This month’s theme were cards that were all about creature combat. Creatures smash into each other every game of Faeria, so we asked the communities card design hopefuls to spice up that moment . We had tons of submissions this month and an influx of multiple card submissions from the same designer.

We had tons of submissions this month and an influx of multiple card submissions from the same designer. This was brought up as we were judging and here is our thoughts.

We never want to discourage creativity, so we have never had a rule against multiple submissions. We want to keep that going, but for the sake of fairness, our judges treated multiple card submissions as follows:

Sets, or series of cards are judged as one. If one of the cards is poorly designed, we take that into consideration for all of them.

If multiple cards are submitted but not part of a set, they are pre-screened before being judged officially. The best card from that selection is offered up for official review.

We are setting this precedent for the contest because, ultimately, this contest put on out of love of of card design and Faeria. In the future, if our design contests are blessed with higher value prizes or larger “weight”, we will likely stick to a 1 card submission per entrant.

With that in mind, here are the notes from our judges regarding this month’s submissions.

This contest, not surprisingly, saw the most cards we placed in the “potentially busted” category. We chalk this up to the nature of creature combat and the challenge to create a card around it. Creature combat is already a huge part of Faeria’s gameplay. The creatures that excel in combat do so mainly because of healthy stat pools and on being aggressively costed. This allows them to “trade up” or “gain value” from creature combat. But submitting a 4 Faeria 4/4 is pretty vanilla and isn’t exactly why people participate in design contests. How then, do you add some excitement to creature combat while still making a balanced card? The cards that stood out and did well answer this question. They didn’t take creature combat and dominate it, but challenged players to think about creature combat differently.

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

By François Baldo

This card just oozes flavor, but we can’t help but be concerned about its power level. The way it’s Last Word makes your opponent want to avoid killing it at all costs, but that becomes much harder to do when it is placed defensively or making it impossible for them to gain control of the board. This card aims to control the match and strangle its opponent. This type of card is always very hard to print, as it can become anti-fun quickly. Perhaps if the Last Words split the Faeria equally among both players (it is a bank exploding after all, right?) it wouldn’t be so punishing.

By Merlinux

Trampling – When a Trampling creature attacks and kills a creature, it gains another turn (can move and attack again). We can understand why this card cost 10 Faeria. Trampling is a powerful mechanic that can run away with some board states, but 3 attack feels very underwhelming for such a massive creature. And while the Combat ability is interesting, it doesn’t really make players think differently about the board state.

By Maihem

A giant throwing a creature to its doom. When you read the card, it makes the card art a little sinister, no? Does that poor human (AKA, “flesh” know they are about to be hurled into oblivion? Why is the giant gazing so warmly? Funny lore aside, the wording on this card is a little clunky and it feels better suited for an Event card, not a combat trigger. When this is attached to a creature, the specific sequenced needed to make use of the affect seems too niche.

By Aesk

Hermit Crab is a fun creature that should probably be a Last Words creature instead of a Combat creature– how many shells are we supposed to believe this crab has? In terms of balance, the 1 health taunt creature it creates is deceptively powerful in the right situations. This is a great stalling tool and in multiples can be a huge pain for certain decks. We are very glad the crab itself doesn’t also have taunt.

By Sergey Smekhunov

This card is just too strong. It makes combat for your opponent an absolute nightmare and is a defensive power house. With this on the board (and near your god orb) it seems very unlikely for any opponent to ever crack your defense. Destroying your own land is not too bad of a drawback if you can globally destroy whatever creature lives on it.

By Lov Bra

The Combat text is likely too powerful for this card to see print. Aggressively placed Ents threaten to ruin your opponents land (turning them all into forest) for nearly nothing and can turn into very stifling board states. When your opponent can’t play any of their colored creatures because Ent’s were fighting near their god orb, that is a problem!

By iconoclast

The threatening art is fitting for a card that threatens to slowly take over creature combat and grow in value constantly. Opponents will never fight this creature unless they can kill it, but if this predator manages to bully some weakling creatures, your 3 Faeria investment becomes very worth it. This isn’t the only card to attach Transform onto creature combat, but something about this card feels right. I think both players would have fun with this card, but it might need a nerf to transform into a creature that only cost 1 more.

By Spoof

It’s nice to see a big creature in Yellow that can hold it’s own in combat. The art is awesome and brings anyone looking at it to the focal point of the design– the spear. Once you read the Combat once, you will always understand what it does. Keldran SPEARmaster also attacks creatures directly behind it. Cool, flavorful and simple. Balance wise, I would probably make this cost only 2 Deserts and not 3.

By Luuu90

The art on this card is fantastic– it’s a Lizard King breathing tons of fire! Charge 2 is well suited for this card, as it allows you to take advantage of situations where multiple creatures are clumped together. A stylish visual animation of fire in a straight line would really complete this card’s flavor. Red is known for their explosive AoE and this is a fun way to introduce the “be careful of your creatures in a straight line” element to combat.

By Joakim Engfors

It’s a bold move to submit a 1/1 creature encourage Peace in a contest all about creature combat, but somehow Peacekeeper manages to hold it’s own. To get the elephant out of the room– target hand destruction and the ability to reveal the opponent’s hand are very powerful tools that can single-handedly control a competitive Meta for years. I don’t think a card with this text will ever be printed. However, attaching this effect to a 1/1 creature and requiring combat seems like a balanced alternative to allow this mechanic.

By Eggr:

The Wish Collector is such an ideal name for this card! It sticks in your head and helps you remember what the card does– it literally collects the dying wishes of whatever creature it kills. Cards like this get stronger as the game grows because Last Words will always be a mechanic and new cards will always include it. Preventing a card’s ability is already strong and stealing it for yourself is even better! To balance this card, I would either remove Jump or Protection — having both is a little too strong for this effect and only 5 Faeria.

By L3murCatta

The rest of the Supremacy series can be found on the forums here

Yellow has always been known for its incredible creature mobility, and Kalami takes this to new levels. While it’s strange to see a Dragon-spirit creature not have flying, it’s unique ability allows it to dissipate into sand, emerging immediately on any of your friendly deserts. We really enjoy that Kalamai can only teleport if an enemy is adjacent to that desert and that it must also attack. It is a very flavorful way to capture the ambush nature of the card and makes combat a nightmare for your opponents.

By cometpuncher

The stat line for this creature is well balanced and pairs well with other green buff events. We can imagine a lot of fun moments when a player manages to create a truly horrifying mutant through creature combat, and stealing Last Word abilities seems like the most likely scenario for this card. There has got to be some seriously broken things this card is capable of doing, but that is what patches are for right?

By Nathan Gray

The is a balanced card– no small feat when creating a legendary card. This card is clearly designed for themed decks with tons of synergy and the art is fitting: a ruler that leads from the front, inspiring all of his troops every time he enters combat. Notes from the creator: Stats are kind of odd but I wanted it to have Protection to try to get extra Combat value so dropped the Life to a point where it can be reasonably cleared in certain matchups, by Firebomb or Bomb Slinger for example. Totally agree with this reasoning. Protection fits very well with this card.

By Cruent

Costing two less is a powerful debuff, especially when it comes attached to a creature with 6 life. This is a powerful defensive tool that can help deal with massive creatures you are unprepared for. The art is cool and so is the name. The lore fits this is a solid card.

By Anjosustrakr Games

The Full Nemesis cycle can be found in the forums here

Ruunin’s Nemesis provides a unique way for red to deal with creatures. No matter what happens, this blistering firecat solve your creature based problems. With only 3/3 stats, it can happily prey on smaller creatures while threatening to deal with anything your opponent might throw at it. While it doesn’t outright kill the creature, this allows Ruunin’s Nemesis to avoid Last Word abilities, which is appreciated in red.

By Vitriol

This type of card is always exciting to see. Most decks won’t ever desire this effect, but the decks that do will be built around it. If you ever wanted to make a deck filled with 1 attack creatures but always felt outclassed by mid-range fatties, this card is exactly what you want. 1 attack creatures don’t normally fair well in combat, but with this Event, the threat is always there. We would have appreciated the card art matching the name a little better (Those be Elves in them woods, not Tiki’s), but the creativity makes up for it.

By Amaznazaz

This card certainly makes Combat harder to figure out and we aren’t quite sure how it would work. The creator hopes that if Orgetast has 0 life, combat triggers and swaps with the opponent. The result keeps Orgetast alive, but the opposing creature dead. Does this work the other way around if Orgetast kills a 1/1 creature? Does it kill itself every time it wins combat? This card needs further clarification!

By Frymn810

Very subtle card that, in multiples becomes, extremely tough to beat. Really enjoy the art on this card (as some sort of combat medic) and it’s utility helps rush decks survive board clears once they dominate creature combat. Just one of these creatures safely gathering Faeria can make combat a nightmare for your opponent throughout the game. It’s hard to tell if this card would ever become degenerate and frustrating, but I’m totally open for new types of win conditions.

By Michael Danielson

Tactical Toad suffers from some awkward wording and could probably use a rewording that accomplishes the same function, but in a way less prone to misunderstanding. This card allows your creatures to gang up on your opponents creature by lowering their attack. But does it only affect Tactical Toad or is this a global effect? It’s a subtle combat trick that helps get value out of your jumping frogs, but we think the amount of set-up required is too much for such little payoff.

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: Ruunin’s Theatre created by Yomedrath

created by 2nd Place: Burning Ashru created by Sylvain Tua

created by Sylvain Tua 3rd Place: Underground Scavenger created by Vitriol

By Yomedrath

The complete “Theatre” cycle can be found on the forums here

Notes from the creator: I enjoy the idea of tiles on the board being modified, since it gives even more depth to the positional game in Faeria. So here is an Idea based on this Months requirements… Arenas! A part of the board gets redefined into an Arena (Arenas are the size of a Meteor). As long as a fighting creature is within this part of the Board, the controller of the victorious creature (the one that kills the other) gets a reward. If both die, the Player who engaged into combat is the Victor.

All of the Arena cards Yomedrath submitted were exciting, but Ruunin’s Theatre sells the concept the best. There is a lot going on with this card and it fits into our theme perfectly: What better way to encourage creature combat by literally creating an Arena? This card takes use of Faeria’s unique tile system and makes players look at the board in a completely different light. These Arena cards create a permanent effect that players can build entire decks around. The affect at first suffers from too much parity until you realize that ties (when both creatures die) go to the player that initiates combat. This means that creating the Arena on your turn offers a significant advantage and is worth the Faeria investment. Creature heavy decks can use Arena’s to get continual advantage whenever their creatures win and that prospect of that is just what this contest was looking for.

By Sylvain Tual

The card art is perfect and we love the ability of attack friendly creatures. It fits nicely into the name of the card: “Burning Ashura”. It invokes a clear mental picture, that this creature leaves a wake of destruction in it’s path, scorching the earth beneath it and blistering through friend and foe alike until it’s flame is extinguished. For 8 Faeria, you want your creature to do something and the 4/7 stat line seems very well thought out. It has enough power to clear through a bunch of small things, but it’s not tough enough to wipe the entire board. The possible synergies it has with killing it’s own creatures is exciting and really turns traditional combat on it’s head.

By Vitriol

Cutest red card? Possibly. Haste and Protection seem like a recipe for imbalanced disaster, but the 1/1 stat line and 3 Faeria cost turns potential imbalance into exciting deck building opportunities. If you are playing this card, you have to run it in multiples. Not only are these little guys perfect for enabling creature combat, but after 3 instances of combat can start swarming across the board to clean up (or scavenge) any nearly dead opponents left around for free. This is a deceptively clever card that is a powerful enabler for a new type of combat oriented deck.

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!