Boom Labs I.T. Division
Boom Labs I.T. Division is a straight-to-Wild custom Mini-Set, following the design philosophy of Beatdoof's Communion of the Ahn'qiraj and Hii's The Dalaran Heist. This means its cards will try to expand and synergize with the main expansion, but will have a more modern power level. The main difference with these sets is that I've decided to include a bunch of Demon Hunter cards: since this set goes straight to Wild, I thought there was no reason keeping the poor Illidan appart.
As the name suggest, the flavor is heaviliy inspired by I.T. and computer science, so expect to find a lot of references to this field of technology.
Mechanically, this expansion will introduce some twists over the main ideas expored in Boomsday, which was a personal favorite of mine despite its low power level. This includes Magnetic, Projects, Omega cards and even a small reference to Legendary spells. Besides that, there's also a bunch of card draw and disruption effects, which were simply derived from the flavor of the Mini-Set.
Finally, this set would be released with a balance patch that nerfs Tunnel Trogg, as it would be unhealthy in combination with Electronics Project. Blizzard has already done this several times, the most notable being Dreadsteed.
Show Spoiler
And after this nerf, it's still much better than Surging Tempest.
Tokens:
Flavor explanation
- Virtual Reality Project: Puting on some goggles that let you see stuff that isn't there really fits Demon Hunter, and the artwork just improves this feeling. The effect feels more in-line with Augmented Reality than with Virtual Reality, though.
- Binding Dependencies: A software dependency is when a module of your program requires another module or external code to function. Remeber when you needed to install a plugin to play Flash video games? Well, it's something like that.
- Pesky Bug: A hero having Attack during their opponent's turn? Hearthstone must be bugged!
Flavor explanation
- Omega Harvester: This one hasn't much going on. Heh.
- Ecosearch: A reference to Ecosia, the search engine that plants trees.
- Slithering Python: The name is a reference to the programming language Python, whose name was in turn a reference to Monty Python. The effect, however, is based on the fact that snakes eat their prey whole.
Tokens:
Goblin Bomb
Flavor explanation
- I-l0v3-U Bot: A reference to a famous malware called ILOVEYOU, whose effect on your computer wasn't very loving. Just like this little bastard's effect on your opponent's face.
- Creepy Webcrawler: Web crawelers are bots that index the Internet, making search engines faster and more effective.
- Omega Blaster: Another one that isn't based on anything in particular. It's the last one, I promise.
Flavor explanation
- Knowledge Analytics: Refers to the process of extracting meaningful knowledge out of raw data.
- Big Datamental: A reference to big data. I thought Secrets fit with the loads-of-information theme.
- Firewall: Firewalls are systems that control traffic going inside a network or a computer. I like how the effect makes sense for the computing thing and for a literal wall made of fire.
Flavor explanation
- A.I. Project: In real life, most Artificial Intelligence isn't related with actual robots, but in fiction it usually is.
- Cybernetic Crusader: The name is a small reference to Internet activism.
- Turing Test: The Turing Test tries to discern if an agent is an actual person or an A.I. This card makes something if it detects the minion is a Mech.
Flavor explanation
- Glitchfiend: A glitch is a short-lived error. Just like this card, which makes your HP do the opposite thing for one use.
- Man in the Middle: MitM is a type of cyberattack in which a malicious agent reads the messages exchanged between two other agents, typically, a client and a server.
- Neural Network: In computing, neural networks are a very complex form of machine learning, which has proven to be one of the most effective. For more information about machine learning, check Warrior :)
Flavor explanation
- Cybercoin: A reference to cryptocurrency and its high price volatibility. Don't invest on cryptos, kids.
- Deep Web Pirate: Just a regular Internet pirate that downloads stuff for free. The Deep Web thing is just to make it sound better.
- Cracker Captain Ada: A very good cracker can steal important information (in this case, Legendary spells). Her name is a reference to Ada Lovelace, considered the first programmer in history.
Flavor explanation
- Electronics Project: Electronics are the basis of computers. You know, ones and zeros and all that stuff.
- Divide and Conquer: An algorithmic strategy that breaks a complex problem into simpler parts to solve it.
- Mosfet the Flux Twister: His name references the MOSFET transistors, which have been used to develop some types of electronic circuits.
Flavor explanation
- Background Daemon: Daemons are background processes that execute stuff without you noticing. Funnily enough, Daemon and Demon aren't the same, but since most people confuse them, I gave it to Warlock. Oh, and if you didn't notice, this guy is an Imp.
- Trojansteed: A trojan horse is a type of malware that hides inside a legitimate progam. Like when you download Shrek from the Internet and it steals your bank account. This pesky steed hides inside the card your opponent drew.
- Re-curse-ion: In programming and mathematics, recursion refers to a function that uses itself in its definition. As in the Fibonacci sequence being defined as fib(x) = fib(x-1) + fib(x-2).
Flavor explanation
- Ping of Death: A very old cyberattack in which a very big message was sent into the network, collapsing it. The effect is just a pun on the fact that 1 damage effects are usually refered to as pings.
- Unbearable Spambot: Spambots are programs that send spam. Quite straightforward.
- Learning Machine: A pun on machine learning, a field of Artificial Intelligence in which programs refine their behaviour as time goes on. Like the YouTube algorithm learning your tastes or Google Translate making better translations over the time.
NEUTRAL
Flavor explanation
- Quantum Processor: Quantum Computing is a mostly theoretic field of computer science which uses the wacky laws of quantum physics to work. The advances in this have been very modest so far.
- Cryptographer: Cryptography is a field of computing which makes information harder to decode for malicious agents.
- Omega Android: Its name slightly references Android, the mobile O.S.
- Deidos, the Saboteur: A reference to DoS and DDoS cyberattacks, which disable internet services by overloading them with messages.
- Kernelmeister Ingrid: Kernel is the German word for core. In computing, it refers to the core of the operating system.
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