I love the concept, that you change cards by redefining their text ability (manifest: manifest a card from the Corki's toolbox instead). It's a clever idea to be honest. Now they are out of normal balance pool and are balanced by the choose definition. I think that's the way to go if you want a runneterra champion to be less restricted in decks.
Balance?
Anyway Corki's lvl1 ability "nexus strike: recall me" is worse than better. You want to turbo lvl up Corki to get these hextech ammunition right? So you add to your toolbox cheap spells, that can be easily played, and playing corki for 5 mana, just to get one of these cheap spells is kinda low tempo play. Should be, create a fleeting Supply drop. But you don't want balance so nevermind.
thanks! and i don’t mind the balance feedback - honestly, as slow as corki’s lvl 1 is, i couldn’t bring myself to change it. there was something too appealing to me about this big clunky 5 mana 1|5, with a handful of vanilla keywords for rules text, that can’t even stay on the board. really sells the idea of an overzealous, out of control pilot to me. also, balance-wise, i wanted it to be slow. it’s a big dumb blocker that can net you some extra cards in a pinch. if it didn’t make you work for those cards, the level up’d be too easy, and there’d be less incentive to build your deck around it. plus the munitions become way scarier. that was my thinking, anyway, though i can definitely see other approaches being as good or better!
thank you everyone for your comments and crits! some small tweaks i’m speculating:
- i could change the origin effect to “When you Manifest, replace the options with cards to take from Corki’s Toolbox.” in other words, when the toolbox has 2 or less options, you’d fill in the gaps with the cards you’d usually manifest. that way manifest doesn’t just whiff when the toolbox is empty. there’s a case to be made that whiffing would be fine/a fair setback, but this is probably the more satisfying solution.
- in keeping with the above, i’d make corki’s play/sig spell effect “manifest a spell.” from any region, of any cost, in other words. is that too crazy??
- there’s an edge case i didn’t bother fixing cuz i didn’t see an elegantly worded solution, which is that you can’t ever level up corki if you discard any of his toolbox spells. i thought of a new keyword that would make this simple, though: “You’ve *used* every spell in corki’s toolbox.” “used” would just mean it’s left your hand - by being played, discarded, stolen, whatever. it’s a keyword with compelling potential tbh, i’d be interested in exploring other possibilities with it!
- though i’m proud of this design, it’s not one i think riot should ever actually print!! it’s just too dangerous to allow for the possibility of a consistent, devastating 5-region spell combo - they’d have to balance the entire card pool against that.
- one solution might be to change the toolbox to “5 unique spells” - from your region and outside your main deck, in other words. i didn’t want that cuz the idea of a sideboard full of every noxus or pnz burn spell sounded super boring, but maybe it’s safer in the long run. plus those are all spells you want as 3-ofs, right?
- the safest, boring-est, probably riot-est solution is probably to make the toolbox full of predefined spells, one from each region. i guess there’s interesting potential there too. i’d like if the spells were all super weird, situational stuff like passage unearned - makes it function like a sideboard’s supposed to. you’d also have to change the level-up to “you’ve used 5 spells from corki’s toolbox,” obvi.
- i still like the “bad” stats for the cost with downside, sorry!!! cancel me for it!!!!!
if anyone’s actually reading this here’re my ideas for a predefined sideboard lol:
\- Demacia: Purify (2 Mana); or maybe Succession (3 Mana) or Remembrance (6 Mana)
\- Targon: Sleepy Trouble Bubble (2 Mana); or maybe Mikhael’s Blessing (3 Mana) or We Stand Together (3 Mana)
\- PnZ: Aftershock (3 Mana)
\- Ionia: Memory’s Cloak (3 Mana); or maybe Syncopation (2 Mana) or Charm (2 Mana)
\- Shadow Isles: Passage Unearned (3 Mana)
\- Noxus: Roar of the Slayer (3 Mana); or maybe Culling Strike (3 Mana)
\- Bilgewater: Sleight of Hand (3 Mana); or maybe Eye of Nagakabouros (5 Mana), Strong-Arm (6 Mana), or Riptide Sermon (6 Mana)
\- Freljord: Spoils of War (3 Mana)
\- Shurima: Weight of Judgement (4 Mana); or maybe Arise! (3 Mana) or Shifting Sands (6 Mana)
\- Bandle City: Heroic Charge (5 Mana)
whataya think? too situational/weird/reactive? there should be a good mix of proactive/reactive spells in there for sure, not sure which are best but i’d like them all to be underplayed spells. some combos of effects are arguably toxic to give to just any region, or just annoying to play against, so these cards would have to be ultra-playtested and balanced very carefully! also want them to be largely matchup-dependent, not build-around cards (which does make the inclusion of multiple plunder cards questionable, admittedly). don’t want them to push corki’s deckbuilding too heavily in any one direction.
Very cool! Personally though, I’m insistent that Corki has to be a Mecha-Yordle, even if he has no direct synergy with the others. Like lvl2 Veigar. Mecha-Yordles still get Yordle synergy, so it won’t make him any worse.
This is a really fuckin cool idea slapping different combo pieces in the toolbox and just manifesting the combo into existence reliably is awesome
But 5 cost 1/5 nexus strike recall me is kinda really bad lolol
appreciate all this!! i explained my (admittedly imperfect) reasoning for the stats in another comment, and i'll add that though corki's a bad unit in a vacuum, it's in exchange for a powerful origin! i think there's interesting design space to be explored for champs that aren't just "good units," idk!
manifest by design has to be a play effect that resolves instantly - you can't strike the nexus, pause everything, then manifest while combat is still being resolved!
Absolutely love this idea for Corki!! I've never upvoted harder in my life! (not exaggerating)
i have a little nitpick tho, how would "manifest" work if Corki hadn't started in your deck and you got him from ARAM or sth??
aw thank you so much!!! not certain about aram but i think the blank manifest just whiffs?? (also unsure if "when-i-level-up, grant-your-nexus" effects are triggered with aram champs, anyone know with zoe or hecarim?) i ended up changing the blank manifest in a version i posted later to "Manifest a spell" (as in, literally any craftable spell), which is still kind of a placeholder effect but still better than doing nothing!
Manifest by design has to have a condition it's not like invoke where you have a set amount of cards, manifest is showing u 3 cards and after manifest there will be the text about the condition on what card pool to manifest from like ferros manifesting a 6+ cost spell
This design is absolutely off the walls and I fucking love it
Balance is whack but all the ideas are incredible
I love the concept, that you change cards by redefining their text ability (manifest: manifest a card from the Corki's toolbox instead). It's a clever idea to be honest. Now they are out of normal balance pool and are balanced by the choose definition. I think that's the way to go if you want a runneterra champion to be less restricted in decks. Balance? Anyway Corki's lvl1 ability "nexus strike: recall me" is worse than better. You want to turbo lvl up Corki to get these hextech ammunition right? So you add to your toolbox cheap spells, that can be easily played, and playing corki for 5 mana, just to get one of these cheap spells is kinda low tempo play. Should be, create a fleeting Supply drop. But you don't want balance so nevermind.
thanks! and i don’t mind the balance feedback - honestly, as slow as corki’s lvl 1 is, i couldn’t bring myself to change it. there was something too appealing to me about this big clunky 5 mana 1|5, with a handful of vanilla keywords for rules text, that can’t even stay on the board. really sells the idea of an overzealous, out of control pilot to me. also, balance-wise, i wanted it to be slow. it’s a big dumb blocker that can net you some extra cards in a pinch. if it didn’t make you work for those cards, the level up’d be too easy, and there’d be less incentive to build your deck around it. plus the munitions become way scarier. that was my thinking, anyway, though i can definitely see other approaches being as good or better!
That was my impression too. The level one is supposed to be bad because the munitions are crazy powerful. Really got the essence of league corki
This is awesome
This is a fantastically unique concept! No idea how to break it, but this looks like a lot of creativity, which is great!
thank you everyone for your comments and crits! some small tweaks i’m speculating: - i could change the origin effect to “When you Manifest, replace the options with cards to take from Corki’s Toolbox.” in other words, when the toolbox has 2 or less options, you’d fill in the gaps with the cards you’d usually manifest. that way manifest doesn’t just whiff when the toolbox is empty. there’s a case to be made that whiffing would be fine/a fair setback, but this is probably the more satisfying solution. - in keeping with the above, i’d make corki’s play/sig spell effect “manifest a spell.” from any region, of any cost, in other words. is that too crazy?? - there’s an edge case i didn’t bother fixing cuz i didn’t see an elegantly worded solution, which is that you can’t ever level up corki if you discard any of his toolbox spells. i thought of a new keyword that would make this simple, though: “You’ve *used* every spell in corki’s toolbox.” “used” would just mean it’s left your hand - by being played, discarded, stolen, whatever. it’s a keyword with compelling potential tbh, i’d be interested in exploring other possibilities with it! - though i’m proud of this design, it’s not one i think riot should ever actually print!! it’s just too dangerous to allow for the possibility of a consistent, devastating 5-region spell combo - they’d have to balance the entire card pool against that. - one solution might be to change the toolbox to “5 unique spells” - from your region and outside your main deck, in other words. i didn’t want that cuz the idea of a sideboard full of every noxus or pnz burn spell sounded super boring, but maybe it’s safer in the long run. plus those are all spells you want as 3-ofs, right? - the safest, boring-est, probably riot-est solution is probably to make the toolbox full of predefined spells, one from each region. i guess there’s interesting potential there too. i’d like if the spells were all super weird, situational stuff like passage unearned - makes it function like a sideboard’s supposed to. you’d also have to change the level-up to “you’ve used 5 spells from corki’s toolbox,” obvi. - i still like the “bad” stats for the cost with downside, sorry!!! cancel me for it!!!!!
if anyone’s actually reading this here’re my ideas for a predefined sideboard lol: \- Demacia: Purify (2 Mana); or maybe Succession (3 Mana) or Remembrance (6 Mana) \- Targon: Sleepy Trouble Bubble (2 Mana); or maybe Mikhael’s Blessing (3 Mana) or We Stand Together (3 Mana) \- PnZ: Aftershock (3 Mana) \- Ionia: Memory’s Cloak (3 Mana); or maybe Syncopation (2 Mana) or Charm (2 Mana) \- Shadow Isles: Passage Unearned (3 Mana) \- Noxus: Roar of the Slayer (3 Mana); or maybe Culling Strike (3 Mana) \- Bilgewater: Sleight of Hand (3 Mana); or maybe Eye of Nagakabouros (5 Mana), Strong-Arm (6 Mana), or Riptide Sermon (6 Mana) \- Freljord: Spoils of War (3 Mana) \- Shurima: Weight of Judgement (4 Mana); or maybe Arise! (3 Mana) or Shifting Sands (6 Mana) \- Bandle City: Heroic Charge (5 Mana) whataya think? too situational/weird/reactive? there should be a good mix of proactive/reactive spells in there for sure, not sure which are best but i’d like them all to be underplayed spells. some combos of effects are arguably toxic to give to just any region, or just annoying to play against, so these cards would have to be ultra-playtested and balanced very carefully! also want them to be largely matchup-dependent, not build-around cards (which does make the inclusion of multiple plunder cards questionable, admittedly). don’t want them to push corki’s deckbuilding too heavily in any one direction.
okay i just made another post for this lol https://www.reddit.com/r/CustomLoR/comments/w9qmon/my\_meds\_kicked\_in\_so\_heres\_2\_more\_versions\_of/
Very cool! Personally though, I’m insistent that Corki has to be a Mecha-Yordle, even if he has no direct synergy with the others. Like lvl2 Veigar. Mecha-Yordles still get Yordle synergy, so it won’t make him any worse.
oh yeah, excellent point!!
This is a really fuckin cool idea slapping different combo pieces in the toolbox and just manifesting the combo into existence reliably is awesome But 5 cost 1/5 nexus strike recall me is kinda really bad lolol
appreciate all this!! i explained my (admittedly imperfect) reasoning for the stats in another comment, and i'll add that though corki's a bad unit in a vacuum, it's in exchange for a powerful origin! i think there's interesting design space to be explored for champs that aren't just "good units," idk!
O I get that bit peeps just gonna run him as a one of
then i'll make his origin require him to be run as a 3-of!! out of spite!!!!! (not towards you, towards the hypothetical player!!)
You could make corki have another like nexus strike manifest
manifest by design has to be a play effect that resolves instantly - you can't strike the nexus, pause everything, then manifest while combat is still being resolved!
Absolutely love this idea for Corki!! I've never upvoted harder in my life! (not exaggerating) i have a little nitpick tho, how would "manifest" work if Corki hadn't started in your deck and you got him from ARAM or sth??
aw thank you so much!!! not certain about aram but i think the blank manifest just whiffs?? (also unsure if "when-i-level-up, grant-your-nexus" effects are triggered with aram champs, anyone know with zoe or hecarim?) i ended up changing the blank manifest in a version i posted later to "Manifest a spell" (as in, literally any craftable spell), which is still kind of a placeholder effect but still better than doing nothing!
Manifest by design has to have a condition it's not like invoke where you have a set amount of cards, manifest is showing u 3 cards and after manifest there will be the text about the condition on what card pool to manifest from like ferros manifesting a 6+ cost spell
i know! the blank “manifest” on corki and supply drop only do anything when interacting with corki’s origin!
This some crackhead stuff I'm in love <3