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    posted a message on Custom Class Competition #8 -- Discussion Thread | Week Two

    Wanted to check: does shuffling Bombs count as a mechanic from the past? Not sure if you consider Bomb a keyword or not.

    Posted in: Fan Creations
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    posted a message on Custom Class Competition #8 -- Submission Thread | Week One

    THE CHRONOMANCER CLASS
    The Chonomancer class is home to time mages, dragons, tinkerers, timekeepers, steam-punks, scientists, clockwork automatons, temporal monstrosities, and more. They utilize their control over time to defeat their foes or protect themselves. Chronomancers make use of timekeeping artifacts and carefully plan out their actions before taking them—though, if they mess up they can just try again!

    Toki is a time-travelling gnome with a knack for bending time and messing with timelines. She's friends with the bronze dragon Chronormu (Chromie). She's a powerful wizard and with her affinity for artifacts, she plans on finding the keys to her future. She fears for a dreaded day in the coming years and will do anything to stop it from happening. This passion combined with her recklessness can drop her into some sticky situations.

    THE HERO POWER
    Inspired by the Temporal Loop hero power from the Monster Hunt game mode. Alter Time defines your last action to be your last input into the game this turn. That is, the last card you played or the last attack you made. If it is the start of your turn and you have not played any cards or made any attacks, Alter Time will rewind to the draw at the start of your turn allowing you the opportunity of drawing a different card for the start of your turn. The game state is completely reset, including but, not limited to, damage, triggered abilities, cards drawn, cards in deck, secrets triggered, etc. Your deck is random and as such a card you draw before Alter Time may not be the same as a card you draw after, unless the order was predetermined with something like Sightless Watcher.

    With the introduction of Tradeable, Alter Time will include the use of a Tradeable card's ability as an action. This will result in the card drawn returning to your deck and the Tradeable card returning to your hand.

    NOTE: Alter Time does not affect the actual time in each turn. Turns still take as much as time as normal, only the game state is reset.

    If upgraded with Justicar Trueheart or Baku the Mooneater, Alter Time becomes Break Time. Here you will be able to use your hero power twice each turn for only two mana total.

     

    STRENGTHS

    Prolonging the Game. Plenty of control tools for dominating the end game.
    Speeding up the Game. Can shorten the amount of time in each turn.  Close out games with fast minions.
    Varied Removal. Unique removal for unique situations. Often bypasses Deathrattles.
    Taunt. Focus on protecting your life total and important minions.

    WEAKNESSES

    Fast, small minions. Low curve decks may sneak through before Chronomancers have enough time to stabilize.
    Minionless decks. Not great at interacting  with non-minions. 
    Enemy chronomancers. Shortening your turn can get messy when your opponent also shortens your turn.
    Weapon removal. Without artifacts, chronomancers tend to lose track of time.
    Big minions. Chronomancer minions line up poorly against bigger minions.

     

    SHOWCASE CARDS

    LUCKY POCKET WATCH
    Chronomancers love their timekeeping artifacts. They are represented as 0-Attack Weapons with their Durability representing the duration of time. Throughout the class you will find cards that care about Weapon Durability. Lucky Pocket Watch encourages you to slow down the game to maximize your other cards. Note that this class does not really use Weapons offensively, so have no fear of Weapon augmentations.

    TEMPORAL ANOMALY
    Although Chronomancers lean toward controlling the battle, there is some support for lower-curve or aggressive playstyles. Temporal Anomaly plays a big part in these decks, offering immediate power at the cost of future time. In certain decks, Temporal Anomaly fills the role of triggering the rope sooner for cards like...

    RUN THE CLOCK 
    Chronomancers love taking their sweet, sweet time. Run the Clock lets you draw 3 cards for only 4 mana... if you have the time for it. Typically, you are incentivized to play your cards that draw cards early in your turn to best maximize your options. Here, you'll have much less time to make use of the drawn cards and finalize your turn, so play smart. Note that you can still cast this card when the rope is not burning. Control decks may fancy this play as away to create hand-space while preserving deck size in fatigue mirrors.


    REST OF BASIC SET


    TIME TRAVEL
    Chronomancers are great at making things travel across time however, they're not always cold blooded killers. As such, you'll see a lot of bounce effects in this class as opposed to direct destruction or damage. Rewind an enemy and nullify your opponent's next draw, or rewind your own to reuse your own Battlecries or prevent fatigue.

    While Vanish ended up not fitting Rogue's class vision, it slides perfectly into Chronomancer's. A potential interaction with Reset and Alter Time: Minions that are destroyed when being returned to hand while having 10 cards do not come back after playing Reset as they are not in hand to be placed back in play (probably won't be an actual interaction). 

    Time travel can be mana intensive and isn't always readily available. Sometimes you'll have to slow down your enemies while speeding up your allies...


    ACCELERATION
    Chronomancers aren't fast, their enemies are just slow (ok, sometimes they are just fast). This class makes use of Freeze and Windfury to represent slowing down and speeding up minions. Chronomancer minions tend to be on the smaller side, so getting twice as much out of them helps close out games. Note that there is design space left for Doubletime to give your Hero Windfury, despite the class mostly getting 0-Attack Weapons. Freeze typically works best in control decks, but Stasis offers the flexibility of growing your own team in the aggressive decks.


    TIMEKEEPING
    All these Timekeeping Artifacts need  to be read and measured by somebody. Chronomancers look for the Durability of Weapons as a means of measuring duration. Keep your Lucky Pocket Watch ticking with Clockwork Keeper.


    TIME CONTROL
    Nozdormu has been getting reactions out of Hearthstone players since the very beginning; the class would be amiss if it didn't mess with time a little bit. Messing with in-game time can be a sensitive subject for many players. As such, the design space here will be explored carefully. Adding extra time to turns in a game such as Hearthstone can be boring, uninteresting, and ultimately unnecessary. Removing time from turns on the other hand can have real implications and, with the right amount of tuning, can evoke excitement without causing frustration. 


    DRAGONS
    And last, but not least, DRAGONS! The Bronze Dragonflight is all over the Chronomancer class. Here, they are the protectors of time. Their dragon's breath is represented through the burning of the rope. Many Dragons will care about or cause the burning of the rope. 

     

    CHALLENGE BREAKDOWN

    Alter Time, Rewind, and Doubletime are all spells in WoW. Bronze Dragon Mount is of the Bronze Dragonflight.
    Reset costs 8 mana.

     

    I've been working on this class for a few years, originally wanting to submit it for a prior design competition on here. Never got around to it back then, but hoping I can make it through a few rounds this time. Looking forward to everything!

    Posted in: Fan Creations
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