Hearthpwn

Next up: an 8 mana 10/12.

Minions, servants, soldiers of the cold dark... Obey the call of Kel'Thuzad!

The Lich class

His hero power is very unique since it will be transforming thruout the course of the game.

KT will be switching between two of the Lich magical fields Frost and Shadow. KT starts every game with the Frost hero power and after he uses it, the hero power flips and becomes Shadow. Note that you can still only use your hero power once per turn. The hero power itself is kinda straightforward. Freeze a minion (so no freezing heroes) or deal 2 random damage split among enemy characters. The gimick of this class is that your minions and spells will have bonus or different effects based on what your hero power currently is. 

Our first example of a card will be the Ice Seeker. This is an example of a card that gets a bonus if you have a certain variation of your hero power. So if your hero power is currently Frost and you play this card it's effect activates. This class revolves around freezes and dealing damage so there are cards that will freeze minions.

The next card is an example of a card that requires you to have a certain hero power to play it. Since the theme is Shadow here, what better way to release it with a gigantic burst that destroys one of your mana crystals (a price for that power). A straightforward card that can save you in many situations but can also result in a tempo loss for you. You need to have your hero power be Shadow to be able to play this card. If it's not Shadow you cannot play it (Majordomo becomes more useless =( ).

The last example of a card that I can give this week is a card that functions based on what hero power you have, having two different effects. If you have the frost hero power on you deal 2 damage to all frozen enemy characters and if your hero power is Shadow deal 5 damage randomly split among all enemies. 

All in all I think this class would be great fun since it requires alot of tactical decisions that will impact the way you play. Knowing when to use the hero power and when not to could decide the game. There are alot more cards that I thought of, but I decided to show you these three to explain the gimick of the class. 

I hope you liked what I made and I hope I make it far with this class. Thank you for reading =)

After having provided feedback on some 200+ submissions to this week's card contest, I think I can finally give some general guidelines on the pricing of hearthstone weapons. Of all the card types, I think weapon pricing is the most complex because Blizzard has slightly different rules depending on the attack value of the weapon, but here is what I have been able to determine:

1 Attack
The weapon should be primarily evaluated on its ability.
If there is no ability the price formula is 1 mana for every 4 durability.

2 Attack
The base cost is 2 mana for 2 durability.
Each additional durability costs an additional 0.5 mana.

3-6 Attack
The base mana cost is equal to the attack value for 2 durability.*
Each additional durability costs an additional 1 mana.

* 3/2 weapons (only) may get an additional 1-mana ability for free, only Warriors may use this to discount the weapon.
* 4/2 weapons (only) may get an additional <1-mana ability for free.

7+ Attack
So far the only 7+ Attack weapon that Blizzard has given us is limited to one attack on face, so it is impossible to say what the rules would be for standard weapons. That said, this is the point at which spells start being charged a premium for their game ending potential. With that in mind, I believe that a "vanilla" 7/2 should cost 8 mana, and a "vanilla" 8/2 should cost 10 mana.

Deathrattle
Deathrattle effects typically get a 50% discount - this accounts for both the delay in the effect and the chance of silence. Weapons cannot be silenced. This means that in order to justify the full 50% discount, the bonus has to have a reasonable chance of failing or "going off at the wrong time."

Summoning a minion cannot fail. Giving a bonus that is limited to a particular kind of minion can.

If a weapon can use up all its attacks in a single turn, it should not get a deathrattle discount.

Immune While Attacking
There is only one instance of this ability. It costs 2 mana when applied to a 2 durability weapon. There are a few different ways of modeling this, but I think the best is to increase the cost of the weapon by its durability (with some leeway to apply discounts for a 1 attack weapon).

Windfury
When pricing the weapon, multiply the Attack value by 2, Divide the durability by 2. (I.e. Doom Hammer should be priced like a 4/4 which is 6 mana, or 5 mana with Overload 2).

Weapon Loses Attack Value
If there are situations where a weapon can lose attack value instead of durability, increase the effective durability by 1.

Weapon Increases Durability
This was an incredibly popular option in the weapon design contest. I felt a lot of people executed it poorly. Durability increases should be conditional and/or have a cost associated with them. Anything that happens automatically (I include attacking, summoning, and taking damage in this category) is a poor choice of trigger.

If you have sole control over the triggering condition (and it is a reasonable, non-automatic condition), you can assume that it goes off twice. If both you and your opponent need to do something, assume that it goes off once (this is why the Eagle Horn Bow ability is treated like a 1-mana equivalent, the hunter has to play a trap AND you have to trigger it).

Hero abilities are 1/2 mana equivalents, they should not grant 1 mana bonuses. Using a hero ability as a durability trigger for a 1 or 2 attack weapon is reasonable. Using it as a durability trigger for anything with 3+ attack is not (unless there is a further cost or condition).

Persistent Abilities
Our best example of this is Sword of Justice. It has been priced appropriately for triggering two OR three times. If it triggers twice it's 2 mana in stat bonuses and 1 mana for a 1/3 weapon. If it triggers three times its 3 mana in stat bonuses and 1/2 mana for a 1/2 weapon (please note, the abilities on most 0-mana cards are actually worth 1/2-mana, the price of a slot in your deck).

When pricing your own persistent abilities, assume that they trigger twice and make sure that the durability of the weapon is hit each time they trigger (you can frequently do this by taking the mana cost of an equivalent spell or battlecry, multiplying that by 2 and using it as the attack value of the weapon for pricing purposes).

EDIT: This assumes that the persistent ability is separate from the attack. If the persistent ability is triggered by the attack you should add together the attack value of the weapon and 2x the mana cost of the ability and use the combined total as the effective attack value of the weapon.

Spell Damage
Blizzard has given us no example of a Spell Damage weapon. However, on minions +1 Spell Damage is priced the same as +1 Attack. From the Weapon contest, the best balanced Spell Damage cards were those that either lost durability every turn or lost durability with every spell cast.

1-Durability Weapons
There are basically two types of 1-Durability weapons I have seen: Infinite Weapons and Burner Weapons.

An infinite weapon is one that has a condition by which it will not lose its one an only point of durability, they should be treated like "weapons that increase durability" or "weapons that lose attack value" as appropriate. In truth, I prefer these weapons to weapons that increase durability because (a) they cannot stockpile durability and (b) they are vulnerable to the Bloodsail Corsair.

A burner weapon is basically a spell in weapon form. I do not like these weapons, I do not like them at all. They are invulnerable to weapon removal (your opponent never gets a turn), they bypass spell resistance (they're not spells), and they can trigger both their battlecry and deathrattle effects in a single turn (and oh boy do they tend to have deathrattle effects).

If you must make a burner weapon, please make it simple.

Mother of god, I need this card!