Some introduction. I'm a big fan of Sky Gen'ral Kragg as a card, but it dawned on me that Ancharrr doesn't really work with him super well, in that it's very very hard to justify giving up Dr. Boom, Mad Genius for either of the available Warrior quests in the game. In Taunt Quest Warrior, he's very fantastic, but that deck isn't very good. There's also a lot of things Warrior wants to be in or close to Highlander for. I also am a big fan of seeing Kargath Prime as a wincon for über-slow Control Warrior decks, though not being able to essentially Pyroblast an opponent with him is pretty disappointing to an oldhead like me, who was a big fan of Charge as a mechanic specifically for control decks (rest in retirement, Grommash Hellscream). Enter my latest fan card:
The design of the quest itself stemmed from a need to be unique from the existing quests, without just being the easy "gain X armor" way out, which wouldn't be fun for any reason. Seeing gameplay of Sword and Board, Shield Slam, and Bladestorm making waves in Standard, I got the idea for a quest that specifically cares about damaging creatures. Attacking them, whirling them, blowing them up. Here's the reward:
A lot of this card's design was thematic; I wanted the story of Kur'talos to be represented on the function of the card. His commitment led to the Kaldorei Resistance making waves and defeating the Burning Legion, but it wasn't he himself who saved the day. Functionally, the card allows huge bursts with biggies like Magtheridon (which I'll admit is a big no-no thematically) and situationally with Kargath Prime. He also would work well with 0-mana Dragons from Dragonqueen Alexstrasza in closing out needed face damage. The quest and his impact on a game would also nicely represent his battle against the Burning Legion and his ultimate influence against it after he died.
Then, I realized his implications with Grim Patron, and as a big fan of Patron Warrior, this fan card turned from a "this would be cool" card to a "this would be REALLY, REALLY COOL" card. With the tools in the deck, this would enable an OTK-like burst to specifically this deck, but the Quest and Reward both fit really, really well in Patron lists. The cool thing is, I kind of see this as a fair replacement to the old Warsong Commander (current version linked just to remind you how useless the current version is), in that it doesn't really allow miracle draws to happen: Patron Warrior, with this card, would HAVE to play the long, slow game it was only willing to do in the past.
However, I'm actually more in love with the theoretical interactions this quest has with the other cards in this specific deck, though. I can imagine the many interactions this deck could have being extremely satisfying to play out (like Magtheridon summoning 1/3 bodies to rack up damage on, or Bomb Wrangler doing some serious low-floor, high-ceiling damage just in the name of board control and quest completion, or Teron Gorefiend being used in Patron sequences or to eat your beaten up Acolyte of Pain/Armorsmith/Risky Skippers/Eternium Rover to maximize their values, or Ancharrr doubling as a tutor for a tech Kobold Stickyfinger in weapon-heavy metas). I'm so in love that I felt this was worth sharing here. Though this serves as ultimately nothing more than sharing some imagined thing I find neat, I'm hoping the concepts here excite you somehow about deckbuilding, or even card design.
About the card's balance: I could definitely see the argument that the quest's requirement could be just a little too easy to complete, and with the reward being pretty good to play against egg decks for example, it could be problematic for a meta's healthiness in that regard. So 25-30 damage, and perhaps even more, might be fairer, but there's no real way for me to test that.
About the card's function: I feel I should clarify how I think the game would read/understand the card. "[your] damage to minions" (I think) means all minions in the case of Whirlwind, enemy minions (on your turn) in the case of your hero or your minions attacking them (on your turn), and enemy minions (on your opponent's turn) in the case of your secrets like Explosive Trap, Snipe, Flame Ward, Explosive Runes, etc., should they somehow come into play under your control. Any damage a minion takes, including your own minions, from specifically a spell you control, would count; but since you're not the one dealing the damage to your own minions when you're attacking an enemy minion with one of your own minions, or when your minion(s) take damage from your opponent's spells or secrets (because you're not the one casting/triggering/controlling those spells/secrets), or when an opponent chooses to attack one of your minions with one of their minions or their hero... none of those types of damage would count (I think), because you're not in control of that happening. For an odd example, I believe Warmaul Challenger's battlecry would attribute to your quest for only the damage Warmaul Challenger deals to your opponent's creature, and that the quest would not recognize the damage your opponent's creature deals back to Warmaul Challenger. This is all based off my assumptions of how Hearthstone tracks its various triggers and its internal rulings. EDIT: On second consideration, I'm pretty sure combat involving two minions is actually out of the question, and only damage dealt by your spells or your hero would count. As far as I can think, it's not something that's particularly easy to test, either, so balancing the card is a little challenging.
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