New Card: George, the Dragonslayer (Sever Seas #16)

Years ago, many of my "sigcards" from the Yahoo Mailing List for Guardians CCG were incorporated into the fan-made expansion set Seven Seas. I have started to import my homebrew cards to this blog in case Phil, the Bar Fly's website ever goes away.

Unlike Bodyguard Bob, this card does sound like something I would come up with. Also, note that I didn't call it "Dragonslayer George".

I actually had two .sigcards named "George", with the other being George, Overlord of the Jungle, which, of course, was a goof.

George, the Dragonslayer Mortal, Vitality 10, OCB 4, Medium, Beer, Knight, CMP 0, red bar.
Immune to fear. Destroys Dragons.
(Artwork: Stawicki, Text: C.J. Burke, Design: Cath)

The card is a reference to St. George and the Dragon. And while I might be a reluctant to have a "saint" bribable by Beer, the card is not the saint of legend. It needs to work into the mechanics of the game. It's good balance, I think.

I'm asking your opinion. Feel free to respond in the comments.

New Card: Bodyguard Bob (Seven Seas #15)

Years ago, many of my "sigcards" from the Yahoo Mailing List for Guardians CCG were incorporated into the fan-made expansion set Seven Seas. I have started to import my homebrew cards to this blog in case Phil, the Bar Fly's website ever goes away.

This card is an oddity. I do not remember it. I don't remember writing it, nor do I recall seeing it on the Seven Seas page (even though it was there). The name doesn't sound like something I came up with, and I don't remember anything of the sort. There's nothing in my files. I even searched on the ability to cancel a ranged attack in case the name of the creature was changed for some reason.

It's possible that I did suggest it somewhere without it appearing on the mailing list. I don't know.

Bodyguard Bob Mortal, Vitality 7, OCB 0, large, Gold, Beer, Babes, Knight, CMP 0, red bar.
Ranged attack: Cancel a ranged attack. Discard Bodyguard Bob when used as a ranged attack.
(Artwork: Brom, Text: C.J. Burke, Design: Cath)

A couple things that seem off about this: I don't know how I'd feel about making a Vitality 7 card a ranged attack. And it would have to be a massive attack for me not only to waste 7 points on a ranged attack, but to discard the card afterward.

Also, I'm not a fan of the artwork selected for this card. It's great, and I like Brom. But it's a minotaur, which could be a creature in its own right, or an entire class of them. If such were created, it would make this one more confusing, unless it was retrofitted.

I'm asking your opinion. Feel free to respond in the comments.

New card: Sand Witch (Seven Seas #14)

Years ago, many of my "sigcards" from the Yahoo Mailing List for Guardians CCG were incorporated into the fan-made expansion set Seven Seas. I have started to import my homebrew cards to this blog in case Phil, the Bar Fly's website ever goes away.

First off, I hope to find a larger size image of this card. It's not on Phil's site. Oddly, it's not on the CD-ROM that I received years ago from JC Prunet. (Yes, I dug that out of a closet.) So I only have the small image. Maybe I can create my own, if I find this image. It won't look as good.

The Sand Witch is obviously a very bad pun, which makes it perfect for Guardians.

Update:Thank you to Yves-Arnaud Jouret for supplying a larger version of this image!

Sand Witch Mortal, Vitality 6, OCB 0, Medium, Gold, Wizard, CMP 3, green bar.
Can only channel to creatures on Dry Heaps terrain.
(Artwork: Whelan, Text: C.J. Burke, Design: Cath)

Since it was a joke, I didn't think about the playability of the card, specifically whether or not it should be able to channel to creatures that otherwise cannot accept channeling. Would that make it overpowered? Does the way it is written now make it underpowered?

I'm asking your opinion. Feel free to respond in the comments.

New Card: Priest (Seven Seas #13)

Years ago, many of my "sigcards" from the Yahoo Mailing List for Guardians CCG were incorporated into the fan-made expansion set Seven Seas. I have started to import my homebrew cards to this blog in case Phil, the Bar Fly's website ever goes away.

One of my longstanding complaints is that Angels are underpowered (and underrepresented) compared to Demons and Devils. Another is that Undead are overpowered since the release of Necropolis Park. Perhaps that could've been addressed in future releases, and perhaps not.

The Priest character was designed against to be useful about "My Regular Opponent"'s Undead deck.

Priest Mortal, Vitality 8, OCB 0, Medium, Gold, Wizard, CMP 0, green bar.
Command: 8 pt. AOE that only affects Undead. Priest counts as Cleric
(Artwork: Maitz, Text: C.J. Burke, Design: Cath)

Cleric is a subset of Wizard, and whatever affects one should affect the other.

Yes, I made it an 8-pt AOE, and it only stacks as an 8. But it's useless against non-Undead, so that's a limitation. Plus, it's a bit of an expensive Command card to play. I didn't bother with a Stacking penalty because it would render the card mostly useless unless the player has a Petrified Heart, which negates the penalty anyway.

I wasn't exactly thrilled by the selection of artwork. Not that it's bad, but it's not what I would've picked for this card.

New Card: Gn'unchkins Gnome (Seven Seas #12)

Years ago, many of my "sigcards" from the Yahoo Mailing List for Guardians CCG were incorporated into the fan-made expansion set Seven Seas. I have started to import my homebrew cards to this blog in case Phil, the Bar Fly's website ever goes away.

Occasionally, my .sigcards had a theme that I spread across several posts in the Yahoo mailing list. One of those themes was The Wizard of Oz, and a couple of these cards found their way into Seven Seas. There's nothing in particular about them that screams "gnome" other than the Munchkins were small. I like this bonus as it plays well later in the game, unless a lot of special cards get dropped, or if you're forced to play face down terrain cards.

Gn'unchkins Gnome Mortal, Vitality 3, OCB 1, Small, Gold, Bug/Knight, CMP 0, green bar.
+2 Vitality on any face-up basic terrain type in the disputed land area.
(Artwork: Parkinson, Text: C.J. Burke, Design: Thierry)

I kept the "Gn'" prefix, as seems to be customary.

New Card: Warrior Ants (Seven Seas #11)

Years ago, many of my "sigcards" from the Yahoo Mailing List for Guardians CCG were incorporated into the fan-made expansion set Seven Seas. I have started to import my homebrew cards to this blog in case Phil, the Bar Fly's website ever goes away.

Another Bug card, this one was designed to be a Knight as well. The Vitality bonus was probably because it seemed to be a good effect.

Warrior Ants Mortal, Vitality 4, OCB 2, Small, Gold, Bug/Knight, CMP 0, red bar.
+2 Vitality vs. medium-sized Creatures.
(Artwork: Whelan, Text: C.J. Burke, Design: Cath)

Ants are a natural creature to be exploited for the game. I wouldn't want to build a deck around them. I definitely wouldn't want to build an expansion around them, either, but having a few in each new expansion could've been good.

By the way, since I haven't mentioned it in a while, comments are welcome on this blog.

New Card: Itsy Bitsy Spider (Seven Seas #10)

Years ago, many of my "sigcards" from the Yahoo Mailing List for Guardians CCG were incorporated into the fan-made expansion set Seven Seas. I have started to import my homebrew cards to this blog in case Phil, the Bar Fly's website ever goes away.

This card may have started as a joke. But since so many actual Guardians cards are jokes, too, this one actually fits in pretty well. They have a stacking "bonus" because of their text box penalty. But if they die, your Shield may have to discard a creature to keep under the limit.

Itsy Bitsy Spider Mortal, Vitality 3/1, OCB 0, Small, Bug, CMP 0, red bar.
-3 Vitality in Rivers and Lakes, unless its primary matchup opponent has a fire-based attack
(Artwork: Ploog, Text: C.J. Burke, Design: Cath)

Unpacking the card text: down came the rain and washed the spider out, out came the sun and dried up all the rain. The bug is effectively Vitality 0 in Rivers & Lakes, unless it comes up against a fire-based creature. Unfortunately, it will still, most likely, lose to that creature given it's low Vitality. It might be useful for secondary attacks, but not in Rivers & Lakes.

Side note: I like the artwork on this one. It really fits in with existing cards.

New Card: Milk Lady Brown / Closing the Barn Door (Seven Seas #9)

Years ago, many of my "sigcards" from the Yahoo Mailing List for Guardians CCG were incorporated into the fan-made expansion set Seven Seas. I have started to import my homebrew cards to this blog in case Phil, the Bar Fly's website ever goes away.

This card nearly caused a rift between me and Phil. He created the card to be a female companion to Farmer Brown. I had created a Spell with the same ability. Now it was possible that we just came up with similar ideas, but I pointed out that the text of this card was exactly the text from my card suggestion on the mailing list. Anyway, he split the credit. Honestly, I think it's too expensive for a command card, and I think a Spell would have been better. The argument for the creature card is that it's reusable.

Milk Lady Brown Mortal, Vitality 5/9, OCB 0, Medium, Misc. Human, CMP 0, red bar.
C: None of your Barnyard Animals may be bribed or sent back to the Creature Pen during combat. (This overrides any Spell that says they can be).
(Artwork: Rust, Text: from the Spell "Closing the Barn Door" of C.J. Burke, Design: Cath) Sorry, but we don't have her phone number (Philbarfly) one joke with JC ...pretty girl !!! argghhh (Thierry)

BONUS: My Original Spell:

Closing the Barn Door, Spell, Up 1
Play during the Movement Phase before turning any Shields. For the rest of the turn, none of your Barnyard Animals may be bribed or sent back to the Creature Pen (this overrides any Spell that says they can be).

A Barnyard Animal deck could be fun ... once. But they seem hard to win with, and easy to counter. They are more of a nuisance. I wouldn't mind a little help for them.

New Card: Eagle (Seven Seas #8)

Years ago, many of my "sigcards" from the Yahoo Mailing List for Guardians CCG were incorporated into the fan-made expansion set Seven Seas. I have started to import my homebrew cards to this blog in case Phil, the Bar Fly's website ever goes away.

I don't remember the exact inspiration for this card. I actually checked the old mailing list messages, and even there it states that it isn't connected to the response I gave, but I have a couple of good .sigcards lying around.

Eagle Mortal, Vitality 6/8, OCB 2, Large, Flying, Animal/Knight, CMP 0, red bar.
+4 in Mountains, +3 when defending strongholds (these are cumulative and in addition to other stronghold bonuses).
(Artwork: Cabral, Text: C.J. Burke, Design: Cath)

My original text file states that the Eagle is an Animal, not a Knight. I don't know when that addition was made, or if I made note of it at the time.

Inspired by the emblem of the U.S. as much as any reference to The Hobbit.

New Card: Crash of Rhinos (Seven Seas #7)

Years ago, many of my "sigcards" from the Yahoo Mailing List for Guardians CCG were incorporated into the fan-made expansion set Seven Seas. I have started to import my homebrew cards to this blog in case Phil, the Bar Fly's website ever goes away.

This name of this card was likely inspired by the Magic: the Gathering card of the same name. Yes, a group of rhinos is called a "Crash", which I learned during an Ice Age pre-release sealed deck tournament. (The only one I ever participated in.) This card, however, was probably inspired by a need to add more Animals, even if the artwork is humanoid.

Crash of Rhinos Mortal, Vitality 12, OCB 3, Large, Animal, CMP 0, red bar.
+3 Vitality when Shield is attacking, -3 Vitality when Shield is defending.
(Artwork: Zug, Text: C.J. Burke, Design: Cath)

The Off-color bonus tells you that Rhinos don't care about Elementals much. They could be worth 18 against Elementals before other modifiers.

New Card: Magic Rabbit (Seven Seas #6)

Years ago, many of my "sigcards" from the Yahoo Mailing List for Guardians CCG were incorporated into the fan-made expansion set Seven Seas. I have started to import my homebrew cards to this blog in case Phil, the Bar Fly's website ever goes away.

I don't remember what prompted this. I'd have to check if the text was modified because I could imagine creating a card to give a bonus to Wizards. On the other hand, my usual opponent back in the day had a very effective Fairy deck, which needed no help at all. Actually, this card might hurt, because it was a command card, and there are better Fairy (or Small creature) command cards.

It could be that the text was changed because of the Artwork that was used.

Magic Rabbit Mortal, Vitality 1, Small, Animal, CMP 0, red bar.
C: All your Fairy and Wizards are +1 Vitality.
(Artwork: Whelan, Text: C.J. Burke, Design: Cath)

Okay, I found my original file. Fairies didn't get a bonus, so it was an artwork thing.

What do you think? Just Wizards? Or Wizards and fairies?

New Card: Stairway to Heaven (Seven Seas #5)

Years ago, many of my "sigcards" from the Yahoo Mailing List for Guardians CCG were incorporated into the fan-made expansion set Seven Seas. I have started to import my homebrew cards to this blog in case Phil, the Bar Fly's website ever goes away.

One of my complaints about the original set, one of my pet peeves, is that Angels get their wings clipped compared to the Demons and Devils. And the expansions didn't really help the imbalance much.

As a result, I've come up with a few ideas to make an Angel deck somewhat workable. (In real life, I've only used Angels to support Knights, who actually can stand on their own against certain decks.)

Stairway to Heaven Spell, Up 12
Play during Draw & Organise Phase, return up to 10 Vitality of Angels from your discard pile to your Storage Hand. Costs 1 Power stone to use.
(Artwork: Warren, Text: C.J. Burke, Design: Thierry)

Honestly, the card isn't that good because 10 points isn't all that much. You'll be lucky to get two Angels back because of their size. Had I thought about it, the text should've had "Or One Angel of any Vitality" added to it.

Thoughts? Would that be better? Should it have been 12 or 14 points, especially since you're spending a stone?

Side note: Reading through the other Seven Seas cards, I saw that there's one called "Balder's Gate", which is essentially the same card, but for Knights. I wonder if they copied my idea, or if we were both inspired by something else. I don't remember.

New Card: Run Away! (Seven Seas #4)

Years ago, many of my "sigcards" from the Yahoo Mailing List for Guardians CCG were incorporated into the fan-made expansion set Seven Seas. I have started to import my homebrew cards to this blog in case Phil, the Bar Fly's website ever goes away.

This card might've started as a joke, but the text seems serious enough to me now.

Run Away! Spell, Up 6
Play on one of your own creatures in a primary match-up before any ranged attacks or any other Spells are cast (but after any Bribery attempts). Your creature flees to your Creature Pen.
(Artwork: Den, Text: C.J. Burke, Design: Cath)

The effect is bribing your own Creature if you think it will likely lose. You have to allow for Bribery first -- although if someone bribes your Creature, then you don't need to cast it. You could try to Bribe your opponent first, also. Failing that, it's a way to save your creature, but it must be done before ranged attacks start.

I would rule that it would NOT save a Creature from Destruction. In my games, "Destroys" takes immediate effect right after Bribery. While this is like Bribery, it is a Spell, so the Destruction happens first.

The only retroactive Spell card in the game is "Dispel Magic". No other Spell interrupts earlier Spells or effects.

New Card: Pony Express (Seven Seas #3)

Years ago, many of my "sigcards" from the Yahoo Mailing List for Guardians CCG were incorporated into the fan-made expansion set Seven Seas. I have started to import my homebrew cards to this blog in case Phil, the Bar Fly's website ever goes away.

I made a comment on the previous card about increasing movement. I look at the next card, and it's a Spell that increases movement!

The limitation of Pony Express is that it requires the Shield to have a Horse, and the Horses must be discarded -- so it would be silly, and wasteful, to have more than one.

Pony Express Spell, Up 2,
Play before turning a Shield. Non-flying shield may move one extra space as long as the Shield has at least one Horse. Discard all Horses after moving. All other movement restrictions apply.
(Artwork: Whelan, Text: C.J. Burke, Design: Cath)

The only possible "abuse" I see of this, and people are free to argue, is if the Horse has an Amulet of Flying. This could make it conceivable that there could be a First-Turn Guardian Kill. It would take an amazing stroke of luck to pull off though. You would have to have this Spell, a Horse, an Amulet of Flying, a Shield, and large flying creatures with some way to kill the opponent's Guardian. This assumes that you don't have to fight any creatures defending the Stronghold first.

Were this to happen against me, I'd likely be equal parts impressed and ticked off. But I would also say, shuffle 'em up, and let's go again.

New Card: Battering Ram (Seven Seas #2)

Years ago, many of my "sigcards" from the Yahoo Mailing List for Guardians CCG were incorporated into the fan-made expansion set Seven Seas. I have started to import my homebrew cards to this blog in case Phil, the Bar Fly's website ever goes away.

The second card, another Hand Magic Item, was Battering Ram. Note: usually, there wasn't any particular reason for the Up number on the card.

Battering Ram Hand Magic Item, Up 9,
Play as a command card. When your Shield is attacking, Battering Ram has a 2-pt AOE for each space moved. Does not affect flying creatures.
(Artwork: Sweet, Text: C.J. Burke, Design: Cath)

Basically, it was either a 2-pt or a 4-pt AOE, unless there's a card that allows three-space movement. (If I created a homebrew card that allows three space movement, it wouldn't be allowed to fly, and it wouldn't be allowed to attack a Guardian on the same turn. I might even give the Shield a negative modifier for battle.)

Addendum: Okay, so I typed and scheduled this post and then looked for the next card -- which actually allows extra movement, with restrictions. It's possible that it could be abused, but not too likely, I think.