When making a custom class, the Basic Set is arguably the hardest set to get right. We all want to get to our flashy cards as soon as possible, but the Basic Set is the most important set. It defines the groundwork for the class. The quality of your Basic Set will greatly impact the rest of your class. The other hard part about it is that they can't be very obscure, because they're intended to be... Basic. They're cards that are intended to be very simple, yet very essential for the class.

Each class's Basic set should include:

Table of Contents

    Single Target Damage

    AoE

    Every class should have access to at least one non-friendly AoE with Shaman being the odd one out, presumably because they have Lightning Storm in the Classic set. Even Rogue, whom is supposedly the epitome of weak when it comes to AoE, still has Fan of Knives in their Basic set (and formerly, Vanish as well).

    Card Draw

    Both Shaman and Priest are notably odd men out here. Shaman can be assumed to be out because of the existence of Mana Tide Totem in the Classic set. Priest is out because of the rotation of Northshire Cleric out of the Basic set and the change to Power Word: Shield.

    Removal/Neutralization

    Druid this time is the exception to all of the other classes. We can assume this is because removal is supposed to be a weakness for Druid and they make up in other aspects. Demon Hunter similarly has no direct hard removal, but does have a lot of access to damage and specializes in attacking (whether it be from your hero or your minions).

    Once you get past that, you can also add cards that specifically fit to your class's themes. For example:

    Northshire Cleric would also count for this category, but his since left the Basic set.

    A class's Basic set usually only has 1 or 2 minions.

    The class with the most is Hunter and Demon Hunter with 4. If you have more than 4 minions in your Basic set, you should cut a few of them. Rogue formerly used to be the only class with none, but has since had Plaguebringer added. For reference, here is the number of minions in each class's Basic set:

    *Formerly 0

    Top tip: It's also a really good idea for cards to follow more than 1 aspect, increasing utility and space. For example:

    This doesn't mean you should try to make every card like this, but it's nice to have should it happen. Some classes (Shaman and Druid) in particular may not follow some of these categories, in part because they have easy to access cards in the Classic set (Mana Tide Totem, Lightning Storm) or are intended to be weak in a particular aspect. You could possibly justify skipping one of these should that come up.