I have a few things to say for initial review, and I'll come back later with playtested criticism. I'm going to start with the Brothers in Arms deck and move on to the other ones as time permits.
Right off the bat, I don't like the X for city defense points. Cities should have a set amount, adjusted to the power level. For example. if a city had a bunch of really useful tactics abilities, I would give it lower defense points so it is also an easier target for opponents. Using X, where X is decided at the beginning of the game, puts a burden on players to decide what is fair and removes a useful balancing tool.
Brothers in Arms
Bearer - The rules text for Bearer reads:
Whenever I deal damage to a player, you may put a soldier from your hand into a city you control. First Strike.
Since we removed VP, this text seems out of place. Should we change it to:
Whenever I deal damage to a city, you may put a soldier from your hand into a city you control. First Strike.
Conscript - based on past experience, the card is too vague/powerful. The number of soldiers that can be searched for needs to be specified. I would suggest 1 or 2, possibly 3 if we want to be generous. If there is no limit, then the player using Conscript will spend a ridiculous amount of time looking through their deck. This needs to be kept at a minimum.
Revenge - This card has 2 (!) undefined keywords and more than enough room to define them. This is what we have now:
Creatures you play this turn have blood vengeance. Salvage 5.
This is what I propose:
Creatures you play this turn have blood vengeance (they come into play with x +1/+0 counters, where x is equal to the damage dealt the previous turn by target opposing creature). Salvage 5 - You may pay 5 resources to return this card to your hand from the graveyard.
I have already changed the card, but you (nico) can change it back if you would like.
Seat of the Throne - I like the change to the mechanics of this card, but I don't like the phrasing. Perhaps something more like:
Target city gains 3 defense points. If that city is dealt more than 1 damage during a turn, reduce that damage to 1. Destroy all other cities you control.
Spearman - Changed the rules text to include definition of
Battle Scream. Please tell me if I'm being overzealous.
EDIT: Played a round of Arcmage with myself, using Band of Brothers against Gaian Love for Life. Band of Brothers won, though Gaian Love for Life did pretty well. Ultimately what saved Band of Brothers was the cards Catapult and Trebuchet. Without those direct damage cards, Gaian Love for Life would have been able to completely wipe out Band of Brothers. Catapult was used to destroy two griffons (in consecutive turns, which was not planned), and Trebuchet got rid of Nightingale and the Elvish Ambush.
The game could have gone either way, depending on the experience and skill of the two players and how the cards were drawn. That's good.
A few things to note:
- I was using my version of Farmland that produces 0/1 crop tokens that can be sacrificed for resources.
- Gaian Love for Life's defense is good, offense is bad
- Nourished Flower should probably have a cost e.g. "Whenever a Gaian card is played, you may pay 1 resource to place a +1/+1 on me."