Given the ability of Scholomance Paladin to krunk out the biggest of bois in the metahaus, I think it's possible to run this in a buff deck. You have to forgo spells like Subdue, but that's alright if you can slap down your buff cowboys before the other dude in LibRam Ranch does, right?
You could plop this into Dead Man's Hand Warrior to get a bit more free with your... well, Dead Elephant's Hand, I suppose. The secret suggestion is quite interesting, as well, since a few secret classes have ways to draw secrets straight out of your deck.
I'm not sure that ole Babar will find a home in a constructed deck, but I adore this type of strong, niche effect. Every time I home-brew some wretched amalgamation of cards, I come back to all of these ones like Educated Elekk, Meat Wagon, Master Oakheart, etc. and think, 'Weellll, maybe now? Can we? Does it work?' You just want to find a home for them.
It's a great defensive card, because you're rewarded for doing something which you would anyway - playing spells. Getting a 3-6 for 5 mana is only slightly better than Grook Fu Master (wait, that exists?), but it has rush and you also get the effect from that 2 mana spell. It's nothing that breaks the pie, but it is very efficient board control tool.
Put in a faster deck like Token Druid or Totem Shaman, this is just as good - it's an efficient tool that works at a premium with your buff spells, proactively protects your littler dudes, and puts pressure on your opponent if it sticks around. Especially since Token Druid wants to run 5+ cost spells at the moment, I think we'll see this gal more in faster decks than slower decks.
As PLANETCRUNCH noted, this is more powerful than it seems at first glance. Consistency for both Treant Druid and Totem Shaman is very, very good! I'd like to note one more thing, though - it's a 5+ cost spell. Both classes have tools that benefit from 5+ cost spells, and if they want to use those tools, this spell will be in there.
Anyone who's played a bunch of Arena knows how game-winning having an extra ping on hand can be. So... what if that ping stayed with you the whole game? What if it was activated by cards that you already had in your deck? What if you could play it multiple times per turn?
I make my bet now - this is the sleeper common of the set! You will see this in several classes' constructed decks. It's like having an extra hero power. You could use this in Secret Paladin, you could use this in Control Mage, you could put this in any Reno deck... And even better, there are juicy OTK opportunities :3
The card I see this being used most with is Hench-Clan Hogsteed. It's the best low-cost rush minion!
That said, it has one huge saving grace over Bloodsworn Mercenary - it can apply pressure. Currently, if you don't have a card to use with the Merc, it just sits in your hand like a dead duck. But you can play this on T3 on its lonesome! If it survives, you've just steamrolled the game - play a Restless Mummy, put your opponent deeper in the hole. If it doesn't survive (assuming you've had a good curve), you've forced your opponent to use removal that, perhaps, would be better used on a later threat, like the new Warrior lego. This will need a deck to see play, certainly, but writing it off with 'eh, its effect is hard to activate' doesn't cover the whole picture.
Firstly - the theme is magnificent. This is as dark as I was hoping the Warlock/Priest combo would be. A fatty nose with legs. Why, I could see this bloke shopping at Walmart!
Secondly - does this trigger for 'each time your health changed during one of your turns', or 'each time your health changed during one of your turns?' That is to say/blather on, does its cost reduce by one for each turn during which your health changed, or for each time your health changed, turns notwithstanding? I'm guessing it's the first, because if it were the second, you wouldn't need to state 'during one of your turns' - the text would be 'each time your health changed this game'.
Terti-idon'tcare-ally - even though that means that our new big honker ain't so strong as the other folks here think, since cards like Spreading Madness would only reduce its cost by one, it's still flabbergastingly good! (Get it? Flab? haha. wee.) Damage yourself on turns 1-4, and voila, you have a playable 4-mana 8-8 for turn 5, ready to be copied, taunted, and Shadow Word: Ruin'd.
This seems like a good card for Token DH. Normally, it's just too variable to justify putting in your deck - against most decks, 3 damage is not enough, and spending seven damage to not clear the entire board is also not enough. It's great when it works, but that's not too often, and unlike Keli'dan or other similar cards, the average scenario isn't good enough to justify the great scenario.
If you're playing Token DH, though - you can use your pingy bois to lower enemy minions' health down to 3! And then refill your resources by summoning 3-3s. Instead of choosing between the old duo of 'keep up the pressure OR trade?' you can do both.
You could organize the classes like this: Druid --> Druid/Hunter --> Hunter --> Hunter/Demon Hunter --> Demon Hunter --> Demon Hunter/Warlock --> Warlock --> Warlock/Priest... etc. In this format, one class is left out (Druid or Shaman, here, since Druid/Shaman is the last pair), but all the rest have every card in the same place, plus close proximity to their paired class, so you could enjoy evaluating how a card works for both classes.
At least, I think it would be better if you added the dual-class cards underneath the class cards, instead of underneath the Neutral cards. If I'm looking at the Druid reveals, I don't want to scroll all the way to the end and then back to the top several times over.
That said, thank you for your hard work! As usual, the UI and the promptness from this site are leagues ahead of the others around. The passion you have really shows through.
This seems innocuous until you realize that Druid has a plethora of tricks that can turn that temporary discount into a permanent mana crystal. Wild Growth on turn 2, Overflow on turn 3, Nourish on turn 5... The only card which doesn't work on curve is Breath of Dreams. So, as has already been said, Ramp Druid loves this card.
Spell Druid and Token Druid players can slobber over this, too. BEEEES!!! (for anybody wondering, I've now had to figure out that there are four E's in that spell) can be played on turn 2, Glowfly Swarm on turn 4, and The Forest's Aid on turn 7. Not to mention, y'know, it preserves your hand size, discovers a spell, only costs 1 mana, and can discover itself. Exotic Mountseller's going back to college.
Make no mistake about it, while this looks small, it'll be incredibly impactful.
That was a surprisingly creative theme. Good luck to all of you! My favorites are Back Alley Sniper and Storm Captain.
I also want to say thanks to the community and especially to the veterans for introducing me and the other noobs into the world of custom card design. The whole season was a blast and I got sucked in deeper and deeper, culminating in a custom expansion I'm working on right now (nothing to show yet, I only have a new keyword and 6 or 7 legendaries done to get the shiny OP cards out of my head). This is a great, helpful and positive community and I'm proud to be part of it. I'm looking forward to what's next!
As another noob, I agree! I can't say it any more eloquently, but this has been a great way to revive my love for Hearthstone, having been whittled down by the years. Stopping by here and having a moderated, well designed forum filled with helpful folks is a real blast from the past to the old days of Internet forums. It feels cozy.
I'll be rootin' tootin' for Ship Captain Zrukx, Kul'Tiran Enforcer, and Possessed Raider. Good luck, y'all!
@Nirast Vampirate Lord is very flavorful (the name is absolutely toothsome), but I'm not sure why giving Lifesteal to Pirates is a desirable thing. The closest thing to self-damage in Pirates' tribal theme is weapon synergies, which Warlock doesn't have. Pirate builds are also generally aggressive, which doesn't call for Lifesteal either.
I'm not sure how you could alter the card's ability and keep his vampire flavor, though. Maybe he could wangle a first strike-ish ability, like 'Whenever your Pirates attack, they deal their damage first. If their opponent dies, they take no damage.'? That seems rather sinister and from-the-shadows-y.
I love the effect on Zrukx. It's a fitting finisher for Hunter, which already has hero power synergies and is the class with the most 'closer' cards like this. Regarding balance, 2 damage might be better - even six hero powers, which seems average for a deck trying to do that to have on turn 10, is already a scary 18 damage.
Even though I get the idea, though, of a ship captain blastin' his cannons, I don't feel like that's enough to justify him being a Pirate. It's a thought I've been having while looking at a lot of the submissions for this contest; giving a class their first Pirate should be momentous and justified. The card should be a build-around for a class Pirate archetype like Bloodsail Corsair, twist a class-specific spin on neutral Pirate flavor like Cutthroat Buccaneer or Cursed Castaway (integrating Rogue's stealy-wealy Combo into their Pirate identity), or have overwhelming Piratey flavor like Captain Hooktusk, who summons her own crew. Zrukx fires his cannons, but that doesn't involve other Pirates, call back to any neutral Pirates, or have an overwhelmingly Piratey feel.
As an idea, maybe you could lower his stats and make his text something like 'Battlecry: Summon a 1-1 Crewmate for each time you used your Hero Power this game. Deal 3 damage to a random enemy for each.'? Making a board adds some stats and maxes out the damage at 18, which seems more balanced if ruinous to the meme dream, and giving a ship's captain his crew (each one on a cannon!) feels nice.
Allo! I've got three ideas for this week, so far. Kudos to Xarkkal, this is a fun one.
Thoughts on my cards:
Show Spoiler
Swordwraith Freebooter began as a callback to Phantom Freebooter, the only KofT Pirate; at first, it destroyed your weapon and reduced enemy minions' max health by its durability, but that was just confusing, so I came up with what's here. He's picky enough to only fight for someone with a weapon, but once he realizes yours is bigger than his, he destroys it! Pretty petty for a ghost, heh.
Spectral Cannoneer is a Witchwood card, my attempt at finding peace between Feral Druid and Pirates - it seemed fitting to have something happen when your hero attacked, and given Witchwood and spiritual card, he has Echo. I thought about making him cost less to allow more Echo shenanigans, which seemed too powerful in the early game, and about having him gain stats instead of dealing damage, which seemed less fun but perhaps more Druid-y. (Yes, I stole the art from Paladins, that's Makoa, shush ._.)
Gurgling Gravedigger (Low-Tide Treasure Hunter?) is here because Secrets seemed Piratey, and Secret Paladin and Pirates both seemed aggressive, so I plopped him in the same set as Commander Rhyssa. Either the other Pirate helps him dig up some treasure, or he's digging a grave for a Pirate who turns out to be alive - and tells him some secrets! - take yer pick.
Thoughts on other folks' cards:
Show Spoiler
Demonxz95 - I love the effect. It's surprising that we haven't seen something like that in-game yet! The flavor feels off, though. Pirates synergize with things like attacking, other pirates, weapons, and stealing or generating cards. Rogue's Combo is fitting, being underhanded, but Shaman's Overload is about spells and raw power, neither of which is very swashbuckley. My gut feeling for that art is her summoning a crew of Elemental Pirates.
Linkblade91 - I, too, like Kul Tiran Staffweilder the most. Even if Terror of the Tides has some killer art. I would consider reducing her attack to 3 though, because as you say, any deck with her would also run Parachute Brigand.
Xarkkal - As others have said, random demons is an effect that has already been done and been proven to be rather scary.
CursedParrot - Mage Cap'n Carla. A tough one, since it's entirely new! A neat one, though. It isn't a great idea with your original spells, Pirates not seeming more valuable than even Frostbolts on average, but perhaps you could use it in a deck that generates random spells. As others said, I think having it start in your opening hand is Overkill, too railroady, and I think it would be alright if she lost 1 attack and equipped the weapon instead. Specifying playable Pirates seems iffy, too - you could get down to 2 mana and have an okay chance at sniping several Parachute Brigands.
KANSAS - I like the Orc Raider. It's good enough to put in a constructed deck, since it can take out two targets, and it helps Battlecry Shaman. Davy Jones is fun, but it's too strong and doesn't feel like a Warlock card. It's not particularly interesting or useful.
Pokeniner - It's got me giggling up a storm that both you and Valor found the same art and both went the same direction with it. Cute girl, summons a cute cat, and oh, it's got a chest? Fantastic treasure! Your condition seems too hard to complete, though - that poor cat is going to get consistently mauled. Not to mention, why would I vote for a card that puts such a cute creature up for destruction? D: Zelaton would be fun to theorycraft with, but as is, it's too radical to really guess at his power level; I don't have the time to decide whether he would be fun to play with, or not, and thus I don't like him very much for our purposes.
Valor - If only you'd posted an hour earlier, haha. That said, I don't think that art fits a Hunter very well, beast summoner or no, and besides, having fantastic treasures appear in other classes does feel a bit odd. If I ran into Demeza while dishing out votes, I would think 'Well, that's fun, and not badly designed, but not particularly flavorful or useful, so, eh, 3 because it's not terribly flawed and cute, but not bad?' Possessed Raider feels better. A solid, well balanced Common, with demon synergies, reminiscent of an existing card ([Hearthstone Card (Rustworn Initiate) Not Found]) but also new, with some neat flavor. Death, very flavorful.
Not a lot of entries in both competitions so far. I could imagine that having to find two matching pieces of art was too much of an issue for some people in the other competition.
Anyway, that Vengeful Voidmaster looks like a cool card! I think it's a little OP but it's very flavorful and a cool design. Well done!
It was tough, agreed. I ended up just finding a piece of art with two characters in it, so I could split them and make separate cards. To those folks who made two or even three cards with matching art, many kudos, snaps, props, and other four letter words of appreciation to you!
This contest was also tough, because it's so rare for Blizzard to release a card that references another card (I think Mike Donais has even said that they don't like to do that?). I went through a bucket of ideas (and an irresistible urge to create an 50% Ogre, however that came about) which I felt were neat, but could also be executed without generating a card or didn't have enough flavor to justify the generation. Not to mention, the pool to choose from is basically limited to Classic cards. Looking at other folks' entries, it seems like I wasn't the only one who found those bits to be a struggle. There were a couple people who bent the 'guidelines' and still came up with cards I thought would be fun, though (Including the Cheese Egg, unironically, haha).
I enjoy how doing these competitions makes ya very aware of Blizzard's unwritten design rules. Most folks here, it seems, agree that a good fan card should be something which could be printed - flavorful, balanced, not complicated, etc. - which limits the pool of acceptable ideas but, I think, brings you closer to the game in a satisfying way.
Given the ability of Scholomance Paladin to krunk out the biggest of bois in the metahaus, I think it's possible to run this in a buff deck. You have to forgo spells like Subdue, but that's alright if you can slap down your buff cowboys before the other dude in LibRam Ranch does, right?
You could plop this into Dead Man's Hand Warrior to get a bit more free with your... well, Dead Elephant's Hand, I suppose. The secret suggestion is quite interesting, as well, since a few secret classes have ways to draw secrets straight out of your deck.
I'm not sure that ole Babar will find a home in a constructed deck, but I adore this type of strong, niche effect. Every time I home-brew some wretched amalgamation of cards, I come back to all of these ones like Educated Elekk, Meat Wagon, Master Oakheart, etc. and think, 'Weellll, maybe now? Can we? Does it work?' You just want to find a home for them.
It's a great defensive card, because you're rewarded for doing something which you would anyway - playing spells. Getting a 3-6 for 5 mana is only slightly better than Grook Fu Master (wait, that exists?), but it has rush and you also get the effect from that 2 mana spell. It's nothing that breaks the pie, but it is very efficient board control tool.
Put in a faster deck like Token Druid or Totem Shaman, this is just as good - it's an efficient tool that works at a premium with your buff spells, proactively protects your littler dudes, and puts pressure on your opponent if it sticks around. Especially since Token Druid wants to run 5+ cost spells at the moment, I think we'll see this gal more in faster decks than slower decks.
Yeah, yeah, it's good, whatever, fine, but really - this should be a SHAMAN CARD! >:C
As PLANETCRUNCH noted, this is more powerful than it seems at first glance. Consistency for both Treant Druid and Totem Shaman is very, very good! I'd like to note one more thing, though - it's a 5+ cost spell. Both classes have tools that benefit from 5+ cost spells, and if they want to use those tools, this spell will be in there.
This is lovely. Anybody else hoping that the other two Mage/Shaman cards will also have spell damage synergy? I can't wait!
Anyone who's played a bunch of Arena knows how game-winning having an extra ping on hand can be. So... what if that ping stayed with you the whole game? What if it was activated by cards that you already had in your deck? What if you could play it multiple times per turn?
I make my bet now - this is the sleeper common of the set! You will see this in several classes' constructed decks. It's like having an extra hero power. You could use this in Secret Paladin, you could use this in Control Mage, you could put this in any Reno deck... And even better, there are juicy OTK opportunities :3
The card I see this being used most with is Hench-Clan Hogsteed. It's the best low-cost rush minion!
That said, it has one huge saving grace over Bloodsworn Mercenary - it can apply pressure. Currently, if you don't have a card to use with the Merc, it just sits in your hand like a dead duck. But you can play this on T3 on its lonesome! If it survives, you've just steamrolled the game - play a Restless Mummy, put your opponent deeper in the hole. If it doesn't survive (assuming you've had a good curve), you've forced your opponent to use removal that, perhaps, would be better used on a later threat, like the new Warrior lego. This will need a deck to see play, certainly, but writing it off with 'eh, its effect is hard to activate' doesn't cover the whole picture.
Thanks. I hate this one, too.
Thanks. I hate it.
Firstly - the theme is magnificent. This is as dark as I was hoping the Warlock/Priest combo would be. A fatty nose with legs. Why, I could see this bloke shopping at Walmart!
Secondly - does this trigger for 'each time your health changed during one of your turns', or 'each time your health changed during one of your turns?' That is to say/blather on, does its cost reduce by one for each turn during which your health changed, or for each time your health changed, turns notwithstanding? I'm guessing it's the first, because if it were the second, you wouldn't need to state 'during one of your turns' - the text would be 'each time your health changed this game'.
Terti-idon'tcare-ally - even though that means that our new big honker ain't so strong as the other folks here think, since cards like Spreading Madness would only reduce its cost by one, it's still flabbergastingly good! (Get it? Flab? haha. wee.) Damage yourself on turns 1-4, and voila, you have a playable 4-mana 8-8 for turn 5, ready to be copied, taunted, and Shadow Word: Ruin'd.
This seems like a good card for Token DH. Normally, it's just too variable to justify putting in your deck - against most decks, 3 damage is not enough, and spending seven damage to not clear the entire board is also not enough. It's great when it works, but that's not too often, and unlike Keli'dan or other similar cards, the average scenario isn't good enough to justify the great scenario.
If you're playing Token DH, though - you can use your pingy bois to lower enemy minions' health down to 3! And then refill your resources by summoning 3-3s. Instead of choosing between the old duo of 'keep up the pressure OR trade?' you can do both.
You could organize the classes like this: Druid --> Druid/Hunter --> Hunter --> Hunter/Demon Hunter --> Demon Hunter --> Demon Hunter/Warlock --> Warlock --> Warlock/Priest... etc. In this format, one class is left out (Druid or Shaman, here, since Druid/Shaman is the last pair), but all the rest have every card in the same place, plus close proximity to their paired class, so you could enjoy evaluating how a card works for both classes.
At least, I think it would be better if you added the dual-class cards underneath the class cards, instead of underneath the Neutral cards. If I'm looking at the Druid reveals, I don't want to scroll all the way to the end and then back to the top several times over.
That said, thank you for your hard work! As usual, the UI and the promptness from this site are leagues ahead of the others around. The passion you have really shows through.
This seems innocuous until you realize that Druid has a plethora of tricks that can turn that temporary discount into a permanent mana crystal. Wild Growth on turn 2, Overflow on turn 3, Nourish on turn 5... The only card which doesn't work on curve is Breath of Dreams. So, as has already been said, Ramp Druid loves this card.
Spell Druid and Token Druid players can slobber over this, too. BEEEES!!! (for anybody wondering, I've now had to figure out that there are four E's in that spell) can be played on turn 2, Glowfly Swarm on turn 4, and The Forest's Aid on turn 7. Not to mention, y'know, it preserves your hand size, discovers a spell, only costs 1 mana, and can discover itself. Exotic Mountseller's going back to college.
Make no mistake about it, while this looks small, it'll be incredibly impactful.
"I'm a wot?!"
As another noob, I agree! I can't say it any more eloquently, but this has been a great way to revive my love for Hearthstone, having been whittled down by the years. Stopping by here and having a moderated, well designed forum filled with helpful folks is a real blast from the past to the old days of Internet forums. It feels cozy.
I'll be rootin' tootin' for Ship Captain Zrukx, Kul'Tiran Enforcer, and Possessed Raider. Good luck, y'all!
@Nirast Vampirate Lord is very flavorful (the name is absolutely toothsome), but I'm not sure why giving Lifesteal to Pirates is a desirable thing. The closest thing to self-damage in Pirates' tribal theme is weapon synergies, which Warlock doesn't have. Pirate builds are also generally aggressive, which doesn't call for Lifesteal either.
I'm not sure how you could alter the card's ability and keep his vampire flavor, though. Maybe he could wangle a first strike-ish ability, like 'Whenever your Pirates attack, they deal their damage first. If their opponent dies, they take no damage.'? That seems rather sinister and from-the-shadows-y.
I love the effect on Zrukx. It's a fitting finisher for Hunter, which already has hero power synergies and is the class with the most 'closer' cards like this. Regarding balance, 2 damage might be better - even six hero powers, which seems average for a deck trying to do that to have on turn 10, is already a scary 18 damage.
Even though I get the idea, though, of a ship captain blastin' his cannons, I don't feel like that's enough to justify him being a Pirate. It's a thought I've been having while looking at a lot of the submissions for this contest; giving a class their first Pirate should be momentous and justified. The card should be a build-around for a class Pirate archetype like Bloodsail Corsair, twist a class-specific spin on neutral Pirate flavor like Cutthroat Buccaneer or Cursed Castaway (integrating Rogue's stealy-wealy Combo into their Pirate identity), or have overwhelming Piratey flavor like Captain Hooktusk, who summons her own crew. Zrukx fires his cannons, but that doesn't involve other Pirates, call back to any neutral Pirates, or have an overwhelmingly Piratey feel.
As an idea, maybe you could lower his stats and make his text something like 'Battlecry: Summon a 1-1 Crewmate for each time you used your Hero Power this game. Deal 3 damage to a random enemy for each.'? Making a board adds some stats and maxes out the damage at 18, which seems more balanced if ruinous to the meme dream, and giving a ship's captain his crew (each one on a cannon!) feels nice.
Allo! I've got three ideas for this week, so far. Kudos to Xarkkal, this is a fun one.
Thoughts on my cards:
Swordwraith Freebooter began as a callback to Phantom Freebooter, the only KofT Pirate; at first, it destroyed your weapon and reduced enemy minions' max health by its durability, but that was just confusing, so I came up with what's here. He's picky enough to only fight for someone with a weapon, but once he realizes yours is bigger than his, he destroys it! Pretty petty for a ghost, heh.
Spectral Cannoneer is a Witchwood card, my attempt at finding peace between Feral Druid and Pirates - it seemed fitting to have something happen when your hero attacked, and given Witchwood and spiritual card, he has Echo. I thought about making him cost less to allow more Echo shenanigans, which seemed too powerful in the early game, and about having him gain stats instead of dealing damage, which seemed less fun but perhaps more Druid-y. (Yes, I stole the art from Paladins, that's Makoa, shush ._.)
Gurgling Gravedigger (Low-Tide Treasure Hunter?) is here because Secrets seemed Piratey, and Secret Paladin and Pirates both seemed aggressive, so I plopped him in the same set as Commander Rhyssa. Either the other Pirate helps him dig up some treasure, or he's digging a grave for a Pirate who turns out to be alive - and tells him some secrets! - take yer pick.
Thoughts on other folks' cards:
Demonxz95 - I love the effect. It's surprising that we haven't seen something like that in-game yet! The flavor feels off, though. Pirates synergize with things like attacking, other pirates, weapons, and stealing or generating cards. Rogue's Combo is fitting, being underhanded, but Shaman's Overload is about spells and raw power, neither of which is very swashbuckley. My gut feeling for that art is her summoning a crew of Elemental Pirates.
Linkblade91 - I, too, like Kul Tiran Staffweilder the most. Even if Terror of the Tides has some killer art. I would consider reducing her attack to 3 though, because as you say, any deck with her would also run Parachute Brigand.
Xarkkal - As others have said, random demons is an effect that has already been done and been proven to be rather scary.
CursedParrot - Mage Cap'n Carla. A tough one, since it's entirely new! A neat one, though. It isn't a great idea with your original spells, Pirates not seeming more valuable than even Frostbolts on average, but perhaps you could use it in a deck that generates random spells. As others said, I think having it start in your opening hand is Overkill, too railroady, and I think it would be alright if she lost 1 attack and equipped the weapon instead. Specifying playable Pirates seems iffy, too - you could get down to 2 mana and have an okay chance at sniping several Parachute Brigands.
KANSAS - I like the Orc Raider. It's good enough to put in a constructed deck, since it can take out two targets, and it helps Battlecry Shaman. Davy Jones is fun, but it's too strong and doesn't feel like a Warlock card. It's not particularly interesting or useful.
Pokeniner - It's got me giggling up a storm that both you and Valor found the same art and both went the same direction with it. Cute girl, summons a cute cat, and oh, it's got a chest? Fantastic treasure! Your condition seems too hard to complete, though - that poor cat is going to get consistently mauled. Not to mention, why would I vote for a card that puts such a cute creature up for destruction? D: Zelaton would be fun to theorycraft with, but as is, it's too radical to really guess at his power level; I don't have the time to decide whether he would be fun to play with, or not, and thus I don't like him very much for our purposes.
Valor - If only you'd posted an hour earlier, haha. That said, I don't think that art fits a Hunter very well, beast summoner or no, and besides, having fantastic treasures appear in other classes does feel a bit odd. If I ran into Demeza while dishing out votes, I would think 'Well, that's fun, and not badly designed, but not particularly flavorful or useful, so, eh, 3 because it's not terribly flawed and cute, but not bad?' Possessed Raider feels better. A solid, well balanced Common, with demon synergies, reminiscent of an existing card ([Hearthstone Card (Rustworn Initiate) Not Found]) but also new, with some neat flavor. Death, very flavorful.
It was tough, agreed. I ended up just finding a piece of art with two characters in it, so I could split them and make separate cards. To those folks who made two or even three cards with matching art, many kudos, snaps, props, and other four letter words of appreciation to you!
This contest was also tough, because it's so rare for Blizzard to release a card that references another card (I think Mike Donais has even said that they don't like to do that?). I went through a bucket of ideas (and an irresistible urge to create an 50% Ogre, however that came about) which I felt were neat, but could also be executed without generating a card or didn't have enough flavor to justify the generation. Not to mention, the pool to choose from is basically limited to Classic cards. Looking at other folks' entries, it seems like I wasn't the only one who found those bits to be a struggle. There were a couple people who bent the 'guidelines' and still came up with cards I thought would be fun, though (Including the Cheese Egg, unironically, haha).
I enjoy how doing these competitions makes ya very aware of Blizzard's unwritten design rules. Most folks here, it seems, agree that a good fan card should be something which could be printed - flavorful, balanced, not complicated, etc. - which limits the pool of acceptable ideas but, I think, brings you closer to the game in a satisfying way.