Multi-Color Planeswalkers

Meto5000

I was just thinking about how on earth a multi-color Planeswalker would be balanced considering the current state of the game. Being able to cherry pick the best 5 cards from two different colors seems incredibly powerful. Imagine: The spot removal of black combined with the mana acceleration and big beaters in green, or Harbinger of the Tides + any other color. So, how would they balance them?

I think one way to balance them would be to increase the mana cost of some of the colors they play. For example, a Sorin Planeswalker would be allowed to play black and white cards but black cards could cost +1 to play and white cards could cost +2. This implementation is something that would be "somewhat" straightforward to code and could easily be explained to users without much confusion. Maybe commons have no penalty while increasing the rarities increases the mana penalty...except Mythics because they already cost too much.

Another balance idea would be to give them subpar mana generation. A level 50 Sorin might have +2 to black and white and -1 to all other colors. This would have a similar effect to my above idea.

I'd be curious to hear what other ideas we can come up with (or even better a Dev response about if this is even going to ever be a thing)

Unknown

I think worse color match bonuses and weaker PW abilities is the way to go.

Unknown

Seriously? You want to win MORE? I'm more interested in an AI that makes semi-competent decisions than I am upping my winning percentage to 99%

The_Leftist

Well, the idea is to release walkers that are *better* than the current ones. Perhaps this means introducing dual colored walkers, ones with new abilites and slightly higher life, etc. The AI most certainly needs improvement, but the addition of new walkers would increase match difficulty, especially for those who didn't have the walkers or cards.

In MTG, legendary creatures have the rule that only one of each kind can be out at once, which kind of reminds me how our walkers are limited to the number of spells/supports/creatures in a deck. To limit the effectiveness of dual colored walkers, perhaps instead of limiting how many spells/supports/creatures can be in a deck, possibly limit the amount of uncommons/rares/mythics dual walkers can have instead. This number could increase slightly as the walkers level. This would give them the advantage of having two colors, but also limit how effective they could be so we aren't seeing the 10 best rares and mythics combined between 2 colors.

Unknown

cheveedodd wrote:

Seriously? You want to win MORE? I'm more interested in an AI that makes semi-competent decisions than I am upping my winning percentage to 99%

Nobody said anything about winning more.

Back to topic:
It's really interesting to think about mixed decks but it's hard to come up with a balanced system.