Welcome all readers and happy Valentine day. In the spirit of the holiday I present to you the expansion Love is in the Air!
Set Introduction
Love is in the Air is a 135 cards with the overall theme is Love! While the expansion is released on Valentine Day, it will not only focus on romantic love, but all kinds of Love! From love between parents and child, brothers and sisters, to friend and comrades and pets. Or even the unhealthy sides of love like obsession and dependency!
Note: The expansion is created with the assumption that the Core set is the same but the previous year expansion has been rotated out.
What would be a better way to introduce the audience to the set than with a free Legendary? And we got just the right one to kick off the new expansion:
Calphrodite is a very powerful mid-range Legendary that will allow for some crazy swing turn in the mid game. Her transformation nature also represent the heavy card-generation expansion and the diversity of love that will be the main theme of the expansion. Her name is a reference to the Greek goddess of love Aphrodite and Aphrodite's Roman counterpart Venus.
Keywords and Mechanic
There is only one new keyword this expansion but there is a returning keyword from our old friend the Boomsday Project:
Magnetic need no introduction. It's one of the mechanic from the Boomsday Project. However, it is refitted here to be the way machine and our newly introduced Allie Race Mechagnome express their love, and is almost exclusively seen on Warrior cards.
Devote is very simple: It is a reverse Acolyte of Pain effect: Instead of being triggered by you taking damage, the minion or even the hero themselves are so hurt by something else taking damage that they trigger an effect! Because what is love if not affection for something else and the emotion that arise when they are hurt? Do note that any Devote effect that deal direct damage will not trigger itself as to avoid infinite loop and thus unfun scenario or balance breaking nightmares. Any Devote effect by minion will last until the minion or the other target is destroyed, but any Devote effect by spell will only last until the end of the caster's turn.
While only two keywords to be noted, another significant mechanic of the expansion are Love Cards. They are 1 mana spell that create resources and they themselves can only be generated by certain cards. Fitting the diversity and spectrum of love, each class will have a different Love cards that they will generate that will hint at the Legendary cards that they will receive. If a card generate a Love card, they will generate the Love card of your respective class regardless of the original class they came from unless said otherwise.
The Love cards are as follow, sorted alphabetically by the class they are from:
Demon Hunter:
Demon Hunter in this expansion will focus on the Devote keyword itself, with the Legendaries both being minions which is a huge difference from the other classes (one Legendary minion and one Legendary spell) and both being Illidan followers, signaling the Love Between Comrades and with their leader Illidan. Another theme they will have is the merging of Demon and Murloc - the first were pretty prominent while the latter has some minions in their class like Furious Felfin in Hearthstone and other Murloc in World of Warcraft like Murgulis
Druid
Druid for this expansion will of course focus on their Love for Nature, with their Legendaries all both protectors of Nature. Their cards this expansion focus on swarming the board with Wisps to protect Nature and buffing up the Beasts that inhabit the natural world that they cherish. They are also the only class to have a Hero Card this expansion, as oppose to the other classes having one Legendary minion and one Legendary spell
Hunter
The Legendary Hunter cards this expansion will focus on Sibling's Love, most specifically the extremely complicated relationship between Sylvanas and Alleria Windrunner. The rest of their cards will be Deathrattle themed to support Sylvanas and their Love cards while also have a small weapon theme as befitting of a class using a bow and arrow in a holiday famous for another bow user Cupid.
Mage
Mage Legendaries will focus on the Love Between Mother and Daughter, specifically the extremely complicated relationship between Jaina and her mother Katherine. The rest of their cards focus on fresh interaction between Spell and minions, whether from minions benefitting from Spell Damage while discouraging you from casting spells or from Elemental minions and spells.
Paladin
Paladin Legendary and theme will focus on a darker side of love, Anger at losing someone. The class has many cards that will allow them to deal swift retribution to the enemy that killed their minions, whether it is buffs, card draws to replace them or board clear. The class will also have Silver Hand support to have fodder to activate these effects.
Priest
Priest's Legendary will focus on Fatherly Love, more specifically the relationship between Anduin and his father Varyan, with Anduin struggling to live up to Varian's legacy and duty to protect the people of Stormwind against his peaceful nature, as symbolize by his card set focus on "Can't attack" minions and Silence his own minion effects.
Rogue
Rogue's Legendary and theme will focus on a darker side of love, specific the Love Between Criminals and Outlaws. They will have many cards that reference both Criminal Activities borne out of love or assist by love, like their Legendary outlaw couple Connie and Blyde, based on the outlaw couple Bonnie and Clyde. And for the adults out there, there will be reference to "adult business" in their set. Their set will focus on card generation and Coin generation.
Shaman
Shaman main theme and Legendary will be Accepting in Love, with the class accept and even empowered by the diversity in minion type they will receive. They also have an Elemental theme to their spells and minions.
Warlock
Warlock, befitting their dark nature, will have another darker side of love: The Unhealthy Love. Many of their cards reference the dark dependency of love and their two Legendaries will reference the infamous Betrayal of Gul'dan to his tribe and mentor Ner'Zhul.
Warrior
And last but certainly not least, Warrior will have their card set focus on Love of Machine, specifically the question of how does sentient robots (which exist in Warcraft universe) and people who replaced their body with machine parts express love. Well, the answer is obvious: By attaching themselves with Magnetic of course! Of course, they will also normal ways of expressing their affection, with Devote cards to be another way.
Neutral
Thank you so much for your attention. Leave your feedback and balance suggestion if any.
