Nice article! Please delete me from the leaderboard though, I haven't won anything (yet!) ;-)
First of all, I'd like to point out what I like most about the WCDC:
1) The community. Thanks again for all the support!
2) The mods. You are quick in response and fair in judgement. If you make a mistake, you admit it freely and you learn from them. I couldn't ask for more.
3) The voting page. Promoting new submissions to egalize the number of votes on each card is genious!
I think the improvements most asked for are well known to you, but I'll type out what comes to my mind nevertheless. Once again, big love for Flux or whoever added the preview tool on the submission page!
1) Finalists shouldn't be allowed to vote in the finalist voting. There were several competitions where people would have won if they had downvoted their opponents and who knows how many where that actually happened.
2) I would be very happy if the time schedule could be shifted to 2 hours earlier. I know that's a very selfish thing, but the new themes come out at 11 pm local time (CET) and at this time I'm either asleep or no longer creative. Maybe we could have a poll for this, as it's very dependend of where the majority of competitors lives. Before all else, it must be manageable for Shadows or whoever moderates the competitions though.
3) I would be open to try out a new voting system. The question of how to rate cards was quite frequently discussed throughout the season. Providing people with a frame would be the obvious solution, like using the current 5 star system to sperately rate things like Balance, Flavor, Art, Creativity and Abscence of mistakes for each card personally which then generates a calculated overall rating based on those categories. That would increase the "work" you'll have to do voting on cards by x5 and might result in less votes though, so maybe someone else has a better idea.
@Xarkkal: Thanks, I'll finish some more cards before I show them to you. I do have some lore issues, but I'll open a seperate thread for this. Too bad you don't have the time to contribute your own custom expansion. I was so surprised when I read that you're new to this as well. I found your cards among the best balanced through all the season.
That was a surprisingly creative theme. Good luck to all of you! My favorites are Back Alley Sniper and Storm Captain.
I also want to say thanks to the community and especially to the veterans for introducing me and the other noobs into the world of custom card design. The whole season was a blast and I got sucked in deeper and deeper, culminating in a custom expansion I'm working on right now (nothing to show yet, I only have a new keyword and 6 or 7 legendaries done to get the shiny OP cards out of my head). This is a great, helpful and positive community and I'm proud to be part of it. I'm looking forward to what's next!
I like the mirror stats of Davy and the ship. Summoning the Sailor is a good idea. The watermark fits well and is a nice alternative to the Palm Tree most of us used. You found great art, they are fitting together very well.
Concerns:
1) It's still a huge chunk of stats. You'll get 13/13 over 3 bodies for 7 mana! That's almost Dragonqueen Alexstrasza's powerlevel for 2 mana less. I think I'd prefer the effect to be a Deathrattle, which would also make it easier to fulfill the condition because Davy himself counts toward it.
2) Davy's art looks a little too big, is it possible to zoom out a tiny bit? If not, at least try to move him a bit to the right - the legendary dragon's horn is too close to Davy's head for my taste.
3) Are you sure you want The Flying Dutchman to summon a sailor at the end of each turn? That way, your opponent has to deal with 2 of them each of their turns if he can't remove the ship the turn after it was summoned (one sailor at the end of your opponen'ts turn, one at the end of yours). That's really powerful!
4) While the flavor is there if you look at the art and the effects, I don't see a reason why this should be a warlock card. I guess that can't be helped, though.
Sorry for double posting but I need to declare my undying love to Flux because he stealth implemented that much needed preview tool for the submission sheet. You are the best!
Interesting, I've almost suggested to make it a legendary. I had the same problem with your card that you and linkblade had with mine: the first impression was scary, but the more you think about it, the more reasonable it gets. So my advice would be to keep it at 4 and an epic. The effect might be at the brink of legendary worthiness (Dragonbane feels a bit stronger), but the art definitely isn't for me.
Also thanks for your feedback, I will definitely submit the feminist version, giving her a unique touch!
I must say I'm a little disappointed there's no cake eating mouse for 3 mana with 1 attack and 4 health yet.
As promised, more feedback.
BloodMefist
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I agree with the other guys who said that the Hunter card is the best. It's flavorful and small beasts always come in handy in Hunter.
KANSAS
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I like your newest version and your reasoning about the balance is perfectly fine. Well done!
Cg8889
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The Hunter card surely is the most interesting. The effect is quite creative without being completely crazy. You could try to find better art for the weapon and I was wondering if the token shouldn't be a legendary as well (like Lich King and Tirion's).
bananenparty
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I'd drop the Murloc, there's no reason why this should be tagged a Pirate. The Trogg is okay but probably too expensive.
Fedrion
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The others already pointed out the wording issues. I also don't feel the flavor, Divine Shield and Pirates don't mix well in my eyes.
Nirast
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Nice pun! I prefer the second version. I'm not sure about Pirates or Vampires being a thing in KotfT… maybe give it a custom watermark?
mantiax
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I like the art, but two tribe effects are boring.
Xarkkal
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This looks incredibly strong at first glance. I mean, AOE is supposed to be a weakness of Hunter if I remember correctly… but then, 2 damage to all enemies on 6 isn't THAT bad. It might scare people though, so you should make sure to write a good explanation.
The only thing I'm quite sure I got right is "approximately Pi" - that should be 3 = three = tree. "gore" would have been fitting for the "lots of blood" part...
This is kinda ridiculous, but is there a native speaker who would be so kind and explain to me why it's called "Card Designer Enthusiast"? I would have expected to be an Enthusiast of Card Design or probably rather the process of Card Designing. Why the -er?
I made a mistake with my entry where I forgot to add the Pirate Tribe tag. Is there a way it could be re-entered? Also, what do you think? :)
Unfortunately no, you can't edit your submission. You also should have written "Pirate" and "Reborn" with capital letters. Finally, some people will deduce points for using the Classic watermark on a card with Reborn. I'm afraid those are strong indicators for a 1 star rating if you don't get disqualified for the missing Pirate tag in the first place.
You should have come here before submitting, all of those mistakes would have been avoidable. It could have been a good enough entry, not the most creative, but solid enough.
I agree with Demonxz95. Southsea Bladedancer is probably your best card, but you need to change the art. I also might increase the cost to 3 mana. 2 mana to hit three things for 2 damage is really good, especially when they aren't random targets like with Cleave or other similar cards. Also if she had more health you could set up some interesting trades running her into smaller minions and then killing the ones with higher attack through the ability, but with 1 Health she will die no matter what she hits. *edit* I really like the 6 mana 5/2 statline and the art is pretty good. All around nice card.
Thank you! But it actually is a 6 mana 6/2 right now and since the statline is my last issue with her do you think I should drop the attack to 5? Are there any meta cards at 6 health that ask for removal at the moment?
Thanks for your feedback! I searched half the Internet until I found art that brings together Pirates and Demon Hunters (please note her eye patch). Unfortunately, I don't think the new art fits the original statline (2/2/1), so I reworked that as well. 4/4/2 would have been cool, but that's Illidari Felblade's slot, so I tried to sneak in at 6. The attack is high enough to make an impact while the health should be low enough to either die on the spot or at the worst be cleared easily next turn.
What do you think? Any better ideas for the start line? I'll add more feedback tomorrow.
Which of them do you like most? I'd really appreciate feedback for all of them!
Here are my 2 cents for your cards:
bigcums:
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I'm quite new to card design competitions but it already feels as if I have seen this effect on 5 different cards. I'm sorry, but it's not very exciting for me.
Elfensilver:
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You should specify which Pirates the Corsair summons: are they random or copies of himself? I guess you meant him to summon copies of himself. In that case, 2 copies would be very OP, I'd reduce it to one. I don't like the Helmsman. Seawind Seeker is interesting, but too weak to actually see play. Don't forget to add the period at the end of the text. Also: would you mind to send me the art if you should decide not to use it?
Me0203:
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The Freebooter is too complicated for my taste. The Gravedigger is cool, but there's no reason why this should be a Pirate (and not a Murloc). Spectral Cannoneer looks very interesting to me. Nice card!
Valor1204:
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I like Possessed Raider and I think it's balanced as it is. I hope you don't mind my Possessed Brigadier, but people usually are afraid of random Demons and will probably prefer your card because of this.
Pokeniner:
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The one thing I don't like about your Paladin Legendary is the "only once" part in the token. Bonebeard doesn't appeal to me (cool name, though).
KANSAS:
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I like Davy Jones, nice flavor! The Flying Dutchman gaining Stealth at the end of your turn is OP though. Removing an 8 health perma-stealthed minion is nearly impossible for the most classes. Why not make it gain Stealth at the start of your turn? That way it's up to you if you want to reveal it or not. Orc Raider is a solid card, but not very interesting.
CursedParrot:
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Interesting card! As others already stated, you should make it equip the staff. Personally, I don't mind a 5 cost card clogging my starting hand if the effect is powerful enough to make up for that. I'm not completely convinced that this condition is fulfilled with your card…
Xarkkal:
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Really cool art! As the others said, it's probably too powerful as it is. I tried something similar with Murlocs in competition 1.05 and made it cost 7. Ended up in 4th place. Edit: I just voted on the first bunch of cards and I don't know if that matters to you, but someone else used the art (for quite a bad card imo).
linkblade91:
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I think you should be forbidden to create Paladin cards. :P Seriously though, I like the Staffwielder most. I'm not sure if it shouldn't cost 4, but since it needs at least one more mana to gain the bubble anyway, 3 is probably okay.
Demonxz95:
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Great card! Probably my favorite so far. If anything, the art might be a bit too sexy to actually be printed.
I don't know guys. I've been playing Wild almost exclusively for the last months and at least for that game mode, I don't agree. Sure, if you're as bad at deck building as me, you're hopelessly lost. But praise Yogg there are sites like OoC where you can straight out net deck or at least get some inspiration for your semi home brews.
My point is, a wide variety of decks is viable right now. Pirate Warrior, Quest Mage, Mech and Odd Paladin, Disco and Cube Lock, Raza Priest, Odd Demon Hunter, Big Shaman. There's aggro, there's control, sometimes you meet a Druid who plays some weird kind of combo and Mecha'Thun is still a thing. It's not even rock / paper / scissors, I managed to outvalue Pirate Warriors with Disco Lock often enough while both decks belong to the aggro department. In my eyes, Wild is a healthy place right now. The only issue I have is that playing fun decks at the ranked floors is no longer possible because of the MMR matchmaking. But then, this is a good thing overall and the true problem are people abusing the casual mode.
As I already said, I rarely play standard these days, only for a quest now and then. When I do so, I usually use no minions mage and even that deck nets me a win around 50% of the time.
I understand your arguments about card creation from Dragonqueen Alexstraza and the likes, but it's nowhere as bad as you make it look imho.
Nice article! Please delete me from the leaderboard though, I haven't won anything (yet!) ;-)
First of all, I'd like to point out what I like most about the WCDC:
1) The community. Thanks again for all the support!
2) The mods. You are quick in response and fair in judgement. If you make a mistake, you admit it freely and you learn from them. I couldn't ask for more.
3) The voting page. Promoting new submissions to egalize the number of votes on each card is genious!
I think the improvements most asked for are well known to you, but I'll type out what comes to my mind nevertheless. Once again, big love for Flux or whoever added the preview tool on the submission page!
1) Finalists shouldn't be allowed to vote in the finalist voting. There were several competitions where people would have won if they had downvoted their opponents and who knows how many where that actually happened.
2) I would be very happy if the time schedule could be shifted to 2 hours earlier. I know that's a very selfish thing, but the new themes come out at 11 pm local time (CET) and at this time I'm either asleep or no longer creative. Maybe we could have a poll for this, as it's very dependend of where the majority of competitors lives. Before all else, it must be manageable for Shadows or whoever moderates the competitions though.
3) I would be open to try out a new voting system. The question of how to rate cards was quite frequently discussed throughout the season. Providing people with a frame would be the obvious solution, like using the current 5 star system to sperately rate things like Balance, Flavor, Art, Creativity and Abscence of mistakes for each card personally which then generates a calculated overall rating based on those categories. That would increase the "work" you'll have to do voting on cards by x5 and might result in less votes though, so maybe someone else has a better idea.
Good luck to the finalists!
@Xarkkal: Thanks, I'll finish some more cards before I show them to you. I do have some lore issues, but I'll open a seperate thread for this. Too bad you don't have the time to contribute your own custom expansion. I was so surprised when I read that you're new to this as well. I found your cards among the best balanced through all the season.
That was a surprisingly creative theme. Good luck to all of you! My favorites are Back Alley Sniper and Storm Captain.
I also want to say thanks to the community and especially to the veterans for introducing me and the other noobs into the world of custom card design. The whole season was a blast and I got sucked in deeper and deeper, culminating in a custom expansion I'm working on right now (nothing to show yet, I only have a new keyword and 6 or 7 legendaries done to get the shiny OP cards out of my head). This is a great, helpful and positive community and I'm proud to be part of it. I'm looking forward to what's next!
I like the mirror stats of Davy and the ship. Summoning the Sailor is a good idea. The watermark fits well and is a nice alternative to the Palm Tree most of us used. You found great art, they are fitting together very well.
Concerns:
1) It's still a huge chunk of stats. You'll get 13/13 over 3 bodies for 7 mana! That's almost Dragonqueen Alexstrasza's powerlevel for 2 mana less. I think I'd prefer the effect to be a Deathrattle, which would also make it easier to fulfill the condition because Davy himself counts toward it.
2) Davy's art looks a little too big, is it possible to zoom out a tiny bit? If not, at least try to move him a bit to the right - the legendary dragon's horn is too close to Davy's head for my taste.
3) Are you sure you want The Flying Dutchman to summon a sailor at the end of each turn? That way, your opponent has to deal with 2 of them each of their turns if he can't remove the ship the turn after it was summoned (one sailor at the end of your opponen'ts turn, one at the end of yours). That's really powerful!
4) While the flavor is there if you look at the art and the effects, I don't see a reason why this should be a warlock card. I guess that can't be helped, though.
a rich German plate equipped with a danger noodle and a precious orb third class aesthetics
(sorry, I had to edit the riddle because I remembered something wrong)
Sorry for double posting but I need to declare my undying love to Flux because he stealth implemented that much needed preview tool for the submission sheet. You are the best!
Interesting, I've almost suggested to make it a legendary. I had the same problem with your card that you and linkblade had with mine: the first impression was scary, but the more you think about it, the more reasonable it gets. So my advice would be to keep it at 4 and an epic. The effect might be at the brink of legendary worthiness (Dragonbane feels a bit stronger), but the art definitely isn't for me.
Also thanks for your feedback, I will definitely submit the feminist version, giving her a unique touch!
I must say I'm a little disappointed there's no cake eating mouse for 3 mana with 1 attack and 4 health yet.
As promised, more feedback.
BloodMefist
KANSAS
Cg8889
bananenparty
Fedrion
Nirast
mantiax
Xarkkal
Gorillabot A-3!
lot's of blood = gore
*don't speak Latin*
machine = bot
apple's initial = A
approximately pi = 3
Nice one :-)
Twig of the World Tree?
The only thing I'm quite sure I got right is "approximately Pi" - that should be 3 = three = tree. "gore" would have been fitting for the "lots of blood" part...
Goru the Mightree?
This is kinda ridiculous, but is there a native speaker who would be so kind and explain to me why it's called "Card Designer Enthusiast"? I would have expected to be an Enthusiast of Card Design or probably rather the process of Card Designing. Why the -er?
Unfortunately no, you can't edit your submission. You also should have written "Pirate" and "Reborn" with capital letters. Finally, some people will deduce points for using the Classic watermark on a card with Reborn. I'm afraid those are strong indicators for a 1 star rating if you don't get disqualified for the missing Pirate tag in the first place.
You should have come here before submitting, all of those mistakes would have been avoidable. It could have been a good enough entry, not the most creative, but solid enough.
Thank you! But it actually is a 6 mana 6/2 right now and since the statline is my last issue with her do you think I should drop the attack to 5? Are there any meta cards at 6 health that ask for removal at the moment?
Thanks for your feedback! I searched half the Internet until I found art that brings together Pirates and Demon Hunters (please note her eye patch). Unfortunately, I don't think the new art fits the original statline (2/2/1), so I reworked that as well. 4/4/2 would have been cool, but that's Illidari Felblade's slot, so I tried to sneak in at 6. The attack is high enough to make an impact while the health should be low enough to either die on the spot or at the worst be cleared easily next turn.
What do you think? Any better ideas for the start line? I'll add more feedback tomorrow.
Here are my ideas for this week:
Which of them do you like most? I'd really appreciate feedback for all of them!
Here are my 2 cents for your cards:
bigcums:
Elfensilver:
Me0203:
Valor1204:
Pokeniner:
KANSAS:
CursedParrot:
Xarkkal:
linkblade91:
Demonxz95:
Thanks so much for this article! I came up with an idea for a custom expansion last night and was looking for excatly the things you've explained.
Congrats, well done!
Congrats LesserHealer! Cool idea!
I don't know guys. I've been playing Wild almost exclusively for the last months and at least for that game mode, I don't agree. Sure, if you're as bad at deck building as me, you're hopelessly lost. But praise Yogg there are sites like OoC where you can straight out net deck or at least get some inspiration for your semi home brews.
My point is, a wide variety of decks is viable right now. Pirate Warrior, Quest Mage, Mech and Odd Paladin, Disco and Cube Lock, Raza Priest, Odd Demon Hunter, Big Shaman. There's aggro, there's control, sometimes you meet a Druid who plays some weird kind of combo and Mecha'Thun is still a thing. It's not even rock / paper / scissors, I managed to outvalue Pirate Warriors with Disco Lock often enough while both decks belong to the aggro department. In my eyes, Wild is a healthy place right now. The only issue I have is that playing fun decks at the ranked floors is no longer possible because of the MMR matchmaking. But then, this is a good thing overall and the true problem are people abusing the casual mode.
As I already said, I rarely play standard these days, only for a quest now and then. When I do so, I usually use no minions mage and even that deck nets me a win around 50% of the time.
I understand your arguments about card creation from Dragonqueen Alexstraza and the likes, but it's nowhere as bad as you make it look imho.