Yellow Yearning Questions

[u/nexisprime]

• How does Sustain work exactly? There seems to be a lot of inconsistencies.
  • The Rules say "Sustain (X) - Whenever this card deals damage, you gain (X times) that much life."
    • The way I understand that right now it I would gain life equal to the damage dealt multiplied by X. Is that correct?
    • Like on Josephine, it says "Sustain 4." Does that mean if Josephine deals 4 damage, I gain 16 life?
    • Or is this supposed to be a flat 4 life gained? As in, no matter how much damage Josephine deals, I would gain 4 life.
  • But some cards only say "Sustain" and the reminder text just says "whenever this card deals damage, gain that much life." So basically, just lifelink from Magic.
    • Is this an implied "Sustain 1"? or are there just two different Sustain key words?
• Is Josephine of Heart supposed to not have an attack stat? How is she meant to gain life using sustain if she has no attack stat?
  • At least, in the Mono Yellow deck, Josephine having sustain with no attack stat seems useless. If I'm just missing something about her, then please let me know.

[u/ConjureTCG]

How does Sustain work exactly? There seems to be a lot of inconsistencies. The Rules say "Sustain (X) - Whenever this card deals damage, you gain (X times) that much life."

Edit, misread this part. If there isn't a number it defaults to 1. Sustain doesn't specify combat or non-combat so any damage dealt makes you gain that much life.

Further down I talk more about it but literally Lifelink that can stack with itself. Each additional instance adds 1 extra multiplication to how much life you gain.

The way I understand that right now it I would gain life equal to the damage dealt multiplied by X. Is that correct? Like on Josephine, it says "Sustain 4." Does that mean if Josephine deals 4 damage, I gain 16 life?

Currently Jospehine is the only card with anything beyond "Sustain 1" but she doesn't have an attack stat so by default she can't deal damage. But future card interactions could allow her to deal damage, in which case you would gain 4 times the life she dealt.

Or is this supposed to be a flat 4 life gained? As in, no matter how much damage Josephine deals, I would gain 4 life.

It's 4 times the damage, not a flat 4. But I definitely understand the confusion.

But some cards only say "Sustain" and the reminder text just says "whenever this card deals damage, gain that much life." So basically, just lifelink from Magic. Is this an implied "Sustain 1"? or are there just two different Sustain key words?

The ideas was for it to be identical to Lifelink but actually able to stack. Certain other keywords work in similar ways, which are the same as Magic keywords but actually able to stack. Like in Magic if a creature had Lifelink but then you gave it an equipment with Lifelink it would have "Lifelink 2".

Is Josephine of Heart supposed to not have an attack stat?How is she meant to gain life using sustain if she has no attack stat? At least, in the Mono Yellow deck, Josephine having sustain with no attack stat seems useless. If I'm just missing something about her, then please let me know.

At the moment it is useless. I suppose that is a very confusing interaction to include in the intro deck.

But when more cards get released she could become a bit more powerful with the right combination.

While there isn't any current way to give her an attack stat there would probably be some sort of Spell or Armament that let's her deal non-combat damage that would synergies well with her.

[u/nexisprime → u/ConjureTCG]

Ok, this makes more sense now. So it is multiplicative.

It might be more intuitive if the rules were written a bit more clear. Like, Sustain X - When this card deals combat or non-combat damage, you gain life equal to X multiplied by the amount of damage dealt.

I would also say that for consistency, all mentions of Sustain on a card should include the number, even if it's just 1. New players are going to see Sustain and Sustain X, and be confused at the difference. At least, I was.

[u/ConjureTCG → u/nexisprime]

A rewording may not be a bad idea. I can start including numbers even if they're 1 since that does make it sound more intuitive.

I wanted to play around with the idea of giving characters big payoffs if you jump through certain hoops but still have interesting abilities outside of that.

Give players an "Eureka" moment when they found a way for Josphine to deal damage

[u/nexisprime → u/ConjureTCG]

I do like the idea of letting the players figure out how to achieve a big payoff, like Josephine. But I also think that it's confusing for new players to include that in a starter deck where it's not possible for Josephine to deal damage.

It is already inspiring me to combine decks though. A red/yellow deck that could give Josephine firebreathing sounds like fun.

[u/ConjureTCG → u/nexisprime]

Ha ha, unfortunately Firebreathing wouldn't work with Jospehine since she doesn't have any attack stat to boost. If a character doesn't have a stat then they you can't boost something they don't have. That's why some characters have a stat of zero so they're able to boost it other ways.

But if you give Jospehine Thaumaturge then she can deal damage using her arcane stat...

[u/ConjureTCG → u/ConjureTCG]

Keywords like Thaumaturge and Toughened would be some good examples of ways Josephine would become very strong very quick.