Greetings, fellow seeker of truth. This is nobravery. I'm not a native speaker of English and thus the introduction I write to my class might not be vivid and clear enough. I'll try my best to explain how the class works and why I decide to go for those routes; but as for flavor and lore, I'm really incapable of writing any prose or poem to introduce what Alchemists are and who Alfred Ronkin is. I hope this wouldn't disappoint you guys so much.
As you can see from the example cards in the final poll, the Alchemist is a class that depends heavily on synergies, and its main playstyle is combo deck. Combo decks often need high levels of play skill to handle, and thus Alchemist may not be a class that suits new players. But it seems to me that, Blizzard has put too much effort in making Hearthstone a game friendly to new players, while the gaming experience of hardcore players is getting worse and worse. This is mainly because they have nerfed nearly every viable combo deck and made the game into what we call "Curvestone". As a player who enjoys combo decks a lot, I don't like Blizzard's standards on balancing. And thus I decided to make a class that provides different kinds of combo decks. This is why I made Alchemist.
Current combo decks often share the same problem: they do not interact with their opponents enough, which leads to a terrible gaming experience of their opponents. Why does this happen? I think it's because most combo decks have a considerably high lethal; when you are playing against a combo deck, you may be killed all of a sudden. In order to avoid this, I made Alchemist a class with nearly no access to any damage spell or charge minions; the combo decks of Alchemist are mainly built around creating a strong board with all those synergy cards (something like Patron Warrior after the Warsong nerf). I hope this kind of decks may make both players feel "fun and interactive".
Introduction
As I've explained above, the class of Alchemist depends heavily upon synergies and combo decks. Thus, instead of sorting my cards by expansion, I'd like to show every playstyle of my class independently. Some cards may belong to several sections, and there are also cards that belong to one section only but interact perfectly with cards from other sections. All these cross-section synergies will be shown in the "synergies worth noticing" part.
So, I divide the class of Alchemist into 6 different sections. They are: Alchemy Potion, Fatigue, Deck Order, Mana Crystal, Debuff and Swap.
If you prefer viewing the cards sorted by expansion instead of by archetype (which is not recommended), see the "Gallery - Imgur Album" section below.
1. Alchemy Potion (The example cards above are TOKENS)
Alchemy Potions are tokens that you shuffle into your deck, and their effects trigger when drawn. This is one of the basic mechanics of the Alchemist class. It seems at first glance that this mechanic is too much RNG to be healthy, but the Alchemists have many ways to handle when to draw Alchemy Potions and which Alchemy Potion is drawn. These methods will be seen sooner or later when you read this post.
Generally, there are 3 basic Alchemy Potions viable from basic set, which are shown as the example cards above. And for each new expansion, the Alchemists will invent a new kind of Alchemy Potion for you to play.
This section mainly consists of two kinds of cards: cards that generates Alchemy Potions, and cards that synergize with them.
Cards
Basic Alchemy Potions (TOKENS)
Basic and Classic cards
NOTE: All Alchemy Potions include a 'When you draw this, draw a card' effect. This means that cards like Distillation and Darkmoon Cabalist not only trigger the Alchemy Potions but also bring card draws.
Novice Apothecary seems to be a weak minion at first glance, comparing with Boneguard Lieutenant or Tiny Knight of Evil. If you also hold this opinion, I recommend you try its synergy with Darkmoon Cabalist and Distillation (in arena, maybe).
According to lore and flavor, the Alchemist absolutely should belong to Kabal in MSG. But it's quite weird since Kazakus demands your deck has no duplicates, while the hero power of Alchemist produces dozens of duplicates in your deck. But don't worry: we have Mallory the Maniacal who deals with this issue. By merging all the Alchemy Potions in your deck into one, both Reno Jackson and Kazakus becomes viable now. And there'll be more cards that help you trigger Reno in the following section (in fact, it is one of the example cards below XD).
2. Fatigue
It's obvious that, in order to trigger all those Alchemy Potions shuffled into your deck, Alchemists need more card draws than other classes; this also makes Alchemist a class that reaches fatigue quite often. But don't worry - the Alchemist has many cards that benefit from your reaching fatigue.
I've said this once, but since it's quite important, I'll put it here again: since Alchemist has a huge amount of card draws, I ensure this class have no access to any OTK combos at all, so that drawing so many cards wouldn't make the class as 'fun and interactive' as the pre-nerf Patron Warrior, but a class that is more similar the the Patron Warrior after Warsong nerf.
This section mainly consists of two kinds of cards: card draws, and cards that benefit from Fatigue.
Cards
Basic and Classic cards
BRM, TGT and LOE cards
WOG, ONK and MSG cards
NAXX and GVG cards (WILD)
Synergies
1. Midas Touch + Darkmoon Cabalist/Distillation
Notice that the Alchemy Potions all have an extra 'draw a card' effect apart from their own functions. So when you play Darkmoon Cabalist or Distillation after Midas Touch, you'll both trigger the Alchemy Potions AND get some legendary minions.
2. Careless Chemist + Any Card Draw + Soul Kitchen
While summoning dozens of 5/5 Demons could create a very strong board, the requirement of Soul Kitchen's effect to trigger is that your deck must be empty. Since it takes quite many turns to draw all cards from your deck, Careless Chemist offers you another choice to reach Fatigue fast.
This is what I've mentioned before. Careless Chemist discards your deck entirely, and this would trigger 'If your deck has no duplicates' effects. What I want to mention here is its synergy with Walden the Insidious. This combo is absolutely disgusting if I released the card in earlier expansions - but since in MSG we have Jade Druid who never goes into Fatigue, and we have Pirate decks who also never reaches Fatigue, such a combo that nearly auto-wins control match-ups becomes acceptable to me. And, even when your opponent is not one of the decks mentioned above, they can still remove Careless Chemist without triggering its deathrattle (Polymorph, Hex, Spellbreaker, etc.). And thus I feel this wouldn't be a ridiculously overpowered combo.
3. Deck Order
During the entire process of the competition, the criticism on my class I saw most times is that my hero power has too much RNG. I'm also aware of this fact and thus I made the section of deck order, where you're allowed to decide which cards you're going to draw in future turns.
There are mainly two kinds of cards in this section: cards that allows you to know or change the order of your deck, and cards that benefit from your knowledge of which card you'll draw in future.
NOTE: According to Ben Brode at twitter, when you shuffle a card into your deck, the entire deck gets shuffled.
Cards
Basic and Classic cards
BRM, TGT and LOE cards
NOTE: Unstable Ritual works like Holy Wrath. You choose a target before knowing the result.
WOG, ONK and MSG cards
NOTE: Lesser Healing Potion can be generated by Kabal Chemist
NAXX and GVG cards (WILD)
Synergies
1. Fortuneteller + Wizard of the East/Unstable Ritual
Both Wizard of the East and Unstable Ritual care about which card is the top card of your deck - with different cards topdecked, you should use them on different targets. Fortuneteller gives you a chance to decide the order of your deck, which helps you decide the outcome of those effects.
2. Whirling Ash + Unstable Ritual
Unstable Ritual is a card designed for the situation when you know the order of your deck. But what if I have no idea what's on top of my deck? Don't worry. With Whirling Ash on board, you can play Unstable Ritual on your own face and either of the outcomes becomes acceptable.
Since Explosive Trap benefits from spell damage, it will also be the case for Lightning Potion. With the help of Fortuneteller, you can now decide when to draw those Lightning Potions - and if you draw it via Azure Drake's battlecry, it will deal 2 damage to all enemy minions.
4. Mana Crystal
To be honest, the reason why I made this section is that the challenges Asylum set for Phase V were too hard to accomplish, and I had to make a new section of my class in order to meet their request. This is why most of the Mana Crystal related cards are gathered in the WOG expansion.
However, even though this section was not part of my initial plan, the deck I built in this section is my favorite one among all Alchemist decks (you can see them below). This is mainly because 'gain a Mana Crystal' is an event that happens quite often in game, either when your turn starts or when you play the Coin; and thus all those 'whenever you gain a Mana Crystal' effects will be quite easy to trigger.
This section is made up of three kinds of cards: cards that give you extra Mana Crystals, cards that destroy Mana Crystals, and cards that benefit from gaining/destroying Mana Crystals.
Cards
Basic and Classic cards
BRM, TGT and LOE cards
WOG, ONK and MSG cards
NAXX and GVG cards (WILD)
Synergies
1. Faceless Deceiver + Alchemist's Cheque
The synergy between these two cards is recursive. Coins you receive from Alchemist's Cheque triggers Faceless Deceiver's effect, and the duplicated Faceless Deceivers are also perfect targets of Alchemist's Cheque.
2. Mana Potion/The Coin + Crystal Powder/Living Crystal
If you play Living Crystal or Crystal Powder with ordinary Mana Crystals, those Mana Crystals will be destroyed. But if the cost is paid via instant Mana Crystals you gain from The Coin or Mana Potion, the side effect vanishes at once.
3. Grand Apothecary Putress + Distillation
As I've mentioned above, Distillation not only triggers the main effects of Alchemy Potions but also lets you draw 3 extra cards (due to the 'draw a card' effect on Alchemy Potions). Thus, when you have Grand Apothecary Putress on board, Distillation will draw altogether 6 cards and therefore gives you 6 mana crystals. This is one of the most powerful synergies in the Alchemist class.
5. Debuff
As I've said before, since Alchemist class cards have a relatively high ratio of card draw effects, this class should never have access to any OTK combos. This means that stable damage spells could not occur in this class. But as we know, every class should have its own removals. This led me to making debuff cards, which can clear the board but cannot go face.
There are two things worth mentioning with this mechanic. First, when a minion's Health becomes 0 or less with a debuff, it dies. Second, when you debuff a damaged minion, both its current Health and maximum Health are reduced.
In this section, you'll see two kinds of cards: cards that debuff minions, and cards that silence minions (so that they remove debuff from friendly minions.)
Cards
Basic and Classic cards
BRM, TGT and LOE cards
WOG, ONK and MSG cards
NOTE: Potion of Paralysis can be generated by Kabal Chemist
NAXX and GVG cards (WILD)
Synergies
1. Faceless Deceiver + Stone of Purification/Renegade Doppelganger
While Faceless Deceiver's stats drops as it duplicates itself, Stone of Purification and Renegade Doppelganger can restore them to full stats. Faceless Deceiver + Coins (from Alchemist's Cheque) + Stone of Purification gives you a strong board at turn 5 or 6.
2. Faceless Deceiver + Alchemist's Cheque
The synergy between these two cards is ovonic. Coins you receive from Alchemist's Cheque triggers Faceless Deceiver's effect, and the duplicated Faceless Deceivers are also perfect target of Alchemist's Cheque.
3. Decrepify/Fetter + Renegade Doppelganger
The AOE effects of Alchemist class are often expressed in a debuff way, and they sometimes affect friendly minions too. Renegade Doppelganger is just designed for these circumstances.
6. Swap
When anyone tries to make an Alchemist class, it's just natural to include "swap the Attack and Health" mechanic as one of the class's identities, since existing Alchemist-related cards (Crazed Alchemist and Kooky Chemist) share this effect.
However, when it comes to really build a deck around these effects, I feel the task quite sticky - Priest already has a combo deck that runs Confuse (Djinni OTK Priest), and that deck is indeed an amazing deck to play. Given this fact, I found it quite hard to make a unique swap stats deck. That's why some cards in this section are a little bit similar to existing Priest class cards.
This section contains two kinds of cards: cards that swap stats, and cards that benefit from stats change.
Only very few minions in the current Hearthstone have an attack of 8 or more. So when you play Fetter, minions' attack is often reduced to 0. Therefore, Twisted Fane would destroy all minions but one. You can also play Doomsayer with Fetter, just like the Frost Nova + Doomsayercombo played in freeze mage.
2. Void Summoner + Wild Pyromancer + Potion of Invulnerability
Void Summoner has very poor stats, but once you buff it it becomes incredibly strong. It occurs to me that people think turn 1 Void Summoner into turn 2 Potion of Invulnerability is more than broken. But don't forget that Void Summoner is a MSG card, and what's the minion you've seen most times at turn 1 in MSG? It's definitely Patches the Pirate, and turn 1 Void Summoner can be easily removed by Patches. Personally, I feel the best way to play Void Summoner is not on curve, but with Wild Pyromancer + Potion of Invulnerability + other spells.
3. Runekeeper + Fetter/Twistercaller
Every combo deck has its own 'core cards' - Grim Patron for Patron Warrior, Gadgetzan Auctioneer for Miracle Rogue, etc. For swap stats Alchemist, the core card is Runekeeper. Its synergy with Fetter gives you 2 card draws, and with Twistercaller you get infinite value if none of them are removed.
4. Potion of Invulnerability + Twisted Fane
Thanks for reading all those words I've written. I'm not a native speaker and my poor English must have troubled you a lot. Finally we come to the last pair of synergy cards I want to recommend: Potion of Invulnerability + Twisted Fane. The synergy between these cards gives Alchemist a chance to finish the game when you have a board, just like Bloodlust or Savage Roar. This would be the winning condition of several Alchemist decks.
Decklists
Ever since the introduction of standard format, each time Blizzard announces an expansion, they also provide certain deck recipes for us. Most of the decks are not built reasonable enough that they never see play on ladder, but they do give us the chance to see what Blizzard is trying to push in every expansion. Therefore, I'll do the same thing. These decks might be far from the best decks one could build using Alchemist class cards and neutral minions, but they show what my class is aimed at and why I made certain cards. Hope you enjoy them!
I strongly recommend that you read those "Synergies" sections in the last chapter before advancing into this chapter. Most of the central synergies of these decks have been explained there.
1. Fatigue Alchemist
Decklist and Tokens:
1 Basic Alchemy *2 1 Alchemy of Mana *2 1 Midas Touch *2 2 Doomsayer *2 2 Twisted Fane *2 2 Potion of Paralysis *2 3 Violet Illusionist 3 Fetter *2 3 Scour the Laboratory *2 3 Alchemy of Lightning 4 Soul Kitchen *2 4 Kazakus 4 Careless Chemist *2 5 Distillation *2 5 Decrepify 5 Grand Apothecary Putress 6 Darkmoon Cabalist 6 Reno Jackson 6 Walden the Insidious
This was the first deck I built for the Alchemist class, which dates back to the Classic set. After 3 expansions and 3 adventures, I made some adjustment to the decklist, but the main structure and game plan remains the same.
The goal of this deck is to draw your deck as fast as you can and reach Fatigue. Then you play Violet Illusionist and Soul Kitchen to develop a strong board. You can also play Midas Touch with all those card draws so that you'll get some big legendary minions, which is another winning condition.
Apart from these, the deck also contains Reno Jackson and Kazakus. Both cards have incredibly high value when reaching Fatigue. After playing Soul Kitchen, you absolutely don't want to stay in Fatigue any longer, and this is the situation where Walden the Insidious is needed.
2. Deck Order Alchemist
Decklist and Tokens:
1 Telekinesis 1 Basic Alchemy *2 2 Doomsayer *2 2 Kabal Flatterer *2 2 Acidic Swamp Ooze 3 Weaken *2 3 Alchemy of Lightning *2 3 Enthusiastic Prophet *2 3 Ruthless Experimenter 4 Fortuneteller *2 4 Wizard of the East *2 4 Unstable Ritual *2 5 Azure Drake *2 5 Harrison Jones 6 Cairne Bloodhoof 6 Mezzik Darkspark 7 Baron Geddon 8 Ragnaros the Firelord 9 Ysera 10 Cataclysm
TOKENS:
Synergies:
Telekinesis/Fortuneteller + Unstable Ritual
Basic Alchemy/Alchemy of Lightning + Fortuneteller + Wizard of the East
Fortuneteller + Mezzik Darkspark
Alchemy of Lightning + Fortuneteller + Azure Drake
Although the class of Alchemist is intended to provide combo decks, there are always players who are not fans of those flashy combos. And thus, I made a Midarange Alchemist deck for these players.
Midrange decks are often criticized for playing on curve and requiring little skill, but this deck is different. The Deck-Order Alchemist deck has one thing unusual: you can decide what you draw. Cards like Telekinesis, Kabal Flatterer and Enthusiastic Prophet allow you to know the cards you're going to draw in the following turns, and if you're not satisfied with its current order, your Hero Power shuffles a card into your deck and changes the entire order of it. And there's also Fortuneteller, a card that lets you arrange the order of your deck.
As for this specific decklist, since you have the ability to choose which cards to draw, this decklist contains more tech cards than usual decks. Acidic Swamp Ooze and Harrison Jones deal with weapons, Baron Geddon and Cataclysm clear the board, and there are also many high-cost legendaries that synergize with Kabal Flatterer and Mezzik Darkspark.
Mana Potion (Created by Alchemy of Mana) + Crystal Powder
Midas Touch + Darkmoon Cabalist
Deck Explanation:
You may have noticed that the name of this deck is 'Faceless Deceiver Alchemist', which indicates that this entire deck is built in order to create a strong board with Faceless Deceiver.
The effect of Faceless Deceiver triggers in two situations: either you play cards like The Coin or Mana Pitcher to gain Mana Crystals actively, or you naturally gain a Mana Crystal at the start of your turn. Since Faceless Deceiver gets -1/-1 each time it duplicates itself, after filling your board with copies of it, you may need to silence them with Stone of Purification or Renegade Doppelganger. Another winning condition is Midas Touch, the synergies of which I've already demonstrated above. All the other cards included in this decklist are either card draws or removals to ensure your survival before drawing these combos.
There's still one thing I'm not sure with this deck: how often will the ultimate turn 5 combo (Faceless Deceiver + 3 Coins + Stone of Purification) happen? I've already nerfed Stone of Purification once since this combo is insane indeed, but if this still takes place too often, I may need to increase the cost of Faceless Deceiver by (1).
Swap mechanic was a theme that I decided to pick up in Phase II, but it was not until this phase did a viable Swap Alchemist deck exist. This is mainly because there were too many challenges during earlier phases and I didn't have enough space to create swap related cards. Fortunately the challenges Asylum sets for this final phase fits exactly into my previous conception (that 3 mana 5/1 Rager card), and I finally have a chance to make this deck.
There are too winning conditions in this deck: one is the Potion of Invulnerability + Twisted Fane combo for lethal damage when you have a board; the other is the Void Summoner + Wild Pyromancer + Potion of Invulnerability combo to create an army of 5/5 Demons. This deck also provides some swap synergies that help you draw cards (Runekeeper), clear the board (Fetter) or creating more minions (Reviving Ooze), and your Hero Power provides healings against aggro decks.
As I've said before, there is already an existing deck in the current game with swap mechanic (Djinni OTK Priest), and it's quite hard to make an entirely different deck from it. I can't say this deck offers brand new gaming experience for players who're familiar with that Priest deck, but at least it's another (possibly) viable combo deck.
Gallery
Modification History:
During Phase V, I decided to increase the cost of Stone of Purification by 1. This is mainly due to its incredibly strong synergy with Faceless Deceiver.
Weaken was one of the basic cards that were aimed at being overpowered (see Flamestrike, Fire Elemental, Fiery War Axe). But then I realized it's too much power creep over Shadow Bolt. Therefore I decided to nerf the card from -4/-4 to -2/-4 (it's still better than Shadow Bolt, but there's an precedent of Frostbolt and Quick Shot being better than Darkbomb).
Thanks to @zhongqy1996, who made Twistercaller. Thanks to @SilverHandJoker, who made Mana Pitcher. These two cards have been authorized.
Thanks to @Gabriel_the_angelfire and @Magical_Tony, who provided the source materials for my photoshopping. Thanks to @Reorakur, who photoshopped the art of Icy Potion for me.
Thanks to all the artists who painted those fantastic arts. If my unauthorized use of your artwork has aggrieved your rights, PM me and I'll change the art.
Thanks to everyone who commented my cards, whether in the discussion topic, the final poll, or in my workshop post at tieba.
Thanks to everyone who voted for me in previous phases and anyone who votes for me in the finale.
Thank you for reading. I hope you like my invention!
Ok, so I´m gonna to give you feedback to your class, its pretty interesting in the theme that not all Submitted Classes had, different strategies/decks, I see that you went pretty well with that part, points for ya.
The cards are really balanced and interesting, also, the combos seem interesting but not OP, wich I actually like it, I don´t find anything bad with this, but be warny, you got a pretty strong rival this way (Nurgling13), so be cautionous about your moves and balance too... just a tip.
Also, be prepared to recieve some critiques on Whirlwind Ash and Void Summoner on the future, I promise that at least these are the most debatable amongst all of your cards, maybe Faceless Deciever, but, its like Miracle, you need the right hand to trigger it.
And remember, again, you are fighting against a pretty strong rival, so be cautionous of your movements, or the Worgens will eat ya! Don´t get pressured, don´t stress yourself, I know you can do it!
Was going through your Karazhan and Gadgetzhan sets when I realized your class doesn't fit the Cabal theme. Your MSG legendary wants you to have no duplicates in your deck, but your whole theme is shuffling Potions in.
Was going through your Karazhan and Gadgetzhan sets when I realized your class doesn't fit the Cabal theme. Your MSG legendary wants you to have no duplicates in your deck, but your whole theme is shuffling Potions in.
I realized this at the beginning of the competition. and thus I decided to make Fatigue one of my class's main themes - no duplicates effects always trigger when there's no card in your deck.
All of the cards are listed. They're just grouped by archetype and theme rather than by mana cost or expansion or something.
That's actually something very interesting that nobravery does that I think sets their entry apart in terms of the insight we get into their design process. Take, for example, the Misshapen Ooze (Swap section, Basic). Offered out of context, it'd be a very easy minion to simply overlook. It is very plain. But because it's been put in the Swap section, it's a lot more obvious how it's intended to be used as a swapping combo target. Every card designed here has a specific purpose and fits into a specific overarching idea, even if it might not seem it at first.
Greetings, fellow seeker of truth. This is nobravery. I'm not a native speaker of English and thus the introduction I write to my class might not be vivid and clear enough. I'll try my best to explain how the class works and why I decide to go for those routes; but as for flavor and lore, I'm really incapable of writing any prose or poem to introduce what Alchemists are and who Alfred Ronkin is. I hope this wouldn't disappoint you guys so much.
As you can see from the example cards in the final poll, the Alchemist is a class that depends heavily on synergies, and its main playstyle is combo deck. Combo decks often need high levels of play skill to handle, and thus Alchemist may not be a class that suits new players. But it seems to me that, Blizzard has put too much effort in making Hearthstone a game friendly to new players, while the gaming experience of hardcore players is getting worse and worse. This is mainly because they have nerfed nearly every viable combo deck and made the game into what we call "Curvestone". As a player who enjoys combo decks a lot, I don't like Blizzard's standards on balancing. And thus I decided to make a class that provides different kinds of combo decks. This is why I made Alchemist.
Current combo decks often share the same problem: they do not interact with their opponents enough, which leads to a terrible gaming experience of their opponents. Why does this happen? I think it's because most combo decks have a considerably high lethal; when you are playing against a combo deck, you may be killed all of a sudden. In order to avoid this, I made Alchemist a class with nearly no access to any damage spell or charge minions; the combo decks of Alchemist are mainly built around creating a strong board with all those synergy cards (something like Patron Warrior after the Warsong nerf). I hope this kind of decks may make both players feel "fun and interactive".
Introduction
As I've explained above, the class of Alchemist depends heavily upon synergies and combo decks. Thus, instead of sorting my cards by expansion, I'd like to show every playstyle of my class independently. Some cards may belong to several sections, and there are also cards that belong to one section only but interact perfectly with cards from other sections. All these cross-section synergies will be shown in the "synergies worth noticing" part.
So, I divide the class of Alchemist into 6 different sections. They are: Alchemy Potion, Fatigue, Deck Order, Mana Crystal, Debuff and Swap.
If you prefer viewing the cards sorted by expansion instead of by archetype (which is not recommended), see the "Gallery - Imgur Album" section below.
1. Alchemy Potion (The example cards above are TOKENS)
Alchemy Potions are tokens that you shuffle into your deck, and their effects trigger when drawn. This is one of the basic mechanics of the Alchemist class. It seems at first glance that this mechanic is too much RNG to be healthy, but the Alchemists have many ways to handle when to draw Alchemy Potions and which Alchemy Potion is drawn. These methods will be seen sooner or later when you read this post.
Generally, there are 3 basic Alchemy Potions viable from basic set, which are shown as the example cards above. And for each new expansion, the Alchemists will invent a new kind of Alchemy Potion for you to play.
This section mainly consists of two kinds of cards: cards that generates Alchemy Potions, and cards that synergize with them.
Cards
Basic Alchemy Potions (TOKENS)
Basic and Classic cards
NOTE: All Alchemy Potions include a 'When you draw this, draw a card' effect. This means that cards like Distillation and Darkmoon Cabalist not only trigger the Alchemy Potions but also bring card draws.
BRM, TGT and LOE cards
Hero Power created by Justicar Trueheart
NOTE: This creates basic Alchemy Potions only (see Totemic Slam)
WOG, ONK and MSG cards
NOTE: For an obvious reason, the Alchemist belongs to Kabal in MSG.
NAXX and GVG cards (WILD)
Synergies
1. Novice Apothecary + Darkmoon Cabalist/Distillation
Novice Apothecary seems to be a weak minion at first glance, comparing with Boneguard Lieutenant or Tiny Knight of Evil. If you also hold this opinion, I recommend you try its synergy with Darkmoon Cabalist and Distillation (in arena, maybe).
2. Mallory the Maniacal + Reno Jackson/Kazakus
According to lore and flavor, the Alchemist absolutely should belong to Kabal in MSG. But it's quite weird since Kazakus demands your deck has no duplicates, while the hero power of Alchemist produces dozens of duplicates in your deck. But don't worry: we have Mallory the Maniacal who deals with this issue. By merging all the Alchemy Potions in your deck into one, both Reno Jackson and Kazakus becomes viable now. And there'll be more cards that help you trigger Reno in the following section (in fact, it is one of the example cards below XD).
2. Fatigue
It's obvious that, in order to trigger all those Alchemy Potions shuffled into your deck, Alchemists need more card draws than other classes; this also makes Alchemist a class that reaches fatigue quite often. But don't worry - the Alchemist has many cards that benefit from your reaching fatigue.
I've said this once, but since it's quite important, I'll put it here again: since Alchemist has a huge amount of card draws, I ensure this class have no access to any OTK combos at all, so that drawing so many cards wouldn't make the class as 'fun and interactive' as the pre-nerf Patron Warrior, but a class that is more similar the the Patron Warrior after Warsong nerf.
This section mainly consists of two kinds of cards: card draws, and cards that benefit from Fatigue.
Cards
Basic and Classic cards
BRM, TGT and LOE cards
WOG, ONK and MSG cards
NAXX and GVG cards (WILD)
Synergies
1. Midas Touch + Darkmoon Cabalist/Distillation
Notice that the Alchemy Potions all have an extra 'draw a card' effect apart from their own functions. So when you play Darkmoon Cabalist or Distillation after Midas Touch, you'll both trigger the Alchemy Potions AND get some legendary minions.
2. Careless Chemist + Any Card Draw + Soul Kitchen
While summoning dozens of 5/5 Demons could create a very strong board, the requirement of Soul Kitchen's effect to trigger is that your deck must be empty. Since it takes quite many turns to draw all cards from your deck, Careless Chemist offers you another choice to reach Fatigue fast.
3. Careless Chemist + Reno Jackson/Kazakus/Walden the Insidious
This is what I've mentioned before. Careless Chemist discards your deck entirely, and this would trigger 'If your deck has no duplicates' effects. What I want to mention here is its synergy with Walden the Insidious. This combo is absolutely disgusting if I released the card in earlier expansions - but since in MSG we have Jade Druid who never goes into Fatigue, and we have Pirate decks who also never reaches Fatigue, such a combo that nearly auto-wins control match-ups becomes acceptable to me. And, even when your opponent is not one of the decks mentioned above, they can still remove Careless Chemist without triggering its deathrattle (Polymorph, Hex, Spellbreaker, etc.). And thus I feel this wouldn't be a ridiculously overpowered combo.
3. Deck Order
During the entire process of the competition, the criticism on my class I saw most times is that my hero power has too much RNG. I'm also aware of this fact and thus I made the section of deck order, where you're allowed to decide which cards you're going to draw in future turns.
There are mainly two kinds of cards in this section: cards that allows you to know or change the order of your deck, and cards that benefit from your knowledge of which card you'll draw in future.
NOTE: According to Ben Brode at twitter, when you shuffle a card into your deck, the entire deck gets shuffled.
Cards
Basic and Classic cards
BRM, TGT and LOE cards
NOTE: Unstable Ritual works like Holy Wrath. You choose a target before knowing the result.
WOG, ONK and MSG cards
NOTE: Lesser Healing Potion can be generated by Kabal Chemist
NAXX and GVG cards (WILD)
Synergies
1. Fortuneteller + Wizard of the East/Unstable Ritual
Both Wizard of the East and Unstable Ritual care about which card is the top card of your deck - with different cards topdecked, you should use them on different targets. Fortuneteller gives you a chance to decide the order of your deck, which helps you decide the outcome of those effects.
2. Whirling Ash + Unstable Ritual
Unstable Ritual is a card designed for the situation when you know the order of your deck. But what if I have no idea what's on top of my deck? Don't worry. With Whirling Ash on board, you can play Unstable Ritual on your own face and either of the outcomes becomes acceptable.
3. Lightning Potion + Fortuneteller + Azure Drake:
Since Explosive Trap benefits from spell damage, it will also be the case for Lightning Potion. With the help of Fortuneteller, you can now decide when to draw those Lightning Potions - and if you draw it via Azure Drake's battlecry, it will deal 2 damage to all enemy minions.
4. Mana Crystal
To be honest, the reason why I made this section is that the challenges Asylum set for Phase V were too hard to accomplish, and I had to make a new section of my class in order to meet their request. This is why most of the Mana Crystal related cards are gathered in the WOG expansion.
However, even though this section was not part of my initial plan, the deck I built in this section is my favorite one among all Alchemist decks (you can see them below). This is mainly because 'gain a Mana Crystal' is an event that happens quite often in game, either when your turn starts or when you play the Coin; and thus all those 'whenever you gain a Mana Crystal' effects will be quite easy to trigger.
This section is made up of three kinds of cards: cards that give you extra Mana Crystals, cards that destroy Mana Crystals, and cards that benefit from gaining/destroying Mana Crystals.
Cards
Basic and Classic cards
BRM, TGT and LOE cards
WOG, ONK and MSG cards
NAXX and GVG cards (WILD)
Synergies
1. Faceless Deceiver + Alchemist's Cheque
The synergy between these two cards is recursive. Coins you receive from Alchemist's Cheque triggers Faceless Deceiver's effect, and the duplicated Faceless Deceivers are also perfect targets of Alchemist's Cheque.
2. Mana Potion/The Coin + Crystal Powder/Living Crystal
If you play Living Crystal or Crystal Powder with ordinary Mana Crystals, those Mana Crystals will be destroyed. But if the cost is paid via instant Mana Crystals you gain from The Coin or Mana Potion, the side effect vanishes at once.
3. Grand Apothecary Putress + Distillation
As I've mentioned above, Distillation not only triggers the main effects of Alchemy Potions but also lets you draw 3 extra cards (due to the 'draw a card' effect on Alchemy Potions). Thus, when you have Grand Apothecary Putress on board, Distillation will draw altogether 6 cards and therefore gives you 6 mana crystals. This is one of the most powerful synergies in the Alchemist class.
5. Debuff
As I've said before, since Alchemist class cards have a relatively high ratio of card draw effects, this class should never have access to any OTK combos. This means that stable damage spells could not occur in this class. But as we know, every class should have its own removals. This led me to making debuff cards, which can clear the board but cannot go face.
There are two things worth mentioning with this mechanic. First, when a minion's Health becomes 0 or less with a debuff, it dies. Second, when you debuff a damaged minion, both its current Health and maximum Health are reduced.
In this section, you'll see two kinds of cards: cards that debuff minions, and cards that silence minions (so that they remove debuff from friendly minions.)
Cards
Basic and Classic cards
BRM, TGT and LOE cards
WOG, ONK and MSG cards
NOTE: Potion of Paralysis can be generated by Kabal Chemist
NAXX and GVG cards (WILD)
Synergies
1. Faceless Deceiver + Stone of Purification/Renegade Doppelganger
While Faceless Deceiver's stats drops as it duplicates itself, Stone of Purification and Renegade Doppelganger can restore them to full stats. Faceless Deceiver + Coins (from Alchemist's Cheque) + Stone of Purification gives you a strong board at turn 5 or 6.
2. Faceless Deceiver + Alchemist's Cheque
The synergy between these two cards is ovonic. Coins you receive from Alchemist's Cheque triggers Faceless Deceiver's effect, and the duplicated Faceless Deceivers are also perfect target of Alchemist's Cheque.
3. Decrepify/Fetter + Renegade Doppelganger
The AOE effects of Alchemist class are often expressed in a debuff way, and they sometimes affect friendly minions too. Renegade Doppelganger is just designed for these circumstances.
6. Swap
When anyone tries to make an Alchemist class, it's just natural to include "swap the Attack and Health" mechanic as one of the class's identities, since existing Alchemist-related cards (Crazed Alchemist and Kooky Chemist) share this effect.
However, when it comes to really build a deck around these effects, I feel the task quite sticky - Priest already has a combo deck that runs Confuse (Djinni OTK Priest), and that deck is indeed an amazing deck to play. Given this fact, I found it quite hard to make a unique swap stats deck. That's why some cards in this section are a little bit similar to existing Priest class cards.
This section contains two kinds of cards: cards that swap stats, and cards that benefit from stats change.
Cards
Basic and Classic cards
BRM, TGT and LOE cards
WOG, ONK and MSG cards
NOTE: Potion of Invulnerability can be generated by Kabal Chemist
NOTE2: Poisonous is the keyword shared by Patient Assassin, Pit Snake and Emperor Cobra.
NAXX and GVG cards (WILD)
Synergies
1. Fetter + Twisted Fane/Doomsayer
Only very few minions in the current Hearthstone have an attack of 8 or more. So when you play Fetter, minions' attack is often reduced to 0. Therefore, Twisted Fane would destroy all minions but one. You can also play Doomsayer with Fetter, just like the Frost Nova + Doomsayer combo played in freeze mage.
2. Void Summoner + Wild Pyromancer + Potion of Invulnerability
Void Summoner has very poor stats, but once you buff it it becomes incredibly strong. It occurs to me that people think turn 1 Void Summoner into turn 2 Potion of Invulnerability is more than broken. But don't forget that Void Summoner is a MSG card, and what's the minion you've seen most times at turn 1 in MSG? It's definitely Patches the Pirate, and turn 1 Void Summoner can be easily removed by Patches. Personally, I feel the best way to play Void Summoner is not on curve, but with Wild Pyromancer + Potion of Invulnerability + other spells.
3. Runekeeper + Fetter/Twistercaller
Every combo deck has its own 'core cards' - Grim Patron for Patron Warrior, Gadgetzan Auctioneer for Miracle Rogue, etc. For swap stats Alchemist, the core card is Runekeeper. Its synergy with Fetter gives you 2 card draws, and with Twistercaller you get infinite value if none of them are removed.
4. Potion of Invulnerability + Twisted Fane
Thanks for reading all those words I've written. I'm not a native speaker and my poor English must have troubled you a lot. Finally we come to the last pair of synergy cards I want to recommend: Potion of Invulnerability + Twisted Fane. The synergy between these cards gives Alchemist a chance to finish the game when you have a board, just like Bloodlust or Savage Roar. This would be the winning condition of several Alchemist decks.
Decklists
Ever since the introduction of standard format, each time Blizzard announces an expansion, they also provide certain deck recipes for us. Most of the decks are not built reasonable enough that they never see play on ladder, but they do give us the chance to see what Blizzard is trying to push in every expansion. Therefore, I'll do the same thing. These decks might be far from the best decks one could build using Alchemist class cards and neutral minions, but they show what my class is aimed at and why I made certain cards. Hope you enjoy them!
I strongly recommend that you read those "Synergies" sections in the last chapter before advancing into this chapter. Most of the central synergies of these decks have been explained there.
1. Fatigue Alchemist
Decklist and Tokens:
1 Basic Alchemy *2
1 Alchemy of Mana *2
1 Midas Touch *2
2 Doomsayer *2
2 Twisted Fane *2
2 Potion of Paralysis *2
3 Violet Illusionist
3 Fetter *2
3 Scour the Laboratory *2
3 Alchemy of Lightning
4 Soul Kitchen *2
4 Kazakus
4 Careless Chemist *2
5 Distillation *2
5 Decrepify
5 Grand Apothecary Putress
6 Darkmoon Cabalist
6 Reno Jackson
6 Walden the Insidious
TOKENS:
Synergies:
Fetter + Twisted Fane/Doomsayer
Violet Illusionist + Soul Kitchen
Alchemy of Mana + Darkmoon Cabalist/Distillation
Quick Search (Created by Scour the Laboratory) + Soul Kitchen
Careless Chemist + Reno Jackson/Kazakus/Walden the Insidious
Midas Touch + Darkmoon Cabalist/Distillation
Grand Apothecary Putress + Distillation
Deck Explanation:
This was the first deck I built for the Alchemist class, which dates back to the Classic set. After 3 expansions and 3 adventures, I made some adjustment to the decklist, but the main structure and game plan remains the same.
The goal of this deck is to draw your deck as fast as you can and reach Fatigue. Then you play Violet Illusionist and Soul Kitchen to develop a strong board. You can also play Midas Touch with all those card draws so that you'll get some big legendary minions, which is another winning condition.
Apart from these, the deck also contains Reno Jackson and Kazakus. Both cards have incredibly high value when reaching Fatigue. After playing Soul Kitchen, you absolutely don't want to stay in Fatigue any longer, and this is the situation where Walden the Insidious is needed.
2. Deck Order Alchemist
Decklist and Tokens:
1 Telekinesis
1 Basic Alchemy *2
2 Doomsayer *2
2 Kabal Flatterer *2
2 Acidic Swamp Ooze
3 Weaken *2
3 Alchemy of Lightning *2
3 Enthusiastic Prophet *2
3 Ruthless Experimenter
4 Fortuneteller *2
4 Wizard of the East *2
4 Unstable Ritual *2
5 Azure Drake *2
5 Harrison Jones
6 Cairne Bloodhoof
6 Mezzik Darkspark
7 Baron Geddon
8 Ragnaros the Firelord
9 Ysera
10 Cataclysm
TOKENS:
Synergies:
Telekinesis/Fortuneteller + Unstable Ritual
Basic Alchemy/Alchemy of Lightning + Fortuneteller + Wizard of the East
Fortuneteller + Mezzik Darkspark
Alchemy of Lightning + Fortuneteller + Azure Drake
Cairne Bloodhoof + Cataclysm
Deck Explanation:
Although the class of Alchemist is intended to provide combo decks, there are always players who are not fans of those flashy combos. And thus, I made a Midarange Alchemist deck for these players.
Midrange decks are often criticized for playing on curve and requiring little skill, but this deck is different. The Deck-Order Alchemist deck has one thing unusual: you can decide what you draw. Cards like Telekinesis, Kabal Flatterer and Enthusiastic Prophet allow you to know the cards you're going to draw in the following turns, and if you're not satisfied with its current order, your Hero Power shuffles a card into your deck and changes the entire order of it. And there's also Fortuneteller, a card that lets you arrange the order of your deck.
As for this specific decklist, since you have the ability to choose which cards to draw, this decklist contains more tech cards than usual decks. Acidic Swamp Ooze and Harrison Jones deal with weapons, Baron Geddon and Cataclysm clear the board, and there are also many high-cost legendaries that synergize with Kabal Flatterer and Mezzik Darkspark.
3. Faceless Deceiver Alchemist
Decklist and Tokens:
1 Midas Touch
1 Alchemy of Mana *2
1 Alchemist's Cheque *2
1 Renegade Doppelganger *2
2 Twisted Fane *2
2 Doomsayer *2
2 Potion of Paralysis *2
2 Loot Hoarder *2
3 Stone of Purification *2
3 Fetter *2
3 Crystal Powder
4 Gnomish Inventor *2
4 Mana Pitcher *2
5 Faceless Deceiver *2
6 Gadgetzan Auctioneer *2
6 Emperor Thaurissan
6 Darkmoon Cabalist
TOKENS:
Synergies:
Faceless Deceiver + The Coin (Created by Alchemist's Cheque)
Faceless Deceiver + Stone of Purification/Renegade Doppelganger
Mana Pitcher/Gnomish Inventor + Alchemist's Cheque
Gadgetzan Auctioneer + The Coin (Created by Alchemist's Cheque)
Fetter + Twisted Fane/Doomsayer
Mana Potion (Created by Alchemy of Mana) + Crystal Powder
Midas Touch + Darkmoon Cabalist
Deck Explanation:
You may have noticed that the name of this deck is 'Faceless Deceiver Alchemist', which indicates that this entire deck is built in order to create a strong board with Faceless Deceiver.
The effect of Faceless Deceiver triggers in two situations: either you play cards like The Coin or Mana Pitcher to gain Mana Crystals actively, or you naturally gain a Mana Crystal at the start of your turn. Since Faceless Deceiver gets -1/-1 each time it duplicates itself, after filling your board with copies of it, you may need to silence them with Stone of Purification or Renegade Doppelganger. Another winning condition is Midas Touch, the synergies of which I've already demonstrated above. All the other cards included in this decklist are either card draws or removals to ensure your survival before drawing these combos.
There's still one thing I'm not sure with this deck: how often will the ultimate turn 5 combo (Faceless Deceiver + 3 Coins + Stone of Purification) happen? I've already nerfed Stone of Purification once since this combo is insane indeed, but if this still takes place too often, I may need to increase the cost of Faceless Deceiver by (1).
4. Swap Alchemist
Decklist and Tokens:
1 Alchemist's Apprentice *2
1 Void Summoner *2
2 Twisted Fane *2
2 Doomsayer *2
2 Loot Hoarder *2
2 Potion of Invulnerability *2
2 Wild Pyromancer *2
3 Fetter *2
3 Bog Rager *2
3 Runekeeper *2
3 Scour the Laboratory *2
4 Kooky Chemist
4 Reviving Ooze *2
5 Twistercaller *2
5 Decrepify
5 Darkspeaker *2
TOKENS:
Synergies:
Alchemist's Apprentice + Runekeeper/Bog Rager/Reviving Ooze
Runekeeper + Fetter/Twistercaller
Void Summoner + Darkspeaker
Void Summoner + Wild Pyromancer + Potion of Invulnerability
Potion of Invulnerability + Twisted Fane
Fetter + Twisted Fane/Twistercaller/Doomsayer
Deck Explanation:
Swap mechanic was a theme that I decided to pick up in Phase II, but it was not until this phase did a viable Swap Alchemist deck exist. This is mainly because there were too many challenges during earlier phases and I didn't have enough space to create swap related cards. Fortunately the challenges Asylum sets for this final phase fits exactly into my previous conception (that 3 mana 5/1 Rager card), and I finally have a chance to make this deck.
There are too winning conditions in this deck: one is the Potion of Invulnerability + Twisted Fane combo for lethal damage when you have a board; the other is the Void Summoner + Wild Pyromancer + Potion of Invulnerability combo to create an army of 5/5 Demons. This deck also provides some swap synergies that help you draw cards (Runekeeper), clear the board (Fetter) or creating more minions (Reviving Ooze), and your Hero Power provides healings against aggro decks.
As I've said before, there is already an existing deck in the current game with swap mechanic (Djinni OTK Priest), and it's quite hard to make an entirely different deck from it. I can't say this deck offers brand new gaming experience for players who're familiar with that Priest deck, but at least it's another (possibly) viable combo deck.
Gallery
Modification History:
During Phase V, I decided to increase the cost of Stone of Purification by 1. This is mainly due to its incredibly strong synergy with Faceless Deceiver.
Weaken was one of the basic cards that were aimed at being overpowered (see Flamestrike, Fire Elemental, Fiery War Axe). But then I realized it's too much power creep over Shadow Bolt. Therefore I decided to nerf the card from -4/-4 to -2/-4 (it's still better than Shadow Bolt, but there's an precedent of Frostbolt and Quick Shot being better than Darkbomb).
Submission History:
Phase I submission
Phase II submission
Phase III submission
Phase IV submission
Phase V submission
"Screenshots" in game:
Runekeeper's effect triggers when you swap her Attack and Health
The Void Summoner + Wild Pyromancer + Potion of Invulnerability combo
Imgur Album (with ALL cards sorted by expansion):
Basic Set
Classic Set
BRM and TGT
LOE and WOG
ONK and MSG
NAXX and GVG
Example cards and Decklists
Special Thanks
Thanks to @zhongqy1996, who made Twistercaller.
Thanks to @SilverHandJoker, who made Mana Pitcher.
These two cards have been authorized.
Thanks to @Gabriel_the_angelfire and @Magical_Tony, who provided the source materials for my photoshopping.
Thanks to @Reorakur, who photoshopped the art of Icy Potion for me.
Thanks to all the artists who painted those fantastic arts. If my unauthorized use of your artwork has aggrieved your rights, PM me and I'll change the art.
Thanks to everyone who commented my cards, whether in the discussion topic, the final poll, or in my workshop post at tieba.
Thanks to everyone who voted for me in previous phases and anyone who votes for me in the finale.
Thank you for reading. I hope you like my invention!
nobravery
March, 2017
THERE IS NO GAME.
RESERVED FOR YEAR OF MAMMOTH UPDATES
THERE IS NO GAME.
I´m an Ex-Competitor sniff sniffOk, so I´m gonna to give you feedback to your class, its pretty interesting in the theme that not all Submitted Classes had, different strategies/decks, I see that you went pretty well with that part, points for ya.
The cards are really balanced and interesting, also, the combos seem interesting but not OP, wich I actually like it, I don´t find anything bad with this, but be warny, you got a pretty strong rival this way (Nurgling13), so be cautionous about your moves and balance too... just a tip.
Also, be prepared to recieve some critiques on Whirlwind Ash and Void Summoner on the future, I promise that at least these are the most debatable amongst all of your cards, maybe Faceless Deciever, but, its like Miracle, you need the right hand to trigger it.
And remember, again, you are fighting against a pretty strong rival, so be cautionous of your movements, or the Worgens will eat ya! Don´t get pressured, don´t stress yourself, I know you can do it!
The joke is you.
Was going through your Karazhan and Gadgetzhan sets when I realized your class doesn't fit the Cabal theme. Your MSG legendary wants you to have no duplicates in your deck, but your whole theme is shuffling Potions in.
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
could you make the post more clear
playing wild
~nomad
I can't find a list of all cards
playing wild
~nomad
THERE IS NO GAME.
THERE IS NO GAME.
Also, MASSIVE kudos on the deck recipes. That's what I call going above and beyond! =D
And the Grand Finale begins!
This thread is now locked and will be unlocked at the conclusion of the Finale Poll.
Best of luck! =D
The Grand Finale is over, so I'm unlocking and unpinning this. =)