Blizzard’s free card game Hearthstone will release the next expansion in a different format. Cards will be available in their own booster packs.
In the Hearthstone expert talk “Value Town”, host Chanman and his co-host Trump had senior designer Mike Donais, a former Magic: The Gathering specialist, who is well-versed in Hearthstone, especially regarding balance issues, as their guest in the last episode, which will also be the final one.
A lot of new cards, but no adventure
For the new expansion, according to Donais, there is no release date yet, but everyone is working hard to complete it. When the hosts asked if Blizzcon would be a great date for the announcement, Donais shrugged and smiled. He probably meant he wouldn’t let that slip casually. The expansion will have “Lots of Cards,” not exactly 100 but around that number, was the consensus.
This time, cards will not be introduced to players through an adventure like Naxxramas, but Hearthstone players will be able to buy them in separate booster packs. Thus, the current cards will remain in the “classic card packs,” while the new ones will be available in different packs. Whether these new packs can also be purchased with gold was not clarified in “Value Town.” There were also no questions regarding the theme of the expansion. Some suspect the Icecrown Citadel or the Sunwell, but Donais would probably have just smiled at such a question anyway.
Aside from the Paladin class challenge, Blizzard is satisfied with Naxxramas
As Donais’s reaction suggested, Blizzard is satisfied with the current meta-game in Hearthstone and the course of Naxxramas. Only the last class challenge, that of the Paladin, would perhaps have been designed somewhat differently in retrospect. A few more Blessings of Kings would have probably enhanced the impact of the Echo slime.
Blizzard wants to provide answers to questions in Hearthstone, whether they are current or not
At Blizzard, Hearthstone is designed so that as many answers as possible can be provided to players, whether the question is currently relevant or not. If a player loses against a deck with many spells, they should find cards in their collection that serve as answers to such decks – such as Loatheb, the Anti-Mage, or the Spectral Knight. And if the meta-game changes and therefore the questions change, then they should also find answers in their collection.
Blizzard prefers, as seen now in Naxxramas, a game where minions are present and not everything disappears every turn: “We find the game more fun when minions are on the board,” says Donais.
Blizzard says no to many things, yes to iPhone and Android
Later in Value Town, Trump and Chanman threw around some ideas, which Donais shook his head at dismissively. Blizzard is not working on a “2 versus 2” mode, nor on new character classes (no Death Knight and no Monk). The current focus is on the Observer mode, where players can watch others play, and on the expansion. They will not hype the next expansion before the current one has been released.
However, there was a repeated “yes” to Hearthstone on iPhone and Android. That is planned to come out this year as expected.
