And it's definitely thrown me off thanks to everyone and their mother guessing Emerald Dream from the teasers, but hey, Witchwood's great! I've been clamouring for more Worgen representation for years now, since the Worgen and Pandaren are the least-represented races in Hearthstone, so they're clearly saving them for a proper expansion down the road, right? Well, Pandaria's obviously going to be an expansion theme sometime in the future... but now we've got funky gothic Halloween-y horror!
And in addition to all that, the new update that also brings with it the Witchwood pre-order also brings along Arena changes -- the 9 Arena-exclusive cards from BlizzCon are coming, and now the Arena drafting happens not with rarity gems, but with relative 'quality' of the cards, which is definitely a far, far more stable and interesting Arena draft experience. Between this and the extremely well-done ladder revamp, plus Tournament Mode coming sometime in the future, it seems that the time between K&C and Witchwood has really polished a lot of Hearthstone's actual gameplay experience, which is definitely welcome.But hey, let's talk the actual expansion! The theme is that this is apparently a hanted wood outside of Gilneas (the Worgens' capital and romping grounds, for those that's not up to date with Warcraft lore), and it's all spooky shit! We're also apparently getting Monster Hunt, a Witchwood version of K&C's Dungeon Run, which is very much welcome. I've actually been playing a fair amount of Dungeon Run, trying to try out different treasures and whatnot just to see how they work, so it's definitely very welcome.
The cards themselves are extremely exciting. As usual, I have a couple of things to talk about them. They revealed six cards, and teased one Shaman Hero card -- Hagatha, apparently the monstrous witch behind the Witchwood's creation, and apparently a super-duper-OP card. While each class will be receiving two legendaries, Shaman's the only one receiving a Hero card among the nine, and it's legitimately intriguing. Shaman's been in the dumps, so the class could definitely use an infusion of powerful cards. Will Hagatha be powerful enough to offset the huge chunk of totem and freeze synergies that just didn't work for the past two expansions? We'll see. Let's talk about the cards we actually do know, yeah?First up is the neutral legendary Azalina Soulthief, a 7-mana 3/3 undead elf with the battlecry of replacing your hand with a copy of your opponent's. You actually do lose your hand, but it does the dual effect of informing you of exactly what your opponent has in their hand, as well as reloading your hand. It's comparable to cards like Divine Favour, except slightly worse -- Divine Favour's a card that lets you draw into your deck, into cards that you've assembled together with the express purpose of synergizing together, whereas the cards that Azalina steals from the enemy might just be cards that don't really work well for you at that situation, and I'm not sure that's worth spending 7 mana for. I mean, you do get a piddly 3/3 body, but this doesn't seem super-exciting to me. That's okay, though -- neutral legendaries have been designed to be weirder and wackier since Un'Goro, and for better or for worse, that's something I'm fine with.
The next two legendaries are similar in effects, sort of, and the first one we have is Genn Greymane, King of Gilneas and racial leader of the Worgen people, one of the big-name characters to not have made it into the game yet, despite his huge role in World of Warcraft: Legion and Heroes of the Storm. He better has a special interaction with Sylvanas! It's a bit of a shame that Greymane's effect doesn't actually feel anything particularly Greymane-y, but it's the spotlight of a brand-new keyword. "Start of Game" isn't something particularly new, since we've had it with Prince Malchezaar before, but Greymane is a more stable version of the Princes from Knights of the Frozen Throne. You're crippling your deck, this time by only including even-cost cards (0-mana is even), and then Greymane will make your starting hero power cost 1. Greymane's opposite number, Baku the Moon-Eater, works with odd-cost cards, and instead of discounting it, Baku will upgrade the hero power simmilar to Justicar Trueheart from TGT.
And it's... it's definitely interesting. Greymane looks like the better of the two, being a 6-mana 6/5, whereas Baku's a very under-statted 9-mana 7/8. And Greymane's discounting of the hero power is definitely balanced -- it's not a permanent buff like Raza since it explicitly notes that it's the starting hero power, so no cheesing out Death Knight hero powers. As someone who mucked around with post-nerf Highlander Priest... believe me, a 1-mana hero power is still very powerful -- it just isn't as degenerate as a 0-mana hero power. Ultimately, this also helps to off-set the fact that your deck only has even-cost cards, since you can use the 1-mana hero power to pad out your mana curve.
The giant worm Baku, meanwhile, upgrades the hero power, with the caveat that you only have odd-cost cards... and it could be pretty powerful for the simple reason that some of the most powerful cards in Hearthstone has been 1-mana cards, and an upgraded hero power might definitely help out in a very aggro-inclined version of Hunter or Mage. Ultimately, we're going to have to see what cards that the Witchwood expansion is going to give us to synergize with Baku and Greymane, but it's definitely a very interesting mechanic, and one that is guaranteed to go off -- something that means that we won't have the "draw the super-powerful Prince Keleseth on curve to win!" You either have the buff or not, and I do think that's pretty elegant.
We have two new keywords, and one sort-of new mechanic. And these keywords are honestly ind of just variations of things we've seen before. First up is Echo, displayed on the Phantom Militia. It's a 3-mana 2/4 with Taunt, which is basically that Squirming Tentacle card from Old Gods... but it's also got Echo. And Echo means that you can re-cast this card as many times as you want in a turn, similar to Unstable Evolution from K&C but on a minion. Phantom Militia, at a glance, just looks like a slower, shittier version of Saronite Chain Gang that sometimes gains an extra body, but, again, it's hard to say these things without seeing the entire set. And besides, with discount-giving cards, Echo cards can spiral out of control. Phantom Militia's far more of a defensive card than anything, though, and I feel it's balanced.
Our second keyword is Rush, seen on this Warrior card Militia Commander. Blizzard has been experimenting with ways to make the highly-problematic keyword Charge work, first with Icehowl (who Charges, but straight-up can't attack heroes) and Charged Devilsaur (who has the Charge keyword, but comes with a battlecry that causes it to be unable to attack heroes for one turn). Rush works similarly to Charged Devilsaur, in which the minion can't attack a hero in their first turn, preventing a one-turn buff-up-a-charge-minion-and-go-face kill... and Rush also prevents gimmicks like Recruiting out Charged Devilsaur to bypass the battlecry. It's definitely balanced, but is it actually playable? Militia Commander is actually decent, I think, being a 2/5 Rusher with +3 attack when it comes into play. A 4-mana 5/5 that charges is definitely great, but you can only use the Militia Commander to clear a minion, so it's... it's decent, I suppose. I'm not sure if it's great, but I do love the idea of this mechanic.
Our final card is the hilariously-named Pumpkin Peasant, a 3-mana 2/4 with Lifesteal that will swap between his human and worgen form every turn it's in your hand. So it alternates between a 2/4 and 4/2 Lifesteal every turn, theoretically giving you the option to go for a more defensive or more offensive minion. The mechanic is sound and very flavourful with the whole werewolf transformation deal that worgens have, I'm just unconvinced Pumpkin Peasant is actually good. It's a neat demonstration of the ability, but neither a 2/4 Lifesteal nor a 4/2 Lifesteal sound appealing. Overall, though, definitely a neat mechanic, and I'm curious what we're going to get from this.
Definitely excited about this expansion, especially from a lore and flavour standpoint. I love the Worgen and I love the horror aesthetic they're going for, and the very interesting and balanced mechanics they're introducing is definitely something I'm a big fan of. Waiting for more card reveals, for sure!
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