Hearthpwn

Quote from Demonxz95 >>

Quote from linkblade91 >>

I figured it out: I'll just reword the Trial card for now. The rules state that the example cards don't have to continue existing in their current form, so it's not even a subversion of the rules. Bam: 

Crisis averted; I have a Trial card to show as an example. The obvious answers are the hardest for me >_>

So, the fact that they don't have a Mana cost is interesting. Can they be played? Are they just dead cards if you draw them?

A good thing to mention heh. I'm gonna explain that in my submission with this info box:

Trial cards do not cost mana, because they are played automatically at the start of the game. They take up space in your deck initially, but they cannot be drawn or generated and they remove themselves from your deck upon activation, after the mulligan...like what Quests should have done *shrugs*

A reminder for the Burden takes the form of a purple gem, just like the orange gem for Quests.

Being "0-mana" also means that Trial cards can function with Genn Greymane; Baku gets the Quests, Genn gets the Trials.

 

@CheeseEtc Yeah, I originally was going to make it identical to your Chef's Roast keyword, but then I remembered that you had made that keyword. (One of my favorite classes btw.) I'm probably going to attempt to rework my second expac based on feedback along with the Rummage mechanic because I realized it's un-fun to mill your opponent. Thank you for your feedback anyways!

A quick Freya version 3, buffed to hopefully make her less embarrassing when compared to Darkscale Healer, and hopefully highlighting the whole "more powerful when defending Ulduar" thing. In other news, for those who have read my original post (on page 16, I think?) what are peoples' thoughts on shift? It's by far the mechanic I'm most concerned about. I am actively trying to make it more clear, but still. Thanks in advance for any advice.

  

Another thing, what would people recommend as far as visual standards are concerned. As in, should I endeavor to get banners/custom year icons? And if so, how? Also, would you all recommend updating my original post to reflect the new versions of cards? or should I just leave it for the final submission? 

Quote from WhiteKitsune >>

In other news, for those who have read my original post (on page 16, I think?) what are peoples' thoughts on shift? It's by far the mechanic I'm most concerned about. I am actively trying to make it more clear, but still. Thanks in advance for any advice.

 ...

Another thing, what would people recommend as far as visual standards are concerned. As in, should I endeavor to get banners/custom year icons? And if so, how? Also, would you all recommend updating my original post to reflect the new versions of cards? or should I just leave it for the final submission? 

 Shift is definitely confusing. Part of it is the over-explanation in the tooltip (tooltips should always be concise), and part of it is because you want to rotate through effects in a specific order. If you remove that requirement, you could get away with "Shift: Spend X Mana to switch between effects." Short, concise, and the idea is still there: You get effect A (or nothing) until you spend mana to get effect B, or if there's a third option you spend a different Shift amount to get effect C. That provides an added side-benefit of being able to switch to a specific Shift effect on the fly for greater versatility. I know it's not the same, but you might have to sacrifice the specific-rotation to alleviate the complexity :/

As far as the visual stuff, I am relying almost entirely on materials you can find on Hearthcards, like the larger text-banner under the More section. The rest of my stuff comes down to changing the word color, adding in Blockquote boxes and Spoilers, and other things you can find in HearthPwn's Edit tool. Some people are using custom icons - you don't have to - and others are using a program like Paint to customize an image with added words - you don't have to do that either, if you don't want to. I would definitely do something to make your Year stand out, but exactly how you want to do that is entirely up to you. If you ask nicely I imagine the artistically-inclined can help you out :)

Lastly, when and if you make several major changes to your Year-post's content, we're fine if you want to "bump" your post with the new stuff. Going back several pages in a thread to update your original post is probably not going to achieve much: not everyone is going to go backwards to check out what changed, you know? Some of that stuff is a week old by now; horrifically out-of-date, compared to our usual timetables. As long as you're not excessively bumping your entire post over and over again, the occasional "okay, here's what it would like after I made those 8 changes" is fine. This is a Big Comp, and that comes with Big Posts :)

Bumping my post:

Quote from waterwaIker >>

I've been kinda in a hurry these past three days, so I'm just gonna leave this here to see if I can get some feedback and come back after thursday to give mine and submit.

Welcome to the...

"Why a Hydra?", you might ask. There's a pretty simple explanation for this: so far, there's sort of a cycle going on with the Standard Years: first, we get an aquatic animal, then a terrestrial and a flying one. First, there was the Kraken, then the Mammoth, and later, the Raven, so it is fitting that we restart the cycle with another sea monster, right? It's worth noting the choice of the Hydra will have no influence whatsoever on the expansions, much like it has been so far.

So, rotation is upon us once again; this time, all the cards that we got in the Year of the Mammoth are going to Wild (plus three Classic cards I'm going to discuss down the line), so it means no more Un'Goro, Frozen Throne or Kobolds & Katacombs. I'm sure we're all pretty sad to lose such fun cards like Voidlord and Hadronox, but fear not mates, 'cus we're starting the Year of the Hydra with a pretty fun, whacky expansion that's all about flavor and cool, new interactions: ladies and gentleman, it's Lights, Cancer Cards, Action!

(The names of the sets are still subject to change. I probably won't be able to make banners in time for the first phase, but if I get past it, there's sure to be one for each expansion.)

LIGHTS, CARDS, ACTION!

The Mechannes Film Festival is being held at Ironforge for the first time ever! Envisioned by the filmmakers of Gnollywood as an opportunity to showcase the production of the nascent gnomish film industry, the event features all kinds of movies and is sure to keep everyone entertained for the entirety of its duration!

By the time the first expansion hits, the power level of decks is at its lowest, which means cards can be made less competitive and more fun and still see play, so we get to experiment with mechanics unlike anything you've seen before. Most of these will be one-of-a-kind and, maybe, who knows, they'll be further explored in the future. For that reason, there are no new keywords this time around. This is also gonna be the most light-hearted expansion in this Year, and with such a setting, expect lots of puns and references.

Abramm van Hellscream is a famous fictional figure in Azeroth. A Hunter whose name was inspired by the legendary family of Orcs, he made his first appearance on a novel by Brann Stoker (not to be confused with Brann Bronzebeard) as a sworn enemy of the Darkfallen, a group of vampiric, undead blood elves. Now he's getting his own feature film, filled to the brim with plotholes and cheap action sequences, just like it should be!

Flavor text: "Aren't the vampires he hunts the ones supposed to have Lifesteal? And how the heck is he supposed to turn into a Worgen at the end!? He's an Orc, duh. Geez, who writes these things?"

Mildly Annoyed Max is a long-running franchise set in an alternate Draenor, one which never came into contact with the Burning Legion. The Orcs in this world had their own Well of Eternity, which, upon being destroyed, sparked a war that sent society spiraling into chaos. In this dystopic future, gangs fight for control of the wastelands and the last reserves of Mana available.

Flavor text: "With or without him, most of the times, if you don't play on curve, you'll just lose anyway."

A SONG OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS

Following the whackiness of Lights, Cards, Action, we're going straight to Argus, sometime before the events of Legion, to join the fight against the Burning Legion!

Many people have crafted expansions around the Burning Legion before, so this time we're gonna set them aside and focus on the Naaru and their cosmic Army of the Light! Be prepared to fight alongside not only Draenei, but also mechanical constructs and interdimensional travelers! This is the closest it can get to sci-fi while keeping it lore-friendly.

A Song of Light and Darkness introduces the new keyword Relay, which works exactly like Explosive Runes. It's actually a pretty simple effect to understand, and by making it into a keyword, we can explore new interactions with it and improve the overall complexity of the cards, while still keeping them relatively simple and straightforward. This is what I'm aiming for with the two new keywords of the Year of the Raven. More on the second one later.

Arcane Channeler is more of a card for Wild Freeze Mage, where it has potentially devastating synergy with cards like Dragon's Fury, but in Standard, it's pretty tame.

Flavor text: "Ever wanted to rain Meteors at your opponent's face? Now you can."

Alleria Windrunner is a well-known character in the Warcraft lore. After she and her lover Turalyon disappeared in Outland, they joined the Army of the Light and battled for centuries in the Twisting Nether, where time passes way slower than in our reality. Somewhere in this timespan, she became able to tap into the power of the Void, and learned to harness it for noble purposes. Her effect is reminiscent of the Anduin DK's Hero Power, Voidform.

This is not a card I intend to keep; I just wanted to show the whole "Darkness" thing is not necessarily related to the Burning Legion.

Flavor text: "After all this time, she's still forever sworn to the Alliance, and now her sister is the Warchief of the Horde. Oh boy, their family reunions must be hella fun."

BEFORE THE SUNDERING

Last, but not least, we have Before the Sundering! This expansion continues on the trend of experimenting with unorthodox mechanics which started with Lights, Cards, Action, but takes it a step further in power level. It's also gonna feature lots of disruption and combo-oriented cards.

"Brann Bronzebeard is organizing a museum exhibit of the early history of Azeroth: everything that happened before the Great Sundering, up to the time the Pantheon stumbled upon the world, then dominated by the Old Gods and their Black Empire. Join him as we go back in time and learn the forgotten truth about the past!"

With such a long timespan to work with, you can expect to see lots of different flavors: younger versions of beloved characters in the WoW lore, trolls - the race which dominated the world long before the human kingdoms were even a thing - as well as titan-forged, night elves, pandaren and many others.

Now let's get to the new keyword, Foresee! It turns out that, much like we can look back at the past, some of the people then, those gifted with the Sight, are able to see us in turn, right here, right now. As was Relay, this is also a pretty simple effect, kinda like Hearthstone's own version of MtG's Scry, tweaked to fit the way the game works.

Tyr, the bravest of the titanic watchers, was a key piece in the game that led to the creation of the Dragon Aspects.

Flavor text: "After the proto-dragon Galakrond ate his hand, he replaced it with a silver prosthetic. But he already had silver skin, so I guess nothing changed after all."

Faceless Reflection is part of a trend you'll see in the Rogue cards in this set: turning gimmicks into viable, powerful strategies. It allows you to cheat during deckbuilding, something I've explored long ago with my Varangian class.

Flavor text: "The C'Thraxxi are the much bigger, clawed relatives of the squid-like faceless. Unlike their lesser brethren, they can not only transform into other minions, but spells and weapons as well. Makes perfect sense."

And to wrap it all up, the

HALL OF FAME

MANA WYRM

This card is everything a low-cost minion shouldn't be: it's hard to remove, as it has the best possible statline for its cost, and it can easily snowball out of control if left unchecked. I've always hated this card, even before it's version on steroids was printed for Shaman and created one of the worst, most stale metas the game's ever had. Anyone who ever faced a Mana Wyrm, Coin, Mana Wyrm on turn one probably hates it as well. Time to say goodbye to this piece of shitty design. Replacement: Arcane Artificer (It serves an entire different purporse whatsoever, but it's a Common on the same mana slot and provides the class with survivability after they lost their best defensive spell, Ice Block.)

DIVINE FAVOR

It's either this or Battle Rage. Both cards are very powerful draw engines, but Divine Favor can turn the tide of a game from what would seem like certain defeat. I just have to figure out which one will make things easier for me when I have to design cards for the future expansions. Replacement: Unidentified Maul (A low cost, reasonably powerful card to make Pally's Classic set a little bit less worse. There really aren't that many Rare cards which I think would be a fitting replacement for Divine Favor, so I guess this one will have to do.)

BLADE FLURRY

Cost changed to (2). Same reasoning behind the rotation of Molten Giant. Replacement: Dark Iron Skulker

Alright, that's it, finally.

I'm gonna reply to every post that came after mine, from last to first.

@linkblade91 I suppose playing with 1 less card in your deck and buffing your minion is counterbalanced by not even being able to use your Hero Power. I'd like to see more trial cards to try and evaluate them.

@CheeseEtc I don't really understand your question. If you ask that about GvG, for example, what answer do you expect to get? Is it Mechs? Or Karazhan? It's a party and some shit happens with Malchezzar but that's about it. I don't think any expansion has had a fully developed backstory or anything similar ever since Blackrock Mountain, if that's what you mean by theme. Normally they have a setting, a specific flavor and some characters to contextualize the events.

Lights, Cards, Action takes place in a film festival where directors go to showcase their work and maybe win some prizes and the characters are the people who work to make this possible (the filmmakers themselves, but also actors, critics, etc) and, of course, the characters in the films themselves. A Song of Light and Darkness is set in the Twisting Nether, mostly Argus, and tells the story of the Army of Light's fight against the Burning Legion through a different lens, with a more sci-fi vibe. I'm not gonna show the defeat of Sargeras (mostly because it takes place before Legion) just like no card ever showed what happened to C'Thun or N'Zoth in WotOG.

And yeah, I believe Relay is called Pierce in Yu-Gi-Oh, right? And Trample in Magic.

@TheProgenitor How would plan work within the game's UI? Is it like a mulligan, where you click the cards you want to throw away? Experiment could benefit from some revision. Maybe you should write like "Experiment: Summon a 3/3 Elemental" and specify that what happens whenever you Experiment is the sum of what has already happened before in the keyword itself. That is assuming I get what it does, which I'm not sure I do. Seems like a more convoluted version of Encore from that metal expansion someone had in the first pages. Also, Ultra Growth Promoter is just so damn weak. It's a 10-drop that doesn't do anything by itself and you need very specific, usually underwhelming cards to make it work.

@Sillyraptor Just why does Yeti need a powercreep like that? I think Hunt would be better if it started when you cast it. Imagine drawing these things when you're behind. I think Bog Strider is more powerful than you give it credit for; it's kinda like a 4/10, except it's not. Why do the three expansions feel like they're the same? I think you should try to diversify it more. Leave the whole hunting thing for the first set.

@WhiteKitsune You should probably try to simplify the wording of Naj'entus' effect. By the time I finished reading it, I couldn't figure out what it does 'cus I'd already forgotten what I had read. (I have a really short attention-span.) I like the setting of your second expansion, and the keyword seems alright, though I don't like the name. And how does Shift work within the game's UI? It seems like you're trying to give every class acess to Choose One. At Any Cost! could probably cost 1, btw. Depends on how many cards you will print that generate Coins.

@Lathy Nice icon, lol. So, where do I click to trigger the Ponder effect? Does it work like a Choose One effect? Stall seems really interesting. Damn, looks like everyone is making a Stranglethorn expansion. I don't like that you're making a Troll tribe. Just look at the other existing tribes: they're either comprised of animalistic, mostly non-sentient, sometimes sentient creatures (like Beasts, Murlocs, Elementals in general); beings which would probably never become a playable race in WoW (like Demons and Mechs) or in the case of Pirate, a "job" or maybe I should call it a lifestyle.

@ThisOtherGuyTox Your keywords seem inspired by MtG. Alter-Ego is like those ninjas from Kamigawa, if I'm not mistaken, and Script is a lot like Saga. I had a really similar idea some days ago, which I then turned into the Tale cards that got scrapped. I think it's ok to not reveal the card when an Emulate effect triggers, but at the same time it wouldn't hurt, as most people would know what you have when they read the effect. You could probably do away with Stage-Left and Right and just write "leftmost/rightmost card in your hand".

@Wishmaster333 When I look at your first two cards, I don't picture a savannah in my mind. You can barely see the plains behind Sorin Markov. I'm not a fan of weapons for every class either, but that's a personal nitpick and overall the cards seem fine. I like Seamstress especially, but I detest the idea of having Duelist on a Taunt minion, even more so a fully-statted one. Btw, flavorwise, Salvage seems to fit better the first expansion than the last one.

Quote from waterwaIker >>

Bumping my post:

Quote from waterwaIker >>

I've been kinda in a hurry these past three days, so I'm just gonna leave this here to see if I can get some feedback and come back after thursday to give mine and submit.

Welcome to the...

"Why a Hydra?", you might ask. There's a pretty simple explanation for this: so far, there's sort of a cycle going on with the Standard Years: first, we get an aquatic animal, then a terrestrial and a flying one. First, there was the Kraken, then the Mammoth, and later, the Raven, so it is fitting that we restart the cycle with another sea monster, right? It's worth noting the choice of the Hydra will have no influence whatsoever on the expansions, much like it has been so far.

So, rotation is upon us once again; this time, all the cards that we got in the Year of the Mammoth are going to Wild (plus three Classic cards I'm going to discuss down the line), so it means no more Un'Goro, Frozen Throne or Kobolds & Katacombs. I'm sure we're all pretty sad to lose such fun cards like Voidlord and Hadronox, but fear not mates, 'cus we're starting the Year of the Hydra with a pretty fun, whacky expansion that's all about flavor and cool, new interactions: ladies and gentleman, it's Lights, Cancer Cards, Action!

(The names of the sets are still subject to change. I probably won't be able to make banners in time for the first phase, but if I get past it, there's sure to be one for each expansion.)

LIGHTS, CARDS, ACTION!

The Mechannes Film Festival is being held at Ironforge for the first time ever! Envisioned by the filmmakers of Gnollywood as an opportunity to showcase the production of the nascent gnomish film industry, the event features all kinds of movies and is sure to keep everyone entertained for the entirety of its duration!

By the time the first expansion hits, the power level of decks is at its lowest, which means cards can be made less competitive and more fun and still see play, so we get to experiment with mechanics unlike anything you've seen before. Most of these will be one-of-a-kind and, maybe, who knows, they'll be further explored in the future. For that reason, there are no new keywords this time around. This is also gonna be the most light-hearted expansion in this Year, and with such a setting, expect lots of puns and references.

Abramm van Hellscream is a famous fictional figure in Azeroth. A Hunter whose name was inspired by the legendary family of Orcs, he made his first appearance on a novel by Brann Stoker (not to be confused with Brann Bronzebeard) as a sworn enemy of the Darkfallen, a group of vampiric, undead blood elves. Now he's getting his own feature film, filled to the brim with plotholes and cheap action sequences, just like it should be!

Flavor text: "Aren't the vampires he hunts the ones supposed to have Lifesteal? And how the heck is he supposed to turn into a Worgen at the end!? He's an Orc, duh. Geez, who writes these things?"

Mildly Annoyed Max is a long-running franchise set in an alternate Draenor, one which never came into contact with the Burning Legion. The Orcs in this world had their own Well of Eternity, which, upon being destroyed, sparked a war that sent society spiraling into chaos. In this dystopic future, gangs fight for control of the wastelands and the last reserves of Mana available.

Flavor text: "With or without him, most of the times, if you don't play on curve, you'll just lose anyway."

A SONG OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS

Following the whackiness of Lights, Cards, Action, we're going straight to Argus, sometime before the events of Legion, to join the fight against the Burning Legion!

Many people have crafted expansions around the Burning Legion before, so this time we're gonna set them aside and focus on the Naaru and their cosmic Army of the Light! Be prepared to fight alongside not only Draenei, but also mechanical constructs and interdimensional travelers! This is the closest it can get to sci-fi while keeping it lore-friendly.

A Song of Light and Darkness introduces the new keyword Relay, which works exactly like Explosive Runes. It's actually a pretty simple effect to understand, and by making it into a keyword, we can explore new interactions with it and improve the overall complexity of the cards, while still keeping them relatively simple and straightforward. This is what I'm aiming for with the two new keywords of the Year of the Raven. More on the second one later.

Arcane Channeler is more of a card for Wild Freeze Mage, where it has potentially devastating synergy with cards like Dragon's Fury, but in Standard, it's pretty tame.

Flavor text: "Ever wanted to rain Meteors at your opponent's face? Now you can."

Alleria Windrunner is a well-known character in the Warcraft lore. After she and her lover Turalyon disappeared in Outland, they joined the Army of the Light and battled for centuries in the Twisting Nether, where time passes way slower than in our reality. Somewhere in this timespan, she became able to tap into the power of the Void, and learned to harness it for noble purposes. Her effect is reminiscent of the Anduin DK's Hero Power, Voidform.

This is not a card I intend to keep; I just wanted to show the whole "Darkness" thing is not necessarily related to the Burning Legion.

Flavor text: "After all this time, she's still forever sworn to the Alliance, and now her sister is the Warchief of the Horde. Oh boy, their family reunions must be hella fun."

BEFORE THE SUNDERING

Last, but not least, we have Before the Sundering! This expansion continues on the trend of experimenting with unorthodox mechanics which started with Lights, Cards, Action, but takes it a step further in power level. It's also gonna feature lots of disruption and combo-oriented cards.

"Brann Bronzebeard is organizing a museum exhibit of the early history of Azeroth: everything that happened before the Great Sundering, up to the time the Pantheon stumbled upon the world, then dominated by the Old Gods and their Black Empire. Join him as we go back in time and learn the forgotten truth about the past!"

With such a long timespan to work with, you can expect to see lots of different flavors: younger versions of beloved characters in the WoW lore, trolls - the race which dominated the world long before the human kingdoms were even a thing - as well as titan-forged, night elves, pandaren and many others.

Now let's get to the new keyword, Foresee! It turns out that, much like we can look back at the past, some of the people then, those gifted with the Sight, are able to see us in turn, right here, right now. As was Relay, this is also a pretty simple effect, kinda like Hearthstone's own version of MtG's Scry, tweaked to fit the way the game works.

Tyr, the bravest of the titanic watchers, was a key piece in the game that led to the creation of the Dragon Aspects.

Flavor text: "After the proto-dragon Galakrond ate his hand, he replaced it with a silver prosthetic. But he already had silver skin, so I guess nothing changed after all."

Faceless Reflection is part of a trend you'll see in the Rogue cards in this set: turning gimmicks into viable, powerful strategies. It allows you to cheat during deckbuilding, something I've explored long ago with my Varangian class.

Flavor text: "The C'Thraxxi are the much bigger, clawed relatives of the squid-like faceless. Unlike their lesser brethren, they can not only transform into other minions, but spells and weapons as well. Makes perfect sense."

And to wrap it all up, the

HALL OF FAME

MANA WYRM

This card is everything a low-cost minion shouldn't be: it's hard to remove, as it has the best possible statline for its cost, and it can easily snowball out of control if left unchecked. I've always hated this card, even before it's version on steroids was printed for Shaman and created one of the worst, most stale metas the game's ever had. Anyone who ever faced a Mana Wyrm, Coin, Mana Wyrm on turn one probably hates it as well. Time to say goodbye to this piece of shitty design. Replacement: Arcane Artificer (It serves an entire different purporse whatsoever, but it's a Common on the same mana slot and provides the class with survivability after they lost their best defensive spell, Ice Block.)

DIVINE FAVOR

It's either this or Battle Rage. Both cards are very powerful draw engines, but Divine Favor can turn the tide of a game from what would seem like certain defeat. I just have to figure out which one will make things easier for me when I have to design cards for the future expansions. Replacement: Unidentified Maul (A low cost, reasonably powerful card to make Pally's Classic set a little bit less worse. There really aren't that many Rare cards which I think would be a fitting replacement for Divine Favor, so I guess this one will have to do.)

BLADE FLURRY

Cost changed to (2). Same reasoning behind the rotation of Molten Giant. Replacement: Dark Iron Skulker

Alright, that's it, finally.

I'm gonna reply to every post that came after mine, from last to first.

@linkblade91 I suppose playing with 1 less card in your deck and buffing your minion is counterbalanced by not even being able to use your Hero Power. I'd like to see more trial cards to try and evaluate them.

 I mean, you could summon a Silver Hand Recruit onto an empty board: he'd be a 2/3 with Taunt and Rush for 2-mana. That ain't the worst play you could make. Plus like I've said before I'm gonna add a card like Dinomancy so Trial-Paladins can replace the standard Hero Power for something more their speed.

As for another Trial card, I've definitely been thinking about showing two of them together, instead of focusing hard on the Paladin like I've done up to this point. Here's another Trial that I have planned for the Priest; again, it's a WIP (feel free to say something if you'd like):

Have I not provided you feedback yet? I don't feel like going back to double-check, but if I haven't I definitely apologize; been trying to reciprocate to everybody who throws something my way.

1. It's funny that you're doing a movie theme for your first Expansion, 'cause I heard about Cogito/Tox/Oto's similar Expansion first. "Great minds" and all that :) I really like the concept, and it could be neat to see different film genres for each class (if you do that).
2. I love Van Hellscream: I'm also looking to bring Steamwheedle Sniper's effect into my Year in a very similar capacity (it'll be on the Hunter's Trial).
3. I was also planning to create an Alleria Windrunner card with that exact art lol: she's going to be the subject of the Hunter's Trial, so she'll be my non-Trial Hunter Legendary. The effect is pretty cool, too: I'm glad we both have Alleria's affinity for multi-attacks on the brain. You shouldn't have the "2" in the numerical form, though: cards like Rat Trap write the word out in full.
4. I can see Relay being an actual Keyword, so kudos there. I'm sure we'll get a Trample of our very own eventually.
5. Tyr could probably be worded "Start of Game: You can mulligan a second time." It's a lot neater that way.
6. I could see Faceless Reflection being okay if you could only copy non-Legendaries, but two copies of a Legendary is pretty nuts...and honestly defeats the point of the Legendary tier being what it is. That's two Leeroy Jenkins to burst someone down, two Zola the Gorgons to combo, two Sonya Shadowdancers for an infinite loop, etc. You'd frankly have to worry about this card for the rest of Hearthstone's life, whether it's in Standard or not :/

I think I might maybe be done this time. I've taken in a ton of feedback - thank you to everybody who pitched in! - and it should be good now unless someone spots something new to worry about. It's all in this super-Spoiler; I think I've taken up a lot of space already...

 Thank you again to everybody who helped me out. I'll keep providing reciprocating-feedback as best I can :)

Edit: Except maybe not tomorrow, 'cause I have a ton of IRL stuff to do...considering this has monopolized my thoughts for like a week straight, it might feel good to not think about it for a day lel

Greetings to all of you. I have finaly decided to join the competition. Here is what I have come up with so far.

So let me welcome you to the :

Why turtle? Well because turtles appear as calm animals with time to enjoy every moment, and that is what we should all do in the game we all probably love and hate.

First Expansion: The Brewfest Festival

Speaking of enjoyment allow me to introduce you the first expansion of the Year of the Turtle – The Brewfest Festival (TBF). This festival is part of WoW for quite some time and the time has come to bring it to Hearthstone alongside a new mechanic ...

Reinforce:

 Brews for everyone

 Second Expansion: Watchers of Ulduar (WoU)

During the Brewfest festival you learn about Titanic keepers - ancient creatures tasked with protecting Azeroth. You, alongside Krom Stoutarm - Ironforge historician and your guide, leave to a journey to meet with the keepers themselves. The Keepers control huge armies of their brethren - The Titan-forged.

New Minion Tribe - Titan-forged

 Keepers of Azeroth

 

Third Expansion: After the Reorigination (AtR)

AtR is a catastrophe-like scenario in which the Halls of Origination was launched and destroyed almost all life on Azeroth, with your Hero and a few others being out of reach. You assign yourself to the duty to use the Forge of Will and repopulate Azeroth. You might try to remember your past friends but no one’s memory is that great. And for this we have a new Keyword:

Remember your past

 Infinite Dragonflight

 Finale: Hall of Fame

 

Thank you for reading all of this stuff and tell me what do you think of all of this. I have some other cards in case these will not be the most optimal. 

 

 Alright, I'll try not to do too many more of these posts, since I've already taken up a lot of space. I promise I'll let you all move on soon. Anyway, here are a few options for updated shift tooltips. The last one is a shameless attempt to keep the fixed-order component, but I can easily lose that. I attached a slightly updated Aluriel for reference. The one big problem is the UI for it. I envision there being a button where ability icons already go, that the player could click to spend mana and switch abilites, but I have no idea how to even begin to represent that.

 

 

Quote from Reknar427 >>

Greetings to all of you. I have finaly decided to join the competition. Here is what I have come up with so far.

So let me welcome you to the :

Why turtle? Well because turtles appear as calm animals with time to enjoy every moment, and that is what we should all do in the game we all probably love and hate.

First Expansion: The Brewfest Festival

Speaking of enjoyment allow me to introduce you the first expansion of the Year of the Turtle – The Brewfest Festival (TBF). This festival is part of WoW for quite some time and the time has come to bring it to Hearthstone alongside a new mechanic ...

Reinforce:

Well I could not think of a better name for a keyword – I guess you could say to Reinforce yourself with a drink or two in english (Well it certainly can be said so in my language). As for the cards - Candlebeard is making a reappearance as a rogue legendary minion. With his ability he will Recruit a Pirate whenever you target him with Spell or Battlecry allowing for a new rogue archetype to rise.

 Brews for everyone

Calming Brew introduces a new card spell type for this expansion only - Brews. They are similar to Kazakus Potions, but all of them can only target a single minion.

Calming Brew is a great example of this, the Sleep effect is already in game as the summon sickness (Or something like that) in this case it works quite as a Freeze effect, but it is called sleep to keep the flavour of the card. Every class will get their own brew and the three main characters of this event will make an apperance as well.

 Second Expansion: Watchers of Ulduar (WoU)

During the Brewfest festival you learn about Titanic keepers - ancient creatures tasked with protecting Azeroth. You, alongside Krom Stoutarm - Ironforge historician and your guide, leave to a journey to meet with the keepers themselves. The Keepers control huge armies of their brethren - The Titan-forged.

New Minion Tribe - Titan-forged

Titan-forged are creatures that bolsters your army or themselves, when you summon another Titan-forged.

 Keepers of Azeroth

Turns out that Azeroth has exactly 9 Keepers, just as many as the number of classes in Hearthstone. What will that mean - every class will get one.

Odyn, Prime Designate is a new warrior legendary, capable of turning the tides of battle with his army of Valarjar. Incredibly strong minion as long as your opponent has more minions than you. 

 

Third Expansion: After the Reorigination (AtR)

AtR is a catastrophe-like scenario in which the Halls of Origination was launched and destroyed almost all life on Azeroth, with your Hero and a few others being out of reach. You assign yourself to the duty to use the Forge of Will and repopulate Azeroth. You might try to remember your past friends but no one’s memory is that great. And for this we have a new Keyword:

Remember your past

As an example I am showing you a Goldshire Footman, ehm Soldier sound better. You do remember this guy. He was from Stormwind army and was definetly wearing a cool guard helmet. You can say what his stats and mana cost were, but you cannot remeber his effect. Was it Stealth? Whenever you cast a spell gain +1 Attack? Or perhaps Taunt? No, certainly not Taunt… But as a maker and creator it is for you to decide…

Goldshire Soldier is a simple card to just explain the mechanic. The keyword itself will have much more to offer.

 Infinite Dragonflight

There are some creatures that prefer the new world and will do their best to sabotage all your actions. This is very guldany behavior…….

Infinite Vanquisher will undo whatever action your opponent did last. As an example your opponent has wiped your board with brawl and ends turn. Vanquisher will undo it so basicaly your opponent had done nothing and kept Brawl in his hand. But if he played Brawl and then decided to Hero Power Vanquisher will just neglect the Hero Power as this was his last action.

 Finale: Hall of Fame

Northshire Cleric - Priest in my opinion should not have such a strong 1-drop in its basic set not to mention that those extreme draws it can offer can be tiring. Rotating it might allow to experiment with other 1-drops like Lightwarden

Doomsayer - A staple in most control decks, it is time to rotate him and allow other removal to be played or created.

Mana Wyrm - Very popular candidate for rotation for obvious reasons. Extremly strong 1-drop that limits mage design space in cheap spells.

 

Thank you for reading all of this stuff and tell me what do you think of all of this. I have some other cards in case these will not be the most optimal. 

 

 

 The Brewfest Festival

• Reinforce is a pretty neat keyword. I like it.
• Don't really like Candlebeard. He's a character designed for another expansion and, I feel, doesn't fit here. I'd go for something more related to brews and stuff.

Watchers of Ulduar

• Titan-forged as a tribe? I'm not completely sure about it sicne they're intelligent humanoids and almost all intelligent humanoids are tribe-less. But I'll go with it.

After the Reorigination

• Remember I actually like. Though it can be very  dangerous depending on what minions you get, so be careful.

I actually represented my year in discussion topic, but i wanna change some things. If somebody hadn't read this, or don't remember it, he can just check it in spoilerino below:

 The changes are:

HoF: Doomguard will be now replaced with Defile(instead of Hooked Reaver) because it's nice board clear, which also have educational benefits because it learns math.

Rituals of Ihgaluk Crag: Cards I'll represnt are now:

and

Prophet of Blood: This minion is example of Prophecy usage. It has strong effect, but your opponent will have a whole turn to decrease it by trading and playing less minions. This guy will be also annoying if you have no other minions, because your opponent won't even trade to many minions with it, because it would heal you with lifesteal.

The Quivering Knight: This minion shows us, that I won't be boring, adding only Saurok minions. Also, this one shows new archetype for Paladin: Tauntadin. In each of my Expansions, most classes will get new archetype.

Pirates vs Ninjas: I changed idea of Locations. Now, when they're played, they'll begin to have permament effect on game.  You can have only one Location in play. Here are my example cards for this expansion:

 

The Furious Sea: Example of Location. In Murloc Shaman this could be undestroyable Murloc generator. This shows the power of Locations.

Undead Ninja: This one is made to explain what are Ninjas about. Of course most, maybe even all, of them have stealth. For the second, cards that interact with Ninjas, mostly interacts with Ninjas in your deck, because they're hiding there, but are still ready for sudden attack.

---

Terrors from Black Temple:  For the first, I changed wording of Mana Shield. Now it's easier to read:

Here are example cards for this expansion:

 

Naga Slayer: This one shows a Mana Shield mechanic. This one will be realy provided by it, because, with a bit luck and enough mana, you're able to kill even four minions. That's reason why this mechanic can be interesting.

Tortmaz, the Crazed Turtle: In this expansion, you will see many terrifying monsters like that. Deathrattle and Poisonous aren't rare thing there too. And new archetype for Hunter! Yay!

A quick question to mods: if my card shuffles 5 Runes to my deck, which are tokens, but also core cards of the set, can i show it as an example card? If not, how else can i show how do those Runes get into my deck?

Totally not tempted to change the "Fires of Azeroth" expansion to something more.... fun.

*cough cough something like "Chromie's Chronicles" cough*

EDIT: Not sure about mechanics - yet.

Quote from MrNightmare >>

A quick question to mods: if my card shuffles 5 Runes to my deck, which are tokens, but also core cards of the set, can i show it as an example card? If not, how else can i show how do those Runes get into my deck?

 No, unless you can explain what the Runes do in their entirety on the original card (you could always alter it later). If they all do one thing this might be manageable, but if we're talking like Chromie where every card shuffled into the deck is its own unique token, then no. Your card would require further explanation than what is provided at first glance, and we're trying to avoid that and keep presentations simpler.

I had a very similar problem with my Trial cards, but I shoved the token's text onto the main card so I could skirt by for now.

(...I'm doing a very poor job of focusing on the aforementioned IRL stuff I have to do...)

Quote from dropdead >>

I'm not a card design champion by any means, nor is my submission perfect so take this with a grain of salt but I feel like the most common mistake so far is squeezing WAY too much stuff in one's year. Each expansion introduces 2 new keywords, each class gets a quest again, everyone gets a secret and so on and so forth. That would be real difficult to grasp (inb4 confusing deckslots memes). Remember that you can put something unique in your expansion without actually keywording it - for example cycle of hogriders from Gadgetzan

 Definitely something everyone needs to keep in mind, but on the other side, look back at the Year of the Mammoth:

• New Keywords: Quest, Adapt, Poisonous (that's three in one expansion!), Lifesteal, and Recruit.
• New types of cards: Quests, Hero cards, Legendary Weapons (sort of).
• New mechanics: Spellstones, possibly a couple other things I don't have the time to find.
• New tribe: Elementals.
• Card-type being expanded to a new class: Rogue Secrets.

That's not an excuse to go totally ham with complexity, but the Year of the Mammoth was very successful despite adding all of that stuff to the game.

Quote from linkblade91 >>

Quote from MrNightmare >>

A quick question to mods: if my card shuffles 5 Runes to my deck, which are tokens, but also core cards of the set, can i show it as an example card? If not, how else can i show how do those Runes get into my deck?

 No, unless you can explain what the Runes do in their entirety on the original card (you could always alter it later). If they all do one thing this might be manageable, but if we're talking like Chromie where every card shuffled into the deck is its own unique token, then no. Your card would require further explanation than what is provided at first glance, and we're trying to avoid that and keep presentations simpler.

I had a very similar problem with my Trial cards, but I shoved the token's text onto the main card so I could skirt by for now.

(...I'm doing a very poor job of focusing on the aforementioned IRL stuff I have to do...)

 No, that's like Chromie. I've "shown" one rune in my post, other have different names and do different things. Maybe i'll just write about the mechanic in expansions's description and show a few names of runes designed so far as a part of something like "Inkeeper's Story" guiding people around this year

@mrnightmare if i readed rules correct, you can make runes a keyword just like spare parts