Blizzard has today announced that the next HearthStone expansion is “The Witchwood”. In HearthStone The Witchwood, players will find 135 new cards, a new single-player mode and some brand-new mechanics.
Blizzard announced “The Witchwood” for HearthStone with some great videos (below) and a new website.
HearthStone The Witchwood
Launching in April, The Witchwood is the first expansion for HearthStone’s Year of the Raven. Six cards from the 135 card expansion were revealed in the announcement.
A livestream is slated to occur on March 26 which will reveal additional cards. Then, as is normal for a new expansion, HearthStone The Witchwood cards will be gradually revealed leading up to the launch.
The six cards that were revealed today are;
- Baku The Mooneater – Legendary
- Genn Greymane – Legendary
- Azalina Soulthief – Legendary
- Phantom Militia
- Pumpkin Peasant
- Militia Commander
Click the image below to scroll through the gallery.
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HearthStone The Witchwood – New Mechanics
As always, when a new HearthStone expansion launches, there are new mechanics. “The Witchwood” is no exception. However, both of the new mechanics — Rush & Echo — will already be familiar to HearthStone players.
Echo, which you can see in the looped image above, allows certain cards to be played an infinite number of times in a turn; provided the player has the mana.
Unstable Evolution, which was added in “Kobolds & Catacombs”, is a card that was able to be played as many times as possible. However, instead of text reading “Repeatable this turn”, Blizzard has simply created the Echo mechanic.
Rush, acts like Charge, but with one caveat; minions can’t attack heroes on the first turn. HearthStone players will be familiar with this concept as Charged Devilsaur already uses this mechanic. Charged Devilsaur makes use of Charge but it’s Battlecry is “Can’t Attack Heroes this turn.”
There are plenty of ways to get around a Battlecry, so by adding in a mechanic with the restriction built-in, Blizzard is ensuring new strategies for players.
The Legendary cards that have been revealed can apply some game-changing effects early in the match. Both Baku the Mooneater and Genn Greymane have a start of game mechanic that will change a player’s hero power.
Azalina Soulthief’s power is to replace your hand with a copy of your opponent’s. As you can see in the video below, Blizzard is pretty excited about this one.
Spooky Halloween Theme
As per usual, the announcement trailer is fun and silly. HearthStone The Witchwood looks to be inspired by monsters and Halloween. The all-singing announcement trailer definitely has a Disney vibe to it too, which makes for some great artwork and imagery.
In addition to the new cards and mechanics, Blizzard has also announced that “The Witchwood” will include a new single-player mode; Monster Hunt.
Once the expansion is released, players will have two weeks to arm themselves before embarking on Monster Hunts—the thrilling new single-player Hearthstone experience that will send players deep into The Witchwood to stamp out the evils that lurk within.
The leaders of Gilneas are finalising preparations for these expeditions, and will share more details in the weeks to come.
The new mode sounds similar to Dungeon Run, though it sounds as though we’ll get to use heroes that are unique and exclusive to Monster Hunt.
Just like with Dungeon Run, players will have the opportunity to equip new items after each encounter. “After you beat an encounter, you choose loot to improve your Monster Hunt deck.
“Your choice is between three sets of three cards picked randomly from a number of different thematic buckets available to your current hero.
“Additionally, at certain intervals, you get to add special cards to your deck that improve your unique hero power or otherwise synergize with your hero in a powerful way.”
More information on HearthStone The Witchwood will be released during the livestream on March 26.
Players can pre-purchase “The Witchwood” packs from today. Blizzard is offering an additional 20 packs to players who pre-purchase 50. Pre-purchasing 50 packs costs $64.99 AUD.
HearthStone’s next expansion, “The Witchwood,” will launch in April.
