Hello everybody and welcome back to another Fan Community Spotlight. As you probably know by now, my favorite places in the Hearthstone community truly is the card making scene and I love seeing exactly what crazy cards people are able to tinker up. Speaking of tinkering, this week features an Artificer class made by Mr.Stupid. This actually isn't the first time this class has been featured on this series either, as I previously looked at the class back at the very beginning of the year, when the class still didn't have very many sets developed for it yet. In those 9 months though, a lot of new cards have been made for the class to justify a new installment on this series and to be inducted as the second returning class to feature.


The Artificer

To give you all a little refresher on the class, its base hero is Gelbin Mekkatorque, whom just like Illidan, features as a card already who would likely receive the Xavius treatment. Also just like Illidan, his original playable card is not very good and the character can be given a larger part of the game.

Your basic Hero Power is Minor Production, which adds a 2/2 Prototron to your hand that costs 2 mana. Upgraded, it becomes Major Production which adds two Prototrons to your hand instead. Prototrons have a similar role to Silver Hand Recruits in Paladin in that there are a number of cards in the class that are specifically synergistic with these Prototrons.

As an Artificer, you're someone who is naturally working with a lot of machinery, taking things apart and putting them back together. The keyword for the class is Upgrade, which allows you to drag the card to your hero to pay its Upgrade Cost to give a card a tune-up.

Now here we go to see what's new in store for Mr.Stupid's Artificer class.


What's been going on in the class since the last interview? How are the new sets like?

Mr.Stupid: "These last two sets have been very fun to make, as I have been playing around a lot with what Artficer is known for. While last year I kept to the class’ main strengths to show my Merc growing, now I am fully exploring the extents to be an Artficer. From Spell Menagerie to Hand Size, things are really heating up for my class."


Did these new sets present any challenges for Artificer? Did it allow you to cover some new ground?

Mr.Stupid: "There have been a few times, especially recently that making cards that fit the theme were hard. This last Miniset for example was particularly difficult to have the cards fit both thematically and mechanically.

Recently I’ve been playing with a lot of ways to play Artficer. Like I reintroduced Elixirs as a main deck and even brought in my most Agro esc archetype yet in the form of Pirates. I’ve also been pushing a bit more spell focused decks instead of the big minions I had as a running theme last year. I made use of the hero power to make sure Art could also keep up board wise while not running too many minions, making them like Druid and Mage."


Are there any other cards you wish to highlight for any reason?

Mr.Stupid: "I want to show off Cruel Tactics and Azsharan Elixir as they are both Shadow spells, something I’ve been slowly introducing to the class as it fits the last two sets, and helps with the Spell Menagerie archetype I was pushing."

I also want to share Alchemister Fitx. He was a cool legendary I made right after the last time i talked about Artficer here, and now I have an even bigger version of him as a payoff to the Elixir Archetype. It even works with the old Fitz, who’s like a good alchemist and mixed into my core set."


Do you have anything behind the scenes you want to share with us? Do you want to share something to come later?

Mr.Stupid: "I have big plans for Artficer next set. Just like how I introduced Elixirs as a major class feature at the tail end of Year of the Phoenix, this last set of the year will come with another new core part of the class. I won’t say much, but it’ll be another way for Artficer to interact with their own hand."


Do you have anything else you want to share with us?

Mr.Stupid: "Artficer is not the only project of mine with big plans. I’m also (with help) making my own year of Hearthstone sets. From my own revamped Core set, to three all new sets that’ll work together to create a cohesive mega set. All with the theme of the Bilgewater and Steamwheedle cartels working together, and eventually competing against eachother to hold major events all over Azeroth, starting with Brewfest! Just make sure you look out for any Advertisements in the future."


So how was this look at the new additions to the Artificer class? You can see everything and more by clicking the banner below. With more sets comes more updates to custom classes, and Artificer will no doubt come up again at some point in the future.