Welcome to part 1 of my custom Hearthstone year. - Year of the Snake
The first set, The Eldritch Fate is a set all about Lazul. She is at the helm of the expansion, laying all of her predictions down with her tarot deck. She is able to Foretell the future with the new set keyword. When you play a card with Foretell, you have the option to place a card from your hand on top of your deck for an optional bonus.
It's up to you to decide if it's better to have the knowledge of what tragedy lies ahead of you, or if you'd rather not know and live peacefully not knowing what might unfold.
The biggest part of the set though is the Major Arcana. All 22 of the Major Arcana have been adapted into Hearthstone cards - 2 Legendaries for each class.
Death Knight
Death Knight's Major Arcana are the The Hanged Man and Death, signaling one self-sacrifice and a new perspective, and the end of a new cycle into the start of a new one.
Developer commentary
Death Knight's Major Arcana are The Hanged Man and Death. Death is a fairly obvious connection, but The Hanged Man is an interesting one. Hanging is typically represented as a form of death by execution, hanging one by the neck. Most depictions of the actual tarot card however depict the man hanging by his foot instead with a blank expression on his face to imply that he is there on his own volition rather than there being any corporal punishment.
As a tarot card, the most common associations with The Hanged Man are one of self-sacrifice and the ability to remain calm amidst all of the chaos when you cannot control the situation, and to see everything from a new perspective (in the case of the man, that would be quite literal since he is upside-down). Death is obviously associated with… death, usually in the figurative sense in that it represents the end of a phase of your life. Sometimes a "death" is a liberation because it's representing you letting go of something that's haunting you. This is why the Grim Reaper's horse in the card is white, contrasting the typical dark, personification of death.
When translating the two into Hearthstone cards, I leaned into the theme of self-sacrifice for The Hanged Man, and also may or may not have stolen a card design from another person… (if you're reading this, TheFriendlyEnemy, I am sorry). Bolvar takes a slightly more traditional image of a "hanged man" in that it is about death although Bolvar is still hanging from feet. Bolvar worked perfectly as a figure to be The Hanged Man because of the artwork I used which I ended up flipping. As a card, The Hanged Man is a unique form of self-sacrifice that will be accompanied with a theme of deck destruction, and what embodies self-sacrifice more than destroying your own deck willingly? There is also a design of the "new perspective" angle in that you are sensing that your current deck design can be stripped down of unnecessary material to gain a better advantage. When built the right way, The Hanged Man can really help and I think it's going to inspire a lot of players to get creative with how to use it properly.
Death takes, once again, a more traditional approach of the term because it's about death. And it's right there in the class name too. It's not as nuanced or as clever as the real life tarot card, but it makes sense when given the theme of corruption all around the set. When I assigned Death to Death Knight, I immediately knew that it needed to be a card that destroyed the enemy hero. I ended up picking The Cataclysm as the depiction of the card since it's one of the most iconic and important story elements in all of Warcraft. As a card itself, Death embodies none other than… Death. You gain enough Corpses, you just win the game.
Demon Hunter
Demon Hunter's Major Arcana are The Lovers and The Tower, signaling one's strong emotions and sharing of one's moral values, and the inevitable destruction when it is built on a shaky foundation.
Developer commentary
Demon Hunter's Major Arcana are The Lovers and The Tower. Demon Hunter was one of the hardest classes to pick the Arcana for. A lot of the other classes had really obvious connections like Warlock and The Devil or Mage and The Magician, but not Demon Hunter. Picking the Arcana for Demon Hunter required me to focus on the more subtle themes to truly see the bigger picture.
In proper tarot reading, The Lovers can represent love on a base level as you might expect, but it can also represent choice, alignment of values, and significant choices. On face value, The Lovers may not appear as if it has an obvious connection to Demon Hunter until you remember that this is Illidan we're talking about, and his feelings towards Malfurion and Tyrande have been an integral part of his character forever. Love often comes with a flipside, and do you notice how The Lovers and The Devil both depict a naked woman and man on opposite ends? Exactly.
The Tower is a card that's all about sudden and dramatic chaos and destruction. A destruction of the past built on shaky foundation, and the inevitability of a disaster that will irreversibly change the course of your life. The card itself depicts two figures jumping out of the windows and plummeting down to the ground in a desperate decision to escape the calamity around them. Illidan himself is essentially a human incarnation of the tower. He seemed to be a talented individual on his way to becoming a mage until he snapped in lust for more power and vengeance and destroyed himself on the inside-out and destroyed everything else that was around him.
Representing Demon Hunter in the cards was a fun little task.
The Lovers… Put Tyrande and Malfurion on the art. When I saw the opportunity to do this on a Demon Hunter card, there's no way that I couldn't do this. Dormancy in Demon Hunter seems to be a slight theme with them, and I wanted to capture that in the set with my own idea being face-up/face-down cards to represent Dormant vs non-Dormant. In the context of the card, it represents a very corrupted and unconventional take on the card because it's viewing The Lovers from Illidan's perspective. In real life, love is sometimes "dormant" but that doesn't mean that it has went away. Dormant minions attacking is a short burst of emotion before it disappears once again, or a desperate shot at trying to win back the flames of passion that were once there. Illidan would wish that Tyrande were with him instead of Malfurion, but love is also tied to an abstract view of object permanence in that even when you can't see any outward feelings of love, it's always still there.
The Tower is a representation of destruction through and through. It's also the only location Major Arcana, whereas every other class gets a minion and a spell. Death and destruction lay around every corner of the ruined tower in imminent danger of collapsing entirely, and when the tower finally topples over, damage is laid to waste everywhere with destruction to both the people and the environment. In terms of designing the card effect, you can use the effect as quick as possible to minimize the randomness, or wait until later to build up a larger Deathrattle bomb, which I think will make for some important decision making. Deathrattle DH is a synergistic element we haven't really seen much of in a while. They have gotten better over the past few sets, but Demon Hunter still feels a bit too one-dimensional compared to some of the other classes. Dormant DH and Deathrattle DH are attempts to push the class in new, yet familiar directions.
Druid
Druid's Major Arcana are The Empress and The World, signaling the fertility of both the earth and the people, and the completion of one's life cycle or journey.
What's that? Permanent Echo? In addition to Echo returning for the Standard year, two of the Major Arcana spells have Permanent Echo, which means that they don't disappear at the end of your turn. You get to keep them forever.
Hunter
Hunter's Major Arcana are The Chariot and The Sun, signaling the force that keeps one minion forward at all times, and the personal growth of one's character in a positive light.
Mage
Mage's Major Arcana the The Magician and Wheel of Fortune, signaling the knowledge to be gained between the physical and ethereal planes, and the unpredictability of life.
Developer commentary
Mage's Major Arcana are The Magician and Wheel of Fortune. Mage was a very simple class to find the pairing for. I basically just had to look at the names of cards and there you go, the pairing was found.
The Magician has a very obvious connection to Mage because it's all in the name, but the tarot card has an entire different meaning to it. The card communicates two primary concepts. The first is willpower, and it tells you that you have the ability to bring your ideas to life and you already have the tools to do this. You just need a little bit of enlightenment first. You may notice that the Cup, Pentacle, Wand, and Sword from the Minor Arcana in the art are on the table. In addition to representing all four elements (earth, water, fire air), they are a representation of all the tools you need. But he isn't reaching for them. Reaching for them is your job to succeed in what you want to do.
The second is that the card has one hand pointing towards the sky and the other hand pointing towards the ground, symbolizing the link between the real world and the spiritual worlds. This can also be interpreted as the connection between your mind and soul. He also has the infinity symbol above his head, and a snake trying to eat his own tail around his waste, both of which are symbols of unlimited possibilities. With your mind, wit, and connection across realms, you too can do whatever you want when you set yourself to it.
The Wheel of Fortune is a representation that life is always in motion. Life is constantly full of good and bad times, and that luck, destiny, and new cycles of life exist everywhere. Sometimes you just need to embrace the impermanence of life. Not all versions of the card have the lettering and alchemical symbols on them, but the symbols are another representation of the four elements, connecting back to The Magician, and the letters all spell out words with their own meanings.
When adapting the cards into Hearthstone, The Magician is a symbolization of the link between the real and spiritual worlds with the artwork. I chose the yellow (or "holy") version of the artwork to symbolize the connection between life and death. All of this also goes back to the theme of enlightenment. When you kill a minion, you bring it to death and then bring it back to life, thus connecting them to both realms. They now fight for your side because this symbolizes the enlightenment of bringing the minions to the truth how they should be listening to you, not your opponent. Ordinarily, these would be more Priest-like concepts, but I really want to push Shadow in Mage in this set, which allowed me to bend the class structures a little bit without going too overboard.
The effect to get a Temporary Fireball is in and of itself a tool to achieve the goal of the Magician card. By paying attention to your own mind and spirit (Foretelling a card), you can see the tools you need to advance your goals (getting the Fireball to trigger the card's effect).
Since I mentioned Shadow spells, let's also touch up upon the Wheel of Fortune. The Wheel represents the same meaning of life being in cycles, this time in literal card game terminology. When you see the Wheel of Fortune in your hand, it is a sign that your life (or rather, the match) will take a literal cycle and spark some huge changes. In the case of the card, it gives you an extra mulligan, which gives you a little more control over your own fate than the tarot card would suggest, but it's still symbolic of huge changes coming your way (as you might get a new hand full of entirely different cards). Using Hearthstone as the concept representing the card is self-referential humor, playfully jabbing at how Hearthstone is a game full of luck. Sometimes the game is just like spinning a wheel and seeing what sticks.
Paladin
Paladin's Major Arcana are The Hierophant and Justice, signaling the importance or rules and honoring tradition, and the equal and impartial enforcement over the law.
Priest
Priest's Major Arcana are The High Priestess and Temperance, signaling a desire to see and learn the hidden knowledge around us, and the harmony of two opposites.
Rogue
Rogue's Major Arcana are The Fool and The Moon, signaling one's innocent, humble beginning into a new journey, and the darkness hiding what you cannot see, literally and metaphysically.
Shaman
Shaman's Major Arcana are The Hermit and The Star, signaling one's need for introspection and self-discovery, and the hope and guidance to guide one through troubled times.
Warlock
Warlock's Major Arcana are The Devil and Judgement, signaling one's entrapment in self-destruction patterns, and a new beginning in one's life after how the past has shaped you.
Developer commentary
Warlock's Major Arcana are The Devil and Judgement.
The connection between Warlock and The Devil should hopefully be quite obvious. The Devil fits along with the typical "evil" design that Warlock is known for. The Devil is not necessarily a "bad" card though. In the Major Arcana, The Devil is often associated with addiction, temptation, feeling like you are bound to unhealthy attachments (quite literally in the case of the tarot card itself) and a need to conflict with your inner self. Sometimes the Devil can take a positive spin, representing that you have overcome what has been emotionally holding you back and the feeling of liberation when you realize that you are no longer stuck in whatever negative position you were originally in.
Judgement however is less obvious of a connection to Warlock. On face value, the depiction of Judgement seems happy and positive, which is why putting a Warlock spin on it was a cool idea to me. Judgement reflects asking if you are happy with the way your life has lived. Its positive association reflects the ability to move on from your life and a time of rebirth within one's self, feeling as if your life has been given a new sense of purpose. It however can also be negatively associated with self-doubt, self-loathing and the feeling of being stagnant because you are unable to move past a certain point within your life.
Both of these cards actually come Aflag. He's been really awesome throughout the process of making the set, but I really like the way both of these cards come together.
The Devil, first and foremost, is a 6 mana 6/6. - The reference there should be obvious. Additionally, I enjoy the way he represents the feeling of addiction and unhealthy patterns and the ability to break from them. When the game starts, your Hero Power is autocasting each turn; You are addicted to the life tapping and you have no choice but to just work around this, and it's quite devastating at first because it also takes mana. Playing the card however is a great way to implement the feeling of liberation when you are able to stop having your addiction control your life through and through. It's also a realistic representation because it doesn't stop on a dime. You are still tapping with power each turn, but you are experiencing the sense of power that it's no longer taking over every decision you make.
Judgement is a cool card with a lot of flavorful nuance. Representing the Fall of Nordrassil was a choice largely out of necessity because of Malfurion's horn, but there's a lot of angles to take in regards to how you view the card. In terms of the artwork, there's a light-dark duality that is distinctly un-Warlocky. There is an effect to the "judgement" of Nordrassil leading to its fall to darkness, but also the unmistakable feeling of regret within the card. You've destroyed a minion (or you've "judged" them unworthy) in the darkness that lies, but the self-damage is a healing of feeling hurt because of what you've done. And it's a mistake you can't reverse, so you're stuck not being able to "heal" yourself of it. I love that the card is able to encapsulate lots of positive and negative emotions all in one package.
]
Warrior
Warrior's Major Arcana are The Emperor and Strength, representing unyielding authority and the ability to command, and the strength needed to overcome your obstacles.
Neutral Commons
(to come later)
Other Neutrals
(to come later)
