Hearthpwn

This Week's Finalists

Competition-Specific Restrictions:

• This week, we want you to re-imagine an existing Hearthstone character. You may select a character that is already represented as either a collectible Legendary Minion, a token Legendary Minion produced by a collectible card, or a playable Hero. Note that we are excluding characters that already appear but only as entirely non-playable, such as Adventure bosses and their cards. Once you've selected your character, you can go about re-imagining them in one of two ways:
  • 1) As a collectible Legendary Minion. An example would be how Elise Starseeker was re-imagined as Elise the Trailblazer or how Medivh was re-imagined as Medivh, the Guardian.
  • 2) As a token produced by a collectible card. An example would be how Ragnaros the Firelord was re-imagined as a playable Hero by way of Majordomo Executus.

We have whittled down ~107 valid entries to just 12 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 Lathy
by ZardozSpeaks
by Livienna
by The_Odinson
by Toxibrah
by Spooga
by Woshiwo
Preparation
by Dxiled
by Asylum_Rhapsody
by nobravery
by SanderNightsite
by THRONEofBONE

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Thanks to everyone who voted for Forest Raider Edwin this week!

My Personal Top 3(4 kinda)

Forest Raider Edwin

Obviously the best card this week.

Loatheb, Tribal Bane

I am personally one of the guys who misses the original Loatheb, and conditional denial cards have always had a place in my heart. Sometimes his effect is INSANE and sometimes its kinda Meh. Great card!

Vancleef, Un'goro Ganker

With the amount of Quest Rogue and Warrior that we have seen the last few days, i am fairly confident that i am not alone on wanting a card like this in the game. A total denial of the Quest Rogue, and a small hinder for the Taunt Warrior deck.

Furthermore as an old WoW Player, i 'member the ganks.

Rafaam

This card is very interesting, and would NOT only be a joke card in Hearthstone. The reason being the sheer amount of VALUE that the card can give you. 

You could make a control deck with a lot of draws, and completely ignore the fact that Fatigue exists. When you're at a point where you think your hand have a higher amount of value than your opponents. You can just throw this guy on the board, and your decks will be identical, Valuewise.

Quote from Asylum_Rhapsody >>

I want to vote for the banner. How can I do that?

EDIT: I am the theme's creator, and I would like to Wild Card the banner.

Rafam would allow me to play my Hemet>Wrath>molten deck and then refill my deck if it failed.  Win.

Quote from CheeseEtc >>

Forest Raider Edwin. Another alternative Edwin which is an original take on the real thing. Harder to play though since Edwin turns are big turns and you may not have the time to choose all adaptations. Also is it me or Toxibrah has been in every final phase since he subscribed? I'm jealous :(

Voted for those two.

Quote from CheeseEtc >>

TBH the card's effect itself wasn't that great. I absolutely wanted to do a Dreadlord Jaina reference but I didn't manage to find an equally awesome effect. I thought the Pepe effect would be enough to bring me to the finals :(

Also how do you do that ? It took me 5 months to get to the finals for the first time and 1 year to get the avater border!

Here are my thoughts on the finalists!

VanCleef, Un'Goro Ganker: I like this card, it'd be a nice safety valve on the quests, without countering them completely. What I dislike is that it would probably hurt some quests more than others. Two of the best quests (Rogue and Warrior) could play around it. Mage might very well waste a quest card killing it. But the Hunter and Shaman quests seem like they could be hard countered with this card. Still, I upvoted this before, because I like the flavor and it's an elegant design.

Oozemage Thalnos: My own card! I was mostly inspired by this art I found a few weeks ago. I also really like the new Gluttinous Ooze card and thought it'd be a neat concept to build on. I also like this card because it competes with Bloodmage Thalnos for deck space. It might be too good of a card honestly, but if ever became too popular, it'd be fairly easy to play around by not equipping weapons in the late game. I'm really damned surprised I recieved so many votes though. I'd like to hear why other people like it so much, so I can build on that for future comps. Is it pirate warrior hate? Is it the art?

Elven Companion: Not a huge fan of this card. I feel like it's trying to do too much in a single card. I appreciate that it builds off Animal Companion with it's mechanical theme, but I'd have rather just seen one of the Windrunners as a stand alone card.

Baron Stratholme: I like this card. It's a sensible counter that could easily be printed. Not sure I find the character Iconic enough to warrant an alternate version of him, but given Baron Rivendare's effect it makes sense. If this competition were different, I bet there are more sensible characters for such effects.

Forest Raider Edwin: This is my least favorite finalist for sure. It seems way too overpowered and it takes away from the Last Kaliadasor paladin quest quite a bit. With so many adapts, you're almost guaranteed to get Stealth or Elusive, plus whatever other buffs you find. It'd be way too difficult to remove.

Iron Huggernaut: Funny pun and a decent effect. But I'm surprised this made it past the "no parody" criteria? Regardless, I just don't think Iron Juggernaut is an iconic enough character to warrant a second version being printed. Neat idea, but it rides entirely on the pun.

Mogor the Know-All: There is only so much space for a card like this. Noggenfogger wasn't printed until Mogor rotated out, so I suspect we'll have to wait a similar length of time for another card in this theme. It also doesn't strike me as a significant departure from Noggenfogger either.

Iliadin Lord of Shadows: I think this meme is overdone. I've seen so many variations on this, I bet at some point we could have a whole contest devoted to Preparation and Illidan cards. Maybe one of the mini-comps next winter? This version strikes me as broken. No need to give rogue so much free mana in a single card.

The Argent Tournament: Whoah, Un'Goro quests combined with Grand Tournament Inspire mechanics? I think the idea of a neutral quest is a good one, especially if it was offered as a freebie instead of Volcanosaur, but I don't know that this effect is really doing it for me. Thematically, I think it'd be cool if Mariel Truehart had a joust effect instead. Reveal two minions, add the highest cost minion to your hand? Obviously, weaker, but more thematic.

Curator, Despot of the Menagerie: Neat idea, but kind of pointless for a Warlock when they already have Doom, Shadowflame, Fellfire potion, Twisting Nether and now Corrupting Mist. Oh and Deathwing. If I want board clears for warlock, there are plenty of options that exist as single cards, instead of requiring 4 cards in hand. The probabilities on this activating must be terrible.

Rafaam: Probably broken, but a neat idea. I think some kind of restriction could be put on it like "for every card destroyed, replace it with a card from your opponents deck". 

Loatheb, Tribal Bane: I like Loatheb a lot and you've captured the spirit of the original card, but I don't know how I feel about Tribe being used as a new keyword. I feel like some better term could be invented for that. Interestingly, the Hearthstone engine does track many different "invisible tribes" like Elf, Orc, Undead and some other things. The elemental tag has existed invisible for sometime and is now a game effect. I like how this card can function as a counter for lots of different decks.

My favorites this week: Vancleef, Un'Goro Ganker, Baron of Stratholme and Loatheb Tribal Bane. Oh... also my own I guess.

Quote from ZardozSpeaks >>

Here are my thoughts on the finalists!

Forest Raider Edwin: This is my least favorite finalist for sure. It seems way too overpowered and it takes away from the Last Kaliadasor paladin quest quite a bit. With so many adapts, you're almost guaranteed to get Stealth or Elusive, plus whatever other buffs you find. It'd be way too difficult to remove.

If Illidan doesn't win sheerly from the memes, then this site is beyond redemption.

Quote from The_Odinson >>

Oozemage Thalnos - Here we have another card that I don't like at all. It has some interesting things going on, and I understand how people could get that instant attraction, but I don't see how this is even very playable. Its only good in classes where you already want Spell Damage, because it has lost the 'Draw a card' versatility, and in place of that its gained a weapon removal effect, making it almost completely dead against all but 5 classes, and really with the small amount of Paladin, the low weapon usage in Hunter and Shaman, this really doesn't do much in the current meta unless you really want the extra Ooze against Pirates, but honestly its still probably barely better than Acidic Swamp Ooze, as it trades for less minions, and its going to be hard to play it and get value off the spell damage. Clever design doesn't always make a good card.

 

Woot woot, back in the finals! Thanks for the feedback on Loatheb, Triabl Bane! I wanted to make a versatile but not OP card, hopefully I achieved that.

@Toxibrah - I'm glad Forest Raider Edwin made the cut, I upvoted it, very solid and well-balanced card!

@ZardozSpeaks - I agree that officially adding the term "Tribe" is a little bold. But like you said, with all the different "tribes", I think it's about time to have an official term for it. I admittedly used what Hearthcards uses. The Hearthstone Wiki uses the terms "tribe" and"race", but I don't think "Loatheb, Racial Bane" would be a good name haha.

@The-Odinson - Finding artwork was not easy! Googling "Fungal Monster" gave me creatures that were too much monster, not enough man. So I found this art under "Swamp Monster". Here's a link to a bigger version of the image, I interpreted all of the circular things on it's chest/shoulders/arms to be mushrooms or fungi: https://www.pinterest.com/durstann/swamp/ I agree, just like the original Loatheb, it can be played around if you have the right cards in hand. That's what I like about this version, it's versatility and strong stats make up for the limited (yet potentially powerful) effect.

Aside from my own and Forest Raider Edwin, Curator, Despot of Menagerie is one I really like. Such a cool way to get Warlock involved in other tribes/races, and a good play on the original The Curator, all while using a very Warlock-themed effect. Well done!

I like that if you type "Loatheb Artwork". You will find a picture of the avatar of @TheOdinson, if you scroll down about a half page.

It even have a link to a Heroic Loatheb deck that you made once.

Quote from Toxibrah >>

Quote from ZardozSpeaks >>

Here are my thoughts on the finalists!

Forest Raider Edwin: This is my least favorite finalist for sure. It seems way too overpowered and it takes away from the Last Kaliadasor paladin quest quite a bit. With so many adapts, you're almost guaranteed to get Stealth or Elusive, plus whatever other buffs you find. It'd be way too difficult to remove.

 That... Strikes me as odd. This card is not even close to the Powerlevel of the existing Van Cleef. I even considered making it a 3 mana card.

There is several effects that would  not want this card to have. The Deathrattle, Poisonos, Taunt.

Furthemore, this card does not grow like Edwin does. Not only does it cost an additional mana, but the result for 4-5 adapts are not as great as a 10/12 stated Van cleef. Furthemore the card dosen't have the flexability that the standard Edwin has, where you can play it with 1-3 other cards.

For 4 adapts the best outcome would look something like. Windfury, +3 attack, Stealth and Divine shield. Would you rather have that than a 10/10 Vancleef?

Edit: And Hard removal is scares these days. If this was the days of the 3 mana BGH, i would agree with you. 

Another Edit: Actually yeah, you would rather have it. But the best case scenario is very unlikely, and is more expensive when it fails.