Hearthpwn

Quote from Samswize >>

The Lich Class

 

Hello, hello! Welcome to my Lich class entry, which is absolutely not a Death Knight class in disguise! ...Seriously. It's not. It's not a DK class. Please understand.

Moving on - The Lich is a very minion-focused class. Whether it summons masses of small, easily removable minions, or singular large ones that can be almost impossible to take down, the Lich can do it all. It supports this playstyle with a variety of AoE damage, single target removal, sacrificial effects, self-healing, and a whole lot of value.

 And, as fitting for a Lich, the class has a special keyword: Sacrifice!

"But Mr. Samswize, doesn't this effect already exist in-ga"
Yes.
Yes it is.

Anyways, Sacrifice is quite self-explanatory - sacrifice a minion to benefit your others. It DOES NOT trigger off of itself, as some people like to believe. This effect works quite well with some Lich cards.

Speaking of Lich cards, let's take a look at the special 5!

This isn't a DK class I hope you all enjoyed this pile of garbage, feedback and questions are... the point of the comp. So... uh...

                                     

                                                                

VOILA! I feel that these five cards represent the main themes of the Lich class quite well. Let's go over each one in detail.

Shambling Horror - A simple but powerful minion, the Horror is a force to be reckoned with. It has reasonably good stats for the cost, and comes with the ability to shut down an entire archetype of decks! How cool is that?

Eternally Bound - This card is a great example of value within the Lich class - it provides a simple effect that can bring back any minion you desire - be it a wincon later in the game, or your Ghoul that just died for hidden lethal. 

Phylactery - Death is eternal, unyielding... and this card proves it. It provides a powerful heal, letting you ignore that pesky Zoolock for a turn while letting you draw, giving you a chance to make a comeback.

Corpse Explosion - A powerful AoE that can be used early on - the perfect counter to aggressive decks, it DOES require you to kill off one of your own servants to use however, so don't get too hasty.

Plague Dog - The Sacrifice keyword makes an appearance on this early game minion! The Plague Dog is rather underwhelming by itself. Under-statted, and most removal is available by turn 3. But don't be deceived. This effect is very powerful, and if the Dog is protected, you can recover lots of health with your tokens swarming the board. 

 I can't claim to be an expert, but sacrifice spooks me a little bit. It seems like the kind of thing that limits design, especially of deathrattles. If you print ways of killing your own minions that are too effective/cheap (and corpse explosion may well fit that), every remotely efficient neutral deathrattle in the game gets like five additional lines of benefit added to it. Same goes for the hero power, might be a bit too easy to get a too much value out of it. 

Wow I found out about this late. Oh well. A couple notes: one, in my haste to get this posted, balance isn't where I want it to be, but I opted not to wait too long. Also, I swear this was the first thing that came to mind. Don't ask why. Anyway, here goes, and thanks for any advice.

The Magical Girl

The Magical Girl is not a traditional fighter. Far from a hulking brute or wizened mage, she is a normal girl who, when evil rears its head, transforms into a powerful warrior who wields great power in the service of all that is good and pure. Unfortunately, it turns out that high-school girls aren’t exactly disposed to long drag-out brawls. Thus, the Magical Girl must conserve her strength, trusting in her friends to support her and waiting for the right time to unleash her power in a single burst that no evil can stand before.

The Magical Girl’s keyword, and unique mechanic, is Transform. She starts the game in her civilian form, but whenever she plays a card with transform, she-and her portrait-change into her costumed form (or back, if she was costumed). This doesn’t give her any new powers, per se, but several Magical Girl cars get more powerful based on which form she’s in. Generally, her spells become more power while Costumed, and she can better help her minions as a Civilian.

The Magical Girl has a couple of gameplay themes, but mostly she tends towards control/combo, biding her time until she can unleash a big play that ends the game in swift order. She isn’t the best at pure control, and she won’t do the best turbo-combo, but many of her cards are versatile, able to switch roles as needed.

Her primary theme depends heavily on spells, which she generally tries to make more powerful, either through her hero power, or with set cards like Dramatic Power-Up which gives a single big burst of power to be deployed as needed. It also transforms her, which allows her to get the full power out of Star-Shot (hopefully closing out the game).

The Magical Girl is also supported by her classmates, a new tribe that buffs both each other and help the Magical Girl shape the game to her favor (and definitely aren’t those other magical girls she keeps seeing). Though Classmates are heavily tribal-focused and give the Magical Girl a more proactive option, they aren’t aggressive. Most, like the Student Council President, are much slower, either buying the Magical Girl time or helping to set up her other combos. Alternatively, they can all band together with the Power of Friendship and win by themselves.

Even cards outside of the main playstyles are influenced by them. The Monster of the Week sure isn’t winning the game on his own, but he does keep on coming back, and back, and…

The Magical Girl plans for a long game, using her hero power and buffs from her classmates to make her spells more and more powerful until she can blow her opponents away is a single, suitably flashy, blast. She definitely needs helps from her classmates to win, but what would a magical girl be if she couldn’t win through tactical application of friendship?

My main questions:

1) How should I tweak the values of the spell buffs? I'm not sure how to value the ability to build-up damage over time with the hero power

2) Also, the numbers of the Monster. He's not supposed to be super strong (he is the monster of the week), but her certainly shouldn't be worthless

 Alright, I'll try not to do too many more of these posts, since I've already taken up a lot of space. I promise I'll let you all move on soon. Anyway, here are a few options for updated shift tooltips. The last one is a shameless attempt to keep the fixed-order component, but I can easily lose that. I attached a slightly updated Aluriel for reference. The one big problem is the UI for it. I envision there being a button where ability icons already go, that the player could click to spend mana and switch abilites, but I have no idea how to even begin to represent that.

A quick Freya version 3, buffed to hopefully make her less embarrassing when compared to Darkscale Healer, and hopefully highlighting the whole "more powerful when defending Ulduar" thing. In other news, for those who have read my original post (on page 16, I think?) what are peoples' thoughts on shift? It's by far the mechanic I'm most concerned about. I am actively trying to make it more clear, but still. Thanks in advance for any advice.

Another thing, what would people recommend as far as visual standards are concerned. As in, should I endeavor to get banners/custom year icons? And if so, how? Also, would you all recommend updating my original post to reflect the new versions of cards? or should I just leave it for the final submission? 

Here are a few edits of some of my cards. I gave Freya a bit more durability and shifted her ability to end of turn to “guarantee” activation. I (hopefully) cleared up Naj’entus a bit, and gave him a little more health. I redid the Shift text box for some clarity. Finally, I did a full rework on Shattrath Preserver, hoping to make her a bit more distinct. Thoughts?

Quote from Demonxz95 >>

Quote from WhiteKitsune >>

Hello folks, I saw this challenge and decided to make an account to participate. And start designing custom Hearthstone cards for the first time. Hubris is fun!

In all seriousness, I threw together a submission and would be very grateful for any feedback. Sorry if I inadvertently copied someone else’s ideas. If I did, it was entirely accidental. Also, please forgive me for any formatting stuff. First time posting here, after all.

 

Year of the Val’kyr

Year of the Val’kyr is based around a series of three raids/areas from WoW. Each features the conflict between the “good guys” and the “bad guys” of each setting. It starts off with Assault on Black Temple, which highlights Illidan’s forces and those trying to preserve Outland. Second is Defense of Ulduar, which lets the player command either powerful Titans or the insidious forces of the Old Gods. Finally, it ends with Fall of the Nighthold, where the Nightborne and Legion wield ever-shifting arcane powers to fend off the increasingly desperate heroes.

 

 

Assault on Black Temple

Starting the year with an iconic raid, this set focuses on Illidan and his followers, who will go to any lengths to defend their territory and power.  To this end, many of his followers are Relentless, which allows them to do things when they damage (but not kill) enemy minions. Naj’entus, for example, pins his victims down and forces their allies to waste time freeing them. On the other side, the heroes are a bit more deliberate, playing things more slowly to protect their allies and keep Outland from falling into chaos. Both sides also make use of punisher mechanics to keep their foes away.

           

Defense of Ulduar

Moving on, Ulduar highlights the power of the titans. Their keepers and spells produce single, powerful effects that allow them to defend Ulduar against any foe. When your opponent threatens Ulduar (by having more minions than you), the Titans rise to their full strength and crush the intruders. On the other hand, even this may not be enough to fight off the minions of the Old Gods, who fight with sinister, manipulative powers to subvert Ulduar.

          

Fall of the Nighthold

In the final set of the year, the Legion have invaded and brought the Nightborne to their cause. In the Nighthold, they can use the strange power of the Nightwell to change their powers to match any threat. With just a small investment of mana, the effects of a Nightborne card can cycle through a list (in a set order) to most effectively destroy their enemies. Meanwhile, the heroes of zeroth are forced to increasingly desperate measure to stave of the Legion, allowing to make dramatic, if potentially very risky, plays. (An aside to the powers that be: would it be possible to give Aluriel's second ability rush, even though the ability isn't evergreen?)

           

 

Hall of Fame

Preparation: While it makes perfect sense for what rogue was doing when HS was first released, this card has kept rogue from exploring anything too creative in terms of new spells, as any new spell technically cost 3 less than printed. Moving int to the Hall of Fame would also open new playspace for cost reduction (coins?).

 

Leeroy Jenkins: Since the beginning, Leeroy has been a go too win condition that is difficult to interact with, and often leads to the opponent effectively having 6-10 less life to start. Leeroy isn’t necessarily overpowered, he’s just better than most anything new, keeping those new cards from seeing play. Finally, the way he’s played means the fact that he has a (flavorful) drawback is entirely irrelevant.

 

Divine Favor: Not much needs to be said here other than that this card shouldn’t have existed in the first place, as aggro decks shouldn’t have a cheap, efficient way to negate one of their main drawbacks. This cards continued existence in standard has no real purpose other than making control cry for no real benefit.

Image Credits:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/VYREn

https://wow.gamepedia.com/File:High_Warlord_Najentus_TCG.jpg

http://omniversal-battlefield.wikia.com/wiki/Freya

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/155866837075865191/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/387591111675867545/

http://wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Money

First thing I want to say is welcome aboard. Always nice to get some new competitors for these competitions. For someone who just joined the site, you've pretty much got the formatting down.

For Assault on the Black Temple, the Relentless keyword seems like a pretty good idea, although High Warlord Na'jentus seems a bit confusing in wording. At first, I thought the effect would affect minions adjacent to Highlord himself, but then I saw the negative effect and poor statline for the Cost, which makes me question if the effect is supposed to hit minions adjacent to the attack target. If it does, then the current wording may be a bit confusing, although it may also be hard to fix. Shattrath Preserver joins the list of Silverback Patriarch powercreeps (there are about 10 in them in the game at this point), although it seems a bit weak compared to Benevolent Djinn. The artwork also looks a little bit weird because there's no background behind the character.

Protocol is an interesting keyword (although in the case of Freya, you wrote a dash after the keyword instead of a colon). Speaking of Freya, she seems a little bit weak because the effect happens at the start of your turn and you want the effect to go, your opponent needs to already have some minions, meaning it's normally not difficult to kill Freya before her effect goes off. I assume Malignant Illusion is supposed to summon the minion. If so, you should probably use "Summon" instead of "Create". It also does seem a little bit weak compared to Flanking Strike, just a little bit.

Fall of the Nighthold looks pretty cool, although I still don't really understand how Shift works. At Any Cost! should probably also specify from your hand, and I think you could lower its Cost to 1.

 

Thanks for the advice. 

As you say, I realize Naj'entus is a bit confusing, I was already thinking of ways to fix him when I posted (perhaps "minions adjacent to the victim?"). And yeah, I wasn't terribly happy with the preserver, either. I was thinking about changing it to apply a similar effect to all of your minions, or something like that ("whenever a friendly minion survives damage, restore x health to your hero").

Good catch on the malignant illusion wording, that was just my MtG instincts slipping through. As for it's balance, any advice? Simple stat increases seem a little weird, and I want to maximize the "evil double aspect, not just have be a kill spell.

And then there's Shift. I was pretty sure this was going to be a problem, but the idea is that a minion with shift comes in with the first ability in the list active. Then you can pay x mana while its on the board (by clicking on the card, or something), to cycle it to the next mode on the list. 

So, Aluriel comes in as a 5/5 with the freeze ability, but if you pay 3 mana she loses the freeze ability and gets the stat boost. If you pay 3 more mana, she loses that and deals the 2 damage. 3 more and she goes back to the top.

Hello folks, I saw this challenge and decided to make an account to participate. And start designing custom Hearthstone cards for the first time. Hubris is fun!

In all seriousness, I threw together a submission and would be very grateful for any feedback. Sorry if I inadvertently copied someone else’s ideas. If I did, it was entirely accidental. Also, please forgive me for any formatting stuff. First time posting here, after all.

Year of the Val’kyr

Year of the Val’kyr is based around a series of three raids/areas from WoW. Each features the conflict between the “good guys” and the “bad guys” of each setting. It starts off with Assault on Black Temple, which highlights Illidan’s forces and those trying to preserve Outland. Second is Defense of Ulduar, which lets the player command either powerful Titans or the insidious forces of the Old Gods. Finally, it ends with Fall of the Nighthold, where the Nightborne and Legion wield ever-shifting arcane powers to fend off the increasingly desperate heroes.

Assault on Black Temple

Starting the year with an iconic raid, this set focuses on Illidan and his followers, who will go to any lengths to defend their territory and power.  To this end, many of his followers are Relentless, which allows them to do things when they damage (but not kill) enemy minions. Naj’entus, for example, pins his victims down and forces their allies to waste time freeing them. On the other side, the heroes are a bit more deliberate, playing things more slowly to protect their allies and keep Outland from falling into chaos. Both sides also make use of punisher mechanics to keep their foes away.

Defense of Ulduar

Moving on, Ulduar highlights the power of the titans. Their keepers and spells produce single, powerful effects that allow them to defend Ulduar against any foe. When your opponent threatens Ulduar (by having more minions than you), the Titans rise to their full strength and crush the intruders. On the other hand, even this may not be enough to fight off the minions of the Old Gods, who fight with sinister, manipulative powers to subvert Ulduar.

Fall of the Nighthold

In the final set of the year, the Legion have invaded and brought the Nightborne to their cause. In the Nighthold, they can use the strange power of the Nightwell to change their powers to match any threat. With just a small investment of mana, the effects of a Nightborne card can cycle through a list (in a set order) to most effectively destroy their enemies. Meanwhile, the heroes of zeroth are forced to increasingly desperate measure to stave of the Legion, allowing to make dramatic, if potentially very risky, plays. (An aside to the powers that be: would it be possible to give Aluriel's second ability rush, even though the ability isn't evergreen?)

Hall of Fame

Preparation: While it makes perfect sense for what rogue was doing when HS was first released, this card has kept rogue from exploring anything too creative in terms of new spells, as any new spell technically cost 3 less than printed. Moving int to the Hall of Fame would also open new playspace for cost reduction (coins?).

Leeroy Jenkins: Since the beginning, Leeroy has been a go too win condition that is difficult to interact with, and often leads to the opponent effectively having 6-10 less life to start. Leeroy isn’t necessarily overpowered, he’s just better than most anything new, keeping those new cards from seeing play. Finally, the way he’s played means the fact that he has a (flavorful) drawback is entirely irrelevant.

Divine Favor: Not much needs to be said here other than that this card shouldn’t have existed in the first place, as aggro decks shouldn’t have a cheap, efficient way to negate one of their main drawbacks. This cards continued existence in standard has no real purpose other than making control cry for no real benefit.

Image Credits:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/VYREn

https://wow.gamepedia.com/File:High_Warlord_Najentus_TCG.jpg

http://omniversal-battlefield.wikia.com/wiki/Freya

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/155866837075865191/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/387591111675867545/

http://wowwiki.wikia.com/wiki/Money