Hearthstone
The Trials Within Us - A Custom Expansion...Reboot!
A lifetime ago, I made a custom Hearthstone expansion concept called The Trials Within Us, which was about overcoming personal adversity to achieve greatness. Each class would embody a flaw of some kind - Doubt, Arrogance, Fear, etc. - and that in turn would be related to a story from Warcraft lore. In The Burdens of Shaohao animated video series, Emperor Shaohao gained enlightenment and saved Pandaria from The Great Sundering by overcoming the Sha - manifestations of negative emotions - that burdened his soul and held him back.
The main selling point in terms of gameplay were the Trials, which function like reverse-Quests: the spell would provide you a Start of Game benefit, in exchange for an ongoing and permanent Burden you must deal with for the rest of the game.
If the title didn't give it away, I am brainstorming the notion of rebooting and overhauling the set for the modern age, and have put together some pieces to share with you. It's not much currently, because I'm throwing out most of it for being too old/weak, but feedback is welcome: turns out, I still enjoy the process of card-creation, and just might keep this up for a bit...in-between work, depression, and other obligations, of course.
For those who don't remember, Trial cards are Legendary spells with no Mana cost, as they are cast immediately when the game begins. They do not appear in your mulligan, are removed from your deck afterward, and cannot be generated in any capacity. The Burdens take the form of a black gem, like the orange gem for Quests: you don't hold them in your hand or interact with them directly.
I'll put what I have in class order, which now includes Death Knight and Demon Hunter!
The Death Knight
The Death Knight's Sha is Sorrow: Enslaved by the Arch-Lich, some Death Knights held onto their morals even as their bodies betrayed them. There would be no release from this cursed existence: they could never make up for their sins.
Story Legendary: Sir Zeliek. So strong was his faith that he could use the Light even after being turned into a Death Knight. Forced to become one of the Four Horsemen, elite guard of Kel'Thuzad. He would suffer relentlessly, unwittingly putting former friends and family to the sword and seeing them rise again as members of the Scourge.
Deck Archetype: Exploiting the Start of Game payout via "Summon a copy of this" effects like Shambling Zombietank, to quickly hit the 4-minion requirement. Reborn allows for you to trade whilst keeping the correct total.
The Demon Hunter
The Demon Hunter's Sha is Anger: Hardened by pain, novice Demon Hunters use their anger to steel their will and hone their body. Only a select few can survive the initial training intact.
Story Legendary: Leotheras, Blind Rage. Kael'Thas sent Illidan five blood elves to become potential Demon Hunters. Only one succeeded: three died, while Leotheras was driven mad by the horrible visions he saw. He fled the compound before being captured by the naga of Lady Vashj. Some say he was possessed by a literal demon.
Deck archetype: Big Spells, that summon high-Health Taunts or inflict damage without relying on a board of wee minions (that would otherwise be killed by the debuff).
The Druid
The Druid's Sha is Fear: A dark force seeks to consume the Emerald Dream from within. When a mortal has become corrupted by the Nightmare, there is no return; only death will set them free.
Story Legendary: Xavius, Nightmare Lord. The first of the satyrs, Xavius was transformed by Sargeras, the Destroyer when Queen Azshara sided with the Burning Legion. Despite this, Xavius remained a servant of the Old Gods, who eventually pushed him to corrupt Ysera and the Emerald Dream from within.
Deck Archetype: "Feral" Druid, attacking with your hero. Minions clearing the way so your attacks can go Face. Lashing out with Windfury, while recovering with Lifesteal.
The Hunter
The Hunter's Sha is Hatred: Her desire for vengeance pushes Alleria beyond the Dark Portal. She will come to know a thousand years of war, in the Twisting Nether.
Story Legendary: Alleria of the Void. Older sister of Sylvanas and Vereesa, she led an expedition into the Twisting Nether, only for a thousand years to pass from their perspective. She returned to Azeroth with her Army of the Light, to take on the Burning Legion as the first of the void elves.
Deck Archetype: A Hero Power-focused "sniper" fantasy, spreading shots to multiple enemies at once. Eat your heart out, Legolas.
The Mage
The Mage's Sha is Gluttony: Reliant upon the power of the Sunwell for centuries, the "Blood Elves" are addicted to magic. What lengths will they go to sate their appetite?
Story Legendary: Kael'Thas the Fel. So desperate to free the blood elves from magic addiction, Kael'thas Sunstrider sided first with the naga and their master Illidan for aid; later, he turned on them to join the Burning Legion, with promises of the power necessary to save his people.
Deck Archetype: Deathrattle Big Spell Mage. Purposefully allow your weak minions to die to leech their magical energy, thereby fueling your spells.
The Paladin
The Paladin's Sha is Doubt: Enslaved by the Iron Horde, their leader lost, her people betrayed; Yrel will take it upon herself to lead the draenei into the Light. But is she truly worthy of such a task?
Story Legendary: Yrel, Light of Hope. High Exarch Yrel hails from an alternate world dominated by the Iron Horde, seemingly doomed to suffer a horrible fate. Instead, she rose to prominence after the Alliance came to help defeat Garrosh's rebellion, leading her people against their tormentors.
Deck Archetype: 1-Versus-Many control, expressing the fantasy of being an unstoppable badass against the forces of evil.
The Priest
The Priest's Sha is Arrogance: "I consume the essence of the weak and foolish," the blade whispers in your mind. "You're not weak...are you?" Only the mad would dare wield such an artifact.
Story Legendary: Black Blade Xal'atath. Xal'atath is a sentient weapon said to be a claw of Y'Shaarj itself. Known to speak lies and drive people to madness. Eventually freed from the dagger by possessing a dead elf, she made a pact with N'Zoth. The primary antagonist of the latest World of Warcraft expansion, more details are unknown.
Deck Archetype: Shadow Face Priest, using your Hero Power in a race to win before you kill yourself.
The Rogue
The Rogue's Sha is Zeal: The Defias Brotherhood want what they're owed...but ambition will be their undoing. Revolutions demand attention, and that's exactly what they'll get.
Story Legendary: Vanessa VanCleef. Daughter of the former Defias Brotherhood leader, she eventually lead the organization in its efforts against the nobles of Westfall. Much later, she would put down her swords and poisons, helping to form the Breadbasket Guild to aid in the revitalization of the common people.
Deck Archetype: Coin Control Rogue, using Coins to trigger interesting effects beyond simple Mana-cheating.
The Shaman
The Shaman's Sha is Despair: Broken and lost, nightmares of his failure haunt the fallen Paladin Nobundo. The Light would not hear his cries; who would come to the aid of the former draenei and his people?
Story Legendary: Farseer Nobundo. A member of the "Broken", having become deformed and losing his connection to the Light, Nobundo prayed for guidance. He was eventually heard, but not by the Light: the Wind came to him, offering a connection to the elements and a way out of his despair.
Deck Archetype: Frost and Nature spells to stall/remove threats before the Frozen copies become a problem. Minions that don't benefit from being copied.
The Warlock
The Warlock's Sha is Violence: Binding his soul to the Burning Legion, Gul'dan will know power and blood as Darkness Incarnate. The Legion is infinite; their tolerance for failure is not.
Story Legendary: Kil'jaeden, Lord of Flame. Second in command of the Burning Legion under the Dark Titan Sargeras, the Destroyer, and creator of the undead Scourge. He was purposed with recruiting new allies to the Legion, and has held sway over several prominent characters over the years.
Deck Archetype: Self-Destruction, not of Health like normal but of one's other resources. Blowing up your Mana Crystals, burning your hand, destroying your board; etc. Turn-and-burn until you win, or the Burning Legion runs out of patience.
The Warrior
The Warrior's Sha is Madness: Voices haunt one's mind from all sides, yearning to break free from the shackles of sanity. Giving in could put this world in great peril; the level of destruction would be...cataclysmic.
Story Legendary: Deathwing, Worldbreaker. Neltharion fought alongside his dragon siblings to keep Galakrond, the Unbreakable from consuming the world. Becoming the Aspect of the Earth, he would grow to resent the task placed on him, giving the Old Gods a chance to corrupt the black dragon with promises of freedom.
Deck Archetype: Dragons and Fire, but also creeping insanity before surrendering to the madness and letting one's rage burst forth.
Leave a Comment
You must be signed in to leave a comment. Sign in here.
Coin usage for Rogue might be hell of a competition to design, balance and playability tho it makes me think about it and i tihkn i found kind of a solution.
When it comes to coin cards like Wishing Well, even though i like them, it is hard to make a viable deck with them because you only have 2x powerhouse cards in your deck so you need to hold it on mulligan or you need a tutor card for it or a lot of card draws to get it which also incompatible with coin hoarding.
Coin support-ish cards like Pyrotechnician it is both overpowered and bad (if you have no luck with random spells). Bad because you fill your hand and burn your own cards and if you get useless spells you have a full hand with crap, overpowered because you are also getting mana while you are triggering the card itself.
My solution is a keyword, something like tribute(x) or loan(x) or something means payment(x) which is a keyword like Spellburst but it doesn't trigger only once and spends all temporary mana when triggered.
Tribute(x) - After you play (x) coins, this effect triggers and you lose (x) temporary mana.
A simple example; or sth like this;
[img]https://i.imgur.com/BqBeek5.png[/img]
Unpopular Opinion Incarnate
That is an interesting idea; thanks for sharing with examples. I'm not sure what to do yet with the Rogue, in-part because the set was pretty weak for most everybody compared to now, and Wishing Well + the other Coin cards tread the ground I was standing on originally. You're right, though: having a hand full of Coins (or other junk) without your payoffs feels terrible.
OMG, OMG. You finally did it! This is one of my favorite thing I ever made by someone else that isn't me and you finally give it a revamp! The DK and DH sets have perfect theme and would slot in absolutely perfectly. Your set inspire me a lot during the time it was created and I hope you will manage to finish it. I will leave feedback as much as I can whenever you update!
Yeah, I blame you for taking up my weekend with this lmao :D I was inspired to work on it because of your message, instead of playing Black Myth: Wukong like I was 'supposed' to for a review.
I'm not a fan of the current iteration for the Warrior's Sha, so I'm okay with reworking it yet-again. Struggling to come up with a fitting effect for "madness"; it originally had Mayor Noggenfogger-esque shenanigans going on heh.
Edit: I *think* I figured out a path for the Sha of Madness, shuffling more Vision of Doom spells into players' decks. More for Deathwing to blow up, but still messing with the opponent. Early brainstorming has me believing there'll be ways for the Warrior to burn them, mitigating damage whilst gaining bonus effects.
I think almost every druid deck would play The Emerald Nightmare in its current state. If I understand correctly, this attack doesn't disappear off of your turn, so even without the other benefits, it effectively says "whenever a minion attacks your hero, deal 4 damage to it."
Aggressive decks would love this card because of the aformentiomed defense against other aggro, and requiring you to attack every turn isn't much of a downside when going face costs you nothing. For those decks, it might as well say "deal 2 damage to the enemy hero every turn."
I haven't made custom cards in a while, but I think if you want to make this less problematic while keeping the flavor, you can have the attack only be on your turn, and require the hero to attack a minion every turn (if possible). Maybe reduce the attack bonus or remove the double damage to minions at that point, since 4 damage can kill a lot of things, especially in the early game.
Thanks for the feedback!
It is supposed to turn off - I just ran out of room on the card lol. The Trial also said +1 Attack originally but I buffed it, concerned it was too weak. I can always change it back 🙂
I double check everything and after the hype die down there is some minor wording tweak that needed to be fix.
Thanks for going through it :)
I genuinely think if that is how Zeliek is intended to work it would be way too weak for a archetype supporting Lengendary. If you intend to keep it that way I think having it be an Epic would be better. If you want it to be a Lengedary I think buffing it to also summon additional copies would be more appropriate
Okay, now you explain what you intend for the DK it made more sense. But I do think it might need some rewording from "forever suffer" to something like "forever redeeming for their sins".
If that is your intention for the Sha you can change the wording into something like No other card or effect can target heroes.
If that is your base wording for Failure's Toil then I can't really say anything. So I concede to that.
Okay, I think I hit on everything that has been mentioned so far, including a reworked iteration of The Emerald Nightmare which I forgot about. Speaking of:
You can knock the Windfury as being not-kosher 'cause "Windfury is a Shaman keyword", but then I'd ask why Goldwing exists. I'm implying here with the Windfury and the "must attack" clause that your hero is lashing out at enemies out of fear; therefore, it feels appropriate enough for me. I'm not inclined to remove it, because I really like my Druid of the Nightmare and the general Windfury vs Lifesteal choice. That will probably reappear in a different form on another card or two.
First draft of the Druid set is done - I'm pretty happy with it at the moment. Terror Scorpion is the main one I could see myself replacing.
I'm sure someone will knock me for the Windfury, Lifesteal, and/or the Shadow spells, but as mentioned in the post above I think they're flavorful. Of the various concepts that haven't yet been in the game, a Nightmare Druid set was always one of my favorites to fantasize about, along with Solo Paladin.
Also, I didn't intend for the Mana costs to flow downward with rarity, but it happened anyway lol.
If this card works like how I think it is, Disturbed Dream is really insane. Druid isn't supposed to have good removal. If this card take control of minion that was "freshly summoned", then it need to be nerfed to at least 6 mana, maybe even 7 due to how easy it is to use. If it doesn't and it is more conditional than I thought, it still need to be at least 4 or 5 mana.
The Windfury stuff I think is fine. The developers have printed the Bonus Effect stuffs before, which include Windfury for a variety of classes like Rogue, Paladin, Mage, Hunter etc.
That is it's intended function - I guess I got too hung up on the idea that you have to time it to get what you want, and can never take a minion that'll be immediately available to use. That was the second card I was sketchy about lol; I can fix it later.
Follow Through is confusing to me. It's not possible to give your hero Attack on the start of your turn except through the Trial meaning that the effect will only ever give you +1 Attack on your next turn if you use the Trial and nothing if you don't use it. The second Attack buff reads as though it's permanent, maybe that's the balancing factor?
Lost Bearserker also seems incredibly weak since it's always a 0/4 on all of your opponent's turns, so they can just freely kill it on their turn before you can attack with it.
Follow Through is supposed to "remember" what your Attack value is after the spell is cast, then give it back to you the following turn. The name suggests you're maintaining momentum through the first swing; I'd call it Momentum like before if that name wasn't now taken lol
I don't know how to phrase Lost Bearserker, but he is supposed maintain his Attack value until your following turn. Maybe that 1-Cost Naga whose name escapes me would make for better wording.
Edit: The Paladin set is "complete"; feel free to prove me wrong via feedback lol
Paladin set is looking pretty decent. I have comments about two particular cards:
Edit: At some point I'll incorporate Spoilers, given the added length provided by each set as they're introduced. Really tired right now so it'll have to wait for another day.
The Paladin set after update is great. But Divine Storm seems to cost a little too few mana. Paladin isn't supposed to have as strong as board clear as other control class like Warrior, Priest or Mage. So I think the cost would be better at 6 mana.
Shaman is also missing its Sha, unless you were planning for that?
The Shaman's Sha is the "Besieged by Despair" spell. Similarly, the "Revel in Violence" spell is the Sha for the Warlock. They maintain the 6-Cost and the Epic gem requirements, and name-drop their respective conditions.
For the Shaman in particular, I like the art too much to forgo using it; the problem is that it wouldn't work in the minion portrait at all.
Having seen The Great Dark Beyond's set in full, I am not as passionate about working on this as I was initially. Farseer Nobundo, Yrel Beacon of Hope, Kil'jaeden; having to "compete" with the official cards so soon after I started this back up is frustrating and disheartening. There's even a Paladin card about controlling exactly 1 minion, Celestial Aura! Like, come on now.
I might keep working on this, but it'll be a hot minute to get my gears turning again.
I feel very unfortunate for you. All I can say is that your expansion is more narrative based and the Burning Legion stuffs are still just a small part of your set so you might want to focus on the parts that inspire you.