Hearthpwn

THE ARCHAEOLOGIST

Archaeologist is a control-oriented hero primarily, that starts slow and has less board presence than other classes. In Un'Goro, this will be changed with Elemental Archaeologist slightly, and KoFT helps to build off of the defensive strength with new Decaying Armor. Decaying Armor is separate from normal Armor, and at the end of your turn, you lose 1 Decaying Armor. Decaying Armor does not stack and appears separate on top of armor. Example:

In Un'goro, Izzy Discovers her way around the jungle and begins on a quest to find the mythic lost Ark of Archaeologic yore. In KoFT, Izzy explores the caves around the Icecrown Citadel but is corrupted by what she finds.

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.
- Armor Generation: Izzy has plenty of cards that can generate more Armor to increase survivability.
- Powerful Weapons : Using ancient artifacts, Izzy can have access to powerful effects that happen over time. Although Archaeologist has less weapons in KoFT and Un'Goro, they're still potent.
- Card Generation : Archaeologist can Discover and draw plenty of cards.
- 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 : Archaeologist has more high-cost cards than many classes.
- Synergistic Cards : In Un'Goro, this means that many cards rely on you playing Elementals. In KoFT, this means having Armor.
- Decay : Archaeologist has many Decaying things that naturally die out on their own. This is a time constraint for the class.

Optional Keyword Section

This has been changed slightly to include Armor, for the Decaying Armor KoFT set. Although primarily seen on weapons, it's still possible on minions and is now on Armor for Decaying Armor.

Example Cards

These cards show the variety of new archetypes supported for Archaeologist.

• Tortollan Trapfinder is my Challenge 1 card and great fuel for the Quest, completing one-third of its requirements in just one card. Although it is pricey, it's a great way to keep hand advantage.
• Taletellers is a large minion that supports spilling your hand in Elemental Archaeologist because you can retrieve your cards one turn later. One downside is that it is pricey, usually taking up most of a turn.
• Search for the Ark is Archaeologist's quest. A homage to Indiana Jones, Archaeologist searches for the lost ark deep in the wilderness of Un'goro, and what's a better way to show this than how Izzy Discovers her path of Un'goro?
• Faraghoul is my example card to show off Decaying Armor. Because Decaying Armor is also Armor, the third line of text is to prevent loops. Although on its own, it lacks much power, it's very potent when used when gaining Armor multiple times each turn, or when you already have Decaying Armor.
• Izzy the Greedy has been corrupted by gold, and the loot she found in the caves underneath the citadel. She no longer yearns for knowledge, but lusts for wealth and power. The Archaeologist Death Knight shows a key backbone of the Armor archetype, generating plenty of Armor and has a strong Hero Power that adds bone brothers to your hand, which has already been foreshadowed in Basic . The Hero Power supports the Un'goro Discover archetype.

Tokens

The Lich King Fight

Versing Archaeologist, I imagined that games would stretch on some time. To counter this, and to nullify the card advantage that Archaeologist normally gets, I made a solution that forces you to play against your own deck, and perhaps something that forces a player to end the game quickly, so they aren't overwhelmed by resources.

Remaining Cards

Previous Phases

Phase III
Phase II
Phase I

I've started working on my Archaeologist submission: 

THE ARCHAEOLOGIST

Archaeologist is a control-oriented hero primarily, that starts slow and has less board presence than other classes. In Un'Goro, this will be changed with Elemental Archaeologist slightly, and KoFT helps build off of the defensive strength with new Decaying Armor. Decaying Armor is seperate from normal Armor, and at the end of your turn, you lose 1 Decaying Armor. Decaying Armor does not stack.

Optional Keyword Section

This has been changed slightly to include Armor, for the Decaying Armor KoFT set. Although primarily seen on weapons, it's still possible on minions, and is now on Armor for Decaying Armor.

Example Cards

These cards show the variety of new archetypes supported for Archaeologist.

• Tortollan Trapfinder is my Challenge 1 card and great fuel for the Quest, completing one third of it's requirements in just one card. Although it is pricey, it's a great way to keep hand advantage.
• Taletellers is a large minion that supports spilling your hand in Elemental Archaeologist, because you can retrieve your cards one turn later. One downside is that it is pricey, usually taking up most of a turn.
• Search for the Ark is Archaeologist's quest. A homage to Indiana Jones, Archaeologist searches for the lost ark deep in the wilderness of Un'goro, and what's a better way to show this than how Izzy Discovers her path of Un'goro?
• Faraghoul is my example card to show off Decaying Armor. Because Decaying Armor is also Armor, the third line of text is to prevent loops. Although on it's own, it lacks much power, it's very potent when used when gaining Armor multiple times each turn, or when you already have Decaying Armor.
• Izzy the Defiler's text sets it apart from the other Death Knight heroes, making it's focal point not the immediate effect, but the deathrattle. At a 10 Mana Cost, it can be tricky to play, but it guarentees some extra survivability and opens ground for a comeback. Additionally, it fulfills the third challenge, because the Hero Power Discovers cards, helping finish out the Quest in the late game.

Tokens

The Lich King Fight

Versing Archaeologist, I imagined that games would stretch on some time. To counter this, and to nullify the card advantage that Archaeologist normally gets, I made a solution that forces you to play against your own deck, and perhaps something that forces a player to end the game quickly, so they aren't overwhelmed by resources.

Remaining Cards

Previous Phases

Phase I
Phase II
Phase III

Questions:
- Is my keyword change ok?
- Are my showcase cards good?
- Are any cards still bad?
- Should I swap an Epic KoFT card for ?

Quote from Shatterstar1998 >>

@Linkblade: I'm leaning toward the first one simply because the second one has a purple palate that make it hard to stand out against your purple border.

@thepowrofcheese:

• Hostile Takeover seems a little weak? The 7 cost make it nearly useless compare to Dinosize. I would drop its cost to 6, maybe even 5 given that it need a lot of set up.
• Dinobot Hatchling: The 3/1 stat seems weak since it dies to basically any ping. I would make it a 1/3. Compare to Eternium Rover
• Exploit Un'Goro's token has a really awkward name. Why is the Natural Resource make you to discover a card? Should the act of extracting itself allows you to discover a card?
• Recruit the Native is kind of bonker. If you have a lot of cards to generate the Scrapbot (or just Coin, double Hero Power into this card), this card act like an extremely degenerate Spreading Plague that your opponent can't play around. I think its cost should be bumped to 5, maybe even 6.
• Soulwrencher: I don't think given a class with the token spawning capacity rival Paladin a Silver Sword at turn 4 is a good idea. I would make it a 3/3 for 6 mana.
• Your Frozen Throne set looks extremely lacking in term of connection to the expansion. You only has 2 cards that related to the flavor of the expansion and even then only Clockroach incorporate any of the new design space. Even your Death Knight, which is supposed to be flavor-breaking and is the opposite of everything your class stand for, is extremely poor in term of flavor and mechanic and offers no significant gameplay change like the other Death Knights. Maddest Bomber, the Big One, Scrap Pile and the Skyterror are fine cards on their own, but are extremely poor in relation to the expansion flavor.

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

Tinkmaster Overspark

Showcase Card:

• Titanic Ritual: Deep in the heart of Un'Goro, the forgotten ritual that call upon the Eclipse to fight against the Old God lay dormant ready for Astromancers brave or dedicated enough to perform it. Unlike the other Quests, I want to make this Quest more easy to complete for the class and the Reward is still powerful but much less of a broken game winner or be completely worthless.
• Astral Fury: The Elemental synergy for the class. A better Excavated Evil if you met the condition but broke your Elemental chain. 
• Star Maker: Another card to help fulfill the Quest as well as help with the Elemental synergy since both tokens are Elemental. The little Dragon also demonstrate the class's Dragon and Elemental synergy in this card set that will continue in Kobold and Catacomb.
• Rishi, Star Enslaver : Probably you can say that the class's entire Frozen Throne card set is built around helping her serve the Lich King. Her Hero Power not only powerful in targeting your minions, but also your opponent's minion as well if you didn't draw your transform effects. All Will Serve is named after the DK ability of the same name in WoW. The DK fulfill challenge #3 since she doesn't destroy the Elemental you played.
• Soulgorge: A demonstration of the effect stealing that will be prominent in this class's Knight of the Frozen Throne card set. Also demonstrate the spawning of the Astral Servant will not be limiting to the Death Knight and her Hero Power.

 Token:

Quest Reward:

Death Knight's Hero Power and token created (also the same token created by Soulgorge):

Created by Starmaker:

Lich King Card:

                                                                                         

Pain and Suffering is extremely powerful against this class as it cut off a large portion of their token generating card (which also means a big portion of their healing) from the boss fight.

Journey to Un'Goro:

Elegon : The Elemental synergy attach to a Dragon body theme of the class. The Dragon tag will be very useful in K & C as well as his effect is very useful for the DK Hero Power to target him. The 7-cost allows it to not compete with The Lich King for the 8 mana slot. Note that he will also add the Elemental to your hand.

Hidden Meteorite and Energy Vortex: Diverse Secrets that will serve as fodder for later Secret synergy as well as serve to pop up by the effect of the KFT Legendary. Energy Vortex also helps with completing the Quest

Vortexcaller; Use for additional transform effect in Spiteful deck. Its balance is based on Spider Bomb. Also a good minion to be marked by the DK and for completing the Quest. 

Lunar Sacrifice: A way to help complete the Quest by killing off your own Gaze minions as well as serve as a removal.

Mark of Scorpio: A card to help completing the Quest and to turn your small minions into powerful removal.

Minor Tarling: Part of the Tar minions. Extremely powerful early game minion to shut down aggressive decks.

 Token:

Knight of the Frozen Throne:

Koltira Deathweaver: A powerful Legendary that justify the addition of 3 new Secrets. His effect allows you to rapidly build up Secret to fend off your opponent as well as being a good target for the Hero Power.

Celestial Domination: Continue the theme of stealing the enemy minions as well as summoning the Astral Servant from the class. A good card to include for Spiteful Summoner

Strangulate: A very good secret as a standalone as well as something to pop up from Koltira Deathweaver.

Obsidian Colossus: A powerful defensive tool that came as a cost. Note that because he can also damage himself.

Mark of Aquarius: A powerful stall card that allows to improve the class's terrible AoE.

Starhoarder : A good token generator in the early game and is also good to be targeted with your Death Knight Hero Power.

Mark of Cancer: Allows the class to have good minions to mark with the DK Hero Power as well as healing not dependent on the token

Focused Knight: More Gaze granter for the Quest as well as just being a solid minion for 3 mana. Fulfill challenge #3 

List of Secret from the Classic Set:

Token:

Death Knight's flavor text: Once I was a mere observer of the stars. Looking up to the sky hunger for a scrap of their mystery. Now all the worlds tremble for a chance to serve me.

Previous Phase:

Phase I submission

Phase II submission

Phase III submission

 

 Shatterstar: I think your cards are probably overcomplicated; most of them have four lines (including tokens!) and are kinda confusing. It might be a good idea to make more simple but solid designs. Also transforming enemy minions into a 0/1 guy seems like a bad idea because most decks can't do anything with them. Gazing your hero is way too impactful for a common. I don't see how meteorites can be hidden. Start of turn effects are bad. This whole Secret thing doesn't seem very well thought out if you made a synergistic legendary but started it in KoFT. Unwilling Sacrifice. Potion of Polymorph. These cards seem like there's barely any theme to them. I don't get how planets (0/1 planets???? Aren't planets massive???) play a role in Un'goro. Divine Shield shouldn't have a period after. Celestial Intervention is bad. Quest is dependant on matchup. The only thing I like much about your set are the Marks. I would consider reworking most of the cards.

Quote from Laurendor >>

This one are my corrections from the previous post.

Un'Goro.

Major Changes

UPDATE

Changed the Phytoblade, now it has +2 attack while you have 2 or more Evergrowth

Sap scrying costs 2

 

• Fixed the quest as suggested. I decided to gave him Poisonous and +1 attack only during the opponent turn. 
• Sap Infusion is gone, Phytoblade is in ( I realized i didn't planned any weapon for the KFT so it make sense to have 2 in Un'Goro, specially to give more flexibility with the quest reward) (Fun Fact: Phytoblade is an in-game weapon, the only weapon that can go inside an Herbalist Bag)
• Sap Elemental Lord is gone graphically, Sap Giantess is in ( I decided to call it Giantess to be in line with the other giants)
• Vitalus, Nightmare Vine is a bit different, it gets a smaller buff and it can't attack heroes. It can be a powerfull minion on the board but only to remove other minions, specially with what i got in mind with Witchwood.

 

KFT

Freywinn the Green Lich

Freywinn was one of the first to fell under the crushing power of the Lich King.

Stabbed in the back while picking flowers by a Death Knight much more powerful than him and then raised as a faithful servant. They thought he was weak, easy to manipulate and a perfect substitute to expand the work that Heigan did with the plague and the crops of Lordaeron. Fools.

Freywinn fled from the Lich’s control and start raising is own army, feeding his beloved herbs with the corpses of the death and the living, growing an army of twisted creature, an apocalyptic swarm of plant-zombie, hungry of death and living fertilizer. 

Major Changes

Add at random at Herbling

Slightly changed the text of Deadnettles Geist

• Herbling now can only get randomly Lifesteal, Evergrowth or Poisonous, not the 3 of them combined.  
• Fixed the grammar error (hopefully all of them)
• Infesting Lichesn now does 1-2 damage to be more in line with the class damaging spells.
• Harvester Grano is no more an Elemental (*cry*) but it's a 3/5 now.

 

Lich King card - Silence them all, and because they might attack we gonna freeze them too.

 

 

Laurendor: Again, your Quest is matchup dependent. The quest reward should be "Your hero has +1 Attack during your opponent's turn this game." Sap Scrying feels off with the rest of the set. Bristly Podling doesn't need while this is alive. I wouldn't do Elemental synergy at all. You don't need this one, just say this. Ghost Mushroom seems winmore. Phytoblade seems out of place. Herb synergy seems clunky, it seems like you randomly substituted Herb in for minion in some places. I don't understand the DK card. What does it mean? Toxic Specimen could cost 1. The random cards are bad. Team 5 stopped making those cards for a reason, it's that it's out of the player's control and there's little thought process that could go into playing an RNG card and they feel bad when you lowroll. Why does Geist have that first sentence? Grano seems random. Seed synergy is also very clunky, there's no uniting theme behind those cards.

Quote from Turkeybag >>

I have finished my initial draft for this phase!

Class Reminder:

The Battlemage

  

Tokens (Training Dummy):

This was the token produced by my challenge 2 (common practice) card last phase. I decided to really commit to it so I'm showing it first as it comes up a lot!

Un'goro:

Grown Sporestick: Not super happy with the art but it'll do in the meantime. Fitting art for this class is super tricky to find D:
Overzealous Trainee: I'm debating cutting this card due to card text and I feel it's one of the weaker designed cards of the set.
Jungle Master Voldat: Note that Spellfury (2) is actually quite hard to get, as currently the only possible ways are by either using Conflagration Cutlass on the enemy hero while they have exactly 1 minion, or by using the quest reward if it hasn't gained effects that'll change it's damage.
Primal Practice: You can kinda customize your reward based on what you use. It can only get each weapons effect once, but even so it's still surprisingly powerful.

KotfT

Spellsword Slayer: Can counter Kingsbane but his main use is to silence your own weapon to attack with it immediately.
Animated Woodwaker: This resummons the dummys to whatever side of the board they died on, so you can somewhat control where they end up.
Bloodblade: To avoid slow conjuring just use something that's already there, your blood for instance!
Splitting Arms: Note the class has next to no high durability weapons so this is mainly to get instant value out of weapon buffs. It does combo with Bloodblade and Primal Peacemaker but those aren't too reliable.
Searlus the Enticer: While this guy is out, if you only use 1 durability weapons, you can pretty much attack endlessly so long as you have mana and more weapons to equip! He also works well with the hero power
Battlemancer Anielas: The class is rather slow, and this is definitely a slow DK as he quite literally does nothing when you play him aside from grant the normal armor. However there are some big spellfury cards out there and that can give you some pretty crazy healing. The hero power is a bit lackluster normally but with spellfury it is actually insane as you'll also heal for 6. It's easy to play around as the battlemage needs to deal 6 damage to a minion, then have something left to hero power so playing only 6ish health of stuff at a time (if you can afford to) vs this DK can hinder them. Also you wont have your hero power weapon with this card so having lots of weapons is a good idea, otherwise you might not even be able to trigger low spellfury cards.

 I'm out of time but I will give full explanations for the cards eventually!

 Turkeybag: Still not a fan of the weapons can't attack immediately thing, and Spellfury seems like a very limited effect. I would make it on fewer cards, instead of trying to cheat around it. I don't like any of the cards that have multiple effects because they have multiple effects, detracting from the purpose of the card and making it harder to play. You don't have enough Training Dummy synergy and summoning cards to reliably finish your quest unless I missed it and it was in classic?  The Un'goro cards don't fit Un'goro very well. Tortollan Primalshell doesn't fit in with the rest of the set. Voldat should be Gain X. Primal Peacemaker is a really bad reward. Given that your entire KoFT set is about Spellfury, I'm not a fan. Solidify Weapon could just be used after your hero attacks, or if you use a weapon that can't attack immediately. Animated Woodwaker doesn't feel like it belongs in KoFT and doesn't synergise with the rest of the set. Bloodblade's () effect feels dumb. Searlus's effect should be hero's, and I don't like that it's two different effects jammed together. Your DK HP feels clunky and overcomplex, with disconnected effects. Spellsword Slayer seems like it could force you to rebalance your weapons around it. Also the Dummy summoning things should say they have Taunt. This set also has the issue of overcomplexity with multiple 4-line cards with several effects.

Quote from IceKing16 >>

 I made some changes to my KOTFT set. Mainly, I changed the Favor effect of the legendary to create two ways to play the card, as I did with the ones before. As a result, I tweaked some cards to make them work better with the new effect.

Cold, Weak and Lonely

The Frozen Wastes are a dangerous place. One does not simply wander alone in the cold. For our hero, this journey was a new beginning. Three times slain and three times reborn, once by the cold, once by his own weakness and once by being forsaken by his own brethren, the Lich King offered our hero salvation, twisting him into a self sufficient Death Knight. Hyperion adapted to the harsh conditions of Northrend and he is ready to make the gods pay.

Every turn, after using 'The Way of the Scourge' you will be presented with 3 options to chose from based on the situation you are currently in. Every Hero Power works in different scenarios giving the Death Knight more flexibility. The DK can be used in a lot of Control decks, stalling the game and generating Favor. As a result, I will avoid printing more Favor cards, except the gods and maybe 1 or 2 supporting cards for new archetypes.

A combined effect of the 3 Hero Powers give you a glimpse of what's to come if you decide to join the Lich King.

Icy Demons. Brrr

                 

The Demons are here and they want to see the world Freeze, but be careful, they don't discern between ally and enemy. (Synergies with 2 of the DK Hero Powers.)

Dragons of Death

The Dragon archetype interacts with Deathrattles to create a control deck with a lot of survivability and a powerful summon effect.

Draconic Defensive - The infamous Breath of Life is back, cooler than ever.

Ah Puch - The god of death and decay revives your Dragons to serve you once more. The Favor effect allows you to go Full Defense Mode and get back in the game, but with a little downside. Coolest god in the world right?

The Dragon archetype was hinted in Un'Goro and was further developed in the Frozen Throne ( Challenge 3 ).

 

 

 

IceKing: Again, pls less Favor stuff. It's parasitic. The HP is cool, but maybe say "Discover a Path to replace your hero power"? Demonic Bargain has the wrong emblem. Demons in KoFT feels wrong because I can't see your class as particularly demon and this isn't a demon set. The Dragon's Deathrattle thing is kinda cool, but doesn't work with existing Dragon synergy, only works with a few cards, and isn't what Dragons are meant to be. Necrosis is way overcosted. Hatchling doesn't work because if it dies on your opponent's turn, you'd have to Adapt on that turn, which is impossible.  Ah Puch seems like such a low upside (maybe even downside) for high favor. Freeze synergy (and Demon synergy) doesn't feel very well thought out. You need more than one card for an archetype.

Quote from linkblade91 >>

Haven't posted my stuff in a while, but not much has changed: just a couple balancing tweaks based on feedback. Here's my "final submission", unless someone has anything additional they'd like to say :)

The Lich

For this Phase, the connecting theme between the two expansions is Corruption:

• In Journey to Un'Goro, Kel'Thuzad has corrupted the very idea of Darwinism and natural selection. Through forced evolution and the resurrection of extinct species, High Cultist Herenn will create new soldiers for the Scourge!
  • The Quest focuses on mastery of revival effects, with hand-Adapt on the side. Minions will return to the battlefield better than ever!
• In Knights of the Frozen Throne, Kel'Thuzad has finally taken his rightful place as ruler of the Scourge. Without The Lich King holding him back, he can unleash his full power upon the world, bringing an eternal winter to all!
  • On a gameplay-level, the Lich will "corrupt" people's perception of what can be done with Freeze, Freezing your own minions for benefits (Moorabi? Never heard of it).

---

Example Cards

• Survival of the Fittest is my Quest, perfecting life through constant death and resurrection. Call it "trial and error". Know that playing the second copy of a minion after the first card died still counts.
• Evolving Tactics is a double-example, showing off the cycle of 3-mana Secrets and the hand-Adapt archetype. Prepare for what's coming!
• Kel'Thuzad, Unleashed is my "Death Knight", the cornerstone of the "self-Freeze" archetype. Freezing your minions buffs them much like Dinomancy, but they can still attack like normal. Adds greater versatility to the Hero Power.
• Undying Turtle is my card for Challenge #2. He can help fulfill the Quest while allowing you to maintain a constant board presence.
• Hinterland Golem is my card for Challenge #3. Costing 9-mana, he'll sit in your hand for a while; this allows him to soak up enchantments from the Un'Goro Adapt cards. Because he can copy himself, all of the enchantments you've put on him will also be on the copy.

Tokens

---

The Lich King Fight

In a battle between masters of the cold, countering Kel'Thuzad's ability to Freeze cripples his defensive ability. With the Hero Power and many of his cards losing their main strength, he'll have to find a new way to overcome The Lich King. It's a duel of similar tactics, proving who is truly the ruler of the Scourge.

---

Remaining Cards

Journey to Un'Goro

• High Cultist Herenn is the Scourge's agent in the Un'Goro region, attempting to create the ultimate bio-weapon for the Scourge. If left alive (or replicated) Herenn can quickly get out of hand, empowering your minions into Elusive, Divine Shield-ed goliaths. No pun intended.
• Unnatural Selector was seen way back in Phase I, and finally gets to be showcased for real. They will be rebuilt; we have the magic!
• Reconstruction is the Epic card in the cycle of Secrets. Functionally, it falls between Effigy and Splitting Image, although the Lich has minions that are far more appealing to revive.

• Necrotic Devilsaur is the ultimate trade minion, sturdy and self-healing. Very appealing target for Adapts, especially Poisonous.
• RareLife Finds A Way adds fuel to your hand for the late game. The minions can then be given Adaptations or played to fulfill the Quest.
• Scouting Raptor provides recon for your forces, allowing you to plan ahead.
• Circle of Life is the last card in the cycle of Secrets, providing healing for your hero.

Knights of the Frozen Throne

• Lady Deathwhisper is a reflection of her Icecrown Citadel boss fight, with her Hero Power translated into a Battlecry. The Lifesteal can provide an extremely powerful heal.
• Iceborne Drake can work in concert with my Classic Legendary Sapphiron to create a powerful combo of minion damage. They're both Dragons, too...I wonder what that could mean?
• Your New Master implies that the slain minion is then raised on your side of the board, but it is ultimately a 2/2 Zombie at its heart. The effects of the old minion are attached like buffs: if you revived the Zombie, it would just be a plain 2/2.
• Essence Leech is a singular instance of Lady Deathwhisper's effect. The Lifesteal keeps it from being just a bad Hunter's Mark.

• Frostguard is like Defender of Argus, but cheaper and with more Health. In exchange, he must remain Frozen. By having the aura attached to Frostguard, it can be reapplied if a new minion becomes adjacent.
• Regenerate is a delayed healing effect. It can act as a deterrent against aggression, healing the damage that would be coming next turn.
• Cold Sprite can help keep a minion locked down, or set up combos with the self-Freeze.
• Servants of the Cold Dark is a combo-enabler, allowing you to immediately Freeze minions you play. This could then give them immediate applications of their auras, or the +2/+2 buff from the Hero card.

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Previous Phases

• Phase I is located here.
• Phase II is located here.
• Phase III is located here.

Thank you to everyone who has provided me feedback; I'm always open for more.

 

 

Link: Evolving Tactics feels pretty unnecessary as a Secret. It's balanced if it wasn't, and the passive start of turn trigger is uninteresting. Iceborn Drake doesn't need both effects. Life finds a way should be copies. You need way more Quest synergy in your Un'Goro set. Your new master could just summon a 2/2 copy of it. Cold Sprite feels kinda like antisynergy and not much fun to play with. Regenerate feels floaty (untrackable effect, too similar to the Secret about minion death). Servants of the Cold Dark (long name) doesn't synergize with enough cards to be good, but DK might make it ok. Freeze synergy feels kinda clumsy in that you both encourage freezing friendly and enemy minions. Passive Health effects are scary because they are unintuitive. Adapting in your hand is cute but doesn't work with many things from either set. I don't like how similar the DK hero power is to the original hero power. 

Aaaaand here's my set:

Un'Goro:
Archetypes: Discover, Elementals

KoFT (Decaying Armor is hit first, stacks on Armor, 1 is lost at end of turn) -
Themes: Armor loss, Decaying Armor

KoFT (Decaying Armor is hit first, stacks on Armor, 1 is lost at end of turn) -
Themes: Armor loss, Decaying Armor

Quote from ShadowsOfSense >>

Right then, sorry for not getting back to everyone earlier.

We have decided to allow both Pircival and IceKing16 to continue in the competition. This is due to both the support of other competitors in allowing them to continue, and due to the reasonable claim that ambiguity in the rules led to their disqualification - in Pircival's case, it is understandable, given the origin of the Challenge, why they would have considered it a separate card; in IceKing16's case, there was no official list of banned mechanics/interactions, and the clarification on them in the Discussion was fairly unclear.

I do want to reiterate that the fact that they were warned of their ineligibility so close to the deadline does not play a part in this - it is not part of our job, as mods, to check every submission meets the rules before the deadline, or to warn people that their submission doesn't meet the requirements. That's on the competitor. Whenever we've done so in the past, it's because one of the mods had some free time on their hands - we don't have time to regularly check every submission in case anyone has made changes that disqualify them. If it wasn't for the reasonable complaint that the rules the submissions broke had some ambiguity to them, they would still be disqualified, even if they hadn't been given any warning that their entry was breaking a rule.

 Thank you so much! I'll try not to mess it up again.

I actually have a bunch of cards already prepared for Un'Goro and KoFT, and I'll post them here.

Un'Goro:

KoFT (Decaying Armor is hit first, stacks on Armor, 1 is lost at end of turn) -

Hey, can i also participate? I was disqualified 1 hour before the thread closed, and it was a pretty minor issue. I was asleep when I was notified, so I didn't have any time to make changes. Edit: There was 1 extra common card, which was not pointed out to me by anyone. Edit2: I think the reason was that I didn't think the challenge 2 card counted towards the number of commons, because it was created after the classic set.

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

• 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

Previous Phases

Phase 2
Phase 1

Got a few cards down, I have to cut a few tho:

Quote from Laurendor >>

Quote from teknician >>

Quote from Laurendor >>

I disagree, I think it's good to have this kind of restriction. Also a lot of cards are already more powerful than the actual classic card of the game so it make sense to have something weaker.

Try making a card with this restriction. You'll find that a) you can't make an original card idea b) you can't use cards with Choose One, Combo, or Overload as a base c) if your class doesn't have Secrets, no secret related ideas d) if your class doesn't have weapons, no luck there either e) you'll be referencing pre-nerf cards in a post-nerf environment f) you probably won't be able to use your keyword on it g) the card will be extremely boring to look at, and hurt to make h) it'll be so weak that it will turn people off from your class so you shouldn't have to showcase it

There's more to it then that, so:

Okay, can we all just agree that Challenge 2 is utter bullshit? How is this challenge even supposed to help us?

 I know it won't be original but at the end is only 1 card out of 15 so it won't really impact as much on your class I think

 One card could be the tipping point. Classes are supposed to be cohesive, all cards included. It's a really tough card to make well - a card that's worse than an existing card in most scenarios, as it is instinctive to make it not worse, but different.

Okay, can we all just agree that Challenge 2 is utter bullshit? How is this challenge even supposed to help us?

The Archaeologist

Here's what I'll be submitting. Feedback is welcome!

THE ARCHAEOLOGIST

Archaeologist is a weapon focus class which focuses on board control, and sticky minions. The basic set will mostly be about controlling the board, and survivability through armor and taunt.

Optional Keyword Section

Decay is a fairly self-explanatory keyword. It will not appear on any basic cards, but in Classic onward, it will go on mostly weapons as a way to implement aura weapons.

Example Cards

These cards show the various strengths and weaknesses of Archaeologist, showing that Archaeologist has decent draw, removal, AoE, and good armor gain and heal.  

• Sword in Stone shows what the class cares most about, again, weapons. It's a cheap cycle that can tutor good weapons, but it benefits from having more weapons in your deck. It is balanced around Forge of Souls.
• Uncover shows a unique aspect of the class - unique token generation. The tokens (in the spoiler below) are all 4-Cost overstatted minions that you have to pay an early cost for.
• Safeguard is an amped-up version of the hero power, and it's efficiency comes from protecting both minions and your hero, or just your hero.
• Earthshake is good AoE, and good draw. It's a fairly simple card which can provide a board clear and a refill at once.
• Corrode is the biggest card of the set, providing a large tempo swing and an extra 10 armor for your hero.

Uncover Tokens:

Remaining Cards

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