Peter Whalen Talks About Quests & Reveals 2 New Cards!
Two new rogue cards have been revealed in a blog post with Peter Whalen discussing Quests!
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Clarifications
- The effect happens to minions which are played and summoned. For example, Frogs and Sheep from Hex and Polymorph would become 5/5. (Source)
- Cards on the battlefield when Crystal Core is played will become a 5/5 regardless of active buffs on them. You can later on buff them with cards and they will retain those stats. (Source)
- Example: Edwin VanCleef's effect works as normal if he's in your hand after Crystal Core is played. It will just add the +2/+2 to the 5/5. (Source)
Blog
Quote from BlizzardThis Jungle Hides Many Secrets
As we figured out the initial story behind Journey to Un’Goro, we realized that the core fantasy had four pillars: dinosaurs, elementals, exploration, and the primal world itself. Dinosaurs and elementals had their own mechanics, so we needed one more that made players feel like they were on an expedition, exploring the awe-inspiring landscape of Un’Goro Crater itself.
The idea of creating quest cards had been floating around on our team for a very long time. Back when we were first working on Whispers of the Old Gods, one of the designers pitched a new type of secret: Quests. A Quest was only active on your turn, and when you completed its condition, something awesome happened!
When we needed a mechanic for exploring a forgotten world to find something truly amazing, these Quests seemed like a natural fit.
Give Me a Quest
Once we decided to give Quests a real shot in Journey to Un’Goro, we began heavily iterating on them. We started out with the idea that Quests would be Legendary and the rewards would be fantastic—the core fantasy of a Quest is that you work hard and are richly rewarded. As we’ve seen, that core idea carried through to the present with powerful Quest rewards like Amara, Nether Portal, and Megafin—cards we couldn’t make any other way.
Basically everything else about Quest cards changed.
When we started out, we wanted Quests to feel as much like normal cards as possible, which would make them fit into the rules naturally while being easier to understand. The first Priest Quest, for example, said “When this is the only card in your hand, transform it into an Un’Goro pack.” Other Quests looked very similar to the ones that are coming in Journey to Un’Goro, and they had requirements like “play a certain number of minions of a particular type.” We quickly realized that the most fun Quests were the ones that asked you to accomplish something over the course of a game—those paid off the core Quest fantasy the most.
One of the things we noticed with Quests that transformed in your hand was that they were hugely frustrating for your opponent. From an opponent’s perspective, you had just played an insanely powerful card seemingly out of nowhere. For example, this was the first version of the Priest Quest:
To fix that, we required Quests cards to be played, and allowed both players to see their progress. In Un’Goro, Quests will appear around your portrait just like Secrets do.
From there, we talked a lot about how Quests are played. We tried having them simply play themselves from your deck so they didn’t take up space in your opening hand, but that was a little too powerful. With no risk involved at all, every single deck would play Quests just in case they happened to satisfy the conditions, or simply to thin the deck by one card. On the other hand, having to draw a Quest felt really bad, because you couldn’t make progress on it until you drew it halfway through the game. That’s why we decided to have Quests start in your opening hand.
Finally, we needed to decide how much mana Quests would cost, either (0) or (1). When they cost (0), playtesting revealed that players would often hold their Quest and then forget to play it before playing the card that triggered it. Making them cost (1) helped to slow the game down a little—letting the moment you played the quest feel more impactful—and required extra strategy around when to play the Quest. We still liked the overall power level the Quests had at (0), so we made the rewards a little better and the requirements a little easier to meet to balance things out.
Seeing Double
Once we had the mechanic for Quests figured out, they did a lot of great things for the set. On the art side, they gave us an opportunity to show off all the fantastical regions in Un’Goro Crater, from roiling tar pits and seething hot springs to the gleaming crystal caverns below. We relished every chance to bring the world of Un’Goro to life.
On the design side, each class has a Quest to help anchor them in Un’Goro. We wanted the Quest decks to be fun and interesting, so we often provided additional support, like Tortollan Shellraiser and Crystalline Oracle in Priest. We think Quests are cool, but we also don’t expect every player to want to play with one in their deck, so we tried to make sure to provide other themes and individually interesting cards to explore, too.
Because Quest cards are such a central focus of decks that include one, we wanted to make sure there was room to experiment with how you build a deck with a Quest in it. For example, a Unite the Murlocs deck could be very aggressive and play upwards of fifteen murlocs, while a less aggressive deck might use it as a way to get some late game oomph using only a handful of murlocs along with Call In the Finishers.
Since we were making nine different Quests, one of our goals was that they feel different from each other. So far, we’ve shown several straightforward Quests: Summon seven minions with Deathrattle, summon ten murlocs, discard six cards, and so on.
Those Quests are intuitive and offer a clear path for deckbuilding. However, some of our classes are naturally trickier than others, so for Rogue we went in a slightly different direction:
Play four minions with the same name. How do you even do that? One option is to use cards that return minions to your hand like Shadowstep and Youthful Brewmaster. Another would be to use cards like Thistle Tea or Mimic Pod that give you multiple copies of a minion.
Wait, what’s Mimic Pod? That’s one of the cards in Journey to Un’Goro that supports the Rogue Quest while also being interesting on its own:
If you can create an army of pod-minions and successfully explore the Caverns Below, what do you find?
Because your deck has so many tricks to successfully complete the Quest, we wanted to provide you with the raw power you’d need to end the game.
The Quest mechanic has come a long way from its humble beginnings two years ago, but its core remains intact. In Journey to Un’Goro, you’ll explore a forgotten world, quest for amazing things, and unleash their primal power on the Hearthstone board.
Learn more about Journey to Un'Goro!
Visit our expansion guide to look at all the new cards that have been revealed so far, as well as anything else you want to know about the new expansion!
At this rate this'll be the first time I don't bother to buy pre lauch packs. Seriously, not one single card yet has impressed me, not one made me go "fuck, this makes it worth my money".
Well, its not that bad.
It could be fun to play the "new type of rogue"
WOW THAT ROGUE TYPE!
One more unplayable! And again, and again, and again rogue will play same miracle, cuz another types sucks
Okay, they need to clarify a lot of things here.
"your minions are 5/5" not minions you play or summon. So they are ALL going to ALWAYS be 5/5 and never accept any buffs or debuffs then?
Can they be damaged and STAY damaged? So any token summoned different ways will also be 5/5?
It's confusing but I get that the quest can be REALLY cool for a Mill rogue deck focused on bouncing stuff and playing very cheap cards.
They say they WANT the quest to be POWERFUL and able to END THE GAME.
So here is MY STATEMENT:
This quests makes ANYTHING on your board 5/5 forever unless they take 5 or more damage. 4 damage to it? It survives and heals back up.
It's supposed to be your win condition so imo it's pretty good for the single fact that you need hard removal.
(On a side note: Lotus Assassin perma 5/5)
Hearthstone always has simple text. It's up to the player to figure out how it actually works by playing the game. It's always been this way.
Yeah I guess, but harsh truth?
Fuck new players. You want to play the game? Then take your time to learn it.
I'd rather have cool fun things than simple one dimensional gameplay that leads nowhere.
The fact is that hearthstone needs to try and separate the ranks of new players and veterans more. If you're a new player you should not be worried about bouncing quests and intricacies of legendary effects in the game. New players shouldn't be facing these kinds of decks and should not be playing yet these kinds of decks.
They are still amassing a decent collection and sure, if they wanna pay to get all the cards they it's their job to go after learning how to use them. I mean... It's a game. Learning how stuff works and figuring out how they work with other cards should be a core part of any card game.
This is the first card in the whole reveal that is making me feel hyped for the expansion. And if it ends up being too good or unfair they just need to increase the cap on the cards played to 5 for the quest.
Looks like Bounce Rogue is gonna become meta.
Mimic Pod, is this a playable version of thirstle tea? PogChamp
You forget one thing: So far, this expansion seems to be one heavily invested in anti-aggro tools. And so, unless some scary 1 drops are announced again, I think (and pray with everything I have) we'll see a significant decrease in aggro matchups.
The new ladder will most likely be filled with quests, elementals and jades, and if thats the case, it's to soon to say if THIS quest in particular have no place in standard meta.
The Tar dude and the 4 mana 3/5 taunt divine shield alone shut pirates on a good draw... So yeah, GREAT anti-aggro already
This is actually very slow. You have to play it turn 1, and get the spell at turn 5, if you're lucky. And in the 5 turns, you don't have anything on the board.
When you finally get the reward, your opponent pirate warrior already have lethal.
Miracle Rogue anyone?
I don't know... The Caverns Below seems hard to pull it off
Man, i can't believe how much they mocking rogues... AGAIN. More useless shit please. How about a weapon: 4 mana 1 3 Battlecry: if you adapted your elemental last turn gain +2 attack? Blizzard pls.
The birthing pod card is legit
Nah, just usual garbage for rogues and another 3 drop. Blizzard nerfed Blade Flurry to free some design space, but they obviously didn't promise us to use this space properly.
Deathrattles, Jades, Stealth - all forced mechanics for rogue and none really viable. With removal of the conceal they even ending literally the era of miracle. crucial More nerfes than rogue suffered only hunters with UtH and buzzard.
I wonder, did they even playtest rogues before updates released?
This is the real nerf for Freezing Trap
kappa
Guys, this is a new type of rogue.
Stop trying to get this to work with your VanCleefs and stuff.
It's supposed to be bounce/copy all your stuff and then make each small minion pretty decent sized to shove on your opponent's butt.
It's very interesting, fun and balanced concept. I love it.
Too bad balanced stuff is worst than broken stuff, hence it will never see play!
Fun and unplayable. Spend 6 turns bouncing stuff and then "start" the game... and spend 5 mana do nothing.. and then start killing your opponent like a pro... oh wait- ur dead) quest complete!
I play a TON of rogue, have made legend 8 times with them. And this absolutely is going to be a new deck type...but not with bounce necessarily. Consider that new 1/2 elemental that we already see gets added to your hand by two separate cards. Any more like that and you are set. Also everyone seems to forget about VANISH. Bros, just that card along can earn you the quest. so little creativity on this thread, thank you for your positivity.