This is the first in what I hope will be a series that spotlights how a card came to be.  I’ll be focusing on cards from 7.2 that I had a hand in, namely player created cards.  Thomas and Ryan can weigh in on some of their own designs down the road.

With the new ability for player creators to make full template cards, James Barnes wanted to bring to life a character found in Blizzard 2′s lore- the paranoid General Nevar.

His initial incarnation was VERY similar to the final product:

General Nevar (V)
Power 3, Ability 2
Deploy 3, Forfeit 4
P2, 3:Blizzard 2. Once per game may \/ an exterior Hoth site with one [DS icon] or a non war-room battleground (except Endor system).

I let James know that he had some additional room to play with if he wanted to try to capture some of the theme of the character and he was excited to add more to his card.

His second attempt added a deploy bonus to Hoth and some bonus text that encourage him to be alone (cause he’s paranoid):

General Nevar
CHARACTER – IMPERIAL
POWER 3 ABILITY 2
[Pilot]2, 3:Blizzard 2. Deploy -1 on Hoth. Once per game may \/ an exterior Hoth site with one [DS icon] or a non war-room battleground (except Endor system). Power and defense value +2 while alone.
Original concept by James Barnes, Dantooine Regionals 2010
DEPLOY 3 FORFEIT 4
[Pilot] [Warrior]

Aaron Nelson, who is now heading up player card development (I’m still helping) suggested some different texts that might see more play since in many decks you would want him to be on an AT-AT.   James went off on those ideas and suggested some texts that let you mess with the opponent’s hand, since paranoids like to check up on people.

James settled on this, which is pretty much his final text pending some proofing corrections:

[P]2, 3: Blizzard 2. Deploys -1 on Hoth. Once per game may \/ an exterior Hoth site with one [DS] or a non war-room battleground (except Endor system.) Once per game, if piloting at a site where no other characters present, may peek at opponent’s hand.

Development and playtesting on this card went very smoothly, mainly since he was a solid fit into many decks.

Next, we had to figure out what card this should go on.   James suggested Imperial Gunner, Snowtrooper Officer, and Captain Pellaeon, and settled on Pellaeon.  This is where one of the sillier aspects of volunteering for the game came into play.  Obviously many people can see a card before it’s released, and I’m sorry to say that some people slightly abuse that foresight by trading/buying for cards that will be virtualized, especially if they look strong.  James eventually was able to spoil Nevar (with Pellaeon as the base card), but after some thought he decided that he’d like to change the image to Commander Gherant mainly so it was easier to get (uncommon vs premium) and in a deck like TTO that runs Pellaeon you don’t have two guys with the same photo.  On an evil note, we all enthusiastically approved this change because it would mess with those people who pre-bought some Pellaeons.  I’m sure he’s get some love someday, but there’s a reason why all spoilers are subject to change!

Congrats to James for designing another well done card!

BTW – The design team has started to send 7.3 to development!