Part 2 Giving Cards a cost
How much is drawing a single card worth in SoulStones?
Originally the fantastic Joel Henry posed a question on Twitter, along these lines; "how many soulstones would you pay to draw a card?" which is what actually lead to this article in the first place.
At the time, it made a nice short discussion that got me thinking, I came up with, what at least I thought was, a good answer.
Before I vomit out a number, let's see how I get there.
First off, I posed myself the question "what would I pay?".
Not to me.
At the time, it made a nice short discussion that got me thinking, I came up with, what at least I thought was, a good answer.
Before I vomit out a number, let's see how I get there.
First off, I posed myself the question "what would I pay?".
The typical abilities
First I looked at the possibility of a single soulstone for a single card, is this worth it?Not to me.
Why?
Well if we look at what soulstones can do outside of hiring the crew, you get a nice variety of things, something for attacking, defending, adding suits, for prevention, card filtering and an initiative reflip.
It's an entire different post to say which I use out of these the most and why, but I'll order them real roughly here:
1- Defence/ Prevention/ Cards.
Well if we look at what soulstones can do outside of hiring the crew, you get a nice variety of things, something for attacking, defending, adding suits, for prevention, card filtering and an initiative reflip.
It's an entire different post to say which I use out of these the most and why, but I'll order them real roughly here:
1- Defence/ Prevention/ Cards.
2- Initiative/ Suits.
3- Attack.
Now with my "top tier" we can break down what they do card wise.
Defending gives you an extra card plus the possibility of your opponents on a negative card flip for damage.
Prevention is a single flip for a better timed heal, this is harder to compare.
The last one gives you 0 extra cards, but allows you to see 2 deeper into your deck and ditch the 2 worst cards for you.
Mid-tier, these are the more situational.
Suits make cards worth more than usual, I remember having the discussion with Joe about how in a game with Ramos an 8 of Tomes is probably worth something like a 10 of any other suit, he being a Resser player completely got it.
Initiative is even more situational, less important than suits for certain masters, but can control a turn, however hard to compare to a card draw.
The last tier, positive attack flips, this is one extra card, not even as good as focusing as honestly, usually not the best.
Breaking this down even simpler. I love to stone for abilities that control multiple flips and give me more than "just a card" and when I only get an extra flip, I'm raising my nose.
3- Attack.
Now with my "top tier" we can break down what they do card wise.
Defending gives you an extra card plus the possibility of your opponents on a negative card flip for damage.
Prevention is a single flip for a better timed heal, this is harder to compare.
The last one gives you 0 extra cards, but allows you to see 2 deeper into your deck and ditch the 2 worst cards for you.
Mid-tier, these are the more situational.
Suits make cards worth more than usual, I remember having the discussion with Joe about how in a game with Ramos an 8 of Tomes is probably worth something like a 10 of any other suit, he being a Resser player completely got it.
Initiative is even more situational, less important than suits for certain masters, but can control a turn, however hard to compare to a card draw.
The last tier, positive attack flips, this is one extra card, not even as good as focusing as honestly, usually not the best.
Breaking this down even simpler. I love to stone for abilities that control multiple flips and give me more than "just a card" and when I only get an extra flip, I'm raising my nose.
Preparing Fate
The one I then had to break down the most, was the draw 2-discard 2 ability.
Further comparisons to Magic: The Gathering came to mind, the discussion of "looting" and whether or not it's as good as straight up just drawing a card.
This is a bad comparison, because Magic can have entire strategies that include "the Graveyard" or the discard pile to everyone else. Malifaux doesn't really do this.
Magic also has "Scrying" an ability to manipulate the top of the deck, but these cards don't go to hand.
Still the theory of "card advantage" came back to mind, I covered this briefly in the last part of this blog.
Drawing 2 and Discarding 2 gives you 0 extra cards.
Arguably then, it is worse right?
Well we have cards scaling from 1-13 (ignoring jokers) each card is not worth an equivalent value.
Even drawing say a weak, means that is one less weak you are going to flip in a game.
You can then discard it.
You draw a severe, well that is one less severe to flip, but you can now ditch that weak that is stinking up your hand.
I've heard people have hands that are like 1,1,1,2,4,5 then they draw 1,2 of the stone.
Well, that is 8/54 cards, all weak, but you will now not flip. You can now upgrade one of those 1's to a 2, plus keep the suits you may need.
It isn't ideal, but if you didn't spend that stone, your first 2 flips were roughly 12/54 then 11/54 to flip weaks (around 20% chance) as opposed to 10/54 and 9/54 (16% chance).
I digress.
See not only does the podcast go on tangents.
Anyway, I'm not disregarding the discard.
Is draw X cards discard X cards the same as just draw X cards?
Well if we go off the last part of this blog, we know what those weaks in hand can do.
So what is draw 1, discard 1 worth? 1/2 a card? 2/3 of a card?
This is going deep down the rabbit hole!
My Conclusion & Arcane Reservoir
Now to skip ahead, I think I threw out (or vomited up) the number 0.5 soulstones for a card.
To me that sounded right.
I'd definitely pay 1 stone to draw 2, I pay 1 stone to do that and discard.
Maybe it should be more. 0.6? I'd pay 1 stone for 1 and half cards if that could work.
All this crazy maths leans me towards my favourite upgrade for Arcanists, Arcane Reservoir (and yes, I'd use Crystal Ball if I played Zoraida).
For 2 Soulstones, I get an extra draw each turn.
If we look at the maths there, assuming only 5 turns in a game (you can flip more) then 2/5 is the Soulstone cost of a card. 0.4 for those of you using decimals.
Well the game is 5 turns, but the bearer of the upgrade is a hindrance to the upgrade, they need to be alive.
Let's trim a turn.
2/4. So 1/2, so that's... 0.5.
Well my conclusion comes out.
Or does it?
Well kind of.
Back down the Rabbit Hole we go...
Wait, stop.
So the answer is, I'm not certain.
However, if I'm right, that actually 0.6 stones for a draw is about right then this makes Arcane Reservoir "undercosted".
Maybe it is? However, then we think that it should be 2.4 stones?
However, this is why this card is so damn good, you should probably always take where you can and basically why I've rambled about drawing cards for two blog posts!
Part 3, written by you?
Well I've said what I think drawing a card is worth in soulstone cost.
However this game has many resources and many more ways I could break down the simple task of taking a card from the top of your deck and sticking it in your hand.
How many AP is it worth? 0,1,2? What about discarding counters for cards?
Please, if you have any thoughts on this at all. Make them known in the comments.
Thank you again, I'm just going to get a mop to clean up the brains that split from my ears.
-Ben (@psientologist)
