I created this class for the 5th Class Creation competition, placing 3rd place. I went much further than I ever anticipated with the support of the Hearthpwn community. Now I'm posting and updating this class as a project since I particularly like the theme and the mechanic I have created for it.
Keyword:
Astromancer is a high RNG class that this keyword allows them to reduce the RNG (atleast temporarily) and plan their turn as well as considering their risk / reward ratio accordingly when they don't draw or can't afford to play the Gaze cards.
Gaze not only allows the class to play offensively by allow their damage to reliable hit the desirable target, they allow the class to play defensively as well since their card draw, minion buffs and healing are also pretty random.
Gaze effects not only activate with your own random effect but also your opponent's random effect as well. This mean that you can protect your minions from devastating effects like Deadly Shot or from DIE, INSECT! mowing your important minions or life down too quickly.
Gaze only activate and disappear on ELIGIBLE targets only. If there is no eligible target, the random effect will proceed with the target selection like normal. If minions with Gaze died from effect like Arcane Missiles mid-casting, the target selection will continue on as normal. If two or more target are Gazed , the target that were Gazed first will be the target for the random effect. If they are Gazed at the same time, the effect will randomly pick among the Gazed targets. This is especially important to remember because Gaze also stacks on a character until the previous one disappear, which mean that timing and anticipating the opponent's play is key for your random effect to have the most value.
Also of note is that minions with natural Gaze in their card text (like Celestial Drake in my Classic set) will have Gaze anywhere , meaning that tutoring draw effects like The Curator, discard from hand or deck effects like Soulfire as well as other hand target effects like Dirty Rat or Recruit effect will target that card instead of your other cards. If that happens, the minion will enter the battlefield or drawn with the Gaze removed. Discover effects do not interact with this keyword since the card technically is not created yet and thus is still subjected to the wide Discovery pool (also it will be a nightmare otherwise balancing every card generation effect with a card with Gaze ).
List of available cards in the Basic and Classic set that will be effected by this keyword: Arcane Missiles, Cleave, Mind Vision, Multi-Shot, Any effect that says "Discard a random card": Soulfire, Felstalker, Doomguard, Deadly Shot, Mad Bomber, Thoughtsteal, Forked Lightning, Blood Imp, Alarm-o-Bot, Young Priestess, Demolisher, Knife Juggler, Lightwell, Master Swordsmith, Mind Control Tech, Stampeding Kodo, Young Priestess, Avenging Wrath, Brawl, Mindgames, Tinkmaster Overspark, Sylvanas Windrunner (before Hall of Fame), Ragnaros the Firelord (before Hall of Fame).
How do you know and keep track of which characters are Gazed ? Any character that is Gazed will have an eye symbol with blue aura surrounding them when you hover over. Here's an example (thanks to the brilliant NoahMcGrath):
Gameplay Summary
Astromancer is a high RNG versatile class that has the cards to support multiple playstyle. From swarming tokens and then finishing off your opponent with burst damage, spell-based decks that burn out your opponent, to mid-range decks that drop well stated minions turn after turns, a grindy control deck with powerful late game win condition or some hybrid of all the above. The class has the tools to support them all!
Strengths and Weaknesses:
Things the class is good with:
- Token spawning : As long as there is one star in the sky, the Astromancers will be able to summon out the Astral Spirit that represent the soul of those stars to fight for them.
- Burst spell damage / finisher : Astromancers can command down comets and meteors from the night sky to hit their foe. Not only that but the Astral Spirits when buffs up can become formidable allies
- Disruption : The stars and the sky not only protect you in your turn, but in your opponent's turn as well. In addition to being a Secret class and their class mechanic Gaze activates during your opponent's turn, their minions and spells also carry disruption effects that will cause your opponent to have to think twice before making any moves as well as creating interactive games from both sides.
Thing the class is average or decent at:
- Card Draw : With the Gaze mechanic requiring multiple cards, the class will have a decent amount of draw to allow them to combine the cards that grant Gaze with the random effect they like to run.
- Survivability : The class boast a decent amount of Taunt minions and healing. However, the healing is random as well as tying to spawning out tokens and keep them on the board to continuously receive it. If your opponent keep killing them off, you will have difficulty to survive.
- Removal: When not falling into your opponent's face, the comets and meteor conjured by the Astromancers can instead annihilate the enemy minions.
Thing the class is bad at:
- Unreliable random effects: The power of the celestials are powerful but unstable. Astromancer is a class built from the ground up to be a high variant class. This is especially prevalent in their Classic cards and Hero Power. If your hand is filled with random effects with no effective way to make them more consistent, the RNG can easily screw you over.
- Board clear : The power of the stars are unreliable when forcing them to target multiple enemies. Most of the Astromancer's board clear are either unreliable (aka random), conditional, symmetrical or inefficient in term of damage to their cost. Their big board clear usually came at the mid to late game and either need set up or providing extra utility in exchange for killing power
- Cards need set up : Most of their most powerful cards need set up beforehand or through multiple turns. This in turn allows your opponent the opportunity to disrupt them.
Basic set
Similar to Basic, the Classic set provides the class with their iconic keyword Gaze as well as tools to support a variety of decks. The Classic set also give them Elementals and Dragons minions that can be utilized in later sets.
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Token
Curse of Naxxramas
The one card the class receive from this adventure play into the Deathrattle theme and the Constellation mark prominent in the class
Goblins vs Gnomes
Goblin vs Gnome can be said to be right in this class's wheelhouse: A lot of random effects, aggressive mechs with powerful tribal synergy and reward vomit your hand onto the battlefield. The aggressive mech side of the class is covered with low cost Mech like Watch Bird, Astral Blast and Gnomish Satelite. The more combo oriented side of the class has Gnomageddon and Silas Darkmoon to support them. The rest of the set are cards that can be used in both archetypes. Mechanical Uprising is the class's flavor of hard countering the mech meta.
Common:
Rare
Epic
Legendary
- Silas Darkmoon can be played at turn 10 either with 1 Spare Part, or as part of a larger combo with Mark of Virgo + Silas + Gnomish Astrologist and dump your hand with Spare Parts. His 6/4 statline is to minimize the impact of highrolling him with [Hearthstone Card (Finnicky Cloakfield) Not Found]
Blackrock Mountain
The two cards in this expansion introduce Dragons synergy for the class that will be a permanent feature for it. Both Twilight Apprentice and Untamed Egghatcher are solid cards that carry the disruption effect, one for board clear and the other for swarm decks that mid-range decks usually weak to.
Dragon Egg
The Grand Tournament
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Token
- Herald Beluus is designed to give Joust the desperate support that it need. As long as the card is in your deck, it is always revealed whenever you use a Joust effect. Of course, like Patches the Pirate, you always run the risk of drawing this card before you drew your Joust effect and become basically a Faceless Behemoth or reveal your opponent's Molten Giant
- Astral Explosion and Astral Warhorse are a very powerful cards that can be used as a removal / burst damage combine with your Hero Power or as part of an OTK with Violet Illusionist and spell generations that will be printed in later sets. However, this combo deck will be a Wild exclusive deck since the cards require to generate more Astral Explosion won't be printed until the Witchwood and Rise of Shadows.
League of Explorers
Whispers of the Old Gods
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
- The 1/1 C'Thun summoned by Bride of C'Thun is also buffed by any C'Thun buff you played this game. Which mean that the C'Thun will have the stat of the original C'Thun -5/-5.
- Jadefire Satyr cost 8 mana to prevent him from dealing 20 damage with Brann Bronzebeard
One Night in Karazhan
Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
For this expansion, the class will join the Kabal faction.
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Journey to Un'Goro
In Journey to Un'Goro, Rishi stumbles upon the Draconic inhabitants whose knowledge of the stars and sky rival her own. Together, they unite their intellect in order to learn and performing the forgotten ritual made by the Titans in effort to fight the Old Gods. The Quest and card set will give the class a new way to synergize with the copious amount of Gaze in its Classic set while the rest of the set will give the Astromancer Elemental synergy attached to Dragon minions.
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Token
Knights of the Frozen Throne
Follow her death and return as a Death Knight in Knight of the Frozen Throne, Rishi's ruthlessness that served her well in forging her own fate now allows her to become one of the most dangerous of the Lich King's servant. While Gul'dan steals a person's blood and body, Rishi's specialty is stealing and bounding their souls to serve her, translating to a set of cards that specialize in taking away a minion's effect and replacing them with an identical Astral Servant.
Lich King card:
The Lich King card is especially potent against the class due their token swarming strategy not only offer board presence also healing and Gaze utility.
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Token:
Kobolds & Catacombs
Rishi's venture into the Catacomb force her to confront an aspect long-lost to the Astromancers: The cold, devouring and uncaring emptiness of the Darkness and the Void that lies between the stars. Secrets and artifacts that were long-lost to Astromancers came to light. The class now also has incredibly well-rounded Dragon deck inspired by the encounter with Seriona.
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
- If you don't have anymore Secrets in your deck, Wormhole will not activate.
Token:
The Witchwood
In the Witchwood, Astromancer's connection with the stars allow them to contact the Wild God whose power originate the Worgen curse Goldrinn, allow him to arrive and bring with him the power to convert willing Gilnean who wants the power to fight against Hagatha, resulting in a set with extensive use of the swapping Attack and Health mechanic. Astromancer also have the theme of hanging on to the past, which symbolize by their card set's use of the Echo mechanic as well as reward for playing multiple copies of a card in your game
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Token:
Before you read any further, here's some trigger warning:
The next set will depict and use imagery of serious mental health issues including: collective trauma, schizophrenia, the grieving process, toxic relationships, multiple personality disorder and depression. If any of them upset you, I understand if you skip the cards or just glossing them over. I tried to be as respectful and as accurate as possible to depict the mental health conditions. However, because I do not suffer from mental illness myself, as well as being bounded by the fantasy/sci fi setting of the expansion and generally "dumbing down" of the condition to fit in with the card effects, there's bound to be some mistakes and inaccuracy. I hope you can forgive me for that. If you can think of any ways to improve the cards depiction of mental health issues, I'm ready to listen.
One of the lab of Dr. Boom is preserved for counseling the traumatized interns and scientists. Of course, given that the lead psychiatrist Sigmund Parlov is part of the Boom lab, he also attempts the morally dubious method of opening a portal to the Emerald Dream / Emerald Nightmare to seek out new magic to treat his patient.
Common
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Epic
Legendary
- Spells that deal split damage that has Poisonous by Toxic Influencer will instantly kill the minion that it deal the separate instant of damage to.
Token:
The Stages of Grief:
Other tokens:
Nightmare
Rastakhan's Rumble
For the Rumble, the class will follow the recently return from the death the Sky Serpent Loa Quetz'lun. He bring along with him a hoard of champions and will take people who were cast aside in order to convert and train them to become the best they can be. His most prized champion Al'Zatar is such example, who specializes in manipulate the odd to his favor.
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Token:
Gladiator's Path:
Rumble Run
Shrines
Teammates
Rise of Shadows
For Rise of Shadows, the class will join force to defend Dalaran, therefore balance out the number of Hero Class compare to the Villain classes. Their card set will mainly focus on building a combo deck that generate a huge amount of cheap spells to burst down the enemy. In Wild, this combo is even more prevalent since the class has access to the spell Astral Explosion combine with Violet Illusionist.
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
- Shalyssa Ravenwhisper is made by Demonxz95 as a tribute card for me. I like it so much that I decided to implement it to my class's set.
- If the enemy hero already had been by Gaze or Solar Eclipse before the Battlecry of Dalaran Sky Watcher, they can still be hit by random effect damage, similar to how random damage can still hit Can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers minions.
- If a spell already had Twinspell before you cast Mark of Gemini, it will add a copy with Twinspell to your hand, similar to THE... Candles treasure.
Rise of the Mech
- Schizorphrenia now cost 2 mana (down from 4 mana)
- Nightmare Therapy now cost 5 mana (down from 6)
The Dalaran Heist
Hero Powers:
Secrets of the Void unlock: Cast 50 spells
Celestial Call Requirement: Summon 200 minions
Backstory:
Hawken Kipler is a former highly respected Astromancer of Dalaran. He harbors a grudge against the Citadel because Eldrond Luxos, his friend and former lover, was expelled from the city because of Luxos's newfound interest in Necromancy and Void magic. This grudge simmer for years before exploding when Eldrond's sister Tolyria Luxos was killed during the Purge of Dalaran and the city didn't even bother to send a messenger to Eldrond about her death, considering Eldrond no longer part of Dalaran. Since then, he has been quietly plotting against the city from the inside out, culminating him helping the League of EVIL.
If you played as Astromancer, Eldron Luxos has a small chance to be encountered as a boss in any chapters. He will be encountered only as a 7th boss in chapter 1-4, or from 7th to 11th boss in chapter 5. Playing against him will have special dialogue that detailed their friendship / romance and Kipler breaking the news to him about Tolyria's death.
(The Hero Power is coded to only hit the Astral Spirits if Eldrond or the player is at 1 Health. Celestial Helpers is coded to be in his opening hand and cast on turn 1.)
He will use a self-harming Warlock / Astromancer deck (symbolizing Eldrond being suicidal after Kipler breaking him the news about Tolyria's death). If both sides are alive for 10 turn, the player'll receive a win and a special Treasure:
Saviors of Uldum
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Token
Doom in the Tombs cards:
Tombs of Terror
Lore:
After his encounter with his ex-lover, Eldrond continues on his own path. One night, he found the floating city of Dalaran strapped with rockets. Surprised and confused, he used his magic to track the city down to Uldum. Learning that his help to Kipler has led to the event that can end the world, he joined force with the League of Explorers to put an end to this madness by uniting the scared local citizen to lend the League their aid.
Hero Power
Study the Stars: Starting Hero Power
Unlimited Power unlock: Gaze 100 characters
Call of the Void unlock: Take 40 damage during your turn
Signature Treasures
Darkbomb
- Tolyria's Locket is the initially available Signature Treasure.
- Study the Nether is the Signature Treasure you unlock after defeating 5 Boss
- Kipler's Evocation is the Signature Treasure you unlock after dealing 50 damage to a Plague Lord
- Jr. Ambassador is the Signature Treasure you unlock after defeating a Plague Lord
- Sr. Ambassador is the Signature Treasure you unlock after defeating the first four Plague Lords
- Shifting Anomaly is the Signature Treasure you unlock after defeating 2 Plague Lords
- Renounce Evil is the Signature Treasure you unlock after defeating 3 Plague Lords.
Interaction:
- If you play Tolyria's Locket, Eldrond will remark how much he miss Tolyria and how sad he is at her death.
- If you play Study the Nether, Eldrond will remark that he regret missing out on becoming a Void Elf.
- If you play Kipler's Evocation, Eldrond will remark that one of the reasons he broke up with Kipler is that Kipler used to bring out the more violent side of him. However, recent events are making Eldrond doubting that decision.
- If you play the two Ambassadors, Eldrond will remark on the importance of using local knowledge and citizens to defeat the Plague Lords.
- If you play Shifting Anomaly, Eldrond will remark how he loves these things due to their flexibility.
- If you play Renounce Evil, Eldrond will remark that he prefers "adapt to circumstances".
And don't forget to check out Eldrond's Tombs of Terror guide.
Descent of Dragons
Common
Rare
Epic
Legendary
Galakrond's Awakening
Token:
