Blizzard just published the official announcement video of the upcoming Into the Emerald Dream expansion. The video came out earlier than expected (usually all the announcements happen at 10 AM PT / 19:00 CET), but it doesn’t seem to be a mistake. We still don’t have patch notes or blog post announcements, so all the cards and info we have so far come from the video.
I’m currently working on our usual expansion guide, but for now here’s a summary of the expansion’s announcement:
Into the Emerald Dream comes out on March 25. The expansion has two main new mechanics – Imbue and Dark Gifts. And as is often the case, they are split between classes – 6 of them are focused on one of the mechanics, while the other 5 get the other.
Imbue keyword is available to Druid, Hunter, Mage, Paladin, Priest, and Shaman. The first time you play a card with “Imbue”, you change your Hero Power to a brand new one, specific to your class. Then each subsequent Imbue upgrades your Hero Power by increasing all the numbers on it by 1. For example, Blessing of the Wolf is Hunter’s Imbued Hero Power (you get it the first time you play an Imbue card in that class). It starts by giving a random Beast in your hand +1 Attack and reducing its cost by (1). It’s quite weak to begin with. However, every time you Imbue it after that, it gets stronger. After one Imbue, it gives +2 Attack and reduces the cost by (2), then both of those numbers grow to 3, 4, and so on.
The second new mechanic is available to Death Knight, Demon Hunter, Rogue, Warlock, and Warrior. Technically there are also Neutral “Dark Gifts”, but those are the classes that will focus on the mechanic. Dark Gift is kind of like an upgraded Discover. Cards with Dark Gift always Discover three minions, and each of those minions has an extra special effect. There are 10 effects in total and you get them at random. The effects include stuff like giving the Discovered minion +2/+2 and Elusive, Reborn (but it Reborns at full Health), summoning an extra copy of it, or making its Battlecry trigger twice.
Into the Emerald Dream also expands Choose One keyword which was previously exclusive to Druid class (with the exception of Dual Class cards). In the latest set, every single class gets at least one Choose One card. It’s because thematically, Emerald Dream has a deep connection to Druids, so I guess Blizzard decided to make every class feel like Druid at least a bit.
Ysera, Emerald Aspect is a free card given out to every player in Patch 31.6 (which should drop later today).
If you want to learn more, be sure to watch the announcement video below. And as I’ve said, I’m working on a full expansion guide right now, so stay tuned!
