Death Knights are coming to Hearthstone but not in the way you expected.

Summary by Hearthpwn:

• The expansion releases this August.
• More card reveals will begin on July 24.
• We're getting 135 new cards.
• Everyone dies! Each of the original heroes has a Death Knight version of themselves. You change your hero into a death knight version of themselves by playing a special hero card. A new card type is being added that allows you to put Heroes into your deck. This is used for Death Knights.
• Your Hero Power will change when you change your Hero.
• A new mechanic is being added to the game called Lifesteal. When you deal damage with Lifesteal, your hero heals for the amount of damage dealt.
• The adventure portion of the expansion will be taking us to Icecrown Citadel.
  • There are three wings followed by the final fight, The Lich King!
  • You will earn 1 card pack for completing each wing.
  • Completing the prologue of the expansion's adventure content rewards you with a Legendary Hero Card.
• A pre-order is available which will give out a sweet new card back - Frostmourne! This will cost $50.

It's obvious why they prefer to do this, but I definitely prefer when the adventure expansions gave you all the cards when you played through it.

Fuckers.

It's also kind of lame to have a screenshot with original heroes when death knights are the theme.

Might just be my because of my overall interest in the game at the moment, but this reveal seemed really bland to me. We've done new hero powers before, lifesteal is ... meh.. and we're going back to deathrattles ? Even the legendary they showed is an old idea re-hashed. I'm looking at the 5 cards they revealed and my reaction is "yup, that's five hearthstone cards".

Looks good! Always welcome new Hearthstone cards!

Really liked the lich king expansion in wow, and the concepts here seem cool. Probably going to be let down, but pretty hyped about this expansion.

(also that legendary seems terrible. 2 drops are too important.)

I really like what I'm seeing so far.

You really make that card back sound like a good deal lol, I'm just going to burn 50 bucks on it right now; must have useless card back!

Lifesteal = Drain, Gravedigger is good, Keleseth would be good if it just worked instead of being a battlecry, Spirit Lash seems pretty bad, Chillblade is obviously good, Hero Rexxar is okay but need to know the hero power.

@fredchuckdave: The hero power is, and this is not a direct quote: 'Form a zombeast'.

Not sure what it means. Perhaps you summon a minion of some type or add it to your hand. Perhaps you transform a minion already in play.

@zevvion: @fredchuckdave: lol I actually just copied and pasted that info from another website. So they are a lot more excited about a cardback

The hunter hero is actually showcased in the reveal video in the op. It basically lets you combine the effects and I think stats of different beasts into one minion for two mana. It's done like kazakus so there's some value but not sure if it's viable.

I know this is a card game but, man, I lost interest in this really fast. The Pokémon TCG was really good about tricking me into thinking card packs were a good deal. This game is not good at it. Even Magic cards have that certain allure to them. Man, it sucks cause I usually like Blizzard games.

As someone still trying to make N'Zoth Hunter work in 2017, Deathstalker Rexxar is super appealing. Board clear, slight heal, and value hero power all for 6 mana seems really good! If Hunter gets some good Lifesteal cards N'Zoth Hunter might actually be viable

Prince Keleseth seems real bad, although maybe I could see him working in quest Hunter? That deck probably has Crackling Razormaws though and those are probably more useful

Priest card looks pretty good, also a reason to run Bloodmage Thalnos in Priest! I put that card in my Quest Priest anyways, now he'll have another spell to buff other than just Dragonfire Potion, which doesn't really need it

Other two cards seem like filler, the Paladin one in particular seems okay until you realize Truesilver Champion exists and the neutral one just seems straight up bad

@cesakich: Yeah, the only thing I could possibly think of using that legendary in was quest hunter. Maybe hunter gets a few more cards to actually make it work.

Not necessarily feeling the mechanics they've shown so far, Naxx had deathrattles aplenty and new heroes don't sound that exciting compared to quests and adapt. That said, new lifesteal minions could help bring handlock back into the meta and I'm generally looking forward to whatever cards can help out some of the quests (specifically quest mage for me) getting a tad more competitive. Let's keep in mind that the new 135 card set size will help shape the game more than the 45 of adventures.

I must be the only one in this thread that thinks Keleseth will likely develop new types of decks. The Mistcaller was always insane bar for the fact that it costs 6 mana. It came out too late. By that time only 4-6 minions would actually enjoy the buff until the game was won by someone. Having that come out on turn 2 will make it great. The downside is severe, but people will eventually figure out how to properly construct a deck around it.

I also seem to be one of the few people that thinks Chillblade Champion looks absolutely horrible. What is it going to kill that has only 1 attack and only 3 health? Nothing. So whatever it will aim to kill, will die. There is a 3 mana card that does the same except it won't restore 3 health to your hero. Restoring 3 health for 1 mana is a terrible deal, especially in a class that most certainly does not lack healing cards. Perhaps in Rogue it would not have been shit.

@zevvion: I think the downside of having no 2-cost cards is quite severe to build a deck around a legendary that might sit on the bottom of your deck. Looking at the collection, there are a lot of powerful 2-drops that you couldn't use and I don't think losing that amount of tempo and consistency is worth it. But hey, anything can happen and we've only seen like 5 cards out of 135.

@zevvion: Keleseth fits perfectly into certain decks already. Stuff like ramp druid, silence priest or quest warrior. Pretty much anything that's trying to control the early game and then play big stuff. The problem is, in those kinda decks Keleseth just isn't that good. Giving a minion +1/+1 becomes less and less impactful the more you're paying for that minion. It would be amazing in some sort of early aggro deck like a token druid or murloc paladin or something, but due to the condition that's not really too viable. I feel like the card is just gonna end up falling between the cracks. Sure, it's a lot of power in certain decks, but those decks just doesn't need it and are much more concerned about cramming other things like cycle or aoe or heal into the deck.

@ares42: You'd have to run ramp druid without Wild Growth (doable, but defeats the purpose of the deck) and silence priest without Divine Spirit, Shadow Visions, Purify or Radiant Elemental.

Yes, but you're looking at it from the perspective of any decks you have seen or came up with. My point was that people will likely figure out something new that makes this good. We have seen cards being written off so many times before, only for them to actually become top tier in the meta, eventually.

The only thing you should consider at this point is that if the effect goes off and you somehow built a deck that supports that, that's quite insane. The question will obviously be whether people actually can or can't build that deck around it and I don't expect to see it within the first week. But I am willing to bet that yes, they will.

@benderunit22: oh, I thought it was 2 cost minions. Well, that makes it even more dubious...

@zevvion: Yeah, but the effect of +1/+1 isn't THAT crazy of a game changer, unless you manage to drop this thing turn 2 and put a significantly faster clock on the opponent. Highlander decks worked because its effects (Reno and Kazakus potion) balanced out the heavy downside of having an otherwise weaker, less focused deck (also because Reno was the best heal in standard against pirates.) There are just a lot of class cards you almost can't afford to not put into a deck, regardless of its purpose (Primordial Glyph, Archanologist, Crackling Razermaw, Radiant Elemental, Eviscerate, Jade Claws, Flametongue Totem, Maelstrom Portal, Fiery Waraxe or Wild Growth, among others.)

Unless someone discovers a good combo that requires a certain minion to have more stats to work (like, I dunno, an Angry Chicken combo? But then why not just play handbuff paladin?), I don't think a +1/+1 will be viable or even good.

@benderunit22: You say the new Heroes don't seem as exciting as quests or adapt, but honestly after Quests turned out to be kind of... nothing outside of Rogue and Warrior I'm more than happy to just get a mechanic that is basically just "good cards"

I might be boring though, the card I was most excited about last expansion was Tar Creeper so I'm probably looking for a different thing out of these expansions

Also I'm biased because that Hunter hero seems great for my N'Zoth Hunter and I will take any card that pushes N'Zoth Hunter closer to being an actual deck, even if it's not like Tier 1 or 2

@cesakich: Why are you hating on my Hunter, Warlock, Priest and Paladin quests? I love them so much.

In all honesty, yeah, they are tier 3 at best. But I really like playing them regardless. That's what I want from a Hearthstone expansion now most of all. Just cards that are tons of fun to play. Every once in a while I sit down and commit to ladder to Rank 10 or 5 for the rewards and using top tier decks bums me out. It's not the way I have the most fun. I really like how the Hero Cards look so far.

@benderunit22 If you get it out on turn 2, I'd argue that is pretty huge. It's probably still good if you get it out on turn 3/4 as well. We'll have to see. Might be trash. I will be trying it out though.

@zevvion: I love the other Quests! I have like 3 different Quest Priests. All I'm saying is that maybe it's okay that the new mechanic doesn't look like some big, hype game-changer or anything like that

That Hunter hero will be in my collection once the expansion drops

@cesakich: No, I understood you. I agree, the card looks cool to me. I do have to say it has the potential to be really good though because it combines three different things in one very reasonable mana cost card. Having armor and a minor board clear is pretty good, coupled with a 'better' hero power that could be great. Problem is, even if the hero power was '2 mana: add a 5 mana 10/10 to your hand', it likely would be trash in Hunter because that 2 immediate damage is more valuable for them.

Oh well. I will have fun with it regardless.

The rogue quest has finally been nerfed! Also, here's some info on the upcoming Frost Festival event.

• PLAY MORE ARENA, FOOL! (Week 1, 2, 3)

  • Ahune would like you to enjoy a free Arena run during the Frost Festival.
  • Rewards: 1 Arena Entry Ticket

  The Frost Festival Begins! (Week 1)

  • Play 3 games of Arena.
  • Rewards: 1 Knights of the Frozen Throne Card Pack

  A Far Superior Festival (Week 2)

  • Play 3 games of Arena.
  • Rewards: 1 Knights of the Frozen Throne Card Pack

  A Cold Day in the Arena (Week 3)

  • Play 3 games of Arena.
  • Rewards: 1 Knights of the Frozen Throne Card Pack

The card reveals are now coming! This one looks pretty situational. Note that the card's deathrattle only affects your minions.

@acura_max: I mean, I know it kills your own Devilsaur Eggs and Nerubian Eggs and whatever, but that feels way too gimmicky. I guess it could see play in Silence Priest except Priest already has a bunch of good minions to silence. Hope it isn't a one-off card, and combos with unrevealed cards that want to die soon, or all at once or something.

@bisonhero: "We can't stop ourselves from creating strong mage rogue cards in arena" - Blizzard

@acura_max:

"You get Poisonous! And you get Poisonous! Every Rogue card gets Poisonous!" -Blizzard, 2017

A bunch more cards appeared

Some neat ideas! Like, oh dang, we got Mage weapons now? Also I know they feel obligated to keep pushing Discard Warlock, but I still don't think Mal's Imp and Blood-Queen and the Hive Queen and Silverware Golems are enough to make the deck actually good. It's just so inconsistent because you have to draw cards in just the right proportion or else you end up discarding Soulfire to Doomguard or something unfortunate like that. If anything, they need to reprint more Silverware Golem-like effects, just so long as they're better than Fist of Jaraxxus. There's more than enough stuff that benefits from discards happening - they need more cards that want to be discarded.

@bisonhero: Shaman Weapon

@bisonhero: You might have already figured it out, but that's a Shaman weapon

I like that Professor Putricide is the first non Beast Hunter Legendary, that's kind of fun!

I've also seen a lot of people point out that Rogue minion can give poisonous to Wild Pyromancer to give Rogue a real board clear! Dunno how viable that'll be though

@cesakich: @fredchuckdave: Aw man, my idea was way cooler.

A great card for adapt and houndmaster.

Bearshark seems cool, but Hunter's 3-cost slot is stacked right now, and I dunno that it's good enough to compete with Animal Companion/Eaglehorn Bow? It's in the ballpark though

Hadronox seems bad at first glance, but it could be funny in a Wild N'zoth Druid or something. Just never going to clear that board!

Remind me how Hadronox-like effects work. Does it only work if the default minion text has taunt (The Curator, Primordial Drake, and so on), or can it resurrect things that had taunt optionally when they died, like Ancient of War and minions with Adapt and minions affected by Druid buff cards and Defender of Argus?

@bisonhero: Only if the default text has Taunt, no bringing back Ancient of Wars. I do wonder about C'thun if you give it taunt via Twilight Geomancer though? Since it gives it Taunt "wherever it is"

Not that that would be all that great a combo, just curious

Well it's Hearthstone so who knows how it will really work with this particular card, but for instance N'zoth won't resurrect minions that have a Deathrattle added to them from something like Spirit Echo. They have to have Deathrattle in their card text. So if Hadronox is like a N'Zoth for Taunt, then it won't work with Defender of ARgus.

@mike: Yeah, with N'Zoth it was a real niche case, since only a few effects even give Deathrattle (Spirit Echo, Ancestral Spirit, Soul of the Forest, Infest) and most of those see absolutely no play anyways.

With Hadronox, lots of things gain Taunt as a buff, but you're probably right that they won't get resurrected. It still feels wildly inconsistent that Ancient of War doesn't get resurrected (because it's a buff and not a transform) but Druid of the Claw-Bear form probably does get resurrected (because it's a transform).

@bisonhero: Yeah, I just have a feeling that it's only going to resurrect cards with Taunt in their card text. Hunter has access to some very powerful minions and a couple of easy ways to give them Taunt. Besides, if you used Houndmaster on a Savannah Highmane, would Hadronox summon an 8/7 Savannah Highmane with Taunt and Deathrattle: Summon two 2/2 Hyenas? Or would it just bring back a regular Savannah Highmane? Or nothing at all? I think the most likely interaction is it would not summon the Highmane at all.

Also the more I think about it, I can't think of any minions that retain buffs or battlecries when resurrected. I think a vanilla copy of the minion is always brought back, not one with all of it's buffs applied that it had before being killed the first time. That would mean if a minion that had Taunt applied to it was summoned by Hadronox, not only would that be inconsistent with the N'Zoth effect but it would be inconsistent with the way other resurrect effects work in Hearthstone.

@mike: To make sure we're on the same page, Hadronox is a Druid card.

Which I think is just a weird fit for that class, unless Druid has a lot of new Taunts in this expansion. Ancient of War doesn't even work with Hadronox, and that's one of the best Druid class minions. So Hadronox can resurrect Shellshifter, Druid of the Claw, Dark Arrakoa (kinda pointless since you don't get the C'Thun buff when it resurrects), Jade Behemoth (pointless for the same reason), and Ironbark Protector. It just feels like a deck with Hadronox would barely use Druid class minions, and mostly just use the good Neutral Taunts (Stonehill Defender, The Curator, Primordial Drake, etc.). Also, Stonehill Defender is actually pretty bad in Druid since so few (current) Druid minions actually have Taunt in the default card text. Nothing anywhere near as good as Paladin or even Warrior or Shaman.

Also it just seems kinda wonky that Hadronox's stats are even worse than N'Zoth, and instead of a Battlecry it's a Deathrattle, giving your opponent all the time in the world to Hex/Polymorph/Priest Silence/Sap your 9-mana potential win condition. It does really depend on how good the other Druid cards in the set are, but I don't really want Druid to continue to be "Jade Druid" and "Aggro Token Druid". I've kinda had enough of those. I wish Hadronox was better, but maybe I'm being pessimistic.

Though hell, maybe you throw Hadronox into a C'thun Druid deck, just so you can resurrect your Dark Arrakoas, your Crazed Worshippers, and your Twin Emperor Vek'lors. At least that's kind funny.

Hadronox is probably pretty good in N'zoth Druid in Wild; an extra N'Zoth for your Belchers and maybe a few other cards; also they synergize with each other so you can get 4 Belchers off of one Hadronox/N'Zoth eventually.

@bisonhero: Hah, I didn't even look at it, I just read the card text. I don't know why I thought it was a Hunter card.

New cards! More to come later since Blizzard is doing a reveal stream today

Blizzard also revealed that if you defeat the Lich King with all 9 classes, you will get Arthas before he became the Lich King as your Paladin skin. Each encounter with the Lich King is different for each class. For example:

• mage: the lich king will reduce your health to 1 at the start of the game
• paladin: every time your minions die, they are resummoned' to the Lich King's side of the board.

"Battlecry: Draw Tirion Fordring from your deck" seems like a pretty good effect.

My snap judgment is that all the effects that are "whenever a friendly minion loses Divine Shield, gain a thing" will be too slow to ever prove useful. Kinda feels like Inspire, because they do nothing the turn they come out unless you're already super winning and have a board full of Divine Shields, ready to attack.

Corpsetaker seems pretty amazing, and Sanguine Reveler will be pretty much staple in Zoolock I imagine

I'm not particularly interested in the rest, although I do like that Bolvar gets a second card. I wasn't a big fan of the Old Gods style "half the Legendaries are returning but corrupted" but I do really like it when they do it sparingly

@cesakich: @bisonhero: More new cards! Turns out the leaked Jaina hero card was very real. The hero power for the mage death knight is that if you can kill a minion with the mage hero power, you will summon a water elemental.

Eternal Servitude and Defile are both very exciting to me. I get what they're going for with Spreading Plague, but they probably could have just used the Unleash the Hounds wording and it would have been functionally the same? I guess if each proc counts as a different cast that could lead to some interesting synergies. Get 3 5 drops from one spell with Atiesh!

I forgot to mention that Dreadsteed (4 mana deathrattle: summon another dreadsteed) is getting nerfed because of Defile. The reason for this being that the interaction between these two cards would break the game. Dreadsteed is being changed to "Deathrattle: summon another Dreadsteed at the end of your turn."