Hearthpwn

Greetings, Hearthpwn!

Here we are, almost half-way though our third Class Creation Competition, and it's time for you to help us determine who will advance to the next phase by voting for your favorite fan-created classes! Three phases in, competitors have completed their classes' Basic and Classic sets. Check out out their new classes below, represented by their hero, hero power, and four example cards from their Classic Set.

If what you see here piques your interest, click on any class's name to be directed to their post in the Phase III Submission Topic, where you can see their full Classic and Basic sets, as well as deeper explanations of their classes. Also, remember to check out the spoilers below each entry to check out their example cards' flavor text and any relevant tokens.

Because we have so many competitors still remaining, this phase's poll will be split in two. This first poll will last 24 hours and, upon its conclusion tomorrow, there will be second poll for the second half of the entries. So, we hope to see you back again tomorrow for more!

THE CHRONOMANCER by thepowrofcheese (post #16)

THE NINJA by McF4rtson (post #9)

THE ALCHEMIST by Dxiled (post #11)

THE OPERATIVE by SgtFailure (post #15)

THE RACER by The_Odinson (post #3)

THE ENCHANTER by DoctorWhoops (post #5)

THE MEDIUM by Mewdrops (post #13)

THE KING by maxlot (post #7)

THE ALCHEMIST by nobravery (post #12)

THE BRONZE GUARDIAN by Aelxer (post #17)

THE SPELLBREAKER by Wishmaster333 (post #18)

THE VARANGIAN by waterwalker (post #25)

THE EXPLORER by futheadQQYB7N94V7 (post #10)

To all competitors, please let me know ASAP if there's something I screwed up here that needs fixing. =)
Otherwise, best of luck!

My favorites this time are SgtFailure, Aelxer, and Waterwalker. I know some people have said that new players wouldn't know what the Operative hero power would do, but I don't think that's fair criticism. The same is true of Totemic Call.

I like the idea behind the racer class, but I have some serious reservations with that card that fully heals their hero. Plus, I wasn't sold on the healing theme to begin with.

I think everyone that submitted did a pretty great job. Some people waited til the last minute and others probably could have taken a bit more advantage of the discussion thread, but I think we have a lot of really cool classes going on, and this is going to be a tight race to the finish....

I can't believe so many people failed to submit. I feel like Kamanchee1 in particular put in a lot of time and effort and then somehow never got posted, and of course the PupleMD mistake. MarioToast was also somewhat active, but apparently lost his mojo and bowed out. Haret made one post in the group message but never came looking for help in the discussion oddly enough. 

Otherwise, what a rough group to be in, haha. My approach to this whole thing seems so different and I feel like a number of my cards require so much explanation and prefacing because of my design approach its hard to generate appeal. Its not got anything flashy or crazy, and I might have over limited myself with my hero power.

That said, there are some cool things going on for other people. thepowrofcheese who came in as the favorite from last round didn't disappoint. McFartson, a class creation veteran and card design champion is still pushing out crazy concepts. Dxiled comes in with the more traditional Alchemist, but a lot of robust flavor and funk. SgtFailure also a class creation veteran smashes it home. Mewdrops went back to the well on his hero power and almost reinvented his whole class to push out a stellar basic set. nobravery brings his design skills to push Alchemist in a totally different direction than the other 2 guys doing it. Aelxer comes in with some of the craziest and coolest cards to make is Bronze Guardian distinct. waterwalker takes us all on a voyage to remember with his Varangian. And futheadQQYB7N94V7, comes in off the wild card, and really steps up his game after falling a bit flat last round. Honestly, there are just so many cool things going on and all I can do is hope to scrape in. Great work everyone.

My thoughts (only looking at the example cards):

THE CHRONOMANCER: Hero power seems like it could be massively abused with Gadgetzan Auctioneer. Chromie also seems overpowered as she's infinite 4 mana 4/4s with a very easily met condition that can't be countered by your opponent. The rest of the cards are all pretty sweet though.

THE NINJA: Everything seems pretty cool but nothing really stands out to me.

THE ALCHEMIST by Dxiled: Some really cool ideas and synergies going on. It does largely murder the concept of healing but there are always going to be good/bad matchups. I have to question Mutilated Champion though as completely preventing players from summing minions below X health limits design space. It's not the worst thing ever though, minor nit pick.

THE OPERATIVE: Seems interesting but the choose a card in a hand thing on Mail Bomb is really confusing. I take it you just target the card and that works but the way it's worded seems like you almost have to guess the card like "I choose Explosive Sheep!" or something like that. Also it kinda sounds like if you targeted an enemy card it'd deal 2 damage to all your stuff. I'm sure it'd make sense once you see it used but it seems unclear to me with that text. I'm probably just overthinking it though.

THE RACER: Really like Magne-TNT and Careless Rocket Jockey. Draft will make the class play way differently than other classes with some really big turns once you can stack drafts. I'm a fan!

THE ENCHANTER: Some really cool and unique ideas here. It's a real pity the Empowered mechanic wasn't shown off though.

THE MEDIUM: Some pretty sweet concepts going on here.

THE KING: I find promote a tad too complex for hearthstone since it's doing multiple things with some that are different depending on what it targets. Minor issue though. Arthur Bannister seems crazy weak though. He's pretty much a better Shadow Word: Horror that costs 5 more and comes with a 4/4. He can get buffed but the effect is still insanely weak for his mana cost and legendary status. Rest of the cards are pretty damn awesome though and I like the themes of the class.

THE ALCHEMIST by nobravery: Really odd and crazy ideas going on here. They seem really fun and unique, love it!

THE BRONZE GUARDIAN: Some pretty cool class concepts going on here. Love how latent is used both as a good and bad thing. That could also be a downside though as maybe your forced to play certain cards at certain times, taking away choices. Either way, the class seems sweet!

THE SPELLBREAKER: Not really a fan. Seems like a class designed to stop other classes from doing what they want and that wouldn't be fun to play against. Especially the infinite silence on the hero power.

THE VARANGIAN: Some pretty awesome ideas here. The deck building cards would be really fun to play around with.

THE EXPLORER: Some cool cards but the Anticipated mechanic seems like it limits your choices by strongly encouraging you to just play your topdeck if it has Anticipate. Not sure on Li Li. She's capped at a 4 mana 3/4 and for a legendary infinite 4 mana 3/4s seems fair enough since it can be silenced, hex'd, etc. With that I think maybe just having her as a 4 mana 3/4 to start with would've been fine and shorted the text a lot but then that'd remove a bit of flavor. Would've also been awesome as a 4 mana 1/2 that gains +1/+1 to base states so it has no cap and can keep growing similarly to jade golems.

Anyway those are just my thoughts, good luck to everyone!

Quote from The_Odinson >>

Otherwise, what a rough group to be in, haha. My approach to this whole thing seems so different and I feel like a number of my cards require so much explanation and prefacing because of my design approach its hard to generate appeal. Its not got anything flashy or crazy, and I might have over limited myself with my hero power.

Quote from The_Odinson >>

 

That said, there are some cool things going on for other people. thepowrofcheese who came in as the favorite from last round didn't disappoint. McFartson, a class creation veteran and card design champion is still pushing out crazy concepts. Dxiled comes in with the more traditional Alchemist, but a lot of robust flavor and funk. SgtFailure also a class creation veteran smashes it home. Mewdrops went back to the well on his hero power and almost reinvented his whole class to push out a stellar basic set. nobravery brings his design skills to push Alchemist in a totally different direction than the other 2 guys doing it. Aelxer comes in with some of the craziest and coolest cards to make is Bronze Guardian distinct. waterwalker takes us all on a voyage to remember with his Varangian. And futheadQQYB7N94V7, comes in off the wild card, and really steps up his game after falling a bit flat last round. Honestly, there are just so many cool things going on and all I can do is hope to scrape in. Great work everyone.

Quote from Turkeybag >>

THE KING: I find promote a tad too complex for hearthstone since it's doing multiple things with some that are different depending on what it targets. Minor issue though. Arthur Bannister seems crazy weak though. He's pretty much a better Shadow Word: Horror that costs 5 more and comes with a 4/4. He can get buffed but the effect is still insanely weak for his mana cost and legendary status. Rest of the cards are pretty damn awesome though and I like the themes of the class.

Quote from futheadQQYB7N94V7 >>

Hey good job for everyone here. Personally I voted for the king, spell breaker and racer. The spell breaker really stood out because of the silencing and mana interactions that reminded me a little of MtG and it's a really cool idea to bring into HS. Nevertheless everyone's looked amazing and best of luck!

 

Thanks to The_Odinsons for helping me through my design blocks btw. Kudos 

Quote from Raventhor >>

Man, that is a LOT of hero powers that deal with adding cards to your hand/enemy hand/deck. I mean, 11 of the 13 classes have hero powers adding cards.

The only one I didn't like was the Varangul. The mechanics were interesting, but the balancing seemed a little too skewed for me. I also disliked the spellbreaker, despite being unique and interesting, mostly due to the hero power just being SO strong. She'd probably tank her health quickly, but a druid hero power, plus one mana minus one armor, that silences, is nasty. Also interesting to note, I think if you cast Thought Retention, followed by Thought Retention again, you can cast a ton of them in a row for actually no gain, although it'd buff spell minions / questing adventurer.

I liked the King, Alchemist (Fatigue version), and Bronze Guardian the most, by far. Bronze Guardian is probably the most imbalanced but it's an interesting mechanic to play around, despite her likeliness of being rolled over by aggro. I like Latent's ability to both a) reward you for not playing a card quickly, even if you want to, or b) punish you for keeping a card in your hand, while being really useful if you dump it quickly. I'm worried the former is too strong, however, because it turns 'dead' drops in your hand to really powerful tools. Latent kind of loses its importance when you draw a 5 drop on turn 1 and by nature will have it latent by the time you reach turn 5. If the mechanic only worked the Xth turn after it's *playable*, that would balance it out again, at the risk of the mechanic being very slow.

King is just a very good theorycrafted set of cards, despite not having as strong an identity as some other classes. Alchemist is by far the most interesting playstyle to me, although I'm not sure how viable a fatigue strategy is. Also not sure on the other alchemist, as a Maloriak flipping might be too...frustrating. Finally, the Ninja does an interesting and good job at making an entire list out of the evolve mechanic, but I'm not sure that's a healthy thing to base a class off of.

Side note, I can easily see Draft being an absolute nightmare of an aggro class if they draw correctly. You can dump a hand VERY fast.
Voting for King, Bronze Guardian, and Fatigued Alchemist this time around.  The enchanter is a very close vote, I just don't think empowered is as fleshed out as other mechanics.

 

 Okay, I found some time and wrote some feedback (not for everyone, though, sorry).

First off, I think most people did a pretty amazing job. I'm a critical person by nature, so I'll probably end up talking a lot more about what I didn't like than what I did, so I just want to get that out of the way before I start. Making this was a huge amount of work (I know, since I did it) and again, most of these are super cool.

What's most important (to me, at least, since I don't know enough about balance and mechanics and everything to be any sort of reliable judge on that, although it certainly influences my choices a little) is that your cards have some sort of unifying aesthetic and flavour. I'm honestly just expecting that the cards in here wouldn't be unbalanced enough to be a problem. I've just always been more flavour-oriented than mechanics-oriented when it comes to judging cards. I'm also very nitpicky when it comes to how things look - sorry about that.

Now, to start off - The ones I voted for:

Guys I didn't vote for:

Quote from Mewdrops >>

 Okay, I found some time and wrote some feedback (not for everyone, though, sorry).

First off, I think most people did a pretty amazing job. I'm a critical person by nature, so I'll probably end up talking a lot more about what I didn't like than what I did, so I just want to get that out of the way before I start. Making this was a huge amount of work (I know, since I did it) and again, most of these are super cool.

What's most important (to me, at least, since I don't know enough about balance and mechanics and everything to be any sort of reliable judge on that, although it certainly influences my choices a little) is that your cards have some sort of unifying aesthetic and flavour. I'm honestly just expecting that the cards in here wouldn't be unbalanced enough to be a problem. I've just always been more flavour-oriented than mechanics-oriented when it comes to judging cards. I'm also very nitpicky when it comes to how things look - sorry about that.

Now, to start off - The ones I voted for:

McF4rtson's Ninja: Okay, to start off with, I personally feel like I liked a lot of your other cards a lot more than your showcased ones. I get that Imperial Summoner and You Can't See Me are there for the challenges, but the other two cards don't really seem to showcase the flavour of the class very well, while they do show the mechanics. I feel a lot of your other cards are more aesthetically pleasing and more flavourful. I really like Be Water, Marked for Death (not sure everyone would get the 'four' thing), and Spirit Visage (not sure why it has two tokens when they both do exactly the same thing).

Overall, I just really dig the aesthetic of your cards, the somewhat oriental theme, and the way it all fits together. You've got a lot of nice art.

Odinson's Racer: I really like this class because all of the cards fit together aesthetically, have a sort of unifying flavour (not sure about the Tony Stark legendary, but if you want to keep it I can't say anything). Basically, everything I said before. Draft is a cool keyword, and I like how you stayed away from traditional combo decks and simply use the discounts for tempo. It really feels like it could fit into HS. Basically, the design choices you made regarding draft are very interesting - I know I wouldn't have been able to resist the combo potential :P

The only problem I have is that 'Vy for Position' has a white background, and I hate that on cards or stuff in general. Desirable Mechanic is also probably a little bit too small on the card - I can hardly see her. Out of your cards, my favourites are probably Draft Pack and Just A Bit Further. Your art is pretty cool as well.

This isn't relevant, but you were super-helpful around the discussion topic, so thanks for that.

SgtFailure's Operative: Once again, I really dig the aesthetic and the flavour - all of that spy, gadgets, and sabotage stuff is awesome. Love the reference to Wonderwall. The mechanics are super-cool as well. I don't particularly like Mailbomb, since it'll usually just be used as a 3 mana Consectration, but I guess that's not too significant. Pretty much everything I've said for the above two.

Out of your cards, my favourite ones are the Wonderwall Generator, Decommission, and the Subtle Zap.

maxlot's King: This was a bit of a difficult choice for me, but I ended up voting for it anyways. I like the theme behind the class and I love some sort of synergy with the Rarity mechanic. I also like that a lot of your cards have 3 or less lines of text - I think HS cards look a lot better like that.

I feel that you could have had more synergy with rarity on the board, since your main source of Promotion only works on already summoned minions, and last I checked (please don't tell me I missed something), your only rarity-synergy on the board is the Huge Swing, which is actually bad for promotion. Also, your hero has a grey background and it's annoying me (I'm like that, sorry).

My favourite cards are Rule the World, Rations (I find it hilarious that the King gets more rations than the minions. Is that just me?), and Arthur Bannister (although it definitely needs the 5/5 buff. Would be insane in goons, but we have to make new factions I think).

And, of course, myself. I don't want to critique myself, because that'd be sorta weird and won't mean anything and will probably seem really fake.

Guys I didn't vote for:

waterwalker's Varangian: Okay, hear me out on this one. I actually liked a lot of the cards, and I like the whole norse-ish theme behind it all. I think you actually did a very good job. I really like Sea Dragon, and the idea of including boats in your class in general.

But what set it back compared to the others was that the hero portrait was a) off-centred and b) looked like a screenshot from wow or some other game, maybe touched up a bit. Your hero power text is also small, which is weird because you seem to have a line of blank space under it. It seems like a minor thing, but honestly, the hero and hero power are the most important things about a class and I think they've got to at least look good. The fact that the power and token use the same art also kinda annoys me (same goes for all others with that problem).

Dr.Whoops's Enchanter: What really set me back on this one was the fact that your keyword wasn't even included in the showcase cards. If you've got a class and it's very heavily integrated with its keyword like yours is, you should be able to find some sort of card that's interesting enough to show. They all look nice together, which is great.

Out of your cards, my favourite ones are Unnatural Selection (I've got a very similar one actually), and Expand Knowledge.

wishmaster's Spellbeaker: This is a pretty well-made class. The flavour is consistent and the art is nice (I like the hero art), but there's a pretty large problem - I just dislike many of the class's mechanics. I'm okay with Silence and Elusive as mechanics, but putting Silence on a hero power is pretty feelsbadman.

I've already said this before, but I'm not a fan of the killing-your-own-mana crystals as a theme for your class, either, at least not until I see a bit more incentive to killing your curve that's more than just slightly better stats. The Hungry Mana Wyrm is a step in that direction, but I feel like it'd be a lot cooler to have other effects, like 'If you've got less mana than your opponent', or 'whenever you destroy a mana crystal'. Maybe I'm missing something.

It's a very interesting concept that I can grow to like, but right now I'm not quite feeling it yet.

Anyway, my favourite cards from your 

 

 Thanks for voting!

I definately could have had more synergy with high rarity minions on board, but those will be coming in later expansions. At the moment, only Spear of Champions has any synergy with the rarity changing element of  promote, since it promotes epics, which means you can promote rare minions to be promoted by the spear into legendaries.. The reason I didn't add more was a choice, because I need Epic King and Common King to be able to be strong, it was actually quite important that I focused their tiers a bit more on their deck counterparts. Meanwhile, as to not mess everything up, a lot of my rares were general use. That, in combination with the fact that you only get 3 epics, and I couldn't just NOT make Rule the World, Spear of Champions became one of the only real examples of this. If you look at the cards at the bottom of my posts, you'll see Regal Nymph, which Discover's an epic if you control an epic, to serve as one example.

I've grown too attached to this King art to change it to something radically different now, so I think I'm gonna have to stick a background in there at some point. Oh well.