The Book of Demogorgon Stalker

[Splash]

Alright, I'll drop that line in the SP for now. Btw can Angstrom turtle with Grundy and Jason?

Oh wait I see he'd get knocked out.

[Ronin]

Upside Down not counting at all cuts both ways - stops the Demogorgons from turtling, but also means that if you've got a couple in your army and you're up against Dark Phoenix or whatever, they can just yoink her off the battlefield and win the game for you, no? (EDIT: Dark Phoenix has SS so not her or most Event Hero types, but general point stands about endgame scenarios)

Might need some kinda Frost Giant type clause on the Demogorgons' card that opponents can't lose while they've got a figure in the Upside Down.

[IAmBatman]

Solid point. Worst thing they could do with this version is move an adjacent full-life Phantom Stranger (460 points) off the battlefield for an auto-win. So, yeah, not ideal.

[IAmBatman]

Hmm, so is there any better way to consider it part of the battlefield but to cut down on the Demo turtling exploit?

[Splash]

Would adding to the map ruling bit work?
"If only one player controls figures in The Upside Down, The Upside Down is not considered part of the battlefield for win conditions."
Or "the player who drafted the map or demos or so and so"

Or any figures present in the Upside Down at the beginning of the game. Or figures with The Upside Down ability.

[Splash]

"If only figures with The Upside Down special power are in The Upside Down battlefield, The Upside Down is not considered part of the battlefield for win conditions."
?

[Splash]

Alternatively, we could add an Portal entry type glyph tied to the Upside Down, for whenever a figure uses the Exit power to be placed on the battlefield on the space of whoever most recently entered the main battlefield, to serve as a way in.
I'm not sure anyone wants to fudge all the rules again, but it would be more thematic.

[Splash]

Possible battlefield power rework.

Parallel Dimension
Begin the game with a Glyph of Portal on an unoccupied space in your Start Zone. If any figure in the Upside Down ends its movement on an Exit Space, the player that controls that figure must place it on any empty space on any other battlefield in this game and must be able to place the Glyph of Portal on an adjacent space.

Possible portal glyph idea.

NAME = GLYPH OF PORTAL
SUBTITLE = ENTRY SPACE

PERMANENT GLYPH
When one of your figures stops here, you must immediately place that figure on any empty space in The Upside Down, if possible. Figures moved by this Glyph will not take any leaving engagement attacks.

This would track well with how they appear when the demo enters our reality, but then start to close back up after, the portal would essentially follow the demo or anyone else around whenever they enter the main battlefield.

Like I said though, this design has been through a ton of changes and this would be yet another, so I get if nobody thinks this would be worth the effort, I just like to get all ideas out there even if they aren't pursued. I can also definitely run a fifth test, if something like this were enacted.

[IAmBatman]

Originally Posted by Splash

"If only figures with The Upside Down special power are in The Upside Down battlefield, The Upside Down is not considered part of the battlefield for win conditions."
?

I think this take gets my vote. I like how they play, we just have to close off corner cases.

[Splash]

Sweet, I'll update with that.

[IAmBatman]

Hopefully some of the Heroes can weigh in on whether that covers us.

[Lord Pyre]

I don't know, feels a bit cheesy yet. What's the issue with someone getting knocked out of it once they receive a wound, or have it on a timer? Overcomplicating this might just create more edge cases and issues. I'm just speaking from experience from Angstrom. It took a LOT of work to make him work, and we cut out all the alt reality battling on purpose because it was extremely cumbersome and intensive to tool.

Basically, whatever the SIMPLEST solution here is probably the best one. If we need more and more lines of text, it might not be the right direction.

Not a fan of the Frost Giant line in general even on them, but tying it to a specific edge case is even weirder. But if we need to push forward here that might be the only option.