Card Psynergy set

The Card Psynergy set is the collective name for a group of semi-related Psynergy attacks available to the Pierrot class series. Each of them is a reference to the Mysterious Card, the item that puts an Adept in the Pierrot series. Unlike other Psynergy sets and series, which are linked by a common statistical feature and appearance, the Card set's members are only similar in name, with a vague visual resemblance to each other. The set is an interesting blend of non-damaging imitations of condition-inflicting Psynergy and completely original offensive attacks.

Basic Description
The Card Psynergies are a diverse set of Psynergies. The Flame, Thunder, Bramble, and Frost Cards are ranged, offensive Psynergies. The total damage inflicted is determined by comparing the caster's Elemental Power to the target's Elemental Resistance, depending on the specific element of the Psynergy. This number is then used to modify the base power of the particular Psynergy in use.

The other four cards, the Baffle, Sword, Sleep, and Death Cards, are status-altering moves. Death Card and Sword Card are single-target Psynergies, while Baffle Card and Sleep Card are ranged Psynergies.

Visually, each Psynergy in the set features the Psynergy effect emerging from the card. Baffle Card features a gray card that appears before the foes, then envelops them in smoke. Flame Card features a red card that blasts a sheet of fire into its targets. Sleep Card appears as a purple card that forms above its targets before dropping a torrent of sheep in front of them. Thunder Card takes on the form of a translucent, purple, energy-based card that lobs vast amounts of lightning into its targets. Death Card appears as a black card that summons the Grim Reaper, after which point the visuals become identical to Condemn's. Bramble Card appears as a purple and green card that floats just in front of the opponents while huge thorny vines rush out and pierce all the targets. Frost Card looks like a translucent blue card that fires a volley of crystalline ice at the targets.

Damage Calculations
Elemental Power attacks such as Flame Card, Thunder Card, Bramble Card, and Frost Card use a set base power as the base damage to be modified. For example, the base power of Frost Card is 175. Thus, an unmodified Frost Card would do around 175 points of damage.

Attacks from Flame Card, Thunder Card, Bramble Card, and Frost Card take this base damage value and uses it in the following equation:


 * final damage = (base damage) * (1 + (User's Elemental Power - Enemy's Elemental Resistance) / 200)

To word this in prose, Flame Card, Thunder Card, Bramble Card, and Frost Card take the base damage of the particular attack, and then modify it by how much higher or lower the user's Elemental Power is than the target's Elemental Resistance, depending on the elemental alignment of the Psynergy being used. The difference between the user's Elemental Power and the user's Elemental Resistance is then divided by, then 1 is added to this, resulting in what can be called the "elemental damage multiplier". This number is what the Psynergies' damage is multiplied by.

For example, if an Adept with a Mercury Power of 150 casts Frost Card on a monster with a Mercury Resistance of 50:
 * damage = (base damage) * (1 + (Power - Resistance) / 200)
 * damage = (175) * (1 + (150 - 50) / 200)
 * damage = * (1 +  / 200)
 * damage = (175) * (1 + )
 * damage = 175 *
 * damage = 262

Therefore, a Frost Card cast under these circumstances would deal 262 points of damage to the targeted enemy. Since Frost Card is a ranged Psynergy, adjacent targets take a percentage of the total damage, with the percentage decreasing as distance from the main target increases.

Availability
The Card Psynergies are unique to the Pierrot class series. The Pierrot class is available to any Adept that has equipped the Mysterious Card. As of the release of Dark Dawn, the Mysterious Card can only be found in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. Delude Card is learned at Level 3, Sword Card at Level 8, Flame Card at Level 13, Sleep Card at Level 15, Thunder Card at level 25, Death Card at Level 27, Bramble Card at Level 33, and Frost Card at Level 46.

Analysis
The Card Psynergies make up the majority of the Pierrot class's lineup, and provide the Pierrot with a variety of techniques. The status-inflicting Cards vary in usefulness, and are better for random encounters than boss battles in most cases.

However, the Elemental Cards are much more useful. When learned, each Card is fairly powerful, and allow the Pierrot to take advantage of any elemental weakness. More specifically, Flame Card is slightly weaker than Flare Storm, but is learned earlier. Thunder Card is equal in power to Shine Plasma, but is learned earlier and is cheaper. Bramble Card is weaker, but cheaper than Nettle, and can be useful against Moapa. Frost Card is learned later, but is both more powerful and expensive than Ice Missile. It is excellent when cast by a Mercury Adept, and is an excellent option for fighting Flame Dragon enemy line.

The main drawback for the series is the lack of single-target offenses, making the set better at softening up groups of targets.

Trivia
Extended Gallery
 * Whenever any of these spells are cast the in-battle text will read "[User] draws a [] card" instead of saying that the user cast the spell.