We need to talk about Crow - again.

Seraphayel

Title. A tale as old as time.

TL;DR: Crow patron makes for a miserable gameplay experience because it enforces RNG gameplay that’s already bad enough with Tales of Tribute mechanics in general.

Additionally it makes up for lack of skill and shifts tactical gameplay towards a luck based playstyle that can easily beat any skilled player. I‘m not saying a skilled players is totally helpless, but the dependence on RNG makes it definitely harder to counter said playstyle.

Crow gives less skilled players the impression they know how to play the game when they lack simple understanding of ToT mechanics. This is often the case when players amass dozens of coins in one turn due to excessive drawing of cards. Then, instead of using the patron to get 20 or more power in one single turn, they fill up their deck with trash cards and waste all those coins on dead weight instead of clearly outplaying the opponent and ending the match on obvious winning terms.

This happens so often that it really makes me question how these players were even capable of reaching the Top 100 league. The answer is simple: luck and RNG, because they always play Crow + X (in most cases Reachmen because guess what, drawing even more cards is fun) and rely on these “tactics“. They clearly did not reach the Top 100 because of skill, tactical gameplay or awareness of the game and its mechanics.

I know this rant is nothing new and I know that all these problems have been thoroughly discussed, I know ZOS nerfed some of the Crowd cards, but RNG x RNG gameplay is simply not fun and makes for a miserable experience, especially if you’re one of those players that absolutely despises the Crow patron - because all these matches become a race for Crow cards - you cannot ignore them so that your opponent fills their deck with those cards, so you inevitably have to play the Crow game sooner or later - or lose even faster. Most of my losing games I not only went second (which is another issue), but the opponent picked Crow as patron.

Personofsecrets

There is no reason to think that skill is a privileged design concept based on a number of occurrences that have transpired with TOT. I mostly agree that Crow is too easy to play into for all kinds of players including those who don't really understand. That said, it's also not reasonable to think that any of the many potential changes that have been suggested will ever happen.

My suggestion was to make the Tolls cost 5.

sayswhoto

Seraphayel wrote: »

Title. A tale as old as time.
they always play Crow + X (in most cases Reachmen because guess what, drawing even more cards is fun) and rely on these “tactics“.

This is intentional to the point of being meta. Going first with Crow + Reachmen can end the game early if the first turn player picks up the 4-gold Toll of Flesh/Silver. Some background in case you didn't know: the current turn mechanism works by having the first patron pick player also be the first turn one player.

First Turn Scenarios:

• If you get the Reachman 1 power card in your hand on Turn One, you still have 4 gold to buy Toll of Flesh/Silver.
• If you get two 1-power cards in your hand on Turn One, you can use the Reachman patron power to get a coin and now you have 4 gold again.

The 1-power Reachman also has a chance of disadvantaging the second turn player by reducing gold count to 5 and preventing a 6 gold buy. There is still some RNG in that a good 4-cost crow card has to be available on Turn 1. It doesn't always have to be Tool of Flesh/Silver. Crow has other game winning 4 cost cards.

One way to counter this is to pick Pelin and Mora as the second turn player (chance of too many power cards to afford 4 gold picks turn one even with the Reachman patron power to get an extra draw), so that's incentive to get the new deck.

Seraphayel wrote: »

Title. A tale as old as time.
Most of my losing games I not only went second (which is another issue), but the opponent picked Crow as patron.

That's the strategy described above. Second turn player will be placed at an extreme disadvantage.

Personofsecrets wrote: »

My suggestion was to make the Tolls cost 5.

Absolutely agree.

Faulgor

Was about to say I see this even in the top 100 - forgoing an obvious win with the crow patron to buy even more (crow) cards - and I assumed they were playing a deeper game I didn't quite get, but I guess it's possible they just have tunnel vision lol.

Drawing cards and having strong combo rewards is just an incredible combination, because drawing cards makes comboing more likely. Compare that to Almalexia, which makes you discard a card to draw a new one and has not nearly as much combo potential outside of one particular card - and it's still one of the best decks.

It's precisely the fact Crow makes comboing so easy that (new) players are drawn to it - it's just fun, because you actually get to engage with the core combo mechanic of the game in an impactful way.

Personally, I feel that there is a bit too much "free" power on the combos, for a deck that is not really about power generation. That said, increasing the Tolls cost to 5 seems like a reasonable step.

Seraphayel

sayswhoto wrote: »

Seraphayel wrote: »

Title. A tale as old as time.
they always play Crow + X (in most cases Reachmen because guess what, drawing even more cards is fun) and rely on these “tactics“.

This is intentional to the point of being meta. Going first with Crow + Reachmen can end the game early if the first turn player picks up the 4-gold Toll of Flesh/Silver. Some background in case you didn't know: the current turn mechanism works by having the first patron pick player also be the first turn one player.

First Turn Scenarios:

• If you get the Reachman 1 power card in your hand on Turn One, you still have 4 gold to buy Toll of Flesh/Silver.
• If you get two 1-power cards in your hand on Turn One, you can use the Reachman patron power to get a coin and now you have 4 gold again.

The 1-power Reachman also has a chance of disadvantaging the second turn player by reducing gold count to 5 and preventing a 6 gold buy. There is still some RNG in that a good 4-cost crow card has to be available on Turn 1. It doesn't always have to be Tool of Flesh/Silver. Crow has other game winning 4 cost cards.

One way to counter this is to pick Pelin and Mora as the second turn player (chance of too many power cards to afford 4 gold picks turn one even with the Reachman patron power to get an extra draw), so that's incentive to get the new deck.

Seraphayel wrote: »

Title. A tale as old as time.
Most of my losing games I not only went second (which is another issue), but the opponent picked Crow as patron.

That's the strategy described above. Second turn player will be placed at an extreme disadvantage.

Personofsecrets wrote: »

My suggestion was to make the Tolls cost 5.

Absolutely agree.

I‘ve played so many games against the Crow + Reachmen combo and never realized the bigger meaning behind it as you explained. I usually always go Pelin or Mora that these games don’t drag out too long, but it‘s still very annoying. I just played another two games just yet against two opponents with said combo and guess what, it happened exactly what you explained.

They got the Toll in the first round and in the second round they got another one. I got either nothing or something way less useful. I played the game for two/three more rounds, they picked another Crow card and I just conceded. It was impossible for me to pick up. By the way, two lost games and I just fell over 50 places in the ranking.

It‘s all around such a miserable experience because you can’t do anything about it. With most other deck combos you at least can do something, but when they start chaining Crow draws or if that doesn’t work out the Reachmen draw, it‘s just over.

They get too much coins, too much power or whatever. I didn’t realize how many players use this cheap tactic (I’d rather refuse to call it tactic and would rather call it noob-safety-net, because that’s what it is). I really wish we could veto decks.

gvgisdi

Is there even 100 people playing ToT?

Faulgor

gvgisdi wrote: »

Is there even 100 people playing ToT?

PC EU has about 1000 people on the leaderboard rn.

DragonRacer

Seraphayel wrote: »

sayswhoto wrote: »

Seraphayel wrote: »

Title. A tale as old as time.
they always play Crow + X (in most cases Reachmen because guess what, drawing even more cards is fun) and rely on these “tactics“.

This is intentional to the point of being meta. Going first with Crow + Reachmen can end the game early if the first turn player picks up the 4-gold Toll of Flesh/Silver. Some background in case you didn't know: the current turn mechanism works by having the first patron pick player also be the first turn one player.

First Turn Scenarios:

• If you get the Reachman 1 power card in your hand on Turn One, you still have 4 gold to buy Toll of Flesh/Silver.
• If you get two 1-power cards in your hand on Turn One, you can use the Reachman patron power to get a coin and now you have 4 gold again.

The 1-power Reachman also has a chance of disadvantaging the second turn player by reducing gold count to 5 and preventing a 6 gold buy. There is still some RNG in that a good 4-cost crow card has to be available on Turn 1. It doesn't always have to be Tool of Flesh/Silver. Crow has other game winning 4 cost cards.

One way to counter this is to pick Pelin and Mora as the second turn player (chance of too many power cards to afford 4 gold picks turn one even with the Reachman patron power to get an extra draw), so that's incentive to get the new deck.

Seraphayel wrote: »

Title. A tale as old as time.
Most of my losing games I not only went second (which is another issue), but the opponent picked Crow as patron.

That's the strategy described above. Second turn player will be placed at an extreme disadvantage.

Personofsecrets wrote: »

My suggestion was to make the Tolls cost 5.

Absolutely agree.

I‘ve played so many games against the Crow + Reachmen combo and never realized the bigger meaning behind it as you explained. I usually always go Pelin or Mora that these games don’t drag out too long, but it‘s still very annoying. I just played another two games just yet against two opponents with said combo and guess what, it happened exactly what you explained.

They got the Toll in the first round and in the second round they got another one. I got either nothing or something way less useful. I played the game for two/three more rounds, they picked another Crow card and I just conceded. It was impossible for me to pick up. By the way, two lost games and I just fell over 50 places in the ranking.

It‘s all around such a miserable experience because you can’t do anything about it. With most other deck combos you at least can do something, but when they start chaining Crow draws or if that doesn’t work out the Reachmen draw, it‘s just over.

They get too much coins, too much power or whatever. I didn’t realize how many players use this cheap tactic (I’d rather refuse to call it tactic and would rather call it noob-safety-net, because that’s what it is). I really wish we could veto decks.

And on top of that strategy, with Red Eagle they have many cards/agents that let them destroy basically any non-Crow or non-powerful Red Eagle cards in their hand so you get the seemingly endless cascade of Crow combos with some "fun" Midnight Raids popping up since they're destroying everything else in their hand.

Seraphayel

7 out of 10 lost matches today I went as the second player and the opponent always picked Crow + Reachmen. Guess what happened.

I have like 2-3 opponents I remember by name that always, exclusively play this combo. Each and every single time it’s the same and I‘m tracking this bullcrap now because I never realized how busted this combo is.

spartaxoxo

You're not helping the situation if you're adding in Pelin or Mora into that, as player 2 you'll end up with a power card which throws away your 1 coin advantage.

El_Borracho

Crow is essentially forgoing several rounds of power cards in order to overwhelm your opponent by rounds 5 or 6. I agree it is a satisfying set for those that are not hard core ToT players.

If you want to make the game a true nightmare, counter their Crow selection with Hlaalu and Druid. But I've had more success with Druid and Celarus agaisnt the Crow (the lower level players, not ranked players). The Crow junkies seem to overlook that Vestments and Celarus will get more power faster than they can amass Crow cards.

Seraphayel

spartaxoxo wrote: »

You're not helping the situation if you're adding in Pelin or Mora into that, as player 2 you'll end up with a power card which throws away your 1 coin advantage.

So what else? Pick non-power decks which make these matches even more unbearable because they would even take longer than that or just play the Crow game as soon as that patron gets chosen? I mean what’s the solution? At the end of the day it’s a race for Crow cards or what?

Personofsecrets

When My opponent leads with either Crow or Reach, I counter pick with Druid King and Almalexia. The logic is as follows and the more bad decks to pick are placed toward the bottom of the list.

-

Rajhin, the Purring Liar: No - There are too many good options for player one and the game can quickly become a crap-shoot that revolves around the most powerful cards in the game that can be purchased by player one on their first turn (pounce/grand). All of these cards mean less chances to outplay an opponent.

Psijic LoreMaster Celarus: No - There are too many good options for player one. There is simply no reason to ever give player one the first chance at buying these tremendously powerful cards.

Delmene: No - There are too many good options for player one. The good options for player one are quite powerful and mean less chances to outplay an opponent.

Staint Pelin: No - There are too many good options for player one. The class being power based means less chances to outplay an opponent.

Ansei Frandar Hunding: No - There are too many good options for player one. Those options combined with patron flip wars make the game more swingy and harder to outplay an opponent.

Sorcerer-King Orgnum: No - There are too many good options for player one. The class being power based means less chances to outplay an opponent. The abundant cheap Orgnums card, especially all of the contracts, make for a more swingy game and mean less chances to outplay an opponent. On top of all of that, it's Sorcerer-King Orgnum.

Mora: No - Crap based clown fiesta archetype that doesn't deserve the dignity of further explanation.

-

You'll notice that in the above rankings, I have a lower preference for the decks that are more about power generation. The decks that remain which aren't utterly egregious picks when being second player, or at least we can say are the less bad picks, are Druid King and Almalexia.

Druid King - Sometimes Druid King can counter people dead-set on crow strategy by going above them. Something like Wispheart combo can help make for explosive turns that are needed to outpace the consistent value of Crow. Stacking agents that become hard for crow to deal with can also sometimes work. At the very least, them using power on an agent instead of the Red Eagle Patron button means that the opponent will be playing with less resources. Sometimes you can also get a lucky run on contracts into making a Chimera which the crow player may have a hard time to deal with.

An important note is that you do not want to find the clue which upgrades Runes of the Draoife into Druid King Vestments. Druid King Vestments is a stupidly overpowered card that you never should want an opponent to have. Additionally, do not morph Stonelore Rockseer into Envoy of the Draoife by playing the extra NPC game with the druidic TOT master. Part of this strategy means that sometimes the opponent gets the chance to buy Stonelore Rockseer on their first turn when they don't have War Drum messing up their hand. In such cases, you really don't want that card to be the morphed version because the extra health point makes it significantly better and more difficult to deal with.

And it should too be said that you have chances with the Druid King patron to remove problematic Crow cards that pop up in the Tavern.

Almalexia - Almalexia is a really nice deck choice because it doesn't give player one anything too insane. Although something like Bardic/Festival can plus Writ of Coin is too strong of a play, it isn't as much of an end of the world thing as someone picking up a Toll. The player 2 outlook with Almalexia also has better options with three drop plus Writ of Coin being guaranteed or sometimes buying 2 three drops, which is quite strong, being a possibility.

I recommend finding the clue for Tribunal Sentinel since Mercymother Elite is significantly better at it's job and you will want alternative win conditions open to you against a large variety of opponents as additional ways to outplay them. Don't upgrade Mother's Mercy into Almsivi's Charity or Devotional Gaoler into Hand of Almalexia. The unmorphed versions are already really good and there is just no compelling reason to potentially open up a can of worms with their morphed versions.

And, again, use the patron ability when it isn't too disadvantageous to your economy, so that you can keep the opponents combos as separated as possible. Using Almalexia can be a fine dance of weaving cards into the place that you want them to be.

El_Borracho

Mora: No - Crap based clown fiesta archetype that doesn't deserve the dignity of further explanation.

Well said!

spartaxoxo

Seraphayel wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

You're not helping the situation if you're adding in Pelin or Mora into that, as player 2 you'll end up with a power card which throws away your 1 coin advantage.

So what else? Pick non-power decks which make these matches even more unbearable because they would even take longer than that or just play the Crow game as soon as that patron gets chosen? I mean what’s the solution? At the end of the day it’s a race for Crow cards or what?

Personally I'd recommend Druid and Psijic to counter that. If you're lucky, you'll can get a lot of power from that deck. And if not, you should be able to generate plenty of coin and use the crow patron. Between the Psijic and Red Eagle deck, you shouldn't have any trouble with deck control. So, you'll be able to play the good cards more often, which should make up for it going a bit slower.

Edit:

I'd also agree that Almalexia is a good choice but personally I think it's worth the risk of Psijic to speed things up a bit more. And it doesn't put you at as strong of a disadvantage as Mora and Pelin.

Personofsecrets

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Seraphayel wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

You're not helping the situation if you're adding in Pelin or Mora into that, as player 2 you'll end up with a power card which throws away your 1 coin advantage.

So what else? Pick non-power decks which make these matches even more unbearable because they would even take longer than that or just play the Crow game as soon as that patron gets chosen? I mean what’s the solution? At the end of the day it’s a race for Crow cards or what?

Personally I'd recommend Druid and Psijic to counter that. If you're lucky, you'll can get a lot of power from that deck. And if not, you should be able to generate plenty of coin and use the crow patron. Between the Psijic and Red Eagle deck, you shouldn't have any trouble with deck control. So, you'll be able to play the good cards more often, which should make up for it going a bit slower.

Edit:

I'd also agree that Almalexia is a good choice but personally I think it's worth the risk of Psijic to speed things up a bit more. And it doesn't put you at as strong of a disadvantage as Mora and Pelin.

One thing worth noting to be careful with when using either Psijic or Almalexia during matches where combos matter alot is that if someone is getting combo potential, denying the filtering effects of Psijic/Alma can become quite important. Something like Crow with Alma splash can be a big problem to deal with.

Seraphayel

Dropped just 140 places from #6 to #146 because I had a streak of bad luck - most matches I played and lost - guess what - against the Crow + Reachmen combo (played against the three same opponents that are always using these patrons).

Druid did help a little, was the best counter yet. Almalexia did not help as the cards can benefit the other side too much. Mora I found to be quite effective when you can overrun your opponent quickly. You just gotta be careful with the cards that give your opponent additional draws. Rahjin wasn’t too bad either, but to slow down their draw combos with Bewilderment just takes too many coins and turns to be really effective - at least from my experience.

spartaxoxo

Seraphayel wrote: »

Dropped just 140 places from #6 to #146 because I had a streak of bad luck - most matches I played and lost - guess what - against the Crow + Reachmen combo (played against the three same opponents that are always using these patrons).

Druid did help a little, was the best counter yet. Almalexia did not help as the cards can benefit the other side too much. Mora I found to be quite effective when you can overrun your opponent quickly. You just gotta be careful with the cards that give your opponent additional draws. Rahjin wasn’t too bad either, but to slow down their draw combos with Bewilderment just takes too many coins and turns to be really effective - at least from my experience.

Try Druid and Psijic, and focus on getting those and not the crow cards. You can also use the black tavern cards to your advantage, so the opponent doesn't get them all.

Seraphayel

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Seraphayel wrote: »

Dropped just 140 places from #6 to #146 because I had a streak of bad luck - most matches I played and lost - guess what - against the Crow + Reachmen combo (played against the three same opponents that are always using these patrons).

Druid did help a little, was the best counter yet. Almalexia did not help as the cards can benefit the other side too much. Mora I found to be quite effective when you can overrun your opponent quickly. You just gotta be careful with the cards that give your opponent additional draws. Rahjin wasn’t too bad either, but to slow down their draw combos with Bewilderment just takes too many coins and turns to be really effective - at least from my experience.

Try Druid and Psijic, and focus on getting those and not the crow cards. You can also use the black tavern cards to your advantage, so the opponent doesn't get them all.

Psijic works surprisingly well also. Druid too. Good options to at least make those games more bearable. Mora has proven to be a double edged sword, can end those games rather quickly, but can backfire pretty hefty as well (like the deck was intended, I guess).

spartaxoxo

Seraphayel wrote: »

spartaxoxo wrote: »

Seraphayel wrote: »

Dropped just 140 places from #6 to #146 because I had a streak of bad luck - most matches I played and lost - guess what - against the Crow + Reachmen combo (played against the three same opponents that are always using these patrons).

Druid did help a little, was the best counter yet. Almalexia did not help as the cards can benefit the other side too much. Mora I found to be quite effective when you can overrun your opponent quickly. You just gotta be careful with the cards that give your opponent additional draws. Rahjin wasn’t too bad either, but to slow down their draw combos with Bewilderment just takes too many coins and turns to be really effective - at least from my experience.

Try Druid and Psijic, and focus on getting those and not the crow cards. You can also use the black tavern cards to your advantage, so the opponent doesn't get them all.

Psijic works surprisingly well also. Druid too. Good options to at least make those games more bearable. Mora has proven to be a double edged sword, can end those games rather quickly, but can backfire pretty hefty as well (like the deck was intended, I guess).

Yeah. It's why I don't like Mora deck as the rush strategy option. Or Mora deck in general, tbh. It does speed up games but in my personal opinion it's the most RNG and least skillful deck in the game and just makes for frustrating matches when RNG isn't in your favor. When it backfires, it backfires really hard.

Neoauspex

Get more purple cards than them or Rahjin them

IncultaWolf

You think crow is bad rng? Wait until you play with the mora deck against another player

Reverb

In my defense I don’t care much for PvE so I still only have the 5 initial decks to choose from. Depending on what my opponent chooses Crow and Red Eagle are often my best play.

Seraphayel

Neoauspex wrote: »

Get more purple cards than them or Rahjin them

That‘s exactly what I don’t want, counter Crow with Crow. That already proves that Crow is out of all 11 patrons by far the strongest.

I‘ve been tracking Crow usage over the last days, basically 90% of my opponents either play the Reachmen + Crow or another Crow + X combo. And roughly 4/5 matches I lose it happens due to Crow RNG being involved and endless streaks of drawing cards.

Neoauspex

Seraphayel wrote: »

Neoauspex wrote: »

Get more purple cards than them or Rahjin them

That‘s exactly what I don’t want, counter Crow with Crow. That already proves that Crow is out of all 11 patrons by far the strongest.

I‘ve been tracking Crow usage over the last days, basically 90% of my opponents either play the Reachmen + Crow or another Crow + X combo. And roughly 4/5 matches I lose it happens due to Crow RNG being involved and endless streaks of drawing cards.

Mora is stronger

Malyore

I'm still fairly new to ToT, but it's currently one of my favorite things to do in ESO. It's my first "card" game I've gotten into, but I like how it plays out. Luck being the main driving force of the game keeps things interesting imo. It's about tact rather than strategy. It's not about planning out moves 10 steps ahead, it's about how to best handle the cards you are dealt in each moment. The crow is a fun one because it synergizes well with many decks, yet by itself it's not focused on power or coin. It's (in my experience so far) about building up a devastating hand of OTHER patrons, and THEY determine how effective it is. Usually getting draw after draw after draw, and then adding on top of that the crow patrons ability, it makes for a heck of a slam to the end of a match. It's super rewarding if it plays out well, and I think truthfully that luck factor is what keeps much of the game in balance in the grand scheme of things because its results can be devastating or sloppy, not necessarily by any fault of your own. And knowing luck of draw is what your opponent has to go through too doesn't make me frustrated if I get a bad hand.

Maybe once I lose a bit more I'll change my mind. Usually with novice NPCs I feel very even with their choices right up until the end when they too don't utilize the crow patron that could have given them the win.
Though I'm not a competitive player. I don't like competitive games in general and I do believe ToT is not apt for a ranked competitive game. If people who don't know how to play the game are reaching top 100 that may just be due to the population of players.

Seraphayel

I love how 99% of the matches I’m losing it’s either to endless Crow draws or going second. I just had 7 matches in a row where I went second and I lost 6 of them. Fun times. Yesterday I was ranked #2, today I’m in the bottom 100s. The worst part about this is that I’m forced to play Crow because 4 of 5 opponents always pick this patron. It just reduces to fun from ToT to a minimum when you’re forced to play with something you genuinely hate.

Neoauspex

Seraphayel wrote: »

I love how 99% of the matches I’m losing it’s either to endless Crow draws or going second. I just had 7 matches in a row where I went second and I lost 6 of them. Fun times. Yesterday I was ranked #2, today I’m in the bottom 100s. The worst part about this is that I’m forced to play Crow because 4 of 5 opponents always pick this patron. It just reduces to fun from ToT to a minimum when you’re forced to play with something you genuinely hate.

Pick Orgnum/Mora and just power past it... You'll still lose a lot whenever your opponent goes first but nobody will have enough turns to get the purple combo going.

Seraphayel

Neoauspex wrote: »

Seraphayel wrote: »

I love how 99% of the matches I’m losing it’s either to endless Crow draws or going second. I just had 7 matches in a row where I went second and I lost 6 of them. Fun times. Yesterday I was ranked #2, today I’m in the bottom 100s. The worst part about this is that I’m forced to play Crow because 4 of 5 opponents always pick this patron. It just reduces to fun from ToT to a minimum when you’re forced to play with something you genuinely hate.

Pick Orgnum/Mora and just power past it... You'll still lose a lot whenever your opponent goes first but nobody will have enough turns to get the purple combo going.

I always take Mora when someone takes Crow, it‘s the only effective counter I’ve found yet. The problem are the drawbacks which give your opponent one/two additional cards, that can backfire fast, especially when they play Crow/Reachmen. But nevertheless it‘s the safest bet to have a chance against Crow from my experience.

Stafford197

It's easier to pull off huge spiraling combos with Crow cards compared to other decks, because you get to draw so many extra cards/combo opportunities. Draw bonuses need to be harder to take advantage of imo.

I would suggest that Pilfer/Plunder/Squawking Oratory should have 1 less Draw bonus. You'd still get to draw plenty of cards but it would help avoid the situation of being able to draw your entire deck every turn. Something like:

Pilfer (Card Cost of 6):
Effect: Draw 1 Card
2-Bonus: Nothing... Grants 1 Gold
3-Bonus: Draw 1 Card... Grants 2 Gold

Plunder (Card Cost of 6):
Effect: Draw 1 Card
2-Bonus: Nothing... Grants 1 Gold
3-Bonus: Draw 1 Card... Grants 2 Gold
4-Bonus: Draw 1 Card

Squawking Oratory (Card Cost of 6 8):
Effect: Draw 1 Card
2-Bonus: Nothing... Grants 2 Power
3-Bonus: Draw 1 Card... Grants 2 Power
4-Bonus: Grants 4 Power... Grants 2 Power

Personofsecrets

That's an idea, but the front loaded card draw is more of a balance issue than later combo card draw.