So It's been awhile, and while I did manage to track down the old thread for this, I just thought making a new thread to better answer questions would be easier than going back and editing the entire thread because of everything that has changed, not just in the game mode, but the game itself has added a whole lot of new cards and these additions have fueled the current iterations of the example decks.
The idea for this mode came from the other card game I regularly play, Magic the Gathering, quite literally the oldest TCG or CCG to exist, with said game currently celebrating it's 25th anniversary. The game itself has several different game modes attached to it, and one of them is the direct reasoning for this game modes existence;
EDH(Elder Dragon Highlander)/Commander is a game mode that consists of 100 card singleton decks, basically every card in the game, with the exceptions of basic lands(think mana crystals) you can only play with one of it, now most of the more complicated rules would be fairly hard to transfer to Hearthstone, which is why we're trying to bring more of the spirit of the game mode and less of the actual game mode to Hearthstone.
But first, the basics
Any person wanting to make an Highlord/Archmage/Highlander deck must have the class they want to make the deck for over level 30.
The following rules of the basic Hearthstone game would be changed in order to accommodate for this new game mode
Playable deck sizes will be doubled to 60, with the maximum cards in a deck being changed to 100 (If you some how manage to get to that, we did some serious testing and without Jade shenanigans, the usual was ~80, but with Augmented Elekk out, the increase is to be on the safe side).
Life total's will be increased to 40 (no armor involved), since the format will continue to use the 1v1 style of gameplay that already exists in Hearthstone, we felt 60 was too much, and while 45 was the working total for awhile, 40 was the end result since it allowed Amara to function without hurting the player using her, this also allows hunter as a class to be a little more effective over the course of the game without having to rely on Deathstalker Rexxar to be the only way of winning the game, this also allows combo decks to be more effective since you have less health to burst through in order to win.
Hand sizes and Maximum Mana Crystals are being increased to 15, a big part of EDH is the fact that nearly every deck has insane levels of ramp and card draw, it's almost required just to keep up with everyone else, and while the card draw might not be as insane in Hearthstone, the increase in both will allow players to be more liberal with not only their plays, but their draw power, and hopefully make it less likely for players to get milled by their opponents, though the possibility still exists.
Now while this is still a work in progress and if you guys feel like sending in your ideas or suggestions, they will be at least listened to, and maybe even implemented, we'll see.
Anyway, since Hearthpwn doesn't let you save any decks over 30 cards, the following links will be to the deck editor themselves with said lists contained, if someone has a better suggestion for how I should print out these decks for you guys, please let me know, I am a little annoyed with the fact that I can't save these without making them two separate lists.
Thank you all for at least reading enough of this to give an educated opinion, and while I know Blizzard and Team 5 will probably never actually make any game mode like this, the idea being here means hopefully someone will make it a mod or something some day.
So I made a second set of decks for this game mode, these took a little more work, but only because I wanted them different enough from their previous counterparts to be actual considerations, but honestly, these are way less powerful in my opinion, though they all go into interesting archetypes for the classes as a whole.
Round 3, this time with more decks, partially inspired by my own decks and partially inspired by the new sets.
Note: Missing Hunter, Rogue, and Warlock because there's either not enough for a new archetype (Archmage Spell Hunter) or just no new and interesting archetypes came up in this set (more so the case for Rogue and Warlock)
As a EDH player of MTG myself, i do like your idea of implementing it in hearthstone as well.
Question. EDH revolves around a commander. Do you want something like this in the game mode as well? And if so, how?
Furthermore, I dont think maximising the mana pool will be a good idea. All cards are based on the maximum mana one can spent. Stretching the mana pool to 15 crystals will make OTK combos too easy.
Ok, so I'm just going to answer these questions separately.
1) I kind of saw the hero you play as as a commander in a sense. I know the various hero cards make this concept a little odd, but the whole point of your commander in EDH is to be a constant presence that you have, a guaranteed play in most cases and an odd buff to your game plan in others (the Eminence Commanders from C17 and Oloro). The base heroes of Hearthstone play sort of a double role, not only as you, the player and health pool, but also as your commander, being a constant presence and a guaranteed play, even in situations where you don't have much else to do. They also work as a pseudo replacement to the color pie, giving you certain tools the other 'colors' might not have.
2) With the exception of Druid constantly breaking the symmetry of this idea (much like how green does it in MTG), the idea of the increased mana pool is to make up for the lack of artifact ramp that is a staple to EDH as a whole. And tbh, I could easily find a Exodia/OTK combo for every single class even without the mana pool increase. Personally, I'm hoping the mana pool increase will help people find creative combos so not every deck is stuck playing the same combo like Wild is. Also, with a 60 card deck, the amount of draw that people would have to run in order to pull off any form of an OTK is pretty insane, as right now there are about 7-9 tutor esque cards in Hearthstone(and a couple of them straight up suck as cards and almost all of them are class limited). So even with the increased mana, the lack of tutors makes it so that even if it's easy to get the combo down mana-wise, the fact that you need to be constantly digging for said cards makes the idea run a little less smooth, in theory. We've been testing this person with a couple of friends who would like to see the idea be implemented as well and currently, we think that Hearthstone in it's current state (Even with the new expansion) the mana pool increase shouldn't hurt the idea of this format too much.
In theory if you wanted a commander-like figure you could use modified versions of shrines from the rumble run (i.e. passive effect, revive after x turns, maybe unsilencable, definitely weaker). It'd still give a build around effect, plus assuming shrines are only useable in this format they could release new ones every couple sets to give more options.
The idea of shrines is nice, they would have to be significantly toned down if they were to be printed in any aspect of actual Hearthstone (Have you seen Gonk's Armament, fucking busted!), but there's a separate problem in that aspect.
There's an inherent problem to Hearthstone when it comes to special cards like shrines and similar effects (The reward for Lakkari Sacrifice is a good example). They take up board space, something that Hearthstone has but MTG doesn't, personally, I really wish Hearthstone would get rid of the board space mechanic, leave the placement thing (be kind of like Keyforge in that aspect), but get rid of the board space. But, as long as the board space remains a thing in Hearthstone, I'm sticking with the idea of your hero being the closest thing to a commander for Hearthstone's Highlander mode.
These are all example lists for a game-mode suggestion I have for Blizzard, the entire opening post explains everything, but to be honest, I don't think Blizzard would ever construct something like I have suggested. They can barely make a solo adventure mode that's interesting now, I really doubt they would even attempt to make anything like I have suggested.
As of this moment, a couple of friends and I play a printed out variety occasionally, it's pretty interesting, but the RNG aspect gets difficult to recreate in a paper format. So as of right now, these lists all remain as theorycrafts to an extreme sense.
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So It's been awhile, and while I did manage to track down the old thread for this, I just thought making a new thread to better answer questions would be easier than going back and editing the entire thread because of everything that has changed, not just in the game mode, but the game itself has added a whole lot of new cards and these additions have fueled the current iterations of the example decks.
The idea for this mode came from the other card game I regularly play, Magic the Gathering, quite literally the oldest TCG or CCG to exist, with said game currently celebrating it's 25th anniversary. The game itself has several different game modes attached to it, and one of them is the direct reasoning for this game modes existence;
EDH(Elder Dragon Highlander)/Commander is a game mode that consists of 100 card singleton decks, basically every card in the game, with the exceptions of basic lands(think mana crystals) you can only play with one of it, now most of the more complicated rules would be fairly hard to transfer to Hearthstone, which is why we're trying to bring more of the spirit of the game mode and less of the actual game mode to Hearthstone.
But first, the basics
Now while this is still a work in progress and if you guys feel like sending in your ideas or suggestions, they will be at least listened to, and maybe even implemented, we'll see.
Anyway, since Hearthpwn doesn't let you save any decks over 30 cards, the following links will be to the deck editor themselves with said lists contained, if someone has a better suggestion for how I should print out these decks for you guys, please let me know, I am a little annoyed with the fact that I can't save these without making them two separate lists.
Multi Combo Druid (Malygos and Toggwaggle comboes)
Mecha'Zoth Hunter (Deathrattle Hunter with a decent amount of Mech Synergy)
Extreme Value Mage (A 60 card version of my own Reno-Mage deck with everything that almost made the cut)
Exodia Paladin (Exodia Pally in Reno form)
Quest Priest (All the Deathrattles)
GraveRobber Rogue (Steal your opponents stuff and raise the dead)
Shudderwock Shaman (Because doing this shit in Standard wasn't already infuriating)
Demon N'Zoth Warlock (Hey look, it's Wild Kabal-Lock)
N'Zoth Quest Warrior (How to Build a Wall, by Garrosh Hellscream)
Thank you all for at least reading enough of this to give an educated opinion, and while I know Blizzard and Team 5 will probably never actually make any game mode like this, the idea being here means hopefully someone will make it a mod or something some day.
So I made a second set of decks for this game mode, these took a little more work, but only because I wanted them different enough from their previous counterparts to be actual considerations, but honestly, these are way less powerful in my opinion, though they all go into interesting archetypes for the classes as a whole.
Taunt N'Zoth Druid (Spider Wall)
Beast N'Zoth Hunter (Cube Hunter in Reno)
Elemental/Lich Mage (Tribal Mage)
Even Paladin (This somehow worked)
Maly/Velek Priest (One shot Priest at it's finest)
KingsRobber Rogue (Kingsbane Rogue with a heavy Burgle theme)
MalyLoad Shaman (Overload Shaman with a Malygos combo slipped in)
Mecha'ThunLock (Standard Mecha'ThunLock with straight value to keep it in the game)
Mech Warrior (The other Warrior hero on full display)
Round 3, this time with more decks, partially inspired by my own decks and partially inspired by the new sets.
Note: Missing Hunter, Rogue, and Warlock because there's either not enough for a new archetype (Archmage Spell Hunter) or just no new and interesting archetypes came up in this set (more so the case for Rogue and Warlock)
Charged Combo Druid (A board full of Devilsaurs never looked so fun)
Exodia Mage (Yes, somehow the combo works in singleton)
Bazookadin (Holy Wrath Pally is back folks)
Quest'thun Priest (Mecha'thun Quest Priest, one of the the odder combos of recent sets)
Quest Shaman (A.K.A March of MuReno)
Dragon Warrior (Thank you Voone)
Hopefully going to try and keep this up for the next set too.
As a EDH player of MTG myself, i do like your idea of implementing it in hearthstone as well.
Question. EDH revolves around a commander. Do you want something like this in the game mode as well? And if so, how?
Furthermore, I dont think maximising the mana pool will be a good idea. All cards are based on the maximum mana one can spent. Stretching the mana pool to 15 crystals will make OTK combos too easy.
Ok, so I'm just going to answer these questions separately.
1) I kind of saw the hero you play as as a commander in a sense. I know the various hero cards make this concept a little odd, but the whole point of your commander in EDH is to be a constant presence that you have, a guaranteed play in most cases and an odd buff to your game plan in others (the Eminence Commanders from C17 and Oloro). The base heroes of Hearthstone play sort of a double role, not only as you, the player and health pool, but also as your commander, being a constant presence and a guaranteed play, even in situations where you don't have much else to do. They also work as a pseudo replacement to the color pie, giving you certain tools the other 'colors' might not have.
2) With the exception of Druid constantly breaking the symmetry of this idea (much like how green does it in MTG), the idea of the increased mana pool is to make up for the lack of artifact ramp that is a staple to EDH as a whole. And tbh, I could easily find a Exodia/OTK combo for every single class even without the mana pool increase. Personally, I'm hoping the mana pool increase will help people find creative combos so not every deck is stuck playing the same combo like Wild is. Also, with a 60 card deck, the amount of draw that people would have to run in order to pull off any form of an OTK is pretty insane, as right now there are about 7-9 tutor esque cards in Hearthstone(and a couple of them straight up suck as cards and almost all of them are class limited). So even with the increased mana, the lack of tutors makes it so that even if it's easy to get the combo down mana-wise, the fact that you need to be constantly digging for said cards makes the idea run a little less smooth, in theory. We've been testing this person with a couple of friends who would like to see the idea be implemented as well and currently, we think that Hearthstone in it's current state (Even with the new expansion) the mana pool increase shouldn't hurt the idea of this format too much.
In theory if you wanted a commander-like figure you could use modified versions of shrines from the rumble run (i.e. passive effect, revive after x turns, maybe unsilencable, definitely weaker). It'd still give a build around effect, plus assuming shrines are only useable in this format they could release new ones every couple sets to give more options.
The idea of shrines is nice, they would have to be significantly toned down if they were to be printed in any aspect of actual Hearthstone (Have you seen Gonk's Armament, fucking busted!), but there's a separate problem in that aspect.
There's an inherent problem to Hearthstone when it comes to special cards like shrines and similar effects (The reward for Lakkari Sacrifice is a good example).
They take up board space, something that Hearthstone has but MTG doesn't, personally, I really wish Hearthstone would get rid of the board space mechanic, leave the placement thing (be kind of like Keyforge in that aspect), but get rid of the board space. But, as long as the board space remains a thing in Hearthstone, I'm sticking with the idea of your hero being the closest thing to a commander for Hearthstone's Highlander mode.
So...I've been really bored recently, so here's five more lists. I don't know why I start making lists when I'm bored, but these are the results.
Star Aligner Druid (From the deck that nerfed Aviana)
Dragon Paladin (Because why should Warrior get all the fun)
Dragon Priest (See above)
Thief of the Twin Gods (Tess decides to work for C'thun and N'Zoth, insanity ensues)
EveN'Zoth Shaman (Even Pally's 'odder' cousin)
where do you play these lists?
i dont' get it.
These are all example lists for a game-mode suggestion I have for Blizzard, the entire opening post explains everything, but to be honest, I don't think Blizzard would ever construct something like I have suggested. They can barely make a solo adventure mode that's interesting now, I really doubt they would even attempt to make anything like I have suggested.
As of this moment, a couple of friends and I play a printed out variety occasionally, it's pretty interesting, but the RNG aspect gets difficult to recreate in a paper format. So as of right now, these lists all remain as theorycrafts to an extreme sense.