Hearthstone: Let’s discuss the design of the original cards in Old Witchwood

IGN’s Cam Shea had the opportunity to interview Peter Whalen and Dean Ayala to talk about the design process of The Witchwood expansion. Here is a summary of the main points from the interview!

Highlight of the interview

• They wanted two legendary per class in the set so that players could create decks for each class in two different directions
• It’s okay to make strong cards like Drakonid Operative right before the ‘set rotate’ if the card’s power in the Standard will decrease.
• The first set of the new year is when the team wants to experiment with archetypes.
• Currently they have no plans to add cards that require a deck build in the form of Odd or Even.
• Blizzard has a mailing list for other people in the company to submit card ideas. Toki’s effect, Time-Tinker is included in this list.

Other things in the interview

• Legendary neutrals are often too strong or too weak, so reducing them makes designing easier
• Talking about the topic, the goal of designing this legendary class was to give everyone a monster and a town member (of The Witchwood).
• If Genn and Baku aren’t being used as much as expected, the team can add future even/odd cards to help them shine.
• It is very dangerous when a class with a deck archetype Even and Odd is so strong that the team cannot create more good cards for this class. If that class is only strong on Even, Blizzard can add better odd cards.
• Genn Greymane was originally intended to appear in the Old Gods expansion. The team recorded Genn’s voice when the Heroes of the Storm team was developing the character into the HoTS game.
• “It was good” to see the old cards reappear – Amani Berserker, Raid Leader, Stormwind Champion.
• Nightmare Amalgam was originally scheduled to appear in One Night in Karazhan. When it does, it’s a 5 mana 5/6 card.

Designs that don’t appear in the game

• At one point, Hagatha the Witch intended to increase the minions to +1/+1 or other design the Odd minions to +2/+2
• Hagatha’s original designs predate Baku and Glenn.
• Back in the Old Gods era, Glenn operated quite similar to Worgen’s structure. Whalen thinks he wanted to change the minion, having the ability to alternate Taunt and Charge each turn.
• Szekei the Serpent was originally intended to be a Hero card like Hagatha with Hero Power increasing the minions for +1/+1
• Blink Fox initially gets “many different keywords” when you use la Burgles.
• One comment on the Toki design is “Battlecry: Un-nerf all of the cards in your hand”
• Continue Toki! “Battlecry: your next spell cost 0, you pay for it next turn.” (Your next spell costs 0 mana, you will have to pay it back next turn)
• Toki: “Battlecry: discover a card from the future”. The cards can be based on themes that Blizzard may add in the future.
• Before, there was the idea of ​​Worgen, when the player releases a few human Worgens, the remaining Worgen cards will transform – transform (into a wolf).
• Witching Hour was originally intended to combine with Worgen, allowing for faster transfrom.

Here are some of the initial designs of the cards in the game:

According to HearthPwn