Your submission must have the following elements to be legal
Three cards for one of the proposed factions, consisting of a common, a rare and a legendary.
Since these cards would be inherently 'neutral' if this design were chosen, they must be minions, and they must use the neutral card background.
The factions, for reference, are broken down as follows
Death Knight - Paladin, Mage and Shaman
Monk - Warrior, Druid and Priest
Demon Hunter - Warlock, Rogue and Hunter
We have whittled down ~60 valid entries to just 8 of the community's favorites. Check out all the finalists below and vote in our poll (vote for as many or as few as you like) to help decide the winner and be sure to check back after the poll finishes for the announcement of the winner and the start of a new theme!
Monk - Sashashepto
So the theme is unspent mana because, you know, it's pretty 'zen'. Here's the Disciple token:
Monk - Asylum_Rhapsody
Monks have two simple gimmicks: 1) Giving your hero Attack bonuses in ways that have no been done in the past, specifically in ways where they last during your opponent's turn, meaning that anything that attacks your hero takes damage (I put these in parentheses on the card just to make sure that was clear). To my knowledge, this has not yet before been explored in Hearthstone, but I think it's simple and straightforward enough to be believable, and I also think it's a cool reflection of Monks' martial arts. 2) "Battlecry and Inspire". There are a few cards with "Battlecry and Deathrattle", but "Battlecry and Inspire" has yet to be done and could potentially redeem some Inspire mechanics by introducing more Inspire minions that do also have an immediate effect even if you can't use your Hero Power in the same turn. Plus, I think it fits thematically as a reflection of monastic spirituality.
I think that this is particularly interesting for this assortment of classes (Druid, Priest, and Warrior), because they're all ones that are more well known for their later-game control-oriented decks (the current anomalous aggro Warrior meta aside), so giving them attack bonuses that apply during the opponent's turn could give them some interesting anti-aggro options. Druid may finally see some use out of Savagery or similar effects, Priest gets some exciting new aggressive potential, and as with Heroic Strike Warrior will get to stack the bonus on to its weapons for added power.
Ji Firepaw in particular might raise some eyebrows, but consider that, by the time in the game that you get to play him, most of the aggro decks that the effect hurts the most have either already won or weren't going to anyway. Further, it's important to keep in mind that if you really want to have that additional Inspire effect guaranteed, it's a turn 9 play, and a turn 9 play that has little immediate impact on the board and produces an (at that point) only moderately strong body is risky, especially since most of the decks that do well against Druid/Priest/Warrior's late game aren't going to be extremely bothered by their big minions taking only a point or two of damage for attacking face.
Demon Hunter - Hauauftastatur
Well they all actually hunt a certain demon. And bring it with them, how handy. They are all able to kill that demon, but in that case they are not the best. All demons can be exploitet somehow... But im sure you find out yourself...
Monk - Broeck1
Mechanic: Swapping
Death Knight - CastorT
Oppressive Death Knight - Paladin Class Representative
There are 3 benefits: (1) Kill a friendly minion and trigger its eventual Deathrattle for free; (2) Keep the original copy in your deck; (3) Have a dead copy ready to be Discovered by your Liches.
If your deck has no more minions when you play an Oppressive Death Knight, you summon a Forbidden Sepulture.
Even better than a Lich who discovers dead minions: an Oppressive Death Knight who summons them directly!
Lich - Mage Class Representative
Go fishing with your Lich to Discover some dead minions (yours and your opponent's ones, chosen randomly). You will probably find your previously played minions Oppressive Death Knights and Ner'zhul who can't wait to use their Battlecry again.
If your opponent has less than 3 minions in their deck when you play Ner'zhul, the missing minions discovered are replaced by Unguarded Secrets cards.
As long as Ner'zhul comes back from the dead thanks to your Liches, you can exploit your opponent's deck and get Secrets when it runs out of minions. Some Secrets have very interesting synergies with those 3 faction cards (Getaway Kodo), and Deathrattle minions (Redemption).
Monk - CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkey
Warrior and Priest are two control classes that often reach fatigue. This is less frequent for Druid, but druid has resources to mill his opponent. Therefore, the general objective of my monk faction is to mill your opponent and put bad, Ambush!-like cards in their deck.
Hangover and Intoxication tokens:
Drunken Fighter, the standard tool for the general mill strategy of the class. The card is balanced around the Naturalize-Assassinate distinction which shows that drawing two cards for your opponent amounts to a 4-mana discount. They will likely have an answer to this in those two cards.
Alemaster is the standard "shuffle shit into your opponent's deck" card. It is a delayed 4 damage into face.
Chen Stormstout is the mill finisher. Its battlecry means that your opponent will take 15 damage upon reaching the end of his deck (which is accelerated by your cards) so they will likely die. Note that unlike "Hangover", "Intoxication" does not draw a card since that would necessarily be a fatigue one.
Death Knight - SWGolgoth
This faction is composed of Death Knights, undead, and other former Scourge agents and sympathizers that are... less than satisfied with the current management. Who put that orange guy in charge, anyway? So now they're unliving their undeath nowhere other than in the darkest corners of Gadgetzan. While not as numerous as the Grimy Goons, the Jade Lotus or the Kabal, their constant fighting keeps fueling the Scourgeous Beauties with new "recruits".
Needless to say, this faction's mechanics revolve around bringing people back from the dead. The below examples relate to minions only, but other cards could retrieve spells and weapons from beyond the grave.
Ebon Knight is not too good at raising the dead, but every bit of help counts. Both allied and enemy minions can be resurrected.
Keeper of Souls just follows on the tradition of other Gadgetzan tri-class Rares, providing a cross-class Discover option.
Gothik the Harvester can turn dead enemies against their former allies. Because that's how you take the streets.
Death Knight - ZardozSpeaks
(Frostmourne is a token only, not collectable, but marked legendary like the Ashbringer)
For this challenge, I wanted to make cards that would fit into existing deck archetypes, specifically Reno Mage, Freeze Mage, Mid-Range Shaman, Control Shaman, Dragon Paladin and N'zoth Paladin. Allowing these decks to get access to additional Freeze effects, they are able to excel at the control and attrition by slowing down your opponent or preventing trades and setting up lethal for your next turn.
Icecrown Juggernaut is my common card. It's a decently statted minion that might see play in any of these decks, assuming they have access to freeze effects. Nothing too fancy, it essentially casts the 0 mana spell Shatter when you play it.
Ancient Frostwyrm is my rare card. With only 12 Freeze cards in the current standard format, it's an extremely consistent Discover card. Interestingly, 10 of those Freeze cards come from mage, while there is a single shaman card and one neutral. You'll more often than not have a Frost Nova, Blizzard or Frostbolt to pick from, but will also likely see some underpowered cards like Ice Lance, Frost Shock, Freezing Potion orShatter. As a dragon it fits into Dragon Paladin, and as a 6 cost card it is purposefully difficult to combo with Reno Jackson.
Ner'zhul the Frozen King is obviously modeled on Tirion Fordring. A sticky Taunt minion that, even once removed, gives the player a powerful weapon. There are a lot of ways to play this card beyond using it as a big Taunt. Shaman's can hit it with an Earth Shock to remove it's Always Frozen condition, letting you attack with it. Any of the 3 classes could destroy it with the Icecrown Juggernaut to unexpectedly gain access to the Frostmourne during your turn. And if that N'Zoth, the Corruptor comes down, imagine reviving both Tirion and Ner'zhul.
Some nice runners. Looks like I'm not the only one who skipped this one, it did become a sorting nightmare. I don't mean any offence by that, but we already predicted what would happen.
Really like the difference in the Monk themes.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Check out my submission for this weeks card design competition; or my other fan creations! Nullius in verba
Out of curiousity, I did a little counting. When I first read the prompt, I made two assumptions: That Death Knight would be the most common submission and that there would be a lot of Illidan and Arthas cards. I assumed that we're all edge-lord supremes who like dark anti-heroes. Boy was I wrong!
there were 22 death knight, 19 demon hunter and 27 monk submissions. I expected monk to be the least popular choice.
Out of the 22 death knight submissions there were only 4 arthas cards and 2 lich king cards that don't specify which lich king they are (which is totally fine). There were 4 ner'zhul cards, and interestingly not all of them were "lich king" ner'zhul, some were his mortal orc incarnation. Out of 19 Demon hunter submissions, there were only 4 Illidan cards. This really surprised me, I was looking forward to seeing lots of variations on him.
Generally speaking, I think the monk submissions overall were of the highest quality, and it's no surprise to me that 4 of the 8 finalists are monks.
I, too, am surprised that there are "only" 3 DK finalists. I specifically avoided making a DK because I thought everyone would do so and people would be fed up. Turns out I did end up choosing the most popular faction lol.
I'm also surprised that non of the finalists picked the same legendary character.
IMO One reason why Monk was so popular is because of Monk's versatility and because a Monk's flavor can mean a lot of things unlike DK for example for which you're kinda limited to resurrect effects or deathrattle/freeze synergies if you want to keep the flavor.
Kudos to Zardoz and SWGolgoth for their custom icons which both look very good. Mine was made with simply paint and another software called Photofiltre.
It was a really fun competition to have three cards that had to fit together with a theme. I like a few mechanics so much that I ended up voting for three, I was unable to make a decision. Some cards that made it to the final were way too overpowered for me though, automatic rejection because of this.
Honestly, I really didn't like this card competition. It was hard enough to understand the competition's instructions (which were slightly vague), and all the top entries weren't that good. My votes go to Hauauftastatur's Demon Hunter (Holy Smite! thats a good name) and Asylum_Rhapsody's Monk for ACTUALLY FOLLOWING A CONCEPT. sorry for the bold and sodium chloride (aka Halite).
Sad that the finalists weren't given equal amounts. (Like 3 from each "faction"/class)
Kudos to Zardoz and SWGolgoth for their custom icons which both look very good. Mine was made with simply paint and another software called Photofiltre.
Thanks! I actually think your custom icon looks the best out of the 3. Simple, and the highlights look really good.
Sashapeto's Monk: I really like using unspent mana as a kind "zen" idea and that each minion interacts differently with it. Some of the wording is a little confusing though. The common is not a battlecry, does this happen every turn? Or just the first turn you play it? Is just your unspent crystals or your's and your opponent's? Also, I wish the legendary was a zero cost, so you could discover a wider range of high end minions. I know 8 cost has the best results (everyone uses Forbidden Shaping on 8 mana), but it'd be neat to give the full range.
Asylum_Rhapsody's Monk: I love this effect. When I first started hearthstone, I just assumed that weapons functioned defensively. I was thoroughly disappointed to learn my fiery war axe wouldn't cut down minions attacking me. While that effect would make weapons OP, the slow rate at which the Monk tri-class could gain this defensive attack would be limited enough. If this mechanic did make it into the game, I'd want some kind of counter option, beyond Violet Illusionist. (Pedantic discussion of exclamation points and syntax in the spoiler.)
But what I find strangest about these cards is the use of an exclamation point in the "Including during your enemy's turn!" As far as I can tell, no cards use an exclamation point in their card text, only in a few names like DOOM! [/card]and [card]Protect the King! Even more pedantic than the examination of exclamation points, you've used "enemy" instead of "opponent". Hearthstone uses both, inconsistently, but uses enemy more frequently. Never been able to figure out if there is a reason for the discrepancy, any insight?
Hauauftastatur's Demon Hunter: This is some really slick design. Summoning these "drawback" demons is a great concept for the Demon Hunter. While you could have made your own demon tokens, i like the repurposed cards. Akama is strangest of the three, and not the easiest to use. While it's underpriced, the easiest way to play it would be to immediately spend a removal spell or trade a minion into the Illidan. Alternatively, is there someway you can hide Akama behind a taunt, or conceal him, or do something that allows you to ignore the illidan? Of course you do so at your own risk, the flames of azinoth would pile up quickly. Great design for a legendary, it presents the player a problem which they have to try and minimize while not wasting card value. This is my favorite kind of card.
Broeck1's Monk: These are great cards, especially the common and rare. Swapping is a great mechanic to chose for your tri-class and I love all three of these. Swapping weapons is a hillarious idea, but maybe broken with Cursed Blade? I suppose it depends whether each player needs a weapon equipped. But man, this would be a killer control card against all of the current agro decks. The Panderan Lookout is also a great control card, I imagine using it to force a Doomsayer onto my opponent's side of the board. The legendary is probably not balanced, it'd be the ultimate combo when combined with Iceblock, though I bet a burgle rogue is the only deck that could pull that off.
CastorT's Deathknight: The ultimate deathrattle cards that don't have deathrattle? I'd love to experiment with these in a N'zoth Paladin or N'zoth Shaman deck. It'd be so tempting to toss in Brewmasters and Brann Bronzebeard, the deck would be a precarious balance of Deathrattle synergy and Battlecry synergy. This is a great design space to be in, instead of just making deathrattle better by adding more deathrattle, you're enticing players to experiment, to make brand new variants on the old deathrattle decks. I do wish these were Rogue/Paladin/Shaman cards, I can't see Mage getting much out of it. Some kind of goofy Anomalus deck or something?
CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkey's Monk: I like the Monk classes being built around a Mill strategy, but I don't know if these are balanced. It's certainly good they aren't available to rogue with Gang Up, All 3 cards support existing archetypes, super slow control warriors that win through fatigue, reno priests that run through a whole deck and Mill/Jade Mill Druids who can force these cards to be drawn. Mostly, I think the damage on the token spells is too high, especially when you consider shenanigans with Brann Bronzebeard and Brewmasters. If these were printed, Mill Druid would probably be a tier 1 meta defining deck, which probably isn't where Mill decks should be.
Swgolgoth's Deathknight: These are solid designs and your custom skull graphic is great. The common is nice, but unfortunately, I think CastorT's deathknight is just a superior version of the a very similar concept. But Gothik the Harvester is a balanced and well thought design, it could be a decent tempo card and could give decks one more "your opponent must destroy this minion or lose the game" kind of minions. In that sense its a "Dream" card, as in you can imagine insane situations that would be awesome, but most of the time it will just bait out a Hex or Siphon Soul or Assassinate or other hard removal. That said, it'd be an amazing arena card, yet still require some skill in knowing when to play it, rewarding patience and punishing greed.
My Death Knight: you can read my thoughts in spoiler in the first post.
My Favorite: Broeck1's Monk.These are just wonderful control cards that I'd love to see printed. They might need some balance tweaking, but the concept of swapping weapons, minions and life are simple and clear, a smart expansion of the iconic brewmaster mechanic. Great tech choices for control decks.
Other favorites: Hauauftastatur's Demon Hunter, CastorT's Death Knight.
Jade Lotus (the only non-boring MSoG faction) gave us a new keyword. I am disappointed at how few people tried to follow suit, and at how negatively people reacted to new keywords here. At least 1 in 3 should have a new keywords, IMO. None of these do.
That being said, I like Haufasaur's and Broeck1's the best.
Jade Lotus (the only non-boring MSoG faction) gave us a new keyword. I am disappointed at how few people tried to follow suit, and at how negatively people reacted to new keywords here. At least 1 in 3 should have a new keywords, IMO. None of these do.
That being said, I like Haufasaur's and Broeck1's the best.
I thought so too. Obviously I used one in my submission. But I am not too disappointed. This was a very fun competition for me considering it was exploring a concept I thought of independently a while back. I also hope to glean some of my favorite ideas about the other classes, develop the class cards and release the whole set with a custom adventure expansion.
I even have a name for it: "Revenge of the Forgotten"
Oh my god, this vote was soooooo close! As you can see, the top 3 are only one vote apart each, and there was TONS of swapping back and forte as to who was in the lead. O.O
Today in my free brawl pack I got Barongeddon, then I had a cup of fresh green tea. As a result of that, I think Priest is OP because my keyboard is not a mechanical one. I hope Blizzard will address this issue.
Wow! Super close results. I did not expect to do this well! Awesome. And congrats to Sashashepto, the unused crystal zen mechanic idea was very thematic.
This Week's Finalists
Competition-Specific Restrictions:
We have whittled down ~60 valid entries to just 8 of the community's favorites.
Check out all the finalists below and vote in our poll (vote for as many or as few as you like) to help decide the winner and be sure to check back after the poll finishes for the announcement of the winner and the start of a new theme!
Monk - Sashashepto
So the theme is unspent mana because, you know, it's pretty 'zen'. Here's the Disciple token:
Monk - Asylum_Rhapsody
Monks have two simple gimmicks:
1) Giving your hero Attack bonuses in ways that have no been done in the past, specifically in ways where they last during your opponent's turn, meaning that anything that attacks your hero takes damage (I put these in parentheses on the card just to make sure that was clear). To my knowledge, this has not yet before been explored in Hearthstone, but I think it's simple and straightforward enough to be believable, and I also think it's a cool reflection of Monks' martial arts.
2) "Battlecry and Inspire". There are a few cards with "Battlecry and Deathrattle", but "Battlecry and Inspire" has yet to be done and could potentially redeem some Inspire mechanics by introducing more Inspire minions that do also have an immediate effect even if you can't use your Hero Power in the same turn. Plus, I think it fits thematically as a reflection of monastic spirituality.
I think that this is particularly interesting for this assortment of classes (Druid, Priest, and Warrior), because they're all ones that are more well known for their later-game control-oriented decks (the current anomalous aggro Warrior meta aside), so giving them attack bonuses that apply during the opponent's turn could give them some interesting anti-aggro options. Druid may finally see some use out of Savagery or similar effects, Priest gets some exciting new aggressive potential, and as with Heroic Strike Warrior will get to stack the bonus on to its weapons for added power.
Ji Firepaw in particular might raise some eyebrows, but consider that, by the time in the game that you get to play him, most of the aggro decks that the effect hurts the most have either already won or weren't going to anyway. Further, it's important to keep in mind that if you really want to have that additional Inspire effect guaranteed, it's a turn 9 play, and a turn 9 play that has little immediate impact on the board and produces an (at that point) only moderately strong body is risky, especially since most of the decks that do well against Druid/Priest/Warrior's late game aren't going to be extremely bothered by their big minions taking only a point or two of damage for attacking face.
Demon Hunter - Hauauftastatur
Well they all actually hunt a certain demon. And bring it with them, how handy. They are all able to kill that demon, but in that case they are not the best. All demons can be exploitet somehow... But im sure you find out yourself...
Monk - Broeck1
Mechanic: Swapping
Death Knight - CastorT
Oppressive Death Knight - Paladin Class Representative
Kill copies of minions from your own deck. Great synergy with Deathrattle minions (Tirion Fordring, Anomalus, White Eyes, Aya Blackpaw, Deathwing, Dragonlord, Sylvanas Windrunner, Cairne Bloodhoof, Anubisath Sentinel, Twilight Summoner...).
There are 3 benefits:
(1) Kill a friendly minion and trigger its eventual Deathrattle for free;
(2) Keep the original copy in your deck;
(3) Have a dead copy ready to be Discovered by your Liches.
If your deck has no more minions when you play an Oppressive Death Knight, you summon a Forbidden Sepulture.
Even better than a Lich who discovers dead minions: an Oppressive Death Knight who summons them directly!
Lich - Mage Class Representative
Go fishing with your Lich to Discover some dead minions (yours and your opponent's ones, chosen randomly). You will probably find your previously played minions Oppressive Death Knights and Ner'zhul who can't wait to use their Battlecry again.
Summoned-dead minions are good not only for your Liches, but also for minions like Backroom Bouncer, Cult Master, Flesheating Ghoul, Knife Juggler...
If there are less than 3 dead minions when you play a Lich, the missing minions discovered are replaced by Lost Artifact cards.
If you succeed to play a Lich before 3 minions died, your hero can puts his/her hands on a free random weapon!
Ner'zhul - Shaman Class Representative
Unveil 3 minions from your opponent's deck to get a precious intel (opponent's strategy, key and tech minions...).
You also get the opportunity to add one of the discovered minions to the pool of dead minions. Your Liches will be glad to Discover it for you then.
When playing Ner'zhul, you might unveil Deathrattle minions from your opponent and trigger their effect for you (Savannah Highmane, Shifting Shade, Tomb Pillager, Darkshire Librarian...).
If your opponent has less than 3 minions in their deck when you play Ner'zhul, the missing minions discovered are replaced by Unguarded Secrets cards.
As long as Ner'zhul comes back from the dead thanks to your Liches, you can exploit your opponent's deck and get Secrets when it runs out of minions. Some Secrets have very interesting synergies with those 3 faction cards (Getaway Kodo), and Deathrattle minions (Redemption).
Monk - CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkey
Warrior and Priest are two control classes that often reach fatigue. This is less frequent for Druid, but druid has resources to mill his opponent. Therefore, the general objective of my monk faction is to mill your opponent and put bad, Ambush!-like cards in their deck.
Hangover and Intoxication tokens:
Drunken Fighter, the standard tool for the general mill strategy of the class. The card is balanced around the Naturalize-Assassinate distinction which shows that drawing two cards for your opponent amounts to a 4-mana discount. They will likely have an answer to this in those two cards.
Alemaster is the standard "shuffle shit into your opponent's deck" card. It is a delayed 4 damage into face.
Chen Stormstout is the mill finisher. Its battlecry means that your opponent will take 15 damage upon reaching the end of his deck (which is accelerated by your cards) so they will likely die. Note that unlike "Hangover", "Intoxication" does not draw a card since that would necessarily be a fatigue one.
Death Knight - SWGolgoth
This faction is composed of Death Knights, undead, and other former Scourge agents and sympathizers that are... less than satisfied with the current management. Who put that orange guy in charge, anyway? So now they're unliving their undeath nowhere other than in the darkest corners of Gadgetzan. While not as numerous as the Grimy Goons, the Jade Lotus or the Kabal, their constant fighting keeps fueling the Scourgeous Beauties with new "recruits".
Needless to say, this faction's mechanics revolve around bringing people back from the dead. The below examples relate to minions only, but other cards could retrieve spells and weapons from beyond the grave.
Ebon Knight is not too good at raising the dead, but every bit of help counts. Both allied and enemy minions can be resurrected.
Keeper of Souls just follows on the tradition of other Gadgetzan tri-class Rares, providing a cross-class Discover option.
Gothik the Harvester can turn dead enemies against their former allies. Because that's how you take the streets.
Death Knight - ZardozSpeaks
(Frostmourne is a token only, not collectable, but marked legendary like the Ashbringer)
For this challenge, I wanted to make cards that would fit into existing deck archetypes, specifically Reno Mage, Freeze Mage, Mid-Range Shaman, Control Shaman, Dragon Paladin and N'zoth Paladin. Allowing these decks to get access to additional Freeze effects, they are able to excel at the control and attrition by slowing down your opponent or preventing trades and setting up lethal for your next turn.
Icecrown Juggernaut is my common card. It's a decently statted minion that might see play in any of these decks, assuming they have access to freeze effects. Nothing too fancy, it essentially casts the 0 mana spell Shatter when you play it.
Ancient Frostwyrm is my rare card. With only 12 Freeze cards in the current standard format, it's an extremely consistent Discover card. Interestingly, 10 of those Freeze cards come from mage, while there is a single shaman card and one neutral. You'll more often than not have a Frost Nova, Blizzard or Frostbolt to pick from, but will also likely see some underpowered cards like Ice Lance, Frost Shock, Freezing Potion orShatter. As a dragon it fits into Dragon Paladin, and as a 6 cost card it is purposefully difficult to combo with Reno Jackson.
Ner'zhul the Frozen King is obviously modeled on Tirion Fordring. A sticky Taunt minion that, even once removed, gives the player a powerful weapon. There are a lot of ways to play this card beyond using it as a big Taunt. Shaman's can hit it with an Earth Shock to remove it's Always Frozen condition, letting you attack with it. Any of the 3 classes could destroy it with the Icecrown Juggernaut to unexpectedly gain access to the Frostmourne during your turn. And if that N'Zoth, the Corruptor comes down, imagine reviving both Tirion and Ner'zhul.
Oh ok I was scared for a sec that there'd be 20 entries here >_>
Some nice runners. Looks like I'm not the only one who skipped this one, it did become a sorting nightmare. I don't mean any offence by that, but we already predicted what would happen.
Really like the difference in the Monk themes.
Check out my submission for this weeks card design competition; or my other fan creations! Nullius in verba
Would have like to see at least 3 demon hunters make it. But I am biased lol
Out of curiousity, I did a little counting. When I first read the prompt, I made two assumptions: That Death Knight would be the most common submission and that there would be a lot of Illidan and Arthas cards. I assumed that we're all edge-lord supremes who like dark anti-heroes. Boy was I wrong!
there were 22 death knight, 19 demon hunter and 27 monk submissions. I expected monk to be the least popular choice.
Out of the 22 death knight submissions there were only 4 arthas cards and 2 lich king cards that don't specify which lich king they are (which is totally fine). There were 4 ner'zhul cards, and interestingly not all of them were "lich king" ner'zhul, some were his mortal orc incarnation. Out of 19 Demon hunter submissions, there were only 4 Illidan cards. This really surprised me, I was looking forward to seeing lots of variations on him.
Generally speaking, I think the monk submissions overall were of the highest quality, and it's no surprise to me that 4 of the 8 finalists are monks.
I, too, am surprised that there are "only" 3 DK finalists. I specifically avoided making a DK because I thought everyone would do so and people would be fed up. Turns out I did end up choosing the most popular faction lol.
I'm also surprised that non of the finalists picked the same legendary character.
IMO One reason why Monk was so popular is because of Monk's versatility and because a Monk's flavor can mean a lot of things unlike DK for example for which you're kinda limited to resurrect effects or deathrattle/freeze synergies if you want to keep the flavor.
Kudos to Zardoz and SWGolgoth for their custom icons which both look very good. Mine was made with simply paint and another software called Photofiltre.
Custom cards :
CLASSES : Alchemist (CCC#5 | Phase V) | Chef (CCC#4)
EXPANSIONS : Year of the Scorpion (Year Comp)
It was a really fun competition to have three cards that had to fit together with a theme. I like a few mechanics so much that I ended up voting for three, I was unable to make a decision. Some cards that made it to the final were way too overpowered for me though, automatic rejection because of this.
All quite underwhelming. Death Knight with Lich is probably the best one
Honestly, I really didn't like this card competition. It was hard enough to understand the competition's instructions (which were slightly vague), and all the top entries weren't that good. My votes go to Hauauftastatur's Demon Hunter (Holy Smite! thats a good name) and Asylum_Rhapsody's Monk for ACTUALLY FOLLOWING A CONCEPT. sorry for the bold and sodium chloride (aka Halite).
Sad that the finalists weren't given equal amounts. (Like 3 from each "faction"/class)
Wished to be pink.
Then did.
Then fired myself.
Then did again.
But what I find strangest about these cards is the use of an exclamation point in the "Including during your enemy's turn!" As far as I can tell, no cards use an exclamation point in their card text, only in a few names like DOOM! [/card]and [card]Protect the King! Even more pedantic than the examination of exclamation points, you've used "enemy" instead of "opponent". Hearthstone uses both, inconsistently, but uses enemy more frequently. Never been able to figure out if there is a reason for the discrepancy, any insight?
Hauauftastatur's Demon Hunter: This is some really slick design. Summoning these "drawback" demons is a great concept for the Demon Hunter. While you could have made your own demon tokens, i like the repurposed cards. Akama is strangest of the three, and not the easiest to use. While it's underpriced, the easiest way to play it would be to immediately spend a removal spell or trade a minion into the Illidan. Alternatively, is there someway you can hide Akama behind a taunt, or conceal him, or do something that allows you to ignore the illidan? Of course you do so at your own risk, the flames of azinoth would pile up quickly. Great design for a legendary, it presents the player a problem which they have to try and minimize while not wasting card value. This is my favorite kind of card.
Broeck1's Monk: These are great cards, especially the common and rare. Swapping is a great mechanic to chose for your tri-class and I love all three of these. Swapping weapons is a hillarious idea, but maybe broken with Cursed Blade? I suppose it depends whether each player needs a weapon equipped. But man, this would be a killer control card against all of the current agro decks. The Panderan Lookout is also a great control card, I imagine using it to force a Doomsayer onto my opponent's side of the board. The legendary is probably not balanced, it'd be the ultimate combo when combined with Iceblock, though I bet a burgle rogue is the only deck that could pull that off.
CastorT's Deathknight: The ultimate deathrattle cards that don't have deathrattle? I'd love to experiment with these in a N'zoth Paladin or N'zoth Shaman deck. It'd be so tempting to toss in Brewmasters and Brann Bronzebeard, the deck would be a precarious balance of Deathrattle synergy and Battlecry synergy. This is a great design space to be in, instead of just making deathrattle better by adding more deathrattle, you're enticing players to experiment, to make brand new variants on the old deathrattle decks. I do wish these were Rogue/Paladin/Shaman cards, I can't see Mage getting much out of it. Some kind of goofy Anomalus deck or something?
CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkey's Monk: I like the Monk classes being built around a Mill strategy, but I don't know if these are balanced. It's certainly good they aren't available to rogue with Gang Up, All 3 cards support existing archetypes, super slow control warriors that win through fatigue, reno priests that run through a whole deck and Mill/Jade Mill Druids who can force these cards to be drawn. Mostly, I think the damage on the token spells is too high, especially when you consider shenanigans with Brann Bronzebeard and Brewmasters. If these were printed, Mill Druid would probably be a tier 1 meta defining deck, which probably isn't where Mill decks should be.
Swgolgoth's Deathknight: These are solid designs and your custom skull graphic is great. The common is nice, but unfortunately, I think CastorT's deathknight is just a superior version of the a very similar concept. But Gothik the Harvester is a balanced and well thought design, it could be a decent tempo card and could give decks one more "your opponent must destroy this minion or lose the game" kind of minions. In that sense its a "Dream" card, as in you can imagine insane situations that would be awesome, but most of the time it will just bait out a Hex or Siphon Soul or Assassinate or other hard removal. That said, it'd be an amazing arena card, yet still require some skill in knowing when to play it, rewarding patience and punishing greed.
My Death Knight: you can read my thoughts in spoiler in the first post.
My Favorite: Broeck1's Monk. These are just wonderful control cards that I'd love to see printed. They might need some balance tweaking, but the concept of swapping weapons, minions and life are simple and clear, a smart expansion of the iconic brewmaster mechanic. Great tech choices for control decks.
Other favorites: Hauauftastatur's Demon Hunter, CastorT's Death Knight.
Jade Lotus (the only non-boring MSoG faction) gave us a new keyword. I am disappointed at how few people tried to follow suit, and at how negatively people reacted to new keywords here. At least 1 in 3 should have a new keywords, IMO. None of these do.
That being said, I like Haufasaur's and Broeck1's the best.
Come Play Make the Keyword!!!
Check out my Worgen Class in the Class Competition
I thought so too. Obviously I used one in my submission. But I am not too disappointed. This was a very fun competition for me considering it was exploring a concept I thought of independently a while back. I also hope to glean some of my favorite ideas about the other classes, develop the class cards and release the whole set with a custom adventure expansion.
I even have a name for it: "Revenge of the Forgotten"
That Demon Hunter is amazing!
THERE IS NO GAME.
Oh wow!!! A bit unexpected, but very appreciated nonetheless.
Check here for my new cards!Pokemon HS class!All the Pokemon as HS cards!
Oh my god, this vote was soooooo close! As you can see, the top 3 are only one vote apart each, and there was TONS of swapping back and forte as to who was in the lead. O.O
Well, that was extremely close, congratulations sashashepto! The new competition discussion is up now as well, so go check that out.
You can find me here! Good luck everyone!
Man, I almost wish there was a tie so I could saunter in and be like "Hey, I know how to do the tie breaker." Anyway. congrats sashashepto
RedneckBudha
#gNOmeferatu
Wow! Super close results. I did not expect to do this well! Awesome. And congrats to Sashashepto, the unused crystal zen mechanic idea was very thematic.
Wow that was close... though to be fair this was a hard week for designing cards, so just getting to the finals was a challenge on its own.
However that said, nice win sashashepto, as well as to CastorT and ZardozSpeaks who were so close to the top.
My Entry for this week's Card Design Competition - Season 8.16: