Thoughts on 'new' type of minions

A while back I randomly had the thought - could Hearthstone add 0 health minions into the game?

I immediately thought that it's actually impossible, but on second thought - it could have a deathrattle? But that idea sounds pretty stupid imo.
Why make a card that needs to instantly die when being played?

I thought again and wondered if these types of minions would work if they had a magnetic effect?
That'd remove the problem of them instantly dying, but then again, another magnetic card that will probably be used to hit the opponent's face is probably a bad idea.

What are your thoughts? :)

Cool idea!  Depending on the class and tribe, It could have synergy with existing cards like (Standard only because the list of synergies is potentially very long):

• Scavenging Hyena (if it's a beast)
• Spirit of the Lynx
• Necromechanic (if it has a deathrattle)
• Wing Blast
• Soul Infusion
• Spirit of the Bat
• Spirit of the Dead
• Any handbuff
• etc etc

Ok there's a lot more potential synergy here than I thought initially.  Basically anything that benefits from a handbuff, from a minion dying, or has tribal synergy could make this useful.  Gotta be careful too because if it's neutral, it could be pretty powerful in Rogue.  

Would be good for the game's health.

while reading this post i immediately came with the idea of "Bodyguards". 

 Type of minions who always got taunt, you need a minion they can protect, the taunt will only work for that specific minion, your enemy still can attack your face. but that specific minion is immune until the taunt dies.

it's really hard how to make a new minion type but it's possible, just like spells, they have secrets, which in fact are spells as well as quests, maybe a merchant could be a new type of minions? you pay a specific currency to buy one of his 4 products he shows you ?

An idea based on what's said here: instead of 0 health have a mechanic that instantly kills the minion on battlecry.  Thus when the minion is played, it instantly dies. 

On first feel it'll end up feeling like a spell when you do things like "Battlecry: instantly dies.  Deathrattle, deal 2 damage to all minions"  However, it does mean that it interacts differently with other cards.  Recruiting it means it just turns into a normal minion.  OTOH, it bypasses counterspell.  OTOOH, it means anti-minion cards work against it.  OTOOOH, other cards can interact with it: knifejuggler works, minions that react when a minion dies, so on.  

It does let you do crazy things, like, a 2 mana 5/5 that dies instantly (thus you want to summon or recruit it).  Or have an effect that attaches "dies instantly" to an opponent card in their hand.  Thus your opponent now has, say, a mountain giant in their hand that just dies when played.  You can even do wild stuff like "dies instantly, at the begginng of your turn revives and silences itself (so that it doesn't keep reviving :P).

Though essentually putting it as a battlecry makes it more intuitive.  You may not know WHY you would want a minion that dies like that but you know it will if you use it.  

Quote From Dakarian

An idea based on what's said here: instead of 0 health have a mechanic that instantly kills the minion on battlecry.  Thus when the minion is played, it instantly dies. 

On first feel it'll end up feeling like a spell when you do things like "Battlecry: instantly dies.  Deathrattle, deal 2 damage to all minions"  However, it does mean that it interacts differently with other cards.  Recruiting it means it just turns into a normal minion.  OTOH, it bypasses counterspell.  OTOOH, it means anti-minion cards work against it.  OTOOOH, other cards can interact with it: knifejuggler works, minions that react when a minion dies, so on.  

It does let you do crazy things, like, a 2 mana 5/5 that dies instantly (thus you want to summon or recruit it).  Or have an effect that attaches "dies instantly" to an opponent card in their hand.  Thus your opponent now has, say, a mountain giant in their hand that just dies when played.  You can even do wild stuff like "dies instantly, at the begginng of your turn revives and silences itself (so that it doesn't keep reviving :P).

Though essentually putting it as a battlecry makes it more intuitive.  You may not know WHY you would want a minion that dies like that but you know it will if you use it.  

 

I like it!

That "new type" of minions actually is actually a thing in the fourth wing of Dalaran.

I can see it as deathrattle cards, with them being more or less spells but with extra synergy with summoned\died minions.

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Random minion summons. Suppose you get one of these minions out of a Maelstrom Portal or Mounted Raptor. Well, you basically get nothing since the minion will die immediately when it hits the battlefield, and thus the summoning portion of the effect has been negated.

That depends. If this is X\0 vanilla or battlecry, then yep, that's not nice. If it is deathrattle - you are still getting the effect. Also you do know that there are results of random minion generation that are worse than getting nothing at all? I have doomsayered my board with a lackey more than once

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The card is completely useless to them since it's basically a literal "pack filler", not even a card. Just a roadblock instead of a card you might find in a pack.

Again, It is completely wrong if the card has a useful deathrattle. Same with battlecry\choose one\combo. But even if it is a vanilla creature, instantly dying procs cards like Cult Master. Is that a good reason to put it in a deck? No, but it is a reason nevertheless.

Let's imagine a card. 1 mana 3/0 battlecry deal 2 damage to the enemy hero. Is it good? No, Can you use with something like Knife Juggler Yes. Can you play it in a handbuff deck? Yes. Can you play it in some bizarre Shudderwock deck? Yes.