I have submitted this to the Weekly Design Competition, but a mod deleted the text I wrote to give my take on the balancing of this card. Therefor I'm resubmitting all info here so that people that are interested can read it. I hope that's fine!
Lore: Neltharaku is the patriarch of the Netherwing dragonflight (Netherdragons, Netherdrakes and Nether Whelps belong to that dragonflight) in WoW. They feed on mana and magic and for example patrol the Twisting Nether for nourishment. That's why I made this card counter spells and gain stats for every spell countered so it's like he consumes them to become stronger.
Balance: It's got a 5/6 body which is 1 health less than the, according to me, underpowered Toshley. He costs 6 mana. 5/6 stats is worth about 5 mana on a non-legendary minion. This minion of course has Dragon synergy, but Toshley got Spare Part synergy which can also be favourable. If we compare it to Loatheb it got 1 more health but costs 3 more mana. This of course has a better effect, but that's to be expected for something that is quite alot more expensive. Loatheb can be hard to deal with in turn 5 without spells, but this should not be that big of a problem turn 8+ as it's stats are pretty far below curve.
6 health isn't that much and turn 8+ some of your minions should be able to attack it and survive. Also, if you play against this you can buff it with a cheap spell and then use BGH. And remember, this counters your own spells aswell which can be very bad. Sure, it gets a buff but I'd rather deal 6 damage with a Fireball than give a minion +2/+2 except in very rare cases.
Last words: Please vote for a lore friendly AND unique card (have you ever seen something like this?)! This card would make Dragon decks stronger because you would avoid annoying lethals like 2x Kill Command, Bloodlust etc with this on the board. It could help the game slow down a bit so your larger minions like Ysera really gives you an advantage instead of one Dream Card (after this Neltharaku has been killed of course as the Dream Cards are spells). Enjoy and don't forget to vote for it ;)
Edit: It seems like I have to justify the balance of my card. 16-17 stats is the vanilla amount for an 8 mana creature. This has 5-6 stats less than that, a great deal less. This is a late game minion that can pretty easily be killed because of it's quite low health. If you can't deal 6 damage without spells in turn 8+ then you probably have some problems.
Sure, this can be buffed by Spare Parts etc by the person using it. But wouldn't you rather fill your hand with Fireballs by using Antonidas? I can't see mages using this because of that and also because it ruins their way to use other spells. Let's say this was in-game, it might prove to be OP, what do we know? But as it's stats are so low, I think it's balanced and it needs play testing for any of us to find out the truth. Also, if a card like the Emperor isn't OP, why is this? It's a legendary for 8 mana, it's allowed to be good!
And even if you think it's OP, vote for the idea, effect and effort this took me (coming up with ideas, reading lore, making cards, finding art, fixing card text etc took me like 3 hours I think if not more). This minion is actually imaginative and that's something this competition needs because alot of cards submitted each week are quite boring. Also this minion is not meant to be buffed to the extreme, it's meant to protect your big guys like Ysera so that your opponent actually has to do somehing else than Polymorph, Hex etc. I think that would lead to more fun games because destructive spells like that are boring. And remember, this card is very susceptible to silence. Think of this like Loatheb with an ongoing effect for BOTH players. When Loatheb hits the field you will probably not use any spells so I think it's a fair comparison. However this is quite alot more expensive than Loatheb and therefor should be more powerful.
The card itself is nice and you seem to have thought about it a lot in terms of balancing but i'm not that huge of a fan of it.
A lot of people seem to dislike hard counters and i'm actually not one of those people i like the idea of counters but this card is very restrictive and does not leave much room for interaction and the problem i have with the card is that the reason for that is it's very basic concept the ability to deny your opponent any form of spells.
I think the buff effect is pretty unnecessary, countering spells is a very strong effect and has only been printed one time so far so that should be enough of an upside in itself and there is no need to attach an potentially abusable mechanic to the already strong effect and i don't really see why that would be needed.
Regardless of that i don't actually think it's overpowered. If this were to put in the game right now it would be completely fine, wouldn't break anything and maybe wouldn't even see that much play because it still remains pretty slow all i'm saying is that i would hate to see this card being dropped just because of it's non interactive nature.
Thanks!
Okay, I can understand that. I know myself how annoying Loatheb is turn 5. However, this card is more a counter to annoying lethals and to protect your board from annoying destructive spells (Polymorph, Hex). When I played HS today with a weird Combowarlock I did a good job and could really withstand the power of the Ramp Druid I was meeting. However he played FoN+Roar+Innervate+Roar and killed me in one turn even though I had more than 20 life. Such stuff is just so awfully boring and limits your options because if there is the possibility of a FoN+Roar combo, you really have to keep whatever taunts, DoAs and Sunfuries till the end. That if something is restrictive. Or that you have to keep a Hunter's board clean of beasts so he can't use 2x Kill Command to kill you. So I understand if it might seem restrictive, but I think it could open up more fun interactions than lethals that make you really salty or destructive spells which destroys your fun minons easily.
Also, the buff effect is more for flavour. And it gives your opponent the possibility to to buff it and then BGH so I actually consider it a disadvantage. The only spells you yourself would use to buff this is bad spells, and it's quite a big investment to include bad spells to give a minion +2/+2. I would not even use a Power Word: Shield to buff this as I rather use it early game on Clerics to get a good card draw going. Sure, Spare Parts could make this a monster, but it's much better to use them on Antonidas. Other classes don't really use Spare Parts to a big extent, right?
Thanks for your comments ^^ But I hope this posts can make you reconsider your opinion :P
I have submitted this to the Weekly Design Competition, but a mod deleted the text I wrote to give my take on the balancing of this card. Therefor I'm resubmitting all info here so that people that are interested can read it. I hope that's fine!
Lore: Neltharaku is the patriarch of the Netherwing dragonflight (Netherdragons, Netherdrakes and Nether Whelps belong to that dragonflight) in WoW. They feed on mana and magic and for example patrol the Twisting Nether for nourishment. That's why I made this card counter spells and gain stats for every spell countered so it's like he consumes them to become stronger.
Balance: It's got a 5/6 body which is 1 health less than the, according to me, underpowered Toshley. He costs 6 mana. 5/6 stats is worth about 5 mana on a non-legendary minion. This minion of course has Dragon synergy, but Toshley got Spare Part synergy which can also be favourable. If we compare it to Loatheb it got 1 more health but costs 3 more mana. This of course has a better effect, but that's to be expected for something that is quite alot more expensive. Loatheb can be hard to deal with in turn 5 without spells, but this should not be that big of a problem turn 8+ as it's stats are pretty far below curve.
6 health isn't that much and turn 8+ some of your minions should be able to attack it and survive. Also, if you play against this you can buff it with a cheap spell and then use BGH. And remember, this counters your own spells aswell which can be very bad. Sure, it gets a buff but I'd rather deal 6 damage with a Fireball than give a minion +2/+2 except in very rare cases.
Last words: Please vote for a lore friendly AND unique card (have you ever seen something like this?)! This card would make Dragon decks stronger because you would avoid annoying lethals like 2x Kill Command, Bloodlust etc with this on the board. It could help the game slow down a bit so your larger minions like Ysera really gives you an advantage instead of one Dream Card (after this Neltharaku has been killed of course as the Dream Cards are spells). Enjoy and don't forget to vote for it ;)
Edit: It seems like I have to justify the balance of my card. 16-17 stats is the vanilla amount for an 8 mana creature. This has 5-6 stats less than that, a great deal less. This is a late game minion that can pretty easily be killed because of it's quite low health. If you can't deal 6 damage without spells in turn 8+ then you probably have some problems.
Sure, this can be buffed by Spare Parts etc by the person using it. But wouldn't you rather fill your hand with Fireballs by using Antonidas? I can't see mages using this because of that and also because it ruins their way to use other spells. Let's say this was in-game, it might prove to be OP, what do we know? But as it's stats are so low, I think it's balanced and it needs play testing for any of us to find out the truth. Also, if a card like the Emperor isn't OP, why is this? It's a legendary for 8 mana, it's allowed to be good!
And even if you think it's OP, vote for the idea, effect and effort this took me (coming up with ideas, reading lore, making cards, finding art, fixing card text etc took me like 3 hours I think if not more). This minion is actually imaginative and that's something this competition needs because alot of cards submitted each week are quite boring. Also this minion is not meant to be buffed to the extreme, it's meant to protect your big guys like Ysera so that your opponent actually has to do somehing else than Polymorph, Hex etc. I think that would lead to more fun games because destructive spells like that are boring. And remember, this card is very susceptible to silence. Think of this like Loatheb with an ongoing effect for BOTH players. When Loatheb hits the field you will probably not use any spells so I think it's a fair comparison. However this is quite alot more expensive than Loatheb and therefor should be more powerful.
If you wanna give feedback that's fine ^^ And I'm up for discussing the balance.
Thanks!
Okay, I can understand that. I know myself how annoying Loatheb is turn 5. However, this card is more a counter to annoying lethals and to protect your board from annoying destructive spells (Polymorph, Hex). When I played HS today with a weird Combowarlock I did a good job and could really withstand the power of the Ramp Druid I was meeting. However he played FoN+Roar+Innervate+Roar and killed me in one turn even though I had more than 20 life. Such stuff is just so awfully boring and limits your options because if there is the possibility of a FoN+Roar combo, you really have to keep whatever taunts, DoAs and Sunfuries till the end. That if something is restrictive. Or that you have to keep a Hunter's board clean of beasts so he can't use 2x Kill Command to kill you. So I understand if it might seem restrictive, but I think it could open up more fun interactions than lethals that make you really salty or destructive spells which destroys your fun minons easily.
Also, the buff effect is more for flavour. And it gives your opponent the possibility to to buff it and then BGH so I actually consider it a disadvantage. The only spells you yourself would use to buff this is bad spells, and it's quite a big investment to include bad spells to give a minion +2/+2. I would not even use a Power Word: Shield to buff this as I rather use it early game on Clerics to get a good card draw going. Sure, Spare Parts could make this a monster, but it's much better to use them on Antonidas. Other classes don't really use Spare Parts to a big extent, right?
Thanks for your comments ^^ But I hope this posts can make you reconsider your opinion :P
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