Saviors of Uldum Cards
Cards based on the theme of Saviors of Uldum
Category : Mods/Card game
Role : Game Designer
Duration : 3 days
Presentation :
With the announcement of the Hearthstone expansion, “Saviors of Uldum” and the revelation of the first cards, I wanted to imagine my own cards for the expansion.
You will find on this page all the Hearthstone cards I could imagine on the theme of Uldum, knowing that I did not make myself the artworks used for the cards.
Being a Hearthstone player but not a World of Warcarft player, some cards are not necessarily in perfect adequacy with the lore.
Even if I created some cards from elements present in the Uldum zone in WoW the idea of this project was more to make cards on the theme of an adventure in an ancient Egyptian atmosphere.
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What's more, the reviews I give of my own designs were made long after I had originally designed these cards.
Card details
Obelisks are central monuments in Uldum. That's why I wanted to represent them, each with a characteristic.
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The Saviors of Uldum expansion introduced the concept of quests that gave new hero power.
So the idea was to make cards that worked around hero powers.
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Each obelisk therefore has a different passive ability. Once the player uses their Hero Power, the Obelisk turns into an invulnerable card on the field (much like the Void Portal, a reward from the Lakkari Sacrifice quest).
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This invulnerable card reproduces the effect of the obelisk, but stronger.
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In their current form, these cards are probably a bit too strong. Indeed, having a permanent effect that cannot be removed is quite a powerful effect.
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At the time I created these cards, the Locations card type (which arrived with the Murder at Castle Nathria expansion) did not exist. Changing these cards to Locations with the effect that would last for one turn would be a way to make them more in line with today's Hearthstone.
I created the Cursed Urn card with the idea of being able to reuse the mechanic of Ancient Curse, which is a mechanic very suited to the theme of adventurers exploring tombs.
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This card adds two Ancient Curse to the deck of the player who is currently taking their turn at the time the card is destroyed. So usually the player who destroys the card.
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Probably a bit weak since you have to force your opponent to destroy it to benefit from it. However, it would probably be a bit strong if the effect was exclusive to the enemy deck.
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Indeed, classes like Rogue or Priest that have a lot of mechanics around Deathrattles could easily put a lot of Ancient Curse in the opponent's deck.
I came up with this quest card before the official quests for Priest and Paladin were revealed.
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The idea was to imagine what the Priest's quest could be with the new Reborn mechanic.
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Priest had at that time many cards that allowed to resurrect dead minions, and mainly Deathrattles.
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So I wanted to encourage this style of deck with a reward that gives Reborn to minions, allowing you to take advantage of Deathrattles multiple times.
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A passive Hero Power like it is would surely be too powerful.
Moreover, the way the Heroic Power is currently formulated, minions would have Reborn permanently which would make them immortal. A more reasonable version would be to have a Hero Power active with a two mana hit that gives Reborn to a minion.Thus, the effect is limited to one minion per turn.
Mirage is a card I designed to support the Resurrection/Deathrattle archetype. Indeed, it is a card that makes it easy to have a copy of a minion with a large deathrattle. However, it can also be used defensively with a minion that has Taunt.
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In addition, the triggering of the death rattle is almost 100% guaranteed, which can be an advantage.
Indeed, against some decks that play very few minions, it can sometimes be complicated to trigger your own Deathrattles.
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Snake Charmer is a fairly basic card that aims to support the Beast/Token hunter archetype. This card is very inspired by the Snake Trap card, however it has different advantages and disadvantages compared to the latter.
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First of all, it is much more expensive than Snake Trap. However, since this is a Battlecry and not a Secret, the player controls when these snakes enter the field.
This makes it easier to use buffs.
Sandstorm is a card for a control mage that was mainly designed to be used in combination with spell damage cards (especially Obelisk of the Stars).
Indeed, since the damage is done one by one, each point of Spell Damage doubles the total damage value.
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However, since the effect is field-wide, if the player uses Spell Damage minions, they are usually destroyed as well, limiting the card's abilities.
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If this card was designed primarily with Spell Damage in mind, it should be strong enough on its own.
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To estimate its power, you have to compare it with a card like Flamestrike which, for one more mana, does base five damage and does not have the "disadvantage" of being symmetrical on the battlefield.
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Given the lower mana cost and spell damage benefit, Sandstorm is in my opinion a reasonably balanced card.
Coffer of Promise is designed a bit like a quest, with a reward that requires several steps.
Since the final reward is extremely powerful, it had to be relatively hard to obtain.
That's why I didn't do a quest. Indeed, being a legendary minion, the first difficulty is to succeed in drawing Coffer of Promise.
Then, you have to successfully activate the Deathrattle without the card being silenced.
Once the Titan Disc cards are in the deck, since they draw, they help to find the others and therefore progress the "quest".
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However, since it is not a Cast When Drawn card, the player must still spend twenty mana before obtaining the final reward.
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Finally, Planetary Re-origination isn't an instant win. Even though in the majority of cases playing this card will result in winning, it still differentiates it from cards like the Seek Guidance questline.
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For all these reasons, I think Coffer of Promise remains a fairly balanced card but probably too slow for current Hearthstone.