Scarlet Shield - Showdown

[mystic cloak]

Played hands must score at least [0.75× Base]

Designed to counter playstyles that rely on low-scoring hand spam

[kindred talon]

this is literally the tax from cryptid lol

[mystic cloak]

?

I don't play cryptid

[eager marsh]

even if it is used in a mod i still like it

[zenith jolt]

I don't think it's necessary or fun

The Tax has always been one of my least favorite cryptid bosses because it punishes the most fun part of the game

Besides, this just encourages more reliable hands like HC and Pair which we don't need

[zenith hedge]

Also having to score 20% of the boss blind’s score is really easy, even in big straight builds

[hoary estuary]

0.8x base per hand against 2x base, which is the standard size of 8th ante bosses?

this really does screw up oneshot builds if they can't proc two more oneshot hands

[sleek harness]

this idea encourages hand spam scaling yet again when the whole issue currently is blue stake making oneshot builds bad

[zenith hedge]

If you can’t play 2 straights by ante 8 idk what to say

[sleek harness]

imo its just unnecessary to add since its not like one shot builds are that reliable anyways

youre making an ante 8 boss to shutdown whats usually not even the easiest build

[honest carbon]

i might be dumb here but isn't this basically just making the boss blind bigger

[hoary estuary]

2 and a half?
idk what the spread is between straight builds that can score half a straight in their remaining hands and straight builds that would need a third straight to do it

[sleek harness]

you usually dont have another hand that scores as much as straights or even close

[hoary estuary]

i'm not saying it's not possible but this definitely makes it harder for single hand builds to get through

[sleek harness]

this boss blind is just oppressive against the already weaker strats

[hoary estuary]

and i see no reason for a boss like this, finisher or otherwise, when the current meta is to toss 6 weak hands into every blind and win

this boss does absolutely nothing against builds that go HC, HC, HC, HC, HC, HC or pair, pair, HC, pair, pair

and even if it "should" be doable, it still just causes trouble for builds centered on big hand types

[sleek harness]

thats 80% of the higher dtakes builds

also violet vessel as much as i hate it does this concept much better where every build gets stress tested

not just big hand one shot builds

[hoary estuary]

yeah and i wanna see less of it
photochad photochad photochad
when is actual skill in playing your hands gonna be worthwhile

[sleek harness]

im not talking about photochad

im talking just scaling flat mult a chips joker and an xmult joker

[hoary estuary]

those too
(and sometimes not even a chips joker)

[sleek harness]

no you need chips

[hoary estuary]

less high card pair builds please

[sleek harness]

scoring without chips on scaling mult builds is a lost cause trust me

[hoary estuary]

or you can just blueseal your way to 100 chips and then win because pair is bs?

level 30-50 pair is basically a given

[sleek harness]

ok now were jusg complaining about blhe stake

you only need like level 7 pair to have enough chips

[hoary estuary]

scoring without chips jokers is free when blue seals are a thing

[sleek harness]

i am aware

[hoary estuary]

&?

[sleek harness]

also blue seals arent as gurranteed as youd act

[honest carbon]

i still don't see how this affects hc/pair less than other hands

[sleek harness]

those hand types spam hands like candy and dont get impacted by the hand score limit

[hoary estuary]

all im saying is i don't like light hand builds and this boss exclusively hurts heavy one or two hand builds

[honest carbon]

oh

okay i failed reading comprehension nevermind

[hoary estuary]

they aren't, but they're pretty easy to hit when you're running highcards and pairs

when i do straight flush builds i have to play one of my blue seals every once in a while

[sleek harness]

you dont need incredible pair levels however so yeah

[hoary estuary]

when i play hc pair i basically get however many blue seal hits i feel like getting

it's sad ;-;

[sleek harness]

anyways i think this discussion is finishes for now since were just justifying the point we already gave examples for lol

[hoary estuary]

yea :3

[hardy torrent]

Black Deck with Hieroglyph:

[honest carbon]

Troubador too!

[formal tusk]

The tax in cryptid works because of the jokers making it really easy to get around it. I don't like it either, but in vanilla where there are no crazy jokers, this kills almost every run

[marsh carbon]

The least amount of hands and discards you can get is 1 hand and 1 discard

Black deck: -1 hand, 3 hands
Blue stake: -1 discard, 2 discards
Hieroglyph: -1 hand, 2 hands
Petroglyph: -1 discard, 1 discard
Troubador: -1 hand, 1 hand

[rigid nacelle]

wait, what do you mean Base?

you mean after scoring?

[formal tusk]

Base is the small blind size, you can see it next to the blinds in the blinds tab

[rigid nacelle]

ah

well, golden needle is fucked

[formal tusk]

What's golden needle?

[formal tusk]

But you can have multiple troubadors. But your hands will be set to one when blind is selected

[rigid nacelle]

challenge that only allows 1 hand per round

[limber sonnet]

No

[granite plinth]

pair slop

[hoary estuary]

"please get either this one voucher, this one tag, or this one uncommon to be able to play the game against this boss"

[mystic cloak]

What about forcing a minimum score instead?

Something like 1× base for the hand to qualify

I liked the idea of the shield blind tanking "damage" and maybe a minimum is a better idea

[hoary estuary]

top hat man
somehow you managed to 180 this from something i hated into something i love

(maybe not 1x base though since at that point what you have is effectively needle, how about 0.8x base)

[eager marsh]

this is why constructive criticism is awesome

[hoary estuary]

but yeah love it
less HC less pair more fun

[eager marsh]

also i have no idea why i ☝️ reacted the original submission

[mystic cloak]

Lemme update the original message rq

Now I'm doubtful everyone is going to un- this, but at least it shouldn't get any more

[zenith hedge]

Change it to like 50%

I think 85% is too high of a threshold and I could totally see myself missing it even with big builds