The card itself is alright (could be removal, seems more promising as burst damage), but I did just realize that these mount spells leave Deathrattles on their minions... that might be fun to exploit sometime!
What terrible card design. Whose bright idea was this? Priest, you know, the class everyone hates - let's give them a blunt game-ending win condition. I don't care if the card itself is horrible; the idea should've been punted into a back room the moment it was voiced. If their excuse is 'giving tools to players who enjoy this type of playstyle', it's not even a good tool! Surely there were better ideas than this.
Seek Guidance is destined to be a bad card that feels bad to play and feels bad to play against.
I do, and you're right... sadly. It's strange that a game so popular has existed for so long without some features that other games consider basic necessities - friendly challenge lobbies, the ever-elusive 'tournament mode', guild systems, profiles, stats, stackable collection searches, etc. New content is king, but surely they know that introducing some of those features would revolutionize how players stream and share Hearthstone to viewers and friends.
Your final phrase touches on something I'm curious about, as well. When they say that players enjoy certain content, is there more to that than '20% of our playerbase completed this single-player adventure'? If that's all, it incentivizes them to look positively on completionist coercion - i.e. you locked an achievement behind this mode and I feel obligated to do it - which is part of why some of these updates cause me to feel exhausted.
There are interesting possibilities there. What if you're only allowed to build decks from a limited card pool? Whether that's certain expansions, certain classes, or just certain cards... the fun of adventures is in finding the right card for the job, and having shifting card pools would only make that more intriguing. For maximum fun, offer ALL of those cards to players for the purpose of the adventure!
You could go in other ways with this as well, as Dungeon Runs already have - allow players to build their deck as they continue. I don't like the random and often-meaningless way Dungeon Runs and Duels handle it, but perhaps there are other ways. That one Tavern Brawl, perhaps.
The devs keep talking about how fun and well received all their side projects have been - the Mercenaries single-player content, the Rewards Track achievements. I don't really get it. All those are to me is stress - a thousand small things to do for small rewards. It got to be so overwhelming that I haven't done any of the single-player content in months. They felt bland; hardly any challenge, no deck-building, no crazy surprises. None of the elements that made some of the older adventures or Dungeon Runs worth my Hearthstone time. I wish they'd use all that dev time spent 'filling' Hearthstone to improve their friends options and game modes, instead.
Hopefully that adventure they're planning to release has a bang-on Heroic Mode!
Hopefully we'll get more casual or silly skins soon. That humor is where Hearthstone shines - all of these serious poses and heroic gestures don't do much for me.
That said, I like the colors on this one. It's definitely one of the prettier Druid skins!
What a competition. Look at how close those final scores are. Congratulations to MathU for edging out the other folks!
Looking through the report, I'm most surprised by how CursedParrot's 'Antonidas, the Secretive' ended up. It doesn't have much relation to the original Aunty, sure, but the effect was so crazy! I gave it five stars on the principle of pure, wacky fun. Other folks very much didn't agree with that, haha.
Your new version is much better! Having seen it, I find it odd that they haven't printed a similar card before - all-legendary decks are such a popular meme, after all. Not to mention, she's a competitive card as well. Perhaps too competitive, but hey, unique and fun enough for me not to care. Only change I'd make is tweaking the title to 'Best Friend Brightwing', 'Brightwing, Lovable Companion', or something else that gets along the friendship aspect - she's helping someone else out, after all!
Thanks for answering, Flux! Makes me curious as well, aye. What would they need to ask, at this stage in development? Distribution methods, interest, graphics decisions... I've no experience with this sort of thing.
I can't disagree with a thing you've said. I hope someone on the team sees your comment (and I hope they stop taking on huge responsibilities like Mercenaries for a period of time, so that they have the manpower to focus on these essential QoL upgrades).
I like this design. It's likely not as good as OG Sylvanas, but it occupies a fun niche - it's definitely a card that I'd slap in a deck whenever I could, like Bandersmosh. Regarding the wording, I think that the second is more clear and fits nicely within the box. Like Demon notes for Alfi's card, though, is it possible to work 'Sylvanas' into the card title?
I don't think it'll happen, but here's hoping to technicolor murloc Jesus that our collections will be merged. I made an EU account a couple years back with the sole purpose of getting most of the Murlocs golden, and I'm mostly there. Everything else is dusted. Mgrlrgle vibes only!
Also, I should become a logo designer. Take five minutes to choose a 'gamer' font and put a blue dot in the middle. Earn millions!
Anything they release will be soured by the wait, so it's good that they're taking their time and doing it well. . . . I guess. My expectations are low, following all the kerfuffle.
I wonder how those monthly new characters will be obtained?
This version of the Wise Old Ant is both fun, competitive, and succinct, which is lovely. I like the 4-cost one best, if only because 3-mana 2-4 is a well-traveled road for Mage. A 4-mana 2-7 feels more impressive.
Linkblade!
Show Spoiler
Your change was a good one, I think. The new version allows a more flexible gameplan and is more in-line with the direction they're pushing Druid. That said, though, the effect seems very strong. Druid can bash out 2-4 spells a turn easily - imagine having this dude down on turns 1-4 and then continuing? Thankfully there's no Savage Roar these days, but still, that's scary - the sort of game-defining scary that Classic legendaries should be, which is why I'm torn. More powerful is always better, so I'd go with it, unless you can think of an artful way to tune the card down.
R!
Show Spoiler
Already in. Thoughts, though - this card, like some others, feels like the Barrens Kazakus - it's not something you'd build around, but if there are only two or three 3-cost cards in your deck, why not cut them for the powerspike? Neutral cards with that sort of 'well, why not include it?' feel are the sort that can ruin expansions. Thankfully, Barrens Kazakus is quite interesting and 4-mana is a tough slot, so it's alright. Master Overspark isn't as interesting, though, so doesn't feel worth the risk. It's a neat card, and a fun one, but not something I'd want to see in the game.
Anchorman!
Show Spoiler
Indeed, destroying all of your opponent's anything is scary! It makes sense to bring Sylvanas back as a Hunter card, though, given the hero skin - that's an exciting sort of boldness. The effect is bland at the moment, though. If a 3-mana card that triggers Deathrattles doesn't see play, would this one? Perhaps, admittedly, but I'm more wary than excited. There should be another way to retrofit Sylvanas' flavor (mucking with your opponents minions) with Hunter. A Freezing Trap-esque effect? Maybe a Hysteria-like effect where you choose an enemy minion to attack the others? You could do a lot in that arena - choose an enemy minion and its attack and health explode, are stolen, distributed among your minions, an effect activates for each ATK or HP, etc.
Destroyer!
Show Spoiler
This is hilarious. I wouldn't label it a winner, because at end of day he's just a mediocre Rush minion, but the combination of effect, art, and history are more than enough for me to give 4 stars anyway. Maybe tweak it elegantly with flavor in mind, but if not, go! Live the dream!
Demon!
Show Spoiler
Admittedly, much as I appreciate that you've taken a new direction, it's hard to swallow such a radical shift for a character that we're familiar with. I'd love if she were one of several cards that told the story of Classic legendaries through re-imaginings, but that's beyond the scope of the competition. To really sell me on the idea, I think that either the effect should be cooler or there should be some callback to Classic Sylvanas. Maybe you could work minion muckery into the card, somehow? "Give a weapon x attack for x enemy minions." is a dumb, overpowered idea, but it could be an avenue. "Destroy an enemy minion. Its ATK and HP become your weapon's ATK and Durability for a turn." … actually, that's badass. Part of me wants to steal it for my own use!
Lundy!
Show Spoiler
The token rule really disappoints me, because your original idea is my favorite design so far. Admittedly, no relation to the original besides a tribal tag, but he's just so TOOTHSOME! Who cares if immune effects have an evil history in every other card game I know? I want it. I want my majestic, impenetrable storm daddy.
Cough. Anyway. Thalnos. Is Thalnos a Warlock in WoW? As a Hearthstone-exclusive chump, this feels odd. He's a tough card to reimagine, since the original effects are so basic and succinct (same with Al'Akir, actually. You choose tough cookies!), but I think there ought to be more connection to the original than there is now. Your current effect feels niche and broken. If you continue down this path, perhaps you could have him play into the self-damage aspect of Warlock instead - something like "Your Hero Power costs 0. Cards you draw this turn have Spell Damage +1." or "Activate your Hero Power twice." My general thought is that he should be, like the original, an all-around useful card that helps Warlock do Warlock things a l'il more easily or efficiently, rather than a deck-definer or a finisher. If you do want to be bold and create a finisher, I'd play to the draw or spell damage aspects - two ideas could be, "Deal 1 damage to your opponent whenever you draw a card." or "Gain +1 Spell Damage whenever you draw a card. If your deck has no 2-cost cards, your Hero Power costs (0) this turn."
That's a lot. Sorry. I have too much free time at the moment, obviously!
MY NAME'S GUFF, BECAUSE IT SOUNDS LIKE TUFF!
Remind you of anyone?
I don't care how strong it is - I'll be making a meme deck where I fill my board with six copies of this, for sure!
AN ENDLESS SUPPLY OF RATS >:D
The card itself is alright (could be removal, seems more promising as burst damage), but I did just realize that these mount spells leave Deathrattles on their minions... that might be fun to exploit sometime!
What terrible card design. Whose bright idea was this? Priest, you know, the class everyone hates - let's give them a blunt game-ending win condition. I don't care if the card itself is horrible; the idea should've been punted into a back room the moment it was voiced. If their excuse is 'giving tools to players who enjoy this type of playstyle', it's not even a good tool! Surely there were better ideas than this.
Seek Guidance is destined to be a bad card that feels bad to play and feels bad to play against.
I do, and you're right... sadly. It's strange that a game so popular has existed for so long without some features that other games consider basic necessities - friendly challenge lobbies, the ever-elusive 'tournament mode', guild systems, profiles, stats, stackable collection searches, etc. New content is king, but surely they know that introducing some of those features would revolutionize how players stream and share Hearthstone to viewers and friends.
Your final phrase touches on something I'm curious about, as well. When they say that players enjoy certain content, is there more to that than '20% of our playerbase completed this single-player adventure'? If that's all, it incentivizes them to look positively on completionist coercion - i.e. you locked an achievement behind this mode and I feel obligated to do it - which is part of why some of these updates cause me to feel exhausted.
There are interesting possibilities there. What if you're only allowed to build decks from a limited card pool? Whether that's certain expansions, certain classes, or just certain cards... the fun of adventures is in finding the right card for the job, and having shifting card pools would only make that more intriguing. For maximum fun, offer ALL of those cards to players for the purpose of the adventure!
You could go in other ways with this as well, as Dungeon Runs already have - allow players to build their deck as they continue. I don't like the random and often-meaningless way Dungeon Runs and Duels handle it, but perhaps there are other ways. That one Tavern Brawl, perhaps.
The devs keep talking about how fun and well received all their side projects have been - the Mercenaries single-player content, the Rewards Track achievements. I don't really get it. All those are to me is stress - a thousand small things to do for small rewards. It got to be so overwhelming that I haven't done any of the single-player content in months. They felt bland; hardly any challenge, no deck-building, no crazy surprises. None of the elements that made some of the older adventures or Dungeon Runs worth my Hearthstone time. I wish they'd use all that dev time spent 'filling' Hearthstone to improve their friends options and game modes, instead.
Hopefully that adventure they're planning to release has a bang-on Heroic Mode!
Hopefully we'll get more casual or silly skins soon. That humor is where Hearthstone shines - all of these serious poses and heroic gestures don't do much for me.
That said, I like the colors on this one. It's definitely one of the prettier Druid skins!
What a beautiful article! I haven't watched any Hearthstone eSports or played in tournaments in years, but I read through the whole bundle.
Neat! It's good to know that they have an eye on Arena, still.
What a competition. Look at how close those final scores are. Congratulations to MathU for edging out the other folks!
Looking through the report, I'm most surprised by how CursedParrot's 'Antonidas, the Secretive' ended up. It doesn't have much relation to the original Aunty, sure, but the effect was so crazy! I gave it five stars on the principle of pure, wacky fun. Other folks very much didn't agree with that, haha.
@Hordecai
Your new version is much better! Having seen it, I find it odd that they haven't printed a similar card before - all-legendary decks are such a popular meme, after all. Not to mention, she's a competitive card as well. Perhaps too competitive, but hey, unique and fun enough for me not to care. Only change I'd make is tweaking the title to 'Best Friend Brightwing', 'Brightwing, Lovable Companion', or something else that gets along the friendship aspect - she's helping someone else out, after all!
Thanks for answering, Flux! Makes me curious as well, aye. What would they need to ask, at this stage in development? Distribution methods, interest, graphics decisions... I've no experience with this sort of thing.
I can't disagree with a thing you've said. I hope someone on the team sees your comment (and I hope they stop taking on huge responsibilities like Mercenaries for a period of time, so that they have the manpower to focus on these essential QoL upgrades).
@Anchorman
Thank you! Bless ya, that spoiler trick worked.
I like this design. It's likely not as good as OG Sylvanas, but it occupies a fun niche - it's definitely a card that I'd slap in a deck whenever I could, like Bandersmosh. Regarding the wording, I think that the second is more clear and fits nicely within the box. Like Demon notes for Alfi's card, though, is it possible to work 'Sylvanas' into the card title?
I don't think it'll happen, but here's hoping to technicolor murloc Jesus that our collections will be merged. I made an EU account a couple years back with the sole purpose of getting most of the Murlocs golden, and I'm mostly there. Everything else is dusted. Mgrlrgle vibes only!
Also, I should become a logo designer. Take five minutes to choose a 'gamer' font and put a blue dot in the middle. Earn millions!
Anything they release will be soured by the wait, so it's good that they're taking their time and doing it well. . . . I guess. My expectations are low, following all the kerfuffle.
I wonder how those monthly new characters will be obtained?
Also, what were the survey questions about?
Comments! Thoughts. Community engagement.
Wailor!
This version of the Wise Old Ant is both fun, competitive, and succinct, which is lovely. I like the 4-cost one best, if only because 3-mana 2-4 is a well-traveled road for Mage. A 4-mana 2-7 feels more impressive.
Linkblade!
Your change was a good one, I think. The new version allows a more flexible gameplan and is more in-line with the direction they're pushing Druid. That said, though, the effect seems very strong. Druid can bash out 2-4 spells a turn easily - imagine having this dude down on turns 1-4 and then continuing? Thankfully there's no Savage Roar these days, but still, that's scary - the sort of game-defining scary that Classic legendaries should be, which is why I'm torn. More powerful is always better, so I'd go with it, unless you can think of an artful way to tune the card down.
R!
Already in. Thoughts, though - this card, like some others, feels like the Barrens Kazakus - it's not something you'd build around, but if there are only two or three 3-cost cards in your deck, why not cut them for the powerspike? Neutral cards with that sort of 'well, why not include it?' feel are the sort that can ruin expansions. Thankfully, Barrens Kazakus is quite interesting and 4-mana is a tough slot, so it's alright. Master Overspark isn't as interesting, though, so doesn't feel worth the risk. It's a neat card, and a fun one, but not something I'd want to see in the game.
Anchorman!
Indeed, destroying all of your opponent's anything is scary! It makes sense to bring Sylvanas back as a Hunter card, though, given the hero skin - that's an exciting sort of boldness. The effect is bland at the moment, though. If a 3-mana card that triggers Deathrattles doesn't see play, would this one? Perhaps, admittedly, but I'm more wary than excited. There should be another way to retrofit Sylvanas' flavor (mucking with your opponents minions) with Hunter. A Freezing Trap-esque effect? Maybe a Hysteria-like effect where you choose an enemy minion to attack the others? You could do a lot in that arena - choose an enemy minion and its attack and health explode, are stolen, distributed among your minions, an effect activates for each ATK or HP, etc.
Destroyer!
This is hilarious. I wouldn't label it a winner, because at end of day he's just a mediocre Rush minion, but the combination of effect, art, and history are more than enough for me to give 4 stars anyway. Maybe tweak it elegantly with flavor in mind, but if not, go! Live the dream!
Demon!
Admittedly, much as I appreciate that you've taken a new direction, it's hard to swallow such a radical shift for a character that we're familiar with. I'd love if she were one of several cards that told the story of Classic legendaries through re-imaginings, but that's beyond the scope of the competition. To really sell me on the idea, I think that either the effect should be cooler or there should be some callback to Classic Sylvanas. Maybe you could work minion muckery into the card, somehow? "Give a weapon x attack for x enemy minions." is a dumb, overpowered idea, but it could be an avenue. "Destroy an enemy minion. Its ATK and HP become your weapon's ATK and Durability for a turn." … actually, that's badass. Part of me wants to steal it for my own use!
Lundy!
The token rule really disappoints me, because your original idea is my favorite design so far. Admittedly, no relation to the original besides a tribal tag, but he's just so TOOTHSOME! Who cares if immune effects have an evil history in every other card game I know? I want it. I want my majestic, impenetrable storm daddy.
Cough. Anyway. Thalnos. Is Thalnos a Warlock in WoW? As a Hearthstone-exclusive chump, this feels odd. He's a tough card to reimagine, since the original effects are so basic and succinct (same with Al'Akir, actually. You choose tough cookies!), but I think there ought to be more connection to the original than there is now. Your current effect feels niche and broken. If you continue down this path, perhaps you could have him play into the self-damage aspect of Warlock instead - something like "Your Hero Power costs 0. Cards you draw this turn have Spell Damage +1." or "Activate your Hero Power twice." My general thought is that he should be, like the original, an all-around useful card that helps Warlock do Warlock things a l'il more easily or efficiently, rather than a deck-definer or a finisher. If you do want to be bold and create a finisher, I'd play to the draw or spell damage aspects - two ideas could be, "Deal 1 damage to your opponent whenever you draw a card." or "Gain +1 Spell Damage whenever you draw a card. If your deck has no 2-cost cards, your Hero Power costs (0) this turn."
That's a lot. Sorry. I have too much free time at the moment, obviously!
How do y'all add titles to the spoiler tags?
Hullo! Been a while since I've participated in one of these, but I've got time again. And several ideas! What are your thoughts?
'Course, I came back for a tough prompt. It's difficult to avoid filling up the text box.
Feedback will come in several hours!
The new Shaman spell DOES overload each time it's cast. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA