What Should We Expect From the Knights of the Frozen Throne Expansion?

With the announcement of Hearthstone’s fresh new expansion, Knights of the Frozen Throne, we take a look at what the Lich King might be bringing to the innkeeper’s table.

Knights of the Frozen Throne

The reveal season has started with a bang, with Team 5’s Ben Brode and Jason Chayes giving us a taste of what to expect when Knights of the Frozen Throne drops next month. There are high expectations after Journey to Un’Goro, but what might Icecrown have in store for us? Between new hero cards such as Deathstalker Rexxar and the new keyword, Lifesteal, there’s an awful lot to cover, so let’s begin!

Hero Cards

Before the announcement, there were a few speculative (or perhaps hopeful) murmurs that we might be getting a Death Knight class in Hearthstone – but why have one Death Knight hero when you can have nine? With the introduction of Hero Cards, each of the original classes will be given the chance to be reborn as soldiers of the Lich King.

Our first example of this comes in the form of Deathstalker Rexxar. For six mana, the hunter gets five armor, a small board clear, and most excitingly of all: a new hero power.  Build-a-Beast discovers two beasts and combines all their stats – cost, attack, health, and card text – to create a new ‘Zombeast’ card. When it comes to current standard cards, Rat Pack looks like the star player, as no matter what you combine it with you’ll be getting more value – but don’t be surprised to see more beasts with interesting effects or synergy printed in this set.

Deathstalker Rexxar also hints at a more controlling play style for hunter, and may indicate that Blizzard are hoping to create fresh archetypes for some, if not all, of the classes. Hunter has seen control-orientated cards enter its arsenal before – Steamwheedle Sniper; Giant Sand Worm; Swamp King Dred; the list could go on, but so far nothing has made enough of an impact for ‘Control Hunter’ to be considered a viable option. It’s going to take more than one card to make that a reality, so expect to see other hunter cards that will help to facilitate a longer game. Regardless of whether they end up becoming top tier decks, it seems likely that many of the other hero cards will follow this trend, and that they will try to encourage a new style of play.

There is a parallel that can be drawn with Un’Goro, and the quests it brought to Hearthstone. These were also expensively legendaries that Blizzard intended people to build decks around, though many of them failed to make a lasting impact.  It is obviously too soon to say if hero cards will shape the meta in a more meaningful way, but there has been a clear desire to make larger changes in the more recent expansions. A potential downfall of having a deck build around a hero cards is, where a quest will always appear in your opening hand, there is no guarantee that you’ll even draw your hero. This may indicate that they are considered complimentary to an overarching theme, rather than “must-draws,” but we’ve seen such decks before: remember Reno Jackson, anyone?

Lifesteal

Of course, hero cards are but nine of the one hundred thirty-five in the new set. Chillblade Champion and Spirit Lash gave us our first look at Hearthstone’s new keyword – Lifesteal. It is not, strictly speaking, an entirely new mechanic – the effect has been featured before on cards such as Mistress of Pain and Wickerflame Burnbristle, but without a keyword; similar to Poisonous. While similar effects have been seen on spells before – with Holy Fire, Drain Life and Tidal Surge – it is the first time that additional spell damage will have an implication on the amount healed. It is unclear if these old cards will be updated to have the Lifesteal keyword instead (and thus be slightly buffed), but it seems likely that Spirit Lash won’t be the only spell to feature it in the new set.

Any AoE with Lifesteal – such as Spirit Lash – is an exciting proposition. Anyone familiar with Hallazeal the Ascended will know the swings that were capable with a well-timed board clear. With a little bit of spell power and a handful of minions, these sorts of cards could easily turn the tables in an otherwise unwinnable position: clearing an aggressive board and restoring a ton of health in the process. The Lifesteal keyword indicates, in a similar way to Rexxar’s Deathstalker, a focus on a more control-based meta. Naturally, any cards which are seeing play and healing heroes are going to make games last longer – but it seems unlikely that it will be enough to kill aggro. With every expansion there are predictions that the meta will slow down, and each time they’ve been largely disproved.

Deathrattle

According to Chayes, we can expect to see a lot of Deathrattle minions in Knights of the Frozen Throne. The somewhat underwhelming Shallow Gravedigger offers us a taste of things to come, adding an additional, random, Deathrattle minion to your hand upon death. This may indicate that there will be synergy between these cards in the expansion – though hopefully nothing as dominant as the dreaded pre-nerf Undertaker, from Naxxramas.

It will therefore be interesting to see the types of Deathrattle cards that are printed in this set. Historically, it has been a very powerful keyword, with many of the strongest minions in wild being “sticky” minions that immediately summon something else in their place. Whether Blizzard will shy away from these cards remains to be seen, but it seems likely that any new Deathrattle cards will have a less instant effect than the likes of Haunted Creeper or Piloted Shredder. The idea of Deathrattle decks – along with the existence of Prince Keleseth, who we won’t get into today – might be the glimmer of hope for the aggro players among you.

Of course, we’re only five cards in, and we have a while to go before we get our next peek at what is to come. More cards will be released starting July 24th, before Knights of the Frozen Throne drops in August. What do you want to see from the expansion? Do you think hero cards will shake up the meta? Let us know down below, or contact the author on Twitter.