Hearthstone Mission: Advisor Melandrus

A single player Mission I created for Hearthstone based on the Advisor Melandrus encounter from World of Warcraft.

I am an avid Hearthstone player and viewer. Blizzard recently put up a job opening for a Mission Game Designer. As part of the application, you were supposed to design your own mission. I really like the single player adventures in Hearthstone so I thought I would take a crack at designing my own despite the fact that I do not qualify for the job. Not having any WoW experience made designing an encounter a bit more difficult. However, Advisor Melandrus proved to be relatively straightforward to translate into Hearthstone. I feel that the Mission itself may be on the more difficult side of the scale, especially compared to previous Missions.

Prompt

Describe a single Hearthstone mission encounter and explain why it would be fun in 2 paragraphs or less.

Description of Encounter: Advisor Melandrus

Hero: Advisor Melandrus

• 30 health (Normal)
• 30 health, 30 armor (Heroic)

Hero Power: Mirror Image

• 2 mana (Normal): Summon a Melandrus Image.
• 2 mana (Heroic): Summon a Melandrus Image.

Minion: Melandrus Image

• 3 mana, 3 attack, 3 health (Normal): Whenever you cast a spell, cast it again.
• 3 mana, 3 attack, 6 health (Heroic): Whenever you cast a spell, cast it again.

Weapon: First Blade (starts equipped in both Normal and Heroic)

• 3 mana, 3 attack, 4 durability (Normal): Deathrattle: Put this weapon into your hand.
• 3 mana, 5 attack, 4 durability (Heroic): Deathrattle: Put this weapon into your hand.

Spell: Blade Surge

• 2 mana (Normal): Give your weapon Windfury this turn.
• 2 mana (Heroic): Give your weapon Windfury this turn.

Spell: Enveloping Winds

• 2 mana (Normal): Return a random enemy minion to your opponent’s hand.
• 2 mana (Heroic): Return 2 random enemy minions to your opponent’s hand.

Spell: Piercing Gale

• 2 mana (Normal): Deal 2 damage to a minion.
• 2 mana (Heroic): Deal 2 damage to a minion and the enemy hero.

Spell: Slicing Maelstrom

• 2 mana (Normal): Deal 1 damage to all enemy characters.
• 2 mana (Heroic): Deal 2 damage to all enemy characters.

Spell: Looming Presence

• 3 mana (Normal): Draw 2 cards. Gain 4 Armor.
• 3 mana (Heroic): Draw 3 cards. Gain 6 Armor.

Deck: (Normal)

• Looming Presence (2)
• Blade Surge (7)
• Enveloping Winds (7)
• Piercing Gale (7)
• Slicing Maelstrom (7)

Deck: (Heroic)

• Looming Presence (4)
• Blade Surge (5)
• Enveloping Winds (7)
• Piercing Gale (7)
• Slicing Maelstrom (7)

Notes:

• Advisor Melandrus always goes second
• First Blade starts equipped in both Normal and Heroic

Explanation

For me, some of the most memorable and fun Missions from the Adventures have either been incredibly challenging or possessing unique mechanics. So when translating Advisor Melandrus over from World of Warcraft, I sought to preserve his unique mechanic, his Images, and thought about how that would affect the difficulty of the encounter. The key unique mechanic in the Mission are the Melandrus Images which, like in World of Warcraft, cast the same abilities that Melandrus does. Being able to multiply the effect of his spells is incredibly powerful, which gives Melandrus Image a soft taunt, similar to the encounter. It also means that Melandrus’s spells need to be, on average, weaker than the average spell. When thinking about the difficulty of the Mission and how it changes as turns go by. Melandrus is relatively weak at the beginning, given his limited mana. This prevents him from both summoning mirror images and casting multiple spells to take advantage of his Images’s ability. In the midgame, Melandrus will be able to both summon and cast spells, but his limited card draw will mean that he will likely be unable to continuously cast multiple spells a turn once he runs out. This is good going into the late game, because Melandrus may have multiple Images on the board at once after the midgame, meaning that, despite only being able to cast one spell a turn, each spell is multiplied many times.

The set up of the encounter should encourage a wide variety of decks that are more specialized that ladder decks. The clock presented by constant damage from the weapon should encourage players to run more weapon removal, beyond a single Ooze or Harrison. It will also encourage more taunt minions to be played. Removing the weapon also slows Melandrus down, as it costs 3 mana to reequip. Rush decks may be able to take advantage of Melandrus’s relatively slower start, but may encounter some difficulty with the damage spells Melandrus has. I do worry that Melandrus may prove to be too difficult, as I have not playtested it. However, the difficulty can be adjusted through many knobs, include the Images’s health, the mana cost of the spells and the distribution of spells in the deck. In all honesty, I expect the Hearthstone AI to cast the hero power after the spells, making the encounter feel like WoW, in which Melandrus’s Images spawn after casting Blade Surge.

Finally, I believe that the relatively unique ability of Melandrus Image will produce many creative decks trying to take advantage of it. For instance, decks that attempt to copy as many Melandrus Images as possible using cards like Faceless Manipulator, Sideshow Spelleater, or Gang Up. This should amplify player creativity in the event that the Mission is too easy, as the most creative kill of Melandrus will be an additional challenge players can impose upon themselves and share their results on various forums. For instance, the bounce effect may nudge players to use a mill druid or mill rogue to defeat Melandrus. The difficulty and the creative solutions will make Melandrus a fun and unique encounter.