If you don't want it connected to Warcraft, it would have to be related to a different Blizzard property; of those, Diablo and Starcraft are the only two that are fleshed out enough to do a whole expansion and that could make sense thematically. With that in mind, let's break it down:
Diablo
There are:
Three Prime Evils (Diablo, Mephisto, and Baal)
Four Lesser Evils (Duriel, Andariel, Belial, and Azmodan)
Five Archangels of Heaven (the Angiris Council; Tyrael, Malthael, Imperius, Auriel, and Itherael)
...and of course humanity, which has numerous characters to the point where I am, mostly, ignoring them. If you can somehow break down the 14 or so different playable classes of the Diablo franchise fairly and evenly among the Hearthstone classes, then go for it lol. Someone will be left out, and I don't want to to do that, so better to leave them all out and focus on the Demons vs Angels (with a couple main humans as Neutral cards).
Unfortunately, we still have 12 "main characters" to separate amongst 10 classes. For the sake of argument, let's say the Monk was also in Hearthstone (it seems inevitable; just a matter of when). That leaves a couple options: include the Death Knight as well, for 12; shift a character to Neutral (Malthael, probably, being the "Angel of Death"), or drop one of them (Itherael, obviously, given his almost complete absence from the series apart from lore documents). I'll be nice, leave them all intact, and go the "12 Hearthstone classes" route. So, with all of that in mind, that leaves us with:
Death Knight: Malthael, Archangel of Wisdom/Death.
Demon Hunter: Mephisto, Lord of Hatred.
Druid: Diablo, Lord of Terror.
Hunter: Andariel, Maiden of Anguish.
Mage: Baal, Lord of Destruction.
Monk: Itherael, Archangel of Fate.
Paladin: Tyrael, Archangel of Justice.
Priest: Auriel, Archangel of Hope.
Rogue: Belial, Lord of Lies.
Shaman: Duriel, Lord of Pain.
Warlock: Azmodan, Lord of Sin.
Warrior: Imperius, Archangel of Valor.
With Neutral Legendaries being people like Adria, Deckard Cain, Zoltan Kulle maybe, etc. I chose where the Angels and Demons go to maximize theming while also switching up the "teams" a bit so it's not just The League of Explorers versus The League of E.V.I.L. all over again. If this expansion occurred without the Death Knight and Monk, I would personally cut Duriel and Andariel to make it an even 5v5 situation, and shuffle as necessary.
Starcraft
There are, of course, the three main factions of Starcraft (Terran, Protoss, Zerg), but those can be broken down further if you want to get technical:
Terran 1, Raynor's Raiders (the "good" humans)
Terran 2, Arcturus Mengsk's empire (the "bad" humans)
Protoss 1, the Khalai, like Artanis (what you traditionally think of as Protoss, those who are guided by the Khala)
Protoss 2, the Nerazim, like Zeratul (the "Dark Templar" who shun the Khala)
Protoss 3, the Tal'darim and Alarak (the "bad" Protoss who eventually turn against Amon)
Zerg 1, the Overmind and Kerrigan (the "good" Zerg who want to be free of Amon's control)
Zerg 2, the Primal Zerg and Zurvan (the "neutral" Zerg who live to eat, grow powerful, and evolve)
Xel'naga, or at least the evil faction of them, who with the Hybrids seek the return of "The Dark One" Amon.
If you're wondering, the "good" Xel'naga are all dead, so they don't matter.
So there are seven subdivisions of the main three, alongside the true Big Bad of Starcraft (Amon). There's a couple things we can do straight away that'll make this easier for us:
The Xel'naga would be Neutral for the sake of simplicity. We want the classes focused on the main trifecta.
We can remove the Primal Zerg, 'cause they don't really care about the main conflict of Starcraft.
That still leaves us with six divisions for 10 classes - if you haven't noticed by now, I'm trying to get us down to five so we can reintroduce Dual-class cards! We don't need three Protoss divisions gumming up the works, so we need to narrow it down to two; that leaves us with a choice: we can combine Protoss 1 and 2 into the "Daelaam" good-Protoss versus the Tal'darim, or we can drop the Tal'darim altogether and focus on the playable side of the Protoss, leaving the Khalai and Nerazim separate. If anyone thinks I'm gonna leave Alarak on the sidelines I say "Fuck You!" to that, but we can make the Tal'darim Neutral at least. I guess that answers that question, then, so...here we go:
Raynor's Raiders - Jim Raynor - Rogue/Hunter
Mengsk's Empire - Arcturus Mengsk - Warrior/Mage
The Khalai - Artanis - Paladin/Shaman
The Nerazim - Zeratul - Demon Hunter/Priest
The Zerg - Sarah Kerrigan - Warlock/Druid
With Neutral including those I could not fit, including Amon, Alarak, Zurvan, etc. Again, much like with Diablo, I sought to connect them thematically while mixing up the pairings so we can see something truly different to what came before in Scholomance Academy. This would be more of a hard cutoff than a round-table mix like SA did, so there would be no second pairing for each class.
And there ya have it: my proposals for both a Diablo expansion and/or a Starcraft expansion. Blizzard, pay me! lol. Do you know the sad part is that I didn't need a wiki for most of this? Just to double-check how to spell names, really.
I certainly hope they wouldn't add Toki's main ability to Duels: that would be insanely annoying to deal with :/ She might not be in there currently because they simply don't yet know what to do with her.
I was probably gonna buy the Tavern Pass anyway, but I'm definitely gunning for Kyrian Tyrande. I don't play the Priest often, but when I do, I'm playing as an angel.
Might end up grabbing that Kel'Thuzad, too, if it sounds/emotes better than the Scholomance pre-purchase one. Vashj is cool as well; maybe they're in a bundle? I was on the verge of quitting before this expansion, but alas...in for a penny, in for a pound I guess.
I like the idea of switching to Taunt over Rush, so how about this? It needs to keep the enemy-copying, in my opinion, because the idea is to summon a Nightmare from your opponent's mind; copying your own stats to make a Nightmare ruins the flavor.
Because it is now much slower, I gave it an additional point of Durability. Not sure if that's necessary.
Edit: I included a token, but I'm not a fan of it. Mostly because it's not red lol. If anyone could help me find better art of a red spirit/ghost/nightmare, I would be very appreciative :) Edit2: I have an edited version of the Nightmare token's art, courtesy of Shadows :D Very happy with it now!
@BloodMefist - De Other Side is really cool: I'd go with that one. As much as people complain about Resurrect Priest, it's perfect for the class in flavor and gameplay. The art is also better than the one for Area 52. I think De Other Side is good with 2 Durability: 3 would require five turns to see an outcome, and by then you could be dead :/
R - I think it looks fine, art-wise :) Giving everyone a Neutral ramp tool is kind of scary, especially when you can run two and it has barely any down-payment of Mana. Hard to say when you can't test it, though, so I say go for it!
Demonxz95 - This looks much better with Treants - you can enjoy all the synergies that come with that distinction. I think compared to Nightcloak Sanctum it should be fine, considering that that location can Freeze, their tokens ping when they die, and they're building to an end-game bomb that Treant Druid doesn't have.
Wailor - I agree with Demon: if you go with Orgrimmar, I would clarify that the location gains Taunt and not your face (I was a little confused initially as well). Still, it feels a little clunky; I think I prefer Shadowmoon Valley: I like the decision-making that comes with blasting your own minion(s) to keep the Valley up.
adamsleungcn - I didn't say anything properly last time around, so a big "Welcome!" from me :) First things first, I would definitely try to find better art for your ideas: Altar of Evil is mostly fine, but the others use in-game imagery that is very obvious and doesn't look good. Beyond that, I like "The Highest" (if you change that name and art), and the 1-Mana Altar of Evil the most. The Altar is basically good-to-go, so if you don't want to fiddle with The Highest then I can understand just going with the Warlock location.
AeroJulwin - I think this is a very neat idea. Silence Priest is whatever, but combining Silence with removal is cool and could open the archetype up more to relevancy. The flavor is perfect, as well. Probably my favorite at the moment.
Since you can only activate locations every other turn
I somehow missed that this is how it works.
Yeah, it's "wish fountain with coins" flavor. Just can't find good art for mint/coinage flavor.
What about this? Found it under "fantasy fountain with coins art" in Google. Looks a little more Hearthstone-appropriate, with a good view of the fountain and the coins inside.
Is it? That would not trigger the Battlecry :( Capture Coldtooth Mine would be a better tutor for sure, with Topior and maybe Sire Denathrius as the two top-ends (with Scale of Onyxia as well, perhaps, but pulling that ain't a bad thing either).
I don't have a token card for the Nightmare right now, but it's not important if people don't like it. The flavor of the location should be pretty straight-forward: being overwhelmed by your fears made manifest.
I don't remember: can you find Signature Treasures within your Duel run? I don't believe you can, which means all of these Cannon upgrades are mutually exclusive. That's completely unlike Monster Hunt, where you collect multiple upgrades and can really go to town with the Cannons. Rather disappointing, to be honest.
All of the new cards have been revealed, so it's time to talk about the archetypes, packages, and/or individual cards that interest us the most! Naturally, I'll start us off:
To be forthright, I was on the verge of quitting Hearthstone before the reveals began, but something about this expansion pulled me back in. I'm hoping the commitment to moving HS back to the board will actually work out, but we've been here before. I guess we'll see. Anyway, in order by class followed by Neutral:
I don't know where to put them just yet, but they seem fun. I was thinking of a token deck so you can Infuse Xy'mox (and Sire Denathrius?) properly; the Relics have a fairly universal quality to them, so it's just a matter of finding a home.
All aboard the Druid Train, toot toot! DR Taunt Druid with Hadronox and N'Zoth, the Corruptor is one of my favorite decks of all time, so Sesselie can go right into that alongside Hedge Maze and Death Blossom Whomper. Hopefully the Mini-Set expands on the package further, 'cause there isn't a lot here right now.
Topior is just fucking nuts, and will be quite enjoyable in a deck focused around it or as an additional bonus with Treants. If I don't get Topior in gold I will fix that mistake very quickly.
Control the board with Frost spells and pings before the...Inevitable...combo of Kael'thas Sinstrider, Brann Bronzebeard, and Kel'Thuzad. Just pulling it off the once might be enough to satisfy me lol. I also hope to make Kel'Thuzad golden, and play him alongside my Kel'Thuzad skin of course :)
Warlock: Lady Darkvein - Going right into my Curselock.
Neutral: Sire Denathrius - Someone will figure out how best to enjoy him, and I want to be there when it happens. Edit: He seems disgusting in Druid, from what little I've seen so far in streams.
Kael'thas Sinstrider - I don't generally do Combo things, but he is a pretty important part of the "Kael'Thuzad" combo.
Stoneborn General and Bog Beast - The General is awesome, will love to cheat that out. Bog Beast is kind of the next Sludge Belcher, a card that saw a lot of play (and still does).
So how about you? What are you hoping to pull + play Day 1?
I don't know if I'm truly happy with Heart of the Swarm, so I made another card; let me know which one you prefer:
Light of the Ancestors brings back your fallen comrades to take up arms...in the form of ghost weapons, that is. I included what is arguably the best currently-existing example, Hammer of the Naaru. Gameplay would probably be Combo-esque, gathering up your weapons before playing this, dropping them all and going face. Charge seemed better because weapons tend not to be very large stat-wise; Rush would be rather weak in this instance.
Might have been cool in Shaman but didn't see art I liked. Probably busted in Warrior, so I went where the art took me and picked Paladin.
Feedback:
Show Spoiler
Wailor - I like both versions: the dual class card is inherently more flashy, but the Shaman-only iteration is really cool too whilst being easier to balance and find a home for. You're getting a 5 from me either way :)
AeroJulwin - That seems pretty strong, but it also flies in the face of the Deathrattle synergies the Rogue has received so maybe it balances out? You could no longer rely on Snowfall Graveyard to immediately double up on the Naval Mine damage, for example. With the cooldown between uses, it would also be inherently slower. Ultimately I wonder if Naval Mine is a bad example to use: the Mine is fast and bursty, while Murder Most Foul could be truly beneficial for big Deathrattles you can't easily proc again and again. I like where this is going, though.
MrRhapsody - Any location with a huge Durability, if it was truly impactful and warranted an answer, would eventually be sniped by the new Demolition Renovator. It's a solid card with a potent effect, but putting that big Durability in one's "power budget" when the counter is readily available concerns me. Although I suppose people still run Lightforged Cariel despite the existence of Rustrot Viper. This is a roundabout way of saying "I like it" and "it should be fine" lol.
Demonxz95 - Brutus is really cool; go with him. The Deathrattle is the answer to the problem of a giant game-ending weapon, so well done there.
If you don't want it connected to Warcraft, it would have to be related to a different Blizzard property; of those, Diablo and Starcraft are the only two that are fleshed out enough to do a whole expansion and that could make sense thematically. With that in mind, let's break it down:
Diablo
There are:
...and of course humanity, which has numerous characters to the point where I am, mostly, ignoring them. If you can somehow break down the 14 or so different playable classes of the Diablo franchise fairly and evenly among the Hearthstone classes, then go for it lol. Someone will be left out, and I don't want to to do that, so better to leave them all out and focus on the Demons vs Angels (with a couple main humans as Neutral cards).
Unfortunately, we still have 12 "main characters" to separate amongst 10 classes. For the sake of argument, let's say the Monk was also in Hearthstone (it seems inevitable; just a matter of when). That leaves a couple options: include the Death Knight as well, for 12; shift a character to Neutral (Malthael, probably, being the "Angel of Death"), or drop one of them (Itherael, obviously, given his almost complete absence from the series apart from lore documents). I'll be nice, leave them all intact, and go the "12 Hearthstone classes" route. So, with all of that in mind, that leaves us with:
With Neutral Legendaries being people like Adria, Deckard Cain, Zoltan Kulle maybe, etc. I chose where the Angels and Demons go to maximize theming while also switching up the "teams" a bit so it's not just The League of Explorers versus The League of E.V.I.L. all over again. If this expansion occurred without the Death Knight and Monk, I would personally cut Duriel and Andariel to make it an even 5v5 situation, and shuffle as necessary.
Starcraft
There are, of course, the three main factions of Starcraft (Terran, Protoss, Zerg), but those can be broken down further if you want to get technical:
So there are seven subdivisions of the main three, alongside the true Big Bad of Starcraft (Amon). There's a couple things we can do straight away that'll make this easier for us:
That still leaves us with six divisions for 10 classes - if you haven't noticed by now, I'm trying to get us down to five so we can reintroduce Dual-class cards! We don't need three Protoss divisions gumming up the works, so we need to narrow it down to two; that leaves us with a choice: we can combine Protoss 1 and 2 into the "Daelaam" good-Protoss versus the Tal'darim, or we can drop the Tal'darim altogether and focus on the playable side of the Protoss, leaving the Khalai and Nerazim separate. If anyone thinks I'm gonna leave Alarak on the sidelines I say "Fuck You!" to that, but we can make the Tal'darim Neutral at least. I guess that answers that question, then, so...here we go:
With Neutral including those I could not fit, including Amon, Alarak, Zurvan, etc. Again, much like with Diablo, I sought to connect them thematically while mixing up the pairings so we can see something truly different to what came before in Scholomance Academy. This would be more of a hard cutoff than a round-table mix like SA did, so there would be no second pairing for each class.
And there ya have it: my proposals for both a Diablo expansion and/or a Starcraft expansion. Blizzard, pay me! lol. Do you know the sad part is that I didn't need a wiki for most of this? Just to double-check how to spell names, really.
I certainly hope they wouldn't add Toki's main ability to Duels: that would be insanely annoying to deal with :/ She might not be in there currently because they simply don't yet know what to do with her.
Went back to Rush, upped it to 5-mana, and submitted. I now definitely have the most expensive location lol >_>
Thanks for the feedback everyone :)
Yep, Renathal is a Warrior skin.
I was probably gonna buy the Tavern Pass anyway, but I'm definitely gunning for Kyrian Tyrande. I don't play the Priest often, but when I do, I'm playing as an angel.
Might end up grabbing that Kel'Thuzad, too, if it sounds/emotes better than the Scholomance pre-purchase one. Vashj is cool as well; maybe they're in a bundle? I was on the verge of quitting before this expansion, but alas...in for a penny, in for a pound I guess.
I like the idea of switching to Taunt over Rush, so how about this? It needs to keep the enemy-copying, in my opinion, because the idea is to summon a Nightmare from your opponent's mind; copying your own stats to make a Nightmare ruins the flavor.
Because it is now much slower, I gave it an additional point of Durability. Not sure if that's necessary.
Edit: I included a token, but I'm not a fan of it. Mostly because it's not red lol. If anyone could help me find better art of a red spirit/ghost/nightmare, I would be very appreciative :) Edit2: I have an edited version of the Nightmare token's art, courtesy of Shadows :D Very happy with it now!
@BloodMefist - De Other Side is really cool: I'd go with that one. As much as people complain about Resurrect Priest, it's perfect for the class in flavor and gameplay. The art is also better than the one for Area 52. I think De Other Side is good with 2 Durability: 3 would require five turns to see an outcome, and by then you could be dead :/
Feedback:
R - I think it looks fine, art-wise :) Giving everyone a Neutral ramp tool is kind of scary, especially when you can run two and it has barely any down-payment of Mana. Hard to say when you can't test it, though, so I say go for it!
Demonxz95 - This looks much better with Treants - you can enjoy all the synergies that come with that distinction. I think compared to Nightcloak Sanctum it should be fine, considering that that location can Freeze, their tokens ping when they die, and they're building to an end-game bomb that Treant Druid doesn't have.
Wailor - I agree with Demon: if you go with Orgrimmar, I would clarify that the location gains Taunt and not your face (I was a little confused initially as well). Still, it feels a little clunky; I think I prefer Shadowmoon Valley: I like the decision-making that comes with blasting your own minion(s) to keep the Valley up.
adamsleungcn - I didn't say anything properly last time around, so a big "Welcome!" from me :) First things first, I would definitely try to find better art for your ideas: Altar of Evil is mostly fine, but the others use in-game imagery that is very obvious and doesn't look good. Beyond that, I like "The Highest" (if you change that name and art), and the 1-Mana Altar of Evil the most. The Altar is basically good-to-go, so if you don't want to fiddle with The Highest then I can understand just going with the Warlock location.
AeroJulwin - I think this is a very neat idea. Silence Priest is whatever, but combining Silence with removal is cool and could open the archetype up more to relevancy. The flavor is perfect, as well. Probably my favorite at the moment.
What about this? Found it under "fantasy fountain with coins art" in Google. Looks a little more Hearthstone-appropriate, with a good view of the fountain and the coins inside.
Is it? That would not trigger the Battlecry :( Capture Coldtooth Mine would be a better tutor for sure, with Topior and maybe Sire Denathrius as the two top-ends (with Scale of Onyxia as well, perhaps, but pulling that ain't a bad thing either).
I don't see why not :)
I don't have a token card for the Nightmare right now, but it's not important if people don't like it. The flavor of the location should be pretty straight-forward: being overwhelmed by your fears made manifest.
Congratulations to Wailor! I had a good feeling about that one :)
Good luck to the finalists!
I don't remember: can you find Signature Treasures within your Duel run? I don't believe you can, which means all of these Cannon upgrades are mutually exclusive. That's completely unlike Monster Hunt, where you collect multiple upgrades and can really go to town with the Cannons. Rather disappointing, to be honest.
Kael'thas Sinstrider + Brann Bronzebeard into a free Kel'Thuzad, the Inevitable...yep, I'm gonna make it happen!
*cut to my opponent playing Mutanus the Devourer*
Thank you for the feedback, although I became frustrated and submitted Heart of the Swarm.
Guess I'm not feelin' this one...
All of the new cards have been revealed, so it's time to talk about the archetypes, packages, and/or individual cards that interest us the most! Naturally, I'll start us off:
To be forthright, I was on the verge of quitting Hearthstone before the reveals began, but something about this expansion pulled me back in. I'm hoping the commitment to moving HS back to the board will actually work out, but we've been here before. I guess we'll see. Anyway, in order by class followed by Neutral:
Demon Hunter: Artificer Xy'mox + the Relics
I don't know where to put them just yet, but they seem fun. I was thinking of a token deck so you can Infuse Xy'mox (and Sire Denathrius?) properly; the Relics have a fairly universal quality to them, so it's just a matter of finding a home.
Druid: Sesselie of the Fae Court and the DR package, Topior the Shrubbagazzor and the Treants/Nature package
All aboard the Druid Train, toot toot! DR Taunt Druid with Hadronox and N'Zoth, the Corruptor is one of my favorite decks of all time, so Sesselie can go right into that alongside Hedge Maze and Death Blossom Whomper. Hopefully the Mini-Set expands on the package further, 'cause there isn't a lot here right now.
Topior is just fucking nuts, and will be quite enjoyable in a deck focused around it or as an additional bonus with Treants. If I don't get Topior in gold I will fix that mistake very quickly.
Mage: Kel'Thuzad, the Inevitable + the Volatile Skeleton cards
Control the board with Frost spells and pings before the...Inevitable...combo of Kael'thas Sinstrider, Brann Bronzebeard, and Kel'Thuzad. Just pulling it off the once might be enough to satisfy me lol. I also hope to make Kel'Thuzad golden, and play him alongside my Kel'Thuzad skin of course :)
Warlock: Lady Darkvein - Going right into my Curselock.
Neutral: Sire Denathrius - Someone will figure out how best to enjoy him, and I want to be there when it happens. Edit: He seems disgusting in Druid, from what little I've seen so far in streams.
Kael'thas Sinstrider - I don't generally do Combo things, but he is a pretty important part of the "Kael'Thuzad" combo.
Stoneborn General and Bog Beast - The General is awesome, will love to cheat that out. Bog Beast is kind of the next Sludge Belcher, a card that saw a lot of play (and still does).
So how about you? What are you hoping to pull + play Day 1?
I don't know if I'm truly happy with Heart of the Swarm, so I made another card; let me know which one you prefer:
Light of the Ancestors brings back your fallen comrades to take up arms...in the form of ghost weapons, that is. I included what is arguably the best currently-existing example, Hammer of the Naaru. Gameplay would probably be Combo-esque, gathering up your weapons before playing this, dropping them all and going face. Charge seemed better because weapons tend not to be very large stat-wise; Rush would be rather weak in this instance.
Might have been cool in Shaman but didn't see art I liked. Probably busted in Warrior, so I went where the art took me and picked Paladin.
Feedback:
Wailor - I like both versions: the dual class card is inherently more flashy, but the Shaman-only iteration is really cool too whilst being easier to balance and find a home for. You're getting a 5 from me either way :)
AeroJulwin - That seems pretty strong, but it also flies in the face of the Deathrattle synergies the Rogue has received so maybe it balances out? You could no longer rely on Snowfall Graveyard to immediately double up on the Naval Mine damage, for example. With the cooldown between uses, it would also be inherently slower. Ultimately I wonder if Naval Mine is a bad example to use: the Mine is fast and bursty, while Murder Most Foul could be truly beneficial for big Deathrattles you can't easily proc again and again. I like where this is going, though.
MrRhapsody - Any location with a huge Durability, if it was truly impactful and warranted an answer, would eventually be sniped by the new Demolition Renovator. It's a solid card with a potent effect, but putting that big Durability in one's "power budget" when the counter is readily available concerns me. Although I suppose people still run Lightforged Cariel despite the existence of Rustrot Viper. This is a roundabout way of saying "I like it" and "it should be fine" lol.
Demonxz95 - Brutus is really cool; go with him. The Deathrattle is the answer to the problem of a giant game-ending weapon, so well done there.
Criminal Lineup vs Lesser Sapphire Spellstone
"Ladies, look at your man. Now back to me. Sadly, he isn't me."
You could jump through the hoops of the Spellstone...or just play Criminal Lineup for 1 more Mana lol.
It specifies the Secret has to be "different", so that thankfully cannot happen.