How to participate in the contest?
It's extremely simple.
1) Use any card generator webpage to make a legendary card of any type between 0 and 3 mana
2) Send it to [email protected] with the subject "Card design contest"
3) ???
4) Profit!
5) The winner, runner-up and bronze medalist will win a Hearthstone pillow, mug and keychain, respectively
Disclaimer: The cards shown in this article are in no way ahead of the competition in terms of scores or chances of winning. They have been subjectively selected to present a small part of the submissions we received during the first week. Enjoy them, get inspired by them, create your own cards and send them to us.
Last week, we entered the fifth month of our card design contest as we gave you another task – design an early game legendary card, costing between 0 and 3 mana. There was no additional limitation – card designers could submit not only minions, but also weapons and even spells.
Below, we highlight a small part of the first week of submissions.
It's Shaw time
When we think of cheap legendary minions, we most often go to minor characters of the Warcraft universe which are nonetheless recognizable. For many of you, one such character was the head of the SI:7 agency, Master Mathias Shaw.
Taking on the sneaky nature of Mathias Shaw, you saw in him opportunities for deck manipulation. Some were simple and elegant, like a two-sided card-draw mechanic, helping you on Battlecry but aiding your opponent on Deathrattle. Is “Spymaster Shaw’s” deathrattle necessarily a drawback, though? What if you could kill it yourself and have a Handlock or Freeze Mage overdraw? Elegant indeed.
In the last months of judging cards, I don’t recall many – or any – instances where a card influenced the mulligan phase, but another iteration of Mathias Shaw gives us an idea what such mechanic could look like. A 1/1 stealth for 1 mana is not the absolute best deal, but at least it guarantees you get something useful to replace that 8-mana Ragnaros you just mulligan’d.
The third and final version of Shaw we’ve had so far comes with a token – a 0/1 infiltrator that spies for you until the opponent draws it but which then gives him an extra card. A mechanic seemingly inspired from [card]Iron Juggernaut[/card] and one of the few cards we’ve seen that lets you look at opponents’ cards.
Hey, look, it's Chromie
Another character we saw recurring not just this month but in previous ones as well was Chromie, the gnomish guise of the powerful bronze dragon Chronormu. She likes tinkering with timelines and two of our readers interpreted this differently.
Michael Leach describes his creation as a mix between [card]Dragon Consort[/card], [card]Hungry Dragon[/card] and [card]Millhouse Manastorm[/card]. If you’re lucky, you just got a 4/5 for 3 mana, i.e. Trump-approved levels of value. If your opponent has a big card ready, however, you’re risking a turn-around as he drops his fatty a bit earlier.
Colin O’Rourke took the time theme a bit more… literally. On deathrattle, his Chromie ends the turn, regardless of whose turn it is. That’s the first ever End Turn mechanic we’ve seen submitted to us and it’s rare even in established TCG’s like Magic: The Gathering. We don’t know if it’s balanaced, we just know it sounds cool!
Peeking into the future
Another mechanic we’re yet to see in Hearthstone is deck and hand peeking. Sayge by Alexander Jira does the former as he reveals the top three cards of your deck on battlecry. You cannot manipulate their order, or choose what to draw or discard, like with [card]Tracking[/card]. You get a 3/3 body for 3 mana and the knowledge of the next three draw phases. And knowledge, friends, is power!
Fandral Staghelm created by Rami Souai serves a similar function, only it looks at your opponent’s hand, providing a 2/4 body for 3 mana. What’s the more powerful card – Sayge or Fandral – varies a lot. Fandral will shine when playing against control decks as it will reveal more information, like what sorts of answers there are in the enemy hand, for example.
Want your creation to be featured and/or compete for one of three monthly prizes? Submit your 0-3 mana legendary card to [email protected] and you're good!
