Hello everybody and welcome back to a new Fan Community Spotlight. The first one since our new site redesign. We just recently started a new year, and for this Fan Community Spotlight, we're revisiting a set that started a previous year. As a sequel set to The Witchwood, here we have Courts of Gilneas, created by a person known as Palestar.
As with most new sets, both real and fan-made, at the epicenter of attention are the new mechanics, and Courts of Gilneas comes with the new Flurry keyword. Flurry is essentially a Spellburst for attacks. The first time another one of your minions attacks, trigger the Flurry effect.
Wait. What does Lightbearer say on the bottom? In our grand return to the land of worgen, they've been added as a new minion type in this set. Just like the feral beasts that they resemble, Worgen minions tend too be ruthless and aggressive. When one hits the field, blood will be spilled. I do object on the fact that the card claims to be a "bearer" and Worgens are not bears, but I'll let that one slide.
What about Nightstalker though? What is that banner underneath the mana Cost? A court to decide his successor is in order, and three different groups of tri-class cards are here for the first time in a Fan Community Spotlight since... ever I believe. Its art is very obviously just Sylvanas, which is a Bad Omen and you should blame the terrible set designer! (just kidding)
In this set, you can swear allegiance to one of three factions:
The Greymane Family, consisting of Mage, Paladin, and Rogue.
The Crowley Family, consisting of Demon Hunter, Hunter, and Warrior.
The Uninvited, consisting of Death Knight, Priest, and Warlock.
What about Shaman and Druid though? Are they not part of any allegiance? Simply put... yes. They're left out. The other classes are part of a group attending the coronation of the next leader of Gilneas, some by less honest means than others.
What exactly is this set about? What is the inspiration for the set theme?
Palestar: "From the very beginning I was going into the set with the goal of wanting to finish it, as my main goal in mind. When I started the project I was still very much at the start of my journey as a custom card designer and so I was also aiming to make a low complexity set that wouldn’t be to hard to design for, so I wouldn’t lose interest for this hobby project out of frustration, as me having fun was allways the main priority while designing. I was looking for a specific kind of story to tell, as to me the most important question to ask oneself to get any kind of creative project going is: “What story do I want to tell?”. The kind of story I was aiming for was this Shakespearean drama inspired court politics story. I didn’t wanna make up my setting as I felt that’d feel inauthentic to the game of Hearthstone which is set in Azeroth, but I also don’t play WoW so I chose to ask for help in picking a region. Aflag pointed me to Gilneas for a nobility heavy theme, when I was asking for help in looking for a setting/region of Azeroth to fit this kind of story on the CHS Discord server. Gilneas also coincidentally happened to serve as the setting to an adventure that I vividly remember playing back when I started playing Hearthstone: “The Witchwood Monster Hunt”, so I was quite nostalgic for the setting. While reading a Wiki-article about the nobility of Gilneas it all started piecing together, factions vying for power, a new queen and lots of room for telling a story of court intrigue and betrayal with the possibility of callback cards to iconic legendary cards like Genn and Baku. The story I would tell was that of Tess, the young new queen, hosting her coronation party as rumors spread about the Greymane’s supposed misdoings causing a revolt led by their former closest allies, while Sylvanas is plotting a second invasion of the kingdom in the shadows alongside former foes of the Greymane family."
What is the inspiration for the Flurry mechanic and how you use it?
Palestar: "I was aiming for a simple new keyword that would be easy to understand and design for. I also wanted to push board based game play, as when I started working on the set cards like Reno Lone-Ranger were still in standard, causing a pretty big sentiment that “board based game play was dead” among many players. Flurry is a mechanic that is supposed to synergize with Rush, a mechanic the Witchwood is famous for. I landed on “Spellburst but for Attacks”. Originally their was a positioning angle to Flurry where it only counted attacks of minions to the right or left of the Flurry minion, but I quickly noticed that that was very “fake interesting” to say it in CHS terms. Flavorwise the inspiration was fencing originally tho that is only in name now."
It's interesting to see a tri-class setup after Gadgetzan. How did you arrive at this decision?
Palestar: "I needed a way to force myself to finish the set. So I wanted to make custom art assets, so I’d feel guilty if I didn’t finish the set, one of which were Banners. I was intrigued with the idea of depicting the Noble families vying for power like the gangs in Gadgetzan and I really did not want to make a banner based keyword. I remember at first I had planed a 3/3/3/2 Faction split, tho I cut the “Creed” dual-class faction of shaman and druid as I didn’t enjoy it’s theme and play style (Minions transforming into dragons on board, kinda like the new hunter set in Cataclysm but on board). The other 3 factions quite naturally found their archetypes: Undead and Deathrattles for the Invasion, Aggro for the Crowleys and… SECRETS For the Greymanes?! Yes Secrets originally. Originally I planed on designing legendary secrets for all 3 Greymane Classes, but while designing I noticed a key issue: I was not having fun designing secrets. So I just tried around a bit, until I landed on the Coronation/Echo-Callback archetype of the final set. Some cards from the first draft of the Greymane faction are still part of the neutral set."
What part of the set was the most fun to design?
Palestar: "The Tri-Class cards, especially the legendaries. I was having lots of fun with them, trying out different ways to tie all 3 classes together. The process for all 3 went very differently each time. The Crowleys didn’t change once from their first draft beyond some balance changes. The Uninvited wrapped designing second, almost a year later. They underwent major changes after I had designed the Priest and Warlock cards as I felt the Faction lacked direction beyond miscellaneous “Undead”. To this day I am very proud of the final Sylvanas, even to she has been quite controversial in some discourse. The Greymanes got their identity change last and it was the most drastic, like I elaborated before."
Are there any other cards you wish to showcase for any reason?
Palestar: "I really like my worgen warrior archetype. I think it best showcases the new worgen tribe and rage spells. Mainly cuz it’s literally their origin. I expanded the rage spells and worgen mid set building from this archetype into their current status as I felt their was lots of room to play with and as I felt to many minions would have been tribeless otherwise."
Do you have anything behind the scenes that you wish to share?
Palestar: "This set really helped me grow as a card designer. I think a set is a great way to find your style of card design and reflect your style of designing. I also recommend spell checking your set BEFORE releasing it… It gets awkward if you don’t!"
Do you have anything else you wish to share?
Palestar: "My custom pack design! It was so fun to make and quite easy to do as well! To make it I painted over the basic set in procreate and then spend a lot of time shading. It was a blast, and actually an afterthaught after I had oficially released the set. I really recommend everyone to make custom packs for their sets."
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