I think you forgot to change the watermark on Gruul because he still has the Classic one meaning he would technically exist in the same set as regular Gruul. Speaking of regular Gruul, I think it is a little bit off-putting that this card is a 1/1 whereas the original card in a 7/7. This is a huge size discrepancy, which is unfortunately just an inherent negative side-effect of the prompt.
Millhouse is a cute idea, but I feel like it is side-stepping the rules of the prompt a little bit. Greenskin I think is definitely the best of the three, although I think he should have some guaranteed effect if you play him even without another Pirate.
Your idea for my Sylvanas sounds pretty neat, although copying Durability for one turn is a bit weird and the more inward specifics of how that would work is not so clear.
Anchorm4n
This is very fitting of the original Sylvanas card, although having no 6-Cost cards is not a big condition to meet, especially in Hunter of all classes. I think this for this reason, I prefer the Neutral version even though it is definitely fitting as a Hunter card.
Lundy
I do believe this card is better than Al'Akir for the comp, although there is an argument to be made that the damage from Life Tap is not supposed to matter if you end up winning the game anyway.
Alfi
There are quite a few problems here. Namely that the card isn't actually called King Krush in any way on the card (which will lead people to vote is negatively just on principal). The effect is also missing the Battlecry keyword. One particularly glaring problem to me as well is the fact that it's a Classic card, meaning that it's a strictly better King Krush in the exact same set as King Krush (as well as the fact that this deckbuilding effect did not exist yet). Having no 8-Cost cards in your deck is also a very easy requirement to meet, especially in Hunter.
I'm a little bit late for feedback, so it's good to finally get to writing it. I would however like to add a note that I see a lot of people using the Classic watermark for this competition, which I think is a bad look for the card since we're designing cards on characters that appeared in Classic, meaning that two different versions of the same character would be in the same set, which I feel like is just weird. I do realize that Galakrond exists and has 5 versions of himself in the same set, but I think this is chocked up in flavor to different interpretations of what would happen to Galakrond based on 5 different ways to awaken him with different magical powers.
But, here we go for feedback.
Wailor
I am glad you opted not to use the 5-mana version since I do agree that the condition for that one is pretty easy and the rewards seems like it could be very powerful. It's still powerful (arguably more so now that the card is cheaper), but there's now more deckbuilding involved. I'm not a huge fan of the 3 mana version because his size differs so heavily from his Classic 7/5/7 counterpart, so I would prefer the 4 mana version for that reason.
Linkblade91
That second version seems super-yikes to me. Druids are perfectly capable of spell-slinging and quickly building a huge board with this thing.
R
It seems you've already submitted, so I can't really help you, but I think this is a pretty fair effort. Giving any class a reliable Polymorph seems like it could be problematic, but it is very fitting to the character. It technically shouldn't be a GvG card since effects based on not having a specific Cost of card in your deck didn't exist until KotFT, but it's not that big of a deal here.
Anchorm4n
The cards are "cute", but these are tech cards with a deckbuilding condition. It seems like a really bad idea to limit your deckbuilding with a tech card only to go up against an opponent that the effect can't be used with it. Now, you not only have a bad card in your deck, but you also had to gimp your deck to put it in, making your deck even worse as a result.
DestroyerR
On face value, this is kinda cool. On a technical standpoint, it does raise one question though. If you interpret the text as strictly as possible, "this will be the 5th card you draw", then what will happen if it happens to be in your opening hand? If it were a card in the actual game, it wouldn't do anything different, and I think that much is intuitive. Strictly speaking though, does that mean that when you draw your 5th card, you'll draw this instead and take up whatever draw you had in the first place? (and effectively deny your draw since you're drawing a card that you already had in your hand to being with)
Lundy
In addition to what Link said about not being able to use that many tokens in your submission, having no 8-Cost cards in your deck is barely a requirement. EDIT: Didn't read that you were planning on changing that anyway, my bad. That would make it more of a requirement.
In regards to your statement about using Shots the same way as Poisons, this I do believe is a valid design space. But unlike Poisons, where a couple of them are similar but roughly do something different (such as making your hero Immune while attacking or drawing cards after you attack), every Shot in the game does roughly the same thing but just on a different scale, which makes it less interesting to work with.
Demonxz95 - Unfortunate that the two newest Hunter weapons cost 4; guess it would depend on when the Ranger General came out. I think it's okay, but it has *zero* connection with the Classic/banshee Sylvanas beyond the "skin". Some people might frown on that.
Yeah, that that's kinda the point. It's the same character, but if you were to tell someone with no knowledge of Warcraft that live Sylvanas and banshee Sylvanas are two different characters entirely, I feel like most of them wouldn't bat an eye. This is similarly reflected here. The effect is supposed to be representative of the character in a very different way than the original card since the two cards both focus on a very different version of the character that for all intents and purposes, could basically be two different characters entirely.
And unfortunately, yeah I feel like there's probably not many good targets for it right now. Team 5, if you're reading this, then print some Hunter weapons that don't cost 4 (please).
Okay, back with something a little bit more applicable for the comp. This is Sylvanas. We all know her as a dark banshee queen who seems hellbent on some sort of destruction. But she wasn't always like this. At one point, she was a regular elf ranger so full of life, and this card depicts this version of her.
I wanted to emphasize the "ranger" aspect of her character with this version, though I am a bit concerned that the payoff might not justify the deckbuilding required to get it to work. I do also just generally want to see more Hunter weapon synergies.
I feel like there hasn't been that many Demon Hunter cards in these competitions recently, so here you go.
EDIT: OH FUCK! In the midst of stuff I was doing when I made the card yesterday and trying to find a good Demon Hunter character, I completely blanked out on the fact that it's supposed to be a re-imagining of a Classic Legendary. Well uh, I guess Illidan technically is a Classic Legendary.
I guess, just judge the card by its effect and I will change the artwork to be Illidan??? Or I'll likely just make a different card.
Our adventurer's find ourselves in the Wailing Caverns. Contrary to Hamuul's warning not to go in, Infinis goes in. The caverns is full of several mysteries and dangers that lie ahead (and Screeching Horrors). What is undiscovered about the caverns though is the aura of Arcane energy to allow reality itself to be altered by whomever however they wish. Having been in the business of time magic after discovering Eternos from his Un'Goro trip with Elise, Infinis is of course intrigued by this possibility and heads in to claim it himself.
I have yet to remake all the old cards with spell schools, but from the counting I've done, Arcanic Dungeoneer has easily more than enough targets to be able to use well. There are about the same amount of Arcane spells for Time Traveler as there are Nature spells for Shaman to use with Primal Dungeoneer.
I feel the need to point this out since this is the second competition in a row to feature a card called Scale Up! and use the artwork from Anyfin Can Happen.
Now, I get it. Not everyone has an encyclopedic knowledge of every artwork in the game that is used, but do avoid using artwork for your cards that is already featured on cards accessible via collectable cards. The general rule of thumb is that artwork found on cards that can only be seen outside of Ranked mode is fair game, but artwork that can be found on cards accessible in Ranked mode isn't.
Nathanos is a very creative way to interpret "scaling" to say the least. If it were up to me, I would say that it would count. But it's not up to me, and I'm not sure what the official judgement is. I think the effect is pretty interesting though.
Shadow Illusions is cool in theory, but it can become extremely powerful fairly easily.
BasilAnguis
I agree with everyone in that it should just be named Counterintilligence. I think the card is really flavorful, but I am concerned on the fact that it borders on the line of being a class tech card.
Linkblade91
I definitely prefer the second one because it's a lot easier to judge in terms of general balance and is a lot easier to figure out what it's going to do in gameplay. I do believe it could cost 3 mana though.
Having 2 out of 8 cards so far being hard disruption cards seems a little bit worrying. I am hoping that this mini-set won't turn into just a big pile of disruption cards.
Took a while to think of something I liked, but I've finally got it. Specifics can still be tweaked, but I'm quite fond of the scaling condition.
Feedback
Nirast
Get Ready for the Boom! is a bit strange with Dr. Boom's Scheme in the same set, although the latter is one of the worst cards ever made, so I wouldn't necessarily blame you for refusing to acknowledge its existence, though quite a few people will. I feel like announcing that you're using used art is also a bit counterproductive.
Exponential Explosion is flavorful, though you are right that it doesn't fit Warrior. Not to mention potentially too strong. You can deal 32 damage with this card if your opponent has 6 Bombs in their deck (or 5 Bombs and use both copies of this). You also seem to be forgetting the watermark and rarity, although I can let it slide here given that the card feels more like a proof of concept.
Wailor
Spell Damage is absolutely still a thing in Shaman. There are lots of Shaman cards that are related to Spell Damage in some way. The reason Wrath of Air Totem was removed was to allow them to make Spell Damage synergies in Shaman without making it a highroll and because according to Blizzard, it's by far the worst Totem in some Shaman decks, and by far the best Totem in some other Shaman decks. Though I argue that since Searing Totem is always the worst Totem in every circumstance, we should remove that too and keep Wrath of Air Totem.
While specific stat balancing might use some tweaking (as I agree with HuntardHuntard that both of these cards are fairly weak), the concept behind them is quite solid. I personally prefer Maelstorm Harbinger myself.
Anchorm4n
I quite like Pyrotechnician! I don't particularly mind which version you go with myself since they are both pretty solid cards. The version able to hit face might be a bit too powerful if you're playing against a Control deck with a large hand and an empty board, though such situation may be niche enough to balance the card.
C'Thun, the Insatiable is actually C'Thun 4.0 (Mecha'thun cries in the corner). I think the proper wording of the card is "For each card you've played this game, deal 1 damage randomly split among all enemies.". Certain decks do have the potential to scale this up pretty high and pretty quickly, although I don't think that'll be a problem.
Just checking to be sure, there is no penalty for using a well-known anime image and perhaps even the name for my card right? Or does it have to be Hearthstone or WoW specific? As long as I manage to follow this weeks competition theme, it should be okay I think?
Some people might penalize you for blatantly using a non WoW-IP in a place where it doesn't belong, but your card won't be disqualified for it
Transparency report looks like a tie (both with exactly 3.4444...), but only my card is shown at the competition page. Not sure if or how tiebreaking is done, but MathU should also be shown at the least.
Only showing one winning card in a tie has always been the way that it works, but the Card Design Conversation will acknowledge the tie and both winning people will be able to share their ideas for next week's comp.
I'm going to assume that the 145 cards thing is probably just a typo.
As for watermarks, I think the way it's handled here is basically the best that it could've been done given the limitations of HearthCards. Adding your own watermarks basically requires you to contact Dnikko directly and then maybe he'll add it, or use some type of photo editing program to edit them in yourself. Needless to say, not everyone really wants to do that, so what we have in the set as it is, I think it's perfectly serviceable that MrRhapsody just used a different music-related watermark for the mini-set. Eventually through looking at just a part of the whole set, it should just click through anyone's head that the G Clef watermark is supposed to represent the mini-set cards.
I've been a part of this website since its inception, before it was officially launched as Out of Cards, and it's been a real pleasure to work with everyone here and see how this website has grown over the two years that it has been around.
Happy birthday Out of Cards, and many more to come.
Well, evidently I care about Toki losing her spectacle. The difference between Princess Huhuran and Toki is that Huhuran is just a random throwaway character with an effect that's not particularly flashy or intended to be unique to the card, particularly when Feign Death already existed for an entire year. Toki on the other hand is supposed to be one of the primary protagonists of the expansion she is part of and her effect is built specifically with the intention of being unique.
Arkasaur
Nah, I think it's fine at 2 mana since it specifically needs to be played in decks with mostly big minions to make it effective. I really like this card, although Cost should be capitalized.
@Demonxz95 Any thoughts on how to improve the feeling of deliberacy? Or what more generally makes a card feel deliberate?
Basically what I meant by "deliberacy" is when every piece of card feels like it was specifically put together to make the card rather than just putting a bunch of random pieces together. Admittedly, this is in many respects harder to avoid with very simple Common cards and there are probably several upon several existing cards that you could apply this line of logic to as well. Pack filler Common cards in general are prone to this since it's very easy to just slap whatever effect you want on a random body with any artwork and call it a day.
A source of this specific card feeling this way does also come from what Link said about the card attempting to fill two completely antithetical purposes. Obviously, the Poisonous and the damage is meant to be used as a pseudo-Assassinate on a body that can possibly take another minion out by itself, but the option of dealing very specifically 3 damage to something including face goes against this since the fact that it deals 3 damage as opposed to 1 won't matter when the Poisonous effect will kill it anyway, or when you use it to hit face in which case you're not really using the effect combination for its intended purpose as well as the fact that playing it for face damage also just makes the card feel very weak.
Hopefully you can understand what I mean since translating my thoughts into words is not always my strong suit.
Damn, MathU. You gotta leave some competitions for other people to win (jk, congrats yet again).
You know, I'm fine with the way they've handled this.
But they've opened the floodgates to a lot of people complaining to ban whatever card they want banned.
Further feedback.
I think you forgot to change the watermark on Gruul because he still has the Classic one meaning he would technically exist in the same set as regular Gruul. Speaking of regular Gruul, I think it is a little bit off-putting that this card is a 1/1 whereas the original card in a 7/7. This is a huge size discrepancy, which is unfortunately just an inherent negative side-effect of the prompt.
Millhouse is a cute idea, but I feel like it is side-stepping the rules of the prompt a little bit. Greenskin I think is definitely the best of the three, although I think he should have some guaranteed effect if you play him even without another Pirate.
Your idea for my Sylvanas sounds pretty neat, although copying Durability for one turn is a bit weird and the more inward specifics of how that would work is not so clear.
I'm a little bit late for feedback, so it's good to finally get to writing it. I would however like to add a note that I see a lot of people using the Classic watermark for this competition, which I think is a bad look for the card since we're designing cards on characters that appeared in Classic, meaning that two different versions of the same character would be in the same set, which I feel like is just weird. I do realize that Galakrond exists and has 5 versions of himself in the same set, but I think this is chocked up in flavor to different interpretations of what would happen to Galakrond based on 5 different ways to awaken him with different magical powers.
But, here we go for feedback.
In regards to your statement about using Shots the same way as Poisons, this I do believe is a valid design space. But unlike Poisons, where a couple of them are similar but roughly do something different (such as making your hero Immune while attacking or drawing cards after you attack), every Shot in the game does roughly the same thing but just on a different scale, which makes it less interesting to work with.
Yeah, that that's kinda the point. It's the same character, but if you were to tell someone with no knowledge of Warcraft that live Sylvanas and banshee Sylvanas are two different characters entirely, I feel like most of them wouldn't bat an eye. This is similarly reflected here. The effect is supposed to be representative of the character in a very different way than the original card since the two cards both focus on a very different version of the character that for all intents and purposes, could basically be two different characters entirely.
And unfortunately, yeah I feel like there's probably not many good targets for it right now. Team 5, if you're reading this, then print some Hunter weapons that don't cost 4 (please).
Okay, back with something a little bit more applicable for the comp. This is Sylvanas. We all know her as a dark banshee queen who seems hellbent on some sort of destruction. But she wasn't always like this. At one point, she was a regular elf ranger so full of life, and this card depicts this version of her.
I wanted to emphasize the "ranger" aspect of her character with this version, though I am a bit concerned that the payoff might not justify the deckbuilding required to get it to work. I do also just generally want to see more Hunter weapon synergies.
I feel like there hasn't been that many Demon Hunter cards in these competitions recently, so here you go.
EDIT: OH FUCK! In the midst of stuff I was doing when I made the card yesterday and trying to find a good Demon Hunter character, I completely blanked out on the fact that it's supposed to be a re-imagining of a Classic Legendary. Well uh, I guess Illidan technically is a Classic Legendary.
I guess, just judge the card by its effect and I will change the artwork to be Illidan??? Or I'll likely just make a different card.
Hope you guys enjoy the new thumbnail style. I'll likely be using this as the standard in the future going forward if you guys like it.
Forged in the Barrens mini-set is now out!
Forged in the Barrens Mini-Set
Our adventurer's find ourselves in the Wailing Caverns. Contrary to Hamuul's warning not to go in, Infinis goes in. The caverns is full of several mysteries and dangers that lie ahead (and Screeching Horrors). What is undiscovered about the caverns though is the aura of Arcane energy to allow reality itself to be altered by whomever however they wish. Having been in the business of time magic after discovering Eternos from his Un'Goro trip with Elise, Infinis is of course intrigued by this possibility and heads in to claim it himself.
I have yet to remake all the old cards with spell schools, but from the counting I've done, Arcanic Dungeoneer has easily more than enough targets to be able to use well. There are about the same amount of Arcane spells for Time Traveler as there are Nature spells for Shaman to use with Primal Dungeoneer.
I feel the need to point this out since this is the second competition in a row to feature a card called Scale Up! and use the artwork from Anyfin Can Happen.
Now, I get it. Not everyone has an encyclopedic knowledge of every artwork in the game that is used, but do avoid using artwork for your cards that is already featured on cards accessible via collectable cards. The general rule of thumb is that artwork found on cards that can only be seen outside of Ranked mode is fair game, but artwork that can be found on cards accessible in Ranked mode isn't.
Time for more feedback.
Nathanos is a very creative way to interpret "scaling" to say the least. If it were up to me, I would say that it would count. But it's not up to me, and I'm not sure what the official judgement is. I think the effect is pretty interesting though.
Shadow Illusions is cool in theory, but it can become extremely powerful fairly easily.
Having 2 out of 8 cards so far being hard disruption cards seems a little bit worrying. I am hoping that this mini-set won't turn into just a big pile of disruption cards.
Took a while to think of something I liked, but I've finally got it. Specifics can still be tweaked, but I'm quite fond of the scaling condition.
Feedback
Get Ready for the Boom! is a bit strange with Dr. Boom's Scheme in the same set, although the latter is one of the worst cards ever made, so I wouldn't necessarily blame you for refusing to acknowledge its existence, though quite a few people will. I feel like announcing that you're using used art is also a bit counterproductive.
Exponential Explosion is flavorful, though you are right that it doesn't fit Warrior. Not to mention potentially too strong. You can deal 32 damage with this card if your opponent has 6 Bombs in their deck (or 5 Bombs and use both copies of this). You also seem to be forgetting the watermark and rarity, although I can let it slide here given that the card feels more like a proof of concept.
Spell Damage is absolutely still a thing in Shaman. There are lots of Shaman cards that are related to Spell Damage in some way. The reason Wrath of Air Totem was removed was to allow them to make Spell Damage synergies in Shaman without making it a highroll and because according to Blizzard, it's by far the worst Totem in some Shaman decks, and by far the best Totem in some other Shaman decks. Though I argue that since Searing Totem is always the worst Totem in every circumstance, we should remove that too and keep Wrath of Air Totem.
While specific stat balancing might use some tweaking (as I agree with HuntardHuntard that both of these cards are fairly weak), the concept behind them is quite solid. I personally prefer Maelstorm Harbinger myself.
I quite like Pyrotechnician! I don't particularly mind which version you go with myself since they are both pretty solid cards. The version able to hit face might be a bit too powerful if you're playing against a Control deck with a large hand and an empty board, though such situation may be niche enough to balance the card.
C'Thun, the Insatiable is actually C'Thun 4.0 (Mecha'thun cries in the corner). I think the proper wording of the card is "For each card you've played this game, deal 1 damage randomly split among all enemies.". Certain decks do have the potential to scale this up pretty high and pretty quickly, although I don't think that'll be a problem.
I personally prefer Pyrotechnician myself.
Some people might penalize you for blatantly using a non WoW-IP in a place where it doesn't belong, but your card won't be disqualified for it
Only showing one winning card in a tie has always been the way that it works, but the Card Design Conversation will acknowledge the tie and both winning people will be able to share their ideas for next week's comp.
I'm going to assume that the 145 cards thing is probably just a typo.
As for watermarks, I think the way it's handled here is basically the best that it could've been done given the limitations of HearthCards. Adding your own watermarks basically requires you to contact Dnikko directly and then maybe he'll add it, or use some type of photo editing program to edit them in yourself. Needless to say, not everyone really wants to do that, so what we have in the set as it is, I think it's perfectly serviceable that MrRhapsody just used a different music-related watermark for the mini-set. Eventually through looking at just a part of the whole set, it should just click through anyone's head that the G Clef watermark is supposed to represent the mini-set cards.
I've been a part of this website since its inception, before it was officially launched as Out of Cards, and it's been a real pleasure to work with everyone here and see how this website has grown over the two years that it has been around.
Happy birthday Out of Cards, and many more to come.
I was really tempted to make a "Primus sucks" post, I feel like a lot of people wouldn't get the joke.
So instead, I will say that I support this notion 100%.
Basically what I meant by "deliberacy" is when every piece of card feels like it was specifically put together to make the card rather than just putting a bunch of random pieces together. Admittedly, this is in many respects harder to avoid with very simple Common cards and there are probably several upon several existing cards that you could apply this line of logic to as well. Pack filler Common cards in general are prone to this since it's very easy to just slap whatever effect you want on a random body with any artwork and call it a day.
A source of this specific card feeling this way does also come from what Link said about the card attempting to fill two completely antithetical purposes. Obviously, the Poisonous and the damage is meant to be used as a pseudo-Assassinate on a body that can possibly take another minion out by itself, but the option of dealing very specifically 3 damage to something including face goes against this since the fact that it deals 3 damage as opposed to 1 won't matter when the Poisonous effect will kill it anyway, or when you use it to hit face in which case you're not really using the effect combination for its intended purpose as well as the fact that playing it for face damage also just makes the card feel very weak.
Hopefully you can understand what I mean since translating my thoughts into words is not always my strong suit.