Spellstones Guide – Kobolds and Catacombs

Spellstones are a brand new card mechanic from the upcoming Kobolds and Catacombs Hearthstone Expansion. This spellstone guide will help you understand this new mechanic as well as list every card that utilizes this style and their upgraded versions!

Unlike Recruit, spellstones aren’t a Keyword that you will find bolded in a card’s text, but are similar to cards with the Joust mechanic from The Grand Tournament. They are cards that function in similar ways but aren’t explicitly labeled. This is usually an indicator of a mechanic that will be strictly used in a specific expansion. Due to the treasure finding nature of Kobolds and Catacombs it will be unlikely to find the spellstone mechanic in other sets in the future.

Each of the 9 classes will receive a spellstone card that has a unique and specific requirement that needs to be fulfilled to upgrade the card. The upgrade requirement remains the same in each version, but the card will become more powerful each time it is upgraded until their final form. All spellstone cards have a Lesser, Normal, and Greater version. The cards start as lesser, once upgraded becomes normal (this isn’t even my final form!), and then if they are upgraded again are in their final state: greater. Keep in mind that the spellstone must be in your hand to be upgraded.

Spellstone cards are always the same mana cost, so no matter if it is in its lesser or greater state it will always cost the same.

You cannot upgrade a spellstone multiple times with the same action. For example, if you gained 6-armor at once you would only upgrade a Lesser Jasper Spellstone to a Jasper Spellstone and you wouldn’t gain additional progress for the Greater upgrade (Source). However, you can slowly chip away at the requirement over multiple turns and the progress will be reflected on the card (Source).

This style of card can be interesting in the deck building process could make for some interesting decisions. A card like Shaman’s Lesser Sapphire spellstone could be powerful enough to build a deck around it. You will also have to make in-game decisions based on if you should play it early or hold out for the greater version!

Spellstone Card List

All of the spellstones have finally been revealed! Check out all nine of them below.

Druid has always been on the look out for removal, but because the card doesn’t silence or transform the minion it might not be good enough.

Discuss the Druid Spellstone on our card pages:

• Lesser Jasper Spellstone
• Jasper Spellstone
• Greater Jasper Spellstone

Hunter gets a card that synergizes with Secrets, so if this card is going to see play look for Cloaked Huntress to make a comeback to the meta.

Discuss the Hunter Spellstone on our card pages:

• Lesser Emerald Spellstone
• Emerald Spellstone
• Greater Emerald Spellstone

Mage got a pretty powerful version of the spellstone, and I guess that makes sense for a spell-casting class. According to Mike Donais, they intentionally made the card awkward to play in Exodia Mage because of how good it would be in that deck. If we’re correct, the upgraded spell and the spells you are randomly given would count towards the Open the Waygate quest once you played them. This would be pretty powerful if the upgrade requirement were doable in the current version of the deck.

However, the card does require Elementals so you will have to make some sacrifices to run the card in Exodia. We have seen a few other Elemental cards in the set, so maybe Elemental Mage could be a possibility providing it gets a bit more support.

Discuss the Mage Spellstone on our card pages:

• Lesser Ruby Spellstone
• Ruby Spellstone
• Greater Ruby Spellstone

The current Paladin decks don’t run a ton of healing, but the class did get Benevolent Djinn which lines up pretty perfectly with this card. Maybe there’s a slow Control Paladin in our future, but that deck has not seen a lot of play since the early days of Whispers of the Old Gods.

Discuss the Paladin Spellstone on our card pages:

• Lesser Pearl Spellstone
• Pearl Spellstone
• Greater Pearl Spellstone

Big Priest is already a powerful deck, and Priest’s spellstone will likely make it even stronger!

Discuss the Priest Spellstone on our card pages:

• Lesser Diamond Spellstone
• Diamond Spellstone
• Greater Diamond Spellstone

Rogue gets a bit of a callback to the card Sabotage from the Goblins vs. Gnomes expansion, but this time it can potentially destroy multiple minions if you are playing a heavy Deathrattle deck.

Discuss the Rogue Spellstone on our card pages:

• Lesser Onyx Spellstone
• Onyx Spellstone
• Greater Onyx Spellstone

Shaman’s spellstone could have some powerful implementations. Consider a Giants Overload Shaman deck that could multiply a Snowfury Giant!

Discuss the Shaman Spellstone on our card pages:

• Lesser Sapphire Spellstone
• Sapphire Spellstone
• Greater Sapphire Spellstone

Warlock’s spellstone allows it to clear a minion and gain health back by doing it. It’s a potentially strong card in a self-damaging style of deck that the other Kobolds cards are directing the class towards: Kobold Librarian & Vulgar Homunculus!

Discuss the Warrior Spellstone on our card pages:

• Lesser Amethyst Spellstone
• Amethyst Spellstone
• Greater Amethyst Spellstone

The Warrior spellstone on the surface feels a bit weak. It’s really high cost, and you would likely need to have it in your hand very early to meet the weapon equipping requirements. Could be good if the rest of the Warrior cards help support a control based deck.

Discuss the Warrior Spellstone on our card pages:

• Lesser Mithril Spellstone
• Mithril Spellstone
• Greater Mithril Spellstone