Cards you wouldn't touch with a 10' pole

[Culd Fusion]

What are the cards that you would never play with? Is the card just not useful? Are there other cards that do the same thing... only better? Maybe the card would be good, but the cost makes it so it's not worth it.

Let's discuss our least-favorite cards--maybe someone will even point out a way to make the card useful that you haven't considered before.


I'll start with Mind Seeker. You take the top five cards off your opponent's book and then, without looking at them, destroy one. It only costs 20 G, but it's a pretty crappy effect at any price. Without knowing what card you're getting rid of, one could just as easily eliminate a card that the opponent doesn't need, thereby giving them quicker access to more useful cards. The only way around this is to use the Wizard Eye, which means you're trading away two of your cards for their one, not to mention you would have to have Mind Seeker & Wizard Eye at the same time. Either one by themselves is basically useless. Only adding insult to injury is the fact that Mind Seeker is a Rare card. So it's both worthless and hard to get.

Thumbs down for Mind Seeker!

[WhoseYerLilith]

Personally, I skim over any card that has some sort of symbol factor, with the possible exception of Lung. This is probably due to the fact that I haven't really begun playing with symbols yet. The one card I see where I know would probably be useful but everytime I play with it in my deck, I end up holding for the game- then tossing is "Sleep".

[pistachiosrule]

There are a couple of cards that I would never use -- simply because there exists a similar card that is just, well, so much better. For example...

DON'T USE: Alga Sphere
USE INSTEAD: Wall of Ice

Wall of Ice is certainly one of the best all-around defenders in the game. He's cheap, relatively safe from direct damage spells, and has a whopping base 70 HP in battle! In addition, he can even use weapons which allows for counterattacks. Granted he can't use armor -- which is unfortunate -- but there are enough defensive tools to overcome this weakness. Wall of Ice + Wing + Any weapon = Awesome defender

Alga Sphere, on the other hand isn't so great. By itself, I suppose it isn't a terrible card -- but since I imagine that you would use it in the same situations as Wall of Ice, the comparison between the two is inevitable. Consider this: Alga Sphere does have the ability to wear armor (which Wall of Ice lacks), but 40 HP is too low for a defense creature whose only ability is to (slowly) raise its own MAX HP. In addition, Alga Sphere can't use weapons, so don't expect to destroy any attackers easily. The final nail in the coffin: Alga Sphere is an 'S' card and Wall of Ice is an 'N' card and therefore, easier to obtain.

Here's another:

DON'T USE: Dragon Zombie
USE INSTEAD: Dwarf

More on these guys later....

[Culd Fusion]

I did actually build a book with Alga Spheres in it--but that was because I already had 4 Walls of Ice and I needed more cheap, blue defensive creatures. For that specific purpose, the Alga Spheres were actually a bit better than the Walls of Ice because I was playing against Morroc, and his Lunatic Hares can bring down the Wall of Ice like it's a snowcone.

But for the most part I agree the Alga Sphere's generally not worth the bother. Being able to raise its MHP is kinda cool, except for one big hitch. Every opportunity to raise its MHP is also an opportunity to raise the value of the land, which practically has the same effect and more. The only times you'd ever use the ability is if you couldn't afford to raise the land level, you put it on the wrong color, or there was some external damage source you were worried about.

[pistachiosrule]

Hmmm....that's true. Wall of Ice does have a weakness to Lunatic Hare -- but I think most good non-CPU players using Lunatic Hare will probably combo it with Ring of the Succubus or Weakness making Alga Sphere's 10 ST kind of irrelavent. Still, a valid point Culd Fusion. And yes, Alga Sphere is decent if you're already packing 4 Walls of Ice.

Now let's talk about a couple of green creatures: Dwarf and Dragon Zombie. These two cards are quite similar in that they both have high HP and above average strength. However, I maintain that Dragon Zombie is totally inferior to Dwarf if you're looking to pack a no-frills green card without those lame "abilities" I've read so much about. Here's why:

Looking solely at stats we have:
Dragon Zombie: ST -- 40, HP -- 60
Dwarf: ST -- 30, HP -- 50
Here, Dragon Zombie clearly has the advantage. But is a ten point edge in ST and HP enough to shore up the following three defecits?

a) Land Restriction
Dragon Zombie: No Wind
Dwarf: No Land Restriction
Ok, so this isn't a huge deal -- lots of creatures have land restricitons. But still...

b) Magic Cost
Dragon Zombie: 100G
Dwarf: 70G
This 30G difference may not seem like a huge deal, but the 100G cost makes Dragon Zombie nearly unplayable in the early game without the proper support cards. 70G for Dwarf isn't exactly cheap either, but I've generally found that extra 30G goes a long way on those crucial first lap. 30G -- that's an item that you may need to protect your land if your opponent decides to follow you.

c) Item Limit
Dragon Zombie: NO ARMOR
Dwarf: No Item Limit
Dragon Zombie and Dwarf can both play offense and defense relatively well. Unfortunately, Dragon Zombie's 40 ST makes him worthless against those pesky Cait Siths out there (and they're everywhere...it's part of an evil plot of kitty world rule). But the inability to wear armor really diminishes Dragon Zombie's potential as a defender.

So that's my take on two cards I'll never use.

[pistachiosrule]

Man, this topic has really got me thinking about cards I just really don't like. Here's another one: Berserker

In battle, Berserker receives 30% of the damage he dishes out -- I'm not sure if this number is rounded up or down. Either way, consider this:

Berserker: 40 ST, 50 HP, 50 G
No land limit -- No item limit

Ok, so an unassisted Berserker will deal 40 damage to the enemy, but will then -- regardless of whether he defeats the enemy or not -- will do 12 points of damage to himself. So think of Berserker as having THESE base stats instead:

Berserker: 40 ST, 38 HP, 50 G

Now look at this:

Fighter: 40 ST, 40 HP, 40 G

In short, you've got a creature that costs 10G less to summon and has 2 more HP.

Berserker gets even worse if you give him offensive items or if he has support from adjacent creatures. Let's say that you just landed on your opponent's level 4 Old Willow on a fire space. He or she has cast Vitality on it so we're looking at a creature with 100 HP. But you're not too worried -- after all you've got a beefy Berserker and a Claymore in your hand and your charismatic Sulfurous Balloon on the adjacent space is willing to lend a hand. You've been paying attention and you know that your opponent doesn't have any items that can save his or her Old Willow. Battle begins -- and as predicted Berserker does his 40+50+10 attack and defeats Old Willow. Berserker then does 30 DAMAGE to himself -- leaving him with only 10 HP to guard the territory. Not only is he now a single Magic Bolt away from your discard pile -- but if any character engages him in battle (even one with zero strength) he's doomed to die by his own confusion from the counterattack. Of course, you could protect him with a Gaseous Form or some armor -- but this just proves a point. In order for Berserker to survive more than a few of his own big attacks, he needs extra protection -- protection that should be used on more worthwhile creatures.

So what have we learned here?

DON'T USE: Berserker
USE INSTEAD: Fighter

[BahamutXero]

I haven't tested it out myself because I don't like Berserkers either but wouldn't Regeneration solve the Confusion problem. Granted it's relatively to remove, if you can use a Regeneration spell or have an item with Regeneration for a crucial battle like the Old Willow one you wrote above, it'll have a better chance of living until the next lap when you can replace him with something better.

[Culd Fusion]

Mm. Regeneration would make the Berserker better (assuming that Confusion kicks in before Regen does, and the Confusion damage isn't fatal) but then you're stuck with the problem that you're using two cards when only one should have been necessary. I'd much rather stick my Regeneration on a defender that I want to keep on the board, than a guy I'm just planning to replace anyway.

Okay, here's one:

Fanatic (R) (RC)
ST:20 HP:20 G:25 + Red
Territory[60] Decrease its own HP by 20, and does 20 damage to the target creature.

Now unlike some of these other cards, this seems like it's got potential, but everytime I think about it, things don't quite add up. The card's limitations are many--mostly stemming from the Fanatic's abysmal HP:

-With only 20 HP, a Magic Bolt can kill it.
-With only 20 HP, it's hard to defend the land he's standing on.
-Using its ability does 20 damage to it, which under normal circumstances will also kill it. If you think about it, that means you're paying 60G, using up a card (the Fanatic), and sacrificing a land to hit something else for 20. Magic Bolt accomplishes the same task for a single card (the Bolt itself) and a mere 50G.
-The ability is a Territory Ability, which means you're generally limited to using it once per lap. Since your opponent's creatures heal each time they lap, this makes it very hard to pile up damage.

What leads me to refrain from just writing the guy off, is that if you can increase the Fanatics HP, you can at least keep your own guy alive. But then what? You'll have to wait several laps before you've healed enough to use the ability again or else you're still faced with the sacrifical problem. I'd love to figure out a way to make this card viable, but I think it's a lost cause. Maybe if you had a few Fanatics on the board, and could use a Mass Growth--then you'd be able to fire them all off in a single trip around the board. Several turns later (if you can keep the Fanatics alive that long) your "cannon" resets and you can shoot at some other target. You could potentially eliminate some pretty big creatures that way... but would going through all that trouble be worth it?

[utau]

Demonic Trade
Global Effect G:200 + Discard
All of the creatures in the user's territory change into "Goblin." User gains the number of Goblins placed x100G of magical powers.

I believe that this card could be very useful if you were close to the total mana that you needed to win - and then could use this card to put you over just before going over to the castle.

But with that said, this card seems extremely conditional - which makes it practically useless.

Catastrophe
Global Effect G:300 + Discard
Cast 50% MHP damage to all creatures.

This like Demonic Trade above seems to me to be very conditional. I could see using this if my magic was completely depleted and I was looking for a very effective way to piss off my opponent.

[pistachiosrule]

With regards to Fanatic...

Wouldn't casting Phantasm on your Fanatic keep it safe from it's own damage? If so, I think he would be a lot better. I haven't tried this myself -- but it seems like it would work.

[ExMortis]

We tried Phantasm + Fanatic, it doesn't work unfortunately.
It's a neat combo idea and it wouldn't make fanatic broken by any means, but whatever.

[Scamp]

Utawoutau said:

Demonic Trade
Global Effect G:200 + Discard
All of the creatures in the user's territory change into "Goblin." User gains the number of Goblins placed x100G of magical powers.

I believe that this card could be very useful if you were close to the total mana that you needed to win - and then could use this card to put you over just before going over to the castle.

But with that said, this card seems extremely conditional - which makes it practically useless.

Catastrophe
Global Effect G:300 + Discard
Cast 50% MHP damage to all creatures.

This like Demonic Trade above seems to me to be very conditional. I could see using this if my magic was completely depleted and I was looking for a very effective way to piss off my opponent.

Conditional doesn't mean useless. It just means that if your deck is designed to support this condition it becomes that much more powerful. Try building a deck with Goobas and Powder Eaters, and stuff like revelation and gnosis to start shooting them out like mad. Then transform them into stronger creatures and get 100g per Goblin to boot!

Then hold a feast and watch every opponent echo you ASAP.


Catastrophe is great in a deck with lots of direct damage. Archers, fanatics, (if you can get them to work, oy. See above posts.) magic bolts, evil blast, and so on. Let's say you did enough damage with all of these to kill of two 60 HP creatures. With Catastrophe, you could instead kill off four 60 HP creatures. Hopefully they're on high-level lands. Also note that spells like Catastrophe will hit creatures like Cait Sith.

Of course, you just decked all of your own creatures as well. But your deck is prepared for that, right?

[WhoseYerLilith]

In regards to Fanatic-

I've actually found them to be quite useful in a Red/Green deck with a few mass growths and growth body's plus Healers. Since I never really consider him a "defender"- I generally put them on LV1 lands in not so heavily ventured areas- most computer opponents will simply pay the 16-35G toll rather than risk a confrontation...with the exception of @#$%# Zeneth who attacks anything and everything. They're definitely not the awesomest card in the game but having two out with a growth body and a healer can easily take out one of most opponents creatures- especially on longer boards.

[BahamutXero]

With all this discussion of using Growth Bodies and Mass Growth I think it would be useful to mention the Mutation spell as well. I've just recently used it in one of my decks and it works really well.

[ButchNapkins]

I recently made a deck built around fanatics and the such. It uses: Fanatic, Archer, Banshee, Mutation, Growth Body, Healer, Life Stream and Insect swarm. Also Magic Bolts and Evil Blasts. It's currently in the experimental stage. It's a lot of fun to play. Typically if I can get my creatures placed early it works really well. If not, then I have trouble invading and taking lands from people. Still working the bugs out....