Hearthpwn

To respond to some of the comments made on my submission Stormwind Phalanx,

• Asylum_Rhapsody, good catch on the linguistics. your wording is better. Hearthstone's best feature is simplicity. 
• nurgling13, buff/heal is the trade off for not attacking. to "heal 2" your losing out on 5 damage. I think this area is exactly where the Meditate keyword becomes interesting. Also consider, the card would have to be in play for 3 turns before this would be relevant. Thats a long time for a minion and 2 heal seems negligible compared to what some other minions offer if un-checked. 
• ShadowsOfSense, Im glad someone raised this because the statline was what I struggled with the most. My reasoning went along the lines, we have 5/4s for 4 that are better and for the most part are not too popular. 9 stats for 4 mana seems to be the new norm. Sen'jin Shieldmasta and Evil Heckler contradict each other in taunt/stat mana evaluations. However neither see much play so I feel there is some room there. A 3/6 taunt for 4 is is what I was left with and I wondered if it were too powerful. A Twilight Guardian for example has a serious condition. But I told myself this isnt a 3/6 for 4 mana its a 3/6 "cannot attack". To evaluate a generic 4 mana "cannot attack" taunt I think we can consider 3/7 or 3/8. Eerie Statue might suggest even higher. Thats where I justified it being ok at 3/6 (it can attack conditionally). Tho in some ways you could view this as a 5/6 taunt for 4 tho and thats clearly OP, but would anyone play it at 5 mana probably not. Overall, its the tricky part of evaluating Meditate minions. I raised this last week when it won. What is losing X damage worth? In some ways I think its higher then our first thoughts. 
• Broeck1, I think technically it would gain +2/-2 at the start of your turn so yeah awkward interaction with aldor. I dont even want to think about what happens if you throw a Crazed Alchemist in the mix. Tho there are some unintended consequences I dont think any of them are too bad. Tricky part of the mechanics in the game. I still have to pause and think for a second every time two Sylvanas hit the board.

Thanks for the comments. I must admit I was somewhat surprised with the positive response I got to the card this week. I didnt think it was exciting enough to garnish much attention. I just wanted to explore what Mediate did and could do. I think I learned alot this week.

I also wanted to add that I'll try to work on how I share my critique. I think I can come off rather harshly sometimes but that is not my intention. I think being critical is hallmark to good game design. But there is tact to be used when sharing critique and I need to work on that.  Especially when having fun and exploring creativity should be the goals of the contests. 

Tough competition this week. I think Cowardly Mercenary is my favorite but many caught my eye.

Edit: @Rhadan, yes this has happen to me before and I spoke to one of the mods and they said its just a visual glitch and doesnt influence the results. 

Im sorry you are taking this personally. I didnt mean it that way.

Just think putting an unknown factor like jade golem into a submission at this point is a mistake. At least from my point of view. I find it very hard to evaluate. Your card could suck, it could be good, it could be broken. I really cant tell you and thats why Im not voting for it. I do the same for any card that raised those questions. 

Off the top of my head Id say your card should summon two 2/3s or 3/3s something around there. To speculate, if the submission summoned two 5/5 I would think its off base in its evaluation and I wouldnt vote for it either. Even tho in a way its the same creative idea. 

Hope that makes more sense for you.

Disingenuous? thats quite the claim. I think im being quite forthright on why I didnt vote for cards relying on an unknown variable. Say it summoned a 2/3 or an Argent Squire. Id have a good idea of the game impact and could decide if I think it would be a nice addition to the game. 

I dont really know how much clearly I can explain myself. 

I dont really see how this negatively impacts discussion about cards either. Lets talk!

What are 2 jade golems worth in mana? is summon one or more for 0 mana ok? is summoning multiple in a turn balanced? What about on turn 1? How many slots devoted to jade golem does a deck need to be considered good and consistent? Whats the sweet spot of number to summon to be considered broken? How many good playable Jade golem cards are printed so far? What classes will be viable for Jade decks/arch types?

Quote from nurgling13 >>

Quote from Repeaterblox >>

Couldnt bring myself to vote for any of the jade golem submissions. Just not sure how powerful they are. Tho if the stream today is any sign they are pretty good and I think were all going to be sick of them before to long. lol/

No one is ever sure how good a card is until it's released (remember how people thought Troggzor was gonna be the OP card in GvG?), so that's a poor excuse not to vote for cards. 

Couldnt bring myself to vote for any of the jade golem submissions. Just not sure how powerful they are. Tho if the stream today is any sign they are pretty good and I think were all going to be sick of them before to long. lol/

Well this is gonna be a staple in a few arch-types

I Imagine i'll be using this card a few times over the next couple months.

I kinda love this card... even tho its pretty bad. But in that niche in that odd situation where it works and your opponent draws this instead of a good top deck it will feel so satisfying.

Quote from nurgling13 >>

Here are my ideas so far:

Bide is a combo starter that does nothing the first time you play it, but a lot later on. Is it too powerful the second time? Maybe 2 golems? Investment Racket requires the initial investment of a card from your hand for a large payout later. Mind Prove lets you know exactly what is in your opponent's hand each time you play it. But the second time, you get to choose a card you don't want them to play next turn.

Probably Raza the Chained because it seems bonkers and I have always enjoyed making Reno decks. 

Here is a simple card to try and demonstrate how using meditate could be a dynamic decision.

Uh meditate won?

Kind of interesting mechanic I guess. but the card submission were pretty meh. Pretty much versions of regular cards already in game.  Gnomish Inventor & Stalking Tiger or Lotus Assassin. a generic 4/3 for 3? theres been plenty of 4/3s that actually have abilities. who doesnt want to attack with a 4/3 to have 5/3 replace it next turn. I doubt that would see any play at all. They are all kind of uninspired if you ask me. 

If we analyze the mechanic too were giving up the ability to attack for effect. That is basically minus the minions power in value. Minions main value is the ability to attack. In that sense I feel like the mana evaluations are all messed on these submissions. gaining stealth, +1 attack, draw a card, these are worth 1-2 mana. attacking for 2+ damage is usually worth more then that. Especially in a game where creatures rarely stay on board for multiple turns. I think you would need to see abilities with larger impact or more impacting decision implications (to attack or not?) to truly showcase this ability. It really could be much more dynamic. 

Feel like we missed the boat here with so many other great submissions available.

Ton of good submissions. I gonna vote for a lot of things this week.

Think Insight might be my top pick because its something I never really considered before. The the cards submitted showcase it well. I like that it creates an interesting dynamic in deck building where you are including cards in pods of 2-3.

My other votes; Dissuade makes sense. Last Stand great ability but I dont like it being locked to 7. However its paired great card submissions. Time Traveler might be my favorite card of the week. Share is interesting but could use more dynamic application. I think it should be considered a disadvantage in mana evaluation. Meditate has potential too but the submitted cards seem under cost to me. They are basically under cost versions of cards that already exist. 

 Deception deserves a mention too. It would be a ton of fun for a player like me but I think its way to complex for the target audience of hearthstone.

bonkers