Shadows is back, and so are 27 of the best competitors. We'll assume that the other competitors found their way to the clearly marked and not-at-all booby-trapped exits just fine, and that they're now watching this competition along with everyone else in Azeroth, in Taverns via... portals? These guys don't have TVs, right? Damn.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Along with Deathwing's Wild Card, Vilegloom)
Phase III of the competition really steps up the game, asking you for even more cards than last time. Deathwing says it's because he likes to keep everyone on their toes, as he doesn't have any, but an insider tells me it's because that's what some Ampharos decided for the first competition and it's just stuck ever since.
15 cards, up to 5 example cards, and 3 brand new challenges for your class to meet. Browse the rules carefully so you don't get eaten disqualified, and try to come up with a class that will wow Deathwing into letting you through, instead of having him also eat you kick you out. Well, I say Deathwing will be letting you through, but we just tell him that so he doesn't get cranky - there'll be two polls at the end of the phase where everyone will get judged by the masses. Good luck!
GENERAL RULES
Even if you're already a veteran of our competitions here on the Fan Creation Forum, you should read the general rules before you get started. This competition does introduce new rules, like image limitations and formatting requirements.
* The Submission Topic is for submissions only. If you want to discuss your entry, another entry, ask questions about the competition rules or process, or anything else, you can find a link to the Discussion Topic at the top of this thread. Plenty of folks there will be happy to help you out. * You are allowed only one submission , consisting of the materials specified by each competition phase. These materials must, of course, be of your own creation. If you'd like, you may collaborate with another user on a single submission, but this must be specified during Phase I. * You may make only minor edits to your entry once you have submitted it. Minor changes are things like correcting typos or making balance changes that do not alter the spirit of your entry as determined by we the moderators. If you want to make any changes and have any doubts as to their legality, ask us first. * You may not delete any posts you make in this topic. No, not even if you post here by mistake or accidentally double-post or something. Deleted posts screw with the system we use to help us calculate up-vote scores, so don't do that. If you to post here by mistake or accidentally double-post or something, simply edit your post to just say "REMOVED" and leave it at that. * You may not create your own topics on this forum for competition-related material. If everybody goes off and creates their own topics for specific discussion of their entries, this board will be flooded with nothing but, and so competition material must remain restricted to official competition topics. If you want to enter the competition with a class that you already have a topic about on this forum, then your topic will be locked in the interest of fairness to the other competitors. Not deleted, just locked, and it can be unlocked after your entry gets knocked out of the competition. You also may not reference or link to your topic in official competition topics.
* You must host your card somewhere other than Hearthcards. We encourage you to create your entry material using Hearthcards.net , but please remember that, although HearthCards is awesome, it has a limited server space and will purge cards after a few days, and nobody wants your cards disappearing part-way through the competition. After you create it, save and upload it to Imgur , Photobucket , or some other similar site. We understand that there are some Hearthcards memberships that will allow you to save your card there for longer (and you should totally get one of those just for general fan creation purposes, by the way), but we don't know who has those memberships and we can't tell from the URLs. * You may not submit any Gold cards or animated cards, nor may you include any images in your post other than the requested submission materials. A single banner or border, to introduce the class, is allowed. We get it, everybody wants their entry to stand out, but our pages are going to be heavy enough as it is without everybody heading their submissions with animated banners. * You must insert your images into your post using this icon on the bar above the post text editor: . Just click that button and put in the URL of your image. We realize that it's also possible to upload and attach images to your post. Don't do that, though. We know from experience that, because those images are much smaller and require more work to view, entries that enter their images that way just don't do as well, so this is for your own good. * Format your entry concisely by sizing your cards appropriately and placing them beside one another rather than in a column or completely separate. The first example below is acceptable while the second is not. Entries that unnecessarily inflate the size of the submission topic and make it more difficult to get through will be disqualified. How should you size your cards? Well...
Adjust cards to a width of 250 , and you should be able to get three in a row!
Adjust cards to a width of 180 , and you should be able to get four in a row!
Adjust cards to a width of 150 , and you should be able to get five in a row!
* "Troll" entries will be disqualified. Fun and even humorous entries are perfectly allowed (this is Hearthstone after all), but if you're worried that your entry may be misinterpreted as a troll entry, contact a moderator before you submit.
Finally, know that manipulating votes in any way is strictly forbidden. Any violators will receive an official warning, and will be banned from this and all future HearthPwn Card Design Competitions.
PHASE III: The Classic Set
In this Phase, you will each construct your class's Classic Set . Here are the requirements for your Class Creation Competition Phase III Entry:
CLASS, HERO, AND HERO POWER There are just a few elements of your class that you will repeat from your Phase I entry, to remind us who and what we're dealing with. If you'd like to repeat anything from your class's introductory explanation, including its flavor or whatever you believe makes it interesting or unique mechanically, that's fine, but try to keep it brief.
EXAMPLE CLASSIC CARDS We do not want to see your Class's entire Classic Set out in the open.
You are allowed up to five (5) example Classic cards out in the open. You may, below these cards, give brief explanations of them, why you decided to showcase them, how they exemplify what makes your class unique, and so on.
As these are Classic cards, they should have the Classic watermark, and you should include 6 Common cards, 5 Rare cards, 3 Epic cards, and 1 Legendary minion.
If your example cards produce any unique token cards, those must be put behind a spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.).
There are many keywords that do not appear on any existing Classic Card, and they may not appear on any of your Basic Cards either: Discover , Adapt , Lifesteal , Recruit , or any other keyword that has been introduced in future expansions. In addition, there are many general mechanics that did not appear either, so you must avoid expansion-specific mechanics like Spellstone and C'Thun synergy, and so on. Other such mechanics like Elemental and Dragon synergy aren't disallowed per se shouldn't be used unless your class is specifically themed around Elementals or Dragons.
REMAINING CLASSIC SET The remaining ten (10) cards of your class's Classic Set must be presented behind a Spoiler Block (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.). These cards must obey the same rules are your examples cards with regards to expansion watermarks, rarity gems, and what keywords you may not use.
BASIC SET You should include your completed Basic Set from Phase II behind a Spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.) either before or after your Classic Set material. It is fine if these cards have undergone some minor modification since the end of Phase II, but thy must still adhere to all of Phase II's requirements.
You voted furiously to determine what extra challenges entrants would have to follow, and here they are! As a reminder, all entries must also meet these requirements . Don't get disqualified over a simple fix!
Deathwing is all about inclusivity these days - after all, the more people you let in, the more there are to burn to death! As such, he needs to know that you're capable of designing cards of all rarities, not just some flashy Legendaries and Epics.
Deathwing was very insistent that everybody have a keyword for this competition, because his new friend has to be extra special in as many ways as possible. Now he wants to test the limits of your keyword - is it robust enough to be used in other ways, like Shaman did with Unbound Elemental?
(NOTE: Your card must have the keyword on it, but not actually use the keyword. Examples include Unbound Elemental for Overload, Fandral Staghelm for Choose One, and Corpse Widow for Deathrattle. A counter-example would be Sparring Partner, which interacts with Taunt but also has Taunt.)
Lastly, Deathwing is a simple man, and if there's one thing he hates, its beings with more power than him. As such, he's trying to ban RNGesus as much as possible from this competition. Unfortunately, he only has so much power, so he's bound you all to exactly 1 card with the word 'random' in its card text. (Nobody tell him you can have random effects without using the word, he'll freak).
COMPETITION SCHEDULE AND PROCESS
How long do you have to work on your submission? How will advancement to Phase III of the competition be determined? The answers to these questions and more can be found below...
PHASE IV: Whispers of the Old Gods + One Night In Karazhan Challenges Poll: TBD Submission: TBD Poll #1: TBD Poll #2: TBD
PHASE V: Mean Streets of Gadgetzan + Journey to Un'Goro Challenges Poll: TBD Submission: TBD Poll: TBD
PHASE VI: Knights of the Frozen Throne + Kobolds & Catacombs Challenges Poll: TBD Submission: TBD Poll: TBD
NOTE: All stages of the competition begin and end at 22:00 UTC. ALSO NOTE: This timetable is subject to change at any time, even after the competition begins, if it seems like too many folks are struggling.
* During Submission stages, Submission Topics will be unlocked and (remaining) participants may submit their entries. During Phases I-II, you may also use this time to go ahead and up-vote submissions that you like. * During Up-Voting stages for Phases I-II, Submission Topics will be locked. Use this time to up-vote submissions that you like. Note that advancement during these Phases depends entirely on up-votes. * During Polling stages for Phases III-VI, Submission Topics will be locked, and all eligible remaining participants will have their submission material included in a separate Poll Topic to determine advancement. Phases III-IV include two Poll Topics because I anticipate we will have enough participants remaining that we will not be able to fit everybody in one Poll Topic. Note that up-votes in the Submission Topics are irrelevant to advancement during these Phases.
How will eliminations be done, and how many competitors will advance from each phase to the next?
I'm glad you asked! We will be taking a equal proportion of competitors from each Phase of the competition to the next, and we will be ending with exactly four finalists. That being the case and their being five total eliminations before the final round, that proportion can be found by solving for x: [# of valid Phase I entries] * x^5 = 4 The higher the number of valid Phase I entries, the lower that proportion becomes. Just so you have an idea, the proportion hits 50% when we hit 128 entries, which is likely, but it only hits 33.3% when we hit 972 entries, which is less likely.
As mentioned above, advancement to Phases II and III will be determined by up-votes only. However, these up-votes are weighted using a formula identical to the process used by our Weekly Card Design Competitions: ( ab ) / ( c ) = x (Where a is the total number of up-votes that your submission received, b is the total number of valid submissions on the same page as your submission, c is the total number of up-votes on valid submissions on the same page as your submission, and x is your submission's final weighted up-vote score.) Why bother with this formula rather than just taking each submissions up-votes directly? Because earlier pages simply get a lot more views that later pages do, and we do not want rushed, early submissions to have an advantage over later submissions that took more time to get their entries just right. The formula basically measures which submissions stood out the most, with the necessary assumption that each page is about equal in overall submission quality. The bottom line is that, although entries on the earlier pages of the Submission Topic are much more visible and thus receive many more up-votes than entries on later pages, you don't actually have to rush to get your entry in as soon as possible, because the up-votes end up being weighted by what page your entry ends up on in order to determine its final score.
As mentioned above, advancement to Phases IV, V, and VI will be determined by polls. These polls will be multi-choice, meaning that voters can vote for every entry that they like. Whenever we have to split a Phase's poll into two to make it more manageable for voters, advancement will be determined by looking at each class's final percentage scores, not by looking at the direct number of votes they received, since we can't guarantee that the same number of voters will vote each day. Poll results will always be hidden until the poll has concluded, and for polls split in two, this does also mean that the results of the first poll will not be revealed until the second poll has concluded as well.
The winner of Phase VI, and thus the entire competition, will be determined by a poll much like the ones before, except that it will be single-choice, requiring voters to pick their single favorite class, and will have a much longer polling phase than usual to give us plenty of opportunity for promotion and such.
In the event of a tie during Phases I-IV for the last possible advancing position, all entries involved in the tie will be allowed to advance; the more the merrier, I say. We will absolutely not have more than four finalists, however, and so in the event of a tie during Phase V, the three Fan Creation Forum moderators (that is, Cogito_Ergo_Sum, ShadowsOfSense, and PupleMD) will vote to break the tie. In the event of a tie during Phase VI to determine the competition's winner, the title will simply be shared unless both finalists request and agree to a tie-breaking round.
But wait, there's more! During Phases I-IV of the Competition, each Fan Creation Forum moderator (ShadowsOfSense, PupleMD, Phoenixfeather, ThisOtherGuyTox, Cogito_Ergo_Sum, Otovent, linkblade91) will have a Wild Card , which we may (though are not required to) use to advance to the next Phase any one entry that we feel was initially overlooked or under-appreciated, regardless of its performance with voters. No entry may be awarded a Wild Card more than once, and it should also go without saying that, while some moderators are allowed to participate in the competitions, they are never allowed to benefit from Wild Cards. Wild Cards are our way of spicing things up a bit, but please don't ask to be given one or be upset if you aren't given one. These are just supposed to be fun.
Are you curious what will be required for future phases of the competition? The challenges will remain a secret , but I'm happy to tell you the general submission requirements.
PHASE IV: Whispers of the Old Gods and One Night in Karazhan
By having your class's Classic Set approved of, you've shown that you can make a completely functional class. But functional isn't good enough. Your class must also have room to grow beyond that. For this phase, you'll be proving that it can by giving your class Whispers of the Old Gods and One Night in Karazhan cards. Here are the requirements for your Class Creation Competition Phase IV Entry:
CLASS, HERO, AND HERO POWER There are just a few elements of your class that you will repeat from your Phase I entry, to remind us who and what we're dealing with. If you'd like to repeat anything from your class's introductory explanation, including its flavor or whatever you believe makes it interesting or unique mechanically, that's fine, but try to keep it brief.
EXAMPLE WOG & ONiK CARDS We do not want to see your Class's entire WOG and ONiK Sets out in the open.
You are allowed up to five (5) example cards out in the open. You may, below these cards, give brief explanations of them, why you decided to showcase them, how they exemplify what makes your class unique, and so on.
For this phase, you should have 3 Common cards, 3 Rare cards, 2 Epic cards, and 1 Legendary minion with the Whispers of the Old Gods watermark. These may not have Adapt , Spellstone Upgrades, Quest , etc., as those mechanics did not exist until later expansions.
You should also have 2 Common cards and 1 Rare card with the One Night in Karazhan watermark. These may not have Quest , Lifesteal , Jade Golems , etc., as those mechanics did not exist until later expansions.
If your example cards produce any unique token cards, those must be put behind a spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.).
REMAINING WOG & ONiK CARDS The remaining seven (7) cards of your class's WOG and ONiK Sets must be presented behind a Spoiler Block (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.). These cards must obey the same rules are your examples cards with regards to expansion watermarks, rarity gems, and what keywords you may not use.
BASIC AND CLASSIC SETS You should include your completed Basic and Classic Sets from Phases II and III behind a Spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.) either before or after your Phase IV material. It is fine if these cards have undergone some minor modification, but they must still adhere to all of their original Phase requirements.
PHASE V: Mean Streets of Gadgetzan and Journey to Un'Goro
Congratulations on being a semi-finalist! With positively received Whispers of the Old Gods and One Night in Karazhan sets, you've proven that your class's concept and mechanics have room for expansion. Now, there's only one last thing to do: narrow down the best of the best. For this phase, you'll be giving your class Mean Streets of Gadgetzan and Journey to Un'Goro cards. Here are the requirements for your Class Creation Competition Phase V Entry:
CLASS, HERO, AND HERO POWER There are just a few elements of your class that you will repeat from your Phase I entry, to remind us who and what we're dealing with. If you'd like to repeat anything from your class's introductory explanation, including its flavor or whatever you believe makes it interesting or unique mechanically, that's fine, but try to keep it brief.
EXAMPLE MSG & JtU CARDS We do not want to see your Class's entire MSG and JtU Sets out in the open.
You are allowed up to five (5) example cards out in the open. You may, below these cards, give brief explanations of them, why you decided to showcase them, how they exemplify what makes your class unique, and so on.
For this phase, you should have 3 Common cards, 3 Rare cards, 2 Epic cards, and 1 Legendary minion with the Mean Streets of Gadgetzan watermark. These may not have Adapt , Recruit , or other mechanics that did not exist until later expansions.
Your class must belong to a crime family, but it is up to you to determine how you want to go about that!
You may have it join one of the existing Crime Families (Grimy Goons, Kabal, or Jade Lotus). You would not make any Tri-class cards as they already exist.
You may invent an entirely new crime family with its own unique mechanical gimmick(s). This new Crime Family would be comprised of your class and two other classes, which can either be official Hearthstone classes (e.g. Mage) or other fan-made classes within this competition. You would then need to create 3 tri-class cards for this new Crime Family ( 1 Common minion, 1 Rare minion, and 1 Legendary minion) , and like the existing crime families, your family's Rare minion should just have the card text "Battlecry: Discover a ______, ______, or ______ card.". To be clear, you would not need to make any class-specific cards for the other two classes you select to be in your class's crime family if you choose to go that route.
You should also have 3 Common cards, 3 Rare cards, 2 Epic cards, and 1 Legendary minion, and 1 Legendary Quest with the Journey to Un'Goro watermark. These may not have Lifesteal , Death Knight cards, or other mechanics that did not exist until later expansions.
If your example cards produce any unique token cards, those must be put behind a spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.).
REMAINING MSG & JtU CARDS The remaining cards of your class's MSG and JtU Sets must be presented behind a Spoiler Block (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.). These cards must obey the same rules are your examples cards with regards to expansion watermarks, rarity gems, and what keywords you may not use.
BASIC, CLASSIC, WOG, and ONiK SETS You should include your completed Basic, Classic, WOG, and ONiK Sets from Phases II-IV behind a Spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.) either before or after your Phase V material. It is fine if these cards have undergone some minor modification, but they must still adhere to all of their original Phase requirements.
PHASE VI: Knights of the Frozen Throne and Kobolds & Catacombs
Here we are, finalists! In the last phase of our competition, you'll be giving us your class's Knights of the Frozen Throne and Kobolds & Catacombs sets, as well as constructing your own custom Finale Topics:
FINALE TOPIC There will be no Submission Topic for the competition Finale. Instead, you will create your own Finalist Topics. All that you have to do is create a normal topic here on the Fan Creation Forum and title it as such: [Class Competition Finalist] DEATHWING (Replace DEATHWING with your own class's name, of course.) Then, bring it to our attention, and we'll link to it from this topic. That's it. How you format and present your final product is entirely up to you. You've put in a lot of work to come this far, so you've earned the right to show us your completed original Class however you think is best.
KFT & KnC CARDS In addition to including the required material from all previous phases, you must add the following:
3 Common cards, 3 Rare cards, 2 Epic cards, and 1 Legendary minion, and 1 Legendary Hero card with the Knights of the Frozen Throne watermark. These may not have Recruit , Spellstone Upgrades, or other mechanics that did not exist until later expansions.
3 Common cards, 3 Rare cards, 2 Epic cards, and 1 Legendary minion, and 1 Legendary Weapon with the Kobolds and Catacombs watermark.
And of course, it wouldn't be a Game Show if your Finalist Topic didn't have...
P R E S E N T A T I O N !
EXAMPLE CARDS These don't need to be part of your Finale Topic, but by the end of the Submission Phase, you should send ShadowsOfSense 8 example cards from your completed collection, preferably via PM, to be included in the Final Poll Topic. The Final Poll topic will look very similar to this one from our first CCC, except that no token cards will be included.
REWARDS
In addition to truly epic bragging rights, ALL finalists will receive a special Forum Title and Avatar Border, similar to those given to winners of our forum's Weekly Card Design Competitions, as shown below:
Furthermore, the winning contestant will have a Season 7 competition themed around their winning class!
ARCHIVES
Want to see how things went during our first three Class Creation Competitions? Want to see what the winners and other finalists did during each phase? Then check out the links below!
Note, that some competition rules, especially formatting rules, may have been different for past competition.
Intro:
Remember all those powerful scrolls from dungeon crawlers and World of Warcraft that need no magical ability to use? Have you ever wondered what would happen if a random guy just casually decided to grab a few bags full of those and run around like a lunatic? Well wonder no longer! I present to you, Gabriel Gillian, the Scribe!
Hero Power:
A scribes magic comes from scrolls and tomes, which comes with one big advantage, if you use a scroll and you need another, just draw one up (Gabriel is quite the artist)! That of course will take awhile hence the extra mana cost but the possibilities opened by it are endless!
New Keyword:
Tome
These show up like a
secret
but visible to both players. They are buffs that will cancel under a certain condition. Makes deck building really interesting especially the more you try to have active at once. Cool note about tomes in the classic set: There are 5 tomes total, a 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 cost!
Class Themes:
- Controlled RNG effects.
- Effects with a duration.
- The condition of "If your opponent controls no minions" on cards.
- Cards that affect adjacent minions.
Strengths:
- Extremely versatile hero power that you can adapt to your opponent.
- Strong card draw.
- Stronger while opponents board is cleared (KILL ALL THE THINGS!!).
Weaknesses:
- No healing (some preemptive pseudo healing options are available however).
- Limited direct damage and simple finishers (usually wins through complete domination!).
- Weaker while behind on board (as you have less control over your controlled RNG effects, and no good comeback cards).
Example Cards:
Tome of Equality
is strongest against those decks that just spew out minions like their life depends on it as they will almost always have more minions than you. But to get true value out of this you must also use a fair number of minions as against a slower deck your best bet to maintaining this is to have more minions than them!
Shock Therapist
is great for maintaining your lead, she adds a solid body on board and slows your opponent down next turn. Your opponents minions are smart enough to stop her setting up her electrical trap so make sure your opponent doesn't have any minion! *Evil laugh!!*
Power Transcription
is one of the classes strongest win conditions. It can copy
charge
from
Stonetusk Boar
, and buffs from minions like
Gurubashi Berserker
that you can easily get really high via cards like
Scroll of Fire
(basic set). Plus it can just be generally useful by giving card text like
Acolyte of Pain
s and
Acolyte of Suffering
(basic set) to higher health minions.
Omens:
Tome of Conservation
makes great use of the classes strong card draw. With enough of it and lots of use from your hero power, you can easily use all your mana each turn without destroying the tome.
Acolyte of Pain
combined with
Power Transcription
and
Scroll of Fire
or Lightning
can allow you to have some insane cheap card draw using this.
Miracle scribe
combo
:
Add in draw where needed to maintain the tome.
Gurubashi Berserker
-->
Scroll of Fire
-->
Stonetusk Boar
-->
Power Transfusion
x 2 would give you a 31/1 Boar!
Apotheus Omen of the End:
If you wanna go all out on tomes, then this guy will be a great addition to your deck! Fully buffed he's a 10/10 with a pile of bonuses (which you can transfer using
Power Transcription!
) and that is often going to be game winning. Getting 4 active tomes at once is pretty hard in classic but in later sets you can consistently get all 4 buffs for him if you build your deck around maintaining your tomes!
Basic Cards:
Remaining Classic Cards:
I hope you enjoyed my submission! Thanks for reading :D
Hey guys, glad to be back for PhaseIII! I wish everyone the best of luck :) For my entry, I'm sticking to the
Predator Class
, as represented by Alalirith is thematically focused on targeting the right prey, and hunting down your victims.
Hunt the Weak
is the Hero Power and essentially sidekick to the
Predator.
It is simple and sweet where it acts as a ping that finishes off weakened enemies (following that predator theme). It is better than
Reinforce
in terms of removal and trading, but weaker in terms of aggressive face pressure where it cannot attack heroes.
Hunt
is the new exclusive Keyword for
Predator
in which is core to the mechanics of the class. It essentially acts as if the card was "hunting" another target and is waiting patiently for the right time to strike. This tempo-oriented, skill focused Keyword would separate players in their decision making; "Should I reveal this minion and deny the
Hunt
effect, or should I decline to attack and use the effect's value instead?"
EXCELS AT:
Tons of removal
Huge tempo swing cards
New way to play!
FALLS FLAT:
Very limited direct damage
Low amount of Taunts
No healing options
Beast in the Night (Minion)
shows both of the Predator's main strengths:
Stealth
synergies and the
Hunt
effect. Utilizing the
stealth
mechanic, it can easily grow to become a huge threat for only two mana-- you just have to know when to pounce!
Panther Rider (Minion)
is a 5/5 stealthed body that makes for a great trading tool as well as a threat on the board that upon death (the Rider falls off the Panther), summons ANOTHER Stealthed body in the form of
Jungle Panther
.
Let's Go Hunting! (Spell)
is crazy-- good-- fun. Simply put, it acts as a minigame inside a Hearthstone match: the baby buffalo act as targets for your weapon, who, upon death, reward you with great card draw and buffs. Is it worth the tempo loss? Probably.
Spirit Hunter (Minion)
utilizes the
hunter-themed
mechanics of the Predator with a clever twist-- he hunts the undead. What would be cooler than destroying your opponent's under-statted
Grizzled Guardian
? Getting one of your own! A four mana minion that RECRUITS two more minions??? Sign me up.
Connor the Survivalist (Legendary Minion)
is the Classic Legendary card for the Predator. It's a fairly innocent card on paper-- until you let it hide in the bushes for a couple turns... Lo and behold! All of your opponent's minions are frozen! While the effect is rather subtle, it's a card that quickly will become incredibly valuable as the game goes on.
Hero Power:
The Spirit
class is based on full Health minions.
Soul link
helps them to stay at high health and prevent from dying.
NOTE: You can use Hero Power even if there aren't any minions on your side. It heals only your hero then.
CARDS
Explanation:
Congeries:
Buff your minions with Alleviation to help them stay longer ! One of the cheapest way for
The Spirit
to protect friendly minions.
Moribund Spirit:
This card triggers it's effect at the end of turt it was played. It can't help trading, but supports your minions at low Health to stay in play. This is a great 2 drop, when played without effect it still has got value.
Falling Light:
The Spirit
has weak board clears. This is one of the most powerful, simmilar to
Lightning Storm
. It becomes even better with the
Spell Damage
. Fortunately, it affect only enemy minions, which makes this card very powerful AoE.
Spirit's Wrath:
One of the best removals for this class. An opposite to
Execute
, but costs 1 mana more, because it is easier to use and you can target a friendly minion with it. However, minion must be undamaged, so better use it before trades.
Kuro:
The Spirit
hasn't got many big minions.
Kuro
is an exception. If she survives, she becomes another friendly hard removal. But what if there is only one enemy minion ? If she attacks and destroys it,
Kuro
is able to attack again ! (It works the same as with
Truesilver Champion
and
Blackguard
).
The
LONER
Class is characterized by a slow, control,
combo
-based play style with opportunities for mind games and counter-play. The Hero power baits the opponent into spending their resources while simultaneously giving the Loner player opportunities to draw the appropriate responses. Expect games with the Loner to last many turns while they also create many puzzling board and fatigue situations.
HOWEVER,
just because the class archetype is conducive to a control play style, there will be many different tools for aggressive and midrange-oriented players as well.
Class Keyword
The Loner wants to
Preserve
all kinds of treasured memories and memoirs. He wants to make, and be, a good friend by understanding new feelings and remembering dear ones. This way, one day, those wonderful memories will resurface and offer opportunities to bond with old friends, kindle forgotten relationships, and draw critical combos to destroying the enemy!
Keyword Technicality: A card can only be considered
Preserved
if it is in your deck. Cards that interact with
Preserved
effects do not interact with cards in your hand, on the board, or in your opponent’s hand or deck. When a card text effect indicates a
Preserved
card to be drawn, removed, or discarded, it typically means a random
Preserved
card will be interacted with, unless otherwise specified.
CLASSIC SET SHOWCASE
Designer's Thoughts:
Lone Survivor –
A solid early game minion for board control. A VERY strong turn 1 Coin play. The idea is to maintain a single-minion board while you draw into other cards via Hero power and spells. This minion will give you enough staying power to formulate a win condition based on your next few draws. However, it is clearly not as helpful as a late game draw.
Preserve –
A simple spell to start prepping for combos and synergies. It might seem over-costed, but that's only because the potential interactions with the keyword can be very powerful in the right circumstances.
Mood: Reserved –
Clearly a control card. Not a terrible option for some panicked anti-aggro, and an effective tool against control/ synergy decks with powerful card-text minions.
Magic Memento –
Some mediocre weapon damage and
Preserved
synergy packed into one card.
Uuk, the Spirit-Friend –
Beefy stats with some beefy keywords. If you manage to cycle it effectively using other cards (such as
Magic Memento
or
Memories
), this minion will become a nuisance to deal with if your opponent does not have his proper
Silence
response handy.
Lady Vashj
makes her return as the
Sea Witch
class: The versatile Naga sorceress capable of unleashing devastating water-based magic as well as powerful minions of the deep to overwhelm your opponent, but can also lurk beneath the Ocean Depths, biding her time, waiting for the right moment to strike. The Classic cards build up and outwards from the Basic Set. While the initial Basic cards attempted to tone down the Sea Witch's inherently complicated playstyle, the Classic set attempts to slowly introduce the first glance at the strategies the Sea Witch has at her disposal. The class' keyword
Reservoir
makes its debut and is at the heart of the Sea Witch's core mechanic, deck size manipulation. Both aggressive and slower Sea Witch archetypes make use of both high and low deck counts, whether it's for creating synergies between cards or to unleash devastating card combos.
Bountiful Seas & Ocean Depths explanation:
Bountiful Seas
is an interesting Hero Power, and it is obvious from the get-go that the Sea Witch is all about deck manipulation. Their main mechanic is a nod to their ancient history as well as their great longevity and the mystery that still surrounds them.
Ocean Depths
itself it a 0-mana token that immediately casts itself upon drawn. It complements your Hero Power by bringing the total healing up to 3, but its main purpose is to expand your deck size as a filler card without actually impeding your deck by shuffling in minions that do nothing when drawn.
Reservoir
is the class' keyword. A little complex, though easy to understand once seen in action,
Reservoir
is essentially a
battlecry
with a conditional effect, that is, deck size. It operates much like
Combo
, which is also a conditional
battlecry
-like effect. In addition, like most cards with a conditional effect, a yellow glow will appear around a
Reservoir
card if it meets it requirement.
Classic Set Showcase
Explanation:
Nazjartar Seahorseman
is a powerful early-game tool for the Sea Witch and can be slotted into almost every deck, save for the most greedy of Control decks. What stands out about the Seahorseman is its reverse-usage of Reservoir; instead of a boon, having a large deck, that is, in the early game, your cannot
Charge
and hit your opponent's face with this card. However, having a minion that cannot ever attack the opposing hero is a dead draw later on. As such, when the game progresses and your deck thins, this minion becomes even more useful. Tempo-based decks can often reach the 20-card mark (which is around turn 4-5), while midrange or
combo
-based decks will be fine with either trading or hitting face.
Explanation:
Condensation
is a middle-game tempo play or midrange deck's powerful turn 5 option. By itself, it is a little underwhelming but still summons 6/4 worth of stats, 4.5 mana. It is the
Reservoir
effect that really sets this card apart, however. It rewards slightly slower decks by boosting the
Sea Elemental
's stats to 4/3, totaling at 8/6 for 5 mana, not too shabby at all, and with the potential of growing even more. The
Sea Elemental
is a Sea Witch Basic set card:
Explanation:
They Came from Below
is the Sea Witch's epic spell and is a powerful control tool. It can be seen as somewhat of a cross between
Lesser Jasper Spellstone
and
Shield Slam
. It promotes a slow, methodical playstyle, continually adding cards to your deck and rewards this upkeep greatly in the same way Shield Slam rewards a player who can stack Armor. Armor is much more easily lost that deck size, however, which explains the greater ease of use of Shield Slam. Yet, deck size is harder to gain than armor. They Came from Below is therefore harder to set up and, as such, has a middle point that is still an extremely high-value play. As this card contains two
Reservoir
effects, the Epic rarity was chosen.
This Seahorseman will fight for you so long as you keep him in the shallows. Secretly, he's scared of going off the deep end.
We heard you liked Sea Elementals. Now you can have a Sea Elemental for your Sea Elementals.
You'll wish the deep blue claimed you.
Explanation:
Brine Crossbolter
is immediately an eye-catcher of an epic weapon. This is the "combo" of the Sea Witch class, the lynchpin of the very possible Crossbolter Sea Witch deck, where the player aims to thin down their deck as much as they can, or stall until the end game, and they crush their opponent with this card. This card rewards the Sea Witch for lasting so long; it takes about 12-15 turns to reach the 10-card threshold. While certainly devastating, it is stopped by Taunts,
Freeze
, and simply time. This weapon takes all three of its charges to finish off its opponent, making the Sea Witch player work hard to reap its benefits. Nonetheless, it is an extremely potent win condition and I did my best to carefully balance this card. Flavour-wise, as it is not one of the Sea Witch's staves, it does not have a
battlecry
effect.
Explanation:
The Legendary minion of the Sea Witch's Classic set is
Warlord Kalithresh
, a mighty Naga warrior and one of Lady Vashj's right-hand men. Keeping in line with the other class legendaries of the time, Kalithresh takes the simplest Sea Witch act, shuffling in copies of
Ocean Depths
, and magnifies it sevenfold. He single-handedly acts as a large
taunt
minion, refills your deck size, and your hand. Not to mention, his seven Ocean Depths will heal for 14 in the long run. His high value level is comparable to
Tirion Fordring
, another powerful
taunt
minion which can deal up to 15 damage after he dies.
Don't get too salty, now.
Kalithresh sails the seven seas, trident in hand, wanderlust in his soul.
Other Classic Cards
Commons
Gilblin Plunderer:
A simple 1 mana 1/3 that shuffles into two low-cost minion with above-average stats into your deck. These are vanilla minions so they are technically dead draws, but the Sea Witch does require a way to quickly generate permanent deck size and something to offset its high draw power.
Flavour: Likes candy.
Water Blast:
A
Darkbomb
-like card, with the additional bonus of shuffling itself back into your deck if used early game. Dealing 3 damage for a low cost is useful at any stage of the game.
Flavour: Ever wanted to punch someone very, very hard in the gut from 50 feet back?
Tidal Rager:
Well, yes, it is a meme, but looking past the hideous 5/1 statline reveals a card that is actually worthy of some play. Even if hero power'ed away by your opponent, you spent just 1 mana to cycle a card. (Tidal Rager 3-cost - Hero Power 2-cost) Another way of looking at is is comparing it to
Loot Hoarder
and
Polluted Hoarder
. You are getting 3 extra stats for 1 mana, and you are equalling Polluted Hoarder's stats, but saving one mana.
Flavour: Water beats Magma.
Highborne Grace:
This is the Sea Witch's main healing card, and a potent one at that. It is at first a weaker
Healing Touch
but then becomes a
Healing Wave
once the game progresses.
Flavour: AMAAAAAAAZZZZINNGGGG GRAAAAAACEEEEEEE!
Cerith Scepter:
As the Sea Witch does employ weapons, a simple yet effective weapon was required for the Classic Set. The Cerith Scepter fulfills this role, and being a staff, it has a
Battlecry
, albeit a simple one.
Flavour: The power of Hydra compels you!
Rares
Finding Mobus:
Originally a Basic set card, Finding Mobus shuffles in a large minion into your deck while cycling for a high price of 2 mana. The payoff is well worth it, however, and Finding Mobus will likely find its way into a midrange Sea Witch deck.
Flavour: Have you checked the fish tank at your local dental clinic?
Squid Ward:
This is a simple buffing spell, along the lines of Shaman's
Ancestral Spirit
. Instead of making the minion stick on your board, it instead gives +2/+2 and replenishes your deck. It's a controlled deck filler tool that permanently makes your deck larger but without losing too much tempo or filling your deck with weak cards. Its cheap cost promotes its use as a
combo
card.
Flavour: Clarinet not included.
Coilfang Battlemaiden:
A simple card along the lines of
Auchenai Soulpriest
. Though it can facilitate other Reservoir effects, it is worth noting that Battlemaiden + Crossbolter = 11 mana. Therefore, as decks and classes become more powerful, there arises an option fro the "Crossbolter Sea Witch" deck:
Emperor Thaurissan
.
Flavour: Battlemaiden by day, long-distance swimmer by night. How else do you think she keeps your Reservoir effects going?
Salt the Wound:
The Sea Witch's most glaring weakness is their lack of AOEs. As one might notice, they have great, efficient single-target removals. Salt the Wound comes in at an expensive
Consecration
, but does make up for this later in the game by acting as a cheaper
Blizzard
.
Flavour: Ooh, that smarts.
Epic
& Tokens
Steamvault Bruiser:
The Steamvault Bruiser is the Sea Witch's "OP" 6-mana minion. Looking at other classes' premier 6-drops:
Fire Elemental
has a 5-mana worth of stats, and a deal 3 damage, which is 2 mana. You get 7 mana packed for 6.
Savannah Highmane
gives you 6/5, again, 5-mana, and a
deathrattle
of 4/4 which is about 3 mana. 8 mana for 6 mana.
Temple Enforcer
is a 6/6, 5.5 mana, and a an extra 3 Health on top of that. 6/9 is 7 mana, packed in 6 mana. Furthermore,
Faceless Summoner
is a 4.5 mana body + a 3-mana minion, 7.5 mana's worth.
tl;dr:
Every class needs an "op" 6-mana minion.
With
charge
, 5/2 is 6 mana, and you get 2 Health, 1 extra mana's worth. 7 mana for 6 mana is reasonable.
With
taunt
, you get a 5/8
Taunt
6.5 mana. Furthermore, there is a degree to this card where you cannot control which Bruiser you are getting, the
charge
or the
taunt
, as both are dependent on deck size.
Flavour: Cruisin' for a bruisin'. Rootin' for a schoolin'. Tootin' for a whoopin'. Don't let his appearance fool you; he's a great poet.
Gilblin Marauder:
From Gilblin Plunderer.
Whale Shark:
From Finding Mobus.
Basic Set
If you got to the end of this, somehow, good job. Many thanks for reading.
My entry for this competition is the
Time Traveler
class. This is a class themed all around... well, time which is represented in several different aspects of the class. The Hero Power of the class is
Glimpse
, which has you look at the top 3 cards of your deck and rearrange them in any order (if your deck has less than 3 cards when you activate this, it will simply show you less cards instead), allowing for strategically planning ahead a few turns because now you know what you're going to draw and being able to change and optimize your draws.
This class also introduces a new keyworded mechanic for the class,
Quick-Time
.
Quick-Time
effects activate if you play the card on the same turn it's added to your hand (either by drawing it or generating it, anything counts). In most other classes, this effect seems like it would be inconsistent and top-deck reliant. The
Time Traveler
class however has many ways to get around this, namely their Hero Power in which you can rearrange the cards you draw to make sure you draw the
Quick-Time
cards when you actually want to draw them. There are also some cards in the class which can make
Quick-Time
cards even easier to activate.
UI for the Hero Power
Click and drag the cards around to change their order.
These cards can be found back on the Phase I post.
Speaking of which, let's look at 5 Classic cards that showcase some aspects of the
Time Traveler
class.
Vault Keeper
is a simple minion that plays into the
Quick-Time
keyword (and the "Playing Off-Key" challenge). It starts out as a 3/4 for 3, which is a standard statline for 3 mana with an upside. It gets stronger as you keep activating
Quick-Time
effects, encouraging you and rewarding you for planning ahead properly.
As a
Time Traveler
, you don't just go forward and backwards through time, but also through different dimensions parallel to yours as well. This is represented by the card
Parallel Dimensions
where you get rid of your current hand in exchange for a new one. If you have a bunch of expensive cards in the early game or situational cards when you don't need them right now, you can play this to put those cards back in and get something more useful right now when it matters. You can also use it to shuffle
Quick-Time
cards which didn't get their effects active and put them back in so you can activate their effects. You'll also draw a lot of cards from this so you have a good chance of activating
Quick-Time
effects of cards drawn by this as well.
One notable aspect with
Time Traveler
is the top of your deck, being able to see and change them as you wish. Your Hero Power and quite a few class cards give you this ability. A card with flexibility and good planning is
Chrono Prophet
which has an effect based on what type of card is on top of your deck. If it's a minion, you get a 5 mana 4/5 with
Windfury
(1 mana cheaper
Windfury Harpy
). If it's something else (which includes spells, the DK hero and the Legendary weapon), you get a 5 mana 4/6 with
Taunt
(
Druid of the Claw
in Bear Form). An interesting design that will be seen again in the future.
Being that space is related to time, some
Time Traveler
s also have a little bit of an astral side to them, not a lot of it, but it does show up every once in a while.
Black Hole
being a notable part of this as well as a good showcase for the
Quick-Time
keyword. Without it, it's a 9 mana
Twisting Nether
, but with proper planning and getting the
Quick-Time
off, it can be 9 mana to simply just destroy your opponent's whole board while leaving your own board alive.
The Classic Legendary for
Time Traveler
s is
Kara Shellen
, a powerful chronomancer with a simple but interesting effect. If you look at most of the other Classic Legendaries, most of them fall under the category of "simple, but interesting" so it only makes sense. On the battlefield, it's a 4/8 for 6 so it has the capability of surviving and utilizing its effect. Every single time you play a card, ANY CARD, you put a copy of it into your deck allowing you to potentially draw and use them again.
Remaining Classic Cards:
Basic cards:
Fun Fact: The Classic Legendary
Kara Shellen
appears in the artwork for
Done That
.
Sometimes the most sinceres of intentions can take the darkest of turns. Wishing to bring her brother back from the dead has lend Daiana down to the dark path of Necromancy. Now armed with the flaming skull of her sibling and years of practice in the necrotic arts, she will fight with an array of any forbidden knowledge that she can get her hands on.
Her Hero Power is Necrotic Arts. It gives you a Grave token that your opponent has to remove unless they want to deal with what comes out of it: a 2/2 Ghoul. It may seem stronger than the Paladin or Shaman Hero Power but remember that you can't attack with the Grave nor the Ghoul when it's summoned because It doesn't have Charge .
In General the class evolves around:
Deathrattle and Morbidity minions.
Cards that get stronger when minions are being destroyed.
Having strong hard removal while having weak or situtional AoE.
Sacrificing your own minions to gain different effects.
And speaking of killing your own stuff, here is the Class' Keyword:
A deceitfully strong and versatile effect which can be triggered twice by your Hero Power.
Basic Set:
Example Cards:
Explication:
Scroll of Dark Omens : Your second form of true card draw. You gain the possibility of getting a board presence by giving your opponent a clue of your draw.
No Rest for the Wicked : What is a Necromancer who can't revive the fallen? It can revive your own as well as enemy minions. So paying attention to the order of attacks is crucial.
Risen Sun Priest : The Morbidity effect would trigger as if it were a Battlecry . Also Priest's effect isn't limited to the turn he's summoned, so you can activate It at later turns if you wish.
Necromerge : A cheap way of triggering your d eathrattle minions and preparing fo your reanimation effects. Plus it can give you a big beating monster.
Pork, the First Mistake : Often one makes dangerous mistakes when learning about the dark arts, but no mistake was as persistent as Pork. One of Diana's first experiments became a weight on her back. A being with ceaseless hunger, which is almost unkillable. Just give him one of your spare minions and he will be back in no time. And here is his token.
Rest of the Classic Set:
Commons:
Rares:
Epics:
Explication:
Soul Transfer : Another cheap way to activate your Morbidity effects. Remember your minions are expendables and they will serve a greater purpose in death.
Elusive Specter : An early game minion that helps contest the board and has good survivability. If you time your attacks, you can keep him hidden for a long time even after he attacked. Balanced around Druid of the Saber.
Walk the Yard : Your second way to generate Graves. Even in death your minions will keep serving you.
Ghoul Master : Strong mid game card akin to Cult Master. You cash in your early game and you got a new bunch of minions ready to die for you.
Soul Swallower : Sometimes you need a form to stabilize against aggro and this big fellow can help you. He eats a big part of your minions but he will share their tasty, tasty souls with you.
Reanimate Dead : When you need a quick way to fill your board again this is the spell for you. Balanced around Unleash the Hounds .
Carrion Feeder : A big Taunt that makes sure that any leftover minion of yours doesn't go to waste. Balanced around Bog Creeper .
Essence Draining : A powerful removal that is a mix between Blastcrystal Potion and a Greater Healing Potion if used in the right situation, It will help you start a comeback and stabilize if you are low on Health.
Plague Bringer : Early sticky minion that will come back as long as you control another one that can carry his disease.
Poisonous Fumes : Lastly but not least your second true AoE, remember that until WoG Leper Gnomes were 2/1, so this card would have become stronger in 2016. Balanced around Poison Seeds .
Tokens:
Scroll of Dark Omens and Walk the Yard:
Ghoul Master
Reanimate Dead
Necromerge
Poisonous Fumes
Pork, the First Mistake
As always thanks to everyone who gave me a hand with this!!!.
The next instalment of the Jester's lore introduces us to Hillary Tee the faithful sidekick and legendary minion of the classic set.
Hillaria Tideborn was the most beautiful maiden in the land and the daughter of a Duke.
In the employ of the Duke was Riggs. A plain young man unremarkable by most standards save for the fact that he could make the Duke laugh. It was for this quality that he was afforded the title of Court Jester.
Each day Riggs would devise a new routine to delight his adoring crowd alas there was but one that he truly desired to impress and, whatever he tried, she was the only one who was not.
While the Duke howled and the crowd wailed Hillaria wore a decidedly more disinterested expression. The face of a woman trying to stifle a yawn.
To hold a love but to be invisible to the object of it. It was maddening and, as his ideas began to wear thin, he grew increasingly desperate.
One day Riggs was juggling knives when a blade went awry and slashed a courtesan. The room went deathly quiet until, To Riggs' amazement, Hillaria began to giggle.
Riggs suddenly became somewhat more accident prone and with each escalating incident his popularity with Hillaria increased. Soon she would stop him in the halls for light conversation until eventually she invited him to her chamber.
Riggs was nervous but could not let himself miss this opportunity. He knocked upon the door and entered.
Hillaria looked unusual to say the least. She wore red face paint in a diamond pattern around her eyes and her dress was adorned with bells. Not something befitting of a Duke's daughter. She was laughing uncontrollably.
As Riggs circled the bed to approach her he was taken aback. The lifeless body of the Duke lay at her feet. Things had gone too far he thought.
"Hillaria, what have you done?" He exclaimed. "Hillaria is no more. I am Hillary Tee and you're going to take me away from here Riggsy or I'll blame the whole thing on you. We're gonna have so much fun!"
Class Recap:
As a Jester Riggs likes to be the centre of attention.
The hero power already provides control potential so I have opted not to give the class a direct removal option. This will force you to use the power to remove smaller minions and suffer the drawback of the punchline.
The central strategy of the Jester is to overwhelm the board with small disposable minions.
The Punchline keyword encourages you to trade as opposed to going face and will assist in the motivation to flood the board.
The cards I have chosen show the beginnings of this 1-Cost minion synergy as well as laying the groundwork for the archetypes I have plans for in future expansions such as Dragon Jester starting in the old gods and Voidripper Jester that will take advantage of Health buffs in Kobolds and Catacombs.
The Classic Showcase:
Can Of Wyrms:
Caution, contents may be hot.
This is a simple spell to show how Punchline can work on a spell card. It also produces 1-Cost minion tokens which will interact with cards that have specific interactions and synergy with 1-Cost. As they are Whelps they offer Dragon synergy which will be explored further in WotOG should I progress to the next round.
Jack in the Box:
He makes a great taco.
This is a simple
Taunt
minion that I expect to be a staple of the Jester's deck. It can be a massive help in the early game and its self healing abilities make it great for anti aggro.
Combo
it with Jaunty Tune from the basic set or Invigorating Jig from the classic set to make it even more effective.
Rubber Duck:
Stolen from Neptulon's hot tub party.
It takes a real hero to fight with a Rubber Duck. By itself it is not too threatening but if you
combo
it with Defender of Argus or In Joke from this classic set it can be annoying to he opponent. Be careful though because it will swap every time it is attacked so the high Attack it has stolen could be given away again.
Wild Card:
Jokers are wild...
Card draw with a draw back only, for the Jester, it could actually be beneficial to
transform
a card that isn't going to be useful for your match up into a 1-Cost minion. The minion could be one you don't normally use but fits your circumstances such as Argent Squire. The card is supposed to show the set up of 1-Cost synergy and the fun nature of the Jester class.
Hillary Tee:
Wherever Riggs goes Hillary Tee follows.
The Jester is all about drawing a crowd. Hillary gets them laughing at every Punchline and generates the Laughter spell from the basic set. Laughter is the lifeblood of a comedy performer and so the more crowd members there are laughing along the more the Jester will heal. This plays to the Jester's strengths perfectly as they like to flood the board.
The Rest of the Classic Set:
.
Goldshire Oaf:
Always happy to share his funnel cakes.
This minion is hoping for efficient trades to improve the survivability of your other minions. For clarification, a Punchline will trigger even if the minion dies in the act of targeting and killing a minion.
Laughing Gas:
Hahahaha.
This gives the Jester the option of using its board presence to clear a minion without sacrificing it. It can help you grab some Punchline triggers without losing your minions also.
Jitterbug:
They put the boom boom into your heart.
Another 1-Cost minion to fit in with the Jester's style. It will be rare that it manages to get more than 2 Attack by itself but it could
combo
with In Joke, Jaunty Tune, Invigorating Jig, Bonemare etc.
In Joke:
You had to be there...
Combos well with Jack in the Box, Rubber Duck, Gurubashi Berserker and more. Protects your smaller minions and can also be used in
combo
with Void Ripper or Crazed Alchemist.
Invigorating Jig:
There's nothing more invigorating than a Jig.
Riggs throws some shapes to inspire his minions. Will
combo
well with Punchline minions and Void Ripper. Fits in well with Jester's play style also.
Deadpan Delivery:
A Jester's greatest skillet.
A powerful removal spell that equips an unconventional weapon. Very useful to keep board control but in using the weapon to kill minions the Jester will sacrifice more health.
Running Joke:
It just never gets old.
Just like a regular Running Joke this spell will keep cropping up again and again if its Punchline is successful. It has good synergy with the hero power.
Charm:
According to legend Riggs could talk anyone into anything.
In some situations it will be a powerful control spell and cause a real tempo swing in others not so much. At the very least your opponent will expend some resources to retrieve the minion or face leaving it with you.
Butt of the Joke:
How humiliating.
A removal spell that works well in conjunction with
Taunt
minions and In Joke.
Side Splitting:
They were laughing on the inside. Now they're laughing on the outside.
A removal spell with a drawback of killing your own minions too. Requires both players to control at least one minion to function.
Cruel and calculating, these diabolical geniuses are obsessed with their putrid sciences. Alchemy, necromancy, and pathology combine in a grisly sludge served in tiny, unmarked vials. The Apothecary stitches together Patchwork abominations and other undead horrors, dole out deadly plagues, and serve a few potions to fortify their lackeys or dissolve their enemies!
Class and Hero Power explanation
The Hero Power creates 1/1 Patchworks, much like Paladin's Silver Hand Recruits. However, if you already have one, the Hero Power instead gives it +1/+1. If you have more than one, your left-most Patchwork will be buffed.
The Apothecary relies on board control. They have strong minion buffs and single target removal (including lots of Poisonous cards) and a little bit of healing. However they lack aoe, and burst damage. They will specialize in agro, tempo, and midrange decks, but a few good control decks may appear as well with the right cards. They are also aligned with the Kabal and will have singleton decks that are a bit different from what Priests, Mages, and Warlocks are used to. How will they be different? Wait until the Gadgetzhan expansion to find out!
Apothecaries are utterly obsessed with their work. They constantly tinker and test their subjects, trying to perfect their poisons and build more efficient and deadly Patchworks. To reflect their unending experimentation, they use the keyword
Mutate
. Full description below!
Mutate
works like
Choose One
, but you don't get to pick. When you draw the card, it has one of it's two effects displayed. On each of your turns it changes to the other effect, much like
Shifter Zerus
. This forces the player to carefully plan their turns to maximize the power and flexibility of
Mutate
.
>
or
With the
Malpractitioner
above, it'll switch between the middle and right options and have a glowing boarder while in your hand. However, it will retain the actual card text. If it goes back to your hand, it will switch between those two choices again.
Example Cards
Malpractitioner
is a perfect example of a
Mutate
card. Its simple and flexible, allowing this unethical doctor to "Do No Harm" or its much more fun opposite.
Indecisive Chemist
is an ideal card for most Apothecary decks.
Mutate
effects can be strong, but sometimes you need to ensure you'll get
Malpractitioner
's damage on turn 5 or
Mad Mixologist
's Attack buff on turn 6. Use this poor fellow to make those plays happen.
Reckless Researcher
is a potent minion in the same vein as
Furnacefire Colossus
. The Apothecary carries many buff tonics and spells. With a good hand you can give this guy powerful effects (
Basics of Anatomy
,
Mutageic Tonic
) but be wary of poor reactions (
Infect
) or even death (
Chemical Bomb
).
For Science!
is card draw with potentially crazy upsides. The Apothecary is a minion focused class, and with this card they can drop a big minion or powerful spell early. Just beware of that low cost card now being stuck in your hand for awhile.
Master Faranell
is the head of the Undercity's Royal Apothecary Society. Whenever you cast a spell, he cooks up a
Patchwork
to match. Cast
For Science!
to
summon
a 3 Mana 3/3
Patchwork
! Fill the board and laugh manically as your stitched army crushes your opponent!
Remaining Classic Cards
The Hero Power token
Patchwork
is also the token for
Patchwork Golem
,
Monstercraft
, and
Master Faranell
. It's cost equals it's Attack and Health for the latter two cards.
The Experimenter returns with some fantastic new subjects to mess around with.
Phase I - Initial Submission:
Here
Phase II - Basic Set:
Here
Example Cards
Tokens
Ouroboros Amulet:
This is your bread and butter Attack/Health swap medallion. Simple combos could be using it on something like a
Magma Rager
- on your opponent's turn, it becomes a much more durable and less threatening 1/5, but then on your turn, surprise, a 5/1 again! It also has some more interesting combos.
Magical Experimenter
, from the Basic Set below, will gain +1/+1 at the end of each turn when this is played on it. The legendary,
Dr. Jackal Seek
, will have the +8/+8 buff become permanent at the end of the turn, which is very good for you.
Test Subject:
An interesting example of 0-Attack synergy cards. You can create a very powerful 1-drop, at the expense of another minion's Attack. Perhaps you would
combo
it with an
Ancient Watcher
, which you could then
Silence
to return to 4 Attack itself? Or alternatively, you could use it to give a low-attack minion 0 Attack, thus allowing it to benefit from 0-Attack buffs.
Mixer Elixir:
A simple concoction that works differently if you're at your absolute weakest. Slightly worse than
Velen's Chosen
on most minions, but arguably better on 0-Attack minions, who can benefit more from Attack increases than Health.
Myopic Monster:
This guy can keep an eye or ten out for what your opponent is doing, but only on their turns - he's a bit shortsighted, you see. Seeing your opponent's hand offers you a good advantage, since you can prepare for what's coming, and makes this card a priority target. It also encourages the opponent to play quickly, to give you less time to think about what they're going to do with their cards.
Dr. Jackal Seek:
Yes indeed, we had to have a Jeckyl and Hyde reference in an Experimenter class. This man's self-experimentation went a bit too far - on your opponent's turn he Worgs out and becomes a fearsome threat. Good to
combo
with Ouroboros Amulet or existing classic cards like
Sunfury Protector
. (The art change is purely cosmetic, not a transformation.)
He makes your games spicy, your victories sweet and your opponents salty, he is...
THE CHEF
PRESENTATION
Main characteristics
"Roast" & Deck manipulation , in particular effects that remove, add cards into your deck, or depends on deck size;
Scattered damage , in particular good AOEs for the early and late game. The Hero Power also follow this logic;
Double-edged buffs and removals that can be useful on either your minions or enemy ones depending on the circumstances;
High minion turnover meaning minions will die a lot, yes.
More details below (identical to my phase II post)
Qualities of the Chef class
Good board control through disruption of the opponent's board (rather than reinforcement of yours);
Lots of Tempo options through "soft removals", good early-game minions and the Hero Power;
High survivability and, counterintuitively, resistance to fatigue because they will have a lot of cards that shuffle stuff into your deck to compensate for the Roast mechanic.
Flaws of the Chef class
Clunky midrange minions , or minions that can only be used either for defense or offense, but not both.;
No combos . The Roast mechanic obviously doesn't fit very well with a combo playstyle that relies on specific cards...
The Chef has access to weapons but not to secrets
In short, the Chef combines elements of Warlock, Warrior, Mage and to a lesser extent Rogue, while retaining its unique playstyle. The Chef's motto could be "If your opponent has useful minions on the board, you're doing it wrong".
THE KEYWORD
Cards you burn through overdraw will also count as "Roasted" for synergy purposes.
More details on the Roast keyword (Note: There has been some changes on how I will use the keyword, see below)
Deathwing: I LOVE ROASTING STUFF!!!
The Roast keyword is identical to the unofficially used "Burn" keyword. When an effect says "Roast a card" without precisions, it is assumed to be the top card of your deck. Cards you burn through overdraw will also count as "Roasted" for the synergies my class features .
Roast will be used for 2 purposes. The first is to compensate for a theoretically above curve card (like Overload and discard), the second is to allow interactions with your deck's content (with effects depending on what cards was roasted). The first effect will be used with parsimony. As a rule of thumb, I consider that 3 Roasted cards = 1 Mana discount.
Here is what some existing cards would look like if they used my keyword:
BASIC SET
Tokens
WHAT'S ON THE MENU TODAY?
Stormwind Chef ( Common ) - The most simple kind of Roast cards. A big Taunt body to defend yourself againt aggro while still being able to trade. A 4/7 with Taunt is worth approximately 6 mana so it roasts you 5 cards.
Cannibal Cake ( Common ) - Another Roast card with a different purpose: Increasing your draw consistency by roasting cards you don't want to draw in the mid-to-late game. If you have 2 Cannibal Cakes, the first will Roast the second, hence the name.
Food Critic ( Rare ) - Another take on the Roast keyword. Here the card has an effect that depends on what is roasted. This card is destined to late-game decks with a lot of big cards in them, to help hold the early game.
Lava Soup ( Epic ) - The art has Molten Giant on it which means it synergizes very well with it! More seriously though, it's a Mana Cheater like Ancestor's Call . Don't fear a Malygos "fun and interactive" cancer deck because the aforementioned Ancestor's Call failed to make Malygos Shaman a thing (despite Shaman having a megashitton of direct damage). This suggests that Malygos Chef would be just a fun deck as well.
Baul Pocuse ( Legendary ) - Roasting cards might hurt your ability to play the long game. Baul Pocuse is here to mitigate this effect. He can be played in a control deck and a midrange deck, since he puts cards in your hand immediately. He is a reference to Paul Bocuse who died recently.
Rest of the set
COMMONS
Well Fed - A simple buff comparable to Mark of the Wild to give the class some midrange power, even though it won't be its force. In WoW, Well Fed is a buff you gain after eating cooked food;
Celebration - Be careful with alcohol! Indirect synergy with the Roast mechanic because you can Roast the Hangover card;
Unsatisfied Customer - This orc is hard to please. He didn't like what you cooked and returned it to you! A Roast downside mitigator;
Deviate Delight (the "random" card) - The Savory Deviate Delight is a well-known WoW recipe that can transform you into either a ninja or a pirate. My card has the same effect. Mostly to be used on enemy minions, but can sometimes be used on friendly minions if you expect the Pirate;
Tasty Murloc - Deathwing is hungry, he could eat anything. To be used in a control deck where you expect to roast a lot of cards;
Deathwing's Dinner - Deathwing is SUPER angry and is sort of capable of cooking stuff too! A cost-effective early game board clear to resist aggro decks;
Butcher's Cleaver - Another indirect board clear. You can deal up to 27 damage with this!
EPICS
Supply Caravan - Here to compensate for the Roast mechanic and to play a fatigue game;
Party Night - Might seem OP compared to Sprint but remember that 1/ The class doesn't have Preparation and 2/ you're very likely to overdraw (=roast!) card by drawing 10 cards, you will lose value.
TOKENS
CREDITS
HUGE THANKS TO
Sclauchneid for the custom minion border for my class and provided me with tons of useful art and feedback;
McF4rtson for the awesome banner and also provided me with art and feedback;
Everyone who commented on my cards in the discussion thread.
If you want to use the Chef minion border, type {{CLASS=custom1}} after your card text on hearthcards.net (no line break). Non-minion Chef cards use the "Pirate Hero by Mokthol" border.
Some people like to invoke magical energies to form armor out of ice... Some like to crush others with raw physical power... And some people just want to
summon
big things, and lots of them. Among those people are Mephilia, the hero who stands before you here. She's intent on world domination, total power and the death of all those who'd oppose her. She's even got a book on how to be the PERFECT villain and summoner, which she never lets out of her reach.
Villainy 101: Summoner's Guide
Any decent summoner will know that the only way you're going to be able to
summon
yourself giant minions is to be able to live long enough to do it, so they'll practice summoning Pebbles until their hands bleed. They aren't very hard to kill and they won't be strong at all physically, but they get in the way a lot and are sure to stop your foes from reaching you.
The summoners path is one forged by passion but ended early by haste. You have to prepare to destroy your opponents forces for long enough to get your big summons up. You'll struggle early on a lot of the time, but fortunately your board clears and removal will do just fine for making sure you get to that point. You also don't have much unconditional card draw or healing, so be sure to stock up on secrets and
taunt
minions to get in the way of your opponents plans. That said, you do have the resources to be the aggressor and take out your opponent early on, but keep in mind that doesn't give you enough time to monologue evilly or
summon
cool big minions and your Pebbles won't be incredibly useful.
Summoners are good at what they do. Most classes just
summon
minions for the sake of summoning minions, and that's that, but follow through this book, and you will perfect the art of summoning, allowing you to temporarily
summon
minions for their effects before losing control of them. Versatility with mana is key, it's how you work early on in a fight.
When you don't quite have the mana to
summon
your board devastating landshark, just drop the landshark out of the picture once he's done his job and you won't have to spend as much. Just simply pay attention to which order you play your cards in.
Example Cards
Villainy Tip #1!
Intimidate your foes!
Baby Gryphon
is not a card you want to play. While you CAN
summon
a Gryphon and drop off its baby on the spot or you COULD keep the Gryphon around to make a terrifying pair, a baby gryphon isn't intimidating. Although its effect allows it to be versatile, as a villain, you need to inspire fear into the hearts of your foes by kicking minions like this and then denouncing them for being repugnant before burning a nest full of 'em. I don't see why you would use this unless you secretly liked cute animals and couldn't bring yourself to just not use it, which I couldn't even imagine you would be.
Villainy Tip #2!
You're a summoner, not an enchanter!
Savage Anger
is the perfect example of one of your main strengths, you can be versatile and alter your minion as you
summon
it, in this case with lots of uncontrolled anger. That said, don't expect to have an easy time changing the minions you already have, that's not in your job description. Don't forget, this will work just fine for minions you don't actually play yourself, but are generated by other effects.
Villainy Tip #3!
Be evil and relish in the moment!
Evil Laughter
provides you some much needed excitement and joy as you look over your huge army of monsters. Don't laugh evilly when you have nothing by your side though, that's just being stupid. Laughter will only bring you happiness when you're in a state where you have reason to be happy. It helps to send a message to your opponent and works well with a lot of the token generation available to you as a summoner.
Villainy Tip #4!
Always have an escape plan!
Exit, Stage Left
is merely the term used to describe yourself realising you're not in a great position and then simply getting out of there. You don't have much of a way to keep yourself alive aside from removing minions and blocking attacks, so when you're in a bad spot, hop aboard your dragon real quick and hope your opponent doesn't shoot it out of the air. You'll find yourself on it a lot, as the difference between a major villain and a one off villain is simply their abilities to do this. If you don't do this, you'll die and then absolutely no merchandise depicting you would be sold, making you a bad villain. The dragon won't keep you alive as reliably as
[c
ard]
Ice B
lock
[/
card
], but if you make it out alive with him, he can pack a punch and you can stay on his back, allowing you to get back in the fight rather than just annoyingly delaying your death.
Villainy Tip #5!
Get a Dragon!
Kofko, The Dragon
is an example of a Dragon, and you're probably going to want to keep him by your side. Sure, he's not actually a dragon, but here we mean you need a bodyguard who stays by your side at all times, who keeps you safe and runs things while you're thinking heavily about world domination. Kofkos powers specifically are actually quite deceptive. He might look simple, but his effect can be potent and very synergistic with your other abilities. Replicate, Exit, Stage Left, anything that summons two minions or more, they all gain some serious value from this mans powerful rallying ability. Don't expect him to survive a turn unless you keep him safe (using something like Replicate, as said before), so Balls of Fire might be ambitious due to the focus your opponent will usually have on blowing this guy up.
Classic Cards
Energetic Mentee:
It's her dream to
summon
Deathwing, but she'll just stick with what's she's got for now, it's close enough in her eyes. She won't live long enough to ever
summon
a dragon like Deathwing anyway. Kofko makes her and her whelp pretty scary.
Falling Stones:
You've got some Pebbles, so why not just throw them at your opponents? Well, they're gonna take some mana to not just break on impact, but they'll be pretty helpful when you get them out. Kofko makes this give you two 3/4's with
Taunt
.
Dragon Ambush:
A good villain always lays traps for would-be heroes. They'll have to send in their weaklings first to avoid getting a good minion taken out by a dragon. And no, they cannot avoid this by simply not attacking your hero.
Replicate:
You probably don't want to lose that minion, so just
summon
another. Works really well with big minions like the Academic, and works really well with Kofko, allowing you to get another Kofko which gets buffed by the first.
One-Eyed Academic:
Card advantage is nice and it comes with a big
taunt
. Has great value for his cost and can be very efficient when cheated out with the next card along.
Panicked Summoning:
You don't want to die, do you? Then I'd suggest finding a way of getting those minions out your hand a little faster. If you're getting beaten down, this really ought to help you out.
Titanic Strength:
A simple buff. When you want your next minion to come out looking like a giant, simply play this first, and watch it tower over the other minions on the board.
Earthquake:
Summon
a Behir to crash through the ground, dealing damage to all in his path. You can then spend some mana to have him hop out the ground and stick around with you. Just a solid boardclear for the class.
Evil Counterpart:
Since the hero keeps beating you and you keep running away, just make your next
summon
the hero... But EEEVIIILLL!!! Hell,
summon
two even. Just let them know you're still better than them despite relying on their superiority to try and win, because you have two of him and he has one.
Balls of Fire:
Firepuffs are also too cute, try and use scarier minions. I'm starting to think Mephilia might like cute things despite her protests, actually. Regardless, heavy spenders will be rewarded with a way to fill the board, which is great for Evil Laughter outside aggro.
The number of chosen dwindle as the day draws close. The flames dance in anticipation of your audience. Slowly but inevitably, the end of times draws close. So what do you say, Lord of Dragons? Want to destroy the world with me?
Do you like Oriental food? Or perhaps human sacrifices? I possess an ample supply of both but not much else in the way of morsels.
Lore:
Faye, like many, was once nothing more than a child. However, as she watched her home burn to the ground under the unyielding wrath of an invading army, the child within her died, and was replaced with something else. From atop a faraway hillside, she gazed with soulless eyes on the ruins of everything she knew, and a goddess appeared to her, seated on a throne of fire and steel.
This world has become tainted, choked with despair.
The silver-haired woman said, sadness in her eyes.
There is no hope of salvation, but there exists hope of an end to the suffering
. Come, child, and you will have your justice - and your paradise.
So the girl disappeared from atop the hillside, and was reborn as something else. Something that seemed human but was not. Something with power. Something with a will and a purpose - to bring everything to an end.
The
Harbinger
wields fire, consorts with demons, and is the master of arts both destructive and violent. Her hero power,
Red Burst
, allows her to take board control in the early game and gives access to burst, as well as combos, in the late game. The class is versatile, and can play an aggressive, token-focused deck, using its buffs and token generating tools, or go for a grind-y, late-game focused control style with its powerful board clears and value cards. It can also potentially use some of its hero buffs in conjunction with synergy cards to deal massive
combo
damage.
The Keyword:
When the time comes, all things will burn to ash. Fear not - instead, embrace it. Learn to love the sound of destruction. Learn to delight in the scent of flames. Learn to
revel
in it.
(NOTE: This has changed from the last phase).
Revelry
is a keyword that is indicative of the Harbinger's lust for destruction. It triggers similarly to
Combo
does in Rogues, with the card gaining a glow-y yellow border and an upgraded/bonus effect if a minion died on the turn. It's also deceptively hard to trigger, requiring that you either have removal ready, or both you and your opponent control minions.
Notes on how it works:
When '
Revelry and [Keyword]
' is written on a card, they are two separate conditions and not part of the same effect (like
Battlecry
and
Deathrattle
). It's like 'Revelry: Do (x) and
Deathrattle
: Do (x)', just shorter.
A spell that kills a minion won't trigger it's own
Revelry
effect. Likewise, if you kill a minion with, say, a
Knife Juggler
juggle, the
Revelry
of the minion won't trigger. Essentially, whether the
Revelry
is triggered is determined before the card is played.
Example Cards:
Explanations and Lore Text:
Apocalypse Jester:
The sinister laughter rings out over the carnage. Amidst the cacophony of sound, a single chanting beat is audible -
"Ho! Ho!"
The
Apocalypse Jester
is a Savage Roar style finisher for the class's Token Aggro deck. It's got a powerful
battlecry
that allows you to burst for massive damage if you have a board, and turns your small minions into threats that demand answers. The Jester's laughter gives your Cultists confidence and resolve, while striking fear into the hearts of your enemies, ripening them for slaughter.
Unity of Will:
We were lost, weak, and confused. But at her side, our fear melts away, and our hearts resonate with purpose.
Unity of Will
is a board-wide buff that can also
summon
more tokens for you if you trade or kill something first. It lets you gain board control in the early game and can also lead to big bursts of damage if you build up a large enough swarm of minions. Faye has a unique charisma that attracts people who are feeling worthless to her, and she uses her own unshakeable will to give them strength.
Awakening:
I cast my self behind, and became something more. My uncertainties vanished in the Goddess's cleansing flames, and I shall never waver again.
Awakening
is a very versatile card. It's a large attack buff that can trigger synergies and be used to immediately clear minions, it offers some heal, and it also acts as a pseudo
Frost Nova
, or if your opponent chooses to go face anyway, a pseudo
Flamestrike
. The Harbinger isn't so selfish as to rely on the sacrifice her devout followers - Faye herself is a being of immense power.
Immortal Devil:
My voice may disappear for moments, but it will never die. In your mind, it shall echo, echo, and echo, until it is the only thing you hear... there is no escape, my darling.
The
Immortal Devil
is an enabler for another Harbinger archetype beyond Cultist aggro. She acts as a value engine over the long game, being able to constantly reincarnate herself while generating more copies over time. You can use her, along with the Harbinger's numerous board clears (and other grinder cards that come later) to slowly exhaust your opponent. Her effect is basically like
Toshley
's
Battlecry
and
Deathrattle
effect, just with an extra condition on the
Battlecry
.
Fire Herald Azura:
The fire in your blood is so beautiful. Do not worry - use my body and my magic as your gate, and let's watch everything burn to ash together.
Azura
is Faye's best friend and most devoted follower, having been with her on the day she lost her home and spoke to her goddess. She channels the Harbinger's energy through her own body and lets it loose on everything in the general vicinity, allowing you to repeatedly and unrelentingly clear the board using your hero power and other hero buff cards. The
Windfury
buff can also allow you to do massive burst damage. Your hero still attacks and takes damage equal to her target's attack like normal, but this time the damage is dealt to everything, instead of just the attack target. Unfortunately, this action deals heavy damage to her own body, and there are only a certain amount of times it can be performed before she has to recuperate.
Other Classic Cards (with small notes):
Commons:
- If you kill multiple minions at once with
Azura
and
Ritual Dagger
, you will
summon
multiple Cultists.
-
Fireblade Acolyte
seems stronger than Si7, but Revelry is deceptively hard to trigger compared to
combo
.
Rares:
- Most of the
Harbinger
's win-cons/combo pieces/generally important cards are either Demons or, of course, Legendaries.
Cursed Child
can be used to tutor them. Similarly, Demon synergy in later sets will follow the same focus on supporting single, powerful Demon cards, rather than Warlock's buff strategy.
-
Incinerate
is the one 'Random' card for the challenge.
-
Bloodrage Berserker
's mana cost has been bumped up to lower its
combo
burst potential. It has been given an Attack buff to compensate.
Epics:
-
Crimson Sceptre
can be used as a way to stick a board on turn 5 to finish with Apocalypse Jester on 6. It's a set of delayed 3/2s that are surprisingly sticky, but require you to already have a board to function.
-
Harbinger's Decree
is a large board clear that also draws you Revelry cards. The flavour here is that you unleash a massive storm of fire and blood to
summon
your chosen ones to you (which is why there's a person kneeling in the artwork). This is the card for the 'Off Key' challenge.
Stone-Scale Dragon
is a nice basic Earth Dragon that helps with late game, a 5/4 is balance card and with the effect with pushes its strength even further. The idea of this card is to push a control deck running cards like
Defender of Argus
and
Sunfury Protector
and providing enough power to push against other control decks.
Unearth Watcher
helps with large Unearth Cards that require you to wait a little longer. This provides leverage on options for you to play your cards earlier.
Runic Artificer
is something interesting I made while I was tinkering with some ideas. Runes will be like the secrets of the class but they aren't secrets. This card provides some good lift into a deck, pushing a Rune Deck Archetype.
Crystalline Rune
is a new type card added into the class as explained before Runes are like secrets of the class but their just mainly spells. Crystalline Rune is a weaker version of
Blessing of Kings
but becomes better as the unearth effect triggers. This card would be used against mostly aggro if you can a sticky minion on board.
Morgon Rune Master
is the legendary of the classics with its powerful effect but relatively low stats. This card gives a good tempo swing back and provides more synergy activators for cards like
Runic Artificer
or
Twilight Drake
. I would consider this a win conditionish card? that provides a good tempo swing back into game or can provide enough cards for the player to fight back and win the game.
Basic Reference
Rest of the Set
Possible Deck List
Decks in here have been tested with other classes with the help of Mewdrops, the creator of the Harbringer. The deck list includes cards that are before the Hall of Fame Rotation to show how the deck would have would work in the early stages of Hearthstone.
Control Geomancer:
2x Acidic Swamp Ooze
1x Bloodmage Thalnos
2x Doomsayer
1x Sunfury Protector
1 xMind Control Tech
2x Sen’jin Shieldmasta
2x Azure Drake
1x Sylvanas Windrunner
1x Ragnaros
2x Rune Stone
2x Pelt Stones
2x Gusty Rune
2x Rain Boulders
2x Stone Scale Dragon
2x Crushing Arms
2x Break
1x Mold
1x Morgon, Rune Master
2x Foregather
Rune Master Geomancer:
1x Acidic Swamp Ooze
2x Murloc Tidehunter
2x Razorfen Hunter
2x Azure Drake
1x Cairne Bloodhoof
1x Onyxia
2x Rune Stone
2x Pelt Stones
2x Gusty Rune
2x Ex-Growth Rune
2x Unearth Watcher
2x Rain Boulders
2x Runic Artificer
2x Crystalline Rune
2x Forging Rune
1x Morgon, Rune Master
2x Foregather
Hand Geomancer:
1x Acidic Swamp Ooze
1x Bloodmage Thalnos
2x Doomsayer
2x Acolyte of Pain
1x Mind Control Tech
2x Twilight Drake
2x Mountain Giant
2x Rune Stone
2x Pelt Stones
2x Gusty Rune
2x Unearth Watcher
2x Rain Boulders
2x Runic Artificer
2x Crushing Arms
2x Break
1x Morgon, Rune Master
2x Foregather
Thats all for now, vote for me! Thank you for reading~
Reminder of what crystals are, and how to use them:
The basic Crystals:
The Advanced Crystals:
So, how do you turn basic crystals into advanced crystals? That's simple!
All you have to do is target your hero portrait with one of your basic crystals (only targetable if you have at least 2 different basic crystals), and pick the desired advanced crystals, the choosing interface is the standard "Choose one" interface with 1 or 2 options (depends on whether or not you have only 2 different or 3), the color merging follow the standard color mixing, for your convenient i made a picture with all the possible combinations and a color chart with the 3 primary colors and their intersections:
New keyword: Empower!
The idea behind the new keyword is to introduce spell synergy (crystal synergy) to the class without making it too easy to activate (it works only with single target buffs, to prevent spell spamming (see: Flamewaker , Gadgetzan Auctioneer )).
Empower and 'end of turn' are two of the core mechanics of the class, it provide a continues value and reward the player for controlling the board and defending "glass cannon" minions.
Class Theme:
High health, low attack minions.
Big arsenal of defensive tools: Taunts, Heals & Armor, Weapons, Buffs, AOE spells.
Greatly benefits from controlling the board: Start\End of turn effects, Empower.
PITCH
The Tactician excels at containing his enemies’ attacks and restricting their actions.
As Sun Tzu said:
“
To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.”
About the Hero Power & Galvanize new keyword
Maneuver
can be used to turn any friendly minion into a defensive wall.
Sentinels
(1 Mana 0/5 minions from the Basic Set) are perfect targets for a Maneuver on turn 2, or later as they can be summoned via other cards. The Hero Power can also be used offensively to expose an enemy minion who hides behind a
Taunt
minion - Yes,
The Black Knight
.
The Hero Power gives the Tactician a tool to prevent some damage for few Mana and use the rest for defeating his opponent.
Winning battles always brings you closer to win the war. Dealing damage to the enemy Hero will
Galvanize
your troops, triggering special effects like temporal Attack boost, . This is doable several turns in a row considering the different tools the Tactician owns to damage enemy Heroes (see Classic Set below).
The Tactician lacks of offensive minions but can count on Spells and Galvanize effects to defeat his opponent within several turns.
ADVANTAGES
High Health & defensive minions
Direct Hero damage tools + Galvanize
Autoactivated Secrets
FLAWS
No apparent aggro potential
Weak/unreliable removals
No healing tool, except few Armor options
CLASSIC SET (1/2)
General Ideyo
:
Whenever a General enters the battlefield, he is going to impact the battle for a long time. Even if
General Ideyo
's effect is not original, it is solid and reliable in any situation. It assures you a sustainable board presence, with
Taunt
minions protecting your General and other troops who can safely attack the enemy hero to trigger your
Galvanize
effects.
Loaded March
:
Moving your army fast can be quite exhausting (9 Mana), but also quite rewarding (4 cards drawn). It's a surprising move for your opponent. This card is good both for any type of deck, allowing you to find the missing cards to launch your offensive or trigger your
Galvanize
effects (
First Line Ranger
,
Aerial Bombing
,
Arrow Volley
...). If you are already
Galvanized
the turn you play
Loaded March
, drawn cards come with a discount this turn only.
Burning Field
:
A tactician knows how to exploit a battlefield and trap its opponent at the right moment.
Burning Field
is one of the 4
Secrets
from the Classic Set. It is a great defensive tool: beyond damaging enemy minions already on the board, its very existence will make your opponent hesitate playing additional minions. It is also an offensive tool: it triggers your
Galvanize
effects at the beginning of your turn (damaging the enemy hero).
Freeze
keyword expansion:
I believe this effect on deck and cards is to be expected in the years to come, in one form or another. I choosed to add it to the existing
Freeze
keyword as its visual feedback is very compelling. There is nothing new to add in the game, just to expand the range of application of the
Freeze
effect to other game elements.
Sudden Winter
:
Frost Nova
is a powerful control tool, so is
Sudden Winter
. It may be more expensive (+1 Mana) and constraining (also affect your minions), it remains extremely effective. It triggers during a turn you don't have to play it, allowing you to spend all your Mana to
summon
new minions and take the board control. It comes with 2 others significant effects: both heroes are
Frozen
(not a problem for the Tactician Class), and so are their decks, canceling their next draw (potentially putting your opponent in difficulty).
Battleplanner
:
The Tactician can count on this wise minion to set the perfect strategy. Remember:
ALL Tactician's
Secrets
trigger at the beginning of their turn
. The
Battleplanner
allows you to play a
Secret
for free, but most importantly to delay its activation for 1 turn (the
Secret
Unfreezes
at the beginning of your next turn). It's risky, as you will get the effect in 2 turns, but any great Tactician will use this time to prepare the board accordingly to benefit the most from the
Secret
effect. Show us what you can do!
After some recovering time from setting himself on fire, Wicke Hellburn, the Pyromaniac, is back! The Pyromaniac calls upon the powers of the fire element to pulverize anything in its path. It uses a wide range of powerful (and usualy unstable) spells to clear the board and support their minions, which grow stronger off of the fiery magics they conjure. Because of this, the Pyromaniac excells at the midrange game, with a pretty good control game if caught up. However, with a lack of early AoE (most of which are a bit lackluster), it could be at a disadvantage against more aggro decks.
One of the main mechanics in the Pyromaniac class is Mana-spending. Your minions and spells will get empowered as you spend more and more mana. How? Well, silly, with it's new keyword, of course:
Consume
.
Explanation
Consume
effects will trigger whenever you spend Mana, whether it is playing a card, using your Hero Power, or just an effect that forces you to spend Mana. As long as you spend more than (0) mana at a time, the effect will trigger.
If you play, per say, a 10-cost card,
Consume
effects won't trigger ten times as you are spending 10 Mana Crystals at a time.
If specified,
Consume
effects can trigger from other places aside from the board. For example, if a card reads "
Consume:
While in your hand, do 'X'" it means it will
only
do 'X' while in your hand. If not specified, however, it'll just trigger while in play.
The main example cards:
Wildfire:
An initially weak single-target spell that gains power as you spend Mana. You'll probably want to save it so that it gains enough power to kill big threats. Or maybe it's urgent and you use it to clear a small threat on the board. It's all up to you.
Incendium:
Think of Arcane Missiles. This card also shoots extra 'missiles' at enemies when you have bonus
Spell Damage
on board but, unlike
Arcane Missiles
, each point of bonus
Spell Damage
increases your chance to draw another card. You'll see more cards that interact with
Spell Damage
like this later on.
Masterful Flamebender:
Protects you against damage from both spells and Hero Powers. Don't worry about OTK's though, as almost all Pyromaniac spells will not be able to target the enemy hero, only minions.
Fireblood Arcanist:
Need more Mana? This gal's got you covered. When a
Consume
effect trigger on the board, she will refresh one of your Mana Crystals (meaning, you recover one of the Mana Crystals you spent). However, do note that this effect only goes off once when there are multiple
Consume
cards on the board. Meaning that if you have, say, three minions with
Consume
, and you spent Mana, the Arcanist will still only refresh one Mana Crystal.
Kael'thas Sunstrider:
The prince of the Blood Elves arrives to aid the Pyromaniac by summoning Flames with
Spell Damage
, and provide both more spell and minion firepower.
The rest of the Classic set:
Firecalling:
Some extra minion, spell, and
Consume
support.
Flamespeaker:
Your typical
Consume
minion. Think of
Mana Wyrm
.
Inflame:
Some support for your Flames, so that they stay on board for a longer time.
Arsonist:
A strong 3-drop with snowballing potential if your opponent doesn't remove it.
Fiery Magicite:
Some
Spell Damage
synergy. Provides an aggresive play and board control.
Living Bomb:
Decent AoE for the small price of one of your minions.
Manaphagous Sorcerer:
Basically forces you to spend Mana. Also, If you have spare Mana from your last turn, and this takes damage during your opponent's turn, Consume effects will activate as you are spending your leftover Mana.
Dark Iron Seer:
A strong minion that becomes even stronger both while in your hand and while on the board.
Arcane Conflagration:
No matter what kind of spell you play, this will remain on the board.
Pandemonium:
A massive board clear that damages everything. Can remove from the smallest minions to the bigger ones.
Token (Flame)
The Basic Set
The Hero:
"Once a powerful sorcerer from Gadgetzan, he was exiled from his hometown after driving the town to almost-complete annihilation as a part of his Pyrotechnic experiments. And so, he set of to train his abilities to control magic so that he would take revenge on Gadgetzan. Years of isolated training pass and he re-appears with magic skills honed beyong what was thought possible. However, the arduous training and thirst for revenge had slowly driven him mad. He can't tell allies apart from foes no more, as long as either burn. Many say he could have already blasted Gadgetzan to kingdom come had it not been for him being so easily distracted and burning anything that moves an inch away from him.
Now he arrives at The Tavern not to burn us all, but to play Hearthstone... until he loses or gets bored."
A Custom Class by Phoenixfeather and Flamespren Nixolium
"Hey Deathwing. Jeez. Quit acting all grumpy. Look, I lost in Rahsor Hold-em against Nix so I have no choice but to be here. Apparently you need friends or something... Isn't that just perfect. I can't leave until I win this annoying contest, and you can't until you get a friend. You, a stupid oversized lizard befriending me - A beautiful damsel of exquisite talents and power? Just let me win this nonsense already."
"Deathwing! What do you mean I can't just win and have to go through things stage by stage? That's it. I'm leaving! Bye! Cogito, get out of my way, you can't hurt me. Ow! Ow! What was that for? I can't leave? It's a free country right? It's not? Oh right... I'm in
America
Azeroth. Gods, this is annoying. How much longer must I wait here?"
The Story of Cyr Caelus - Part 1
Cyr skips along the icy plains, bright blue eyes twinkling. She looks around, wondering. Where was she? When was she? Where were the Knight Radiant’s lightweavers and Nix, her spren? Storms! Even the gods are different! Cyr looks around, slightly fearful, yet curious. Nix had forementioned a possible danger when she’d fallen through the portal.
Suddenly, Cyr hears a soft melody. She whirls, looking for a source. In an instant, two animations spring to life. The voice grows louder. Siren? No, it wasn’t quite right. Cyr completes the spin whilst summoning a few of her friends. A series of stone golems spring from the ground. An entire army of frivolous musicians and jovial dancers from various realms appear.. Within ten heartbeats, the field is covered in an ensemble of flying lights and flashing steel.
“Cyr?” A small voice calls, “That is quite the overkill.”
“Nixolium Ignitius Xel! I swear, you’re no better than Wit at times”
In an instant, the parade vanishes. Golems crumble to dust. Illusions fade to nothingness. All the various confused artists return to their respective realms. A glowing boy wreathed in a cloak of flames prances around Cyr.
“So where did Odium trap us?”
“The better question is... How are you not cold in that dress?”
“It looks pretty. Comfort comes second-”
“It’s twenty below! At least put cover your back!”
Cyr sighs. Nix was being annoying again. “One more irrelevant comment and I feed you to Ninian.”
Nix’s voice suddenly rises a few octaves at the mention of the manakete. “Sorry miss. We’re in Azeroth. One of Chaos’s realms.”
“Shards, I hate her. Probably one of the worse goddesses to exist.” Rage flashed across Cyr’s normally optimistic face.
“Come, quit feeling dismal. There’s a tavern up ahead. There’d be people you can… well... persuade… to work for you.”
Cyr ignores the sardonic tone and looks ahead. Surely enough, a small hut stood a few fathoms away.
“A tavern in the middle of nowhere?”
Nix just shrugs. The two bound over anyway.
“Hearthstone,” Cyr reads from the signpost, “Curious indeed.”
Cyr walks in to the joyous shouting of “Welcome to the inn, friend”.
The Story of Cyr Caelus - Part 2
Cyr eyes the mage across the table. Jane or something was it? Cyr hated her. Three minutes in and all her merry band was frozen solid. How are
Frost Nova
s even vaguely fair?
“Nix! Do something!”
“Cyr, I can’t interfere. I’m a noble aviary elemental, and as a majestic creature, I refuse to sacrifice my morals for a petty bout between two rivals. Furthermore, I am not allowed to intervene in a duel between two grand magicians for I have no yet been summoned to your aid.”
“I have cookies”
“On second thought, such morals were created to be bent.”
A wave of fire engulfed the entire table into cinders. Jaina Proudmoore face displays undenyable surprise that was quickly replaced with wrath.
“You. Me. Outside.”
“I’m not interested in wom-”
A deathly glare from Jaina quiets Cyr. Hearth Stonebrew looks up from his position as bartender. Understanding the situation, he yells, “TAVERN BRAWL!”
--Ten Minutes Later--
“And then she threw fireballs at me! Real, flaming fireballs!” Cyr cries to her personal audience whilst counting a bag of coins she’d recently won.
Nix hovered nearby munching on a hard-won cookie. Well tried to. Nix found it quite difficult to eat while lacking the ability to digest food and having the unfortunate circumstance of burning everything upon contact.
Meanwhile, Jaina was under the care of half a dozen priests, each of whom muttering about the unstoppable force of dancing soldiers and flaming violins.
“You know, Nix. I thought that Janey over there was supposed to be one of the stronger mages around here.”
“Cyr, you realized that you technically cheated right?”
“You mean when I pretended to concede only to stab her with this viola bow?”
Cyr holds up the flaming weapon. Nix instinctively twitches away a few handspans.
“Uhh…”
“It’s not cheating. It’s just using whatever resources necessary in order to win. You know I’d gladly do it again.”
“There’s no way she’d fall for it again.”
“Hey Jilly! Double or nothing?”
Jaina struggles to her feet much to the protest of the surrounding priests. “Oh. It is on.”
--Ten Minutes Later--
“Hearth! Another round on me!,” Cyr calls from her place on stage, “Well not me, really. Technically, it’s Janny’s money, or was.”
The entire bar bursts into cheers.
Nix flutters over, “You cheated.”
Cyr nearly chokes on her ale, returns the glare of the bandaged mage, and falls into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.
The Story of Cyr Caelus - Part 3
Cyr sits in the tavern, thinking of the worlds Nix had whisked her between. Femblem... Vyrn... Thera (Which for some reason wouldn’t let 17 year olds drink)… Time surely had passed. She’d stayed in the plane, Azeroth, much longer than normal. How long was it since she’d arrived? Three weeks? Nix did mention looking for a permanent residence. Cyr was definitely getting old…
“Cyr Caelus!” A fanatic voice booms. Cyr pivots from her sitting position to the entrance where a Jaina drags a confused man through the tavern’s door.
“Oh Jenny,” Cyr replied, annoyed at the intrusion to her pondering, “Put the poor fool down!”
“Anduin, this crazy woman humiliated me not only in cards, but by cheating in a fair duel!”
Anduin looked over to Cyr, clearly confused. His stunning eyes lock onto Cyr’s and heart instantly jumps. Shards, was the man good-looking. Those tragic filled eyes hiding unknown depths… The perfect blond hair trimmed to perfection… His radiating aura of powerful holy power…
“Hello.”
The word breaks through Cyr’s momentary trance. Cyr barely registers as Anduin approaches her table.
“H-h--hi there. Ummm-uh… I’m Cyr… You’re Anduin... Can I touch your face?”
“Excuse me?”
Cyr inwardly slaps herself.
“Imeanhello.” she says, nearly tripping up the words. Storms was she acting like a complete fool. While panicking over her next words, Anduin seats herself across the table. Jaina stands behind Anduin, still death-glaring at Cyr.
“Jaina dragged me to apparently face a lunatic in a game of cards. Unfortunately, it seems I’m met with such a beautiful lady instead. Now, would you like to kindly join me in a game of Hearthstone?”
Cyr manages to make what seems to be half of a nod. She grabs the deck already set on the table as Anduin grasps one of his own from his immaculate robes using his perfect hands that she would love to grasp…
“Ahem.”
“I’msorrysureuhhhIguessI’llflipthiscoinhere.”
In a flurry of uncoordinated motion, she grabbed the coin and accidently flipped it onto the wrong side.
“I believe you get to take your turn first,” Anduin says.
Cyr quickly summons a Stonetusk Boar. She moves to attack, but stops… Cyr couldn’t bring herself to damage Anduin’s handsome features. Against a dozen of her gamer’s instincts, she passes the turn. Anduin looks across the table, wearing a face of confusion. Oh that gentle face hiding unspeakable darkness. If only she could caress it...
“You do know that minions with
Charge
can attack the turn they are played right?”
Cyr bearly nodded, lost in a dreamy haze.
“Well, I’ll play this Northshire Cleric and pass the turn.”
Cyr barely notices as she passes her turn once again.
-An hour later-
Jaina sleeps on a nearby table as Anduin says, “And I’ll attack you directly for the twenty-seventh time with my Northshire Cleric?”
“Uh huh.”
“And I win?”
“Yeah…”
“Ummm… Are you okay there?”
“Umm yeah,” Cyr shakes his head as the prospect of losing sinks in. She continues in a quick flurry of noises, “AreyoubusytonightImeandinnerwouldbenice.”
“Woah, slow down a bit! I wouldn’t mind if you joined me for dinner.”
Cyr replies in the form of a few squeals of excitement.
“I’m sure the royal chefs could whip something up for the two of us.”
Did Anduin just say royal? Cyr looks at Anduin, eyes widening in sudden recognition.
“Ohgodsplsmryme.”
Anduin turns a light shade of pink after picking apart the words, “How about we first enjoy dinner first.”
“SorryIdidn’tmeantoImeanajsdspbs…” Cyr’s words dissolve into unintelligibility.
Sighing, Anduin leads a love-struck Cyr Caelus home, leaving behind the sleeping mage.
To be continued…
(Nix nearly went on strike for his lack of screen time, so I promised him something next round. Also, we'll reveal next round if AnduinxCyr happens. Nix says :Nay:. Based on what happens, most likely it's :Nay:.)
Artists include illusionists, painters, singers, dancers, sculpters, musicians, crafters, writers, and many others of creative professions. Cyr is from Rahsor, a faraway unknown plane. Somehow, she finds herself in an unidentified place in Azeroth with little but her magical affinity and a performer's personality. She certainly knows how to put on one heck of a show to distract, manipulate, and "convince" her opponents. Upon arrival to Azeroth, she finds a mysterious world-hopping tavern full of grand mysteries and frivolous adventure.
The artist class focuses on mass minion synergy, especially with adjacence and positioning rearrangement.
Hero Power, Keyword, Notable Mechanics, and Emotes
Compose:
This is similar to a weaker version of Preparation. It can stack and be transferred through turns. This is especially useful when casting some of the incoming 11-cost cards.
Spells and abilities that
summon
more minions - Notably 0/4 Animations
Tales (Card Draw)
Musical Instruments as Weapons
Dance - A psudo-windfury
"Whenever this attacks"
11-Cost cards
Dragon/Manakete Synergy (Synergy Comes Soon in Blackrock?)
Emotes:
Introduction:
I challenge you!
Mirror Match:
A duel? I accept.
Greetings:
Good day!
Well Played:
Not bad.
Thanks:
Thanks a ton!
Wow:
Shards!
Oops:
A slip of the chisel.
Threaten:
Behold my radiance!
Sorry:
Sorry. Nix says he's not though.
Example cards
Spur Attack - Common
Tromblade - Rare
Big Dragon
Setting spears on felfire since 1984.
How else can you play Rimsky Korsakov's Concerto while stabbing your opponent?
Once tried to kidnap Cyr. Ended up paying ransom for her to leave.
Spur Attack:
This card can help get another kill or two or deal a lot of extra damage, assuming you have board control. Comparable to
Cold Blood
. It can help your seemingly useless Animations (0/4 minions) become much more dangerous. This satisfies challenge 2.
Tromblade:
A tribute to all the great trombone players out there (You're welcome SlydE). By randomizing the positions of your minions,
Spur
effect cards such as
Ninian, Destiny Dancer
can bolster many different minions. This is also another example of a weapon instrument in the Artist Class.
This card does not satisfy Challenge #3, as it contains the word "Randomize" rather than "Random". MWAHAHAHA!
Dangit Cogito, no fun. It's my card for challenge 3. I'm not sure which instrument to do next... I'll take PMs (and art).
Big Dragon:
... Well the flavor text says it all. Seemingly physically weak little artists love to have big things that do the big punching for them. A great stable target for buff spells such as
Spur Attack
,
Dance
, and
Duet
. It's fun. It punches things. What more can you ask for? (Also supports future dragon synergy)
Blazing Spotlight - Epic
Ninian, Destiny Dancer - Legendary
In Cyrkensia, being "not fab" is worse than death.
"That's not a dragon!" - Everyone before Ninian uses Lightbreath
Blazing Spotlight:
A lot like
Twisting Nether
, but requires cost-reduction in order to be cast. Thankfully, your hero power does it's job quite well, reducing the cost to (10). This is an example of a "Choose a minion. Do X to all other minions" card, which is one of the themes to the class, with
Solo
, being the other.
By the way, if you think this card is crazy, look at the non-example cards. There's some scary stuff going on down there.
Ninian, Destiny Dancer:
Dance
on a stick. Well two permanent sticks, I guess? This character comes from
Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade
(and also one of my first 5-stars in Fire Emblem: Heroes). Yes. This is a dragon. Many powerful dragons can appear in humanoid forms, and
Ninian
is no exception.
Wrathion
is not a dragon because he's in hiding. It doesn't make sense? DEAL WITH IT!
ANYWAY...
This Spur effect is exceptionally powerful, and acts as a pseudo-windfury for adjacent minions. It can be used as a finisher or a way to deal a little more ping. When combined with effects like Tromblade's repositioning, you can "Dance" multiple minions.
The Rest of the Classic Set
Abid Artist:
This was the first example card from round one. It's a simple card that highlights the
Spur
effect.
Lightbolt:
This card is used for damaging enemies or healing friendly minions. Both effects are slightly underpowered to balance versatility.
Screech:
Deals 2 damage to every character. A pretty simple AoE spell.
Solo:
This is an example of a "Choose a minion. Do X to all other minions" card. When someone else is doing a grand solo, it is only courtesy to be quiet.
Sync:
The
Frostwolf Warlord
battlecry
on a spell. This can dramatically enhance a minion based on the number of minions you control. Token generators are strongly suggested.
Illustrious Tale:
The next sequel to our Tale series. Along with
Great Tale
, be prepared to see many more of these to come!
Illustrate:
This class summons 2/2
Illustrations
over the course of your next 3 turns. It is another example in which spells generate minions, along with
Carve
from
Round 1
and
Bring to Life
from
Round 2
. Feel free to check those out!
Sketch:
This class's version of
Preparation
or
Innervate
, and of heavy importance. During the next turn, cards will be slightly cheaper, allowing you to burst for quite a bit.
Cyr's Creation:
What the... (And we though 4 mana 7/7 was OP) The idea is that you try to draw this card as early as possible, and holy shift is it awesome if you get it early. The idea is that you play a card like
Sketch
and play this turn 2, or Hero Power turn 2, for an 8/8 on turn 3. You sacrifice much of your early game for this powerful investment. Later on though, it's just a generic 4/4 that's easily outclassed by
Chillwind Yeti
. Not necessarily powerful in constructed, but a powerhouse in Arena.
Basic Set
Bring To Life:
This is my card for the "All or Nothing" challenge. Why a spell? Well this is mostly for flavor purposes. Cyr isn't able to
summon
an animation from nothingness. She must carve it herself. With a few quick flicks of a chisel, she can make a quick animation, perfect for distracting or a number of other purposes. It synergizes well with cards like Vivid Viola or Epileptic Lights - which requires a large number of friendly minions - and Duet or Wandering Musician - which can buff the 0/4.
Epileptic Lights:
Cyr releases as flash of lights to burn or blind the enemy. The more performers there are, the brighter the lights.
Dance: Dance
is a card that allows a minion to attack an additional time each turn. And no, it will NOT work as a
Charge
effect, I'll hardcode it if I must. It's slightly weaker than
Windfury
. This is extremely useful in poking for a few extra bits of damage. In addition, it allows minions such as Azure Dancer to
summon
an extra token. (Hint: This'll get super crucial later on.)
Wandering Musician:
This simple minstrel can play a simple tune that invigorates your minions to strike with greater force!
Duet:
This buffs a minion and the minion next to it. It's pretty simple, but critical to bolstering your board.
Vivid Viola: Vivid Viola
is a weapon for the class. Cyr is an expert in a variety of instruments, such as the viola and trombone. She's one of the top musicians in all of Azeroth. Now the instruments Cyr uses generally aren't the normal boring generic type. If you'll notice, this viola is literally on fire.
Azure Dancer: Azure Dancer
is a good way to mass produce smaller tokens. It helps synergize with cards that require a lot of smaller minions such as
Vivid Viola
and
Wandering Musician
. (Ugh, I can't fit the token right)
Great Tale:
Any good artist knows a good story or two. This one happens to give inspiration in the form of three cards.
Sing:
Originally named Siren's Song, this was changed to fit the "Nuts//Bolts" challenge. It is quite similarly balanced as
Embrace Darkness
. The idea is that Cyr sings hypnotically and convinces one of the enemy to your cause. We provide no protection to any sheep or cyclops that fall of cliffs due to unrestricted sirens songs. By the way, I'm not actually a Justin Beiber fan.
Dance Battle:
Ready your favorite music and we'll be having a D-D-DANCE BATTLE! Oh, and because you're a pro (and the system's super rigged), you'll always destroy the enemy minions.
This is the Submission Topic. The Discussion Topic is here.
Shadows is back, and so are 27 of the best competitors. We'll assume that the other competitors found their way to the clearly marked and not-at-all booby-trapped exits just fine, and that they're now watching this competition along with everyone else in Azeroth, in Taverns via... portals? These guys don't have TVs, right? Damn.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Along with Deathwing's Wild Card, Vilegloom)
Phase III of the competition really steps up the game, asking you for even more cards than last time. Deathwing says it's because he likes to keep everyone on their toes, as he doesn't have any, but an insider tells me it's because that's what some Ampharos decided for the first competition and it's just stuck ever since.
15 cards, up to 5 example cards, and 3 brand new challenges for your class to meet. Browse the rules carefully so you don't get
eatendisqualified, and try to come up with a class that will wow Deathwing into letting you through, instead of having himalso eat youkick you out. Well, I say Deathwing will be letting you through, but we just tell him that so he doesn't get cranky - there'll be two polls at the end of the phase where everyone will get judged by the masses. Good luck!GENERAL RULES
Even if you're already a veteran of our competitions here on the Fan Creation Forum, you should read the general rules before you get started. This competition does introduce new rules, like image limitations and formatting requirements.
* The Submission Topic is for submissions only. If you want to discuss your entry, another entry, ask questions about the competition rules or process, or anything else, you can find a link to the Discussion Topic at the top of this thread. Plenty of folks there will be happy to help you out.
* You are allowed only one submission , consisting of the materials specified by each competition phase. These materials must, of course, be of your own creation. If you'd like, you may collaborate with another user on a single submission, but this must be specified during Phase I.
* You may make only minor edits to your entry once you have submitted it. Minor changes are things like correcting typos or making balance changes that do not alter the spirit of your entry as determined by we the moderators. If you want to make any changes and have any doubts as to their legality, ask us first.
* You may not delete any posts you make in this topic. No, not even if you post here by mistake or accidentally double-post or something. Deleted posts screw with the system we use to help us calculate up-vote scores, so don't do that. If you to post here by mistake or accidentally double-post or something, simply edit your post to just say "REMOVED" and leave it at that.
* You may not create your own topics on this forum for competition-related material. If everybody goes off and creates their own topics for specific discussion of their entries, this board will be flooded with nothing but, and so competition material must remain restricted to official competition topics. If you want to enter the competition with a class that you already have a topic about on this forum, then your topic will be locked in the interest of fairness to the other competitors. Not deleted, just locked, and it can be unlocked after your entry gets knocked out of the competition. You also may not reference or link to your topic in official competition topics.
* You must host your card somewhere other than Hearthcards. We encourage you to create your entry material using Hearthcards.net , but please remember that, although HearthCards is awesome, it has a limited server space and will purge cards after a few days, and nobody wants your cards disappearing part-way through the competition. After you create it, save and upload it to Imgur , Photobucket , or some other similar site. We understand that there are some Hearthcards memberships that will allow you to save your card there for longer (and you should totally get one of those just for general fan creation purposes, by the way), but we don't know who has those memberships and we can't tell from the URLs.
* You may not submit any Gold cards or animated cards, nor may you include any images in your post other than the requested submission materials. A single banner or border, to introduce the class, is allowed. We get it, everybody wants their entry to stand out, but our pages are going to be heavy enough as it is without everybody heading their submissions with animated banners.
* You must insert your images into your post using this icon on the bar above the post text editor: . Just click that button and put in the URL of your image. We realize that it's also possible to upload and attach images to your post. Don't do that, though. We know from experience that, because those images are much smaller and require more work to view, entries that enter their images that way just don't do as well, so this is for your own good.
* Format your entry concisely by sizing your cards appropriately and placing them beside one another rather than in a column or completely separate. The first example below is acceptable while the second is not. Entries that unnecessarily inflate the size of the submission topic and make it more difficult to get through will be disqualified. How should you size your cards? Well...
Hey, look! Some cards!
Open the Waygate : Look at how nice this is.
Frost Lich Jaina : All neat, organized, and concise.
Aluneth : What a great post.
Wait, what are you doing?
Seriously, please don't.
This is painful. Why are you doing this?
You are a monster.
* "Troll" entries will be disqualified. Fun and even humorous entries are perfectly allowed (this is Hearthstone after all), but if you're worried that your entry may be misinterpreted as a troll entry, contact a moderator before you submit.
Finally, know that manipulating votes in any way is strictly forbidden. Any violators will receive an official warning, and will be banned from this and all future HearthPwn Card Design Competitions.
PHASE III: The Classic Set
In this Phase, you will each construct your class's Classic Set . Here are the requirements for your Class Creation Competition Phase III Entry:
There are just a few elements of your class that you will repeat from your Phase I entry, to remind us who and what we're dealing with. If you'd like to repeat anything from your class's introductory explanation, including its flavor or whatever you believe makes it interesting or unique mechanically, that's fine, but try to keep it brief.
We do not want to see your Class's entire Classic Set out in the open.
The remaining ten (10) cards of your class's Classic Set must be presented behind a Spoiler Block (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.). These cards must obey the same rules are your examples cards with regards to expansion watermarks, rarity gems, and what keywords you may not use.
You should include your completed Basic Set from Phase II behind a Spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.) either before or after your Classic Set material. It is fine if these cards have undergone some minor modification since the end of Phase II, but thy must still adhere to all of Phase II's requirements.
COMPETITION SCHEDULE AND PROCESS
How long do you have to work on your submission? How will advancement to Phase III of the competition be determined? The answers to these questions and more can be found below...
PHASE I: CLASS CONCEPT
Challenges Poll: 27/December - 30/December
Submission: 30/December - 7/January
Up-Voting: 7/January - 10/January
PHASE II: BASIC SET
Challenges Poll: 10/January - 13/January
Submission: 13/January - 21/January
Up-Voting: 21/January - 24/January
PHASE III: CLASSIC SET
Challenges Poll: 24/January - 26/January
Submission: 26/January - 5/February
Poll #1: 5/February - 7/February
Poll #2: 7/February - 9/February
PHASE IV: Whispers of the Old Gods + One Night In Karazhan
Challenges Poll: TBD
Submission: TBD
Poll #1: TBD
Poll #2: TBD
PHASE V: Mean Streets of Gadgetzan + Journey to Un'Goro
Challenges Poll: TBD
Submission: TBD
Poll: TBD
PHASE VI: Knights of the Frozen Throne + Kobolds & Catacombs
Challenges Poll: TBD
Submission: TBD
Poll: TBD
NOTE: All stages of the competition begin and end at 22:00 UTC.
ALSO NOTE: This timetable is subject to change at any time, even after the competition begins, if it seems like too many folks are struggling.
* During Submission stages, Submission Topics will be unlocked and (remaining) participants may submit their entries. During Phases I-II, you may also use this time to go ahead and up-vote submissions that you like.
* During Up-Voting stages for Phases I-II, Submission Topics will be locked. Use this time to up-vote submissions that you like. Note that advancement during these Phases depends entirely on up-votes.
* During Polling stages for Phases III-VI, Submission Topics will be locked, and all eligible remaining participants will have their submission material included in a separate Poll Topic to determine advancement. Phases III-IV include two Poll Topics because I anticipate we will have enough participants remaining that we will not be able to fit everybody in one Poll Topic. Note that up-votes in the Submission Topics are irrelevant to advancement during these Phases.
How will eliminations be done, and how many competitors will advance from each phase to the next?
I'm glad you asked! We will be taking a equal proportion of competitors from each Phase of the competition to the next, and we will be ending with exactly four finalists. That being the case and their being five total eliminations before the final round, that proportion can be found by solving for x:
[# of valid Phase I entries] * x^5 = 4
The higher the number of valid Phase I entries, the lower that proportion becomes. Just so you have an idea, the proportion hits 50% when we hit 128 entries, which is likely, but it only hits 33.3% when we hit 972 entries, which is less likely.
As mentioned above, advancement to Phases II and III will be determined by up-votes only. However, these up-votes are weighted using a formula identical to the process used by our Weekly Card Design Competitions:
( ab ) / ( c ) = x
(Where a is the total number of up-votes that your submission received, b is the total number of valid submissions on the same page as your submission, c is the total number of up-votes on valid submissions on the same page as your submission, and x is your submission's final weighted up-vote score.)
Why bother with this formula rather than just taking each submissions up-votes directly? Because earlier pages simply get a lot more views that later pages do, and we do not want rushed, early submissions to have an advantage over later submissions that took more time to get their entries just right. The formula basically measures which submissions stood out the most, with the necessary assumption that each page is about equal in overall submission quality.
The bottom line is that, although entries on the earlier pages of the Submission Topic are much more visible and thus receive many more up-votes than entries on later pages, you don't actually have to rush to get your entry in as soon as possible, because the up-votes end up being weighted by what page your entry ends up on in order to determine its final score.
As mentioned above, advancement to Phases IV, V, and VI will be determined by polls. These polls will be multi-choice, meaning that voters can vote for every entry that they like. Whenever we have to split a Phase's poll into two to make it more manageable for voters, advancement will be determined by looking at each class's final percentage scores, not by looking at the direct number of votes they received, since we can't guarantee that the same number of voters will vote each day. Poll results will always be hidden until the poll has concluded, and for polls split in two, this does also mean that the results of the first poll will not be revealed until the second poll has concluded as well.
The winner of Phase VI, and thus the entire competition, will be determined by a poll much like the ones before, except that it will be single-choice, requiring voters to pick their single favorite class, and will have a much longer polling phase than usual to give us plenty of opportunity for promotion and such.
In the event of a tie during Phases I-IV for the last possible advancing position, all entries involved in the tie will be allowed to advance; the more the merrier, I say. We will absolutely not have more than four finalists, however, and so in the event of a tie during Phase V, the three Fan Creation Forum moderators (that is, Cogito_Ergo_Sum, ShadowsOfSense, and PupleMD) will vote to break the tie. In the event of a tie during Phase VI to determine the competition's winner, the title will simply be shared unless both finalists request and agree to a tie-breaking round.
But wait, there's more! During Phases I-IV of the Competition, each Fan Creation Forum moderator (ShadowsOfSense, PupleMD, Phoenixfeather, ThisOtherGuyTox, Cogito_Ergo_Sum, Otovent, linkblade91) will have a Wild Card , which we may (though are not required to) use to advance to the next Phase any one entry that we feel was initially overlooked or under-appreciated, regardless of its performance with voters. No entry may be awarded a Wild Card more than once, and it should also go without saying that, while some moderators are allowed to participate in the competitions, they are never allowed to benefit from Wild Cards. Wild Cards are our way of spicing things up a bit, but please don't ask to be given one or be upset if you aren't given one. These are just supposed to be fun.
Are you curious what will be required for future phases of the competition? The challenges will remain a secret , but I'm happy to tell you the general submission requirements.
PHASE IV: Whispers of the Old Gods and One Night in Karazhan
By having your class's Classic Set approved of, you've shown that you can make a completely functional class. But functional isn't good enough. Your class must also have room to grow beyond that. For this phase, you'll be proving that it can by giving your class Whispers of the Old Gods and One Night in Karazhan cards. Here are the requirements for your Class Creation Competition Phase IV Entry:
There are just a few elements of your class that you will repeat from your Phase I entry, to remind us who and what we're dealing with. If you'd like to repeat anything from your class's introductory explanation, including its flavor or whatever you believe makes it interesting or unique mechanically, that's fine, but try to keep it brief.
We do not want to see your Class's entire WOG and ONiK Sets out in the open.
The remaining seven (7) cards of your class's WOG and ONiK Sets must be presented behind a Spoiler Block (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.). These cards must obey the same rules are your examples cards with regards to expansion watermarks, rarity gems, and what keywords you may not use.
You should include your completed Basic and Classic Sets from Phases II and III behind a Spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.) either before or after your Phase IV material. It is fine if these cards have undergone some minor modification, but they must still adhere to all of their original Phase requirements.
PHASE V: Mean Streets of Gadgetzan and Journey to Un'Goro
Congratulations on being a semi-finalist! With positively received Whispers of the Old Gods and One Night in Karazhan sets, you've proven that your class's concept and mechanics have room for expansion. Now, there's only one last thing to do: narrow down the best of the best. For this phase, you'll be giving your class Mean Streets of Gadgetzan and Journey to Un'Goro cards. Here are the requirements for your Class Creation Competition Phase V Entry:
There are just a few elements of your class that you will repeat from your Phase I entry, to remind us who and what we're dealing with. If you'd like to repeat anything from your class's introductory explanation, including its flavor or whatever you believe makes it interesting or unique mechanically, that's fine, but try to keep it brief.
We do not want to see your Class's entire MSG and JtU Sets out in the open.
The remaining cards of your class's MSG and JtU Sets must be presented behind a Spoiler Block (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.). These cards must obey the same rules are your examples cards with regards to expansion watermarks, rarity gems, and what keywords you may not use.
You should include your completed Basic, Classic, WOG, and ONiK Sets from Phases II-IV behind a Spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.) either before or after your Phase V material. It is fine if these cards have undergone some minor modification, but they must still adhere to all of their original Phase requirements.
PHASE VI: Knights of the Frozen Throne and Kobolds & Catacombs
Here we are, finalists! In the last phase of our competition, you'll be giving us your class's Knights of the Frozen Throne and Kobolds & Catacombs sets, as well as constructing your own custom Finale Topics:
There will be no Submission Topic for the competition Finale. Instead, you will create your own Finalist Topics. All that you have to do is create a normal topic here on the Fan Creation Forum and title it as such:
[Class Competition Finalist] DEATHWING
(Replace DEATHWING with your own class's name, of course.)
Then, bring it to our attention, and we'll link to it from this topic. That's it. How you format and present your final product is entirely up to you. You've put in a lot of work to come this far, so you've earned the right to show us your completed original Class however you think is best.
In addition to including the required material from all previous phases, you must add the following:
P R E S E N T A T I O N !
These don't need to be part of your Finale Topic, but by the end of the Submission Phase, you should send ShadowsOfSense 8 example cards from your completed collection, preferably via PM, to be included in the Final Poll Topic. The Final Poll topic will look very similar to this one from our first CCC, except that no token cards will be included.
REWARDS
In addition to truly epic bragging rights, ALL finalists will receive a special Forum Title and Avatar Border, similar to those given to winners of our forum's Weekly Card Design Competitions, as shown below:
Furthermore, the winning contestant will have a Season 7 competition themed around their winning class!
ARCHIVES
Want to see how things went during our first three Class Creation Competitions? Want to see what the winners and other finalists did during each phase? Then check out the links below!
Note, that some competition rules, especially formatting rules, may have been different for past competition.
Class Creation Competition #1 - Class Design Competition
Phase I: Submission ( Merchant , Twilight's Hammer , Demon Hunter , Lich ), Discussion
Phase II: Submission ( Merchant , Twilight's Hammer , Demon Hunter , Lich ), Discussion , Poll
Phase III : Submission ( Merchant , Twilight's Hammer , Demon Hunter , Lich ), Discussion , Poll
Phase IV: Discussion ( Merchant , Twilight's Hammer , Demon Hunter , Lich ), Final Poll
Class Creation Competition #2 - Worlds Beyond Warcraft
Phase I: Submission ( Bard , Agent , Nightmare , Pokemon Trainer ), Discussion
Phase II: Submission ( Bard , Agent , Nightmare , Pokemon Trainer ), Discussion
Phase III: Submission ( Bard , Agent , Nightmare , Pokemon Trainer ), Discussion , Poll 1 , Poll 2
Phase IV: Submission ( Bard , Agent , Nightmare , Pokemon Trainer ), Discussion , Poll
Phase V: Discussion ( Bard , Agent , Nightmare , Pokemon Trainer ), Final Poll
Class Creation Competition #3 - Asylum's Gauntlet
Phase I: Submission ( Worgen , Chronomancer , Flame Wielder , Alchemist ), Discussion
Phase II: Submission ( Worgen , Chronomancer , Flame Wielder , Alchemist ), Discussion
Phase III: Submission ( Worgen , Chronomancer , Flame Wielder , Alchemist ), Discussion , Poll 1 , Poll 2
Phase IV: Submission ( Worgen , Chronomancer , Flame Wielder , Alchemist ), Discussion , Poll 1 , Poll 2
Phase V: Submission ( Worgen , Chronomancer , Flame Wielder , Alchemist ), Phase V Discussion , Poll
Grande Finale: Discussion ( Worgen , Chronomancer , Flame Wielder , Alchemist ), Final Poll
You can find me here! Good luck everyone!
The Scribe
Class Details:
Intro:
Remember all those powerful scrolls from dungeon crawlers and World of Warcraft that need no magical ability to use? Have you ever wondered what would happen if a random guy just casually decided to grab a few bags full of those and run around like a lunatic? Well wonder no longer! I present to you, Gabriel Gillian, the Scribe!
Hero Power:
A scribes magic comes from scrolls and tomes, which comes with one big advantage, if you use a scroll and you need another, just draw one up (Gabriel is quite the artist)! That of course will take awhile hence the extra mana cost but the possibilities opened by it are endless!
New Keyword: Tome
These show up like a secret but visible to both players. They are buffs that will cancel under a certain condition. Makes deck building really interesting especially the more you try to have active at once. Cool note about tomes in the classic set: There are 5 tomes total, a 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 cost!
Class Themes:
- Controlled RNG effects.
- Effects with a duration.
- The condition of "If your opponent controls no minions" on cards.
- Cards that affect adjacent minions.
Strengths:
- Extremely versatile hero power that you can adapt to your opponent.
- Strong card draw.
- Stronger while opponents board is cleared (KILL ALL THE THINGS!!).
Weaknesses:
- No healing (some preemptive pseudo healing options are available however).
- Limited direct damage and simple finishers (usually wins through complete domination!).
- Weaker while behind on board (as you have less control over your controlled RNG effects, and no good comeback cards).
Example Cards:
Tome of Equality is strongest against those decks that just spew out minions like their life depends on it as they will almost always have more minions than you. But to get true value out of this you must also use a fair number of minions as against a slower deck your best bet to maintaining this is to have more minions than them!
Shock Therapist is great for maintaining your lead, she adds a solid body on board and slows your opponent down next turn. Your opponents minions are smart enough to stop her setting up her electrical trap so make sure your opponent doesn't have any minion! *Evil laugh!!*
Power Transcription is one of the classes strongest win conditions. It can copy charge from Stonetusk Boar , and buffs from minions like Gurubashi Berserker that you can easily get really high via cards like Scroll of Fire (basic set). Plus it can just be generally useful by giving card text like Acolyte of Pain s and Acolyte of Suffering (basic set) to higher health minions.
Omens:
Tome of Conservation makes great use of the classes strong card draw. With enough of it and lots of use from your hero power, you can easily use all your mana each turn without destroying the tome. Acolyte of Pain combined with Power Transcription and Scroll of Fire or Lightning can allow you to have some insane cheap card draw using this. Miracle scribe combo : Add in draw where needed to maintain the tome. Gurubashi Berserker --> Scroll of Fire
--> Stonetusk Boar --> Power Transfusion x 2 would give you a 31/1 Boar!
Apotheus Omen of the End: If you wanna go all out on tomes, then this guy will be a great addition to your deck! Fully buffed he's a 10/10 with a pile of bonuses (which you can transfer using Power Transcription! ) and that is often going to be game winning. Getting 4 active tomes at once is pretty hard in classic but in later sets you can consistently get all 4 buffs for him if you build your deck around maintaining your tomes!
Basic Cards:
Remaining Classic Cards:
I hope you enjoyed my submission! Thanks for reading :D
Check out my Custom Classes (Scribe, Alchemist, and Battlemage)!
Hey guys, glad to be back for PhaseIII! I wish everyone the best of luck :) For my entry, I'm sticking to the Predator Class , as represented by Alalirith is thematically focused on targeting the right prey, and hunting down your victims.
EXCELS AT:
FALLS FLAT:
Beast in the Night (Minion) shows both of the Predator's main strengths: Stealth synergies and the Hunt effect. Utilizing the stealth mechanic, it can easily grow to become a huge threat for only two mana-- you just have to know when to pounce!
Panther Rider (Minion) is a 5/5 stealthed body that makes for a great trading tool as well as a threat on the board that upon death (the Rider falls off the Panther), summons ANOTHER Stealthed body in the form of Jungle Panther .
Let's Go Hunting! (Spell) is crazy-- good-- fun. Simply put, it acts as a minigame inside a Hearthstone match: the baby buffalo act as targets for your weapon, who, upon death, reward you with great card draw and buffs. Is it worth the tempo loss? Probably.
Connor the Survivalist (Legendary Minion) is the Classic Legendary card for the Predator. It's a fairly innocent card on paper-- until you let it hide in the bushes for a couple turns... Lo and behold! All of your opponent's minions are frozen! While the effect is rather subtle, it's a card that quickly will become incredibly valuable as the game goes on.
TOKENS
Let's Go Hunting!:
Connor the Survivalist:
THE REST:
Commons:
Rares:
Epics:
THE BASIC SET:
...Join the Predator, or Become the Pray...
THE SPIRIT
Hero Power: The Spirit class is based on full Health minions. Soul link helps them to stay at high health and prevent from dying.
NOTE: You can use Hero Power even if there aren't any minions on your side. It heals only your hero then.
CARDS
Explanation:
Congeries: Buff your minions with Alleviation to help them stay longer ! One of the cheapest way for The Spirit to protect friendly minions.
Moribund Spirit: This card triggers it's effect at the end of turt it was played. It can't help trading, but supports your minions at low Health to stay in play. This is a great 2 drop, when played without effect it still has got value.
Falling Light: The Spirit has weak board clears. This is one of the most powerful, simmilar to Lightning Storm . It becomes even better with the Spell Damage . Fortunately, it affect only enemy minions, which makes this card very powerful AoE.
Spirit's Wrath: One of the best removals for this class. An opposite to Execute , but costs 1 mana more, because it is easier to use and you can target a friendly minion with it. However, minion must be undamaged, so better use it before trades.
Kuro: The Spirit hasn't got many big minions. Kuro is an exception. If she survives, she becomes another friendly hard removal. But what if there is only one enemy minion ? If she attacks and destroys it, Kuro is able to attack again ! (It works the same as with Truesilver Champion and Blackguard ).
OTHER CARDS
Commons:
Rares:
Epics:
BASIC SET
...Soul of Wyrm. Soul of Root. Heart of Void...
THE LONER
OUR DEAR LITTLE FRIEND L-001 RETURNS!
The LONER Class is characterized by a slow, control, combo -based play style with opportunities for mind games and counter-play. The Hero power baits the opponent into spending their resources while simultaneously giving the Loner player opportunities to draw the appropriate responses. Expect games with the Loner to last many turns while they also create many puzzling board and fatigue situations. HOWEVER, just because the class archetype is conducive to a control play style, there will be many different tools for aggressive and midrange-oriented players as well.
Class Keyword
The Loner wants to Preserve all kinds of treasured memories and memoirs. He wants to make, and be, a good friend by understanding new feelings and remembering dear ones. This way, one day, those wonderful memories will resurface and offer opportunities to bond with old friends, kindle forgotten relationships, and draw critical combos to destroying the enemy!
Keyword Technicality: A card can only be considered Preserved if it is in your deck. Cards that interact with Preserved effects do not interact with cards in your hand, on the board, or in your opponent’s hand or deck. When a card text effect indicates a Preserved card to be drawn, removed, or discarded, it typically means a random Preserved card will be interacted with, unless otherwise specified.
CLASSIC SET SHOWCASE
Designer's Thoughts:
Lone Survivor – A solid early game minion for board control. A VERY strong turn 1 Coin play. The idea is to maintain a single-minion board while you draw into other cards via Hero power and spells. This minion will give you enough staying power to formulate a win condition based on your next few draws. However, it is clearly not as helpful as a late game draw.
Preserve – A simple spell to start prepping for combos and synergies. It might seem over-costed, but that's only because the potential interactions with the keyword can be very powerful in the right circumstances.
Mood: Reserved – Clearly a control card. Not a terrible option for some panicked anti-aggro, and an effective tool against control/ synergy decks with powerful card-text minions.
Magic Memento – Some mediocre weapon damage and Preserved synergy packed into one card.
Uuk, the Spirit-Friend – Beefy stats with some beefy keywords. If you manage to cycle it effectively using other cards (such as Magic Memento or Memories ), this minion will become a nuisance to deal with if your opponent does not have his proper Silence response handy.
Rest of the Set
Common Cards
Rare Cards
Epic Cards
Basic Set
Lady Vashj makes her return as the Sea Witch class: The versatile Naga sorceress capable of unleashing devastating water-based magic as well as powerful minions of the deep to overwhelm your opponent, but can also lurk beneath the Ocean Depths, biding her time, waiting for the right moment to strike. The Classic cards build up and outwards from the Basic Set. While the initial Basic cards attempted to tone down the Sea Witch's inherently complicated playstyle, the Classic set attempts to slowly introduce the first glance at the strategies the Sea Witch has at her disposal. The class' keyword Reservoir makes its debut and is at the heart of the Sea Witch's core mechanic, deck size manipulation. Both aggressive and slower Sea Witch archetypes make use of both high and low deck counts, whether it's for creating synergies between cards or to unleash devastating card combos.
Bountiful Seas & Ocean Depths explanation: Bountiful Seas is an interesting Hero Power, and it is obvious from the get-go that the Sea Witch is all about deck manipulation. Their main mechanic is a nod to their ancient history as well as their great longevity and the mystery that still surrounds them.
Ocean Depths itself it a 0-mana token that immediately casts itself upon drawn. It complements your Hero Power by bringing the total healing up to 3, but its main purpose is to expand your deck size as a filler card without actually impeding your deck by shuffling in minions that do nothing when drawn.
Reservoir is the class' keyword. A little complex, though easy to understand once seen in action, Reservoir is essentially a battlecry with a conditional effect, that is, deck size. It operates much like Combo , which is also a conditional battlecry -like effect. In addition, like most cards with a conditional effect, a yellow glow will appear around a Reservoir card if it meets it requirement.
Classic Set Showcase
Nazjartar Seahorseman is a powerful early-game tool for the Sea Witch and can be slotted into almost every deck, save for the most greedy of Control decks. What stands out about the Seahorseman is its reverse-usage of Reservoir; instead of a boon, having a large deck, that is, in the early game, your cannot Charge and hit your opponent's face with this card. However, having a minion that cannot ever attack the opposing hero is a dead draw later on. As such, when the game progresses and your deck thins, this minion becomes even more useful. Tempo-based decks can often reach the 20-card mark (which is around turn 4-5), while midrange or combo -based decks will be fine with either trading or hitting face.
Condensation is a middle-game tempo play or midrange deck's powerful turn 5 option. By itself, it is a little underwhelming but still summons 6/4 worth of stats, 4.5 mana. It is the Reservoir effect that really sets this card apart, however. It rewards slightly slower decks by boosting the Sea Elemental 's stats to 4/3, totaling at 8/6 for 5 mana, not too shabby at all, and with the potential of growing even more. The Sea Elemental is a Sea Witch Basic set card:
They Came from Below is the Sea Witch's epic spell and is a powerful control tool. It can be seen as somewhat of a cross between Lesser Jasper Spellstone and Shield Slam . It promotes a slow, methodical playstyle, continually adding cards to your deck and rewards this upkeep greatly in the same way Shield Slam rewards a player who can stack Armor. Armor is much more easily lost that deck size, however, which explains the greater ease of use of Shield Slam. Yet, deck size is harder to gain than armor. They Came from Below is therefore harder to set up and, as such, has a middle point that is still an extremely high-value play. As this card contains two Reservoir effects, the Epic rarity was chosen.
Brine Crossbolter is immediately an eye-catcher of an epic weapon. This is the "combo" of the Sea Witch class, the lynchpin of the very possible Crossbolter Sea Witch deck, where the player aims to thin down their deck as much as they can, or stall until the end game, and they crush their opponent with this card. This card rewards the Sea Witch for lasting so long; it takes about 12-15 turns to reach the 10-card threshold. While certainly devastating, it is stopped by Taunts, Freeze , and simply time. This weapon takes all three of its charges to finish off its opponent, making the Sea Witch player work hard to reap its benefits. Nonetheless, it is an extremely potent win condition and I did my best to carefully balance this card. Flavour-wise, as it is not one of the Sea Witch's staves, it does not have a battlecry effect.
The Legendary minion of the Sea Witch's Classic set is Warlord Kalithresh , a mighty Naga warrior and one of Lady Vashj's right-hand men. Keeping in line with the other class legendaries of the time, Kalithresh takes the simplest Sea Witch act, shuffling in copies of Ocean Depths , and magnifies it sevenfold. He single-handedly acts as a large taunt minion, refills your deck size, and your hand. Not to mention, his seven Ocean Depths will heal for 14 in the long run. His high value level is comparable to Tirion Fordring , another powerful taunt minion which can deal up to 15 damage after he dies.
Other Classic Cards
Commons
Gilblin Plunderer: A simple 1 mana 1/3 that shuffles into two low-cost minion with above-average stats into your deck. These are vanilla minions so they are technically dead draws, but the Sea Witch does require a way to quickly generate permanent deck size and something to offset its high draw power. Flavour: Likes candy.
Water Blast: A Darkbomb -like card, with the additional bonus of shuffling itself back into your deck if used early game. Dealing 3 damage for a low cost is useful at any stage of the game. Flavour: Ever wanted to punch someone very, very hard in the gut from 50 feet back?
Tidal Rager: Well, yes, it is a meme, but looking past the hideous 5/1 statline reveals a card that is actually worthy of some play. Even if hero power'ed away by your opponent, you spent just 1 mana to cycle a card. (Tidal Rager 3-cost - Hero Power 2-cost) Another way of looking at is is comparing it to Loot Hoarder and Polluted Hoarder . You are getting 3 extra stats for 1 mana, and you are equalling Polluted Hoarder's stats, but saving one mana. Flavour: Water beats Magma.
Highborne Grace: This is the Sea Witch's main healing card, and a potent one at that. It is at first a weaker Healing Touch but then becomes a Healing Wave once the game progresses. Flavour: AMAAAAAAAZZZZINNGGGG GRAAAAAACEEEEEEE!
Cerith Scepter: As the Sea Witch does employ weapons, a simple yet effective weapon was required for the Classic Set. The Cerith Scepter fulfills this role, and being a staff, it has a Battlecry , albeit a simple one. Flavour: The power of Hydra compels you!
Rares
Finding Mobus: Originally a Basic set card, Finding Mobus shuffles in a large minion into your deck while cycling for a high price of 2 mana. The payoff is well worth it, however, and Finding Mobus will likely find its way into a midrange Sea Witch deck. Flavour: Have you checked the fish tank at your local dental clinic?
Squid Ward: This is a simple buffing spell, along the lines of Shaman's Ancestral Spirit . Instead of making the minion stick on your board, it instead gives +2/+2 and replenishes your deck. It's a controlled deck filler tool that permanently makes your deck larger but without losing too much tempo or filling your deck with weak cards. Its cheap cost promotes its use as a combo card.
Flavour: Clarinet not included.
Coilfang Battlemaiden: A simple card along the lines of Auchenai Soulpriest . Though it can facilitate other Reservoir effects, it is worth noting that Battlemaiden + Crossbolter = 11 mana. Therefore, as decks and classes become more powerful, there arises an option fro the "Crossbolter Sea Witch" deck: Emperor Thaurissan . Flavour: Battlemaiden by day, long-distance swimmer by night. How else do you think she keeps your Reservoir effects going?
Salt the Wound: The Sea Witch's most glaring weakness is their lack of AOEs. As one might notice, they have great, efficient single-target removals. Salt the Wound comes in at an expensive Consecration , but does make up for this later in the game by acting as a cheaper Blizzard . Flavour: Ooh, that smarts.
Epic & Tokens
Steamvault Bruiser: The Steamvault Bruiser is the Sea Witch's "OP" 6-mana minion. Looking at other classes' premier 6-drops: Fire Elemental has a 5-mana worth of stats, and a deal 3 damage, which is 2 mana. You get 7 mana packed for 6. Savannah Highmane gives you 6/5, again, 5-mana, and a deathrattle of 4/4 which is about 3 mana. 8 mana for 6 mana. Temple Enforcer is a 6/6, 5.5 mana, and a an extra 3 Health on top of that. 6/9 is 7 mana, packed in 6 mana. Furthermore, Faceless Summoner is a 4.5 mana body + a 3-mana minion, 7.5 mana's worth.
tl;dr: Every class needs an "op" 6-mana minion.
With charge , 5/2 is 6 mana, and you get 2 Health, 1 extra mana's worth. 7 mana for 6 mana is reasonable.
With taunt , you get a 5/8 Taunt 6.5 mana. Furthermore, there is a degree to this card where you cannot control which Bruiser you are getting, the charge or the taunt , as both are dependent on deck size.
Flavour: Cruisin' for a bruisin'. Rootin' for a schoolin'. Tootin' for a whoopin'. Don't let his appearance fool you; he's a great poet.
Gilblin Marauder: From Gilblin Plunderer.
Whale Shark: From Finding Mobus.
Basic Set
If you got to the end of this, somehow, good job. Many thanks for reading.
Click here to go back to my Phase I post.
Click here to go back to my Phase II post.
My entry for this competition is the Time Traveler class. This is a class themed all around... well, time which is represented in several different aspects of the class. The Hero Power of the class is Glimpse , which has you look at the top 3 cards of your deck and rearrange them in any order (if your deck has less than 3 cards when you activate this, it will simply show you less cards instead), allowing for strategically planning ahead a few turns because now you know what you're going to draw and being able to change and optimize your draws.
This class also introduces a new keyworded mechanic for the class, Quick-Time . Quick-Time effects activate if you play the card on the same turn it's added to your hand (either by drawing it or generating it, anything counts). In most other classes, this effect seems like it would be inconsistent and top-deck reliant. The Time Traveler class however has many ways to get around this, namely their Hero Power in which you can rearrange the cards you draw to make sure you draw the Quick-Time cards when you actually want to draw them. There are also some cards in the class which can make Quick-Time cards even easier to activate.
UI for the Hero Power
Click and drag the cards around to change their order.
These cards can be found back on the Phase I post.
Speaking of which, let's look at 5 Classic cards that showcase some aspects of the Time Traveler class.
Vault Keeper is a simple minion that plays into the Quick-Time keyword (and the "Playing Off-Key" challenge). It starts out as a 3/4 for 3, which is a standard statline for 3 mana with an upside. It gets stronger as you keep activating Quick-Time effects, encouraging you and rewarding you for planning ahead properly.
As a Time Traveler , you don't just go forward and backwards through time, but also through different dimensions parallel to yours as well. This is represented by the card Parallel Dimensions where you get rid of your current hand in exchange for a new one. If you have a bunch of expensive cards in the early game or situational cards when you don't need them right now, you can play this to put those cards back in and get something more useful right now when it matters. You can also use it to shuffle Quick-Time cards which didn't get their effects active and put them back in so you can activate their effects. You'll also draw a lot of cards from this so you have a good chance of activating Quick-Time effects of cards drawn by this as well.
One notable aspect with Time Traveler is the top of your deck, being able to see and change them as you wish. Your Hero Power and quite a few class cards give you this ability. A card with flexibility and good planning is Chrono Prophet which has an effect based on what type of card is on top of your deck. If it's a minion, you get a 5 mana 4/5 with Windfury (1 mana cheaper Windfury Harpy ). If it's something else (which includes spells, the DK hero and the Legendary weapon), you get a 5 mana 4/6 with Taunt ( Druid of the Claw in Bear Form). An interesting design that will be seen again in the future.
Being that space is related to time, some Time Traveler s also have a little bit of an astral side to them, not a lot of it, but it does show up every once in a while. Black Hole being a notable part of this as well as a good showcase for the Quick-Time keyword. Without it, it's a 9 mana Twisting Nether , but with proper planning and getting the Quick-Time off, it can be 9 mana to simply just destroy your opponent's whole board while leaving your own board alive.
The Classic Legendary for Time Traveler s is Kara Shellen , a powerful chronomancer with a simple but interesting effect. If you look at most of the other Classic Legendaries, most of them fall under the category of "simple, but interesting" so it only makes sense. On the battlefield, it's a 4/8 for 6 so it has the capability of surviving and utilizing its effect. Every single time you play a card, ANY CARD, you put a copy of it into your deck allowing you to potentially draw and use them again.
Remaining Classic Cards:
Basic cards:
Fun Fact: The Classic Legendary Kara Shellen appears in the artwork for Done That .
Click the image to go to my custom Time Traveler class.
Done in Collaboration with Schlauchneid
The Necromancer
Sometimes the most sinceres of intentions can take the darkest of turns. Wishing to bring her brother back from the dead has lend Daiana down to the dark path of Necromancy. Now armed with the flaming skull of her sibling and years of practice in the necrotic arts, she will fight with an array of any forbidden knowledge that she can get her hands on.
Her Hero Power is Necrotic Arts. It gives you a Grave token that your opponent has to remove unless they want to deal with what comes out of it: a 2/2 Ghoul. It may seem stronger than the Paladin or Shaman Hero Power but remember that you can't attack with the Grave nor the Ghoul when it's summoned because It doesn't have Charge .
In General the class evolves around:
And speaking of killing your own stuff, here is the Class' Keyword:
A deceitfully strong and versatile effect which can be triggered twice by your Hero Power.
Basic Set:
Example Cards:
Explication:
Scroll of Dark Omens : Your second form of true card draw. You gain the possibility of getting a board presence by giving your opponent a clue of your draw.
No Rest for the Wicked : What is a Necromancer who can't revive the fallen? It can revive your own as well as enemy minions. So paying attention to the order of attacks is crucial.
Risen Sun Priest : The Morbidity effect would trigger as if it were a Battlecry . Also Priest's effect isn't limited to the turn he's summoned, so you can activate It at later turns if you wish.
Necromerge : A cheap way of triggering your d eathrattle minions and preparing fo your reanimation effects. Plus it can give you a big beating monster.
Pork, the First Mistake : Often one makes dangerous mistakes when learning about the dark arts, but no mistake was as persistent as Pork. One of Diana's first experiments became a weight on her back. A being with ceaseless hunger, which is almost unkillable. Just give him one of your spare minions and he will be back in no time. And here is his token.
Rest of the Classic Set:
Commons:
Rares:
Epics:
Explication:
Soul Transfer : Another cheap way to activate your Morbidity effects. Remember your minions are expendables and they will serve a greater purpose in death.
Elusive Specter : An early game minion that helps contest the board and has good survivability. If you time your attacks, you can keep him hidden for a long time even after he attacked. Balanced around Druid of the Saber.
Walk the Yard : Your second way to generate Graves. Even in death your minions will keep serving you.
Ghoul Master : Strong mid game card akin to Cult Master. You cash in your early game and you got a new bunch of minions ready to die for you.
Soul Swallower : Sometimes you need a form to stabilize against aggro and this big fellow can help you. He eats a big part of your minions but he will share their tasty, tasty souls with you.
Reanimate Dead : When you need a quick way to fill your board again this is the spell for you. Balanced around Unleash the Hounds .
Carrion Feeder : A big Taunt that makes sure that any leftover minion of yours doesn't go to waste. Balanced around Bog Creeper .
Essence Draining : A powerful removal that is a mix between Blastcrystal Potion and a Greater Healing Potion if used in the right situation, It will help you start a comeback and stabilize if you are low on Health.
Plague Bringer : Early sticky minion that will come back as long as you control another one that can carry his disease.
Poisonous Fumes : Lastly but not least your second true AoE, remember that until WoG Leper Gnomes were 2/1, so this card would have become stronger in 2016. Balanced around Poison Seeds .
Tokens:
Scroll of Dark Omens and Walk the Yard:
Ghoul Master
Reanimate Dead
Necromerge
Poisonous Fumes
Pork, the First Mistake
As always thanks to everyone who gave me a hand with this!!!.
The Jester - Phase III
Lore:
The next instalment of the Jester's lore introduces us to Hillary Tee the faithful sidekick and legendary minion of the classic set.
Hillaria Tideborn was the most beautiful maiden in the land and the daughter of a Duke.
In the employ of the Duke was Riggs. A plain young man unremarkable by most standards save for the fact that he could make the Duke laugh. It was for this quality that he was afforded the title of Court Jester.
Each day Riggs would devise a new routine to delight his adoring crowd alas there was but one that he truly desired to impress and, whatever he tried, she was the only one who was not.
While the Duke howled and the crowd wailed Hillaria wore a decidedly more disinterested expression. The face of a woman trying to stifle a yawn.
To hold a love but to be invisible to the object of it. It was maddening and, as his ideas began to wear thin, he grew increasingly desperate.
One day Riggs was juggling knives when a blade went awry and slashed a courtesan. The room went deathly quiet until, To Riggs' amazement, Hillaria began to giggle.
Riggs suddenly became somewhat more accident prone and with each escalating incident his popularity with Hillaria increased. Soon she would stop him in the halls for light conversation until eventually she invited him to her chamber.
Riggs was nervous but could not let himself miss this opportunity. He knocked upon the door and entered.
Hillaria looked unusual to say the least. She wore red face paint in a diamond pattern around her eyes and her dress was adorned with bells. Not something befitting of a Duke's daughter. She was laughing uncontrollably.
As Riggs circled the bed to approach her he was taken aback. The lifeless body of the Duke lay at her feet. Things had gone too far he thought.
"Hillaria, what have you done?" He exclaimed. "Hillaria is no more. I am Hillary Tee and you're going to take me away from here Riggsy or I'll blame the whole thing on you. We're gonna have so much fun!"
Class Recap:
As a Jester Riggs likes to be the centre of attention.
The hero power already provides control potential so I have opted not to give the class a direct removal option. This will force you to use the power to remove smaller minions and suffer the drawback of the punchline.
The central strategy of the Jester is to overwhelm the board with small disposable minions.
The Punchline keyword encourages you to trade as opposed to going face and will assist in the motivation to flood the board.
The cards I have chosen show the beginnings of this 1-Cost minion synergy as well as laying the groundwork for the archetypes I have plans for in future expansions such as Dragon Jester starting in the old gods and Voidripper Jester that will take advantage of Health buffs in Kobolds and Catacombs.
The Classic Showcase:
Can Of Wyrms:
Caution, contents may be hot.
This is a simple spell to show how Punchline can work on a spell card. It also produces 1-Cost minion tokens which will interact with cards that have specific interactions and synergy with 1-Cost. As they are Whelps they offer Dragon synergy which will be explored further in WotOG should I progress to the next round.
Jack in the Box:
He makes a great taco.
This is a simple Taunt minion that I expect to be a staple of the Jester's deck. It can be a massive help in the early game and its self healing abilities make it great for anti aggro. Combo it with Jaunty Tune from the basic set or Invigorating Jig from the classic set to make it even more effective.
Rubber Duck:
Stolen from Neptulon's hot tub party.
It takes a real hero to fight with a Rubber Duck. By itself it is not too threatening but if you combo it with Defender of Argus or In Joke from this classic set it can be annoying to he opponent. Be careful though because it will swap every time it is attacked so the high Attack it has stolen could be given away again.
Wild Card:
Jokers are wild...
Card draw with a draw back only, for the Jester, it could actually be beneficial to transform a card that isn't going to be useful for your match up into a 1-Cost minion. The minion could be one you don't normally use but fits your circumstances such as Argent Squire. The card is supposed to show the set up of 1-Cost synergy and the fun nature of the Jester class.
Hillary Tee:
Wherever Riggs goes Hillary Tee follows.
The Jester is all about drawing a crowd. Hillary gets them laughing at every Punchline and generates the Laughter spell from the basic set. Laughter is the lifeblood of a comedy performer and so the more crowd members there are laughing along the more the Jester will heal. This plays to the Jester's strengths perfectly as they like to flood the board.
The Rest of the Classic Set:
.
Goldshire Oaf:
Always happy to share his funnel cakes.
This minion is hoping for efficient trades to improve the survivability of your other minions. For clarification, a Punchline will trigger even if the minion dies in the act of targeting and killing a minion.
Laughing Gas:
Hahahaha.
This gives the Jester the option of using its board presence to clear a minion without sacrificing it. It can help you grab some Punchline triggers without losing your minions also.
Jitterbug:
They put the boom boom into your heart.
Another 1-Cost minion to fit in with the Jester's style. It will be rare that it manages to get more than 2 Attack by itself but it could combo with In Joke, Jaunty Tune, Invigorating Jig, Bonemare etc.
In Joke:
You had to be there...
Combos well with Jack in the Box, Rubber Duck, Gurubashi Berserker and more. Protects your smaller minions and can also be used in combo with Void Ripper or Crazed Alchemist.
Invigorating Jig:
There's nothing more invigorating than a Jig.
Riggs throws some shapes to inspire his minions. Will combo well with Punchline minions and Void Ripper. Fits in well with Jester's play style also.
Deadpan Delivery:
A Jester's greatest skillet.
A powerful removal spell that equips an unconventional weapon. Very useful to keep board control but in using the weapon to kill minions the Jester will sacrifice more health.
Running Joke:
It just never gets old.
Just like a regular Running Joke this spell will keep cropping up again and again if its Punchline is successful. It has good synergy with the hero power.
Charm:
According to legend Riggs could talk anyone into anything.
In some situations it will be a powerful control spell and cause a real tempo swing in others not so much. At the very least your opponent will expend some resources to retrieve the minion or face leaving it with you.
Butt of the Joke:
How humiliating.
A removal spell that works well in conjunction with Taunt minions and In Joke.
Side Splitting:
They were laughing on the inside. Now they're laughing on the outside.
A removal spell with a drawback of killing your own minions too. Requires both players to control at least one minion to function.
The Token:
.
The Basic Set:
.
The Apothecary!
Cruel and calculating, these diabolical geniuses are obsessed with their putrid sciences. Alchemy, necromancy, and pathology combine in a grisly sludge served in tiny, unmarked vials. The Apothecary stitches together Patchwork abominations and other undead horrors, dole out deadly plagues, and serve a few potions to fortify their lackeys or dissolve their enemies!
Class and Hero Power explanation
The Hero Power creates 1/1 Patchworks, much like Paladin's Silver Hand Recruits. However, if you already have one, the Hero Power instead gives it +1/+1. If you have more than one, your left-most Patchwork will be buffed.
The Apothecary relies on board control. They have strong minion buffs and single target removal (including lots of Poisonous cards) and a little bit of healing. However they lack aoe, and burst damage. They will specialize in agro, tempo, and midrange decks, but a few good control decks may appear as well with the right cards. They are also aligned with the Kabal and will have singleton decks that are a bit different from what Priests, Mages, and Warlocks are used to. How will they be different? Wait until the Gadgetzhan expansion to find out!
Apothecaries are utterly obsessed with their work. They constantly tinker and test their subjects, trying to perfect their poisons and build more efficient and deadly Patchworks. To reflect their unending experimentation, they use the keyword Mutate . Full description below!
Mutate works like Choose One , but you don't get to pick. When you draw the card, it has one of it's two effects displayed. On each of your turns it changes to the other effect, much like Shifter Zerus . This forces the player to carefully plan their turns to maximize the power and flexibility of Mutate .
> or
With the Malpractitioner above, it'll switch between the middle and right options and have a glowing boarder while in your hand. However, it will retain the actual card text. If it goes back to your hand, it will switch between those two choices again.
Example Cards
Malpractitioner is a perfect example of a Mutate card. Its simple and flexible, allowing this unethical doctor to "Do No Harm" or its much more fun opposite.
Indecisive Chemist is an ideal card for most Apothecary decks. Mutate effects can be strong, but sometimes you need to ensure you'll get Malpractitioner 's damage on turn 5 or Mad Mixologist 's Attack buff on turn 6. Use this poor fellow to make those plays happen.
Reckless Researcher is a potent minion in the same vein as Furnacefire Colossus . The Apothecary carries many buff tonics and spells. With a good hand you can give this guy powerful effects ( Basics of Anatomy , Mutageic Tonic ) but be wary of poor reactions ( Infect ) or even death ( Chemical Bomb ).
For Science! is card draw with potentially crazy upsides. The Apothecary is a minion focused class, and with this card they can drop a big minion or powerful spell early. Just beware of that low cost card now being stuck in your hand for awhile.
Master Faranell is the head of the Undercity's Royal Apothecary Society. Whenever you cast a spell, he cooks up a Patchwork to match. Cast For Science! to summon a 3 Mana 3/3 Patchwork ! Fill the board and laugh manically as your stitched army crushes your opponent!
Remaining Classic Cards
The Hero Power token Patchwork is also the token for Patchwork Golem , Monstercraft , and Master Faranell . It's cost equals it's Attack and Health for the latter two cards.
Basic Cards
Slime is the token for Dissolve
Thank you again for visiting
Putricide'sVyral Mortis' Laboratory of Alchemical Horrors and Fun!Currently working on the Tinker! K&C and WW / JUG and KotFT / Classic / Basic / Introduction
My Previous Classes: Apothecary (unfinished) / Chronomancer / Death Knight (old)
My Previous Expansions: Hallow's End
The Experimenter
The Experimenter returns with some fantastic new subjects to mess around with.
Phase I - Initial Submission: Here
Phase II - Basic Set: Here
Example Cards
Tokens
Ouroboros Amulet: This is your bread and butter Attack/Health swap medallion. Simple combos could be using it on something like a Magma Rager - on your opponent's turn, it becomes a much more durable and less threatening 1/5, but then on your turn, surprise, a 5/1 again! It also has some more interesting combos. Magical Experimenter , from the Basic Set below, will gain +1/+1 at the end of each turn when this is played on it. The legendary, Dr. Jackal Seek , will have the +8/+8 buff become permanent at the end of the turn, which is very good for you.
Test Subject: An interesting example of 0-Attack synergy cards. You can create a very powerful 1-drop, at the expense of another minion's Attack. Perhaps you would combo it with an Ancient Watcher , which you could then Silence to return to 4 Attack itself? Or alternatively, you could use it to give a low-attack minion 0 Attack, thus allowing it to benefit from 0-Attack buffs.
Mixer Elixir: A simple concoction that works differently if you're at your absolute weakest. Slightly worse than Velen's Chosen on most minions, but arguably better on 0-Attack minions, who can benefit more from Attack increases than Health.
Myopic Monster: This guy can keep an eye or ten out for what your opponent is doing, but only on their turns - he's a bit shortsighted, you see. Seeing your opponent's hand offers you a good advantage, since you can prepare for what's coming, and makes this card a priority target. It also encourages the opponent to play quickly, to give you less time to think about what they're going to do with their cards.
Dr. Jackal Seek: Yes indeed, we had to have a Jeckyl and Hyde reference in an Experimenter class. This man's self-experimentation went a bit too far - on your opponent's turn he Worgs out and becomes a fearsome threat. Good to combo with Ouroboros Amulet or existing classic cards like Sunfury Protector . (The art change is purely cosmetic, not a transformation.)
Remaining Cards
Common
Rare
Epic
Basic Cards
You can find me here! Good luck everyone!
He makes your games spicy, your victories sweet and your opponents salty, he is...
THE CHEF
If you want to use the Chef minion border, type {{CLASS=custom1}} after your card text on hearthcards.net (no line break). Non-minion Chef cards use the "Pirate Hero by Mokthol" border.
Link to my phase 1 post
Link to my phase 2 post
EDIT: Lava Soup now costs (5), down from (6).
Custom cards :
CLASSES : Alchemist (CCC#5 | Phase V) | Chef (CCC#4)
EXPANSIONS : Year of the Scorpion (Year Comp)
The Summoner
Some people like to invoke magical energies to form armor out of ice... Some like to crush others with raw physical power... And some people just want to summon big things, and lots of them. Among those people are Mephilia, the hero who stands before you here. She's intent on world domination, total power and the death of all those who'd oppose her. She's even got a book on how to be the PERFECT villain and summoner, which she never lets out of her reach.
Villainy 101: Summoner's Guide
Any decent summoner will know that the only way you're going to be able to summon yourself giant minions is to be able to live long enough to do it, so they'll practice summoning Pebbles until their hands bleed. They aren't very hard to kill and they won't be strong at all physically, but they get in the way a lot and are sure to stop your foes from reaching you.
The summoners path is one forged by passion but ended early by haste. You have to prepare to destroy your opponents forces for long enough to get your big summons up. You'll struggle early on a lot of the time, but fortunately your board clears and removal will do just fine for making sure you get to that point. You also don't have much unconditional card draw or healing, so be sure to stock up on secrets and taunt minions to get in the way of your opponents plans. That said, you do have the resources to be the aggressor and take out your opponent early on, but keep in mind that doesn't give you enough time to monologue evilly or summon cool big minions and your Pebbles won't be incredibly useful.
Summoners are good at what they do. Most classes just summon minions for the sake of summoning minions, and that's that, but follow through this book, and you will perfect the art of summoning, allowing you to temporarily summon minions for their effects before losing control of them. Versatility with mana is key, it's how you work early on in a fight.
When you don't quite have the mana to summon your board devastating landshark, just drop the landshark out of the picture once he's done his job and you won't have to spend as much. Just simply pay attention to which order you play your cards in.
Example Cards
Villainy Tip #1! Intimidate your foes! Baby Gryphon is not a card you want to play. While you CAN summon a Gryphon and drop off its baby on the spot or you COULD keep the Gryphon around to make a terrifying pair, a baby gryphon isn't intimidating. Although its effect allows it to be versatile, as a villain, you need to inspire fear into the hearts of your foes by kicking minions like this and then denouncing them for being repugnant before burning a nest full of 'em. I don't see why you would use this unless you secretly liked cute animals and couldn't bring yourself to just not use it, which I couldn't even imagine you would be.
Villainy Tip #2! You're a summoner, not an enchanter! Savage Anger is the perfect example of one of your main strengths, you can be versatile and alter your minion as you summon it, in this case with lots of uncontrolled anger. That said, don't expect to have an easy time changing the minions you already have, that's not in your job description. Don't forget, this will work just fine for minions you don't actually play yourself, but are generated by other effects.
Villainy Tip #3! Be evil and relish in the moment! Evil Laughter provides you some much needed excitement and joy as you look over your huge army of monsters. Don't laugh evilly when you have nothing by your side though, that's just being stupid. Laughter will only bring you happiness when you're in a state where you have reason to be happy. It helps to send a message to your opponent and works well with a lot of the token generation available to you as a summoner.
Villainy Tip #4! Always have an escape plan! Exit, Stage Left is merely the term used to describe yourself realising you're not in a great position and then simply getting out of there. You don't have much of a way to keep yourself alive aside from removing minions and blocking attacks, so when you're in a bad spot, hop aboard your dragon real quick and hope your opponent doesn't shoot it out of the air. You'll find yourself on it a lot, as the difference between a major villain and a one off villain is simply their abilities to do this. If you don't do this, you'll die and then absolutely no merchandise depicting you would be sold, making you a bad villain. The dragon won't keep you alive as reliably as [c ard] Ice B lock [/ card ], but if you make it out alive with him, he can pack a punch and you can stay on his back, allowing you to get back in the fight rather than just annoyingly delaying your death.
Villainy Tip #5! Get a Dragon! Kofko, The Dragon is an example of a Dragon, and you're probably going to want to keep him by your side. Sure, he's not actually a dragon, but here we mean you need a bodyguard who stays by your side at all times, who keeps you safe and runs things while you're thinking heavily about world domination. Kofkos powers specifically are actually quite deceptive. He might look simple, but his effect can be potent and very synergistic with your other abilities. Replicate, Exit, Stage Left, anything that summons two minions or more, they all gain some serious value from this mans powerful rallying ability. Don't expect him to survive a turn unless you keep him safe (using something like Replicate, as said before), so Balls of Fire might be ambitious due to the focus your opponent will usually have on blowing this guy up.
Classic Cards
Energetic Mentee: It's her dream to summon Deathwing, but she'll just stick with what's she's got for now, it's close enough in her eyes. She won't live long enough to ever summon a dragon like Deathwing anyway. Kofko makes her and her whelp pretty scary.
Falling Stones: You've got some Pebbles, so why not just throw them at your opponents? Well, they're gonna take some mana to not just break on impact, but they'll be pretty helpful when you get them out. Kofko makes this give you two 3/4's with Taunt .
Dragon Ambush: A good villain always lays traps for would-be heroes. They'll have to send in their weaklings first to avoid getting a good minion taken out by a dragon. And no, they cannot avoid this by simply not attacking your hero.
Replicate: You probably don't want to lose that minion, so just summon another. Works really well with big minions like the Academic, and works really well with Kofko, allowing you to get another Kofko which gets buffed by the first.
One-Eyed Academic: Card advantage is nice and it comes with a big taunt . Has great value for his cost and can be very efficient when cheated out with the next card along.
Panicked Summoning: You don't want to die, do you? Then I'd suggest finding a way of getting those minions out your hand a little faster. If you're getting beaten down, this really ought to help you out.
Titanic Strength: A simple buff. When you want your next minion to come out looking like a giant, simply play this first, and watch it tower over the other minions on the board.
Earthquake: Summon a Behir to crash through the ground, dealing damage to all in his path. You can then spend some mana to have him hop out the ground and stick around with you. Just a solid boardclear for the class.
Evil Counterpart: Since the hero keeps beating you and you keep running away, just make your next summon the hero... But EEEVIIILLL!!! Hell, summon two even. Just let them know you're still better than them despite relying on their superiority to try and win, because you have two of him and he has one.
Balls of Fire: Firepuffs are also too cute, try and use scarier minions. I'm starting to think Mephilia might like cute things despite her protests, actually. Regardless, heavy spenders will be rewarded with a way to fill the board, which is great for Evil Laughter outside aggro.
Classic Tokens
Basic Cards
Basic Tokens
The Harbinger
The number of chosen dwindle as the day draws close. The flames dance in anticipation of your audience. Slowly but inevitably, the end of times draws close. So what do you say, Lord of Dragons? Want to destroy the world with me?
Do you like Oriental food? Or perhaps human sacrifices? I possess an ample supply of both but not much else in the way of morsels.Lore:
Faye, like many, was once nothing more than a child. However, as she watched her home burn to the ground under the unyielding wrath of an invading army, the child within her died, and was replaced with something else. From atop a faraway hillside, she gazed with soulless eyes on the ruins of everything she knew, and a goddess appeared to her, seated on a throne of fire and steel.
This world has become tainted, choked with despair. The silver-haired woman said, sadness in her eyes. There is no hope of salvation, but there exists hope of an end to the suffering . Come, child, and you will have your justice - and your paradise.
So the girl disappeared from atop the hillside, and was reborn as something else. Something that seemed human but was not. Something with power. Something with a will and a purpose - to bring everything to an end.
The Harbinger wields fire, consorts with demons, and is the master of arts both destructive and violent. Her hero power, Red Burst , allows her to take board control in the early game and gives access to burst, as well as combos, in the late game. The class is versatile, and can play an aggressive, token-focused deck, using its buffs and token generating tools, or go for a grind-y, late-game focused control style with its powerful board clears and value cards. It can also potentially use some of its hero buffs in conjunction with synergy cards to deal massive combo damage.
The Keyword:
When the time comes, all things will burn to ash. Fear not - instead, embrace it. Learn to love the sound of destruction. Learn to delight in the scent of flames. Learn to revel in it.
(NOTE: This has changed from the last phase).
Revelry is a keyword that is indicative of the Harbinger's lust for destruction. It triggers similarly to Combo does in Rogues, with the card gaining a glow-y yellow border and an upgraded/bonus effect if a minion died on the turn. It's also deceptively hard to trigger, requiring that you either have removal ready, or both you and your opponent control minions.
Notes on how it works:
When ' Revelry and [Keyword] ' is written on a card, they are two separate conditions and not part of the same effect (like Battlecry and Deathrattle ). It's like 'Revelry: Do (x) and Deathrattle : Do (x)', just shorter.
A spell that kills a minion won't trigger it's own Revelry effect. Likewise, if you kill a minion with, say, a Knife Juggler juggle, the Revelry of the minion won't trigger. Essentially, whether the Revelry is triggered is determined before the card is played.
Example Cards:
Explanations and Lore Text:
Apocalypse Jester: The sinister laughter rings out over the carnage. Amidst the cacophony of sound, a single chanting beat is audible - "Ho! Ho!"
The Apocalypse Jester is a Savage Roar style finisher for the class's Token Aggro deck. It's got a powerful battlecry that allows you to burst for massive damage if you have a board, and turns your small minions into threats that demand answers. The Jester's laughter gives your Cultists confidence and resolve, while striking fear into the hearts of your enemies, ripening them for slaughter.
Unity of Will: We were lost, weak, and confused. But at her side, our fear melts away, and our hearts resonate with purpose.
Unity of Will is a board-wide buff that can also summon more tokens for you if you trade or kill something first. It lets you gain board control in the early game and can also lead to big bursts of damage if you build up a large enough swarm of minions. Faye has a unique charisma that attracts people who are feeling worthless to her, and she uses her own unshakeable will to give them strength.
Awakening: I cast my self behind, and became something more. My uncertainties vanished in the Goddess's cleansing flames, and I shall never waver again.
Awakening is a very versatile card. It's a large attack buff that can trigger synergies and be used to immediately clear minions, it offers some heal, and it also acts as a pseudo Frost Nova , or if your opponent chooses to go face anyway, a pseudo Flamestrike . The Harbinger isn't so selfish as to rely on the sacrifice her devout followers - Faye herself is a being of immense power.
Immortal Devil: My voice may disappear for moments, but it will never die. In your mind, it shall echo, echo, and echo, until it is the only thing you hear... there is no escape, my darling.
The Immortal Devil is an enabler for another Harbinger archetype beyond Cultist aggro. She acts as a value engine over the long game, being able to constantly reincarnate herself while generating more copies over time. You can use her, along with the Harbinger's numerous board clears (and other grinder cards that come later) to slowly exhaust your opponent. Her effect is basically like Toshley 's Battlecry and Deathrattle effect, just with an extra condition on the Battlecry .
Fire Herald Azura: The fire in your blood is so beautiful. Do not worry - use my body and my magic as your gate, and let's watch everything burn to ash together.
Azura is Faye's best friend and most devoted follower, having been with her on the day she lost her home and spoke to her goddess. She channels the Harbinger's energy through her own body and lets it loose on everything in the general vicinity, allowing you to repeatedly and unrelentingly clear the board using your hero power and other hero buff cards. The Windfury buff can also allow you to do massive burst damage. Your hero still attacks and takes damage equal to her target's attack like normal, but this time the damage is dealt to everything, instead of just the attack target. Unfortunately, this action deals heavy damage to her own body, and there are only a certain amount of times it can be performed before she has to recuperate.
Other Classic Cards (with small notes):
Commons:
- If you kill multiple minions at once with Azura and Ritual Dagger , you will summon multiple Cultists.
- Fireblade Acolyte seems stronger than Si7, but Revelry is deceptively hard to trigger compared to combo .
Rares:
- Most of the Harbinger 's win-cons/combo pieces/generally important cards are either Demons or, of course, Legendaries. Cursed Child can be used to tutor them. Similarly, Demon synergy in later sets will follow the same focus on supporting single, powerful Demon cards, rather than Warlock's buff strategy.
- Incinerate is the one 'Random' card for the challenge.
- Bloodrage Berserker 's mana cost has been bumped up to lower its combo burst potential. It has been given an Attack buff to compensate.
Epics:
- Crimson Sceptre can be used as a way to stick a board on turn 5 to finish with Apocalypse Jester on 6. It's a set of delayed 3/2s that are surprisingly sticky, but require you to already have a board to function.
- Harbinger's Decree is a large board clear that also draws you Revelry cards. The flavour here is that you unleash a massive storm of fire and blood to summon your chosen ones to you (which is why there's a person kneeling in the artwork). This is the card for the 'Off Key' challenge.
Basic Set (and Tokens):
Tokens:
<<Phase 1 Submission (Contains other cards)>>
<<Phase 2 Submission (Contains more in-depth discussion of basics)>>
Thanks for reading, thanks to everyone who helped me with the cards, and good luck to other contestants!
Why Rogue is my favourite class:
My submission for this week's card design competition.
< Geomancer >
Notes:
Recent name change from Crumble to Unearth!
Explanations
Stone-Scale Dragon is a nice basic Earth Dragon that helps with late game, a 5/4 is balance card and with the effect with pushes its strength even further. The idea of this card is to push a control deck running cards like Defender of Argus and Sunfury Protector and providing enough power to push against other control decks.
Unearth Watcher helps with large Unearth Cards that require you to wait a little longer. This provides leverage on options for you to play your cards earlier.
Runic Artificer is something interesting I made while I was tinkering with some ideas. Runes will be like the secrets of the class but they aren't secrets. This card provides some good lift into a deck, pushing a Rune Deck Archetype.
Crystalline Rune is a new type card added into the class as explained before Runes are like secrets of the class but their just mainly spells. Crystalline Rune is a weaker version of Blessing of Kings but becomes better as the unearth effect triggers. This card would be used against mostly aggro if you can a sticky minion on board.
Morgon Rune Master is the legendary of the classics with its powerful effect but relatively low stats. This card gives a good tempo swing back and provides more synergy activators for cards like Runic Artificer or Twilight Drake . I would consider this a win conditionish card? that provides a good tempo swing back into game or can provide enough cards for the player to fight back and win the game.
Basic Reference
Rest of the Set
Possible Deck List
Decks in here have been tested with other classes with the help of Mewdrops, the creator of the Harbringer. The deck list includes cards that are before the Hall of Fame Rotation to show how the deck would have would work in the early stages of Hearthstone.
Control Geomancer:
Rune Master Geomancer:
Hand Geomancer:
Thats all for now, vote for me! Thank you for reading~
Asylum's Gauntlet Competition!
GO CHECK OUT MY HERO -->GI'LLAX THE LIFESTEALER
Reminder of the class mechanics:
Reminder of what crystals are, and how to use them:
The basic Crystals:
The Advanced Crystals:
So, how do you turn basic crystals into advanced crystals? That's simple!
All you have to do is target your hero portrait with one of your basic crystals (only targetable if you have at least 2 different basic crystals), and pick the desired advanced crystals, the choosing interface is the standard "Choose one" interface with 1 or 2 options (depends on whether or not you have only 2 different or 3), the color merging follow the standard color mixing, for your convenient i made a picture with all the possible combinations and a color chart with the 3 primary colors and their intersections:
New keyword: Empower!
The idea behind the new keyword is to introduce spell synergy (crystal synergy) to the class without making it too easy to activate (it works only with single target buffs, to prevent spell spamming (see: Flamewaker , Gadgetzan Auctioneer )).
Empower and 'end of turn' are two of the core mechanics of the class, it provide a continues value and reward the player for controlling the board and defending "glass cannon" minions.
Class Theme:
Classic set example cards:
Example card's tokens:
Batman Gadgets:
Good Cop token:
Rest of the classic set:
Basic Set remainder:
Tokens:
Check out my phase 1 and 2 submissions in the links below:
Phase 1 submission
Phase 2 submission
Thank you for reading, hope to get your vote!
PITCH
The Tactician excels at containing his enemies’ attacks and restricting their actions.
As Sun Tzu said: “ To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.”
About the Hero Power & Galvanize new keyword
Maneuver can be used to turn any friendly minion into a defensive wall. Sentinels (1 Mana 0/5 minions from the Basic Set) are perfect targets for a Maneuver on turn 2, or later as they can be summoned via other cards. The Hero Power can also be used offensively to expose an enemy minion who hides behind a Taunt minion - Yes, The Black Knight .
The Hero Power gives the Tactician a tool to prevent some damage for few Mana and use the rest for defeating his opponent.
Winning battles always brings you closer to win the war. Dealing damage to the enemy Hero will Galvanize your troops, triggering special effects like temporal Attack boost, . This is doable several turns in a row considering the different tools the Tactician owns to damage enemy Heroes (see Classic Set below).
The Tactician lacks of offensive minions but can count on Spells and Galvanize effects to defeat his opponent within several turns.ADVANTAGES
FLAWS
CLASSIC SET (1/2)
CLASSIC SET (2/2)
TOKENS
BASIC SET
THE PYROMANIAC
After some recovering time from setting himself on fire, Wicke Hellburn, the Pyromaniac, is back! The Pyromaniac calls upon the powers of the fire element to pulverize anything in its path. It uses a wide range of powerful (and usualy unstable) spells to clear the board and support their minions, which grow stronger off of the fiery magics they conjure. Because of this, the Pyromaniac excells at the midrange game, with a pretty good control game if caught up. However, with a lack of early AoE (most of which are a bit lackluster), it could be at a disadvantage against more aggro decks.
One of the main mechanics in the Pyromaniac class is Mana-spending. Your minions and spells will get empowered as you spend more and more mana. How? Well, silly, with it's new keyword, of course: Consume .
Explanation
The main example cards:
Wildfire: An initially weak single-target spell that gains power as you spend Mana. You'll probably want to save it so that it gains enough power to kill big threats. Or maybe it's urgent and you use it to clear a small threat on the board. It's all up to you.
Incendium: Think of Arcane Missiles. This card also shoots extra 'missiles' at enemies when you have bonus Spell Damage on board but, unlike Arcane Missiles , each point of bonus Spell Damage increases your chance to draw another card. You'll see more cards that interact with Spell Damage like this later on.
Masterful Flamebender: Protects you against damage from both spells and Hero Powers. Don't worry about OTK's though, as almost all Pyromaniac spells will not be able to target the enemy hero, only minions.
Fireblood Arcanist: Need more Mana? This gal's got you covered. When a Consume effect trigger on the board, she will refresh one of your Mana Crystals (meaning, you recover one of the Mana Crystals you spent). However, do note that this effect only goes off once when there are multiple Consume cards on the board. Meaning that if you have, say, three minions with Consume , and you spent Mana, the Arcanist will still only refresh one Mana Crystal.
Kael'thas Sunstrider: The prince of the Blood Elves arrives to aid the Pyromaniac by summoning Flames with Spell Damage , and provide both more spell and minion firepower.
The rest of the Classic set:
Firecalling: Some extra minion, spell, and Consume support.
Flamespeaker: Your typical Consume minion. Think of Mana Wyrm .
Inflame: Some support for your Flames, so that they stay on board for a longer time.
Arsonist: A strong 3-drop with snowballing potential if your opponent doesn't remove it.
Fiery Magicite: Some Spell Damage synergy. Provides an aggresive play and board control.
Living Bomb: Decent AoE for the small price of one of your minions.
Manaphagous Sorcerer: Basically forces you to spend Mana. Also, If you have spare Mana from your last turn, and this takes damage during your opponent's turn, Consume effects will activate as you are spending your leftover Mana.
Dark Iron Seer: A strong minion that becomes even stronger both while in your hand and while on the board.
Arcane Conflagration: No matter what kind of spell you play, this will remain on the board.
Pandemonium: A massive board clear that damages everything. Can remove from the smallest minions to the bigger ones.
Token (Flame)
The Basic Set
The Hero:
"Once a powerful sorcerer from Gadgetzan, he was exiled from his hometown after driving the town to almost-complete annihilation as a part of his Pyrotechnic experiments. And so, he set of to train his abilities to control magic so that he would take revenge on Gadgetzan. Years of isolated training pass and he re-appears with magic skills honed beyong what was thought possible. However, the arduous training and thirst for revenge had slowly driven him mad. He can't tell allies apart from foes no more, as long as either burn. Many say he could have already blasted Gadgetzan to kingdom come had it not been for him being so easily distracted and burning anything that moves an inch away from him.
Now he arrives at The Tavern not to burn us all, but to play Hearthstone... until he loses or gets bored."
Previous phase submissions:
Phase I
Phase II
Round 1
Round 2
The Artist: Cyr Caelus [See-er Say-lus]
A Custom Class by Phoenixfeather and Flamespren Nixolium
The Story of Cyr Caelus - Part 1
Cyr skips along the icy plains, bright blue eyes twinkling. She looks around, wondering. Where was she? When was she? Where were the Knight Radiant’s lightweavers and Nix, her spren? Storms! Even the gods are different! Cyr looks around, slightly fearful, yet curious. Nix had forementioned a possible danger when she’d fallen through the portal.
Suddenly, Cyr hears a soft melody. She whirls, looking for a source. In an instant, two animations spring to life. The voice grows louder. Siren? No, it wasn’t quite right. Cyr completes the spin whilst summoning a few of her friends. A series of stone golems spring from the ground. An entire army of frivolous musicians and jovial dancers from various realms appear.. Within ten heartbeats, the field is covered in an ensemble of flying lights and flashing steel.
“Cyr?” A small voice calls, “That is quite the overkill.”
“Nixolium Ignitius Xel! I swear, you’re no better than Wit at times”
In an instant, the parade vanishes. Golems crumble to dust. Illusions fade to nothingness. All the various confused artists return to their respective realms. A glowing boy wreathed in a cloak of flames prances around Cyr.
“So where did Odium trap us?”
“The better question is... How are you not cold in that dress?”
“It looks pretty. Comfort comes second-”
“It’s twenty below! At least put cover your back!”
Cyr sighs. Nix was being annoying again. “One more irrelevant comment and I feed you to Ninian.”
Nix’s voice suddenly rises a few octaves at the mention of the manakete. “Sorry miss. We’re in Azeroth. One of Chaos’s realms.”
“Shards, I hate her. Probably one of the worse goddesses to exist.” Rage flashed across Cyr’s normally optimistic face.
“Come, quit feeling dismal. There’s a tavern up ahead. There’d be people you can… well... persuade… to work for you.”
Cyr ignores the sardonic tone and looks ahead. Surely enough, a small hut stood a few fathoms away.
“A tavern in the middle of nowhere?”
Nix just shrugs. The two bound over anyway.
“Hearthstone,” Cyr reads from the signpost, “Curious indeed.”
Cyr walks in to the joyous shouting of “Welcome to the inn, friend”.
The Story of Cyr Caelus - Part 2
Cyr eyes the mage across the table. Jane or something was it? Cyr hated her. Three minutes in and all her merry band was frozen solid. How are Frost Nova s even vaguely fair?
“Nix! Do something!”
“Cyr, I can’t interfere. I’m a noble aviary elemental, and as a majestic creature, I refuse to sacrifice my morals for a petty bout between two rivals. Furthermore, I am not allowed to intervene in a duel between two grand magicians for I have no yet been summoned to your aid.”
“I have cookies”
“On second thought, such morals were created to be bent.”
A wave of fire engulfed the entire table into cinders. Jaina Proudmoore face displays undenyable surprise that was quickly replaced with wrath.
“You. Me. Outside.”
“I’m not interested in wom-”
A deathly glare from Jaina quiets Cyr. Hearth Stonebrew looks up from his position as bartender. Understanding the situation, he yells, “TAVERN BRAWL!”
--Ten Minutes Later--
“And then she threw fireballs at me! Real, flaming fireballs!” Cyr cries to her personal audience whilst counting a bag of coins she’d recently won.
Nix hovered nearby munching on a hard-won cookie. Well tried to. Nix found it quite difficult to eat while lacking the ability to digest food and having the unfortunate circumstance of burning everything upon contact.
Meanwhile, Jaina was under the care of half a dozen priests, each of whom muttering about the unstoppable force of dancing soldiers and flaming violins.
“You know, Nix. I thought that Janey over there was supposed to be one of the stronger mages around here.”
“Cyr, you realized that you technically cheated right?”
“You mean when I pretended to concede only to stab her with this viola bow?”
Cyr holds up the flaming weapon. Nix instinctively twitches away a few handspans.
“Uhh…”
“It’s not cheating. It’s just using whatever resources necessary in order to win. You know I’d gladly do it again.”
“There’s no way she’d fall for it again.”
“Hey Jilly! Double or nothing?”
Jaina struggles to her feet much to the protest of the surrounding priests. “Oh. It is on.”
--Ten Minutes Later--
“Hearth! Another round on me!,” Cyr calls from her place on stage, “Well not me, really. Technically, it’s Janny’s money, or was.”
The entire bar bursts into cheers.
Nix flutters over, “You cheated.”
Cyr nearly chokes on her ale, returns the glare of the bandaged mage, and falls into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.
The Story of Cyr Caelus - Part 3
Cyr sits in the tavern, thinking of the worlds Nix had whisked her between. Femblem... Vyrn... Thera (Which for some reason wouldn’t let 17 year olds drink)… Time surely had passed. She’d stayed in the plane, Azeroth, much longer than normal. How long was it since she’d arrived? Three weeks? Nix did mention looking for a permanent residence. Cyr was definitely getting old…
“Cyr Caelus!” A fanatic voice booms. Cyr pivots from her sitting position to the entrance where a Jaina drags a confused man through the tavern’s door.
“Oh Jenny,” Cyr replied, annoyed at the intrusion to her pondering, “Put the poor fool down!”
“Anduin, this crazy woman humiliated me not only in cards, but by cheating in a fair duel!”
Anduin looked over to Cyr, clearly confused. His stunning eyes lock onto Cyr’s and heart instantly jumps. Shards, was the man good-looking. Those tragic filled eyes hiding unknown depths… The perfect blond hair trimmed to perfection… His radiating aura of powerful holy power…
“Hello.”
The word breaks through Cyr’s momentary trance. Cyr barely registers as Anduin approaches her table.
“H-h--hi there. Ummm-uh… I’m Cyr… You’re Anduin... Can I touch your face?”
“Excuse me?”
Cyr inwardly slaps herself.
“Imeanhello.” she says, nearly tripping up the words. Storms was she acting like a complete fool. While panicking over her next words, Anduin seats herself across the table. Jaina stands behind Anduin, still death-glaring at Cyr.
“Jaina dragged me to apparently face a lunatic in a game of cards. Unfortunately, it seems I’m met with such a beautiful lady instead. Now, would you like to kindly join me in a game of Hearthstone?”
Cyr manages to make what seems to be half of a nod. She grabs the deck already set on the table as Anduin grasps one of his own from his immaculate robes using his perfect hands that she would love to grasp…
“Ahem.”
“I’msorrysureuhhhIguessI’llflipthiscoinhere.”
In a flurry of uncoordinated motion, she grabbed the coin and accidently flipped it onto the wrong side.
“I believe you get to take your turn first,” Anduin says.
Cyr quickly summons a Stonetusk Boar. She moves to attack, but stops… Cyr couldn’t bring herself to damage Anduin’s handsome features. Against a dozen of her gamer’s instincts, she passes the turn. Anduin looks across the table, wearing a face of confusion. Oh that gentle face hiding unspeakable darkness. If only she could caress it...
“You do know that minions with Charge can attack the turn they are played right?”
Cyr bearly nodded, lost in a dreamy haze.
“Well, I’ll play this Northshire Cleric and pass the turn.”
Cyr barely notices as she passes her turn once again.
-An hour later-
Jaina sleeps on a nearby table as Anduin says, “And I’ll attack you directly for the twenty-seventh time with my Northshire Cleric?”
“Uh huh.”
“And I win?”
“Yeah…”
“Ummm… Are you okay there?”
“Umm yeah,” Cyr shakes his head as the prospect of losing sinks in. She continues in a quick flurry of noises, “AreyoubusytonightImeandinnerwouldbenice.”
“Woah, slow down a bit! I wouldn’t mind if you joined me for dinner.”
Cyr replies in the form of a few squeals of excitement.
“I’m sure the royal chefs could whip something up for the two of us.”
Did Anduin just say royal? Cyr looks at Anduin, eyes widening in sudden recognition.
“Ohgodsplsmryme.”
Anduin turns a light shade of pink after picking apart the words, “How about we first enjoy dinner first.”
“SorryIdidn’tmeantoImeanajsdspbs…” Cyr’s words dissolve into unintelligibility.
Sighing, Anduin leads a love-struck Cyr Caelus home, leaving behind the sleeping mage.
To be continued…
(Nix nearly went on strike for his lack of screen time, so I promised him something next round. Also, we'll reveal next round if AnduinxCyr happens. Nix says :Nay:. Based on what happens, most likely it's :Nay:.)
Artists include illusionists, painters, singers, dancers, sculpters, musicians, crafters, writers, and many others of creative professions. Cyr is from Rahsor, a faraway unknown plane. Somehow, she finds herself in an unidentified place in Azeroth with little but her magical affinity and a performer's personality. She certainly knows how to put on one heck of a show to distract, manipulate, and "convince" her opponents. Upon arrival to Azeroth, she finds a mysterious world-hopping tavern full of grand mysteries and frivolous adventure.
The artist class focuses on mass minion synergy, especially with adjacence and positioning rearrangement.
Hero Power, Keyword, Notable Mechanics, and Emotes
Compose: This is similar to a weaker version of Preparation. It can stack and be transferred through turns. This is especially useful when casting some of the incoming 11-cost cards.
Keyword:
A Few More Examples
Notable Mechanics:
Emotes:
Introduction: I challenge you!
Mirror Match: A duel? I accept.
Greetings: Good day!
Well Played: Not bad.
Thanks: Thanks a ton!
Wow: Shards!
Oops: A slip of the chisel.
Threaten: Behold my radiance!
Sorry: Sorry. Nix says he's not though.
Example cards
Setting spears on felfire since 1984.
How else can you play Rimsky Korsakov's Concerto while stabbing your opponent?
Once tried to kidnap Cyr. Ended up paying ransom for her to leave.
Spur Attack: This card can help get another kill or two or deal a lot of extra damage, assuming you have board control. Comparable to Cold Blood . It can help your seemingly useless Animations (0/4 minions) become much more dangerous. This satisfies challenge 2.
Tromblade: A tribute to all the great trombone players out there (You're welcome SlydE). By randomizing the positions of your minions, Spur effect cards such as Ninian, Destiny Dancer can bolster many different minions. This is also another example of a weapon instrument in the Artist Class.
This card does not satisfy Challenge #3, as it contains the word "Randomize" rather than "Random". MWAHAHAHA!Dangit Cogito, no fun. It's my card for challenge 3. I'm not sure which instrument to do next... I'll take PMs (and art).Big Dragon: ... Well the flavor text says it all. Seemingly physically weak little artists love to have big things that do the big punching for them. A great stable target for buff spells such as Spur Attack , Dance , and Duet . It's fun. It punches things. What more can you ask for? (Also supports future dragon synergy)
In Cyrkensia, being "not fab" is worse than death.
"That's not a dragon!" - Everyone before Ninian uses Lightbreath
Blazing Spotlight: A lot like Twisting Nether , but requires cost-reduction in order to be cast. Thankfully, your hero power does it's job quite well, reducing the cost to (10). This is an example of a "Choose a minion. Do X to all other minions" card, which is one of the themes to the class, with Solo , being the other.
By the way, if you think this card is crazy, look at the non-example cards. There's some scary stuff going on down there.
Ninian, Destiny Dancer: Dance on a stick. Well two permanent sticks, I guess? This character comes from Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (and also one of my first 5-stars in Fire Emblem: Heroes). Yes. This is a dragon. Many powerful dragons can appear in humanoid forms, and Ninian is no exception. Wrathion is not a dragon because he's in hiding. It doesn't make sense? DEAL WITH IT! ANYWAY... This Spur effect is exceptionally powerful, and acts as a pseudo-windfury for adjacent minions. It can be used as a finisher or a way to deal a little more ping. When combined with effects like Tromblade's repositioning, you can "Dance" multiple minions.
The Rest of the Classic Set
Abid Artist: This was the first example card from round one. It's a simple card that highlights the Spur effect.
Lightbolt: This card is used for damaging enemies or healing friendly minions. Both effects are slightly underpowered to balance versatility.
Screech: Deals 2 damage to every character. A pretty simple AoE spell.
Solo: This is an example of a "Choose a minion. Do X to all other minions" card. When someone else is doing a grand solo, it is only courtesy to be quiet.
Sync: The Frostwolf Warlord battlecry on a spell. This can dramatically enhance a minion based on the number of minions you control. Token generators are strongly suggested.
Illustrious Tale: The next sequel to our Tale series. Along with Great Tale , be prepared to see many more of these to come!
Illustrate: This class summons 2/2 Illustrations over the course of your next 3 turns. It is another example in which spells generate minions, along with Carve from Round 1 and Bring to Life from Round 2 . Feel free to check those out!
Sketch: This class's version of Preparation or Innervate , and of heavy importance. During the next turn, cards will be slightly cheaper, allowing you to burst for quite a bit.
Cyr's Creation: What the... (And we though 4 mana 7/7 was OP) The idea is that you try to draw this card as early as possible, and holy shift is it awesome if you get it early. The idea is that you play a card like Sketch and play this turn 2, or Hero Power turn 2, for an 8/8 on turn 3. You sacrifice much of your early game for this powerful investment. Later on though, it's just a generic 4/4 that's easily outclassed by Chillwind Yeti . Not necessarily powerful in constructed, but a powerhouse in Arena.
Basic Set
Bring To Life: This is my card for the "All or Nothing" challenge. Why a spell? Well this is mostly for flavor purposes. Cyr isn't able to summon an animation from nothingness. She must carve it herself. With a few quick flicks of a chisel, she can make a quick animation, perfect for distracting or a number of other purposes. It synergizes well with cards like Vivid Viola or Epileptic Lights - which requires a large number of friendly minions - and Duet or Wandering Musician - which can buff the 0/4.
Epileptic Lights: Cyr releases as flash of lights to burn or blind the enemy. The more performers there are, the brighter the lights.
Dance: Dance is a card that allows a minion to attack an additional time each turn. And no, it will NOT work as a Charge effect, I'll hardcode it if I must. It's slightly weaker than Windfury . This is extremely useful in poking for a few extra bits of damage. In addition, it allows minions such as Azure Dancer to summon an extra token. (Hint: This'll get super crucial later on.)
Wandering Musician: This simple minstrel can play a simple tune that invigorates your minions to strike with greater force!
Duet: This buffs a minion and the minion next to it. It's pretty simple, but critical to bolstering your board.
Vivid Viola: Vivid Viola is a weapon for the class. Cyr is an expert in a variety of instruments, such as the viola and trombone. She's one of the top musicians in all of Azeroth. Now the instruments Cyr uses generally aren't the normal boring generic type. If you'll notice, this viola is literally on fire.
Azure Dancer: Azure Dancer is a good way to mass produce smaller tokens. It helps synergize with cards that require a lot of smaller minions such as Vivid Viola and Wandering Musician . (Ugh, I can't fit the token right)
Great Tale: Any good artist knows a good story or two. This one happens to give inspiration in the form of three cards.
Sing: Originally named Siren's Song, this was changed to fit the "Nuts//Bolts" challenge. It is quite similarly balanced as Embrace Darkness . The idea is that Cyr sings hypnotically and convinces one of the enemy to your cause. We provide no protection to any sheep or cyclops that fall of cliffs due to unrestricted sirens songs. By the way, I'm not actually a Justin Beiber fan.
Dance Battle: Ready your favorite music and we'll be having a D-D-DANCE BATTLE! Oh, and because you're a pro (and the system's super rigged), you'll always destroy the enemy minions.
Token Artist Decklist (Basic and Classic Only)
2x Sketch
2x Abusive Sergeant
1x Argent Squire
2x Avid Artist
2x Epileptic Lights
2x Leper Gnome
1x Bloodmage Thalnos
2x Dire Wolf Alpha
2x Knife Juggler
2x Spur Attack
2x Duet
2x Vivid Viola
2x Azure Dancer
1x Illustrious Tale
2x Great Tale
1x Cairne Bloodhoof
1x Leeroy Jenkins
1x Ninian, Destiny Dancer
This is a quick deck that I've put together than is meant to generate a ton of tokens and capitalize on them.
Best of Luck to Everyone!
Thanks to Sinti, Schlauchneid, Cogito_Is_A_Cake, ToxOvent, Linkblade92, Shadows, PurpleMD, Zency, FluffyFlux, and everyone else for your help!
Cogito!!! GIVE THY COOKIE TO MOI RITE NOW OR ILL COME OVER WITH MY BUTTER KNIVES AND MAKE YOU SANDWICHES!
Wished to be pink.
Then did.
Then fired myself.
Then did again.
The Titan Secrets:
Basic Set:
Showcase:
The Rest:
Tokens: