Hearthpwn

Might summon Balrog when using Inner Rage .

"Can't we just carve in our initials like normal people?"

Welp, seems like i gave my consent to the curse-thingy too late.

And creativity is nice and all - but may i be MrUncreative again, pretty please? :)

Thoughts:

@Wailor: Interesting idea. I teven think it could be justifiable to have cards like Upgrade affect both equipped weapons since you're left with no hero power after you've run out of weapons. It probably needs that additional clarification on how it works though which might be bad in terms of popularity if people don't get it at first glance.

@NiRaSt: I think standard wording should be "transform into a combination of adjacent minions.". Also the added info about art and name should be pretty much unnecessary (plus the card would look much more clean and less cluttered without it). Other than that a superpowered Faceless that can't target at will and only hit friendlys sounds pretty funny. I can't possibly think of all the combos available and there is probably something broken in there but on the surface i'd say it's fine.

@TheFFsage: This effect isn't that interesting to me because it's designed to do one specific thing in a very direct and blatant way. If you're hitting a basic hero it's likely to be just an overcosted annoyance for the opponent.

@Vilegloom: The effect is really fancy and i'm liking it more in warlock than rogue - but that might be because the artwork is more fitting for Hearthstone. Also for simplicity and shortening reasons i think it should read "transform [...] into this one/into this effect" rather than "a copy of this effect". Not sure how powerful this would actually be but i'm loving it as a concept.

@Murl0c_Slayer: The name. Must be. Wurloc.

@CheeseEtc: I don't think there's a problem with resubmitting cards if they didn't reach a final. It often lessens my excitement for a card if i notice it though. Also Cleanse Spirit is hilarious. It has the flavor of a joke card plus this really obscure utility to it and the way that it's worded makes me kinda love it.

New year, old ideas:

"Why? Because shut up."

"So THIS is what you meant by 'Branching Paths'..."

Quote from Pumpkin03 >>

Omg sorry! I haven't seen your card in Discussion Topic. Mine is quite similar, though not identical. Excuse me again I didn't want to steal your idea :P

 I believe you actually submitted before i posted my ideas here, so no worries :)

Quote from Sinti >>

Uproot: someone is missing the old FoN+SR combo i see :) It has to cost at least 3 mana, so you have to use Innervate to achieve the combo Living Mana + Savage Roar + Uproot for 30 dmg on an empty board. If it would be just a 3 card combo that would be way too strong.

Impassable Thicket: i kinda like this one, even tho its another stall tol for druid; i guess the most value you would get out of this is if your opponent had board but you didnt.

Oakshaping: even tho it could make for some interesting deck building, im not sure i like it too much.

My bad - i absolutely forgot that Living Mana existed x)

Other than that i agree that Oakshaping is likely the least interesting as we already have that kind of effect in Zerek's Cloning Gallery. And even though i like the flavor of Uproot a little more, Thicket is the more interesting and probably less problematic effect. I believe you can use it a lot more modular than just for stalling and even if you do - 2/2's are a lot easier to deal with than 1/5's.

Actually had some early ideas, so i guess i'll try to participate in the discussion topic a bit this week.

Edit: Oakshaping might be a little too cheap.

Quote from DemonicPlushie >>

The reason I made them 0/3 and Can't attack was because of cards like Keleseth. Raising mana cost to 2 would've made it extremely devastating to draw them, even moreso than normal, and probably not worth putting in any deck. I think there's an extremely low chance that you both draw Keleseth on turn 2, -don't- draw King's Guard #1 and -don't- draw King's Guard #2 either. I intended the card as a way to protect a key Legendary that might have a hard time staying on the board.

I can imagine that you put a lot of thought into balancing these around Keleseth especially. Though i also believe he's just the tip of the iceberg because the double thinning plus protection for free is already so strong with any early game legendary. The simple fact that you can put two of them is what puts it over the line i think - but making it a legendary (f.e. "Kings Right Hand") would've pretty much ruined the flavor, so i can see why you didn't do that.

Quote from Sinti >>

You smack some (common) sense into your enemies ofc! :) Common minions already have it, so it aint as effective vs them :) I thought it was a clever design, guess not :D

Okay i actually quite like that. :D Though i believe the delivery is a bit clunky so it was a little hard for me to infer that :)

Also congrats to the winner! I might believe it's overhyped but overhype is hype nonetheless :)

Surprised by the amount of classism-themed cards people went for this week :D
Also surprised that i made it in this time - first time recieving a wild card for me. Thank you to whoever was responsible for that.

It's been a while since i last did a 'big review' of a final but i'm feeling like it so:

Master Michelo: I feel like hand information is always a bit overhyped. The effect is certainly flashy and innovative so good job there, but it does try to fill a niche that's not really there in my opinion. The target audience for this card is most likely casual players who don't want to do exhausting things like hand reading themselves - but would those players spend 1600 dust (and a deck slot) just for that option?

Garona, Kingslayer: Another mechanic that seems to excite a lot of people are these Patches-like recruit effects. And while i certainly find them to be more interesting than most hand information cards, the flavor of this one doesn't really resonate with me (unless i'm missing some key WoW-lore). I would probably play it simply because it's free stuff plus deck thinning but the rest of the effect feels uninteresting to me.

Snobbish Noble: The 'Commons can't hurt this card of superior rarity'-theme was kind of a low hanging fruit this week but it is simply well executed since everytime i read the effect i imagine it being told to me in a posh accent. So, good job, i guess :D

King's Guard: In my opinion this is much better flavor-wise than Garona. It just 'clicks' much better if you assume that legendarys are 'kings' and kings bring along their guards - sweet, obvious and concise. That said i also think it is completely broken in any tempo based deck since you can even run two of these. Keleseth on 2 is already a delight, but just imagine him bringing his 1/4 bodyguards. Delicious!

Communism: As others have already pointed out - yeah this should have really been named 'Commonism'. Also these universe-breaking cards are generally not really my cup of tea - even though puns mostly are. Strictly effectwise it feels fine - but also more like the type of effect a legendary spell would have.

Infinity Stones: This slots right into Odd Warrior - a fatigue deck that already plays a bunch of cards of each rarity with ease and doesn't mind the tempo loss on turn one. At the same time it gives you the opportunity to kill some hard counters like Hunter and Shaman by launching them miles deeper into fatigue or wiping out core pieces of your combo. In conclusion: probably too strong.

Edwin, the Revolutionary: I'm not the biggest expert in WoW-lore, but i believe this depiction of Edwin is pretty lore friendly - so the flavor is spot-on. Also i'd really like to try and tinker with this card a bit as i feel like it also has a ton of potential to be strong. Maybe even a little too strong since Odd Rogue already plays mostly common minions. The fact that it only restricts your minions but not your spells is really sweet too. I love these cards that make you wonder what kind of deck you can build around them and it's even a nice option for players with a cheap collection. Nicely done.

Flaming Candle: I also thought about creating a card like this one but couldn't be bothered to search endlessly for four matching artworks. Like Snobbish Noble the design feels a little like a low hanging fruit to me and it could certainly use a little improvement flavor-wise but it also feels familiar, is easy to understand and well executed.

Hogger, Nightthief: This is another card that just doesn't really resonate with me flavor-wise. The effect doesn't excite me either and it feels tough to evaluate whether its condition is hard enough to achieve or not. This card has left me not knowing what to think of it in every aspect of it - i'm not even sure if thats a good or a bad thing as it's a neutral legendary and i just feel very neutral about it.

Erin the Wealthy: While Edwin seems like an interesting and competitive deck building challenge, this feels like it's more on the casual side of things - high budget casual of course - but funny nonetheless. The effect also feels a lot more bland but i guess some people who own a full collection might have a fair amount of fun with this.

Epic Giant: I'm surprised a Giant card actually made it to the finals. These usually don't interest me unless they do a really unique spin on the mandatory reduction effect. Sadly this one might even be too strong because of its unique quirk since it includes the epic cards played by your opponent.

The Chosen One: Balance-wise this card is probably fine but i'm really torn on it because its flavor is all over the place :D. The artwork infers someone (Illidan?) being chosen by the Light so Paladin seems to fit even though this kind of transformation effect is usually attributed to Shaman. Also a spell called 'The Chosen One' should probably be a legendary spell but the effect is way too insignificant for that. I think i like the card but it's the little things that nag me about it.

Common Sense: I feel like there is some flavor or joke in this card, but i have to admit that i simply don't get it :(. Why is common sense a weapon? Why is it a gauntlet? Why does it interact with everything but common minions? Is it because you feel them up and can tell your common friends from others? So many questions!

Reflecting Gyreworm: This also is one of the more unique ideas in this final and it's one that i adore somehow. Maybe it's because the original post also stated that the worm changes colors based on the current chosen rarity - which is an adorable little gimmick that sadly isn't included here. Overall i think the card is also fine balance-wise as you can't simply sit on one rarity without making the worm pretty much useless.

Gem Vendor: I'll put this in a spoiler since i don't want to advertise my on card but if you're interested in my thoughts, go ahead:

Overall i'm not sure about my top three yet, but i think Edwin and Reflecting Gyreworm are among them.

"I offer a small sortiment of selected jewels. I don't deal in basic minerals."

"BEHOLD - my greatest invention/Boom Bot ever!"

"A warlock's equivalent of a sweaty handshake."

- I'm tempted to vote for Amber Egg just for its aesthetic. I think it might even be pretty powerful in Priest - but mainly pretty.
- Overgrown Egg is one of the funniest and most interesting ideas, i've seen in a while - despite not working as intended.
- "Megg" made me laugh more than i probably should have. I'm really torn, whether i like this pun or mine more.

Also this is the second time i'm actually a little sad that our flavour texts don't make it to the finals. :D