Aloyzo's Arsenal Official SUBMISSION Discussion Thread

it is a new card for the slot but compatible. its the ride on the razor while others went overboard. You get a feel for whats legit when you mind the existing item pool. But i recall there was a design guide spelling out basic considerations - featured more prominently, it could do good containing too fantastic entries.

 

Wow.... Acid Jet on an Arcane Item finally! I had given up hope on that ever happening since Acid Jet is so OP when compared to Ember Burst and Volcano!

 

It's definitely killer on the right maps.

 

And, I the winner has already been submitted (my prediction only).... I reckon Kashad's workout ethic will get chosen. Ticks all the boxes in a cool way

 

It's certainly got a strong theme and I chuckled when I saw it. That said, the submission guidelines say that: "The best submission will be one that takes a racial skill card that doesn't see much play and puts it on an interesting, useful, and balanced item." Wimpy doesn't feature on any Dwarven Skills and Toughness and (to a lesser extent) Muscle Through are both commonly used.

We'll see. I really want better tokenless elf skills, so that's where I've put my eggs.

 

My first idea was something like, resolution of acceptance
Elf Skill
level 19 or 22 with Elvish scamper,either a second elvish scamper(lvl.22) or a scouting run(lvl.19) and a team walk

 

Quick thoughts on entries so far:
@Gingrich Yurr's BTx2+ABT - wonderful
@Kashad's Wimpy+Muscle Through+Toughness - I agree with @Founder above
@Maniafig's Retreat x2+Escaping Run - those cards see plenty of play (e.g. Make Haste and Hawkwind's Moccasins were quite popular whenever I played)
@Founder's Obvious Maneuver+Scouting Run+Elvish Insight - despite your words above, these are all popular cards last I checked
@j3st3ri's Fleet x2+Wild Run - I'm biased in that I already love and use Fleet, but having Fleet x2 for would probably get it played more, yeah, whether or not Aloyzo considers the item granting Free Move 8 for a discard to be OP $E^ b
@3beaner's Slippery+Escaping Run+Nightling - great .. might be called OP, but would definitely see a nice card (Slippery) get more use
@WexMajor's War Cry+Battle Rage+Blind Rage - fun and thematic, but this set of cards for an Epic screams OP (the CM preview explicitly said dwarves had too much Trait awesomeness already)

I'd like to see something with Uncanny Dodge or Inspirational Thinking. I.T. is an awesome card but barely decently itemized (with only three items, never even revisited in expansions), and UD is already niche (something weird about it, lol,) but of course only on one Legendary item, causing people to hardly even experiment with it due to them rarely winning it and being wary to buy.

I suppose after voicing that out as such, I.T. would be the better card to try to get through, although elves have had it rough since the last rebalance+expansion (despite elf wizards in particular seeing more play last I checked, yay). Not sure what cards would pair well with each, though, without pairing too well for Aloyzo of course.

P.S. @hello world - I'm probably too biased to judge Elvish Scamper's usage - I've used it to lovely/horrific effect (lol) and I've seen others do the same ... maybe it's not so much E.S. seeing little use as it is people not playing elves as much now?

And that reminds me, j3st3ri and 3beaner made me think, an Elf Skill with Smashing Spin and Fleet and something might be neat. Double Fleet would make it Epic . I'd hate to enter this as "competition" to j3st3ri, but depending how the next couple weeks go, I might. Hm.

 

@ParodyKnaveBob - I had a discussion with some people in chat about the elvish skills, and I think it was agreed that although Elvish Insight is indeed popular (a) it's still much less commonly used than some of the common cards you see from the other races (Toughness and Vanguard come to mind); (b) it's not available at tokenless level (and you can get, at best, one Scouting Run at tokenless so this element of the elf skills is basically unworkable at tokenless); and (c) tokenless elf skills are seriously wanting compared to the other races.

As for Uncanny Dodge - I see it as a 'one off' AI card like Jim's Magic Missile and Scorching Rays, which shouldn't really be seen to be a true elf skill. It's also very difficult to itemise without blowing it off the end of the scale (You can basically do U.D. plus Skip/Dodge plus Skip/Dodge, none of which is terribly exciting - putting Jump Back on it takes it to 22+ - or put a drawback in there, like Trip, which could be entertaining. U.D., Dodge, Trip comes in at a minor token, and U.D, Jump Back, Trip is a major).

Inspirational Thinking suffers from a similar problem in that it's hard to itemise without either doing something that's already been done or making it too high a level. You could probably get away with I.T. plus Forward Thinking and a drawback or paper card (Obvious Maneuver would go nicely) for something thematic but different to what we already have.

 

@Founder @ParodyKnaveBob
Cheers for the feedback, I actually had a look through all of the current dwarf skills and unless my eyes and memory tricked me pretty much every card apart from "Loner" was more or less equally represented. This was in fact my second submission - the first was "Resolute Stoicism" with Immovable/Toughened Hide Strips/Shrug it off.
I also must have overlooked the instruction/suggestion to add "Resolution of". Not sure if I want to change that though, especially since most item names consist of no more than three words. "Resolution of Improved Work Ethic" just sounds a bit off to me.

 

Well, I could substitute the war cry for a toughness... It would be a level 20.

But I really, really like my item!

 

@Founder: I appreciate anyone's insights, but I'm even more grateful for yours. Double winners like you and Pawndawan hold quite the weight, y'know, heheh.

Yeah, on the high-risk-high-reward challenge, I went with U.D. + Trip + ..Slippery? ..Jump Back? I think J.B. because double Trait is still killer despite Trip being suicide. One-off AI joke sounds reasonable except 1. Battle Rage got two items (out of sixteen!) that expansion, and Delegate came back for Aloyzo and Castle Mitternacht; on that note, I'd love to see Scorching Rays and Friendly Fire on other (more useful) items because they're interesting; I expect DAttF and NEB are limited to not get OP, but whatever. ~~ Aloyzo was pretty quiet after that contest except to say Traits offset the power balance, which could have applied to my entry, but then there's the winning tokenless entry with a Trait. ~shrug~ Who knows.

I.T. - yeah, early in the AA contests, I wanted the three Thinking cards to be funny (and useful), but the level 27-ish was overkill. I keep coming back to it in my mind, but this month really invites trying it. (I.T., Lateral Thinking, Fumble/Trip - Uncoordinated Scholar - lol - doesn't nod to resolutions, though - eh, Uncoordinated Thinker is more obvious, but eh) - btw, I agree O.M. holds an ironically funny theme on an overthinker, but since I hate O.M., I'd rather not have another item with it that I'd be wary to use, heheh. $E^ b

Fleet x2 + Smashing Spin
Resolved to Revolve ~shrug~ $F^ J

@WexMajor: Two awesome Traits and a Cantrip opponent-hand discarder ... vs. two awesome Traits and an Immunity Armor that also draws yet another card ... I'd definitely call your current item less OP than the substitute despite the substitute requiring a . Like I said, your current item is fun and thematic -- just really, really OP. $E^ }

 

@ParodyKnaveBob

You are right. Changed it a bit. It was OP.

 

I appreciate the kind words, but I have no more idea what I'm doing than anyone else - I'm just a bit luckier to date

 

Dang it. After reading @ParodyKnaveBob's thoughts about Inspirational Thinking, I'm really thinking of changing my submission:

Resolution of Recycling
Human Skill (lvl 6 Common, tokenless)
Inspirational Thinking, 2x Fumble

 

That's a really interesting change, Wex. ~nod, nod~ Still all good cards, but one good card cancels the other good cards -- and even then, it can mitigate the handicap part that sometimes is a sudden problem otherwise. And, the Ferocity name from CH is nice. $E^ b

Pawn, you're terrible. I don't want to like Resolution of Recycling, but I really really like it. Lol.

 

Well, anyone is free to use Resolution of Recycling as their submission if they deem it worthy.

I totally forgot Make Haste, but I'm still sticking with my submission Fear of Resolutions. I'd like to see Retreat played more without Delegation.

Echoing Founder's words, I'd like to point out that there have been more lucky double winners

• @Lucky Dice: Hu La Houp's Vicious Circle & Forsaken Earrings
• @Inkfingers: Tasty, Tasty Staff & Trog-forged Junkplate

***
Since Aloyzo has already crafted two Human skills (Infected & Make Haste) and one Dwarf skill (Reinforced Doorf), I propose the following Equilibrium Challenge for AA #21:

• Design an uncommon Elf skill item
• Item level must be 14 or lower
  
• Use only cards, that haven't been printed on current AA winning items

Current average AA item level is 15.2 and rarity distribution is below:


***
I start:

Resolution of Eluding
Elf Skill (lvl 8 Uncommon, tokenless)
Elvish Scamper, 2x Skip

 

I wanted to expand the racial skill pallette by giving elves an opportunity to purge. Dwarfs have shrug it off. Humans have lateral thinking. Warp run is very powerful but few and far between on items. It makes sense that elves would be able to purge with a move.

Also many resolve to run in a new year.

 

I should have, but I didn't. I'm old enough to know about resolutions. If I had the funds, I'd establish a business named Resolutions. From January 2nd through the 14th it would be a health club. For the rest of the year it would revert to a bar.
As with most of my submissions, I will be disappointed if this one is selected,

 

I might delete my elf item and try the Equilibrium Challenge, but I been doing elf items for awhile in the AA contest to even things out. Even a synergy elf item with Trickery, Slippery, and Smashing spin never seem to get much interest from the community or the judges. And I did a couple other elf ones too in the past.

Plus has anyone ever heard of a rule where elves are not allowed to have blocks on their items?

 

I noticed that when I went through the database to see what cards were allowed on each racial skill. (Elves are allowed Hard To Pin Down, but no other blocks.) Does anyone want to see that list?