This is a minor issue but it was really silly to see it at work. ISSUE Reactive damage from Spiked Mail causes Martyr Blessing to trigger. This is the only combo with Martyr Blessing I had found which behaves in such way that you would want to strip your own armor! Scenario is simple. A warrior with Martyr Blessing hits your warrior using Spiked Mail armor. Armor hits him back, so he gets another item. Lets say it is an attack, so he attacks you again with it and gets another attack! This can continue until you die. And whole chain can be started with just one attack card in attacker's hand. SOLUTION We know that Martyr Blessing triggers on Lava/Fire or Stone Spikes and fire DoTs as well. It is not very consistent. So maybe just make it work only when enemy is actively playing a card during his turn? I have not tested it, but my guess is that a warrior with two different fire DoTs, and standing in acid, fire, spike terrain will get an item each time he is hit. So he would get *three* additional items at the beginning of his turn. Not too many?
I disagree. "Whenever target takes damage from an enemy card, target character draws a card." Spiked Mail is an enemy card, and is played automatically. So are any attachments you create. Martyr Blessing should give your opponent as many cards as you feed him.
Lava/Fire and stone spikes are also damage sources that belong to the caster. I think the martyr's blessing/spiked mail combo is a nice gimmick. The chain of drawing cards shouldn't last long anyway, as there is only a 50% chance that spiked mail will trigger and a warrior is not guaranteed an attack card on a draw. Even if he gets lucky and spiked mail triggers a number of times, it means each of his attack cards did 2 damage less and he received 2 damage himself. He'd have to draw consistently attack cards with over 4 damage, or he'd be hurting himself as much as he is hurting you.
The problem is that warriors draw two main things - parries/blocks and attacks. Lets say my opponent faces my warrior with Spiked Mail, he charges with at least two attacks right (and often with four!)? So he would hit me once (and get a card), I would do something else, then he would hit me again (and get another card). So I would get damage from two attacks and if I survive that he would get either parries or another attacks, which he can use again. Just because I had a bit wrong armor on me. It is a huge difference, because when he draws 14-17 damage card (and is buffed by priest and Rage) I cannot do anything to stop it. The solution is simple - do not *ever* wear an armor with Spiked Mail card. And this way instead of using nice fun item, my warriors will totally ignore it because 2 warriors/priest combo is very popular. This way Spiked Mail is BAD armor to wear instead of being beneficial.
Why? Can you elaborate? I find the card interesting. It is not a main reason I add an item to deck, but if it is on armor item, it is not considered a threat (it is not black). And it should be. It is just another type of weak armor, which fills in some spot with better ones (armor is made of three cards). And yes there are usually better choices, but it is not the point of the topic. Point is it can hurt you a lot while it looks innocent.
Ember Spray looks innocent too, but it's guaranteed to cause Martyr Blessing to draw two cards, compared to Spiked Mail's 50% chance of one. And of course Martyr Blessing is dangerous too, for example if you're also using Blind Rage and you're not in melee range.
I don't understand that bit about Blind Rage. And you are wrong that Ember Spray is in any way similar to Spike Mail. If you see that a warrior has Martyr Bless on him, you simply do not cast Ember Spray - I think it is obvious. If you cast it first and then he is buffed with Martyr Bless, then still it cannot be compared to Spiked Mail situation because you cast it by wizard. This means that wizard: a) should not really be in range of warrior anyway b) could use WoW (WWE or any other movement spell) or move card to make space between him and warrior c) can pass after warrior is buffed so he would be able to escape on the next turn, so one or more cards can be meaningless d) can steal cards using Perplexing Ray e) has many more options compared to warrior f) his life does not depend on Martyr Bless at all
This is turning into a suggestions thread rather than a bug thread. Sounds like the card is performing as intended, but you disagree with that intention more than the card is not behaving correctly. Please let me know if I'm wrong and I'll move it back.
