Hearthpwn

This Week's Finalists

Restrictions:

Often in Hearthstone design we are tempted to create cards with complex effects. These can turn out well, however, what makes Hearthstone different from other card games like Magic is that its cards are extremely simple, but can result in interesting interactions. Hence the slogan, "Deceptively Simple, Insanely Fun." While it may seem like the challenge of card design is to make the most original and unique effect possible, sometimes, it boils down to being able to combine simple effects that have been seen before to produce interesting results.

Theme: Make the coolest spell card you can in 9 words or less. 

Entry Restrictions:
 Your card must be a class spell.
 Your card's effect must be 9 words or less, not including numbers. See the examples for clarity.
 Your card may not create or reference cards or tokens that do not currently exist in Hearthstone.
 Your card may not use vague or one-of-a-kind wording that does not already exist in Hearthstone. [Example: Justicar Trueheart would not be valid for this competition, even if the effect was on a spell, since "A better one" is vague and had never been used before.]
 Use syntax that is as correct as you can possibly make it. If you're not sure about something, reference existing cards. If you use incorrect syntax to fit your effect within the 9 word limit, whether or not you did it on purpose, your card will suffer. [For example, if you said "Draw 1 card" instead of "Draw a card" in order to count it for 2 words instead of 3, this would be considered as breaking a rule.]


To the Voters:
 This competition is all about elegance and simplicity. This means that you should consider syntax and wording equally as important as balance, theme, viability, and flavor. If you see someone sacrificing simplicity for a more complex effect, they don't deserve your votes.
 Conversely, not only should clunky cards be punished, but simple ones should be rewarded. If someone can make a card that makes you say "Nice!" in only a few words, it deserves your votes.

We have whittled down ~220 valid entries to just 20 of the community's favorites. 
Check out all the finalists below and vote in our poll (vote for as many or as few as you like) to help decide the winner and be sure to check back after the poll finishes for the announcement of the winner and the start of a new theme!  

by AngryChicken
Stonetusk Boar
by ScarlettWindrunner
by Nazlock
by Lathy
by Machinae
by Zerewa
by pui980178
by nurgling13
by sashashepto
by Malencia
The Coin
by Shadicar
by Giorgioksk
Pit Snake
by Tomerick88
by Elementalkin
by Slissthe
Frostbolt
Fireball
by Siphox
by Alternatic
by Ser_Wa
by Szkeptik
by Hoax91
by Hejiahua (Wild Card)

Quote from nurgling13 >>

Rend seems kinda ambiguous with how it deals with Spell Damage. Is it like Arcane Missiles, where it will deal 1 damage three times with Spell Damage +1, or will it deal 2 damage two times?

Quote from nurgling13 >>

Rend seems kinda ambiguous with how it deals with Spell Damage. Is it like Arcane Missiles, where it will deal 1 damage three times with Spell Damage +1, or will it deal 2 damage two times?

Woo! I made it!

My vote goes to Fancy Footwork and Arcane Brilliance. One is a solid card I'd like to play, and the other is so out there that I'd just love to find a way to play it.

Why did my card Backdraft not make it into the finals? When Sailors of Fortune from the same page, but with less votes, did?

Twice quantifies it to only deal it twice, so if spell power works, it'll be 2 damage twice I guess!

Some of these cards... in my opinion, not balanced well. For example, Favoured of the Light - you choose the enemy minion, and if the opponent can't clear the minion, you are forever immune and turn it into a fatigue game? That's not well-thought out.

Blood Magic leads to an insane OTK, especially if you play a Reno Mage with Ice Block that just keeps on drawing cards...

Aura Burst, I see it doing at most 2 damage to all enemy minions. At most 5 with Malygos, it does push that Maly Shaman playstyle. Other than that, the card won't be used because of inconsistency I feel. But it certainly is a good concept.

Now for grammar/syntax issues...

Time Flies, why not just rephrase it to skipping the next 3 turns instead? Feels weirdly worded in it's current state - you're trying to copy Nozdormu's effect, but it doesn't make sense. If it were any other contest, I would be okay, but considering that this one focuses especially on the card text itself... Nope.

Snake Pit and Emerald Portal is missing a full stop, it's distinct enough that I noticed it.

Hunter's Call, that opening aprostophe needs to remove that gap between it and the first word.

That's all for now~ I focused a lot more on the sentence structure this time around because it IS the main deal of the competition aside from the idea, so unfortunately, I won't be voting for the above cards that had those issues. It's just my one vote so no biggie~

Quote from nurgling13 >>

Quote from Dai >>

Why did my card Backdraft not make it into the finals? When Sailors of Fortune from the same page, but with less votes, did?

It must have been disqualified. I'm guessing because of inconsistency with how Preparation is worded.

Quote from Sylicas >>

 Time Flies, why not just rephrase it to skipping the next 3 turns instead? Feels weirdly worded in it's current state - you're trying to copy Nozdormu's effect, but it doesn't make sense. If it were any other contest, I would be okay, but considering that this one focuses especially on the card text itself... Nope.

The person who made it wants end of turn effects to still trigger in those 0 second turns, so skipping turns would make a difference. It does sound weird, though.

A fun thing I've noticed is that there are so many cheap (0/1/2-cost) cards in the finals. In particular, 5 of the 20 finalists cost 0 (including mine, but aww I got into the finals for the first time, thank you, guys :3). Perhaps costing 0 mana is an additional huge, flashy effect?

Favorite Submissions:
-Emerald Portal by Nazlock
-Shuriken by Machinae
-Fancy Footwork by nurgling13
-Aura Burst by sashashepto
-Sailors of Fortune by Shadicar
-Throw by Giorgioksk
-Bloog Magic by Ser_Wa
-Power Word: Fortitude by Hoax91

Are the poll results public? I'm not used to being able to see them.

Quote from sashashepto >>

Quote from Vultrae >>

Are the poll results public? I'm not used to being able to see them.

 Oh yeah man, do you mind posting them here ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

THATS A JOKE, dont do that. I think it's because you're a mod now.

Quote from Dai >>

Why did my card Backdraft not make it into the finals? When Sailors of Fortune from the same page, but with less votes, did?

Quote from Vultrae >>

Are the poll results public? I'm not used to being able to see them.

Quote from nurgling13 >>

Quote from Zerewa >>

A fun thing I've noticed is that there are so many cheap (0/1/2-cost) cards in the finals. In particular, 5 of the 20 finalists cost 0 (including mine, but aww I got into the finals for the first time, thank you, guys :3). Perhaps costing 0 mana is an additional huge, flashy effect?

I think it's related to the simple theme this week. Personally, the zero-cost of my spell was central to the simple design I wanted to make. It's designed so that it can activate combos easily, with a large downside of having no effect itself if you play it first.