Regarding
Sword of Hisou: in Hearthstone, there's the card Spellslinger, that gives you and the opponent each any one spell.
You getting an awesome random spell from Spellslinger, while your opponent gets a shitty one, is, statistically seen, rare and random, but it still feels awful if you're on the receiving end because you can do nothing about it. And to me, that's what the Winter effect of the Sword of Hisou feels like. Random, but if you can't do anything about it, then great, no Spell Card for you.
And there are ways in the game to manipulate RNG, albeit only few (Keine's passive ability, Voile, Master Plan).
In general, IMO, you should try to avoid using effects that limit any player in options ("you can't avoid/ cancel" [like Remi's Spell Card], "you can't play type X card" [like Reimu's Spell Card], etc.), unless you counter balance it. (Remi's spell is pure aggro and does not synergize with her passive, Reimu's spell inconveniences EVERYONE, possibly even herself if not careful [like when banning dodge cards]), and even then you should only use such effects with caution. Players just don't like having their options being taken away.
Nuclear Control Rod: I like it, both effects have the same theme (pure aggro), and I think it's fairly balanced.
The "regardless of range" portion is also interesting, since it means you can spend extra Shoot! for your first attack to target someone normally out of your range, but you only need to discard another one for an extra attack, meaning that you can play around the Range/ Distance of people a bit, without completely negating the mechanic.
Swallow's Cowrie Shell:This card is broken. Period. It's power creep at its finest.
It's basically Sutra Scroll and Stop Watch combined, but EVEN BETTER.
+ Distance + 2 additional Danmaku: it's already Stop Watch.
+ Range: Now it's more powerful.
+ 1 max hand size + draw 1 card: Stop it already!
+ 1 Max Life + 1 Current Life: :objection!:
At least you don't draw an extra card per turn. But you do when playing the card, and most times, Sutra Scroll doesn't stay longer anyway because people don't like others having more card draw.
The fun of this type of game is having choice. But just imagine you have this card, Stopwatch and Sutra Scroll in your hand. Which card would you play? Stopwatch? It's contained within Cowrie Shell. Sutra Scroll? It's objectively weaker than Cowrie Shell, so why would you?
Also, while it is less of a problem here than in Trading/ Collectible Card Games, since we all draw off of the same deck, it still feels terrible if your opponent draws an objectively MUCH better card than you do. Not situationally better, but objectively better. 100% of the time.
It's nice that you wanted to introduce an all "around stat booster", but make something like "+Range, +Distance, +1Attack/Round". That's enough already.
It may not be as good as the Stopwatch, since you're missing one Attack per Round, but hey, when you don't have too many Danmaku cards in hand, then having Range instead is actually better. Unless you don't need the Range, either. Then both are equally as good.
And regarding the life gain, like I said in my previous post, it's nice to play around with, but there's a reason why Mystery Parfait decided to keep it limited. Because it just makes the game drag on. And Max Life gain just makes things confusing, IMO, especially if it can shift as quickly as with an Artifact that can be Sealed Away.
Tengu's Fan:Tengu's Fan. For as long as Remilia can ward off Seal Away (possibly with the assistance of an allied Aya?) she becomes untouchable by anything short of spellcards (or, Reimu's homing attacks). Discard a card; draw a card for avoiding; and so forth. I'm pretty sure that's one of two big reasons Aya cancels instead of guarantees evasion.
Nice catch, I didn't even realize that. But that's a serious problem, indeed.
Miracle Mallet Rebellion:I think Zhelot made a card like this once, too? It got confusing really quickly. Though it was fun in just how ridiculous things could get.
Though personally, I would limit it to putting 3 incidents into play, and then it resolving itself, because the more incidents to keep track of, the more complex everything becomes, and you usually want to minimize complexity. That, and some of the combinations of incidents can just be terrible and unfun.
"Everybody is in Range" "Unlimited Danmaku uses" "No Life Regain"
Someone is going to die really quickly is all I'm saying, and that's "only" 3 incidents. >.>
Anyway, nice concept, but it needs thorough testing.
