www.metagame.com has been updated with it's daily article! Danny Mandel talks about some early design and development follies of the game. I suggest you check it out, there's some weird stuff in there. Alicia used to be broken, you used to start the game with five resources and more! :)

(Sorry for sounding like some kinda salesperson... :P)

Yeah, Build Up would have TORN the game apart. Glad they're still keeping it on the backburner, though.

At least this explains why there is no acceleration in the game.

A simple way to do it would be to make Build Up say something like this:

"You may play this card from your hand into your resource row at the beginning of the recruit step. Every other player must put the top card of their deck face-down into their resource row."

Still a great acceleration card and it's annoying for your opponent, because they might lose a good card. However, everyone stays on an even field. You can get out your Hulk on turn 5, but they can get out their Bastion... That balances it much better, IMO.

I like it Jofo! How can acceleration be unbalanced when it accelerates everyone equally? Your advantage would be that you know the game is going to speed up fast, so you fill your deck with characters who would normally be far to expensive to play.

However, balance steps in again, as the strategy could backfire. By accelerating your opponent's game to huge levels, you piratically allow them to use every combo in there deck at once. When a bunch of little characters are all working together, even the big guys have something to fear.

But is there a flaw we're not seeing?

man, combo that way of doing build up with nightvision and you can use it to keep your opponents charachters from ever seeing play.

one thing that i see is that if played on your recruit step and you do not have initiative, then you will recruit after your oppoenet and can make better use of that extra resource.

so how about it can only be played on the draw or even the recovery phase, so that next turn both players can recruit with an equal amount of resource.

Good work cyke!

Anyone else notice we're starting to take on the roles of designers and developers ourselves? I wonder if someone at Upper Deck who reads these things (probably Omeed) has brought this thread to Danny's attention yet?

Well, by "recruit step" I meant the beginning of the step in general, not your particular turn to recruit. Still, I can see how that'd cause confusion, so maybe changing it to the Draw Step would be a good idea.

Still sounds a wee bit broken to me. Picture this: turn four, I play four Build Ups, so my opponent and I each have eight resources available. I drop Apocalypse, and my opponent loses two resources. Turn five, I have nine resources, and my opponent has seven. How do you think Berzerker Rage Wolvie will fare against Onslaught? Or, for a more extreme example, suppose I drop four Build Ups on turn six, bring out Dark Phoenix and k.o. all the resources. My opponent's gonna have a tough time stopping her with a Longshot with Dual Sidearms.

I think that resource acceleration is going to have to have some major drawbacks if it's ever going to be added to the game. Picture a Build Up along these lines: "You may place two resources this turn. At the beginning of the recovery phase, k.o. those two resources." With that, not only can they not be stacked to allow uber-acceleration, but they put you at a considerable disadvantage for pretty much the whole game after they're used. Like The Power Cosmic, it wins you the game if you play it right, and it costs you the game if you play it wrong.

thank you and good night

How is it different from playing those characters on the turn you normally would? I thought that's what Gamma Bomb is for.

The difference is that it normally takes a monumental effort to so much as get to those turns to bring those characters out. As it stands, they're wastes of space in most decks. Bringing out Apocalypse when you have thirty endurance is a lot different from bringing him out when you have five. The other difference is the enormous jump in resources. Regularly, if I get an Apocalypse into play, you've probably got a level-seven character in play, and you can put a level six in play afterwards. If we make an enormous resource jump and I play Apocalypse, you've got a level-four in play, and you can play a level six if you've drawn one already.
In short, as it stands, if you get one of of those characters out, you've earned it, and it's still possible that your opponent will be able to hold you off long enough for him to win. If you get one of those characters through resource acceleration, there's no way your opponent will be able to stop the character, and there's no way he'll be able to sneak in enough small hits to k.o. you before you k.o. him.

thank you and good night

Good point, but again, what about Gamma Bomb and future cards with similar effects?

ok i think i have a good way it could be done

name- doesn't really matter. but how about- abandoned wharehouse.
type location
cost- i dunno that either.. hmmm 4?

text- when revealed place the top card of your deck into your resource row, at the end of the recovery phase discard that card and abandoned wharehouse.

what this does is by making it a location it makes it unique and therefor a player cannot play more than per turn, second it leaves the player at a serious disadvantage by being at one resource behind his opponent.

what do you guys think?

At this time, I must point out that Apoc's and Dark Phoenix's effects only happen at the start of the combat phase. Both of your points are discreditable because the other player can recruit before the effects take place.

Besides, someone up there REALLY likes you if you can draw all 4 Build Ups and your power player by turn 4. :)

Heh, probably should have looked them up. Still, if your opponent doesn't also have Apocalypse or Dark Phoenix in hand the turn you accelerate, he'll be left in the dust.

Admittedly, it's an extreme example, but it's possible to speed up plot twist collection (Boris, Doom's Throne Room). If you know that's what you're going for, you can load up your deck with heavy hitters to increase your chances of getting them early in the game.

thank you and good night