This month’s theme were cards that need a balance change to maker them healthier, happier cards going into 2017. Our contest before this were all about creativity, but this month challenged designers from a strictly game balance perspective.

So without further hesitation, here are the cards! We saved the winning cards for last, as to not spoil the results and let people read through the cards at their leisure.

By Reath

“The current version of Everbloom Wisp needs to be on the board early, then survive several turns before getting decent stats. This new version makes it useful late in the match too, as it now gets buffs from forests that were created earlier too.”

This is a short and simple change to an otherwise puny green creature that doesn’t quite make the cut in a mid-range or big creature strategy. In this new form, Everbloom wisp gets full value no matter when you play it, making it much better!

By Maihem

“Yak attack is a funny card, but it can be really more funny, with individual card skin on every yak !”

As funny as having a Yak named Birdy is, this change does far more than just make it more entertaining. This change makes Yak Attack a worse finisher (It loses 2 haste Yaks) but makes it much more versatile with the inclusion of a Dash taunt yak and a 3/1 protection Yak. I’d say most decks would rather play the old Yak Attack for it’s consistency, but this is hard to evaluate. Most of the time, you want to play Yak Attack and then end the game or take control of your opponents God Orb. This card will end the game less often, but seems better at controlling the board.

“Right now, Ignus is just to random. He can destroy creature you want, but at the same time he may just deal 4 damage stright into face. I think, that giving him ability to throw mini meteors would be quite funny, and make him usefull in control decks.”

Marcin submitted more than one card, but we really want to focus on the changes to Ignus. There really isn’t any reason for the original card to have a random affect and we favor this new version more. It’s stats were made slightly weaker because controlling where the 2 damage goes is very powerful. The AoE affect around it is a bonus that is awesome when it works but ok when it doesn’t. I have a feeling playing a control deck with this would feel a lot more fun and rewarding than when the cards damage is random.

By Marcin

By Nightmayre

“Well my entry is another under-used Legendary, namely Sharra the Dragonslayer. The problem with this card is that the situations where she is useless are generally far more likely to occur than the situations where she is decent, and there are very few situations where she is absolutely excellent. Her hefty cost makes her unsuitable as a tech. So in my redesign I tried to keep the original base stats (cost/atk/life) and stick to the flavor, while making her a worthwhile inclusion in at least some decks.”

“Flashstrike: When attacking, this creature deals combat damage before the defending creature.

Now first of all, Flashstrike is a keyword ability that is commonly found in games with battle rulesets similar to Faeria (for example, First Strike in MTG). When attacking or defending, creatures with Flashstrike deal their damage before creatures without Flashstrike – which means that if the enemy creature dies from the damage, then the creature with Flashstrike will take no retaliation damage. I’ve chosen to make it limited to when attacking rather than both attack and defense, because it feels more balanced in this game. I think this fits the image of Sharra as a frail warrior relying on speed to destroy the enemy first.”

There was a time where Sharra was in every competitive deck. That isn’t the case anymore, but Nightmayre’s version gives her a lot of viability as a strong tech card against decks with Dragons or other mid-range creatures that are attempting to rush you down. At it’s worst, it’s clunky removal spell that needs the enemy creature to be near one of your lands, but at it’s strongest it’s an easy 2 for 1. This is less of a card balance change and more of a complete re-design. Perhaps we could of preserved Sharra’s unique card text?

By Zgounda

“My version of Orosei is still a 10 faeria 2 lakes 6/6 Flying Charge 2, but the gift is “Shuffle a copy of each card in your hand into your deck”.

I’ve chosen Orosei because I think that’s currently a pretty boring card, it basically only offers you to build one deck archetype, and decks has to revolve around him. Besides, I was happy with Unbound Evolution being reworked, I think it’s time that Orosei follows.

There’s currently no possibility to “add” anything to your deck based on card ability, and I kinda miss it, I think it’s a very fun mechanic.

Now about pure gameplay and balance, I think the gift offers some interesting possibilities, but since the effect is delayed and potentially inconsistent, it cannot lead to OP combos.

Basically what it does is delaying the fatigue timer, and adding value to your deck if your hand contains key cards”

This rework to Orosei changes the direction of the card and allows for interesting alternate win conditions not currently seen in Faeria. Games don’t often go to fatigue and, when they do, there isn’t much one player can do to take advantage of it. This card, however, might lead to some very controlling and stall heavy decks. Ultimately, I love the change. Would blue decks run this for just the value? I don’t think so. A part of me wants this card text to be on a completely different blue card and leave Orosei how it is, but I commend the attempt changing such an iconic blue card.

By Squiddy

“Thought that high mobility (teleportation) didn’t fit Forest, so I basically just switched out the ability of the Sagami Huntmaster without having to touch any stats on it. Mechanically, it functions as a pseudo-removal of sorts, but it isn’t costed as a removal as the creature is still capable of attacking and being moved by other cards. Thematically, a Huntmaster locking down potential prey sounds pretty lore friendly.”

This is an interesting take on the infamous Huntmaster. Is this card potentially stronger? I think calling this “Pseudo” removal is a little inaccurate– it’s full on removal if it makes your opponents creatures inactive or unable to gain value. This card may actually be better removal in some cases, as it dodges Last Word affects and safely deals with a creature without triggering any of your opponents affect that benefit from death creatures. This is an exciting but scary change!

By Eggr

“Right now duo-colored decks generally don’t perform as well as mono-colored decks and no one plays the explorers. By changing all of their stat bonuses to function more like Gabrian Archon instead of a Gift you don’t get so penalized for playing them early, and their eventual bonuses would influence the order you create your lands in an interesting way.”

This is a subtle change that does exactly what it sets out to do– make these punishing when you draw them out of order. By changing the text, these cards can be played earlier and then buffed strategically later on when you need it most. However, the number of lands needed for the buffs have been increased, which may be a tad too cautious, as now some of these cards take much to long to go online.

The Winning Cards

Our winning cards captured our hearts with their flavorful design and interesting game states they created. Your cards should always strive to make Faeria a more fun game, and we believe that these three cards achieve that:

1st Place: Krog, the Ogre King balanced by Frymn810

balanced by 2nd Place: Sagami Huntermaster (Seedblower) balanced by Amaznazaz

balanced by Amaznazaz 3rd Place: Architect balanced by Lucas Young

By Frymn810

“Basically, I gave Krog a combat effect that affects the cost of cards in your opponents hand. I figured if doing an ogre dance or singing a blood song affects the cost of cards in your hands, why couldn’t a high ogre pray to the gods to increase cost of your opponents hands. I gave him a 9 faeria cost and 4 mountain requirement to balance out his strong abilities.”

“He is still an ogre king so has a decent 4/7 stat line, the slam effect, and taunt. These changes better fit the recent card updates and would fit well into the current red meta decks. I think with these changes he would be really useful and could actually see some play.”

This is a really great direction to make Krog a playable card. The combination of Slam and Taunt is both flavorful and helps give you a reason to play this card over any other expensive creature. The crippling Faeria cost of 12 to 9 in exchange for more mountains is a smart decision. It’s ok that Krogg is only playable in mono-red strategies, at least he would be playable! The biggest problem with the original Krog is that wants to set up crazy combo or tempo swings by reducing the cost of your cards, but thats rarely the case because you already paid 12 Faeria for a creature that only sometimes does something. We like this version much better, as it gives people a reliable and interest answer to stall heavy combo decks that can’t afford their cards to cost more.

By Amaznazaz

“One of the crazy mobility cards from the last set was nerfed into the ground, but Sagami Huntmaster still escapes justice.

In my opinion, Green’s lack of mobility was a defining characteristic which had to be overcome with different strategies, some of them involving other colours. A very impactful second Jump card, Feral Kodama hurt this image, but Sagami Huntmaster utterly destroyed it, with the strongest mobility effect in the game, able to get a Jump creature from anywhere on the map and place it virtually anywhere else on the map. It’s pretty hard to play around Kodama+Huntmaster and it’s strong enough to easily make the cut in any Green deck.

Mono-Green is very vulnerable to control cards and introducing a few generally OP auto-include cards is one way to mitigate that, but imo it’s not the best way, especially when one of the cards goes so strongly against the grain that defines that colour, so I’ve chosen to leave that problem hanging and rework Sagami Huntmaster into a balanced card.

My card edit attempts to address the Green identity crisis by adding a Desert to the card cost, as Yellow is the colour known for mobility.” (see forum post for full notes from creator)

This is a subtle change to often loathed Sagami Huntmaster and it is very intriguing. The card text is much weaker then the original Huntmaster, and yet it feels more appropriate and thematic. It creates a tension between both players (Isolated lands become scary) and allows the fearful player to actually do something about it (I’ll move some creatures towards that dangerous land!) This card keeps greens color identity in tack (there has got to be a price for such huge creatures) and encourages the yellow splash. Really great changes.

By Lucas Young

“Architect Version 5. Making structure decks a little more viable. And easier to splash in structures too. I think this version is better than Version 1, although it’s almost the same.

This, however, does add one complication, it would be the first card to make a “reaction” meaning you would have to make a decision during the opponent’s turn. For that to happen, I’d recommend it automatically stops the opponent’s timer and ability to do anything, and give 8 seconds for you to choose which structure.

This should be enough time I think because players should be thinking about already which one they would buff if it died. If the time elapses without choosing, the opportunity is gone. You can also choose to not give extra life by not clicking on anything, ending the timer sooner. And obviously, no pausing or reaction would happen if there were no structures on the board.

If anyone wants to see my other designs, take a look here! http://imgur.com/a/sL0Rm”

So happy to see Architect get some attention! This version of Architect is major buff from the original and we are all for it. The only potential problem is this becoming a staple in any Red deck because of the free value it gives. The Gift really outshines the Last Words in this case. Because of this, we would probably recommend his gift triggering if the player already owned a structure or had a structure in their hand. That way, structure decks (which aren’t really a thing) would have a powerful card that is uniquely theirs and encourages players to go down that deck building path.

Congratulations to all of our winners! Prizes will be e-mailed shortly. Be on the look out for our next contest designers and, as always, thank you for all of your submission!