A bout of insomnia fueled inspiration = custom card creations

Hello! First time custom hearthstone card maker here, please forgive me if I don't format things right. I'm having a bit of insomnia and unless I get this idea out of my head I won't be able to even attempt to sleep again. The thought came to me about having multi-tiered legendary cards, similar to the Primes in Ashes of Outland, but based on fan favorite characters/current class heroes. So far I only created a neutral legendary to represent my idea. Below I have pasted three cards I made that all come with the same starting legendary. The condition to get the next version is via deathrattle, but each card has a unique ability that hopefully is worthwhile in case of silencing effects. The other non-neutral classes would get a multi-tier legendary just like Sylvanas here, but with effects more themed to the character and class identity of the card. I also thought it would be neat if the three versions of the card represented different aspects of the chosen characters character development throughout the history of Warcraft and WoW.

EDIT: I have redone my current card ideas, maybe they're more balanced now.

Neutral:



Priest:

It is easy to create super overpowered cards, but you need to think of balance. Sylvanas gives to all classes neutral boardclear. 

Or the priest cards. First is super-removal (the minion takes board place) on great body. Second is Mass Hysteria but better and with a 4/4 body. King Anduin is basically "you win the game"

Flavour-wise, you might consider making the first Sylvanas card represent her living self as ranger-general of Silvermoon. Her titles of Banshee Queen and leader of the Forsaken apply to the same era of her (un)life.

Also be aware that the basic heroes (Anduin included) are never used for minions, as demonstrated when the Classic Illidan Stormrage card got re-skinned  as Xavius, though they can be hero cards (e.g. the Death Knight heroes).

Power-wise, the first stage of Anduin is way too strong, even before its deathrattle is taken into account. It is a permanent freeze effect on a well-statted minion. See Maiev Shadowsong, which costs more with similar stats for what is basically a 2-turn freeze. The first stage of Anduin should be weaker than that.

Another useful reference for power is Pyros, which is an existing card that works off a similar idea but only offered 3 slightly under-statted bodies with the elemental tribe. You can definitely make cards a bit stronger than Pyros, but not by as much as your current designs.

I hope this helps :)

Balance was definitely not on my mind. However! Before I go crazy expanding on this train of thought, I will re-evaluate what I've made with balance in mind thanks to your comment. I appreciate the kind criticism on my first try at this. Hopefully, when I get some rest and tackle this topic again, I'll have balanced these cards and figured out a few more to post.

Something to keep in mind when creating custom cards, no card in Hearthstone has more than four lines of text. It is kind of like a rule that no custom card should have more than 4 lines of text either. Also, you don't need to say "when this dies" after the Deathrattle. 

Well, the powerlevel of these cards are off the charts but fair enough if you didn't consider that. 

Multi-tiered legends is kind of a thing; one being Pyros (as mentioned by AngryShuckie) and then we have all the primes. With these in mind it is clear that you can go ways with them: shuffle the leveled version into your deck or add it to the hand. You chose the ladder which is perfectly fine. However, adding a perfectly strong card to your hand is very good (even if it is a deathrattle), so if you take that route you have to decrease the powerlevel of the cards... a lot. 

If you choose the "shuffle the leveled version in to your deck" route, then the card can have a higher powerlevel - though you still have to nerf the cards a lot if we are comparing them to your original versions. Especielly Anduin. 

Keep up the good work and I hope you get some sleep. :-)

I've re-made the cards entirely!

That did help a lot. And I completely blanked on the OG Sylvanas before she was undead. I also blanked on Pyros as a good reference for these. I had the idea of these as a "Here's your hero as a card" in my head if Blizzard wanted to insert them as some kind of celebration of each classes OG representation, Sylvanas being the neutral choice because she was an auto-include from the neutral pool for a long time.

I will keep that in mind for my next go around once inspiration strikes. Had I seen your comment earlier I would have taken more time once I re-did the cards above, but I kind of got what sleep I could and woke up to redo the cards.

I got some sleep and woke up to immediately redo these cards ideas. I appreciate all the kind criticism as it's helping me get a better grasp of the card designing process. I tried to redo the cards above in a different manner, but kept them in the same string of 3 tiers to a legendary. I think I managed to decrease the power level of the cards but I'm not 100% sure. I think these are definitely not as overpowered as the original insomnia versions I made.