Summoner - The Expandable Card Game

[Typherion]

It's been a long time since my last update on Summoner, but much progress has been made. The rules have been streamlined a great deal and I commissioned a graphic designer to work with me to create an awesome original template! The last thread I made for this game is now quite old and outdated, so I hope it's ok for me to start afresh here.

Summoner is intended to be a modern and streamlined expandable card game. The dream is to have it playable online someday in a manner similar to Shadow Era.

Game Overview

• Build a deck with 30 of your favourite Creatures and Spells
• Get into the action immediately with a flexible and cardless resource system
• Summon powerful beasts, mystics, spirits and warriors to the field of battle
• Attack, Defend and use the Abilities of your Creatures wisely to achieve victory
• Cast Spells to support your Creatures and surprise your opponent
• Win the game by dealing 30 damage to your opponent before they can do the same to you

Card Types
There are only 2 types of cards: Creatures and Spells.

Parts of a Card

1. Name   2. Type   3. Level   4. Subtype   5. Attack   6. Health   7. Art   8. Effect

Resources

• Each player starts the game with 30 Health and 5 cards in hand from a deck of 30 cards.
  
• At the start of their turn, a player draws 1 card and gains up to 2 Energy, with a maximum limit of 3 Energy.
• Energy can be spent to summon creatures or to draw an extra card for 1 Energy.
• Once a player summons a creature or casts a spell, they can only play cards that are the same colour until their next turn, except for grey cards which are considered colourless.
• Eg: If I summon a yellow Valkyr Handmaiden, then I can't cast spells of another colour until my next turn. But I could still cast Counterspell because it's colourless.

Summoning

• You can summon a creature to a creature zone on the field by paying Energy equal to that creature's Level.
• During each of your turns, you can activate each of your creatures on the field once per turn to either: Attack, Defend or use an Ability.
• A creature that Defends is turned sideways to show that it is now defending, and continues defending until its controller's next turn.
• During an opponent's turn, your creatures will automatically activate to Counter the first attack they receive, dealing battle damage to the attacking creature.

Battle

• Creatures can declare an attack against any opposing creature or undefended opponent.
• A player can't be declared as an attack target if they control a defending creature.
• A Creature that battles a player deals damage to that player equal to its Attack.
• If two Creatures battle each other, they deal damage equal to their Attack to each other simultaneously.
• A Creature is destroyed once it has been dealt damage equal to or greater than its Health.
• Damage dealt to Creatures and players is permanent but can be healed by effects.

Spells

• You can cast a spell to a spell zone on the field without needing to pay Energy. Spells have 4 subtypes:
• Invocations are magical words and songs that have immediate one-shot effects
• Conjurations create magical objects that remain on the field until removed
• Enchantments attach to a creature on the field and remain there until either is removed
• Wards are one-shot traps and defences that can be cast during any player's turn, but only in response to their trigger conditions

What Now?
I'd love to hear some feedback about the current state of the game and also the new template. If you're curious, the template was put together by Jonathon Tesch, who's site is here: http://jonathoniscreative.com I asked for a gothic theme of stained glass set into stone so that the art looks like a mural, and working with him was a blast. However, note that the icons for card types and subtypes are still just my own placeholders.

I'm hoping to do some playtesting soon to ensure the game system works well and is fun to play. A test deck will most likely be 30 cards consisting of:
18 creatures: 9x level I, 6x level II and 3x level III;
12 spells: 4x conjuration or enchantment, 4x invocation and 4x ward.

A problem I'm currently facing is coming up with ideas for creating coherent decks. For example, I currently have ideas for:

• A purple deck themed around dark spirits, with mechanics like death triggers and effects that reward the player for sacrificing their own creatures
• A yellow deck themed around spirits called the Valkyr who serve Fate, and mechanics that reward maintaining 3 or more creatures on the field by using effects to protect them and revive them
• A red deck themed around minotaurs with effects that care about whether your creatures are wounded and whether your opponent's creatures are wounded
• A blue deck that needs a theme with mechanics that reward controlling the opponent's creatures by reducing their Attack
• A green deck themed around a hive of insectoid creatures, with mechanics that reward swarming the field with many weak creatures.

I'd especially appreciate any ideas for new decks or individual cards!

[Typherion]

So, since Summoner is an expandable card game, I should probably keep expanding it!

These cards are my attempt to start designing an archetype of aggressive insectoid warrior creatures. Hopefully they give an indication of the approach I want to take with the starter decks. The archetype is intended to work best when it can overwhelm the opponent with a large number of small attackers, while the larger creatures play utility and defense to clinch the win. However, note that not all creatures will be designed as part of an archetype - there will be lots of independent cards, too.


Likewise, these spell cards should give an idea of how I plan to design cards for each of the colours. Twist of Fate will appear in the Valkyr starter deck to reflect their power to influence fate. For red decks, the best defense is a good deterrent. Lastly, Shatter is a spell that becomes more useful if you can lower the Attack of your opponent's creatures with freezing effects. It should also be good against high Health defensive creatures, allowing your attackers to get through.