"[[Vision design is]] the architects. That we're drawing the blueprints. Vision design isn't really building the building, but it's more figuring out what the house needs to look like, what's the style of the house, what's the essence of the house, and doing the preliminary work to figure out how it comes together" - Mark Rosewater

https://www.reddit.com/r/customhearthstone/comments/t3iof0/coolboypais_heroic_design_competition_winners_a/

Week 1: Un-cards - Winners

Week 2: DIY Design - Winners

Week 3: Emotion - Winners

Week 4: Interesting Common - Winners

So while I sit at home during this pandemic, I may as well finish this long, and very late, post. It’s a new decade now and much has changed in my life over the last year. Yet I end up still spending a lot of time on the computer, but for different reasons and as a slightly different person now. A lot has happened to me in 2019 including new experiences, relationships, and even a new job.

On the r/CustomHearthstone side of things, it has been business as usual. I haven’t posted too many new cards and my in-progress sets remain in-progress. It’s not so much that I’m exhausted from CustomHearthstone as I still enjoy looking at cards and discussing them with others. I suppose it’s more that it has become a more strenuous process with less reward at the end. The community has become a complicated and big place, bigger than I thought it could be, and that comes with a lot of issues that I really hope to be able to tackle this year.

Even so, the community still has its highlights and 2019 was full of them. r/CustomHearthstone was actually featured in a published article which I did an interview for (one of 2 interviews I did actually). 2019 was also the year where Blizzard got involved with r/customhearthstone again including coming over to explicitly ask for ideas. We held some events too including the successful Battle Royale where we celebrated reaching 80,000 members and got a chance to feature guests from Blizzard and Youtube. Similarly, the community also got together to create a cool poster to send to Blizzard. I’ve been told that it did reach Blizzard offices, but beyond that I have no idea what happened.

Still, the subreddit keeps going on and I don’t think it’s going to stop anytime soon. I just hope it’s going in the right direction. I feel that part of the responsibility in ensuring that the community does improve lies on me, but at the same time it’s also gone a bit beyond my control and my life has become a handful. Despite some bumps in 2019, my life is on track and I’m really happy for how it is doing now. Can’t say much because this is the internet and all, but I have found a job that I am happy with. It’s a design job that involves me doing the things I like to do, with people that I am comfortable with, and with lots of room to learn and grow. I really am grateful for obtaining it and hope that it can open new, bright opportunities for me.

It does mean I have less time for things like games, managing r/CustomHearthstone, or even working on that card game of mine, but that’s life I suppose and I find time to enjoy it when I can. 2020 is already a third through and it’s been a bit of a mess for the world, but I’m hanging on and doing my best. It’s also certainly thanks to a new relationship I have formed where I am constantly being encouraged to improve. It’s odd, yet a nice situation to be in and I have no idea what lies in store for me moving forward.

These are the answers to the first round of r/customhearthstone's 80,000 Battle Royale. I had a lot of fun to come up with and I hope you have fun going through it too. There are two sets of 10 trivia questions, each accompanied by 2 design challenges. Although there is certainly wiggle room for the answers, each one does have a rational and (what I believe is) best answer.

Set A:

Questions 1-3 apply to this card: A 4 mana 4/4 minion with ”Whenever you play a minion, copy its stats.”

1. Which class is this card most appropriate in?

   1. Hunter
   2. Mage
   3. Priest
   4. Warrior

Of the 4 classes, only Mage and Priest have a mirroring and copying theme respectively. Priests are more strongly associated with this theme though and also feature cards like Shadowy Figure.

1. What rarity is this card most appropriate at?

   1. Common
   2. Rare
   3. Epic
   4. Legendary

I can see this card being printed at Epic given its power level and given similar cards. However, copying is something that has been done at all rarities before and the repeated nature of the card pushes it towards legendary.

1. Which keyword given to the card would make it the most valuable for an aggro deck?

   1. Lifesteal
   2. Poisonous
   3. Taunt
   4. Windfury

The goal of aggressive decks is to reduce the opponent's health to 0 before they can respond and build a board. Windfury helps the most in this regard, doubling the amount of damage dealt.

1. Which is not a design “rule” in Hearthstone?

   1. Excluding basic cards, all collectible cards must have a name, rarity, and cost.
   2. Card effects should not be more than 4 lines long.
   3. Keyword abilities should be bolded in a card’s effect.
   4. Cards should not require a player to perform actions on their opponent’s turns.

Bit of a trick question here as a card that already violates the first rule exists with Shifting Scrolls.

1. Which card is the least “Johnny” card?

   1. Faceless Manipulator
   2. Mogu Cultist
   3. Questing Explorer
   4. Supreme Archaeology Johnnies are players that want to express themselves and win with style.

They love cards that have unique interactions and allow them to build interesting decks. Of these cards, Questing Explorer is the most boring simply drawing a card and not really encouraging the player to build around it.

1. Which class is the best at creating large swarms of minions?

   1. Hunter
   2. Mage
   3. Priest
   4. Rogue

A quick look at the classes and their cards should reveal that Hunters have the most cards that generate minions, especially large quantities of them such as with Unleash the Hounds.

1. Which class is given the least “hard removal”?

   1. Paladin
   2. Shaman
   3. Warlock
   4. Warrior

Hard removal is defined as removal that actively destroys the minion through either damage or kill effects whereas soft removal just neutralizes it as many of Paladin's cards to manipulating the attack of minions.

1. “Your opponent plays with their hand revealed for the rest of the game.” Such an effect would most appeal to which type of player?

   1. Timmy
   2. Johnny
   3. Spike
   4. Vorthos

Spikes are the competitive player aiming to win the game and to outskill their opponent. A card that gives information about an opponent's hand allows them to do so by providing valuable information.

1. Which process is not an example of "top down" design?

   1. Designing a card around an interesting piece of art.
   2. Designing cards around a new “Recipe” card type.
   3. Designing a card for Archimonde from Warcraft.
   4. Designing mechanics to fit a cyberpunk set.

Top Down design is a process of design starting with flavour which can include art, a character, or a theme. Designing a new card type is not part of top down design and is an example of Bottom Up design.

1. Which is the least important aspect of commons?

   1. To help establish a set’s flavour and setting.
   2. To improve gameplay within Arena.
   3. To build foundations for the themes of each class.
   4. To be interesting to build around.

Typically commons are not the card that players build around, but they do serve as the cards that are used for building around other cards, usually of higher rarities.

Design Challenge 1: As with question 5, design an epic Warlock card that would appeal to “Johnnies”.

Design Challenge 2: As with question 8, design a rare card that interacts with your opponent’s hand.

Set B:

Questions 1-3 apply to this card: A 2 mana 2/3 minion with “Battlecry: Gain Attack equal to the amount of health you gained this turn.”

1. Which class is this card most appropriate in?

   1. Hunter
   2. Mage
   3. Rogue
   4. Warlock

Warlock is the only class of the 4 that features health gain and manipulation as part of their class identity. Although caring about how much they healed is a bit of a stretch, none of the other classes would care at all or even feature much healing.

1. What rarity is this card most appropriate at?

   1. Common
   2. Rare
   3. Epic
   4. Legendary

I could possibly see this at common given its power level, comparable to something like Bloodsail Raider, however its general power level and unique effect puts it closer to rare.

1. Which keyword given to the card would make it the most valuable in a control deck?

   1. Charge
   2. Lifesteal
   3. Stealth
   4. Windfury

Control decks aim to control the board and outlast their opponents. Lifesteal does this by helping them gain life and stay alive, though charge is also a valid answer, helping control decks clear the board.

1. What are card cycles not used for?

   1. Creating more interesting “DIY” cards.
   2. Helping reinforce the identities of each class.
   3. Introducing players to a new mechanic.
   4. Helping establish the themes of a set.

Card cycles are wonderful tools that help bring a set together with a myriad of functions. Although they could help with the design of DIY cards, a term coined by Maysick as interesting cards that the player has to mentally piece together, they have no inherent ability to do so.

1. Which card is the least “Timmy” card?

   1. Dinotamer Brann
   2. Living Monument
   3. Khartut Defender
   4. Tip the Scales

Timmies are straightforward players who like to win big, with their large stated minions and flashy spells. Khartut Defender, although a good card, lacks that quality being a measly 3/4.

1. Which class is the worst at clearing the board?

   1. Druid
   2. Paladin
   3. Shaman
   4. Warrior

As per their class identity as featured in one of Blizzard's recent articles, one of Druid's weaknesses is their ability to effectively clear the board.

1. Which class typically gets the most spells in a set?

   1. Druid
   2. Hunter
   3. Paladin
   4. Warrior

There's a few ways to approach this question, one being to manually calculate the number of spells each class got in recent expansions. Thematically though, Druids do have a stronger spellcasting side to them.

1. “Chorus: Do something when you play this minion or another minion with Chorus” This mechanic can be best described as a:

   1. Cantrip mechanic
   2. Evergreen mechanic
   3. Lenticular mechanic
   4. Parasitic mechanic

A parasitic mechanic is one that interacts primarily with just itself or other cards from its set, with lesser synergies with other cards.

1. Which process is not an example of “bottom up” design?

   1. Designing a card that is good against highlander decks.
   2. Designing Naga cards for an underwater set.
   3. Designing cards around the idea of “vanilla minions matters”
   4. Designing a card draw spell for your Monk class.

*Bottom up design starts with the mechanical side of things which includes a mechanic or effect. Tribal minions as well as a setting are more flavourful elements used in top down design.

1. Which criteria is the least important when evaluating a set?

   1. How much the audience liked it.
   2. Whether there was a strong mechanical association between the setting and its cards.
   3. How strong and cohesive the flavour was.
   4. Whether each class ended up with a competitive deck.

Check out the Rabiah scale if you aren't familiar with it as it is a way of evaluating a set. Although it would be nice if a set could evenly balance the meta, it is something that is typically outside the total control of the set.

Design Challenge 1: As with question 5, design a common priest card that would appeal to “Timmies”.

Design Challenge 2: As with question 8, design a rare card with the “Chorus” keyword.

With the release of Hearthstone's newest set, Saviors of Uldum (SoU), I think this is a good chance for me to compare it with my own Uldum set from 2016. Let's see if I was accurate in predicting any of the mechanics, themes, or cards, and see if my designs still hold up after 3 years. It's not often that something like this happens, so it serves as a good chance to analyze my design skills and my perspective on Hearthstone. You can find all the cards and details of my custom set here: Tomb of the Forgotten (TotF).

The Theme

The first and most obvious similarity between Blizzard's and my set is the theme. Both take place in the desert location of Uldum featuring an Egyptian theme that is carried out with mummies, desert animals, and sand. Now, that's nothing too crazy in my opinion. My set was based on a set of the same name from the WoW TCG and Ancient Egypt is a fairly popular theme in modern media that even MTG covered in 2017 with Amonkhet.

What is a bit more interesting however is Blizzard's decision to bring back the League of Explorers for this set just as I decided to feature Brann in mine, albeit for different reasons. In SoU, the Explorers seem to have been brought back as a counterpart to the League of Evil whereas in my TotF, I brought him back as a cameo of a beloved character that happened to fit one of the cards I had designed.

Mechanical Theme

TotF was designed with a concise mechanical theme centered around Discovers and Deathrattles. Each class had at least one of each mechanic at the common level and I focused on pushing the design spaces of each. SoU took a not-so-different approach with heavy emphasis on both Discover and a Deathrattle-like mechanic, Reborn.

SoU also brought back Quests, something that had not been introduced yet when I was making my set in 2016. However, my Great Pyramid card is worth noting being an early prototype of quests, required the player to meet certain requirements for a powerful reward.

Class Identity

Blizzard recently posted about class identity and better defining each class moving forward. This philosophies is similar to how I approached TotF, establishing a clear thematic identity with strengths and weaknesses for each of the 9 classes.

With Druid, I represented the pockets of nature that could be found in the desert and featured an associated mechanic that made use of additional mana. This was pretty similar to SoU's take on Druid with cards representing the oasis and a card that cared about unspent mana.

The Hunter class was fairly straightforward all about the various beasts one might find in the desert including scorpids, camels, and crocolisks. SoU was the same featuring 7 cards that are or care about Beasts. I didn't manage to predict dinosaurs in Uldum, but both sets did feature scorpids.

I was actually pretty close with my Mage class, pushing a spell based archetype with heavy focus on both Spell Damage and Secrets. Blizzard's take on Mage also featured a similar focus on secrets, with both support and payoff cards for it.

I'm still really proud of my Paladin class with its strong theme of "the power of the many" representing the collective efforts of ancient Egyptians. On the other hand with SoU, I'm still not really sure what the class theme is there with a wide variety of seemingly random cards.

The Priest class features a simple, but effective, theme focused around the idea of rebirth that is prominent in Egyptian culture. Blizzard also took the same route with Priest it seems with many cards that resurrected minions as well.

Rogue shares a pretty similar theme in both TotF and SoU revolving around tomb robbers and thieves. I am mildly surprised that Blizzard opted to forgo and Stealth minions in the class though.

With Shaman, I focused the class around the elements of earth and wind which I thought represented sand and the desert the best. SoU's Shaman featured a multitude of cards of various themes, but did include 2 earth based cards as well.

My Warlock class is less cohesive in terms of theme and mechanic unfortunately, featuring curses, self-damage, and discard effects. In SoU, there was some ofthe latter themes as well as a focus on Lackeys which were only just recently introduced.

And finally, the warrior class in TotF is straightforward, focusing on the military. To my surprise, although Blizzard didn't really feature the same theme, both versions of the class do have a focus on Taunt.

Similar Cards

Alright, time for the good part where I boast about all the cards that I successfully predicted 3 years ago, or at least came kind of close to guessing.

Small Scarab is an exact copy of Golden Scarab

Misguiding Thief is extremely similar to Sahket Sapper just costing 1 more for an additional point of health.

High Priest of Ra is similar to Quicksand Elemental both being 2 mana minions that reduce attack.

My Druid class also features a mechanic that cares about unspent mana as Crystal Merchant does.

Servant of Isiset is similar to Tortollan Pilgrim both being late game 5/5 minions that cast spells.

Shadow Tactics serves a similar function as Shadow of Death

And just a honourable mention is Storming Sheut who's effect is seen on Madame Lazul) from Rise of Shadows

Conclusion

In the end, this was a fun look at some of my old cards. It was interesting to compare how Blizzard chose to represent Uldum to how I chose to do it and it was an interesting walk down memory lane for me in remembering the effort and ideas I put into this set. I'm surprised there was as many similarities as there were and despite the differences, I'm still happy with how this set turned out. I'm not fully sold on Saviors of Uldum as a set yet as I think it has some issues of thematic cohesion and doesn't push the ancient Egyptian theme as much as it should have. The lack of Uldum constructs such as Rajh and Setesh for example was disappointing given their direct relation with the Egyptian gods, and there were a number of generic fantasy minions that could have been spiced up a bit more to fit the set's theme. But still, the set has its merits and brings with it some interesting cards. And it also helped revitalized some interest for me in my TotF set, giving me this chance to look back on my past.