If you're talking about Aggro Druid, we're fairly aware of the deck's strength (we even talked about it at the beginning of the article) - however, for this article (and for the ones will follow it) we'd rather focus on off-meta/niche/emerging strategies.
DavnanKillder: I love your Sand Shark, it's a really cool idea and feels very flavorful. (And I don't say that because I want to use Power Word: Drowse's art myself.)
DestroyerR: I like the art and the name, but I'm not so sure about refreshing the Spellburst. Inspire feels a bit forced in this one. What about this: "Spellburst: Give the spell Twinspell."?
BloodMefist: I'm not convinced either, but then I don't like spells with Echo in general.
Wailor: Not a bad idea, this could be very interesting, but I admit it's indeed very hard to balance and I don't like the art very much.
linkblade: Very nice card, nothing to criticise from my side.
Demon: Cool idea, I like it a lot!
I've also put some thought into making a Demon Hunter card and this is what I came up with. Which idea do you prefer?
I am on the NA server. If you want to add me my battletag is Swizard#1993. I will write a detailed guide for this deck within a few hours, thanks for commenting!
FieselFitz: There's a comma missing after "Secret" and I think your card is one of those cases where too much is going on at once. I'm sorry, but I don't like it very much.
KANSAS: Very cool card, there's lots of flavor between panthers being kinda sneaky, secrets and stealth. I would even say it's good to go.
DavnanKillder: I think I prefer Nixue, but the name feels wrong. I'm no native speaker but I think it has to be "awoken".
DestroyerR: It's an interesting idea, but also very hard to balance. I think 2 turns is too much.
FenrirWulf: I prefer the second iteration, it's way simpler. Solid card.
BloodMefist: So you beat me to the Christmas Tree / Secret synergy thing. I like your art, but I don't get the connection between the attack and casting secrets. Would you please explain?
Demon: While I like your card it would be a shame not to see something new from you.
Wailor: This is… Interesting. I'll have to wait and see if other people come up with an idea how to abuse this because I can't.
linkblade: Nice card, I like your idea! I would argue to give the Ice Pillar at least one Attack though, since there are some classes that would really struggle to get rid of this otherwise. Or make it "thaw" and lose 1 Health at the end of each turn.
KANSAS has also nailed the issue with my Christmas Tree: the flavor is a bit off because it doesn't require you to have more than one secret. So here's the initial design which I didn't use because it's very OP. Please let me know if you think I should pursue this effect instead of the Despicable Dreadlord like version. I could increase the cost and / or make it a Legendary, but I still think it wouldn't fit Hunter's class identity to have such a strong and reliable board clear.
I'm kinda shocked that there wasn't a write up about the recent surge of Swarm Druid. Since Lightning Bloom was released, that has opened the door back up to tons of Aggro Druid decks running around. I started to change up my wild play to accommodate to the Ultimate Infestation of these decks and I genuinely wonder what their win rate is.
I just sincerely hope that they don't give ME any free time with WoW Classic. The last thing I need is another nostalgic side quest that will sap me of money and time.
I'm very sad seeing how they are ruinning a good game with awful business decisions. They think that the community will happily eat everything they give us but their competitors are pushing back giving the people more attractive content and policies.
Hopefully they rethink everything for next season release but for the moment I'm kindly dissappointed with them :(
Something that I think is worth mentioning is that you probably shouldn't try to force all 3 prompts onto one card or else you'll most likely end up with a weird, overbaked card that has too many things going on in it.
I think they only nerf something if it has a high winrate and a high play rate. I’ve personally never played against that deck you think is OP, which likely indicates that it isn’t a huge part of the meta like Lee Sin was at its peak. It doesn’t matter how OP the deck is, if it has a low play rate Riot likely won’t nerf it.
Also, I’m not sure if the deck you’re talking about is really low on interactivity. Those regions don’t have access to much protection, so I assume something like vengeance or ruination could stop Swain and Sejuani from winning the game, and adding healing to your deck makes it better against burn. I have never played against the deck so I don’t know if those are true counters, but pretty much every deck offers some interactivity against it (except maybe the old Ionia Elusives deck with crazy amounts of protection tools).
the funny thing is that the old ionian elusives got countered by swain sejuani since a leveled sejuani would just frostbite their board every attack round and not let them do their thing. Sure it might seem unlikely to have a leveld up Sejuani reliably on the board but the deck if its built right will have a leveled sejuani on board on turn 6 almost always and elusives didnt win that early, given most of the burn tools in this deck are also removal spells such like Death's Hand, Ember Maiden noxian favourBADCARDNAME
Just a note about your feedback @KANSAS, the cards are returned anyway, independently of whether the Greench died or not. Feedback of my own coming soon
Sorry I wasn't here to give feedback last competition, at least I get to make up for it by participating in two competitions this week :P
It's like Jungle Panther, but more spectral. I am considering either making it cost less, or have stealth right from the start. I also might change it to gain stealth when a secret is triggered, but I don't think that would work out quite as well.
Feedback:
Show Spoiler
Linkblade91, I like it. I like the idea of a secret mage, but having to face two copies of Fireball, Forgotten Torch, Roaring Torch, and [Hearthstone Card (cloudprince) Not Found] in one game gets pretty annoying. I like having it support a slower, more defensive build. I think it is balanced at it's current cost, and I think it would be a useful tool for any slower mage deck, without being terribly OP. The only thing that bugs me is that the pillar can freeze itself. You may have done that deliberately due to balance, but flavor-wise I don't think it makes sense, and also it defeats the purpose of the card. I play this to freeze their minions, not to freeze the 0/6 pillar I gave them.
Wailor, I am torn between loving and hating this card. On one hand, it is really hard to use and the payoff is negligible (you could just play Al'Akir the Windlord, which is just as easy to cheat out but deals more damage). But on the other hand, it feels like a genuine freeze shaman card. And part of me likes it more due to the general silliness and dumbness of the card. Personally, I would give it 5 stars, but I wouldn't count on other people rating it very high.
Demonxz95, I feel the same way about your card now as I did before. It is a cool card, but since you have to freeze a minion and then play this in the same turn, it feels kind of clunky to use.
Bloodmefist, First off I think the correct wording would be "Battlecry: Cast a number of random Secrets equal to this minions attack". I don't really like the idea of this card being neutral, since it shouldn't be that easy for non-secret classes to get secrets. I would put it in either Hunter or Paladin since both of those classes have handbuff and Secrets. I would probably pick paladin since most of Hunters handbuff stuff is beast related.
FenrirWulf, Your card is too wordy. I get why you'd do it, but it is unnecessarily complicated to pick a friendly minion, and then freeze enemy minions opposite it. Just have it freeze a target enemy minion. I like the back-and-forth of the original version, but it it is very wordy. I would either have it say "Freeze an enemy minion, give this to your opponent" and then just have it last forever. Or have it say "Freeze an enemy minion, give this to your opponent (5 Snowballs left!)" and then have it stop after 5 times. The version on the right is well balanced, but too similar to Frost Nova.
anchorm4n, Balance-wise, I think it is fine. It is exactly the type of wide-board effect hunters would get. But flavor-wise I think your card is lacking. Having a "Christmas tree" in hearthstone means having 5 secrets, so it would make sense for your literal Christmas tree card to benefit from having 5 secrets. It also doesn't make a whole lot of sense flavor-wise for a Christmas tree to deal damage.
DestroyerR, First off, you did a great job with the Grinch reference. Not just in name and art, but also in the ability. In terms of balance and play, I think the card could use some tweaking. I am guessing the idea is that you will want to kill him before he gives the cards back, and the opponent wants him alive so they don't have to lose cards. But at a 6 mana 4/5 it feels a little awkward. I would give him more health to make him harder for your opponent to kill, and I would also put him in a class so that warlocks don't get more mill potential on top of Tickatus and Gnomeferatu. Also, I am pretty sure it fits the competition since all it says is it has to give your opponent cards. It doesn't say where they had to come from, or what had to happen to them first.
DavnanKillder, Disguised Saboteur: I would put this in warlock. I get why you put it in rogue, but switching sides, dealing damage to your face, and having those "curse" type effects that mess with your opponent (i.e. Curse of Rafaam, Chaos Gazer, Gnomeferatu etc) are all things warlock does. About balance, I think the 2/5 statline is good, but 4 mana seems like a lot. All this card does for you is damage your opponents face. Spending 4 mana and giving them a minion just to deal some face damage isn't usually a good move. And it is made worse by the fact that your opponent gets some agency in whether or not they trigger the ability. I would change it to 3 mana, or maybe make it a 2 mana 1/4. Nixue, The Awake Winter: First off you should change the wording to just say "Frozen characters don't unfreeze." Second, I would change the name to something like "Awakened Winter" or "Spirit of Winter". It isn't a big deal but right now the name doesn't flow very well, at least to me. About the actual ability, it is very hard to balance because you could potentially have their whole board frozen, in which case if they don't have a removal spell they are stuck for the entire game. On the other hand, 4 health is very easy to deal with if your opponent has a removal spell or a rush minion, or if you don't have enough freezes. So all in all I think it would be too much work to get it balanced properly. I think your other card is a lot better.
Again, I really don’t see what’s unwritten here. The prompt was to make a card for a character not in standard, not to make a card for a character which has a card not in standard. It’s like saying evolve shaman is a wild archetype because some evolve shaman cards are no longer in standard
Also want to apologize to FieselFitz: I gave you an okay for Kragg, but you were disqualified anyway. That's on me :(
Wow ... i asked and it got an ok - and it wasn't even a problem according to the rules ... but ok , can't change that but still a little annoying that it happened the way it did. To be sure i will ask some stuff in the next competition before i post a card because it seems there are some "unwritten" rules :)
If you want to beat go hard you just could play one of the new scars decks. with the help of The Scargrounds go hard is practically useless and with Bloodsworn Pledge you will make your units survive PYB aswell
Secret Santa Snowdown - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
I came up with a new card, not used anywhere. In all reality, Secrets make for great flavor in this comp.
Nature Will Rise Against You! Darkmoon Faire Druid Wild Deck Spotlight
If you're talking about Aggro Druid, we're fairly aware of the deck's strength (we even talked about it at the beginning of the article) - however, for this article (and for the ones will follow it) we'd rather focus on off-meta/niche/emerging strategies.
When Worlds Collide - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Feedback!
DavnanKillder: I love your Sand Shark, it's a really cool idea and feels very flavorful. (And I don't say that because I want to use Power Word: Drowse's art myself.)
DestroyerR: I like the art and the name, but I'm not so sure about refreshing the Spellburst. Inspire feels a bit forced in this one. What about this: "Spellburst: Give the spell Twinspell."?
BloodMefist: I'm not convinced either, but then I don't like spells with Echo in general.
Wailor: Not a bad idea, this could be very interesting, but I admit it's indeed very hard to balance and I don't like the art very much.
linkblade: Very nice card, nothing to criticise from my side.
Demon: Cool idea, I like it a lot!
I've also put some thought into making a Demon Hunter card and this is what I came up with. Which idea do you prefer?
(I know it's close to Pit Commander, but I think it would make a big difference to trigger the effect two turns earlier. Imagine this with only Pit Commander, Ancient Void Hound and Priestess of Fury in your deck!)
I am on the NA server. If you want to add me my battletag is Swizard#1993. I will write a detailed guide for this deck within a few hours, thanks for commenting!
seems cool bro, im interested! i love this type of decks!
hello there, this deck looks so cool. i want to know more, which server do you use?
Secret Santa Snowdown - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Feedback!
FieselFitz: There's a comma missing after "Secret" and I think your card is one of those cases where too much is going on at once. I'm sorry, but I don't like it very much.
KANSAS: Very cool card, there's lots of flavor between panthers being kinda sneaky, secrets and stealth. I would even say it's good to go.
DavnanKillder: I think I prefer Nixue, but the name feels wrong. I'm no native speaker but I think it has to be "awoken".
DestroyerR: It's an interesting idea, but also very hard to balance. I think 2 turns is too much.
FenrirWulf: I prefer the second iteration, it's way simpler. Solid card.
BloodMefist: So you beat me to the Christmas Tree / Secret synergy thing. I like your art, but I don't get the connection between the attack and casting secrets. Would you please explain?
Demon: While I like your card it would be a shame not to see something new from you.
Wailor: This is… Interesting. I'll have to wait and see if other people come up with an idea how to abuse this because I can't.
linkblade: Nice card, I like your idea! I would argue to give the Ice Pillar at least one Attack though, since there are some classes that would really struggle to get rid of this otherwise. Or make it "thaw" and lose 1 Health at the end of each turn.
KANSAS has also nailed the issue with my Christmas Tree: the flavor is a bit off because it doesn't require you to have more than one secret. So here's the initial design which I didn't use because it's very OP. Please let me know if you think I should pursue this effect instead of the Despicable Dreadlord like version. I could increase the cost and / or make it a Legendary, but I still think it wouldn't fit Hunter's class identity to have such a strong and reliable board clear.
Nature Will Rise Against You! Darkmoon Faire Druid Wild Deck Spotlight
I'm kinda shocked that there wasn't a write up about the recent surge of Swarm Druid. Since Lightning Bloom was released, that has opened the door back up to tons of Aggro Druid decks running around. I started to change up my wild play to accommodate to the Ultimate Infestation of these decks and I genuinely wonder what their win rate is.
The Story of Jaina Proudmoore: The Missing Pages of Book of Heroes
Great write up!
The Hearthstone Holiday Sale On Battle.net Isn't a Sale
I just sincerely hope that they don't give ME any free time with WoW Classic. The last thing I need is another nostalgic side quest that will sap me of money and time.
The Hearthstone Holiday Sale On Battle.net Isn't a Sale
I'm very sad seeing how they are ruinning a good game with awful business decisions. They think that the community will happily eat everything they give us but their competitors are pushing back giving the people more attractive content and policies.
Hopefully they rethink everything for next season release but for the moment I'm kindly dissappointed with them :(
the best plaza deck
But what does this deck do if it doesn't don't draw The Grand Plaza? What is the plan B then?
New Warlock Minion - Tickatus
Warlock isnt doing to hot standard, neither is ticktatus. And a card that can help beat control/combo is allowed to excist,.
Objectivly is no balance reaosn at all why should be nerfed.
Secret Santa Snowdown - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Something that I think is worth mentioning is that you probably shouldn't try to force all 3 prompts onto one card or else you'll most likely end up with a weird, overbaked card that has too many things going on in it.
[Game] Card Treasure Hunt (The Resurrection Attempt)
Wild Bloodstinger?
Secret Santa Snowdown - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
So, here is my first idea!
I hope that this time the card is allright according to the rules and stuff :)
And i think i hit all 3 prompts.
Runeterra Developers Answer Questions on Discord - 2v2, More PVE Labs, Balance Talk
the funny thing is that the old ionian elusives got countered by swain sejuani since a leveled sejuani would just frostbite their board every attack round and not let them do their thing. Sure it might seem unlikely to have a leveld up Sejuani reliably on the board but the deck if its built right will have a leveled sejuani on board on turn 6 almost always and elusives didnt win that early, given most of the burn tools in this deck are also removal spells such like Death's Hand, Ember Maiden noxian favourBADCARDNAME
Secret Santa Snowdown - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Just a note about your feedback @KANSAS, the cards are returned anyway, independently of whether the Greench died or not. Feedback of my own coming soon
Secret Santa Snowdown - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Sorry I wasn't here to give feedback last competition, at least I get to make up for it by participating in two competitions this week :P
It's like Jungle Panther, but more spectral. I am considering either making it cost less, or have stealth right from the start. I also might change it to gain stealth when a secret is triggered, but I don't think that would work out quite as well.
Feedback:
Wailor, I am torn between loving and hating this card. On one hand, it is really hard to use and the payoff is negligible (you could just play Al'Akir the Windlord, which is just as easy to cheat out but deals more damage). But on the other hand, it feels like a genuine freeze shaman card. And part of me likes it more due to the general silliness and dumbness of the card. Personally, I would give it 5 stars, but I wouldn't count on other people rating it very high.
Demonxz95, I feel the same way about your card now as I did before. It is a cool card, but since you have to freeze a minion and then play this in the same turn, it feels kind of clunky to use.
Bloodmefist, First off I think the correct wording would be "Battlecry: Cast a number of random Secrets equal to this minions attack". I don't really like the idea of this card being neutral, since it shouldn't be that easy for non-secret classes to get secrets. I would put it in either Hunter or Paladin since both of those classes have handbuff and Secrets. I would probably pick paladin since most of Hunters handbuff stuff is beast related.
FenrirWulf, Your card is too wordy. I get why you'd do it, but it is unnecessarily complicated to pick a friendly minion, and then freeze enemy minions opposite it. Just have it freeze a target enemy minion. I like the back-and-forth of the original version, but it it is very wordy. I would either have it say "Freeze an enemy minion, give this to your opponent" and then just have it last forever. Or have it say "Freeze an enemy minion, give this to your opponent (5 Snowballs left!)" and then have it stop after 5 times. The version on the right is well balanced, but too similar to Frost Nova.
anchorm4n, Balance-wise, I think it is fine. It is exactly the type of wide-board effect hunters would get. But flavor-wise I think your card is lacking. Having a "Christmas tree" in hearthstone means having 5 secrets, so it would make sense for your literal Christmas tree card to benefit from having 5 secrets. It also doesn't make a whole lot of sense flavor-wise for a Christmas tree to deal damage.
DestroyerR, First off, you did a great job with the Grinch reference. Not just in name and art, but also in the ability. In terms of balance and play, I think the card could use some tweaking. I am guessing the idea is that you will want to kill him before he gives the cards back, and the opponent wants him alive so they don't have to lose cards. But at a 6 mana 4/5 it feels a little awkward. I would give him more health to make him harder for your opponent to kill, and I would also put him in a class so that warlocks don't get more mill potential on top of Tickatus and Gnomeferatu. Also, I am pretty sure it fits the competition since all it says is it has to give your opponent cards. It doesn't say where they had to come from, or what had to happen to them first.
DavnanKillder, Disguised Saboteur: I would put this in warlock. I get why you put it in rogue, but switching sides, dealing damage to your face, and having those "curse" type effects that mess with your opponent (i.e. Curse of Rafaam, Chaos Gazer, Gnomeferatu etc) are all things warlock does. About balance, I think the 2/5 statline is good, but 4 mana seems like a lot. All this card does for you is damage your opponents face. Spending 4 mana and giving them a minion just to deal some face damage isn't usually a good move. And it is made worse by the fact that your opponent gets some agency in whether or not they trigger the ability. I would change it to 3 mana, or maybe make it a 2 mana 1/4. Nixue, The Awake Winter: First off you should change the wording to just say "Frozen characters don't unfreeze." Second, I would change the name to something like "Awakened Winter" or "Spirit of Winter". It isn't a big deal but right now the name doesn't flow very well, at least to me. About the actual ability, it is very hard to balance because you could potentially have their whole board frozen, in which case if they don't have a removal spell they are stuck for the entire game. On the other hand, 4 health is very easy to deal with if your opponent has a removal spell or a rush minion, or if you don't have enough freezes. So all in all I think it would be too much work to get it balanced properly. I think your other card is a lot better.
The Hearthstone Holiday Sale On Battle.net Isn't a Sale
I know, but the season pass doesn't have a cool new Rogue hero I want.
Group Therapy! Need to blow off some steam? Mega salty? Here's the place!
So I made a Highlander Mage deck and tried it out in Ranked.
Guess what I faced? Three straight Shamans that all had Custodian on 2, with the weapon equipped by turn 4 or 5.
Game over after that, of course.
Fuck Shamans. Anyone playing that braindead deck is a fucking degenerate.
Original Character, Do Not Steal - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Again, I really don’t see what’s unwritten here. The prompt was to make a card for a character not in standard, not to make a card for a character which has a card not in standard. It’s like saying evolve shaman is a wild archetype because some evolve shaman cards are no longer in standard
The Hearthstone Holiday Sale On Battle.net Isn't a Sale
Its just par for the course with Greedstone. The Grinch would approve!
Original Character, Do Not Steal - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Wow ... i asked and it got an ok - and it wasn't even a problem according to the rules ... but ok , can't change that but still a little annoying that it happened the way it did. To be sure i will ask some stuff in the next competition before i post a card because it seems there are some "unwritten" rules :)
and congratz to the winners !
Can you just like delete Go Hard?
If you want to beat go hard you just could play one of the new scars decks. with the help of The Scargrounds go hard is practically useless and with Bloodsworn Pledge you will make your units survive PYB aswell