27/03/2020: Combined with Blizzard's official take on the core sets. Also brand new layout!
PRIEST CORE SET REVAMP
Introduction
Following this post, I decided to post my own take on the Priest's core sets. The comparison is interesting because we had very different ideas.
I made a few custom classes in the past, so I had to think a lot about class identity and how to make a class feel unique while still being stable and balanced in the long term, and expandable with expansions. Like Shadows, I made a few custom cards, but most of my sets is nerfs/buffs and substitutions with expansion sets.
NOTE: This set was started slightly after Saviors of Uldum was released
Directions
Blizzard's official post on class identity is weird. It mixes class mechanics with strengths and weaknesses so most of the stuff doesn't make sense. The way I proceeded is completely different. I started by listing what should be the primary and secondary mechanics of the class, the strengths and weaknesses of the class as well as the archetypes available to it should follow from this list.
I say "core sets" a lot, but the Basic and Classic set are NOT interchangeable in their functions.
- The Basic set is the spine of the class. It ensures the class' viability and establishes its primary mechanics.
- Must be simple. Most cards must have 2 lines of text or less. Only simple keywords.
- Versatile to support multiple playstyles
- Minimal kit of everything a class needs to be viable (card draw; removal; direct damage; good standalone minions;...) even if not part of identity
- Fine if slightly more OP than what you would expect from expansions
- The Classic set is the limbs of the class. It ensures the class' internal diversity and estables its secondary mechanics.
- Presents the more "complex" mechanics of the game (Deathrattle, etc...)
- Because Classic packs are bought, there should be a sense of progression
- Unlike the Basic set, Classic cards should be slightly below average to let room for expansions
About tribal synergies, each minion type has its own identity
- Beasts
- All size of minions
- Good standalone value
- Buff each other a lot
- Each type of Beast has its subtheme (Bears=Taunt; Boars=Rush; Cats=Stealth; Wolves=buff other beasts; etc...)
- Most common type of minions, as such their identity is less precise
- Demons (Warlock & DH)
- All size of minions
- Powerful but with a drawback (taking damage; discard; ...)
- Dragons
- Medium to big minions
- "If you're holding a Dragon"
- Hand synergy
- Lots of legendaries
- 4/12 statline as a signature
- Elementals
- All size of minions
- "If you played an Elemental last turn"
- Value generation
- Battlecries
- Mechs
- Mechs were the focus of only 2 expansions (GvG and Boomsday) but they're otherwise a rare tribe and have no central identity!
- Murlocs
- Small minions
- Board-wide buffs for other Murlocs
- Relies on early-game snowballing. If allowed to stay on the board, they become nearly unstoppable
- Pirates
- Small to medium minions
- Weapon synergy
- Lots of direct damage
- Totems (Shaman)
- Small minions
- 0 attack with some exceptions
- Powerful ongoing effects (aura/end of turn/whenever)
Tribal synergies are part of a class primary identity in only 3 cases
- Beasts for Hunter
- Totems for Shaman
- Demons for Walocks and DHs
All other class-tribe associations are mostly a matter of coincidence as these tribes happen to fit in the class identity (eg pirates for Warrior/Rogue)
About which keywords I chose to keep in the core sets
- Charge vs Rush - As you know, Charge is a dangerous keyword. This is why Rush was introduced...however there are a few cards that were meant to be finishers that wouldn't make sense without Rush. I will replace Charge with Rush on all core cards with Charge (and tweak stats accordingly) EXCEPT when Charge is on a legendary minion. There are 4 legendary minions with Charge in the classic set and they will keep Charge
- Al'Akir the Windlord
- Grommash Hellscream
- King Krush
- Leeroy Jenkins (will be nerfed though)
- Discover - Disover offers a choice between cards that are in standard. Due to how easy Discover can become skewed when the right cards are printed, there will be no Discover cards in my core sets.
- Poisonous - There were originally no Poisonous cards in the Basic set before the introduction of [Hearthstone Card (Master Poisoner) Not Found]. I will therefore also have poisonous cards in my basic set
- Lifesteal - There are currently no Lifesteal cards in the core sets. However the keyword is simple and I will therefore introduce some.
I tried not to steer away too much from what Blizzard defined for the class, although there are definitely some directions I disagree with and went against. I will signal it when it is the case.
- PRIMARY MECHANICS
- Healing - Priest should be the best class at healing. It should have the most powerful and cost-effective healing cards, both single-target and multi-target. It should have healing synergy.
- High-health minions - Going hand-in-hand with that, Priest should also have access to a lot of minions with high-health for their cost, as well as several ways of buffing a minion's health.
- SECONDARY MECHANICS
- Hard Removals - Priest has a lot of hard removals, that is removal that says "destroy" on the card rather than removal throught direct damage or other ways. Think of the Shadow Words.
- Copying your stuff - Priest has a lot of cards to copy his own or his opponent's stuff, either through summon or card generation. This also implies that Priest is good at greed and value.
- Comboing small spells - This is a theme that was explored during the Year of the Mammoth (2017) and culminated in Razakus Priest, which was the best deck in the game before its nerf.
- Resurrect - I know this is a...controversial aspect of Priest, but gameplay-wise it is ok as long as it doesn't allow minion cheating.
- Silence - Priest has a near-exclusive access to silencing effects.
- Priest is GOOD at
- Big minions (vertical minions, through health buffing)
- Single-target hard-removals ("destroy" cards)
- Value generation (copy, resurrect)
- Surviving (healing)
- Priest is AVERAGE at
- Card draw
- Board clears (I hope that my emphasis on board control through minions makes the need of a board clear less fundamental for Priest)
- Priest is BAD at
- Minion swarms. For Priest, it's quality over quantity
- Direct damage ()
- Tempo (Priest is the slowest class in the game)
The new core sets
COMMONS
RARES
EPICS
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LEGENDARY
Justifications
Basic
- Flash Heal - Much better than Radiance! Since I HoF'd Auchenai Soulpriest, there's no reason to not have this card in the basic set.
- Northshire Cleric (Cost increased to (2); Health increased to 4) - I disagree with Blizzard's decision to HoF her. Yes, at 1/3 she was degenerate but she is waaay too essential and fits well into Priest...and EVERY class needs some card draw...
- Acolyte of Agony - AoA is a very good standalone minion that heals. Perfect for Priest's basic set. See above for my justification for introducing Lifesteal into core sets
Classic
- Divine Hymn - This is mostly meant to replace Circle of Healing as the AOE heal card. CoH is too weak to be used as pure healing and was only used for combos.
- Mindbender (CUSTOM!) - An alternative to Convincing Infiltrator which was considered too OP.
- Dark Cultist - I know such a powerful on-curve minion can be somewhat dangerous to have in the classic set (not because it would ruin the game but because it would see play everywhere), but it's Priest, so I think that's okay. I chose it because it features two aspects of Priest in a single card (Deathrattle + health buff). Replaces Temple Enforcer.
- Holy Champion - Solid minion. Health synergy. Perfect for priest!
- Mind Bomb (CUSTOM!) - An alternative to Mass Dispel which is very clunky. Mind Bomb doubles as a mass silence and an AOE. Very effective against token and murloc decks! Also usable in silence decks.
- Nightscale Matriarch - This card never saw play, but it could easily see play some day, it's perfect to have in the classic set. It's a Dragon, it's a big minion, it's health synergy!
- Mass Resurrection - PLEASE LOWER YOUR PITCHFORKS AND LET ME EXPLAIN FIRST!! Resurrect has been established as a core Priest mechanic over the years. Resurrect effects can cause problems if mana cheating effects are also very present (hello Barnes). However Mass Resurrection costs (9) mana which means that a "big" deck using it would be a late-game oriented one rather than a midrange one. (I was too lazy to redo the card but you have to imagine this with an epic gem instead)
- Power Word: Replicate - Copying is a tertiary Priest theme. I know the flavor of the card is weird in the Classic set but I didn't want to alter it.
- Inner Fire (Cost increased to (2); Rarity increased to epic) - Nerfed to 2 mana. That's the only way to ever make it balanced. Even without Divine Spirit it's restricting the design space among high-health minions.
Hall of Fame
These cards have a fundamentally unbalanced and unbalanceable effect (ie it can't be made balanced just by tweaking numbers).
On the contrary, these cards are just uninteresting and often straight up bad.
These cards are too widespread and limits novelty. They aren't interesting enough to just be nerfed.
On the contrary, these cards are too specific and narrow to be core cards.
These cards are fine and could have stayed. However there were better cards to fill their spots.
Shortlisted cards
The following cards almost made it into my core sets, but didn't because there were no room left for them.
- Vampiric Touch (CUSTOM!) - Was supposed to be the Lifesteal card of the set. Replaced with the existing Acolyte of Agony due to being potentially OP on certain minions. (Spoiler: It's gonna be in Paladin's core set instead).
- Inner Focus (CUSTOM!) - I'm surprised this card doesn't exist. I thought this unconditional card draw would also be useful in the "small spell" Priest shell. I've been told it's OP so I bowed down to the pressure even though it's less powerful than Power Word: Shield except in the edge case when you have no minions.
- Purify - "My grandpa's deck has no pathetic cards Kripp, but it does contain the unstoppable PURIFIER!" Yes, I thought about bringing back what has been labeled the worst card in the game. This is because its effect is very simple and basic and is a building brick for the silence priest archetype. Ultimately didn't because Silence is too similar but more fitting for the core set.
- Priest of the Feast - Second shortlisted card of a 3-card set. PotF has a very "priesty" statline at 3/6 and features both "small spell" synergy and healing, making it perfect for core sets. Didn't keep because I didn't have room. Other synergies felt more important.
- Psionic Probe - Compared to Thoughtsteal, this has the added bonus of being a small spell and to fit in both the steal-yo-stuff shell and the small spell shell. Didn't take because at the end of the day it's a worse Mind Vision, and small spells aren't really core to the class. They were only good when Razakus Priest was around.
- Devour Mind - This one doesn't fit in the small spell shell but it is a big value generator. Priest was historically good at generating value and this does it better. Ultimately scrapped because it is too clunky for the classic set. Thoughtsteal remains the best compromise.
- Extra Arms - A buff that is also two spells in 1. Didn't keep because it doesn't really represent Priest in any meaningful way.
- Plague of Death - People have been complaining about the lack of an evergreen board clear for Priest for a while. This is the ultimate board clear. Didn't keep because unfun and acts as a counter to too many things to be good for the game. Besides, my Priest isn't about "AFK and clear" anymore and my new Holy Nova presumable covers that need.
BONUS: Core sets with alternative structure
OK. I went completely wild here.
What's that? By alternative structure I mean a core set structure other than the 10 Basic/15 Classic structure we have now. I thought a lot about this. I thought about 10/10 (reduced Classic set), 15/10, and even 10/0 (no Classic set at all!). However I settled on this 10/10/9. The 9 being for a yearly rotating core set made entirely of reintroduced old cards (as in the Tombs of Terror event).
The purpose of this set is to avoid redundancy in cards as well as give more supports to the archetypes that are being pushed. 3 cards are re-introduced each expansion, for a total of 9 cards over the year. These cards can vary in rarity but they will stay the same between classes. This allows me to "deport" certain secondary themes of the class into yearly sets, so that they will go back and forth rather than always be there. In order for these sets to feel new, they should not contain any cards from the year that just rotated out.
New (reduced) Classic set
COMMONS
RARES
EPICS
LEGENDARY
Cut cards:
Yearly 2019 (Year of the Dragon) set
For this example, here's what the yearly set for the year 2019 could have been:
NOTE: In order for yearly sets to feel new, this 2019 core set will not contain any 2017 cards since they would have just rotated out.
RISE OF SHADOWS
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SAVIORS OF ULDUM (Healing)
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DESCENT OF DRAGONS (Dragons duh)
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