Quote:
Originally Posted by gatormustang
New addition Ullar has summoned Garruk. I created this Heroscape Custom Card with inspiration from
@ TechToaster
AoTP Custom Card. I recreated the AoTP Custom Card using all stats from that card to match AoTP game multi-color cards. |
I'd like to make a few critiques and ask you about your design choices for Garruk. Keep in mind I have very little knowledge of MTG lore and I mostly ask these questions and say these things from a game design/balance perspective in AotP:
-Garruk has the lowest base life of all AotP Planeswalkers, at 5. No official Planeswalker has less than 6 life. Is there a particular reason that you gave him 5? I ask because Sorin has 6 life, 5 power, and 4 toughness, multi-attack, and the ability to heal 2 damage per kill compared to Garruk's 1. Not only that, but Garruk heals only 1 point of damage at end of turn, where Sorin can destroy figures in combat and heal damage right there after combat, no need to reach the end of turn.
-Liliana's Grasp is severely debilitating, and IMO warrants either dropping his price to like 280, or just removing this ability altogether. Not only can he still be Despised (-1 power enchant) by other black players, but he cannot benefit from green's excellent Planeswalker power enhancers like Groundswell, Leaf Arrow, and Predatory Strike, all of which he would absolutely love to help him secure kills to proc his healing.
-In tandem with the above point: his damage output is so-so, but he is extremely frail at 5 life and 4 toughness even if he can get consistent 1 damage healing per turn. His Axe of the Apex Predator power encourages your opponent to engage him so he cannot get the +1 power bonus from attacking at range. This is somewhat mitigated by the risk of your opponent dying to black's devastating Killing Wave spell as well as Garruk's Hunt the Weak buffing his own nearby creatures. I still think it is far too easy to bum rush this version of Garruk and slay him, potentially even in a single turn given how busted some of the spell combos are (Twinflame + Seize the Day. Titanic Growth/Overrun + Paths Revealed/Snare the Skies. Essence Flux + Roilmage's Trick.) However, for those times that the bum rush fails to kill Garruk, he does have Bountiful Harvest, Altar's Reap, and Corrupt available to him for healing...
At a glance, I feel that I would be terrified to put him into a fight against anything more than 1 creature at a time, and at that I wouldn't want to go anywhere near an enemy hero when black as a color already struggles with heroes and Garruk gets none of green's destructive power boosts which would otherwise give him a much better chance at killing heroes or even other Planeswalkers. So, I think I would be hard-pressed to get him into fighting at all until most threats are removed from the board, and taking more than the first 1-2 turns with him in the early-mid game seems likely to feel bad. Given his lower price, this should mean we can fit a bit more meat into our army, so hopefully they carry more weight in the fight. I would use Garruk mostly as a cleanup figure if I were to choose him as my PW. That's not necessarily bad, as I feel Sorin is in a similar role. The difference is, Sorin has more life, a higher base attack, and no handcuffs (like Liliana's Grasp) holding him back, although I acknowledge Sorin also costs 50 points more. I usually don't mind using Sorin to fight multiple squaddies because he can hit each one and threaten multiple kills in a turn. Right now, Sorin feels more like the Apex Predator than Garruk does.
Although by nature of his black/green mix, Garruk gets savage spell combos for the Kessig Rangers. Duress + Titanic Growth + Corpse Lunge = if your opponent's PW manages to survive 3 volleys of 7 dice, they probably discarded most of the cards from their hand in the process anyway...