Card Design Contest: Jan/Feb

[attheedge]

Introduction
Hello everyone, and welcome to December’s Card Design Contest! As always, we have a brand new design prompt, so be sure to give it a read (along with the General Rules).

If you have any questions/concerns, then please feel free to contact any of the jury members (or discuss via the Discussion Hub).

Lastly, the contest schedule is as follows:

Submission Deadline: 01/25
Jury Evaluations: 01/25 - 02/05
Community Voting: 02/05 - 02/25
Next Card Design Contest: 03/05

Prompt:

Design a spell that interacts with and/or depends on positioning.

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General Rules (click on any of these to read more)

All participants are allowed ONE submission per contest.

• Of course, you may edit said submission as many times as you see fit.
• If your submission contains more than one design, then you will be disqualified (unless you explicitly state which design is your “final draft”).
• Abuse of additional accounts to make multiple submissions will result in disqualification from the current contest and all future contests.[/details]
  [details=All contest submissions must follow the contest’s prompt.
  ][/details]

[details=All contest submissions must follow this basic template.]Name
Faction + Type
Cost + (Stats)
Card text.

OR

Name / Faction + Type / Cost / (Stats)
Card text.

Therefore, a sample (designed by @phayze) would look like this:

Mindspike Mantle
Magmar Artifact
3 Mana
Whenever your opponent draws a card, deal 2 damage to the enemy General.

OR

Mindspike Mantle / Magmar Artifact / 3 Mana
Whenever your opponent draws a card, deal 2 damage to the enemy General.

[details=All contest submissions must include a description of the design’s purpose.
]* Why? (1) It give us jury members a better understanding of the thought-process behind your design and (2) It gives you and fellow participants a better way to discuss your design in the Discussion Hub.

• This can be very brief (or as long as you’d like).[/details]

[details=All contest submissions must follow the official 125-character limit on card text (including spaces).][/details]

[details=Any content not pertaining to a contest submission (e.g. discussions, critiques) is NOT allowed.]* Why? We have an entirely separate topic for discussions/critiques/feedback: the Discussion Hub.

• This separation facilitates greater readability for both contest submissions and discussions.
• Of course, feel free to give a “Like” accordingly! [/details]
  [details=Clearly unbalanced or “meme” designs are NOT allowed.
  ][/details]
  [details=New Generals, minion/card types, or keywords are NOT allowed.
  ][/details]
  [details=Please use the “Hide Details” function for non-required content (e.g. lore, artwork).
  ]Why? To maintain readability for both jury members and other contest participants. While additional content is fantastic, we want to ensure a fair reading and judging environment.[/details]
  [details=Please avoid directly copying a card from another contest participant or CCG.
  ]* If you are concerned about committing plagiarism, then please feel free to contact a jury member or discuss via the Discussion Hub.
• If you are reporting plagiarism, then please only contact a jury member via PM and we will investigate accordingly.[/details]

Prizes!

1st place - Epic Crate Key + orb reward + Forum Badge “Design God” + Place in the jury

2nd place - Rare Crate Key + orb reward + Place in the jury

3rd place - Common Crate Key + orb reward + Place in the jury

Useful Links and Misc.

• Don’t forget to drop-by the Discussion Hub to discuss fellow submissions, give/ask for feedback, etc.
• Here is a document with the General Criteria that the jury consider while evaluating designs.
• Please note that these are not strictly-enforced criteria, and that any jury member reserves the right to emphasize/de-emphasize a given criterion as they see fit.
• This month’s jury members are:
  @attheedge
  @akurane
  @whyb0t
  @hellcat

Best of luck on your submissions! We are very excited to see what you all come up with

[genkei]

Cryofracture
Vanar spell
8 mana
This card costs 1 less for each column between your general and your starting column. Return ALL minions in columns behind your general to controling players hands.

[details=Explanation]I didn’t know how to phrase this better, so I’m going to explain here. Basically if your general is all the way on the opponents starting column, this card costs 1 and if your general is on your starting colum this card costs 8. The casting cost is also 8 if your general is 1 tile away from your starting column because there are no columns between your general and the starting column. Second part of the effec affects ALL minions in columns behind the column your general is in, meaning that minions in the same column or in columns in front of your general will not be affected.

In short, the further you are from your starting tile, the cheaper the spell gets. Also, the further you are from your starting tile, the more tiles it will affect.[/details]

[details=Design]I wanted to make a card that would sort of feel as your general having infiltrate, without giving her infiltrate directly. The idea is that the card is overpriced untill you get into infiltrate zone, where it becomes underpriced. I also find it that there are no spells which can decrease their own cost, without the help of other cards, so this combination made the most sense to me in the context of the contest. The tricky part of design was making the actuall effect desirable enough to see play, while not making it gamebreaking when reduced to 1 cost. This is why the effect affects both players, whit the upside of you being able to manipulate the resoult by either moving your general a few steps back and making the card cost more so your minions don’t get hit or moving your minions forward, perhaps into undesirable positions, creating interesting situations.

The card could also serve as support for hand control deck archetypes, along with hailstone prison or as a support card for oppening gambit decks. Anyway I truly do think that overall, the card has many upsides and downsides, most of which are hard to give appropriate value to, so I can only assume what the true powerlevel would be, and that in the end it wouldn’t be broken.

Name comes from a phenomenon occuring in reality, when water enters (infiltrates) rocks through cracks and then, when it feezes, breaks the rock. I found it fitting.[/details]

Flavor

“It’s not the violent wind or the seering sun that crushes mountains, its the silent water flowing through it” Starhorn upon seeing Vanar Kindred for the first time.

Edits: spelling and phrasing

[owlington]

Essence of Pyrae
Vetruvian Spell
4 mana
Deal damage equal to the target’s attack to everything else in the same row.

[details=Explanation]
The reasoning behind this card is that it will add an actual removal card to Vetruvian that does require setting up and does not require behind literally within breathing distance of the minion. Also the reason i made it be able to target generals is so that it can also support the artifact build of Vetruvian alongside the swarm build and just also be able to target enemies to add additional flexibility to the card so it isnt just a dead card when your behind on board and have an empty hand.[/details]

[narasimha]

Zealous Charge
Lyonar
3 mana
Give all friendly minions nearby your General “Zeal: Celerity” until the end of the turn. Affected minions take double damage from all sources.

Fairly straightforward goal here: Give Lyonar another way to end a game. At the moment, Lyonar’s win conditions generally fall into two categories. Zoo them till they die, or pull off a Divine Bond of death. Of the two, only the latter is unique to Lyonar, but it’s also a bit stale. Lyonar has always been about their minions along with their general. It’s the entire purpose of Zeal, after all. Zealous Charge builds on that by encouraging the Lyonar player to build up an army around themself, and then suddenly throwing it forward. The best defense is a good offense, afterall. To prevent shenanigans with Lions or Windblade rushes, however, the drawback is that all minions affected by Zealous Charge take double damage for its duration. Meaning you actually have to invest in your troops before sending them to die for you.

[readerusmc]

Divergence
Vetruvian
4 Mana

Summon two images of your general nearby.
Shuffle your general, and any images, to random tiles.

I designed this card to attempt some indirect protection for Vetruvian. Solving the general is the name of the game. This gives Vetruvian a small way to attempt a shell game, as it were. I compared to Lyonar’s general replacement with the cost/effect. I went with targeted removal simply due to Vetruvian having really good value minions. Opponents will need to decide which threats they wish to deal with. Vetruvian doesn’t currently have a way to deal with minions at range(out of hand damage, dispel, removal). This could even the odds while adding a bit more strategy to the game.

*Images deal no damage, move normally, have visible stats equal to the general at summoning, and die in one instance of being targeted. Images are immune to damage.

Edit: A few things

[Envest]

Starblast
Vetruvian Spell
3 mana
Destroy all enemy minions in front of your general.

Ranged removal for Vetruvian that still depends on your General’s position, so it doesn’t interfere with their faction identity. The effect is somewhat comparable to Decimate: Easy to play around but occasionally devastating. I think that the effect of Starblast is a bit weaker than the effect of Decimate, it’s very hard to hit an enemy that’s behind your General for instance, and Decimate is a tech card while Starblast is supposed to see regular play, so I think 3 mana is reasonable for this spell.

[thebravetoaster]

Portal Overload
Vetruvian Spell
2 Mana
Destroy a friendly Obelysk and ALL minions nearby it.

This spell provides position-dependent removal to the Vetruvian faction and forces their opponent to be more careful when positioning around Obelysks. This spell fits the Structure Vet archetype well, since it follows the theme of using Obelysks as a form of board control, while forcing the player to weigh the long-term value generation of Dervishes against short-term removal needs. Additionally, it provides a use for otherwise-useless dispelled Obelysks, and has combo potential with the lackluster Stone to Spears.

[Sorostaran]

Wildfire Contagion
Vetruvian Spell
5 Mana
Deal 5 damage to ALL minions and generals not nearby a Structure and give them Blast. Destroy ALL Structures.

“Invaders who deem it wise to dare the harsh environments of Vetruvia must contend with more than heat and desiccation. The sandstorms of Akram level cities and carry with them the terrifying Wildfire virus, which brings those exposed swift deaths…or fates worse than death.” --Grandmaster Nosh-Rak

This is a twist on the Vetruvian friend-and-foe wipe and existing-board-dependent mega-burst themes. Mutual resets tend to be not so good in Duolist because having the initiative is so important (unless it’s so dirt cheap that you can drop threats ludicrously easily on the same turn, cough Enfeeble bullshat cough). I want a moderate-cost “bias-able” reset that isn’t quite as one-track to “bias” as “I run Structures with my Circle of Desiccation” to set up, a spell that serves different purposes in different situations. =S

[archer4]

Slippery Shadow
Abyssian Spell
1 Mana
Push a friendly shadow creep tile and any minion on it to any space on the battlefield.

This card gives Cass another way to control enemies who risk stepping on tiles. It is highly flexible, as it can be used with sphere of darkness as a slightly weaker daemonic lure; or to transport your own minions for surprise damage (similar to lyonar’s magnetize, or songhai mist dragon seal); or simply as a one damage ping. The element of rearranging your shadow creep to adjust to an updated board adds another dimension of strategic positioning.

[oranos]

Soul Resonance
3 mana
Abyssian spell
all minions gain the attack and health of all nearby minions with the same name until the end of your turn

[details=effect examples]a wraithling with 8 wraithlings around it would be an 8/8
a furious (5/5) wraithling next to a normal (1/1) wraithling would both become 6/6
a healing mystic next to a friendly and an enemy healing mystic would become a 6/9
2 enemy iron dervishes next to each other would both become 4/4
[/details]

[details=reasoning]this is obviously used for swarm and wraithling synergy, but can be
used when there are multiples of any minion near each other. the idea of strength in pure numbers is abyssians bread and butter and yet the swarm is only considered top tier when combined with the grandmasters buffs. this card would give budget swarm or even healing mystic swarm to become a threat to be reckoned with. besides, the idea of the little guys helping each other out to be more than just deathwatch fodder is nice.
[/details]

[thefirstgokun]

Aspect of the Beast Queen
8 Mana Vanar Spell
Transform a friendly minion into an Ursa Majora and reactivate all nearby allies.

Ursa Majora

5 Mana 5/5 Frenzy

Explanation

A localized Spirit of the Wild that also reactivates your General. I like Vanar’s artifacts and don’t see why they get so little love. Anyway, it’s a little costly due to the additional effect/body and no need for Infiltrate. That’s it.

[buyingcoats]

Bulldoze
2 Mana
Magmar Spell
Dispel ALL spaces nearby your General. Your General can move through enemy units this turn.

Vaath(or Starhorn I guess) smashes puny magic/effects and ignores body blocking.

Provides some more ways to reach protected units and makes it harder to kite Vaath. Once the enemy general creates some space its impossible for Vaath to hit face for several turns. This gives some tools aside from tracer to fight against that and has the plus of a lightbenderesque aoe dispel that doesnt remove overload charges. Creep tiles and walls beware! It shits on obelysks more but plasma already exists so shrug.

I considered tacking on moving an additonal space as well but that might be a bit much.

[RyanH]

Cascading Snowstorm
Vanar Spell
4 Mana
Select a column. Until the start of your next turn, ANY unit that crosses it take 3 Damage.

The way it works is that you can’t just drop it on a column and deal immediate damage to whoever is on it. If the Snowstorm is dropped ON them, units leaving will take damage. However, when moving with cards like Silhouette Tracer, Mist Walking or Hearth-Sister, the unit will not take damage.

Obviously, this is designed to help Infiltrate. However, this also hurts you and your minions when crossing over, so be wary of friendly fire. This is ideally used when you’re in the middle column of the board, with a couple of Infiltrate minions set up; at 9 mana you can set up the Rhyno + Snowstorm to really lock them in.

The way these Snowstorm tiles are marked will be with a white tile effect (like Shadow Creep) that disappears at the start of your turn, so both sides know clearly where the Snowstorm is.

[excogitator]

Time Shatter:
Vetruvian Spell
5 mana
Reset ALL aspects of the game to the state it was in at the beginning of your last turn. Except, this card is replaced with a random Vetruvian card.

Explanation

I was pretty tentative when creating this card due to the potential of abuse. But I hope that this wording and effect does not lead to any obvious exploits. The card is pretty over the top, though.

How this spell works is that it undoes all of your and your opponents actions between the start of your last turn to when you played this spell, like clicking the “undo move” button in a match against the computer. In other words, you get to redo your last turn and force your opponent to redo theirs. As such, this card offers no physical benefit. The only way it benefits you is by providing information on what your opponent is capable of doing. Say, you flood the board and your opponent has an AOE in hand. This card makes it so that you can undo that AOE and not flood the board. This is essentially insurance for one bad decision. Compare this to Concealing Shroud. While Shroud proactively protects you from some large health swing, this card lets you re-play your previous turn with knowledge of what your opponent is capable of doing. This effect is also comparable to looking at your opponent’s hand, since it offers informational advantage with no in game advantage.

Another way to use this card is to re-roll RNG. Say, you get garbage from L’kian, or poor Obelisk spawns, or your opponent managed to pull a large RNG swing. You can reset all of that and try again.

Flavour

“I am sorry. No matter how many times I go back, I cannot undo what will happen to you”
- Zirix Starstrider

The card can undo all manner of bad things, from RNG shenanigans to getting perfectly answered, but it cannot undo a general’s death.

Concerns

• Chaining these would be annoying
• It replaces itself with a random Vetruvian card, and resets ALL aspects of the game (including last spell cast) so it should be impossible to generate infinite loops.
• I’m not sure how to cost this card. It can cost anywhere from 4 to 9 mana and still work similarly.
• I don’t know what would happen if this is somehow played on turn 1. Maybe enter a secret stage?

[jon678910]

Runic Relocation
Vetruvian spell
7 mana
Teleport a friendly structure to any space on the battlefield. Summon a 2/2 dervish with rush on a nearby position for each point of health it has.

Explanation

The main intention of this card was to offer a good finisher for structure vetruvian decks, as well as give people a reason to destroy structures, even if silenced. At the same time, it can be an insanely powerful card, and I gave it a mana cost of 7 to avoid it being played with fireblaze, as it gives too much burst. At the same time, it rewards enemies for controlling the board, and adds offensive pressure to cards like inner oasis.

[tsevech]

Vespiric Ambush
Vanar spell
1 mana
Give all Vespyrs in your hand Airdrop and Infiltrate: +1/+1

I think Infiltrate is not supported enough in Vanar. This would be a support card for Infiltrate (and the Vanar sister) as well as a strong addition to Vespyr decks. The Airdrop keyword would allow one to get immediate benefit out of the Infiltrate.

Both Airdrop and Infiltrate are position-related keywords, so I think it fits the theme of the contest.

[fok12]

Starfall
Vetruvian Spell
0 Mana
At the start of your next turn summon 2 Wind Dervishes with Rush, one in front of your General and one in front of the enemy General.

Summary

Starfall forces the opponent to position their minions accordingly if they wish to negate the spawn.

[eudaimonia]

Blightbind
Abyssian Spell
1 Mana

Choose an enemy minion on friendly Shadow Creep. It can no longer move.

Purpose

• Give Cassyva a more flavorful removal option while encouraging a grindier version of Cassyva Control. Also, encourage more thoughtful play of Sphere of Darkness, and higher-stakes punishment for enemy movement on Shadow Creep.

[stewiehs]

Shadowstep
Vetruvian Spell
1 Mana
Teleport your General to a random unoccupied corner. Draw a card.

Explanation:

This is a pretty simple design and reminiscent of the Mist Walking spell. It’s an effect that’s gonna give additional options to slower decks that want breathing space currently struggling the most in this meta environment… Provides a card that’s good with artifact strategies (mostly Ankh) and also replaces itself so it’s not a dead card at any time (looking at you stone to spears). Lastly this is bonkers for Zooch’s Amazing Race…

[johnbob78]

Vanguard’s Honor
4 Mana Lyonar Spell
Give a Minion +3/+5
Whenever this minion deals damage, move the damaged enemy back 1 space, if they cannot move back one space, deal two damage.

Basically a defensive buff to a minion that can disrupt the opponents positioning or allow you to break through their lines. Its secondary effect can also force your opponent to split their minions apart lest they take extra damage from attacks. It costs the same as Afterblaze, but it doesn’t buff as much in exchange for the added affect.