The Witchwood is the first new set of the Year of the Raven. Our expansion guide will feature card spoiler list, gameboard art, card backs, general artwork, and more! I’ll be updating this guide immediately following the release of any new information.
Be sure to bookmark this page to keep up-to-date! Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Join our Discord for immediate updates!
Quick Information
- Release Date: April 12th, 2018 (Official)
- New Cards: 135 cards
- New Keyword – Echo: Echo cards can be casted multiple times during the same turn (think Unstable Evolution).
- New Keyword – Rush: Rush minions have Charge, but can only attack minions on the turn they’re summoned (think Charged Devilsaur).
- New Keyword – Start of Game: If you add a Start of Game card to your deck and meet its requirements, their effects will work right from the first turn! (think Prince Malchezaar, but this time with a requirement)
- New Deck Building Restriction – Even/Odd Cards: Some of the new cards have powerful effects, but require you to put only even (0, 2, 4 etc.) or odd (1, 3, 5 etc.) cost cards into your deck.
- Monster Hunt: New version of Dungeon Run with 4 unique heroes.
- Pre-order contains 70 card packs instead of 50 card packs for the same price ($49.99)!
- Logging in after the expansion goes live will give you 3 card packs and a random class Legendary.
The Witchwood is the eighth full set expansion in Hearthstone. It will mark the debut of the Year of the Raven, and if history is any indicator it will bring significant change to the game due to the removal of three sets from standard: Whispers of the Old Gods, One Night in Karazhan, and Mean Streets of Gadgetzan.
This expansion also marks the first time we will ever not have an adventure set as part of standard. We will have the most cards available to us at any one time by the end of the year.
The Witchwood Visual Card Guide & Spoilers List
There will be 135 new cards in The Witchwood expansion. Below you will find cards sorted by class and a visual look at what is still left to reveal.
Card Database
Stonekeep’s Card Reviews
- Part 1 – Initial Reveal: Phantom Militia, Pumpkin Peasant, Militia Commander, Genn Greymane, Azalina Soulthief, & Baku the Mooneater
- Part 2 – Black Cat, Gloom Stag, Murkspark Eel, & Glitter Moth
- Part 3 – Warpath, Face Collector
- Part 4 – Houndmaster Shaw, Glinda Crowskin, Hagatha the Witch, Lord Godfrey and More!
- Part 5 – Scaleworm, Vex Crow, Coffin Crasher, Darius Crowley, Emeriss, and More!
- Part 6 – Blackhowl Gunspire, Lady in White, Cursed Castaway, and More!
- Part 7 – Chameleos, Witching Hour, Deadly Arsenal, Duskfaller Avian, Wing Blast, and More!
- Part 8 – Rat Trap, Dire Frenzy, Dollmaster Dorian, Voodoo Doll, Splintergraft and More!
- Part 9 – Mistwraith, Pick Pocket, Silver Sword, Bellringer Sentry and The Glass Knight!
- Part 10 – Worgen Abomination, Town Crier, Totem Cruncher, Countess Ashmore, Book of Specters, and More!
- Part 11 – Tess Greymane, Blink Fox, Archmage Arugal, Paragon of Light, and More!
- Part 12 (Final) – Shudderwock, Prince Liam, Earthen Might, Divine Hymn, and More!
Articles & Guides
- Monster Hunt Guide – Heroes & Bosses List, Equipment List
- Echo and Rush Keyword Guide
- Genn Greymane – Can Even-Cost Decks Be Viable?
- Baku the Mooneater – The New Justicar Trueheart!
- Infliction Warlock – A New Archetype on the Rise?
Most Recently Revealed Cards from The Witchwood
Druid
Hunter
Mage
Paladin
Priest
Rogue
Shaman
Hagatha’s Hero Power
Warlock
Warrior
Neutral
New Witchwood Card Animations Video
Monster Hunt Single-Player Mode
Instead of a Dungeon Run it’s time to go on a Monster Hunt! You also won’t be bringing your standard class heroes, this time you will get your choice of 4 unique heroes: Cannoneer, Houndmaster, Time-Tinker, and Tracker. These heroes have unique hero powers that can be upgraded via cards you gain by defeating monsters!
Check out our Monster Hunt Guide which will feature a list of Heroes, Bosses, & Equipment List!
Monster Hunt Heroes
Gameboard
Card Backs
Full Card Artwork
Expansion Artwork
Expansion Logo
When will they upload all the cards?
10 mins ago
Counting all the slots i am only capable to count 90 from classes and 36 neutral
that is equal to 126 so is it 126 or 135. And if it is confirmed to be 135 will it it be neutral or what?
90 class cards and 45 neutrals. I don’t include every blank card in neutrals because it’s unnecessary, and we are never sure exactly how the rarities will break out.
Does this mean there may be more Druid cards, or are you expecting that’s the last of them?
We’ve likely seen all of them unless they change up how they structured how many cards each class gets.
Need to add the Shaman porcupine to the list.
Fixed, thanks!
With every card revealed, Cube Warlock gets stronger and stronger. Because none of the revealed cards is enough to deal with its power level.
Wow druid got totally crapped on this set, pure garbage every other class seem to do well.
I think that the hand Druid would be really fun to play! but ya it seems to be a bit weak maybe.
Did you look at rogue? With the new cards it’s gonna be luck based
welcome to the extended warlock meta…
there Is also an empty slot where a epic should be for mage.
They are cards that have not yet been spoiled.
Thx I can see it now.
Hearstone could´ve made the muck hunter a warrior card class becuase it wont be played in any other classes
Waiting for cards that really matter. They are making this expansion like a support expansion for the next expansions.
Yeah true i think we are gonna see a new type of minion next expansion.
We see a lot of undead minions maybe we are getting some ”forsaken” minion and who know will the Dark Lady return.
Especially Rogue cause all her minions are a ghost or undead type.
Lets hope that Sylvana will return again 😀
Anyone knows when the big final reveal is?
I would guess it would be this Monday (9th).
This Monday, 4/9/18, at 11am PDT. Livestream where Brode and Day 9 will wrap it up and any cards they don’t get to being dumped to the HS facebook page right after the stream.
Rat Trap looks like it will make a good addition to the I Hunt Alone deck format but the question would be what to replace sence the deck is balanced as is.
Cat trick as that one is rotating out
Hello, I am new player I have been playing for almost 2 months now and want to buy an expansion. I am confused about investing in witchwood but the deal of 70 packs sounds good.
What should I do. Buy it or not ?
Will appreciate suggestions.
If you want to invest money then ist the right time to go for it. There wont be such a great deal for a while and with 70 packs you will have most of the common and rare Cards, a few epics and a least 2 to 3 legendarys. With the dust you get you can craft yourself a decent deck.
I am not sure which cards to disenchant.
Should I disenchant all the cards which I don’t use or should I try to collect at least each copy of a card.
Dont disenchant cards in the beginning. Nobody knows which cards will be good in the future. But with 70 packs you will get a lot of Cards 3 or even more times. So disenchanting those cards (because you cant play them anyway) will give you enough dust. In addition if you dont need or want the golden cards, you can disenchant them for a lot of dust (you will get a few golden commons, rares and probably even an epic or a legendary in 70 packs). If there is a class you dont like to play you can disenchat all of the cards you get from that class.
And you really need classic packs. Because the classic cards will never leave to the scary wild. (Except they are getting put in the Hall of Fame)
Yes u can buy it for make everything in dust, this expansion sucks
I don’t buy video game content but its up to if you want to or not, but you can also just play arena and if you get 7 wins you get to do another arena run for free! But its up to if that’s what you really want.
Id say go ahead and buy 70 packs for $49.99 is the best deal you will see for awhile.
This is the 1st expansion of the new year, making it the one that will have it’s card available the longest in the upcoming expansion in the year of the raven.
(as all the expansion in a single year become wild at the same time)
Question. Why does the above information list say there are 135 cards in this expansion, but there are only 114 pictures of the card backs (slowly being replaced with announced cards). Are there a bunch more neutral minions coming, or is the 135 number incorrect? Maybe it includes tokens? I can’t reconcile the difference.
There are more neutrals than shown – however to save space for the time being they’re only showing rows with cards in them. It is also possible that the rare’s to common ratio is different with this expansion to the past.
This is accurate!
Hi evident sorry to post it here but please would you update the heroic blackrock mountain?i mean change the old deck and make new one with new expansion
I will be very greatfull if you do
Here is a question, if u make a deck of even cards and add the quest card witch is 1 cost , do u still get the even card bonus out of graymane?
since u draw the quest in the starting hand and it does not count in deck.
thank you
Nope, it was confirmed by the devs that Genn and Baku look at your deck before the mulligan – so you can’t put a Quest into Genn deck, it won’t work.
Is Dusk Avian fake becuase I also see it as Aviana as well with the a at the end? Your site is Avian but I have seen Aviana too with sandbox text…
*same text
It’s Duskfallen Aviana, and no, the card is not fake. It’s listed on the official Hearthstone website.
We had the wrong translation earlier but we fixed it when the official one came out.
I don’t understand, nearly every expansion ,I see is the devs “I hate Pallys” cards, I love playing paladin, but when we have to resort to classic cards to win with Agro, which I hate playing, btw, just to win, then it gets monotonous and boring. Please Blizzard, give Pallys some cards that will make our opponent think instead of laugh at us and say “oh wow,a pally, one more easy win”. Theses legendary reveals better be good, otherwise I think I’ll,just stop,playing
Blizzard makes decision based on what is popular. Paladins are not popular so they don’t care. Yes, Paladins are jokes in Hearthstone. Since when do Mighty Paladins resort to bring out Murlocs?
Hero Powers:
The Paladin hero power is the worst, another example of how unbalanced this class is. For 2 mana you get a 1/1 creature. WOW, a druid, rouge, and made can kill it same turn. Rogues get a 1/2 weapon that you can add potions to. So for two mana, forget any poisons, it does 2 damage over 2 turns. Druid gets 1 armor and 1 attack. Kills the 1/1 paladin creature and take no damage. Mage, which is op for a class, does one damage. To a 1/1 creature, yea its dead too. The hunter get to do 2 points of damage to the hero for it’s hero power. What about the Warrior. I summon a 1/1 creature as a paladin and the Warrior and just armor up for 2 for 2 armor.
Blizzard tried and failed to buff the 1/1 with other cards. Problem is, players know full well what you are trying to do when you get a lot of 1/1 silver hands out. So they target them and kill them before you get a chance to buff them. The Paladin hero power should be a 1/2 recruit. Let look at why this should be more.
Take the hunter that not only has a hero power that does 2 damage to the enemy hero, but also has a weapon, and spell cards that deal damage to the enemy hero as well. Then the hunter now has a creature card that allows the hero power to target minions on the battlefield. WOW!!
Legendary Weapons
Do we even need to talk about the Rogue legendary weapon or the Warlock Legendary Weapon. Then look at the Paladin Legendary weapon. Really? Yes, some moron in blizzard really hates Paladins.
Buffs
Mean Street Expansions also tried to balance this out. Give all minions in your hand a +1/+1. Ok, but that doesn’t make my hero power any better of a 1/1 minion. So what do lazy players do, they use those buff on what???? Murlocs!! Yes, again back to Paladins fighting with Murlocs. And why not? Cause its not hard to build a deck that you simply just put the key word Murloc and “Blam” you get all the Murlocs you want. Not to mentions that Blizzard game a ton of Murloc card to Paladins too. So Blizzard failed again at buffing your hand in Mean Streets.
Taunts
Blizzard is building a community of players who are cowards. The use of Taunt minions are growing. Why? Noobs can’t compete against players like me that has over 15 legendary cards in my deck. So Blizzard, hoping to keep the balance of noobs and vets like me, throughout taunts and more taunts, so Noobs can survive. Look at it more. The TART PIT taunts are so op they are out of control.
Let’s look at the wimps that play Warlocks. Hero Power, draw a card, 2 points of damage. So players coward behind Taunts for protection. A basic card from the beginning, a 1/3 for 1 mana. New taunt in current expansion, a 3/9 deathrattle that produces 3 1/3 taunts. Through in the Legendary Old God that brings back all deathrattle minions that died, and you have a wimp of a Warlock player who can only win by getting that card out and summoning all those OP taunts again.
If you can only play Taunts, then you have no skill in deck building and need to stop playing the game. Because this is what is happening. Jane A got beat by Joe B with a taunt deck. Jane A now builds a mindless taunt deck too. Jane A now beats Jake C with a taunt deck. Jace C now mindlessly builds a taunt deck. It spreads that that only way to survive in Hearthstone are taunts. How many times have you played where all that is played are taunts. And if you are one of the players, then what a wimp you are.
If all you play are taunts, and your opponent plays taunts, the none of you have the skill to build a real deck. The Eco Taunt will be over played by 100% of you players that are too chicken to fight without a taunt. In my deck of 30 cards, I have 2 taunts. Tirion and Lick King are the only taunts I carry. I also have 28 creature and no spells.
So back to the new expansion. Blizzard only cares about what the masses want. China is Blizzards largest market share. A holy warrior called a Paladin is not a top priority for these players, so not a priority for us who play them. I’ve played since Beta, and I play because its free. I work my dailies and get my gold, my dust, and slowly the card I want or need. In 5 years I’ve spent 20.00 or so on cards. Blizzard hasn’t earned my money on fake, intangible cards yet. Frozen Throne was the only set worth while. But again, The Wrath of The Lich King was the best expansion in WOW. Arthus goes back to Warcraft 3, the Reign of Chaos.
Not feeling the love of this expansion for Paladins. In truth, they don’t care until the demand in China say so.
Amen! I can’t agree with you more or less, I fit one just want a straight out well thought out fight, non taunt / non, bull crap mode
Paladin is one of the strongest classes in the current meta. Like every third game is against pali and they are really strong. But I get your point that they are kinda weak in the control style. But they havent reaveled a lot of pali cards so we will see if that changes the style pali is played.
And since when is taunt a noob keyword? A deck full off taunts is really bad. You remember the old quest warrior…that deck was not op and there was never a deck with more taunts, at least i have never seen a deck with more taunts. But I guess if you put 15 legendarys in a deck you will struggle against a deck full of taunts, because thats probably equally bad.
I for one really hate playing Paladin. It’s by far the toughest matchup for my Spiteful Priest deck – they mostly just run me over by turn 6.
As far as being a “coward” argument – I wouldn’t judge anyone a coward for the way they play a video game. It just doesn’t matter. What matters is if you win or not.
This is quite possibly the best troll comment I have ever seen. I feel bad for laughing so badly, but this guy clearly isn’t serious. He’s calling the class that has the top two spots on the tier list weak, and calling taunts cowardice, while suggesting a 28 minion deck, 15 of which are legends… I feel bad if you’re being unironic, but I firmly believe that no single person could be so disenfranchised with a game they are so clearly passionate about. I don’t know who you are, but holy shit you made my day.
Paladin is the best (or maybe second best) class in the current meta, no one is saying “one more easy win” when they see Paladin… Dude Paladin and Murloc Paladin are one of the most powerful meta decks.
Yes, Control Paladin in particular is not great, but the class overall is more than good right now.
Exactly what i was thinking, but these players here never reach rank 5 to Legend to see pally’s ruin your goddam day in ladder.
Dude. Paladin is the second most popular class in ladder. They’ve been top three Arena classes ever since GVG.
Does Deadly Arsenal just…not exist anymore?
It does now, there were some problems with displaying it. Sorry!
echo is not the same as unstable evolution. unstable evolution does not carry over to the end of the turn. it has been clarified that echo cards return to your hand as permanent cards. this means you can play a card with echo, it echoes to your hand, then you can play the copy of it at any time in the game. the copy of it also produces another copy. unstable evolution at most can be played 10 times and only on the turn it is initially played. stop confusing the two. this is exactly the same thing as rush versus charge. why did charged devilsaur not get changed to rush? because it has a charge effect and a rush battlecry. if summoned from the hand it will have rush. if summoned via an effect it will have charge and can attack heroes. taking this away would mean it would not have charge, it would have rush. it be the 10/10 yeti who can’t attack heroes.
If it’s not meant as April Fool’s then I have to say that you’re wrong about this one. They said that echo will work like Unstable evolution. So the “echo” of the card will disappear after you end the turn. Just think how OP that would be, if you could play the card any number of times for the rest of the game 😀
And about that devilsaur, idk if they change it to Rush. If they want to destroy the priest combo deck around it they probably will…
Echo cards also don’t carry over. Echo copies disappear at the end of your turn. The mechanic would be completely broken if that wasn’t the case.
The so-called “clarification” was just a misunderstanding. The devs have cleared everything since and repeated what they have been saying from the beginning – Echoed cards disappear at the end of your turn.
Echo cards work EXACTLY like Unstable Evolution does.
Almost but not EXACTLY: Yogg interaction is different (you don’t get a copy of an echo spell from Yogg, since you need to play the card to get the copy) and some other minor differences, which is why they won’t rework Unstable Evolution to be an echo card (the devs talked about it maybe at blizzcon or on reddit?).
So far, this set looks to be very low power, compared to Frozen Throne and Kobolds.
Also, this site has gone to shit with the bs Amazon gift card popups on mobile. It is completely un-viewable on mobile. The second you open up this site it redirects you to some fake amazon scam and the back button doesn’t even bring you back here. It was downright impossible to do anything on mobile, so I’m typing this on my computer. If the shitty redirect isn’t removed then I’m sure lots of people will stop coming here on mobile.
super buzz kill trying to check cards on the mobile site from work. trying to read stonekeep’s thoughts and comments and being interrupted continually by an annoying buggy popup. please take this into consideration because its seriously the only egregious thing this site allows. thanks!
I don’t know what you guys are talking about? I only view this site on mobile and have never had such issues.
It’s too OP!, It’s too OP! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL. Great video, I enjoyed the Blair Witch spoof haha.
Wouldn’t Friday the 13th be the most likely choice as a release date for the “spooky” set?
To be fair, it might make some sense – it would be really cool! But the thing is, they are known for pushing updates either on Tuesday or on Thursday, so I’m not sure.
Also, releasing it on Friday would mean that devs might need to stay over the weekend in case of some problems with the release, which I don’t think they’d really want to.
The artwork for this expansion looks really nice
this Expansion reminds me GAG expansion.it was a FAIL and they are going to make that mistake AGAIN
Hagatha the witch is a hero card? There are new heroes in this expansion again ?
Only for Shaman
No wonder the pre order is giving you a extra 20 packs free…thus far this set looks like total crap..
It’s still way too early to judge. They usually want to showcase the new mechanics first, and only then show the more powerful cards. Some of the most broken cards ever were revealed during the last card dump at Facebook…
you do realize youre judging a 150 card expansion on the first 20 cards right. not to mention the same has been said about the last few expansions which have each brought forth a myriad of decks. give it a chance, dont be so hasty to judge
It is not fair !!!
From the begining of THIS game rogue WAS LIKE DEVIL ( hot (bc of valeara) and powerful (bc of maiev)XD).
In EVERY expan it was THE BEST AT FIRST but the WORST AT LAST of the year they nerf OR hall of famed many of its card and the hero power too ! (Att:Newbie please check the old rogue dagger)
Im myself ply ALL my ranked match as RoGue and i wont give it up .dusted my most other card for getting whole class card rogue and cards are important for it.
DeaR blizzard please do sth
(Plz dont nerf edwin :|)
Rogue players say sth !
The thing is as you say “From the begining of THIS game rogue WAS LIKE DEVIL” the best cards the class got are Basic or Classic cards. If you take a look at wild rogue almost no cards change because as soon as you give rouge in standard more powerful things you will get an INSANE strong core (e.g. prep or fan). The opposite effect can be seen with priest who got super bad Core and Classic cards and relies heavy on better cards in expansions like Raza or Dragonfire. The only way to get 8/10 cards for rouge in an expansion would be a) to nerf other cards or b) to move stuff to the Hall of Fame. Therefor the real issue for rouge is not that he don’t get good cards but more that he all ready has a lot of power that can easy get out of hand.
exactly, many people werent playing at the beginning where it was nothing but rogue, hunter, and control warrior running around and then they wonder why these classes dont get absolutely busted cards each expac.
is this kibler haha
Plz add more rogue secret.
Since there are only three of them its so lame and easly to found out
Is it better to disenchant a golden legendary before or after the card is turned to wild? I know how the dust works on regular cards but I don’t remember reading how it works on Golden ones
Do you mean Hall of Fame or just regular rotation?
If Hall of Fame, you should wait until the card rotates out before disenchanting it.
If you’re talking about normal rotation, it doesn’t change anything, it will disenchant for the same amount anyway.
There are going to be alot of over powered odd or even cards, but the last neutral legendary will be.
“If you have both even and odds in your deck: At start of game raise the cost of all opponents minion by one mana.” 😛
“There are going to be alot of over powered odd or even cards”
Not really, though. The ones we already know are almost all of them. Not every class is going to get one.
So that means that there are only two even-cost cards? They are barely ever going to get played then…
Not exactly, but close. We might see one or two more Odd/Even cards (probably even, because we’ve seen more Odds), but probably not more. At least not now, from what the devs said. We might get more synergy in the upcoming expansions, obviously.
Soul thief is gunna be very powerful in aggressive decks
Its high depending to match and thanks to it HIGH cost and weak body it take your whole turn AND trust me if you are aggro losing one turn=losing the game since you really depending on your board
no, its a switch in both tempo and position. Using it in aggro means a last resourses to try and outvalue your opponent. The mana the minion costs reflects pretty well the turn where aggro gets outvalued, specially by warlock. So you trade whats little left of your tempo to gain a huge amount of value against control
Its all up to u to test sadly the result is clear
You’re right that Soulthief would be good in Aggro vs Control matchup. But I think you didn’t consider Aggro or Midrange mirrors, who will also have a nearly empty hand at that point.
You also don’t consider the fact that playing a 7 mana 3/3 is a big tempo loss unless you’re ahead on the board, and that alone can give your opponent an opportunity to come back.
The card has a lot of potential in some situations, but it just looks way to inconsistent to be good.
You can read my whole review on the card’s page: http://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/cards/azalina-soulthief/
Look like we are going to have a boring time in arena bc:
1.many good cards and gone
2.it is almost impossible to use genn and baku
3.arena choosing card will going full of new high depending even-odd cost card
This is not good at all!!
The Odd/Even cards won’t be available in Arena.
At the same time, I think that Echo and Rush mechanics are really interesting in Arena, even more so than in Constructed.
pretty sure they will, and the low mana ones are actually not ad as they are generously stated
“pretty sure they will”
You’re talking about the Odd/Even cards? Then I’m more than “pretty sure” that they won’t. Devs already confirmed that you won’t be able to draft them in Arena, just like C’Thun and his related cards (even though they were also alright by themselves).
Legendary spells…..c’mon brode get wit it…I’m actually hoping this set helps Hunter, shaman and warrior..the three classes that have taken the pole for all of 2017…
I believe the new legendary thing this expansion is going back to hero cards like in frozen throne
Only Shaman is getting a Hero card this expansion.
There might not be anything “unique” like Quests, Hero Cards or Legendary weapons this expansion. Or they might come up with something new. We’ll have to wait for more cards to see!
Maybe they’ll just give Quests to some classes, legendary weapons or spells to others and hero to shaman
I’m not sure about it but each class will get 2 more class legendary cards so I hope they won’t just give each class 2 legendary minions.
Shaman and warrior both used to be total cancer before rotation. Warrior kept being cancer til August. I wouldn’t cry for those classes.
So just to clarify, there aren’t going to be any card reveal from anyone until March 26th? Or March 26th is one of the “big” official reveals and in the mean time selected streamers and sites will be revealing cards like previous expansions?
No reveals until the 26th! That’s when the “reveal season” starts.
Oh thanks.
Time to give a break to the F5 key then.
Funny thing, but it actually turned out that there WAS a reveal today. We all got caught off-guard.
Time to start the F5 key again then
Start of game isn’t a new mechanic but I guess it’s worth including
It’s a bit complicated and I wasn’t sure whether to call it a new keyword or a new mechanic. On the one hand, similarly to Echo, this mechanic already exists on a card (Prince Malchezaar). At the same time, it’s not exactly the same – Malchezaar has no restriction at all, and those cards have pretty significant restrictions.
Since the mechanic wasn’t keyworded on Malchezaar, you could argue that it’s a new keyword not a new mechanic, but it’s really just the matter of semantics.
I think you were correct to call it a keyword regardless of wether it’s printed on another card.
Quest Taunt Warrior looks insane with a empowered Hero Power and the Echo Taunt Minions.
bring back quest warriorrrrrr
I see you are a man of culture 😉
Blizzard got it wrong again. 🙂
Echo would have been an awesome keyword for cards like defile and spreading plague.
These echo cards should have been keyworded something like rebound or ricochet, or something like that.
The only thing i want is #TURN BACK FOR ROGUE
When, if not with this expansion!?
I’m crossing my fingers, too. Make Rogue great again!
Rogue was quite dominant from late frozen throne to early kobolds, I think we should be rooting for shaman this expansion. I’m so excited to see the new shaman hero card
I’m fine with Shaman, too. 😉
But that setting is just so perfect for sneaky Rogues.
But real talk. Everyone is saying how bad Warrior and Shaman are right now, but Rogue is also in a pretty terrible spot after the latest nerf, which almost killed the Tempo archetype.
We haven’t had a strong slow/combo-oriented Rogue archetype in a while and I’d love to see one! I know that Miracle is, well, always “a thing”, but realistically only for the few dedicated players, who spend most of their time playing the deck.
Honestly Rogue’s in a pretty big ditch right now (coming from a Rogue “main”, so most likely biased). In Constructed, Tempo’s basically gone, Quest isn’t as good as it once was (thank god), and Miracle’s basically dead no matter how you look at it. Kingsbane is a cool concept and all, but it’s pretty slow and reliant on good card draw, and Mill’s only decent when abusing the meta, and that’ll go away once the expansion hits with the rotation of Coldlight (sadly or not, according to who you ask). In Wild it ain’t that much better; Mill has a few cool trinkets to play with in N’Zoth plus Naxx Deathrattle-Taunts, and a bit of Jade Rogue with Gang Up won’t hurt, but the others are still just… meh. Even with Miracle gaining Conceal, it’s still too slow and inconsistent against Aggro and gets punished by Cubelock pretty bad, not to mention the amount of Naga-Giants which are only somewhat countered by Vanish (of which they’ll just dump their hand again unless you kill Naga). Compare that to the main meta and it’s pretty obvious Rogue’s struggling.
But Shaman’s in a pretty bad spot too, so guess I’ll root for ya too! 😀
Witchwood seems like the perfect chance to introduce the “Worgen” tag, with all these new Worgen-inspired minions. Seems like they won’t go through with it though.
Well, they’re not gonna just add in a new tribe without some sort of internal synergy.
Any idea how long we will be able to purchase the 70 pack bundle for? will it be available until launch or will the deal end early? I don’t want to miss out but also don’t feel like investing into this a month in advanced.
The deal is a part of pre-order, so it will last as long as the pre-order does. Pre-orders usually finish a day before the launch (which will most likely happen mid-April), so you should still have a lot of time.
Thank you Stonekeep
Seems like Blizzard know how to milk the Cash from the community. I am f2p and farmed 12,4k Gold so far since KnC so I am fine and Blizzard will still not seeing a single dime from me (And I suggest the Playerbase to do so as well).
I honestly don’t understand people who dislike this deal. This is actually really great. Between this pre-order and packs from gold, you don’t really need more and you should be able to play most of the decks from the expansion.
If they keep it up (I mean, 70 packs instead of 50), $50 per 4 months is not really much if you’re into Hearthstone. It’s like buying one AAA game per 4 months, which is like nothing. Majority of the hobbies cost way more.
People complain that the game is too expensive – and for a good reason. But when we get deals like Mammooth Bundle or this one, they still complain that Blizzard wants to milk cash. Well duh, of course they want, they’re running a business not a charity. But having deals with 40-50% discount on the packs is never bad for the players. Those who don’t want to pay can still not pay, but those who don’t mind spending some money get a better offer.
Hi, do not get me wrong, pal, there is nothing wrong with the Prices nor the deal by itself. I just think that spending Money in this game is somewhat unneccessary, especially since Hearthstone doesn’t get the Support it deserves. Yes, Blizzard throw out a few expansions a year, which is great, and they nerf a few (too less though) Cards from time to time, but in General it is a bad designed Computer game. I am Software engineer by myself and the lags and game crashes when you Launch Hearthstone are unbearable, IMHO (And I know it is not my PC, nor my Internetperformance and I am not the only one..) Sure, Hearthstone is a GREAT Game, I love it and I play a lot, I rank MUCH, as well as with friends, my collection is complete while the only thing I ever bought are the adventures).
I defininitely would support Hearthstone if Blizzard would Support the game more (in a technical way), but thats just my opinion, I do not judge anyone, just saying I never would again, under the current circumstances.
Experiencing lag is not necessarily indicative of a problem on your side or the server. It’s possible the person you are playing against has issues. Regardless, Hearthstone is likely growing, so they may need to update infrastructure from time to time, but that’s not an indication the product is not being supported. They are putting out new releases three times per year and (for the most part) without hiccups. They continue to enhance the core product, and they are expanding the eSports. What additional support are you looking for?
This thread went downhill so quickly..
People, ZableFahr has a good point. Blizzard knows how to milk the cash out of the community through deals like the bundles and this 70-pack deal. That’s by no means a bad thing. As Stonekeep pointed out, it’s a bussiness. The end-goal is to make cash. And these deals are pretty fair, considering. Since they allow the choice of a free-to-play mentality, I don’t think there’s anything to critisize Blizzard for except maybe for the overall price of the packs outside of such deals (they ain’t cheap, I think we can all agree with that).
However, I do want to adress something “Ontark” said. ” if you don’t want to pay for development instead of leeching off the players who care to see future expansions. I would have to say your excuse not to pay is so very ridiculous that i would just label you a cheap person.”
First off, “excuse”? Man, I can’t wrap my mind around that. I really hope you messed up your words there, ’cause noone needs an “excuse” as you put it to not pay for a “free game”. What do you think we are, investors? Or are we supposed to show gratitude for a company offering us their products like that? Micro-transactions are fair game because it’s anyone’s choice to engage in them. It’s a free game, so noone should feel like a “cheap person” for not wanting to toss in a 20/ 50 whenever an expansion is anounced. The very concept is ridicoulus.
Then I would go play the OpenSource game Arcmage if you don’t want to pay for development instead of leeching off the players who care to see future expansions. I would have to say your excuse not to pay is so very ridiculous that i would just label you a cheap person.
Also you said you are a software engineer, don’t you want to support other developers so they have a job?? Blizzard is no where close to what EA is doing. Hearthstone can easily be a Non-P2W game if you just play arena and get good at it. However to your point, Blizzard does struggle with balancing the game from time to time, but since the expansions are on like a 3 month release cycle it doesn’t really get stale for long either. Anyway guys, bunch of cards are shifting out of standard and we should have plenty of dust/gold to play this expansion completely free at least.
I apologize for jumping to the conclusions, I’ve just seen quite a few posts saying that the deal is terrible, that no one should get it because Blizzard is doing it only for the money… Duh, yes, obviously, Blizzard is doing it for the money. They had to calculate that a better deal means more people buying pre-order and more money for them in the end. But more money for them doesn’t mean that it’s bad for the players.
I used to be a big Blizzard fanboy, I’m not anymore, and I see that the game is flawed in some ways (it’s hard to deny). Yes, we don’t get a lot of new features, balance patches etc. but I really feel like it’s getting better. We had a few balance patches last year, most of the problematic cards were dealt with (some took them really long, that’s true) and I think that the game is heading in the better direction. K&C’s Dungeon Run was a great step – the mode was super fun and it seems like they will continue that idea. Later this year we get an in-game tournament mode, which will make a lot of tournament problems (like submitting one deck and then playing another) go away and make it easier for an average player to get into tournaments. This deal is also a great thing – normal packs are, let’s be honest, really expensive. But getting 30 extra packs in total (because $50 is a normal cost for 40 packs) from this pre-oder is a nice deal.
I haven’t experienced lags, and even though I have some performance issues (even though I have a really good PC), it’s nothing major. But yes, I’ve heard that a lot of people are experiencing different issues with the game and it’s not great. At the same time, as a dev, you should probably know that it’s not always that easy to fix stuff like that.
I understand (and agree) that the game is flawed, but I really see that it slowly but surely heads in the right direction. Unless they don’t mess something up in a big way, I feel like it will only get better over the next 2-3 years. Especially with new competition rising – I’m not saying that they’re going to overtake Hearthstone, but devs will need to be careful about games like Artifact or MTG Arena. Competition is great, because devs of every game need to try harder to draw the playerbase to themselves, with more deals and more features.
It’s your decision to not pay for the game, and there’s nothing wrong with it. I was F2P player for a quite long time, I’ve really started buying packs with real money only around Gadgetzan (and I’m playing since Closed Beta), but in my case it was mostly because I just couldn’t afford them before. Now I usually end up buying ~100 packs for money and another ~80-90 for gold – since I’m writing about the game full time, I need to have access to as many decks as possible right away 🙂
Completely agree. Blizzard is not a charity, so either spend some money on occasion or be grateful you can play without the outlay of cash in exchange for your effort/time. Why do we have to assume evil intent from Blizzard if it wants to recoup its costs and make it profitable besides? Being capitalistic allows Blizzard to pay their employees and stockholders as well as invest in R&D.
I don’t know what you are talking about. I’m a F2P player and I haven’t paid a cent for this game. I’m a constant top 100 legend player and have most heroes golden. Just be smart at crafting. I have 8k saved up for this expansion and will blow it all on packs. That’s all I figure I would need and I’ll disenchant anything else I don’t need. I’m super budget and dust useless cards and don’t play wild. It’s an easy thing to do. People who drop that kinda money on this game is nuts.
I’m f2p but this time I’ll buy the 70 packs, is such a good deal.
Two years back when old gods launched they gave all players fifteen or so packs and now they force us to preorder to get the said packs while at the same time theyre killing off three expansions that we spent dust and money on. I guess we quote unquote adapted on their standard wild format which is nothing more than a scam so they can stamp the same ol cards every year or so but charge for it. Malicious because they are a small indie company. Huge hit on the f2p side. Which makes me want to reconsider wasting any moretime on this cg.
It was 13 packs in total (3 log-in and two 5 packs quests). During the Journey to Un’Goro launch, we’ve got 7 packs (4 from daily rewards before the expansion and 3 for log-in after the launch), 100 Gold, 100 Dust and a Golden Rare – about ~10 packs worth of stuff in total. Not really a huge difference, considering that we’ve also got a free Hero skin.
It’s really unfair to say that they force you to pre-order to get those extra packs. We know NOTHING about the free launch rewards yet, but from the information datamined in the patch it appears that there will be daily rewards before the launch, possibly even over 2 weeks of daily rewards.
Why are people always so quick to jump to conclusions when we don’t even know anything yet. They might be literally giving 20 more packs in pre-orders WITHOUT removing any of the free launch rewards. Or hell, they might even INCREASE the launch rewards for all we know right now. But no, there’s always a problem.
P.S. And no, they are not killing the 2016 expansions… Wild is a thing, you know. A lot of people play the format, it’s not something obscure that no one ever touches. You can really enjoy the expansions there. If you want to argue that Standard format is just a money grab, then you really don’t know what you’re talking about. Thanks to the Standard format, the game is different every year and it doesn’t get boring.
Without standard mode the game would be unplayable for anyone starting on or after year of the Kraken. How long do you think an online card game game can survive if it doesn’t get new players?
Nice logic from a “software engineer”, you suggest people to not spend cash on this game, yet you like the game.
If this game is not profitable for blizzard, they will just take it down and good bye “free” game.
If you like the game and don’t want to pay for it, at least entice the rest to spend money (that way everyone wins in the short and long term)
The logic gets even better:
‘… and Blizzard will still not seeing a single dime from me…’
‘…while the only thing I ever bought are the adventures…’
There are things about HS that are definitely worth discussing – the Witchwood presale offer is NOT one of those things.
Yes, I said I bought the adventures and Blizzard will not see a single dime from me anymore. Where is the fail, kiddo?
The fail is that there is no ‘anymore’.
‘I am f2p and farmed 12,4k Gold so far since KnC so I am fine and Blizzard will still not seeing a single dime from me (And I suggest the Playerbase to do so as well)’.
But as I wrote – discuss about things worth discussing. There are more important things about this game than good offers.
Happy gaming!
Why?
I work, I make money and I enjoy Hearthstone. I have spent Hundreds of pounds on this game, do I regret it? No.
I get immense enjoyment from it, I like to feel I support the companies that actually give me enjoyment from their products.
If you want to be a F2P player, that’s great, but I don’t see why you should encourage people not to pay for something. If it was not for players like myself who actually put money into this product you would not even have the chance to be a F2P player…
Thank you for this answer, I totally agree. I think this answers better to the debate than all the 3-pages-of-scroll-down-long thread of comments.
A new Shaman hero is very interesting. This possibly means that they are pulling standard Shaman away from the evolve mechanism, a feature that always received a lot of criticism for being too random. Also, for the last two years Blizzard threw 4 different archetypes for Shaman (evolve, murloc, elemental and totem), not to mention the failed freeze cards and the exclusive overload mechanic. The class is all over the place! No wonder it’s been left out of the recent meta. All classes have multiple archetypes, but none are as widespread and unfocused as Shaman currently is. I hope the new hero card embodies one of the already existing archetypes (hopefully elemental) and help us make some actually competitive decks.
I’m also happy that they’ve decided to print another Hero for Shaman. With Evolve, Doppelgangster AND Jades gone from Standard, the deck doesn’t look great unless they decide to push the archetype further. But I feel like it had its time already. A good Hero and a few more support cards is all Shaman needs to have another strong archetype, even if not now, then after an expansion or two (just look how Control Warlock or Priest got stronger and stronger every expansion).
I hope that Warrior and Shaman will get some strong cards this expansion, because Kobolds & Catacombs felt like we had 7 classes instead of 9. To be honest, higher ranks feel like there are only 4 classes right now – Paladin, Priest, Warlock and Mage are roughly 85% of the ladder there!
While i truly hope them to bring some new powerhouses to shaman and warrior, i’d like them to be not so busted. Like warlock, it got the dk and defile in frozen the throne, then a bunch of ultravalue cards in kobold, what made them pretty insane now.
Unfortunately for shaman, it has been wasted an entire expansion, frozen throne. Therefore, basically shaman is one expansion slower than others.
I believe that even if shaman receive cards with the same power level as defile and dk warlock, it still a fringe class. Maybe the second expansion will witness some viable shaman archetypes
Yeah, of course, I also hope that the cards won’t be broken. But it’s actually pretty difficult to balance the worst class without giving it broken tools.
For example, Kobolds & Catacombs was a great expansion for Warrior. It got multiple good tools and yet it was still bad. Sometimes you need to go over the board to revive a dead class, but going over board also comes with a risk of overdoing it.
Also, the old gaming saying goes like this – “if everything is broken, then nothing is broken”. So printing broken cards is not always bad for the balance. The problem starts when some of the classes have broken cards and others don’t.
Part of Warrior’s problem is the axe nerf. That really hurt.
I would argue that “if everything is broken”, then the whole game is broken and would not be worth playing. But Blizzard has been practicing balance since Warcraft 1 in the ’90s. They understand better than most game companies that balanced does not have to mean identical, and their players should know by now that everyone will get their time in the spotlight eventually.
If Blizzard tries to fix a class that took multiple expansions to dilute, then it should take at least 2 expansions to restore it. Otherwise, too much power will be thrown into 1 set and that set would unbalance the meta until it completely rotates out, at which point, the meta would overcorrect back the other direction. There are other ways too, like with a nerf-bat, but that’s not a good Plan A.
Isn’t that Syndrome’s “If anyone’s super…noone will be.”
I may be too optimistic, but it may not take multiple expansions to set Shaman and Warrior back in the meta. Both classes have good cards. They are not lacking a super strong & broken legendary to finish off their opponents. Take Shaman for an exemple: Kalimos and Grumble have tons of potential to work together. They are not viable because the class lacks proper support cards. You can’t use them with a murloc quest, a evolve-centered DK and a few freeze cards. Just like Possessed Lackey is a support card that makes Cube Lock a viable archetype, a few well positioned cards could lik Shaman’s already existing good cards into a consistent deck.
Would give a like for this comment if I could. 😉
It’s a good, interesting thing and all, but it feels somewhat strange. Shaman’s going to be the only class with two DKs.
I see your point. But with the next rotation taking Evolve away, if Shaman doesn’t get new evolving cards it would basically make his current DK useless. Hence Shaman would be the only class “without” a DK. Personally, I think Blizzard’s choice of HP for Thrall Deathseer was terrible.
Imo its no weirder then Warlock having Bloodreaver and Jaraxxus
Jaraxxus is not really a Hero card. You could say that he was the Hero cards’ predecessor, but in reality he works quite differently.
And glad that they did print a new Warlock Hero. As much as I like Jaraxxus, he’s pretty bad right now. He was great when the game was slower in general, but right now even slower decks usually have a way to burn you down from 15, or at least put a lot of pressure so you can never change into it.
If Priest can burst you down then anybody can. Buff Jarax to 20?
With the current power level of the game, I just feel like Jaraxxus shouldn’t change your max health at all. Right now there is simply no reason to run him over Hero cards, because not only they don’t change your health, but also give you 5 Armor and have Battlecries. Jaraxxus reduces your max health to 15 AND does nothing immediately outside of giving you a 3/8 weapon.
So it’s Innistrad, but with Hearthstone cards…
Innistrad is just Bloodborne but with Magic cards.
Ah, a fellow hunter.
This is getting out of Hand. Now there are two of them.
Innistrad was out before Bloodborne.
Innistrad has been out for a very long time. Don’t confuse it with Eldritch Moon
And Ixilan was Un’Goro with Magic cards – I guess both companies pay close attention to what works for the other one.
Wait, there are more class epics than rares? How long has this been a thing?
It’s just a template, don’t pay too much attention to it. All of the 2017 expansions had 3 Commons + 3 Rares + 2 Epics + 2 Legendaries for each class, so I’d assume that it will be the case with The Witchwood too. Edited it to be more clear.
Hillbilly confirmed. They had to throw in the steampunk twist because, like, technology and stuff.
This is an awesome-looking set. Are they going to change charged devilsaur and unstable evolution’s text to reflect the new set?
I bet the cheap echo cards will be non-neutral and non-rogue to prevent an overpowered quest. Perhaps a single 2-drop 1/1 echo card…
Monster hunt looks super fun.
No, they confirmed they aren’t going to change the text on those cards!
they should at least do it for unstable since it doesn’t change anything. It bothers me that they aren’t changing it
They didn’t change Y’Shaarj to recruit, so they won’t be changing this either… They reason, as always: players are stupid and easily confused.
This would totally change how charged devilausaur works. Trying to pass by the battlecry is the main strategy that card is used with.
Ack! Echo does look scary with Rogue quest. Hadn’t thought of that.
I swear if there’s a 1 drop with echo in it, we are going back to the dark ages. However if not, the decks these days just outpace the quest.
does anyone know when the 20 packs for free offer ends? or is it gonna be as is till right before the expansion?
The 20 bonus packs are part of the pre-order, and pre-orders can usually be bought until the day before the expansion’s launch. So you should still have a lot of time to get it.
Echo+ quest rogue… THE END IS COMING!
Oh god….
Quest rogue in 2018??
Unless they reveal cheaper echo cards, you wouldn’t be able to get the QR until late in the game.
We would need a 1 mana Echo minion for it to be broken. Or maybe a 2 mana one if it would be strong enough. The Phantom Militia is REALLY bad in Quest Rogue.
But what if It keeps its reduced card value from shadow step? complete quest on turn 5/4+ coin. Hm….
It was already confirmed that it doesn’t. And that’s pretty logical, otherwise Echo cards would be pretty broken.
Neh, i think they would require a lot of mana to Echo, so the bounce mechanism might still be a better choice. But again, what matters in having full 5/5 vs full Voidlord board ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
You still have Sap and Vanish to push through massive Voidlord boards. It’s not the best for laddering though lol
Echo taunt + Warrior Quest= the end! JK LOL
But rogue is still worse!
70 packs for 49.99? Is this real life?
I insta bought that value lol
So… If you meet the requirements you’ll have upgraded hero power since turn 1? Oh, dear…
Control warrior and priest will probably play this but IDK cause of requirements. We have to see more cards of the set to know if its viable
what about the Hagatha card at the end of the video? is a joke or we will have new hero cards?
I need replys for this question.
Yes, we will. You can sleep well now.
It was such a peacefull night thx to you <3
We still don’t know. They are most likely hinting at something, and it might be a real card. But after asking Ben Brode, he didn’t say anything about it. We’ll just have to wait!
Edit: As it turned out, it is now officially confirmed – Shaman will get a new Hero card. But only Shaman.
Why only Shaman? Is the existing DK considered that bad?
My guess is that they want to implement more Heroes / Quests / Legendary weapons as regular Class Legendaries, instead of just minions and minions all the time.
Shaman might get a Hero this expansion, Warrior might get another Legendary weapon next and I don’t know, Hunter might get another quest in the third expansion.
I think it’s cool that not every class has got one – it will make Hero cards something more unique instead of something we get every second expansion.
And no, the existing DK is not really bad – it just has a pretty narrow use. It fits only into a single archetype that might not even be viable after rotation (because Evolve rotates out).
Discard DK.
Battlecry: Summon all minions you discarded this game.
Remember my words. 😉
Yes, Brode has confirmed she will be a hero card and the only one in the whole set. We also know there will be two legendaries per class.
Maybe quests and legandary weapons?
Following the general outline of the past few expansions, there’ll most likely be one Legendary minion for each class as well as a special “new mechanic” themed Legendary (i.e. Quests, Heroes, Weapons). With the conclusion that Hagatha will be the only Hero, I reckon the other classes will also get special cards mirroring those from past expansions. I’d also guess that there won’t be any new special Legendary types, since Shaman would be missing out. So yes, I’d expect a couple Legendary Quests and Weapons 😉
Not for warlock. :<