I'm trying to get into that internship for the Hearthstone design and a part of the application is to make a card. I had a couple of ideas, but I want to run it through you guys first to see what seems balanced or what seems at least fun. I would love your opinion on them, good or bad. I want to learn as much as I could.
Regardless of card balance, there are actual game issues with Highmountain Tracker, Reckless Raider and Drunk Raider.
Cards can't have anything that requires you to act on your opponents turn (so in this case Tracker's deathrattle)
Reckless Raider attacks the "strongest" minion, but this is ambiguous and does not match the game's current wording of "highest attack" or possibly "highest health" minion
What Drunk Raider actually does is slightly unclear and probably should include the word "random" somewhere. (Perhaps "Always attacks a random character"?)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Hello. Would you like to destroy some evil today?"
I like a Highmoutain Tracker. It seems like a solid draw a card mechanic for hunter burst decks. It has potential to be a really strong card and it can potentianaly be even inbalanced , because i don't know if a drawback ( discard 4 cards from your deck) is big enough to balance his value (two mana 3/2 discover two 2 cards from your deck ).
Bound Vortex : I believe that this is the correct wording :"Whenever this minion takes damage return it to your hand " Solid minion for some heavy overload synergy or other unusaual non- tempo based deck.
Reckless Raider : Interesting design ,but if you look in to the nutshell of this minion it's just a spell with this text "Deal 4 damage to the strongest enemy minion" and this spell is actually worse then currently unsused Shadow Bolt. It might be better , becuase it can survive the attack ,but this going to happen very rarely.
Azure Magus is just great desing. I love it. One question : "This turn" means "until end of your turn" or "until the end of your opponents turn" ? It's pretty significant difference.
Defias Mercenary : Powerfull card ,which kinda reminds me a Grim Patron and Grim Patron is a five mana 3/3 for some reason. I kinda feel that this should rather have higher cost or lower stats to prevent some crazy full board of "Defias Mercenary" situations , even though Rogue doesn't have enough "Coin gaining cards" for it now , it doesn't mean they can't have them in the future. This is a great example of card ,which can limit a potential "Desing space" and force hs devs to not create coin gaing cards for all classes , because they would broken with this rogue card.
Arena Master : way too good (compare to Jeweled Scarab) : should be 3 mana. Also, discover is a much more interesting mechanic if you narrow down the choice to a specific type of card. Discover "anything" has too much variance.
Blue Brothers : total stats of 6/8 on a 4 drop ??? Should be 5 mana. (and limited to a specific class : some could abuse this one too easily)
Darkspire Troll Hunter : unsure wether this ability is compatible with the game engine...
Meeting Stone : a bit weird. Wording is backward. (Should start with ("At the end of yor turn...")
Highmountain Tracker : 1) way too good : a 2 drop drawing not one but two card is just insane, as it is, it should cost 4 mana at the very least, maybe even 5. 2) deathrattle cause UI issues (choice during the opponent turn)
Bound Vortex : wording : replace "If" by "whenever". Does it return to your hand if killed by damages (which your wording implies) ? If so, it is just inifinte value, except against very few counter : that's crazy look at how expensive card like that are (Tentacle for an arm, Poisonned Blade, Dreadsteed...).
Drunk Rider : too good : the ability is extremely similar to Ogre Brute, yet your card has +1 Health. Should lose a statpoint. Wording unclear.
I agree with pretty much everything but Arena Master.
Arena Master : If this card would cost 3 mana it would be unplayable since tempo loss would be way too much (see fencing coach) also i think its unfair to compair it directly to jeweled scarab since you can play jeweled fine on turn 2 knowing you will be guaranteed with a 3 drop (and dont forget that scarab includes spells which can be heavy removal like hex, lava burst, or torch) minions almost never deliver a boardclear or something similar to that and if then understatted or with requirements (oracle or rend blackhand), now we could argue that arena master is better in the lategame but again that depends on the class since 3 mana spells do wonders in some (shaman especially)
Thanks for the feedback guys, I learned a bunch just now and I going to make adjustments based on feedback
Blue Brothers: I really wanted a splitting minion, like how Echoing Ooze or Wobbling Runts work but for mid game, I am probably going to raise that to 5 mana since I now realize Cairne is 6 mana and it would fit on curve with it. It also doesn't seem that unique compared to other summoning deathrattle minions, I'll call that one off until I have a better idea
Meeting Stone: I though the trade off of not attacking would be sufficient for the high variance (wisps to Deathwings) maybe set it to 5 cost minions? sure it has the highest stat variants but it should be more stable than ANY minion. I rather it be any minion, but I think I'll lay off on that one until a better idea is formed
Highmountain Tracker - I didn't realized how it would effect the other player. How about this: At the start of you turn cast Tracking? That way the effect is still felt like the original card, but if kept up too long it will discards lots of your needed cards. I'll adjust the stats too it does seem too strong statwise
Defias Merc - That one was a tricky idea, I'll probably change it so that it summons a plain 2/1 minion for each coin used. Easily removable minions
Azure Magus - I need to clarify that the MINION gets immune not anything else, Ill get on that
Bound Vortex - I need to clarify that when it takes damage and SURVIVES it goes back into your hand, get on that too
Reckless Raider - WIll clarify that to attack instead of strongest
Drunk Rider - Awww you guys don't like that? I thought Purify needed a boost... In all seriousness, I thought a high stat really weird minion would be cool to mess around with
The rest I await more feedback from... I am going to remake the ones listed
Arena Master - Simple and clean design, although a bit basic (boring). Would have been a good card in LoE for introducing Discover. No idea about the balance, the variance is so high that it would need some testing.
Blue Brothers - Any good card should have a reasonable number of cards that can counter it, but this doesn't. You don't want to keep it alive because of Windfury, and you don't want to kill it either because of Deathrattle, and it's too cheap for Hex/Polymorph/etc to be viable. This is Dr. Boom levels of overpowered.
Meeting Stone - Too complex and too high RNG variance.
Darkspear Throat Slicer - A bit awkward wording and quite underpowered, but cool effect.
Poxbringer - I like this a lot. A very interesting tech card.
Highmountain Tracker - As others have mentioned, the deathrattle interaction on the opponent's turn needs some work. Aside from that it's also crazy broken... craaaaaaaazy broken.
Bound Vortex - I don't think the overload is necessary, being returned to hand on taking damage is restrictive enough. Other than that it's a very cool design.
Reckless Raider - Underpowered but flavorful. Would like to see some additional effect to give the card a secondary use beyond just being removal-as-a-minion.
Drunk Rider - Make it any ENEMY character and I'm in.
Azure Magus - Good if the opponent can't deal 1 damage... so it sucks ^^ Especially since Mana Wyrm exists. I don't think a 1 mana 2/2 would be too strong here.
Defias Mercenary - Cool effect, very similar use to Grim Patron in warrior, and it's flavorful.
Flight Master - I think you can safely change that to trigger at the end of the turn, it's abysmal as is.
Arena Master: 0/5 Bland and overpowered at the same time.
Poxbringer: 2/5 Interesting concept, I'd rather see this type of effect on a class spell though.
Highmountain Tracker: 1/5 Incredibly overvalued on top of not being a valid card because of the Deathrattle.
Bound Vortex: 2/5 This card has a drawback for the sake of having a drawback, and the name doesn't even make sense.
Reckless Raider: 4/5 Actually a cool card with neat synergy with Commanding Shout.
Drunk Rider: 0/5 This seems like a card that has had a card text slapped onto it because you wanted some card text.
Azure Magus: 3/5 Neat, I guess.
Defias Mercenary: 0/5 For Chrissakes, Rogue's burgle mechanic has finally been settled upon, don't do this. If you really want to force another path for Rogue, make a card that's strong enough to justify it like Raptor and Peddler already has.
I'm trying to get into that internship for the Hearthstone design and a part of the application is to make a card. I had a couple of ideas, but I want to run it through you guys first to see what seems balanced or what seems at least fun. I would love your opinion on them, good or bad. I want to learn as much as I could.
Arena Master
Darkspear Throat Slicer
Poxbringer
Highmountain Tracker:
Bound Vortex
Reckless Raider
Drunk Rider
Azure Magus
Defias Mercenary
Flight Master
These are, for the most part, very good cards.
Arena Master - Well named for a common card. It has the basic vanilla stats and a good battlecry. May be a bit under-costed though. See Jeweled Scarab for reference. May want to make the master cost 3 mana.
Darkspear Throat Slitter - I personally like the card. It has a good flavor and feel to it.
Poxbringer - Again, great feel and flavor. Very anti-aggro. I feel like it should be a class card for priest or warlock though.
Highmountain Tracker - I hateTracking. I think it's the worst card in the game. If the two non-chosen cards were shuffled back into the deck I'd love it, and your card, otherwise it just isn't worth playing.
Bound Vortex - Good card, however it could still work without the overload cost. Feels a bit weak in its current state.
Reckless Raider - Nice.
Drunk Rider - I'd change the wording to "Whenever this minion attacks, it attacks any random character." The current wording just feels wonky
Azure Magus - Again, just fix the wording. "Whenever you cast spell, this minions gains immunity until the end of your turn."
Defias Mercenary - Nice card for rogues since they have good coin generation.
Flight Master - I am honestly not sure on this card. I love the feel of it but I am not sure of the balance. I'd also hate to play it and get a Doomsayer when I have control
Arena Master - Well named for a common card. It has the basic vanilla stats and a good battlecry. May be a bit under-costed though. See Jeweled Scarab for reference. May want to make the master cost 3 mana.
Bound Vortex - Good card, however it could still work without the overload cost. Feels a bit weak in its current state.
I was thinking that the high variance for Arena Master would offset the stats of the minion itself. I mean look at Babbling Book, 1 mana 1/1 with a very high chance of getting a decent spell card. Arena Master can get you anything within the rules of discover. The more I think about it though, some of the best minions in the game is 8 mana. Playing an 8 drop immediately after playing a 2 mana 2/2 is pretty... not fun. 3 mana does sound better I'll be changing that.
As for Bound Vortex, is it really that weak? I am thinking of raising its stats due to it's reliance of not ever being hit. Is the overload unnecessary if I buff it up higher? Also I want it to synergize with cards that activate when an overload card is player. Tunnel Trogg, Unbound Elemental, cards like that
Arena Master - Well named for a common card. It has the basic vanilla stats and a good battlecry. May be a bit under-costed though. See Jeweled Scarab for reference. May want to make the master cost 3 mana.
Bound Vortex - Good card, however it could still work without the overload cost. Feels a bit weak in its current state.
I was thinking that the high variance for Arena Master would offset the stats of the minion itself. I mean look at Babbling Book, 1 mana 1/1 with a very high chance of getting a decent spell card. Arena Master can get you anything within the rules of discover. The more I think about it though, some of the best minions in the game is 8 mana. Playing an 8 drop immediately after playing a 2 mana 2/2 is pretty... not fun. 3 mana does sound better I'll be changing that.
As for Bound Vortex, is it really that weak? I am thinking of raising its stats due to it's reliance of not ever being hit. Is the overload unnecessary if I buff it up higher? Also I want it to synergize with cards that activate when an overload card is player. Tunnel Trogg, Unbound Elemental, cards like that
Babbling Book is also a class card though, which is why it gets to be slightly stronger. Arena Master is a neutral card, which is why 3 mana is a better cost for it.
As for Bound Vortex, I'm not exactly sure how to balance it. Maybe go with a 4/6 for 3 mana, overload 1. It's more of less powerful, but any bit of damage will either bounce it (forcing you to overload again and drop it) or outright kill it. Because of it's effect it's just a weird card and balancing it is difficult to do because of it.
Defias Mercenary: 0/5 For Chrissakes, Rogue's burgle mechanic has finally been settled upon, don't do this. If you really want to force another path for Rogue, make a card that's strong enough to justify it like Raptor and Peddler already has.
Defias Mercenary: 0/5 For Chrissakes, Rogue's burgle mechanic has finally been settled upon, don't do this. If you really want to force another path for Rogue, make a card that's strong enough to justify it like Raptor and Peddler already has.
Okay I can try that
Gold Golem
Treasure Chest
Brazen Thief
Gold Golem should be epic, not legendary. None of the other golems are legendary.
Treasure chest is nice, but it will only be played in very few decks. If there's more The Coin synergy it could show some merit.
Brzen Thief is interesting, but combo isn't particularly strong. It's an interesting concept although I am not sure how good the card itself is. Maybe drop it 2 to 2 mana and 2 HP, so it still has that decent body, and an enticing effect. (I am comparing it to Sorcerer's Apprentice)
Defias Mercenary: 0/5 For Chrissakes, Rogue's burgle mechanic has finally been settled upon, don't do this. If you really want to force another path for Rogue, make a card that's strong enough to justify it like Raptor and Peddler already has.
Okay I can try that
Gold Golem
Treasure Chest
Brazen Thief
Gold Golem should be epic, not legendary. None of the other golems are legendary.
Treasure Chest is nice, but it will only be played in very few decks. If there's more The Coin synergy it could show some merit.
Brazen Thief is interesting, but combo isn't particularly strong. It's an interesting concept although I am not sure how good the card itself is. Maybe drop it 2 to 2 mana and 2 HP, so it still has that decent body, and an enticing effect. (I am comparing it to Sorcerer's Apprentice)
I'm trying to get into that internship for the Hearthstone design and a part of the application is to make a card. I had a couple of ideas, but I want to run it through you guys first to see what seems balanced or what seems at least fun. I would love your opinion on them, good or bad. I want to learn as much as I could.
Arena Master
Darkspear Throat Slicer
Poxbringer
Highmountain Tracker:
Bound Vortex
Reckless Raider
Drunk Rider
Azure Magus
Defias Mercenary
Flight Master
Regardless of card balance, there are actual game issues with Highmountain Tracker, Reckless Raider and Drunk Raider.
Cards can't have anything that requires you to act on your opponents turn (so in this case Tracker's deathrattle)
Reckless Raider attacks the "strongest" minion, but this is ambiguous and does not match the game's current wording of "highest attack" or possibly "highest health" minion
What Drunk Raider actually does is slightly unclear and probably should include the word "random" somewhere. (Perhaps "Always attacks a random character"?)
"Hello. Would you like to destroy some evil today?"
Feedback about few class cards :
I like a Highmoutain Tracker. It seems like a solid draw a card mechanic for hunter burst decks. It has potential to be a really strong card and it can potentianaly be even inbalanced , because i don't know if a drawback ( discard 4 cards from your deck) is big enough to balance his value (two mana 3/2 discover two 2 cards from your deck ).
Bound Vortex : I believe that this is the correct wording :"Whenever this minion takes damage return it to your hand " Solid minion for some heavy overload synergy or other unusaual non- tempo based deck.
Reckless Raider : Interesting design ,but if you look in to the nutshell of this minion it's just a spell with this text "Deal 4 damage to the strongest enemy minion" and this spell is actually worse then currently unsused Shadow Bolt. It might be better , becuase it can survive the attack ,but this going to happen very rarely.
Azure Magus is just great desing. I love it. One question : "This turn" means "until end of your turn" or "until the end of your opponents turn" ? It's pretty significant difference.
Defias Mercenary : Powerfull card ,which kinda reminds me a Grim Patron and Grim Patron is a five mana 3/3 for some reason. I kinda feel that this should rather have higher cost or lower stats to prevent some crazy full board of "Defias Mercenary" situations , even though Rogue doesn't have enough "Coin gaining cards" for it now , it doesn't mean they can't have them in the future. This is a great example of card ,which can limit a potential "Desing space" and force hs devs to not create coin gaing cards for all classes , because they would broken with this rogue card.
Take a look at my card creations here in vojza's mini expansion topic.
Arena Master : If this card would cost 3 mana it would be unplayable since tempo loss would be way too much (see fencing coach) also i think its unfair to compair it directly to jeweled scarab since you can play jeweled fine on turn 2 knowing you will be guaranteed with a 3 drop (and dont forget that scarab includes spells which can be heavy removal like hex, lava burst, or torch) minions almost never deliver a boardclear or something similar to that and if then understatted or with requirements (oracle or rend blackhand), now we could argue that arena master is better in the lategame but again that depends on the class since 3 mana spells do wonders in some (shaman especially)
Thanks for the feedback guys, I learned a bunch just now and I going to make adjustments based on feedback
Blue Brothers: I really wanted a splitting minion, like how Echoing Ooze or Wobbling Runts work but for mid game, I am probably going to raise that to 5 mana since I now realize Cairne is 6 mana and it would fit on curve with it. It also doesn't seem that unique compared to other summoning deathrattle minions, I'll call that one off until I have a better idea
Meeting Stone: I though the trade off of not attacking would be sufficient for the high variance (wisps to Deathwings) maybe set it to 5 cost minions? sure it has the highest stat variants but it should be more stable than ANY minion. I rather it be any minion, but I think I'll lay off on that one until a better idea is formed
Highmountain Tracker - I didn't realized how it would effect the other player. How about this: At the start of you turn cast Tracking? That way the effect is still felt like the original card, but if kept up too long it will discards lots of your needed cards. I'll adjust the stats too it does seem too strong statwise
Defias Merc - That one was a tricky idea, I'll probably change it so that it summons a plain 2/1 minion for each coin used. Easily removable minions
Azure Magus - I need to clarify that the MINION gets immune not anything else, Ill get on that
Bound Vortex - I need to clarify that when it takes damage and SURVIVES it goes back into your hand, get on that too
Reckless Raider - WIll clarify that to attack instead of strongest
Drunk Rider - Awww you guys don't like that? I thought Purify needed a boost... In all seriousness, I thought a high stat really weird minion would be cool to mess around with
The rest I await more feedback from... I am going to remake the ones listed
Arena Master - Simple and clean design, although a bit basic (boring). Would have been a good card in LoE for introducing Discover. No idea about the balance, the variance is so high that it would need some testing.
Blue Brothers - Any good card should have a reasonable number of cards that can counter it, but this doesn't. You don't want to keep it alive because of Windfury, and you don't want to kill it either because of Deathrattle, and it's too cheap for Hex/Polymorph/etc to be viable. This is Dr. Boom levels of overpowered.
Meeting Stone - Too complex and too high RNG variance.
Darkspear Throat Slicer - A bit awkward wording and quite underpowered, but cool effect.
Poxbringer - I like this a lot. A very interesting tech card.
Highmountain Tracker - As others have mentioned, the deathrattle interaction on the opponent's turn needs some work. Aside from that it's also crazy broken... craaaaaaaazy broken.
Bound Vortex - I don't think the overload is necessary, being returned to hand on taking damage is restrictive enough. Other than that it's a very cool design.
Reckless Raider - Underpowered but flavorful. Would like to see some additional effect to give the card a secondary use beyond just being removal-as-a-minion.
Drunk Rider - Make it any ENEMY character and I'm in.
Azure Magus - Good if the opponent can't deal 1 damage... so it sucks ^^ Especially since Mana Wyrm exists. I don't think a 1 mana 2/2 would be too strong here.
Defias Mercenary - Cool effect, very similar use to Grim Patron in warrior, and it's flavorful.
Flight Master - I think you can safely change that to trigger at the end of the turn, it's abysmal as is.
Arena Master: 0/5 Bland and overpowered at the same time.
Poxbringer: 2/5 Interesting concept, I'd rather see this type of effect on a class spell though.
Highmountain Tracker: 1/5 Incredibly overvalued on top of not being a valid card because of the Deathrattle.
Bound Vortex: 2/5 This card has a drawback for the sake of having a drawback, and the name doesn't even make sense.
Reckless Raider: 4/5 Actually a cool card with neat synergy with Commanding Shout.
Drunk Rider: 0/5 This seems like a card that has had a card text slapped onto it because you wanted some card text.
Azure Magus: 3/5 Neat, I guess.
Defias Mercenary: 0/5 For Chrissakes, Rogue's burgle mechanic has finally been settled upon, don't do this. If you really want to force another path for Rogue, make a card that's strong enough to justify it like Raptor and Peddler already has.
Make the Card: The biggest thread on the site!
My mandibles which are capable of pressing down and tearing, my talons which are known to intercept and hold.
I removed some of the harder to balance to plan those out better, while rewording others to make more sense
Well, the image you required is not avaidable.
However, I still wanna see your ideas, you can upload them to imgur, copy paste them here, and ready.
The joke is you.
The links are broken. I'm not Blizzard but I assume it doesn't help your case.
Custom cards :
CLASSES : Alchemist (CCC#5 | Phase V) | Chef (CCC#4)
EXPANSIONS : Year of the Scorpion (Year Comp)
Whoops, I guess my imgur was messed up, I fixed the pics now you should be able to see em
RedneckBudha
RedneckBudha
Treasure Chest
RedneckBudha
RedneckBudha