Thoughts on "top trumps" of Malifaux?

[PandaBearGuy]

Sorry if this has been discussed before but I honestly had no clue what I should search to find if it was...

This is purely hypothetical, I'm not trying to get the game altered or a new edition pushed out or anything. I feel like the game rules make my discard phases a bit too automatic (keep high cards, preferred suit, or some combination of both.) My thought is, would it have been a good idea to make certain duels a success by scoring UNDER the target number?

I will give a different gaming system as an example and then translate it into Malifaux. Please don't get hung up on the specifics of the example, I'm just trying to get my point across. So in Warhammer most dice rolls are focussed around the higher the number the better (i.e. 6's always hit and wound, but 1's always miss or fail). However for the leadership tests you need to roll UNDER your unit's leadership, so 1's are then a godsend. In Malifaux terms, what if Terror checks worked the same way, where the lower the terror causer's aura # because it decreases the chances of the opponent flipping a total under that #.

I know we have the suit-based trigger and spell system but often the lower cards in a suit will be pretty useless for anyone without access to soulstones. I like to look at low-trumps as ANOTHER mechanic alongside suit mechanics, as opposed to a REPLACEMENT of suit mechanics.

In my opinion having both top AND low trumps in the game would actually work better than in dice games because of the control hand mechanic. I think it would add stress and tactical decisions when deciding which cards to keep, as you may want an emergency 2 in your hand for that (example) terror duel. It might also alter card-cycling strategies since you wouldn't necessarily be working through 54 cards to find the 10's,11's,12's,13's and red joker.

Thoughts?

PandaBearGuy

(p.s. - I heard you can get an app which exactly recreates the keychain tamagotchis of the past, but if it isn't a little low-pixel plastic dongle on a keychain is it really a tamagotchi? REALLY?

[micahwc]

I think there is a special event which switches aces and 13s. Also, low cards are good sometimes because you want to fail some duels. For example, maybe I have some trick up my sleave and I want the enemy to hit me. I can cheat my duel lower to be hit on purpose.

Also, a hand full of low cards means I am statistically more likely to flip good cards during the turn.

[marshimartian]

And then there is Sub Zero, I usually hang on to a low tome with Raspy, such a nasty trick, especially against a high AP melee model like Misaki

[Omenbringer]

There are already some really great (and devious) uses for low cards in the control hands. For example the Gremlins can get a lot of milage out of low cards when the Skeeters flub the Soeey! cast and have to eat a large number of Piglet Strikes. Another example would be when you are shooting into melee and your model becomes the target, you can always cheat the ranged strike down so you dont hit or damage your own model. Along the same lines you can target your own models with a ranged strike or spell that produces :blasts, cheat down the resist to flip more cards on the damage flip and put damage on those high defense models. You could also do this on one of your models with a destructive like Shatter or Immolating Demise to finish them off.

Add in that a Lot of Defensive triggers dont require success only the suit and again those low cards can become very useful. Additionally, a lot of abilties/ triggers require the discarding of cards from the control hand to either function or deny, which makes those low value cards very important again.

And of course the last great thing about a hand full of low control cards (like Micawc says) is that you have effectively increased the likely hood of drawing well from the deck making cheating much less neccessary. Another benefit is that this keeps them out of the deck for two turns. There is also a portion of the player population that really likes keeping the lowest card in the deck in their control hand.

[Ryu]

I think it's fine as is too. I love nothing more than cheating in a low-medium strength card (3-7 ish) to get my duel total 1 over my opponents and make them waste something, sometimes something much higher.

Yes getting a hand full of 1's or 2's is painful, but as has been pointed out above that means you're much more likely to get good flips (remember a 6 card hand is 11% of the deck, 7 is just under 13%).

[Tokaji]

Not to mention if you're playing Hamelin, and Nix is around (provided they didn't nix his dmg switching ability, which I don't think they did), and your weak dmg is actually your severe, and vice versa, then you want low cards.

[Adran]

I played a game yesterday where both players were trying to lose a gamble your life dual. The Stiched player, because then he would die again and gain reactivate and me, so that he didn't get 2 more gamble your lifes. I was very happy to have that 1 in my hand.

And there are plenty of triggers and spells that want a low suited card. I can think of Wild heart for marcus (3:tomes), sub zero for the ice Golem and gamin the armour trigger for the Rail worker. Izumus trigger cancling ability.

I know your terror was only an example, but it really doesn't work well. Models with a high willpower are supposed to run away less. The aim below a target number will penalise good willpower models. You would need to put in a whole seprate stat that is only used this way and different rules to try and get it to work.

Yes, there is a good chance that I will discard at the next draw step most of the cards that are 5 or lower, but I have used them enough times in the game.

[micahwc]

We could continue the "do I hold on to the black joker" argument again in this thread. Personally, I do. I value removing uncertainty from the deck more than having a usable card in my control hand.

[Omenbringer]

We could continue the "do I hold on to the black joker" argument again in this thread. Personally, I do. I value removing uncertainty from the deck more than having a usable card in my control hand.

That is always a great discussion.

For me it really depends on the master I am playing and how much impact it will have. For example with Som'er Teeth Jones it is difficult to hold on to that Black Joker because he only has 5 Control Cards to play with (his mechanism for gaining additional control cards in turn is a mixed blessing). Additionally, flipping it has a negilegible impact in most Gremlin Builds (Kin being a notable exception to the rule).

Now a Master with access to Arcane Resevoir has a lot less to think about since they'll still have a "full" control hand despite holding that Black Joker turn after turn. So with some one like that I'll hold on to it.

[Mordeqai]

Rezzer's never seem to have this problem... Especially not when I kill 7 models in a turn... and I only kill 2 enemy models.... sigh

My point is that Yan Lo with 5 dead dogs is a very scary Chi machine.