BloodMefistOld God Fanatic 850804 PostsJoined 05/28/2019
Posted 4 years, 5 months ago
Seems pretty good in Libram Paladin since you'll likely be able to proc the effect somewhat consistently. Definitely a bit worrying at 2 health since so many things can clear it though.
BloodMefistOld God Fanatic 850804 PostsJoined 05/28/2019
Posted 4 years, 5 months ago
Seems like a decent card in Highlander decks as a medium-cost board clear, but we'll have to see what kind of spells are made to properly assess the value of a lot of these Spellburst cards.
BloodMefistOld God Fanatic 850804 PostsJoined 05/28/2019
Posted 4 years, 5 months ago
I think this card is fantastic. It can control the board, pressure the board with bodies, and pressure the opponent's face with damage. A great card to help close out games w/ Control Warrior.
BloodMefistOld God Fanatic 850804 PostsJoined 05/28/2019
Posted 4 years, 5 months ago
Always been a fan of big minions, always been a fan of deathrattle minions, so I really dig this heckin chonker. My main concern is in how easy several classes can disrupt him. Rogue has cheap ways to return it to the hand and Mage has poly and Reno to remove the effect completely. Hopefully there is some support for him in the set and he isn't a 1-off.
BloodMefistOld God Fanatic 850804 PostsJoined 05/28/2019
Posted 4 years, 5 months ago
Had a tricky time with this one.
Jerias looks to make use of Warlocks ability to abundantly provide 1/1 tokens and replace them with much better stat-lines. I dug for notable pirates in the Warcraft universe and thought Jerias seemed pretty cool. His effect also pushes a bit of flavor since in-lore he tried to replace two of his killed crew members. Not super sold on his effect since it isn't particularly interesting though.
Amalgam-mate is my personal favorite out of the three initial entries, partially just for the pun. I wanted to use the Amalgamate minion art since it already felt predominantly pirate to me. I decided to go with Paladin for the class since they make the most use out of a variety of tribal tags, although Murloc and Mech are the main ones that benefit. Dragons are also Paladin identity and Beasts could definitely have some neutral synergy that might care about this card.
Parrot Tamer overlaps with the last contest, but I wanted to find a bridge between Beasts and Pirates that worked for Hunter, since Hunter already has some potential connections in aggressive playstyle and weapons. Captain's Parrot is not a good card, but getting two + a 3/2 might be good enough to see play.
Will try to get feedback out by the end of the day!
BloodMefistOld God Fanatic 850804 PostsJoined 05/28/2019
Posted 4 years, 5 months ago
Load of feedback coming up! EDIT: All feedback is ready!
Show Spoiler
linkblade91: I like Primal Fury using underused basic/classic cards, but it isn't a very interesting effect overall. Not a fan of Aldor, I feel like it just does too much and has a decent statline to boot. I really like Volcanic Guardian since it supports chaining elementals, something I wish we got more of. I think it would be better if it were a statted a bit more aggressively or given taunt since it si currently 7 mana for a big dude that doesn't affect the board state.
Demonxz95: A nice simple and flavorful effect, I really like it. It can't do any degenerate pop-off shenanigans since you typically only get 1-2 combos off in a turn and it's pretty easy to remove. Not sure there's much I would change about this card.
KANSAS: I like the effect, but the flavor still doesn't mesh quite well with me. A Counterfeit Coin doesn't make a lot of sense since you're paying him to do something. Keeping the name as "Back-alley Dentist" would make the Counterfeit Coin make a bit more sense and further fit the flavor into Gadgetzan.
Xarkkal: I agree that the only real change this needs is the removal of Rush. I was initially worried that it would be too strong even without Rush, but then I remembered how weak RR was as a set and that Hunter got a '4 mana 7/7' secret card in Uldum. Remove Rush and I think this is good to go!
Pokeniner: I always liked Felcannon and was sad that Mech Warlock never got more support, so I'm a big fan of this design. That said, I do think Boomsday is not the right set for her. Since Mech warlock was not been supported in any existing set, I think you should use a unique/custom set emblem. I also think "Nether-borg Nezzie" over "Nether-cyborg Nezzie" rolls off the tongue a bit easier. Balance-wise, I think she could be 7 mana with the other Mech requirement, or remove the Mech requirement and make her a 5/3 as an inversion of the Felcannons and as a weaker statline.
Nirast: Not sure how I feel about this card. I like other methods of summoning Ragnaros, but this opens the door for some potential abuse cases (you list Priest and Mage as options) and doesn't feel in-flavor. Ragnaros isn't comprised of his servants, he is his own entity. I think it could be reworked to a battlecry with an elemental on the board or elemental played last turn requirement, a bit like how Shaman got that card to summon Al'Akir. Something like "If you played 4 Elementals last turn, summon Ragnaros" as a starter idea.
anchorm4n: Really like Beast Tamer's effect. Wording I think would be 'if youre opponent control 3 or more minions' rather than 'has'. I think a name like 'Menagerie Tamer' or 'Menagerie Beast Master' would work since it is in line with other beast cards from ONiK.
grayghost39: Seems too strong right now, an alternative reading could be 4 mana 3/3 Battlecry: Give a minion +2/+2 and Taunt, which is similar to a down-costed Bonemare. I think keeping the current effect but increasing the cost to 5 would work, or making both options add to your hand to slow it down. With the ladder, you could also lower the cost to 3 or increase its stats. You could also play around with it adding two Marks for extra flexibility.
CovenantKevlar: Like the flavor and the effect. Also like how it is a much slower Lackey card, meaning it is much harder to abuse. I think the wording needs to be changed a bit though. Reworded to "Add three 'EVIL Cable Rats' to your hand" frees up more card space is more consistent with existing wording.
Cg8889: I like Illidari Strategist, but agree that the card does feel a bit cluttered. That said, I can;t think of a way to get the same effect while cutting down on card text. If it were consistent with other cards, it would have even more text and say "Add a 'Coordinated Strike' spell to your hand". You could alter the effect by upping the cost and making it cast Coordinated Strike instead of adding it to your hand. Although it is the same as saying "Summon three 1/1 Illidari with Rush", it does cut down on card space significantly.
MrRhapsody: I like the flavor of Beast Training Manual, but it's a bit of a boring effect. I like Surprise Element for the play on words, but think it is not interesting enough. Weather Forecast is fantastic and super flavorful. I agree with some other comments that Blizzard is a bit weird since it is a Mage spell and think that Rain of Toads could be a decent substitute.
bigcums: I really like this effect and how it encourages control Paladin. I think restricting it to spells might be too difficult since many Paladin healing effects are not spells. I think you could raise the required healing but remove the spell requisite and it would be good to go. That said, I also understand wanting to keep the healing at 8 cuz Rag, so maybe a different restriction like 8 health to your hero?
CursedParrot: I like Mistress of Fate the most out of the two, but the wording should be a bit different. It should be "Shuffle three 'Plot Twist' spells into your deck". This is more consistent with other cards and takes up less space. Not a fan of the quest since it seems a bit janky to use. You'll likely complete it by the time you need your Pure Paladin cards to come online, but including neutral cards just to turn them into really strong buff cards seems jank. It also might reach a critical mass of Hand of Adals that is too strong.
grumpymonk: I like Drill Sergeant the most of the three. It is nice to have a predictable discover-esque effect that your opponent can more reasonably interact with. I am a tad scared of Heroic Strike generation to mid-range/aggro warrior, so I might consider increasing the cost and stats to push it further from aggro's grubby hands. Clever Marksman is interesting for his synergy, but makes me go 'meh' when I look at him. Briggite is interesting and a close second for me, but it doesn't hit quite right for me compared to Drill Sergeant.
bananenparty: An interesting effect, but I dont think it will work. You could just shove this into Zoo and not care about your opponent getting Fireballs because you dont cast any spells.
BloodMefistOld God Fanatic 850804 PostsJoined 05/28/2019
Posted 4 years, 5 months ago
I liked the direction Ishanah pushed, but she was definitely too strong. I toned down her offensive stats and made it into a weaker, but continuous effect. Her immediate board impact is not nearly as strong, but she puts a bit more pressure on the board by herself.
I love the Hungry Crab idea too much to abandon it, but the spell was too niche and janky to use. Slacker has good stats for the cost, but basically requires you to trade him in or get rid of him yourself lest the opponent gets a free tempo swing. I think it creates some interesting play options from both sides. Not sold on the name, open to suggestions!
I liked the original design for Set the Table, but thought I would see how a slightly different approach would work/be received. Overlaps a bit more with Silverware Golem and isnt as unique, but the effect is much easier to make use of since you do not need an overabundance of cards that discard to play it. It also takes away the major pop-off potential that the old design was capable of and offers a more mediocre pop-off.
IRL work stuff has slowed me down in getting feedback out, but I'll try to get some out tomorrow!
BloodMefistOld God Fanatic 850804 PostsJoined 05/28/2019
Posted 4 years, 6 months ago
Ah, that lovely time of week when the new contest rolls in and the creative juices get pumping again. Finally succeeded in my mission to make it to finals and now setting my sights to winning a contest (although it's very hard and unlikely). A bit unsure when the quotation marks need to be added, but I think they don't need it if they're summoned and do if it is another effect (not 100% on this).
Ishanah pushes control Priest by offering a potentially huge way of stabilizing against aggressive matchups. Against other control matchups its a bit more difficult to get value since Lightwell doesn't offer the same threat level it does to aggressive decks. Lightwell is a card that basically never ever gets seen in games and is widely considered to be one of the weakest cards. I wanted to push it so that people fear the Lightwell and consider it enough of a threat. A bit worried about the costing of this Ishanah, since four Lightwells is technically 8 mana worth of minions, and she comes with a decent taunt body.
I knew from the get-go I wanted to try to make something Hungry Crab related since there is so much humor available in that concept. Fishy acts as a 'payoff' for having a lot of small murlocs since you can efficiently trade them in for 1 mana 3/4s. Early designs were cheap murlocs that added Hungry Crabs to both player's hands. It became too hard to find a good balance in minion form, so I tried to push it into a one-sided spell instead. Thinking about lowering the cost to add in symmetrical Hungry Crab-adding again, but unsure if that's a good direction to pursue.
Set the Table! is because I love Discard Warlock and I love Silverware Golem. It always felt awful to have a hand full of discarding cards but no discard payoffs, so I made Set the Table! works especially well in an overabundance of discard effects since you need to discard first to set it off, and then find a way to discard the golems. I love the Silverware Golem discard-summon animation especially and love the idea of seeing it proc a lot of times in a game. A bit worried about the swingy potential in the card, but my love for discard is too great and I think the amount of set-up required makes it alright.
BloodMefistOld God Fanatic 850804 PostsJoined 05/28/2019
Posted 4 years, 6 months ago
Aight, some new revisions/ideas to throw out there.
Made Grennan a bit bulkier so that he works better as a proactive play. Got mixed feedback on his cost, but I think I'm pretty happy with where he stands in terms of cost flexibility. As a note/reminder, he doesn't just work with mana overloaded last turn, so cheap cards that overload can also increase his potency. Is it enough to make Dust Devil good? Probably not, but its something.
I tuned Meryl into an epic from a set/flavor that makes more sense for the effect. Warlocks only had 1 Lifesteal spell at KofT release, but quickly got another one in KnC. He also synergizes with Defile from KofT, allowing two sets of boosted damage waves. The odd-cost also means that he isn't abusable in even-warlock, which came out a couple sets later. I know the Lifesteal part of his effect is still very niche, but I think that's fine considering a 3 mana 4/3 spell damage +1 is already a decent card.
Cyanigosa and her effect didn't make the cut, so I moved on to an different idea. I liked the flavor of Arcane Watcher and wanted to invoke the idea of a construct defending mages. A bit shaky on the size of the attack buff and 7 health, but I think the condition and inability to abuse it with silence effects warrants it.
Feedback time! Done with entries up to bigcums!
Show Spoiler
linkblade91: Really like the idea of Enraged Moonkin, but I think it needs to be clarified on whether or not the attack bonus applies on the opponent's turn too. As it stands, opponents hitting your face will take at least 2 damage since your hero gains attack from spell damage on their turn too. On a more minor note, I think the art or the name should be changed to better fit the other. The art doesn't give me an 'Enraged' vibe. Also dig Essence Leacher. I thought about making a similar effect, but with armor in Mage, but went with my own take on a 3 mana Warlock spell damage minion. Essence Leacher can lead to some serious healing capabilities with spells like Rain of Fire or Dark Skies, which is something to be a bit wary of. Maybe increase the cost and stats to lower its swing potential. Overall, both solid entries.
Demonxz95: Your original Tarecgosa unfortunately will never work out. It limits design space in making cheap damaging spells to too great a degree. I could see the rager existing as a real printed card, but I don't think anyone will vote it very highly.
Xarkkal: Thalryssa's effect isn't especially eye-catching, its a generic rez and random spell casting. It doesn't interact wit Spell Damage in any interesting way and feels a bit out of place in this contest. Arcane Brilliance is a concept I've seen before, but I still think it's pretty near. Mana Droplet wins it for me though. He is so darn cute and its a nifty effect that synergizes with the direction Elementals have in Mage (as in casting small spells).
MenacingBagel: I like that you went the direction of Spell Siphoner, definitely the winner from the original three concepts. I really like the effect since it has immunity to symmetrical board damages, such as Hellfire. However, I worry that its health might be a bit too high. 5 health is standard on 4 drops, but its immunity to spell damage makes it significantly harder for some decks to deal with, especially if you then hide it behind a taunt. I think it could be lowered to 4 health and be fine.
TheHoax91: Not a huge fan of reusing the same concept from last contest, people will be looking for new and creative ideas. Spell Damage and weapons have plenty of room for interesting interactions, but don't reuse the same idea.
grumpymonk: Chaincaster scares me in how easily it can be abused by certain classes. Rogue and Mage could stack him up super high and then burst for insane amounts of damage. I definitely like Riptide and think the 2 mana version would be the best way to go since it is less likely to be abused by other effects. However, I think it should be re-named to something that more fits the effect. A riptide calls to mind violent and disruptive effects, which this card is the exact opposite of.
DestroyerR: Not a fan of Isiset since it is very unclear how some cards will interact with her. Would Frost Nova freeze for extra turns? Would Polymorph target additional random minions, or make the sheep larger since the sheep stats are the only printed numbers on the card? Anzu scares me a bit since it encourages uninteractive gameplay and mechanics. I am also hesitant about Spell Damage in Rogue just because of how much burst they can push with just a little bit of a boost. That said, I think Foxtrotter is a great design. I love the flavor of it benefiting from trotting around (bouncing back to hand) and think it works really well with Rogues' identity. Still a bit worried about Spell Damage in Rogue, but Foxtrotter requires a lot of investment to get it going, so its probably fine.
Pokeniner: Assuming it destroys 2 minions on play since it has its own spell damage, it is already quite strong and gets substantially stronger with relatively little investment. It also feels like a card that you run in almost any mage deck, since its baseline is really powerful removal even without building around it. Direct removal also feels out of place in Mage since they usually deal with threats via raw damage.
anchorm4n: This card scares the hell out of me. It opens up some serious potential for very powerful burst or removal options. Yes, Fireball on 10 becomes a Pyroblast, but Frostbolt becomes a directed 7 damage, Magic Missiles becomes a 1 mana deal 7 randomly split, and any other small spells get boosted through the roof. It can be read as a 6 mana 5/4 Spell Damage +4, which compares very favorably to Malygos.
Me0203: Lightning Aspect is over-tuned big time. It has very premium defensive stats for something that is a growing threat and its cheap cost allows for some potentially crazy burst combos. I like the idea of Sporemancer, but I can't think of a single deck that would ever even consider running it. It might get crazy with Druid's Adaptive Spores, but I don't see much outside of that niche use. Lightning Totem is way over statted, 6 health is really hard to get rid of on turn 3 and it also represents a growing threat. I think Lightning Totem is the most compelling since it pushes Totems in an interesting directions, but it needs to be tuned down a bit.
BasilAnguis: This card is nutso strong. A Stormwind Knight aura on a 3 drop, but it can be improved and scales spells too is way too much. It's even stronger since it's aura also benefits itself, making it a 3/4 the turn it comes out. Neat idea, but it needs some serious cost/stat tuning.
Elfensilver: I like the suggestion you make better, as a +1/+1 that scales with Spell Damage. As for set, I think DoD works better since Shaman actually had some Spell Damage printed. It also works a bit better flavor wise since it could have been Boom that supplied the Tesla coils, which feel out of place in RR.
Kansas: An interesting take on hand-buff, moving it to effect spells instead of minions. Not a flashy card by any means, but I think it is well balanced. Cards like this always concern me a bit in that it facilitates potential for OTK shenans, with little interaction, but Shaman is lacking in direct damage atm, so its fine.
Fedrion: Not a fan of this. It has little to no interaction with the opponent and encourages a very passive playstyle where the mage stalls with either freeze or their newly empowered board clears to get combo pieces and OTK the opponent with big spell damage.
Cg8889: Arcane Reaper had an interesting payoff for Spell Damage, but damaging everything in hand/deck is way too much. Just hitting the board is already very strong. Aegwynn is bonkers strong. Solarion has a similar effect, but is entirely random and is way slower. Some Fireballs and Frostbolts, a Blizzard or two, and whatever other damaging spells you want makes an almost guaranteed board clear and maybe even an OTK. Even if you play her on curve after Flamestriking last turn she's pretty good.
GoliathTheDwarf: Really dig this card. Fits the Blood Elf flavor really well and makes for interesting build-around/payoff for stacking spell damage.
CursedParrot: Big fan of this card, almost made a similar card for the Hero Power contest a while back. Wish I could say more on the card, but I like it the way it is now. Maybe reduce the health to 4 since it is giving a good effect, but I think it's fine to print either way.
bigcums: Arcane Affiliation is an effect I've seen before and one that I'm not too interested in. Library Golem on the other hand has great flavor and provides interesting synergy with Spell Damage. I also think it is balance fairly well, since it takes 2 Spell Damage to become good and 4+ to become nuts. It feels a bit bad as a win-more card, but I still like it a lot.
BloodMefistOld God Fanatic 850804 PostsJoined 05/28/2019
Posted 4 years, 6 months ago
So close yet so far to making finals ;-; Well, on to the next contest! Went a little gung-ho with legendary cards in my initial idea phase this time around because I discovered some cool Warcraft NPCs I'd never heard about and wanted to push them into HS.
Grennan pushes Overload synergy without creating too much risk of degenerate one-shots (I think). There aren't many cheap face-damage spells that you can chain off of him, assuming you are already Overloaded for a couple mana, but he might need a mana increase just in case. His place in a deck would be to provide a mid-late game threat with the ability to especially utilize cheap removal Shaman sometimes gets, like Zap! or [Hearthstone Card (Bottled Lightning) Not Found].
I have mixed feelings on Meryl. Super love his art design and want to make a card of him, but I'm not in love with his design. His card design is meant to push the control aspect of Warlocks spells while not opening avenues for more one-shot mechanics. I personally hate OTK decks and really hate how my precious Supreme Archaeology has gone from fun meme time to another Malygos abusing OTK. I know this doesn't help solve that problem, but it doesn't push it either.
Cyanigosa is a character that I really enjoy and think has some very cool potential in this contest. I wanted her to explicitly synergize with Malygos since she is one of his main supporters/lieutenants. Although this version does synergize very well with Maylgos, her high cost makes it difficult to bring that synergy out. That said, it would be quite the high-roll to get her and Malygos off of Conjurer's Calling.
Here's to hoping that I can make into finals this time around! I'll post feedback tomorrow after more cards are put up.
EDIT: Put up a version of Merlyn that falls in line with the theme, since the original did not. Less sure about this one since he further facilitates some OTK nonsense, but we'll see how the feedback rolls.
BloodMefistOld God Fanatic 850804 PostsJoined 05/28/2019
Posted 4 years, 6 months ago
@KANSAS The six still doesn't work since it properly would be 6, but it is still a fairly easy work around. If you say 'Each player's maximum board size is 6', you get the 'x' requirement and the card still reads well. Also, dig the effect. Feel like the stats could be a bit higher, but the card is good overall. I personally prefer not to see characters from outside WoW/HS as named cards (art is fine), but I don't think it's a massive penalty. There are plenty of HS bosses that could provide good art/flavor for this effect.
BloodMefistOld God Fanatic 850804 PostsJoined 05/28/2019
Posted 4 years, 6 months ago
I got the most positive feedback from Corpse Explosion, so I will move forward with it. I still need to decide between the generalist version and the Deathrattle version, so I'll give them one more round of feedback before submission. Also considering increasing either version by 2 mana and 1 damage.
Speaking of feedback, time for some more!
Show Spoiler
MenacingBagel: This Chu seem almost seems too good imo. It can chain super hard with Cast When Drawn effects, which while fringe, feels exceptionally bad and un-interactive on the receiving end. I think the older effect with a 5/4 stateline or maybe Taunt ("I am in your way").
CursedParrot: I like the Epic version of Violet Spellshielder that was included with Lyris. Reminds me of Arcane Artificer without being as overbearing as the later versions.
anchorm4n: I dig the card, always like to see new ways for Treant synergy. I agree with bumping it to 5 mana since he's basically Consecrate+ and a 2/4 Taunt.
bigcums: Bigger fan of Light Infusion than Light Burst. Light Burst is too easy to get as a 6+ damage nuke by targeting a Silver Hand Recruit. Light Infusion might also be a tad too strong in its current form, but I think lowering the heal to 5 puts it in a pretty good spot.
cg8889: Already seems like you're designing a new card to replace Murlox, which is good since it definitely broke Wild (well, added to the Mechwarper problem). It also feels like a forced 'x' since it could have read 'Add a copy' without pushing in 'extra'.
Hordaki: Got an 'x' to show up on both cards while feeling natural, nice. I dig the effect too, feels very in-flavor without stepping on the toes of existing Xavius. I have my biases against DH and the notion of giving them another way around Taunt worries me, but its too slow for tempo, so it should be fine. I do also like the build-around idea of getting as few of your own minions transformed as possible.
Kansas: Unfortunately this card is neither interesting nor has the required 'x'. Sad to see you move away from the original excess damage generating coins, I really liked that effect. The flavor was off on a dentist, but I think it works very well on a different flavor.
MrRhapsody: I think this is a good middle-ground design. I also question Hearthstone's supposed kid-friendly approach ever since Mistress of Blades got revealed. Still not completely sold on the effect and it does feel a bit weird how it can just kill itself. Demonxz95 brought up a good point about the flavor not quite being there.
Pokeniner: Thought the old effect was fine, but I like the new one a lot more. It adds room for interesting decision making from both sides. I think it is a bit dangerous to give a magnetic minion such high attack and think the card would still be fine at 3/1 to match Replicating Menace.
BloodMefistOld God Fanatic 850804 PostsJoined 05/28/2019
Posted 4 years, 6 months ago
Quote From KANSAS
@BloodMefist, Corpse Explosion isn't legal because the X can't be part of the cards name. If you want to use Corpse Explosion then I am sure there is a way you could adjust the effect a little to get the word "extra" to fit. I don't think Terrorguard Devastator is the right card to go with because I feel like the effect is really obvious and we are going to see a lot of cards like this. Dark Harvest is a super interesting Heal card. And while it looks really good on paper, remember that we had a very similar card with Dark Pact and that was only used in a single deck and mainly because it was 1 mana. Also, I can't imagine a reason to run this over Plague of Flames.
One of the example cards is Explorer's Hat, which has 'x' in the name and fits 'x' into the card text in a similar fashion to Corpse Explosion. Do you think Dark Harvest would be better balanced as a 1 mana card? It would be used instead of Plague of Flames since with a handful of 1/1's, it can basically become a full heal. While weaker than Plague, it offers a completely different purpose, which makes it distinct. I understand the worry about Terrorguard, but it is an effect that not many have brought to the table yet, so I am not too worried about its novelty.
Feedback on the latest Goblin Dentist: Dealing damage and surviving steps into Warrior class identity, so I am unsure about making it a Rogue card with this effect. Six coins is also a lot and is potentially too dangerous for Rogues to have. I'm still a fan of the original design reflavored to something like a hired killer/thug.
BloodMefistOld God Fanatic 850804 PostsJoined 05/28/2019
Posted 4 years, 6 months ago
Terrorguard Devastator updated to be the correct demon and I double down on the effect over it's raw stats. The 10 damage now follows Omega Devastator as a 'Devastator' card.
Corpse Explosion no longer has a Deathrattle minion requirement to add a copy to your hand, but costs 1 more. Still iffy on the flavor.
Dark Harvest replaces Shadow Seer (RIP). The idea is nuking your own board for potentially massive healing. You can decide how hard you want to nuke it by changing the initial target and having more minions around to nuke. When designing this, I also considered reworking Corpse Explosion to have the same effect, but damaging enemy minions and removing Lifesteal. It would certainly alleviate the flavor issue, but I want to get a gauge for the updated designs first.
Feedback time!
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Linkblade91: Big fan of Plague Doctor. The flavor is there and I loved the Toxins from Xaril back in the day. Dual Wielding isn't as interesting and suffers from something a lot of other designs do in this contest, which is a forced 'x'. The wording could just as easily be 'Add a copy to your hand' which takes up less card space, but the word 'extra' is forced in for the sake of the contest.
MenacingBagel: Mr. Chu is alright, but also weirdly doesn't synergize a ton with Bomb Warrior, since the Improvised Explosives don't actually count as Bombs (or at least I think they don't) for the sake of Blastmaster Boom. Otto is a cute effect, but what would reversing the text functionally do? If there is no actual gameplay effect, then it would only serve to make cards harder to understand for people who have not seen them yet.
Demonxz95: While I like Felfire Fury, it also suffers from forced 'x' since wording the effect as 'Deal 2 to all other minions' is less wordy and more consistent with existing cards. Soul Enchantress almost suffers from the forced 'x', but the 'extra' does help clarify that the affected cards must be buffing stats. I also like soul Enchantress because it make some cards like Power Word Shield considerations in deck building.
grumpymonk: I think Bestow Faith should specify restore health to a minion, otherwise it slightly devalues the excess mechanic. Keeper Remulous is an interesting effect, but I'm afraid 12 mana might be too much for pushing combo potential. I think Remluous should be 11 max mana. Otherwise, both are very solid cards that I have a hard time favoring. Remulous is a novel mechanic, but my bias for Control Paladin pushes me towards Bestow Faith.
Pokeniner: A fine design, although making a Neutral Shadowbolt is a tad scary. This is mostly offest by the fact that the target is random, making it substantially worse as the game goes on. It is exceptionally strong at controlling and early game board, but also doesn't create tempo by leaving a body, and has interesting implications with hand-buffs. I've talked myself into liking this card more, I don't think it needs to be 4 mana.
CursedParrot: Not a fan of Forced Summoning, it's too easy to lock your opponent out of a turn and the Golem spell doesn't make sense as it is written. I like Disciple of Krag'wa a lot, but feel the flavor is slightly off and the effect is too strong as is. Krag'wa and his spirit were about casting lots of spells, which his Disciple does not follow. You could either re-tool it to be more about spellcasting, or remove reference to Krag'wa. Effect-wise, I think it would be better to have a slightly higher statline and make it restore health instead of gaining health. This removes pop-off potential when killing low-stat minions, but still makes it a threat that can stick to the board. Big fan of Kirin Tor Arcanist since it creates decision making when casting spells. I think it should be reworded to 'After' instead of 'Whenever' since excess damage would be calculated after the spell resolves, not at the time of casting.
DestroyerR: Cute, but I'm pretty sure that's not gonna fly in this contest.
Valor1204: Doesn't have anything to do with imps. The effect is wordy, so it might be better to stop at one enemy minion. If you wanna push the bounce idea, go for it, but definitely change the flavor to something more bouncy and less imp-y.
anchorm4n: A niche effect, but an interesting one. I dig it. We also know that the devs have the technology to pull this off since it gets done in Battlegrounds.
TheHoax91: Aldor Artificer also suffers from forced 'x' since 'add a copy of it' would get the idea across the same. Also worried about too much value generation in one card, since a Discovered mage spell is often quite good. lol, when I was making my own cards for this, your Felo'melorn came up in Hearthcards 3 different times. The effect is interesting, but has dangerous potential. Within that potential however, is also a lot of counterplay. The turn you play it you basically spend 7 mana to 'do nothing', assuming you're holding onto it for a combo next turn. I like the design, but worry that high spell damage will set off alarms for many people when they look at it.
MrRhapsody: Left name, right artwork. I like the effect because it limits what you can hit with it. That said, the excess damage mechanic opens up so much interesting decisions in play-making that this card circumvents. You always want to play it on high health targets and never on low health ones, making the design a bit one-dimensional and really strong since it basically makes a tempo removal against many 3-4 drops.
Kansas: Really like the effect, payoffs for excess damage make for interesting play decisions. However, I am not sold on the flavor. Even after your explanation, it still seems strange for a dentist to be collecting extra money for essentially killing their clients. If the card were something like a hired killer, or an executing showman (along the lines of Draven), or even a thug, it would make more sense flavor-wise.
meisterz39: An interesting design for sure, if not a bit scary given how large Warrior minions and weapons can get. Cards like Sul'thraze and Warrior's many Rush minions become immense threats that could offer little counterplay.
Cg8889: Interesting, but also not powerful enough to justify the Highlander requirement. I am also a bit concerned with how it would interact with UI, especially on mobile where the game is already tight for space.
BloodMefistOld God Fanatic 850804 PostsJoined 05/28/2019
Posted 4 years, 6 months ago
Mark my words I'll get to finalists if it's the last thing I do!
Doomguard Devastator is my exploration into excess damage since it is a mechanic that I am especially fond of and would like to see more of in the future. Initially bounced around ideas of it being cheaper with only targeting friendly minions, but the ability to choose what enemy minion to kill involves more interesting decision making.
Shadow Seer follows my deep love for Thief Priest and allows for some Envoy of Lazul synergy. I also always enjoy games of information, and this pushes that by giving the player and the opponent the same knowledge, whereas most other Thief Priest cards are player-only.
Corpse Explosion is the one out of the three I am most conflicted on. I really enjoy the effect and its interaction with Deathrattle synergies and Deathrattle-hate, but the flavor seems a bit off. Corpse Explosions typically involve a single target exploding, implying some initial minion damage/destruction, which this card does not have. Although I really like the effect, the only thing that keeps this card in this competition is the name rather than the effect. It's also hard to find Corpse Explosion art that aligns with Blizzard's modern art style philosophy.
EDIT: Aha, just saw the "You cannot use the word 'next'" ruling, gonna have to replace Shadow Seer with a different thing ;-;
BloodMefistOld God Fanatic 850804 PostsJoined 05/28/2019
Posted 4 years, 6 months ago
@Xarkkal How would you get 3 10-drops on turn 3? The card can only affect minions that cost 2 or less and only brings them up by 2-3 depending on the version. The highest you could go is up to a 5 drop. With that clarification, which of the three versions would you prefer?
BloodMefistOld God Fanatic 850804 PostsJoined 05/28/2019
Posted 4 years, 6 months ago
Color From Space got the most positive response from my initial 3 designs, so I made a couple tweaked iterations that are weaker, but also a bit more safe in that they are less likely to be super swingy. I thought about reducing the cost to 2, but Murloc Tidehunter is an evergreen card and would create turns too reminiscent of the Tombs of Terror fiasco. It might be fine as the original version, but I want to polish this design as much as I can before submitting.
Original:Tweaked versions:
And now, some feedback from page 3 cards!
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Hordaki: Boom at any point after Boomsday would likely have to be a Warrior card. It also doesn't feel in the spirit of Boom either, who is always about explosions and randomness. This is just a very clean removal that feels out of place theme-wise. Agree that the art is great though.
TheHoax91: I like it as a tech card, but limiting it to Priest and making it legendary isn't a good idea. Tech choices are most interesting when they're Neutral and are more accessible than legendaries. Legendaries as tech cards is fine, like Mojomaster Zihi, but the tech Algalon provides is super niche and feels really bad to be constrained by both class and rarity.
CursedParrot: Really dig the direction you took Algalon and that you tied the effect to a legendary rather than an epic. It still scares me a bit, especially when something like Fireball stacking could easily make him a nuke, but he is a '6-mana do nothing' the turn he comes out, so it should be fine. We already have Solarion Prime, who isn't too crazy. Clarifying question though, would he cast the spells in the order played or would it be a random order?
Kansas: I think the tweaks you made really make this a solid submission. I do feel that their effects seems kind of small considering the scale they are meant to be on. These are huge cosmic dragons that are lords of time and space, and they deal/heal 3 damage. Maybe up their costs to up the effects? Idk what people are on about when they say healing can't be related to time, we even have Nozari who directly uses time to heal.
DestroyerR: Seems a bit weak on the surface, Invocation does a similar effect but costs 2 less. That said, Incanter's Flow could absolutely break this card and allow you to have an insane swing turn by casting the now cheap spells in your deck. It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure if it should be done at this time.
Nirast: I love the idea of Spell Damage interacting with more things, and I think the statline is fair for the effect. However, draw power scaling with Spell Damage opens up space for my least favorite archetype, mill decks. Research Project specifically could go wack and easily cause your opponent to mill themselves for an absurd number of cards. Despite this concern, I think the card is still in a good spot since it costs so much while not affecting the board. Clarifying question, would it also buff start of turn draw or draw from minions, or just draw from spells?
Xarkkal: First quick thing, I think the expansion it's from Galakrond's Awakening instead of DoD since Paladin were hard set for Bronze Dragons in DoD. The main thing I would change balance wise is making Celestial Breath only damage minions and not the enemy hero. It would still be a very strong card, but wouldn't have the potential to burst 10 damage on turn 8. Otherwise, I think its a decent design.
Inconspicuosaurus: Damn, I liked the gemini idea. To get rid of the issue of infinite value, you could make the copies a different token that share her stats, although it might be tricky to write that without going over the line limit. I would also consider making the effect a deathrattle since it can't get many enchantments on it from the hand outside of the occasional handbuff.
BloodMefistOld God Fanatic 850804 PostsJoined 05/28/2019
Posted 4 years, 6 months ago
Time for some feedback! First time doing this, so sorry if the formatting is off.
Show Spoiler
anchorm4n #1: I'm a bit hesitant on the idea of a fatigue win condition since it promotes a very passive and uninteractive playstyle, but I do think that Priest is the best class to put this in. Their lost card draw makes a fatigue win con less oppressive and more feasible. However, I am also unsure if a Unicorn makes much sense in this week's space theme.
linkblade91: The infernal drop from Meteor Fall is an idea I've wanted to see made real in Warlock and while I like the card, it isn't that exciting. Random character also means it could just kill you, so I think making it be a random enemy or a random minion would be fine. I'm more of a fan of the first Vindicarr design since win con cards are often unsatisfying or uninteractive in practice, from my experience at least. I like the idea of a Paladin Boomship, but I might consider making it from hand instead of from deck. It follows the Boomships design and also synergizes with handbuff cards.
Demonxz95: Celestial Crafter reminds me of the Spiteful Summoner days, except without any type of build-around. It's a cool idea, but I think it has too much high-roll potential as it currently stands. Perhaps making the spell cost-restricted to avoid something like a 10-drop on turn 5-6. I think Starace is super cool. He supports both Elemental synergy and cheap spell synergy, both of which already compliment each other. My main feedback for him is to not make him from Boomsday class card since Boomsday class legendaries are fairly inflexible in terms of changing. Otherwise, I think Starace is awesome and has lots of room for building around, 5/5 for me.
Xarkkal: I like the idea, but Kael'thas could abuse the heck out of this. It even fetches him from your deck if you need to start chaining in a sup-optimal way. You could specify a caveat where this gets released after KT rotates, or downscale it/change the effect to be less abusable.
KANSAS: Dual dragons is a cool theme and I like the execution of them. However, I do agree with shaveyou that the statlines should be swapped. The naming and cost of the second dragon could also be changed. Not having the same cost seems a bit off to me given their theme and there are already a bunch of time dragons in Warcraft. Although the naming part isn't a huge deal, it deducts a bit of points from me if the flavor is too contrary to HS's setting.
BasilAnguis: I'm not really feeling Gravity Well, even after the class change. I think it's a fine card, it just doesn't jump out at me. Crack in Time is kind of like Maiev's effect and doesn't terribly excite me for that reason. Comet wins hands down for me, I think the idea of a recurring effect is super cool since it also adds a lot of interactivity from the opponent's side.
Wailor: Definite no to The Big Freeze, freeze is already one of the least interactive mechanics in HS and this exacerbates to a huge degree. Space Time Rip is a but interesting, but also feels too similar to Maiev. It could have some interesting applications with a cost reduction and class change though, since it triggers deathrattles. I like Gravity Crush a lot since there's a lot of ways to manipulate which minions attack in Warrior and it offers some ability for the opponent to play around.
MenacingBagel: I like the effect, but it might be a bit out of place in an expansion with no portal cards in it. Newer players would have do some extra digging to find out what the potential outcomes are, so I would either change the expansion it comes out in or change the effect.
shaveyou: Homemade Shuttle is uninteresting and seems a bit too generically strong. I like Hunter's Moon since I think more effects like Floop's Glorious Gloop should be around, but it feels a bit weak for 3 mana to only be conditionally strong. That said, I understand that too cheap potentially allows it to be crazy strong in the right circumstances.
Pokeniner: Big fan of Kirin Tor Astrologist as a way to give Mage some minion generation amidst all their random spell generation. I'm also always just excited by big minions in my games and love control decks, so I'm a bit biased. Extraterrestrial Arcane is cool as a temporary conditional buff, but I'm afraid it might be too weak. Applying to all spells in a turn makes room for uninteractive OTK's, but I could see it being 0-mana. Nether-terrestial seems like it has an interesting idea, but the wording is confusing. Does the chosen minion get the deathrattle, or does Nether himself have a deathrattle that triggers when the minion dies (which also doesn't make sense)?
Beatdoof: Constellar's Envoy feels bit too un-envoy-y since it's effect is so small. I might suggest a small stateline in exchange for a larger or more specific effect. Unsure how I feel about Touch the Stars. It's a temporary Emerald Goggles effect from the Dalaran Heist on a spell, which is cool, but left-most is also a Warlock thing in Boomsday wheras right-most is a Mage thing. Overall I like the design, it just feels a bit out of place to me. There is also some potential for scary pop-offs, but Mage doesn't have too much draw to fuel that, so it should be fine.
anchorm4n #2: I like the idea of swapping effects from Ebb and Flow, but moon themes (as suggested by the art) are a Druid thing rather than a Shaman thing. The idea works like shifting tides, but then that no longer goes with the space theme. Really dig The Red Planet, but feel that it might succumb to the same fate as Hack the System. Both work well in a tempo warrior deck, but both also take away from tempo by virtue of being quests.
MrRhapsody: Comet Trip feels very out of place in Mage since mage focuses on raw damage as removal instead of shuffling to simply destroying. Solar Flare seems like wasted potential. Solar Flares are super cool events that could be represented by sweeping fire or mass destruction instead of a 1 mana minor potential disruption. Far Sighted Telescope is the winner for me but I also feel like it doesn't differentiate itself enough from Sightless Watcher. Since there is no manipulation of what goes to or could be in the bottom of your deck, its effect is basically the exact same as Sightless Watcher's.
Inconspicuosaurus: I like the idea, but agree that it is too vulnerable to single target removal from the opponent. Increasing health should be a fine fix since it doesn't actually double down.
CursedParrot: I really like the effect, but the potential to play even more Puzzleboxes might be too much. It's an exceptionally slow card, so it might be fine from a balance stand point, but the value generated from it could also push out any other slow deck strategies.
Edit: formatting was fine, put in a couple entries I missed.
BloodMefistOld God Fanatic 850804 PostsJoined 05/28/2019
Posted 4 years, 6 months ago
Event Horizon is a theme I initially wanted to pursue, with the idea being that a black hole is unstoppable once a certain edge is reached. Unsure if the card reaches that idea, but I like the ability for people to play around it and for the player to manipulate the board to get 2 potential minions to survive.
Color From Space is me trying to get some good ol' cosmic horror representation in here. The story "Color out from Space" involves the color transforming all the local inhabitants into monsters, lending it directly to evolve Shaman's theme. I also specifically wanted to avoid the Tombs of Terror fiasco, hence the higher cost and inability to effect Desert Hare. Worst case scenario, you can spend 5 mana to turn a 2 drop into a random 5 drop, which seems fair considering its potential.
Algalon is my attempt at something more related to Warcraft and a more radical card design. He has some potential to go crazy in miracle decks, but he needs to be in your hand, and even then miracles often tun on 0-1 cost spells, making him not too large. One of my larger concerns is the abuse cases in DH though, since cards like Skull of Gul'dan could get him to be large very easily.
I've participated in a few recent competitions to varying success, but never reached finalists. I am hoping that getting feedback before submitting will help me both at creating cards and integrating into this website's community. Looking forward to seeing everyone's cards and celebrating outof.cards' birthday!
Seems pretty good in Libram Paladin since you'll likely be able to proc the effect somewhat consistently. Definitely a bit worrying at 2 health since so many things can clear it though.
Seems like a decent card in Highlander decks as a medium-cost board clear, but we'll have to see what kind of spells are made to properly assess the value of a lot of these Spellburst cards.
I think this card is fantastic. It can control the board, pressure the board with bodies, and pressure the opponent's face with damage. A great card to help close out games w/ Control Warrior.
Always been a fan of big minions, always been a fan of deathrattle minions, so I really dig this heckin chonker. My main concern is in how easy several classes can disrupt him. Rogue has cheap ways to return it to the hand and Mage has poly and Reno to remove the effect completely. Hopefully there is some support for him in the set and he isn't a 1-off.
Had a tricky time with this one.
Jerias looks to make use of Warlocks ability to abundantly provide 1/1 tokens and replace them with much better stat-lines. I dug for notable pirates in the Warcraft universe and thought Jerias seemed pretty cool. His effect also pushes a bit of flavor since in-lore he tried to replace two of his killed crew members. Not super sold on his effect since it isn't particularly interesting though.
Amalgam-mate is my personal favorite out of the three initial entries, partially just for the pun. I wanted to use the Amalgamate minion art since it already felt predominantly pirate to me. I decided to go with Paladin for the class since they make the most use out of a variety of tribal tags, although Murloc and Mech are the main ones that benefit. Dragons are also Paladin identity and Beasts could definitely have some neutral synergy that might care about this card.
Parrot Tamer overlaps with the last contest, but I wanted to find a bridge between Beasts and Pirates that worked for Hunter, since Hunter already has some potential connections in aggressive playstyle and weapons. Captain's Parrot is not a good card, but getting two + a 3/2 might be good enough to see play.
Will try to get feedback out by the end of the day!
Load of feedback coming up! EDIT: All feedback is ready!
linkblade91: I like Primal Fury using underused basic/classic cards, but it isn't a very interesting effect overall. Not a fan of Aldor, I feel like it just does too much and has a decent statline to boot. I really like Volcanic Guardian since it supports chaining elementals, something I wish we got more of. I think it would be better if it were a statted a bit more aggressively or given taunt since it si currently 7 mana for a big dude that doesn't affect the board state.
Demonxz95: A nice simple and flavorful effect, I really like it. It can't do any degenerate pop-off shenanigans since you typically only get 1-2 combos off in a turn and it's pretty easy to remove. Not sure there's much I would change about this card.
KANSAS: I like the effect, but the flavor still doesn't mesh quite well with me. A Counterfeit Coin doesn't make a lot of sense since you're paying him to do something. Keeping the name as "Back-alley Dentist" would make the Counterfeit Coin make a bit more sense and further fit the flavor into Gadgetzan.
Xarkkal: I agree that the only real change this needs is the removal of Rush. I was initially worried that it would be too strong even without Rush, but then I remembered how weak RR was as a set and that Hunter got a '4 mana 7/7' secret card in Uldum. Remove Rush and I think this is good to go!
Pokeniner: I always liked Felcannon and was sad that Mech Warlock never got more support, so I'm a big fan of this design. That said, I do think Boomsday is not the right set for her. Since Mech warlock was not been supported in any existing set, I think you should use a unique/custom set emblem. I also think "Nether-borg Nezzie" over "Nether-cyborg Nezzie" rolls off the tongue a bit easier. Balance-wise, I think she could be 7 mana with the other Mech requirement, or remove the Mech requirement and make her a 5/3 as an inversion of the Felcannons and as a weaker statline.
Nirast: Not sure how I feel about this card. I like other methods of summoning Ragnaros, but this opens the door for some potential abuse cases (you list Priest and Mage as options) and doesn't feel in-flavor. Ragnaros isn't comprised of his servants, he is his own entity. I think it could be reworked to a battlecry with an elemental on the board or elemental played last turn requirement, a bit like how Shaman got that card to summon Al'Akir. Something like "If you played 4 Elementals last turn, summon Ragnaros" as a starter idea.
anchorm4n: Really like Beast Tamer's effect. Wording I think would be 'if youre opponent control 3 or more minions' rather than 'has'. I think a name like 'Menagerie Tamer' or 'Menagerie Beast Master' would work since it is in line with other beast cards from ONiK.
grayghost39: Seems too strong right now, an alternative reading could be 4 mana 3/3 Battlecry: Give a minion +2/+2 and Taunt, which is similar to a down-costed Bonemare. I think keeping the current effect but increasing the cost to 5 would work, or making both options add to your hand to slow it down. With the ladder, you could also lower the cost to 3 or increase its stats. You could also play around with it adding two Marks for extra flexibility.
CovenantKevlar: Like the flavor and the effect. Also like how it is a much slower Lackey card, meaning it is much harder to abuse. I think the wording needs to be changed a bit though. Reworded to "Add three 'EVIL Cable Rats' to your hand" frees up more card space is more consistent with existing wording.
Cg8889: I like Illidari Strategist, but agree that the card does feel a bit cluttered. That said, I can;t think of a way to get the same effect while cutting down on card text. If it were consistent with other cards, it would have even more text and say "Add a 'Coordinated Strike' spell to your hand". You could alter the effect by upping the cost and making it cast Coordinated Strike instead of adding it to your hand. Although it is the same as saying "Summon three 1/1 Illidari with Rush", it does cut down on card space significantly.
MrRhapsody: I like the flavor of Beast Training Manual, but it's a bit of a boring effect. I like Surprise Element for the play on words, but think it is not interesting enough. Weather Forecast is fantastic and super flavorful. I agree with some other comments that Blizzard is a bit weird since it is a Mage spell and think that Rain of Toads could be a decent substitute.
bigcums: I really like this effect and how it encourages control Paladin. I think restricting it to spells might be too difficult since many Paladin healing effects are not spells. I think you could raise the required healing but remove the spell requisite and it would be good to go. That said, I also understand wanting to keep the healing at 8 cuz Rag, so maybe a different restriction like 8 health to your hero?
CursedParrot: I like Mistress of Fate the most out of the two, but the wording should be a bit different. It should be "Shuffle three 'Plot Twist' spells into your deck". This is more consistent with other cards and takes up less space. Not a fan of the quest since it seems a bit janky to use. You'll likely complete it by the time you need your Pure Paladin cards to come online, but including neutral cards just to turn them into really strong buff cards seems jank. It also might reach a critical mass of Hand of Adals that is too strong.
grumpymonk: I like Drill Sergeant the most of the three. It is nice to have a predictable discover-esque effect that your opponent can more reasonably interact with. I am a tad scared of Heroic Strike generation to mid-range/aggro warrior, so I might consider increasing the cost and stats to push it further from aggro's grubby hands. Clever Marksman is interesting for his synergy, but makes me go 'meh' when I look at him. Briggite is interesting and a close second for me, but it doesn't hit quite right for me compared to Drill Sergeant.
bananenparty: An interesting effect, but I dont think it will work. You could just shove this into Zoo and not care about your opponent getting Fireballs because you dont cast any spells.
I liked the direction Ishanah pushed, but she was definitely too strong. I toned down her offensive stats and made it into a weaker, but continuous effect. Her immediate board impact is not nearly as strong, but she puts a bit more pressure on the board by herself.
I love the Hungry Crab idea too much to abandon it, but the spell was too niche and janky to use. Slacker has good stats for the cost, but basically requires you to trade him in or get rid of him yourself lest the opponent gets a free tempo swing. I think it creates some interesting play options from both sides. Not sold on the name, open to suggestions!
I liked the original design for Set the Table, but thought I would see how a slightly different approach would work/be received. Overlaps a bit more with Silverware Golem and isnt as unique, but the effect is much easier to make use of since you do not need an overabundance of cards that discard to play it. It also takes away the major pop-off potential that the old design was capable of and offers a more mediocre pop-off.
IRL work stuff has slowed me down in getting feedback out, but I'll try to get some out tomorrow!
Ah, that lovely time of week when the new contest rolls in and the creative juices get pumping again. Finally succeeded in my mission to make it to finals and now setting my sights to winning a contest (although it's very hard and unlikely). A bit unsure when the quotation marks need to be added, but I think they don't need it if they're summoned and do if it is another effect (not 100% on this).
Ishanah pushes control Priest by offering a potentially huge way of stabilizing against aggressive matchups. Against other control matchups its a bit more difficult to get value since Lightwell doesn't offer the same threat level it does to aggressive decks. Lightwell is a card that basically never ever gets seen in games and is widely considered to be one of the weakest cards. I wanted to push it so that people fear the Lightwell and consider it enough of a threat. A bit worried about the costing of this Ishanah, since four Lightwells is technically 8 mana worth of minions, and she comes with a decent taunt body.
I knew from the get-go I wanted to try to make something Hungry Crab related since there is so much humor available in that concept. Fishy acts as a 'payoff' for having a lot of small murlocs since you can efficiently trade them in for 1 mana 3/4s. Early designs were cheap murlocs that added Hungry Crabs to both player's hands. It became too hard to find a good balance in minion form, so I tried to push it into a one-sided spell instead. Thinking about lowering the cost to add in symmetrical Hungry Crab-adding again, but unsure if that's a good direction to pursue.
Set the Table! is because I love Discard Warlock and I love Silverware Golem. It always felt awful to have a hand full of discarding cards but no discard payoffs, so I made Set the Table! works especially well in an overabundance of discard effects since you need to discard first to set it off, and then find a way to discard the golems. I love the Silverware Golem discard-summon animation especially and love the idea of seeing it proc a lot of times in a game. A bit worried about the swingy potential in the card, but my love for discard is too great and I think the amount of set-up required makes it alright.
Finally made it to finals! Some really nice designs this week. Fingers crossed I win, but good luck to everyone!
Aight, some new revisions/ideas to throw out there.
Made Grennan a bit bulkier so that he works better as a proactive play. Got mixed feedback on his cost, but I think I'm pretty happy with where he stands in terms of cost flexibility. As a note/reminder, he doesn't just work with mana overloaded last turn, so cheap cards that overload can also increase his potency. Is it enough to make Dust Devil good? Probably not, but its something.
I tuned Meryl into an epic from a set/flavor that makes more sense for the effect. Warlocks only had 1 Lifesteal spell at KofT release, but quickly got another one in KnC. He also synergizes with Defile from KofT, allowing two sets of boosted damage waves. The odd-cost also means that he isn't abusable in even-warlock, which came out a couple sets later. I know the Lifesteal part of his effect is still very niche, but I think that's fine considering a 3 mana 4/3 spell damage +1 is already a decent card.
Cyanigosa and her effect didn't make the cut, so I moved on to an different idea. I liked the flavor of Arcane Watcher and wanted to invoke the idea of a construct defending mages. A bit shaky on the size of the attack buff and 7 health, but I think the condition and inability to abuse it with silence effects warrants it.
Feedback time! Done with entries up to bigcums!
linkblade91: Really like the idea of Enraged Moonkin, but I think it needs to be clarified on whether or not the attack bonus applies on the opponent's turn too. As it stands, opponents hitting your face will take at least 2 damage since your hero gains attack from spell damage on their turn too. On a more minor note, I think the art or the name should be changed to better fit the other. The art doesn't give me an 'Enraged' vibe. Also dig Essence Leacher. I thought about making a similar effect, but with armor in Mage, but went with my own take on a 3 mana Warlock spell damage minion. Essence Leacher can lead to some serious healing capabilities with spells like Rain of Fire or Dark Skies, which is something to be a bit wary of. Maybe increase the cost and stats to lower its swing potential. Overall, both solid entries.
Demonxz95: Your original Tarecgosa unfortunately will never work out. It limits design space in making cheap damaging spells to too great a degree. I could see the rager existing as a real printed card, but I don't think anyone will vote it very highly.
Xarkkal: Thalryssa's effect isn't especially eye-catching, its a generic rez and random spell casting. It doesn't interact wit Spell Damage in any interesting way and feels a bit out of place in this contest. Arcane Brilliance is a concept I've seen before, but I still think it's pretty near. Mana Droplet wins it for me though. He is so darn cute and its a nifty effect that synergizes with the direction Elementals have in Mage (as in casting small spells).
MenacingBagel: I like that you went the direction of Spell Siphoner, definitely the winner from the original three concepts. I really like the effect since it has immunity to symmetrical board damages, such as Hellfire. However, I worry that its health might be a bit too high. 5 health is standard on 4 drops, but its immunity to spell damage makes it significantly harder for some decks to deal with, especially if you then hide it behind a taunt. I think it could be lowered to 4 health and be fine.
TheHoax91: Not a huge fan of reusing the same concept from last contest, people will be looking for new and creative ideas. Spell Damage and weapons have plenty of room for interesting interactions, but don't reuse the same idea.
grumpymonk: Chaincaster scares me in how easily it can be abused by certain classes. Rogue and Mage could stack him up super high and then burst for insane amounts of damage. I definitely like Riptide and think the 2 mana version would be the best way to go since it is less likely to be abused by other effects. However, I think it should be re-named to something that more fits the effect. A riptide calls to mind violent and disruptive effects, which this card is the exact opposite of.
DestroyerR: Not a fan of Isiset since it is very unclear how some cards will interact with her. Would Frost Nova freeze for extra turns? Would Polymorph target additional random minions, or make the sheep larger since the sheep stats are the only printed numbers on the card? Anzu scares me a bit since it encourages uninteractive gameplay and mechanics. I am also hesitant about Spell Damage in Rogue just because of how much burst they can push with just a little bit of a boost. That said, I think Foxtrotter is a great design. I love the flavor of it benefiting from trotting around (bouncing back to hand) and think it works really well with Rogues' identity. Still a bit worried about Spell Damage in Rogue, but Foxtrotter requires a lot of investment to get it going, so its probably fine.
Pokeniner: Assuming it destroys 2 minions on play since it has its own spell damage, it is already quite strong and gets substantially stronger with relatively little investment. It also feels like a card that you run in almost any mage deck, since its baseline is really powerful removal even without building around it. Direct removal also feels out of place in Mage since they usually deal with threats via raw damage.
anchorm4n: This card scares the hell out of me. It opens up some serious potential for very powerful burst or removal options. Yes, Fireball on 10 becomes a Pyroblast, but Frostbolt becomes a directed 7 damage, Magic Missiles becomes a 1 mana deal 7 randomly split, and any other small spells get boosted through the roof. It can be read as a 6 mana 5/4 Spell Damage +4, which compares very favorably to Malygos.
Me0203: Lightning Aspect is over-tuned big time. It has very premium defensive stats for something that is a growing threat and its cheap cost allows for some potentially crazy burst combos. I like the idea of Sporemancer, but I can't think of a single deck that would ever even consider running it. It might get crazy with Druid's Adaptive Spores, but I don't see much outside of that niche use. Lightning Totem is way over statted, 6 health is really hard to get rid of on turn 3 and it also represents a growing threat. I think Lightning Totem is the most compelling since it pushes Totems in an interesting directions, but it needs to be tuned down a bit.
BasilAnguis: This card is nutso strong. A Stormwind Knight aura on a 3 drop, but it can be improved and scales spells too is way too much. It's even stronger since it's aura also benefits itself, making it a 3/4 the turn it comes out. Neat idea, but it needs some serious cost/stat tuning.
Elfensilver: I like the suggestion you make better, as a +1/+1 that scales with Spell Damage. As for set, I think DoD works better since Shaman actually had some Spell Damage printed. It also works a bit better flavor wise since it could have been Boom that supplied the Tesla coils, which feel out of place in RR.
Kansas: An interesting take on hand-buff, moving it to effect spells instead of minions. Not a flashy card by any means, but I think it is well balanced. Cards like this always concern me a bit in that it facilitates potential for OTK shenans, with little interaction, but Shaman is lacking in direct damage atm, so its fine.
Fedrion: Not a fan of this. It has little to no interaction with the opponent and encourages a very passive playstyle where the mage stalls with either freeze or their newly empowered board clears to get combo pieces and OTK the opponent with big spell damage.
Cg8889: Arcane Reaper had an interesting payoff for Spell Damage, but damaging everything in hand/deck is way too much. Just hitting the board is already very strong. Aegwynn is bonkers strong. Solarion has a similar effect, but is entirely random and is way slower. Some Fireballs and Frostbolts, a Blizzard or two, and whatever other damaging spells you want makes an almost guaranteed board clear and maybe even an OTK. Even if you play her on curve after Flamestriking last turn she's pretty good.
GoliathTheDwarf: Really dig this card. Fits the Blood Elf flavor really well and makes for interesting build-around/payoff for stacking spell damage.
CursedParrot: Big fan of this card, almost made a similar card for the Hero Power contest a while back. Wish I could say more on the card, but I like it the way it is now. Maybe reduce the health to 4 since it is giving a good effect, but I think it's fine to print either way.
bigcums: Arcane Affiliation is an effect I've seen before and one that I'm not too interested in. Library Golem on the other hand has great flavor and provides interesting synergy with Spell Damage. I also think it is balance fairly well, since it takes 2 Spell Damage to become good and 4+ to become nuts. It feels a bit bad as a win-more card, but I still like it a lot.
So close yet so far to making finals ;-; Well, on to the next contest! Went a little gung-ho with legendary cards in my initial idea phase this time around because I discovered some cool Warcraft NPCs I'd never heard about and wanted to push them into HS.
Grennan pushes Overload synergy without creating too much risk of degenerate one-shots (I think). There aren't many cheap face-damage spells that you can chain off of him, assuming you are already Overloaded for a couple mana, but he might need a mana increase just in case. His place in a deck would be to provide a mid-late game threat with the ability to especially utilize cheap removal Shaman sometimes gets, like Zap! or [Hearthstone Card (Bottled Lightning) Not Found].
I have mixed feelings on Meryl. Super love his art design and want to make a card of him, but I'm not in love with his design. His card design is meant to push the control aspect of Warlocks spells while not opening avenues for more one-shot mechanics. I personally hate OTK decks and really hate how my precious Supreme Archaeology has gone from fun meme time to another Malygos abusing OTK. I know this doesn't help solve that problem, but it doesn't push it either.
Cyanigosa is a character that I really enjoy and think has some very cool potential in this contest. I wanted her to explicitly synergize with Malygos since she is one of his main supporters/lieutenants. Although this version does synergize very well with Maylgos, her high cost makes it difficult to bring that synergy out. That said, it would be quite the high-roll to get her and Malygos off of Conjurer's Calling.
Here's to hoping that I can make into finals this time around! I'll post feedback tomorrow after more cards are put up.
EDIT: Put up a version of Merlyn that falls in line with the theme, since the original did not. Less sure about this one since he further facilitates some OTK nonsense, but we'll see how the feedback rolls.
@KANSAS The six still doesn't work since it properly would be 6, but it is still a fairly easy work around. If you say 'Each player's maximum board size is 6', you get the 'x' requirement and the card still reads well. Also, dig the effect. Feel like the stats could be a bit higher, but the card is good overall. I personally prefer not to see characters from outside WoW/HS as named cards (art is fine), but I don't think it's a massive penalty. There are plenty of HS bosses that could provide good art/flavor for this effect.
I got the most positive feedback from Corpse Explosion, so I will move forward with it. I still need to decide between the generalist version and the Deathrattle version, so I'll give them one more round of feedback before submission. Also considering increasing either version by 2 mana and 1 damage.
Speaking of feedback, time for some more!
MenacingBagel: This Chu seem almost seems too good imo. It can chain super hard with Cast When Drawn effects, which while fringe, feels exceptionally bad and un-interactive on the receiving end. I think the older effect with a 5/4 stateline or maybe Taunt ("I am in your way").
CursedParrot: I like the Epic version of Violet Spellshielder that was included with Lyris. Reminds me of Arcane Artificer without being as overbearing as the later versions.
anchorm4n: I dig the card, always like to see new ways for Treant synergy. I agree with bumping it to 5 mana since he's basically Consecrate+ and a 2/4 Taunt.
bigcums: Bigger fan of Light Infusion than Light Burst. Light Burst is too easy to get as a 6+ damage nuke by targeting a Silver Hand Recruit. Light Infusion might also be a tad too strong in its current form, but I think lowering the heal to 5 puts it in a pretty good spot.
cg8889: Already seems like you're designing a new card to replace Murlox, which is good since it definitely broke Wild (well, added to the Mechwarper problem). It also feels like a forced 'x' since it could have read 'Add a copy' without pushing in 'extra'.
Hordaki: Got an 'x' to show up on both cards while feeling natural, nice. I dig the effect too, feels very in-flavor without stepping on the toes of existing Xavius. I have my biases against DH and the notion of giving them another way around Taunt worries me, but its too slow for tempo, so it should be fine. I do also like the build-around idea of getting as few of your own minions transformed as possible.
Kansas: Unfortunately this card is neither interesting nor has the required 'x'. Sad to see you move away from the original excess damage generating coins, I really liked that effect. The flavor was off on a dentist, but I think it works very well on a different flavor.
MrRhapsody: I think this is a good middle-ground design. I also question Hearthstone's supposed kid-friendly approach ever since Mistress of Blades got revealed. Still not completely sold on the effect and it does feel a bit weird how it can just kill itself. Demonxz95 brought up a good point about the flavor not quite being there.
Pokeniner: Thought the old effect was fine, but I like the new one a lot more. It adds room for interesting decision making from both sides. I think it is a bit dangerous to give a magnetic minion such high attack and think the card would still be fine at 3/1 to match Replicating Menace.
One of the example cards is Explorer's Hat, which has 'x' in the name and fits 'x' into the card text in a similar fashion to Corpse Explosion. Do you think Dark Harvest would be better balanced as a 1 mana card? It would be used instead of Plague of Flames since with a handful of 1/1's, it can basically become a full heal. While weaker than Plague, it offers a completely different purpose, which makes it distinct. I understand the worry about Terrorguard, but it is an effect that not many have brought to the table yet, so I am not too worried about its novelty.
Feedback on the latest Goblin Dentist: Dealing damage and surviving steps into Warrior class identity, so I am unsure about making it a Rogue card with this effect. Six coins is also a lot and is potentially too dangerous for Rogues to have. I'm still a fan of the original design reflavored to something like a hired killer/thug.
Terrorguard Devastator updated to be the correct demon and I double down on the effect over it's raw stats. The 10 damage now follows Omega Devastator as a 'Devastator' card.
Corpse Explosion no longer has a Deathrattle minion requirement to add a copy to your hand, but costs 1 more. Still iffy on the flavor.
Dark Harvest replaces Shadow Seer (RIP). The idea is nuking your own board for potentially massive healing. You can decide how hard you want to nuke it by changing the initial target and having more minions around to nuke. When designing this, I also considered reworking Corpse Explosion to have the same effect, but damaging enemy minions and removing Lifesteal. It would certainly alleviate the flavor issue, but I want to get a gauge for the updated designs first.
Feedback time!
Linkblade91: Big fan of Plague Doctor. The flavor is there and I loved the Toxins from Xaril back in the day. Dual Wielding isn't as interesting and suffers from something a lot of other designs do in this contest, which is a forced 'x'. The wording could just as easily be 'Add a copy to your hand' which takes up less card space, but the word 'extra' is forced in for the sake of the contest.
MenacingBagel: Mr. Chu is alright, but also weirdly doesn't synergize a ton with Bomb Warrior, since the Improvised Explosives don't actually count as Bombs (or at least I think they don't) for the sake of Blastmaster Boom. Otto is a cute effect, but what would reversing the text functionally do? If there is no actual gameplay effect, then it would only serve to make cards harder to understand for people who have not seen them yet.
Demonxz95: While I like Felfire Fury, it also suffers from forced 'x' since wording the effect as 'Deal 2 to all other minions' is less wordy and more consistent with existing cards. Soul Enchantress almost suffers from the forced 'x', but the 'extra' does help clarify that the affected cards must be buffing stats. I also like soul Enchantress because it make some cards like Power Word Shield considerations in deck building.
grumpymonk: I think Bestow Faith should specify restore health to a minion, otherwise it slightly devalues the excess mechanic. Keeper Remulous is an interesting effect, but I'm afraid 12 mana might be too much for pushing combo potential. I think Remluous should be 11 max mana. Otherwise, both are very solid cards that I have a hard time favoring. Remulous is a novel mechanic, but my bias for Control Paladin pushes me towards Bestow Faith.
Pokeniner: A fine design, although making a Neutral Shadowbolt is a tad scary. This is mostly offest by the fact that the target is random, making it substantially worse as the game goes on. It is exceptionally strong at controlling and early game board, but also doesn't create tempo by leaving a body, and has interesting implications with hand-buffs. I've talked myself into liking this card more, I don't think it needs to be 4 mana.
CursedParrot: Not a fan of Forced Summoning, it's too easy to lock your opponent out of a turn and the Golem spell doesn't make sense as it is written. I like Disciple of Krag'wa a lot, but feel the flavor is slightly off and the effect is too strong as is. Krag'wa and his spirit were about casting lots of spells, which his Disciple does not follow. You could either re-tool it to be more about spellcasting, or remove reference to Krag'wa. Effect-wise, I think it would be better to have a slightly higher statline and make it restore health instead of gaining health. This removes pop-off potential when killing low-stat minions, but still makes it a threat that can stick to the board. Big fan of Kirin Tor Arcanist since it creates decision making when casting spells. I think it should be reworded to 'After' instead of 'Whenever' since excess damage would be calculated after the spell resolves, not at the time of casting.
DestroyerR: Cute, but I'm pretty sure that's not gonna fly in this contest.
Valor1204: Doesn't have anything to do with imps. The effect is wordy, so it might be better to stop at one enemy minion. If you wanna push the bounce idea, go for it, but definitely change the flavor to something more bouncy and less imp-y.
anchorm4n: A niche effect, but an interesting one. I dig it. We also know that the devs have the technology to pull this off since it gets done in Battlegrounds.
TheHoax91: Aldor Artificer also suffers from forced 'x' since 'add a copy of it' would get the idea across the same. Also worried about too much value generation in one card, since a Discovered mage spell is often quite good. lol, when I was making my own cards for this, your Felo'melorn came up in Hearthcards 3 different times. The effect is interesting, but has dangerous potential. Within that potential however, is also a lot of counterplay. The turn you play it you basically spend 7 mana to 'do nothing', assuming you're holding onto it for a combo next turn. I like the design, but worry that high spell damage will set off alarms for many people when they look at it.
MrRhapsody: Left name, right artwork. I like the effect because it limits what you can hit with it. That said, the excess damage mechanic opens up so much interesting decisions in play-making that this card circumvents. You always want to play it on high health targets and never on low health ones, making the design a bit one-dimensional and really strong since it basically makes a tempo removal against many 3-4 drops.
Kansas: Really like the effect, payoffs for excess damage make for interesting play decisions. However, I am not sold on the flavor. Even after your explanation, it still seems strange for a dentist to be collecting extra money for essentially killing their clients. If the card were something like a hired killer, or an executing showman (along the lines of Draven), or even a thug, it would make more sense flavor-wise.
meisterz39: An interesting design for sure, if not a bit scary given how large Warrior minions and weapons can get. Cards like Sul'thraze and Warrior's many Rush minions become immense threats that could offer little counterplay.
Cg8889: Interesting, but also not powerful enough to justify the Highlander requirement. I am also a bit concerned with how it would interact with UI, especially on mobile where the game is already tight for space.
Mark my words I'll get to finalists if it's the last thing I do!
Doomguard Devastator is my exploration into excess damage since it is a mechanic that I am especially fond of and would like to see more of in the future. Initially bounced around ideas of it being cheaper with only targeting friendly minions, but the ability to choose what enemy minion to kill involves more interesting decision making.
Shadow Seer follows my deep love for Thief Priest and allows for some Envoy of Lazul synergy. I also always enjoy games of information, and this pushes that by giving the player and the opponent the same knowledge, whereas most other Thief Priest cards are player-only.
Corpse Explosion is the one out of the three I am most conflicted on. I really enjoy the effect and its interaction with Deathrattle synergies and Deathrattle-hate, but the flavor seems a bit off. Corpse Explosions typically involve a single target exploding, implying some initial minion damage/destruction, which this card does not have. Although I really like the effect, the only thing that keeps this card in this competition is the name rather than the effect. It's also hard to find Corpse Explosion art that aligns with Blizzard's modern art style philosophy.
EDIT: Aha, just saw the "You cannot use the word 'next'" ruling, gonna have to replace Shadow Seer with a different thing ;-;
@Xarkkal How would you get 3 10-drops on turn 3? The card can only affect minions that cost 2 or less and only brings them up by 2-3 depending on the version. The highest you could go is up to a 5 drop. With that clarification, which of the three versions would you prefer?
Color From Space got the most positive response from my initial 3 designs, so I made a couple tweaked iterations that are weaker, but also a bit more safe in that they are less likely to be super swingy. I thought about reducing the cost to 2, but Murloc Tidehunter is an evergreen card and would create turns too reminiscent of the Tombs of Terror fiasco. It might be fine as the original version, but I want to polish this design as much as I can before submitting.
Original:Tweaked versions:
And now, some feedback from page 3 cards!
Hordaki: Boom at any point after Boomsday would likely have to be a Warrior card. It also doesn't feel in the spirit of Boom either, who is always about explosions and randomness. This is just a very clean removal that feels out of place theme-wise. Agree that the art is great though.
TheHoax91: I like it as a tech card, but limiting it to Priest and making it legendary isn't a good idea. Tech choices are most interesting when they're Neutral and are more accessible than legendaries. Legendaries as tech cards is fine, like Mojomaster Zihi, but the tech Algalon provides is super niche and feels really bad to be constrained by both class and rarity.
CursedParrot: Really dig the direction you took Algalon and that you tied the effect to a legendary rather than an epic. It still scares me a bit, especially when something like Fireball stacking could easily make him a nuke, but he is a '6-mana do nothing' the turn he comes out, so it should be fine. We already have Solarion Prime, who isn't too crazy. Clarifying question though, would he cast the spells in the order played or would it be a random order?
Kansas: I think the tweaks you made really make this a solid submission. I do feel that their effects seems kind of small considering the scale they are meant to be on. These are huge cosmic dragons that are lords of time and space, and they deal/heal 3 damage. Maybe up their costs to up the effects? Idk what people are on about when they say healing can't be related to time, we even have Nozari who directly uses time to heal.
DestroyerR: Seems a bit weak on the surface, Invocation does a similar effect but costs 2 less. That said, Incanter's Flow could absolutely break this card and allow you to have an insane swing turn by casting the now cheap spells in your deck. It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure if it should be done at this time.
Nirast: I love the idea of Spell Damage interacting with more things, and I think the statline is fair for the effect. However, draw power scaling with Spell Damage opens up space for my least favorite archetype, mill decks. Research Project specifically could go wack and easily cause your opponent to mill themselves for an absurd number of cards. Despite this concern, I think the card is still in a good spot since it costs so much while not affecting the board. Clarifying question, would it also buff start of turn draw or draw from minions, or just draw from spells?
Xarkkal: First quick thing, I think the expansion it's from Galakrond's Awakening instead of DoD since Paladin were hard set for Bronze Dragons in DoD. The main thing I would change balance wise is making Celestial Breath only damage minions and not the enemy hero. It would still be a very strong card, but wouldn't have the potential to burst 10 damage on turn 8. Otherwise, I think its a decent design.
Inconspicuosaurus: Damn, I liked the gemini idea. To get rid of the issue of infinite value, you could make the copies a different token that share her stats, although it might be tricky to write that without going over the line limit. I would also consider making the effect a deathrattle since it can't get many enchantments on it from the hand outside of the occasional handbuff.
Time for some feedback! First time doing this, so sorry if the formatting is off.
anchorm4n #1: I'm a bit hesitant on the idea of a fatigue win condition since it promotes a very passive and uninteractive playstyle, but I do think that Priest is the best class to put this in. Their lost card draw makes a fatigue win con less oppressive and more feasible. However, I am also unsure if a Unicorn makes much sense in this week's space theme.
linkblade91: The infernal drop from Meteor Fall is an idea I've wanted to see made real in Warlock and while I like the card, it isn't that exciting. Random character also means it could just kill you, so I think making it be a random enemy or a random minion would be fine. I'm more of a fan of the first Vindicarr design since win con cards are often unsatisfying or uninteractive in practice, from my experience at least. I like the idea of a Paladin Boomship, but I might consider making it from hand instead of from deck. It follows the Boomships design and also synergizes with handbuff cards.
Demonxz95: Celestial Crafter reminds me of the Spiteful Summoner days, except without any type of build-around. It's a cool idea, but I think it has too much high-roll potential as it currently stands. Perhaps making the spell cost-restricted to avoid something like a 10-drop on turn 5-6. I think Starace is super cool. He supports both Elemental synergy and cheap spell synergy, both of which already compliment each other. My main feedback for him is to not make him from Boomsday class card since Boomsday class legendaries are fairly inflexible in terms of changing. Otherwise, I think Starace is awesome and has lots of room for building around, 5/5 for me.
Xarkkal: I like the idea, but Kael'thas could abuse the heck out of this. It even fetches him from your deck if you need to start chaining in a sup-optimal way. You could specify a caveat where this gets released after KT rotates, or downscale it/change the effect to be less abusable.
KANSAS: Dual dragons is a cool theme and I like the execution of them. However, I do agree with shaveyou that the statlines should be swapped. The naming and cost of the second dragon could also be changed. Not having the same cost seems a bit off to me given their theme and there are already a bunch of time dragons in Warcraft. Although the naming part isn't a huge deal, it deducts a bit of points from me if the flavor is too contrary to HS's setting.
BasilAnguis: I'm not really feeling Gravity Well, even after the class change. I think it's a fine card, it just doesn't jump out at me. Crack in Time is kind of like Maiev's effect and doesn't terribly excite me for that reason. Comet wins hands down for me, I think the idea of a recurring effect is super cool since it also adds a lot of interactivity from the opponent's side.
Wailor: Definite no to The Big Freeze, freeze is already one of the least interactive mechanics in HS and this exacerbates to a huge degree. Space Time Rip is a but interesting, but also feels too similar to Maiev. It could have some interesting applications with a cost reduction and class change though, since it triggers deathrattles. I like Gravity Crush a lot since there's a lot of ways to manipulate which minions attack in Warrior and it offers some ability for the opponent to play around.
MenacingBagel: I like the effect, but it might be a bit out of place in an expansion with no portal cards in it. Newer players would have do some extra digging to find out what the potential outcomes are, so I would either change the expansion it comes out in or change the effect.
shaveyou: Homemade Shuttle is uninteresting and seems a bit too generically strong. I like Hunter's Moon since I think more effects like Floop's Glorious Gloop should be around, but it feels a bit weak for 3 mana to only be conditionally strong. That said, I understand that too cheap potentially allows it to be crazy strong in the right circumstances.
Pokeniner: Big fan of Kirin Tor Astrologist as a way to give Mage some minion generation amidst all their random spell generation. I'm also always just excited by big minions in my games and love control decks, so I'm a bit biased. Extraterrestrial Arcane is cool as a temporary conditional buff, but I'm afraid it might be too weak. Applying to all spells in a turn makes room for uninteractive OTK's, but I could see it being 0-mana. Nether-terrestial seems like it has an interesting idea, but the wording is confusing. Does the chosen minion get the deathrattle, or does Nether himself have a deathrattle that triggers when the minion dies (which also doesn't make sense)?
Beatdoof: Constellar's Envoy feels bit too un-envoy-y since it's effect is so small. I might suggest a small stateline in exchange for a larger or more specific effect. Unsure how I feel about Touch the Stars. It's a temporary Emerald Goggles effect from the Dalaran Heist on a spell, which is cool, but left-most is also a Warlock thing in Boomsday wheras right-most is a Mage thing. Overall I like the design, it just feels a bit out of place to me. There is also some potential for scary pop-offs, but Mage doesn't have too much draw to fuel that, so it should be fine.
anchorm4n #2: I like the idea of swapping effects from Ebb and Flow, but moon themes (as suggested by the art) are a Druid thing rather than a Shaman thing. The idea works like shifting tides, but then that no longer goes with the space theme. Really dig The Red Planet, but feel that it might succumb to the same fate as Hack the System. Both work well in a tempo warrior deck, but both also take away from tempo by virtue of being quests.
MrRhapsody: Comet Trip feels very out of place in Mage since mage focuses on raw damage as removal instead of shuffling to simply destroying. Solar Flare seems like wasted potential. Solar Flares are super cool events that could be represented by sweeping fire or mass destruction instead of a 1 mana minor potential disruption. Far Sighted Telescope is the winner for me but I also feel like it doesn't differentiate itself enough from Sightless Watcher. Since there is no manipulation of what goes to or could be in the bottom of your deck, its effect is basically the exact same as Sightless Watcher's.
Inconspicuosaurus: I like the idea, but agree that it is too vulnerable to single target removal from the opponent. Increasing health should be a fine fix since it doesn't actually double down.
CursedParrot: I really like the effect, but the potential to play even more Puzzleboxes might be too much. It's an exceptionally slow card, so it might be fine from a balance stand point, but the value generated from it could also push out any other slow deck strategies.
Edit: formatting was fine, put in a couple entries I missed.
Event Horizon is a theme I initially wanted to pursue, with the idea being that a black hole is unstoppable once a certain edge is reached. Unsure if the card reaches that idea, but I like the ability for people to play around it and for the player to manipulate the board to get 2 potential minions to survive.
Color From Space is me trying to get some good ol' cosmic horror representation in here. The story "Color out from Space" involves the color transforming all the local inhabitants into monsters, lending it directly to evolve Shaman's theme. I also specifically wanted to avoid the Tombs of Terror fiasco, hence the higher cost and inability to effect Desert Hare. Worst case scenario, you can spend 5 mana to turn a 2 drop into a random 5 drop, which seems fair considering its potential.
Algalon is my attempt at something more related to Warcraft and a more radical card design. He has some potential to go crazy in miracle decks, but he needs to be in your hand, and even then miracles often tun on 0-1 cost spells, making him not too large. One of my larger concerns is the abuse cases in DH though, since cards like Skull of Gul'dan could get him to be large very easily.
I've participated in a few recent competitions to varying success, but never reached finalists. I am hoping that getting feedback before submitting will help me both at creating cards and integrating into this website's community. Looking forward to seeing everyone's cards and celebrating outof.cards' birthday!