Duelyst Forums

Card Design Contest: November

Crystal Crusader
Vanar minion
5 mana (6/5)
Bloodbond: deal 2 damage to all enemies in front of this.

I personally think that there’s space for some interesting 5-drops in the game. The effect makes use of the way in which vanar is able to place opponent minions in an unconfortable positioning. The stat-line now matches Frosthorn Rhyno stats. Players can avoid major damage with proper positioning like war bird. A prevoius version of the card was only able to target enemy minions

4 Likes

I’m always coming up with weird card ideas but have never entered one of these before. Probably should refine it a bit but whatever. :slight_smile:

Leech
Neutral Minion
4 mana 3/2
Your opponent’s bloodborn spell costs 2.
Bloodbond: Gains +1 health and deals damage equal to its health to your general.

Explanation

I love cards with tradeoffs or negative effects to balance their positive ones. Doubling the cost of the opponent’s BBS is a big deal, so this minion has an escalating cost the more you use yours. I see it having potential for a lot of interesting combos, and even “backfire” situations where the enemy uses it against you. Thematically, it is meant to convey the idea of draining blood. Feedback welcomed. :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Mist Form
Songhai Spell
1 Mana

Your Bloodborn spell becomes: ‘Teleport a friendly minion or General up to two spaces.’ If already in Mist Form: Or an enemy minion or General up to one space.

This card gives some nice support to Kaleos by increasing the flexibility of his bloodborn spell, which is currently pretty much only used to move a unit to safety, into backstab positioning, or for juxtaposition utility. It seems balanced, too, because bloodborn spells refresh every other turn during early and mid game, and this card also limits your action bar. It adds a nice layer of tactical complexity. In the second stage of Mist Form, smart usage of your BBS will disrupt enemy positioning and give you a positional advantage. This design sees a shift away from the typical Songhai out-of-hand and ignore-the-board burst, favoring players who can optimize the positioning utility this card offers.

3 Likes

Dragon at the end| Neutral minion | 9 mana | 7/11
Airdrop, Frenzy Bloodbond: Destroy the edge columns of the board.

[details=Explanation]HOW IT WORKS


Every time you use your bbs, a bit of the board is destroyed. The diagram below should help you visualise what happens. The first time you use your BBS the orange squares are removed from the game. The 2nd time you use it the pink squares are destroyed. After 4 uses the board ends up being a single column, and on the 5th use there is not board left!

  • Note1: Any minion or general on the squares would also be killed.
  • Note2: Yes, this means thats that it is possible to kill your opponent from full life. (E.g: if you played this guy and then next turn you play Inner Focus Envybear + BBS you would instantly win the game).
  • Note3: If both Generals or on an edge column the game ends in a draw.

Balance/ design notes:

I made it 9 mana to give the opponent a chance to react, which should help make losing to this card feel less cheesy. Basically, I like the idea of allowing some sort of otk combo deck to exist with this guy but I don’t think the combo should be too easy to pull of. In this case, winning on a single turn is probably hard unless of course the enemy general is already on the edge.

While one turn combos are difficult, 2 turn instakills are easy, so you when you see this guy you better dispel it!

9 mana is a huge investment in a card (especially for something that does not immediately impact the board), which is why this guy also has some nice stats and other abilties.
[/details]

8 Likes

Atar’s Effigy
Vetruvian Minion
4 mana 3/4
Bloodbond: Sacrifice a Dervish. Summon a Storm Dervish with rush in its place, it cannot move and disappears at the end of turn.

Storm Dervish
1 mana 4/2

Purpose:
Requires you to have good positioning and gives a good use for poop dervish fodder beyond trading with other 2 drops.

1 Like

Exiled Nethermancer
Neutral Arcanyst
3 mana 3/4
Opening Gambit: Switch player’s Bloodborn Spells.
Dying Wish: Switch player’s Bloodborn Spells

7 Likes

Blood Weaver
Neutral Arcanyst
6 Mana 3/5

Whenever you cast a 1-mana spell, it replaces your Bloodborn spell.
Dying Wish: Restore your original Bloodborn spell.

Explanation:
One of the main advantages of BB spells are that they don’t take a card to play. So, I figured I’d think of how to expand upon this aspect of BB spells. I decided to severely understat it, as the effect is potentially huge, and I also had the effect end at death, so that you couldn’t play it then regenerate 5hp every turn thereafter. Even so, I’m not sure about the mana cost and stats.

2 Likes

Heart Stopper
Vetruvian Artifact
2 mana

your general gains +1 attack. whenever your general deals damage, increase your opponents bloodborn spell cooldown by one turn.

[details=explaination]it fits with vetruvians “time” theme, delaying how quickly and often they can use their bloodborn spell. It prevents the BBS spam that some generals rely on to close out a game (faie, Reva, argeon) while not really punishing those with more strategic BBS (sajj).
note: i am undecided on the name.[/details]

3 Likes

Redoing Concept entirely; apparently in revision I duped someone else’s entry 2x. [when will this unintentional madness end?]

Gravity Beast
Vanar Vespyr
4 mana / 3/5
Infiltrate: Bloodbond: Pull another minion in front of this minion.

Infiltrate often finds itself having issues getting online, since the opposing general will usually just pull themselves and their units onto your side to cause trouble. With Gravity beast, you now have a mechanism to bring the fight back where you want it: their side. Via infiltrate, it makes your bloodborn spell able to pull a unit over to near it, placing it in the right spot to get dealt with by your other infiltrating minions. Was originally going to pull generals as well, but this was decided against based on thoughts about the design space of the game. As it currently is, it forces your opponent to play on their side of the board, though, and provides a solid anchor through which other units can be summoned to infiltrate, and demands an answer quickly before it can spin out.

2 Likes

Sanguine Taskmaster
Neutral Minion
4 Mana 3/5
Bloodborn spells refresh every turn and costs health instead of mana.

This bloody minion kicks the game into overdrive and really emphasizes the generals identity by allowin “free” bbs for everyone every turn. It should also be a pretty good stealth starhorn buff with Decimus.

5 Likes

Catalyzer
Neutral Arcanyst
3 mana, 2/3
Numeric values for ALL Bloodborn spells are doubled.

[details=Purpose]This card is intended to make BBS much more impactful while the creature is in play, making the selection of generals more significant and feel more central to deck design. Doubled numeric values means that Kaleos now blinks 4 spaces, Kara’s minions get +2/+2 when played, and Zirix starts spawning 4/4’s. As written, I don’t believe it gives Reva two Heartseekers or Starhorn two draws, since those are just “a” draw or minion rather than a specific number; I could see the actual implementation going either way. I like it as is because it makes the card better for certain generals even though it is symmetric. Like Spelljammer, it benefits both players but gives the one who plays it an advantage in timing; however, since the direct impact could be much higher on a given turn (Kara dropping 3/3 Jax and friends comes to mind) it is also slightly easier to kill at 3 life. The Arcanyst subtype makes it particularly interesting in Arcanyst builds and thematically fits with its concept as a minion that “pumps up” Bloodborn magic, and allows it to combo with Owlbeast’s survivability boost. The language may need to be tweaked as I do not believe there is an already existing card to base the “numeric values” part off of.

Edited to add: Having multiple copies of this card in play as written would probably result in stacked effects, which could get pretty crazy but due to the symmetry of the card, the low life, and the timing limitations on BBS I think this will lead to more enjoyable game states rather than less enjoyable ones.[/details]

1 Like

Caulophryne
Abyssian card 3 mana 2/4
Bloodbound: friendly minions standing on your own shadowcreep tiles gain +1/+1

Explanation
While your opponent plays around your creep tiles your minions gain a buff from the creeps you created.

6 Likes

Crimson Impaler
Songhai Mininion
3 Mana (2/4)
Backstab (1); Whenever this minion is moved by a spell effect reactivate it

This minion only works with Kaleos’s BBS but that was my intent. Reva’s BBS is really strong and I wanted a minion that provided an excuse to run Kaleaos. I’m aware that MDS and Juxtaposition also trigger the effect but if felt weird mentioning Kaleos’s BBS specifically in the card text.

Alright let’s give it another try.

Plaguespreader
Abyssian, Minion
3 mana (3/3)

Bloodbond: Turn a random nearby space into Shadow Creep.

I would like to see more reliable creep generation for Abyssian as well as some good 3 drops which the faction lacks.

The stats are fair for the cost and the ability is conditional so I don’t see any balance issues.

Bloodbound Silencer
Neutral Minion
6 Mana- 5/6
When either player uses their Bloodborn Spell, put a Blood Siphon in both players hands.

Blood Siphon:
10 Mana Spell
You cannot cast ANY spells (including this) while this is in your hand. If you replace this card deal 4 damage to your General.

I know this fits much better with last month’s theme, but I thought the Idea was cool so I wanted to make it fit.

Basically it’s a card that, upon activation of a BBS will put a card that prevents spells from being played in both players hands. You have to replace the card to play spells again and if you do, you take 4 damage. I also like it’s synergy with Sphinx as, if a player has riddle being cast around, they can do this at 9 mana: Cast Riddle -> Summon Blood Silencer -> Use BBS to lock down the opponents replace and their spells. All for taking 4 damage! Furthermore, the threat of the replace lockdown can make people wary of keeping riddle in their hand.

Also thanks @excogitator for pointing out the Sphynx Synergy

Kills Spellhai
Hurts Cassyva
And maims the options of every other deck.

1 Like

Blood rise obelyst
Vetruvian Artifact
3 mana 0/5
Bloodbond: summon a Bloodfire dervish
Summon Dervish

Bloodfire Dervish
2/2
When this dervish kills a enemy summon a Bloodfire totem

Purpose:
I love spinecleaver but its usually comes out pretty late in my game. Having a semi early game card would give people who like blood fire totems a way to get them out earlier. It can still summon wind dervish but is a little easier to take out then normal obelyst.

Echo Obelisk
Vetruvian Structure
3 Mana 0/6
Summon Dervish. Bloodbond: Summon a Wind Dervish nearby each friendly Obelisk.

Purpose:
A simple design that further reinforces the Obelisk Vetruvian archetype. While the card is decent on its own, it is most devastating with multiple Obelisks.

Both Fireblaze Obelisk and Windstorm Obelisk require 1 mana more than Ethereal Obelisk does, and so is Echo Obelisk. Also, if Bloodborn Spell is used at the turn when Echo Ebolisk is dropped down, this card has an instant effect of summoning a new batch of Wind Dervishes - which is symmetric to the fact that Fireblaze Obelisk and Windstorm Obelisk somewhat have instant effects to the board.

Sunforge Squire
Lyonar Minion
1 Mana, 2/1
Bloodbond: Give this minion +2 health
Zeal: At the end of your turn restore 1 health to your General.

Purpose: Healyonar decks need cards they can play for tempo in the early game, this card also benefits zoo and aggro Argeon lists. It can also be played in the mid-late game with a BBS to get a 2/3 that restores 1 health to your general. I think of this card as Lyonar’s Katara, or Abyssal Crawler.

Knowlbear
Magmar Minion
2 mana, 2/2
Bloodbond: Knowbear gets +1/+1 for each card in your opponent’s action bar.

Discussion:

This is a minion that will be interesting more for Starhorn, while still be interesting enough as a creature in general.

It has the potential to grow a lot if deployes turn 5+, but still be useful early on.

I am still wondering about the mana cost and baseline stats and will re-edit it after receiving feedback.

Meteor Artificer / Vetruvian Minion / 4 mana 2/5

Your minions with Blast gain +1 attack.
Bloodbond: Minions with Blast may attack in diagonal lines this turn.

Reasoning: I think the blast mechanic feels great, and would like more cards to support it. I’m very keen to see diagonal movements and attacks be added to the game, and this seems like a fun way to do it.