Long ago King Nafaron and his followers were banished to the Firelands. In the Firelands King Nafaron swore allegiance to Ragnaros. In return the Firelord gave them the power to Wield the Flame. But such power does not come without a price. In the depths of the Firelands they deformed and one by one they became monsters and beasts.
First I'd like to say that it has been a lot of fun to participate in this Competition and I am really happy and excited that I made it to the finals. I never thought that I could create a class that so many people would like. Everybody that voted for my entry in previous phases- Thank You! It has been a lot of fun to compete against so many awesome entries. Also big thanks to Asylum for setting this whole competition up and to everybody who gave my class feedback in discussion threads. I wouldn't have gotten so far without your help. Now lets dive into what my class is about!
Hero Power
Flame Wielder's Hero Power is flexible. In some sense it's a mix of Rouge's and Hunter's hero power. Fiery Sword can attack the enemy hero to deal 2 damage in total or it can attack a minion for 1 damage and also deal 1 damage to the enemy hero. Because the Hero Power is so flexible and can be just as powerful as Hunter's hero power I made sure that my class wouldn't become aggro focused. I didn't create a lot of spells that can attack the enemy hero and instead created a lot of control focused cards. I also made sure that the hero power wouldn't become the main focus of this class. I wanted the hero power to feel like an extra tool and not something you HAVE to use to win the game.
Magma Rager Synergy
Because this class is themed around flames and fire I saw an opportunity to make Magma Rager deck viable. I created multiple cards that buff and summon Magma Ragers. I obviously didn't want to make too many Magma Rager cards because every class needs diversity and if Magma Ragers would have been the only thing my class revolves around.. well it wouldn't be interesting at all. After I showcased and somewhat finished the Magma Rager theme in Basic and Classic set I moved on to different themes like Board-state Buffs.
Board-State Buffs
Some cards in this class get buffed based on how many minions your opponent has. The idea is to force your opponent to play fewer but more powerful minions instead of flooding the board with cheap minions. These cards can often turn the game around in your favor. They are not extremely powerful when your opponent only has 1-2 minions. The reason for that is that I wanted to make sure that you weren't punished for having few minions on the board. Cards with board-state buffs should only be punishing when you have 3 or more minions on the board so you'd have a chance to play around these cards.
Dragon Synergy
Similar to Magma Rager synergy, I added dragon synergy because it made a lot of sense thematically. Most of the dragon synergy is already in the neutral set so I didn't have to add too many dragon cards to this class. I didn't want dragons to become the focus of this class nor it feel like a twisted clone of Priest, so I kept the amount of dragon synergy fairly low in this class.
Boardclears
At its core Flame Wielder is a control class and every control class needs good and interesting AOEs. I wanted Flame Wielders boardclears to feel different. When it comes to boardclears the Flame Wielder has a lot of options to choose from. You can either use Flaming Arrows that is more straight forwards and less dependent on the state of the board, or you can use Burn them all that can deal more damage but with a downside of damaging your own minions, or you can play Chaos from Below and calculate and plan every attack carefully for maximum efficiency.
Surviving as the Flame Wielder
When you play a control deck you also need to survive until the late game. Flame wielder has a lot of options when it comes to surviving. It can either gain armor, summon taunt minions or even stop minions from being able to attack heroes.
Early game control and tempo
Early game is one of the most important part of the game, especially in the current meta. It's important to have many options in the early game to deal with aggro decks or just tech-ing against a specific archetype. Flame wielder has a lot of options. You can play big minions to control the board, reduce the cost of cards in your hand or you can tech against a specific decks like secret decks or weapon-heavy deck. I stayed away from creating a lot of powerful 1-2 cost minions that can attack the enemy hero because of the Hero Power. I didn't want flame wielder to become another aggro class so instead I decided to create cheap control cards.
Conclusion
Flame Wielder gives you a lot of options and themes to play with. It doesn't force you to play a specific type of deck. Instead it gives you the tools and lets you figure out what you want to do with them. I'm sure that there are tons of combos that even I haven't noticed in my class yet. When I designed the cards for this Class I focused on creating fun cards that fit together thematically, I didn't limit myself with creating just one mechanic and sticking with it the whole competition. I created one card at a time and I never had a full idea of what this class will do in the end. Each new round of this competition was like a new adventure, exploring new and interesting ideas and combing them with mechanics and ideas from previous rounds.
Congratulations on beign a finalist Sander! Its truly a hard work to get in there! Glad you did it!
I pretty much like a lot your class thematically, it has very good flavour, pretty considerable comparing other´s (Except Nurgling), wich can be decisive maybe... but the more that values is the concept and balance... that´s it.
The sets look overall VERY solid, reinforces a lot the concept of the class, but the ones that I like the most is LoE and TGT.
My Favourite Cards:
Flame Wyrm: Solid flavour around there! It follows pretty well thematically off Mana Wyrm, I like it! Its a pretty solid card!
Firelands Turtle: idk why I love these kind of cards, might be as I made one pretty similar before for a class.. but gosh... it looks SO AWESOME!
Uninvited Guest: Good concept, that´s it.. is that its just so good! No more words!
Cards that would require balance/wording:
Prince Safaron: I understand that is a Legendary... but it could get out of control quickly.. well, that escalated quickly.. you should make it a 4/4 or 5/5 maybe... not changing its effect though... it would be pretty Up and hard to get.
Weapon Thief: Honestly... this is UP.. interesting though... but could be perfectly have vanilla stats as its a class card, additionaly of beign a tech card like Mind Control Tech, I would make it a 4/3.
Flaming Guest: This card feels pretty UP, as its a 2/4 by itself at the end of your turn with a drawback, its similar to Fel Orc Soulfiend, so honestly I would increase its health a bit, not too much.. like a 2/6 or 2/7..
Power of the Worgen: "Give your Hero +3 Attack until the end of the turn" unless you got anti-5-lined squad... just a small detail.
Firelands Wisp: Forgetting a Battlecry/Deathrattle
Bariton Flame: Should be worded "After this minion attacks, deal damage equal to this minion´s attack to all other enemies" If not, it will look to strong.. a 4/6.
Also... you putted WOTOG on MSOG set and LOE on ONIK set instead XD.
Thanks. Fixed the mistakes. I'm actually fine with the legendarily being a bit over the average powerlevel. I didn't want to have useless legendaries in this class. Most legendaries in this class need to wait a turn before they do anything crazy so your opponent has time to deal with the legendary before you can even get value out of it. That's the reason why most legendaries in the current meta have battlecries. So I am fine with them having higher stats than what we often see in legendaries.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I didn't have a signature so Flux added one for me.
THE FLAME WIELDER
Class Introduction
Long ago King Nafaron and his followers were banished to the Firelands.
In the Firelands King Nafaron swore allegiance to Ragnaros.
In return the Firelord gave them the power to Wield the Flame.
But such power does not come without a price.
In the depths of the Firelands they deformed
and one by one they became monsters and beasts.
First I'd like to say that it has been a lot of fun to participate in this Competition and I am really happy and excited that I made it to the finals. I never thought that I could create a class that so many people would like. Everybody that voted for my entry in previous phases- Thank You! It has been a lot of fun to compete against so many awesome entries. Also big thanks to Asylum for setting this whole competition up and to everybody who gave my class feedback in discussion threads. I wouldn't have gotten so far without your help. Now lets dive into what my class is about!
Hero Power
Flame Wielder's Hero Power is flexible. In some sense it's a mix of Rouge's and Hunter's hero power. Fiery Sword can attack the enemy hero to deal 2 damage in total or it can attack a minion for 1 damage and also deal 1 damage to the enemy hero. Because the Hero Power is so flexible and can be just as powerful as Hunter's hero power I made sure that my class wouldn't become aggro focused. I didn't create a lot of spells that can attack the enemy hero and instead created a lot of control focused cards. I also made sure that the hero power wouldn't become the main focus of this class. I wanted the hero power to feel like an extra tool and not something you HAVE to use to win the game.
Magma Rager Synergy
Because this class is themed around flames and fire I saw an opportunity to make Magma Rager deck viable. I created multiple cards that buff and summon Magma Ragers. I obviously didn't want to make too many Magma Rager cards because every class needs diversity and if Magma Ragers would have been the only thing my class revolves around.. well it wouldn't be interesting at all. After I showcased and somewhat finished the Magma Rager theme in Basic and Classic set I moved on to different themes like Board-state Buffs.
Board-State Buffs
Some cards in this class get buffed based on how many minions your opponent has. The idea is to force your opponent to play fewer but more powerful minions instead of flooding the board with cheap minions. These cards can often turn the game around in your favor. They are not extremely powerful when your opponent only has 1-2 minions. The reason for that is that I wanted to make sure that you weren't punished for having few minions on the board. Cards with board-state buffs should only be punishing when you have 3 or more minions on the board so you'd have a chance to play around these cards.
Dragon Synergy
Similar to Magma Rager synergy, I added dragon synergy because it made a lot of sense thematically. Most of the dragon synergy is already in the neutral set so I didn't have to add too many dragon cards to this class. I didn't want dragons to become the focus of this class nor it feel like a twisted clone of Priest, so I kept the amount of dragon synergy fairly low in this class.
Boardclears
At its core Flame Wielder is a control class and every control class needs good and interesting AOEs. I wanted Flame Wielders boardclears to feel different. When it comes to boardclears the Flame Wielder has a lot of options to choose from. You can either use Flaming Arrows that is more straight forwards and less dependent on the state of the board, or you can use Burn them all that can deal more damage but with a downside of damaging your own minions, or you can play Chaos from Below and calculate and plan every attack carefully for maximum efficiency.
Surviving as the Flame Wielder
When you play a control deck you also need to survive until the late game. Flame wielder has a lot of options when it comes to surviving. It can either gain armor, summon taunt minions or even stop minions from being able to attack heroes.
Early game control and tempo
Early game is one of the most important part of the game, especially in the current meta. It's important to have many options in the early game to deal with aggro decks or just tech-ing against a specific archetype. Flame wielder has a lot of options. You can play big minions to control the board, reduce the cost of cards in your hand or you can tech against a specific decks like secret decks or weapon-heavy deck. I stayed away from creating a lot of powerful 1-2 cost minions that can attack the enemy hero because of the Hero Power. I didn't want flame wielder to become another aggro class so instead I decided to create cheap control cards.
Conclusion
Flame Wielder gives you a lot of options and themes to play with. It doesn't force you to play a specific type of deck. Instead it gives you the tools and lets you figure out what you want to do with them. I'm sure that there are tons of combos that even I haven't noticed in my class yet. When I designed the cards for this Class I focused on creating fun cards that fit together thematically, I didn't limit myself with creating just one mechanic and sticking with it the whole competition. I created one card at a time and I never had a full idea of what this class will do in the end. Each new round of this competition was like a new adventure, exploring new and interesting ideas and combing them with mechanics and ideas from previous rounds.
Full list of cards:
Basic Set:
Classic Set:
BrM and TGT:
BrM:
TGT:
Upgraded Hero Power:
LOE and WOTOG:
LOE:
WOTOG:
Kara and MSOG:
MSOG:
Crime Family: Grimy Goons
Kara:
Homage to my fellow finalists:
I didn't have a signature so Flux added one for me.
BY FIRE BE PURGED!Congratulations on beign a finalist Sander! Its truly a hard work to get in there! Glad you did it!
I pretty much like a lot your class thematically, it has very good flavour, pretty considerable comparing other´s (Except Nurgling), wich can be decisive maybe... but the more that values is the concept and balance... that´s it.
The sets look overall VERY solid, reinforces a lot the concept of the class, but the ones that I like the most is LoE and TGT.
My Favourite Cards:
Flame Wyrm: Solid flavour around there! It follows pretty well thematically off Mana Wyrm, I like it! Its a pretty solid card!
Firelands Turtle: idk why I love these kind of cards, might be as I made one pretty similar before for a class.. but gosh... it looks SO AWESOME!
Uninvited Guest: Good concept, that´s it.. is that its just so good! No more words!
Cards that would require balance/wording:
Prince Safaron: I understand that is a Legendary... but it could get out of control quickly..
well, that escalated quickly..you should make it a 4/4 or 5/5 maybe... not changing its effect though... it would be pretty Up and hard to get.Weapon Thief: Honestly... this is UP.. interesting though... but could be perfectly have vanilla stats as its a class card, additionaly of beign a tech card like Mind Control Tech, I would make it a 4/3.
Flaming Guest: This card feels pretty UP, as its a 2/4 by itself at the end of your turn with a drawback, its similar to Fel Orc Soulfiend, so honestly I would increase its health a bit, not too much.. like a 2/6 or 2/7..
Power of the Worgen: "Give your Hero +3 Attack until the end of the turn" unless you got anti-5-lined squad... just a small detail.
Firelands Wisp: Forgetting a Battlecry/Deathrattle
Bariton Flame: Should be worded "After this minion attacks, deal damage equal to this minion´s attack to all other enemies" If not, it will look to strong.. a 4/6.
Also... you putted WOTOG on MSOG set and LOE on ONIK set instead XD.
Hope you do well on the competition!
You´ll be not prepared!The joke is you.
Thanks. Fixed the mistakes. I'm actually fine with the legendarily being a bit over the average powerlevel. I didn't want to have useless legendaries in this class. Most legendaries in this class need to wait a turn before they do anything crazy so your opponent has time to deal with the legendary before you can even get value out of it. That's the reason why most legendaries in the current meta have battlecries. So I am fine with them having higher stats than what we often see in legendaries.
I didn't have a signature so Flux added one for me.
@SanderNightsite Very nice work mate!Really good artwork there and simple cards imo with nice card text and abilities :)
There are some op cards imo but it's ok..We can assume a bit of a nerf or move to HoF in the future :P
Keep it up!
Cheers.
“Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.”
― Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Poems of Passion
Wow this art is amazing man! You did an awesome job, there are some really cool cards in here.
Good Luck!
When I die, I want to go peacefully and in my sleep like my Grandpa. Not yelling and screaming like the passengers in his car.
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. =)