Talk:Elementalist

We played a couple times last night. I wanted to like it, and I like the idea of it, but it seems not ready for release yet. The main problem is that there seems a huge first player advantage: bring a 3-elemental into play, inflict 3 points of damage on the opponent, and you're already 30% of the way to victory and it's hard for them to counter or overcome that.

A rule issue for us was "In the attack phase, every elemental in offense mode (lying down) attacks the opposing player." We weren't sure if that means that only the active player's elementals attack, or all attackers (of both players) attack. We decided that the latter, but then thought maybe the former was intended.

Also what if you can't play a spell on your turn? Do you lose (like I believe you lose in MTG if your deck runs out)? Or do you keep playing, simply resolving attacks with elementals? The rules don't address this.

Since each turn you only take a single pyramid from your hidden stash, you can't do much in a turn. It always seemed it was urgent to play an elemental or spell NOW - the flashes seemed a very pointless luxury we didn't have time for.

In "real" MTG, players start out developing slowly, needing lots of land to get the ability to bring out big creatures. In Elementalist, if you make one of your 4 stacks only have 3-pyramids, then you can bring out the big guns immediately. I think that's the core of the problem, and the game would need to be changed a lot to get that same kind of gradual increase of power.

The game lists there being no luck, but the simultaneously created and hidden stacks in effect introduce luck. If go first and bring out a 3-red (so I take 3 points of damage), then on my turn it makes a huge difference if my top 3-pyramid is red (I can defend with a tie, although then on your next turn you'll probably enhance your red and kill my defender) or yellow (I can't defend you - if I block, you just kill my 3-piece) or blue (now I block and you can't attack or you'll lose your piece). This is not a complaint about the game per se but about labeling it "Random chance: none". Perhaps that's a philosophical issue though. :)

Because the games were won so quickly (by bringing out 3-pyramids), the setup/drafting seemed to take as long as the real "play", which was frustrating.

Hope this is useful feedback! Goulo 11:41, 27 May 2011 (UTC)