Greetings, and welcome to my guest “Card Mechanics” article on Hex Vault! Colin asked me to write up a more thorough concept design of a mechanic I proposed on the forums. It was going off of an idea vickrpg had of a “splitting” troop.
The idea around this mechanic is to help make a traditional “slime monster”, though it could be used for any number of unique creatures – including vickrpg’s original idea of a “band” troop where the band splits off into its individual members.
The idea involves adding 2 keywords – Divide and Combine.
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Divide X [Quick Action] – this troop splits into X <name> troops, with the original attack and defense evenly divided (or unevenly, if it’s not an even division) among those X troops. The divided troops will also have and abilities the original troop had, and they share their “state” (attacking, blocking, exhausted) with the original troop.
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Combine [Quick Action] – combine all other troops in play under your control with the same name into one troop. All attack and defense from each troop is added for the new troop’s defense, and any abilities any one troop has are retained on the new troop.
A cost would likely be good to include in this keyword as well, though it could be left costless, as an immensely powerful keyword that is very expensive.
I like this idea for two reasons – thematically, it allows for some proper representation of group cards, like Shin’hare Militia. It never did make sense that a group of bunnies (or whatever) would be one card that lived and died together, without the option to split it. The classic fantasy slime-monster also becomes an option. You know the one, where you try to kill it and it keeps dividing and you have to kill each bit? An alternative version could be a divide that only triggers on death, and perhaps had a turn timer before it would mush back together.
Shin’hare Militia
Band of Bunnies
However, keeping it as a quick action does allow for some very interesting gameplay. Lets invent a card real quick:
Shin’hare Warband – 6 cost, 2W – 4/4 Divide 4, Combine
Now, in a Shin’hare deck, you’re usually going to be running whole-field buffs, things that favor having multiple small troops. Things like Command Tower or Bucktooth Commander. So having a single troop that is that high of a cost is ineffective to some extent. But sometimes, you need a big blocker to deal with some big ugly… lets say… Kraken. This would give you the flexibility to reconcile BOTH of those ideas in one deck. And if you play more than one… well, we’ll get to how that might work in the next example.
Command Tower
If you have this guy out, and lets say two Bucktooth Commanders, your Warband is a 6/6. You attack, and your opponent has something with 5 attack out, lets use an Endbringer as an example, because he was the first thing that showed up when I did a search. He is unwilling to block and lose it, so passes his block phase. Then you divide, and now you have 4 3/3 Shin’hare Warbands out, and deal 12 damage. On his turn, he attacks, gets his Endbringer up to 7/5 since it has Rage 2. You leave your guys divided, attack again, and he makes a Blaze Elemental to block with. You re-combine your Warband, and your 6/6 survives his elemental. He keeps his Endbringer back this time, and you swing in again with your 6/6. He blocks, you have a sudden, flexible choice – you can choose not to divide, and trade creatures, or you can choose to split up the band, lose one, and have the other 3 go through next turn for damage.
The Slimes
Now lets take the other example that this could make – slimes. And lets see if we can recapture some of the magic from… well… Magic that I loved the most – Slivers.
Lets say we had a line of 5 cards, one of each shard, with this pattern:
Colonial Slime – 2 cost, 1 [Threshold] – 1/1 Divide X, Combine. The Divide count on this creature is equal to the number of Colonial Slimes you combine to create it. Swiftstrike/Vigilance/Speed/etc. (different for each shard)
Now you have a troop that you can split and combine, and when you do, it gains the abilities of all the other slimes you played. Meaning you can start to grow these (very flexible) creatures as the game progresses. You play 3 different ones, combine them, now you have a 3/3 with all the abilities of the other slimes, that also has Divide 3. You have the same flexibility as the above Shin’Hare example, but in a very different context.
One of the issues I always had with sliver decks was you could play your crucial sliver, only to have it get murdered by your opponent immediately, and all its benefits leave. A deck centered around this mechanic wouldn’t have that same weakness. Play a new slime, glom them together, and get a big ugly thing with neat abilities. Then when you divide it again, you have a bunch of little ugly things with neat abilities.
Wrapup
There’re some obvious holes in this idea still, specific little rule clarifications that’d have to be handled. For one, if you combine 2 troops of different colors, what color does the big one end up as? Assumedly multicolor, just adding in all the colors. But then how ‘bout when you divide it again? You could either go with they all gain all the colors now, or you could divide the colors out individually as well.
Then there’s considering what would happen if you combine 2 things, one of which is exhausted. Does the new guy ready, or exhaust? If something targets/blocks a big guy, who divides, which little guy is it targeting? Random? Player choice? What about temporary buffs, how do those work?
I also kind of like the idea of adding even more flexibility by allowing the player to decide how many to divide into, and how many attack/defense points to put into the others, and similarly to decide how many to combine together. That amount of flexibility though… It’d be like combining Spikes with Slivers. Which, lets be honest, would be awesome.
Mr. Funsocks