We've seen with jackpot that a good leader passive can make a bunch of cards quite viable, even if jackpot is seemingly overtuned. Considering this I think more leaders should get such passives. Even if leaders are just points they should be more defining to the identity of your deck. That being said here's some ideas for a few leader passives:
A. Monsters
- Blood Scent: Order: Give an enemy unit Bleeding for 3 turns. Charge 3. Whenever an enemy unit dies of bleeding spawn an Ekimmara on the opposite row. There's a couple of cards that synergize with having more vampires on board this could help those and the design forward for the archetype.
B. Northern Realms
- Royal Inspiration: Order: Boost an allied unit by 1. Cooldown 2. Units that boost another unit, also boost self by 1. NR kinda misses an engine overload leader, this passive ability could quite fit that gap and also make true that in-game tooltip about NR engines getting out of control which is debateable currently.
- Mobilization: Spawn a base copy of a bronze allied unit on its row. Charge 2. Removing the boost and Soldier tag limitation and gaining another charge could help make mobilization quite the choice for a leader ability for decks like mages, royal guards and help shape other archetypes in the future that rely on spamming bronzes. This change might warrant knocking off a provision point.
- Stockpile: Order: Reduce the Cooldown of 3 adjacent Northern Realms units by 1 and Spawn a Volunteer on their row. Charge 3. Crew requires 1 less Soldier to activate. Stockpile feels a bit jank to use, don't think it needs more points but a simple utility benefit of triggering crew with just one adjacent soldier.
C. Scoia'Tael
- Guerilla Tactics: Order: Move a unit to the other row. If it's an enemy, damage it by 2; if it's an ally, boost it by 2. Charge: 3. Gain 1 Charge when allied units have been moved to the other row 10 times. Not much to say about this one it's simple and fitting to the movement archetype I reckon.
- Invigorate: Order: Boost 5 units in your hand by 1. Charge 2. Whenever a unit in your hand is boosted beyond its base power boost it by 1. A little bit of extra hand buff juice to give more value to hand buffing units to make up a bit for the low tempo those cards usually have.
D. Skellige
- Onslaught: Order: Damage an enemy unit by 1. Cooldown 2. Whenever an allied unit damages an ally, damage a random enemy unit by 1. A little bit of oomph for an otherwise boring ability, allowing for more creative deck building.
- Ursine Ritual: Order: Damage an allied unit by 1. Charge: 5. Once all Charges are used up, Spawn a Bear Abomination on a random allied row. Whenever you Spawn or Transform a unit into a Bear Abomination increase all other bear Abomination's base power by 1. Promotes a bit of swarmy action which Skellige lacks, gives value to cards that spawn or transform into BA and you can never go wrong with more bears.
E. Nilfgaard
- Imperial Formation: Order Boost an allied unit by 2. Charge: 3. Once all Charges are used up, move a unit from your deck to the top. Whenever you play a Soldier, give it 1 armor for each adjacent Soldier. Moving a unit to the top of your deck also boosts it by 1. Not much to say here just a little bit of extra value to promote putting stuff on top.
- Enslave: Order: Seize an enemy unit with 3 power or less. This value is raised by 1 for every 4 Tactic cards in your starting deck. Whenever you seize an enemy unit boost it by 2. Don't think enslave needs much more just helps promote unit seizing which is quite a fitting NG archetype.
F. Syndicate
- Congregate: Spawn a Firesworn Zealot on an allied row and gain 1 Coin. Charge: 3. When all charges are used spawn and play Lonely Champion. This is quite fitting for Syndicate swarm since it helps with overswarming. Probably knock off a provision or two for this added effect.
Let me know what you all think and what passives or extra effects you'd like to see in leader. Cheers.