As I promised, everyone will have their cookies! -Sponsored by Ayslum Industries-
The Reporter, Max Focus is back! (With some delicious informative Cookies, want one?)
As you may have noticed, Max wants all the information and followers he can, but... if we don´t support him enough, the Maxstarter will get lower! But if we do, our notices are gonna be the greatest of all! Max Focus is a great at controlling a lot of places at time, he prefers a mid-late game control deck, his removal cards are the best, and flooding the board of followers is his great feeling, with AoE cards, and Damage Increase (By Flood Lights and other cards) we could reveal the most painfull secrets, and let them abandon the board of the battle!
Also, we got a new keyword on the past phase, here it is! (I´m too lazy to explain it again though, :(, sry)
Our Headers, Novices, but they are the best at what they do ;)
Explanations of our Headers:
Scene Iluminator: Its back! (Well that went quickly) And our basic removal, and you might find a lot of destroying synergy, already, with our Hero Power, but as we progress, this might become our biggest removal tool! Weaker than Fireball, but it has its own use of the class, using it with Flood Lights might triturate even the biggest minion!
Worldwide Spread: Well, its our basic Flood Board, might be weak, but at the same time, its strong, and has some synergistic combos (If they survive) with our Hero Power, and additionaly, it gives Max Focus that good feeling! You got mixed followers... but they´ll all help you out!
Lost in Ruins: Our first instant removal card, that is as effective as... well, there isn´t grass, so... but its very effective against control-decks, we got big removal and AoE´s, what´s left? A removal! Its cheap and hard to cast, but its completely worth if you do it... FLAMEWREATHED FACELESS!
The Following Images, may be shocking! (Challenge Cards)
Spoiler Alert! (Explanations)
Owl Scout: A small speudo, a small beast, a watcher, and a good explorer (And an intrepid reporter) makes the best friends, while Owl Scout finds our victims most hidden secrets, we can use it to increase our reporting sucess! But, if its discovered, strikethrough it! It gives a nice attack with a nice effect, similar to Moroes. (Its Rowlet if you don´t recognize it)
Lyilia, Retired Singer: Commonly, our Legendaries reveal our stars most shocking secrets, and inflicts the most biggest scandals in the world, with her, after her retire, we could use the information we get a lot latter, to get more followers! It gets an easy tempo shot when we get it, and board Presence is really important to Max, so the Microphone is the best deal (Annnnd its gone...) we get a big tempo if we are empty, and may could save our fame!
Our (Not that useless) actors. (Rest of the Basic Set)
Explanations of our useless actors (Rest of basic cards explanation):
Intrepid Explorer: Our first example of a control board card, its cheap, and gives a small buff, maybe not tad much, but its something that we could use in our advantage, comboes very well with Worldwide Spread.
Overheated Highlighter: Reporters also got weapons! But these hurt the reputation rather than "hurting" (Ok that sounded bad lol) these weapons will act in our support, and especially synergise with class concept, this one, though, makes an extra ping of damage if we use something for increasing its damage, for example, we use Flood Light, we attack the affected enemy, and it deals 4 damage! Incredible, not?
Sonar Scanner: A pretty straightforward card, a combo card, while Flood Lights are good, we need something more versatile to handle that, with this, we could use effectively ALL of our arsenal Back and so Forth, however, it uses a slot, you need to draw it and all your combos, like Gadgetzan Autoctioneer, but it gives a really reliable reward.
Storm Simulacrum: A basic board clear that gives to us advantage to our next decision, doesn´t gives too much by itself, but it comes with a pretty good report to do! And we might have our next decision be increased to better!
Star of the Scene: The Reporter does not have too much buffs, but those are efficient and come with a benefit to us, the Health is a very essencial trait, especially for controlling the board, and gives to us some card draw to get those followers earlier, its smart!
x10 Zoom Lens: An special type of upgrade, we can reserve it, or use it later, but it easens our control sources!
Fake Steam Cannon: A pseudo and weird mix of an AoE stickied to a minion, but gets its work done at board clears, and with some combos, we could even clear the board, a persistent threath that the opponent must deal with it before we could use our combos.
We might be preparing to our biggest scandal, or might make our own report! Well, I won´t give too much details, see you later!- Max Focus
Centuries ago, the Lords of Winter’s Fall fell victim to the Worgen curse. The exact circumstances are shrowded in mystery, but the lord who brought the curse upon his family was a renowned mage. A small, secluded principality in the Alterac Mountains, Winter’s Fall was completely cut off from the outside world after this calamity, to hide their lord’s embarassment. In time, the lords learned to control their Worgen curse, shapeshifting at will between human and wolf form, but the curse was never lifted, nor could they remain as humans for long, and so their kingdom’s long isolation continued. Recently, the new lord of Winter’s Fall, Howe Hark, has learned that a new kingdom of Worgen, Gilneas. With the threat posed by the Forsaken, he has ended his seclusion and brought his forces to the aid of Gilneas and the alliance. The Young Wolf, as he is known, is known for both his brilliant military strategy and savagery on the field of battle. Mastery of his Worgen form means he is alternately rallying his loyal men into battle and tearing out the hearts of his enemies.
Reminder about how the class works:
The Worgen class centers around shifting between Worgen and Human form. Using the Worgen Form hero power (which you start the game with) gives you +1 Attack that turn and transforms you into a Worgen. This changes your hero power to Human Form, but you can’t use it until the next turn. When Human Form is used, your Hero heals 2 health and transforms into a human. The unique keywords of the class are Worgen and Human:
Cards with these keywords trigger an extra effect if you play them while you're in that form. Human/Worgen keyword cards are inefficient if played in the wrong form and extra efficient if played while in the right form. One of the key mechanics of the class is switching between forms at the right times to efficiently play cards.
There is a binary theme to the class, based on the two forms you switch between. Howe Hark has cards that focus on the savagery of his Worgen form, dealing damage or buffing attack, similar to Druid shapeshift-themed cards, and also cards that focus on supporting or buffing his minions, representing how he inspires and leads his men while in human form. There are also several secondary themes. The class has cards themed to snowy Alterac homeland of Howe Hark (including Freeze cards). There are also going to be cards that focus on class cards, representing the solidarity of Worgen.
Because of the hero power and binary theme, the class is well-suited for hybrid playstyles, and lots of cards will be versatile. If the hero power is used effectively, Worgen excels at tempo, since Human/Worgen cards are mana efficient when in the right form. This is also a weapon class, and both cards and your hero power buff your attack and restore health, so it is good at controlling the board, as well. Some of these control tools could be repurposed for Aggro, as well, especially in a Pirate deck.
Example cards:
Hunted - This is one removal option for Worgen, similar to Hunter's Mark. You play this and follow it up with another source of damage that normally would not have killed your target. The effect is permanent, so all damage from then on is doubled for that minion.
Gilnean Reinforcements - This is Worgen’s card draw. A number of classes have variations of this spell (Arcane Intellect, Ancestral Knowledge, Burgle, Thoughtsteal). This take reflects Worgen’s focus on class cards. This makes the spell both more restrictive, since it can only draw certain cards in your deck, and is useless if you have too few class cards, and more reliable, since you have a better idea of what it will give you.
Leap - This represents leaping into the midst of the enemy's ranks to attack, so they are forced to attack you. Direct damage spells are going to be very limited for Worgen, since the class focuses more on dealing damage with weapons and buffing your hero’s attack. This card can be used both for removal, and to protect your minions. When you play this, your hero has Taunt during your opponent’s next turn, which means your minions can’t be attacked. It’s like half of a Conceal, because your minions can still be targeted by spells and Battlecries.
Basic Set:
Alpine Wolf - With Champion of Alterac, it’s important that there’s a 1-Cost class minion as a potential target. This is basically just the same as Enchanted Raven. “Cannot be Frozen” is not worth anything, because it’s almost never relevant. There will be at least one source of Freezing allies in later sets, so it will have some relevance.
Grievous Wounds - This is the Basic direct removal card. It’s a cheap card, but with a very restrictive limitation. While Execute can be paired with any source of damage, and it is often paired with spell damage or minion AOEs, you can only play this after attacking a minion. Execute was too strong at 1, but this would not be. It does combine well with the Worgen Form hero power.
Champion of Alterac - This card is reflective of the Worgen class’ support side, which represents Howe Hark’s human side. It’s a mana-efficient buff spell, but you can only cast it on a class minion. That’s more restrictive than you might initially think. The only way to play it on turn 2 is if you played Alpine Wolf on Turn 1. I don’t plan on making any other 1-Cost minions.
Frost’s Bite - Worgen is a weapon class. Howe Hark is not just all about tearing things up with his claws. I mean, he doesn’t have any when he’s in human form, anyway. Weapons will not be as strong a focus as in Warrior. It will be more like in Shaman. You can see that here, as this is not as strong a weapon as Fiery War Axe, but it has more utility in being able to Freeze, which is a secondary theme of the class, based on Howe Hark’s Alterac homeland.
Krennan’s Potion - Worgen focuses on using their Hero Power to switch forms regularly, so they need some support for that. This card can both help you recover health, which you may lose from attacking minions, and switch forms more easily, either on this turn or the next.
Winter Has Come - This is Worgen’s AOE option. It’s pretty efficient for its cost, because it will damage any neutral minions you have in play. This also reflects Worgen’s focus on class minions. It represents the hardiness of your Worgen and Alterac followers.
Worgen Assassin - With the lack of direct damage spells, Worgen needs a card like this. Similar to Fire Elemental, you can play this later in the game as a removal option, although it lacks Fire Elemental’s ability as a finisher. There was a lot of debate about this card, and I think we reached the consensus that, in its current form, it is as powerful as Fire Elemental. It’s a strong card, but Worgen needs this as a substitute for damage spells.
To keep my Basic set realistic, I tried to keep card text to under three lines. If you look at real Basic sets, you can see that there are only a few Basic cards with 3 or 4 lines of text. When someone presents you a Basic set where almost everything has 3 or 4 lines of text, it isn't really a Basic set.
Here are my other Challenge cards:
Stout Hound - This is based off of some nice artwork of the Pokemon Herdier. Herdiers are known to be very loyal with thick fur that protects them, so I think this fits with protecting your minions from damage. It fits in well with my class because of both the canine theme and Howe Hark’s noble Alterac background. This card exemplifies the support theme of Howe Hark’s Human side. You can play this card similarly to Argent Protector to help trade efficiently. You can also just drop this on turn 2 by itself and it will prevent your opponent from trading into it on their turn.
Krennan Aranas - This is the guy that invented the partial Worgen cure. This fits well with the Worgen hero power, which represents you changing forms between a Human and Worgen. Because regularly using your hero power to take advantage of the Human/Worgen keyword is a central mechanic of the class, a card like this is very useful to the class. It’s worded differently from Coldarra Drake because of the unique way the Worgen hero power works. Every time you use the hero power, you get a different one. Also, Coldarra Drake’s wording is too long.
As an Orator Kaila is blessed with the gift of the gab. While her strength and magical ability may be lacking she is able to use the power of words to manipulate the battlefield. This may come from a rallying speech to buff her minions or a well placed insult to Taunt a foe and keep others safe.
Together with her overprotective sister Talia, a skilled warrior in her own right, she has travelled the lands or Azeroth to spread her message of peace and gain influence.
She knows all too well that peace can not be brought about without bloodshed and so has amassed a band of loyal followers to do her bidding. It is not unheard of for the very people that she is fighting to join her ranks before the battle is out so are her powers of persuasion.
As part of my grander plan I have taken into account the potential for Gadgetzan Auctioneer abuse and the hero power. For this reason I plan to keep damaging spells to a minimum in particular ones that could damage a hero.
my plan is to create spells that allow you to manipulate and control the board as well as minions that synergise with this. As there will be few damage dealing spells the Orator will rely on minions to overwhelm the opponent.
The Basics
The Challenge Cards
The Token:
Angry Mob - The Orator starts things off by stirring up trouble amongst the crowd. If the opponent does nothing to stop the mob it will grow into an overwhelming force of Disgruntled Peasants.
Charm - Kaila uses her charm to convince an ally to switch sides. Only when they get hurt do they realise what they have done. This can be used to force your opponent to make a choice. Do they spend resources to get their minion back or do they leave it? You could also use the minion to trade and die before it switches back to its original owner.
Rousing Eulogy - Kaila mourns the dead from both sides of the field. Her words give encouragement to an ally to ensure they did not die in vain.
Unsettling Mime - Hearthstone's answer to Mr. Mime who has always been one of the creepiest Pokemon. He will force the opponent to think carefully about the spells they use and in what order/ what combos they use lest their words be used against them.
Speechwriter Eloise - To me the best Legendaries force or allow you to change the way a class can be played. This card rewards you for saving your Cliff Notes and could potentially give you an advantage.
Born into a poor farming family, Erin stood apart from her peers due to her latent magical ability. So great was her power that she drew the attention of the Bronze Dragonflight. Under the tutelage of Chromie, Erin was brought to the Caverns of Time to learn how to safely use her magic and keep safe the world's timelines. But even here Erin stands apart, as she does not share the dragons' belief of predetermination, that one's fate is already written. With both a will to make her own destiny and the power to do so, Erin Fatespan now seeks to protect the past and future of Azeroth.
As a Chronomancer, Erin uses time itself to confuse and disable her enemies while protecting her allies. Her Hero Power allows her to Bend Time, borrowing energy from other timelines to make her minions and spells more efficient, more powerful. Her's is a class with the ability to ramp, create combos, play control, and endure fatigue. Many of her cards involve bouncing minions, replaying cards, and high card draw. She does not have weapons, secrets, or a unique keyword. Instead, she takes existing rules and flips them on their head, changing the board and her hand to better secure victory.
To balance out these themes, the Chronomancer lacks healing (with one important exception below) or significant face damage. This prevents the player from making broken Malygos combos, or looping and replaying heal effects over and over without significant time investment.
The Basic set! The first cards of any class a player receives. With this set, I intended to make simple effects that could be used in multiple types of decks. Future expansions would build off these ideas of delayed effects, copying minions, and controlling the board. Of these cards, only Suspend has a real 'complex' effect, and it is the only card that uses 4 lines.
Basic Examples
Explanations
Foresight -"Somehow, being able to manipulate time hasn't made Erin any more patient." The Chronomancer is primarily a control and combo class, and for that, you need good card draw. Foresight gives you a card, as well as your next turn's draw. Tomorrow is a small price to pay when you need an answer now. Check out Doomed Future below for a similar, cost-effective delayed effect.
Timewalker Elite - "The Timewalker's retirement plan is pretty good. Then again, they know ahead of time if you'll get to collect it." Copying cards is one of the defining aspects of the Chronomancer. Looping time to replay minions, or calling more of them from alternate realities, allows the player to create many, many cards. Infinite value is theoretically possible, but most copying effects won't be super efficient to prevent abuse.
Hindsight - "Dragons hate puns." Sometimes you need a do-over. If your face is taking a beating, you can set back the clock a bit and take a breath. Playing this won't help you reclaim the board though, so you better have an answer, and fast. Hindsight is the only real 'heal' available to the Chronomancer. And no, it won't give Jaraxxus or Ragnaros more than their maximum health. Dealing 10 sudden face damage to your opponent won't matter much if you have no board and no direct damage spells.
And the rest!
Bronze Whelp - "I know this looks like a Black Whelp, but the scales will turn gold as he gets older. Really!" Suspend - "Students learn quick not to cause a ruckus when Chromie is teaching." Sand Breath - "Be sure to avoid Bronze Dragons with allergies."
Wither - "Youth is wasted on the young." Doomed Future - "Chromie once averted a future in which Gadgetzan outlawed tacos." Paradox - "Minions you summon with this spell always have a wicked mustache. Even Harvest Golem."
Sandstorm - "Powerful, magical sandstorms often sweep through Tanaris. If you get caught up in one, you won't know where or even when you'll end up."
Challenges
Explanations
Living Glyphs - "These mysterious runes form ancient spells. They also form rude words when archaeologists aren't looking." These Unown are based on Cabalist's Tome, allowing a late game deck to refill it's spells later and grab one for now. This League of Explorer's card is great for a Fatigue deck.
Soridormi - "Prime consort of Nozdormu the Timeless. Loving, caring, but ever nagging her mate for always being late." Remember what I said about copying cards? Soridormi here from The Grand Tournament takes full advantage of copied minions. It can be used to thin your deck and fill the board, or combo it after a few turns of copying minions.
COMING THROUGH! No one dare cross the path of the courageous (more reckless) ruler of the seas of Azeroth, Captain Immo!He and his motley crew travel around the lands in his ship, the Nemesis, with the sole purpose of finding and collecting all the precious treasure his crew can fit in their chests, so that they can be known throughout the lands as the richest and most dangerous ship around.Armed with many dangerous allies (and enraged enemies he stole from) with unique abilities on both Nemesis and Azeroth, Immo will fight to the death... on a slow day. Mostly he likes to use his charms (and a few bribes) to convince his enemies to join the winning side. Steal precious resources, find new allies, and protect you and your treasure for those who seek to destroy it, Adventure never stops for the Nemesis, so the choice is up to you:Join, or Die.
Drawing out high card draw and intel of both your opponent's and your own deck, you can get a leg up on a competition. Also being able to steal many things keeps your opponent on edge when deciding if they should or shouldn't play a minion. To compensate, all resources are available to Immo, but they're all very scarce. By this I mean almost all the time it isn't something you can simply draw out using your hero power, instead relying on minions, spells, and chance to *hopefully* provide you with what you need. This class also does not carry its own secrets, as pretty much everything you have at one point was probably something your opponent owned too.
As a reminder here is the class mechanic:
Seaworthy Basic Cards!
Explanations:
Loot Swiper:
Beware all who leave yer treasure around! This scoundrel will take every last bit of it! Hide yer artifacts! Protect ye weapons! He'll never stop until he gets the last bit of gold!
This minion shows the benefit of stockpiling Loot! spells that you get from your hero power. Not only are they useful for drawing a card on the fly later on in the game, but they also interact with many other class cards. In this case of this card, even having one Loot! spell means you are not losing any tempo from playing him, and he only gets more dangerous the longer you wait to collect your loot! Also great for big turns late game where you want to add board pressure using a cheap and potentially huge minion, the way how you use him is up to you!
Enchanted Amulet:
Legend states that those who are in possession of the Amulet will be able to become more effective in battle! Move faster! Be stronger! Get the edge that you need!
At first glance it may not seem like much, but then you realize you can get some huge discounts from this card at virtually any point in the game. Use it a bit earlier, and now you can use your 0 mana Loot! cards to copy out some more cards in your deck! Use it late game and you can now activate giant combos that without it you wouldn't be able to make. The possibilities for turn are seemingly endless, and the way how you design your combos in this class affects how powerful your deck will become when using this card!
Tidal Wave!:
If you know what's good for you, you'd had better hit the deck! And fast!
Crashing in for the third spot I want to introduce one of the most tactically advantageous cards a Pillager such as Immo can use! Looking at it, it only seems like a giant AoE spell, but it can literally change the tides of battle. It is generally a bigger but better version of Twisting Nether, which already destroys everything. Instead, this card will just straight up steal anything that is left on the board, again enforcing the theme of taking what belongs to your opponent. Got a Zoo infestation on the board?Wash them away and get yourself a fresh board.Someone is barreling down on you with huge minions with 8 Health or more?You can still use this, and afterwards all of those huge threats will belong to you! The ultimate counter tool that best fits the class made to Steal and Destroy!
Remaining Basic cards!
Tokens:
A Mage's Treasure Cursed Ruby Bilge Lurker
Rogue Witchdoctor
Challenge Cards!
Animated Seaweed Token:
Explanations:
Baron Revilgaz:
Ruler of Booty Bay (whether he really should be or not) this Baron won't go down without a fight, oh no! Controlling a giant metal contraption while rocking his snazzy clothing, he prefers not to get himself hurt, only looking out for #1. Instead he using his heavy plated machine and other countermeasure to deal damage from a distance.
He's a great damage dealer, able to go toe to toe with almost all early game minions even at base health. Find a way to increase his Health and he becomes even better. His great stat distribution also allows him to square off against some other minions, at the expense of lowering his damage output. With great power comes great cautiousness, as a lot of strategy on when and how to play this minion comes into effect when you want to use him. Good luck! And always trust the Pirate's Code!
Animated Seaweed:
This even more living seaweed, drifting across the Azeroth seas, has caught on to something... What is it? A sword? an axe? It's probably another old anchor... Lets find out.
For the Pokemon challenge, no other Pokemon could fit in with the crew of the Nemesis like Dhelmise itself! If it wasn't so free spirited, it'd probably be an honorary crew member by now! Utilizing the Snatch effect, you can gain a potentially great weapon from your opponent's deck to use against them. Immo never passes up on the offer of a nice shiny Truesilver's Champion. If your opponent doesn't have a weapon, if because of the class you're facing or the ran out, Dhelmise will gladly become the weapon for you, using its Anchor and chain to take out any objectives, or add a bit of Aggro spice to your opponent's face. The immune effect (based on Dhelmise's partial Ghost typing) isn't guaranteed, but because of the Windfury on the weapon,gives you a greater chance of triggering it. Its a very potent minion that adds potential value to you when playing it.
Flavor texts and Hearty Potential plays!
Loot Swiper: He definitely rolled Greed.
Enchanted Amulet: Immo managed to swoon a Naga for this treasure... Long story.
Tidal Wave!: Maybe we should stop by at Booty Bay afterwards for a better ship...
Blessing of Elune: Remember, Elune will always love everyone equally, even if they steal your treasure and burn your villages.
A Mage's Treasure: "What? What are supposed to do with a bunch of ice! These landlubbers better show us where the real treasure is!"
Cavern of Time: What do you mean? There's no 'Infinite Dragonflight' here! Off with yer head!
Cursed Ruby: The sign clearly said DO NOT TOUCH, but it was so nice and shiny!
Bilge Lurker: When not on Nemesis these guys like playing Hide and Seek with Scavenging Hyenas.
Rogue Witchdoctor: He used to hang around the Amani, but they kicked him out for using his voodoo dolls on them for puppet shows.
Rusting Hook: This hook shall stay by my side until the day I die... Or until I steal a new one.
Baron Revilgas: You'd think he'd realize by now that dressing like that is probably why he has a hard time running away from enemies...
Animated Seaweed: "Shiver me timbers! It stole our Anchor! "
Stockpile your Loot! cards, then play Loot Swiper into A Mage's Treasure to bring the pressure!
Play Bilge Lurker into Cursed Ruby for a nice big wall of taunts! Enchanted Amulet makes this combo only 5 mana!
Use your Enchanted Amulet to start generating cards from your Loot! spells! Now you can play Tidal Wave! and still refill your hand!
Cavern of Time also potentially shuffles your opponent's cards into your deck! It may even put in a Loot! spell for you! Use it to draw out a 2nd copy of a minion!
Playing Enchanted Amulet into Tidal Wave! will leave you with 1 mana at turn 10... Use it to play Cursed Amulet on the minions you stole to make an even bigger comeback!
And of course:
Play a Loot! spells after dropping Gadgetzan Auctioneer and now you will have 2 copies of the card! Careful though, even if your Loot! spells hit a different card every time your hand you might run out of mana before you can play them!
Chronos was once a powerful King who sought out higher power. He reached a higher level of being. Chronos surpassed his mortal limits and was reborn as a Titan. Anyone, be they orcs, humans, elves, elementals, even dwarfs can ascend to become titans. Even the weakest in the world can unlock their hidden potential! Titans welcome any and all who strive for true greatness.
What the Titan is all about
Hero Power, Ascension - To become a Titan, you must ascend. This power gives your cards a chance to enter the Realm of Titans. Realm of TItans has a unique effect of increasing the costs of cards in your hand. Unlike most cards, Titans love increasing their mana cost! The bigger they are, the more powerful they can be. Since Realm of Titans only increases the cost of adjacent cards it will take careful planning and positioning cards in your hand to utilize properly. And if you don't need to increase the costs of cards in your hand you can always play it out to heal up your minions and even save yourself.
Keyword, Ascended: X - The Titan keyword. For example, a 3 mana card with "Ascended: (2)" would only trigger it's Ascended effect when it costs 5 or more. Many cards in the Titan class gain additional bonuses when they are cost more than their original mana cost. While cards may be decent on their own, getting them to Ascend increases their power dramatically!
Although no cards in the basic set have Ascended, as is with all class keywords, the set shows the multifaceted aspects and themes of the Titan class.
Healing Titan's tend to have high health to deal with powerful enemies. After battles they tend to heal up.
Buffing Minions Titans just love getting bigger and bigger, both in cost and stats!
Weapons Titan's are fighters so they tend to wield powerful weapons.
Cost Mechanics The key factor that separates this class from other buffing classes like Paladin or Priest. These guys love to cost more and tend to have insanely high valued cards that cost a lot of mana.
The Basics
An example of Titan's never ending quest for higher power. Ascended cards gain a flat bonus when they cost a certain amount more but cards like Rising Power can soar to insane heights. Although this card can potentially be a 5 mana Pyroblast, increasing cards costs by more than 1 or 2 will be very difficult for this class.
This powerful leader inspires his troops to keep on fighting! Every time an allied minion attacks, they gain an additional point of Health to live on in this battle and all battles to come!
This spell judges any minion and sets its stats to the cost that was paid for them. This card serves as psuedo-removal of pesky cards like Flamewreathed Faceless, Doomsayer, and any overstatted or buffed up cards.
But wait, there's more! 7 More Basic cards below :)
Radiant Warrior is a powerful 1 cost minion that gives his allies a boost! He is a powerful early game card with an impactful effect but unlike cards like Tunnel Trogg, Northshire Cleric, and Mana Wyrm you don't get to use his effect if you want to play him turn 1. Since he only costs 1 mana you can fit him in on curve to buff up your valuable minions. At worst you can still play him on turn 1 as a respectably statted 1/3.
An ancient weapon with mysterious runes engraved upon it. This weapon serves as a powerful early game removal dealing 2 damage total and having the potential of drawing 2 cards! Two Mortal Coils in 1 card with the downside of paying health to use. Unlike Coil if you want to kill that enemy 5/1 you're gonna have to take some hefty damage.
This Titan aims for the heart and as the saying goes, the bigger they are the harder they fall. Most minions have less health than their cost so in most situations this is a 4 mana Execute! The only downside is cards like Ysera, Drakonid Operative, Deathwing, and cards with Divine Shield or Buffs don't die to it.
Titans use their weapons often and without caution, using their weapons until they break. When their hammers break they reforge them with their own two hands. This reforged hammer can take down 3 minions for 4 mana! This card trades off the 1 attack and 4 healing offered by Truesilver Champion for 1 durability.
Powerful and straight to the point. This titan comes charging at enemies while simultaneously defending his allies. The best defense is a great offense!
Titan's gain power from ascending but even without ascending it is possible to harness a small portion of that power to unleash upon your enemies!
Potentially the most powerful buff in all of hearthstone history! At a whopping 6 mana however this card requires a strong investment in a single minion. You can turn 5 play your Fearless Defender and then turn 6 play The Chosen One effectively making a 6/10 taunt if he wasn't damaged in the previous turn.
Challenge Cards
Zygarde: The Classic Legendary
Zygarde is the classic set Titan Legendary. He is an insane powerhouse of value but takes time and, like all Titans, a ton of mana. The Wanderer is a 1/1 charge that adds the Earthbound to the top of your deck when he dies. A great turn 1 card to draw which lets you have a powerful turn 5 later. Earthbound is a 5/5 taunt which is good tempo on turn 5. When he dies you get the Ruler added to the top of your deck. The Ruler is a 10 mana powerhouse! For 10 mana you get to destroy an an enemy minion completely and the bigger they are the more you heal for! For a total of 16 mana over 3 turns you get 16/16 worth of taunts, deal 1 damage, partial taunt, destroy a minion, and a powerful heal. This minion does a lot but takes a lot of time and a lot of mana. I feel like this powerhouse helps solidify the identity of the Titan class.
Zygarde began his life as a wandering beast, charging into battles and often losing. Despite the countless defeats, his quest for greatness continued unabated.
As he matured he learned from his countless defeats. He grew to be more powerful! Tales of his greatness grew! He no longer had to look for enemies to defeat, foes sought after him and he accepted all challenges.
After countless victories, Zygarde's strength became unparalleled. Zygarde ascended to new heights! Zygarde crushes all who stand in his path and absorbs their power. Many still challenge him to this day but none live to tell the tale...
Jupiter: The Whispers of the Old Gods Legendary
Jupiter, a powerful new God that aspires to be as great as the Titans. Upon Discovering the secrets to Ascension Jupiter began to quest to unlock his own hidden power.
Jupiter is a strong thematic legendary minion that lets you discover an Ascended card. Most times the 1 mana increase activates the Ascended effect! Even if it doesn't it brings the card 1 mana closer to activating their powerful effects.
Alchemy Potions are cards that you shuffle into your deck and their effects trigger when drawn. There are 3 Basic Alchemy Potions and 1 new Alchemy Potion in each expansion other than Classic. Here in the spoiler are the three Basic Alchemy Potions (all of them are NONCOLLECTABLE TOKENS, of course):
Token:
The three example cards I'm going to show for my Basic set are also related to Alchemy Potions:
Notice that all Alchemy Potions have a card draw effect, and thus Distillation will both trigger their potion effects and gives you 3 additional cards. There will be more Alchemy Potion synergies in the Classic set and future expansions.
2. Card draw and Fatigue:
Here in the spoiler are the card draws of Alchemist Basic set:
It's obvious that, in order to trigger all those Alchemy Potions shuffled into your deck, Alchemists need more card draws than other classes; this also makes Alchemist a class that reaches fatigue quite often. Unfortunately, fatigue synergy is too complicated to be part of Basic Set. But don't worry - there will be cards in the Classic set that benefits from your reaching fatigue.
3. Debuff:
Here in the spoiler are the debuff cards of Alchemist Basic set:
As we know, every class has their own way of removals. For Mage, it's transform and damage; for Priest, it's taking control and destroy according to Attack of a minion; for Alchemist, it's debuff. While buff cards give a minion +X/+X, debuff cards give it -X/-X. There are two things worth mentioning with this mechanic. First, when a minion's Health becomes 0 or less with a debuff, it dies. Second, when you debuff a damaged minion, both its current Health and maximum Health are reduced.
4. Swap:
Here in the spoiler are the swap synergy cards of Alchemist Basic set:
You may have noticed that, 'swap Attack and Health' is an alchemist-themed effect in the current Hearthstone(see Crazed Alchemist and Kooky Chemist), and thus I also include 'swap' as one of the main features of my Alchemist class. In order not to Confuse new players, this is only expressed as 'swap a minion's Attack and Health' in the Basic set. In Classic set and other expansions, there'll be more things that Alchemists may swap.
Extra Challenge Cards
Token:
Fortuneteller: Pokemon challenge card. Since the Alchemy Potions are triggered when drawn, the sequence of your deck becomes quite important for Alchemists. This epic card from Classic set may help you arrange your future draws.
Mallory the Maniacal: Legendary challenge card. It merges all your Alchemy Potions into a single one, so that once this Compound Potion is drawn, all effects of its ingredients will trigger. Notice its synergy with 'draw an Alchemy Potion (of any kind) from your deck' effects (as is shown in Distillation above).
[Not a native speaker. Forgive me for the possible grammar mistakes and typos. I hope you like my invention! -nobravery]
Considered to be a lot art among most races on Azeroth, Ninjitsu was rediscovered once the Alliance and Horde arrived on Pandaria. Shinobi and kunoichi are still an uncommon sight to this day, however. Despite this, townsfolk across the lands have sworn till their dying breath they have seen a blur of shadow, or a whiff of smoke, too fast to be a rogue bit with none of a warlock's malice.
'Twas the wind, they say.
Overview
The Ninja focuses on a number of different things, but first and foremost is the merging of minions through the shadowy, lost arts of ninjitsu into something far more powerful. Through dedication or casting certain dubious spells, minions can also transform themselves into those of higher cost. Finally, while the class does have a fun and odd flavour to it which highlights the more light-hearted and irrepressible side of Karin, the core of every ninja is a dedicated and efficient warrior. They will employ weapons and direct damage spells to get the job done.
Art of Deception explained:
This hero power has been described in a multitude of ways, including "volatile". On the surface, this is just a Paladin Hero Power. However, this variable mana cost is what makes this hero power fitting for the Ninja. If you need to a certain costing minion for a merge, your Hero Power can fill this in. If you need a high Cost minion to pull of a combo, your Hero Power can also fulfill this.
In addition, I am aware of the fact that hearthstone does not keep track of variable mana costs, such as the Giants. Therefore, this variable cost for the Dummies will be stored as a buff that is immediately given to the Dummy when it is summoned.
Example Basic Cards
Meaning of Life explained:
No, the cost isn't supposed to be 42.
In the basic set, Meaning of Life serves it's initial purpose as an on-curve buff for a minion, comparable to cards like Blessing of Kings. However, it's main job is a powerful combo card and though there isn't a lot it can combo with in the Basic Set, Sakura Storm, found below, tells the burgeoning Ninja player the best is yet to come.
Hand Clansman explained:
While a simple looking card with slightly increased stats compared to Chillwind Yeti, the token it summons is very noteworthy. With two different mana costs, this will give the Ninja player oppurtunities to merge minions with specific mana requirements. (I also hope someone gets the reference made here)
Red Herring explained:
Finally, the hard removal of the Basic set. While being fairly effective removal, Red Herring is also the Ninja's first look into the merging mechanic. As merging is a fairly obscure and complex mechanic, I decided it would be best to save most of it for future sets. Despite this, it's important to teach players an important facet of the class, so I used this card to teach them.
Additional Challenge cards
Feral Ninken explained:
A ninken is a ninja-trained hound, often with magical properties in fantasies. The pokemon portrayed here is Zoroark. A first sneak peek into the merging technique of the Ninjas, this otherwise vanilla 1-drop 1/3 will be able to combine with almost every card due to it's card text. A very versatile combo starter.
Black Shiv explained:
Black Shiv is the MSoG legendary for this class. Though harder to combo off compared to the Ninken, this minion rewards multiple merges while also being a cheap Taunt. Though 2 mana 1/4 taunt is, of course, superior to Silverback Patriarch, I decided to balance this card against Voidwalker and Squirming Tentacle.
Orc last names are not inherited, but earned. They might name themselves after a certain weapon (see Doomhammer), or after a particular act (see Hellscream). In Grom's case, the only word that he could is Lok'Tar, or vitctory. He is a champion of the arena, and can do alone what most others couldn't do with an army Paragon. The class will revolve around having one incredibly tough minion that allows you to control the board with much cheaper and more powerful spells.
The 1/1 Challenger
Explanation
Grizzled Vanguard: This might seem incredibly basic but hey! It is the basic set. This class absolutely loves giant minions, and this guy brings Taunt as well to help clean up the rather large amount of minions your opponent will always have. Balanced against the Ancient of Blossoms, with a solid +1/+1 for being a class card.
Endurance of the Hero: You've dropped a minion on turn 1. You traded with whatever your opponent played. This allows you to keep your minion both durable and healthy, where a turn 1 Mistress of Mixtures is guaranteed to be a turn 2 3/5, no matter what traded. Obviously, the bigger the creature, the more value you get out of this, as it scales with how much healing is being done.
Overwhelming Odds: This is one of my major synnergy cards, without using paragon. You'll be using very few minions, while giving your opponent minions through the hero power and cards like Sword of the Champion. This is just one of the many ways that these situations will turn in your favor.
Marowak: Originally was going to be just Cubone, as he is literally "The Lonely Pokemon". But of course, no Cubone comes before it's mother's death.
Blood-Princess Rias is the eldest daughter of the Blood-Queen Lana'thel. Rias had managed to capture and turn an adventurer before the assault on Icecrown Citadel. She went to her mother to ask for guidance about the information she had found out. Knowing what was best, her mother wanted Rias to make haste and find a location to hide out till this assault ended in one way or another. Months had passed and she left her hidden cavern and began her trip back to Icecrown Citadel only to see the Crimson Hall a ruin. Bones scattered throughout of Alliance and Horde soldiers along with Darkfallen. She seeks vengeance on those adventurers for the death of her comrades and her Mother. Now she is building her own force to take the fight to the Alliance and the Horde.
Why fight?
Overview
Rias' Hero Power : Forceful Bite, She has not had a good meal in a while and looking to make a mess of things, although blood may at times spill on the ground it is still as tasty as ever. Why chase after a moving target when this one is willing to stay still?
The Core
Healing
What better way for a vampire to do then to keep themselves topped off. Where they get the source of healing from can be quite disturbing at times. From destroying your own followers to being feed by your admired pets.
Control
Rias has no time to play games with minions her main focus on the prize your life blood. She can't have you just die right away she needs you to pay for what had happened to her mother. She'll take care of you for a small price. Don't worry about her companions those are for your minions to deal with.
What awaits?
A Basic Example
Explanations
Hungry Bat : The minion that has been by her side since her mother created her. Trustworthy this little pet is. With a strong base stat for 1 mana. He is bound to keep a few smaller minions in his control.
Dark Calling : She needs to have some fun. The draw for this could be a gamble for both players since they know a minion is for sure in the hand.
Bloodbolt : More damage on the prize just like how mother use to bolt us. Trying to end the game quickly just might be a good thing for this card but fall behind and it's a good card to gain a small bit of health restore. It's a weaker Mind Blast but to much damage on the enemy hero is bad.
More Basics?
Remaining Basics
Explanation
Harvest : A quick and cheap card to gain health, but with all cheap heals it comes with the cost of a minion. However when it comes to Sacrificial Pact let's hope you have minions your not afraid to lose. No minions in your deck, no heals.
Attracting Gaze : Have a problem with a minion, not a problem. This plays on the Vampire ability to control a victim and in this case make it so you can attack the problem with your minions. If you have any.
Life Orb : Minions getting destroyed to fast, and need some pinch healing for them. Sure you have to give the enemy hero some health but keeping your minions alive is important too. I'm sure you'll find a way to remove the health you just gave them.
Mark of San'layn : Terrible, just Terrible. Who wants to buff minions anyway? Sure you could give this overpriced buff to a minion and find a way to keep them alive, but most vampire companions have higher health pools. Except that one adventurer. Now pay for that sweet attack buff and destroy some enemy minions.
San'layn Beam : Hard Removal anyone? Why take 3 damage? You have to keep up with the health loss on your enemy.
Turned Adventurer : Yup...I see a little Fire Elemental just 1 turn sooner and 1 damage less. Happy targeting.
Crimson Swarm : A weaker Flamestrike but your after the health restore now get out there and hit some minions. Just don't use this one 1 minion.
There's More?
Challenge Cards
Explanations
Blood-Crazed Vulpes: From the Classic set we have this little guy. Such a nice furball of power with the helping paw of getting more minions on the board to help take control of a losing control situation. Taking a loss to your health is a small price to make but a big gain for a future turn. You know like turn 4!
Kella X. Quarta : From the Whispers of the Old Gods the vampire takes a trip down memory lane back to a time where Northrend didn't have annoying adventurers and the scourge lived in peace. What vampires can't have memories? Kella is the answer for pesky little minions that many gotten buffed or just take down a strong minion that is about to be summoned. Either way she is ready to give judgement. More on her later.
Hidden Secrets?
Take a chance and open whats below.
Flavor Text
Hungry Bat : He's really just thirsty...Promise.
Dark Calling : You don't want to know where they got your number.
Bloodbolt : Knows where to go.
Harvest : Tasted better than chicken.
Attracting Gaze : I choose you!
Life Orb : In case of emergency break this.
Mark of San'layn : At least this is not Brand of San'layn.
San'layn Beam : There is a .01% chance this will beam you up.
Turned Adventurer : We told her to /dance to break mind control...Oh well.
Crimson Swarm : This is bat country.
Blood-Crazed Vulpes : Beauty really does come with a price.
Kella X. Quarta : "There's no saving a rotten egg."
In the depths of the Undercity there lives a girl a blind girl with unnaturally pale skin, said to be able to see the future, converse with spirits, and talk to the well-and-truly dead like they are still in the land of the living. Although she can not see, her things are always meticulously arranged, and those that visit her for advice or fortunes say that runes are painted all around the room she lives in, in a script too delicate to have been drawn by one who has lost her sight. Rumours say that she lives with a demon disguised as a child (hint hint classic legendary hint hint), that she has never aged for fifty years, that unnatural, ghostly sounds echo in the night as eerie lights fly about in her dwelling. But such rumours and others like them have never been proven, and those that have tried to verify them are prone to disappear without a trace, never to be heard of again.
One of the Medium's specialities is cost-reductions, allowing her to manifest spirits and cast spells with greater ease. Her main source of discounts is her hero power - 'Communion', which allows her to receive 'Guidance' from the spirits. 'Guidance' spells can be used immediately to receive immediate benefit, or they can be hoarded in order to reduce the cost of certain combo pieces later in the game. The discount is split randomly very much like Arcane Missiles (can hit the same card more than once), except this reduces the cost of cards instead of dealing 1 damage. They will not attempt to reduce the cost of cards that cost (0) or have the Ethereal keyword:
Explanation:
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.
Basic Cards Showcase:
The Stonepeak Mystic is the first healing option the Medium has access to. Like many of her cards, it synergises with the summoning of minions, which her main combos are centred around. Every class that aims for the long game requires some sort of healing option, and this card provides it. You can either play it as a tempo card and slowly heal up your hero, or you can save it for burst healing when you need it.
Banish is an example of a card that can synergise with the Medium's hero power. It starts out as a slightly-cheaper situational Assassinate, but as it's cost is reduced, it can kill more and more things. After 1 discount, it's comparable to Shadow Word: Death. After two, it gets pretty damn good.
Channeling is another way for the Medium to discount her cards beyond the use of her hero power, which is important if you want a bit more consistency with your reduction effects due to the random nature of 'Guidance'. The card draw takes place after the discount.
Other Basics + Explanations:
Soulspark: Serves as the class's 2-mana removal spell. Deals 1 more damage at the cost of 2 health. Can be good for combos, but remember - if you use Malygos with this, you'll be smashing yourself for 7 damage.
Ancestral Strength: By appealing for aid from the ancestors of her minions, the Medium can allow them access to the strength of their forefathers! Obviously, stronger cards have stronger forefathers. A Stonetusk Boar's dad was probably another Stonetusk Boar, after all.
Demon Mentor: At times, the messages from the spirits are strangely cryptic and hard to decipher. Fear not! The Demon Mentor is here to help you. She allows you to cast your 'Guidance' spells for free, rewarding you for hoarding them. They will also no longer waste their discounts on each other!
Wind and Water: I showed off this card during the first phase, and it's another card that synergises with summoning minions. Even in the basic set, cards like Murloc Tidehunter and Razorfen Hunter allow people to take advantage of this kind of synergy. +3 health is great for buffing minions out of AOE range.
Future Sight: Just because you can see the future (and if you can't, you're a sorry excuse for a Medium) doesn't mean you can make it come sooner! Future Sight allows you to draw cards, but you won't be able to play them until your next turn. Don't forget to plan ahead.
Screaming Spirit: Most likely a terrible singer in life, the Screaming Spirit screams so loud that people just have to kill it in order to concentrate, which is why it has Taunt. It offers a Taunt minion for the Medium, as well as a smaller board-clear when Possessed Daggers is too expensive for the job.
Possessed Daggers: Not all spirits have to be materialised in the form of minions in order to be helpful. Many are content simply possessing objects and using those to exert control over their physical environment. These daggers are one such example. The Medium can communicate with the spirits residing within them, allowing her to unleash them as a storm of blades - a powerful AOE. Great for clearing boards, which is very good regardless of whether you're going for control or combo.
Pokemon + Legendary:
Ethereal has potential beyond simply acting as a passive effect - it allows for cards to specifically interact with them. The Ascended Psychic shows one such interaction. A large reason why Ethereal cards are useful is because you can afford to hold them until the opportune moment without wasting Guidance ticks on them, and Gothitelle - I mean, the Ascended Psychic further rewards you for that by making another copy of all Ethereal cards in your hand when she dies. She offers some Deathrattle synergy as well, which can be quite useful.
Whispers of the Old Gods brings the Medium another powerful combo tool in the form of Izanami, the Japanese goddess of death (Kill everything!) and rebirth (Reincarnate them!), ruling over the underworld. She allows you to remove buffs from enemy minions, heal friendly ones, and trigger deathrattles, all while giving N'zoth extra fuel and synergising with cards that trigger based on minion deaths/summons (Volcanic Drake, Wind and Water).
His story starts back at the time when the Lich King's forces were still ravaging the lands of Azeroth. Inside the walls of Jotunheim, vrykul warriors were fighting for the privilege of serving in Arthas' dark army in the afterlife, almost like a perversion of their ancestrals' faith and wish to join Odyn in the Halls of Valor. The winners are turned into Ymirjar by the Val'kyr and join the ranks of the undead legion, while the losers become Vargul and are forced into manual labor. Meet Floki: he's one of the latter.
Be sure to check the rest of Floki's backstory inside the spoiler:
Fast forward to when the threat of the Lich King has been finally neutralized. Floki is among what's left of the Scourge. He has the choice to join the Forsaken and serve their master, Sylvannas Windrunner. He refuses.
Seeking to reconnect with his kin (or what's left of it) and make use of his new masonry skills, he willingly joins the Kvaldir society. He feels he is closer to them, former vrykul like him, than to the skeletons and ghouls he's been forced to work with for the past years. He pledges allegiance to Helya, but with her he strikes no pact, for now he serves none but himself.
With the Kvaldir, he goes into raids to hone his combat techniques (which were, by the way, never his forte) and learns how to build and repair longships. Time passes and his companions, having realized how good he was at making boats, start calling him "the Boatbuilder".
One day, he goes missing. While looking for him, his companions realize a small boat and also some of the loot they had in stash, gathered over the course of countless raids he took part in, are also gone.
Some months later, an enormous longship, manned by vrykul, vargul and forsaken alike begins terrorizing the seas of northern Azeroth.
OVERVIEW
THE VARANGIAN is a class that borrows elements mainly from Druid, Paladin and Rogue, and would play mostly as an aggressive, midrange or combo deck. Buffs of all kinds (single-target, random, temporary, aura, AoE, and subsequently, board presence), are a very strong theme of the class, inspired by the kvaldir and vrykul which already exist in the game and deal with these effects, along with "cheating" during deckbuilding (you'll see what I mean) and attacking with your hero, but without weapons (to differentiate them from the other sea-raiders in game, Pirates). Other minor themes include unconventional hard removal and board clears, spells that generate minions, Freeze and Armor, etc.
THE SHOWCASE
The Iron Vrykul token:
Commentary on each card can be found inside the spoiler:
Sharpen Edge is one of the many cheap ways available for the Varangian to buff its minions and make effective trades, but the real power of the card is not on the buff: it's on the cycle. Much like Power Word: Shield, it requires you to have something on board, balancing the low cost draw.
Combining the buff theme with the spell-minion theme, Forge Will is just like a bigger version of your Hero Power. This versatility is really important so the card doesn't just stay in your hand 'cus you don't have something to play it on. (Note: "If you can't" means if you don't have a minion on which you can play the card i.e. your board is empty or the only minions you have can't be targeted by spells.)
You guys probably already realized I like History Vikings, and if you've ever watched the show, I'm sure you'll recognize this formation immediately. Shield Wall combines a temporary buff and burst potential with a permanent, defensive buff that can help you mitigate the damage you take from using your face to clear your opponent's minions.
Now things are starting to get interesting. At first, Prehistoric Thresher (which you might have noticed is not one, but TWO pokémon: a Lapras with a Staryu in its back)may seem like a bad card, but if you put some more thought into it, you'll realize you're paying 5 mana for a vanilla 5-drop that also DRAWS YOU TWO CARDS (sorta). This is a pretty cool way of thinning your deck and getting closer to your combo, and it might be even better than running weak minions for cycle, like Loot Hoarder.
The final card in the showcase is the corrupted version of the renowned explorer, Brann Bronzebeard. His mind was twisted by the constant exposure to the forces of the Old Gods and he left the League to become a sea-raider, dyed his beard and adopted the name Blackbeard. Like with the Thresher, you're making a trade when you put this card in your deck: you'll be forced to run a vanilla body and, in exchange, you can put another Bloodmage Thalnos or Sylvanas into your deck. Ever imagined playing against someone with two Twin Emps or Yoggs? Now you can, though you probably won't like it.
THE (REST OF THE) BASIC SET
The actual cards:
Murloc token:
And of course, more commentary:
Starting with the Varangian's 2-drop of choice: Raiding Party is a pretty sticky early game option which allows you to establish board control from the beginning of the game so you can benefit from your buffs and synergy. The tokens summoned are the same as your Hero Power's.
Claw and Heroic Strike had a baby, and her name is Lagertha.Shield and Sword is the closest the Varangian will ever get to a "2 mana deal 3" spell.
Combo decks need a bit of healing, removal and stall. Stranded on Ice fills the last role. On smaller boards, it's virtually a cheaper Frost Nova.
Curse of the Sea is a fun, weird spell. It's a bit less effective than Polymorph or Hex, and comparable to Deadly Shot.
A very defensive tool, Iron Flesh can be played even when you don't have any board, just for the heal, but if you do, can also put a big Taunt in the way of your opponent's minions.
Floki's crew get all their weapons from the same manufacturer. The Dwarven Coldsmith is always there to help when the heat starts to rise.
To wrap it up, we have a big AoE buff in the form of Berserking Rage. Think of this as burst damage that remains after the turn you cast it.
As a member of the Bronze Dragonflight, Moradormi has extensive knowledge about the future. She knows exactly what is meant to happen, and what isn't. Or so she thought. Discovering the ultimate fate of her flight, their corruption into the Infinite Dragonflight, turned the once optimist dragon into a full-on cynic. Still, she strives to make the future a better place, perhaps trying to atone for deeds not yet commited.
Class Keyword:
Basic Card Examples:
Time Skip: I'm rather proud of this one. It's a spell that works in a myriad of different situations. It can be used like Frost Nova with Doomsayer, but if it's past turn 4, you can still play stuff afterwards. Turn 8+ with Ragnaros for an extra Fireball. It will affect cards with Latent making them trigger one turn earlier. It also works with the next card by cancelling the debuff it places in the drawn cards.
Time Mirage: A cheaper Arcane Intellect with a drawback (much like Ancestral Knowledge) which synergizes pretty well with positive latent effects as well as "Each turn this is/was in your hand" cards.
Sand Guardian: I'm taking the opportunity to reinforce the theme of the class: holding stuff in your hand to get stronger effects later on. This particular line of effects, in contrast with Latent effect, scales with the time spent in your hand instead of being a fixed effect on a specific threshold of turns. Much like Latent effects, though, both positive and negative effects exist.
Full Basic Set:
Alter Fate: Pretty straightforward. This one works with negative Latent effects you don't want in your hand. It also serves to refresh your hand if you having nothing good. It's meant as a counterpart for Time Mirage and isn't meant to be run in the same kind of decks.
Bronze Apprentice: A mirrored draw effect, it lets the opponent choose when to draw as it's not meant to enable fatigue decks.
Time Warp: This works pretty well with anything you wouldn't mind having extra copies of.
Sands of Time: This card works much like Nourish for both players, so technically the net cost of the card is only 1 mana. It helps at pushing into the late game against faster decks that don't care about their mana but rather their cards, but it's not really the same as ramp Druid cards since this one can backfire if played carelessly.
Time Loop: Another card draw of sorts, though this one is never useful standalone.
Bronze Healer: Another mechanic from the class, though this one finds its home with cards that don't benefit from staying in your hand and are therefore more likely to run Alter Fate.
Rewind Time: Right in-between Vanish and Twisting Nether. Allows you to get the most value from played Battlecries and similar effects while clearing the board. Originally 7 mana, but I saw Asylum's review on a similar card so I adjusted it.
Challenge Cards:
Past Moradormi: Mechanically, it's a reverse Bolf, though functionally it's more reminiscent of a weapon. The class has some healing, but it's not particularly healing intensive, so this should be used with care. It cannot be destroyed by damage unless silenced, but any other kind of minion destruction works. It also enables burn from cards that only target minions like Shield Slam and Flame Lance.
Temporal Anomaly: A rather straightforward card, it can get potentially infinite value, but its stats are suboptimal. This one went through many iterations but I finally settled for Latent (2) on the effect to balance it.
TheStargazer is a class built around anti-fatigue. For the Basic set, you have a focus on maintaining strong board control, to help you win by attrition utilizing the game's basic elements with cards for hard removal, strengthening your board, and more! Being the foundation for the class, the Basic set uses the Hero Power strictly to prevent fatigue, but as sets progress, there will be more interaction with the Hero Power's token, as shown in the challenge example cards. Take a look!
Tokens:
Sayge
The fortune you take will depend on how you play and how you plan on playing. Some have more specific uses than others. For Visions of Greed, drawing more is usually not the course of action you'd want to take, reaching fatigue. But, if you have Starlight cards replaced either from conditions like Fabled Fairy or the class' keyword, Constellation, which replaces Starlight cards with a copy of that card, you may want it to quickly complete a win condition.
«My friend, I'm glad to see you back. I approve your wise choice to join the Cult. Now, it's time for you to learn about the basics of being a Cultist. You will learn the rituals and the sacred psalms. You will learn how to cast dark magic. You will learn how to properly wear a mantle. You have so much to learn! Would you follow me, Brother?"
The Cult Leader Class
Themes
Deck-related effects. Shuffling and replacing cards, increasing deck quality, caring about deck size or composition; these are inherent mechanics in the Cult Leader class.
Cult cards.Cult, the new and quite unique class keyword, will introduce new deckbuilding possibilities.
Ongoing and triggered effects. A Cult grows, becomes stronger as time passes; this will be characterized by the presence of various cards with repeatable effects.
Keyword
When you build your deck, you may include up to 4 copies of a card with the keyword Cult. Cards with Cult are meant to be played in great numbers. Some cards reward you for having multiple copies in your deck, or for playing them multiple times.
The Basic Set
APPEALING RECRUITER
Shuffling minions into your deck is a simple method to manipulate your deck composition. A Cultist is naturally the very first minion that you will use for that purpose.
Since your hero power does (almost) nothing the turn it is played, you will need something useful to do on your second turn. This minion provides a good body and an effect which will fit in your global game plan.
IMMOLATE THE IMPURE
This cheap AoE spell is not intended to be easy to use. It can't hit everything and its effect is symmetrical. However, it will teach new players how to trade efficiently.
Should you still need to take care of a minion with 2 Health left, you could always use a Cultist. (Whom are not affected by this spell, of course, because they are naturally pure of heart and mind.)
SOLEMN LITURGY
The first method to use your deck as a ressource, is to care about its size. This healing spell teaches new players a core mechanic of the Cult Leader class.
It will take you almost a complete turn to finish the liturgy: however, you should be able to fully heal yourself. In a class with recurrent effects (see Appealing Recruiter), staying alive for a long time is crucial.
The Challenges
«OH SERIOUSLY, not another one of THOSE???»
- An exasperated traveller
Eyeless Creature - These creatures live in swarms, in deep dark unexplored caverns. They are similar to Haunted Creeper; they provide a recurrent threat. Should you find a way to shuffle additional copies into your deck, in incoming sets, they will essentially become a mini-Dreadsteed. Quite a nice minion for its low cost!
«I do not fear time. I do not fear power. I impose fear.»
- Roselyn the Corrupted
Roselyn the Corrupted -Roselyn is a versatile legendary, which can provide repeated hand enhancement, maintain your deck size, and duplicate essential cards. You must find the best time to play her to fully make use of her effect. You have a good hand and a way to protect her? You have a Cult card that is meant to be copied? She will truly shine, and impose fear on your opponent!
The Basic Set, Continued...
Determined Novice - This simple minion will provide an early and sturdy body. Be sure to play it soon, or to shuffle cards into your deck, to maintain its strength.
Dreadful Omen - Since you will shuffle various cards into your deck, you will need a method to find them. Card filtering will thus be a valuable asset.
Dark Blast - This removal spell will take care of small threats, while increasing your deck size, in order to smooth out your early plays.
«When you told me that you would give me the means to propagate our message, I wasn't exactly thinking about a pitchfork.»
- A novice to his master
Lead the Heretics - Our message needs to be spread! By giving a minion +4 Attack and Taunt, you ensure that your opponent understands your true intentions. This card may be used either offensively, to provide extra damage, or defensively, to protect key cards like Appealing Recruiter or Roselyn the Corrupted. Using this card correctly is good practice for a new player.
«The voices in my head. They always repeat the SAME thing, over and over again.»
- A cultist, on the verge of madness
Dementia - This is your class main card advantage tool. This card provides a twofold advantage over a simple Arcane Intellect. First, it draws only one card. In a class which care about deck size, it ensures that your deck doesn't thin too fast. Second, the card you draw is copied. Thus, Dementia works well with cards with the new keyword Cult. A new player should also be able to find clever ways to use this card.
«Join us. March with us. For our path is traced in the realms of darkness.»
- Excerpt of a chant
Tempt - Some enemy minions may prove troublesome. If that's the case, you can incite them to join your cause. Power, knowledge, fear; all reasons are good to join the Cult and become a cultist. This removal spell will efficiently take care of various threats, and become an essential tool in your first decks.
«Come here my good fellow! You look like a customer who needs something to repel obscure threats. I've the right artifact, just for you, at a competitive price!»
- Tomtom-Rok, Gadgetzan Junk Dealer
Charm of Protection - Being a cultist is not evident. You're constantly exposed to diverse perils, death is always lurking around the corner... A mean to protect your minions will soon become essential. The Cult Leader class, having access to various minions with ongoing or triggered effects, will require this charm to protect its board.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to The_Odinson for his precious comments, to ZardozSpeaks for the final touch, to AsylumRhapsody for the pokemon idea. And to the superb community!
edit : Roselyn the Corrupted, Determined Novice and Charm of Protection were balanced.
What are Blood Mages and Who is Ral'thon Morningstar?
CLASS: The Blood Mage
When the Sunwell of Daralan was destroyed by the Scourge, the elven magi of the Kirin Tor were forced to look elsewhere to sate their addiction to arcane energy. While many believe Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider to be the first blood mage, the art of siphoning arcane energy from living beings was first perfected by the Burning Legion. Little did the demons know that by teaching this art to the Blood Elves, it would be turned against the Legion. Today, it is not just the Blood Elves who practice blood magic, many Naga, Fel Orcs and Satyr's have also turned to this technique to free themselves from the Burning Legion. While many traditional mages consider blood magic to be no different than the infernal shadow magics of warlocks, the blood mage knows better: a demon is much more useful dead than alive.
NEW HERO: Ral'thon Morningstar
Ral'thon was a disciple of Prince Kael'thas and followed him into Outland where he learned the art of blood magic and how to harness the arcane energy within demons and other creatures. When he learned his prince had betrayed the blood elves and was conspiring with the Burning Legion, Ral'thon was among the heroes who assaulted Tempest Keep to slay the treacherous prince. Ral'thon now wanders Azeroth, seeking to unite his fractured people and rebuild the broken alliance with the Naga.
How does the Blood Mage play in Hearthstone? How does the Hero Power work? How does the Siphon Keyword Work?
NEW CLASS: Blood Mage
Blood Mages favor control and attrition decks. Blood Mages use a wide repertoire of removal spells and stall cards, to wear their opponent down and eventually seize control of the board. While other classes, excel at these archetypes, the Blood Mage is especially designed for reactive counter plays, utilizing the Siphon Keyword and Spell Flood Hero Power to cause disruptive turns for their opponents.
HERO POWER: Spell Flood/Mana Leak
Mana Leak helps slow down your opponent's tempo by unexpectedly increasing their card cost. While this power starts off weak, with each additional use and each passing turn, your opponent becomes more likely to draw into a Mana Leak. Just like Ambush! or Burrowing Mine, when Mana Leak is drawn, it is revealed and effects immediately take place. Just like those previously mentioned cards, if it is drawn when you have 10 cards in hand, it is discarded and has no effect. Multiple Mana Leaks do not stack.
NEW KEYWORD: Siphon
Siphon works similarly to Overload. You spend mana crystals you do not have, but in this case you spend the mana left over from your opponent's turn. If a card has Siphon (2), you may discount that card by 2 if your opponent has 2 unused crystals, or by just 1 if they have only one unused crystal. These discounts would appear in the usual fashion, as a green number in card's mana crystal in the upper left corner. Once you play a siphon card, you expend the appropriate amount of your opponent's crystals. You can always play Siphon cards at their full cost, if your foe has no unspent mana.
Three Example Cards from the Basic Set
Blood Pact: This zero cost draw spell helps accelerate the blood mage in early turns and increases the chances that their opponent draws into a Mana Leak. A staple of Mill Blood Mage decks.
Communion: This spell will be a cornerstone of many slow, control oriented decks, allowing you to stall in the early game, or achieve a big tempo swing after trading your minions favorably.
Outland Visionary: This minion allows you to see your opponent's hand for the rest of the turn. While costly at 4 mana, this card allows you to use your precious removal spells and tempo plays when they matter most.
The Full Basic Set
The Challenge Cards
Xavius, the Dreameater (Whipsers of the Old Gods): This legendary exemplifies the counterplay control style of the Blood Mage. Xavius is a greed card. How long can you sit on it, hoping for the perfect spell to mirror back at your opponent? While this card rewards patience, it punishes an overly greedy player who waits too long, hoping to counter their opponent's biggest spells.
Immortal Phoenix (Classic/Expert): Immortal Phoenix is only immortal if you want it to be. On your own turn, you can trade it and guarantee it resummons. Alternatively, you save 4 mana every turn to resummon it during your opponent's turn. Works great in conjunction with Defender of Argus. This is a great attrition card, that allows you outlast your opponent, well into fatigue.
Swarmlord is designed as a beast and buff-based class. You've got built in removal and built in beasts, what's not to like? What's more, one of it's more prolific theme is refilling your hand with little beasties. Later on down the line, you'll see Ambushes and clearing through your hero. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you get what I'm putting down. here goes nothing.
Prey On The Weak discussion
Look. If you're going to play a bug, there's got to be at least some fantasy realized. You are a bug. EAT SOME PEOPLE.
Balance wise, your attack based spells are important to your hero. Many will be overcosted with great after effects. In the base set, the attack buffs are decently cheap and give you some pure removal. Mix and match for maximum damage. Go wild. EAT SOME PEOPLE. This is your basic draw though, so use at your discretion. Combine with hero power to draw a card AND get a 1/1. Thus the snowballing begins.
Crypt Fiend discussion
There will be buffs my friends, and as a person who's been stuck with buffs in hand and no minions, I've felt your pain. There will be a decent amount of refunding bugs to your hand. I mean, you're the lord of the swarm. You should be allowed to swarm some people. However, that doesn't mean you're stuck as a zoo deck. These bugs can appear in many forms but get used to the 1/1 drone. I mean... There's not enough art for more tokens... ahem.
Assert Dominance discussion
We've all been screwed by Bloodlust or Savage Roar so i'm naturally wary of creating a card like this, but I feel this a good compromise. It'll likely do less damage to face than Bloodlust and is costed 2 more than Savage Roar (The damage is comparable), but it has the ability to clear taunts such as Sen'jin Shieldmasta and Sludge Belcher and gives you a bit more damage and importantly a bit more survivability for each of your minions. It's the finisher you deserve, friend.
Remaining basic set
Lightning round!
Slasher - Cheap beast to start off some fun effects with. Base stats and random damage. Fun times!
Qiraji - More bugs! MORE BUGS!
Roar - Cheap removal, Arcane shot, yadda yadda, buff your hero power why don'tcha
Carapace - You can't eat people if you're dead, so stop being dead.
Overwhelm - The jury has decided that you can't use it unless you have a minion. Cheap removal. You might need it.
Lord - Hey I like Tundra Rhino, and Crypt Lord doesn't like getting hurt.
Plague - You're going to not want to be dead. This removal is strong because you won\t be getting many removals. Use this one wisely.
I really wanted to show off some fun concepts for Ambush! that will be showing their collective faces eventually. None of them will shuffle three in like rogue but you'll be putting a few sleeper agents in. Also, Mega Beedrill. Nuff said.
Prophet Skeram discussion
And Lo, On The First Turn Thou Shalt Add A 1/1 To Thine Hand...
I know sometimes you don't have any minions to buff, and I'mma let you finish, but now you can have two free 1/1's when you need them. Some of the larger, more expensive minions will feature a similar mechanic on draw but only Skeram has the ability to give it to you when the game starts. This assures a turn one... a bad turn one, so I wouldn't run this so you won't need a 1 drop. It's designed for buffs. Buff things. I'll note that at this time Swarmlord is not a member of the Grimy Goons, so it won't be over the top.
There ya go. Go eat some people, you now have bug powers.
Well here goes nothing! Time for my Dragon Knight and his basic set! :)
If you enjoy this class be sure to upvote it to make sure it advances to the next round cause once I'm able to start making slightly more complex cards this class is gonna get so much more interesting and cool becuase of all the things I can do with the Hero Power and with armor interaction.
THE DRAGON KNIGHT:
This hero power is similar to the paladin but instead of directly summoning a 1/1 to the board you delay the affect by several rounds for a 2/2 along with that several cards as you'll see below are affected by having a certain number of Whelps in your deck. As a side note the Whelps act just like the cards made from Beneath the Grounds.
However you may be asking yourself if the hero power is so slow then how in the world will you survive against aggressive decks to get value out of it? It's quite simple actually, this class uses armor! That's right we have a second class to relies on/interacts with armor to survive. He has several cards that grant armor in order to live long enough for the hero power to start taking affect.
The Dragon Knight founding and lore:
The Dragon Knight
Throughout all recorded history dragons have been the image of power in the eyes of all races. Their massive bodies covered in thick armored scales, the strength to tear a man in half with ease, and to top it all off a breath of flame that can melt the strongest of metals. For these reasons many have looked to slaying a dragon as their greatest achievement by overcoming the flaming behemoths. However for some the dragons are seen as the way to take their growing power to new, previously unreachable levels. They have through unknown means found a way to transform into a mighty dragon themselves. With this new technique under their belt they have come to call themselves Dragon Knights and have gained a reputation of being ruthless in their quest for ever growing power. After some time several Dragon Knights came together to form the Dragon Order and with it they managed to hide the secrets of transforming into a Dragon. Due to the secrets of becoming a dragon being so hidden to those outside the Order many have come to suspect the Knights gained their power through dark places such as the Old Gods or the Burning Legion. However most knights are veterans from wars fighting to contain the Old Gods and wars to drive back the Burning Legion and many seem to defiant towards both groups and as such their goals and motives are still largely unknown.
Yvon and his tale:
Yvon was young when he became fascinated with dragons and throughout his life has sought to harness their power for his own. Through still largely unknown methods Yvon managed to Transform himself into a dragon and would become the first dragon knight in existence. He would move on to recruit and teach others to become Dragon Knights and would eventually become the founder and ruler of the Dragon Order. Naming himself the Dragon Master he moved to extend his influence and power but would suddenly disappear after The Shattering and the death of Deathwing. However with the return of the Legion Yvon has returned with immense new powers and an entire army of dragons seemingly to continue where he left off so long ago.
As Yvon returned with a massive army of dragons and he showed that he had mastered the breeding and growth of dragons that allowed him to quickly grow an endless army of Whelps to fight for him and he has used it to lead an endless assault wherever there are enemies of the Dragon Knights.
The Basic Set Examples:
Dragonscale Greatsword: A big weapon that heals like Truesilver Champion but only when used to kill minions so it encourages using the weapon as removal instead of pounding the opponents face in.
Corrupted Flame: This mostly works like Soulfire but discards a Whelp which is important to this deck and class many cards have effects for things like gaining armor based on Whelps. However as a trade off for the Whelp you get a discounted Flame Lance which is strong in a control deck. This is also the first of many cards that removes Whelps and as you'll see in the classic set (if I get there) many cards will follow this pattern in removing Whelps to discount the card or the effect of the card.
Dragonstrike Commander: A big late game minion that not only puts a big minion on the board but also shuffles some Whelps into the deck in order to keep activating cards that rely on Whelps being in the deck. This is very important since many cards in the coming sets will either remove Whelps from your deck by out right destroying them or maybe just drawing them but there will be more of those then of the cards that shuffle Whelps into your deck making a card like Dragonstrike Commander a very valuable asset to this class.
Rest of the Basic Set:
Dragon's Flight: Basic core card that gets some Whelps into the deck to help activate cards. Simple but effective.
Plated Dragon Armor: A strong card that does 2 things in 1. Stabilizing the board with a high health taunt and 2. Stabilizing your health with some armor to help survive vs spells or burst which many aggro decks run and this card is great at stopping or at least slowing both the board and your loss of life via spells.
Dull Claws: A incredible flexible card that early on can be used as removal for those pesky 2 health minions and if left until later grows into a powerful 4/2 weapon makes it a solid play at every stage of the game although it is best saved for later into the game when it's battlecry can activate.
Scorched Earth: A cheap and very powerful aoe that has downsides in hurting your own board and also damages you in order to justify the power of a 4 mana aoe. Now I made it deal 5 to your hero based on the fact that I want this to be a powerful anti aggro tool by killing their board (which is everything to 90% of aggro decks btw) but it still weakens you as to give them a chance to still win where otherwise it might be to anti aggro and make it op vs every deck pretty much.
Searing Strike: Every class has a 1 mana spell and this is the Dragon Knights. It offers a ping and some armor gain and is very similar to Mortal Coil but offers different pings for a different but still strong effect and can be paired up with weapons to almost guarantee you activate this cards benefits.
Armored Wyvern: Very basic minion that offers some armor gain on a decent 4 drop. Like Dragon's FLight this is just a basic minion that helps push the Dragons and Armor usage of this class.
Scales of Gold: Strong draw that with certain cards that generate armor rapidly is very powerful but generally would only draw maybe 1 or 2 cards which if it draws 2 is still a discounted Arcane Intellect. However you still have the chance of drawing more in slower matches which might be important to get those answers you need like Corrupted Flame to kill something like Ragnaros the Firelord which can mean the difference between a win and a loss.
Challenge Cards:
Sky Serpent: A basic 4 drop dragon that if left alive will turn into a powerful creature that is strong in trading or pushing damage. It makes for some unique instances where your opponent has to trade ineffectively otherwise risk you getting a incredibly powerful creature for no cost.
Sitora, The Dragon Mother: A very important card that gives this class a Lord Jaraxxus type affect although as you'll see in the spoiler below its different in several ways. (I also go into more detail about the True Form so it's important you read that to understand Sitora and why she exists.)
Tokens for the challenge cards:
Sky serpent token:
Sitora, The Dragon Mother cards:
True Form: WHEN YOU TRANSFORM YOU HAVE 16 TOTAL HEALTH DIVIDED UP INTO 8 HEALTH AND 8 ARMOR. I just wanna make sure people understand that this has a good amount of health when you enter the form as to let everyone know this isn't as bad as when Majordomo Executus's deathrattle goes off. Anyway this transformation plans to take a slower approach to the grinding match as the hero power and weapon both push for you to control and eventually snowball due to the endless minions from your hero power.
Flame Breath: A powerful removal weapon that allows you to gain control of the board by killing or wounding 3 minions but isn't as good when you need to hit your opponent due to the low durability which offers incentives to use it for control over face bashing.
Dragon's Might: A hero power that is slower than Lord Jaraxxus but offers some direct affect through powerful pings but then requires you to play the minion from your hand. Now the reason I made it add Drakes only is that otherwise I found random dragons are WAY to random for my tastes as it can give from a Twilight Whelp to a Deathwing which is just not fun to play against when rng favors one person over the other and gives them all 8+ mana dragons or nothing but 1-3 mana dragons. Where as drakes offer a much more consistent in terms of power level. (The drakes include all drakes like Azure Drake, Volcanic Drake and Emerald Drake.)
P.S. The drakes would be grouped similar to how skeletons are grouped with this boss exclusive card from Naxxramus Plague which is from Noth the Plaguebringer.
Come my child. No need to fear. The spirits are friendly around here. This forest is mine after all.
I am the Enchantress. And so are you...
Do watch yourself child. You have no doubt noticed the lights that dance around. They are my power. And my protectors. Few who enter can resist their charms. It helps us survive. We are known for being hard to find after all.
Playstyle and Lore;
The Enchantress is a defensive focused class with two main aspects, both of which are shown within the Hero power. The first is the protective aspects. Unlike Priest and Warriors whose defensiveness comes from their ability to negate the effect damage, the Enchantress is much more elusive in nature, using a variety of spells, effects and secrets to proactively guard against damage dealt to both themselves and their minions, and to weaken the opponent. In a pinch, the Enchantress also has a lot of ways to make up for lost ground by filling the board.
The second half is the class focus on Spell Damage, but not in the conventional sense. For the Enchantress, spells that are actually able to deal damage are both rare and hard to procure, so Spell Damage is used in other ways. Various minions and spells have effects that scale directly with how much spell damage you have, and some of the more advanced cards will give you bonus effects if you are in control of enough spell damage when you play them.
Lore:
Asha Kalleih, the woman known to most as simply "The Enchantress", is an evasive and mysterious figure. Most of the knowledge of her and her kind is spread through hearsay and rumor. Never seen outside of the forest she inhabits, some claim she might be as old as the wood itself. Her appearances are famously sparce, always seeming to show up in times of destruction, and always ending it soon after.
The powers of Asha and her kin are as unknown as they are. What is known, is that unlike the Druids that reside nearby, the Enchantress does not merely draw power from nature, their power is nature itself. All the powers of both the forest and the sprites that inhabit are seemingly at her beck and call. Maybe she does in fact control them, or maybe they simply have enough respect to heed her request, but when even the darkest aspects that you can fear are at her command, I wonder if it truly matters.
(Basic Set)
I see you garnered a few friends along the way here. What? You only see one? Yes, I supposed you do. I see them. Waiting. But don't worry. When she has enough strength, she will call them just for you. In the meantime, please sit down. You have a long journey ahead of you. I always find a fire can help you to prepare for what comes next.
Wait... I sense something more. You're hurt, aren't you? I understand. That's why you are here. You want power. More than you had. Very well. I can do that. It might take time, but I can certainly give what you need.
Card example Explanation:
Spirit of the Pack: The perfect example of how Spell Damage synergy works in the Enchantress. Played or summoned on its own, the card is really weak, but with a single spell damage, most likely from your Hero power, it turns it into a decently stated minion, and any more that that, and the card can start getting out of control.
Spirit Beast:
Firelight: A cantrip-esque spell that places emphasis having a large amount of minions. On a full board, this gives 7 Health and draws a card, but much more reasonable is to give 2 or 3. It isn't a lot, but it can make your board slightly more challenging to kill in a number of cases.
Reparation: The only basic card to show a commonly recurring mechanic for the Enchantress: Spell-creating cards. To balance out the effect of having a constant source of spell damage, most of the damaging spells from the Enchantress come from this method: playing a weaker than average card, that then produces a much more balanced spell. In this case, also helping the case of minion survival.
Reckoning:
Other Basic Cards:
Discussion:
Sighting: Themed on self protection. A board full of minions now works as an irritating wall.
Glimmer and Emerald Sprite: Fitting for a class I described as "elusive" the un-keyworded effect appears a number of times. Glimmer works in the same vein as Sighting, except this time it helps protect your minions, and Emerald sprite is just a decent thematic 4-drop.
Changling Grove: Creation of spells and minions is a common trend within this class, and this card works to create a very specific idea of turning your opponents power against them. The limitation of the card to only target enemy minions is made up for in this case with a small buff built in.
Mist: One of the very few direct damaging spells that the class has. The benefit you can get from spell damage is mitigated in this case by limiting it to minions and also destroying your board (and thus by extension, likely your spell damage as well.) Also starts to show a slight thematic idea to the class in which the more expensive cards also include dark shadowy artwork in contrast to the lightness of the cheaper ones.
Night Mother: A high cost card that can swing back lost board presence to start challenging an amassed board, or just dramatically increase your own. In turn it provides decent synergy with cards like Firelight and Sighting, and a few other class cards whose power is in turn proportional to the number of minions you have.
Crow Token:
Silent Lights: Another board filling card, this one producing the same tokens that spawn from your hero power. Mostly to be used as a temporary wall of small Taunt minions rather than having any actual use for the Spell power it contains, as even at it best this card produces 7 stat points, that would require very little cost to clear.
(Bonus Challenges)
You noticed that thing did you? Shifty little thing that. I found it during a very dark period of this place. That fog... its always around it. I'd say it doesn't want to be seen, but its doing a pretty poor job if that's the case.
Anyway, we had best be moving. Its a long way to where you want to be. Luckily, I know someone who can help us. Plus, he's a great singer. If you're ever in trouble, just listen for his voice. He'll give you a hand, one way or another.
Card Explanations:
Flower Doll: While making minions hard to hit is certainly a theme of this class, usually Stealth is not directly involved. The single exception to this is during the WotOG expansion. In keeping with the dark and murky theme of the expansion, the cards given to the Enchantress are just as murky as the forests that they live in, focusing on themes of shadows, concealment, and just generally dark and scary parts of nature. (A giant spider is involved)
For this card specifically, the effect is inspired by the "Misty Terrain" move that Florges can use in the games which surrounds any nearby Pokemon in a wreathe of fog to protect them from status effects. Since the only effect to protect from in Hearthstone is taking damage, Stealth was defiantly the way to go.
Voice of the Forest:
Forests Song Secrets:
Secrets are defiantly a part of the Enchantress class. Similar to Hunter Secrets but a lot less aggressive, most of them are based around protecting in one way or another. To that end, the Voice of the Forest produces its own unique secrets, thus making it a slightly weaker form of the Mad Scientist due to the random nature.
The Secrets however should make up for it, but each one is defiantly biased for uses in a token heavy deck
Ballad of Strength has the ability to work as an psudo-Explosive Trap, but stronger in the right conditions, Song of Humility is an more powerful Equality, depending on how your opponent plays around it, Hymn of Shelter is weak against aggressive decks, but allows a powerful counter-push (and absolutely breaks "Mist" in Spell Damage decks), and Melody of Echoes changes the Voice of the Forest into a miniature Cairne Bloodhoof, with the benefit of making sure the Deathrattle minion survives to work with. Each secret is also designed to have a radically different trigger condition, meaning that trying to find the right order to secret test may change every time.
Bribed Dealer: Has Decent stats for a 3 mana minion and works very similar to Tracking but instead of Drawing a card and discarding cards it works to manipulate the deck. This card works exceptionally well with cards like Cowardly Reserve below as well as the Hero Power Token Backhand Trick.
Two Pair: Comparable to Thistle Tea from the Rogue class but instead works much better with the classes main mechanic which involves deck manipulation.
Fold: This card is most similar to cards Like Divine Favor as it allows you to stack up cards in your hand and will most likely serve as the classes main mass-draw mechanism.
Pokemon and Legendary:
Other Basic Cards:
Other Cards explained:
Fortune Teller + Fortune Cards: Comparable to The Shadow Word cards from the Priest class. However this works as a buff mechanism instead of a direct removal. Incase it wasn't clear TheFortune Cards are infact separate cards despite also being produced by the Fortune Teller.
Coin Fire and Illuminated Die: are the classes 2/3 removal basic spells. Coin Fire is a much improved Arcane Missiles whereas Illuminated Die is like Elemental Destruction but instead of the Overload it has the possibility to deal as much damage as Arcane Explosion and Maelstrom Portal
Elevator of Fate and Cowardly Reserve: I think these 2 deserve to be put in the same explanation as they synergise well together. Elevator of Fate gives you an opportunity to proc cards like Cowardly reserve even if they are drawn early without being placed at the bottom of the deck.
Tokens
If you wish to see my Phase I submission you can click on the Banner below as I will not change it to advertise for this Phase.
I would like to apologise for the sloppy work as I had life matters to take care of but I attempted to put something sufficient together. I am not very happy with this and it needs work but if by a miracle I move on I will try to find more time as the life matter that I had to experience is over now.
Edit: I attempted to work on some explanations as best I could in the half hour I had Hope you enjoy :3
As I promised, everyone will have their cookies! -Sponsored by Ayslum Industries-
The Reporter, Max Focus is back! (With some delicious informative Cookies, want one?)
As you may have noticed, Max wants all the information and followers he can, but... if we don´t support him enough, the Maxstarter will get lower! But if we do, our notices are gonna be the greatest of all! Max Focus is a great at controlling a lot of places at time, he prefers a mid-late game control deck, his removal cards are the best, and flooding the board of followers is his great feeling, with AoE cards, and Damage Increase (By Flood Lights and other cards) we could reveal the most painfull secrets, and let them abandon the board of the battle!
Also, we got a new keyword on the past phase, here it is! (I´m too lazy to explain it again though, :(, sry)
Our Headers, Novices, but they are the best at what they do ;)
Explanations of our Headers:
Scene Iluminator: Its back! (Well that went quickly) And our basic removal, and you might find a lot of destroying synergy, already, with our Hero Power, but as we progress, this might become our biggest removal tool! Weaker than Fireball, but it has its own use of the class, using it with Flood Lights might triturate even the biggest minion!
Worldwide Spread: Well, its our basic Flood Board, might be weak, but at the same time, its strong, and has some synergistic combos (If they survive) with our Hero Power, and additionaly, it gives Max Focus that good feeling! You got mixed followers... but they´ll all help you out!
Lost in Ruins: Our first instant removal card, that is as effective as... well, there isn´t grass, so... but its very effective against control-decks, we got big removal and AoE´s, what´s left? A removal! Its cheap and hard to cast, but its completely worth if you do it... FLAMEWREATHED FACELESS!
The Following Images, may be shocking! (Challenge Cards)
Spoiler Alert! (Explanations)
Owl Scout: A small speudo, a small beast, a watcher, and a good explorer (And an intrepid reporter) makes the best friends, while Owl Scout finds our victims most hidden secrets, we can use it to increase our reporting sucess! But, if its discovered, strikethrough it! It gives a nice attack with a nice effect, similar to Moroes. (Its Rowlet if you don´t recognize it)
Lyilia, Retired Singer: Commonly, our Legendaries reveal our stars most shocking secrets, and inflicts the most biggest scandals in the world, with her, after her retire, we could use the information we get a lot latter, to get more followers! It gets an easy tempo shot when we get it, and board Presence is really important to Max, so the Microphone is the best deal (Annnnd its gone...) we get a big tempo if we are empty, and may could save our fame!
Our (Not that useless) actors. (Rest of the Basic Set)
Explanations of our
uselessactors (Rest of basic cards explanation):Intrepid Explorer: Our first example of a control board card, its cheap, and gives a small buff, maybe not tad much, but its something that we could use in our advantage, comboes very well with Worldwide Spread.
Overheated Highlighter: Reporters also got weapons! But these hurt the reputation rather than "hurting" (Ok that sounded bad lol) these weapons will act in our support, and especially synergise with class concept, this one, though, makes an extra ping of damage if we use something for increasing its damage, for example, we use Flood Light, we attack the affected enemy, and it deals 4 damage! Incredible, not?
Sonar Scanner: A pretty straightforward card, a combo card, while Flood Lights are good, we need something more versatile to handle that, with this, we could use effectively ALL of our arsenal Back and so Forth, however, it uses a slot, you need to draw it and all your combos, like Gadgetzan Autoctioneer, but it gives a really reliable reward.
Storm Simulacrum: A basic board clear that gives to us advantage to our next decision, doesn´t gives too much by itself, but it comes with a pretty good report to do! And we might have our next decision be increased to better!
Star of the Scene: The Reporter does not have too much buffs, but those are efficient and come with a benefit to us, the Health is a very essencial trait, especially for controlling the board, and gives to us some card draw to get those followers earlier, its smart!
x10 Zoom Lens: An special type of upgrade, we can reserve it, or use it later, but it easens our control sources!
Fake Steam Cannon: A pseudo and weird mix of an AoE stickied to a minion, but gets its work done at board clears, and with some combos, we could even clear the board, a persistent threath that the opponent must deal with it before we could use our combos.
We might be preparing to our biggest scandal, or might make our own report! Well, I won´t give too much details, see you later!- Max Focus
EDIT: Fixed basic cards images organization.
The joke is you.
The Worgen Class
Lore:
Centuries ago, the Lords of Winter’s Fall fell victim to the Worgen curse. The exact circumstances are shrowded in mystery, but the lord who brought the curse upon his family was a renowned mage. A small, secluded principality in the Alterac Mountains, Winter’s Fall was completely cut off from the outside world after this calamity, to hide their lord’s embarassment. In time, the lords learned to control their Worgen curse, shapeshifting at will between human and wolf form, but the curse was never lifted, nor could they remain as humans for long, and so their kingdom’s long isolation continued. Recently, the new lord of Winter’s Fall, Howe Hark, has learned that a new kingdom of Worgen, Gilneas. With the threat posed by the Forsaken, he has ended his seclusion and brought his forces to the aid of Gilneas and the alliance. The Young Wolf, as he is known, is known for both his brilliant military strategy and savagery on the field of battle. Mastery of his Worgen form means he is alternately rallying his loyal men into battle and tearing out the hearts of his enemies.
Reminder about how the class works:
The Worgen class centers around shifting between Worgen and Human form. Using the Worgen Form hero power (which you start the game with) gives you +1 Attack that turn and transforms you into a Worgen. This changes your hero power to Human Form, but you can’t use it until the next turn. When Human Form is used, your Hero heals 2 health and transforms into a human. The unique keywords of the class are Worgen and Human:
Cards with these keywords trigger an extra effect if you play them while you're in that form. Human/Worgen keyword cards are inefficient if played in the wrong form and extra efficient if played while in the right form. One of the key mechanics of the class is switching between forms at the right times to efficiently play cards.
There is a binary theme to the class, based on the two forms you switch between. Howe Hark has cards that focus on the savagery of his Worgen form, dealing damage or buffing attack, similar to Druid shapeshift-themed cards, and also cards that focus on supporting or buffing his minions, representing how he inspires and leads his men while in human form. There are also several secondary themes. The class has cards themed to snowy Alterac homeland of Howe Hark (including Freeze cards). There are also going to be cards that focus on class cards, representing the solidarity of Worgen.
Because of the hero power and binary theme, the class is well-suited for hybrid playstyles, and lots of cards will be versatile. If the hero power is used effectively, Worgen excels at tempo, since Human/Worgen cards are mana efficient when in the right form. This is also a weapon class, and both cards and your hero power buff your attack and restore health, so it is good at controlling the board, as well. Some of these control tools could be repurposed for Aggro, as well, especially in a Pirate deck.
Example cards:
Hunted - This is one removal option for Worgen, similar to Hunter's Mark. You play this and follow it up with another source of damage that normally would not have killed your target. The effect is permanent, so all damage from then on is doubled for that minion.
Gilnean Reinforcements - This is Worgen’s card draw. A number of classes have variations of this spell (Arcane Intellect, Ancestral Knowledge, Burgle, Thoughtsteal). This take reflects Worgen’s focus on class cards. This makes the spell both more restrictive, since it can only draw certain cards in your deck, and is useless if you have too few class cards, and more reliable, since you have a better idea of what it will give you.
Leap - This represents leaping into the midst of the enemy's ranks to attack, so they are forced to attack you. Direct damage spells are going to be very limited for Worgen, since the class focuses more on dealing damage with weapons and buffing your hero’s attack. This card can be used both for removal, and to protect your minions. When you play this, your hero has Taunt during your opponent’s next turn, which means your minions can’t be attacked. It’s like half of a Conceal, because your minions can still be targeted by spells and Battlecries.
Basic Set:
Alpine Wolf - With Champion of Alterac, it’s important that there’s a 1-Cost class minion as a potential target. This is basically just the same as Enchanted Raven. “Cannot be Frozen” is not worth anything, because it’s almost never relevant. There will be at least one source of Freezing allies in later sets, so it will have some relevance.
Grievous Wounds - This is the Basic direct removal card. It’s a cheap card, but with a very restrictive limitation. While Execute can be paired with any source of damage, and it is often paired with spell damage or minion AOEs, you can only play this after attacking a minion. Execute was too strong at 1, but this would not be. It does combine well with the Worgen Form hero power.
Champion of Alterac - This card is reflective of the Worgen class’ support side, which represents Howe Hark’s human side. It’s a mana-efficient buff spell, but you can only cast it on a class minion. That’s more restrictive than you might initially think. The only way to play it on turn 2 is if you played Alpine Wolf on Turn 1. I don’t plan on making any other 1-Cost minions.
Frost’s Bite - Worgen is a weapon class. Howe Hark is not just all about tearing things up with his claws. I mean, he doesn’t have any when he’s in human form, anyway. Weapons will not be as strong a focus as in Warrior. It will be more like in Shaman. You can see that here, as this is not as strong a weapon as Fiery War Axe, but it has more utility in being able to Freeze, which is a secondary theme of the class, based on Howe Hark’s Alterac homeland.
Krennan’s Potion - Worgen focuses on using their Hero Power to switch forms regularly, so they need some support for that. This card can both help you recover health, which you may lose from attacking minions, and switch forms more easily, either on this turn or the next.
Winter Has Come - This is Worgen’s AOE option. It’s pretty efficient for its cost, because it will damage any neutral minions you have in play. This also reflects Worgen’s focus on class minions. It represents the hardiness of your Worgen and Alterac followers.
Worgen Assassin - With the lack of direct damage spells, Worgen needs a card like this. Similar to Fire Elemental, you can play this later in the game as a removal option, although it lacks Fire Elemental’s ability as a finisher. There was a lot of debate about this card, and I think we reached the consensus that, in its current form, it is as powerful as Fire Elemental. It’s a strong card, but Worgen needs this as a substitute for damage spells.
To keep my Basic set realistic, I tried to keep card text to under three lines. If you look at real Basic sets, you can see that there are only a few Basic cards with 3 or 4 lines of text. When someone presents you a Basic set where almost everything has 3 or 4 lines of text, it isn't really a Basic set.
Here are my other Challenge cards:
Stout Hound - This is based off of some nice artwork of the Pokemon Herdier. Herdiers are known to be very loyal with thick fur that protects them, so I think this fits with protecting your minions from damage. It fits in well with my class because of both the canine theme and Howe Hark’s noble Alterac background. This card exemplifies the support theme of Howe Hark’s Human side. You can play this card similarly to Argent Protector to help trade efficiently. You can also just drop this on turn 2 by itself and it will prevent your opponent from trading into it on their turn.
Krennan Aranas - This is the guy that invented the partial Worgen cure. This fits well with the Worgen hero power, which represents you changing forms between a Human and Worgen. Because regularly using your hero power to take advantage of the Human/Worgen keyword is a central mechanic of the class, a card like this is very useful to the class. It’s worded differently from Coldarra Drake because of the unique way the Worgen hero power works. Every time you use the hero power, you get a different one. Also, Coldarra Drake’s wording is too long.
Come Play Make the Keyword!!!
Check out my Worgen Class in the Class Competition
The Orator
The Recap
As an Orator Kaila is blessed with the gift of the gab. While her strength and magical ability may be lacking she is able to use the power of words to manipulate the battlefield. This may come from a rallying speech to buff her minions or a well placed insult to Taunt a foe and keep others safe.
Together with her overprotective sister Talia, a skilled warrior in her own right, she has travelled the lands or Azeroth to spread her message of peace and gain influence.
She knows all too well that peace can not be brought about without bloodshed and so has amassed a band of loyal followers to do her bidding. It is not unheard of for the very people that she is fighting to join her ranks before the battle is out so are her powers of persuasion.
As part of my grander plan I have taken into account the potential for Gadgetzan Auctioneer abuse and the hero power. For this reason I plan to keep damaging spells to a minimum in particular ones that could damage a hero.
my plan is to create spells that allow you to manipulate and control the board as well as minions that synergise with this. As there will be few damage dealing spells the Orator will rely on minions to overwhelm the opponent.
The Basics
The Challenge Cards
The Token:
Angry Mob - The Orator starts things off by stirring up trouble amongst the crowd. If the opponent does nothing to stop the mob it will grow into an overwhelming force of Disgruntled Peasants.
Charm - Kaila uses her charm to convince an ally to switch sides. Only when they get hurt do they realise what they have done. This can be used to force your opponent to make a choice. Do they spend resources to get their minion back or do they leave it? You could also use the minion to trade and die before it switches back to its original owner.
Rousing Eulogy - Kaila mourns the dead from both sides of the field. Her words give encouragement to an ally to ensure they did not die in vain.
Unsettling Mime - Hearthstone's answer to Mr. Mime who has always been one of the creepiest Pokemon. He will force the opponent to think carefully about the spells they use and in what order/ what combos they use lest their words be used against them.
Speechwriter Eloise - To me the best Legendaries force or allow you to change the way a class can be played. This card rewards you for saving your Cliff Notes and could potentially give you an advantage.
The Rest
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The Chronomancer
Lore and Themes
Born into a poor farming family, Erin stood apart from her peers due to her latent magical ability. So great was her power that she drew the attention of the Bronze Dragonflight. Under the tutelage of Chromie, Erin was brought to the Caverns of Time to learn how to safely use her magic and keep safe the world's timelines. But even here Erin stands apart, as she does not share the dragons' belief of predetermination, that one's fate is already written. With both a will to make her own destiny and the power to do so, Erin Fatespan now seeks to protect the past and future of Azeroth.
As a Chronomancer, Erin uses time itself to confuse and disable her enemies while protecting her allies. Her Hero Power allows her to Bend Time, borrowing energy from other timelines to make her minions and spells more efficient, more powerful. Her's is a class with the ability to ramp, create combos, play control, and endure fatigue. Many of her cards involve bouncing minions, replaying cards, and high card draw. She does not have weapons, secrets, or a unique keyword. Instead, she takes existing rules and flips them on their head, changing the board and her hand to better secure victory.
To balance out these themes, the Chronomancer lacks healing (with one important exception below) or significant face damage. This prevents the player from making broken Malygos combos, or looping and replaying heal effects over and over without significant time investment.
The Basic set! The first cards of any class a player receives. With this set, I intended to make simple effects that could be used in multiple types of decks. Future expansions would build off these ideas of delayed effects, copying minions, and controlling the board. Of these cards, only Suspend has a real 'complex' effect, and it is the only card that uses 4 lines.
Basic Examples
Explanations
Foresight -"Somehow, being able to manipulate time hasn't made Erin any more patient."
The Chronomancer is primarily a control and combo class, and for that, you need good card draw. Foresight gives you a card, as well as your next turn's draw. Tomorrow is a small price to pay when you need an answer now. Check out Doomed Future below for a similar, cost-effective delayed effect.
Timewalker Elite - "The Timewalker's retirement plan is pretty good. Then again, they know ahead of time if you'll get to collect it."
Copying cards is one of the defining aspects of the Chronomancer. Looping time to replay minions, or calling more of them from alternate realities, allows the player to create many, many cards. Infinite value is theoretically possible, but most copying effects won't be super efficient to prevent abuse.
Hindsight - "Dragons hate puns."
Sometimes you need a do-over. If your face is taking a beating, you can set back the clock a bit and take a breath. Playing this won't help you reclaim the board though, so you better have an answer, and fast. Hindsight is the only real 'heal' available to the Chronomancer. And no, it won't give Jaraxxus or Ragnaros more than their maximum health. Dealing 10 sudden face damage to your opponent won't matter much if you have no board and no direct damage spells.
And the rest!
Bronze Whelp - "I know this looks like a Black Whelp, but the scales will turn gold as he gets older. Really!"
Suspend - "Students learn quick not to cause a ruckus when Chromie is teaching."
Sand Breath - "Be sure to avoid Bronze Dragons with allergies."
Wither - "Youth is wasted on the young."
Doomed Future - "Chromie once averted a future in which Gadgetzan outlawed tacos."
Paradox - "Minions you summon with this spell always have a wicked mustache. Even Harvest Golem."
Sandstorm - "Powerful, magical sandstorms often sweep through Tanaris. If you get caught up in one, you won't know where or even when you'll end up."
Challenges
Explanations
Living Glyphs - "These mysterious runes form ancient spells. They also form rude words when archaeologists aren't looking."
These Unown are based on Cabalist's Tome, allowing a late game deck to refill it's spells later and grab one for now. This League of Explorer's card is great for a Fatigue deck.
Soridormi - "Prime consort of Nozdormu the Timeless. Loving, caring, but ever nagging her mate for always being late."
Remember what I said about copying cards? Soridormi here from The Grand Tournament takes full advantage of copied minions. It can be used to thin your deck and fill the board, or combo it after a few turns of copying minions.
Currently working on the Tinker! K&C and WW / JUG and KotFT / Classic / Basic / Introduction
My Previous Classes: Apothecary (unfinished) / Chronomancer / Death Knight (old)
My Previous Expansions: Hallow's End
The Pillager
Hero Power:
Lore:
COMING THROUGH! No one dare cross the path of the courageous (more reckless) ruler of the seas of Azeroth, Captain Immo! He and his motley crew travel around the lands in his ship, the Nemesis, with the sole purpose of finding and collecting all the precious treasure his crew can fit in their chests, so that they can be known throughout the lands as the richest and most dangerous ship around. Armed with many dangerous allies (and enraged enemies he stole from) with unique abilities on both Nemesis and Azeroth, Immo will fight to the death... on a slow day. Mostly he likes to use his charms (and a few bribes) to convince his enemies to join the winning side. Steal precious resources, find new allies, and protect you and your treasure for those who seek to destroy it, Adventure never stops for the Nemesis, so the choice is up to you: Join, or Die.
Drawing out high card draw and intel of both your opponent's and your own deck, you can get a leg up on a competition. Also being able to steal many things keeps your opponent on edge when deciding if they should or shouldn't play a minion. To compensate, all resources are available to Immo, but they're all very scarce. By this I mean almost all the time it isn't something you can simply draw out using your hero power, instead relying on minions, spells, and chance to *hopefully* provide you with what you need. This class also does not carry its own secrets, as pretty much everything you have at one point was probably something your opponent owned too.
As a reminder here is the class mechanic:
Seaworthy Basic Cards!
Explanations:
Loot Swiper:
Beware all who leave yer treasure around! This scoundrel will take every last bit of it! Hide yer artifacts! Protect ye weapons! He'll never stop until he gets the last bit of gold!
This minion shows the benefit of stockpiling Loot! spells that you get from your hero power. Not only are they useful for drawing a card on the fly later on in the game, but they also interact with many other class cards. In this case of this card, even having one Loot! spell means you are not losing any tempo from playing him, and he only gets more dangerous the longer you wait to collect your loot! Also great for big turns late game where you want to add board pressure using a cheap and potentially huge minion, the way how you use him is up to you!
Enchanted Amulet:
Legend states that those who are in possession of the Amulet will be able to become more effective in battle! Move faster! Be stronger! Get the edge that you need!
At first glance it may not seem like much, but then you realize you can get some huge discounts from this card at virtually any point in the game. Use it a bit earlier, and now you can use your 0 mana Loot! cards to copy out some more cards in your deck! Use it late game and you can now activate giant combos that without it you wouldn't be able to make. The possibilities for turn are seemingly endless, and the way how you design your combos in this class affects how powerful your deck will become when using this card!
Tidal Wave!:
If you know what's good for you, you'd had better hit the deck! And fast!
Crashing in for the third spot I want to introduce one of the most tactically advantageous cards a Pillager such as Immo can use! Looking at it, it only seems like a giant AoE spell, but it can literally change the tides of battle. It is generally a bigger but better version of Twisting Nether, which already destroys everything. Instead, this card will just straight up steal anything that is left on the board, again enforcing the theme of taking what belongs to your opponent. Got a Zoo infestation on the board? Wash them away and get yourself a fresh board. Someone is barreling down on you with huge minions with 8 Health or more? You can still use this, and afterwards all of those huge threats will belong to you! The ultimate counter tool that best fits the class made to Steal and Destroy!
Remaining Basic cards!
Tokens:
A Mage's Treasure Cursed Ruby Bilge Lurker
Rogue Witchdoctor
Challenge Cards!
Animated Seaweed Token:
Explanations:
Baron Revilgaz:
Ruler of Booty Bay (whether he really should be or not) this Baron won't go down without a fight, oh no! Controlling a giant metal contraption while rocking his snazzy clothing, he prefers not to get himself hurt, only looking out for #1. Instead he using his heavy plated machine and other countermeasure to deal damage from a distance.
He's a great damage dealer, able to go toe to toe with almost all early game minions even at base health. Find a way to increase his Health and he becomes even better. His great stat distribution also allows him to square off against some other minions, at the expense of lowering his damage output. With great power comes great cautiousness, as a lot of strategy on when and how to play this minion comes into effect when you want to use him. Good luck! And always trust the Pirate's Code!
Animated Seaweed:
This even more living seaweed, drifting across the Azeroth seas, has caught on to something... What is it? A sword? an axe? It's probably another old anchor... Lets find out.
For the Pokemon challenge, no other Pokemon could fit in with the crew of the Nemesis like Dhelmise itself! If it wasn't so free spirited, it'd probably be an honorary crew member by now! Utilizing the Snatch effect, you can gain a potentially great weapon from your opponent's deck to use against them. Immo never passes up on the offer of a nice shiny Truesilver's Champion. If your opponent doesn't have a weapon, if because of the class you're facing or the ran out, Dhelmise will gladly become the weapon for you, using its Anchor and chain to take out any objectives, or add a bit of Aggro spice to your opponent's face. The immune effect (based on Dhelmise's partial Ghost typing) isn't guaranteed, but because of the Windfury on the weapon,gives you a greater chance of triggering it. Its a very potent minion that adds potential value to you when playing it.
Flavor texts and Hearty Potential plays!
Loot Swiper: He definitely rolled Greed.
Enchanted Amulet: Immo managed to swoon a Naga for this treasure... Long story.
Tidal Wave!: Maybe we should stop by at Booty Bay afterwards for a better ship...
Blessing of Elune: Remember, Elune will always love everyone equally, even if they steal your treasure and burn your villages.
A Mage's Treasure: "What? What are supposed to do with a bunch of ice! These landlubbers better show us where the real treasure is!"
Cavern of Time: What do you mean? There's no 'Infinite Dragonflight' here! Off with yer head!
Cursed Ruby: The sign clearly said DO NOT TOUCH, but it was so nice and shiny!
Bilge Lurker: When not on Nemesis these guys like playing Hide and Seek with Scavenging Hyenas.
Rogue Witchdoctor: He used to hang around the Amani, but they kicked him out for using his voodoo dolls on them for puppet shows.
Rusting Hook: This hook shall stay by my side until the day I die... Or until I steal a new one.
Baron Revilgas: You'd think he'd realize by now that dressing like that is probably why he has a hard time running away from enemies...
Animated Seaweed: "Shiver me timbers! It stole our Anchor! "
Stockpile your Loot! cards, then play Loot Swiper into A Mage's Treasure to bring the pressure!
Play Bilge Lurker into Cursed Ruby for a nice big wall of taunts! Enchanted Amulet makes this combo only 5 mana!
Use your Enchanted Amulet to start generating cards from your Loot! spells! Now you can play Tidal Wave! and still refill your hand!
Cavern of Time also potentially shuffles your opponent's cards into your deck! It may even put in a Loot! spell for you! Use it to draw out a 2nd copy of a minion!
Playing Enchanted Amulet into Tidal Wave! will leave you with 1 mana at turn 10... Use it to play Cursed Amulet on the minions you stole to make an even bigger comeback!
And of course:
Play a Loot! spells after dropping Gadgetzan Auctioneer and now you will have 2 copies of the card! Careful though, even if your Loot! spells hit a different card every time your hand you might run out of mana before you can play them!
The Titan
Lore
Chronos was once a powerful King who sought out higher power. He reached a higher level of being. Chronos surpassed his mortal limits and was reborn as a Titan. Anyone, be they orcs, humans, elves, elementals, even dwarfs can ascend to become titans. Even the weakest in the world can unlock their hidden potential! Titans welcome any and all who strive for true greatness.
What the Titan is all about
Hero Power, Ascension - To become a Titan, you must ascend. This power gives your cards a chance to enter the Realm of Titans. Realm of TItans has a unique effect of increasing the costs of cards in your hand. Unlike most cards, Titans love increasing their mana cost! The bigger they are, the more powerful they can be. Since Realm of Titans only increases the cost of adjacent cards it will take careful planning and positioning cards in your hand to utilize properly. And if you don't need to increase the costs of cards in your hand you can always play it out to heal up your minions and even save yourself.
Keyword, Ascended: X - The Titan keyword. For example, a 3 mana card with "Ascended: (2)" would only trigger it's Ascended effect when it costs 5 or more. Many cards in the Titan class gain additional bonuses when they are cost more than their original mana cost. While cards may be decent on their own, getting them to Ascend increases their power dramatically!
Although no cards in the basic set have Ascended, as is with all class keywords, the set shows the multifaceted aspects and themes of the Titan class.
Healing
Titan's tend to have high health to deal with powerful enemies. After battles they tend to heal up.
Buffing Minions
Titans just love getting bigger and bigger, both in cost and stats!
Weapons
Titan's are fighters so they tend to wield powerful weapons.
Cost Mechanics
The key factor that separates this class from other buffing classes like Paladin or Priest. These guys love to cost more and tend to have insanely high valued cards that cost a lot of mana.
An example of Titan's never ending quest for higher power. Ascended cards gain a flat bonus when they cost a certain amount more but cards like Rising Power can soar to insane heights.
Although this card can potentially be a 5 mana Pyroblast, increasing cards costs by more than 1 or 2 will be very difficult for this class.
This powerful leader inspires his troops to keep on fighting! Every time an allied minion attacks, they gain an additional point of Health to live on in this battle and all battles to come!
This spell judges any minion and sets its stats to the cost that was paid for them. This card serves as psuedo-removal of pesky cards like Flamewreathed Faceless, Doomsayer, and any overstatted or buffed up cards.
But wait, there's more! 7 More Basic cards below :)
Radiant Warrior is a powerful 1 cost minion that gives his allies a boost! He is a powerful early game card with an impactful effect but unlike cards like Tunnel Trogg, Northshire Cleric, and Mana Wyrm you don't get to use his effect if you want to play him turn 1. Since he only costs 1 mana you can fit him in on curve to buff up your valuable minions. At worst you can still play him on turn 1 as a respectably statted 1/3.
An ancient weapon with mysterious runes engraved upon it. This weapon serves as a powerful early game removal dealing 2 damage total and having the potential of drawing 2 cards! Two Mortal Coils in 1 card with the downside of paying health to use. Unlike Coil if you want to kill that enemy 5/1 you're gonna have to take some hefty damage.
This Titan aims for the heart and as the saying goes, the bigger they are the harder they fall. Most minions have less health than their cost so in most situations this is a 4 mana Execute! The only downside is cards like Ysera, Drakonid Operative, Deathwing, and cards with Divine Shield or Buffs don't die to it.
Titans use their weapons often and without caution, using their weapons until they break. When their hammers break they reforge them with their own two hands. This reforged hammer can take down 3 minions for 4 mana! This card trades off the 1 attack and 4 healing offered by Truesilver Champion for 1 durability.
Powerful and straight to the point. This titan comes charging at enemies while simultaneously defending his allies. The best defense is a great offense!
Titan's gain power from ascending but even without ascending it is possible to harness a small portion of that power to unleash upon your enemies!
Potentially the most powerful buff in all of hearthstone history! At a whopping 6 mana however this card requires a strong investment in a single minion. You can turn 5 play your Fearless Defender and then turn 6 play The Chosen One effectively making a 6/10 taunt if he wasn't damaged in the previous turn.
Challenge Cards
Zygarde: The Classic Legendary
Zygarde is the classic set Titan Legendary. He is an insane powerhouse of value but takes time and, like all Titans, a ton of mana. The Wanderer is a 1/1 charge that adds the Earthbound to the top of your deck when he dies. A great turn 1 card to draw which lets you have a powerful turn 5 later. Earthbound is a 5/5 taunt which is good tempo on turn 5. When he dies you get the Ruler added to the top of your deck. The Ruler is a 10 mana powerhouse! For 10 mana you get to destroy an an enemy minion completely and the bigger they are the more you heal for! For a total of 16 mana over 3 turns you get 16/16 worth of taunts, deal 1 damage, partial taunt, destroy a minion, and a powerful heal. This minion does a lot but takes a lot of time and a lot of mana. I feel like this powerhouse helps solidify the identity of the Titan class.
Zygarde began his life as a wandering beast, charging into battles and often losing. Despite the countless defeats, his quest for greatness continued unabated.
As he matured he learned from his countless defeats. He grew to be more powerful! Tales of his greatness grew! He no longer had to look for enemies to defeat, foes sought after him and he accepted all challenges.
After countless victories, Zygarde's strength became unparalleled. Zygarde ascended to new heights! Zygarde crushes all who stand in his path and absorbs their power. Many still challenge him to this day but none live to tell the tale...
Jupiter, a powerful new God that aspires to be as great as the Titans. Upon Discovering the secrets to Ascension Jupiter began to quest to unlock his own hidden power.
Jupiter is a strong thematic legendary minion that lets you discover an Ascended card. Most times the 1 mana increase activates the Ascended effect! Even if it doesn't it brings the card 1 mana closer to activating their powerful effects.
Be sure to check out the new class creation contest by Asylum Rhapsody! If you like my class be sure to give it a like!
http://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-general/fan-creations/183880-asylums-gauntlet-class-creation-competition-3?page=2#c30
Class: Alchemist
The class of Alchemist has 4 main features:
1.Alchemy Potions:
Alchemy Potions are cards that you shuffle into your deck and their effects trigger when drawn. There are 3 Basic Alchemy Potions and 1 new Alchemy Potion in each expansion other than Classic. Here in the spoiler are the three Basic Alchemy Potions (all of them are NONCOLLECTABLE TOKENS, of course):
Token:
The three example cards I'm going to show for my Basic set are also related to Alchemy Potions:
Notice that all Alchemy Potions have a card draw effect, and thus Distillation will both trigger their potion effects and gives you 3 additional cards. There will be more Alchemy Potion synergies in the Classic set and future expansions.
2. Card draw and Fatigue:
Here in the spoiler are the card draws of Alchemist Basic set:
It's obvious that, in order to trigger all those Alchemy Potions shuffled into your deck, Alchemists need more card draws than other classes; this also makes Alchemist a class that reaches fatigue quite often. Unfortunately, fatigue synergy is too complicated to be part of Basic Set. But don't worry - there will be cards in the Classic set that benefits from your reaching fatigue.
3. Debuff:
Here in the spoiler are the debuff cards of Alchemist Basic set:
As we know, every class has their own way of removals. For Mage, it's transform and damage; for Priest, it's taking control and destroy according to Attack of a minion; for Alchemist, it's debuff. While buff cards give a minion +X/+X, debuff cards give it -X/-X. There are two things worth mentioning with this mechanic. First, when a minion's Health becomes 0 or less with a debuff, it dies. Second, when you debuff a damaged minion, both its current Health and maximum Health are reduced.
4. Swap:
Here in the spoiler are the swap synergy cards of Alchemist Basic set:
You may have noticed that, 'swap Attack and Health' is an alchemist-themed effect in the current Hearthstone(see Crazed Alchemist and Kooky Chemist), and thus I also include 'swap' as one of the main features of my Alchemist class. In order not to Confuse new players, this is only expressed as 'swap a minion's Attack and Health' in the Basic set. In Classic set and other expansions, there'll be more things that Alchemists may swap.
Extra Challenge Cards
Token:
Fortuneteller: Pokemon challenge card. Since the Alchemy Potions are triggered when drawn, the sequence of your deck becomes quite important for Alchemists. This epic card from Classic set may help you arrange your future draws.
Mallory the Maniacal: Legendary challenge card. It merges all your Alchemy Potions into a single one, so that once this Compound Potion is drawn, all effects of its ingredients will trigger. Notice its synergy with 'draw an Alchemy Potion (of any kind) from your deck' effects (as is shown in Distillation above).
[Not a native speaker. Forgive me for the possible grammar mistakes and typos. I hope you like my invention! -nobravery]
THERE IS NO GAME.
Overview
The Ninja focuses on a number of different things, but first and foremost is the merging of minions through the shadowy, lost arts of ninjitsu into something far more powerful.
Through dedication or casting certain dubious spells, minions can also transform themselves into those of higher cost.
Finally, while the class does have a fun and odd flavour to it which highlights the more light-hearted and irrepressible side of Karin, the core of every ninja is a dedicated and efficient warrior. They will employ weapons and direct damage spells to get the job done.
Art of Deception explained:
This hero power has been described in a multitude of ways, including "volatile". On the surface, this is just a Paladin Hero Power. However, this variable mana cost is what makes this hero power fitting for the Ninja. If you need to a certain costing minion for a merge, your Hero Power can fill this in. If you need a high Cost minion to pull of a combo, your Hero Power can also fulfill this.
In addition, I am aware of the fact that hearthstone does not keep track of variable mana costs, such as the Giants. Therefore, this variable cost for the Dummies will be stored as a buff that is immediately given to the Dummy when it is summoned.
Example Basic Cards
Meaning of Life explained:
No, the cost isn't supposed to be 42.
In the basic set, Meaning of Life serves it's initial purpose as an on-curve buff for a minion, comparable to cards like Blessing of Kings. However, it's main job is a powerful combo card and though there isn't a lot it can combo with in the Basic Set, Sakura Storm, found below, tells the burgeoning Ninja player the best is yet to come.
Hand Clansman explained:
While a simple looking card with slightly increased stats compared to Chillwind Yeti, the token it summons is very noteworthy. With two different mana costs, this will give the Ninja player oppurtunities to merge minions with specific mana requirements. (I also hope someone gets the reference made here)
Red Herring explained:
Finally, the hard removal of the Basic set. While being fairly effective removal, Red Herring is also the Ninja's first look into the merging mechanic. As merging is a fairly obscure and complex mechanic, I decided it would be best to save most of it for future sets. Despite this, it's important to teach players an important facet of the class, so I used this card to teach them.
Additional Challenge cards
Feral Ninken explained:
A ninken is a ninja-trained hound, often with magical properties in fantasies. The pokemon portrayed here is Zoroark.
A first sneak peek into the merging technique of the Ninjas, this otherwise vanilla 1-drop 1/3 will be able to combine with almost every card due to it's card text. A very versatile combo starter.
Black Shiv explained:
Black Shiv is the MSoG legendary for this class. Though harder to combo off compared to the Ninken, this minion rewards multiple merges while also being a cheap Taunt. Though 2 mana 1/4 taunt is, of course, superior to Silverback Patriarch, I decided to balance this card against Voidwalker and Squirming Tentacle.
Remaining Basic Set
The Champion
Lore and Mechanic Recap
Orc last names are not inherited, but earned. They might name themselves after a certain weapon (see Doomhammer), or after a particular act (see Hellscream). In Grom's case, the only word that he could is Lok'Tar, or vitctory. He is a champion of the arena, and can do alone what most others couldn't do with an army Paragon. The class will revolve around having one incredibly tough minion that allows you to control the board with much cheaper and more powerful spells.
The 1/1 Challenger
Explanation
Grizzled Vanguard: This might seem incredibly basic but hey! It is the basic set. This class absolutely loves giant minions, and this guy brings Taunt as well to help clean up the rather large amount of minions your opponent will always have. Balanced against the Ancient of Blossoms, with a solid +1/+1 for being a class card.
Endurance of the Hero: You've dropped a minion on turn 1. You traded with whatever your opponent played. This allows you to keep your minion both durable and healthy, where a turn 1 Mistress of Mixtures is guaranteed to be a turn 2 3/5, no matter what traded. Obviously, the bigger the creature, the more value you get out of this, as it scales with how much healing is being done.
Overwhelming Odds: This is one of my major synnergy cards, without using paragon. You'll be using very few minions, while giving your opponent minions through the hero power and cards like Sword of the Champion. This is just one of the many ways that these situations will turn in your favor.
Marowak: Originally was going to be just Cubone, as he is literally "The Lonely Pokemon". But of course, no Cubone comes before it's mother's death.
Cubone
Rest of the Basic Set
The Vampire
Lore
Blood-Princess Rias is the eldest daughter of the Blood-Queen Lana'thel. Rias had managed to capture and turn an adventurer before the assault on Icecrown Citadel. She went to her mother to ask for guidance about the information she had found out. Knowing what was best, her mother wanted Rias to make haste and find a location to hide out till this assault ended in one way or another. Months had passed and she left her hidden cavern and began her trip back to Icecrown Citadel only to see the Crimson Hall a ruin. Bones scattered throughout of Alliance and Horde soldiers along with Darkfallen. She seeks vengeance on those adventurers for the death of her comrades and her Mother. Now she is building her own force to take the fight to the Alliance and the Horde.
Why fight?
Overview
Rias' Hero Power : Forceful Bite, She has not had a good meal in a while and looking to make a mess of things, although blood may at times spill on the ground it is still as tasty as ever. Why chase after a moving target when this one is willing to stay still?
The Core
Healing
What better way for a vampire to do then to keep themselves topped off. Where they get the source of healing from can be quite disturbing at times. From destroying your own followers to being feed by your admired pets.
Control
Rias has no time to play games with minions her main focus on the prize your life blood. She can't have you just die right away she needs you to pay for what had happened to her mother. She'll take care of you for a small price. Don't worry about her companions those are for your minions to deal with.
What awaits?
A Basic Example
Explanations
Hungry Bat : The minion that has been by her side since her mother created her. Trustworthy this little pet is. With a strong base stat for 1 mana. He is bound to keep a few smaller minions in his control.
Dark Calling : She needs to have some fun. The draw for this could be a gamble for both players since they know a minion is for sure in the hand.
Bloodbolt : More damage on the prize just like how mother use to bolt us. Trying to end the game quickly just might be a good thing for this card but fall behind and it's a good card to gain a small bit of health restore. It's a weaker Mind Blast but to much damage on the enemy hero is bad.
More Basics?
Remaining Basics
Explanation
Harvest : A quick and cheap card to gain health, but with all cheap heals it comes with the cost of a minion. However when it comes to Sacrificial Pact let's hope you have minions your not afraid to lose. No minions in your deck, no heals.
Attracting Gaze : Have a problem with a minion, not a problem. This plays on the Vampire ability to control a victim and in this case make it so you can attack the problem with your minions. If you have any.
Life Orb : Minions getting destroyed to fast, and need some pinch healing for them. Sure you have to give the enemy hero some health but keeping your minions alive is important too. I'm sure you'll find a way to remove the health you just gave them.
Mark of San'layn : Terrible, just Terrible. Who wants to buff minions anyway? Sure you could give this overpriced buff to a minion and find a way to keep them alive, but most vampire companions have higher health pools. Except that one adventurer. Now pay for that sweet attack buff and destroy some enemy minions.
San'layn Beam : Hard Removal anyone? Why take 3 damage? You have to keep up with the health loss on your enemy.
Turned Adventurer : Yup...I see a little Fire Elemental just 1 turn sooner and 1 damage less. Happy targeting.
Crimson Swarm : A weaker Flamestrike but your after the health restore now get out there and hit some minions. Just don't use this one 1 minion.
There's More?
Challenge Cards
Explanations
Blood-Crazed Vulpes: From the Classic set we have this little guy. Such a nice furball of power with the helping paw of getting more minions on the board to help take control of a losing control situation. Taking a loss to your health is a small price to make but a big gain for a future turn. You know like turn 4!
Kella X. Quarta : From the Whispers of the Old Gods the vampire takes a trip down memory lane back to a time where Northrend didn't have annoying adventurers and the scourge lived in peace. What vampires can't have memories? Kella is the answer for pesky little minions that many gotten buffed or just take down a strong minion that is about to be summoned. Either way she is ready to give judgement. More on her later.
Hidden Secrets?
Take a chance and open whats below.
Flavor Text
Hungry Bat : He's really just thirsty...Promise.
Dark Calling : You don't want to know where they got your number.
Bloodbolt : Knows where to go.
Harvest : Tasted better than chicken.
Attracting Gaze : I choose you!
Life Orb : In case of emergency break this.
Mark of San'layn : At least this is not Brand of San'layn.
San'layn Beam : There is a .01% chance this will beam you up.
Turned Adventurer : We told her to /dance to break mind control...Oh well.
Crimson Swarm : This is bat country.
Blood-Crazed Vulpes : Beauty really does come with a price.
Kella X. Quarta : "There's no saving a rotten egg."
The End?
Good luck to all those who advance.
Class: The Medium
'Sort-of-lore':
In the depths of the Undercity there lives a girl a blind girl with unnaturally pale skin, said to be able to see the future, converse with spirits, and talk to the well-and-truly dead like they are still in the land of the living. Although she can not see, her things are always meticulously arranged, and those that visit her for advice or fortunes say that runes are painted all around the room she lives in, in a script too delicate to have been drawn by one who has lost her sight. Rumours say that she lives with a demon disguised as a child
(hint hint classic legendary hint hint), that she has never aged for fifty years, that unnatural, ghostly sounds echo in the night as eerie lights fly about in her dwelling. But such rumours and others like them have never been proven, and those that have tried to verify them are prone to disappear without a trace, never to be heard of again.One of the Medium's specialities is cost-reductions, allowing her to manifest spirits and cast spells with greater ease. Her main source of discounts is her hero power - 'Communion', which allows her to receive 'Guidance' from the spirits. 'Guidance' spells can be used immediately to receive immediate benefit, or they can be hoarded in order to reduce the cost of certain combo pieces later in the game. The discount is split randomly very much like Arcane Missiles (can hit the same card more than once), except this reduces the cost of cards instead of dealing 1 damage. They will not attempt to reduce the cost of cards that cost (0) or have the Ethereal keyword:
Explanation:
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.
Basic Cards Showcase:
The Stonepeak Mystic is the first healing option the Medium has access to. Like many of her cards, it synergises with the summoning of minions, which her main combos are centred around. Every class that aims for the long game requires some sort of healing option, and this card provides it. You can either play it as a tempo card and slowly heal up your hero, or you can save it for burst healing when you need it.
Banish is an example of a card that can synergise with the Medium's hero power. It starts out as a slightly-cheaper situational Assassinate, but as it's cost is reduced, it can kill more and more things. After 1 discount, it's comparable to Shadow Word: Death. After two, it gets pretty damn good.
Channeling is another way for the Medium to discount her cards beyond the use of her hero power, which is important if you want a bit more consistency with your reduction effects due to the random nature of 'Guidance'. The card draw takes place after the discount.
Other Basics + Explanations:
Soulspark: Serves as the class's 2-mana removal spell. Deals 1 more damage at the cost of 2 health. Can be good for combos, but remember - if you use Malygos with this, you'll be smashing yourself for 7 damage.
Ancestral Strength: By appealing for aid from the ancestors of her minions, the Medium can allow them access to the strength of their forefathers! Obviously, stronger cards have stronger forefathers. A Stonetusk Boar's dad was probably another Stonetusk Boar, after all.
Demon Mentor: At times, the messages from the spirits are strangely cryptic and hard to decipher. Fear not! The Demon Mentor is here to help you. She allows you to cast your 'Guidance' spells for free, rewarding you for hoarding them. They will also no longer waste their discounts on each other!
Wind and Water: I showed off this card during the first phase, and it's another card that synergises with summoning minions. Even in the basic set, cards like Murloc Tidehunter and Razorfen Hunter allow people to take advantage of this kind of synergy. +3 health is great for buffing minions out of AOE range.
Future Sight: Just because you can see the future (and if you can't, you're a sorry excuse for a Medium) doesn't mean you can make it come sooner! Future Sight allows you to draw cards, but you won't be able to play them until your next turn. Don't forget to plan ahead.
Screaming Spirit: Most likely a terrible singer in life, the Screaming Spirit screams so loud that people just have to kill it in order to concentrate, which is why it has Taunt. It offers a Taunt minion for the Medium, as well as a smaller board-clear when Possessed Daggers is too expensive for the job.
Possessed Daggers: Not all spirits have to be materialised in the form of minions in order to be helpful. Many are content simply possessing objects and using those to exert control over their physical environment. These daggers are one such example. The Medium can communicate with the spirits residing within them, allowing her to unleash them as a storm of blades - a powerful AOE. Great for clearing boards, which is very good regardless of whether you're going for control or combo.
Pokemon + Legendary:
Ethereal has potential beyond simply acting as a passive effect - it allows for cards to specifically interact with them. The Ascended Psychic shows one such interaction. A large reason why Ethereal cards are useful is because you can afford to hold them until the opportune moment without wasting Guidance ticks on them, and
Gothitelle- I mean, the Ascended Psychic further rewards you for that by making another copy of all Ethereal cards in your hand when she dies. She offers some Deathrattle synergy as well, which can be quite useful.Whispers of the Old Gods brings the Medium another powerful combo tool in the form of Izanami, the Japanese goddess of death (Kill everything!) and rebirth (Reincarnate them!), ruling over the underworld. She allows you to remove buffs from enemy minions, heal friendly ones, and trigger deathrattles, all while giving N'zoth extra fuel and synergising with cards that trigger based on minion deaths/summons (Volcanic Drake, Wind and Water).
Why Rogue is my favourite class:
My submission for this week's card design competition.
THE VARANGIAN
His story starts back at the time when the Lich King's forces were still ravaging the lands of Azeroth. Inside the walls of Jotunheim, vrykul warriors were fighting for the privilege of serving in Arthas' dark army in the afterlife, almost like a perversion of their ancestrals' faith and wish to join Odyn in the Halls of Valor. The winners are turned into Ymirjar by the Val'kyr and join the ranks of the undead legion, while the losers become Vargul and are forced into manual labor. Meet Floki: he's one of the latter.
Be sure to check the rest of Floki's backstory inside the spoiler:
Fast forward to when the threat of the Lich King has been finally neutralized. Floki is among what's left of the Scourge. He has the choice to join the Forsaken and serve their master, Sylvannas Windrunner. He refuses.
Seeking to reconnect with his kin (or what's left of it) and make use of his new masonry skills, he willingly joins the Kvaldir society. He feels he is closer to them, former vrykul like him, than to the skeletons and ghouls he's been forced to work with for the past years. He pledges allegiance to Helya, but with her he strikes no pact, for now he serves none but himself.
With the Kvaldir, he goes into raids to hone his combat techniques (which were, by the way, never his forte) and learns how to build and repair longships. Time passes and his companions, having realized how good he was at making boats, start calling him "the Boatbuilder".
One day, he goes missing. While looking for him, his companions realize a small boat and also some of the loot they had in stash, gathered over the course of countless raids he took part in, are also gone.
Some months later, an enormous longship, manned by vrykul, vargul and forsaken alike begins terrorizing the seas of northern Azeroth.
OVERVIEW
THE VARANGIAN is a class that borrows elements mainly from Druid, Paladin and Rogue, and would play mostly as an aggressive, midrange or combo deck. Buffs of all kinds (single-target, random, temporary, aura, AoE, and subsequently, board presence), are a very strong theme of the class, inspired by the kvaldir and vrykul which already exist in the game and deal with these effects, along with "cheating" during deckbuilding (you'll see what I mean) and attacking with your hero, but without weapons (to differentiate them from the other sea-raiders in game, Pirates). Other minor themes include unconventional hard removal and board clears, spells that generate minions, Freeze and Armor, etc.
THE SHOWCASE
The Iron Vrykul token:
Commentary on each card can be found inside the spoiler:
Sharpen Edge is one of the many cheap ways available for the Varangian to buff its minions and make effective trades, but the real power of the card is not on the buff: it's on the cycle. Much like Power Word: Shield, it requires you to have something on board, balancing the low cost draw.
Combining the buff theme with the spell-minion theme, Forge Will is just like a bigger version of your Hero Power. This versatility is really important so the card doesn't just stay in your hand 'cus you don't have something to play it on. (Note: "If you can't" means if you don't have a minion on which you can play the card i.e. your board is empty or the only minions you have can't be targeted by spells.)
You guys probably already realized I like History Vikings, and if you've ever watched the show, I'm sure you'll recognize this formation immediately. Shield Wall combines a temporary buff and burst potential with a permanent, defensive buff that can help you mitigate the damage you take from using your face to clear your opponent's minions.
Now things are starting to get interesting. At first, Prehistoric Thresher (which you might have noticed is not one, but TWO pokémon: a Lapras with a Staryu in its back) may seem like a bad card, but if you put some more thought into it, you'll realize you're paying 5 mana for a vanilla 5-drop that also DRAWS YOU TWO CARDS (sorta). This is a pretty cool way of thinning your deck and getting closer to your combo, and it might be even better than running weak minions for cycle, like Loot Hoarder.
The final card in the showcase is the corrupted version of the renowned explorer, Brann Bronzebeard. His mind was twisted by the constant exposure to the forces of the Old Gods and he left the League to become a sea-raider, dyed his beard and adopted the name Blackbeard. Like with the Thresher, you're making a trade when you put this card in your deck: you'll be forced to run a vanilla body and, in exchange, you can put another Bloodmage Thalnos or Sylvanas into your deck. Ever imagined playing against someone with two Twin Emps or Yoggs? Now you can,
though you probably won't like it.THE (REST OF THE) BASIC SET
The actual cards:
Murloc token:
And of course, more commentary:
Starting with the Varangian's 2-drop of choice: Raiding Party is a pretty sticky early game option which allows you to establish board control from the beginning of the game so you can benefit from your buffs and synergy. The tokens summoned are the same as your Hero Power's.
Claw and Heroic Strike had a baby, and her name is Lagertha.Shield and Sword is the closest the Varangian will ever get to a "2 mana deal 3" spell.Combo decks need a bit of healing, removal and stall. Stranded on Ice fills the last role. On smaller boards, it's virtually a cheaper Frost Nova.
Curse of the Sea is a fun, weird spell. It's a bit less effective than Polymorph or Hex, and comparable to Deadly Shot.
A very defensive tool, Iron Flesh can be played even when you don't have any board, just for the heal, but if you do, can also put a big Taunt in the way of your opponent's minions.
Floki's crew get all their weapons from the same manufacturer. The Dwarven Coldsmith is always there to help when the heat starts to rise.
To wrap it up, we have a big AoE buff in the form of Berserking Rage. Think of this as burst damage that remains after the turn you cast it.
The Bronze Guardian
As a member of the Bronze Dragonflight, Moradormi has extensive knowledge about the future. She knows exactly what is meant to happen, and what isn't. Or so she thought. Discovering the ultimate fate of her flight, their corruption into the Infinite Dragonflight, turned the once optimist dragon into a full-on cynic. Still, she strives to make the future a better place, perhaps trying to atone for deeds not yet commited.
Class Keyword:
Basic Card Examples:
Time Skip: I'm rather proud of this one. It's a spell that works in a myriad of different situations. It can be used like Frost Nova with Doomsayer, but if it's past turn 4, you can still play stuff afterwards. Turn 8+ with Ragnaros for an extra Fireball. It will affect cards with Latent making them trigger one turn earlier. It also works with the next card by cancelling the debuff it places in the drawn cards.
Time Mirage: A cheaper Arcane Intellect with a drawback (much like Ancestral Knowledge) which synergizes pretty well with positive latent effects as well as "Each turn this is/was in your hand" cards.
Sand Guardian: I'm taking the opportunity to reinforce the theme of the class: holding stuff in your hand to get stronger effects later on. This particular line of effects, in contrast with Latent effect, scales with the time spent in your hand instead of being a fixed effect on a specific threshold of turns. Much like Latent effects, though, both positive and negative effects exist.
Full Basic Set:
Alter Fate: Pretty straightforward. This one works with negative Latent effects you don't want in your hand. It also serves to refresh your hand if you having nothing good. It's meant as a counterpart for Time Mirage and isn't meant to be run in the same kind of decks.
Bronze Apprentice: A mirrored draw effect, it lets the opponent choose when to draw as it's not meant to enable fatigue decks.
Time Warp: This works pretty well with anything you wouldn't mind having extra copies of.
Sands of Time: This card works much like Nourish for both players, so technically the net cost of the card is only 1 mana. It helps at pushing into the late game against faster decks that don't care about their mana but rather their cards, but it's not really the same as ramp Druid cards since this one can backfire if played carelessly.
Time Loop: Another card draw of sorts, though this one is never useful standalone.
Bronze Healer: Another mechanic from the class, though this one finds its home with cards that don't benefit from staying in your hand and are therefore more likely to run Alter Fate.
Rewind Time: Right in-between Vanish and Twisting Nether. Allows you to get the most value from played Battlecries and similar effects while clearing the board. Originally 7 mana, but I saw Asylum's review on a similar card so I adjusted it.
Challenge Cards:
Past Moradormi: Mechanically, it's a reverse Bolf, though functionally it's more reminiscent of a weapon. The class has some healing, but it's not particularly healing intensive, so this should be used with care. It cannot be destroyed by damage unless silenced, but any other kind of minion destruction works. It also enables burn from cards that only target minions like Shield Slam and Flame Lance.
Temporal Anomaly: A rather straightforward card, it can get potentially infinite value, but its stats are suboptimal. This one went through many iterations but I finally settled for Latent (2) on the effect to balance it.
The Stargazer!
The Stargazer is a class built around anti-fatigue. For the Basic set, you have a focus on maintaining strong board control, to help you win by attrition utilizing the game's basic elements with cards for hard removal, strengthening your board, and more! Being the foundation for the class, the Basic set uses the Hero Power strictly to prevent fatigue, but as sets progress, there will be more interaction with the Hero Power's token, as shown in the challenge example cards. Take a look!
Tokens:
Sayge
The fortune you take will depend on how you play and how you plan on playing. Some have more specific uses than others. For Visions of Greed, drawing more is usually not the course of action you'd want to take, reaching fatigue. But, if you have Starlight cards replaced either from conditions like Fabled Fairy or the class' keyword, Constellation, which replaces Starlight cards with a copy of that card, you may want it to quickly complete a win condition.
Astral Projection
The rest of the basic set can be found here:
Hope you like what you see!
Isabella Darkraven - The Cult Leader
«May the faith in the Cult protect us.»
«My friend, I'm glad to see you back. I approve your wise choice to join the Cult. Now, it's time for you to learn about the basics of being a Cultist. You will learn the rituals and the sacred psalms. You will learn how to cast dark magic. You will learn how to properly wear a mantle. You have so much to learn! Would you follow me, Brother?"
The Cult Leader Class
Themes
Keyword
When you build your deck, you may include up to 4 copies of a card with the keyword Cult. Cards with Cult are meant to be played in great numbers. Some cards reward you for having multiple copies in your deck, or for playing them multiple times.
The Basic Set
APPEALING RECRUITER
Shuffling minions into your deck is a simple method to manipulate your deck composition. A Cultist is naturally the very first minion that you will use for that purpose.
Since your hero power does (almost) nothing the turn it is played, you will need something useful to do on your second turn. This minion provides a good body and an effect which will fit in your global game plan.
IMMOLATE THE IMPURE
This cheap AoE spell is not intended to be easy to use. It can't hit everything and its effect is symmetrical. However, it will teach new players how to trade efficiently.
Should you still need to take care of a minion with 2 Health left, you could always use a Cultist. (Whom are not affected by this spell, of course, because they are naturally pure of heart and mind.)
SOLEMN LITURGY
The first method to use your deck as a ressource, is to care about its size. This healing spell teaches new players a core mechanic of the Cult Leader class.
It will take you almost a complete turn to finish the liturgy: however, you should be able to fully heal yourself. In a class with recurrent effects (see Appealing Recruiter), staying alive for a long time is crucial.
The Challenges
«OH SERIOUSLY, not another one of THOSE???»
- An exasperated traveller
Eyeless Creature - These creatures live in swarms, in deep dark unexplored caverns. They are similar to Haunted Creeper; they provide a recurrent threat. Should you find a way to shuffle additional copies into your deck, in incoming sets, they will essentially become a mini-Dreadsteed. Quite a nice minion for its low cost!
«I do not fear time. I do not fear power. I impose fear.»
- Roselyn the Corrupted
Roselyn the Corrupted - Roselyn is a versatile legendary, which can provide repeated hand enhancement, maintain your deck size, and duplicate essential cards. You must find the best time to play her to fully make use of her effect. You have a good hand and a way to protect her? You have a Cult card that is meant to be copied? She will truly shine, and impose fear on your opponent!
The Basic Set, Continued...
Determined Novice - This simple minion will provide an early and sturdy body. Be sure to play it soon, or to shuffle cards into your deck, to maintain its strength.
Dreadful Omen - Since you will shuffle various cards into your deck, you will need a method to find them. Card filtering will thus be a valuable asset.
Dark Blast - This removal spell will take care of small threats, while increasing your deck size, in order to smooth out your early plays.
«When you told me that you would give me the means to propagate our message, I wasn't exactly thinking about a pitchfork.»
- A novice to his master
Lead the Heretics - Our message needs to be spread! By giving a minion +4 Attack and Taunt, you ensure that your opponent understands your true intentions. This card may be used either offensively, to provide extra damage, or defensively, to protect key cards like Appealing Recruiter or Roselyn the Corrupted. Using this card correctly is good practice for a new player.
«The voices in my head. They always repeat the SAME thing, over and over again.»
- A cultist, on the verge of madness
Dementia - This is your class main card advantage tool. This card provides a twofold advantage over a simple Arcane Intellect. First, it draws only one card. In a class which care about deck size, it ensures that your deck doesn't thin too fast. Second, the card you draw is copied. Thus, Dementia works well with cards with the new keyword Cult. A new player should also be able to find clever ways to use this card.
«Join us. March with us. For our path is traced in the realms of darkness.»
- Excerpt of a chant
Tempt - Some enemy minions may prove troublesome. If that's the case, you can incite them to join your cause. Power, knowledge, fear; all reasons are good to join the Cult and become a cultist. This removal spell will efficiently take care of various threats, and become an essential tool in your first decks.
«Come here my good fellow! You look like a customer who needs something to repel obscure threats. I've the right artifact, just for you, at a competitive price!»
- Tomtom-Rok, Gadgetzan Junk Dealer
Charm of Protection - Being a cultist is not evident. You're constantly exposed to diverse perils, death is always lurking around the corner... A mean to protect your minions will soon become essential. The Cult Leader class, having access to various minions with ongoing or triggered effects, will require this charm to protect its board.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to The_Odinson for his precious comments, to ZardozSpeaks for the final touch, to AsylumRhapsody for the pokemon idea. And to the superb community!
edit : Roselyn the Corrupted, Determined Novice and Charm of Protection were balanced.
THE BLOOD MAGE
What are Blood Mages and Who is Ral'thon Morningstar?
CLASS: The Blood Mage
When the Sunwell of Daralan was destroyed by the Scourge, the elven magi of the Kirin Tor were forced to look elsewhere to sate their addiction to arcane energy. While many believe Prince Kael'thas Sunstrider to be the first blood mage, the art of siphoning arcane energy from living beings was first perfected by the Burning Legion. Little did the demons know that by teaching this art to the Blood Elves, it would be turned against the Legion. Today, it is not just the Blood Elves who practice blood magic, many Naga, Fel Orcs and Satyr's have also turned to this technique to free themselves from the Burning Legion. While many traditional mages consider blood magic to be no different than the infernal shadow magics of warlocks, the blood mage knows better: a demon is much more useful dead than alive.
NEW HERO: Ral'thon Morningstar
Ral'thon was a disciple of Prince Kael'thas and followed him into Outland where he learned the art of blood magic and how to harness the arcane energy within demons and other creatures. When he learned his prince had betrayed the blood elves and was conspiring with the Burning Legion, Ral'thon was among the heroes who assaulted Tempest Keep to slay the treacherous prince. Ral'thon now wanders Azeroth, seeking to unite his fractured people and rebuild the broken alliance with the Naga.
How does the Blood Mage play in Hearthstone? How does the Hero Power work? How does the Siphon Keyword Work?
NEW CLASS: Blood Mage
Blood Mages favor control and attrition decks. Blood Mages use a wide repertoire of removal spells and stall cards, to wear their opponent down and eventually seize control of the board. While other classes, excel at these archetypes, the Blood Mage is especially designed for reactive counter plays, utilizing the Siphon Keyword and Spell Flood Hero Power to cause disruptive turns for their opponents.
HERO POWER: Spell Flood/Mana Leak
Mana Leak helps slow down your opponent's tempo by unexpectedly increasing their card cost. While this power starts off weak, with each additional use and each passing turn, your opponent becomes more likely to draw into a Mana Leak. Just like Ambush! or Burrowing Mine, when Mana Leak is drawn, it is revealed and effects immediately take place. Just like those previously mentioned cards, if it is drawn when you have 10 cards in hand, it is discarded and has no effect. Multiple Mana Leaks do not stack.
NEW KEYWORD: Siphon
Siphon works similarly to Overload. You spend mana crystals you do not have, but in this case you spend the mana left over from your opponent's turn. If a card has Siphon (2), you may discount that card by 2 if your opponent has 2 unused crystals, or by just 1 if they have only one unused crystal. These discounts would appear in the usual fashion, as a green number in card's mana crystal in the upper left corner. Once you play a siphon card, you expend the appropriate amount of your opponent's crystals. You can always play Siphon cards at their full cost, if your foe has no unspent mana.
Three Example Cards from the Basic Set
The Full Basic Set
The Challenge Cards
Awrite! Let's get this posted!
Swarmlord is designed as a beast and buff-based class. You've got built in removal and built in beasts, what's not to like? What's more, one of it's more prolific theme is refilling your hand with little beasties. Later on down the line, you'll see Ambushes and clearing through your hero. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you get what I'm putting down. here goes nothing.
Prey On The Weak discussion
Look. If you're going to play a bug, there's got to be at least some fantasy realized. You are a bug. EAT SOME PEOPLE.
Balance wise, your attack based spells are important to your hero. Many will be overcosted with great after effects. In the base set, the attack buffs are decently cheap and give you some pure removal. Mix and match for maximum damage. Go wild. EAT SOME PEOPLE. This is your basic draw though, so use at your discretion. Combine with hero power to draw a card AND get a 1/1. Thus the snowballing begins.
Crypt Fiend discussion
There will be buffs my friends, and as a person who's been stuck with buffs in hand and no minions, I've felt your pain. There will be a decent amount of refunding bugs to your hand. I mean, you're the lord of the swarm. You should be allowed to swarm some people. However, that doesn't mean you're stuck as a zoo deck. These bugs can appear in many forms but get used to the 1/1 drone. I mean... There's not enough art for more tokens... ahem.
Assert Dominance discussion
We've all been screwed by Bloodlust or Savage Roar so i'm naturally wary of creating a card like this, but I feel this a good compromise. It'll likely do less damage to face than Bloodlust and is costed 2 more than Savage Roar (The damage is comparable), but it has the ability to clear taunts such as Sen'jin Shieldmasta and Sludge Belcher and gives you a bit more damage and importantly a bit more survivability for each of your minions. It's the finisher you deserve, friend.
Remaining basic set
Lightning round!
Slasher - Cheap beast to start off some fun effects with. Base stats and random damage. Fun times!
Qiraji - More bugs! MORE BUGS!
Roar - Cheap removal, Arcane shot, yadda yadda, buff your hero power why don'tcha
Carapace - You can't eat people if you're dead, so stop being dead.
Overwhelm - The jury has decided that you can't use it unless you have a minion. Cheap removal. You might need it.
Lord - Hey I like Tundra Rhino, and Crypt Lord doesn't like getting hurt.
Plague - You're going to not want to be dead. This removal is strong because you won\t be getting many removals. Use this one wisely.
Ambush!
Un'goro Swarmer discussion
I really wanted to show off some fun concepts for Ambush! that will be showing their collective faces eventually. None of them will shuffle three in like rogue but you'll be putting a few sleeper agents in. Also, Mega Beedrill. Nuff said.
Prophet Skeram discussion
And Lo, On The First Turn Thou Shalt Add A 1/1 To Thine Hand...
I know sometimes you don't have any minions to buff, and I'mma let you finish, but now you can have two free 1/1's when you need them. Some of the larger, more expensive minions will feature a similar mechanic on draw but only Skeram has the ability to give it to you when the game starts. This assures a turn one... a bad turn one, so I wouldn't run this so you won't need a 1 drop. It's designed for buffs. Buff things. I'll note that at this time Swarmlord is not a member of the Grimy Goons, so it won't be over the top.
There ya go. Go eat some people, you now have bug powers.
Well here goes nothing! Time for my Dragon Knight and his basic set! :)
If you enjoy this class be sure to upvote it to make sure it advances to the next round cause once I'm able to start making slightly more complex cards this class is gonna get so much more interesting and cool becuase of all the things I can do with the Hero Power and with armor interaction.
THE DRAGON KNIGHT:
This hero power is similar to the paladin but instead of directly summoning a 1/1 to the board you delay the affect by several rounds for a 2/2 along with that several cards as you'll see below are affected by having a certain number of Whelps in your deck. As a side note the Whelps act just like the cards made from Beneath the Grounds.
However you may be asking yourself if the hero power is so slow then how in the world will you survive against aggressive decks to get value out of it? It's quite simple actually, this class uses armor! That's right we have a second class to relies on/interacts with armor to survive. He has several cards that grant armor in order to live long enough for the hero power to start taking affect.
The Dragon Knight founding and lore:
The Dragon Knight
Throughout all recorded history dragons have been the image of power in the eyes of all races. Their massive bodies covered in thick armored scales, the strength to tear a man in half with ease, and to top it all off a breath of flame that can melt the strongest of metals. For these reasons many have looked to slaying a dragon as their greatest achievement by overcoming the flaming behemoths. However for some the dragons are seen as the way to take their growing power to new, previously unreachable levels. They have through unknown means found a way to transform into a mighty dragon themselves. With this new technique under their belt they have come to call themselves Dragon Knights and have gained a reputation of being ruthless in their quest for ever growing power. After some time several Dragon Knights came together to form the Dragon Order and with it they managed to hide the secrets of transforming into a Dragon. Due to the secrets of becoming a dragon being so hidden to those outside the Order many have come to suspect the Knights gained their power through dark places such as the Old Gods or the Burning Legion. However most knights are veterans from wars fighting to contain the Old Gods and wars to drive back the Burning Legion and many seem to defiant towards both groups and as such their goals and motives are still largely unknown.
Yvon and his tale:
Yvon was young when he became fascinated with dragons and throughout his life has sought to harness their power for his own. Through still largely unknown methods Yvon managed to Transform himself into a dragon and would become the first dragon knight in existence. He would move on to recruit and teach others to become Dragon Knights and would eventually become the founder and ruler of the Dragon Order. Naming himself the Dragon Master he moved to extend his influence and power but would suddenly disappear after The Shattering and the death of Deathwing. However with the return of the Legion Yvon has returned with immense new powers and an entire army of dragons seemingly to continue where he left off so long ago.
As Yvon returned with a massive army of dragons and he showed that he had mastered the breeding and growth of dragons that allowed him to quickly grow an endless army of Whelps to fight for him and he has used it to lead an endless assault wherever there are enemies of the Dragon Knights.
The Basic Set Examples:
Dragonscale Greatsword: A big weapon that heals like Truesilver Champion but only when used to kill minions so it encourages using the weapon as removal instead of pounding the opponents face in.
Corrupted Flame: This mostly works like Soulfire but discards a Whelp which is important to this deck and class many cards have effects for things like gaining armor based on Whelps. However as a trade off for the Whelp you get a discounted Flame Lance which is strong in a control deck. This is also the first of many cards that removes Whelps and as you'll see in the classic set (if I get there) many cards will follow this pattern in removing Whelps to discount the card or the effect of the card.
Dragonstrike Commander: A big late game minion that not only puts a big minion on the board but also shuffles some Whelps into the deck in order to keep activating cards that rely on Whelps being in the deck. This is very important since many cards in the coming sets will either remove Whelps from your deck by out right destroying them or maybe just drawing them but there will be more of those then of the cards that shuffle Whelps into your deck making a card like Dragonstrike Commander a very valuable asset to this class.
Rest of the Basic Set:
Dragon's Flight: Basic core card that gets some Whelps into the deck to help activate cards. Simple but effective.
Plated Dragon Armor: A strong card that does 2 things in 1. Stabilizing the board with a high health taunt and 2. Stabilizing your health with some armor to help survive vs spells or burst which many aggro decks run and this card is great at stopping or at least slowing both the board and your loss of life via spells.
Dull Claws: A incredible flexible card that early on can be used as removal for those pesky 2 health minions and if left until later grows into a powerful 4/2 weapon makes it a solid play at every stage of the game although it is best saved for later into the game when it's battlecry can activate.
Scorched Earth: A cheap and very powerful aoe that has downsides in hurting your own board and also damages you in order to justify the power of a 4 mana aoe. Now I made it deal 5 to your hero based on the fact that I want this to be a powerful anti aggro tool by killing their board (which is everything to 90% of aggro decks btw) but it still weakens you as to give them a chance to still win where otherwise it might be to anti aggro and make it op vs every deck pretty much.
Searing Strike: Every class has a 1 mana spell and this is the Dragon Knights. It offers a ping and some armor gain and is very similar to Mortal Coil but offers different pings for a different but still strong effect and can be paired up with weapons to almost guarantee you activate this cards benefits.
Armored Wyvern: Very basic minion that offers some armor gain on a decent 4 drop. Like Dragon's FLight this is just a basic minion that helps push the Dragons and Armor usage of this class.
Scales of Gold: Strong draw that with certain cards that generate armor rapidly is very powerful but generally would only draw maybe 1 or 2 cards which if it draws 2 is still a discounted Arcane Intellect. However you still have the chance of drawing more in slower matches which might be important to get those answers you need like Corrupted Flame to kill something like Ragnaros the Firelord which can mean the difference between a win and a loss.
Challenge Cards:
Sky Serpent: A basic 4 drop dragon that if left alive will turn into a powerful creature that is strong in trading or pushing damage. It makes for some unique instances where your opponent has to trade ineffectively otherwise risk you getting a incredibly powerful creature for no cost.
Sitora, The Dragon Mother: A very important card that gives this class a Lord Jaraxxus type affect although as you'll see in the spoiler below its different in several ways. (I also go into more detail about the True Form so it's important you read that to understand Sitora and why she exists.)
Tokens for the challenge cards:
Sky serpent token:
Sitora, The Dragon Mother cards:
True Form: WHEN YOU TRANSFORM YOU HAVE 16 TOTAL HEALTH DIVIDED UP INTO 8 HEALTH AND 8 ARMOR. I just wanna make sure people understand that this has a good amount of health when you enter the form as to let everyone know this isn't as bad as when Majordomo Executus's deathrattle goes off. Anyway this transformation plans to take a slower approach to the grinding match as the hero power and weapon both push for you to control and eventually snowball due to the endless minions from your hero power.
Flame Breath: A powerful removal weapon that allows you to gain control of the board by killing or wounding 3 minions but isn't as good when you need to hit your opponent due to the low durability which offers incentives to use it for control over face bashing.
Dragon's Might: A hero power that is slower than Lord Jaraxxus but offers some direct affect through powerful pings but then requires you to play the minion from your hand. Now the reason I made it add Drakes only is that otherwise I found random dragons are WAY to random for my tastes as it can give from a Twilight Whelp to a Deathwing which is just not fun to play against when rng favors one person over the other and gives them all 8+ mana dragons or nothing but 1-3 mana dragons. Where as drakes offer a much more consistent in terms of power level. (The drakes include all drakes like Azure Drake, Volcanic Drake and Emerald Drake.)
P.S. The drakes would be grouped similar to how skeletons are grouped with this boss exclusive card from Naxxramus Plague which is from Noth the Plaguebringer.
Come my child. No need to fear. The spirits are friendly around here. This forest is mine after all.
I am the Enchantress. And so are you...
Do watch yourself child. You have no doubt noticed the lights that dance around. They are my power. And my protectors. Few who enter can resist their charms. It helps us survive. We are known for being hard to find after all.
Playstyle and Lore;
The Enchantress is a defensive focused class with two main aspects, both of which are shown within the Hero power. The first is the protective aspects. Unlike Priest and Warriors whose defensiveness comes from their ability to negate the effect damage, the Enchantress is much more elusive in nature, using a variety of spells, effects and secrets to proactively guard against damage dealt to both themselves and their minions, and to weaken the opponent. In a pinch, the Enchantress also has a lot of ways to make up for lost ground by filling the board.
The second half is the class focus on Spell Damage, but not in the conventional sense. For the Enchantress, spells that are actually able to deal damage are both rare and hard to procure, so Spell Damage is used in other ways. Various minions and spells have effects that scale directly with how much spell damage you have, and some of the more advanced cards will give you bonus effects if you are in control of enough spell damage when you play them.
Lore:
Asha Kalleih, the woman known to most as simply "The Enchantress", is an evasive and mysterious figure. Most of the knowledge of her and her kind is spread through hearsay and rumor. Never seen outside of the forest she inhabits, some claim she might be as old as the wood itself. Her appearances are famously sparce, always seeming to show up in times of destruction, and always ending it soon after.
The powers of Asha and her kin are as unknown as they are. What is known, is that unlike the Druids that reside nearby, the Enchantress does not merely draw power from nature, their power is nature itself. All the powers of both the forest and the sprites that inhabit are seemingly at her beck and call. Maybe she does in fact control them, or maybe they simply have enough respect to heed her request, but when even the darkest aspects that you can fear are at her command, I wonder if it truly matters.
(Basic Set)
I see you garnered a few friends along the way here. What? You only see one? Yes, I supposed you do. I see them. Waiting. But don't worry. When she has enough strength, she will call them just for you. In the meantime, please sit down. You have a long journey ahead of you. I always find a fire can help you to prepare for what comes next.
Wait... I sense something more. You're hurt, aren't you? I understand. That's why you are here. You want power. More than you had. Very well. I can do that. It might take time, but I can certainly give what you need.
Card example Explanation:
Spirit of the Pack: The perfect example of how Spell Damage synergy works in the Enchantress. Played or summoned on its own, the card is really weak, but with a single spell damage, most likely from your Hero power, it turns it into a decently stated minion, and any more that that, and the card can start getting out of control.
Spirit Beast:
Firelight: A cantrip-esque spell that places emphasis having a large amount of minions. On a full board, this gives 7 Health and draws a card, but much more reasonable is to give 2 or 3. It isn't a lot, but it can make your board slightly more challenging to kill in a number of cases.
Reparation: The only basic card to show a commonly recurring mechanic for the Enchantress: Spell-creating cards. To balance out the effect of having a constant source of spell damage, most of the damaging spells from the Enchantress come from this method: playing a weaker than average card, that then produces a much more balanced spell. In this case, also helping the case of minion survival.
Reckoning:
Other Basic Cards:
Discussion:
Sighting: Themed on self protection. A board full of minions now works as an irritating wall.
Glimmer and Emerald Sprite: Fitting for a class I described as "elusive" the un-keyworded effect appears a number of times. Glimmer works in the same vein as Sighting, except this time it helps protect your minions, and Emerald sprite is just a decent thematic 4-drop.
Changling Grove: Creation of spells and minions is a common trend within this class, and this card works to create a very specific idea of turning your opponents power against them. The limitation of the card to only target enemy minions is made up for in this case with a small buff built in.
Mist: One of the very few direct damaging spells that the class has. The benefit you can get from spell damage is mitigated in this case by limiting it to minions and also destroying your board (and thus by extension, likely your spell damage as well.) Also starts to show a slight thematic idea to the class in which the more expensive cards also include dark shadowy artwork in contrast to the lightness of the cheaper ones.
Night Mother: A high cost card that can swing back lost board presence to start challenging an amassed board, or just dramatically increase your own. In turn it provides decent synergy with cards like Firelight and Sighting, and a few other class cards whose power is in turn proportional to the number of minions you have.
Crow Token:
Silent Lights: Another board filling card, this one producing the same tokens that spawn from your hero power. Mostly to be used as a temporary wall of small Taunt minions rather than having any actual use for the Spell power it contains, as even at it best this card produces 7 stat points, that would require very little cost to clear.
(Bonus Challenges)
You noticed that thing did you? Shifty little thing that. I found it during a very dark period of this place. That fog... its always around it. I'd say it doesn't want to be seen, but its doing a pretty poor job if that's the case.
Anyway, we had best be moving. Its a long way to where you want to be. Luckily, I know someone who can help us. Plus, he's a great singer. If you're ever in trouble, just listen for his voice. He'll give you a hand, one way or another.
Card Explanations:
Flower Doll: While making minions hard to hit is certainly a theme of this class, usually Stealth is not directly involved. The single exception to this is during the WotOG expansion. In keeping with the dark and murky theme of the expansion, the cards given to the Enchantress are just as murky as the forests that they live in, focusing on themes of shadows, concealment, and just generally dark and scary parts of nature. (A giant spider is involved)
For this card specifically, the effect is inspired by the "Misty Terrain" move that Florges can use in the games which surrounds any nearby Pokemon in a wreathe of fog to protect them from status effects. Since the only effect to protect from in Hearthstone is taking damage, Stealth was defiantly the way to go.
Voice of the Forest:
Forests Song Secrets:
Secrets are defiantly a part of the Enchantress class. Similar to Hunter Secrets but a lot less aggressive, most of them are based around protecting in one way or another. To that end, the Voice of the Forest produces its own unique secrets, thus making it a slightly weaker form of the Mad Scientist due to the random nature.
The Secrets however should make up for it, but each one is defiantly biased for uses in a token heavy deck
Ballad of Strength has the ability to work as an psudo-Explosive Trap, but stronger in the right conditions, Song of Humility is an more powerful Equality, depending on how your opponent plays around it, Hymn of Shelter is weak against aggressive decks, but allows a powerful counter-push (and absolutely breaks "Mist" in Spell Damage decks), and Melody of Echoes changes the Voice of the Forest into a miniature Cairne Bloodhoof, with the benefit of making sure the Deathrattle minion survives to work with. Each secret is also designed to have a radically different trigger condition, meaning that trying to find the right order to secret test may change every time.
I'm ready to go. Are you ready to join me?
CLASS: LUCK
Basic Card Showcase:
Bribed Dealer: Has Decent stats for a 3 mana minion and works very similar to Tracking but instead of Drawing a card and discarding cards it works to manipulate the deck. This card works exceptionally well with cards like Cowardly Reserve below as well as the Hero Power Token Backhand Trick.
Two Pair: Comparable to Thistle Tea from the Rogue class but instead works much better with the classes main mechanic which involves deck manipulation.
Fold: This card is most similar to cards Like Divine Favor as it allows you to stack up cards in your hand and will most likely serve as the classes main mass-draw mechanism.
Pokemon and Legendary:
Other Basic Cards:
Other Cards explained:
Fortune Teller + Fortune Cards: Comparable to The Shadow Word cards from the Priest class. However this works as a buff mechanism instead of a direct removal. Incase it wasn't clear TheFortune Cards are infact separate cards despite also being produced by the Fortune Teller.
Coin Fire and Illuminated Die: are the classes 2/3 removal basic spells. Coin Fire is a much improved Arcane Missiles whereas Illuminated Die is like Elemental Destruction but instead of the Overload it has the possibility to deal as much damage as Arcane Explosion and Maelstrom Portal
Elevator of Fate and Cowardly Reserve: I think these 2 deserve to be put in the same explanation as they synergise well together. Elevator of Fate gives you an opportunity to proc cards like Cowardly reserve even if they are drawn early without being placed at the bottom of the deck.
Tokens
If you wish to see my Phase I submission you can click on the Banner below as I will not change it to advertise for this Phase.
I would like to apologise for the sloppy work as I had life matters to take care of but I attempted to put something sufficient together. I am not very happy with this and it needs work but if by a miracle I move on I will try to find more time as the life matter that I had to experience is over now.
Edit: I attempted to work on some explanations as best I could in the half hour I had Hope you enjoy :3
Thank you Kanye,
Very Cool.