Card reveals are underway! I must admit, card reveal season is one of my favourite times of the Hearthstone year - getting to see what new ideas and unique twists get brought to the game is so fun, and it's especially exciting to see what the next fan-favourite custom card idea to make it into the game will be.

Conversation this week has some free advertising for the wonderful land of Draenor!

Law And Order

Congratulations to the winner of the latest WCDC, anchorm4n and their Take Possession!

We look forward to their theme for the last WCDC of the season!

Goating Trip

The Fan Community Spotlight takes us off-world this week, to a Hearthone-ified version of the refuge of the Draenei. GrandInquisitor's "The Draenor Experience" features some very interesting additions to the game, which is always fun to see - a brand new minion type and a brand new card type.

 

This expansion mixes some of my favourite aspects of Hearthstone with my favourite parts of custom card creation.

Hearthstone to me is at its best when it tells its own stories; familiar locations and characters from Warcraft, sure, but shaken up in interesting new ways and peppered with original creations. I've been very happy that they've continued down that road in recent years, building up a roster of original characters for people to fall in love with but still cranking out those nostalgic hits for the longtime fans. They've even embraced some of the more controversial ideas they've had before - remember the uproar around Ragnaros, Lightlord? - and kept mining that vein with the recent renditions of the Old Gods.

Equally, custom card creation is at its most interesting to me when creators dare to try something totally new. Sometimes that's as simple as a new Keyword that's a little bit out there, or a new minion type that would retroactively apply to several existing cards; sometimes, it's a completely new card type altogether.

That's not to say that these Wonders are a wholly unique idea, of course - I'm sure you can trace inspiration for them from all over the card game world, and could even argue that a variety of things in Hearthstone itself are their predecessors. Hell, I can definitely think of other custom content that's tried a similar concept, each with their own takes on how to balance them and how they should be represented or function. 

That's what makes it so fun when someone else takes up the challenge, though. You get to see how this person would theme their concept to tie back into an expansion - attractions for visitors to the area is such an incredible take on it - and you get another take on how to balance them. What does this person think their strengths and weaknesses are? How do they think each class should relate to them? What exactly is the mechanical space they're taking up, and how exactly do they function?

The answers to all these questions and more can be found in the interview linked above, along with a link to the full set.

Fish Out Of Water

MRGGLL!!! Mrrgl mrr, mrrgll mrrl! Mrrggll rrgl mrgl.

(Greetings, good fellows! Click the banner below to join us in the great Weekly Card Design Competition! Thank you for expanding our ranks.)