| UPDATE (2020-09-04): To clear up the table chart at the end of this page, it has been updated to match the card pool in rotation - legacy card pool is ignored for it. Note that regardless of this, there some legacy cards are still used as examples on this page. |
Affinity identities are the pre-established mechanical repertoire each affinity has gained access to over the weeks. The precedent is all the cards that have made it in-game. Hero powers/rewards are generally ignored as far as affinity identities go.
While there are effects that are exclusively of a single affinity, many fall under what affinity doesn't have access to the effect. Sometimes cards which feature effects that don't fit into any single affinity are made as Neutrals. For example, designs that have or give a very high number / random keywords would be these such as Everything Bread and Psychedelic Sheep.
Effect categories[ | ]
| Effect categories descriptions |
|---|
Bounce[ | ]Refers to returning a unit to its owner's hand, usually from play. Spot (hard) removal[ | ]Single target hard removal effects that straight-up destroy or banish enemy units. Note that this category includes effects that shuffle a unit into its controller's deck and conditional hard removal like Scavenge and Fall of the Weak. It does not include Bounce, Blinking, Exhausting, Silencing, or putting a unit on top of its owner's deck. Action recursion[ | ]Returning action cards from your graveyard to your hand. Unit recursion[ | ]Returning unit cards from your graveyard to your hand or play. Sacrifice[ | ]Destroying friendly units. Unit burn[ | ]Effects that deal damage to units. This has a subcategory known as "Random pings" which refers to effects that randomly distribute 1 damage at a time. It's primary in Mind and secondary in Strength. Blinking[ | ]Banishing a unit temporarily but returning it back eventually. Hero burn[ | ]Effects that can or strictly damage enemy heroes. Direct hero HP loss is counted under this as well. Exhausting[ | ]Exhausting (enemy) units. Effects that give units "Can't attack" and/or "Can't block" can be seen as a subcategory of this (Quick Growth, Big Eyes, Haunt of the Patch, Gift of Peace, etc). Force enemy attack[ | ]Forcing enemy units to attack. Zone (moving) synergy[ | ]Niche category in which effects trigger or care about cards being in certain (multiple, different) zones. They tend to be recognizable when they explicitly use the word "zone." It includes cards like Wormhole Investigator, Where?, The Wurm and possibly Entwining Fates. Mana bursts[ | ]Effects that temporarily, usually for a single turn, increase the available mana of a player. Passive mana gain[ | ]Units which grant an increase in mana through their static ability. Mana Maiden for example. Card draw[ | ]General[ | ]Effects that make the player draw a bunch of cards at one time. While this is mainly seen as primary Mind and secondary Spirit, it can appear in Strength when that card draw comes with specifically Strength drawbacks such as damaging yourself or sacrificing units. Cantrips[ | ]Cards that draw a single card as part of their effect - essentially replacing themselves. Specifically actions or units with Summon/Entomb that makes the player draw a single card. Targeted[ | ]Effects that draw a card of certain criteria - most often that being the card's type or a tribe. |
Effect identity categorization levels[ | ]
Order in appearance rates is ascending; Primary > Secondary > Tertiary > Exceptionally
New category "All" has been added for effects which have no particular affinity relation.
Primary[ | ]
Most often cards with these effects are in this affinity. Sometimes an effect is so ill-defined in terms of affinity identity that it has no primary (or even secondary). Generally speaking, this probably means that there are less than 5 or so cards with the said effect (in any one affinity).
Secondary[ | ]
Competes with the primary affinity in effect usage. It might be debatable whether this affinity is the primary one for the effect (in the case of "Flying" for example).
Tertiary[ | ]
Effect infrequently appears in cards of this affinity. They are somewhat of an anomaly or perhaps mostly unexplored design space. For example, certain tribes might have mechanical identities that slightly deviate from the affinity's identity in relation to an effect in general. Might at times partially merge into the "Exceptionally" category.
Exceptionally[ | ]
There are one or two exceptional cards in the affinity that feature this effect. They tend to be unique corner-cases (Vineyard of Desolation, Mafuta the Massive, Devourer of Worlds, etc).
?: Question mark[ | ]
A "?" marker after an affinity identifier means that there are not enough cards of an effect in the card pool to determine its affinity preferences. For example, a category marked with "Mind?" as primary and nothing else means that there's likely only a single card with an effect in the card pool. Alternatively, if no cards with an effect exist, the marker is used as a guest/suggestion based on effect's previous relation to affinities.
Affinity identity table (last updated 2021-06-07)[ | ]
| Effect category | Primary | Secondary | Tertiary | Exceptionally |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Force enemy attack | Strength | Spirit | ||
| Leap | All | |||
| Untargetable | Neutral | All? | ||
| Unblockable | Mind | Neutral | ||
| Frenzy | Mind | Strength | ||
| Lifebond | Strength | Spirit | ||
| Agile | Mind | Spirit | Strength | |
| Card draw: General | All | |||
| Card draw: Cantrips | All | |||
| Card draw: Targeted | All | |||
| Scour | Strength | Neutral | ||
| Ambush | Spirit | Mind | Neutral | Strength |
| Flying | Strength | Mind | Spirit | Neutral |
| Deadly | Spirit | Mind | Neutral | |
| Mana bursts | Mind | Neutral | ||
| Action cost reduction | Mind | Spirit | ||
| Action recursion | Spirit? | |||
| Unit recursion | Spirit | Strength | Mind | |
| General cost reduction | All? | |||
| Passive mana gain | Spirit? | |||
| Regenerate | Spirit | Strength | ||
| Unit healing | Spirit | |||
| Cost increase | Mind | Strength | Spirit | |
| Hero healing | Spirit | Neutral | ||
| Ward | Mind | Strength | Neutral | Spirit |
| Sacrifice | Strength | Spirit | ||
| Max Mana loss | Strength | Mind | ||
| Max Mana gain | Spirit | Neutral | ||
| Unit copying | Spirit | Mind | Strength | Neutral |
| Stat buffs in play | Strength | Spirit | Neutral | |
| Stat buffs in hand | Mind? | |||
| Stat buffs in grave | Spirit? | |||
| Herald | Strength | Spirit | Neutral | |
| Duelist | Strength | Spirit | ||
| Entomb | Spirit | Strength | Neutral | Mind |
| Self-discard | Spirit | Neutral | Mind | |
| Self-mill | Spirit | Mind | ||
| Enemy-mill | Spirit? | Mind? | ||
| Hero self-damage | Strength | |||
| Enemy-discard | Spirit | Mind | ||
| EXP gain | Spirit | Strength | Mind | |
| Exhausting | Mind | Strength | ||
| Summon | All | |||
| Innate | All? | |||
| Overrun | Strength | All | ||
| Rebound actions | Spirit | Strength | Mind | |
| Rebound units | Spirit | Strength | Mind | Neutral |
| Blinking | Mind | |||
| Enemy-silence | Mind | Spirit | ||
| Bounce | Mind? | |||
| Food | Spirit | Mind | Strength | Neutral |
| Zone (moving) synergy | Mind? | |||
| Counterspells | Mind | |||
| Unit creation | All | |||
| Action creation | Mind | Strength | Neutral | Spirit |
| Unit burn | All | |||
| Hero burn | Mind | Strength | Neutral | Spirit |
| Unit replacement | Spirit? | |||
| Spot (hard) removal | Strength | Neutral | ||
| Mass hard removal | Spirit? | |||
| Mass soft removal | All? | |||
| ATK debuffs in play | Spirit? | Strength? | ||
| HP debuffs in play | Mind? | |||
| Effect category | Primary | Secondary | Tertiary | Exceptionally |
Affinity identity table (last updated 2020-09-09)[ | ]
| Older affinity identity table | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Affinity identity history[ | ]
A poll was conducted in the past relating to Affinity identities: https://surveyheart.com/summary?id=5f586525cf47815598b9fe5d
Alpha affinity identity charts (outdated)[ | ]
These charts were made in accordance to the thoughts of alpha players earlier in Collective's history. They are generally what certain sections of the playerbase saw what mechanic affiliations the affinities should have. Many of their ideas can still be seen to this day in the current affinity identities as well as Tribal Identities and their corresponding deck types.
The devs of Collective later on demanded them to be marked as unofficial - possibly due to their controversial nature.
The charts are outdated and never precisely represented what the actual card pool implied the affinity identities to be. The new affinity identity tables now fulfill their purpose by being much more flexible and having been constructed and updated directly in accordance to the (standard) card pool.