It would be super helpful to see the count for each mana color on the board before casting.
I’d love this too. Would help me quickly estimate my chances of getting an extra turn for each of the spell choices (Elemental vs Umbral).
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I agree with both of u guys. Love me some wand of “super spankin’ spectacular scrum diddly delicious” stars. 
I’ve been messing around with the wand of stars a lot because it provides amazing mana generation, bless to protect against status effects, and curse to remove enemy immunities or buffs. (It is not super broken because it can miss, but the reward outweighs the risk imo)
Can we get a quality of life request for the wand of stars to show the number of each color gem on the board instead of elemental and umbral stars before casting?
A response from @Bramble, @Kafka or anyone else would be much appreciated.
I understand the logic of why it doesn’t do so already: because the spell doesn’t (directly!) involve Gems of any specific color. So if Wand of Stars gets a gem color counter prior to cast, then should Natureborn Hunter get one too? Nexus Portal / Umbral Portal? Shayle?
And does this same reasoning extend to Wildcard spells (Leocorn, Moon Phoenix, Centauragaon, Tihamata) who currently only have Wildcard counters?
Where should we draw the line, and why?
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The line I suggest is “if a spell creates gems that match with basic gem X, then display the number of basic X gems”
This would include spells that create:
- Elemental stars (red, green, blue, brown)
- Umbral stars (yellow, purple)
- Wildcards (all six colors)
- Burning gems (red)
- Doomskulls (skulls)
Oddly enough, there’s precedent in the opposite direction:
- Baldr (who creates skulls) displays the number of skulls, doomskulls, and uber doomskulls.
- Bonebinder (who creates doomskulls) displays only the number of doomskulls.
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My reasoning is the same as the reasoning for displaying the number of brown gems for Chalcedony or Queen Beetrix: knowing the number of matching gems helps us estimate how much mana we will gain, how fertile the board will be, and whose turn it will be.
To clarify, my request was simply to display the mana count of each color on the board. Makes the counting faster when deciding between red/blue/green/brown and purple/yellow.
This is already in place for several troops where you are making a decision among multiple colors. Sycorax is a good example.
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It would be a little confusing to add this for pretty much all Nexus troops and wildcard troops, particularly those that have a boost. Also, with the wand, counts aren’t as helpful compared to the positioning of the gems.
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There are plenty of instances where the mana gems are shown and the placement of gems is what actually matters…
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I heavily agree with this. BUT, as a business standpoint, I heavily understand why it’s not, because the weapon is already broken-tier.
Because those are spells that directly involve specified Mana Colors – whether it’s a fixed color (Flame Troll, Anglerfin, etc) or a color you can select yourself (Clockwork Sphinx, Krystenax, etc). In the latter case it must count all six colors.
Aren’t Burning Gems already included on a Red Gem counter? Or can you cite an example troop where it’s an issue?
Not arguing with your logic, just don’t agree with the premise. No reason why this small help to players can’t be implemented. Consistency is the hobgoblin etc.
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This really shouldnt be so difficult to understand/explain.
If there are more Red/Green/Brown/Blue Gems present i am more likely to get an extra turn creating Elemental Stars.
If there are more Purple/Yellow Gems present i am more likely to get an extra turn creating Umbral Stars.
It would be easier to see a number on the screen rather than count by hand which category has more potential to create an extra turn.
This is no different than seeing the amount of the 3 combinations of skulls that Zuul might connect with. No different than seeing the amount of only Green gems Leprechaun will explode (which is also another case of where the gems are placed).
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Other way around. Fire Lizard’s spell creates 3 burning gems. Only the number of burning gems is shown. Also showing the number of red gems (basic or total) would help me guess whether I’ll match with red to get an extra turn.
Night Spider is an even better example. It can create a large number of web gems, making it highly relevant how much purple there is on the board.
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The community was saddened by the nerf to Night Spider because the web gems can override already existing purple gems on the board, making it less likely to loop. The developers didn’t fully understand the fact that power gems can override their already existing color on the board. (Uber doom skulls can override normal skulls too, for instance)
I really wish that they would take the time to properly code power gem spawns so that they don’t override their own color. As they keep adding more power gems, this is going to be more and more of a problem. The 8x8 board could be filled with all sorts of chaos and colors, with no way to make sense of it, with no choice but to blow it all up.
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I was under the impression that all Create Gem spells can overwrite even their exact gem type? Am I wrong on that?
It’s a little inconsistent and depends on the spell.
Something like the single-color Trolls (or Sycorax) that only creates a single color of ordinary gem cannot overwrite that ordinary gem. But it can overwrite a special gem of that same color. So a created Red gem can overwrite a Burning gem, but it cannot overwrite an ordinary Red gem.
And in a weird but not-quite-related example I remember from when I was working on delve Renown? I’ve seen the AI Flame Spirit transform Red gems into Burning gems; a troop like Lord Ember wouldn’t be permitted to select a Red gem as the target of his (transform) spell.
On the other hand? Something like the whole class of Hero weapons that (deal damage and) create two different colors of gem scaling to the number of allies that meets a particular criteria can overwrite. For example, if I’m using Sheggra’s Spine which creates Blue and Brown, it can generate Blue gems where Brown gems were on the original board and vice versa.
But the first example I laid out above (Trolls / Sycorax) explains why there’s a “magic number” at or above which you’re “almost” guaranteed to generate a 4-match and an extra turn. “Almost” being something like 99%+.
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Generally, no. Spells that create Gems can affect any (matchable) Gem type that is not already (and strictly) the target type.
For the oldest example, Skulls can overwrite Doomskulls and vice versa.
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Maybe fix both things