That's a perfectly reasonable defense. The gameplay being coherent needs to trump the "mind's eye" seeing what it wants to see, and you are right in-that it's a lot simpler to just give them an Attack stat. I don't like the idea of a stationary Totem that's stronger than Alexstrasza - that's just super weird to me - but Battlegrounds is, well, Battlegrounds. It's open to weird stuff.
I think regular Totems having an innate Attack stat above zero is weird, especially a high one. Infusing them with power such they can now inflict damage (like Totemic Surge), damaging in a roundabout way (Serpent Ward), or being a Totem construct (Totem Golem) makes sense to me, but a regular ol' Totem generally just sits there and provides its effect while remaining inanimate. I know Searing Totem exists, but that's kind of the exception, not a standard. So...yeah, from a flavor standpoint I just don't buy a stationary Totem being a 7/7 or a 9/9. Sorry :(
Disregarding that opinion, I think you put a lot of effort into this and most of it looks good. I like Dizzy Totem in particular, because you could seriously punish your opponent with a high-Attack minion bouncing its damage off the Totem. Other than that, I think Totem of the Elements definitely has too much going on, and in Tier 4 you spelled "Wielder" wrong.
Lady Liadrin has secretly been in the game for years as the Shattered Sun Cleric, biding her time until she could take over the world become a true Legendary :D
I am wondering though if it would be better to make it 2 mana now. What do you think?
If you want to add "Draw a card" to it, I would definitely make it 2-mana. I don't mind the draw, because you could theoretically add another spell to your hand to benefit from the effect.
Would one of the mods let me know if this counts for this week's theme (since it doesn't actually give Spell Damage)?
No one else is online at the moment to discuss the matter, but someone will get back to you as soon as possible :)
I, for one, am willing to let it slide, but maybe I'm becoming too lenient in my old age lol. Also, assuming you get the go-ahead, you'll have to force-bold the "-2" part to make it look right.
The rhyming is especially annoying in the final battle, when you have to listen to it on repeat every time you lose. The opening part being mandatory - where you don't get your cards until they're done talking - is the worst. I just want to retry the fight for the fifth/sixth/seventh time; making me sit through the dialogue over and over is just mean. I liked the rhyming for the most part - it made the script interesting - but it had run its course by the end.
I was not so fortunate against the final confrontation as you were: it honestly felt like a "supposed to lose" fight for a while, because his hand/draws were just perfect time and again. I couldn't get a foothold to defend myself properly, and was quickly overwhelmed...
Show Spoiler
…only to discover you don't have to win, just survive long enough. Kind of made it anti-climatic, 'cause I probably would have lost that round as well. I would say "at least it's over now", but it really only lasted about two and a half hours of my time. Back to being bored…
Statikk. So, it can go, for example, twice to the Nexus? It seems very hard to get this one out of confusion even after your nice explanation. :D
Because it requires you to pick "another" enemy, Statikk Shock must hit two different enemies and/or the Nexus. So two enemy units, or an enemy unit and the Nexus.
Some of the cards could definitely be explained better, but it's the fault of the game trying to remain concise with its verbage. Maybe I can help:
Riptide Rex picks a random enemy unit and deals 2 damage to it; Rex does this seven times, and may overlap the same target more than once. If the target died because of an earlier Cannon Barrage hit, the remaining hits targeting them go to the Nexus instead and deal 1 damage to that. I know it is for balancing reasons, but the downgrade from 2 damage to 1 is weird.
For Statikk Shock, an "enemy" is any enemy unit, and "another" means "another enemy, whether a unit or the Nexus". It's not written the best, but it was probably written that way to keep it to two lines of text.
Devourer of the Depths fizzles out because the enemy needs less Health than the Devourer to be Obliterated...and the Devourer now has zero Health because it is dead/dying. The other two examples you provided are not reliant on their Health, so their Play skill continues even if they are killed.
Vladimir can definitely use Crimson Pact on a 1-Health ally unit, and it will kill them. The effect goes off regardless.
"I've seen" units reset if they die, because that particular instance of the champion is the one who "saw" what you were doing. If you then play a second Miss Fortune or whomever, they did not "see" you do that so you must start over.
I enjoy Battlegrounds a lot...but two things hold me back from actually playing it: the MMR rating, and the Tavern Pass.
The MMR rating means I have to actually care if I win, because I don't want to lose my points. I could try to ignore it and just play anyway, but it's difficult for me to do that. If they had left that off where I couldn't see it, I would feel better.
The Tavern Pass is theoretically a great idea for people who want to only play Battlegrounds, but it was a big "fuck you" to people who originally acquired the perks via pack purchases. Now I have to choose between Hearthstone and Battlegrounds, whereas before I could use my gold on packs and "earn" the perks at the same time. The Tavern Pass is especially rude at its full price, because 2500 gold is a terrible cost when you're only really getting four Arena tickets out of it reward-wise (and I hate Arena, so yippie-doo-da on that one). Dropping 2500 gold each expansion on Battlegrounds - instead of packs - will be a major loss over time.
Well, it's a "Pay to Play Early" character. Every Battlegrounds hero is available for free...eventually: you'll have to wait until next week to play with Aranna and the pirate heroes.
As I touched upon with Xarkkal's ideas, I think using Spell Damage to draw cards is rather boring. The Mage already draws just fine. Library Golem, conversely, is appealing to me, with great flavor. I love that art. Don't think it needs to be an Epic, but that can come down to a personal preference sometimes.
Underlight Angling Rod is the outlier, because "hero" never used to be capitalized unless it was referring to a Hero Power. In that way, Boggspine Knuckles is the correct usage. Probably just a mistake that was sent out, and they can't be bothered to fix it.
Well the card doesn't even have a name yet so I could really use any art any find some way to make the flavor work. Do you have any recommendations for a good name/art to make the card look good?
I'm rather lacking in Shaman art, unfortunately, but this is what I came up with from my "collection":
Show Spoiler
Call it "Imbue Energy"
"Energy Transfer"
If you're willing to change classes, you could also try out these:
"Verdant Sphere" (Mage) (would go great in AoO with Kael'thas)
"Crystallized Essence" (Warlock)
Sorry if the names suck or don't work for you; just brainstorming ideas *shrugs*
Fedrion - As Demon noted, it should say "Passive Hero Power" on the tokens. I see that you fixed it in your Submission. Good. Other than that, it looks complete. I think "losing" your Hero Power and spending 3-mana on a do-nothing spell is a fine enough price for some additional damage.
CursedParrot - You're missing the words "Hero Power" in bold on the Hero Power. The card looks fine, otherwise. I agree with your choice to make it minions-only: it makes things less "elegant" than a simple "Spell Damage affects your Hero Power" effect, but it cuts off problem cases before they pop up.
GoliathTheDwarf - You could say "This minion's Attack is always equal to your total Spell Damage." and leave off the 'on the board' part. That might make the wording less awkward; you lose the Spell Damage from your opponent's side, but that's a very niche scenario as it is.
Demonxz95 - It's a Rager; what more can be said? I wonder if Tarecgosa can still work if you just make it Spell Damage = 3, or make it a class card. Rapid Fire can't be abused if the Hunter can't access the Legendary.
Cg8889 - I don't like the ability to attack their hand and deck with the "wherever they are" condition. Granted the combo is hard to pull off, but it's still obliterating your opponent's deck and their ability to mount a proper defense. I would remove it, and up the damage (if necessary).
KANSAS - The effect seems fine, if a little bland. I think the cost is good, as well, as while you're not getting 2/2 Kobold to go with it, you are making the effect permanent. I will note that the art, to me, is quite obviously a monk from Diablo III, which doesn't really jive with the Shaman.
Elfensilver - I like it, and I like it being in Rastakhan's Rumble; it's like Kragwa's team is trying to get an edge on their opponents by cheating lol. Also the spell works well with Zentimo. I would not change it to be based on how much Spell Damage you have, because that's a lot of effort for the payoff.
BasilAnguis - As others have noted Cleric of Scales already exists, so the name would need to be changed (and possibly the art as well, now that you've lost the name). If she said "Your other minions" I think she would be a lot more balanced, as you could at least target her to remove the effect.
Me0203 - Lightning Aspect should be an Elemental, and the Lightning Totem should be…well, a Totem lol (as in, you're missing the minion type tag on the bottom). Totems don't have any Attack to start out with, so a 1/6 statline is very strange. All-in-all, I like Lightning Aspect the most, because you could theoretically chain Overloading damage spells for a cascade effect.
anchorm4n - I want to say that Shard Mage is too good, but I can't really articulate why I think that. Maybe it's fine *shrugs*
Pokeniner - Akrika needs to have a number in the Battlecry in order to properly improve it via Spell Damage. So like "Destroy 1 random enemy minion…" That being said I think the flavor of it is weird: Mages remove threats via damage, generally, and not straight-up destruction effects.
DestroyerR - I don't like Isiset or Anzu, but I do like Foxtrotter. Bouncing minions is a core part of the Rogue identity, so why not benefit from it in a different way?
grumpymonk - I like Riptide a lot. I think the 1-mana version is the most appealing, but probably because it's too good at 1-mana lol.
BloodMefist - I like Cyanigosa the most, because it's doing something different with Spell Damage. That being said, she should probably have some SD of her own, so she's not entirely useless when generated via Azure Explorer or what-have-you (bad example, because Azure Explorer has SD, but you get my point).
MenacingBagel - I like the (Placeholder Cat) the most, because it's an interesting effect. Flavored right, the Legendary draws in the energy of the spell and turns it into Spell Damage. You could then facilitate its own bonus by spamming Area of Effect spells like Hellfire.
Xarkkal - I think Thalyssra is weird, and Arcane Brilliance is boring. But Mana Droplet is so cute! I like it.
Don't forget the Battlecry!
That's a perfectly reasonable defense. The gameplay being coherent needs to trump the "mind's eye" seeing what it wants to see, and you are right in-that it's a lot simpler to just give them an Attack stat. I don't like the idea of a stationary Totem that's stronger than Alexstrasza - that's just super weird to me - but Battlegrounds is, well, Battlegrounds. It's open to weird stuff.
*shrugs* I might be the only one bothered by it.
Less than 24 hours to submit your card!
I think regular Totems having an innate Attack stat above zero is weird, especially a high one. Infusing them with power such they can now inflict damage (like Totemic Surge), damaging in a roundabout way (Serpent Ward), or being a Totem construct (Totem Golem) makes sense to me, but a regular ol' Totem generally just sits there and provides its effect while remaining inanimate. I know Searing Totem exists, but that's kind of the exception, not a standard. So...yeah, from a flavor standpoint I just don't buy a stationary Totem being a 7/7 or a 9/9. Sorry :(
Disregarding that opinion, I think you put a lot of effort into this and most of it looks good. I like Dizzy Totem in particular, because you could seriously punish your opponent with a high-Attack minion bouncing its damage off the Totem. Other than that, I think Totem of the Elements definitely has too much going on, and in Tier 4 you spelled "Wielder" wrong.
Lady Liadrin has secretly been in the game for years as the Shattered Sun Cleric, biding her time until she could take over the world become a true Legendary :D
Galakrond's Awakening.
I've been out-voted, so the answer we're providing is "No." Sorry; it was an interesting card.
If you want to add "Draw a card" to it, I would definitely make it 2-mana. I don't mind the draw, because you could theoretically add another spell to your hand to benefit from the effect.
No one else is online at the moment to discuss the matter, but someone will get back to you as soon as possible :)
I, for one, am willing to let it slide, but maybe I'm becoming too lenient in my old age lol. Also, assuming you get the go-ahead, you'll have to force-bold the "-2" part to make it look right.
The rhyming is especially annoying in the final battle, when you have to listen to it on repeat every time you lose. The opening part being mandatory - where you don't get your cards until they're done talking - is the worst. I just want to retry the fight for the fifth/sixth/seventh time; making me sit through the dialogue over and over is just mean. I liked the rhyming for the most part - it made the script interesting - but it had run its course by the end.
I was not so fortunate against the final confrontation as you were: it honestly felt like a "supposed to lose" fight for a while, because his hand/draws were just perfect time and again. I couldn't get a foothold to defend myself properly, and was quickly overwhelmed...
Because it requires you to pick "another" enemy, Statikk Shock must hit two different enemies and/or the Nexus. So two enemy units, or an enemy unit and the Nexus.
Some of the cards could definitely be explained better, but it's the fault of the game trying to remain concise with its verbage. Maybe I can help:
Riptide Rex picks a random enemy unit and deals 2 damage to it; Rex does this seven times, and may overlap the same target more than once. If the target died because of an earlier Cannon Barrage hit, the remaining hits targeting them go to the Nexus instead and deal 1 damage to that. I know it is for balancing reasons, but the downgrade from 2 damage to 1 is weird.
For Statikk Shock, an "enemy" is any enemy unit, and "another" means "another enemy, whether a unit or the Nexus". It's not written the best, but it was probably written that way to keep it to two lines of text.
Devourer of the Depths fizzles out because the enemy needs less Health than the Devourer to be Obliterated...and the Devourer now has zero Health because it is dead/dying. The other two examples you provided are not reliant on their Health, so their Play skill continues even if they are killed.
Vladimir can definitely use Crimson Pact on a 1-Health ally unit, and it will kill them. The effect goes off regardless.
"I've seen" units reset if they die, because that particular instance of the champion is the one who "saw" what you were doing. If you then play a second Miss Fortune or whomever, they did not "see" you do that so you must start over.
I enjoy Battlegrounds a lot...but two things hold me back from actually playing it: the MMR rating, and the Tavern Pass.
"Spells" doesn't need to be capitalized, but other than that it looks good :)
Well, it's a "Pay to Play Early" character. Every Battlegrounds hero is available for free...eventually: you'll have to wait until next week to play with Aranna and the pirate heroes.
As I touched upon with Xarkkal's ideas, I think using Spell Damage to draw cards is rather boring. The Mage already draws just fine. Library Golem, conversely, is appealing to me, with great flavor. I love that art. Don't think it needs to be an Epic, but that can come down to a personal preference sometimes.
Underlight Angling Rod is the outlier, because "hero" never used to be capitalized unless it was referring to a Hero Power. In that way, Boggspine Knuckles is the correct usage. Probably just a mistake that was sent out, and they can't be bothered to fix it.
Stupid Murloc card is stupid.
I'm rather lacking in Shaman art, unfortunately, but this is what I came up with from my "collection":
Call it "Imbue Energy"
"Energy Transfer"
If you're willing to change classes, you could also try out these:
"Verdant Sphere" (Mage) (would go great in AoO with Kael'thas)
"Crystallized Essence" (Warlock)
Sorry if the names suck or don't work for you; just brainstorming ideas *shrugs*
While they're at it, why not open up the Trial By Felfire Adventure a day early too! ...No? Okay :(
Feedback!
Fedrion - As Demon noted, it should say "Passive Hero Power" on the tokens. I see that you fixed it in your Submission. Good. Other than that, it looks complete. I think "losing" your Hero Power and spending 3-mana on a do-nothing spell is a fine enough price for some additional damage.
CursedParrot - You're missing the words "Hero Power" in bold on the Hero Power. The card looks fine, otherwise. I agree with your choice to make it minions-only: it makes things less "elegant" than a simple "Spell Damage affects your Hero Power" effect, but it cuts off problem cases before they pop up.
GoliathTheDwarf - You could say "This minion's Attack is always equal to your total Spell Damage." and leave off the 'on the board' part. That might make the wording less awkward; you lose the Spell Damage from your opponent's side, but that's a very niche scenario as it is.
Demonxz95 - It's a Rager; what more can be said? I wonder if Tarecgosa can still work if you just make it Spell Damage = 3, or make it a class card. Rapid Fire can't be abused if the Hunter can't access the Legendary.
Cg8889 - I don't like the ability to attack their hand and deck with the "wherever they are" condition. Granted the combo is hard to pull off, but it's still obliterating your opponent's deck and their ability to mount a proper defense. I would remove it, and up the damage (if necessary).
KANSAS - The effect seems fine, if a little bland. I think the cost is good, as well, as while you're not getting 2/2 Kobold to go with it, you are making the effect permanent. I will note that the art, to me, is quite obviously a monk from Diablo III, which doesn't really jive with the Shaman.
Elfensilver - I like it, and I like it being in Rastakhan's Rumble; it's like Kragwa's team is trying to get an edge on their opponents by cheating lol. Also the spell works well with Zentimo. I would not change it to be based on how much Spell Damage you have, because that's a lot of effort for the payoff.
BasilAnguis - As others have noted Cleric of Scales already exists, so the name would need to be changed (and possibly the art as well, now that you've lost the name). If she said "Your other minions" I think she would be a lot more balanced, as you could at least target her to remove the effect.
Me0203 - Lightning Aspect should be an Elemental, and the Lightning Totem should be…well, a Totem lol (as in, you're missing the minion type tag on the bottom). Totems don't have any Attack to start out with, so a 1/6 statline is very strange. All-in-all, I like Lightning Aspect the most, because you could theoretically chain Overloading damage spells for a cascade effect.
anchorm4n - I want to say that Shard Mage is too good, but I can't really articulate why I think that. Maybe it's fine *shrugs*
Pokeniner - Akrika needs to have a number in the Battlecry in order to properly improve it via Spell Damage. So like "Destroy 1 random enemy minion…" That being said I think the flavor of it is weird: Mages remove threats via damage, generally, and not straight-up destruction effects.
DestroyerR - I don't like Isiset or Anzu, but I do like Foxtrotter. Bouncing minions is a core part of the Rogue identity, so why not benefit from it in a different way?
grumpymonk - I like Riptide a lot. I think the 1-mana version is the most appealing, but probably because it's too good at 1-mana lol.
BloodMefist - I like Cyanigosa the most, because it's doing something different with Spell Damage. That being said, she should probably have some SD of her own, so she's not entirely useless when generated via Azure Explorer or what-have-you (bad example, because Azure Explorer has SD, but you get my point).
MenacingBagel - I like the (Placeholder Cat) the most, because it's an interesting effect. Flavored right, the Legendary draws in the energy of the spell and turns it into Spell Damage. You could then facilitate its own bonus by spamming Area of Effect spells like Hellfire.
Xarkkal - I think Thalyssra is weird, and Arcane Brilliance is boring. But Mana Droplet is so cute! I like it.