Card Design Competition - Shortlisting and our thoughts.
During the last week of March, we had hosted the first Card Design Competition for Infinity Wars Classic, but there was a minor twist. The winning card would be created, and implemented into Infinity Wars Classic! Something that apparently had never happened in the past 8 years of Infinity Wars being a thing. So, even if there was no direct prize, there was a chance to do something that a lot of players were interested in doing… shaping the game in a way that could be felt for a long time. And, it showed! With over 90 entries in a week, with barely any notice or promotion outside of a single discord post.
So, yes, we’ll be doing this again very soon. Right now actually. Go check out our Discord channel to get involved.
With those 90+ entries, we’ve got our top 5 cards to reveal, all of which might be seeing some potential consideration for implementation. But, there can be only one winner. Thankyou everyone who submitted their ideas, and a huge congrats to the top 5!
The Top 5
Rapid Deploy Scouting Hanger
A factory that continuously spits out flying robot tokens is a serious concern, and the added bonus of having the ability to swarm a chunk of cards out at once is certainly a threat. It also synergises really well with another card from this set, Tygris, Politically Inclined, which earned it a decent chunk of bonus points. During the discussion on the live stream, it was also teased that a secondary activation effect would be a good way of making Pyr, Fortress of the Dawn more playable, so we’ll be looking into that.
Nano Reclamation
This card’s artwork might be a bit annoying or difficult to make according to our artist, as giving a thing “insides” is a little bit of annoying extra work. However, the core card that involves additional deck stacking within Sleepers while also not running your hand down is absolutely perfect. Subtle, but perfect.
Doomsday Caller
Now, an alternative way to call down the Calamity at the cost of some additional setup is certainly good, however having a way to destroy the entire board multiple times from one card, costing 10 mana each time ins an insane thing for Cult of Verore control decks. It felt almost TOO overpowered, until… 15 morale. It suddenly seemed genius… And while it might need some more number tweaks, I’m certainly interested in something like this.
Nothingness chain
This is technically three cards and not just one, but I really like it. A huge endgame card that warrants your opponent’s deck as next to useless, at the cost of both luck of the draw, and a 6 resource setup to even have a chance of finding the final piece.
This one was technically disqualified from winning, as it’s three cards in one, but still made the shortlist for being something really interesting.
CDC Winner!
Duct-tape Enthusiast
It fits the Genesis artificial support and buffing style, it’s a fun character idea of someone who just genuinely loves duct-tape, and does what he needs to in order to heal his robot companions. The design will need a little more before it’s ready to be implemented (being an Artificial Human for example), as it’s a little weak as it stands currently, but it’s a lovely idea, and I’m excited to see them coming in Intrigue, the currently in development set complimenting Infinity Wars Classic’s development.
Below you can find the rest of the shortlist, however to see the actual submission, you’ll have to click on the title and view them in Discord. If you’re not in the Discord server, you should consider joining now so you can keep checking out the cards in the Card Design Competition below!
Discord: https://discord.gg/y8KGxk4
Enjoy, and anyone who made the longer short list, you’re more than welcome to change up your card from any feedback you receive and resubmit it in a future Card design competition.
Deck swapping with your opponent, and an alternative form of damage as a result fits the Exiles pretty well. If we chose the Ventriloquist, we’d need to have a marking system that would track these cards, and communicate that to the players, so you know what cards you’re drawing have a chance of killing you. It’s reminiscent of the LoR’s Shrooms mechanic, but with the added chaos of swapping decks with your opponent. I don’t know if this will be competitively viable, but it’s certainly a fun card.
This card has a lot of power to it, and a lot of versatility in terms of your options. The cost might need to be adjusted, however outside of that, having an Aberion that decides upon what his speciality is going to be that turn, this fits REALLY well.
This is not a competitive card. And, for it’s cost, it’s not fantastic. However, it’s a very FUN card, which is why I shortlisted the card. The additional element of planning around having an added level of control over who gains initiative is really fun. I’d potentially lower the cost to activate it by 1 for the person who controls it, justifying the cost of having it played at all.
Exiles / Sleepers disease spreading is certainly a fun concept, and is chaotic enough to really cause some issues. The one problem I have here is having vasir and hinekri involved in the artwork, which isn’t necessary. But having a focus on this wheezing, corrupted diseased zombie demon would be…. Well, absolutely horrible in all the best ways.
This one was scary to look at, something that could essentially chew your opponent’s entire flying defense or offense line, healing after every attack. Now the concept is something interesting, however healing effects are something the flame dawn should avoid. Additionally, having a unit that looks to be designed to clean up defenders while also flying over them is a little counter intuitive to what you’d expect from the card (synergies with Dive being the exception). The idea of something that could eat an entire defense zone as long as they had less than 8 attack is an idea I’m keen to keep, which earned them a place on the shortlist, but realistically isn’t what we’re looking for.
This card would potentially be 4 cards in 1, and it would be difficult to actually program, but the reverse side of that is a fantastically varied and capable card with a lot of counter play and potential. Not only that, but if you recall Benionin’s works of writing, he had a fanfiction written around this character, and while it wasn’t technically included in their submission, it definitely helped secure their shortlistings. It could need some number tweaks to balance things out, but as a concept and character, lovely.
This card was added to the shortlist almost immediately for the visual design, it was charming and cute using core elements of the world we’d all be familiar with. The effect itself is interesting in terms of what it opens up, and having it limited to artificial characters is definitely a good move, but I am lightly concerned with what it could mean for our design going forward. It’s a card that we would essentially have to take into account whenever we make any card ever going forward. Will this be too crazy to copy? Will it matter? It’s a complication
I like the idea of saving your commanders however having this trigger from the hand rather than any other zone is going to be annoying to play against. A 1 cost that did the same thing from the support zone could be interesting, offering not only warning but counter play as well. An edge case I’ve considered is Aleta’s cards, and things that have additional effects in the graveyard that aren’t intended to have multiple uses. For example, an Aleta, Immortal Caretaker killed and succeeded means when she comes back from the grave, you have two caretakers. And, if Muto dies, he just comes back too. It might require some additional work, but it has potential.
Unstable Experimental Subject 21b
When I think about what Genesis and Cult of Verore could do together, this is essentially one of the first styles of effects that would come up. The design makes spells matter, while also giving you an alternative way to damage specific zones a-la bomb-bot. It might not be perfect, but it’s certainly an interesting card idea.
A cheaper and less durable version of Eagle-eye. Not every card needs to be mind-blowingly new and innovative to be a good card, and this is something that DoD could most definitely use.
Insectoids don’t have a lot of support right now, and while we intend on supporting insectoids more than we intend on supporting, let’s say… Cowmmando, it wasn’t going to be a priority this set. However… with the ability to give creatures your opponent controls Insectoid, this little wannabe pokemon trainer suddenly becomes VERY interesting. Also, just for the artwork and the feelings it inspires, it was high on my list. I want to see a little boy with a bug net being happily chased by a deadly creature of prey, having the time of his life. Give it to me!
The Full Metal Alchemist reference was strongly appreciated, and the visuals would definitely be beautiful, however the balance on this one is a little bit off. Cult of Verore has the ability to win on morale by simply cleaning up your characters as they come, and this might be a little bit oppressive in it’s current state. An interesting concept we’re keeping, but might have to change it up a bit.
Now, shield generation is an exciting move, however this one wasn’t as good on second look, as the effect would cost you 7, and on top of that, another 7 to give your artifacts indestructible for two turns. 14 resources is a LOT when you consider what you can do with them. All this to protect something that most players aren’t trying to kill anyway? However, changing it from Artifacts to Artificials makes things more dastardly, as you now have indestructible robots in the assault zone for a few turns. It’s potentially TOO good at that point… But, this being shortlisted reminded me that shield generation is pretty dope.
A very easy to understand DoD version of Sacullas, and it’s based off of how many characters both players control respectively, so you could certainly play around it with the right amount of planning. It might potentially be a little TOO strong in terms of how it goes against token generation and wide boards, but it’s definitely an interesting card type that fits the faction identity perfectly.
With it’s stats, it’s a bit undervalued for it’s cost, however an exiles big swinging card that has some inherent randomness to how it plays is fun. Additionally, the idea of more artworks showing grotesque monstrosities the size of small mountains from Torment is something I would hate to see, but love to have. ( Hate to see as in, I’d feel kind of scared )
A “Fight!” card that comes with a body on the field, not too bad for the cost. It’s also notably not a Beast, meaning it’s a little safer to be on the powered side due to lacking synergies with a lot of the beast matters cards of Warpath.
I had originally thought this was a good card, however when comparing to other cards that grant multi strike and aren’t as broadcasted in terms of playing against them, it does fall flat a little. I do like the idea of a card being exhausted for a turn, and coming back with a big swing however, so potentially adding Shield 1 to the effects, even if the cost has to increase, might be worthwhile.
Another card essentially does this sort of effect already, however this might be a more interesting variant, at a much lower cost. The visual isn’t included here, however it’d be easy to imagine the type of card this could be.
Honestly, this card seems pretty good in terms of what Sleepers of Avarrach want. It generates eventual tempo, and interacts with your graveyard specifically. It’s also somewhat balanced in terms of how it plays, because you require cards in your graveyard in order to actually trigger this. Lovely concept.
This was a decent idea at first, however this idea might be getting put on the backburner, as there are ideas we have to support the Insectoid play style, and this card would likely be better off once those support options are available, so we can balance this card around those options and not vice versa.
This card seems to be an overcosted and much more versatile Aether Acolyte that also fits into the Overseers, and it’s a pretty nice concept. I’m also okay with more influential cards being made to fit the command zone, as it could add some importance to having command zone targeting and kill effects much more important.
So, that’s our thoughts on the cards individually, and you can check out the Discord server to see the newest Card design competition. Thanks everyone for entering, and I hope to see you jump into the next competition!
IW Discord: https://discord.gg/y8KGxk4