Welcome back to Blasthammer's Garage! So, you want to see more of what we Tinkers can do, eh? Like I said last time, we Tinkers are crafty thinkers that make all kinds of wonderful toys! We got mechs and weapons and gadgets and bombs and more scrapbots than you can count! Today, I'll show you a few Basic things so you get a feel for how we work. Don't worry, even some of this stuff can get pretty crazy!
Keyword: Synchronize
Before we get too far, I wanted to remind you about
Synchronize
! Sometimes when you're tinkering away, you find you've made something better than what you expected! Use all your Mana on a card, and that card will get a bonus! It's like Combo, but you can use it without playing cards before it! But on the flip side, you only can get one
Synchronize
effect a turn (usually) and most of the effects won't be just 'do damage' or 'get stats.' Sometimes it'll be stronger the more cards you played, or if you've got some Scrapbots in your hand from your Hero Power! We'll talk more about that later. Now, to the workshop!
Example Cards
Here's a couple neat things. Basic stuff, but important! A lot of my best work is based off some simple ideas. Let's take a closer look, eh?
Noise Machine -
WHAT!? I CAN'T HEAR YOU! WHAT!? TURN IT OFF? OH! Heh, sorry. You saw this before, when it was a Secret. Still got some Secrets, but this little baby turned into something a bit more... preemptive! Casters hate 'em. I got a few buggers like these, they do a great job screwing with our enemies and protecting our workers.
Safety Second! -
Yeah, we got all kinds of workers here, building mechs and bombs. You know my garage's number one rule? Results first! And money! Money's also first. What? Safety? No way! That's second, at best. But still, important. Lots of dangerous stuff here.
Scrap Bomb
- Like this guy. Light it, throw it, big boom. Lots of shrapnel to make more Bots out of. What's with all the Bots? We love 'em here! If we're bored, or out of ideas, we make Bots. Lots and lots of Bots. Later on, I'll show you some clever things we can do with 'em, too!
Chainsword -
Watch your fingers! This guy's sharp! Yeah, we Tinkers have weapons, and they're a LOT better than those used by other classes. For one, some of ours explode! That's, um, that's a feature. I think. You see, we've got bombs and missiles and stuff, but Tinkers are, uh, easily distracted. Some of our tools don't always hit our exact mark. So we use weapons when we need to be precise.
Overclock -
And if we need to be
really
sure our target gets got, we throw all the safeties off and kick it into overdrive! What? I told you the explosions were a feature!
Remaining Cards
Tune Up -
Tinkers are always tinkering away at our toys, looking to improve them. Or at least, try something different. I always say, if the Mech is still walking, give it more weapons!
Dynamite Toss -
Yeah, don't pick those up. Whenever I pick up some dynamite, I uh... tend to space out. And then everything's on fire. Just, uh, skip this crate.
Gnomish Mechanic
- Hrm? Oh, her? Yeah, I got gnomes working for me. They aren't that bad when they're under my thumb! Don't tell her I said that. But anyway, you've seen
Novice Engineer
s
and
Gnomish Inventor
s
before. Our mechanics are somewhere between those two skill levels, but they do good work. For me. That's the important part.
Rocket Hammer -
See this? This is a weapon that's supposed to explode! Every thwack against a baddie will blow up a buddy of his! Give it a try. Wait, NOT HERE!! Give me that!
Bilgewater Overseer -
Just wave to that nice goblin as you leave. He's one of my Overseers. They watch over the garage, making sure everyone gets their work done. But if he has to fight, he's got plenty of experience! That and his big fancy Mech! Can I say Mech? Technically they weren't called that before the fight with the gnomes. Oh whatever. If someone sues me, I'll send an Overseer after them.
*Note* Forgot about the limited number of keywords, replaced
Brass Bodyguard
with
Bilgewater Overseer
and changed
Tune Up
.
There you go! Like I said, Basic stuff, but its a good foundation for some of the crazy contraptions we make here! We got all kinds of cards that build off each other and
Synchronize
together for strong effects or big bursts of damage! We can also swarm our enemies with all those Bots we've got! And if we're feeling real clever, we can even turn our Bots into other stuff when we need to. Thanks again for visiting! If you like what you see, come back again and I'll show you some of my Classics!
Most mages utilize mana as the source of their power. However, there is another form of magic, an ancient and dangerous one where the user draws strength from blood. Sacrificing your blood and flesh to fuel your spells is dangerous and few can endure the cost of this powerful sorcery. Among these there are the lizardmen, who's reptilian regeneration allows them to recover quickly after casting blood spells. The most common form of blood magic is bloodburning, or igniting one's own veins to manipulate the resulting flames.
The Bloodburner utilizes health, in all its forms, as a source of power. Self damage is a core theme of the class, but blood mages are very creative with how they utilize damage and health. Another theme of the class is the relation between spells and minions. Spells will generally benefit from low health, or even hurt you, while minions will heal you, or protect you from damage. This is according to the flavor/lore of the class, as blood magic requires sacrifice and reptilians are able to regenerate their bodies fast.
Theme/Flavor:
Self damage;
Spell and hero Power interactions;
Defensive minions/Offensive spells;
Fire and Blood magic;
Reptiles everywhere!
Strengths:
Strong hero Power;
Lots of removal and boardclears;
Powerful spells;
Combo/Control oriented;
Weaknesses:
Self damage makes Bloodburners very vulnerable to burst;
Minions generally have weak stats;
Hard to obtain a presence on the board;
Healing from class cards comes in very small amounts;
Keyword
Since you use blood to fuel your magic, taking damage (thus bleeding) offers a temporary boost in power. The first time your hero takes damage in a turn, all friendly cards in play with Fresh Blood trigger their effects. Fresh Blood can trigger during your turn, or during your opponent's, but only happens once per turn. The keyword can be used by any Bloodburner deck, as you can use Blood to Fire (the HP) to trigger it. You need to consider the order of your actions to make the most out of your cards.
Example Cards
Sethrak Scout: Similar to Mana Wyrm and Northshire Cleric , this is a cheap minion that benefits from what Bloodburners do best: self damage. He starts small, but he increases his attack whenever you take damage, whether it is self inflicted or not. The opponent can't just ram his minions into your face without consequence. If he's not dealt with early on, he can win you the game. Thus he also acts as a pseudo-taunt. Beware the small lizard boy!
Sanguine Rune: Bloodburners are resourceful and creative. They can re-use cards they already played, but they can't generate new ones. Obtaining copies of stuff they put in their decks is simple, but they can't create new random cards like Mages and Priests can. At 2 mana, this is similar to Shadow Visions and Primordial Glyph , however you can't use it proactively, as you need to already have played the spell you want to copy. This is a late game combo card, not an early game card generator.
Heartpiercer: Shoot a giant flaming spear that seeks the biggest target in sight. Health as a resource does not limit to your only your hero. Priests use Attack as a condition for their spells. Similarly, Bloodburners use Health. Heartpiercer can hit your own minions, but you can control what it kills, unlike Deadly Shot .
Crimson healer: The Hero Power is an important aspect of a Bloodburner's kit. Many cards buff it in some ways. This minion converts ALL the damage Blood to Fire would normally deal to you hero into healing. If you use the buffed Hero Power on a minion, you'd deal 2 damage and heal for 2. If you use it on your hero, you'd heal for 2 twice (once from the targeted damage, and once from the self damage). Think of it like the opposite of Auchenai effects, but only for your hero and Hero Power.
Bloodflame Bolt: Simple and elegant, this turns the all the damage you took into removal. Shadow Bolt does 4 damage for 3 mana, but since you'll usually be using your Hero Power to clear enemy minions in the early game, this could easily deal 6 or more damage by turn 4 (taking into account all the poking the enemy will give you and self damage from your cards). You are more dangerous the closer to death you are.
Remaining Cards
Crystallize Blood: This is the Preparation of my class. It's a 0 mana activator for Fresh Blood without actually reducing your health total. However you do reduce your actual health, thus empowering stuff like Bloodflame Bolt or Mountain Giant .
Fan the Flames: Think of this like making a spell cost one more mana and deal 1 more damage. Bloodburners have many ways of empowering their spells, and this is the simplest example. Warning: Do not use paper fans, as they are flammable! Also, be sure to not infuse The Coin with spell damage!
Fire dance: Cheaper Arcane Intellect with an appropriate drawback for a Bloodburner. It may look cool to dance in a fire, but it sure does not feel cool. Quite Hot actually.
Conflagration: The buffed Blood to Fire would no longer be targetable, but instead you press the button and it would deal 2 to all enemies (and yourself). It's like a Consecration , that costs 5 mana, but it can be prepared a few turns before, since the buff is kept until you use the HP. It works similarly to Spirit of the Dragonhawk , but it affects all enemies. Example for other classes: Life Tap would deal 2 to your hero, and 2 to all enemies. Ballista Shot would deal 3 to all enemies. DIE, INSECT!would deal 8 to all enemies (scary).
Blood Nova: Blood manipulation can be effective on it's own, without igniting it. Bloodburners have access to healing in their class cards, but in small amounts (no more than 4 at a time). The health both heroes gain is the blood drained from the minions. Yes, they scream as blood is ripped from their bodies. Yes, your opponent will need therapy.
Let me introduce you to
The Bug
class. The Bug is... well, a bug. But do not underestimate it ! It is able to trade some small minions with Hero Power, defend with various taunt minions and easily swarm the board. Oh, and don’t forget about weapons, the easiest activators for…
The Bug introduces a new keyword called Fury, which activates whenever your hero kills a minion
(I told you weapons are useful)
. This effect can trigger multiple times, thus giving your hero attack is something common for The Bug.
This keyword will not be used in the Basic Set !
EXAMPLE CARDS
EXPLANATION
Aspid Gruz -
The Bug has various ways to quickly swarm the board, or at least produce many minions.
Aspid Gruz
Is an example of a card which has synergy both with aggro tools and Armor. Gaining Armor is something common for this class, so activating it's effect should not be something hard.
Precise Forging -
Weapons are very important for The Bug. They can easily activate
Fury
effects or just help control the board. This card helps keeping your important weapon 'alive' by giving it Durability. However, sometimes you may want to change your weapon, so you have to be careful when playing
Precise Forging.
Ancient Protection -
This card shows two important ascpects of The Bug class - gaining Armor and interaction with Taunt minions. The latters are helpful when your hero is at low Health after attacking many times. Here you have your defence doubled, because you give one of your minions Taunt, and also you give yourself some armor.
Old Nail -
The Bug is a weapon class, so having one in the basic set is something normal. While this one may not seem to be extraordinary, it is helpful when trading in the first turns. After this weapon loses it's bonus Attack, you can still buf it temporarily (with your HeroPower) or permanently (with
Precise Forging
).
Parry -
A small way to gain some Armor, as well as deal damage. This is a very good tool to gain Armor in early game as well as kill opponent's minion or damage them directly.
Parry
also have many synergies with cards that destroy Armor or cards that do something when you gain it (like Aspid Gruz).
Battlemages are sort of a fusion between warrior and mage. They use magic to create weapons, armor, and to wreak havoc in melee combat.
My particular version of battlemage slowly conjures powerful yet fragile energy weapons. Weapon combat fills the battlemage with fury, empowering their spells and minions, much like how an enraged warrior's abilities become more deadly.
Main themes:
"Can't attack the turn it's equipped" on weapons, 1 durability weapons, effects that change depending on the target
(not shown in basic)
, buffing your minion's health, small but frequent armor gain.
Strengths:
Versatile (has a large variety of tools at their disposal), can setup for very high power turns, excels against decks with lots of minions such as zoo decks.
Weaknesses:
Obvious with weapons (conjuring a weapon takes time ya know?), weapon removal, struggles to fully utilize cards against decks with few minions, takes a lot of damage triggering spellfury and has no big heals or armor gain.
Keyword: Spellfury
Spellfury
changes the effect (such as a
Battlecry
) it's printed after on the card, usually upgrading it. It activates if your hero has done X or more damage to minions by attacking this turn. So if your hero did 5 damage,
Spellfury (1)
and
Spellfury (5)
would activate but
Spellfury (8)
wouldn't.
It can be tricky to master as damaging minions to buff your
Spellfury
can lead to you not needing the upgraded effect. Due to not being able to trigger
Spellfury
going face, cards that summon minions for your opponent are valuable to this class.
Saronite Taskmaster
and
Marin the Fox
are good examples.
Note that class keywords do not appear on basic cards.
Example Cards
Cauterize:
Solid removal if your willing to take some damage. You do get less value with a better weapon so don't overdo it. You can only kill them so much after all... (unfortunately)
Enchant Weapon: Fury:
Your angry, your swords angry, your enemies minions are dead. It's a good time! This is an example of the classes cards that are only effective against minions, and the "Enchant Weapon:" card type that will appear occasionally.
Reinvigorate:
After a hard days work, taking time to relax can do wonders. However it does seem to be less effective while the enemies minions are trying to murder you. I'm frankly shocked.
Summoned Battleaxe:
The perfect card to show off the class at a glance. It may seem somewhat weak but it's a cheap way to trigger big spellfury cards and it has excellent synergy with weapon durability buffs (which the class has in classic).
Fire Tornado:
The classes signature aoe. It's quite powerful, and an example of the classes armor gain which is often a small amount added onto another effect.
Remaining Cards
Flame Bowman:
Another example of the classes cards that are only effective against minions.
Icecrafter:
She has solid stats, and you can definitely get your monies worth out of her using windfury (which the class can get from a couple of classic cards).
Frozen Fist:
Having no weapon equipped is another minor card theme so this gets players used to thinking about it early.
A fairly strong card as early when it's best you likely wont have a weapon.
Conjure: Barriers:
The class is great at conjuring armor, shields, etc, so the classe's minions are often well protected with high health! The class's weapons are a bit too complex for the average warrior to use so attack buffs aren't common.
Spellspeed:
Using magic induced speed, you can strike down multiple foes before they have time to react! This card is paralytically good against big boards (less chance of 'losing' a hit to face), and with spell damage.
The Chronicler is a class based on harnessing your memories and the power of the places you have visited or studied, summoning beasts of alien worlds or making your opponent feel what an eruption is like. Roaming through Azeroth and beyond, these explorers and scribes have witnessed or read about nearly everything, but their thirst for knowledge and adventure lingers on. Their power is clearly shown by Lorewalker Shuchun in this short story, The Blank Scroll . Citing Ziya, a goblin rogue: "Shuchun was a Lorewalker, a trade that Ziya barely understood. Lorewalkers told stories. They searched for artifacts from Pandaria's long past. And, if Shuchun was any example, they talked with their mouths full and smiled a lot.". This is applicable in a general sense to pandaren lorewalkers, dwarf historians, gnome bookmasters, elven scholars and all other different types of chroniclers.
Strengths: high statted minions are one of the most obvious strengths of the Chronicler. High health, resilient and hard to remove minions are a staple. It also has many resources and abilities to draw or pseudo-tutor cards, providing consistency. Its board clears are relatively cheap, and the Recall keyword allows a big degree of flexibility in many cases.
Weaknesses: this class will have very few tools to gain a board back when playing more aggressive decks. It will also struggle to remove big minions. It also has no means of easily creating tokens, so minions must be preserved in order to use its buffs. Board clears will be symmetrical. Burst damage will be scarce.
Themes: the Chronicler will be spell-heavy in all of its archetypes. Minions that synergize with spells cast will be a recurrent theme, in different ways from Mages'. Taunt minions will also appear, and high-health minions in general. Discover will become a very important weapon in its arsenal after Un'goro. The approach to board centric or aggressive archetypes will be focused on single, strong minions, not board flooding. Stories will be high costed spells with evocative names that try to represent folk tales of Azeroth.
Tokens
This Hero Power functions in a very similar way to the Shaman Hero Power. This means that, when you use it, a Scroll that you don't already have is added to your hand. So, the probabilities of getting the Scroll you want improve every time you use it without casting the others. However, you can't have more than one of each, so once yo have all four you must cast one before being able to use the Hero Power again. This is exactly how the Shaman Hero Power works. Improving your Hero Power makes it so that you choose which Scroll you add to your hand, and you can now have duplicates. Once again, this behaviour is exactly the same as Shaman's improved Hero Power.
Keyword - Recall
The Chronicler's keyword, Recall, represents their command over memories and stories, and shows their ability to remember and reproduce events they have experienced, heard or read about. This keyword allows the power of some cards to be split between themselves and the next Hero Power. Most of them will only have an small extra punch, while a small amount of Recall cards will be much more focused on the Recall effect, being an effective tempo loss when cast but allowing you to choose more precisely when to unleash their full effect.
Example Cards
These are some of the most characteristic cards of the Chronicler's basic set. This class will have problems dealing with big, single targets, and its board clears won't mix very well with the more aggressive archetypes. There will be no Consecration s or Maelstrom Portal s. Their strength lies with big, resilient minions, board control and the capability of grinding opponents out with the right deck. Later expansions might bring with them some combo capabilities too.
Novice Lorewalker is the first of many minions that will synergize with casting or having spells. The early game minion of choice for all board-centric Chronicler decks, it can't snowball like pre-nerf Mana Wyrm , or provide as much value as Northshire Cleric , but it helps establish early board control and is a resilient target for buffs.
Speaking of buffs! Invigorate is a mediocre buff by itself. However, the healing aspect combined with the high health minions the Chronicler has allows it to make great value trades and continue with the upper hand.
Meticulous Research is an important piece of card draw for slower Chronicler archetypes. Even though it is a bit overcosted compared to Arcane Intellect , for example, can act as a powerful tutor in the right deck. It also provides a perfect curve if played turn 4. However, it is a big loss of tempo and can't guarantee a follow up until turn 9, so some decks won't be able to play it. The Basic set already includes powerful 5 mana cards and a 6 mana spell, so there will always be options to include in your deck with this card.
Stay Awhile and Listen is the closest the Chronicler will have to hard removal. It is reminiscent of Sap , but unlike it this can only be used in a reactive way. Minion based decks don't synergize with it, but it is very powerful in the hands of a slower deck with minimal board presence.
Di Chen and the Desert is the first story in the Chronicler's arsenal. These costly spells are based on stories, tales and fables of the different cultures of Azeroth. In this case, the story of Di Chen tells how he refused to surrender when battling every grain of sand of the desert, and is stuck fighting to this day. This card summons some of the infinite Sand Warriors he faces, and advises the opponent to surrender.
Tokens
Remaining Cards
Contemplation is another simple example of the precise and predictable card draw the Chronicler will use. In this case, it also shows the spell heavy nature of this class, using the simplest of synergies.
Inspiring Tale is a different take on Power Word: Shield . A cycle card that provides some defense, it is a candidate for the last spots of the Control or Combo Chronicler archetypes.
Derision is a simple piece of removal, a bit underpowered compared to things like Frostbolt but it serves its purpose. This shows the absence of direct face damage of this class and its clunky way of dealing with opposing mid-sized minions.
Uldum Guardian is a big, sturdy minion, that provides a strong midgame and a great target for the array of buffs and beneficial spells the Chronicler has. Unlike Druid, the Chronicler won't approach its board-centric archetypes through flood and tokens, and will instead use midrange minions and single target buffs.
Winterspring's Bite is an example of the kind of board clears the Chronicler has. This class has some difficulty removing targets directly, and keeping its own minions out of danger... weather knows no sides! Practically all board clears will be symmetrical but powerful.
The commander is a master of the art of war and by the use of clever strategy and tactics can lead their troops to victory in almost any situation. The default hero for the class is Sir Anduin Lothar, the Lion of Azeroth, a legendary hero that fought in the First War between orcs and humans and later commanded the armies of the Alliance of Lordaeron during the Second War, at whose end he perished at the base of Blackrock Mountain. And yes, the Anduin that we all know and love is named in his honor so you can bet this guy is quite popular to the people of Stormwind.
KEYWORD - TRAIN
Minions and weapons with Train can attack other friendly minions (dealing damage, of course) to give them a specified effect like +1/+1 or Rush. Train is thought to be an option the card has to make it more versatile and not something you want to be doing every turn. Identifying when you want to Train and when to attack your enemy is key to mastering this class.
EXAMPLE CARDS
Reinforce
is great for dealing with an early threat while developing the board. The 0/3 token might look underwhelming but buffing your minions is part of the identity of this class (as you might have guessed).
Trained for Combat
is very strong in conjunction with your hero power or Reinforce. It basically forces your opponent to always consider dealing with your New Recruits if they don't want you to buff them when you get a chance.
Backline Strategist
mixes two very important elements of this class, Taunt and minion placement. When played correctly this card can create some really annoying boards for your opponent to deal with by forcing them to kill your minions in a very specific order.
Inspiring Blade
is a strong midrange threat for board flooding decks. Buffing your New Recruits from 0 to 1 Attack makes quite the difference and if left uncontested you can deal a lot of damage to the enemy hero over 2 turns.
If you can't beat 'em...
join 'em. This card is a late value removal option for the class. You can destroy a threat if you're desperate or you can wait for your opponent to play a big minion to gain control of it, albeit damaged. It's especially good against minions with Divine Shield or if you can restore the Health of your minions.
It's not magic, but it's not science either: alchemy is an ancient discipline that studies the mutating nature of matter and energy. Whether it is by combining several ingredients into a potion with surprising effects or by transmutting metals of any kind, Alchemists always have what we need.
Keyword
Transmute is a keyword that can "transform" a useless card into a more useful one. Both the shuffled and the drawn cards might have to meet a certain criteria, which makes it more predictable.
Potion tag
The Alchemist introduces a new tribe tag for spells: Potions.
Of course, there already are many spells in the game that feature Potions, which would also be labeled as such for thematic purposes. Keep in mind this would have no gameplay impact whatsoever, since none of the other classes has Potion synergy.
With this change, the
Kabal Chemist
would also have a slightly different text (which is better than the current one, since it makes clear
Potion of Heroism
is excluded from her card pool).
Complete list of old cards that would be considered Potions:
Arcane Elixir
. Many Potions provide buffs for your minions, but unlike the boring stat buffs provided by Paladin and Priest, we Alchemists prefer more unexpected effects. This one in particular is a combo-oriented card, so its 0-cost is a big deal.
Potion Researcher
. This fellow is the only Potion synergy card in the Basic set. He can get quite strong while your other minions... also get strong!
Experimental Setup
. You know what I love the most about being an Alchemist? That we always have what we need, thanks to our many tutor effects. Most of them are provided by
Transmute
effects, but we also have traditional tutored draw.
Escape the Lab
. Science is always in need of test subjects who are willing to give their body for our cruel... I mean, totally justified experiments. However, most people are so selfish that they would rather not, so we have to craft our own subjects. And the loyal Homunculi are perfect for... What do you mean they escaped?
For Science!
. Of course, not everything is perfect in the world of Alchemy: the government never invests on R&D and our AoE effects are quite clunky. However, they are really strong with the right support. In the case of
For Science!
, it can be quite destructive with
Arcane Elixir
, and can also be used with
Escape the Lab
to draw A LOT of cards.
Remaining Cards
Potion of Corpulence
. Another example of a buff Potion. Combine it with
Potion Researcher
to get a 3 mana 3/6 with Taunt.
Healing Spray
. An ancient technique known by alchemists since 2004.
Liquid Fire
. Of course, not all Potions are good for you. Some of them are bad for your opponent, which is more fun if you ask me.
Golden Touch
. Ancient alchemists obsessed with turning lead into gold, when they could've simply turned PEOPLE into gold. Although it looks similar to
Polymorph
and
Hex
, it triggers
Deathrattle
and on-death effects.
Clumsy Assistant
. Argh, she always drops the jars with the Homunculi! If she didn't put so many bodies on the board, I'd fire her.
Tokens
Summoned by
Escape From Lab
and
Clumsy Assistant
.
Laryssa
,
the Dark Witch
is a class aimed at stealing strength from its opponents and having resilient minions.
The class has the unique
Barrier
keyword, as described below.
Keyword Section
Barrier
is a defensive keyword that will have some interesting interactions with both minions and spells. Lower attack minions (wide boards) will be much weaker against it, whereas high attack minions might not even care.
Barrier
does not stack in any way, it simply reduces all incoming damage by 1.
Example Cards
As mentioned, the Witch is looking to control the board, weakening/controlling enemy minions whilst keeping her own minions healthy.
Shadow Pupil
can quickly go to a 3/3 or higher depending on the enemy board, making it nice a healthly against an aggressive board.
Unholy Shield
is a strong defensive spell that works well with the Witch's already higher health minions. Since her minions have a higher likelihood of surviving,
Unholy Shield
will often buff multiple Minions.
Dark Mist
allows for efficient trading, but is reliant on there being a decent board for it.
Dark Scythe
can quickly scale in damage, though attacking minions four times with it will drain the Witch's health.
Mind Sway
is a cheap way to prevent face damage and force the opponent to possibly make a bad trade.
Remaining Cards
Note: This is an active effect like
Stormwind Champion
. If this dies, the effect ends.
Most of these are further controlling / defensive type cards.
Shadow Mend
further works with efficient trading by bringing all those high health minions back to full health after trading with them.
The Journeyman is a class focussed about placement and movement, because i think that placement is an underused mechanic, and it is very tactical. Many of the cards, and even the custom keyword, will interract with targets adjacent or in front of them, so you have to place them carefully. You can later move minions around if you decide to change plans, and some minions even get bonus effects when moved!
This is how moving minions work: you target the minion you want to move, and that picks him up. Then you drag to where you want to place him down again. You can only move minions when you have 2 or more minions on the field, but don't worry: there are a lot of ways to get extra minions in this class.
Ping Loo is an adventurous pandaren that left the main island together with his companions in order to explore new terrains and learn more about the earth, nature and people from other places. A lot of the cards will be themed in an explorer/traveller/jungle vibe, but some of them will be about the different cultures that the journeymen come across. (And of course cards will be in the theme of the expansion that they are in)
The class also has a custom keyword called "Signal". I explained it in detail in phase I, the link to there is all the way at the end of this post, but i will also have a short reminder here:
The Signal Keyword
There are 2 variants of cards with the Signal keyword: cards that emit a signal, or cards that are able to receive signals. On the card is specified if it will emit or receive, and also there will be further specified when it triggers / what will happen. For example a card could say: "Battlecry: Emit a
Signal.
" or "Whenever this minion receives a
Signal
, gain +1/+1."
The keyword won't be used in the basic set so let's move on to the cards that WILL be used in the basic set:
Example Cards
The basic set aims to be not too complicated, while also still being original. The basic set of the journeyman delivers some very useful tools, like card draw, survivablilty, minions to put on the board and control tools. Let's quickly talk about them:
Barkshield
is a very simple yet useful card. It can be used on a high health minion to protect your other minions and your life total.
Brutal Slash
can be used with for example spell damage or cards like
Gurubashi Berserker
. I don't suspect it to be a core card in a lot of decks but it is a nice mechanic to build around.
Flying Splice Attack
, a combat manouvrer that Ping Loo learned in a country far far away... You can either shrink down high statted threats from your opponent with this card, or if you have a minion with a usefull effect, like
Ragnaros the Firelord
you can split him into 2 smaller parts to trigger the effect twice! This also synergises with Signal minions, because you can first split your minion and then put a signal-emitting minion in between them.
Frog Ambush
: if you don't have minions on the board, you can't move them. This card is there to avoid those situations and could also be used for token or aggro based decks.
Yourney Companion
is one of the strongest cards of the basic set I think, because your opponent can't easily trade it away the turn after you play it...
The tokens:
Little frog gets summoned by Frog Ambush and Companion's Companion by Journey Companion.
Remaining Cards
(Edit: These cards where missing, i accidentaly pressed submit.)
These are the other cards of the basic set and there is not much else to say about them. The class can either play control or aggro, but most of the strategies will be focussed on minions.
Previous Phase
Here is the link to my phase I submission, the keyword is explained there with more detail and you can also see the example cards of minions with the keyword.
Infiltrators are covert agents, masters of disguise and espionage, able to camouflage within the community unnoticed. Some pretend as diplomats; others, famous entertainers. They may look as a force of Alliance, a Silverhand Paladin or a Scarlet Crusader, only to find out they're just serving their own ends. Their loyalty is unknown and their faction hides beyond the mists thicker than that of Pandaria.
No secrets are left hidden to them.. and whilst you’re still planning your witty combo next turn, an Infiltrator has already outsmarted you. No one knows their real intention, and they leave no trail for their discovery.
Mirage is the default hero for the Infiltrator class.
“Mirage is new in her game and her disguised career didn’t take overnight. But with her charming training, she immediately rose to popularity and was privilege to entertain the royalties. Often, she would use her acting skills with the royal guards, unveiling every secret in Stormwind.”
Class Overview
Unique Keywords: Mask
Core Keywords: Stealth
Mechanics: Reveal, disruption , hand information & manipulation, cost manipulation , tech, anti-secrets & combo
Weaknesses: Hand Information doesn’t directly solve problems, lacks direct and burst damage , masked minions can easily be wiped by AOE, lacks self-healing
Win Condition: Value Generation
Common Deck Archetype: Control
Unique Keyword
A Masked minion (left) compared to Stealthed (right).
Masked minions are exclusive to the Infiltrator class. Opponents don’t know what kind of minion they are fighting against!
Masked minions are not stealthed; thus, they can be attacked.
A minion will lose its Mask when another character attacks it such as another minion or a hero with an attack or a weapon.
Direct damage, AOE spells and some hero powers can target and damage it, but will not break its mask.
When this minion attacks, it doesn’t lose Mask; however, the opponent may have a clue of its identity based from the damage it dealt (although most masked minions have the same attack).
All Masked minions costs 4 , similar to secrets, preventing the opponent from guessing it.
Similar to Stealth and Divine shield, once a minion loses its Mask, the card text is still present but no longer does anything .
Sample Cards
(1 Weapon, 4 spells)
Inspector’s Pipe: Stay cool and undetected. You're not a real inspector.
Identity Blown: Uh-oh. Get away fast! Your secret mission has been discovered. You’re blown.
Decryption: Your basic ooze is a spell now. But beware; you might forget it destroys your weapon too.
Disguise Kit: Put more makeup and you'll look like Cairne Bloodhoof . Your most valuable item. Your win condition .
Remaining Cards
(2 Minions, 3 Spells)
Cipher: Infiltrators hate authority and power..
Clean: Stay clean mister. You can’t be compromised.
Mind Stalk: You gather intelligence, most of the time, using physical contact.
Scarlet Inquisitor: Ooops. No one knows their cleric is actually your mole.
Encryption : Want to protect your agent? Encrypt it. Not a fan of that Ironbark Protector ? Encrypt it too.
Previous Phase
The Infiltrator still have a lot of mechanics to unmask for the Classic up to Rastakhan’s Rumble. Check here for the previous submission:[Phase I Submission - Infiltrator Class]
Artwork Used
Traveling Jester by Dani McCole - Mirage Me - Breach Icon Matthew O'Connor - Inspector's Pipe Labyrinth CCG - Identity Blown Andantonius - Decryption Pierre Droal - Deauthorize Dantheman123 - Disguise Kit Ari-Matti Toivonen - Cipher Kieran Yanner - Encryption Pierre Santiago - Clean jbacasacop - Mind Stalk 3four- Scarlet Inquisitor
The Infuser class is made up of spellcasters and spellswords that use magic in a unique way. That merge it with creatures or objects to create wild new results. From magic weapons to enchanted armor, they can turn the mundane into something truly magical. Of course, the path of the Infuser is one of theft. One person gains and another loses. Among the Infusers, there are two particular factions that are represented in the Basic set. The Flame-Heart faction and the Ice-Soul faction. Each faction has their own style. The Flame-Heat faction focuses on offense while the Ice-Soul faction focuses on defense.
Keyword: Absorb
To represent the give and take relationship of an Infuser, the keyword Absorb was created. A minion that absorbs Attack will gain the Attack, while a Spell that absorbs health will be given to your hero. A card cannot absorb more than their target can give. A minion with 0 Attack cannot give any Attack.
Example Cards
Shoddy Spellbook: It's like a 2-Mana draw a card with the upside of getting your next draw early.
Unstable Catalyst: 2-Mana +3/+3 on the turn you play, but slowly grows weaker each turn.
Corrupt Soul: A
Shadow Bolt
that bypasses Divine Shield, but is less effective against damaged minions.
Flame-Heart Blade: A 2/2 weapon that can become a 3/1 weapon. Strong synergy with Durability buffs.
The Alchemist is a specialist in the art of transformation, generation, and combination; including of living material. Her specialties are:
CARD GENERATION! Be it through summoning, shuffling, or adding to hand. Small minions in particular will be focused on very often.
HAND SYNERGY! You're an Alchemist. More ingredients means crazier experiments! Transform cards in your hand, take advantage of your hand size, or use useless cards you're holding as a resource! There will be lots of synergy with 1-Cost cards for this reason, as they are generated by the Hero Power.
UNIVERSAL TRIBAL SYNERGIES! Alchemist has cards to synergize with any and all tribes! Be it Murlocs, Dragons, Demons, or Nightmare Amalgam -like "All" cards.
SNOWBALLING BOARD! Be it through aggressive tribal synergies (e.g. Murlocs), board-wide buffs à la old-school Token Druid, or quick board reloading à la Odd Paladin.
Strengths: Early game board control, Minion swarming, Value generation, Versatility.
Weaknesses: Few direct damage, Few big midrange-y minions.
Showcased Cards
Tokens
Yes, the plural of Homonculus is Homonculi.
CAULDRON OF BATTLE - What's an alchemist without her potions? "Basic Potions" will be the Alchemist equivalent of Hunter's Animal Companion s and you will continue to see them on future cards.
IMP SMUGGLER - This minion has both token synergy and hand synergy, two themes of the class.
UNSTABLE CONCOCTION - This card is very useful for my class since it's a big spell that refills your board.
BOTTLED DEATH - Alchemist's small base AoE. Closely related to Shadow Word: Horror . Allows you to AFK up to turn 4 when you're playing Control Alchemist.
UNBOTTLED DEATH - Alchemist's big base AoE, akin to Flamestrike . Alchemist prefers to play a lot of small minions rather than a few big minions, which means that this spell will only affect your opponent most of the time.
Remaining cards
LAB ACCIDENT - Hard Removal, although it could in very rare circumstances act as a buff. It costs only 2 due to the fact that a 3/3 still costs resources to deal with.
LIQUID RAGE - "But Cheese! That's Smuggler's Run ! You really have no originality man!" Yes, but Smuggler's Run fits perfectly in the class so it's justified. Remember Innervate and Counterfeit Coin pls.
COCKTAIL THROW - Although Alchemist isn't very good at direct damage, each class needs some in its basic set. Also, hand synergy.
UNWILLING SUBJECTS - A simple token-sumoning spell. Yes, it's weaker than Muster for Battle but MfB (a fitting acronym) shouldn't be the standard here.
ANCIENT KNOWLEDGE - Hand refiller. You can draw up to 5 cards for 4 mana, but it will often be less since Alchemist often has lots of cards in her hand. Comparable to Divine Favor .
Sly and dangerous, the Court Spy is not one to be trifled with. Having the ear of the king of one of the most powerful kingdoms in Azeroth comes with it's own perks. Entrusted by King Varian Wrynn to weed out opposition, the doors to the royal treasury are wide open as are the loyalties of many to be found in Stormwind. That is, if you're willing to pay the price.....
The Court Spy is a mix of many different archetypes and classes in Hearthstone. The class is primarily geared toward aggro and mid-range strategies through a few core tools:
Powerful (temporary) ramp through creating copies of
The Coin
.
Building a stronger board through numerous minion buffs.
While Court Spy boards are formidable, the class suffers from a general lack of AOE, burn, and removal. So while the board may be strong, it is their only way to win. The class needs to focus on ending games quickly or they risk being outvalued by control decks that can remove all of their threats or tank their way through the damage before reaching their own win condition.
New Keyword: Buy Off
Buy Off
acts as a status effect on minions, and hence can be removed by
Silence
. While it can be used as a ping on enemy minions, it can also be used to trigger various friendly effects on class minions at the trade off of weakening the minion slightly each time you target it with
Buy Off
. Additionally, multiple stacks of
Buy Off
can trigger additional effects. Cards that feature this will have the text
Buy Off (X)
in the text, indicating what level of
Buy Off
needs to be applied before that effect occurs.
Example Cards
Empty the Treasury
- Core card for the class. One of the many cards that provides extra copies of
The Coin
to either ramp, provide synergy with other class cards, or proc on spell cast effects.
Lady of the Court
- Another method of gaining more copies of
The Coin
. Since the Court Spy is so reliant on both ramp and spell cantrips to win, redundancy was needed.
Deep Pockets
- Adds quite a bit of flexibility to your hero power along with being a zero cost cantrip. If you're desperate, you can treat it as a four mana, give a minion -2/-2, or you can proc multiple copies of the Buy Off keyword on a card.
Armory Raid
- A strong cantrip generator. You lose tempo if you play it early on curve, but each of the tokens costs one mana and have a combined stat total equaling a
Blessing of Kings
. You can either cast them all on one minion, or spread them around depending on the board state.
Bribed Bodyguard
- A basic example of what the class is all about; Ramp and large Mid-Range minions. If you curve into it via either
Empty the Treasury
or
Lady of the Court
, you could have a turn four 6/6. At worst it's a five mana
Chillwind Yeti
, so you could certainly do worse on curve.
Armory Raid Tokens
Remaining Cards
Incite Violence
- A basic board attack buff. While
Raid Leader
gives you a 2/2 body as well, this buff is permanent and doesn't require a slot on your board. If you're running a low curve aggro deck you could certainly run both.
Guards!
- This card has two main uses. Generating two minions with
Taunt
not only opens up the need for trading from your opponent, but the card also opens up a crucial defensive tool later in the game to buy yourself more time.
Public Denouncement
-
Shadow Bolt
but for the Court Spy. One of the only pieces of true hard removal for the class. 'Nuff said.
Glory Hammer
- I had originally created this card before the
Cold Blood
nerf, so I guess this card is now technically better now, :P Otherwise another cheap, strong buff for a minion already on board.
Temporary Loyalty
- Your hope is to have already won the game by this point as the Court Spy, but just in case you need that extra push this card can come in handy. Less useful with swarms of 1/1's, but with the classes larger minions it can hit for quite a bit.
The Sages are tribe leaders that help their people persevere through exposure to detrimental magics, as was fel for the Lost Ones and Broken Draenei after the onslaught of Gul'Dan's Horde. Led by Akama, the Sage is a class that specializes in building a large board and manipulating the battlefield to empower your allies' attacks, or weaken the enemies.
Example Cards
Vorpal Blade becomes stronger with your Hero Power or other cards that increase your hero's attack, and promote controlling the board as you still get a Wrathguard effect for the opponent on any enemy minions you hit.
As with many cards, you'll be wanting to modify attack, Timbermaw Pathfinder is a strong tempo tool that can be used to synergize with other cards that want you to have heavier hitting blows, or even offensively with cards like Chamber of Reflection (in remaining cards) that will damage the enemies.
Since you plan on attacking a lot, Chain Heal provides some survivability, but can also provide more lethality in creating a strong board with Lightwarden.
Telredor Defender provides a payoff in providing a burst if you've managed to secure a strong board state.
And finally, Surge grants a large tutor that can help you rebuild or improve your board after it has been wiped or you've exhausted your resources.
A
Blood Mage
is an adept caster capable of casting devastating spells from afar. Once part of the Alliance long ago, they turned to what appeared to be darker magics of fire, some becoming outright warlocks. They were once led by the mighty Kael'thas Sunstrider who succumbed to visions of grandeur. While he is gone, he remains the most famous, or infamous, rather, Blood Mage of Azeroth.
Cauterize
was a difficult Hero Power to develop but it embodies the Blood Mage well both mechanically and lore-wise. It can be viewed as "Destroy a minion with 2 health or less." In a sense, it's a bit like
Mortal Coil
, always a strong card when you can get it off. Furthermore, it helps support the class' core identity, triggering on damage revenge effects, an in-game example being
Acolyte of Pain
.
The
Blood Mage
is bit of a mixed bag class, like Shaman. They excel in dealing direct damage and racking up Spell Damage like a Mage, but also exhibit a tendency for making sacrifices for power, much like Warlock or Warrior. Yet, at the same time, they have access to more than serviceable healing and even some completely new playstyles.
KEYWORD: IMMOLATE
I really wanted a negative keyword this time around, a bit of a departure from most of my classes. It's also very straightforward and acts in a way much like overload, to balance out some extra stats or a cheaper cost. There are some cases where
Immolate
is used in odd ways to show that a simple keyword such as this does have creative depth to it.
Example Cards
Burning Embers:
Burning Embers is a key resource that Warlocks in World of Warcraft stack and utilize for a variety of other skills. True to its form, in Hearthstone, it is a simple cycling card that requires some setup but helps dig further into your deck, allowing you to play your other cards quicker, a somewhat analogous function.
Pyroclasm:
This is the hard removal of the Basic set for Blood Mage. It is slightly harder to pull off compared to Hunter's Mark and Execute, but Blood Mages are centered around spells as is evident from the rest of their Basic Set.
Vengeful Sin'dorei:
This is the first look at a Blood Mage minion. The core concept of Blood Mage is 'revenge', and this aptly-named minion couldn't be a better example of this playstyle. Synergizes swimmingly with your Hero, and even by itself, it is a huge hassle to deal with in the early game. Though a bit slow (as it cannot deal with boards by itself without other cards to help it along), this card is a premier 3-drop for Blood Mages.
Rain of Fire:
Rain of Fire can be a bit of a gamble, but it is important to note that since friendly minions are safe, it is far more likely to hit an enemy than your own face. This kind of card also begs to be part of some ridiculous on-trigger effect combo, much like
Healing Rain
and
Lightwarden
are just silly together. Unlike Healing Rain, this card has more utility and is in the Basic Set, foreshadowing strong synergies to come in future sets.
Deadwind Scythe:
To round off the showcase cards, this simple weapon shows that Blood Mages are indeed a weapon class. A scythe might look out of place, but Warlocks use scythes regularly and Blood Mages are no strangers to fel magic. This weapon in particular serves as an excellent mid-game tempo play and can find itself a home in slower decks and decks that fight for board control early on.
The Researcher class is all about science and everything related to that. Its flavors can include artificer-like things, knowledge and information, sci-fi or steampunk themes and more. The class is good at card draw, but its cards are often situational or combo-dependent, so you'll end up needing the card advantage you get to make up for those drawbacks. The class is more focused on spells than minions, and has many cards that synergize with them, although we won't see that too much in basic yet. However, the class can play minions, and has ways of having them survive for long times and get a tempo advantage when combined with spells.
Keyword: Study
Study works sort of as a situational Combo, but also works if the previous card was played last turn, as long as it fits the condition. In cards, study would be formatted like "
Study a Spell:
X" where the word 'Spell' could be replaced with any other condition, and X is the additional effect the card gains.
Example Cards
Stormbringer
is a decently-sized minion with an effect that's very good with small spells or if you can get it to stick on the board for a couple turns.
Critterize
lets you get a good trade on an enemy minion with your own, or can be used with a ping effect to kill the target easily. Good situationally or when you can combo with it, like many cards in the class.
Death Ray
lets you kill a minion for slightly less mana than normal, but has a slight restriction on what it can target. Strong but inflexible.
Rummage
lets you dig through your deck a bit faster. As long as you don't mind the discard too much.
Defensive Array
lets you get good trades with your minions and keeps them safe. Even though the class doesn't focus too much on minions, it likes keeping those it has well protected and has several minions that get good value if they stay on the board long enough.
The Angel class gain it's power as time goes by. They consume their disciples for the greater cause. The class is good at long term tactics such as effects that start on your next turn or combination of spells to create strong effect. The Life Essence effect can boost the Hero Health above 30 while playing a rule with addition cards which will be introduced in the future which gain their power based on the number of Life Essence you played. Angels are pure and as such can target tribe cards in addition they can interrupt the opponent moves and protect against decks which are focused on early game wins (aggressive).
Keyword: consumed
Effects like your Hero Power cause your minions to get consumed. consumed works like a Deathrattle with the exception that to trigger it the minion must be destroyed by your am effect which destroy friendly characters.
On Phase I I showed a variation of this Keyword on some cards.
The Voidcaster is the last line of defense against the void... in their own mind at least. Taking in the powers that they seek to fight, the Voidcasters manipulate singularities and remove enemies from the board with disturbing efficiency. With powerful singular use secrets, spell targeting manipulation and tradeoff with enemy's armor, the Voidcaster dances in and out of rifts on the battlefield, shunting enemies into rifts and overall... looking purple doing it. Oh, and Locus-walker ? The Ethereal behind the whole movement? He'll reveal his secrets... in due time... (C'mon Blizzard, don't keep him an enigma forever)
Singularity
While we won't see this in basic set, it's worth seeing the change to Singularity. Now, you can still no longer play any other Singularities, but you can cheat them out now. We talked about it deep in building the class (Me and McF4rtson that is) and we decided this erases a lot of complex problems we were having.
Example Cards
The Voidcaster is primarily a spellcaster style class. It summons big minions and it has access to a few weapons, but in it's essence it's mostly here to spread effects directly through it's own spells. Thus, these are some of the spells that represent the strengths of the class.
Gravity Well: This is one of the more important concepts of the Voidcaster ; Spreading single target spells. All spellcasters have there own way to leave a mark and stand out, and bar Zentimo , I thought this concept was under-explored. With Gravity Well , you can spread a single target destruction, a damage spell and perhaps a card draw or two.
Mindbender: Why use the void if you won't use all the Old Gods tricks? Mindbender is the cheap cycle effect of Voidcaster , and like all 1-mana draws, it has the possibility to draw more than one, though only through spell-spreading effects.
Dissipation: Look, I love 4d Chess style cards; The cards wherein you and your opponent have to think ahead of each other to make best use of it's effects. Dissipation damage tics occur on both players turn, whenever any card is played, until the minion died. So now your opponent has to decide how to proceed, if they can play spells, so on and so forth. Or... you blow an excess of cards on killing a minion before their turn.
Twisted Heartbeat: More Old God trickery. The Twisted Heartbeat is one of the few AoE's for the class, but it follows the trend they all will. It requires multiple cards to truly work, but once it does it spreads damage wide. Unlike Defile , Twisted Heartbeat is not an instant boardwipe. Rather, you're going to have to work to get it firing off, and likely not all decks will sustain it.
Warp Allegiance: Your will is not your own... In hearthstone, Priest is the class most associated with domination, but that's tied to their shadow forms... the forms that use the void's might. Warp Allegiance is the strongest removal the Voidcaster tangls with, completing controlling an enemy minion. It's priced midway between Entomb and Mind Control , and is an effect we probably won't revisit too often. Noone likes having all their stuff stolen.
Remaining Cards
I won't do a big deconstruction of all these, but here's how it breaks down. Astral Incineration is an armor tradeoff spell akin to the Hero power. Riftwalker is an overstatted minion in the vein of Succubus , but it's not got much sticking power. Research the Beyond is the most basic draw this clas has access to, with a slight trade off for a strong draw effect. Void Lord's Call is... well it's here for lore reasons, mostly, as the Void Lords are the massive foes of the Voidcasters. I perched the effect four mana between Voidwalker and Voidlord in the vein of Ball of Spiders .... Except unlike Ball of Spiders this actually has an instant board effect. Nether Breeze is a card tied to both the hand ance effects, which you'll see later in classic and beyond, but also the tie in to the various tribes that Voidcaster uses; Demons, Elementals and Dragons. Also, it represents the damage spreading that Voidcaster loves.
So there you have it; Voidcaster Basic. I'm excited to be working through this contest and I'm so hyped to see what everyone else has to offer this time around! Thanks for taking a look at my crazy class, and I hope we all have a great run of it!
Fire: Deal 1 damage
(improved by
Spell Damage
)
. Deal 1 damage to your hero. Switch to Air.
Air: Look at the top 3 cards of your deck. Draw one and put the other two at the bottom of your deck. Switch to Earth.
Water, Earth, Fire, Air...
The avatar is the master of all four natural elements. Just as his mastery of the elements is diverse, so too are the strategies he will use to bring down his foes. The most unique aspect of my class is it's hero power, which rotates between four separate powers. Although we have seen rotating hero powers such as
Dr. Boom, Mad Genius
there has never been one to rotate in a fixed way. However, there has never been a new class added to hearthstone either, so take that!!
Each element has a focus. Earth focuses on maintaining a wide board, as well as generating and then spending armor for beneficial effects. Water focuses on control, with many freeze synergies. Fire is mostly aggro with a lot of spell damage effects, and Air is all about draw and adding value through deck shenanigans.
KEYWORD: Focus
Focus is a minion-only keyword which is listed with a specific effect. There is some similarity to battlecry or deathrattle, but instead of activating when a minion dies or is played from your hand, the effect may be activated instead of attacking, whenever that minion could otherwise have attacked. The effects tied to this keyword will have a variety similar to those tied to battlecry and deathrattle; some will be minor, others will be deck build-arounds.
The keyword is fairly straightforward, but there are some clarifications I would like to make. The clarifications I added in P1 are included in a spoiler tag; the clarifications I wanted to add this time around are:
In the case that a minion has multiple focus effects, they will all activate as opposed to choosing one; this is consistent with Deathrattle. Also, any spell or effect that mentions triggering a focus effect on a minion will activate all focus effects on that minion; this is consistent with
Play Dead
, which will trigger all deathrattle effects on a minion with multiple.
In the case that a minion with a focus effect has 0 attack, that minion cannot activate its focus effect instead of attacking, as a 0-attack minion cannot attack. This minion may still have its focus effect by any spell or effect that triggers focus effects.
P1 Clarifications:
The effects tied to the Focus keyword can be activated in <dfn class="dictionary-of-numbers">one of two ways</dfn>.
The first way is BY the minion, INSTEAD of attacking. That means minions may NOT activate their own focus effects in this way the turn they are played to the board (unless they also have Charge or Rush). Minions with focus and Windfury may attack twice, focus twice, or <dfn class="dictionary-of-numbers">one of each </dfn>(same idea applies for Mega-Windfury). Frozen minions may not activate their focus effects.
The second way is through spells or other effects which specifically mention triggering focus effects. This can happen on top of the minion activating its own focus on the same turn. Therefore, you could use a spell to trigger the focus effect on a minion, and then attack with that minion in the same turn. You may also activate a minion's focus in this way the turn it is played to the board, though in this situation you couldn't follow up with an attack. Minions who are frozen, or otherwise cannot attack this turn, may still have their focus effects activated through these means.
Glacial Incantation
- Very straightforward card here. Main purpose is to set up the many freeze synergies present in this class. Probably slightly better than
Freezing Potion
, but not by much.
Water Whip
- Classic move from the Avatar universe. Not-terribly-efficient damage without the freeze, but with previous card this presents a 3 semi-random assassinate (slightly better than
Deadly Shot
), or with the hero power a slightly cheaper
Assassinate
. The downside here is you need both cards/effects to line up in the same turn, as freeze is obviously a 1-turn effect
From the Earth
- This is a basic taste of what to expect from earth cards - token generation, and capitalizing on a wide board. Balance is similar to
Landscaping
, with the tribe effect (worth 1 mana) traded for +1/+1 (
Mark of the Lotus
)
Whirling Flames
- The cool thing about this card is that it benefits doubly from Spell Damage. Balance is similar to
Consecration
.
Ominious Wind
- This card shows off another unique aspect of my class, which is drawing from the bottom of your deck. I am very excited to play around with this mechanic in the following phases of the competition. Although it is more expensive for each draw than typical draw (i.e.
Arcane Intellect
), there will be many times when the Avatar already knows what's at the bottom of his deck, or it may instead be a random card with reduced cost or bonus value.
The Killmonger class theme is all about living in the wild, surviving and killing. With help of his powerful weapons and tough assistants, he kills enemies (so almost every single creature) and drinks their blood with passion and pride. With every prey, he becomes stronger and more hungry for the next hunt. Kor'Galls great power lies mainly in his own strength and devotion of his assistants who carry countless weapons and track preys.
Keyword: Bloodthirst
When the Killmonger and his assistants can't find any prey for a long time, he feels a very strong
Bloodthirst
.Of course, it doen't make him weaker. He becomes even stronger and more alert.
Bloodthirst cards usually benefit you for playing them not on curve (and not after they are top-decked), otherways they would be too strong. Basic cards have very simple Bloodthirst effects, but some later cards can have very complicated or unusual ones. We will see exactly 2 basic cards with this mechanic. Note: mulligan doesn't count as a turn, so Bloodthirst's turn count is not decreased while a card is in your opening hand
Example cards
Power Fist
: Just a "forked"
Fireball
, but more versatile. Its weakness is mainly not being able to avoid Taunt minions with the remaining 3 damage.
Gouging Knife
: A simply-looking cheap weapon that is able to stack to 5 or even more attack with all of the weapon buffs. Fits great to the class theme- cards that do not look OP, but can be really powerful when combined with other cards
A New Hope
: It can even be a great play for turn 2 when you have a bad opening hand, otherwise it just gives you card draw, necessary when your hand is empty
Scary Scales
: A basic weapon buff
Violent Blow
: Great lategame removal that can help you survive few turns more or even remove a single Taunt minion. Its obvious weakness is, that as a class with agressive playstyle, you don't want to hold cards in your hand for eternity
THE TINKER
Welcome back to Blasthammer's Garage! So, you want to see more of what we Tinkers can do, eh? Like I said last time, we Tinkers are crafty thinkers that make all kinds of wonderful toys! We got mechs and weapons and gadgets and bombs and more scrapbots than you can count! Today, I'll show you a few Basic things so you get a feel for how we work. Don't worry, even some of this stuff can get pretty crazy!
Keyword: Synchronize
Before we get too far, I wanted to remind you about Synchronize ! Sometimes when you're tinkering away, you find you've made something better than what you expected! Use all your Mana on a card, and that card will get a bonus! It's like Combo, but you can use it without playing cards before it! But on the flip side, you only can get one Synchronize effect a turn (usually) and most of the effects won't be just 'do damage' or 'get stats.' Sometimes it'll be stronger the more cards you played, or if you've got some Scrapbots in your hand from your Hero Power! We'll talk more about that later. Now, to the workshop!
Example Cards
Here's a couple neat things. Basic stuff, but important! A lot of my best work is based off some simple ideas. Let's take a closer look, eh?
Remaining Cards
*Note* Forgot about the limited number of keywords, replaced Brass Bodyguard with Bilgewater Overseer and changed Tune Up .
There you go! Like I said, Basic stuff, but its a good foundation for some of the crazy contraptions we make here! We got all kinds of cards that build off each other and Synchronize together for strong effects or big bursts of damage! We can also swarm our enemies with all those Bots we've got! And if we're feeling real clever, we can even turn our Bots into other stuff when we need to. Thanks again for visiting! If you like what you see, come back again and I'll show you some of my Classics!
Previous Phase
Here's the transcript of your last visit!
Currently working on the Tinker! K&C and WW / JUG and KotFT / Classic / Basic / Introduction
My Previous Classes: Apothecary (unfinished) / Chronomancer / Death Knight (old)
My Previous Expansions: Hallow's End
Most mages utilize mana as the source of their power. However, there is another form of magic, an ancient and dangerous one where the user draws strength from blood. Sacrificing your blood and flesh to fuel your spells is dangerous and few can endure the cost of this powerful sorcery. Among these there are the lizardmen, who's reptilian regeneration allows them to recover quickly after casting blood spells. The most common form of blood magic is bloodburning, or igniting one's own veins to manipulate the resulting flames.
The Bloodburner utilizes health, in all its forms, as a source of power. Self damage is a core theme of the class, but blood mages are very creative with how they utilize damage and health. Another theme of the class is the relation between spells and minions. Spells will generally benefit from low health, or even hurt you, while minions will heal you, or protect you from damage. This is according to the flavor/lore of the class, as blood magic requires sacrifice and reptilians are able to regenerate their bodies fast.
Theme/Flavor:
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Keyword
Since you use blood to fuel your magic, taking damage (thus bleeding) offers a temporary boost in power. The first time your hero takes damage in a turn, all friendly cards in play with Fresh Blood trigger their effects. Fresh Blood can trigger during your turn, or during your opponent's, but only happens once per turn. The keyword can be used by any Bloodburner deck, as you can use Blood to Fire (the HP) to trigger it. You need to consider the order of your actions to make the most out of your cards.
Example Cards
Remaining Cards
Previous Phase
My Phase I post can be found here.
The Bug
Let me introduce you to The Bug class. The Bug is... well, a bug. But do not underestimate it ! It is able to trade some small minions with Hero Power, defend with various taunt minions and easily swarm the board. Oh, and don’t forget about weapons, the easiest activators for…
The Bug introduces a new keyword called Fury, which activates whenever your hero kills a minion (I told you weapons are useful) . This effect can trigger multiple times, thus giving your hero attack is something common for The Bug. This keyword will not be used in the Basic Set !
EXAMPLE CARDS
EXPLANATION
Aspid Gruz - The Bug has various ways to quickly swarm the board, or at least produce many minions. Aspid Gruz Is an example of a card which has synergy both with aggro tools and Armor. Gaining Armor is something common for this class, so activating it's effect should not be something hard.
Precise Forging - Weapons are very important for The Bug. They can easily activate Fury effects or just help control the board. This card helps keeping your important weapon 'alive' by giving it Durability. However, sometimes you may want to change your weapon, so you have to be careful when playing Precise Forging.
Ancient Protection - This card shows two important ascpects of The Bug class - gaining Armor and interaction with Taunt minions. The latters are helpful when your hero is at low Health after attacking many times. Here you have your defence doubled, because you give one of your minions Taunt, and also you give yourself some armor.
Old Nail - The Bug is a weapon class, so having one in the basic set is something normal. While this one may not seem to be extraordinary, it is helpful when trading in the first turns. After this weapon loses it's bonus Attack, you can still buf it temporarily (with your HeroPower) or permanently (with Precise Forging ).
Parry - A small way to gain some Armor, as well as deal damage. This is a very good tool to gain Armor in early game as well as kill opponent's minion or damage them directly. Parry also have many synergies with cards that destroy Armor or cards that do something when you gain it (like Aspid Gruz).
REMAINING CARDS
Tokens for Life Cocoon:
Previous Phase
Click here to learn more about the Bug class !
...Soul of Wyrm. Soul of Root. Heart of Void...
THE BATTLEMAGE
Battlemages are sort of a fusion between warrior and mage. They use magic to create weapons, armor, and to wreak havoc in melee combat.
My particular version of battlemage slowly conjures powerful yet fragile energy weapons. Weapon combat fills the battlemage with fury, empowering their spells and minions, much like how an enraged warrior's abilities become more deadly.
Main themes: "Can't attack the turn it's equipped" on weapons, 1 durability weapons, effects that change depending on the target (not shown in basic) , buffing your minion's health, small but frequent armor gain.
Strengths: Versatile (has a large variety of tools at their disposal), can setup for very high power turns, excels against decks with lots of minions such as zoo decks.
Weaknesses: Obvious with weapons (conjuring a weapon takes time ya know?), weapon removal, struggles to fully utilize cards against decks with few minions, takes a lot of damage triggering spellfury and has no big heals or armor gain.
Keyword: Spellfury
Spellfury changes the effect (such as a Battlecry ) it's printed after on the card, usually upgrading it. It activates if your hero has done X or more damage to minions by attacking this turn. So if your hero did 5 damage, Spellfury (1) and Spellfury (5) would activate but Spellfury (8) wouldn't. It can be tricky to master as damaging minions to buff your Spellfury can lead to you not needing the upgraded effect. Due to not being able to trigger Spellfury going face, cards that summon minions for your opponent are valuable to this class. Saronite Taskmaster and Marin the Fox are good examples. Note that class keywords do not appear on basic cards.
Example Cards
Cauterize: Solid removal if your willing to take some damage. You do get less value with a better weapon so don't overdo it. You can only kill them so much after all... (unfortunately)
Enchant Weapon: Fury: Your angry, your swords angry, your enemies minions are dead. It's a good time! This is an example of the classes cards that are only effective against minions, and the "Enchant Weapon:" card type that will appear occasionally.
Reinvigorate: After a hard days work, taking time to relax can do wonders. However it does seem to be less effective while the enemies minions are trying to murder you. I'm frankly shocked.
Summoned Battleaxe: The perfect card to show off the class at a glance. It may seem somewhat weak but it's a cheap way to trigger big spellfury cards and it has excellent synergy with weapon durability buffs (which the class has in classic).
Fire Tornado: The classes signature aoe. It's quite powerful, and an example of the classes armor gain which is often a small amount added onto another effect.
Remaining Cards
Flame Bowman: Another example of the classes cards that are only effective against minions.
Icecrafter: She has solid stats, and you can definitely get your monies worth out of her using windfury (which the class can get from a couple of classic cards).
Frozen Fist: Having no weapon equipped is another minor card theme so this gets players used to thinking about it early. A fairly strong card as early when it's best you likely wont have a weapon.
Conjure: Barriers: The class is great at conjuring armor, shields, etc, so the classe's minions are often well protected with high health! The class's weapons are a bit too complex for the average warrior to use so attack buffs aren't common.
Spellspeed: Using magic induced speed, you can strike down multiple foes before they have time to react! This card is paralytically good against big boards (less chance of 'losing' a hit to face), and with spell damage.
Previous Phase
If you like the class, check out my Phase 1 submission!
(Note: The hero power and keyword have been tweaked since then)
Check out my Custom Classes (Scribe, Alchemist, and Battlemage)!
THE CHRONICLER
The Chronicler is a class based on harnessing your memories and the power of the places you have visited or studied, summoning beasts of alien worlds or making your opponent feel what an eruption is like. Roaming through Azeroth and beyond, these explorers and scribes have witnessed or read about nearly everything, but their thirst for knowledge and adventure lingers on. Their power is clearly shown by Lorewalker Shuchun in this short story, The Blank Scroll . Citing Ziya, a goblin rogue: "Shuchun was a Lorewalker, a trade that Ziya barely understood. Lorewalkers told stories. They searched for artifacts from Pandaria's long past. And, if Shuchun was any example, they talked with their mouths full and smiled a lot.". This is applicable in a general sense to pandaren lorewalkers, dwarf historians, gnome bookmasters, elven scholars and all other different types of chroniclers.
Tokens
This Hero Power functions in a very similar way to the Shaman Hero Power. This means that, when you use it, a Scroll that you don't already have is added to your hand. So, the probabilities of getting the Scroll you want improve every time you use it without casting the others. However, you can't have more than one of each, so once yo have all four you must cast one before being able to use the Hero Power again. This is exactly how the Shaman Hero Power works. Improving your Hero Power makes it so that you choose which Scroll you add to your hand, and you can now have duplicates. Once again, this behaviour is exactly the same as Shaman's improved Hero Power.
Keyword - Recall
The Chronicler's keyword, Recall, represents their command over memories and stories, and shows their ability to remember and reproduce events they have experienced, heard or read about. This keyword allows the power of some cards to be split between themselves and the next Hero Power. Most of them will only have an small extra punch, while a small amount of Recall cards will be much more focused on the Recall effect, being an effective tempo loss when cast but allowing you to choose more precisely when to unleash their full effect.
Example Cards
These are some of the most characteristic cards of the Chronicler's basic set. This class will have problems dealing with big, single targets, and its board clears won't mix very well with the more aggressive archetypes. There will be no Consecration s or Maelstrom Portal s. Their strength lies with big, resilient minions, board control and the capability of grinding opponents out with the right deck. Later expansions might bring with them some combo capabilities too.
Tokens
Remaining Cards
Previous Phase
If you want to check other cards and a bit more of Karnik's background, check my Phase I post here!
THE COMMANDER
The commander is a master of the art of war and by the use of clever strategy and tactics can lead their troops to victory in almost any situation. The default hero for the class is Sir Anduin Lothar, the Lion of Azeroth, a legendary hero that fought in the First War between orcs and humans and later commanded the armies of the Alliance of Lordaeron during the Second War, at whose end he perished at the base of Blackrock Mountain. And yes, the Anduin that we all know and love is named in his honor so you can bet this guy is quite popular to the people of Stormwind.
KEYWORD - TRAIN
Minions and weapons with Train can attack other friendly minions (dealing damage, of course) to give them a specified effect like +1/+1 or Rush. Train is thought to be an option the card has to make it more versatile and not something you want to be doing every turn. Identifying when you want to Train and when to attack your enemy is key to mastering this class.
EXAMPLE CARDS
REMAINING CARDS
PREVIOUS PHASE
You can find a link to my phase 1 post here.
Check out my Hearthstone expansion: The Shifting Sands
THE ALCHEMIST
It's not magic, but it's not science either: alchemy is an ancient discipline that studies the mutating nature of matter and energy. Whether it is by combining several ingredients into a potion with surprising effects or by transmutting metals of any kind, Alchemists always have what we need.
Keyword
Transmute is a keyword that can "transform" a useless card into a more useful one. Both the shuffled and the drawn cards might have to meet a certain criteria, which makes it more predictable.
Potion tag
The Alchemist introduces a new tribe tag for spells: Potions.
Of course, there already are many spells in the game that feature Potions, which would also be labeled as such for thematic purposes. Keep in mind this would have no gameplay impact whatsoever, since none of the other classes has Potion synergy.
With this change, the Kabal Chemist would also have a slightly different text (which is better than the current one, since it makes clear Potion of Heroism is excluded from her card pool).
Complete list of old cards that would be considered Potions:
Example Cards
Remaining Cards
Tokens
Summoned by Escape From Lab and Clumsy Assistant .
Artwork Credits
Previous Phase
Phase I
The Witch
Laryssa , the Dark Witch is a class aimed at stealing strength from its opponents and having resilient minions.
The class has the unique Barrier keyword, as described below.
Keyword Section
Barrier is a defensive keyword that will have some interesting interactions with both minions and spells. Lower attack minions (wide boards) will be much weaker against it, whereas high attack minions might not even care. Barrier does not stack in any way, it simply reduces all incoming damage by 1.
Example Cards
As mentioned, the Witch is looking to control the board, weakening/controlling enemy minions whilst keeping her own minions healthy.
Remaining Cards
Note: This is an active effect like Stormwind Champion . If this dies, the effect ends.
Most of these are further controlling / defensive type cards. Shadow Mend further works with efficient trading by bringing all those high health minions back to full health after trading with them.
Previous Phase
My Phase I submission can be found here .
THE JOURNEYMAN
by ilja615
The Journeyman is a class focussed about placement and movement, because i think that placement is an underused mechanic, and it is very tactical. Many of the cards, and even the custom keyword, will interract with targets adjacent or in front of them, so you have to place them carefully. You can later move minions around if you decide to change plans, and some minions even get bonus effects when moved!
This is how moving minions work: you target the minion you want to move, and that picks him up. Then you drag to where you want to place him down again. You can only move minions when you have 2 or more minions on the field, but don't worry: there are a lot of ways to get extra minions in this class.
Ping Loo is an adventurous pandaren that left the main island together with his companions in order to explore new terrains and learn more about the earth, nature and people from other places. A lot of the cards will be themed in an explorer/traveller/jungle vibe, but some of them will be about the different cultures that the journeymen come across. (And of course cards will be in the theme of the expansion that they are in)
The class also has a custom keyword called "Signal". I explained it in detail in phase I, the link to there is all the way at the end of this post, but i will also have a short reminder here:
The Signal Keyword
There are 2 variants of cards with the Signal keyword: cards that emit a signal, or cards that are able to receive signals. On the card is specified if it will emit or receive, and also there will be further specified when it triggers / what will happen. For example a card could say: "Battlecry: Emit a Signal. " or "Whenever this minion receives a Signal , gain +1/+1."
The keyword won't be used in the basic set so let's move on to the cards that WILL be used in the basic set:
Example Cards
The basic set aims to be not too complicated, while also still being original. The basic set of the journeyman delivers some very useful tools, like card draw, survivablilty, minions to put on the board and control tools. Let's quickly talk about them:
The tokens:
Little frog gets summoned by Frog Ambush and Companion's Companion by Journey Companion.
Remaining Cards
(Edit: These cards where missing, i accidentaly pressed submit.)
These are the other cards of the basic set and there is not much else to say about them. The class can either play control or aggro, but most of the strategies will be focussed on minions.
Previous Phase
Here is the link to my phase I submission, the keyword is explained there with more detail and you can also see the example cards of minions with the keyword.
TRIALS AND ERRORS (Class Creation Competition #5) - Phase I [Submission Topic]
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed.
THE INFILTRATOR
Infiltrators are covert agents, masters of disguise and espionage, able to camouflage within the community unnoticed. Some pretend as diplomats; others, famous entertainers. They may look as a force of Alliance, a Silverhand Paladin or a Scarlet Crusader, only to find out they're just serving their own ends. Their loyalty is unknown and their faction hides beyond the mists thicker than that of Pandaria.
No secrets are left hidden to them.. and whilst you’re still planning your witty combo next turn, an Infiltrator has already outsmarted you. No one knows their real intention, and they leave no trail for their discovery.
Mirage is the default hero for the Infiltrator class.
“Mirage is new in her game and her disguised career didn’t take overnight. But with her charming training, she immediately rose to popularity and was privilege to entertain the royalties. Often, she would use her acting skills with the royal guards, unveiling every secret in Stormwind.”
Class Overview
Unique Keywords: Mask
Core Keywords: Stealth
Mechanics: Reveal, disruption , hand information & manipulation, cost manipulation , tech, anti-secrets & combo
Flavor: Espionage , disguise, intelligence , bluff, anarchy, cryptography
Weaknesses: Hand Information doesn’t directly solve problems, lacks direct and burst damage , masked minions can easily be wiped by AOE, lacks self-healing
Win Condition: Value Generation
Common Deck Archetype: Control
Unique Keyword
A Masked minion (left) compared to Stealthed (right).
Sample Cards
(1 Weapon, 4 spells)
Disguise Kit: Put more makeup and you'll look like Cairne Bloodhoof . Your most valuable item. Your win condition .
Remaining Cards
(2 Minions, 3 Spells)
Encryption : Want to protect your agent? Encrypt it. Not a fan of that Ironbark Protector ? Encrypt it too.
Previous Phase
The Infiltrator still have a lot of mechanics to unmask for the Classic up to Rastakhan’s Rumble. Check here for the previous submission: [Phase I Submission - Infiltrator Class]
Artwork Used
Traveling Jester by Dani McCole - Mirage
Me - Breach Icon
Matthew O'Connor - Inspector's Pipe
Labyrinth CCG - Identity Blown
Andantonius - Decryption
Pierre Droal - Deauthorize
Dantheman123 - Disguise Kit
Ari-Matti Toivonen - Cipher
Kieran Yanner - Encryption
Pierre Santiago - Clean
jbacasacop - Mind Stalk
3four- Scarlet Inquisitor
THE INFUSER
The Infuser class is made up of spellcasters and spellswords that use magic in a unique way. That merge it with creatures or objects to create wild new results. From magic weapons to enchanted armor, they can turn the mundane into something truly magical. Of course, the path of the Infuser is one of theft. One person gains and another loses. Among the Infusers, there are two particular factions that are represented in the Basic set. The Flame-Heart faction and the Ice-Soul faction. Each faction has their own style. The Flame-Heat faction focuses on offense while the Ice-Soul faction focuses on defense.
Keyword: Absorb
To represent the give and take relationship of an Infuser, the keyword Absorb was created. A minion that absorbs Attack will gain the Attack, while a Spell that absorbs health will be given to your hero. A card cannot absorb more than their target can give. A minion with 0 Attack cannot give any Attack.
Example Cards
Remaining Cards
Previous Phase
Phase I Submission page
THE ALCHEMIST
The Alchemist is a specialist in the art of transformation, generation, and combination; including of living material. Her specialties are:
Strengths: Early game board control, Minion swarming, Value generation, Versatility.
Weaknesses: Few direct damage, Few big midrange-y minions.
Showcased Cards
Tokens
Yes, the plural of Homonculus is Homonculi.
Remaining cards
LINKS TO PREVIOUS POSTS
Custom cards :
CLASSES : Alchemist (CCC#5 | Phase V) | Chef (CCC#4)
EXPANSIONS : Year of the Scorpion (Year Comp)
The Court Spy
Sly and dangerous, the Court Spy is not one to be trifled with. Having the ear of the king of one of the most powerful kingdoms in Azeroth comes with it's own perks. Entrusted by King Varian Wrynn to weed out opposition, the doors to the royal treasury are wide open as are the loyalties of many to be found in Stormwind. That is, if you're willing to pay the price.....
The Court Spy is a mix of many different archetypes and classes in Hearthstone. The class is primarily geared toward aggro and mid-range strategies through a few core tools:
While Court Spy boards are formidable, the class suffers from a general lack of AOE, burn, and removal. So while the board may be strong, it is their only way to win. The class needs to focus on ending games quickly or they risk being outvalued by control decks that can remove all of their threats or tank their way through the damage before reaching their own win condition.
New Keyword: Buy Off
Buy Off acts as a status effect on minions, and hence can be removed by Silence . While it can be used as a ping on enemy minions, it can also be used to trigger various friendly effects on class minions at the trade off of weakening the minion slightly each time you target it with Buy Off . Additionally, multiple stacks of Buy Off can trigger additional effects. Cards that feature this will have the text Buy Off (X) in the text, indicating what level of Buy Off needs to be applied before that effect occurs.
Example Cards
Empty the Treasury - Core card for the class. One of the many cards that provides extra copies of The Coin to either ramp, provide synergy with other class cards, or proc on spell cast effects.
Lady of the Court - Another method of gaining more copies of The Coin . Since the Court Spy is so reliant on both ramp and spell cantrips to win, redundancy was needed.
Deep Pockets - Adds quite a bit of flexibility to your hero power along with being a zero cost cantrip. If you're desperate, you can treat it as a four mana, give a minion -2/-2, or you can proc multiple copies of the Buy Off keyword on a card.
Armory Raid - A strong cantrip generator. You lose tempo if you play it early on curve, but each of the tokens costs one mana and have a combined stat total equaling a Blessing of Kings . You can either cast them all on one minion, or spread them around depending on the board state.
Bribed Bodyguard - A basic example of what the class is all about; Ramp and large Mid-Range minions. If you curve into it via either Empty the Treasury or Lady of the Court , you could have a turn four 6/6. At worst it's a five mana Chillwind Yeti , so you could certainly do worse on curve.
Armory Raid Tokens
Remaining Cards
Incite Violence - A basic board attack buff. While Raid Leader gives you a 2/2 body as well, this buff is permanent and doesn't require a slot on your board. If you're running a low curve aggro deck you could certainly run both.
Guards! - This card has two main uses. Generating two minions with Taunt not only opens up the need for trading from your opponent, but the card also opens up a crucial defensive tool later in the game to buy yourself more time.
Public Denouncement - Shadow Bolt but for the Court Spy. One of the only pieces of true hard removal for the class. 'Nuff said.
Glory Hammer - I had originally created this card before the Cold Blood nerf, so I guess this card is now technically better now, :P Otherwise another cheap, strong buff for a minion already on board.
Temporary Loyalty - Your hope is to have already won the game by this point as the Court Spy, but just in case you need that extra push this card can come in handy. Less useful with swarms of 1/1's, but with the classes larger minions it can hit for quite a bit.
Previous Phase
Previous Entry Here
THE SAGE
The Sages are tribe leaders that help their people persevere through exposure to detrimental magics, as was fel for the Lost Ones and Broken Draenei after the onslaught of Gul'Dan's Horde. Led by Akama, the Sage is a class that specializes in building a large board and manipulating the battlefield to empower your allies' attacks, or weaken the enemies.
Example Cards
Vorpal Blade becomes stronger with your Hero Power or other cards that increase your hero's attack, and promote controlling the board as you still get a Wrathguard effect for the opponent on any enemy minions you hit.
As with many cards, you'll be wanting to modify attack, Timbermaw Pathfinder is a strong tempo tool that can be used to synergize with other cards that want you to have heavier hitting blows, or even offensively with cards like Chamber of Reflection (in remaining cards) that will damage the enemies.
Since you plan on attacking a lot, Chain Heal provides some survivability, but can also provide more lethality in creating a strong board with Lightwarden.
Telredor Defender provides a payoff in providing a burst if you've managed to secure a strong board state.
And finally, Surge grants a large tutor that can help you rebuild or improve your board after it has been wiped or you've exhausted your resources.
Remaining Cards
Previous Phase
Phase I
Thank you for viewing my class!
THE BLOOD MAGE
Cauterize was a difficult Hero Power to develop but it embodies the Blood Mage well both mechanically and lore-wise. It can be viewed as "Destroy a minion with 2 health or less." In a sense, it's a bit like Mortal Coil , always a strong card when you can get it off. Furthermore, it helps support the class' core identity, triggering on damage revenge effects, an in-game example being Acolyte of Pain .
The Blood Mage is bit of a mixed bag class, like Shaman. They excel in dealing direct damage and racking up Spell Damage like a Mage, but also exhibit a tendency for making sacrifices for power, much like Warlock or Warrior. Yet, at the same time, they have access to more than serviceable healing and even some completely new playstyles.
KEYWORD: IMMOLATE
I really wanted a negative keyword this time around, a bit of a departure from most of my classes. It's also very straightforward and acts in a way much like overload, to balance out some extra stats or a cheaper cost. There are some cases where Immolate is used in odd ways to show that a simple keyword such as this does have creative depth to it.
Example Cards
Burning Embers: Burning Embers is a key resource that Warlocks in World of Warcraft stack and utilize for a variety of other skills. True to its form, in Hearthstone, it is a simple cycling card that requires some setup but helps dig further into your deck, allowing you to play your other cards quicker, a somewhat analogous function.
Pyroclasm: This is the hard removal of the Basic set for Blood Mage. It is slightly harder to pull off compared to Hunter's Mark and Execute, but Blood Mages are centered around spells as is evident from the rest of their Basic Set.
Vengeful Sin'dorei: This is the first look at a Blood Mage minion. The core concept of Blood Mage is 'revenge', and this aptly-named minion couldn't be a better example of this playstyle. Synergizes swimmingly with your Hero, and even by itself, it is a huge hassle to deal with in the early game. Though a bit slow (as it cannot deal with boards by itself without other cards to help it along), this card is a premier 3-drop for Blood Mages.
Rain of Fire: Rain of Fire can be a bit of a gamble, but it is important to note that since friendly minions are safe, it is far more likely to hit an enemy than your own face. This kind of card also begs to be part of some ridiculous on-trigger effect combo, much like Healing Rain and Lightwarden are just silly together. Unlike Healing Rain, this card has more utility and is in the Basic Set, foreshadowing strong synergies to come in future sets.
Deadwind Scythe: To round off the showcase cards, this simple weapon shows that Blood Mages are indeed a weapon class. A scythe might look out of place, but Warlocks use scythes regularly and Blood Mages are no strangers to fel magic. This weapon in particular serves as an excellent mid-game tempo play and can find itself a home in slower decks and decks that fight for board control early on.
Remaining Cards
Token:
THE RESEARCHER
The Researcher class is all about science and everything related to that. Its flavors can include artificer-like things, knowledge and information, sci-fi or steampunk themes and more. The class is good at card draw, but its cards are often situational or combo-dependent, so you'll end up needing the card advantage you get to make up for those drawbacks. The class is more focused on spells than minions, and has many cards that synergize with them, although we won't see that too much in basic yet. However, the class can play minions, and has ways of having them survive for long times and get a tempo advantage when combined with spells.
Keyword: Study
Study works sort of as a situational Combo, but also works if the previous card was played last turn, as long as it fits the condition. In cards, study would be formatted like " Study a Spell: X" where the word 'Spell' could be replaced with any other condition, and X is the additional effect the card gains.
Example Cards
Remaining Cards
Previous Phase
Phase 1
The Angel
The Angel class gain it's power as time goes by. They consume their disciples for the greater cause. The class is good at long term tactics such as effects that start on your next turn or combination of spells to create strong effect. The Life Essence effect can boost the Hero Health above 30 while playing a rule with addition cards which will be introduced in the future which gain their power based on the number of Life Essence you played. Angels are pure and as such can target tribe cards in addition they can interrupt the opponent moves and protect against decks which are focused on early game wins (aggressive).
Keyword: consumed
Effects like your Hero Power cause your minions to get consumed. consumed works like a Deathrattle with the exception that to trigger it the minion must be destroyed by your am effect which destroy friendly characters.
On Phase I I showed a variation of this Keyword on some cards.
Example Cards
Holy Defenders Tokens:
Remaining Cards
The Voidcaster
The Voidcaster is the last line of defense against the void... in their own mind at least. Taking in the powers that they seek to fight, the Voidcasters manipulate singularities and remove enemies from the board with disturbing efficiency. With powerful singular use secrets, spell targeting manipulation and tradeoff with enemy's armor, the Voidcaster dances in and out of rifts on the battlefield, shunting enemies into rifts and overall... looking purple doing it. Oh, and Locus-walker ? The Ethereal behind the whole movement? He'll reveal his secrets... in due time... (C'mon Blizzard, don't keep him an enigma forever)
Singularity
While we won't see this in basic set, it's worth seeing the change to Singularity. Now, you can still no longer play any other Singularities, but you can cheat them out now. We talked about it deep in building the class (Me and McF4rtson that is) and we decided this erases a lot of complex problems we were having.
Example Cards
The Voidcaster is primarily a spellcaster style class. It summons big minions and it has access to a few weapons, but in it's essence it's mostly here to spread effects directly through it's own spells. Thus, these are some of the spells that represent the strengths of the class.
Remaining Cards
I won't do a big deconstruction of all these, but here's how it breaks down. Astral Incineration is an armor tradeoff spell akin to the Hero power. Riftwalker is an overstatted minion in the vein of Succubus , but it's not got much sticking power. Research the Beyond is the most basic draw this clas has access to, with a slight trade off for a strong draw effect. Void Lord's Call is... well it's here for lore reasons, mostly, as the Void Lords are the massive foes of the Voidcasters. I perched the effect four mana between Voidwalker and Voidlord in the vein of Ball of Spiders .... Except unlike Ball of Spiders this actually has an instant board effect. Nether Breeze is a card tied to both the hand ance effects, which you'll see later in classic and beyond, but also the tie in to the various tribes that Voidcaster uses; Demons, Elementals and Dragons. Also, it represents the damage spreading that Voidcaster loves.
So there you have it; Voidcaster Basic. I'm excited to be working through this contest and I'm so hyped to see what everyone else has to offer this time around! Thanks for taking a look at my crazy class, and I hope we all have a great run of it!
Here's round one's submission... Voidcaster Entry one
THE AVATAR
Fire: Deal 1 damage (improved by Spell Damage ) . Deal 1 damage to your hero. Switch to Air.
Air: Look at the top 3 cards of your deck. Draw one and put the other two at the bottom of your deck. Switch to Earth.
Water, Earth, Fire, Air... The avatar is the master of all four natural elements. Just as his mastery of the elements is diverse, so too are the strategies he will use to bring down his foes. The most unique aspect of my class is it's hero power, which rotates between four separate powers. Although we have seen rotating hero powers such as Dr. Boom, Mad Genius there has never been one to rotate in a fixed way. However, there has never been a new class added to hearthstone either, so take that!!
Each element has a focus. Earth focuses on maintaining a wide board, as well as generating and then spending armor for beneficial effects. Water focuses on control, with many freeze synergies. Fire is mostly aggro with a lot of spell damage effects, and Air is all about draw and adding value through deck shenanigans.
KEYWORD: Focus
Focus is a minion-only keyword which is listed with a specific effect. There is some similarity to battlecry or deathrattle, but instead of activating when a minion dies or is played from your hand, the effect may be activated instead of attacking, whenever that minion could otherwise have attacked. The effects tied to this keyword will have a variety similar to those tied to battlecry and deathrattle; some will be minor, others will be deck build-arounds.
The keyword is fairly straightforward, but there are some clarifications I would like to make. The clarifications I added in P1 are included in a spoiler tag; the clarifications I wanted to add this time around are:
P1 Clarifications:
The effects tied to the Focus keyword can be activated in <dfn class="dictionary-of-numbers">one of two ways</dfn>.
The first way is BY the minion, INSTEAD of attacking. That means minions may NOT activate their own focus effects in this way the turn they are played to the board (unless they also have Charge or Rush). Minions with focus and Windfury may attack twice, focus twice, or <dfn class="dictionary-of-numbers">one of each </dfn>(same idea applies for Mega-Windfury). Frozen minions may not activate their focus effects.
The second way is through spells or other effects which specifically mention triggering focus effects. This can happen on top of the minion activating its own focus on the same turn. Therefore, you could use a spell to trigger the focus effect on a minion, and then attack with that minion in the same turn. You may also activate a minion's focus in this way the turn it is played to the board, though in this situation you couldn't follow up with an attack. Minions who are frozen, or otherwise cannot attack this turn, may still have their focus effects activated through these means.
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Phase 1
THE KILLMONGER
The Killmonger class theme is all about living in the wild, surviving and killing. With help of his powerful weapons and tough assistants, he kills enemies (so almost every single creature) and drinks their blood with passion and pride. With every prey, he becomes stronger and more hungry for the next hunt. Kor'Galls great power lies mainly in his own strength and devotion of his assistants who carry countless weapons and track preys.
Keyword: Bloodthirst
When the Killmonger and his assistants can't find any prey for a long time, he feels a very strong Bloodthirst .Of course, it doen't make him weaker. He becomes even stronger and more alert.
Bloodthirst cards usually benefit you for playing them not on curve (and not after they are top-decked), otherways they would be too strong. Basic cards have very simple Bloodthirst effects, but some later cards can have very complicated or unusual ones. We will see exactly 2 basic cards with this mechanic. Note: mulligan doesn't count as a turn, so Bloodthirst's turn count is not decreased while a card is in your opening hand
Example cards
Power Fist : Just a "forked" Fireball , but more versatile. Its weakness is mainly not being able to avoid Taunt minions with the remaining 3 damage.
Gouging Knife : A simply-looking cheap weapon that is able to stack to 5 or even more attack with all of the weapon buffs. Fits great to the class theme- cards that do not look OP, but can be really powerful when combined with other cards
A New Hope : It can even be a great play for turn 2 when you have a bad opening hand, otherwise it just gives you card draw, necessary when your hand is empty
Scary Scales : A basic weapon buff
Violent Blow : Great lategame removal that can help you survive few turns more or even remove a single Taunt minion. Its obvious weakness is, that as a class with agressive playstyle, you don't want to hold cards in your hand for eternity
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The Killmonger class introduction