Hearthpwn

Quote from Livienna >>

Sanction - Wow, a super interesting effect! Well we all know single target removal in pally is desperately needed, so I feel like this would be run even at 2 mana, and would prob be better balanced there. I could be wrong... this kinda thing seems so hard to balance, as its completely gonna depend on the strength of their draw. If you use this to kill a giant threat, as you usually would, and their next draw is a 1-3 drop that then becomes 0-cost, well, actually this feels okay. I've decided I like it, hahaha. Would have preferred to see it at 2 mana, but again, that's me nitpicking.  

Definitely realized this week how hard it is to properly balance cost reduction effects.  One of the primary ways balance is usually maintained in this game is to make sure cards have costs that ensure that OP combos are impractical or impossible.  But cost reduction mechanics can throw that delicate balance out the window.  On the other hand, paying mana now to save mana later is not always going to be a beneficial trade.  As a result, the line between "probably useless" and "probably broken" seems really thin this week.  Aside from my own card (Gnomish Explorer), I'll be voting for Sanction and From the Void this week, which I think hit that delicate balance perfectly.  

Some other cards come close for me but I always limit myself to only voting for my top three choices.  

Thanks to everyone who voted for Gnomish Explorer and good luck to all the finalists.

Aside from my card, I really like From the Void and Door to Door Priest. I am pleasantly surprised that a card as simple as From the Void proved so popular. This is the kind of simple, Fire Fly-esque design that I like. I also really like the creativity behind Door to Door Priest. This was a really clever way to incorporate the cost reduction that I never would have thought of.

For my card, I get why people would say Paladin isn't "supposed" to have hard removal. They don't have any right now. I wouldn't personally say it defines the class, and I think it would be a good thing if they got something like Sanction: a hard removal with a big downside. You could also say hard removal with a big downside is Druid's thing, but I think that's a good reason not to give this card to Druid. It's too similar to Naturalize and Mulch. I don't think Druid needs another card like that. Anyway, that's why I chose to make Sanction a Paladin card.

Posted on the wrong page again -_______________-

My personal favorites :

Stormwind Deposit: Super flavor and super effect. Probably unplayable like Astral Communion but would make trolden-worthy videos!

Sanction: Paladin isn't "supposed" to have hard removal, but this one has a big enough drawback

Desperate Defender: Big early-game taunt minions are always a blast.

Voted for those.

Honorable mentions:

Bargain Hunter: A useful and original card, but the stat line is weird and the art feels more rogue than hunter.

From the Void: An awesome card, but not a very original one since it's just Primordial Glyph for warlocks.

Gift of the Ancients: I think it leans on the OP side. If the card was drawn after the choose, I think it would have been more fair.

General Tao: An awesome effect, but definitively too powerful.

Cards that would buff cancer decks:

Queen Azshara: See discussion in the discussion thread.

Arcane Opportunist: No more control/freeze mage buff PLEAS

Hey everybody, just thought I would chime in on what cards are my favorites this week.

1. From the Void is the card I designed this week, so obviously I am a little biased, but I hope you guys think it's cool too.

2. Gift of the Ancients just seems like a fun card draw spell. Maybe a bit too op, as it functions as 1 mana draw a card, or a 2 mana Far Sight, but still cool

3. Scrap Recycle is just a good mech support card. It's always fun to play tribal synergy based cards, and this is a good one. Only downside is that it's in Shaman. I don't know if that is the best class, but still a fun card.

I voted for From the Void and Gnomish Explorer this week. I really like both the designs. From the Void provides gives discard locks a bit of an extra kick which they desperately need and I view Gnomish Explorer much like Pint-Size Summoner only much more distinct on the value it provides.

Good luck guys.

Stormwind Deposit is definitely what you'd call "unplayable garbage". Like, why would you ever play that?! The effect would have made sense on a 3 or 4 mana card or at least ona decent body or something, but 8 mana for "discard your hand, do nothing and waste your turn". That's akin to conceding. If you have already 8 mana, WHY WOULD YOU REDUCE other cards to 0 and shuffle them back? You can ALREADY PLAY THEM anyway and if you draw a card with a cost of 0 that would cost 10 otherwise, all you get is a 10 mana you can't spend on anything since you have no other cards on your hand anyway. A "free" hero power I guess, for the mere cost of drawing the same card twice... It's simply terrible and I have no idea how it made it to the finals in this state.

On the other end of the balance spectrum, you have Mana Soaker, which is so utterly broken, it's not even funny. If it would swap cost AND stats it would be actually kind of interesting, but just the cost means you can have a Deathwing, Alextraza, Tirion or whatever on turn 1. Yeah, no. Even if it hits a 3 or 4 mana card, the tempo gain you get from it is just too insane. An effect like that on a minion with Battlecry: Set a cards cost to 0 would already broken, and here you don't even have to play it! 

Not as broken, but simply "2 off in every deck"-good is Gift of the Ancients. If pre-nerf Flare taught us anything, it's that 1 mana cycle is op and this is exactly that. 

Forbidden Dreaming is too powerful as well. I had the same idea for the competition that we had a year ago or so that I won with another design where you had to create a card based on total mana or something and after thinking about it, the effect is just way too broken, because it lets you tempo out some minions way too early. Play this on turn 4 and Ysera on 5. If your opponent doesn't have hard removal, you just won the game. 

From the void is a bit boring, but alright. Wyrmrest Kinght is basically a worse Dragon Consort but almost identical otherwise. Sanction is a card I like, but it might be too strong during lategame as removal, where mana reduction is kinda irrelevant more often than not. The tempo your opponent can get is hardly behind the tempo you gain when you play it. During top deck mode your opponent also can't really make use of it. Even if, since you are the turn player you have the advantage afterwards and force your opponent to counter your tempo play. It's probably too good.

My personal favorite and the card that gets my vote is Bargain Hunter. It's utterly flavorful, a play on words and has an interesting effect.

Hey, just out of curiosity, does anyone know what happens when all of Bargain Hunter's options are the same cost?

Quote from Cogito_Ergo_Sum >>

Hey, just out of curiosity, does anyone know what happens when all of Bargain Hunter's options are the same cost?

Quote from Zukuu >>

Quote from Cogito_Ergo_Sum >>

Hey, just out of curiosity, does anyone know what happens when all of Bargain Hunter's options are the same cost?

 Technically, there is no "lowest cost" so it shouldn't reduce the cost at all.

Quote from Zukuu >>

Not as broken, but simply "2 off in every deck"-good is Gift of the Ancients. If pre-nerf Flare taught us anything, it's that 1 mana cycle is op and this is exactly that.

There are some interesting cards this week. Which is surprising because cost reduction is so difficult to balance; you might make stupidly broken cards (*cough* like mine *cough*)

Regardless, here are the cards I'm going to vote for:

From the Void: Simple yet powerful. I like it. It allows discolock to have some more discard synergy (which it desperately needs).

Sanction: An intriguing card. It's a solid removal card for Paladins, and its drawback is quite fair. In terms of the metagame, this card's balancing is actually quite brilliant. Against aggro, which has mostly small minions with a large one here and there, you are most likely to get value while reducing a 1-4 costing card in your opponent's hand (which is almost negligible). Against control, which Paladins are favoured against, it's a risky cards that requires some skill to know if your opponent has expensive cards or not, but it makes sense since destroying a minion in control is much more devastating than destroying a single minion in aggro. 

Door to Door Priest: Straightfoward text. Well balanced, flavourful effect. Actual opponent interaction. Provides skill and RNG. What's not to like?

Anyways, like I have done so in many final polls before (and by many, I mean that one time last week during my first competition literally 2-3 weeks after I started playing Hearthstone), I have to ask: do you guys have any advice for making cards (in terms of balancing, mechanics, flavour, "fun", getting past writer's block, etc.?).

I'm not going to go really in-depth right now (might do that later), but I'm voting for From the Void, and Moonwell.