Hearthpwn

Loot-a-rang - Nothing impressive here. Reinforces a bit of what we had going on last set. Was designed after that art and direction from the last set.

Unsavory Guide - I wanted to make a different kind of minion and I was thinking about what the game hadn't really done that kind of hit on some classic ideas. So I thought about the weasely, sleazey, scumbag who knows where the treasure is, and he knows he can't get it himself, so he goes out there and hopes everyone else dies and he can get away with the riches. He really is inspired a lot by Beni Gabor, from the 1999 Brendan Fraser The Mummy. Cowardly, greedy, scumbag.

Ancient Engineer - This card has changed a lot since I showed it off originally, that's mostly because I think all the older versions were over powered. I couldn't get the balance right. So now we have a class version hybrid Garrison Commander/Fencing Coach. To prevent absurd abuse the battlecry won't get major value if he doesn't live the turn. Giving your opponent a few more outs to it.

Chicken Launcher - This is kind of a derpy niche card. It has a small amount of synergy with another card in the set, and but is mostly there to counter Reno and Mill decks, but has some decent strength against combo, just adding pointless 1 drops to their deck.

Holy Diver - Ok, this is the first of 1 "Corrupted" cards. I thought it would be hilarious to take a couple of my cards and instead of having the Old God's make them crazier, instead it made them more sane. So this is an analog to Hellbound Speedster from my Classic set. He's got a smaller body and instead of racing rockets he's become a pious deep sea diver. Of course N'Zoth still loves him some Deathrattles.

Whisper Receiver - I thought this was kind of clever also. So, you have normal people that sometimes come to close and get these whispers in their head, but what if you're out on a desert race track trying to use a radio communication device? Its more like voices screaming in your head. Its actually so loud its starting to infect the local wildlife. And let's be real, as soon as I saw that Frog art I've been waiting to make this card.

Careful Rocketeer - Ah, our second analog. So, Careless Rocket Jockey has become a Careful Rocketeer. Now completely fine attacking players, he's very weary of other minions. Afraid he might somehow crash and burn. 

God's Speed - So, this is an important card to me. Racer is not meant to be a C'Thun class. C'thun has the most direct OTK and crazy game ending potential, and I don't want that to be part of what my class is doing. So instead we've tried to open that up to the other Old Gods. Now, the art here is indeed C'Thun, but that's just because there is so very little art for the other Old Gods and this one had a guy on a griffin on it. The card is more meant to assist Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound. Allowing you to play a lot of huge minions, not be afraid to draw them, and in fact have that be a powerful ramp effect. 

Pile Up - I wanted another real AoE, and I came up with this ages ago, but didn't want to put it in until it felt right. I chose this specific wording because of how I imagined the effect triggering, and because I liked the spell damage synergy, since my class has very little otherwise.

All Downhill From Here - I just created this to replace a card I was highly sceptical of. This card is very very powerful, but also very dynamic. I felt like it was fun if not really good. Its my classes new Fel Reaver.

Klaxxi Inciter - I think that Y'Shaarj is the weakest of the Old Gods by a pretty fair margin. I mean Yogg-Saron, Hope's End is certainly down since the nerf, but the card still sees more play than Y'Shaarj. So I created a minion that worked with him specifically. I felt like the card and the effect were cool and interesting. Though I have been thinking of making the minion an 8/8.

Norman Gobsborn - I previewed this ages ago. Nothing like a crazy guy that hears voices to be the legendary of choice for Old Gods. Old Gods also kind of really represents our first hard push at being an aggro deck. Between this and All Downhill From Here we have a way to really put on some early pressure. Its easier to get this off than it is to get a big Edwin VanCleef, but he's also a lot less snowbally. He's never coming out before turn 3 and he's never going to do that as a 14/14 or something absurd. 8/5 or 10/6 is probably close to what he'll appear as on turn 3-4 and you could save up for a long time to get a larger one later in the game, but his attack grows by 2 his health only grows by 1, making him easier to take out.

Expansion Approach -  My goal moving forward was to shift things in a new direction. Even though we never showed off Naxx and GVG I still created those cards for myself and started building an identity pushed heavily on the "less Health than opponent" comebacks and Mech synergy. Leaving GvG I wanted to move toward a new push. Therefore we started pushing Dragon, and "cost (0)" to open up new deck concepts. This our Dragon approach I went more toward midrange/control and with our other cards we hit some heavy Aggro/Tempo notes. We still have a nice beefy value legendary, and funky new removal spell at the high end to give us play against other control decks.

Goof-off Technician - This card is a bit of a crossover between our two new focus points. Its also where I decided to give my class a serious Dragon push. This didn't really happen in BRM and for that reason Dragon decks didn't really come into being until TGT, and really they still didn't have enough oomph to make a major meta impact. That lead Blizzard to continue creating cards for the mechanic with each expansion, but that also means classes end up in weird places with Standard rotations. I also felt like every successful Dragon deck had to have a good low cost minion to keep in play with tempo. Therefore I created this guy.

Ride or Die - This is the first ever Dragon Spell. Its also a good example as to why Blizzard hasn't really done this. The wording gets a bit long, even if its fairly simple. I still really like the card and I think it could really have opened up a few more fun things with "Dragon" decks.

Runaway Aspirant - I hate the scaling 1 drop, so I took the Druid route to things and went with the 1 mana 2/2. I adding a bit of bonus to push the "cost (0)" mechanic. 

Wrench Sergeant - Other forces may use Drill Sergeants to train people, but the racers use Wrenches instead. Honestly this is one of the first TGT cards I came up with. Simple, flavorful. It touches Inspire without going too far into it. This was a huge part of TGT and I wouldn't dream of leaving it out.

Bear Rider - This card is here as another small seed actually. Its a nice midrange value minion, kind of a step of from the super Basic, Desirable Mechanic. He's here to either give you a more consistent Draft experience or just give you that value. I felt like the Black War Bear having Charge meant less since it was just as likely for it to come out on your opponents turn, negating the effect.

Prepared to Win - I know this card has to look absurd. Its got a large health buff because I already have a large attack buff in classic. I also have a balanced buff in Basic, referenced here actually. So this closes out the trinity. Plus I mean come on, she's wearing a horse floaty for protection, its great. We get to hit a ton of different themes and really open our class up.

Bitter Rivalry - I know this card is going to freak people out. I spent a very long time trying to decide if I could make this card. And I came to the decision it was possible. My class has no face damaging spells, charge minions that can go face, or weapons. My hero power doesn't deal damage or heal/gain armor. You have to win with minions, this just lets you prevent your opponent from killing your face for awhile. It happens to shut down your minions from killing there face for a bit of parity. And worst case almost any opponent can use removal on one of their own minions if you've somehow locked them out of the game and actually set yourself up to win by fatigue.

Compliant Proto-Drake - Ok, so my entire reason for designing this was 2-fold. First I wanted to do something different with Dragon synergy. Second I wanted to make a legitimately playable late game minion. I think its pretty lame that pretty much every Dragon since BRM has not been good unless its specifically a Dragon deck. I think that's a lame design choice. Second, I think its stupid that there are a bunch of 1 mana 3/2s and growing 1/3s and crazy 2 drops that decide games, and 4 mana 7/7s. The average value of a 6+ cost minion is awful. Unless you're the cream of the crop you're just unplayable. You have to have instant dramatic effect or insane value. I think that metric needs to be pushed. I've kind of done that with other cards, this is by far the most pushed of those. I do think this card is on the very high end of power level. I think that its a very very playable 7 cost minion, and I think that's a great thing. I adjusted the power level slightly by giving it Ignores Draft, making it harder to have insane turns when you play this, something that has to come up on occasion to keep things fair.

Big-time Promoter - This is my nod to bringing the Races to the Tournament. Cross promotion and good times. If he feels like he's behind and needs to catch up, he brings in his muslce, "Tiny" the Ogre. This is kind of medium risk/high reward, and I only say high reward because the card is abysmal without the bonus, and that's intentional. I feel like these are the sorts of cards that show up on occasion at epic and either work or don't, but the power is here if you make it work.

The Bigger One - This is a card I had been thinking about for awhile and didn't want to put into this set, but after not being able to consolidate one of my other cards this got the nod. This is a card that I think might look scarier than it is, and I think there is a chance this could cost 6 mana, but I'm being conservative. This obviously has no effect on Legendaries and only gets the second copy of a minion if that copy is in the deck, it will never force someone to discard. So while it might accelerate fatigue or gain a bit of extra value, that situation isn't really that common. I kind of balanced it aroundEntomb. But instead of adding a resource to your deck for sure it might remove one from your opponent. 

Dr. Autto, Octo-Engineer - The main idea for me is he hates spiders! Those bastard Nerubians will all be crushed by the true king of the eight-legged freaks. I had a few thoughts to do a combo of multiple legendaries or something else, but really this felt right to me for the expansion. Its big and beefy on its own but summons nice value minions. Its kind of like a reverse Confessor Paletress, without the variance.

Justicar Trueheart "Better" Hero Power - I feel like Justicar doesn't have any major bonuses for me if I do anything traditional. I could have taken the route of making it bad for me, as blizzard did with Hunter, Rogue, Shaman, kind of Druid, and in that regard kind of everyone but Warrior and maybe Paladin. Now I know adding Draw a card is a huge change. But honestly, I think my hero power is very very weak in many situations. Its not versatile. It has no value, only tempo. The class is built on and around tempo, but I think the Justicar side of things should allow me to gain value. Maybe this is too much value, but I think anything else wouldn't make sense. Tempo can only be taken so far without value. 

No Magic Zone - "Mirage Raceway would like to inform you that this is a No Magic Zone. We are here to test engineering and driving prowess, not who's fireballs are the biggest." - Fobeed and Zuzubeed, race annoucners. If that's not enough, I don't know how else to get the point across. The other reason I added this was to keep things going. Wide, AoE style effects. This hits both sides of the board, and while we do have AoE buffs, we also don't have too many powerful persistent effect or powerful deathrattles. In fact our only deathrattle is actually a drawback. That gives us a bit of fun play with the Self Silence mechanic that never really worked out for Priest. Flavor Text "Also, no outside food or drinks."

Smoke Screen - When racing is war, sometimes defense is the best offense. A well placed Smoke Screen can help you stay in the race long enough to pull ahead. I though this twist on Divine Shield was a cool one. Doesn't work on Spells, but hell your opponent isn't supposed to be bringing those to the track anyway! Flavor Text: "Did you know Smoke Bomb™ is under trademark by the SI:7?"

Upstart Mechanic - Oh, this young fella, well young for a gnome, thinks he has all the knowledge and skill anyone could ever need, until this Old-Timer gives him whatfor. You gotta learn from the best, not just from some book! This gives us a nice tempo minion and also gives us a touch of Self Damage and healing play. Working all those themes into a 2-drop. Flavor Text: "If he was as smart as he is stupid we'd win every race." - Old-Timer

Quick Fix - Sometimes you take a big shot, your rides almost toast, you're sucking in smoke and you can't see out of one eye. If you just pull over and slap some duct tape on it you can, drink some coolant, (don't worry, its safe, the Speed Freaks drink it all the time), you can get back on the track in no time. Quick fix plays into our healing. Healing might seem out of place, but that's only when you think about it as some sort of divine intervention or holy light, and not a bit of wrench work and some Croc-ade® (patent pending). Then it kind of makes sense. Just because you take a hit doesn't mean you're out of the race! This is our first Draft effect. Draft is something we have to be somewhat conservative with because of our hero power, and here its tacked on for both flavor and effect. Flavor Text: "Is this one the coolant or the Croc-ade®? Eh, same difference"

Desirable Mechanic - Ah, you know you love a nice piece of eye candy! What I'm talking about that flying machine you pervert! This fine little piece of tail...pipe is our.... Oh who am I kidding, she's hot right? And she's one of the most brilliant mechanics I've ever seen! Its like very motor she touches runs that much faster. Seriously though, this card probably seems super simple, but that's the beauty of it. Its a fine on curve body with upside. What more do you really need. Flavor Text: "She really revs your engine."

The Draft Pack - Every generation has an icon group of winners, except this bunch of losers. The only person they ever beat is each other. I took a big inspiration from the Summit, more popularly known as the Rat Pack, a supergroup of singers including Frank Sinatra (Old Blue Eyes), Dean Martin (the King of Cool), and Sammy Davis Jr. (Mister Show Business). This group was actually the second iteration and would later be the inspiration for the Brat Pack and the Frat Pack, as well as the movie, The Rat Pack. I thought it was a great nod to some classic crooners and a bit of fun at the same time. Lil' Blue Eyes, Baron of Cool and Mister Go Business are the three tokens, and each is that little bit different from the other. I think I found some decent art to bring the concept to life and I hope you have a much fun seeing it as I did coming up with it. Flavor Text "They want to be called the Draft Pack? Like they ever won something, just a bunch of filthy rats if you ask me." - Fizzle Brassbolts, Gnome Team Racing President.

Magne-TNT - What better way to take out a group of tightly packed competitors in their fancy cars than a piece of dynamite and a magnet? Just set it and forget it! I wanted my second AoE to have a very unique feel, and so I came up with Magne-TNT. It seems like some sort of crazy thing someone would invent and use, and it gave me a cool twist. Half single target removal, half AoE. Flavor Text: "Just gotta make sure I throw it past my own...uh oh."

Pit Crew Chief - A pit crew is only as good as its best man, and luckily this guys pretty good. Typically taking a Pit Stop at the right time is important, and this guy knows how to make that call. Making you look out of the race when you're secretly about to make a big comeback. Another small subtheme is what I call Full Drift. Pushing a card to 0 mana. This means you've gained enough advantage from good "driving" that you reap special rewards. This one may not seem like much but on those potentially large tempo turns being able to add a Taunt all is a pretty sweet bonus. Flavor Text: "I said "Stop It" not "Pit Stop" you idiot, keep going!" 

Pit Stop - This is it, one of the biggest moments in any race. Get in and out of the Pit fast and you're sure to be in position to win. Making a good pit stop when you're behind is even more important. You have to refuel the car, but you might even get in a few repairs and maybe even chase the leader out of the pit! Here again, we play into a lot of things in one card. Its probably a touch wordy, a touch cluttered, but its hits those flavor notes and nothing feels out of place to me. Flavor Text: "Can't we just change cars?"

Just A Bit Further - Sometimes you're out. You've taken too many hits and the wheels are coming off. You've lost your mirrors and your bumpers are blown to bits, but you know if you just hold onto the steering wheel and pray maybe there's just enough momentum to get you across the line. Hey, look the shield generators back online, and we've got one more rocket left, and its just a quarter mile to the finish line. WE CAN DO THIS! This card was inspired more by the art than most. Most of the time I found art to fit cards, here I found this art and couldn't help but make it into a card. Ignores Draft is something that we have to use to keep just a few cards from being very dangerous. Here it keeps this large protective buff in check.

Hellbound Speedster - He's on a Highway to Hell, and he's going dooooowwooown. And he's probably taking you with him. No, I felt like I couldn't use the same card for both the music and high cost common theme, so I created this card as an homage to AC/DC. I live in Australia after all. This may not be super obvious, but I felt like it still hit the right note.... I'll stop now. This also reinforces our Dynamic statline and self damage themes and helps give No Magic Zone more of an in-game use and not just a flavor one. Flavor Text: "He's got Season Tickets on a one way ride."

Careless Rocket Jockey - Ah, the most out of place low mana card ever. This card seems beyond weird I'm sure. And honestly, we already have a 1 mana removal in our basic set, so what made me put this one there? Well, that actually part of it. We already have a 1 mana removal, and that's already going to be floating around Arena, we don't need to have a bunch of running around. Plus this has some other interesting things going on that I felt pushed it toward a special slot. Its a minion that is actually meant to be removal, similar to Force of Nature, which ended up being a combo piece until its nerfing. So I felt like in a lot of ways I was paying Homage to a nerfed Force of Nature. I love this card and I think it makes a great epic, especially if you look at Blizzards track record with epics. Flavor Text: "Look at what I can do." - Stuart, former Goblin Rocket Jockey

Rocket Fuel Tech - Our second Full Draft card. One of my original previews and one of the first cards I designed. It hasn't changed a bit since then and its still a great example of flavor and substance. Flavor Text: "This stuff will take you to the moon and back. Oh, you're here for fuel?"

Qualified - Our second Ignore Draft card, and our biggest potential hair puller. Some times you think you're winning the race, but it turns out its just for a chance at the real prize. I tried to cost this in such a way that makes it playable, but not great. And in a way that typically makes the second copy much worse than the first. Back in the classic days I think more games against aggro went past turn 7 but now it seems like they don't. Flavor Text: "I blew him off the track, how did he qualify?"

ToGny Starkwrench - Ah, we all need a good legendary, and who better to help us build amazing machines and sick weapons then warmongering, egotistical, millionaire, playboy, ToGny Starkwrench. Yeah, so he got kidnapped by Goblins in held in the desert, but he's still alive. What do you mean he stopped making weapons? Renewable energy? Well I'm already paying him, so let's just hope he's got something helpful against those goblins. I really am going to make every legendary comic book subthemed so just get used to it. We get to play off ToGny's ingenuity and off his skill. We get both designer and creator in one go. I hope this guy feels cool and fun, that's what I'm aiming for most. Flavor Text: "I told you I don't want to join your super secret boy-band." - ToGny Starkwrench.

So, our Naxx card has to be a Deathrattle minion, or a spell that functions like or with Deathrattle minions. I chose to take the Deathrattle minion route. I was planning Naxx cards before I realised we weren't showing that set off and this was just a natural idea. Having raided heaps of Naxx in WotLK. I went with a design choice that kind of played on our existing cards. More high attack minions minions, but we have a nice stable follow up.

Grease Monkey - He's obviously not a real monkey, though I did look for a decent piece of art, and couldn't find one I liked. I thought about making him a Beast??? as a joke, but didn't. Obviously this is our super mechanic. He can perform wonders with those machines and spare parts. I went very hard with the Mech theme, but I tried to prevent it from being heavily aggressive, something that didn't work for any other class, and I don't feel like was even really tried.

Undeniable Underdog - I am not sure about the cost on this guy. He has the exact same cost as our big Basic taunt, and of course he lines up horribly at the 7 slot when Dr. Boom is in a set. That said I wanted to try him at that cost just to see.

Control the Action - I really wanted to make this card, and I tried making a completely different card using its art when I found out we weren't doing GvG. I couldn't make it work, but now I have it to show off anyway. I am not sure if the cost is right, but I felt like considering it wasn't something that was always good having such a major reduction was fine.

Reckless Pitbot - This is a card designed around a concept. The big gimmick to push in GvG was the lower health. This led to me having some really wordy cards, as that wording itself is soooo long, like the Joust wording. I still like the card and think its cool. The concept of this thing that's supposed to be in the Pit fixing your car, but get pissed off when it seems the other guys messing you up that it goes while and attacks people.

Raceway Tryant - I wanted to make another version of a large late midgame minion. I came up with this name and design after I found this art, and really I'm disappointed you can see so little of it, because the whole image is amazing. I almost made this into a spell that summons the minions simple because I wanted to show off the full art haha. 

Blessed Reconstruction - I really didn't want to put a Resurrect style card in the game before Priest got theirs in BRM, but I felt like this just oozed with flavor and the art was perfect. Plus mine is intentionally worse than Priests.

For the Team - This is a card I designed specifically with GvG in mind. GvG was a set that really pushed the envelope and I knew a card like this was possible. It notably doesn't deal damage, it functions like Alexstraza, only setting the health. I didn't want it to ever heal them either, so again the wording is long, but I think the card is cool. The amount of damage it deals you means its not really something you can generally kill people with, but it is something that might steal a game or 2 on occasion. Its almost definitely too good, and that is why I stuck it here.

Ultrobot 9000 - Ah, Ultron, you crazy A.I. bastard. The idea here is the super machine. It takes the parts it needs and makes itself stronger and stronger and replicates more things to make itself stronger. I gave this a lower base statline and a clause that the Spare Parts must target the Utrobot, this means you have a 1 in 3 chance of getting a part that you can't replicate, which seems fair considering how fast this can spiral if left unchecked. 

No Magic Zone - "Mirage Raceway would like to inform you that this is a No Magic Zone. We are here to test engineering and driving prowess, not who's fireballs are the biggest." - Fobeed and Zuzubeed, race annoucners. If that's not enough, I don't know how else to get the point across. The other reason I added this was to keep things going. Wide, AoE style effects. This hits both sides of the board, and while we do have AoE buffs, we also don't have too many powerful persistent effect or powerful deathrattles. In fact our only deathrattle is actually a drawback. That gives us a bit of fun play with the Self Silence mechanic that never really worked out for Priest. Flavor Text "Also, no outside food or drinks."

Smoke Screen - When racing is war, sometimes defense is the best offense. A well placed Smoke Screen can help you stay in the race long enough to pull ahead. I though this twist on Divine Shield was a cool one. Doesn't work on Spells, but hell your opponent isn't supposed to be bringing those to the track anyway! Flavor Text: "Did you know Smoke Bomb™ is under trademark by the SI:7?"

Upstart Mechanic - Oh, this young fella, well young for a gnome, thinks he has all the knowledge and skill anyone could ever need, until this Old-Timer gives him whatfor. You gotta learn from the best, not just from some book! This gives us a nice tempo minion and also gives us a touch of Self Damage and healing play. Working all those themes into a 2-drop. Flavor Text: "If he was as smart as he is stupid we'd win every race." - Old-Timer

Quick Fix - Sometimes you take a big shot, your rides almost toast, you're sucking in smoke and you can't see out of one eye. If you just pull over and slap some duct tape on it you can, drink some coolant, (don't worry, its safe, the Speed Freaks drink it all the time), you can get back on the track in no time. Quick fix plays into our healing. Healing might seem out of place, but that's only when you think about it as some sort of divine intervention or holy light, and not a bit of wrench work and some Croc-ade® (patent pending). Then it kind of makes sense. Just because you take a hit doesn't mean you're out of the race! This is our first Draft effect. Draft is something we have to be somewhat conservative with because of our hero power, and here its tacked on for both flavor and effect. Flavor Text: "Is this one the coolant or the Croc-ade®? Eh, same difference"

Desirable Mechanic - Ah, you know you love a nice piece of eye candy! What I'm talking about that flying machine you pervert! This fine little piece of tail...pipe is our.... Oh who am I kidding, she's hot right? And she's one of the most brilliant mechanics I've ever seen! Its like very motor she touches runs that much faster. Seriously though, this card probably seems super simple, but that's the beauty of it. Its a fine on curve body with upside. What more do you really need. Flavor Text: "She really revs your engine."

The Draft Pack - Every generation has an icon group of winners, except this bunch of losers. The only person they ever beat is each other. I took a big inspiration from the Summit, more popularly known as the Rat Pack, a supergroup of singers including Frank Sinatra (Old Blue Eyes), Dean Martin (the King of Cool), and Sammy Davis Jr. (Mister Show Business). This group was actually the second iteration and would later be the inspiration for the Brat Pack and the Frat Pack, as well as the movie, The Rat Pack. I thought it was a great nod to some classic crooners and a bit of fun at the same time. Lil' Blue Eyes, Baron of Cool and Mister Go Business are the three tokens, and each is that little bit different from the other. I think I found some decent art to bring the concept to life and I hope you have a much fun seeing it as I did coming up with it. Flavor Text "They want to be called the Draft Pack? Like they ever won something, just a bunch of filthy rats if you ask me." - Fizzle Brassbolts, Gnome Team Racing President.

Magne-TNT - What better way to take out a group of tightly packed competitors in their fancy cars than a piece of dynamite and a magnet? Just set it and forget it! I wanted my second AoE to have a very unique feel, and so I came up with Magne-TNT. It seems like some sort of crazy thing someone would invent and use, and it gave me a cool twist. Half single target removal, half AoE. Flavor Text: "Just gotta make sure I throw it past my own...uh oh."

Pit Crew Chief - A pit crew is only as good as its best man, and luckily this guys pretty good. Typically taking a Pit Stop at the right time is important, and this guy knows how to make that call. Making you look out of the race when you're secretly about to make a big comeback. Another small subtheme is what I call Full Drift. Pushing a card to 0 mana. This means you've gained enough advantage from good "driving" that you reap special rewards. This one may not seem like much but on those potentially large tempo turns being able to add a Taunt all is a pretty sweet bonus. Flavor Text: "I said "Stop It" not "Pit Stop" you idiot, keep going!" 

Pit Stop - This is it, one of the biggest moments in any race. Get in and out of the Pit fast and you're sure to be in position to win. Making a good pit stop when you're behind is even more important. You have to refuel the car, but you might even get in a few repairs and maybe even chase the leader out of the pit! Here again, we play into a lot of things in one card. Its probably a touch wordy, a touch cluttered, but its hits those flavor notes and nothing feels out of place to me. Flavor Text: "Can't we just change cars?"

Just A Bit Further - Sometimes you're out. You've taken too many hits and the wheels are coming off. You've lost your mirrors and your bumpers are blown to bits, but you know if you just hold onto the steering wheel and pray maybe there's just enough momentum to get you across the line. Hey, look the shield generators back online, and we've got one more rocket left, and its just a quarter mile to the finish line. WE CAN DO THIS! This card was inspired more by the art than most. Most of the time I found art to fit cards, here I found this art and couldn't help but make it into a card. Ignores Draft is something that we have to use to keep just a few cards from being very dangerous. Here it keeps this large protective buff in check.

Hellbound Speedster - He's on a Highway to Hell, and he's going dooooowwooown. And he's probably taking you with him. No, I felt like I couldn't use the same card for both the music and high cost common theme, so I created this card as an homage to AC/DC. I live in Australia after all. This may not be super obvious, but I felt like it still hit the right note.... I'll stop now. This also reinforces our Dynamic statline and self damage themes and helps give No Magic Zone more of an in-game use and not just a flavor one. Flavor Text: "He's got Season Tickets on a one way ride."

Careless Rocket Jockey - Ah, the most out of place low mana card ever. This card seems beyond weird I'm sure. And honestly, we already have a 1 mana removal in our basic set, so what made me put this one there? Well, that actually part of it. We already have a 1 mana removal, and that's already going to be floating around Arena, we don't need to have a bunch of running around. Plus this has some other interesting things going on that I felt pushed it toward a special slot. Its a minion that is actually meant to be removal, similar to Force of Nature, which ended up being a combo piece until its nerfing. So I felt like in a lot of ways I was paying Homage to a nerfed Force of Nature. I love this card and I think it makes a great epic, especially if you look at Blizzards track record with epics. Flavor Text: "Look at what I can do." - Stuart, former Goblin Rocket Jockey

Rocket Fuel Tech - Our second Full Draft card. One of my original previews and one of the first cards I designed. It hasn't changed a bit since then and its still a great example of flavor and substance. Flavor Text: "This stuff will take you to the moon and back. Oh, you're here for fuel?"

Qualified - Our second Ignore Draft card, and our biggest potential hair puller. Some times you think you're winning the race, but it turns out its just for a chance at the real prize. I tried to cost this in such a way that makes it playable, but not great. And in a way that typically makes the second copy much worse than the first. Back in the classic days I think more games against aggro went past turn 7 but now it seems like they don't. Flavor Text: "I blew him off the track, how did he qualify?"

ToGny Starkwrench - Ah, we all need a good legendary, and who better to help us build amazing machines and sick weapons then warmongering, egotistical, millionaire, playboy, ToGny Starkwrench. Yeah, so he got kidnapped by Goblins in held in the desert, but he's still alive. What do you mean he stopped making weapons? Renewable energy? Well I'm already paying him, so let's just hope he's got something helpful against those goblins. I really am going to make every legendary comic book subthemed so just get used to it. We get to play off ToGny's ingenuity and off his skill. We get both designer and creator in one go. I hope this guy feels cool and fun, that's what I'm aiming for most. Flavor Text: "I told you I don't want to join your super secret boy-band." - ToGny Starkwrench.

Fall Back - Here we are. First card in and its already familiar but different. One of the big aspects I put emphasis on is wide or aoe buffs. But ones not so tied into boosting stats, but more so in adding abilities to my racers. From a flavor standpoint Fall Back, is about letting yourself appear weak at some point in the race to get ahead later. I've represented that by giving all my minions Taunt, as they are now more viable and visible opponents.

Last Ditch Effort - Removal. Its something we all know, but I needed to find a way to make cheap removal that didn't deal damage to the opponent. That led me down many paths and this was just the first. Last Ditch Effort is that point where to stay in the race you just launch off everything. You do whatever it takes, you might even just ram the other driver off the road. And the bigger and badder they are the harder they hit you back.

Caution - Every race still wants to keep its racers safe, so when things get too wild, we pump the breaks. But its not just one person we're trying to keep safe, its everyone, and so we have protection for everyone. This helps reinforce our AoE buff theme, and provides an even more unique take on it by hitting all minions, friendly or otherwise.

Clumsy Mechanic - For every good driver, you have to have a car, and who else but the Mechanics do we have to thank for that. This gal may not be the most graceful, but she's still one hell of a mechanic, and she's not just going to roll over and give up. She represent, along side Last Ditch Effort, part of our self damaging sub theme. This is put into play because those comebacks can't happen if we aren't getting behind in some way. So we might take a bit of damage, but that's ok, we can always make a Pit Stop and get some repairs and get back out there. 

Start Your Engines! - Our last AoE buff, this one hits a nice icon race moment, that point where the race is really about to start. Obviously this is just Charge, in AoE form, but like many of our other effects, we've made it iconically our own.

Speed Freak - This is a minion many people told me didn't make sense. It didn't have any abilities, it was just this weird vanilla minion. But its not just some weird vanilla minion. Its our minion. Its got a statline we'll likely never see on an Neutral minion. Its something different. Its part of our class identity. How? Well, we are already going wide with out buffs. We can pass out Taunt, Divine Shield and Charge. If we spend a bunch of time putting all these abilities on our minions we close off part of our unique design and so by not doing that we instead open up even more unique design. Dynamic statlines. Here we have out first example, the high attack low health minion. But we're getting a full 10 stat points for just 4 mana. Who needs abilities when you've got great stat value? Ok, maybe the distribution isn't great, but that's the point as well. Not every card is great. We have to fill out set and I could make a bunch of awesome cards to show you how many great ideas I have, but I think it takes just as much effort to design mediocre to bad cards. I'll obviously try to avoid downright awful cards, but I think we all know that not every card is, and more so shouldn't be, great.

Tactical Maneuver - So, we are almost definitely going to have to do a few damage spells, we just have to avoid the ability to BURN THE DOME!!!! Oh, sorry, my winner's instinct kicked in for a second there. This card represents our first look at the "comeback" trigger. Being behind on life won't be a super huge thing, because let's be honest, we don't always want to play from behind, but I think its nice to have a few cards that make that feel better. This lets us take and enemy out, and if we got lucky and that was the guy just ahead of us in the race, we eek out that extra advantage.

Crowd's Favor - The crowd is a big factor in any sporting event, and this is my representation of that. Being the guy(s) or girl(s) getting the cheers and really boost performance. Giving the underdog that advantage to beat the big favorite. It can also lead that Fan Favorite to a dominating victory. I decided to go with a very high cost on this to prevent easy abuse of Drifting to lead to major OTK potential.

Eliminate the Competition - Every once in awhile you have to thin the pack. That's when a nice rocket barrage can be a huge help. Taking out a group of weaker drivers let's you get back in the race and go for the win! Plus, every class needs some AoE.

Fan Favorite - Oh, here he is. That big dog we were talking about earlier. He's won more races than you, hell he's won more than anyone in recent memory. He's cool, he's collected, and he's a serious threat to anyone else winning the race. At least that's how I justified a big beefy Taunt minion to myself when I designed this guy. I think the Fonzie style is a great nod as well.

So, our Naxx card has to be a Deathrattle minion, or a spell that functions like or with Deathrattle minions. I chose to take the Deathrattle minion route. I was planning Naxx cards before I realised we weren't showing that set off and this was just a natural idea. Having raided heaps of Naxx in WotLK. I went with a design choice that kind of played on our existing cards. More high attack minions minions, but we have a nice stable follow up.

Grease Monkey - He's obviously not a real monkey, though I did look for a decent piece of art, and couldn't find one I liked. I thought about making him a Beast??? as a joke, but didn't. Obviously this is our super mechanic. He can perform wonders with those machines and spare parts. I went very hard with the Mech theme, but I tried to prevent it from being heavily aggressive, something that didn't work for any other class, and I don't feel like was even really tried.

Undeniable Underdog - I am not sure about the cost on this guy. He has the exact same cost as our big Basic taunt, and of course he lines up horribly at the 7 slot when Dr. Boom is in a set. That said I wanted to try him at that cost just to see.

Control the Action - I really wanted to make this card, and I tried making a completely different card using its art when I found out we weren't doing GvG. I couldn't make it work, but now I have it to show off anyway. I am not sure if the cost is right, but I felt like considering it wasn't something that was always good having such a major reduction was fine.

Reckless Pitbot - This is a card designed around a concept. The big gimmick to push in GvG was the lower health. This led to me having some really wordy cards, as that wording itself is soooo long, like the Joust wording. I still like the card and think its cool. The concept of this thing that's supposed to be in the Pit fixing your car, but get pissed off when it seems the other guys messing you up that it goes while and attacks people.

Raceway Tryant - I wanted to make another version of a large late midgame minion. I came up with this name and design after I found this art, and really I'm disappointed you can see so little of it, because the whole image is amazing. I almost made this into a spell that summons the minions simple because I wanted to show off the full art haha. 

Blessed Reconstruction - I really didn't want to put a Resurrect style card in the game before Priest got theirs in BRM, but I felt like this just oozed with flavor and the art was perfect. Plus mine is intentionally worse than Priests.

For the Team - This is a card I designed specifically with GvG in mind. GvG was a set that really pushed the envelope and I knew a card like this was possible. It notably doesn't deal damage, it functions like Alexstraza, only setting the health. I didn't want it to ever heal them either, so again the wording is long, but I think the card is cool. The amount of damage it deals you means its not really something you can generally kill people with, but it is something that might steal a game or 2 on occasion. Its almost definitely too good, and that is why I stuck it here.

Ultrobot 9000 - Ah, Ultron, you crazy A.I. bastard. The idea here is the super machine. It takes the parts it needs and makes itself stronger and stronger and replicates more things to make itself stronger. I gave this a lower base statline and a clause that the Spare Parts must target the Utrobot, this means you have a 1 in 3 chance of getting a part that you can't replicate, which seems fair considering how fast this can spiral if left unchecked.