The Curse Of Mantras beta 0.8.3

[Franka]

Btw, there are SO many cards I haven't tried yet. I guess I'll get around to it eventually.

[jack1974]

Found the issue with Decay, I forgot to remove a cheat to reload the CPU cards automatically and that messed up with that (not sure how they're related, but as soon as I disabled it, worked!).
The taunt thing instead is my fault, the description says so but I never added the code to remove taunt
I guess I'll do another update before stop working for today

And no worries, cool that there are so many cards left means that the game is big as I wanted and nobody will say "it needs more cards!" *

*they definitely will

[Franka]

Another day of shenanigans.

Lily/Gambaron doesn't have a dominant/submissive scene, only submissive? I see the achievements only have "alternate", which is weird if it's the only one there is.

Lily/Alpha doesn't have a censored dominant scene CG?

[Franka]

I'm taking a testing break to play something horribly violent. I still need to test the cards I've never really used.

[jack1974]

Another day of shenanigans.

Lily/Gambaron doesn't have a dominant/submissive scene, only submissive? I see the achievements only have "alternate", which is weird if it's the only one there is.

Yes correct, will remove the "alternate" since obviously makes no sense

Lily/Alpha doesn't have a censored dominant scene CG?

No there's only that one, I guess adding a cover to Alpha (the shirt) wouldn't be too much work even using another artist though!

[Franka]

I made a ridiculous test deck. Leviathan and Dense Clouds to turn it invisible. Test a Rare+ spell every turn.

Tentacles didn't do anything when I cast it. Is it because I only had 4 open spots for creatures?

Fire Wall also summoned nothing, even though I had 3 open spots.

[jack1974]

Strange, going to take a look! That deck is crazy lol, but a fun way to test rare cards indeed

[jack1974]

OK so it seems that the summon cards like Tentacles or Fire Wall, when discovered by another card (Leviathan) do nothing
I'm exactly not sure why, I tried using the regular spell cards and they work fine, so the card definition itself is fine. It's when they're created that somehow become corrupt! Will check a bit, but otherwise I'll think I'll change those creatures discovering spells since they cause a lot of problems !

[jack1974]

Isn't cool when you find a fix for a bug 5 minutes after you post "I don't know if I can fix this"? haha, anyway found a way to make sure the "discovered spells" work as intended. Going to do an update shortly!

[Franka]

I think I've tested all the cards, so let's talk about strong and not as strong cards. Overall, I don't think there are any dead cards as such. Unlike PSCD, all cards have some kind of useful ability. Still, there are cards I'd always put in a deck and cards I would never, if it wasn't for testing.

It's important to note that, also unlike PSCD, you get access to all the creatures no matter who you partner with, which means that you only put a bit of spell flavor into your individual decks. In PSCD I could build decks around your partner, not so much in this one. It's a bit of a shame that it doesn't encourage that much deck building, but on the other hand PSCD could become nightmarish when you had to build a new deck so often.

Let's talk about some of the cards in rarities.

Common:
Skeleton is a universally useful card. Even in the end game, it's a cheap blocker with high defensive stats. In general, some Death cards seem a little stronger than other elements, because Lily/Ace is awesome, obviously.

Drain Life is mostly useful early game, or the entire game if you're playing on Easy difficulty. Bypassing Armor and targeting anything is good.

Brownie is a card you can build an early deck around, but it loses usefulness around the time you get Rare cards.

Aoandon deserves special mention, because it's the only card that breaks Invisibility. Sometimes you really need that, as in REALLY need that.

Giant Ant is a strong early card, bypassing Armor and being a Life creature, which perfectly deals with Skeletons.

Force Shield is good value for money.

Cards I would not normally play with: Will'o'Wisp, Zombie, Vorpal Rabbit, Imp (don't hurt yourself), Giant Toad (worst Taunter).

Uncommon:
Forest Warden is the Charger you deserve. A little ping damage, followed by a strong attack. Upgraded, he can probably survive crashing into something. Good for the entire game.

Mudman is a strong Taunter, because he will often draw an additional two attacks after dying. The AI just can't stand seeing those tiny 1/2 creatures on the field. They. Must. Kill. Them.

So wait, only 2 Uncommon cards you really like? Well yeah, Uncommons are not the greatest, but there are many solid ones. Except these, that I wouldn't normally play with: Sylph, Ghoul, Bloodlust.

Rare:
Griffon is ridiculous. It flies, Taunts and summons a flying double attacker on death. Thanks, birdie!

Grave Elemental is probably the best Taunter you'll see for a long while though. It's beefy and it hits all opponents on death. That thing saved me many times.

Death Mist is a great AoE damage spell.

Ent is the second greatest Taunter at this tier, providing healing every time it's attacked.

Mermaid is fantastic. You get two creatures while "killing" an opponent creature. That's a 3 point swing in your favor!

Queen's Hand is the reason you play as Order. Unlike other control effects, you choose which creature to take, and it goes up to Rare. So strong!

Subpar cards, according to Me: Roc, Decay (delayed death is not good enough), Land Shark, Sphinx (you don't actaully want Common cards to clutter your hand), Water Elemental.

Epic:
Quetzalcoatl I was a bit sceptical about, but it takes out other Epics, which is good. I can understand why it doesn't also fly, even though conceptually it probably should.

Necromancer is a strong contender for best Epic. Not only does she work every turn (!), she fills the opponent's deck with useless zombies every time one of them dies.

Hydra in a healing deck is the Taunter that just won't die.

There are no bad Epics, but I would probably never bother with Djinn (too unpredictable, can clutter your hand).

Legendary:
Chinese Dragon is a great comeback card if you're getting beaten down, giving you 4 cards worth of creatures.

Fire Giant is a big wall that hurts just to look at.

Leviathan is the gift that keeps on giving. Very few rare or better spells are bad.

Mass Haste looks good, but if you get the most out of it, you're probably already winning anyway.

Underwhelming Legendaries would probably be Valkyrie (not worth that cost), Water Dragon, Peace (don't go around stunning your own creatures), Volcano (don't hurt yourself, hurting the enemy can be done in much better ways), Riot is questionable, as is Purifying Water (you don't want your good cards becoming bad or dead cards).

Bonus Kickstarter cards:
Absorb Life is the only one I use, and that one only early on, unless I'm doing funny stuff with Dense Clouds protecting my funny stuff from being found and killed.

So, that's my very own opinion on some of the cards. If you have another favorite, I'm sure there's a good reason (!), these are just cards I personally really like/dislike, from a veteran card player's perspective. Which doesn't mean I'm right.