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Fan Creations

Stacked Against You - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread

Competition Theme: Stacked Against You

You're at the final challenge and the deck isn't stacked in your favor. Can you salvage a way to win the fight?

  • You must make a card with a deckbuilding restriction. You're free to choose whatever restriction you want as long as it's explicit and requires some level of thoughtful deckbuilding.
    • In other words, cards that technically have deckbuilding restrictions to use properly, but don't say so on the card (like Mogu Cultist or Elwynn Boar) or otherwise don't prevent its normal functionality will not count. While certain cards like Gather Your Party or Clumsy Courier discourage you from using cheap minions or spells in your deck, they don't necessarily prevent you from using them and in any deck (assuming it has at least one minion or one spell in it), it will still maintain its normal functionality.
    • While there are no clearly defined designations for what counts as 'thoughtful deckbuilding', simply using common sense will make this a non-issue. You wouldn't call Town Crier a card with a 'deckbuilding restriction' because your deck needs a Rush minion to tutor.

Loknax has whipped up a final boss fight for us, and our playbook is limited for this one.

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 22 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Sat, May 27 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
  • Voting Phase: Starts on Sat, May 27 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Sun, May 28 16:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
  • Finalist Phase: Starts on Sun, May 28 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Mon, May 29 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
  • Winner Selected: After finalist voting concludes and we validate votes.

Discussion Thread Rules

No thread rules were added to this season. Please populate and manually edit this thread with them.

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  • Competition Theme: Stacked Against You

    You're at the final challenge and the deck isn't stacked in your favor. Can you salvage a way to win the fight?

    • You must make a card with a deckbuilding restriction. You're free to choose whatever restriction you want as long as it's explicit and requires some level of thoughtful deckbuilding.
      • In other words, cards that technically have deckbuilding restrictions to use properly, but don't say so on the card (like Mogu Cultist or Elwynn Boar) or otherwise don't prevent its normal functionality will not count. While certain cards like Gather Your Party or Clumsy Courier discourage you from using cheap minions or spells in your deck, they don't necessarily prevent you from using them and in any deck (assuming it has at least one minion or one spell in it), it will still maintain its normal functionality.
      • While there are no clearly defined designations for what counts as 'thoughtful deckbuilding', simply using common sense will make this a non-issue. You wouldn't call Town Crier a card with a 'deckbuilding restriction' because your deck needs a Rush minion to tutor.

    Loknax has whipped up a final boss fight for us, and our playbook is limited for this one.

    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 22 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Sat, May 27 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
    • Voting Phase: Starts on Sat, May 27 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Sun, May 28 16:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
    • Finalist Phase: Starts on Sun, May 28 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Mon, May 29 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
    • Winner Selected: After finalist voting concludes and we validate votes.

    Discussion Thread Rules

    No thread rules were added to this season. Please populate and manually edit this thread with them.

    Friendly Staff

  • This is the last competition of the Season...but hopefully not the last one period. We'll see :/

    Anyway, I think I might dust off my old Edwin for this: the reward can be tweaked, but I've always been high on the condition as something unique and flavorful.

    I made a complicated version that shuffles unique Cast When Drawn spells into your deck, but it's probably just too much.

    Show Spoiler

    I'm thinking it shuffles two copies of each into your deck, maybe even three.

    Friendly

  • I have quite a few things I'd like to say. The first thing of those... welcome to the finale of season 6!!! It's been 20 competitive weeks, but here we are at the end. Let's make it a good one.

    Next, I'd like to do is congratulate Wailor for winning the first place prize of the season. No matter what happens in this competition, it will not be possible to overtake or tie him on victories in this season that count towards the prize. Congratulations Wailor! You've put up a hell of a fight.

    And finally, I need to grief at how tragic of a failure this season has been. We tried so many things to increase the amount of participation these comps get from not just the prize at the end, but also putting more effort into advertising them. We put more reminders that these were happening on the front page, and I even tried letting people in other Hearthstone communities I'm a part of know that this was happening, and still nothing worked. Even at that, participation was still just an all-time low and it's apparent that so many people just actually pay no mind to this despite our best efforts and it just makes me sad that there's nothing that could be done to fix this.

    Friendly Staff

  • To leave you all on a less sorrowful note, here is my card that I'm bringing to the table, Val Bladefang.

    Now that it's no longer possible to generate Triple-Rune cards, Val comes to the aid with that. It is a Legendary and it requires you to go all-in on the Runes to be able to generate one Triple-Rune card at complete random, so it should be absolutely fine. Go Triple of any particular Rune, and you'll be rewarded with some bonus tools, but it also means that there's no rune-mixing allowed. It's triple or nothing for Val.

    One cool tidbit to note is I envision this would even work with multi-Rune cards, so if you play this in either Triple-Blood or Triple-Frost, either of those can generate Frost Queen Sindragosa as the 2-Rune card. Although in my mind, it still wouldn't be able to generate Climactic Necrotic Explosion, since that was specifically made to not be generatable before the Triple-Rune rule came to effect and I would honor that. This is more of a future-proofing note than anything else, but I think it would be a cool thing for the card to do.

    Friendly Staff

  • I'm also a bit sad for the state of these comps and the fact this might be the very last one, it's a real shame honestly. I still had fun this comp regardless of this, but I understand how frustrating it must be as organizers.

    To be honest, I think this isn't a Fan Creations issue, but an Out of Cards/Games issue in general, as the activity has been pretty low recently (I don't participate much, but I still noticed sometimes the last comment in the whole site was from 2 days ago). Which, yeah, makes the whole thing even worse, but im any case the organization isn't to blame, as you've done a very fine work.

    Enough downer words, here are my two cards of the week:

    Battlefield Teleporter attempts the bold archetype of spell-less Mage. The effect it gets is a mix of card draw and Unstable Portal, so that the card feels Mage despite its precondition. I'm not too sure about the numbers, so I'd like some feedback to tweak them.

    High Priestess Ishanah implements passive healing, which is something I've always wanted to see. I'm wondering if turn 3 is too early for an infinite effect like this, though.

    • Quote From Wailor

      High Priestess Ishanah implements passive healing, which is something I've always wanted to see. I'm wondering if turn 3 is too early for an infinite effect like this, though.

      I absolutely believe that is too early: Holy Priest will play defensive as it is, and with her they can just passively out-heal chip damage and stall for the late-game.

      Friendly

  • Congrats to Wailor for winning the season! What a race it was catching up with Demon who seemed to have gained an insurmountable head start.

    All I have to say about the lack of participation is that I'm sorry - I know I'm part of the problem. I've tried to explain my reasons behind no longer participating but just like you guys, I can't really say what would need to change to make this work.

    Demon and linkblade, please be asured that your efforts are seen and very much appreciated. You've done so much during this season, on stage and behind the scenes, and we're very very grateful for it. Even if traffic seems to be going down a lot, the core community of OutofGames is still my favorite Hearthstone related place on the web. You are one wholesome bunch of people and I'm happy to be a part of this.

    Since the theme of this last comp fits my favorite card I've already designed this season, I'll give it another try with a recycled card. Let me know if there's anything I should change! I'm very fond of the art and the effect, but maybe I could tweak the name, the stat line or something?

  • The possibility of WCDC coming to an end is saddening, but I understand you guys put a lot of effort into it and it's good to ask yourselves if that's worth it. Regardless, I'd like to thank everyone who's part of these competitions. This season has been just as enjoyable as the previous ones thanks to each of you being here! Really, you all are an awesome and the most wholesome bunch. I normally don't interact anywhere, I'm a textbook example of a lurker, but I'm very glad I found such a great community to enjoy my passions with.

     

    Sadly we're at the last comp of the season, but I'm still very much excited for it. I ended up with a bunch of ideas for this comp. All Mage cards, because for some reason I have a fascination with Mage and a love for Discovering cards. These are the ones I'm very happy with:

    Avalan shapes ice crystals from far and wide, giving Frost Mage the versatility it is currently lacking. I really wanted Crystallization to be a Cast When Drawn, but sadly the Discover gets in the way of that.

    Six Crystallizations might not be an awful lot for a restriction to only Frost spells plus adding a plain 3-drop to your deck. However, I chose six because they will be in your deck since the start of the game and will likely receive some more Frost synergy in the future. I think that's a well-balanced amount, but I would like to hear other's opinions on that.

    A classic effect that I don't think I've ever used in a comp before. I'm not sure yet whether the reward is balanced enough for the requirement or if it's too rewarding as a Start of Game effect and should be a Battlecry instead.

  •  

    I'll be trying something different. This is like a comeback solution (archetype enabler?) for the old control warrior (whose lack of existence for several years made me quit HS a long time ago).

    I didn't want this to have anything to do with the Death Knight class. Classic style all the way :) The undead tag is mostly flavor, since I don't think warrior has any synergy with it (though I do believe it should, even if limited).

    Edit: changed after feedback.

     

  • Feedback. This might be my last time doing this :C

    linkblade91
    Very cool and flavorful card, a solid candidate for the first place. I prefer the Hero Power version, as the other one is too complex.

    Demonxz95
    I really like the condition. Good call using the Rune mechanic, as it's perfect for this comp. The reward is also cool, especially for what you pointed out about it circumventing the Discover clause.

    anchorm4n
    The effect is very solid, as combining Fel and Demons makes a lot of sense flavorwise. However, as cool as the art is, I'd advice changing it. It looks more suited for a spell, as it's hard to tell what's going on in a minion card.

    AeroJulwin
    I'm not a fan of Avalan, as getting cards from other classes is usually a Rogue effect. Plus, you'd mostly be discovering from DK (and a little bit from Shaman), so it's not as exciting either.

    Cristoph is much better. I think Start of Game is balanced, considering it only affects generated spells.

    Crusader2010
    Very bold idea, I like it! I'd probably change the class to Death Knight, as it fits the theme better. If you go with this change, I'd recommend replacing Gorehowl with a different weapon.

    Also, the wording is a bit iffy. I'd try something among this lines: "Battlecry: If your deck has 5 or more Legendaries when your hero dies this game, revive it with 1 Health, 40 Armor and Gorehowl equipped." The only bold words here should be "Battlecry" and "Legendaries".

  • @Wailor: thanks for the feedback. I've edited the card the best i could (the text wouldn't fit on 4 lines so i had to change it a bit; also, i'd like to keep it as a warrior card since DK is not something i enjoy in general).

  • Linkblade91
    I think the Hero Power version is much easier to balance. My main concern with the spell version is Persuade the Locals and the potential it has.

    Wailor

    Battlefield Teleporter is a good card that will stand out among the sea of Legendaries that the competition will have. I do question if the draw being restricted to minions is truthfully necessary since Mage has a total of 7 cards in the game that are neither spells nor minions and 5 of them are exclusive to Wild, so I guess you might as well allow those to be drawn as well.

    High Priestess Ishanah is a good card, although as pointed out, it does come down quite early, although the stat-cost ratio is fine so you can just up all of those by a bit. What's really hilarious is that if your opponent plays an Alexandros Mograine, the two effects basically cancel each other out.

    Anchorm4n
    I do agree that the art feels more spell-like than minion-like (I guess that could also just be the zoom in which the picture is taken), but the card is otherwise quite solid.

    AeroJulwin
    I do think Arcane Researcher J. Cristoph is the better designed of the two cards, but I think you should cut down on the name a bit. My main problem with Avalan is that the Crystallization tokens dilute your draws for an effect that's not particularly strong.

    Crusader2010

    I think the card design as a whole is a bit questionable.

    The card requires you to run a lot of Legendaries for it to work, which is something that I don't think Team 5 would ever encourage because it's a big slap in the face for F2P or low-budget players (in before one of the mini-set Legendaries requires you to run a lot of Legendaries). Triggering the effect also seems very cumbersome, since you're only going to have a maximum of 18 cards in your deck by the time you play this, which is assuming that you went first and didn't play any card draw, and you wouldn't want all the cards to be Legendaries either. It also assumes that you're always able to play it on turn 10, which you won't always be able to do.

    And then you have to wait for your hero to die as Warrior, which goes against the fact that you're probably playing a control deck to use this, and therefore have lots of means of gaining Armor. And that has to weapon while you still have at least 5 Legendary cards in your deck. It feels like too many things that you don't have control over has to align properly for it to work.

    And I read your comment about Death Knight, but the truth is that the fact that Death Knight exists in the game now is something that can't be overlooked. People will draw the connection and they won't care that you're going "classic style" since that's just not how people in this hobby operate.

    Friendly Staff

  • I don’t get the theme. Would OG Reno Jackson count for example?

    • Quote From Cheese

      I don’t get the theme. Would OG Reno Jackson count for example?

      Yep. Highlander cards count

      Friendly Staff

  • If this be the last time we do this, I think I should make time in my schedule for feedback.

    Crusader2010
    This is certainly a unique condition, but I don't think it's healthy. Your deck must contain 5 Legendaries at the moment of your death: that means, to regularly ensure this happens, you need to fill your deck with Legendaries so you don't draw into all of them. This screams "Wallet Warrior"; a truly pay-2-win archetype. You should also capitalize "Legendaries" and add a period to the end of the sentence.

    AeroJulwin
    I think Avalan is a neat direction to go: yeah cards from other classes are a Priest + Rogue thing, but that doesn't mean they have exclusive rights to it at all times. And the Cast When Drawn is fine for Discovers: if it's not your turn, you just get something random. I'm actually against the grain in-that I don't like the Researcher, because they already can abuse the whole "didn't start in your deck" playstyle quite a bit without additional Mana-cheating. There's nothing wrong with the card itself; I just don't think it needs to exist.

    anchorm4n
    I like this card, as I did back then. That being said, two things: the art isn't great for the portrait-window, and Gul'dan shouldn't be the character because he's the playable hero (I know it was part of the requirement at the time; just saying that, for this comp, he should be swapped out).

    Wailor
    I would be hard-pressed to vote for the Teleporter. Spells are very important for driving a class' uniqueness, and without them, you're very much limited in your playstyle - Play a body, hope it sticks, rinse repeat. Mage in particular is so connected to their spells that to willingly go without seems very weird.

    Demonxz95
    I don't have any quibbles about how the card is written or anything; just repeating my concern that you shouldn't lean into generating 3-Rune cards when Blizzard literally put a stop to that on purpose.

    Friendly

  • Although the majority seems to like my Arcane card better, I personally already agree with linkblade's feedback a lot. I think Avalan would do a good job standing out in this comp with Cast When Drawn cards and because it makes a currently undersupported archetype more viable.

    Also, I made it so that the Crystallizations draw you another card, explicitly to make sure that they don't dilute the draw pool. And I'm aware I'm just being stubborn at this point (I just can't help myself when I get excited about an idea), but I'm going to justify the 'Thief' aspect by arguing that the card pool is specific enough by including Frost spells only. I would be open to making them discover Frost spells from any class.

    Feedback

    linkblade
    I see you've already submitted. I like this version better as well.

    Demon
    Very fitting effect for the prompt. Obviously the triple-rune card is the grand prize, but the rest helps add value without making the card too cheap. And the randomness of it should keep it from being a problematic card, so I think it's well-balanced. I would love to see Blizzard print cards like this that interact based on your rune-distribution.

    Not sure what to think on the generation in regards to multi-rune cards. On the other hand, Frost Queen Sindragosa could also be considered a single-rune card for both Frost and Blood. Regardless, as fun as it sounds, I think it would fit the card better to exclusively generate 'pure' rune cards. Anyway, is a good card and I say the multi-rune generation can be left up to interpretation. Also, it annoys me that they made Climactic Necrotic Explosion inconsistent with the rest.

    Wailor
    The very thought of no spell decks makes me very, very sad… That being said the card isn't bad, but I do think the reward could be a bit more interesting. It seems very obvious as well as powerful.

    High Priestess Ishanah is a very realistic and fitting card, which has definitely helped you this season, but it's not the most original card here. It's obviously supposed to be a reverse Alexandros Mograine.

    anchorm4m
    It's hard to tell how balanced an effect like this would be. That being said, Fel spells work well with demons and I like that in order to profit from the Lifesteal, you have to give up the healing you could normally get from other spells, so I think it should be decently balanced. Stats don't really matter considering it's a Start of Game effect.

    Of course the magic on the art looks very cool, but I do agree the art should be a bit more zoomed in on the character itself. And the magic from his left hand looks more shadowy anyway, so that would help focus on the fel-like magic at his right hand. Linkblade is right that Hearthstone doesn't really print heroes as minions (The Lich King aside). I don't know how much the general audience (not counting the people here, since many make it to the finals anyway) would have an issue with that? If you do change the art, I recommend making it a demon so it can profit from its own effect.

    Crusader2010
    As a 10-Cost battlecry card, this effect won't see play until late-game when you'll have drawn about half your deck already. Whether there will still be enough legendaries in your deck is up to luck most of the time, making the effect very inconsistent, even if you put a large amount of legendaries in your deck. Missing out on the effect you build your deck around because of something out of your control just feels very bad from a game-play perspective. And when you do get the effect it also seems very strong to me. 41 Health is more than you start the game with. I think the card would be more balanced with less Armor and a different, more consistent requirement. I recommend either making it a Start of Game effect (with a higher requirement) or moving away from the legendary requirement altogether.

  • Kinda late feedback, I'm sorry:

    Crusader 2010
    I agree with what the others have said. Your best shot seems to be following AeroJulwin's idea of making it a Start of game effect imo. That said, I'd like to encourage you to further explore the "when your hero dies" avenue, it's a very creative approach.

    AeroJulwin
    It's a very good card and I can absolutely relate with you when it comes to being passionate about a card. The one thing I'd like to throw in is adding a little more flavor to the effect of the tokens by making them Cast when drawn, Freeze a random enemy minion and discover a Frost spell (I'm pretty indifferent about the thiefing aspect here). Also thanks for suggesting to make my minion a Demon, that was a great idea that also helped me find another character.

    Wailor
    I kinda like both of them, but I think I prefer the Priest minion. As the others have said, it should come down a little later though. Maybe 5 Mana?

    Demonxz95
    Going down the Rune avenue is a really good idea and it's a little strange you're the only one doing so so far. What I don't like about your card is that it's absolutely useless if you randomly generate or discover it and you're running a mixed Rune deck or playing another class, but that probably can't be helped. Also the art isn't terribly exciting, so I'm leaning towards 3 or 4 stars at the moment.

    linkblade 91
    Very nice, very flavorful card. I gave you 4 stars for the moment, but I'll have a second look once all the entries are in.

  • You have just under 24 hours to submit.

    Friendly Staff

  • Alright, I haven't touched Hearthstone for a few years now but since it may be the last comp I might as well submit an entry in memories of good old times.

    EDIT: The image host I used fucked up the transparency somehow :(

    EDIT2: Nevermind, I didn't pay attention to the deadline :(

  • Good luck to the finalists!

    Friendly

  • Wow...a whopping *two* people voted in the finals. If that doesn't tell you the state of these comps, I don't know what could enlighten you further.

    Congrats to Demon, I guess? It's hard to say who really won this prompt, in my opinion, with such a tiny sample size to go off of. Three of us got a 5-vote, but then seemingly the other person decided the game with that second vote. Ugh.

    I was gonna say more things about the nature of what we're doing and the hope that we can continue, but...yeah. It's just a sad, pathetic flop of an ending.

    Friendly

  • linkblade has already said everything that came to my mind seeing the transparency report. Still: congrats, Demon! It was a cool idea to do something new with the Rune system. 

  • Congrats to Demon for winning the last comp.

    The number of votes is indeed pretty sad. I guess we can keep the Fan Creations subforum alive with something else aside from Comps, as we clearly don't have the numbers. Don't know what it could be, as games (like Here's an art, make a card) also need a higher count of people than we currently have in order to stay active and this sort of thing died a while ago anyways.