With “The Witchwood”, Hearthstone makes extensive use of a mechanic that significantly restricts you when building your deck, but lures with powerful rewards.
The first Hearthstone expansion in 2018 will be “The Witchwood” and will expand Blizzard’s card game by 135 fresh cards. Some of these have already been revealed and at least in the initial examples, a new trend can be observed. The developers want to create new incentives to be somewhat restricted in deck-building.
This refers to cards with an additional effect that only triggers if one of two conditions is met:
- The deck may only contain cards with even costs (0,2,4,6,8,10)
- The deck may only contain cards with odd costs (1,3,5,7,9)
In a new video, developer Dean Ayala presented four new cards that utilize these mechanics.
The Schillermotte is a minion only for priests. A beast for 5 mana with stats of 4/4 and has the battlecry: “Double the health of your other minions if your deck only contains cards with odd costs.”
The Trübzitteraal is a beast for shamans, costs 2 mana and has solid stats of 2/3. Its battlecry reads: “Deal 2 damage if your deck only contains cards with even costs.”
For druids, the beast Düsterhirsch is available for 5 mana, with stats of 2/6 and taunt. It also has the battlecry: Gains +2/+2 if your deck only contains cards with odd costs – effectively making it a 4/8 tank for 5 mana.
For mages, there is the beast Schwarzer Kater. 3 mana brings stats of 3/3 and adds spell damage +1. Also included is the battlecry: Draw a card if your deck only contains cards with odd costs.
The new cards look promising and the community is already speculating about these cards. For example, all decks with “odd costs” can also complete quests, while decks with even costs have to forgo that – a clear disadvantage.
More new cards will be revealed starting March 26. Then Blizzard will likely unveil the missing cards gradually through streamers and community sites, and possibly also announce a release date.
We have already introduced the trailer and more cards from “The Witchwood” here.
