• 2

    posted a message on Love is in the Air - a 135 cards expansion

    Welcome all readers and happy late Valentine day. In the spirit of the holiday I present to you the expansion Love is in the Air! The expansion was finished on Valentine day but I was having problem with my Twitch account and thus cannot log in until now.

    Set Introduction

    Love is in the Air is a 135 cards with the overall theme is Love! While the expansion is released on Valentine Day, it will not only focus on romantic love, but all kinds of Love! From love between parents and child, brothers and sisters, to friend and comrades and pets. Or even the unhealthy sides of love like obsession and dependency!

    Note: The expansion is created with the assumption that the Core set is the same but the previous year expansion has been rotated out.

    What would be a better way to introduce the audience to the set than with a free Legendary? And we got just the right one to kick off the new expansion:

    Calphrodite is a very powerful mid-range Legendary that will allow for some crazy swing turn in the mid game. Her transformation nature also represent the heavy card-generation expansion and the diversity of love that will be the main theme of the expansion. Her name is a reference to the Greek goddess of love Aphrodite and Aphrodite's Roman counterpart Venus.

    Keywords and Mechanic

    There is only one new keyword this expansion but there is a returning keyword from our old friend the Boomsday Project:

    Magnetic need no introduction. It's one of the mechanic from the Boomsday Project. However, it is refitted here to be the way machine and our newly introduced Allie Race Mechagnome express their love, and is almost exclusively seen on Warrior cards.

    Devote is very simple: It is a reverse Acolyte of Pain effect: Instead of being triggered by you taking damage, the minion or even the hero themselves are so hurt by something else taking damage that they trigger an effect! Because what is love if not affection for something else and the emotion that arise when they are hurt? Do note that any Devote effect that deal direct damage will not trigger itself as to avoid infinite loop and thus unfun scenario or balance  breaking nightmares. Any Devote effect by minion will last until the minion or the other target is destroyed, but any Devote effect by spell will only last until the end of the caster's turn.

    While only two keywords to be noted, another significant mechanic of the expansion are Love Cards. They are 1 mana spell that create resources and they themselves can only be generated by certain cards. Fitting the diversity and spectrum of love, each class will have a different Love cards that they will generate that will hint at the Legendary cards that they will receive. If a card generate a Love card, they will generate the Love card of your respective class regardless of the original class they came from unless said otherwise.

    The Love cards are as follow, sorted alphabetically by the class they are from:

     

    Demon Hunter:

    Demon Hunter in this expansion will focus on the Devote keyword itself, with the Legendaries both being minions which is a huge difference from the other classes (one Legendary minion and one Legendary spell) and both being Illidan followers, signaling the Love Between Comrades and with their leader Illidan. Another theme they will have is the merging of Demon and Murloc - the first were pretty prominent while the latter has some minions in their class like Furious Felfin in Hearthstone and other Murloc in World of Warcraft like Murgulis

    Druid

    Druid for this expansion will of course focus on their Love for Nature, with their Legendaries all both protectors of Nature. Their cards this expansion focus on swarming the board with Wisps to protect Nature and buffing up the Beasts that inhabit the natural world that they cherish. They are also the only class to have a Hero Card this expansion, as oppose to the other classes having one Legendary minion and one Legendary spell

    Note: "Teach" with Cenarius means that whenever you play  that minion, you will cast that spell and that spell is targetable.

    Token

    Hunter

    The Legendary Hunter cards this expansion will focus on Sibling's Love, most specifically the extremely complicated relationship between Sylvanas and Alleria Windrunner. The rest of their cards will be Deathrattle themed to support Sylvanas and their Love cards while also have a small weapon theme as befitting of a class using a bow and arrow in a holiday famous for another bow user Cupid.

     

    Token

    Mage

    Mage Legendaries will focus on the Love Between Mother and Daughter, specifically the extremely complicated relationship between Jaina and her mother Katherine. The rest of their cards focus on fresh interaction between Spell and minions, whether from minions benefitting from Spell Damage while discouraging you from casting spells or from Elemental minions and spells.

     

    Token:

     Paladin

    Paladin Legendary and theme will focus on a darker side of love, Anger at losing someone. The class has many cards that will allow them to deal swift retribution to the enemy that killed their minions, whether it is buffs, card draws to replace them or board clear. The class will also have Silver Hand support to have fodder to activate these effects.

     

    Token:

    Priest

    Priest's Legendary will focus on Fatherly Love, more specifically the relationship between Anduin and his father Varyan, with Anduin struggling to live up to Varian's legacy and duty to protect the people of Stormwind against his peaceful nature, as symbolize by his card set focus on "Can't attack" minions and Silence his own minion effects.

     

    Token:

     Rogue

    Rogue's Legendary and theme will focus on a darker side of love, specific the Love Between Criminals and Outlaws. They will have many cards that reference both Criminal Activities borne out of love or assist by love, like their Legendary outlaw couple Connie and Blyde, based on the outlaw couple Bonnie and Clyde. And for the adults out there, there will be reference to "adult business" in their set. Their set will focus on card generation and Coin generation.

     

    Token:

    Shaman

    Shaman main theme and Legendary will be Accepting in Lovewith the class accept and even empowered by the diversity in minion type they will receive. They also have an Elemental theme to their spells and minions.

    Token:

    Warlock

    Warlock, befitting their dark nature, will have another darker side of love: The Unhealthy Love. Many of their cards reference the dark dependency of love and their two Legendaries will reference the infamous Betrayal of Gul'dan to his tribe and mentor Ner'Zhul.

     

    Token:

    Warrior

    And last but certainly not least, Warrior will have their card set focus on Love of Machine, specifically the question of how does sentient robots (which exist in Warcraft universe) and people who replaced their body with machine parts express love. Well, the answer is obvious: By attaching themselves with Magnetic of course! Of course, they will also normal ways of expressing their affection, with Devote cards to be another way.

    Token:

     Neutral

     

    Legendary & Token

    Epic & Token

    Rare & Token

    Common & Token

     

    Thank you so much for your attention. Leave your feedback and balance suggestion if any.

    Posted in: Fan Creations
  • 1

    posted a message on Custom Class Competition #7 -- Discussion Thread | Week Four
    Quote from Noah_McGrath >>

    Changes:

    • Exploring alternative options for the second legendary
    • Made an edit on the art of Warp Star to better fit the effect
    • Reworked Weeping Blades into Whirl of Blades (for balance comparison: Evryfin is Awesome)
    • Reworked Imprisoned Verminlord (again) to be more interesting.
    • Replaced Poison Distiller with Plague Furnace

    I feel like Thanquol feels too frustrating to play against and swings too hard when played. The Prime shuffle also makes it possible to get the avatar away earlier than it's supposed to. So here are some alternatives:

    Version 1:

    Fairly simple in concept, the enemy either wastes 5 mana or slowly loses health as they draw cards.

    I like this version more so i am including it again, but smaller. While the total damage does rank up to a big 15, keep in mind it's over the course of the game. The last plague will be as strong as a bomb from all those warrior cards.

    Now this i think may be the best one. 5 unique plagues that all are very strong and disrupting but come in a random order at random times. They range from giving you free tokens, to mass dispelling the enemy board or even making them discard a card. Yes, this last one will be controversial, but i think it's ok though. It is a very delayed effect, perhaps happening at the end of the game. But if people really don't like it i'll change it.

     My cards so far:

    Legendaries:

    Tokens:

    Epics:

    Tokens:

    Rares:

    Commons:

    Tokens:

    Feedback time!

    Quote from Klipce >>

     

     

    Quote from Klipce >>

    Thanks everyone for your feedback ! I've reworked some cards, made new ones and confided with Mvon to get our common cards made. Her goes !

    As some people pointed out, Omen didn't make much sense for Paladin and that Andrik didn't feel like a Seer card. I hope it's a better combination of the two classes.

    This is the set of cards the Seer and the Traveler share. We are still workshopping the flavor but we're quite happy with the blend of mechanics.

    A few new cards and a tweak to Divination Major's stats. I'm pushing the core identity of the Seer while having a tone of fun with the flavor of SA. I'm really glade that I chose this expansion !

    Other cards I didn't change:

    Only 5 more cards to finish the set ! Right now I need some rest but why not getting feedback in the meantime ?

     

    •  Detention is too strong now lol. It's a straight up better Freezing Trap. Not only it costs less, but it also denies the enemy a draw.
    • Coach Andrik is a cool way to get a pay off from playing Omen cards, something you really needed.
    • Protection Sphere is a cheaper Sap in 90% of the cases. Enemy plays a minion, you yeet it back to their hand for 1 less mana than rogues do. It also comes with an added benefit, of maybe returning stuff to your hand too if you want to. It really should cost at least 2, it's way too much of a power creep at 1.
    • Alagalon is really cool, but the Omen on it feels kinda out of place. Not really contributing to his effect.
    • Educated Welp needs a keyword, probably battlecry. Also it's spelled 'wHelp', not 'welp' (Whelp)
    • Divination Major feels a bit too strong still. Compare her to Onyx Spellscribe. That is has 3 more health for the same cost, but adds 2 random cards. A card drawn from your deck always has higher value than a randomly generated card, so in my opinion the Major should only draw 2 cards. Loses 3 hp compared to the dragon, but draws you cards from the deck instead of randomly generating some.

     

     

    I honestly think I like the first version of the Legendary the best. The second one is way too swingy with different types of effect that it can lose / win the game on the spot.

     Skyre Knowledge is way too weak compare to the other options, given that you have to pay 4 mana for it. I would make it adding 5 Shards to your hand.

    Skuba Skaven is way to strong compare to Stitched Tracker or Shadow Visions. I think it should be 3 mana.

    Quote from Klipce >>

    Thanks everyone for your feedback ! I've reworked some cards, made new ones and confided with Mvon to get our common cards made. Her goes !

    As some people pointed out, Omen didn't make much sense for Paladin and that Andrik didn't feel like a Seer card. I hope it's a better combination of the two classes.

    This is the set of cards the Seer and the Traveler share. We are still workshopping the flavor but we're quite happy with the blend of mechanics.

    A few new cards and a tweak to Divination Major's stats. I'm pushing the core identity of the Seer while having a tone of fun with the flavor of SA. I'm really glade that I chose this expansion !

    Other cards I didn't change:

    Only 5 more cards to finish the set ! Right now I need some rest but why not getting feedback in the meantime ?

     

     

    As Noah said, Detention and Protection Sphere is way too strong. Protection Sphere should not be better than Sap, given that Rogue is a class renowned for removal while Detention is out of flavor for Paladin whose class doesn't have removal that isn't stat modifying.

    Divination Major is one of those cards you only print if you think your class is in a bad spot and you want to push it. I think it is safer at drawing 2 cards.

     

    Quote from MvonTzeskagrad >>

     Holy cow, 15 cards... and still some left!

    Having this in a week, then making a thread on it, it's gonna be craaaaazy!

    Well, anyway, I tried to apply critics so far, and ended up doing this. Let's see what do yout guys think.

    Still wondering some things like probably taking Lifesteal from Aeon Keeper but make its battlecry heal the hero still.

    Kraem's wording means that if you discover or get some card that costs more than (5) after you play it, it costs more than (5). And yes, I am aware of the Malygos synergy. That said, this class has no way to discount cheap spells, and not many ultra cheap reliable  direct damage spells, wich sort of balance things.

    And now... well, turns out Warrior likes the travellers crazy gadgets and combat skills!

    Yep, it's a Thanos reference. No, I regret nothing.

    Idea behind the mixed set is, both classes like control gameplays (even if they have aggressive ones too), can heal in a way or another, like rush minions (taunts are more of a warrior thing, but who tells a traveller will reject help when needed?) and tried this expansion to go for big plays, like this minion Thanael.

     

     

     Engineering Intern seems extremely dangerous at 1 mana. There's no token generator with that low of a cost in Hearthstone, especially since the token is guaranteed to be playable card, unlike something like Sethekk Veilweaver. I would increase this thing cost to at least 3 mana with a stat adjustment.

    I honestly don't get why Aether Corsair is a Pirate given that it doesn't have anything to do with other Pirate or Weapon. I think it would be more useful if he is an Elemental to boaster your Elemental synergy.

    Overall your set have an interesting synergy with casting spells and Elemental. I would print a couple more cheap spells to make sure the spell synergy part actually have a chance to fire off instead of drawing dud.

     

    Posted in: Fan Creations
  • 1

    posted a message on Custom Class Competition #7 -- Discussion Thread | Week Four

    Aw. Too bad. Miss the cut off by 1 vote. Congrats to all those who make it. Will drop in here and there to give my feedback.

    Posted in: Fan Creations
  • 2

    posted a message on Custom Class Competition #7 -- Discussion Thread | Week Three
    Quote from JoshoPrime >>

    At least i tried :(, good luck to the ones who advanced!

     Cheer up. I think your class is way better than the Farmer (whose class exclusive keyword is basically just rehashing Schemes) and the Somnologist (who forgot to change the keyword from their original name and didn't post on the Discussion topic at all). It's probably as good as the 8th/9th place classes.

    Anyway, here's some ideas I cut out from the first set:

    Because of the Challenge, Arthur Holmes now have to has a new cost and body. 3 mana 4/1 maybe?

    Some tribal synergy idea I promised from the Basic set:

    Sign of the Four Types is named after the Sherlock Holmes story Sign of the Four.

    Reveal pay off:

    The second card idea is that if something is mysterious, it is scared and utilized poorly (being a worse Fireball) but after it was investigated and revealed to the public, the mystique fades away and it became more commonplace and utilized more (being a 1 mana deal 6). Can't find a good name for it though. Also need opinion on how much of the discount should be before it became dangerous or degenerate.

    Combo (Kael'thas / Malygos):

    The name is a reference to A Caribbean Mystery by Agatha Christie. Revendreth of course is the new home of vampire (venthyr) in WoW.

    Token / 0-Attack, 0-cost stuff:

    Name is based on the novel "Five Little Pigs" by Agatha Christie.

    Some "generalist" card that can fit in many decks:

    Ended up creating too many Common. Might cut Signal Pistol from the line up. Thought?

    Posted in: Fan Creations
  • 2

    posted a message on Custom Class Competition #7 -- Submission Thread | Week Two

    The Detective: Apprentice's Dossiers

     

    Token:

     

    The Detective: Apprentice's Dossiers

    Anticipating the dangerous mission ahead of her in order to get to the bottom of the truth at Scholomance Academy, Christie enlist a new generation of Apprentices in training to help her. Before they can venture into the darkness of the Academy, she brought out her old case files in order for these newbies to familiar themselves with her work

    The class's Basic set:

    A quick rundown of the class's strength and weaknesses:

    Things the class excel at:

    • Token spawning: Margaret Christie is famous for talent of training and attracting new recruits. The Hero Power as well as a high amount of cards in the class will allow them to easily hoard and spam out tokens.
    • Survivability: Detectives don't get to the bottom of the truth by being easily taken out. The class will have excellent, cost-efficient healing and Taunt. Just look at the Hero Power itself!
    • Combos: A detective strike when they have all the evidences and can make a case undoubtable. The playstyle of revealing cards and the high amount of cheap, 0 cost cards naturally benefit a combo playstyle. And the class would have the survivability to back it up. 

    Things the class is okay at:

    • Removal: Detectives don't start fight, but they finish them. The class will have good and efficient removals, but not too much of them.
    • Board clear: Detectives work in the shadow, but sometimes they stumble across large cases that will have profound impact on the world. Board clear of the class will be efficient, if not numerous.
    • Buff: The class have powerful buff, but they are very specific and are limited to the token playstyle half of the class
    • Burst: Detectives name get made by how rapidly and quickly they can strike their cases with accurate deductions. The class will have a decent amount of burst damage in either spells or weapons.
    • Card draw and generation: With a Hero Power that generate a very useful token for both the control / combo playstyle and the token playstyle, the class will back it up with a decent amount of draw options to draw into their win condition / important buffs.

    Things the class is bad at:

    • Turn 4-6: Detectives either strike first when the criminals are still at the crime scene or they need time to gather evidences. The class have little to no active play in these mana slot. Their play in these turns are either reactive (weapon, board clear, removal) or leveraging the the token you spawned earlier to help dealing with the opponent. This translate to an inability to play a midrange deck and an extreme weakness in these turn if not played smartly and rationing out your Apprentices
    • Disruption effect: Since most important combo pieces you want to put in your deck needed (or heavily encouraged) to actively revealing cards in your hand to your opponent, you will be extra vulnerable to disruption effects. Your opponent will know a good time to play that Dirty Rat or Unseen Saboteur that can potentially destroy your entire combo.

    Class Keywords:

    What better ways for the Apprentices to learn is to look through a few of the most famous cases solves by Christie and her other students or fellow Detectives? Cases are basically reverse Secrets where you will activate a powerful spell that will last until you or your opponent can satisfy the Solve requirement. Cases are designed so that your opponent will have to quickly solve them before they snowball out of control. However, you have to play carefully or else you'll end up solving the Cases yourself and lose the advantage. Of course, if the Cases are also hurting you, you can Solve them yourself. Cases took the place of the Secret slots, which mean you can only have 5 Case with different names active. All of the Cases and their supporting cards are named after detective novels and short stories.

     Showcase cards:

    Poirot's Favorite Case:

    • Intensive Training is the card that expand on the theme of 0 Attack and 0-cost minions. Being only 1 mana more expansive than Savage Roar but allow you to keep permanently the buff but also the extra +2 Health, this card reward the player extremely hard for building around its condition
    • Investigate ties a lot of the theme of the class together. The card not only a 0-cost card, but it also revealing a card from your hand to gain an advantage and can also set up for combos by reducing the cost of the combo piece.
    • Argus Poirot is the most premiere pay off of running the reveal card. Not only is he very powerful win condition for control decks since your opponent cannot simultaneously Solve all of the Cases he put up that are incredibly synergistic  with each other (especially since the longer they took to solve the Cases, the more 5/5 with Taunt one of the Case will spit out), he also a viable option to slot in combo decks that run Malygos or Kael'thas since this class want to reveal their high-cost cards in order to discount them. His name is based on one of Agatha Christie's most famous character Detective Poirot. All of the Cases he created are named after famous Agatha Christie novels: Death on the Nile, Cards on the Table, Evil Under the Sun, They Do It With Mirrors and While the Light Last

    The full set:

    Common

     

    Rare

    Epic

    Legendary

     Explanation:

    • Arcane Sidekick is one of the class's 0 mana 0 Attack minion. Not only can fit into token decks, it can also be used free +2 Spell Damage in the class's combo decks of using Kael'thas + Malygos
    • A Scandal in Stormwind is the class's most potent board clear. Not only it can wipe the board of puny minions, the card can stall out for quite several turns from your opponent or  force to waste resources to Solve the card. The card's name is a reference to the Sherlock short story A Scandal in Bohemia that introduce the famous Irene Adler. The name is also a reference to the Onyxia raid where she disguised herself as a Stormwind noble.
    • The Problem at Elrendar Falls  is one of the combo piece that you'd want to cheat out with Kael'thas and / or got the +5 Spell Damage from Malygos. The name is a reference to the short story The Final Problem where Sherlock Holmes tackle his most famous villain Professor Moriaty at Reichenbach Fall.
    • Drakonid Detective follow the theme of the class's 0-cost support. He not only fit into combo decks to fish out their 0 mana combo piece, he also fit into more aggressive decks since he has an excellent statline for his cost.
    • And Then There Were None is another one of the class's 0-cost token support. The name is a reference to the famous novel And Then There Was None by Agatha Christie.
    • Bribery is one of the pay off of running revealing card from your deck. The card can be run either with tempo revealing card (that will be printed in the second half of the set) or as a combo piece with Kael'thas.
    • The Hound of Gilneas is class's Case support. He allow you to drag out your Case effects for two more turns if you still want the Case effect in place but you think your opponent are in the process of solving it. His name is a reference to Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of Baskerville.
    Posted in: Fan Creations
  • 3

    posted a message on Custom Class Competition #7 -- Submission Thread | Week One

    The Detective

    Token:

     

    A land full of people and magic power like Azeroth is a land full of mysteries waiting to be revealed and solved. The Detective is here to leave no stones unturned looking for clues and information and training new apprentices to join their rank.

    Hero Backstory:

    Margaret Christie is one of the most seasoned and renowned Detectives in all of Azeroth. She doesn't regret leaving her homeland . Gilneas to adventure on her own when learning that it will enter isolation from the outside world, although she always wonder how useful to her investigation it would be if she was to become a worgen. Now rumors of unsavory magic has led Christie to use all of her wit, might and health potion to investigate the seemingly unsuspecting Scholomance Academy.

    Margaret Christie's name is a reference to the author Agatha Christie and her most famous character detective Miss Marple. She was picked instead of the other famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes to give the hero portraits both more female characters and an elderly-looking character.

    Themes:

    • Revealing cards: Playing as a Detectives mean that you will get into the enemy's business. But the investigation business also require absolute transparency for those evidences to hold up in court. Cards and effects that reveal cards and gain benefit from those effects will be prominent in the class. Note that a card after being revealed to the enemy will kept being revealed, which mean that reveal effect will not land on a card already revealed (which is the main reason why I put that word on the Hero Power).
    • 0-Attack and 0-cost cards: Who doesn't love a zero to hero story? Unlike the other classes who require being gifted in some kind of magic or physical prowess, the Detective love their puny 0-Attack minions / Apprentices and 0-cost cards (some minions are even both) and will have prominent synergies to them.
    • Crimes and Police: Crimes are of course an important part of the career of a detective, but they cannot do everything by themselves without a legal system as well as the police forces (or some equivalent of it in the Warcraft universe). The class will have cards reference both of these in addition to the usual detective work.

    Strength and Weakness:

    Things the class excel at:

    • Token spawning: Margaret Christie is famous for talent of training and attracting new recruits. The Hero Power as well as a high amount of cards in the class will allow them to easily hoard and spam out tokens.
    • Survivability: Detectives don't get to the bottom of the truth by being easily taken out. The class will have excellent, cost-efficient healing and Taunt. Just look at the Hero Power itself!
    • Combos: A detective strike when they have all the evidences and can make a case undoubtable. The playstyle of revealing cards and the high amount of cheap, 0 cost cards naturally benefit a combo playstyle. And the class would have the survivability to back it up. 

    Things the class is okay at:

    • Removal: Detectives don't start fight, but they finish them. The class will have good and efficient removals, but not too much of them.
    • Board clear: Detectives work in the shadow, but sometimes they stumble across large cases that will have profound impact on the world. Board clear of the class will be efficient, if not numerous.
    • Buff: The class have powerful buff, but they are very specific and are limited to the token playstyle half of the class
    • Burst: Detectives name get made by how rapidly and quickly they can strike their cases with accurate deductions. The class will have a decent amount of burst damage in either spells or weapons.
    • Card draw and generation: With a Hero Power that generate a very useful token for both the control / combo playstyle and the token playstyle, the class will back it up with a decent amount of draw options to draw into their win condition / important buffs.

    Things the class is bad at:

    • Turn 4-6: Detectives either strike first when the criminals are still at the crime scene or they need time to gather evidences. The class have little to no active play in these mana slot. Their play in these turns are either reactive (weapon, board clear, removal) or leveraging the the token you spawned earlier to help dealing with the opponent. This translate to an inability to play a midrange deck and an extreme weakness in these turn if not played smartly and rationing out your Apprentices
    • Disruption effect: Since most important combo pieces you want to put in your deck needed (or heavily encouraged) to actively revealing cards in your hand to your opponent, you will be extra vulnerable to disruption effects. Your opponent will know a good time to play that Dirty Rat or Unseen Saboteur that can potentially destroy your entire combo.

    Showcase cards:

    • Self Defense Training is the class's primary and most important buff. It showcase the token playstyle as well as how important 0-cost and 0-Attack minions are to the class. Note that the card will NOT double buff a 0 mana 0 Attack minions since that will limit on how much or how powerful those I can print.
    • Interrogate showcase the class's main selling point and playstyle of revealing cards not just from your hand but your opponent's as well. This effect is a relatively minor speed bump to your opponent but a crucial requirement for some of your class card to function so the cost will be efficient. Note that "hidden card" in this case would be a card that isn't already revealed, so your Apprentices will not get in the way of revealing effects from the class.
    • Orc Apprentice is a premier way of benefitting from revealed card. It also showcase the high survivability the class have access to in its cards. The class will have more powerful and complex effects that benefit from revealed card in the future, but the Basic set keep thing as simple and as obvious as possible

    The rest of the class Basic set:

    Explanations:

    • Lightborne Sidekick is the class's evergreen 0 mana 0 Attack minion. Its Elemental tag will help the class a long way to put in tribal synergy
    • Bonus Payment allow a detective to have some money to upgrade their Armor for a job well done. The card blends in a lot of the class's flavor: 0 cost card, powerful survivability and benefit from revealing cards.
    • Security Pistol is another one of the class's powerful 0-cost cards. It allow the class some pings to get rid off those pesky 1/1 that threaten their 0/2 and add some recovery for the class
    • Forensic Intellect is one of the main card draw engine the class and encourage them to run 0-cost cards in a majority of their deck to benefit from this very powerful card.
    • Criminal Reforming is the class's premiere removal. Like Hex and Polymorph, this allow to get rid of Deathrattle too and fit in with the theme of 0 Attack minions
    • Magnifying Glass: What's a good detective without their trusty magnifying glass? A simple yet effective card to help with their effect of revealing cards from their hand.
    • Whistleblowing: In her youth and to this very day Margaret Christie doesn't stop at anything to get the truth and justice for those in need. This in turn inspire people to rally behind to either protect or follow her footstep. This is the class's primary and evergreen board clear while still give them small amount of board presence by spawning the 0/2 tokens.

     

    Posted in: Fan Creations
  • 4

    posted a message on Custom Class - The Astromancer (Updated until Galakrond's Awakening)

     

    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!oo

    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. Rishi is the basic hero that represent the class all players will receive when they create their account.

    Alternative Heroes

    Eldrond Luxos is the second alternative hero for the Astromancers. He is also the player character for the Tombs of Terror adventure, taking up the Astromancer / Warlock hybrid class and is obtained by defeating Heroic Tekahn.

    Starcaller Rishi is another alternative hero for the class. She is the hero the player will receive after 1000 wins with the class.


    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 or drawn with the Gaze removed. Discover effects do not interact with this keyword since the card technically is not created yet and thus is still subjected to the wide Discovery pool (also it will be a nightmare otherwise balancing every card generation effect with a card with Gaze ).

    List of available cards in the Basic and Classic set that will be effected by this keyword:

    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):


    Gameplay Summary

    Astromancer is a high RNG versatile class that has the cards to support multiple playstyle. From swarming tokens and then finishing off your opponent with burst damage, spell-based decks that burn out your opponent, to mid-range decks that drop well stated minions turn after turns, a grindy control deck with powerful late game win condition or some hybrid of all the above. The class has the tools to support them all!

    Strengths and Weaknesses:

    Things the class is good with:

    • 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.
    • 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
    • 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.

    Thing the class is average or decent at:

    • Card Draw : With the Gaze mechanic requiring multiple cards, the class will have a decent amount of draw to allow them to combine the cards that grant Gaze with the random effect they like to run.
    • Survivability : The class boast a decent amount of Taunt minions and healing. However, the healing is random as well as tying to spawning out tokens and keep them on the board to continuously receive it. If your opponent keep killing them off, you will have difficulty to survive.
    • Removal: When not falling into your opponent's face, the comets and meteor conjured by the Astromancers can instead annihilate the enemy minions.

    Thing the class is bad at:

    • 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.
    • 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. Their big board clear usually came at the mid to late game and either need set up or providing extra utility in exchange for killing power
    • 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.

    Important themes:

    • Disruption: The class is extremely good at forcing your opponent to take a certain action or play inefficiently. Their disruption tools are powerful as well as varied in what deck they will disrupt, which mean Astromancer is a perfect counter class with the right tech choice.
    • Weapon: The class mainly uses weapon to bolster their other cards or for tempo (similar to Shaman, Hunter and Paladin) rather than being the main focus like Rogue or Warrior. Thus their weapon isn't as many as Rogue or Warrior and require other cards to be effective.
    • Elemental and Dragon synergy: The class has powerful and varied Dragon and Elemental minions and synergy, even from their Classic and Basic set. Some of their cards not only support but are extremely powerful when utilize both tribes at the same time.
    • Constellation Marks: The most prominent spell archetype in the class (similar to the Shadow Word and Power Word in Priest). These are spells that buff the next card you play, which mean that you will need to plan ahead on which turn you can have some spare mana to cast these spells as well as your opponent can predict which minions you will likely to summon and react accordingly.

     


    Cards by Set

    Basic

    Their Basic cards aim to establish the mechanic, flavor, strength and weakness of the class while also provide tools for them to play a variety of playstyle: Aggressive, Token based, Mid-range or Control

    Token:

    Classic

    Similar to Basic, the Classic set provides the class with their iconic keyword Gaze as well as tools to support a variety of decks.

    Common

    Rare

    Epic

    Legendary

    Token:

     

    The one card the class receive from this adventure play into the Deathrattle theme and the Constellation mark prominent in the class

    Goblin vs Gnome can be said to be right in this class's wheelhouse: A lot of random effects, aggressive mechs with powerful tribal synergy and reward vomit your hand onto the battlefield. The aggressive mech side of the class is covered with low cost Mech like Watch Bird, Astral Blast and Gnomish Satelite. The more combo oriented side of the class has Gnomageddon and Silas Darkmoon to support them. The rest of the set are cards that can be used in both archetypes. Mechanical Uprising is the class's flavor of hard countering the mech meta

    Common

     

    Rare

     

    Epic

    Legendary

     

    • Silas Darkmoon can be played at turn 10 either with 1 Spare Part, or as part of a larger combo with Mark of Virgo + Silas + Gnomish Astrologist and dump your hand with Spare Parts. His 6/4 statline is to minimize the impact of highrolling him with Finnicky Cloakfield

     

     

    The two cards in this adventure introduce Dragons synergy for the class that will be a permanent feature for it. Both Twilight Apprentice and Untamed Egghatcher are solid cards that carry the disruption effect, one for board clear and the other for swarm decks that mid-range decks usually weak to.

     

    Common

     

    Rare

     

    Epic

    Legendary

    Token:

    • Herald Beluus is designed to give Joust the desperate support that it need. As long as the card is in your deck, it is always revealed whenever you use a Joust effect. Of course, like Patches the Pirate, you always run the risk of drawing this card before you drew your Joust effect and become basically a Faceless Behemoth or reveal your opponent's Molten Giant
    • Astral Explosion and Astral Warhorse are a very powerful cards that can be used as a removal / burst damage combine with your Hero Power or as part of an OTK with Violet Illusionist and spell generations that will be printed in later sets. However, this combo deck will be a Wild exclusive deck since the cards require to generate more Astral Explosion won't be printed until the Witchwood and Rise of Shadows.

     

     

    The cards from League of Explorers are designed to give some focus on the class's card draw (which has been lacking in the last couple expansions) by the new DIscover mechanic

     

    .

     

    For this expansion, the class dive into the Old God with two C'Thun support cards while the rest flesh out already existing archetype: Dragon synergy and token. A few of the card also venture into the territory of encouraging the players to cast multiple spells. While at the time of the expansion, they are usually Spare Parts, later card sets will expand on this theme

    Common

     

    Rare

     

     

    Epic

    Legendary

    • The 1/1 C'Thun summoned by Bride of C'Thun is also buffed by any C'Thun buff you played this game. Which mean that the C'Thun will have the stat of the original C'Thun -5/-5.
    • Jadefire Satyr cost 8 mana to prevent him from dealing 20 damage with Brann Bronzebeard

     

     

    One Night in Karazhan set will bring more support for existing archetype: Dragon Astromancer, spell-heavy Astromancer and beginning the trend of giving the class more substantial board clears, albeilt still heavily restricted to the mid to late game.

    For this expansion, the class will join the Kabal faction.

    Common

    Rare

     

    Epic

    Legendary

    • The class joining the Kabal faction mean that they will have to have print a board clear potion. Astral Potion's power might be more efficient than usual, but it will have the drawback of the next set of random effects you cast later might hit undesirable targets.
    • To make up for the lackluster board clear, the removal Potion and the utility potions the class received are stronger than the Mage and Warlock utility potions. Mysterious Potion allow you to cross class discover the better board clear potion while Magic Suppressing Potion is a potent anti-board clear disruption the class is well-known for.

     

     

    In Journey to Un'Goro, Rishi stumbles upon the Draconic inhabitants whose knowledge of the stars and sky rival her own. Together, they unite their intellect in order to learn and performing the forgotten ritual made by the Titans in effort to fight the Old Gods. The Quest and card set will give the class a new way to synergize with the copious amount of Gaze in its Classic set while the rest of the set will give the Astromancer Elemental synergy attached to Dragon minions

    Common

    Rare

    Epic

    Legendary

    Token:

    Quest Reward:

    Follow her death and return as a Death Knight in Knight of the Frozen Throne, Rishi's ruthlessness that served her well in forging her own fate now allows her to become one of the most dangerous of the Lich King's servant. While Gul'dan steals a person's blood and body, Rishi's specialty is stealing and bounding their souls to serve her, translating to a set of cards that specialize in taking away a minion's effect and replacing them with an identical Astral Servant.

    Lich King card:

    Common

    Rare

    Epic

    Legendary

    Token:

    Rishi's venture into the Catacomb force her to confront an aspect long-lost to the Astromancers: The cold, devouring and uncaring emptiness of the Darkness and the Void that lies between the stars. Secrets and artifacts that were long-lost to Astromancers came to light. The class now also has incredibly well-rounded Dragon deck inspired by the encounter with Seriona.

    Common

    Rare

    Epic

    Legendary

    Token:

    In the Witchwood, Astromancer's connection with the stars allow them to contact the Wild God whose power originate the Worgen curse Goldrinn, allow him to arrive and bring with him the power to convert willing Gilnean who wants the power to fight against Hagatha, resulting in a set with extensive use of the swapping Attack and Health mechanic. Astromancer also have the theme of hanging on to the past, which symbolize by their card set's use of the Echo mechanic as well as reward for playing multiple copies of a card in your game

    Common

    Rare

    Epic

    Legendary

    Token:

    Before you read any further, here's some trigger warning in spoiler:

    The next set will depict and use imagery of serious mental health issues including: collective trauma, schizophrenia, the grieving process, toxic relationships, multiple personality disorder and depression. If any of them upset you, I understand if you skip the cards or just glossing them over. I tried to be as respectful and as accurate as possible to depict the mental health conditions. However, because I do not suffer from mental illness myself, as well as being bounded by the fantasy/sci fi setting of the expansion and generally "dumbing down" of the condition to fit in with the card effects, there's bound to be some mistakes and inaccuracy. I hope you can forgive me for that. If you can think of any ways to improve the cards depiction of mental health issues, I'm ready to listen.

    One of the lab of Dr. Boom is preserved for counseling the traumatized interns and scientists. Of course, given that the lead psychiatrist Sigmund Parlov is part of the Boom lab, he also attempts the morally dubious method of opening a portal to the Emerald Dream / Emerald Nightmare to seek out new magic to treat his patient.

    Note: Spells that deal split damage that has Poisonous by Toxic Influencer will instantly kill the minion that it deal the separate instant of damage to.

    Common

    Rare

    Epic

    Legendary

    Token:

    The Stages of Grief:

    Other tokens:

    Nightmare

    For the Rumble, the class will follow the recently return from the death the Sky Serpent Loa Quetz'lun. He bring along with him a hoard of champions and will take people who were cast aside in order to convert and train them to become the best they can be. His most prized champion Al'Zatar is such example, who specializes in manipulate the odd to his favor.

    Common

    Rare

    Epic

    Legendary

    Token:

    Gladiator's Path:

    Rumble Run 

     

    Shrines

    Teammates

     

     

    For Rise of Shadows, the class will join force to defend Dalaran, therefore balance out the number of Hero Class compare to the Villain classes. Their card set will mainly focus on building a combo deck that generate a huge amount of cheap spells to burst down the enemy. In Wild, this combo is even more prevalent since the class has access to the spell Astral Explosion combine with Violet Illusionist

    Common

    Rare

    Epic

    Legendary

    • Shalyssa Ravenwhisper is made by Demonxz95 as a tribute card for me. I like it so much that I decided to implement it to my class's set.
    • If the enemy hero already had been by Gaze or Solar Eclipse before the Battlecry of Dalaran Sky Watcher, they can still be hit by random effect damage, similar to how random damage can still hit Can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers minions.
    • If a spell already had Twinspell before you cast Mark of Gemini, it will add a copy with Twinspell to your hand, similar to THE... Candles treasure.

    Rise of the Mech

    • Schizorphrenia now cost 2 mana (down from 4 mana)
    • Nightmare Therapy now cost 5 mana (down from 6 mana)

    The Dalaran Heist

    Hero Powers

    Secrets of the Void unlock: Cast 50 spells

    Celestial Call Requirement: Summon 200 minions

    Backstory

    Hawken Kipler was a former highly respected Astromancer of Dalaran. He begins to harbor a grudge against the magical city because Eldrond Luxos, his friend and former lover, was expelled from the city because of Luxos's newfound interest in Necromancy and Void magic. This grudge simmer for years before exploding when Eldrond's sister Tolyria Luxos was killed during the Purge of Dalaran and the city didn't even bother to send a messenger to Eldrond about her death, considering Eldrond no longer part of Dalaran. Since then, he has been quietly plotting against the city from the inside out, culminating him helping the League of EVIL.

    If you played as Astromancer, you have a small chance to encounter Kipler's friend / former lover Eldrond Luxos in any chapters. Eldrond can only be encountered as a 7th boss in chapter 1-4, or from the 7th to 11th boss in chapter 5. Playing against Eldrond will have special dialogue that detailed their friendship / romance and Kipler breaking the news to him about Tolyria's death. 

    (The Hero Power is coded to only hit the Astral Spirits if Eldrond or the player is at 1 Health. Celestial Helpers is coded to be in his opening hand and cast on turn 1.)

    He will use a self-harming Warlock / Astromancer deck (symbolizing Eldrond being suicidal after Kipler breaking him the news about Tolyria's death). If both sides are alive for 10 turn, the player'll receive a win and a special Treasure:

     

     

    As oppose to the other class's Quest in Un'Goro, Astromancer's Quest is extremely difficult to complete and require the set to build around it: You have to play 7 out of 8 minion types presented so far in Hearthstone (except Totem), symbolizing Eldrond caught wind of his unintentional help to doom the inhabitant Uldum and trying to rectify that by gathering the natives of Uldum to stand against the League of EVIL. In exchange, the Quest's reward is the also the most powerful, being the only unlimited resource generator in the expansion while can deal out a enormous amount of burst damage everytime you use the Hero Power. The rest of the set use extensively the Reborn mechanic, symbolizing the native of Uldum and Eldrond's own interest in necromancy.

    Common

    Rare

    Epic

    Legendary

    Token

     

    Doom in the Tombs cards:

     Tomb of Terror

    Backstory

    After his encounter with his ex-lover, Eldrond continues on his own path. One night, he found the floating city of Dalaran strapped with rockets. Surprised and confused, he used his magic to track the city down to Uldum. Learning that his help to Kipler has led to the event that can end the world, he joined force with the League of Explorers to put an end to this madness by uniting the scared local citizen to lend the League their aid.

    Hero Power

    Study the Stars: Starting Hero Power

    Unlimited Power unlock: Gaze 100 characters

    Call of the Void unlock: Take 40 damage during your turn

    Signature Treasures

    • Tolyria's Locket is the initially available Signature Treasure.
    • Study the Nether is the Signature Treasure you unlock after defeating 5 Boss
    • Kipler's Evocation is the Signature Treasure you unlock after dealing 50 damage to a Plague Lord
    • Jr. Ambassador is the Signature Treasure you unlock after defeating a Plague Lord
    • Sr. Ambassador is the Signature Treasure you unlock after defeating the first four Plague Lords
    • Shifting Anomaly is the Signature Treasure you unlock after defeating 2 Plague Lords
    • Renounce Evil is the Signature Treasure you unlock after defeating 3 Plague Lords.
    • Interaction:
    • If you play Tolyria's Locket, Eldrond will remark how much he miss Tolyria and how sad he is at her death.
    • If you play Study the Nether, Eldrond will remark that he regret missing out on becoming a Void Elf.
    • If you play Kipler's Evocation, Eldrond will remark that one of the reasons he broke up with Kipler is that Kipler used to bring out the more violent side of him. However, recent events are making Eldrond doubting that decision.
    • If you play the two Ambassadors, Eldrond will remark on the importance of using local knowledge and citizens to defeat the Plague Lords.
    • If you play Shifting Anomaly, Eldrond will remark how he loves these things due to their flexibility.
    • If you play Renounce Evil, Eldrond will remark that he prefers "adapt to circumstances".

    And don't forget to check out Eldrond's Tombs of Terror guide

     

    The final expansion of the year and one with the highest power level, the class will focus on completing the Quest that were in Saviors of Uldum and is still able to support a Highlander playstyle. The class's combo oriented deck from Rise of Shadows also receive support. Being a Hero class, Astromancer will have a Dragon Explorers and 2 Side Quests.

    Common

    Rare

    Epic

     

    Legendary

    Token

    Galakrond's Awakening

    Token

    Posted in: Fan Creations
  • To post a comment, please login or register a new account.