"Draw wins" as a general issue in games which feature some kind of draw mechanic is always something that's a call for debate. While some lament the idea of RNG having anything to do with these types of games at all, there are, as we have discussed in the past, some vital reasons why randomness is valuable and can work. In Pox specifically, draw wins is a bit different than in other more combo heavy games or resource dependent games. In MTG, for example, not drawing land, or getting just the right combination of cards, can be highly significant. In Pox though, the issue is generally more not drawing a viable combat champ and losing the tempo on even one round of movement/AP generation can be disastrous due to the way fonts work. At some point, Pox introduced the idea of Shrine Scry - which helped a bit, but was functionally just giving you more reveals so it largely helped more with revealing the entire dock sooner, but did less for draw consistency. With EXP 29, we will be changing two things: Base Reveal Rate for Player One will be 8 runes, and Player Two will be 9 runes The Shrine Scry ability is replaced with the Shrine Mulligan ability: You lose 10 nora and you get a new set of starting runes. This ability is removed after the first round. The increased base reveal rate should, already, in of itself, mitigate most situations where you do not draw a viable combat champ (unless your deck is horribly balanced in that sense). The Shrine Mulligan ability gives you the ability to sacrifice some of your starting resources (nora) to obtain a better draw. Nora was considered a more gating resources for this mechanic than shrine HP was while leaving the choice of using the mechanic for a chance to get a better selection of runes for the matchup. You may, if you so choose, use it multiple times, at a cost of 10 nora each time. The ability will remove itself after the first round of play to prevent the use of it later in the game to cycle CD of runes by concealing/revealing. ~ Tome of Hate is being considered for a change since without Shrine Scry and the reduction of Scorn/Immortality it becomes a bit of a dud. Currently, the idea is to simply give it Scorn and bump the HP up. What we don't want to do is create a situation where every deck starts running ToH, but some compensation seemed appropriate here given the very specific nature of this rune. The other idea is to again bump up the HP and then just reduce the cost - so that it is more viable as an mid-late game rune in situations where you are defending the shrine.
possibly make it so that tome has the ability shrine scry which will damage the shrine to reveal runes. Also thanks for immediately bringing this up since you probably knew i was gonna ***** about it otherwise haha
I was mostly just pre-empting suggestions to re-work the rune into a much more generically useful rune.
Oh, alright then. Tome actually protects against only a few, limited kinds of rushing; it isn't an all-around stopper, and shouldn't be viewed as such. It's a more restricted rune than folks think.
Nice, now scrying units are more valuable. I would back this change with an avatar overhawl (meganerf) since them will not lose hp anymore.
frankly i would like to see avatars actually used in combat for once, so i welcome full HP avatars that are actually safe to engage
And I never said that you said it did, though we both may have seemed to imply those things. -- Current set of changed would increase time to total deck reveal, assuming scry on every turn, by ~2 turns, although that margin may shrink if players stop scrying early, which they usually do. Players will also have more shrine HP, which makes rush decks worse, but the increased t1 pool makes hyper-specific pulls more consistent. General rush gets worse, gimmick rush gets slightly better.
Them are OP. It is suppoed to be used as a last resort, not as an overwelming monster that can turn the tides.
It's a lot more suspect as a long-term value proposition for games which run inconsistent shrine damage, such as Vengeful decks which may run Skeletal Berserkers and little else, or in ED/Yard decks which only get triggers every other turn from Yard. Finally, it no longer functions as raw grind for the 2 global HP. Those three situations are the big ones where a lack of scry changes how ToH might be played.
Which is not to say that ToH even needs a change in any way. If Sok wants to do it, neat, but I (and likely others as well) would still run the rune without Scry.
What I meant was that I don't want to rework it, but am willing to make some small tweaks such as adding Scorn or giving it more HP.
Not sure on DMR's opinion, but as far as changes go, cutting cost would be the strongest, granting Scorn the weakest. Would have to think about Immortality. Giving HP in the middle. So, as player perspective, take that how you will.
The extra HP is relevant in those situations I mentioned -- ones where ToH will slowly bleed itself out on inconsistent ticks. I think that's more valuable than Scorn per se. Anything that comes with a cost reduction, though, would be the most powerful kind of change ToH could get.
