Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Untamed Tongue
0/0 Pale Green/Gray Evil Enhancement
-Limit 1 per territory-
Place on a Hero: While in battle, withdraw and paralyze opponents' Heroes in battle for 2 turns. Cannot be prevented.
~James 3:8


The ability on this card was inspired by the verse itself. James talks about how the tongue "is a restless evil and full of deadly poison" so I wanted to make a card trying to reflect that. The hero you place this on has an issue with his tongue and makes any other heroes that interact with him (via banding) not want to interact with him again (the protect). It also gives you the option of paralyzing some heroes if your opponent continues to band with the one this is placed on.

I don't know that the reward (preventing some banding, maybe paralyzing) is really worth the niche use and trigger (there are more efficient ways to get around banding) but the wording is already clunky enough so I wasn't sure how to add anything else.

What about "Place on a Hero: Heros in battle with that Hero are withdrawn and cannot band while that Hero remains in play."?

I feel like one of the main reasons I wouldn't use the card as is is that it leaves my Heroes susceptible to my opponent's banding and then paralysis. A Faith of Samuel to band in my entire offense and paralyze it for two turns would be brutal.

Also, I'm not sure that it would work as currently worded since I think the condition of other Heroes being in battle would only check when Untamed Tongue is placed. A clearer wording could be: "Place on a Hero: if that Hero enters battle, withdraw and paralyze all other Heroes in battle for two turns." Not sure how to concisely word it so that it would withdraw any other Heroes being banded in but that's something to think about I guess.

I thought about the implications of banding to your own heroes and paralyzing them but thought it might be too powerful if I included a caveat for that.

I've updated the wording.

I really like the idea but the wording is still a little funky... It clearly does what is intended but using the word "that" is still a little vague, it took me a couple of times of reading the ability to figure out what it did.

Any suggestions on making it clearer?

Because of how this is worded, the paralysis will only happen if your opponent bands to the hero you placed Untamed Tongue on, or you play Siege on defense.  Basically, this card will stop your opponent from banding to one specific hero. 

I suggest rewording it as such:

"Place on a hero:  While that hero is in battle, you may discard this card to paralyze that hero and X heroes in play for 2 turns.  Cannot be prevented."  (X = number of opponent's good brigades)