TDB, that first one is dangerous... if they ever make any effect that triggers off of discarding or retrieving a card, that would allow it to go infinite. I figure a safer means of doing that effect would be, "Exhaust a (Some Team) character you control, discard a card -> Put ~ from your graveyard into your hand."

And you make a really good point, Adam. The problem seems to be that we've collectively become so expectant on having options that always give us our ideal choices on a given turn that we don't really tolerate inferior options. I wonder if Weapon of Choice would be playable if it had a lower discard cost, or even no discard cost at all...

And, Curtis, he was making a valid point. Stuff where you're just milling to the desired drop is only in the abstract sense different from searching. If you build your deck so your X-cost drops are all generally useful, then you don't really care which one you get. Search has made it easy to write off less direct means of fixing one's plays; that's the entire idea behind the exercise.

The RP payment theme was one of those ways they seemed to intend letting the Masters of Evil fix their curve without necessitating search, and they even had a search card that worked off of the assumption of under-dropping to enable it. Had Faces of Evil not been so powerful a pump effect, I wonder if that theme might have ever proven to be playable.

You're kidding right?

I was simply pointing out how the collective "open minds" that had posted cards were basically printing search cards without actually having the word "search".

I take it you haven't heard of something called constructive criticism and you still believe that everyone is special in their own way and that there is no difference between right and wrong.

Honestly, everyone finding a way to word a tutor so it doesn't use the word 'search' is trying to rules-lawyer the challenge.

The aim is to try and find an alternative to tutors, not find a way to change their wording.


Here's a go...

3 Seven Fold Return...
Look at the top 7 cards of your deck, put any number of them on the bottom of your deck in any order, then put the rest back on top of your deck in any order.
Draw a card and discard a card.

Honestly, Wake the Devil (Thule Society) is really pretty good. I figure if we juice it up a bit...


Oooh... here's one that might get people running more character heavy builds...


Knowledge is Power [1]
Ongoing: Discard a non-army character card, reveal another card in your hand that shares a version with the discarded card -> Look at the top five cards of your deck, put one in your hand and the rest on the top and/or bottom of your deck in any order.

No Power Greater
PT 3

Play only during the draw phase.

To play discard a character card from your hand with cost less than the number of resources you control.

Each player KOs resources he controls until they have a number equal to that card's cost. Put that card from your KO pile to your front row if you do not control a character with the same name.

You may not recruit characters this turn.

- - - - - -

Giganta
Doris Zuel
Secret Society
1/1

At the start of the combat phase, if you have not recruited any characters this turn, put 2 +1/+1 counters on Giganta for each resource you control.

At the start of the recovery phase remove all counters from Giganta.

-Run

To help "size up" characters when you're up against a curve/stall deck and miss your own drops:

Strength in Adversity
3 PT
Ongoing: Discard a card, pay 2 resource points -> put three +1/+1 counters on a character you control; use only once per turn.

At the start of the combat phase, if an opponent controls fewer characters than you, remove a +1/+1 counter from a character you control.

So if you get out a 1 and a 2 on your first 2 turns but whiff on a 3, you can make your 1 or your 2 into a 4/4 or 5/5 (typically) and recruit another 1-cost, giving you a field that *looks* like you have a 3, 2, 1 or a big 3 and two 1's, or just a 3 and a 2 (if you don't have another 1 to recruit, or if you recruit a 1 on turn 3 and didn't get one on turn one). They'll stay that size if your opponent's field has as many (or more) characters than you (giving you an opportunity to match their field), but if your opponent is also having an off recruit (or if you're swarming and he's curving), then the bonus is reduced. This should prevent it from being abused in an under-cost deck, and chances are it won't be abused in a curve deck since you typically get a +3/+3 for 1 resource point from turn 5 onward. Or at least, that's the idea that I have.

The alternative to hitting your drop is to simply under drop. Plain as day. There have been a few neat ideas utilizing counters that showed up as well.

Rewording a 'search' card is still with-in the parameters of the rules as they were outlined.

That still leaves you without an offering of your own, oh mighty PC Winner of Constructive Criticism.

Nice try to deflect the attention away from that though. No points awarded, but nice try.

Rival of My Opponent

3, plot twist, rare

To play, put a character card from your hand into your KO'd pile.

Look through your deck for a character card with an affiliation other than one on the card you put into your KO'd pile. Show that card to your opponent, put it into your hand, and randomize your deck.

I feel this is a great way of helping players to hit drops without having them search. A note to R&D members: if you still have room in DC Legends, feel free to toss this in, I promise not to claim it as intellectual property.

;]

Winner.

If you want to eliminate manipulating your deck at all (which includes cycling, milling or searching) -- this is the best way to create parity with characters you already have on the field.

The biggest problem with this is the advantages you get for less stun damage... and of course the disadvantages of being lower costed which opens your characters up to being Frame Trapped, Hawkeyed, Gift-Wrapped etc.

I don't know if I would make it Ongoing though as there is a probability of imbalance because on turn 5 you can have a 10/10 4-drop, an 8/8 3-drop and a possible 7/7 2-drop (Terra-Man) and still 1 point to recruit.

Brainwashing
Plot Twist - 1

Pay X resource points, where X is the number of resources you have in play ---> Put a random card from your hand into your front row. This card is treated as a character card with Substitute. At the start of the combat phase, choose a character on your opponent's side of the board. The card you put into play becomes an exact copy of that character. At the start of combat on the next turn, remove that card from play.

I Wish I Had My Drop...
Plot Twist
1 Cost

As an additional cost, pay X resource points.

Insanity:Put a token into play with the name Missed Drop Man and version Backup Hero into play. That token has the (TJS Icon) affiliation, flight, ranged, Willpower 1, Cost X, Atk and Def 2X.

"I guess this slightly above curve token will have to do."

Strength in Adversity is pretty decent. One way to solve the problem of its ongoing effect would be to change it from a static number of +1/+1 counters to either a number based on the resources the controller of the effect has (Resources / 2, rounded down gets about right for curve-fixing). Could do resources in +1/+0 and/or +0/+1 counters. So on turn 5, if you play an 8/7 4-drop, the extra RP can be paid to slap on 5 counters. You can have a 12/7 or 8/11, which is only slightly off the averages. In fact, this sort of effect would work better as a non-ongoing effect, though I can't see putting down a balanced set of counters that way... perhaps the halved +1/+1 counter system would be more fair, and it makes the effect stay relevant as a fixer. Additionally, it provides for weird deck types like all-odd/all-even decks (Domino, perhaps).

Hooray, what do I win? ;)
I actually agree, it's not perfect especially with counter-abuse possibilities (X-Men Assemble for one) and upcurve-favoring cards (Turnabout on that 10/10 4-drop would be nasty). I did feel that an Ongoing PT would be the necessary solution to the issue of "up-sizing" characters without worrying about timing issues, so that you would use it whenever you missed a drop, to catch up (rather than replacing recruitments...the idea being that higher-cost characters generally have better powers and abilities than lower-cost guys, making this a stopgap measure rather than a strategy for abuse). The situation you give is certainly plausible, though I would submit that their opponent could probably be in bad shape at this point and would only have a 4 and a 5 in play, meaning that the 4 and the 3 would drop down to some lower combination (9/9 and 7/7 or 10/10 and 6/6 or two 8/8's), hopefully allowing for some parity for the beleaguerd opponent (who wouldn't be putting up much adversity anymore). I also hoped the discard cost would help mitigate things (perhaps it could be "remove a card in hand from game" instead), so that if you do try to size up your guys, you're losing other options from your hand (though my original intent there was to have the "size up" aspect be roughly congruent to "recruiting a character of appopriate size from hand"). I honestly couldn't think of any other payments or restrictions to put in there without making the idea useless. Now that I think of it, maybe the payment should be "Pay 2 resource points, replace a non-Team-Up Ongoing PT you control" so that you can either get a single use out of it whenever necessary (since it can replace itself), or if you plan on using it repeatedly you'll have to give up specific other options.
Any other suggestions would be cool, this is the first card idea I've proposed on any forum and it's great to get feedback and see where it could be improved or tweaked.

New Cronus
Location
Cost - 2
KO New Cronus --- > You gain control of the initiative.
If you recruit a character, opponents cannot recruit characters with a greater cost than the combined cost of characters you recruit this turn.
At the start of the combat phase, your opponent gains control of the initiative.
Use only during the draw phase.

Okay I'm not sure if the New Cronus I made is *too* good or not. My idea is being able to hurt your opponent for you missing your drop. However, this opens the door to abusive cards. My original idea was very different and very stall-enabling. KOing your own resource is NOT stall. So, I added that. The ideal scenario is that mid-game, you've missed your 4 or 5, so you New Cronus to play maybe a 2 or 3 and your opponent likely plays nothing, due to the nature of the surprise. The next turn, you might be down a resource, but you're up a character and perhaps in a better spot than having completely missed your drop previously...

I could see it being abused with Boost characters.