Hello everybody and welcome back to another Fan Community Spotlight. Today we've got a special occasion to see a returning interviewee. We've got Beat appearing to talk about the Dragoon Class for the third time.

Beat's Dragoon class has been one of my favorite custom classes I've ever seen presented, and it's always really exciting to me to see what new cards get added to it each set. The first time I covered this class was for Fan Community Spotlight #16 on March 17th 2020, and then I covered it again for Fan Community Spotlight #48 on February 28th 2021 covering the Year of the Phoenix for the class. Today on September 4th 2022, I cover the class again following 5 new expansions in that timeframe across the Year of the Gryphon and the Year of the Hydra. On Fan Community Spotlight #116, this incidentally happens to be exactly 100 installments after the original one.

The Dragoon

If you aren't familiar with the Dragoon class yet (people could always be jumping into this series at any time, you never know), your base hero is Ezra Vermillion. Ezra has some extra lore in Book of Heroes (yes the class really does go that deep into custom content), but all you need to know right away is that he's the commander of the Dragon Regiment. I'd go more into detail, but that's not really what we're here to talk about.

Your Hero Power is quite simple. In its base form, it's Sharpen Claws which gives any character (even an enemy if you wanted to use that tactically) of your choice +1 Attack until the end of the turn. When upgraded, it becomes Hone Claws giving the character +2 Attack instead. Bigger numbers!

The custom keyword for the class is Supremacy, which is an effect which triggers when the card with the Supremacy effect in question kills a minion, though only during its controller's turn. The exact amount of damage doesn't matter (get out here Honorable Kill and Overkill!) so long as it merely just kills the minion. Deathblow? No! Well yes, but actually no.

In any event, here we go to interview Beat to showcase the Dragoon class for the third time, and it presumably won't be the last one either. We've got a lot of new content to cover, so let's go!

What's been going on in the class since the last interview? How are the new sets like?

Beat: "Murder at Castle Nathria has been really exciting to design. Sunken City is also really exciting in large part since now Dragoon can have a new tribe to build off of beyond Mech and Dragon! Nagas are cool people and all, after all. I'm pretty proud of how it came out, not only because of the theme in general, but also in terms of card-wise what I have been designing has also been fun. As I said, Sunken City is where Dragoon spreads their tribal wings and finally has a new cool tribe to work off of, Nagas. Meanwhile, Castle Nathria got them going on a return trip to their old archetypes, and even brought back Supremacy as a main focus again (totally not hinted at by the existence of Tidefall Wyrm wink wink). But also it has been quite awhile since I came back to Heal Dragoon, one of the first time I made a focused archetype since it was made specifically for Un'goro and all. I guess that's what's been going on. And I've been really slacking in terms of extra stuff Dragoon has (which doesn't really help the fact that I also now got a job lmao), but yeah. Great, exciting stuff."

Did these new sets present any challenges for Dragoon? Did it allow you to cover some new ground?

Beat: "I guess not really? It's a bit of a struggle trying to make a lot of Supremacy cards, I suppose, knowing that it's been awhile since they're a main focus, and with the faster nature of the modern times, how would the keyword really hold up to scrutiny? Honorable Kill is a good demonstration, after all, very few of their cards saw that much play, but it is still inherently a cool keyword, and I'd like to believe so is Supremacy, lol. Covering new ground, I suppose, is making more bolder designs much like Blizzard has been dishing out lately, with cards I make like Trial of Sapping. Making Nagas for Sunken City is also a bit of a 'hmmmm' moment, though then I figured that hey, recursion! All the Nagas I make in that set supports recursion and repeats, with stuff like Quad-Orb Slitherer and Nar'jira. So it's been pretty fun to overcome those admittedly simple struggles, and allows me to have a bit of a flex with newer, bolder designs."

Are there any other cards you wish to highlight for any reason?

Beat: "Easily Ysera in the Murder of Castle Nathria set. Not only does it make sense that she became Dragoon's sus person, but it also just really works with the flavor of some of the cards I have in mind, of her tending to the Tower of Nests in Castle Nathria where a bunch of Parched Nestborn are guarded safely by dragons all about, corroborating Ysera's alibi that she is infact around, but most certainly someone who would have good reasons to kill Denathrius. Y'know, cuz he's a poopyhead. Finding out that Stoneborn Accuser exist with that uh...wording was a bit of a bruh moment, where then I finally decide to buck it and keep the wording of my Ysera simple as is. I suppose another one I wanna highlight is the Hydra Core Set, with the return of cards like Aspect Awakening from Kobolds and Catacombs, the big boy to Animal Companion and a classic, and Sinestra from Whispers of the Old Gods, which I also buffed to 8, an exciting choice that gives off the huge, menace vibes that Dragoon makes as a class, especially when paired with cards like Korialstrasz and Blackscale Caretaker."

Aspect Awakening Tokens

Do you have anything behind the scenes you want to share with us? Do you want to share something to come later?
Do you have anything else you want to share with us?

Beat: "Gonna answer both of these at the same time. Well, I suppose in terms of behind the scenes there isn't really anything too exciting beyond most of the cards in Nathria changing rarity like, a lot. I think the only card that stayed the same rarity was, uh, Trial of Sapping and the legendaries. Other than that, I actually have a new class on the making, and you might've seen them already. Seer! What's the class? Tune in later on.

Thanks for the interview, Demon! Always have fun doing these write-ups for you. And it makes for nice boost to what I've been doing too. Don't forget to check my class Dragoon and also my latest work, a Whispers of the Old Gods mini-set!"

And there is the Dragoon with us for the third time, and I will be covering it more as more sets are released. We've got 5 new sets released in the timeframe in-between the previous time we showcased this class and this time, and what you just saw is a taste of that. You can all of the new cards by clicking the banner below. And while you're at it, check out the rest of the class as well.

I normally don't go too deep into praising the sets I cover, as every single one of them is worth your time to look at and it would be pointless to try to create a defined hierarchy of what sets are better than others, but Beat's Dragoon class really is something else, and it deserves your attention.