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Fan Creations

Battle Of The Bards - Card Design Competition Discussion Thread

Competition Theme: Battle Of The Bards

We want you to feel the groove this week, so get into a good rhythm when creating!

  • You must create a card themed around Music
    • We're looking for musical references in the art or name - if you can squeeze one into the effect that's a bonus!

Fittingly, this weeks theme comes to us from MrRhapsody - make sure you create something worthy of the name!

As always, I can be reached through Discord or here on the site via PM if you have any issues to report.

Competition Phases

Here are the phases of this card design competition

  • Submission Phase: Starts on Mon, Nov 22 17:00 EST (GMT -0500). Runs until Sat, Nov 27 17:00 EST (GMT -0500)
  • Voting Phase: Starts on Sat, Nov 27 17:00 EST (GMT -0500). Runs until Sun, Nov 28 16:00 EST (GMT -0500)
  • Finalist Phase: Starts on Sun, Nov 28 17:00 EST (GMT -0500). Runs until Mon, Nov 29 17:00 EST (GMT -0500)
  • Winner Selected: After finalist voting concludes and we validate votes.

Discussion Thread Rules

No thread rules were added to this season. Please populate and manually edit this thread with them.

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  • Competition Theme: Battle Of The Bards

    We want you to feel the groove this week, so get into a good rhythm when creating!

    • You must create a card themed around Music
      • We're looking for musical references in the art or name - if you can squeeze one into the effect that's a bonus!

    Fittingly, this weeks theme comes to us from MrRhapsody - make sure you create something worthy of the name!

    As always, I can be reached through Discord or here on the site via PM if you have any issues to report.

    Competition Phases

    Here are the phases of this card design competition

    • Submission Phase: Starts on Mon, Nov 22 17:00 EST (GMT -0500). Runs until Sat, Nov 27 17:00 EST (GMT -0500)
    • Voting Phase: Starts on Sat, Nov 27 17:00 EST (GMT -0500). Runs until Sun, Nov 28 16:00 EST (GMT -0500)
    • Finalist Phase: Starts on Sun, Nov 28 17:00 EST (GMT -0500). Runs until Mon, Nov 29 17:00 EST (GMT -0500)
    • Winner Selected: After finalist voting concludes and we validate votes.

    Discussion Thread Rules

    No thread rules were added to this season. Please populate and manually edit this thread with them.

  • Being too specific with the art won't work for this comp, so I guess the best will be to browse art and try to come up with a fitting effect.

    Still not super sold on any of this, since their effects aren't super flashy or anything.

  • An older card of mine slightly remade, but it's too perfect to pass up.

    Friendly Staff

  • Two cards this week! Please let me know which one's your favorite.

  • How about a new Elite Tauren Chieftain? I made new Power Chords based on the band's remaining discography.

    Friendly

  • First idea for this week:

     

    Would make a nice addition to Libram decks. I am considering putting them into Darkmoon Faire but wasn't sure if they fit the Paladin set so took the safer route and gave them a custom watermark.

  • Early feedback:

    linkblade91
    Nice idea, great flavor. Nothing to criticize here.

    AeroJulwin
    Inspiring Ballad is too close to Invigorating Sermon for my taste. Piper is a solid card but not the most creative.

    Demonxz95
    I like it. You should add the Power Chords to your description box when you submit it.

    Wailor
    I really like Thunderbass, it's my favorite card so far. Great art, cool name and the flavor is on point. Well done! I would give you 5 stars as the card is but one minor change you could consider is giving it Rush instead of Windfury to guarantee a draw (just from a powerlevel point of view though; Windfury is far better flavorwise imho).

  • Feedback

    Demonxz95
    Pretty flavorful card. It's easy to draw comparisons to Divine Favor, since they're pretty similar. I don't know if drawing cards is stronger or weaker than getting Power Chords, and Paladin can be found to be low on cards more often than Warrior, but I ultimately think 3 mana is the right cost for this.

    Aerojulwin
    I was gonna say I prefer Inspiring Ballad, but then I read anchorman's feedback and he's right. Pied Piper, on the other hand, could be a cool card if its effect was more related to the tale the card is based on.

    linkblade91
    I like the addition of the new cards, but I think Raise Some Hell is very weak compared to the other ones. It could use a stat buff, something in the line of +3/+3 or +5 Health. Also, I don't know if this card can generate the existing Power Chord cards or just the ones you created.

    anchorm4n
    I think this card would fit Darkmoon at least flavorwise, since this expansion features E.T.C., God of Metal.

    The effect is fine enough, albeit nothing too flashy, but I don't get the puns. The Fintallica part is clear enough, but what Frontloc and Moshloc are supposed to mock flies over my head completely. Sorry, I'm a bit of a heavy metal illiterate :_D

  • Show Spoiler
    Pied Piper, on the other hand, could be a cool card if its effect was more related to the tale the card is based on.

    Could you elaborate what you had in mind? The Pied Piper used his music to lure/control rats. (Or, at least, that's the part I'm focusing on.) Rush allows you to "control" your minions, which is why I chose it.

    I don't want to make another rat-summoning card, and taking control of an enemy Beast seems too specific to be playable, but I suppose a summon (lure) from hand/deck could work. Perhaps:

    This allows you to cheat out small cards and synergizes well with Deathrattles.

    I personally still like the simplicity of my first design, but do agree it might be a bit boring. Forgot about Houndmaster Shaw, so I'll be going with the new idea. Would love to hear your thoughts on it.

  • First idea:

    Feedback:

    Show Spoiler

    Wailor: Both cards look good, but I like the flavor of Thunderbass more.

    Demonxz95: Kinda weak, considering the power level of the cords. And it's dependent on your opponent's hand.

    AeroJulwin: I like Inspiring Ballad. Seems a little cheap, but then it feels kinda bad at 3. Maybe +2/+1? The piper is too similar to that one Witchwood legendary.

    linkblade91: Love the idea! What are the Worgens summoned by Nightfalls? Raise Some Hell feels like it should be a resurrect effect/Demon summoning effect. We Shall Never Fall looks good.

    anchorm4n: Looks good.

    Staff

  • How's this for a new "Raise Some Hell" Power Chord? Stronger than Mega-Taunt, and more Demon-y.

    It should be okay as-is, but you get real mileage if you're behind on the board. And to answer some questions: Encore ETC pulls from the new Power Chords only; the Worgens are random, pulled from various cards over the years that feature Worgens. They range from Town Crier to Big Bad Archmage, although most cost 4 or less.

    Quick Feedback:

    Show Spoiler

    Nirast - Seems okay, but Twinspell + a low number of spells cast means you can guarantee what you need to cost 0. Feel like that could be abused. Can also be used to create an infinite loop to annoy people. Lastly, the art is not great.

    AeroJulwin - Not sure why the Pied Piper has to die to lure in the rats low-Cost Beasts. What about a 5/3/3 that summons on Battlecry instead? *shrugs* Seems fine, I guess, but it's not very "spicy", as it were.

    anchorm4n - This seems strong from a flavor standpoint: who'd have thought art for the "Moshloc" even existed lmao. Naturally I hate it because it's Murlocs, so…ya know…

    Demonxz95 - The old Power Chords suck, so filling your hand with junk doesn't seem very wise.

    Wailor - Thunderbass for sure; should be good to go.

    Friendly

  • Hey Everyone!,

    Missing the 'Good old days' of Inner Fire priest decks, I've come to two designs to fit that style of play.

    An'She MythsingerReverberating Hymn

    The Mythsinger is reminiscent of Questing Adventurer and would likely fill a central role in a board-centric combo deck (considering making it Holy spells only), while Reverberating Hymn pushes a more, "go wide" strategy aiming to make as many minions as possible good targets for Inner Fire or similar cards.

    Interested to know thoughts on the balance of these and which is generally more interesting.

    Feedback:

    Show Spoiler

    Wailor - Both of these look good and seem balanced. As for the 'flashiness' of the effects - these seem like good archetype support cards. I tend to appreciate that style of design, and I think Thunderbass does it best. It might be worth outlining some synergy cards you had in mind in the description.

    Demonxz95 - A cool way to bring the ETC tokens back! I wonder if it could be tied to rush minions / attacks instead to thematically fit with E.T.C., God of Metal. I think this could reasonably be 2 mana as those tokens are not very strong by todays standards.

    AeroJulwin - Your new pied piper may be slightly too strong as is, its basically Drek'Thar without a condition. I'd suggest making it hit 1-cost minions/Beasts as hunter has had 1-cost minion synergies in the past and it could more easily target specific beasts (like the Sunscale Raptor)

    linkblade91 - I like the "Frenzy as Encore" idea. I think this is a fun and versatile card. It might be worth clarifying if these options are discovered, randomly generated or cast by the minion as the text on the card is a bit unclear.

    anchorm4n - I really like this. Seems well balanced and creates an interesting twist on the murloc paladin archetype. Good stuff!

    Nirast - An interesting idea. Hard to judge its balance as it would highly depend on the card pool available. I think its probably balanced, compared to Moonlit Guidance, if anything is pushing it over the line it'll be the Twinspell. As Linkblade pointed out, an infinite loop is possible, easily fixed by using the wording "Discover another spell…" 

  •  

    Ok, so for everyone that doesn't know.

    Lament of the Highborne is a song that Sylvanas and her "choir" of banshees sing after the completion of a little sidequest.

    I found interesting to put in hunter as a sort of secret package support and ultimately ended up with the best secret synergy IMHO.

    I feel that if I up the cost more it would be almost unplayable.

  • Feedback

    Wailor
    Thunderbass definitely seems like the more interesting card here. My only downside is that it's a big all-or-nothing card. Windfury minions are just plain stats if they don't get a chance to attack, and this minion doubles up on that. Of course there's plenty of cards with the same style and it still has solid stats, so I think it's good-to-go.

    Demonxc95
    It's main power lies as a tech card that potentially gives you many cards against someone with a lot of card generation. However, Power Chord cards don't feel particularly strong anymore, and this doesn't guarantee more than one card. In fact, its phrasing seems to imply it could just give nothing at all (Depends on how Divine Favor works in practice.) So 3 Mana might be a bit too expensive.

    linkblade91
    I like the ROCK ON! flavor as a throwback, although you should probably add the explanation mark for continuity. However, Power Chord cards already exist. It's unusual for two groups of tokens to share the same name.

    Nirast
    Definitely my favorite this week! It's rare to see such unique effects and it seems like a fun card to play. It might even support some more interesting decks! The only thing I noticed is the art feeling a bit zoomed-in, with stuff going on in the background. And definitely needs to exclude itself due to Twinspell allowing you to multiply it.

    Arkasaur
    An'she Mythsinger would be better being Holy-exclusive. It's difficult to say which one I like better. They're both nice cards.

    Fedrion
    Very nice synergy card. Not sure how it would work with Misdirection, though. And although I don't play WoW, I definitely appreciate the lore details.

  • Already submitted Thunderbass. Thanks everyone for your feedback.

    More feedback:

    Aerojulwin
    What I meant is that granting Rush to your Beasts didn't seem very related to hypnotizing them. The new version conveys that flavor much better, since randomly summoning really feels a little bit like luring. Maybe the summoned Beasts could also attack random enemy minions? I don't know, maybe it'd be too wordy that way.

    Nirast
    I like the card, but as most people say, it should exclude itself. The text will probably be too crammed then, so I'd drop the Twinspell and probably 1 mana as well.

    linkblade91
    The new card has better flavor (I thought the previous one had a pun I didn't get, but seeing other people's feedback, I assume it's not the case). The only thing I'm a bit worried about is the cost part, because it has a lot of highroll potential without the risk of very low lowrolls. I guess without the cost part it would be quite bad, but I don't know. My take would probably be to drop the cost thing and give the summoned minion Taunt, so that it's never too bad. And hey, if you're using the card correctly you'll have two opportunities to summon something good, so there's that.

    Arkasaur
    I think I like Reververating Hymn a little bit more, if anything because its effect seems more related to its name. Both are cool, though. If you decide to go with An'she Mythsinger, I'd probably make it only affected by Holy spells, as someone else mentioned.

    Fedrion
    I don't know much about balance, but I feel like this is quite weak. Unless you already have a bunch of Secrets in play, casting this is too much of a tempo loss. Again, take my words with a grain of salt, since I'm pretty bad at balance.

    Finally, I'd like to say that the flavor of the card seems more related to Deathrattle than Secrets.

  • Fedrion - I agree with Wailor: Sylvanas has generally been more Deathrattle-focused than Secrets-focused, both from a flavor and gameplay standpoint. That and spending 5-mana for a spell might be a hard sell after playing a bunch of Secrets; you're not contesting the board that much because of it. Not sure. I will say that Lament is a good flavor choice: definitely keep with that direction.

    Arkasaur -  The minion concerns me because it could grow out of control fairly early on, being just a 2-mana minion. At least if it said Holy-spells, you wouldn't be able to abuse the Coin. I still find it more interesting than the spell, though.

    Friendly

  • I've been fairly busy with stuff, so I haven't had that much time to do anything here. Least I can do is give you guys my thoughts on your stuff. I will likely be trying to find a new card design altogether if I can.

    Wailor

    Well I can see you've already submitted. Your card is pretty good though, so I can see it doing pretty well.

    AeroJulwin
    Inspiring Ballad is fine. I definitely prefer Pied Piper.

    Linkblade91
    Pretty good new rendition of ETC. Nightfall feels significantly worse than the other two, though I guess that's just sort of on flavor with the original ETC with how Power of the Horde was by far the worst of the original Power Chords.

    Anchorm4n
    I love myself a good Metallica pun and I think you've good yourself a good card right here.

    Nirast

    A fun idea, but there's absolutely a way to break this. I'm not sure what that way is yet, but someone is going to find one. The artwork is not too great either unfortunately.

    Contrary to what other people are saying, the card doesn't need to specifically exclude itself since Discover cards can no longer Discover themselves anyway.

    Arkasaur
    An'she Mythsinger is a fun idea, but it definitely can get abused quickly. Reverberating Hymn is balanced, but these types of basic designs don't usually do so well unless there's some type of specific aspect to them.

    Fedrion

    A fine idea on paper, but I do agree that spending 5 mana on one spell that doesn't do anything (unless you control multiple Secrets) does not seem like the way to go for Hunter. You might be able to get away with doing that in a class like Priest or Warrior, but definitely not Hunter.

    It is also a little bit weird to be a Scholomance card given that Scholomance didn't contain any Secrets or synergy cards for them in Hunter.

    Friendly Staff

  • Wasn't sure if I wanted to enter due to the theme being quite harsh from the art side, but there I am. So U-lA-lA is a reference to the music video game Space Channel 5's main character - Ulala - and costs 2 so that if played five items, it's a nod to 5 on the game's name. Song of Accord is much more straightforward in its flavor, but gives flexibility on when you want to buff it.

  • Thanks for the Feedback everyone,

    I'm sticking with Reverberating Hymn since the scaling of the Mythsinger might be problematic. I've tweaked Hymn to have the secondary Health buff behind a Deathrattle to hopefully make it a more interesting design. Let me know what you think.

    Reverberating Hymn

  • Turn my spell into a weapon, because a musical instrument makes to much sense! Added it in MatDM because E.T.C., God of Metal is also in that set, albeit in Warrior.

    More Feedback: 

    Show Spoiler

    linkblade91: New Raise Some Hell looks good. I still think Nightfall should only feature a select number of Worgens, but the exact list is probably hard to show outside of listing them in the description.

    Arkasaur: I really like your second version of Hymn, and it's a lot more flavorful this way. Good job!

    Fedrion: Like the effect, but it's kinda expensive. Maybe cost it at 4?

    Neoguli: The spell is awesome, but severely undercosted. Make it 2 or 3 mana. #GiveChooseOneToOtherClasses 

    Staff

    • @Nirast - Barkskin does exist, and it was my card's immediate buff on top of Armor, and that never saw play. While some of it was belonging to Druid, I don't feel as worried about the card's power level, since apparently it's ok to have a tutor card with one stat off vanilla stats.

  • Nirast
    I can't say I'm positive about these changes. It completely changes the card.

    My first issue is its cost/value. Turning it into a weapon seems like it could work, but what was previously a total cost of 4 Mana, has now been condensed into a single 2-cost. This is a big deal considering the generated spells can be discounted to a whopping 0 Mana! Add a free 2/2 weapon and you've got an insane card.

    The second problem is the class change. The reason why this card was so interesting to me, is because Druid has a lot of interesting spells to work with. The cost change also seems more in line with what we're used to from Druid.

  • More feedback:

    Nirast
    I feel a little confused by the flavor. ETC is neutral or Warrior for me and the connection to music is pretty far fetched in the current version. Honestly, I prefer the Druid spell version.

    Arkasaur
    Not a big fan of the Deathrattle-like condition you've added, it doesn't work well with the flavor. I think the first version was fine.

    Neoguli
    Designing a minion with Echo for a musical themed competition is obviously a great idea and genious at the same time since nobody else thought of it if I remember correctly. I'd defintely go down that road if I were you. That said, your minion may hit the theme pretty much on spot, but I'm not sure how popular this game is and if enough people will a) recognize it or b) be patient enough to read the description. So yeah, Echo is nice but maybe you have another musical themed card in mind? If you choose to go with the current version, I'd suggest to put it in Rogue.

    Fedrion
    I agree with what Wailor said: Sylvanas means Deathrattle synergy, not Secrets. Other than that, I really like the flavor!

    AeroJulwin
    I think you're close to something great. What feels off right now is the Deathrattle. If you manage to turn this into a Battlecry without breaking the balance, you'll have a great card. I'd try to make it a Stormwind card (lots of rats in there) that summons 1/1 rats that attack random enemy minions like Wailor suggested. Make sure to create a token if you go down that line!

  • @anchorm4n - Perhaps I could use Seraphine from LoL? She also can use Echo, since her LoL passive lets her double-cast her next ability after casting three beforehand, and basically everyone knows LoL now, even if for Arcane.

    • While this would certainly help people make a connection to your card, I don't really get where the music comes in here. Echo is a great keyword for a musical themed competition, but I don't think it will be enough to meet the requirements on its own. 

  • Thanks all for the feedback.

    The final version would be this one. 

  • I'm sorry I haven't done much this time. I just had a lot on my plate to take care of (both figuratively and literally given that Thanksgiving happened) that the brain space I had for this competition was simply just not there.

    Friendly Staff

  • It's kinda warming to see how many of us consciously or unconsciously associate music with magic and therefore have created cards that interact with spells. It was a cool theme all around, even if these specific themes are sometimes hard to find art for. Good luck to everybody! 

  • Good luck to the other finalists :)

    Friendly

  • Congratulations to Wailor!

    Friendly

  • I didn't expect this. Thanks :)

  • Congrats to Wailor! Always nice to see my favorite card of the week win :-) I really have to stop looking up the transpareny reports though. Those finalist votes have become a joke.