Card Designs by Nocturnal Advantage (for W.A. Task 2)

[Gondorian]

These card designs were produced by Nocturnal Advantage for Task 2 of the Wulven Apprentice. After you have reviewed them and those of the other team, Random Heroes, please cast your vote as to which team you thought did the better job.


Elemental Hero and 10 Class Cards
























Rationale for Design Decisions

To help you judge their cards, the team were given the opportunity to share design insights on the cards they produced. What they wrote has been pasted here verbatim:


Xerius

We made xerius under the idea that the only existing mill deck in the game right now is not interactive and essentially just forces your opponent to sit there and do nothing while you just chip away at their deck card by card.* We wanted a more interactive mill deck that forces the decks controller to make not so straight forward plays to reach their deck out goal.*
-Tom

The idea of a hero discarding from the opponent’s deck will make a mill deck viable. It can have great synergy with some of the cards already in Shadow Era and with a few of our other card ideas. We felt that simply milling a card was not quite enough for a hero, so we added the two damage to opposing target.
-Sam


Kinetic Expulsion

This is another card that fits the mill theme of the hero we created.* It also allows elemental decks another option to deal with problematic cards that is not really seen much currently in Shadow Era, and that is stopping a card before it hits the field.* This card can be a very good counter to certain decks that require cards to be drawn in a certain order, or also wreak havoc on toolbox decks.
-Tom

Purpose – This card goes great with the mill theme. Elementals did not have many spells and this card seemed to fit perfectly. It is not too powerful because you must choose between taking the board or milling the opponent.*
-Sam


Orb of Augury

This card was made for multiple reasons.* The obvious being its synergy with our hero.* With this elemental deck doesn't have as many options to deal with your opponents allies head on, we felt that orb is another trick to put off possible threats and also peek at what they have to deal with it before hand. These small tricks make this a card that made the final cut.
-Tom

Purpose – This deck synergizes very well with our new hero “Xerius” and several other cards. It has multiple uses. You can use the card to pick the card you want to discard with your hero. We gave the ability to each player to keep from giving Elementals too much power. The card can also be used to correct your own draw.
-Sam


Soul Salvage

For this card, my basic idea was to design a card which would specifically benefit our hero, Xerius, by interacting with his “mill” ability, but which would also be usable for Elementalis and Zaladar. This design went through several iterations. Originally, the idea was to have it target any ally in the opponent's graveyard, which was later changed to only letting Soul Salvage target the topmost ally in the opponent's graveyard, but we decided after some play-testing that giving Elementals a way to get an Aeon Stormcaller on their side would be really annoying at the very least, and quite possibly problematic for the health of the format. We also tinkered with the notion of increasing the resource cost for Soul Salvage to seven or eight, and having it retain the ability to target any ally without exclusion, but we ultimately decided that this was the cleanest implementation of the idea. I think this is a good idea, because it also keeps design space open for making powerful human allies that cost five or more resources without the need for worrying about if they would be “fair with Soul Salvage.”

I thought this artwork was a good fit, because it seemed to match the general “Elemental aesthetic,” and to visually suggest a creature being pulled out of a lake of fire to do the bidding of some magical entity that is pulling it back into the plane of life as we know it by means of wild electrical magic. This seemed both “very Elemental” to me, and also to fit the flavor of a reanimation spell. I was proud that we found something that seemed more “Elemental reanimation” and less “necromancy.”
-Caleb


Astral Calamity

I knew as soon as I had this idea that I wanted this guy to be our rare. I wanted something that would have a lot of “wow factor,” and potentially appeal to both newer and more experienced players alike. Moreover, I wanted to create the feeling of a “chase rare,” something that would help move a lot of product. I envisioned an ally that would seem perhaps even overpowered on first blush, but who would be subtly restrained from being “too good” by means of some mitigating factors. I also wanted him to introduce a powerful new mechanic, 'barrage,' because I believe that powerful new abilities are generally a source of excitement within the fan base for any given CCG. Astral Calamity is what I consider a high-risk, high-reward card. If you can keep him around, Astral Calamity should provide a good source of board control, and help keep your opponent under pressure. However, at only three health points, he should be easier to dispose of than any other ally that costs six resources to play. Since his secondary ability gives all friendly allies +1 attack and +1 health when he kills an opposing ally, Astral Calamity is probably optimal in a deck that uses a fair amount of other allies with a fairly aggressive overall strategy. Because of this, it is my belief that a savvy player will often be able to draw out his opponent's removal cards before playing Astral Calamity.

Basically, I wanted the card to offer this trade-off: “When you play me, I will probably demand an immediate answer from the opponent, or else they may start to fall behind in board position. However, I'm expensive and relatively easy for the opponent to answer.”

We chose this artwork after much deliberation. We looked at several others, which were alternately dismissed for “not looking Elemental enough,” “being already licensed to ngmoco,” “looking too durable/ tough to kill,” “looking a bit too much like Furrion Terror,” and “not inciting enough fanboy lust.” I wanted the art to match the flavor of, “This is a powerful ally who can deal a lot of damage, but he may have some weak points which make him easier to kill.” I'd like to think we nailed that.
-Caleb


Abyssal Blade

This is another card that was designed to specifically support our hero, Xerius. My goals for this card were two-fold: Since Xerius' ability only deals two points of damage upon activation, I felt that he needed a viable weapon as a source of supplemental ally control. Also, we wanted to reinforce the “milling” as a viable path to victory for Xerius, without having him be a source of frustration for players like Millstalker was before the release of Dark Prophecies. Towards this end, we wanted Xerius to reinforce interactive gameplay, because my group surmised that the most annoying part about the “Millstalker” deck was that it fostered a non-interactive mode of gameplay. We wanted Xerius to encourage using allies, and for him to actively seek paths to victory over the opponent rather than playing as a deck which is designed to stall or prolong the game until the opponent is pretty much out of ways to win.

The art actually came before the concept for this card, since I knew that Scarypet was worth keeping an eye on, and this was one of his unlicensed pieces. The artwork seemed very Elemental-looking, and gave me the idea of a sword made out of antimatter, or infused with a black hole energy. I took this idea as a concept for the “milling” mechanic and ran with it, and this “void/ abyss/ black hole” flavor gave me the idea for Voidgut.
-Caleb

[Gondorian]

Voidgut

Voidgut is another card which is designed to specifically strengthen Xerius' “mill” ability, while still being viably usable for other Elemental heroes. This card began its inception as Tom's idea, which was a 2/5 ally for five resources who would return an opposing ally to the top of its opponent's deck when summoned. I felt that this was 'strictly better' than Darkwood Wraith, and that 2/5 was too significant of a board presence for an ally with this ability. Furthermore, I wondered when I saw his idea if there was a way to fairly apply this ability to a smaller ally. I believe that there are relatively few powerful allies in Shadow Era which cost only two resources to summon, and so I took the concept and tried to come up with a fair way to apply this ability to a cheap ally. I ended up settling on the idea of an ally with very small attack and health stats who held a miniature black hole in his belly. When he gets killed, he releases this void energy, sucking an opposing ally back into the aether. However, I knew that if this ability were able to trigger during the opponent's turn, it would fundamentally alter the dynamic of Shadow Era, in that there are no spells or effects which activate during one opponent's turn and require a targeting decision from the other opponent. I did not want to alter this aspect of the gameplay, since I believe it is very beneficial to online gameplay. I envisioned nightmarish scenarios wherein players would deliberately fail to target an opposing ally in an effort to run the timer out on their opponent's turn, and I decided that there was no way in hell I would be responsible for that type of chicanery. Furthermore, I suspected that Voidgut would be too good to be costed at two resources if he did not provide the opposing player with a relatively easy way to get out of his triggered ability. I figured if he died easily and his ability did not trigger during the opponent's turn, this would both provide the necessary degree of power balance, and also avoid fundamentally altering the mechanics of Shadow Era's gameplay and/or creating possibilities for running out the opponent's timer.

We kicked around a few different pieces of artwork for this guy. There was one I liked, but members of my team complained it didn't seem “Elemental looking,” and that it “looked too much like Abe from Oddworld.” (I swear, it wasn't that bad, lol) We ended up settling on this piece by means of a group vote, and I'm honestly happy with it. I wanted something that looked like he might be more dangerous dead than alive, as if his unassuming physical attributes were hiding something more deadly on the inside. There was some level of concern that the artwork we chose in the end looked “too three-dimensional/ computer-rendered” to match the general aesthetic of Shadow Era artwork, but I think it works very well. I envisioned this guy seeing a lot of play, and so I wanted an iconic, easily recognizable piece of art for it. I think that every aspect of the artwork is nearly ideal, except that if I were to commission the piece for this purpose, I would probably have them leave out the weird, disembodied giant hand floating behind the main guy.
-Caleb


Shard of Recurrence

This card is designed to further the "Shard" archetype. Zantonite's card text gave the feeling that more shard cards would be designed in the future. This card is designed to combo nicely with both abilities of Zantonite as well as the previous shard, and can be used to retrieve important artifacts that many elemental decks consider very important. Zantonite's ability to destroy an artifact it hardly used, with this card one could use Zantonite to destroy Shard of Power to gain 1/1, then replay Shard of Power to keep boosting Zantonite. Zantonite is the perfect target for this card, as his life would not be decreased since this card has Shard in its name. Shard of Recurrence serves to make both Zantonite and Shard of Power more playable, but will also work with other important artifacts such as Infinity Core or Antimatter that often get targeted for destruction by opponents, allowing a player to keep their tempo and possibly gain an advantage, even by getting back an artifact discard by Antimatter. The art shows a small being going into a large cave and a shard of crystal glowing with power. To me that art signified someone asking a shard for help and the shard resonating with power, in this case the player asking the shard to bring back their destroyed artifact.
-Sean


Forced Offering

Our new hero design is to use Mill to both remove options from the opponent and get their deck closer to 0 cards for more damage. In the late game, it can come down to the wire and every draw counts. In addition, by mid to late game it is very common for players to skip their sacrifice stage to keep their options open. Elementals tend to like to mess with opponents options, with cards like Mind Control and Interference. With a few mill cards in effect, such as Xerious and Temporal Disturbance, the opponent will want to keep their options open late game and this card will limit their ability to do that by forcing them to Sacrifice a card. During a point in the game where they will not need to sacrifice, this will both limit their options and allow them to waste a possibly much needed card. To balance this potentially game changing card, the opponent is only forced to sacrifice if they hold more than one card. That way, the players will always have at least one option open to them each turn, stopping this card from creating a potential draw lock. In addition to going along with the elemental theme of disruption, it also allows for a card to have an effect on the Sacrifice mechanic itself, something that has yet to occur in the game. The fact that it also affects the player using it fits the theme with other Elemental cards, like Synchronicity or Temporal Disturbance, which both force the player to time playing the card correctly and to work around their own card. The art shows a chained up man in a ring of candles being forcibly sacrificed to a malevolent fire looking spirit(or in this case an Elemental). This fits both the card effect and the Elemental class perfectly, as the human obviously does not want to be sacrificed(the effect of the card) and the spirit looks very much like a member of the Elemental class.
-Sean


Mim Rickar

This ally was designed to create a new mechanic in the game. Elementals are famous for their card Mind Control which allows them to turn an ally against its opponent and makes their opponent very careful of which allies they summon against an elemental using opponent. I wanted to design a card that gave that same feeling of fear and caution that Mind Control did, and decided a copy effect could do just that, maybe even worse because this time instead of just taking damage and then losing that ally, your ally is copied and serving the opponent, giving your opponent access to that powerful ally you just summoned, whether human or shadow. To make sure this affect was no over powered, we made it into an ally at 5 cost. 5 is an expensive cost for an ally, especially one with only 2 attack points, and since it is an ally it cannot use its effect the first turn it is summoned, as Elementals don't have access to haste. If Mim Rickar can survive to the next turn, it still costs 4 resources to use its copy effect. This way, even though it could be seen as scarier than Mind Control, it still takes 9 resources and 2 turns to pull off, balancing it out. It is designed to be both extremely powerful as well as being balanced, and makes its player work to pull off its amazing power. Finally, Mim Rickar removes itself from play if it is killed, that way it cannot be combined with Infinity Core to constantly reuse a "Mind Control like" card. The art chosen for Mim Rickar fits its ability perfectly. It features a monster forming out of a Volcano, with its body and limbs being formed in the art from the lava and clay. This can represent Mim Rickar copying an opponent's creature's ability and stats, and changing its appearance to match what it has become.
-Sean


Ectoplasma

I made this card to specifically interact with our hero and also to play off a synergistic combo with synchronicity.* The mill decks that exist currently in the game are not very interactive to play against so I wanted to make a mill theme that was more fun for the opponent to play against but at the same time keeping the integrity of the theme intact.* Its small stats make it not a threat to deal with once it hits the field, but its effect gives it enough of a punch to warrant his spot on the list.* I also believe it adds a fresh playable 2 drop for elementals.

[Gondorian]

Feel free to offer feedback on the cards here for the team to read.

You may also use this thread to ask the team questions about their cards, in case of any ambiguity that might make them hard to judge.

[Rayzie]

Is Mim Rickar supposed to use shadow energy or resources to cast his ability? Your description said resources.

Also, are you saying that your opponent loses his ally, or you simply mimic it. Because the way I read the card description it basically just says you gain their stats and ability, which for taking 2 turns, and all the other costs incurred is well... Awful.

[Airact]

I think they went a bit too safe here.


A mill archetype is not going to be viable unless it can kill faster (or equally fast) than regularly bashing face or it has enough control power. Mill as an archetype is also defensive so it needs the control power to be able to delay the game long enough for it to kill with mill. The mill cards here (including the hero tbh) aren't threatening and I think they are too slow of a win condition to control towards, especially when they cannot control on their own. You will just run out of control cards because the opponent will just go "'k *turn guys sideways*".

Out of the cards the Shard is strictly the best one. A bit of a condition but it's reasonably costed and in the future can be really an interesting and powerful card. I like it, and if I had to choose one card out of all these to be in the game, I would choose this.

I also like Forced Offering quite a lot. It's interesting, potentially very powerful and a cool concept. Now make ways to abuse the crap out of it and my year will be made.

Soul Salvage deserves a mention also. I like my reanimations (Sooth knows I like to Unburial Rites/Reanimate my Angel of Serenities/Ionas depending on format) but in this case it's conditional and it's a tempo loss. The cost restriction is simply too much here. Sure it's your opponent's guy but that's a condition in itself (you can't combo to reanimate because of it, which is a future restriction) and I doubt anything the human race gets will be that powerful that it simply overrides the condition of it being in his bin and is still broken as all hell on your board.


I do like my mill and I like the ideas here but, in my opinion, the cards just aren't good enough.


Also why limit Barrage to two different targets? I think it's a risk enough to play it considering you cannot really protect it due to this game not having instant speed cards but to also have a bit of an average ability... It doesn't make for that great of a card. I think it would still not be overused even if it could just attack twice without them being to two targets. This definitely got my interest but it has 6 cost and chances are it deals 0 damage so I probably won't aggro with this thing. I would love to, though, and I think that was what you wanted from the card.

[ocnarb]

Well i realy don't like discarding and milling , but I will give my opinion on cards

Xerius
His ability looked UP at first for me, but thinking of Serena ability his ability looks balanced

Astral Calamity
Cost 6 is too much for me, I think 5 would be more balanced

Voidgut
Maybe make him 1/3?

Orb of Augury
Looks balanced

Mim Rickar
When the ability is used, it can attack and active abilities only on next turn right? And it copy original card stats right? I don't know... for 5 resources and 4 se, the cards looks weak

Soul Savage
I realy like this card, and looks balanced

Kinetic Expulsion
Looks balanced

Forced Offering
Looks balanced

Abyssal Blade
I think discarding 1 card would be enough

Ectoplasma
Looks balanced

Shard of Recurrence
Looks balanced

[betrayal4life]

I think they went a bit too safe here.


A mill archetype is not going to be viable unless it can kill faster (or equally fast) than regularly bashing face or it has enough control power. Mill as an archetype is also defensive so it needs the control power to be able to delay the game long enough for it to kill with mill. The mill cards here (including the hero tbh) aren't threatening and I think they are too slow of a win condition to control towards, especially when they cannot control on their own. You will just run out of control cards because the opponent will just go "'k *turn guys sideways*".

Out of the cards the Shard is strictly the best one. A bit of a condition but it's reasonably costed and in the future can be really an interesting and powerful card. I like it, and if I had to choose one card out of all these to be in the game, I would choose this.

I also like Forced Offering quite a lot. It's interesting, potentially very powerful and a cool concept. Now make ways to abuse the crap out of it and my year will be made.

Soul Salvage deserves a mention also. I like my reanimations (Sooth knows I like to Unburial Rites/Reanimate my Angel of Serenities/Ionas depending on format) but in this case it's conditional and it's a tempo loss. The cost restriction is simply too much here. Sure it's your opponent's guy but that's a condition in itself (you can't combo to reanimate because of it, which is a future restriction) and I doubt anything the human race gets will be that powerful that it simply overrides the condition of it being in his bin and is still broken as all hell on your board.


I do like my mill and I like the ideas here but, in my opinion, the cards just aren't good enough.


Also why limit Barrage to two different targets? I think it's a risk enough to play it considering you cannot really protect it due to this game not having instant speed cards but to also have a bit of an average ability... It doesn't make for that great of a card. I think it would still not be overused even if it could just attack twice without them being to two targets. This definitely got my interest but it has 6 cost and chances are it deals 0 damage so I probably won't aggro with this thing. I would love to, though, and I think that was what you wanted from the card.

I built the mill deck with our cards and tested everything over and over and trust me not only is this mill deck viableit is very dangerous and aa lot more fun to play against than millstalker

[Airact]

To me mill should be mostly it's own thing and not an extension to an existing playstyle. This mill is not that. In my opinion that's the difference between discarding and milling. Discarding eliminates resources (cards in his hand), milling doesn't (he still has the same amount of cards available to him) and that's why I think the goal of mill is to eliminate the opposing deck and not hope to eliminate key cards with it because even if you do, you lose card advantage with it. Your team did counter this relatively well with tucking the mill aspect to otherwise board cards but you also made those cards weaker in response which means delayed card advantage to your opponent.

Obviously you know more than I do but I still don't see it being powerful enough. I'm stubborn like that, sorry.

Also, Millstalker'y decks shouldn't really be avoided. Sure, Millstalker is Control designed wrong because it doesn't really have a win-condition and it's really uninteractive but I think slower decks like that, as long as they are fun, interactive and have a win condition, do have a place in the game.

[Jo3yb0i]

Well done guys I like the overall concept and even the new cards. I do feel the hero is a little weak. Maybe making it 3SE would be a more viable mill hero

[Warr Byrd]

The way you have it written, Mim Rickar actually wouldn't be removed from the game when it went to the graveyard. Since the text "If Mim Rickar would be placed in a graveyard, remove it from the game instead" comes after the resource/shadow energy cost, it only takes effect if the ability is activated. However, if the ability is activated, then it loses that special text. As such, that line never takes effect, and Mim Rickar always goes to the graveyard rather than being removed from play. Proper design would have been: "If Mim Rickar would be placed in a graveyard, remove it from the game instead. (4) Mim Rickar becomes a copy of target opposing ally as if it were played from your hand this turn. Mim Rickar loses this ability." Which, by the way, would mean it isn't useable for another turn, and that the opposing ally wouldn't be removed.

As to the other cards, I think the Xerius' ability is too expensive, especially when compared to Kinetic Expulsion and Ectoplasma and if you are planning on using Orb of Augury.

I am also concerned about the balance of the milling cards, but think play testing would be required.