Summary: There is no new information about highly anticipated Set.3 yet, but if EOJ were to continue after the Set.3, I feel it would be cool to see “Field Cards”. This is yet another Wishlist series.
Please note that this series is my personal wishlist of things that I think would like to be implemented in EOJ. So nothing here is official or not even rumor.
What is field card?
As we all know that one of key aspect in the EOJ is the field effect based on the elements. These can be as simple as extra health point or more sophisticated such as the change in ability based on what field they are summoned on. Currently, EOJ fields are fixed i.e. official game field layout are always the same. But what if they are not? Instead of having water front/biolith back in the field 1, what if we can put any field we want there. The game start first with establishing fields. Wouldn’t this be interesting idea?
Are field cards implementable in EOJ?
Techonologically, I believe they are fully capable of implementing this feature. This is how I believe they can implement such feature. We start game with certain number of field cards in addition to the creature/spell card. During each turn we place a field card before summoning a creature to the field. And each field card consists of front field as well as reverse field on it. Note that initially, all 9 fields does not have established field i.e. without the established field no creature is allowed to be summoned on the field.
For simpilicity, we can place some restriction such that you can create only 1 new field per turn, and once a field is created we are not allowed to change the field with other field card (unless specific spell is casted).
For example, during turn 1 player 1 places Fire/Earth field on square 1 and subsequently cast a fire creature on it. At turn 2, player 2 places Water/wood on square 2 and cast a water creature to attack the opponent creature.
Why field card?
Almost all creature cards as well as some spells in the game depend on the field types/number. Thefore, making fields dynamic rather than fixed will allow more tactics/strategy in the game. Followings are a few example of some new things that we can do if field cards were implemented.
- Uni-elemental field i.e. both front and back are the same type of element. (Consider as fissure block)
- De-fielding: This is a spell that reset the established field; therefore, allowing the player to re-establish new field.
- Unsteady field: This field cards lasts for specific number of turns but after the X turn, it will either flip to its back or disappear.
- Mana generating field: This field gives mana when you summon a creature on it.
- Improve support for unielemental decks: Since field layout will depend on you and your opponent, you can strategically make a deck such that field cards in your deck consisting entirely the same element as your creature/spell. For instance, you made Fire deck. Have all ten fields cards Fire field. This way you are almost guranteed that on average 4-5 fields in each game will be a fire field.
- Potential for balancing First Move player vs. Non-First Move Player: Undoubtly it is advantageous to be the first player in EOJ. This is mainly because of the game’s restriction of summoning one creature per turn. So having extra card (as a second player) does not really compensate the extra 2 mana as a first player. However, if field cards are implemented, having more cards in your hand early in the game will improve your chance of drawing field cards i.e. more chance of establishing field. Remember that even if you have mana, if you don’t have field card you cannot cast a creature. So this will balance extra card advantage with extra mana advantage to some degree.
* Fields with special effect should get some sort of restriction such as ending your turn upon its use or cosumption of mana.
Conclusion: Implementing Field cards in the game will undoubtly increase the complexity of the game. For this reason, players should have a choice to whether play the game with or without field card. This option should especially be helpful for beginners. The concept of field card is somewhat analogous to the Land cards in the Magic the Gathering. Adding field card in the game will improve the stragy/tactics of the game play. The estimated chance of this will be introduced in EOJ in the future expansion is 20%. This is the percentage that I would guess there will be future expansion beyond Set.2. Without Set.4, I believe it’s 0%…
Filed under: Wishlist
