Mike Donais Talks Elementals, and Reveals FOUR New Cards!
In a blog today featuring discussion on Elementals, Mike Donais revealed four new cards!
As usual, you can find discussion threads for all the new cards below, but we've also got a special Elemental Tribe Discussion Thread.
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Announcement
Quote from BlizzardWhen venturing into Un’goro, be on your guard—the crater is home to huge dinosaurs, challenging Quests and primordial Elementals! Today we’re going to take a closer look at how Elementals were designed and what they do.
But first, check out this brand-new Shaman minion:
When you play an Elemental, their latent energy sticks around and other Elementals can make use of it on the following turn. Many Elementals in Journey to Un’goro get a bonus effect if you played an Elemental on the previous turn. Elementals in your hand will light up with a unique glow when this bonus is active.
There are a bunch of awesome new Elementals coming with Journey to Un’goro, but one Legendary Elemental takes the mechanic of soaking up elemental power to an extreme:
Yes, we have definitely seen this guy reach 30 health.
How did we come up with the Elemental mechanic?
We want each minion type to have its own unique feel and gameplay. When working on the Blackrock Mountain adventure, we decided some cards should get a bonus while you’re holding a Dragon in your hand. This let Dragon decks focus on having large minions, and their mechanic mitigates the downside of holding onto an expensive Dragon while you wait to have enough mana. We knew we had to come up with something unique for Elemental decks that made them feel very different.
During the initial design phase of a set, we explore a lot of ideas—even ones we know won’t work in the end—because iterating on those ideas helps us learn what kinds of things are fun. Maybe we try one mechanic that turns out to be bad, but along the way we discover a certain element of it is entertaining. We can then make a new mechanic that gets right to the heart of the fun.
In Journey to Un’Goro, we knew we wanted to add Elementals, and we tried about 10 different mechanical designs. By playing with each design and discussing them, we narrowed in on the best ones. Eventually, we chose our favorite and adjusted all the Elementals to match the one we liked best.
What other designs for Elementals did we try out?
1. Elementals get a bonus if you cast a spell this turn.
2. Elementals get a bonus if the last card you played was an Elemental.
3. Elementals get a bonus if the last minion you played was an Elemental.
4. Elementals get a bonus if you control another Elemental.
5. Elemental was a minion type and a spell type.
6. Gain Elemental Charges and spend them to power up Elementals.Each of these designs hit us with different problems or challenges, causing us to eventually arrive at the mechanic we shipped with.
Do all the new Elementals have this new mechanic?
No, there are plenty of other Elementals in the set.
Check out the new cards Fire Fly and Flame Geyser - and their token, Flame Elemental:
Both of these cards can help set up big plays by giving you 1-Cost minions you can play to power up your other Elementals.
Previously, we revealed Pyros. Pyros is particularly great because it can help trigger your Elementals when you play each incarnation of him.
Why do we like this mechanic for Elementals?
Elementals are fun because you can plan future turns in advance and get rewarded for it. You end up playing your turn differently because you’re thinking about what you want to do on your next turn …and even the turn after.
Some of the Elemental cards are particularly good in control decks. Notice how Stone Sentinel is a late game card that gives you two Taunt minions? Ozruk, the new Legendary Elemental, is a huge Taunt minion when played in a deck with lots of other small Elementals.
What existing cards became Elementals?
When we created the Elemental minion type, we knew we would want to change some existing cards to become Elementals. We went back and looked at every Hearthstone card one by one and decided which ones to change.
Here are the 18 cards we changed into Elementals:
- Water Elemental
- Anomalus
- Ragnaros Lightlord
- Lightspawn
- Dust Devil
- Unbound Elemental
- Fireguard Destroyer
- Rumbling Elemental
- Earth Elemental
- Fire Elemental
- Neptulon
- Al’Akir the Windlord
- Arcane Anomoly
- Ice Rager
- Magma Rager
- Frost Elemental
- Baron Geddon
- Ragnaros the Firelord
What you should expect from Elementals in Un'Goro
There are about 25 new Elementals in Un’goro. We decided to put them primarily in Shaman and Mage because those are the classes that traditionally use elemental magic and summon things like Water Elementals and Fire Elementals. However, there are a bunch of Elementals in neutral and the other classes, so everyone can dabble in Elementals if they want to.
The elementals are callin’ and if you put them all in, you gon’ be ballin’.
Learn more about Journey to Un'Goro!
Visit our expansion guide to look at all the new cards that have been revealed so far, as well as anything else you want to know about the new expansion!
Could Frost Elemental be buffed into viability? that'd be pretty neat.
it was played with Corruption in some Renolocks
These also should have been Elemental:
Hallazeal the Ascended: Water Elemental Ascendant
Mana Wraith: Arcane Wraith a.k.a. Mana Elemental
Mana Wyrm & Red Mana Wyrm: Even though Mana Wyrms are tamable by hunters in WoW, they are not beasts. In fact they are some type of Arcane elemental creatures. Just like Arcane Anomaly & Anomalus.
Djinni of Zephyrs: a high ranking Air Elemental
Mana Geode: Some type of crystal-like elemental creature
Some uncollectibles like Twilight Elemental and Spirit Wolf are also elemental creatures.
True elementals (fire, earth, air, water) are tied to the elemental planes, a fusion of life-giving spirit with one of the four natural elements.
Arcane, shadow, and fel "elementals" aren't really elementals in the same sense of the word, as they exist outside of the natural elements. They're usually created to act as familiars, or are anomalies accidentally created from volatile magic. And mana wyrms and mana serpents aren't elementals either, they just feed on arcane energy. I don't believe Mana Geodes are actually considered elementals either. Elemental ascendants are shamans or cultists who have transformed into elemental beings, but are likewise not true elementals.
You're right about the djinni, though.
Look what I found: http://wow.gamepedia.com/Elemental
See it for yourselves guys.
I can only shoot down one of your suggestions, Mana Wraith is a ghost, just like Fallen Hero and Wailing Soul.
I really don't understand why Twilight Elemental wasn't made an Elemental (I made, it literally has the word "Elemental" in its name). I think Mana Wraith and Spirit Wolf is a bit questionable (I'd argue that Spirit Wolfs are closer to Beast than they are to Elemental), but I agree with all of the rest.
I especially agree with Mana Geode, as Geodes are considered Elementals by the Wowwiki. I feel like making him (and his Crystal tokens, even though they wouldn't trigger the synergy) be an Elemental might be what makes him viable. Hallazeal as an Elemental would also be awesome. I do imagine Blizzard will make some of these changes later.
OK I have to admit, I've always thought Mana Wraiths were undead because of their look but wowpedia says otherwise. Fallen Hero is clearly undead but I'm still not so sure about Mana Wraith.
Mana Wyrms are a unique type of arcane elementals (lore-wise). In that case, think of the Phoenix (Pyros) which is some type of fire elemental.
Spirit Wolves are elementals of spirit (which is considered as the fifth element in the WoW Chronicle book). So yeah, elementals.
And Mana Wyrm is a creature purely made of arcane. And they were created/summoned by High Elves (I get that info from a Blood Elf quest on Sunstrider Isle). Blizzard made them beasts in-game, only for the gameplay purposes. Once again, I know that arcane is not a true element, it's actually titan blood. Bu if Mana Wyrms are not true elementals, so are Anomalus and Arcane Anomaly.
I'm OK with Spirit Wolves not being elementals though, because it's not confirmed in the lore. That was my take. In the Chronicle books, it is said that spirit (spirit of life) is the fifth element and there are some types of creatures tied to that element. I assume Spirit Wolf is one of those creatures.
Mana Wraith is supposed to be a Wraith that eats mana not one thats made out of mana, and is thus undead and not an elemental.
cool stuff incoming
most of the set is pretty much anti aggro from what ive seen and think about - what are your thoughts on this guys?
RIP Am'gam Rager, why isn't him an elemental
Yeah making Lightspawn an Elemental and not Am'gam Rager seems inconsistent to me.
Soon elementals will take place of pirates..let's hope that they can at least challenge jades also..These cards though don't give many clues about synergies with other cards but they pretty are more tempo-control cards..
I love the Brode
quotebar to end the blog post.Great. Just what we need more garbage cards. Still not preordering!!
Another Tempo Mage with Elementals. Wow, so exciting. I see blizzard's creativity at works.
Anyone else thinks Lightspawn shouldn't be an elemental? It is a being made from the light, not an element.