In search for the search card
Yesterday I wrote about the new mechanics revealed in Mass Mutation. I said that I don’t think that Deusillus is powerful enough to make up for the opportunity cost. However, we know it comes with a third card to search for the first two, could that card make it powerful enough, or at least more interesting?
I am not one for speculations, but I do like to design, so I’m going to design some search cards for it.
Existing Cards
There are two search cards that we can draw inspiration from, lets see how they would work with split cards.
This is the first thing that popped to mind when I heard about the third search card. If a similar card was the one that searched for Deusillus, I would be underwhelmed. It doesn’t do much on it’s own, and it will likely only search for one card, leaving quite a bit more to chance.
Then I realized that isn’t even close to the only option, an artifact that can search for a card piece with an action could search for the two cards over two turns. You’d play it, then call the house again to search for the first card, and if you didn’t already have the second card, you could search for that card on the third turn and play it. That’s pretty good. If it had some kind of ability that synergises with it if it’s already in play, like maybe Exalt to ready and use, it could be quite powerful.
Actions
Let us try an imagine some cool actions that would work well and are better than Help from Future Self. You could have a card that does something, and then searches for the card, like deal damage, or kill something, but that wouldn’t be terribly interested, just tacked on added power.
How about a card that can search for a card for Deusillus, or have another effect if it’s already in play (or purged). See, one of my concerns is that half of Deusillus gets purged and then you have two dead cards in your deck. How about: Archive a purged card you own or search your deck and discard pile for Deusillus? That would protect it from purge, and if something else important is purged, you can fetch that.
It could also simply have a strong effect on Deusillus itself if it is in play, like a ready, a ward, or both.
And maybe it cold be dependent on the number of forged keys your opponent has. For each key your opponent has forged, search your deck and discard pile for a copy of Deusillus.
Artifacts
I already suggested an alternate Bear Flute, but let’s think up something more interesting. How about an artifact with an Action: You may sacrifice any number of creatures with total power of 20 or more. If you do, search your deck and discard pile for both copies of Deusillus and put them in your hand.
A powerful search that will fetch both cards, and could in theory do so more than once, at a cost. This probably won’t be very good, but it is interesting!
But let’s try something maybe a little more Saurian. Action: Exalt a friendly creature, if you do search for a Deusillus card or ready Deusillus. This will allow Deissilus to be used more. You can exalt Deussilus, utilizing it’s ability even more if it failed to capture enough aember, and if you happen to play it on a turn when you already have this artifact ready, it gets to be used the turn it comes into play. Pretty neat, I think.
Contest
Use Burger Tokens card builder, and design a search card for Deussilus. Post it as a reply to Twitter, Reddit or Facebook. I’ll pick the design I like most, and the winner will get a $10 voucher for Burger tokens. Extra points for a more flavorful design than Deussilus Control Stick. Also try and be clever in the card design.
Cutoff date is Sunday 9th of February midnight UTC. You may post more than one, but don’t flood me 🙂
Contact and afterward
Transparency: I’m not receiving anything from Burger Tokens besides the vouchers which I am handing off to you. I use Burger Tokens myself and love them, which is why I am happy for the mutual promotion this enables.
As always, you can follow me on twitter for updates. And join us at the Sanctumonious discord server if you’d like to chat with me, or join an awesome community of KeyForge players.
I also started streaming on twitch. I am still learning the ropes and I have a lot of dead air time. But I think I provide some useful commentary on the game and my decision making.
