One of the things that made Magic: The Gathering special for me was the fact that you weren't always done participating in the game when your turn was over. Choosing blockers, playing instants, the diplomacy of free-for-all matches kept you checked into the match even when your next turn was a while off. Having that participation is great, and I'd like to see more cards that allow your enemy to be engaged in the game with you. This mini-expansion is just Rogue cards, but uses some things we already see in Rogue to help introduce some new mechanics I've come up with.
A bit of warning, I know very little about the WoW universe, but I've done my best to create a set that combines the existing rogue connections to spiders, sellswords/dealmakers, and the Jade Lotus. There's not likely any place where those 3 things exist at the same time in WoW, but it's kind of how I imagined it. Without further excuses, let's get to the new mechanics!
First off is the Barter ability. this is exactly like Choose One effect that Druid has... but your opponent picks! Barter choices are both beneficial for the rogue, but allow the opponent to save themselves from catastrophe for a price. Check out this spell:
Next is Trick. As in "Hat trick". This works like Combo in that it requires other cards to be played first but, it has to be exactly the third card you played that turn to trigger. A Trick will be strong, but may require you to save or spend cards at less than ideal times. Have a gander at this spider-themed heavy hitter:
Lastly, we have reveal. Not actually a keyword, but it allows you to see the top card(s) of your opponents deck... and maybe yours! Both players can see a revealed card, and can impact your opponent's barter decision-making. Check out this little guy:
TLDR: The Set!
Commons first and we'll work our way up!
Hunter tokens:
No rarity gem for marksman because I was a lazy boye
As you can see, most of the effects here are probing for coins or information. If we have a hand full of cheap stuff we could Trick out Call The Hunters, but that might not be a great idea. The opponent gets to pick if this card summons the Call to Arms : Rogue Edition or if this card is just a 2-mana Beneath the Grounds. Neither is necessarily bad, but if paladin lets you get away with summoning the hunters on turn 3... he's probably got consecrate. These cards can definitely have some late game potency, but usually need support by then. Moving on... the rares and epics!
Moving to midgame you can see where eyeing up the enemy's deck can produce some cruel choices in Barter. Not many rares published but conceptually this is where you try to jab at the opponent's combo pieces if they have them. Trap-dungeon spider is tempting for being a twisting nether with a body, but at 9 mana there is some definite restriction to this ability and this is a dead card without it! Lastly, some legendaries to put a little backbone into this archetype:
Mister Chu is a high-utility guy! A measly voidcaller when played early, but his trick is quite interesting. Goya's top is 100% control. If played too early, not only do you basically prevent your hero power from being used, but you most likely won't know what your top card is! This sends the top into your deck and you can end up drawing a 1-mana do-nothing at a seriously bad time. However, when played correctly, this can add extra power-house cards to your deck and extend the longevity of the deck against control matchups.
Has your stingy opponent been trying to get out of discarding their top cards in every Barter? Time to repo them! Allseer is tough, but comes a bit short of the holy 4/12 stat-line, making his removal easier. However, opponents who draw lots of cards while Guild Merchant was out will have a hand full of cards and nowhere to hide them if they can't remove the Gryphon. If you have a Preparation in-hand, you might be able to steal their removal before they can react!
I'm not really looking to make a whole set at the moment, I was really interested more in the concept and I like seeing what you guys put out there as well. Do you also crave the ability to have agency in your opponent's turn?
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Look at this thing and let me know what you think!
Barter seems neat. If you offer me a Barter decision during your turn, and I just don't respond, what happens? Does your time stop for me to decide? Does your turn expire and then one is chosen for me?
One of the design decisions that Hearthstone made was to cut out any sort of interaction (instant speed spells, etc.) that the other player would have during your turn, and vice versa. This was done deliberately to speed up the game, perhaps also to make it a little simpler, and there are costs and benefits to doing it this way.
If you've ever played Magic Online, you'll see the benefit right away: on MTGO, you play a spell, and then you wait for your opponent to respond. They can hit a button and say "I will pass priority for the rest of the turn" but even then, they'll need to declare blockers and what not... Anyway, it's a game of waiting and waiting. They have a chess clock that's running down when you have priority, so if your opponent goes to the bathroom while you're waiting for them to respond, they may lose the game as a result, but you can't really leave either, because as soon as you walk away they might respond and start your clock.
Here's the short version:
If you create effects that force your opponent to respond during your turn, you're fundamentally changing the game of Hearthstone. While it would add some neat design space and some additional layers of complexity, it comes with a pretty high cost that would need to be considered carefully.
All that said, cool designs!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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One of the things that made Magic: The Gathering special for me was the fact that you weren't always done participating in the game when your turn was over. Choosing blockers, playing instants, the diplomacy of free-for-all matches kept you checked into the match even when your next turn was a while off. Having that participation is great, and I'd like to see more cards that allow your enemy to be engaged in the game with you. This mini-expansion is just Rogue cards, but uses some things we already see in Rogue to help introduce some new mechanics I've come up with.
A bit of warning, I know very little about the WoW universe, but I've done my best to create a set that combines the existing rogue connections to spiders, sellswords/dealmakers, and the Jade Lotus. There's not likely any place where those 3 things exist at the same time in WoW, but it's kind of how I imagined it. Without further excuses, let's get to the new mechanics!
First off is the Barter ability. this is exactly like Choose One effect that Druid has... but your opponent picks! Barter choices are both beneficial for the rogue, but allow the opponent to save themselves from catastrophe for a price. Check out this spell:
Next is Trick. As in "Hat trick". This works like Combo in that it requires other cards to be played first but, it has to be exactly the third card you played that turn to trigger. A Trick will be strong, but may require you to save or spend cards at less than ideal times. Have a gander at this spider-themed heavy hitter:
Lastly, we have reveal. Not actually a keyword, but it allows you to see the top card(s) of your opponents deck... and maybe yours! Both players can see a revealed card, and can impact your opponent's barter decision-making. Check out this little guy:
TLDR: The Set!
Commons first and we'll work our way up!
Hunter tokens:
No rarity gem for marksman because I was a lazy boye
As you can see, most of the effects here are probing for coins or information. If we have a hand full of cheap stuff we could Trick out Call The Hunters, but that might not be a great idea. The opponent gets to pick if this card summons the Call to Arms : Rogue Edition or if this card is just a 2-mana Beneath the Grounds. Neither is necessarily bad, but if paladin lets you get away with summoning the hunters on turn 3... he's probably got consecrate. These cards can definitely have some late game potency, but usually need support by then. Moving on... the rares and epics!
Moving to midgame you can see where eyeing up the enemy's deck can produce some cruel choices in Barter. Not many rares published but conceptually this is where you try to jab at the opponent's combo pieces if they have them. Trap-dungeon spider is tempting for being a twisting nether with a body, but at 9 mana there is some definite restriction to this ability and this is a dead card without it! Lastly, some legendaries to put a little backbone into this archetype:
Mister Chu is a high-utility guy! A measly voidcaller when played early, but his trick is quite interesting. Goya's top is 100% control. If played too early, not only do you basically prevent your hero power from being used, but you most likely won't know what your top card is! This sends the top into your deck and you can end up drawing a 1-mana do-nothing at a seriously bad time. However, when played correctly, this can add extra power-house cards to your deck and extend the longevity of the deck against control matchups.
Has your stingy opponent been trying to get out of discarding their top cards in every Barter? Time to repo them! Allseer is tough, but comes a bit short of the holy 4/12 stat-line, making his removal easier. However, opponents who draw lots of cards while Guild Merchant was out will have a hand full of cards and nowhere to hide them if they can't remove the Gryphon. If you have a Preparation in-hand, you might be able to steal their removal before they can react!
I'm not really looking to make a whole set at the moment, I was really interested more in the concept and I like seeing what you guys put out there as well. Do you also crave the ability to have agency in your opponent's turn?
Look at this thing and let me know what you think!
"Your opponent plays with the top card of their deck revealed"....
How many times ive seen this exact text on r/customhearthstone
Barter seems neat. If you offer me a Barter decision during your turn, and I just don't respond, what happens? Does your time stop for me to decide? Does your turn expire and then one is chosen for me?
One of the design decisions that Hearthstone made was to cut out any sort of interaction (instant speed spells, etc.) that the other player would have during your turn, and vice versa. This was done deliberately to speed up the game, perhaps also to make it a little simpler, and there are costs and benefits to doing it this way.
If you've ever played Magic Online, you'll see the benefit right away: on MTGO, you play a spell, and then you wait for your opponent to respond. They can hit a button and say "I will pass priority for the rest of the turn" but even then, they'll need to declare blockers and what not... Anyway, it's a game of waiting and waiting. They have a chess clock that's running down when you have priority, so if your opponent goes to the bathroom while you're waiting for them to respond, they may lose the game as a result, but you can't really leave either, because as soon as you walk away they might respond and start your clock.
Here's the short version:
If you create effects that force your opponent to respond during your turn, you're fundamentally changing the game of Hearthstone. While it would add some neat design space and some additional layers of complexity, it comes with a pretty high cost that would need to be considered carefully.
All that said, cool designs!