Card Design Contest May/June

[attheedge]

Introduction
Hello everyone, and welcome to this 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: 05/25
Jury Evaluations: 05/25 - 06/05
Community Voting: 06/05 - 06/25
Next Card Design Contest: 07/05

Prompt:

Design a minion that has 0 attack.

• It may gain attack over time or when a special condition is fulfilled.

---

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 - Orb reward + Forum Badge “Design God” + Place in the jury

2nd place - Orb reward + Place in the jury

3rd place - 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
  @RyanH
  @seraphicreaper

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

[thematsjo]

Windblade Companion
Lyonar Rare Minion
3 Mana / 0 Attack / 5 Health
Zeal: Has Attack equal to your General’s.

Reasoning
Think of this minion as a kind of shadow boxer, mimic or alter ego, it matches your General’s attack at any one time as long as they are nearby. I actually came up with this last week (good timing I guess) as a card to promote an Artifact-based Lyonar deck with built-in Zeal support, maybe it’ll even give Sunstone Bracers a boost? Normally, building up Artifact advantage doesn’t help you out with building board presence, but with the Companion you have the potential for a lot of power at a low cost, provided you can maintain those Artifacts (Dawn’s Eye, anyone?). On the other side of the spectrum there’s synergy with Sunforge Lancer for more power on board, but with an up-front cost. And the Zeal effect is mutually exclusive with buffs ie Divine Bond is negated as long as the Companion is adjacent to your General xD.

Plus I like the idea of warriors fighting in unison, matching or at least coordinating their moves to one another. I hope you do too.

So that’s my submission this time around, cheers!

Mockup

[bublublub]

Ethereal Simulacrum
Vetruvian Dervish
3 mana 0/5
Rush, summon dervish. Whenever this minion attacks, summon a Wind Dervish on a random nearby space.

This minion is a support to Obelisk Vet archetype. This card alone is basically a costlier Ethereal Obelisk with legs, which does not seem to be a big deal, but when coupled with other attack buffs like Fireblaze Obelisk and Scion’s Wishes, this minion can spawn a Wind Dervish the round it is played, making it a threat in different ways.

This minion is a fusion of several unused/underused ideas, such as “obelisk on legs”, on-damage effects, and alternative ways to summon Wind Dervishes.

Note that this minion is not a Structure, so it could move and attack. Also, this minion spawns Dervish even during the opponent’s turn (they disappear at the end of the turn they’re spawned), as a means of movement disruption.

Edit: Took a long thought about this. This card may be a bit too strong with a good setup. But I guess it’s fine, in the same fashion how Falcius is considered okay - a certain general/archetype is underplayed, so it is justifiable to give it a card slightly over the power curve.

[alplod]

Kaido Kunoichi / Songhai minion / 1 mana / (0/2)
Backstab(3), Rush.
The vessel for saberspine, ethereal blades, KE, MDS, mirror meld. Will not attack if not buffed, so combo oriented.

Will not be the same problem as baconator, since backstab.

Should look like a simple young girl. When attacks should do some crazy acrobatics with short knives appearing from nowhere.

Reasoning - there’s not much burst in hai nowadays. I miss it.

Naming Decision

We do already have Kaido Assasin. It may be safe to assume that some women do also have similar training. Kunoichi is a term for a “female ninja” in japanese culture, who were more trained in espionage than in assasination, however were able to use their martial arts with the help of some easily consealed weapons like hairpins. Gamewise it makes the attack of such unit unpredictable. If you’re interested in kunoichi you may lurk e.g. wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunoichi

[galaxydueler]

3 Mana
0/3
Magmar

Silithar Diviner

Gains 3 attack every time a friendly egg spawns.

This is an Idea I’ve had for a while, and finally the theme works with it. Basically just eggmar support, and it snowballs as you suicide your minions into things.

Also this + chrysalis burst at endgame

[narasimha]

Battlewrought Duelist
Lyonar
4 mana
0/7
After taking damage, gain Attack equal to damage taken.

Works well with Lyonar healing and/or buffs. Can add up a lot of value over time, but is vulnerable to heavy hitters and of course dispel.

[longshot405]

Blightling
Abyssian Minion
1 Mana (0/1)
Dying Wish: The nearest enemy minion becomes 0 attack and gains this ability.

[details=Details]Although clearly aimed as a support minion for swarm abyssian, this card can still have use in Cassyva decks. Blightling is a defensive card that can suicide into a threatening enemy minion to help reduce its strength. It’s usefulness is balanced in how it will not greatly impact minions with lasting effects, (such as Kelaino, Decimus, Spelljammer, etc.). Furthermore Blightling grants a copy its unique ability to the minion it infects, allowing your opponent to perpetuate the effect.

For this reason, the card is better in swarm Lilithe. Firstly, the card is quick to trigger effects like Shadowdancer. Secondly, swarm Lilithe frequently runs minions with powerful effects as opposed to large bodies, meaning having a minion’s power reduced to 0 does not greatly hinder her. [/details]

[thefirstgokun]

Idol of Massacre
Abyssian Structure
2 Mana 0/4
Whenever your General destroys a minion, summon a Wraithling nearby.

Reasoning

Basically a Bloodmoon Priestess that is limited by your General’s ability to remove enemies. It can be played early and provides a value generator that is difficult to remove but not too snowbally.

[nwardezir]

Mech Factory
Neutral Structure
4 mana 0/6
Put a Mech Minion into your action bar at the end of your turn.
Dying Wish : your Mech Progress is set to 0%

Details

Helps building a Mechaz0r but if your opponent kills it before the end, it’s a reset. Also once Mechaz0r is done, can be killed to start building a second …

[kelvindagr8]

The Lover
Neutral, Minion
5 mana 0/4
Opening Gambit: Summon The Beloved on a nearby space.

If The Beloved dies, transform ALL nearby units into 0/1 Mutilated Corpses and transform The Lover into a 7/7 The Forsaken.

Details

A fun little card, isn’t it? Combo’d with a removal on your own beloved will result in an 8 mana AOE ball of death.

Additional Details
Mutilated Corpse
Neutral, Minion
1 Mana, 0/1 (Token)
Nearby Minions cannot attack OR counterattack The Forsaken.
(Nearby minions gain debuff called: Overwhelming Fear, but lose it when they move away.)
Behaves like Magmar eggs: cannot move or attack, even when attack is positive.

The Beloved
Neutral, Minion
3 Mana, 3/5 (Token)
If The Lover dies, this unit can no longer move.

The Forsaken
Neutral, Minion
3 Mana, 7/7 (Token)
Transform any minions destroyed by this one into a 0/1 Mutilated Corpse (owned by your general).

edit: beloved hp buffed to 5 so something like draining wave isn’t stupid

[sandclock]

Sleeping Titan
Neutral minion
5 mana 0/10
Cant be targeted by spells.When you play a minion that costs 6 or more,become a 5/15 with Provoke.

“Only the ones, who wield power beyond our understanding, can awaken this ancient.”

[details=???]

Triggers only once.Big investment for big minions. 5/15 is very strong, but most 6+ mana minions(pretty much everything exept makantor and spectral) are not. As the experience shows, getting a 6 mana minion that does not instantly swing the tides is very costly.[/details]

[destroy666]

Rumbling Coffin / Abyssian Structure / 4 Mana / (0/1)
Dying Wish: Summon a 3/2 Skyra Soul on this space. Bloodbond: Summon a Rumbling Coffin on a random nearby space.

Skyra Soul / Abyssian Token Minion / 2 Mana / (3/2)

[details=Reasoning]This is an obvious buff to swarm Lilithe decks, which suffer from being vulnerable to cards like Skorn, Frostburn or Plasma Storm. It’s a similar concept to Nerubian Egg from HS. This card protects your Wraithlings and requires opponents to make a choice - either clear/dispel the coffin ASAP (you can basically bait them) or ignore it and give you blocking bodies, synergy for spells and a possibility to Skorn it themselves with a Bloodmoon/Shadowdancer on the board. Its main flaw? You want to use it with BBS, which costs 5 mana altogether and that is slow with no immediate board impact, unless you use a card like Lurking Fear, which would maybe become playable. Plus it’s vulnerable to mass dispel cards such as Lightbender. High reward (exponential growth!), high risk.

Of course the balance of this card is heavily affected by other BBS-related cards that will appear, e.g. cards that will let you use BBS more often will make it much more powerful.

I chose to make the coffin a structure since it has no attack and ofc it’s a logical choice in the first place. Also, more structures would be nice.[/details]

How it could look

The coffin one is quite obvious, the name speaks for itself. The soul could be a woman-shaped pissed off ghost.

[whitewinterwizard]

Sandportal Obelysk
Vetruvian Structure
6 mana 0/6
Whenever you summon a minion from action bar, put a copy of it into you action bar.

Reasoning
Vet lategame draw support. Still think vet lack of faction draw ( dreamshaper need specific golem build).

[mmf]

Soapy
1 mana
0/2 neutral battle pet
Can’t be damaged by non-battle pet minions. Whenever this minion moves, summon a 1/1 sudz on a nearby space.

Sudz
1 mana
1/1 battle pet

Summary

Duelyst needs more cute battle pets.

[stretchmarx]

Alter of Shackles
0/6
3 mana
Abyssian structure

The attack power of enemy minions nearby this one is 0.

Basically a means for Abyssian to stall if needed but can’t do damage itself. Forces the opponent to burn a dispel or removal to get at your more important minions but cannot protect them from spells or range.

[overcharge]

Librarian
Neutral Minion
2mana 0/4
Dying Wish: Draw a card.

Reasoning : There are not much minions that are best to leave alive for your opponent. Either leave this alive and potentially be buffed up (or allowing some reach against backline threats), or kill it and allow your opponent to draw a card.

[sviel]

Darkspine Mistress
Abyssian Minion
2 mana 0/3
Provoke. If this minion is on friendly Shadow Creep at the end of your turn, it gains +3 health.

[details=Reasoning]
Positional strength is lots of fun. I like this minion because it gains lots of value by standing on Creep but you can only cash in by laying Creep paths or staying fairly immobile. It also gives Cassyva some early beef to work with that isn’t total dead weight later on. However, since Provoke doesn’t scale particularly well (late-game minions win with effects), it shouldn’t add too much late-game power. Since it’s cheap, it isn’t too painful to have it dispelled but the 0 attack means an opponent with an established board won’t need to use a removal.

Art
I’m thinking a fancier Klaxon. Perhaps Klaxon hair with clothing more similar to Blood Baronette.[/details]

[degenerator]

Heatwave

Vetruvian Dervish
5 mana 0/2
Rush. Bond: destroy all friendly dervishes and gain their attack and health.

[details=Reasoning] Where do I start? This card is going to be amazing if it can work properly. Hasn’t this ever occurred to you? You have a board full of obelisks but your wind dervish spawn too far away to have any effect. This card can work around that problem. Also it doesn’t disappear next turn thus giving you extra value and forcing your opponent to remove it. Furthermore I believe it is well balanced because of three factors.

1. It doesn’t work if you don’t have a board full of dervishes. In that scenario its a 0/2 that is basically a “dead” card in your hand. You have to play other dervish cards (Orb weaver, Sand Howler, Iron Dervish etc)
2. It requires a specific deck type and is NOT an auto-include. Unlike Spectral Revenant and Mekantor Warbeast (which are simply good by them selves) Heatwave will require some time and board development.
3. Stats and mana cost are great for his ability. You are basically combining all of your dervishes attack and health values into one card. The best thing to do before playing this card would be to buff you dervishes health so that they don’t die when you hit the enemy General (can be achieved by using Inner Oasis, Windstorm Obelysk etc) and then play Heatwave.

Pros:

• Has the potential to inflict a lot of damage. Possibly instantly killing your opponent.
• Has synergy with Dervishes a tribe that is neglected (not talking about Wind Dervishes) and with Zirix’s BBs
• Fun and exciting card. Not overpowered and frustrating to play against
• Is a big threat similar to Abyssal Juggernaut
• 2 Iron Dervishes are enough for this to be a good card (4/6)
• Windstorm Obelysk has finally some use since you don’t want to suicide your dervishes
• Can buff it with spells for example scion’s 3rd wish

Cons:

• Forces you to play a specific deck.
• Fairly predictable. Your opponent will play around it.
• Hard to maintain a big board. AoE is certainly a huge problem.
• Can be dispelled
• Useless in Gauntlet
• Heatwave into Heatwave is impossible
  [/details]

[details=How it could look]

Sorry I can’t draw pixel art but I imagine him to be like a mechanical serpent crawling using only 2 hands. For reference Heatwave might look like the skull crawlers from King Kong only more robotic and rocky. As for an animation when he comes into play maybe it would be cool if all your dervishes melted and then joined together to create him.[/details]

Changes

Changed the cost from 6 to 5 since I believe 6 mana is too much for such a conditional card.

Feedback is always wanted

[edward4244]

Argenor’s Martyr
Lyonar rare minion
2 mana 0/5
Provoke
This minion’s attack is 0 and it can be healed over his healt limit

I came up with this thinking about healyonar decks, this card is value oriented (which fits perfectly lyonar’s theme).
the purpose is to give a good stalling tool to heal decks.
I made it a 2 mana 0/5 looking at the various buff already present in the faction:

Afterblaze: 0/9 for 5
Life coil: 0/10 for 5

They are all pretty standard stats compared to mana and cards cost.
Then i decided to add in (with his effect) all types of healing:

Holy immolation (this is already a great tempo swing, with this it adds a lot of value too)
0/9 and aoe for 6 mana
Sundrop elixir 0/10 for 3 mana
Zir’an bbs 0/8 for 3 mana
Healing mystic 0/7 for 4 mana
And lastly
Great with Martyrdom

Actually the over-heal effect is not dispellable as that is treated as the effective healt of the minion.
This is to allow this to be an aggressive card with the right combo: dispel and divine bond.

it may seem broken but remember it requires more cards to deal more or less the same damage of a divine bonded ironcliffe.

Argenor’s martyr + sundrop + zir’an bbs 0/13 for 4

• Enemy’s turn
  Dispel and divine bond 5 mana

13/13 for 9 mana and 4 cards (if not touched during enemy’s turn)

[oranos]

Bloodmoon Altar
4 mana
0/5
Abyssian structure
Deathwatch: at the end of your turn reduce the attack of all enemy minions by 1 until the start of your next turn

This structure puts a New spin on the abyssian keyword and, with enough sacrificial wraithlings, will make your enemy powerless. Suicide a wraithling into the general and all of a sudden that heartseeker cant attack without being buffed. Suicide 2 and that army of iron dervishes is no longer a threat. The trade off is that its a 4 mana structure that does nothing else and its effects can be dispelled by lightbender and such. Countered by rush, grow, dispel, and anything that doesnt depend on units.

after some thought, i decided that since most units dont survive more than a few turn anyway and that this unit is useless without an established board, the deathwatch gives the wraithlings the edge they need since this minion doesnt actually have any way of destroying minions or dealing damage. not to mention that it would give the game a bit of extra depth since you could dispel your own minions for a surprise lethal. With the limited time things stay debuffed it wont run away with the game on its own as rhe enemy can just get in position and wait out the effect