NO!
Mercy is not OP, Maw is. 
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Itās not Mercy, itās a Gem transformer/creator with Empowered thatās OP (more accurate, creates OP situations)
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Nerfing Mercy would absolutely cripple several of my Divine and Knight teams. We want more ways to play, not less.
Iām 99% sure having a few less Mana at the start of a match wonāt really matter, much less ācrippleā you.
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You obviously havenāt tried it then. Without the potential of starting a 1st-turn loop, none of my favorite teams can avoid being devoured by Maw. Itās that simple. Mercy gives me a fighting chance.
I like to play with the āgood guysā which are already sorely limited in favor of monsters and daemons. Iām sick of seeing combinations of Maw, Mab, and now Behemoth. Nerfing Mercy would be unconscionable.
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And I should really add that this whole argument about Mercy didnāt even come close to fever pitch until Maw came on the scene.
MAW is the problem, nothing else.
EDIT: Sorry I come off so harsh but this stuff really bothers me. I donāt want to see my choices for playing synergies and strategies limited simply because some people donāt have the self-control not to exploit obviously overpowered troops like Maw.
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But if Mercy gets nerfed, 95-99% of Maw teams also get nerfed.
Without Mercy, itās nearly impossible to counter Maw with anything other than another Maw or the Impervious trait. Even without Mercy powering Maw, thereās a good chance heāll fill his mana with say Alchemist prior to me being able to take him out. Not to mention the fact that it isnāt even Mawās power thatās so bad, itās his 3rd trait. Without the board control synergy that Mercy provides my teams, Maw is all but guaranteed to get a couple of skull matches before I can do anything about it.
If the opponent stacks Maw with Bone Dragon or something similar, itās game over without Mercy to counter. This should be about opening up new strategies and new ways to play, not pigeon-holing people into 3 or 4 OP decks to the exclusion of the other several hundred cards.
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Maw took Mercy to her logical conclusion. Mercy was always a problem, but she didnāt have an optimal use. The problems with Maw are that (1) heās too easy to fill thanks to Mercy and (2) his 3rd trait procs too much on a skull-gen team. Any strong Yellow-based troop moving forward will necessarily be nasty with Mercy around.
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Iāve done well with 2 Knight Coronet and Valkyrie. Also 2 Gobchomper and Alchemist. Both have gotten rid of an annoying Maw quickly and easily.
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Honestly, I think the solution here is to IMPROVE synergies.
Iāve been playing Steve Fawkner (@Sirrian) games since the early 1990ās. Thereās a role-playing element in those games that doesnāt exist in GoW and quite frankly, it should.
Mercy and IK are nasty together, are they not? But thatās a ridiculously illogical combo. IK is a daemon lord and Mercy is an ANGEL. Players should get a synergy bonus not only by type and kingdom but by the role/backstory of the card itself.
If people want to pair Mercy with Maw, or IK, or Bone Dragon, make them suffer a synergy PENALTY for using two characters that would never be caught dead together otherwise. And for those of us that want to use Mercy with Paladin, Valor, and other Divines, give us a BIGGER bonus.
Problem solved without actually nerfing or buffing any individual troops.
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Itās all about speed of play in a game like thisā¦ Eliminating turn 1 gem flips is just going to slow down the game wins, itās not going to change the net effect.
Eliminating 1st turn color flips or slowing them down may eliminate a scenerio where the AI created a 1st turn color match resulting in a cascade that powers Maw turn 1 for the fast eatā¦ it may cause you to feel like you have a better chance, but Maw will still eat from rng, just in a different wayā¦ I predict if it cascades from luck rng drops to eat turn 1, butt-hurt will still ensue. In the end, folks donāt like their team plans ruined by a mob 1-shotting itā¦ but they definitely do not mind running the mob who is doing the one-shotting ironically!
If devās really wanted to make sure your offense never got ateā¦ everā¦ they would just change devour / hunger whatever to only works when attackingā¦ done. Now, your team can never get ate from a defense. But why? Is anyone really not winning in the vast majority of their attacks??? I mean, really? Have you looked at your win rate? I have, sure maw gets a lucky smash against me sometimesā¦ so. Itās prevalent because it can work sometimes. It hardly wins the majority of the time against meā¦ and losing sometimes is fine. Right now, Maw is about the only thing I lose to, if / when I loseā¦ and itās rare. I have lost against goblins before, but itās been quite some timeā¦ I used to lose against mab on occasion, but not anymore. They nerfed her to the point of Mab def never wins against me now. (over nerf).
Nerf requests have killed many a great gameā¦ I hope the devs are careful NOT to over nerf here, as the mab feels like a move in that direction.
The beauty of this game is the horrendous resource requirements are balanced by the fast, quick nature of play while allowing the player to level up, collect and build powerful teams that clear faster than they did when s/he started out.
Considering the quantity of glory and gold and gems one needs to stay up to speed and āmaintainā resources, Iām all for fast games, crushing combos, and excellent stats which annhilate the opponentās list. It feels strong, it feels powerful.
Hypothetically, if they were stretch out to say (a hyperbolic for example) 20-turns each game on average, I would lose interest in this game - fast! Time to get to pvp 1 and get the glory for doing so would be ridiculously lengthened to the point of āI have better things to do.ā The idea of farming an arcane traistone now, even with Explore, is so painful I just donāt bother unless perhaps I only need 1ā¦ then, maybeā¦ and 20 game turns on average - well, that would definitely put that into meh, donāt care wonāt play category as well. They only way they could balance that kind of time to kill change, is to massively increase the amount of resources gainedā¦ as in 5x-10x! Right now, it is possible to win a game in 2-8 turns (with multiple cycles / actions per turn creating sequential bonus turns), having to do the same thing but over 20-ish alternated turnsā¦ blehā¦ no thanks. Again, hyperbolic to explain the point.
Iāve said it before, Maw Mercy work, and itās fun both to face and to try and deal with. I actually care when I see that team. That level of team power, and time to kill opponent is great in a game like this which takes so many wins to accomplish anythingā¦ I mean, even with the new exploreā¦ have you figured out how much average time it takes to get even 5 traitstones? I havenāt - I gave up after running explore 5-8 or so timesā¦ I just couldnāt stand to not get the benefits I got in pvpā¦ and the grind was dismal. If speed kill teams across the board were slowed to a 20-turn on average, Iād take my ball and go homeā¦ as would all 5 of the players I know IRL. We just have other crap to do.
Speed kills, in a resource heavy game like this, are a must have.
Iāve said it before, maw is not a problem - itās how hard it is to obtain equally strong offenses that are the problem and nerfing options like Mab, is not a step in the right direction.
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I like your thought process on synergy to IMPROVE vs. nerf in Gems of War development. Iām glad you called out @Sirrian
Since you brought up the Angle vs Daemon thought process, it got me thinking. Iāve done digging on this topic before and even wrote a couple papers on it in college. Itās a fascinating topic. I donāt have the time to truly dig, so will get plenty wrong here Iām sureā¦ but itās a fun discussion / segway. Caution - for anyone who takes this serious, or getās offended by something - somehow just stop, and please donātā¦ just kicking some ideas around for the sake of jest and discussion, if you read to the end, hopefully that comes through.
Iāll try to summarize as I type quick and donāt have a ton of timeā¦ but even that will be TL;DR for most Iām sure. In summary what is a Demon / Daemon / Angel / Fallen Angel and if you speed trek through time and religion, doesnāt it gets muttled quick? There is precedent for a Daemon and Angel to work together, more often that you might think.
So, what is an angel to you? Bible states angels are messengers of god. There are good and evil messengers. Satan even uses angels. Angelās do and have sinned as God has judged them. Angels have become enamored with woman to have ārelationsā with them on earth. Some believe this is the first steps in a fall of an angel.
As we move out of the Christian bible and into other related faiths or faiths of old, Angels even descended / fallen to earth or been cast down with their Grigori (watchers) if you read Enoch. Other sinning angels rule the underworld along with Satan / Devil / Lucifer
What are Daemons (notice the ae)?
In ancient greek, Homer doesnāt speak of them, but Hesiod does. He claims there were 30K of them and the spirits did work on behalf of Zeus, and guardians of men and justice from souls of righteous men during the golden ageā¦ Plato expanded this and said all men are born with daemons who guide them in life and into and through Hades. Pindar and Romans taught that daimons were unseen ministers of gods, delivering prayers of man and messages from gods, guiding men all throughout life. Socrates / plato erra, priestess Diotma (sp?) explains to socrates that daimonon are interpreters and spiritual expressions between divine and the mortal. Gods could explain divine feelings to humans through daimonon, such as love. In turn, gods could interpret human things through these daimonon voices as well. They were less of a thing, and more of a spiritual voiceā¦ and yet, in ancient greek, though daemons are rarely painted / drawn, we know Lamia, suductress and Queen of Libya, was transformed into a child eating daemon.
Post classic / ancient greek, you get into post Alexander the Great (4th BC)ā¦ the Koine Greek era (pre-dates Byzantine / Medieval era), and enter the use of Demons (notice the loss of the a). This is sometime after the above use of Daemon / Daimonon btw.
Irony, Christians of the day seen the pagan statues of the gods and daimons in greek / roman empire as āDemonsā (no a) and an arm or denizens of Satan.
The first known negative connotation I have found is the Septuagint. A later translation of the Hebrew Bible and related docs into Koine Greek. Also known as old greek testament.
You also find Demon (no a, malevolent things) in different religionsā¦ in the near Eastern religions and Abrahamic relgions (Judaism ~2000 bc, Christianity 1st century AD and Islam 7th century AD, and there are other lessers). However, we now finally we see the very evil things we commonly associate them āDemon.ā
So through theology of cultural changes, we eventually view them as bad spirits, Fallen Angels and unknown natural spiritual entity capable of possessions and something that could be summoned / conjured.
The point in all this, Daemon or Demon means either a good thing, or a bad thing - in most cases, and whether itās ancient or more modern depending upon whether the a is or is not presentā¦ Irony, Gems of War uses the a as in the ancient, yet applies the more modern āevilā or āmalevolentā connotation, so they have an almalgamation of the two! LOLā¦
From the bible alone, old testament, demons are shaggy goats or satyrsā¦ in the new testiment, the word demon appears 63 times!
the bible tells a story of where egyptian lord is slain by the power of the lord, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church describes the same event differently in one of itās books where Lord unleashed the deamons to slay the same Egyptian lordā¦
The watchers and Nephilim from Genesis are sometimes considered to be sources of Demon, and yet the sin of man from Genisis is conflicted with the negative influences from bad demons in EOC teachings in their book of the same events. In Genesis, Nephilim are the source of the sin and evil in the hearts of earthly men (story before flood). Enoch, I think, has a very similar story again with Genesis, but again, goes on into greater detail, talks about them, angels all being involved in the depravity and evil of man.
Early symbols and deities of other faiths were labeled as symbols of demons (pentagram) and evolution of the devil in Christianity.
Then you could also dive into what do various religions see as āangel?ā
Is it (angel) good? Is it bad? Can an angel be - both? History or more to the point, religion, spins that one on its head tooā¦ the deeper you go and further you go back.
Take Abaddon (appollyon greek). In the Hebrew bible, a place of destruction a bottomless pit, an underworld of sorts. In Revalations of the Bible, Abbaddon is the name of an Angel. Itās the King of an army of locusts who is the Angel of the bottomless pit. To compound, Ezeikiel, Mathew and Revelations all refer to Satanās evil Angels as Demons. Moreover, In the bible, the Revelations, a prediction of the future, even talks about the Dragon, named Satan, and his Angels being cast down in a great battle. (i.e. bad yet, still Angels?).
Are demons Fallen angels / bad angels? Depends on your religion or the passage of timeā¦ faithā¦ interpretation?
Did Christianityās Satan not once traverse heaven in christian faith? Angels in the christian faith make some pretty egregious actions from Genisis onā¦
LOL - So back to Gems of Warā¦
If Mercy (angel) and a daemon were to come together, if we are talking about ancient greek Daemon - they are both good and would absolutely work togetherā¦ and a powerful force indeed, right!?
However, Gems of war takes the good greek Daemon / Daimon / Daimonon and applies a negative āDemonā connotation to it without using that vinacularā¦ but, even if it did, would it matter?
If Mercy (angel) was to come together with a biblical Abrahamic Demon (a bad thing), is there not also a very plausible reason for that? Who is to say that Mercy is goodā¦ and even if she is, is she infoulable? Could she be on the way to becoming fallen?
Final thought - have you seen Mercyās art!? Not to judge a book by its coverā¦ okay, I amā¦ what angelic holy being dresses like a lascivious succubus looking temptress with massive clevage? Iām just sayingā¦ maybe she is on the verge or has already Fallen!?
Maybe her and Gorgotha are closer friends than we thinkā¦ just sayin.
LOL, just playing devilās advocate of courseā¦ heh, and having some fun at the threads expense. 
I return you to your daily tropes, rants, pleas and questions and incitement commentary. Hopefully the diversion was / is well met.
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Itās, umā¦a game?
Really well thought post, although Iām not sure how much it applies to what Iām saying.
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Itās meant as tongue in cheek and a bit off topic, but what got me thinking was your words:
āMercy and IK are nasty together, are they not? But thatās a ridiculously illogical combo. IK is a daemon lord and Mercy is an ANGEL.ā
I guess that was my long winded reply saying, āHow illogical is it?ā I mean afterall, to your point, itās ājust a gameā, right?
LOL, have a good one brother.
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Strictly from a fantasy perspective, pairing āmercyā with anything āinfernalā seems wrongā¦
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I like that you used āfantasy.ā Itās a fun word, especially in this context.
I can only say, it depends on your fantasy my friendā¦ but your point is well met and received.
In one fantasy - if we assume Mercyās but a mother-theresa like āgoodā angel (and we ignore her outfit, clevage or fighting armorment) and he is an evil entity capable of possession in the abrahamic Demon ābadā sense (we will ignore the presence of the āaā in his minion type and history of daemons)ā¦ then the fantasy holds. In that case, I agree with you.
Butā¦ what if she isnāt as good as you fantasize? Thus the appearence. No woman who ever went to battle wanted her breasts exposed after all, so there must be another purpose of showing those suckers off, right? What if in a different fantasy, sheās starting to fall?
What if Infernal King is not as bad as you fantasize, but a hero of good? He doesnāt have to be Infernal as in underworld, hellish, what if he is a king of never dieing and a warrior and nusance for goodā¦ or something, not bad? What if he is the infernal king as in never dieing, but he is actually an agent for some good or otherwise not bad mission? He does afterall, resurrect and Iām sure for his foes (and Iām speaking personally) it is a nusance when he respawns! LOLā¦ and perhaps a messenger of the pagan gods, Daemon as listed, and not ābadā at allā¦ perhaps he is an agent meant to deal with those who would befall those in his protection! A minister of death for all those who would do he and those he protects, harm!
What if both of them where not black and white in the, Gems of War Fantasy, but both a bit greyer than perhaps you first envisioned?
Afterall, one manās āHeavenā is another manās Ouranos / Nibbana / Mictlan / Gan Eden / Valhalla / Fields of Aaru / Vaikuntha / Tir Na Nog / Otherworld / Elysium / Cockaigne
Fantasy, like beauty, it is best perceived in the eye of the beholder.
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Iām looking at it more from a game mechanics standpoint. Mercyās use, other than yellow transformer, is to heal and cure status effects. To me, that makes her āgoodā outside of any possible innuendo introduced by the artwork.
Because of her āfunctionā as a healer/curer, pairing her with undead or daemons that cause status effects like Death Mark or Disease doesnāt really make much sense, at least not to me.
Iām thinking of it in Tolkien-ian terms really. Why would we want to pair elves with dwarves other than to OP?
In the context of GoW, a better example would be the basic Goblin. The Goblinās 2nd trait is āHuman Slayerā. Pairing him with any human card would be counterintuitive. Iāve also seen teams pairing Valor with Hellcat. Valor does double damage to Hellcat, regardless of whether itās spell or skull, if theyāre on opposite teams. Putting them on the same team seems absurd.
I think his point was, āIt seems wrong, until you examine the history of the word. Once you do that, it no longer seems wrong.ā
If all fantasy worldbuilding had to abide by the rule, āHereās my kneejerk reaction to this concept, stick with that,ā then fantasy worlds would be very boring.
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Iām not suggesting it needs to be a knee jerk reaction at all. If the devs want to provide rationale for certain troop combinations, by all means let them. But when their own fiction pits certain cards against others (like in the Kingdom Quests for example), does it really make sense to not only put them on the same team but give them synergy bonuses as well? Iām not suggesting MY version of which cards belong/donāt belong is the one that should be adopted, Iām merely advocating for a system that does it.
To me, this is the key to giving the game more variety and limiting OP builds, without ever having to touch an individual troop. Nobodyās favorite troop gets nerfed and it forces people to actually think about their teams instead of just throwing together the most OP build people have found. We need more teams like the 4-goblin teams we saw prior to Maw, not less.