The Initial Design of the Curse of Naxxramas Adventure Rewards
Ben Brode shared a document today on his Twitter account which showed what the initial design of the Naxxramas Adventure rewards looked like from back in 2013. There's not too many cards that ended up making it to the final set, but it sure does make you wonder what things could have been like with a Loatheb that prevented all healing instead of just increasing the cost of spells for a turn.
Interestingly, the list only has 25 cards on it, 5 less than the 30 we actually received. It's almost as if they didn't originally intend to have extra rewards for the end of each wing. This is further validated by not seeing any of the end of wing bosses on the list other than our best bud Loatheb. Of course, that's just some good ol' speculation.
Update: Ben doesn't believe at this point in design they had figured out the structure.
Quote from Ben BrodeI'm curious, there's only 25 cards here. Was this before it was decided that wings would reward cards?
I don't think we had figured out the single-player structure at this point.
Cards That Evolved
Some cards from initial design ended up making it into the game with slight modifications.
- Dread Creeper eventually became Haunted Creeper. The cost was dropped by 1, and the attack was dropped by 2.
- Stoneskin Gargoyle had no text or name change but did cost 2 less in the original design but had 2 less health. It was also a Beast - OP!
- Shade of Naxxramas started out weaker at 1/1 and instead took a full turn longer to get onto the field. Ouch.
Fun Observations
- Warriors would have had a killer card to go along with their Taunt synergies that exist today thanks to Tank Swap.
- Mages see an early version of Shatter. It cost 2 more mana but it destroyed every Frozen minion.
- Rogues were always destined for Poisonous awesomeness, something they brought recently with Envenom Weapon.
- The Karazhan Druid card Enchanted Raven is seen in the set, but as the Hunter card Plaguebat.
- Only six cards have Deathrattle in the initial design whereas fifteen ended up with it in final - half the set!
- Necroknight is actually present in the game in its initial form, but not as a collectible card; It's a boss exclusive for many Naxx bosses.
- Mr. Bigglesworth was deemed unworthy of a collectible card and was instead given an extra attack point and made as an easter egg during the Kel'Thuzad fight.
- Initial design saw 7 spells coming out for the classes, but we only ended up with 4.
The Design Document
Here's the screenshot of the document that Ben shared.
More articles like this. This is interesting
Sapphiron would've been so cool.
Always knew Sludge Belcher was a fucking after thought, now we have the document to prove it!
Most broken expansion ever.
Oooooooh! The health ban would be an awesome addition!
There are some really interesting cards here, i wonder why some of them were never used.
"Health can't be resorted." Make it happen! - SMorc
Naxx round 2 lets go
Like always priest still bad class design ever. Every spell they launch you will need a minion to trigger the effect otherwise is useless. Look at other classes spells and you will note that. Priest always need a condition and this is bad because what we have now is aggro deck more powerful than before that end you in 5 turns. Really, blizzard deserve a competition from other company to learn something. This list has better cards than some in naxx.
thank god sapphiron wasn't printed that card is absurd
I think we should thank God, Blizzard, Yogg, the Sun, Aetherium, Sheogorath, Einstein and Stannis Baratheon that some of those cards never saw the light of day. *Shudders*
Stitched Giant was supposed to be a 10/10? All the gia ts were changed to 8/8 very early on, so this list was probably done before the closed beta was even live.
Death charger would have been so op
Changing the format? New cards? Naxx card buffs? More challenges? :D
Necro Knight seems like it could be a real card.
I had a feeling Necroknight was supposed to be a playable card at some point, although Skeletal Smith and (non heroic) Worshipper also felt like those kinds of cards and aren't listed.
I miss Shade of Naxxramas !!!
Look at all those beautiful "minions adjacent" effects. Too bad we're all too dumb to handle such complexity. If only our tiny brains were capable of understanding this complicated mechanic, there might have actually been skill in this game.