So, I have no idea how to make a private thread but I'm gonna use this as a template for making my cards. You can read it I guess, but it's just gonna be here my own personal reference :P.
The 12 Key Aspects of a Card
Balance: Are your stats balanced compared to other cards? Is your card too powerful in some situations and too weak in others?
Innovation: Is your card unique and/or new? Is your idea interesting?
Flavour: Does this card depict a certain image or idea? Does the art match the card text? Is there a story to be told here?
Practicality: Basically, how will this be implemented in the game? Can the UI handle this card? Is this card easily grasped by new players? Will this break any game mechanics or coding?
Interactivity: Can your opponent interact with this card? Will your opponent be upset by this card? Does this card have a weakness?
Use: Can this card be used in an existing deck? Will this card create a new type of deck to form? What type of archetype will this be used in? How will this affect the meta?
Fun/Preference: Pretty self-explanatory. Is your card fun to play? Is your card gonna be used by Timmys, Jimmys, and/or Spikes?
Skill: Does your card require skill to play? Are there certain choices here that will change the outcome of the game? Or is it just a card that you play withot thought?
RNG: Does this card have too much RNG? Or does it have the right amount?
Design Space: Does this card prevent certain future cards from being created?
Potential Combos: Does this card have a lot of potential with other cards? What cool combos can be made with other cards? Are these combos too broken?
Simplicity vs. Complexity: Simplicity > Complexity. Is card complex enough to be interesting? Is your card simple enough to be considered as a realistic Hearthstone card?
Class Identity
Mage (MTG equivalent: Izzet)
Spell Synergy
Spell Damage
3 mana Secrets
Elementals
Burst/damage spells
Utility/Miscellaneous Spells
Freeze
Good AoE
Good Hard Removal
Moderate Card Draw
Shaman (MTG equivalent: Simic)
Totems
Overload
Elementals
Jack-of-all-trades
Burst/Damage Spells
Murlocs.
RNG-based Damage spells
Good AoE
Good Hard Removal
Windfury
Warlock (MTG equivalent: Rakdos)
Powerful cards with drawbacks
Discard
Self-inflicting damage
Board Wipes
Demons
Token Spawning
Priest (MTG equivalent: Orzhov)
Spells
Elementals
Aggro Shadow cards
Healing
Buffing (mostly Health)
Attack-based Removal
Dragons
Silence
Stealing cards from your opponent's deck
Deathrattle
Paladin (MTG equivalent: Azorius)
Silver Hand Recruits/Tokens
Divine Shield
Buffs
1 mana Secrets
Self-healing
Attack/Health Changing Cards, mostly setting Attack/Health to 1
Dragons
Murlocs
Warrior (MTG equivalent: Boros)
Pirates
Weapons
Enrage
1 Damage Dealing Cards
Taunt
Armor
Charge
Rogue (MTG equivalent: Dimir)
Weapons
Combos
Cheap cards, usually spells
Good Heard Removal
Stealth
Bounce spells
Druid (MTG equivalent: Selesnya)
Tokens
Mana Ramping
Choose One
Shapeshifting (Attacking with Hero without weapon)
Beast Synergy
Cheap but Weak Damage Spells
Cheap Hard Removal with Drawback
Hunter (MTG equivalent: Gruul)
Beasts
Spells
1-cost minions
2 mana secrets
Deathrattle
Neutral (MTG equivalent: Golgari)
Based on expansion
Tribal
Deathrattle and Battlecry
Types of Players
Timmy: Likes big, fun cards with "wacky" effects.
Jimmy: Likes deckbuilding, playing strange combos, and wining in the coolest way possible.
Spike: Wants to win. Period
Archetype
Aggro: Rush your opponent down to zero Health. Usually a SMOrcing strategy. Pays no attention to card advantage or Health of your hero.
Control: Stall and survive. Make minion trades and keep card advantage. Gradually wittle your opponent's Health to one as you play more powerful cards.
Combo: Stall until you can execute a powerful series of cards that create a combo that wins you the game.
Tempo: Try and have a greater amount of tempo. Control early game and keep it. Usually a mix of Aggro and Control
Midrange: Moderate between Aggro and Control. Not too small or large cards. Balance between attacking your opponent and maintaining board control.
Ramp: Try to gain as much mana as possible in order to play larger minions.
Hijinx: Has no intention of winning. Usually has a "jimmick" (e.g. all rare cards). Mostly for fun.
Typical Rarity Effects
Common: Very simplistic, basic effects. Not very powerful. Backbone of deck.
Rare: Slightly more powerful effects with more deck defining mechanics.
Epic: Strange, elaborate effects. Usually much more powerful in certain conditions.
Good to read it, just a quick question if you dont mind: how do you balance your mana - stats? I remembered when I just started playing in 2014 the following rule: if you have a 5 cost minion you multiply the cost by 2 and the outcome is the number of stats to divide. So you have 10 stats to divide, for example a 5/5 or a 4/6 or a 3/7 etc. (so a 6 cost minion gives you 12 stats, a 7 cost minion 14 stats and so) Regular keywords such as taunt - stealth - charge etc. cost about 1 - 2 mana (charge is more expensive than stealth so there is a small difference).
But now with so many cards and expansions I do not know how to calculate it anymore. Is there an exact rule for this now?
Good to read it, just a quick question if you dont mind: how do you balance your mana - stats? I remembered when I just started playing in 2014 the following rule: if you have a 5 cost minion you multiply the cost by 2 and the outcome is the number of stats to divide. So you have 10 stats to divide, for example a 5/5 or a 4/6 or a 3/7 etc. (so a 6 cost minion gives you 12 stats, a 7 cost minion 14 stats and so) Regular keywords such as taunt - stealth - charge etc. cost about 1 - 2 mana (charge is more expensive than stealth so there is a small difference).
But now with so many cards and expansions I do not know how to calculate it anymore. Is there an exact rule for this now?
The short answer is that the card-cost-times-2 formula is the still the best rule of thumb for 'amateur' card designers. The longer answer is, a systematic linear equation comparison model is used. In this model, all cards with similar effects are stat compared vs. each other to balance any new card's cost. The underlying theory with this model is that each aspect of a card will have a stable mana cost which is relative to the pool of cards with that feature. For example, the value of of a straight card draw will always equal X mana.
In practice, however, the truth is that many actual cards are imbalanced, unfair and purposely so. The first 'controversial' card like this was Dr. Boom, and another in current play is Kabal Talonpriest. So designing a card is more of an 'art' than a perfect equation.
for what it's worth.
Ok thanks for the short and the long answer, lol!!!
Good to read it, just a quick question if you dont mind: how do you balance your mana - stats? I remembered when I just started playing in 2014 the following rule: if you have a 5 cost minion you multiply the cost by 2 and the outcome is the number of stats to divide. So you have 10 stats to divide, for example a 5/5 or a 4/6 or a 3/7 etc. (so a 6 cost minion gives you 12 stats, a 7 cost minion 14 stats and so) Regular keywords such as taunt - stealth - charge etc. cost about 1 - 2 mana (charge is more expensive than stealth so there is a small difference).
But now with so many cards and expansions I do not know how to calculate it anymore. Is there an exact rule for this now?
When I first started designing I went by those numerical formulas, but as I got better over time I realized that they were pretty restrictive. Now I mainly use numbers as a quick check to see if a card is balanced, but you shouldn't entirely determine balance strictly by formulas. There are plenty of cards that are numerically overpowered or underpowered that turn out to be balanced in practice. The best way to balance cards is to get a general feel how good they are in a typical game scenario, and of course by comparing them to simple cards.
Here are the most common rules that I still use:
A vanilla minion costing x mana has 2x+1 stats.
A 1-cost minion gets 3 stats, and every increment of 1 mana from that point on is worth 2 stats. Therefore, if you're comparing one minion to another, you should look at it as 1 mana is worth +1/+1.
Taunt and Stealth are both worth between .5 mana and 1 mana, charge's cost is based on the attack of the minion so there's no good rule for it.
A spell that costs x mana can deal x+1 damage.
A 1-cost spell deals 2 damage, and every increment of 1 mana from that point on is worth 2 stats. Therefore, if you're comparing one damaging spell to another, you should look at it as 1 mana is worth +1 damage. (Remember that mage spells are OP since mage's themes include having purely powerful spells, which is why fireball and flamestrike cost (1) less than what they might normally.)
A spell that costs x mana can deal x/2 damage to all enemies/enemy minions. We see this rule in Arcane Explosion (2/2 = 1), Consecreate (4/2 = 2), Lightning Storm (5/2 = 2.5, hence 2-3), Flamestrike (Should cost 8 = 8/2 = 4). Hence, "Deal 3 damage to all enemies/enemy minions" would cost about 6 mana. Whether or not your spell hits the enemy hero should depend on the flavor of the card, the class, and whether the card you're trying to design should be especially powerful.
Good to read it, just a quick question if you dont mind: how do you balance your mana - stats? I remembered when I just started playing in 2014 the following rule: if you have a 5 cost minion you multiply the cost by 2 and the outcome is the number of stats to divide. So you have 10 stats to divide, for example a 5/5 or a 4/6 or a 3/7 etc. (so a 6 cost minion gives you 12 stats, a 7 cost minion 14 stats and so) Regular keywords such as taunt - stealth - charge etc. cost about 1 - 2 mana (charge is more expensive than stealth so there is a small difference).
But now with so many cards and expansions I do not know how to calculate it anymore. Is there an exact rule for this now?
When I first started designing I went by those numerical formulas, but as I got better over time I realized that they were pretty restrictive. Now I mainly use numbers as a quick check to see if a card is balanced, but you shouldn't entirely determine balance strictly by formulas. There are plenty of cards that are numerically overpowered or underpowered that turn out to be balanced in practice. The best way to balance cards is to get a general feel how good they are in a typical game scenario, and of course by comparing them to simple cards.
Here are the most common rules that I still use:
A vanilla minion costing x mana has 2x+1 stats.
A 1-cost minion gets 3 stats, and every increment of 1 mana from that point on is worth 2 stats. Therefore, if you're comparing one minion to another, you should look at it as 1 mana is worth +1/+1.
Taunt and Stealth are both worth between .5 mana and 1 mana, charge's cost is based on the attack of the minion so there's no good rule for it.
A spell that costs x mana can deal x+1 damage.
A 1-cost spell deals 2 damage, and every increment of 1 mana from that point on is worth 2 stats. Therefore, if you're comparing one damaging spell to another, you should look at it as 1 mana is worth +1 damage. (Remember that mage spells are OP since mage's themes include having purely powerful spells, which is why fireball and flamestrike cost (1) less than what they might normally.)
A spell that costs x mana can deal x/2 damage to all enemies/enemy minions. We see this rule in Arcane Explosion (2/2 = 1), Consecreate (4/2 = 2), Lightning Storm (5/2 = 2.5, hence 2-3), Flamestrike (Should cost 8 = 8/2 = 4). Hence, "Deal 3 damage to all enemies/enemy minions" would cost about 6 mana. Whether or not your spell hits the enemy hero should depend on the flavor of the card, the class, and whether the card you're trying to design should be especially powerful.
Very helpful information. I hope we are not spamming Cogito_Ergo_Sum's topic too much.
Testing Grounds:
Presenting Our Legendary Champions!
So, I have no idea how to make a private thread but I'm gonna use this as a template for making my cards. You can read it I guess, but it's just gonna be here my own personal reference :P.
The 12 Key Aspects of a Card
Class Identity
Mage (MTG equivalent: Izzet)
Shaman (MTG equivalent: Simic)
Warlock (MTG equivalent: Rakdos)
Priest (MTG equivalent: Orzhov)
Paladin (MTG equivalent: Azorius)
Warrior (MTG equivalent: Boros)
Rogue (MTG equivalent: Dimir)
Druid (MTG equivalent: Selesnya)
Hunter (MTG equivalent: Gruul)
Neutral (MTG equivalent: Golgari)
Types of Players
Archetype
Typical Rarity Effects
Good to read it, just a quick question if you dont mind: how do you balance your mana - stats? I remembered when I just started playing in 2014 the following rule: if you have a 5 cost minion you multiply the cost by 2 and the outcome is the number of stats to divide. So you have 10 stats to divide, for example a 5/5 or a 4/6 or a 3/7 etc. (so a 6 cost minion gives you 12 stats, a 7 cost minion 14 stats and so) Regular keywords such as taunt - stealth - charge etc. cost about 1 - 2 mana (charge is more expensive than stealth so there is a small difference).
But now with so many cards and expansions I do not know how to calculate it anymore. Is there an exact rule for this now?
Pretty cool relation between MTG Guilds and Heroes. Good job.