Submission: Claws of Living Stone

brettscho wrote:

I think that permanently removing minions isn't good for the game specifically because it prevents other people from getting to play the game themselves.

Removing minions is essential to the game. A lot of decks become unstoppable juggernauts if you can't remove minions from play.

brettscho wrote:

To me, it's very analogous to land destruction in Magic in that they are both strategies that attempt to prevent your opponent from winning the game.

If anything, it's analogous to destroying creatures in MtG, not land... And there are more painful strategies to prevent your opponent from winning the game than combat.

brettscho wrote:

If your minions are the only ones on the table, then you'll eventually be able to win.

I don't even think thats possible with a combat deck, that's an irrational fear. A montano purge deck might be able to pull that off, not a combat deck. I think I can rightly call this a strawman argument.

brettscho wrote:

So for example, I would love if Torpor tapped you, prevented you from untapped the next turn, but the turn after that you were automatically rescued. If the game was published with tokens, you could even have a torpor token that would be placed on a vampire - as long as that vampire has a torpor token, they can't untap, attempt to block, or play reaction cards. Torpor tokens would then be burned during your Master phase. Hell, you could even have actions that simply place Torpor tokens on other vampires.

Again, that would turn a lot of decks into unstoppable juggernauts. Some decks can only be stopped by destroying their minions or maiming their resources. My combat decks have been both bane and saviour at many tables, usually I simply lose fast due to table aggro, but sometimes my combat was essential in stopping the occasional powerhouse tier 1 deck from easily sweeping the table.

brettscho wrote:

But I think that permanently preventing other people from playing the game is not a good idea.

There are a lot of other deck archetypes to address as well then if thats your opinion...

brettscho wrote:

The point is to have combat create advantage by temporarily limiting a player's response, rather than effectively taking them out of the game.

In doing so, certain other deck archetypes simply become way more powerful, there will be more demands for bans and it will keep going until the game turns flat and boring to play.

Just like there is no comedy without drama, there's no grace without brutality. Which is a good description of WoD and Vampire.

brettscho wrote:

Oh, and maybe we should take this discussion to a new thread - I'm feeling guilty for hijacking this tread.

Don't worry, on this forum any thread is utilised in the anti-combat crusade, it's the status quo here I enjoy the debate.

One more thing, for every strategy, there should be a counter, by diminishing combat you simply remove a counter to many strategies. Yes combat can be painful and brutal, the alternative is worse imo. Most people blindly focus on the problem before them, rarely do they look beyond.

Team America put it best watch the full clip (NSFW):