The meta is in such a good place that it's really hard to pick a deck to climb with. For me, Undead Priest did the trick in the end, probably because that's the deck that felt the most comfortable for me. The second best alternative would be Frost DK because it comes with more options to discover stuff that might help you when things start to go south.
I agree with what the others have said. Your best shot seems to be following AeroJulwin's idea of making it a Start of game effect imo. That said, I'd like to encourage you to further explore the "when your hero dies" avenue, it's a very creative approach.
AeroJulwin
It's a very good card and I can absolutely relate with you when it comes to being passionate about a card. The one thing I'd like to throw in is adding a little more flavor to the effect of the tokens by making them Cast when drawn, Freeze a random enemy minion and discover a Frost spell (I'm pretty indifferent about the thiefing aspect here). Also thanks for suggesting to make my minion a Demon, that was a great idea that also helped me find another character.
Wailor
I kinda like both of them, but I think I prefer the Priest minion. As the others have said, it should come down a little later though. Maybe 5 Mana?
Demonxz95
Going down the Rune avenue is a really good idea and it's a little strange you're the only one doing so so far. What I don't like about your card is that it's absolutely useless if you randomly generate or discover it and you're running a mixed Rune deck or playing another class, but that probably can't be helped. Also the art isn't terribly exciting, so I'm leaning towards 3 or 4 stars at the moment.
linkblade 91
Very nice, very flavorful card. I gave you 4 stars for the moment, but I'll have a second look once all the entries are in.
I've tried something very similar for Standard (https://outof.games/hearthstone/decks/44914-handbuff-bbu-dk). But since you're a way better deckbuilder than I am, I'm very curious how this works out. I'm defintely going to try it next season, thanks a lot for sharing!
Hmmm that's a tricky one, precious. No combat means you're probably very limited in what you can do and that might influence the big deciding factor for me: overall game time. I won't pay AAA prices for games that offer less than 80ish hours of meaningful game play. Sorry, not sorry.
Congrats to Wailor for winning the season! What a race it was catching up with Demon who seemed to have gained an insurmountable head start.
All I have to say about the lack of participation is that I'm sorry - I know I'm part of the problem. I've tried to explain my reasons behind no longer participating but just like you guys, I can't really say what would need to change to make this work.
Demon and linkblade, please be asured that your efforts are seen and very much appreciated. You've done so much during this season, on stage and behind the scenes, and we're very very grateful for it. Even if traffic seems to be going down a lot, the core community of OutofGames is still my favorite Hearthstone related place on the web. You are one wholesome bunch of people and I'm happy to be a part of this.
Since the theme of this last comp fits my favorite card I've already designed this season, I'll give it another try with a recycled card. Let me know if there's anything I should change! I'm very fond of the art and the effect, but maybe I could tweak the name, the stat line or something?
Interesting choices overall, I have to say I'm a bit surprised Hawkstrider Rancher dodged a nerf though. That card is just completely bonkers and wins games for Undead DK almost on its own (curves very nicely into Nerubian Swarmguard). Undead Priest getting hit is a bit sad, but I guess that can't be helped.
The meta feels super weird at the moment. No matter which deck I play, I seem to reliably queue it into hard counters. I sincerely hope the nerfs will shake up the field.
That said, please keep on the new structure for these articles! It's really cool not only to see which decks are good, but also what counters them.
Congrats, that's a really cool achievement. I hope your situation gets better soon.
Regarding the bot situation, I'm experiencing the same at the moment. I've decided to try and go for triple legend this month as in all three game modes on EU and so far, I'm facing like 95% bots in Classic. Once you figured out how they work, they're fairly easy to beat and it seems like ranking up is more of a question of patience than anything else. Might yet change though, I've only reached the platinum ranks so far. I'm a little confused why Blizzard keeps the mode alive and tolerates the bots at this point to be honest.
Anyway, Wild will still have a long way to go towards a healthy meta with stuff like Mine Rogue, Big Priest, Shudderwock Shaman, Quest Mage and to some extent Secret Mage staying strong. But I'll try and focus on the bright side of things which is getting rid of one of the worst offenders and the prospect of some more attention for the format once the second expansion hits (see the roadmap for the Year of the Wolf).
In the meantime, buffs to cards like Halduron Brightwing and Thori'belore will make playing off meta decks that much more interesting. There's a really fun Arcane Hunter deck with double Yogg as the top end that's already almost decent and getting Halduron to buff spells in deck and hand would make him a lot less awkward to play. Regarding the phoenix the expected endless resurrection option would come in really handy and make it a nice board control tool even for Wild standards. Even before Festival of Legends and the Warsong Commander changes I've met a guy on ladder who piloted an Enrage Warrior build to legend with Thori'belore in it so there's certainly potential here if you know what you're doing.
Last but not least, Stranglethorn Heart. Beast Hunter already is an incredibly strong deck and I would have expected the nerf to twig alone cause it to rise to like tier 2. I can't imagine another way to buff the new legendary spell than decreasing its Mana cost and that will make the deck even better. In my opinion, this is a very good thing because it's a board centric, "fair" deck and I'd like to see more of those in the upper reaches of tiers. I can recommend Swizard's list if you want to try it.
All in all, very nice changes even if I would have wished for more nerfs in Wild. Now let's hope they don't turn DK's power level down so hard that it follows DH's footsteps as the exciting, new and utterly unplayable class in Wild.
What an awesome list of decks! Questline Outcast Demon Hunter has to be one of the hardest decks to pilot in the format. Beast Hunter feels very strong and is only held back by the Druid shenanigans we're all hoping to vanish soon. Pure Divine Shield Paladin has the giga flavor and is super fun to play (if you don't face aggro).
I'm still interested in trying out Egg DK, but my dust is slowly running out and I'm missing Cage Head. Has anyone tried that deck yet? How is it doing?
Congrats to Loknax! Actually three in a row if you're counting the April Fool's competition. Nice card and a good example for the fact that the spirit of the card is more important than a perfect execution (the last line should have been written in italic). I also found the artwork very impressive and fitting.
Just ignore the post above. I won't be participating on a regular basis anymore since I'm too competitive to fully focus on the creative process and ignore the results of the competitions. While I don't mind losing in general, I just don't have fun when I get the feeling I have no chance at winning at all. And that has been the case for quite a while now, no matter the reasons for it. Thanks again for organising these to the staff and also thanks to the great community in the discussion threads! I've always felt welcome and appreciated there. gl & hf everybody!
Neat idea! For some reason my brain keeps telling me this should be a rare and the art isn't a 100% match as you can see the "leaf arrow", but only one character gets hit. Still a solid 4 star contender for me.
AeroJulwin
The Priest card looks really cool, but you'd need a token with a different art piece for it (or rather find a new art piece for "Harmonic" and use your current one for "Dissonant"). I agree about the shark not being overly exciting. Also thanks for your feedback, I found it to be very useful!
Wailor
Amazing design, I really like it. Strong 5 star vibes for me, I'll need to see the rest of the field first though.
linkblade91
Ooof this will be hard to rate. Creativity and design = 5 stars. Playability in the actual game? Horrible. You'll probably get 4 stars from me because you made me smile.
Demonxz95
This is in a weird place between stage 1 having a super hard to meet condition and stage 2 being absolutely busted. Have you considered giving it 2 or 3 attack / cost? That might make it easier to balance.
P0NG's art is a placeholder for now. I'm trying to find another piece I've used earlier, but no success so far. If anyone happens to know where it's hiding, I'd be grateful for a pointer.
The meta is in such a good place that it's really hard to pick a deck to climb with. For me, Undead Priest did the trick in the end, probably because that's the deck that felt the most comfortable for me. The second best alternative would be Frost DK because it comes with more options to discover stuff that might help you when things start to go south.
Kinda late feedback, I'm sorry:
I've tried something very similar for Standard (https://outof.games/hearthstone/decks/44914-handbuff-bbu-dk). But since you're a way better deckbuilder than I am, I'm very curious how this works out. I'm defintely going to try it next season, thanks a lot for sharing!
Hmmm that's a tricky one, precious. No combat means you're probably very limited in what you can do and that might influence the big deciding factor for me: overall game time. I won't pay AAA prices for games that offer less than 80ish hours of meaningful game play. Sorry, not sorry.
Congrats to Wailor for winning the season! What a race it was catching up with Demon who seemed to have gained an insurmountable head start.
All I have to say about the lack of participation is that I'm sorry - I know I'm part of the problem. I've tried to explain my reasons behind no longer participating but just like you guys, I can't really say what would need to change to make this work.
Demon and linkblade, please be asured that your efforts are seen and very much appreciated. You've done so much during this season, on stage and behind the scenes, and we're very very grateful for it. Even if traffic seems to be going down a lot, the core community of OutofGames is still my favorite Hearthstone related place on the web. You are one wholesome bunch of people and I'm happy to be a part of this.
Since the theme of this last comp fits my favorite card I've already designed this season, I'll give it another try with a recycled card. Let me know if there's anything I should change! I'm very fond of the art and the effect, but maybe I could tweak the name, the stat line or something?
Interesting choices overall, I have to say I'm a bit surprised Hawkstrider Rancher dodged a nerf though. That card is just completely bonkers and wins games for Undead DK almost on its own (curves very nicely into Nerubian Swarmguard). Undead Priest getting hit is a bit sad, but I guess that can't be helped.
The meta feels super weird at the moment. No matter which deck I play, I seem to reliably queue it into hard counters. I sincerely hope the nerfs will shake up the field.
That said, please keep on the new structure for these articles! It's really cool not only to see which decks are good, but also what counters them.
Congrats, that's a really cool achievement. I hope your situation gets better soon.
Regarding the bot situation, I'm experiencing the same at the moment. I've decided to try and go for triple legend this month as in all three game modes on EU and so far, I'm facing like 95% bots in Classic. Once you figured out how they work, they're fairly easy to beat and it seems like ranking up is more of a question of patience than anything else. Might yet change though, I've only reached the platinum ranks so far. I'm a little confused why Blizzard keeps the mode alive and tolerates the bots at this point to be honest.
From a Wild perspective the nerf to Twig of the World Tree was long overdue. I hope they really nuke it into unplayability because Druid still has Wildheart Guff and Floop's Glorious Gloop - the latter alone can ramp you up by the full 20 Mana if your opponent has a board and you combine it with Flipper Friends or Scale of Onyxia.
Anyway, Wild will still have a long way to go towards a healthy meta with stuff like Mine Rogue, Big Priest, Shudderwock Shaman, Quest Mage and to some extent Secret Mage staying strong. But I'll try and focus on the bright side of things which is getting rid of one of the worst offenders and the prospect of some more attention for the format once the second expansion hits (see the roadmap for the Year of the Wolf).
In the meantime, buffs to cards like Halduron Brightwing and Thori'belore will make playing off meta decks that much more interesting. There's a really fun Arcane Hunter deck with double Yogg as the top end that's already almost decent and getting Halduron to buff spells in deck and hand would make him a lot less awkward to play. Regarding the phoenix the expected endless resurrection option would come in really handy and make it a nice board control tool even for Wild standards. Even before Festival of Legends and the Warsong Commander changes I've met a guy on ladder who piloted an Enrage Warrior build to legend with Thori'belore in it so there's certainly potential here if you know what you're doing.
Last but not least, Stranglethorn Heart. Beast Hunter already is an incredibly strong deck and I would have expected the nerf to twig alone cause it to rise to like tier 2. I can't imagine another way to buff the new legendary spell than decreasing its Mana cost and that will make the deck even better. In my opinion, this is a very good thing because it's a board centric, "fair" deck and I'd like to see more of those in the upper reaches of tiers. I can recommend Swizard's list if you want to try it.
All in all, very nice changes even if I would have wished for more nerfs in Wild. Now let's hope they don't turn DK's power level down so hard that it follows DH's footsteps as the exciting, new and utterly unplayable class in Wild.
Thanks, I'm going to do just that once the next round of nerfs hits.
Congrats to Wailor! Defintely my favorite this week!
What an awesome list of decks! Questline Outcast Demon Hunter has to be one of the hardest decks to pilot in the format. Beast Hunter feels very strong and is only held back by the Druid shenanigans we're all hoping to vanish soon. Pure Divine Shield Paladin has the giga flavor and is super fun to play (if you don't face aggro).
I'm still interested in trying out Egg DK, but my dust is slowly running out and I'm missing Cage Head. Has anyone tried that deck yet? How is it doing?
Congrats to Loknax! Actually three in a row if you're counting the April Fool's competition. Nice card and a good example for the fact that the spirit of the card is more important than a perfect execution (the last line should have been written in italic). I also found the artwork very impressive and fitting.
Just ignore the post above. I won't be participating on a regular basis anymore since I'm too competitive to fully focus on the creative process and ignore the results of the competitions. While I don't mind losing in general, I just don't have fun when I get the feeling I have no chance at winning at all. And that has been the case for quite a while now, no matter the reasons for it. Thanks again for organising these to the staff and also thanks to the great community in the discussion threads! I've always felt welcome and appreciated there. gl & hf everybody!
I'll chime in with some feedback:
Not entirely accurate imo. Aren’t you guaranteed a legendary in your first 10 golden packs of each expansionas well?
... said the person called Hydrafrog :D
Here's my first idea:
SN1P-SN4P found a very versatile friend!
P0NG's art is a placeholder for now. I'm trying to find another piece I've used earlier, but no success so far. If anyone happens to know where it's hiding, I'd be grateful for a pointer.
Congrats to Loknax!
Congrats to Loknax!