This week's Card Design Competition Theme comes from RandomScribbles, whose Saintly Clairvoyant was the winner of our "Recent Events" competition.
Competition-Specific Restrictions:
"One of the most interesting cards in the new adventure is Medivh. He gives us the game’s first neutral weapon, and that opens up a world of card design possibilities. Think outside the box here- traditional "attack to turn your HP into efficient removal" weapons were restricted to certain classes for a reason, so either think of good nontraditional ways to use the weapon slot for new or underused mechanics (like Medivh, the Guardian), or come up with a clever gameplay justification for a traditional weapon (a good example would be Spirit Claws if Shaman weren't a weapon class already)." - RandomScribbles
Your card must either be a Weapon or it must equip a weapon.
Your card may not be a class card for a class that already has weapons. In other words, it must be a Druid, Mage, Priest, Warlock, or Neutral card.
Competition Process
Preview Phase (Starts Now! Ends 19:00 UTC 18/August/2016) During this Phase, the Discussion Topic is made available, previewing this week's competition theme. Entry and Early Voting Phase (Starts 19:00 UTC 18/August/2016, Ends 17:00 UTC 22/August/2016) During this Phase, the Submission Topic is made available for your submissions. You may also, of course, feel free to give early up-votes to any submissions that you like! Voting Phase (Starts 17:00 UTC 22/August/2016, Ends 17:00 UTC 23/August/2016) During this Phase, the Submission Topic will be locked, so no more entries may be submitted. Instead, use this time to browse the submissions and up-vote your favorites! Final Phase (Starts 18:00 UTC 23/August/2016, Ends 18:00 UTC 24/August/2016) During this Phase, the Discussion Topic will also be locked, and a new Poll Topic will go up. Discussion will be allowed to continue in the Poll Topic, and it will also include all the qualifying finalists and poll to decide the winner of the competition!
Discussion Topic Rules
To make sure that everything runs smoothly, we need to reserve the Submission Topic for submissions only. Everything else goes here. What is everything else, you might ask?
Rules or Process. Do you have a question about the competition's process? Do you need clarification about one of the entry requirements? Are you not sure whether your entry adhered to the rules? Ask here!
Feedback or Ideas. Do you have some ideas you'd like to run by others before settling on one? Do you need help balancing or wording your entry? Do you need help finding art that will fit your card? Or do you just want feedback from the community on your entry? You're in the right place! Remember, although you are allowed to make minor tweaks to your entry after you've submitted it, you're only allowed one submission per week, so make sure that you've settled on your card for sure beforehand.
Discussion! Do you have thoughts on other people's entries? Are there directions you don't like that you're seeing too many people take? Or directions you'd like to see more people take? Would you like to help others and contribute to a greater community understanding of Hearthstone card design and balance? This is where you want to be!
All of that said, please refrain from the following:
Posting TONS of Ideas. Discussion topics become an absolute mess if everybody is posting a dozen different ideas. Please post not more than 3 distinct ideas at a time. Any more than that and we'll have to delete your post.
Advertising Your Entry. Please don't pop in here just to advertise your entry only to never be heard from again. This includes only asking short, generic, or insincere questions like "Thoughts?" or "Do you think this is interesting?". Yes, getting feedback on your entry is one of the purposes of this topic, but we're not just here for other people to help you. We're here for you all to help each other. 12 hours after this competition begins, there should be plenty of other posts here for you to give specific feedback or for you to comment on a trend. If you post your entry for feedback after this time and do not also offer some form of substantial commentary, critique, or praise of others' work, you may find your post deleted.
Plagiarism. Many people post their ideas here before finalizing them in the submission topic. Directly plagiarizing those ideas to post in the submission topic yourself is absolutely not acceptable.
So, without further ado, have fun and get creating!
Here is my first idea. The card on the left is collectible. When it dies, it equips itself as your weapon. The weapon has no attack, but it improves your attack, as a Druid. You use it by attacking with your Hero Power, or a spell like Claw. I haven't decided what exactly I would want the weapon to do. The two different weapons shown are two possibilities I've come up with. I like the one on the left because Druid lacks hard removal. What do you think? Is 5 mana 4/2 too expensive?
Whispering Staff (priest) is here to help the silence priest archetype Blizzard seems to be wanting to create. Worded as it is, the silence happens before the attack, so it would kill a Silver Hand Recruit with Blessing of Kings for instance, and you won't take any damage. I chose this over the more elegant "silence any minion damaged by this weapon" since such a formulation would mean that the silence happens after the damage (which is generally useless).
Shooting Wand (mage) gives mages another source of unlimited ping (though you can't attack with it if you have no mana left). This one is cheaper that their hero power but it is a fair compensation to the fact that you take counter-attack damage with this ping. Yes, a shooting wand is supposed to be a ranged weapon but Rexxar takes damage when attacking with Eaglehorn Bow so I just ignored that.
Change of mind (priest) is a potentially very powerful card against both secret and weapon-based classes. You will immediately equip the copied secrets and weapon (with the missing durability if it was already used). Remember that it only copies, it does not steal (though I hesitated to make it steal but Entomb already makes tons of people salty so...). The "draw a card" part is not an n-th throwback to Purify but a way to avoid this card to be a dead weight against classes with neither secrets nor weapons (druid, warlock and priest) just like Flare does [Note: the rules does not say the weapon has to be custom, it just says it has to equip one].
Funny enough, my adventure idea is class weapon based. Maybe this idea from my adventure could be cool:
For those not in the know, Anathema/Benediction was an epic Priest staff from back in the day. You could transform between them. Anathema favored shadow builds while Benediction favored healing.
@mtmckinley Neat overall concept, but Anathema is completely ridiculous. Shadowform's main problem is it's slow and card inefficient, but slapping two casts on a 2/2 weapon AND a 2/2 body all for one card is just not reasonable.
Mine:
So a question to you all; do you know what the Banish keyword does just by reading this card? If not, I'll probably have to go back to the drawing board.
Funny enough, my adventure idea is class weapon based. Maybe this idea from my adventure could be cool:
For those not in the know, Anathema/Benediction was an epic Priest staff from back in the day. You could transform between them. Anathema favored shadow builds while Benediction favored healing.
Here are the "Choose One" graphics:
Here are the Weapons themselves:
I really don't like Anathema simply because you make the card Shadowform kinda worthless.
@mtmckinley Neat overall concept, but Anathema is completely ridiculous. Shadowform's main problem is it's slow and card inefficient, but slapping two casts on a 2/2 weapon AND a 2/2 body all for one card is just not reasonable.
Mine:
So a question to you all; do you know what the Banish keyword does just by reading this card? If not, I'll probably have to go back to the drawing board.
I get it, but even if others don't, you could just steal the language Moat Lurker uses and it should still squeeze into four lines.
Feral Symbiote: First thing, why did you make a minion to give you the weapon rather than making the weapon as a stand-alone card ? Generating a weapon is cool if there are some effects associated with it (such as randomness of the weapon to take the most simple example) but here it is gratuitous. As for the weapon itself, I would go for the first one. The second is too complicated (besides ,numbers in parentheses always represent a mana cost or a mana cost discount which is not the cast here).
Blood of Mannoroth: The effect makes no sense, make another one or reformulate what you want to do because you don't stand a chance with this.
Grimore of Sacrifice: First thing, the effect is underpowered. No sane warlock (warlocks aren't supposed to be sane lore-wise but whatever) would pay 3 mana or sacrifice a friendly minion for a miserable point of spell damage (which is mostly useless right now for warlocks). Make it deal damage to a friendly character, or increase the spell damage or something like this. Second thing, I expect 0-attack non-weapons "when X happens, do Y and lose 1 Durability" to be all over the place so people will probably get rapidly annoyed by them. Just an expectation though, and maybe some will use this idea in an original way.
Detention Sphere: This weapon could simply be a spell "Choose a minion. It can't attack for 3 of your opponent's turns". Yes, such a spell does not currently exist but it could. There is no real reason for this to be a weapon since you don't really use it as a weapon. The effect itself is viable, but overcosted at 3 mana. 2 mana would be fine I think.
Nat's Lucky fishing Pole: I don't really like weapons that are just a weapon version of a minion but tbh this one is more interesting because it may actually make Nat Pagle's effect viable. I think it is cool and balanced but I don't know how it will fare in the competition. I don't know any cool art for a fishing pole.
Eris Havenfire: Same as above, there is no reason why the weapons can't be stand-alone (and choose one is a druid mechanic). As for the weapons, Benediction is kind of useless since high-cost minions are generally also high-attack so it can"t really be used to heal yourself (if that was the intent), it just somewhat limits the damage. I find Anathema, on the other hand, much more interesting because it serves an underdog archetype and like that (I may be the only one), though obviously it is undercosted as a stand-alone weapon. At 4 mana it would be find I think, it won't be as much of a tempo loss as the real Shadowform.
Lorthemar'Theron: As stated above, the weapon can"t be a paladin one (besides Lorthemar is a hunter lore-wise) and, one more time, no real reason for the weapon to not be stand-alone. The weapon would be OP for priests though (it is very nice for paladins, but sadly it does not follow the restrictions) so you should go for something else imo.
Nexus Prince Shaffar: Again, no real reason for this to not be a stand-alone weapon. Not to mention that the effect is OP! Nobody likes grinder/freeze mages and this will make it worse.
Ebonchill: The effect is cool but there probably will be tons of variations of this card so try to make it somewhat more original...or be the first to post it. Also it should be reworded as "freeze any minion damaged by this weapon" though, like Water Elemental. Also, try to find a better art.
Zeni'vun: Again, no real reason for this to not be a stand-alone weapon. Also the effect is OP and would make freeze/grinder mages even more cancerous than they are right now.
More generally, I think that minions that equips weapons that can perfectly exist as stand-alone weapons for no real reason or 0-attack non-weapons "do X and lose 1 Durability" won't be original and therefore won't receive lots of votes.
Feral Symbiote: First thing, why did you make a minion to give you the weapon rather than making the weapon as a stand-alone card ? Generating a weapon is cool if there are some effects associated with it (such as randomness of the weapon to take the most simple example) but here it is gratuitous. As for the weapon itself, I would go for the first one. The second is too complicated (besides ,numbers in parentheses always represent a mana cost or a mana cost discount which is not the cast here).
There are several reasons I didn't make the weapon collectible. First, getting it from a Deathrattle means you have less control over when you get the weapon, and also gives your opponent a head's up that this is coming out. This also justifies making a high attack, low health minion, which would be terrible without a good Deathrattle. It's also part of the lore here. My card is supposed to represent a creature that symbiotically combines with your hero to augment your attack. Just casting it as a weapon wouldn't make sense as a representation of that idea. I also just dislike the idea of making a collectible Druid weapon.
This is the Discussion Topic. The Submission Topic is here.
Competition Theme: Choose Your Weapon
This week's Card Design Competition Theme comes from RandomScribbles, whose Saintly Clairvoyant was the winner of our "Recent Events" competition.
Competition-Specific Restrictions:
Competition Process
Preview Phase (Starts Now! Ends 19:00 UTC 18/August/2016)
During this Phase, the Discussion Topic is made available, previewing this week's competition theme.
Entry and Early Voting Phase (Starts 19:00 UTC 18/August/2016, Ends 17:00 UTC 22/August/2016)
During this Phase, the Submission Topic is made available for your submissions. You may also, of course, feel free to give early up-votes to any submissions that you like!
Voting Phase (Starts 17:00 UTC 22/August/2016, Ends 17:00 UTC 23/August/2016)
During this Phase, the Submission Topic will be locked, so no more entries may be submitted. Instead, use this time to browse the submissions and up-vote your favorites!
Final Phase (Starts 18:00 UTC 23/August/2016, Ends 18:00 UTC 24/August/2016)
During this Phase, the Discussion Topic will also be locked, and a new Poll Topic will go up. Discussion will be allowed to continue in the Poll Topic, and it will also include all the qualifying finalists and poll to decide the winner of the competition!
Discussion Topic Rules
To make sure that everything runs smoothly, we need to reserve the Submission Topic for submissions only. Everything else goes here. What is everything else, you might ask?
All of that said, please refrain from the following:
So, without further ado, have fun and get creating!
inb4 200 priest weapons (including mine).
Are we allowed a simple custom keyword? I want to not write out "At the start of your turn, this loses a durability".
Here is my first idea. The card on the left is collectible. When it dies, it equips itself as your weapon. The weapon has no attack, but it improves your attack, as a Druid. You use it by attacking with your Hero Power, or a spell like Claw. I haven't decided what exactly I would want the weapon to do. The two different weapons shown are two possibilities I've come up with. I like the one on the left because Druid lacks hard removal. What do you think? Is 5 mana 4/2 too expensive?
Come Play Make the Keyword!!!
Check out my Worgen Class in the Class Competition
Are you looking for something like this:
Thoughts?
I just don't understand the card, Mmrmm. Where is the weapon? 'The weapon is the hero'?
Check here for my new cards!Pokemon HS class!All the Pokemon as HS cards!
Here are my first ideas :
Whispering Staff (priest) is here to help the silence priest archetype Blizzard seems to be wanting to create. Worded as it is, the silence happens before the attack, so it would kill a Silver Hand Recruit with Blessing of Kings for instance, and you won't take any damage. I chose this over the more elegant "silence any minion damaged by this weapon" since such a formulation would mean that the silence happens after the damage (which is generally useless).
Shooting Wand (mage) gives mages another source of unlimited ping (though you can't attack with it if you have no mana left). This one is cheaper that their hero power but it is a fair compensation to the fact that you take counter-attack damage with this ping. Yes, a shooting wand is supposed to be a ranged weapon but Rexxar takes damage when attacking with Eaglehorn Bow so I just ignored that.
Change of mind (priest) is a potentially very powerful card against both secret and weapon-based classes. You will immediately equip the copied secrets and weapon (with the missing durability if it was already used). Remember that it only copies, it does not steal (though I hesitated to make it steal but Entomb already makes tons of people salty so...). The "draw a card" part is not an n-th throwback to Purify but a way to avoid this card to be a dead weight against classes with neither secrets nor weapons (druid, warlock and priest) just like Flare does [Note: the rules does not say the weapon has to be custom, it just says it has to equip one].
Custom cards :
CLASSES : Alchemist (CCC#5 | Phase V) | Chef (CCC#4)
EXPANSIONS : Year of the Scorpion (Year Comp)
That is what I am going for.
Funny enough, my adventure idea is class weapon based. Maybe this idea from my adventure could be cool:
For those not in the know, Anathema/Benediction was an epic Priest staff from back in the day. You could transform between them. Anathema favored shadow builds while Benediction favored healing.
Here are the "Choose One" graphics:
Here are the Weapons themselves:
@mtmckinley Neat overall concept, but Anathema is completely ridiculous. Shadowform's main problem is it's slow and card inefficient, but slapping two casts on a 2/2 weapon AND a 2/2 body all for one card is just not reasonable.
Mine:
So a question to you all; do you know what the Banish keyword does just by reading this card? If not, I'll probably have to go back to the drawing board.
This is a neutral weapon for classes lacking card draw but it's very inconsistent. I'm looking for better art.
I could have this equipped from another famous Warcraft fisherman's Deathrattle.
Hey guys just wanted to know if the cost of Lor'themar was OK, wanted it to be powerful, and I noticed Blizz has been power creeping again...
Come Play Make the Keyword!!!
Check out my Worgen Class in the Class Competition
Here's what I'm thinking,
The staff drops from the Nexus-Prince and goes by the Name "Grand Scepter of the Nexus Kings."
Here is mine
People can finally play Shatter...
This is the weapon.
And this is the minion.
how much hearth could a hearthstone stone if a hearthstone could stone hearth
Comments on all the cards presented so far:
Feral Symbiote: First thing, why did you make a minion to give you the weapon rather than making the weapon as a stand-alone card ? Generating a weapon is cool if there are some effects associated with it (such as randomness of the weapon to take the most simple example) but here it is gratuitous. As for the weapon itself, I would go for the first one. The second is too complicated (besides ,numbers in parentheses always represent a mana cost or a mana cost discount which is not the cast here).
Blood of Mannoroth: The effect makes no sense, make another one or reformulate what you want to do because you don't stand a chance with this.
Grimore of Sacrifice: First thing, the effect is underpowered. No sane warlock (warlocks aren't supposed to be sane lore-wise but whatever) would pay 3 mana or sacrifice a friendly minion for a miserable point of spell damage (which is mostly useless right now for warlocks). Make it deal damage to a friendly character, or increase the spell damage or something like this. Second thing, I expect 0-attack non-weapons "when X happens, do Y and lose 1 Durability" to be all over the place so people will probably get rapidly annoyed by them. Just an expectation though, and maybe some will use this idea in an original way.
Detention Sphere: This weapon could simply be a spell "Choose a minion. It can't attack for 3 of your opponent's turns". Yes, such a spell does not currently exist but it could. There is no real reason for this to be a weapon since you don't really use it as a weapon. The effect itself is viable, but overcosted at 3 mana. 2 mana would be fine I think.
Nat's Lucky fishing Pole: I don't really like weapons that are just a weapon version of a minion but tbh this one is more interesting because it may actually make Nat Pagle's effect viable. I think it is cool and balanced but I don't know how it will fare in the competition. I don't know any cool art for a fishing pole.
Eris Havenfire: Same as above, there is no reason why the weapons can't be stand-alone (and choose one is a druid mechanic). As for the weapons, Benediction is kind of useless since high-cost minions are generally also high-attack so it can"t really be used to heal yourself (if that was the intent), it just somewhat limits the damage. I find Anathema, on the other hand, much more interesting because it serves an underdog archetype and like that (I may be the only one), though obviously it is undercosted as a stand-alone weapon. At 4 mana it would be find I think, it won't be as much of a tempo loss as the real Shadowform.
Lorthemar'Theron: As stated above, the weapon can"t be a paladin one (besides Lorthemar is a hunter lore-wise) and, one more time, no real reason for the weapon to not be stand-alone. The weapon would be OP for priests though (it is very nice for paladins, but sadly it does not follow the restrictions) so you should go for something else imo.
Nexus Prince Shaffar: Again, no real reason for this to not be a stand-alone weapon. Not to mention that the effect is OP! Nobody likes grinder/freeze mages and this will make it worse.
Ebonchill: The effect is cool but there probably will be tons of variations of this card so try to make it somewhat more original...or be the first to post it. Also it should be reworded as "freeze any minion damaged by this weapon" though, like Water Elemental. Also, try to find a better art.
Zeni'vun: Again, no real reason for this to not be a stand-alone weapon. Also the effect is OP and would make freeze/grinder mages even more cancerous than they are right now.
More generally, I think that minions that equips weapons that can perfectly exist as stand-alone weapons for no real reason or 0-attack non-weapons "do X and lose 1 Durability" won't be original and therefore won't receive lots of votes.
Custom cards :
CLASSES : Alchemist (CCC#5 | Phase V) | Chef (CCC#4)
EXPANSIONS : Year of the Scorpion (Year Comp)
There are several reasons I didn't make the weapon collectible. First, getting it from a Deathrattle means you have less control over when you get the weapon, and also gives your opponent a head's up that this is coming out. This also justifies making a high attack, low health minion, which would be terrible without a good Deathrattle. It's also part of the lore here. My card is supposed to represent a creature that symbiotically combines with your hero to augment your attack. Just casting it as a weapon wouldn't make sense as a representation of that idea. I also just dislike the idea of making a collectible Druid weapon.
Come Play Make the Keyword!!!
Check out my Worgen Class in the Class Competition