Welcome to Gilneas! A once prosperous city, now corrupted by a mysterious curse.
Every Night, When the moon comes out, many of the villagers reveal their true nature- And become Worgens, Ghosts, Giant Bats and other brutal monstrosities. The city will surely be lost soon, and its inhabitants will lose their humanity forever, if it wasn't for the Gilnean Vigil- a group of townsfolk, determined to clear their beloved city from the horrors that now lurk within it. The Vigil is brave, but they are bound to discover that evil lurks in some... unusual places.
The Mechanics! :
* Vigil versus Horrors- Gilneas is divided between the Brave vigil and the evil horrors that come out when the moon is bright. The 9 classes are divided between those two groups (Kind of like in Mean Streets of Gadgetzan). Each Group has its own unique mechanic (Vigil and Shapeshift) which only cards from that group have. Additionally, there are unique neutral cards that belong to only one of the two groups (Like Kazakus-for the Kabal).
Vigil classes: Hunter, Paladin, Mage and Shaman
Horror classes: Druid, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior and Priest.
* The Vigil mechanic (Called Vigil)- Cards with Vigil will have additional effects when played, if your hero took damage during the last turn.
When you play the Misty Ranger, for example, you can deal 2 damage to an enemy if your hero took damage during your opponent's last turn.
* Hero cards- Every Vigil class legendary is a playable hero card- just like in Knights of the Frozen Throne.
* The Horror mechanic (Called Shapeshift)- Some villagers of Gilneas are corrupted, and if you do a specific thing will reveal their true nature. Shapeshift works like a quest- complete the threshold while the minion is alive to transform it into a much scarier version.
If you deal 10 damage to the enemy hero while the Fierce Berserker is alive, you can transform it into a dangerous worgen!
For the cards:
Vigil
Horrors
Neutral Commons
Neutral Rares
Neutral Epics
Neutral Legendaries
Hunter
Paladin
Mage
Shaman
Druid
Priest
Rogue
Warlock
Warrior
That is it guys! I worked very hard on making this expansion, and I really hope you like it :) Please comment below and tell me what you think.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Some of my creations are below, sorted from new to old
I really like the Shapeshift mechanic. I wonder how the transformation card would be conveyed to the player? I'm thinking of other cards that do something that the player doesn't get to see first (like Kazzakus) but those are few in number and at high rarities like legendary. Since shapeshift is on many cards and at rarities like common there would need to be a way to see it.
Maybe hovering over the card could show the transformation next to it, along with the exact progress number. For tracking the progress at a quick glance there could be a new icon where things like lifesteal usually go - an icon of a moon that slowly fills until the transformation is complete, which it then glows like a full moon.
Also for your legendaries I think you should definitely try to use Warcraft characters. There would be more emotional attachment to the cards.
Brilliant work! you definitely put a ton of effort into this and it shows, very cool set with some super cool concepts!
I agree that Vigil seems a bit powerful, especially when paired against shapeshift which sounds super fun and interesting, but with a lot more counters than Vigil has.
That being said I think this is a brilliant set and I particularly love the Paladin and Priest cards but I also might be biased towards those two classes.
About Shapeshift: I think it should be presented like Quests if hovered on. It will show the shapeshifted version of the card, as well as the progression to achiving it.
About Vigil: I agree that its a worse mechanic than Shapeshift. Early in development it was: "If a friendly minion died this turn, do something", but then i decided to go with the current version. It defenitely needs some more work, I think.
And Batterskull124, I really enjoyed your review, as the opinion of someone that havent made the cards is much less biased than my opinion :P I would love you to review some more cards!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Some of my creations are below, sorted from new to old
You know, I think you could rebalance the classes between Vigil/Horror to make it evenly split. I think Warrior could be "half-moved" to be a Vigil class, given it's the class most frequently associated with self damage through weapon use. That is, you would then have 5 classes in Vigil and 5 classes in Horror, with Warrior having an equal number of Vigil and Shapeshift cards.
After looking at all the art, and transforming stuff, I was wondering whether this was inspired by the mtg expansion with all this init. That later got transformed by the elderazi sorta? (Forgot what it was called?)
Absolutely incredible work overall, and I'd say I especially love how you handled the control theme of Hunter. Exploit Weakness is my favorite individual card idea, but I would probably make it cost (1) instead of (2) to make it playable against aggro decks.
I rarely read through fanmade expansions, but you caught my eye with the Innistrad theme. Overall, I think it is a well designed set. Like the people above me, l have a problem with Vigil. Shapeshift seems very hard to pull off on a lot of cards, but this is probably how Hearthstone would handle MTG’s Transform mechanic.
Vigil Cards: There are some good tools provided here. Despite being a faction, you made Vigil seem more like a utility mechanic rather than it having some clear synergies amongst the classes. I was really expecting something along the lines of “draw a card for each Vigil triggered this game” or another card that just gave a reason to run a bunch of Vigil minions. Even a discover card for a Shaman, Mage, Paladin, or Hunter card with Vigil would’ve been nice.
Slayer of Worgens: Maybe good in arena. Cycling on big minions isn’t all that flexible. Misty Ranger: Good card for introducing the mechanic. Might be good in midrange. Coppice Patrol: Could replace Novice Engineer in combo decks. Last Lookout: Good flavour and design. Wording feels a bit awkward; it should be “while you control no other minions.” Midnight Survivors: It requires at least two enemy minions to have a fair stat line. Considering how easy Vigil is to enable, this card is good. Watch Holder: I think you’re underestimating what raising the mana cost by 1 can do to a card. This card hits every deck in the game, and I think that’s too much flexibility for a card meant to slow down aggression. I’d limit it to minions that cost (2) or less. Jerrana the Second: You are required to take at least 5 damage for this card to compete with Arcanosmith, and being a legendary makes this even less reliable. It has potential, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it fell flat.
Horror Cards: I think there are too many cards in here. It feels like the cards don’t do too much to express the nightmares the inhabitants of Gilneas have to deal with on a daily basis when compared to the neutral cards. Cards like Cornered Worgen and Wounded Worgen could easily have been moved to the neutral card pool. Something that discovered a Shapeshift minion from the Horror classes could’ve helped to tie the faction together.
Embracer of Darkness: Nearly all of the Shapeshift cards are difficult to pull off. This card will see experimentation if Shapeshift is good. Meek Bat: Since Bat Lord is absolutely insane, it might spawn some kind of Lifesteal token deck that uses Deadscale Knight and other cheap Lifesteal cards. It is one of the two cards in this set that I think actually has a good Shapeshift clause. Very good card. Maybe buff it to a 2/4. Moon Cultist: This card is one of the many hard to pull off Shapeshifts. It is hard to get a 3 mana 3/3 to survive very long when played on curve, and that gets even harder the longer the game goes on. I’d make it 2 turns and weaken the Moon Hunter to a 5/4. Prey Hunter: Very cool concept. I like it. Cornered Worgen: Good in arena. Ageblessed Grandmother: Wording is unclear. If two enemy minions have to choose to attack the grandmother, the card is horrible. If it is more along the lines of “survive damage from minions twice”, then there is a sliver of hope for this card. Would be interesting if Ageless Horror had charge. Wounded Worgen: Very fun card. A reasonable challenge for a really interesting reward. I doubt it will work in constructed but I think it is fine for this to exist. Hilarious way to kill Freeze Mage. Spiller of Blood: The text should be worded like Shaku, the Collector. I feel this card was meant to have Lifesteal but you cut it off to fit the text better. Fix the text, add in Lifesteal, and this card would be amazing. Missing Legendary: Where’s the horror legendary? The moon cult leader? The guy who makes Shapeshift minions enter the battlefield Shapeshifted? This set is like 35% worgens, 35% crazy mages, and 30% everything else. Where are the zombies, the cannibals, the swamp monsters, the giant centipedes, and the demon octopi? I guess I’ll have to hope for Shadows over Gilneas to deliver my 7 headed vampire frog.
Neutral Commons:
Master of Keys: Alright in arena. Silent Doorguard: The anti-aggro card all budget players would turn to. Gilnean Nobles: Should be worded like Tomb Pillager. This card is horribly weak, and I’m not even comparing it to the grossly overpowered Bonemare. It should give something alongside the The Coin, such as some health to your hero. Guardian of Jerrana: A Harvest Golem with the stats arranged around and Taunt being thrown in. Would’ve seen play a long time ago. Howling Packmate: The game gives no way to plan out future draws. The level of inconsistency with this card is too much to warrant constructed level play. Dark Hour Smith: This card goes in line with Tuskarr Fisherman. A good effect but it comes out rather awkwardly. Between the four weapon classes, Paladins are the only ones who can mildly abuse this. Lifelong Gatekeeper: This might be the defensive taunt Deathrattle Rogue has been looking for. I would’ve made Eternal Gatekeeper a 1/4 as well. Blood Wolf: Enrage decks could be a budget fun deck for many with this card. Grim Bat: A good buff target. Would see experimentation, although I don’t think it will work. Survivor of the Night: Cool effect. Zoolock might play this. The card tells a really dark story. Aqueduct Fugitive: Almost powercreep on Oasis Snapjaw. Still unplayable. Horrific Scavenger: I can see it consistently as a 5/3 minimum. This card is good. Dawnbreak Healer: This card is on the power level of Antique Healbot. Would either change it to “to your hero” or change the stats to a 1/1. This card is too flexible as a neutral heal. Brave Commoner: I’ve wanted to see a 1 mana 4/1 for a while. Axeleaper: A card that helps with preserving weapon charges and health. If only… 1) Leeching Poison was 1 mana 2) Runeforge Haunter had 4 Health 3) Doomerang preserved the weapon’s buffs 4) Spectral Pillager wasn’t a waste of space …then we’d have a good card for Weapon Rogue. Grim Salesword: If the name was changed to “Sellsword” it would make more sense. Even as a neutral common, this card is boring. Could’ve made it more exciting by making it a 5 mana 4/6 “If three or more friendly minions died last turn, gain Stealth and Lifesteal.” Sewer Artisan: I’d be curious to see what aggro deck runs this. Shrouding Crowd: Cool card for Zoolock, but you have to be careful with these stat-lines. This minion has the highest Health stat of all 1 drops and almost all 2 drops. When designing cards, I always keep in mind what Inner Fire and Divine Spirit can combo off of. Lady of Moonlight: This card could maybe go into a budget Pain Warrior deck. I don’t usually care too much about artwork but Lady of Moonlight and Moon Cultist are too similar. I’d rename Moon Cultist to Lady of Moonlight and overhaul this card’s theme. Emergency Force: If Darkshire Councilman was made neutral, this is what it would be. Empty Colossus: A really good card to Taunt up. I still doubt it would see any play outside of arena. Vampire Knight: Horrible, but we need some weak cards in sets to up the satisfaction from pulling a good card. Shaking Carriage: Flavour makes no sense. How is the carriage providing life? Why is it shaking? The art makes it look like its harbouring some magical batteries or something. The card is fine. Gloomrider: A tech card against Priest? This card is competing with Streetwise Investigator for having the most niche tech effect in the game. If it were instead “Enemy characters can’t be healed”, then we’d have some speculation from the community.
Neutral Rares:
Ghastly Retriver: You spelled retriever wrong. Lakkari Sacrifice decks would be interested in this, but the mana cost and stats might make things difficult. This could’ve been 4 mana or a 4/5. Doomed Clocktower: This card is horribly boring. It's slow, can’t trade, and will be ignored by your opponent 90% of the time. This card could’ve easily been something really interesting like “At the beginning of your turn, deal two damage to this minion. Deathrattle: Destroy all minions”. Such a card is thematically more entertaining, AND could enable Control Hunter with Play Dead. Hopeseeker: Like Hadronox, its a slow effect your opponent can choose to delay, but it’s even worse than Hadronox because the Deathrattle only triggers if your opponent has a board AFTER trading it off. What good is a heal if it requires putting yourself in a weaker position? Stalkgeist: Shade of Naxxramas was a good card. This is a weaker Shade, but with a more defensive starting body. It can maybe be used in Zoo. Stubborn Elder: I don’t think anyone wants to play a lacklustre minion twice. Possibly good in arena. Whispering Ghost: Should be “Whenever the opponent ends their turn”. Also the card is alright in control mirrors. Temporary Leader: Quest Paladin could use this. Ghost Council: Street Trickster taught us that a minion who’s only use is as a Spell Damage bearer is not good. This minion is similar, but with a better body and a way to defend itself. I won’t call this card bad, but the Spell Damage synergy deck does not exist yet. Shameless Burglar: The clause is too generous for what it does. Cards should also have focus in what they want to do. Either make it a secret being revealed this turn or last turn, but not both. You could up the stat line to a 4/6 that way. Black Cat: Interesting effect, but I don’t think it’s worthwhile in any deck, kind of like Weasel Tunneler. Monument of Despair: This card’s design makes little sense. A taunt minion that can’t attack but provides a very strong tempo effect means your opponent will want to kill it. Since it can’t hide behind another Taunt, your only hope is to buff it to maintain the effect. Dropping the Taunt and stats to a 0/5 might be better. I’d still be wary of making the next Mechwarper. Detective Crew: Insane in any handbuff deck. Would change it to “a friendly minion” for better balance. Coal Gargoyle: Cool control card. Forsaken Smith: People like removal effects that are cheap. Harrison Jones does its job better for less mana.
Neutral Epics:
Haunted Armory: This is a very fun card. The flavour is also perfect. Just a bunch of weapons moving around inside the armory. One just happens to fly by your face every turn. Arrested Fighter: The fighter escapes amongst the chaos. Love the flavour. Also pushes for that Shapeshift synergy deck. Now if we could just find some good Shapeshifts. Messenger of Kaddos: “Deal” should not be capitalized. I find Iron Juggernaut effects rather dangerous. Since Hearthstone has no way to manipulate draws, this card can easily give a win out of thin air. It’s the same reason why Ancient Shade was not played. Canary Vendor: This card enforces a lot of randomness. I’ll let it go because I think Big Priest is a hilarious deck but thematically I don’t like it. The vendor sells canaries, so it would make much more sense if it could only supply a minion from your deck that costed (4) or less, or something else more canary-like. Bound Soul: Would only see play in control decks that would taunt it up with Sunfury Protector. Eternal Commander: I really don’t know if this is healthy design for the game. I mean sure it’s a cool effect, but now Hearthstone will have to draw a line between what is a token and what is not. That can get iffy with cards that transform…such as many of the Shapeshift cards. Grim Underminer: That’s a really powerful effect on a decent body with an easy to trigger Deathrattle. This card would be very hard to deal with. I would prefer a trickier death related clause. Hopeless Alchemist: Would need to see this in practice. Definitely powerful. Geist fodder: Not sure if this is the synergy card that could spark a Spell Damage deck, but people would die trying. I think you wanted the wording to be “if you control a minion with spell damage” as otherwise, this card only works with Jungle Moonkin.
Neutral Legendaries:
Batmaster Kaddos: Extremely powerful effect, with some setup required. This could easily bring back Zoolock. The Ghost Council: Might want to name this something different, considering how it’s very close to the Magic card its named after as well as a neutral rare in the set. The card really makes Canary Vendor seem like a broken card. Gadgetzan Auctioneer was already good, and this card does its job even better. Definitely should raise its cost to 10 mana. Vikaro: A conceptually similar Gruul. Gruul is one of those cards that if scaled down, would become very good. This card is close to that, although I can’t tell whether or not having another minion be the source of the buff is a good or bad thing. I will say that like Gruul, the effect does not feel very legendary. I would scrap this card and give the Horror faction the legendary they’re missing. Driatov Loss: At some point in Hearthstone, this card will enable a busted combo. Until that day comes, I have no idea how this card would perform. Doctor Knitos: Shenanigans. That is all. Mayor Jerrana: “while this was in your hand” is better wording. A card like this requires players to track the opponent’s hand. Shares similar problems with Bolvar Fordragon, but the low and high end of this card are significantly better. Amazing flavour.
Hunter: You got enough Control Hunter cards correct to probably push the deck through. Can’t say the same about the midrange cards like Soul Fox and Liaga Mox.
Ox Rider: The most broken vigil card in the set. If it were changed to something more reasonable, the card could even be given Taunt. Just try to find me a 5 mana charge without a garbage stat line or significant downside that can be consistently played on curve. Just try. Copper Wolf: A defensive threat that would be in many Control/Midrange Hunter decks had Ox Rider not existed. Changing Vigil could allow for this to be a 5/6. Twin Arrows: It’s a fair card on its own. The Vigil might make it playable. If Yogg-Saron, Hope's End had not been nerfed, this card would a 2 of in every single Yogg and Load deck. Dissident’s Crossbow: Hard removal in Hunter? I feel this card was meticulously balanced at 6 mana to prevent midrange decks from taking both this and Savannah Highmane. Very good card. Soul Fox: Interesting midrange design. Had it been a 3 mana 1/3, I think it would be more playable. The effect might be too slow but I’d give it a shot. Watch Dog: This set contains what would be Hearthstone’s first neutral 2 mana 2/3 Taunt. Is providing a bit of information about your opponent’s draws worth the class card bonus? I’d have upped the ante and had it reveal the mana cost of all cards drawn by the opponent (while barking as the effect-trigger noise) to really make it stand out. Sniper Position: If Control Hunter failed with a card like this existing, I’d blame the community for lacking creativity. Brilliant design from all angles. Really shows how much better Dinomancy would’ve been at 1 mana. Moonlight Avenger: The issue with this card is that its worthless against minions who are useful just by staying alive (Ysera, Murloc Warleader, anything with an aura, etc.). A 5/5 stealth is nice, but the effect could be better. Liaga Mox: I try to stay level headed when I see cheap hero cards since I know they can’t carry insane effects. That said, Liaga’s battlecry is just underwhelming. The hero power is summoning a one drop on average, which isn’t all that great for an aggressive hero card. Neither effect feels very raven-y. I’d rather have his battlecry summon a bunch of 1/1 ravens and have a hero power that tutored up spells from the deck or something. Ravens are very smart birds that make use of tools. Let them fetch tools for Liaga every turn.
Paladin: A lot of variety, although control seems to gain the best cards. The cards capture the theme of Gilneas being a place full of despair, with the common-folk desperately trying to find some hope in the nightmare infested town.
Coordinated Assault: This is a very good removal option for flood paladin decks. If this reads the way I think it does, a minion can take up to 1 damage 7 times. Expect to see a Trolden clip of someone getting milled out via Acolyte of Pain. The art makes no sense. Protect Gilneas: The average case of Protect the King!. If it were three 1/1 minions with Divine Shield, we’d be looking at the card to finally make Divine Shield Paladin a working deck. Vigilance: If it were two mana it could be amazing. At 3 mana I don’t think it has a chance in any deck other than Quest Paladin. Taut Watcher: The stat line on this minion could easily be upped to a 3/5 or a 2/6 with the trickiness of the clause. You could even tack on +1/+1 when it's alone. The “your only minion” clause is a great theme that is underused in this expansion. Desperate Angel: Another reason to change Vigil. Obsidian Statue makes it very clear why this card is busted. I am shocked that you didn’t use Angel of Flight Alabaster’s art. Torch of Revolt: This is pretty much what a good 2 mana weapon should look like. Between this, Desperate Angel, and maybe One Last Miracle, there is a very powerful Control Paladin Deck brewing. Bring to Light: Epic tech cards tend to annoy the community as they represent a huge dust investment for something that you only run if the meta calls for it (see Hungry Crab). This would be the best anti-secret card in the game. One Last Miracle: The potential to gain a lot of life while dealing a ton of damage is powerful, but for 4 mana, I can guarantee a board clear with Equality + Consecration. If the Vigil was a bit crazier (something like “this costs (1) less and has Lifesteal”) it would definitely see play. Kalaziel: It should be “had” instead of “have” on both the hero card and power. Radiance is self-explanatory enough to not need the Vigil keyword. You can maybe get off a big heal, but unless you had a board presence, you’re probably taking even more damage the following turn. Radiance is a very fun hero power that your opponent is forced to play around, but it might be difficult to make use of.
Mage: A lot of great secret synergy cards are introduced. A strong and fun secret mage that wasn’t so much a spinoff of burn mage could exist with these cards present.
Seeker of Answers: Had Vigil been weaker this card would’ve still been good. For as long as Ice Block is in standard, Blizzard would not print this card. Torchfire: So 3 mana deal 6 to a minion. Woohoo. Spellhand: I think this card is good. Granted, I only think it is good because Geist Fodder is amazing. A great budget card for new players. Master of Ravens: Now this card makes better use of ravens than Liaga Mox does. It would require a deck tracker to play with, and it will usually whiff until the late game. I’d like to see what combos people come up with. Enigmatic Wanderer: This is what Ethereal Arcanist wishes it was. Very good card. Conjure Nemesis: A tricky card to play but it definitely has a lot of applications. Cold Echo: Very weak. No one wants to pay 6 mana to Freeze 4 enemy minions when they can Freeze all enemy minions for 3 mana. If it were 2 mana I still don’t think it would be good. Follow the Clues: This really asks for the construction of a secret deck. I think it functions better than Glacial Mysteries. Extremely powerful. Investigator Karan: This is exactly what a 3 mana Hero card should look like. This card is amazing, and has a high skill cap. Story-wise Karan is is screwed.
Shaman: You might’ve created the cards needed to get a Freeze Shaman shell to work. Vronn is incredible.
Wrathful Vigilante: It’s decent. If Vigil were nerfed, this is one of the few vigil cards that becomes considerably worse. Soil Cryer: This is s a 4 mana 4/9. The only reason it’s not completely busted is because stat distribution isn’t too great. I still want Vigil changed. Ancestral Wolf: Its trigger won’t happen until late game most likely. Control Shaman might use this. Spirit Shackle: Double the copy with Moorabi. This is a very good card. Magma Punisher: 4 mana 6/6. No thanks. Elemental Defense: Servant of Kalimos is still a very good card. Taking only the effect for 2 mana is good. Removing the requirement is great. The Vigil on top is ludicrous. Chilly Entrapment: I’ve been waiting for Hearthstone to introduce an effect that limited the number of minions on board. Chilly Entrapment might just give Freeze Shaman the defensive trick it needed. It is just a shame that the Water Elemental effect was not on Brrrloc. Incinerate the Pack: Very cool effect. I’d like to see where this would take Control Shaman. Vronn the Seeker: This fits in every single Shaman deck. There is absolutely no reason to not run it. Would be broken if Shaman had more extreme Overloads.
Druid: The Lifesteal theme is pretty cool. Really showed the bloodthirsty side of worgens and a bit of their pack mentality. Would definitely make for some fun theme decks.
Beastly Hunger: Questionable strength. It’s a shame Hearthstone doesn’t cycle cards in and out of the classic set. I’d like to see how Druid would use this if Wrath was gone for a standard cycle. Brawny Worgen: This is blatant powercreep. This card should not be made. Mass Shapehshift: A Token Druid finisher. Would need to see this in practice to see how it performs. I will say that with Ultimate Infestation existing, some kind of Ramp Token Druid featuring Pilfered Power could happen. Hungering Pack: I really like the theme of this card. The pack can be absolutely neutered by killing off the rest of the Druid’s board. Really makes Blood Queen Lana'Thel look horrible. Brutalize: The second option is really weak. People would just stick with Swipe. I’d scrap this design and make something else. Domestic Cat: Terrible. Should’ve been “Shapeshift: Gain Armor 2 times”. Wreck the Town: Out of all the things it destroys, Druids are only affected by the Armor loss. It’s strong. Tonight we Feast: “Mark” in this case is just “give all enemies Deathrattle:”. I do not see the point in giving the enemy hero a Deathrattle. The doesn’t really work as a Choose One card. Both effects are just healing that depends on who has more minions. I’d rather have seen the card only have one of the effects and cost 3 mana. Rokki the Veterinarian: The Shapeshift will never happen. Rokki is dead on sight due to the power of the Shapeshift, and your only hope to attack 5 times with a beast is when you already have 5 beasts on board, which if that is the case, why not just play Savage Roar and end the game?
Priest: I absolutely love how you put Priest on the Horror side of the expansion. Even the curators are among the monsters that plague Gilneas. Mind control effects are annoying to play against, especially in arena.
Curious Experimenter: It won’t live long enough to Shapeshift. The Shapeshift isn’t very good either. Would’ve changed the requirement to “Target two enemy minions with spells” and changed Soul Tormentor to have an effect more concerned with the early game. Something like “At the end of your turn, gain control of all minions with 1 or less Attack.” would’ve been cool. Dark Command: I’m assuming it gives Charge. Would need to see it in practice, but I would drop it down to 8 mana. Since Blizzard only nerfs, it’s safer to make something potentially op than risk making a bad card. Shadow Shaper: Good card. Ghost Walk: May RNG be with you. Odds are people will try this in Big Priest, and then realize it doesn’t do too much for the deck and get rid of it. If it were a Discover effect instead of random, then there could be some interesting applications. Maddening Shade: The design should’ve had a bit more counter-play. Restricting the minion taken to only have an even mana cost or attack value or something a bit trickier would be good. Just going to say this will hit a taunt 90% of the time. Good card. Gravemist: Extremely powerful anti aggro card. Essentially prevents damage for a turn in the early game. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this get nerfed to -2 Attack. Rip Spirit: This card can do so much in Silence Priest as well as Priest in general. I really want to see someone silence The Lich King and then put the effect on a Stealth minion. Wings of Dusk: Get this off on any Deathrattle and expect a ton of value. Adova, the Lone Light: Spelled marked wrong on Adova, the Lone Death. Criminally weak for the tempo loss it generates. It also lacks that wow factor most legendaries have. A potential fix could be a 4 mana 2/7 “Lifesteal. Whenever this minion deals damage to another minion, Bless it. Shapeshift: Bless 3 minions.” And on the Shapeshifted minion, a 5 mana 2/7 “At the end of your turn, gain control of all Blessed minions.” Would’ve really driven the horror aspect of the card home while solidifying Priest’s mind control theme in the set.
Rogue: Stealth Rogue looks very scary.
Midnight Feast: This is going to be played with Preparation every single time. Good card. Feral Assassin: It will get one trade in and then the opponent will have an easy time dealing with the weakened body. I’d rather just play Plague Scientist. I'd still keep it in the set. Undercity Scout: Lotus Assassin and Shadow Sensei would be part of a Stealth synergy deck featuring this card. Sheepnapper: Amazing art and flavour. Wording should be changed to “Return a minion to its owner’s hand”. Will involve a lot of tricky decision making. Shadow Hunter: The card should be written more intuitively; it’s a 4/5 stealth that gives your other Stealth minions +2 attack. That’s too much at 4 mana. The buff should be changed to +1/+1 at the very least. Thieves Guild Recruit: I don’t like this card. A 1 mana 1/1 Stealth is fairly worthless, but the Shapeshift has potential to give an absurd amount of coins. Since you can’t risk attacking with the 1/1, the minion just sits around until it dies to AoE or Shapeshifts. A lot of directions this card can go in, but if I were you, I’d do the following: 1) Make Thieves Guild Recruit a 1/3 2) Reduce the required Stealth minions to 2 3) Change Caught Recruit to a 2 mana 3/2 “Stealth. Deathrattle: Add a Coin to your hand for each friendly Stealth minion.” 4) Change the name of Caught Recruit because it still has Stealth Moonpath: The Stealth Rogue finisher. With only two Stealth minions played, you’re getting a 6 mana 9/9 Stealth in stats. I’ll let this card go because its a fun build around, but the intended combo of with Shadow Hunter scares me. Bloody Ringleader: Very strong card worded awkwardly. Should be “for each friendly minion with Stealth”. Rebel Leader Virkaza: I have so many problems with this card. First, the combo effect is extremely underwhelming. SI:7 Agent can pull it off thanks to a low mana cost, but on a higher costing minion there isn’t as much utility. A Fan of Knives effect would be more meaningful. Second, the Shapeshift. My god the Shapeshift. Virkaza will be dead before your next turn, and if by some miracle she’s alive, you need at least 5 cheap cards in your hand to maybe pull it off. Either the trigger should change to 4 cards or the stat line should go up to a 4/8. Virkaza is a great idea that was unrealistically designed.
Warlock: Warlock was a mixed bag. There’s a lot of great ideas in here but the Shapeshift cards were just so weak. There are a few useful tools for pre-existing Warlock archetypes but these cards fail to provide a clear theme of what Warlock was meant to do this expansion.
Send to Die: It enables a lot of the sacrifice effects that Warlock has been accumulating the past couple sets (Sanguine Reveler, Ravenous Pterrordax, Unwilling Sacrifice). However, I am largely disappointed by how Gilneas did not introduce the huge sacrifice card that Warlock has been lacking. Something like discarding two cards, destroying 2 friendly minions, and losing 5 life in order to summon some insane demon would’ve really shown the insanity that awakens when the moon shines over Gilneas. City of Madness: Despite being a Warlock card, I still think this is over-costed. Make it 3 mana and we have a solid Discardlock card. Soulseller: Good luck pulling this off. Soulreaper isn’t very good either. Would be cool if he read “…the enemy hero takes that much damage instead”. Still think the Shapeshift could be knocked down to 4 damage and Soulreaper could be buffed to a 4/5. Exploit Weakness: Really cool hard removal. I like cards that require thinking. Fel Apprentice: The synergy needed for this card to work isn’t there. Discardlock really only runs Soulfire and discarding a bunch of low cost minions will mean the transformation will take forever. I would scrap this design and try again. Inner Evil: Cool buff. Now if only Shapeshift cards were good. Curse of Lycanthropy: I’d take Exploit Weakness over this card every single time. This is the card I’d take out to introduce a crazy sacrifice card. The Rose of Midnight: I mean it’s a nice tool to ensure you don’t discard what you want, but in truth, it just reads “this card is probably getting discarded first”. While I still think discard will never work as a consistent mechanic, you could’ve made this into a Silverware Golem type effect. Something like “When you play this or discard this, draw a card. It costs (2) less”. Sister Nakiv: A really cool spin off of Loatheb. If only Midrange Warlock was a thing.
Warrior: With the cards you’ve provided, the 12 health theme isn’t going to be something people will build decks around. Even more than Warlock, I don’t think there’s a clear cut deck Warrior is supposed to build here.
Fierce Berserker: Surprisingly, this actually leans towards the reasonable side of Shapeshift. However, I don’t think this card is good enough to compete with Kor'kron Elite, Phantom Freebooter, or Dread Corsair. I would make it 7 damage. Heavy Burden: I would like to see this played to figure out how good it is. I will say the prospect of drawing 4 cards off of Acolyte of Pain is enticing. Violent Meeting: I really liked how Revenge changed from a pain activator to a board clear when the Warrior dropped low enough. It’s a shame another card with a distinct duality has not been made yet. Nonetheless, this card is good. Bloodcraze: Great design. Would definitely go in a midrange pain warrior featuring Rotface and Val'kyr Soulclaimer. Hearty Blacksmith: This and Meek Bat are the only two Shapeshift cards that I believe are good. However, its design is still somewhat infuriating. Since the body is a 2/3 and the Shapeshift is decent, it will probably be dead in 2 turns. That means your choice is to either equip two weapons in quick succession, destroying the first without fully using it, or pray your opponent goes AFK. I’d have greatly preferred it be “Attack with a weapon 2 times”. You’ll occasionally get a broken opening with N'Zoth’s First Mate, but the 2/3 body can be dealt with by all classes. Iron Fists: Hearty Blacksmith was designed with the mindset that the player would destroy a cheap 1 mana or 2 mana weapon to equip Iron Fists right after. I’m here to tell you that will rarely be a good play, and that Iron Fists will almost never go off. Iron Claws is a good reward but Iron Fists themselves should’ve had a Battlecry of gaining Armor or something, considering how long you might be stuck waiting for the condition to activate. Might I add the flavour of this card is horrible? Small claws transform into bigger claws. Wow! Could’ve easily told the story of some Vigil hunter turning into a worgen and using his worgen claws to rip through steel and flesh. Enraging Moon: “Force a minion” is very awkward wording in this case. Also this is a broken design for a board clear. If your opponent has a big minion you punish them for playing a big minion by having it kill everything else. If you have a big minion you destroy the enemy’s board and then the defenseless enemy hero. Unforgiving: Now this is a cool 12 Health trigger card. Not sure what deck it goes in though. LastHowl: The concept is cool but you have to realize it flips the switch in your opponent’s head from “survive” to “face”. If it were a 6/4 with Lifesteal we’d be talking, but as it stands Lasthowl dies to too many things.
Some Closing Remarks:
Vigil: Its too easy to pull off. I don’t want to destroy the theme of the mechanic, but if I could change it, I would make it only do something only if your hero had 15 or less Health. That way, it acts as the aggro deterrent you intended. You could also consider "Do something if your hero took X amount of damage last turn" but I’m not sure what X would be. You could make it like Overload and have the amount vary between classes.
Themes: I think you failed to make use of everything Gilneas had to offer. Hunter, Paladin, Shaman, and Warlock were good but the rest of the classes didn't feel too different. I was expecting Mage to be filled with ghosts and detectives after looking at Geist Fodder and Karan. Priest should’ve had more mad clergymen instead of generic spell-casters like Shadow Shaper. I’m fine with Druid and Rogue showing off the different aspects of worgens, but outside of Lasthowl, I don’t think Warrior added anything. If you could go back and change the art and names of some of the cards, it would definitely help.
Well thats it for me. At the very least, I hope you fix the spelling mistakes and wording on the cards. Thanks for the read!
Welcome to Gilneas! A once prosperous city, now corrupted by a mysterious curse.
Every Night, When the moon comes out, many of the villagers reveal their true nature- And become Worgens, Ghosts, Giant Bats and other brutal monstrosities. The city will surely be lost soon, and its inhabitants will lose their humanity forever, if it wasn't for the Gilnean Vigil- a group of townsfolk, determined to clear their beloved city from the horrors that now lurk within it. The Vigil is brave, but they are bound to discover that evil lurks in some... unusual places.
The Mechanics! :
* Vigil versus Horrors- Gilneas is divided between the Brave vigil and the evil horrors that come out when the moon is bright. The 9 classes are divided between those two groups (Kind of like in Mean Streets of Gadgetzan). Each Group has its own unique mechanic (Vigil and Shapeshift) which only cards from that group have. Additionally, there are unique neutral cards that belong to only one of the two groups (Like Kazakus-for the Kabal).
Vigil classes: Hunter, Paladin, Mage and Shaman
Horror classes: Druid, Rogue, Warlock, Warrior and Priest.
* The Vigil mechanic (Called Vigil)- Cards with Vigil will have additional effects when played, if your hero took damage during the last turn.
When you play the Misty Ranger, for example, you can deal 2 damage to an enemy if your hero took damage during your opponent's last turn.
* Hero cards- Every Vigil class legendary is a playable hero card- just like in Knights of the Frozen Throne.
* The Horror mechanic (Called Shapeshift)- Some villagers of Gilneas are corrupted, and if you do a specific thing will reveal their true nature. Shapeshift works like a quest- complete the threshold while the minion is alive to transform it into a much scarier version.
If you deal 10 damage to the enemy hero while the Fierce Berserker is alive, you can transform it into a dangerous worgen!
For the cards:
Vigil
Horrors
Neutral Commons
Neutral Rares
Neutral Epics
Neutral Legendaries
Hunter
Paladin
Mage
Shaman
Druid
Priest
Rogue
Warlock
Warrior
That is it guys! I worked very hard on making this expansion, and I really hope you like it :) Please comment below and tell me what you think.
Some of my creations are below, sorted from new to old
Myths of the Pantheon -A card a day (on a break right now) -Full Moon of Gilneas -A Tale of Fairies - Dalaran Expansion 2 - The Dark Forest - Dalaran Expansion 1 - Pirate Expansion 2 - Pirate Expansion 1 - Spring of Kimjau -Seige at Orgimmar - Journeys Abound
someone?
Some of my creations are below, sorted from new to old
Myths of the Pantheon -A card a day (on a break right now) -Full Moon of Gilneas -A Tale of Fairies - Dalaran Expansion 2 - The Dark Forest - Dalaran Expansion 1 - Pirate Expansion 2 - Pirate Expansion 1 - Spring of Kimjau -Seige at Orgimmar - Journeys Abound
I really like the Shapeshift mechanic. I wonder how the transformation card would be conveyed to the player? I'm thinking of other cards that do something that the player doesn't get to see first (like Kazzakus) but those are few in number and at high rarities like legendary. Since shapeshift is on many cards and at rarities like common there would need to be a way to see it.
Maybe hovering over the card could show the transformation next to it, along with the exact progress number. For tracking the progress at a quick glance there could be a new icon where things like lifesteal usually go - an icon of a moon that slowly fills until the transformation is complete, which it then glows like a full moon.
Also for your legendaries I think you should definitely try to use Warcraft characters. There would be more emotional attachment to the cards.
Brilliant work! you definitely put a ton of effort into this and it shows, very cool set with some super cool concepts!
I agree that Vigil seems a bit powerful, especially when paired against shapeshift which sounds super fun and interesting, but with a lot more counters than Vigil has.
That being said I think this is a brilliant set and I particularly love the Paladin and Priest cards but I also might be biased towards those two classes.
Fuck Donald Trump
Thank you very much to everyone that commented!
About Shapeshift: I think it should be presented like Quests if hovered on. It will show the shapeshifted version of the card, as well as the progression to achiving it.
About Vigil: I agree that its a worse mechanic than Shapeshift. Early in development it was: "If a friendly minion died this turn, do something", but then i decided to go with the current version. It defenitely needs some more work, I think.
And Batterskull124, I really enjoyed your review, as the opinion of someone that havent made the cards is much less biased than my opinion :P I would love you to review some more cards!
Some of my creations are below, sorted from new to old
Myths of the Pantheon -A card a day (on a break right now) -Full Moon of Gilneas -A Tale of Fairies - Dalaran Expansion 2 - The Dark Forest - Dalaran Expansion 1 - Pirate Expansion 2 - Pirate Expansion 1 - Spring of Kimjau -Seige at Orgimmar - Journeys Abound
You know, I think you could rebalance the classes between Vigil/Horror to make it evenly split. I think Warrior could be "half-moved" to be a Vigil class, given it's the class most frequently associated with self damage through weapon use. That is, you would then have 5 classes in Vigil and 5 classes in Horror, with Warrior having an equal number of Vigil and Shapeshift cards.
please consider voting for my custom class in the fan creations competition :]
• TRIALS IN AUCHINDOUN - A Custom Hearthstone Adventure (4th Wing!) • New and Interesting Hearthstone Mechanics (by me!) •
After looking at all the art, and transforming stuff, I was wondering whether this was inspired by the mtg expansion with all this init. That later got transformed by the elderazi sorta? (Forgot what it was called?)
I exist, I think.
Absolutely incredible work overall, and I'd say I especially love how you handled the control theme of Hunter. Exploit Weakness is my favorite individual card idea, but I would probably make it cost (1) instead of (2) to make it playable against aggro decks.
I rarely read through fanmade expansions, but you caught my eye with the Innistrad theme. Overall, I think it is a well designed set. Like the people above me, l have a problem with Vigil. Shapeshift seems very hard to pull off on a lot of cards, but this is probably how Hearthstone would handle MTG’s Transform mechanic.
Vigil Cards: There are some good tools provided here. Despite being a faction, you made Vigil seem more like a utility mechanic rather than it having some clear synergies amongst the classes. I was really expecting something along the lines of “draw a card for each Vigil triggered this game” or another card that just gave a reason to run a bunch of Vigil minions. Even a discover card for a Shaman, Mage, Paladin, or Hunter card with Vigil would’ve been nice.
Slayer of Worgens: Maybe good in arena. Cycling on big minions isn’t all that flexible.
Misty Ranger: Good card for introducing the mechanic. Might be good in midrange.
Coppice Patrol: Could replace Novice Engineer in combo decks.
Last Lookout: Good flavour and design. Wording feels a bit awkward; it should be “while you control no other minions.”
Midnight Survivors: It requires at least two enemy minions to have a fair stat line. Considering how easy Vigil is to enable, this card is good.
Watch Holder: I think you’re underestimating what raising the mana cost by 1 can do to a card. This card hits every deck in the game, and I think that’s too much flexibility for a card meant to slow down aggression. I’d limit it to minions that cost (2) or less.
Jerrana the Second: You are required to take at least 5 damage for this card to compete with Arcanosmith, and being a legendary makes this even less reliable. It has potential, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it fell flat.
Horror Cards: I think there are too many cards in here. It feels like the cards don’t do too much to express the nightmares the inhabitants of Gilneas have to deal with on a daily basis when compared to the neutral cards. Cards like Cornered Worgen and Wounded Worgen could easily have been moved to the neutral card pool. Something that discovered a Shapeshift minion from the Horror classes could’ve helped to tie the faction together.
Embracer of Darkness: Nearly all of the Shapeshift cards are difficult to pull off. This card will see experimentation if Shapeshift is good.
Meek Bat: Since Bat Lord is absolutely insane, it might spawn some kind of Lifesteal token deck that uses Deadscale Knight and other cheap Lifesteal cards. It is one of the two cards in this set that I think actually has a good Shapeshift clause. Very good card. Maybe buff it to a 2/4.
Moon Cultist: This card is one of the many hard to pull off Shapeshifts. It is hard to get a 3 mana 3/3 to survive very long when played on curve, and that gets even harder the longer the game goes on. I’d make it 2 turns and weaken the Moon Hunter to a 5/4.
Prey Hunter: Very cool concept. I like it.
Cornered Worgen: Good in arena.
Ageblessed Grandmother: Wording is unclear. If two enemy minions have to choose to attack the grandmother, the card is horrible. If it is more along the lines of “survive damage from minions twice”, then there is a sliver of hope for this card. Would be interesting if Ageless Horror had charge.
Wounded Worgen: Very fun card. A reasonable challenge for a really interesting reward. I doubt it will work in constructed but I think it is fine for this to exist. Hilarious way to kill Freeze Mage.
Spiller of Blood: The text should be worded like Shaku, the Collector. I feel this card was meant to have Lifesteal but you cut it off to fit the text better. Fix the text, add in Lifesteal, and this card would be amazing.
Missing Legendary: Where’s the horror legendary? The moon cult leader? The guy who makes Shapeshift minions enter the battlefield Shapeshifted? This set is like 35% worgens, 35% crazy mages, and 30% everything else. Where are the zombies, the cannibals, the swamp monsters, the giant centipedes, and the demon octopi? I guess I’ll have to hope for Shadows over Gilneas to deliver my 7 headed vampire frog.
Neutral Commons:
Master of Keys: Alright in arena.
Silent Doorguard: The anti-aggro card all budget players would turn to.
Gilnean Nobles: Should be worded like Tomb Pillager. This card is horribly weak, and I’m not even comparing it to the grossly overpowered Bonemare. It should give something alongside the The Coin, such as some health to your hero.
Guardian of Jerrana: A Harvest Golem with the stats arranged around and Taunt being thrown in. Would’ve seen play a long time ago.
Howling Packmate: The game gives no way to plan out future draws. The level of inconsistency with this card is too much to warrant constructed level play.
Dark Hour Smith: This card goes in line with Tuskarr Fisherman. A good effect but it comes out rather awkwardly. Between the four weapon classes, Paladins are the only ones who can mildly abuse this.
Lifelong Gatekeeper: This might be the defensive taunt Deathrattle Rogue has been looking for. I would’ve made Eternal Gatekeeper a 1/4 as well.
Blood Wolf: Enrage decks could be a budget fun deck for many with this card.
Grim Bat: A good buff target. Would see experimentation, although I don’t think it will work.
Survivor of the Night: Cool effect. Zoolock might play this. The card tells a really dark story.
Aqueduct Fugitive: Almost powercreep on Oasis Snapjaw. Still unplayable.
Horrific Scavenger: I can see it consistently as a 5/3 minimum. This card is good.
Dawnbreak Healer: This card is on the power level of Antique Healbot. Would either change it to “to your hero” or change the stats to a 1/1. This card is too flexible as a neutral heal.
Brave Commoner: I’ve wanted to see a 1 mana 4/1 for a while.
Axeleaper: A card that helps with preserving weapon charges and health. If only…
1) Leeching Poison was 1 mana
2) Runeforge Haunter had 4 Health
3) Doomerang preserved the weapon’s buffs
4) Spectral Pillager wasn’t a waste of space
…then we’d have a good card for Weapon Rogue.
Grim Salesword: If the name was changed to “Sellsword” it would make more sense. Even as a neutral common, this card is boring. Could’ve made it more exciting by making it a 5 mana 4/6 “If three or more friendly minions died last turn, gain Stealth and Lifesteal.”
Sewer Artisan: I’d be curious to see what aggro deck runs this.
Shrouding Crowd: Cool card for Zoolock, but you have to be careful with these stat-lines. This minion has the highest Health stat of all 1 drops and almost all 2 drops. When designing cards, I always keep in mind what Inner Fire and Divine Spirit can combo off of.
Lady of Moonlight: This card could maybe go into a budget Pain Warrior deck. I don’t usually care too much about artwork but Lady of Moonlight and Moon Cultist are too similar. I’d rename Moon Cultist to Lady of Moonlight and overhaul this card’s theme.
Emergency Force: If Darkshire Councilman was made neutral, this is what it would be.
Empty Colossus: A really good card to Taunt up. I still doubt it would see any play outside of arena.
Vampire Knight: Horrible, but we need some weak cards in sets to up the satisfaction from pulling a good card.
Shaking Carriage: Flavour makes no sense. How is the carriage providing life? Why is it shaking? The art makes it look like its harbouring some magical batteries or something. The card is fine.
Gloomrider: A tech card against Priest? This card is competing with Streetwise Investigator for having the most niche tech effect in the game. If it were instead “Enemy characters can’t be healed”, then we’d have some speculation from the community.
Neutral Rares:
Ghastly Retriver: You spelled retriever wrong. Lakkari Sacrifice decks would be interested in this, but the mana cost and stats might make things difficult. This could’ve been 4 mana or a 4/5.
Doomed Clocktower: This card is horribly boring. It's slow, can’t trade, and will be ignored by your opponent 90% of the time. This card could’ve easily been something really interesting like “At the beginning of your turn, deal two damage to this minion. Deathrattle: Destroy all minions”. Such a card is thematically more entertaining, AND could enable Control Hunter with Play Dead.
Hopeseeker: Like Hadronox, its a slow effect your opponent can choose to delay, but it’s even worse than Hadronox because the Deathrattle only triggers if your opponent has a board AFTER trading it off. What good is a heal if it requires putting yourself in a weaker position?
Stalkgeist: Shade of Naxxramas was a good card. This is a weaker Shade, but with a more defensive starting body. It can maybe be used in Zoo.
Stubborn Elder: I don’t think anyone wants to play a lacklustre minion twice. Possibly good in arena.
Whispering Ghost: Should be “Whenever the opponent ends their turn”. Also the card is alright in control mirrors.
Temporary Leader: Quest Paladin could use this.
Ghost Council: Street Trickster taught us that a minion who’s only use is as a Spell Damage bearer is not good. This minion is similar, but with a better body and a way to defend itself. I won’t call this card bad, but the Spell Damage synergy deck does not exist yet.
Shameless Burglar: The clause is too generous for what it does. Cards should also have focus in what they want to do. Either make it a secret being revealed this turn or last turn, but not both. You could up the stat line to a 4/6 that way.
Black Cat: Interesting effect, but I don’t think it’s worthwhile in any deck, kind of like Weasel Tunneler.
Monument of Despair: This card’s design makes little sense. A taunt minion that can’t attack but provides a very strong tempo effect means your opponent will want to kill it. Since it can’t hide behind another Taunt, your only hope is to buff it to maintain the effect. Dropping the Taunt and stats to a 0/5 might be better. I’d still be wary of making the next Mechwarper.
Detective Crew: Insane in any handbuff deck. Would change it to “a friendly minion” for better balance.
Coal Gargoyle: Cool control card.
Forsaken Smith: People like removal effects that are cheap. Harrison Jones does its job better for less mana.
Neutral Epics:
Haunted Armory: This is a very fun card. The flavour is also perfect. Just a bunch of weapons moving around inside the armory. One just happens to fly by your face every turn.
Arrested Fighter: The fighter escapes amongst the chaos. Love the flavour. Also pushes for that Shapeshift synergy deck. Now if we could just find some good Shapeshifts.
Messenger of Kaddos: “Deal” should not be capitalized. I find Iron Juggernaut effects rather dangerous. Since Hearthstone has no way to manipulate draws, this card can easily give a win out of thin air. It’s the same reason why Ancient Shade was not played.
Canary Vendor: This card enforces a lot of randomness. I’ll let it go because I think Big Priest is a hilarious deck but thematically I don’t like it. The vendor sells canaries, so it would make much more sense if it could only supply a minion from your deck that costed (4) or less, or something else more canary-like.
Bound Soul: Would only see play in control decks that would taunt it up with Sunfury Protector.
Eternal Commander: I really don’t know if this is healthy design for the game. I mean sure it’s a cool effect, but now Hearthstone will have to draw a line between what is a token and what is not. That can get iffy with cards that transform…such as many of the Shapeshift cards.
Grim Underminer: That’s a really powerful effect on a decent body with an easy to trigger Deathrattle. This card would be very hard to deal with. I would prefer a trickier death related clause.
Hopeless Alchemist: Would need to see this in practice. Definitely powerful.
Geist fodder: Not sure if this is the synergy card that could spark a Spell Damage deck, but people would die trying. I think you wanted the wording to be “if you control a minion with spell damage” as otherwise, this card only works with Jungle Moonkin.
Neutral Legendaries:
Batmaster Kaddos: Extremely powerful effect, with some setup required. This could easily bring back Zoolock.
The Ghost Council: Might want to name this something different, considering how it’s very close to the Magic card its named after as well as a neutral rare in the set. The card really makes Canary Vendor seem like a broken card. Gadgetzan Auctioneer was already good, and this card does its job even better. Definitely should raise its cost to 10 mana.
Vikaro: A conceptually similar Gruul. Gruul is one of those cards that if scaled down, would become very good. This card is close to that, although I can’t tell whether or not having another minion be the source of the buff is a good or bad thing. I will say that like Gruul, the effect does not feel very legendary. I would scrap this card and give the Horror faction the legendary they’re missing.
Driatov Loss: At some point in Hearthstone, this card will enable a busted combo. Until that day comes, I have no idea how this card would perform.
Doctor Knitos: Shenanigans. That is all.
Mayor Jerrana: “while this was in your hand” is better wording. A card like this requires players to track the opponent’s hand. Shares similar problems with Bolvar Fordragon, but the low and high end of this card are significantly better. Amazing flavour.
Hunter: You got enough Control Hunter cards correct to probably push the deck through. Can’t say the same about the midrange cards like Soul Fox and Liaga Mox.
Ox Rider: The most broken vigil card in the set. If it were changed to something more reasonable, the card could even be given Taunt. Just try to find me a 5 mana charge without a garbage stat line or significant downside that can be consistently played on curve. Just try.
Copper Wolf: A defensive threat that would be in many Control/Midrange Hunter decks had Ox Rider not existed. Changing Vigil could allow for this to be a 5/6.
Twin Arrows: It’s a fair card on its own. The Vigil might make it playable. If Yogg-Saron, Hope's End had not been nerfed, this card would a 2 of in every single Yogg and Load deck.
Dissident’s Crossbow: Hard removal in Hunter? I feel this card was meticulously balanced at 6 mana to prevent midrange decks from taking both this and Savannah Highmane. Very good card.
Soul Fox: Interesting midrange design. Had it been a 3 mana 1/3, I think it would be more playable. The effect might be too slow but I’d give it a shot.
Watch Dog: This set contains what would be Hearthstone’s first neutral 2 mana 2/3 Taunt. Is providing a bit of information about your opponent’s draws worth the class card bonus? I’d have upped the ante and had it reveal the mana cost of all cards drawn by the opponent (while barking as the effect-trigger noise) to really make it stand out.
Sniper Position: If Control Hunter failed with a card like this existing, I’d blame the community for lacking creativity. Brilliant design from all angles. Really shows how much better Dinomancy would’ve been at 1 mana.
Moonlight Avenger: The issue with this card is that its worthless against minions who are useful just by staying alive (Ysera, Murloc Warleader, anything with an aura, etc.). A 5/5 stealth is nice, but the effect could be better.
Liaga Mox: I try to stay level headed when I see cheap hero cards since I know they can’t carry insane effects. That said, Liaga’s battlecry is just underwhelming. The hero power is summoning a one drop on average, which isn’t all that great for an aggressive hero card. Neither effect feels very raven-y. I’d rather have his battlecry summon a bunch of 1/1 ravens and have a hero power that tutored up spells from the deck or something. Ravens are very smart birds that make use of tools. Let them fetch tools for Liaga every turn.
Paladin: A lot of variety, although control seems to gain the best cards. The cards capture the theme of Gilneas being a place full of despair, with the common-folk desperately trying to find some hope in the nightmare infested town.
Coordinated Assault: This is a very good removal option for flood paladin decks. If this reads the way I think it does, a minion can take up to 1 damage 7 times. Expect to see a Trolden clip of someone getting milled out via Acolyte of Pain. The art makes no sense.
Protect Gilneas: The average case of Protect the King!. If it were three 1/1 minions with Divine Shield, we’d be looking at the card to finally make Divine Shield Paladin a working deck.
Vigilance: If it were two mana it could be amazing. At 3 mana I don’t think it has a chance in any deck other than Quest Paladin.
Taut Watcher: The stat line on this minion could easily be upped to a 3/5 or a 2/6 with the trickiness of the clause. You could even tack on +1/+1 when it's alone. The “your only minion” clause is a great theme that is underused in this expansion.
Desperate Angel: Another reason to change Vigil. Obsidian Statue makes it very clear why this card is busted. I am shocked that you didn’t use Angel of Flight Alabaster’s art.
Torch of Revolt: This is pretty much what a good 2 mana weapon should look like. Between this, Desperate Angel, and maybe One Last Miracle, there is a very powerful Control Paladin Deck brewing.
Bring to Light: Epic tech cards tend to annoy the community as they represent a huge dust investment for something that you only run if the meta calls for it (see Hungry Crab). This would be the best anti-secret card in the game.
One Last Miracle: The potential to gain a lot of life while dealing a ton of damage is powerful, but for 4 mana, I can guarantee a board clear with Equality + Consecration. If the Vigil was a bit crazier (something like “this costs (1) less and has Lifesteal”) it would definitely see play.
Kalaziel: It should be “had” instead of “have” on both the hero card and power. Radiance is self-explanatory enough to not need the Vigil keyword. You can maybe get off a big heal, but unless you had a board presence, you’re probably taking even more damage the following turn. Radiance is a very fun hero power that your opponent is forced to play around, but it might be difficult to make use of.
Mage: A lot of great secret synergy cards are introduced. A strong and fun secret mage that wasn’t so much a spinoff of burn mage could exist with these cards present.
Seeker of Answers: Had Vigil been weaker this card would’ve still been good. For as long as Ice Block is in standard, Blizzard would not print this card.
Torchfire: So 3 mana deal 6 to a minion. Woohoo.
Spellhand: I think this card is good. Granted, I only think it is good because Geist Fodder is amazing. A great budget card for new players.
Master of Ravens: Now this card makes better use of ravens than Liaga Mox does. It would require a deck tracker to play with, and it will usually whiff until the late game. I’d like to see what combos people come up with.
Enigmatic Wanderer: This is what Ethereal Arcanist wishes it was. Very good card.
Conjure Nemesis: A tricky card to play but it definitely has a lot of applications.
Cold Echo: Very weak. No one wants to pay 6 mana to Freeze 4 enemy minions when they can Freeze all enemy minions for 3 mana. If it were 2 mana I still don’t think it would be good.
Follow the Clues: This really asks for the construction of a secret deck. I think it functions better than Glacial Mysteries. Extremely powerful.
Investigator Karan: This is exactly what a 3 mana Hero card should look like. This card is amazing, and has a high skill cap. Story-wise Karan is is screwed.
Shaman: You might’ve created the cards needed to get a Freeze Shaman shell to work. Vronn is incredible.
Wrathful Vigilante: It’s decent. If Vigil were nerfed, this is one of the few vigil cards that becomes considerably worse.
Soil Cryer: This is s a 4 mana 4/9. The only reason it’s not completely busted is because stat distribution isn’t too great. I still want Vigil changed.
Ancestral Wolf: Its trigger won’t happen until late game most likely. Control Shaman might use this.
Spirit Shackle: Double the copy with Moorabi. This is a very good card.
Magma Punisher: 4 mana 6/6. No thanks.
Elemental Defense: Servant of Kalimos is still a very good card. Taking only the effect for 2 mana is good. Removing the requirement is great. The Vigil on top is ludicrous.
Chilly Entrapment: I’ve been waiting for Hearthstone to introduce an effect that limited the number of minions on board. Chilly Entrapment might just give Freeze Shaman the defensive trick it needed. It is just a shame that the Water Elemental effect was not on Brrrloc.
Incinerate the Pack: Very cool effect. I’d like to see where this would take Control Shaman.
Vronn the Seeker: This fits in every single Shaman deck. There is absolutely no reason to not run it. Would be broken if Shaman had more extreme Overloads.
Druid: The Lifesteal theme is pretty cool. Really showed the bloodthirsty side of worgens and a bit of their pack mentality. Would definitely make for some fun theme decks.
Beastly Hunger: Questionable strength. It’s a shame Hearthstone doesn’t cycle cards in and out of the classic set. I’d like to see how Druid would use this if Wrath was gone for a standard cycle.
Brawny Worgen: This is blatant powercreep. This card should not be made.
Mass Shapehshift: A Token Druid finisher. Would need to see this in practice to see how it performs. I will say that with Ultimate Infestation existing, some kind of Ramp Token Druid featuring Pilfered Power could happen.
Hungering Pack: I really like the theme of this card. The pack can be absolutely neutered by killing off the rest of the Druid’s board. Really makes Blood Queen Lana'Thel look horrible.
Brutalize: The second option is really weak. People would just stick with Swipe. I’d scrap this design and make something else.
Domestic Cat: Terrible. Should’ve been “Shapeshift: Gain Armor 2 times”.
Wreck the Town: Out of all the things it destroys, Druids are only affected by the Armor loss. It’s strong.
Tonight we Feast: “Mark” in this case is just “give all enemies Deathrattle:”. I do not see the point in giving the enemy hero a Deathrattle. The doesn’t really work as a Choose One card. Both effects are just healing that depends on who has more minions. I’d rather have seen the card only have one of the effects and cost 3 mana.
Rokki the Veterinarian: The Shapeshift will never happen. Rokki is dead on sight due to the power of the Shapeshift, and your only hope to attack 5 times with a beast is when you already have 5 beasts on board, which if that is the case, why not just play Savage Roar and end the game?
Priest: I absolutely love how you put Priest on the Horror side of the expansion. Even the curators are among the monsters that plague Gilneas. Mind control effects are annoying to play against, especially in arena.
Curious Experimenter: It won’t live long enough to Shapeshift. The Shapeshift isn’t very good either. Would’ve changed the requirement to “Target two enemy minions with spells” and changed Soul Tormentor to have an effect more concerned with the early game. Something like “At the end of your turn, gain control of all minions with 1 or less Attack.” would’ve been cool.
Dark Command: I’m assuming it gives Charge. Would need to see it in practice, but I would drop it down to 8 mana. Since Blizzard only nerfs, it’s safer to make something potentially op than risk making a bad card.
Shadow Shaper: Good card.
Ghost Walk: May RNG be with you. Odds are people will try this in Big Priest, and then realize it doesn’t do too much for the deck and get rid of it. If it were a Discover effect instead of random, then there could be some interesting applications.
Maddening Shade: The design should’ve had a bit more counter-play. Restricting the minion taken to only have an even mana cost or attack value or something a bit trickier would be good. Just going to say this will hit a taunt 90% of the time. Good card.
Gravemist: Extremely powerful anti aggro card. Essentially prevents damage for a turn in the early game. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this get nerfed to -2 Attack.
Rip Spirit: This card can do so much in Silence Priest as well as Priest in general. I really want to see someone silence The Lich King and then put the effect on a Stealth minion.
Wings of Dusk: Get this off on any Deathrattle and expect a ton of value.
Adova, the Lone Light: Spelled marked wrong on Adova, the Lone Death. Criminally weak for the tempo loss it generates. It also lacks that wow factor most legendaries have. A potential fix could be a 4 mana 2/7 “Lifesteal. Whenever this minion deals damage to another minion, Bless it. Shapeshift: Bless 3 minions.” And on the Shapeshifted minion, a 5 mana 2/7 “At the end of your turn, gain control of all Blessed minions.” Would’ve really driven the horror aspect of the card home while solidifying Priest’s mind control theme in the set.
Rogue: Stealth Rogue looks very scary.
Midnight Feast: This is going to be played with Preparation every single time. Good card.
Feral Assassin: It will get one trade in and then the opponent will have an easy time dealing with the weakened body. I’d rather just play Plague Scientist. I'd still keep it in the set.
Undercity Scout: Lotus Assassin and Shadow Sensei would be part of a Stealth synergy deck featuring this card.
Sheepnapper: Amazing art and flavour. Wording should be changed to “Return a minion to its owner’s hand”. Will involve a lot of tricky decision making.
Shadow Hunter: The card should be written more intuitively; it’s a 4/5 stealth that gives your other Stealth minions +2 attack. That’s too much at 4 mana. The buff should be changed to +1/+1 at the very least.
Thieves Guild Recruit: I don’t like this card. A 1 mana 1/1 Stealth is fairly worthless, but the Shapeshift has potential to give an absurd amount of coins. Since you can’t risk attacking with the 1/1, the minion just sits around until it dies to AoE or Shapeshifts. A lot of directions this card can go in, but if I were you, I’d do the following:
1) Make Thieves Guild Recruit a 1/3
2) Reduce the required Stealth minions to 2
3) Change Caught Recruit to a 2 mana 3/2 “Stealth. Deathrattle: Add a Coin to your hand for each friendly Stealth minion.”
4) Change the name of Caught Recruit because it still has Stealth
Moonpath: The Stealth Rogue finisher. With only two Stealth minions played, you’re getting a 6 mana 9/9 Stealth in stats. I’ll let this card go because its a fun build around, but the intended combo of with Shadow Hunter scares me.
Bloody Ringleader: Very strong card worded awkwardly. Should be “for each friendly minion with Stealth”.
Rebel Leader Virkaza: I have so many problems with this card. First, the combo effect is extremely underwhelming. SI:7 Agent can pull it off thanks to a low mana cost, but on a higher costing minion there isn’t as much utility. A Fan of Knives effect would be more meaningful. Second, the Shapeshift. My god the Shapeshift. Virkaza will be dead before your next turn, and if by some miracle she’s alive, you need at least 5 cheap cards in your hand to maybe pull it off. Either the trigger should change to 4 cards or the stat line should go up to a 4/8. Virkaza is a great idea that was unrealistically designed.
Warlock: Warlock was a mixed bag. There’s a lot of great ideas in here but the Shapeshift cards were just so weak. There are a few useful tools for pre-existing Warlock archetypes but these cards fail to provide a clear theme of what Warlock was meant to do this expansion.
Send to Die: It enables a lot of the sacrifice effects that Warlock has been accumulating the past couple sets (Sanguine Reveler, Ravenous Pterrordax, Unwilling Sacrifice). However, I am largely disappointed by how Gilneas did not introduce the huge sacrifice card that Warlock has been lacking. Something like discarding two cards, destroying 2 friendly minions, and losing 5 life in order to summon some insane demon would’ve really shown the insanity that awakens when the moon shines over Gilneas.
City of Madness: Despite being a Warlock card, I still think this is over-costed. Make it 3 mana and we have a solid Discardlock card.
Soulseller: Good luck pulling this off. Soulreaper isn’t very good either. Would be cool if he read “…the enemy hero takes that much damage instead”. Still think the Shapeshift could be knocked down to 4 damage and Soulreaper could be buffed to a 4/5.
Exploit Weakness: Really cool hard removal. I like cards that require thinking.
Fel Apprentice: The synergy needed for this card to work isn’t there. Discardlock really only runs Soulfire and discarding a bunch of low cost minions will mean the transformation will take forever. I would scrap this design and try again.
Inner Evil: Cool buff. Now if only Shapeshift cards were good.
Curse of Lycanthropy: I’d take Exploit Weakness over this card every single time. This is the card I’d take out to introduce a crazy sacrifice card.
The Rose of Midnight: I mean it’s a nice tool to ensure you don’t discard what you want, but in truth, it just reads “this card is probably getting discarded first”. While I still think discard will never work as a consistent mechanic, you could’ve made this into a Silverware Golem type effect. Something like “When you play this or discard this, draw a card. It costs (2) less”.
Sister Nakiv: A really cool spin off of Loatheb. If only Midrange Warlock was a thing.
Warrior: With the cards you’ve provided, the 12 health theme isn’t going to be something people will build decks around. Even more than Warlock, I don’t think there’s a clear cut deck Warrior is supposed to build here.
Fierce Berserker: Surprisingly, this actually leans towards the reasonable side of Shapeshift. However, I don’t think this card is good enough to compete with Kor'kron Elite, Phantom Freebooter, or Dread Corsair. I would make it 7 damage.
Heavy Burden: I would like to see this played to figure out how good it is. I will say the prospect of drawing 4 cards off of Acolyte of Pain is enticing.
Violent Meeting: I really liked how Revenge changed from a pain activator to a board clear when the Warrior dropped low enough. It’s a shame another card with a distinct duality has not been made yet. Nonetheless, this card is good.
Bloodcraze: Great design. Would definitely go in a midrange pain warrior featuring Rotface and Val'kyr Soulclaimer.
Hearty Blacksmith: This and Meek Bat are the only two Shapeshift cards that I believe are good. However, its design is still somewhat infuriating. Since the body is a 2/3 and the Shapeshift is decent, it will probably be dead in 2 turns. That means your choice is to either equip two weapons in quick succession, destroying the first without fully using it, or pray your opponent goes AFK. I’d have greatly preferred it be “Attack with a weapon 2 times”. You’ll occasionally get a broken opening with N'Zoth’s First Mate, but the 2/3 body can be dealt with by all classes.
Iron Fists: Hearty Blacksmith was designed with the mindset that the player would destroy a cheap 1 mana or 2 mana weapon to equip Iron Fists right after. I’m here to tell you that will rarely be a good play, and that Iron Fists will almost never go off. Iron Claws is a good reward but Iron Fists themselves should’ve had a Battlecry of gaining Armor or something, considering how long you might be stuck waiting for the condition to activate. Might I add the flavour of this card is horrible? Small claws transform into bigger claws. Wow! Could’ve easily told the story of some Vigil hunter turning into a worgen and using his worgen claws to rip through steel and flesh.
Enraging Moon: “Force a minion” is very awkward wording in this case. Also this is a broken design for a board clear. If your opponent has a big minion you punish them for playing a big minion by having it kill everything else. If you have a big minion you destroy the enemy’s board and then the defenseless enemy hero.
Unforgiving: Now this is a cool 12 Health trigger card. Not sure what deck it goes in though.
LastHowl: The concept is cool but you have to realize it flips the switch in your opponent’s head from “survive” to “face”. If it were a 6/4 with Lifesteal we’d be talking, but as it stands Lasthowl dies to too many things.
Some Closing Remarks:
Vigil: Its too easy to pull off. I don’t want to destroy the theme of the mechanic, but if I could change it, I would make it only do something only if your hero had 15 or less Health. That way, it acts as the aggro deterrent you intended. You could also consider "Do something if your hero took X amount of damage last turn" but I’m not sure what X would be. You could make it like Overload and have the amount vary between classes.
Themes: I think you failed to make use of everything Gilneas had to offer. Hunter, Paladin, Shaman, and Warlock were good but the rest of the classes didn't feel too different. I was expecting Mage to be filled with ghosts and detectives after looking at Geist Fodder and Karan. Priest should’ve had more mad clergymen instead of generic spell-casters like Shadow Shaper. I’m fine with Druid and Rogue showing off the different aspects of worgens, but outside of Lasthowl, I don’t think Warrior added anything. If you could go back and change the art and names of some of the cards, it would definitely help.
Well thats it for me. At the very least, I hope you fix the spelling mistakes and wording on the cards. Thanks for the read!
Every night I hear the whispers. But why doesn't anyone else? C'Thun: What Went Wrong?