I thought I'd take a minute to highlight some of the successes and some of the failures in the Ahn'Qiraj Adventure set that I created. This will be the last you hear of this set, as I'll be closing up and working on another set.

Top 5 cards, according to me

#5 Demonbolt

Introduces an old idea (Sense Demons) into a new, more viable card. This tutor-like effect allows a player to find key Demons in decks created to take advantage of that. This could be used in existing archetypes, but only really seems like a natural fit in Renolock.

#4 Rejuvenation

This card is just wonky. It's very creative and versatile. It makes players think, since it can be used both offensively and defensively. It can save a player when times are desperate, or it can be that extra push you need for lethal. It doesn’t fit cleanly into any existing viable Druid deck, but encourages the play of some existing tier 3 and 4 archetypes.

#3 Divine Star

An anti-aggro area of effect spell for Priest. It lies in the sweet spot between Arcane Explosion and Consecrate, but is bolstered by a restore Health effect. This feels like a good fit for Priest, and introduces a card that can be tech'd in to combat an aggressive meta.

#2 Arcanavore

Introduces a new kind of card that builds value in the appropriate Mage deck. It is very thematically good for the Mage class (though not thematic to the set itself), playing off of its ability to get card advantage without drawing cards. It may spawn a new deck archetype that uses cards that target your minions.

#1 Vekniss Guardian

Introduces a new mechanic based on thinning your deck which informs unique deck construction. While players may not build around this card, they should be able to create variants of existing decks in multiple classes that leverage its ability to improve the quality of your draws in the mid to late game.

General thoughts on the good cards: I'm really surprised that most ended up being spells. I don't think there's a specific reason for that, but hey, it happened. It means that only one of the cards (my favourite, mind you) was a Neutral minion. Most of the cards introduce new archetypes, or inspire players to look at different ways of constructing decks. Most aren't good by themselves, they need other cards, or specific deck builds that they synergize with in order to get maximum value.

Worst 5 Cards

#5 - Cobra Venom

There’s nothing specifically wrong with this card, except that it’s very poorly costed. The intent is to create a card that would contribute to a control playstyle for Rogue, and not be a good fit for the aggro matchup. When I designed the card, I compared it to cards like Emperor Cobra, but what I failed to consider was that weapons, unlike Emperor Cobra, have Charge. This makes Cobra Venom far better than Cobra Venom. The final cost of this card should have been 3, and not 1 mana. It would have cost 4 if the hero wasn’t potentially restricted by Taunt minions, and didn’t have to spend its Health to activate the effect.

#4 - Deadly Blunderbuss

I still like this card, but what went wrong with it is that Powershot came out between when I created this card and when I presented it. If I hadn’t slacked off and output the series, I would have had this card to point at as having filled a need. Now it’s just redundant. The card is fine in a vacuum, and the balance of the card is perfectly fine as well (again, given that Blunderbuss pays 1 more mana for the ability to use the effect twice, but the hero must sacrifice its Health). The lesson here is to shorten up the cycle and publish cards faster.

#3 - Mana Fiend

I had very good intentions with this card to create a debuff card in the vein of Curse of Rafaam and those seen in the Chrommagus fight in BRM. The initial idea was to increase the cost of enemy cards, but this led to the possibility that the opponent might not be able to play them with the increased cost, with no ability to mitigate that (ie with Freezing Trap). Instead I changed it to affect the other player’s drawn cards, but the thought occurred to me that if the effect stacked it would be insane. So again I changed the card to only work once per card drawn. In the end I had a card that was clunky to read with an effect that wasn’t super clear. Net net, I created a dud.

#2 - General Rajaxx

My error with Rajaxx is pretty simple: He’s just boring. The initial design made him similar to Hogger, in that he summoned Generals every turn. But that version just wasn’t very compelling. It was very random, and I couldn’t think of a deck where you’d want to include him. The result is that I changed him into another card altogether that might be usable, but honestly isn’t very compelling. In the end, I look back at the original material, and it’s not really compelling, either. I needed something different, and exciting, but pushed it out prematurely. He also looks too much like every other Qiraji out there, only with different colours. In WoW he’s bigger that the rest, but you get no sense of scale from the picture. Ultimately a flat design. I could have done so much better.

#1 - Vek’lor and Vek’nilash

I’m treating these both as the same card. The design intent of these cards was to create a combination set of Legendaries, much like Fuegen and Stalaag. The challenge is that requiring two cards in order to get a big payoff is really, really swingy. The failure of these cards was in Balance. Both are individually too weak, and even together are not good enough. The use of an Inspire ability happened very late in the game, replacing another mechanic where they gave each other Attack or Health if they were both in play, which was basically too boring. I could have upped the numbers to 10 Armour and all cards reduced to 0, and it still probably would have been okay, maybe… In the end, I’m not sure if combination legendaries are a good idea, and my attempt at them was… very poor.

As always, I'm happy to hear your thoughts.