| Democracy Demon | |
|---|---|
| |
| Details | |
| Name | Democracy Demon |
| Affinity | Strength |
| Rarity | Rare |
| Realm | None |
| Tribal Type | Demon |
| Release Week | Ancient Times - Week 1 |
| Cost | 3 |
| ATK | 1 |
| HP | 4 |
| Text | Units have "Active: Vote!"
Before combat, this deals 4 damage to the player with fewer votes. |
| Creator Name | Nick McCormick |
| Artist Name | Game-icons.net |
Decks containing this card[]
Usage and Strategy[ | ]
Democracy Demon is a prime example of a "mini-game" or "mind games" card, i.e. a card which introduces a small "game within a game" when played. Other examples of this kind of effect are Shaw the Gambler and Wine in Front of Me. The "vote" ability is an Active that has no function besides increasing the amount of voting units for that player that turn (and the effect of all Actives in exhausting the voting unit, stopping it from attacking/blocking/using other Actives).
When on the field, if the opponent doesn't vote with their units, Democracy Demon deals 4 unavoidable face damage to them each turn - a highly efficient amount for its mana cost. Its durable statline is outside of the common 3 damage range of removal like Fireball and Falling Star, enabling it to stay on the board longer to continually activate its burn ability. Should the opposing player vote with their units, the effect of the card might be neutralized, but their units' ability to act will also be used up. For this reason, Democracy Demon is most effective in various go-wide decks, especially when the deck contains tokens with low utility in attacking or blocking, such as the Sacrificial Cultists from Shika’s Disciple and the Orchids from Orchid Attendant.
Democracy Demon's effect synergizes well with Heldim's passive, which requires the player to attack with a single unit in order to benefit from it by gaining 2 XP. Heldim decks often use a good density of Duelist units in order to take advantage of non-attacking units when triggering the passive, and Democracy Demon's vote ability offers another alternative non-attacking damage option. That strategy is used by Heldim DemoDemon, the main deck Democracy Demon is played in and one of the game's top aggro decks as of week 16.
History and Changes[ | ]
Democracy Demon is a Week 1 card, and like others from the first two weeks, was released before the first wave of alpha testers were invited in June of 2018.
For the first month or two that Democracy Demon was in the game, it was generally regarded as being badly designed and ineffective. Since then, the introduction of more token generator options, duelist options, aggro tools, as well as the change to Heldim's passive (When attacking with a single unit, gain 2 XP instead of the previous 1 XP) has made Democracy Demon a meta-viable card.
Its creator, Nick (a developer of collective), still believes that it's a poorly designed card because its "give everything an active" effect pollutes the space of Actives and degrades the UI for units with other actives (such as King Cannibal).