Top Secret - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread

Competition Theme: Top Secret

What's the design brief this week? It's a Secret!

• You must create a Secret - it's that simple!
• Your Secret must be for one of the existing Secret classes
  • More specifically, that's Hunter, Mage, Paladin or Rogue

This week, shaveyou wants to keep things Secret. Why? None of your business!

As always, I 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, Apr 20 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Sat, Apr 25 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
• Voting Phase: Starts on Sat, Apr 25 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Sun, Apr 26 16:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
• Finalist Phase: Starts on Sun, Apr 26 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Mon, Apr 27 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.

Review to your cards @linkblade91

• Counter Strike - First off, I love it. Second of all, you missed the +6 Double Blessing of Might Flavor. Counter Might would've sold the card for 5 star imo. Overall, I think +5 is fine, but again, waiting for the double might on a minion would've been better.
• Smokescreen - Tbh, this seems kinda useless, Stealth until your next turn means no Stealth synergies retain. Yes you can save a combo piece, but Rogue isn't known for Combo decks atm and mainly wants tempo boosts like Bamboozle.
• Feedback Blast - At worst this is a 2 mana Deadly Shot. At best this can completely wreck your opponent's board if you get taunt, which isn't hard. I like this idea, but for 2 mana on this strong of an effect, I don't like it.

@linkblade91 Out of all of your designs I like smokescreen the most. It needs to be tweaked a bit tho imo, since while I think the overall design is the best out of all 3 of your suggestions, balancing is somewhat off making this card by far the weakest, almost meme-like. Also, some cases to consider like the one sinti pointed out, playing it with taunt minions can be pretty bad (while also potentially being good, anyhow this needs to be taken into consideration along with other such cases - perhaps the interaction could be somehow altered?).

Hmm okay, back to the drawing board I guess, I suppose it could be iterated upon to resemble the Discover mechanic. Don't you think though that such an interaction might get introduced in the future, in some way? After playing it you could just get an appropriate prompt.

Can I somehow remove my submission? 

Here are two secrets, and one more I made for this competition. Let me know what you think.

Pitfall Trap: This is a defensive secret that will help protect your face. I kind of like the idea of Control Hunter, and I like this secret because it supports Control Hunter without being super obvious. I am a bit worried that it may pale too much in comparison to Freezing Trap to see much play. I am not sure if I should make this from League of Explorers because of its similarity (in both effect and theme) with Dart Trap, or if I should make it from Kobolds and Catacombs because pitfall traps are a classic DnD trap. 

Retaliating Flame: Mage didn't get a "when your opponent plays 3 cards in a turn" secret in the witchwood, so I decided to make one for them. The Paladin one builds up your hand, the Hunter one builds up your board, so the Mage one will break your opponents board. 

Quote From linkblade91

Quote From Devizz

Can I somehow remove my submission? 

Unfortunately no, we do not allow people to edit or remove their cards after submitting :( We always suggest people come here first if they want feedback on their ideas.

RIP

Show Spoiler

Quote From linkblade91

Quote From KANSAS

Here are two secrets, and one more I made for this competition. Let me know what you think.

Retaliating Flame is scary, but at the same time it might be okay. The other two Secrets in question progress from a casting of Arcane Intellect to a 6/6 minion on the table; is the next step up 3 damage to all enemies? I think I would be less concerned if the face-damage wasn't there, but then this would just be a different variant of Flame Ward. By the way you're missing the period at the end of the sentence and the word "to" between "damage" and "all". My other concern is one of flavor: fire doesn't really jive with The Witchwood.

All that being said, I think you should stick with Retaliating Flame; Pitfall Trap is fine, but I like the idea of completing the Witchwood trio more.

 

Thanks for the feedback!

I put the face damage there because, like you said, it would be effectively the same as Flame Ward. My first idea was to deal 8-10 face damage, but I don't think that would have worked out well.

I will fix the grammatical errors, I actually never noticed that you needed a period at the end of Hearthstone cards.

About your own cards, I like Counter Strike the best. I think it is powerful, but not too frustrating to play against. I would vote 4 stars because I really can't think of anything wrong with it, withholding one star only because it is a bit plain.

Quote From Devizz

Quote From linkblade91

Quote From Devizz

Can I somehow remove my submission? 

Unfortunately no, we do not allow people to edit or remove their cards after submitting :( We always suggest people come here first if they want feedback on their ideas.

RIP

Well hey, you won your first competition at least! :

How about this?

Quote From Demonxz95

Quote From DestroyerR

How about this?

Legendary Secret? That's going to get you a lot of flair.

I was actually trying to find reasons to critique the card and then realized that I couldn't really come up with anything, so it seems good. I guess the only downside of the card is that it's fairly easy to play around and requires extremely specific timing, although that's not necessarily new for Secrets.

Really? Thanks!

Just to clarify, “different cards” could either mean they can’t play the cards they played last turn, or it could be that they can’t play ALL the cards they played last turn. Which do you think is the most balanced interpretation?

Quote From DestroyerR

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How about this?

LOL! I saw this card on Hearthstone Card Generator when I opened the page to make a card. I just knew I was going to see it on OutofCards.

Ooo, this will be fun. Secret Hunter has been one of my favorite decks ever since I started playing it back in MSoG! Here's what I've come up with so far. Any feedback is much appreciated, and I'll try to go through and give some feedback to others before I head to bed tonight.

• True Companionship - Call upon one of your Animal Companions when you need one most, while your opponent is adding minions to their board. Helps regain tempo against aggro decks.
• Stray Arrows - Inspired off of other Hunter "board clears" such as Grievous Bite and Explosive Shot. Most of the time would be easy to play around, but would also force your opponent to think about their positioning and attack order. Could create some sticky situations for your opponent when they are forced to decide if your secret is Stray Arrows, or Freezing Trap.
• Counter Shot - Counterspell and Freezing Trap had a baby. It's a Counterspell where your opponent doesn't lose the spell, and has a delayed chance to use it again. AKA Freezing Trap for spells.

FEEDBACK:

UPDATE:

Got a 2nd idea for True Companionship, turning it into a Legendary secret. It's probably way too powerful. 

ADDITIONAL FEEDBACK: (for a couple of people below me)

Idea #1. What do you guys think?

I know there is already a Leeching Poison in the game but i couldn't find a better name for this card so I am open to all suggestions. :)

Also i couldn't decide which will be my decision. Help me choose one please.

What do you guys think of these? Had some other ideas for these concepts too. Considered making Sleeping Beauty somehow use the asleep state, but there is only one card that currently refrences a minion being asleep. Also considered making Generous Bribe increase the cost of the discovered card for your opponent, but that felt really niche.

Quote From anchorm4n

A quick question for the native speakers: with the guy in the art in mind, is it still okay to call this "Frost Ward" or should I make it "Frost Warden"? I want to preserve the flavor of this being Flame Ward's twin but couldn't find a freezing device yet.

I am not a native speaker but probably it is ok. Look how they worded this Frost Ward card from Warcraft TCG with its image;




Also "Warden" is a class in Warcraft Universe which Maiev Shadowsong really is for example. So making it warden would break the immersion in my opinion.

Hi, I am trying this for the first time, so don't roast me too hard. To be honest, the hardest part is to find the right art, I suck at it.

Self Harm: I went for the Injured Blademaster because i failed to find proper art. Also, because of a meme. Wording is a bit wonky, I had a "after you opponent plays a minion, it deals its damage to itself" text before, but I have aligned it with Aeon Reaver wording. Not sure which one is better. I was deciding between hunter and rogue secret, but ended up with rogue.

Another Card to Play: Found out that "A Trick Up the Sleeve" name is already taken by YuGiOh, so I went for this one. Art is from battlegrounds hero power:) Card is not just a 2 mana draw a card and change its cost to 0, remember that the card has to be drawn on opponent's turn, so there is some buildaround required - Loot Hoarder that dies on your opponent's turn should trigger it, Coldlight Oracle or Research Project played by your opponent should also trigger it.

in my opinion this is a tricky one but heres what i submitted

heres the token card as well

Quote From DescentOfDragonsOp

in my opinion this is a tricky one but heres what i submitted

heres the token card as well

This should really be changed to a 2-mana secret and toned down accordingly... messing with the prices completely goes against the theme of... you know, SECRETS. 

Plus I personally would dock a star for poor grammar, sorry, I just can’t stand it..

EDIT: Nevermind, it seems you already submitted it. I would highly recommend coming here first, so that you can get some feedback. The card has a decent idea, it just needed some editing to make it work with the theme

@DescentOfDragonsOP: as well as what Conduit said, I would avoid using an image of Aya Blackpaw as a token called 'Gang Mate'. Flavour wise she's the boss, not just a low ranking grunt.

Not using this as a submission, but this reminded me of a past custom Rogue secret I made.

The idea here is that it would trigger next turn, no matter what.  So you could play this against an aggro opponent to try and get a bunch of minions if they went wide, or you could delay your opponent a turn if they wanted to try and play around it because if they play no minions it still triggers but does nothing.

A more practical version of my idea is probably the actual secret, Ambush.  But I still like this idea.

I have a lot of custom cards that fit this criteria, so I'll put three of them visible and the rest in spoiler. Interestingly, neither of them is a Mage card.

• Draconic Avengers is a pretty straightforward card, featuring Paladin handbuff Dragons, in-line with Dragonrider Talritha. Main issue, it has a high chance of being useless if randomly generated.
• Unseathe deals damage to any minion attacking your hero and leaves a 3/1 weapon equiped. I might change its name to Hidden Dagger, because I'm not sure everyone knows the verb "unseathe". I certainly didn't before looking it up. I've just realised it's a bit similar to Nirast's Quick Reflexes, but I guess it's not ALL that similar?
• Rabid Dog is another flavor-driven card, featuring a rabid dog that becomes aggressive against friends. The effect is in between of Snipe and Misdirection.
•  

Rest of the cards in spoiler:

I'm aware I've posted a ton of cards, so if you only want to review the ones outside the spoiler, I'm perfectly okay with that :)

And after a ton of cards, here comes a ton of feedback:

@linkblade91

@Devizz

@Demonxz95

@KANSAS

@DestroyerR

@Xarkkal

@anchorm4n

@Conduit

@Nirast

@Almaniarra

@ZardozSpeakz

@Wendee

@Thonson

Back at it again with a much fairer card than normal. Still awful at balancing though and yeah I know used art and what not.

It seems like the face damage was bothering people, so I took it off and made it deal 4 damage instead. It is hard to balance this idea without making it just like Flame Ward but harder to trigger. I am also unsure of how much mana I can cheat with this card when Hidden Wisdom is so underwhelming and Rat Trap is so overwhelming. I decided that making this secret like a 3 mana delayed Flamestrike would be okay when Rat Trap is effectively a 2 mana delayed Boulderfist Ogre. The secret also kind of balances itself out because it won't always clear the board when you need it too.

Here is my new card:

Show Spoiler

Here is some feedback:

Wish I'd looked in this thread before submitting my card, but here's Swindle:

Rogue always appreciates cheap cards for activating Combos, so Swindle kind of handles that for the class. Plus, if Secret Burgle Rogue ever becomes a thing, this would fit nicely with that deck. I decided to make it Rare because it's fairly easy to play around, but has a high ceiling. This is also my first submission ever on here. Thanks for looking!

Quote From KANSAS

@Xarkkal, I like Stray Arrow the best. It really fits hunters style, and it is also super balanced. I it also very interesting to play around, do they drop a small minion to protect their more valuable minions, or do they attack and then play their minions in case it is Explosive Trap? One thing though, would this trigger if there is only 1 adjacent minions? That would fit with how cards like Cleave and Multi-Shot work, but it would also make it super easy to play around by just attacking with your minion to the far left/right of the board.

You may not necessarily want to attack with one of your left/right minions first if those minions are ones you don't want to trigger Freezing Trap. Plus, if you play minions first before attacking because you were checking for other secrets first, you may not have a minion on the edge to attack. I think it adds an interesting additional layer to tricking your opponent in combination with other hunter secrets. It wouldn't necessarily be the first secret you check for. 

I'm thinking that yes it would trigger with only 1 adjacent minion. Which is the cards big downside and almost made me have it deal 4 damage instead. But, that also then makes it up to the player to use the secret when they have the potential to get the most value out of it, (like any good Secret player should do).

All that being said, I'm probably not submitting this one, as I feel it's potential and interactions take a lot more time to think about than the amount of time people give a card while voting on it. While going through 20+ cards voting, you need the card to stand out a little bit. And something that seems balanced, underwhelming, and possibly really easy to play around at first glance probably will get voted a lower score than if people spent more time thinking about the card. Idk, I'm just making assumptions on how people vote at this point. I try and put some time into thinking about everyone's card before making a vote, but I know there are times I make a determination too fast before thinking about all the possibilities. 

My initial ideas:

Tricks of the Trade - Both versions trick your opponent into playing poorly to counter a Secret, only to become a new one next turn. I wasn’t sure if the “different classes” version was too good or not. 

City Watch - Summon an Annoy-o-Tron after getting attacked to slow down aggro. If it survives, it’s also a great target for buffs or Magnetize

Quote From Wailor

I have a lot of custom cards that fit this criteria, so I'll put three of them visible and the rest in spoiler. Interestingly, neither of them is a Mage card.

• Draconic Avengers is a pretty straightforward card, featuring Paladin handbuff Dragons, in-line with Dragonrider Talritha. Main issue, it has a high chance of being useless if randomly generated.
• Unseathe deals damage to any minion attacking your hero and leaves a 3/1 weapon equiped. I might change its name to Hidden Dagger, because I'm not sure everyone knows the verb "unseathe". I certainly didn't before looking it up. I've just realised it's a bit similar to Nirast's Quick Reflexes, but I guess it's not ALL that similar?
• Rabid Dog is another flavor-driven card, featuring a rabid dog that becomes aggressive against friends. The effect is in between of Snipe and Misdirection.
•  

Rest of the cards in spoiler:

 

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• Hope is based on the trope of a knight in shining armor arriving at the precise moment, kinda like Gandalf in The Return of the King. The only reason it's not outside the spoiler is because Imprison minions make it kinda redundant.
• Skid Tactics is a very flavor-driven card: cephalopods have high regeneration capabilities and spray ink, so that's what the card does lol Could've been a Rogue card, but I decided to go Hunter because of the Beast flavor. Problem is, it's too similar to linkblade's Smokescreen.
• Phase Shift has a very similar effect to Squid Tactics, but it draws inspiration from the Faerie Dragon ability from Warcraft 3, instead of squids.

• Despair draws inspiration from Arthas' fall, where his own soldiers turn against him because of his unhonorable actions. It's meant to be combined with crap minions, mainly Silver Hand Recruit.
• Selfless Heroism tries to support the Divine Shield synergy pushed in Knights of the Frozen Throne, while being an obvious nod to Selfless Hero.
• Exorcism is based on several WoW and Warcraft abilities which de-spell summoned minions, but I'm not sure it translates well to Hearthstone.

 

 

I'm aware I've posted a ton of cards, so if you only want to review the ones outside the spoiler, I'm perfectly okay with that :)

 

Thanks for the feedback! A quick review of the cards outside the spoiler:

Draconic Avengers - nothing really outstanding, but a nice card with a clear support in mind. I’d vote 4-5 stars.

Unseathe - I think it’s spelled “unsheathe”, so you might want to fix that. A token of the dagger might also raise your ratings. I’d personally vote 5 stars after these changes.

Rabid Dog - this one is lacking in many aspects IMO. First, I feel it’s too strong and immediately impactful, compared to cards like Misdirection or Sudden Betrayal. Second, the wording is a bit off, it should be “your opponent” instead of “the enemy”. Third, the flavor is also a bit off. I get the rabid dog attacking at random, but it’s pretty weird when supposed “Rabid Dog” is oftentimes not even a beast, much less a dog. I’d vote 2-3 stars.

Quote From KANSAS

It seems like the face damage was bothering people, so I took it off and made it deal 4 damage instead. It is hard to balance this idea without making it just like Flame Ward but harder to trigger. I am also unsure of how much mana I can cheat with this card when Hidden Wisdom is so underwhelming and Rat Trap is so overwhelming. I decided that making this secret like a 3 mana delayed Flamestrike would be okay when Rat Trap is effectively a 2 mana delayed Boulderfist Ogre. The secret also kind of balances itself out because it won't always clear the board when you need it too.

Here is my new card:

 

Show Spoiler

 

Here is some feedback:

 

Show Spoiler

 

@Demonxz95, I like it, but without the rest of the "wild west" expansion it kind of feels out of place. Also, it seems a bit too easy to play around. Realistically, I don't think you are going to be drawing a lot of cards with this. I would vote 3 stars, strong theme, but too easy to play around.

@DestroyerR, Legendary Secret? Intriguing. While the ability is very interesting and balanced (if a little on the strong side), I don't like it because this has to be the most annoying card to play against in all of Hearthstone. I would hate to have this played against me. It slows down the game and really, it would just make people salty. I voted 2 stars, because while it is creative, it isn't a very healthy card for the game.

@Xarkkal, I like Stray Arrow the best. It really fits hunters style, and it is also super balanced. I it also very interesting to play around, do they drop a small minion to protect their more valuable minions, or do they attack and then play their minions in case it is Explosive Trap? One thing though, would this trigger if there is only 1 adjacent minions? That would fit with how cards like Cleave and Multi-Shot work, but it would also make it super easy to play around by just attacking with your minion to the far left/right of the board.

@Anchrom4n, This is just a worse version of Frost Nova. Also, I would like to minimize the number of mass freeze effects in Hearthstone so that Combo Mage doesn't end up freezing your board for 12 turns in a row before comboing you to death.

@Conduit, I really like it. It feels balanced, but still worth playing. My one concern though it that it would be way too easy to just play The Coin and then the spell they wanted to play. Unlike Counterspell, this doesn't make the opponent lose any cards, just mana. So as long as they have a cheap spell, this secret becomes useless.

@Nirast, very cool. I am not sure what the correct wording would be (we have never had a card like this in hearthstone before), but I think "Unsheath" is the word I would use. It is that kind of not-a-keyword-but-kind-of-like-a-keyword thing that happens in Hearthstone sometimes with cards like Swampqueen Hagatha.

@Almaniarra, Out of the two I like Leeching Poison better, mainly because Dismantle is a bit useless. However, as you mentioned, you would have to change the name because Leeching Poison is a card. What about, "Blood Infusion"? Or is that too gruesome and Warlock-y for a Rogue card? One other thing, you should change the watermark to a more appropriate expansion.

@ZardozSpeakz, Spell Duel is my favorite. It fits Mages flavor, it looks like a card Blizzard would print, and it is also a lot more inspired than some of the submissions I have seen. I would vote 5 stars.

@Wendeee, Another Card to Play doesn't work because Secrets can only trigger on your opponent's turn, and generally they should interact with your opponent in some way.

@DecentOfDragonsOP, I can see you already submitted your card, and I gave it 1 star. For one, it costs four mana. All secrets have to cost the same amount otherwise your opponent can just look at how much mana you spent to cast it and then know just what it is. Also, it is so full of grammatical errors it is a bit funny. It should say "Secret:_Whenever an enemy attacks a Friendly minion(Comma)  summon three 2/2 Gang Mates that attack that enemy instead (period).

@Thonson, The secret should specify that it triggers at the start of your turn. Also, I would make them 2/2s or 1/1s with Taunt or something. 3/3s just seem a bit big for only 3 mana. Other than that, it looks great.

 

 

Thanks for the feedback! Here’s a quick review of your card:

I think it’s a little on the ‘too strong’ side. Sure, Rat Trap is basically early Boulderfist, but Flamestrike is MUCH more powerful on turns 4-6. In fact, it may be the niche where it can change games, literally, but I can’t say for sure. The text is also a little cramped, I’d switch the “three” for a “3” and see if that does the trick. All in all, a neat card, would vote 4-5 stars with a change of wording.

About my card, I don’t think it’s unfun. It might be frustrating at times, sure, but very rarely you don’t have a way to play your turn differently, and even if it did turn out to be pretty annoying, I definitely wouldn’t go so far as to say it would be unhealthy for the game in any way. I guess fun is a subjective aspect though, so each to their own (even if docking 3 stars for that seems a bit... extreme)

Maybe one day I'll be more creative. Ha! I just like solid cards that I understand the power of (but I need a lot more practice to balance them properly). Also, I keep forgetting about this thread until after I make my submission.

Anyways, I'm here because I started thinking about its interaction with Eaglehorn Bow if it's destroyed on your turn. To be clear, I don't want it to interact, since it'd be weird for Eaglehorn to go to 0 Durability, trigger the Secret, then pop back up to 1 Durability. I tried to avoid this by choosing the word "after", but in terms of the game's mechanics, I'm not sure how this scenario would resolve. Does anyone know?

Quote From dembro

Maybe one day I'll be more creative. Ha! I just like solid cards that I understand the power of (but I need a lot more practice to balance them properly). Also, I keep forgetting about this thread until after I make my submission.

Show Spoiler

Anyways, I'm here because I started thinking about its interaction with Eaglehorn Bow if it's destroyed on your turn. To be clear, I don't want it to interact, since it'd be weird for Eaglehorn to go to 0 Durability, trigger the Secret, then pop back up to 1 Durability. I tried to avoid this by choosing the word "after", but in terms of the game's mechanics, I'm not sure how this scenario would resolve. Does anyone know?

Well, secrets only trigger on your turn, so this card would only be useful as a counter to Acidic Swamp Ooze

Well, countering weapon removal is still nice, but with that in mind I think it's too weak. Oh well! Lesson learned. I just saw Competitive Spirit and thought, "Ok, so Secrets CAN resolve on my turn" - but it has specific text and resolves immediately at the start of my next turn.

Is shuffle possible in Mean Streets, or should it be later? Is Fume Trap too strong? (And where do you find your awesome art?!)

Always wanted to make a murloc based secret. Also first submission

New idea! Yes, I know there was an Arena card called Smoke Bomb, but this was the best name I had at the time lmao.

Quote From Demonxz95

Quote From Conduit

New idea! Yes, I know there was an Arena card called Smoke Bomb, but this was the best name I had at the time lmao.

I feel like it's way too similar to Evasion both flavor-wise and gameplay-wise.

Gonna be honest, completely forgot that card existed, thanks for the pointer

Quote From linkblade91

Quote From Devizz

Can I somehow remove my submission? 

Unfortunately no, we do not allow people to edit or remove their cards after submitting :( We always suggest people come here first if they want feedback on their ideas.

I can understand not making the card editable, but what about the description below it? Say you make a typo in it?
Also totally missed this thread before I submitted my entry. Used to posting in a forum submission thread and all that. Guess the HearthPwn version of the competition I always played in needs to phase out of my head.

What I made (might help someone avoid making a copy):

Quote From anchorm4n

I would suggest to check the wording with already existing cards, I'm pretty sure it should say "At the start of your turn". The rest of it is fine, it would be interesting to try this out. Nice synergies with lackeys, Pogo Hoppers and Battlecry minions in general.

I was basing it off of the wording of Competitive Spirit since that's the only start of turn secret

Quote From anchorm4n

Quote From Thez

Quote From linkblade91

Quote From Devizz

Can I somehow remove my submission? 

Unfortunately no, we do not allow people to edit or remove their cards after submitting :( We always suggest people come here first if they want feedback on their ideas.

I can understand not making the card editable, but what about the description below it? Say you make a typo in it?
Also totally missed this thread before I submitted my entry. Used to posting in a forum submission thread and all that. Guess the HearthPwn version of the competition I always played in needs to phase out of my head.

What I made (might help someone avoid making a copy):

While I really like this idea, there's already one submission which is nearly identical (minion goes dormant when played) and Elfensilver showed us another version of it 8 posts above of yours (hunter version, though). You can check the already submitted entries on your voting page. As I have no idea who had the idea first, I would give all of you the same raiting, but that's only my view and I wanted to let you know that there are similar cards around.

Thanks. Going through all 40+ submissions by refresh though is going to get old very fast.

Why not just show all submissions on the page with a random order? That way everyone sees different cards first or last and you can much much more quickly look and see if your idea is present or not. 40 images isn't exactly server breaking (and you could auto-generate lightweight thumbnails of them for that page if needed).

I'd submit a different card now given the other Rogue Secret with Dormant in the pool but sadly I can't remove my entry. Shouldn't it be possible to modify/update/replace your entry until the voting phase starts? Until then no one can vote, so what's the harm right? Otherwise whoever throws down a card quickly enough will get free additional votes by virtue of being present on the voting page earlier. Timezones alone would make that unfair.

Maybe a timer or a specific amounts of views would be needed to lock in your card before the voting phase?

Quote From Thez

Thanks. Going through all 40+ submissions by refresh though is going to get old very fast.

Why not just show all submissions on the page with a random order? That way everyone sees different cards first or last and you can much much more quickly look and see if your idea is present or not. 40 images isn't exactly server breaking (and you could auto-generate lightweight thumbnails of them for that page if needed).

I'd submit a different card now given the other Rogue Secret with Dormant in the pool but sadly I can't remove my entry. Shouldn't it be possible to modify/update/replace your entry until the voting phase starts? Until then no one can vote, so what's the harm right? Otherwise whoever throws down a card quickly enough will get free additional votes by virtue of being present on the voting page earlier. Timezones alone would make that unfair.

Maybe a timer or a specific amounts of views would be needed to lock in your card before the voting phase?

The problem is that voting is already open during the submission phase. The voting phase is just an extra 24 hours to make sure people can vote for late submissions. Also once you vote for a card it leaves the voting page and appears on the 'My Votes' tab where you can see everything at once, so that might be what you're looking for. While it'd be nice to have a way to modify your cards to fix typos or wording issues, I think outright deleting cards after people have already voted on them could lead to problems.

Anyway, here's my secret.

A secret inspired by Molten Reflection that can summon a copy of an enemy minion to protect your hero.

One more thing I would like to mention about the voting system, unlike on Hearthpwn, more views isn't always a good thing. Back on Hearthpwn, you would vote for a card by giving it a upvote, so you would either like it, or nothing. With this system, you can give it anything between 1-5 stars, so a view can be good or bad. 

Flavor text: "We're talking about practice. Not a game, practice" 

Thanks everyone who gave me feedback :) I finally submited Unsheathe, with the correct orthography and a token card :)

Some additional feedback here:

@Hordaki

Solid effect, but the connection with copying and volcanos is a bit strange, even if Molten Reflection is a thing.

@grayghost39

I agree with linkblade. Other than that, it has a solid flavor and connects well with Paladin's mechanics, so once you correct its problems it can easily be a finalist.

Quote From sinti

Quote From NekroDan

Wish I'd looked in this thread before submitting my card, but here's Swindle:

 

 

Rogue always appreciates cheap cards for activating Combos, so Swindle kind of handles that for the class. Plus, if Secret Burgle Rogue ever becomes a thing, this would fit nicely with that deck. I decided to make it Rare because it's fairly easy to play around, but has a high ceiling. This is also my first submission ever on here. Thanks for looking!

I love everything about your card, except for the watermark. Makes no sense that Rogue would have one Secret from a Classic set for years before getting a new one. Let this be a reminder to others to be mindful of this. It is better to use custom watermark, if you cant put it in KAC or AOO, or give it a good flavor that it would make sense to be a standalone one in one of the sets in between. There is one submission which did just that.

That being said, pretty good for 1st submission.

Thanks! Yeah I didn't know that the watermark mattered, and I believe I left it at the default. I didn't intend for it to be Classic. Guess that might be my undoing. Thanks again for your feedback!

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Can I somehow remove my submission? 

Unfortunately no, we do not allow people to edit or remove their cards after submitting :( We always suggest people come here first if they want feedback on their ideas.

I can understand not making the card editable, but what about the description below it? Say you make a typo in it?
Also totally missed this thread before I submitted my entry. Used to posting in a forum submission thread and all that. Guess the HearthPwn version of the competition I always played in needs to phase out of my head.

What I made (might help someone avoid making a copy):

While I really like this idea, there's already one submission which is nearly identical (minion goes dormant when played) and Elfensilver showed us another version of it 8 posts above of yours (hunter version, though). You can check the already submitted entries on your voting page. As I have no idea who had the idea first, I would give all of you the same raiting, but that's only my view and I wanted to let you know that there are similar cards around.

Thanks. Going through all 40+ submissions by refresh though is going to get old very fast.

Why not just show all submissions on the page with a random order? That way everyone sees different cards first or last and you can much much more quickly look and see if your idea is present or not. 40 images isn't exactly server breaking (and you could auto-generate lightweight thumbnails of them for that page if needed).

I'd submit a different card now given the other Rogue Secret with Dormant in the pool but sadly I can't remove my entry. Shouldn't it be possible to modify/update/replace your entry until the voting phase starts? Until then no one can vote, so what's the harm right? Otherwise whoever throws down a card quickly enough will get free additional votes by virtue of being present on the voting page earlier. Timezones alone would make that unfair.

Maybe a timer or a specific amounts of views would be needed to lock in your card before the voting phase?

As soon as you can submit, you can vote.

• Submission Phase: Enter the competition and vote on everyone's submissions.
• Voting Phase: Last chance to help us choose the finalists. Get those votes in - Good luck!

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Voting period is just an extra period to give ppl time to vote. Our weight system makes sure that the cards with less views are shown more often so that every card has roughly the same amount of votes, or rather it gets roughly the same amount of view time, ppl can decide not to vote on a card. So even the very late submission generally get fair amount of view time to be voted on. Prime example is the last weeks winner, it was literally the last submission, yet it won the whole thing!

You can see all the cards you voted on on your Voting Page, as said. We might add an option to see all at once at some point.

Submissions are closed for editing for a reason and you are given warning that is the case. We might change this in the future, but no change for now.

Got it. Will remember that next time. :)

I made a secret for each class.  I didn't look at any cards before I made these, except for the paladin one which I had to change from its original design.

I edited my card a bit.

I upped the damage to emphasize the power of the fire, but I also made it hit your minions as well to balance things out. And because the secret won't trigger for a long time after you play it, it can be hard to know exactly when it is safe to build up your own board.

What do you think?

Somehow, with half the world shut down, I seem to have less time than ever. 

Anyway, my first couple of ideas:

With Coup de Grâce, I wanted to see what potential triggers I could use that haven't been used in game, and I fell on this. This would function primarily as an Aggro card, with the added benefit of being a tech option against those decks which don't run small minions, such as Big Priest. I'm not satisfied with the art or watermark at the moment 

With Saving Grace, I wanted to try and make a slightly fairer Ice Block, reflecting Paladins ability to "bubble" away from certain death. I'm not sure I've got the wording on this clear enough. Happy with the Art and flavour though.

Quick bit of feedback, and I'll do a bit more of a comprehensive one tomorrow after I'd looked at whose already submittedL

@grumpymonk

My favourite is Divine Entity, I've outlined my feelings in the spoiler.

@KANSAS

I like it. It would definitely fit into a Spell centric mage, looking to control the board while assembling a combo, or burning down the opponent.

Here's my feedback:

@linkblade91

@Devizz

@Demonxz95

@KANSAS

@DestroyerR

@Xarkkal

@anchorm4n

@Conduit

@Nirast

@Almaniarra

@ZardozSpeakz

@Wendee

@DescentOfDragonsOP

@Wailor

@MenacingBagel

@Thonson

@NekroDan

@thepowrofcheese

@dembro

@Elfensilver

@Lemushski

@Thez

@Hordaki

@grayghost39

Thanks for the feedback :)

I have another idea for the mage secret instead of Spell Capture.  The reason why it's at 10 health because that is the maximum health you can play Molten Giant for free.

Someone else already submitted the rogue secret, so that leaves Molten Summons, Divine Entity, and possibly Killer Instinct among what I would submit.

@shaveyou

Coup de Grace seems hard to play around.  I feel like that there many effects that could cause this to go off by accident.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it might not be very fun for your opponent to play against.  Also, it should be "equal to its cost" instead of "equal to it's cost".

Saving Grace seems pretty cool.  It's somewhere between Ice Barrier and Ice Block, but I think healing all the damage dealt on top of the damage prevention might be a little too much.  Maybe set the health to 5 or 10 instead of healing?

Hi, this is my first attempt at creating custom cards, so do not be too harsh with your veteran feedback.

With Shady Deal you basically give your opponent a discount but it comes with a price. I think, that this fits rogue very well.

Dark Effigy is a mirror on Effigy. It is the same effect but on enemy minions.

Quote From Feuerrabe

Hi, this is my first attempt at creating custom cards, so do not be too harsh with your veteran feedback.

 

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With Shady Deal you basically give your opponent a discount but it comes with a price. I think, that this fits rogue very well.

Dark Effigy is a mirror on Effigy. It is the same effect but on enemy minions.

Welcome! No harsh feedback will ever come from this thread! Just open and honest constructive criticism.

Shady Deal has some good flavor. There are some grammatical issues that will need to be fixed.

• You need "Secret:" in bold at the start of the text. 
• "Coins" needs to have a capital "C". Look at cards like Licensed Adventurer and Umbral Skulker. 
• "Costs 2 less" should have parentheses around the 2. Any cost change is worded as so. See Freezing Trap and Unstable Portal for examples.
• Don't use "his" in card text when referencing your opponent. That's sexist.
• Make sure to add a period to the end of card text. 
• Maybe try rewording it as "Secret: When your opponent casts as spell, add 2 coins to your hand. Their next spell costs (2) less."

Dark Effigy also needs to say "Secret:" and needs a period. But I personally think Shady Deal is the better of the two cards. Dark Effigy isn't very interesting to me personally. 

Thank you for your corrections. English is not my first language and I appreciate the help.

Here are the grammatically revised versions of Shady Deal and Dark Effigy:

I am also leaning more towards Shady Deal. I think the risk-reward part of it makes it interesting since it could give your opponent the opportunity to set up a crazy combo but you get your combo pieces as well.

Quote From Feuerrabe

Thank you for your corrections. English is not my first language and I appreciate the help.

Here are the grammatically revised versions of Shady Deal and Dark Effigy:

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I am also leaning more towards Shady Deal. I think the risk-reward part of it makes it interesting since it could give your opponent the opportunity to set up a crazy combo but you get your combo pieces as well.

My final advice for Shady Deal is to find different art. That's the art for Bag of Coins. I know many people (myself included) will dock stars for using artwork that already exists in the game. 

Honestly did not know that this art already existed in the game? I think it is used in some adventure? Anyway, here is the finalized version of Shady Deal and I do think that this artwork is "undangerous". Finding art is easily the most time-consuming part of creating a card.

Quote From Feuerrabe

Honestly did not know that this art already existed in the game? I think it is used in some adventure? Anyway, here is the finalized version of Shady Deal and I do think that this artwork is "undangerous". Finding art is easily the most time-consuming part of creating a card.

 

One more thing you need to change before you submit your card, it needs to cost 2 mana. All Secrets have to cost the same as all of the other Secrets in a class. Other than that it looks great!

I already submitted this, but here it is.

Quote From Shivershine

I already submitted this, but here it is.

I voted 3 stars because there really isn't anything exciting going on with your card. It isn't bad or super powerful, and it isn't all that unique either. It is just okay, so I gave it a "just okay" rating.

Oh, this sucks but I guess even if I did not make an sucessful entry I have still learned quite something, so it has not been in vain.

Quote From Feuerrabe

Oh, this sucks but I guess even if I did not make an sucessful entry I have still learned quite something, so it has not been in vain.

Nothing is in vain if you can learn from it! Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for next week, and we'll be here to help out

I am a bit disappointed at the number of rogue secrets that say "When an enemy minion is played/attacks, it goes dormant for 2 turns". At first I thought "oh, that is kind of interesting" then "Oh look, these two submissions are very similar" and now there are four secrets like that. 

To be honest I am pretty disappointed at the lack of creativity on a lot of these cards.

So many rogue secrets...

Btw, since I'm still pretty new to this, what happens if I or someone else submitted a card that had the same design?  Would they be disqualified?  I don't think it's fair for someone to submit a card early and get lower scores because someone else submitted a card later that did the same thing.  There's no way of knowing, of course.  It could be just a coincidence.

Quote From grumpymonk

So many rogue secrets...

Btw, since I'm still pretty new to this, what happens if I or someone else submitted a card that had the same design?  Would they be disqualified?  I don't think it's fair for someone to submit a card early and get lower scores because someone else submitted a card later that did the same thing.  There's no way of knowing, of course.  It could be just a coincidence.

If there are two cards with the same design then nothing happens. People still vote on them just like any other card.

Quote From anchorm4n

I agree, most of the Rogue secrets don't appeal to me either. My favorites are Counter Shot, Saving Grace and Maternal Instinct in that order, they all got 5 stars from me. 

I'm not sure what to do about the "go dormant for 2 turns" issue. I will definitely give them all the same rating since I don't know if one of them knew of the others and I don't see any major differences between them (no spelling mistakes, art looks good on all of them, ...). I would initially have given 4 stars, maybe even 5, but that doesn't feel right anymore with three identical entries. I reduced my votes to 3 stars for the moment but I will think some more about it till the deadline tonight. It's a hard decision for me. Is someone willing to discuss how they are rating these cards and why?

I try to rate it like this: 1 star for balance, 1 star for aesthetics (perfect formatting, fitting art), 1 for creativity, and 1 star to be docked when one of those criteria is a spectacular fail (like horrible formatting and/or art, or blatantly OP/UP). That way, I can always keep a sense of fair rating without being overly harsh over a detail I dislike. How about you?

Quote From anchorm4n

I agree, most of the Rogue secrets don't appeal to me either. My favorites are Counter Shot, Saving Grace and Maternal Instinct in that order, they all got 5 stars from me. 

I'm not sure what to do about the "go dormant for 2 turns" issue. I will definitely give them all the same rating since I don't know if one of them knew of the others and I don't see any major differences between them (no spelling mistakes, art looks good on all of them, ...). I would initially have given 4 stars, maybe even 5, but that doesn't feel right anymore with three identical entries. I reduced my votes to 3 stars for the moment but I will think some more about it till the deadline tonight. It's a hard decision for me. Is someone willing to discuss how they are rating these cards and why?

I think I'll go down a similar route

The initial "Go Dormant for 2 turns" card I saw was rated 5 stars by me (I'm pretty sure it was Sleep Dart). I've left my original rating for that, solely because I thought it was, overall, a well executed card: good art, good flavour, good effect, fits nicely into Rogue, uses a new mechanic well, nuff said. Like you, I don't feel right about giving ALL the other entries a full 5 stars for a few reasons:

a) some of them lack the flavour/theme of Sleep Dart, and aren't refined in their wording/editing

b) although not everyone uses the discussion thread to check first, I don't think anyone should just assume their idea is completely original, and should check by at least going through the submissions, even if they don't vote

I've given the other "Go Dormant" cards between 1-3 stars depending on how much the capture the flavour of Rogue, although in future I probably won't vote on cards that have the same effect, so as to be more fair to the first submission.

Sorry for the word-wall, but hopefully you understand my reasoning!

P.S: Glad you liked Maternal Instinct ;)

I gave all of the "dormant for 2 turns" rogue secrets 1 star. Not necessarily because I think they are bad, when I saw the first one I gave it 4 stars. But I gave them all a low rating because I don't want any of those secrets to be the winner. If an idea is so obvious it got submitted four different times then it isn't creative enough to make it to the finals.

I was less disappointed in the number of Rogue Secrets with the same premise and more disappointed in the number of Rogue Secrets which were in an expansion that Rogue didn't get Secrets in, without taking that into account.

I gave any Rogue Secret that wasn't from Ashes or KnC (and couldn't work as a standalone Secret) 1 star. The expansion you put your card in is so important for flavour and balance, and it seems like a bunch of entries didn't consider it at all.

Quote From ShadowsOfSense

I was less disappointed in the number of Rogue Secrets with the same premise and more disappointed in the number of Rogue Secrets which were in an expansion that Rogue didn't get Secrets in, without taking that into account.

I gave any Rogue Secret that wasn't from Ashes or KnC (and couldn't work as a standalone Secret) 1 star. The expansion you put your card in is so important for flavour and balance, and it seems like a bunch of entries didn't consider it at all.

I think I'm a little more lenient with my watermark grading. For me, as long as the rogue secret wasn't in an expansion pre-KnC, it was acceptable. As long as rogue secrets existed in the game, I think it's interesting to think what a Rogue secret in other expansions would look like. 

The flavor is extremely important. Unless I can come up with a very good reason to stick a card in an existing expansion, I think it's best to go with a custom watermark.

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Quote From ShadowsOfSense

I was less disappointed in the number of Rogue Secrets with the same premise and more disappointed in the number of Rogue Secrets which were in an expansion that Rogue didn't get Secrets in, without taking that into account.

I gave any Rogue Secret that wasn't from Ashes or KnC (and couldn't work as a standalone Secret) 1 star. The expansion you put your card in is so important for flavour and balance, and it seems like a bunch of entries didn't consider it at all.

I think I'm a little more lenient with my watermark grading. For me, as long as the rogue secret wasn't in an expansion pre-KnC, it was acceptable. As long as rogue secrets existed in the game, I think it's interesting to think what a Rogue secret in other expansions would look like. 

The flavor is extremely important. Unless I can come up with a very good reason to stick a card in an existing expansion, I think it's best to go with a custom watermark.

It's interesting for sure, but if a Rogue Secret is for any other expansion than KnC or Ashes, that would make it the only Rogue Secret in Standard at some point in time. If it doesn't work as a standalone Secret, then it's badly designed to me.

I'm normally more lenient - an unfitting watermark would knock a star off, maybe - but when you can only design a single Secret, you have to consider how it would work in-game.

Good luck to all the finalists! It's nice to see a nice even representation between all the classes in the final round!

Rogue - 3 

Paladin - 3

Hunter - 2 

Mage - 2

Man, I thought for sure my card would make it to the finals :(

oh well, GL to the finalists! 

Quote From DestroyerR

Man, I thought for sure my card would make it to the finals :(

oh well, GL to the finalists! 

I thought yours would have too. It was one of the few cards I rated 4 stars this time. (which was the highest score I gave out this time, no card just hit that 5 star level to me)

Good luck to all the finalists! I was not happy with any of my ideas this time, so I didn't expect a great result. Let's hope next week works out better! 

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Quote From DestroyerR

Man, I thought for sure my card would make it to the finals :(

oh well, GL to the finalists! 

Maybe it looked too scary. If you play this late in the game when your opponent has a small hand, it comes close to being a 3 mana Time Warp. Of course the board isn't affected, but anyway... at least to my eyes it looks scary and a bit outlandish. I mean, having unplayable cards in hand because of an effect isn't something we're used to right now. Is there an example for this in the game? I can only imagine it might look like corrupted cards from that warlock watcher minion.

Good luck to all the finalists! And fingers crossed for my favorite this week, Counter Shot. Saving Grace should have made it, too, it was really a fair Ice Block with paladin flavor.

I suppose. I still think the card is balanced though, since very rarely your opponent has one play and nothing else, and even more rarely are they going to have that situation at the exact turn you have the secret up, meaning it would almost never be a “skip your turn” mechanic (not to mention the minions) while still retaining a high power level and being pretty useful most of the time. As for being outlandish, I thought that would make it more likable for the creativity, but it’s apparently TOO weird lol

And yeah, it would look something like corrupted cards, albeit with a different visual representation to differentiate the effects

Good luck to all! Voting has been made very difficult by such a strong pool of cards.

P.S.  @DestroyerR: I loved Alternate Reality, shame it didn't make it to the finals, though I'm sure you'll come up with something just as inspired next week!

Quote From linkblade91

Finalist voting is now open!

Any guesses as-to who's gonna win this one? I may be starting off in "first", but I don't think it'll stay that way :( My guess is Counter Shot.

i didnt like counter shot  i personally thought the wording was too complex 

as for who i think will win i think its either high noon or retaliating flame

I can't decide if I like Counter Shot or not. It is exactly like Freezing Trap but for spells, do I like it because it is simple and practical, or do I dislike it because it is uninspired and boring? I am leaning towards dislike because I don't think it fits Hunters theme to disrupt spells. Their secrets traditionally only deal with the board.

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Man, I thought for sure my card would make it to the finals :(

oh well, GL to the finalists! 

Maybe it looked too scary. If you play this late in the game when your opponent has a small hand, it comes close to being a 3 mana Time Warp. Of course the board isn't affected, but anyway… at least to my eyes it looks scary and a bit outlandish. I mean, having unplayable cards in hand because of an effect isn't something we're used to right now. Is there an example for this in the game? I can only imagine it might look like corrupted cards from that warlock watcher minion.

Good luck to all the finalists! And fingers crossed for my favorite this week, Counter Shot. Saving Grace should have made it, too, it was really a fair Ice Block with paladin flavor.

Aww! Thank you! It made my day to see my card is someone's favorite of the week! :)

I'm going to say it now, I really don't like Counter Shot, it's a 2 mana better Counterspell imo. I don't care if you say you get the spell back, not only do you waste mana, you also get a punishment on a really cheap spell you tested on or make a big finisher card unplayable. Not only that, you make your opponent take up more handspace that might want. You play this card in an aggro deck against spell mage with a full hand and they are forced to Flamestrike or Puzzlebox in order to survive and this happens. Then they burn a card after wasting 7 mana. Counterspell at least got rid of the card for space and allowed you to draw cards after playing the spell, this however is much more powerful and at 1 Mana less.

I agree with @Pokeniner, the balance certainly docked a star for me. In fact, I didn’t really like the complexity of the effect, it just felt a little forced. I didn’t dock another star for that to not be overly harsh, but I was considering it.

Bit still, the quality level is way over a lot of the initial submissions. In fact, I didn’t give any finalist less than 4 stars this time around, gj guys! 

pretty amazing set of finalists this week. most 4 star and i'm still trying to pick the 5 stars, think there will be 2. Was particularly impressed with the Paladin secrets, and I'd echo that Saving Grace might have been my fav if it made it. 

Quote From Pokeniner

I'm going to say it now, I really don't like Counter Shot, it's a 2 mana better Counterspell imo. I don't care if you say you get the spell back, not only do you waste mana, you also get a punishment on a really cheap spell you tested on or make a big finisher card unplayable. Not only that, you make your opponent take up more handspace that might want. You play this card in an aggro deck against spell mage with a full hand and they are forced to Flamestrike or Puzzlebox in order to survive and this happens. Then they burn a card after wasting 7 mana. Counterspell at least got rid of the card for space and allowed you to draw cards after playing the spell, this however is much more powerful and at 1 Mana less.

I don't understand this logic at all. The handspace issue is so minor as to not matter at all. The other situations you bring up sound ridiculous to me; surprisingly, if you needed to Flamestrike or Puzzle Box to survive, Counterspell would also prevent you from doing that.

It's probably one of the best designed Secrets I've ever seen someone come up with, and is the only card I gave 5 stars in the finals this time.

I find it ludicrous that you're somehow considering giving the opponent their spell back (albeit at a premium) this massive increase in power over a card which completely prevents them from ever playing the spell again. Like, sure, the fact that its a Hunter card and that its 2 mana, those are worth looking at to decide the balance; if it was a Mage Secret it'd just be worse Counterspell, while you seem to think it'd be better?

@ShadowsOfSense while I certainly don’t agree that it’s a better Counterspell, I think it’s much too good for its Cost, since 1) your opponent still wastes the mana, and 2) gets the spell back at a RAISED cost. Honestly, it would be not only more balanced, but also much more elegantly designed if it didn’t have the “costs (2) more” part

It doesn't feel anymore egregious than Freezing Trap to me, which while strong is not something I'd say needed changed. The fact that it's an obvious allusion to that makes it all the better, to me.

Quote From anchorm4n

Good luck to all the finalists! And fingers crossed for my favorite this week, Counter Shot. Saving Grace should have made it, too, it was really a fair Ice Block with paladin flavor.

I'm feeling the love :) I think Saving Grace just gave too many people Ice Block flashbacks for it to be universally well received. 

I'm really impressed with the finalists this week, Secrets are harder to design than most cards, and there's some really incredible ones here. Good luck everyone who made it!

Enjoying watching the fierce debate circling my card. Even if I don't win, I consider it a success!

congrats to linkblade winning the competition 

dont quote me on this but i think link is the second 2 time winner of  wcdc

My card went from second to second to last 😅 I wonder what dictates this kinds of things...

In any case, congrats linkblade. Keep submitting Paladin cards because it obviously works for you 😂

really looking forward to the next theme of this wcdc as we eneter our next 10 competitions

Congrats Linkblade!

Top 3 again! Oh well, back to the drawing board for the next one!

Congrats Linkblade on your 2nd victory!

So close! I was sure this week would be mine. Well, congrats Linkblade.

Looking at the transparency report, you had a fair amount of 1 star votes, and a fair amount of 5 star votes, but you had a lot of 4 star votes. I think your card won not because it really excited people, but because it was just too well balanced for people to really hate it. Even if it wasn't their favorite, they couldn't really find anything wrong with it. 

Is this thread broken? It keeps showing up in “recently commented on” for me