Blizzard announced the newest Hearthstone expansion today, revealing a few cards in the process.
In the announcement trailer a few Hearthstone team members are exploring the woods and stumble upon a projector that plays a video for the new expansion, The Witchwood.
Azalina Soulthief
The first card revealed in the video was the new neutral Legendary, Azalina Soulthief. The card costs seven mana and has a 3/3 body with some interesting card text. Azalina has a Battlecry that replaces your hand with a copy of your opponent’s hand. This card is slightly similar to a few Priest cards, like Thoughtsteal, but just on a larger scale.
Genn Greymane
Another neutral Legendary, Genn Graymane is a six cost minion with a 6/5 body. The card text reads: “If your deck has only even-Cost cards, your starting Hero Power costs (1).” This minions’ card text takes place at the beginning of the game, like the card Prince Malchezaar. In order to use this card effectively, you must craft your entire deck around it, though the card effect may not be completely worth that effort.
Baku the Mooneater
Next up is Baku the Mooneater. This card is also a neutral Legendary minion with its card effect taking place at the beginning of the game. Baku costs nine mana and has a 7/8 body. The card is very similar to Genn Greymane but requires your deck to only have odd-Cost cards, and it upgrades your Hero Power instead of reducing its cost. Upgraded Hero Powers were first introduced with Justicar Trueheart in The Grand Tournament expansion.
Phantom Militia
The new card mechanic was revealed in the next minion, Phantom Militia. Phantom Militia is a three cost card and a 2/4 body with Taunt. Echo is the new card mechanic featured in this expansion. Echo allows you to play that card as many times as possible that turn depending on how much mana you have. For example, at six mana you can play this card twice and at nine mana you can play it three times. This effect is similar to that of Unstable Evolution, a card that allows you to use it as many times in a turn as long as you have the mana to do so.
Pumpkin Peasant
The next card revealed was Pumpkin Peasant, a three mana 2/4 minion with Lifesteal. This has unique text, for each turn the card remains in your hand it will swap its Attack and Health. Each turn it will rotate between a 2/4 and a 4/2 while in your hand.
Militia Commander
The last card fully revealed in the video was Militia Commander. This is a four mana 2/5 card with a Battlecry that gives the card +3 Attack for that turn. The card also features a new card mechanic called Rush. This is similar to Charge but the card can only attack minions when first played and not at your opponent directly. Charged Devilsaur is a card the already features this mechanic.
At the end of the video, one final card is teased but not fully shown. Ben Brode and his co-workers exclaim that the card is too overpowered to be in the game, and the final shot has the camera falling down and showing a glimpse of the card. The card is a Shaman Legendary with the first part of its name reading “Hagatha the.” We can see that it’ll cost eight mana, but none of the stats or card text is shown. Due to the reaction of Ben Brode we can assume this card will have some powerful text.
Not featured in the video but shown on the blog post, The Witchwood will feature a new single-player mode called Monster Hunt. The mode will be similar to the Dungeon Run from Kobolds & Catacombs expansion where players defeat bosses and with each win they build upon their deck to make it stronger. Monster Hunt seems to feature four unique heroes and will launch two weeks after the expansion itself.
The Witchwood will be released sometime in April and more cards will be revealed starting Mar. 26.
