Thanks so much! I was lucky enough to get a turn 1 kill with this one, had all the pieces off the mulligan and the opponent did me a huge favour by dropping survival of the fittest
Over-sexualisation and objectification of women doesn't have that sort of protection: society is divided over the issue and what people see in-game sometimes gets treated as affirmation that it is OK and influences behaviour outside the game.
So while the two things look comparable within the game, the wider context is completely different, leading to sexualised imagery actually being potentially much worse than any amount of violence is.
All of this censorship is in aid of nothing more than satisfying ratings so as to rope in as many people as possible without any angry grandmas getting upset at little Timmy being exposed to something, which quite frankly, is about as easy as googling an innocent enough word like 'grinding'.
On the opinion of people seeing in-game treatment of women and then generalizing it in real life. The answer is simply absurd. The poor treatment of women is, among many other things, likely a result of culture, poor economic status, lack of legal protection, and (very) poor attempts by schools to promote positive intermingling between males and females especially in youth.
If all attempts are being made to ensure that women in entertainment show nothing but the blandest poses with mountains of padding on their fronts, it will never be because of 'safeguarding' or reducing objectification. After all, if I needed was to see girls in skimpy outfits, all I need to do is to take a short walk to the mall.
You seem to forget that Aurelion Sol is not always played on T10.
Freljord offers ramp and other decks pull him out with Thresh and keeps reviving him after that.
He can be played on t6-t10.
You're right, but in that case you shouldn't see Aurelion Sol as the problem, but rather the ramp cards and/or Thresh. 10-cost cards should not be made weaker just because there are other cards that allow you to play/summon them earlier.
I suppose I'll say that the ramp cards were never a problem ever again after they got nerfed. (I'm talking about Wyrding Stones, and Catalyst of Aeons) The only new ramp card we got this time around is the Faces of the Old Ones which saw some play but I'm not sure everyone runs it.
I think that the problem with Aurelion Sol is that he is so easy to level and the cards that you use before AurelionBADCARDNAME Sol are very good and synergistic. These cards would be like Infinite MindsplitterBADCARDNAME, Trundle, Starshaping, Icequake, etc. If you're fighting a slow deck then you are most likely going to win as Aurelion Sol is quite hard to beat early on when the opponent still has like 8 Mana (maybe with 2-3 spell Mana banked.) and even if you don't have Aurelion Sol here, you could have Wyrding Stones to Trundle or Icequake on turn 4 and that shuts down some decks entirely.
I remember Meisterz once said that this Ramp Asol deck is very akin to Quest Rogue in Hearthstone and I couldn't agree less. It's a deck that if you are moderately faster than them, you have quite a good chance to win as long as they don't draw an insane hand. The decks that Hellcopter listed as the slow control decks all loses to this Ramp Asol deck for the same reason that these decks just lose because they can't deal with threat after threat after threat without losing resources and being burnt out in the end to a random big Celestial. Because it's not like RuinationBADCARDNAME beats Asol, it's RuinationBADCARDNAME + cheap spell that does.
Then the easy fix to him is just to make his Level Up to be worse than it is right now. Either its condition, its payoff, or both.
The deck isn't high winrate but that's only because the decks it loses to are the ones that are in Tier 1. Mostly decks that have good midrange and burn tools. I expect that Ramp Asol would do better if some of these Tier 1 decks weren't here, but I don't expect the winrate to skyrocket because other similar decks would just appear.
You seem to forget that Aurelion Sol is not always played on T10.
Freljord offers ramp and other decks pull him out with Thresh and keeps reviving him after that.
He can be played on t6-t10.
You're right, but in that case you shouldn't see Aurelion Sol as the problem, but rather the ramp cards and/or Thresh. 10-cost cards should not be made weaker just because there are other cards that allow you to play/summon them earlier.
I wonder how much they would have paid Laura Baliey that made them believe having her add a few new voice lines would not repay the bundle cost.
Also interesting how many people would have bought it and will not now because of the lack of new voice lines. Seems like a pretty bad business decision.
The best part is that the felosophy bundle was better value for money, both on a per pack basis and because it comes with an unprecedented 2 legendaries in a bundle.
First off, sexualised imagery and killing things in game are completely different and cannot really be compared like for like. Gamers don't actually go out and think it is OK to murder people just because they can in video games, because they know very well it is illegal and all pressures in the real world tell them it would be the wrong thing to do. Hence, murder stays safely within the game.
Over-sexualisation and objectification of women doesn't have that sort of protection: society is divided over the issue and what people see in-game sometimes gets treated as affirmation that it is OK and influences behaviour outside the game.
So while the two things look comparable within the game, the wider context is completely different, leading to sexualised imagery actually being potentially much worse than any amount of violence is.
Regarding the picture being better, it is also in the same clothing as the basic hero, so it wouldn't be distinct enough to be worth bothering with imo.
The Dragon tribal deck seems pretty sweet. I haven't been that impressed with Herald of Dragons - she's super flimsy - but Dragon's Clutch is a great draw tool and the Fury keyword combined with Demacia's various strike spells makes Dragons a very effective midrange deck.
I know the OP doesn't want to talk about Aurelion Sol, but until Shyvana is added to the game later in the Call of the Mountain set, I think it's hard to avoid the overlap. Even if you're not running his as a 3-of, he seems like an important inclusion to make the deck competitive against any Ramp ASol decks, as most of the earlier dragons don't have enough attack to overcome the regenerating trolls.
It seems Aurelion Sol became a hot topic of discussion, so i am going to try my best to break down this card being as impartial as possible. Take your own conclusions if the card looks fair or not at the end.
Lore:Aurelion Sol is one of the Gods who created the Runeterra universe.
Since Aurelion Sol is suposed to be the strongest champion of them all, from a design perspective, is very fitting that his mana cost is set at the highest price possible: 10 mana.
But for a 10 mana cost to see play in any card game, it also requires to have an extremely strong effect. Here goes a list with a few examples of traits hight costs cards own in other games: 1- Deals high ammounts of direct damage; -> King Crush (Hearthstone) 2- Affetcs the board on the same turn its played -> Shadow Reaper Anduim (Hearthstone) 3- Setup an One Turn Kill combo; -> Antonidas (Hearthstone) 4- Very hard to remove; -> Ultimate Falcon (Yu-gi-Oh!) 5- Generate infinite resource overtime; -> Deathstalker Rexxar (Hearthstone) 6- Snowball overtime (wins by himself if left unchecked); -> Ragnaros(Hearthstone) 7- Denny oponnents resources; -> Jynzo (Yu-gi-Oh!) 8- Protect the player from loss/taking damage/heal; -> Malganis (Hearthstone)
Aurelion Sol is a Boss card, and as such, given he has the highest mana cost price possible for a unit, he is supossed to pack the ultimate bomb effect to win games. He needs to have an even stronger effect then Commander Ledros as he costs more mana and uses a champion slot. But is Aurelion Sol unfair? To answer that, we need to look at how other Late game decks are doing.
This is a picture of my meme Purssuit deck. It usually finish games in a single big hit by T9-T12.
Show Spoiler
This is They Who Endure before nerf. It usually finish games by T7-T10.
Show Spoiler
Maokai decks can pull their win condition by T7-T8. That means the oponnent gets 4 more turns as most players can't refill their deck. It usually finish games by T11-T12.
Ezreal / Karma is an OTK deck. It requires Karma to be enlightned to pull off the combo, followed by Ezreal + spells on the next turn. It usually finish games by T11-T12.
Anivia needs to be enlightned to proc her egg and level up, plus an additional turn to generate more Anivia copies. It usually finish games by T11-T12.
Commander Ledros is played on T9 and Atrocity on T10. If Ledros is killed the combo takes longer. It usually finish games by T10-T12.
Are we seeing a pattern here? Most control decks usually end games around T10-T12. Now lets examinate Aurelion Sol:
Aurelion Sol is played on T10 and if his conditions are met, he levels up after THE END OF THE TURN. So best case possible, the player may only play Celestials cards for free on T11 forward. It usually finish games by T11-T12.
Conclusion: I hope my work here can provide a better insight about Aurelion Sol's design for future reference. I personally think Aurelion Sol is fair and on par with other control decks that see play on the current meta.
Little extra -> How to play around Aurelion Sol: Play cheap spells on him to pop his spell shield and follow with a major removal, both with fast speed if possible to prevent counter plays. Another way is to ignore Aurelion Sol completely and focus to kill other units to deny his Level up in the end of the turn. Aurelion Sol by himself is "only" a 10/10 body do nothing with Fury which isn't worth its cost.
Thanks for all feedback concerning my Shadowglaive! Much appreciated!
The watermark will be changed, probably to a custom one since the artwork neither fits Outland/Scholomance and Demon Hunter wasn't a thing before that. If Illidan (or dual classes) could travel in time, it would mostly feel like a Frozen Throne card.
Regarding the effect and it's power level, I think I'm probably content as it stands. Alternatives could be a 3/2/2, 4/3/2 or the current 3/3/2 but legendary instead of epic. @grumpymonk pointed out the awkwardness of not being able to use the weapon the same turn it's played and suggested an end of turn effect instead. I also considered something like "Outcast: After your hero's next attack, gain..." I think this would increase the power level significantly, and the choice between offensive weapon or defensive getaway is in my opinion what makes the card interesting and (more or less) balanced. I also think an immediate effect makes more sense and is more flavorful. It's powerful as it stands, but not too OP like pre-nerfs Demon Hunter if you get my point.
I will give it some more thought and submit tomorrow. :)
Dragons are a cool gimmic for less serious play and i am really fine with them existing the only competetive viable dragons are Aurelion SolScreeching Dragon, Fused Firebrand and The Infinite Mindsplitter and in general its cool to have bulky midrange cards i am not sure if shyvana can make dragons viable (i mean i am 99% sure her levelup has to do with fury triggers) but lets see... for now noxus reigns over Runeterra and we shall see if they turn out as a worthy opponent
Thunder Adrenaline is Rogue/Shaman. Sorry if it looked like another class, but it follows the rules, aLabaster doesn't so I'll drop that.
Yeah, you're right. I guess Druid and Rogue borders look kinda similar.
To be honest, the card fits Rogue pretty well, since drawing a lot is part of their identity. The 5-mana version is very interesting, albeit a bit overpriced IMO.
Blurphylactic
Thanks so much! I was lucky enough to get a turn 1 kill with this one, had all the pieces off the mulligan and the opponent did me a huge favour by dropping survival of the fittest
Branching Out - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Attempting to bridge some mana and beast play between druid and mage. Feedback?
Dragon Focused Decks
FYI, I've seen 2 different players hit top ranks using the above decklist.
Mightier Than the Sword? Seven Wild Pen Flinger Decks to Try Out
I. Hate. This. Card! He’s so mean, and keeps calling me a loser! I’m not a loser... *cries quietly in the corner* Leave me alone!!!
This Week's Hearthstone Tavern Brawl is "Blood Magic - Standard" - Pay Health to Cast Spells
So happy this was helpful.
This Week's Hearthstone Tavern Brawl is "Blood Magic - Standard" - Pay Health to Cast Spells
Glad I could help.
Book of Heroes Datamined - The Mage Adventures of Jaina Proudmoore
All of this censorship is in aid of nothing more than satisfying ratings so as to rope in as many people as possible without any angry grandmas getting upset at little Timmy being exposed to something, which quite frankly, is about as easy as googling an innocent enough word like 'grinding'.
On the opinion of people seeing in-game treatment of women and then generalizing it in real life. The answer is simply absurd. The poor treatment of women is, among many other things, likely a result of culture, poor economic status, lack of legal protection, and (very) poor attempts by schools to promote positive intermingling between males and females especially in youth.
If all attempts are being made to ensure that women in entertainment show nothing but the blandest poses with mountains of padding on their fronts, it will never be because of 'safeguarding' or reducing objectification. After all, if I needed was to see girls in skimpy outfits, all I need to do is to take a short walk to the mall.
Mightier Than the Sword? Seven Wild Pen Flinger Decks to Try Out
Just for those who are interested: Pen Flinger combs extremly well with Hagatha the Witch
Aurelion Sol - The Star Forger: Card breakdown
I suppose I'll say that the ramp cards were never a problem ever again after they got nerfed. (I'm talking about Wyrding Stones, and Catalyst of Aeons) The only new ramp card we got this time around is the Faces of the Old Ones which saw some play but I'm not sure everyone runs it.
I think that the problem with Aurelion Sol is that he is so easy to level and the cards that you use before AurelionBADCARDNAME Sol are very good and synergistic. These cards would be like Infinite MindsplitterBADCARDNAME, Trundle, Starshaping, Icequake, etc. If you're fighting a slow deck then you are most likely going to win as Aurelion Sol is quite hard to beat early on when the opponent still has like 8 Mana (maybe with 2-3 spell Mana banked.) and even if you don't have Aurelion Sol here, you could have Wyrding Stones to Trundle or Icequake on turn 4 and that shuts down some decks entirely.
I remember Meisterz once said that this Ramp Asol deck is very akin to Quest Rogue in Hearthstone and I couldn't agree less. It's a deck that if you are moderately faster than them, you have quite a good chance to win as long as they don't draw an insane hand. The decks that Hellcopter listed as the slow control decks all loses to this Ramp Asol deck for the same reason that these decks just lose because they can't deal with threat after threat after threat without losing resources and being burnt out in the end to a random big Celestial. Because it's not like RuinationBADCARDNAME beats Asol, it's RuinationBADCARDNAME + cheap spell that does.
Then the easy fix to him is just to make his Level Up to be worse than it is right now. Either its condition, its payoff, or both.
The deck isn't high winrate but that's only because the decks it loses to are the ones that are in Tier 1. Mostly decks that have good midrange and burn tools. I expect that Ramp Asol would do better if some of these Tier 1 decks weren't here, but I don't expect the winrate to skyrocket because other similar decks would just appear.
Micro Mummy Bug in Battlegrounds Fixed via Small Client Update, Fixes for Freezing Trap
Are you drawing a soul fragment when it doesn't work or is it just a normal draw?
Aurelion Sol - The Star Forger: Card breakdown
You're right, but in that case you shouldn't see Aurelion Sol as the problem, but rather the ramp cards and/or Thresh. 10-cost cards should not be made weaker just because there are other cards that allow you to play/summon them earlier.
Scholar Jaina Does Not Have Unique Voicelines
I wonder how much they would have paid Laura Baliey that made them believe having her add a few new voice lines would not repay the bundle cost.
Also interesting how many people would have bought it and will not now because of the lack of new voice lines. Seems like a pretty bad business decision.
Branching Out - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Scarlet Agent looks best! There are just intense colors here, which looks good.
[Game] Card Treasure Hunt (The Resurrection Attempt)
Troggzor the Earthinator?
Week 1 of the Forbidden Library - Mega Wild Bundle, Battlegrounds Updates, Disappointing Jaina
The best part is that the felosophy bundle was better value for money, both on a per pack basis and because it comes with an unprecedented 2 legendaries in a bundle.
Book of Heroes Datamined - The Mage Adventures of Jaina Proudmoore
First off, sexualised imagery and killing things in game are completely different and cannot really be compared like for like. Gamers don't actually go out and think it is OK to murder people just because they can in video games, because they know very well it is illegal and all pressures in the real world tell them it would be the wrong thing to do. Hence, murder stays safely within the game.
Over-sexualisation and objectification of women doesn't have that sort of protection: society is divided over the issue and what people see in-game sometimes gets treated as affirmation that it is OK and influences behaviour outside the game.
So while the two things look comparable within the game, the wider context is completely different, leading to sexualised imagery actually being potentially much worse than any amount of violence is.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Regarding the picture being better, it is also in the same clothing as the basic hero, so it wouldn't be distinct enough to be worth bothering with imo.
Dragon Focused Decks
The Dragon tribal deck seems pretty sweet. I haven't been that impressed with Herald of Dragons - she's super flimsy - but Dragon's Clutch is a great draw tool and the Fury keyword combined with Demacia's various strike spells makes Dragons a very effective midrange deck.
I know the OP doesn't want to talk about Aurelion Sol, but until Shyvana is added to the game later in the Call of the Mountain set, I think it's hard to avoid the overlap. Even if you're not running his as a 3-of, he seems like an important inclusion to make the deck competitive against any Ramp ASol decks, as most of the earlier dragons don't have enough attack to overcome the regenerating trolls.
Aurelion Sol - The Star Forger: Card breakdown
You seem to forget that Aurelion Sol is not always played on T10.
Freljord offers ramp and other decks pull him out with Thresh and keeps reviving him after that.
He can be played on t6-t10.
Branching Out - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Thank you everyone for the feedback! I've made a few alternate art versions of the paladin/rogue card as some didn't like the art and/or name.
Which one is better?
Libram Pali
1 and done, ty
Aurelion Sol - The Star Forger: Card breakdown
It seems Aurelion Sol became a hot topic of discussion, so i am going to try my best to break down this card being as impartial as possible.
Take your own conclusions if the card looks fair or not at the end.
Lore: Aurelion Sol is one of the Gods who created the Runeterra universe.
Since Aurelion Sol is suposed to be the strongest champion of them all, from a design perspective, is very fitting that his mana cost is set at the highest price possible: 10 mana.
But for a 10 mana cost to see play in any card game, it also requires to have an extremely strong effect.
Here goes a list with a few examples of traits hight costs cards own in other games:
1- Deals high ammounts of direct damage; -> King Crush (Hearthstone)
2- Affetcs the board on the same turn its played -> Shadow Reaper Anduim (Hearthstone)
3- Setup an One Turn Kill combo; -> Antonidas (Hearthstone)
4- Very hard to remove; -> Ultimate Falcon (Yu-gi-Oh!)
5- Generate infinite resource overtime; -> Deathstalker Rexxar (Hearthstone)
6- Snowball overtime (wins by himself if left unchecked); -> Ragnaros(Hearthstone)
7- Denny oponnents resources; -> Jynzo (Yu-gi-Oh!)
8- Protect the player from loss/taking damage/heal; -> Malganis (Hearthstone)
Aurelion Sol is a Boss card, and as such, given he has the highest mana cost price possible for a unit, he is supossed to pack the ultimate bomb effect to win games. He needs to have an even stronger effect then Commander Ledros as he costs more mana and uses a champion slot.
But is Aurelion Sol unfair? To answer that, we need to look at how other Late game decks are doing.
This is a picture of my meme Purssuit deck.
It usually finish games in a single big hit by T9-T12.
This is They Who Endure before nerf.
It usually finish games by T7-T10.
Maokai decks can pull their win condition by T7-T8. That means the oponnent gets 4 more turns as most players can't refill their deck.
It usually finish games by T11-T12.
Ezreal / Karma is an OTK deck. It requires Karma to be enlightned to pull off the combo, followed by Ezreal + spells on the next turn.
It usually finish games by T11-T12.
Anivia needs to be enlightned to proc her egg and level up, plus an additional turn to generate more Anivia copies.
It usually finish games by T11-T12.
Commander Ledros is played on T9 and Atrocity on T10. If Ledros is killed the combo takes longer.
It usually finish games by T10-T12.
Are we seeing a pattern here? Most control decks usually end games around T10-T12. Now lets examinate Aurelion Sol:
Aurelion Sol is played on T10 and if his conditions are met, he levels up after THE END OF THE TURN. So best case possible, the player may only play Celestials cards for free on T11 forward. It usually finish games by T11-T12.
Conclusion: I hope my work here can provide a better insight about Aurelion Sol's design for future reference.
I personally think Aurelion Sol is fair and on par with other control decks that see play on the current meta.
Little extra -> How to play around Aurelion Sol:
Play cheap spells on him to pop his spell shield and follow with a major removal, both with fast speed if possible to prevent counter plays. Another way is to ignore Aurelion Sol completely and focus to kill other units to deny his Level up in the end of the turn. Aurelion Sol by himself is "only" a 10/10 body do nothing with Fury which isn't worth its cost.
Micro Mummy Bug in Battlegrounds Fixed via Small Client Update, Fixes for Freezing Trap
Strange. I've already downloaded the original update. Yet it's downloading over 1 GB of data right now, not just a small 160 MB fix???
Branching Out - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Thanks for all feedback concerning my Shadowglaive! Much appreciated!
The watermark will be changed, probably to a custom one since the artwork neither fits Outland/Scholomance and Demon Hunter wasn't a thing before that. If Illidan (or dual classes) could travel in time, it would mostly feel like a Frozen Throne card.
Regarding the effect and it's power level, I think I'm probably content as it stands. Alternatives could be a 3/2/2, 4/3/2 or the current 3/3/2 but legendary instead of epic. @grumpymonk pointed out the awkwardness of not being able to use the weapon the same turn it's played and suggested an end of turn effect instead. I also considered something like "Outcast: After your hero's next attack, gain..." I think this would increase the power level significantly, and the choice between offensive weapon or defensive getaway is in my opinion what makes the card interesting and (more or less) balanced. I also think an immediate effect makes more sense and is more flavorful. It's powerful as it stands, but not too OP like pre-nerfs Demon Hunter if you get my point.
I will give it some more thought and submit tomorrow. :)
Dragon Focused Decks
Dragons are a cool gimmic for less serious play and i am really fine with them existing the only competetive viable dragons are Aurelion Sol Screeching Dragon, Fused Firebrand and The Infinite Mindsplitter and in general its cool to have bulky midrange cards i am not sure if shyvana can make dragons viable (i mean i am 99% sure her levelup has to do with fury triggers) but lets see... for now noxus reigns over Runeterra and we shall see if they turn out as a worthy opponent
Branching Out - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread
Yeah, you're right. I guess Druid and Rogue borders look kinda similar.
To be honest, the card fits Rogue pretty well, since drawing a lot is part of their identity. The 5-mana version is very interesting, albeit a bit overpriced IMO.