Hearthstone
Stop! Doomhammer Time! - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Submitted 11 months, 1 week ago by
Demonxz95
Competition Theme: Stop! Doomhammer Time!
This week we're honoring a mighty weapon of Warcraft lore. Hit 'em hard, then hit 'em again!
- You must make a "package" of three (3) Shaman cards that work together to form the start of a "Doomhammer archetype" in a theoretical expansion.
- At least one of them must reference Doomhammer by name in the text, in a supportive/synergistic way.
- The others can have general weapon-synergy traits, but should still encourage the use of Doomhammer.
- At least one of them must reference Doomhammer by name in the text, in a supportive/synergistic way.
Chegwin and Linkblade91 are getting ready to drop the hammer on their enemies. Let's join in the fray!
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, May 8 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Sat, May 13 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
- Voting Phase: Starts on Sat, May 13 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Sun, May 14 16:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
- Finalist Phase: Starts on Sun, May 14 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Mon, May 15 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
- Winner Selected: After finalist voting concludes and we validate votes.
Discussion Thread Rules
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Competition Theme: Stop! Doomhammer Time!
This week we're honoring a mighty weapon of Warcraft lore. Hit 'em hard, then hit 'em again!
Chegwin and Linkblade91 are getting ready to drop the hammer on their enemies. Let's join in the fray!
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.
Big shoutout to Chegwin, who graciously allowed me to take the reins on this one <3 Also Demon, whose lamentation about Doomhammer's lack of use inspired this prompt in the first place.
I have four cards because I can't decide between them; I might even make more lol:
Here are my three cards of the week (although two of them use artworks linkblade also used D:)
They implement a late-game face archetype that can be teched against with weapon removal just in case it's too oppresive. Their flavor, on the other hand, is a not so subtle nod to the film Thor Ragnarok.
Ragnar Stormcloud (an obvious stand-in for Thor) allows to cheat Doomhammer on turn 4 or even on turn 3 if there are 0-Cost Overload cards, but these wouldn't be present in that hypothetical Standard rotation.
Thunderous Gladiator is the card that enables the archetype, as she can be played on curve after Ragnar and prepares to deal a ton of damage in the subsequent turns.
Finally, Storm Bolt allows you to use the buffs provided by Thunderous Gladiator in the same turn you play her, while also bringing some of the Overload needed to play Ragnar. This card is also a reference to the ability from Mountain King in WC3, consisting on throwing your hammer (something Thor usually does, too).
Thunderstrike is a simple hero-Attack spell, but it can amusingly be used with Windfury (either from Doomhammer or Inara Stormcrash) to get two spells.
Shock Surger is a weapon buffer and also gives you some burst. Kinda like Stormstrike attached to a minion.
Warchief Thrall is the card that basically inspired this entire competition, and is my card from A Hero's Tale. It only makes sense to toss it back in here again, although it is slightly awkward given Wailor's Ragnar Stormcloud.
I decided to go a little wild and make a Doomhammer-Elemental package.
Stormcaller Thrall is a 4-cost so it can be played on turn six after playing Doomhammer. This does require you to have drawn both legendaries at that time, but the battlecry can still be triggered later even if you already broke Doomhammer. The Hero Power is a not too powerful +2 Attack this turn, but becomes twice as valuable when combined with the Windfury from Doomhammer or your Elementals. Charged Stormer can Overload quite a bit with Doomhammer's Windfury, but it's fragility should make up for that. And Forge Goliath is obviously there to renew your Doomhammer in late-game.
I'm about to head to bed so feedback will have to wait, but Shockspitter is a card already :P
Yeah, I noticed it as I was typing my post. And here I was hoping to change it before anyone noticed...
My, my, my, my
DECK hits me so hard...
Makes me say...
"Oh, my Lord,
Thank you for blessing me
With a meta to grind and two decks that's free!!!!"
Duuu dew duuhh Duuu...
The idea of this package is that the early game weapons give your future attack bonuses, synergizing with Doomhammer's Windfury keyword. Each weapon is not that individually powerful, but as you stack multiple of them together it can make your Doomhammer like a better Bloodlust (though it might be difficult to build up a board if you're spending your mana early playing weapons). Storm's Wrath is also interesting because it allows you to play for spell damage, which also synergizes with Thrall's Hero Power.
I'll have more feedback later, but Storm's Wrath is a card already :P
Alright, feedback time.
Your cards are all solid.
Energy Enhancer feels very derivative of Overdraft, and the effect is generally worse (a fair tradeoff for the loss of the 2/2 body and Tradeable). I do see a combo of having Doomhammer, intentionally Overloading yourself a ton and then having a Windfury hero with like 10 Attack. I don't see this combo being problematic though.
Since you need to choose between either Hammer Enthusiast or Electrify Weapon, I would suggest the former because I think it's more interesting from the perspective of a general player.
I like Ragnar Stormcloud, but I do think he equips Doomhammer too efficiently. Super cheap Overload cards will always exist in Standard, and it's not that hard to cheat this out quite early.
Thunderous Gladiator is cute, but I think their effect is too situational to be useful since it only works with Doomhammer (or any weapon if you happen to have Inara Stormcrash and didn't break it by attacking) and I think the effect is quite small for the requirement.
Storm Bolt is a very straightforward and simple card. I think it probably doesn't need the Overload, and making it 0 mana with 1 Overload feels counterproductive for trying to balance Ragnar.
Stormcaller Thrall is definitely a cool support card for Doomhammer. There aren't any Elementals in the game that have Charge to make use of the Windfury (except for Al'Akir which already has Windfury). I do think the Windfury effect is quite strong, but it's unlikely to be problematic and the condition to get is fairly steep.
I think Charged Stormer is a good card to use with cheap weapons or other hero attack cards and I don't think the effect is problematic.
I think Forge Goliath wouldn't see play though since decks could just use Hoard Pillager instead and skip the Elemental requirement. I guess the Discover could allow for cheap weapons to be used with it, but I think it would probably just be simply to curate the pool around your other cards.
I quite like this theme of giving your hero a benefit after each attack for the rest of the game. If you ask me, I would probably cut either Storm's Wrath or Flame's Fury in favor of the other. They're both solid cards, but having 2 weapons takes up a lot of slots for other support in a competition where you have a total of 3 cards. I think support from other card types is pretty important. As Link pointed out already, Storm's Wrath is a nice that is already used, so if you choose to use Storm's Wrath, you should rename that card.
I do think Thrall, Elemental Master is a bit boring, but at least it's balanced.
I'm bummed most went straight for the "equip Doomhammer" direction; seems like low-hanging fruit, in my opinion. Not saying I'm a creative genius or whatever - I ain't that arrogant lol - but still.
CursedParrot - I find this to be rather clunky, but I didn't explicitly ban new weapons so maybe that's on me. The idea is for Doomhammer to be the main glue holding the archetype together, so filling its equip slot with something else seems wrong. If you are hard-running DH - which you should be, given the purpose behind the prompt - that's six weapons and a Hero card that gives you another one; nearly a quarter of the deck. There's gonna be situations where your hand is cluttered with weapons you can't use because you're busy with one already.
AeroJulwin - I like applying Doomhammer's Windfury to your Elementals: that's an interesting take, and perhaps helps meld Doomhammer with an existing archetype for better/cleaner results. Also thank you for not just equipping DH straight-up. Good call dropping Charged Stormer's stats down. I do wonder if Forge Goliath needs Taunt: it's already a 5/4/6 that's cheating 5-Mana (or 7 if it ignores the Overload too). Edit: I forgot about Hoard Pillager.
Demonxz95 - You already heard my two-cents, although Shock Surger is probably better than I originally gave it credit.
Wailor - Flavor is great - I was trying hard not to lean toward Thor, myself lol. Thunderous Gladiator seems a little…on the nose, gameplay-wise: supporting Doomhammer is one thing, but it's practically impossible to trigger the Battlecry without it :P Hearthstone tends to frown on such things.
I was inspired to come up with something different; let me know what you think!
It's all about the Static Charges, building up to a super-Doomhammer which you then unleash for massive damage with Discharge. Not 100% sure on the Thrall, and maybe the Static Charge could be tweaked, but I'm happy with the first two.
Thinking about it now, I should have asked for 4 cards in the package - one for each rarity. Whoops.
Second version of my cards according to the received feedback (the first attempt was balanced quite terribly lol):
Edit: just realized I didn't capitalize "Attack" on the last card. I'll do it before submitting.
Feedback:
Some thoughts about it:
My main concern is the condition of Warchief Thrall. Doomhammer Shaman is a very specific archetype, so forcing you to run one copy of each cards could make deck-building a pain in the ass. I'd probably change him to something most Shaman decks can achieve, like having cast a Nature spell last turn.
I'm not home so I can't tinker with anything, but I think you have great points 😀 With the Hero Powers, they no longer explicitly say "Hero Power" on them anymore - they made the change with Battlegrounds and Duels to fit more words, I think, then made it universal.
I think your cards are much better now, and if I make Enthusiast a Mech we won't be overlapping images anymore lol
First things first:
I'm having a lot of second doubts about my package. I'm not entirely happy with the battlecry on the hero, mainly because I'm afraid it detracts from the intended archetype too much, Doomhammer becoming more of a requirement than a goal. I am still a big fan of the Hero Power, so I intend to keep it. And I admit Forge Goliath is really just there to 'do what Hoard Pillager does', but a bit more favorably. Which really sucks, because I love it's flavor, so I'm hoping I can go a different direction with it while keeping the flavor intact. With the battlecries on both cards changing, I'll probably leave out the Elemental synergy in favor of making the package more smooth.
About Stormy Charger, I really like the use of Overloading your opponent, because it just feels very original and flavorful, but it's impossible to balance the way it is now. The 'Whenever your hero attacks' part came first because it just works really well with upping any effect in power when you're using Doomhammer over any other weapon. I might have to give up one half of the effect in favor of the other.
I'll see what I can whip up. I'll see if I can get any more feedback, but I'm pretty confident I can make some nice improvements with this.
^^ Feedback above ^^
Managed to come up with this so far. I'm pretty happy with Draconic Nimbus. Forge Goliath still functions pretty similar, but it's a bit more straightforward. It's got a unique effect, but honestly feels like it could be in Neutral. I'll probably replace it if I come up with anything else interesting. I've also had a very hard time finding any meaningful effect for my hero card that uses Doomhammer and fits in the textbox. But I don't want to put the direct Doomhammer synergy on another card, because that would break the flavor of Thrall wielding it.
I've updated my package...but now I'm concerned it's less a "Doomhammer archetype" and more a "Static Charge archetype". I like the decision-making on display, though, balancing how many SCs are in your deck to boost your support cards versus how many you draw to boost your main damage via the weapon. With the Hero card in particular, you also have to decide now if you Doomhammer on-curve, or wait to draw some Charges first.
Also I double checked and I can fit it :D Forgot I upped the token limit for this one, just in case.
More feedback:
I like the new Forge Goliath a lot, so I wouldn't drop it.
New Warchief Thrall.
Really couldn't think of anything else, so I just used Wailor's suggestion. It works well enough.
At this point, you've got 24 hours left to submit.
We've ended our submission period with 6 entries.
For the first time on Out of Cards (or rather, out of Games), all valid entries will make it to the finals.
I really enjoyed this prompt. I hope we have more 'package' ones next season.
And I suppose it's not too early to wish everyone good luck in the finals!
Good luck to everyone!
That's... Actually pretty sad 😢
Anyways, good luck, everyone!
Congratulations to Loknax!
...I came in last in my own comp 😕