Hearthstone
Custom Battlegrounds tribe: Totems!
Once some time ago some person mentioned somewhere that Totems might become a tribe in Battlegrounds one day. The thought really excited me so for the past few hours I have been theorizing what it might look like.
Totems by themselves generally don't do too much. They are inanimate objects after all. Totems have higher Health and lower Attack than the average minion, and most of them have some other ability to make them relevant in combat. They do take some time to get going as all of their most powerful synergy cards are in tiers 5 and 6, but they have a lot of potential.
Without further ado, lets get into the cards!
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
Tier 4
Tier 5
And finally, Tier 6!
What do you think? Is the flavor good? Is it well balanced? Could it be competitive? And does Totem of the Elements have too many stats? (I went back and forth a lot about that).
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Once some time ago some person mentioned somewhere that Totems might become a tribe in Battlegrounds one day. The thought really excited me so for the past few hours I have been theorizing what it might look like.
Totems by themselves generally don't do too much. They are inanimate objects after all. Totems have higher Health and lower Attack than the average minion, and most of them have some other ability to make them relevant in combat. They do take some time to get going as all of their most powerful synergy cards are in tiers 5 and 6, but they have a lot of potential.
Without further ado, lets get into the cards!
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
Tier 4
Tier 5
And finally, Tier 6!
What do you think? Is the flavor good? Is it well balanced? Could it be competitive? And does Totem of the Elements have too many stats? (I went back and forth a lot about that).
Carrion, my wayward grub.
I think regular Totems having an innate Attack stat above zero is weird, especially a high one. Infusing them with power such they can now inflict damage (like Totemic Surge), damaging in a roundabout way (Serpent Ward), or being a Totem construct (Totem Golem) makes sense to me, but a regular ol' Totem generally just sits there and provides its effect while remaining inanimate. I know Searing Totem exists, but that's kind of the exception, not a standard. So...yeah, from a flavor standpoint I just don't buy a stationary Totem being a 7/7 or a 9/9. Sorry :(
Disregarding that opinion, I think you put a lot of effort into this and most of it looks good. I like Dizzy Totem in particular, because you could seriously punish your opponent with a high-Attack minion bouncing its damage off the Totem. Other than that, I think Totem of the Elements definitely has too much going on, and in Tier 4 you spelled "Wielder" wrong.
Thank you for your feedback! I fixed the spelling mistake on Totem Wielder. As for Totems having an attack value, I tried to avoid that for the most part, but sometimes you need your minions to be able to attack. On Wind Totem, I felt obliged to give him some attack since he is tier 1 and I didn't want him to be useless turn 1. Dragon Totem has an attack value, but it can't attack. It can damage you with magic if you get close, but it can't go out and attack you. Both of the T-6 Totems can attack regularly, but they are T-6 and I want them to feel powerful. Power-Infusing Totem is the only one I don't have an excuse for. If people want I can change it to say "Can't Attack" and maybe increase it's health by one or two points.
For any of the Totems, I could give them 0 attack but then give them an ability to deal damage to illustrate how they can still kill things but through magic and not physical powers, but why not just give them attack to keep things simple?
I am willing to adjust Power-Infusing Totem and Wind Totem if I need to. But I don't want to change the T-6 Totems or Dragon Totem.
Carrion, my wayward grub.
That's a perfectly reasonable defense. The gameplay being coherent needs to trump the "mind's eye" seeing what it wants to see, and you are right in-that it's a lot simpler to just give them an Attack stat. I don't like the idea of a stationary Totem that's stronger than Alexstrasza - that's just super weird to me - but Battlegrounds is, well, Battlegrounds. It's open to weird stuff.
*shrugs* I might be the only one bothered by it.
Nice effort and i get where ur comming from, but Totems are just bad tribe for battlegrounds. It doesnt make sense for them to attack, i know you already explained yourself, but still.
Also, like anything but the Tier6 stuff is super weak, you could not run that composition and expect to get to the last tier, let alone win.
Another thing is there would have to be a lot totems to populate the tribe, since now only 3 tribes can be in one game. I can see it being like a neutral one off or something, but not a whole thing for BG.
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I made some alternatives for Wind Totem and Power-Infusing Totem so that they won't have a base attack value. I also decided to give Totem of the Elements Reborn so that he has 4 keywords for the 4 elements, and I also gave him -3/-3 to compensate.
@Sinti, Do you have any recommendations for which cards to buff and how?
Carrion, my wayward grub.
Like all of them :D Just imagine your line-up, ok? How are you killing anything? Maybe in first few rounds, when minions have single digit health. Totems having 0 attack also means they are not damaging enemies when they are targeted, being free pickings most of the time too. I guess you could/would pick other stuff alongside them and picked only specific totems at higher tiers, but i dont think that would work. The problem is the 0-attack, you can give them any ability you like, but if they are free pickings, they are going to suck. And that is exactly my point, totems do not attack, they are just a bad tribe for BG.
Maybe if Amalgam was brought back, then totem synergy could be build mainly around that, but it would obviously make every other tribe that much stronger as well.
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I updated the cards and added a new one, Expert Totem Crafter, which can help you amp up your Totems and also give your board a bit of stability.
One card I thought about adding was Thunder Bluff Valiant, but I decided not to because of all of the Passive Hero Powers. Do you think he would be a good inclusion?
Carrion, my wayward grub.
If I recall correctly it shoots fire at things so that's why it has attack without being infused or a construct. It's just a totem with a flame thrower. You can tell how it attacks a bit easier in the full art for it.
Self proclaimed good at battlegrounds