has taken place:   I - If creatures that were unfrozen by the defender can still miss their turn as a consequence thereof, the application of their own auras included, then we are dealing with a notably less pro-defender scenario; if anything, that all but guarantees any complex strategy involving the initiative order is null from the defender's perspective. Can anyone confirm whether or not tha

The discussion seems to have developed sufficiently for an interlude:   I - Would any dispute that those creatures with Target: All, drachorns included, ought to maintain the advantage they derive strictly from Target: All, whether due to to their position in the combat hierarchy, availability or premium status, if such advantage were not further compounded by other others?    II - Furthermore, and in spite of the answer to I, would any dispute that, while drachorns are meant to be among the foremost desirable creatures in the game, the compounding of Target: All with Freeze

Happpy birthday!

(...) the free inventive folk of MD gathered in a great host (...) but Azthor's cheapness could not be undone. Yet.  :ph34r:   Lashtal killed Mur to fulfill the meaning/prophecy associated to his name  Lash killed Mur to be an opposing force to a god (god slayer) Lash killed Mur to break the limits Lash killed Mur to create a new path Lash killed Mur to bring balance Lash killed Mur to further explore the meaning of his existence Lash killed Mur to start a chain reaction Lash killed Mur to distract from a different plot Lash killed Mur to draw attention to Necrovion L

Happy Birthday!