Hearthpwn

Quote from Mokkel>>

Ok so I have a question, are we allowed to add/change some backstory and lore for our class when we've already submitted it?

Sure thing! Minor modifications like that are typically allowed, but it is always good to ask if you have any doubt. =)

Btw Asylum (dunno how to tag people on mobile) I've removed the banner/emote thing from my submission (the trickster class). Can you remove the mod notification thingy?

I'll get right on that.

So, I'm very happy with my King class and I'm gonna submit later today, but I'm just gonna show the most recent and updated variation of it so that I can make sure it's perfect for submission.

Promote is an effect to up a cards rarity whilst increasing it's stats or reducing its cost. The effect, obviously, is usually going to be targetting minions, but through the use of other cards, can promote your spells and weapons. The actual hero power is made in such a way that it's never irrelevant, being usable on an empty board, the cards can be stocked up to rapidly promote a minion or the hero power can just be used for 3 mana. With the obvious issue of Gadgetzan, the nature of the card actually requires you to have another minion on the board in order to trigger Gadgetzan more than twice, due to the fact you can't promote legendary minions. In addition, the King will have access to very few direct damage spells, and a few spells will also require additional minions due to promote effects.

These 3 cards are going to be the ones showcased as I feel they best show off my class. They are fairly strong cards in general that interact with rarities in unique ways and require deckbuilding to maximise power.

Personal trainer is a good all around card. He functions by promoting the minion, then checking it's rarity, and then going again if it isn't epic or legendary. This allows it to promote a common twice, a rare once, an epic once or a legendary not at all, because legendary minions, obviously, don't have ranks above it. Because of this he functions well in common decks as well as any of the other archetypes that have a fairly decent amount of commons, but especially epic decks, because the rarity of the card targetted will always go up to epic, unless it already is one, allowing cards which proc on epics have more consistency without even being epic itself. In comparison to houndmaster, it requires commons to be all that good, whilst houndmasters require beasts, but the action of increasing the rarity can also be a nice bonus in comparison to the taunt of the houndmaster. The stats are also more effective against smaller cards rather than bigger ones.

Lowly commoner shows off the underlying concept of Peasant King, which is small common minions which provide more small common minions in hand or on board while setting up the player with good early game control, to try and get to the late game. This card is very comparable to Dark Peddler, but instead of discovering a 1 cost card, you randomly get a minion that costs 3 or less. This allows it to get bigger cards out of the battlecry but isn't necessarily as consistent. However, the actual common you get isn't the important part, it's just the fact that it's a small common minion in your hand. This archetype allows you to use mass buff cards to turn whatever you get into something relevant. It's kind of like how an actual militia would work, the village is under attack and you don't have any knights, so you just take whoever you can get and give them an axe to help defend, regardless of who that is.

Spear of champions is a flavourful card that works with the Noble King archetype, which is a midrange deck that can be more aggressive or defensive, and uses a lot of epics, making it fairly efficient and at the same time, quite crazy, as is the nature of epic cards. It's basically an Arcanite Reaper that costs 1 more and gets to promote a couple of minions. This will make it better than the Reaper if you're not a face rush deck, but only if you trigger it's effect on epics. Thus, this card requires epic minions to work, and your deck must reflect this for it to be a reliable card, however it pays out with the reward of being a pretty damn good weapon if you pull it off.

I'd like some final feedback on the cards, before I submit, so any feedback, regardless of how negative, is appreciated. Thank you.

Need a little help here. So I was thinking about going with a Shadow Hunter, and I think it got an okay idea to a a new Hero Power (now that my first idea didn't match the "Skeleton Key" criteria). Not sure if this could work - as in be balanced? And I've made a bit more than 3 cards just to show the idea here. Which cards should I go with? And should I even go with this idea? I've really tried to capture the essence of the Shadow Hunter, but not sure if it shines through? Cheers

Shadow Hunter, Zara'zul

NOTE: The card rarity and to which the collection it belongs hasn't been decided yet, nor the card cost.

Quote from Diamon_Boots >>

3 days until voting part and we still have only 5 pages. if it keeps like this, a lot of the entries will advance to the second phase, so will the normal process still be used or will you guys (the mods) use a diferent method?

Okay, so I went and changed a few example cards for my class. Anybody have feedback?

The Medium:

Sort-Of-Lore-But-Not-Really:

Mediums are all about spirits and dark magic. By communing with the spirits of the land, her fallen ancestors, and other such spiritual bodies, Rhuna can receive 'Guidance' from them, allowing her to play her cards more cheaply and enabling combos that would otherwise be impossible, much like Emperor Thaurissan does now (I swear, they are not related in any way, shape, or form). You can use the tokens as you get them for some immediate benefit, or save them until you have certain combo pieces in hand, and use them to reduce the cost of those. The cost reduction is randomly split amongst your hand cards, and is capable of hitting the same card once, twice, or even three times, just like Arcane Missiles can hit the same minion multiple times.  'Guidance' spells and cards with similar effects will NOT attempt to reduce the cost of cards that already cost (0), or have the Ethereal keyword. <-This is important.

Now, why this particular keyword? Well, it serves two purposes. The most obvious one is that it prevents potentially unbalanced super-wombo-combos using certain cards, giving me a bit more freedom when designing so that I don't always have to be terrified of Malygos or similar cards. Another, less obvious one is that it allows you more consistency with an otherwise random effect, since Ethereal cards won't have their costs reduced. Spirits are fickle creatures. They rarely allow you to do as you please with them - and that includes their mana costs.

 Now, for the example cards:

Explanations:

I love the cards you suggested and that you went with spell cost reduction instead of spell damage.  It seems like a cool class with interesting synergies. It can also lead to interesting decks focusing on specific commons at different mana costs. My only concern is how Personal Trainer works. If it buffs a Common minion is that minion getting several +1/+1 buffs? If so you might need to reduce the Trainer's stats. If it only gets the +1/+1 once no matter what, then it's perfect.

The way it works is, it promotes the minion, then checks it's rarity, and if it isn't an epic or legendary (After the promotion), it repeats. Now the Personal Trainer obviously seems strong, and it is, it's one of my classes core cards. However, the same could be said for Houndmaster, and Houndmaster has a very easy to trigger effect that buffs just as much as Personal Trainer, and gives taunt, and has more offensive stats for a 4 drop than the personal trainer, which is typically better for a 4 drop because its health is less relevant when the minions are bigger, especially when you want to be comboing them. Besides, you have to consider just how many commons you'll be running in a deck. Even in a common deck you won't be running many more than hunters run beasts.

My apologies, I must have missed the edit. I can't remove the note now because I'm on mobile, but let me get it when I'm at my computer next. =)

Quote from Diamon_Boots >>

Quote from Lathy >>

Need a little help here. So I was thinking about going with a Shadow Hunter, and I think it got an okay idea to a a new Hero Power (now that my first idea didn't match the "Skeleton Key" criteria). Not sure if this could work - as in be balanced? And I've made a bit more than 3 cards just to show the idea here. Which cards should I go with? And should I even go with this idea? I've really tried to capture the essence of the Shadow Hunter, but not sure if it shines through? Cheers

Shadow Hunter, Zara'zul

NOTE: The card rarity and to which the collection it belongs hasn't been decided yet, nor the card cost.

 It seems mostly balanced, but I think the Hero Power should be changed a bit, it seems a bit better than most Hero Powers as in it forces your oponent to spend 1 mana. Maybe "While this is in your hand, at the star of you turn a random enemy minion gains Stealth until the end of this turn" so the punishment is not too huge. 

Quote from thepowrofcheese >>

@Lathy

The Shadow Hunter looks cool but I'm afraid of the Hero Power. Early game it leads to an easy way to protect aggressive minions that is hard to counter. It also can mess with your opponent's tempo which might be too much that early. I really like the idea ... but I think it needs rethinking to stay balanced.

 

Question: Would it help to think of it not as "0/1: Your other minions have Stealth." but instead as "0/1: Taunt. Your other minions can't be targeted by spells or hero powers."? I think that's functionally the same almost, with regards to how the opponent interacts and deals with it. Then it becomes an easy matter to compare that with "0/2: Taunt".

Really appreciate the feedback. Thanks a bunch! It's definately hard to balance with Stealth. I've taken your ideas into account, and the idea with adjacent minions aint bad at all. Could you maybe do something like: "Place a Shadow Ward on your or your opponents side of the battlefield." ? I know place isn't a thing in Hearthstone, but what I mean with it is that you'd be able to choose exactly where to place it. And then the Shadow Ward would read: "Adjacent non-Shadow Ward minions have Stealth." - It might be too much if you can place it on your opponent's side of the battlefield bypassing their taunts, but I thought it seemed like a nice idea nonetheless ;)