Hearthpwn

Quote from maxlot >>

Gonna do a brief look at all the guys who passed and give my opinions. Can't be bothered to talk about Hall of Fame choices unless they're relevant to any of the cards.

 

DISCLAIMER: I am in such intense fear of accidentally refreshing the page that I've decided to post this and edit it to completion. The rest will be done in some amount of time.

 

Doctor Whoops' Year of the Frog

Right off the bat, the sets are quite diverse and well presented. The Infiltrate keyword is nice, I imagine there's quite a lot of potential design space for it and it only makes sense. Feed is already easy to imagine in-game because it's already in the game and Surface Hunter is a fine card to show off. Those two keywords are fine, but you've walked into an issue Tek found himself in while working on Treasures, which was why the inclusion of the Sandy Shores card was made. Essentially, if the Guest cards included in your deck actually count against card count without any chance of actually being drawn, then what you effectively have is a deck that has less cards in it. The vast majority of decks in the game would take a 28 card, 26 card, 24 card etc deck over a 30 card one if that was freely available. It's just more consistent, and there's absolutely no reason not to do it. This would lead to players using Guests purely as cards to lower deck sizes rather than making actual Guest decks.

The Guest keyword is very interesting thematically and I like the flavor of the Stormwind City set the most, so I'd like to see it still, I just think it should be reworked maybe in a similar way to Treasures. Of course, there's also the chance that I've misinterpreted the keyword and missed something like an idiot, so I'm sorry if that's the case. Overall I can definitely see why this was the most highly voted set, but I think Guest is a genuinely big issue.

Linkblade91's Year of the Kodo

The flavor for the first set is fantastic, I'm quite fond of the Burdens. They're a way of introducing massive changes to a deck that remain simple. I do feel like The Vigilant Crusader could be made more simple with just one keyword, the textbox is getting a little packed there, but with how much that would impact you don't need to worry too much. The cards showcased for the War of Sea and Sky could have been better. Though I like the idea of the expansion, I'm indifferent with Terror Drake, kinda unsure how it has Stealth thematically, but I dislike the Naga Siren. What you've said about the Naga is that they provide benefit to the 'Biggest' Naga in terms of Attack, Health or Cost, so a card with "The Naga with the highest X has..." should be a common occurrence. Despite that, the first Naga you show is a 5/5 that does that with Taunt which is Epic. That sounds more like a Common and it doesn't really show what the potential of the Naga's tribal shenanigans could be. It doesn't feel too different from a 5 mana 5/5 Taunt, and feels so boring and bad considering giving minions taunt isn't really valued very highly. Metal and Mayhem seems nice, the flavor's good. Encore is a great keyword, I like it a lot. Power Up is a little more meh, kinda odd to revisit spare parts in general. The cards you showcased are good for them, with Spirit Bouncer showing off some fantastic possible synergy with Encore effects off the bat by allowing its effect to be used by a much bigger minion, and Treant Harvester being flavorful and useful.

Overall, all three sets are very good but I'd really like to see the potential of the Naga tribe and the Challenge keyword.

KingKuba's Year of the Lion

I felt quite happy looking through all of this. I'm not generally going to talk about the people behind the cards that much in these reviews but you seem like the kind of person who's quite new to making custom cards but has some really good ideas. What I mean by that is that you've got some really fantastic concepts here among some simple mistakes and I'm excited to see this set potentially flourishing. Obviously the place to start with is Storage, which I think is a potential UI nightmare and unsure on how good it is CURRENTLY, but it has some serious potential. I think you should go over a brief summary of how you use Storage cards during deckbuilding and through that find a way to include as many copies of Storage cards as you want so I can run a warehouse deck (that's only 30% a joke) and I'd love this keyword and the set. I love the flavor behind all the sets by the way, just wanted to go over Storage first. Then I'm going to go onto the third expansion for a reason that'll be obvious soon after. I like the flavor of this set the most, it's quite light and jovial. Rent could have a lot of potential as a keyword, especially if you throw some Rent (1 turn) cards in there, which could be quite interesting for designs. I dislike Buyout however, it doesn't feel like it has too much of a purpose. Making a way of keeping your Rent minions feels uninteresting more than anything else as well as quite parasitic. I think just having the Rent cards is preferable. Right, set 2 is the one I have the most problems with by far. The faction mechanic just isn't interesting, it's just a tribe that locks you out of playing certain cards. The two cards you've showcased aren't doing it any favors either. Garona Halforcen is a legendary class tech card, which you really want to avoid. The general issue with that is that legendary cards, especially class cards, are cards that you put into your deck to promote an archetype in an interesting or powerful way. Tech cards are cards you use to counter OTHER archetypes. It's straight up just an overpowered assassinate with a body in most cases and that's not the reason why I dislike it. She doesn't do anything to help your Horde deck, she just might do something against Alliance minions with Deathrattles. That's probably not many cards. Othmar Garithos is far and beyond the most overpowered card in the game. He's an autoinclude in every paladin deck due to the way purely positive Start of Game cards work. When you don't actually have to draw the card nor use the card, it just provides a benefit to your deck unconditionally at the start of the game, the card shouldn't be printed. You don't even have to account for the technical risk of drawing this minion which is understatted in comparison to almost all the other broken start of game cards that people have made, it's an Alliance minion, it just draws itself at no cost when the game begins, as well as whatever other Alliance card you put in there is. I'd suggest a complete rework of the second expansion but if you don't want to do that at least just fix those two cards up. Sorry the review got negative towards the end, it's just that your first and third sets are on completely different levels to your second. I genuinely meant what I said about the year having some serious potential and I look forward to seeing what you make.

Tomerick88's Year of the Butterfly

I'm going to be blunt...

 

That is not an interesting keyword. It's not flexible, it's not got any potential design space, more than anything it's just a boring and bad version of taunt. I do not like the pet keyword, not at all. Keywords can mean so many potential different things depending on the cards they're on, and how singular this keyword is is mundane. Hemet's Petting Zoo itself could be interesting with good flavor but I'm not feeling it so far. Going into the second expansion, Fate's fine, there's some design space for it and it fits the expansion, though I'm starting to think you've rushed through all this a bit. The presentation for your cards isn't great and the actual cards are similar. Veteran Tracker is missing capitalization and is literally just using the Tracking art. Tactical Retreat is a great card that utilizes your rotation of Divine Favor well. The terrain cards aren't very aesthetically pleasing, I once again think you could have spent more time and precision with this. Regardless I do feel that the terrain should last for a set amount of turns and shouldn't be countered by enemies playing terrains. Having it last infinitely is insane value that forces people into playing terrains, and playing a really expensive terrain that goes away immediately isn't fun.

CheeseETC's Year of the Scorpion

First set is good. The factions are alright and I don't really have a lot to say about it other than I'm fond. Could open up a lot of interesting new decks. I'm not fond of the second set at all. Dividing things into a bunch of guys who generate resource and then a bunch of things that need resource is parasitic and hard to manage before you even account for the fact that the things that take your resource take up board slots. It's hard to manage in a simple manner, simple being one of Hearthstone's core themes, and it feels more like a nostalgia trip than a fun or functional expansion. Don't want to include more than 4 buildings in my deck because I don't want to ever collect dead buildings in my hand but then I want to have enough resource to play them otherwise they're just dead anyway so better distribute a bunch of resource gatherer's into my deck. Draw dependency is rampant here. In comparison I really like recipes. They're flavorful and quite similar to buildings in that they're permanent benefits except way more interesting and better because they don't take a parasitic new resource to exist, you just need to fulfill certain conditions to repeat effects. I certainly wouldn't include both buildings and recipes into the year, in my eyes one's just better than the other. I will say though, the way you've formatted the recipe card is stylish and cool but I think you might have to change it unless you don't want to write much on the cards. Small Drink is the epitome of a common of the effect with literally three words and then a basic condition, yet it ended up with 4 lines. How are you going to make Epic recipes?

Shatterstar1998 and Demonxz95's Year of the Dragon

Year of the Dragon sounds generic but whatever. Nightmare on the Nether is cool, though you could go over what makes the actual expansion itself interesting a little more, because I didn't really see anything about the expansion itself in the cards. I just got the context of the area and how it has a bunch of tribal minions. Legacy could be cool but King Arthur feels like a really bad way of showing it off. If I play three cards in a turn I get to change the Health of all minions to 1! Oh wait they've already all got 1 Health because I played the card. I'll wait till next turn and THEN use his effect. Alright, there, my opponent's played some new minions, now I can use his Legacy. Oh actually I think I'll just trade him in, that seems more efficient because I don't want to set my minions Health to 1. Why does Legacy feel so much like a redundant extra on the Legacy showcase card? Prince Charming well... I don't like him. How is he a start of game support card and how was he supposed to show off how each class is getting a start of game card? Wouldn't showing off a start of game card be more helpful for that? Why do I care about drawing my start of game cards, that's not what's interesting about those cards, the interesting part already happened. At the start of the game. Because it's a start of game card. Sure it thins my deck and I can play it to get like a 9 mana 7/8 body but that's hardly that supportive. Prince Charming just feels like a Curator card you made because you've got some new keywords. It's not got nearly as much connection between the themes as The Curator nor its Witchwood counterpart. It's boring. Caverns of Time seems alright, I like Future Strike, it's a very nice card. Temporary dormant cards are something I've seen a lot, in fact my favorite version of them I've seen was from DKPaladinMDL's Caverns of Time expansion that he finished some time ago. I feel like the showcase card you chose for it wasn't that interesting. In general I kinda wish there was more you were showing in your year, I've not been able to criticize a lot because I've not got a good grip on the expansions. Nether on the Nightmare will be dark and have demons and dragons and stuff as well as an effect that exists already. Once upon a Time will have legacy but you haven't provided a good example of a legacy card and start of game cards for every class but you haven't shown a start of game card. Caverns of Time has future stuff that could be quite cool, I'm fond of that, as well as collectible temporary permanents which are nice. I don't know, I just think your presentation was lacking with ideas that have already been explored a lot.

ThisOtherGuyTox, Cogito and Otovent's Year of the Chimera

Stitched cards could be cool, the one presented is simple and gives a good idea of what to expect, and I think I remember Tox talking about the choose one at the start of the game thing some time before and I've quite liked it as an idea. Border Patrol is also a nice simple idea for showing off how things are. Can't really see any faults so far, things look good. Weathers seem fine. I'd like to see cards that benefit off of weathers but it's understandable not to considering you only had two cards to show which did well to establish the flavor. Because I don't want to get through 2 sets without at least suggesting something I want to put in a personal request for you guys to include my favorite pokemon ludicolo in there somewhere, maybe something like this.

You don't have to call him Ludicolo or anything just please man I love ludicolo so much you'd be doing a great service for my family. Script is flavorful and quite nice, it's reminiscent of the new card type thing introduced to Magic recentlyish. I love the flavor of the set as a whole and I'm sorry that the new expansion kinda takes away some of the uniqueness of the set. In general this set seems the most refined so far... Suspiciously so. Gosh dang the mods and their ability to prepare three sets with unique flavor and keywords in a space longer than two weeks we need a revolution around here or something. For real though, looking forward to seeing the third set the most so if you go out before then I'll be angry. Good luck.

WaterwaIker's Year of the holy shit I'm only 8 submissions through this is taking so long I'm gonna end it all also why is your name spelled with a capital i rather than an l what Hydra

Starting off, Lights, Cards, Action! is gonna be a set I greatly look forward to. Great humor, very light, all good with me. Van Hellscream is a really nice card with a cool effect, though he honestly feels absurdly strong. He's got a really well statted 5 mana body for 6 that replaces your hero power with one that's worth about 2 mana, which is nuts. That said it obviously carries the downside of not working with Deathstalker Rexxar which you'd probably want to play in a more control focused Hunter so I imagine it's fine but it's certainly stronger than most hero power upgrade cards. I don't like Mildly Annoyed Max, punishing your opponent for not playing on curve isn't that fun for them, and if they do play on curve this is just a 5 mana 5/3 which isn't very fun for you. In general it kinda just doesn't feel like a fun card. Alleria Windrunner is fun but honestly I don't think trample is a good idea. Hearthstone's been existing for a while under the idea that trample isn't a thing so as you might expect stuff like Arcane Channeler suddenly being added can cause problems. What kind of problems? Problems of Meteoric proportions is what. For the next expansion, Marsh Seer is massively unfun as it can ruin so many decks. Oh, it appears I've discovered my opponents C'Thun/N'Zoth/Bloodreaver Gul'Dan/Emeriss/Alexstraza/BigGamechangingMinion/Yogg'Saron. Guess they lose. Also go to my Year of the Lion and/or Year of the Frog reviews for my stance on Tyr. I would include this in every deck because it's free consistency. I don't need to actually draw the card or use it, nor do I have to gimp my deck, yet I get benefits.

Dropdead's Year of the Manticore

Transforming effects already fulfill the purpose of Banish elegantly, include more transform cards rather than adding in a new yet redundant keyword. It might fit in the game better if Hearthstone had an actual graveyard and not a pool of cards being tracked for Big Priests sake, but as of right now it's just taking an effect that shows up in every card game with a graveyard and putting it into a game without one. If you're in Shadowform is a terrible idea that gets passed around a lot, can't wait to get this card in a pack when I don't actually own that epic card from the classic set. Oh well I guess I could still use it as a 6 mana deal 5 spell, fantastic. For 6 mana couldn't it just banish the minion regardless of anything else? Priest already got Entomb why is this a card? Your location card is okay. I think you should have done a better job showing off themes of the expansions because some of the cards just feel irrelevant to showing the actual expansion off. Yeah Hogger's Faithful is a pretty cool card but what does it tell me about the expansion?

Phoenixfeather's Year of the Phoenix

First expansion seems alright. Soulcast is nice, Elusive is Elusive. Rise from the Grave is a cool card that does well to show off the expansion. Apatheia's one of the least interesting ways of adding neutral decks theoretically possible. The thing is, I like the idea of neutral decks, but I think a game like Shadowverse is a game that could show you a good way of going about implementing neutral synergy. Rewarding you for having disproportionate amounts of neutral cards over only running them. Running decks without spells, only minions, with no class identity, very few interesting gimmicks and such is just uninteresting. What makes the matches involving this lady more uninteresting than most? Well let me briefly say why I like Elusive. It does well in countering an enemy who relies on spells to counter minions by making it harder to deal with your elusive minions, yet it doesn't make half their deck pointless because I still have the rest of my deck to go through and it's not like they're ALL going to be Elusive so they can just use their spells on those ones! Oh wait, my entire deck IS Elusive, guess my opponents hand is just filled with dead cards now. Boy, this game of minions slapping into eachother and nothing else sure is interesting. At least AoE's still exist. Second expansion is a lot better, love Solais, it's a great weapon with good flavor. Deus Ex Machina is also good flavor and a cool card. I don't know how much I like the return of Inspire but I don't hate it. Burn is a keyword that belongs in a class and not an expansion. Removing the top one or two cards of your deck is widely irrelevant outside of decks that go to fatigue because they're exceptionally slow, are running Aluneth or rely on specific cards like C'Thun and sometimes they're on the bottom and have to dig deep. The rare cases in which removing the top card of your deck is used as a downside do so in a way where it's escalated to the point where your deck might be shredded in seconds like with Fel Reaver. Being able to include a few cards that have above average power level in exchange for burn just means I'm running cards which are too good at no extra cost.

Vilegloom's Year of the Ram

I've been really indecisive of your stuff. I don't know what it is about it. Regardless I don't trust myself to force a review on this because I don't have an opinion of it really. I'm not trying to wuss out I swear, it's just that my input would be redundant. Take that all as you like.

ShadowsOfSense's Year of the Serpent

I don't like Ambush. I remember Phoenix explored it's potential some time before with Impulse and cards which manipulate how you draw it that makes it more skilled but even then it's still the "Did you topdeck this" keyword. It's good flavor and I'm happy about its use with Cephalopirate due to it not being objectively better, but I don't really like it. Explore is a nice keyword, one thing I think a lot of people make mistakes with while making Hearthstone cards is creating cards that give information for the sake of information, yet this uses it practically. Well, at least in the case of Murloc Pathfinder. If all the Explore cards will be like that, I'm very happy with it. If you make cards which just Explore and nothing else, I'll be sad. That's just not very Hearthstone. One thing of note, with both Ambush and Explore existing, deck manipulation better exist, it just makes them both so much better. Revenant is a keyword that feels nice due to how Undead synergy works, I like it. Mount is nice but obviously unfortunately timed due to Magnetic. Flanked is nice also, no real criticisms.

Teknician's Year of the

Mrobjectionman's Year of the 

Aaro54's Year of the Mech

You know my opinion on your shit man go ask me things in the Discord or something

Soulbattle's Year of the 

Wailor's Year of the

NOVEX0R's Year of the

Electronite's Year of the

LarryMoments' Year of the 

TheProjenitor's Year of the 

 Regarding Pet:  You could easily say the same about Jaraxxus and Hero cards.  I would very much prefer the Pets to be their own card type like hero has but I'm not a photo shop master.  As I've said in the last discussion (I understand you probably didn't see that)  My intention with the Pets is to explore what can be done with the Bolf Mechanic.  Hopefully the two I showed did that.  A Bolf effect with a divine shield is quite interesting imo as is the possibility of reviving the Bolf effect with Alar.  They're more like charms that pop up on the board to block damage as opposed to Bolf that was supposed to have survivability.   It isn't intended to carry that expansion it's just going to be one card for each hero.

Good spot with the tracking art I do this all on my phone including playig hearthstone so I haven't really made out the art.  Ofcourse that can be changed.  No idea how I missed the capitalisation too.  Hopefully you can appreciate that doing this on my phone adds a layer of difficulty to my design even the typing.

I will think on what you've said about Terrain because it was something I was starting to realise when I was toying with the possibility of legendary terrain cards.  It won't be fun to see them cancelled out.  I really wanted to capture the idea of a battle for control of the terrain so I would like some interactivity for the opponent.  I will have a good think on this.

Overall you are right I did do my designs quite quickly but this is a hobby not a job.  I am a man with a job and other commitments please forgive me for not having gone all out in the first phase.  I just thought I'd use it as a concept submission before getting carried away over something people didn't enjoy which unfortunately I have done before.

Now I see that so many people saw potential in my ideas I am committed to putting out a quality expansion for phase 2.

Quote from Shatterstar1998 >>

Quote from Tomerick88 >>

Quote from Demonxz95 >>

So, Shatter and I actually finished this set before Phase II even begun. There's going to be a lot of stuff to go over, but we would appreciate your feedback. Worth mentioning that this is actually the second set of the year, not the first. We just worked on this one first. This is Once Upon a Time in Azeroth, this set has a theme of fairy tales and mythology.

In this set, each class is getting a new Legendary spell card, a "Story" card. Story cards have an effect that happen when the game starts and also have an addition effect when you play them. It also introduces the new mechanic: Legacy.

Druid

Story tokens:

Persepholes is our first Wild card.

Other tokens:

• Demeter's Sorrow - Choose One options for Demeter's Sorrow.
• Mortal Harvest and Divine Harvert - Choose One options for Maiden of Harvest.
• Blessing of Death and Blessing of Life - Choose One options for Underworld's Blessing (which itself is created my A Marriage of Life and Death).
• Gift of Death and Gift of Decay - Choose One options for Persepholes.

Hunter

Story tokens:

Other tokens:

Mage

The Snow Queen is another wild card.

Story tokens:

After you play Strength, Beauty and Intelligence, Snow White, Dwarven Princess is added to your hand.

Other tokens:

Paladin

Arthur, Wise King is our third Wild card.

Story tokens:

Arthur, Wise King as well as the Young King Arthur tokens from Merlin's Time Portal + other cards will activate Sword in the Stone and will not be damaged by Excalibur. Thought Young King Arthur himself isn't created by the story card, he is important to the story, so I felt including him here was necessary.

Priest

Story tokens:

Other tokens:

True Love Kiss is also created by a Neutral card, hence why it's a Neutral token.

Rogue

Story tokens:

Shaman

Story tokens:

Warlock

Story tokens:

Warrior

Story tokens:

Neutral

Nightmare Amalgam

PHEW!!! That took a long time.

Demeters sorrow: seems OP. Druid doesn't normally get great AoE and then you also have the chance to stall a turn for certain decks too. 

 I don't think it's too strong at all. It follow the same principle as Starfall for the AoE parts (good board clear (Volcanic Potion / Consecration + 1 mana) and that card didn't see play. The stall part is vastly inferior to Loatheb (since both achieve the same effect but the latter cost 1 more for a 5/5 body).

 I'd disagree that it is the same effect as Loatheb or even that paladin spell that does it because it is 10 more not 5.  This means you guarantee your opponent uses no spells next turn.  With 5 there is a chance that they have some spell they could play even if it's sub optimal for them to do so.

@Demonxz95

Thanks I'll definitely take you up on that once I've finished an expansion.  

Plagiarised was was probably the wrong word I meant more in a way of copy-pasted/unoriginal.  The difference between Noah's Ark and Gadgetzan is not just that it isn't based on existing wow lore it is also that Gadgetzan was a hearthstone flavoured original theme based on a warcraft location.

my point around Noah's Ark being a bible story is that I very much doubt Blizzard would have such a blatant religious story in their game without attempting to amend it to match the setting.  They will be mindful of diversity also and would not want to be seen to be excluding other religions which let's face it there are some vocal groups out there who would claim was the case.  If you are going with the Noah thing though perhaps the ark would be better if it required you to use pairs of the same beast.  Maybe 3 pairs?

I hope the feedback didn't seem pedantic because I definitely don't intend it that way.  Lots of respect for what you achieved in the last competition.

Quote from Demonxz95 >>

So, Shatter and I actually finished this set before Phase II even begun. There's going to be a lot of stuff to go over, but we would appreciate your feedback. Worth mentioning that this is actually the second set of the year, not the first. We just worked on this one first. This is Once Upon a Time in Azeroth, this set has a theme of fairy tales and mythology.

In this set, each class is getting a new Legendary spell card, a "Story" card. Story cards have an effect that happen when the game starts and also have an addition effect when you play them. It also introduces the new mechanic: Legacy.

Druid

Story tokens:

Persepholes is our first Wild card.

Other tokens:

• Demeter's Sorrow - Choose One options for Demeter's Sorrow.
• Mortal Harvest and Divine Harvert - Choose One options for Maiden of Harvest.
• Blessing of Death and Blessing of Life - Choose One options for Underworld's Blessing (which itself is created my A Marriage of Life and Death).
• Gift of Death and Gift of Decay - Choose One options for Persepholes.

Hunter

Story tokens:

Other tokens:

Mage

The Snow Queen is another wild card.

Story tokens:

After you play Strength, Beauty and Intelligence, Snow White, Dwarven Princess is added to your hand.

Other tokens:

Paladin

Arthur, Wise King is our third Wild card.

Story tokens:

Arthur, Wise King as well as the Young King Arthur tokens from Merlin's Time Portal + other cards will activate Sword in the Stone and will not be damaged by Excalibur. Thought Young King Arthur himself isn't created by the story card, he is important to the story, so I felt including him here was necessary.

Priest

Story tokens:

Other tokens:

True Love Kiss is also created by a Neutral card, hence why it's a Neutral token.

Rogue

Story tokens:

Shaman

Story tokens:

Warlock

Story tokens:

Warrior

Story tokens:

Neutral

Nightmare Amalgam

PHEW!!! That took a long time.

Demeters sorrow: seems OP. Druid doesn't normally get great AoE and then you also have the chance to stall a turn for certain decks too.

Persepholes: needs to specify when in the turn the choice is made. At he start of the turn or end?

The great ark: ambiguous wording for both the ark and the Noah card. The ark does not specify whether you need a certain quantity of minions costed 1-6 or one of each or what. The Noah doesn't explain what it does at all. Repopulate means nothing in Hearthstone. This is fine I suppose as there are real cards that have done that but personally that type of card puts me off in creation competitions.

There's also the fact that it is so blatantly a Christian story which I'm guessing does not take place in Warcraft lore which I may be wrong about. Hearthstone is a multicultural appealing game.

Snow queen: needs to say how many turns they are frozen. "Effect" should be effects too.

Rewrite the story: Really like that idea

All the King Arthur stuff overall is not too interesting mechanically and feels out of place thematically. When Hearthstone/Warcraft use classic stories from outside wow lore they usually change names and make it more of an Easter egg.

True Love's Kiss rather than Love.

At this point I'm going to stop doing any more individual card feedback because I feel I might not be the right person to do it. I'm finding that the theme itself doesn't really gel with me because they are all straight plagiarised fairytales/fables without an attempt to change names or warcrafify it. I don't want to just keep making the same point because the cards all work pretty well and you guys are definitely good creators as I've seen your work and appreciated it many times. It's just the theme for this particular expansion that's not working for me.

The only other criticism I have beyond the theme, which is just my opinion, is that it is extremely token heavy which will make it difficult for you to get across in the submission what anything does. You are putting a lot of onus on the reader to investigate and I don't know if the base cards are interesting enough to prompt people to route through the token spoilers.

I wish you both good luck nonetheless as it obviously took a lot of time.

Quote from TheProgenitor >>

Oh boy, 21st place, right at the cutoff. Thanks to everyone who supported my submission, with votes or feedback! I didn't think I'd make it, and I literally wouldn't have without each one of you. 

Some feedback on what's been posted so far:

@teknician

Coin Rogue is something that seems like a long time coming, but I find it a bit worrisome balance-wise. Being able to create lots of Coins has issues- there's the aforementioned Auctioneer along with Edwin, making Combos in general too easy and non-strategic, and even the possibility of serious Rogue ramp. Your cards do show caution, though. The flavor on the Legendary in particular is great; my concern with him is just that he creates a card that won't necessarily be in Standard at the same time as he is. Yes, Toki exists, but you don't need to know any specific Wild cards to make sense of her.

I like the idea of the holidays. They encourage some planning and build-around. As for the specific cards, the fact that the Shaman one ramps is odd to me- that's a Druid thing- and the Priest one is rather weak. You're spending most of your turn for no immediate effect, and the effect next turn doesn't even do much, just changes what cards you get. The Hunter one is fine, though, given you're bringing back empty-hand synergies.

The Treasures are also neat. I like how Gul'dan's Locket synergizes with fatigue. It's a little weird that they need other cards to fully function, but you'll have cards that pull them early, so I guess that's fine.

 @Tomerick88

Class themes seem interesting, exploring new design space. The golem might benefit from being more Health-heavy so he doesn't suffer from the Rager issue, but no complaints on the Warrior or Rogue cards otherwise. I assume the Recruiter is supposed to say "Fate", not "Phase". In Hearthstone, though, minions often don't last two turns, making him a bit underwhelming. It's fine otherwise, though.

 @Demonxz95

Don't have time to look at all those, so I just have a question about Legacy: does it count the card with Legacy itself? If I play a minion with, say, 'Legacy 2: gain +1 Health' and then Innervate, will it gain the Health?

 @Vilegloom

I share all of Demon's concerns, though I'm a bit more put-off by Darksea Cultist. I don't count Skull of the Man'ari as a "Warlock weapon" since it can't attack, nor Atiesh since its main purpose is the effect. That's mainly a personal thing, though. In Clayton, "Game" needs to be capitalized. I do agree that the multi tribe cards should be higher rarities, Rare at minimum, though I don't think they need to be Legendary. Overall, your cards are pretty solid.

 Oh thanks for noticing that it is supposed to say fate yes.  I did a time themed expansion a couple of years ago and phase was a keyword then that did something completely different must have got mixed up due to being tired.

I should say Fate does not require the minion to survive and can appear on a spell too.  Once the fate is set nothing can change it.  Pretty much like real life fate.

Well done to everyone that made it.  Commiserations to those who didn't.

A big thank you to the people who voted for the year of the butterfly!

My question would be which of the 3 expansions people want to see first?  I've been working on all three simultaneously to make sure they synergise but Fractured Time has the most creations so far.

Here are a couple of my ideas so far if anyone has any input?

Warrior will implement an archetype where Armor can become a resource to unlock a card's effect or improve it.

Rogue will venture into some time bandit chicanery stealing your opponent's unspent resources to enable more powerful combos.

Paladin will push the archetype of using  Silver Hand Recruits as enablers rather than just minions.

Wont get chance to respond to people until tomorrow as it's 23:00 here but again well done people and I'll catch up with the discussion tomorrow!

Not sure if anyone else is experiencing this problem but I can't load the submission thread to look at the other entries.  I can load every other thread but that one.

@CheeseEtc

Thanks for your thoughts.  I came to the same conclusion around Weather/Terrain.  I've showcased the Terrain mechanic for which I have a lot of solid ideas.  Just mindful not to post them all as someone pointed out it could have undue influence over the vote in the last competition.

With Fate I agree the keyword is not enough for the whole expansion but neither would Recruit for example.  I plan to have one or two other unique mechanics per expansion beyond the keyword that fit the theme.  The problem is with the showcase card limit I felt it would become to incoherent if I tried to introduce too many ideas.  I'm hoping the keyword is intriguing enough to give me a chance to work on the rest.

With Pet I would honestly prefer the Pets to be their own card type than a keyword but I lack the skills to create such a thing.  My plan with Pet is that it would be completely unique to the expansion and not used again.  Although they have auto-Bolf they are more categorised by the other abilities that play with that mechanic like Canis, Lightlicker having Divine Shield and Al'ar resurrecting if you played an elemental last turn.

Again I'm mindful that Pet is not enough for the whole expansion.  A small idea there is with it being set in a Petting Zoo I may have some Gunspire type building cards that are different attractions in the zoo for each class.

Hope this clears up any concerns that the expansions may be one note.

Quote from NiRaSt >>

Quote from Tomerick88 >>

Can we get a year of the Trump icon too?

 Ladies and gents, your nightmare fuel for the week:

or were you talking about the other trump?

 Hahahaha perfect

Can we get a year of the Trump icon too?

Quote from Vilegloom >>

Quote from Tomerick88 >>

Since there's some super kind people with way better image skills than me can I ask for a Butterfly too?  I can offer positive vibes in return.

 

Damn wingspan.

 Consider the positive vibes sent.

Since there's some super kind people with way better image skills than me can I ask for a Butterfly too?  I can offer positive vibes in return.

Quote from freddoccino >>

Alright, could I get some opinions on a keyword idea?

I'm going for Rest/ed

So the idea is a Rest card immediately ends your turn, so order is important. To be more than "Your turn ends," if you had any minions that could have attacked (green circle) but didn't before you played the Rest card, they gain a status effects, 'Rested,' for the next turn, which could have further card interactions.

So for example:

The idea being, you get to buff a minion for very cheap, because you won't be able to attack with them after you play Roost. As well, you could attack with the minion and then cast Roost on it, and it would still gain Rested since Windfury grants it a second attack.

Counting Sheep I'm thinking for an example card because it demonstrates both. You get to conditionally draw several cards for very little, but you can't play them that turn because of Rest. I'm not so sure about the balance because it is rather specific rather than something like 4-Mana Draw Three, Rest

 Also, for the Resurgent minion, where you play the card twice with a battlecry, I was thinking

I had the idea initially, but kept reconsidering the balance. Particularly, if it were a 1/1, I can't think of a situation where you would play Elven Archer over this minion.

And of course, thanks for all the words I've received on my previous post!

 If you are trying to define a word you should not really use that word in the definition.  Your tool tips will need updating to actually explain what the keyword does.

my understanding is that you would not be able to use roost on a minion that had attacked because the card itself grants windfury.  The process would be:  has the minion already attacked?  Yes.  Card cannot be played.

if the minion already had windfury it would work as it would already have the chance to attack again.

its an interesting keyword but you need to work your explanation so it can fit in a tool tip.

Quote from linkblade91 >>

Quote from ColinthePyro >>

I know I sound like a dick but can people use spoilers please? You don't have to show someone's entire post just to reply on one thing.

If you feel bad, I'll do it for you: @donovantx8, please use Spoilers when you reply to people.

 Easier said than done when you're doing so on your phone.

Quote from donovantx8 >>

Quote from Tomerick88>>

Hemet's Petting Zoo

Hemet the legendary hunter has fallen on hard times and has, therefore, decided to cash in on his prized beast collection by opening a petting zoo.

As a special event for the opening ceremony our heroes have been invited to bring their own pets along to join the fun.

Each hero will be bringing their beloved legendary pet to the zoo to meet the other critters. Their pets serve as powerful mascots that are willing to risk their lives to protect their owners.

This expansion will introduce the keyword Pet

which imbues the Pet cards with an inherent Bolf Ramshield effect which acts as them protecting their master. I am mindful that Bolf is considered quite weak due to being able to be killed by going face. For this reason the Pets will have their own additional powerful effects to compensate for this weakness. The two I have chosen to showcase demonstrate how this effect can be played with to ensure staying power also.

Whilst both the showcase cards I have chosen are Pets this will by no means be a one note expansion. The petting zoo will have much more to offer as its opening ceremony approaches.

Canis,  Lightlicker

Uther's faithful pooch takes to the front lines with the Silver Hand and even acts as a medic to return its fallen comrades to your hand.

I have purposely costed it as 4 so it will not work for Odd Paladin. It will also have excellent synergy with Tactical Retreat that appears later in the year.

Al'ar

Another powerful phoenix joins the mage's ranks. This card would fit excellently in an elemental deck and playing it would activate its own Deathrattle if it gets killed in your opponent's following turn or your own. If you are able to continue to play elementals each turn Al'ar will be able to continually negate one instance of damage a turn which neatly symbolises the phoenix rising from the ashes to protect its master once more.

Yeah I mean it's Bolf + Card. Thematically doesn't really line up with how Pet Battles happened in warcraft, they were more like Pokemon battles than meat shields for their tamers.

Fractured Time

There is a land, once barren, where a lush, green forest grows and, from the forest, strange figures emerge.

Some claim to be fallen heroes, inexplicably, returned from the grave.

Others, dressed in unusual garb, wield technology that would bewilder even the finest gnomish tinker.

It would appear that someone or something is disturbing time's natural order.

This expansion introduces the keyword Fate

These serve as delayed effects which I have determined make them slightly less valuable than cards that produce an immediate effect meaning cards can be costed and statted more kindly. It also adds a new layer of strategy as you attempt to juggle he later effects and position the board in the correct way for that turn.

There would be changes to the UI to incorporate this mechanic. A small circular bubble will appear in the top right of the game which you can hold to view the upcoming fates.

Veteran Tracker

A neat card that demonstrates the Fate keyword and shows that it is capable of producing a more complex effect than something like Corrupt which is mechanically similar. It will immediately grant +1/+1 to a minion and, if it's a Beast, the Fate counter will start and a copy of the Beast will be added to your hand 2 turns later.

Tactical Retreat

This card will shuffle Silver Hand Recruits that you control as well as any in your hand into your deck.

I have chosen this card to demonstrate the synergy that crosses over between the expansions of the Year of the Butterfly.

I foresee it working quite well as a card draw on its own as sometimes the Silver Hand Recruits may not be as useful on the board. You also have cards like Drygulch Jailor and Canis, Lightlicker that can get them into your hand.

To top it off you have Prince Liam that could make great use of any Recruits in your deck and turn them into Legendaries.

Hey this mechanic again, it might be too late at this point, but so many people have used this exact same mechanic. Tactical Retreat is a cool card, though I'd just remove the Silver Hand requirement to it, it's a downside in most cases to shuffle your field into your deck, I don't think it needs to be restricted to Silver Hand Recruits. And you could also support Molten Giant Holy Wrath memes with that minor change.

The Great Sundering

Azeroth is a land forged by the elements and, for a time, a balance was seemingly struck, but there are those that would change that.

There are those that would shape this land to their own ends and when they are done its face will change forever.

For some time I have been toying with the idea of persistent effects. A game that I've enjoyed for many years is Pokémon and the introduction of Weather really changed the meta there.

Here I have chosen Terrain which will be seen on cards that change the environment.

When a Terrain is set its effect will continue at the end of every turn until you or your opponent play another Terrain card that changes it.

Stronghold

Every class will receive a common 1 cost Terrain spell with minor effects that synergise with their play style.

This one works well for Taunt Warrior or any kind of defensive archetype.

Eruption

There will be some cards that change the Terrain as a byproduct of what they do. Here the Shaman causes an eruption of lava that continues to damage at the end of the turn as all the minions will be standing on scorched earth.

I like this idea, it reminds me of field spells from yugioh, at least until they changed it to where both players could control a field spell.

Hall of fame

Counterspell

I am conscious that Terrain could potentially create a serious advantage if not handled well. I can't have the Mage counterspelling the answer to their Terrain.

Doomsayer

This one appears in a disproportionate amount of decks and is too powerful with Freeze .

Divine Favour

A lot of people have already mentioned the reasons behind this one and the need to have a more versatile card draw for Paladin.

Epilogue

Thanks for spending the time to read through the Year of the Butterfly. I am aware that a successful expansion requires more than just a keyword to be viable so I will be coming up with more ideas for each one should I progress.

 Doomsayer and Divine Favor are good choices, Counterspell is odd, especially as you've included an inbuilt way to interact with your Terrain cards, I think adding some kind of minion terrain counter to your set would be good enough.

 

Quote from Demonxz95 >>

Quote from donovantx8 >>

Future Strike is dumb and would never be printed

Never say never in Hearthstone. People always said no to removing cards from your opponent's deck, then came Gnomeferatu and Skulking Geist. People said no to un-nerfing cards, then came Molten Giant un-nerfed and put into the Hall of Fame. Several other cards along this line have also been printed: Time Warp, Uther of the Ebon Blade, all the Rogue Secrets, pretty much every tutor card ever made. My point is, Hearthstone evolves its card design as a game, this is just natural progression of that.

 Alright correction, Future Strike is dumb, and should never printed. Blizzard has continuously nerfed and restricted how much they print Charge cards, and cards that interact beneficially with charge cards, even printing Rush in what is essentially a retcon of the mechanic. 

After looking at the card again, I stand by original point, I don't think Blizzard would ever make this card, it's so clearly problematic.

 

 Thanks for the feedback there.  I'm not too hot on the WoW lore as I've never played it.  Just looking to create my own scenarios that are loosely based on it.  I knew Pets existed in the game but didn't actually know you could battle them!

With Fate I honestly don't remember seeing this effect before but it's simple enough for that to have happened sure.  Hopefully the other things going on in that expansion will be enough as the Butterfly/Fate thing is quite important to the whole concept.

With Terrain yes I've been finding that this keyword gives me the most things to play with.