Lich Baz'hial -- Priest (Hearthstone)

This post is part a series wherein I've been designing Hero cards for Battlegrounds heroes who lack direct representation in Hearthstone proper -- or did at the time of publishing.

The Finished Product

The Process

This was another of the more easy hero/class pairings in this project. Baz'hial is partly a Priest in her Adventures incarnation, so it's not a huge stretch to kick the Mage part of her out of her psyche and rebrand her entirely as a Priest hero. The shadow doesn't judge.

Flavoring her as Undead support was also a pretty easy call. The tribe is very new, and Priest is one of it's main proponents, and a Hero card is a perfect way to cement that identity -- as well as a handy way to avoid having to compete with Priests already-existing and completely bonkers Hero cards for slots in control lists.

Baz'hial's Battlegrounds identity made for an easy port here, and her Hero Power is very similar to what she gets access to in Battlegrounds, while also being something not exactly foreign to the Priest class. It's very intentionally not infinite value, and is intended as a last hurrah for a midrange or aggressive deck, not as a value engine for a resource-focused one. Make no mistake, the best target for this hero power will kill you extremely quickly, so each activation better be worth it -- a tension endemic to the Battlegrounds hero that I really wanted to emulate here.

The battlecry was the hardest part of this to design, but I think I nailed it, in the end. A resurrection theme seemed like the go-to at first blush, but that would conflict with the HP, as well as existing Priest cards in that same design space.

Then I realized I really wanted something which would specifically kill "the living" (i.e., all non-Undead minions), both for the fun flavor and the power behind that effect. What I ended up with is something I'm quite happy with, as it plays really nicely with a number of Priest mechanics and themes. Priest likes nuking the board, apparently likes eating things (per Cannibalize), and likes silencing minions with horrifically bad Deathrattles or static effects. Boxes ticked.

Only downside is this kind of messes with the HP's resurrection pool, but you aren't exactly supposed to be playing this in a deck without a good number of Undead to back it up, or another Hero card to overwrite Lich, I suppose.

My Rating

9/10

As a priest stan, I want to jam this fucking thing so hard. Loses a point for potentially being too strong and grievance inducing. This cannot be in Standard alongside I good silence package, as it would just be impossibly hard to combat for other board-based decks. It might be so already, but at least the Deathrattle ensures your minions get a bit of a hit in -- and makes me wish Yodeler could hit enemy minions so, so badly.