Title. I’d like to see people’s ideas for a potential new Keyword or card mechanic. If you like, you can give an explanation for why you like this mechanic, and give an example of a card that would use it.
For my own example of a new Keyword:
Scattershot: When this minion attacks, it also deals damage equal to its Attack split randomly among all enemies.
This basically functions the same way as Arcane Missiles, Cinderstorm, etc., but attached to a minion instead of a spell. When you attack with a 3-Attack Scattershot minion, it will do 3 damage to its target, then it will deal 3 damage split randomly among all enemies.
I think it would make an interesting option for minion-focused decks that are looking for a way to clear small tokens without needing to burn an AoE spell.
Well, what kind of cards did you have in mind? I’d be interested in seeing an Avenge minion designed to be played right after your board has been cleared.
React. Do something random in response to your opponent’s first action.
Some cards do something like this already. I thought rather than specifying different types of reacts, react minions could draw randomly from a pool of reactions. Like rush a summoned minion, intercept a spell, cast something like cinderstorm or arcane missiles, gain stealth or another keyword, etc.
Hearthstone version of MTG reactions (or whatever they’re called).
I think you’re thinking of Instants, like Counterspell. Cards that can be played at any time so long as you have the mana, even during your opponent’s turn.
But I’d be happy to see what kind of cards you could come up with.
As for cards, the most basic would be the 1/1/1 with React.
It would be more about the pool of reactions it can draw from, and whether it’s ok to scale the pool with card cost, or if it should just be able to draw from 1 Mana value effects. Like a 1/1/1 could react with arcane missiles, but fireball would be way too much.
A 8-10 cost card I’m not sure would be ok or not having an 8-10 cost react. Like, play an 8/8/8 react, and it later casts twisting nether. Might be a bit much. (Then again, that’s basically what the new Brann does – summon a 9 cost for 7.)
Well, by all means, take your time to flesh out the mechanic. I think it’s important to put your ideas on paper, then try to iterate on it. See what sticks.
Ancient teacher - 6 Mana 1/4. Your minions are immune to silence.
Not too hard to deal with but must be dealt with all the same. It would enable a lot of buff concepts that can’t really be played due to silence effects readily available.
I think you’re overestimating the value of negating Silences. I’d make that a 3-cost minion at most.
And bear in mind that even if you make your minions immune to Silence, they’d still be vulnerable to hard removal, Transform effects like Hex, and Sap. The biggest reason buff cards don’t see much play is because no matter how big a minion may be, they can still be countered by an Execute or a Deadly Shot or any number of other removal cards.
Magnetic is one of the only exceptions to this rule. Along with board-wide buffs like Power of the Wild or Soul of the Forest, since you need more than a Hex to counter it.
Maybe so. Silence is the easiest target because it’s the most readily available. Transform is also annoying to any buff based deck but only shaman and mage have those cards on tap so it’s probably fine.
Execute, subdue, hunters mark, it’s all whatever, you can’t just make an invulnerable thing or it’s op.
Freeze kinda falls in that same category. The effect is so limited it doesn’t need a counter.
You know, the lead designer for Magic: the Gathering gave a speech once; be more afraid of boring your players than challenging them. A card that just makes your minions immune to silence is boring, and too situational to see play. Wee Spellstopper is a card that performs a very similar function to Ancient Teacher (Minions adjacent to it can’t be targeted by spells or Hero Powers); but in the almost five years since it was printed in Goblins vs. Gnomes, it has never, ever seen competitive play.
So, be more afraid of creating an underpowered card than an overpowered one. Overpowered is at least interesting. Underpowered cards just don’t see play.
Besides, you’re not on the actual design team. Nobody’s going to suffer if you come up with an OP card.
I promise if wee spellstopper was in standard it would have been in every mech paladin deck last expansion and it would be in every quest paladin deck now.
That’s more like it. The only thing I might change is switching Charge to Rush or changing Windfury to Divine Shield if we’re worried about OTKs, but that’s it. It’s a hard condition to fulfill, but very rewarding to pull off. It also gives your opponent an opportunity to play around it by killing your Microbots, which is great.
Board autofill - Battlecry -fill your board with (optional - legendary) minions Each turn this minion will refill your board with more minions (optional - legendary). Forever.
Like a boot stamping on a human face forever.
Points for anyone who can identify the linking quote, although obviously slightly changed.
Hmm. What if it was a 10-mana card that discards your hand, destroys your deck, heals your opponent for 10 health, destroys all your armor, and deals 10 damage to your hero?
It is technically possible to actually make a card like that work, if you give it a drawback that basically translates to “lose the game”. Astral Communion is another example of such a card, along with Deathwing.
