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.
Some nice ideas, but unfortunately, without any example cards and descriptions of how the effects play out (aside from the tooltip), we can't really judge anything.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Click the image to go to my custom Time Traveler class.
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.
Some nice ideas, but unfortunately, without any example cards and descriptions of how the effects play out (aside from the tooltip), we can't really judge anything.
Yeah, I kinda had to post that only half finished, since I had work to get to, unfortunately. Mostly, though, I wanted to make sure that the idea of a Hearthstone/Tavern themed Hearthstone expansion wasn't too...Weird? Wouldn't be taken as a joke entry, I mean.
Unfortunately, I don't really have the ability to make cards on Hearthcards atm, so I'll just post some of the text options
Troll Javelineer (2) Common Neutral Minion [b]Consumable (1)[/b]: When this attacks a minion, deal 3 damage to the target. 1/3
So, when it first attacks a minion, it deals 3 damage to it and, for the rest of the time the card's on the board, it no longer can use that effect. Weapons would work the same way. Spells would basically persist as enchantments for as long as they have consumables left.
Also, I just realised that duel still has the old wording. It's meant to be 'minion', not 'card', sorry.
Ambitious Doppelganger (6) Epic Mage Minion Battlecry: Duel. Transform into the Duelist with the higher attack. 3/3
So, both players would reveal the minion with the highest cost from their deck and the above card would transform into the 'better' one (which would allow a savvy opponent to, say, include a high attack minion with minimal or negative effects to mess up someone trying to do a combo). The idea of Duel is that it'd be more rigid/controllable than Joust, but with more varied effects.
Card Shark (2) Common Neutral Minion Cheat: Draw a card. Trigger a penalty when you play that card. 2/3
So, when you play the card above, you'd have the option to Cheat and gain the above effect, or not. Upon choosing the 'cheat' option, one of the four penalties would be assigned and would persist similarly to a secret. Upon activating an effect that triggers a penalty, you'd suffer its effect.
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.
Barren Wildlands has a really good sense regarding flavor, and the example cards show it. One thing to look out for is that it doesn't give as great a notion as to what is in store for the expansion as the other two do. Independently the cards are interesting, they just feel like there isn't so much context supporting them mechanically speaking. I don't think anything about the cards need to change though. Without thinking too hard about it, Echeyakee seems strong, but on a 6-drop legendary kind of level. Also worth noting is it promotes Recruit in general more than the 'big' kind of recruit hunter has right now. If there's anything terribly broken from 3- beasts, there's always HoF too. Duelist is a really inspired design, I feel. Potentially very strong but Gargoyle is reasonable. It does a good job of being simplistic enough yet in the combination of the two mechanics, pretty unique. Gnomish Gunner seems a little to strong to me, looking at Primordial Drake. The Ignores Taunt part, however feels new enough for it to be an interesting example. Lastly, I'm for the idea of switching up class keywords for an expansion, I think in places it actually adds flavor especially concerning Heroes whose class isn't entirely what they're repping (Tyrande, Maeiv). Other classes of course also have ample opportunities to make use of these, like the Zalandari Bishop shows. I could see this putting some people off, as it does kind of break rules, but I mean, that's kind of what's happened in every Year of the Mammoth xpac. I don't know if it was part of the wording issue you mentioned, but I think it's fine to not start a new line for Combo. As well I feel like you could show something else off rather than two cards with switched up keywords, just an idea. The cards themselves are all pretty interesting I just feel like we could do with seeing a little more.
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.
I think Crewman is a solid idea that works elegantly with the vessel idea. However, it is a keyword that depends on you having a specific legendary in your deck, and I haven't seen it mentioned, so I think it would be important if as part of the set players would be given a vessel, like with Death Knights or more equivocally C'Thun. The Rogue card is good for an example, but I don't think it's particularly strong enough for the condition. It might be a consideration to lower the swing as well, i.e. more base Attack and less bonus Attack, unless of course Crewman is supposed to be that level of a bonus in which case maybe just a slight buff. Up to you. The Vessel idea is coming along really nicely, all the information you've put down on it does it well.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
And that is all. I hope you enjoyed reading it.
I really like the idea of Assemble, but I'm not as convinced on the available choices. Since you only pick three, a pool of four to choose from seems kinda strange; it would be rather unlucky if you're looking for a specific one and it's the only one that doesn't show up. In general I think you could have a slightly larger selection, like adapt, though not necessarily as many choices. The available effects are similar enough that the RNG should still feel fair in the current case, so that's well done. There's a lot of good thematic stuff going on with all the mechanics and I think you have a lot of balanced and interesting examples. I think the wording for the mage spell could simply be "Deal 1 damage for each spell..." it does the same thing: if you've cast none, it deals 0 damage. Overall I think everything looks pretty solid, maybe just make sure the first two expansions are feel different enough from each other to justify their own set -- it looks like that's on track as is.
Thanks again to everyone who gave feedback! I made a couple changes based off of what was said and just want to run them through here before I submit.
First, the Iterate reword. Is it still clear what it does? Does it look weird?
Example that will be in my submission (hopefully it's not necessary):
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 a second minion with ‘Iterate: draw a card.’: you draw a card, then summon a 3/3 Elemental, then draw a card.
Second, which of these would be best as an example? For reference, this set is about the Third War for Azeroth, and each class is getting a Legendary spell with a drawback representing an important event of the war. Thanks in advance for any help!
I think the tooltip for Iterate is a clear and consistent with the rest as it can be. I think your legendary gives a good sense as to the build up and power of the mechanic, without having to show other ones. For what it's worth, I didn't even see the short description in the spoiler the first time over. For the spells, personally I feel like druid has the most unique one right now. It's pretty interesting to me, and it makes you think.
Sorry this was all rather brief, I am trying to get everything together myself but I'll still be going over everything as always.
Does anybody know how can I get my own custom set icons to be in Hearthcards? I kinda wanted to try and make something more adequate for my expansions in case I get to the next phase.
Quick update of what I'm thinking of for reworking my Rest keyword:
So for instance
This should make it more immediate and actually feel like it does something. It's way more powerful, like a strong Conceal but there is a trade off. Unsure if the power is reasonable though.
Does anybody know how can I get my own custom set icons to be in Hearthcards? I kinda wanted to try and make something more adequate for my expansions in case I get to the next phase.
Unfortunately, there's no way of doing that now BUT you can try to contact Nikko, the official creator of Hearthcards in a Private message on Discord in order to ask him to try to slot your emblem into Hearthcards. He's usually lurking around the discord for r/customhearthstone which you can find here: https://discord.gg/J9BMku3
Quick update of what I'm thinking of for reworking my Rest keyword:
So for instance
This should make it more immediate and actually feel like it does something. It's way more powerful, like a strong Conceal but there is a trade off. Unsure if the power is reasonable though.
The power of Rest really quite depends on the cards in the game and if your Rest cards are cheap enough to allow for strong combos. Giving a minion like Gadgetzan Auctioneer, Archmage Antonidas, or even a enormous amount of Silver Hand Recruits before you cast Level Up! Immune until your next turn for example might be a tad bit too strong (in the same way Conceal was). It's also quite powerful on minions that you've just played since...well they haven't attacked, and you're essentially giving them an Ice Block for a turn (Hilariously, this synergizes with Magma Rager and other cards that have a high attack for low cost). Either way, it's gonna restrict some design space on what type of powerful combo cards you can create so do be careful. I'm also curious as to why you made it so that Rest ends your turn; it seems a bit unnecessary. I'm not totally against the idea of Rest, but I'm not exactly behind it either. Still, it's an improvement over your previous version.
Counting Sheep might be a bit powerful in a token/Aggro Hunter variant; additionally, it's unclear whether "for each minion that goes dormant" includes cards that become dormant by other means (e.g. Just playing The Darkness). It is balanced well nonetheless, and the flavour is cute. :D
Thanks again to everyone who gave feedback! I made a couple changes based off of what was said and just want to run them through here before I submit.
First, the Iterate reword. Is it still clear what it does? Does it look weird?
Example that will be in my submission (hopefully it's not necessary):
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 a second minion with ‘Iterate: draw a card.’: you draw a card, then summon a 3/3 Elemental, then draw a card.
Second, which of these would be best as an example? For reference, this set is about the Third War for Azeroth, and each class is getting a Legendary spell with a drawback representing an important event of the war. Thanks in advance for any help!
The tooltip for Iterate is clear and the keyword looks fine on the card, although I'd prefer if I wasn't Italized. Additionally, you could make it neater by making Iterate a possible adjective keyword like "Iterating Battlecry:" or "Iterating Deathrattle:". I find the keyword be an intriguing, powerful effect that could be spectacular in the right combo deck; of course, there is the issue that it might snowball like Jade Golem, so you might have to be vigilant with the balancing there.
For the Legendary spells, I like Enter the Legion and Victory at Nordrassil better as example cards because they're more "splashy" and interesting than Fall of Mannoroth which could honestly past by as a Rare or Common card if it wasn't for the great flavouring of the card (flavouring? Is that a word?). If I had to choose between the pair I mentioned, I'd choose Enter the Legion simply because it's more iconic to Warcraft as a whole and because it seems more balanced than Victory at Nordrassil, which seems OP when compared to Wisps of the Old Gods simply because it's essentially "Deal up to 21 damage split amongst enemy minions, damage is dealt in threes" at best and "Summon seven 1/1 Wisps" for 5 mana (by clearing your opponent's Wisps) at worse.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
And that is all. I hope you enjoyed reading it.
I really like the idea of Assemble, but I'm not as convinced on the available choices. Since you only pick three, a pool of four to choose from seems kinda strange; it would be rather unlucky if you're looking for a specific one and it's the only one that doesn't show up. In general I think you could have a slightly larger selection, like adapt, though not necessarily as many choices. The available effects are similar enough that the RNG should still feel fair in the current case, so that's well done. There's a lot of good thematic stuff going on with all the mechanics and I think you have a lot of balanced and interesting examples. I think the wording for the mage spell could simply be "Deal 1 damage for each spell..." it does the same thing: if you've cast none, it deals 0 damage. Overall I think everything looks pretty solid, maybe just make sure the first two expansions are feel different enough from each other to justify their own set -- it looks like that's on track as is.
The reason the Book is worded like it is is that this way, the number can update based on how many different cost spells you've cast this game so there's no need to remember or track the amount yourself.
Also, how large changes are allowed for submitted entries? I'm not very satisfied with the Irradiated keyword on my entry anymore, and would change it if it's allowed. The change would be changing its name (to Mutate) and making the player choose one of many negative effects (like negative Adaptations) that spread through damage. It's fairly different, but the soul of the mechanic is the same, being a negative effect that spreads through damage. And if I can't change it now, is it okay to change it in a later phase?
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 Bountiestwice. This synergizes particularly well with Resurgent, since you can activate any Bounty by playing one Resurgent card twice.
The cards:
SunkenBladehas 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:
CountingSheep 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.
AerieMountaineeris 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.
I'm gonna give this feedback, as you also gave it to me. I'd like to feedback other people too, but I've been busy the last days. Sorry, guys.
First expansion:
Cool theme, a bit reminiscent to BRM, but so was KFT to Naxx.
I like the class-card synergy thingy, but I think it's one of those mechanics that you don't want to abuse (it could get a bit more support than Odd/Even decks, in terms of number of cards, but not much more)
About the second example card, I prefer Molten Core over Reignite.
Second expansion:
I think we don't have an expansion that feels summer-y, so that's cool.
Bounty, is a pretty original trigger, so I like it. My doubt is if a card with Bounty can activate itself (for instance, if you play Dancing Flame and then Yeti).
About Dancing Flame, it should definitively be an elemental.
I'm not so sure about Resurgent, though, I'd have to see more example cards.
Third expansion:
I know nothing about Wildhammer clan and their tales, so I don't have an opinion about the theme.
I think Rest is the best of your mechanics, loving it. And the example card is really awesome, both flavour and balance-wise.
About the build-your-heropower thing, it's alright, but you need to be careful to:
a- prevent it from being broken
b- making it so that there is variety inside of that archetype (maybe, with class cards, but I guess you already plan to do this).
@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
It's too wordy. Try to shorten it or put stuff below spoiler
[BTW I posted mine]
Ok, thank you, i'll put below spoiler all parts, which are only story, and they doesn't straightly lead to an explanation of a new mechanic.
From your ideas, i like Structures and Resources the most. There is too low amount of passive effects/mechanics in Hearthstone and this one would open a lot of deckbuilding space. It can be either an addition to a deck (low-cost structures) or core of the deck (high-cost structures). Shattrath cards are designed well, i have nothing to add here. Recipes that you have shown are good, they are easy to learn. But you probably shouldn't make recipes, which cost more than (5), learning them could be too hard (it could just not fit your current gameplan). I like the visual design of your year, especially plans, showing people what cards you are going to make in all expansions
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?
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.
I think Crewman is a solid idea that works elegantly with the vessel idea. However, it is a keyword that depends on you having a specific legendary in your deck, and I haven't seen it mentioned, so I think it would be important if as part of the set players would be given a vessel, like with Death Knights or more equivocally C'Thun. The Rogue card is good for an example, but I don't think it's particularly strong enough for the condition. It might be a consideration to lower the swing as well, i.e. more base Attack and less bonus Attack, unless of course Crewman is supposed to be that level of a bonus in which case maybe just a slight buff. Up to you. The Vessel idea is coming along really nicely, all the information you've put down on it does it well.
Thank you both for your feedback. I'm having quite a few issues with the power level of the card, would giving Vessels the ability to attack without taking damage make them too strong? @fredderico, yes, each class gets a vessel from "blizz", just like with the DKs. I was thinking that Crewman cards are at about the same power level as C'thun support cards, maybe a little weaker on their own. Should I make the the Boarder a 3/5?
@mods, i have forgotten to write my year's plan (how many cards with each mechanic, which mechanics return, etc.) in the submission topic. Can i add it to my post there, or i have to write it in the discussion topic? I know, that only minor changes are allowed, but it doesn't change much, it only makes my year more clear and the whole concept - easier to understand. If not, let me just change image of the year title. I realised that it looks soooooooo bad...
@mods, i have forgotten to write my year's plan (how many cards with each mechanic, which mechanics return, etc.) in the submission topic. Can i add it to my post there, or i have to write it in the discussion topic? I know, that only minor changes are allowed, but it doesn't change much, it only makes my year more clear and the whole concept - easier to understand. If not, let me just change image of the year title. I realised that it looks soooooooo bad...
I would consider both of those minor enough, especially the latter. Replacing images with better ones is fine so long as doing so doesn't heavily edit the direction you're taking.
I don't know if you need the "plan" part, but you're welcome to write it out. I know some people have been doing that, but I don't think we need to be overly transparent about everything all up front *shrugs* . There's a bit of give-and-take here in terms of faith: you have to be confident enough that you presented a good product without having to reveal every detail, and those who would upvote you demonstrate faith in your ability to develop and elevate the product you've only just begun to showcase. Plus the less minor details you reveal the more focused your presentation can be, and more open you'll be to change in the future. Whether it comes from following feedback or just switching gears a little, you won't have to remain rigorously faithful to what you told us because you didn't provide that information in the first place lel.
Not that I mean to dissuade you from doing what you want; as I said others have done it and it might work to their advantage, so perhaps I'm talking out my ass.
I remember how happy I've got when people started voting for my submission, seriously thank you :) Although I'm falling behind a little. Now that I'm thinking I screwed myself over by not revealing the third expansion. Got too ambitious with this whole thing I suppose lol
Well the deadline is tomorrow, so good luck everyone
When I saw you left off the third expansion I was like "that is a fucking bold move" lol :P
Behold, foolish interlopers! I am commanding this mortal to spread the will of the Scourge throughout the interwebs, encouraging you to seek out me, Archlich Kel'Thuzad! Now coming to you as the tenth class of Hearthstone!
I am a finalist in this Class Creation Competition, so if you could give it a look I would be greatly appreciative <3
Why have at least 4 people stolen my idea for a troll expansion? I know its a little broad, but still. feelsbadman
The overall winner of the Expansion Competition last year was a troll expansion, so I guess maybe people are trying to bank it off of their success. That and it's also not the most difficult theme to think of.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Click the image to go to my custom Time Traveler class.
Why have at least 4 people stolen my idea for a troll expansion? I know its a little broad, but still. feelsbadman
The overall winner of the Expansion Competition last year was a troll expansion, so I guess maybe people are trying to bank it off of their success. That and it's also not the most difficult theme to think of.
I'm digging the survival theme of the first set. The example cards, though, don't offer anything unique. Either of those cards could exist in a already-extant expansion. They should show off the fun, new things we can expect from your set. The designs themselves are fine, just not great for example cards.
Duelist could potentially be interesting. It strikes me as possibly uninteractive, but it would depend on the execution, I think. Gnomish Gunner is too strong; stat-wise, it's about on-level with Primordial Drake, a high-tier card, but doesn't have the drawback of hitting your board. I think the other guy is fine, though. It could get lots of value but is slow and vulnerable to hard removal.
In the expansion 3, I like the flavor of going to a remote place to learn wisdom, especially the thing of the classes learning from each other. That being said, I'd be careful with how that's implemented. Crossing over fun mechanics like Choose One is one thing, but there are things some classes don't need access to. Geostorm already worries me since Shaman isn't supposed to have strong Silence; they nerfed Hex for that reason. I also don't get the name; where's the veil you mention? The name should probably mention Pandaria itself anyway. Good idea overall, just needs some caution in the execution.
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.
Barren Wildlands has a really good sense regarding flavor, and the example cards show it. One thing to look out for is that it doesn't give as great a notion as to what is in store for the expansion as the other two do. Independently the cards are interesting, they just feel like there isn't so much context supporting them mechanically speaking. I don't think anything about the cards need to change though. Without thinking too hard about it, Echeyakee seems strong, but on a 6-drop legendary kind of level. Also worth noting is it promotes Recruit in general more than the 'big' kind of recruit hunter has right now. If there's anything terribly broken from 3- beasts, there's always HoF too. Duelist is a really inspired design, I feel. Potentially very strong but Gargoyle is reasonable. It does a good job of being simplistic enough yet in the combination of the two mechanics, pretty unique. Gnomish Gunner seems a little to strong to me, looking at Primordial Drake. The Ignores Taunt part, however feels new enough for it to be an interesting example. Lastly, I'm for the idea of switching up class keywords for an expansion, I think in places it actually adds flavor especially concerning Heroes whose class isn't entirely what they're repping (Tyrande, Maeiv). Other classes of course also have ample opportunities to make use of these, like the Zalandari Bishop shows. I could see this putting some people off, as it does kind of break rules, but I mean, that's kind of what's happened in every Year of the Mammoth xpac. I don't know if it was part of the wording issue you mentioned, but I think it's fine to not start a new line for Combo. As well I feel like you could show something else off rather than two cards with switched up keywords, just an idea. The cards themselves are all pretty interesting I just feel like we could do with seeing a little more.
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.
I think Crewman is a solid idea that works elegantly with the vessel idea. However, it is a keyword that depends on you having a specific legendary in your deck, and I haven't seen it mentioned, so I think it would be important if as part of the set players would be given a vessel, like with Death Knights or more equivocally C'Thun. The Rogue card is good for an example, but I don't think it's particularly strong enough for the condition. It might be a consideration to lower the swing as well, i.e. more base Attack and less bonus Attack, unless of course Crewman is supposed to be that level of a bonus in which case maybe just a slight buff. Up to you. The Vessel idea is coming along really nicely, all the information you've put down on it does it well.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
And that is all. I hope you enjoyed reading it.
I really like the idea of Assemble, but I'm not as convinced on the available choices. Since you only pick three, a pool of four to choose from seems kinda strange; it would be rather unlucky if you're looking for a specific one and it's the only one that doesn't show up. In general I think you could have a slightly larger selection, like adapt, though not necessarily as many choices. The available effects are similar enough that the RNG should still feel fair in the current case, so that's well done. There's a lot of good thematic stuff going on with all the mechanics and I think you have a lot of balanced and interesting examples. I think the wording for the mage spell could simply be "Deal 1 damage for each spell..." it does the same thing: if you've cast none, it deals 0 damage. Overall I think everything looks pretty solid, maybe just make sure the first two expansions are feel different enough from each other to justify their own set -- it looks like that's on track as is.
Thanks again to everyone who gave feedback! I made a couple changes based off of what was said and just want to run them through here before I submit.
First, the Iterate reword. Is it still clear what it does? Does it look weird?
Example that will be in my submission (hopefully it's not necessary):
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 a second minion with ‘Iterate: draw a card.’: you draw a card, then summon a 3/3 Elemental, then draw a card.
Second, which of these would be best as an example? For reference, this set is about the Third War for Azeroth, and each class is getting a Legendary spell with a drawback representing an important event of the war. Thanks in advance for any help!
I think the tooltip for Iterate is a clear and consistent with the rest as it can be. I think your legendary gives a good sense as to the build up and power of the mechanic, without having to show other ones. For what it's worth, I didn't even see the short description in the spoiler the first time over. For the spells, personally I feel like druid has the most unique one right now. It's pretty interesting to me, and it makes you think.
Sorry this was all rather brief, I am trying to get everything together myself but I'll still be going over everything as always.
Thank you both for your feedback. What would you say to these cards being replacements of the first and third expansion respectively? I tried to come up with something a little more unique than the warrior card and then a replacement for Geostorm.
Alternatively for the first expansion I can still go with the passive weapon idea, but all I still got is this and I'm not really sold on it.
Also! @Fredoccino. I like that version of Rest much more. I'm still not 100% sold on the idea, but it's a better version of the mechanic.
I'm thinking about ditching the Recipe mechanic for my expansion, and replacing Recipe cards with that type of cards, what do you think?
I think the above route would be a lot cleaner and more readily understandable, so I say go for it...although that would require a lot of restructuring for your final expansion, no? Quite a change in the final hour :(
Behold, foolish interlopers! I am commanding this mortal to spread the will of the Scourge throughout the interwebs, encouraging you to seek out me, Archlich Kel'Thuzad! Now coming to you as the tenth class of Hearthstone!
I am a finalist in this Class Creation Competition, so if you could give it a look I would be greatly appreciative <3
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Some nice ideas, but unfortunately, without any example cards and descriptions of how the effects play out (aside from the tooltip), we can't really judge anything.
Click the image to go to my custom Time Traveler class.
Yeah, I kinda had to post that only half finished, since I had work to get to, unfortunately. Mostly, though, I wanted to make sure that the idea of a Hearthstone/Tavern themed Hearthstone expansion wasn't too...Weird? Wouldn't be taken as a joke entry, I mean.
Unfortunately, I don't really have the ability to make cards on Hearthcards atm, so I'll just post some of the text options
Troll Javelineer (2)
Common Neutral Minion
[b]Consumable (1)[/b]: When this attacks a minion, deal 3 damage to the target.
1/3
So, when it first attacks a minion, it deals 3 damage to it and, for the rest of the time the card's on the board, it no longer can use that effect. Weapons would work the same way. Spells would basically persist as enchantments for as long as they have consumables left.
Also, I just realised that duel still has the old wording. It's meant to be 'minion', not 'card', sorry.
Ambitious Doppelganger (6)
Epic Mage Minion
Battlecry: Duel. Transform into the Duelist with the higher attack.
3/3
So, both players would reveal the minion with the highest cost from their deck and the above card would transform into the 'better' one (which would allow a savvy opponent to, say, include a high attack minion with minimal or negative effects to mess up someone trying to do a combo). The idea of Duel is that it'd be more rigid/controllable than Joust, but with more varied effects.
Card Shark (2)
Common Neutral Minion
Cheat: Draw a card. Trigger a penalty when you play that card.
2/3
So, when you play the card above, you'd have the option to Cheat and gain the above effect, or not. Upon choosing the 'cheat' option, one of the four penalties would be assigned and would persist similarly to a secret. Upon activating an effect that triggers a penalty, you'd suffer its effect.
The Tactician Class (LOE Complete!)
Barren Wildlands has a really good sense regarding flavor, and the example cards show it. One thing to look out for is that it doesn't give as great a notion as to what is in store for the expansion as the other two do. Independently the cards are interesting, they just feel like there isn't so much context supporting them mechanically speaking. I don't think anything about the cards need to change though. Without thinking too hard about it, Echeyakee seems strong, but on a 6-drop legendary kind of level. Also worth noting is it promotes Recruit in general more than the 'big' kind of recruit hunter has right now. If there's anything terribly broken from 3- beasts, there's always HoF too. Duelist is a really inspired design, I feel. Potentially very strong but Gargoyle is reasonable. It does a good job of being simplistic enough yet in the combination of the two mechanics, pretty unique. Gnomish Gunner seems a little to strong to me, looking at Primordial Drake. The Ignores Taunt part, however feels new enough for it to be an interesting example. Lastly, I'm for the idea of switching up class keywords for an expansion, I think in places it actually adds flavor especially concerning Heroes whose class isn't entirely what they're repping (Tyrande, Maeiv). Other classes of course also have ample opportunities to make use of these, like the Zalandari Bishop shows. I could see this putting some people off, as it does kind of break rules, but I mean, that's kind of what's happened in every Year of the Mammoth xpac. I don't know if it was part of the wording issue you mentioned, but I think it's fine to not start a new line for Combo. As well I feel like you could show something else off rather than two cards with switched up keywords, just an idea. The cards themselves are all pretty interesting I just feel like we could do with seeing a little more.
I think Crewman is a solid idea that works elegantly with the vessel idea. However, it is a keyword that depends on you having a specific legendary in your deck, and I haven't seen it mentioned, so I think it would be important if as part of the set players would be given a vessel, like with Death Knights or more equivocally C'Thun. The Rogue card is good for an example, but I don't think it's particularly strong enough for the condition. It might be a consideration to lower the swing as well, i.e. more base Attack and less bonus Attack, unless of course Crewman is supposed to be that level of a bonus in which case maybe just a slight buff. Up to you. The Vessel idea is coming along really nicely, all the information you've put down on it does it well.
I really like the idea of Assemble, but I'm not as convinced on the available choices. Since you only pick three, a pool of four to choose from seems kinda strange; it would be rather unlucky if you're looking for a specific one and it's the only one that doesn't show up. In general I think you could have a slightly larger selection, like adapt, though not necessarily as many choices. The available effects are similar enough that the RNG should still feel fair in the current case, so that's well done. There's a lot of good thematic stuff going on with all the mechanics and I think you have a lot of balanced and interesting examples. I think the wording for the mage spell could simply be "Deal 1 damage for each spell..." it does the same thing: if you've cast none, it deals 0 damage. Overall I think everything looks pretty solid, maybe just make sure the first two expansions are feel different enough from each other to justify their own set -- it looks like that's on track as is.
I think the tooltip for Iterate is a clear and consistent with the rest as it can be. I think your legendary gives a good sense as to the build up and power of the mechanic, without having to show other ones. For what it's worth, I didn't even see the short description in the spoiler the first time over. For the spells, personally I feel like druid has the most unique one right now. It's pretty interesting to me, and it makes you think.
Sorry this was all rather brief, I am trying to get everything together myself but I'll still be going over everything as always.
Does anybody know how can I get my own custom set icons to be in Hearthcards? I kinda wanted to try and make something more adequate for my expansions in case I get to the next phase.
Quick update of what I'm thinking of for reworking my Rest keyword:
So for instance
This should make it more immediate and actually feel like it does something. It's way more powerful, like a strong Conceal but there is a trade off. Unsure if the power is reasonable though.
Unfortunately, there's no way of doing that now BUT you can try to contact Nikko, the official creator of Hearthcards in a Private message on Discord in order to ask him to try to slot your emblem into Hearthcards. He's usually lurking around the discord for r/customhearthstone which you can find here: https://discord.gg/J9BMku3
The power of Rest really quite depends on the cards in the game and if your Rest cards are cheap enough to allow for strong combos. Giving a minion like Gadgetzan Auctioneer, Archmage Antonidas, or even a enormous amount of Silver Hand Recruits before you cast Level Up! Immune until your next turn for example might be a tad bit too strong (in the same way Conceal was). It's also quite powerful on minions that you've just played since...well they haven't attacked, and you're essentially giving them an Ice Block for a turn (Hilariously, this synergizes with Magma Rager and other cards that have a high attack for low cost). Either way, it's gonna restrict some design space on what type of powerful combo cards you can create so do be careful. I'm also curious as to why you made it so that Rest ends your turn; it seems a bit unnecessary. I'm not totally against the idea of Rest, but I'm not exactly behind it either. Still, it's an improvement over your previous version.
Counting Sheep might be a bit powerful in a token/Aggro Hunter variant; additionally, it's unclear whether "for each minion that goes dormant" includes cards that become dormant by other means (e.g. Just playing The Darkness). It is balanced well nonetheless, and the flavour is cute. :D
The tooltip for Iterate is clear and the keyword looks fine on the card, although I'd prefer if I wasn't Italized. Additionally, you could make it neater by making Iterate a possible adjective keyword like "Iterating Battlecry:" or "Iterating Deathrattle:". I find the keyword be an intriguing, powerful effect that could be spectacular in the right combo deck; of course, there is the issue that it might snowball like Jade Golem, so you might have to be vigilant with the balancing there.
For the Legendary spells, I like Enter the Legion and Victory at Nordrassil better as example cards because they're more "splashy" and interesting than Fall of Mannoroth which could honestly past by as a Rare or Common card if it wasn't for the great flavouring of the card (flavouring? Is that a word?). If I had to choose between the pair I mentioned, I'd choose Enter the Legion simply because it's more iconic to Warcraft as a whole and because it seems more balanced than Victory at Nordrassil, which seems OP when compared to Wisps of the Old Gods simply because it's essentially "Deal up to 21 damage split amongst enemy minions, damage is dealt in threes" at best and "Summon seven 1/1 Wisps" for 5 mana (by clearing your opponent's Wisps) at worse.
The reason the Book is worded like it is is that this way, the number can update based on how many different cost spells you've cast this game so there's no need to remember or track the amount yourself.
Also, how large changes are allowed for submitted entries? I'm not very satisfied with the Irradiated keyword on my entry anymore, and would change it if it's allowed. The change would be changing its name (to Mutate) and making the player choose one of many negative effects (like negative Adaptations) that spread through damage. It's fairly different, but the soul of the mechanic is the same, being a negative effect that spreads through damage. And if I can't change it now, is it okay to change it in a later phase?
I'm gonna give this feedback, as you also gave it to me. I'd like to feedback other people too, but I've been busy the last days. Sorry, guys.
First expansion:
Second expansion:
Third expansion:
Hope it's helpful.
Ok, thank you, i'll put below spoiler all parts, which are only story, and they doesn't straightly lead to an explanation of a new mechanic.
From your ideas, i like Structures and Resources the most. There is too low amount of passive effects/mechanics in Hearthstone and this one would open a lot of deckbuilding space. It can be either an addition to a deck (low-cost structures) or core of the deck (high-cost structures). Shattrath cards are designed well, i have nothing to add here. Recipes that you have shown are good, they are easy to learn. But you probably shouldn't make recipes, which cost more than (5), learning them could be too hard (it could just not fit your current gameplan). I like the visual design of your year, especially plans, showing people what cards you are going to make in all expansions
Thank you both for your feedback. I'm having quite a few issues with the power level of the card, would giving Vessels the ability to attack without taking damage make them too strong? @fredderico, yes, each class gets a vessel from "blizz", just like with the DKs. I was thinking that Crewman cards are at about the same power level as C'thun support cards, maybe a little weaker on their own. Should I make the the Boarder a 3/5?
@mods, i have forgotten to write my year's plan (how many cards with each mechanic, which mechanics return, etc.) in the submission topic. Can i add it to my post there, or i have to write it in the discussion topic? I know, that only minor changes are allowed, but it doesn't change much, it only makes my year more clear and the whole concept - easier to understand. If not, let me just change image of the year title. I realised that it looks soooooooo bad...
I would consider both of those minor enough, especially the latter. Replacing images with better ones is fine so long as doing so doesn't heavily edit the direction you're taking.
I don't know if you need the "plan" part, but you're welcome to write it out. I know some people have been doing that, but I don't think we need to be overly transparent about everything all up front *shrugs* . There's a bit of give-and-take here in terms of faith: you have to be confident enough that you presented a good product without having to reveal every detail, and those who would upvote you demonstrate faith in your ability to develop and elevate the product you've only just begun to showcase. Plus the less minor details you reveal the more focused your presentation can be, and more open you'll be to change in the future. Whether it comes from following feedback or just switching gears a little, you won't have to remain rigorously faithful to what you told us because you didn't provide that information in the first place lel.
Not that I mean to dissuade you from doing what you want; as I said others have done it and it might work to their advantage, so perhaps I'm talking out my ass.
When I saw you left off the third expansion I was like "that is a fucking bold move" lol :P
Behold, foolish interlopers! I am commanding this mortal to spread the will of the Scourge throughout the interwebs, encouraging you to seek out me, Archlich Kel'Thuzad! Now coming to you as the tenth class of Hearthstone!
I am a finalist in this Class Creation Competition, so if you could give it a look I would be greatly appreciative <3
Why have at least 4 people stolen my idea for a troll expansion? I know its a little broad, but still. feelsbadman
Unpopular opinion: Rogue is OP
The overall winner of the Expansion Competition last year was a troll expansion, so I guess maybe people are trying to bank it off of their success. That and it's also not the most difficult theme to think of.
Click the image to go to my custom Time Traveler class.
I guess you could say that they were trolls.
Thank you both for your feedback. What would you say to these cards being replacements of the first and third expansion respectively? I tried to come up with something a little more unique than the warrior card and then a replacement for Geostorm.
Alternatively for the first expansion I can still go with the passive weapon idea, but all I still got is this and I'm not really sold on it.
Also! @Fredoccino. I like that version of Rest much more. I'm still not 100% sold on the idea, but it's a better version of the mechanic.
I'm thinking about ditching the Recipe mechanic for my expansion, and replacing Recipe cards with that type of cards, what do you think?
Custom cards :
CLASSES : Alchemist (CCC#5 | Phase V) | Chef (CCC#4)
EXPANSIONS : Year of the Scorpion (Year Comp)
I think the above route would be a lot cleaner and more readily understandable, so I say go for it...although that would require a lot of restructuring for your final expansion, no? Quite a change in the final hour :(
Behold, foolish interlopers! I am commanding this mortal to spread the will of the Scourge throughout the interwebs, encouraging you to seek out me, Archlich Kel'Thuzad! Now coming to you as the tenth class of Hearthstone!
I am a finalist in this Class Creation Competition, so if you could give it a look I would be greatly appreciative <3