Psijic patron too expensive / too few agent kill cards

AnduinTryggva · January 12

With the agant card spam strategy that some players run the means to kill of agents are far too limited or far too expensive.

There needs to be a slightly improved possibility to kill agent cards. If a player can spam 4 agent cards or more the possibility to kill them off needs to be almost as good without the need to cycle through the entire tavern draw pile to be able to get one of the three agent kill cards or to pay 4g for using psijic. Rhajin is another option but requires a lot of luck to buy the right cards.

This aspect needs some re balancing asap.

spartaxoxo · January 13

Building up a large pool of agents takes multiple turns to reach that point. So, it's reasonable it also takes multiple turns to kill. If agents were never around more than the turn they were played, it would defeat a major point of the agents, which is that they give you an extra card to work with on hands they are active.

AnduinTryggva · January 13

It is just that it is really unlikely to get agents killed by kill cards or too expensice to activate psijik.

Your opponent has to have 2 agent cards to spoil your entire match because the probability that he has at least one agent up on each turn is nearly about 100% and if you have to spend 4g on each turn you're cooked.

spartaxoxo · January 13

AnduinTryggva wrote: »

It is just that it is really unlikely to get agents killed by kill cards or too expensice to activate psijik.

Your opponent has to have 2 agent cards to spoil your entire match because the probability that he has at least one agent up on each turn is nearly about 100% and if you have to spend 4g on each turn you're cooked.

You also have the option of using power or leaving the agent alone that turn because that's the smarter play. Killing an agent on demand is a pretty powerful ability, it shouldn't come cheap. The Psijic deck is already pretty powerful.

El_Borracho · January 17

Its why I play Rahjin. Not to be a Bewilderment spammer or prestige destroyer, but to have the constant ability to kill agents with Rahjin cards. I somewhat agree with @spartaxoxo about building up the agent strategy, but getting 6 coins per hand isn't that hard after the second round. Plus, one of the best/worst agents to get is Forest Wraith. It only costs 4 coins but requires 3 power to knock out. Doesn't seem like much, but early on its not automatic you can generate that much power in one turn. Plus, if Celarus is in play, you can use that agent to rack up a lot of power by simply shuffling your deck repeatedly with pretty cheap cards.

WitchyKiki · January 18

I do love Rahjin for this. The psijic patron is a bit of a punishment to press, but killing an agent is a feat in itself. Agents have the ability to massively change the landscape of the game. Its only fair that Psijic patron has its own drawbacks.

Northwold · February 8

Generally speaking I think a combination of a power strategy and Rajhin address this (so it is important to pick appropriate decks at patron selection stage).

However, I do think there are two decks where the agent situation can get very out of hand very quickly because there are simply too many powerful agents. Druid and Almalexia (in Almalexia's case because of the disproportionate power of the agents to remove a player's deck from play).

At some point, I do hope ZOS will take a look at certain decks now that they've been out in the wild for a fair amount of time, and consider adjustments.

Druid, I'd say, is just broken. The sheer number of combos it can generate can often make it impossible to play a full turn in time because of how out of control it gets.

Almalexia could do with maybe shaving down the number of cards that imprison opponent cards, or perhaps changing the imprison mechanic to hold them for only X number of turns.

OR, and the more I think about this the more I think it would make the game more fun for everyone, cap the number of agents you can have out at any one time to, say, three or four.

DenverRalphy · February 15

I think the OP is putting too much stock into the Celarus deck and its patron power. So much so that it's a crutch, and if the crutch breaks, iminent doom.

The patron power isn't too expensive, nor is it the primary use of the deck. If you choose that deck solely for the Patron power, then you're choosing it for the wrong reason (IMHO).

If your strategy doesn't involve some noticeable amount of card shuffling, then it's not gonna do you much good. Instead, use a deck that's capable of churning out power to keep knocking those agents back. St. Pelin's and Ansei Hundings are good at that. Power isn't just to convert into Prestige. Power is there for exactly what the name implies... Power! Use it as a weapon and flaunt that power!

And of course, as mentioned above, Rahjin's deck can wreck the stacked agents strategy. But I'm loathe to recommend Rahjin's because it can also turn what should be a quick game and stretch it out to what seems like forever. I cringe whenever I see that deck selected. Not out of fear, but simply because we're in for a long friggin match.