Hearthpwn

@cheeseetc thank you for feedback. All images will be done today, because i was away from home with no access to my PC, so i had to do it on phone. Drunk Orc will be worded as "at the start of each turn change side of the battlefield" and Grommash will be 3/5 or even 3/4. Runes are special, non-collectible spells, which you can get only from these 9 legendaries at the start of the game. I'll also make another mechanic for expansion #1

Okay so I'm going through a bit of a rough patch at the moment, so sorry that I haven't gone through others posts and responded, been more active the past couple days. I'll go back and see what I missed after I get past writing this all up here.  I have pretty much entirely replaced every single card in my set for the showcase and we're almost out of time so I'm trying to get this out here to get some much appreciated feedback. Again, thanks in advance to anyone who helps me out. I think I will avoid putting my Hall of Fame cards in my post this time, largely because those are already set in stone.

Introducing: The year of the Lion! 

For my year I have pretty big goals. One of the things I appreciate most about Hearthstone is how many cards are incredibly flavorful and how even a simple Silverback Patriarch can tell a story. That's my goal here, to try and not only nail the mechanics of the cards, but the aesthetics for expansions as a whole well. So, why choose a Lion? I developed a set of key words that I wanted to use to design sets around, and therefore chose an animal that closely fits that. Strength, Honor, Wisdom, and Courage, are all things the Lion can represent. As a result my year as a whole will carry those themes. 

First Expansion, The Barren Wildlands:  The Barrens is a tough place to live. It's a place where everything and everyone wants to kill you. If the tough savanna  conditions don't get to you, surely the numerous wild creatures and inhabitants will. It has everything from centaur, quillboar, wild elementals, beasts, pirates, to even the horde and Alliance skirmishing all inhabiting the same space in these massive swaths of land. You'll certainly need every bit of your resolve to survive out there.

Echeyakee: This is the proposed hunter legendary for the set. I happen to like the idea Recruit being in hunter so this card continues that tradition. Great midrange card I feel. Conveniently just outside of Deathstalker Rexxar's hero power range. Bit unsure on the balance of this one.

Kolkar Battlemaster: Likewise, I rather enjoy the Rush package from Warrior that we got in the latest expansion. Again, this continues that idea while also bringing back a mechanic that hasn't been used very often. Very much a good control card as well.

Second Expansion, Siege of Stormwind: Time to head on out to war! What if there was an expansion where the modern version of Stormwind, the capital of the Alliance, is sacked by the Horde. Gnomish Airships battling Goblin Zepplins. Tauren charging through the gates as Night Elf rangers defend from afar. Etc, etc. The set will focus on the battle of the two nations and provide a variety of cards relating to this theme of honorable and dishonorable warfare. It also introduces a new keyword, Duelist. Only one enemy minion may attack a minion with Duelist per turn. 

Duelist:  It gives minions a new dimension and fits the theme of Honor that I was going for. A duel is only between two people after-all, so it makes sense it can only fight one minion. I think this would be a welcome addition to the Hearthstone key-word roster.

Plagued Gargoyle: Putting Duelist on a Poisonous minion means that you can no longer sack the cheap guys into this on one turn. It will eat a big minion if you do not have the capabilities of dealing with this threat immediately. I'm worried its current iteration might be too powerful but I've been told it's better to be too much than too little so you can correct that much easier. 

Gnomish Gunner: In the same vein, I'm not sure if this card is properly statted for the effect. I really think it needs some tweaking myself, but I'm not sure what I should drop in terms of stats, or go up 1 mana. (Or maybe I'm wrong, I dunno.) Anyway, I thought this was just a really neat design capturing the feel of the set. It's a gnome airplane, so it does a flyby on the field and then can ignore any taunt minions. Just felt right. 

Third Expansion, Beneath The Veil: For our third and final expansion we travel the ancient lands of Pandaria. There are plenty of mysteries to uncover, adventures to be had, and lessons to be taught. I really think this brings a good rounding out of the set. After both factions have been at war, it's time for them to learn about the balance of the world they are in. One of the more unique mechanics is of the classes learning from one-another, and as a result there may be a few cards with keywords they otherwise don't have access to.

Zandalari Bishop: I just think this is a real well rounded card that fits priest. Has the option of heal synergy or silence synergy allowing it a wide use in a variety of decks. Not too strong, not too weak. Just a great card. 

Geostorm:  I just really like this card. I'm not sure where to balance it fully, but the idea of Earth Shock getting this big AOE upgrade feels pretty nice. It messed up a little when I was creating it and I haven't fixed the wording issue yet, but don't worry I will. I'm just throwing it out here to get some feedback since it is still able to be read in its current state.

Quote from TheProgenitor >>

Here's draft 2 of my submission. I changed some example cards, rebranded Experiment, dropped Sortie, and did a general revision. Any feedback will be appreciated!

YEAR OFTHE FOX

Set 1: Shattrath: City of Secrets

At first glance, Shattrath appears a perfect city, united in its fight against the Void. But beneath that façade lies a bitter rivalry. The city’s two factions, the devout Aldor and the mystic Scryers, are at war for control. Behind the scenes, allegiants plot, spy, and maneuver against the opposing faction in a perpetual fight for advantage. In Shattrath, secrets are dearer than gold, information a deadly weapon. And while the city schemes against itself, a darker foe lays its own plans…

Battle in Shattrath may be a bit different than you’re used to. Maneuvers are political more often than tactical, and the fog of war is replaced by a tangled web of intrigue. If you’re to enter the city, you need to be familiar with its ways:

-   New keyword Plan. It provides the means to, well, plan out future turns. In the game’s UI, Plan will look just like a mulligan, with the leftmost cards being closer to the top of your deck.

Expertly edited visual example:

This is what Plan 4 would look like. Arcanologist is marked to be discarded. Water Elemental is the top card of the deck.

 

-   Secrets. The set will include many cards that interact with Secrets and new Secret cards for each class (maybe…)

-   Information. This expansion will feature cards that give information on and manipulate the hand and deck.

 So for this set, CheeseEtc suggested doing Secrets for every class. I like the idea a lot- it'll help the set stand out and explores design space inaccessible in any other context- but I have a couple reservations. First, it would be awkward for submission. I would need 3 Secrets per class, but I only get to showcase 4 per, which means I focus exclusively on Secrets or skip most of them. Second, I'm worried about complexity. It might be hard to keep track of that many Secrets. Those are my thoughts, but please let me know what y'all think about the matter!

Set 2: Discoveries at Dalaran

Not all knowledge is against others, though. In Dalaran, Azeroth’s capital of learning and research, the brightest minds from every land gather to make the next great breakthrough. Any and every field- magic, alchemy, ice cream, you name it- is represented, and weird and wonderful experiments are carried out daily. The Light alone knows what kinds of wonders you'll see in the Violet Citadel's halls, and as the old saying goes, there's only one way to find out...

Dalaran sees no lack of wonderous discoveries and strange creations, but such things don’t come about overnight. They’re the culmination of countless iterations and improvements, with previous experiments informing current ones. Come in, and see just what these researchers are up to:

-   New keyword Iterate. When you play a minion with Iterate, it’ll trigger the effect listed on the card. Then, it will trigger every other Iterate effect you’ve played earlier that game. To chronicle your discoveries, either player can hover your hero to see a list of your Iterate effects. The results get pretty wild, but then, so do experiments.

Explanatory example:

You play a minion with ‘Iterate: draw a card’: you draw a card. Next turn, you play Archmage Modera: you summon a 3/3 Elemental, then draw a card. Then you play another minion with  ‘Iterate: draw a card’: you draw a card, then summon a 3/3 Elemental, then draw another card.

-   Build-around cards. The set will have numerous funky Timmy cards for players to experiment with new decks.

 Set 3: Azeroth's Last Stand

That’s enough of that; now it’s time for some real action. Let me tell you of Azeroth’s Third War, when all the world itself was under threat. Faced with an undead Scourge and the endless Burning Legion, Azeroth’s greatest heroes gathered in its defense, and the battle between them was as epic as you’d think. Armies enjoined, great foes felled, heroes made and lost: the story of this great war is rife with such tales, and you’d be sorry to miss the telling…

Numerous events make up the story of the Third War, various different legends that together form one great tale. Each event, in turn, is made up of the stories of those who fought in them, each attacking the others for control of the battlefield. Listen to the tales, and you’ll see how each of these stories unfolds:

-   Legendary “event” spells. Each class will receive a powerful Legendary spell commemorating an event of the Third War. But as all victories have a cost, these spells will have significant drawbacks that must be built around to use the card fully.

-   On-attack triggers. Wars are generally about attacking, so this set will feature minions that care about attacking or being attacked.

-   Tactical positioning. In honor of the strategy of war, position-based cards will have a greater presence in this set.

 Hall of Fame Inductees

Divine Favor- This has long been one of Hearthstone's most hated cards, and with good reason. It essentially negates aggro's biggest weakness, running out of steam, making the archetype too strong against the control decks that it should be weak to.

Nozdormu- Though not exactly problematic for the meta, this Dragon Aspect has numerous problems with its design. It discourages strategizing, often leads to frustrating misplays, and can only really be used to cheat your opponent out of his/her turn. Such a card isn't something that we need to deal with.

Cold Blood[card]- [card]Power Overwhelming was rotated for its excessive burst potential, and Cold Blood has the same issue. Giving it the boot will open up considerable design space, alleviating fears of OTK or making aggressive Rogue decks too strong.

 

 

 Shattrath City of Secrets is just a really cool idea. I kind of wish I had it myself, but at the same time then we'd be fighting so space so it's for the best that we didn't. Now, as for Plan.It's something similar  Scry from MTG but more modified for Hearthstone. Really neat stuff going on. My only problem with this set is that Strategize does not feel like a mage card. I would do some sort of scrying orb instead of a bunch of plans and call it something akin to that. Qautermaster Endarian is a sort of card specific lorewalker cho. Interesting idea. Has the Brann Bronzebeard stats which we don't see too often.

Now onto Discoveries at Dalaran. Reusable poison is just really cool flavor wise. It certainly feels balanced to me. Iterate is another interesting keyword. Archmage Modera does seem fine for design right now. Not much else for me to say on this one.

Mage is pretty reliant on spells. I realize book of specters and minion mage is sort of coming out so it's interesting to see you try and build on that but personally speaking it's not a direction I'm fond of. Still, I think the spell seems alright balance wise. The other card is pretty fine too.

Quote from freddoccino >>

Here's an update:

Year of the Salamander

The Firelord's Call

(other fancy titles coming... hopefully)

This expansion brings us to the Firelands, back to Blackrock to expand upon the adventure since Hearthstone's got a lot of new stuff since its release. There will be plenty of Dragons, as well as Elemental synergy now that it's been implemented. There are no new Keywords (hey, Old Gods didn't have any...) but new mechanics as a focus on top of the reiterated tribal synergy. Particularly there will be synergy with Class-specific cards, in light of Nefarion's chromatic experimentation, or just simply the different Dragonflights. My examples:

The idea here is the show the new mechanics from Ysera, the Dreamer, and kind of Dragon stuff. The stats have been upped for fringe cases (also supports the theory of Reno Jackson secretly being dragon), but I kept the same wording as several classes will have similar things going, and there are Neutral counters such as The Darkness. As well I want to make it a point across the whole Year to shore up different archetypes for classes that tend to fall off and get forgotten without sturdy support.

Potential alternate to Molten Core:

This shows off Elemental synergy as well as support for Battlecry Shaman decks.

Something Something Booty Bay Summer

Working on the title... a lot of people are going for this location, but the focus here is more on the Summer theme than anything (hence it being the summer expansion, also the previous would be April, like BRM). The expansion brings two(!) new keywords:

Basically, Resurgent cards 'bounce' back to your hand when you first try to play one, and then it will no longer have the Keyword. I'm not sure if I should reword the tooltip. The power of this is that you can bank mana, paying more for it before to get a cheaper card later (like Primordial Glyph) and notably, Battlecries will activate each time they are played, so you get to have the battlecry twice, and in some cases target multiple characters which no card currently allows, yet this would still be consistent with that. 

Bounty I haven't introduced before. I have reworked the effect a lot since I came up with it, and as a result I'm not certain that the flavor is still there, but I have yet to come up with a more fitting word. With Bounty you can get potentially significant value if you are able to play two cards with the same Cost consecutively. And this is every two cards, so playing three cards with the same Cost, one after the other, would activate any Bounties twice. This synergizes particularly well with Resurgent, since you can activate any Bounty by playing one Resurgent card twice.

The cards:

Sunken Blade has a lot of different things going on. The point of it exemplifying Resurgent is basically in it having a lot of different uses. I think it's best to just let it sink in (haha). Dancing Flame (where's the purple?) I think provides more of a sense of the Summer-y theme, going of off the Brazier of the Dancing Flame, from WoW's Midsummer Fire Festival — speaking of, this is why it's not an Elemental, but if people feel like it should be, that's a change I can make. Although in this instance, Bounty does not make as much thematic sense.

Other Bounty cards:

Tales from the Wildhammers(/Wildhammer Clan?)

I just want the abbreviation to be TFW, to be honest. Sleep has since been totally just scrapped I wasn't really sure where to go with Rest, but for now I think I'm just going to stick with it.

There's a lot I could do about this. I was considering them just not being keywords (i.e. one card having 'Your turn ends' and another having '...every minion that did not attack last turn...') but I think it's mechanically unique enough to justify it. I'm not sure if they could have clearer wording—Rested is simply just a Status effect that doesn't affect anything other than cards that will have effects based on Rested minions. effect. Rest makes it so that the order of your turn must be particular, and as well if you choose not to attack with a minion, you could get a bonus on the following turn.

On top of these I'm thinking on emphasizing Hero Power synergy, outside of Inspire effects (probably), rather building upon your Hero Power. This would hopefully give slower decks a win condition beyond using their Death Knight cards, or really just a reason not to play them—having alternatives is nice. As well I was thinking of adding more Quests just for some mechanical diversity, or just interesting stuff, building upon other things, like Hagatha. I'm not sure if there's much point in bringing this up, however, since I would not be able to showcase one.

Current examples:

Counting Sheep is now a hunter card, cause sheep, duh. Really thought, it was mentioned it's a good way to give hunters draw since they lack it, but it doesn't give it out for free. I was going to remove Rest from the card and only have the Rested synergy, but I still think it would be best to have a card with both on it. Hopefully the balance is there. I was also looking at having it be "minions that Rested last turn" but I'm not sure how clear that was, and there is a mechanical difference. 

Aerie Mountaineer is what I'm thinking about when I say building upon your Hero Power. Some cards would have kind of an aura effect, adding something passive to your Hero Power, but it is still mechanically different as once you activate your HP any passives wouldn't apply until the next turn, and of course your Hero Power can be replaced.

 

So this is mostly what I'm thinking of right now, please any thoughts. Thanks for everything that's been said so far, it has really shaped where I am taking this, and of course I'll be still looking at what you guys are posting.

 

Alright so, I don't really know what exactly the elemental plane of fire has anything to do with Blackrock Mountain, other than both being firey, ashen places. Doesn't feel right to me to make callbacks to Blackrock, but I'm probably alone in that. IT's not a super major point anyway. Ysera is intersting. Forcing certain cards into decks. It means you'll need to give Druid some solid support to make that card more viable. I would absolutely show off Reignite myself. I know the Warlock card is a cooler mechanic so it's fine, but no one else really is showing off common cards and I just..really like that. I just do. I'm probably alone on this too. Either way all of your cards here feel balanced enough to me.

Second Expansion, I have no problems with. It certainly feels better to me and I don't think any of the cards are that overly powerful. Dancing Flame is a fun card, really unique effect of course mimicking the item. I wouldn't call it an elemental myself. 

Third Expansion. Woo, boy. I just don't really gel with the rest mechanic myself. I think you'll need some other feedback, but for me it feels wrong. IF you choose not to attack with minions they get this effect put on them if you have a Rest card. It just feels like it's useless in any aggressive deck and control decks often use their minions to deal with the board, meaning they are going to attack. There are very few situations in hearthstone where you naturally won't attack and I don't feel like you could print any card, unless it's stupidly powerful, to counteract this design in the game where the player is always encouraged to be proactive on their turn. 

Aerie Mountaineer on the other hand. I do like. Modifying hero powers without changing their base design is pretty neat. But this card makes Warlocks hero power no longer having any drawbacks but I'm not sure if that warrants any changes or not from a design perspective. Warlock drawing cards for basically no drawback  usually is really strong and usually is when it happens. 

So I want to get some final feedback on the vessel card, since i've made some changes on how it works:

And the new Crewman keyword an exemple of a card with it:

I'd also like some feedback on my Hall Of Fame cards:

Alright, so, I don't want to do Fires of Azeroth anymore - instead, I'm going to replace it in the competition with something, and make a standalone for-fun expansion (maybe even year containing) "The Game of Thrones" which is an obvious pun/reference.  Honestly, with my ideas for Fires of Azeroth, I wouldn't be able to do what I want in the expansion.  It'd be a really complex expansion, maybe having upwards of 160 cards.  So, any ideas for replacements?

Honestly, I'm considering dropping out to instead work on something in my own time.

Ok, I tried refining my ideas as CheeseEtc said, and I think I thought of something better then what I had.

I came up with a new card for Junkheap Jungle, which synergizes with Spare Parts, and I came up with a new mechanic for my second expansion, Rust. I'll be working on the theme of the second expansion for a little while longer, but I think that this going to work even better.

 Feedback real fast is appreciated, as I need to get this posted today.

Quote from Demonxz95 >>

 Sorry, I guess it's a little bit of miscommunication on my part, I meant for Rust to only trigger on your own turn, but I see your point. And as Kelsey Steelspark, I'm going to be reigning in the Spare Parts generation for mage and the neutrals, just so it isn't an oppressive mechanic.

Here's a draft for my submission, the Year of the Mech. Probably going to post it very soon, just writing it here first so I can have a look at how it looks before posting.

Quote from Wishmaster333 >>

Okay so I'm going through a bit of a rough patch at the moment, so sorry that I haven't gone through others posts and responded, been more active the past couple days. I'll go back and see what I missed after I get past writing this all up here.  I have pretty much entirely replaced every single card in my set for the showcase and we're almost out of time so I'm trying to get this out here to get some much appreciated feedback. Again, thanks in advance to anyone who helps me out. I think I will avoid putting my Hall of Fame cards in my post this time, largely because those are already set in stone.

Introducing: The year of the Lion! 

For my year I have pretty big goals. One of the things I appreciate most about Hearthstone is how many cards are incredibly flavorful and how even a simple Silverback Patriarch can tell a story. That's my goal here, to try and not only nail the mechanics of the cards, but the aesthetics for expansions as a whole well. So, why choose a Lion? I developed a set of key words that I wanted to use to design sets around, and therefore chose an animal that closely fits that. Strength, Honor, Wisdom, and Courage, are all things the Lion can represent. As a result my year as a whole will carry those themes. 

 

First Expansion, The Barren Wildlands:  The Barrens is a tough place to live. It's a place where everything and everyone wants to kill you. If the tough savanna  conditions don't get to you, surely the numerous wild creatures and inhabitants will. It has everything from centaur, quillboar, wild elementals, beasts, pirates, to even the horde and Alliance skirmishing all inhabiting the same space in these massive swaths of land. You'll certainly need every bit of your resolve to survive out there.

Echeyakee: This is the proposed hunter legendary for the set. I happen to like the idea Recruit being in hunter so this card continues that tradition. Great midrange card I feel. Conveniently just outside of Deathstalker Rexxar's hero power range. Bit unsure on the balance of this one.

Kolkar Battlemaster: Likewise, I rather enjoy the Rush package from Warrior that we got in the latest expansion. Again, this continues that idea while also bringing back a mechanic that hasn't been used very often. Very much a good control card as well.

 

Second Expansion, Siege of Stormwind: Time to head on out to war! What if there was an expansion where the modern version of Stormwind, the capital of the Alliance, is sacked by the Horde. Gnomish Airships battling Goblin Zepplins. Tauren charging through the gates as Night Elf rangers defend from afar. Etc, etc. The set will focus on the battle of the two nations and provide a variety of cards relating to this theme of honorable and dishonorable warfare. It also introduces a new keyword, Duelist. Only one enemy minion may attack a minion with Duelist per turn. 

Duelist:  It gives minions a new dimension and fits the theme of Honor that I was going for. A duel is only between two people after-all, so it makes sense it can only fight one minion. I think this would be a welcome addition to the Hearthstone key-word roster.

Plagued Gargoyle: Putting Duelist on a Poisonous minion means that you can no longer sack the cheap guys into this on one turn. It will eat a big minion if you do not have the capabilities of dealing with this threat immediately. I'm worried its current iteration might be too powerful but I've been told it's better to be too much than too little so you can correct that much easier. 

Gnomish Gunner: In the same vein, I'm not sure if this card is properly statted for the effect. I really think it needs some tweaking myself, but I'm not sure what I should drop in terms of stats, or go up 1 mana. (Or maybe I'm wrong, I dunno.) Anyway, I thought this was just a really neat design capturing the feel of the set. It's a gnome airplane, so it does a flyby on the field and then can ignore any taunt minions. Just felt right. 

 

Third Expansion, Beneath The Veil: For our third and final expansion we travel the ancient lands of Pandaria. There are plenty of mysteries to uncover, adventures to be had, and lessons to be taught. I really think this brings a good rounding out of the set. After both factions have been at war, it's time for them to learn about the balance of the world they are in. One of the more unique mechanics is of the classes learning from one-another, and as a result there may be a few cards with keywords they otherwise don't have access to.

Zandalari Bishop: I just think this is a real well rounded card that fits priest. Has the option of heal synergy or silence synergy allowing it a wide use in a variety of decks. Not too strong, not too weak. Just a great card. 

Geostorm:  I just really like this card. I'm not sure where to balance it fully, but the idea of Earth Shock getting this big AOE upgrade feels pretty nice. It messed up a little when I was creating it and I haven't fixed the wording issue yet, but don't worry I will. I'm just throwing it out here to get some feedback since it is still able to be read in its current state.

 

 

 

 

 i like it; the cards seem balanced and flavourful; my only problem is with the last expansion; just having the minions use keywords previously exclusive for no discernible reason doesn't seem right; i have a similar thing going in a custom expansion that has nothing to do with this competition, but it makes more sense there because the classes are spit into factions and each only has access to one such keyword.

Quote from Demonxz95 >>

Quote from NiRaSt >>

So I want to get some final feedback on the vessel card, since i've made some changes on how it works:

• This is NOT a minions, so cards that affect minions, even randomly, will NOT affect this.
• Howver, cards that affect all characters (Explosive Trap, Hellfire etc.) will.
• Vessels can ONLY attack other vessels.
• It can be attacked by other minions and the enemy hero, and will deal damage to them.
• The number bellow the mana represents how many spaces a ship occupies on the board. You can only play cards that have the new Crewman keyword on those spaces.
• Carefull: if your vessel dies, so does your hero. After all, the captain must go down with the ship. The only exception to this rule is when you play another vessel, in which case it will replace the old one, but keep its health.
• Every class will only get ONE vessel.

Here's how the vessel looks on the board:

And the new Crewman keyword an exemple of a card with it:

I'd also like some feedback on my Hall Of Fame cards:

Sorcerer's Apprentice. I don't think i have to tell you what this card did in quest Mage. It's quite restrictive when it comes to card design, especially if you want t make cheap spells for mage.

Devine Favour. Auto-include in any aggro deck. While not always a good card, it's sill really strong an I feel it deserves to go into the Hall Of Fame.

Auchenai Soulpriest. Interesting inclusion, I know. The problem with this card is that you can't have cards that have a high board heal or a high heal card that can also target enemies simply because it can immediately turn into an AoE or large damage effect.

This is pretty cool. I'm not sure if I agree with having your hero die if it dies too because it's not that strong and minions can attack it no problem. The Legendary gem also looks a little weird on the vessel card. Otherwise though, I quite like the idea you have.

 originally i was thinking of making any minion that is part of the crew of a vessel have a kinda taunt for that vessel, as in you can't attack the ship until you clear all the minions on board; what do you think of that?

Quote from aaro54 >>

Here's a draft for my submission, the Year of the Mech. Probably going to post it very soon, just writing it here first so I can have a look at how it looks before posting.

The Year of the Mech

Welcome to the Year of the Mech. This sets gains its name from the first two sets, which both try to revisit some of the flavor themes last seen in Goblins vs Gnomes, and bring back the Mech tribe that has received an awfully low amount of support after GvG rotated out.

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Set 1: Westfall Redemption

In the region of Westfall, law and order have collapsed. In the already chaotic region, a valuable material used for mechs discovered underground adds more complexity to the situation. Gangs fight each other and themselves for that material, opportunistic engineers offer their services for anyone willing to pay enough, or construct their own mechanical armies to take it all for themselves, all while Stormwind struggles with bringing the region back under control.

Westfall Redemption portrays, among other themes, the more volatile goblin side of engineering. Goblin engineers, ready to work for whoever pays the most or for no one else but themselves try to make do with what they have in the chaotic situation, Assembling impressive mechs out of nothing. Assemble is the keyword for the set. When you play a card that Assembles, you get to choose one of three mechs to summon. There's a total of four different mechs, but you will only have three to choose from each time you Assemble

You can see each Mech created by Assemble in the following Spoiler (Credits to ThePixelDash from the r/customhearthstone discord for allowing me to use Hard Puncher for this)

 Example Cards:

Desperate Engineer uses Assemble to create small mech tokens that help it stay alive, even if you have no other mechs for it to destroy for survival. 

Illegal Improvements is a prime example of volatile and explosive goblin engineering. Use it for a bit of burst and to make a mech that will be dangerous to leave on the board, but also potentially bad for your opponent to remove, or trade up with a mech and either get some face damage or remove another minion, if you're lucky.

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Set 2: The Battle for Gnomeregan

From one field of battle to another, this time we join Gelbin Mekkatorque on his fight to take back Gnomeregan. Once the great capitol of the gnomish race, it fell when Sicco Thermaplugg deceived Gelbin to detonate a radiation bomb in the city against troggs, claiming that the gnomish citizens would be safe. The bomb only angered and mutated the attacking trogg force, and backfired on the gnomes, killing many of them and forcing the rest of them to flee. Now, the city is inhabited by leper gnomes, irradiated troggs, and the self-proclaimed 'King of Gnomeregan', Sicco Thermaplugg, driven mad by the radiation.

Here, we continue to explore mechs, but in different ways than what we did with chaotic goblins in the first set. This set also contains a new keyword, Irradiated. Irradiated minions spread their sickness to others, making any minions damaged by them also become irradiated. They however are doomed to die a quick death, taking 2 damage each time they attack.

Being damaged by Irradiated minions includes damage from other sources than attacking, so if you were to Irradiate something like Baron Geddon, it would be quite strong at spreading it to everything else.

Example cards:

High Inventor Mekkatorque is potentially a huge amount of value for some mech decks, filling your board with different mechs. The amount of mechs summoned is naturally limited by board size, and first summons copies of any mechs in hand, and then from your deck, starting with any at the top of your deck.

Sicco, King of Gnomeregan can really cause quite a chain of explosions with his first effect, while his second effect makes those explosions almost certain to happen sooner than later.

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Set 3: Dalaran High

For the final set of the year, we leave the Mech theme mostly behind and venture from Gnomeregan to another grand city, this one much more lively. In the great city of mages, Dalaran High is accepting new students! Prided not only for its high quality education on magic, technology and various other subjects, but also for it's top-tier sports team, the Dalaran Gryphons. So take out your books and your writing instruments, and make sure to not miss your lectures.

Dalaran High has a new keyword, and a new mechanic seen in a cycle of 9 books, one for each class. The Study (X):  mechanic gives you a reward if the last card you played was X, and the card could have been played on a turn before the current one. X could be many things, like card type (Minion, Spell, Weapon), specific cost, tribe or even some more specific requirements. Each class gets a Book card, which is a spell that becomes stronger as you play certain things during the game.

Example cards:

Field Study is a simple Study card for hunter. Being able to tutor a beast can come in handy, for example if you're playing a deck that runs mostly high cost beasts, you could play this in the late game after playing one of them to guarantee drawing another one. The part of the keyword in brackets not being bolded is intended, as with longer Study requirements, sometimes half of a card's text could end up being bolded, making it look very bad.

Book on Magical History is the mage card of the cycle of Book cards. As with all other Book cards, the text first states what the card does, and then in brackets and italics, the thing you need to do this game to empower it. The number on the card increases whenever you play a card that improves it, so there's no need to track how many of those card you have played so far. This one could be used in some deck that happens to run many different cost spells as a decent amount of damage later in the game, or one could build a deck around getting the most out of it and using it as very powerful burst.

 

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Hall of Fame

Mana Wyrm: Mana Wyrm is an extremely powerful 1-drop, and can snowball out of control very easily. Because Mage is likely going to get a spell synergy theme in Dalaran High, this could get even more insane there, so it is being rotated out. As a replacement, Arcane Artificer is rotated into the Classic set so that Mage still has a cheap spell synergy card there, but not one that is good on its own and snowballs out of control easily.

Cold Blood: Cold Blood is both a very strong tool for aggressive decks and a cheap piece for combos. Rogue has a very strong Basic and Classic set that could do with removing one of their powerful cards. Gang Up is moved to Standard to replace it, as it is a much less powerful card that can be key to some really interesting decks. For example, it could be used in some combo with High Tinker Mekkatorque in a Mech Rogue.

Cabal Shadow Priest; This might seem like an odd choice, as this has hardly been a problematic card at any point. That is true, and the main reason for this rotation is really the card brought to Classic to replace it, Lightbomb. With this rotation, Priest will finally have a good board clear in Classic, which means that they won't be so reliant on expansions now, and that Blizzard won't need to print more and more board clears to help the class. Cabal Shadow Priest was chosen as the card to go because like Lightbomb, it is a tool for control decks. Having so many good cards for Control Priest in Classic could make the archetype far too good, and removing one might bring it to balance.

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And that is all. I hope you enjoyed reading it.

 Dangnabit, man, i wanted to go with the mechs.

Assemble seems like kind of weak keyword. I'd change it to either granting some sort of bonus to a mech, or doing something if a certain type of minion is on the board or something else. the cards showcased seem fine.

Irradiate seems too be a little too strong. I'd make it so minions only irradiate on death. Mechatorque seems a little too swingy, unless you have only a select fey minions on your deck, but i LOVE sicco.

Study seems ok as a keyword, same with the card that showcases it. I'd make the book cost 4 tho.

@cheeseetc i've made an update, pasting nearly all images (except 3), adding new mechanic to 2nd expansion and balancing Grommash. Look if you're able to read it now

Well, I'm super late on getting onto this, but I may as well try and get this done before the deadline. Haven't decided on my year of choice, or the cards that are getting Hall of Fame'd (probably Noz, Sorcerer's Apprentice...and maybe actually King Crush?), but I think I have a decent idea for the three expansions.

The Last Campaign

Summary: Though the fate of today's Azeroth may be left in the hands of heroes and adventurers, such things were once dictated by the clashes of great armies. This expansion harkens back to the days where footmen fought grunts and riding your horse into battle was the norm.

New Keywords: Consumable (x).




The Approaching Challengers

Summary: With the Grand Tournament well and truly over, the masses have gone back to watching Azeroth's universal favourite past time: Gladiatorial Combat. Who doesn't like a nice afternoon of horrific blood sport between the enslaved?

New Keywords: Duel



(The victory conditions of a duel are based on the card triggering it).

Hearthstone: The Expansion | House Rules

(I still need to decide between the two names)

Summary: At a table in the back of a tavern somewhere, after a long day of toiling through dungeons and raids, a Human and an Orc sit down to play a certain card game. Things are all going fine up until...

“Hey, that’s me on that card! You’re not allowed to play me!”

Let’s just hope this doesn’t cause some kind of time paradox...

New mechanics: Cheat / Penalties

Upon cheating, you gain a potential penalty that functions like a secret. The triggers for penalties are specific per each card and are consumed upon being triggered. Not 100% certain, but these may need to be re-balanced.