"Hail, adventurer! I see you too have been drawn in by all the chaos. People from all across the land have been flocking here, eager to uncover the secrets that might lie within these ancient caverns. What happened, you ask? Well, nobody is quite sure, but an eyewitness did manage to shed some light on the issue. Now where did she go. Lovely little gnomish girl, quite excitable, always seemed to be two steps ahead of the conversation. Ah, blast it, I'm sure she'll turn up. Just be careful! There's quite a few rips in time caused by the collapse, and there's been all manner of strange creatures roaming about. And don't get me started on the Sands! Get that in your boots and it'll stay forever!"
It's been all anyone can talk about. In the dead of night, a great trembling shook Azeroth, waking everyone. Envoys and scouts reported back across the land - "The Caverns of Time! They're collapsing! Great tumbling rockfall and mysterious portals and everything around it just going a bit wonky!". Being closest to the disaster, and never one to miss out on a business opportunity, the gangs of Gadgetzan called a temporary truce while they set up outposts to determine how this would affect business. Asking for help from the greatest adventurers they could bribe, they began mapping the area, discovering newly uncovered groves; mysterious, sand covered skeletons; dragon-worshipping cults; and twisted beings from other worlds.
Now it's your turn to get in on the action! Whether you choose to explore the Forgotten Caverns themselves, stumble blindly through the newly revealed Lost Woods or take your chances traversing the Sands of Time, you'll be sure to encounter some interesting entities.
I'll preface this explanation with the fact that this expansion, in this initial version, was created entirely before Knights of the Frozen Throne was released, and mostly before we'd seen the cards for it - I believe I finished it sometime between the initial reveal and the start of the daily card reveals. Looking back on it, there's definitely some balance changes that need to be made, but I'm posting it now so that I'm forced to actually do that, instead of letting everything waste away in an Imgur gallery for eternity. Now, onto the first section, the themes!
Themes
"Today's theme is... themes."
This expansion features 135 cards, split up into 9 class cards for each class, and 54 neutral cards. Each class has various themes of their own which will be explained in their section, and the neutrals also have a few minor themes going, but the expansion overall has a few main themes.
The return of Dragon Synergy! Can't go to the home of Nozdormu without bringing back this mechanic.
Various time-related effects and interactions - start/end of turn, a major and a minor keyword, playing multiple copies of a card and various other abilities.
Cross-class integration - each class has a Common and a Rare which use mechanics more commonly associated with another class, the Common borrowing from the class alphabetically before and the Rare the class alphabetically after.
The return of a variety of older mechanics, in smaller ways than with Dragon synergy. Some have just a single card, but they're there!
Now that we've set the stage, it's time we introduced the two keywords I mentioned!
New Keywords
As mentioned previously, we have a major and a minor keyword being introduced in this expansion. They are:
Echo: Our major keyword, and a pretty simple one to understand. Just like Combo effects activate if you've played a card previously in a turn, Echo effects activate if you have played that card earlier in the game. This encourages including two copies of a card in your deck, which I thought was an interesting dynamic - a sort of counterpart to Reno decks, encouraging building your deck in a certain way but not annoyingly restricting you like C'Thun or the Jade mechanic often does.
Revert: The minor keyword, and the harder one to explain. When a card is Reverted, all buffs and transformations on it are removed, including Silences. A Hexed minion will return to whatever it was before being Hexed. A Faceless Manipulator will become a 3/3 again. That Dinosized Silver Hand Recruit becomes a 1/1. That Ancient Watcher your opponent Sunfury Protectored loses Taunt, but still can't attack. Hell, even if they Silenced it, we Reverted that too!
The stage is set. Check out the spoilers below for the full card set (fingers crossed I get this done tonight!) HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA.
Druid
The Druid class draws its inspiration in this set from the recently re-discovered Lost Woods. There, undisturbed for what could have been millennia due to the time dilating nature of the area, a small sect of devout Druids have honed their abilities, becoming attuned to the plant-life around them and feeding into their power.
Commons
Forget-me-not Other Lost Woods plants include the Begon-and-onia and the Timer Lily. A simple card which helps to solidify the themes for Druid in this expansion - Echo, and card draw. Mana Manipulation is often thought of as Druid's defining trait, but part of what makes Ramp work is their card draw, and I wanted to explore that.
Guardian of the Grove Groves, Galaxies, it's all the same to a tree. The Cross-Class Common for Druid, here we have a pretty thematic interpretation of Enrage. I actually first made this card well over a year ago now, so the fact that Druid suddenly became a Taunt synergy class in KFT is just a bonus.
Lost Woods Dryad A Dryads favourite drink? Rootbeer. Just a big, simple minion to show off some more Echo ideas. Not much to say really.
Rares
Accelerated Growth Puberty for Druids happens on Turn 2. More draw synergy, this time incorporating some of that Mana Manipulation Druid is known for.
Lost Woods Shrine If you get lost, you'll always find your way back here. Locals have observed travelers calling it 'That Fucking Checkpoint' instead. The first look at how Echo can be used to change a card's effect entirely, instead of just providing an additional effect. A useful tool for combo decks.
Mark of the Hunter Now it really is 100% Huffer! Another addition to the 'Mark of...' cycle that Druid has, this time as the Cross-Class Rare. If you get this off on turn two, it provides you with an above average turn three play. The value!
Epics
Ancient of Wispers Best friends with Darkshire Librarian. Bonemare who? I'm slightly salty that I managed to get my Druid Epic card power creeped by a Neutral Common, but I suppose this still has its applications in Token decks, where it can provide more Tokens if needed or just act as an extra buff.
Lost Woods Tamer Here, kitty kitty! Stop hiding, come out and play! I just noticed that both my Epics are Choose Ones that summon existing minions. Huh. Anyway, choose whichever distribution of stats you prefer. I imagine you'll usually want the Stranglethorn Tiger, but maybe sometimes you need that 8 Attack to kill The Lich King, so you go with Sabretooth Stalker. Flexibility for the win!
Legendary
Irial, Seasonkeeper Nobody knows where she keeps them, but she keeps threatening not to give them back. This elf has lived for as long as anyone can remember, which is saying something given that time isn't necessarily linear here and people remember their own future and other people's pasts sometimes. Similarly to Brann Bronzebeard or Fandral Staghelm, she doubles your Echo effects, getting you bonus value. Pretty simple, but I felt the effect best fit in Druid.
Hunter
The Hunter class draws their flavour this expansion from archery and bow-hunting. With lots of new prey and interesting environments opened up by the Lost Woods, Hunters the world over have been chomping at the bit to start open season on this new expansion!
Commons
Copy Cat The copies aren't purrfect, but they're just as cute. Our Cross-Class Common for Hunter borrows the Choose One mechanic to create an interesting little Beast. An enchantment, for reference, is any buff which appears below the card when moused over - be that a spell buff, minion Battlecry buff, anything.
Twilight Bow Hunting is a lot harder with a sparkly weapon. A scaled-down version of Gladiator's Longbow, giving Hunter another low-cost weapon option which encourages trading with a small upside for running two copies.
Lost Woods Hunter The alternate timeline where Nymeria stuck around. Another simple 'small-body-big-summon' minion, with some Beast synergy thrown in for good measure. Your Direwolf Wirey Wolf will get the buff too, which is neat!
Rares
Hit or Mist I fired, and I missed. So I fired again, and I missed. Hunter has always had a strange relationship with AoE - Powershot, Unleash the Hounds, Explosive Shot, all pretty good, but never quite working properly for the most part. So uh, here's an attempt at making a different one, I guess.
Seasonal Hunt Seems a bit unfair on the hibernating animals, to be honest. The Cross-Class Rare, taking a Mage-like AoE and Freeze concept and spinning it with a Hunter theme. It even becomes a combined Arcane Explosion and Frost Nova on the second cast, how good is that! Please just let Control Hunter finally be a thing, I beg of you...
Tracker's Boots The label inside reads "These Boots Are Made For Stalking". Hunter card draw is... not good. Is this too good a card draw for them? Maybe. This might be one of the cards in need of revision.
Epics
Avenging Shot I think he heard you saying he's the worst member. Super cheap removal, at the price of having to use it on something that is likely already damaged. Another member of the Hunter '...Shot' cycle, too!
Lost Woods Howler "AAAAHHHHH" - Lost Woods Howler, and its victim I haven't really commented on it, but yeah, Hunter also goes along with the Echo synergy theme. Makes sense, given how much time they spend in the Lost Woods now. A simple low-cost Beast with some flavourful upsides.
Legendary
Artemis, Lady of Twilight Her other titles include Maiden of the Moon, Forest Protector and That Crazy Lady With The Golden Bow One of the premier archers in all of Azeroth, Artemis is the master of long-ranged attacks, dealing damage at the end of every turn. And hey, so long as she never specified what her target was, she can't miss, right? This is the first example of a powerful start or end of turn effect, of which there are a few in this set.
Mage
Mages have taken to exploring the high, winding tunnels of the caverns, where temporal fluctuations and chilling ice keep creatures locked in stasis. Ancient arts are learned and forgotten in mere seconds here, and infusing beings with power or stripping it away from them has become second nature.
Commons
A Familiar's Blessing Snowy Owls - Overshadowing the deaths of main characters since 2007. Mage's Cross-Class Common, drawing from the Hunter Beast synergy theme, provides them with a potentially ludicrous source of Spell Damage... so long as you're running Beasts. Really, one of the goals of this expansion was to dilute Mage's spell pool a bit, with weaker and more situational cards.
Dwarven Spellshield It's actually a spell magnet, but he doesn't know how it works. The Caverns are full of Dwarves that have lived there for centuries, honing their craft. While this guy does become a buff magnet and a good wall against the opponent's spells, he does mean that your own Fireballs are gonna hit him as well. The synergy?
Kobold Crystalminer Hi ho, hi ho, you no take Crystal! A simple take on a Spell Damage minion. These Crystals sure are powerful!
Rares
Stabilising Field "A stable field gives a protective shield"- Ancient Cavern Carving Hey look, a Cross-Class Rare that gives Mage more random generation! But it's a minion, and it isn't Unstable, so we're fine. Incorporating Paladin's themes into Mage and keeping the Caverns aesthetic was surprisingly hard, so we'll pretend this is what those Crystals we're mining are for.
A Script Down Memory Lane Card Name by Fall Out Boy Is this our first Revert effect? I did say it was a minor keyword. This could theoretically be used as anti-buff deck tech, but I imagine it'll more commonly pollute the random effects pool, and potentially pull off a weird win for you. Fun!
Brainfreeze Leading cause of Brain Injury, just after Meteors to the head. Fun fact: I decided Mage was going to have a bit of a Freeze synergy theme going on in this expansion, and the original draft of this card was called Avalanche. Then Blizzard had to go and try and make Freeze Shaman a thing, so I had to change it. But I love this art, so I think it worked out in the end.
Epics
Crystal Visions The future often looks a lot like a Fireball to the face. Woo! A thematic look into the future, allowing you to plan ahead slightly, help decide if drawing will help you here and allowing you another chance for a combo piece. Remember your ordering though - once you draw that top card, this card becomes the next one instead.
Permafrost Elemental Some people speculate she's not really Frozen, just super lazy. A defensive tool that forces the opponent to think about their board positioning. The intention is that when a minion is no longer opposite this one - because you played a minion and it moved, for example - that minion would immediately unfreeze. This helps balance it, so that your opponent isn't stuck with a bunch of Frozen minions even after it's gone.
Legendary
Antonidas the Wanderer He was actually just wondering where he was, but he's given up trying to explain that. What's this? I recognise this guy! Yeah, a few of the legendaries in this expansion are familiar faces who've slipped through cracks in timelines to appear here. This Antonidas has existed for so long between worlds that he's advanced his knowledge of spellcasting immensely. Your Hero Power will cost the same as that spell, but you get to use it every turn. Once Antonidas leaves though, his knowledge is lost with him.
Paladin
Paladins, virtuous defenders of the light that they are, initially made their way to the area not to explore, but to help those affected by the fluctuations, and to defend against the monsters that were coming from beyond their realm. However, they were quickly lured in by members of the Bronze Dragonflight, who promised great power and forgotten knowledge.
Commons
Trapped in Time Rose was here. The Cross-Class Common, taking the Mage Freeze effect and applying it to a Paladin-like secret. This can stop up to three attacks, which is quite powerful, but for the most part the minions will be unfrozen by the end of the turn, so it isn't easily abused.
Chronolocked Amulet The hardest family heirloom to pass down. And now we begin to see Paladin's themes for this expansion - Dragon synergy and buffs. This is a simple to understand card which just provides consistent, low-level buffs. I felt confident being able to provide more buffs in this expansion, knowing that there would be options for counter-play with the Revert keyword.
Divine Preacher Cast off all your enchantments, for the Light says that's cheating. A simple Revert minion. Not something you would auto-include, but a very good tech card against specific match-ups - Evolve Shaman comes to mind, forcing their 6 drops back to 2/2 Doppelgangsters that can be Consecrationed seems good.
Rares
Draconic Wisdom If it cooks, you can eat it - Ancient Dragon Saying Another take on the 3 mana card draw concept, this time as the Cross-Class Rare incorporating Priest-like abilities. If you have a dragon, you gain valuable knowledge of your opponent's gameplan and a free card, too!
Regenerative Drake You used to call me on my scale phone... Powerful card draw on a standard body, with a bit of a downside, occasionally. If your opponent hasn't taken any damage yet this card is just bonkers.
Giant Sand Wyrm She's tired of reminding everyone that technically, she came first. Another big Dragon with Dragon synergy, this time incorporating some of that time flavour by giving you your last spell back.
Epics
Timeshift Stave We don't know what a Stave is either, it just sounds cool. A good aggro cleaner, which is even better the second time you play it. Also good in conjunction with Equality.
Scales of Justice Seems a bit odd that he's the one getting all the benefits in this arrangement. This pun had to be made at some point, right? It's just too obvious. Basically, if a player is trying to buff their own minion, that spell will also be cast on this minion. Could backfire though - you don't want a Demonheart hitting this!
Legendary
Benedict the Timesworn Nozdormu, I've come to bargain! A huge power swing card, this guy takes all the buffs on the board and empowers himself. My intention was that he wouldn't gain Transform or Silence effects (though they'd still be removed by Revert), since that would be counter-productive, but I wasn't sure what wording would work for this. 'Enchantments' instead of 'effects' maybe?
Priest
The Priest class, often known for its healing and benevolent nature, houses a dark and unholy sect, who use their powers to bring back those who were cut down too soon in their eyes. Messing with death is normally nearly impossible for the majority, but with ripples in time come opportunities to, instead of reversing death, simple pretend it never happened.
Commons
Holy Touch Not as sinister as it sounds. This was actually an interesting one to design. It originally Reverted then fully healed, like Ancestral Healing, but the combination with Auchenai Soulpriest was far too strong, so instead it had to set Health, not restore it.
Lightsurge Healer Fixes your lightbulbs, free of charge. Another very simple card which just fits into a bunch of places for Priest - a good earlygame minion, an Elemental, a Deathrattle, some healing. Simple but effective.
Argent Cleric A shield for the healed, how poetic. This works like Northshire Cleric, in that the Divine Shield is only applied if a damaged minion was healed. Cross-Class Common for this class was quite simple, here.
Rares
Sands of Time Straight from the shores of the Temporal Isles. Cross-Class Rare, taking that Rogue return mechanic and mixing it with their shared 1/1 copy idea. Do you use it on your own minion for the copy, or an enemy minion to get rid of it?
Memory of Mourning "I? I see myself holding a pair of Wild Pyromancers." This card was sort of undercut by Eternal Servitude, at least in concept. But I think my twist on it is interesting enough. A cheaper card, but at the cost of having to actually play the minion.
Night Knight Don't let the minions bite! Simple stall the game card. It also forces Charge minions to have to wait the normal amount of turns before attacking! Having two of them out increases the effect as well, but I think it's fine since the effect is symmetrical.
Epics
Mara's Mixture Ingredients: Lost Woods Mist; Bloodletter Blood; and a Pinch of Paprika. A simple buff which also stops the minion from dying by returning it to your hand! Not much to say really, just playing around with that time travel concept in different ways here.
Holy Dragonfire Original Unbottled Flavour. Priests love their big board clears. This works similarly to Dragonfire Potion, but instead of sparing Dragons it spares anything that hasn't been buffed, Silenced or Transformed in any way. Good against buff decks since it strips the buffs first before clearing them.
Legendary
High Clerist Mara Clerist is a real job, she didn't just make it up to sound fancier, promise. She's actually a real WoW character, actually a Clerist and everything. I have no idea what that is, or what she actually did in the lore, but this version of her slipped through from an alternate timeline and uses her advanced knowledge of time and healing to return all your minions to you. Again, Archbishop Benedictus stole this sort of idea from me, but you can see how they're very different, and how Mara is actually much more playable.
Rogue
Rogues draw their card designs for this expansion from a variety of sources: the sneakier denizens of the Lost Woods; the more malevolent members of the Gadgetzan exploration parties; and bands of assassins, looking to make a profit from this new land. Prepare for some nasty tricks from your dagger-wielding foes!
Commons
Cavern Venturers Plan sufficiently and you can trick everyone into thinking you know the future. This brings into focus Rogue's main theme in this set - deck, board and hand manipulation. They will excel at moving things between these areas, forcing board awareness from their opponent and generally being annoying. This card allows them to plan their future turns, to an extent, and also gives them another combo activator.
Southsea Kidnapper The Pirates of the Southsea actually know what it means to be a kidnapper, unlike certain other cards. The Cross-Class Common for Rogue, taking Priest's theme of stealing minions based on their Attack stat and applying it thematically to Rogue. Could be very good tech against particular strategies, and works especially well against opposing Zoo/Aggro decks.
Lost Woods Revenant This is a rip-off, where's the bear? A semi-sticky minion, in that you do have to play it again, but it has fairly good stats for its cost. Works especially well when combined with a Revert to remove the Silence.
Rares
Hit and Run An impressive feat on foot, rather than on horseback. A way of saving an important minion of yours after an attack, or of disrupting your opponent, forcing them to choose between attacking and losing a minion, or keeping it around and not attacking with it.
Venomist Viper Sneaking up on enemies is a lot harder when you're bright blue. Huh. Wow. This card is... way more imbalanced than I remember. So look at this as like, an idea of the card that will go here. It'll probably be bumped up by like, 2 mana when I get around to balancing.
Under the Weather Rain, rain, go away; Storm on someone else today. Another way of disrupting the opponent, this time by making their cards more unattractive to play with Overload. I think this works quite well as the Cross-Class Rare - Shamans are all about self-Overload, so Rogues twist that concept to use against their opponents.
Epics
Poisonous Thoughts I wonder if Azeroth has any psychiatrists? Probably not any sane ones... Can you tell which cards I started thinking of when Un'goro was new? This turns an enemy minion into a double agent, ready to kill the minions next to it, though it gives the opponent a turn to sack it off first to save them.
Timewarp Assassin Ha! Killed you! ~vrp~ Ha! Killed you again! ~vrp~ Ha! Kill- This card I just thought was a cool idea - instead of killing your opponents, you send them forward in time to fight on your side instead. I think it would be quite cool if minions killed by this card couldn't be Resurrected, or found through any similar cards, though I don't know if that's a possibility in Hearthstone right now.
Legendary
Vanessa VanCleef Hope she's feeling nice and doesn't try and poison anyone. Again. Well isn't this a surprise. Vanessa has come with a Defias escort to try and determine the usefulness of these temporal disturbances in enacting her plans. When you activate her combo effect, you will summon three Defias Bandits to the field and be presented with a Discover-like choice - Left, Middle or Right. You choose one of these (secretly) and Vanessa takes the place of that Bandit, though to your opponent nothing has changed. Upon taking any damage or attacking, Vanessa will be revealed.
Shaman
Temporal fluctuations may not seem like something a Shaman should have any business controlling, but despite that the introduction of portals into worlds beyond seems to have strengthened their connection to the Elemental Plane, enhancing their powers in various ways.
Commons
Bottled Lightning Warning: Contents may be shocking to some viewers. A simple card to amplify the damage a Shaman can output. Particularly good with AoE effects, although since the spell casts twice, you do Overload twice from the same spell.
Passage of Time Right past the Corridor of Seasons, before the Hallway of Dreams. Three layers of time-related effects and theming: taking the Rogue's Combo mechanic as the Cross-Class Common; evolving or devolving a minion, like the real passage of time; the actual combo requiring you to think about when in the turn you play the card.
Dune Devil A sandstorm beyond your experience, beyond your imagination. Dust Devils are bound to get bigger when you give them a bunch of sand to feed on, although it does result in some strange behaviour after they attack. Also an introduction to the return of our Elemental Shaman themes, after the... ahem... Freeze Shaman experiment.
Rares
Timeshare Totem You actually only get it for 2 Seasons every year, Kibler and Firebat have it the other 10. The Totem for this expansion, it allows you to play a card significantly early at the cost of hindering your next turn. The effect is symmetrical too, so watch out for what your opponent brings out.
Timelost Curse Apparently some bad language really can kill you. Our Cross-Class Rare taking Warlock's Discard effect and turning it into an interesting sort of board clear. I don't really know how to feel about this card, looking back. This one might get changed completely when I do balance sweeps.
Crumbling Elemental An absolutely smashing guy, really put together. The art on Stone Elemental was too cute not to bring back! I mean come on, you hardly ever saw these cuties and they deserve to be seen by everyone. Sort of a step up from Igneous Elemental.
Epics
Magma Wyrm Actually, when you play it it's above ground, so it's a Lava Wyrm. Hey, another 1/3 for (1) in Shaman, that hopefully isn't horribly broken. Tutors you an Elemental, at the cost of a slight Overload. It's also a Dragon, if you want to make some weird hybrid EleDragon Shaman.
Storm Front The Elementals wanted to get their own back after TGT, y'know? Look, it's Dragonfire Potion for Elementals! Honestly not much more to say, another Shaman AoE damage card with an Overload, they seem quite fond of them.
Legendary
Splinter, Manalord No, he isn't friends with the Tortollans, why do you keep asking? This spooky looking fellow fell through one of the rifts, and since he seems to keep splitting around the presence of Elementals, he's stuck with the Shamans. I think this is actually the only example in the entire expansion of a negative Overload, which is pretty cool. You can technically go infinite with him, if you want - barring Fatigue, of course. Might bump him up to 6 mana because of that.
Warlock
Warlocks, like the Priests, have found themselves much more able to return what was lost to them before. They've also made some interesting deals with a few of the Dragons that came from the rifts and voids. Honestly, this set is just me trying to force Discardlock to happen, so Blizzard will stop fucking trying.
Commons
Reversal of Fate Apparently Gul'dan's Skull can do all sorts of crap. It's a great paperweight too! I wasn't kidding about Discard support. Discard something you really wanted to keep? Play this and get it back! If you discard multiple cards at once, it will pick whichever was rightmost in your hand.
Drain Soul Souls - Tastier than you'd like to admit! Well. This is awkward. I guess I'll have to rename this in the balance passes because of Drain Soul. This is just an attempt at giving Warlock some much needed healing, though it does only function well against certain decks.
Reckless Regeneration Not for use on minions (3) mana and under. That's just a bad deal. More Discard synergy! This is surprisingly like a Warlock/Shaman flavoured Eternal Servitude, which honestly I'm ok with. I like this as the Cross-Class Common, feels very Warlock, sacrificing your next turn for a card now.
Rares
Degenerative Drake Late night when you need my cards... Remember Regenerative Drake from Paladin? Here's the corrupt brother. Gotta love drawing parallels between the class known for self-damage and the class known for self-healing.
Faulty Time Capsule They could have taken the skeleton out ages ago, they just think it looks cooler like that. This card gives you a copy of a card from your deck, only to immediately discard it, activating those juicy synergies that Blizzard keeps making. Then as a bonus, when you die the capsule finally works and you get the card back! Hooray!
Stoneflesh Gargoyle Don't Blink. A fun way of mitigating the amount of damage you take as a Warlock, by transforming some of it into Armor. This Cross-Class Rare takes the most obvious of Warrior's mechanics and adapts it into some more pseudo-healing.
Epics
Relentless Skelegon Schrödinger's Cat has nothing on this guy. A victim of a bargain with a Warlock gone wrong, this Dragon is cursed to steal the life of fellow Dragons to fuel his regeneration. This sort of targeted Discarding could be useful to you though, especially when you think of the next card...
Shambling Amalgam Nobody show Putricide this, for all our sake. This horrible creature, which steals the abilities of Discarded minions, would work incredibly well with Relentless Skelegon, to borrow a nice Ysera effect, perhaps. And when you play it a second time, it's refined its technique, and can steal some stats too!
Legendary
Void Prophet Arya The Void knows all, and it says you suck. Though the penchant for candle-based pauldrons is perhaps an indicator of her mental state, Arya truly is the best at telling the future, and bringing events forward. If you can't make use of her offering quickly, though, it will be lost to the Void. Though of course, this isn't necessarily a bad thing in some decks, now is it?
Warrior
The depths of the Caverns have been watched over for centuries by a contingent of Dwarves known as the Dragonsguard. Understandably, they're not best pleased with all these adventurers roaming through their land and disturbing the Dragons they swore to protect and rear. Face these fearsome Dwarven Warriors and their Dragonmagic-infused weaponry.
Commons
Blood Rites An interesting choice of ink, but they'll accept the exam paper anyway. A Cross-Class Common taking the self-damage from Warlock and applying it to our Warriors. They've learned some tricks form the Dragons, it seems. Simple single target removal.
Dwarven Dragonsguard A little on-the-nose, don't you think? A potentially powerful Taunt for turn 4, assuming you have a Dragon providing you with a little back-up magic.
Dusty Brawler He can never remember is he's on offence or defence, so he just does both. Another big Taunt for Warrior. The first time you play it its a more defensive option, whereas afterwards it moves into an offensive stance. Basically another simple Echo effect.
Rares
Mad Mobbers They just found out there's no more sauce left, and they are pissed. A Cross-Class Rare incorporating Choose One into Warrior. This takes the Mad Bomber concept and at the cost of 1 Health offers you a choice between potential minion clear or some simple face damage.
Final Advance You said that about the last advance, too! A slightly expensive card to deal 3 damage, but if you don't kill your target you get it back. After all, how can it be a final advance if the enemy is still alive?
Abyssal Hydragon Stare into the Abyss, and it stares back twice as hard. It's like a Dragon version of Grim Patron! For better stats you get the downside of only splitting once every turn, and only if it's damaged, although that shouldn't be too hard to set up. 1 point of incidental damage and you've summoned a 6 mana 10/8! It'll even retain buffs on the copies, for extra fun.
Epics
It's a Trap! Jaina's dad always was one for dramatics. A way of protecting a minion from attacks, since if they have less than 3 health any minion attack it will die before killing it. This can of course be bypassed by spells or other indirect damage.
Dragonsguard Mallet For when you want your Dragonsguard nice and tender. Another board control weapon for Warrior. This seems fairly subpar when you don't have a Dragon, but can be used to fell things with up to 8 health when you have that Dragonmagic backing you up. I have no idea if Dragonmagic is like, a thing in WoW, we're just going with it because I like that explanation for why Dragon-in-hand cards work.
Legendary
Apollo, Lord of Dawn I don't blame the guy, being up that early every day would make anyone hot-headed. Hey, it's Artemis' brother! While she is controlled, taking aim and firing at a single target at the end of every turn, this hothead just splashes out a bunch of damage at the start of every turn. Again, we're working in a few of these start/end of turn cards because we've got some synergy for them in the neutrals.
Today in my free brawl pack I got Barongeddon, then I had a cup of fresh green tea. As a result of that, I think Priest is OP because my keyboard is not a mechanical one. I hope Blizzard will address this issue.
Whew, okay, Druid and Hunter are uploaded and commented on. That took way longer than I was expecting, so I guess I'll have to start adding again tomorrow. Looking forward to showing you guys everything!
Hey Shadow! Glad to see you making new cards, but here is my opinion on it so far. Cards are very interesting but not competitive but they seems like alot of fun to play them. I really dislike the keyword "Echo" in my opinion because everyone uses the same idea over and over again plus I doubt people will really bother about playing echo cards when there are more consistent ones you can find.
For Druid's Legendary, Ive yet to see the neutrals to judge it cause at the moment that cards is pretty weak but the 5/7 stats makes it somewhat good against certain classes this card wont stay on the board very long. The taunts you made also helps make it stick on board. 8 mana 3/3 ermmm sure, summons a 8/2 or 5/5 is okay. we have a druid bonemare that does better in board presence which is super good. Commons are slightly power expect the 8/8 and rare are cool and powerful.
For Hunter, Commons are cool, copy cat combo might be a powerful thing. The weapon is pretty bad, a 2/1 and the second copy is a 2/2 for 2 mana but you get immune is not really a big issue plus Echo keyword doesn't really fit normal hunter cause face the place. Eagle horn bow is much better cause you could run secrets to distrupt the opponent's board. For the rares, two words, Control Hunter, pretty cool cards, no objections in power level. For Epics, Avenging shot is slightly worst cause your opponent's minion has to attack first vs deadlyshot which is random but will always garenteed a kill and the other card is pretty combo fun. The legendary is another cool control card but its a mini ragnoros that can attack.
For Mage, Commons are scary. I can potentially see 2 penguins into 2 Familiar's Blessing into 2 fireballs for a total of 20 damage or 2 frostbolts and 1 fireball for a total of 24 damage or Arcane blast for a total of 5 damage board clear but thats pretty bad. The other two are pretty meh cards but kinda cool. Rares... First card is bad? Second card might be fun cause Paladin is gonna cry from that. Third card wow, somewhat powerful in the late game especially in freeze mage, cause you can play this with frost nova and it would wipe the board in both early game and late game. Epics are very good no objections. Ermmmm! Legendary might be insane, cause the reverting effect is a deathrattle. You can get infinite flame strikes and stuff like that without any draw back, I really wish there is a way to make it so that when it disappears from the board, the hero power reverts back
Time for Paladins, Common secret is insanely powerful cause it shuts down aggro pretty easily if not played around it. The other two are balanced, no comment. Rares, Op OP maybe? 3 mana draw a card and pick one from opponents "WHOLE" hand", really wish this was discover instead, makes it slightly more balanced but also how would the screen looking like? 3 mana 3/4 draw a card? Seems good. Last one no comment. Epics, balanced not too broken and interesting cards (I LIKE IT). Legendary time! Meh, >Inb4 copies silence unless Silence always is at the bottom of the buff stack.
Hey there! Thanks for the feedback guys. NecroaV, I especially like your suggestion for Antonidas, I hadn't even considered what would happen if he were silenced before he died, and yeah, that'd be insane. That'll definitely be getting changed on the first balance pass, which should be after I've uploaded all the neutrals. I'm actually thinking of also providing a big dump of all the various changed or removed cards that I still have lying around. There are some really imbalanced ideas there that'd be funny to look at, such as what Antonidas used to be.
Anyway, I've had a busy few days, so it took me a while to update, but here's Rogue, Shaman, Warlock and Warrior to make up for it! Only the neutrals left. All 54 of them...
You know what, thank you for reminding me that I'd done this. The neutrals have been done for literal months, but I've just never gotten around to posting them - I got annoyed by the balance of some of them but couldn't find the time to change them.
I'm gonna post them as is for now - without the flavour text and comments for now, because hoo boy does that take a long ass time - and then hopefully not take literal months to update it with balance and comments.
I should've gotten to reviewing this earlier, but I'm busy now :( I'll hop on to do reviews of what I like most in a week or something (I don't know, assignments etc.)...
It's funny though, we both came up with the same keyword! Echo is the same as Chronoshift from my mage expansion! :) Great minds think alike, I guess.
"Hail, adventurer! I see you too have been drawn in by all the chaos. People from all across the land have been flocking here, eager to uncover the secrets that might lie within these ancient caverns. What happened, you ask? Well, nobody is quite sure, but an eyewitness did manage to shed some light on the issue. Now where did she go. Lovely little gnomish girl, quite excitable, always seemed to be two steps ahead of the conversation. Ah, blast it, I'm sure she'll turn up. Just be careful! There's quite a few rips in time caused by the collapse, and there's been all manner of strange creatures roaming about. And don't get me started on the Sands! Get that in your boots and it'll stay forever!"
It's been all anyone can talk about. In the dead of night, a great trembling shook Azeroth, waking everyone. Envoys and scouts reported back across the land - "The Caverns of Time! They're collapsing! Great tumbling rockfall and mysterious portals and everything around it just going a bit wonky!". Being closest to the disaster, and never one to miss out on a business opportunity, the gangs of Gadgetzan called a temporary truce while they set up outposts to determine how this would affect business. Asking for help from the greatest adventurers they could bribe, they began mapping the area, discovering newly uncovered groves; mysterious, sand covered skeletons; dragon-worshipping cults; and twisted beings from other worlds.
Now it's your turn to get in on the action! Whether you choose to explore the Forgotten Caverns themselves, stumble blindly through the newly revealed Lost Woods or take your chances traversing the Sands of Time, you'll be sure to encounter some interesting entities.
I'll preface this explanation with the fact that this expansion, in this initial version, was created entirely before Knights of the Frozen Throne was released, and mostly before we'd seen the cards for it - I believe I finished it sometime between the initial reveal and the start of the daily card reveals. Looking back on it, there's definitely some balance changes that need to be made, but I'm posting it now so that I'm forced to actually do that, instead of letting everything waste away in an Imgur gallery for eternity. Now, onto the first section, the themes!
Themes
"Today's theme is... themes."
This expansion features 135 cards, split up into 9 class cards for each class, and 54 neutral cards. Each class has various themes of their own which will be explained in their section, and the neutrals also have a few minor themes going, but the expansion overall has a few main themes.
Now that we've set the stage, it's time we introduced the two keywords I mentioned!
New Keywords
As mentioned previously, we have a major and a minor keyword being introduced in this expansion. They are:
The stage is set. Check out the spoilers below for the full card set
(fingers crossed I get this done tonight!)HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA.Druid
The Druid class draws its inspiration in this set from the recently re-discovered Lost Woods. There, undisturbed for what could have been millennia due to the time dilating nature of the area, a small sect of devout Druids have honed their abilities, becoming attuned to the plant-life around them and feeding into their power.
Commons
Other Lost Woods plants include the Begon-and-onia and the Timer Lily.
A simple card which helps to solidify the themes for Druid in this expansion - Echo, and card draw. Mana Manipulation is often thought of as Druid's defining trait, but part of what makes Ramp work is their card draw, and I wanted to explore that.
Groves, Galaxies, it's all the same to a tree.
The Cross-Class Common for Druid, here we have a pretty thematic interpretation of Enrage. I actually first made this card well over a year ago now, so the fact that Druid suddenly became a Taunt synergy class in KFT is just a bonus.
A Dryads favourite drink? Rootbeer.
Just a big, simple minion to show off some more Echo ideas. Not much to say really.
Rares
Puberty for Druids happens on Turn 2.
More draw synergy, this time incorporating some of that Mana Manipulation Druid is known for.
If you get lost, you'll always find your way back here. Locals have observed travelers calling it 'That Fucking Checkpoint' instead.
The first look at how Echo can be used to change a card's effect entirely, instead of just providing an additional effect. A useful tool for combo decks.
Now it really is 100% Huffer!
Another addition to the 'Mark of...' cycle that Druid has, this time as the Cross-Class Rare. If you get this off on turn two, it provides you with an above average turn three play. The value!
Epics
Best friends with Darkshire Librarian.
Bonemare who? I'm slightly salty that I managed to get my Druid Epic card power creeped by a Neutral Common, but I suppose this still has its applications in Token decks, where it can provide more Tokens if needed or just act as an extra buff.
Here, kitty kitty! Stop hiding, come out and play!
I just noticed that both my Epics are Choose Ones that summon existing minions. Huh. Anyway, choose whichever distribution of stats you prefer. I imagine you'll usually want the Stranglethorn Tiger, but maybe sometimes you need that 8 Attack to kill The Lich King, so you go with Sabretooth Stalker. Flexibility for the win!
Legendary
Nobody knows where she keeps them, but she keeps threatening not to give them back.
This elf has lived for as long as anyone can remember, which is saying something given that time isn't necessarily linear here and people remember their own future and other people's pasts sometimes. Similarly to Brann Bronzebeard or Fandral Staghelm, she doubles your Echo effects, getting you bonus value. Pretty simple, but I felt the effect best fit in Druid.
Hunter
The Hunter class draws their flavour this expansion from archery and bow-hunting. With lots of new prey and interesting environments opened up by the Lost Woods, Hunters the world over have been chomping at the bit to start open season on this new expansion!
Commons
The copies aren't purrfect, but they're just as cute.
Our Cross-Class Common for Hunter borrows the Choose One mechanic to create an interesting little Beast. An enchantment, for reference, is any buff which appears below the card when moused over - be that a spell buff, minion Battlecry buff, anything.
Hunting is a lot harder with a sparkly weapon.
A scaled-down version of Gladiator's Longbow, giving Hunter another low-cost weapon option which encourages trading with a small upside for running two copies.
The alternate timeline where Nymeria stuck around.
Another simple 'small-body-big-summon' minion, with some Beast synergy thrown in for good measure. Your
DirewolfWirey Wolf will get the buff too, which is neat!Rares
I fired, and I missed. So I fired again, and I missed.
Hunter has always had a strange relationship with AoE - Powershot, Unleash the Hounds, Explosive Shot, all pretty good, but never quite working properly for the most part. So uh, here's an attempt at making a different one, I guess.
Seems a bit unfair on the hibernating animals, to be honest.
The Cross-Class Rare, taking a Mage-like AoE and Freeze concept and spinning it with a Hunter theme. It even becomes a combined Arcane Explosion and Frost Nova on the second cast, how good is that! Please just let Control Hunter finally be a thing, I beg of you...
The label inside reads "These Boots Are Made For Stalking".
Hunter card draw is... not good. Is this too good a card draw for them? Maybe. This might be one of the cards in need of revision.
Epics
I think he heard you saying he's the worst member.
Super cheap removal, at the price of having to use it on something that is likely already damaged. Another member of the Hunter '...Shot' cycle, too!
"AAAAHHHHH" - Lost Woods Howler, and its victim
I haven't really commented on it, but yeah, Hunter also goes along with the Echo synergy theme. Makes sense, given how much time they spend in the Lost Woods now. A simple low-cost Beast with some flavourful upsides.
Legendary
Her other titles include Maiden of the Moon, Forest Protector and That Crazy Lady With The Golden Bow
One of the premier archers in all of Azeroth, Artemis is the master of long-ranged attacks, dealing damage at the end of every turn. And hey, so long as she never specified what her target was, she can't miss, right? This is the first example of a powerful start or end of turn effect, of which there are a few in this set.
Mage
Mages have taken to exploring the high, winding tunnels of the caverns, where temporal fluctuations and chilling ice keep creatures locked in stasis. Ancient arts are learned and forgotten in mere seconds here, and infusing beings with power or stripping it away from them has become second nature.
Commons
Snowy Owls - Overshadowing the deaths of main characters since 2007.
Mage's Cross-Class Common, drawing from the Hunter Beast synergy theme, provides them with a potentially ludicrous source of Spell Damage... so long as you're running Beasts. Really, one of the goals of this expansion was to dilute Mage's spell pool a bit, with weaker and more situational cards.
It's actually a spell magnet, but he doesn't know how it works.
The Caverns are full of Dwarves that have lived there for centuries, honing their craft. While this guy does become a buff magnet and a good wall against the opponent's spells, he does mean that your own Fireballs are gonna hit him as well. The synergy?
Hi ho, hi ho, you no take Crystal!
A simple take on a Spell Damage minion. These Crystals sure are powerful!
Rares
"A stable field gives a protective shield"- Ancient Cavern Carving
Hey look, a Cross-Class Rare that gives Mage more random generation! But it's a minion, and it isn't Unstable, so we're fine. Incorporating Paladin's themes into Mage and keeping the Caverns aesthetic was surprisingly hard, so we'll pretend this is what those Crystals we're mining are for.
Card Name by Fall Out Boy
Is this our first Revert effect? I did say it was a minor keyword. This could theoretically be used as anti-buff deck tech, but I imagine it'll more commonly pollute the random effects pool, and potentially pull off a weird win for you. Fun!
Leading cause of Brain Injury, just after Meteors to the head.
Fun fact: I decided Mage was going to have a bit of a Freeze synergy theme going on in this expansion, and the original draft of this card was called Avalanche. Then Blizzard had to go and try and make Freeze Shaman a thing, so I had to change it. But I love this art, so I think it worked out in the end.
Epics
The future often looks a lot like a Fireball to the face.
Woo! A thematic look into the future, allowing you to plan ahead slightly, help decide if drawing will help you here and allowing you another chance for a combo piece. Remember your ordering though - once you draw that top card, this card becomes the next one instead.
Some people speculate she's not really Frozen, just super lazy.
A defensive tool that forces the opponent to think about their board positioning. The intention is that when a minion is no longer opposite this one - because you played a minion and it moved, for example - that minion would immediately unfreeze. This helps balance it, so that your opponent isn't stuck with a bunch of Frozen minions even after it's gone.
Legendary
He was actually just wondering where he was, but he's given up trying to explain that.
What's this? I recognise this guy! Yeah, a few of the legendaries in this expansion are familiar faces who've slipped through cracks in timelines to appear here. This Antonidas has existed for so long between worlds that he's advanced his knowledge of spellcasting immensely. Your Hero Power will cost the same as that spell, but you get to use it every turn. Once Antonidas leaves though, his knowledge is lost with him.
Paladin
Paladins, virtuous defenders of the light that they are, initially made their way to the area not to explore, but to help those affected by the fluctuations, and to defend against the monsters that were coming from beyond their realm. However, they were quickly lured in by members of the Bronze Dragonflight, who promised great power and forgotten knowledge.
Commons
Rose was here.
The Cross-Class Common, taking the Mage Freeze effect and applying it to a Paladin-like secret. This can stop up to three attacks, which is quite powerful, but for the most part the minions will be unfrozen by the end of the turn, so it isn't easily abused.
The hardest family heirloom to pass down.
And now we begin to see Paladin's themes for this expansion - Dragon synergy and buffs. This is a simple to understand card which just provides consistent, low-level buffs. I felt confident being able to provide more buffs in this expansion, knowing that there would be options for counter-play with the Revert keyword.
Cast off all your enchantments, for the Light says that's cheating.
A simple Revert minion. Not something you would auto-include, but a very good tech card against specific match-ups - Evolve Shaman comes to mind, forcing their 6 drops back to 2/2 Doppelgangsters that can be Consecrationed seems good.
Rares
If it cooks, you can eat it - Ancient Dragon Saying
Another take on the 3 mana card draw concept, this time as the Cross-Class Rare incorporating Priest-like abilities. If you have a dragon, you gain valuable knowledge of your opponent's gameplan and a free card, too!
You used to call me on my scale phone...
Powerful card draw on a standard body, with a bit of a downside, occasionally. If your opponent hasn't taken any damage yet this card is just bonkers.
She's tired of reminding everyone that technically, she came first.
Another big Dragon with Dragon synergy, this time incorporating some of that time flavour by giving you your last spell back.
Epics
We don't know what a Stave is either, it just sounds cool.
A good aggro cleaner, which is even better the second time you play it. Also good in conjunction with Equality.
Seems a bit odd that he's the one getting all the benefits in this arrangement.
This pun had to be made at some point, right? It's just too obvious. Basically, if a player is trying to buff their own minion, that spell will also be cast on this minion. Could backfire though - you don't want a Demonheart hitting this!
Legendary
Nozdormu, I've come to bargain!
A huge power swing card, this guy takes all the buffs on the board and empowers himself. My intention was that he wouldn't gain Transform or Silence effects (though they'd still be removed by Revert), since that would be counter-productive, but I wasn't sure what wording would work for this. 'Enchantments' instead of 'effects' maybe?
Priest
The Priest class, often known for its healing and benevolent nature, houses a dark and unholy sect, who use their powers to bring back those who were cut down too soon in their eyes. Messing with death is normally nearly impossible for the majority, but with ripples in time come opportunities to, instead of reversing death, simple pretend it never happened.
Commons
Not as sinister as it sounds.
This was actually an interesting one to design. It originally Reverted then fully healed, like Ancestral Healing, but the combination with Auchenai Soulpriest was far too strong, so instead it had to set Health, not restore it.
Fixes your lightbulbs, free of charge.
Another very simple card which just fits into a bunch of places for Priest - a good earlygame minion, an Elemental, a Deathrattle, some healing. Simple but effective.
A shield for the healed, how poetic.
This works like Northshire Cleric, in that the Divine Shield is only applied if a damaged minion was healed. Cross-Class Common for this class was quite simple, here.
Rares
Straight from the shores of the Temporal Isles.
Cross-Class Rare, taking that Rogue return mechanic and mixing it with their shared 1/1 copy idea. Do you use it on your own minion for the copy, or an enemy minion to get rid of it?
"I? I see myself holding a pair of Wild Pyromancers."
This card was sort of undercut by Eternal Servitude, at least in concept. But I think my twist on it is interesting enough. A cheaper card, but at the cost of having to actually play the minion.
Don't let the minions bite!
Simple stall the game card. It also forces Charge minions to have to wait the normal amount of turns before attacking! Having two of them out increases the effect as well, but I think it's fine since the effect is symmetrical.
Epics
Ingredients: Lost Woods Mist; Bloodletter Blood; and a Pinch of Paprika.
A simple buff which also stops the minion from dying by returning it to your hand! Not much to say really, just playing around with that time travel concept in different ways here.
Original Unbottled Flavour.
Priests love their big board clears. This works similarly to Dragonfire Potion, but instead of sparing Dragons it spares anything that hasn't been buffed, Silenced or Transformed in any way. Good against buff decks since it strips the buffs first before clearing them.
Legendary
Clerist is a real job, she didn't just make it up to sound fancier, promise.
She's actually a real WoW character, actually a Clerist and everything. I have no idea what that is, or what she actually did in the lore, but this version of her slipped through from an alternate timeline and uses her advanced knowledge of time and healing to return all your minions to you. Again, Archbishop Benedictus stole this sort of idea from me, but you can see how they're very different, and how Mara is actually much more playable.
Rogue
Rogues draw their card designs for this expansion from a variety of sources: the sneakier denizens of the Lost Woods; the more malevolent members of the Gadgetzan exploration parties; and bands of assassins, looking to make a profit from this new land. Prepare for some nasty tricks from your dagger-wielding foes!
Commons
Plan sufficiently and you can trick everyone into thinking you know the future.
This brings into focus Rogue's main theme in this set - deck, board and hand manipulation. They will excel at moving things between these areas, forcing board awareness from their opponent and generally being annoying. This card allows them to plan their future turns, to an extent, and also gives them another combo activator.
The Pirates of the Southsea actually know what it means to be a kidnapper, unlike certain other cards.
The Cross-Class Common for Rogue, taking Priest's theme of stealing minions based on their Attack stat and applying it thematically to Rogue. Could be very good tech against particular strategies, and works especially well against opposing Zoo/Aggro decks.
This is a rip-off, where's the bear?
A semi-sticky minion, in that you do have to play it again, but it has fairly good stats for its cost. Works especially well when combined with a Revert to remove the Silence.
Rares
An impressive feat on foot, rather than on horseback.
A way of saving an important minion of yours after an attack, or of disrupting your opponent, forcing them to choose between attacking and losing a minion, or keeping it around and not attacking with it.
Sneaking up on enemies is a lot harder when you're bright blue.
Huh. Wow. This card is... way more imbalanced than I remember. So look at this as like, an idea of the card that will go here. It'll probably be bumped up by like, 2 mana when I get around to balancing.
Rain, rain, go away; Storm on someone else today.
Another way of disrupting the opponent, this time by making their cards more unattractive to play with Overload. I think this works quite well as the Cross-Class Rare - Shamans are all about self-Overload, so Rogues twist that concept to use against their opponents.
Epics
I wonder if Azeroth has any psychiatrists? Probably not any sane ones...
Can you tell which cards I started thinking of when Un'goro was new? This turns an enemy minion into a double agent, ready to kill the minions next to it, though it gives the opponent a turn to sack it off first to save them.
Ha! Killed you! ~vrp~ Ha! Killed you again! ~vrp~ Ha! Kill-
This card I just thought was a cool idea - instead of killing your opponents, you send them forward in time to fight on your side instead. I think it would be quite cool if minions killed by this card couldn't be Resurrected, or found through any similar cards, though I don't know if that's a possibility in Hearthstone right now.
Legendary
Hope she's feeling nice and doesn't try and poison anyone. Again.
Well isn't this a surprise. Vanessa has come with a Defias escort to try and determine the usefulness of these temporal disturbances in enacting her plans. When you activate her combo effect, you will summon three Defias Bandits to the field and be presented with a Discover-like choice - Left, Middle or Right. You choose one of these (secretly) and Vanessa takes the place of that Bandit, though to your opponent nothing has changed. Upon taking any damage or attacking, Vanessa will be revealed.
Shaman
Temporal fluctuations may not seem like something a Shaman should have any business controlling, but despite that the introduction of portals into worlds beyond seems to have strengthened their connection to the Elemental Plane, enhancing their powers in various ways.
Commons
Warning: Contents may be shocking to some viewers.
A simple card to amplify the damage a Shaman can output. Particularly good with AoE effects, although since the spell casts twice, you do Overload twice from the same spell.
Right past the Corridor of Seasons, before the Hallway of Dreams.
Three layers of time-related effects and theming: taking the Rogue's Combo mechanic as the Cross-Class Common; evolving or devolving a minion, like the real passage of time; the actual combo requiring you to think about when in the turn you play the card.
A sandstorm beyond your experience, beyond your imagination.
Dust Devils are bound to get bigger when you give them a bunch of sand to feed on, although it does result in some strange behaviour after they attack. Also an introduction to the return of our Elemental Shaman themes, after the... ahem... Freeze Shaman experiment.
Rares
You actually only get it for 2 Seasons every year, Kibler and Firebat have it the other 10.
The Totem for this expansion, it allows you to play a card significantly early at the cost of hindering your next turn. The effect is symmetrical too, so watch out for what your opponent brings out.
Apparently some bad language really can kill you.
Our Cross-Class Rare taking Warlock's Discard effect and turning it into an interesting sort of board clear. I don't really know how to feel about this card, looking back. This one might get changed completely when I do balance sweeps.
An absolutely smashing guy, really put together.
The art on Stone Elemental was too cute not to bring back! I mean come on, you hardly ever saw these cuties and they deserve to be seen by everyone. Sort of a step up from Igneous Elemental.
Epics
Actually, when you play it it's above ground, so it's a Lava Wyrm.
Hey, another 1/3 for (1) in Shaman, that hopefully isn't horribly broken. Tutors you an Elemental, at the cost of a slight Overload. It's also a Dragon, if you want to make some weird hybrid EleDragon Shaman.
The Elementals wanted to get their own back after TGT, y'know?
Look, it's Dragonfire Potion for Elementals! Honestly not much more to say, another Shaman AoE damage card with an Overload, they seem quite fond of them.
Legendary
No, he isn't friends with the Tortollans, why do you keep asking?
This spooky looking fellow fell through one of the rifts, and since he seems to keep splitting around the presence of Elementals, he's stuck with the Shamans. I think this is actually the only example in the entire expansion of a negative Overload, which is pretty cool. You can technically go infinite with him, if you want - barring Fatigue, of course. Might bump him up to 6 mana because of that.
Warlock
Warlocks, like the Priests, have found themselves much more able to return what was lost to them before. They've also made some interesting deals with a few of the Dragons that came from the rifts and voids. Honestly, this set is just me trying to force Discardlock to happen, so Blizzard will stop fucking trying.
Commons
Apparently Gul'dan's Skull can do all sorts of crap. It's a great paperweight too!
I wasn't kidding about Discard support. Discard something you really wanted to keep? Play this and get it back! If you discard multiple cards at once, it will pick whichever was rightmost in your hand.
Souls - Tastier than you'd like to admit!
Well. This is awkward. I guess I'll have to rename this in the balance passes because of Drain Soul. This is just an attempt at giving Warlock some much needed healing, though it does only function well against certain decks.
Not for use on minions (3) mana and under. That's just a bad deal.
More Discard synergy! This is surprisingly like a Warlock/Shaman flavoured Eternal Servitude, which honestly I'm ok with. I like this as the Cross-Class Common, feels very Warlock, sacrificing your next turn for a card now.
Rares
Late night when you need my cards...
Remember Regenerative Drake from Paladin? Here's the corrupt brother. Gotta love drawing parallels between the class known for self-damage and the class known for self-healing.
They could have taken the skeleton out ages ago, they just think it looks cooler like that.
This card gives you a copy of a card from your deck, only to immediately discard it, activating those juicy synergies that Blizzard keeps making. Then as a bonus, when you die the capsule finally works and you get the card back! Hooray!
Don't Blink.
A fun way of mitigating the amount of damage you take as a Warlock, by transforming some of it into Armor. This Cross-Class Rare takes the most obvious of Warrior's mechanics and adapts it into some more pseudo-healing.
Epics
Schrödinger's Cat has nothing on this guy.
A victim of a bargain with a Warlock gone wrong, this Dragon is cursed to steal the life of fellow Dragons to fuel his regeneration. This sort of targeted Discarding could be useful to you though, especially when you think of the next card...
Nobody show Putricide this, for all our sake.
This horrible creature, which steals the abilities of Discarded minions, would work incredibly well with Relentless Skelegon, to borrow a nice Ysera effect, perhaps. And when you play it a second time, it's refined its technique, and can steal some stats too!
Legendary
The Void knows all, and it says you suck.
Though the penchant for candle-based pauldrons is perhaps an indicator of her mental state, Arya truly is the best at telling the future, and bringing events forward. If you can't make use of her offering quickly, though, it will be lost to the Void. Though of course, this isn't necessarily a bad thing in some decks, now is it?
Warrior
The depths of the Caverns have been watched over for centuries by a contingent of Dwarves known as the Dragonsguard. Understandably, they're not best pleased with all these adventurers roaming through their land and disturbing the Dragons they swore to protect and rear. Face these fearsome Dwarven Warriors and their Dragonmagic-infused weaponry.
Commons
An interesting choice of ink, but they'll accept the exam paper anyway.
A Cross-Class Common taking the self-damage from Warlock and applying it to our Warriors. They've learned some tricks form the Dragons, it seems. Simple single target removal.
A little on-the-nose, don't you think?
A potentially powerful Taunt for turn 4, assuming you have a Dragon providing you with a little back-up magic.
He can never remember is he's on offence or defence, so he just does both.
Another big Taunt for Warrior. The first time you play it its a more defensive option, whereas afterwards it moves into an offensive stance. Basically another simple Echo effect.
Rares
They just found out there's no more sauce left, and they are pissed.
A Cross-Class Rare incorporating Choose One into Warrior. This takes the Mad Bomber concept and at the cost of 1 Health offers you a choice between potential minion clear or some simple face damage.
You said that about the last advance, too!
A slightly expensive card to deal 3 damage, but if you don't kill your target you get it back. After all, how can it be a final advance if the enemy is still alive?
Stare into the Abyss, and it stares back twice as hard.
It's like a Dragon version of Grim Patron! For better stats you get the downside of only splitting once every turn, and only if it's damaged, although that shouldn't be too hard to set up. 1 point of incidental damage and you've summoned a 6 mana 10/8! It'll even retain buffs on the copies, for extra fun.
Epics
Jaina's dad always was one for dramatics.
A way of protecting a minion from attacks, since if they have less than 3 health any minion attack it will die before killing it. This can of course be bypassed by spells or other indirect damage.
For when you want your Dragonsguard nice and tender.
Another board control weapon for Warrior. This seems fairly subpar when you don't have a Dragon, but can be used to fell things with up to 8 health when you have that Dragonmagic backing you up. I have no idea if Dragonmagic is like, a thing in WoW, we're just going with it because I like that explanation for why Dragon-in-hand cards work.
Legendary
I don't blame the guy, being up that early every day would make anyone hot-headed.
Hey, it's Artemis' brother! While she is controlled, taking aim and firing at a single target at the end of every turn, this hothead just splashes out a bunch of damage at the start of every turn. Again, we're working in a few of these start/end of turn cards because we've got some synergy for them in the neutrals.
Neutral
Commons
Rares
Epics
Legendary
You can find me here! Good luck everyone!
Looking forward to it! I'm just going to leave this here so I can keep on checking up on the cards...
#gNOmeferatu
Likewise. Hyped though!
"The quickest way to 'think outside the box' is to realize the truth: the only real box is the one you create by limiting your thoughts."
Bruce Garrabrandt
Whew, okay, Druid and Hunter are uploaded and commented on. That took way longer than I was expecting, so I guess I'll have to start adding again tomorrow. Looking forward to showing you guys everything!
You can find me here! Good luck everyone!
Cool theme and cool cards. I really like the cross class mechanics.
Mage, Paladin and Priest updated. Man, I am not looking forward to when I have to throw down all the Neutrals >.<
You can find me here! Good luck everyone!
Hey Shadow! Glad to see you making new cards, but here is my opinion on it so far.
Cards are very interesting but not competitive but they seems like alot of fun to play them. I really dislike the keyword "Echo" in my opinion because everyone uses the same idea over and over again plus I doubt people will really bother about playing echo cards when there are more consistent ones you can find.
For Druid's Legendary, Ive yet to see the neutrals to judge it cause at the moment that cards is pretty weak but the 5/7 stats makes it somewhat good against certain classes this card wont stay on the board very long. The taunts you made also helps make it stick on board. 8 mana 3/3 ermmm sure, summons a 8/2 or 5/5 is okay. we have a druid bonemare that does better in board presence which is super good. Commons are slightly power expect the 8/8 and rare are cool and powerful.
For Hunter, Commons are cool, copy cat combo might be a powerful thing. The weapon is pretty bad, a 2/1 and the second copy is a 2/2 for 2 mana but you get immune is not really a big issue plus Echo keyword doesn't really fit normal hunter cause face the place. Eagle horn bow is much better cause you could run secrets to distrupt the opponent's board. For the rares, two words, Control Hunter, pretty cool cards, no objections in power level. For Epics, Avenging shot is slightly worst cause your opponent's minion has to attack first vs deadlyshot which is random but will always garenteed a kill and the other card is pretty combo fun. The legendary is another cool control card but its a mini ragnoros that can attack.
For Mage, Commons are scary. I can potentially see 2 penguins into 2 Familiar's Blessing into 2 fireballs for a total of 20 damage or 2 frostbolts and 1 fireball for a total of 24 damage or Arcane blast for a total of 5 damage board clear but thats pretty bad. The other two are pretty meh cards but kinda cool. Rares... First card is bad? Second card might be fun cause Paladin is gonna cry from that. Third card wow, somewhat powerful in the late game especially in freeze mage, cause you can play this with frost nova and it would wipe the board in both early game and late game. Epics are very good no objections. Ermmmm! Legendary might be insane, cause the reverting effect is a deathrattle. You can get infinite flame strikes and stuff like that without any draw back, I really wish there is a way to make it so that when it disappears from the board, the hero power reverts back
Time for Paladins, Common secret is insanely powerful cause it shuts down aggro pretty easily if not played around it. The other two are balanced, no comment. Rares, Op OP maybe? 3 mana draw a card and pick one from opponents "WHOLE" hand", really wish this was discover instead, makes it slightly more balanced but also how would the screen looking like? 3 mana 3/4 draw a card? Seems good. Last one no comment. Epics, balanced not too broken and interesting cards (I LIKE IT). Legendary time! Meh, >Inb4 copies silence unless Silence always is at the bottom of the buff stack.
Asylum's Gauntlet Competition!
GO CHECK OUT MY HERO -->GI'LLAX THE LIFESTEALER
So much time put into this, I see. Well done. 5/5!
Check Out My KaC Review In Over 11,000 words!
Check Out My TWW Review in Over 14,000 words!
Check Out My TBP Review in Over 21,000 words!
Check Out My RR Review in Over 36,000 words!
Hey there! Thanks for the feedback guys. NecroaV, I especially like your suggestion for Antonidas, I hadn't even considered what would happen if he were silenced before he died, and yeah, that'd be insane. That'll definitely be getting changed on the first balance pass, which should be after I've uploaded all the neutrals. I'm actually thinking of also providing a big dump of all the various changed or removed cards that I still have lying around. There are some really imbalanced ideas there that'd be funny to look at, such as what Antonidas used to be.
Anyway, I've had a busy few days, so it took me a while to update, but here's Rogue, Shaman, Warlock and Warrior to make up for it! Only the neutrals left. All 54 of them...
You can find me here! Good luck everyone!
I don't see the picture.
...Neutrals?
"The quickest way to 'think outside the box' is to realize the truth: the only real box is the one you create by limiting your thoughts."
Bruce Garrabrandt
You can find me here! Good luck everyone!
I should've gotten to reviewing this earlier, but I'm busy now :( I'll hop on to do reviews of what I like most in a week or something (I don't know, assignments etc.)...
It's funny though, we both came up with the same keyword! Echo is the same as Chronoshift from my mage expansion! :) Great minds think alike, I guess.
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!) •