The Flaming Amarant

Here's the first foray into the new set!

As you'll notice, there is a number on the bottom right of the card, this is the set number. Amarant is our first card in the set, and I'd like to tell you about him some.

First off, the art. I really like the effect, and the style for this fanart. The coloring is really cool, and I like how his hair seems like it's aflame. I think this is the first piece in the ccg with an action pose, and it works really well. Toni has a variety of art on her site, including Trance versions of Amarant and Zidane which I thought were really cool. Check it out at: Toni's Deviantart, and her website.
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In card land, Amarant Coral was hard to design. I mean, the dude is a silent monk that throws equipment with an offensive and defensive skillset. Not quite as much of a design nightmare as Cecil, but still tough.

I think the gist, is that Amarant is a student of war, very Terry Bogard. The only time he really got into trouble in the game was when he lost his cool and got captured trying to prove Zidane wrong. In a way, he needs to maintain his focus to remain deadly.

So anytime he has nothing equipped or attached (monk equipment excluded) he's an offensive beast. But the second he's buffed by an ally, or poisoned or slowed, he loses his focus and becomes more of a target.

Dually, this let me give him the throw command, which is new to the game. The throw command reads:

Down character and discard a weapon card from your hand to perfom a ranged attack against a legal opposing character of ATT equal to that character's printed STR, if that character is defeated, it is doomed. (Basically a neat way to get around 'cure' and 'potion', this is more typical for Rogues. Amarant may be the only Fighter with the throw command.)

Since Amarant's "printed" strength is 1400, his throw doesn't break the ranged damage cap.

Even with the limitation, he's solid. Maybe too solid, but we'll see. That's what playtesting is for :)