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D-A-M-A-G-E - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread

Competition Theme: D-A-M-A-G-E

Do we need to spell things out for you? We already did that in the competition name...

  • You must create a card which has or synergises with Spell Damage

Wassculaire is looking for us to improve some spells this week - what do you mean not all spells deal damage?

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, Jun 15 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Sat, Jun 20 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
  • Voting Phase: Starts on Sat, Jun 20 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Sun, Jun 21 16:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
  • Finalist Phase: Starts on Sun, Jun 21 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Mon, Jun 22 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: D-A-M-A-G-E

    Do we need to spell things out for you? We already did that in the competition name...

    • You must create a card which has or synergises with Spell Damage

    Wassculaire is looking for us to improve some spells this week - what do you mean not all spells deal damage?

    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, Jun 15 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Sat, Jun 20 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
    • Voting Phase: Starts on Sat, Jun 20 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Sun, Jun 21 16:00 EDT (GMT -0400)
    • Finalist Phase: Starts on Sun, Jun 21 17:00 EDT (GMT -0400). Runs until Mon, Jun 22 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.

  • I have two ideas: one that I printed for my custom expansion, and a rough draft I made up just now:

    • All Moonkins have Spell Damage +2, so mine does as well. It also gives your hero +2 Attack.
    • "Essence Drainer" is a rubbish name, and the effect might not be immediately obvious. If you have Spell Damage +1, Arcane Missiles would deal 4 and heal you 1; Greater Arcane Missiles would deal 12 and heal you 3, for another example. If you have more Spell Damage, you'll heal for more on top of the additional damage you deal. If anyone can phrase it better, I would be appreciative.
    • Essence Leecher is an alternative phrasing for the effect.
    Friendly

  • I have no idea how well this idea will be received, but here I go anyway.

    In other words, all of your spells deal exactly 5 damage.

    Friendly Staff

  • Three ideas, one I had on file, and the others just came up with:

    First Arcanist Thalyssra - Looked through random cards I made and came across this one which I made for the "Here's some art, make a card" thread. Probably won't submit this one, but always interesting to get feedback.

    Arcane Brilliance - Just came up with this and I'm pretty excited by the idea. I think it might need to be 3 mana though. Thoughts?

    Mana Droplet - Give Mage some good Spell Damage early in Elemental decks. 

    Feedback:

    Show Spoiler

    @linkblade91 - Out of the 3 I like Savage Moonkin the best. The other two just feel awkward to me, and I can't think of a better way to word it to have it feel less awkward. 

    @Demonxz95 - I'm not sold, but I like the creativity. Definitely not for 6 mana. Rapid Fire exists which would just be completely broken. 

  • I had 3 ideas so I made 3 cards and I think they're all legal I'm not really sure.

    Some explanations for my cards because I made them kinda weirdly.

    Show Spoiler
    Los: Say you had Malygos on board and used two fireballs he would then summon an 11/11 elemental

    SDPC: Simple enough whenever it would take damage from a spell it instead gains spell damage, so instead of dying to a frostbolt they get +1 spell damage

    MEGABLAST!: This is exactly what it says on paper every spell damage is like Malygos to this

  • In case I can't come up with anything I could just submit my entry from last week xD

  • So close yet so far to making finals ;-;  Well, on to the next contest!  Went a little gung-ho with legendary cards in my initial idea phase this time around because I discovered some cool Warcraft NPCs I'd never heard about and wanted to push them into HS.

    Grennan pushes Overload synergy without creating too much risk of degenerate one-shots (I think).  There aren't many cheap face-damage spells that you can chain off of him, assuming you are already Overloaded for a couple mana, but he might need a mana increase just in case.  His place in a deck would be to provide a mid-late game threat with the ability to especially utilize cheap removal Shaman sometimes gets, like Zap! or [Hearthstone Card (Bottled Lightning) Not Found].

    I have mixed feelings on Meryl.  Super love his art design and want to make a card of him, but I'm not in love with his design.  His card design is meant to push the control aspect of Warlocks spells while not opening avenues for more one-shot mechanics.  I personally hate OTK decks and really hate how my precious Supreme Archaeology has gone from fun meme time to another Malygos abusing OTK.  I know this doesn't help solve that problem, but it doesn't push it either.

    Cyanigosa is a character that I really enjoy and think has some very cool potential in this contest.  I wanted her to explicitly synergize with Malygos since she is one of his main supporters/lieutenants.  Although this version does synergize very well with Maylgos, her high cost makes it difficult to bring that synergy out.  That said, it would be quite the high-roll to get her and Malygos off of Conjurer's Calling.

    Here's to hoping that I can make into finals this time around!  I'll post feedback tomorrow after more cards are put up.

    EDIT: Put up a version of Merlyn that falls in line with the theme, since the original did not. Less sure about this one since he further facilitates some OTK nonsense, but we'll see how the feedback rolls.

  • Kirin Tor Chaincaster accumulates over the turn.  The second spell you cast gets spell damage +1, the third gets spell damage +2, and so on.

    Riptide gives healing that is affected by spell damage, which the Shaman class is designed to take advantage of.  Think of it as Shaman's own version of Arcane Blast. Still debating whether to make 1 or 2 mana.

    Feedback (in progess!)

    Show Spoiler

    linkblade91

    I like that Savage Moonkin can help protect itself, unlike other spell damage minions where you play and hope that they survive until the next turn.

    Essence Drainer reads weirdly to me because lifesteal is given to cards and hero powers, not abilities, and lifesteal in this case is only given to a portion of the damage dealt.  Essence Leecher doesn't make it clear to me that it only affects damage increased through spell damage, not all the damage dealt from the spell.  I thought it essentially gave your spells lifesteal at first.  The best ways I could think of are "Your damage from Spell Damage bonuses restores Health to your hero." or "Your bonus damage from Spell Damage restores Health to your hero."

    Show Spoiler

    Demonxz95

    I like it!  Maybe the spell damage wording isn't completely necessary, but it's elegant and I can't think of any interaction issues, rules-wise.  Double Moonfire is a scary though on turn 6.  I think I would raise its cost and stats or reduce the spell damage to 3 or 4.

    Xarkkal

    First Arcanist Thalyssra - There too much rng for my taste and the resurrection part does not feel like mage at all.  It's also probably op.

    Arcane Brillance - The I in improved should be in lowercase.  I like it at 2 mana because spell damage requires effort to build around and there needs to be enough payoff to run a spell damage based deck.  At 2, you could at least cycle it and it wouldn't be too bad.  At 3 mana, it compares very unfavorably to Unexpected Results, and you can expect +2/+2 worth of stats per spell damage, which is comparable (or slightly better) to drawing a card.

    Mana Droplet - This is what elemental decks need in order to control the board while giving options to keep the elemental chain going. Looks good to me!

    I would go either Arcane Brillance or Mana Droplet.  I like them both equally.

    MenacingBagel 

    I think the words Spell Damage has to be somewhere in the text for it to count, for what I'm reading.

    Los the Summoner: I'm not sure I understand this completely.  Does the elemental get +1/+1 for each damage that the spell damage adds to your spell? I made a prototype in the spoiler below from what I'm interpreting the card as doing. Feel free to correct me if I got it wrong.

    Show Spoiler

    The cat seems pretty cool.  I like that it provides insurance against some board clears, and that you can damage it multiple times with your own spells to build it up.  I think it could be bumped up to a 4/4.  Your opponent would try to avoid targeting it and use their minions and weapons, which the vast majority of decks do, so it should be easy to deal with.

    MEGABLAST! : I don't like this one as much as it either really weak at 1 or 6 damage or another version of Pyroblast that can kill your opponent out of nowhere which isn't very fun to be on the receiving end of.  You would want the text to match Arcane Blast, including bolding and capitalizing Spell Damage.

    I like the cat the most.

    BloodMefist

    Grennan Stormspeaker: Mana Crystals should be capitalized.  I like it because he act as a soft taunt during the turns when you're overloaded.  I don't think the mana cost should be raised because the effect is relevant only on turn 6 or later, and having more overloaded mana crystals means having less mana to be able to play any spells on the same turn.  The worst that could happen OTK-wise is a 10-mana Malygos.

    Meryl looks fine to me, but there are like what, 3 spells with lifesteal for warlock in the entire game?  The game also uses double bonus, not double benefit (Arcane Blast).

    You forgot the r in your in Cyanigosa. I get the concern, but I think you're focusing on Cyanigosa's interactions too much with Malygos.  She doesn't do anything by itself and requires other spell damage minions to get any benefit.  I don't see any reason why I would want to run this card except if I could cheat it out and Malygos reliably.  It's just too slow otherwise.  Maybe give her Spell Damage herself?

    My pick would be Grennan Stormspeaker

    • Quote From grumpymonk

      The I in improved should be in lowercase.

      I think this one can go either way. I've actually thought about the upper/lowercase a lot, and unfortunately, Blizzard has been inconsistent with the usage. The phrase has been used twice, on Unexpected Results and Demonic Forging. On the former, the pre-parenthesis text does not end with a period, so the "i" is lowercase, while the opposite is true on the latter. I'm assuming they felt the non-parenthesis text on Demonic Forging was long enough to warrant ending the sentence first. 

      Which brings me to my card. The phrase "Draw 1 card" has only been used on Galakrond, the Nightmare, which ended the phrase with a period even though additional text came next (including text with parenthesis). I took my queue from that and chose to add a period and capitalize the "I" in "Improved". I think really, it comes down to which version looks better. But maybe I should follow your advice and go with the lowercase "i" since people will think of Unexpected Results and assume I should copy that. 

      • Quote From Xarkkal
        Quote From grumpymonk

        The I in improved should be in lowercase.

        I think this one can go either way. I've actually thought about the upper/lowercase a lot, and unfortunately, Blizzard has been inconsistent with the usage. The phrase has been used twice, on Unexpected Results and Demonic Forging. On the former, the pre-parenthesis text does not end with a period, so the "i" is lowercase, while the opposite is true on the latter. I'm assuming they felt the non-parenthesis text on Demonic Forging was long enough to warrant ending the sentence first. 

        Which brings me to my card. The phrase "Draw 1 card" has only been used on Galakrond, the Nightmare, which ended the phrase with a period even though additional text came next (including text with parenthesis). I took my queue from that and chose to add a period and capitalize the "I" in "Improved". I think really, it comes down to which version looks better. But maybe I should follow your advice and go with the lowercase "i" since people will think of Unexpected Results and assume I should copy that. 

        Where is Demonic Forging from? The upcoming solo adventure that's coming out tomorrow?  I was going to say Unexpected Results is like that because its improved as opposed to upgrade, but it looks like either Blizzard can't make up their mind or Unexpected Results is the exception.

  • three ideas, as usual:

    isiset’s effect means that things like arcane intellect draws 3 cards, and anzu’s text counts himself.

    edit: i think i’ll make foxtrotter a 3/3 -> 4/4 instead

  • Current idea for helping Control Mage control the board. At the moment it would kill 2 random minions and give you a 2/5 Body with it's Current Spell Damage buff. The Spell Damage can also be used for later combo potential if it survives. Thoughts?

  • I have that idea of doing something that is dependend of your mana crystals. I hope it's not to close to BloodMefist's Shaman legendary... Here's my first try:

    So at 10 mana you could combo it with a Fireball to get a more complicated Pyroblast. This card shines when you manage to keep it alive for a turn (Frost Nova?)or in combination with a Kalecgos in play. It becomes bonkers if you hit it with Luna's in wild, but then, what isn't.

    How do you like it? I'll add feedback later, as usual. 

    • Quote From anchorm4n

      I have that idea of doing something that is dependend of your mana crystals. I hope it's not to close to BloodMefist's Shaman legendary... Here's my first try:

      So at 10 mana you could combo it with a Fireball to get a more complicated Pyroblast. This card shines when you manage to keep it alive for a turn (Frost Nova?)or in combination with a Kalecgos in play. It becomes bonkers if you hit it with Luna's in wild, but then, what isn't.

      How do you like it? I'll add feedback later, as usual. 

      Thanks for the feedback so far! Could someone explain to me why you are so concerned about OTKs? If the card is played at 10 mana, it gains Spell Damage +4. The worst you can do with the remaining 4 mana is to cast a Fireball for 10 damage - which would be the same as casting Pyroblast in the first place, safe for the body of course. That's actually the reason why I put it at 6 and not at 7, I wanted to keep it strong enough to be a threat. If your opponent can't deal with a 4 Health minion at 10 mana you probably deserve that win anyway. Sure, there is combo potential with freeze effects but even then it's susceptible to spells. Honestly I haven't ever seen a Malygos Mage deck worth mentioning and I just don't see any possible OTK in standard by a long way. You might be able to cast 2 fireballs for 20 damage with the help of Incanter's Flow, but that's veeeeery RNG dependent. What am I missing here?

  • I've got three cards that I'd appreciate y'all's thoughts on. 

    https://i.imgur.com/5EkSe6O.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/5DOuMQj.pnghttps://i.imgur.com/kOXYclC.png

    Lightning Aspect is my attempt to help cards like Spirit Claws and Flamewreathed Faceless work in the same deck. I settled on that cost and statline because having a minion meant to scale up be weak felt backwards, but having it be more expensive wouldn't work as well in the archetype. I'm still not too sure. 

    Enraged Sporemancer is a fun, flavorful Un'goro bit that could make cards like Evolving Spores and Lightfused Stegodon very powerful. It could be too much at 1 mana, though. Swipe with spell damage makes me shiver.

    Lightning Totem is my favorite of the lot, if only because it makes Totemic Smash useful and feels balanced. As usual with totems, it's great if it sticks and it isn't much if it doesn't. Copying it with Totemic Reflection or the weapon is absolutely a game-winner.

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    A question, since this is only my second one of these - what do the rating stars mean to y'all? What d'you think about when you make your decisions?

    Thoughts on cards I've got thotty thoughts on:

    Show Spoiler

    @DestroyR I love the idea behind Isiset, and I've always wanted to make a similar card that increases every number on the board by one, but I think it's too complicated and too powerful to be a realistic card. Foxtrotter, though, is great. Real cute Blink Fox energy <3 I prefer it as a 2-2, since you just have to assume it'll be played alongside Backstab, and a premium statline with an additional 3 damage is painful. I can totally imagine two of this cute fluffy boi being Shadowstep'd and played together as a mini Malygos, though. Being able to toss 4 spell damage on the board for 2 mana is scary stuff. Because of that, I think I prefer Anzu. It's also high on flavor and is less abusable while also being better on average. T4 him, T5 two other stealthbrats, Fan of Knives to deal 3 to the enemy board… even then, you could just sit back, leave him stealthed, and use Fan and Shiv to control and draw for face damage, but him being a legendary makes that easier to swallow.

    @grumpymonk Riptide is a neat idea, but I think it's a bit too convoluted. The card text feels clunky, and I can't imagine a control Shaman deck that runs enough spell damage to justify this over the other premium healing options. Kirin-Tor Chaincaster is the opposite, very polished but far too powerful. Imagine this in Cyclone Mage, in a Rogue that generates oodles of coins, or even just with Twin Slice - it would have to cost at least as much as 8 mana, because of Rogue. Six coins later, you've got a better Malygos. Even then, you could use it and a discounted [Hearthstone Card (Kael'thas) Not Found] in some juicy combos.

    @Xarkkal I like Arcane Brilliance. It seems pretty easy to draw 2 or 3 cards with it, but hard to draw more than 4, especially in the tempo-focused decks you'd want it in. I agree that there's definitely an argument to be made for it being 3 mana, though, so that it's not so easy to draw 2 cards for 2 with no drawbacks. I think it at 2 would be okay in the current game, but as a powerful buildaround primarily restricted by the card pool, it'd restrict the flexibility Team 5 would have while printing spell damage cards in the future. Mana Droplet is a cutie, but less flashy and probably too powerful. Elemental decks are consistent enough to view his text as just 'spell damage +2', which is too good for 2 mana. 

    Gosh, no wonder there aren't so many cards with spell damage. It gets real abusable real fast, huh?

  • Feedback time!

    Me0203:

    Show Spoiler
    I like Lightning Aspect the most effect-wise, the other two feel a little forced. That said, the flavor is a bit off since there's no lightning in the art.

    Pokeniner:

    Show Spoiler
    I like your idea, but it doesn't feel right in Mage. Hard removal isn't part of their class identity. Warlock probably would be the class to go to, but then it might be too close to Keli'dan the Breaker… I'll think some more abiout it.

    DestroyerR:

    Show Spoiler
    I really like Anzu! Rogue loves some spell damage and you've paired it well with the stealth archetype. I'd wait until some of the card design veterans evaluate if it's OP, but to me it looks great!

    grumpymonk:

    Show Spoiler
    Kirin Tor Chaincaster is the better idea in my eyes, I imagine exploiting this with Rogue or Mage could be fun. Cool card!

    BloodMefist:

    Show Spoiler
    I'd go with Grennan or Meryl. Grennan looks a little more like a card that might actually be printed in real life HS. I agree about bumping the cost a bit.

    MenacingBagel:

    Show Spoiler
    Sorry, I'm not convinced by any of them. MEGABLAST! looks the most interesting out of the three of them. You should put a period at the end of your first sentence.

    Xarkkal:

    Show Spoiler
    Arcane Brilliance and Mana Droplet look really great! I wouldn't mind the spell at 2, the obvious card to compare it to being Arcane Intellect. Arcane Brilliance needs a setup and a little power creep is okay. The Droplet is super cute, a strong card with great synergies (Flame Geyser) and well balanced. Wouldn't know which one to pick.

    Demonxz95:

    Show Spoiler
    Sorry, I don't like it.

    linkblade91:

    Show Spoiler
    I prefer Essence Drainer. It's an interesting effect that fits the art well. That said, it could also be a Warlock card. It reminds me of Blood-Queen Lana'thel.

  • This is my idea. Idea is she balances Spell Damage to also buff minions, not only spells, so she evens the scales :). Fits with new the more midrange-ish identity of priest and with the theme of buffing. Maybe this will make zoo/aggro priest a thing.

  • DestroyerR

    Show Spoiler

    Isiset reads likes a tautolgy lol.  I didn't get the effect until I read the description.  Maybe it could be worded as "Other numbers in the text of your spells are increased by Spell Damage."

    I like Foxtrotter, though the amount of sap effects and damaging spells in Rogue are limited.

    The same goes for Anzu, and it also counts your opponent's stealthed minions, which I'm not sure I would have done.

    Pokeniner

    Show Spoiler
    Interesting card.  I think it should "destroy 1 enemy minion" to make it clear what the spell damage affects.  Destroying minions directly is a little weird in mage as opposed to dealing lots of damage.

    anchorm4n

    Show Spoiler

    I like that you can play the card on turn 10 and play another spell directly afterwards in exchange for a more expensive minion compared to Bloodmefist's Shaman legendary.

    Me0203

    Show Spoiler

    Lightning Aspect seems pretty balanced to me. You have to play several cards to get a benefit, and it has not quite premium stats otherwise. 

    Enraged Sporemancer has an interesting triggered effect!  I don't know how it fares balance-wise.

    Lightning Totem also benefits from your opponent's totems, and vice versa.  I'm not sure that makes for the best gameplay.

    As for my star ratings, I try to look for a combination of flavor, innovative mechanics, grammar, and balance.  I used to give exactly one star for each, but it resulted in a lot of 3s and not a lot of 1s or 5s, so I got more on my gut feeling than anything else, though I kept all of those elements in mind.  I don't find myself paying attention to the watermark - I just don't seem to notice them very much.  I find myself putting submissions I like at 4 or 5 stars, ones that I find okay as 3 stars, and ones I'm not a big fan of as 1 or 2 stars.

    1-star - I don't give out many of these, usually 3 or 4 at most per week.  There are significant problems and the card can't be salvaged in my opinion.  Usually, I don't understand what the card does at all, there a lot of grammar mistakes, or the card is confusing enough that the card ends up with 5 or more lines of text.  Or something silly like a 4 mana secret (no disrespect to anyone who might have submitted that). 

    2-star - There's some potential, but the card would have to be changed significantly.  I usually think these cards are "meh".  There's might be an interesting idea buried somewhere, but the card is grossly miscosted, or would not play out very well.

    3-star - There some things I like about the card, some that I don't like.  I end up giving the highest amount of submissions each week to this.  Sometimes, I'm not sure what the think of about a card, so I just give it this rating.  Usually, my thought is that the card is interesting, but there are problems with the execution.

    4-star - I usually give this rating out to cards that I find interesting and do something that could work as an actual Hearthstone card.  There might be some minor issues here and there.

    5-star - These submissions stick out to me, because I find them very interesting mechanically and flavorfully, and are reasonably balanced.  I think I should be it a bit more generous with these, I give out only 3 or 4 each week.

    BasilAnguis

    Show Spoiler
    I like it. My only concern is that Priest doesn't have too many options for spell damage outside of board clears, so decks running this would need to run a lot of spell damage minions that aren't very good if you haven't drawn this card.

  • Would this be more interesting/better if it was only +1/+1 but would repeat once for each spell damage you had? Would it thematically be a better fit in Descent of Dragons or Rise of Shadows, since those are better suited for Spell Damage?

    Will post feedback as soon as I have time to formulate something.

  • So, here is my feedback! Let me apologize in advance for any unclear wording,english is not my first language.

    @linkblade91:

    Show Spoiler
    Savage Moonkin – good concept, art and stats are fine, but do you only gain the attack if you gain Attack anyway, or do you start the turn with +2 Attack?

    The Essence Drainer/Leacher cards are weird. They’d be a better fit in Shaman or in Warlock, as neutrals they are too strong. But the first wording is better, while I like the second name more.

    @Demonxz95:

    Show Spoiler
    arecgosa- interesting idea, but it’s too strong. An Arcane Explosion would be a better Flamestrike while also leaving a body one board.  And maybe change the statline to something more dragonly?

    @Xarkkal:

    Show Spoiler
    Thalyssra- looks a lot like Solarion Prime, and the resurrect effect doesn’t fit mage.

    Arcane Brillance- nice and simple, would promote including spell damage cards.

    Mana Droplet – the cutest card yet, and quite interesting. But I’d reduce the spell damage or the health by 1, since right now it is just a fully stated tribal card with potential strong benefits.

    @MenancingBagel:

    Show Spoiler
    Los The Summoner- what does it do?! Maybe use the word Spell Damage somewhere, and change the capitalization. 

    Sdpc- Somewhat comparable to Spellzerker, but the effect is not worth a legendary rarity, since it is easy to clear and you’d have to invest your own spells to ramp up the spell damage.

    MEGABLAST!- A good looking finisher. But I think it would still be fair if it only cost 9, most Spell Damage cards are easy to clear.

    @TheHoax91

    Show Spoiler
    Felo’melorn- beautiful art and a strong and unique effect, well worth the mana, BUT: Mages can’t use weapons, there is the keyword Overkill, and Spell Damage is always coupled with a card on the field. You can’t have Spell Damage on this weapon if the weapon is already broken, so the effect should read: Your spells additionally deal the excess damage this turn only.

    @BloodMefist

    Show Spoiler
    Grennan Stromspeaker- Nice and simple, seems fair I guess?

      Meryl Felstorm- a good card for a control warlock, but potentially to good, since it mitigates the problem of warlocks- life as a finite resource.

    Cyanigosa- Nope. Nice theme, good fit in the set, but this seems absurdly strong. If you manage to have just one or two spell damage, this wins you the game.  There is a reason that Kirin Tor Tricaster makes your spells more expensive.

    @grumpymonk:

    Show Spoiler
    Kirin Tor Chaincaster- looks balanced and polished.

    Riptide- I’d take the second one, it’s more in line with Holy Light , and maybe even reduce the healing to 5, since it can scale. But the wording is somewhat complicated, alas I don’t see how you could make it more clear.

    @DestroyerR

    Show Spoiler
    Isiset-due to the weird effect which is not intuitive but probably insanely strong, I’d reduce the statline, to make it somewhat fair. You could also change the watermark to Uldum.

     Foxtrotter – cute, but I don’t see a place for him.

    Anzu,the Dark Watcher-nice theme, looks like an interesting build around, but maybe place it in Outland?

    @Pokeninger:

    Show Spoiler
    Akira, Arcane Breaker- great effect, seems fair and playable, makes an interesting build around for a control and greedy mage.

    @anchorm4n:

    Show Spoiler

    @anchorm4n : Shard Mage- It’s very strong, and should probably be an epic from a strong expansion. +4 Spell Damage seems too much, if you can combo it with a spell the same turn.  While the idea in principle is good, the immediate effect is more powerful then Malygos’. You could change the price to 7, or make it a druid card, maybe a moonkin, with battlecry: At the end of your turn, gain Spell Damage +1 for each of your unspent Mana Crystals.

    @Me0203:

    Show Spoiler
    Lightning Aspect- Seems fair, I especially like the ‘after’, while it could still make some spell/overload shaman builds viable. Maybe change the art to something more Un Goro like, this looks more like witchwood.

    Enraged Sporemancer – while this is a fair and fun effect, I believe there are too few Adapt Cards to make this work. Also, the card art and name don’t fit in Ungoro at all, since there are no Sporelings there.

    Lightning Totem: Strong effect, at least it is not even cost, but I’d suggest reducing the health by 1 or 2.

    @BasilAnguis:

    Show Spoiler
    Cleric of Scales- I don’t see this. Priest has no Spell Damage at all, and this is a powerhouse which synergizes with herself, basically a 3 Mana 3 /4 which gives all friendly minions +1/+1  and it even has Spell Damage! While I appreciate your pun, I also think that the art doesn’t look like a dragon and any tribe synergy here is too much.

    -----------------------------------------------------

     

    A question, since this is only my second one of these - what do the rating stars mean to y'all? What d'you think about when you make your decisions?

    @Me0203: I also find this quite interesting, and would like other people to tell us about their method to determine a star ranking.

    I myself am generous with my stars, if a card seems fair and somewhat pleasant to look at, I give 4 stars. The most important aspect for me is realism, or could this card be printed - if that isn't a given because of an unclear or overly strong effect, I deduct a lot of stars. Flashy isn't always better, being overpowered or being a legendary if epic or rare would suffice, makes me deduct a star, while being somewhat weak won't, not untill it's blatantly worse than a real unplayable card. To get 5 stars, the card should either tell a little story, or  it's just well done while being a good fit in the set and having nice art and somewhat logical wording.

    I'm also a sucker for flavour text, and I give lower ratings if the image is mostly showing off attractive female body parts - this isn't a valid strategy, while also not fitting in Hearthstone as it is today.

  • Here is what I came up with. I still need a name, but aside from that what do you think?

    Is it clear what this does? If not, does anybody know of a better way to word it?

    Friendly

  • Shadowform, but for mages:

  • Wanted to create a build around combo card in line with Star Aligner. The set up does require 4 minions total (since Arcane Reaper does not have spell damage) and at least 12 mana at the cheapest. The effect is pretty ridiculous but felt like the ability to line everything up was so difficult, you could have some ridiculous payoff. Note it's only minions and not face so would be more of an attrition combo than an OTK.

    Feedback

    Show Spoiler

    @linkblade91 - Love the design of Savage Moonkin and think it's the better of the two options.

    @Demonxz95 - Agree with some other comments that it needs to cost more than 6. Thinking 7 is the better spot but the Rapid Fire on turn 10 for 15 scares the hell out of me.

    @Xarkkal - Love the idea of Arcane Brilliance and seems balanced. But looking at this makes me realize how busted Battle Rage is still.

    @MenancingBagel - Like the second card the most but don't know if it needs to cost 4. Could be wrong but feel like with the health total at 3, it could cost 3 since its easy to trade into on the board. That just might be me thinking the effect is situational and could be completely off base with the power level of it.

    @TheHoax91 - Liked the idea last week and still like it here. 

    @BloodMefist - The idea of Cyanigosa is the best but feel like the effect is a little weak for 9 mana and an on board effect. Compare it to Kalecgos: for one more mana you get value and an even better effect. Either make Cyanigosa a battlecry effect or lower the mana cost.

    @grumpymonk - Like Riptide more but feel like triple the amount is tad excessive for the 1 mana option since Shaman can get a spell damage minion easily off the hero power. Maybe double for the 1 mana option or both. Compare this to Healing Wave and you see how strong this is cause you have more control over having a spell damage minion on board and get more healing.

    @DestroyerR - Foxtrotter needs to be the 3/3 and 4/4 option. My favorite of your designs is Anzu but a stealth spell damage is scary for some classes (how would a Druid deal with this minion ever?).

    @Pokeniner - Think it's really good and not much to say on it. Would feel having this submitted as is.

    @anchorm4n - Read it wrong at first and thought it worked like Forbidden cards and took the rest of the mana and was not on board. But now realizing that it just takes into account remaining mana, think it's a fair card that could be printed.

    @Me0203 - LIghtning Totem for reasons we need more totem cards and would be really good addition to totem Shaman.

    @BasilAnguis - Card is perfectly fine as is but agree with others that Priest seems like a hard class to fit spell damage into unless it became a new archetype that was pushed.

    @Elfensilver - Like it and think it's fine as 2/1. 1/1 I think would make it not worth the set up but like I said, Shaman is the easiest class to get spell damage in.

    @KANSAS - Feel like the card is balanced and would be ran for sure in spell heavy Shaman decks.

    @Fedrion - Seems balanced but may want to find another artwork as the poor guy seems like the card is crushing him :) 

  • Feedback:

    Show Spoiler
    @Linkblade91, I like Savage Moonkin better. Though I do think he is too expensive to see play. I would maybe make him 2/4 mana and also reduce his stats and possibly change the Spell Damage to +1. Basically, if he were all-around a bit smaller he would probably be better in a token style deck that could use him to secure the board early on. 

    @Demonxz95, I don't know what to think about this. I doubt this would be used anywhere except OTKs, but I can't think of any OTKs that would use this over [Hearthstone Card (Maylgos) Not Found]. It is a very interesting idea, but I have no idea how it would work out if it were printed.

    @Xarkkal, I like Arcane Brilliance best because drawing cards is awesome and I would love to have more incentive to play Spell Damage cards (btw I think 2 mana is fine. Spell Damage has never really been that good, so I think it is fine making it a bit above average). I like Mana Droplet second because I admire simplicity. Then First Archivist Thalyssra least because I admire simplicity. She isn't a bad card, just not my cup of tea. In general though, all of your cards look pretty solid. I can't think of anything to fix.

    @MenacingBagel, I like your Dumb Placeholder Cat the best (though it could use a new name and art). I would make it a 3/5 though, or maybe a 3/4 and an epic. As a 4 mana 3/3 it is just too easy to remove. If you are looking for ideas for the flavor of the card, you could find some art of a magical animal and name it something along the lines of "Magic Eater" or "Spell Devourer" or something like that (I am bad at coming up with names too).

    @TheHoax91, Don't submit a card you have already submitted. Unless the context for the card has changed significantly, it probably won't do much better than it did last week. 

    @BloodMefist, Grennan is interesting, but 5 mana is kind of a lot when you consider the fact that you also need to spend extra mana with Overload stuff. And by turn 8-10, a 4/5 with Spell Damage +3 isn't too exciting. Maybe if it was a 3 mana 2/5 or something? Meryl Felstorm is interesting, but I don't know if the effect is worth being Legendary. Cyanigosa is also a pretty neat idea, but it requires too much setup. All around you have some pretty good ideas, but they could all use a bit of tweaking before you submit anything.

    @grumpymonk, I prefer Kirin Tor Chaincaster. I would change the wording to "After you cast a spell, gain Spell Damage +1 this turn only." to make it a bit smoother. There isn't really anything incorrect with how it is worded, I just like to nit-pick about these things.

    @DestroyerR, All of your cards look good. I like Isiset the best, though she does feel a little odd. Foxtrotter is my second favorite, I would find some other art though for the second version. It took me a while to realize that the second one looks happier than the first. And I also think giving them both +1/+1 is a good idea.

    @Pokeniner, The one thing I don't like is that right off the bat it kills 2 enemy minions by itself. That is totally fine from a balance perspective, but the card looks like it should only kill one minion by itself. Only after reading the card and thinking for a moment do you realize the synergy it has with itself. I would remove the Spell Damage and make it just say "destroy 2 random enemy minions" or maybe keep it at one and also reduce the cost.

    @anchorm4n, I don't think it card is going to work out. Unless you make it 7 mana, it will work just like a 6 mana Malygos and create too many un-fun OTKs. It isn't a bad idea in theory, but in practice I don't think it would be good for the game.

    @Me0203, I like Lightning Totem the best, but I would either give it Spell Damage +1, or make it include itself so that it is a bit easier to use. Lightning Aspect is a very close second. Shaman has a lot of spells that both deal damage and have overload, so I really like the synergy there. I don't like Enraged Sporemancer just because the ability feels so obscure and random. About the rating system, I usually just look at a card and give it an amount of stars based on my first impression, then I will think about things like balance, creativity, grammar and punctuation, and also anything that I think could have been done a bit better and I will take or add stars based on that.

    @BasilAnguis, The only Priest deck that has ever appealed to me was that zoo/buff/aggro Priest that was never really a thing. So I applaud your card.

    @Elfensilver, Wonderful card. It is simple and effective. It looks like a real card Blizzard would print. It looks like a lot of fun to play and powerful enough to make me consider building a Spell Damage based deck. 5/5 stars, beautiful. (don't get too excited, this is just my opinion, see what other people have to say).

    @Fedrion, First off, don't forget to make a token for the Hero Power. Also, I would make it 3 mana. At 4 mana it is probably too slow to be good. But I do really like the card. This is the kind of card we would need to have to make a "spell damage" deck real.

    Cg8889, I don't really like this card, but I like the combo-style thing with Spell Damage. Dealing damage to minions in your opponents deck and hand is both really OP, and also probably not something we will ever see made in Hearthstone, so I would deduct points for being unrealistic. I like the condition, but no the effect.

    Friendly

  • I might not go with Tarecgosa since I don't feel like I can really make the card the way I want to whilst fixing the Rapid Fire problem at the same time.

    I also have quite a bit of feedback to catch up on it seems.

    Friendly Staff

  • I'm gonna start writing feedback now, but until then... how pissed are you going to be at me for making a Rager?

    Friendly Staff

  • Looking for feedback. I"m currently working on a blood elf lore article, so this stuff is on my mind. Wording and effect inspired by Lightspawn to reflect gaining magic power from other magic creatures. 

  • Alright, so now feedback time.

    Show Spoiler

    Linkblade - Slight confusion of the effect aside, Essence Leecher/Drainer is probably the better of the cards. I'd go with Leecher since that one has better wording.

    Xarkkal - Thalyssra's effect seems a bit random. The Mage spell part is fine, but the resurrection effect doesn't really seem to fit. It just ends up looking like asparagus in a fruit bowl. Arcane Brilliance I'd say can probably stay at 2 mana since it's rare to have more than one Spell Damage up a time, and it requires you to have Spell Damage in there at all. Mana Droplet seems really cute, and I like it.

    MenacingBagel - All your cards seem really… weird. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it does carry some burdens. Los the Summoner has some incorrect grammar and the effect is a bit unconventional in design, but I don't hate it. Some Dumb Placeholder Cat has an interesting take on spell negation, although I feel like the effect might be too polarizing and "risky". MEGABLAST! is cute, although it's hard to use since it's hard to get Spell Damage up for multiple turns to use it well.

    TheHoax91 - A Mage weapon is a little weird, which is where I feel like it might get downvotes (yes, I realize Aluneth exists, but that's a bit of a different story). Beyond that, the effect seems fine enough.

    BloodMefist - Grennan has a cool condition. It might be able to get too much Spell Damage out, although that requires a lot of Overload and a lot of setup, so it might be fine. Meryl Firestorm has a cool effect, although in the context of RoS, Warlock wouldn't have any Lifesteal spells rendering the second effect useless. Cyanigosa is hard to use since Spell Damage is hard to stick.

    Grumpymonk - Kirin Tor Chaincaster has the potential to scale quickly, although I don't think it's going to be problematic. Riptide is my favorite of your cards. Either version works, although the first version is stronger and I don't think is OP.

    DestroyerR - I understand what you're trying to do with Isiset, but the effect should probably be reworded to reflect the ability better. Foxtrotter is pretty cute and strong, and I'm surprised neither Spell Damage nor the condition has been utilized by Blizzard in Rogue. Anzu is another intersting take. The Stealth allows it to stick around better, although I feel like using Malygos is probably just easier to accomplish the same thing.

    Pokeniner - It should read "Destroy 1 random enemy minion" with the number 1 to indicate that it's improved by Spell Damage. Beyond that, I don't have a problem with the card.

    Anchorm4n - I know Wild Mages would try to abuse this with Luna's Pocket Galaxy. It's cool though. Able to make large Spell Damage minions worth it.

    Me0203 - Lightning Aspect is cool and simple enough, although it doesn't feel like an Epic to me, and it also looks like it should be an Elemental. Enraged Sporemancer has a really creative ability, although it could potentially be problematic with Evolving Spores. On the bright side, it would make Galvadon better… if only Paladin had good damage spells. Lightning Totem is missing the Totem tag, and I would probably pick different art since it's really obvious that it uses the same art as Primal Fusion. I'm not sure about it having Attack either since Attack on Totems don't really work except in specific situations like Totem Golem.

    BasilAnguis - I know someone already brought it up on Discord, but name, Cleric of Scales is already taken. The effect also might be overtuned since it's basically a 3 mana 3/4 with Spell Damage and gives your board a passive Mark of the Lotus.

    Elfinsilver - Creative, although I'm not really sure how well the effects mix together.

    KANSAS - The effect does make sense, although I definitely think it can be 1 or maybe even 0.

    Fedrion - An interesting idea, and I like the usage of the cut art (which I realize probably wasn't inentional, but I still like it regardless).

    Cg8889 - I appreciate how bold it is, but I don't feel like it'll be too well received.

    GoliathTheDwarf - A nice idea on paper, and I like the connection to Mana Wyrm in the art. In practice, I feel like this is usually going to be just a 2 mana 1/4 with Spell Damage +1. Now that isn't bad, in fact that actually might be playable in Ranked, but it's not the most exciting in the world either.

    Friendly Staff

  • Here's my idea:

    This card would make Spell Damage mage more consistent by making the Spell Damage bonus also improve your Hero Power's damage. To compensate for this, the Hero Power can now only target minions, which helps balance the card and prevent potential OTKs.

  • Thanks for the feedback guys!

    Final form of the card plus tokens.

     

    • Quote From Fedrion

      Thanks for the feedback guys!

      Final form of the card plus tokens.

       

      The Hero Power should say "Passive Hero Power" since it is a passive.

      And actually, Passive Hero Powers weren't used in collectible cards until KotFT, although since they did exist in Naxxramas in boss encounters, I suppose I can't be extremely picky since the idea was obviously there.

      Friendly Staff

      • The idea of the HP came directly from Shadowform, and since it was a Classic card, I thought the idea of Spell Damage in mage should've been tinkered and exploited better by Blizz in the Classic set, since they always print some SD card in every expansion, but they never give it some sticky form of maintaining the archetype.

        And the art of Rune of Power is Arcane Blast from the WoWTCG, I used to main a mage in a pirate server, and Arcane was my primary spec lol

  • I changed my cards based on feedback, so thank you for that :)

    • I made Enraged Moonkin slightly cheaper, but I think that's as far as I can go. Darkmire Moonkin is quite expensive, and this is that plus an additional upside (I made him cost 6 for a reason lol :P). Both existing Moonkins have Spell Damage +2, so I'm not reducing the bonus.
    • Essence Leecher is now a Warlock card, as some have suggested. I am also using grumpymonk's wording; thank you for the suggestion.

    I'll start writing up some return feedback.

    Friendly

  • Since my other idea seems divisive and won't be reacted to positively, decided to come up with another idea:

    Another finisher type card but one that takes a full game to play towards and could be a nice finisher for a control Mage shell. Let me know what you all think of this idea. Thanks!

    • Quote From Cg8889

      Since my other idea seems divisive and won't be reacted to positively, decided to come up with another idea:

      Another finisher type card but one that take a full game to play towards and could be a nice finisher for a control Mage shell. Let me know what you all think of this idea. Thanks!

      This card unfortunately breaks an unwritten rule that cards cannot have 5 lines of text.

      It won't get you disqualified, but it is frowned upon.

      Friendly Staff
      • Quote From Demonxz95
        Quote From Cg8889

        Since my other idea seems divisive and won't be reacted to positively, decided to come up with another idea:

        Another finisher type card but one that take a full game to play towards and could be a nice finisher for a control Mage shell. Let me know what you all think of this idea. Thanks!

        This card unfortunately breaks an unwritten rule that cards cannot have 5 lines of text.

        It won't get you disqualified, but it is frowned upon.

        Dropped the Spell Damage and gave her +1/+1. Figure the stat line isn't as much the card as the effect is.

  • Aight, some new revisions/ideas to throw out there.

    Made Grennan a bit bulkier so that he works better as a proactive play.  Got mixed feedback on his cost, but I think I'm pretty happy with where he stands in terms of cost flexibility.  As a note/reminder, he doesn't just work with mana overloaded last turn, so cheap cards that overload can also increase his potency.  Is it enough to make Dust Devil good?  Probably not, but its something.

    I tuned Meryl into an epic from a set/flavor that makes more sense for the effect.  Warlocks only had 1 Lifesteal spell at KofT release, but quickly got another one in KnC.  He also synergizes with Defile from KofT, allowing two sets of boosted damage waves.  The odd-cost also means that he isn't abusable in even-warlock, which came out a couple sets later.  I know the Lifesteal part of his effect is still very niche, but I think that's fine considering a 3 mana 4/3 spell damage +1 is already a decent card.

    Cyanigosa and her effect didn't make the cut, so I moved on to an different idea.  I liked the flavor of Arcane Watcher and wanted to invoke the idea of a construct defending mages.  A bit shaky on the size of the attack buff and 7 health, but I think the condition and inability to abuse it with silence effects warrants it.

    Feedback time! Done with entries up to bigcums!

    Show Spoiler

    linkblade91: Really like the idea of Enraged Moonkin, but I think it needs to be clarified on whether or not the attack bonus applies on the opponent's turn too.  As it stands, opponents hitting your face will take at least 2 damage since your hero gains attack from spell damage on their turn too.  On a more minor note, I think the art or the name should be changed to better fit the other.  The art doesn't give me an 'Enraged' vibe.  Also dig Essence Leacher.  I thought about making a similar effect, but with armor in Mage, but went with my own take on a 3 mana Warlock spell damage minion.  Essence Leacher can lead to some serious healing capabilities with spells like Rain of Fire or Dark Skies, which is something to be a bit wary of.  Maybe increase the cost and stats to lower its swing potential.  Overall, both solid entries.

    Demonxz95: Your original Tarecgosa unfortunately will never work out.  It limits design space in making cheap damaging spells to too great a degree.  I could see the rager existing as a real printed card, but I don't think anyone will vote it very highly.

    Xarkkal: Thalryssa's effect isn't especially eye-catching, its a generic rez and random spell casting.  It doesn't interact wit Spell Damage in any interesting way and feels a bit out of place in this contest.  Arcane Brilliance is a concept I've seen before, but I still think it's pretty near.  Mana Droplet wins it for me though.  He is so darn cute and its a nifty effect that synergizes with the direction Elementals have in Mage (as in casting small spells).  

    MenacingBagel: I like that you went the direction of Spell Siphoner, definitely the winner from the original three concepts.  I really like the effect since it has immunity to symmetrical board damages, such as Hellfire. However, I worry that its health might be a bit too high.  5 health is standard on 4 drops, but its immunity to spell damage makes it significantly harder for some decks to deal with, especially if you then hide it behind a taunt.  I think it could be lowered to 4 health and be fine.

    TheHoax91: Not a huge fan of reusing the same concept from last contest, people will be looking for new and creative ideas.  Spell Damage and weapons have plenty of room for interesting interactions, but don't reuse the same idea.

    grumpymonk: Chaincaster scares me in how easily it can be abused by certain classes.  Rogue and Mage could stack him up super high and then burst for insane amounts of damage.  I definitely like Riptide and think the 2 mana version would be the best way to go since it is less likely to be abused by other effects.  However, I think it should be re-named to something that more fits the effect.  A riptide calls to mind violent and disruptive effects, which this card is the exact opposite of.

    DestroyerR: Not a fan of Isiset since it is very unclear how some cards will interact with her.  Would Frost Nova freeze for extra turns? Would Polymorph target additional random minions, or make the sheep larger since the sheep stats are the only printed numbers on the card?  Anzu scares me a bit since it encourages uninteractive gameplay and mechanics.  I am also hesitant about Spell Damage in Rogue just because of how much burst they can push with just a little bit of a boost.  That said, I think Foxtrotter is a great design.  I love the flavor of it benefiting from trotting around (bouncing back to hand) and think it works really well with Rogues' identity.  Still a bit worried about Spell Damage in Rogue, but Foxtrotter requires a lot of investment to get it going, so its probably fine.

    Pokeniner: Assuming it destroys 2 minions on play since it has its own spell damage, it is already quite strong and gets substantially stronger with relatively little investment.  It also feels like a card that you run in almost any mage deck, since its baseline is really powerful removal even without building around it.  Direct removal also feels out of place in Mage since they usually deal with threats via raw damage.  

    anchorm4n: This card scares the hell out of me.  It opens up some serious potential for very powerful burst or removal options.  Yes, Fireball on 10 becomes a Pyroblast, but Frostbolt becomes a directed 7 damage, Magic Missiles becomes a 1 mana deal 7 randomly split, and any other small spells get boosted through the roof. It can be read as a 6 mana 5/4 Spell Damage +4, which compares very favorably to Malygos.

    Me0203: Lightning Aspect is over-tuned big time.  It has very premium defensive stats for something that is a growing threat and its cheap cost allows for some potentially crazy burst combos.  I like the idea of Sporemancer, but I can't think of a single deck that would ever even consider running it.  It might get crazy with Druid's Adaptive Spores, but I don't see much outside of that niche use.  Lightning Totem is way over statted, 6 health is really hard to get rid of on turn 3 and it also represents a growing threat.  I think Lightning Totem is the most compelling since it pushes Totems in an interesting directions, but it needs to be tuned down a bit.

    BasilAnguis: This card is nutso strong.  A Stormwind Knight aura on a 3 drop, but it can be improved and scales spells too is way too much.  It's even stronger since it's aura also benefits itself, making it a 3/4 the turn it comes out.  Neat idea, but it needs some serious cost/stat tuning.  

    Elfensilver: I like the suggestion you make better, as a +1/+1 that scales with Spell Damage.  As for set, I think DoD works better since Shaman actually had some Spell Damage printed.  It also works a bit better flavor wise since it could have been Boom that supplied the Tesla coils, which feel out of place in RR.

    Kansas: An interesting take on hand-buff, moving it to effect spells instead of minions.  Not a flashy card by any means, but I think it is well balanced.  Cards like this always concern me a bit in that it facilitates potential for OTK shenans, with little interaction, but Shaman is lacking in direct damage atm, so its fine.

    Fedrion: Not a fan of this.  It has little to no interaction with the opponent and encourages a very passive playstyle where the mage stalls with either freeze or their newly empowered board clears to get combo pieces and OTK the opponent with big spell damage. 

    Cg8889: Arcane Reaper had an interesting payoff for Spell Damage, but damaging everything in hand/deck is way too much.  Just hitting the board is already very strong.  Aegwynn is bonkers strong.  Solarion has a similar effect, but is entirely random and is way slower.  Some Fireballs and Frostbolts, a Blizzard or two, and whatever other damaging spells you want makes an almost guaranteed board clear and maybe even an OTK.  Even if you play her on curve after Flamestriking last turn she's pretty good.

    GoliathTheDwarf: Really dig this card.  Fits the Blood Elf flavor really well and makes for interesting build-around/payoff for stacking spell damage.

    CursedParrot: Big fan of this card, almost made a similar card for the Hero Power contest a while back.  Wish I could say more on the card, but I like it the way it is now.  Maybe reduce the health to 4 since it is giving a good effect, but I think it's fine to print either way.

    bigcums: Arcane Affiliation is an effect I've seen before and one that I'm not too interested in.  Library Golem on the other hand has great flavor and provides interesting synergy with Spell Damage. I also think it is balance fairly well, since it takes 2 Spell Damage to become good and 4+ to become nuts.  It feels a bit bad as a win-more card, but I still like it a lot.

  • So I buffed SDPC and removed the name SDPC and replaced it with an actual guy. I'll try to make some feedback if I find the time.

  • Feedback!

    Show Spoiler

    Fedrion - As Demon noted, it should say "Passive Hero Power" on the tokens. I see that you fixed it in your Submission. Good. Other than that, it looks complete. I think "losing" your Hero Power and spending 3-mana on a do-nothing spell is a fine enough price for some additional damage.

    CursedParrot - You're missing the words "Hero Power" in bold on the Hero Power. The card looks fine, otherwise. I agree with your choice to make it minions-only: it makes things less "elegant" than a simple "Spell Damage affects your Hero Power" effect, but it cuts off problem cases before they pop up.

    GoliathTheDwarf - You could say "This minion's Attack is always equal to your total Spell Damage." and leave off the 'on the board' part. That might make the wording less awkward; you lose the Spell Damage from your opponent's side, but that's a very niche scenario as it is.

    Demonxz95 - It's a Rager; what more can be said? I wonder if Tarecgosa can still work if you just make it Spell Damage = 3, or make it a class card. Rapid Fire can't be abused if the Hunter can't access the Legendary.

    Cg8889 - I don't like the ability to attack their hand and deck with the "wherever they are" condition. Granted the combo is hard to pull off, but it's still obliterating your opponent's deck and their ability to mount a proper defense. I would remove it, and up the damage (if necessary).

    KANSAS - The effect seems fine, if a little bland. I think the cost is good, as well, as while you're not getting 2/2 Kobold to go with it, you are making the effect permanent. I will note that the art, to me, is quite obviously a monk from Diablo III, which doesn't really jive with the Shaman.

    Elfensilver - I like it, and I like it being in Rastakhan's Rumble; it's like Kragwa's team is trying to get an edge on their opponents by cheating lol. Also the spell works well with Zentimo. I would not change it to be based on how much Spell Damage you have, because that's a lot of effort for the payoff.

    BasilAnguis - As others have noted Cleric of Scales already exists, so the name would need to be changed (and possibly the art as well, now that you've lost the name). If she said "Your other minions" I think she would be a lot more balanced, as you could at least target her to remove the effect.

    Me0203 - Lightning Aspect should be an Elemental, and the Lightning Totem should be…well, a Totem lol (as in, you're missing the minion type tag on the bottom). Totems don't have any Attack to start out with, so a 1/6 statline is very strange. All-in-all, I like Lightning Aspect the most, because you could theoretically chain Overloading damage spells for a cascade effect.

    anchorm4n - I want to say that Shard Mage is too good, but I can't really articulate why I think that. Maybe it's fine *shrugs*

    Pokeniner - Akrika needs to have a number in the Battlecry in order to properly improve it via Spell Damage. So like "Destroy 1 random enemy minion…" That being said I think the flavor of it is weird: Mages remove threats via damage, generally, and not straight-up destruction effects.

    DestroyerR - I don't like Isiset or Anzu, but I do like Foxtrotter. Bouncing minions is a core part of the Rogue identity, so why not benefit from it in a different way?

    grumpymonk - I like Riptide a lot. I think the 1-mana version is the most appealing, but probably because it's too good at 1-mana lol.

    BloodMefist - I like Cyanigosa the most, because it's doing something different with Spell Damage. That being said, she should probably have some SD of her own, so she's not entirely useless when generated via Azure Explorer or what-have-you (bad example, because Azure Explorer has SD, but you get my point).

    MenacingBagel - I like the (Placeholder Cat) the most, because it's an interesting effect. Flavored right, the Legendary draws in the energy of the spell and turns it into Spell Damage. You could then facilitate its own bonus by spamming Area of Effect spells like Hellfire.

    Xarkkal - I think Thalyssra is weird, and Arcane Brilliance is boring. But Mana Droplet is so cute! I like it.

    Friendly
    • Quote From linkblade91

       

      Well the card doesn't even have a name yet so I could really use any art any find some way to make the flavor work. Do you have any recommendations for a good name/art to make the card look good?

      Friendly
      • Quote From KANSAS
        Quote From linkblade91

         

        Well the card doesn't even have a name yet so I could really use any art any find some way to make the flavor work. Do you have any recommendations for a good name/art to make the card look good?

        I'm rather lacking in Shaman art, unfortunately, but this is what I came up with from my "collection":

        Show Spoiler

        Call it "Imbue Energy"

        "Energy Transfer"

        If you're willing to change classes, you could also try out these:

        "Verdant Sphere" (Mage) (would go great in AoO with Kael'thas)

        "Crystallized Essence" (Warlock)

        Sorry if the names suck or don't work for you; just brainstorming ideas *shrugs*

        Friendly
        • Quote From linkblade91
          Quote From KANSAS
          Quote From linkblade91

           

          Well the card doesn't even have a name yet so I could really use any art any find some way to make the flavor work. Do you have any recommendations for a good name/art to make the card look good?

          I'm rather lacking in Shaman art, unfortunately, but this is what I came up with from my "collection":

           

          Show Spoiler

           

          Call it "Imbue Energy"

          "Energy Transfer"

          If you're willing to change classes, you could also try out these:

          "Verdant Sphere" (Mage) (would go great in AoO with Kael'thas)

          "Crystallized Essence" (Warlock)

          Sorry if the names suck or don't work for you; just brainstorming ideas *shrugs*

           

           

          Thanks a lot! I decided to use the first art/name. I also went with Demonxz's suggestion to reduce the cost. This does how the card look now:

          Friendly
          • Quote From KANSAS
            Quote From linkblade91
            Quote From KANSAS
            Quote From linkblade91

            Thanks a lot! I decided to use the first art/name the best. I also went with Demonxz's suggestion to reduce the cost. This is how the card looks now:

            "Spells" doesn't need to be capitalized, but other than that it looks good :)

            Friendly
    • Quote From bigcums

      Here are some of my ideas :

      As I touched upon with Xarkkal's ideas, I think using Spell Damage to draw cards is rather boring. The Mage already draws just fine. Library Golem, conversely, is appealing to me, with great flavor. I love that art. Don't think it needs to be an Epic, but that can come down to a personal preference sometimes.

      Friendly

  • Ok after posting those 2 and after the kind feedback from linkblade91 I came up with one more card idea and I am curious what should I pick between these 2 :

    All other forms of feedback and critique are more than welcome ! :D

    • Quote From bigcums

      Ok after posting those 2 and after the kind feedback from linkblade91 I came up with one more card idea and I am curious what should I pick between these 2 :

       

      All other forms of feedback and critique are more than welcome ! :D

      Having a minion that has a Battlecry that deals damage and it improved by Spell Damage is functionally very similar to a regular spell. Somebody already submitted a card just like yours but it was neutral and it had 1 health. I gave it one star because the card as a concept just seems really pointless.

      Friendly

      • Lol, now that you say it like that I realize you are right. I guess I will go with the good old library golem :D

         

  • A very similar card to Kirin Tor Chaincaster was already submitted, so I put in a replacement.  I wanted to find art like Shooting Star, but I couldn't find any, so here's two versions with different art. If I go with Riptide, I'll go with the 2-mana version just to be safe based on feedback.

     

  • Thanks for all the feedback. I'm keeping Arcane Brilliance up my sleeve for now as I'm satisfied with it, but I can't decide if I will submit it, or Mana Droplet. Furthermore, I now sit with 3 versions of the cute little Droplet to choose between, all that I kind of like equally. Would like to see some people's thoughts before I make my final decision.

    Show Spoiler

    Page 3 Feedback:

    Show Spoiler

    @KANSAS - Looks good to me other than the capital "S" in Spells. I'm glad you got some different art, as a huge Diablo fan, the monk art (while badass) really bugged me. Looks really solid now!

    @bigcums - I'd agree with KANSAS when it comes to Rune Mage. Library Golem I have no issue with.

    @grumpymonk - I like silliness of the art in the first Starstuck, but I'm afraid the joke doesn't feel much to do with Spell Damage. So I'd go with the 2nd. 

  • More feedback for page 3:

    Xarkkal:

    Show Spoiler
    I'd very much suggest to go with the first one. It has the simplest design and the text just looks better. Don't over-complicate an already great card!

    grumpymonk:

    Show Spoiler
    I agree with Xarkkal, the second art looks better. I'm not convinced by the name, though. What does a star have to do with the art?

    KANSAS:

    Show Spoiler
    Cool card, nothing to add.

    • Thanks for the words of wisdom anchorm4n! 

  • My first submission, nothing too fancy, but balanced(?) and i think it could be printed:

  • Some more feedback:

    Demonxz95:

    Show Spoiler
    If you submitted the rager, I would vote a solid 4 stars. Withholding 1 star only because it would never ever see play.

    GoliathTheDwarf:

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    I love it. Though the wording seams a bit weird. I don't think you need the word "always". Also you should probably capitalize "Spell Damage".

    CursedParrot:

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    I think you could get away with changing the wording to "Battlecry: For the rest of the game, your Hero Power is improved by Spell Damage". And then you may not even need a unique token, you probably don't have to be worried about OTKs. I am also not 100% sure if Rare is the right rarity, usually unique ideas like this are Epic or Legendary, but it probably doesn't matter.

    Linkblade91:

    Show Spoiler
    Comparing Enraged Moonkin to Darkshire Moonkin isn't really fair because Darkshire Moonkin is such a bad card. The thing about Spell Damage is that it is a bad keyword. It has never been good, ever. So I wouldn't worry about making Spell Damage cards too powerful. If you made Enraged Moonkin a 3/5, I would give it 5 stars.

    BloodMefist:

    Show Spoiler
    I like Animated Defender the best. I feel like a Spell Damage based Shaman deck with Wrath of Air Totem and maybe Baku the Mooneater is almost a real deck. A strong taunt minion would be a huge step into the decks viability. I would give it 5 stars.

    Cg8889:

    Show Spoiler
    Aegwynn is a very interesting card. I like how you can control which spells she casts by playing them at certain times with your Spell Damage bonuses. It is very hard to know how good or consistent she would be, but I would love to get an opportunity to experiment with this card. I would give it 4 stars, withholding 1 star only because it is impossible to anticipate the power-level.

    MenacingBagel:

    Show Spoiler
    I like the name and art. I really like this card not because of the Spell Damage synergy, but because of the unique protection is has against being damaged by spells. I can't really think of anything I would want to change. Maybe give it a keyword or something? But I am not sure if it needs it. I would give ti 4 stars as it is right now, withholding one only because it may be slightly under-powered.

    grumpymonk:

    Show Spoiler
    I like the second version of Starstruck the best. The art on the first version doesn't really illustrate the effect very well. I do kind of like Riptide, but the design doesn't feel as elegant as Starstruck.

    Xarkkal:

    Show Spoiler
    I agree with anchorm4n that the first version is the best. No need to complicate a simple card by splitting up the ability.

    Ekkeh:

    Show Spoiler
    I don't really like this card because practically, it isn't very useful. As we have seen from cards in the game, having vanilla stats and Spell Damage usually doesn't make the cut. Granted, Glacial Wrathbringer can have a lot of spell damage, but when are you going to be playing a lot of freeze effects and also a lot of burn damage spells? If this card were printed, I just don't think it would be used anywhere.

    Side note: When giving feedback, do you think it is better to have everything inside of one big spoiler, or an individual spoiler for each person? Or does anybody even care?

    Friendly

  • Here's my initial idea (I'll have to find new art because someone already submitted a card with it). This guy has negative spell damage to weaken your opponent's spells. More of a tech card meant to help soften your opponent's board clears and other spells. Not sure if 1 less is effective enough or if I should up the cost and make it -2, but let me know what you think.

    I'll try to come back tonight and leave some feedback.

    • Quote From Hordaki

       

      Here's my initial idea (I'll have to find new art because someone already submitted a card with it). This guy has negative spell damage to weaken your opponent's spells. More of a tech card meant to help soften your opponent's board clears and other spells. Not sure if 1 less is effective enough or if I should up the cost and make it -2, but let me know what you think.

      I'll try to come back tonight and leave some feedback.

      If you want new art and possibly new flavor you could change it to a nerubian. They generally seem to have those kinds of hate effects.

      Friendly

  • For some reason, I've been in a "simple Common" mood throughout most of this competition.

    Friendly Staff

  • Feedback for Xarkkal, Ekkeh, and Hordaki

    Show Spoiler

    Xarkkal

    I really like the +2 Spell Damage Mana Droplet, it seems like a really interesting card because the opponent can always know whether or not you can get the effect off.

    Ekkeh

    I like your card, I think it’s mostly balanced despite the potential for Spell Damage +7 with Frost Nova. If you wanted to prevent that, you could make it something like a 4 Mana 4/5 with “Battlecry: Gain Spell Damage +2 if an enemy is Frozen”. 

    Hordaki

    I like your card, but I fear that it becomes mostly useless when the opponent has any minions on board, since they can just trade into it. To fix that, it could become something like a 3 Mana 3/3 with “Stealth for 1 turn. Your opponent has Spell Damage -1” or “Battlecry: The next damage spell your opponent plays has Spell Damage -1”. Also, I’m not sure if it qualifies as a Spell Damage card, since it doesn’t give a player positive Spell Damage or improve with Spell Damage.

  • Okay, I'm back to give this idea a second pass (thanks for the input).

    Decided to turn it into a battlecry, so I figured I'd bump up the power since it'll only effect one turn. Now it's much more potent, but you have to play it at the right moment to capitalize on it.

    Would one of the mods let me know if this counts for this week's theme (since it doesn't actually give Spell Damage)?

    Anyway, feedback time for anyone who hasn't submitted:

    Show Spoiler

    Demonxz95: Anti-Mage spell is a decent card, but I don't think it's unique enough to get high votes. Tarecgosa is interesting although the wording could be confusing. And don't use the rager. Don't do it.

    Ekkeh: I like it, simple but interesting and the flavor fits. Could stand to be 5 Mana though, because coupled with a Frost Nova this guy could quickly become a low-cost Malygos.

    grumpymonk: I'd go with the second artwork for Starstruck if you use it, although I'd go with Riptide.

    KANSAS: Lowercase spells and I think that card's ready to submit.

    MenacingBagel: Maybe make it so only your spells give spell damage instead of both players. A minion immune to any spell damage is pretty powerful (especially when it's not even a Legendary).

    Cg8889: Switch 'affected' to 'improved' and italicize '(target enemies if possible)'.

    BasilAnguis: If the Cleric already has Spell Damage, you should probably drop it's stats to 1/2 or make sure it can't affect itself.

    • Quote From Hordaki

      Would one of the mods let me know if this counts for this week's theme (since it doesn't actually give Spell Damage)?

      No one else is online at the moment to discuss the matter, but someone will get back to you as soon as possible :)

      I, for one, am willing to let it slide, but maybe I'm becoming too lenient in my old age lol. Also, assuming you get the go-ahead, you'll have to force-bold the "-2" part to make it look right.

      Friendly
      • Quote From linkblade91
        Quote From Hordaki

        Would one of the mods let me know if this counts for this week's theme (since it doesn't actually give Spell Damage)?

        No one else is online at the moment to discuss the matter, but someone will get back to you as soon as possible :)

        I, for one, am willing to let it slide, but maybe I'm becoming too lenient in my old age lol. Also, assuming you get the go-ahead, you'll have to force-bold the "-2" part to make it look right.

        I'm no moderator, but I for one think it fits the theme. The theme states "You must create a card which has or synergises with Spell Damage". Negative Spell Damage is still synergy with Spell Damage. 

    • Quote From Hordaki

      Would one of the mods let me know if this counts for this week's theme (since it doesn't actually give Spell Damage)?

      I've been out-voted, so the answer we're providing is "No." Sorry; it was an interesting card.

      Friendly

  • People seemed to like my card alright, but I am still not 100% confident. I feel like as it is now it wouldn't be used in hardly any decks outside of OTK decks due to it being such poor card advantage and shamans having such poor draw as it is. To fix this, I decided to simply make it also draw you a card.

    I am wondering though if it would be better to make it 2 mana now. What do you think?

    Original card:

    Show Spoiler

     

    Friendly
    • Quote From KANSAS

      I am wondering though if it would be better to make it 2 mana now. What do you think?

      If you want to add "Draw a card" to it, I would definitely make it 2-mana. I don't mind the draw, because you could theoretically add another spell to your hand to benefit from the effect.

      Friendly

  • Not sure on the wording for this as there isn't a "While ..." effect for Spell Damage yet, but I think it makes sense. For balance, my thinking is that, in most cases, you will need to have up at least one Spell Damage minion, because it's hard to play this, minions, and a spell in the same turn. I like when cards like this are neutral because each class can experiment with it in different ways, but it might make more sense as a Mage card, where you can more reasonably increase the power level. Note, you don't have to play a damage spell with this.

  • You should add "(targets chosen randomly)" at the end of it. Interesting idea! I'm not sure if it has to be a legendary, though. It needs quite a setup and the reward isn't that good, at least as long as you don't give her the Solarian Prime treatment ("(targets enemies if possible)") which might actually be a cool idea for your card.

  • @ anchorm4n: Maybe something like this? I agree the effect doesn't need to be legendary. It doesn't stack (twice doesn't become thrice) so having two just makes it more consistent. It also isn't that powerful and hard to pull off; something like this is probably destined to be meme-y which is okay. I lowered the mana to 5 since with the randomness it can't be abused as easily. Thanks for the feedback! :) 

    • Quote From grayghost39

      Show Spoiler

      @ anchorm4n: Maybe something like this? I agree the effect doesn't need to be legendary. It doesn't stack (twice doesn't become thrice) so having two just makes it more consistent. It also isn't that powerful and hard to pull off; something like this is probably destined to be meme-y which is okay. I lowered the mana to 5 since with the randomness it can't be abused as easily. Thanks for the feedback! :) 

      I don't think this needs "(targets chosen randomly)" or "(targets enemies if possible)". Any targetable spell would just recast at the original target already chosen by the player. The same way Electra Stormsurge works.

      But if you do put any text in parenthesis, make sure to make it italic. 

      I like the card better as a Legendary. I think you should buff it's health if it's a Legendary so it can have a chance to survive and be a game ender. Maybe follow the statline of Kael'thas Sunstrider.

    • Quote From grayghost39

      @ anchorm4n: Maybe something like this? I agree the effect doesn't need to be legendary. It doesn't stack (twice doesn't become thrice) so having two just makes it more consistent. It also isn't that powerful and hard to pull off; something like this is probably destined to be meme-y which is okay. I lowered the mana to 5 since with the randomness it can't be abused as easily. Thanks for the feedback! :) 

      I agree with Xarkkal, if it targets enemies (in italic!) it is legendary worthy after all. Using Kael'thas statline is a great idea!

  • Ok think I have my final design for Aegwynn:

    Changed the wording to say improved by Spell Damage instead of affected by Spell Damage and increased the mana by 1 because of the Battlecry targeting enemies. Feel like where it is now is a strong work towards card that would have to utilize Spell Damage minions (which are normally very weak) towards a great payoff. Thoughts on anything needing to be changed before submitting would be greatly apprecaited.

    • Quote From Cg8889

      Ok think I have my final design for Aegwynn:

      Show Spoiler

      Changed the wording to say improved by Spell Damage instead of affected by Spell Damage and increased the mana by 1 because of the Battlecry targeting enemies. Feel like where it is now is a strong work towards card that would have to utilize Spell Damage minions (which are normally very weak) towards a great payoff. Thoughts on anything needing to be changed before submitting would be greatly apprecaited.

      My only suggestion would be to think about changing it to all spells you played this game. This would get easily out of control in a mirror match, and would feel really bad for your opponent to have their spells that they played improved with spell damage thrown back in their face. If you do all spells instead of your spells, I would suggest making targets random instead of only enemies. 

  • My first attempt at a card design entry. I always loved the fairy tale, and I thought it would be fun to be able to generate tons of Coins.

    • Quote From madcat

      Show Spoiler

      My first attempt at a card design entry. I always loved the fairy tale, and I thought it would be fun to be able to generate tons of Coins.

      Welcome! I hope you've been enjoying designing your first card! I like the idea. The wording is a little off though. "Gain" isn't the correct term that is used when a card generates a coin. Look at Umbral Skulker and Tomb Pillager as examples. "Add to your hand" is the phrase you're looking for.

      I'd suggest changing the text to "Add a Coin to your hand for each point of Spell Damage you have."

      As for balancing, since the card is conditional to having Spell Damage, I think you can drop the mana cost to 2 and make it a Rare. Then if it's played without spell damage, it's at least a vanilla 2 mana minion.

      The Watermark is another thing I would look at. Classic set is generally considered a bad watermark choice, and I know many people will dock stars for that. I'd suggest choosing a custom watermark for this one. There is a year of the phoenix watermark that works really well. 

      Overall, great job on your first attempt! 

      • Thanks for the suggestions! I guess I don't pay enough attention to card wording and watermarks. Also I tend to be too strict in balancing. So, yeah, those are great points.

  • Less than 24 hours to submit your card!

    Friendly

  • Edited as per Xarkkal's excellent suggestions. Thanks! (Edit: forgot to add the Battlecry. D'oh!).

    • Quote From madcat

      Edited as per Xarkkal's excellent suggestions. Thanks!

      Don't forget the Battlecry!

      Friendly

      • Thanks! Had a question about submitting the card. I noticed that one has to specify an Expansion (which is fine since it seems like Karazhan fits the theme of the card). Should the watermark reflect the expansion chosen?

        • Quote From madcat

          Thanks! Had a question about submitting the card. I noticed that one has to specify an Expansion (which is fine since it seems like Karazhan fits the theme of the card). Should the watermark reflect the expansion chosen?

          If your card has a custom watermark, you can just leave the option blank.

          Friendly Staff

  • Submissions are closed: good luck everyone in the voting :)

    Friendly

  • My favorite submissions this week are Charged Assaultron, Lightning Power!, Naga Scryer, and Animated Defender, basically anything that supports a board-based midrange Spell Damage Shaman deck. But there are a ton of other great submissions out there!

    Friendly

  • First of all, I'm really pissed that someone basically copied my card (Shard Mage) with their Orderkeeper Henley. It isn't exactly the same, but the idea of using unspent mana crystals was unique and I find it suspicious that someone should have come up with it by coincidence. Even if that was the case, can't people check the already submitted cards before they enter the competition? With no way to tell which one got submitted first, we'll both suffer now (I'm not necessarily saying my take is better, mind you).

     

    Rant over. My favorites are First Arcanist Thalyssra, Mana Droplet, Nerubian Ritualist and Imbue Energy. Those are my 5 star votes, but I gave lots of 4 stars as well. Good luck to everyone! 

    • Quote From anchorm4n

      First of all, I'm really pissed that someone basically copied my card (Shard Mage) with their Orderkeeper Henley. It isn't exactly the same, but the idea of using unspent mana crystals was unique and I find it suspicious that someone should have come up with it by coincidence. Even if that was the case, can't people check the already submitted cards before they enter the competition? With no way to tell which one got submitted first, we'll both suffer now (I'm not necessarily saying my take is better, mind you).

      Show Spoiler
       

      Rant over. My favorites are First Arcanist Thalyssra, Mana Droplet, Nerubian Ritualist and Imbue Energy. Those are my 5 star votes, but I gave lots of 4 stars as well. Good luck to everyone! 

      Unfortunately I think it's unavoidable having similar ideas being submitted. I'm honestly surprised it doesn't happen more often. 

      I do wish more people checked the thread and voted on cards before submitting, but I understand that people have busy lives and might not be able to do that. They could make it a requirement to vote on cards before being able to submit an entry, but I feel that would just turn people away and reduce the number of entries each week. 

      As for the two cards, I actually voted yours 4 stars and the other one 1 star. I think the effect as an aura is problematic (even on a legendary), and it works much better as a battlecry like you designed it to be. Also, the other card left the "s" off of "Crystals". 

      So there being multiple "mana crystal" effect cards didn't effect the vote that I gave both of these cards. Yours was the better of the two, and my votes reflected that.

  • Good luck to our finalists :) One of the rare instances where I'm not among the list *snaps fingers*

    Show Spoiler
    #stealthbrag? I really can't complain about my success.

    Friendly

  • G'luck to all those who made it! I'll be pulling for the Volatile Magmaling and the Cosmic Researcher. 

  • First time making it to the finals! Good luck to all the other finalists, great theme and great cards overall.

  • I've already rescinded the idea of me ever winning one of these weeks. I'm just happy to get into the finals, that's enough of a win for me! Best of luck to all the other finalists as well! Good batch of finalists this week, the winner could really go to anyone. 

    • Quote From Xarkkal

      I've already rescinded the idea of me ever winning one of these weeks.

      I had to laugh when I saw this, because I could tell you were running away with this prompt :) Congratulations.

      Friendly
      • Quote From linkblade91
        Quote From Xarkkal

        I've already rescinded the idea of me ever winning one of these weeks.

        I had to laugh when I saw this, because I could tell you were running away with this prompt :) Congratulations.

        Holy shit! All it took was giving up all hope! Thanks everyone for the votes for my card! :

  • Finally made it to finals!  Some really nice designs this week.  Fingers crossed I win, but good luck to everyone!  

  • Congratulations, mate! The l'il cutie wins :) 

    The transparency report is intriguing. Mana Droplet was the only submission in the top ten to have the score spread concentrated on 4, rather than 3 - it's no wonder that he won! Granted, I'm curious why that was, and the only reason I can posit is that, well, the Droplet was a cool cutie. I wasn't aware that folks had such a thing for Elemental Mage, and it's surprising that he would have no - none! - 1 votes for a card that I, at least, found very powerful. While it's a wonderful card, I'm not sure that the difference between the Droplet and the other finalists was so huge, or that it had some special quality, that it merited fewer 1 votes. The closest other card to that achievement was Bloodmefist's Animated Defender, with just two 1 votes, which I also thought was quite powerful and flavorful - maybe there's a common thread? 

    Also, although CursedParrot's Cosmic Researcher ate a normal amount of 1 votes in the first round, it got many more, relatively speaking, during the finals. Perhaps folks felt that it was a good card, but too bland compared to the other finalists? It also garnered more 5 votes than the cards next to it, though - it held the most even score distribution in the finals, but by virtue of that was also the most polarizing card, for reasons I can't rightly guess. Hyperorange's Arcane Pact also had a normal amount of 1 votes initially, but relatively more during the finals. However, it didn't also gain the equal number of 5 votes then, but rather had a mode of 2. I can only suppose that people felt Spell Damage +2 for 1 mana was too powerful or out of character for Warlock, since the card had such neat flavor, and voted more harshly in the finals. 

    I do wish that these competitions' home pages would have a brief on the ranking system, to help homogenize ideas towards it. Just a few sentences, even, to make voters aware of possible reasons for voting (flavor, power level, usefulness, etc.) and help them organize their thoughts - it doesn't have to be official guidelines for what makes a card good or bad, though I wouldn't oppose that. That's a lot for someone who's only participated in two of these to say, but I do think it would help guide participants' thoughts, so I run my gab.

    Anywho. If you can't tell, I had a bit too much free time this morning and spent a bit too long wondering about this stuff, when the oddities are likely not due to much at all. I was happy to see that I almost made it in this time, so anyway, I'll continue blastin'. Watch out! 

    • Quote From Me0203

      Show Spoiler

      Congratulations, mate! The l'il cutie wins :) 

      The transparency report is intriguing. Mana Droplet was the only submission in the top ten to have the score spread concentrated on 4, rather than 3 - it's no wonder that he won! Granted, I'm curious why that was, and the only reason I can posit is that, well, the Droplet was a cool cutie. I wasn't aware that folks had such a thing for Elemental Mage, and it's surprising that he would have no - none! - 1 votes for a card that I, at least, found very powerful. While it's a wonderful card, I'm not sure that the difference between the Droplet and the other finalists was so huge, or that it had some special quality, that it merited fewer 1 votes. The closest other card to that achievement was Bloodmefist's Animated Defender, with just two 1 votes, which I also thought was quite powerful and flavorful - maybe there's a common thread? 

      Also, although CursedParrot's Cosmic Researcher ate a normal amount of 1 votes in the first round, it got many more, relatively speaking, during the finals. Perhaps folks felt that it was a good card, but too bland compared to the other finalists? It also garnered more 5 votes than the cards next to it, though - it held the most even score distribution in the finals, but by virtue of that was also the most polarizing card, for reasons I can't rightly guess. Hyperorange's Arcane Pact also had a normal amount of 1 votes initially, but relatively more during the finals. However, it didn't also gain the equal number of 5 votes then, but rather had a mode of 2. I can only suppose that people felt Spell Damage +2 for 1 mana was too powerful or out of character for Warlock, since the card had such neat flavor, and voted more harshly in the finals. 

      I do wish that these competitions' home pages would have a brief on the ranking system, to help homogenize ideas towards it. Just a few sentences, even, to make voters aware of possible reasons for voting (flavor, power level, usefulness, etc.) and help them organize their thoughts - it doesn't have to be official guidelines for what makes a card good or bad, though I wouldn't oppose that. That's a lot for someone who's only participated in two of these to say, but I do think it would help guide participants' thoughts, so I run my gab.

      Anywho. If you can't tell, I had a bit too much free time this morning and spent a bit too long wondering about this stuff, when the oddities are likely not due to much at all. I was happy to see that I almost made it in this time, so anyway, I'll continue blastin'. Watch out! 

      The report is very interesting, and it's always good to spend some time on it to get an idea about how people vote on cards. I think cute artwork done with a good flavor can score you some serious points. Cute has to be done right though, and not feel forced. The artwork for Mana Droplet I had found months ago, and it was just sitting in a folder waiting to be made into the perfect card. With the theme of Spell Damage in mind, I came across him in my files and the card basically made itself. 

      Another stand out cutie that won it all is Felwing Hatchling by MathU from 1.06. 

      Good artwork really has quite an impact on the card too. A really cool card can be ruined by bad artwork.

  • Whilst I didn't make the finals, I'm surprised that my really simple card did really well, scoring 14th in phase 1.

    Friendly Staff

  • Congrats Xarkkal, I'm really happy for you!