Ben Brode, Yong Woo, and Mike Donais have answered some questions on the new expansion. I’m rounding up some of the more interesting responses below!
Quick Tidbits
- There will be 2 Legendaries per class. – Source
- Yes, you will actually get 70 packs (50 + 20 bonus) for pre-purchasing The Witchwood! – Source
- No old cards will be receiving the Rush keyword (Charged Devilsaur/Charge). – Source
- 0 is considered an even card and can be used with Genn Greymane. – Source
- Baku the Mooneater interacts with the starting hero power only. – Source
- Baku the Mooneater‘s upgraded hero powers are the same as Justicar Trueheart‘s versions.
- Deathstalker Rexxar will be updated with the expansion release! – Source
- Unstable Evolution will not receive the Echo keyword. – Source
Longer Tidbits
Hagatha Hero Card?
In the end of the reveal video, you can see a hero card that they don’t fully reveal. Ben Brode answered a couple of questions pertaining to it below.
There will only be ONE hero cards in the set, and it will be for the Shaman class:
Will there be just one hero card?
“That’s correct, and it’s the Witch of the Witchwood herself, Hagatha.” – Source
“It’s a Shaman Hero. Hagatha is a dark shaman who has twisted the woods around Gilneas. She is the Witch in the Witchwood – we wanted to make her a hero card so that she’d stand out!” – Source
Will Dungeon Run still be available after Monster Hunt is released?
“Dungeon Run from Kobolds will continue to be available after Monster Hunt comes out.” – Source
Will Dungeon Run be removed when Kobolds and Catacombs rotates out?
“Not sure we have a plan yet – we have a long time before having to figure out what happens to that.” – Source
Hopefully, Hagatha makes Control Shaman able because she costs 8 mana.
And i still don’t get it why they won’t change key words for unstable and devilsaur. It was the same with Y’shaarj before.
Delvisaur gets a different effect from rush when it is recruited or evolved into, since the inability to attack heroes is the card’s battlecry. So changing its text to rush would indeed change the card’s abilities.
Oh, didn’t even think about that. Thank you.
The biggest reason is so that they don’t introduce non-evergreen keywords into old expansions (and especially basic/classic). On the case of Devilsaur, as Elzein pointed out, it would also be a functional change.
But the likey official explanation will be “old players this, returning players that…”.
My free DK Hero was Shaman. And I didn’t have dust to craft Evolve Shaman, so I couldn’t fully enjoy it. Now we get a new Shaman Hero, presumably OP, so DK Shaman may see even less play. Feels bad, man.
Shaman doesn’t see play ATM even with the dk lol who knows if the class is any good next expansion
You know. Given that Evolve Shaman was a rather cheap deck, if you didn’t have Dust to craft it, you’d most likely don’t have Dust to craft more expensive decks that utilize cards like Shadowreaperr Anduin or Bloodreaver Gul’dan :p
And “less play” is really tricky – I really don’t think that the new Hero card will be just a straight up upgrade, it would be silly. It will most likely do something completely different. So if Evolve Shaman will still be a thing somehow, then Thrall, Deathseer will be a viable card.
Evolve Shaman is relatively cheap, true, but I think I just had quite some bad luck opening Shaman cards from packs. I still don’t have Evolve, Devolve, Thing from Below, Doppelgangster, the entire Jade Package, Mana Tide Totem, Primalfin Totem nor Unstable Evolution. Also, since the nerf I don’t have Corridor Creeper any more. Too many missing pieces. That is a ton of rares and even epics, and as F2P I’m glad I crafted Midrange Hunter and Zoo instead at the beginning (started playing before KnC). Recently I could also craft Tempo Burn Mage since it only required me to craft Aluneth and a few rares. Evolve Shaman seems a very fun archetype, but it would have meant a lot of dust for a gimmicky deck (kind of like Exodia Mage).
Yeah I don’t think the new Shaman Hero will be an upgrade either, but it’s not too hard to make it more powerful than Deathseer. Just look at how DK Guldan has totally eclipsed Jaraxxus in recent times, and I don’t think Jaraxxus is a bad card at all. With many of the tools for Evolve Shaman rotating out and the new Shaman Hero, it will be very unlikely that Deathseer will be seen much, imho.
Actually Thrall Deathseer *is* useful in decks other than those based entirely around Evolve… I chucked him in an Elemental Shaman deck because you’ve got some good but expensive battlecry minions and you’re not always gonna have Grumble in hand (if you’ve got him) at the right time.
Blazecaller, for instance, deals 5 damage (as long as you played an Elemental last turn – e.g. Fire Elemental) and gives you a 6/6 body on the board – which you can slam into something before evolving it into an 8 mana creature.
Sure it’s not a top-tier ladder deck but no Shaman decks are currently.
when i do decide to play shaman i don’t even use the death knight. better success with token shaman just being aggressive as possible. deathknight is a powerful midrange card, but that style of play has been repressed all year anyways.