Hello everybody! This topic is for discussion of Phase V of the "Asylum's Gauntlet" Class Creation Competition. The drill here is the same as for the other Discussion Topics, so I'm going to put all of the usual stuff behind a spoiler. As a reminder, you are allowed to post here no matter if you qualified for Phase V or not. =)
One of the awesome things about our Fan Creation Forum Competition is that it gets us all talking about what makes a card or a class balanced, fun, realistic, interesting, unique, innovative, exciting, and more. However, to make sure that everything runs smoothly, we need to reserve the Submission Topic for submissions only. Everything else goes here. What is everything else, you might ask?
Rules or Process. Do you have a question about the competition's process? Do you need clarification about one of the entry requirements? Are you not sure whether your entry adhered to the rules? Ask here!
Feedback or Ideas. Do you have some ideas you'd like to run by others before settling on one? Do you need help balancing or wording your idea? Do you need help finding art that will fit your cards? Or do you just want feedback from the community on your entry? You're in the right place! Remember, although you are allowed to make minor tweaks to your entry after you've submitted it, you're only allowed one submission per competition, so make sure that you've settled on your idea for sure beforehand.
Discussion! Do you have thoughts on other people's ideas? Are there directions you don't like that you're seeing too many people take? Or directions you'd like to see more people take? Would you like to help others and contribute to a greater community understanding of Hearthstone design and balance? This is where you want to be!
All of that said, please refrain from the following:
Posting TONS of Ideas. We understand that some of you might have a ton of potential ideas you'd like to share. However, this thread is going to become an absolute mess if everybody is posting a dozen different ideas. Please post not more than 3 distinct ideas at a time, to keep the thread generally orderly and legible.
Advertising Your Entry. Please don't pop in here just to advertise your entry only to never be heard from again. This includes only asking short, generic, or insincere questions like "Thoughts?" or "Do you think this is balanced?". Yes, getting feedback on your idea is one of the purposes of this topic, but we're not just here for other people to help you. We're here for you all to help each other. 12 hours after this competition begins, there should be plenty of other posts here for you to give specific feedback or for you to comment on a trend. If you post your ideas for feedback after this time and do not also offer some form of substantial commentary, critique, or praise of others' work, you may find your post deleted.
Plagiarism. Many people post their ideas here before finalizing them in the submission topic. Directly plagiarizing those ideas to post in the submission topic yourself is absolutely not acceptable.
So, without further ado, have fun and get creating!
Please note that, because there are now barely a double-digit number of us making extensive use of this topic, it will be un-stickied starting tomorrow when I unlock the submission topic. The submission topic will remain stickied.
We lost a lot of classes I wasn't expecting us to lose. Although they weren't as popular as classes like the Dryad or Dancer, I know I'll be missing the Racer and the Ninja. That said, I am more than happy to be still in the competition. My condolences to everyone who didn't make it, congrats to those who did.
I mean I really am based on how garbage that last phase was for me. Well anyway now that I made it I'm bringing my A game from here on out. Goodluck to all those that also made it!
Well it was fun while it lasted! Honestly it was getting too hectic near the end and I found I barely had time for it though.... Made some friend though! Net gain.
Ahh! Didn't make it, I'm sad! :( I expected it to be a 50/50 for me and I just fell short. I actually became third out of nine in poll 1. Unfortunately, Nurgling slam-dunked poll 1, making all other percentages go down. The second poll was a lot closer. Only 2 out of 8 semi-finalists are from poll 1 xD So close! Congrats to everyone that made it!
oh noooo :( I love the Dryad. Crossing my fingers for you to get a wild card <3
Well guys, this is it. The whole class up to now. Including a Naxx/GvG that isn't balanced. I've still got work to do. I'm sure everyone is excited to get to work. There isn't much time this round, so better start moving folks.
Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to Mirage Raceway. Prepare yourself for a day of fast and furious action. NOW, RACERS START!! YOUR!! ENGINES!!!!
Hero & Power
Commencing countdown! Engines on! I'm coming off the line when the light turns green! Give me fuel! Give me fire! Give me that which I desire! One foot on the break and one on the gas! Engines pumping and thumping in time! There a voice in my head that drives my heel! 100+ through Black and White! I just can't wait to get back on that road again!
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.
LOE & WotOG
LoE
Explanation
Loot-a-rang - Nothing impressive here. Reinforces a bit of what we had going on last set. Was designed after that art and direction from the last set, a bit of a carryover, and a nice value card for non-Dragon Racer decks.
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
Frog
Explanation
Chicken Launcher - This is kind of a derpy niche card. It has a small amount of synergy with another card in the set, and but is mostly there to counter Reno and Mill decks, but has some decent strength against combo, just adding pointless 1 drops to their deck.
Holy Diver - Ok, this is the first of 1 "Corrupted" cards. I thought it would be hilarious to take a couple of my cards and instead of having the Old God's make them crazier, instead it made them more sane. So this is an analog to Hellbound Speedster from my Classic set. He's got a smaller body and instead of racing rockets he's become a pious deep sea diver. Of course N'Zoth still loves him some Deathrattles.
Whisper Receiver - I thought this was kind of clever also. So, you have normal people that sometimes come to close and get these whispers in their head, but what if you're out on a desert race track trying to use a radio communication device? Its more like voices screaming in your head. Its actually so loud its starting to infect the local wildlife. And let's be real, as soon as I saw that Frog art I've been waiting to make this card.
Careful Rocketeer - Ah, our second analog. So, Careless Rocket Jockey has become a Careful Rocketeer. Now completely fine attacking players, he's very weary of other minions. Afraid he might somehow crash and burn.
God's Speed - So, this is an important card to me. Racer is not meant to be a C'Thun class. C'thun has the most direct OTK and crazy game ending potential, and I don't want that to be part of what my class is doing. So instead we've tried to open that up to the other Old Gods. Now, the art here is indeed C'Thun, but that's just because there is so very little art for the other Old Gods and this one had a guy on a griffin on it. The card is more meant to assist Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound. Allowing you to play a lot of huge minions, not be afraid to draw them, and in fact have that be a powerful ramp effect.
Pile Up - I wanted another real AoE, and I came up with this ages ago, but didn't want to put it in until it felt right. I chose this specific wording because of how I imagined the effect triggering, and because I liked the spell damage synergy, since my class has very little otherwise.
Dastardly "Duo" - Regrettably I had to find a way to get a Secret related card in the idea I liked the most I felt had to be a Epic, so I had to scrap something absurd. That said, I mentioned back in phase 2 that I almost put secrets in my class. But I decided there wasn't really design space for me to do that and not step on another classes toes, however now I get to fulfill that dream. The "duo", which if you really check the art, is at least 4 people, are using every trick they can think of. Sniping opponents off, laying down explosives of the flaming and freezing variety, or just Misdirecting their opponents. Hell they aren't above letting wild animals loose on the track. Whatever it takes to win!
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.
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.
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.
Naxx and GvG
Naxx
Explanation
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.
Congrats to everyone who made it this round, as well as the Wild Card(s)! The challenges are tougher this phase. My TGT legendary already does cost increases! Now I need another one? I don't want to give my class a Coin. Hmm... maybe I can give it to my opponent. And I'm thinking of using Duplicate with C'Thun synergy somehow...
Congrats to everyone who made it this round, as well as the Wild Card(s)! The challenges are tougher this phase. My TGT legendary already does cost increases! Now I need another one? I don't want to give my class a Coin. Hmm... maybe I can give it to my opponent. And I'm thinking of using Duplicate with C'Thun synergy somehow...
Congrats on making it through to you too. Don't forget you can make a card that gives the opponent a coin, and, just a thought, being a time based class, you could experiment with some kind of spell that gives a coin and a card to whoever went first and an extra mana crystal to whoever went second, and it could be called "Tip the scales" or something.
Congrats to everyone who made it this round, as well as the Wild Card(s)! The challenges are tougher this phase. My TGT legendary already does cost increases! Now I need another one? I don't want to give my class a Coin. Hmm... maybe I can give it to my opponent. And I'm thinking of using Duplicate with C'Thun synergy somehow...
I'm sad that I didn't advance to the next phase, I would've loved to experiment with Old God synergies. I've already received a Wild Card so there is no chance for me to continue. Good Luck to those who made it!
Congrats to everyone who made it this round, as well as the Wild Card(s)! The challenges are tougher this phase. My TGT legendary already does cost increases! Now I need another one? I don't want to give my class a Coin. Hmm... maybe I can give it to my opponent. And I'm thinking of using Duplicate with C'Thun synergy somehow...
Have wild cards been announced? :O
I think there is generally a 24 hour window to see if one is picked and that person accepts, because sometimes a bid isn't put forth and other times the person doesn't accept.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.
1] Wild Cards are still being decided upon. I sent out a PM to the top 3 entries of Phase IV as soon as Phase V went up, and I told them that they had 24 hours to make their decisions. I have heard back one Wild Card choice so far, and that competitor has been informed.
B. Please note that, like last phase, challenge cards cannot be combined.
3) I want everybody to know that, upon starting Phase V and eliminating nine entries, I was awarded the new forum title "Mistress of Pain".
Got some Old Gods cards to show off, feedback will be welcome.
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GALLAKROND CARDS: DEAL 2 DAMAGE RANDOMLY AMONG ALL ENEMIES, GAIN +1/+1, GAIN 2 ARMOR, (more to come soon probably 5ish).
Temple Guard: Trap is all the hunter secrets with "Trap" in their name i.e. Freezing Trap
Also does Temple Guard fulfill the secret challenge and does it feel like it fit in this class since temples have traps and he guards a temple.
Maddening Roar seems pretty scary. It makes all cards cost 2 more, not just Spells or Minions, which means its possible to completely lock your opponent off of playing anything, and anything they do play will be low tempo.
Galakrond seems like its impossible. Each discover can be time consuming and its possible for this to trigger upwards of 20 times. Its just too much. If you made a set of effects that all scale off of the number of Dragons that would be fine but this would just too easily eat up too much time as it stands.
Undying Dragon is cool, though I'm not overly impressed with the art but that's all nitpicky stuff.
I don't understand Lost Champion. Not only do I not get the flavor much, I don't understand why this vanilla 5/6 gives you opponent a sick tempo 3 mana 5/6.
Return from Death is weird. If you have the 5 whelps part I guess it good but without its a Draw 2 for 5. That's a pretty hefty price tag.
Nothing against Temple Guard, its a cool card conceptually, but it took until MSoG before they implemented cross class discovery, otherwise no matter what you only discover cards from your class. That was actually a major thing Blizzard focused on when Discover was released. I just feel like it shouldn't be a card in this phase.
I also think you've gone in a bit hard on Discover. Its a great mechanic, but it didn't show up on more than 1 card for any class between LoE and WotOG, and even now, if you don't count guild cards, no class has more then 2 discover cards, and only Paladin and Priest have 2, so only 2 out of 9. You already have 3.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.
Got some Old Gods cards to show off, feedback will be welcome.
\
GALLAKROND CARDS: DEAL 2 DAMAGE RANDOMLY AMONG ALL ENEMIES, GAIN +1/+1, GAIN 2 ARMOR, (more to come soon probably 5ish).
Temple Guard: Trap is all the hunter secrets with "Trap" in their name i.e. Freezing Trap
Also does Temple Guard fulfill the secret challenge and does it feel like it fit in this class since temples have traps and he guards a temple.
Aaaaaaand, immediately I see a good improvement in comparison to the last cards.
Maddening roar has a huge effect on the enemies hand but it doesn't provide any inherent value, seems alright.
Undying Dragon looks to be pretty effective, you're effectively getting two 5/5's for 7, but it's slow. Similar to Cairne Bloodhoof but it keeps buffs.
Lost Champion doesn't seem like it has an immediately obvious use to me. It puts a 3 mana 5/6 into your opponents deck, which is arguably good for them, but it has no upsides to mitigate this? Am I missing something?
Return from death is simple, has combo uses in the form of a Malygos cost reduction, and it's mediocre without it's condition, but with it, it's great. This card is a well designed card, however, you should consider that the amount of whelps you might gain over the course of the game could weaken it a little.
Temple Guard: A balanced card, that should logically have a battlecry, that discovers... Traps? I understand the flavour, but I'm not really a fan, because having a class specific card that takes cards from one specific other class seems a little odd. That said I think it would qualify for the challenge.
Galakrond: I adore the card. It's like what Jade Golems should have been, he rewards controlling the board and stalling out the game, constantly gaining value over the course of it, but at the same time, he isn't completely oppressive to control. That said, the first option might not mean much to, say, a control warrior, but against a priest or mage which has a cap of 30 health, it means a clear board and 15 dragon deaths just means they lose. I'm not too opposed to non-interactive cards, but they shouldn't really be in Hearthstone, that's how Hearthstone aims to be. I think it would be a perfect card if you replaced the first option with something else. It would only really work if you made the cards immediately pop up and then activate all the effects at the end of the effect, but I think it's cool.
As I was working on cards for this during the last phase, I already have finished my sets!
Reminder of class:
These are my challenge cards:
Secret Cauldron: This adds in so many choices as it can discover secrets from any class given this one doesn't have any (hopefully that is clear without needing to add card text for it). Since it's discovered you still need to play it meaning paladin secrets are the fastest ones to get out but another dynamic is you want a secret that'll trigger asap so you can get your 2 concoct cards so your gonna have to weigh up your options. If you need Ice Block to survive a combo is that really worth needing to wait so long for your cards or would you be better off getting Eye for an Eye, a largely useless secret but you'll be sure to get your cards soon.
Graveyard Creeper: I'm unsure if this guy actually meets challenge 2 so I'll need a mod to check. He technically doesn't increase the cost of anything as he simply sets it to 10 but in 99.9% of cases this is going to increase the cost of your opponents cards, and that's what he's designed to do. The idea is that he's really good against aggro decks as often their deck may largely consist of 3 different mana costs meaning if you hit one of their aggressive minions with this guy it may really slow them down. He is also good at shutting down combos but knowing when and how to use him is important for that. In some cases you may want to tech in cheap minions so you can target them with this guy to stop like Conceal or Ice Lance. He can also backfire but he's designed for control so you'll likely have much more variety in the mana cost of your cards.
These are my two phase II challenge cards so they are largely locked in.
Toxic Muk: A powerful taunt minion but your opponent can use it against you with good trades, making you waste your potions on weak minions. Should be a fun and interactive card!
Leon, Master Mutator: Old gods is all about mutations and this guy can mutate just about anything! Slow effect with a big tempo loss since your shuffling one of your own things back into your deck but the payoff can be huge. The bigger the minion you give up the bigger the payoff. Just think of a 17/17 untargetable deathwing! He's also great for getting your old gods and battlecrys back.
Brain Breaker Toxin: The biggest one sided aoe in the game with the added bonus of an almost Convert. Will add some interesting choices as you may want to try clear out some cheap minions before using this to make sure you can discover their strongest card, but that then weakens the aoe.
Elixir of Gods: If your playing C'thun this is the biggest buff card in the game once you've powered your C'thun up. That is why the minion can't attack heros to prevent OTK combos. If the text is unclear, this does not remove the buff from your C'thun, just gives a minion a copy of said buff.
Bullet Worm is the final piece to the beast alchemist puzzle. He combos amazingly with Nightwatcher who keeps sending him back to your hand and buffing his battlecry. Also Nightwatcher, Stonetusk Boar, and Bullet Worm is the dream combo. If you only run those 3 beasts in a hybrid deck you can also always bring them back with Elixir of Reanimation!
Tomb Terror: Now that beast alchemist is in a really good spot along with control, I'm gonna add some cards to flesh out spell damage alchemist, another archetype I added support cards for in my basic set. This guy is one of them. He has a particularly insane combo with Watchful Gargoyle as if you have Spell Damage +2 the gargoyle can resummon himself for free. FREE! Can't get more value than that! I also wanna make sure I make another bottled card that works well with spell damage.
Scourge Fanatic is another card to help spell damage alchemist become viable. I'm still debating if I want him to stay a 3/3, be a 4/2, or a 2/3. Testing will tell. I feel he should be fine as is as his effect should be worth the same stats as spell damage +1 due to the cost increase. He turns a 1 mana deal 2 damage into a 2 mana deal 4 damage, effectually up-scaling your spells (a somewhat neutral effect) and then adding on 1 damage. He should be fair given Soot Spewer didn't see any play even with the mech tag. This guy does have a pretty solid combo with Advanced Study as for 5 mana this guy would be a 5/7 and your other spell damage minions also get buffed!
Forbidden Knowledge: This would be the only card in the game that lets you search for a specific card when you need it. If you need Leon for a combo, build your deck with him as your only 3 cost card and then you can get him every time with this, assuming you can get yourself to 3 remaining mana. The bigger the card you want the bigger the cost. If you need your game winning C'Thun your gonna have to spend a full 10 mana to draw him, but that can still be worth it if he'll win you the game next turn. You really need to know your deck with this as if you draw the card you needed this for you need to know what other cards are worth getting with it. Plus this card will shape many decks as they want it to get specific cards, thus changing their curve to fit that.
Cruel Healing Potion: Your basic 2 cost 3 damage card but this one has a very unique spin on it. It's easy to screw up with so you better be careful. If you want the damage you best make sure the damage is fatal, if you want the healing then the opposite is true and you may need to heal the minion with your hero power first to make sure this doesn't kill it. Also watch out for spell damage! The healing is really good for bigger minions and of course works wonders with the next card.
Fleshmelted Abomination: This card is complex. I'm hoping not too much so for hearthstone as I love the design and deck shaping he brings. Hopefully the effect is clear off of the card but if not, the "This minion wont be destroyed by damage until the end of your turn" part basically means that even when he reaches 0 health or less, he will not die. However if he is still below 0 when you end your turn, he will. This is why he only has taunt when above 0 health as otherwise he would be an unbreakable wall. Though you can combo him with taunt giving cards for him to have it permanently. Hex, Shadow Word: Death and all that will still kill him normally. The idea is that if you can heal him back above 0 health then he can survive to fight another day. This works really well with Cruel Healing Potion as he'll always survive the damage, it works great with the somewhat unused card Elixir of Life (basic card, heals for 11 and gives +2 health to minions), and it also works really well with Leon as he's the perfect Leon target when you can't heal him. You can of course use your hero power to heal him but your opponent will know how much healing you can do with that and can overkill this guy to prevent it. He can still be attacked when below 0 health (bringing him further into the negatives so you need more healing to keep him) but cards like Arcane Missiles and C'Thun will not hit him as they don't hit anything at or below 0 health. I might make him a 6/7 as taunt with can't attack is worth +2 stats with my math so that means the undying effect is worth -1 stat atm but it might be worth -2.
I am debating dropping one of these cards as I don't have any bottled cards between these two expansions and I dunno if I like that or not.
As I was working on cards for this during the last phase, I already have finished my sets!
Reminder of class:
These are my challenge cards:
Secret Cauldron: This adds in so many choices as it can discover secrets from any class given this one doesn't have any (hopefully that is clear without needing to add card text for it). Since it's discovered you still need to play it meaning paladin secrets are the fastest ones to get out but another dynamic is you want a secret that'll trigger asap so you can get your 2 concoct cards so your gonna have to weigh up your options. If you need Ice Block to survive a combo is that really worth needing to wait so long for your cards or would you be better off getting Eye for an Eye, a largely useless secret but you'll be sure to get your cards soon.
Graveyard Creeper: I'm unsure if this guy actually meets challenge 2 so I'll need a mod to check. He technically doesn't increase the cost of anything as he simply sets it to 10 but in 99.9% of cases this is going to increase the cost of your opponents cards, and that's what he's designed to do. The idea is that he's really good against aggro decks as often their deck may largely consist of 3 different mana costs meaning if you hit one of their aggressive minions with this guy it may really slow them down. He is also good at shutting down combos but knowing when and how to use him is important for that. In some cases you may want to tech in cheap minions so you can target them with this guy to stop like Conceal or Ice Lance. He can also backfire but he's designed for control so you'll likely have much more variety in the mana cost of your cards.
These are my two phase II challenge cards so they are largely locked in.
Toxic Muk: A powerful taunt minion but your opponent can use it against you with good trades, making you waste your potions on weak minions. Should be a fun and interactive card!
Leon, Master Mutator: Old gods is all about mutations and this guy can mutate just about anything! Slow effect with a big tempo loss since your shuffling one of your own things back into your deck but the payoff can be huge. The bigger the minion you give up the bigger the payoff. Just think of a 17/17 untargetable deathwing! He's also great for getting your old gods and battlecrys back.
Brain Breaker Toxin: The biggest one sided aoe in the game with the added bonus of an almost Convert. Will add some interesting choices as you may want to try clear out some cheap minions before using this to make sure you can discover their strongest card, but that then weakens the aoe.
Elixir of Gods: If your playing C'thun this is the biggest buff card in the game once you've powered your C'thun up. That is why the minion can't attack heros to prevent OTK combos. If the text is unclear, this does not remove the buff from your C'thun, just gives a minion a copy of said buff.
Bullet Worm is the final piece to the beast alchemist puzzle. He combos amazingly with Nightwatcher who keeps sending him back to your hand and buffing his battlecry. Also Nightwatcher, Stonetusk Boar, and Bullet Worm is the dream combo. If you only run those 3 beasts in a hybrid deck you can also always bring them back with Elixir of Reanimation!
Tomb Terror: Now that beast alchemist is in a really good spot along with control, I'm gonna add some cards to flesh out spell damage alchemist, another archetype I added support cards for in my basic set. This guy is one of them. He has a particularly insane combo with Watchful Gargoyle as if you have Spell Damage +2 the gargoyle can resummon himself for free. FREE! Can't get more value than that! I also wanna make sure I make another bottled card that works well with spell damage.
Scourge Fanatic is another card to help spell damage alchemist become viable. I'm still debating if I want him to stay a 3/3, be a 4/2, or a 2/3. Testing will tell. I feel he should be fine as is as his effect should be worth the same stats as spell damage +1 due to the cost increase. He turns a 1 mana deal 2 damage into a 2 mana deal 4 damage, effectually up-scaling your spells (a somewhat neutral effect) and then adding on 1 damage. He should be fair given Soot Spewer didn't see any play even with the mech tag. This guy does have a pretty solid combo with Advanced Study as for 5 mana this guy would be a 5/7 and your other spell damage minions also get buffed!
Forbidden Knowledge: This would be the only card in the game that lets you search for a specific card when you need it. If you need Leon for a combo, build your deck with him as your only 3 cost card and then you can get him every time with this, assuming you can get yourself to 3 remaining mana. The bigger the card you want the bigger the cost. If you need your game winning C'Thun your gonna have to spend a full 10 mana to draw him, but that can still be worth it if he'll win you the game next turn. You really need to know your deck with this as if you draw the card you needed this for you need to know what other cards are worth getting with it. Plus this card will shape many decks as they want it to get specific cards, thus changing their curve to fit that.
Cruel Healing Potion: Your basic 2 cost 3 damage card but this one has a very unique spin on it. It's easy to screw up with so you better be careful. If you want the damage you best make sure the damage is fatal, if you want the healing then the opposite is true and you may need to heal the minion with your hero power first to make sure this doesn't kill it. Also watch out for spell damage! The healing is really good for bigger minions and of course works wonders with the next card.
Fleshmelted Abomination: This card is complex. I'm hoping not too much so for hearthstone as I love the design and deck shaping he brings. Hopefully the effect is clear off of the card but if not, the "This minion wont be destroyed by damage until the end of your turn" part basically means that even when he reaches 0 health or less, he will not die. However if he is still below 0 when you end your turn, he will. This is why he only has taunt when above 0 health as otherwise he would be an unbreakable wall. Though you can combo him with taunt giving cards for him to have it permanently. Hex, Shadow Word: Death and all that will still kill him normally. The idea is that if you can heal him back above 0 health then he can survive to fight another day. This works really well with Cruel Healing Potion as he'll always survive the damage, it works great with the somewhat unused card Elixir of Life (basic card, heals for 11 and gives +2 health to minions), and it also works really well with Leon as he's the perfect Leon target when you can't heal him. You can of course use your hero power to heal him but your opponent will know how much healing you can do with that and can overkill this guy to prevent it. He can still be attacked when below 0 health (bringing him further into the negatives so you need more healing to keep him) but cards like Arcane Missiles and C'Thun will not hit him as they don't hit anything at or below 0 health. I might make him a 6/7 as taunt with can't attack is worth +2 stats with my math so that means the undying effect is worth -1 stat atm but it might be worth -2.
I am debating dropping one of these cards as I don't have any bottled cards between these two expansions and I dunno if I like that or not.
I already said this to someone, but when LoE and WotOGs came out, Blizzard made a point to clarify that Discover cards only found cards from your class. Now, with the release of MSoG this did change, but not significantly and I think Secret Cauldron, not only goes against the spirit of Discover during its release but kind of against it in general. Graveyard Keeper should work under the circumstances, but I'm not the hard and fast decider on that haha. I might suggest just trying to make one of your two other cards into a Bottled card. Bottled Madness/Whispers could easily work for Brainbreaker Toxin or Elixir of the Gods, though that would likely be bad on the random Bottle RNG. I've reviewed everything else pretty fully I believe. Even noticed some familiar art work haha.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.
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This is the Discussion Topic. The Submission Topic is here.
(Please Read the Submission Topic first.)
Hello everybody! This topic is for discussion of Phase V of the "Asylum's Gauntlet" Class Creation Competition. The drill here is the same as for the other Discussion Topics, so I'm going to put all of the usual stuff behind a spoiler. As a reminder, you are allowed to post here no matter if you qualified for Phase V or not. =)
One of the awesome things about our Fan Creation Forum Competition is that it gets us all talking about what makes a card or a class balanced, fun, realistic, interesting, unique, innovative, exciting, and more. However, to make sure that everything runs smoothly, we need to reserve the Submission Topic for submissions only. Everything else goes here. What is everything else, you might ask?
All of that said, please refrain from the following:
So, without further ado, have fun and get creating!
Please note that, because there are now barely a double-digit number of us making extensive use of this topic, it will be un-stickied starting tomorrow when I unlock the submission topic. The submission topic will remain stickied.
We lost a lot of classes I wasn't expecting us to lose. Although they weren't as popular as classes like the Dryad or Dancer, I know I'll be missing the Racer and the Ninja. That said, I am more than happy to be still in the competition. My condolences to everyone who didn't make it, congrats to those who did.
I'm surprised I made it...
I mean I really am based on how garbage that last phase was for me. Well anyway now that I made it I'm bringing my A game from here on out. Goodluck to all those that also made it!
Well it was fun while it lasted! Honestly it was getting too hectic near the end and I found I barely had time for it though.... Made some friend though! Net gain.
Didn't make it to this phase (unless I get chosen by wild card), but it was pretty fun. I might finish the class sometime. Good luck to everyone left.
"The Slayer" custom class
"The Great Thaw" expansion competition finalist
Well guys, this is it. The whole class up to now. Including a Naxx/GvG that isn't balanced. I've still got work to do. I'm sure everyone is excited to get to work. There isn't much time this round, so better start moving folks.
Ladies and Gentleman, welcome to Mirage Raceway.
Prepare yourself for a day of fast and furious action.
NOW, RACERS START!! YOUR!! ENGINES!!!!
Hero & Power
Commencing countdown! Engines on!
I'm coming off the line when the light turns green!
Give me fuel! Give me fire! Give me that which I desire!
One foot on the break and one on the gas!
Engines pumping and thumping in time!
There a voice in my head that drives my heel!
100+ through Black and White!
I just can't wait to get back on that road again!
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.
LOE & WotOG
LoE
Explanation
Loot-a-rang - Nothing impressive here. Reinforces a bit of what we had going on last set. Was designed after that art and direction from the last set, a bit of a carryover, and a nice value card for non-Dragon Racer decks.
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
Frog
Explanation
Chicken Launcher - This is kind of a derpy niche card. It has a small amount of synergy with another card in the set, and but is mostly there to counter Reno and Mill decks, but has some decent strength against combo, just adding pointless 1 drops to their deck.
Holy Diver - Ok, this is the first of 1 "Corrupted" cards. I thought it would be hilarious to take a couple of my cards and instead of having the Old God's make them crazier, instead it made them more sane. So this is an analog to Hellbound Speedster from my Classic set. He's got a smaller body and instead of racing rockets he's become a pious deep sea diver. Of course N'Zoth still loves him some Deathrattles.
Whisper Receiver - I thought this was kind of clever also. So, you have normal people that sometimes come to close and get these whispers in their head, but what if you're out on a desert race track trying to use a radio communication device? Its more like voices screaming in your head. Its actually so loud its starting to infect the local wildlife. And let's be real, as soon as I saw that Frog art I've been waiting to make this card.
Careful Rocketeer - Ah, our second analog. So, Careless Rocket Jockey has become a Careful Rocketeer. Now completely fine attacking players, he's very weary of other minions. Afraid he might somehow crash and burn.
God's Speed - So, this is an important card to me. Racer is not meant to be a C'Thun class. C'thun has the most direct OTK and crazy game ending potential, and I don't want that to be part of what my class is doing. So instead we've tried to open that up to the other Old Gods. Now, the art here is indeed C'Thun, but that's just because there is so very little art for the other Old Gods and this one had a guy on a griffin on it. The card is more meant to assist Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound. Allowing you to play a lot of huge minions, not be afraid to draw them, and in fact have that be a powerful ramp effect.
Pile Up - I wanted another real AoE, and I came up with this ages ago, but didn't want to put it in until it felt right. I chose this specific wording because of how I imagined the effect triggering, and because I liked the spell damage synergy, since my class has very little otherwise.
Dastardly "Duo" - Regrettably I had to find a way to get a Secret related card in the idea I liked the most I felt had to be a Epic, so I had to scrap something absurd. That said, I mentioned back in phase 2 that I almost put secrets in my class. But I decided there wasn't really design space for me to do that and not step on another classes toes, however now I get to fulfill that dream. The "duo", which if you really check the art, is at least 4 people, are using every trick they can think of. Sniping opponents off, laying down explosives of the flaming and freezing variety, or just Misdirecting their opponents. Hell they aren't above letting wild animals loose on the track. Whatever it takes to win!
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.
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.
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.
Naxx and GvG
Naxx
Explanation
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.
Congrats to everyone who made it this round, as well as the Wild Card(s)! The challenges are tougher this phase. My TGT legendary already does cost increases! Now I need another one? I don't want to give my class a Coin. Hmm... maybe I can give it to my opponent. And I'm thinking of using Duplicate with C'Thun synergy somehow...
Currently working on the Tinker! K&C and WW / JUG and KotFT / Classic / Basic / Introduction
My Previous Classes: Apothecary (unfinished) / Chronomancer / Death Knight (old)
My Previous Expansions: Hallow's End
"The Slayer" custom class
"The Great Thaw" expansion competition finalist
I'm sad that I didn't advance to the next phase, I would've loved to experiment with Old God synergies. I've already received a Wild Card so there is no chance for me to continue. Good Luck to those who made it!
To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.
I'd like to thank everyone who voted for me. I haven't been that active the past few days because I've been on vacation.
Come Play Make the Keyword!!!
Check out my Worgen Class in the Class Competition
Three things:
1] Wild Cards are still being decided upon. I sent out a PM to the top 3 entries of Phase IV as soon as Phase V went up, and I told them that they had 24 hours to make their decisions. I have heard back one Wild Card choice so far, and that competitor has been informed.
B. Please note that, like last phase, challenge cards cannot be combined.
3)I want everybody to know that, upon starting Phase V and eliminating nine entries, I was awarded the new forum title "Mistress of Pain".Alright lets get a jump start on this!
Got some Old Gods cards to show off, feedback will be welcome.
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GALLAKROND CARDS: DEAL 2 DAMAGE RANDOMLY AMONG ALL ENEMIES, GAIN +1/+1, GAIN 2 ARMOR, (more to come soon probably 5ish).
Temple Guard: Trap is all the hunter secrets with "Trap" in their name i.e. Freezing Trap
Also does Temple Guard fulfill the secret challenge and does it feel like it fit in this class since temples have traps and he guards a temple.
To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.
As I was working on cards for this during the last phase, I already have finished my sets!
Reminder of class:
These are my challenge cards:
Secret Cauldron: This adds in so many choices as it can discover secrets from any class given this one doesn't have any (hopefully that is clear without needing to add card text for it). Since it's discovered you still need to play it meaning paladin secrets are the fastest ones to get out but another dynamic is you want a secret that'll trigger asap so you can get your 2 concoct cards so your gonna have to weigh up your options. If you need Ice Block to survive a combo is that really worth needing to wait so long for your cards or would you be better off getting Eye for an Eye, a largely useless secret but you'll be sure to get your cards soon.
Graveyard Creeper: I'm unsure if this guy actually meets challenge 2 so I'll need a mod to check. He technically doesn't increase the cost of anything as he simply sets it to 10 but in 99.9% of cases this is going to increase the cost of your opponents cards, and that's what he's designed to do. The idea is that he's really good against aggro decks as often their deck may largely consist of 3 different mana costs meaning if you hit one of their aggressive minions with this guy it may really slow them down. He is also good at shutting down combos but knowing when and how to use him is important for that. In some cases you may want to tech in cheap minions so you can target them with this guy to stop like Conceal or Ice Lance. He can also backfire but he's designed for control so you'll likely have much more variety in the mana cost of your cards.
These are my two phase II challenge cards so they are largely locked in.
Toxic Muk: A powerful taunt minion but your opponent can use it against you with good trades, making you waste your potions on weak minions. Should be a fun and interactive card!
Leon, Master Mutator: Old gods is all about mutations and this guy can mutate just about anything! Slow effect with a big tempo loss since your shuffling one of your own things back into your deck but the payoff can be huge. The bigger the minion you give up the bigger the payoff. Just think of a 17/17 untargetable deathwing! He's also great for getting your old gods and battlecrys back.
Brain Breaker Toxin: The biggest one sided aoe in the game with the added bonus of an almost Convert. Will add some interesting choices as you may want to try clear out some cheap minions before using this to make sure you can discover their strongest card, but that then weakens the aoe.
Elixir of Gods: If your playing C'thun this is the biggest buff card in the game once you've powered your C'thun up. That is why the minion can't attack heros to prevent OTK combos. If the text is unclear, this does not remove the buff from your C'thun, just gives a minion a copy of said buff.
Bullet Worm is the final piece to the beast alchemist puzzle. He combos amazingly with Nightwatcher who keeps sending him back to your hand and buffing his battlecry. Also Nightwatcher, Stonetusk Boar, and Bullet Worm is the dream combo. If you only run those 3 beasts in a hybrid deck you can also always bring them back with Elixir of Reanimation!
Tomb Terror: Now that beast alchemist is in a really good spot along with control, I'm gonna add some cards to flesh out spell damage alchemist, another archetype I added support cards for in my basic set. This guy is one of them. He has a particularly insane combo with Watchful Gargoyle as if you have Spell Damage +2 the gargoyle can resummon himself for free. FREE! Can't get more value than that! I also wanna make sure I make another bottled card that works well with spell damage.
Scourge Fanatic is another card to help spell damage alchemist become viable. I'm still debating if I want him to stay a 3/3, be a 4/2, or a 2/3. Testing will tell. I feel he should be fine as is as his effect should be worth the same stats as spell damage +1 due to the cost increase. He turns a 1 mana deal 2 damage into a 2 mana deal 4 damage, effectually up-scaling your spells (a somewhat neutral effect) and then adding on 1 damage. He should be fair given Soot Spewer didn't see any play even with the mech tag. This guy does have a pretty solid combo with Advanced Study as for 5 mana this guy would be a 5/7 and your other spell damage minions also get buffed!
Forbidden Knowledge: This would be the only card in the game that lets you search for a specific card when you need it. If you need Leon for a combo, build your deck with him as your only 3 cost card and then you can get him every time with this, assuming you can get yourself to 3 remaining mana. The bigger the card you want the bigger the cost. If you need your game winning C'Thun your gonna have to spend a full 10 mana to draw him, but that can still be worth it if he'll win you the game next turn. You really need to know your deck with this as if you draw the card you needed this for you need to know what other cards are worth getting with it. Plus this card will shape many decks as they want it to get specific cards, thus changing their curve to fit that.
Cruel Healing Potion: Your basic 2 cost 3 damage card but this one has a very unique spin on it. It's easy to screw up with so you better be careful. If you want the damage you best make sure the damage is fatal, if you want the healing then the opposite is true and you may need to heal the minion with your hero power first to make sure this doesn't kill it. Also watch out for spell damage! The healing is really good for bigger minions and of course works wonders with the next card.
Fleshmelted Abomination: This card is complex. I'm hoping not too much so for hearthstone as I love the design and deck shaping he brings. Hopefully the effect is clear off of the card but if not, the "This minion wont be destroyed by damage until the end of your turn" part basically means that even when he reaches 0 health or less, he will not die. However if he is still below 0 when you end your turn, he will. This is why he only has taunt when above 0 health as otherwise he would be an unbreakable wall. Though you can combo him with taunt giving cards for him to have it permanently. Hex, Shadow Word: Death and all that will still kill him normally. The idea is that if you can heal him back above 0 health then he can survive to fight another day. This works really well with Cruel Healing Potion as he'll always survive the damage, it works great with the somewhat unused card Elixir of Life (basic card, heals for 11 and gives +2 health to minions), and it also works really well with Leon as he's the perfect Leon target when you can't heal him. You can of course use your hero power to heal him but your opponent will know how much healing you can do with that and can overkill this guy to prevent it. He can still be attacked when below 0 health (bringing him further into the negatives so you need more healing to keep him) but cards like Arcane Missiles and C'Thun will not hit him as they don't hit anything at or below 0 health. I might make him a 6/7 as taunt with can't attack is worth +2 stats with my math so that means the undying effect is worth -1 stat atm but it might be worth -2.
I am debating dropping one of these cards as I don't have any bottled cards between these two expansions and I dunno if I like that or not.
Check out my Custom Classes (Scribe, Alchemist, and Battlemage)!
To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of the women.