Hearthpwn

One idea that I have yet to see fully explored in the submissions is a card where the "cast it again" is a downside for you, rather than pure upside. I tried to do that with my submission (though I doubt it will get very far, it's too complicated), but I wanted to see what other people can come up with. Something like "deal damage to yourself and a minion, then if a minion dies, cast it again" or the like.

Flavor Text: "The Void always has room for seconds"

The idea of this card is to create a card where the cast it again is guaranteed and a downside to the card. On the upside, it's targeted discard, so you can build combos with it. The card rounds up (which I would add if I made the card again), so if you spend 10 mana, you would spend 5 and discard all 5 mana cards from your hand, then spend 3 (2.5 rounded up) and discard all 3 mana cards, and then finally 1 mana to discard all 1 mana cards, leaving you with 1 mana. 

As a general rule, I'd wait a week before crafting anything to let the best cards bubble to the top. It took that long for people to catch on that Dr. Boom was busted, and simply waiting could be the difference between you wasting your dust on something like Varian Wyrnn and making the optimal choice like Justicar. Just my two cents.

That being said, I'll probably be playing freeze mage tomorrow, because that is my daily quest.

Blizzard's nerf philosophy post release, and for specifically the most recent nerfs, is to either take away uninteractive burst combos or increase design space, with the exceptions of undertaker and unleash the hounds (both of which dominated the meta). Alex doesn't meet either of those requirements, because it doesn't win you the game the turn you play it unless you were already winning and the design space for big minions (as the most recent set shows) is still very large. Alex gives you at least one turn of leeway to play reno or any healing effect before the other player nukes you, which is more then I can say about Grommash, Malygos or FON combo. Burst by itself is not the problem, it is the fact that it leads to situations where players are powerless to change the outcome that leads to nerfing. That, and the fact that freeze mage rarely has been a tier one deck post Naxx suggests that it doesn't overcentralize the meta. Sure, it's an easy way for control decks to win the game, but its existence creates new decks rather then inhibits them, so it should stay as it is.

If Rogue gets a truesilver/death's bite, you could flamestrike on turn five. As long as we get better weapons for rogue, this nerf is more than justified.

Let's consider some of the best outcomes for this card in Standard and wild, leaving hearthstone christmas land out of it. Also, consider that you can copy minions that have been hit by silence/Aldor Peacekeeper/stopped by taunts, which usually keeps them on the board longer than they normally would since they are no longer a threat.

SI:7 Agent: 6 mana 5/5 over two bodies, Combo deal two damage. I'm not sure if this is a better stormpike commando or a worse fire elemental, but the fact that you get to choose when to use the two damage helps significantly.

Azure Drake/Thalnos: 6 mana 5/5 over two bodies, Spell Damage +1 draw a card. Worse Azure drake, but spell damage is better when it's dirt cheap and powers your spells the turn you play it. So it's closer to Thalnos. 

Nerubian Egg: 6 mana 9/9 over three bodies. Your nerubian egg doesn't need to be buffed.

Sylvanas: 6 mana 5/5 deathrattle take a random enemy minion (woah, basically the same). Considering this card usually sits on the board silenced, this should come up more than Malygos/Emperor. 

Antique Healbot: This basically becomes Reno over two turns if you play both on Turn 10 (or all three with coin), when you most need the healing.

Tomb Pillager: 6 mana 5/5 deathrattle get a coin. Probably the worst outcome, and it still helps you go off with Gadgetzan/Malygos.

I could keep going, but I want to point out that none of these outcomes are far-fetched or win more, instead these are good role players that you are happy to play in your deck regardless. The card itself may be worse than any of these options (with the exception of sylvanas), but the fact that it works with any of them should make it at least a consideration in deck building.

Didn't Blizzard learn yet that it's player base in general doesn't like this kind of stupid rng? I mean, some rng (apart from card draw) is usually a fun thing (although not really a necessary one, but it's not real a problem for me), but this is just completly retarded (and hell, I even really enjoy playing tempo mage). I can even see me playing a card like Yogg-Saron, Hope's End for the lols from time to time, but not this shit.

Blizzard should realise once and for all that we are the ones that play this game, not them. If they want so much this stupid kind of RNG in the games they play, they can just make one for themselves. Leave my Hearthstone alone!!! :P

 

So because you (and people on this forum) don't like RNG, that means the the player base in general doesn't like it? Even though the vast majority of players is Rank 19/20, doesn't grind the ladder or play competitively in any capacity? And people can like different things about the game, not just what you like? I don't understand why your opinion is the be all end all of what hearthstone players like. 

Paying 1 extra mana for a random spell worth up to 5 and a 5 cost minion is well worth the risk this card provides, because you are potentially getting up to 9 mana worth of value. If Piloted Shredder can see the limited amount of play it has seen even though it could destroy your board with Doomsayer, this can be at least somewhat good (also Death's Bite and Shredder is leaving, so 4 health should improve in general.)

It's a 9 mana card that either gives you an extra Grommash (assuming your opponent can't keep the board clear for the rest of the game), a pyroblast/avenging wrath, or a full board of quartermastered Silver hand recruits. All on a better war golem. Sure, I'm in.

I REALLY like the design of this card compared to its contemporaries, Feugen and Stalagg and Mimiron's Head, for a couple of reasons.

1) It fixes the control problem. Rather than making control decks good, it turns aggro decks into control decks! I mean, if you don't win by turn 7 you are basically dead in the water anyway, so why not take a chance to turn your crappy early game into potentially game ending legendaries (and even if you pull jank, it still probably will give you a better chance of winning)? The opportunity cost isn't even that large, because it's only one card with solid stats for the cost (beating shredder is crucial) and low enough in cost that it can fit on a zoolock or aggro paladin curve. Those decks seem like the best fit, because they both have good draw mechanics to increase your odds of getting the combo and have poor enough late game that it would be worth going all in. By comparison, Mimiron's head is severely overshadowed by fel reaver and poor feugen and stalagg cannot find a home.

2) The best part about the card is that there is little interaction involved. While Mimiron's Head and Feugen and Stalagg can be easily stifled with a timely silence or polymorph/hex, your opponent has no counter play if you can get to the Golden Monkey. Though usually this is frowned upon, the trade off is that you don't automatically win when you get it, it just increases your odds when you probably would lose anyway. The fact that the Golden Monkey is a beefy taunt helps too, because you have a better chance of surviving long enough to play out your cool new cards. 

3: It's better than all legendary decks. I've seen a bunch of people say that it would be more worth it just to play all legendaries than to play this card. What they don't understand is that legendary decks have awful early games which make them not worth playing. This card, on the other hand, only goes off in the late game which means you play all of your legendaries as soon as you draw them. 

4. It seems really fun to play while still giving you a chance to win. It's a Johnny card, through and through, and though obviously every card that isn't for Spikes is automatically the worst cards ever I'm happy that I get catered to for a change as opposed to Timmys and Spikes. I'm really looking forward to this. 

Honestly, for most match ups I think the freeze makes this card very useful in late game as opposed to other two drops (Mad Scientist notwithstanding) because it basically threatens ice lance unless the opponent deals with it. You usually need frost bolt or water elemental to do ice lance combos, and depending on the match up you may have already played those. This card adds an extra level of redundancy with a much less threatening body (read: your opponent may ignore it). I think it's solid.

I just need to point out that this discussion in general is slightly sad. We just had one deck dominate the meta game, and the minute it gets nerfed and it shifts, people start complaining about the new best deck. Not that I don't disagree with Auctioneer being a little too good, mind you (you should never be drawing most of your deck this easily), but this seems like a really poor indicator of the future, and so I'm not enthused about the prospects of this debate. As for OTK's, I don't think they are the problem, but rather the very easy ways of getting to them because of Auctioneer and (to a certain extent) Life Tap. Look, without overly consistent (card draw is not inherently bad, drawing 6-8 cards a turn is) ways of obtaining them, if you find all of your combo pieces you deserve to win. If you're drawing it every time, on the other hand, there is a problem.

BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO CHANCE TO RESPOND!

Wait, what? So you're saying that the fact that you can't respond makes it unbalanced? If that were the case, battle cries, charge minions, hell even most of the good cards in the game would be unbalanced. Most of the theory about this game assumes that your minion will die before it ever gets a chance to attack, and because of that you should look for minions with immediate impact on the board. Look, I get why you're frustrated, but I think you misunderstood what the real balance issue is, the fact that these combo decks not only have a great amount of consistency but also far more consistency and card draw than they should reasonably have.  

No. No. Nononononononono. No.

One of, if not the best legendaries in the game. Aggro as an archetype only works if he is the deck. There is no other card that can end a game faster than he can, especially with power overwhelming and unleash the hounds. Hell, he even fits in control (Handlock) and Midrange (Hunter) decks on occasion.  You will definitely regret getting rid of him. Just appreciate how lucky you are for pulling him and build as many aggro decks as possible so you can grind for gold. 

I'm also going to be playing in the tourney, so it would be great to practice. I'm in.