Count Denathrius is back – but not in WoW, rather in Hearthstone. But there he is at least just as cool a villain … and again just as dead.
If you ask fans of Warcraft who the best villain in Shadowlands was, hardly anyone will think of the Jailor. Most will immediately think of the lord of Revendreth, Count Denathrius.
In fact, even the WoW team was so impressed by his voice actor that they decided not to kill Denathrius in the course of Shadowlands, but to temporarily imprison him somewhere.
Now fans will soon encounter the Count again, but in a completely different game: In Hearthstone. And it gets worse: The “good” Count of Revendreth will be killed immediately. Because that is the storyline of the next Hearthstone expansion “Murder at Castle Nathria”.
What is the story of Murder at Castle Nathria? Count Denathrius has many friends and foes whom he wants to convince that he is not plotting anything evil and certainly not secretly hoarding Anima. So he invites all the big personalities to Castle Nathria – only to be murdered immediately. One of the ten visitors is the murderer, and the world-renowned detective “Murloc Holmes” must take on the case to find out in a classic “Cluedo” manner who committed the murder. Was it Lady Vash with the relic from the depths in the mud puddles? Or was it the nasty Kel’Thuzad with a spell in the Bloody Depths?
What’s in the new expansion? Basically, “Murder at Castle Nathria” presents itself quite classically. The setting is inspired by WoW: Shadowlands, and thus quite fresh, but the content is “as you know it.” This means a total of 135 new cards that will be included in the new card packs from the release on.
New card type: Locations – A new card type is the locations. These cards are played by a player and cost Mana. Afterwards, the locations, just like minions, are on the battlefield. At the owner’s wish, they can activate their location during their turn and trigger its effect, causing the location to lose durability and go into a cooldown of one turn.
Locations cannot be simply destroyed like minions; the opponent cannot interact with them. Exceptions are cards that can specifically target other locations.
New keyword: Flood – In the Shadowlands and thus also at Castle Nathria, everything revolves around Anima. Anima is part of the new keyword “Flood.” Cards with this text grow stronger in your hand when friendly minions die on the battlefield. If a card says “Flood (3): Gains +2 / +2,” then three friendly minions must die on the battlefield while this card is in your hand to grant the bonus.
First new cards from Murder at Castle Nathria
As usual for Blizzard, several of the new cards have already been revealed along with the trailer, which you can check out here.
When is Murder at Castle Nathria released? The official release of the expansion is on August 2, 2022, so in about 4 weeks. Until then, the Hearthstone team will gradually introduce the missing cards to heat up fan anticipation a little.
What do you think of the new Hearthstone expansion? Are you excited about Denathrius’ return? Do you like the setting? Or do you not want to experience Shadowlands in two Blizzard games?
