Soundwarp's Custom Cards 2.0 Update 4-15

[Soundwarp SG-1]

Ugh, sorry it's been so long since I've updated here all.

Anyway, some new cards.

[Not User Name]

Agent Morgan is awesome, the mix between Vydar ranger and Vampire is amazing. A potential 9 move will make up for her lower range value. I really like the feel you set up for her.

[Ixe]

Ezmara Blade of the Home Tree
Her name feels like a bit of a mouthful. Her stats are a little below the curve for her cost but that Blade Weaver power looks like she can really slice through the opponent before she even swings with her respectable attack. I take it the movement from Dancing Leaf Defense works for Blade Weaver as well, giving her almost a type of counterstrike (although she has to roll two or more shields to even hope to trigger it), and this even couples with her Evasive Power. All said she has a lot going on that ties in together, which is cool, but that Blade Weaver Power feels pretty pushed. I'd expect it to maybe be size limited since Heroscape often jumps through hoops so Deathwalkers are at least harder to hit with d20 abilities.

Agent Morgan
I have to say that this Vampire Agent looks really cool. I really like her Growing Bloodlust power where she starts losing it with her guns and just rushes in to eat when the hunger grows dire enough. I guess the theme of Preternatural Aim is she loses focus if there is blood in the water, so to speak. Single die rerolls are still quite good but definitely more limited from how powerful full rerolls can be. I appreciate Desperate Life Drain also being a melee power and how that plays in her bloodlust. Overall she looks fun to play and you can really get a tight sense of her theme throughout the card. I like it.

Nathaniel Graves
This guy says ghost through and through. Lack of line of sight doesn't come up in too many match ups, but it can be powerful when can pick off units seeking safety or he goes to find some himself, although he doesn't need it quite as much with his hit zone. The defense reduction gives his attack something to be concerned about at the very least and ties him in a bit better with the Death Knights. While he won't exactly get tied down in melee given his Phantom Walk, he won't last long once the opponent closes between his defense and life. I'm not sure what to make of Undying Justice. It is only usable once per round, but being able bring him back again and again seems like it should be powerful. It's only on his OMs, however, and he goes away at the end of that turn so its not like he'll be taking up board position. I think it could work out, and it does seem that that is where a good portion of his price is located in the first place. I wouldn't be shocked if you had to dial him higher because of that power, however.

[Scytale]

Ezmara Blade of the Home Tree
Dancing Blade Defense is a neat power, but I suspect it won't have much effect given her moderate defense. It would be really fun to sort of counterstrike with Blade Weaver, but I doubt that will happen often. Blade Weaver is a pretty cool power, even though thematically it can be a little weird. If she runs through something and falls to her death, she doesn't get to roll against that thing she moved through since her card is out of play. Not a biggie though. Unusually high defense for an Elf.

Agent Morgan
Interesting mix of Agent-y and Vampire-y abilities. Those abilities and Tormented paint a cool picture. Seems somewhat potent for 80pts, though she is limited to one attack per turn.

Nathaniel Graves
Love the name. Undying Justice is really interesting. Hard to say if it's actually useful; I suppose his attack is better than some--attack of 3 (with height) and -2 defense is pretty decent but not stellar. That turn lacks other advantages of regular turns as well, such as gaining board position. Overall I don't see him worth as much as Kaemon Awa or a Fen Hydra, or as much as Alastair Macdirk for that matter. I might pay 90 for him.

[Spidey'tilIDie]

Sumiko's base is a Heroclix Scorpion figure from the Captain America set.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

Ugh, it has been ages since I updated here.

Originally Posted by Ixe

Ezmara Blade of the Home Tree
All said she has a lot going on that ties in together, which is cool, but that Blade Weaver Power feels pretty pushed. I'd expect it to maybe be size limited since Heroscape often jumps through hoops so Deathwalkers are at least harder to hit with d20 abilities.

The Deathwalkers were a massive mistake, and it was a bigger one to cripple other figures trying to keep them semi-viable. Even the designers eventually realized this, see Sonlen for example. In fact, I think at one point Grungebob or someone even said they just weren't going to baby the Deathwalkers anymore.

So yeah, I don't limit things based on size just for the Deathwalkers. If there's an actual thematic reason or something, sure, but I don't see a reason to here.

Nathaniel Graves
This guy says ghost through and through. Lack of line of sight doesn't come up in too many match ups, but it can be powerful when can pick off units seeking safety or he goes to find some himself, although he doesn't need it quite as much with his hit zone. The defense reduction gives his attack something to be concerned about at the very least and ties him in a bit better with the Death Knights.

Heh, the Death Knight thing is a total accident. I don't use the D&D stuff, so I didn't even make the connection.

Originally Posted by Scytale

Ezmara Blade of the Home Tree
Unusually high defense for an Elf.

True, but I think it works considering pretty much all the other Elves are Wizards or Archers.

Nathaniel Graves
Love the name. Undying Justice is really interesting. Hard to say if it's actually useful; I suppose his attack is better than some--attack of 3 (with height) and -2 defense is pretty decent but not stellar. That turn lacks other advantages of regular turns as well, such as gaining board position. Overall I don't see him worth as much as Kaemon Awa or a Fen Hydra, or as much as Alastair Macdirk for that matter. I might pay 90 for him.

Well he has almost total immunity to ranged attacks, and utterly demolishes the Krav or Nakitias, 90 seems a little low for that. He's a tricky one to cost right, I'll have to do some testing.

Originally Posted by Spidey'tilIDie

Sumiko's base is a Heroclix Scorpion figure from the Captain America set.

Groovy, thanks. I'm really hoping this is a different Scorpion and not Mac Gargan. That would be... odd.



Anyway, I have a lot of cards that I never uploaded here, so time to get back up to date.

[Ixe]

Idinia
This is an interesting Kyrie and everything flows into each other but I must say the end result is a crowded card. I get why you would want her to have the enhanced movement given Scion, but I think her gaining an effective 1 move penalty while having it active is probably preferable to free up some card space. I like the idea of Ice Shield tempting you away from the snow storm as well. I don't know if she is overly punitive against melee in the right armies but I am nevertheless intrigued by the concept.

R-Virus Shamblers
I was always a bit confused why the Zombies of Moridan were Savages instead of Devourers, but you made the right call with these guys. However, the variable move shamble makes using them far from reliable and it seems a real challenge to get the full horde going when you move at most 4 of them. I like the idea of an infected figure dying for any reason able to come back as a zombie once infected, although there are some oddities about it. If I'm reading it correctly, it looks like one bite to a common army card will permanently infect them for the rest of the game. Furthermore, between the infection and animation powers, it is ambiguous if the figure is destroyed before you would place a marker on the card, meaning that you could not immediately roll to reanimate. The Undead Horde power is cool but I have trouble seeing it work in practice given everything else that is going on with these guys. I like the idea of these zombies, I'm just not feeling it come together.

The Spirit of Autumn
I think the abilities on this guy are very cool. I really like the theme of him being a vengeful spirit exacting punishment out to your opponents figures. I also appreciate how his power is still quite useful against common army cards instead of being some more niche anti-hero power. I enjoy the vengeance theme so much that his last power feels almost out of place. I think I'd honestly prefer the card without him protecting anyone and only being out for revenge .

Zettian Sniper
I do enjoy snipers and precision aim seems a good way to add some extra power. That range and attack seems to make this a solid common hero. I guess you can blow him up if he's ever caught in melee or has the chance to charge into a cluster, but it feels like a strange feature to put on a sniper card that is striving to be away from combat.

Fyorlag Scorpions
With 2 attack, it just becomes more profitable to sting against a 4 defense squad and a 5 defense hero so I guess the power keeps them nicely relevant against high defense opponents that are otherwise the bane for low attack squads. They are probably just okay, but I wouldn't be shocked if they turned out to be surprisingly good for their cost.

Badru Alpha
I'm surprised you use Uncommon Heroes when you hate the D&D waves, but I guess you can take whatever ideas you like from it. This guys is incredibly frail for his points and has incentive to be right in the midst of battle, but bonding smooths over the order marker nightmare that might otherwise bring and it does provide some substantial upside given its powers. I'd almost want a marker for the Call the Pack power to keep track of it for each one since you can easily use several of them in an army.

Zettian Assassin
This is a very interesting idea for an ucommon hero. Those are very solid stats and abilities but the downside is pretty substantial. Still, I can see getting some great value out of these guys in the right match up. Giving up an ordermarker and an X to sic one on an important hero seems a small price along with 10 points. Very cool unit.

[Spidey'tilIDie]

Originally Posted by Soundwarp SG-1

Groovy, thanks. I'm really hoping this is a different Scorpion and not Mac Gargan. That would be... odd.

Yes, I believe she is an Agent of Hydra. I'm not sure she ever even crossed Spiderman's path. For some reason I recall her being in a Hulk story. Really cool mini, though.

[Scytale]

Idinia
A Kyrie hero that's not a Warrior?!? Blasphemy! Seroiusly, though, interesting design. Better against melee than range, I suspect; set up a ranged pod on a hill and snow it up, making it really tough for melee units to climb up to attack. One potential issue: I'm not sure how well Snow and Ice Enhanced Movement works with Flying. Heavy snow and slippery ice essentially have two powers: 1) costs 2 to move on with normal movement and 2) cost 2 to land on when flying/leaping. Snow and Ice Enhanced Movement could be argued to mean it only affects the first.

R-Virus Shamblers
Somewhat like a more limited version of Zombies of Morrindan. Might be ok against melee, but against range they don't look like they have the number, movement, or defense to get up to their targets. Fish in a barrel, as it were. I have a question about R-Virus Infection timing: does it occur before the defending figure is destroyed? That is, the first time you kill a member of a squad, do you immediately place the token and then get to roll for The Dead Walk? Also, how is it intended to work with multiple copies of a Common card?

The Spirit of Autumn
Super cool figure. Interesting design overall; neat concept of giving out and using Reaping Markers. I have a couple issues, along with a repeat of the Common card question. First, it is not always clear in Heroscape if a figure is killed by an opponent's figure or not. The game really isn't designed with that distinction in mind. For normal and special attacks it's pretty obvious, but it gets vague when it comes to powers. The one existing example is Shurrak: if he knocks something off a cliff and it dies from falling damage, did Shurrak kill it? Technically the falling damage did, but is it rules-right to say that Shurrak caused the falling damage? More esoteric powers can be imagined as well. On a smaller wording note, Protector's Gaze should have a "before rolling defense dice" in there, if that's your intention.

Zettian Sniper
I'd say these guys really outclass Deathwalker 7000, but that's no surprise. Precision Aim is a well-crafted power, and Self-Detonation is a neat way to make them valuable when the lines collapse. Nice design.

Fyorlag Scorpions
Having four figures in the unit is key here. With only three they'd get mowed down before doing anything, but a 4th figure gives them some swarming power. Having done a similar squad myself I can tell you that Stinger Tail Strike sounds more potent than it is, but it's certainly not useless. Worth 40pts, I'd say.

Badru Alpha
Call the Pack is a cool power, questions about starting zones aside. I like the boost it gives to the Wolves. Relentless Engagement is a cool power as well (and I like the name), and helps with Badru wolves wanting to Pounce.

Zettian Assassin
Once again, I love the figure. You certainly get a lot for 10pts, but then it's uses are very, very limited. I wouldn't be surprised if it was too cheap, but it would take lots of playtesting to decide that. Great design.

[Not User Name]

I wonder how well a 22 Zettian Assassin + Big Jo build would do?

Thinking about it more, it would have to be Charos and other heroes to make it worth your time.

[Soundwarp SG-1]

Thanks for the comments guys

Originally Posted by Ixe

Idinia
This is an interesting Kyrie and everything flows into each other but I must say the end result is a crowded card. I get why you would want her to have the enhanced movement given Scion, but I think her gaining an effective 1 move penalty while having it active is probably preferable to free up some card space. I like the idea of Ice Shield tempting you away from the snow storm as well. I don't know if she is overly punitive against melee in the right armies but I am nevertheless intrigued by the concept.

I can't have a fake Elsa if the cold does bother her anyway, that's just crazy talk.

Personally, I don't care if a a card is crowded or not, I'll do what ever it takes to fit what I want on the card. I think the basic design of a Heroscape card is pretty hideous to start with, so it's not like I can make it that much uglier.

R-Virus Shamblers
I was always a bit confused why the Zombies of Moridan were Savages instead of Devourers, but you made the right call with these guys. However, the variable move shamble makes using them far from reliable and it seems a real challenge to get the full horde going when you move at most 4 of them. I like the idea of an infected figure dying for any reason able to come back as a zombie once infected, although there are some oddities about it. If I'm reading it correctly, it looks like one bite to a common army card will permanently infect them for the rest of the game. Furthermore, between the infection and animation powers, it is ambiguous if the figure is destroyed before you would place a marker on the card, meaning that you could not immediately roll to reanimate. The Undead Horde power is cool but I have trouble seeing it work in practice given everything else that is going on with these guys. I like the idea of these zombies, I'm just not feeling it come together.

It's very much intentional that one bite infects a whole army's worth of commons. They're meant to be more like the Zombies from the Walking Dead, they're a symptom of an airborne virus that is already infecting everyone. Killing someone with the Shamblers just gives the virus a chance to adapt to their particular genetics, after that the R-Virus does all the work.

You're meant to be able to roll for The Dead Walk on the first guy you infect if you kill him with that attack. R-Virus Infection triggers on inflicting a wound, The Dead Walk triggers on destruction. To me that's two separate phases, you have to have inflicted the wound for the guy to have enough wounds to be destroyed. It's sort of ambiguous, but that's the games fault for never laying a decent timing chart. Not something I feel the need to clarify on the card when I can just make a 'ruling' on how it is meant to work.

These guys are just the vanguard of a larger R-Virus faction, which is why they seem weak at the moment. They're just the base level guys, it's the special infected you have to watch out for.

The Spirit of Autumn
I think the abilities on this guy are very cool. I really like the theme of him being a vengeful spirit exacting punishment out to your opponents figures. I also appreciate how his power is still quite useful against common army cards instead of being some more niche anti-hero power. I enjoy the vengeance theme so much that his last power feels almost out of place. I think I'd honestly prefer the card without him protecting anyone and only being out for revenge .

He has the last power to show that he isn't just out for vengeance, he really does care about the people he protects. He inflicts horrible punishment as a deterrent, not because he enjoys it, that's why he's on team Ullar and not team Utgar or something.

Zettian Sniper
I do enjoy snipers and precision aim seems a good way to add some extra power. That range and attack seems to make this a solid common hero. I guess you can blow him up if he's ever caught in melee or has the chance to charge into a cluster, but it feels like a strange feature to put on a sniper card that is striving to be away from combat.

The idea behind Self-Detonation is to show how team Utgar is not the nice guy team. If the Zet Sniper gets engaged, he's outlived his usefulness, so boom he goes. It's not meant as something you're really trying to do (which is why it's 'instead of taking a turn' instead of 'instead of attacking'), but its a ruthless thing you can do if the need arises.

Badru Alpha
I'm surprised you use Uncommon Heroes when you hate the D&D waves, but I guess you can take whatever ideas you like from it. This guys is incredibly frail for his points and has incentive to be right in the midst of battle, but bonding smooths over the order marker nightmare that might otherwise bring and it does provide some substantial upside given its powers. I'd almost want a marker for the Call the Pack power to keep track of it for each one since you can easily use several of them in an army.

I don't like the D&D waves because they were a cheap cash grab using crappy miniatures that weren't even the right scale half the time. I don't have any particular issue with them game-play wise. I don't actually use multiple commons (or uncommons) in home games anyway, his Uncommoness is basically just a theme thing for me.

I guess Call the Pack could use a marker, but I pretty much only use marker language when it would be awkward to word without it. This is more of a case where if someone needs help remembering, then they can just put a marker on themselves, or write it down or whatever. I'll probably change it in this case though, since he isn't terribly tight on card space.

Originally Posted by Scytale

Idinia
One potential issue: I'm not sure how well Snow and Ice Enhanced Movement works with Flying. Heavy snow and slippery ice essentially have two powers: 1) costs 2 to move on with normal movement and 2) cost 2 to land on when flying/leaping. Snow and Ice Enhanced Movement could be argued to mean it only affects the first.

Eh, I guess you could read it that way, but that's certainly not how I read it. It seems obvious the power was never meant to exclude the landing though, I'd just leave that one to common sense.

R-Virus Shamblers
Somewhat like a more limited version of Zombies of Morrindan. Might be ok against melee, but against range they don't look like they have the number, movement, or defense to get up to their targets. Fish in a barrel, as it were. I have a question about R-Virus Infection timing: does it occur before the defending figure is destroyed? That is, the first time you kill a member of a squad, do you immediately place the token and then get to roll for The Dead Walk? Also, how is it intended to work with multiple copies of a Common card?

Yes, the R-Virus is supposed to trigger first, letting you raise the first squad figure killed.

As for the multiple copies of the card thing, I've stopped bothering to include the '(or cards blah blah..' wording, it's just a lot of extra words for no reason. Nobody plays with 4 cards of 4th Mass or whatever, I don't even know why it's an option.

The Spirit of Autumn
First, it is not always clear in Heroscape if a figure is killed by an opponent's figure or not. The game really isn't designed with that distinction in mind. For normal and special attacks it's pretty obvious, but it gets vague when it comes to powers. The one existing example is Shurrak: if he knocks something off a cliff and it dies from falling damage, did Shurrak kill it? Technically the falling damage did, but is it rules-right to say that Shurrak caused the falling damage?

I've seen this issue brought up before with other powers, and to me the falling damage thing is pretty clear cut. Falling damage is an independent mechanic, not part of Shurrak's card, so I'd say it wouldn't count as Shurrak killing the figure. Doesn't really matter if Shurrak 'caused' the falling damage or not, he still didn't kill the figure directly. Jotun's throwing damage would count though, because it's directly coming from his card. I can't really imagine a power that isn't either wounding/killing directly, or only triggering a different power. Seems like it's always pretty clear what's killing someone.

It's already ground partially treaded by Life Drain anyway, it's question that will have to be answered if there's ever a knockback treasure glyph or something.


Anyway, new card for my latest custom:

[Not User Name]

I love this guy's abilities. First off the Ablative Armour seems to be a perfect fix for the "Deathwalker Roll", and secondly the Rotary Cannon makes him fun, swingy, and can still be consistent on a good day like Braxas.

Great work everytime, I can't get enough of these customs.