Bottoms Up - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread

Demonxz95: Rally neat idea and it can't really be abused since there aren't that many Dredge cards. Could probably be a 3/4.

linkblade91: Card looks fun. Can get some pretty disgusting value with Sunken cards and minions from Ambassador Faelin.

Hordaki: Both look good, but I like the Snorkeler more, since you need to build your deck around it a bit.

BloodMefist: Same thing I told Hordaki above, except in regards to Gaze into the Abyss (you'll want to capitalize the 'i' from 'into', though).

dapperdog: Too many lines, and it should be 'their deck' instead of 'his deck'. The effect is pretty complicated, and it wouldn't really do much most of the time.

MrRhapsody: Those are all really good. Can't really pick one. Would probably go with Clutch of the Deep simply because it supports Abyssal Warlock.

Neoguli: Pearl Empress is realistically the better of the tree, though I really like the Fledgling's design so much! The Legendary card is pure meme.

I like it. It's a simple Legendary that represents the Dredge mechanic in the same vein as Auctioneer Jaxon does for Tradeable, and it also has pretty good synergy with things like the Sunken cards.

Both fairly solid cards. Faceless Scavenger is probably the weaker of the two options since it requires your deck to have a lot of top-heavy minions for the effect to be consistently solid. For that reason, I'd say Shady Snorkeler.

Both solid cards. I think I prefer Gaze into the Abyss more.

As others have pointed out, the card is too wordy, and the effect feels convoluted without being useful. In addition, you should change "his deck" to "their deck", and use the VttSC watermark.

Magnetic Fisher is a cool callback to… Magnetic. Putting aside my distate for Mech Mage (which will not affect my voting for the card if you choose to submit it), I think it's pretty good. It does also force you to build Mech Mage in a way that's different to current Mech Mages since you skip Battlecry effects on those Mechs.

Magnetic Harpoon is pretty good and quite like the "draw and attack again" effect.

Clutch of the Deep is probably my least favorite of the three cards, but it's by no means bad. It's a perfectly balanced piece of support for Abyssal Curses.

Pearl Empress is my favorite of the three, but the Battlecry should be written after the passive effect and it should use the VttSC watermark.

Tender Fledgling is realistically balanced, but the usage of both Dredge and Adapt on the same card rubs me the wrong way, and the watermark does not help that either.

Sek'xeth is very weird. A part of me wants to believe that Team 5 would never print a card to support all-Legendary decks since, even if it's not competitive, a slap in the fact towards F2P/low-budget, but absolutely anything is possible with the stuff that they've been printing in recent years.

I quite like the effect, but I feel like the stat distribution is a bit weird and the card design doesn't really use that weird stat distribution effectively (unlike a card like Wealth Redistributor for instance) and I feel like the art could be better. Otherwise, I like where this is going.

I can't tell if "Skuba" is a typo or an intentional fancy misspelling. The card is okay, but it steps on the toes of both Tuskarrrr Trawler and Loot Hoarder too much for me. If it was a 3 mana 3/3 or something, then I think I'd like it a little bit better.

I personally like Blessing of the Ocean the best out of all three, but I feel that Yogg'Siren is probably going to attract more votes due to the inherently funny nature of the card whilst still feeling grounded in reality as a normal Hearthstone card.

First up, it's impressive that you found good Colossal art for Grotesmal, however there are some problems with it. Namely the UI. We only have a maximum of 4 choices on any given choice card in the game, and I feel like 5 is probably the absolute limit that you can use. You've got 5 by default here, but what would happen if you were to somehow summon multiple copies of the tentacles and then you tried to Dredge?

Fuzzy Lobstradon has a "cute" effect, but it doesn't feel particularly practical and the choice to end the effect is a little weird. I feel that it should also be a Beast too.

Slithering Herald has a nifty idea, but it seems difficult to use properly without relying on just being lucky. If I have a Naga Giant or Coilfang Warlord at the bottom of my deck, then that's great, but it otherwise doesn't seem like the effect will matter a lot of the time. Feels too "all of nothing".

A novel idea, but in addition to what Neoguli said about changing "library" to "deck", I fail to see the reason that it needs to shuffle your deck.

Alfi - I'm worried that repeatedly Dredging after card draw could bog down one's turn, leaving less time for actually playing the cards you're drawing/Dredging. It also seems crazy good with an effect that draws more than one card; I know your reply to Neoguli suggests it would randomly Dredge, but I don't agree with that assessment. As written, I'm inclined to believe an Arcane Intellect would have you [draw first card -> Dredge -> draw second card -> Dredge again], which is both powerful and time-consuming.

ChickyChick - The Fussy Lobstradon is an interesting idea, potentially setting up your next three draws (because you can move three cards to the top of your deck). Actually seems quite powerful, saying it like that; might need to nerf it a little. I completely agree with Demon's review of your Colossal and the Herald: I think the Colossal would be a major problem on mobile, and the Herald is too all-or-nothing. I would stick with the Lobstradon (and make it a Beast, at least).

Wailor - Make Yogg'Siren target "enemies if possible" and you've got my vote lol. Big Spell Mage would love such a card, as random targeting is always the downfall of the archetype. Clumsy Courier, for example, is a fine idea if you don't need to target something…and yet that's a lot of what the Mage does. I know that would defeat the point of it being Yogg-related, though. Anyway, I focused my review on this card in particular because it's my favorite of the three: even if you don't change it, I would still prefer Yogg'Siren over the others.

BasilAnguis - "Scuba" is spelled with a C, unless the K is a reference to something I don't understand. I think this kind of card can work if it had higher stats and Rush: higher stats means it's not guaranteed to die in a trade, while Rush means it could die and thus benefit from the Deathrattle + Dredge combo. That leads to decision-making: keep the minion alive for efficiency, or trade it away for the combo. As it stands right now, Tuskarrrr Trawler is very similar to this.

Nirast - Not a fan, to be quite honest. In particular, the Colossal is only one card in your deck so either you greatly risk whiffing or you have to play Ambassador Faelin first, and that design is not my favorite. Synergy is fine, but one Legendary specifically relying on another is not a good idea IMO.

Neoguli - Pearl Empress is cool: you can chain-Dredge the same card repeatedly if you can keep her alive. I like it the most of your three ideas, for sure. One little niggle I have is the word "shuffle"; just say "put a copy of it on the bottom of your deck". Shuffle implies the whole deck is being rearranged, which would complicate the card and also makes the sentence sound weird.

MrRhapsody - Clutch of the Deep is my favorite. Magnetic Fisher could get out of hand if you manage to pull Gaia, and the Harpoon is probably broken in a Mech deck. Clutch of the Deep, however, is fine as-is, needing additional help to generate a Curse (which isn't hard given one's Hero Power, but still: that's 2 more Mana that has to be spent). Move the word "Abyssal" onto the bottom line so "Curse" isn't an orphan-word, and it'll be perfect.

dapperdog - Dredging for your opponent is a really cool idea. The five lines of text is a problem, though. I would keep tweaking it, 'cause I like this direction a lot.

BloodMefist - Commander's Trident is neat. A good connection to Guard the City, while being worth it for Lady Ashvane (could even pull her and still summon the Naga, which is good reverse-synergy). Might be my favorite of the cards posted so far.

Hordaki - Shady Snorkeler is more interesting than the Faceless Scavenger, in my opinion; I would go with the first card. The text is missing an A, though: "If it has (a) Deathrattle, summon…" 

Demonxz95 - I personally feel like Dredging could be used more beneficially than repeatedly summoning a small minion without Rush or Taunt. The other problem I see is…what if Hydronicus is not on the bottom of your deck to start? You'd have to find it first, play it, get it killed, then start the Dredge game. That's a pain in the butt lol.

BasilAnguis: I like it, simple, but effective design. Great if you can kill it the turn it's summoned, like with a Rancor, or in a Warlock deck.

Wailor: Yogg'Siren simply because of the name. The others aren't bad either.

ChickyChick: So Grotesmal would give you 5 options for dredge? Not sure how the UI would work if you have more than 2 tentacles. Either way, I like the Herald the most.

Alfi: The shuffle effect is basically meaningless unless you Dredged, or you played Lorekeeper Polkelt before, Ambassador Faelin, or Sir Finley, Sea Guide, in all the cases the card being anti-synergistic (except for maybe Finley). Also, you can't really interact with the game after the turn ends.

I got what the shuffle is trying to do now, but Dredging at the end of your turn means that you just get one of the three cards at the bottom of the deck randomly (effectively making the shuffle effect now almost entirely useless). The stats are fine, but it should use the VttSC watermark.

The two effects are quite disparate from each other which you don't typically find on most Hearthstone cards, but I do like what the card is trying to do. The two effects don't seem that outlandishly strong, so I'm wondering if you could possibly give it an extra stat. The draw effect in particular is quite slow since 7 mana is quite a lot of pay for something that draws. I'd probably give this a solid B+ for design.