Hello everyone. If you're not aware who I am, well I guess that pretty likely. I'm an avid card and class creator that recently failed to advance from that latest Class Creation Competition. After making it through the first 5 phases and almost finishing my class I'm not stopping now. And in fact, many many of my fellow competitors from all the phases have decided to carry on as well. I also know that many of you are designing or would like to design classes. Therefore I have opened this thread to allow anyone who wants to develop a class or just look at developing classes can help and get help from others. Much like the other card creation discussion threads, I think even us non-official people need a place where we can get help before we start posting our classes and ideas to be ridiculed. If you're interested in finding help and helping others feel free to post your ideas here. I'll be around fairly frequently to check and hopefully we can build a solid group of people here to help improve all card creation in this thread.
Rules
All Standard Forum Rules apply. Most specifically I will be personally watching for flaming or shaming. Keep things civil. You don't have to lie to people, but constructive criticism and being a jerk are something I can tell apart.
You MUST help other posters. This isn't a thread designed to help you make your class, its a thread for everyone. If you aren't willing to review other posts and classes, don't waste your time posting here.
You MUST resize your images. I am going to tolerate giant overly long and absurd posts because you don't know how or don't care to resize your images. These are class concepts, not individual cards and there isn't room for images over 300 pixels wide. If you need help on how to resize PM me.
You MUST use spoilers. Again, we are talking classes and class concepts. If you are showing off more than 15 cards I expect to see them in a preview. If you are reviewing a large number of cards I want to see spoilers. Let's keep things clean so people don't get overwhelmed.
Have fun! This is about sharing and exploring ideas. Most of all I want to see some cool stuff and I want to not only grow my class but yours! So bring it on!
Class Creation Guide
Getting Started: TL:DR is BOLD! This is fairly simple, you need a concept. That is a usually a Hero and/or Hero Power. Its best to have both of these ideas in mind, because from there you can begin moving into expanding your ideas. I know its super fun to just start creating cards, and making a few ideas probably won't hurt, but typically after deciding on your Hero and Power you're going to want to start thinking about your other types of key features.
Here are some great starting questions. Does your Class have a Unique Keyword? What other keywords are important to your class (i.e. Divine Shield, Windfury, Stealth, Enrage, etc.)? Do you plan to use Weapons? What other sorts of non-keyword ideas do you plan to use (i.e. Healing, Attack and/or Health Buffs, Armor, Mana ramp, Discard, self damage, Race identifiers, etc.)?
You will want to limit yourself on keyword and non-keyword ideas. Having around 6-8 total will leave you lots of room for design space, but also prevent too much bleeding of your core idea. If you just let yourself use every keyword and every kind of idea your class will lose focus. Every class will have defining identities and certain deck styles won't work for every single class, and trying to make every possible idea work will only hamper your final product.
Beginning Creation/Early Balance: Ok, so you've got some ideas, and you may have already started making cards. But first things first. Take a serious look at your Hero Power. That's something that is going to be there and its one of the first and most important things you will be judged on. Creating a Hero Power that is both unique, fun and balanced is a tough task, but there are some great simple rules.
Your Hero Power should not be restrictive. While its true the Priest Hero Power doesn't do anything in some situations the ability is still usable. The Shaman Hero Power can't be used if you have all 4 Basic Totems, but it is always usable early in the game and often enough when you need to use some extra mana. The Warlock Hero Power isn't usable at super low HP, but it was usable a number of times early game. This matters for certain cards and abilities that exist, but also helps make turns where you can't play on curve feel better. Not having a play, and not being able to use your Hero Power because it requires a Minion or something like that.
Your Hero Power should be simple. Just like most of HS, simple is generally better. Complex can be fun, but your Hero Power definitely isn't the place for that. Overly complex 0-Cost cards don't really exist, so don't try to be too fancy. This is your Hero Power, not your entire identity. Its here to help generate some sort of value/small effect, and you have a bunch of cards to add complexity with. Its also best to avoid putting keywords onto your Hero Power. This isn't a complete no-go, most keywords aren't worth 0 mana anyway.
The Sir Finley Mrrgglton Test! This is a great way to tell if your Hero Power is on the right track. So there are 2 parts to this test. First; Can your class function if you play Sir Finley Mrrgglton and pick a different Hero Power? If not, you've probably done something wrong. Your Hero Power shouldn't be a key factor for anything, including balance for your class. Second; Can other classes pick your Hero Power if they play Sir Finley and still get value? Again, if not you've probably done something wrong!
Now that your Hero Power is on the right track, there is one other thing most created classes will need to look into. That is the Class Keyword. If you have decided to give you class a Unique Keyword you will need to find the right balance for this. Is it a static value similar to Drawing a card or Taunt? Is it an adjusting value like Charge or Divine Shield? Does it have no value, but just changes way the game is played like Combo or Choose One? Does it affect Mana like Overload or Destroying a Mana Crystal? These things all lead to different associations of value, but the thing they require is the right balance. Remember that and try to be consistent. I don't care how powerful or how weak the ability is, just make sure that its value is properly equated on the cards containing it. Lastly, Unique Class Keywords show up with a fairly high frequency for the 3 classes that have them; Druid, Rogue and Shaman. Druid has 10 cards in their Classic set with Choose One, Rogue has 8 cards with Combo, and Shaman has 9 cards with Overload and 1 card that interacts with it. So make sure that keyword is going to be viable for many cards, and not just a few. There will be exceptions, but not many.
You can create Hero Portraits, Hero Powers and Unique Keywords on HearthCards.
Basic/Classic Set Design: This is the next major step. Moving your class from the idea phase, into the realisation phase. You have a very great starting point, the same one that every other class had; Basic and Classic/Expert. This however won't likely be the walk in the park you want it to be. First off, I don't think trying to Design your Basic set first is the best idea. Go ahead and start just working out ideas. Just start making cards, when you have a nice batch of 10-15 solid ideas then really look to start settling things in. Basic is 10 cards, and Classic is 15, those are the two largest sources of cards for your class in the game. They form the building blocks that make everything work or not work if that's the case. The reason I say don't start forcing Basic is that's one of, if not the hardest set to get right. Basic has some very very important rules and I may as well list those.
Basic Set Rules
No Class Keywords! That's right, none of the existing classes have their unique keyword in their Basic set, so you shouldn't be breaking a rule that Blizzard didn't break, and this leads into the next one bigtime.
Limited Keyword Selection! That's right, in fact, not only are their no Class Keywords, many keywords don't exist in Basic. Useable: Battlecry, Spell Damage, Charge, Taunt, Freeze, Divine Shield and Windfury. If you don't see it on this list, don't use it. Save it for Classic!
No Restrictive Effects! This is a no-brainer, but after the last point I just need to clarify. Some things aren't part of Basic for a reason. Basic hammers home one of HS biggest concepts, "Play your way!" This sentiment is echoed over almost every Blizzard game, but Basic is really pushing that. Card with restrictive abilities or effects don't show up here. That isn't to say every Basic card hands the player full information. Animal Companion is a great example of a card that the player won't full understand until they play it, but its also still simple and not restrictive. Stuff like 'Can't be targeted by spells and Hero Powers', 'Can't attack', Tech cards like Flare, and Cost increasing cards like Loatheb should all be left out of Basic.
Keep it Basic! Ok, this ones a bit stupid, but just remember, if you question if a card is too complex for Basic, it probably is. Look at the amount of text on your average Basic card. Its 2 lines. Yes, there are some with more, but that's never because the effect it complicated, just that the wording is long like Holy Nova. And remember, simple doesn't mean weak!
So, that's the biggest reason you want to try to shy away from forcing yourself into creating Basic first. First of all, you won't really be making any sweet cards Basic isn't about sweet cards, its about a foundation. If you get some of those other cards made and just kind of let the process flow, you can likely pick and choose a few of your more simplistic ideas for Basic, and fill in 5-9, heck maybe all 10, of the cards that way. Then focus work to finish out the rest and make it seem cohesive. One thing that can help is looking at the Basic Neutral minions and thinking about what kind of deck a new player could build. Would they try to play Spell Damage? or maybe lots of Summon Battlecry minions? Perhaps they are aggro focused and want those Charge minions or they are Control and want those Taunts. Whatever helps guide you along. Next, you can try to fill out your Classic set. Let's hit some rules to make it easier.
Classic Set Rules
6 Commons, 5 Rares, 3 Epics and 1 Legendary! That's what you're looking to create. A bit of a side point. Rarity isn't all about power, in HS its also often about usability. Cards with odd or unique effects often show up at Epic. While Rare is often loaded with powerful archtype staples. Common is also generally anything but weak. Yes it will have some weaker cards, and even sometimes niche cards, but remember rarity matters for the New Player experience, as well as the Arena experience, and have a nice blend of options across all rarities is a key.
KEYWORDS! Ok, so you get almost everything now, but remember, there are still some keywords that weren't added until later expansions. If you are trying to use those before Blizzard implemented them, don't! It just makes a mess of things and is nonsensical. You have more than enough options, don't jump the gun on Inspire or Discover. You can create cards with similar effects, obviously Fallen Hero isn't an Inspire card, but it interacts with your Hero Power similar to Auchenai Soulpriest. Floating Watcher is another card that could almost be Inspire but isn't! While Tracking is very similar to Discover.
Your First Legendary! This is a big one. That first legendary says it all. If it doesn't ooze with some of those key things it just won't work. The right balance of Keywords and feel are everything. The art, name, and effects all need to line up. It doesn't exactly have to be playable, but no one has ever looked at one of the Classic class Legendary minions and thought, boring! So remember, that's much more important then how playable it is.
Nothing Lasts Forever! Remember, even Blizzard is changing Classic. Retiring cards, changing minions types with new expansions. Don't be afraid to make changes as well. As you move on to other sets or see new things come out, you may be inspired to make changes. Don't be afraid of that. Hell, you could even do funny things like fake updates about nerfs or buffs. Have fun, and remember, you can always change things.
Other tools!
This is just the starting point, there is a lot more to go, but we'll get to that eventually. Build from the ground up and have some fun. See you in the thread!
This is my class so far. I'm working on tuning things and adding the last few expansions. I posted this so people have something to review right away. Don't feel like you have to review every card or every aspect of the class, but its here to look at. There are a lot of things here and its a huge post so.
Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to Mirage Raceway. Prepare yourself for a day of fast and furious action. NOW, RACERS START!! YOUR!! ENGINES!!!!
Hero & Power
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.
LOE & WotOG
LoE
Explanation
Loot-a-rang - So here we have it, part card draw, part ramp tool. Leading into Old Gods I knew we needed something to really open up the main synergy I wanted to push, Y'Shaarj. The only semi-successful decks have to be able to cheat this guy out, and this allows up to Draft to say in the game while generating ramp to get our end game going early. In a pinch it draws a card.
Unsavory Guide - We all know this guy. He's got a lot to say but nothing of importance. He says he's buying the drinks until the bill comes. He's looking for something for free. That's what this guy is about. He's definitely knows where the treasure is, but he's not sticking his neck out for it. In fact he'll avoid any dangerous situation he can. He'd rather lie his way through life, and pick the corpses. He's the first guy on N'Zoth's list. Old Gods are a big part of my ideas for Bringing big Control back to Racer. We did some midrange and control stuff, flirted with Aggro, and we've got a few more aggro tools here, but the big shining things are right here with N'Zoth and Y'Shaarj.
Ancient Engineer - This card has changed a lot since I showed it off originally, that's mostly because I think all the older versions were over powered. I couldn't get the balance right. So now we have a class version hybrid Garrison Commander/Fencing Coach. To prevent absurd abuse the battlecry won't get major value if he doesn't live the turn. Giving your opponent a few more outs to it.
WotOG
Tokens
Explanation
Chicken Launcher - Sometimes the Old Gods make you do crazy things. Like load a bunch of chickens into a cannon and shoot them at people. This is what that does. I created this as a disruption tool. Its there to help muck up combo and control decks, while maybe even messing up the occasional Reno Jackson. In a pinch it can hold off fatigue, in case the game goes down hill...you'll see what I mean.
God's Speed - Every Old God is better when you can actually draw it, and they are also all even more fun when you can combo them together. This not only makes playing multiple Old Gods a cool concept, but an actual strategy. If you happen to run out though you can still pull the "powerful" Droplet of Y'Shaarj to keep your discounts flowing.
Holy Skydiver - This started out as a bit of a nod to Hellbound Speedster, but changed a bit. I wanted a good goblin art for them to be parallels but I found the most perfect Gnome art so I had to use it. It still shows my unique take on the Madness of the Old Gods twisting these crazy speed freaks and tech junkies into more sane versions of themselves. Ones that are more careful and less deadly. I just think that's a fun unique concept.
Whisper Receiver - I thought this was kind of clever also. So, you have normal people that sometimes come to close and get these whispers in their head, but what if you're out on a desert race track trying to use a radio communication device? Its more like voices screaming in your head. Its actually so loud its starting to infect the local wildlife. And let's be real, as soon as I saw that Frog art I've been waiting to make this card.
Careful Rocketeer - This card is meant to be another one of our goofy twists. So, Careless Rocket Jockey has become a Careful Rocketeer. Now completely fine attacking players, he's very weary of other minions. Afraid he might somehow crash and burn.
Surprise Inspection - Ok, round 2 of trying to find the right Secret card. So here we have it. Race day, you think you're about to get one over on every, but nope, inspection time. All your secrets are revealed, and all your tricks to get ahead are gone. The Secret side doesn't destroy obviously, it only informs and temporary stops, but that gives you play for what you need it for. The second effect is actually the more interesting one to me. The secondary effect returns cards to their original cost, so its a bit of a counter to Emperor Thaurissan, while also hitting cards like Far Sight,Shadowstep, Unstable Portal, or even a 9 or 10 drop trapped in your hand by Freezing Trap. This does not reset giants, as they have dynamic costs and will always adjust as necessary to the conditions.
Pile Up - I wanted another real AoE, and I came up with this ages ago, but didn't want to put it in until it felt right. I chose this specific wording because of how I imagined the effect triggering, and because I liked the spell damage synergy, since my class has very little otherwise.
All Downhill From Here - I'm actually glad I got to bring this back. I think its a cool fun style of card for an aggro style of Racer. Of course there is some potential you could run 1 copy in any deck, just to IDK crazy reasons, but regardless I thought it was a fun and cool concept, to kind of do the All-in thing. Plus, you know you love that art.
Klaxxi Inciter - I think that Y'Shaarj is the weakest of the Old Gods by a pretty fair margin. I mean Yogg-Saron, Hope's End is certainly down since the nerf, but the card still sees more play than Y'Shaarj. So I created a minion that worked with him specifically. I felt like the card and the effect were cool and interesting. Though I have been thinking of making the minion an 8/8.
Norman Gobsborn - I previewed this ages ago. Nothing like a crazy guy that hears voices to be the legendary of choice for Old Gods. Old Gods also kind of really represents our first hard push at being an aggro deck. Between this and All Downhill From Here we have a way to really put on some early pressure. Its easier to get this off than it is to get a big Edwin VanCleef, but he's also a lot less snowbally. He's never coming out before turn 3 and he's never going to do that as a 14/14 or something absurd. 8/5 or 10/6 is probably close to what he'll appear as on turn 3-4 and you could save up for a long time to get a larger one later in the game, but his attack grows by 2 his health only grows by 1, making him easier to take out.
BRM and TGT
BRM
TGT
Token and Justicar Trueheart Hero Power
Expansion Explanations
Expansion Approach - My goal moving forward was to shift things in a new direction. Even though we never showed off Naxx and GVG I still created those cards for myself and started building an identity pushed heavily on the "less Health than opponent" comebacks and Mech synergy. Leaving GvG I wanted to move toward a new push. Therefore we started pushing Dragon, and "cost (0)" to open up new deck concepts. This our Dragon approach I went more toward midrange/control and with our other cards we hit some heavy Aggro/Tempo notes. We still have a nice beefy value legendary, and funky new removal spell at the high end to give us play against other control decks.
Goof-off Technician - This card is a bit of a crossover between our two new focus points. Its also where I decided to give my class a serious Dragon push. This didn't really happen in BRM and for that reason Dragon decks didn't really come into being until TGT, and really they still didn't have enough oomph to make a major meta impact. That lead Blizzard to continue creating cards for the mechanic with each expansion, but that also means classes end up in weird places with Standard rotations. I also felt like every successful Dragon deck had to have a good low cost minion to keep in play with tempo. Therefore I created this guy.
Ride or Die - This is the first ever Dragon Spell. Its also a good example as to why Blizzard hasn't really done this. The wording gets a bit long, even if its fairly simple. I still really like the card and I think it could really have opened up a few more fun things with "Dragon" decks.
Runaway Aspirant - I hate the scaling 1 drop, so I took the Druid route to things and went with the 1 mana 2/2. I adding a bit of bonus to push the "cost (0)" mechanic.
Wrench Sergeant - Other forces may use Drill Sergeants to train people, but the racers use Wrenches instead. Honestly this is one of the first TGT cards I came up with. Simple, flavorful. It touches Inspire without going too far into it. This was a huge part of TGT and I wouldn't dream of leaving it out.
Bear Rider - This card is here as another small seed actually. Its a nice midrange value minion, kind of a step of from the super Basic, Desirable Mechanic. He's here to either give you a more consistent Draft experience or just give you that value. I felt like the Black War Bear having Charge meant less since it was just as likely for it to come out on your opponents turn, negating the effect.
Prepared to Win - I know this card has to look absurd. Its got a large health buff because I already have a large attack buff in classic. I also have a balanced buff in Basic, referenced here actually. So this closes out the trinity. Plus I mean come on, she's wearing a horse floaty for protection, its great. We get to hit a ton of different themes and really open our class up.
Bitter Rivalry - I know this card is going to freak people out. I spent a very long time trying to decide if I could make this card. And I came to the decision it was possible. My class has no face damaging spells, charge minions that can go face, or weapons. My hero power doesn't deal damage or heal/gain armor. You have to win with minions, this just lets you prevent your opponent from killing your face for awhile. It happens to shut down your minions from killing there face for a bit of parity. And worst case almost any opponent can use removal on one of their own minions if you've somehow locked them out of the game and actually set yourself up to win by fatigue.
Compliant Proto-Drake - Ok, so my entire reason for designing this was 2-fold. First I wanted to do something different with Dragon synergy. Second I wanted to make a legitimately playable late game minion. I think its pretty lame that pretty much every Dragon since BRM has not been good unless its specifically a Dragon deck. I think that's a lame design choice. Second, I think its stupid that there are a bunch of 1 mana 3/2s and growing 1/3s and crazy 2 drops that decide games, and 4 mana 7/7s. The average value of a 6+ cost minion is awful. Unless you're the cream of the crop you're just unplayable. You have to have instant dramatic effect or insane value. I think that metric needs to be pushed. I've kind of done that with other cards, this is by far the most pushed of those. I do think this card is on the very high end of power level. I think that its a very very playable 7 cost minion, and I think that's a great thing. I adjusted the power level slightly by giving it Ignores Draft, making it harder to have insane turns when you play this, something that has to come up on occasion to keep things fair.
Big-time Promoter - This is my nod to bringing the Races to the Tournament. Cross promotion and good times. If he feels like he's behind and needs to catch up, he brings in his muslce, "Tiny" the Ogre. This is kind of medium risk/high reward, and I only say high reward because the card is abysmal without the bonus, and that's intentional. I feel like these are the sorts of cards that show up on occasion at epic and either work or don't, but the power is here if you make it work.
The Bigger One - Sometimes you have to blow them up so hard they can't ever come back. That's what we are going for here. Obviously this doesn't really do much against Legendaries, and if the second copy has been played or is in hand you aren't going to get it, but you've got a nice chance at getting some overall value out of this. There are a few cool interactions as well though, like potentially countering an opposing Thoughtsteal or Entomb, and being able to counter Gang Up, or punish a Faceless Manipulator.
Dr. Autto, Octo-Engineer - The main idea for me is he hates spiders! Those bastard Nerubians will all be crushed by the true king of the eight-legged freaks. I had a few thoughts to do a combo of multiple legendaries or something else, but really this felt right to me for the expansion. Its big and beefy on its own but summons nice value minions. Its kind of like a reverse Confessor Paletress, without the variance.
Justicar Trueheart"Better" Hero Power - I feel like Justicar doesn't have any major bonuses for me if I do anything traditional. I could have taken the route of making it bad for me, as blizzard did with Hunter, Rogue, Shaman, kind of Druid, and in that regard kind of everyone but Warrior and maybe Paladin. Now I know adding Draw a card is a huge change. But honestly, I think my hero power is very very weak in many situations. Its not versatile. It has no value, only tempo. The class is built on and around tempo, but I think the Justicar side of things should allow me to gain value. Maybe this is too much value, but I think anything else wouldn't make sense. Tempo can only be taken so far without value.
Naxx and GvG
Naxx
Explanation
Undead Cavalier - So, our Naxx card has to be a Deathrattle minion, or a spell that functions like or with Deathrattle minions. I chose to take the Deathrattle minion route. I was planning Naxx cards before I realised we weren't showing that set off and this was just a natural idea. Having raided heaps of Naxx in WotLK. I went with a design choice that kind of played on our existing cards. More high attack minions minions, but we have a nice stable follow up.
GvG
Explanation
Grease Monkey - He's obviously not a real monkey, though I did look for a decent piece of art, and couldn't find one I liked. I thought about making him a Beast??? as a joke, but didn't. Obviously this is our super mechanic. He can perform wonders with those machines and spare parts. I went very hard with the Mech theme, but I tried to prevent it from being heavily aggressive, something that didn't work for any other class, and I don't feel like was even really tried.
Undeniable Underdog - The main theme for GvG for Racer is all about having lower Health. I think this theme is a touch on the easy side to activate and would intentionally be left behind after this expansion. It originally felt cool as a comeback idea, but the overly long wording and ease of activation have led me to decide it wouldn't be helpful to overall class design moving forward.
Reckless Pitbot - This is a card designed around a concept. The big gimmick to push in GvG was the lower health. This led to me having some really wordy cards, as that wording itself is soooo long, like the Joust wording. I still like the card and think its cool. The concept of this thing that's supposed to be in the Pit fixing your car, but get pissed off when it seems the other guys messing you up that it goes while and attacks people.
Control the Action - I really wanted to make this card, and I tried making a completely different card using its art when I found out we weren't doing GvG. I couldn't make it work, but now I have it to show off anyway. Luckily Piloted Shredder was so ubiquitous.
Raceway Tryant - I wanted to make another version of a large late midgame minion. I came up with this name and design after I found this art, and really I'm disappointed you can see so little of it, because the whole image is amazing. I almost made this into a spell that summons the minions simple because I wanted to show off the full art haha.
Blessed Reconstruction - I really didn't want to put a Resurrect style card in the game before Priest got theirs in BRM, but I felt like this just oozed with flavor and the art was perfect. Plus mine is intentionally worse than Priests.
For the Team - This is a card I designed specifically with GvG in mind. GvG was a set that really pushed the envelope and I knew a card like this was possible. The amount of damage it deals you means its not really something you can generally kill people with, but it is something that might steal a game or 2 on occasion. Its almost definitely too good, and that is why I stuck it here. I think you have to test the boundary on occasion and this is my biggest card that does that.
Ultrobot 9000 - Ah, Ultron, you crazy A.I. bastard. The idea here is the super machine. It takes the parts it needs and makes itself stronger and stronger and replicates more things to make itself stronger. I gave this a bit of extra bonus since you have other buffs beyond the Spare Parts and it obviously generates more parts for itself, well hopefully, as 1/3 spare parts isn't castable on this guy. Luckily we also have Grease Monkey to keep us in Spare Parts.
Classic Set
Tokens
Classic 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: "He's got Season Tickets on a one way ride."
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.
Basic Set
Basic Explanations
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.
This is a great idea. I love this. I actually stopped working on my class for Asylum's Gauntlet because working on it alone was no fun, so expect to see me around quite a bit.
This is a great idea. I love this. I actually stopped working on my class for Asylum's Gauntlet because working on it alone was no fun, so expect to see me around quite a bit.
Feel free to post. Don't feel obligated to review my stuff or anything. Up this point I'm fairly comfortable with what I have, but the newer stuff I'm about to add I am less ready for.
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To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.
Okay, then, don't mind me! (Although I would like feedback XD)
I've decided to rework my Medium class, because I was quite attached to some concepts, and not to others. Since we're no longer part of the competition, I've decided to just go all-in with all the stuff I liked but other people didn't, as well as some stuff the competition didn't allow.
This class isn't going to tie in a lot with WoW lore since IDK much about it and I'm too lazy to do research, and is probably going to be based more on Chinese/Japanese folklore - mainly Chinese, since I'm more familiar with that.
I'll just stick this here for now and add stuff as I go.
The Shrine Maiden
'Lore':
In the mountains a mile or so away from town, there exists an empty shrine to an unknown god, tended to by a white haired, red eyed girl. Nobody knows why she lives there - nor do they know why she never leaves except to buy food and water from the village market. Those suffering from ailments incurable by the apothecary or the priest turn to her for relief, travelling to her dwelling for treatment and returning healed. Few have tried to uncover the mysteries behind her power, but there are rumours that if you tried to visit her shrine at night, you would find ghostly voices echoing in the air.
Class Mechanics:
Like my original Medium class, the Shrine Maiden focuses on combo plays, with a ramp aspect. Her hero power, while it doesn't allow her to dig for answers like Warlock, does allow her to draw through her deck faster and refill her hand, making her a versatile class that, while being more combo-based, can also play a zoo or aggro style.
Her keyword allows her to pull of powerful Combo plays in one turn, or simply ramp out big threats - sort of like a reverse Overload that can let her go over 10 mana, up to 20. I imagine the extra crystals being added on a separate bar, and coloured a jade-like green. The delayed nature of Channel and Communion rewards you for planning out your next turn in advance.
Okay, then, don't mind me! (Although I would like feedback XD)
I've decided to rework my Medium class, because I was quite attached to some concepts, and not to others. Since we're no longer part of the competition, I've decided to just go all-in with all the stuff I liked but other people didn't, as well as some stuff the competition didn't allow.
This class isn't going to tie in a lot with WoW lore since IDK much about it and I'm too lazy to do research, and is probably going to be based more on Chinese/Japanese folklore - mainly Chinese, since I'm more familiar with that.
I'll just stick this here for now and add stuff as I go.
The Shrine Maiden
'Lore':
In the mountains a mile or so away from town, there exists an empty shrine to an unknown god, tended to by a white haired, red eyed girl. Nobody knows why she lives there - nor do they know why she never leaves except to buy food and water from the village market. Those suffering from ailments incurable by the apothecary or the priest turn to her for relief, travelling to her dwelling for treatment and returning healed. Few have tried to uncover the mysteries behind her power, but there are rumours that if you tried to visit her shrine at night, you would find ghostly voices echoing in the air.
Class Mechanics:
Like my original Medium class, the Shrine Maiden focuses on combo plays, with a ramp aspect. Her hero power, while it doesn't allow her to dig for answers like Warlock, does allow her to draw through her deck faster and refill her hand, making her a versatile class that, while being more combo-based, can also play a zoo or aggro style.
Her keyword allows her to pull of powerful Combo plays in one turn, or simply ramp out big threats - sort of like a reverse Overload that can let her go over 10 mana, up to 20. I imagine the extra crystals being added on a separate bar, and coloured a jade-like green. The delayed nature of Channel and Communion rewards you for planning out your next turn in advance.
This already seems interesting. I would assume you could do something like Overload, where it adds the extra mana to your existing mana, like turns it White or Yellow or something and when you spend it the first time it then turns blue and can be spent again. That would allow you to limit it a bit early game and of course still have a cap of 20.
love this thread idea!! Will be keeping an eye out :D
HAHAHA! Found it already. I was debating on whether I should tell you or let you find it yourself. I figured I had time to make that choice, looks like you made it for me.
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To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.
I've finished the drafts for all my cards for phase V so I'll post them below! I'm also ignoring the challanges this time :P
Class Reminder:
Accident Secrets:
I wont comment on my cards this time but for clarity Bottled Venom is revealed if the concoct effect goes off. Also if it's produced by Professor Putricide it will have the double damage. Also Bad Omen is affected by spell damage.
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Check out my Custom Classes(Scribe, Alchemist, and Battlemage)!
I've finished the drafts for all my cards for phase V so I'll post them below! I'm also ignoring the challanges this time :P
Class Reminder:
Accident Secrets:
I wont comment on my cards this time but for clarity Bottled Venom is revealed if the concoct effect goes off. Also if it's produced by Professor Putricide it will have the double damage. Also Bad Omen is affected by spell damage.
I'll go ahead and assume you're going Kabal HAHAHAHA. That makes perfect sense after all. I'm not a fan of the fact that you have 3 different variation on AoE in this one set. I'm not going to go into that with the individual reviews, but I think this needs to be changed. There have to be some other effects you can think of. I know you need a variety of AoEs for Highlander play but it can't all be in this one set. Your ONiK flavor is on point, but your MSoG is a bit lacking. That is one of the few expansions, because of the guilds that had a really intense riding flavor.
Party Potions is a tough card to judge. Getting a lot of potions is very helpful, and its a lot, but them getting two secrets is also a really big deal. Man this card needs a lot of testing.
Icecrown Portal seems insane. Soul of the Forest is a 4 mana card that only gives your guys deathrattle. Now those are bigger minions yes, but this gives you a random 3 drop and then gives all your guys deathrattle. That's seems easily 1 mana too cheap.
I don't think Ghostly Charger should be a Beast. Its a ghost, undead is like a whole different genre. Also, this card is mega scary. That's a huge!!!!! cheap Charge.
I like Hybrid Hunter and the 1 less damage thing in general.
The concoct on Tormented Subject seems a bit over the top. I feel like the card draw part needs to go, the tempo alone is worth the concoct.
Bottled Venom is great.
Flashback Potion is really cool.
Elixir of Rage seems really overcost. I mean I'm not saying I know what this should cost but on the 2 minions its on it doesn't cost anywhere near 4 mana. I feel like 3 is probably closer to reasonable since you have more control over it and your opponent doesn't see it coming.
Equilibrium Potion is a really cool idea. I think the cost is right considering the condition, but its a hard one to judge because of how weird the wording is. It feels like sometimes its a blowout and other times its completely worthless.
Bad Omen is the least interesting of the AoEs to me, but that's just because its the most reliable. Its very well designed and balanced, and I really like the art.
Patchwork Horror is great, as I mentioned earlier. I like this mechanic. I also love this art. Did I share it to you? I feel like I might have.
Midas, Soul Shaper is cool. He really gives you some crazy choices between concoct and making random legendaries. Seems balanced, but only testing would tell for sure. The fact that he's such a late drop makes me think it has to be fine.
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To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.
Yep, kabal :P I'll think on how to improve my flavor, it's just MsoG is a hard thing to find art for with this class. I could use normal kabal looking guys but then that takes away from the flavor of my class. As for the 3 AoEs, they all have different purposes but yeah I should probably move some to different sets. Now onto the cards!
Party Potions: The balance on this is difficult but I think hand size will play a large role in preventing it from being OP as most the decks I test seem to end up having to waste potions to avoid milling themselves as is.
Icecrown Portal: This is definitely on the strong side. I think if I change it to summon the 3 drop after the effect it'll be fine. It's for a deck type that needs strong cards to see play in this class and the random 3 drop is probably worth about 2 mana while the skeletons will be worth about 1 looking at Mark of the Lotus. It'd still be really strong but since it's not for this classes strongest decks that'll be fine.
Ghostly Charger: The beast tag is a bit weird in my class as I already have a few undead beasts such as grim grizzly. It makes sense given my hero would interact differently with an undead beast compared to an undead humanoid and since undead isn't a thing I think it'll be fine. As for the charge damage, if you wanna go face then you wont benefit from the immune and it's only 1 more damage than Leeroy Jenkins. Since I've been really careful with adding any burst damage to my class, I think I can get away with this.
Hybrid Hunter: Glad you like him! He's meant to be really good for stopping pirates (can kill Small-Time Buccaneer while they have no weapon) and he stops Maelstrom Portal from being so good. Would definitely have spiced up the meta if he was around at launch.
Tormented Subject: I donno, I actually thought it was kinda weak. I'm making concoct on draw effects stronger than normal as that can backfire and screw with your plans. With this you basically pay 4 mana for a 3 drop that draws a card. The draw just replaces him. I mean Watchful Gargoyle summons a 3/5 with taunt for concoct 2.
Bottled Venom: Glad you like it! It's also my only spell that can target face.
Flashback Potion: Glad you like it :D
Elixir of Rage: I costed it against Multi-Shot but you do need a minion so 3 seems fair.
Equilibrium Potion: Why do you find the wording weird? It's sort of single target as you can make it work on anything if you damage it a bit first but then your using more resources. It's mainly here to tech against jade decks if they ever get out of hand and control really needs help against jade.
Bad Omen: This is actually a lot more interesting than it seems at first glance. The main reason being spell damage. Throw this out, next turn play some spell damage cards and this can really hurt. Plus if you wanna OTK play two of these and drop a maly next turn for 16 damage to all enemies. At least it's an OTK with some prep your opponent gets to see (same with Bottled Venom) and I think it'd make for a more fun maly deck.
Patchwork Horror: Yeah you gave me that art haha. Glad you like it :P
Midas, Soul Shaper: This guy is a hard balance between having enough tokens, potions, and mana. You can reroll the legendary on 1 minion if you want and you can also use him on an enemy minion if you think it can't get much worse.
Once gain thanks for the feedback! It's helped heaps over the competition.
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Check out my Custom Classes(Scribe, Alchemist, and Battlemage)!
First of all I want to give a thank you to Odinson for genuinely being this dedicated, and giving me and everyone else a chance to continue making our classes, including people like Mewdrops, suprisingly, who was one of my favourites while they were still in the competition.
Anyway, as for my faction, I'm going to be utilizing a new mechanic, much like how Jade Decks utilized Jade Golems. The actual Faction consists of three classes that utilize charisma and speechcraft, so obviously, the King, the Bard and the Merchant. The name for it is currently undecided, but the mechanic is called (At least for now) Empower. A card with Empower will cost more mana crystals if you have enough mana to pay it's cost. When it is paid, an effect triggers. For example, my common card, Something Duelist.
It's usually a Duskboar, but if you have 5 mana available when you play it, it turns into a 5/1 with charge. The problem with cards like Duskboar and Magma Rager is that they are too vulnerable, but in some scenarios, they can be played if you think they could survive. Scenarios like this appear quite infredquently though, and even in those cases, they aren't great.
This card would allow a second option, and usually, a significantly better option. It allows this low health minion to continue to be significant against Mages, Rogues, Druids and anyone else with tiny minions or weapons. The name is obviously a placeholder, and the colors on the flag will be changed, but that's my basic idea.
The other two cards are here.
Something Trader is the obligatory discover card, with a defensive statline, and Briona finally makes a return, with a potentially huge effect, and naturally, she's the head of the faction. However, that effect doesn't become terrible if you have combo pieces in your hand, as you can just play her as a really mediocre 3 drop if you have to. And with her effect, it's likely that your deck will have some kinda comboes in it.
First of all I want to give a thank you to Odinson for genuinely being this dedicated, and giving me and everyone else a chance to continue making our classes, including people like Mewdrops, suprisingly, who was one of my favourites while they were still in the competition.
Anyway, as for my faction, I'm going to be utilizing a new mechanic, much like how Jade Decks utilized Jade Golems. The actual Faction consists of three classes that utilize charisma and speechcraft, so obviously, the King, the Bard and the Merchant. The name for it is currently undecided, but the mechanic is called (At least for now) Empower. A card with Empower will cost more mana crystals if you have enough mana to pay it's cost. When it is paid, an effect triggers. For example, my common card, Something Duelist.
It's usually a Duskboar, but if you have 5 mana available when you play it, it turns into a 5/1 with charge. The problem with cards like Duskboar and Magma Rager is that they are too vulnerable, but in some scenarios, they can be played if you think they could survive. Scenarios like this appear quite infredquently though, and even in those cases, they aren't great.
This card would allow a second option, and usually, a significantly better option. It allows this low health minion to continue to be significant against Mages, Rogues, Druids and anyone else with tiny minions or weapons. The name is obviously a placeholder, and the colors on the flag will be changed, but that's my basic idea.
The other two cards are here.
Something Trader is the obligatory discover card, with a defensive statline, and Briona finally makes a return, with a potentially huge effect, and naturally, she's the head of the faction. However, that effect doesn't become terrible if you have combo pieces in your hand, as you can just play her as a really mediocre 3 drop if you have to. And with her effect, it's likely that your deck will have some kinda comboes in it.
Hey I'm sensing a bit of Dragon's Age Leliana and Orlais in general from your faction, because it mixes trade, royalty, politics and music together. After a short search, may I propose the Nightingales as the name? It's the name of an organization of bards-spies that worked for orlesian nobility. Or the name Leliana takes as bard-spy for the Chantry, can't remember. It fits the theme.
I like your keyword, it is the same as the one I used for the Adventure Creation Competition, and I think it adds a lot of interesting decision-making to the game. However, I'm not seeing a theme with your cards for the moment. The tribes that exist right now focus on a very specific mechanic that tri-class commons and legendaries share. I think a less open effect would fit these cards more, as such a wide keyword doesn't need to be self contained, and could be used in future sets. Furthermore, your common looks very scary. It would be an autoinclude in aggro decks as a 4 mana 5/1 Charge. I would rethink the whole tri-class mechanic.
First of all I want to give a thank you to Odinson for genuinely being this dedicated, and giving me and everyone else a chance to continue making our classes, including people like Mewdrops, suprisingly, who was one of my favourites while they were still in the competition.
Anyway, as for my faction, I'm going to be utilizing a new mechanic, much like how Jade Decks utilized Jade Golems. The actual Faction consists of three classes that utilize charisma and speechcraft, so obviously, the King, the Bard and the Merchant. The name for it is currently undecided, but the mechanic is called (At least for now) Empower. A card with Empower will cost more mana crystals if you have enough mana to pay it's cost. When it is paid, an effect triggers. For example, my common card, Something Duelist.
It's usually a Duskboar, but if you have 5 mana available when you play it, it turns into a 5/1 with charge. The problem with cards like Duskboar and Magma Rager is that they are too vulnerable, but in some scenarios, they can be played if you think they could survive. Scenarios like this appear quite infredquently though, and even in those cases, they aren't great.
This card would allow a second option, and usually, a significantly better option. It allows this low health minion to continue to be significant against Mages, Rogues, Druids and anyone else with tiny minions or weapons. The name is obviously a placeholder, and the colors on the flag will be changed, but that's my basic idea.
The other two cards are here.
Something Trader is the obligatory discover card, with a defensive statline, and Briona finally makes a return, with a potentially huge effect, and naturally, she's the head of the faction. However, that effect doesn't become terrible if you have combo pieces in your hand, as you can just play her as a really mediocre 3 drop if you have to. And with her effect, it's likely that your deck will have some kinda comboes in it.
Hey I'm sensing a bit of Dragon's Age Leliana and Orlais in general from your faction, because it mixes trade, royalty, politics and music together. After a short search, may I propose the Nightingales as the name? It's the name of an organization of bards-spies that worked for orlesian nobility. Or the name Leliana takes as bard-spy for the Chantry, can't remember. It fits the theme.
I like your keyword, it is the same as the one I used for the Adventure Creation Competition, and I think it adds a lot of interesting decision-making to the game. However, I'm not seeing a theme with your cards for the moment. The tribes that exist right now focus on a very specific mechanic that tri-class commons and legendaries share. I think a less open effect would fit these cards more, as such a wide keyword doesn't need to be self contained, and could be used in future sets. Furthermore, your common looks very scary. It would be an autoinclude in aggro decks as a 4 mana 5/1 Charge. I would rethink the whole tri-class mechanic.
Thanks for the feedback! I like the name Nightingales, it works very well for the faction. I get what you're saying about the mechanic, I had thought it would be better in a faction than a class, but now that I think about it further it seems more like something that would be available in a new expansion. While I was coming up with it, I was thinking around how in the other factions you were supposed to build your deck around the faction, which isn't exactly true here, so I'll go quickly post some other ideas. That said, the common would probably be an autoinclude as a FIVE mana 5/1 with charge, I think you misread that, though I think as a 5 mana 5/1 charge isn't overpowered, it would be fine when it's limited to three classes who don't know what aggro is.
Anyway, for my newer mechanic some thoughts include one which when attached to a card, will cause the next card in your deck with a lower cost to be immediately played, and of course spells will be randomly targetted when played this way. This is taking a grimy goons approach. Your deck doesn't HAVE to be built around it, but it has a lot more value if you build your deck around it, using cards with negative battlecries and excluding spells which rely on targetting. Is it enough of a "Tribal" idea though?
First of all I want to give a thank you to Odinson for genuinely being this dedicated, and giving me and everyone else a chance to continue making our classes, including people like Mewdrops, suprisingly, who was one of my favourites while they were still in the competition.
Anyway, as for my faction, I'm going to be utilizing a new mechanic, much like how Jade Decks utilized Jade Golems. The actual Faction consists of three classes that utilize charisma and speechcraft, so obviously, the King, the Bard and the Merchant. The name for it is currently undecided, but the mechanic is called (At least for now) Empower. A card with Empower will cost more mana crystals if you have enough mana to pay it's cost. When it is paid, an effect triggers. For example, my common card, Something Duelist.
It's usually a Duskboar, but if you have 5 mana available when you play it, it turns into a 5/1 with charge. The problem with cards like Duskboar and Magma Rager is that they are too vulnerable, but in some scenarios, they can be played if you think they could survive. Scenarios like this appear quite infredquently though, and even in those cases, they aren't great.
This card would allow a second option, and usually, a significantly better option. It allows this low health minion to continue to be significant against Mages, Rogues, Druids and anyone else with tiny minions or weapons. The name is obviously a placeholder, and the colors on the flag will be changed, but that's my basic idea.
The other two cards are here.
Something Trader is the obligatory discover card, with a defensive statline, and Briona finally makes a return, with a potentially huge effect, and naturally, she's the head of the faction. However, that effect doesn't become terrible if you have combo pieces in your hand, as you can just play her as a really mediocre 3 drop if you have to. And with her effect, it's likely that your deck will have some kinda comboes in it.
First off, I'm using pretty much the same mechanic with a different name and set up. I am not a fan of the wording of this. Where the Empower cost is what you pay instead of the normal cost. When I looked at these I thought they cost 5 extra mana. Regrettably my faction doesn't have as much of a thematic tie to my class as I couldn't find a great way to do that, but is more just a thematic faction itself. I'll get around to posting it when I'm not doing other things, which isn't often atm, but all the cards have been up on Imgur for ages now, I just don't have time to write out explanations.
I think your first card seems very strong in an aggro situation but not too strong. I mean a 5 mana 5/1 charge isn't totally crazy, its just a scaled up Wolf Rider. But that is also a bit of a problem for me because I don't see how that really relates to the faction or the 3 classes.
Trader Seems fine, this is the hardest space to design for for sure, it just always seems bland, because it is!
Jester Briona also seems weak. I think this effect could be a very low cost spell as is, and it doesn't make your legendary that impactful. The other factions leaders are some of the most impressive impactful cards, this is kind of just a derpy set up card. It doesn't even generate value as it discards your hand, just throwing you deep into fatigue and making it very hard to use at all if you have even 1 important or powerful card in your current hand.
I actually like the theme and flavor you put together but the execution is off to me. Though I actually like this sort of mechanic for a faction. I think some people think this is a great mechanic for a set or adventure but I think that this is a great place for it as well. Faction are kind of like adventures pushed added into a set, and this sort of mechanic is much more damaging than you think. Every card fills 2 rolls and 2 mana costs so you just chew through design space super rapidly, and that isn't good. Using it on a very limited scale is a much better idea because you can make the most out of your few examples instead of playing it extremely safe and it ended up being very boring.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.
Hey Odinsin, great idea to make this thread! You know I was the least active semi-finalist. But I will try to sneak in here every now and then!
Thanks, I just felt like this is something that not only a lot of us wanted but something the forum could use in general. Show up when you can, the thread will be here.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.
First of all I want to give a thank you to Odinson for genuinely being this dedicated, and giving me and everyone else a chance to continue making our classes, including people like Mewdrops, suprisingly, who was one of my favourites while they were still in the competition.
Anyway, as for my faction, I'm going to be utilizing a new mechanic, much like how Jade Decks utilized Jade Golems. The actual Faction consists of three classes that utilize charisma and speechcraft, so obviously, the King, the Bard and the Merchant. The name for it is currently undecided, but the mechanic is called (At least for now) Empower. A card with Empower will cost more mana crystals if you have enough mana to pay it's cost. When it is paid, an effect triggers. For example, my common card, Something Duelist.
It's usually a Duskboar, but if you have 5 mana available when you play it, it turns into a 5/1 with charge. The problem with cards like Duskboar and Magma Rager is that they are too vulnerable, but in some scenarios, they can be played if you think they could survive. Scenarios like this appear quite infredquently though, and even in those cases, they aren't great.
This card would allow a second option, and usually, a significantly better option. It allows this low health minion to continue to be significant against Mages, Rogues, Druids and anyone else with tiny minions or weapons. The name is obviously a placeholder, and the colors on the flag will be changed, but that's my basic idea.
The other two cards are here.
Something Trader is the obligatory discover card, with a defensive statline, and Briona finally makes a return, with a potentially huge effect, and naturally, she's the head of the faction. However, that effect doesn't become terrible if you have combo pieces in your hand, as you can just play her as a really mediocre 3 drop if you have to. And with her effect, it's likely that your deck will have some kinda comboes in it.
First off, I'm using pretty much the same mechanic with a different name and set up. I am not a fan of the wording of this. Where the Empower cost is what you pay instead of the normal cost. When I looked at these I thought they cost 5 extra mana. Regrettably my faction doesn't have as much of a thematic tie to my class as I couldn't find a great way to do that, but is more just a thematic faction itself. I'll get around to posting it when I'm not doing other things, which isn't often atm, but all the cards have been up on Imgur for ages now, I just don't have time to write out explanations.
I think your first card seems very strong in an aggro situation but not too strong. I mean a 5 mana 5/1 charge isn't totally crazy, its just a scaled up Wolf Rider. But that is also a bit of a problem for me because I don't see how that really relates to the faction or the 3 classes.
Trader Seems fine, this is the hardest space to design for for sure, it just always seems bland, because it is!
Jester Briona also seems weak. I think this effect could be a very low cost spell as is, and it doesn't make your legendary that impactful. The other factions leaders are some of the most impressive impactful cards, this is kind of just a derpy set up card. It doesn't even generate value as it discards your hand, just throwing you deep into fatigue and making it very hard to use at all if you have even 1 important or powerful card in your current hand.
I actually like the theme and flavor you put together but the execution is off to me. Though I actually like this sort of mechanic for a faction. I think some people think this is a great mechanic for a set or adventure but I think that this is a great place for it as well. Faction are kind of like adventures pushed added into a set, and this sort of mechanic is much more damaging than you think. Every card fills 2 rolls and 2 mana costs so you just chew through design space super rapidly, and that isn't good. Using it on a very limited scale is a much better idea because you can make the most out of your few examples instead of playing it extremely safe and it ended up being very boring.
The duelist was originally a king card that was moved into the neutral set, so I understand why it doesn't make that much sense, though it does make a bit more sense in the king class. The wording is a little confusing, sure, but that matters little now, I'm throwing it away. I don't think it's what I have in mind when I think of a faction, because they're just general cards, rather than cards which synergise with eachother and you have to build your deck around. Of course, they could be used in a limited fashion in an adventure, which would work more and be good for all classes.
And yeah, the Briona card I came up with wasn't impactful enough, and is a demonstration of the differences between this faction and the others. Don Han'Cho and Aya Blackpaw were both cards which were using huge variants of their faction ability, and Kazakus fitted in with the other highlander legendaries. In other words, my mechanic should have been a bit more obvious.
My most recent response included a mechanic with no name, which I've also given up on, far too rng reliant. Now I'm thinking I want something that has a more synergistic idea that focused on card draw... Can't come up with anything yet, but eh.
First of all I want to give a thank you to Odinson for genuinely being this dedicated, and giving me and everyone else a chance to continue making our classes, including people like Mewdrops, suprisingly, who was one of my favourites while they were still in the competition.
Anyway, as for my faction, I'm going to be utilizing a new mechanic, much like how Jade Decks utilized Jade Golems. The actual Faction consists of three classes that utilize charisma and speechcraft, so obviously, the King, the Bard and the Merchant. The name for it is currently undecided, but the mechanic is called (At least for now) Empower. A card with Empower will cost more mana crystals if you have enough mana to pay it's cost. When it is paid, an effect triggers. For example, my common card, Something Duelist.
It's usually a Duskboar, but if you have 5 mana available when you play it, it turns into a 5/1 with charge. The problem with cards like Duskboar and Magma Rager is that they are too vulnerable, but in some scenarios, they can be played if you think they could survive. Scenarios like this appear quite infredquently though, and even in those cases, they aren't great.
This card would allow a second option, and usually, a significantly better option. It allows this low health minion to continue to be significant against Mages, Rogues, Druids and anyone else with tiny minions or weapons. The name is obviously a placeholder, and the colors on the flag will be changed, but that's my basic idea.
The other two cards are here.
Something Trader is the obligatory discover card, with a defensive statline, and Briona finally makes a return, with a potentially huge effect, and naturally, she's the head of the faction. However, that effect doesn't become terrible if you have combo pieces in your hand, as you can just play her as a really mediocre 3 drop if you have to. And with her effect, it's likely that your deck will have some kinda comboes in it.
First off, I'm using pretty much the same mechanic with a different name and set up. I am not a fan of the wording of this. Where the Empower cost is what you pay instead of the normal cost. When I looked at these I thought they cost 5 extra mana. Regrettably my faction doesn't have as much of a thematic tie to my class as I couldn't find a great way to do that, but is more just a thematic faction itself. I'll get around to posting it when I'm not doing other things, which isn't often atm, but all the cards have been up on Imgur for ages now, I just don't have time to write out explanations.
I think your first card seems very strong in an aggro situation but not too strong. I mean a 5 mana 5/1 charge isn't totally crazy, its just a scaled up Wolf Rider. But that is also a bit of a problem for me because I don't see how that really relates to the faction or the 3 classes.
Trader Seems fine, this is the hardest space to design for for sure, it just always seems bland, because it is!
Jester Briona also seems weak. I think this effect could be a very low cost spell as is, and it doesn't make your legendary that impactful. The other factions leaders are some of the most impressive impactful cards, this is kind of just a derpy set up card. It doesn't even generate value as it discards your hand, just throwing you deep into fatigue and making it very hard to use at all if you have even 1 important or powerful card in your current hand.
I actually like the theme and flavor you put together but the execution is off to me. Though I actually like this sort of mechanic for a faction. I think some people think this is a great mechanic for a set or adventure but I think that this is a great place for it as well. Faction are kind of like adventures pushed added into a set, and this sort of mechanic is much more damaging than you think. Every card fills 2 rolls and 2 mana costs so you just chew through design space super rapidly, and that isn't good. Using it on a very limited scale is a much better idea because you can make the most out of your few examples instead of playing it extremely safe and it ended up being very boring.
The duelist was originally a king card that was moved into the neutral set, so I understand why it doesn't make that much sense, though it does make a bit more sense in the king class. The wording is a little confusing, sure, but that matters little now, I'm throwing it away. I don't think it's what I have in mind when I think of a faction, because they're just general cards, rather than cards which synergise with eachother and you have to build your deck around. Of course, they could be used in a limited fashion in an adventure, which would work more and be good for all classes.
And yeah, the Briona card I came up with wasn't impactful enough, and is a demonstration of the differences between this faction and the others. Don Han'Cho and Aya Blackpaw were both cards which were using huge variants of their faction ability, and Kazakus fitted in with the other highlander legendaries. In other words, my mechanic should have been a bit more obvious.
My most recent response included a mechanic with no name, which I've also given up on, far too rng reliant. Now I'm thinking I want something that has a more synergistic idea that focused on card draw... Can't come up with anything yet, but eh.
Yeah, finding something that actually stacks up but isn't over powered is the issue, because these effects are indeed meant to be slightly more powerful than normal if you can make them work. Its tough finding that balanced.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.
Ok, I guess I should pull out what I've been working on.
ONiK
Explanation
Adventure Focus
With ONiK my focus was on keeping up with flavor while developing a bit of unique stuff. So the focus for me became spells that summon minions and buffs. We have a nice little suite of cards that have some functionality together, plus some of the existing Token generating effects that Racer already uses.
Winged Bellhop - ONiK is full of bottom up design. That means I started with a base idea from an existing item and then honed my card to fit this class. I looked at which bosses had room for a Class challenge and there weren't many options. So I went with The Crone. That instantly made me want to do a Monkey, since I felt like it was a shame we as players didn't get one, only the boss. Racer is pretty good at overcoming small mana increases with Draft and of course we have a good amount of buffs and tokens so we get in at a premium.
Gadgetzan Wormhole - There aren't really any portals to Gadgetzan, but those crafty engineers have invented Wormhole devices to get to places they need to get to. Positioned just south of the Shimmering Flats, home of the Mirage Raceway, Gadgetzan is the perfect place to land. It also gives us an interesting little connection the next expansion. I went with this really weird two 0-Cost minions because most of the other costs were kind of taken, and I felt like I wanted to card to make 2 things. 0-Cost minions are a bit shallow, but its still something.
Midnight's Reigns - I always kind of liked Explorer's Hat, but it didn't have quite enough value. That's why I wanted to play on this bigger version. The value is still low, but higher impact overall, but also a bit more clunky to use. This is the card I'm least sure of in this set.
MSoG
Faction - The Leyline Defenders
Keyword and explanation
The Leyline Defenders are a group of individuals that actually aren't focused on a mad power grab, but more so in protecting a source of power for evil forces. These like-minded individuals have not only discovered these powerful leylines but help protect them from unsavory characters. Their presence is Gadgetzan is tied heavily to the surrounding areas like Un'Goro Crater, Uldum, and of course Tanaris itself with locations like the Caverns of Time. They are of few numbers and so they have recruited some of the swiftest and most skilled heroes from across Kalimdor to help them protect these points of interest.
The Infuse keyword comes from the natural energies which gradually increase the power of those near them. By using more of your mana you are able to tap into this new power and gain dynamic bonuses. Allowing you to effectively have 2 separate cards in 1. So similar to the scaling gained from other factions, instead of generating some sort of ever increasing value, like Jade or a very static bonus like Grimy Goons, we have two very fluid methods of use for each card.
A side note, if you haven't noticed I'm a huge comic book nerd, and I can't help but throw nods to characters and ideas. The basic idea here is to rip off the classic Defenders Marvel comic, something very different from the Series that will soon be coming to Netflix. Every legendary I've made and all my tri-class are fairly easy to identify Marvel charaters, some with fun twists.
Explanations
not quite there yet, very close but I ran out of time.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.
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Hello everyone. If you're not aware who I am, well I guess that pretty likely. I'm an avid card and class creator that recently failed to advance from that latest Class Creation Competition. After making it through the first 5 phases and almost finishing my class I'm not stopping now. And in fact, many many of my fellow competitors from all the phases have decided to carry on as well. I also know that many of you are designing or would like to design classes. Therefore I have opened this thread to allow anyone who wants to develop a class or just look at developing classes can help and get help from others. Much like the other card creation discussion threads, I think even us non-official people need a place where we can get help before we start posting our classes and ideas to be ridiculed. If you're interested in finding help and helping others feel free to post your ideas here. I'll be around fairly frequently to check and hopefully we can build a solid group of people here to help improve all card creation in this thread.
Rules
Class Creation Guide
Getting Started: TL:DR is BOLD! This is fairly simple, you need a concept. That is a usually a Hero and/or Hero Power. Its best to have both of these ideas in mind, because from there you can begin moving into expanding your ideas. I know its super fun to just start creating cards, and making a few ideas probably won't hurt, but typically after deciding on your Hero and Power you're going to want to start thinking about your other types of key features.
Here are some great starting questions. Does your Class have a Unique Keyword? What other keywords are important to your class (i.e. Divine Shield, Windfury, Stealth, Enrage, etc.)? Do you plan to use Weapons? What other sorts of non-keyword ideas do you plan to use (i.e. Healing, Attack and/or Health Buffs, Armor, Mana ramp, Discard, self damage, Race identifiers, etc.)?
You will want to limit yourself on keyword and non-keyword ideas. Having around 6-8 total will leave you lots of room for design space, but also prevent too much bleeding of your core idea. If you just let yourself use every keyword and every kind of idea your class will lose focus. Every class will have defining identities and certain deck styles won't work for every single class, and trying to make every possible idea work will only hamper your final product.
Beginning Creation/Early Balance: Ok, so you've got some ideas, and you may have already started making cards. But first things first. Take a serious look at your Hero Power. That's something that is going to be there and its one of the first and most important things you will be judged on. Creating a Hero Power that is both unique, fun and balanced is a tough task, but there are some great simple rules.
Hero Power Rules
Now that your Hero Power is on the right track, there is one other thing most created classes will need to look into. That is the Class Keyword. If you have decided to give you class a Unique Keyword you will need to find the right balance for this. Is it a static value similar to Drawing a card or Taunt? Is it an adjusting value like Charge or Divine Shield? Does it have no value, but just changes way the game is played like Combo or Choose One? Does it affect Mana like Overload or Destroying a Mana Crystal? These things all lead to different associations of value, but the thing they require is the right balance. Remember that and try to be consistent. I don't care how powerful or how weak the ability is, just make sure that its value is properly equated on the cards containing it. Lastly, Unique Class Keywords show up with a fairly high frequency for the 3 classes that have them; Druid, Rogue and Shaman. Druid has 10 cards in their Classic set with Choose One, Rogue has 8 cards with Combo, and Shaman has 9 cards with Overload and 1 card that interacts with it. So make sure that keyword is going to be viable for many cards, and not just a few. There will be exceptions, but not many.
You can create Hero Portraits, Hero Powers and Unique Keywords on HearthCards.
Basic/Classic Set Design: This is the next major step. Moving your class from the idea phase, into the realisation phase. You have a very great starting point, the same one that every other class had; Basic and Classic/Expert. This however won't likely be the walk in the park you want it to be. First off, I don't think trying to Design your Basic set first is the best idea. Go ahead and start just working out ideas. Just start making cards, when you have a nice batch of 10-15 solid ideas then really look to start settling things in. Basic is 10 cards, and Classic is 15, those are the two largest sources of cards for your class in the game. They form the building blocks that make everything work or not work if that's the case. The reason I say don't start forcing Basic is that's one of, if not the hardest set to get right. Basic has some very very important rules and I may as well list those.
Basic Set Rules
So, that's the biggest reason you want to try to shy away from forcing yourself into creating Basic first. First of all, you won't really be making any sweet cards Basic isn't about sweet cards, its about a foundation. If you get some of those other cards made and just kind of let the process flow, you can likely pick and choose a few of your more simplistic ideas for Basic, and fill in 5-9, heck maybe all 10, of the cards that way. Then focus work to finish out the rest and make it seem cohesive. One thing that can help is looking at the Basic Neutral minions and thinking about what kind of deck a new player could build. Would they try to play Spell Damage? or maybe lots of Summon Battlecry minions? Perhaps they are aggro focused and want those Charge minions or they are Control and want those Taunts. Whatever helps guide you along. Next, you can try to fill out your Classic set. Let's hit some rules to make it easier.
Classic Set Rules
Other tools!
This is just the starting point, there is a lot more to go, but we'll get to that eventually. Build from the ground up and have some fun. See you in the thread!
Class card list provide by Livienna!
To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.
This is my class so far. I'm working on tuning things and adding the last few expansions. I posted this so people have something to review right away. Don't feel like you have to review every card or every aspect of the class, but its here to look at. There are a lot of things here and its a huge post so.
Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to Mirage Raceway.
Prepare yourself for a day of fast and furious action.
NOW, RACERS START!! YOUR!! ENGINES!!!!
Hero & Power
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.
LOE & WotOG
LoE
Explanation
Loot-a-rang - So here we have it, part card draw, part ramp tool. Leading into Old Gods I knew we needed something to really open up the main synergy I wanted to push, Y'Shaarj. The only semi-successful decks have to be able to cheat this guy out, and this allows up to Draft to say in the game while generating ramp to get our end game going early. In a pinch it draws a card.
Unsavory Guide - We all know this guy. He's got a lot to say but nothing of importance. He says he's buying the drinks until the bill comes. He's looking for something for free. That's what this guy is about. He's definitely knows where the treasure is, but he's not sticking his neck out for it. In fact he'll avoid any dangerous situation he can. He'd rather lie his way through life, and pick the corpses. He's the first guy on N'Zoth's list. Old Gods are a big part of my ideas for Bringing big Control back to Racer. We did some midrange and control stuff, flirted with Aggro, and we've got a few more aggro tools here, but the big shining things are right here with N'Zoth and Y'Shaarj.
Ancient Engineer - This card has changed a lot since I showed it off originally, that's mostly because I think all the older versions were over powered. I couldn't get the balance right. So now we have a class version hybrid Garrison Commander/Fencing Coach. To prevent absurd abuse the battlecry won't get major value if he doesn't live the turn. Giving your opponent a few more outs to it.
WotOG
Tokens
Explanation
Chicken Launcher - Sometimes the Old Gods make you do crazy things. Like load a bunch of chickens into a cannon and shoot them at people. This is what that does. I created this as a disruption tool. Its there to help muck up combo and control decks, while maybe even messing up the occasional Reno Jackson. In a pinch it can hold off fatigue, in case the game goes down hill...you'll see what I mean.
God's Speed - Every Old God is better when you can actually draw it, and they are also all even more fun when you can combo them together. This not only makes playing multiple Old Gods a cool concept, but an actual strategy. If you happen to run out though you can still pull the "powerful" Droplet of Y'Shaarj to keep your discounts flowing.
Holy Skydiver - This started out as a bit of a nod to Hellbound Speedster, but changed a bit. I wanted a good goblin art for them to be parallels but I found the most perfect Gnome art so I had to use it. It still shows my unique take on the Madness of the Old Gods twisting these crazy speed freaks and tech junkies into more sane versions of themselves. Ones that are more careful and less deadly. I just think that's a fun unique concept.
Whisper Receiver - I thought this was kind of clever also. So, you have normal people that sometimes come to close and get these whispers in their head, but what if you're out on a desert race track trying to use a radio communication device? Its more like voices screaming in your head. Its actually so loud its starting to infect the local wildlife. And let's be real, as soon as I saw that Frog art I've been waiting to make this card.
Careful Rocketeer - This card is meant to be another one of our goofy twists. So, Careless Rocket Jockey has become a Careful Rocketeer. Now completely fine attacking players, he's very weary of other minions. Afraid he might somehow crash and burn.
Surprise Inspection - Ok, round 2 of trying to find the right Secret card. So here we have it. Race day, you think you're about to get one over on every, but nope, inspection time. All your secrets are revealed, and all your tricks to get ahead are gone. The Secret side doesn't destroy obviously, it only informs and temporary stops, but that gives you play for what you need it for. The second effect is actually the more interesting one to me. The secondary effect returns cards to their original cost, so its a bit of a counter to Emperor Thaurissan, while also hitting cards like Far Sight,Shadowstep, Unstable Portal, or even a 9 or 10 drop trapped in your hand by Freezing Trap. This does not reset giants, as they have dynamic costs and will always adjust as necessary to the conditions.
Pile Up - I wanted another real AoE, and I came up with this ages ago, but didn't want to put it in until it felt right. I chose this specific wording because of how I imagined the effect triggering, and because I liked the spell damage synergy, since my class has very little otherwise.
All Downhill From Here - I'm actually glad I got to bring this back. I think its a cool fun style of card for an aggro style of Racer. Of course there is some potential you could run 1 copy in any deck, just to IDK crazy reasons, but regardless I thought it was a fun and cool concept, to kind of do the All-in thing. Plus, you know you love that art.
Klaxxi Inciter - I think that Y'Shaarj is the weakest of the Old Gods by a pretty fair margin. I mean Yogg-Saron, Hope's End is certainly down since the nerf, but the card still sees more play than Y'Shaarj. So I created a minion that worked with him specifically. I felt like the card and the effect were cool and interesting. Though I have been thinking of making the minion an 8/8.
Norman Gobsborn - I previewed this ages ago. Nothing like a crazy guy that hears voices to be the legendary of choice for Old Gods. Old Gods also kind of really represents our first hard push at being an aggro deck. Between this and All Downhill From Here we have a way to really put on some early pressure. Its easier to get this off than it is to get a big Edwin VanCleef, but he's also a lot less snowbally. He's never coming out before turn 3 and he's never going to do that as a 14/14 or something absurd. 8/5 or 10/6 is probably close to what he'll appear as on turn 3-4 and you could save up for a long time to get a larger one later in the game, but his attack grows by 2 his health only grows by 1, making him easier to take out.
BRM and TGT
BRM
TGT
Token and Justicar Trueheart Hero Power
Expansion Explanations
Expansion Approach - My goal moving forward was to shift things in a new direction. Even though we never showed off Naxx and GVG I still created those cards for myself and started building an identity pushed heavily on the "less Health than opponent" comebacks and Mech synergy. Leaving GvG I wanted to move toward a new push. Therefore we started pushing Dragon, and "cost (0)" to open up new deck concepts. This our Dragon approach I went more toward midrange/control and with our other cards we hit some heavy Aggro/Tempo notes. We still have a nice beefy value legendary, and funky new removal spell at the high end to give us play against other control decks.
Goof-off Technician - This card is a bit of a crossover between our two new focus points. Its also where I decided to give my class a serious Dragon push. This didn't really happen in BRM and for that reason Dragon decks didn't really come into being until TGT, and really they still didn't have enough oomph to make a major meta impact. That lead Blizzard to continue creating cards for the mechanic with each expansion, but that also means classes end up in weird places with Standard rotations. I also felt like every successful Dragon deck had to have a good low cost minion to keep in play with tempo. Therefore I created this guy.
Ride or Die - This is the first ever Dragon Spell. Its also a good example as to why Blizzard hasn't really done this. The wording gets a bit long, even if its fairly simple. I still really like the card and I think it could really have opened up a few more fun things with "Dragon" decks.
Runaway Aspirant - I hate the scaling 1 drop, so I took the Druid route to things and went with the 1 mana 2/2. I adding a bit of bonus to push the "cost (0)" mechanic.
Wrench Sergeant - Other forces may use Drill Sergeants to train people, but the racers use Wrenches instead. Honestly this is one of the first TGT cards I came up with. Simple, flavorful. It touches Inspire without going too far into it. This was a huge part of TGT and I wouldn't dream of leaving it out.
Bear Rider - This card is here as another small seed actually. Its a nice midrange value minion, kind of a step of from the super Basic, Desirable Mechanic. He's here to either give you a more consistent Draft experience or just give you that value. I felt like the Black War Bear having Charge meant less since it was just as likely for it to come out on your opponents turn, negating the effect.
Prepared to Win - I know this card has to look absurd. Its got a large health buff because I already have a large attack buff in classic. I also have a balanced buff in Basic, referenced here actually. So this closes out the trinity. Plus I mean come on, she's wearing a horse floaty for protection, its great. We get to hit a ton of different themes and really open our class up.
Bitter Rivalry - I know this card is going to freak people out. I spent a very long time trying to decide if I could make this card. And I came to the decision it was possible. My class has no face damaging spells, charge minions that can go face, or weapons. My hero power doesn't deal damage or heal/gain armor. You have to win with minions, this just lets you prevent your opponent from killing your face for awhile. It happens to shut down your minions from killing there face for a bit of parity. And worst case almost any opponent can use removal on one of their own minions if you've somehow locked them out of the game and actually set yourself up to win by fatigue.
Compliant Proto-Drake - Ok, so my entire reason for designing this was 2-fold. First I wanted to do something different with Dragon synergy. Second I wanted to make a legitimately playable late game minion. I think its pretty lame that pretty much every Dragon since BRM has not been good unless its specifically a Dragon deck. I think that's a lame design choice. Second, I think its stupid that there are a bunch of 1 mana 3/2s and growing 1/3s and crazy 2 drops that decide games, and 4 mana 7/7s. The average value of a 6+ cost minion is awful. Unless you're the cream of the crop you're just unplayable. You have to have instant dramatic effect or insane value. I think that metric needs to be pushed. I've kind of done that with other cards, this is by far the most pushed of those. I do think this card is on the very high end of power level. I think that its a very very playable 7 cost minion, and I think that's a great thing. I adjusted the power level slightly by giving it Ignores Draft, making it harder to have insane turns when you play this, something that has to come up on occasion to keep things fair.
Big-time Promoter - This is my nod to bringing the Races to the Tournament. Cross promotion and good times. If he feels like he's behind and needs to catch up, he brings in his muslce, "Tiny" the Ogre. This is kind of medium risk/high reward, and I only say high reward because the card is abysmal without the bonus, and that's intentional. I feel like these are the sorts of cards that show up on occasion at epic and either work or don't, but the power is here if you make it work.
The Bigger One - Sometimes you have to blow them up so hard they can't ever come back. That's what we are going for here. Obviously this doesn't really do much against Legendaries, and if the second copy has been played or is in hand you aren't going to get it, but you've got a nice chance at getting some overall value out of this. There are a few cool interactions as well though, like potentially countering an opposing Thoughtsteal or Entomb, and being able to counter Gang Up, or punish a Faceless Manipulator.
Dr. Autto, Octo-Engineer - The main idea for me is he hates spiders! Those bastard Nerubians will all be crushed by the true king of the eight-legged freaks. I had a few thoughts to do a combo of multiple legendaries or something else, but really this felt right to me for the expansion. Its big and beefy on its own but summons nice value minions. Its kind of like a reverse Confessor Paletress, without the variance.
Justicar Trueheart "Better" Hero Power - I feel like Justicar doesn't have any major bonuses for me if I do anything traditional. I could have taken the route of making it bad for me, as blizzard did with Hunter, Rogue, Shaman, kind of Druid, and in that regard kind of everyone but Warrior and maybe Paladin. Now I know adding Draw a card is a huge change. But honestly, I think my hero power is very very weak in many situations. Its not versatile. It has no value, only tempo. The class is built on and around tempo, but I think the Justicar side of things should allow me to gain value. Maybe this is too much value, but I think anything else wouldn't make sense. Tempo can only be taken so far without value.
Naxx and GvG
Naxx
Explanation
Undead Cavalier - So, our Naxx card has to be a Deathrattle minion, or a spell that functions like or with Deathrattle minions. I chose to take the Deathrattle minion route. I was planning Naxx cards before I realised we weren't showing that set off and this was just a natural idea. Having raided heaps of Naxx in WotLK. I went with a design choice that kind of played on our existing cards. More high attack minions minions, but we have a nice stable follow up.
GvG
Explanation
Grease Monkey - He's obviously not a real monkey, though I did look for a decent piece of art, and couldn't find one I liked. I thought about making him a Beast??? as a joke, but didn't. Obviously this is our super mechanic. He can perform wonders with those machines and spare parts. I went very hard with the Mech theme, but I tried to prevent it from being heavily aggressive, something that didn't work for any other class, and I don't feel like was even really tried.
Undeniable Underdog - The main theme for GvG for Racer is all about having lower Health. I think this theme is a touch on the easy side to activate and would intentionally be left behind after this expansion. It originally felt cool as a comeback idea, but the overly long wording and ease of activation have led me to decide it wouldn't be helpful to overall class design moving forward.
Reckless Pitbot - This is a card designed around a concept. The big gimmick to push in GvG was the lower health. This led to me having some really wordy cards, as that wording itself is soooo long, like the Joust wording. I still like the card and think its cool. The concept of this thing that's supposed to be in the Pit fixing your car, but get pissed off when it seems the other guys messing you up that it goes while and attacks people.
Control the Action - I really wanted to make this card, and I tried making a completely different card using its art when I found out we weren't doing GvG. I couldn't make it work, but now I have it to show off anyway. Luckily Piloted Shredder was so ubiquitous.
Raceway Tryant - I wanted to make another version of a large late midgame minion. I came up with this name and design after I found this art, and really I'm disappointed you can see so little of it, because the whole image is amazing. I almost made this into a spell that summons the minions simple because I wanted to show off the full art haha.
Blessed Reconstruction - I really didn't want to put a Resurrect style card in the game before Priest got theirs in BRM, but I felt like this just oozed with flavor and the art was perfect. Plus mine is intentionally worse than Priests.
For the Team - This is a card I designed specifically with GvG in mind. GvG was a set that really pushed the envelope and I knew a card like this was possible. The amount of damage it deals you means its not really something you can generally kill people with, but it is something that might steal a game or 2 on occasion. Its almost definitely too good, and that is why I stuck it here. I think you have to test the boundary on occasion and this is my biggest card that does that.
Ultrobot 9000 - Ah, Ultron, you crazy A.I. bastard. The idea here is the super machine. It takes the parts it needs and makes itself stronger and stronger and replicates more things to make itself stronger. I gave this a bit of extra bonus since you have other buffs beyond the Spare Parts and it obviously generates more parts for itself, well hopefully, as 1/3 spare parts isn't castable on this guy. Luckily we also have Grease Monkey to keep us in Spare Parts.
Classic Set
Tokens
Classic 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: "He's got Season Tickets on a one way ride."
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.
Basic Set
Basic Explanations
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.
This is a great idea. I love this. I actually stopped working on my class for Asylum's Gauntlet because working on it alone was no fun, so expect to see me around quite a bit.
Why Rogue is my favourite class:
My submission for this week's card design competition.
To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.
All of y'all are winners in my heart. <3
Having said that, this thread popping out does give me an idea that I'll communicate with Asylum about. Hmm....
Okay, then, don't mind me! (Although I would like feedback XD)
I've decided to rework my Medium class, because I was quite attached to some concepts, and not to others. Since we're no longer part of the competition, I've decided to just go all-in with all the stuff I liked but other people didn't, as well as some stuff the competition didn't allow.
This class isn't going to tie in a lot with WoW lore since IDK much about it and I'm too lazy to do research, and is probably going to be based more on Chinese/Japanese folklore - mainly Chinese, since I'm more familiar with that.
I'll just stick this here for now and add stuff as I go.
The Shrine Maiden
'Lore':
In the mountains a mile or so away from town, there exists an empty shrine to an unknown god, tended to by a white haired, red eyed girl. Nobody knows why she lives there - nor do they know why she never leaves except to buy food and water from the village market. Those suffering from ailments incurable by the apothecary or the priest turn to her for relief, travelling to her dwelling for treatment and returning healed. Few have tried to uncover the mysteries behind her power, but there are rumours that if you tried to visit her shrine at night, you would find ghostly voices echoing in the air.
Class Mechanics:
Like my original Medium class, the Shrine Maiden focuses on combo plays, with a ramp aspect. Her hero power, while it doesn't allow her to dig for answers like Warlock, does allow her to draw through her deck faster and refill her hand, making her a versatile class that, while being more combo-based, can also play a zoo or aggro style.
Her keyword allows her to pull of powerful Combo plays in one turn, or simply ramp out big threats - sort of like a reverse Overload that can let her go over 10 mana, up to 20. I imagine the extra crystals being added on a separate bar, and coloured a jade-like green. The delayed nature of Channel and Communion rewards you for planning out your next turn in advance.
Cards:
Basic Set:
Classic Set:
Put your spoiler here.
Naxx:
Put your spoiler here.
GvG:
Put your spoiler here.
BrM:
Put your spoiler here.
TgT:
Put your spoiler here.
LoE:
Put your spoiler here.
WoTOG:
Put your spoiler here.
Kara:
Put your spoiler here.
Gadgetzan:
Put your spoiler here.
Edit: Added unpolished Basic Set.
Why Rogue is my favourite class:
My submission for this week's card design competition.
To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.
love this thread idea!! Will be keeping an eye out :D
"The Slayer" custom class
"The Great Thaw" expansion competition finalist
To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.
I've finished the drafts for all my cards for phase V so I'll post them below! I'm also ignoring the challanges this time :P
Class Reminder:
Accident Secrets:
I wont comment on my cards this time but for clarity Bottled Venom is revealed if the concoct effect goes off. Also if it's produced by Professor Putricide it will have the double damage. Also Bad Omen is affected by spell damage.
Check out my Custom Classes (Scribe, Alchemist, and Battlemage)!
To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.
@The_Odinson
Yep, kabal :P I'll think on how to improve my flavor, it's just MsoG is a hard thing to find art for with this class. I could use normal kabal looking guys but then that takes away from the flavor of my class. As for the 3 AoEs, they all have different purposes but yeah I should probably move some to different sets. Now onto the cards!
Party Potions: The balance on this is difficult but I think hand size will play a large role in preventing it from being OP as most the decks I test seem to end up having to waste potions to avoid milling themselves as is.
Icecrown Portal: This is definitely on the strong side. I think if I change it to summon the 3 drop after the effect it'll be fine. It's for a deck type that needs strong cards to see play in this class and the random 3 drop is probably worth about 2 mana while the skeletons will be worth about 1 looking at Mark of the Lotus. It'd still be really strong but since it's not for this classes strongest decks that'll be fine.
Ghostly Charger: The beast tag is a bit weird in my class as I already have a few undead beasts such as grim grizzly. It makes sense given my hero would interact differently with an undead beast compared to an undead humanoid and since undead isn't a thing I think it'll be fine. As for the charge damage, if you wanna go face then you wont benefit from the immune and it's only 1 more damage than Leeroy Jenkins. Since I've been really careful with adding any burst damage to my class, I think I can get away with this.
Hybrid Hunter: Glad you like him! He's meant to be really good for stopping pirates (can kill Small-Time Buccaneer while they have no weapon) and he stops Maelstrom Portal from being so good. Would definitely have spiced up the meta if he was around at launch.
Tormented Subject: I donno, I actually thought it was kinda weak. I'm making concoct on draw effects stronger than normal as that can backfire and screw with your plans. With this you basically pay 4 mana for a 3 drop that draws a card. The draw just replaces him. I mean Watchful Gargoyle summons a 3/5 with taunt for concoct 2.
Bottled Venom: Glad you like it! It's also my only spell that can target face.
Flashback Potion: Glad you like it :D
Elixir of Rage: I costed it against Multi-Shot but you do need a minion so 3 seems fair.
Equilibrium Potion: Why do you find the wording weird? It's sort of single target as you can make it work on anything if you damage it a bit first but then your using more resources. It's mainly here to tech against jade decks if they ever get out of hand and control really needs help against jade.
Bad Omen: This is actually a lot more interesting than it seems at first glance. The main reason being spell damage. Throw this out, next turn play some spell damage cards and this can really hurt. Plus if you wanna OTK play two of these and drop a maly next turn for 16 damage to all enemies. At least it's an OTK with some prep your opponent gets to see (same with Bottled Venom) and I think it'd make for a more fun maly deck.
Patchwork Horror: Yeah you gave me that art haha. Glad you like it :P
Midas, Soul Shaper: This guy is a hard balance between having enough tokens, potions, and mana. You can reroll the legendary on 1 minion if you want and you can also use him on an enemy minion if you think it can't get much worse.
Once gain thanks for the feedback! It's helped heaps over the competition.
Check out my Custom Classes (Scribe, Alchemist, and Battlemage)!
First of all I want to give a thank you to Odinson for genuinely being this dedicated, and giving me and everyone else a chance to continue making our classes, including people like Mewdrops, suprisingly, who was one of my favourites while they were still in the competition.
Anyway, as for my faction, I'm going to be utilizing a new mechanic, much like how Jade Decks utilized Jade Golems. The actual Faction consists of three classes that utilize charisma and speechcraft, so obviously, the King, the Bard and the Merchant. The name for it is currently undecided, but the mechanic is called (At least for now) Empower. A card with Empower will cost more mana crystals if you have enough mana to pay it's cost. When it is paid, an effect triggers. For example, my common card, Something Duelist.
It's usually a Duskboar, but if you have 5 mana available when you play it, it turns into a 5/1 with charge. The problem with cards like Duskboar and Magma Rager is that they are too vulnerable, but in some scenarios, they can be played if you think they could survive. Scenarios like this appear quite infredquently though, and even in those cases, they aren't great.
This card would allow a second option, and usually, a significantly better option. It allows this low health minion to continue to be significant against Mages, Rogues, Druids and anyone else with tiny minions or weapons. The name is obviously a placeholder, and the colors on the flag will be changed, but that's my basic idea.
The other two cards are here.
Something Trader is the obligatory discover card, with a defensive statline, and Briona finally makes a return, with a potentially huge effect, and naturally, she's the head of the faction. However, that effect doesn't become terrible if you have combo pieces in your hand, as you can just play her as a really mediocre 3 drop if you have to. And with her effect, it's likely that your deck will have some kinda comboes in it.
Hey I'm sensing a bit of Dragon's Age Leliana and Orlais in general from your faction, because it mixes trade, royalty, politics and music together. After a short search, may I propose the Nightingales as the name? It's the name of an organization of bards-spies that worked for orlesian nobility. Or the name Leliana takes as bard-spy for the Chantry, can't remember. It fits the theme.
I like your keyword, it is the same as the one I used for the Adventure Creation Competition, and I think it adds a lot of interesting decision-making to the game. However, I'm not seeing a theme with your cards for the moment. The tribes that exist right now focus on a very specific mechanic that tri-class commons and legendaries share. I think a less open effect would fit these cards more, as such a wide keyword doesn't need to be self contained, and could be used in future sets. Furthermore, your common looks very scary. It would be an autoinclude in aggro decks as a 4 mana 5/1 Charge. I would rethink the whole tri-class mechanic.
To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.
To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.
To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.
Ok, I guess I should pull out what I've been working on.
ONiK
Explanation
Adventure Focus
With ONiK my focus was on keeping up with flavor while developing a bit of unique stuff. So the focus for me became spells that summon minions and buffs. We have a nice little suite of cards that have some functionality together, plus some of the existing Token generating effects that Racer already uses.
Winged Bellhop - ONiK is full of bottom up design. That means I started with a base idea from an existing item and then honed my card to fit this class. I looked at which bosses had room for a Class challenge and there weren't many options. So I went with The Crone. That instantly made me want to do a Monkey, since I felt like it was a shame we as players didn't get one, only the boss. Racer is pretty good at overcoming small mana increases with Draft and of course we have a good amount of buffs and tokens so we get in at a premium.
Gadgetzan Wormhole - There aren't really any portals to Gadgetzan, but those crafty engineers have invented Wormhole devices to get to places they need to get to. Positioned just south of the Shimmering Flats, home of the Mirage Raceway, Gadgetzan is the perfect place to land. It also gives us an interesting little connection the next expansion. I went with this really weird two 0-Cost minions because most of the other costs were kind of taken, and I felt like I wanted to card to make 2 things. 0-Cost minions are a bit shallow, but its still something.
Midnight's Reigns - I always kind of liked Explorer's Hat, but it didn't have quite enough value. That's why I wanted to play on this bigger version. The value is still low, but higher impact overall, but also a bit more clunky to use. This is the card I'm least sure of in this set.
MSoG
Faction - The Leyline Defenders
Keyword and explanation
The Leyline Defenders are a group of individuals that actually aren't focused on a mad power grab, but more so in protecting a source of power for evil forces. These like-minded individuals have not only discovered these powerful leylines but help protect them from unsavory characters. Their presence is Gadgetzan is tied heavily to the surrounding areas like Un'Goro Crater, Uldum, and of course Tanaris itself with locations like the Caverns of Time. They are of few numbers and so they have recruited some of the swiftest and most skilled heroes from across Kalimdor to help them protect these points of interest.
The Infuse keyword comes from the natural energies which gradually increase the power of those near them. By using more of your mana you are able to tap into this new power and gain dynamic bonuses. Allowing you to effectively have 2 separate cards in 1. So similar to the scaling gained from other factions, instead of generating some sort of ever increasing value, like Jade or a very static bonus like Grimy Goons, we have two very fluid methods of use for each card.
A side note, if you haven't noticed I'm a huge comic book nerd, and I can't help but throw nods to characters and ideas. The basic idea here is to rip off the classic Defenders Marvel comic, something very different from the Series that will soon be coming to Netflix. Every legendary I've made and all my tri-class are fairly easy to identify Marvel charaters, some with fun twists.
Explanations
not quite there yet, very close but I ran out of time.
To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.