Hearthstone
Custom Expansion - The Great Air Race (WIP)
Well, I’m an impatient person and this isn’t finished by far, but the core cards are done and I’m curious about your feedback. Blizzard will also probably announce the new expansion within a few days and I want to make a point of who had those brilliant ideas first, so...
Ladies and Gentlemen, I proudly present to you my first custom Hearthstone expansion,
The Great Air Race
Now sit back, tighten your seatbelts and make yourself ready, because you are in for a wild ride!
The story:
Our favorite heroes have agreed upon taking a little break from constantly bashing their heads in and chose to participate in The Great Air Race to pass their time instead. It takes place in the Jade Forest on Pandaria and revolves around the Order of the Cloud Serpent, so prepare for Dragons, Pandaren and …
Mounts!
Every class gets a Legendary Mount card to help them win the race. With the exception of Druid I used their WoW class mounts for these. I’m really surprised Blizzard hasn’t walked down this path a long time ago. They are so cool!
Winning The Great Air Race will not only be a matter of speed, but also of endurance. This trait will be illustrated by my custom
New Keyword: Stamina (x)!
But enough of the warm up, let’s go racing! Here are the cards I’ve designed so far:
Mounts
Dragons
Pandaren
Other
As you can see, I didn’t find art for all the WoW stuff I wanted to make cards of. If anyone happens to be able to help me out with this, I’d be very grateful. I’m also open to any kind of feedback. This custom expansion is far from complete and will probably be a long term side project. I’ll happyly adjust the balance of my cards if you have any concerns.
Thanks for reading!
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Well, I’m an impatient person and this isn’t finished by far, but the core cards are done and I’m curious about your feedback. Blizzard will also probably announce the new expansion within a few days and I want to make a point of who had those brilliant ideas first, so...
Ladies and Gentlemen, I proudly present to you my first custom Hearthstone expansion,
The Great Air Race
Now sit back, tighten your seatbelts and make yourself ready, because you are in for a wild ride!
The story:
Our favorite heroes have agreed upon taking a little break from constantly bashing their heads in and chose to participate in The Great Air Race to pass their time instead. It takes place in the Jade Forest on Pandaria and revolves around the Order of the Cloud Serpent, so prepare for Dragons, Pandaren and …
Mounts!
Every class gets a Legendary Mount card to help them win the race. With the exception of Druid I used their WoW class mounts for these. I’m really surprised Blizzard hasn’t walked down this path a long time ago. They are so cool!
Winning The Great Air Race will not only be a matter of speed, but also of endurance. This trait will be illustrated by my custom
New Keyword: Stamina (x)!
But enough of the warm up, let’s go racing! Here are the cards I’ve designed so far:
Mounts
Dragons
Pandaren
Other
As you can see, I didn’t find art for all the WoW stuff I wanted to make cards of. If anyone happens to be able to help me out with this, I’d be very grateful. I’m also open to any kind of feedback. This custom expansion is far from complete and will probably be a long term side project. I’ll happyly adjust the balance of my cards if you have any concerns.
Thanks for reading!
I notice I am confused. Something I believe isn't true. How do I know what I think I know?
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, hpmor.com
I like where this is going in general for the thematic angle. I know that there are art versions of all of those class mounts. You found a few of them, but there should be one for each. For proper flavoring purposes, you might want to keep in mind that the idea behind a Legendary card is that it is named and unique as an individual, not one of many. I'd advise at the very least that you give names to the Cloud Serpent legendaries or dig up some lore names of notable cloud serpents that you can use. Here's a link to an article to give you ideas. Just look under the "notable" section. https://wow.gamepedia.com/Cloud_serpent
The same could be said for the flavoring of the mounts. I love the idea of the mounts that you are working with here, and it fits your Stamina idea well. It can be pretty simple. For example, instead of "Wrathstead", you can make it "The Wrathstead" to indicate that there is only one and that it is unique. I'd also like to point out that Anzu has a stronger connection with arcane magic and the void than with druid powers, so you might want to reflavor that one.
Finally, I'm curious why you opted to make a third version of Alexstraza.
Official Lorekeeper and Spinner of Tavern Tales
Very nice! Cards look balanced and the art is a good fit. But I'd change a few names:
All legendary minions should have unique names, and a lot of yours don't. Also, you do not have to add pandaren to everything with a panda on it, it's mostly clear enough.And you could also drop the "Jade" from your druid card, since most people would still think of an other set by the naem
I really can't find anything to critize except the names, so I really look forward to seeing the rest of the set. Especially the commons and rares, since they are less flashy, but should represent the set as a whole.- and now I now what you could improve: the cards are solid, but mainly the legendary cards play it safe- summon beasts/demons, equip a weapon, etc. - and while that makes it easier to balance, they are also not as interesting as the truly unique effects of a lot of recent legendaries. So maybe try to go for a little bit of crazy.
And as a suggestion: Your set is centered around a race. Up untill now there is little to really showcast this. You could add some cards that make use of first/last. First minion to attack, last spell to be cast in a turn, first hero to drop below 15HP...- this would show some relation to a race, while also encouraging intelligent plays while being easy to understand. (Huh. I think I'd suggest this as theme, should I ever win a competition.)
I would absolutely love to see more of this set. We need more content on this part of the forums. That said, there are a few things that could be polished up. I'll try to give you the quick, rapid-fire version:
Hey anchorm4n! I love it! There is a lot to unpack here, and I just woke up. I'll go through what you posted later when my brain is working and I have time and give you some more thorough input.
First, great keyword to build off of and great flavor! I'm excited!
The biggest thing that stood out to me was seeing Alexstrasza. While yes there are Cloud Serpent Dragons in Pandaria, the Dragon Aspects have nothing to do with the flavor of the set.
If I recall correctly, you have not played WoW. I don't know if it's a game that you would be into playing or not. I stopped playing at the start of BfA, and my life doesn't really allow for the time sink any more. I haven't been paying the closest attention, but I know there are some major changes to the early leveling in WoW with Shadowlands. It honestly might do you some good to pick up the game, and go and play through the MoP expansion to get a feeling for the area, the creatures you would find, and just the overall flavor that you will want to bring into your set. WoW is a major commitment in both time and $, but with the new leveling, it might be easier for you to quickly get to the point that you can explore the area around the Jade Forest where the Order of the Cloud Serpent resides.
An example of a small detail that you might be missing out on by not experiencing the original content:
When I think of the Pandaren Cloud Race and the Order of the Cloud Serpent, I think of the grind of the daily's to get my reputation to exalted so I could even ride one of those amazing beautiful Cloud Serpent Mounts. The daily quests "reveal the decrets of training a cloud serpent to become a loyal mount". You literally pick a Cloud Serpent from an Egg, and hatch and train it overtime to become your mount before you're allowed to ride the Cloud Serpent Mounts. (This has since changed so you can ride cloud serpent mounts without the rep grind. But there are Cloud Serpent Mounts to unlock with the grind.)
There's many other examples of creatures and things around the area. Just a thought that it might be good to go experience the source content first-hand.
I'll dive deeper into what you've created so far later today. Great start! Can't wait to see more!
Hi Anchorm,
I like the idea of your set, but I think that Stamina doesn’t really work, given how HS works. Stamina is basically a start of turn effect, and with all the rush minions we have now those just don’t go off. Maybe if you added a defensive keyword to them like “Steed” that means something like “can’t be attacked by minions the turn they are summoned” or “can’t be attacked while adjacent minions are alive” or “pick a friendly minion without Stealth. This can’t be damaged until it is destroyed”. That way Stamina would have a chance of going off instead of just being another one of the many failed start of turn cards. Also, some of your stamina cards have more than vanilla stats, which breaks the rule of not having more than vanilla stats and a positive effect.
Posting something so soon after I post mine; trying to steal my thunder, eh? lol :P
I don't have much to say about the individual cards, because I like to see the whole picture before I comment on them. Or at least, all 10 of a particular class. I'll come back after you have more :) I like what I see for the most part!
I'm sorry. I had already decided to make this post this weekend when you came out with yours. My first reaction was to postpone my stuff until next weekend, but then I was reminded of the incoming announcement of the new expansion and I definitely wanted to get this out before that. If it's any comfort to you, I don't think I'm any competition to your Custom Class. Your two leagues above my game. I really didn't want to be rude.
I notice I am confused. Something I believe isn't true. How do I know what I think I know?
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, hpmor.com
Thanks to all of you for your super detailed and helpful feedback! It means a lot to me that you seem to like the overall theme. I still consider myself a custom card design novice, so this is a major opportunity to learn something. You are of tremendous help in this.
I'll definitely heed your advice to drop Alex 3.0 (her stamina was one of the first that I came up with and just fitted the character very well) and find names for the legendarys. I'll also keep looking for better art. I'll probably cut the "Pandaren" part in the name of those cards, at least for the minions. It was meant as a compromise between nothing and a new tribe.
The first/last mechanic is a great idea, I'll keep this in mind when I rework the cards with balance issues you pointed out to me. It's true that the race theme still is still missing in the cards. I had initially meant to add a paragraph about potential PVE content like those "survive x turns" encounters. Your suggestion is a way better idea to reflect the theme!
@Xarkkal: Thanks for your advice! I probably lack the time for a meaningful WoW experience, but I did read a lot about this on the Web. Your example of gaining rep being a huge grind was something I actually knew about but haven't found a way to implement yet. I'm looking forward to receiving your detailed feedback, please don't spare me ;-)
I notice I am confused. Something I believe isn't true. How do I know what I think I know?
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, hpmor.com
The "lol :P" at the end was meant to imply I'm poking fun at you; I'm really not bothered at all.
I like the overall flavor and as already mentioned the cohesive art style. Some cards are kinda powercreeping a bit (not literally), for example Pandaren Guardian is definitely a better Shieldmaiden.
One thing i dont like, and at this point it is probably too late, is the new keyword. I really dislike keywords that have (x) attribute in them. Yes, there is Overload, but that has a pretty clean UI. You would need to make something like a mechanic icon at the bottom of minions picture, same as for trigger effects and such, and even then having to constantly hover over minions to check how long until the effect triggers, even more pain in the ass for mobile users ... these kind of mechanics are not meant for Hearthstone. I get wanting to add more complexity, but you need to do it in a HS friendly way, this is not it unfortunately.
All that being said, this is still a custom set, so you can do whatever the hell you want and ultimately, the strife i have with that i suppose doesnt matter in this setting, so good luck with finishing your set! Maybe someone will read this and take it to heart when designing their own set in the future so my rumbling is worth something :)
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Thanks for your thoughts! The issue you are describing is something I actually have put some thought to, but maybe not enough. I stopped at the point where I decided Stamina would work similar to Dormant, reflecting the counting mechanism. But while Dormant minions are easy to spot on the board, Stamina guys would need something to flag them. The easy way out would be to say that I'd introduce a little hour glass at the base of the minion, similar to the lightning bolt for other effects. I'll keep your advice mind for future projects and will try to work around this problem.
I notice I am confused. Something I believe isn't true. How do I know what I think I know?
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, hpmor.com
I always like to see new custom expansions, especialy those that fit with Warcraft lore.
Firstly, good job so far the theme fits HS quite well.
As for the minor issues, apart from those already mentioned (Except the Legendary names - I have to mention this as I play HS because of iconic legendaries that fill up the lore of my decks and I am always sad to see something like [Hearthstone Card (Boogeymonster) Not Found] or Blackhowl Gunspire to waste a precious legendary slot) my only other small problem is in the Keyword's name. Stamina, in my opinion is not intuitive enough, there should be other words that capture it better (something like outlast/survive or whatever).
As for the cards I, too am against using another Alex, but the Jade Serpent Yu'lon might fit your effect quite well.
Also Aggresive Meditation is quite weak, in my opinion, if you compare it to Blessing of Might.
As you are in Pandaria you should mention its other iconic races - Mogu, Jinyu, Hozen, Grummle and so on. I do know that finding art for them is rather a challenge. Maybe this site has something you can use: http://www.blizz-art.com/tag/300/serpent-nuage/
That said, well done and keep the cards coming.
I was also thinking about posting my custom set, but with the expansion reveal today I think I'll wait a little.
I reworked some of the cards based on your feedback, especially targeting the art. I don't want to edit the initial post though, so people can see the mistakes and the changes I've made. Instead, I'll put everything into this post.
Current problems:
1) Still worried about the names of the Mount cards. Right now they received a "the" before their name, but that feels a bit off. Anyone with a better idea?
The Great Air Race
Our favorite heroes have agreed upon taking a little break from constantly bashing their heads in and chose to participate in The Great Air Race to pass their time instead. It takes place in the Jade Forest on Pandaria and revolves around the Order of the Cloud Serpent, so prepare for Dragons, Pandaren and …
Mounts!
Every class gets a Legendary Mount card to help them win the race. With the exception of Druid I used their WoW class mounts for these. I’m really surprised Blizzard hasn’t walked down this path a long time ago. They are so cool!
Winning The Great Air Race will not only be a matter of speed, but also of endurance. This trait will be illustrated by my custom
New Keyword: Stamina (x)!
Protect your Stamina minions and reap amazing rewards! Stamina is basically a fun and interactive version of Dormant. It forces players to pay more attention to their opponent’s board and brings back trading minions as a key element of Hearthstone.
But enough of the warm up, let’s go racing! Here are the cards I’ve designed so far:
Demon Hunter
Druid
Hunter
Mage
Paladin
Priest
Rogue
Shaman
Warlock
Warrior
Neutral
I notice I am confused. Something I believe isn't true. How do I know what I think I know?
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, hpmor.com
Nice to see an update.
For the following mount names I would take inspiration from the Loas of Rastakhan.
DH - Shrieker the Felbroken
Druid - Lunarwing the Owl
Hunter - Wolfhawk the Loyal
Priest - Lightsworn the Seeker
Shaman - Tempest the Raging
Warrior - Bloodthirst the War-Wyrm
For the paladin one I would just stay with Valorous or Valorous the Divine (as steeds in WoW - Invincible mount of Arthas, Steadfast mount of Uther, Reverence mount of Anduin)
I would keep Rogue and Warlock the way they are.
And as for Mage, I do not know you probably should think of a fitting name similalry to Mech legendaries.
I will try to leave some feedback on the new cards later today.
EDIT: Sorry, took longer than expected but here are some of my thoughts (Will continue as soon as possible):
Demon Hunter
Kor'vas Bloodthorn - Although I do not like the idea of expanding highlander decks, I would say that the card falls in line with other similar ones. Bonus points for Kor'vas being a real WoW character.
The Felbroken Shriekerer - Nice easy effect to showcase the new Mechanic. Relatively good card that encourages building slower DHs which is a good thing.
Druid
The Lunarwing Owl - I guess that the Moonfires get the bonus of Spell Damage. If so then it is a strong standalone card that allows you to explore Spell Damage in druid more, something I think would make sense for a druid direction (I also tried to work with Spell Damage Druid archetype). That being said I would like to see more of that for Druid in your expansion.
Jade Sculptor - As for the Jade Sculptor the first option is a nice little discount, but I wonder if 4 damage would not be more balanced for the second one. 5 sounds a little too high, especialy with the Choose one effect attached.
Suprise Attack - Now that is a card I think is a tad too strong. It is esentialy a 1 mana 2/2 Rush or a 2 mana 4/4 and so on. Maybe it would be interesting if it would have higher base mana, but that would probably break the Forbidden cycle of cards. I would at least like to see the Rush removed.
Force of the Forest - I do not think that 4 mana 5/5 would be problematic and 2 3/2 are already proven to be ok for a 4 mana Choose One spell. A nice and simple Druid card.
Balance - A simple card that hides so much possibilites and even tries to encourage different deck building to have fun with. One of my personal favorites so far.
Wisdom of the Forest - I do not have much to say about this card, only that I am not too sure about the name, but maybe the Choose one option names would fill that.
Hunter
The Loyal Wolfhawk - I do understand that by ovestating the minion you try to enable it to trigger its Stamina succesfuly. Yet I do not think that giving Hunters acces to a 3 mana 3/6 Beast with an upside is necessarily a good idea (even as a Hunter main). I would suggest at the very least lower the attack by one.
Pandaren Beastmaster - A quite pleasant card to look at. A nice combination of fitting art and specialized hunter (Beasts) version of a classic Pandaren. Also has quite a few synergies in Hunter already as Dispatch Kodo and that new 1/1 that summon a copy of itself. Would still like to see at least one more in the expansion.
Mage
The Prismatic Disc - Other than the name I do not think that there is anything bad about this card (Maybe you could somehow incorporate Antonidas name as it was his invention). I would like to see a different approach to Mage than Spell Damage though.
Arcane Arts Instructor - A flavorful and simple maybe a bit on the weaker side. As we had a 4/3 that was also an Elemental and did not require another minion. So maybe a 4/4 could be OK.
Mana Surge Wyrm - A nice alternative to the original Mana Wyrm that is not as snowbally in the early game.
Paladin
The Valorous Charger - Good fit for a Paladin. Luckily it is even costed (would fear odd pally in wild).
Deffender of the Weak - The best defense is a good offense, I see. The card looks strong, probably great arena card.
Aggresive Meditation - I still think that the card is too weak. I would at least make it give +4 attack.
Golden Hatchling - Dragon Paladin never realy succeeded. This might help, while also being good as an aggresive tool. Also a nice way to simply showcase a new mechanic.
Priest
The Lightsworn Seeker - I do not like this card. It is overstated and the effect is not interesting enough for a legendary.
Rogue
The Shadowblade - Interesting, strong rogue stealth support card. Should probably be a Beast though.
Bounty Huntress - Flavor-wise it is a fit for Rogue. However I do think it is too weak as a 5 - Cost. Maybe lowering the stats and cost to something like a 3-drop would be better.
Shaman
The Raging Tempest - Shaman already has stron AoE cards, this would just join them. Maybe it would be more interesting to Overload you if it goes off so your opponent can make some more decision making.
Blademaster - It is rather a Warrior card name, maybe somethink like Windwalker would work better. This card is also absurdly dangerous as just a Rockbitter Weapon is enough for a 20 damage. I would like to see this card coming later 6 or 7 mana at least.
Sword Practice - Intersting. While the delayed effect makes it weaker so 1 mana could be ok.
Deep Sea Predator - Bigger Big Game Hunter reprint, okayish card.
Cloud Serpent Conjurer - Back in KoFT there was a similar 5 drop that worked for all minions, so this most likely balanced. However Conjuring sounds more like summoning something or a copy of something. This effect is more necromantic I think.
Warlock
The Wrathsteed - I do not like so much variety of possible outcomes that this card offers. I would like to see a different effect for this one. Also should probably be a Demon.
Warrior
The Bloodthirsty War Wyrm - Another unnecessarily overstatted minion. 4/5 is fair enough. Give the classes alternate ways to protect their minions. Something like Choose a Minion. When it would take damage next turn your Hero takes it instead, or something like that.
Pandaren Fury - A Warrior alternative of [Hearthstone Card (Savage Roar) Not Found]. Simple, but effective.
Guardian of the Vale - Strong, simple, flavorful. Nothing else to say.
Neutral
Fioral - I was realy surprised to find this character at WoW Gamepedia. To be honest I did not know it existed - and given the description it kinda makes sense to be marked as a Beast. The card itself, as it is, would quite likely never see any play. The effect is nice but maybe on an Oasis Snapjaw statline.
Nalak, the Storm Lord - I think I have already mentioned it, but I do not like wide random generation. I would like to see a more unique design for a legendary. Maybe gaining from a selected few, or repeating for playing specified spells, or just something more.
Yu'lon, the Jade Serpent - Cost reduction can be a dangerous think, but right now I can't think of any game breaking combo interactions, so I guess it is fine. Homewer thinking more about Yuľon - she would make, from lore perspective, a good Deathrattle: Go Dormant minion. And maybe she could heal your Hero whenever she awakens or something. Just an Idea.
Onyx Egg - A good addition to all the other Egg cards. I like it.
Rockdrake - Nice early game dragon with a little bit of healing is a welcomed sight, I guess.
Moving Bar - If by switching sides means joining the opponent then this card is quite an interesting one. Making it basicaly Unkillable by minion combat, except by giving it Rush and letting the player compete who could take more advantage of it or waste a spell or a Battlecry to destroy it.
Egg Flitcher - Probably just an anti-egg tech card. Serves the common neutral slot quite well.
Good job and keep the cards coming.
Okay, I have left my personal thoughts on all of your cards in my other post.
Please, if anything sounds weird or rude - it is not meant to sound that way - I am not good at writting even in my language (which is not English, of course).
The expansion looks great so far and I would like to see more of what ideas you have in store.
And do not be a Blizzard and include some dwarves. :)
Thank you so much for your kind words and all the work you've put in that post! Sadly I don't have the time to adjust the cards and make more cards, but I'll make sure to come back to your post. So much great constructive criticism!
I notice I am confused. Something I believe isn't true. How do I know what I think I know?
Harry James Potter-Evans-Verres, hpmor.com
I am glad you find them helpful.
I'll keep an eye for this, should you decide to continue.