Hearthpwn

Poll 1 of 2 has concluded! Please click here for Poll 2 of 2!

To all competitors, please alert me at once if I have made any mistakes with your example material. =)
And to all voters, please go check out the full classes if or when you have the chance. The competition participants have been working really hard on their classes, and it'd be impossible to include everything in this poll topic worthy of showing off. =)

Good luck everyone, each round gets tougher and tougher. I'd advise anyone that isn't in the competition to go check out the Submission thread so you can really see what everyone is doing full scale. 

The Alchemist by nobravery: My only remaining alchemist rival! Once again nobravery has shown off some extremely unique and cool concepts that make his class stand out. He also has some extremely cool cards not showcased that prove the concept of deck order can truly be something viable and consistent such as Telekinesis! Definitely a hard rival to beat.

The Worgen by nurgling13: What a showcase! We have Heated Brawler who is something completely new and interactive seeing as your opponent can somewhat adjust the cards damage by changing up how many minions they have, we have the mechanically and thematically awesome Scorched Earth, a very cool weapon flipping card bound to cause some tough decisions, and a cool fusion between Frost Nova and Feral Spirit. Great job!

The Dryad by Broeck1: "Nature will rise against you" now more than ever with this class in the mix. I do find the example cards rather lackluster in this case, a class giant (odd choice but in this case it fits perfectly), the really flavorful and powerful Ysera's Champion (ITS RIDING A BEE!!!! A BEE!!), a questionably powerful secret, and the Bloom of Origin, a solid and threatening inspire card. All cool cards, just nothing really stands out to me.

The Bronze Guardian by Aelxer: Very odd showcase this time around. Bronze Watcher is boring to be honest especially when compared to the other amazing showcased cards like Unstable Wormhole and Kairoz that perfectly show of the potential and versatility of the Latent keyword. Wormhole Technician seems a tad wonky but definitely fun and tactical, Azure Ally has an awesome and calculated effect where you need to use spells before you get the spell power. Love it! This class is shaping up nicely.

The Dancer by Giz4Gamer: Some pretty cool cards that definitely show off how the dancer is meant to be played. Val'kyr Sky Dancer is a great example of the importance of positioning, Djinni of Greed is a card who has huge potential with shift allowing you to selectively use his buff, Rock Star is another 'solid' card that works with shift. Boogie Beast is simple and flavorful! Good job!

The Ninja by McF4rtson: Some pretty interesting cards. A Cut Above is cool but seems weak given Frontstabs don't seem ideal to draw later on, Blue Exorcist and particularly Butterfly Effect are great for showing off the Merge mechanic though I find Blue Exorcist to be very weak given you give up a 4 drop for +2/+2, Personal Trainer is a rather interesting and fun card. Although I love Butterfly Effect, with the competition being so intense this showcase just doesn't really do it for me.

The Racer by The_Odinson: Blazing back into the showcase at full speed is The_Odinson! First up Ride or Die and Compliant Proto-Drake are some really cool dragon cards. The not holding a dragon part I love! Bear Rider is the first card I've seen that summons a charge minion through a Deathrattle and that simple thing adds in a bunch of decision making for both players! Love it! Prepared to Win is a questionably powerful buff that can make even Angry Chickens scary! Great cards!

The Operative by SgtFailure: Some pretty sweet cards! All of them seem somewhat based on drawbacks and fortunately these are pretty unique drawbacks, some you can even use to your advantage like using Install Agent to give your opponent a Doomsayer! Signal Flare is a great way to use the draw effect of Ironbeard Support to your advantage while also giving your opponent a chance to play around it. I could see a mill deck being a viable deck type for this class giving all the cards that make your opponent draw. Sweet showcase!

The Swarmlord by Zanywoop: The bizarre cardback is back for more! There are some really sweet concepts going on here based on attack but I feel most your cards are just too strong. Ravanger Valiant is easy to pull off for 4 mana two 4/4s with taunt, Whorlclaw Scorpid is a normally sated card that comes with a card for free, Attack from Below is cheap windfury for a class that benefits from that really well and it comes with attack. Burning Pheromones is hard to understand as you draw a minion that costs less... Than what? The minion you targeted? The spell? Hard to tell! This showcase just doesn't do it for me due to that.

Anyway those are my thoughts and good luck to everyone, the competition is really heating up so you'll need it! 

Random bits of praise for each of these classes:

The Alchemist is very well thought-out and organized, and one only needs to see how the class is on display in the submission topic to see that. Unlike every other entry, which is organized purely by expansion, the Alchemist's cards are organized by their archetypes and functions. Even the simplest cards serve a purpose, and being able to design good, intriguing simple cards is a major strength. Scour The Library is a great example of this, and I hope its deceptive simplicity doesn't turn people off.

I was skeptical of the Worgen at first because every CCC we have some classes that change "stance" via their hero power with class cards that change their effects depending on what "stance" the character is in. What the Worgen here gets right is that it's not overdone. It's enough to grant some unique tactical options, but it's not a one-trick-pony, and the "stance" shifting mechanic doesn't overshadow the rest of the class.

I actually just realized that the Dryad is the only Secret class that has made it this far. I love Secrets, so much so that both of my own custom classes have used them extensively, but they can be a tough design space to get just right, and the Dryad definitely does it well. Especially Illusion of Immortality I think is clever and a spectacular example card.

The Bronze Guardian is another class that I was skeptical of at first but that has really changed my mind. Particularly, I was unconvinced that Latent had enough potential to warrant extensive use, but boy was I wrong, and the TGT Legendary was the turning point for me when I figured it out. There's some really unexpectedly clever stuff going on with this class and this keyword, and y'all should really check out the Submission Topic to see more.

We've seen classes before that try to play with board positioning as their gimmick, but I think the Dancer is the most convincing one I've seen. A lot of the class is very simple-looking, but it's a realistic sort of simple that I think makes the class more believable. There's a lot of potential for interactions that lead to combos that I'd like to see the creator describe and discuss more openly.

The Ninja took a one-off mechanic, merging, that exists in the game and used it to build a whole class, and it's more compelling than I expected it to be. I'm kind of sad that their TGT legendary was too complex to show off as an example card, but a minion merging with your hero was a really cool direction to take, and y'all should check it out in the submission topic.

The Racer's Draft is another keyword that I was skeptical of at first because it sounds so potentially problematic on paper, but the creator has actually put quite a bit of effort into keeping it in check by being careful about what kinds of cards get it and how, leading to quite a unique play style I'd be eager to see play out in practice.

There's a lot to like about the operative, and it's so versatile that I'm actually having trouble picking something specific to discuss! I'm gonna take a weird route with this one and take time to praise its flavor. We get high-tech-centered classes every CCC, and I think this is the first one to make it this far that highlights other aspects of that, both in terms of flavor and in terms of mechanics, that feel like more than just "GvG, the class".

And finally, the Swarmlord! I picked this class as my Wild Card last phase because I liked the sense of realism that I got from it and because it showed a lot of potential and willingness to expand into new design spaces as called for. I'm especially pleased both with its innovative take on hero attack and on this phase's implementation of Ambush.

Alright, let's do some breakdown. Its getting pretty late into the competition and I'm not going to pull any punches. 

The Alchemist - nobravery: I can't say I've been that impressed by this Alchemist so far, and this isn't any different. The mechanics are definitely very very different from what most of HS has shown us, but I'm not sure they are in a good way. Many of the Alchemists mechanics up until now have played heavily on shuffling in cards and that random draw RNG. Now we have a bit more focus on manipulating that and looking into the deck. I feel like while its all fun and somewhat interesting, I can't figure out how to build decks that reliably win games other than going to fatigue. 

The Worgen - nurgling13: This class keeps pushing things. I'm not always sure how balanced I feel things are, but I know that they are interesting, and there are a lot of really obviously different playstyles and deck archtypes being built. Flavor oozes from almost ever piece of art and I continue to forget this is more of a race, or even just a subrace, and not an actual class.

The Dryad - Broeck1: This class has slipped for me. There was a lot of effort put forth in the early rounds and now I feel like that is slipping. It shows in a lack of external cohesion and balance issues. Cards do all look like they belong to the class, but there is no art or even card names that particularly tie this class to its expansions themes. Then you have a couple of very obviously powerful 2 cost cards, and Poisonous is very under-utilized for a class mechanic. The Beast/Dragon hybrid stuff is cool, but otherwise I'm not as impressed as I have been.

The Bronze Guardian - Aelxer: Gotta say, I want to like this, but that 1 drop! I just can't get behind the scaling 1 drop. With the Hero Power and some other cards, this looks as gross if not worse than any other classes scaling 1 drop. Flavor is good here though and Latency is definitely interesting. Kairoz is one of the coolest Legendaries I've ever seen.

The Dancer - Giz4Gamer: Man, this class. The first draft I see in the discussion is always so lackluster, but after some feedback its always stepped up. Flavor is smashing, art is great. The only problem I have is really figuring out how good any of what its doing is haha. Its really hard to figure out the powerlevel of all this stuff because there is such high synergy and its not real to actually test. It does have some of the best named cards out there.

The Ninja - McF4rtson: Let's be honest. I haven't been a fan of this from the beginning. That said, taking such an odd mechanic and making it work is impressive. I still think the class feels clunky and weird, but my idea of a ninja is more about Stealth and killing, and not whatever inspiration he took. Considering Ninja would probably be too much like Rogue, its probably a good thing I'm not designing it haha. There is a lot of internal flavor, with lots of very non-HS style art, but there are not many of those expansion based flavor notes. Interesting for sure, but not my favorite.

The Racer - The_Odinson: Oh, yeah this is me. I design my cards around flavor, usually letting the art I find lead me to cards rather than designing cards then finding the art. I also have a really poorly chosen Hero Power that has led me to the weirdest most frustrating design path possible. I have poured a lot of effort into making something unique, fun, and different, and I hope I've succeed. If you tossed me a vote thank you so very much. Its great to know anyone has found my chaotic mess of a class entertain. 

The Operative - SgtFailure: Ah, another class I have issues with. The synergy levels and kind of one note playstyle don't sit well with me. There are some really cool cards in the class, and some very great art, I would know, I have a bunch of it on my cards or in my saved folder currently unused. I also know how hard it can be to find good images for this sort of stuff. Warcraft isn't really that hi-tech. There are a few things here and there but its still a world of swords, shields, bows, arrows, and dragon fire, and not a world of spy gadgets. So he's done a great job keeping it HS.

The Swarmlord - Zanywoop: After getting the Wild card this round I actually think Zanywoop was a letdown. This seems rushed and gimmicky. Attack From Below, at least the way its worded is absurdly powerful, functioning like Giant Sand Worm, except it also combos with your hero power and a number of other crazy class cards that trigger when you kill an enemy. Yes, it does mean you take a lot of damage, but the amount of advantage you get in return can be totally nuts. Ravager Valiant can be triggered by almost every attack buff spell in the class, either alone or combo'd with the hero power making it very easy to get 2 4/4s, and the cards you're using to trigger it get you value as well, so its just value on value. And then we have the Ambush thing. I feel like this being in the exact same set as Beneath the grounds makes that card look terrible. Compared to Beneath the Grounds were each Ambush is valued at roughly 1 mana, here each one is valued at .5 mana or less. Even if the cards it attached to here were slightly weaker they would almost all still be better than Beneath the Grounds, but instead they just made a cool unique Rogue card look bad. He does have great flavor in his design though.

Quote from deusirae77 >>

Imo, all exept worgen are too weak or too broken. In fact at first i wanted to skip the voting, but at second glance worgen got some really interesting hero power and some cards that nicely utilize it. It also gives a nice interection and prediction opportunity to the opponent.

Quote from deusirae77 >>

Imo, all exept worgen are too weak or too broken.

I'd highly recommend against making snap judgments about the classes' balance without taking a closer look at them, because some mechanics that might be underwhelming or broken in existing classes may be combo pieces or lack extensive support in these original classes, because of how classes are balanced internally. Further, different entries take different approaches to what sorts of cards they show off here as example cards. Some creators focus on showing off cards that are flashy and powerful and exciting, but these can be mistaken for being overpowered, and some other creators focus on showing off cards that are straightforward and flavorful and give a solid sense of overall mechanical themes, and these may be mistaken for being under-powered.

If it helps make the point, here's what a showcase for an existing class might look like for this Phase of the competition:

I hope you see what I mean. These aren't the Warrior's most powerful options, but they do a good job of showcasing the class's many unique mechanical themes. One could walk away from this thinking that it's under-powered, but this assortment of cards simply isn't meant to showcase the class's power. That the classes are generally balance can, at this phase in the competition, almost be taken for granted. Additionally, as many of us did before TGT actually came out, one could also make the mistake of overreacting to Varian up there and immediately assuming it's ridiculous when it's actually just fine.

Quote from Livienna1683 >>

I looked on a few different submission threads for an explanation of "merge" for the Ninja. I'm probably just blind. Can someone fill me in or point me in the right direction?

That concludes our first poll! Please proceed to our second poll, up now! =)

Results for both polls are now revealed, and Phase V will be up shortly.