I'm a bit hestitant to admit it, but I'm a filthy netdecker (and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one). Even if I'm repeating myself, outof.cards is the most awesome Hearthstone page on the web for me. Still, there are two things that are closely related to each other which I have to look for on other pages. So here are my suggestions how you could at least partially avoid that if you wanted to:
1) Top decks
Not sure how the algorythms work, but right now the "hot" and the "top" decks are showing almost the same results. You have that cooperation with HSReplay running, so why not use it some more? I suggest keeping the "hot" section as it is (I guess it's based on views, comments and upvotes?) and displaying the lists with the highest win rates from HSReplay in "top", updated daily at midnight or some such. Sometimes people are just looking for the best decks to grind the ladder with and right now, it's quite difficult to find them if there doesn't happen to be a post like this on the frontpage. It goes without saying that keeping the filters as they are would be vital if that is possible.
2) Meta Reports
This might be a little insolent, but I'd really appreciate it if there was a section where you point us to meta reports. Everybody has their favorites but I think we can agree about the top 3 or something. You could either post a short news article whenever a new one comes out or silently update a site where they are all displayed with a link to their respective external site. I know this would be pretty much advertizing third party content but since OOC understandably can't provide such reports themselves, why not make things for users a bit easier? While we're at it, a collection of podcasts would be pretty awesome, too.
I hope you don't get these ideas the wrong way. It's just that OOC is my platform of choice for everything social about Hearthstone right now, but if I want to be competitive, I have to look elsewhere most of the time. Maybe you are fine with that, but if you want to cater to a bigger audience, the two points above might be places to start.
Wow, that's next level depth of design and the reason why I like to compete with you veterans so much: I'm learning a lot.
I will tinker some more with your text tomorrow, but maybe just cutting the "always" might be an acceptable solution. It isn't really necessary, even if the text sounds better with than without that word. "Always" is also very rarely used in HS so far. "Your Hero Power summons Stoneclaw Totem."... Hmmmm.
Honestly, I think tinkering with the font size shouldn't be an immediate reason for a DQ as long as you don't go out of the window with it. I mean you have to compensate for a single letter, that should be done by going -1 or -2 and won't probably be noticed at all if people don't know it from the start. I've tried out alternate wording for KANSAS' card and it still looked okay at -4. We could also ask Shadows but I'm all for not asking questions in cases like this.
@Fedrion: I understand your train of thought, I've done something similar in that competition that made us design effects that trigger next turn. But this week is about having 2 lines of text max and so your current version doesn't work. :/
@KANSAS: I feared as much. I've tinkered a bit on Hearthcards and you get it into two lines if you set the font size to -5 and end the first line with "Legendary". I don't know where the DQ line is drawn when it comes to altering font size, but for my eyes this looks okay. If you choose to ignore my little nitpicking issue, I'd definitely go with the original wording.
@Demon: Thanks for the explanation. Regarding the text, why don't you simply phrase it in the present tense? "Your Hero Power always summons Stoneclaw Totem."
Feedback: I must say I really love this week's theme and your cards. Simplicity is one of the key advantages of HS and building a competition around that was genious. Thanks, JFK!
Arkasaur
The power level of a Poisonous minion that deals damage via Battlecry in general is fine for me. You have lowered the stats in a good way and I like how the effect, the art and the name come together. Two points that are worth discussion imho are the amount of damage the Battlecry deals and the rarity of the card. I think I would leave it at 3 damage but make it a rare.
Fedrion
Nice to have you back! Like you said, solid card. I like it.
BasilAnguis
It's a simple card indeed, but I like those. One thing I'd check if I were you is if tutor cards used the "from your deck" wording in Rastakhan. They're publishing cards without that phrase today, but we're trying to be historically accurate where we can. I hope that doesn't mess up the two lines restriction.
KANSAS
I prefer Grimstone. Really nice card, just like you described it. One thing I'd check if I were you is if tutor cards used the "from your deck" wording in Blackrock Mountain. They're publishing cards without that phrase today, but we're trying to be historically accurate where we can. I hope that doesn't mess up the two lines restriction.
Wailor
I agree with the others, 3 Mana sounds fair enough. Other than that, really nice card!
grumpymonk
I have to agree that this is the most interesting design so far this week. Really cool idea, well done!
linkblade
I really like the effect and it fits very well in RR. I'm not fully convinced about the art, though. I can't remember having seen such a creature in HS before… are they a part of the WoW universe? I don't play that game, but if I had to guess I'd rather expect this to be a Runeterra minion.
Demon
It's a simple but very solid effect on that iconic 1/1/3 statline. I like it. That said, two minor issues: I'm no native speaker, but "Earthwarder" got me irritated for a moment. Shouldn't it be "waren"? Then I'm not sure why you're using future tense in the effect ("will always summon"). Don't aura cards usually use present tense ("always summons")? I've run a quick check and there's not a single card in the database that has the word "will" on it.
Wow, this is really impressive. I know 700 wins is a frightening grind, but the 1.000 wins Demon Hunter portrait is one of the best in the game for me, so maybe that's something you can put your mind on when you spam Illidan. I've also found the newish Deathrattle / Il'gynoth hybrid decks very fun to play and powerful, maybe that's something you want to look into. The downside is that games usually take 10-15 turns, Odd Demon Hunter would be way faster.
I guess I can say I have achieved all I ever wanted and more, that is getting to legend in Standard and Wild. I'm also looking forward to more golden and 1.000 Heros, but I usually play what I feel like at that moment and only actively start to grind a class when I'm about 100 wins away from a treshold. I'm really, really bad at Arena so 12 wins isn't something I'm even trying to achieve. I might give it a go in Duels if I ever get bored enough, but right now I'm happy with Standard & Wild.
Thanks for all your feedback! Just to save me some points in the voting: I have actually checked the wording and Scholomance still used the "from your deck" phrase in Double Jump, so I'll leave my card as it is for consistency.
Will add feedback first thing tomorrow morning (roughly 12 hours from now).
It's very similar to the card I won competition 2.1 with, but the art is just so fitting for the effect. The flavor is about a Squire who is too lazy to fetch his Paladin's weapon the ordinary way and resorts to magic instead. Nice way to tutor Ceremonial Maul or Underlight Angling Rod and it was even possible to play those on curve when Scholomance came out because First Day of School was at 0 Mana back then. The card only gets better with Hammer of the Naaru and Libram of Judgment added to the pool. Could also fetch you Val'anyr in wild.
The Snowglobe was rightfully critisized as too complicated, so I dug for some fitting piece of art. Ended up with something pretty cool, here's my first take for it:
What do you think? It's a huge powercreep of Inner Demon, but Druid isn't as aggressive as Demon Hunter and life gain has been a thing for Malfurion every now and then.
More feedback:
allthehype
The flavor is certainly there, using Arthas for a Paladin shadow spell is a cool way to work with this prompt. I prefer the Renounce Darkness version between the two. As they are right now, you should better use a custom watermark. Spell School tags are given out retroactively, but it would not make sense to mention them in a Knights of the Frozen Throne card text since they had not existed back then.
Ilphelkiir
This one is a bit difficult to judge. I admire your creativity on the one side, but then it's pretty much game over for your opponent when this gets played. I guess there is a reason why Celestial Alignment sets both players to equal standings mana-wise. So no, I don't think I like it. I'm sorry.
linkblade
Nice one, you're good to go in my opinion.
grumpymonk
Hmmmm I think I like the idea, it certainly sparks creativity because there are quite a few possibilities to combo this. The art doesn't comvince me yet though, it's not dark enough for a Shadow spell for my taste.
Nirast
While I do like Forged in Frost, the art doesn't transport the effect clearly enough for me. Frostbite is okay I guess, it synergizes with the self damage cards of Warrior, even if freezing them is a huge drawback for that kind of combo.
Hordaki
Nice idea, it has flavor and looks balanced. I like it!
I usually visit the page several times a day since Hearthstone is my number 1 hobby right now. My main interest lies in HS News articles, the Weekly Card Design Competition and the Card Treasure Hunt. I also check for cool new deck ideas now and then.
Wow, that's a really cool riddle. I can see easily three different directions this could go. Let's start with one of the obvious possibilities: Reckless Experimenter?
The flavor is almost bound to be a bit off with this theme, but here is what I came up with:
I'm trying to bring the spell generation and the Dragon themes for Priest from Ashes of Outland together in this one. It's a quite powerful effect so maybe 4 Mana is still too cheap.
Feedback:
R
I like the pun but giving Mage a card that draws 2 for 2 Mana over two turns is probably not the best idea.
Demon
I think the card has potential, but the "Give your hero Taunt" effect might cost you some points. There's no card like this in the game and while Valeera is able to gain Stealth, Taunt doesn't come as naturally for Garosh (or Uther).
linkblade
For me, you have managed to create the most flavorful card yet. My (minor) problem with Forsake the Light is Lothraxion the Redeemed (and to a lesser extent Steward of Darkshire). It's good you've put the card in Frozen Throne, but it would be a massive threat in todays Odd Paladin. Maybe make it cost 2?
Wailor
I like Purging Flame the most, very flavorful idea. Hibernate is a bit off because the Beast has to die first which doesn't fit the Hibernation theme very well. Forest Fire is okay, but Druid usually doesn't sacrifice their own minions. So yeah, the Priest card is the best in my eyes.
Oof, I got quite a beating in the finals with no less than eleven 1-star votes. But at least the participation in the finalist voting saw a solid rise of 50%. Let's hope it stays that way.
I'm learning to play Il'gynoth Demon Hunter and having a lot of fun. Super strong deck, as far as I can tell right now Face Hunter is a bit of a problem, but everything else works out fine.
I'm a bit hestitant to admit it, but I'm a filthy netdecker (and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one). Even if I'm repeating myself, outof.cards is the most awesome Hearthstone page on the web for me. Still, there are two things that are closely related to each other which I have to look for on other pages. So here are my suggestions how you could at least partially avoid that if you wanted to:
1) Top decks
Not sure how the algorythms work, but right now the "hot" and the "top" decks are showing almost the same results. You have that cooperation with HSReplay running, so why not use it some more? I suggest keeping the "hot" section as it is (I guess it's based on views, comments and upvotes?) and displaying the lists with the highest win rates from HSReplay in "top", updated daily at midnight or some such. Sometimes people are just looking for the best decks to grind the ladder with and right now, it's quite difficult to find them if there doesn't happen to be a post like this on the frontpage. It goes without saying that keeping the filters as they are would be vital if that is possible.
2) Meta Reports
This might be a little insolent, but I'd really appreciate it if there was a section where you point us to meta reports. Everybody has their favorites but I think we can agree about the top 3 or something. You could either post a short news article whenever a new one comes out or silently update a site where they are all displayed with a link to their respective external site. I know this would be pretty much advertizing third party content but since OOC understandably can't provide such reports themselves, why not make things for users a bit easier? While we're at it, a collection of podcasts would be pretty awesome, too.
I hope you don't get these ideas the wrong way. It's just that OOC is my platform of choice for everything social about Hearthstone right now, but if I want to be competitive, I have to look elsewhere most of the time. Maybe you are fine with that, but if you want to cater to a bigger audience, the two points above might be places to start.
Thanks for the laugh, really cool description! :D
Wow, that's next level depth of design and the reason why I like to compete with you veterans so much: I'm learning a lot.
I will tinker some more with your text tomorrow, but maybe just cutting the "always" might be an acceptable solution. It isn't really necessary, even if the text sounds better with than without that word. "Always" is also very rarely used in HS so far. "Your Hero Power summons Stoneclaw Totem."... Hmmmm.
Honestly, I think tinkering with the font size shouldn't be an immediate reason for a DQ as long as you don't go out of the window with it. I mean you have to compensate for a single letter, that should be done by going -1 or -2 and won't probably be noticed at all if people don't know it from the start. I've tried out alternate wording for KANSAS' card and it still looked okay at -4. We could also ask Shadows but I'm all for not asking questions in cases like this.
@Fedrion: I understand your train of thought, I've done something similar in that competition that made us design effects that trigger next turn. But this week is about having 2 lines of text max and so your current version doesn't work. :/
@KANSAS: I feared as much. I've tinkered a bit on Hearthcards and you get it into two lines if you set the font size to -5 and end the first line with "Legendary". I don't know where the DQ line is drawn when it comes to altering font size, but for my eyes this looks okay. If you choose to ignore my little nitpicking issue, I'd definitely go with the original wording.
@Demon: Thanks for the explanation. Regarding the text, why don't you simply phrase it in the present tense? "Your Hero Power always summons Stoneclaw Totem."
Feedback: I must say I really love this week's theme and your cards. Simplicity is one of the key advantages of HS and building a competition around that was genious. Thanks, JFK!
Wow, this is really impressive. I know 700 wins is a frightening grind, but the 1.000 wins Demon Hunter portrait is one of the best in the game for me, so maybe that's something you can put your mind on when you spam Illidan. I've also found the newish Deathrattle / Il'gynoth hybrid decks very fun to play and powerful, maybe that's something you want to look into. The downside is that games usually take 10-15 turns, Odd Demon Hunter would be way faster.
I guess I can say I have achieved all I ever wanted and more, that is getting to legend in Standard and Wild. I'm also looking forward to more golden and 1.000 Heros, but I usually play what I feel like at that moment and only actively start to grind a class when I'm about 100 wins away from a treshold. I'm really, really bad at Arena so 12 wins isn't something I'm even trying to achieve. I might give it a go in Duels if I ever get bored enough, but right now I'm happy with Standard & Wild.
Thanks for all your feedback! Just to save me some points in the voting: I have actually checked the wording and Scholomance still used the "from your deck" phrase in Double Jump, so I'll leave my card as it is for consistency.
Will add feedback first thing tomorrow morning (roughly 12 hours from now).
I'm running a Deathrattle / Il'gynoth hybrid Demon Hunter that feels pretty strong. Might finally give Rush Warrior a go for a change though.
Don Han'Cho and Feat of Strength?
Here's my first idea for this week:
It's very similar to the card I won competition 2.1 with, but the art is just so fitting for the effect. The flavor is about a Squire who is too lazy to fetch his Paladin's weapon the ordinary way and resorts to magic instead. Nice way to tutor Ceremonial Maul or Underlight Angling Rod and it was even possible to play those on curve when Scholomance came out because First Day of School was at 0 Mana back then. The card only gets better with Hammer of the Naaru and Libram of Judgment added to the pool. Could also fetch you Val'anyr in wild.
Congrats, Arkasaur!
The Snowglobe was rightfully critisized as too complicated, so I dug for some fitting piece of art. Ended up with something pretty cool, here's my first take for it:
What do you think? It's a huge powercreep of Inner Demon, but Druid isn't as aggressive as Demon Hunter and life gain has been a thing for Malfurion every now and then.
More feedback:
I usually visit the page several times a day since Hearthstone is my number 1 hobby right now. My main interest lies in HS News articles, the Weekly Card Design Competition and the Card Treasure Hunt. I also check for cool new deck ideas now and then.
Wow, that's a really cool riddle. I can see easily three different directions this could go. Let's start with one of the obvious possibilities: Reckless Experimenter?
The flavor is almost bound to be a bit off with this theme, but here is what I came up with:
I'm trying to bring the spell generation and the Dragon themes for Priest from Ashes of Outland together in this one. It's a quite powerful effect so maybe 4 Mana is still too cheap.
Feedback:
Congrats to JFK!
Oof, I got quite a beating in the finals with no less than eleven 1-star votes. But at least the participation in the finalist voting saw a solid rise of 50%. Let's hope it stays that way.
I'm learning to play Il'gynoth Demon Hunter and having a lot of fun. Super strong deck, as far as I can tell right now Face Hunter is a bit of a problem, but everything else works out fine.
Nice idea! You should add a Cagematch Custodian or two.
The Marsh Queen?