The Table of Elements

First of all, there is some confusion in the game between "Elements" and "Elementals". This is due to the fact that the entire category of creatures with brown borders are called "Elementals". However, there is also a class of creatures called "Element", which includes creatures that are the embodiment of the natural (and some unnatural or supernatural) elements around us. These creatures have names like Greater Air Elemental.

Anytime the game refers to "Elementals", they are almost always refering to every brown-bordered creature in the game. When they only want to refer to those creatures with "Elemental" in the creatures' names, they are refering to the class called "Element".

It really isn't as confusing as it sounds.

With said out of the way, I would like to present a compilation of all the Elements in Guardians, including some that don't exist in the game. (I have marked those with asterisks.) The "real" cards from the game are included so that you can see which gaps I have filled in. All Elements are Elementals (naturally). Unless I have mentioned otherwise, Elements have no off-color bonuses nor channeling ability nor bribery icons. Some notes are at the bottom of the page.

Notes:

A - I didn't include a regular Air Elemental (as opposed to a "Greater" one) although I thought about it. Mostly because the Bantam Drake is already a smaller creature with a similar ability.

B - I'm curious what the actual stats would have been. When FPG closed shop, the next expansion was supposed to be "Seven Seas" and the theme was supposed to be "wet things" (according to Dave or Luke, I forget which).

C - There was no Fire/Air Elemental and smoke was a natural, except that there already is a smoke spirit. Since there's an Ice Spirit and Elemental, it didn't bother me to make a duplicate here, either. Of course, if someone has a better name, I'll be happy to hear it. And I naturally needed a different ability. I toyed with the silly notion of something like "if in play and unbeaten, your Elementals are immune to Mortals", but I thought that was too much smoke.

D - I was not as happy with this one. "Shadow" is a great fantasy "element". But I couldn't think of a good, non-useless, not-overly-power ability. I also couldn't decide what terrain had the most shadows. Woods can be dense, but Swamps are always depicted as dark and dreary. Jungles make me think "hot and sweaty" even though the jungles used to be refered to as "darkest Africa" and such.

E - Hey, why not? I kept the vitality low, so it wouldn't be a replacement for the Greater Energy.

F - At first, I thought about making him a destroyer, but I thought that might be a little much, so I make him an Elemental Giant Babe instead.

G - Catch 22! Jungles don't allow command cards, so can you have a command card that doesn't allow command cards??

H - Remember, face-down isn't terrainless. So your Tiger Baloos get a bonus, but your Silver Servers don't. Then again, no one else gets a bonus, either.

I - From an earlier sig file. You can't make these Elemental Lords too small, however, because that AOE can really get dangerous.

J - From an earlier sig file (creature critique #18). I sort of combined the Sand Lord ability with the Vampire Lord.

K - Alchemist bribable by Gold? Makes sense, doesn't it? Sure, he can make his (her?) own, but why bother when it's free. He needs at least CMP 5 because Elements are big creatures, but he also needs a higher stacking penalty than the Necromancer because of the "even though that normally ..." clause.

L - Bad puns are necessary. If I'm putting in all the pro-Element stuff, you need a bogey card.

M - I wasn't trying to create a really big ranged attack, that's why either both win or both lose (but they aren't destroyed, that's too much). The second text box is blanked to prevent sneaky tricks that I haven't thought of yet. And the wordy change in creature class is so you can't do it twice.

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Last Updated Jan/08/04, 20:54:19
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