Hearthpwn

Dire Bat get's disqualified in my books automatically. If people can't grasp the simple concept of "everyone should use the same format" and needs to be that special snowflake to stand out, he doesn't deserve to be even considered.

That said, I find that we got too many "Light versions" of existing cards. It's not particularly clever, although some designs are actually pretty nice.

Twisted Bloodcaster has a nice concept behind it, but the trigger isn't really worth it to play the card for the stats it provides. 

In the end I think Lil'Ragnaros get's my vote. It's balanced and flavorful, although a bit obvious. Eredar Guard has a great design, but seems a bit too limited to see play, but it'll get my vote as well.

Lone Wanderer is a card that looks interesting when you first see it, but is highly flawed if you think about it for a little. Essentially the card's only purpose is to make the Discover mechanic more swingy. There is no reason you would ever put Lone Wanderer into a deck. It's existence as a card just means you can sometimes luck out from Discover and get a 1 mana 5/5. Which is not good design. It means Dark Peddler would sometimes just win you the game because you got lucky and got the 1 mana 5/5 instead of the balanced 1 mana cards. And there isn't anything to the card that counterbalances this swingification of Discover.

Also, Cluster the Cattle is just a copy of Muster for Battle.

I also agree with Zukuu that cards with backgrounds shouldn't be allowed. It draws attention to your card in a potentially unfair way, similarly to a gold card. Maybe not as much, but it sure as hell stands out in this poll, and for a reason that has absolutely nothing to do with its design.

EDIT: Mods added in missing tokens

Quote from Elementalkin >>

Quote from nurgling13 >>

It draws attention to your card in a potentially unfair way, similarly to a gold card. Maybe not as much, but it sure as hell stands out in this poll, and for a reason that has absolutely nothing to do with its design.

 Incidentally, Forbidden Spark is guilty of this as well.

Also, FYI, Hearthcards can now do italics! It's funny that they implemented this literally one day after the first time I actually needed to use it!

Quote from JamieFTW1505 >>

Quote from Elementalkin >>

Quote from nurgling13 >>

It draws attention to your card in a potentially unfair way, similarly to a gold card. Maybe not as much, but it sure as hell stands out in this poll, and for a reason that has absolutely nothing to do with its design.

 Incidentally, Forbidden Spark is guilty of this as well.

I would've voted for Forbidden Spark either way. Creating a decent version of the forbidden cards is tough, and I liked the execution of this one. The animation is excellent and I think we should encourage people to raise the bar on this weekly competition, not tear them down because some people will be silly and vote for shiny things.

Quote from JamieFTW1505 >>

Quote from Elementalkin >>

Quote from JamieFTW1505 >>

I would've voted for Forbidden Spark either way. Creating a decent version of the forbidden cards is tough, and I liked the execution of this one. The animation is excellent and I think we should encourage people to raise the bar on this weekly competition, not tear them down because some people will be silly and vote for shiny things.

The competition isn't about making animations, tho. In fact, since non-golden cards aren't animated, and golden cards aren't allowed to be submitted anymore, submitting an animated card is, well, wrong. We're not judging the quality of the animation, only it's purpose.

Maybe the mods could introduce a "special mention" in the final poll each week to show off cards where people have gone to the effort of making a golden animated version in addition to the non-golden one they must submit? Just a thought. I think Bibikis did a great job and this forum should encourage creativity wherever possible.

As the creator of Dire Rat , I feel that I should explain why I chose to put a background; firstly, and most importantly, I prefer the look of the card with the background- it feels more official, which appeals to me.  Secondly, do note that I checked over the rules three times to make sure that it would be legal; I don't think there's anything against it.  Thirdly (and though I don't want to claim ignorance), this is only my second competition.

However, in light of the points made by Nurgling 13 and Zukuu, I will not be using a background on any further competitions- I agree, in hindsight, that it might have come off as an attention-grabbing tactic, which I want to avoid.  Furthermore, this will certainly lose me votes in this stage (and may have won me some in the prior stage, though I can't know).  Overall, there is a good chance of it influencing the votes (for and against me), so to insure that the competition is as fair as possible, I will not be using any backgrounds.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention, by the way.

Also, to the mods; it is Dire Rat, not Dire Bat- this is only a problem on the poll, not the post.

Quote from JamieFTW1505 >>

 It happens sometimes but I like to think we all have more class than that.

Just like to mention for 'Welcome to the Safari!' card, there are exactly SEVEN 1/1 Beasts in the game to fill the board.

Namely: Angry Chicken, Captain's Parrot, Jeweled Scarab, Stonetusk Boar, Timber Wolf, Webspinner & Young Dragonhawk.