This is the Submission Topic. The Discussion Topic is here .
Welcome back everyone! No fancy bullet points or cheery reminiscing this time - only the list of who is moving on! We have a total of 26 competitors moving on to Phase III, and they are:
As a reminder, only these users are allowed to post their Submissions for Phase III. Congratulations to everyone who moved on, and commiserations to everyone who didn't.
GENERAL RULES
Even if you're already a veteran of our competitions here on the Fan Creation Forum, you should read the general rules before you get started. This competition does introduce new rules, like image limitations and formatting requirements.
* The Submission Topic is for submissions only. If you want to discuss your entry, another entry, ask questions about the competition rules or process, or anything else, you can find a link to the Discussion Topic at the top of this thread. Plenty of folks there will be happy to help you out. * You are allowed only one submission , consisting of the materials specified by each competition phase. These materials must, of course, be of your own creation. If you'd like, you may collaborate with another user on a single submission, but this must be specified during Phase I. * You may make only minor edits to your entry once you have submitted it. Minor changes are things like correcting typos or making balance changes that do not alter the spirit of your entry as determined by we the moderators. If you want to make any changes and have any doubts as to their legality, ask us first. * You may not delete any posts you make in this topic. No, not even if you post here by mistake or accidentally double-post or something. Deleted posts screw with the system we use to help us calculate up-vote scores, so don't do that. If you to post here by mistake or accidentally double-post or something, simply edit your post to just say "REMOVED" and leave it at that. * You may not create your own topics on this forum for competition-related material. If everybody goes off and creates their own topics for specific discussion of their entries, this board will be flooded with nothing but, and so competition material must remain restricted to official competition topics. If you want to enter the competition with a class that you already have a topic about on this forum, then your topic will be locked in the interest of fairness to the other competitors. Not deleted, just locked, and it can be unlocked after your entry gets knocked out of the competition. You also may not reference or link to your topic in official competition topics.
* You must host your card somewhere other than Hearthcards. We encourage you to create your entry material using Hearthcards.net , but please remember that, although HearthCards is awesome, it has a limited server space and will purge cards after a few days, and nobody wants your cards disappearing part-way through the competition. After you create it, save and upload it to Imgur , Photobucket , or some other similar site. We understand that there are some Hearthcards memberships that will allow you to save your card there for longer (and you should totally get one of those just for general fan creation purposes, by the way), but we don't know who has those memberships and we can't tell from the URLs. * You may not submit any Gold cards or animated cards, nor may you include any images in your post other than the requested submission materials. A single banner or border, to introduce the class, is allowed. We get it, everybody wants their entry to stand out, but our pages are going to be heavy enough as it is without everybody heading their submissions with animated banners. * You must insert your images into your post using this icon on the bar above the post text editor: . Just click that button and put in the URL of your image. We realize that it's also possible to upload and attach images to your post. Don't do that, though. We know from experience that, because those images are much smaller and require more work to view, entries that enter their images that way just don't do as well, so this is for your own good. * Format your entry concisely by sizing your cards appropriately and placing them beside one another rather than in a column or completely separate. The first example below is acceptable while the second is not. Entries that unnecessarily inflate the size of the submission topic and make it more difficult to get through will be disqualified. How should you size your cards? Well...
Adjust cards to a width of 250 , and you should be able to get three in a row!
Adjust cards to a width of 180 , and you should be able to get four in a row!
Adjust cards to a width of 150 , and you should be able to get five in a row!
* "Troll" entries will be disqualified. Fun and even humorous entries are perfectly allowed (this is Hearthstone after all), but if you're worried that your entry may be misinterpreted as a troll entry, contact a moderator before you submit.
Finally, know that manipulating votes in any way is strictly forbidden. Any violators will receive an official warning, and will be banned from this and all future HearthPwn Card Design Competitions.
PHASE III: The Classic Set
In this Phase, you will each construct your class's Classic Set . Here are the requirements for your Class Creation Competition Phase III Entry:
CLASS, HERO, AND HERO POWER There are just a few elements of your class that you will repeat from your Phase I entry, to remind us who and what we're dealing with. If you'd like to repeat anything from your class's introductory explanation, including its flavor or whatever you believe makes it interesting or unique mechanically, that's fine, but try to keep it brief.
EXAMPLE CLASSIC CARDS We do not want to see your Class's entire Classic Set out in the open.
You are allowed up to five (5) example Classic cards out in the open. You may, below these cards, give brief explanations of them, why you decided to showcase them, how they exemplify what makes your class unique, and so on.
As these are Classic cards, they should have the Classic watermark, and you should include 6 Common cards, 5 Rare cards, 3 Epic cards, and 1 Legendary minion.
If your example cards produce any unique token cards, those must be put behind a spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.).
There are many keywords that do not appear on any existing Classic Card, and they may not appear on any of your Basic Cards either: Discover , Adapt , Lifesteal , Recruit , or any other keyword that has been introduced in future expansions. In addition, there are many general mechanics that did not appear either, so you must avoid expansion-specific mechanics like Spellstone and C'Thun synergy, and so on. Other such mechanics like Elemental and Dragon synergy aren't disallowed per se shouldn't be used unless your class is specifically themed around Elementals or Dragons.
REMAINING CLASSIC SET The remaining ten (10) cards of your class's Classic Set must be presented behind a Spoiler Block (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.). These cards must obey the same rules are your examples cards with regards to expansion watermarks, rarity gems, and what keywords you may not use.
BASIC SET As before, you will include a link to your Phase I and Phase II posts at the end of your submission.
FORMATTING The standard template which your submission must follow can be found here (or by navigating to the second post in the Discussion Topic, if that link doesn't work).
If you want to be a class in Hearthstone, you need to play to your strengths - and your weaknesses. If you don't know what your class is supposed to be good or bad at, how can you design any cards for it? More importantly, how are people supposed to know if you've designed good cards for it?
This paragraph can be in list form or in straight sentences, but you must include both strengths and weaknesses - no trying to only sell us on the good aspects of your class.
A brand new challenge, and honestly, one which I like quite a bit. Your class should be able to evolve over time - being stuck with the same archetypes year over year is what led to some of the Hall of Fame decisions, like Ice Block.
In a similar way that the recently added Tome of Intellect, Call of the Void and Pilfer support future archetypes - Casino Mage, Demon Warlock and Burgle Rogue respectively - we'd like to see a 1-Cost Common for your class that can be expanded upon into a full archetype in a future expansion. It can have some other minor support now, but should not be an archetype that is pushed yet.
We've asked you to exemplify a weakness of your class in Challenge #2, now we want to make sure you exemplify a strength. All existing Classic legendaries are focused on a strength or core mechanic of the class they are in:
Cenarius : Token summoning, widespread buffs, Choose One
As you can see, they all keep to the main themes of the class. The only class-exclusive keyword missing is Overload, and Al'Akir uses Windfury instead, which was Shaman's thing in the Classic set, akin to Paladin's Divine Shield.
Obviously, if your class-exclusive keyword cannot appear on a minion, you don't have to use it.
COMPETITION SCHEDULE AND PROCESS
How long do you have to work on your submission? How will advancement to Phase II of the competition be determined? The answers to these questions and more can be found below...
NOTE: All stages of the competition begin and end at 22:00 UTC. ALSO NOTE: This timetable is subject to change at any time, even after the competition begins, if it seems like too many folks are struggling.
* During Submission stages, Submission Topics will be unlocked and (remaining) participants may submit their entries. During Phases I-II, you may also use this time to go ahead and up-vote submissions that you like. * During Up-Voting stages for Phases I-II, Submission Topics will be locked. Use this time to up-vote submissions that you like. Note that advancement during these Phases depends entirely on up-votes. * During Polling stages for Phases III-VI, Submission Topics will be locked, and all eligible remaining participants will have their submission material included in a separate Poll Topic to determine advancement. Phases III-IV include two Poll Topics because I anticipate we will have enough participants remaining that we will not be able to fit everybody in one Poll Topic. Note that up-votes in the Submission Topics are irrelevant to advancement during these Phases.
How will eliminations be done, and how many competitors will advance from each phase to the next?
I'm glad you asked! We will be taking a equal proportion of competitors from each Phase of the competition to the next, and we will be ending with exactly four finalists. That being the case and their being five total eliminations before the final round, that proportion can be found by solving for x: [# of valid Phase I entries] * x^5 = 4 The higher the number of valid Phase I entries, the lower that proportion becomes. Just so you have an idea, the proportion hits 50% when we hit 128 entries, which is likely, but it only hits 33.3% when we hit 972 entries, which is less likely.
As mentioned above, advancement to Phases II and III will be determined by up-votes only. However, these up-votes are weighted using a formula identical to the process used by our Weekly Card Design Competitions: ( ab ) / ( c ) = x (Where a is the total number of up-votes that your submission received, b is the total number of valid submissions on the same page as your submission, c is the total number of up-votes on valid submissions on the same page as your submission, and x is your submission's final weighted up-vote score.) Why bother with this formula rather than just taking each submissions up-votes directly? Because earlier pages simply get a lot more views that later pages do, and we do not want rushed, early submissions to have an advantage over later submissions that took more time to get their entries just right. The formula basically measures which submissions stood out the most, with the necessary assumption that each page is about equal in overall submission quality. The bottom line is that, although entries on the earlier pages of the Submission Topic are much more visible and thus receive many more up-votes than entries on later pages, you don't actually have to rush to get your entry in as soon as possible, because the up-votes end up being weighted by what page your entry ends up on in order to determine its final score.
As mentioned above, advancement to Phases IV, V, and VI will be determined by polls. These polls will be multi-choice, meaning that voters can vote for every entry that they like. Whenever we have to split a Phase's poll into two to make it more manageable for voters, advancement will be determined by looking at each class's final percentage scores, not by looking at the direct number of votes they received, since we can't guarantee that the same number of voters will vote each day. Poll results will always be hidden until the poll has concluded, and for polls split in two, this does also mean that the results of the first poll will not be revealed until the second poll has concluded as well.
The winner of Phase VI, and thus the entire competition, will be determined by a poll much like the ones before, except that it will be single-choice, requiring voters to pick their single favorite class, and will have a much longer polling phase than usual to give us plenty of opportunity for promotion and such.
In the event of a tie during Phases I-IV for the last possible advancing position, all entries involved in the tie will be allowed to advance; the more the merrier, I say. We will absolutely not have more than four finalists, however, and so in the event of a tie during Phase V, the three Fan Creation Forum moderators (that is, Cogito_Ergo_Sum, ShadowsOfSense, and PupleMD) will vote to break the tie. In the event of a tie during Phase VI to determine the competition's winner, the title will simply be shared unless both finalists request and agree to a tie-breaking round.
But wait, there's more! During Phases I-IV of the Competition, each Fan Creation Forum moderator (ShadowsOfSense, PupleMD, Phoenixfeather, ThisOtherGuyTox, Cogito_Ergo_Sum, Otovent, linkblade91) will have a Wild Card , which we may (though are not required to) use to advance to the next Phase any one entry that we feel was initially overlooked or under-appreciated, regardless of its performance with voters. No entry may be awarded a Wild Card more than once, and it should also go without saying that, while some moderators are allowed to participate in the competitions, they are never allowed to benefit from Wild Cards. Wild Cards are our way of spicing things up a bit, but please don't ask to be given one or be upset if you aren't given one. These are just supposed to be fun.
Are you curious what will be required for future phases of the competition? The challenges will remain a secret , but I'm happy to tell you the general submission requirements.
PHASE IV: Journey to Un'Goro + Knights of the Frozen Throne
By having your class's Classic Set approved of, you've shown that you can make a completely functional class. But functional isn't good enough. Your class must also have room to grow beyond that. For this phase, you'll be proving that it can by giving your class Journey to Un'Goro and Knights of the Frozen Throne cards. Here are the requirements for your Class Creation Competition Phase IV Entry:
CLASS, HERO, AND HERO POWER There are just a few elements of your class that you will repeat from your Phase I entry, to remind us who and what we're dealing with. If you'd like to repeat anything from your class's introductory explanation, including its flavor or whatever you believe makes it interesting or unique mechanically, that's fine, but try to keep it brief.
EXAMPLE JUG & KFT CARDS We do not want to see your Class's entire JUG and KFT Sets out in the open.
You are allowed up to five (5) example cards out in the open. You may, below these cards, give brief explanations of them, why you decided to showcase them, how they exemplify what makes your class unique, and so on.
You should also have 3 Common cards, 3 Rare cards, 2 Epic cards, and 1 Legendary minion, and 1 Legendary Quest with the Journey to Un'Goro watermark. These may not have Lifesteal , Death Knight cards, or other mechanics that did not exist until later expansions.
3 Common cards, 3 Rare cards, 2 Epic cards, and 1 Legendary minion, and 1 Legendary Hero card with the Knights of the Frozen Throne watermark. These may not have Recruit , Spellstone Upgrades, or other mechanics that did not exist until later expansions.
If your example cards produce any unique token cards, those must be put behind a spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.).
REMAINING JUG & KFT CARDS The remaining seven (7) cards of your class's JUG and KFT Sets must be presented behind a Spoiler Block (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.). These cards must obey the same rules are your examples cards with regards to expansion watermarks, rarity gems, and what keywords you may not use.
BASIC AND CLASSIC SETS You should include your completed Basic and Classic Sets from Phases II and III behind a Spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.) either before or after your Phase IV material. It is fine if these cards have undergone some minor modification, but they must still adhere to all of their original Phase requirements.
PHASE V: Kobolds & Catacombs + The Witchwood
Congratulations on being a semi-finalist! With positively received Whispers of the Old Gods and One Night in Karazhan sets, you've proven that your class's concept and mechanics have room for expansion. Now, there's only one last thing to do: narrow down the best of the best. For this phase, you'll be giving your class Mean Streets of Gadgetzan and Journey to Un'Goro cards. Here are the requirements for your Class Creation Competition Phase V Entry:
CLASS, HERO, AND HERO POWER There are just a few elements of your class that you will repeat from your Phase I entry, to remind us who and what we're dealing with. If you'd like to repeat anything from your class's introductory explanation, including its flavor or whatever you believe makes it interesting or unique mechanically, that's fine, but try to keep it brief.
EXAMPLE KnC & WW CARDS We do not want to see your Class's entire KnC and WW Sets out in the open.
You are allowed up to five (5) example cards out in the open. You may, below these cards, give brief explanations of them, why you decided to showcase them, how they exemplify what makes your class unique, and so on.
3 Common cards, 3 Rare cards, 2 Epic cards, and 1 Legendary minion, and 1 Legendary Weapon with the Kobolds and Catacombs watermark. These may not have Echo, Rush, or other mechanics that did not exist until later expansions.
You should also have 3 Common cards, 3 Rare cards, 2 Epic cards, and 2 Legendary cards with the Witchwood watermark. These may not have Magnetic , Overkill , or other mechanics that did not exist until later expansions.
If your example cards produce any unique token cards, those must be put behind a spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.).
REMAINING KnC & WW CARDS The remaining cards of your class's KnC and WW Sets must be presented behind a Spoiler Block (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.). These cards must obey the same rules are your examples cards with regards to expansion watermarks, rarity gems, and what keywords you may not use.
BASIC, CLASSIC, JUG, and KFT SETS You should include your completed Basic, Classic, JUG, and KFT Sets from Phases II-IV behind a Spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.) either before or after your Phase V material. It is fine if these cards have undergone some minor modification, but they must still adhere to all of their original Phase requirements.
PHASE VI: The Boomsday Project + Rastakhan's Rumble
Here we are, finalists! In the last phase of our competition, you'll be giving us your class's Knights of the Frozen Throne and Kobolds & Catacombs sets, as well as constructing your own custom Finale Topics:
FINALE TOPIC There will be no Submission Topic for the competition Finale. Instead, you will create your own Finalist Topics. All that you have to do is create a normal topic here on the Fan Creation Forum and title it as such: [Class Competition Finalist] TURTLE (Replace TURTLE with your own class's name, of course.) Then, bring it to our attention, and we'll link to it from this topic. That's it. How you format and present your final product is entirely up to you. You've put in a lot of work to come this far, so you've earned the right to show us your completed original Class however you think is best.
BOOM & RR CARDS In addition to including the required material from all previous phases, you must add the following:
3 Common cards, 3 Rare cards, 2 Epic cards, and 2 Legendary cards with the Boomsday Project watermark. These may not have Overkill or other mechanics that did not exist until later expansions.
3 Common cards, 3 Rare cards, 2 Epic cards, and 2 Legendary cards with the Rastakhan's Rumble watermark.
EXAMPLE CARDS These don't need to be part of your Finale Topic, but by the end of the Submission Phase, you should send ShadowsOfSense 8 example cards from your completed collection, preferably via PM, to be included in the Final Poll Topic. The Final Poll topic will look very similar to this one from our first CCC, except that no token cards will be included.
REWARDS
In addition to truly epic bragging rights, ALL finalists will receive a special Forum Title and Avatar Border, similar to those given to winners of our forum's Weekly Card Design Competitions, as shown below:
Furthermore, the winning contestant will have a Season 7 competition themed around their winning class!
ARCHIVES
Want to see how things went during our first four Class Creation Competitions? Want to see what the winners and other finalists did during each phase? Then check out the links below!
Note, that some competition rules, especially formatting rules, may have been different for past competition.
When the people of Azeroth are sleeping or fighting, astronomers study the stars, the sun, the moon and the planets surrounding their sky. With this knowledge, astromancers try their best to make prediction to the future based on the pattern. Unfortunately, their prediction backfires to the people of Azeroth as often as it helps them.
That isn't to say that astromancers are completely wrong. With a little more patient, set up and studying intensely, their prediction have more chance of being useful!
Rishi Sterling has always a big believer that only she can control her own destiny. This the reason why she took a career paths few would choose, became a Blood Elf after the fall of Quel'thalas, studying the forbidden Void magic in order to understand better the infinite blackness between the stars that lead to her banishment and is the reason why she now rejoined the world of Azeroth as a member of the Alliance Void Elves to spread the long lost whisper of the stars far and wide
Class Keyword :
Astromancer is a high RNG class that this keyword allows them to reduce the RNG (atleast temporarily) and plan their turn as well as considering their risk / reward ratio accordingly when they don't draw or can't afford to play the Gaze cards.
Gaze not only allows the class to play offensively by allow their damage to reliable hit the desirable target, they allow the class to play defensively as well since their card draw, minion buffs and healing are also pretty random. And yes, Gaze triggers with cards like Mosh'Ogg Announcer .
Gaze effects not only activate with your own random effect but also your opponent's random effect as well. Which mean that you can protect your minions from devastating effects like Deadly Shot or from Die, Insect! from mowing your important minions or life down too quickly.
Gaze only activate and disappear on ELIGIBLE targets only. If there is no eligible target, the random effect will proceed with the target selection like normal. If minions with Gaze died from effect like Arcane Missiles mid-casting, the target selection will continue on as normal. If two or more target are Gazed , the target that were Gazed first will be the target for the random effect. If they are Gazed at the same time, the effect will randomly pick among the Gazed targets. This is especially important to remember because Gaze also stacks on a character until the previous one disappear, which mean that timing and anticipating the opponent's play is key for your random effect to have the most value.
Also of note is that minions with natural Gaze in their card text (like Celestial Drake in my Classic set) will have Gaze anywhere , meaning that tutoring draw effects like The Curator , discard from hand or deck effects like Soulfire as well as other hand target effects like Dirty Rat or Recruit effect will target that card instead of your other cards. If that happens, the minion will enter the battlefield with the Gaze removed.
How do you know and keep track of which characters are Gazed ? Any character that is Gazed will have an eye symbol with blue aura surrounding them when you hover over. Here's an example (thanks to the brilliant NoahMcGrath):
List of available cards in the Basic and Classic set that will be effected by this keyword:
High token spawning : As long as there is one star in the sky, the Astromancers will be able to summon out the Astral Spirit that represent the soul of those stars to fight for them.
High burst spell damage / finisher : Astromancers can command down comets and meteors from the night sky to hit their foe. Not only that but the Astral Spirits when buffs up can become formidable allies
High disruption : The stars and the sky not only protect you in your turn, but in your opponent's turn as well. In addition to being a Secret class and their class mechanic Gaze activates during your opponent's turn, their minions and spells also carry disruption effects that will cause your opponent to have to think twice before making any moves as well as creating interactive games from both sides.
Weakness:
Unreliable random effects: The power of the celestials are powerful but unstable. Astromancer is a class built from the ground up to be a high variant class. This is especially prevalent in their Classic cards and Hero Power. If your hand is filled with random effects with no effective way to make them more consistent, the RNG can easily screw you over.
Weak board clear : The power of the stars are unreliable when forcing them to target multiple enemies. Most of the Astromancer's board clear are either unreliable (aka random), conditional, symmetrical or inefficient in term of damage to their cost.
Cards need set up : Most of their most powerful cards need set up beforehand or through multiple turns. This in turn allows your opponent the opportunity to disrupt them.
Example cards:
Token:
Planetary Guardian : A solid 2 drop with both Gaze and token synergy. This card also showcase that cards with or granting Gaze will have very cost-efficient stat give that the effect is useless without follow up. Being an Elemental (along with the class having a Dragon in its Classic set) also open up future tribal synergy. It should be noted that the first Gaze will take priority compare to the Gaze on the token since it is counted as the first part of the Battlecry.
Comet of Doom : Hard removal for the class. Especially powerful combine with the class's keyword so it has to be 1 mana more expansive than Deadly Shot . Showcase the random effect that the class like to run and is prominent in its card set.
Astral Vengeance : A Secret that emphasize the token spawning combine with healing of the class. Use this both offensively as a token generator and AoE buff as well as defensively as a great source of healing.
Mark of Virgo : Part of the Constellation Mark cycle that interact with the next action you or your opponent took. A worse version of pre-nerf Innervate but is better than the post-nerf version since you can play it last turn to cheat out 2 mana next turn. Notable that it cannot stack with itself.
Starscryer Sera : The big Legendary of the class and pay off the Gaze you carefully stored into your opponent or the Gaze cards you held back. She is what I think an embodiment what the class is all about: show that the class has other means to interact with Gaze beside just random effects; the high burst damage the class has as well as that the class's best cards require set up or in combination with other cards.
Remaining Cards:
Scrutiny : A simple, effective Gaze granter and enabler of the random effects as well as Gaze synergy the class like to run.
Celestial Wonder : Card to fulfill the challenge that will act as important piece for the future Secret synergy.
Meteor Shower : A random effect and Gaze granter. A more complicated card at first glance since sometime you want the effect go wide or want the Gaze effect to set up for another powerful random effect or Gaze synergy.
Astral Protection : A Secret that demonstrate the buff aspect of the class. Since most of the time the opponent would want to kill your high value minions (most notably the Astral Spirits that will continue to heal you), this card help to provide them with some protection.
Weaponized Telescope : A reliable source of granting Gaze for the class to use. Emphasize that the class use weapon to enhance their cards rather than a weapon-focus class.
Mark of Taurus : Part of the Constellation Mark cycle. Use this to turn your big and medium minions into a wannabe Sunwalker .
Celestial Intervention : A Secret that used as a disruption effect for targeting spells. With a little bit of opponent read, timing and Gaze effect, you can actually cause your opponent spell to backfire on them horribly. This is a versatile card that can be used to protect either your minions or face.
Celestial Drake : A powerful draw engine of the class but require a lot of set up. Allow the class to distribute out Gaze without losing card advantage as well as a big draw engine combine with cards that can grant multiple Gaze like Planetary Guardian. Being a Dragon also open up future Dragon synergy.
Mark of Capricorn : A powerful Secret that allow you both offensive and defensive power of dealing 4 damage to a character that about to attack your face as well as a 4/1 weapon ready to swing when your turn start
Cosmic Elemental : A card to showcase synergy with Gaze that isn't just random effects. Really weak since the class is supposed to have bad board clear but can be powerful with enough Gaze granter and set up. Being an Elemental also open up future synergy
Hero Power:
Mavis is strong in many aspects, the main being her Hero Power. Her Hero Power is very strong in the early game, being able to easily dominate the board with the hero power alone.
Control:
This class also features strong control tools, such as spells and tokens. This keeps a hold of the board and makes this class more centered around control from the early game to the late game.
Burst:
This class has more unconventional burst damage to end the game. Unlike Mage with their spells that deal high damage,
Fireball
Pyroblast
, Mavis gains the attack to use on enemies and the enemy hero's face.
Weaknesses:
Attacking:
The hero power and attack buffing cards in the Fist Fighter are not all perfect. When the
hero
attacks something,
they
are the ones who take the damage from the attacked minion. This can add up if you try to attack everything all the time. This also can cause a problem if you need to attack the enemy's face or another important minion quickly, because Mavis has to hit
Taunt
minions.
Healing
: This class features little protection to the hero's face in classic and basic. The only protection or healing would come from cards that barely heal Mavis or make her
Immune.
This makes you consider strategically what health you are willing to give up to take down enemy minions.
RNG:
This class is not afraid to shy away from random effects. One of the key themes of the class is randomly gaining X or Y. This helps build character for the class, yet this can be a turn off for some people who want the game to have low variance.
Example Cards
Drunken Fighter:
This neat little card was what I was referring to earlier with some high variance. Like I said, this can be a turn off for some people, but I think it's a really neat and flavorful card for my classic set. Sometimes it will be a
Magma Rager
and other times it will be an
Upgradeable Framebot
. The variance is also for balance purposes to make sure the early game isn't too strong for my class on account of its hero power.
Mavis's Biggest Fan:
Another flavorful favorite of mine, this card is the strong staple of the class, much like a
Mana Wyrm
or a
Scavenging Hyena
. Not to mention some cool art.
Rock Block:
Neat neat neat. Relatively weak protection now, but the elemental tokens up a whole new pathway for the class in the future, as well as being good targets for some board buffs. Time will show how truly good this card is. Not to mention this has some good token synergy with other cards.
Gut Punch
:
Gut punch is a prime example of another theme for my class, enemy debuffs. This card also doubles as a great removal tool that makes tokens and friendly minion buffs that much more powerful.
Gamon (Challenge #3):
A strong classic legendary that acts as a big finisher for the class. Combo this with Left Hook and you can possibly deal 10 damage to the enemy hero's face and keep a 4/8 on the board. It just doesn't end there, if Gamon stays alive to the next turn, there is very high damage potential. He can easily act as an aggro or control tool, allowing you to deal double damage to the enemy or clear out two minions. He is a prime example of the strengths of my class with Control and attacking with my Hero being two main themes. His large health may play a role in the future as well...
Tokens
Auto-rocks, roll out.
Remaining Cards
Common
Carbo-Load (Challenge #2):
Carbo-Load is a prophet of the future, where I will explore this mechanic of minions being at Full Health. Minions being at Full Health has not been something I've really seen yet and I hope to expand upon it further. It also doubles as a mini heal and control tool to keep big minions like Stonefisted Bouncer alive.
Protein:
Much like the Drunken Fighter example card, Protein shows off the buffing capabilities of my class with a low variance random effect. Some might say it's a weaker version of
Divine Strength
but I think it is perfectly fine for Classic and shows off my class's characteristics.
Ironfist Statue:
Plainly put, this is a key card in keeping face damage to Mavis to a minimum.
Rare
Break Out:
Simple tech card aimed at
Taunt
based decks. This also doubles as an AOE to synergize with other cards like Mass Ale-ment.
Contemplating Monk:
Another simple card, Contemplating Monk just increases the strength of the Hero Power to cleanly get rid of big targets.
Mass Ale-ment:
Similar in mechanics to Gut Punch, this card allows for great AOE synergy from other spells or allows small tokens to be able to take out big targets.
Stonefisted Bouncer:
A great defensive card that synergizes with token generating cards. Nothing's getting by him.
Epic
Lead by Example:
Great card for themes. This couples attack gain cards with token generating cards.
Relentless Rampage:
Another AOE card, strong with high attack gain cards like Left Hook, essentially turning it into a 7 mana deal 5 to all enemy minions. If you don't have any buffing cards however, simply using your Hero Power will turn this into a 6 mana
Consecration
. This also has high buff potential for Mavis's Biggest Fan.
Full Rage:
Just a strong burst tool to finish the enemy hero off, similar to
Pyroblast
I have returned, mortals! It is I, Kel'Thuz-*cough* *cough* Okay, I have to drop the gag. It's really hard to explain things like comboes and strengths/weaknesses for a card game while being in character. So, with that in mind, let's proceed:
The Lich
As a master of the cold and the cycle of life and death, Kel'Thuzad freezes enemies in their tracks while his undead forces continue to take over the land. Under his command the Scourge's victory is only a matter of time; the living will eventually have to accept that fact.
Strengths + Themes
The Lich is more likely to win the longer the game goes on, as he outlasts his opponent's assault. The undead do not tire, do not need food, and do not feel pain; the forces of the living become weak from endless fighting, while the Scourge only grows in strength. Gameplay-wise, this translates into a slower playstyle, namely a "fatigue" late-game archetype where you slowly exhaust your opponent of resources. This comes from:
Inflicting
Freeze
on the enemy to stall for time.
Taunt
minions to wall off attackers.
Deathrattles
and reviving one's minions to get more value out of them.
Relying on the Scourge's infinite size to generate additional fuel as the game continues.
In the hands of Kel'Thuzad, death is not quick: it's a slow, torturous march towards inevitability.
Weaknesses
Naturally, The Lich suffers against those who can rally a sizable force quickly. The tactics that provide Kel'Thuzad his great power are also the ones that hold him back, as each of them are slow. Deathrattles take time to go off, Freeze is not the same as killing an enemy outright, and reviving minions means they have to die first. It's ultimately just not as efficient and timely as a straight-forward aggressive playstyle.
Archetypes are slow.
Freeze is not equivalent to removal; it only stalls for time.
Destruction effects are rare, generally conditional or expensive.
Draw power is low: the Lich focuses more on recycling old material via revives and return-to-hand effects.
Example Cards
Sapphiron
is a win condition for the class. A sizable drop in its own right, it comes with a
Mind Blast
-like effect for every time you Freeze an enemy character. Repetitive Freeze effects allow you to machine-gun an opponent down; like
Ice Lance
, but more fair. Plus he's a Dragon, and that might mean something down the line!
Ghastly Soldiers
is a double-example, showcasing a revive and a Deathrattle effect. It's
Ancestral Spirit
x2 at three times the cost. The Classic set contains a cycle of Deathrattle-spells; this is the first one.
Ritual Staff
is the Lich's Deathrattle-trigger method of choice. Kill a minion and funnel its death into dark magic! You can choose the minion, even allowing you to pick an enemy to set off a negative Deathrattle like
Repurpose
.
Phylactery Keeper
is a revive on a body. She encourages you to trade a minion away, knowing you'll get it back.
Icy Guardian
is a sizable Taunt minion, with +1 Health over
Sen'jin Shieldmasta
. In return, he must Freeze himself. Later in the game you can get past the Battlecry by reviving him. In a future expansion, the self-Freeze might even become a benefit!
Remaining Cards
Icicle Crasher
is a rare example of a true destruction effect for the class. Basically, he can kill a Frozen minion without trading into it. Still uses your attack for the turn, of course, but it keeps him from losing Health.
Frostbolt Volley
is another boss ability, a natural step up from
Blizzard
. One
Frostbolt
inflicts 3 damage and Freezes, so naturally this would do the same to each enemy.
Chains of Kel'Thuzad
is a boss ability from his raid, and the other conditional-destruction effect for the Lich. The chains connect two minions together, creating a
Voodoo Doll
-like effect where they are both destroyed if one of them dies. This has a variety of applications, allowing you to get behind a Taunt minion, trading your puny minion up into a bigger one, and/or to simply kill two birds with one stone.
Frost Cloak
is the reverse of
Consecration
, blocking damage dealt to your characters. This can be used to tank face damage, provide more efficient trading, preempt an AoE blast, and/or save a minion's life.
Repurpose
is the second in a cycle of "Give a minion" Deathrattle cards. It's a much slower
Entomb
, stealing a minion to place in your deck but only after it dies. This prevents you from getting around Deathrattles and Taunts as you still need to deal with the minion.
Nerubian Crypt Lord
has pseudo-Taunt in-that your opponent would want to remove him before going face, but he doesn't prevent them from doing it anyway if they can overcome the damage resist. He wouldn't save you against
King Krush
, for example, if you were low enough. Not having Taunt also means he cannot defend your other minions.
Skeletal Monster
breaks apart upon dying, summoning two Skeletons. The skeletons might come into play later in a future expansion...
Haunting Remnant
is a smaller
Cryomancer
. Cryomancer never saw much use, but maybe in a heavier Freeze class it would.
Endless Scourge
is like
Ancestral Spirit
, but cheaper and not as good for the board. Better for Battlecry minions, though. In general, it functions to provide greater fuel to help outlast your opponent. It is the third card in the Give a Deathrattle cycle, and my spell for Challenge #2. Returning the minion to your hand will come into play in a later expansion.
Dark Resurgence
was seen in Phase I, a flexible card for cheap minion damage or healing.
Behold, foolish interlopers! I am commanding this mortal to spread the will of the Scourge throughout the interwebs, encouraging you to seek out me, Archlich Kel'Thuzad! Now coming to you as the tenth class of Hearthstone!
I am a finalist in this Class Creation Competition, so if you could give it a look I would be greatly appreciative <3
A Botanist is not a Druid, but a scholar fascinated by plant life. While the Druids are a protectors of the wild, a Botanist is focused on the research of their secrets. They study, catalogue, culture and experiment on different kind of plants, tapping into their life force in order to unlock their hidden power. A Botanist seek out the rarest flora and carefully harvest the helpful and potent herbs found throughout the world(s), which can be transformed in powerful reagents. Cultivation is the Hero Power of this class which will allow you to add to your hand a powerful Seedling with the new keyword: Evergrowth .
N.B. The Hero Power has been balanced since Phase I & II to be more balanced and easy to understand, it now add a minion to your hand instead of summoning it straight away, please read the Evergrowth section of this post for a complete overview.
STRENGTH & WEAKNESS ( Challenge I)
The Botanist needs time to build up his strategies and is likely to win in the later phases of the game. Grow up a strong and luxuriant garden required patience and sacrifice and a small dose of luck to be able to benefit from the full potential of the herbs. In the board this translate into a slow gameplay, weak in the early stages, characterised by a lot of passive effect which will enhance in time the performance of the Botanist. The botanist works well with zoo and tempo decks.
Strength
Evergrowth is the keyword of the class and is strongest point. The more Evergrowth minions on the board the bigger the buff they will receive. The Botanist also can count on minions that interact with the Evergrowth Power do deal damage.
Herbs and Passive effect (start/end turn) will give the Botanist minions to be worried about, even if they stats aren’t great.
Cheap spells and cheap minions, this is both a strong and weak point of the class. The botanist can count on different cards with a low cost in mana, opening the way to different synergies. In the other hands, those cards are weak and works well only in synergies with something else.
Taunt minions from the basic set and the classic will give the Botanist some time to build up his strategies.
Hidden power into the deck. The Botanist will often shuffle card in the deck growing the power inside it. The Seeds are the most dangerous draw for the opponent but they are useless with a full board or an full hand.
Weakness
Random damages, most of the spell of this class inflict random damages to minions, this can be powered by spell damage but without it they are pretty weak and unreliable.
Can’t attack/weak minions. Most of the herbs and minions of the Botanist are weak and easy to get rid off. The offensive part of this class is deliberately low. Also most of the herbs are with 0 attack or can’t attack.
Most cards works well together, others don’t. The Hero power will generate Evergrowth bonus but it need space on the board. Herbs offers good passive effects but have no synergies at the moment with Evergrowth .
The botanist must choose whether to play the Herbs or bet on the Seedlings power.
The Botanist board clearer are deliberately situational.
EVERGROWTH
How does the Evergrowth works?
The Evergrowth is a buff (+1/+1) shared on the minion with Evergrowth on the board and based on the Evergrowth power indicator. When not specified, Evergrowth on the body of a minion means Evergrowth+1 (+1/+1) so in normal situation the maximum Evergrowth is fixed to +7/+7 (assuming seven minion with Evergrowth on the board and 7 point on the indicator) but this number can change in some occasion (ex. A minion with Evergrowth +2 ). The Evergrowth always start from 0 and goes to 1 soon as a minion with the keyword is played. If a minion with Evergrwoth is destroyed, the indicator will lose 1 point (or more according to the keyword on the body of the minion).
At this stage only minion on the board can increase the Evergrowth power, with their presence or with a battlecry ( Sol, Singing Flower ).
How does the Evergrowth looks in game?
To keep track of the current power of the Evergrowth I thought about a small indicator just under to the Hero Power to show to both players what’s the current number of the Evergrowth . This feature will also help to quantify the Evergrowth power for any other card that interact with it (ex. Buds Channeler ). The cards with Evergrowth also will looks slightly different once played and on hand to show the buffed stats of the minion: the health and attack crystals are green, like the indicator and the minions share a green aura. Hopefully the following scenario will help you to understand how the Evergrowth mechanics works:
EXAMPLE CARDS
Token
Tokens Basic Herb
Mortar and Pestle: Hopefully this card will fulfil the Challenge #2 of the competition . Having so many minions that offer passive effect makes the class very weak against silence spell and that's why i thought about sacrificing a friendly minion to get something in exchange could be a nice mechanic to use in the future. This card in general also add another copy into your hand boosting the number of the cards and opening a future synergies of buffing the cards in hand and getting bonuses by the number of cards held.
Buds Channeler - A fanatic of the Evergrowth this minion is able to release the hidden power of the plants, blasting all enemy minions with its power. This card shows how the Evergrowth power can be used by the Botanist in a different way than simply boosting the power of his Seedling.
Enchanted Growth - Part of the power of the Botanist relay on its Herbs. There are basic one and others one more rare and with more interesting buff. This card will allow the Botanist to add to its hand two basic Herbs and shuffle two powerful Seeds into the deck . This cards is one the few from the classic set that will shuffle seeds into the deck.
Photosynthesis - Most of the times the Herbs won't work with the Evergrowth, that's a weakness of this class. With Photosynthesis the Botanist can change the sort of the game, letting the Herbs became powerful Seedling once destroyed. It's a powerful spell to quickly boost the Evergrowth Power and also switch the gameplay from an Herb-focused to an Evergrowth's one.
Sol, Singing Sunflower - Hidden in the remote Hillsbrad Foothills there is a farm where a goblin is trying to grow awesome plants in his little garden. He got a problem with the undeads destroying his crops and that's why he manipulated the essence of his flowers into living creature. Sol is one of them, the most radius and joyful of all the garden. Playing Sol, Singing Sunflower will change the minimum of the Evergrowth Power to 2, giving a permanent buff of +2+2 to all Evergrowth minions. In game reference: Singing Sunflower
REMAINING CARDS CLASSIC SET
Tokens
Entangling Roots - The Botanist most of the time take inspiration from the druid of Azeroth and try to use their magic for their purpose. Thanks to their knowledge of the plants they can call the power of the roots to entangle their enemy, making them unable to attack. And why not, maybe some time is not a bad idea to hide behind a bulwark of roots. This card won't remove a minion from the battlefield but it will make it inoffensive, even tho will give them a Taunt .
Flower Wielder - This is both a way to gain some benefit - thanks to the cost reduction on the Herbs - and to deal with annoying class that use a lot of powerful weapon. Bye Gorehowl !
Charged Seed - Nothing special except the versatility to deal random damages up to 3 enemy minions. Can be dangerous with the right minions on the board.
Mageroyal - The Mageroyal is most commonly known for its magical properties. The plant is characterized by its unusually high mana concentration, and is thus a popular herb among the Mages of Azeroth. It will share its power with the minion that will sit next to it, granting them Spell Power+1 . Completely useless by itself, a beautiful opportunity between the right minions. Similar to Ancient Mage this card works passively
Liferoot - In traditional folk medicin, Liferoot is considered good for vital energy, used to combat sleeplessness with many soothing dreams. This minion will regenerate the Health of your Hero, allowing you to survive a bit more in this dangerous game. Even tho it can't attack it's annoying to get rid of it because of it's 2 attack. It's a stronger version of the Benevolent Djinn .
Kingsblood - A small shrub with pale, purple flowers, the Kingsblood favors the flat areas of fields and plains. It is so named because it is said that it primarily grows where the blood of kings has been spilled. What is certain is that the Botanist will need this plant to conquer the crown thanks to its special ability that will let him draw more cards every time he will summon a weak minion.
Herbolarium - It's a classic spell that will give more resources to the Botanist, allowing him to draw a spell and most importantly a powerful Seed to boost his Evergrowth Power.
Seed Outburst - Continuing the theme of shuffling Seeds into the deck, this spell is very unreliable and potentially catastrophic. It will shuffle one Seed for each damage dealt, up to six without any boost from external sources.
Do not disturb the serenity of the Greenhouse. Failure to do so will result in termination.
Who wants to live forever?
Botanica Protector / Lichens Cropper - Both cards use the keyword "Poisonous" which is gonna be part of this class in the future. I used the word poisonous for the Botanica Protector but they both work with the classic version "Destroy any minion it damage". The Botanica Protector ( it will be a Mech in the future in case ) can be a very annoying card as long it is surrounded by Herbs. It's a very situational card and must be used only in certain situation to get its full potential. The Lichens Cropper is more versatile because it will apply the keyword Poisonous to a spell, worry not anymore about cheap random damage aoe.
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 they need.
The power of alchemy comes handy in several ways:
Tutors
: Their multiple tutored draws and Transmute effects allow Alchemists to curve very smoothly and make sure they never have useless cards in their hands.
Swarm
: Alchemists can flood their board with 1/1 Homunculi, which can be buffed with their many Potions.
On death effects
: Many Alchemist cards have beneficial effects when something dies. This has obvious synergy with swarm decks, but can also be useful for slower strategies: even if your opponent has a strong board, you can take advantage of it if you manage to destroy it.
Single target removal
: No matter if it's big or small: if you want to destroy a single minion, Alchemists have the upper hand.
But of course, it doesn't come without flaws:
Clunky AoE
: Alchemists have several bord clear effects, but they're always expensive, hard to use or come with secondary effects.
Weak late game presence
: Despite having certain tools to survive until the late game, Alchemists lack ongoing or immediate threats once they get there. However, they might get some combo tools in later expansions.
Keyword
Transmute is a keyword that can "transform" a useless card into a useful one. Both the shuffled and the drawn cards might have to meet a certain criteria, which makes it more predictable.
Example Cards
Control Group
features a swarm card that has synergy with Potions. Remember many Potions are buffs, so the condition and the effect are quite synergistic.
Unethical Practitioner
is an example of on-death effects. He can be useful for midrange decks with swarm options or for control decks with AoE.
Galvanize
is a small removal with a small on-death effect which can come handy in the mid or late game.
Acid Bomb
is a perfect example of clunky AoE: it's quite expensive and doesn't do much damage for its cost, but it's very disruptive against decks with 1/1 tokens, such as Silver Hand Paladin.
The Cursed King
is the Legendary minion, which uses
Transmute
to its most extreme application.
Tokens
This card is produced by
Control Group
, as well as the Basic cards
Clumsy Assistant
and
Escape the Lab
.
Remaining Cards
Common
Love Potion
fulfills Challenge #2, as it hints a debuff archetype.
Beneath the surface there is a mysterious wanderer wielding nail and travelling across the world. As innocent as it may look like, don't ever underestimate it. Its ability to cope with various enemies is staggering. However, it is not weak when it comes to the defense, too. Along with other befriended bugs, it seeks for it's destiny. Here is The Bug !
Strengths:
Protection:
The Bug uses Taunt minions to protect them, as well as Armor to regenerate after attacking. While Taunt minions aren't encountered that much, Armor is a core feature in this class. it can also be used as a resource, as presented in Basic Set (and future expansions).
Swarm potential:
The Bug can easily produce many minions from one card (eg. Life Cocoon, Grubfather). Swarming the board with small creatures and taking advantage from this is one of the main archetypes. This also recompensates the lack of card draw by creating value from sinflre cards.
Weapons/Cards that give hero attack:
Weapons are the easiest way to activate Fury keyword. You don't have to spend mana each turn if you have a weapon equiped. Cards that give your hero attack for a turn help controlling the board, but are also a greal tool for an aggro archetype.
Weaknesses:
Card draw:
The Bug class doesn't have many ways to draw cards. There are only 4 cards that have this ability, but there won't be many of them in the future expansions.
AoE/Removal:
So far, there's only one board clear in The Bug's assortment. This is one of the weakest sides of this class. The most efficient way for The Bug to deal with many minions is just trading.
Direct damage/Burst damage:
The only card (presented so far) that deals direct damage is
Parry
from the Basic Set. The Bug doesn't use direct damage, thus it doesn't have many finishers as well.
Fury
is an exclusive keyword for the Bug. It can trigger multiple times, which makes a great combo with weapons, because you only have to spend mana in one turn, and benefit on the others.
Fury
also has synergy with Hero Power, especially strong in the first turns.
Example Cards
Explanation
Wanderous Stag
:
The Bug is able to use weapons and has various synergies with them. This card allows you to benefit from buffing your weapon. Remember that this class has low-attack weapons, so in order to take advantage of
Wanderous Stag
you should consider playing weapon-buffs, too.
Alert Cartographer
:
This card combines two important aspects of The Bug class: hero attack and Armor. Cartographer is great when you play it after trading with a minion, too. Additionally, he has synergy with many cards because of his versatility.
Grubfather
:
The Bug is able to create many minions from singlre cards, which is a recompensation for a bad card draw. This card fits in the swarm archetype, where you constantly have full board.
Possessed Power
:
This is one of the very few AoE's in The Bug's assortment.
Possessed Power
benefits from killing enemy minions, so you can trade with your minions first to clear your opponent's board and attack their face with the attack gained (or do some even more trades).
Hornet
:
At first let me explain how does she work. Normally you have to kill a minion with your hero to activate
Fury
. With
Hornet
on the board, you only need to attack a minion to activate the keyword. Moreover, attacking your opponent will trigger
Fury
, too.
Hornet
clearly finds her place in the Fury-based archetype.
Tokens:
Created by
Grubfather.
Remaining Cards
Common
Coiled Nail
:
Nice weapon with ability to gain Armor, especially good in early turns where it's easier to kill minions.
Chipped Spike
:
A spell that buffs your weapon's attack in exchange for a durability. It helps activating Fury with your weapon.
Shade Cloak
:
A card for Challenge #2, which supports upcoming Stealth/buff archetype.
Agile Assasyn
:
Simple minion with Fury allowing you to attack twice in a turn. If it triggers twice, nothing will happen, because
Winfury
doesn't stack.
Tiny Summoner
:
Small, early game minion, which helps building board from the first turns. Useful in the Swarm archetype. Tokens can be found in the Spoiler below.
Rare
Eager Husk
:
A minion with potential card draw. Not good on it's own, because of the bad stats, but works nice with
Fury
activators.
Protective Weevil
:
A minion which helps gaining Armor in the first turns. Works well in the minion-based archetype as a good 2-drop, too.
Crystal Accelerator
:
Card that helps your hero gaining attack to trade, activate Fury or hit face. Also has synergies with hero's attack cards.
Epic
Gathering Zealot
:
Great card for deck with many minions, as it grants bonus defense after playing (or summoning) some minions.
Dream Nail
:
A weapon that can resummon up to 4 of your small minions (or more if you buff the durability). However, it needs some support because of its low attack.
Battlemages are sort of a fusion between warrior and mage. They use magic to create weapons, armor, and to wreak havoc in melee combat. This particular battlemage slowly conjures powerful yet fragile energy weapons. Weapon combat fills him with fury, empowering their spells and minions, much like how an enraged warrior's abilities become more deadly.
Main themes: 1) "Can't attack the turn it's equipped" on weapons. 2) 1 durability weapons. 3) Small but frequent armor gain. 4) Buffing your minion's health.
Strengths: 1) Versatile (has a large variety of tools at their disposal). 2) Can setup for very high power turns. 3) Excels against decks with lots of minions such as zoo decks.
Weaknesses: 1) Obvious with weapons (conjuring a weapon takes time ya know?). 2) Weapon removal. 3) Struggles to fully utilize cards against decks with few minions. 4) 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 weapon has done X or more to minions this turn, either through attacking (excess damage is counted) or card effect. So if your weapon 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.
Example Cards
Training Trial is my challenge 2 card! It's a great way to trigger Spellfury while not using your weapons durability. Also getting an extra ability proc from weapons such as Conflagration Cutlass can be quite strong. For challenge 2, in future there will be more Training Dummy cards and synergies!
Clone Weapon is excellent for triggering Spellfury , getting more ability procs out of your weapons, or even getting in some good old face damage! This is definitely one of the battlemages strongest cards so consider it whenever a battlemage plays a weapon against you, as you'll at least have a turn to prepare!
Conflagration Cutlass this card is devastating against zoo decks as you can cheat out more AoE procs through the above two cards, and your AoE will probably always give you massive spellfury turns.
Menacing Platemage Is a strong anti-aggro card. If you can trigger Spellfury (4) and don't mind missing out on a bit of armor, you can get Spell Damage +1 ! He'll also keep Taunt as Spellfury only replaces the above effect, in this case, the Battlecry .
Gerrart the Swordslinger is for decks going all out with Spellfury . The most tricky part about this guy is triggering Spellfury (10) while leaving as many enemy minions alive as possible so you can get the most value out of him.
Portal Traverser: A strong and simple Spellfury card that any weapon damage will trigger. Note the Spellfury effect triggers when the card is played, so it wont get Taunt back after getting Charge . Arcane Rush: Don't think of this as a draw 2 with a downside, but as a draw 1 with an upside (you can play your next draw immediately). If you play multiple of these in a turn you'll still only skip a single draw! Conjure: Armor: This card has a bit of versatility and that armor can be super important to the point where you might even need to consider killing off your own minions to get it! Arcane's Fury: Another simple but powerful Spellfury card. Expunge Mind: Being in the front line, Anielas is no stranger to mental attacks. As such he developed this spell while training to withstand them. It's a very versatile card and the hero damage it can deal is pretty scary, but you can only get that damage by damaging minions with a weapon that probably could've gone face! Decisions decisions!
Spellslicer: The Silence triggers before the damage so it's great against buffed minions. Another weapon to put your opponent in a panic! They might try trade off their buffed minions, and not play their strong effect cards. With 3 charges you can keep their effects at bay for awhile but they might not play any, and holding this really hinders your Spellfury cards! Enchant Weapon: Ice: A fairly strong weapon buff, it synergies really well with Conflagration Cutlass and is great for triggering high Spellfury cards! Illusionary Axeman: This guy is largely just a fairly stated minion with an upside. He works really well with Windfury cards. Currently their's only 1 but there will be more, and this guy will get his time to shine!
Conjure: Shield: This card can work as a pseudo heal by giving your hero Immune before attacking, it can give you an awesome trade, or even allow you to bypass a Taunt minion for a turn ( Immune cancels Taunt ). Polymorph: Armor: The battlemages most powerful single target removal, turning their enemy into armor! Powerful but costly.
Welcome back, friend, to Blasthammer's Garage! Let me show you...wait, hang on. Shareholders want me to read this. Ahem.... "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! We're constantly wracking our brains for the newest ideas, filling our workshops with"... yeah yeah you get the idea. Let's go in, eh?
Keyword: Synchronize
Synchronize
! Right. This matters now. Tinkers might be scatterbrained, but there's a method to our madness! Plan ahead, spend your Mana right, and get a bonus or change some stuff around. Most
Synchronize
effects will will have other requirements like Scrapbots to discard or a weapon equipped. You can play them on curve, but many benefit after setting up a big combo.
I know what you're thinking. No, I'm not wearing a mind-reader cap. I should patent that. Anyway, you're thinking "So, how do Tinker's compare to other classes?" Hrm? You wanted to know about lunch...? Right, so here's how we compare to other classes!
Strengths:
Burst Damage -
The Tinker is, above all, a combo class. Put the right cards together to blow out the game!
Tempo -
Different cards sync together very effectively for this class. Play a minion that boosts your weapon, cast a spell that recasts your Secrets, Hero Power to fill your hand and empower a minion, then turn your tokens into new cards!
Flexibility -
Which leads to our next strength, kid! When you can turn cards into other cards, you're never without options! Of course, most of the good stuff is in later expansions. So you better come back again later, eh?
Weaknesses:
Scrapbots -
Of course, Tinker's have their own issues. Yes, we can fill our hands quickly, which is great for combos and hand-size cards like
Mountain Giant
. But unlike Hand Warlocks, we don't get 'real' cards, just 1/1 Mechs. We can do stuff with them, but its less efficient and you gotta have the right cards.
Planning -
And say you do fill your hand with Bots. Do you play them to fill the board? Hold them for a combo? You gotta plan a few turns ahead, know when to Hero Power, and count costs to trigger an essential
Synchronize
.
Slow Early Game -
Before you can get your plan in motion, you need to survive. Your Hero Power doesn't affect the field. Your multi-target effects are real expensive or have random targets. You got a few tools to help. Make them count.
Example Cards
Bomb Building
- Ok, example time! Every Tinker knows how to build a bomb. While making it, throw a few scraps at someone. Once it's done, throw that too! Later sets will feature more transforming effects.
Brass Bodyguard
- This guy will be one of your best friends. He takes the hits for you. And if you got a weapon, he'll sharpen it up so you can give the hits right back!
Spark of Genius
- I mentioned before that the Tinker is a combo class. Here's how you draw the cards you need. Spend some time making bots, then cash them in for a full hand. But keep in mind, to trigger the
Synchronize
, you need to spend all your Mana! Don't burn a combo piece!
Gadget Attack
- In trouble? Unleash your gadgets! Not only will you blast your foes, but you might also refresh your traps and defenses! Secrets are real important to Tinkers, and their ability to reload sets them apart from other classes.
Rocketeer Blitzfyre
- Uh, let's avoid him, if we can. Blitzfyre tries to turn every Scrapbot he finds into a bomb. He's great when you need to shut out a game, but awful when you ask him to clean out the garage.
Tokens
Created by
Bomb Building
Remaining Cards
Assault Hammer
- The quintessential Tinker weapon: an over-complicated hammer.
Goblin Land Mine
- Watch your step...
Rapid Repair
- Gain 2 Armor! Or more!
Net-o-Matic
-
Sap
on a trap.
Spell Magnet
- Summon a Scrapbot with
Blessing of Kings
(or
Sacrificial Pact
, or
Shadowstep
) cast on it!
Workshop Apprentice
- He makes bots all day, but he's eyeing that promotion.
Mecha Tester
- He's always willing to lend a big, shiny, metal hand.
Rocket Strike
- Yes, I've got a rocket in my pocket. And I've got really big pockets.
Widgetsmith
- What's a widget? Whatever you need it to be, kid.
Gigantron
- Stomps real good, but we have trouble making it stop.
Introducing the newest member of the League of Explorers: Izzy Jameson! Izzy's an artifacts expert, focusing on retrieving valuable artifacts from dangerous temples. These latest Archaeology cards aid Izzy on her journey traveling the world.
Strengths of Archaeologist: - Defensive Spells : Izzy can get herself out of any tough situation, with a bit of luck. These spells can help evade tricky situations. - Powerful Weapons : Using ancient artifacts, Izzy can have access to powerful effects that happen over time. - Card Draw : Izzy has several card draw options in Basic and Classic as a way to recover. In the future, she'll Discover lots of cards as well! - Sticky Minions : Izzy has several ways to keep her minions alive, and plenty of minions that can survive on their own. These minions typically have high Health.
Weaknesses of Archaeologist: - Limited Board Presence : Izzy typically can't summon a bunch of minions at once, instead relying on singular, powerful minions or weapons. - Limited Aggro Potential : Not many things in Archaeologist deal a lot of damage to their opponent's face, controlling the board instead. - Weaker Early Game : Most of Izzy's arsenal lies among the higher-cost range, or generates higher-cost cards. - Synergistic Cards : Several Archaeologist cards rely on you controlling a weapon. If you don't have one, you're going to have a bad time.
Decay is an aura effect that affects minions, like Lifesteal or Poisonous . Unlike these, Decay gives a knockback, forcing the minions and weapons with Decay on a timer. Decay will mostly be implemented on weapons, as this enables the use of aura weapons which last several turns.
Example Cards
Dig-up Shovel is one of the unique ways to draw a card - once per turn. This card is an example of the class's good draw, which is cheap but slow.
Rolling Boulder shows the Hollywood side of Archaeology, which lies in the traps that hide in ancient temples, waiting to be explored. This card is an example of removal at a cost. Although it's cheaper than Assassinate, it has a price of also crushing your minions. Alternatively, play it on one of your minions to hit opposite minions.
Translife Mirror is another Archaeologist weapon. This one focuses on giving you small minions each turn. Although it is slow, it's a pretty effective way to keep board control.
Iron Preserver is a good way to maintain your weapons. This smart goblin allows you to play your weapons a bit earlier because you won't waste your resources. This is good in a deck that uses several weapons.
Rejan, Last Defender is a mighty golem that defends lost temples, and specifically the Excalibur, the legend of yore. While it doesn't have Taunt , the effect proposes a fascinating choice for the opponent, whether they could survive to ignore Rejan or take him out. The Decay on Excalibur provides an interesting dynamic, promoting the player to attack quickly with Excalibur and get as many hits in before Excalibur breaks.
Token:
Remaining Cards
Common
Rare
Epic
Clarifications - Master Eroder's Decay only triggers on the end of your opponent's turn, because it's your opponent's minions who have Decay . - Archaic Awakening is the Challenge 2 card, which supports the Decay minion archetype in Un'goro. - Sentry Orb has random targets.
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
Minion swarming
- The class has a lot of 1-Cost minions, and the HP generates more of them. However the class has also many other ways to summon minions.
Value generation
- Patricia loves to concoct new stuff! Like Priest and Rogue, Alchemist is a class with lots of value generation. Alchemist's way of generating value is either to generate 1-Cost cards or to generate cards from random classes (as opposed to Rogue which is only your opponent's class).
Versatility
- Like Druid, Warrior, and Rogue, Alchemist has a good variety of playstyles and can adapt to any situation during games.
WEAKNESSES
Few direct damage
- Alchemist has trouble dealing direct damage. Most of its damage will come from minions.
Few big midrange-y minions
- Alchemist has a lot of low-cost minions at her disponsal, but few high-cost minions, and the few high-cost minions she has are big effects rather than big bodies. If Alchemist wants big minions, she will have to create them herself (through buffs or card generation).
Showcased Cards
In all my cards, I will use the term
"Type"
to mean what is commonly called "tribe".
It's the offical term!
TOKENS
ZOOLOGY TEXTBOOK
- Flexible tutoring. Of course it requires that the minion you want is on the board, but it isn't difficult in a mono-tribe deck. If Zoology Textbook is cast on an All minion, it will draw any minion with a type.
MOONWELL EMBRACE
- Hand size synergy.
CRUEL EXPERIMENTER
(Blood Flask is collectible, see below)
- The HP generates 1-Cost minions. This card takes profit of them. Very good if you want your board to be more resilient rather than to expand it.
TIDAL ELEMENTAL
- Multiple tribe synergy. Both Murlocs and Pirates are aggressive, hence the aggro buff. So-called "Water" decks were a thing at the end of Gadgetzan meta. It's also an Elemental, 3rd tribal synergy on the card.
MALORIAK
- The Classic Legendary! This card exemplifies both the class' strengths and weaknesses. Strength, because it's both hand synergy and a big value generator. Weaknesses, because it compensates for Alchemist's lack of big minions.
Remaining cards
TRANSMUTE: GOLD
- Transform a minion into gold!
YOUNG CHIMERA
- Fun Fact: I have been hoarding the general idea for this class since a very long time and made the first version of Young Chimera BEFORE
Nightmare Amalgam
was revealed! I was glad to see I and Blizzard used almost the same system :the "All" type, italic text, the only difference being that they list all the types.
AUGMENTED IMP
- A snowballing small minion. Unlike
Shade of Naxxramas
it doesn't have Stealth but it's cheaper, which makes its snowball potential more dangerous.
BLOOD FLASK
- The card generated by Cruel Experimenter and also a fully collectible card!
THIS IS MY CARD FOR CHALLENGE#2!
I will make a future archetype based on generating those and synergizing with those.
ELIXIR OF STRENGTH
- Comparable to
Power of the Wild
, but more powerful if you're holding stuff.
EGG SNATCHER
- A card to help you curve better (1/1 minion first, 8/8 minion later). Token is the same as Maloriak's.
RESONATING CRYSTAL
- Tribal synergy, but universal one. If Resonating Crystal is cast on a typeless minion, it will NOT give +2/+2 to other typeless minions! If cast on an All minion, it will give +2/+2 to all other minions with a type.
LIQUID MADNESS
- Liquid Rage (see basic set) on steroids.
SPELLEATER
- "Counter" is a keyword yet it's only used on
Counterspell
. Here's a new way to use it.
SPONTANEOUS GENESIS
- A quick and resilient way to refill your board. Comparable to
Wisps of the Old Gods
but more powerful because 1-Cost minion generally are more than 1/1s.
A
Blood Mage
is an adept caster capable of hurling 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.
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. However, there are several cases where I use
Immolate
in the
player's
flavour, just to show that a seemingly one-dimensional, negative keyword can be mechanically interesting.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Strengths
Access to reliable healing.
Powerful Hero Power during the early game.
Balanced card pool, allowing for varied playstyles: spell-based control, Secret midrange/tempo, Wristbands midrange, etc.
Powerful, unique weapons that feed off a Blood Mage's inherent spellcasting abilities.
Value-generating Secrets that mostly interact off of minions.
...Pirates?!
Weaknesses
To balance the healing, the
Immolate
keyword keeps the Blood Mage in check.
To balance the Hero Power, the Blood Mage has
no
low-mana soft removal (such as Mage's
Frostbolt
or Warlock's
Shadow Bolt
.)
A well-rounded card pool means it does not truly excel at anything. While it has access to AOE's, there are only 2. Another example are the Secrets. They are effective, but there are only 4 of them.
The Blood Mage features powerful spells, Secrets, and weapons, but it does not have very many minions. It will be forced to rely on Neutral cards to fill in this gap to generate board presence in the faster Blood Mage decklists.
...No ninjas.
Example Cards
Narcissism:
A simple tutor card for the Blood Mage, yet it showcase so many things. It is one of the simplest
Immolate
cards of the Classic set, allowing players to become accustomed to the keyword as well as learn that powerful draw effects such as this do not come free. Secondly, it a bit of a nod to how Blood Elves tend to be a bit snobbish within Warcraft universe. Finally, it introduces the general "theme", both art-wise and mechanically, of the Blood Mage Secrets:
All their Secrets have to do with copying, reflections, mirrors, and the like.
Shattered Self:
A more complicated version of
Noble Sacrifice
. This forces the opposing player to plan their attacks carefully, but this Secret loses most of its value if your opponent goes for a wide board. You get the most impact from this card if your opponent attacks with a low Attack, high Health minion or a minion with higher Attack than Health. However, even against faster decks, if it hits a 2/3 or a 3/2, then you've already got your full mana's worth.
Scryer Cleric:
This is the Blood Mage's most potent Healing tool. Akin to
Antique Healbot
, this forces the Blood Mage to wait until turn 5 to heal for 7. While this doesn't seem like a lot, it gives you a 4/2 body and threatens to heal on the subsequent turns. It can be better to run this over the 3 mana card
Blood Pact
in the Blood Mage's Basic set, but both still have their respective uses.
Mindstorm Wristbands:
Every class has a few standout cards in their Classic set. This funky weapon is a natural fit for the Blood Mage, flavour-wise. It takes the best aspect of the Blood Mage, their spells, and allows them to channel a weapon that gets better and better with each spell cast. But, one needs to be careful not to over-play them as once this weapon hits 4/4 after three spells, it will get progressively worse.
Sunreaver Magistrix:
Much earlier in the competition, I showcased a card called
Pyromancy
. (formerly an Epic and now found in the Remaining Cards section) Like Pyromancy, this card makes good on the blurb at the top of this post where it was stated that Immolate is not simply just a negative keyword. There is no better way to use a negative keyword than to make your opponent experience it, after all.
The Metamorpher is a class focused on board control and board domination. You'll want to keep your opponent at bay and slowly chip at his health until victory is yours, while also keeping his forces at bay using your massive minions.
Strengths:
Big minions.
Minion buffing.
Board control.
The ability of minions to share their power trough their tribe.
Weaknesses:
Subpar AoE effects and direct target removal.
Limited burst and aggro potential.
Big reliance on tribalistic synergies.
Unique aspects:
It's own tribe, the Metamorph.
Big minions that can't attack the enemy hero, or have a significant drawback if they do.
Immobilizing the enemy minions without destroying them.
Metamorphic version of existing cards, albeit with different stats and effects that synergyse with the Metamorph tag.
Example Cards
Firelands Hound
is an example of my class' tribe: the Metamorph, being make of both flesh (humans, orcs, Beasts, Dragons, even Demons) and stone (or ice; or fire; or... basically, Elementals). He also showcases one of the tribe's main mechanics, buffing other Metamorphs, their strenght growing with their numbers. He's also a very good boy :) (just don't pet him; he's really hot).
Flesh to Stone
is the card required for Challange #2. It showcases a mechanic that my class will get with the release of Un'Goro: the ability to transform existing minions into Metamorphs. This is a very simple example, but future cards will go as far as fusing together Elementals with minions from other tribes, a la Deathstalker Rexxar. More on that in the next phase.
Turn to mist
i
s a spells that shows one of the ways you can mess with your opponent's minions without outright destroying them. A pesky taunt is in the way? Turn it to mist and go right trough it. You can also use it on your own minions to make sure they survive another turn.
Ironthorn Whip
is the
Gorehowl
or
Doomhammer
of my class. An AoE card in the form of a weapon, it's great against Aggro decks, not only to clear their board, but also to prevent them from refilling it, lest they loose it again.
Terron Earthshaker
is the most powerful card in the Classic set, and the second most powerful Metamorpher in Azeroth (after the class' hero). Excellent for breathing new life into dying minions, or for making otherwise meek minions into forces to be reckoned with, at the price of not being able to attack your opponent with them. He's also a great showcase of one of the class' main mechanics: buffing, or otherwise interacting with, adjacent minions.
Complete set
COMMONS
Megamorph
is a very simple card. Just a 10 mana 11/11. It can easily become more with other Metamorphs on the board.
Bludgeoner
is to Metamorphs what
Mana Whyrm
is to spells (well... was). The obligatory over-powered 1 mana 1/3 of the class, it probably won't snowball out of control like the Mage card.
Speaking of Mage and snow,
Frozen Cleaver
is
Water Elemental
's bigger, cooler cousin. Or maybe he's some guy wearing a it as armor. Who knows? Great crowd control tool, it has average stats for it's body and can really take advantage of your enemy playing a small guy between two giants.
Lightning Fist
is a
Stormforged Axe
that allows you an extra attack during one of your turns. Extremely versatile weapon and good anti-aggro tool.
RARES
Magmatic Faery Dragon
is exactly what it sounds like: a
Faery Dragon
made of magma. Like many Metamorphs, it can land it's power to other Metamorphers. This is going to be an aspect of the class explored more in the future.
Argus Wargolem
is a cheaper, but also more situational, version of
Defender of Argus
.
Infernal Storm
is the kind of buffing card the class has access to. Your minions become incredibly powerful, but at a price. Usually, that price is the ability to SMOrc :p.
Flaming Fist
is a 3 mana 4/2, as long as you attack minions. Better control tool than
Firey War Axe
, but worse if you want early face damage.
EPICS
Unstable Stormstriker
costs 1 mana less than
Boulderfist Ogre
and is a wall, but is no threat for your opponent. great tool to keep minions big and small alike at bay, it's very susceptible to a
Gorehowl
or the like.
At the Feet of Giants
is a personal favourite. The effect is quite simple: Recruit a minion, then make it BIG (or small, if you hit ha huge minion). Great with cheap minions like the Firelands Hound that benefit from having way bigger stats than they were meant to.
The Enchanter is all about magic and change. Enchanting your cards to make them better and unique, setting yourself apart from your opponent! Spells and books and wands and even Demons! Elisande, the ruler of Suramar City and the leader of the Nightborne, has versatile play-styles: A spell-oriented Enchanter can use their hero power to consistently activate Phase and empower their cards, which benefit from Spell Damage in interesting ways. A minion-oriented Enchanter will be able to buff minions in their hand and establish a board presence. And even weapons have a place in the class as an aggressive option!
Strengths • Versatile spells: The Enchanter has access to a lot of spells; AOE, direct damage, single-summon, hard removal, and buff cards. In this sense, Enchanter is slightly more versatile than Mage when it comes to spell use. • Handbuffs: Normally average minions in Enchanter can be buffed by a range of cards — either as they are drawn from your deck, played from your hand, or on the board. This makes normally low-impact minions more viable later on. • Left-most hand matters: The ability to discount/take advantage of the left-most cards in your hand makes for a strategic way to play your hand out, so you have to be careful what you want to make your hand into! Especially with Mistveil Drake , combo potential is only there if you have the right setup! • Aggressive early game: Once again, Enchanter has low-impact minions — but they're cheap and have good snowball potential paired with handbuffs. Making use of Phase can give you bonuses for your board as well as your hand, and help put you in control of the board early on. • Draw: In both the basic set and the classic, Enchanter has good single-card draw potential. However, there's nothing like Sprint in the deck, so you have to be careful not to empty your hand too quickly.
Weaknesses • No healing: Enchanter may have good spell and minion value, but it has no way to recover from damage on its own, much like Rogue. • Lack of late-game minions: While there are a few high-cost minions, they aren't particularly well-statted. That's why your handbuffs are there. • Recursive playstyle: Phase cards have to be supported by other cards... that usually have Phase themselves. This will be easier to overcome in later sets, but in Classic it means you have to choose which cards to play first to get the bonus — similar to how if your hand is filled with combo cards, you need to play one card without the bonus in order to activate the others.
Keyword: Phase
If the text on a card has changed, Phase is activated when you play it. That means Cost , Attack , Health , and card text (particularly Spell Damage ). Cards that transform don't count!
Example Cards
Foul Homunculus supports Phase minions easily with fair stats and a not-too-amazing effect. The best part is, if you've already buffed it (or played it with a bonus from Mistveil Drake) the effect gets more powerful along with it! It's almost like it gets upgraded.
Warp Splicer 's immediate effect is similar to Gloop Sprayer , but its secondary effect helps if you want to reuse a battlecry minion.
Bibliomancy is the challenge #2 card. It supports a future archetype of 1-Cost cards similar to Rogue's burgle concept ( sorry Cheese ). Most 1-Cost cards are actually kind of good — this archetype will replace card draw in favour of immediate lower value plays that benefit from Enchanter's handbuffs.
Occult Infusion , when paired with the hero power is analogous to Feeding Time , and only scales from there. Otherwise the tokens become a target for handbuffs, making for a versatile card with delayed or immediate board impact.
Arcanist Valtrois may seem weak stats-wise, but keep in mind that her effect affects all of your minions, including her. That makes her an 8 mana 4/8 with Spell Damage +2 and a board-wide double Stormwind Champion effect. It also makes your hero power good for 2 charges... or empowers it as a 2/2 weapon to smash enemies with. This is a win condition card that can be paired with various Enchanter play styles.
Tokens
Token for Occult Infusion
All Cards
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
A note on Mana Vapour : When said minions are played, they keep the +2/+2 buff!
The Godborn is a class that focuses on earning the gods'
Favor
to unleash devastating effects upon his enemies, as well as controling the board using powerful boardclears or by flooding it with loyal servants and acolytes. Maybe too loyal.
Hero Power
Favor
is a new mechanic available only to the
Godborn
.
How does it work?
Some cards generate
Favor
and others consume it. Once consumed, the
Favor
will disapear, so you have to constantly generate
Favor
to power up your effects.
Class Identity
Challenge #1
Strengths
- The Godborn focuses on three core mechanics: summoning numerous low-stated minions, clearing the enemy board as quick as possible and earning
Favor
. This branches the class in two directions: aggro and control.
Aggresive decks - board flooding and buffs to control the board and end the game as fast as possible.
Control decks - powerful boardclears and single target removals to ensure domain over the battlefield, while waiting to draw your win condition. (Ex: a
Malygos
Combo)
Weaknesses
- The class is struggling with drawing cards reliably, most draw mechanics having a requirement that needs to be fulfilled. There is also a lack of strong minions, the biggest one being a 6-6 at the moment. The class is also susceptible to area of effect abilities, due to the low stated minions it possesses, without reliable ways to buff their health.
The Classic Set
While our hero was fighting through the Tanaris Desert, shooting stars filled the sky of Azeroth, each emanating godly energies. One of them was the sun god himself, Ra, falling toward Uldum, the Land of the Titans. The explosion caused by the landing destroyed every single being that inhabited the place, leaving a crater ruled by fiery demons and twisted acolytes.
Fire means power. This set will provide the class with the cards that will represent the foundation of several archetypes (Aggro, Control, Tempo, Combo, Midrange), focusing on damaging enemies with burning effects and inspiring allies with Attack buffs.
Flame's Apprentice
- The iconic 1 mana 1/3. Similar to
Mana Wyrm
, every Worshiper makes the card stronger, as the flame shines brighter and brighter. Will be nerfed to 2 mana after being problematic for 5 years.
Breath of Life
- Good control card both stalling the game and drawing an important late game card (
Malygos
,
Alexstrasza
,
Deathwing
).
Alexstrasza
was just passing by and decided to heal you and aid you in your odyssey. What a generous queen.
Scorching Temptress
- A seductive succubus which empowers your minions with her fiery whip. Once for free and once for a price. Do you have what she craves?
Crimson Hellion
- An imposing
Demon
who strikes fear in its enemies and rallies allies on the battlefield.
Ra, the Sun
-
Challenge #3
- Summon a couple of servants to protect your god and then destroy them, and everyone else, or don't, the choice is yours, kind of. Bird got an attitude. (Triggering the
Favor
effect will also destroy the Priests of the Sun)
The Priests are here!
Remaining Cards
Spark in the Dark
- A very cheap way to earn some
Favor
when you are close but not close enough.
Blazing Bolt
- A simple damaging spell that will be a key finisher in combo decks.
Malygos
approves.
Demonic Bargain
(Challenge #2) - This card hints towards a
Demon
archetype, which will focus on generating minions and buffing them with the help of powerful
Demons
. This card's strength lies in the possibility of drawing a Demon, which is not very high at the moment.
Praise the Flame
- The easiest way to build a board and earn
Favor
. By fire be purged.
Ragnaros, the Firelord
agrees.
Triple Toss
- As the name suggest, there is a slight chance your head will be next. Careful.
Wildfire Berserker
- Fire makes people angry and spells powerful. (Not) cool.
Cauterize
- "From the ashes, I rise."- Raging Statue
Rain of Embers
- What doesn't hurt you makes you stronger.
Crimson Teacher
- The Violet twins were destined to great things. Until one of them showed her true colors.
INFERNO!
- A devastating board clear which generates both mayhem and
Favor
. Maximum cost, maximum destruction.
Why are you angry?
What's coming next?
Un'Goro will send us on a
Quest
to earn a
goddess's
Favor
and meet loyal
Beasts
and mighty
Elementals
, while Kinghts of the Frozen Throne will show us the opposite of fire. Heat will turn into cold and life will become death in an icy land where we will meet coldblooded
Demons,
undead creatures and their horrific
master
. Will you succumb to their corruption and become a
Death Knight?
Or will they listen to your prayers and reward you with their
Favor
?
Thank you for accompanying me on this mighty journey and special thanks to every person who helped me make the best out of this set. Good luck to eveyone and remember, don't play with fire.
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).
It's all kicking off guys! SO excited to be working on some of the meat of the Voidcaster, and so hyped for all of us still repping our classes. This one's gonna be good guys!
Singularity
Singularity
is the Overload style tradeoff keyword of this class. All
Singularity
cards feature strong effects, stats or costs, if not all three, balanced on the fact that you can only have one in play at a time, and as a consequence, you need to restrict yourself from over corwding your deck with them. They can be cheated out ovr the top of each other, such as with the infamous
Mad Scientist
.
Strengths
Strong Single Target Removal:
Single target removal so good you can hit multiple targets with it! VC excels at spreading it's varied removal options, some hard, some soft and some which deny resummoning combos.
Good Draw:
While the draw isn't always consistent, it's across the board strong once it gets off.
Hand Dancing:
VC can throw out a strong minion, get off an attack with it, then return it to your hand until the start of your next turn. It can do this with both yours and your opponent's minions, allowing you to cheat out Singularities over the top of each other.
Strong single turn survival:
VC has several options for preventing it's death for just one turn longer. None as fire and foget as
Ice Block
, but more numerous and a bit more skill intensive
0-mana secrets:
As all VC secrets are balanced on the Singularity Keyword, they are all balanced at 0-mana and thus can be played without skewing your curve.
They can void any bad contracts you're stuck in.
Weaknesses
Inefficient AoE:
If there's anything that really gets to VC, it's the AoE issue. ALL AoEs are either high costed (And in much later sets) or require multiple cards to use. More often than not, they will have to save their single target removal spells to be spread around using Void Might or Gravity Well, or burn an excess of cards inefficiently to proc Twisted Heartbeat.
Singularity deckbuilding:
There isn't really a logistical way to build a 30 singularity deck; Depending the speed you go at, you could brick your hand with around nine. You have to make sure each of your Singularities can be used or at least is worth the draw. Also worth noting that if you're locked into a secret and your opponent neve manages to trigger it, a lot of your other secrets are also bricking something major. Most have pretty open-ended conditions though
Weak Defenses:
Other than some Taunt abilities, VC is severely lacking in armor gain and desperately out of Healing. Health is a resource you won't be getting back much.
Tradeoffs:
A lot of your cards with strong effects that have no Singularity cost will often give your opponent armor. You get irrefutably good tempo through your Hero Power as well, but you'll need a strong board presence to eventually get back through most of that armor.
They expired all your coupons.
Example Cards
Here's a look at some of what classic set has to offer! You've seen various classic cards in the first preview post, so those will be in the remaining cards section.
Indemnification:
The Voidcaster is a class with strong secrets, and I think
Indemnification
demonstrates this well. Most secret effects have an easy trigger but a strong lategame effect, to contrast how non-existent their mana cost is. Sure, you could play it turn 1, but it's extremely unhelpful. All the secrets have this sort of trade-off.
Indemnification
exemplifies the strong single-turn survivability of VC as well, putting into sharp relief how to slow down aggro.
Rift Dance:
Rift Dance
is the VC's take on
Shadowstep
; Rather than reducing cost, it instead provides a bonus over time. You can smack an opponent with a strong Singularity minion, Rift Dance it, throw in a secret, and then even if the secret's up next turn your minion will come in with it. Now, the metaphysical rammifications of having multiple singularity level black holes is ignored in that, but you get the general idea. Big minions, delayed
'healing'
and stacking of Singularities.
Grip of the Void:
Hard, soft, semi... VC's got all forms of removal.
Grip of the Void
ranges from an early game soft removal, to a lategame smaller minion hard removal (If you play it from your hand it WON'T resummon) to a quick taunt removal for a lethal push. Combined with
Void Might
, you can possibly destroy the entire opponent's board, if your hand's full enough.
Breath of Dimnesius:
Now, VC doesn't have much in the way of strong defenses, but it has a bit of delayed defense. Redirect nine points of damage onto this stealth elemental (Once it becomes a tribe, that is). Utilizing
Rift Dance
you can also reset it's health pool as well. Of course, it only slows damage;
King Krush
is still doing 7 to your face.
Summoning Blast:
When it comes to spreading spell effects, VC is aiming to have no peers (Not hard when
Zentimo
introduced the concept, but hey).
Summoning Blast
is the void version of
Hammer of Wrath
, trading the roughly 1 mana effect of drawing a card to instead pop out a 1-cost minion. This is also one of the better non-removal choices for your
Gravity Wells
and
Void Mights
,
though whether you value taunts or removal more is questionable.
Remaining Cards
Minimization
was previously showcased, and is the minion v. minion attack secret. Essentially if they attempt to trade with one of your friendly minions, you'll likely win the trade.
Condensation
is the
Ice Barrier
of the class, and the only card in classic to capitalize on your opponent's armor.
Voidtouched Artifact
(CHALLENGE 2)
is related to the KnC set, wherein the subtheme for the class will be weapons with singularity, much like rogue secrets.
Blinkrunner
is a lore-style 1 cost minion which works well for Rift Dance, and the Stealth is meant to emblemize hopping in and out of portals... stabbing people. Fun.
Voidcore Crusher
is the brutish basic Singularity minion for vanilla board control.
Collation
is one of the stronger draw cards in the class, but it's also one of the most conditional secrets; You can get locked out of your singularities for awhile if they simply don't play anything higher than 4 Attack.
Nullify
is heavy class fantasy. In vanilla, the damage kills almost every minion but the legendary dragons. It's costed at seven so it can't be used with Void Might. Propagation has your opponent pay mana to delay their spell casting and giving you a copy.
Void Might
and
Alleria
have already been showcased, but just briefly, Void Might is key to the classes' identity of spreading removal and damage around and Alleria
(CHALLENGE 3)
does w i e r d s t u f f and is basically a slow King Krush with a turn of survival.
Alright, that does it for classic! I'm having a blast designing all these card and I'm hyped on my Un'goro and KoFT sets (For the record, I ditched the Start of the Game Hero card, the balance wasn't worth it.) and I'm hyped to be working even further out. Shoutout to all my boys who help me balance these cards, McF4rtson, CheeseETC, Mewdrops and Broeck1 (As long as we're on at the same timezone)
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 can 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.
Flavor:
1)
Fire and Blood magic;
2)
Self damage;
3)
Lizard people!
Strengths:
1) Great removal options, plenty of board clears;
2) Strong hero power and HP interactions;
3) Spell synergy and generation;
4) Great card draw;
Weaknesses:
1) Minions have low stats and are defensive/combo oriented;
2) Not many direct damage to the enemy hero options;
3) No real win condition; Games are won by grinding the opponent to the ground;
4) Very weak to burst damage; Can't recover health quickly, only in small amounts over time;
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
F
resh 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
Explanation
Fire Within
: One of Bloodburner's biggest strengths is his hero power. This spell is basically the "2 mana deal 3 damage" with a twist. You can cast multiple copies of this over multiple turns to build up a massive
Blood to Fire
, or just use it proactively in anticipation of a big threat.
Flame Rush
:
This allows you to search your deck for an answer this turn. You don't get to keep the cards, so you need to choose carefully which of the 3 cards you'll play. The Bloodburner can shuffle spells into his deck, so this is a way for him to search for them for a relatively cheap price, seeing as there are no penalties like
Tracking
, where you lose 2 of the cards.
Crimson Spell-Ring
:
It will become +1 Spell damage, 2 durability; then +2 spell damage, 1 durability; Then it will break. You can prolong the time you have the spell damage buff active by not damaging yourself, or you can do exactly that to get to the +2 buff faster. The enemy will break it eventually, so it's not a permanent thing. Act fast before it's destroyed.
Qora Library Keeper
:
Another way for a Bloodburner to copy his spells is to go to the Qora Library. This helpful assistant will give you even more spells to play with as long as he survives. His experience at the library also makes his gifts cost less than the originals. Perks of reading books.
Blood Master Zuggrash
:
The leader of the reptilian tribes and the strongest Bloodburner alive,
Blood Master Zuggrash
contains the core mechanics of the class. Through self-damage,
Fresh Blood
activates and he gives you a free copy of a spell from your deck. With the help of
Quora Library Keeper
you can increase the odds of getting 0 cost copies of your favorite and most powerful spells. Truly a force to be reckoned with.
Remaining Cards
Common
Second Flame
: Card for Challenge #2. This foreshadows the upcoming Inspire and Odd archetypes. Inspire might have been forgotten by the HS team, but it will live on in my class. All sets after TGT will have inspire cards, and this 1 mana spell with be at the core of an Inspire deck. And when WW rolls out, it will fit nicely in an Odd deck.
Warm Up
: Card draw and removal. This spell synergises with Boodburner's other spell related cards and offers him yet another damage option.
Regeneration Charm
: Small amulet that basically prevents the first time you'd lose health in a turn. You can activate it to negate the self-damage part of your cards or it can block one attack or spell from your enemy.
Kolarra Healer
: Simple minion that can heal you little by little if she's not removed.
Kolarra Mystic
: Since you'll be removing enemy minions quite a lot, this 4-drop can sustain you throughout the match. You can even play it before a big boardclear, as even if he dies he will still heal you.
Rare
Molten Wave
:
Felfire Potion
does 5 to all for 6 mana. This can do that for 1 less mana if you cast it on a 1 Health minion. But most of the time it will most likely deal 2-3 damage to all and 3-4 damage to a single target. Worse case scenario it is a more expensive, minion only
Fireball
.
Atraki's Protection
: This spell just makes you and your minions harder to kill for 1 turn. It also negates some self-damage the turn you play it. Overall it is just a stall tool, less effective than Time Out, but it also protects your minions. Bloodburner's don't flood the board, so it won't be a problem in aggro decks (as they won't exist).
Kolarra Bloodreaver:
This minion offers a repeatable board clear, only if she survives. You need either 8 mana or another card to activate her the turn you play her and it is limited by the constrains of
Fresh Blood.
Epic
Inferno
:
Twisting Nether
for but it can hit you and your opponent for quite a lot. You need to be careful to not kill yourself with all the self-damage from your cards.
Atraki Defender
: Strong, buff taunt that has a unique effect. It CAN be targeted by spells, but it won't take DAMAGE from them.
Fireball
will deal 0 to him, but
Shadow Word: Death
will still kill him.
This is the Submission Topic. The Discussion Topic is here .
Welcome back everyone! No fancy bullet points or cheery reminiscing this time - only the list of who is moving on! We have a total of 26 competitors moving on to Phase III, and they are:
As a reminder, only these users are allowed to post their Submissions for Phase III. Congratulations to everyone who moved on, and commiserations to everyone who didn't.
GENERAL RULES
Even if you're already a veteran of our competitions here on the Fan Creation Forum, you should read the general rules before you get started. This competition does introduce new rules, like image limitations and formatting requirements.
* The Submission Topic is for submissions only. If you want to discuss your entry, another entry, ask questions about the competition rules or process, or anything else, you can find a link to the Discussion Topic at the top of this thread. Plenty of folks there will be happy to help you out.
* You are allowed only one submission , consisting of the materials specified by each competition phase. These materials must, of course, be of your own creation. If you'd like, you may collaborate with another user on a single submission, but this must be specified during Phase I.
* You may make only minor edits to your entry once you have submitted it. Minor changes are things like correcting typos or making balance changes that do not alter the spirit of your entry as determined by we the moderators. If you want to make any changes and have any doubts as to their legality, ask us first.
* You may not delete any posts you make in this topic. No, not even if you post here by mistake or accidentally double-post or something. Deleted posts screw with the system we use to help us calculate up-vote scores, so don't do that. If you to post here by mistake or accidentally double-post or something, simply edit your post to just say "REMOVED" and leave it at that.
* You may not create your own topics on this forum for competition-related material. If everybody goes off and creates their own topics for specific discussion of their entries, this board will be flooded with nothing but, and so competition material must remain restricted to official competition topics. If you want to enter the competition with a class that you already have a topic about on this forum, then your topic will be locked in the interest of fairness to the other competitors. Not deleted, just locked, and it can be unlocked after your entry gets knocked out of the competition. You also may not reference or link to your topic in official competition topics.
* You must host your card somewhere other than Hearthcards. We encourage you to create your entry material using Hearthcards.net , but please remember that, although HearthCards is awesome, it has a limited server space and will purge cards after a few days, and nobody wants your cards disappearing part-way through the competition. After you create it, save and upload it to Imgur , Photobucket , or some other similar site. We understand that there are some Hearthcards memberships that will allow you to save your card there for longer (and you should totally get one of those just for general fan creation purposes, by the way), but we don't know who has those memberships and we can't tell from the URLs.
* You may not submit any Gold cards or animated cards, nor may you include any images in your post other than the requested submission materials. A single banner or border, to introduce the class, is allowed. We get it, everybody wants their entry to stand out, but our pages are going to be heavy enough as it is without everybody heading their submissions with animated banners.
* You must insert your images into your post using this icon on the bar above the post text editor: . Just click that button and put in the URL of your image. We realize that it's also possible to upload and attach images to your post. Don't do that, though. We know from experience that, because those images are much smaller and require more work to view, entries that enter their images that way just don't do as well, so this is for your own good.
* Format your entry concisely by sizing your cards appropriately and placing them beside one another rather than in a column or completely separate. The first example below is acceptable while the second is not. Entries that unnecessarily inflate the size of the submission topic and make it more difficult to get through will be disqualified. How should you size your cards? Well...
Hey, look! Some cards!
Open the Waygate : Look at how nice this is.
Frost Lich Jaina : All neat, organized, and concise.
Aluneth : What a great post.
Wait, what are you doing?
Seriously, please don't.
This is painful. Why are you doing this?
You are a monster.
* "Troll" entries will be disqualified. Fun and even humorous entries are perfectly allowed (this is Hearthstone after all), but if you're worried that your entry may be misinterpreted as a troll entry, contact a moderator before you submit.
Finally, know that manipulating votes in any way is strictly forbidden. Any violators will receive an official warning, and will be banned from this and all future HearthPwn Card Design Competitions.
PHASE III: The Classic Set
In this Phase, you will each construct your class's Classic Set . Here are the requirements for your Class Creation Competition Phase III Entry:
There are just a few elements of your class that you will repeat from your Phase I entry, to remind us who and what we're dealing with. If you'd like to repeat anything from your class's introductory explanation, including its flavor or whatever you believe makes it interesting or unique mechanically, that's fine, but try to keep it brief.
We do not want to see your Class's entire Classic Set out in the open.
The remaining ten (10) cards of your class's Classic Set must be presented behind a Spoiler Block (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.). These cards must obey the same rules are your examples cards with regards to expansion watermarks, rarity gems, and what keywords you may not use.
As before, you will include a link to your Phase I and Phase II posts at the end of your submission.
The standard template which your submission must follow can be found here (or by navigating to the second post in the Discussion Topic, if that link doesn't work).
COMPETITION SCHEDULE AND PROCESS
How long do you have to work on your submission? How will advancement to Phase II of the competition be determined? The answers to these questions and more can be found below...
PHASE I: CLASS CONCEPT
Submission: 9/January - 20/January
Up-Voting: 20/January - 23/January
PHASE II: BASIC SET
Submission: 23/January - 10/February
Up-Voting: 10/February - 13/February
PHASE III: CLASSIC SET
Submission: 13/February - 2/March
Poll #1: 2/March - 4/March
Poll #2: 4/March - 6/March
PHASE IV: Journey to Un'Goro + Knights of the Frozen Throne
Submission: 6/March - 30/March
Poll #1: 30/March - 1/April
Poll #2: 1/April - 3/April
PHASE V: Kobolds & Catacombs + The Witchwood
Submission: 3/April - 28/April
Poll: 28/April - 1/May
PHASE VI: The Boomsday Project + Rastakhan's Rumble
Submission: 1/May - 26/May
Poll: 26/May - 29/May
NOTE: All stages of the competition begin and end at 22:00 UTC.
ALSO NOTE: This timetable is subject to change at any time, even after the competition begins, if it seems like too many folks are struggling.
* During Submission stages, Submission Topics will be unlocked and (remaining) participants may submit their entries. During Phases I-II, you may also use this time to go ahead and up-vote submissions that you like.
* During Up-Voting stages for Phases I-II, Submission Topics will be locked. Use this time to up-vote submissions that you like. Note that advancement during these Phases depends entirely on up-votes.
* During Polling stages for Phases III-VI, Submission Topics will be locked, and all eligible remaining participants will have their submission material included in a separate Poll Topic to determine advancement. Phases III-IV include two Poll Topics because I anticipate we will have enough participants remaining that we will not be able to fit everybody in one Poll Topic. Note that up-votes in the Submission Topics are irrelevant to advancement during these Phases.
How will eliminations be done, and how many competitors will advance from each phase to the next?
I'm glad you asked! We will be taking a equal proportion of competitors from each Phase of the competition to the next, and we will be ending with exactly four finalists. That being the case and their being five total eliminations before the final round, that proportion can be found by solving for x:
[# of valid Phase I entries] * x^5 = 4
The higher the number of valid Phase I entries, the lower that proportion becomes. Just so you have an idea, the proportion hits 50% when we hit 128 entries, which is likely, but it only hits 33.3% when we hit 972 entries, which is less likely.
As mentioned above, advancement to Phases II and III will be determined by up-votes only. However, these up-votes are weighted using a formula identical to the process used by our Weekly Card Design Competitions:
( ab ) / ( c ) = x
(Where a is the total number of up-votes that your submission received, b is the total number of valid submissions on the same page as your submission, c is the total number of up-votes on valid submissions on the same page as your submission, and x is your submission's final weighted up-vote score.)
Why bother with this formula rather than just taking each submissions up-votes directly? Because earlier pages simply get a lot more views that later pages do, and we do not want rushed, early submissions to have an advantage over later submissions that took more time to get their entries just right. The formula basically measures which submissions stood out the most, with the necessary assumption that each page is about equal in overall submission quality.
The bottom line is that, although entries on the earlier pages of the Submission Topic are much more visible and thus receive many more up-votes than entries on later pages, you don't actually have to rush to get your entry in as soon as possible, because the up-votes end up being weighted by what page your entry ends up on in order to determine its final score.
As mentioned above, advancement to Phases IV, V, and VI will be determined by polls. These polls will be multi-choice, meaning that voters can vote for every entry that they like. Whenever we have to split a Phase's poll into two to make it more manageable for voters, advancement will be determined by looking at each class's final percentage scores, not by looking at the direct number of votes they received, since we can't guarantee that the same number of voters will vote each day. Poll results will always be hidden until the poll has concluded, and for polls split in two, this does also mean that the results of the first poll will not be revealed until the second poll has concluded as well.
The winner of Phase VI, and thus the entire competition, will be determined by a poll much like the ones before, except that it will be single-choice, requiring voters to pick their single favorite class, and will have a much longer polling phase than usual to give us plenty of opportunity for promotion and such.
In the event of a tie during Phases I-IV for the last possible advancing position, all entries involved in the tie will be allowed to advance; the more the merrier, I say. We will absolutely not have more than four finalists, however, and so in the event of a tie during Phase V, the three Fan Creation Forum moderators (that is, Cogito_Ergo_Sum, ShadowsOfSense, and PupleMD) will vote to break the tie. In the event of a tie during Phase VI to determine the competition's winner, the title will simply be shared unless both finalists request and agree to a tie-breaking round.
But wait, there's more! During Phases I-IV of the Competition, each Fan Creation Forum moderator (ShadowsOfSense, PupleMD, Phoenixfeather, ThisOtherGuyTox, Cogito_Ergo_Sum, Otovent, linkblade91) will have a Wild Card , which we may (though are not required to) use to advance to the next Phase any one entry that we feel was initially overlooked or under-appreciated, regardless of its performance with voters. No entry may be awarded a Wild Card more than once, and it should also go without saying that, while some moderators are allowed to participate in the competitions, they are never allowed to benefit from Wild Cards. Wild Cards are our way of spicing things up a bit, but please don't ask to be given one or be upset if you aren't given one. These are just supposed to be fun.
Are you curious what will be required for future phases of the competition? The challenges will remain a secret , but I'm happy to tell you the general submission requirements.
PHASE IV: Journey to Un'Goro + Knights of the Frozen Throne
By having your class's Classic Set approved of, you've shown that you can make a completely functional class. But functional isn't good enough. Your class must also have room to grow beyond that. For this phase, you'll be proving that it can by giving your class Journey to Un'Goro and Knights of the Frozen Throne cards. Here are the requirements for your Class Creation Competition Phase IV Entry:
There are just a few elements of your class that you will repeat from your Phase I entry, to remind us who and what we're dealing with. If you'd like to repeat anything from your class's introductory explanation, including its flavor or whatever you believe makes it interesting or unique mechanically, that's fine, but try to keep it brief.
We do not want to see your Class's entire JUG and KFT Sets out in the open.
The remaining seven (7) cards of your class's JUG and KFT Sets must be presented behind a Spoiler Block (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.). These cards must obey the same rules are your examples cards with regards to expansion watermarks, rarity gems, and what keywords you may not use.
You should include your completed Basic and Classic Sets from Phases II and III behind a Spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.) either before or after your Phase IV material. It is fine if these cards have undergone some minor modification, but they must still adhere to all of their original Phase requirements.
PHASE V: Kobolds & Catacombs + The Witchwood
Congratulations on being a semi-finalist! With positively received Whispers of the Old Gods and One Night in Karazhan sets, you've proven that your class's concept and mechanics have room for expansion. Now, there's only one last thing to do: narrow down the best of the best. For this phase, you'll be giving your class Mean Streets of Gadgetzan and Journey to Un'Goro cards. Here are the requirements for your Class Creation Competition Phase V Entry:
There are just a few elements of your class that you will repeat from your Phase I entry, to remind us who and what we're dealing with. If you'd like to repeat anything from your class's introductory explanation, including its flavor or whatever you believe makes it interesting or unique mechanically, that's fine, but try to keep it brief.
We do not want to see your Class's entire KnC and WW Sets out in the open.
The remaining cards of your class's KnC and WW Sets must be presented behind a Spoiler Block (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.). These cards must obey the same rules are your examples cards with regards to expansion watermarks, rarity gems, and what keywords you may not use.
You should include your completed Basic, Classic, JUG, and KFT Sets from Phases II-IV behind a Spoiler (Inserting a Spoiler can be done by clicking the ! symbol on the top bar of the text editor.) either before or after your Phase V material. It is fine if these cards have undergone some minor modification, but they must still adhere to all of their original Phase requirements.
PHASE VI: The Boomsday Project + Rastakhan's Rumble
Here we are, finalists! In the last phase of our competition, you'll be giving us your class's Knights of the Frozen Throne and Kobolds & Catacombs sets, as well as constructing your own custom Finale Topics:
There will be no Submission Topic for the competition Finale. Instead, you will create your own Finalist Topics. All that you have to do is create a normal topic here on the Fan Creation Forum and title it as such:
[Class Competition Finalist] TURTLE
(Replace TURTLE with your own class's name, of course.)
Then, bring it to our attention, and we'll link to it from this topic. That's it. How you format and present your final product is entirely up to you. You've put in a lot of work to come this far, so you've earned the right to show us your completed original Class however you think is best.
In addition to including the required material from all previous phases, you must add the following:
These don't need to be part of your Finale Topic, but by the end of the Submission Phase, you should send ShadowsOfSense 8 example cards from your completed collection, preferably via PM, to be included in the Final Poll Topic. The Final Poll topic will look very similar to this one from our first CCC, except that no token cards will be included.
REWARDS
In addition to truly epic bragging rights, ALL finalists will receive a special Forum Title and Avatar Border, similar to those given to winners of our forum's Weekly Card Design Competitions, as shown below:
Furthermore, the winning contestant will have a Season 7 competition themed around their winning class!
ARCHIVES
Want to see how things went during our first four Class Creation Competitions? Want to see what the winners and other finalists did during each phase? Then check out the links below!
Note, that some competition rules, especially formatting rules, may have been different for past competition.
Class Creation Competition #1 - Class Design Competition
Phase I: Submission ( Merchant , Twilight's Hammer , Demon Hunter , Lich ), Discussion
Phase II: Submission ( Merchant , Twilight's Hammer , Demon Hunter , Lich ), Discussion , Poll
Phase III : Submission ( Merchant , Twilight's Hammer , Demon Hunter , Lich ), Discussion , Poll
Phase IV: Discussion ( Merchant , Twilight's Hammer , Demon Hunter , Lich ), Final Poll
Class Creation Competition #2 - Worlds Beyond Warcraft
Phase I: Submission ( Bard , Agent , Nightmare , Pokemon Trainer ), Discussion
Phase II: Submission ( Bard , Agent , Nightmare , Pokemon Trainer ), Discussion
Phase III: Submission ( Bard , Agent , Nightmare , Pokemon Trainer ), Discussion , Poll 1 , Poll 2
Phase IV: Submission ( Bard , Agent , Nightmare , Pokemon Trainer ), Discussion , Poll
Phase V: Discussion ( Bard , Agent , Nightmare , Pokemon Trainer ), Final Poll
Class Creation Competition #3 - Asylum's Gauntlet
Phase I: Submission ( Worgen , Chronomancer , Flame Wielder , Alchemist ), Discussion
Phase II: Submission ( Worgen , Chronomancer , Flame Wielder , Alchemist ), Discussion
Phase III: Submission ( Worgen , Chronomancer , Flame Wielder , Alchemist ), Discussion , Poll 1 , Poll 2
Phase IV: Submission ( Worgen , Chronomancer , Flame Wielder , Alchemist ), Discussion , Poll 1 , Poll 2
Phase V: Submission ( Worgen , Chronomancer , Flame Wielder , Alchemist ), Discussion , Poll
Grand Finale: Discussion ( Worgen , Chronomancer , Flame Wielder , Alchemist ), Final Poll
Class Creation Competition #4 - Deathwing Needs A Friendwing
Phase I: Challenges , Submission , ( Chef , Necromancer , Sea Witch , Summoner ), Discussion
Phase II: Challenges , Submission , ( Chef , Necromancer , Sea Witch , Summoner ), Discussion
Phase III: Challenges , Submission , ( Chef , Necromancer , Sea Witch , Summoner ), Discussion , Poll 1 , Poll 2
Phase IV: Challenges , Submission , ( Chef , Necromancer , Sea Witch , Summoner ), Discussion , Poll
Phase V: Challenges , Submission , ( Chef , Necromancer , Sea Witch , Summoner ), Discussion , Poll
Grand Finale: Challenges , ( Chef , Necromancer , Sea Witch , Summoner ), Discussion , Final Poll
You can find me here! Good luck everyone!
The Astromancer
When the people of Azeroth are sleeping or fighting, astronomers study the stars, the sun, the moon and the planets surrounding their sky. With this knowledge, astromancers try their best to make prediction to the future based on the pattern. Unfortunately, their prediction backfires to the people of Azeroth as often as it helps them.
That isn't to say that astromancers are completely wrong. With a little more patient, set up and studying intensely, their prediction have more chance of being useful!
Rishi Sterling has always a big believer that only she can control her own destiny. This the reason why she took a career paths few would choose, became a Blood Elf after the fall of Quel'thalas, studying the forbidden Void magic in order to understand better the infinite blackness between the stars that lead to her banishment and is the reason why she now rejoined the world of Azeroth as a member of the Alliance Void Elves to spread the long lost whisper of the stars far and wide
Class Keyword :
Astromancer is a high RNG class that this keyword allows them to reduce the RNG (atleast temporarily) and plan their turn as well as considering their risk / reward ratio accordingly when they don't draw or can't afford to play the Gaze cards.
Gaze not only allows the class to play offensively by allow their damage to reliable hit the desirable target, they allow the class to play defensively as well since their card draw, minion buffs and healing are also pretty random. And yes, Gaze triggers with cards like Mosh'Ogg Announcer .
Gaze effects not only activate with your own random effect but also your opponent's random effect as well. Which mean that you can protect your minions from devastating effects like Deadly Shot or from Die, Insect! from mowing your important minions or life down too quickly.
Gaze only activate and disappear on ELIGIBLE targets only. If there is no eligible target, the random effect will proceed with the target selection like normal. If minions with Gaze died from effect like Arcane Missiles mid-casting, the target selection will continue on as normal. If two or more target are Gazed , the target that were Gazed first will be the target for the random effect. If they are Gazed at the same time, the effect will randomly pick among the Gazed targets. This is especially important to remember because Gaze also stacks on a character until the previous one disappear, which mean that timing and anticipating the opponent's play is key for your random effect to have the most value.
Also of note is that minions with natural Gaze in their card text (like Celestial Drake in my Classic set) will have Gaze anywhere , meaning that tutoring draw effects like The Curator , discard from hand or deck effects like Soulfire as well as other hand target effects like Dirty Rat or Recruit effect will target that card instead of your other cards. If that happens, the minion will enter the battlefield with the Gaze removed.
How do you know and keep track of which characters are Gazed ? Any character that is Gazed will have an eye symbol with blue aura surrounding them when you hover over. Here's an example (thanks to the brilliant NoahMcGrath):
List of available cards in the Basic and Classic set that will be effected by this keyword:
Arcane Missiles
Cleave
Mind Vision
Multi-Shot
Any effect that says "Discard a random card": Soulfire , Succubus , Doomguard
Deadly Shot
Mad Bomber
Thoughtsteal
Forked Lightning
Blood Imp
Alarm-o-Bot
Demolisher
Knife Juggler
Lightwell
Master Swordsmith
Mind Control Tech
Stampeding Kodo
Young Priestess
Avenging Wrath
Brawl
Mindgames
Sylvanas Windrunner (before HoF)
Ragnaros the Firelord (before HoF)
Tinkmaster Overspark
Strength and Weakness:
Strength:
Weakness:
Example cards:
Token:
Remaining Cards:
Token:
Previous Phase:
Phase I submission
Phase II submission
A big thank to every kind person who helped contributed in the Discussion Topic that helped shape my Classic Set.
Click here to visit my Timestream Tracking Finalist Year of the Dragon in collaboration with Demonxz95
Class Creation Finalist: The Astromancer
Best cards vote by community:
THE FIST FIGHTER
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Example Cards
Tokens
Auto-rocks, roll out.
Remaining Cards
Common
Carbo-Load (Challenge #2): Carbo-Load is a prophet of the future, where I will explore this mechanic of minions being at Full Health. Minions being at Full Health has not been something I've really seen yet and I hope to expand upon it further. It also doubles as a mini heal and control tool to keep big minions like Stonefisted Bouncer alive.
Protein: Much like the Drunken Fighter example card, Protein shows off the buffing capabilities of my class with a low variance random effect. Some might say it's a weaker version of Divine Strength but I think it is perfectly fine for Classic and shows off my class's characteristics.
Ironfist Statue: Plainly put, this is a key card in keeping face damage to Mavis to a minimum.
Rare
Break Out: Simple tech card aimed at Taunt based decks. This also doubles as an AOE to synergize with other cards like Mass Ale-ment.
Contemplating Monk: Another simple card, Contemplating Monk just increases the strength of the Hero Power to cleanly get rid of big targets.
Mass Ale-ment: Similar in mechanics to Gut Punch, this card allows for great AOE synergy from other spells or allows small tokens to be able to take out big targets.
Stonefisted Bouncer: A great defensive card that synergizes with token generating cards. Nothing's getting by him.
Epic
Lead by Example: Great card for themes. This couples attack gain cards with token generating cards.
Relentless Rampage: Another AOE card, strong with high attack gain cards like Left Hook, essentially turning it into a 7 mana deal 5 to all enemy minions. If you don't have any buffing cards however, simply using your Hero Power will turn this into a 6 mana Consecration . This also has high buff potential for Mavis's Biggest Fan.
Full Rage: Just a strong burst tool to finish the enemy hero off, similar to Pyroblast
Legendary
Previous Phases
Phase I Submission
Phase II Submission
Vote for the Fist Fighter https://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-general/fan-creations/229960-trials-and-errors-class-creation-competition-5?comment=3 😎🤜
I have returned, mortals! It is I, Kel'Thuz-*cough* *cough* Okay, I have to drop the gag. It's really hard to explain things like comboes and strengths/weaknesses for a card game while being in character. So, with that in mind, let's proceed:
The Lich
As a master of the cold and the cycle of life and death, Kel'Thuzad freezes enemies in their tracks while his undead forces continue to take over the land. Under his command the Scourge's victory is only a matter of time; the living will eventually have to accept that fact.
Strengths + Themes
The Lich is more likely to win the longer the game goes on, as he outlasts his opponent's assault. The undead do not tire, do not need food, and do not feel pain; the forces of the living become weak from endless fighting, while the Scourge only grows in strength. Gameplay-wise, this translates into a slower playstyle, namely a "fatigue" late-game archetype where you slowly exhaust your opponent of resources. This comes from:
In the hands of Kel'Thuzad, death is not quick: it's a slow, torturous march towards inevitability.
Weaknesses
Naturally, The Lich suffers against those who can rally a sizable force quickly. The tactics that provide Kel'Thuzad his great power are also the ones that hold him back, as each of them are slow. Deathrattles take time to go off, Freeze is not the same as killing an enemy outright, and reviving minions means they have to die first. It's ultimately just not as efficient and timely as a straight-forward aggressive playstyle.
Example Cards
Remaining Cards
Previous Phases
Thank you to everyone who gave me feedback, and thank you for giving my a submission a look :)
Behold, foolish interlopers! I am commanding this mortal to spread the will of the Scourge throughout the interwebs, encouraging you to seek out me, Archlich Kel'Thuzad! Now coming to you as the tenth class of Hearthstone!
I am a finalist in this Class Creation Competition, so if you could give it a look I would be greatly appreciative <3
THE BOTANIST
A Botanist is not a Druid, but a scholar fascinated by plant life. While the Druids are a protectors of the wild, a Botanist is focused on the research of their secrets. They study, catalogue, culture and experiment on different kind of plants, tapping into their life force in order to unlock their hidden power. A Botanist seek out the rarest flora and carefully harvest the helpful and potent herbs found throughout the world(s), which can be transformed in powerful reagents. Cultivation is the Hero Power of this class which will allow you to add to your hand a powerful Seedling with the new keyword: Evergrowth .
N.B. The Hero Power has been balanced since Phase I & II to be more balanced and easy to understand, it now add a minion to your hand instead of summoning it straight away, please read the Evergrowth section of this post for a complete overview.
STRENGTH & WEAKNESS ( Challenge I)
The Botanist needs time to build up his strategies and is likely to win in the later phases of the game. Grow up a strong and luxuriant garden required patience and sacrifice and a small dose of luck to be able to benefit from the full potential of the herbs. In the board this translate into a slow gameplay, weak in the early stages, characterised by a lot of passive effect which will enhance in time the performance of the Botanist. The botanist works well with zoo and tempo decks.
Strength
Weakness
EVERGROWTH
The Evergrowth is a buff (+1/+1) shared on the minion with Evergrowth on the board and based on the Evergrowth power indicator. When not specified, Evergrowth on the body of a minion means Evergrowth+1 (+1/+1) so in normal situation the maximum Evergrowth is fixed to +7/+7 (assuming seven minion with Evergrowth on the board and 7 point on the indicator) but this number can change in some occasion (ex. A minion with Evergrowth +2 ). The Evergrowth always start from 0 and goes to 1 soon as a minion with the keyword is played. If a minion with Evergrwoth is destroyed, the indicator will lose 1 point (or more according to the keyword on the body of the minion).
At this stage only minion on the board can increase the Evergrowth power, with their presence or with a battlecry ( Sol, Singing Flower ).
To keep track of the current power of the Evergrowth I thought about a small indicator just under to the Hero Power to show to both players what’s the current number of the Evergrowth . This feature will also help to quantify the Evergrowth power for any other card that interact with it (ex. Buds Channeler ). The cards with Evergrowth also will looks slightly different once played and on hand to show the buffed stats of the minion: the health and attack crystals are green, like the indicator and the minions share a green aura. Hopefully the following scenario will help you to understand how the Evergrowth mechanics works:
EXAMPLE CARDS
Token
Tokens Basic Herb
REMAINING CARDS CLASSIC SET
Tokens
Do not disturb the serenity of the Greenhouse. Failure to do so will result in termination.
Who wants to live forever?
BASIC SET
Botanist - Phase I
Botanist - Phase II
PLAGUEBRINGER | Finalist Entry
BASIC SET - HARVESTER SET I - HARVESTER SET II - PRE CORE SET (SoU) - CORE SET & POST CORE (UiS)
Margrave Stradama serving Hearthstone pandemic global realness
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 they need.
The power of alchemy comes handy in several ways:
But of course, it doesn't come without flaws:
Keyword
Transmute is a keyword that can "transform" a useless card into a useful one. Both the shuffled and the drawn cards might have to meet a certain criteria, which makes it more predictable.
Example Cards
Tokens
This card is produced by Control Group , as well as the Basic cards Clumsy Assistant and Escape the Lab .
Remaining Cards
Common
Love Potion fulfills Challenge #2, as it hints a debuff archetype.
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Artwork Credits
Previous Phases
Phase I - Introduction
Phase II - Basic set
THE BUG
Beneath the surface there is a mysterious wanderer wielding nail and travelling across the world. As innocent as it may look like, don't ever underestimate it. Its ability to cope with various enemies is staggering. However, it is not weak when it comes to the defense, too. Along with other befriended bugs, it seeks for it's destiny. Here is The Bug !
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Fury is an exclusive keyword for the Bug. It can trigger multiple times, which makes a great combo with weapons, because you only have to spend mana in one turn, and benefit on the others. Fury also has synergy with Hero Power, especially strong in the first turns.
Example Cards
Explanation
Tokens:
Created by Grubfather.
Remaining Cards
Common
Coiled Nail : Nice weapon with ability to gain Armor, especially good in early turns where it's easier to kill minions.
Chipped Spike : A spell that buffs your weapon's attack in exchange for a durability. It helps activating Fury with your weapon.
Shade Cloak : A card for Challenge #2, which supports upcoming Stealth/buff archetype.
Agile Assasyn : Simple minion with Fury allowing you to attack twice in a turn. If it triggers twice, nothing will happen, because Winfury doesn't stack.
Tiny Summoner : Small, early game minion, which helps building board from the first turns. Useful in the Swarm archetype. Tokens can be found in the Spoiler below.
Rare
Eager Husk : A minion with potential card draw. Not good on it's own, because of the bad stats, but works nice with Fury activators.
Protective Weevil : A minion which helps gaining Armor in the first turns. Works well in the minion-based archetype as a good 2-drop, too.
Crystal Accelerator : Card that helps your hero gaining attack to trade, activate Fury or hit face. Also has synergies with hero's attack cards.
Epic
Gathering Zealot : Great card for deck with many minions, as it grants bonus defense after playing (or summoning) some minions.
Dream Nail : A weapon that can resummon up to 4 of your small minions (or more if you buff the durability). However, it needs some support because of its low attack.
Tokens:
Created by Tiny Summoner .
Previous Phases
Phase I (Introduction)
Phase II (Basic Set)
...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.
This particular battlemage slowly conjures powerful yet fragile energy weapons. Weapon combat fills him with fury, empowering their spells and minions, much like how an enraged warrior's abilities become more deadly.
Main themes:
1) "Can't attack the turn it's equipped" on weapons.
2) 1 durability weapons.
3) Small but frequent armor gain.
4) Buffing your minion's health.
Strengths:
1) Versatile (has a large variety of tools at their disposal).
2) Can setup for very high power turns.
3) Excels against decks with lots of minions such as zoo decks.
Weaknesses:
1) Obvious with weapons (conjuring a weapon takes time ya know?).
2) Weapon removal.
3) Struggles to fully utilize cards against decks with few minions.
4) 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 weapon has done X or more to minions this turn, either through attacking (excess damage is counted) or card effect. So if your weapon 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.
Example Cards
Tokens
Remaining Cards
Common
Portal Traverser: A strong and simple Spellfury card that any weapon damage will trigger. Note the Spellfury effect triggers when the card is played, so it wont get Taunt back after getting Charge .
Arcane Rush: Don't think of this as a draw 2 with a downside, but as a draw 1 with an upside (you can play your next draw immediately). If you play multiple of these in a turn you'll still only skip a single draw!
Conjure: Armor: This card has a bit of versatility and that armor can be super important to the point where you might even need to consider killing off your own minions to get it!
Arcane's Fury: Another simple but powerful Spellfury card.
Expunge Mind: Being in the front line, Anielas is no stranger to mental attacks. As such he developed this spell while training to withstand them. It's a very versatile card and the hero damage it can deal is pretty scary, but you can only get that damage by damaging minions with a weapon that probably could've gone face! Decisions decisions!
Rare
Spellslicer: The Silence triggers before the damage so it's great against buffed minions. Another weapon to put your opponent in a panic! They might try trade off their buffed minions, and not play their strong effect cards. With 3 charges you can keep their effects at bay for awhile but they might not play any, and holding this really hinders your Spellfury cards!
Enchant Weapon: Ice: A fairly strong weapon buff, it synergies really well with Conflagration Cutlass and is great for triggering high Spellfury cards!
Illusionary Axeman: This guy is largely just a fairly stated minion with an upside. He works really well with Windfury cards. Currently their's only 1 but there will be more, and this guy will get his time to shine!
Epic
Conjure: Shield: This card can work as a pseudo heal by giving your hero Immune before attacking, it can give you an awesome trade, or even allow you to bypass a Taunt minion for a turn ( Immune cancels Taunt ).
Polymorph: Armor: The battlemages most powerful single target removal, turning their enemy into armor! Powerful but costly.
Previous Phase
Check out my Custom Classes (Scribe, Alchemist, and Battlemage)!
THE TINKER
Welcome back, friend, to Blasthammer's Garage! Let me show you...wait, hang on. Shareholders want me to read this. Ahem.... "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! We're constantly wracking our brains for the newest ideas, filling our workshops with"... yeah yeah you get the idea. Let's go in, eh?
Keyword: Synchronize
Synchronize ! Right. This matters now. Tinkers might be scatterbrained, but there's a method to our madness! Plan ahead, spend your Mana right, and get a bonus or change some stuff around. Most Synchronize effects will will have other requirements like Scrapbots to discard or a weapon equipped. You can play them on curve, but many benefit after setting up a big combo.
I know what you're thinking. No, I'm not wearing a mind-reader cap. I should patent that. Anyway, you're thinking "So, how do Tinker's compare to other classes?" Hrm? You wanted to know about lunch...? Right, so here's how we compare to other classes!
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Example Cards
Tokens
Created by Bomb Building
Remaining Cards
Assault Hammer - The quintessential Tinker weapon: an over-complicated hammer.
Goblin Land Mine - Watch your step...
Rapid Repair - Gain 2 Armor! Or more!
Net-o-Matic - Sap on a trap.
Spell Magnet - Summon a Scrapbot with Blessing of Kings (or Sacrificial Pact , or Shadowstep ) cast on it!
Workshop Apprentice - He makes bots all day, but he's eyeing that promotion.
Mecha Tester - He's always willing to lend a big, shiny, metal hand.
Rocket Strike - Yes, I've got a rocket in my pocket. And I've got really big pockets.
Widgetsmith - What's a widget? Whatever you need it to be, kid.
Gigantron - Stomps real good, but we have trouble making it stop.
Previous Phases
Hope you liked what you saw! And hope to see you again! Here's the transcripts from when you were last here!
Phase II - Basic Set
Phase I - Introduction
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
The Archaeologist
Introducing the newest member of the League of Explorers: Izzy Jameson! Izzy's an artifacts expert, focusing on retrieving valuable artifacts from dangerous temples. These latest Archaeology cards aid Izzy on her journey traveling the world.
Strengths of Archaeologist:
- Defensive Spells : Izzy can get herself out of any tough situation, with a bit of luck. These spells can help evade tricky situations.
- Powerful Weapons : Using ancient artifacts, Izzy can have access to powerful effects that happen over time.
- Card Draw : Izzy has several card draw options in Basic and Classic as a way to recover. In the future, she'll Discover lots of cards as well!
- Sticky Minions : Izzy has several ways to keep her minions alive, and plenty of minions that can survive on their own. These minions typically have high Health.
Weaknesses of Archaeologist:
- Limited Board Presence : Izzy typically can't summon a bunch of minions at once, instead relying on singular, powerful minions or weapons.
- Limited Aggro Potential : Not many things in Archaeologist deal a lot of damage to their opponent's face, controlling the board instead.
- Weaker Early Game : Most of Izzy's arsenal lies among the higher-cost range, or generates higher-cost cards.
- Synergistic Cards : Several Archaeologist cards rely on you controlling a weapon. If you don't have one, you're going to have a bad time.
Decay is an aura effect that affects minions, like Lifesteal or Poisonous . Unlike these, Decay gives a knockback, forcing the minions and weapons with Decay on a timer. Decay will mostly be implemented on weapons, as this enables the use of aura weapons which last several turns.
Example Cards
Token:
Remaining Cards
Common
Rare
Epic
Clarifications
- Master Eroder's Decay only triggers on the end of your opponent's turn, because it's your opponent's minions who have Decay .
- Archaic Awakening is the Challenge 2 card, which supports the Decay minion archetype in Un'goro.
- Sentry Orb has random targets.
Previous Phases
Phase 2
Phase 1
THE ALCHEMIST
The Alchemist is a specialist in the art of transformation, generation, and combination; including of living material. Her specialties are:
STRENGTHS
WEAKNESSES
Showcased Cards
In all my cards, I will use the term "Type" to mean what is commonly called "tribe". It's the offical term!
TOKENS
Remaining cards
LINKS TO PREVIOUS POSTS
EDIT : Corrected Cruel Experimenter which said Potion instead of Flask. Grammar + several typos
Custom cards :
CLASSES : Alchemist (CCC#5 | Phase V) | Chef (CCC#4)
EXPANSIONS : Year of the Scorpion (Year Comp)
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.
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. However, there are several cases where I use Immolate in the player's flavour, just to show that a seemingly one-dimensional, negative keyword can be mechanically interesting.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Example Cards
Narcissism: A simple tutor card for the Blood Mage, yet it showcase so many things. It is one of the simplest Immolate cards of the Classic set, allowing players to become accustomed to the keyword as well as learn that powerful draw effects such as this do not come free. Secondly, it a bit of a nod to how Blood Elves tend to be a bit snobbish within Warcraft universe. Finally, it introduces the general "theme", both art-wise and mechanically, of the Blood Mage Secrets: All their Secrets have to do with copying, reflections, mirrors, and the like.
Shattered Self: A more complicated version of Noble Sacrifice . This forces the opposing player to plan their attacks carefully, but this Secret loses most of its value if your opponent goes for a wide board. You get the most impact from this card if your opponent attacks with a low Attack, high Health minion or a minion with higher Attack than Health. However, even against faster decks, if it hits a 2/3 or a 3/2, then you've already got your full mana's worth.
Scryer Cleric: This is the Blood Mage's most potent Healing tool. Akin to Antique Healbot , this forces the Blood Mage to wait until turn 5 to heal for 7. While this doesn't seem like a lot, it gives you a 4/2 body and threatens to heal on the subsequent turns. It can be better to run this over the 3 mana card Blood Pact in the Blood Mage's Basic set, but both still have their respective uses.
Mindstorm Wristbands: Every class has a few standout cards in their Classic set. This funky weapon is a natural fit for the Blood Mage, flavour-wise. It takes the best aspect of the Blood Mage, their spells, and allows them to channel a weapon that gets better and better with each spell cast. But, one needs to be careful not to over-play them as once this weapon hits 4/4 after three spells, it will get progressively worse.
Sunreaver Magistrix: Much earlier in the competition, I showcased a card called Pyromancy . (formerly an Epic and now found in the Remaining Cards section) Like Pyromancy, this card makes good on the blurb at the top of this post where it was stated that Immolate is not simply just a negative keyword. There is no better way to use a negative keyword than to make your opponent experience it, after all.
Remaining Classic Set
(Blood and Plunder is the Challenge #2 card)
Commons
Rares
Legendary
Basic Set
THE METAMORPHER
The Metamorpher is a class focused on board control and board domination. You'll want to keep your opponent at bay and slowly chip at his health until victory is yours, while also keeping his forces at bay using your massive minions.
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Unique aspects:
Example Cards
Firelands Hound is an example of my class' tribe: the Metamorph, being make of both flesh (humans, orcs, Beasts, Dragons, even Demons) and stone (or ice; or fire; or... basically, Elementals). He also showcases one of the tribe's main mechanics, buffing other Metamorphs, their strenght growing with their numbers. He's also a very good boy :) (just don't pet him; he's really hot).
Flesh to Stone is the card required for Challange #2. It showcases a mechanic that my class will get with the release of Un'Goro: the ability to transform existing minions into Metamorphs. This is a very simple example, but future cards will go as far as fusing together Elementals with minions from other tribes, a la Deathstalker Rexxar. More on that in the next phase.
Turn to mist i s a spells that shows one of the ways you can mess with your opponent's minions without outright destroying them. A pesky taunt is in the way? Turn it to mist and go right trough it. You can also use it on your own minions to make sure they survive another turn.
Ironthorn Whip is the Gorehowl or Doomhammer of my class. An AoE card in the form of a weapon, it's great against Aggro decks, not only to clear their board, but also to prevent them from refilling it, lest they loose it again.
Terron Earthshaker is the most powerful card in the Classic set, and the second most powerful Metamorpher in Azeroth (after the class' hero). Excellent for breathing new life into dying minions, or for making otherwise meek minions into forces to be reckoned with, at the price of not being able to attack your opponent with them. He's also a great showcase of one of the class' main mechanics: buffing, or otherwise interacting with, adjacent minions.
Complete set
COMMONS
Megamorph is a very simple card. Just a 10 mana 11/11. It can easily become more with other Metamorphs on the board.
Bludgeoner is to Metamorphs what Mana Whyrm is to spells (well... was). The obligatory over-powered 1 mana 1/3 of the class, it probably won't snowball out of control like the Mage card.
Speaking of Mage and snow, Frozen Cleaver is Water Elemental 's bigger, cooler cousin. Or maybe he's some guy wearing a it as armor. Who knows? Great crowd control tool, it has average stats for it's body and can really take advantage of your enemy playing a small guy between two giants.
Lightning Fist is a Stormforged Axe that allows you an extra attack during one of your turns. Extremely versatile weapon and good anti-aggro tool.
RARES
Magmatic Faery Dragon is exactly what it sounds like: a Faery Dragon made of magma. Like many Metamorphs, it can land it's power to other Metamorphers. This is going to be an aspect of the class explored more in the future.
Argus Wargolem is a cheaper, but also more situational, version of Defender of Argus .
Infernal Storm is the kind of buffing card the class has access to. Your minions become incredibly powerful, but at a price. Usually, that price is the ability to SMOrc :p.
Flaming Fist is a 3 mana 4/2, as long as you attack minions. Better control tool than Firey War Axe , but worse if you want early face damage.
EPICS
Unstable Stormstriker costs 1 mana less than Boulderfist Ogre and is a wall, but is no threat for your opponent. great tool to keep minions big and small alike at bay, it's very susceptible to a Gorehowl or the like.
At the Feet of Giants is a personal favourite. The effect is quite simple: Recruit a minion, then make it BIG (or small, if you hit ha huge minion). Great with cheap minions like the Firelands Hound that benefit from having way bigger stats than they were meant to.
WHOA! LEGENDARY!
Back to Basic
Humble Beginnings
THE ENCHANTER
The Enchanter is all about magic and change. Enchanting your cards to make them better and unique, setting yourself apart from your opponent! Spells and books and wands and even Demons! Elisande, the ruler of Suramar City and the leader of the Nightborne, has versatile play-styles: A spell-oriented Enchanter can use their hero power to consistently activate Phase and empower their cards, which benefit from Spell Damage in interesting ways. A minion-oriented Enchanter will be able to buff minions in their hand and establish a board presence. And even weapons have a place in the class as an aggressive option!
Strengths
• Versatile spells: The Enchanter has access to a lot of spells; AOE, direct damage, single-summon, hard removal, and buff cards. In this sense, Enchanter is slightly more versatile than Mage when it comes to spell use.
• Handbuffs: Normally average minions in Enchanter can be buffed by a range of cards — either as they are drawn from your deck, played from your hand, or on the board. This makes normally low-impact minions more viable later on.
• Left-most hand matters: The ability to discount/take advantage of the left-most cards in your hand makes for a strategic way to play your hand out, so you have to be careful what you want to make your hand into! Especially with Mistveil Drake , combo potential is only there if you have the right setup!
• Aggressive early game: Once again, Enchanter has low-impact minions — but they're cheap and have good snowball potential paired with handbuffs. Making use of Phase can give you bonuses for your board as well as your hand, and help put you in control of the board early on.
• Draw: In both the basic set and the classic, Enchanter has good single-card draw potential. However, there's nothing like Sprint in the deck, so you have to be careful not to empty your hand too quickly.
Weaknesses
• No healing: Enchanter may have good spell and minion value, but it has no way to recover from damage on its own, much like Rogue.
• Lack of late-game minions: While there are a few high-cost minions, they aren't particularly well-statted. That's why your handbuffs are there.
• Recursive playstyle: Phase cards have to be supported by other cards... that usually have Phase themselves. This will be easier to overcome in later sets, but in Classic it means you have to choose which cards to play first to get the bonus — similar to how if your hand is filled with combo cards, you need to play one card without the bonus in order to activate the others.
Keyword: Phase
If the text on a card has changed, Phase is activated when you play it. That means Cost , Attack , Health , and card text (particularly Spell Damage ). Cards that transform don't count!
Example Cards
Tokens
Token for Occult Infusion
All Cards
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
A note on Mana Vapour : When said minions are played, they keep the +2/+2 buff!
Previous Phases
Phase II
Phase I
please consider voting for my custom class in the fan creations competition :]
• TRIALS IN AUCHINDOUN - A Custom Hearthstone Adventure (4th Wing!) • New and Interesting Hearthstone Mechanics (by me!) •
The Godborn
The Godborn is a class that focuses on earning the gods' Favor to unleash devastating effects upon his enemies, as well as controling the board using powerful boardclears or by flooding it with loyal servants and acolytes. Maybe too loyal.
Hero Power
Favor is a new mechanic available only to the Godborn . How does it work? Some cards generate Favor and others consume it. Once consumed, the Favor will disapear, so you have to constantly generate Favor to power up your effects.
Class Identity
Challenge #1
Strengths - The Godborn focuses on three core mechanics: summoning numerous low-stated minions, clearing the enemy board as quick as possible and earning Favor . This branches the class in two directions: aggro and control.
Aggresive decks - board flooding and buffs to control the board and end the game as fast as possible.
Control decks - powerful boardclears and single target removals to ensure domain over the battlefield, while waiting to draw your win condition. (Ex: a Malygos Combo)
Weaknesses - The class is struggling with drawing cards reliably, most draw mechanics having a requirement that needs to be fulfilled. There is also a lack of strong minions, the biggest one being a 6-6 at the moment. The class is also susceptible to area of effect abilities, due to the low stated minions it possesses, without reliable ways to buff their health.
The Classic Set
While our hero was fighting through the Tanaris Desert, shooting stars filled the sky of Azeroth, each emanating godly energies. One of them was the sun god himself, Ra, falling toward Uldum, the Land of the Titans. The explosion caused by the landing destroyed every single being that inhabited the place, leaving a crater ruled by fiery demons and twisted acolytes.
Fire means power. This set will provide the class with the cards that will represent the foundation of several archetypes (Aggro, Control, Tempo, Combo, Midrange), focusing on damaging enemies with burning effects and inspiring allies with Attack buffs.
Flame's Apprentice - The iconic 1 mana 1/3. Similar to Mana Wyrm , every Worshiper makes the card stronger, as the flame shines brighter and brighter. Will be nerfed to 2 mana after being problematic for 5 years.
Breath of Life - Good control card both stalling the game and drawing an important late game card ( Malygos , Alexstrasza , Deathwing ). Alexstrasza was just passing by and decided to heal you and aid you in your odyssey. What a generous queen.
Scorching Temptress - A seductive succubus which empowers your minions with her fiery whip. Once for free and once for a price. Do you have what she craves?
Crimson Hellion - An imposing Demon who strikes fear in its enemies and rallies allies on the battlefield.
Ra, the Sun - Challenge #3 - Summon a couple of servants to protect your god and then destroy them, and everyone else, or don't, the choice is yours, kind of. Bird got an attitude. (Triggering the Favor effect will also destroy the Priests of the Sun)
The Priests are here!
Remaining Cards
Spark in the Dark - A very cheap way to earn some Favor when you are close but not close enough.
Blazing Bolt - A simple damaging spell that will be a key finisher in combo decks. Malygos approves.
Demonic Bargain (Challenge #2) - This card hints towards a Demon archetype, which will focus on generating minions and buffing them with the help of powerful Demons . This card's strength lies in the possibility of drawing a Demon, which is not very high at the moment.
Praise the Flame - The easiest way to build a board and earn Favor . By fire be purged. Ragnaros, the Firelord agrees.
Triple Toss - As the name suggest, there is a slight chance your head will be next. Careful.
Wildfire Berserker - Fire makes people angry and spells powerful. (Not) cool.
Cauterize - "From the ashes, I rise."- Raging Statue
Rain of Embers - What doesn't hurt you makes you stronger.
Crimson Teacher - The Violet twins were destined to great things. Until one of them showed her true colors.
INFERNO! - A devastating board clear which generates both mayhem and Favor . Maximum cost, maximum destruction.
Why are you angry?
What's coming next?
Un'Goro will send us on a Quest to earn a goddess's Favor and meet loyal Beasts and mighty Elementals , while Kinghts of the Frozen Throne will show us the opposite of fire. Heat will turn into cold and life will become death in an icy land where we will meet coldblooded Demons, undead creatures and their horrific master . Will you succumb to their corruption and become a Death Knight? Or will they listen to your prayers and reward you with their Favor ?
Previous Phases
Thank you for accompanying me on this mighty journey and special thanks to every person who helped me make the best out of this set. Good luck to eveyone and remember, don't play with fire.
The Voidcaster
It's all kicking off guys! SO excited to be working on some of the meat of the Voidcaster, and so hyped for all of us still repping our classes. This one's gonna be good guys!
Singularity
Singularity is the Overload style tradeoff keyword of this class. All Singularity cards feature strong effects, stats or costs, if not all three, balanced on the fact that you can only have one in play at a time, and as a consequence, you need to restrict yourself from over corwding your deck with them. They can be cheated out ovr the top of each other, such as with the infamous Mad Scientist .
Strengths
Weaknesses
Example Cards
Here's a look at some of what classic set has to offer! You've seen various classic cards in the first preview post, so those will be in the remaining cards section.
Remaining Cards
Minimization was previously showcased, and is the minion v. minion attack secret. Essentially if they attempt to trade with one of your friendly minions, you'll likely win the trade. Condensation is the Ice Barrier of the class, and the only card in classic to capitalize on your opponent's armor. Voidtouched Artifact (CHALLENGE 2) is related to the KnC set, wherein the subtheme for the class will be weapons with singularity, much like rogue secrets. Blinkrunner is a lore-style 1 cost minion which works well for Rift Dance, and the Stealth is meant to emblemize hopping in and out of portals... stabbing people. Fun. Voidcore Crusher is the brutish basic Singularity minion for vanilla board control. Collation is one of the stronger draw cards in the class, but it's also one of the most conditional secrets; You can get locked out of your singularities for awhile if they simply don't play anything higher than 4 Attack. Nullify is heavy class fantasy. In vanilla, the damage kills almost every minion but the legendary dragons. It's costed at seven so it can't be used with Void Might. Propagation has your opponent pay mana to delay their spell casting and giving you a copy. Void Might and Alleria have already been showcased, but just briefly, Void Might is key to the classes' identity of spreading removal and damage around and Alleria (CHALLENGE 3) does w i e r d s t u f f and is basically a slow King Krush with a turn of survival.
Here's round one's submission... Voidcaster Entry one
And here's the classic set
Alright, that does it for classic! I'm having a blast designing all these card and I'm hyped on my Un'goro and KoFT sets (For the record, I ditched the Start of the Game Hero card, the balance wasn't worth it.) and I'm hyped to be working even further out. Shoutout to all my boys who help me balance these cards, McF4rtson, CheeseETC, Mewdrops and Broeck1 (As long as we're on at the same timezone)
THE BLOODBURNER
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 can 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.
Flavor:
1) Fire and Blood magic;
2) Self damage;
3) Lizard people!
Strengths:
1) Great removal options, plenty of board clears;
2) Strong hero power and HP interactions;
3) Spell synergy and generation;
4) Great card draw;
Weaknesses:
1) Minions have low stats and are defensive/combo oriented;
2) Not many direct damage to the enemy hero options;
3) No real win condition; Games are won by grinding the opponent to the ground;
4) Very weak to burst damage; Can't recover health quickly, only in small amounts over time;
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 F resh 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
Explanation
Fire Within : One of Bloodburner's biggest strengths is his hero power. This spell is basically the "2 mana deal 3 damage" with a twist. You can cast multiple copies of this over multiple turns to build up a massive Blood to Fire , or just use it proactively in anticipation of a big threat.
Flame Rush : This allows you to search your deck for an answer this turn. You don't get to keep the cards, so you need to choose carefully which of the 3 cards you'll play. The Bloodburner can shuffle spells into his deck, so this is a way for him to search for them for a relatively cheap price, seeing as there are no penalties like Tracking , where you lose 2 of the cards.
Crimson Spell-Ring : It will become +1 Spell damage, 2 durability; then +2 spell damage, 1 durability; Then it will break. You can prolong the time you have the spell damage buff active by not damaging yourself, or you can do exactly that to get to the +2 buff faster. The enemy will break it eventually, so it's not a permanent thing. Act fast before it's destroyed.
Qora Library Keeper : Another way for a Bloodburner to copy his spells is to go to the Qora Library. This helpful assistant will give you even more spells to play with as long as he survives. His experience at the library also makes his gifts cost less than the originals. Perks of reading books.
Blood Master Zuggrash : The leader of the reptilian tribes and the strongest Bloodburner alive, Blood Master Zuggrash contains the core mechanics of the class. Through self-damage, Fresh Blood activates and he gives you a free copy of a spell from your deck. With the help of Quora Library Keeper you can increase the odds of getting 0 cost copies of your favorite and most powerful spells. Truly a force to be reckoned with.
Remaining Cards
Common
Second Flame : Card for Challenge #2. This foreshadows the upcoming Inspire and Odd archetypes. Inspire might have been forgotten by the HS team, but it will live on in my class. All sets after TGT will have inspire cards, and this 1 mana spell with be at the core of an Inspire deck. And when WW rolls out, it will fit nicely in an Odd deck.
Warm Up : Card draw and removal. This spell synergises with Boodburner's other spell related cards and offers him yet another damage option.
Regeneration Charm : Small amulet that basically prevents the first time you'd lose health in a turn. You can activate it to negate the self-damage part of your cards or it can block one attack or spell from your enemy.
Kolarra Healer : Simple minion that can heal you little by little if she's not removed.
Kolarra Mystic : Since you'll be removing enemy minions quite a lot, this 4-drop can sustain you throughout the match. You can even play it before a big boardclear, as even if he dies he will still heal you.
Rare
Molten Wave : Felfire Potion does 5 to all for 6 mana. This can do that for 1 less mana if you cast it on a 1 Health minion. But most of the time it will most likely deal 2-3 damage to all and 3-4 damage to a single target. Worse case scenario it is a more expensive, minion only Fireball .
Atraki's Protection : This spell just makes you and your minions harder to kill for 1 turn. It also negates some self-damage the turn you play it. Overall it is just a stall tool, less effective than Time Out, but it also protects your minions. Bloodburner's don't flood the board, so it won't be a problem in aggro decks (as they won't exist).
Kolarra Bloodreaver: This minion offers a repeatable board clear, only if she survives. You need either 8 mana or another card to activate her the turn you play her and it is limited by the constrains of Fresh Blood.
Epic
Inferno : Twisting Nether for but it can hit you and your opponent for quite a lot. You need to be careful to not kill yourself with all the self-damage from your cards.
Atraki Defender : Strong, buff taunt that has a unique effect. It CAN be targeted by spells, but it won't take DAMAGE from them. Fireball will deal 0 to him, but Shadow Word: Death will still kill him.
Previous Phases
Phase I
Phase II