Card Design Contest: December

[aeoliant]

Exiled Panddo
Songhai Minion
2 mana ( 2/4 )

This minion may move two additional spaces.
Zeal: Transform this minion into a 0/2 Panddo that cannot be attacked

Description

Exiled Panddo is a slightly over-statted minion with a powerful utility effect. However, these come with quite a large drawback - you can’t cast this nearby your general or move near your general without permanently transforming it into a 0/2. I expect Exiled Panddo to be used mostly in aggro decks because they will contain other cheap minions which will allow you to avoid the drawback earlier on. Additionally, this gives aggro decks a way to quickly close the gap against a retreating opponent.

Thought Process

Exiled Panddo adds a bit of limited movement (vs unlimited movement like Mist Dragon Seal or minions with Flying) to Songhai to go along with Kaleos’ BBS and Inner Focus. I like the idea of the Songhai general having to calculcate their movements as I enjoy playing Kaleos and making the same decisions about positioning and reach. Also, I liked choosing a “negative” Zeal effect for Songhai since they are thematically at odds with the Lyonar.

In terms of balance, a 2 mana 2/4 is good but not insane compared to the baseline of 2/3. It still trades evenly with other 2/3s and generals but now survives trades with 3/2s and 3/3s. We know that being able to move 4 spaces early on is really good but not broken (Azurite Lion). We also know that a 0/2 for 2 is just awful so the drawback will need to be avoided in pretty much all scenarios.

Exiled Panddo is a card that has some interesting counterplay - you can actually use the opponents general to protect your minions. Or you can just straight up Hearth-Sister it! Dispelling this minion will mostly be in the owner’s favour but there are some situations an opponent might dispel to get rid of the movement.

Lastly, you can mitigate the drawback by adding buffs to your deck for the 0/2. Alternatively, simply using the Panddo to block enemies or to safely spawn your ranged minions in a far corner is a good choice too!

[hoix]

Balwar
Vetruvian minion
3 mana 0/5
Zeal: Your Minions and General cannot take damage except by adjacent spaces.

Vetruvian has problems dealing with threats from afar. Instead of trying to chase them, the opponent now needs to come to you in order for their range shenanigans or shadow dancers to work. This card is mainly for Songhai and Abyssian, it does poorly against decks that are in your face like Lyonar.

[cold52]

Blighting Thistle
Abyssian Minion
4 mana (3/5)
At the end of your turn summon a Blighting Sprout on a nearby square.

Blighting Sprout
0/1
Grow: +1/+1
If this card has at least 2 attack, and 3 health transform it into a thistle at the end of your turn.

[mafagafokiller]

CORRUPTOR
Abyssian Minion
3 mana 3/2
Rebirth
When this minion dies, turn a nearby space into Shadow Creep.

---

The idea was giving a usable 3-drop for creep decks while helping the win condition. Similarly to the old Abyssal Crawler, Corruptor generates creep when it dies, however, with Rebirth Corruptor can keep trading with the enemy while maintaining Tempo.

[connorswift]

Windswept Wraith
Vetruvian Minion
(6) mana (4/7)
Flying; Backstab: Summon a 2/2 Wind Dervish nearby.

Thought I’d take Backstab in a slightly different direction than what it is currently. Granted the summoning of a Wind Dervish is probably a tad OP, the other option would be instead:

Flying; Backstab: Summon a 2/2 Iron Dervish with Provoke nearby.

I’ll gladly change the original ability with the second if it seems more balanced.

[MCToxic64]

Rol
Vanar Battle Pet
2 mana (1/5)
Grow: +1/+1

It’s like a snowball: the longer this minion rolls around, the bigger it gets! I think its a fun little minion that may act as an early dispel fodder, but I don’t see it being to threatening considering that it’s both a battle pet and a Grow minion.

[auroreon]

Witching Hourglass

• Abyssian, Minion
• 5 Mana (3/5)
• Grow: +2/+2
• Whenever this minion’s health becomes odd, deal its health in damage to a random enemy.

Notes

Grow: +2/+2 means the effect may triggers at the start of every friendly turn on its own. This effect may also occur, more than once a turn, from damage by attacks from enemy minions, damage from friendly or enemy spells, damage counter attacks and attacks from enemy minions or health gain from buff effects.

Discussion Post

[dewize]

Blazing Behemoth
3
2/3
Blast
On turns when this minion doesn’t attack, it gains +1/+0

The idea here is to give Magmar more range. But considering Magmar’s theme as giant dinosaurs or dragons or whatever you want, you can’t really have a ranged Magmar minion. But, what fits a giant dinosaur? Breathing fire of course! So it only seemed natural to make a Blast minion. And also, a new 3 drop

My idea for its lore didn’t turn out as good as I hoped, so, no lore.

[kingw]

Sealed Mist Technique
Songhai, Spell
2 mana
Summon two 0/1 Mist Illusions near your General.

Mist Illusion
Songhai, Token
1 mana (0/1)
Zeal: Cannot be attacked. Cannot attack.

Thought

Songhai has a few cards that encourage you to have bodies on the board, yet Songhai doesn’t have any cards that can efficiently get and/or keep said bodies on the board. This spell helps the minion-based Songhai player get more minion synergies (Onyx Jaguar, Ancestral Divination, etc) and keep bodies on the board.

The Mist Illusions have, what I think, is a very interesting mechanic. While they’re near your General, they have pseudo-invulnerability (of course they can still be killed by a lot of things like Bloodtear, Skorn, Frostburn, etc) but they also can’t attack. I think Songhai, and Kaleos in particular, can make interesting applications of this with teleportation spells (move in, killing edge/onyx jaguar, attack, blink back to your General).

All-and-all I think this would be an interesting way to mix up the Songhai minion archetypes.

[telvoc]

Ziggurat
Vetruvian, Structure
3 Mana (0/6)
Deathwatch: Summon Dervish

---

(Summons Iron Dervish, because wind dervish would be hella broken).

[trokuka]

Name: Wrath
Type: Abysiann spell
Cost: 4 Mana
Give BLAST to a wraithling nearby your general.

[details=Analysis]Pros:
Can be combo-ed with all attack buffs and WRAITHLING FURY.

Cons:
Unbuffed wraithlings don’t gain much out of it.
Only works on wraithlings.

Balance:
Only works on wraithlings nearby your general, so positioning matters.
Good luck boosting that wraithling HP somehow ^^. Essentially a glass cannon.
Needs a wraithling on board.

Combos:
Ideally you want a live wraithling at the start of your turn, else it’s too easily killable. WRAITHLING FURY can be cast on a wraithling the turn before to help keep it survive.

Since it costs 4 MANA, you can cast SHADOW REFLECTION (+5 attack) or WRAITHLING FURY (+4/+4) or BLOOD BARONETTE (Double stats) which are all 3 mana cards at the cost of 7 MANA.

If you have something to RITUAL SACRIFICE, you can call BLOOD BARONETTE plus a buff of your choice at the cost of 8 MANA/sacrificed minion/ritual sacrifice CARD.

Having a MANA FORGER on the field enables you to cast both buff spells at the cost of 9 MANA.

Maximum stats I can think of require 2 WRATIHLING FURY + 2 RITUAL SACRIFICE + BLOOD BARONETTE… This requires 5 cards in hand, 2 monsters to sacrifice and a live NEARBY wraithling. This makes the wraithling 16/16.
Replacing the WRAITHLING FURY with SHADOW reflection ends up with a 22/2 wraithling.
Additional SHIRO THE PUPPYDRAGON on the board beforehand can potentially one-shot a general at full health.

Making the spell cost 5 mana disables the overbuff, but even if I did the math, I doubt anyone would run such a spell in any deck due to the high cost.

Wrath of the Wraithling![/details]

[vmast3rv]

Soulhealer
Lyonar card (epic)
5 mana (3/8)
deathwatch: heal your general +2

For my opinion Zir need more heal combination to be good as Argeon so this card could change something in zir decks on better.Also this card could be great epic bcs lyonar doesn’t have any strong epic minions

[narasimha]

Frostbinder
Vanar
5 mana
3/5
Deathwatch: Whenever a non-Vespyr minion dies, summon a 1/1 Frostling on a random nearby space

Frostling
Vespyr
Token
1 mana
1/1
Dying Wish: Stun a random enemy

Ever wanted to play a swarm deck? Ever wanted to play it in a non Abyssian deck? Well here’s your chance! Frostbinder lets your opponents know that winter truly is coming. It turns (almost) every death into another Frostling for your army. The comboes with Kara practically speak for themselves. And while Frostlings themselves aren’t huge threats, their Dying Wish can halt an enemy assault dead in its tracks. Like anyone trying to invade Russia.
To prevent shenanigans with Snowchaser and Frostlings themselves, Frostbinder does not proc off of Vespyr deaths. This is more than made up, however, by the synergy with Borean Bear and Glacial Elemental

[jaybirdmcfee]

Mokvalar Warbeast
Magmar
4 mana, 2/5
Ranged
Zeal: Cannot be injured by ranged attackers.

Artwork, huzzah!

Animated Artwork, HUZZAH!

[excogitator]

Al’Eskandar
Lyonar Minion
6 mana
4/4
Deathwatch: Summon a 3/3 version of the enemy minion that died on an adjacent tile.

“An army of sheep led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a sheep.”
― Alexander the Great

explaination

Honestly, Its about time Lyonar got an exciting minion that is more than just a stat-stick, and there is no historical figure more undeniably Lyonar than Alexander the Great AKA Iskandar AKA Sikandar AKA about 12 other things. In history, he was a young conqueror who expanded Greek influence as far east as modern day Pakistan. He constructed one of the most powerful Multi ethnic Tributary states in history. This is reflected in the card since he “gains conscripts” in the form of 1/1s whenever your army conquers an opposing minion. The theme of conquest is strong in Lyonar, and I feel that this minion brings that out quite a bit. The Deathwatch mechanic is meant to signify conquest and subjugation rather than necromancy. The vanquished foes are swayed to your side by charisma!

Gameplay wise, this minion is meant to punish cheap minions. Getting big with this minion is difficult but if your opponent wants swarm 2 drops, they get significantly punished. Compare to Pandora and Kron.

[wintermutant]

Chakri Mendicant
Songhai Arcanyst
3 Mana 0/6
Deathwatch: restore 2 health to a random enemy minion
Your nearby battle pets gain +1/+1 do not move before attacking

Songhai is sometimes accused of ignoring the board and mostly playing with cards from their hand. In addition, ranged battle pets are under utilised at present. This minion is designed to stay on the board and generate value for a long time but, at an unusual cost. No one ever said that deathwatch had to be a reward.

[tentickles]

Florata
Magmar | Minion
3 mana | 1/5
Can’t Move
Zeal: Your minions cost 1 less to summon.

[details=Design]The combination of zeal and the inability to move (like Rok) is intentional; this minion thematically is a reptilian creature that is “planted” in a spot to collect “spirit/life” essence from the ground. The general must be near the minion to collect the essence, providing the means to “naturally” accelerate the development of minions as opposed to forcefully in the way Kujata does.

Kujata has its uses but is lacking in its ability to remain on the board with its low health. Florata comes in as an alternative: higher health at the cost of more mana for a harder-to-remove minion but with a trade off of being unable to respond effectively to most 1 or 2-drops on its own.[/details]

[ssdrwh0]

Unending Cycle
Vetruvian | Spell
2 mana
Give a minion “Grow: Return this minion to its original position, health, attack and buffs.”

Design

Basically when you cast this on a minion, that minion’s original position, attack, health and buffs are recorded. It’s a stall type spell that can be used on any minion. On an enemy minion, it’s like sand trap but the enemy can still move. On a friendly minion, you can remove any negative effects (including stun) as well as any positive effects after it gains the Unending Cycle buff.

[jkmaikhoi]

Snow Disguise

Vanar Spell
Rare
2 mana

Creat 3 joined 0/2 Snowballs that cannot be targeted by enemy spells, friendly minions can be summoned inside these balls*

Snowball
0/2
Grow: +0/+1 at the start of your turn.

(*of course without any summoning visual effect, so that the enemy won’t know its real location. And a snowball is not a shield, the minion inside receives the full damage when the ball is attacked.) Also, it has Grow because real snowballs get bigger when they roll down the hill you know

Thanks for reading guys!

[righteousfighteous]

Mist Dragon Adept - Songhai Minion
2 mana 2/3

Infiltrate: Give your minions Airdrop.

This design riffs on the positioning elements of Songhai that are present in things like efficient backstab and ranged minions. If he sneaks behind enemy lines, he can allow your minions to get the drop on unsuspecting opponents, placing attackers right behind them or sticking ranged threats in unreachable portions of the board. Flavorfully, he’s a master of the Mist Dragon Seal Technique, which lets him “teleport” minions right onto the battlefield for you, ideally with a cool “smoke puff” animation where they’re placed.