Dean- Wait, that's not right! In the absence of our Hearthstone Dad, Dean Ayala, Celestalon, Systems & Initial Game Designer on Hearthstone, decided to give the community Q&A fun a go to answer your questions.

Below you will find our recap of the Q&A session and the full transcript. A big thank you to Celestalon for taking the time to answer so many questions, making this one of the larger Q&A sessions I've had to cover.


Fractured in Alterac Valley

  • Honorable Kill's in-game tooltip is the correct description of how it works.
    • Deal exact lethal damage on your turn for a bonus.
    • Poisonous will not trigger an Honorable Kill.
  • Korrak the Bloodrager can trigger on both your turn and your opponent's turn.
    • The effect triggers if we ended up with a health value other than 0.
  • Objectives changing the board's field was something the team considered by it was a significant art and engineering time investment they couldn't prioritize.
    • Additionally, the version of the Objective cards that we saw happened too late in the design process.
  • They are expecting a large meta shakeup from the expansion.
  • If any decks are oppressive we can expect to see changes (as has been the case for a while now).
  • Alterac Valley had a balance goal of making slower strategies more viable.

Cards

  • Illidan Stormrage was changed to Xavius because they thought he might receive play in Demon Hunter and it would be weird to have Illidan playing Illidan.
  • Bloodbloom and Warlock are both called out by set designers as being the most problematic when designing new cards.
  • An older non-evergreen keyword will be making a return in the future.
  • Totems "don't move very fast" but "they'll catch up eventually, don't worry".
  • The goal with Bearon Gla'shear was to have an elemental that took the form of a bear. 
    • "That's a great example of how sometimes we can have an art piece that's artistically great, but not the best for gameplay."

Hearthstone Teams

  • The Arena team doesn't exist. The mode is handled by Final Design with a side of Initial Design.
  • Initial and Final Design both overlap a ton.
  • Battlegrounds is connected with Initial and Final Design as they regularly playtest lobbies together.
  • Duels and Mercenaries have some overlap but are mostly separate.
  • Single Player overlaps with Duels but is mostly its own team.
  • Tavern Brawl and Events (Live Content) is grouped with Duels.
  • All teams are flexible and people talk and playtest together across teams a fair bit.

Battlegrounds

  • They are planning to update their images that show the armor values of heroes should they adjust.
  • When new heroes are announced, they will be looking to also let us know how much armor the hero has.
  • The purple outline on Battlegrounds heroes is to make them distinct from regular hero skins.
  • Tokens are an important part of making the early game feel varied, especially in terms of the gold economy.

Mercenaries

  • The speed mechanic flip-flopped between lower and higher being the better number. Each has the potential for confusion.
    • For those not familiar, lower speed in Mercenaries means they go first.

Wild

  • When designing a new set they do so with Standard in mind first but they do also consider wild.
  • Most of a set's design for the wild side focuses on avoiding problems that would be too degenerate.
  • It is rare to design new cards with the purpose of making new wild decks.

Cosmetics

  • Although cosmetics in Battlegrounds are considered successful, they do not compare to how much constructed brings in for revenue.
  • Celestalon will pass along a suggestion for a coffee-related card back.
  • Being able to select a random hero skin will happen at some point.
  • The Celeste hero skin was in development before Celestalon joined the Hearthstone team.
  • This year's focus was on the more "classic" Warcraft setting which is why the characters featured those races.

Misc

  • Daily login rewards have been considered but they feel that daily quests fill much of the same role.
  • No collection manager overhaul is currently planned but they do want to make improvements to it.
  • Finding time to make improvements to systems can be difficult when they have so many cool new things they want to do.
  • There are no current plans to launch an expansion that is not Warcraft themed.
  • The World of Warcraft Trading Card Game has "basically no impact" on the development of Hearthstone now but may have early on.
  • They have a goal right now to slow down a bit on the new to focus on pushing for stability and polish in existing systems.
  • Undercover Scabbs has the wrong number of fingers and the art team will address it.
    • Gnomes are supposed to only have 4 fingers. I like to think they themselves are their pinky.

Celestalon

  • He loves being back at the office.
  • If there was one big feature Hearthstone could have, he'd pick raids.
    • This is not in development and he does not know how such a thing would work.
  • Beyond expansions, the recent things that have excited him in Hearthstone are BG Cosmetics, Barrens Mystery, Achievements, and Demon Hunter.
    • Celestalon was deeply involved in all of the above which makes it more exciting for him while in the "I'm really proud of this, I hope they like it." phase.
  • He is looking forward to playing Big Spell Mage in Alterac Valley.
  • Favourite pieces of minion art include Violet Spellwing, Illidari Felblade, and Demonic Illidan.
  • Sometimes Celestalon misses working on World of Warcraft.
  • Celestalon worked on World of Warcraft for 7 years doing class and systems design.
  • His next tattoo will be something to commemorate his work on Hearthstone.
  • Questline Mage is his personal favourite archetype of all time.

Foods

  • Ramen? "Hiro Nori. Tonkotsu, thick noodles, bit of spicy sauce, black garlic oil, extra pork chashu."
    • No egg though, Celestalon gives his egg to whoever he is with.
  • Pineapple on Pizza? "Yay, if you want. I usually don't, but sometimes do, but support anyone who does."
  • When asked what candy he'd like to see in the Blizzard candy jar on refill, he said he'd like to see Truffles.

Music

  • "Good EDM Playlists"
  • Celestalon finds Techno and Trance to be "a bit too monotonous/repetitive".
  • Trance used to be his mainstay genre of music.

Mams

  • Celestalon has a dog and her name is Mams.
  • He has considered dyeing his dog's hair to match his own though isn't sure she would be into it.

We end this Q&A recap with a quote from Celestalon on the color purple.

Quote From Celestalon

Purple is the best color, because it doesn't exist. It's imaginary. And imagination is the best place. Purple is what happens when you go halfway between Red and Blue and don't limit yourself to reality. If you limit yourself to reality, you just get Green.


Full Transcript of Celestalon's Q&A #1

Quote From Celestalon

Alright, let’s give this a try. Ask me anything. Will be answering (or trying to find answers to) what I can, between 4pm and 5pm PT today. Odds are better if it’s related to Hearthstone design, EDM, hair, or purple. https://t.co/LC9iO6j70Z (Source)

(Just to set expectations, my answers will likely be more sparse and take longer than @IksarHS's AMAs, because I’ll often be having to confer with other teams that I don’t want to speak for. Hearthstone is a huge game, and I’m only a small part of it.) (Source)

@Celestalon @IksarHS Why was Illidan stormrage card 6 mana 7/5 demon replaced with Xavius in Wild?

@JNytemarePierce @IksarHS Because we thought that card could potentially see significant play in Demon Hunter, and thought it would be super weird for Illidan Stormrage to play Illidan Stormrage. (Source)


@Celestalon No questions. Just dogs. https://t.co/209vyD1hrT (Source)

@Songbird_HS @Celestalon question: would bea and mams be friends

@RidiculousHat @Celestalon Bea is a lot, and Mams seems more like a little. There might just be a fundamental personality clash. (Source)

@Songbird_HS @Celestalon oh no

@RidiculousHat @Songbird_HS Yeah, I expect Bea would run around and play and want Mams to play… and Mams would just watch for a moment and then flop. (Source)


@Celestalon im gonna refill the candy jar tomorrow, what candy do yall want

@hypopyh Truffles! (Source)


@Celestalon so honorable kill has had a couple conflicting pieces of information and i wanted to clear up exactly how it works. does it just check to see if something died with 0 health? is it limited to your turn only? can i trade my korrak into a 5/3 and get him back?

@RidiculousHat The tooltip shown in game is correct: "Deal exact lethal damage on your turn for a bonus." So it does have to reduce the target to 0 health, and be on your turn. Korrak is a little special; he doesn't care whose turn it is, just whether he ended up at 0 health. (Source)


@Celestalon Who in neds bright idea was it to make merc speed LOWER be a good thing? Bigger numbers are better, yea?

@CrimsonKMR This actually changed back and forth a couple times during development. Both ways have some sort of pro/con and potential confusion. (Source)


@Celestalon Have you ever considered dying your dogs hair to match yours? (Animal safe dye of course)

@RaidbossTV Yes, considered it! Haven't actually done it, but might someday. Not sure Mams wants any color change though… (Source)


@Celestalon Do you enjoy techno?

@ggahSoO I used to. I like where it crosses over with stuff I do like nowadays. I find pure techno just a bit too monotonous/repetitive for me. Same with Trance even, which used to be my mainstay genre. (Source)


@Celestalon ❓❓❓➡️🏔️🏔️❔

@Reaverax I remember you… (Source)


@Celestalon if you could put a blizzard character not from warcraft into hearthstone, who would it be?

@coolbeansjorge Hmmm… I'm not sure. Perhaps Zeratul. (Source)


@Celestalon How much more money does standard make compared to BGs since the skins came out👀

@snglttrs @Celestalon Still not remotely close. Cosmetics, while we would consider them successful to expectations, do not monetize like gameplay focused products. I imagine this is true for any game. (Source)

@IksarHS @snglttrs @Celestalon dean you're on leave

@RidiculousHat @snglttrs @Celestalon https://t.co/YEz9isGBDV (Source)

@IksarHS @snglttrs @Celestalon can i ask you a question?? i had one saved but then you had a baby

@RidiculousHat @snglttrs @Celestalon Ok (Source)

@IksarHS @snglttrs @Celestalon what would it take to get you to perform an acoustic cover of the famous Kermit song with alternate lyrics i think the community could really use a heartfelt rendition of "it isn't easy being Dean" https://t.co/m9wZ50YbYL

@RidiculousHat @snglttrs @Celestalon So this is the question you wanted to ask huh (Source)

@IksarHS @RidiculousHat @snglttrs I thought of a different kermit song when I read this question. https://t.co/Ma9ZSYHI9i (Source)

@RidiculousHat @snglttrs @Celestalon ok so i just got home and have an answer no I am infamous for kareoke singing but I hung up my singing shoes long ago. A pretty good thing considering I'm an awful singer. (Source)

@IksarHS @RidiculousHat @snglttrs @Celestalon Devastated. (Source)


@Celestalon Is there ever going to be a Coffee-related Cardback? I need that in my life.

@dapstlv I'll pass along the idea! (Source)


@Celestalon since you said yesterday that design was one of the main types of questions you can answer your i’d love to get your current take on this: how much consideration is given to wild during design & could you ever see it getting more due to growing popularity & the massive CN scene?

@burnt_hs Some. Our first thoughts with designing a new set focus on Standard, but do think secondarily about Wild. Most of that is about avoiding things that will be too degenerate/problematic in Wild. We rarely set out explicitly to make a fun new Wild deck; we just let that be organic. (Source)


@Celestalon How are you doing?

@Lugia_Blizz I'm doing great! Really loving being back in the office. :D (Source)


@Celestalon Name of doggo?

@Dottylouwho This is Mams, and she is the most adorable potato pupper. (Source)


@Celestalon If Poisonous triggers, is that an Honorable Kill? Or only if it also results in 0 HP?

@contigwrites Nope. Must be exact lethal damage. (Source)


@Celestalon Why don't we see this sweet good boi more

@kremlincardinal This is Mams and you'll see lots of her if you follow me and @Zuaniich. :) (Source)


@Celestalon What was the last thing which made you truly excited for HS?

@EmilMouritsen Hmmm… Personally, I get excited about a lot of things in Hearthstone, from new expansions, particular cards, new Battlegrounds heroes, etc. I'd call out some highlights beyond expansions as BG Cosmetics, Barrens Mystery, Achievements, and Demon Hunter. (Source)

@EmilMouritsen It's probably no coincidence that all of those are things that I was deeply involved in. Things are so much more exciting for me when it's in that "I'm really proud of this, I hope they like it." phase. (Source)


@Celestalon Did you guys try in any way to make the objective cards change the inside of the field? As if it were a type of terrain card. Would be awesome to see something like that in the future.

@gtluizmoratelli Yeah, we did dabble with this actually. It was a significant art/engineering investment, and we wanted to prioritize other things. We also came to this version of Objectives too late in the design process, in order to be able to do this well anyway. (Source)


@Celestalon @Celestalon WHEN RANDOM HERO SKIN LIKE CARDBACK?????????????

@PadrePio99 I don't have a date for you, but I can tell you that we think it's a good idea and want to do it at some point. It's just a matter of priorities, and there are other things we want to do more right now. (Source)


@Celestalon Let’s talk about the hero cards from the upcoming set. I’d like to know the one you prefer as a player and the one you enjoyed the most during development. Good luck with your first AMAs and don’t pay too much attention to the dummy comments!

@Avalon_OOC Thanks! Hmm… I think the answer to both would be Dawngrasp. I'm super stoked for Big Spell Mage, personally. I don't think they're a super integral part of that deck, but I think they work as a good late-game bomb. I rarely like Control decks, and love this one. (Source)


@Celestalon Can you check achievements to see what the longest ranked winstreak is?

@SamuelBaz Hmmm… I don't have that data on hand, but I can see that the number of people that have gotten the 12-streak is large enough that we could probably use a few higher tiers of that one… (Source)


@Celestalon When you release new heroes for BG can you also include a little tex box to tell us how much armor the hero will have?

@SorrenEZ Good question. I think @hsdecktech might know about how we were planning to do this? Are we updating that image periodically? (Source)

@Celestalon @SorrenEZ Yes, definitely planning to update the image over time. Makes sense to add the armor as part of the initial announce information, too. (Source)


@Celestalon @hsdecktech So… how’d you get your likeness turned into a Mage Hero?! Congrats!

@NateWolfeTCG @hsdecktech She's been in dev since before I joined, actually! (Source)


@Celestalon Which minion artwork is your very favorite?

@KaysaCat Yikes… I'll pick a few: - Violet Spellblade - Illidari Felblade - Demonic Illidan (Source)

@Celestalon @KaysaCat Did you mean for these 3 answers to kind of flow into each other via rhyme & reference?

@Raktoner @KaysaCat Pure coincidence. :D (Source)


@Celestalon With all the Heroes and our mercenaries this year, there’s almost 1 hero skin for every major race in Warcraft bar Goblin, Worgen and Pandaren. Are there currently any plans to cover the last three?

@ArticPyre I don't know specifics offhand, but I know diversity of characters is always a high priority for us. This year has focused on a Classic-ish setting, but we'll explore more in the future for sure! (Source)


@Celestalon BG: Why do BG heros now have a purple outline

@MinderRoots So that you can tell the difference between a collectible hero and a battlegrounds hero. (Source)


@Celestalon How the team decides on buffing a card? And when they do it, why they didn't came out with that conclusion in the first place.

@BoaPharaoh Card balance is hard. Like really hard. The goal isn't just to make individual cards balanced, but whole classes and decks, and there's a ton of moving pieces there, and the meta changes the power of all of them. We're willing to make changes where we see improvement opportunity. (Source)


@Celestalon Do you ever miss working on WoW? What’s the state of your next tattoo? What’s your favorite from Seven Lions?

@mark__harrison_ Yes, sometimes. I love WoW. Next tattoo… Still in development. Something commemorating my work on Hearthstone though for sure. Seven Lions… - Rush Over Me vs Shatterpoint - Pantheon - Shadows - December - Island - After Dark - Lucy (Source)


@Celestalon @ben_heathstone Have you ever considered a Daily Login reward?

@lautaro_lamalfa @ben_heathstone Yeah, definitely considered it. We could do that at some point, but no current plans. I think daily quests fill a lot of the same role right now. (Source)


@Celestalon Can we expect a collection overhaul anytime soon? Better card sorting, more searching options, better UI…

@imik_plays Probably not soon, but we do want to make improvements to the collection manager. It's a big undertaking though, and we have so many cool new things we want to do, so finding time can be difficult. (Source)


@Celestalon @ben_heathstone Do you plan to launch an expansion with a theme other than warcraft? for example Diablo

@wolyugalde @ben_heathstone Anything could happen in the future, but no current plans to do that. (Source)


@Celestalon Purple, how do you feel about the king of colors, the color Green?

@BrendenSewell Purple is the best color, because it doesn't exist. It's imaginary. And imagination is the best place. Purple is what happens when you go halfway between Red and Blue and don't limit yourself to reality. If you limit yourself to reality, you just get Green. (Source)


@Celestalon BG: You are not part of the BG for example but you still interact quite a bit with them So how much overlap is there between different teams and areas?

@MinderRoots Depends on the team. Initial and Final overlap a ton, and Battlegrounds is pretty connected to those (you need 8 people to playtest BG, so we regularly playtest together). Duels and Mercs have some overlap with each other, but mostly separate. (Source)

@MinderRoots And single player overlaps most with Duels, but is mostly its own thing. Tavern Brawl and Events is grouped with Duels mostly. All of these are flexible, and people talk and playtest a fair bit (though that's been harder during WFH). (Source)

@Celestalon @MinderRoots What about the arena people? You have those right?

@Sticowish @MinderRoots Arena isn't a separate team. It's handled by Final (and a bit of Initial). (Source)


@Celestalon Show us your tattoos 👀

@mini_biaggi https://t.co/bQbYLl5FgM (Source)


@Celestalon Which card from an older set has proven the most problematic when designing new ones?

@hero606v2 I asked the set designers, and answers that were called out were "warlock", and "bloodbloom". (Source)


@Celestalon Is that your dog and what’s his/her name? https://t.co/VprFemDYPo

@NMaurerPTFC This is Mams! She owns @Zuaniich and I. And your pupper looks quite regal! (Source)


@Celestalon BG: What are the Teams thoughts on tokens in BGs. There is often a discussion on them being to powerful. But they also make games more diverse. Were changes to them considered before? Potentially replacing them which makes Token abuse harder?

@MinderRoots We think tokens are important in creating variance in the early game, especially in terms of gold economy. There's improvements to be made, but just removing them would result in early turns always playing out very consistently, which is a big detriment to fun of the game. (Source)


@Celestalon What is the best performing non-evergreen keyword from all the expansions ever? (Performing = popularity, winrate) And would you ever consider making it evergreen or reprinting it in some form in the future?

@imik_plays I will say that there is a non-evergreen keyword from the past that we're currently planning to bring back in the future, as evergreen. /tease ;) (Source)


@Celestalon Did you know that purple isn't technically a real colour and just a trick our brains play on themselves with specific colour combinations?

@JackDonde I did know, and that's one of my favorite things about it! (Source)


@Celestalon How happy are you with the year-long story development of the current Standard year, especially compared to the Year of the Dragon storyline?

@tharid I think @themattlondon is the best person to ask for this, but my personal answer would be that this year did a much better job of telling a narrative, and having deep characters. (Source)


Oh god so many questions, I'm trying to get to as many as I can, gunna keep going til 5:30 then call it then for now. (Source)

@Celestalon Do you have any knowledge of the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game? If so, does this knowledge, or does WoWTCG in general, have any influence on HS at all?

@Lazy_Peon_hs WoW TCG was really cool, though I never played it myself. It has basically no impact on Hearthstone development now, though I'm sure it did in the early days. (Source)


@Celestalon What is your preferred Ramen?

@SilentNickHS Hiro Nori. Tonkotsu, thick noodles, bit of spicy sauce, black garlic oil, extra pork chashu. (Source)


@Celestalon I ran a number of dungeons in Legion Beta with you and I was a Death Knight. Soon after, Death Knights were DESTROYED with nerfs. Was this my fault? Say yes plz

@Regentwill Almost certainly yes, it was YOUR fault in particular. Get 'em, Acherus community! (Source)


@Celestalon What is one big thing you'd personally like to see added or changed with regards to Hearthstone? The dream that you could make a reality with a simple snap of your fingers.

@Fluxflashor Raids. (No, this is not currently in development, and I don't even know how it would work.) (Source)


@Celestalon Pineapple on pizza, yay or nay?

@TortugaHS Yay, if you want. I usually don't, but sometimes do, but support anyone who does. (Source)


@Celestalon Will we have special limited time events for ladder? Like you did for arena (dual class), duels e BG (Diablo)?

@SilentNickHS I think this would be super cool, and have talked about ideas here. @IksarHS is a big thinker on this topic. Nothing to announce right now, but I'd be shocked if we don't do more of this at some point in the future. (Source)


@Celestalon How hard is it to find the right balance between improving existing System and adding new ones? Is something like a Quality of Life Patch planned in the future addressing some more long running annoyances like the wrong amount of Gold displayed during BG turns (Number correct)

@MinderRoots Very difficult. The wildest ambition is always behind doing exciting NEW things. But keeping a stable base is important. Bugfixing is a great example of that. (Source)

@MinderRoots I doubt we would ever skip doing new stuff in a patch purely to focus on bugfixes, but a goal we have right now is to slow down (not stop), and but more of our time into stability and polish. We've been moving in that direction, especially since Mercs launch, but it takes time. (Source)


@Celestalon What's Illidan's favourite pizza flavour?

@DustyScales Fel. (Source)


@Celestalon Do you consider Sandstorm overplayed or are you too young for that.

@BitBeaker No, in fact there's an unreleased Abraxis remix of Sandstorm that they only play live at raves that's an absolute banger. You might be able to find it on youtube. ;) (Source)


@Celestalon Do you have any EDM playlists you’d want to share?

@diegocentric Yeah, just made these for everyone looking for good EDM playlists. Celestamix 2021 Light: https://t.co/gyStLAc9yI Celestamix 2021 Dark: https://t.co/5e8j8OJ3Dy (Source)


@Celestalon What calls to you about the color purple? What does Purple mean to you? 💜💜💜

@Kaerrigan 💜 https://t.co/vJgCHMq3Mu (Source)


@Celestalon if i dye my hair again, what color should i go for this time?

@cynthpark I think dark blue looked lovely on you. Would try that again, but with a gradient to lighter pastel blue tips. (Source)


@Celestalon Who’s the TSwift fan on team 5 that snuck a Red Scarf card back into this month’s win 5 games quest?

@yesednay I don't know, but I have a hunch… https://t.co/kdKrojBaEz (Source)


@Celestalon What's going on with totems? It seems like they're nowhere to be found. 👀😥

@imik_plays Well, they don't move very fast, you know. They'll catch up eventually, don't worry. (Source)


@Celestalon What's your favorite deck archetype of all times?

@roman_jdlht I think actually Questline Mage, personally. *dodges tomatoes* (Source)


@Celestalon Suggestions for hair colour that may stick a bit longer for someone with strawberry blond hair right now?

@hello_miika In my experience, violet tends to last the longest. You also don't have to lighten it much from strawberry blonde in order to make it look vibrant and stick well, so your hair stays super healthy. (Source)


@Celestalon Are there any plans to fix the Undercover Scabbs skin to have the correct number of fingers? It's my favorite skin and it bothers me more than it should that he has a human's hand.

@FEStarnes Oops. Just pointed this out to the art team, they say we'll get this fixed! (Source)


@Celestalon Thanks for doing this! You might have to ask live balance for this, but essentially: What is their thoughts on the warlock quest? Do they believe that it does not have a chance of oppressing the meta, or that that chance is too small to bother?

@MarcusT16798709 I know we've heard a lot of concerns about Quests potentially still dominating the meta in AV, making the slower cards fun but nonviable. I wanted to come back to this question, now that I've heard from the Final design team: (Source)

@MarcusT16798709 We’ll always be monitoring the live state of game. We expect Alterac Valley to shake up the metagame pretty substantially and if any deck (including Questlock) is oppressive, we’ll make changes — that’s been our philosophy for quite a while. (Source)

@MarcusT16798709 In terms of framing expectations, one of the balance goals of Alterac Valley is to make slower strategies more viable. While we don’t want to micromanage exactly which cards are/aren’t allowed to succeed, any changes we make will have that goal for balance softly in mind. (Source)


@Celestalon Thanks for the AMA! You seem to do so much for HS. Fans may be curious what all you do. Will you please list all the Hearthstone things you have hands on and what your typical work day/task list may look like? https://t.co/MxlauEsm25

@ben_heathstone I’ll try to get back to this question when I have a moment! (Source)


@Celestalon Wasn't here on time but is there a Ramen response? Or do I have to wait for the next one?

@pkmn661 Hiro Nori. Tonkotsu ramen, thick noodles, black garlic oil, spicy sauce, extra chashu. (Source)

@Celestalon Thank you! I found it in the thread but I get almost exactly the same thing and it's fantastic. Everything but I don't like the egg in it

@pkmn661 Oh, hah, same actually. I always give whoever I’m with my egg. :) (Source)


@Celestalon Since @IksarHS is near: He mentioned that cosmetics have a far less ROI than gameplay monetization so what prevents y'all from launching skin lines with a gold price point in addition to money? Makes sense to drain our gold on cosmetics and have us pay IRL for packs/bundles, no?

@TimRizzo @Celestalon Strictly speaking to revenue, there is some truth that gold drain is indirectly monetization, just not very effective monetization. Many players would spend gold that wouldn't have spent real dollars, but virtually all players who spent real dollars would spend gold instead. (Source)


@Celestalon How come Bearon Glacier is an Elemental and not a Beast? https://t.co/rc8oTns2Hv

@NateWolfeTCG @Celestalon It looks like It's made of ice. If I'd have to guess, he's been spawned by a Shaman (Brukan) from ice.

@imik_plays @NateWolfeTCG The intention with this art piece was to show an ice elemental that had taken a form of a bear, but is still clearly an elemental (much in the same way that a phoenix takes the form of a bird, but is still an elemental). (Source)

@imik_plays @NateWolfeTCG That said, I hear you, I think it's fair to say that (especially at small size that it's viewed in-game), it's not especially clear that it's an elemental. That's a great example of how sometimes we can have an art piece that's artistically great, but not the best for gameplay. (Source)


@Celestalon And now I miss 2 AMA’s with my timezone… I will try, what made you want to be a (card) game designer? Oh yeah also if you can name one, what is a great quality of a card designer? Thanks <3

@ramanujoke I love games, love the games that I've worked on in particular, had skills that could contribute to them, and I found making people happy is really rewarding for me. Most important qualities I'd say are Empathy, Communication, and Intuition. (Source)

@Celestalon The content of this answer made me really happy, thanks 😊 on what other games did you work on if that’s not indiscreet?

@ramanujoke I did class and systems design on WoW, for 7 years. (Source)