This is the Submission Topic, which will open until Tuesday, February 7th, at 20:00 UTC. The Discussion Topic is here.
The following users' entries have advanced to Phase III of the competition. You are not allowed to post in this topic unless you are one of the users listed below. However, you are still perfectly allowed to participate in the discussion topic. =)
Wild Cards: futheadQQYB7N94V7, Giz4Gamer
PHASE III: The Classics
In this Phase, you will each construct your class's Classic Set. Here are the requirements for your Class Creation Competition Phase III Entry:
CLASS, HERO, AND HERO POWER There are just a few elements of your class that you will repeat from your Phase I entry, to remind us who and what we're dealing with. If you'd like to repeat anything from your class's introductory explanation, including its flavor or whatever you believe makes it interesting or unique mechanically, that's fine, but try to keep it brief.
EXAMPLE CLASSIC CARDS We do not want to see your Class's entire Classic Set out in the open.
You are allowed up to four (4) example Classic cards out in the open. You may, below these cards, give brief explanations of them, why you decided to showcase them, how they exemplify what makes your class unique, and so on.
As these are Classic cards, they should have the Classic watermark, and you should include 6 Common cards, 5 Rare cards, 3 Epic cards, and 1 Legendary minion.
If your example cards produce any unique token cards, those must be put behind a spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.).
There are many keywords that do not appear on any existing Classic Card, and they may not appear on any of your Basic Cards either: Discover, Inspire, and Spare Parts. In addition, there are many general mechanics that did not appear either, so you must avoid expansion-specific mechanics like Joust and C'Thun synergy, and so on. Other such mechanics like Mech and Dragon synergy aren't disallowed per se shouldn't be used unless your class is specifically themed around Mechs or Dragons.
REMAINING CLASSIC SET The remaining eleven (11) cards of your class's Classic Set must be presented behind a Spoiler Block (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.). These cards must obey the same rules are your examples cards with regards to expansion watermarks, rarity gems, and what keywords you may not use.
BASIC SET You should include your completed Basic Set from Phase II behind a Spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.) either before or after your Classic Set material. It is fine if these cards have undergone some minor modification since the end of Phase II, but thy must still adhere to all of Phase II's requirements.
CHALLENGES!
One of the mistakes I think they made with Hearthstone when it started out was not having enough low-rarity, big/high-cost options. This, I believe, is one of the things that makes it so attractive to play earlier-game decks, because later-game decks generally require more higher-rarity minions. One minion probably isn't enough to address that completely, but it couldn't hurt, so that is your task: One of your example cards must be a Common minion that costs (7) or more.
Keep in mind that this is a Common minion, and so it should have believable simple, straightforward card text. Of course, unlike your Basic cards, which also should have been relatively simple and straightforward, you'll have a lot more keywords and such to work with this time.
Clarifications: - Somebody asked if a spell that cost 7+ and whose primary function was to summon a minion or minions would be acceptable, like Call of the Wild. I will allow it. - Somebody asked about cards with inherent cost-reduction mechanics, like Mountain Giant. I will allow it, but only if the inherently cost-reduction mechanic cannot reduce the cost below (7).
Most folks call me Asylum, but my last name is Rhapsody, and in addition to being crazy, I do love music! Also, this is partly as a reference to the Bard, the winner of our last Class Creation Competition.
This is just a simple thematic restriction: One of your example cards must be named/themed as a musical reference. There are tons of ways to go about this. You could parody a popular musician or popular song title, for example, as seen in Everyfin is Awesome, but you don't have to be humorous if you don't want to. If I were designing a Priest card for this restriction I might call it "Heavenly Choir" clearly referencing a sort of musical composition, or if I were designing a Warrior card I might call it "Drums of War" clearly referencing an instrument. Be careful that you don't get too abstract that I can't immediately tell it's a musical reference, though. If you were to design a Hunter card called "Wooden Bow" but then the art just shows a regular archery bow, that's a cop-out and will not qualify, but you could certainly get away with it if the art actually depicts a bow for a string instrument.
Importantly, in this Phase's poll topics, which will be advertised, I'm not going to include any specific information on any of the challenges, so unless voters decide to check out the submission topic, they will not know that this musical reference is required. It is therefore in your best interest to ensure that your example card for this challenge is thematically seamless with the rest of your cards. It may have a negative effect on your votes if one of your example cards seems out of place, so I'd discourage that Hunter from submitting a "Wooden Bow" and might instead suggest they rename one of their spells "Born to be Wild" or something.
Note: You are allowed to combine Challenges #1 and #2 into a single example card.
Clarification: - Note that I said popular above. If your musical reference is so obscure that we have to look it up to confirm that it is a thing, that's too obscure.
I don't have a long explanation for this. Humor is just a key component of hearthstone, and I wanna see you write amusing flavor text. Some of you, I saw in Phase II are even already doing this. You don't need to write flavor text for all of your cards, though, just your four example cards. Note that your flavor text will be included in spoilers in the poll topics at the end of this phase.
Btw, this is what your entries will look like in the poll at the end of this phase:
Example Song #3: It occurs to me that I could use this to back up or clarify the music reference more.
Example Card #4: So clever and witty.
OTHER STUFF
These are just the General Rules, Competition Schedule and Process, Rewards, and Archives. You probably already went through them during Phase I. I still want to include them here, but I'm just going to put them all behind one big spoiler. Any change to them since Phase I has been noted above.
GENERAL RULES
Even if you're already a veteran of our competitions here on the Fan Creation Forum, you should read the general rules before you get started. This competition does introduce new rules, like image limitations and formatting requirements.
* The Submission Topic is for submissions only. If you want to discuss your entry, another entry, ask questions about the competition rules or process, or anything else, you can find a link to the Discussion Topic at the top of this thread. Plenty of folks there will be happy to help you out. * You are allowed only one submission, consisting of the materials specified by each competition phase. These materials must, of course, be of your own creation. If you'd like, you may collaborate with another user on a single submission, but this must be specified during Phase I. * You may make only minor edits to your entry once you have submitted it. Minor changes are things like correcting typos or making balance changes that do not alter the spirit of your entry as determined by we the moderators. If you want to make any changes and have any doubts as to their legality, ask us first. * You may not delete any posts you make in this topic. No, not even if you post here by mistake or accidentally double-post or something. Deleted posts screw with the system we use to help us calculate up-vote scores, so don't do that. If you to post here by mistake or accidentally double-post or something, simply edit your post to just say "REMOVED" and leave it at that. * You may not create your own topics on this forum for competition-related material. If everybody goes off and creates their own topics for specific discussion of their entries, this board will be flooded with nothing but, and so competition material must remain restricted to official competition topics. If you want to enter the competition with a class that you already have a topic about on this forum, then your topic will be locked in the interest of fairness to the other competitors. Not deleted, just locked, and it can be unlocked after your entry gets knocked out of the competition. You also may not reference or link to your topic in official competition topics.
* You must host your card somewhere other than Hearthcards. We encourage you to create your entry material using Hearthcards.net, but please remember that, although HearthCards is awesome, it has a limited server space and will purge cards after a few days, and nobody wants your cards disappearing part-way through the competition. After you create it, save and upload it to Imgur, Photobucket, or some other similar site. We understand that there are some Hearthcards memberships that will allow you to save your card there for longer (and you should totally get one of those just for general fan creation purposes, by the way), but we don't know who has those memberships and we can't tell from the URLs. * You may not submit any Gold cards or animated cards, nor may you include any images in your post other than the requested submission materials, like banners or borders. We get it, everybody wants their entry to stand out, but our pages are going to be heavy enough as it is without everybody heading their submissions with animated banners. * You must insert your images into your post using this icon on the bar above the post text editor: . Just click that button and put in the URL of your image. We realize that it's also possible to upload and attach images to your post. Don't do that, though. We know from experience that, because those images are much smaller and require more work to view, entries that enter their images that way just don't do as well, so this is for your own good. * Format your entry concisely by sizing your cards appropriately and placing them beside one another rather than in a column or completely separate. The first example below is acceptable while the second is not. Entries that unnecessarily inflate the size of the submission topic and make it more difficult to get through will be disqualified. Adjust cards to a width of 250, and you should be able to get three in a row.
Hey, look! Some cards!
Soul of the Forest: Look at how nice this is. Hammer of Twilight: All neat, organized, and concise. Twilight Summoner: What a great post.
Wait, what are you doing?
Seriously, please don't.
This is painful. Why are you doing this?
You are a monster.
* "Troll" entries will be disqualified. Fun and even humorous entries are perfectly allowed (this is Hearthstone after all), but if you're worried that your entry may be misinterpreted as a troll entry, contact a moderator before you submit.
Finally, know that manipulating votes in any way is strictly forbidden. Any violators will receive an official warning, and will be banned from this and all future HearthPwn Card Design Competitions.
COMPETITION SCHEDULE AND PROCESS
How long do you have to work on your submission? How will advancement to Phase II of the competition be determined? The answers to these questions and more can be found below...
PHASE V: League of Explorers + Whispers of the Old Gods Preview: 22/February - 23/February Submission: 23/February - 2/March Poll: 2/March - 3/March
PHASE VI: One Night in Karazhan + Mean Streets of Gadgetzan Submission: 3/March - 14/March Poll: 14/March - 17/March
NOTE: All stages of the competition begin and end at 20:00 UTC. ALSO NOTE: I know that a couple of these submissions windows might see tight, especially because the secret challenges make it difficult to plan ahead. That being the case, this timetable is subject to change at my discretion, even after the competition begins, if it seems like too many folks are struggling.
* During Preview stages, both a Submission Topic and a Discussion Topic will go up, but the Submission Topic will be locked until the end of the Preview stage. The Submission Topic will reveal the Phase's unique challenges, so take this time to discuss them, ask for clarifications, and so on. * During Submission stages, Submission Topics will be unlocked and (remaining) participants may submit their entries. During Phases I-II, you may also use this time to go ahead and up-vote submissions that you like. * During Up-Voting stages for Phases I-II, Submission Topics will be locked. Use this time to up-vote submissions that you like. Note that advancement during these Phases depends entirely on up-votes. * During Polling stages for Phases III-VI, Submission Topics will be locked, and all eligible remaining participants will have their submission material included in a separate Poll Topic to determine advancement. Phases III-IV include two Poll Topics because I anticipate we will have enough participants remaining that we will not be able to fit everybody in one Poll Topic. Note that up-votes in the Submission Topics are irrelevant to advancement during these Phases.
How will eliminations be done, and how many competitors will advance from each phase to the next?
I'm glad you asked! We will be taking a equal proportion of competitors from each Phase of the competition to the next, and we will be ending with exactly four finalists. That being the case and their being five total eliminations before the final round, that proportion can be found by solving for x: [# of valid Phase I entries] * x^5 = 4 The higher the number of valid Phase I entries, the lower that proportion becomes. Just so you have an idea, the proportion hits 50% when we hit 128 entries, which is likely, but it only hits 33.3% when we hit 972 entries, which is less likely.
As mentioned above, advancement to Phases II and III will be determined by up-votes only. However, these up-votes are weighted using a formula identical to the process used by our Weekly Card Design Competitions: (ab) / (c) = x (Where a is the total number of up-votes that your submission received, b is the total number of valid submissions on the same page as your submission, c is the total number of up-votes on valid submissions on the same page as your submission, and x is your submission's final weighted up-vote score.) Why bother with this formula rather than just taking each submissions up-votes directly? Because earlier pages simply get a lot more views that later pages do, and we do not want rushed, early submissions to have an advantage over later submissions that took more time to get their entries just right. The formula basically measures which submissions stood out the most, with the necessary assumption that each page is about equal in overall submission quality. The bottom line is that, although entries on the earlier pages of the Submission Topic are much more visible and thus receive many more up-votes than entries on later pages, you don't actually have to rush to get your entry in as soon as possible, because the up-votes end up being weighted by what page your entry ends up on in order to determine its final score.
As mentioned above, advancement to Phases IV, V, and VI will be determined by polls. These polls will be multi-choice, meaning that voters can vote for every entry that they like. Whenever we have to split a Phase's poll into two to make it more manageable for voters, advancement will be determined by looking at each class's final percentage scores, not by looking at the direct number of votes they received, since we can't guarantee that the same number of voters will vote each day. Poll results will always be hidden until the poll has concluded, and for polls split in two, this does also mean that the results of the first poll will not be revealed until the second poll has concluded as well.
The winner of Phase VI, and thus the entire competition, will be determined by a poll much like the ones before, except that it will be single-choice, requiring voters to pick their single favorite class, and will have a much longer polling phase than usual to give us plenty of opportunity for promotion and such.
In the event of a tie during Phases I-IV for the last possible advancing position, all entries involved in the tie will be allowed to advance; the more the merrier, I say. We will absolutely not have more than four finalists, however, and so in the event of a tie during Phase V, the three Fan Creation Forum moderators (that is, myself, ShadowsOfSense, and PupleMD) will vote to break the tie. In the event of a tie during Phase VI to determine the competition's winner, the title will simply be shared unless both finalists request and agree to a tie-breaking round.
But wait, there's more! During Phases I-IV of the Competition, each Fan Creation Forum moderator (that is, myself, ShadowsOfSense, and PupleMD) will have a Wild Card, which we may (though are not required to) use to advance to the next Phase any one entry that we feel was initially overlooked or under-appreciated, regardless of its performance with voters. No entry may be awarded a Wild Card more than once, and it should also go without saying that, while some moderators are allowed to participate in the competitions, they are never allowed to benefit from Wild Cards. Wild Cards are our way of spicing things up a bit, but please don't ask to be given one or be upset if you aren't given one. These are just supposed to be fun.
Are you curious what will be required for future phases of the competition? The three challenges will remain a secret, but I'm happy to tell you the general submission requirements.
PHASE IV: Blackrock Mountain and The Grant Tournament
By having your class's Classic Set approved of, you've shown that you can make a completely functional class. But functional isn't good enough. Your class must also have room to grow beyond that. For this phase, you'll be proving that it can by giving your class Blackrock Mountain and Grand Tournament cards. Here are the requirements for your Class Creation Competition Phase IV Entry:
CLASS, HERO, AND HERO POWER There are just a few elements of your class that you will repeat from your Phase I entry, to remind us who and what we're dealing with. If you'd like to repeat anything from your class's introductory explanation, including its flavor or whatever you believe makes it interesting or unique mechanically, that's fine, but try to keep it brief.
EXAMPLE BRM & TGT CARDS We do not want to see your Class's entire BRM and TGT Sets out in the open.
You are allowed up to four (4) example cards out in the open. You may, below these cards, give brief explanations of them, why you decided to showcase them, how they exemplify what makes your class unique, and so on.
For this phase, you should have 1 Common card and 1 Rare card with the Blackrock Mountain watermark. These may not have Inspire, Joust, Discover, C'Thun synergy, etc., as those mechanics did not exist until later expansions.
You should also have 3 Common cards, 3 Rare cards, and 2 Epic cards with the Grand Tournament watermark. These may not have Discover, C'Thun synergy, etc., as those mechanics did not exist until later expansions.
You must also have 1 upgraded Justicar Trueheart version of your Hero Power. If you wish, you may substitute your upgraded Hero Power for one of your example cards this phase.
"No Grand Tournament Legendary minion?" you may be wondering? Actually, because Hunters broke the mold by having two TGT Legendary minions, we're going to let you break the mold too. If you wish, instead of 1 standard Legendary minion, you can have a pair of Legendaries, a Legendary Spell or Weapon, or even no Legendary card at all, with maybe an extra card of another rarity in its stead. Don't go crazy and have like a dozen Legendary cards, but feel free to try something new and different, and we'll do our best to discuss and accommodate it fairly.
If your example cards produce any unique token cards, those must be put behind a spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.).
REMAINING BRM & TGT CARDS The remaining cards of your class's BRM and TGT Sets must be presented behind a Spoiler Block (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.). These cards must obey the same rules are your examples cards with regards to expansion watermarks, rarity gems, and what keywords you may not use.
BASIC AND CLASSIC SETS You should include your completed Basic and Classic Sets from Phases II and III behind a Spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.) either before or after your Phase IV material. It is fine if these cards have undergone some minor modification, but they must still adhere to all of their original Phase requirements.
PHASE V: League of Explorers and Whispers of the Old Gods
Congratulations on being a semi-finalist! With positively received Blackrock Mountain and Grand Tournament sets, you've proven that your class's concept and mechanics have room for expansion. Now, there's only one last thing to do: narrow down the best of the best. For this phase, you'll be giving your class League of Explorers and Whispers of the Old Gods cards. Here are the requirements for your Class Creation Competition Phase V Entry:
CLASS, HERO, AND HERO POWER There are just a few elements of your class that you will repeat from your Phase I entry, to remind us who and what we're dealing with. If you'd like to repeat anything from your class's introductory explanation, including its flavor or whatever you believe makes it interesting or unique mechanically, that's fine, but try to keep it brief.
EXAMPLE LOE & WOTOG CARDS We do not want to see your Class's entire LoE and WotOG Sets out in the open.
You are allowed up to four (4) example cards out in the open. You may, below these cards, give brief explanations of them, why you decided to showcase them, how they exemplify what makes your class unique, and so on.
For this phase, you should have 2 Common cards and 1 Rare card with the League of Explorers watermark. These may not have C'Thun synergy, tri-class cards, or other mechanics that did not exist until later expansions.
You should also have 3 Common cards, 3 Rare cards, 2 Epic cards, and 1 Legendary minion with the Whispers of the Old Gods watermark. These may not have tri-class cards or other mechanics that did not exist until later expansions.
If your example cards produce any unique token cards, those must be put behind a spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.).
REMAINING LOE & WOTOG CARDS The remaining eight (8) cards of your class's LoE and WotOG Sets must be presented behind a Spoiler Block (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.). These cards must obey the same rules are your examples cards with regards to expansion watermarks, rarity gems, and what keywords you may not use.
BASIC, CLASSIC, BRM, and TGT SETS You should include your completed Basic, Classic, BRM, and TGT Sets from Phases II-IV behind a Spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.) either before or after your Phase V material. It is fine if these cards have undergone some minor modification, but they must still adhere to all of their original Phase requirements.
PHASE VI: One Night in Karazhan and Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
Here we are, finalists! In the last phase of our competition, you'll be giving us your class's One Night in Karazhan and Mean Streets of Gadgetzan sets, as well as constructing your own custom Finale Topics:
FINALE TOPIC There will be no Submission Topic for the competition Finale. Instead, you will create your own Finalist Topics. All that you have to do is create a normal topic here on the Fan Creation Forum and title it as such: [Class Competition Finalist] TURTLE (Replace TURTLE with your own class's name, of course.) Then, bring it to our attention, and we'll link to it from this topic. That's it. How you format and present your final product is entirely up to you. You've put in a lot of work to come this far, so you've earned the right to show us your completed original Class however you think is best.
ONIK & MSOG CARDS In addition to including the required material from all previous phases, you must add the following:
2 Common cards and 1 Rare card with the One Night in Karazhan watermark. These may not have tri-class cards, or other mechanics that did not exist until later expansions.
3 Common cards, 3 Rare cards, 2 Epic cards, and 1 Legendary minion with the Mean Streets of Gadgetzan watermark.
Your class must belong to a crime family, but it is up to you to determine how you want to go about that. You may have it join one of the existing crime families (Grimy Goons, Kabal, or Jade Lotus), or you may invent an entirely new crime family, with its own unique mechanical gimmick(s) and comprised of your class and two other classes from any of our current or previous Class Creation Competition finalists (so, in addition to your three fellow finalists, that includes previous winners the Bard, Merchant, and Twilight's Hammer, as well as previous finalists the Agent, Nightmare, Pokemon Trainer, Demon Hunter, and Lich); you would then need to create 3 tri-class cards for this new crime family (1 Common minion, 1 Rare minion, and 1 Legendary minion) , and like the existing crime families, your family's Rare minion should just have the card text "Battlecry: Discover a ______, ______, or ______ card.". To be clear, you would not need to make any class-specific cards for the other two classes you select to be in your class's crime family if you choose to go that route.
EXAMPLE CARDS These don't need to be part of your Finale Topic, but by the end of the Submission Phase, you should send me 8 example cards from your completed collection, preferably via PM, to be included in the Final Poll Topic. The Final Poll topic will look very similar to this one from our first CCC, except that no token cards will be included.
REWARDS
In addition to truly epic bragging rights, ALL finalists will receive a special Forum Title and Avatar Border, similar to those given to winners of our forum's Weekly Card Design Competitions, as shown below:
Furthermore, the winning contestant will have a Season 5 competition themed around their winning class!
ARCHIVES
Want to see how things went during our first two Class Creation Competitions? Want to see what the winners and other finalists did during each phase? Then check out the links below!
Note, that some competition rules, especially formatting rules, may have been different for past competition.
Long ago King Nafaron and his followers were banished to the Firelands. In the Firelands King Nafaron swore allegiance to Ragnaros. In return the Firelord gave them the power to Wield the Flame. But such power does not come without a price. In the depths of the Firelands they deformed and one by one they became monsters and beasts.
Example Cards:
He's sad because he He's actually really 'cool' Build a wall and make keeps setting the fire when you get to know him. hunters pay for it. alarm off. Highway to Hell is Rangaros's guilty pleasure song.
Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to Mirage Raceway. Prepare yourself for a day of fast and furious action. RACERS START YOUR ENGINE!!!
Hero & Power
Commencing countdown! Engines on! I'm coming off the line when the light turns green! Give me fuel! Give me fire! Give me that which I desire! One foot on the break and one on the gas! Engines pumping and thumping in time! There a voice in my head that drives my heel! 100+ through Black and White! I just can't wait to get back on that road again!
Class and Keyword Explanation.
So, here we have it, The Racer. Madcap, maniacal, motor-loving madmen, and women, who can't get enough of putting their engineering and driving skills to the test. The inspiration for all of this was Mario Kart, or any sort of game in that genre, on top of all the good time I had in Vanilla WoW hanging out watching those weird scripted races while I farmed cooking and skinning mats. I wanted to take something that isn't even part of WoW anymore, and merge it with one of the other things I've had a blast playing with my friends, and that led me to the racer. I was never a huge Racing fan otherwise, but my step-dad was, and for about 10 years my brother worked for Lowe's, and so I just kind of off-handedly learned a bunch of racing terms.
Chase is a host body for our Keyword, Draft. Draft is a very powerful and dynamic mechanic, however it has takeaways. Draft only affects cards in you hand, never your deck. It triggers are part of the casting of the spell, like Overload, and only lasts until the end of your turn. Its not Emperor Thaurissan. You can't slowly snowball down the cost of very card. You have to set up turns and make the most of it. Still when I thought of it I initially dismissed. I can't let my class just lower the cost of its cards can I? Combo decks are already a thing, and if I just give my class the ability to reduce the cost of its cards, won't it just be the best combo class? Well, what if we designed a class around that, away from combo pieces and OP interactions, and instead we focus on tempo. Right now tempo is a huge thing in HS. Going first is a huge factor in many games and having a good curve and not floating mana is a big key to not only winning games, but even being able to participate. This is what I wanted to look at. What if I could turn those turns where you just hero power into part of a larger tempo swing? The ability to take off a turn or 2 or even play a bit off curve because of what you're dealt, but still have potential to get back in the game. That's what Draft is about to me. coming from behind and turning the game back around in your favor.
You'll notice as you look through my cards that Draft doesn't appear on that many cards. Far fewer times actually than most other classes keyword, but there's a pretty big difference in my class than most, and that's in the fact that the keyword is built into my hero power, and something as powerful as massive hand discounts can't just be put on every card. In fact, you'll also notice this keyword shows up toward the high end of the curve, that's because its not about having an explosive early game. We don't need to dump our whole hand on turn 2-3 through perfect Drafting. In fact that would just as easily lead to issue as throwing in tons of face damage and card draw. Instead Draft appears on slower later cards because it allows you to fit in extra plays on those later turns. Sneaking in 1 or 2 drops along side your midgame plays to regain some tempo. I hope this helped you understand some of the design restrictions and choices I've had to make, as well as my philosophy and approach to the class moving forward.
She really revs your engine. "They want to be called the Draft Pack? Like they ever won a race! more like Rat Pack if you ask me." - Fizzle Brassbolts
Just have to make sure I throw "Look at what I can do." - Stuart, this past my own...uh oh. former Rocket Jockey
Tokens
"I did it my way!" "Ain't that a kick in the head!" "I've gotta be me!"
Classic Cars!...I mean Cards!
Tokens
Explanations
No Magic Zone - "Mirage Raceway would like to inform you that this is a No Magic Zone. We are here to test engineering and driving prowess, not who's fireballs are the biggest." - Fobeed and Zuzubeed, race annoucners. If that's not enough, I don't know how else to get the point across. The other reason I added this was to keep things going. Wide, AoE style effects. This hits both sides of the board, and while we do have AoE buffs, we also don't have too many powerful persistent effect or powerful deathrattles. In fact our only deathrattle is actually a drawback. That gives us a bit of fun play with the Self Silence mechanic that never really worked out for Priest. Flavor Text "Also, no outside food or drinks."
Smoke Screen - When racing is war, sometimes defense is the best offense. A well placed Smoke Screen can help you stay in the race long enough to pull ahead. I though this twist on Divine Shield was a cool one. Doesn't work on Spells, but hell your opponent isn't supposed to be bringing those to the track anyway! Flavor Text: "Did you know Smoke Bomb™ is under trademark by the SI:7?"
Upstart Mechanic - Oh, this young fella, well young for a gnome, thinks he has all the knowledge and skill anyone could ever need, until this Old-Timer gives him whatfor. You gotta learn from the best, not just from some book! This gives us a nice tempo minion and also gives us a touch of Self Damage and healing play. Working all those themes into a 2-drop. Flavor Text: "If he was as smart as he is stupid we'd win every race." - Old-Timer
Quick Fix - Sometimes you take a big shot, your rides almost toast, you're sucking in smoke and you can't see out of one eye. If you just pull over and slap some duct tape on it you can, drink some coolant, (don't worry, its safe, the Speed Freaks drink it all the time), you can get back on the track in no time. Quick fix plays into our healing. Healing might seem out of place, but that's only when you think about it as some sort of divine intervention or holy light, and not a bit of wrench work and some Croc-ade® (patent pending). Then it kind of makes sense. Just because you take a hit doesn't mean you're out of the race! This is our first Draft effect. Draft is something we have to be somewhat conservative with because of our hero power, and here its tacked on for both flavor and effect. Flavor Text: "Is this one the coolant or the Croc-ade®? Eh, same difference"
Desirable Mechanic - Ah, you know you love a nice piece of eye candy! What I'm talking about that flying machine you pervert! This fine little piece of tail...pipe is our.... Oh who am I kidding, she's hot right? And she's one of the most brilliant mechanics I've ever seen! Its like very motor she touches runs that much faster. Seriously though, this card probably seems super simple, but that's the beauty of it. Its a fine on curve body with upside. What more do you really need. Flavor Text: "She really revs your engine."
The Draft Pack - Every generation has an icon group of winners, except this bunch of losers. The only person they ever beat is each other. I took a big inspiration from the Summit, more popularly known as the Rat Pack, a supergroup of singers including Frank Sinatra (Old Blue Eyes), Dean Martin (the King of Cool), and Sammy Davis Jr. (Mister Show Business). This group was actually the second iteration and would later be the inspiration for the Brat Pack and the Frat Pack, as well as the movie, The Rat Pack. I thought it was a great nod to some classic crooners and a bit of fun at the same time. Lil' Blue Eyes, Baron of Cool and Mister Go Business are the three tokens, and each is that little bit different from the other. I think I found some decent art to bring the concept to life and I hope you have a much fun seeing it as I did coming up with it. Flavor Text "They want to be called the Draft Pack? Like they ever won something, just a bunch of filthy rats if you ask me." - Fizzle Brassbolts, Gnome Team Racing President.
Magne-TNT - What better way to take out a group of tightly packed competitors in their fancy cars than a piece of dynamite and a magnet? Just set it and forget it! I wanted my second AoE to have a very unique feel, and so I came up with Magne-TNT. It seems like some sort of crazy thing someone would invent and use, and it gave me a cool twist. Half single target removal, half AoE. Flavor Text: "Just gotta make sure I throw it past my own...uh oh."
Pit Crew Chief - A pit crew is only as good as its best man, and luckily this guys pretty good. Typically taking a Pit Stop at the right time is important, and this guy knows how to make that call. Making you look out of the race when you're secretly about to make a big comeback. Another small subtheme is what I call Full Drift. Pushing a card to 0 mana. This means you've gained enough advantage from good "driving" that you reap special rewards. This one may not seem like much but on those potentially large tempo turns being able to add a Taunt all is a pretty sweet bonus. Flavor Text: "I said "Stop It" not "Pit Stop" you idiot, keep going!"
Pit Stop - This is it, one of the biggest moments in any race. Get in and out of the Pit fast and you're sure to be in position to win. Making a good pit stop when you're behind is even more important. You have to refuel the car, but you might even get in a few repairs and maybe even chase the leader out of the pit! Here again, we play into a lot of things in one card. Its probably a touch wordy, a touch cluttered, but its hits those flavor notes and nothing feels out of place to me. Flavor Text: "Can't we just change cars?"
Just A Bit Further - Sometimes you're out. You've taken too many hits and the wheels are coming off. You've lost your mirrors and your bumpers are blown to bits, but you know if you just hold onto the steering wheel and pray maybe there's just enough momentum to get you across the line. Hey, look the shield generators back online, and we've got one more rocket left, and its just a quarter mile to the finish line. WE CAN DO THIS! This card was inspired more by the art than most. Most of the time I found art to fit cards, here I found this art and couldn't help but make it into a card. Ignores Draft is something that we have to use to keep just a few cards from being very dangerous. Here it keeps this large protective buff in check.
Hellbound Speedster - He's on a Highway to Hell, and he's going dooooowwooown. And he's probably taking you with him. No, I felt like I couldn't use the same card for both the music and high cost common theme, so I created this card as an homage to AC/DC. I live in Australia after all. This may not be super obvious, but I felt like it still hit the right note.... I'll stop now. This also reinforces our Dynamic statline and self damage themes and helps give No Magic Zone more of an in-game use and not just a flavor one. Flavor Text: "Acceleration, Check/Detonation, Check"
Careless Rocket Jockey - Ah, the most out of place low mana card ever. This card seems beyond weird I'm sure. And honestly, we already have a 1 mana removal in our basic set, so what made me put this one there? Well, that actually part of it. We already have a 1 mana removal, and that's already going to be floating around Arena, we don't need to have a bunch of running around. Plus this has some other interesting things going on that I felt pushed it toward a special slot. Its a minion that is actually meant to be removal, similar to Force of Nature, which ended up being a combo piece until its nerfing. So I felt like in a lot of ways I was paying Homage to a nerfed Force of Nature. I love this card and I think it makes a great epic, especially if you look at Blizzards track record with epics. Flavor Text: "Look at what I can do." - Stuart, former Goblin Rocket Jockey
Rocket Fuel Tech - Our second Full Draft card. One of my original previews and one of the first cards I designed. It hasn't changed a bit since then and its still a great example of flavor and substance. Flavor Text: "This stuff will take you to the moon and back. Oh, you're here for fuel?"
Qualified - Our second Ignore Draft card, and our biggest potential hair puller. Some times you think you're winning the race, but it turns out its just for a chance at the real prize. I tried to cost this in such a way that makes it playable, but not great. And in a way that typically makes the second copy much worse than the first. Back in the classic days I think more games against aggro went past turn 7 but now it seems like they don't. Flavor Text: "I blew him off the track, how did he qualify?"
ToGny Starkwrench - Ah, we all need a good legendary, and who better to help us build amazing machines and sick weapons then warmongering, egotistical, millionaire, playboy, ToGny Starkwrench. Yeah, so he got kidnapped by Goblins in held in the desert, but he's still alive. What do you mean he stopped making weapons? Renewable energy? Well I'm already paying him, so let's just hope he's got something helpful against those goblins. I really am going to make every legendary comic book subthemed so just get used to it. We get to play off ToGny's ingenuity and off his skill. We get both designer and creator in one go. I hope this guy feels cool and fun, that's what I'm aiming for most. Flavor Text: "I told you I don't want to join your super secret boy-band." - ToGny Starkwrench.
Basics of Racing
Fall Back - Here we are. First card in and its already familiar but different. One of the big aspects I put emphasis on is wide or aoe buffs. But ones not so tied into boosting stats, but more so in adding abilities to my racers. From a flavor standpoint Fall Back, is about letting yourself appear weak at some point in the race to get ahead later. I've represented that by giving all my minions Taunt, as they are now more viable and visible opponents.
Last Ditch Effort - Removal. Its something we all know, but I needed to find a way to make cheap removal that didn't deal damage to the opponent. That led me down many paths and this was just the first. Last Ditch Effort is that point where to stay in the race you just launch off everything. You do whatever it takes, you might even just ram the other driver off the road. And the bigger and badder they are the harder they hit you back.
Caution - Every race still wants to keep its racers safe, so when things get too wild, we pump the breaks. But its not just one person we're trying to keep safe, its everyone, and so we have protection for everyone. This helps reinforce our AoE buff theme, and provides an even more unique take on it by hitting all minions, friendly or otherwise.
Clumsy Mechanic - For every good driver, you have to have a car, and who else but the Mechanics do we have to thank for that. This gal may not be the most graceful, but she's still one hell of a mechanic, and she's not just going to roll over and give up. She represent, along side Last Ditch Effort, part of our self damaging sub theme. This is put into play because those comebacks can't happen if we aren't getting behind in some way. So we might take a bit of damage, but that's ok, we can always make a Pit Stop and get some repairs and get back out there.
Start Your Engines! - Our last AoE buff, this one hits a nice icon race moment, that point where the race is really about to start. Obviously this is just Charge, in AoE form, but like many of our other effects, we've made it iconically our own.
Speed Freak - This is a minion many people told me didn't make sense. It didn't have any abilities, it was just this weird vanilla minion. But its not just some weird vanilla minion. Its our minion. Its got a statline we'll likely never see on an Neutral minion. Its something different. Its part of our class identity. How? Well, we are already going wide with out buffs. We can pass out Taunt, Divine Shield and Charge. If we spend a bunch of time putting all these abilities on our minions we close off part of our unique design and so by not doing that we instead open up even more unique design. Dynamic statlines. Here we have out first example, the high attack low health minion. But we're getting a full 10 stat points for just 4 mana. Who needs abilities when you've got great stat value? Ok, maybe the distribution isn't great, but that's the point as well. Not every card is great. We have to fill out set and I could make a bunch of awesome cards to show you how many great ideas I have, but I think it takes just as much effort to design mediocre to bad cards. I'll obviously try to avoid downright awful cards, but I think we all know that not every card is, and more so shouldn't be, great.
Tactical Maneuver - So, we are almost definitely going to have to do a few damage spells, we just have to avoid the ability to BURN THE DOME!!!! Oh, sorry, my winner's instinct kicked in for a second there. This card represents our first look at the "comeback" trigger. Being behind on life won't be a super huge thing, because let's be honest, we don't always want to play from behind, but I think its nice to have a few cards that make that feel better. This lets us take and enemy out, and if we got lucky and that was the guy just ahead of us in the race, we eek out that extra advantage.
Crowd's Favor - The crowd is a big factor in any sporting event, and this is my representation of that. Being the guy(s) or girl(s) getting the cheers and really boost performance. Giving the underdog that advantage to beat the big favorite. It can also lead that Fan Favorite to a dominating victory. I decided to go with a very high cost on this to prevent easy abuse of Drifting to lead to major OTK potential.
Eliminate the Competition - Every once in awhile you have to thin the pack. That's when a nice rocket barrage can be a huge help. Taking out a group of weaker drivers let's you get back in the race and go for the win! Plus, every class needs some AoE.
Fan Favorite - Oh, here he is. That big dog we were talking about earlier. He's won more races than you, hell he's won more than anyone in recent memory. He's cool, he's collected, and he's a serious threat to anyone else winning the race. At least that's how I justified a big beefy Taunt minion to myself when I designed this guy. I think the Fonzie style is a great nod as well.
The Dancer class. A class of beauty and grace. They fight with rhythmic movement and in numbers. A solo act may be impressive, but the choreography can truly shine when there are multiple dancers. Numbers and movement are the strengths of this class. They help and support each other to boost themselves to new heights. To shine brighter than any star.
"His best friend, Tauren Bodyguard, "He also works as a card dealer is a sick beatboxer." in the local casino."
"The last time he performed, "The golden version won he destroyed 5 cities and Best Animation of the Year created a new river." on HearthPwn Card Awards."
Token:
Showcase Explanations:
Troll Breakdancer - One of my favorite cards of this set. Troll Breakdancer and Tauren Bodyguard are two 4/4s for 7 mana. All minions to the left of the pair gain +1 Health, all minions to the right gain +1 Attack, and any minion that is between the two have +1/+1. They are quite a powerful duo.
Ethereal Shuffler - A 5 3/3 that creates copies of itself. The copies have all the stats of the original, useful for getting the most of the classes buff cards.
Shifting Mountain - A smaller Bog Creeper, but with the ability to gain Health everytime it shifts.
Ice Skating - Perfect for activating shift effects multiple times. Creating two copies of Ethereal Shuffler, giving your Shifting Mountain +2 Health, or even both.
The rest of the Classic Set:
Classic Set Explanations:
Blade Dancer - Easy shift trigger to retain tempo. Curves well with cards like Elven Model.
Arrogance - A removal spell that makes the opponent consider their positioning before summoning minions. Can deal 2, 4, or 6 damage.
Happy Feet - Useful for buffing all of your minions via shifting. Combos nicely with Ice Skating.
Practice - A buff with a shift effect. Combos nicely with Ethereal Shuffler. 7-mana for two 5/5s isn't bad.
Elven Model - Card draw triggered by a shift. Synergies with Ice Skating and Blade Dancer.
Resurgence - A minion heal with a small buff.
Duet - 3-mana for +4/+4 with the condition of having at least 2 minions. Targets are random as well.
Dance with the Beast - A 4-mana 4/5 Taunt that requires a minion to summon.
Kicked Off Stage - A removal spell with the restriction of only destroying the enemies leftmost minion. Encourages using shift cards to control which minion is destroyed.
Spotlight - Cheaper Twisting Nether that leaves one minion alive on both sides. Encourages shifting enemy minions to manipulate which minion survives.
Exotic Dancer Lunakua - Doubles all buff cards cast on it. Can be used to draw cards with Quality Fleece from the basic set.
Basic Set:
Token:
Treant Sisters Removal and their Replacement:
The Treant Sisters were replaced by Exhausted Dancer:
Their previous iteration was far too powerful. Their effect was modified and used for the legendary of the Classic set.
Exhausted Dancer - A 1-mana 0/3 that gains Attack everytime its Health is increased through buffs or healing. Has synergy with Tavern Musician and all Health buffs. Resurgence and Towering Garments have crazy synergies with their healing or active buffing.
Boetius Bannister, King of Fireheart. Off, to the East of the Eastern Kingdoms, Boetius and his people silently builds an army. Waiting for the day to return back to the rest of civilisation, Where the Horde shall finally fall.
A king is a man who does not fight with an axe, but with an army. He does not ensure his safety with armor, but with a guard. And he does not gain power and success through taking down opponents in duels, but rather from gaining trust and respect from the men and women inside his city walls. The king is a class who uses minions to defeat his enemies, rather than his own magic or strength, and when his minions do their jobs right, he makes sure they are rewarded as such.
He understands the commoners hate for the noble, and the nobles distaste for the commoner, and he understands the commoners contempt with his fellow commoners, and the friendships that the nobles gain between eachother in royal parties. The King knows how to impress and correctly utilise a minions rarity to best serve his needs, and using promote, he knows how to get that rarity where he needs it.
Example Cards
He didn't mean to kill that guard... She's never been the same since she Or that lady... Or the the dog... His hand learned where meat comes from. just slipped, he swears.
Disclaimer: Casting this spell Back when he was just a small will not actually result in rich child, his parents were killed in planetary domination. an alleyway. Ever since that fateful day, he's... Richer?
Explanations
Arthur Bannister - Arthur Bannister, Boetius' son, is quite unlike his father. He doesn't care for "girly things" like politics, people and social class. In fact, rational thought is also foreign to him. But he does like crushing anyone who seems to be weaker than him, fighting, mindlessly insulting children, etc. He's not the nicest of guys. But what he IS, is a perfect example of the King's minion based removal cards, which utilise minions to remove things rather than standalone spells. He's a giant, potentially devastating board clear, and he has some interesting synergy with cards like Raid Leader, Stormwind Champion and a couple of King cards that have yet to be shown. The more he hurts, the more he kills, and under the right conditions, he hurts a lot.
Savage Butcher - Common King, one of the two "tribal" rarity King archetypes, is a control deck that relies on small minions and big board buffs to form an impenetratable wall of taunts that will keep the aggro decks from the Kings face. However, that sounds nice and all, but against control decks, wouldn't that run out of steam? That's what Savage Butcher is here for, she's among the kings card advantage focused cards. She costs a lot of mana, but 2 for 1's on a fast acting minion are certainly more than welcome in the common king deck.
Rule the World - 4 specific cards drawn for 6 mana... Isn't that a lovely thought? However, in order for this card to be the dream, you've got to push your deckbuilding skills to the test. In order for it to work, you need to guarentee at least 4 draws, after all, Nourish costs 5.... That means you'll have to be running multiple commons, rares, epics and legendaries in your deck, and you need to ensure you don't draw all of your cards of any one rarity before you draw this, else it's value is going down the toilet. Draw 2 full rarity sets from your deck before this? Might as well not even bother playing it at that point. But on the upside, this card is just brimming with possibilities, you could build a deck and call it "Rule C'thun", and this card would be guarenteed to draw a common, rare, the other Rule the World in your deck, and either C'Thun or Twin Emperor Vek'lor. You could reasonably include it in any deck in fact, if you adjusted it accordingly.
Pompous Noble - Behold, the mighty 5 mana 1/1! Or, in the right deck, the 5 mana 15/15! When you make an Epic King deck, you might as well go all the way. Epic cards are gimmicky and situational, why should a deck built around them be any different? Ride that wave, and allow the Pompous Noble show you that his strength is not only unparalleled, but also unperpendiculared... Not that that means anything. Anywho, clearly the epic king, with this guy being the most synergistic card for it, will not be the most powerful deck on the tierlist. After all, did you know there are actually only 10 neutral epics in the classic set? This guys biggest statline in classic, will almost always be capped at 16/16. That said, 16/16 is pretty good for 5 mana, and as the sets roll in, Epic king might just begin to form and shape into one of the most powerful pure gimmick decks in the game, after all, when it comes to super late game win conditions, nothing really beats playing a 15/15 and a 16/16 on the same turn once the opponents removal is gone.
The rest of the classic set and their explanations
Rations - With the basic set containing no rarity based cards, there will be an increased amount of cards focusing on rarity in the classic set. Rations is a very big card for the Common King, a deck with quite a decent amount of token generation. With this card, your little swarm of little minions don't become any stronger, but they each become quite sturdy. It also replenishes your health a little, allowing you to stabilise on the board while stabilising your health. No one seems to be enjoying the raw murloc head we got for them... Maybe they just don't like fish?
Shifty Commoner - A very simple card that immediately recycles itself when you play it. It won't necessarily give you something good, but it will give you something, and really, that's all that matters to a Common King. It has excellent value for its cost, a 2 mana 2/2 which you don't lose card advantage on, but you have to be able to make use out of whatever card comes out of it. Do note, however, that the card will always either be a neutral or a king card. She acts cruel and harsh, but that's just her way of showing her affection. Probably.
Huge Swing - This card is essentially the King's very own Shadowbolt card. However, this card has a bonus as long as you have a couple of minions on the board to boost it up. Normally, the card just has the King swing for 4 damage, but, with the help of your men, they can perform the attack, taking down the minion regardless of its size. This only works with commons though, as it's unlikely Epic king would want to play it anyway, and it rewards more intelligent play from the Common King player. Should you promote your Shifty Commoner for the buff? Or should you save your promote for now in hope of gaining a huge strength increase to Huge Swing? Well, it's usually called a Wide Swing, but that's just... Boring.
Shieldwall - So, you've swarmed the board with tiny little Castle Archer's, Shifty Commoner's and Argent Squires, but that warrior just won't stop hitting your face! It's not like you can attack his weapon, spells or charge minions, so that board doesn't really matter much, does it? Well, with this card you can completely stop all the attacking your opponent is doing, should you have a big enough board, leaving yourself only open to spells. In addition to them all gaining taunt though, they gain +1/+1 buffs, in exchange for making Huge Swing and Riot worthless until you get another few tokens. If you use this on one minion, is it really a shieldwall?
Squad Leader - A rapid token generator for the King. Obviously designed for a Common King variant, but this, along with many other cards, are completely fine outside of common king. The actual man himself is the leader of a Militia Squad, thus he's not exactly an elite military captain. In fact, judging by the look on his face, he seems like a bit of a wimp. And thus, everytime you promote him, he shouts out for help, getting 2 men who will keep the both of you safe from attacks. The combo potential with this guy is also outstanding. Not all heroes wear capes. That said, this man wouldn't be a hero no matter how many capes he had on.
Aspiring Knight - Rare cards are cards which are more general use cards. This card, for example, is just a solid minion with a lot of combo potential. Let's say you have this, a squad leader and a shieldwall in hand. Put it out, use a couple of hero power tokens on the squad leader, shieldwall. Boom, you now have 4 2/2's with taunt, a 4/7 with taunt, and a gigantic 11/11 with taunt. A pretty decent turn, I must say. She really wanted to be a cheerleader, but when she figured out that cheerleading isn't too popular past your teen years, she decided that brutal fighting to the death was close second.
Celebrations - A cheap card that provides a very small immediate effect, but can promote a card in your hand. This obviously has a few synergies here and there with charge minions and other minions that would be popular in a goons deck, but it also has synergies with a LoE card called Regal Nymph, and also works well with things like Display of Strength. For the last time, we meant the events, not the chocolates!
Tax - Rids the target of their money, which will usually reduce their stats by a lot, whilst removing their effects. Costs 1 less than Hex, but a 3/3 is significantly stronger than a Frog and it doesn't counter things like Resurrect or Anyfin Can Happen. Why does a "Miniscule tax raise" cost you 2000 gold while a "Major tax cut" saves you 10?
Personal Trainer - This card provides a +2/+2 buff to commons, and a +1/+1 to rares and epics. In exchange for it's versatility over Houndmaster, it doesn't give Taunt. It's helpful in the majority of decks, including the 2 main rarity archetypes. Setting a minion to epic is helpful with Epic King, and Common King has the most minions that can benefit from his effect most. It's the, eye of the Stranglethorn, it's the thrill of the fight!
Riot - This card takes all your displeased peasants and makes them show your opponents minions just how annoyed they are. Sure, a riot of like, 2 guys isn't all that scary, but when you've got 3 or 4 people out the riot can be terrifying. This follows the Huge Swings idea of "maybe you shouldn't promote your commons just yet" else they'll be too content to riot. "WE DEMAND WHALES! WE DEMAND WHALES!"
Spear of Champions - A spear that has been wielded by only the most glorious warriors in existance. Anyone who used this weapon has indeed acquired themselves a place in history books as legends. Of course, those people have to be worthy though, so this only works on epics. Since Epic King is supposed to be a more late focused midrange deck, I think a slightly costlier, but high value Arcanite Reaper is suitable. And although the King isn't usually the one to be doing all the fighting, he's still a class with a few weapons. But those weapons are spears, one of the safest weapons to use. Not that that actually means anything in Hearthstone, but it's still a little flavourful. The mighty warrior, Spear of Champions in hand, readied himself, seeing a large silhouette over the horizon... Then suddenly, he let out a terrifying yell! "A'VE GOT THE BEAST 'EN MY SIGHTS!"
Frustrated with the limitations of traditional alchemy, Wulfrum abandoned his training in Stormwind and begin his own experiments. He joined the scourge as an acolyte to gain access to corpses, diseases, and many other ingrediants that would have disgusted his old teacher. His affiliation with the scourge soon became a lot more permanent after one of his experiments resulted in his death. He was resurrected to serve once more in the armies of the Lich King. Now with all the time in the world, Wulfrum decided to see just how far he could go with alchemy. A terrifying concept to those who have seen his vile work and fear there's no line he wont cross.
Example Cards:
"And you thought getting "The 9th version resulted "The label reads: Keep a ship in a bottle was hard" in uncontrollable singing" in reach of children" "People often say that being around him is unbearable"
Considered to be a lot art among most races on Azeroth, Ninjitsu was rediscovered once the Alliance and Horde arrived on Pandaria. Shinobi and kunoichi are still an uncommon sight to this day, however. Despite this, townsfolk across the lands have sworn till their dying breath they have seen a blur of shadow, or a whiff of smoke, too fast to be a rogue bit with none of a warlock's malice.
'Twas the wind, they say. Ninjas just shapeshift, fool around, and hit people while looking smug doing it. - Karin
Example Cards
Your minions' time is now.
For... Doomspinner?
Secretly, Ms. Splinter wants to settle down with her pet turtles and lead a quiet life. None of this fancy assassination business. She also likes to read a good romance novel from time to time. But if you tell a soul, she will hunt you down.
Baron Geddon is not pleased with his sudden summer excursion to Pandaria, though he does admit the weather there is rather nice and balmy.
You Can't See Me explained:
Clearly based off of Shaman's Evolve, transforming minions into stronger ones of higher cost is one of the core mechanics of the shapeshifting, sneaky ninja. However, balancing a card such as this was very, very tricky. You Can't See Me underwent six different variations, until finally, I decided to simply cut off Hero Power synergy with this card, though it breaks my heart to do so. I just feel like the volatility of the Ninja's hero power can lead to too many high-value plays with this card. As an upside, it is now 0 mana, so it is very easy to combo with minions.
Doomspinner Shuriken explained:
Though the Ninja loves to mess around and transform and merge minions around, I cannot dedicate the whole class to doing that. Therefore, cards such as this can still benefit from merging and evolving, but the Doomspinner Shuriken can be used in a more traditional control deck, or even in a midrangey deck. I aimed greatly for this sort of flexibility to keep my class from being too one-dimensional.
Mistress Splinter explained:
Everyone and their dog should know the reference here.
So, Mistress Splinter is, at heart, a combo oriented card and fulfills a more niche role, similar to class legendaries such as Prophet Velen or Archmage Antonidas. By herself, she has a respectable Taunt, and the spell generated will give you an insane amount of merging synergy. Not to mention, she's also a Deathrattle-Taunt, so she can be brought back by N'Zoth in the future.
As for the tokens she produces, the turtles all have a different rarity, keyword, and mana cost not only to (mostly) correspond to their colours, but to provide as much coverage of the current and future merging requirements as possible. It is important to note, however, Mistress of Splinter can technically still be played in a midrange deck just for the solid 4/7 Taunt. Adolescent Posse is also worth more than its 3 mana cost, so you can use it to trade or maybe to get a quick Taunt.
Imperial Summoner explained:
Last, but certainly not least, Imperial Summoner rounds off the four example cards. Like You Can't See Me, Imperial Summoner went through several different drafts. In fact, his current effect is completely different from his original concept.
It's a fairly simple card, with a very overcosted 9-mana 4/5 Taunt that summons anything from a 5/5 Ancient of Lore to a 6/8 Bog Creeper. Since the minions that can be summoned are a bit constrating in value, and due to the fact that North Sea Kraken is worth about 11 mana (9/7 body = 8 mana, dealing 4 = 3 mana), it is safe to give the Imperial Summoner at least somewhat decent stats (worth 4.5 mana) while the 7-mana minion, presumably worth 7 mana, round off his total value at 11.5 mana.
His true value shines since he can guarantee Doomspinner Shuriken's battlecry, or combo off with You Can't See Me and Sakura Storm in the basic set.
Remaining Classic Set
Commons
Feral Ninken's flavour text:Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy? You are! Good magical ninja doggy! Hammerspace's flavour text:Does this mean your katanas and shurikens are blunt? Awkward.
Westwind Shinobi's flavour text:He definitely had a tiger mother. Spiritual Visage's flavour text:Turns out most people view themselves as a flying goat. Who knew?
Tokens
Rares
Be Water's flavour text:It's always funny seeing Deathwing becoming the cup. He hates that. Eastwind Informant's flavour text:He brings tidings of the ever-elusive Tauren rogue.
Man's Best Friends's flavour text: Somewhat akin to handling a bunch of baby pugs, minus the cute factor. Undercity Ronin's flavour text:Even his inner demons are big-boned.
Tokens
Epics
Marked For Death's flavour text: Marked FOUR death! Hah, get it? ...I thought it was funny. Shuriken Storm's flavour text:"Guaranteed to make a mess out of your enemy's face." - Malygos ...Ninjas Do It Better's flavour text:Pirates can do it too, they just need a little weapon synergy.
Basic Cards
Frontstab's flavour text: "Look over here!" works just as well, apparently. Twinbolt Shuriken's flavour text:"We deal two damage here, we deal two damage there, it all blows over." - Madam Goya Sakura Shower's flavour text: Pretty pink petals Come fluttering gently down They foretell your doom.
Double Trouble's flavour text: Something about cauldrons, wands, and magical spells. Meaning of Life's flavour text:"Cheese biscuits." - Anonymous Ghost Iron Shuriken's flavour text: Somehow, ghost iron has something to do with drawing cards. We're not sure what, but that's how it is.
Hand Clansman's flavour text: Watch out for the Head Clansman. Onion-cutting Ninjas' flavour text:*This flavour text is soaked and blurred beyond legibility*
Venerated Sensei's flavour text: Venerated he may be, but he still cannot guarantee the results of his harsh training. No refunds, period. Undercity Ronin's flavour text:Call the next Jinyu you see a herring. I dare you.
And Oh what tales of temples, treasures and beasts she'll tell. Exploring is a dangerous business, but it sure pays well. Going where no human, trogg or goblin has gone before, Wouldn't that be exciting? So come along now...
The Highlights Of Indie's Trip!
Fossilised Companion: "Please take me with you! They don't feed me :(." A big body to hold down the board when you're low on cards, buying you time to restock.
March of the Raiders: " Follows February of the Looters!" Takes advantage of a hand full of reactive-dead-cards to create some aggression. Combos well with the large draw engine of the class.
Cursed Riches: " The coins are cursed to be too big for any vending machine." Big card draw to combo with the draw synergies of the class.
Li Li: " Dressed up as a Jade Golem for Halloween last year." Brings in the element of cheating death. Li Li survives through her quick feet, and learns to become faster, stronger and more ready to kick your a$$. Can be very effective as control as an almost unkillable card.
COMMONS Indie would like to thank these unsung heroes who helped her on her journey. Oh, and if anyone has seen the pathfinder can you contact the Lost and Found?
Adept Pathfinder: "He only finds paths. He's garbage at following them." Combos with the SpyGlass to discount a key combo card, or to drop a minion ahead of tempo.
Eager Explorer:" Note to self: Check map first." It has an interesting mechanic that combos with Anticipate, but the card it draw will not have anticipate. A good card to quickly cycle through your deck.
Torrential Downpour: " I'm afraid an Umbrella may be insufficient." A mini-Vanish that can remove a minion for a bit longer. You can get yours back more quickly using your hero power to dig for the shuffled minions.
Loot Rummager: " Nope, nope, nope, OOH SHINYYYYY!!" This card is able to trigger card draw effects with a tradeoff of potentially losing a really important card. Combos quite well with Expedition Leader.
Expedition Leader: "WE WENT THERE TOO!" The essential card of the set. It can take advantage of all the draw power to quickly deal huge amounts of face damage. Also does anyone get the flavour text? No? Stealth Rager...no? OK.
RARES
Indie's set of invaluable skills and her trusted adviser, although she did have to hire mercenaries to steal the monkey from Harrison...nobody tell him.
Treasure Heist: " Take what you can, then give what you can't carry back." Just a fun card that is like Burgle and Thoughtsteal. Might even be able to gain more value from those cards due to cost reductions.
Clever Forgeries: " Make it, then fake it." A counter to powerful battlecry minions. Can devastate combos and OTKs especially.
Old Cartographer: " He prefers Senior Mapmaking citizen." Just to allow a little more value from Spyglasses.
Excavating Pickaxe: " Yeah, Rexy is cute, but how are we going to get out of this tomb now?" Thematic card that unearths dead things! *Just needed another weapon in the set*.
EPICS
Now you don't see this everyday....
Rash Trailblazer: " LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEROY!!!!" Super Patches 2.0 that is a Bluegill Warrior even without anticipate. Very powerful in aggro, but is very valuable in getting a free removal of a 2 drop in other decks too.
Brann's Rifle: " A third barrel shoots paintballs." Very useful minion removal-almost an Arcanite Reaper.
Basics and their flavour texts.
No matter how far you go, you still have to remember your roots. -Papa Jackson.
Reckless Sherpa: "Always ends deliciously for the Yeti." Wandering Satyr: "Well it's not his fault that the maps are 1000 gold each." Experienced Guide: "After all these years he still can't navigate the Dalaran Mall." Consult the Map: " Explorers look at where everyone's gone before, then they go the other way." Rune Tap: " Also requires a knock-knock joke to unleash the magic." Falling Rocks: "At least we don't need a tombstone..." Explorer's Whip: " Still jealous of Harrison's hat." Ancient Torch: " Still makes the best S'Mores after 10,000 years." Exhaustion: "ARE WE THERE YET?" Jungle Retreat: Offers a sauna as well as healing services.
Note: The 2/2 has the exact same image.
^^^Token^^^
Please leave an upvote. If you would like to support the League please donate via our Patreon page.
You have no idea how many times she's flipped her name backwards.
I'll show them... (Example cards)
'Drink responsibly' means I meant to do that. The hottest Mix Ape of 'Don't spill'. 2017.
When Deathwing assaulted the capital, this soldier was the only member of his squad to survive. Now he's all mutilated and stuff.
Explanations, if you're interested
A Round of Drinks: I've resolved to use the word "Swap" unconventionally at least once in every set (besides Basic). Since Classic doesn't have a definite theme in terms of playstyle, I decided to simply swap a stat that's never been swapped before. Due to the Alchemist's thing for minions with extremely polarized stats or powerful effects, the Health swap would be the most advantageous. Also, Molten Giant wombo-combo.
Lab Explosion: Since the Alchemist enjoys getting big things on the board, this card wipes out the small creatures, and gives the big ones a little something to play with. Balanced against Demonwrath: (3) for 2 to all with a minor upside that can rarely backfire.
Mix Ape: My music reference, "Mix Tape" if you didn't get it. Overall, I made the card because I noticed that my Basic set was lacking any form of card draw. The idea is that the monkey either creates a proper potion, or an event, like Lab Explosion.
Mutilated Champion: A flipped (hehe) Stormwind Champion, with the flavor text also referencing it. Overall, not much to say. Synergizes with flips and the clears in this set.
...I'll show them all! (The rest of the cards)
Commons
Explanations
Agile Assistant: A slightly better Stonetusk Boar + Windfury. In the Classic set, this is the most aggressive card. Also a good combo enabler and has synergy with aura buffs.
Drunken Ninja: Despite it having two keywords, it still has premium stats because the keywords conflict with each other. Taunt can't protect you immediately, and stealth doesn't like the defensive stats that the taunt encourages. Despite this, flips can really take advantage of the polarized stats, making this like a pseudo-choose one.
Potion Sale: Again, I noticed the severe lack of card draw in my class. While this is usually good in midrange or slower decks to keep up with a more aggressive one, it can absolutely not be used to search for lethal.
Support Apothecary: As promised, another aura buff. This is extremely powerful when placed next to taunt minions, as the opponent will have to get through the buffed up minion before dealing with the Apothecary. I like to think of it as a mini Stormwind Champion.
Rares
Explanations
Fairy in a Bottle: A reference to the Legend of Zelda, because the art was too good. Comparable to Ancestral Spirit, except you pay the minion's cost for the benefit of getting the battlecry back.
Two-Faced Flask: A bigger and better Drain Life. Another thing that this class was missing was heals, so this will fill that role, without being too big. This is mostly to play against combo decks, as taunt minions will be much more efficient against aggro with your aura buffs and whatnot.
Putricide's Potion: Another clear, similar in form and in function to Lab Explosion. Just bigger.
Soul Vial: Hard removal. Following the model of most classes, with one hard removal in Basic and one in Classic (you just might not notice it, but it's there. Corruption, for instance).
Epics
Explanations
Polarity Shifter: Has the ability to make trades really non-intuitive, which is always fun. Based off of Polarity Shift, the Thaddius boss's Hero Power. Like in the boss encounter, you play as many aura buffs as you can in order to grow your minions.
Failed Experiments: What Force of Nature should have been. Minion damage that triple dips on aura and area buffs.
Legendary
Explanation
Grand Apothecary Putress is known for attacking indirectly using the Plague. This card reflects that in a direct health debuff instead of dealing damage, similarly to Death's Vial from my Basic set. Putress makes up for his absolutely abysmal stats with his extremely powerful effect. Not only is it a powerful AoE, it also permanently nerfs your opponent's max Health (Reno Jackson soft-counter). The hand synergy is justified by the Alchemist's hand-filling Hero Power and powerful draws now that I realized my mistake in Basic. Good in controly decks that don't match mana cost to mana available.
The Basic Set
If you want to see explanations, click here to go to my submission on the Phase II submission topic.
Fanatic Researcher: His famous last words were concise but profound: "Draw two cards."
Soul Kitchen: Forgive me for cutting corners. I'm just too fatigued to summon Infernals. (Flavor text by @iplay1power)
Careless Chemist: He managed to retrieve the loss, at the expense of his own life.
Midas Touch: In fact, only golden version of this card can turn things into golden ones. (Flavor text by @Orak_unluck)
P.S. Soul Kitchen is the Music Challenge card of this phase.
Introduction
The class of Alchemist has 4 main features:
1. Alchemy Potions
Here in the spoiler are the Alchemy Potion related cards of Alchemist classic and basic sets:
Alchemy Potions are cards that you shuffle into your deck and their effects trigger when drawn. There are 3 Basic Alchemy Potions and 1 new Alchemy Potion in each expansion other than Classic. Here are the three basic Alchemy Potions (all of them are NONCOLLECTABLE TOKENS, of course):
Basic cards related to Alchemy Potions:
Classic cards related to Alchemy Potions:
P.S. Fortuneteller was the Pokemon Challenge card from Phase II
2. Fatigue
Here in the spoiler are the card draws and Fatigue related cards of Alchemist classic and basic sets:
It's obvious that, in order to trigger all those Alchemy Potions shuffled into your deck, Alchemists need more card draws than other classes; this also makes Alchemist a class that reaches fatigue quite often. But don't worry - there will be cards in the Classic set and further expansions that benefit from your reaching fatigue. By the way, since Alchemist has a huge amount of card draws, I ensure this class will have no access to any OTK combos at all, so that drawing so many cards wouldn't make the class as 'fun and interactive' as the pre-nerf Patron Warrior.
Basic cards related to card draws and Fatigue:
Classic cards related to card draws and Fatigue:
3. Debuff
Here in the spoiler are the debuff related cards of Alchemist classic and basic sets:
As we know, every class has their own way of removals. For Mage, it's transform and damage; for Priest, it's taking control and destroy according to Attack of a minion; for Alchemist, it's debuff. While buff cards give a minion +X/+X, debuff cards give it -X/-X. There are two things worth mentioning with this mechanic. First, when a minion's Health becomes 0 or less with a debuff, it dies. Second, when you debuff a damaged minion, both its current Health and maximum Health are reduced.
Basic cards related to debuff:
Classic cards related to debuff:
4. Swap
Here in the spoiler are the swap related cards in the Alchemist classic and basic sets:
You may have noticed that, 'swap Attack and Health' is an alchemist-themed effect in the current Hearthstone(see Crazed Alchemist and Kooky Chemist), and thus I also include 'swap' as one of the main features of my Alchemist class. Unfortunately, as you can see, just above my entry, the Alchemist class created by @Dxiled is heavily based on the theme of swapping Attack and Health, and some cards I planned to include in my classic set were nearly the same with his creations. If you are a frequent visitor of our WCD, you may have noticed that I often criticise people for submitting cards other people had made earlier than them, even if their work is independent and original. So this time, I have to cut all most of the swap synergy cards in my classic set. But don't worry, this part will be explored further in other expansions.
Basic cards related to swap:
Classic cards related to swap:
Further Materials
Remarkable combos:
1. Midas Touch + Darkmoon Cabalist/Distillation
Notice that the Alchemy Potions all have an extra 'draw a card' effect apart from their own functions. So when you play Darkmoon Cabalist or Distillation after Midas Touch, you'll both trigger the Alchemy Potions AND get some legendary minions.
Only very few minions in the current Hearthstone have an attack of 8 or more. So when you play Fetter, minions' attack is often reduced to 0. Then, if you play Twisted Fane and choose a friendly minion, all minions but the one you choose will be destroyed. You can also play Doomsayer after Fetter, just like the Frost Nova + Doomsayer combo played in freeze mage.
3. Careless Chemist + Any Card Draw + Soul Kitchen
While summoning dozens of 5/5 Demons could create a very strong board, the requirement of Soul Kitchen's effect to trigger is that your deck must be empty. Since it takes quite many turns to draw all cards from your deck, Careless Chemist offers you another choice to reach Fatigue faster.
4. Fetter/Decrepify + Stone of Purification
Purify is not a good card for Priest because you don't want your own minions to be worse. But for a class with lots of 'AOE' debuffs, it will be absolutely different. Fetter + Stone of Purification offers you a chance to trade the minions for free; Decrepify + Stone of Purification clears the board and restore your big minions to full health. And there'll be more combos with Stone of Purification in future expansions.
5. Grand Apothecary Putress + Distillation
As I've mentioned above, Distillation not only triggers the main effect of Alchemy Potions but also lets you draw 3 extra cards (due to the 'draw a card' effect on Alchemy Potions). Thus, when you have Grand Apothecary Putress on board, Distillation will draw altogether 6 cards and therefore grants you 6 mana crystals. This 10 mana combo is absolutely game-changing. (By the way, I may nerf Grand Apothecary Putress by increasing its cost in future expansions. But consider how broken those meta decks are nowadays... I feel that such a 10 mana combo is quite acceptable comparing with them...)
Deck Recipe:
Deck recipe is a function that Blizzard introduced after the launch of standard format. For each class, there should be 3 deck recipes, one of them with classic and basic cards only, the other two including cards from expansions. Now I'm going to introduce my Classic Alchemist deck recipe (the other two will be left to Phase V and VI, if I manage to reach that phase).
If this deck list gets 30 upvotes, I'll write a guide. No, just kidding.
First of all, this is a combo deck - not aggro, not midrange, not control. Many of the important combos in this deck are already mentioned in the Remarkable Combos section. There's only one thing I want to stress: the winning condition. In fact, this deck is built around Midas Touch and Soul Kitchen, and you either win by creating dozens of legendary minions with Midas Touch, or defeat your opponent with a board filled with 5/5 Demons created by Soul Kitchen.
In the depths of the Undercity there lives a girl a blind girl with unnaturally pale skin, said to be able to see the future, converse with spirits, and talk to the well-and-truly dead like they are still in the land of the living. Although she can not see, her things are always meticulously arranged, and those that visit her for advice or fortunes say that runes are painted all around the room she lives in, in a script too delicate to have been drawn by one who has lost her sight. Rumours say that she lives with a demon disguised as a child, that she has never aged for fifty years, that unnatural, ghostly sounds echo in the night as eerie lights fly about in her dwelling. But such rumours and others like them have never been proven, and those that have tried to verify them are prone to disappear without a trace, never to be heard of again.
In other words, I do all the work and she gets all the money. - Y'veral, the aforementioned 'Demon Disguised as a Child'.
Class and Keyword Explanation:
The Medium is class that has one main theme - the bringing of spirits into this realm (read: summoning minions). Many of her cards synergise with the summoning of minions, and the 'Whenever you summon a minion' effect is prevalent throughout her set. In the end, a Medium is simply a bridge between the realm of the spirits and the material universe.
A sort of mechanic that can also be seen throughout the Medium's arsenal is the mechanic of cost reductions. This allows the Medium to be an effective Combo or Ramp class, playing big threats or allowing for powerful, spirit-manifesting combos. As such, the Medium's cards can have very powerful synergies with each other, being best when used together. Many of her combos involve creating powerful board states, instead of just outright killing the opponent.
Both of these mechanics - 'cost reduction', and 'minion-making', are combined into her hero power, which allows her access to 'Guiding Lights', little spirits sent by her ancestors and spiritual acquaintances (many of which she met through her demoncompanion Y'veral) that give her advice and strength when she needs it. They allow for her to always have minions to activate synergies, and also allow her to play out her combos to swing the board back in her favour. This effect will not attempt to reduce the cost of cards that already cost (0), or cards that have Ethereal.
Her class keyword is Ethereal. It's simple and easy to understand, and serves three purposes. 1. It allows me to prevent or de-powerful-ise certain OP combos by making them harder to access. 2. It allows for more consistency with your discount effects, by making it so that they won't target cards that aren't part of your combo. 3. It allows for direct synergies with cards of that type, and allows me to refer to them as a 'group'.
Example Cards:
Explanations + Flavour Text:
Elder Mystic: - The term 'Elder Mystic' is frequently used as slang for 'Crazy Old Man'. The Crazy Old Man allows you to tutor for certain combo cards! At 7 mana, his body is quite weak, but it comes coupled with a powerful effect. He's kind of like The Curator, except he looks into the Spirit Realm instead of managing a zoo.
Heart and Soul: - You keep playing that song, and I'll make sure you end up with neither. Heart and Soul is a powerful combo tool. Compared to Faceless Manipulator, it offers a lot more combo potential while being less powerful outside of a combo. The original minion is the 'heart', when it dies so does the 'soul'. Do I need to explain the musical reference?
Spirit's Descent: - Short for 'Spirits take elevator'. Spirit's Descent is another, very useful combo tool. It generates 3 Guiding Lights, which can activate minion-making synergies like Y'veral thrice, for the cheap cheap price of 3 mana or maybe less. It can also reduce the cost of other cards by (3) total, so you can do much more in a single turn.
Y'veral: - For the cheap, cheap price of some cookies, a stuffed animal and an unwilling sacrifice or two, Y’veral will allow you a glimpse into the future or the distant past. The Medium's classic legendary is her ever-faithful companion demon, Y'veral. Besides doing housework, scaring off thieves, and lending a somewhat reluctant ear to her friend's ramblings, Y'veral acts as a gate, allowing Rhuna to draw extra power from the spirits in the form of Ethereal cards. The Medium has many ways to add cards to her hand, and Y'veral is a perfect example of that.
Basic Set + Explanations:
Stonepeak Mystic: The first healing option the Medium has access to. Like many of her cards, it synergises with the summoning of minions, which her main combos are centred around. Every class that aims for the long game requires some sort of healing option, and this card provides it. You can either play it as a tempo card and slowly heal up your hero, or you can save it for burst healing when you need it.
Banish: An example of a card that can synergise with the Medium's hero power. It starts out as a slightly-cheaper situational Assassinate, but as it's cost is reduced, it can kill more and more things. After 1 discount, it's comparable to Shadow Word: Death. After two, it gets pretty damn good.
Channeling: Channeling is another way for the Medium to discount her cards beyond the use of her hero power, which is important if you want a bit more consistency with your reduction effects due to the random nature of 'Guidance'. The card draw takes place after the discount.
Soulspark: Serves as the class's 2-mana removal spell. Deals 1 more damage at the cost of 2 health. Can be good for combos, but remember - if you use Malygos with this, you'll be smashing yourself for 7 damage.
Ancestral Strength: By appealing for aid from the ancestors of her minions, the Medium can allow them access to the strength of their forefathers! Obviously, stronger cards have stronger forefathers. A Stonetusk Boar's dad was probably another Stonetusk Boar, after all.
Demon Mentor: At times, the messages from little glowy things are strangely cryptic and hard to decipher. Fear not! The Demon Mentor is here to help you. She allows you to play Guiding Lights for free, rewarding you for hoarding them. They will also no longer waste their discounts on each other!
Wind and Water: I showed off this card during the first phase, and it's another card that synergises with summoning minions. Even in the basic set, cards like Murloc Tidehunter and Razorfen Hunter allow people to take advantage of this kind of synergy. +3 health is great for buffing minions out of AOE range.
Future Sight: Just because you can see the future (and if you can't, you're a sorry excuse for a Medium) doesn't mean you can make it come sooner! Future Sight allows you to draw cards, but you won't be able to play them until your next turn. Don't forget to plan ahead.
Screaming Spirit: Most likely a terrible singer in life, the Screaming Spirit screams so loud that people just have to kill it in order to concentrate, which is why it has Taunt. It offers a Taunt minion for the Medium, as well as a smaller board-clear when Possessed Daggers is too expensive for the job.
Possessed Daggers: Not all spirits have to be materialised in the form of minions in order to be helpful. Many are content simply possessing objects and using those to exert control over their physical environment. These daggers are one such example. The Medium can communicate with the spirits residing within them, allowing her to unleash them as a storm of blades - a powerful AOE. Great for clearing boards, which is very good regardless of whether you're going for control or combo.
Rest of the Classic Set w/ Explanations & Flavour Text:
Commons:
Spirit Fire: - It’s nice and blue and will burn your face off. A powerful AOE for the class. Can be tutored for by Crazy Old Man Elder Mystic or generated by Y'vral.
Curse of Fragility: - This is why your plates break when you drop them. An alternative removal for the class, for the times where Banish isn't your piece of cake. Curses will be a little theme for the Medium (it's only natural for someone dabbling in dark magic), just like Priest has 'words', and Paladin has 'blessings'. Balanced against Hunter's Mark.
Ravenous Revenant: - He’s ravenous because he can’t open his mouth. Based off the 'Hungry Ghosts' of chinese folklore, who are so hungry they'd eat anything. This guy is so hungry that he'll desperately attack the first thing he sees and attempt to devour it, even if it kills him. Note: He can no longer attack again after the first attack. Kind of like a Mini-Rag that takes damage. Might be good for pushing some early damage in. Can be tutored for by Crazy Old - I don't need to repeat myself, do I?
Ancestral Curse: - Out of all people, you’d think that your ancestors wouldn’t curse you. But NOPE. A fun way to generate tokens. Can turn one of your own minions into an Imp Gang Boss. Can also be used on enemy minions, to spawn lots of tokens at once in conjunction with cards already on the board.
Foxfire Spirit: - There’s nothing fiery about it, but ‘Foxfire’ sounds nicer than just 'Fox'. Just some synergy with the hero power effect. Can become a cheaper Chillwind Yeti if discounted. Loosely based on Kitsunes.
Rares:
Daughter of Frost: - She doesn’t cast ‘Blizzard’ because the mages copyrighted it. Based on the Yuki-onna, the spirit of a woman who died in a Blizzard and isn't very happy about it. So she gives everyone else the chance to die in a Blizzard as well! A powerful boardclear/stall tool that also provides a semi-decent body. Can be tutored for by Crazy - Ok I'll stop.
Runic Circle: - Runic dodecahedrons don’t work quite as well. The possible keywords are: "Divine Shield, Taunt, Charge, Windfury, Stealth, Spell Damage +1." In other words, the 'basic keywords'. Can be comboed with minion-making cards.
Ancestor's Guidance: - Instructions unclear, spirit stuck in ceiling fan. When Guiding Lights aren't enough, Rhuna's ancestors can give her some more explicit advice in the form of this nice little scroll. Reduces cost and provides a small amount of healing. What do you mean, it looks familiar?
Epics:
Tokens:
Ancestral Rage: - Dad? Is that you? Can you stop hitting me? An Imp-losion without the RNG. Three minion-summons in a single card, as well as a little removal, make it very good for minion-making combos. Can be tuto- Ok, I'll really stop now.
Sun Maiden: - You’d think she’d be more tanned. Not all spirits have to look spirit-y. The Sun Maiden allows you to quickly generate spells either for Auctioneer or Malygos synergy. Can be the centrepiece of a really cool combo deck in combination with cards like Emperor Thaurissan or Channeling.
Moon Maiden: - No, she won’t moon you. Another powerful combo tool, the Moon Maiden essentially allows you to double-up on your minion-making powers! While somewhat weak on her own, she can be very strong in combos. Imagine Wind and Water + Moon Maiden + Ancestral Rage = 12 mana, summons a 5/6, three 2/4s with taunt, and three 2/4s. Toss in Runic Circle for extra fun. A perfect example of what a Medium's late game combo can look like.
Centuries ago, the Lords of Winter’s Fall fell victim to the Worgen curse. The exact circumstances are shrowded in mystery, but the lord who brought the curse upon his family was a renowned mage. A small, secluded principality in the Alterac Mountains, Winter’s Fall was completely cut off from the outside world after this calamity, to hide their lord’s embarassment. In time, the lords learned to control their Worgen curse, shapeshifting at will between human and wolf form, but the curse was never lifted, nor could they remain as humans for long, and so their kingdom’s long isolation continued. Recently, the new lord of Winter’s Fall, Howe Hark, has learned that a new kingdom of Worgen, Gilneas. With the threat posed by the Forsaken, he has ended his seclusion and brought his forces to the aid of Gilneas and the alliance. The Young Wolf, as he is known, is known for both his brilliant military strategy and savagery on the field of battle. Mastery of his Worgen form means he is alternately rallying his loyal men into battle and tearing out the hearts of his enemies.
Reminder about how the class works:
The Worgen class centers around shifting between Worgen and Human form. Using the Worgen Form hero power (which you start the game with) gives you +1 Attack that turn and transforms you into a Worgen. This changes your hero power to Human Form, but you can’t use it until the next turn. When Human Form is used, your Hero heals 2 health and transforms into a human. The unique keywords of the class are Worgen and Human, shown in the tooltip.
Cards with these keywords trigger an extra effect if you play them while you're in that form. Human/Worgen keyword cards are inefficient if played in the wrong form and extra efficient if played while in the right form. One of the key mechanics of the class is switching between forms at the right times to efficiently play cards. Also note that other classes are always considered to be in Human form, so they can always use cards they acquire with the Human keyword.
There is a binary theme to the class, based on the two forms you switch between. Howe Hark has cards that focus on the savagery of his Worgen form, dealing damage or buffing attack, similar to Druid shapeshift-themed cards, and also cards that focus on supporting or buffing his minions, representing how he inspires and leads his men while in human form. There are also several secondary themes. The class has cards themed to snowy Alterac homeland of Howe Hark (including Freeze cards). There are also going to be cards that focus on class cards, representing the solidarity of Worgen.
Because of the hero power and binary theme, the class is well-suited for hybrid playstyles, and lots of cards will be versatile. If the hero power is used effectively, Worgen excels at tempo, since Human/Worgen cards are mana efficient when in the right form. This is also a weapon class, and both cards and your hero power buff your attack and restore health, so it is good at controlling the board, as well. Some of these control tools could be repurposed for Aggro, as well, especially in a Pirate deck.
Example Cards:
His mouth is alive, with juices like wine. Because he tore out his enemy's heart and ate it. Worgens, man!
Howe Hark is a fair and just lord. It's totally a coincidence that he always condemns criminals to death while in Worgen form. Definitely not some sort of uncontrollable bloodthirst!
Hit me, bro!
If you don't kill a minion with this or go face, you will keep permanent attack on your Hero. It stick during your opponent's turn, so minions attacking you will take damage, which allows your opponent to shut down the bonus. This is an example of the Worgen keyword. You get the extra +Attack if you cast this while in Worgen form, making it a much more efficient card.
The Worgen/Human keyword is not just used to make cards more efficient, but also for versatility. Depending on what form your in, this can be used as Control or support for your minions. This also illustrates the dual themes of the class. Worgen is focused on attacking and dealing damage, while Human is focused on healing and supporting your minions.
With this card, I wanted to use the Worgen keyword in a unique way. The keyword here hurts your own minion, but it also immediately triggers Enrage, giving you a Taunt immediately, rather than having to wait to damage this minion later. I also wanted to include this to give newer players a large Taunt minion to protect them from large or numerous threats.
Star of the upcoming spinoff, Downton Abbey: the Gilneas Years.
This card doesn't just cause your Worgen keywords to trigger twice. If your Worgen keywords would trigger 0 times, they now trigger 1 time with this out, allowing you to use them while in Human form. This card also makes you start the game in Worgen rather than Human form, which can change the strategy of your deck.
Rest of the Set:
Basic Set:
Hunted - This is one removal option for Worgen, similar to Hunter's Mark. You play this and follow it up with another source of damage that normally would not have killed your target. The effect is permanent, so all damage from then on is doubled for that minion.
Alpine Wolf - With Champion of Alterac, it’s important that there’s a 1-Cost class minion as a potential target. This is basically just the same as Enchanted Raven. “Cannot be Frozen” is not worth anything, because it’s almost never relevant. There will be at least one source of Freezing allies in later sets, so it will have some relevance.
Grievous Wounds - This is the Basic direct removal card. It’s a cheap card, but with a very restrictive limitation. While Execute can be paired with any source of damage, and it is often paired with spell damage or minion AOEs, you can only play this after attacking a minion. Execute was too strong at 1, but this would not be. It does combine well with the Worgen Form hero power.
Champion of Alterac - This card is reflective of the Worgen class’ support side, which represents Howe Hark’s human side. It’s a mana-efficient buff spell, but you can only cast it on a class minion. That’s more restrictive than you might initially think. The only way to play it on turn 2 is if you played Alpine Wolf on Turn 1. I don’t plan on making any other 1-Cost minions.
Gilnean Reinforcements - This is Worgen’s card draw. A number of classes have variations of this spell (Arcane Intellect, Ancestral Knowledge, Burgle, Thoughtsteal). This take reflects Worgen’s focus on class cards. This makes the spell both more restrictive, since it can only draw certain cards in your deck, and is useless if you have too few class cards, and more reliable, since you have a better idea of what it will give you.
Icy Shortsword - Worgen is a weapon class. Howe Hark is not just all about tearing things up with his claws. I mean, he doesn’t have any when he’s in human form, anyway. Weapons will not be as strong a focus as in Warrior. It will be more like in Shaman. You can see that here, as this is not as strong a weapon as Fiery War Axe, but it has more utility in being able to Freeze, which is a secondary theme of the class, based on Howe Hark’s Alterac homeland.
Krennan’s Potion - Worgen focuses on using their Hero Power to switch forms regularly, so they need some support for that. This card can both help you recover health, which you may lose from attacking minions, and switch forms more easily, either on this turn or the next.
Leap - This represents leaping into the midst of the enemy's ranks to attack, so they are forced to attack you. Direct damage spells are going to be very limited for Worgen, since the class focuses more on dealing damage with weapons and buffing your hero’s attack. This card can be used both for removal, and to protect your minions. When you play this, your hero has Taunt during your opponent’s next turn, which means your minions can’t be attacked. It’s like half of a Conceal, because your minions can still be targeted by spells and Battlecries.
Winter Has Come - This is Worgen’s AOE option. It’s pretty efficient for its cost, because it will damage any neutral minions you have in play. This also reflects Worgen’s focus on class minions. It represents the hardiness of your Worgen and Alterac followers.
Worgen Assassin - With the lack of direct damage spells, Worgen needs a card like this. Similar to Fire Elemental, you can play this later in the game as a removal option, although it lacks Fire Elemental’s ability as a finisher. There was a lot of debate about this card, and I think we reached the consensus that, in its current form, it is as powerful as Fire Elemental. It’s a strong card, but Worgen needs this as a substitute for damage spells.
Born into a poor farming family, Erin stood apart from her peers due to her latent magical ability. So great was her power that she drew the attention of the Bronze Dragonflight. Under the tutelage of Chromie, Erin was brought to the Caverns of Time to learn how to safely use her magic and keep safe the world's timelines. But even here Erin stands apart, as she does not share the dragons' belief of predetermination, that one's fate is already written. With both a will to make her own destiny and the power to do so, Erin Fatespan now seeks to protect the past and future of Azeroth.
As a Chronomancer, Erin uses time itself to confuse and disable her enemies while protecting her allies. Her Hero Power allows her to Bend Time, borrowing energy from other timelines to make her minions and spells more efficient, more powerful. Her's is a class with the ability to ramp, create combos, play control, and endure fatigue. Many of her cards involve bouncing minions, replaying cards, and high card draw. She does not have weapons, secrets, or a unique keyword. Instead, she takes existing rules and flips them on their head, changing the board and her hand to better secure victory.
To balance out these themes, the Chronomancer lacks healing or significant face damage. This prevents the player from making broken Malygos combos, or looping and replaying heal effects over and over without significant time investment. Cards like Temporal Barrier, Erode, Sand Scourer, and Hindsight allows the Chronomancer to attack enemies and prevent or repair damaged without opening the door to some truly broken combos.
The Classic Set! Following the Basic collection, Classic introduces the class and showcases its primary themes. Once again, I tried to create cards that were not too crazy, but still show off just what the Chronomancer is capable of. Classic and Basic lay the groundwork. The real crazy stuff is just around the corner!
Classic Examples
Explanations
Infinite Summoner - "... a corrupt dragonkin, filled with darkness and pride, attempts to summon..." Sometimes you need one big bad minion. And sometimes, you need an army. The Infinite Dragonflight are true to their name, ensuring you never run out of minions in your attempt to make your own fate.
Time in a Bottle -"You don't mess around with this stuff. Choose your drinking partner wisely." When you really need to play a combo, but your still waiting for the last perfect piece. Reduce the cost of a card (or more!) with your Hero Power token, then get it back! Think your opponent will Polymorph your Ragnaros? Use your Borrowed Time with this and Rag and find out!
Anachronism - "Uhg, what time is it? ... TOO SOON! YOU HAVE AWAKENED ME TOO SOON, EXECUTUS!" - Ragnaros the Tired Lord Speaking of Ragnaros, the poor Firelord isn't getting his desperately needed sleep with this card around. A risky play, Anachronism won't trigger Battlecrys and could get your game-ender killed too early. However, you are guaranteed a minion on curve, and have a few ways to copy or return your minion back to be played later. Imagine getting a turn 6 (or turn 4 with Hero Power!) 6/6 Ragnaros, Ysera, Acolyte of Pain, Sen'jin Shieldmasta, or one of many, many other powerful cards.
Chromie -"Past Chromie is mad at Future Chromie for helping adventurers and forgetting their birthday." INFINITE VALUE! Well, not quite. You're still paying 4 each time. However, Chromie is a powerful way to get a lot of efficiency out of a single card. Play it on an empty board, drop minions later. They dead? Drop Chromie again and control the board. What, she died again? Well here she comes again! And again, and again, and again...
The Rest of the Classics!
Send Back -"No, don't send me back! Have you seen what people used to wear back then!?" Eternal Vigilance -"The first ten thousand years were the worst. And the second ten thousand years, they were the worst too. The third ten thousand years I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline." Temporal Barrier -"Quick, raise the shield! Aaaaaaaaand it's gone."
Sand Scourer -"Removes 99.9% of temporal anomalies!" Bronze Warden -"The Bronze Wardens have it rough. It's not their fault that every visitor to the Caverns can just fly over them." Avert -"Chromie once averted a future in which Gadgetzhan outlawed tacos."
Timestream Meddler -"He's a Scooby-Doo villian's worst nightmare." Erode -"High stress time management can really wear you down." Lost in Time -"This spell is typically how people become their own ancestors."
Echomancer -"Pyroblast... Pyroblast... Pyroblast..." Past and Future, Present -"For this job, there's only two people I can trust." Echo is the token generated by Send Back and Lost in Time.
The Basic Set
Bronze Whelp -"I know this looks like a Black Whelp, but his scales will turn gold as he gets older. Really!" Forthwith -"Somehow, being able to manipulate time hasn't made Erin any more patient." Suspend -"Students learn quick not to cause a ruckus when Chromie is teaching."
Sand Breath -"Be sure to avoid Bronze Dragons with allergies." Wither -"Youth is wasted on the young. Doomed Future -"Its not so bad if you have 4 Health."
Paradox -"Minions you summon with this spell always have a wicked mustache. Even Harvest Golem." Hindsight -"Dragons hate puns." Timewalker Elite -"The Timewalker's retirement plan is pretty good. Then again, they already know if you will collect it."
Sandstorm -"Powerful, magical sandstorms often sweep through Tanaris. If you get caught up in one, you won't know where or even when you'll end up."
As a member of the Bronze Dragonflight, Moradormi has extensive knowledge about the future. She knows exactly what is meant to happen, and what isn't. Or so she thought. Discovering the ultimate fate of her flight, their corruption into the Infinite Dragonflight, turned the once optimist dragon into a full-on cynic. Still, she strives to make the future a better place, perhaps trying to atone for deeds not yet commited.
Class Keyword
Classic Card Examples
Unstable Wormhole: Unstable Portal? That hasn't been released yet!
A very cheap soft removal that only works the turn it's drawn. Occasionally, its secondary effect can be used to fight off fatigue, but that's a rather rare use. If you don't get to use it right away, you'll be technically paying 1 additional mana to play it on top of having to draw it again.
Time Wraith: The spirit of someone that was erased from the timeline.
A big minion with average stats, its effect will most likely always go off unless its topdecked (in which case it's still not a bad topdeck at all). Unless the 'Can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers' effect, this one can still take damage from any source, but destruction effect (even ones such as Emperor Cobra's or Twisting Nether or Brawl) will unfaze it.
Protector of Memories: What was he supposed to protect, again?
A rather straightforward example of a theme of the class: effects that trigger while on hand. There's a variety of triggers, this one in particular being friendly minion's death. Similar to Thing from Below, though a tad slower unless you run a myriad of early game minions, which the class isn't inclined to support.
Doomsday Clock: Time takes us all.
Another card that changes while on hand, though this simple does it once per turn, growing in power the longer you hold it. Inspired by Shield Slam in that it uses the class theme to do act as removal (Armor for Shield Slam, card draw for this one). Clearly not meant to act as early game removal unless the situation is dire. Gets its name from a song by Smashing Pumpkins.
Full Classic Set
Commons
Timeless Whelp: Dragon synergy hasn't been released yet, right?
A card with potentially infinite value, though rather slow at achieving it and also not really worth much in the lategame. Can always be played right away as a small single body if needed, or every other turn to add a trickle of pressure.
Incoming Meteor: Nobody saw it coming.
The strongest aoe damage removal so far for the class, or at least when the Latent effect is on. Otherwise, it's just an overpriced Arcane Explosion.
Phasing Defender: He claims he doesn't like playing tank, but it's just a phase.
Can act as either a reusable Frost Nova if the opponent can kill or destroy it, or a better Healing Touch if they can. The body can still offer some token resistance in the late game but replaying it constantly will leave you dry on mana while your opponent can setup.
Timeless Miracle: Not to be confused by Timeless Mirage.
One of the few and strongest class healing effects, it can get insane value if only it just sits in your hand long enough, while still being a rather expensive crutch against aggro.
Rares
Uncertain Death: The cause of death is not what's uncertain: it's clearly the devilsaur.
I suppose this could still change at some point in the future, but since it was one of the cards I first showed on Phase I I'm rather fond of it. Given I'm short on time, I decided to keep it as it is for now.
Foreboding Vision: Don't look!
Only card that can (and does) go face from the class so far. I don't intend that to change much in the future.
Peer into the Future: What did you see?
Overcosted card draw until the Latent effect kicks in. The wording might be unusual, but I rather liked how it ended up.
Keeper of Memories: Sometimes gets tired of cleaning up Protector of Memories' messes.
A new iteration for a different mana slot. This one hasn't been thought over as much as the rest yet, but since I'm short on time it'll have to do.
Epics and Legendary
Harbinger of Doom: Doomsayer's older brother.
The strongest class board clear, since at its peak it can be a Twisting Nether for 7 that leaves a body. To get the benefit right away, though, it need to sit in hand as an otherwise dead card from turn 2 though.
Frozen in Time: When Time itself gives you the cold shoulder.
It buys you one turn, and your board too most of the time (unless Twisting Nether or something of the sort). At 10 mana, you can only work with what you already have, though.
Soridormi: Why are you reading this?
The effect makes it so whenever a card with Latent is played, its effect will trigger regardless of the time the card has spent in the hand. Clearly inspired by Fandral.
Basic Set
Alter Fate: Pretty straightforward. This one works with negative Latent effects you don't want in your hand. It also serves to refresh your hand if you having nothing good. It's meant as a counterpart for Time Mirage and isn't meant to be run in the same kind of decks.
Bronze Apprentice: A mirrored draw effect, it lets the opponent choose when to draw as it's not meant to enable fatigue decks.
Time Skip: I'm rather proud of this one. It's a spell that works in a myriad of different situations. It can be used like Frost Nova with Doomsayer, but if it's past turn 4, you can still play stuff afterwards. Turn 8+ with Ragnaros for an extra Fireball. It will affect cards with Latent making them trigger one turn earlier. It also works with the next card by cancelling the debuff it places in the drawn cards.
Time Mirage: A cheaper Arcane Intellect with a drawback (much like Ancestral Knowledge) which synergizes pretty well with positive latent effects as well as "Each turn this is/was in your hand" cards.
Time Warp: This works pretty well with anything you wouldn't mind having extra copies of.
Sands of Time: This card works much like Nourish for both players, so technically the net cost of the card is only 1 mana. It helps at pushing into the late game against faster decks that don't care about their mana but rather their cards, but it's not really the same as ramp Druid cards since this one can backfire if played carelessly.
Time Loop: Another card draw of sorts, though this one is never useful standalone.
Bronze Healer: Another mechanic from the class, though this one finds its home with cards that don't benefit from staying in your hand and are therefore more likely to run Alter Fate.
Sand Guardian: I'm taking the opportunity to reinforce the theme of the class: holding stuff in your hand to get stronger effects later on. This particular line of effects, in contrast with Latent effect, scales with the time spent in your hand instead of being a fixed effect on a specific threshold of turns. Much like Latent effects, though, both positive and negative effects exist.
Rewind Time: Right in-between Vanish and Twisting Nether. Allows you to get the most value from played Battlecries and similar effects while clearing the board.
Spellbreakers are masters of destroying magic, negating, and manipulating it, even their own. They are great at stopping mages, priests, warlocks, and such in their tracks as they merely brush off their attacks until they can cut them off from their source of power completely. It will play a bit like a control class with some mid-range themes going on.
Example Cards:
Flavor Text And Explanation:
Thought Retention: Yoink! A great control tool. I thought it would be a very interesting card to print that will make your opponents think about their play order.
Sentry Golem: So it looks like a mech, it walks like a mech..but it isn't a mech? Simple but effective, shows off the 'negation' aspects of the class nicely by using the Elusive Ability.
Raging Gemnopiede: Painfully, Sadly, Gravely. Shows off the destructive nature of the Spellbreaker. They are great at destroying magic, even their own. As such there are also some recovery tools you'll see in the rest of the set. A good minion for the cost.
Earthbound Golem: Something tells me he isn't here to make small talk. A bigger silence Minion. It's a solid card Nothing else more to say about it other than it fits thematically.
Rest Of the Set:
Their Flavor Text and Explanations.
Elusive Rune: Suddenly those Mana cakes were phasing through me. A dangerous card in the late-game. Great for those bigger minions you want to protect.
Spellbreaker Apprentice: She wishes she apprenticed in something that actually paid. A simple common card that fits the class thematically. I needed a few lower cost minions, right?
Forge Anew: New AND Improved. Good for using on the weapon included in this set and the hero power.
Energetic Fighter: You can hear him up at five A.M every morning, waiting, plotting. Wanted to be creative and not print a bunch of mana crystal gain cards to off-set my drawbacks. Came up with this, simple, but effective at reducing cards.
Soul Feeder: Users Manuel Disclaimer* Whatever you do, DO NOT point this at yourself. Loss of soul may occur. A solid weapon that lets you get back a few of your drawbacks.
Mana Siphon: I'm in your base, siphoning your magiks. Solid Card draw that, again, lets you circumvent those few drawbacks.
Careless Trainee: Whoops, I dropped one. Solid mid-game minion.
Runewarden: Editors Note: Doesn't actually ward off any runes. Runes are a sub-theme, as you can see. I will likely add a few more as time goes on. Good Card.
Hungry Mana Wyrm: Could easily eat fifty Mana Crystals. A card that is great for combo'ing with the theme of the class.
Galvanized Channeler: Prevents mana rusting, Guaranteed! Another card that allows for gaining back your mana cystals that ramps up in effectiveness each turn.
Fyndra, The Overgrown:She just sucked up all the Mana Cyrstals with a bendy straw. I really wanted to showcase this, but I felt the other cards were better for it. An ambitious printing that, again, gets around the lack of Mana Crystals by increasing your own.
To clarify, Constellation counts for each original card with the keyword. So, if you had two of the same Constellation card in your deck, you could end up playing four in a game, two copies for each card.
Onto the examples!
Flavor text!
Moongraze Buck: Not to be confused with the Star Buck.
Starman: Mind: blown.
Calendar: Or you could just click that icon in the top right corner of your mini-map.
Cosmo Starscatter: He wanted to be a barber, but everyone kept asking about his name.
The pincers of the swarmlord close all around you...
Previously, on Real Swarmlords of LA...
The full classic set and previous challenges from round 2
Now, it is time for your classics... and yet more ways to eat minions....
Classic Set and Challenges
Flight of The Bumblebee Flavor: Bumblebee... Riiight....
A strong buff to push a beast themed deck. This class has a few ways to add more Drones to your deck, so the secondary effect is not as hard to trigger.
Crustnation Flavor: Debate still rages between biologists whether it's a crustnation or a crustprincipality.
A large endgame minion with an added ability to remove minions with the ability to crack it open. Though, be sure to balance it's walling strengths against when you need it to clear.
Hivemind flavor: It takes a lot of beasts to decide which restaurant to visit, mostly because they've eaten the staff of half the restaurants in Azeroth.
You need that Crustnation? Draw it. You need a Jungle Panther? No problem! You trade a third chance at getting a spell to remove enemies, but you get assured minions from your deck. You ever run The Curator and then decide, hey, you need a Jeweled Scarab as well? Well now you can built decks around any beasts you want... You'll have a few to choose from.
It's a Wrap Flavor: Yeah, they'll definitely want to fight for you. It's not like you PERSONALLY ATTACKED them or anything.
The ultimate control piece. Devour and repurpose, I say! This can be compared to Convert, though unlike convert, you can actually remove the opponent's minion, gaining you traction and slinging you back on top.
Of course, there's more to the classic set than a few bugs and spells. Why, there's even more bugs and spells!
Remaining Classics
Wild Rush: On your left! A cheap buff, but a good one. You can turn your drone into a 3/2 or trade out as much as you want.
Heartmelter Toxin: You'd be surprised the kind of biting break-up note an insect can write. A minion removal, and a weaker Frostbolt. This class has a very heavy theme on face trading and it's benefits, and thus it needs a secondary form of cheap damage to keep the board clear.
Hive'regal Buzzer: Surprising noone, the royalty requires you to attack as well. Buzz buzz. A split damage charge beast that gives you a chance to switch board presence in your favor.
Durotar King: Listen, strange crabs lyin' in ponds distributin' pinchers is no basis for a system of government! Obviously with the beast effects, you'll need strong bodies to buff. Notably, Hivemind is a good synergy with this to put a taunt minion back on the battlefield. Plus, we had no taunt beasts back then.
Smack-rura: Though it looks all majestic, you're really just throwing a Lobster at your foes, and the aim on those things isn't an exact science. First off, the Makrura are a race of Lobster people in WoW. Secondly, welcome to Self-freezing! Yeah, I know, Insects got nothing to do with the winter in Real-life, but in WoW you'll find entire nations of undead bugs who make their living in the frozen north. Lore and such aside, let's talk shop. This is designed against the old 0-mana Soulfire, as I figure it's slightly stronger since you don't need a friendly minion to play it.
Nerubian Fortitude: Nerubian Fortitude has been banned from many tournaments for being an illegal enhancement. Here's a secondary self-freeze affect (Though The Black Knight still says hi), giving you a strong body that can't attack for an extra turn, and can turn your drones into Sen'jin Shieldmastas.
Widowmaker: With eight eyes, you're almost certainly in her sights. A strong destroy effect in this class, the widowmaker is strong because it has immediate removal possibilities, but can be removed more safely by your opponent than an Emperor Cobra. Go on and eat some people.
Apex Predator: We're still beta testing to see what happens when you cast Apex Predator on two different minions. Projections aren't looking good.THE ULTIMATE BUFFFFFF. This will help you push out a massive minion and give you some time to swing with it if you just summoned it.
Dragonblight Chill: Dragonblight Chill really has nothing on Icecrown Chill, but the Nerubians would prefer not to talk about that place. Either your neuter a big minion or the two next to it. A very strong piece of removal, and not one to use lightly.
Jormungous Jormungar: Amazing that a worm can give itself the cold shoulder. A big ol' beast that'll hibernate if it doesn't have anyone else to play off of. It becomes a 6-mana 7/7 with a drone, mind you.
Kil'ruk the Wind-reaver: His battles with the wind are legendary. Wind had the advantage then Kil'ruk bought himself a thick jacket. Good thinking, Kil'ruk.Grom Hellscream and King Krush will meet this bug in valhalla. This will allow you to trade out against many taunts and then go face or eat another minion. Never enough excuses to eat enemies.
Welp! That's the Swarmlord this round! I hope you guys will give it a thought, and good luck to all!
This hero power is similar to the paladin but instead of directly summoning a 1/1 to the board you delay the affect by several rounds for a 2/2 along with that several cards as you'll see below are affected by having a certain number of Whelps in your deck. As a side note the Whelps act just like the cards made from Beneath the Grounds.
However you may be asking yourself if the hero power is so slow then how in the world will you survive against aggressive decks to get value out of it? It's quite simple actually, this class uses armor! That's right we have a second class to relies on/interacts with armor to survive. He has several cards that grant armor in order to live long enough for the hero power to start taking affect.
The Dragon Knight founding and lore:
The Dragon Knight
Throughout all recorded history dragons have been the image of power in the eyes of all races. Their massive bodies covered in thick armored scales, the strength to tear a man in half with ease, and to top it all off a breath of flame that can melt the strongest of metals. For these reasons many have looked to slaying a dragon as their greatest achievement by overcoming the flaming behemoths. However for some the dragons are seen as the way to take their growing power to new, previously unreachable levels. They have through unknown means found a way to transform into a mighty dragon themselves. With this new technique under their belt they have come to call themselves Dragon Knights and have gained a reputation of being ruthless in their quest for ever growing power. After some time several Dragon Knights came together to form the Dragon Order and with it they managed to hide the secrets of transforming into a Dragon. Due to the secrets of becoming a dragon being so hidden to those outside the Order many have come to suspect the Knights gained their power through dark places such as the Old Gods or the Burning Legion. However most knights are veterans from wars fighting to contain the Old Gods and wars to drive back the Burning Legion and many seem to defiant towards both groups and as such their goals and motives are still largely unknown.
Yvon and his tale:
Yvon was young when he became fascinated with dragons and throughout his life has sought to harness their power for his own. Through still largely unknown methods Yvon managed to Transform himself into a dragon and would become the first dragon knight in existence. He would move on to recruit and teach others to become Dragon Knights and would eventually become the founder and ruler of the Dragon Order. Naming himself the Dragon Master he moved to extend his influence and power but would suddenly disappear after The Shattering and the death of Deathwing. However with the return of the Legion Yvon has returned with immense new powers and an entire army of dragons seemingly to continue where he left off so long ago.
As Yvon returned with a massive army of dragons and he showed that he had mastered the breeding and growth of dragons that allowed him to quickly grow an endless army of Whelps to fight for him and he has used it to lead an endless assault wherever there are enemies of the Dragon Knights.
Basic Set:
Dragonscale Greatsword: A big weapon that heals like Truesilver Champion but only when used to kill minions so it encourages using the weapon as removal instead of pounding the opponents face in.
Corrupted Flame: This mostly works like Soulfire but discards a Whelp which is important to this deck and class many cards have effects for things like gaining armor based on Whelps. However as a trade off for the Whelp you get a discounted Flame Lance which is strong in a control deck. This is also the first of many cards that removes Whelps and as you'll see in the classic set (if I get there) many cards will follow this pattern in removing Whelps to discount the card or the effect of the card.
Dragonstrike Commander: A big late game minion that not only puts a big minion on the board but also shuffles some Whelps into the deck in order to keep activating cards that rely on Whelps being in the deck. This is very important since many cards in the coming sets will either remove Whelps from your deck by out right destroying them or maybe just drawing them but there will be more of those then of the cards that shuffle Whelps into your deck making a card like Dragonstrike Commander a very valuable asset to this class.
Dragon's Flight: Basic core card that gets some Whelps into the deck to help activate cards. Simple but effective.
Plated Dragon Armor: A strong card that does 2 things in 1. Stabilizing the board with a high health taunt and 2. Stabilizing your health with some armor to help survive vs spells or burst which many aggro decks run and this card is great at stopping or at least slowing both the board and your loss of life via spells.
Dull Claws: A incredible flexible card that early on can be used as removal for those pesky 2 health minions and if left until later grows into a powerful 4/2 weapon makes it a solid play at every stage of the game although it is best saved for later into the game when it's battlecry can activate.
Scorched Earth: A cheap and very powerful aoe that has downsides in hurting your own board and also damages you in order to justify the power of a 4 mana aoe. Now I made it deal 5 to your hero based on the fact that I want this to be a powerful anti aggro tool by killing their board (which is everything to 90% of aggro decks btw) but it still weakens you as to give them a chance to still win where otherwise it might be to anti aggro and make it op vs every deck pretty much.
Searing Strike: Every class has a 1 mana spell and this is the Dragon Knights. It offers a ping and some armor gain and is very similar to Mortal Coil but offers different pings for a different but still strong effect and can be paired up with weapons to almost guarantee you activate this cards benefits.
Armored Wyvern: Very basic minion that offers some armor gain on a decent 4 drop. Like Dragon's Flight this is just a basic minion that helps push the Dragons and Armor usage of this class.
Scales of Gold: Strong draw that with certain cards that generate armor rapidly is very powerful but generally would only draw maybe 1 or 2 cards which if it draws 2 is still a discounted Arcane Intellect. However you still have the chance of drawing more in slower matches which might be important to get those answers you need like Corrupted Flame to kill something like Ragnaros the Firelord which can mean the difference between a win and a loss.
Example Cards:
Magical Drake, Puffy: Everyone likes a magical dragon but Puffy has the issue of HUMMING THE SAME TUNE ALL DAY.
Warrior of the Dragons: He commands the dragons almost as good as Yvon himself but the only issue is that he just can't seem to get the Whelps to listen to him.
Knight of the Order: He mostly joined to get the free coupons the Order offers.
Forge Drake: You know it's hard to work a forge that's 1/10th your size but somehow these guys manage.
Example explanations:
Magical Drake, Puffy: My card for challenges #1 and #2 and is based of Puff the Magic Dragon (which is a song about Puff and he has a few movies.) Anyway this card offers a very cost effective spell while also offering a decent 7 drop.
Warrior of the Dragons: A basic card that is focused on a more aggressive style of play which relies on getting value out of your hero power quickly.
Knight of the Order: A strong card that combos well with cards that gains a lot of armor in a single turn. It's also strong in control match ups due to the fact that they don't apply much pressure which allows you gain the armor and activate his battlecry early.
Forge Drake: The biggest armor gain your gonna see in all of Hearthstone! Gaining 12 armor on top of a 5/5 Dragon for 6 mana is incredible strong but his downside is severe. Losing 3 Whelps from your deck means many cards won't activate until you spend a few turns rebuilding your amount of Whelps.
«Brother, I'm glad to see you back. Soon, you will become a Mentor too, and you will guide new Cultists, showing them how to survive in this perilous and threacherous world. Be sure to spread our message. Our Cult always need new followers."
About the Cult Leader Class
Themes
Deck-related effects. Shuffling and replacing cards, increasing deck quality, caring about deck size or composition; these are inherent mechanics in the Cult Leader class.
Cult cards.Cult, the new and quite unique class keyword, introduces new deckbuilding possibilities.
Ongoing and triggered effects. A Cult grows, becomes stronger as time passes; this is characterized by the presence of various cards with repeatable effects.
Strengths
Consistency and versatility.
Removal and minion protection.
Keyword
When you build your deck, you may include up to 4 copies of a card with the keyword Cult. Cards with Cult are meant to be played in great numbers. Some cards reward you for having multiple copies in your deck, or for playing them multiple times.
The Basic Set
The Classic Set
SHIFTING SHADOW
«I saw it around midnight yesterday. I'm not sure what it was, but I know it was frightening.» - A peasant
Shifting Shadow is a versatile minion, which can copy anything you require. It can copy a Cult minion like Eyeless Creature to strengthen it, or copy a big threat like Ragnaros the Firelord when you're playing a value game.
DON'T FEAR THE REAPER
«Love of two is one. Here but now they're gone. They are together in eternity.»
Shuffling and replacing cards in your deck is a slow effect. It will, sometimes, take several turns before you see the fruit of your labor. Thus, the Cult Leader Class has access to a plethora of removal spells, to ensure that you can keep the game under control.
WORSHIPPED LEADER
«A dash of power to make it appealing, and you've got too many Cultists.»
Worshipped Leader is a good, simple minion. Cultists are valuable minions; being efficient and cheap, they greatly fill your deck. Also, there are some nice combos with this card: have you tried Solemn Liturgy (Basic) and Secret Gathering?
VILE DISCHARGE
«Don't power a mech with that: they tend to become malevolent afterwards.»
Vile Discharge provides an excellent removal spell. You can split the damage between multiple targets. It also provides deck thining, thus increasing your deck consistency. It is a superb card to copy and shuffle into your deck.
The Classic Set, Continued...
Commons
Card Explanations
Endless Rats: This minion embodies the Cult mechanic. It is a consistent threat.
Eyeless Creature: This recurrent threat provide a good early minion, similar to Haunted Creeper.
Evil Energy: This spell diversifies your removal suite, to ensure that you that you're ready to adress any situation.
Secret Gathering: If you love Cultists, then this card is just for you. Pair it with Appealing Recruiter (Basic), Dark Blast (Basic) and Worshipped Leader for maximum efficiency.
Leatherbound Journal: A simple method to shuffle multiple cards at once into your deck. Works well with every Cult card, also with cards that care about deck size, like Solemn Liturgy (Basic).
Rares
Card Explanations
Midnigh Gossip: The Basic set provided card filtering in the form of Dreadful Omen, now you also have access to card tutoring. With this, you can find the cards that are deeply burrowed into your deck.
Soul Extraction: Since you have various ways to remove your opponent's minions, this card provides excellent value. If you're creative, you can always use it on your own minions, like a Doomsayer...
Ill-Disposed Mentor: This is your main method to increase your deck quality. It works with Cult cards like Endless Rats and Eyeless Creature, for example.
Distorted Cataclysm: This is your high-end AoE spell. Do I need to say anything else?
Epics and Legendary
Card Explanations
Gift of Immortality: Protect your minions with an ongoing or triggered effect, like Appealing Recruiter (Basic), Ill-Disposed Mentor or Roselyn the Corrupted, to fully benefit from their skill.
Roselyn the Corrupted:
«I do not fear time. I do not fear power. I impose fear.»
- Roselyn the Corrupted
Roselyn the Corrupted -Roselyn is a versatile legendary, which can provide repeated hand enhancement, maintain your deck size, and duplicate essential cards. You must find the best time to play her to fully make use of her effect. You have a good hand and a way to protect her? You have a Cult card that is meant to be copied? She will truly shine, and impose fear on your opponent!
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to; The_Odinson, nurgling13, Aelxer, Turkeybag and waterwalker for their precious comments. Be sure to check their submissions.
Basically how this works, is that after you cast a card with Fate, the next card will have the card text or extra stats stated in the card with fate. So if you have a card that says "Fate: +2/+2" and then play a minion, that minion has +2/+2 extra stats that can be silenced.
Lore: Behind every famous hero or villain of Azeroth, there are countless storytellers spreading their name and telling stories of their deeds, like old Theodore here. He's one of the most well-known storytellers in the world, travelling across the world telling stories to whoever wants to listen and also collecting and writing new ones. Some say that while he speaks, the characters and worlds from his stories almost seem to appear out of thin air...
Some themes: Buff cards, Fates and Fate synergy, conditional/possible to play around AoE and removal, tokens.
Thematically, flavor is that the Storyteller writes stories and creates characters to fight for him instead of fighting mostly by himself. A lot of the cards are books doing different kinds of effects, storytelling tropes or summoning characters from stories to fight for you.
Example Cards:
Silver Tongued Bard is a really simple Fate card. It has slightly higher total stats than Shattered Sun Cleric, but instant buffs are in some cases superior to Fates. For example, you can't buff an old minion with any Fates to be able to attack with it instantly. This is my card for Challenge #2. Flavor text: "He's the best bard in all of Azeroth. That's what he says, at least."
Forgotten Monster is my card for Challenge #1, requiring me to make a common minion that costs 7 or more. It has higher stats than an average, but needs a buff for it to activate. One easy way to make it have 7 attack is use your hero power before playing it, which makes the Fate give it +1 Attack. Flavor text: "He might seem all big and tough, but all he really wants is attention."
Deus Rex Machina is really strong if you can get the effect to trigger, but it's also really easy to play around, just stay at 6 minions. Might be a bit weak just because of how easy it is to play around. Flavor text: "Goblin storytellers tell okay stories, but they put Deus Rex Machina in almost all stories. You can't just add a giant robot dinosaur to A Hero's Journey from the First War, even though it's totally radical and cool!"
Iloes, Fate Keeper can make all your fates so much stronger. The way this works is that if you play a card with Fate while you control this minion, the fate will apply twice to the next minion you summon. For example, with Unending Tale, you can play this, Unending Tale and some minion for 6 healing and two Unending Tales. Flavor text: "Keeping track of all fates is a tough job, but it had always been her fate to do this. No, really, it says so in these books."
Remaining Cards:
Common card explanations:
Great Encyclopedia is a bit like Velens Chosen, but sacrifices some health buff for 1 extra spell damage and is a fate.
Cliffhanger is a decent spell for removing minions, but your opponent can play around it with proper placement. If this kills the minion on the first 3 damage, it will do the second 3 to the next leftmost minions.
Unending Tale is a card to push a slower Storyteller archetype. You can use this for basically infinite healing if you can summon a minion between each cast.
Book of the World was one of my example cards in Phase I. It's good against aggro, as you can play this turn 1 and play a 2-drop on turn 2 for a taunt.
Plot Armor is basically Redemtion, but you have some more control on what minion it will target and your opponent knows that you have it.
Rare card explanations:
Alignment Shift is an AoE your opponent can kind of choose when to trigger.
Plot Twist was one of my Phase I example cards. Possibly very powerful, but your opponent can play around it. To clarify, this forces the minion to attack, so both the chosen minion and the one to the left of it take damage.
Sword in the Stone makes one of your minions a Frostwolf Warlord. It's a bit different, though, as this is an aura effect and changes if you gain or lose minions.
Epic card explanations
Writer's Block is inspired by my complete lack of ideas on what to make for several days while working on these. He's an above the average statline taunt, but has a severe drawback if he stays alive.
Hero of Legends can get really strong with some of the Fates and especially with the classic legendary, Iloes, Fate Keeper. To clafiry, with that, any fate that would apply to this would be activated three times.
Heroes of Azeroth basically summons you a small raiding party. A bit comparable to Call of the Wild, but you need to play all of the tokens, which are in the spoiler below. They work pretty well together, but you can also play them separated if it's good for your current board state.
This is the Submission Topic, which will open until
Tuesday, February 7th, at 20:00 UTC. The Discussion Topic is here.
The following users' entries have advanced to Phase III of the competition. You are not allowed to post in this topic unless you are one of the users listed below. However, you are still perfectly allowed to participate in the discussion topic. =)
Wild Cards: futheadQQYB7N94V7, Giz4Gamer
PHASE III: The Classics
In this Phase, you will each construct your class's Classic Set. Here are the requirements for your Class Creation Competition Phase III Entry:
There are just a few elements of your class that you will repeat from your Phase I entry, to remind us who and what we're dealing with. If you'd like to repeat anything from your class's introductory explanation, including its flavor or whatever you believe makes it interesting or unique mechanically, that's fine, but try to keep it brief.
We do not want to see your Class's entire Classic Set out in the open.
The remaining eleven (11) cards of your class's Classic Set must be presented behind a Spoiler Block (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.). These cards must obey the same rules are your examples cards with regards to expansion watermarks, rarity gems, and what keywords you may not use.
You should include your completed Basic Set from Phase II behind a Spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.) either before or after your Classic Set material. It is fine if these cards have undergone some minor modification since the end of Phase II, but thy must still adhere to all of Phase II's requirements.
CHALLENGES!
Btw, this is what your entries will look like in the poll at the end of this phase:
OTHER STUFF
These are just the General Rules, Competition Schedule and Process, Rewards, and Archives. You probably already went through them during Phase I. I still want to include them here, but I'm just going to put them all behind one big spoiler. Any change to them since Phase I has been noted above.
GENERAL RULES
Even if you're already a veteran of our competitions here on the Fan Creation Forum, you should read the general rules before you get started. This competition does introduce new rules, like image limitations and formatting requirements.
* The Submission Topic is for submissions only. If you want to discuss your entry, another entry, ask questions about the competition rules or process, or anything else, you can find a link to the Discussion Topic at the top of this thread. Plenty of folks there will be happy to help you out.
* You are allowed only one submission, consisting of the materials specified by each competition phase. These materials must, of course, be of your own creation. If you'd like, you may collaborate with another user on a single submission, but this must be specified during Phase I.
* You may make only minor edits to your entry once you have submitted it. Minor changes are things like correcting typos or making balance changes that do not alter the spirit of your entry as determined by we the moderators. If you want to make any changes and have any doubts as to their legality, ask us first.
* You may not delete any posts you make in this topic. No, not even if you post here by mistake or accidentally double-post or something. Deleted posts screw with the system we use to help us calculate up-vote scores, so don't do that. If you to post here by mistake or accidentally double-post or something, simply edit your post to just say "REMOVED" and leave it at that.
* You may not create your own topics on this forum for competition-related material. If everybody goes off and creates their own topics for specific discussion of their entries, this board will be flooded with nothing but, and so competition material must remain restricted to official competition topics. If you want to enter the competition with a class that you already have a topic about on this forum, then your topic will be locked in the interest of fairness to the other competitors. Not deleted, just locked, and it can be unlocked after your entry gets knocked out of the competition. You also may not reference or link to your topic in official competition topics.
* You must host your card somewhere other than Hearthcards. We encourage you to create your entry material using Hearthcards.net, but please remember that, although HearthCards is awesome, it has a limited server space and will purge cards after a few days, and nobody wants your cards disappearing part-way through the competition. After you create it, save and upload it to Imgur, Photobucket, or some other similar site. We understand that there are some Hearthcards memberships that will allow you to save your card there for longer (and you should totally get one of those just for general fan creation purposes, by the way), but we don't know who has those memberships and we can't tell from the URLs.
* You may not submit any Gold cards or animated cards, nor may you include any images in your post other than the requested submission materials, like banners or borders. We get it, everybody wants their entry to stand out, but our pages are going to be heavy enough as it is without everybody heading their submissions with animated banners.
* You must insert your images into your post using this icon on the bar above the post text editor: . Just click that button and put in the URL of your image. We realize that it's also possible to upload and attach images to your post. Don't do that, though. We know from experience that, because those images are much smaller and require more work to view, entries that enter their images that way just don't do as well, so this is for your own good.
* Format your entry concisely by sizing your cards appropriately and placing them beside one another rather than in a column or completely separate. The first example below is acceptable while the second is not. Entries that unnecessarily inflate the size of the submission topic and make it more difficult to get through will be disqualified. Adjust cards to a width of 250, and you should be able to get three in a row.
Hey, look! Some cards!
Soul of the Forest: Look at how nice this is.
Hammer of Twilight: All neat, organized, and concise.
Twilight Summoner: What a great post.
Wait, what are you doing?
Seriously, please don't.
This is painful. Why are you doing this?
You are a monster.
* "Troll" entries will be disqualified. Fun and even humorous entries are perfectly allowed (this is Hearthstone after all), but if you're worried that your entry may be misinterpreted as a troll entry, contact a moderator before you submit.
Finally, know that manipulating votes in any way is strictly forbidden. Any violators will receive an official warning, and will be banned from this and all future HearthPwn Card Design Competitions.
COMPETITION SCHEDULE AND PROCESS
How long do you have to work on your submission? How will advancement to Phase II of the competition be determined? The answers to these questions and more can be found below...
PHASE III: CLASSIC SET
Preview: 27/January - 28/January
Submission: 28/January - 7/February
Poll #1: 7/February - 8/February
Poll #2: 8/February - 9/February
PHASE IV: Blackrock Mountain + The Grand Tournament
Preview: 9/February - 10/February
Submission: 10/February - 20/February
Poll #1: 20/February - 21/February
Poll #2: 21/February - 22/February
PHASE V: League of Explorers + Whispers of the Old Gods
Preview: 22/February - 23/February
Submission: 23/February - 2/March
Poll: 2/March - 3/March
PHASE VI: One Night in Karazhan + Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
Submission: 3/March - 14/March
Poll: 14/March - 17/March
NOTE: All stages of the competition begin and end at 20:00 UTC.
ALSO NOTE: I know that a couple of these submissions windows might see tight, especially because the secret challenges make it difficult to plan ahead. That being the case, this timetable is subject to change at my discretion, even after the competition begins, if it seems like too many folks are struggling.
* During Preview stages, both a Submission Topic and a Discussion Topic will go up, but the Submission Topic will be locked until the end of the Preview stage. The Submission Topic will reveal the Phase's unique challenges, so take this time to discuss them, ask for clarifications, and so on.
* During Submission stages, Submission Topics will be unlocked and (remaining) participants may submit their entries. During Phases I-II, you may also use this time to go ahead and up-vote submissions that you like.
* During Up-Voting stages for Phases I-II, Submission Topics will be locked. Use this time to up-vote submissions that you like. Note that advancement during these Phases depends entirely on up-votes.
* During Polling stages for Phases III-VI, Submission Topics will be locked, and all eligible remaining participants will have their submission material included in a separate Poll Topic to determine advancement. Phases III-IV include two Poll Topics because I anticipate we will have enough participants remaining that we will not be able to fit everybody in one Poll Topic. Note that up-votes in the Submission Topics are irrelevant to advancement during these Phases.
How will eliminations be done, and how many competitors will advance from each phase to the next?
I'm glad you asked! We will be taking a equal proportion of competitors from each Phase of the competition to the next, and we will be ending with exactly four finalists. That being the case and their being five total eliminations before the final round, that proportion can be found by solving for x:
[# of valid Phase I entries] * x^5 = 4
The higher the number of valid Phase I entries, the lower that proportion becomes. Just so you have an idea, the proportion hits 50% when we hit 128 entries, which is likely, but it only hits 33.3% when we hit 972 entries, which is less likely.
As mentioned above, advancement to Phases II and III will be determined by up-votes only. However, these up-votes are weighted using a formula identical to the process used by our Weekly Card Design Competitions:
(ab) / (c) = x
(Where a is the total number of up-votes that your submission received, b is the total number of valid submissions on the same page as your submission, c is the total number of up-votes on valid submissions on the same page as your submission, and x is your submission's final weighted up-vote score.)
Why bother with this formula rather than just taking each submissions up-votes directly? Because earlier pages simply get a lot more views that later pages do, and we do not want rushed, early submissions to have an advantage over later submissions that took more time to get their entries just right. The formula basically measures which submissions stood out the most, with the necessary assumption that each page is about equal in overall submission quality.
The bottom line is that, although entries on the earlier pages of the Submission Topic are much more visible and thus receive many more up-votes than entries on later pages, you don't actually have to rush to get your entry in as soon as possible, because the up-votes end up being weighted by what page your entry ends up on in order to determine its final score.
As mentioned above, advancement to Phases IV, V, and VI will be determined by polls. These polls will be multi-choice, meaning that voters can vote for every entry that they like. Whenever we have to split a Phase's poll into two to make it more manageable for voters, advancement will be determined by looking at each class's final percentage scores, not by looking at the direct number of votes they received, since we can't guarantee that the same number of voters will vote each day. Poll results will always be hidden until the poll has concluded, and for polls split in two, this does also mean that the results of the first poll will not be revealed until the second poll has concluded as well.
The winner of Phase VI, and thus the entire competition, will be determined by a poll much like the ones before, except that it will be single-choice, requiring voters to pick their single favorite class, and will have a much longer polling phase than usual to give us plenty of opportunity for promotion and such.
In the event of a tie during Phases I-IV for the last possible advancing position, all entries involved in the tie will be allowed to advance; the more the merrier, I say. We will absolutely not have more than four finalists, however, and so in the event of a tie during Phase V, the three Fan Creation Forum moderators (that is, myself, ShadowsOfSense, and PupleMD) will vote to break the tie. In the event of a tie during Phase VI to determine the competition's winner, the title will simply be shared unless both finalists request and agree to a tie-breaking round.
But wait, there's more! During Phases I-IV of the Competition, each Fan Creation Forum moderator (that is, myself, ShadowsOfSense, and PupleMD) will have a Wild Card, which we may (though are not required to) use to advance to the next Phase any one entry that we feel was initially overlooked or under-appreciated, regardless of its performance with voters. No entry may be awarded a Wild Card more than once, and it should also go without saying that, while some moderators are allowed to participate in the competitions, they are never allowed to benefit from Wild Cards. Wild Cards are our way of spicing things up a bit, but please don't ask to be given one or be upset if you aren't given one. These are just supposed to be fun.
Are you curious what will be required for future phases of the competition? The three challenges will remain a secret, but I'm happy to tell you the general submission requirements.
PHASE IV: Blackrock Mountain and The Grant Tournament
By having your class's Classic Set approved of, you've shown that you can make a completely functional class. But functional isn't good enough. Your class must also have room to grow beyond that. For this phase, you'll be proving that it can by giving your class Blackrock Mountain and Grand Tournament cards. Here are the requirements for your Class Creation Competition Phase IV Entry:
There are just a few elements of your class that you will repeat from your Phase I entry, to remind us who and what we're dealing with. If you'd like to repeat anything from your class's introductory explanation, including its flavor or whatever you believe makes it interesting or unique mechanically, that's fine, but try to keep it brief.
We do not want to see your Class's entire BRM and TGT Sets out in the open.
The remaining cards of your class's BRM and TGT Sets must be presented behind a Spoiler Block (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.). These cards must obey the same rules are your examples cards with regards to expansion watermarks, rarity gems, and what keywords you may not use.
You should include your completed Basic and Classic Sets from Phases II and III behind a Spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.) either before or after your Phase IV material. It is fine if these cards have undergone some minor modification, but they must still adhere to all of their original Phase requirements.
PHASE V: League of Explorers and Whispers of the Old Gods
Congratulations on being a semi-finalist! With positively received Blackrock Mountain and Grand Tournament sets, you've proven that your class's concept and mechanics have room for expansion. Now, there's only one last thing to do: narrow down the best of the best. For this phase, you'll be giving your class League of Explorers and Whispers of the Old Gods cards. Here are the requirements for your Class Creation Competition Phase V Entry:
There are just a few elements of your class that you will repeat from your Phase I entry, to remind us who and what we're dealing with. If you'd like to repeat anything from your class's introductory explanation, including its flavor or whatever you believe makes it interesting or unique mechanically, that's fine, but try to keep it brief.
We do not want to see your Class's entire LoE and WotOG Sets out in the open.
The remaining eight (8) cards of your class's LoE and WotOG Sets must be presented behind a Spoiler Block (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.). These cards must obey the same rules are your examples cards with regards to expansion watermarks, rarity gems, and what keywords you may not use.
You should include your completed Basic, Classic, BRM, and TGT Sets from Phases II-IV behind a Spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.) either before or after your Phase V material. It is fine if these cards have undergone some minor modification, but they must still adhere to all of their original Phase requirements.
PHASE VI: One Night in Karazhan and Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
Here we are, finalists! In the last phase of our competition, you'll be giving us your class's One Night in Karazhan and Mean Streets of Gadgetzan sets, as well as constructing your own custom Finale Topics:
There will be no Submission Topic for the competition Finale. Instead, you will create your own Finalist Topics. All that you have to do is create a normal topic here on the Fan Creation Forum and title it as such:
[Class Competition Finalist] TURTLE
(Replace TURTLE with your own class's name, of course.)
Then, bring it to our attention, and we'll link to it from this topic. That's it. How you format and present your final product is entirely up to you. You've put in a lot of work to come this far, so you've earned the right to show us your completed original Class however you think is best.
In addition to including the required material from all previous phases, you must add the following:
These don't need to be part of your Finale Topic, but by the end of the Submission Phase, you should send me 8 example cards from your completed collection, preferably via PM, to be included in the Final Poll Topic. The Final Poll topic will look very similar to this one from our first CCC, except that no token cards will be included.
REWARDS
In addition to truly epic bragging rights, ALL finalists will receive a special Forum Title and Avatar Border, similar to those given to winners of our forum's Weekly Card Design Competitions, as shown below:
Furthermore, the winning contestant will have a Season 5 competition themed around their winning class!
ARCHIVES
Want to see how things went during our first two Class Creation Competitions? Want to see what the winners and other finalists did during each phase? Then check out the links below!
Note, that some competition rules, especially formatting rules, may have been different for past competition.
Class Creation Competition #1
Phase I Submission (Merchant, Twilight's Hammer, Demon Hunter, Lich), Phase I Discussion
Phase II Submission (Merchant, Twilight's Hammer, Demon Hunter, Lich), Phase II Discussion, Phase II Poll
Phase III Submission (Merchant, Twilight's Hammer, Demon Hunter, Lich), Phase III Discussion, Phase III Poll
Phase IV Discussion (Merchant, Twilight's Hammer, Demon Hunter, Lich), Phase IV Poll
Class Creation Competition #2 - Worlds Beyond Warcraft
Phase I Submission (Bard, Agent, Nightmare, Pokemon Trainer), Phase I Discussion
Phase II Submission (Bard, Agent, Nightmare, Pokemon Trainer), Phase II Discussion
Phase III Submission (Bard, Agent, Nightmare, Pokemon Trainer), Phase III Discussion, Phase III Polls (1 & 2)
Phase IV Submission (Bard, Agent, Nightmare, Pokemon Trainer), Phase IV Discussion, Phase IV Poll
Phase V Discussion (Bard, Agent, Nightmare, Pokemon Trainer), Phase V Poll
Class: Flame Wielder
Long ago King Nafaron and his followers were banished to the Firelands.
In the Firelands King Nafaron swore allegiance to Ragnaros.
In return the Firelord gave them the power to Wield the Flame.
But such power does not come without a price.
In the depths of the Firelands they deformed
and one by one they became monsters and beasts.
Example Cards:
He's sad because he He's actually really 'cool' Build a wall and make
keeps setting the fire when you get to know him. hunters pay for it.
alarm off.
Highway to Hell is
Rangaros's guilty
pleasure song.
Rest of the Classic Set:
Basic Set:
I didn't have a signature so Flux added one for me.
Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to Mirage Raceway.
Prepare yourself for a day of fast and furious action.
RACERS START YOUR ENGINE!!!
Hero & Power
Commencing countdown! Engines on!
I'm coming off the line when the light turns green!
Give me fuel! Give me fire! Give me that which I desire!
One foot on the break and one on the gas!
Engines pumping and thumping in time!
There a voice in my head that drives my heel!
100+ through Black and White!
I just can't wait to get back on that road again!
Class and Keyword Explanation.
So, here we have it, The Racer. Madcap, maniacal, motor-loving madmen, and women, who can't get enough of putting their engineering and driving skills to the test. The inspiration for all of this was Mario Kart, or any sort of game in that genre, on top of all the good time I had in Vanilla WoW hanging out watching those weird scripted races while I farmed cooking and skinning mats. I wanted to take something that isn't even part of WoW anymore, and merge it with one of the other things I've had a blast playing with my friends, and that led me to the racer. I was never a huge Racing fan otherwise, but my step-dad was, and for about 10 years my brother worked for Lowe's, and so I just kind of off-handedly learned a bunch of racing terms.
Chase is a host body for our Keyword, Draft. Draft is a very powerful and dynamic mechanic, however it has takeaways. Draft only affects cards in you hand, never your deck. It triggers are part of the casting of the spell, like Overload, and only lasts until the end of your turn. Its not Emperor Thaurissan. You can't slowly snowball down the cost of very card. You have to set up turns and make the most of it. Still when I thought of it I initially dismissed. I can't let my class just lower the cost of its cards can I? Combo decks are already a thing, and if I just give my class the ability to reduce the cost of its cards, won't it just be the best combo class? Well, what if we designed a class around that, away from combo pieces and OP interactions, and instead we focus on tempo. Right now tempo is a huge thing in HS. Going first is a huge factor in many games and having a good curve and not floating mana is a big key to not only winning games, but even being able to participate. This is what I wanted to look at. What if I could turn those turns where you just hero power into part of a larger tempo swing? The ability to take off a turn or 2 or even play a bit off curve because of what you're dealt, but still have potential to get back in the game. That's what Draft is about to me. coming from behind and turning the game back around in your favor.
You'll notice as you look through my cards that Draft doesn't appear on that many cards. Far fewer times actually than most other classes keyword, but there's a pretty big difference in my class than most, and that's in the fact that the keyword is built into my hero power, and something as powerful as massive hand discounts can't just be put on every card. In fact, you'll also notice this keyword shows up toward the high end of the curve, that's because its not about having an explosive early game. We don't need to dump our whole hand on turn 2-3 through perfect Drafting. In fact that would just as easily lead to issue as throwing in tons of face damage and card draw. Instead Draft appears on slower later cards because it allows you to fit in extra plays on those later turns. Sneaking in 1 or 2 drops along side your midgame plays to regain some tempo. I hope this helped you understand some of the design restrictions and choices I've had to make, as well as my philosophy and approach to the class moving forward.
She really revs your engine. "They want to be called the Draft
Pack? Like they ever won a race!
more like Rat Pack if you ask me."
- Fizzle Brassbolts
Just have to make sure I throw "Look at what I can do." - Stuart,
this past my own...uh oh. former Rocket Jockey
Tokens
"I did it my way!" "Ain't that a kick in the head!" "I've gotta be me!"
Classic Cars!...I mean Cards!
Tokens
Explanations
No Magic Zone - "Mirage Raceway would like to inform you that this is a No Magic Zone. We are here to test engineering and driving prowess, not who's fireballs are the biggest." - Fobeed and Zuzubeed, race annoucners. If that's not enough, I don't know how else to get the point across. The other reason I added this was to keep things going. Wide, AoE style effects. This hits both sides of the board, and while we do have AoE buffs, we also don't have too many powerful persistent effect or powerful deathrattles. In fact our only deathrattle is actually a drawback. That gives us a bit of fun play with the Self Silence mechanic that never really worked out for Priest. Flavor Text "Also, no outside food or drinks."
Smoke Screen - When racing is war, sometimes defense is the best offense. A well placed Smoke Screen can help you stay in the race long enough to pull ahead. I though this twist on Divine Shield was a cool one. Doesn't work on Spells, but hell your opponent isn't supposed to be bringing those to the track anyway! Flavor Text: "Did you know Smoke Bomb™ is under trademark by the SI:7?"
Upstart Mechanic - Oh, this young fella, well young for a gnome, thinks he has all the knowledge and skill anyone could ever need, until this Old-Timer gives him whatfor. You gotta learn from the best, not just from some book! This gives us a nice tempo minion and also gives us a touch of Self Damage and healing play. Working all those themes into a 2-drop. Flavor Text: "If he was as smart as he is stupid we'd win every race." - Old-Timer
Quick Fix - Sometimes you take a big shot, your rides almost toast, you're sucking in smoke and you can't see out of one eye. If you just pull over and slap some duct tape on it you can, drink some coolant, (don't worry, its safe, the Speed Freaks drink it all the time), you can get back on the track in no time. Quick fix plays into our healing. Healing might seem out of place, but that's only when you think about it as some sort of divine intervention or holy light, and not a bit of wrench work and some Croc-ade® (patent pending). Then it kind of makes sense. Just because you take a hit doesn't mean you're out of the race! This is our first Draft effect. Draft is something we have to be somewhat conservative with because of our hero power, and here its tacked on for both flavor and effect. Flavor Text: "Is this one the coolant or the Croc-ade®? Eh, same difference"
Desirable Mechanic - Ah, you know you love a nice piece of eye candy! What I'm talking about that flying machine you pervert! This fine little piece of tail...pipe is our.... Oh who am I kidding, she's hot right? And she's one of the most brilliant mechanics I've ever seen! Its like very motor she touches runs that much faster. Seriously though, this card probably seems super simple, but that's the beauty of it. Its a fine on curve body with upside. What more do you really need. Flavor Text: "She really revs your engine."
The Draft Pack - Every generation has an icon group of winners, except this bunch of losers. The only person they ever beat is each other. I took a big inspiration from the Summit, more popularly known as the Rat Pack, a supergroup of singers including Frank Sinatra (Old Blue Eyes), Dean Martin (the King of Cool), and Sammy Davis Jr. (Mister Show Business). This group was actually the second iteration and would later be the inspiration for the Brat Pack and the Frat Pack, as well as the movie, The Rat Pack. I thought it was a great nod to some classic crooners and a bit of fun at the same time. Lil' Blue Eyes, Baron of Cool and Mister Go Business are the three tokens, and each is that little bit different from the other. I think I found some decent art to bring the concept to life and I hope you have a much fun seeing it as I did coming up with it. Flavor Text "They want to be called the Draft Pack? Like they ever won something, just a bunch of filthy rats if you ask me." - Fizzle Brassbolts, Gnome Team Racing President.
Magne-TNT - What better way to take out a group of tightly packed competitors in their fancy cars than a piece of dynamite and a magnet? Just set it and forget it! I wanted my second AoE to have a very unique feel, and so I came up with Magne-TNT. It seems like some sort of crazy thing someone would invent and use, and it gave me a cool twist. Half single target removal, half AoE. Flavor Text: "Just gotta make sure I throw it past my own...uh oh."
Pit Crew Chief - A pit crew is only as good as its best man, and luckily this guys pretty good. Typically taking a Pit Stop at the right time is important, and this guy knows how to make that call. Making you look out of the race when you're secretly about to make a big comeback. Another small subtheme is what I call Full Drift. Pushing a card to 0 mana. This means you've gained enough advantage from good "driving" that you reap special rewards. This one may not seem like much but on those potentially large tempo turns being able to add a Taunt all is a pretty sweet bonus. Flavor Text: "I said "Stop It" not "Pit Stop" you idiot, keep going!"
Pit Stop - This is it, one of the biggest moments in any race. Get in and out of the Pit fast and you're sure to be in position to win. Making a good pit stop when you're behind is even more important. You have to refuel the car, but you might even get in a few repairs and maybe even chase the leader out of the pit! Here again, we play into a lot of things in one card. Its probably a touch wordy, a touch cluttered, but its hits those flavor notes and nothing feels out of place to me. Flavor Text: "Can't we just change cars?"
Just A Bit Further - Sometimes you're out. You've taken too many hits and the wheels are coming off. You've lost your mirrors and your bumpers are blown to bits, but you know if you just hold onto the steering wheel and pray maybe there's just enough momentum to get you across the line. Hey, look the shield generators back online, and we've got one more rocket left, and its just a quarter mile to the finish line. WE CAN DO THIS! This card was inspired more by the art than most. Most of the time I found art to fit cards, here I found this art and couldn't help but make it into a card. Ignores Draft is something that we have to use to keep just a few cards from being very dangerous. Here it keeps this large protective buff in check.
Hellbound Speedster - He's on a Highway to Hell, and he's going dooooowwooown. And he's probably taking you with him. No, I felt like I couldn't use the same card for both the music and high cost common theme, so I created this card as an homage to AC/DC. I live in Australia after all. This may not be super obvious, but I felt like it still hit the right note.... I'll stop now. This also reinforces our Dynamic statline and self damage themes and helps give No Magic Zone more of an in-game use and not just a flavor one. Flavor Text: "Acceleration, Check/Detonation, Check"
Careless Rocket Jockey - Ah, the most out of place low mana card ever. This card seems beyond weird I'm sure. And honestly, we already have a 1 mana removal in our basic set, so what made me put this one there? Well, that actually part of it. We already have a 1 mana removal, and that's already going to be floating around Arena, we don't need to have a bunch of running around. Plus this has some other interesting things going on that I felt pushed it toward a special slot. Its a minion that is actually meant to be removal, similar to Force of Nature, which ended up being a combo piece until its nerfing. So I felt like in a lot of ways I was paying Homage to a nerfed Force of Nature. I love this card and I think it makes a great epic, especially if you look at Blizzards track record with epics. Flavor Text: "Look at what I can do." - Stuart, former Goblin Rocket Jockey
Rocket Fuel Tech - Our second Full Draft card. One of my original previews and one of the first cards I designed. It hasn't changed a bit since then and its still a great example of flavor and substance. Flavor Text: "This stuff will take you to the moon and back. Oh, you're here for fuel?"
Qualified - Our second Ignore Draft card, and our biggest potential hair puller. Some times you think you're winning the race, but it turns out its just for a chance at the real prize. I tried to cost this in such a way that makes it playable, but not great. And in a way that typically makes the second copy much worse than the first. Back in the classic days I think more games against aggro went past turn 7 but now it seems like they don't. Flavor Text: "I blew him off the track, how did he qualify?"
ToGny Starkwrench - Ah, we all need a good legendary, and who better to help us build amazing machines and sick weapons then warmongering, egotistical, millionaire, playboy, ToGny Starkwrench. Yeah, so he got kidnapped by Goblins in held in the desert, but he's still alive. What do you mean he stopped making weapons? Renewable energy? Well I'm already paying him, so let's just hope he's got something helpful against those goblins. I really am going to make every legendary comic book subthemed so just get used to it. We get to play off ToGny's ingenuity and off his skill. We get both designer and creator in one go. I hope this guy feels cool and fun, that's what I'm aiming for most. Flavor Text: "I told you I don't want to join your super secret boy-band." - ToGny Starkwrench.
Basics of Racing
Fall Back - Here we are. First card in and its already familiar but different. One of the big aspects I put emphasis on is wide or aoe buffs. But ones not so tied into boosting stats, but more so in adding abilities to my racers. From a flavor standpoint Fall Back, is about letting yourself appear weak at some point in the race to get ahead later. I've represented that by giving all my minions Taunt, as they are now more viable and visible opponents.
Last Ditch Effort - Removal. Its something we all know, but I needed to find a way to make cheap removal that didn't deal damage to the opponent. That led me down many paths and this was just the first. Last Ditch Effort is that point where to stay in the race you just launch off everything. You do whatever it takes, you might even just ram the other driver off the road. And the bigger and badder they are the harder they hit you back.
Caution - Every race still wants to keep its racers safe, so when things get too wild, we pump the breaks. But its not just one person we're trying to keep safe, its everyone, and so we have protection for everyone. This helps reinforce our AoE buff theme, and provides an even more unique take on it by hitting all minions, friendly or otherwise.
Clumsy Mechanic - For every good driver, you have to have a car, and who else but the Mechanics do we have to thank for that. This gal may not be the most graceful, but she's still one hell of a mechanic, and she's not just going to roll over and give up. She represent, along side Last Ditch Effort, part of our self damaging sub theme. This is put into play because those comebacks can't happen if we aren't getting behind in some way. So we might take a bit of damage, but that's ok, we can always make a Pit Stop and get some repairs and get back out there.
Start Your Engines! - Our last AoE buff, this one hits a nice icon race moment, that point where the race is really about to start. Obviously this is just Charge, in AoE form, but like many of our other effects, we've made it iconically our own.
Speed Freak - This is a minion many people told me didn't make sense. It didn't have any abilities, it was just this weird vanilla minion. But its not just some weird vanilla minion. Its our minion. Its got a statline we'll likely never see on an Neutral minion. Its something different. Its part of our class identity. How? Well, we are already going wide with out buffs. We can pass out Taunt, Divine Shield and Charge. If we spend a bunch of time putting all these abilities on our minions we close off part of our unique design and so by not doing that we instead open up even more unique design. Dynamic statlines. Here we have out first example, the high attack low health minion. But we're getting a full 10 stat points for just 4 mana. Who needs abilities when you've got great stat value? Ok, maybe the distribution isn't great, but that's the point as well. Not every card is great. We have to fill out set and I could make a bunch of awesome cards to show you how many great ideas I have, but I think it takes just as much effort to design mediocre to bad cards. I'll obviously try to avoid downright awful cards, but I think we all know that not every card is, and more so shouldn't be, great.
Tactical Maneuver - So, we are almost definitely going to have to do a few damage spells, we just have to avoid the ability to BURN THE DOME!!!! Oh, sorry, my winner's instinct kicked in for a second there. This card represents our first look at the "comeback" trigger. Being behind on life won't be a super huge thing, because let's be honest, we don't always want to play from behind, but I think its nice to have a few cards that make that feel better. This lets us take and enemy out, and if we got lucky and that was the guy just ahead of us in the race, we eek out that extra advantage.
Crowd's Favor - The crowd is a big factor in any sporting event, and this is my representation of that. Being the guy(s) or girl(s) getting the cheers and really boost performance. Giving the underdog that advantage to beat the big favorite. It can also lead that Fan Favorite to a dominating victory. I decided to go with a very high cost on this to prevent easy abuse of Drifting to lead to major OTK potential.
Eliminate the Competition - Every once in awhile you have to thin the pack. That's when a nice rocket barrage can be a huge help. Taking out a group of weaker drivers let's you get back in the race and go for the win! Plus, every class needs some AoE.
Fan Favorite - Oh, here he is. That big dog we were talking about earlier. He's won more races than you, hell he's won more than anyone in recent memory. He's cool, he's collected, and he's a serious threat to anyone else winning the race. At least that's how I justified a big beefy Taunt minion to myself when I designed this guy. I think the Fonzie style is a great nod as well.
To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.
Class: Dancer
The Dancer class. A class of beauty and grace. They fight with rhythmic movement and in numbers. A solo act may be impressive, but the choreography can truly shine when there are multiple dancers. Numbers and movement are the strengths of this class. They help and support each other to boost themselves to new heights. To shine brighter than any star.
"His best friend, Tauren Bodyguard, "He also works as a card dealer is a sick beatboxer." in the local casino."
"The last time he performed, "The golden version won he destroyed 5 cities and Best Animation of the Year created a new river." on HearthPwn Card Awards."
Token:
Showcase Explanations:
Troll Breakdancer - One of my favorite cards of this set. Troll Breakdancer and Tauren Bodyguard are two 4/4s for 7 mana. All minions to the left of the pair gain +1 Health, all minions to the right gain +1 Attack, and any minion that is between the two have +1/+1. They are quite a powerful duo.
Ethereal Shuffler - A 5 3/3 that creates copies of itself. The copies have all the stats of the original, useful for getting the most of the classes buff cards.
Shifting Mountain - A smaller Bog Creeper, but with the ability to gain Health everytime it shifts.
Ice Skating - Perfect for activating shift effects multiple times. Creating two copies of Ethereal Shuffler, giving your Shifting Mountain +2 Health, or even both.
The rest of the Classic Set:
Classic Set Explanations:
Blade Dancer - Easy shift trigger to retain tempo. Curves well with cards like Elven Model.
Arrogance - A removal spell that makes the opponent consider their positioning before summoning minions. Can deal 2, 4, or 6 damage.
Happy Feet - Useful for buffing all of your minions via shifting. Combos nicely with Ice Skating.
Practice - A buff with a shift effect. Combos nicely with Ethereal Shuffler. 7-mana for two 5/5s isn't bad.
Elven Model - Card draw triggered by a shift. Synergies with Ice Skating and Blade Dancer.
Resurgence - A minion heal with a small buff.
Duet - 3-mana for +4/+4 with the condition of having at least 2 minions. Targets are random as well.
Dance with the Beast - A 4-mana 4/5 Taunt that requires a minion to summon.
Kicked Off Stage - A removal spell with the restriction of only destroying the enemies leftmost minion. Encourages using shift cards to control which minion is destroyed.
Spotlight - Cheaper Twisting Nether that leaves one minion alive on both sides. Encourages shifting enemy minions to manipulate which minion survives.
Exotic Dancer Lunakua - Doubles all buff cards cast on it. Can be used to draw cards with Quality Fleece from the basic set.
Basic Set:
Token:
Treant Sisters Removal and their Replacement:
The Treant Sisters were replaced by Exhausted Dancer:
Their previous iteration was far too powerful. Their effect was modified and used for the legendary of the Classic set.
Exhausted Dancer - A 1-mana 0/3 that gains Attack everytime its Health is increased through buffs or healing. Has synergy with Tavern Musician and all Health buffs. Resurgence and Towering Garments have crazy synergies with their healing or active buffing.
The King!
Boetius Bannister, King of Fireheart.
Off, to the East of the Eastern Kingdoms,
Boetius and his people silently builds an army.
Waiting for the day to return back to the rest of civilisation,
Where the Horde shall finally fall.
A king is a man who does not fight with an axe, but with an army. He does not ensure his safety with armor, but with a guard. And he does not gain power and success through taking down opponents in duels, but rather from gaining trust and respect from the men and women inside his city walls. The king is a class who uses minions to defeat his enemies, rather than his own magic or strength, and when his minions do their jobs right, he makes sure they are rewarded as such.
He understands the commoners hate for the noble, and the nobles distaste for the commoner, and he understands the commoners contempt with his fellow commoners, and the friendships that the nobles gain between eachother in royal parties. The King knows how to impress and correctly utilise a minions rarity to best serve his needs, and using promote, he knows how to get that rarity where he needs it.
Example Cards
He didn't mean to kill that guard... She's never been the same since she
Or that lady... Or the the dog... His hand learned where meat comes from.
just slipped, he swears.
Disclaimer: Casting this spell Back when he was just a small
will not actually result in rich child, his parents were killed in
planetary domination. an alleyway. Ever since that fateful
day, he's... Richer?
Explanations
Arthur Bannister - Arthur Bannister, Boetius' son, is quite unlike his father. He doesn't care for "girly things" like politics, people and social class. In fact, rational thought is also foreign to him. But he does like crushing anyone who seems to be weaker than him, fighting, mindlessly insulting children, etc. He's not the nicest of guys. But what he IS, is a perfect example of the King's minion based removal cards, which utilise minions to remove things rather than standalone spells. He's a giant, potentially devastating board clear, and he has some interesting synergy with cards like Raid Leader, Stormwind Champion and a couple of King cards that have yet to be shown. The more he hurts, the more he kills, and under the right conditions, he hurts a lot.
Savage Butcher - Common King, one of the two "tribal" rarity King archetypes, is a control deck that relies on small minions and big board buffs to form an impenetratable wall of taunts that will keep the aggro decks from the Kings face. However, that sounds nice and all, but against control decks, wouldn't that run out of steam? That's what Savage Butcher is here for, she's among the kings card advantage focused cards. She costs a lot of mana, but 2 for 1's on a fast acting minion are certainly more than welcome in the common king deck.
Rule the World - 4 specific cards drawn for 6 mana... Isn't that a lovely thought? However, in order for this card to be the dream, you've got to push your deckbuilding skills to the test. In order for it to work, you need to guarentee at least 4 draws, after all, Nourish costs 5.... That means you'll have to be running multiple commons, rares, epics and legendaries in your deck, and you need to ensure you don't draw all of your cards of any one rarity before you draw this, else it's value is going down the toilet. Draw 2 full rarity sets from your deck before this? Might as well not even bother playing it at that point. But on the upside, this card is just brimming with possibilities, you could build a deck and call it "Rule C'thun", and this card would be guarenteed to draw a common, rare, the other Rule the World in your deck, and either C'Thun or Twin Emperor Vek'lor. You could reasonably include it in any deck in fact, if you adjusted it accordingly.
Pompous Noble - Behold, the mighty 5 mana 1/1! Or, in the right deck, the 5 mana 15/15! When you make an Epic King deck, you might as well go all the way. Epic cards are gimmicky and situational, why should a deck built around them be any different? Ride that wave, and allow the Pompous Noble show you that his strength is not only unparalleled, but also unperpendiculared... Not that that means anything. Anywho, clearly the epic king, with this guy being the most synergistic card for it, will not be the most powerful deck on the tierlist. After all, did you know there are actually only 10 neutral epics in the classic set? This guys biggest statline in classic, will almost always be capped at 16/16. That said, 16/16 is pretty good for 5 mana, and as the sets roll in, Epic king might just begin to form and shape into one of the most powerful pure gimmick decks in the game, after all, when it comes to super late game win conditions, nothing really beats playing a 15/15 and a 16/16 on the same turn once the opponents removal is gone.
The rest of the classic set and their explanations
Rations - With the basic set containing no rarity based cards, there will be an increased amount of cards focusing on rarity in the classic set. Rations is a very big card for the Common King, a deck with quite a decent amount of token generation. With this card, your little swarm of little minions don't become any stronger, but they each become quite sturdy. It also replenishes your health a little, allowing you to stabilise on the board while stabilising your health. No one seems to be enjoying the raw murloc head we got for them... Maybe they just don't like fish?
Shifty Commoner - A very simple card that immediately recycles itself when you play it. It won't necessarily give you something good, but it will give you something, and really, that's all that matters to a Common King. It has excellent value for its cost, a 2 mana 2/2 which you don't lose card advantage on, but you have to be able to make use out of whatever card comes out of it. Do note, however, that the card will always either be a neutral or a king card. She acts cruel and harsh, but that's just her way of showing her affection. Probably.
Huge Swing - This card is essentially the King's very own Shadowbolt card. However, this card has a bonus as long as you have a couple of minions on the board to boost it up. Normally, the card just has the King swing for 4 damage, but, with the help of your men, they can perform the attack, taking down the minion regardless of its size. This only works with commons though, as it's unlikely Epic king would want to play it anyway, and it rewards more intelligent play from the Common King player. Should you promote your Shifty Commoner for the buff? Or should you save your promote for now in hope of gaining a huge strength increase to Huge Swing? Well, it's usually called a Wide Swing, but that's just... Boring.
Shieldwall - So, you've swarmed the board with tiny little Castle Archer's, Shifty Commoner's and Argent Squires, but that warrior just won't stop hitting your face! It's not like you can attack his weapon, spells or charge minions, so that board doesn't really matter much, does it? Well, with this card you can completely stop all the attacking your opponent is doing, should you have a big enough board, leaving yourself only open to spells. In addition to them all gaining taunt though, they gain +1/+1 buffs, in exchange for making Huge Swing and Riot worthless until you get another few tokens. If you use this on one minion, is it really a shieldwall?
Squad Leader - A rapid token generator for the King. Obviously designed for a Common King variant, but this, along with many other cards, are completely fine outside of common king. The actual man himself is the leader of a Militia Squad, thus he's not exactly an elite military captain. In fact, judging by the look on his face, he seems like a bit of a wimp. And thus, everytime you promote him, he shouts out for help, getting 2 men who will keep the both of you safe from attacks. The combo potential with this guy is also outstanding. Not all heroes wear capes. That said, this man wouldn't be a hero no matter how many capes he had on.
Aspiring Knight - Rare cards are cards which are more general use cards. This card, for example, is just a solid minion with a lot of combo potential. Let's say you have this, a squad leader and a shieldwall in hand. Put it out, use a couple of hero power tokens on the squad leader, shieldwall. Boom, you now have 4 2/2's with taunt, a 4/7 with taunt, and a gigantic 11/11 with taunt. A pretty decent turn, I must say. She really wanted to be a cheerleader, but when she figured out that cheerleading isn't too popular past your teen years, she decided that brutal fighting to the death was close second.
Celebrations - A cheap card that provides a very small immediate effect, but can promote a card in your hand. This obviously has a few synergies here and there with charge minions and other minions that would be popular in a goons deck, but it also has synergies with a LoE card called Regal Nymph, and also works well with things like Display of Strength. For the last time, we meant the events, not the chocolates!
Tax - Rids the target of their money, which will usually reduce their stats by a lot, whilst removing their effects. Costs 1 less than Hex, but a 3/3 is significantly stronger than a Frog and it doesn't counter things like Resurrect or Anyfin Can Happen. Why does a "Miniscule tax raise" cost you 2000 gold while a "Major tax cut" saves you 10?
Personal Trainer - This card provides a +2/+2 buff to commons, and a +1/+1 to rares and epics. In exchange for it's versatility over Houndmaster, it doesn't give Taunt. It's helpful in the majority of decks, including the 2 main rarity archetypes. Setting a minion to epic is helpful with Epic King, and Common King has the most minions that can benefit from his effect most. It's the, eye of the Stranglethorn, it's the thrill of the fight!
Riot - This card takes all your displeased peasants and makes them show your opponents minions just how annoyed they are. Sure, a riot of like, 2 guys isn't all that scary, but when you've got 3 or 4 people out the riot can be terrifying. This follows the Huge Swings idea of "maybe you shouldn't promote your commons just yet" else they'll be too content to riot. "WE DEMAND WHALES! WE DEMAND WHALES!"
Spear of Champions - A spear that has been wielded by only the most glorious warriors in existance. Anyone who used this weapon has indeed acquired themselves a place in history books as legends. Of course, those people have to be worthy though, so this only works on epics. Since Epic King is supposed to be a more late focused midrange deck, I think a slightly costlier, but high value Arcanite Reaper is suitable. And although the King isn't usually the one to be doing all the fighting, he's still a class with a few weapons. But those weapons are spears, one of the safest weapons to use. Not that that actually means anything in Hearthstone, but it's still a little flavourful. The mighty warrior, Spear of Champions in hand, readied himself, seeing a large silhouette over the horizon... Then suddenly, he let out a terrifying yell! "A'VE GOT THE BEAST 'EN MY SIGHTS!"
Basic Set
Tokens
Class: Alchemist
Frustrated with the limitations of traditional alchemy, Wulfrum
abandoned his training in Stormwind and begin his own experiments.
He joined the scourge as an acolyte to gain access to corpses, diseases, and many other ingrediants
that would have disgusted his old teacher. His affiliation with the scourge soon became a lot more
permanent after one of his experiments resulted in his death. He was resurrected to serve once more
in the armies of the Lich King. Now with all the time in the world, Wulfrum decided to see just how far
he could go with alchemy. A terrifying concept to those who have seen his vile work
and fear there's no line he wont cross.
Example Cards:
"And you thought getting "The 9th version resulted "The label reads: Keep
a ship in a bottle was hard" in uncontrollable singing" in reach of children"
"People often say that being
around him is unbearable"
Rest of the Classic Set:
Tokens:
Basic Set:
Check out my Custom Classes (Scribe, Alchemist, and Battlemage)!
Example Cards
You Can't See Me explained:
Clearly based off of Shaman's Evolve, transforming minions into stronger ones of higher cost is one of the core mechanics of the shapeshifting, sneaky ninja. However, balancing a card such as this was very, very tricky. You Can't See Me underwent six different variations, until finally, I decided to simply cut off Hero Power synergy with this card, though it breaks my heart to do so. I just feel like the volatility of the Ninja's hero power can lead to too many high-value plays with this card. As an upside, it is now 0 mana, so it is very easy to combo with minions.
Doomspinner Shuriken explained:
Though the Ninja loves to mess around and transform and merge minions around, I cannot dedicate the whole class to doing that. Therefore, cards such as this can still benefit from merging and evolving, but the Doomspinner Shuriken can be used in a more traditional control deck, or even in a midrangey deck. I aimed greatly for this sort of flexibility to keep my class from being too one-dimensional.
Mistress Splinter explained:
Everyone and their dog should know the reference here.
So, Mistress Splinter is, at heart, a combo oriented card and fulfills a more niche role, similar to class legendaries such as Prophet Velen or Archmage Antonidas. By herself, she has a respectable Taunt, and the spell generated will give you an insane amount of merging synergy. Not to mention, she's also a Deathrattle-Taunt, so she can be brought back by N'Zoth in the future.
As for the tokens she produces, the turtles all have a different rarity, keyword, and mana cost not only to (mostly) correspond to their colours, but to provide as much coverage of the current and future merging requirements as possible. It is important to note, however, Mistress of Splinter can technically still be played in a midrange deck just for the solid 4/7 Taunt. Adolescent Posse is also worth more than its 3 mana cost, so you can use it to trade or maybe to get a quick Taunt.
Imperial Summoner explained:
Last, but certainly not least, Imperial Summoner rounds off the four example cards. Like You Can't See Me, Imperial Summoner went through several different drafts. In fact, his current effect is completely different from his original concept.
It's a fairly simple card, with a very overcosted 9-mana 4/5 Taunt that summons anything from a 5/5 Ancient of Lore to a 6/8 Bog Creeper. Since the minions that can be summoned are a bit constrating in value, and due to the fact that North Sea Kraken is worth about 11 mana (9/7 body = 8 mana, dealing 4 = 3 mana), it is safe to give the Imperial Summoner at least somewhat decent stats (worth 4.5 mana) while the 7-mana minion, presumably worth 7 mana, round off his total value at 11.5 mana.
His true value shines since he can guarantee Doomspinner Shuriken's battlecry, or combo off with You Can't See Me and Sakura Storm in the basic set.
Remaining Classic Set
Commons
Feral Ninken's flavour text: Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy? You are! Good magical ninja doggy!
Hammerspace's flavour text: Does this mean your katanas and shurikens are blunt? Awkward.
Westwind Shinobi's flavour text: He definitely had a tiger mother.
Spiritual Visage's flavour text: Turns out most people view themselves as a flying goat. Who knew?
Tokens
Rares
Be Water's flavour text: It's always funny seeing Deathwing becoming the cup. He hates that.
Eastwind Informant's flavour text: He brings tidings of the ever-elusive Tauren rogue.
Man's Best Friends's flavour text: Somewhat akin to handling a bunch of baby pugs, minus the cute factor.
Undercity Ronin's flavour text: Even his inner demons are big-boned.
Tokens
Epics
Marked For Death's flavour text: Marked FOUR death! Hah, get it? ...I thought it was funny.
Shuriken Storm's flavour text: "Guaranteed to make a mess out of your enemy's face." - Malygos
...Ninjas Do It Better's flavour text: Pirates can do it too, they just need a little weapon synergy.
Basic Cards
Frontstab's flavour text: "Look over here!" works just as well, apparently.
Twinbolt Shuriken's flavour text: "We deal two damage here, we deal two damage there, it all blows over." - Madam Goya
Sakura Shower's flavour text:
Pretty pink petals
Come fluttering gently down
They foretell your doom.
Double Trouble's flavour text: Something about cauldrons, wands, and magical spells.
Meaning of Life's flavour text: "Cheese biscuits." - Anonymous
Ghost Iron Shuriken's flavour text: Somehow, ghost iron has something to do with drawing cards.
We're not sure what, but that's how it is.
Hand Clansman's flavour text: Watch out for the Head Clansman.
Onion-cutting Ninjas' flavour text: *This flavour text is soaked and blurred beyond legibility*
Venerated Sensei's flavour text: Venerated he may be, but he still cannot guarantee the
results of his harsh training. No refunds, period.
Undercity Ronin's flavour text: Call the next Jinyu you see a herring. I dare you.
Tokens
THE EXPLORER IS BACK!
And Oh what tales of temples, treasures and beasts she'll tell.
Exploring is a dangerous business, but it sure pays well.
Going where no human, trogg or goblin has gone before,
Wouldn't that be exciting? So come along now...
The Highlights Of Indie's Trip!
Fossilised Companion: "Please take me with you! They don't feed me :(." A big body to hold down the board when you're low on cards, buying you time to restock.
March of the Raiders: " Follows February of the Looters!" Takes advantage of a hand full of reactive-dead-cards to create some aggression. Combos well with the large draw engine of the class.
Cursed Riches: " The coins are cursed to be too big for any vending machine." Big card draw to combo with the draw synergies of the class.
Li Li: " Dressed up as a Jade Golem for Halloween last year." Brings in the element of cheating death. Li Li survives through her quick feet, and learns to become faster, stronger and more ready to kick your a$$. Can be very effective as control as an almost unkillable card.
COMMONS
Indie would like to thank these unsung heroes who helped her on her journey. Oh, and if anyone has seen the pathfinder can you contact the Lost and Found?
Adept Pathfinder: "He only finds paths. He's garbage at following them." Combos with the SpyGlass to discount a key combo card, or to drop a minion ahead of tempo.
Eager Explorer:" Note to self: Check map first." It has an interesting mechanic that combos with Anticipate, but the card it draw will not have anticipate. A good card to quickly cycle through your deck.
Torrential Downpour: " I'm afraid an Umbrella may be insufficient." A mini-Vanish that can remove a minion for a bit longer. You can get yours back more quickly using your hero power to dig for the shuffled minions.
Loot Rummager: " Nope, nope, nope, OOH SHINYYYYY!!" This card is able to trigger card draw effects with a tradeoff of potentially losing a really important card. Combos quite well with Expedition Leader.
Expedition Leader: "WE WENT THERE TOO!" The essential card of the set. It can take advantage of all the draw power to quickly deal huge amounts of face damage. Also does anyone get the flavour text? No? Stealth Rager...no? OK.
RARES
Indie's set of invaluable skills and her trusted adviser, although she did have to hire mercenaries to steal the monkey from Harrison...nobody tell him.
Treasure Heist: " Take what you can, then give what you can't carry back." Just a fun card that is like Burgle and Thoughtsteal. Might even be able to gain more value from those cards due to cost reductions.
Clever Forgeries: " Make it, then fake it." A counter to powerful battlecry minions. Can devastate combos and OTKs especially.
Old Cartographer: " He prefers Senior Mapmaking citizen." Just to allow a little more value from Spyglasses.
Excavating Pickaxe: " Yeah, Rexy is cute, but how are we going to get out of this tomb now?" Thematic card that unearths dead things! *Just needed another weapon in the set*.
EPICS
Now you don't see this everyday....
Rash Trailblazer: " LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEROY!!!!" Super Patches 2.0 that is a Bluegill Warrior even without anticipate. Very powerful in aggro, but is very valuable in getting a free removal of a 2 drop in other decks too.
Brann's Rifle: " A third barrel shoots paintballs." Very useful minion removal-almost an Arcanite Reaper.
Basics and their flavour texts.
No matter how far you go, you still have to remember your roots. -Papa Jackson.
Reckless Sherpa: "Always ends deliciously for the Yeti."
Wandering Satyr: "Well it's not his fault that the maps are 1000 gold each."
Experienced Guide: "After all these years he still can't navigate the Dalaran Mall."
Consult the Map: " Explorers look at where everyone's gone before, then they go the other way."
Rune Tap: " Also requires a knock-knock joke to unleash the magic."
Falling Rocks: "At least we don't need a tombstone..."
Explorer's Whip: " Still jealous of Harrison's hat."
Ancient Torch: " Still makes the best S'Mores after 10,000 years."
Exhaustion: "ARE WE THERE YET?"
Jungle Retreat: Offers a sauna as well as healing services.
Note: The 2/2 has the exact same image.
^^^Token^^^
Please leave an upvote. If you would like to support the League please donate via our Patreon page.
I'm Playing:
Evenlock and Mill Rogue in Wild HS,
Azami Control in EDH
Current Warframe Main: Mesa Prime
THE ALCHEMIST
You have no idea how many times she's flipped her name backwards.
I'll show them... (Example cards)
'Drink responsibly' means I meant to do that. The hottest Mix Ape of
'Don't spill'. 2017.
When Deathwing assaulted
the capital, this soldier was
the only member of his squad
to survive. Now he's all
mutilated and stuff.
Explanations, if you're interested
A Round of Drinks: I've resolved to use the word "Swap" unconventionally at least once in every set (besides Basic). Since Classic doesn't have a definite theme in terms of playstyle, I decided to simply swap a stat that's never been swapped before. Due to the Alchemist's thing for minions with extremely polarized stats or powerful effects, the Health swap would be the most advantageous. Also, Molten Giant wombo-combo.
Lab Explosion: Since the Alchemist enjoys getting big things on the board, this card wipes out the small creatures, and gives the big ones a little something to play with. Balanced against Demonwrath: (3) for 2 to all with a minor upside that can rarely backfire.
Mix Ape: My music reference, "Mix Tape" if you didn't get it. Overall, I made the card because I noticed that my Basic set was lacking any form of card draw. The idea is that the monkey either creates a proper potion, or an event, like Lab Explosion.
Mutilated Champion: A flipped (hehe) Stormwind Champion, with the flavor text also referencing it. Overall, not much to say. Synergizes with flips and the clears in this set.
...I'll show them all! (The rest of the cards)
Commons
Explanations
Agile Assistant: A slightly better Stonetusk Boar + Windfury. In the Classic set, this is the most aggressive card. Also a good combo enabler and has synergy with aura buffs.
Drunken Ninja: Despite it having two keywords, it still has premium stats because the keywords conflict with each other. Taunt can't protect you immediately, and stealth doesn't like the defensive stats that the taunt encourages. Despite this, flips can really take advantage of the polarized stats, making this like a pseudo-choose one.
Potion Sale: Again, I noticed the severe lack of card draw in my class. While this is usually good in midrange or slower decks to keep up with a more aggressive one, it can absolutely not be used to search for lethal.
Support Apothecary: As promised, another aura buff. This is extremely powerful when placed next to taunt minions, as the opponent will have to get through the buffed up minion before dealing with the Apothecary. I like to think of it as a mini Stormwind Champion.
Rares
Explanations
Fairy in a Bottle: A reference to the Legend of Zelda, because the art was too good. Comparable to Ancestral Spirit, except you pay the minion's cost for the benefit of getting the battlecry back.
Two-Faced Flask: A bigger and better Drain Life. Another thing that this class was missing was heals, so this will fill that role, without being too big. This is mostly to play against combo decks, as taunt minions will be much more efficient against aggro with your aura buffs and whatnot.
Putricide's Potion: Another clear, similar in form and in function to Lab Explosion. Just bigger.
Soul Vial: Hard removal. Following the model of most classes, with one hard removal in Basic and one in Classic (you just might not notice it, but it's there. Corruption, for instance).
Epics
Explanations
Polarity Shifter: Has the ability to make trades really non-intuitive, which is always fun. Based off of Polarity Shift, the Thaddius boss's Hero Power. Like in the boss encounter, you play as many aura buffs as you can in order to grow your minions.
Failed Experiments: What Force of Nature should have been. Minion damage that triple dips on aura and area buffs.
Legendary
Explanation
Grand Apothecary Putress is known for attacking indirectly using the Plague. This card reflects that in a direct health debuff instead of dealing damage, similarly to Death's Vial from my Basic set. Putress makes up for his absolutely abysmal stats with his extremely powerful effect. Not only is it a powerful AoE, it also permanently nerfs your opponent's max Health (Reno Jackson soft-counter). The hand synergy is justified by the Alchemist's hand-filling Hero Power and powerful draws now that I realized my mistake in Basic. Good in controly decks that don't match mana cost to mana available.
The Basic Set
If you want to see explanations, click here to go to my submission on the Phase II submission topic.
Hope you enjoyed reading :D
Explosive Shot => Meteor
Power Word: Tentacles => Spikeridged Steed
Alchemist
Flavor texts and tokens:
Fanatic Researcher: His famous last words were concise but profound: "Draw two cards."
Soul Kitchen: Forgive me for cutting corners. I'm just too fatigued to summon Infernals.
(Flavor text by @iplay1power)
Careless Chemist: He managed to retrieve the loss, at the expense of his own life.
Midas Touch: In fact, only golden version of this card can turn things into golden ones.
(Flavor text by @Orak_unluck)
P.S. Soul Kitchen is the Music Challenge card of this phase.
Introduction
The class of Alchemist has 4 main features:
1. Alchemy Potions
Here in the spoiler are the Alchemy Potion related cards of Alchemist classic and basic sets:
Alchemy Potions are cards that you shuffle into your deck and their effects trigger when drawn. There are 3 Basic Alchemy Potions and 1 new Alchemy Potion in each expansion other than Classic. Here are the three basic Alchemy Potions (all of them are NONCOLLECTABLE TOKENS, of course):
Basic cards related to Alchemy Potions:
Classic cards related to Alchemy Potions:
P.S. Fortuneteller was the Pokemon Challenge card from Phase II
2. Fatigue
Here in the spoiler are the card draws and Fatigue related cards of Alchemist classic and basic sets:
It's obvious that, in order to trigger all those Alchemy Potions shuffled into your deck, Alchemists need more card draws than other classes; this also makes Alchemist a class that reaches fatigue quite often. But don't worry - there will be cards in the Classic set and further expansions that benefit from your reaching fatigue. By the way, since Alchemist has a huge amount of card draws, I ensure this class will have no access to any OTK combos at all, so that drawing so many cards wouldn't make the class as 'fun and interactive' as the pre-nerf Patron Warrior.
Basic cards related to card draws and Fatigue:
Classic cards related to card draws and Fatigue:
3. Debuff
Here in the spoiler are the debuff related cards of Alchemist classic and basic sets:
As we know, every class has their own way of removals. For Mage, it's transform and damage; for Priest, it's taking control and destroy according to Attack of a minion; for Alchemist, it's debuff. While buff cards give a minion +X/+X, debuff cards give it -X/-X. There are two things worth mentioning with this mechanic. First, when a minion's Health becomes 0 or less with a debuff, it dies. Second, when you debuff a damaged minion, both its current Health and maximum Health are reduced.
Basic cards related to debuff:
Classic cards related to debuff:
4. Swap
Here in the spoiler are the swap related cards in the Alchemist classic and basic sets:
You may have noticed that, 'swap Attack and Health' is an alchemist-themed effect in the current Hearthstone(see Crazed Alchemist and Kooky Chemist), and thus I also include 'swap' as one of the main features of my Alchemist class. Unfortunately, as you can see, just above my entry, the Alchemist class created by @Dxiled is heavily based on the theme of swapping Attack and Health, and some cards I planned to include in my classic set were nearly the same with his creations. If you are a frequent visitor of our WCD, you may have noticed that I often criticise people for submitting cards other people had made earlier than them, even if their work is independent and original. So this time, I have to cut all most of the swap synergy cards in my classic set. But don't worry, this part will be explored further in other expansions.
Basic cards related to swap:
Classic cards related to swap:
Further Materials
Remarkable combos:
1. Midas Touch + Darkmoon Cabalist/Distillation
Notice that the Alchemy Potions all have an extra 'draw a card' effect apart from their own functions. So when you play Darkmoon Cabalist or Distillation after Midas Touch, you'll both trigger the Alchemy Potions AND get some legendary minions.
2. Fetter + Twisted Fane/Doomsayer
Only very few minions in the current Hearthstone have an attack of 8 or more. So when you play Fetter, minions' attack is often reduced to 0. Then, if you play Twisted Fane and choose a friendly minion, all minions but the one you choose will be destroyed. You can also play Doomsayer after Fetter, just like the Frost Nova + Doomsayer combo played in freeze mage.
3. Careless Chemist + Any Card Draw + Soul Kitchen
While summoning dozens of 5/5 Demons could create a very strong board, the requirement of Soul Kitchen's effect to trigger is that your deck must be empty. Since it takes quite many turns to draw all cards from your deck, Careless Chemist offers you another choice to reach Fatigue faster.
4. Fetter/Decrepify + Stone of Purification
Purify is not a good card for Priest because you don't want your own minions to be worse. But for a class with lots of 'AOE' debuffs, it will be absolutely different. Fetter + Stone of Purification offers you a chance to trade the minions for free; Decrepify + Stone of Purification clears the board and restore your big minions to full health. And there'll be more combos with Stone of Purification in future expansions.
5. Grand Apothecary Putress + Distillation
As I've mentioned above, Distillation not only triggers the main effect of Alchemy Potions but also lets you draw 3 extra cards (due to the 'draw a card' effect on Alchemy Potions). Thus, when you have Grand Apothecary Putress on board, Distillation will draw altogether 6 cards and therefore grants you 6 mana crystals. This 10 mana combo is absolutely game-changing. (By the way, I may nerf Grand Apothecary Putress by increasing its cost in future expansions. But consider how broken those meta decks are nowadays... I feel that such a 10 mana combo is quite acceptable comparing with them...)
Deck Recipe:
Deck recipe is a function that Blizzard introduced after the launch of standard format. For each class, there should be 3 deck recipes, one of them with classic and basic cards only, the other two including cards from expansions. Now I'm going to introduce my Classic Alchemist deck recipe (the other two will be left to Phase V and VI, if I manage to reach that phase).
1 Alchemy of Mana *2
1 Basic Alchemy *2
1 Midas Touch *2
2 Doomsayer *2
2 Twisted Fane *2
2 Loot Hoarder *2
3 Weaken *2
3 Fetter *2
3 Acolyte of Pain
4 Fortuneteller *2
4 Soul Kitchen *2
5 Distillation *2
5 Decrepify *2
5 Grand Apothecary Putress
6 Darkmoon Cabalist *2
7 Fanatic Researcher *2
If this deck list gets 30 upvotes, I'll write a guide.No, just kidding.First of all, this is a combo deck - not aggro, not midrange, not control. Many of the important combos in this deck are already mentioned in the Remarkable Combos section. There's only one thing I want to stress: the winning condition. In fact, this deck is built around Midas Touch and Soul Kitchen, and you either win by creating dozens of legendary minions with Midas Touch, or defeat your opponent with a board filled with 5/5 Demons created by Soul Kitchen.
Imgur Album:
Classic Set
Basic Set
[Not a native speaker. Forgive me for the possible grammar mistakes and typos. I hope you like my invention!]
-nobravery
THERE IS NO GAME.
Class: The Medium
'Lore':
In the depths of the Undercity there lives a girl a blind girl with unnaturally pale skin, said to be able to see the future, converse with spirits, and talk to the well-and-truly dead like they are still in the land of the living. Although she can not see, her things are always meticulously arranged, and those that visit her for advice or fortunes say that runes are painted all around the room she lives in, in a script too delicate to have been drawn by one who has lost her sight. Rumours say that she lives with a demon disguised as a child, that she has never aged for fifty years, that unnatural, ghostly sounds echo in the night as eerie lights fly about in her dwelling. But such rumours and others like them have never been proven, and those that have tried to verify them are prone to disappear without a trace, never to be heard of again.
In other words, I do all the work and she gets all the money. - Y'veral, the aforementioned 'Demon Disguised as a Child'.
Class and Keyword Explanation:
The Medium is class that has one main theme - the bringing of spirits into this realm (read: summoning minions). Many of her cards synergise with the summoning of minions, and the 'Whenever you summon a minion' effect is prevalent throughout her set. In the end, a Medium is simply a bridge between the realm of the spirits and the material universe.
A sort of mechanic that can also be seen throughout the Medium's arsenal is the mechanic of cost reductions. This allows the Medium to be an effective Combo or Ramp class, playing big threats or allowing for powerful, spirit-manifesting combos. As such, the Medium's cards can have very powerful synergies with each other, being best when used together. Many of her combos involve creating powerful board states, instead of just outright killing the opponent.
Both of these mechanics - 'cost reduction', and 'minion-making', are combined into her hero power, which allows her access to 'Guiding Lights', little spirits sent by her ancestors and spiritual acquaintances (many of which she met through her demoncompanion Y'veral) that give her advice and strength when she needs it. They allow for her to always have minions to activate synergies, and also allow her to play out her combos to swing the board back in her favour. This effect will not attempt to reduce the cost of cards that already cost (0), or cards that have Ethereal.
Her class keyword is Ethereal. It's simple and easy to understand, and serves three purposes.
1. It allows me to prevent or de-powerful-ise certain OP combos by making them harder to access.
2. It allows for more consistency with your discount effects, by making it so that they won't target cards that aren't part of your combo.
3. It allows for direct synergies with cards of that type, and allows me to refer to them as a 'group'.
Example Cards:
Explanations + Flavour Text:
Elder Mystic: - The term 'Elder Mystic' is frequently used as slang for 'Crazy Old Man'.
The Crazy Old Man allows you to tutor for certain combo cards! At 7 mana, his body is quite weak, but it comes coupled with a powerful effect. He's kind of like The Curator, except he looks into the Spirit Realm instead of managing a zoo.
Heart and Soul: - You keep playing that song, and I'll make sure you end up with neither.
Heart and Soul is a powerful combo tool. Compared to Faceless Manipulator, it offers a lot more combo potential while being less powerful outside of a combo. The original minion is the 'heart', when it dies so does the 'soul'. Do I need to explain the musical reference?
Spirit's Descent: - Short for 'Spirits take elevator'.
Spirit's Descent is another, very useful combo tool. It generates 3 Guiding Lights, which can activate minion-making synergies like Y'veral thrice, for the cheap cheap price of 3 mana or maybe less. It can also reduce the cost of other cards by (3) total, so you can do much more in a single turn.
Y'veral: - For the cheap, cheap price of some cookies, a stuffed animal and an unwilling sacrifice or two, Y’veral will allow you a glimpse into the future or the distant past.
The Medium's classic legendary is her ever-faithful companion demon, Y'veral. Besides doing housework, scaring off thieves, and lending a somewhat reluctant ear to her friend's ramblings, Y'veral acts as a gate, allowing Rhuna to draw extra power from the spirits in the form of Ethereal cards. The Medium has many ways to add cards to her hand, and Y'veral is a perfect example of that.
Basic Set + Explanations:
Stonepeak Mystic: The first healing option the Medium has access to. Like many of her cards, it synergises with the summoning of minions, which her main combos are centred around. Every class that aims for the long game requires some sort of healing option, and this card provides it. You can either play it as a tempo card and slowly heal up your hero, or you can save it for burst healing when you need it.
Banish: An example of a card that can synergise with the Medium's hero power. It starts out as a slightly-cheaper situational Assassinate, but as it's cost is reduced, it can kill more and more things. After 1 discount, it's comparable to Shadow Word: Death. After two, it gets pretty damn good.
Channeling: Channeling is another way for the Medium to discount her cards beyond the use of her hero power, which is important if you want a bit more consistency with your reduction effects due to the random nature of 'Guidance'. The card draw takes place after the discount.
Soulspark: Serves as the class's 2-mana removal spell. Deals 1 more damage at the cost of 2 health. Can be good for combos, but remember - if you use Malygos with this, you'll be smashing yourself for 7 damage.
Ancestral Strength: By appealing for aid from the ancestors of her minions, the Medium can allow them access to the strength of their forefathers! Obviously, stronger cards have stronger forefathers. A Stonetusk Boar's dad was probably another Stonetusk Boar, after all.
Demon Mentor: At times, the messages from little glowy things are strangely cryptic and hard to decipher. Fear not! The Demon Mentor is here to help you. She allows you to play Guiding Lights for free, rewarding you for hoarding them. They will also no longer waste their discounts on each other!
Wind and Water: I showed off this card during the first phase, and it's another card that synergises with summoning minions. Even in the basic set, cards like Murloc Tidehunter and Razorfen Hunter allow people to take advantage of this kind of synergy. +3 health is great for buffing minions out of AOE range.
Future Sight: Just because you can see the future (and if you can't, you're a sorry excuse for a Medium) doesn't mean you can make it come sooner! Future Sight allows you to draw cards, but you won't be able to play them until your next turn. Don't forget to plan ahead.
Screaming Spirit: Most likely a terrible singer in life, the Screaming Spirit screams so loud that people just have to kill it in order to concentrate, which is why it has Taunt. It offers a Taunt minion for the Medium, as well as a smaller board-clear when Possessed Daggers is too expensive for the job.
Possessed Daggers: Not all spirits have to be materialised in the form of minions in order to be helpful. Many are content simply possessing objects and using those to exert control over their physical environment. These daggers are one such example. The Medium can communicate with the spirits residing within them, allowing her to unleash them as a storm of blades - a powerful AOE. Great for clearing boards, which is very good regardless of whether you're going for control or combo.
Rest of the Classic Set w/ Explanations & Flavour Text:
Commons:
Spirit Fire: - It’s nice and blue and will burn your face off.
A powerful AOE for the class. Can be tutored for by
Crazy Old ManElder Mystic or generated by Y'vral.Curse of Fragility: - This is why your plates break when you drop them.
An alternative removal for the class, for the times where Banish isn't your piece of cake. Curses will be a little theme for the Medium (it's only natural for someone dabbling in dark magic), just like Priest has 'words', and Paladin has 'blessings'. Balanced against Hunter's Mark.
Ravenous Revenant: - He’s ravenous because he can’t open his mouth.
Based off the 'Hungry Ghosts' of chinese folklore, who are so hungry they'd eat anything. This guy is so hungry that he'll desperately attack the first thing he sees and attempt to devour it, even if it kills him. Note: He can no longer attack again after the first attack. Kind of like a Mini-Rag that takes damage. Might be good for pushing some early damage in. Can be tutored for by
Crazy Old- I don't need to repeat myself, do I?Ancestral Curse: - Out of all people, you’d think that your ancestors wouldn’t curse you. But NOPE.
A fun way to generate tokens. Can turn one of your own minions into an Imp Gang Boss. Can also be used on enemy minions, to spawn lots of tokens at once in conjunction with cards already on the board.
Foxfire Spirit: - There’s nothing fiery about it, but ‘Foxfire’ sounds nicer than just 'Fox'.
Just some synergy with the hero power effect. Can become a cheaper Chillwind Yeti if discounted. Loosely based on Kitsunes.
Rares:
Daughter of Frost: - She doesn’t cast ‘Blizzard’ because the mages copyrighted it.
Based on the Yuki-onna, the spirit of a woman who died in a Blizzard and isn't very happy about it. So she gives everyone else the chance to die in a Blizzard as well! A powerful boardclear/stall tool that also provides a semi-decent body. Can be tutored for by
Crazy- Ok I'll stop.Runic Circle: - Runic dodecahedrons don’t work quite as well.
The possible keywords are: "Divine Shield, Taunt, Charge, Windfury, Stealth, Spell Damage +1." In other words, the 'basic keywords'. Can be comboed with minion-making cards.
Ancestor's Guidance: - Instructions unclear, spirit stuck in ceiling fan.
When Guiding Lights aren't enough, Rhuna's ancestors can give her some more explicit advice in the form of this nice little scroll. Reduces cost and provides a small amount of healing.
What do you mean, it looks familiar?Epics:
Tokens:
Ancestral Rage: - Dad? Is that you? Can you stop hitting me?
An Imp-losion without the RNG. Three minion-summons in a single card, as well as a little removal, make it very good for minion-making combos. Can be tuto- Ok, I'll really stop now.
Sun Maiden: - You’d think she’d be more tanned.
Not all spirits have to look spirit-y. The Sun Maiden allows you to quickly generate spells either for Auctioneer or Malygos synergy. Can be the centrepiece of a really cool combo deck in combination with cards like Emperor Thaurissan or Channeling.
Moon Maiden: - No, she won’t moon you.
Another powerful combo tool, the Moon Maiden essentially allows you to double-up on your minion-making powers! While somewhat weak on her own, she can be very strong in combos. Imagine Wind and Water + Moon Maiden + Ancestral Rage = 12 mana, summons a 5/6, three 2/4s with taunt, and three 2/4s. Toss in Runic Circle for extra fun. A perfect example of what a Medium's late game combo can look like.
Why Rogue is my favourite class:
My submission for this week's card design competition.
The Worgen Class
Lore:
Centuries ago, the Lords of Winter’s Fall fell victim to the Worgen curse. The exact circumstances are shrowded in mystery, but the lord who brought the curse upon his family was a renowned mage. A small, secluded principality in the Alterac Mountains, Winter’s Fall was completely cut off from the outside world after this calamity, to hide their lord’s embarassment. In time, the lords learned to control their Worgen curse, shapeshifting at will between human and wolf form, but the curse was never lifted, nor could they remain as humans for long, and so their kingdom’s long isolation continued. Recently, the new lord of Winter’s Fall, Howe Hark, has learned that a new kingdom of Worgen, Gilneas. With the threat posed by the Forsaken, he has ended his seclusion and brought his forces to the aid of Gilneas and the alliance. The Young Wolf, as he is known, is known for both his brilliant military strategy and savagery on the field of battle. Mastery of his Worgen form means he is alternately rallying his loyal men into battle and tearing out the hearts of his enemies.
Reminder about how the class works:
The Worgen class centers around shifting between Worgen and Human form. Using the Worgen Form hero power (which you start the game with) gives you +1 Attack that turn and transforms you into a Worgen. This changes your hero power to Human Form, but you can’t use it until the next turn. When Human Form is used, your Hero heals 2 health and transforms into a human. The unique keywords of the class are Worgen and Human, shown in the tooltip.
Cards with these keywords trigger an extra effect if you play them while you're in that form. Human/Worgen keyword cards are inefficient if played in the wrong form and extra efficient if played while in the right form. One of the key mechanics of the class is switching between forms at the right times to efficiently play cards. Also note that other classes are always considered to be in Human form, so they can always use cards they acquire with the Human keyword.
There is a binary theme to the class, based on the two forms you switch between. Howe Hark has cards that focus on the savagery of his Worgen form, dealing damage or buffing attack, similar to Druid shapeshift-themed cards, and also cards that focus on supporting or buffing his minions, representing how he inspires and leads his men while in human form. There are also several secondary themes. The class has cards themed to snowy Alterac homeland of Howe Hark (including Freeze cards). There are also going to be cards that focus on class cards, representing the solidarity of Worgen.
Because of the hero power and binary theme, the class is well-suited for hybrid playstyles, and lots of cards will be versatile. If the hero power is used effectively, Worgen excels at tempo, since Human/Worgen cards are mana efficient when in the right form. This is also a weapon class, and both cards and your hero power buff your attack and restore health, so it is good at controlling the board, as well. Some of these control tools could be repurposed for Aggro, as well, especially in a Pirate deck.
Example Cards:
His mouth is alive, with juices like wine. Because he tore out his enemy's heart and ate it. Worgens, man!
Howe Hark is a fair and just lord. It's totally a coincidence that he always condemns criminals to death while in Worgen form. Definitely not some sort of uncontrollable bloodthirst!
Hit me, bro!
If you don't kill a minion with this or go face, you will keep permanent attack on your Hero. It stick during your opponent's turn, so minions attacking you will take damage, which allows your opponent to shut down the bonus. This is an example of the Worgen keyword. You get the extra +Attack if you cast this while in Worgen form, making it a much more efficient card.
The Worgen/Human keyword is not just used to make cards more efficient, but also for versatility. Depending on what form your in, this can be used as Control or support for your minions. This also illustrates the dual themes of the class. Worgen is focused on attacking and dealing damage, while Human is focused on healing and supporting your minions.
With this card, I wanted to use the Worgen keyword in a unique way. The keyword here hurts your own minion, but it also immediately triggers Enrage, giving you a Taunt immediately, rather than having to wait to damage this minion later. I also wanted to include this to give newer players a large Taunt minion to protect them from large or numerous threats.
Star of the upcoming spinoff, Downton Abbey: the Gilneas Years.
This card doesn't just cause your Worgen keywords to trigger twice. If your Worgen keywords would trigger 0 times, they now trigger 1 time with this out, allowing you to use them while in Human form. This card also makes you start the game in Worgen rather than Human form, which can change the strategy of your deck.
Rest of the Set:
Basic Set:
Hunted - This is one removal option for Worgen, similar to Hunter's Mark. You play this and follow it up with another source of damage that normally would not have killed your target. The effect is permanent, so all damage from then on is doubled for that minion.
Alpine Wolf - With Champion of Alterac, it’s important that there’s a 1-Cost class minion as a potential target. This is basically just the same as Enchanted Raven. “Cannot be Frozen” is not worth anything, because it’s almost never relevant. There will be at least one source of Freezing allies in later sets, so it will have some relevance.
Grievous Wounds - This is the Basic direct removal card. It’s a cheap card, but with a very restrictive limitation. While Execute can be paired with any source of damage, and it is often paired with spell damage or minion AOEs, you can only play this after attacking a minion. Execute was too strong at 1, but this would not be. It does combine well with the Worgen Form hero power.
Champion of Alterac - This card is reflective of the Worgen class’ support side, which represents Howe Hark’s human side. It’s a mana-efficient buff spell, but you can only cast it on a class minion. That’s more restrictive than you might initially think. The only way to play it on turn 2 is if you played Alpine Wolf on Turn 1. I don’t plan on making any other 1-Cost minions.
Gilnean Reinforcements - This is Worgen’s card draw. A number of classes have variations of this spell (Arcane Intellect, Ancestral Knowledge, Burgle, Thoughtsteal). This take reflects Worgen’s focus on class cards. This makes the spell both more restrictive, since it can only draw certain cards in your deck, and is useless if you have too few class cards, and more reliable, since you have a better idea of what it will give you.
Icy Shortsword - Worgen is a weapon class. Howe Hark is not just all about tearing things up with his claws. I mean, he doesn’t have any when he’s in human form, anyway. Weapons will not be as strong a focus as in Warrior. It will be more like in Shaman. You can see that here, as this is not as strong a weapon as Fiery War Axe, but it has more utility in being able to Freeze, which is a secondary theme of the class, based on Howe Hark’s Alterac homeland.
Krennan’s Potion - Worgen focuses on using their Hero Power to switch forms regularly, so they need some support for that. This card can both help you recover health, which you may lose from attacking minions, and switch forms more easily, either on this turn or the next.
Leap - This represents leaping into the midst of the enemy's ranks to attack, so they are forced to attack you. Direct damage spells are going to be very limited for Worgen, since the class focuses more on dealing damage with weapons and buffing your hero’s attack. This card can be used both for removal, and to protect your minions. When you play this, your hero has Taunt during your opponent’s next turn, which means your minions can’t be attacked. It’s like half of a Conceal, because your minions can still be targeted by spells and Battlecries.
Winter Has Come - This is Worgen’s AOE option. It’s pretty efficient for its cost, because it will damage any neutral minions you have in play. This also reflects Worgen’s focus on class minions. It represents the hardiness of your Worgen and Alterac followers.
Worgen Assassin - With the lack of direct damage spells, Worgen needs a card like this. Similar to Fire Elemental, you can play this later in the game as a removal option, although it lacks Fire Elemental’s ability as a finisher. There was a lot of debate about this card, and I think we reached the consensus that, in its current form, it is as powerful as Fire Elemental. It’s a strong card, but Worgen needs this as a substitute for damage spells.
Come Play Make the Keyword!!!
Check out my Worgen Class in the Class Competition
The Chronomancer
Lore and Themes
Born into a poor farming family, Erin stood apart from her peers due to her latent magical ability. So great was her power that she drew the attention of the Bronze Dragonflight. Under the tutelage of Chromie, Erin was brought to the Caverns of Time to learn how to safely use her magic and keep safe the world's timelines. But even here Erin stands apart, as she does not share the dragons' belief of predetermination, that one's fate is already written. With both a will to make her own destiny and the power to do so, Erin Fatespan now seeks to protect the past and future of Azeroth.
As a Chronomancer, Erin uses time itself to confuse and disable her enemies while protecting her allies. Her Hero Power allows her to Bend Time, borrowing energy from other timelines to make her minions and spells more efficient, more powerful. Her's is a class with the ability to ramp, create combos, play control, and endure fatigue. Many of her cards involve bouncing minions, replaying cards, and high card draw. She does not have weapons, secrets, or a unique keyword. Instead, she takes existing rules and flips them on their head, changing the board and her hand to better secure victory.
To balance out these themes, the Chronomancer lacks healing or significant face damage. This prevents the player from making broken Malygos combos, or looping and replaying heal effects over and over without significant time investment. Cards like Temporal Barrier, Erode, Sand Scourer, and Hindsight allows the Chronomancer to attack enemies and prevent or repair damaged without opening the door to some truly broken combos.
The Classic Set! Following the Basic collection, Classic introduces the class and showcases its primary themes. Once again, I tried to create cards that were not too crazy, but still show off just what the Chronomancer is capable of. Classic and Basic lay the groundwork. The real crazy stuff is just around the corner!
Classic Examples
Explanations
Infinite Summoner - "... a corrupt dragonkin, filled with darkness and pride, attempts to summon..."
Sometimes you need one big bad minion. And sometimes, you need an army. The Infinite Dragonflight are true to their name, ensuring you never run out of minions in your attempt to make your own fate.
Time in a Bottle - "You don't mess around with this stuff. Choose your drinking partner wisely."
When you really need to play a combo, but your still waiting for the last perfect piece. Reduce the cost of a card (or more!) with your Hero Power token, then get it back! Think your opponent will Polymorph your Ragnaros? Use your Borrowed Time with this and Rag and find out!
Anachronism - "Uhg, what time is it? ... TOO SOON! YOU HAVE AWAKENED ME TOO SOON, EXECUTUS!" - Ragnaros the Tired Lord
Speaking of Ragnaros, the poor Firelord isn't getting his desperately needed sleep with this card around. A risky play, Anachronism won't trigger Battlecrys and could get your game-ender killed too early. However, you are guaranteed a minion on curve, and have a few ways to copy or return your minion back to be played later. Imagine getting a turn 6 (or turn 4 with Hero Power!) 6/6 Ragnaros, Ysera, Acolyte of Pain, Sen'jin Shieldmasta, or one of many, many other powerful cards.
Chromie - "Past Chromie is mad at Future Chromie for helping adventurers and forgetting their birthday."
INFINITE VALUE! Well, not quite. You're still paying 4 each time. However, Chromie is a powerful way to get a lot of efficiency out of a single card. Play it on an empty board, drop minions later. They dead? Drop Chromie again and control the board. What, she died again? Well here she comes again! And again, and again, and again...
The Rest of the Classics!
Send Back - "No, don't send me back! Have you seen what people used to wear back then!?"
Eternal Vigilance - "The first ten thousand years were the worst. And the second ten thousand years, they were the worst too. The third ten thousand years I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline."
Temporal Barrier - "Quick, raise the shield! Aaaaaaaaand it's gone."
Sand Scourer - "Removes 99.9% of temporal anomalies!"
Bronze Warden - "The Bronze Wardens have it rough. It's not their fault that every visitor to the Caverns can just fly over them."
Avert - "Chromie once averted a future in which Gadgetzhan outlawed tacos."
Timestream Meddler - "He's a Scooby-Doo villian's worst nightmare."
Erode - "High stress time management can really wear you down."
Lost in Time - "This spell is typically how people become their own ancestors."
Echomancer - "Pyroblast... Pyroblast... Pyroblast..."
Past and Future, Present - "For this job, there's only two people I can trust."
Echo is the token generated by Send Back and Lost in Time.
The Basic Set
Bronze Whelp - "I know this looks like a Black Whelp, but his scales will turn gold as he gets older. Really!"
Forthwith - "Somehow, being able to manipulate time hasn't made Erin any more patient."
Suspend - "Students learn quick not to cause a ruckus when Chromie is teaching."
Sand Breath - "Be sure to avoid Bronze Dragons with allergies."
Wither - "Youth is wasted on the young.
Doomed Future - "Its not so bad if you have 4 Health."
Paradox - "Minions you summon with this spell always have a wicked mustache. Even Harvest Golem."
Hindsight - "Dragons hate puns."
Timewalker Elite - "The Timewalker's retirement plan is pretty good. Then again, they already know if you will collect it."
Sandstorm - "Powerful, magical sandstorms often sweep through Tanaris. If you get caught up in one, you won't know where or even when you'll end up."
Currently working on the Tinker! K&C and WW / JUG and KotFT / Classic / Basic / Introduction
My Previous Classes: Apothecary (unfinished) / Chronomancer / Death Knight (old)
My Previous Expansions: Hallow's End
The Bronze Guardian
As a member of the Bronze Dragonflight, Moradormi has extensive knowledge about the future. She knows exactly what is meant to happen, and what isn't. Or so she thought. Discovering the ultimate fate of her flight, their corruption into the Infinite Dragonflight, turned the once optimist dragon into a full-on cynic. Still, she strives to make the future a better place, perhaps trying to atone for deeds not yet commited.
Class Keyword
Classic Card Examples
Unstable Wormhole: Unstable Portal? That hasn't been released yet!
A very cheap soft removal that only works the turn it's drawn. Occasionally, its secondary effect can be used to fight off fatigue, but that's a rather rare use. If you don't get to use it right away, you'll be technically paying 1 additional mana to play it on top of having to draw it again.
Time Wraith: The spirit of someone that was erased from the timeline.
A big minion with average stats, its effect will most likely always go off unless its topdecked (in which case it's still not a bad topdeck at all). Unless the 'Can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers' effect, this one can still take damage from any source, but destruction effect (even ones such as Emperor Cobra's or Twisting Nether or Brawl) will unfaze it.
Protector of Memories: What was he supposed to protect, again?
A rather straightforward example of a theme of the class: effects that trigger while on hand. There's a variety of triggers, this one in particular being friendly minion's death. Similar to Thing from Below, though a tad slower unless you run a myriad of early game minions, which the class isn't inclined to support.
Doomsday Clock: Time takes us all.
Another card that changes while on hand, though this simple does it once per turn, growing in power the longer you hold it. Inspired by Shield Slam in that it uses the class theme to do act as removal (Armor for Shield Slam, card draw for this one). Clearly not meant to act as early game removal unless the situation is dire. Gets its name from a song by Smashing Pumpkins.
Full Classic Set
Commons
Timeless Whelp: Dragon synergy hasn't been released yet, right?
A card with potentially infinite value, though rather slow at achieving it and also not really worth much in the lategame. Can always be played right away as a small single body if needed, or every other turn to add a trickle of pressure.
Incoming Meteor: Nobody saw it coming.
The strongest aoe damage removal so far for the class, or at least when the Latent effect is on. Otherwise, it's just an overpriced Arcane Explosion.
Phasing Defender: He claims he doesn't like playing tank, but it's just a phase.
Can act as either a reusable Frost Nova if the opponent can kill or destroy it, or a better Healing Touch if they can. The body can still offer some token resistance in the late game but replaying it constantly will leave you dry on mana while your opponent can setup.
Timeless Miracle: Not to be confused by Timeless Mirage.
One of the few and strongest class healing effects, it can get insane value if only it just sits in your hand long enough, while still being a rather expensive crutch against aggro.
Rares
Uncertain Death: The cause of death is not what's uncertain: it's clearly the devilsaur.
I suppose this could still change at some point in the future, but since it was one of the cards I first showed on Phase I I'm rather fond of it. Given I'm short on time, I decided to keep it as it is for now.
Foreboding Vision: Don't look!
Only card that can (and does) go face from the class so far. I don't intend that to change much in the future.
Peer into the Future: What did you see?
Overcosted card draw until the Latent effect kicks in. The wording might be unusual, but I rather liked how it ended up.
Keeper of Memories: Sometimes gets tired of cleaning up Protector of Memories' messes.
A new iteration for a different mana slot. This one hasn't been thought over as much as the rest yet, but since I'm short on time it'll have to do.
Epics and Legendary
Harbinger of Doom: Doomsayer's older brother.
The strongest class board clear, since at its peak it can be a Twisting Nether for 7 that leaves a body. To get the benefit right away, though, it need to sit in hand as an otherwise dead card from turn 2 though.
Frozen in Time: When Time itself gives you the cold shoulder.
It buys you one turn, and your board too most of the time (unless Twisting Nether or something of the sort). At 10 mana, you can only work with what you already have, though.
Soridormi: Why are you reading this?
The effect makes it so whenever a card with Latent is played, its effect will trigger regardless of the time the card has spent in the hand. Clearly inspired by Fandral.
Basic Set
Alter Fate: Pretty straightforward. This one works with negative Latent effects you don't want in your hand. It also serves to refresh your hand if you having nothing good. It's meant as a counterpart for Time Mirage and isn't meant to be run in the same kind of decks.
Bronze Apprentice: A mirrored draw effect, it lets the opponent choose when to draw as it's not meant to enable fatigue decks.
Time Skip: I'm rather proud of this one. It's a spell that works in a myriad of different situations. It can be used like Frost Nova with Doomsayer, but if it's past turn 4, you can still play stuff afterwards. Turn 8+ with Ragnaros for an extra Fireball. It will affect cards with Latent making them trigger one turn earlier. It also works with the next card by cancelling the debuff it places in the drawn cards.
Time Mirage: A cheaper Arcane Intellect with a drawback (much like Ancestral Knowledge) which synergizes pretty well with positive latent effects as well as "Each turn this is/was in your hand" cards.
Time Warp: This works pretty well with anything you wouldn't mind having extra copies of.
Sands of Time: This card works much like Nourish for both players, so technically the net cost of the card is only 1 mana. It helps at pushing into the late game against faster decks that don't care about their mana but rather their cards, but it's not really the same as ramp Druid cards since this one can backfire if played carelessly.
Time Loop: Another card draw of sorts, though this one is never useful standalone.
Bronze Healer: Another mechanic from the class, though this one finds its home with cards that don't benefit from staying in your hand and are therefore more likely to run Alter Fate.
Sand Guardian: I'm taking the opportunity to reinforce the theme of the class: holding stuff in your hand to get stronger effects later on. This particular line of effects, in contrast with Latent effect, scales with the time spent in your hand instead of being a fixed effect on a specific threshold of turns. Much like Latent effects, though, both positive and negative effects exist.
Rewind Time: Right in-between Vanish and Twisting Nether. Allows you to get the most value from played Battlecries and similar effects while clearing the board.
And that's all there is for now.
The Spellbreaker!
Spellbreakers are masters of destroying magic, negating, and manipulating it, even their own. They are great at stopping mages, priests, warlocks, and such in their tracks as they merely brush off their attacks until they can cut them off from their source of power completely. It will play a bit like a control class with some mid-range themes going on.
Example Cards:
Flavor Text And Explanation:
Thought Retention: Yoink! A great control tool. I thought it would be a very interesting card to print that will make your opponents think about their play order.
Sentry Golem: So it looks like a mech, it walks like a mech..but it isn't a mech? Simple but effective, shows off the 'negation' aspects of the class nicely by using the Elusive Ability.
Raging Gemnopiede: Painfully, Sadly, Gravely. Shows off the destructive nature of the Spellbreaker. They are great at destroying magic, even their own. As such there are also some recovery tools you'll see in the rest of the set. A good minion for the cost.
Earthbound Golem: Something tells me he isn't here to make small talk. A bigger silence Minion. It's a solid card Nothing else more to say about it other than it fits thematically.
Rest Of the Set:
Their Flavor Text and Explanations.
Elusive Rune: Suddenly those Mana cakes were phasing through me. A dangerous card in the late-game. Great for those bigger minions you want to protect.
Spellbreaker Apprentice: She wishes she apprenticed in something that actually paid. A simple common card that fits the class thematically. I needed a few lower cost minions, right?
Forge Anew: New AND Improved. Good for using on the weapon included in this set and the hero power.
Energetic Fighter: You can hear him up at five A.M every morning, waiting, plotting. Wanted to be creative and not print a bunch of mana crystal gain cards to off-set my drawbacks. Came up with this, simple, but effective at reducing cards.
Soul Feeder: Users Manuel Disclaimer* Whatever you do, DO NOT point this at yourself. Loss of soul may occur. A solid weapon that lets you get back a few of your drawbacks.
Mana Siphon: I'm in your base, siphoning your magiks. Solid Card draw that, again, lets you circumvent those few drawbacks.
Careless Trainee: Whoops, I dropped one. Solid mid-game minion.
Runewarden: Editors Note: Doesn't actually ward off any runes. Runes are a sub-theme, as you can see. I will likely add a few more as time goes on. Good Card.
Hungry Mana Wyrm: Could easily eat fifty Mana Crystals. A card that is great for combo'ing with the theme of the class.
Galvanized Channeler: Prevents mana rusting, Guaranteed! Another card that allows for gaining back your mana cystals that ramps up in effectiveness each turn.
Fyndra, The Overgrown:She just sucked up all the Mana Cyrstals with a bendy straw. I really wanted to showcase this, but I felt the other cards were better for it. An ambitious printing that, again, gets around the lack of Mana Crystals by increasing your own.
Basic Set:
The Stargazer!
To clarify, Constellation counts for each original card with the keyword. So, if you had two of the same Constellation card in your deck, you could end up playing four in a game, two copies for each card.
Onto the examples!
Flavor text!
The rest of the Classic set:
And the Basic set:
Hope you enjoy!
Swarmlord
The pincers of the swarmlord close all around you...
Previously, on Real Swarmlords of LA...
The full classic set and previous challenges from round 2
Now, it is time for your classics... and yet more ways to eat minions....
Classic Set and Challenges
Flight of The Bumblebee Flavor: Bumblebee... Riiight....
A strong buff to push a beast themed deck. This class has a few ways to add more Drones to your deck, so the secondary effect is not as hard to trigger.
Crustnation Flavor: Debate still rages between biologists whether it's a crustnation or a crustprincipality.
A large endgame minion with an added ability to remove minions with the ability to crack it open. Though, be sure to balance it's walling strengths against when you need it to clear.
Hivemind flavor: It takes a lot of beasts to decide which restaurant to visit, mostly because they've eaten the staff of half the restaurants in Azeroth.
You need that Crustnation? Draw it. You need a Jungle Panther? No problem! You trade a third chance at getting a spell to remove enemies, but you get assured minions from your deck. You ever run The Curator and then decide, hey, you need a Jeweled Scarab as well? Well now you can built decks around any beasts you want... You'll have a few to choose from.
It's a Wrap Flavor: Yeah, they'll definitely want to fight for you. It's not like you PERSONALLY ATTACKED them or anything.
The ultimate control piece. Devour and repurpose, I say! This can be compared to Convert, though unlike convert, you can actually remove the opponent's minion, gaining you traction and slinging you back on top.
Of course, there's more to the classic set than a few bugs and spells. Why, there's even more bugs and spells!
Remaining Classics
Wild Rush: On your left! A cheap buff, but a good one. You can turn your drone into a 3/2 or trade out as much as you want.
Heartmelter Toxin: You'd be surprised the kind of biting break-up note an insect can write. A minion removal, and a weaker Frostbolt. This class has a very heavy theme on face trading and it's benefits, and thus it needs a secondary form of cheap damage to keep the board clear.
Hive'regal Buzzer: Surprising noone, the royalty requires you to attack as well. Buzz buzz. A split damage charge beast that gives you a chance to switch board presence in your favor.
Durotar King: Listen, strange crabs lyin' in ponds distributin' pinchers is no basis for a system of government! Obviously with the beast effects, you'll need strong bodies to buff. Notably, Hivemind is a good synergy with this to put a taunt minion back on the battlefield. Plus, we had no taunt beasts back then.
Smack-rura: Though it looks all majestic, you're really just throwing a Lobster at your foes, and the aim on those things isn't an exact science. First off, the Makrura are a race of Lobster people in WoW. Secondly, welcome to Self-freezing! Yeah, I know, Insects got nothing to do with the winter in Real-life, but in WoW you'll find entire nations of undead bugs who make their living in the frozen north. Lore and such aside, let's talk shop. This is designed against the old 0-mana Soulfire, as I figure it's slightly stronger since you don't need a friendly minion to play it.
Nerubian Fortitude: Nerubian Fortitude has been banned from many tournaments for being an illegal enhancement. Here's a secondary self-freeze affect (Though The Black Knight still says hi), giving you a strong body that can't attack for an extra turn, and can turn your drones into Sen'jin Shieldmastas.
Widowmaker: With eight eyes, you're almost certainly in her sights. A strong destroy effect in this class, the widowmaker is strong because it has immediate removal possibilities, but can be removed more safely by your opponent than an Emperor Cobra. Go on and eat some people.
Apex Predator: We're still beta testing to see what happens when you cast Apex Predator on two different minions. Projections aren't looking good.THE ULTIMATE BUFFFFFF. This will help you push out a massive minion and give you some time to swing with it if you just summoned it.
Dragonblight Chill: Dragonblight Chill really has nothing on Icecrown Chill, but the Nerubians would prefer not to talk about that place. Either your neuter a big minion or the two next to it. A very strong piece of removal, and not one to use lightly.
Jormungous Jormungar: Amazing that a worm can give itself the cold shoulder. A big ol' beast that'll hibernate if it doesn't have anyone else to play off of. It becomes a 6-mana 7/7 with a drone, mind you.
Kil'ruk the Wind-reaver: His battles with the wind are legendary. Wind had the advantage then Kil'ruk bought himself a thick jacket. Good thinking, Kil'ruk.Grom Hellscream and King Krush will meet this bug in valhalla. This will allow you to trade out against many taunts and then go face or eat another minion. Never enough excuses to eat enemies.
Welp! That's the Swarmlord this round! I hope you guys will give it a thought, and good luck to all!
THE DRAGON KNIGHT:
This hero power is similar to the paladin but instead of directly summoning a 1/1 to the board you delay the affect by several rounds for a 2/2 along with that several cards as you'll see below are affected by having a certain number of Whelps in your deck. As a side note the Whelps act just like the cards made from Beneath the Grounds.
However you may be asking yourself if the hero power is so slow then how in the world will you survive against aggressive decks to get value out of it? It's quite simple actually, this class uses armor! That's right we have a second class to relies on/interacts with armor to survive. He has several cards that grant armor in order to live long enough for the hero power to start taking affect.
The Dragon Knight founding and lore:
The Dragon Knight
Throughout all recorded history dragons have been the image of power in the eyes of all races. Their massive bodies covered in thick armored scales, the strength to tear a man in half with ease, and to top it all off a breath of flame that can melt the strongest of metals. For these reasons many have looked to slaying a dragon as their greatest achievement by overcoming the flaming behemoths. However for some the dragons are seen as the way to take their growing power to new, previously unreachable levels. They have through unknown means found a way to transform into a mighty dragon themselves. With this new technique under their belt they have come to call themselves Dragon Knights and have gained a reputation of being ruthless in their quest for ever growing power. After some time several Dragon Knights came together to form the Dragon Order and with it they managed to hide the secrets of transforming into a Dragon. Due to the secrets of becoming a dragon being so hidden to those outside the Order many have come to suspect the Knights gained their power through dark places such as the Old Gods or the Burning Legion. However most knights are veterans from wars fighting to contain the Old Gods and wars to drive back the Burning Legion and many seem to defiant towards both groups and as such their goals and motives are still largely unknown.
Yvon and his tale:
Yvon was young when he became fascinated with dragons and throughout his life has sought to harness their power for his own. Through still largely unknown methods Yvon managed to Transform himself into a dragon and would become the first dragon knight in existence. He would move on to recruit and teach others to become Dragon Knights and would eventually become the founder and ruler of the Dragon Order. Naming himself the Dragon Master he moved to extend his influence and power but would suddenly disappear after The Shattering and the death of Deathwing. However with the return of the Legion Yvon has returned with immense new powers and an entire army of dragons seemingly to continue where he left off so long ago.
As Yvon returned with a massive army of dragons and he showed that he had mastered the breeding and growth of dragons that allowed him to quickly grow an endless army of Whelps to fight for him and he has used it to lead an endless assault wherever there are enemies of the Dragon Knights.
Basic Set:
Dragonscale Greatsword: A big weapon that heals like Truesilver Champion but only when used to kill minions so it encourages using the weapon as removal instead of pounding the opponents face in.
Corrupted Flame: This mostly works like Soulfire but discards a Whelp which is important to this deck and class many cards have effects for things like gaining armor based on Whelps. However as a trade off for the Whelp you get a discounted Flame Lance which is strong in a control deck. This is also the first of many cards that removes Whelps and as you'll see in the classic set (if I get there) many cards will follow this pattern in removing Whelps to discount the card or the effect of the card.
Dragonstrike Commander: A big late game minion that not only puts a big minion on the board but also shuffles some Whelps into the deck in order to keep activating cards that rely on Whelps being in the deck. This is very important since many cards in the coming sets will either remove Whelps from your deck by out right destroying them or maybe just drawing them but there will be more of those then of the cards that shuffle Whelps into your deck making a card like Dragonstrike Commander a very valuable asset to this class.
Dragon's Flight: Basic core card that gets some Whelps into the deck to help activate cards. Simple but effective.
Plated Dragon Armor: A strong card that does 2 things in 1. Stabilizing the board with a high health taunt and 2. Stabilizing your health with some armor to help survive vs spells or burst which many aggro decks run and this card is great at stopping or at least slowing both the board and your loss of life via spells.
Dull Claws: A incredible flexible card that early on can be used as removal for those pesky 2 health minions and if left until later grows into a powerful 4/2 weapon makes it a solid play at every stage of the game although it is best saved for later into the game when it's battlecry can activate.
Scorched Earth: A cheap and very powerful aoe that has downsides in hurting your own board and also damages you in order to justify the power of a 4 mana aoe. Now I made it deal 5 to your hero based on the fact that I want this to be a powerful anti aggro tool by killing their board (which is everything to 90% of aggro decks btw) but it still weakens you as to give them a chance to still win where otherwise it might be to anti aggro and make it op vs every deck pretty much.
Searing Strike: Every class has a 1 mana spell and this is the Dragon Knights. It offers a ping and some armor gain and is very similar to Mortal Coil but offers different pings for a different but still strong effect and can be paired up with weapons to almost guarantee you activate this cards benefits.
Armored Wyvern: Very basic minion that offers some armor gain on a decent 4 drop. Like Dragon's Flight this is just a basic minion that helps push the Dragons and Armor usage of this class.
Scales of Gold: Strong draw that with certain cards that generate armor rapidly is very powerful but generally would only draw maybe 1 or 2 cards which if it draws 2 is still a discounted Arcane Intellect. However you still have the chance of drawing more in slower matches which might be important to get those answers you need like Corrupted Flame to kill something like Ragnaros the Firelord which can mean the difference between a win and a loss.
Example Cards:
Magical Drake, Puffy: Everyone likes a magical dragon but Puffy has the issue of HUMMING THE SAME TUNE ALL DAY.
Warrior of the Dragons: He commands the dragons almost as good as Yvon himself but the only issue is that he just can't seem to get the Whelps to listen to him.
Knight of the Order: He mostly joined to get the free coupons the Order offers.
Forge Drake: You know it's hard to work a forge that's 1/10th your size but somehow these guys manage.
Example explanations:
Magical Drake, Puffy: My card for challenges #1 and #2 and is based of Puff the Magic Dragon (which is a song about Puff and he has a few movies.) Anyway this card offers a very cost effective spell while also offering a decent 7 drop.
Warrior of the Dragons: A basic card that is focused on a more aggressive style of play which relies on getting value out of your hero power quickly.
Knight of the Order: A strong card that combos well with cards that gains a lot of armor in a single turn. It's also strong in control match ups due to the fact that they don't apply much pressure which allows you gain the armor and activate his battlecry early.
Forge Drake: The biggest armor gain your gonna see in all of Hearthstone! Gaining 12 armor on top of a 5/5 Dragon for 6 mana is incredible strong but his downside is severe. Losing 3 Whelps from your deck means many cards won't activate until you spend a few turns rebuilding your amount of Whelps.
Tokens:
The rest of the classic set:
Isabella Darkraven - The Cult Leader
«May the faith in the Cult protect us.»
«Brother, I'm glad to see you back. Soon, you will become a Mentor too, and you will guide new Cultists, showing them how to survive in this perilous and threacherous world. Be sure to spread our message. Our Cult always need new followers."
About the Cult Leader Class
Themes
Strengths
Keyword
When you build your deck, you may include up to 4 copies of a card with the keyword Cult. Cards with Cult are meant to be played in great numbers. Some cards reward you for having multiple copies in your deck, or for playing them multiple times.
The Basic Set
The Classic Set
SHIFTING SHADOW
«I saw it around midnight yesterday. I'm not sure what it was, but I know it was frightening.» - A peasant
Shifting Shadow is a versatile minion, which can copy anything you require. It can copy a Cult minion like Eyeless Creature to strengthen it, or copy a big threat like Ragnaros the Firelord when you're playing a value game.
DON'T FEAR THE REAPER
«Love of two is one. Here but now they're gone. They are together in eternity.»
Shuffling and replacing cards in your deck is a slow effect. It will, sometimes, take several turns before you see the fruit of your labor. Thus, the Cult Leader Class has access to a plethora of removal spells, to ensure that you can keep the game under control.
WORSHIPPED LEADER
«A dash of power to make it appealing, and you've got too many Cultists.»
Worshipped Leader is a good, simple minion. Cultists are valuable minions; being efficient and cheap, they greatly fill your deck. Also, there are some nice combos with this card: have you tried Solemn Liturgy (Basic) and Secret Gathering?
VILE DISCHARGE
«Don't power a mech with that: they tend to become malevolent afterwards.»
Vile Discharge provides an excellent removal spell. You can split the damage between multiple targets. It also provides deck thining, thus increasing your deck consistency. It is a superb card to copy and shuffle into your deck.
The Classic Set, Continued...
Commons
Card Explanations
Endless Rats: This minion embodies the Cult mechanic. It is a consistent threat.
Eyeless Creature: This recurrent threat provide a good early minion, similar to Haunted Creeper.
Evil Energy: This spell diversifies your removal suite, to ensure that you that you're ready to adress any situation.
Secret Gathering: If you love Cultists, then this card is just for you. Pair it with Appealing Recruiter (Basic), Dark Blast (Basic) and Worshipped Leader for maximum efficiency.
Leatherbound Journal: A simple method to shuffle multiple cards at once into your deck. Works well with every Cult card, also with cards that care about deck size, like Solemn Liturgy (Basic).
Rares
Card Explanations
Midnigh Gossip: The Basic set provided card filtering in the form of Dreadful Omen, now you also have access to card tutoring. With this, you can find the cards that are deeply burrowed into your deck.
Soul Extraction: Since you have various ways to remove your opponent's minions, this card provides excellent value. If you're creative, you can always use it on your own minions, like a Doomsayer...
Ill-Disposed Mentor: This is your main method to increase your deck quality. It works with Cult cards like Endless Rats and Eyeless Creature, for example.
Distorted Cataclysm: This is your high-end AoE spell. Do I need to say anything else?
Epics and Legendary
Card Explanations
Gift of Immortality: Protect your minions with an ongoing or triggered effect, like Appealing Recruiter (Basic), Ill-Disposed Mentor or Roselyn the Corrupted, to fully benefit from their skill.
Roselyn the Corrupted:
«I do not fear time. I do not fear power. I impose fear.»
- Roselyn the Corrupted
Roselyn the Corrupted - Roselyn is a versatile legendary, which can provide repeated hand enhancement, maintain your deck size, and duplicate essential cards. You must find the best time to play her to fully make use of her effect. You have a good hand and a way to protect her? You have a Cult card that is meant to be copied? She will truly shine, and impose fear on your opponent!
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to; The_Odinson, nurgling13, Aelxer, Turkeybag and waterwalker for their precious comments. Be sure to check their submissions.
Storyteller
Quick Summary:
Basically how this works, is that after you cast a card with Fate, the next card will have the card text or extra stats stated in the card with fate. So if you have a card that says "Fate: +2/+2" and then play a minion, that minion has +2/+2 extra stats that can be silenced.
Lore: Behind every famous hero or villain of Azeroth, there are countless storytellers spreading their name and telling stories of their deeds, like old Theodore here. He's one of the most well-known storytellers in the world, travelling across the world telling stories to whoever wants to listen and also collecting and writing new ones. Some say that while he speaks, the characters and worlds from his stories almost seem to appear out of thin air...
Some themes: Buff cards, Fates and Fate synergy, conditional/possible to play around AoE and removal, tokens.
Thematically, flavor is that the Storyteller writes stories and creates characters to fight for him instead of fighting mostly by himself. A lot of the cards are books doing different kinds of effects, storytelling tropes or summoning characters from stories to fight for you.
Example Cards:
Silver Tongued Bard is a really simple Fate card. It has slightly higher total stats than Shattered Sun Cleric, but instant buffs are in some cases superior to Fates. For example, you can't buff an old minion with any Fates to be able to attack with it instantly. This is my card for Challenge #2. Flavor text: "He's the best bard in all of Azeroth. That's what he says, at least."
Forgotten Monster is my card for Challenge #1, requiring me to make a common minion that costs 7 or more. It has higher stats than an average, but needs a buff for it to activate. One easy way to make it have 7 attack is use your hero power before playing it, which makes the Fate give it +1 Attack. Flavor text: "He might seem all big and tough, but all he really wants is attention."
Deus Rex Machina is really strong if you can get the effect to trigger, but it's also really easy to play around, just stay at 6 minions. Might be a bit weak just because of how easy it is to play around. Flavor text: "Goblin storytellers tell okay stories, but they put Deus Rex Machina in almost all stories. You can't just add a giant robot dinosaur to A Hero's Journey from the First War, even though it's totally radical and cool!"
Iloes, Fate Keeper can make all your fates so much stronger. The way this works is that if you play a card with Fate while you control this minion, the fate will apply twice to the next minion you summon. For example, with Unending Tale, you can play this, Unending Tale and some minion for 6 healing and two Unending Tales. Flavor text: "Keeping track of all fates is a tough job, but it had always been her fate to do this. No, really, it says so in these books."
Remaining Cards:
Common card explanations:
Great Encyclopedia is a bit like Velens Chosen, but sacrifices some health buff for 1 extra spell damage and is a fate.
Cliffhanger is a decent spell for removing minions, but your opponent can play around it with proper placement. If this kills the minion on the first 3 damage, it will do the second 3 to the next leftmost minions.
Unending Tale is a card to push a slower Storyteller archetype. You can use this for basically infinite healing if you can summon a minion between each cast.
Book of the World was one of my example cards in Phase I. It's good against aggro, as you can play this turn 1 and play a 2-drop on turn 2 for a taunt.
Plot Armor is basically Redemtion, but you have some more control on what minion it will target and your opponent knows that you have it.
Rare card explanations:
Alignment Shift is an AoE your opponent can kind of choose when to trigger.
Plot Twist was one of my Phase I example cards. Possibly very powerful, but your opponent can play around it. To clarify, this forces the minion to attack, so both the chosen minion and the one to the left of it take damage.
Sword in the Stone makes one of your minions a Frostwolf Warlord. It's a bit different, though, as this is an aura effect and changes if you gain or lose minions.
Epic card explanations
Writer's Block is inspired by my complete lack of ideas on what to make for several days while working on these. He's an above the average statline taunt, but has a severe drawback if he stays alive.
Hero of Legends can get really strong with some of the Fates and especially with the classic legendary, Iloes, Fate Keeper. To clafiry, with that, any fate that would apply to this would be activated three times.
Heroes of Azeroth basically summons you a small raiding party. A bit comparable to Call of the Wild, but you need to play all of the tokens, which are in the spoiler below. They work pretty well together, but you can also play them separated if it's good for your current board state.
Basic Set:
Tokens: