Punching was mostly deck arithmetic — nineteen castable damage cards
in a 196-card deck — but three leaks made it worse. The march was
burning the biggest NUMBER card on long walks, starving waterbolts
and lightning; the biggest number is now reserved whenever an attack
in hand wants it. Heave-Ho, priced for defense, was being cast
without a treasure to throw (refused, turn stumbled) — now never
cast. Illusionary Attack was cast without naming a spell to fake —
now it fakes a fireball, the best-selling lie. And STONE DEAD joins
the arsenal against anyone flashing displayed stones: number times
the visible count, cast when the arithmetic beats the alternatives.
Measured across thirty berserker mirrors: attack casts up a quarter,
the tier handicap sharper (25-5), no stalls.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Eric WagonerandClaude Fable 5
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