Thonia can mill, too

    • Thonia can mill, too

      Here's Thonia getting a turn 1 mill victory vs. The Kraken:

      [Blocked Image: http://i.imgur.com/s3iHlDp.png]

      And here's the decklist: hex.tcgbrowser.com/#!/deck=212517

      This is a mono sapphire mill deck built around Twisted Fate and Absolute Power. I'm not super happy with it yet, as it's a little more vulnerable to a bad draw than the ruby version I posted last night... if your draw is particularly bad, it can take you a few turns to get up and running. I USUALLY win on turn 1 or 2 with this (and Shrewd or Settlers opening hand is pretty much 100% a turn 1 win), but a really bad draw can mean turn 5 or 6 while you gather enough resources to draw more cards.

      That being said, it's a good proof of concept starting place. I'd love any feedback on ways to make the sapphire mill flavor of Thonia better. :)

      Note: I use B.E.B.O. as a secondary merc to increase the chances I'll have a troop to target with Shrewd Manipulation on turn 1. This is not mandatory, but does increase the chances of a turn 1 win.
      --ossuary

      "Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none."
      - Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well

    • Awesome! It's really entertaining seeing the different ways to tackle bringing this merc to the field, I just hope she doesn't end up getting hit too hard with the nerf bat--it's been a ton of fun trying out these new decks the last couple of days just to have a very different approach to tackling tricky encounters.

    • If you wanted her ability to be a support ability instead of an infinite ability, you could just remove the resource gaining aspect entirely. She would still enable rapid cycling, just not resource generation - any time you allow players to bypass the process of playing shards to gain resources, you risk creating degenerate scenarios (as we see with Thonia, Hideous Conversion, etc.).

      Alternatively, if you wanted to allow just a small amount of ramp, you could have her resource gain ONLY trigger off her charge power, but allow the other 2 abilities to continue to function whenever a card of the appropriate type is discarded. This would make it so you could gain no more than 4 resources per turn (2 from your own discard, and 2 more if the opponent also discards a shard), while not messing with the fun cycling and lifegain parts of her powers. I think that would be a completely reasonable nerf that wouldn't totally destroy the merc's function and enjoyment.

      Another thought would be to make it give 0/1 instead of 2/0... it's a bit of a shift to payoff later ramp instead of temp ramp now, but it would stop the one turn kill effects while still letting her ability do something interesting with all discards, every time.
      --ossuary

      "Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none."
      - Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well

    • Ossuary wrote:

      If you wanted her ability to be a support ability instead of an infinite ability, you could just remove the resource gaining aspect entirely. She would still enable rapid cycling, just not resource generation - any time you allow players to bypass the process of playing shards to gain resources, you risk creating degenerate scenarios (as we see with Thonia, Hideous Conversion, etc.).

      Alternatively, if you wanted to allow just a small amount of ramp, you could have her resource gain ONLY trigger off her charge power, but allow the other 2 abilities to continue to function whenever a card of the appropriate type is discarded. This would make it so you could gain no more than 4 resources per turn (2 from your own discard, and 2 more if the opponent also discards a shard), while not messing with the fun cycling and lifegain parts of her powers. I think that would be a completely reasonable nerf that wouldn't totally destroy the merc's function and enjoyment.

      Another thought would be to make it give 0/1 instead of 2/0... it's a bit of a shift to payoff later ramp instead of temp ramp now, but it would stop the one turn kill effects while still letting her ability do something interesting with all discards, every time.
      I think making the 2/0 just once a turn would be better than limiting it to the charge power. Cycling the various coins is one of her more interesting mechanics and I'd hate to see that go away entirely.