Submission: Ars Magna

This is better than Jack of Both Sides (sometimes). Would this need to exist if Jack of Both Sides provided an unlock if successful?

kschaefer wrote: This is better than Jack of Both Sides (sometimes). Would this need to exist if Jack of Both Sides provided an unlock if successful?

Jack of Both Sides still would not make melee weapon combat any better. Melee weapons would still be weak at close range (weak damage bonus and you're still getting hit by the opponent) and useless at long range.

Except this has many of the same facets of a card that already exists. If you want to make melee combat better, make melee combat better. If you want to protect your resource from being blocked, make it cheaper, etc. there's already a card for that. Jack of Both sides doesn't see a lot of play because retainers are not expensive (for the most part) so the cost reduction is useless. For equipment, Concealed Weapon is better for any weapon. For non-weapon equipment, it's not an equip action so effects that aid the minion after equip actions don't work. Simply that card could be made better to get the weapons into play. The combat should just be something else.

kschaefer wrote: This is better than Jack of Both Sides (sometimes). Would this need to exist if Jack of Both Sides provided an unlock if successful?

Which is why the card needs to have a pretty strong effect in combat in addition to giving a 'free' equip. This is still vulnerable to so many things, the payoff needs to be worth it when it actually does work.This is the important part.

The free equip is there so the card is not just inferior to concealed weapon. (and by free quip I mean that it doesnt 'cost' an action to equip)

Kraus wrote: Going with the "almost" anything to make melee weapons better, this is just slightly beyond the "almost".

Exactly!
X additionals is, erm, rather ridiculous.

Plus the action is at +2 Stealth, it doesn't cost a thing and it untaps.


Gonna have to say that too cheesy for my tastes.
But props for trying to boost melee weapons though!

+2 Stealth is fine, Unlock is fine, all that jazz is fine and I really kind of enjoy the mechanics here. I mean, you're not using this to equip with a Helicopter, which would be bad, but only use it for melee weapons.

It's the end result of the power level you're suggesting that troubles me. This card doesn't enable melee weapons - melee weapons enable this. You'll need a random weapon, whatever basically, to be able to dish out a stupid amount of damage from the board (not one-off from hand, mind you), and Ars Magna doesn't care what you're using as it's fodder.

This card is better than the cards it's supposed to help. That is the problem for me here.