Welcome to my Chronomancer class concept! I've always loved time travel as a mechanic in both storytelling and game design. Having discovered Hearthstone about a year ago, as well as the thriving community around its custom cards and classes, I decided to take a shot at creating a class themed on space and time manipulation. The result is Aren'thal Sunwatcher, the Chronomancer.
Sets for all expansions except for Karazhan have been created. Coming soon!
· AREN'THAL SUNWATCHER, THE CHRONOMANCER ·
Lore: Aren'thal Sunwatcher
[Written by my good friend and extremely talented writer, Ryan Mennen!]
Anar’alah belore.
The tales we have heard in our lives are often before our time. After all, how could they be of what occurs after? Even a paradox must come to instance before it can be observed as such.
But this is not such a tale. It is a tale of one who would defy the telling order of his deeds. A being so great that his legacy precedes his existence. His name, as we will come to learn, was… is—will be Aren’thal Sunwatcher. But as his introduction is only at the very end of this tale, we shall speak of him as the Chronomancer.
There will come a time when all children of the Kaldorei will pass and the forsaken bastards of the Vrykul will reign supreme. Even in these ages, the strength of Stormwind grows over Azeroth, reforming it into the forgotten Azotha. But even then, the seeds of the Kaldorei will persist, ensuring that the strength of the clan is never forgotten eras beyond the night in the valleys beyond Hyjal. The Chronomancer claimed himself to be one such being.
Bearing all the markers of the first Kaldorei, the Chronomancer could have been, in our age, thought to be one of the Quel’dorei. But in an era ruled by humans, his Highborne traits gained him vile repute and fear. Shunned and shamed, the Chronomancer sought to end his abomination of life. On the cusp of death, however, he was challenged by a voice from the shadows.
Often, Aren has referred to these shadows as the shadows from within his mind, but I suspect it to be far more.
For from the depths of the valley the Chronomancer saw a shadowed reflection of himself rise, older but greater. Somehow more malicious but wiser. A Shaldorei! This reflection of himself branded him the Sunwatcher. The one who sees what the sun sees… but greater. From watching the moon, the Chronomancer is said to be able to see all that the sunlight falls upon on the following day.
It was this careful foreknowledge which he used to understand the confounding element of Time. Understanding that time was neither linear nor cyclical, neither fluid nor solid, the Chronomancer—with aid from his wizened self—mastered the truth of his existence: to return to before the extinction of the Kaldorei and prevent the descendants of the Vrykul from stampeding across Azeroth.
UNIQUE MECHANICS: WARP & ARRIVAL
A master of bending time and space to his will, the Chronomancer is able to call forth powerful minions across dimensions and history itself... but such potent magicks require ample time to manifest. This is reflected in two mechanics unique to the Chronomancer: Warp and Arrival.
In a nutshell, Warp is basically delayed summoning. Minions with Warp are delayed a number of turns before being summoned.
A few important points on how Warp works:
Warp delays are reduced at the start of the player's turn. So if you play a minion with Warp:(1) on Turn 1, the minion finishes Warping at the start of your Turn 2.
Minions that finish Warping cannot attack in the same turn — having been considered to only just been summoned, they will "Sleep" for a turn. An exception to this is if the Warping minion has Charge.
Warping minions cannot be targeted and are invulnerable until they exit warp.
Warping minions have a special frame around their portraits that also work as a countdown indicator. Here's how it looks like:
Warp In-depth
While Warping, minions are inactive and invulnerable -- they cannot be targeted by spells, hero powers, minion abilities unless it is otherwise stated. (e.g. A spell specifies that it specifically affects a Warping minion.)
This means that random damage effects such as Arcane Missiles would not consider Warping minions as a possible target.
They are, however, still vulnerable to non-targeted destroy effects such as Brawl or Deadly Shot.
Warping minions count as filling up one of 7 slots on the board.
Warp minions with Taunt have their Taunts temporarily disabled until they finish Warping.
The maximum turn delay for a warping minion is 3.
Arrival
The Arrival mechanic is very similar to Battlecry, but it differs in one very important way: instead of taking effect when the minion is summoned, Arrival takes effect when a minion with Warp has finished Warping.
This distinction is important: A minion with Warp and a Battlecry will still trigger its Battlecry immediately upon being played. And because there are certain spells and effects that the Chronomancer can utilize to put an active minion back into Warp, only its Arrival effect will trigger again once it exits Warp, whereas its Battlecry will not.
Because of how Arrival works, its effects cannot be targeted.
· HERO POWERS ·
As seen with Shadowstep, being able to return minions to hand offers a lot of versatility and possible value, but without board control, it's difficult to use Rewind and Recall to great effect. As such, the Chronomancer as a class is very reliant on minions for its win conditions.
· THEMES ·
Trading Speed for Value Similar to Shaman's Overload mechanic, the Chronomancer's class minions that come with Warp are often above the curve due to this disadvantage. But what sets the Chronomancer apart is a plethora of spells and abilities that interact with Warping minions, allowing the Chronomancer to set up surprising plays or trigger Arrival effects sooner than expected.
Forecasting While there are many cards in Hearthstone that are prized for being able to bring immediate value to the board, the Chronomancer goes the other way completely. With many of its minions having the Warp and Arrival mechanic, the Chronomancer makes it plain for the opponent to see what is to come in the turns to come, forcing them to play cautiously around them. Arrival effects are often very powerful as well, to make up for their lack of immediate value. Conversely, Chronomancer's spells and minion abilities with immediate effects are often weaker than normal.
Returning Minions to Hand The ability to return minions to hand is a powerful one, and the Chronomancer has this option any given time with his hero power, allowing him to make favourable trades and resummon damaged minions to maintain board control. Furthermore, many class minions have direct synergy with this mechanic.
Powerful Secrets Given that there are already 1, 2 and 3 cost Secrets in Hearthstone, the Chronomancer class introduces 4 cost Secrets. With higher cost comes greater power!
And now, on to the cards!
· BASIC SET ·
Basic Set: Commentary
The basic set introduces players to the Warp and Arrival mechanics as simply as possible, while aiming to offer a bit of diversity in deck building.
Kal'dorei Archer
The basic, bread & butter Warp minion. Offers Chronomancers a strong turn 1 card to play with little downside.
Hibernate
Hibernate's basic usage is to buff minions with Warp, offering value in place of speed. However, it can also be used to delay certain Arrival effects, which can work particularly well with minions such as the Arcane Shocktrooper.
Arcane Shocktrooper
The Chronomancer's basic board clear. It's great against Zoo and Aggro decks, forcing them to think twice before swarming their board with 1-2 health minions.
Prismatic Burst
A strong removal card for its cost with a rather situational side effect. With the right synergy, it can provide a great deal of value.
Enchantress
The first of the Chronomancer's minions that has a Warp manipulation effect, and it's a very versatile one. A 2-mana 3/2 body also assures that it's a strong body to play even if you can't find a way to gain value out of its ability. A must-include for basic value decks, and also versatile enough to find a slot in more specialized decks given how many of the Chronomancer's minions have Warp.
Mass Haste
Highly situational, but designed to at least replace itself in games where its usefulness are limited. Only recommended for decks that feature Warp minions heavily.
Enervate
Very similar to the Warrior's Charge. This forecasts to the opponent that you've got a high attack minion with Charge coming up soon, which can act as a deterrent if they're thinking of playing a high value minion, or force them to play defensively if they're low on health.
Guardian of Ages
A rather slow minion that works well with starter decks, but probably not much else. It does, however, put a bit of pressure on the opponent to clear the board to negate any value gained from this minion. Works wonderfully with Quicken, however, resulting in an instant minion with board-wide buffs and card draw.
Curse of Time
Curse of Time was designed to offer another board clear option for the Chronomancer, though it was tweaked to be a little less reliable than Consecration. This is because a central theme of the Chronomancer is forecasting strong effects, rather than instant but moderate effects.
Quicken
Quicken is the Chronomancer's bread and butter card draw engine that also doubles as a minor Warp manipulator. It favours control-type decks instead of aggro, given that one would need minions with high Warp delays to gain maximum value. Beyond that, it also has great synergy with spells like Hibernate, turning its inherent disadvantage into additional card draw.
· CLASSIC SET ·
Classic Set: Commentary
The classic set greatly expands further on the Warp mechanic in the way of the spells offered to manipulate its delays, and introduces a range of powerful secrets that are particular useful for a control playstyle. Also, cards with abilities that affect what happens when a minion is returned to hand is introduced.
Succor
On first glance this seems like a worse version of Ancestral Healing, but its ability to give a minion Warp: (1) is actually has a few practical applications. For one, it can be used to place Warp minions with Arrival effects back into Warp, causing them to trigger their Arrival effects once again the next turn. Succor gains more usefulness later on with legendaries such as Emperor Thaurissan and Ragnaros, and it can be used to put them into Warp and allow their abilities to still activate while invulnerable.
Rewind
Provides value if used on minions with Warp, but otherwise rather useless given that it is merely a 1 mana cheaper version of the Chronomancer's hero power.
Formless Mageling
The Formless Mageling not only trades speed for value, but also reliability. Allows the Chronomancer to have a random 4-cost minion on the board as early as turn 3.
Stasis
Stasis is basically a two-way Frost Nova with the added effect of buffing affected minions. However, given that Stasis places minions with Arrival effects back into Warp, this spell has a greater chance of providing the Chronomancer with greater value, and allows for some surprising plays. Conversely, Stasis is a tricky spell to use in a Chronomancer vs Chronomancer match-up.
Reminisce
Reminisce serves as the Chronomancer's second sort-of card draw effect. Provides infinite value if you have two of it in your hand! (At the cost of actually doing anything else.)
Dimensional Steed
The Chronomancer's first Charge minion that has the potential to be incredibly irritating. However, with 2-health, its ability is really only useful if used to take down low attack minions or to harass the enemy hero. Along with a Falconess on the board however, it can slowly grow in power over the course of the game. Otherwise, it's a marginally better version of the Wolfrider.
Flashback
The first Chronomancer secret! Flashback is a great addition to a control style deck, allowing players to both counter zoo decks early on, to setting up powerful reversals late in control-heavy games.
Mana Hex
Mana Hex introduces the "mana burn" effect to the Chronomancer class. It is especially potent against archetypes with plenty of low cost spells (e.g. Miracle Rogue.)
Gem of Eternity
This card bears a lot of similarity to the mage's Effigy in that it's best used when you suspect a high value minion of yours will perish soon. It's not as useful as the other secrets in most situations, but can be valuable if you're building a deck where your win conditions revolves around keeping certain minions on the board.
Chronoshock
Chronoshock sees the first "reliable" board clear for the Chronomancer. Given how slow Warp minions are, Chronoshock provides players with a tool of culling the opponent's board while waiting for theirs to fill up. However, without a deck that focuses on Warp minions, this is usually almost always worse than Consecration.
Mind's Eye
Like Mage's Duplicate, Mind's Eye does not affect the state of the board, but more often than not provides the Chronomancer a substantial amount of value, even if the cards copied are rather weak.
Falconess
The first of the Chronomancer's minions that has direct synergies with his hero power. The +2/+2 buff is special in that it is retained when the minion is returned to hand, and stacks with itself.
Dwarvish Highguard
As far as 4-drops go, Dwarvish Highguard doesn't win games, but makes for a decent drop if you have nothing else to play. The Arrival effect serves as a soft deterrent to opponents, making them think twice before swarming the board with minions. Combined with Quicken, however, players can gain a lot of value against Zoo decks, pushing out a taunt minion with upwards of 10 health as early as turn 6.
King Chronax
The first class legendary for the Chronomancer is designed to be simple and reliable. King Chronax's is basically a minion with a Mass Haste for a Battlecry. For 5 mana, there are better minions to put out, but even if you aren't able to gain value off its ability, a 5/5 minion is nothing to sneeze at.
Dimensional Rift
So far, the Chronomancer lacks any recourse if the player suffers a devastating board clear. While this is somewhat intentional, given that Chronomancer's minions tend to be very strong, it still leaves the class too vulnerable against cards like Brawl where health totals mean nothing. Dimensional Rift is an answer to this problem, allowing players a way to create instant board presence with powerful minions, but with a reasonable drawback.
· NAXXRAMAS ·
Naxxramas: Commentary
With the Naxxramas adventures came minions with powerful Deathrattle effects, and the Bloodwarper is no exception. Though highly specific, its Deathrattle can lead to a huge gain in tempo if played well. For example, trading it to trigger a Deathrattle after dropping a Kal'dorei Archer would result in a 4/5 minion on the board for only the cost of 1 Mana.
· GOBLINS VS. GNOMES ·
Goblins vs. Gnomes: Commentary
With the classic and basic sets having already covered the Warp mechanic to great effect, the GvG expansion goes a slightly different direction and introduces effects that aims to better connect the class with the newer Deathrattle cards.
Eldritch Hex
Eldritch Hex is best suited for control decks for long drawn-out games. As the Mana Burn effect is extremely powerful, all cards with this effect conversely offers the player a lesser degree of control on activating them. Like Beneath the Grounds, Eldritch Hex also serves as a counter to Reno Jackson.
Timeghoul
This minion alone is what allows Deathrattle-Chronomancer to be viable. Combined with Baron Rivendare, a great deal of value can be gained from small minions such as Haunted Creeper simply by using your hero power.
Chronospawn
I know what you're thinking... as if a 4 mana 7/7 wasn't already bad enough, and now we've got a 3-mana 7/7! Rest easy though: barring a few lucky card combinations, the Chronospawn will only pose a threat on turn 6 if played on turn 3, giving opponents ample time to plan how to deal with it.
Beyond its stats however, its transform effect brings forth certain unexpected benefits. For one, the transformed version of the Chronospawn retains its 3-mana cost, but loses its Warp ability — this makes the Horrormore particularly useful for trading minions and then returning it to hand, only to play it again at a highly efficient cost.
Temporal Fracture
Following in suit with Chronomancer's array of weak board clears, Temporal Fracture is a great deal more expensive than Explosive Trap... but its "return to hand" effect allows players to be better prepared for longer control games.
Damaged Mimicbot
Being able to copy and immediately trigger an Arrival effect is a powerful one. What's important to note, though, is that it first copies the effect and then triggers it. This allows direct synergy with Warp minions that have powerful transform effects (such as the Chronospawn) allowing the transformation to take effect on itself instead.
Paradox
So far, unconditional removal had been considered unnecessary due to the Chronomancer's range of above-the-curve minions and damaging spells. However, the introduction of extremely powerful legendaries in GvG has changed this. Paradox serves as a -possible- answer. It can be used to bypass Taunt minions to achieve lethal, or be used on a powerful friendly minion so as to cement board control.
The Master
The Master is similar to the Shaman's Mistcaller in that it results in a slight loss of tempo when played, but greatly improves a control-themed deck.
Memory of Glory
Memory of Glory adds variety in the way Chronomancer players can answer to playstyles that are able to repeatedly decimate the entire board. While definitely more powerful than Dimensional Rift, its 10-mana cost and Warp (1) condition causes it to be quite slow.
· BLACKROCK MOUNTAIN ·
Blackrock Mountain: Commentary
Unstable Voidling
Unstable Voidling is the Chronomancer's very own unique brand of Doomsayer, where though it takes an additional turn to take effect, it almost cannot be countered. Best used in a control deck, Unstable Voidling can help players get out of a sticky situation when being rushed down by aggro/zoo decks, or buy a player some time to get the cards requires to achieve their win condition.
Surge
Surge was designed with two things in mind:
Up till now, while there have been a couple of direct damage spells, most are only useful for 4 health and below minions, and the rest serve as board clears. Surge fills in this gap as the first high direct damage spell.
A great deal of Chronomancer cards have been designed for to aid long control-type games, but there also needed to be cards that supported a mid range style of play, which Chronomancer actually has the potential to excel in given its low cost slow-but-high-value minions that come in on turn 4 or 5 onwards. Surge further adds to the viability to mid range Chronomancer. Combined with many of the existing low cost spells, Surge has the potential to provide a huge tempo boost in mid game.
· THE GRAND TOURNAMENT ·
The Grand Tournament: Commentary
Echo
The Shifter Zerus of spells! Echo is the Chronomancer's ultimate wildcard. Though it has the potential to copy the opponent's spell, it's more likely going to be used to copy spells cast from the player's hand. Combined with Surge, it's possible to achieve a bursty 12 damage nuke in a single turn at very low costs.
Ignite Mana
With a great deal of unpredictability and RNG, Ignite Mana is likely only to be useful when going up against a Zoo heavy meta. If the game drags out to the point where both players are pushing out top deck minions turn after turn, Ignite Mana can be useful as a finisher.
Jormugan Rider
A classic Joust minion that doubles as a solid 2-drop for the Chronomancer.
Eldritch Ray
Eldritch Ray is a very powerful tool for gaining tempo advantage. At its best, it is a 2 damage nuke with a Sap for just 3 mana and one card, which would see the removal of two minions off the board.
Resonance
While it could be described as a one-use Kel'thuzad ability, Resonance has the benefit of being a secret, making it more difficult for opponents to anticipate. Along with its high cost and minion-reliant effects, Resonance really only works for control-type decks.
Similar to how Competitive Spirit works, Resonance will not proc if there are no minions to ressurect.
Sorceress of the Fade
There's been plenty of cards that reduce Warp delays, but quite little that increase them. As a 4-drop, Sorceress of the Fade has stats that aren't great for trading, but its ability is useful for pushing forward the Arrival effects of minions such as the Unstable Voidling or Arcane Shocktrooper. Combined with the Chronomancer's hero power, Sorceress of the Fade allows some Arrival effects to be extended indefinitely.
Mirage
Mirage offers the Chronomancer a way to put out high value minions earlier in the game, similar to Alarm Bot. It offers a little more reliability, but as a tradeoff it costs more, and requires the player have a minion to return to hand first.
Addled Chronomage
This minion's ability turns the Chronomancer's hero power effectively into Sap, which can be devastating in long, control-heavy games. Like the Steamwheedle Sniper, it has no effect on other Hero Powers.
Chrono-Lord Deja
Chrono-Lord Deja is the first of the Chronomancer's legendaries that doesn't require the player to have a Warp minion-heavy deck to be effective. Similar to The Master, it does not bring an immediate effect to the board. However, the minions it generates will almost always bring a great amount of value, given that their warp delays have been reduced. A solid choice for Arena or in mid-range decks.
· LEAGUE OF EXPLORERS ·
League of Explorers: Commentary
Echo
A slower but more powerful version of Formless Mageling, this minion allows Chronomancers to have a 7-drop as early as turn 5. Given that this is also one of the most powerful Arrival effects so far, it also increases the viability of the Damaged Mimicbot, leading to a very strong turn 3 and 4 (play Entropic Apparition on turn 3, play Damaged Mimicbot on turn 4 to get a 7/7 on the board).
Spectral Werebear
Charge and "return to hand" effects works really well together, especially when preparing for lethal. This minion is a powerful tool for more aggressive Chronomancer decks. If used over and over, its costs can go down to 2 or 1, allowing for huge bursts of damage in a single turn when combined with spells like Rewind or the Chronomancer's hero power.
Curse of Eternity
Curse of Eternity is great for decks with win conditions revolving around keeping specific minions on the board, or simply with a lot of minions with powerful Deathrattle effects. Versus Ancestral Spirit, Curse of Eternity's greatest asset is its reusability -- its 4-mana cost becomes less of an issue as the game moves on to the later stages.
· WHISPERS OF THE OLD GODS ·
Whispers of the Old Gods: Commentary
Whisper of the Old Gods brought with it loads of interesting new effects, but the most prominent of which were its Old God cards with insane, game changing, never-before-seen effects. This is no different from the Chronomancer; it has new cards with unique effects aimed at adding more tactical opportunities for the class, but also a Legendary that might just revolutionize the way the class is seen by players.
Champion of Time
A humble but powerful addition for a wide range of Chronomancer deck types. The Discover mechanic has always been quite versatile, and getting a Warp reduction makes it almost as useful as Unstable Portal's cost reduction, with the exception that the Warp reduction is almost always likely to provide value, whereas Unstable Portal has a chance to give minions that don't benefit fully from the cost reduction. Probably a great pick in the Arena setting too.
Flamehawk Caller
Many current Warp minions provide a decent amount of value in the way of a strong single body, but these are often a bit too vulnerable to single target removal. Minion 23 is aimed at providing a viable alternative: a turn 5 minion that leaves behind one 3/3 and two 2/2 tokens, giving it good synergy to cards like Frostwolf Warlord. However, spells like Consecration would make short work of it.
Forbidden Knowledge
Forbidden Knowledge replaces Sprint as potentially the best card draw effect in the game. When cast at 8 mana and above, it is most efficient. Its main strength come in its versatility: If, for example, you happen to have 5 mana to spare at a turn's end, you could use this as a more expensive version of Arcane Intellect. However, due the mechanics of the card, you can never play any card after using Forbidden Knowledge within the current turn.
Clone
At 3 mana, Clone actually isn't that useful in a vanilla setting, given that most Warp minions cost between 1-4 mana. But if combined with spells or minions that artificially give a Warp effect, Clone can be used to duplicate really powerful minions with recurring effects.
History Rewritten
With a growing number of options in terms of minions that benefit from being returned to hand, History Rewritten rounds off the mechanic by providing a versatile tool to trigger those effects, as well as doubling as a quick way to heal up damaged minions. Combos extremely well with the Falconess, given that all minions returned to hand will gain +2/+2 and cost (1).
Revenant of Time
The obvious benefit of this minion's Battlecry is to allow strong minions to be laid out earlier on. However, it could also be used to protect minions with ongoing card effects, such as Emperor Thaurissan. An example of a powerful combo is playing the Revenant of Time and Ragnaros on turn 10, resulting in a Ragnaros that is free to use its ability for 2 turns before being subject to removal.
Accursed Satyr
At 5 mana, it has subpar stats, but its ability allows players to ensure that there's always a Taunt minion for their opponent to deal with. Probably only useful as a defensive measure though - the Accursed Satyr might be sticky, but at 2 damage it's not going to burst down the enemy hero any time soon.
Ei'gas, Eternity's Spawn
Finally, we arrive at the Chronomancer's most ambitious card. Ei'gas mana cost makes it strictly useful only in long games. As for its ability, here's what it does:
1. Upon being summoned, all characters are sent back 2 rounds back in time. That means the state of the board, player healths, and deck states are reverted back to how it was 2 turns ago.
2. Now, the card text specifies that Ei'gas only sends all OTHER characters back in time. So what this means is that Ei'gas is the only surviving entity from the present (now future). So whatever the state of the board is, Ei'gas is added to the Chronomancer's side of the board.
In other words, the Chronomancer now is now given a second chance to redo the events of the last two turn, with a new 8/8 body on his side. Also, if Ei'gas was drawn by the Chronomancer during the 2 turns that had been rewound, it would now be the next card after it in the deck order that would be drawn instead, because remember: Ei'gas himself doesn't go back in time.
This is probably the card that I'm most excited to witness in Hearthstone (if it's even programmable!). Apart from giving losing Chronomancers a chance to change things up, it'll set up for interesting scenarios where players now know what cards they have on hand (based on what was played before the rewinding) and now have to play around them. Furthermore, if there were any lucky RNG effects that swung the game towards either player, they will now be reprocessed.
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW!
Thanks for taking the time to read this! Excited to hear any and all opinions about the class. Big thanks to Ryan Mennen for coming up with the background for Aren'thal, and to Aiden Hall for his wonderful gallery of images!
Very Impressive. I think the Flashback Secret is way OP in the way Buzzard/UTH used to be OP (punishing you for playing the game). All the other secrets have a play around but this one. Also, the WoTG Legendary I am not sure I understand the mechanics; please elaborate.
On a serious note now, I didn't read all the cards but I like the concept of warp, it seems pretty interesting but there's a catch. Hearthstone is a game revolved by tempo and the warp mechanic is the oposit of that, it works kinda like overload. Warp could work but it had to be really REALLY well balanced or else it would be either trash or totally broken. On top of that, it's a somewhat complex mechanic and we all know that Blizzard likes to keep it simple ^^
Really cool concept though and the "skin" of the card is amazing. Well done
@debianlinux: Glad you like it. Thanks for the feedback!
On Flashback: I do think the Flashback secret has too little counterplay too: In situations where the opponent has clear board control, at least it's not so bad since the opponent can avoid triggering the secret by choosing not to play minions. Or they could just make favourable trades and then choose to trigger the secret, balancing out the negative of the effect by effectively gaining heals on damaged minions. If the triggering minion played has Battlecry, that will also take effect before Flashback does, so there might be a way for opponents to the Chronomage to gain a bit more value against the secret.
But perhaps the most frustrating presence of Flashback is if it's used in a long, drawn out game of board control, where both sides are slowly trying to carve their way to victory through board presence. That's the sort of battles Blizzard themselves want to push for, and Flashback coming into play ties up the opponent's hands in a way that is almost impossible to recover from. I'll look into reworking Flashback and see how to make it less powerful -- maybe it returns another random enemy minion instead of all of them? Let me know if you think that could work.
Ei'gas/WoTG Legendary: Okay, so here's the scenario. Let's say you're playing the Chronomancer class. It's Turn 8, you have 3 cards on hand, and for the purpose of illustration, your board consists of 3 Bloodfen Raptors. Conversely, your opponent is a Paladin, has single Knife Jungler on the board, and is holding 7 cards.
Two turns pass. After a Consecration and some lucky Knife Juggler RNG by the Paladin, your board is now empty, and the Paladin has just put down a Tirion Fordring. Your turn begins, and you draw Ei'gas, Eternity's Spawn. Because 10 turns have past, it receives a 10 mana reduction to its cost, and it now costs exactly 10-mana.
So you play Ei'gas. When its Battlecry triggers, the minion portrait suspends itself and centers onto the board (Just like Jaraxxus does, before he smashes into your hero face.) As Ei'gas battlecry effect is "Battlecry: Send all other characters two rounds back in time," the game now rapidly rewinds two turns, back to how it was in Turn 8, when your board had 3 Bloodfen Raptors, and your hand had 3 cards. Likewise for your opponent: he no longer has the Tirion, but a lone Knife Jungler, and 7 cards in his hand. All spells and minions played between Turn 8 and Turn 10 are returned to whatever source they came from (players' hands or decks.)
But remember, Ei'gas sends all other characters back in time, so Ei'gas himself isn't affected by the Battlecry. So as the animation ends, Ei'gas drops himself on your side of board. This means that the state of the game has returned to how it was on Turn 8, plus you have an 8/8 Ei'gas on the board now, beside your 3 Bloodfen Raptors.
Apart from having a stronger board presence, you know now what cards your opponent has or will have in his hand based on what he played previously from Turn 8 to 10. Furthermore, any lucky RNG he might have had (e.g. from the Knife Juggler) now has to be re-rolled. Conversely, this also applies vice versa. This also affects card draws -- Whatever cards you drew from Turn 8 to Turn 10 will be the same, except on Turn 10 when you drew Ei'gas, since remember: Ei'gas himself wasn't sent back in time, so he was never returned to the deck.
@jOta39: Appreciate the comments! I do agree that Warp has the potential to be very complex, which isn't great. I remember that as a new player, I found the Overload mechanic to be confusing at first, especially how you could overload crystals on multiple turns, and you had to keep track of that. Whether or not Warp is too complex to fit into the game's philosophy, I think it would need some practical testing to really be sure!
I do think that balancing it is definitely possible, though. Just like how Overload has been balanced. Warp just needs to be assigned a standard value to its effect, just like how Overloaded mana crystals are assigned roughly 1 mana of value. That should work, in theory anyways!
This is literally the second character design that I find sublime (first one being The Seer). The first impression was trully stunning - the visual design blew my mind, as well as the suspend warp mechanic being both brillant and eventful.
Then by digging into the warping cards themselves I got an impression on those being OP judging by their mana costs, however on second thought it was all reduced to a simple conclusion: a player is basically giving up all the tempo they could ever imagine in exchange for unspeakable value. And this strikes me as the definition of a great deck (which is the straight up opposite towards the current meta in HS).
@shemuer: I think it's not very clear, but Paradox actually resummons two copies of the minion for the player who controlled them, not necessarily for the Chronomancer. So if you use it on an enemy's Sunwalker, at the start of your next turn, two Sunwalkers will spawn for them :)
Otherwise, you could use it on your own minions to trigger their Deathrattles and bring out more of them later on. Sneed's Old Shredder comes to mind as being quite powerful to use Paradox with!
@largehamstercollider: Thank you! I agree that the Seer is a pretty amazing class too. I love how simple the cards were without having to introduce new mechanics!
· INTRODUCTION ·
First things first: If you're here for the cards and nothing else, here's a link to an imgur album with the full class set.
Welcome to my Chronomancer class concept! I've always loved time travel as a mechanic in both storytelling and game design. Having discovered Hearthstone about a year ago, as well as the thriving community around its custom cards and classes, I decided to take a shot at creating a class themed on space and time manipulation. The result is Aren'thal Sunwatcher, the Chronomancer.
Sets for all expansions except for Karazhan have been created. Coming soon!
· AREN'THAL SUNWATCHER, THE CHRONOMANCER ·
Lore: Aren'thal Sunwatcher
[Written by my good friend and extremely talented writer, Ryan Mennen!]
Anar’alah belore.
The tales we have heard in our lives are often before our time. After all, how could they be of what occurs after? Even a paradox must come to instance before it can be observed as such.
But this is not such a tale. It is a tale of one who would defy the telling order of his deeds. A being so great that his legacy precedes his existence. His name, as we will come to learn, was… is—will be Aren’thal Sunwatcher. But as his introduction is only at the very end of this tale, we shall speak of him as the Chronomancer.
There will come a time when all children of the Kaldorei will pass and the forsaken bastards of the Vrykul will reign supreme. Even in these ages, the strength of Stormwind grows over Azeroth, reforming it into the forgotten Azotha. But even then, the seeds of the Kaldorei will persist, ensuring that the strength of the clan is never forgotten eras beyond the night in the valleys beyond Hyjal. The Chronomancer claimed himself to be one such being.
Bearing all the markers of the first Kaldorei, the Chronomancer could have been, in our age, thought to be one of the Quel’dorei. But in an era ruled by humans, his Highborne traits gained him vile repute and fear. Shunned and shamed, the Chronomancer sought to end his abomination of life. On the cusp of death, however, he was challenged by a voice from the shadows.
Often, Aren has referred to these shadows as the shadows from within his mind, but I suspect it to be far more.
For from the depths of the valley the Chronomancer saw a shadowed reflection of himself rise, older but greater. Somehow more malicious but wiser. A Shaldorei! This reflection of himself branded him the Sunwatcher. The one who sees what the sun sees… but greater. From watching the moon, the Chronomancer is said to be able to see all that the sunlight falls upon on the following day.
It was this careful foreknowledge which he used to understand the confounding element of Time. Understanding that time was neither linear nor cyclical, neither fluid nor solid, the Chronomancer—with aid from his wizened self—mastered the truth of his existence: to return to before the extinction of the Kaldorei and prevent the descendants of the Vrykul from stampeding across Azeroth.
UNIQUE MECHANICS: WARP & ARRIVAL
A master of bending time and space to his will, the Chronomancer is able to call forth powerful minions across dimensions and history itself... but such potent magicks require ample time to manifest. This is reflected in two mechanics unique to the Chronomancer: Warp and Arrival.
In a nutshell, Warp is basically delayed summoning. Minions with Warp are delayed a number of turns before being summoned.
A few important points on how Warp works:
Warping minions have a special frame around their portraits that also work as a countdown indicator. Here's how it looks like:
Warp In-depth
Arrival
The Arrival mechanic is very similar to Battlecry, but it differs in one very important way: instead of taking effect when the minion is summoned, Arrival takes effect when a minion with Warp has finished Warping.
This distinction is important: A minion with Warp and a Battlecry will still trigger its Battlecry immediately upon being played. And because there are certain spells and effects that the Chronomancer can utilize to put an active minion back into Warp, only its Arrival effect will trigger again once it exits Warp, whereas its Battlecry will not.
Because of how Arrival works, its effects cannot be targeted.
· HERO POWERS ·
As seen with Shadowstep, being able to return minions to hand offers a lot of versatility and possible value, but without board control, it's difficult to use Rewind and Recall to great effect. As such, the Chronomancer as a class is very reliant on minions for its win conditions.
· THEMES ·
Trading Speed for Value
Similar to Shaman's Overload mechanic, the Chronomancer's class minions that come with Warp are often above the curve due to this disadvantage. But what sets the Chronomancer apart is a plethora of spells and abilities that interact with Warping minions, allowing the Chronomancer to set up surprising plays or trigger Arrival effects sooner than expected.
Forecasting
While there are many cards in Hearthstone that are prized for being able to bring immediate value to the board, the Chronomancer goes the other way completely. With many of its minions having the Warp and Arrival mechanic, the Chronomancer makes it plain for the opponent to see what is to come in the turns to come, forcing them to play cautiously around them. Arrival effects are often very powerful as well, to make up for their lack of immediate value. Conversely, Chronomancer's spells and minion abilities with immediate effects are often weaker than normal.
Returning Minions to Hand
The ability to return minions to hand is a powerful one, and the Chronomancer has this option any given time with his hero power, allowing him to make favourable trades and resummon damaged minions to maintain board control. Furthermore, many class minions have direct synergy with this mechanic.
Powerful Secrets
Given that there are already 1, 2 and 3 cost Secrets in Hearthstone, the Chronomancer class introduces 4 cost Secrets. With higher cost comes greater power!
And now, on to the cards!
· BASIC SET ·
Basic Set: Commentary
The basic set introduces players to the Warp and Arrival mechanics as simply as possible, while aiming to offer a bit of diversity in deck building.
Kal'dorei Archer
The basic, bread & butter Warp minion. Offers Chronomancers a strong turn 1 card to play with little downside.
Hibernate
Hibernate's basic usage is to buff minions with Warp, offering value in place of speed. However, it can also be used to delay certain Arrival effects, which can work particularly well with minions such as the Arcane Shocktrooper.
Arcane Shocktrooper
The Chronomancer's basic board clear. It's great against Zoo and Aggro decks, forcing them to think twice before swarming their board with 1-2 health minions.
Prismatic Burst
A strong removal card for its cost with a rather situational side effect. With the right synergy, it can provide a great deal of value.
Enchantress
The first of the Chronomancer's minions that has a Warp manipulation effect, and it's a very versatile one. A 2-mana 3/2 body also assures that it's a strong body to play even if you can't find a way to gain value out of its ability. A must-include for basic value decks, and also versatile enough to find a slot in more specialized decks given how many of the Chronomancer's minions have Warp.
Mass Haste
Highly situational, but designed to at least replace itself in games where its usefulness are limited. Only recommended for decks that feature Warp minions heavily.
Enervate
Very similar to the Warrior's Charge. This forecasts to the opponent that you've got a high attack minion with Charge coming up soon, which can act as a deterrent if they're thinking of playing a high value minion, or force them to play defensively if they're low on health.
Guardian of Ages
A rather slow minion that works well with starter decks, but probably not much else. It does, however, put a bit of pressure on the opponent to clear the board to negate any value gained from this minion. Works wonderfully with Quicken, however, resulting in an instant minion with board-wide buffs and card draw.
Curse of Time
Curse of Time was designed to offer another board clear option for the Chronomancer, though it was tweaked to be a little less reliable than Consecration. This is because a central theme of the Chronomancer is forecasting strong effects, rather than instant but moderate effects.
Quicken
Quicken is the Chronomancer's bread and butter card draw engine that also doubles as a minor Warp manipulator. It favours control-type decks instead of aggro, given that one would need minions with high Warp delays to gain maximum value. Beyond that, it also has great synergy with spells like Hibernate, turning its inherent disadvantage into additional card draw.
· CLASSIC SET ·
Classic Set: Commentary
The classic set greatly expands further on the Warp mechanic in the way of the spells offered to manipulate its delays, and introduces a range of powerful secrets that are particular useful for a control playstyle. Also, cards with abilities that affect what happens when a minion is returned to hand is introduced.
Succor
On first glance this seems like a worse version of Ancestral Healing, but its ability to give a minion Warp: (1) is actually has a few practical applications. For one, it can be used to place Warp minions with Arrival effects back into Warp, causing them to trigger their Arrival effects once again the next turn. Succor gains more usefulness later on with legendaries such as Emperor Thaurissan and Ragnaros, and it can be used to put them into Warp and allow their abilities to still activate while invulnerable.
Rewind
Provides value if used on minions with Warp, but otherwise rather useless given that it is merely a 1 mana cheaper version of the Chronomancer's hero power.
Formless Mageling
The Formless Mageling not only trades speed for value, but also reliability. Allows the Chronomancer to have a random 4-cost minion on the board as early as turn 3.
Stasis
Stasis is basically a two-way Frost Nova with the added effect of buffing affected minions. However, given that Stasis places minions with Arrival effects back into Warp, this spell has a greater chance of providing the Chronomancer with greater value, and allows for some surprising plays. Conversely, Stasis is a tricky spell to use in a Chronomancer vs Chronomancer match-up.
Reminisce
Reminisce serves as the Chronomancer's second sort-of card draw effect. Provides infinite value if you have two of it in your hand! (At the cost of actually doing anything else.)
Dimensional Steed
The Chronomancer's first Charge minion that has the potential to be incredibly irritating. However, with 2-health, its ability is really only useful if used to take down low attack minions or to harass the enemy hero. Along with a Falconess on the board however, it can slowly grow in power over the course of the game. Otherwise, it's a marginally better version of the Wolfrider.
Flashback
The first Chronomancer secret! Flashback is a great addition to a control style deck, allowing players to both counter zoo decks early on, to setting up powerful reversals late in control-heavy games.
Mana Hex
Mana Hex introduces the "mana burn" effect to the Chronomancer class. It is especially potent against archetypes with plenty of low cost spells (e.g. Miracle Rogue.)
Gem of Eternity
This card bears a lot of similarity to the mage's Effigy in that it's best used when you suspect a high value minion of yours will perish soon. It's not as useful as the other secrets in most situations, but can be valuable if you're building a deck where your win conditions revolves around keeping certain minions on the board.
Chronoshock
Chronoshock sees the first "reliable" board clear for the Chronomancer. Given how slow Warp minions are, Chronoshock provides players with a tool of culling the opponent's board while waiting for theirs to fill up. However, without a deck that focuses on Warp minions, this is usually almost always worse than Consecration.
Mind's Eye
Like Mage's Duplicate, Mind's Eye does not affect the state of the board, but more often than not provides the Chronomancer a substantial amount of value, even if the cards copied are rather weak.
Falconess
The first of the Chronomancer's minions that has direct synergies with his hero power. The +2/+2 buff is special in that it is retained when the minion is returned to hand, and stacks with itself.
Dwarvish Highguard
As far as 4-drops go, Dwarvish Highguard doesn't win games, but makes for a decent drop if you have nothing else to play. The Arrival effect serves as a soft deterrent to opponents, making them think twice before swarming the board with minions. Combined with Quicken, however, players can gain a lot of value against Zoo decks, pushing out a taunt minion with upwards of 10 health as early as turn 6.
King Chronax
The first class legendary for the Chronomancer is designed to be simple and reliable. King Chronax's is basically a minion with a Mass Haste for a Battlecry. For 5 mana, there are better minions to put out, but even if you aren't able to gain value off its ability, a 5/5 minion is nothing to sneeze at.
Dimensional Rift
So far, the Chronomancer lacks any recourse if the player suffers a devastating board clear. While this is somewhat intentional, given that Chronomancer's minions tend to be very strong, it still leaves the class too vulnerable against cards like Brawl where health totals mean nothing. Dimensional Rift is an answer to this problem, allowing players a way to create instant board presence with powerful minions, but with a reasonable drawback.
· NAXXRAMAS ·
Naxxramas: Commentary
With the Naxxramas adventures came minions with powerful Deathrattle effects, and the Bloodwarper is no exception. Though highly specific, its Deathrattle can lead to a huge gain in tempo if played well. For example, trading it to trigger a Deathrattle after dropping a Kal'dorei Archer would result in a 4/5 minion on the board for only the cost of 1 Mana.
· GOBLINS VS. GNOMES ·
Goblins vs. Gnomes: Commentary
With the classic and basic sets having already covered the Warp mechanic to great effect, the GvG expansion goes a slightly different direction and introduces effects that aims to better connect the class with the newer Deathrattle cards.
Eldritch Hex
Eldritch Hex is best suited for control decks for long drawn-out games. As the Mana Burn effect is extremely powerful, all cards with this effect conversely offers the player a lesser degree of control on activating them. Like Beneath the Grounds, Eldritch Hex also serves as a counter to Reno Jackson.
Timeghoul
This minion alone is what allows Deathrattle-Chronomancer to be viable. Combined with Baron Rivendare, a great deal of value can be gained from small minions such as Haunted Creeper simply by using your hero power.
Chronospawn
I know what you're thinking... as if a 4 mana 7/7 wasn't already bad enough, and now we've got a 3-mana 7/7! Rest easy though: barring a few lucky card combinations, the Chronospawn will only pose a threat on turn 6 if played on turn 3, giving opponents ample time to plan how to deal with it.
Beyond its stats however, its transform effect brings forth certain unexpected benefits. For one, the transformed version of the Chronospawn retains its 3-mana cost, but loses its Warp ability — this makes the Horrormore particularly useful for trading minions and then returning it to hand, only to play it again at a highly efficient cost.
Temporal Fracture
Following in suit with Chronomancer's array of weak board clears, Temporal Fracture is a great deal more expensive than Explosive Trap... but its "return to hand" effect allows players to be better prepared for longer control games.
Damaged Mimicbot
Being able to copy and immediately trigger an Arrival effect is a powerful one. What's important to note, though, is that it first copies the effect and then triggers it. This allows direct synergy with Warp minions that have powerful transform effects (such as the Chronospawn) allowing the transformation to take effect on itself instead.
Paradox
So far, unconditional removal had been considered unnecessary due to the Chronomancer's range of above-the-curve minions and damaging spells. However, the introduction of extremely powerful legendaries in GvG has changed this. Paradox serves as a -possible- answer. It can be used to bypass Taunt minions to achieve lethal, or be used on a powerful friendly minion so as to cement board control.
The Master
The Master is similar to the Shaman's Mistcaller in that it results in a slight loss of tempo when played, but greatly improves a control-themed deck.
Memory of Glory
Memory of Glory adds variety in the way Chronomancer players can answer to playstyles that are able to repeatedly decimate the entire board. While definitely more powerful than Dimensional Rift, its 10-mana cost and Warp (1) condition causes it to be quite slow.
· BLACKROCK MOUNTAIN ·
Blackrock Mountain: Commentary
Unstable Voidling
Unstable Voidling is the Chronomancer's very own unique brand of Doomsayer, where though it takes an additional turn to take effect, it almost cannot be countered. Best used in a control deck, Unstable Voidling can help players get out of a sticky situation when being rushed down by aggro/zoo decks, or buy a player some time to get the cards requires to achieve their win condition.
Surge
Surge was designed with two things in mind:
· THE GRAND TOURNAMENT ·
The Grand Tournament: Commentary
Echo
The Shifter Zerus of spells! Echo is the Chronomancer's ultimate wildcard. Though it has the potential to copy the opponent's spell, it's more likely going to be used to copy spells cast from the player's hand. Combined with Surge, it's possible to achieve a bursty 12 damage nuke in a single turn at very low costs.
Ignite Mana
With a great deal of unpredictability and RNG, Ignite Mana is likely only to be useful when going up against a Zoo heavy meta. If the game drags out to the point where both players are pushing out top deck minions turn after turn, Ignite Mana can be useful as a finisher.
Jormugan Rider
A classic Joust minion that doubles as a solid 2-drop for the Chronomancer.
Eldritch Ray
Eldritch Ray is a very powerful tool for gaining tempo advantage. At its best, it is a 2 damage nuke with a Sap for just 3 mana and one card, which would see the removal of two minions off the board.
Resonance
While it could be described as a one-use Kel'thuzad ability, Resonance has the benefit of being a secret, making it more difficult for opponents to anticipate. Along with its high cost and minion-reliant effects, Resonance really only works for control-type decks.
Similar to how Competitive Spirit works, Resonance will not proc if there are no minions to ressurect.
Sorceress of the Fade
There's been plenty of cards that reduce Warp delays, but quite little that increase them. As a 4-drop, Sorceress of the Fade has stats that aren't great for trading, but its ability is useful for pushing forward the Arrival effects of minions such as the Unstable Voidling or Arcane Shocktrooper. Combined with the Chronomancer's hero power, Sorceress of the Fade allows some Arrival effects to be extended indefinitely.
Mirage
Mirage offers the Chronomancer a way to put out high value minions earlier in the game, similar to Alarm Bot. It offers a little more reliability, but as a tradeoff it costs more, and requires the player have a minion to return to hand first.
Addled Chronomage
This minion's ability turns the Chronomancer's hero power effectively into Sap, which can be devastating in long, control-heavy games. Like the Steamwheedle Sniper, it has no effect on other Hero Powers.
Chrono-Lord Deja
Chrono-Lord Deja is the first of the Chronomancer's legendaries that doesn't require the player to have a Warp minion-heavy deck to be effective. Similar to The Master, it does not bring an immediate effect to the board. However, the minions it generates will almost always bring a great amount of value, given that their warp delays have been reduced. A solid choice for Arena or in mid-range decks.
· LEAGUE OF EXPLORERS ·
League of Explorers: Commentary
Echo
A slower but more powerful version of Formless Mageling, this minion allows Chronomancers to have a 7-drop as early as turn 5. Given that this is also one of the most powerful Arrival effects so far, it also increases the viability of the Damaged Mimicbot, leading to a very strong turn 3 and 4 (play Entropic Apparition on turn 3, play Damaged Mimicbot on turn 4 to get a 7/7 on the board).
Spectral Werebear
Charge and "return to hand" effects works really well together, especially when preparing for lethal. This minion is a powerful tool for more aggressive Chronomancer decks. If used over and over, its costs can go down to 2 or 1, allowing for huge bursts of damage in a single turn when combined with spells like Rewind or the Chronomancer's hero power.
Curse of Eternity
Curse of Eternity is great for decks with win conditions revolving around keeping specific minions on the board, or simply with a lot of minions with powerful Deathrattle effects. Versus Ancestral Spirit, Curse of Eternity's greatest asset is its reusability -- its 4-mana cost becomes less of an issue as the game moves on to the later stages.
· WHISPERS OF THE OLD GODS ·
Whispers of the Old Gods: Commentary
Whisper of the Old Gods brought with it loads of interesting new effects, but the most prominent of which were its Old God cards with insane, game changing, never-before-seen effects. This is no different from the Chronomancer; it has new cards with unique effects aimed at adding more tactical opportunities for the class, but also a Legendary that might just revolutionize the way the class is seen by players.
Champion of Time
A humble but powerful addition for a wide range of Chronomancer deck types. The Discover mechanic has always been quite versatile, and getting a Warp reduction makes it almost as useful as Unstable Portal's cost reduction, with the exception that the Warp reduction is almost always likely to provide value, whereas Unstable Portal has a chance to give minions that don't benefit fully from the cost reduction. Probably a great pick in the Arena setting too.
Flamehawk Caller
Many current Warp minions provide a decent amount of value in the way of a strong single body, but these are often a bit too vulnerable to single target removal. Minion 23 is aimed at providing a viable alternative: a turn 5 minion that leaves behind one 3/3 and two 2/2 tokens, giving it good synergy to cards like Frostwolf Warlord. However, spells like Consecration would make short work of it.
Forbidden Knowledge
Forbidden Knowledge replaces Sprint as potentially the best card draw effect in the game. When cast at 8 mana and above, it is most efficient. Its main strength come in its versatility: If, for example, you happen to have 5 mana to spare at a turn's end, you could use this as a more expensive version of Arcane Intellect. However, due the mechanics of the card, you can never play any card after using Forbidden Knowledge within the current turn.
Clone
At 3 mana, Clone actually isn't that useful in a vanilla setting, given that most Warp minions cost between 1-4 mana. But if combined with spells or minions that artificially give a Warp effect, Clone can be used to duplicate really powerful minions with recurring effects.
History Rewritten
With a growing number of options in terms of minions that benefit from being returned to hand, History Rewritten rounds off the mechanic by providing a versatile tool to trigger those effects, as well as doubling as a quick way to heal up damaged minions. Combos extremely well with the Falconess, given that all minions returned to hand will gain +2/+2 and cost (1).
Revenant of Time
The obvious benefit of this minion's Battlecry is to allow strong minions to be laid out earlier on. However, it could also be used to protect minions with ongoing card effects, such as Emperor Thaurissan. An example of a powerful combo is playing the Revenant of Time and Ragnaros on turn 10, resulting in a Ragnaros that is free to use its ability for 2 turns before being subject to removal.
Accursed Satyr
At 5 mana, it has subpar stats, but its ability allows players to ensure that there's always a Taunt minion for their opponent to deal with. Probably only useful as a defensive measure though - the Accursed Satyr might be sticky, but at 2 damage it's not going to burst down the enemy hero any time soon.
Ei'gas, Eternity's Spawn
Finally, we arrive at the Chronomancer's most ambitious card. Ei'gas mana cost makes it strictly useful only in long games. As for its ability, here's what it does:
1. Upon being summoned, all characters are sent back 2 rounds back in time. That means the state of the board, player healths, and deck states are reverted back to how it was 2 turns ago.
2. Now, the card text specifies that Ei'gas only sends all OTHER characters back in time. So what this means is that Ei'gas is the only surviving entity from the present (now future). So whatever the state of the board is, Ei'gas is added to the Chronomancer's side of the board.
In other words, the Chronomancer now is now given a second chance to redo the events of the last two turn, with a new 8/8 body on his side. Also, if Ei'gas was drawn by the Chronomancer during the 2 turns that had been rewound, it would now be the next card after it in the deck order that would be drawn instead, because remember: Ei'gas himself doesn't go back in time.
This is probably the card that I'm most excited to witness in Hearthstone (if it's even programmable!). Apart from giving losing Chronomancers a chance to change things up, it'll set up for interesting scenarios where players now know what cards they have on hand (based on what was played before the rewinding) and now have to play around them. Furthermore, if there were any lucky RNG effects that swung the game towards either player, they will now be reprocessed.
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW!
Thanks for taking the time to read this! Excited to hear any and all opinions about the class. Big thanks to Ryan Mennen for coming up with the background for Aren'thal, and to Aiden Hall for his wonderful gallery of images!
3 mana 7/7... nice touch
Very Impressive. I think the Flashback Secret is way OP in the way Buzzard/UTH used to be OP (punishing you for playing the game). All the other secrets have a play around but this one. Also, the WoTG Legendary I am not sure I understand the mechanics; please elaborate.
On a serious note now, I didn't read all the cards but I like the concept of warp, it seems pretty interesting but there's a catch. Hearthstone is a game revolved by tempo and the warp mechanic is the oposit of that, it works kinda like overload. Warp could work but it had to be really REALLY well balanced or else it would be either trash or totally broken. On top of that, it's a somewhat complex mechanic and we all know that Blizzard likes to keep it simple ^^
Really cool concept though and the "skin" of the card is amazing. Well done
Wow, you must've spent a ton of time on this. Good job!
@debianlinux: Glad you like it. Thanks for the feedback!
On Flashback: I do think the Flashback secret has too little counterplay too: In situations where the opponent has clear board control, at least it's not so bad since the opponent can avoid triggering the secret by choosing not to play minions. Or they could just make favourable trades and then choose to trigger the secret, balancing out the negative of the effect by effectively gaining heals on damaged minions. If the triggering minion played has Battlecry, that will also take effect before Flashback does, so there might be a way for opponents to the Chronomage to gain a bit more value against the secret.
But perhaps the most frustrating presence of Flashback is if it's used in a long, drawn out game of board control, where both sides are slowly trying to carve their way to victory through board presence. That's the sort of battles Blizzard themselves want to push for, and Flashback coming into play ties up the opponent's hands in a way that is almost impossible to recover from. I'll look into reworking Flashback and see how to make it less powerful -- maybe it returns another random enemy minion instead of all of them? Let me know if you think that could work.
Ei'gas/WoTG Legendary: Okay, so here's the scenario. Let's say you're playing the Chronomancer class. It's Turn 8, you have 3 cards on hand, and for the purpose of illustration, your board consists of 3 Bloodfen Raptors. Conversely, your opponent is a Paladin, has single Knife Jungler on the board, and is holding 7 cards.
Two turns pass. After a Consecration and some lucky Knife Juggler RNG by the Paladin, your board is now empty, and the Paladin has just put down a Tirion Fordring. Your turn begins, and you draw Ei'gas, Eternity's Spawn. Because 10 turns have past, it receives a 10 mana reduction to its cost, and it now costs exactly 10-mana.
So you play Ei'gas. When its Battlecry triggers, the minion portrait suspends itself and centers onto the board (Just like Jaraxxus does, before he smashes into your hero face.) As Ei'gas battlecry effect is "Battlecry: Send all other characters two rounds back in time," the game now rapidly rewinds two turns, back to how it was in Turn 8, when your board had 3 Bloodfen Raptors, and your hand had 3 cards. Likewise for your opponent: he no longer has the Tirion, but a lone Knife Jungler, and 7 cards in his hand. All spells and minions played between Turn 8 and Turn 10 are returned to whatever source they came from (players' hands or decks.)
But remember, Ei'gas sends all other characters back in time, so Ei'gas himself isn't affected by the Battlecry. So as the animation ends, Ei'gas drops himself on your side of board. This means that the state of the game has returned to how it was on Turn 8, plus you have an 8/8 Ei'gas on the board now, beside your 3 Bloodfen Raptors.
Apart from having a stronger board presence, you know now what cards your opponent has or will have in his hand based on what he played previously from Turn 8 to 10. Furthermore, any lucky RNG he might have had (e.g. from the Knife Juggler) now has to be re-rolled. Conversely, this also applies vice versa. This also affects card draws -- Whatever cards you drew from Turn 8 to Turn 10 will be the same, except on Turn 10 when you drew Ei'gas, since remember: Ei'gas himself wasn't sent back in time, so he was never returned to the deck.
I hope this makes it clearer!
@jOta39: Appreciate the comments! I do agree that Warp has the potential to be very complex, which isn't great. I remember that as a new player, I found the Overload mechanic to be confusing at first, especially how you could overload crystals on multiple turns, and you had to keep track of that. Whether or not Warp is too complex to fit into the game's philosophy, I think it would need some practical testing to really be sure!
I do think that balancing it is definitely possible, though. Just like how Overload has been balanced. Warp just needs to be assigned a standard value to its effect, just like how Overloaded mana crystals are assigned roughly 1 mana of value. That should work, in theory anyways!
Paradox is OP. Warp is a cool mechanic though
kisses are a better fate than wisdom
This is fucking great, too bad we'll never see something this cool in HS.
This got me so excited because I'd love to see Hearthstone add a new character class one day. Excellent work! :D
This is literally the second character design that I find sublime (first one being The Seer). The first impression was trully stunning - the visual design blew my mind, as well as the
suspendwarp mechanic being both brillant and eventful.Then by digging into the warping cards themselves I got an impression on those being OP judging by their mana costs, however on second thought it was all reduced to a simple conclusion: a player is basically giving up all the tempo they could ever imagine in exchange for unspeakable value. And this strikes me as the definition of a great deck (which is the straight up opposite towards the current meta in HS).
Kudos to you, my good sir, for a job well done.
Science n' fun!
@shemuer: I think it's not very clear, but Paradox actually resummons two copies of the minion for the player who controlled them, not necessarily for the Chronomancer. So if you use it on an enemy's Sunwalker, at the start of your next turn, two Sunwalkers will spawn for them :)
Otherwise, you could use it on your own minions to trigger their Deathrattles and bring out more of them later on. Sneed's Old Shredder comes to mind as being quite powerful to use Paradox with!
@largehamstercollider: Thank you! I agree that the Seer is a pretty amazing class too. I love how simple the cards were without having to introduce new mechanics!
Well done. I really like the cardslip art. Very suiting.
Check out my submission for this weeks card design competition; or my other fan creations! Nullius in verba