QOL change request: Make Soulbound unable to effect your Leader.

[Chester]

Picked up the game recently - loving the art style and the position based aspect of the game, reminds me of Duelyst (a card game in the vein of Hearthstone but you could also move your creatures around a board).

Unlock the 2nd Tribe and got on a run that was shaping up to be a sac deck. Picked up the Soulbound Skulls card and the first time I played it the soulbound effect landed on my leader. I'm fine for an element of randomness in card games but it shouldn't be game ending randomness. For those who don't know: Soulbound Skull: you apply the Soulboun effect to an enemy and a random ally, when one of them dies the other takes 100 damage. You can see how this is game ending if it happens to land on your leader.

I hope cards that apply Soulbound can have the exception to not hit your leader OR add a card that removes it or removes all buffs or something for counter play outside of Block.

[TechnoIvan]

Well one idea to rework it would be to make the soulbound card target your OWN ally, and then it randomly targets a Non-Boss enemy.

This would make it much more usable and it would synergize better with sacrifice decks.

Currently, the only way to "properly" use it without gambling, is to get 2 crowns, crown a summon card (Like Junjun) and the soulbound card, then summon Junjun, cast Soulbound on desired target to get a tempo-kill early on.

This however leaves you with a dead card in the deck.

However, this strategy is extremely effective for the final boss fight, as you can immediately take out the biggest threat that makes the entire fight extremely difficult, and unchain your units. It's basically a ticket to massively reduce the difficulty of the final fight.

[Altivu]

Originally posted by TechnoIvan:

Well one idea to rework it would be to make the soulbound card target your OWN ally, and then it randomly targets a Non-Boss enemy.

This would make it much more usable and it would synergize better with sacrifice decks.

Currently, the only way to "properly" use it without gambling, is to get 2 crowns, crown a summon card (Like Junjun) and the soulbound card, then summon Junjun, cast Soulbound on desired target to get a tempo-kill early on.

This however leaves you with a dead card in the deck.

However, this strategy is extremely effective for the final boss fight, as you can immediately take out the biggest threat that makes the entire fight extremely difficult, and unchain your units. It's basically a ticket to massively reduce the difficulty of the final fight.

Calling it a dead card outside of the final battle is a bit of an overstatement, since you can still use it in intermittent battles to great effect (deleting annoying, higher health enemies like Bigfoot/Marrow/Smog or Warthog); outside of Turn 0 yes you would probably not want to play it unless you are backed into a corner, but at that point IMO it's only one step under those scrappy swords/tar blades/gear hammers that you would barely play beyond mid-game. You could even put something like a bread charm on it, for those people that complain that they keep getting it.

Not to mention getting a second copy or Shade Clay (with three crowns) to basically delete two 90 HP enemies on Turn 1 or 2 in the final battle is a whole 'nother level of dominance.

Personally I feel like having it guaranteed to not hit your leader or being able to target select your own units would push this into absolute game-breaking territory, since you have way less restrictions to throw around 100 damage nukes as long as you can summon literally any unit.

[sono]

Yeah, it's a balance issue. They can't really buff it, or it would be too OP. Crown-summon combo is already pretty damn powerful, so it still has a use, and a single dead card isn't that big a deal by the endgame. You usually redraw early anyway to get your powercards out.

You can also use block to negate it.

If you could target it on an ally, it would be insane value if you have summons up. Even if it just avoided your hero, it would be incredibly valuable.

Considering the amount of downright terrible cards in the game, having a card that is occasionally super useful and otherwise very risky is fine.

[Shrinkshooter]

It basically relies on block, or the expensive 2 crown setup described.

Like some reviews say, this game is very coin-flippy and heavily reliant on synergies. If you get the cards you need for the build you're attempting, you're set. If you don't, you're either outright doomed or it's a slowly losing war of attrition due to lack of deck cohesion.

People always complain about the RNG in every deck builder, and I almost never agree with most of the complaints. This game is probably the first exception I can remember.

[sono]

Originally posted by Shrinkshooter:

It basically relies on block, or the expensive 2 crown setup described.

Like some reviews say, this game is very coin-flippy and heavily reliant on synergies. If you get the cards you need for the build you're attempting, you're set. If you don't, you're either outright doomed or it's a slowly losing war of attrition due to lack of deck cohesion.

People always complain about the RNG in every deck builder, and I almost never agree with most of the complaints. This game is probably the first exception I can remember.

The main issue isn't really the RNG - that's about equal to other roguelikes - it's the lack of opportunities to add cards. In other deckbuilders you get to pick a lot of cards, and you get selective. You don't pick every card in StS, yet you still find enough pieces that synergize.

You add something like 10 cards in Wildfrost, at most. The most valuable of which, companions, you get a max of 5 chances at - realistically 3. They define your build, and you're at the whims of rng. With more opportunities the rng curve flattens, which is what happens in StS, but as is you can lowroll once and get ♥♥♥♥♥♥.

This means you pick based on what is safe - you'll rarely pick up sacrifice cards, because it's quite possible that you will never get another, making them useless. Others, like snow cards, are always good.

I get why the game works as it does, but it's a frustrating design choice.

[Aluminum]

This may come across as needlessly contrarian, but right now I think the usability for Soulbound Skull is far from the worst card in game.

The way to make it work is this:

1: put a crown on it

2: put a crown on unit that you want to get killed (Egg, Pootie etc. I don't think SS triggers sacrifice)

3: kill the soulbound ally, either by hitting it with a card or by throwing it in the line of fire.

4: never use SS again for the rest of the fight. (Bonus if you can put consume on the card)