Remember this motherfucker? Skelesaurus Hex was a boss in the original LoE adventure from 2015. Its heroic Hero Power is "Add a random card to your hand. It costs (0)". Yes, you read that right. IT COSTS FUCKING 0. LoE in general had a lot of bullshit bosses (Scarvash, Slitherspear, ...) but this motherfucker is by far the worst.
You thought the Reno fight from the new adventure was bad because of the RNG. Wait until your get a FUCKING Kalecgos casting a FUCKING Power of Creation into Sunwalkers on TURN FUCKING 1. It took me several years to beat some bullshit adventure bosses, but those bosses generally become less bullshit over time thanks to new cards (I only recently beat Slitherspear with the Launcher+Venomizer combo).
But this motherfucker Skelesaurus Hex is different. Because of power creep, he becomes LESS doable over time because his Hero Power becomes more and more powerful. And that's the thing. The boss is not fun because, unlike all other bosses, there is no strategy against him. You just have to click Restart until you finally hit the 1/1000 case when he only gets useless crap from his Hero Power. Thas was even worse in 2015 because there wasn't even a Restart option for solo content.
I cleared all seemingly undoable bosses from Galakrond's Awakening (Reno, Lazul, Galakrond itself, etc...) with the Juggler+Test Subject infinite damage combo. It took a few tries to get the combo, it obviously took even more time to execute it, but at the end of the day I cleared everything.
I tried this combo with with this mofo for several hours and guess what? I could never survive until I get the full combo. Just when you think you can finally execute it, he pulls an Obsidian Statue out of his ass which obviously ruins everything because every minion needs to survive until the end and the Statue will inevitably kill one. Most of the time he kills me before turn 5 though.
Blizzard please. Delete this fucking boss from the game and give me my LoE Heroic card back I've been working for for 5 fucking years.
27/03/2020: Combined with Blizzard's official take on the core sets. Also brand new layout!
PRIEST CORE SET REVAMP
Introduction
Following this post, I decided to post my own take on the Priest's core sets. The comparison is interesting because we had very different ideas.
I made a few custom classes in the past, so I had to think a lot about class identity and how to make a class feel unique while still being stable and balanced in the long term, and expandable with expansions. Like Shadows, I made a few custom cards, but most of my sets is nerfs/buffs and substitutions with expansion sets.
NOTE: This set was started slightly after Saviors of Uldum was released
Directions
General directions I follow for the core sets
Blizzard's official post on class identity is weird. It mixes class mechanics with strengths and weaknesses so most of the stuff doesn't make sense. The way I proceeded is completely different. I started by listing what should be the primary and secondary mechanics of the class, the strengths and weaknesses of the class as well as the archetypes available to it should follow from this list.
I say "core sets" a lot, but the Basic and Classic set are NOT interchangeable in their functions.
The Basic set is the spine of the class. It ensures the class' viability and establishes its primary mechanics.
Must be simple. Most cards must have 2 lines of text or less. Only simple keywords.
Versatile to support multiple playstyles
Minimal kit of everything a class needs to be viable (card draw; removal; direct damage; good standalone minions;...) even if not part of identity
Fine if slightly more OP than what you would expect from expansions
The Classic set is the limbs of the class. It ensures the class' internal diversity and estables its secondary mechanics.
Presents the more "complex" mechanics of the game (Deathrattle, etc...)
Because Classic packs are bought, there should be a sense of progression
Unlike the Basic set, Classic cards should be slightly below average to let room for expansions
About tribal synergies, each minion type has its own identity
Beasts
All size of minions
Good standalone value
Buff each other a lot
Each type of Beast has its subtheme (Bears=Taunt; Boars=Rush; Cats=Stealth; Wolves=buff other beasts; etc...)
Most common type of minions, as such their identity is less precise
Demons (Warlock & DH)
All size of minions
Powerful but with a drawback (taking damage; discard; ...)
Dragons
Medium to big minions
"If you're holding a Dragon"
Hand synergy
Lots of legendaries
4/12 statline as a signature
Elementals
All size of minions
"If you played an Elemental last turn"
Value generation
Battlecries
Mechs
Mechs were the focus of only 2 expansions (GvG and Boomsday) but they're otherwise a rare tribe and have no central identity!
Murlocs
Small minions
Board-wide buffs for other Murlocs
Relies on early-game snowballing. If allowed to stay on the board, they become nearly unstoppable
Pirates
Small to medium minions
Weapon synergy
Lots of direct damage
Totems (Shaman)
Small minions
0 attack with some exceptions
Powerful ongoing effects (aura/end of turn/whenever)
Tribal synergies are part of a class primary identity in only 3 cases
Beasts for Hunter
Totems for Shaman
Demons for Walocks and DHs
All other class-tribe associations are mostly a matter of coincidence as these tribes happen to fit in the class identity (eg pirates for Warrior/Rogue)
About which keywords I chose to keep in the core sets
Charge vs Rush - As you know, Charge is a dangerous keyword. This is why Rush was introduced...however there are a few cards that were meant to be finishers that wouldn't make sense without Rush. I will replace Charge with Rush on all core cards with Charge (and tweak stats accordingly) EXCEPT when Charge is on a legendary minion. There are 4 legendary minions with Charge in the classic set and they will keep Charge
Discover - Disover offers a choice between cards that are in standard. Due to how easy Discover can become skewed when the right cards are printed, there will be no Discover cards in my core sets.
Poisonous - There were originally no Poisonous cards in the Basic set before the introduction of [Hearthstone Card (Master Poisoner) Not Found]. I will therefore also have poisonous cards in my basic set
Lifesteal - There are currently no Lifesteal cards in the core sets. However the keyword is simple and I will therefore introduce some.
Priest class identity
I tried not to steer away too much from what Blizzard defined for the class, although there are definitely some directions I disagree with and went against. I will signal it when it is the case.
PRIMARY MECHANICS
Healing - Priest should be the best class at healing. It should have the most powerful and cost-effective healing cards, both single-target and multi-target. It should have healing synergy.
High-health minions - Going hand-in-hand with that, Priest should also have access to a lot of minions with high-health for their cost, as well as several ways of buffing a minion's health.
SECONDARY MECHANICS
Hard Removals - Priest has a lot of hard removals, that is removal that says "destroy" on the card rather than removal throught direct damage or other ways. Think of the Shadow Words.
Copying your stuff - Priest has a lot of cards to copy his own or his opponent's stuff, either through summon or card generation. This also implies that Priest is good at greed and value.
Comboing small spells - This is a theme that was explored during the Year of the Mammoth (2017) and culminated in Razakus Priest, which was the best deck in the game before its nerf.
Resurrect - I know this is a...controversial aspect of Priest, but gameplay-wise it is ok as long as it doesn't allow minion cheating.
Silence - Priest has a near-exclusive access to silencing effects.
Priest is GOOD at
Big minions (vertical minions, through health buffing)
Single-target hard-removals ("destroy" cards)
Value generation (copy, resurrect)
Surviving (healing)
Priest is AVERAGE at
Card draw
Board clears (I hope that my emphasis on board control through minions makes the need of a board clear less fundamental for Priest)
Priest is BAD at
Minion swarms. For Priest, it's quality over quantity
Direct damage ()
Tempo (Priest is the slowest class in the game)
The new core sets
Priest new Basic set
Priest new Classic set
COMMONS
RARES
EPICS
LEGENDARY
Justifications
Justifications
Basic
Flash Heal - Much better than Radiance! Since I HoF'd Auchenai Soulpriest, there's no reason to not have this card in the basic set.
Northshire Cleric(Cost increased to (2); Health increased to 4) - I disagree with Blizzard's decision to HoF her. Yes, at 1/3 she was degenerate but she is waaay too essential and fits well into Priest...and EVERY class needs some card draw...
Acolyte of Agony - AoA is a very good standalone minion that heals. Perfect for Priest's basic set. See above for my justification for introducing Lifesteal into core sets
Classic
Divine Hymn - This is mostly meant to replace Circle of Healing as the AOE heal card. CoH is too weak to be used as pure healing and was only used for combos.
Mindbender (CUSTOM!) - An alternative to Convincing Infiltrator which was considered too OP.
Dark Cultist - I know such a powerful on-curve minion can be somewhat dangerous to have in the classic set (not because it would ruin the game but because it would see play everywhere), but it's Priest, so I think that's okay. I chose it because it features two aspects of Priest in a single card (Deathrattle + health buff). Replaces Temple Enforcer.
Holy Champion - Solid minion. Health synergy. Perfect for priest!
Mind Bomb (CUSTOM!) - An alternative to Mass Dispel which is very clunky. Mind Bomb doubles as a mass silence and an AOE. Very effective against token and murloc decks! Also usable in silence decks.
Nightscale Matriarch - This card never saw play, but it could easily see play some day, it's perfect to have in the classic set. It's a Dragon, it's a big minion, it's health synergy!
Mass Resurrection - PLEASE LOWER YOUR PITCHFORKS AND LET ME EXPLAIN FIRST!! Resurrect has been established as a core Priest mechanic over the years. Resurrect effects can cause problems if mana cheating effects are also very present (hello Barnes). However Mass Resurrection costs (9) mana which means that a "big" deck using it would be a late-game oriented one rather than a midrange one. (I was too lazy to redo the card but you have to imagine this with an epic gem instead)
Power Word: Replicate - Copying is a tertiary Priest theme. I know the flavor of the card is weird in the Classic set but I didn't want to alter it.
Inner Fire(Cost increased to (2); Rarity increased to epic) - Nerfed to 2 mana. That's the only way to ever make it balanced. Even without Divine Spirit it's restricting the design space among high-health minions.
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame
These cards have a fundamentally unbalanced and unbalanceable effect (ie it can't be made balanced just by tweaking numbers).
On the contrary, these cards are just uninteresting and often straight up bad.
These cards are too widespread and limits novelty. They aren't interesting enough to just be nerfed.
On the contrary, these cards are too specific and narrow to be core cards.
These cards are fine and could have stayed. However there were better cards to fill their spots.
Shortlisted cards
Shorlisted cards
The following cards almost made it into my core sets, but didn't because there were no room left for them.
Vampiric Touch (CUSTOM!) - Was supposed to be the Lifesteal card of the set. Replaced with the existing Acolyte of Agony due to being potentially OP on certain minions. (Spoiler: It's gonna be in Paladin's core set instead).
Inner Focus (CUSTOM!) - I'm surprised this card doesn't exist. I thought this unconditional card draw would also be useful in the "small spell" Priest shell. I've been told it's OP so I bowed down to the pressure even though it's less powerful than Power Word: Shield except in the edge case when you have no minions.
Purify - "My grandpa's deck has no pathetic cards Kripp, but it does contain the unstoppable PURIFIER!" Yes, I thought about bringing back what has been labeled the worst card in the game. This is because its effect is very simple and basic and is a building brick for the silence priest archetype. Ultimately didn't because Silence is too similar but more fitting for the core set.
Priest of the Feast - Second shortlisted card of a 3-card set. PotF has a very "priesty" statline at 3/6 and features both "small spell" synergy and healing, making it perfect for core sets. Didn't keep because I didn't have room. Other synergies felt more important.
Psionic Probe - Compared to Thoughtsteal, this has the added bonus of being a small spell and to fit in both the steal-yo-stuff shell and the small spell shell. Didn't take because at the end of the day it's a worse Mind Vision, and small spells aren't really core to the class. They were only good when Razakus Priest was around.
Devour Mind - This one doesn't fit in the small spell shell but it is a big value generator. Priest was historically good at generating value and this does it better. Ultimately scrapped because it is too clunky for the classic set. Thoughtsteal remains the best compromise.
Extra Arms - A buff that is also two spells in 1. Didn't keep because it doesn't really represent Priest in any meaningful way.
Plague of Death - People have been complaining about the lack of an evergreen board clear for Priest for a while. This is the ultimate board clear. Didn't keep because unfun and acts as a counter to too many things to be good for the game. Besides, my Priest isn't about "AFK and clear" anymore and my new Holy Nova presumable covers that need.
BONUS: Core sets with alternative structure
Alternative set
OK. I went completely wild here.
What's that? By alternative structure I mean a core set structure other than the 10 Basic/15 Classic structure we have now. I thought a lot about this. I thought about 10/10 (reduced Classic set), 15/10, and even 10/0 (no Classic set at all!). However I settled on this 10/10/9. The 9 being for a yearly rotating core set made entirely of reintroduced old cards (as in the Tombs of Terror event).
The purpose of this set is to avoid redundancy in cards as well as give more supports to the archetypes that are being pushed. 3 cards are re-introduced each expansion, for a total of 9 cards over the year. These cards can vary in rarity but they will stay the same between classes. This allows me to "deport" certain secondary themes of the class into yearly sets, so that they will go back and forth rather than always be there. In order for these sets to feel new, they should not contain any cards from the year that just rotated out.
I don't know if it's a coincidence, but I've also been working on a custom revamp of the Priest core set (I'm revamping core sets for all the classes + the neutral ones, and Priest is the first class I finished). In my opinion it is Paladin that has the worst core sets, but Priest is a decent 8th place in this area. Priest's flavor has been refined throughout HS history so it's easy to change it in retrospect. Paladin doesn't have this chance.
Northshire Cleric and Holy Smite could have stayed in the core sets imo.
Holy Alignment is too complicated for a basic card. The second effect is also very bad compared to the first one.
Prosper in Peace is a nice concept, but not in the basic set, and NOT in place of a more straightforward form of card draw.
I don't like Power Word: Barrier at all. It's complicated and looks either extremely problematic or completely useless. Also way too complicated to be a basic card.
Battle Medic looks OP. A 2/4 statline is too good even in Priest.
Penance is too OP to be a core card, especially since it removes minions through direct damage which is a strength of Mage, not Priest. I mean, look at Drain Life!
Barrier Priest is too OP when taking into account the many "I win if this lives until next turn" minions that already exist.
Mass Hysteria's flavor is of for an expansion but doesn't fit Priest enough to be a core card. Its flavor sounds more like Warrior. (I believe Mass Hysteria is what Brawl should have been). I also prefer the real art.
Embrace the Shadows is problematic for the same reason Auchenai Soulpriest is: it restricts design space in terms of healing.
Alonsius Faol + high-health Taunt minions like Mosh'Ogg Enforcer looks too good. I'd raise its cost or only make it restore a certain amount of health.
As a general critic: The new arts you used don't fit into HS art style.
It says a lot about the power level of Tunnel Trogg when what looks like the most powerful expansion of all times still has a card that's strictly worse than it.
Warlock didn't receive any interesting cards. At least not when compared to other cards from the powercreep fiesta that is DoD. Warlock will remain the worst class for the 4 months to come and might even be completely unplayable like it was in Ungoro.
You're right that for a (too) long time Warlock was almost entirely defined by Life Tap which allowed Blizzard to not really worry about the class. Now they have to, and it's clear that they don't really know what to do with it (Paladin and Shamab have the same problem to a lesser extent). Blizzard seems to beliewed that "drawing cards" is a viable strategy and win condition on its own, but it isn't.
I got my first Lightforged key with this deck that I thought completely sucked! It's Warrior/Paladin (with paladin HP). I'm so happy I thought I was hopelessly bad in arena!
Looks alright to me, though my curve isn't optimal.
EDIT: Don't have the screenshot for the Lightforge key, I was too euphoric I forgot to take one :(
CG! I bet it felt awesome to finally get the 12 wins :) The deck looks pretty solid in the early game, which if you can have (1)-2-3-4 follow and it up with a buff or a removal, you are going to win most of your matches.
I went 10-3 with this deck. All of my losses were against locks with multiple copies of Abyssal Enforcers. I'm still impressed I made it so far twice.
I got my first Lightforged key with this deck that I thought completely sucked! It's Warrior/Paladin (with paladin HP). I'm so happy I thought I was hopelessly bad in arena!
I don't understand why some of you liked LoE so much.
The flavor was awesome. The cards were great (Tunnel Trogg aside). Discover is an excellent mechanic.
But the adventure itself? I'm sorry but it's bad as fuck.
Heroic Slitherspear? Unbeatable without exploiting the Kel'Thuzad +Taunt glitch which seems to have been fixed. Heroic Scarvash? Unbeatable without a 2-mana Fiery War Axe. Heroic Skelesaurus? This one is bullshit in its purest state. Tyrantus on turn 1? Sure that's balanced. The worst part is that this fucker gets stronger every expansion because the cards get stronger every expansion, and the proportion of good expensive cards increased.
If you didn't beat those guys when LoE was released, you're fucked.
That's a lot of work you done there. But Warriors seem to straightforward as a class to have secrets, they attack, they defend and they control the field. Secrets- at least under this name- do not really fit the tone.
Priests on the other hand, can be quite shady. Silencing, Copying and gaining insight and bringing back lost minions all could fit a secret theme.
Like, 2 mana:
Measured healing: at the start of your next turn, heal all friendly minions back to full.
Shade's shield: the next damage dealt to your hero heals him instead.
Memory trick: after a friendly minion died, shuffle two 1Mana copies in your deck.
Powerword retribute: after your hero was attacked, silence all enemy minions.
Shadowcopy: at the start of your turn, you get a copy of every card the opponent drew last turn.
The secrets are nice, but I still think secrets don't fill Priest playstyle because it's not a tempo class.
As for Warrior, i think they should have no Secrets at all, as Secrets are not just an automatic reaction, but also something that is prepared, an ace up your sleeves. Warriors are not subtle enough to fit that concept (even Paladins are marginally so but one could argue the ways of the Light are subtle, but Warriors are not at all).
Are you saying that a nutkick is not subtle enough.
If Shaman gets Secrets, they should have Overload - with the twist that the Overload only triggers when the Secret is revealed. That lets you make Secrets with "different mana costs".
That would certainly be a unique twist but it wouldn't work gameplay-wise because it could backfire, and WILL backfire if your opponent knows how to play around them.
"But Cheese! Rogue already has Secrets and they cost 2 mana, not 0!"
Yes, but I started making this series of secrets before K&C, therefore before actual Rogue secrets were released. I thought it makes much more sense for Rogue secrets to cost 0 mana rather than 0 because it fits the combo nature of the class better.
My Rogue secrets are mostly based around keeping tempo.
Unfortunately I couldn't find any 0 mana effect that would fit Sudden Betrayal.
WARRIOR SECRETS (1 MANA)
Like Paladin secrets, my Warriors secrets cost 1 mana. They are mostly defensive Secrets rather than tempo ones.
Yes, I know two of them are called Last Stand. I fucked up.
WARLOCK SECRETS (4 mana)
Warlock secrets are expension, this is why their effect is powerful and their trigger conditions restrictive to not be easily countered. Warlock secrets are control-oriented.
I tried to think about secrets for Druid; Shaman; and Priest, but they don't feel like secret classes at all.
I guess something with Overloaded Secrets could be strategically nice but sort of complicated UI-wise.
Allowing all classes to collect and use the other basic hero powers would be an enormous balance headache and would also lead to dozens of additional card nerfs for cards that aren't an issue.
Plus chances are they would dump all of the hero powers into the laps of warlock, mage, priest, and warrior with only a wink and a nod for card nerfs while eviscerating (pun intended) the class cards of classes like rogue, druid, or shaman. Zomg can't let rogues get tempo or face hero powers without nerfs, but by all means warriors, priests, and mages with life tap? Psh, favored classes will be favored classes. Can't have too much control power creep.
Uh, you don't understand. I'm not proposing that all basic hero powers should be available to all classes, that would be silly. My idea is giving entirely new collectible hero powers (like collectible heroes) to each class.
It would be a real nightmere to balance properly, just look at how Genn Greymane and Baku the Mooneater were forced in HoF earlier or how much DKs forced almost everyone to play them (ofc some are far better than others also thanks to their battlecry). Also it may requires a whole balance round for potential broken interaction.
It's a nice idea, but probably it should have been implemented since the start of the game instead of being thrown in at this point.
It would be hard to balance properly, but not impossible. There are people paid for that at Blizzard, and it's not like they never get it wrong even when they're conservative in what they do.
Also the Genn/Baku problem arguably already exist for one of the existing hero power: Life Tap already wraps the entire warlock class. It alone gives it its two historical main archetypes: Zoo and Hand (Ok, Flame Imp and Mountain Giant help too). As long as the new HP avoid that, we're good.
Dalaran Heist gave us the possibility to choose a hero power for our class. Why not bring this to the PvP part of the game?
Here's how I imagine it: Hero powers would become collectible just like other cards. HOWEVER they would not be considered cards properly speaking because they would have a specific slot for them in each deck list. All 9 existing hero powers would be part of the basic set. Then, from time to time, Blizz could give us collectible hero powers as the second class legendary slot for each class, kinda like Quests right now.
Non-basic Hero Powers wouldn't need to have the restrictions of basic ones. They could be passive; have a cost different from 2; have an effect with keywords in them and that is more specific than the basic hero powers which were designed to be versatile; etc... It would also be the occasion to give ping hero powers to classes that don't have one but desparately need one (hi Priest and Warlock).
Blizzard already has part of the code done for that since it's done in Heist. Pain Split and Touch of Bark, for instance, both look like good candicates. On the other hand, Cut-less and The Pact aren't due to the tempo they generate.
Remember this motherfucker? Skelesaurus Hex was a boss in the original LoE adventure from 2015. Its heroic Hero Power is "Add a random card to your hand. It costs (0)". Yes, you read that right. IT COSTS FUCKING 0. LoE in general had a lot of bullshit bosses (Scarvash, Slitherspear, ...) but this motherfucker is by far the worst.
You thought the Reno fight from the new adventure was bad because of the RNG. Wait until your get a FUCKING Kalecgos casting a FUCKING Power of Creation into Sunwalkers on TURN FUCKING 1. It took me several years to beat some bullshit adventure bosses, but those bosses generally become less bullshit over time thanks to new cards (I only recently beat Slitherspear with the Launcher+Venomizer combo).
But this motherfucker Skelesaurus Hex is different. Because of power creep, he becomes LESS doable over time because his Hero Power becomes more and more powerful. And that's the thing. The boss is not fun because, unlike all other bosses, there is no strategy against him. You just have to click Restart until you finally hit the 1/1000 case when he only gets useless crap from his Hero Power. Thas was even worse in 2015 because there wasn't even a Restart option for solo content.
I cleared all seemingly undoable bosses from Galakrond's Awakening (Reno, Lazul, Galakrond itself, etc...) with the Juggler+Test Subject infinite damage combo. It took a few tries to get the combo, it obviously took even more time to execute it, but at the end of the day I cleared everything.
I tried this combo with with this mofo for several hours and guess what? I could never survive until I get the full combo. Just when you think you can finally execute it, he pulls an Obsidian Statue out of his ass which obviously ruins everything because every minion needs to survive until the end and the Statue will inevitably kill one. Most of the time he kills me before turn 5 though.
Blizzard please. Delete this fucking boss from the game and give me my LoE Heroic card back I've been working for for 5 fucking years.
I seriously fucked up the formatting. I'll use the HTML editor next time.
BTW, yes, there will be a next time because I'm working on other classes and neutral cards as well.
27/03/2020: Combined with Blizzard's official take on the core sets. Also brand new layout!
PRIEST CORE SET REVAMP
Introduction
Following this post, I decided to post my own take on the Priest's core sets. The comparison is interesting because we had very different ideas.
I made a few custom classes in the past, so I had to think a lot about class identity and how to make a class feel unique while still being stable and balanced in the long term, and expandable with expansions. Like Shadows, I made a few custom cards, but most of my sets is nerfs/buffs and substitutions with expansion sets.
NOTE: This set was started slightly after Saviors of Uldum was released
Directions
Blizzard's official post on class identity is weird. It mixes class mechanics with strengths and weaknesses so most of the stuff doesn't make sense. The way I proceeded is completely different. I started by listing what should be the primary and secondary mechanics of the class, the strengths and weaknesses of the class as well as the archetypes available to it should follow from this list.
I say "core sets" a lot, but the Basic and Classic set are NOT interchangeable in their functions.
About tribal synergies, each minion type has its own identity
Tribal synergies are part of a class primary identity in only 3 cases
All other class-tribe associations are mostly a matter of coincidence as these tribes happen to fit in the class identity (eg pirates for Warrior/Rogue)
About which keywords I chose to keep in the core sets
I tried not to steer away too much from what Blizzard defined for the class, although there are definitely some directions I disagree with and went against. I will signal it when it is the case.
The new core sets
COMMONS
RARES
EPICS
LEGENDARY
Justifications
Basic
Classic
Hall of Fame
These cards have a fundamentally unbalanced and unbalanceable effect (ie it can't be made balanced just by tweaking numbers).
On the contrary, these cards are just uninteresting and often straight up bad.
These cards are too widespread and limits novelty. They aren't interesting enough to just be nerfed.
On the contrary, these cards are too specific and narrow to be core cards.
These cards are fine and could have stayed. However there were better cards to fill their spots.
Shortlisted cards
The following cards almost made it into my core sets, but didn't because there were no room left for them.
BONUS: Core sets with alternative structure
OK. I went completely wild here.
What's that? By alternative structure I mean a core set structure other than the 10 Basic/15 Classic structure we have now. I thought a lot about this. I thought about 10/10 (reduced Classic set), 15/10, and even 10/0 (no Classic set at all!). However I settled on this 10/10/9. The 9 being for a yearly rotating core set made entirely of reintroduced old cards (as in the Tombs of Terror event).
The purpose of this set is to avoid redundancy in cards as well as give more supports to the archetypes that are being pushed. 3 cards are re-introduced each expansion, for a total of 9 cards over the year. These cards can vary in rarity but they will stay the same between classes. This allows me to "deport" certain secondary themes of the class into yearly sets, so that they will go back and forth rather than always be there. In order for these sets to feel new, they should not contain any cards from the year that just rotated out.
New (reduced) Classic set
COMMONS
RARES
EPICS
LEGENDARY
Cut cards:
Yearly 2019 (Year of the Dragon) set
For this example, here's what the yearly set for the year 2019 could have been:
NOTE: In order for yearly sets to feel new, this 2019 core set will not contain any 2017 cards since they would have just rotated out.
RISE OF SHADOWS
SAVIORS OF ULDUM (Healing)
DESCENT OF DRAGONS (Dragons duh)
I don't know if it's a coincidence, but I've also been working on a custom revamp of the Priest core set (I'm revamping core sets for all the classes + the neutral ones, and Priest is the first class I finished). In my opinion it is Paladin that has the worst core sets, but Priest is a decent 8th place in this area. Priest's flavor has been refined throughout HS history so it's easy to change it in retrospect. Paladin doesn't have this chance.
As a general critic: The new arts you used don't fit into HS art style.
Oh shit! Got beaten to it!
It says a lot about the power level of Tunnel Trogg when what looks like the most powerful expansion of all times still has a card that's strictly worse than it.
Warlock didn't receive any interesting cards. At least not when compared to other cards from the powercreep fiesta that is DoD. Warlock will remain the worst class for the 4 months to come and might even be completely unplayable like it was in Ungoro.
You're right that for a (too) long time Warlock was almost entirely defined by Life Tap which allowed Blizzard to not really worry about the class. Now they have to, and it's clear that they don't really know what to do with it (Paladin and Shamab have the same problem to a lesser extent). Blizzard seems to beliewed that "drawing cards" is a viable strategy and win condition on its own, but it isn't.
Crazed Netherwing is really good in a vacuum (no pun intended) but Abyssal Enforcer wans't enough to save Warlock during Ungoro...
I'm cheese and I approve this message.
More stuff!
Notes:
That's simple. Just go to the "Extra" tab on http://hearthcards.net/ and convert an existing card's cost into a tavern tier!
Remember that only a minority of regular HS cards would make sense in this mode (no spells/weapons, no card draw/deck interaction, etc...).
Here a some examples which I think are...interesting. Mostly because the same effect leads to a very different outcome!
Do note that in Zola's case, the golden minion will be the upgraded one!
When was the HK stuff?
I went 10-3 with this deck. All of my losses were against locks with multiple copies of Abyssal Enforcers. I'm still impressed I made it so far twice.
I got my first Lightforged key with this deck that I thought completely sucked! It's Warrior/Paladin (with paladin HP). I'm so happy I thought I was hopelessly bad in arena!
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2019/43/7/1572177355-unknown2.png
Note: The deck had 2 Zoobots but I already drew the first one when I took the screenshot.
I just finished the deck for my second free run (Druid/Paladin with pally HP)
http://image.noelshack.com/fichiers/2019/43/7/1572177566-capture.png
Looks alright to me, though my curve isn't optimal.
EDIT: Don't have the screenshot for the Lightforge key, I was too euphoric I forgot to take one :(
I don't understand why some of you liked LoE so much.
The flavor was awesome. The cards were great (Tunnel Trogg aside). Discover is an excellent mechanic.
But the adventure itself? I'm sorry but it's bad as fuck.
Heroic Slitherspear? Unbeatable without exploiting the Kel'Thuzad +Taunt glitch which seems to have been fixed. Heroic Scarvash? Unbeatable without a 2-mana Fiery War Axe. Heroic Skelesaurus? This one is bullshit in its purest state. Tyrantus on turn 1? Sure that's balanced. The worst part is that this fucker gets stronger every expansion because the cards get stronger every expansion, and the proportion of good expensive cards increased.
If you didn't beat those guys when LoE was released, you're fucked.
The secrets are nice, but I still think secrets don't fill Priest playstyle because it's not a tempo class.
Are you saying that a nutkick is not subtle enough.
That would certainly be a unique twist but it wouldn't work gameplay-wise because it could backfire, and WILL backfire if your opponent knows how to play around them.
In French she says "dégagez!" which means "get out". So "get back" sounds close enough.
Next:
ROGUE SECRETS (0 MANA)
"But Cheese! Rogue already has Secrets and they cost 2 mana, not 0!"
Yes, but I started making this series of secrets before K&C, therefore before actual Rogue secrets were released. I thought it makes much more sense for Rogue secrets to cost 0 mana rather than 0 because it fits the combo nature of the class better.
My Rogue secrets are mostly based around keeping tempo.
In addition, I remade Evasion and Cheat Death as 0 mana Rogue Secrets:
Unfortunately I couldn't find any 0 mana effect that would fit Sudden Betrayal.
WARRIOR SECRETS (1 MANA)
Like Paladin secrets, my Warriors secrets cost 1 mana. They are mostly defensive Secrets rather than tempo ones.
Yes, I know two of them are called Last Stand. I fucked up.
WARLOCK SECRETS (4 mana)
Warlock secrets are expension, this is why their effect is powerful and their trigger conditions restrictive to not be easily countered. Warlock secrets are control-oriented.
I tried to think about secrets for Druid; Shaman; and Priest, but they don't feel like secret classes at all.
I guess something with Overloaded Secrets could be strategically nice but sort of complicated UI-wise.
Uh, you don't understand. I'm not proposing that all basic hero powers should be available to all classes, that would be silly. My idea is giving entirely new collectible hero powers (like collectible heroes) to each class.
It would be hard to balance properly, but not impossible. There are people paid for that at Blizzard, and it's not like they never get it wrong even when they're conservative in what they do.
Also the Genn/Baku problem arguably already exist for one of the existing hero power: Life Tap already wraps the entire warlock class. It alone gives it its two historical main archetypes: Zoo and Hand (Ok, Flame Imp and Mountain Giant help too). As long as the new HP avoid that, we're good.
Dalaran Heist gave us the possibility to choose a hero power for our class. Why not bring this to the PvP part of the game?
Here's how I imagine it: Hero powers would become collectible just like other cards. HOWEVER they would not be considered cards properly speaking because they would have a specific slot for them in each deck list. All 9 existing hero powers would be part of the basic set. Then, from time to time, Blizz could give us collectible hero powers as the second class legendary slot for each class, kinda like Quests right now.
Non-basic Hero Powers wouldn't need to have the restrictions of basic ones. They could be passive; have a cost different from 2; have an effect with keywords in them and that is more specific than the basic hero powers which were designed to be versatile; etc... It would also be the occasion to give ping hero powers to classes that don't have one but desparately need one (hi Priest and Warlock).
Blizzard already has part of the code done for that since it's done in Heist. Pain Split and Touch of Bark, for instance, both look like good candicates. On the other hand, Cut-less and The Pact aren't due to the tempo they generate.