Hearthpwn

This Week's Finalists

Entry Restrictions:
Your card must be a Minion. (It does not need to be a proper "Giant", that's just the name of the competition.)
 Giants are big! Your minion's base Cost + Attack + Health values must total 20 or more.
 Giants are simple. Your minion may have no more than 3 normal lines of card text.
Seriously, Giants are simple. Normally, when we get to the Finalist Poll, finalists whose submissions include additional "token" cards or require additional explanation do get spoilers where those are explained. We are not doing that this week. Your card must stand all on its own.

We have whittled down ~340 valid entries to just 31 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 ZiombalaBoms
by Schumulukulu
by Elyxie
by Jazio
by gironan
by galchannel
by mysticsnake
by SWGolgoth
by wowcrendorfanboy123
by Petlas
by Rohjub
by Jigsaw911111
by demuze25
by LovsBatl
by Thorwaller
by Sneaky_Raptor
by Xylign
by samistheman258
by GodWinner
by nurgling13
by mr_0range
by Meeow
by Cardsmith
by Oloitlan
by crasyherbz
by Orak_unluck
by Eloc86
by green_magic
by rhcpsupermario
by pui980178
by kweeku (Wild Card)

Neru'bar enforcer one of the best cards I've seen, Ogre giant is very good too.

Also I don't understand why cards like ultraxion and optimist ogre enters into the finals but ok.

I love the finalist spread this week. There are so many great cards here that look like they could make excellent additions to the actual game, but there's one in particular that stands out to me that I just have to gush over for a second. I'm probably biased because Rogue is my favorite class, but I think Nerub'ar Ambusher is absolutely brilliant.

Beneath the Grounds was one of the more interesting cards that came out of TGT, and I really wanted it to work, but the fact of the matter is that most of the time it does nothing because the Ambush! cards just don't get drawn. This Nerub'ar Enforcer changes all of that by putting those cards to work, lowing the cost of this big minions exactly by virtue of not yet having been drawn. I really think that this card could be exactly what Rogue would need to gain a new, interesting, viable deck archetype, and the card itself is just all-around well done in how it manages to be totally unique and innovative while also remaining elegantly simple.

If nothing else, Jazio, you won in my heart. =)

Honorable mention from me goes to Optimist Ogre. I didn't get it at first because I was just scanning the card text and just thought it was poorly worded. But when I went back and read the name I realized the wording was deliberately non-standard as part of the joke. I immediately reversed my opinion and now think it's adorable. XD

Quote from Piccora >>

i don't like the "cost (1) less" on a non-giant - that's reserved only for them

Dread Corsair, Volcanic Drake, arguably Knight of the Wild.

Quote from Firebolts >>

Also, what card bumped Brewfest Champion of the charts? I remember it having pretty high votes back on page 2.

it's Goldrinn, second time i missed the final with huge amount of upvotes

Quote from demuze25 >>

Quote from LucasPassado >>

Neru'bar enforcer one of the best cards I've seen, Ogre giant is very good too.

Also I don't understand why cards like ultraxion and optimist ogre enters into the finals but ok.

How rude...

Rude where? This is just my opinion, you just need to see, you're paying 2 mana for a 10 damage split in ultraxion and optimist ogre you're getting a very op body 6+12= 18 = "9/9 body" for an funny effect, I agree, the card is very creative and funny but this gets the place of other cards those are serious and not just "funny"

Another card that I'd like to bring specific attention to is Durotan. It's very interestingly crafted and balanced, the end result of it always being that your hero ends up with exactly 12 armor and the minion ending up with as much health as your hero has armor before. The cost of 9 is especially interesting because it means you can't normally play it and use your hero power on the same turn, meaning if you start your turn with no armor, playing the minion results in a minion that immediately dies. It feels like a lot of work and thought went into this card, and I think the only thing that keeps me from getting really excited about it is that it comes off as, ugh, great, yet another way for Warriors to stack up tons of armor.

I think Nerub'ar Enforcer is a very creative card, but I am not sure it is a good card. As in, would it actually get used in serious decks? The problem is, it provides no threat other than just a large body. Playing large minions without abilities for cheap has found a good home in handlock, but how would you fit it into a Rogue deck? Could hand-rogue possibly become a thing? Seems implausible to me. I think this is one of the reasons almost all of the purely cost-reduction cards didn't make it into the finals. If you have a vision for the card, please do explain it, though.

Quote from Jellypope >>

I would like to note that the wording on Uldar Collosus makes it unkillable. Having the minions health and attack equal to your health means that it will not take damage unless your hero takes damage. meaning that it can literally attack whatever it wants with no drawbacks and god forbid it gets taunt. Refer to lightspawn for comparison.

From what the author said of the card, it is intended to have Immune, because of the wording. It can't actually get taunt, because taunt is disabled while a minion is immune, similar to with stealth. The card is supposed to be balanced in that it can't even be summoned until you have fewer than 10 HP, and it becomes weaker if your hero is attacked, but that is debatable.

Quote from Jazio >>

Quote from nurgling13 >>

I think Nerub'ar Enforcer is a very creative card, but I am not sure it is a good card. As in, would it actually get used in serious decks? The problem is, it provides no threat other than just a large body. Playing large minions without abilities for cheap has found a good home in handlock, but how would you fit it into a Rogue deck? Could hand-rogue possibly become a thing? Seems implausible to me. I think this is one of the reasons almost all of the purely cost-reduction cards didn't make it into the finals. If you have a vision for the card, please do explain it, though.

When I'm making cards for those contests I'm never thinking about something that "would surely be played", because cards like that would usualy be op as hell. It's like with Dr. Boom - it's obviously a good card, but it doesn't mean it's interesting. 

 Instead, I'd rather go for an interesting concept, something that could turned out to be very strong, maybe even create a new archetype for a class, or it could prove weak in the end. I think Nerub'ar Enforcer is a card just like that. It not only gives a rogue a new tool, something that Valeera didn't had before, but it would make Beneath the Grounds a little more useful, especially when rng is not on your side in a current game. 

Sadly, there is no way to test it, so I can't give you a solid proof that it would be a "good card", but I belive there is more in it than just a huge body. ;) There were many cards that seemed weak when revealed and turned out to be quite strong (Mysterious Challenger and Wyrmrest Agent from TGT are good examples) :)

Creating a strong card that everyone would put in their decks isn't really challenging and I don't belive it's something that this contest is about. It's harder to make something that would make people think how to use it, and from the questions you asked in your post I see that I reached that goal. ;)

I get where you're coming from with this, but the cards you quoted that turned out to be good despite people thinking they were bad have abilities (Taunt counts). I disagree that it would give Rogues an additional tool, because I don't think it would end up being very useful. Generally, it would just be the equivalent of a 5 mana 8/8, after waiting to play a Beneath the Grounds. The question is, how good does a vanilla minion's stats have to be to include in a deck? It seems more to me like one of the cards people thought would be good, but ended up never seeing any use. As you say, though, it can't be tested, so we have to rely on our theorycrafting. Caring more about creativity and interesting designs is also valid, and I am not knocking that, either. I personally do care about balance though, and I think it is too weak. Which is still up for debate.

Quote from Jazio >>

Quote from nurgling13 >>

Quote from Jazio >>

Quote from nurgling13 >>

I think Nerub'ar Enforcer is a very creative card, but I am not sure it is a good card. As in, would it actually get used in serious decks? The problem is, it provides no threat other than just a large body. Playing large minions without abilities for cheap has found a good home in handlock, but how would you fit it into a Rogue deck? Could hand-rogue possibly become a thing? Seems implausible to me. I think this is one of the reasons almost all of the purely cost-reduction cards didn't make it into the finals. If you have a vision for the card, please do explain it, though.

When I'm making cards for those contests I'm never thinking about something that "would surely be played", because cards like that would usualy be op as hell. It's like with Dr. Boom - it's obviously a good card, but it doesn't mean it's interesting. 

 Instead, I'd rather go for an interesting concept, something that could turned out to be very strong, maybe even create a new archetype for a class, or it could prove weak in the end. I think Nerub'ar Enforcer is a card just like that. It not only gives a rogue a new tool, something that Valeera didn't had before, but it would make Beneath the Grounds a little more useful, especially when rng is not on your side in a current game. 

Sadly, there is no way to test it, so I can't give you a solid proof that it would be a "good card", but I belive there is more in it than just a huge body. ;) There were many cards that seemed weak when revealed and turned out to be quite strong (Mysterious Challenger and Wyrmrest Agent from TGT are good examples) :)

Creating a strong card that everyone would put in their decks isn't really challenging and I don't belive it's something that this contest is about. It's harder to make something that would make people think how to use it, and from the questions you asked in your post I see that I reached that goal. ;)

 

I get where you're coming from with this, but the cards you quoted that turned out to be good despite people thinking they were bad have abilities (Taunt counts). I disagree that it would give Rogues an additional tool, because I don't think it would end up being very useful. Generally, it would just be the equivalent of a 5 mana 8/8, after waiting to play a Beneath the Grounds. The question is, how good does a vanilla minion's stats have to be to include in a deck? It seems more to me like one of the cards people thought would be good, but ended up never seeing any use. As you say, though, it can't be tested, so we have to rely on our theorycrafting. Caring more about creativity and interesting designs is also valid, and I am not knocking that, either. I personally do care about balance though, and I think it is too weak. Which is still up for debate.

As I wrote, there is no point talking about balance, when we can't test those cards in practice. From my point of view, your entry is most certainly strong (6/8 for 7 is already strong, since it avoids BGH) but the effect makes it so over powered that it's basically an auto include in any deck, which makes it not interesting at all. Silence on steroids like this negates almost every other effect in the game, which makes the game much simpler = less interesting. 

Of course it's just my opinion, and that diversity in thinking is exactly what makes this contest so fun! :)

Well, your card is doing a lot better than mine, which shows that people don't always vote for the most OP one.