@anchorm4n I thought the flavor was pretty lacking honestly.
First off, that art was of a completely different character (and, well... you had the future Toki art for it, so not like there was no choice).
Second, the effect didn’t click at all with the flavor for me. Copying cards in your opponent’s deck is a well known Priest trope, and never once did it strike me in a time travel context
thanks and lol, here I was thinking new art would be better than recycling future Toki for the umpteenth time. I know it wasn't exactly the right character, but there's certainly a big resemblance. The idea for the effect was born from the purple part at the bottom of the art like in some shadow Priest cards. Discovering cards in your opponent's deck was the closest I could come up with for a "look into the future" idea but yeah, I should have explained that.
Which leaves us with Anub'ar Ambusher, Lilian Voss and Mistwraith. I have no idea what the cheese refers to and all three of them have a different rarity so my guess is Lilian Voss because Legendary cards are orange and so is most cheese lol. Mistwraith would obviously be a rare card, but that wouldn't fit with how the other lines were meant to be solved.
So it's a Rogue card that somehow combos with other cards. I'm not really sure about the rarity, but there are not many cards in Rogue that give you Health.
I have three ideas. My first guess is Galakrond, the Nightmare. Rogue card of the highest rarity giving you Armor and cheap cards to combo with.
Honestly I wasn't very surprised about the low number of submissions. Thematically, it wasn't too narrow and the list grumpymonk provided on page 1 was invaluable. Major "but": Finding good art was very difficult and that's what I suppose stopped quite a few people from participating.
If anyone feels like it, I would be grateful for some quick feedback on Toki, Mistress of Time, which was my submission for this week. I aimed at twisting her flavor from Toki, Time-Tinker giving you Legendarys from the past to my version giving you cards from the future by discovering a copy from your opponent's deck. Was it too annoying? Too risky?
I can tell you that Deathrattle Hunter has become viable in Standard and Wild. While it's certainly not top tier, the combination of Secrets and Deathrattles has finally come to fruition. Cards like Maxima Blastenheimer, Oblivitron and Flark's Boom-Zooka have found a home and the archetype is super fun AND competetive.
I've been playing mainly Wild these days, where Sylvanas Windrunner is mvp against Big Priests and Warlocks. I can provide a list tonight if you're interested. It's quite close to the one of clawz161, but also features Sneed's Old Shredder (fun card, might try out Oblivitron with Tonks instead of it), Barnes and Master's Call to avoid Barnes and Maxima hitting each other. I've also cut Deathstalker Rexxar in favor of Flark's Boom-Zooka which is crazy good in this deck.
I'm sorry but I have too much work this week to participate in the discussion. I did submit the first halfway good idea I had and will cast my votes, though. Good luck to everyone!
A little defense of my card: I thought giving Mage a wand as a Weapon in an expansion themed around a magic school would be flavourful. I mean, what kind of card type would you make a wand if not a weapon? The wand increasing your magical abilities seemed natural, too, thus the Spell Damage. Triggering the effect was meant to be easy as well, since a mage should not have problems using their wand to their advantage. I concede that the 3/2/1 statline is a bit random but the point I was trying to make is that a "stick" isn't that great of a weapon. Finally, I accept that this would be very powerful in a meta without weapon removal, but my argument against that point is that Scholomance brought along strong Weapons synergies for at least Demon Hunter, Warrior and Rogue.
While we're at it complaining about all the stuff Blizzard has messed up over the years, I'd like to add my own little piece to the pile: Hero Power borders.
It really is beyond me how they can offer new Hero skins on a regular basis without giving us a platinum / diamond / whatever Hero Power border for 1.000 wins.
Lots of players have invested incredible amounts of time to reach that mark and thus by all means earned their bragging rights. So why is it so hard to do the same effing thing as they do at 500 wins and give us a new Hero Power border on top of the in some cases horrible portrait? I am very proud of my 1.000 Hunter wins, but I'd very much prefer to play with Sylvanas than dumb face Rexxar.
So yeah, this is a minor issue for most players, but I'd really like to have a 1.000 wins Hero Power border.
Well, that was a tough one. I eventually got frustrated enough to sit down and write a short analysis of what could be done with a 1 Durability Weapon. That finally wielded 2 interesting ideas. I've put the more straight forward one to use but had to do with mediocre art. Maybe I'll try to go with the rational method for the next weeks instead of following my first gut feeling as I usually do.
If someone's interested: I've submitted Cedar Wand. It was tempting to go full Harry Potter crossover and make it a legendary Druid "Lifestick" that restores all friendly characters to full Health via Spellburst, but cards like this are hard to balance and rarely do well.
The second interesting idea was to make a 0/1 Weapon with a strong Deathrattle for a class that has no easy access to weapons. This would have required more time to thoroughly think through which I don't have right now. That's a shame because using Deathrattles would have been a nice idea this week.
Thank you for all your feedback! It seems Balanced Blade needs some more explanation (which isn't a good sign in the first place).
1) I'm aware of the fact that the art is bad and it remains to be seen if I have the time to look for something better.
2) I know this is close to Gorehowl, that's why I've put it in Rogue instead of Warrior.
3) But then, a) you can go face with Balanced Blade without destroying it and b) Rogue has Doctor Krastinov, Vulpera Toxinblade and Deadly Poison in Standard with many more options to buff the Attack in Wild. Admittedly it needs some setup, but I think this is way more dangerous than Gorehowl.
4) I'll probably drop it to 4/4/1 or maybe even 3/3/1 so the card isn't so dangerous anymore and you don't lose too much tempo playing it at the same time.
That said, I really like the art of Staff of Souls. The issue with this card is that there's no good reason to put it at 1 Durability when Skull of the Man'ari has 3 - a problem several of us seem to be struggling with. I'll see if inspiration strikes and maybe rework the effect. As I've told one of you in my feedback, I'm of the opinion that good art carries you farther than a good idea.
Staff of Souls:
Show Spoiler
Oh hell, here's a third idea. I'm pretty sure this will not be received well because of the current state of Demon Hunter, but I need to get it out of my head. Feel free to prove me wrong :)
More feedback:
Show Spoiler
DestroyerR: I'm still having trouble with Xal'atath's mechanic. The one out I see here is something like "Xal'atath chooses the perfect target." - that way, people would associate the affect with Zeph and understand how it works. I still think it's a cool idea flavorwise. I'd also understand if you would drop the card because it is too risky and Pocket Knife is a nice one, too.
KANSAS: Nice art, nice idea. I'd probably rate it 4 stars right now.
DavnanKillder: Midnight's Scythe is very cool and ready to go imho. 4 stars for the time being, but a strong contender for a 5 stars rating.
grumpymonk: I prefer Detachable Blade. Nice idea!
Wailor: I'm still fine with Mirror Maze being in Priest. Soul Eater looks interesting, too, but I'm not sure if the Weapon would actually break if there are no more Soul Fragments left in your deck. Unstable Felbolt still works if you don't have a friendly minion on board, after all. An unbreakable Soul Eater without a drawback would be OP.
Nirast: Thunderfury looks cool. There's a little error in Vol'jin's Mojo: it isn't a minion (line 2).
linkblade: Looks great and ready to go. Instant 5 stars!
fungusABao: A neutral weapon will probably cost you some points since they aren't a thing in HS right now. That said, The Card of Legend looks cool, but I don't get how The Orb of Eternity is supposed to work. Either it's super easy to break or not at all without weapon removal. I don't like both of these options, but maybe I don't understand the mechanic correctly.
FieselFitz: Yeah, we do usually use fresh art, taking up something that has already been printed will cost you lots of points. Try artstation.com and use very abstract search patterns. I recently noticed that you get lots of cool stuff if you look for "elemental", "dagger" or something similar. I still like the effect, although a Zuljin in Mage might end up OP.
DestroyerR: Even with your explanation I don't understand how the HS A. I. would choose a target. Maybe the "perfect" one, like with Zeph? The flavor is certainly there with Xal'atath being sentient but maybe you need to adjust the wording so the effect becomes more clear.
DavnanKillder: Midnight's Scythe is my favorite even if Warlock isn't a weapons class. You should add a comma after "card".
Nirast: Nice idea, but… Demon Hunter has access to so much attack buff right now that giving them another 4 hits with a guarantee to strike face even through taunts will probably cost you votes. Personally I even refrained from making a DH card for this competition at all (the idea was to make it a 1/1 that gains +1/+1 for each Soil Fragment in your deck). DH needs a nerf and people won't like more support for them until some kind of fix has been implemented. Worgen's Claw is nice but would be better at 3 Mana imho.
Demon: It's a cool idea but I'm having trouble identifying a Worgen in the art. Everything else is fine.
BloodMefist: I prefer Infusion Hammer. Cool idea and very nice art!
Hordaki: Really nice, I like it!
Pokeniner: The general idea is not bad, but paying 2 mana for 2 attack isn't good enough imho.
Wailor: The idea is great, but the execution is tough. Here's why: I prefer the Scholomance art, but I understand your reasoning about the flavor which puts it in Darkmoon. On top of that, it has enough burgle flavor to feel awkward in anything but Priest and Rogue. I'd probably go with a Scholomance Priest card because art carries you farther than puns imho.
linkblade: For your intended use, it would be essential to use the second version. It's a very cool idea, the only thing I can contribute is to suggest to make it a Warlock/Priest dual class card. That would fit both class identies and compliment the colouring.
First idea, not happy with the art yet but I wanted to hear your thoughts about the balance and the effect. I've decided to put it in Rogue because they got some weapon support in Scholomance.
Will add feedback in roughly 12 hours.
Edit: Second idea. A bit wordy, but intriguing. Which one do you prefer and why?
Congrats grumpymonk and DavnanKillder!
This year, I have come prepared :))
Who's in for some restricted Hunter AOE with secret synergy?
Wow, that was fast! Well done, you're next.
I'm small but not dull
Let's target them all
Together we'll thrive
Firing scissor, needle, arrow and knife.
thanks and lol, here I was thinking new art would be better than recycling future Toki for the umpteenth time. I know it wasn't exactly the right character, but there's certainly a big resemblance. The idea for the effect was born from the purple part at the bottom of the art like in some shadow Priest cards. Discovering cards in your opponent's deck was the closest I could come up with for a "look into the future" idea but yeah, I should have explained that.
Good luck to the finalists!
Thanks for the clarification!
1) SI:7 Agent - a Rogue card
2) ?
3) Naga Sand Witch - 5 Health
4) Ice Cream Peddler - costs 4
Which leaves us with Anub'ar Ambusher, Lilian Voss and Mistwraith. I have no idea what the cheese refers to and all three of them have a different rarity so my guess is Lilian Voss because Legendary cards are orange and so is most cheese lol. Mistwraith would obviously be a rare card, but that wouldn't fit with how the other lines were meant to be solved.
So it's a Rogue card that somehow combos with other cards. I'm not really sure about the rarity, but there are not many cards in Rogue that give you Health.
I have three ideas. My first guess is Galakrond, the Nightmare. Rogue card of the highest rarity giving you Armor and cheap cards to combo with.
Honestly I wasn't very surprised about the low number of submissions. Thematically, it wasn't too narrow and the list grumpymonk provided on page 1 was invaluable. Major "but": Finding good art was very difficult and that's what I suppose stopped quite a few people from participating.
If anyone feels like it, I would be grateful for some quick feedback on Toki, Mistress of Time, which was my submission for this week. I aimed at twisting her flavor from Toki, Time-Tinker giving you Legendarys from the past to my version giving you cards from the future by discovering a copy from your opponent's deck. Was it too annoying? Too risky?
Greetings, traveller!
I can tell you that Deathrattle Hunter has become viable in Standard and Wild. While it's certainly not top tier, the combination of Secrets and Deathrattles has finally come to fruition. Cards like Maxima Blastenheimer, Oblivitron and Flark's Boom-Zooka have found a home and the archetype is super fun AND competetive.
I've been playing mainly Wild these days, where Sylvanas Windrunner is mvp against Big Priests and Warlocks. I can provide a list tonight if you're interested. It's quite close to the one of clawz161, but also features Sneed's Old Shredder (fun card, might try out Oblivitron with Tonks instead of it), Barnes and Master's Call to avoid Barnes and Maxima hitting each other. I've also cut Deathstalker Rexxar in favor of Flark's Boom-Zooka which is crazy good in this deck.
gl&hf!
I'm sorry but I have too much work this week to participate in the discussion. I did submit the first halfway good idea I had and will cast my votes, though. Good luck to everyone!
Made my day! :DD
Congrats! Nice card :)
Thanks for the feedback! I'll try to do better next week :)
Fair points all of them.
A little defense of my card: I thought giving Mage a wand as a Weapon in an expansion themed around a magic school would be flavourful. I mean, what kind of card type would you make a wand if not a weapon? The wand increasing your magical abilities seemed natural, too, thus the Spell Damage. Triggering the effect was meant to be easy as well, since a mage should not have problems using their wand to their advantage. I concede that the 3/2/1 statline is a bit random but the point I was trying to make is that a "stick" isn't that great of a weapon. Finally, I accept that this would be very powerful in a meta without weapon removal, but my argument against that point is that Scholomance brought along strong Weapons synergies for at least Demon Hunter, Warrior and Rogue.
While we're at it complaining about all the stuff Blizzard has messed up over the years, I'd like to add my own little piece to the pile: Hero Power borders.
It really is beyond me how they can offer new Hero skins on a regular basis without giving us a platinum / diamond / whatever Hero Power border for 1.000 wins.
Lots of players have invested incredible amounts of time to reach that mark and thus by all means earned their bragging rights. So why is it so hard to do the same effing thing as they do at 500 wins and give us a new Hero Power border on top of the in some cases horrible portrait? I am very proud of my 1.000 Hunter wins, but I'd very much prefer to play with Sylvanas than dumb face Rexxar.
So yeah, this is a minor issue for most players, but I'd really like to have a 1.000 wins Hero Power border.
Well, that was a tough one. I eventually got frustrated enough to sit down and write a short analysis of what could be done with a 1 Durability Weapon. That finally wielded 2 interesting ideas. I've put the more straight forward one to use but had to do with mediocre art. Maybe I'll try to go with the rational method for the next weeks instead of following my first gut feeling as I usually do.
If someone's interested: I've submitted Cedar Wand. It was tempting to go full Harry Potter crossover and make it a legendary Druid "Lifestick" that restores all friendly characters to full Health via Spellburst, but cards like this are hard to balance and rarely do well.
The second interesting idea was to make a 0/1 Weapon with a strong Deathrattle for a class that has no easy access to weapons. This would have required more time to thoroughly think through which I don't have right now. That's a shame because using Deathrattles would have been a nice idea this week.
No blame on you, I knew what I did when I tried it out on ladder. It's sad we don't have the ranked floors for experimentation anymore :(
Thank you for all your feedback! It seems Balanced Blade needs some more explanation (which isn't a good sign in the first place).
1) I'm aware of the fact that the art is bad and it remains to be seen if I have the time to look for something better.
2) I know this is close to Gorehowl, that's why I've put it in Rogue instead of Warrior.
3) But then, a) you can go face with Balanced Blade without destroying it and b) Rogue has Doctor Krastinov, Vulpera Toxinblade and Deadly Poison in Standard with many more options to buff the Attack in Wild. Admittedly it needs some setup, but I think this is way more dangerous than Gorehowl.
4) I'll probably drop it to 4/4/1 or maybe even 3/3/1 so the card isn't so dangerous anymore and you don't lose too much tempo playing it at the same time.
That said, I really like the art of Staff of Souls. The issue with this card is that there's no good reason to put it at 1 Durability when Skull of the Man'ari has 3 - a problem several of us seem to be struggling with. I'll see if inspiration strikes and maybe rework the effect. As I've told one of you in my feedback, I'm of the opinion that good art carries you farther than a good idea.
Staff of Souls:
Oh hell, here's a third idea. I'm pretty sure this will not be received well because of the current state of Demon Hunter, but I need to get it out of my head. Feel free to prove me wrong :)
More feedback:
DestroyerR: I'm still having trouble with Xal'atath's mechanic. The one out I see here is something like "Xal'atath chooses the perfect target." - that way, people would associate the affect with Zeph and understand how it works. I still think it's a cool idea flavorwise. I'd also understand if you would drop the card because it is too risky and Pocket Knife is a nice one, too.
KANSAS: Nice art, nice idea. I'd probably rate it 4 stars right now.
DavnanKillder: Midnight's Scythe is very cool and ready to go imho. 4 stars for the time being, but a strong contender for a 5 stars rating.
grumpymonk: I prefer Detachable Blade. Nice idea!
Wailor: I'm still fine with Mirror Maze being in Priest. Soul Eater looks interesting, too, but I'm not sure if the Weapon would actually break if there are no more Soul Fragments left in your deck. Unstable Felbolt still works if you don't have a friendly minion on board, after all. An unbreakable Soul Eater without a drawback would be OP.
Nirast: Thunderfury looks cool. There's a little error in Vol'jin's Mojo: it isn't a minion (line 2).
linkblade: Looks great and ready to go. Instant 5 stars!
Feedback
fungusABao: A neutral weapon will probably cost you some points since they aren't a thing in HS right now. That said, The Card of Legend looks cool, but I don't get how The Orb of Eternity is supposed to work. Either it's super easy to break or not at all without weapon removal. I don't like both of these options, but maybe I don't understand the mechanic correctly.
FieselFitz: Yeah, we do usually use fresh art, taking up something that has already been printed will cost you lots of points. Try artstation.com and use very abstract search patterns. I recently noticed that you get lots of cool stuff if you look for "elemental", "dagger" or something similar. I still like the effect, although a Zuljin in Mage might end up OP.
DestroyerR: Even with your explanation I don't understand how the HS A. I. would choose a target. Maybe the "perfect" one, like with Zeph? The flavor is certainly there with Xal'atath being sentient but maybe you need to adjust the wording so the effect becomes more clear.
DavnanKillder: Midnight's Scythe is my favorite even if Warlock isn't a weapons class. You should add a comma after "card".
Nirast: Nice idea, but… Demon Hunter has access to so much attack buff right now that giving them another 4 hits with a guarantee to strike face even through taunts will probably cost you votes. Personally I even refrained from making a DH card for this competition at all (the idea was to make it a 1/1 that gains +1/+1 for each Soil Fragment in your deck). DH needs a nerf and people won't like more support for them until some kind of fix has been implemented. Worgen's Claw is nice but would be better at 3 Mana imho.
Demon: It's a cool idea but I'm having trouble identifying a Worgen in the art. Everything else is fine.
BloodMefist: I prefer Infusion Hammer. Cool idea and very nice art!
Hordaki: Really nice, I like it!
Pokeniner: The general idea is not bad, but paying 2 mana for 2 attack isn't good enough imho.
Wailor: The idea is great, but the execution is tough. Here's why: I prefer the Scholomance art, but I understand your reasoning about the flavor which puts it in Darkmoon. On top of that, it has enough burgle flavor to feel awkward in anything but Priest and Rogue. I'd probably go with a Scholomance Priest card because art carries you farther than puns imho.
linkblade: For your intended use, it would be essential to use the second version. It's a very cool idea, the only thing I can contribute is to suggest to make it a Warlock/Priest dual class card. That would fit both class identies and compliment the colouring.
First idea, not happy with the art yet but I wanted to hear your thoughts about the balance and the effect. I've decided to put it in Rogue because they got some weapon support in Scholomance.
Will add feedback in roughly 12 hours.
Edit: Second idea. A bit wordy, but intriguing. Which one do you prefer and why?
Edit 2: Simpler version, might be OP though.