Every now and then I find myself in the rabbit hole called r/customhearthstone the best place for Hearthstone creativity and imagination. From really interesting new concepts and mechanics to pure meme cards, there will always be some cards that everyone wishes were introduced in the game. Let's see some of those and theorize a bit about them.
I didn't make them in any order, just picked some I thought were really interesting in the way they operate with the current possibilities of Hearthstone mechanics.
Vine Prison, I loved this card on first sight since it is using Dormant mechanic that seems really interesting and yet it is used only on couple cards in Hearthstone, to be exact only on Sherazin, Corpse Flower and The Darkness. Also, both of these cards will be rotating out with the new expansion so having more cards that use this mechanic would be nice. Okay, so getting back to this card, the way it uses dormant is really cool and witty and by being able to target both friendly and enemy minions give some extra flexibility to the card. With this, you can do lots of things. With the way, Hearthstone works the dormant minion that is coming back to the board should be restored back to the original state, but without triggering the potential battlecry. The ways this could be used on enemy minions can be for removing buffs, from spells and battlecries, a better freeze since dormant minions can't be silenced and delaying opponents tempo or even like messing up with your opponent's Doomsayer timing.
Being able to use this card on friendly minions as well it can be used to remove unwanted effects, heal a minion but these don't seem like the best uses for the Vine Prison since the minion will be getting into play at the start of your turn so the minion won't be able to attack the turn it got returned to the board.
The power of this card could maybe get too strong when using it on friendly minions as a sort of minion preparation for the follow-up turn. Let's say for 8 mana you can play Gadgetzan Auctioneer and then the next turn use all those cheap Druid spells to run through your deck, would work best in a Mecha'thun or some kind of Miracle Druid decks. Also, could be used on Malygos, a bit harder to pull off but with innervate not impossible. Although Druid already has a card that has a similar effect to that (Dreampetal Florist), this spell has more flexibility to it and might even complement this style of decks.
Boomguard! Haha, this name already made me love this card. At the surface, it just looks like a worse version of well known Doomguard, well it better be since it is a neutral card. But is it actually that worse? In comparison, Boomguard requires 2 extra mana to attack unlike Doomguard that discards 2 cards and in this case, I think that this card might have some advantages, not for zoo style decks Warlock mostly made a fit for Doomguard but for some midrange or control deck it seems better. A big advantage that isn't that obvious at first is that this guy also has a charge and can ignore taunts. Funny thing is that it can't attack minions like Faerie Dragon that can't be targeted with Hero Powers. Another thing, if you have 2 or more Boomguards on the board, let's say with Carnovious Cube or similar shenanigans, your Hero Power essentially gets stronger and with cards like Blackwald Pixie that refreshes your Hero Power so you Boomguards can attack again this can even create some crazy damage bursts. Of course, this requires huge amounts of mana so it's not that easy to make this card broken.
It's hard to image in what decks would this card be played, my guess would be in something like Control Hunter because it always feels bad to use your Hero Power if your game plan is to control the board rather then rush the opponent and this card helps in these kinds of situations and it does it in such an interesting way. I would definitely like to see this or something similar being in the game to diverse the uses of Hero Powers.
This one is rather simple yet it does something unique. The only time we've seen something like this (Secretly) was on a card Fatespinner, even though it had such a one of a kind effect, the power level of it was so weak that it didn't see any play at all. Snake in the Grass doesn't seem too bad, of course, it is easy to clear those with any AOE removal but it wouldn't be worth it if this was the only thing on the board. The cool thing about it is if let's say a Mage or Druid pings down one of the snakes with their Hero Power, they still wouldn't know if they cleared the Poisonous one which still leaves them under pressure and discouraging them from playing large minions. Other than that this can be combo'ed with Thundra Rhino and Houndmaster Shaw for an instant clear of one minion and plus two 1/1s which is okay for 4 mana. This card although isn't that strong, it uses a mechanic left unexplored by Blizzard and I think this kind of cards could give Hearthstone some interesting moments and ways to implement "Secrets" other than secret spells themselves.
Love the name, love the art and also the effect. The whole package is there. Is it worth it though? Well, to start it off you can play this on turn 4 with Soulfire, kind of a tempo play and already pumping this card's potential. Stealth is a key for this card to achieve any substantial benefit. The best way for the opponent to get rid of this card will in most cases be to silence it or transform it. Aside from Priest using Mass Dispel, there is no way of achieving this while Surkhan is in stealth. One thing that is concerning is how this can make The Cataclysm a bit too strong, it would be like Twisting Nether for 7 mana in two cards. Even though this seems a bit troublesome I don't think it would be considered that strong, maybe in some niche situations. The best thing about this card is that it supports a Discard Warlock archetype that everyone seems to really want to work but it is always at best a tier 3-4 deck. With this, though it could really make a difference because it would be yet another card that negates the negative consequences of discarding cards from your hand and actually make it reasonably competitive. A man can dream!
This will be the last one on this list. Illusion is actually a card I saw a couple of years ago and it is why I got drawn to this custom Hearthstone cards in the first place. I just love the way this card is so simple but makes such a difficult situation for your opponent. The level of mind-games this card has is astounding. When this is played it doesn't do anything until the next turn, while at the same time it affects the way your opponent is going to play their turn while testing for secrets. Once the Illusion is revealed you get to discover another secret and your opponent need to again play their next turn carefully around the newly placed secret. The funny situation that might occur (not for your opponent) is that when the Illusion procs and gives you a discover choices, it might also give you another Illusion and this is just crazy haha. I can see how this may be too frustrating to play against, still, I would enjoy playing with this card if it ever gets released in Hearthstone. Extra troll part of this card is that it was made while Kezan Mystic was still playable in a Standard format and if the opponent trying to steal a secret wasn't playing a class that has secrets, Illusion would just fizzle when their turn starts because of the way the discover mechanic works. (discovers only neutral and your current class cards)
Here are some also interesting cards I've seen lately that I won't discuss in this post but they are definitely worth sharing:
Hope you enjoyed this one. Imagine what cards and mechanics could be introduced to this already fantastic game is something that is almost connected to the game itself at it feels awesome to get in this "parallel universe Hearthstone" from time to time.
If you want to discuss any of the cards or want to share some you found or even created, please leave a comment.
Thank you for reading!
, z3ll
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