Contest Results: In Search for a Search card
I called for you good people to design a search card for the gigantic Deusillus. There were 19 submissions, some multiples by the same people. I will review my top choice from each person, but show all the submissions for your enjoyment, and then announce the winner of the $10 coupon for Burger Tokens!
Andrew Cartwright – Shaking Jello
One of several Jurassic Park themed submissions. Not a theme I personally enjoy, but no doubt it is fitting. Card reads:
Alpha. Omega. Search your deck and discard pile for each card named “Deusillus”. Place each card named “Deussilus into your hand or archive”.
Without the Alpha and Omega, this card is probably a little too convenient. With Alpha and Omega it seems to me a bit on the weak side. It doesn’t have any immediate impact on the game, so you have to hope that the Deussilus hitting the board the following turn will make up for skipping a turn, and I’m not sure it does.
The idea to allow placing the copies into the Archive is an interesting one. I think it was to make it a little more appealing if you already had one of the copies in your hand. It does afford the option of keeping Deussilus in the Archive until it is needed, but I feel without the immediate impact the following turn this card would be a hard handicap.
I feel like this card would end up being discarded a fair amount of the time, which is not really what you want to accompany a card that already might end up being discarded.
Eric Hopkins – Rampage
Eric added a bit of flavor in the facebook post: “The hubris of the saurian was thinking they were in control.” I enjoy the idea of Deussilus being out of control and going on a Rampage. Card reads:
Destory an Artifact, then play Deussilus from your discard pile, or ready and fight with Deussilus if it was already in play. Repeat the preceding effect as long as it is possible to repeat the entire effect.
Notice the lack of “may” before the repeat. Deussilus has gone on a rampage, destroying all artifact in it’s path. There is a bit of quirkiness where if Deusillus dies during the process, it will come back to life. I do get a strong sense of theme from this card, and the design is very interesting.
Power level wise, it allows you to discard the pieces when you get them and wait for Rampage to get Deussilus into play. Still, that likely means some dead cards along the way. However, this card has significant power and might be worth the wait, making Deusillus hit the table in full force for immediate massive impact.
Jeff Pilger – We Dug Too Deep
I choose to review We Dug too Deep because it’s a theme that appeals to me more, and the card mechanics fit the theme well. Card reads:
Deal 1 damage to a friendly creature to discard a card from your deck. If the card was a MASSIVE CREATURE, put it into your hand. You may repeat this action until you have no creatures.
Excusing the poor wording, I really like this design. The beefier your creatures are, the more times you can repeat it, digging into your deck in the detriment of your board state. Firing this off without sufficient creatures to withstand the damage, and it basically does nothing but destroy your board.
I also really like how the earlier you use it, the more costly it is. It scales really well with how much benefit it gives you. If you have 5 cards left in your deck it will cost much less than if you had 30. Power level wise I also think it is very balanced, having the ability to search for one or both copies at different costs.
Joseph Manty – Dark Imperium
I’m not entirely sure what the Dark Imperium is referring too, maybe a twist in Imperium that already exists. Card reads:
Ward and Exalt a creature. Then if that creature has 3 or more aember on it, move each aember on it to the common supply and search your deck and discard pile for a copy of Deussilus and add it to your hand.
This looks like a card that fits Saurians well, has Exalt mechanic and returning it to the supply. I do feel however that having Exalt and return to the supply on the very same card is a weird design choice. You might choose to Exalt a and Ward creature that doesn’t have two aember on it just for the pip and ward, and maybe some benefit that creature has, so it has some use outside of searching for Deussilus, but not a very inspiring use. Power level wise, it’s slightly more versatile than a straight up Help from future Self clone, but not by much.
Liam Tormey – Growth Spurt
The name and flavor text are cute. Card reads:
Search your deck, Discard and set aside piles for a single copy of Deusillus and add it to your hand, if you do purge a creature in play.
I’m not sure why this purges a creature in play, maybe Deusillus eats it very thoroughly? Either way I like the image of a cute little duckling sized Deusillus suddenly terrorizing a city. Power level wise, this is incredibly strong. Single target purge cards currently in print are The harder they come and Oubliette, both don’t give an aember pip and have a restriction on what they can purge.
Since this card has a primary effect, it would actually be interesting if it has some restriction that might force you to purge one of your own creatures if the circumstances aren’t right. Like purge a creature with aember on it maybe?
Mark Campbell – Life Will Not Be Contained
Another Jurassic Park reference. I like that the card type is Theory, even though I feel that doesn’t really match the idea behind an artifact. Card reads:
Omni: Search your deck and discard pile for a copy of Deusillus, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Shuffle your discard pile into your deck and sacrifice Life Will Not Be Contained.
Making this an artifact has interesting implications, for one, and opponent might use it with a Remote Access or a Poltergeist. The Omni here doesn’t seem relevant, as it gets sacrificed after use, so you probably want to do it on your Saurian turn anyway. It does allow you to use it ASAP to avoid an opponent using it. Either way, this seems strictly worse than a Help From Future Self effect, because of the delay.
Matt Panneton – Excavator
Flavor is light, but on point. Card Reads:
Action: Search your deck for a copy of Deussilus and archive it. Return Excavator to your hand.
Excavator may be played as an upgrade instead of an artifact, with the text “If this creature leaves play, shuffle it into it’s owner’s deck instead and purge Excavator.”
I am not actually sure if this card retains the Action ability when it is played as an upgrade, but I think the design is much cooler if it does, so I will treat it as though it does.
This card will take quite a bit of time to get your Deussilus pieces if it is used as an artifact. As an upgrade though, it is super versatile. You can play it on any ready creature to immediately search for a copy of Deussilus. It also returns to hand, so if you started your turn with 2 Saurian creatures, you can immediately get both copies of Deussilus. Then, after you play Deussilus, you can put this card on it to have a soft backup. It can also be played on some other important creature. Very neat.
Power level wise, I think if it retains the action ability, then it is a bit too much to have an aember pip on it. If it does not retain the action ability, it is just a bit too slow to be effective, and I would have liked to see it have Omni.
Stuart Green – Deussilus Bait
Both cards are very flavorful, but I just don’t love the way the Fetching device works, since it’s going to work most of the time. Even if you share all three houses with your opponent, you have a 66% to succeed. Card reads:
Omega, Elusive. Action: Purge Deussilus Bait. If you do, search your library and discard for both Deussilus cards. Then shuffle your library.
It’s a fairly straight forward card. You need to play it, and it needs to survive the turn with 1 power and Elusive so you can find Deussilus. Downside over a Help from future self style card is that it requires to survive and another turn. Upside is it searches for both copies. I’d probably prefer an immediate search for 1 piece.
Terrence TiggerClone Protoman – Dinosaur Egg
I’m going to talk about Dinosaur Egg, but I just want to say I really like the idea that the card searching for Deussilus might be from a different house. Card reads:
Play: You may purge a Saurian creature card in your hand and place it under Dinosaur Egg.
Omni: Sacrifice Dinosaur Egg, Return any cards under it to your hand.
It’s an idea similar to Incubation Chamber, but it only allows to place one card under it. If it was a creature, you could trigger the play effect again with Favor of Rex, which could be neat. As it stands, it’s very weak. A strictly worse effect than Archiving as artifact control is more common than Archive hate.
greymarch200 – Deussilus Park
Flavor wise, I’m not sure if this is just a Jurassic Park reference, or something more, but I enjoyed it. Card reads:
Action: Reveal a Dinosaur or Mutant from your hand and search your deck, discard or purged cards for another copy of the same name and add both cards to your Archives. Purge this card.
I like how this card is not meaningless without Deussilus. It also takes an extra turn to actually get Deussilus into play. So play this, then action then Deussilus. That’s a lot of waiting. On the other hand, you can use it to fetch copies of other cards, which can provide some interesting game decisions.
Mediocretee – Dark Amber Lab
Love the flavor. Both that it references the new Dark Aember in the set, and the scientist in the flavor feeling regret over their actions. Card reads:
Omni: Sacrifice Dark Amber Lab. Archive a Mutant creature from your hand.
This card is really bad. The only advantage to some random Archiving action is you can play this if you find it before the Deussilus first copy, so it saves you holding it. But it’s not a search card, and it only mildly helps with the chains. It’s still a fairly dead card. Maybe ditch the sacrifice and then it can be an Incubation Chamber.
TopDeckMillionaire – An Altar-native Method
That pun in the title is very KeyForge, love it. Card reads:
Omni: Sacrific an Altar-native Method and a ready creature of the active house. If you do, search you hand, deack, discard pile and your purged cards for both components of Deussilus and play them as if they belonged to the active house.
BOOM! Deussilus in any house. Need aember control in Untamed? You got it! It searches purged cards too, which is awesome. Super strong card, probably a bit too strong.
Winner
But first, the runner up. I really liked the potential of Excavator. It needs some playtesting and I am not sure it needs to be an artifact at all. But just in general an upgrade with an action ability that returns to hand after use is super interesting.
We Dug Too Deep is dripping with flavor, even without the Lord of the Rings reference. I love how the mechanic scales based on how for you need to dig into your deck to find Deussilus. Congratulations Jeff Pilger!
Contact and afterward
Hope you enjoyed this little contest while we wait for more information about Mass Mutations. Maybe one of those cards is close to the one we actually get, wouldn’t that be neat?
I apologize for any typos and bad grammar in this post. This took way longer than I anticipated to write, and I don’t feel like going over it to fix stuff. If you’d like to point out any errors, I’ll be happy to fix them. Thanks!
As always, you can follow me on twitter for updates. And join us at the Sanctumonius 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.
