This is the Submission Topic, which will be opened Thursday, February 23th, at 20:00 UTC. The Discussion Topic is here.
The following users' entries have advanced to Phase V of the competition. You are not allowed to post in this topic unless you are one of the users listed below. However, you are still perfectly allowed to participate in the discussion topic. =)
PHASE V: League of Explorers and Whispers of the Old Gods
Congratulations on being a semi-finalist! With positively received Blackrock Mountain and Grand Tournament sets, you've proven that your class's concept and mechanics have room for expansion. Now, there's only one last thing to do: narrow down the best of the best. For this phase, you'll be giving your class League of Explorers and Whispers of the Old Gods cards. Here are the requirements for your Class Creation Competition Phase V Entry:
CLASS, HERO, AND HERO POWER There are just a few elements of your class that you will repeat from your Phase I entry, to remind us who and what we're dealing with. If you'd like to repeat anything from your class's introductory explanation, including its flavor or whatever you believe makes it interesting or unique mechanically, that's fine, but try to keep it brief.
EXAMPLE LOE & WOTOG CARDS We do not want to see your Class's entire LoE and WotOG Sets out in the open.
You are allowed up to four (4) example cards out in the open. You may, below these cards, give brief explanations of them, why you decided to showcase them, how they exemplify what makes your class unique, and so on.
For this phase, you should have 2 Common cards and 1 Rare card with the League of Explorers watermark. These may not have C'Thun synergy, tri-class cards, or other mechanics that did not exist until later expansions.
You should also have 3 Common cards, 3 Rare cards, 2 Epic cards, and 1 Legendary minion with the Whispers of the Old Gods watermark. These may not have tri-class cards or other mechanics that did not exist until later expansions.
If your example cards produce any unique token cards, those must be put behind a spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.).
REMAINING LOE & WOTOG CARDS The remaining eight (8) cards of your class's LoE and WotOG Sets must be presented behind a Spoiler Block (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.). These cards must obey the same rules are your examples cards with regards to expansion watermarks, rarity gems, and what keywords you may not use.
BASIC, CLASSIC, BRM, and TGT SETS You should include your completed Basic, Classic, BRM, and TGT Sets from Phases II-IV behind a Spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.) either before or after your Phase V material. It is fine if these cards have undergone some minor modification, but they must still adhere to all of their original Phase requirements.
CHALLENGES!
Before getting to the challenges, note that the time limit for Phase V is itself a challenge. The Submission Topic will only be open for one week, until next Thursday, March 2nd, so don't be caught off-guard!
Secrets are one of my favorite mechanics in the game, so much so that both of my own custom classes used them extensively. For this challenge, one of your example cards must use them as well.
If your class uses Secrets already, you're in luck! Just showcase a new one of those or a secret synergy card, and you're good to go. If your class doesn't already use Secrets, though, not to worry! You do not have to add Secrets to your class now if they never had any before, because that would be terrifying. No, your card merely needs to include the Secret keyword.
The easiest way to do this is to create a card that functions as anti-Secret tech, such as Flare or Eater of Secrets. Alternatively, if appropriate for your class, you could have a card that produces Secrets. I will also accept cards that produce specific Secrets by name, and in that case your card would not need to actually include the Secret keyword in its card text.
Fun background: I was actually initially brought on as a moderator to run our very first Class Creation Competition. The competition miraculously concluded with a tie! The Merchant and the Twilight's Hammer shared the title of our first Class Creation Competition Champions, and if you want to be the next Champion, it pays to pay homage to the Champions that came before.
For this challenge, you can select one of two options: 1) Take inspiration from the Merchant and showcase a card that produces or interacts with The Coin. I may also be willing to accept minor original variations like Gallywix's Coin or Counterfeit Coin. Given the League of Explorer's theme around treasure, this should be easy. 2) Take inspiration from the Twilight's Hammer and showcase a card that increases the cost of your opponent's card(s). This cost increase may be temporary or permanent, affect all cards or only some, it's up to you! Given the Whispers of the Old Gods themes around fear, despair, and insanity, this should be easy.
Sometimes, old cards come back in ways that the developers did not anticipate. As a designer you need to be cognizant of the fact that not everything you design will be used as you intend it to be, and players will often adopt cards and strategies that you didn't expect.
Since Phase V is so short, I thought I'd help you out here a bit and just pick your fifth example card for you. We mods gave up our Wild Cards for Phase IV, so this is a fair trade I think, no?
Okay, I'm not just going to pick something willy nilly. You can have a say. Choose three cards from your class's Basic, Classic, BRM, or TGT sets, and I'll pick one of them to add to your example cards in the semi-finalist poll. However, they may not be cards that you have used as example cards before! You may indicate your three choices in one of two ways: You may either PM them to me, or you may include all three out in the open in your submission topic post. I will know them because they'll be the ones that aren't LoE or WotOG cards, obviously. Also, please do not indicate any order of preference to me.
You'll find out which one I picked when the poll goes up. You trust me, right? ^_~
OTHER STUFF
These are just the General Rules, Competition Schedule and Process, Rewards, and Archives. You probably already went through them during Phase I. I still want to include them here, but I'm just going to put them all behind one big spoiler. Any change to them since Phase I has been noted above.
GENERAL RULES
Even if you're already a veteran of our competitions here on the Fan Creation Forum, you should read the general rules before you get started. This competition does introduce new rules, like image limitations and formatting requirements.
* The Submission Topic is for submissions only. If you want to discuss your entry, another entry, ask questions about the competition rules or process, or anything else, you can find a link to the Discussion Topic at the top of this thread. Plenty of folks there will be happy to help you out. * You are allowed only one submission, consisting of the materials specified by each competition phase. These materials must, of course, be of your own creation. If you'd like, you may collaborate with another user on a single submission, but this must be specified during Phase I. * You may make only minor edits to your entry once you have submitted it. Minor changes are things like correcting typos or making balance changes that do not alter the spirit of your entry as determined by we the moderators. If you want to make any changes and have any doubts as to their legality, ask us first. * You may not delete any posts you make in this topic. No, not even if you post here by mistake or accidentally double-post or something. Deleted posts screw with the system we use to help us calculate up-vote scores, so don't do that. If you to post here by mistake or accidentally double-post or something, simply edit your post to just say "REMOVED" and leave it at that. * You may not create your own topics on this forum for competition-related material. If everybody goes off and creates their own topics for specific discussion of their entries, this board will be flooded with nothing but, and so competition material must remain restricted to official competition topics. If you want to enter the competition with a class that you already have a topic about on this forum, then your topic will be locked in the interest of fairness to the other competitors. Not deleted, just locked, and it can be unlocked after your entry gets knocked out of the competition. You also may not reference or link to your topic in official competition topics.
* You must host your card somewhere other than Hearthcards. We encourage you to create your entry material using Hearthcards.net, but please remember that, although HearthCards is awesome, it has a limited server space and will purge cards after a few days, and nobody wants your cards disappearing part-way through the competition. After you create it, save and upload it to Imgur, Photobucket, or some other similar site. We understand that there are some Hearthcards memberships that will allow you to save your card there for longer (and you should totally get one of those just for general fan creation purposes, by the way), but we don't know who has those memberships and we can't tell from the URLs. * You may not submit any Gold cards or animated cards, nor may you include any images in your post other than the requested submission materials, like banners or borders. We get it, everybody wants their entry to stand out, but our pages are going to be heavy enough as it is without everybody heading their submissions with animated banners. * You must insert your images into your post using this icon on the bar above the post text editor: . Just click that button and put in the URL of your image. We realize that it's also possible to upload and attach images to your post. Don't do that, though. We know from experience that, because those images are much smaller and require more work to view, entries that enter their images that way just don't do as well, so this is for your own good. * Format your entry concisely by sizing your cards appropriately and placing them beside one another rather than in a column or completely separate. The first example below is acceptable while the second is not. Entries that unnecessarily inflate the size of the submission topic and make it more difficult to get through will be disqualified. Adjust cards to a width of 250, and you should be able to get three in a row.
Hey, look! Some cards!
Soul of the Forest: Look at how nice this is. Hammer of Twilight: All neat, organized, and concise. Twilight Summoner: What a great post.
Wait, what are you doing?
Seriously, please don't.
This is painful. Why are you doing this?
You are a monster.
* "Troll" entries will be disqualified. Fun and even humorous entries are perfectly allowed (this is Hearthstone after all), but if you're worried that your entry may be misinterpreted as a troll entry, contact a moderator before you submit.
Finally, know that manipulating votes in any way is strictly forbidden. Any violators will receive an official warning, and will be banned from this and all future HearthPwn Card Design Competitions.
COMPETITION SCHEDULE AND PROCESS
How long do you have to work on your submission? How will advancement to Phase II of the competition be determined? The answers to these questions and more can be found below...
PHASE V: League of Explorers + Whispers of the Old Gods Preview: 22/February - 23/February Submission: 23/February - 2/March Poll: 2/March - 3/March
PHASE VI: One Night in Karazhan + Mean Streets of Gadgetzan Submission: 3/March - 14/March Poll: 14/March - 17/March
NOTE: All stages of the competition begin and end at 20:00 UTC. ALSO NOTE: I know that a couple of these submissions windows might see tight, especially because the secret challenges make it difficult to plan ahead. That being the case, this timetable is subject to change at my discretion, even after the competition begins, if it seems like too many folks are struggling.
* During Preview stages, both a Submission Topic and a Discussion Topic will go up, but the Submission Topic will be locked until the end of the Preview stage. The Submission Topic will reveal the Phase's unique challenges, so take this time to discuss them, ask for clarifications, and so on. * During Submission stages, Submission Topics will be unlocked and (remaining) participants may submit their entries. During Phases I-II, you may also use this time to go ahead and up-vote submissions that you like. * During Up-Voting stages for Phases I-II, Submission Topics will be locked. Use this time to up-vote submissions that you like. Note that advancement during these Phases depends entirely on up-votes. * During Polling stages for Phases III-VI, Submission Topics will be locked, and all eligible remaining participants will have their submission material included in a separate Poll Topic to determine advancement. Phases III-IV include two Poll Topics because I anticipate we will have enough participants remaining that we will not be able to fit everybody in one Poll Topic. Note that up-votes in the Submission Topics are irrelevant to advancement during these Phases.
How will eliminations be done, and how many competitors will advance from each phase to the next?
I'm glad you asked! We will be taking a equal proportion of competitors from each Phase of the competition to the next, and we will be ending with exactly four finalists. That being the case and their being five total eliminations before the final round, that proportion can be found by solving for x: [# of valid Phase I entries] * x^5 = 4 The higher the number of valid Phase I entries, the lower that proportion becomes. Just so you have an idea, the proportion hits 50% when we hit 128 entries, which is likely, but it only hits 33.3% when we hit 972 entries, which is less likely.
As mentioned above, advancement to Phases II and III will be determined by up-votes only. However, these up-votes are weighted using a formula identical to the process used by our Weekly Card Design Competitions: (ab) / (c) = x (Where a is the total number of up-votes that your submission received, b is the total number of valid submissions on the same page as your submission, c is the total number of up-votes on valid submissions on the same page as your submission, and x is your submission's final weighted up-vote score.) Why bother with this formula rather than just taking each submissions up-votes directly? Because earlier pages simply get a lot more views that later pages do, and we do not want rushed, early submissions to have an advantage over later submissions that took more time to get their entries just right. The formula basically measures which submissions stood out the most, with the necessary assumption that each page is about equal in overall submission quality. The bottom line is that, although entries on the earlier pages of the Submission Topic are much more visible and thus receive many more up-votes than entries on later pages, you don't actually have to rush to get your entry in as soon as possible, because the up-votes end up being weighted by what page your entry ends up on in order to determine its final score.
As mentioned above, advancement to Phases IV, V, and VI will be determined by polls. These polls will be multi-choice, meaning that voters can vote for every entry that they like. Whenever we have to split a Phase's poll into two to make it more manageable for voters, advancement will be determined by looking at each class's final percentage scores, not by looking at the direct number of votes they received, since we can't guarantee that the same number of voters will vote each day. Poll results will always be hidden until the poll has concluded, and for polls split in two, this does also mean that the results of the first poll will not be revealed until the second poll has concluded as well.
The winner of Phase VI, and thus the entire competition, will be determined by a poll much like the ones before, except that it will be single-choice, requiring voters to pick their single favorite class, and will have a much longer polling phase than usual to give us plenty of opportunity for promotion and such.
In the event of a tie during Phases I-IV for the last possible advancing position, all entries involved in the tie will be allowed to advance; the more the merrier, I say. We will absolutely not have more than four finalists, however, and so in the event of a tie during Phase V, the three Fan Creation Forum moderators (that is, myself, ShadowsOfSense, and PupleMD) will vote to break the tie. In the event of a tie during Phase VI to determine the competition's winner, the title will simply be shared unless both finalists request and agree to a tie-breaking round.
But wait, there's more! During Phases I-IV of the Competition, each Fan Creation Forum moderator (that is, myself, ShadowsOfSense, and PupleMD) will have a Wild Card, which we may (though are not required to) use to advance to the next Phase any one entry that we feel was initially overlooked or under-appreciated, regardless of its performance with voters. No entry may be awarded a Wild Card more than once, and it should also go without saying that, while some moderators are allowed to participate in the competitions, they are never allowed to benefit from Wild Cards. Wild Cards are our way of spicing things up a bit, but please don't ask to be given one or be upset if you aren't given one. These are just supposed to be fun.
Are you curious what will be required for future phases of the competition? The three challenges will remain a secret, but I'm happy to tell you the general submission requirements.
PHASE VI: One Night in Karazhan and Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
Here we are, finalists! In the last phase of our competition, you'll be giving us your class's One Night in Karazhan and Mean Streets of Gadgetzan sets, as well as constructing your own custom Finale Topics:
FINALE TOPIC There will be no Submission Topic for the competition Finale. Instead, you will create your own Finalist Topics. All that you have to do is create a normal topic here on the Fan Creation Forum and title it as such: [Class Competition Finalist] TURTLE (Replace TURTLE with your own class's name, of course.) Then, bring it to our attention, and we'll link to it from this topic. That's it. How you format and present your final product is entirely up to you. You've put in a lot of work to come this far, so you've earned the right to show us your completed original Class however you think is best.
ONIK & MSOG CARDS In addition to including the required material from all previous phases, you must add the following:
2 Common cards and 1 Rare card with the One Night in Karazhan watermark. These may not have tri-class cards, or other mechanics that did not exist until later expansions.
3 Common cards, 3 Rare cards, 2 Epic cards, and 1 Legendary minion with the Mean Streets of Gadgetzan watermark.
Your class must belong to a crime family, but it is up to you to determine how you want to go about that. You may have it join one of the existing crime families (Grimy Goons, Kabal, or Jade Lotus), or you may invent an entirely new crime family, with its own unique mechanical gimmick(s) and comprised of your class and two other classes from any of our current or previous Class Creation Competition finalists (so, in addition to your three fellow finalists, that includes previous winners the Bard, Merchant, and Twilight's Hammer, as well as previous finalists the Agent, Nightmare, Pokemon Trainer, Demon Hunter, and Lich); you would then need to create 3 tri-class cards for this new crime family (1 Common minion, 1 Rare minion, and 1 Legendary minion) , and like the existing crime families, your family's Rare minion should just have the card text "Battlecry: Discover a ______, ______, or ______ card.". To be clear, you would not need to make any class-specific cards for the other two classes you select to be in your class's crime family if you choose to go that route.
EXAMPLE CARDS These don't need to be part of your Finale Topic, but by the end of the Submission Phase, you should send me 8 example cards from your completed collection, preferably via PM, to be included in the Final Poll Topic. The Final Poll topic will look very similar to this one from our first CCC, except that no token cards will be included.
REWARDS
In addition to truly epic bragging rights, ALL finalists will receive a special Forum Title and Avatar Border, similar to those given to winners of our forum's Weekly Card Design Competitions, as shown below:
Furthermore, the winning contestant will have a Season 5 competition themed around their winning class!
ARCHIVES
Want to see how things went during our first two Class Creation Competitions? Want to see what the winners and other finalists did during each phase? Then check out the links below!
Note, that some competition rules, especially formatting rules, may have been different for past competition.
Long ago King Nafaron and his followers were banished to the Firelands. In the Firelands King Nafaron swore allegiance to Ragnaros. In return the Firelord gave them the power to Wield the Flame. But such power does not come without a price. In the depths of the Firelands they deformed and one by one they became monsters and beasts.
Example Cards:
Cards for Asylum's Choice:
Rest of LOE and WOTOG:
LOE:
WOTOG:
BrM and TGT:
BrM:
* Nerfed Dragons for Arms. It used to be able to deal damage to the enemy hero as well, but it would have been too powerful with Malygos.
Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to Mirage Raceway. Prepare yourself for a day of fast and furious action. NOW, RACERS START!! YOUR!! ENGINES!!!!
Hero & Power
Class and Keyword Explanation.
So, here we have it, The Racer. Madcap, maniacal, motor-loving madmen, and women, who can't get enough of putting their engineering and driving skills to the test. The inspiration for all of this was Mario Kart, or any sort of game in that genre, on top of all the good time I had in Vanilla WoW hanging out watching those weird scripted races while I farmed cooking and skinning mats. I wanted to take something that isn't even part of WoW anymore, and merge it with one of the other things I've had a blast playing with my friends, and that led me to the racer. I was never a huge Racing fan otherwise, but my step-dad was, and for about 10 years my brother worked for Lowe's, and so I just kind of off-handedly learned a bunch of racing terms.
Chase is a host body for our Keyword, Draft. Draft is a very powerful and dynamic mechanic, however it has takeaways. Draft only affects cards in you hand, never your deck. It triggers are part of the casting of the spell, like Overload, and only lasts until the end of your turn. Its not Emperor Thaurissan. You can't slowly snowball down the cost of very card. You have to set up turns and make the most of it. Still when I thought of it I initially dismissed. I can't let my class just lower the cost of its cards can I? Combo decks are already a thing, and if I just give my class the ability to reduce the cost of its cards, won't it just be the best combo class? Well, what if we designed a class around that, away from combo pieces and OP interactions, and instead we focus on tempo. Right now tempo is a huge thing in HS. Going first is a huge factor in many games and having a good curve and not floating mana is a big key to not only winning games, but even being able to participate. This is what I wanted to look at. What if I could turn those turns where you just hero power into part of a larger tempo swing? The ability to take off a turn or 2 or even play a bit off curve because of what you're dealt, but still have potential to get back in the game. That's what Draft is about to me. coming from behind and turning the game back around in your favor.
You'll notice as you look through my cards that Draft doesn't appear on that many cards. Far fewer times actually than most other classes keyword, but there's a pretty big difference in my class than most, and that's in the fact that the keyword is built into my hero power, and something as powerful as massive hand discounts can't just be put on every card. In fact, you'll also notice this keyword shows up toward the high end of the curve, that's because its not about having an explosive early game. We don't need to dump our whole hand on turn 2-3 through perfect Drafting. In fact that would just as easily lead to issue as throwing in tons of face damage and card draw. Instead Draft appears on slower later cards because it allows you to fit in extra plays on those later turns. Sneaking in 1 or 2 drops along side your midgame plays to regain some tempo. I hope this helped you understand some of the design restrictions and choices I've had to make, as well as my philosophy and approach to the class moving forward.
Challenge and Preview choices.
"Never trust anyone with free "How'd you know it information. It can cost you your was my Birthday?" life" - Chief Engineer Bligewhizzle
"I hope I can still get around "He's one bug you wouldn't that well when I'm that age." want to hit your windshield"
Asylums Preview choice
"...and sweet victory" "It once blasted a driver all "I hate spiders, man." the way to Northrend"
Tokens
Droplet of Y'Shaarj explanation
This card is generated by God's Speed when you don't have a 10-Drop left in your deck, similar to Worthless Imp which is created by Sense Demons.
Preview Explanation
Unsavory Guide - We all know this guy. He's got a lot to say but nothing of importance. He says he's buying the drinks until the bill comes. He's looking for something for free. That's what this guy is about. He's definitely knows where the treasure is, but he's not sticking his neck out for it. In fact he'll avoid any dangerous situation he can. He'd rather lie his way through life, and pick the corpses. He's the first guy on N'Zoth's list. Old Gods are a big part of my ideas for Bringing big Control back to Racer. We did some midrange and control stuff, flirted with Aggro, and we've got a few more aggro tools here, but the big shining things are right here with N'Zoth and Y'Shaarj.
Surprise Inspection - Some cards need to do something special. This is one of those cards. It gives up a bit of play around Secrets, while also being the first ever card designed to help counter a few popular combo pieces. Being able to punish cards like Shadowstep, Far Sight, Emperor Thaurissan, Shadowcaster, or Nerubian Prophet is a cool interaction. As is saving yourself from Loatheb or Freezing Trap that has your Y'Shaarj locked up, just don't play this in the middle of a big Draft turn.
God's Speed - Every Old God is better when you can actually draw it, and they are also all even more fun when you can combo them together. This not only makes playing multiple Old Gods a cool concept, but an actual strategy. If you happen to run out though you can still pull the "powerful" Droplet of Y'Shaarj to keep your discounts flowing.
Klaxxi Inciter - Y'Shaarj, is the only Old God that didn't have tied to him. Having no major synergy to anything left him feeling gimmicky, as even if decks that could ramp him out and had lots of good targets, you still have weak minions and misses. But no longer. Now we not only have a nice Taunt, but a reason to build around Y'Shaarj. The Klaxxi worshipped Y'Shaarj and even turned their backs on the players that helped them defeat their psychotic Empress to join Garrosh once he recovered the Heart of Y'Shaarj.
Bitter Rivalry - This is a card that would seem completely over powered in a different class. However, the Racer is fine tuned to win through minions. Meaning, while this is a nice functional AoE to keep yourself from taking a bunch of face damage, you can't simply lock someone out for a crazy combo win. You just don't have those tools. So we get to put forth a massively powerful effect on the back of our design philosophy.
The Bigger One - Sometimes you have to blow them up so hard they can't ever come back. That's what we are going for here. Obviously this doesn't really do much against Legendaries, and if the second copy has been played or is in hand you aren't going to get it, but you've got a nice chance at getting some overall value out of this. There are a few cool interactions as well though, like potentially countering an opposing Thoughtsteal or Entomb, and being able to counter Gang Up, or punish a Faceless Manipulator.
Dr. Autto, Octo-Engineer - Sometimes you just have to kill all the spiders. Dr. Autto is all about crushing those bugs and showing his engineering prowess. Octo-bots can get out of control pretty quickly, allowing you to swarm your opponent or built a giant Octo-bot.
LOE & WotOG
LoE
Explanation
Loot-a-rang - So here we have it, part card draw, part ramp tool. Leading into Old Gods I knew we needed something to really open up the main synergy I wanted to push, Y'Shaarj. The only semi-successful decks have to be able to cheat this guy out, and this allows up to Draft to say in the game while generating ramp to get our end game going early. In a pinch it draws a card.
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.
WotOG
Tokens
Explanation
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. I have added a special card to get when you don't have a 10 drop in your deck. It allows the card to have function but the generated card isn't good intentionally.
Holy Skydiver - This started out as a bit of a nod to Hellbound Speedster, but changed a bit. I wanted a good goblin art for them to be parallels but I found the most perfect Gnome art so I had to use it. It still shows my unique take on the Madness of the Old Gods twisting these crazy speed freaks and tech junkies into more sane versions of themselves. Ones that are more careful and less deadly. I just think that's a fun unique concept.
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 - This card is meant to be another one of our goofy twists. 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.
Surprise Inspection - Ok, round 2 of trying to find the right Secret card. So here we have it. Race day, you think you're about to get one over on every, but nope, inspection time. All your secrets are revealed, and all your tricks to get ahead are gone. The Secret side doesn't destroy obviously, it only informs and temporary stops, but that gives you play for what you need it for. The second effect is actually the more interesting one to me. The secondary effect returns cards to their original cost, so its a bit of a counter to Emperor Thaurissan, while also hitting cards like Far Sight,Shadowstep, Unstable Portal, or even a 9 or 10 drop trapped in your hand by Freezing Trap. This does not reset giants, as they have dynamic costs and will always adjust as necessary to the conditions.
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'm actually glad I got to bring this back. I think its a cool fun style of card for an aggro style of Racer. Of course there is some potential you could run 1 copy in any deck, just to IDK crazy reasons, but regardless I thought it was a fun and cool concept, to kind of do the All-in thing. Plus, you know you love that art.
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.
Other Sets - Basic, Classic, Naxx, GvG, BRM, TGT (+ full explanations)
BRM and TGT
BRM
TGT
Token and Justicar Trueheart Hero Power
Expansion Explanations
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.
Naxx and GvG
Naxx
Explanation
Undead Cavalier - 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.
GvG
Explanation
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. Luckily Piloted Shredder was so ubiquitous.
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. 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. I think you have to test the boundary on occasion and this is my biggest card that does that.
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 bit of extra bonus since you have other buffs beyond the Spare Parts and it obviously generates more parts for itself, well hopefully, as 1/3 spare parts isn't castable on this guy. Luckily we also have Grease Monkey to keep us in Spare Parts.
Classic Set
Tokens
Classic Explanations
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.
Basic Set
Basic Explanations
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.
Frustrated with the limitations of traditional alchemy, Wulfrum abandoned his training in Stormwind and begin his own experiments. He joined the scourge as an acolyte to gain access to corpses, diseases, and many other ingrediants that would have disgusted his old teacher. His affiliation with the scourge soon became a lot more permanent after one of his experiments resulted in his death. He was resurrected to serve once more in the armies of the Lich King. Now with all the time in the world, Wulfrum decided to see just how far he could go with alchemy. A terrifying concept to those who have seen his vile work and fear there's no line he wont cross.
The class cards of Alchemist have 6 features, which are:
1. Alchemy Potions
Here in the spoiler are the Alchemy Potion related cards of Alchemist class:
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.
Three basic Alchemy Potions (NONCOLLECTABLE TOKENS):
Expansion and adventure cards related to Alchemy Potions:
Upgraded Hero Power created by Trueheart:
NOTE: This creates basic Alchemy Potions only (see Totemic Slam)
Basic and Classic cards related to Alchemy Potions:
P.S. Mallory the Maniacal was the Legendary Challenge card from Phase II
2. Deck Order
Here in the spoiler are the deck order related cards of Alchemist class:
Although there was one deck order related card in the classic set of Alchemist class, it is not until the TGT expansion does it become one of the main features of the class. There are mainly two kinds of cards in this section: cards that allows you to know or change the order of your deck, and cards that benefit from your knowledge of which card you'll draw in future. NOTE: According to Ben Brode at twitter, when you shuffle a card into your deck, the entire deck gets shuffled.
Expansion and adventure cards related to deck order:
Basic and Classic cards related to deck order:
P.S. Fortuneteller was the Pokemon Challenge card from Phase II
3. Fatigue
Here in the spoiler are the card draws and Fatigue related cards of Alchemist class:
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. But don't worry - there will be cards in the Classic set and further expansions that benefit from your reaching fatigue. By the way, since Alchemist has a huge amount of card draws, I ensure this class will have no access to any OTK combos at all, so that drawing so many cards wouldn't make the class as 'fun and interactive' as the pre-nerf Patron Warrior.
Expansion and adventure cards related to card draws and Fatigue:
Basic and Classic cards related to card draws and Fatigue:
4. Debuff
Here in the spoiler are the debuff related cards of Alchemist class:
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. 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.
Expansion and adventure cards related to debuff:
Basic and Classic cards related to debuff:
5. Swap
Here in the spoiler are the swap related cards in the Alchemist class:
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.
Expansion and adventure cards related to swap:
Basic and Classic cards related to swap:
6. Mana
Here in the spoiler are the Mana related cards in the Alchemist class:
In the part of Alchemy Potions, you may have noticed that Mana Potion is the weakest basic Alchemy Potion. This is because it synergizes with the following part: Mana Crystal synergy cards. In this part, there are cards that provide you with extra Mana Crystals, and there are also cards that benefit from gaining more Mana Crystals.
Expansion and adventure cards related to Mana:
Basic and Classic cards related to Mana:
Further Materials
Synergies:
1. Faceless Deceiver + Stone of Purification/Renegade Doppelganger
While Faceless Deceiver's stats drops as it duplicates itself, Stone of Purification and Renegade Doppelganger can restore them to full stats. Faceless Deceiver + Coins (from Alchemist's Cheque) + Stone of Purification gives you a strong board at turn 5 or 6.
2. Faceless Deceiver + Alchemist's Cheque
The synergy between these two cards is recursive. Coins you receive from Alchemist's Cheque triggers Faceless Deceiver's effect, and the duplicated Faceless Deceivers are also perfect target of Alchemist's Cheque.
3. Mana Potion/The Coin + Crystal Powder/Living Crystal
If you play Living Crystal or Crystal Powder with ordinary Mana Crystals, the side effect is to destroy those Mana Crystals. But if the cost is paid via instant Mana Crystals you gain from The Coin or Mana Potion, the side effect vanishes at once.
4. Decrepify/Fetter + Renegade Doppelganger
The AOE effects of Alchemist class are often expressed in a debuff way, and they sometimes affect friendly minions too. Renegade Doppelganger is just designed for these circumstances.
Synergies in previous expansions:
1. Fortuneteller + Wizard of the East/Unstable Ritual
Both Wizard of the East and Unstable Ritual care about which card is the top card of your deck - with different cards topdecked, you should use them on different targets. Fortuneteller gives you a chance to decide the order of your deck, which helps you decide the outcome of those effects.
Novice Apothecary seems to be a weak minion at first glance, comparing with Boneguard Lieutenant or Tiny Knight of Evil. If you also hold this opinion, I recommend you try its synergy with Darkmoon Cabalist and Distillation (in arena, maybe).
3. Whirling Ash + Unstable Ritual
Unstable Ritual is a card designed for the situation when you know the order of your deck. But what if I have no idea what's on top of my deck? Don't worry. With Whirling Ash on board, you can play Unstable Ritual on your own face and either of the outcomes becomes acceptable.
Since Explosive Trap benefits from spell damage, it will also be the case for Lightning Potion. With the help of Fortuneteller, you can now decide when to draw those Lightning Potions - and if you draw it via Azure Drake's battlecry, it will deal 2 damage to all enemy minions.
5. Midas Touch + Darkmoon Cabalist/Distillation
Notice that the Alchemy Potions all have an extra 'draw a card' effect apart from their own functions. So when you play Darkmoon Cabalist or Distillation after Midas Touch, you'll both trigger the Alchemy Potions AND get some legendary minions.
Only very few minions in the current Hearthstone have an attack of 8 or more. So when you play Fetter, minions' attack is often reduced to 0. Then, if you play Twisted Fane and choose a friendly minion, all minions but the one you choose will be destroyed. You can also play Doomsayer after Fetter, just like the Frost Nova + Doomsayer combo played in freeze mage.
7. Careless Chemist + Any Card Draw + Soul Kitchen
While summoning dozens of 5/5 Demons could create a very strong board, the requirement of Soul Kitchen's effect to trigger is that your deck must be empty. Since it takes quite many turns to draw all cards from your deck, Careless Chemist offers you another choice to reach Fatigue faster.
8. Grand Apothecary Putress + Distillation
As I've mentioned above, Distillation not only triggers the main effect of Alchemy Potions but also lets you draw 3 extra cards (due to the 'draw a card' effect on Alchemy Potions). Thus, when you have Grand Apothecary Putress on board, Distillation will draw altogether 6 cards and therefore grants you 6 mana crystals. This 10 mana combo is absolutely game-changing. (By the way, I may nerf Grand Apothecary Putress by increasing its cost in future expansions. But consider how broken those meta decks are nowadays... I feel that such a 10 mana combo is quite acceptable comparing with them...)
Nerf Log:
The cost of Stone of Purification is now increased from 2 mana to 3 mana. This is mainly due to its incredibly strong synergy with Faceless Deceiver.
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, shown in the tooltip.
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. Also note that other classes are always considered to be in Human form, so they can always use cards they acquire with the Human keyword.
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
(Explanations in Spoilers)
Ancient Sword - The idea here is that you find an Ancient Sword in some ruins, and it breaks in half on the first swing. In terms of gameplay, it gives you a big hit followed by a smaller hit. It's less susceptible to weapon removal, but also less useful with weapon buffs. It combos well with my Grizzled Weaponmaster from last set, which swaps a weapon's attack and durability then adds 1 Attack. With that combo, you can turn this into effectively a 2/5 weapon.
Fur-st Mate - Whispers of the Old Gods was when the Pirate archetype really took off. Warrior and Rogue both got Pirate support. As another weapon class with weapon synergy cards, I think Worgen should get the same treatment. While Bloodsail Cultist gives more damage over time, Fur-st Mate gives you burst damage from your weapon, useful either for aggro or taking down something big in a Control deck. This effect does not stack if you play more than one in a turn, so don't get any funny ideas!
Hark Spymaster - One of the problems with Kezan Mystic and Eater of Secrets is that they suck if you aren't playing against a Secret class. I tried to help solve that problem with this card. With this in your deck, you always have a target for these, no matter your opponent, making including them a safer choice.
Swarthy Mercenary - Howe Hark hired an unsavory mercenary on his adventures with the League of Explorers. This Trogg warrior is a vicious fighter who hates when your enemies cast spells, but your allies also hate him, so it's a tossup. Gameplay-wise, you would use this in a control deck where you don't need to play many minions of your own. If you can control the board with this out, you can force your opponent into playing a spell inefficiently to remove it.
Asylum's Choice:
League of Explorers:
Whispers of the Old Gods:
Blackrock Mountain:
The Grand Tournament:
Justicar Trueheart Hero Power:
Expert Set:
Basic Set:
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.
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.
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.
Icy Shortsword - 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.
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.
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.
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 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. Cards like Temporal Barrier, Erode, Sand Scourer, and Hindsight allows the Chronomancer to attack enemies and prevent or repair damaged without opening the door to some truly broken combos.
Without a doubt, WotOG was the set I was most looking forward to. Between it and LoE, it opened the path for some real crazy and thematic cards. Ultimately, I had to pull myself back from going too crazy. After all, I want the class to have some semblance of balance! Both sets improve the class' draw power, unique removal tools, and solidify their mastery over Fatigue! Plus I finally made a big Legendary! I hope you enjoy it, and I will continue to prepare the final sets, regardless of how well the Chronomancer places this round!
Example Cards
Prolong Indefinitely -"Are you really sure you wish to live forever? Because the crypt already sealed shut behind you." Powerful single target removal. Very strong early game against 4 mana 7/7s or big ugly taunts. Surprisingly weak against a late game minion, many of whom cost 10 or close to it. This is a spell you don't want to save for Ysera or Ragnaros. Instead, use it on a mid-game minion that your opponent certainly wouldn't want to spend 10 on, like Brann or Sylvanas.
Fatesplitter -Originally there was only one emperor of Ahn'Qiraj. Then this guy was like, "We can do better." C'Thun wants more worshipers. Fatesplitter helps you make more. It's fun to use cards from other classes, especially when they aren't even in Standard! This minion is a deathrattle to make it harder (but not impossible) to Duplicate itself.
End Times - "You tried so hard. You got so far. But in The End, it doesn't even matter." I wanted this to be an example just because of the flavor text. Seriously. End Times is a clever way to ramp up your opponenet's Fatigue while clearing the board. It synergizes very well with Time Keeper from TGT, Ageless Terror from WotOG, and the legendary below.
Murozond - He went mad because you didn't like his previous self's flavor text. This guy ends games. With the above mentioned Fatigue generators, you can force your opponent out faster. Generating Fatigue cards is a unique theme for the Chronomancer, and Murozond is the win condition. Use cards from earlier sets like Hindsight and Temporal Barrier to endure Murozond's power and outlast your opponent!
Asylum's Picks!
Paradox - Minions summoned by this spell always have a wicked mustache. Even Harvest Golem. Timewalker's Oath - "To guard the timelines. To protect both dragons and mortals. To stop using the word "mortal" as a derogatory term." Divergence -"Perhaps in another timeline you are safe. Free. But here, now, you are mine."
Infinite Potential -Kairoz had this great plan to make an infinite, unstoppable army. Too bad Garrosh went face again. Timewalker Sentry -"We need everyone available to preserve history! Even you! And you when you were a kid!" - Timewalker Recruiter Infinite Captain -Not really infinite, no. They'll run out of dragons eventually...
Inevitability -Inevitably this card will wind up at the bottom of your deck. End Times -"You tried so hard. You got so far. But in The End, it doesn't even matter." Ageless Terror -He still acts like a teenager. It's a little sad.
Expunge -The Twilight's Hammer carry out their gods' orders without hesitation. Even when those orders are "Don't Exist." Fatesplitter -Originally there was only one emperor of Ahn'Qiraj. Then this guy was like, "We can do better." Murozond -He went mad because you didn't like his previous self's flavor text.
Prolong Indefinitely - "Are you really sure you wish to live forever? Because the crypt already sealed shut behind you." Timewalker Historian - She doesn't like field work. Honestly, she belongs in a museum. Living Glyphs - These mysterious runes form ancient spells. They also form rude words when archaeologists aren't looking.
Previous Sets
The Grand Tournament
Justicar - Upgraded Hero Power
Timewalker's Oath -"To guard the timelines. To protect both dragons and mortals. To stop using the word "mortal" as a derogatory term." Time Keeper -She's supposed to watch the clock during jousting matches, but she gets distracted by all the strong, muscular contestants. Bronze Drake -He's a big drake now!
Timewalker Valiant - He's not actually summoning time-displaced copies of himself. He just has a lot of brothers. Time-Lost Proto-Drake -This rare and beautiful beast flies the treacherous Storm Peaks. Or it would if it weren't for adventurers trying to tame and mount it. Destined Champion -Despite his memory loss, Lo'Gosh knew he was meant for more than the gladiator's life.
Run Out the Clock -Time waits for no one. "Except me." - Erin Fatespan Divergence -"Perhaps in another timeline you are safe. Free. But here, now, you are mine." Soridormi -Prime consort of Nozdormu the Timeless. Loving, caring, but ever nagging her mate for always being late.
Send Back is a Classic card and is generated by TIme-Lost Proto-Drake. Echo is the token generated by Send Back.
Blackrock Mountain
Perpetual Flame -The Firelord's presence will always scar this land. Chromatic Prototype -Nefarian is trying to combine the five dragonflights to create ultimate warriors. This Prototype is not one such example.
The Classic Set
Send Back -"No, don't send me back! Have you seen what people used to wear back then!?" Eternal Vigilance -"The first ten thousand years were the worst. And the second ten thousand years, they were the worst too. The third ten thousand years I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline." Temporal Barrier -"Quick, raise the shield! Aaaaaaaaand it's gone."
Sand Scourer -Removes 99.9% of temporal anomalies! Bronze Warden -The Bronze Wardens have it rough. It's not their fault that every visitor to the Caverns can just fly over them. Infinite Summoner -... a corrupt dragonkin, filled with darkness and pride, attempts to summon...
Avert - Chromie once averted a future in which Gadgetzhan outlawed tacos. Timestream Meddler -He's a Scooby-Doo villian's worst nightmare. Time in a Bottle -You don't mess around with this stuff.
Erode - High stress time management can really wear you down. Lost in Time -This spell is typically how people become their own ancestors. Echomancer -"Pyroblast... Pyroblast... Pyroblast..."
Anachronism - "Uhg, what time is it?...TOO SOON! YOU HAVE AWAKENED ME TOO SOON, EXECUTUS!" Past and Future, Present -"For this job, there's only two people I can trust." Chromie -Past Chromie is mad at Future Chromie for helping adventurers and forgetting their birthday.
Echo is the token generated by Send Back and Lost in Time.
The Basic Set
Bronze Whelp -I know this looks like a Black Whelp, but his scales will turn gold as he gets older. Really! Forthwith -Somehow, being able to manipulate time hasn't made Erin any more patient. 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 -Its not so bad if you have 4 Health.
Paradox -Minions you summon with this spell always have a wicked mustache. Even Harvest Golem. Hindsight -Dragons hate puns. Timewalker Elite -The Timewalker's retirement plan is pretty good. Then again, they already know if you will collect it.
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.
Cult: When you build your deck, you may include up to 4 copies of a card with the keyword Cult. Two new Cult cards appear in the LOE and WOG sets; Expert of Old Sects and Sinister Giant.
About the Sets
The Basic Set introduced the "deck-size matters" theme. In the Grand Tournament Set, small minions and card shuffling prevailed. Now, the League of Explorers and Whispers of the Old God sets reinforce two facets of the Cult Leader class; Cultists and big minions.
Use Vantablast, the darkest magic (or worst pun) you can find around, and Ritual of Power, to overwhelm your opponent with Cultists. If you prefer, offer a Cursed Relic to the Gods with Mysticism, to convoke Atactlan, the Summoner.
Protect yourself from an unstoppable onslaught with Spooky Strawman, play an Indistinct Shade as a valuable threat, before anihilating your opponent with a powerful Sinister Giant. The Cult Leader class offers various deck archetypes, and a panoply of cards to suit your favorite playstyle. Take some time to discover and appreciate the new sets.
Preview Cards
Asylum's Choice
League of Explorers
Whispers of the Old Gods
Blackrock Mountain
Grand Tournament
Upgraded Hero Power
Classic
Basic
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Turkeybag (Alchemist), thepowrofcheese (Chronomancer), The_Odinson (Racer), maxlot (King) and nurgling13 (Worgen) for their comments.
Many thanks to Asylum_Rhapsody for his support and his work as a moderator.
Militiaman - Token of Squad Leader Castle Archer - Token of Hail of Arrows Determined Participant - Token of Spear of Glory Wooden Chest - Token of Captain Erandruun Iron Chest - Token of Wooden Chest Shadowy Chest - Token of Iron Chest The Jackpot - Token of Shadowy Chest
This is the Submission Topic, which will be opened
Thursday, February 23th, at 20:00 UTC. The Discussion Topic is here.
The following users' entries have advanced to Phase V of the competition. You are not allowed to post in this topic unless you are one of the users listed below. However, you are still perfectly allowed to participate in the discussion topic. =)
nurgling13 41.4%
thepowrofcheese 40.1%
nobravery 31.3%
Turkeybag 29.2%
maxlot 29.2%
OBoily 27.1%
FunPolice749 26.6%
SanderNightsite 26%
Wild Cards: Broeck1, The_Odinson.
PHASE V: League of Explorers and Whispers of the Old Gods
Congratulations on being a semi-finalist! With positively received Blackrock Mountain and Grand Tournament sets, you've proven that your class's concept and mechanics have room for expansion. Now, there's only one last thing to do: narrow down the best of the best. For this phase, you'll be giving your class League of Explorers and Whispers of the Old Gods cards. Here are the requirements for your Class Creation Competition Phase V Entry:
There are just a few elements of your class that you will repeat from your Phase I entry, to remind us who and what we're dealing with. If you'd like to repeat anything from your class's introductory explanation, including its flavor or whatever you believe makes it interesting or unique mechanically, that's fine, but try to keep it brief.
We do not want to see your Class's entire LoE and WotOG Sets out in the open.
The remaining eight (8) cards of your class's LoE and WotOG Sets must be presented behind a Spoiler Block (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.). These cards must obey the same rules are your examples cards with regards to expansion watermarks, rarity gems, and what keywords you may not use.
You should include your completed Basic, Classic, BRM, and TGT Sets from Phases II-IV behind a Spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.) either before or after your Phase V material. It is fine if these cards have undergone some minor modification, but they must still adhere to all of their original Phase requirements.
CHALLENGES!
OTHER STUFF
These are just the General Rules, Competition Schedule and Process, Rewards, and Archives. You probably already went through them during Phase I. I still want to include them here, but I'm just going to put them all behind one big spoiler. Any change to them since Phase I has been noted above.
GENERAL RULES
Even if you're already a veteran of our competitions here on the Fan Creation Forum, you should read the general rules before you get started. This competition does introduce new rules, like image limitations and formatting requirements.
* The Submission Topic is for submissions only. If you want to discuss your entry, another entry, ask questions about the competition rules or process, or anything else, you can find a link to the Discussion Topic at the top of this thread. Plenty of folks there will be happy to help you out.
* You are allowed only one submission, consisting of the materials specified by each competition phase. These materials must, of course, be of your own creation. If you'd like, you may collaborate with another user on a single submission, but this must be specified during Phase I.
* You may make only minor edits to your entry once you have submitted it. Minor changes are things like correcting typos or making balance changes that do not alter the spirit of your entry as determined by we the moderators. If you want to make any changes and have any doubts as to their legality, ask us first.
* You may not delete any posts you make in this topic. No, not even if you post here by mistake or accidentally double-post or something. Deleted posts screw with the system we use to help us calculate up-vote scores, so don't do that. If you to post here by mistake or accidentally double-post or something, simply edit your post to just say "REMOVED" and leave it at that.
* You may not create your own topics on this forum for competition-related material. If everybody goes off and creates their own topics for specific discussion of their entries, this board will be flooded with nothing but, and so competition material must remain restricted to official competition topics. If you want to enter the competition with a class that you already have a topic about on this forum, then your topic will be locked in the interest of fairness to the other competitors. Not deleted, just locked, and it can be unlocked after your entry gets knocked out of the competition. You also may not reference or link to your topic in official competition topics.
* You must host your card somewhere other than Hearthcards. We encourage you to create your entry material using Hearthcards.net, but please remember that, although HearthCards is awesome, it has a limited server space and will purge cards after a few days, and nobody wants your cards disappearing part-way through the competition. After you create it, save and upload it to Imgur, Photobucket, or some other similar site. We understand that there are some Hearthcards memberships that will allow you to save your card there for longer (and you should totally get one of those just for general fan creation purposes, by the way), but we don't know who has those memberships and we can't tell from the URLs.
* You may not submit any Gold cards or animated cards, nor may you include any images in your post other than the requested submission materials, like banners or borders. We get it, everybody wants their entry to stand out, but our pages are going to be heavy enough as it is without everybody heading their submissions with animated banners.
* You must insert your images into your post using this icon on the bar above the post text editor: . Just click that button and put in the URL of your image. We realize that it's also possible to upload and attach images to your post. Don't do that, though. We know from experience that, because those images are much smaller and require more work to view, entries that enter their images that way just don't do as well, so this is for your own good.
* Format your entry concisely by sizing your cards appropriately and placing them beside one another rather than in a column or completely separate. The first example below is acceptable while the second is not. Entries that unnecessarily inflate the size of the submission topic and make it more difficult to get through will be disqualified. Adjust cards to a width of 250, and you should be able to get three in a row.
Hey, look! Some cards!
Soul of the Forest: Look at how nice this is.
Hammer of Twilight: All neat, organized, and concise.
Twilight Summoner: What a great post.
Wait, what are you doing?
Seriously, please don't.
This is painful. Why are you doing this?
You are a monster.
* "Troll" entries will be disqualified. Fun and even humorous entries are perfectly allowed (this is Hearthstone after all), but if you're worried that your entry may be misinterpreted as a troll entry, contact a moderator before you submit.
Finally, know that manipulating votes in any way is strictly forbidden. Any violators will receive an official warning, and will be banned from this and all future HearthPwn Card Design Competitions.
COMPETITION SCHEDULE AND PROCESS
How long do you have to work on your submission? How will advancement to Phase II of the competition be determined? The answers to these questions and more can be found below...
PHASE IV: Blackrock Mountain + The Grand Tournament
Preview: 9/February - 10/February
Submission: 10/February - 20/February
Poll #1: 20/February - 21/February
Poll #2: 21/February - 22/February
PHASE V: League of Explorers + Whispers of the Old Gods
Preview: 22/February - 23/February
Submission: 23/February - 2/March
Poll: 2/March - 3/March
PHASE VI: One Night in Karazhan + Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
Submission: 3/March - 14/March
Poll: 14/March - 17/March
NOTE: All stages of the competition begin and end at 20:00 UTC.
ALSO NOTE: I know that a couple of these submissions windows might see tight, especially because the secret challenges make it difficult to plan ahead. That being the case, this timetable is subject to change at my discretion, even after the competition begins, if it seems like too many folks are struggling.
* During Preview stages, both a Submission Topic and a Discussion Topic will go up, but the Submission Topic will be locked until the end of the Preview stage. The Submission Topic will reveal the Phase's unique challenges, so take this time to discuss them, ask for clarifications, and so on.
* During Submission stages, Submission Topics will be unlocked and (remaining) participants may submit their entries. During Phases I-II, you may also use this time to go ahead and up-vote submissions that you like.
* During Up-Voting stages for Phases I-II, Submission Topics will be locked. Use this time to up-vote submissions that you like. Note that advancement during these Phases depends entirely on up-votes.
* During Polling stages for Phases III-VI, Submission Topics will be locked, and all eligible remaining participants will have their submission material included in a separate Poll Topic to determine advancement. Phases III-IV include two Poll Topics because I anticipate we will have enough participants remaining that we will not be able to fit everybody in one Poll Topic. Note that up-votes in the Submission Topics are irrelevant to advancement during these Phases.
How will eliminations be done, and how many competitors will advance from each phase to the next?
I'm glad you asked! We will be taking a equal proportion of competitors from each Phase of the competition to the next, and we will be ending with exactly four finalists. That being the case and their being five total eliminations before the final round, that proportion can be found by solving for x:
[# of valid Phase I entries] * x^5 = 4
The higher the number of valid Phase I entries, the lower that proportion becomes. Just so you have an idea, the proportion hits 50% when we hit 128 entries, which is likely, but it only hits 33.3% when we hit 972 entries, which is less likely.
As mentioned above, advancement to Phases II and III will be determined by up-votes only. However, these up-votes are weighted using a formula identical to the process used by our Weekly Card Design Competitions:
(ab) / (c) = x
(Where a is the total number of up-votes that your submission received, b is the total number of valid submissions on the same page as your submission, c is the total number of up-votes on valid submissions on the same page as your submission, and x is your submission's final weighted up-vote score.)
Why bother with this formula rather than just taking each submissions up-votes directly? Because earlier pages simply get a lot more views that later pages do, and we do not want rushed, early submissions to have an advantage over later submissions that took more time to get their entries just right. The formula basically measures which submissions stood out the most, with the necessary assumption that each page is about equal in overall submission quality.
The bottom line is that, although entries on the earlier pages of the Submission Topic are much more visible and thus receive many more up-votes than entries on later pages, you don't actually have to rush to get your entry in as soon as possible, because the up-votes end up being weighted by what page your entry ends up on in order to determine its final score.
As mentioned above, advancement to Phases IV, V, and VI will be determined by polls. These polls will be multi-choice, meaning that voters can vote for every entry that they like. Whenever we have to split a Phase's poll into two to make it more manageable for voters, advancement will be determined by looking at each class's final percentage scores, not by looking at the direct number of votes they received, since we can't guarantee that the same number of voters will vote each day. Poll results will always be hidden until the poll has concluded, and for polls split in two, this does also mean that the results of the first poll will not be revealed until the second poll has concluded as well.
The winner of Phase VI, and thus the entire competition, will be determined by a poll much like the ones before, except that it will be single-choice, requiring voters to pick their single favorite class, and will have a much longer polling phase than usual to give us plenty of opportunity for promotion and such.
In the event of a tie during Phases I-IV for the last possible advancing position, all entries involved in the tie will be allowed to advance; the more the merrier, I say. We will absolutely not have more than four finalists, however, and so in the event of a tie during Phase V, the three Fan Creation Forum moderators (that is, myself, ShadowsOfSense, and PupleMD) will vote to break the tie. In the event of a tie during Phase VI to determine the competition's winner, the title will simply be shared unless both finalists request and agree to a tie-breaking round.
But wait, there's more! During Phases I-IV of the Competition, each Fan Creation Forum moderator (that is, myself, ShadowsOfSense, and PupleMD) will have a Wild Card, which we may (though are not required to) use to advance to the next Phase any one entry that we feel was initially overlooked or under-appreciated, regardless of its performance with voters. No entry may be awarded a Wild Card more than once, and it should also go without saying that, while some moderators are allowed to participate in the competitions, they are never allowed to benefit from Wild Cards. Wild Cards are our way of spicing things up a bit, but please don't ask to be given one or be upset if you aren't given one. These are just supposed to be fun.
Are you curious what will be required for future phases of the competition? The three challenges will remain a secret, but I'm happy to tell you the general submission requirements.
PHASE VI: One Night in Karazhan and Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
Here we are, finalists! In the last phase of our competition, you'll be giving us your class's One Night in Karazhan and Mean Streets of Gadgetzan sets, as well as constructing your own custom Finale Topics:
There will be no Submission Topic for the competition Finale. Instead, you will create your own Finalist Topics. All that you have to do is create a normal topic here on the Fan Creation Forum and title it as such:
[Class Competition Finalist] TURTLE
(Replace TURTLE with your own class's name, of course.)
Then, bring it to our attention, and we'll link to it from this topic. That's it. How you format and present your final product is entirely up to you. You've put in a lot of work to come this far, so you've earned the right to show us your completed original Class however you think is best.
In addition to including the required material from all previous phases, you must add the following:
These don't need to be part of your Finale Topic, but by the end of the Submission Phase, you should send me 8 example cards from your completed collection, preferably via PM, to be included in the Final Poll Topic. The Final Poll topic will look very similar to this one from our first CCC, except that no token cards will be included.
REWARDS
In addition to truly epic bragging rights, ALL finalists will receive a special Forum Title and Avatar Border, similar to those given to winners of our forum's Weekly Card Design Competitions, as shown below:
Furthermore, the winning contestant will have a Season 5 competition themed around their winning class!
ARCHIVES
Want to see how things went during our first two Class Creation Competitions? Want to see what the winners and other finalists did during each phase? Then check out the links below!
Note, that some competition rules, especially formatting rules, may have been different for past competition.
Class Creation Competition #1
Phase I Submission (Merchant, Twilight's Hammer, Demon Hunter, Lich), Phase I Discussion
Phase II Submission (Merchant, Twilight's Hammer, Demon Hunter, Lich), Phase II Discussion, Phase II Poll
Phase III Submission (Merchant, Twilight's Hammer, Demon Hunter, Lich), Phase III Discussion, Phase III Poll
Phase IV Discussion (Merchant, Twilight's Hammer, Demon Hunter, Lich), Phase IV Poll
Class Creation Competition #2 - Worlds Beyond Warcraft
Phase I Submission (Bard, Agent, Nightmare, Pokemon Trainer), Phase I Discussion
Phase II Submission (Bard, Agent, Nightmare, Pokemon Trainer), Phase II Discussion
Phase III Submission (Bard, Agent, Nightmare, Pokemon Trainer), Phase III Discussion, Phase III Polls (1 & 2)
Phase IV Submission (Bard, Agent, Nightmare, Pokemon Trainer), Phase IV Discussion, Phase IV Poll
Phase V Discussion (Bard, Agent, Nightmare, Pokemon Trainer), Phase V Poll
Class: Flame Wielder
Long ago King Nafaron and his followers were banished to the Firelands.
In the Firelands King Nafaron swore allegiance to Ragnaros.
In return the Firelord gave them the power to Wield the Flame.
But such power does not come without a price.
In the depths of the Firelands they deformed
and one by one they became monsters and beasts.
Example Cards:
Cards for Asylum's Choice:
Rest of LOE and WOTOG:
LOE:
WOTOG:
BrM and TGT:
BrM:
* Nerfed Dragons for Arms. It used to be able to deal damage to the enemy hero as well, but it would have been too powerful with Malygos.
TGT:
Upgraded Hero Power:
Classic Set:
Basic Set:
I didn't have a signature so Flux added one for me.
Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to Mirage Raceway.
Prepare yourself for a day of fast and furious action.
NOW, RACERS START!! YOUR!! ENGINES!!!!
Hero & Power
Class and Keyword Explanation.
So, here we have it, The Racer. Madcap, maniacal, motor-loving madmen, and women, who can't get enough of putting their engineering and driving skills to the test. The inspiration for all of this was Mario Kart, or any sort of game in that genre, on top of all the good time I had in Vanilla WoW hanging out watching those weird scripted races while I farmed cooking and skinning mats. I wanted to take something that isn't even part of WoW anymore, and merge it with one of the other things I've had a blast playing with my friends, and that led me to the racer. I was never a huge Racing fan otherwise, but my step-dad was, and for about 10 years my brother worked for Lowe's, and so I just kind of off-handedly learned a bunch of racing terms.
Chase is a host body for our Keyword, Draft. Draft is a very powerful and dynamic mechanic, however it has takeaways. Draft only affects cards in you hand, never your deck. It triggers are part of the casting of the spell, like Overload, and only lasts until the end of your turn. Its not Emperor Thaurissan. You can't slowly snowball down the cost of very card. You have to set up turns and make the most of it. Still when I thought of it I initially dismissed. I can't let my class just lower the cost of its cards can I? Combo decks are already a thing, and if I just give my class the ability to reduce the cost of its cards, won't it just be the best combo class? Well, what if we designed a class around that, away from combo pieces and OP interactions, and instead we focus on tempo. Right now tempo is a huge thing in HS. Going first is a huge factor in many games and having a good curve and not floating mana is a big key to not only winning games, but even being able to participate. This is what I wanted to look at. What if I could turn those turns where you just hero power into part of a larger tempo swing? The ability to take off a turn or 2 or even play a bit off curve because of what you're dealt, but still have potential to get back in the game. That's what Draft is about to me. coming from behind and turning the game back around in your favor.
You'll notice as you look through my cards that Draft doesn't appear on that many cards. Far fewer times actually than most other classes keyword, but there's a pretty big difference in my class than most, and that's in the fact that the keyword is built into my hero power, and something as powerful as massive hand discounts can't just be put on every card. In fact, you'll also notice this keyword shows up toward the high end of the curve, that's because its not about having an explosive early game. We don't need to dump our whole hand on turn 2-3 through perfect Drafting. In fact that would just as easily lead to issue as throwing in tons of face damage and card draw. Instead Draft appears on slower later cards because it allows you to fit in extra plays on those later turns. Sneaking in 1 or 2 drops along side your midgame plays to regain some tempo. I hope this helped you understand some of the design restrictions and choices I've had to make, as well as my philosophy and approach to the class moving forward.
Challenge and Preview choices.
"Never trust anyone with free "How'd you know it
information. It can cost you your was my Birthday?"
life" - Chief Engineer Bligewhizzle
"I hope I can still get around "He's one bug you wouldn't
that well when I'm that age." want to hit your windshield"
Asylums Preview choice
"...and sweet victory" "It once blasted a driver all "I hate spiders, man."
the way to Northrend"
Tokens
Droplet of Y'Shaarj explanation
This card is generated by God's Speed when you don't have a 10-Drop left in your deck, similar to Worthless Imp which is created by Sense Demons.
Preview Explanation
Unsavory Guide - We all know this guy. He's got a lot to say but nothing of importance. He says he's buying the drinks until the bill comes. He's looking for something for free. That's what this guy is about. He's definitely knows where the treasure is, but he's not sticking his neck out for it. In fact he'll avoid any dangerous situation he can. He'd rather lie his way through life, and pick the corpses. He's the first guy on N'Zoth's list. Old Gods are a big part of my ideas for Bringing big Control back to Racer. We did some midrange and control stuff, flirted with Aggro, and we've got a few more aggro tools here, but the big shining things are right here with N'Zoth and Y'Shaarj.
Surprise Inspection - Some cards need to do something special. This is one of those cards. It gives up a bit of play around Secrets, while also being the first ever card designed to help counter a few popular combo pieces. Being able to punish cards like Shadowstep, Far Sight, Emperor Thaurissan, Shadowcaster, or Nerubian Prophet is a cool interaction. As is saving yourself from Loatheb or Freezing Trap that has your Y'Shaarj locked up, just don't play this in the middle of a big Draft turn.
God's Speed - Every Old God is better when you can actually draw it, and they are also all even more fun when you can combo them together. This not only makes playing multiple Old Gods a cool concept, but an actual strategy. If you happen to run out though you can still pull the "powerful" Droplet of Y'Shaarj to keep your discounts flowing.
Klaxxi Inciter - Y'Shaarj, is the only Old God that didn't have tied to him. Having no major synergy to anything left him feeling gimmicky, as even if decks that could ramp him out and had lots of good targets, you still have weak minions and misses. But no longer. Now we not only have a nice Taunt, but a reason to build around Y'Shaarj. The Klaxxi worshipped Y'Shaarj and even turned their backs on the players that helped them defeat their psychotic Empress to join Garrosh once he recovered the Heart of Y'Shaarj.
Bitter Rivalry - This is a card that would seem completely over powered in a different class. However, the Racer is fine tuned to win through minions. Meaning, while this is a nice functional AoE to keep yourself from taking a bunch of face damage, you can't simply lock someone out for a crazy combo win. You just don't have those tools. So we get to put forth a massively powerful effect on the back of our design philosophy.
The Bigger One - Sometimes you have to blow them up so hard they can't ever come back. That's what we are going for here. Obviously this doesn't really do much against Legendaries, and if the second copy has been played or is in hand you aren't going to get it, but you've got a nice chance at getting some overall value out of this. There are a few cool interactions as well though, like potentially countering an opposing Thoughtsteal or Entomb, and being able to counter Gang Up, or punish a Faceless Manipulator.
Dr. Autto, Octo-Engineer - Sometimes you just have to kill all the spiders. Dr. Autto is all about crushing those bugs and showing his engineering prowess. Octo-bots can get out of control pretty quickly, allowing you to swarm your opponent or built a giant Octo-bot.
LOE & WotOG
LoE
Explanation
Loot-a-rang - So here we have it, part card draw, part ramp tool. Leading into Old Gods I knew we needed something to really open up the main synergy I wanted to push, Y'Shaarj. The only semi-successful decks have to be able to cheat this guy out, and this allows up to Draft to say in the game while generating ramp to get our end game going early. In a pinch it draws a card.
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.
WotOG
Tokens
Explanation
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. I have added a special card to get when you don't have a 10 drop in your deck. It allows the card to have function but the generated card isn't good intentionally.
Holy Skydiver - This started out as a bit of a nod to Hellbound Speedster, but changed a bit. I wanted a good goblin art for them to be parallels but I found the most perfect Gnome art so I had to use it. It still shows my unique take on the Madness of the Old Gods twisting these crazy speed freaks and tech junkies into more sane versions of themselves. Ones that are more careful and less deadly. I just think that's a fun unique concept.
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 - This card is meant to be another one of our goofy twists. 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.
Surprise Inspection - Ok, round 2 of trying to find the right Secret card. So here we have it. Race day, you think you're about to get one over on every, but nope, inspection time. All your secrets are revealed, and all your tricks to get ahead are gone. The Secret side doesn't destroy obviously, it only informs and temporary stops, but that gives you play for what you need it for. The second effect is actually the more interesting one to me. The secondary effect returns cards to their original cost, so its a bit of a counter to Emperor Thaurissan, while also hitting cards like Far Sight,Shadowstep, Unstable Portal, or even a 9 or 10 drop trapped in your hand by Freezing Trap. This does not reset giants, as they have dynamic costs and will always adjust as necessary to the conditions.
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'm actually glad I got to bring this back. I think its a cool fun style of card for an aggro style of Racer. Of course there is some potential you could run 1 copy in any deck, just to IDK crazy reasons, but regardless I thought it was a fun and cool concept, to kind of do the All-in thing. Plus, you know you love that art.
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.
Other Sets - Basic, Classic, Naxx, GvG, BRM, TGT (+ full explanations)
BRM and TGT
BRM
TGT
Token and Justicar Trueheart Hero Power
Expansion Explanations
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.
Naxx and GvG
Naxx
Explanation
Undead Cavalier - 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.
GvG
Explanation
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. Luckily Piloted Shredder was so ubiquitous.
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. 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. I think you have to test the boundary on occasion and this is my biggest card that does that.
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 bit of extra bonus since you have other buffs beyond the Spare Parts and it obviously generates more parts for itself, well hopefully, as 1/3 spare parts isn't castable on this guy. Luckily we also have Grease Monkey to keep us in Spare Parts.
Classic Set
Tokens
Classic Explanations
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.
Basic Set
Basic Explanations
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.
To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.
Class: Alchemist
Frustrated with the limitations of traditional alchemy, Wulfrum
abandoned his training in Stormwind and begin his own experiments.
He joined the scourge as an acolyte to gain access to corpses, diseases, and many other ingrediants
that would have disgusted his old teacher. His affiliation with the scourge soon became a lot more
permanent after one of his experiments resulted in his death. He was resurrected to serve once more
in the armies of the Lich King. Now with all the time in the world, Wulfrum decided to see just how far
he could go with alchemy. A terrifying concept to those who have seen his vile work
and fear there's no line he wont cross.
Example Cards:
Accident Secrets
Cards for Asylum's Choice
LoE and WOTOG
BrM and TgT
Tokens:
Justicar Hero Power:
Classic Set:
Tokens:
Basic Set:
Check out my Custom Classes (Scribe, Alchemist, and Battlemage)!
Alchemist
Candidates for Asylum's choice:
Introduction
The class cards of Alchemist have 6 features, which are:
1. Alchemy Potions
Here in the spoiler are the Alchemy Potion related cards of Alchemist class:
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.
Three basic Alchemy Potions (NONCOLLECTABLE TOKENS):
Expansion and adventure cards related to Alchemy Potions:
Upgraded Hero Power created by Trueheart:
NOTE: This creates basic Alchemy Potions only (see Totemic Slam)
Basic and Classic cards related to Alchemy Potions:
P.S. Mallory the Maniacal was the Legendary Challenge card from Phase II
2. Deck Order
Here in the spoiler are the deck order related cards of Alchemist class:
Although there was one deck order related card in the classic set of Alchemist class, it is not until the TGT expansion does it become one of the main features of the class. There are mainly two kinds of cards in this section: cards that allows you to know or change the order of your deck, and cards that benefit from your knowledge of which card you'll draw in future.
NOTE: According to Ben Brode at twitter, when you shuffle a card into your deck, the entire deck gets shuffled.
Expansion and adventure cards related to deck order:
Basic and Classic cards related to deck order:
P.S. Fortuneteller was the Pokemon Challenge card from Phase II
3. Fatigue
Here in the spoiler are the card draws and Fatigue related cards of Alchemist class:
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. But don't worry - there will be cards in the Classic set and further expansions that benefit from your reaching fatigue. By the way, since Alchemist has a huge amount of card draws, I ensure this class will have no access to any OTK combos at all, so that drawing so many cards wouldn't make the class as 'fun and interactive' as the pre-nerf Patron Warrior.
Expansion and adventure cards related to card draws and Fatigue:
Basic and Classic cards related to card draws and Fatigue:
4. Debuff
Here in the spoiler are the debuff related cards of Alchemist class:
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.
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.
Expansion and adventure cards related to debuff:
Basic and Classic cards related to debuff:
5. Swap
Here in the spoiler are the swap related cards in the Alchemist class:
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.
Expansion and adventure cards related to swap:
Basic and Classic cards related to swap:
6. Mana
Here in the spoiler are the Mana related cards in the Alchemist class:
In the part of Alchemy Potions, you may have noticed that Mana Potion is the weakest basic Alchemy Potion. This is because it synergizes with the following part: Mana Crystal synergy cards. In this part, there are cards that provide you with extra Mana Crystals, and there are also cards that benefit from gaining more Mana Crystals.
Expansion and adventure cards related to Mana:
Basic and Classic cards related to Mana:
Further Materials
Synergies:
1. Faceless Deceiver + Stone of Purification/Renegade Doppelganger
While Faceless Deceiver's stats drops as it duplicates itself, Stone of Purification and Renegade Doppelganger can restore them to full stats. Faceless Deceiver + Coins (from Alchemist's Cheque) + Stone of Purification gives you a strong board at turn 5 or 6.
2. Faceless Deceiver + Alchemist's Cheque
The synergy between these two cards is recursive. Coins you receive from Alchemist's Cheque triggers Faceless Deceiver's effect, and the duplicated Faceless Deceivers are also perfect target of Alchemist's Cheque.
3. Mana Potion/The Coin + Crystal Powder/Living Crystal
If you play Living Crystal or Crystal Powder with ordinary Mana Crystals, the side effect is to destroy those Mana Crystals. But if the cost is paid via instant Mana Crystals you gain from The Coin or Mana Potion, the side effect vanishes at once.
4. Decrepify/Fetter + Renegade Doppelganger
The AOE effects of Alchemist class are often expressed in a debuff way, and they sometimes affect friendly minions too. Renegade Doppelganger is just designed for these circumstances.
Synergies in previous expansions:
1. Fortuneteller + Wizard of the East/Unstable Ritual
Both Wizard of the East and Unstable Ritual care about which card is the top card of your deck - with different cards topdecked, you should use them on different targets. Fortuneteller gives you a chance to decide the order of your deck, which helps you decide the outcome of those effects.
2. Novice Apothecary + Darkmoon Cabalist/Distillation
Novice Apothecary seems to be a weak minion at first glance, comparing with Boneguard Lieutenant or Tiny Knight of Evil. If you also hold this opinion, I recommend you try its synergy with Darkmoon Cabalist and Distillation (in arena, maybe).
3. Whirling Ash + Unstable Ritual
Unstable Ritual is a card designed for the situation when you know the order of your deck. But what if I have no idea what's on top of my deck? Don't worry. With Whirling Ash on board, you can play Unstable Ritual on your own face and either of the outcomes becomes acceptable.
4. Lightning Potion + Fortuneteller + Azure Drake:
Since Explosive Trap benefits from spell damage, it will also be the case for Lightning Potion. With the help of Fortuneteller, you can now decide when to draw those Lightning Potions - and if you draw it via Azure Drake's battlecry, it will deal 2 damage to all enemy minions.
5. Midas Touch + Darkmoon Cabalist/Distillation
Notice that the Alchemy Potions all have an extra 'draw a card' effect apart from their own functions. So when you play Darkmoon Cabalist or Distillation after Midas Touch, you'll both trigger the Alchemy Potions AND get some legendary minions.
6. Fetter + Twisted Fane/Doomsayer
Only very few minions in the current Hearthstone have an attack of 8 or more. So when you play Fetter, minions' attack is often reduced to 0. Then, if you play Twisted Fane and choose a friendly minion, all minions but the one you choose will be destroyed. You can also play Doomsayer after Fetter, just like the Frost Nova + Doomsayer combo played in freeze mage.
7. Careless Chemist + Any Card Draw + Soul Kitchen
While summoning dozens of 5/5 Demons could create a very strong board, the requirement of Soul Kitchen's effect to trigger is that your deck must be empty. Since it takes quite many turns to draw all cards from your deck, Careless Chemist offers you another choice to reach Fatigue faster.
8. Grand Apothecary Putress + Distillation
As I've mentioned above, Distillation not only triggers the main effect of Alchemy Potions but also lets you draw 3 extra cards (due to the 'draw a card' effect on Alchemy Potions). Thus, when you have Grand Apothecary Putress on board, Distillation will draw altogether 6 cards and therefore grants you 6 mana crystals. This 10 mana combo is absolutely game-changing. (By the way, I may nerf Grand Apothecary Putress by increasing its cost in future expansions. But consider how broken those meta decks are nowadays... I feel that such a 10 mana combo is quite acceptable comparing with them...)
Nerf Log:
The cost of Stone of Purification is now increased from 2 mana to 3 mana. This is mainly due to its incredibly strong synergy with Faceless Deceiver.
Deck Recipes:
Faceless Deceiver Alchemist
1 Midas Touch
1 Alchemist's Cheque *2
1 Renegade Doppelganger *2
1 Alchemy of Mana *2
2 Twisted Fane *2
2 Loot Hoarder
2 Doomsayer *2
2 Wild Pyromancer *2
3 Stone of Purification *2
3 Fetter *2
3 Crystal Powder
4 Gnomish Inventor *2
4 Fortuneteller
4 Soul Kitchen
5 Faceless Deceiver *2
5 Grand Apothecary Putress
6 Gadgetzan Auctioneer *2
6 Darkmoon Cabalist
6 Emperor Thaurissan
Deck Order Alchemist
1 Telekinesis
1 Midas Touch
1 Basic Alchemy *2
2 Doomsayer *2
2 Novice Apothecary *2
3 Weaken *2
3 Alchemy of Lightning *2
3 Scour the Laboratory *2
3 Enthusiastic Prophet *2
4 Fortuneteller *2
4 Wizard of the East *2
4 Unstable Ritual *2
5 Decrepify *2
5 Azure Drake *2
6 Mezzik Darkspark
6 Darkmoon Cabalist *2
8 Ragnaros the Firelord
Classic Alchemist
1 Alchemy of Mana *2
1 Basic Alchemy *2
1 Midas Touch *2
2 Doomsayer *2
2 Twisted Fane *2
2 Loot Hoarder *2
3 Weaken *2
3 Fetter *2
3 Acolyte of Pain
4 Fortuneteller *2
4 Soul Kitchen *2
5 Distillation *2
5 Decrepify *2
5 Grand Apothecary Putress
6 Darkmoon Cabalist *2
7 Fanatic Researcher *2
Imgur Album:
LOE and WOG
BRM and TGT
Classic Set
Basic Set
[Not a native speaker. Forgive me for the possible grammar mistakes and typos. I hope you like my invention!]
-nobravery
THERE IS NO GAME.
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, shown in the tooltip.
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. Also note that other classes are always considered to be in Human form, so they can always use cards they acquire with the Human keyword.
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
(Explanations in Spoilers)
Ancient Sword - The idea here is that you find an Ancient Sword in some ruins, and it breaks in half on the first swing. In terms of gameplay, it gives you a big hit followed by a smaller hit. It's less susceptible to weapon removal, but also less useful with weapon buffs. It combos well with my Grizzled Weaponmaster from last set, which swaps a weapon's attack and durability then adds 1 Attack. With that combo, you can turn this into effectively a 2/5 weapon.
Fur-st Mate - Whispers of the Old Gods was when the Pirate archetype really took off. Warrior and Rogue both got Pirate support. As another weapon class with weapon synergy cards, I think Worgen should get the same treatment. While Bloodsail Cultist gives more damage over time, Fur-st Mate gives you burst damage from your weapon, useful either for aggro or taking down something big in a Control deck. This effect does not stack if you play more than one in a turn, so don't get any funny ideas!
Hark Spymaster - One of the problems with Kezan Mystic and Eater of Secrets is that they suck if you aren't playing against a Secret class. I tried to help solve that problem with this card. With this in your deck, you always have a target for these, no matter your opponent, making including them a safer choice.
Swarthy Mercenary - Howe Hark hired an unsavory mercenary on his adventures with the League of Explorers. This Trogg warrior is a vicious fighter who hates when your enemies cast spells, but your allies also hate him, so it's a tossup. Gameplay-wise, you would use this in a control deck where you don't need to play many minions of your own. If you can control the board with this out, you can force your opponent into playing a spell inefficiently to remove it.
Asylum's Choice:
League of Explorers:
Whispers of the Old Gods:
Blackrock Mountain:
The Grand Tournament:
Justicar Trueheart Hero Power:
Expert Set:
Basic Set:
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.
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.
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.
Icy Shortsword - 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.
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.
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.
Come Play Make the Keyword!!!
Check out my Worgen Class in the Class Competition
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 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. Cards like Temporal Barrier, Erode, Sand Scourer, and Hindsight allows the Chronomancer to attack enemies and prevent or repair damaged without opening the door to some truly broken combos.
Without a doubt, WotOG was the set I was most looking forward to. Between it and LoE, it opened the path for some real crazy and thematic cards. Ultimately, I had to pull myself back from going too crazy. After all, I want the class to have some semblance of balance! Both sets improve the class' draw power, unique removal tools, and solidify their mastery over Fatigue! Plus I finally made a big Legendary! I hope you enjoy it, and I will continue to prepare the final sets, regardless of how well the Chronomancer places this round!
Example Cards
Prolong Indefinitely -"Are you really sure you wish to live forever? Because the crypt already sealed shut behind you."
Powerful single target removal. Very strong early game against 4 mana 7/7s or big ugly taunts. Surprisingly weak against a late game minion, many of whom cost 10 or close to it. This is a spell you don't want to save for Ysera or Ragnaros. Instead, use it on a mid-game minion that your opponent certainly wouldn't want to spend 10 on, like Brann or Sylvanas.
Fatesplitter - Originally there was only one emperor of Ahn'Qiraj. Then this guy was like, "We can do better."
C'Thun wants more worshipers. Fatesplitter helps you make more. It's fun to use cards from other classes, especially when they aren't even in Standard! This minion is a deathrattle to make it harder (but not impossible) to Duplicate itself.
End Times - "You tried so hard. You got so far. But in The End, it doesn't even matter."
I wanted this to be an example just because of the flavor text. Seriously. End Times is a clever way to ramp up your opponenet's Fatigue while clearing the board. It synergizes very well with Time Keeper from TGT, Ageless Terror from WotOG, and the legendary below.
Murozond - He went mad because you didn't like his previous self's flavor text.
This guy ends games. With the above mentioned Fatigue generators, you can force your opponent out faster. Generating Fatigue cards is a unique theme for the Chronomancer, and Murozond is the win condition. Use cards from earlier sets like Hindsight and Temporal Barrier to endure Murozond's power and outlast your opponent!
Asylum's Picks!
Paradox - Minions summoned by this spell always have a wicked mustache. Even Harvest Golem.
Timewalker's Oath - "To guard the timelines. To protect both dragons and mortals. To stop using the word "mortal" as a derogatory term."
Divergence - "Perhaps in another timeline you are safe. Free. But here, now, you are mine."
Here is a link to my Chronomancer Imgur album! All current sets are included with flavor text in order of 'release.' The full collection is also below.
Whispers of the Old Gods
Infinite Potential - Kairoz had this great plan to make an infinite, unstoppable army. Too bad Garrosh went face again.
Timewalker Sentry - "We need everyone available to preserve history! Even you! And you when you were a kid!" - Timewalker Recruiter
Infinite Captain - Not really infinite, no. They'll run out of dragons eventually...
Inevitability - Inevitably this card will wind up at the bottom of your deck.
End Times - "You tried so hard. You got so far. But in The End, it doesn't even matter."
Ageless Terror - He still acts like a teenager. It's a little sad.
Expunge - The Twilight's Hammer carry out their gods' orders without hesitation. Even when those orders are "Don't Exist."
Fatesplitter - Originally there was only one emperor of Ahn'Qiraj. Then this guy was like, "We can do better."
Murozond - He went mad because you didn't like his previous self's flavor text.
Duplicate is the card created by Fatesplitter.
League of Explorers
Prolong Indefinitely - "Are you really sure you wish to live forever? Because the crypt already sealed shut behind you."
Timewalker Historian - She doesn't like field work. Honestly, she belongs in a museum.
Living Glyphs - These mysterious runes form ancient spells. They also form rude words when archaeologists aren't looking.
Previous Sets
The Grand Tournament
Justicar - Upgraded Hero Power
Timewalker's Oath - "To guard the timelines. To protect both dragons and mortals. To stop using the word "mortal" as a derogatory term."
Time Keeper - She's supposed to watch the clock during jousting matches, but she gets distracted by all the strong, muscular contestants.
Bronze Drake - He's a big drake now!
Timewalker Valiant - He's not actually summoning time-displaced copies of himself. He just has a lot of brothers.
Time-Lost Proto-Drake - This rare and beautiful beast flies the treacherous Storm Peaks. Or it would if it weren't for adventurers trying to tame and mount it.
Destined Champion - Despite his memory loss, Lo'Gosh knew he was meant for more than the gladiator's life.
Run Out the Clock - Time waits for no one. "Except me." - Erin Fatespan
Divergence - "Perhaps in another timeline you are safe. Free. But here, now, you are mine."
Soridormi - Prime consort of Nozdormu the Timeless. Loving, caring, but ever nagging her mate for always being late.
Send Back is a Classic card and is generated by TIme-Lost Proto-Drake.
Echo is the token generated by Send Back.
Blackrock Mountain
Perpetual Flame - The Firelord's presence will always scar this land.
Chromatic Prototype - Nefarian is trying to combine the five dragonflights to create ultimate warriors. This Prototype is not one such example.
The Classic Set
Send Back - "No, don't send me back! Have you seen what people used to wear back then!?"
Eternal Vigilance - "The first ten thousand years were the worst. And the second ten thousand years, they were the worst too. The third ten thousand years I didn't enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline."
Temporal Barrier - "Quick, raise the shield! Aaaaaaaaand it's gone."
Sand Scourer - Removes 99.9% of temporal anomalies!
Bronze Warden - The Bronze Wardens have it rough. It's not their fault that every visitor to the Caverns can just fly over them.
Infinite Summoner - ... a corrupt dragonkin, filled with darkness and pride, attempts to summon...
Avert - Chromie once averted a future in which Gadgetzhan outlawed tacos.
Timestream Meddler - He's a Scooby-Doo villian's worst nightmare.
Time in a Bottle - You don't mess around with this stuff.
Erode - High stress time management can really wear you down.
Lost in Time - This spell is typically how people become their own ancestors.
Echomancer - "Pyroblast... Pyroblast... Pyroblast..."
Anachronism - "Uhg, what time is it?...TOO SOON! YOU HAVE AWAKENED ME TOO SOON, EXECUTUS!"
Past and Future, Present - "For this job, there's only two people I can trust."
Chromie - Past Chromie is mad at Future Chromie for helping adventurers and forgetting their birthday.
Echo is the token generated by Send Back and Lost in Time.
The Basic Set
Bronze Whelp - I know this looks like a Black Whelp, but his scales will turn gold as he gets older. Really!
Forthwith - Somehow, being able to manipulate time hasn't made Erin any more patient.
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 - Its not so bad if you have 4 Health.
Paradox - Minions you summon with this spell always have a wicked mustache. Even Harvest Golem.
Hindsight - Dragons hate puns.
Timewalker Elite - The Timewalker's retirement plan is pretty good. Then again, they already know if you will collect it.
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.
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
Isabella Darkraven - The Cult Leader
«May the Faith in the Cult protects us.»
Keyword
Cult: When you build your deck, you may include up to 4 copies of a card with the keyword Cult. Two new Cult cards appear in the LOE and WOG sets; Expert of Old Sects and Sinister Giant.
About the Sets
The Basic Set introduced the "deck-size matters" theme. In the Grand Tournament Set, small minions and card shuffling prevailed. Now, the League of Explorers and Whispers of the Old God sets reinforce two facets of the Cult Leader class; Cultists and big minions.
Use Vantablast, the darkest magic (or worst pun) you can find around, and Ritual of Power, to overwhelm your opponent with Cultists. If you prefer, offer a Cursed Relic to the Gods with Mysticism, to convoke Atactlan, the Summoner.
Protect yourself from an unstoppable onslaught with Spooky Strawman, play an Indistinct Shade as a valuable threat, before anihilating your opponent with a powerful Sinister Giant. The Cult Leader class offers various deck archetypes, and a panoply of cards to suit your favorite playstyle. Take some time to discover and appreciate the new sets.
Preview Cards
Asylum's Choice
League of Explorers
Whispers of the Old Gods
Blackrock Mountain
Grand Tournament
Upgraded Hero Power
Classic
Basic
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Turkeybag (Alchemist), thepowrofcheese (Chronomancer), The_Odinson (Racer), maxlot (King) and nurgling13 (Worgen) for their comments.
Many thanks to Asylum_Rhapsody for his support and his work as a moderator.
Well I can't get the images I need to post because they won't copy on mobile and imgur won't load so I'm not gonna make it. It's been fun though!
The King!
Example Cards:
Asylum's Choice:
League of Explorers and Whispers of the Old Gods:
LOE:
WotoG:
Blackrock Mountain and The Grand Tournament:
Blackrock Mountain:
The Grand Tournament:
Justicar Hero Power:
Classic Set:
Basic Set:
Tokens:
Militiaman - Token of Squad Leader
Castle Archer - Token of Hail of Arrows
Determined Participant - Token of Spear of Glory
Wooden Chest - Token of Captain Erandruun
Iron Chest - Token of Wooden Chest
Shadowy Chest - Token of Iron Chest
The Jackpot - Token of Shadowy Chest