Hearthstone
A Hero's Tale - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Submitted 1 year, 10 months ago by
Demonxz95
Competition Theme: A Hero's Tale
No more of these side-characters hogging the screen: it's time for the main players to take the stage!
- You must design a Legendary minion for one of the main Hearthstone avatar characters - Jaina, Thrall, Rexxar, etc.
- Arthas already has one in The Lich King, so he will not count for this competition.
The Mercenaries had their moment to shine on the battlefield; Demonxz95 wants to bring the attention back to the old guard!
As always, we can be reached through Discord or here on the site via PM if you have any issues to report.
Competition Phases
Here are the phases of this card design competition
- Submission Phase: Starts on Mon, Feb 6 17:00 EST (GMT -0500). Runs until Sat, Feb 11 17:00 EST (GMT -0500)
- Voting Phase: Starts on Sat, Feb 11 17:00 EST (GMT -0500). Runs until Sun, Feb 12 16:00 EST (GMT -0500)
- Finalist Phase: Starts on Sun, Feb 12 17:00 EST (GMT -0500). Runs until Mon, Feb 13 17:00 EST (GMT -0500)
- Winner Selected: After finalist voting concludes and we validate votes.
Discussion Thread Rules
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Competition Theme: A Hero's Tale
No more of these side-characters hogging the screen: it's time for the main players to take the stage!
The Mercenaries had their moment to shine on the battlefield; Demonxz95 wants to bring the attention back to the old guard!
As always, we can be reached through Discord or here on the site via PM if you have any issues to report.
Competition Phases
Here are the phases of this card design competition
Discussion Thread Rules
No thread rules were added to this season. Please populate and manually edit this thread with them.
Really bummed/annoyed that it puts Demon up there when I make the post. I want some recognition too! lol :/
Just to reiterate - because while it's found on the Competition Home page, not everyone will notice - you do not have to "play it straight" with your cards. If you want to do Dreadlord Jaina, or Gul'dan before he became a Warlock, or whatever, you can do that. I'm sticking with my favorite look of my favorite Warcraft character: Jaina, the Daughter of the Sea.
The first one is a bigger Poison Seeds with a body. The second one leans more into Jaina's knack for teleportation. I have her as a 4/3/6 because the Water Elemental is a 4/3/6, and I thought that was clever :)
As cool as it would be to win 3 in a row, I kinda have my doubts about that. There's bound to be some bangers of cards.
Doomhammer is one of the most iconic weapons of the Warcraft universe, and yet it's been sitting away at the sidelines for a very long time. Let's face it, 5 mana and 2 Overload is a lot to pay for a 2-Attack weapon even if it has Windfury and 8 Durability. Let's change that by giving us a new way to bring it to the field. Warchief Thrall will equip you a Doomhammer (and bypass the 2 Overload since it wasn't played directly). The Highlander restriction isn't anything flavorful, it's literally just because I couldn't think of a better one to use.
Icelich Jaina is just Jaina imagined as a Death Knight. Frost Lich Jaina has always been one of the more iconic hero cards of the game and there's also a lot of fan art of Jaina being something over than a Mage. There really isn't a reason that it can't be a Mage card. I just wanted to demonstrate how you could mix the classes and characters if you wanted to (and it happens to be the only way to submit a Death Knight card since Arthas is banned for the comp).
ggwp
Ahem, here are my actual cards.
Both are related to mechanics from the Classic set that are related to the abilities these characters had in Warcraft 3.
Beastmaster Rexxar can summon a lot of Companions for not too much mana (he also encourages to use Huffer against minions, as you cannot have duplicates).
Admiral Jaina (the third Jaina lol) is the ultimate Freeze card, as the initial Blizzard will make it more difficult to remove both her and the Elementals, which will be able to Freeze more stuff if they survive. Her name is a reference to her dad, Admiral Proudmoore.
What a super cool theme! I'm looking forward to your ideas :)) Here's my first take. It feels hard to balance and I fear it might end up being quite polarizing so I'll probably draft another if you don't like it.
I notice I am confused. Something I believe isn't true. How do I know what I think I know?
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, hpmor.com
Wanna use those sweet 4 token slots baby. Idea behind this card is to have a thematic minion that can be played in multiple decks. Each blessing is a major archetype that Shaman had over the years. Battlecries with a control/Tempo focus, Murlocs and Murloc generation, Totems and randomness inherent in them, and the elusive Spell Shaman that never quite took off. Neptulon is already associated with Murlocs in game, Therazane has multiple stone elementals summoning smaller taunt elementals and battlecry synergy(Earth Invocation, Stone Sentinel, Invocation of Earth, Rumbling Elemental), Al'akir is associated with djins and spells (Djinni of Zephyrs, [Hearthstone Card (Zephyrs the Great) Not Found] but i admit this is the weakest connection) and Ragnaros shares the iconic rng factor of totems (at the end of your turn do X).
The murloc blessing is probably more OP than others. The condition on Thrall is to not bounce him a few times and gain all effects. Idea is to dedicate your deck to an element.
I'll boop you
New ideas for the contest.
"Truth is in the shadows, waiting to be revealed by the light. But light only disperses the shadow." - Me
"If other people shared traits of those considered naive, the world would've become a better place." - Also me
First round of feedback
I notice I am confused. Something I believe isn't true. How do I know what I think I know?
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, hpmor.com
Something like this, maybe? I would like the "teleport" to be more reliable than just random shuffling heh
My first two attempts, of which I'm probably happiest with the second. The first one is a little more straightforward, but boring, and it kinda directly power-creeps Deep Freeze, which is already pretty good. Ever since they started printing "for each that can't" on these big top-enders like Lord Marrowgar and Kel'Thuzad, the Inevitable, I've wanted to see an upgraded version of Dragoncaller Alanna that scales better.
EDIT: Changed the first attempt's art, and stats.
EDIT 2: 3rd attempt at Jaina, thanks everyone for the feedback. I like this version a lot more anyways.
@anchorm4n - Immune removes Taunt, so it wouldn't be broken.
"Truth is in the shadows, waiting to be revealed by the light. But light only disperses the shadow." - Me
"If other people shared traits of those considered naive, the world would've become a better place." - Also me
Of course it does. How embarrassing.
(I've never actually played the Jailor)
I notice I am confused. Something I believe isn't true. How do I know what I think I know?
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, hpmor.com
Got some ideas for Anduin:
I had an arguably better idea than Valeera:
Probably want to go with this, look at this beautiful art piece! Do you think I should zoom in on the character a little more? Maybe find a shorter name?
I notice I am confused. Something I believe isn't true. How do I know what I think I know?
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, hpmor.com
Feedback:
Regarding your versions, I think your most recent one is the most interesting, but maybe it could cost 4 Mana as well. Dunno, it looks strictly worse than the second one you posted (the one that says "replace").
Regarding Valeera, her effect is pretty interesting. It has a lot of potential, but it requires a lot of setup and is quite expensive, so I think you did a good job in this regard. What I don't like as much is the lack of connection to Valeera as a character, which I think should be the focus of this comp.
I'd probably make a couple changes to the Blessings:
Not a fan of Anduin, as Immune is very scary.
In any case, there are some aesthetic improvements you could apply to both cards:
Two initial ideas. Garrosh embodies his desire to eliminate all weakness, including that of his own minions,. Gul'dan appropiately synergizes with Hand of Gul'dan and heralds powerful demons based on how much is sacrificed.
I've been out and about a lot for the part 2 days and it ended up eating into my time I could use to give feedback.
It seems that a lot of people really like Thrall. I'll probably end up going with that one, but I decided to make a Mage version of Icelich Jaina anyway just so see what would happen with you guys. I've got the time to spare.
Here I go with feedback.
If you actually posted that Illidan Stormrage as your entry, that would be the funniest troll ever. We'd still disqualify you for doing so, but it'd still be funny. I've give it a laugh.
Rexxar is cool. Hunter can sometimes spell-spam pretty well, but the effect can't do too much since after 3 spells, it stops doing anything, so he doesn't ever go too overboard.
Jaina is quite good thematically, but it does seem too much compared to Deep Freeze. Instead of simply one Freeze, you get a 3/9 that casts Blizzard instead.
I agree that Gul'Dan is better than Valeera. Valeera is quite awkward to use given that she's a 6-mana Combo card that requires you to have a sizeable board of certain minions that also happen to be good Shadowstep targets.
Gul'Dan doesn't have that problem. You just plop him and you're good to go.
I think this is a cool play into Kalimos and Bru'kan's Elemental powers, but I think in general this is probably too powerful. It's a 5/5 with no condition and all of the effects are incredibly solid. Stonemother's Blessing also happens to have a Common rarity gem, so remember to fix that.
Windlord's Blessing is also significantly weaker than all of the others, so you should try to either buff that one or lower the power level of the others to try to match it better.
I like Uther. He's quite simple, but his effect works pretty well.
Anduin is quite scary. Especially if you copy him somehow since they would both give each other Immune and make it almost impossible to get rid of him.
Your first Jaina is… quite a bit! It fully Freezes the enemy board and if they can't do anything about the several Water Elementals you made, you'll Freeze their board again next turn with the Water Elementals. Or just go face. Both outcomes are quite strong.
I don't like your second one as much because it lacks identity. It summons Frost Elementals, wants you to use Arcane spells, and gives itself Spell Damage for each (which it can't use that effectively in most situations since it's a 9 mana minion and it needs to be played for it to get the Spell Damage).
I like Warlord Garrosh's synergy with handbuffing. Feels like something he himself would probably do, and it makes a lot of sense flavorwise.
Gul'Dan has a great idea, but his effect is quite bad unless Warlock has specifically a Hand of Gul'dan in rotation since the Taunt Demons can be dealt with fairly easily in some situations and if they do, then you've just lost your entire hand. I think it's also a bit weird that his card name is just Gul'Dan. I think you should give him an additional title in there somewhere.
Since a certain someone mentioned that the Highlander condition on my Gul'dan card might be a little too boring, I'd like to hear your thoughts on this alternative version. Will give more feedback about 9 hours from now!
I notice I am confused. Something I believe isn't true. How do I know what I think I know?
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, hpmor.com
Thank you for all the feedback, but I submitted something not-Jaina related so don't worry about it anymore hehe
Feedback for those I haven't already spoken to:
BloodMefist - I like Garrosh more: the art is cool, and he goes very well with handbuffing and a general Taunt deck. A resurgence of Fire Plume's Heart, maybe? I don't like Gul'dan but I hate Discolock in general, so I am biased here.
AeroJulwin - I prefer the 4/4/4 version more: copying all the enchantments over and over means only Silence has a change of stopping the snowball from rolling down the hill and crushing your opponent with something gargantuan.
Dolphinslayer - The third version of Jaina is the best, in my opinion. Encourages deck-building toward Elemental Mage - the best Mage - and the payoff is an ice barrage. The 3/6 connection to Water Elementals like what I did doesn't apply here, though, so she could probably have a better Attack value.
Neoguli - Nice usage of Anduin for a dual-class card; that's knowing your Warcraft history haha. I think I like it more than Uther, if only because Uther can get really out of hand with all the SHR stuff that's been printed; Lothraxion the Redeemed comes to mind.
BasilAnguis - That's a cool and powerful card, but I'm actually concerned with the whole "can only have one at a time" nature of the Blessings. Most of the time you only care about one, anyway, but that means the card exists for four separate decks, rather than being a unifying force. For being a Master of the Elements, Thrall puts up a fence around the Shaman's archetypes and says "you're not allowed to play together." Also, if you want something for Al'Akir, I would make him an Enhancement Shaman card, about Windfury and/or hero attacks.
Wailor - A lot of us had the Water Elemental idea, eh? I like Jaina better, even if there are so many different iterations of her that revolve around the same flavor. Rexxar + Animal Companion is also a fairly on-the-nose connection, so when in doubt pick my favorite character and enjoy your high score from me lol
Here are my two ideas, I'm having trouble fitting the wording on four lines while making it consistent with hearthstone, but hopefully the effects should be clear:
Thrall, Elemental Master combines your Fire, Frost, and Nature spells into one school, making it so that every spell school synergy Shaman has works for all of their spells with those spell school. This is especially powerful with Wrathspine Enchanter and Radiance of Azshara, but the no duplicates rule should prevent an OTK deck from functioning. Overall, I think it might push the power envelope so maybe I should make it a battlecry affecting just the hand instead? Let me know if it seems too good.
For Valeera the Thief I wanted to print cool thief rogue support, as she has a rest of game effect that lets you play cards from other classes (the cards are temporary however so it doesn't give large amounts of value, and much of the time the card you get won't be ideal to play that turn or outright terrible, which balances the card). It also only starts on turn 5 or 6 at the earliest so it wouldn't break any other thief Rogue support cards like the Gnoll.
I think this is fine, but what about "Start of Game: If your deck has no duplicates, your Fire, Frost, and Nature spells gain all three schools." I think that might be better wording; the "your" is important to avoid confusion with your opponent, and "become one spell school" could imply they're now all Fire, or all Frost, which isn't what you wanted. If you do change it to a Battlecry, you'll need to say "this game" at the end. Probably more balanced as a Battlecry.
Overall I like it more than the Valeera...not that there's anything wrong with her, but mixing the Shaman's spell schools creates really cool deck-building ideas whereas Valeera is just more of the same Thief package.
@Linkblade91: Thanks for the feedback! Based on it, I'm planning to change the wording to "Battlecry: If your deck has no duplicates, give all spells in it the fire, frost, and nature schools" so that it fits without shrinking text (I also changed it to give spells without a school those schools, for wording reasons and because it gives it some compensatory power for being a Battlecry and thus making it far less consistent). Do you think that'd work?
@Demonxz95: Why not make Jaina Dual-Class? It would fit her lore and be a cool connection between Knights of the Frozen Throne and March of the Lich King! It even makes me imagine a set of Dual-class Death Knights for every original Hero which would have been really fun in this expansion.
@BloodMeFist: Garrosh seems really cool to me, it serves as a Handbuff/Taunt payoff and feels like a balanced version of Soulstealer at a Baseline! I'd go with him as it, you could try to increase the health if you think handbuff would be weak but I think it's good as is. Gul'Dan feels more boring to me as an All-in Highroll kind of card, so I'd go for Garrosh.
@Anchorm4n: I agree that "no duplicates" might be a bit boring, but your second condition feels very similar to The Demon Seed, what if you did something weird like "no duplicate non-Demons," "All your Spells are Fel," "no Lifesteal cards," or "you've discarded 4 Demons"?
More feedback, as promised.
I notice I am confused. Something I believe isn't true. How do I know what I think I know?
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, hpmor.com
Changed the wind blessing to be about weapon attacks and the near Shaman exclusive keyword, Windfury (seems so obvious now lol). Also added a condition to Thrall's battlecry. By playing a card of each type (which are all equally important to Shaman's identity) you show you mastered them all and can get a power boon.
Feedback:
CursedParrot - I really like the Thrall more. Valera's effect could be problematic if it bounces too many times. Could have a randomly generated hand each turn almost.
Demonxz95 - Honestly it's kinda weak. Remembrance of Ice exists and is technically better, as you get another copy instead of Jaina's 6/6 vanilla body. of course mage has more reliable freezes than DK, but the inconsistency of having her in her hand is the biggest drawback.
anchorm4n - The no Duplicate one i like more because i'm a sucker for Highlander. And the 10 damage taken condition is very very easy to fulfill. Each step on the Questline asks you for 8.
BloodMefist - Garrosh' idea seems the better one to me. The fact it has taunt matters more for handbuffs than for the taunt itself. Still it would be nice if he had a way to increase his own Attack somehow.
AeroJulwin - The inheriting version is the best and as a priest main i'd love for this to be real, but please don't make it 6 mana. that's way too expensive. 4 or 5 would be much better. The issue with these sort of decks is that either you have too many spells and few minions to buff or too many minions and don't draw spells in time.
Dolphinslayer - Water Elementals and Arcane spells just don't mix thematically. Also that one has too many words to fit in the box nicely. The mass freeze version seems better. I don't like the random damage nuke version because we already have too many of those in game (2 c'thuns, daddy Denathrius, and now Astalor. It's just a huge game ender you have to do little for it to be OP. Mage can spam elementals all day.
Neoguli - Uther is better. Perfect flavor, the 3/3 theme fits, effect is good but not game winning alone. Anduin doesn't really work i feel because the merge between priest and warrior is… well, a paladin. Warrior of Light, which is technically what he becomes.
Wailor - There is definetly too many water elemental Jainas lol. The Rexxar one i like more cause it's the only Rexxar so far. And the effect is quite good but also self limiting. After 3 spells, any more fizzle out, don't trigger him anymore. Not sure how to word it to not let that happen.
I'll boop you
I decided to go with Rexxar bc there's already too many Jainas, so here's two versions that try to correct the issue of not doing anything after three spells:
I prefer the flavor of the second one, as it portrays better the fact the Companions are Rexxar's beloved friends. However, it's too wordy (Animal Companion is too long for a keyword lol), so I think I'll go with the first one.
Feedback:
Gul'dan's effect is also interesting (although not so much), but the main issue I have with it is how wordy it is, which makes the card look unappealing at first glance.
Thrall's effect is a bit too abstract for my taste, if that makes any sense, but he's also cool. If you end up going with him, I like the alternate wording linkblade suggested the best, as it's also affects generated spells (unlike the second wording you suggested later)
Defying my initial expectations, most people seem to like my second version of Anduin. I think I'll submit it as a 5-cost. I'd like it to still be somewhat of a dedication to play. Might still change my mind later and go with 4.
I'm a little late with feedback, so for those who haven't submitted yet:
As far as conditions on Gul'dan go, I like "If the minions in your deck are all Demons" best.
I'm stupid and submitted my card in a hurry, so I forgot to point out how the art compliments the effect: The hand on the left side channels green (Fel) magic to fuel the skull spell that emerges from the other hand. I thought I'd at least post this here so people can take this into consideration when voting.
All in all I'm super happy about the final outcome, thanks to everybody who encouraged me to drop the highlander condition for something more interesting. This was a fun and educating experience.
Some final feedback:
I notice I am confused. Something I believe isn't true. How do I know what I think I know?
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, hpmor.com
At this point, you just have slightly over 24 hours to submit.
Good luck to everyone in the voting!
Good luck to our finalists!
Good luck to the finalists. Sigh.
I notice I am confused. Something I believe isn't true. How do I know what I think I know?
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, hpmor.com
No Jainas in the finals :0
Congratulations to BloodMefist!
Finalist confirmation/the Transparency Report came late because I was at the hospital. Apologies for that.
Oof... Are you alright, linkblade
In a word, no. Not to be mysterious or dramatic but I don't want to get into it right now :/ The important thing is that I'm not dead yet lol
I hope the last part is a hyperbole...
In any case, your health takes precedence over anything else, so don't feel obligated to keep running these comps.
Congrats to BloodMefist and above all: all the best wishes for you, linkblade. I fear I can only echo what Wailor has said and send positive thoughts, but please let me know if there's anything we can do to support you. Sending a hug as well, if you want one.
I notice I am confused. Something I believe isn't true. How do I know what I think I know?
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, hpmor.com