Deep Sea Designing - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread

The first card and we already have a winner xD Seriously, the "rise up" mechanic is very cool, original and makes sense thematically.

If I had to nitpick something, I think I'd pick an artwork which features a full-naga Azshara.

Another solid version of the Naga Queen. It fits Mage very well, but seems quite OP right now. I'd make her a 6/6/6 at the very least.

Submerged Bomb It makes sense from a flavor perspective, but I think it'd be quite bad, considering it's arguably worse than Snipe.

Drown might be a bit too simple, but I like it nonetheless.

I loved the idea! Wailor is completely right! Maybe you must change some status/costs or add a powerful effect, because she starts in the bottom and will need a specific build around + effort to draw her without a shuffle effect, so I think she need a good payoff. But realy, I'm in love by the concept!

I liked the card, but the payoff in my opinion os to good to the cost/Power/health of her. Maybe make her more fragile or increase her cost?

The Submerged Bomb is more appealing to me because is in the same space than Snipe, so give a extra level of complexity to play around to the opponent, the way I like secrets.

 

Drown is elegant and simple. I like.

Sacred Seahorse and Hammerhead Bloodseeker are solid hits to me. The shark os flaverfoul and the Seahorse play in a very interesting approach to Divine Shield. I prefer the Seahorse because ia more easy to build around him, but any of then is a good choice to me. The Piranha one to me is a little strange, I dont know why.

TheHoax91 - Really interesting card and I would like to see this work.

linkblade91 - I feel like this is too powerful; you can combo and clear the board really easily with this.  Cost should probably be capitalized.

Demonxz95 - Submerged Bomb is an awesome design.  I find it hard to evaluate is power level, as it has a high ceiling but your opponent has a lot of ways to play around it.  I also  like how it makes your opponent care about positioning in a unique way.  I would word it as "deal 3 damage to its neighbors" to specify to make it clear that the damage is going to the minions next to the played minion.  I don't like Drown as much because I'm not a fan of the art and I don't find the effect as exciting, though its fine both design and balance wise.

Wailor - I think I like the Hammerhead Bloodseeker the best. It's very flavorful and I like how it fits within Warrior's class identity.  Sacred Seahorse is also cool and Abyssal Monstrosity is an interesting puzzle, but is too easy to coin out on turn 9. 

Valor1204 - My first impression is that this is too weak. It doesn't affect the board in a meaningful way since your opponent can just ignore the treasure chest, meaning that you have to build around it, and it only counts pirates, which makes it hard to build around it.  That's being said, I find a link between a pirate and deathrattle build interesting.

DavnanKillder - The card doesn't make it clear how the summoned nagas attack; is it like Nagrand Slam? Also, the token is missing a watermark.

BloodMefist - Very interesting! If you know your opponent's deck, you can choose the option that they can't deal with effectively.  I fear that your opponent will eventually figure out what option you chose reliably, much like Fatespinner, but it is harder to counter.

Demonxz95 - The submerged bomb is really nice. Drown is a bit boring, but balanced.

Wailor - I think the seahorse can have 1 extra attack or health as its effect is fairly conditional. The hammer head seems like a more conditional Darius Crowley which might make it slightly on the weak side. Abyssal monstrosity doesnt really fit rogue in my opinion and is too swingy for my liking.

Valor1204 - this seems very hard to use, since its difficult to buff them to attack. It's probably quite weak.

DavnanKillder - Seems like it should be balanced if the Naga attack their counterparts, then its a situationally better/worse Soul Mirror. As grumpymonk said, make it a bit clearer what they attack.

BloodMefist - An interesting idea, and i think a 6/4 locked behind a 4/3 should be fine at 6 mana.

grumpymonk - I always like ways to help big demon hunter with the fel witch, but I really like Oacha'noa for how interesting it is as an inclusion in some token/aggressive decks to develop a late game plan.

I feel like the effect is really unique and balanced and absolutely worthy of Azshara. Besides that it was obvious Azshara would come up more than once this week so feel free to go for it =)

I prefer Submerged Bomb. Since it doesn't trigger on opponent attacks they will probably test for a couple other secrets first before realizing they will have to damage their minion. Imo that's what drives the card home for me…your opponent attacking random stuff to trigger the Secret and nothing happens…until they have to play a minion *BOOM*

Sacred Seahorse seems very weak. Out of the three I'd go with the Hammerhead. It fits both the theme and warrior perfectly. 10-Mana Combo-cards is a great idea I would keep in mind for another competition.

Two coins for each Pirate that died seems much, BUT I'm trying to figure out a way to reliable kill of the chests and can't come up with one…so I guess it's balanced, maybe even a little weak. Flavor is on point though!

Worded similarly to BEEEES!!! that would be: "For each enemy minion, summon a 3/4 Naga to attack it. Overload: (3)" You don't have to spell out the Tokens entire name imo. That way you have more than enough space to clarify the effect.

That is some very nice use of the Secret Deathrattle. Depending on your opponent's available removal you can guarantee some stats on the board. Only issue I have is, for this card to be complete you theoretically need 4(!) Tokens.

I love both, but prefer Oacha'noa! If you ever quested in Vashj'ir during Cataclysm you know those turtles are HUGE! This card is just a perfect fit.

Balance seems strong as it is. Definetly captures Warrior and Hunter flair. I don't know what it is, but the colors on this card just LOOK SO GOOD!

"When you draw this, swap it with the bottom card…" Cool concept though!

thehoax1: personally I like the 2 reduction one the best seems pretty balanced.

Linkblade91: I think it looks fine since its only half a refund cost reduction won't help it any.

Demonxz95: out of all your designs I like diving agent the most flavor-wise and stat-wise although might just become head crack instead of a swift remove since she bounces when hitting face

Wailor: I think abyssal is my personal favorite it's a dumb combo you could do with shark or something and fairly easy to activate with coins in rouge.

Blood: I think you play the secret pick well but it could be better as maybe like a sea cultist or something to explain why he summons the tentacles/monster

Grumpymonk: I personally wouldn't use either of these but I think naga is the better one since you could use it to cheat some big demons out

Arkasuar: I like it clean simple and effective removal for hunter and warrior.

Neoguli: I think it's useful for fishing for primes and things or using it to get cards you've shuffled into your deck although it seemingly only activates once right

Cg8889: And I immediately realize I'm not the first one to use a siren. Dang it. Hopefully mine is distinct enough. But anyway yours looks pretty good, the only thing I'd change is the wording to say "force it" instead of "have it" for consistency with other cards.

KANSAS: Not sure if it's the most ocean-y but I like the effect.

DavnanKillder: Both cards are good, but I really like the flavor of the Deepfiend Drowner. You might want to take the stats down a notch though to compensate for it being basically unkillable by your opponent.

Demonxz95: I think Diving Agent fits more as a Rogue card. Does it have to survive to get returned to your hand, because otherwise I wouldn't call that a drawback. I'd still go with Submerged Bomb out of the three though.

MenacingBagel: I'd raise the cost to 5 and move it to Demon Hunter, I think the effect fits in better with DH's disruption cards.

TheHoax91: I'd go with the (2) less version.

Neoguli: it's interesting, but right now it only really synergizes with the Sphere of Sapience so I'm not sure how useful it really is except as a way to decrease the amount of cards in your deck.

Arkasaur: That is a great card, love the flavor and effect (and makes good use of the dual-class mechanic). I'd leave it as 4/4 though.

grumpymonk: I don't know about either of these cards, the Naga Fel Witch is decent but lacks much underwater flavor, and Oacha'noa is better but also terrifying in certain (coughdruidcough) decks.

BloodMefist: I like it, good callback to Fatespinner.

Valor1204: Not a bad idea, but maybe not the best fit for Rogue. You'd need to have a way to either give them attack or kill them on your own because otherwise you're stuck with useless minions on your board.

Wailor: I'd go with the Hammerhead out of the three.

linkblade91: You could probably drop it down to +1, it's already powerful enough (I could also see this as a Prime legendary).

Deathrattles, Pirates and Coins make a lot of sense in Rogue, but unfortunately, this class doesn't have many tools to destroy egg-like minions.

What about shuffling into your deck Cast-When-Drawn spells that give you two Coins instead of summoning minions?

Undersea Ambush: It seems balanced, given the huge Overload cost you're paying, but I'm not sure if the mechanic of summoning a bunch of stuff that attacks immediately is very Shaman-y. The artwork is cool, but slightly blurry, so I'd try to find another version of the image with more resolution.

Deep-fiend Drowner: If I'm not mistaken, the Dormant is actually meant as a protection, since it would wake up next turn ready to attack with Rush. If that's the case, it's a very creative use of the keyword, even if it feels a bit strange. Also, I believe the creature in the artwork isn't a Demon (it looks like the Old Gods), so maybe I'd remove the tribe tag, I dunno.

What's that creature supposed to be? I don't know if it not being a recognisable marine creature right away will hinder it.

In any case, if you decide to go with it, make sure to make the token cards.

Both are cool.

I like Oacha'noa more, but it's a hard to tell if it's balanced. If you go with it, the cost in the text should be between parenthesis.

I like the 4/4 statline, and otherwise it's a solid card. I hope the similarities between it and my Hammerhead don't hinder any of us, though :C

While the flavor is good, I think this might be one of those designs that allow you to run a 28-card deck, which are usually deemed broken.

If other people (who will probably know more about game balance than me) say this card is fine, I'd drop the Mech tag, since the card seems to feature a possesed anchor and not a robot.

Out of the new versions, I think I prefer the 3/3.

I like the design, but I don't think it needs a buff by any means. Most of the time, this card is a Silence+Poisonous weapon, so I think it's actually OP in its current form. I'd either make it a 4 mana 1/2 or a 5 mana 1/3.

About the class change, the only classes with similar mechanics are Priest and Druid, but those are non-weapon classes. Out of the weapon classes, though, I think Warrior is a good fit, since it's very control oriented and Armor stacks might allow to use the weapon on huge minions.

I think I'd still prefer Drown, but this one is also neat and definitely more original.

I've never realised that Rogue doesn't tend to have cards with drawbacks, but it might be the case. For me, both Rogue and Neutral make sense, though.

I'd try to find a flavor that makes sense with the effect, since it seems a bit disconnected right now. Otherwise, nice card.

I'm not sure about having that kind of effect outside of Paladin. The problem here is the flavor doesn't fit Paladin at all :/

While the card is fine on paper, the fact you could go face with a potentially huge minion is a bit scary. I like the Deathrattle-steal part of it, even if it'd be pretty minor, though.

Quote From grayghost39

Inspired by a few of these to try and come up with a "watery" mechanic. 

I think the description should read deal x damage to all other minions. Otherwise this is in fact just a 4/3 most of the time. It wouldn't make sense for it to damage itself anyway, I mean, flavorwise.

Quote From bigcums

My first idea. Any thoughts?

Nice effect. But I think it goes against blizz's design to have a card that can easily permanently change minions attack to 0, since it can lockdown the board.

Flavorwise, its also kinda weird. How can there be an environment that is advantageous only to murlocs?

Seems good, the effect is quite unique, and quite flavourful with stats and effect similar to that basic naga (don't remember the name).

Its surely balanced, and I wouldn't be surprised to see card like this printed, but it just doesn't look realy interesting in my opinion. If I would have to choose, my favourite is one of board clears. However, if you want to print the battlecry board clear you should specify that it affects only other minions. Also you shouldn't capitalize 'minions'.

Simple and quite unique. I only wonder if it shouldn't say 'gain' instead of 'lose'. Anyway, some people may consider this to simple.

I think this is quite neat. However, it doesn't have such interesting use of secret deathrattle as Fatespinner, because it doesn't realy affect enemy gameplay depending on what you choose (he will just have to keep two different clears to be sure he can deal with summoned minions). Still, I realy like both effect and even more flavour.

I like it more than Queen Azshara for sure. The mechanic is interesting, and balanced.

Out of your cards i would choose Diving Agent. It's unique and simple. In fact it was clear for me that it does not return after death. Submerged Bomb is good on paper, but on the other hand it is not realy intuitive if it triggers when opponent plays a minion while having only one other at board (In which case this is rather weak). Drought is technically good, but I'm worried if it is not too simple

In case of balance I would choose 3 mana version. However, 4 Mana version looks more cool for me for some reason. Technically, it's not bad idea, but I doubt it would get to finals to be honest.

Actually, it fits best with warrior in my opinion. It is still quite strong, but not as much as 4 Mana version. I'm not sure if it is good enough to win, but that depends on what other people think

Looks quite good, but at first I didn't realise it is meant to give ability to attack immediately. Maybe, to be more similar in wording with other effects like this, you could change it to something like 'Gain control of an enemy minion until the end of turn. Then, it dies.'

As someone already said it is usualy a more complicated destroy effect, except a few specific situations. That's why you could consider to change it slightly.

That's quite good. Maybe it could have higher stats, but other than that is an interesting card.

I prefer Undersea Ambush. It is flavourful and cool. Deepfiend Drowner is good too, but not as Undersea Ambush in my opinion.

TheHoax91, Neat card. I am not too sure about it since it is a totally unique ability, and therefore hard to evaluate. But I think it's pretty cool, maybe a bit on the powerful side though.

Demonxz95, Personally I like Drown best, though I am not a big fan of the art. Submerged Bomb is pretty good, not terribly interesting, but a solid card. Diving Agent is interesting, it reminds me a bit of Pen Flinger. It seems well balanced and playable.

Wailor, I like Hammerhead Bloodseeker the best. Abyssal Monstrosity is my second favorite. Hammerhead Bloodseeker is probably the most realistic and balanced of your cards, I don't have anything to criticize.

Valor1204, The main problem I have with this card is that now you, a rogue, have to kill all of these 0/2s that are taking up space on your board. If you are playing an aggressive pirate deck you probably don't want to waste resources and space on the board summoning minions that can't deal damage.

Davnan Killder, Undersea Ambush is definitely too cheap for what it does. Nagrand Slam is a 10 mana epic spell. This costs less, and is way more powerful. I think it could cost 7 mana and have overload 1 or 2. Deep Fiend Drowner is interesting. I think that since it is so hard for your opponent to attack it the health should be reduced. Other than that it is fine.

BloodMefist, I think the cost and stat distribution could be a bit better, right now it is half-way between Dragonmaw Sky Stalker and Eccentric Scribe, neither of which are very good. If it had either more base stats or more stats from the deathrattle, and also a keyword then it would be better.

grumpymonk, Naga Fel Witch seems kind of risky. Mana cheating is always going to be dangerous. Oacha'noa is an interesting card. If you can cheat it out in any way shape or form it has the potential to utterly and completely break the game. But, as a vanilla 10-drop it probably isn't the worst thing in the world. 

Arkasaur, I like it. Good flavor, well balanced, good art. 5 stars.

Neoguli, Personally, I never liked the idea of a card that specifically goes to the bottom of your deck. Why would I want to craft a card and stick it in my deck if I was never going to be able to have it in my hand and play it?

MenacingBagel, Roughly 5 mana is usually the cost of killing a minion. This kills 3 minions and the only additional cost is that you have to spend life attacking them. This should definitely cost more mana.

Cg8889, The text seems needlessly complicated for what it does. Why not just have a 5 mana 3/2 that says "Battlecry: Destroy an enemy minion"? Aside from any attack triggers, it would be functionally the same. 

Hordaki, Spending 8 mana to destroy a random enemy seems like a lot. I would reduce the stats and make the battlecry target things. If you are concerned with it taking over huge deathrattle minions you could always have it only be able to target things that cost (X) or less. But making it random only makes players salty.

Pokeniner, I think it should cost 4 mana with 3 attack. A 3 mana 3/3 weapon would be pretty good, and it isn't hard to get a ton of murlocs, making this weapon a 3-mana Blood Fury.

Linkblade91, My main concern is that it's kind of hard to get coins, and even when you do the result isn't that spectacular. I really like the ability, but getting one or two extra Lost Tallstriders doesn't seem like a worth while payoff.

FieselFitz, It seems a bit expensive for what it does. The battlecry version is definitely the best, though I think you should increase the damage to 4.

bgicums, the text should say "Give all minions -2/-2 except for Murlocs".

Grayghost39, This is kind of weird. I think the idea is that on your turn minions are easier to kill, but then go back to normal on your opponents turn. The main issue I have with this is that a 5 mana 4/5 is pretty easy to kill, so half of the time you may not even get the start of turn trigger. 

ChickyChick, Interesting design, but there is no way an 8 mana 5/5 will survive long enough to kill more than 1 minion. If you play it on an empty board then it is incredible, but if your opponent isn't able to play any minions on turn 8 then they probably already lost.

 

linkblade91: I really dig the idea behind Plunder Drake, very flavorful and a nice alternative use for Coins.

Demonxz95: I like the idea of Submerged Bomb more than Diving Agent or Drown.  Diving Agent feels like it would be extremely annoying to play around in the early game since it offers very little counterplay in early stages.  The only thing I would change about Submerged Bomb is to explicitly name it like a mine or depth charge.

Valor1204: Seems super slow, but I like the different direction it brings Pirates in, especially with how it differentiates them from Warrior Pirates.  Make sure you put the water mark on the token card too.  

grumpymonk: Definitely prefer Oacha'noa over the Naga. Cheating out an Enhanced Dreadlord or Ancient Void Hound would be devastating.  Oacha'noa has some scary combos like Wolpertinger, but its gated enough by late game that I think its alright.  Definitely an interesting build-around.

MenacingBagel: The idea behind Abyssal Anchor is alright, but I still feel like the class flavor is off.  I don't think DH should have access to hard removal.  I think if you move it over to Shaman the flavor and balance feels better.

KANSAS: I like the Shaman version more since it's a more interesting design, while the Neutral one is just an auto-include in Murloc decks.  I still feel like the theme could be a bit more underwater-y, but I like the fishing take on it.

Cg8889: I like this take on a siren card. I'm a bit iffy on the balance since it seems like a much better version of Turalyon the Tenured.  It might also be scary giving hard removal to every class.  Restricting it to a class and making it conditional removal, like a stat threshold, could help alleviate its universal strength.

Hordaki: It seems a bit strong as a fast removal wit a bulky body, I think lowering the stats would be a good call.  I also think giving the affected minion charge, assuming it works like Shadow Madness, is really scary since it could just turn around and kill the opponent in some cases, which feels exceptionally bad to play against.

Pokeniner: I like the idea of a Murloc synergy weapon.  I think I prefer the 3-cost one to fit with the low curve of Murlocs.

FieselFitz: It seems a bit boring.  The effect isn't especially flavorful and it just isn't very interesting.  I think starting with lower base stats but gaining stats per minion killed could add a bit more flavor and zazz to the card.

bigcums: Seems alright, I like AoE that excludes certain minions a lot.  Stat lowering isn't exactly Shaman's typical MO, but I think that's fine since it works with their AoE and Murloc identities.

grayghost39: I dig the idea of combining AoE healing and damage into one card.  It opens the possibility for opponents to play around it but still mostly benefits you since you can make use of the healing first.  I think it's good to go.

ChickyChick: Neutral hard removal is always scary, but being gated behind an expensive cost and weak body makes it alright.  I am unsure if the stealth is needed, I get the flavor aspect, but I think it adds a bit too much to the card.  You could remove the stealth portion and add 2 health to make up for it.