Rise of Shadows
The first expansion of Year of the Dragon is Rise of Shadows! The expansion releases on April 9th.
Expansion Info
- New Mechanic: Twinspell - Casting this adds another copy of the card (without Twinspell) to your hand.
- Lackeys - Special token minions which are generated through other cards. They are 1/1 minions with "devious" battlecries
- Schemes - Cards which grow in power as they sit in your hand each turn.
- We will see some old mechanics return!
Freebies
- The first chapter of the solo adventure. (Remaining 4 wings available for gold or $20)
- A legendary card before pre-release begins, playable before the expansion hits.
- A quest chain rewarding multiple free packs for Rise of Shadows and Year of the Raven expansions.
Pre-Order Bonuses
There are two bundles available for pre-orders. The Mega Bundle contains a Priest Hero!
Rise of Shadows Bundle
- Costs $49.99
- 50 Rise of Shadows card packs
- The Jewel of Lazul card back
- A random Legendary from Rise of Shadows
Rise of Shadows Mega Bundle
- Costs $79.99
- 80 Rise of Shadows card packs
- The Jewel of Lazul card back
- A random Legendary from Rise of Shadows
- Madame Lazul, Priest Hero (available now!)
Shadow Bundle
During the first week of the expansion’s release, the Shadow Bundle will be available, containing nine Rise of Shadows card packs and an Arena ticket for $9.99 (players can purchase the bundle only once per account).
Rise of Shadows New Cards
So far, 135 cards have been revealed out of 135.
Druid
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Hunter
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Mage
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Paladin
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Priest
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Rogue
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Shaman
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Warlock
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Warrior
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Neutral
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Conjurer's Calling + Khadgar looking good
Can't wait for the new expansion!
So far i have Khadgar for insta-craft.
And Archivist Elysiana and Chef Nomi on the watch-list (more for flavor than real necessity for my Wild decks).
Hopefully the remaining cards have more synergy for Tempo Rogue and Tempo Mage, but I'm already quite happy with the revealed cards. They will surely empower new or off-meta Wild Rogue and Mage decks.
Extremely disappointed of Druid. The remaining cards can't provide enough synergy for a new Wild deck. It's just Jade again for 4 more months...
I want more Dragons outside of Paladin. A lot of good Dragons are rotating out and I haven't seen any decent replacements yet.
Yea i got you Bro...
Thaught Warrior would get at least one Dragon + some neutral ones. Now i realize , Legendarys are revealed. Probably no Dragon Warrior this season, since we loose Bone Drake for example without getting anything until now...
I want some neutral Dragons too, though I think my Dragon deck should be OK without. The Barista could be a useful add in the deck, doubling the armour and whirlwind dragons, plus lancers, in hand.
Yeah same goes for Deathrattle minions for Priest.
They received a Nice Deathrattle synergy card, while no Deathrattle cards have been revealed that synergize with that card....
Looking at the cart already released I get the impression the FTP players will have a hard time with this expansion.
All the neutral Legendary minions left after the rotation look very situational, no cards as powerful as Prince Keleseth, Genn Greymane, Baku the Mooneater or even The Lich King will be left in the game. The DKs are gone too.
Same with Epics. Crafting Carnivorous Cube gave you access to many competitive decks across many classes. I don't see any replacement for this card. Where's Fungalmancer replacement...this guy has carried so many cheap decks.
The closest to a good all around neutral Legendary minion from the year of the Raven is Zilliax and he is not going to win you games. Archmage Vargoth might be good enough, but again he is very situational.
A FTP player who opens 50 packs might get only 2 Legendaries and not be able to build any tier 2 deck with those. Genn, Baku and their supporting cast rotation to the HoF should give quite a few players enough dust to fill the gaps, but not everyone.
The big spenders will have a whale of a time after the rotation, that's a given. The rest of us, not so much I think - we'll end up with pieces of really good decks that we can't use unless we spend all our dust to make that one competitive deck. But again...I might be wrong :)
For all f2p-ers, it will probably be best to wait a few days/weeks for a nice, cheap, aggro deck to appear - I know it's not the most savory deal and everyone wants to play flashy Legendaries, but it's the most economical, especially since Leeroy is still a thing.
I have to add, I'm not f2p since I bought 1 exp recently (and the welcome bundle), but I've been playing since the beginning, and the hardest time to get enough good cards was definitely KnC, because of all the playable and important Epics, more than Legendaries - I kinda doubt it's gonna be that hard to build a decent deck this time around. The Legendaries you mentioned weren't exactly played alone in decks, you usually had to have a few (plus a good number of epics on top) for the decks to be competitive.
OK, but Prince Keleseth, Genn Greymane and Baku the Mooneater worked across several archetypes (well Baku and Genn were their own archetypes) across several classes. They were safe to craft.
Looking at the current crop, the Legendaries look like they will work in one specific type of deck. FTP players will not want to invest their dust to support one Legendary in that way (think nerf).
I would be gutted if I opened Jepetto Joybuzz for example. Good card with loads of potential, but I'm sure I will never get the cards to support him. Don't get me started on Archivist Elysiana and Chef Nomi :)
I disagree that all remaining/new legendaries are too situational. Most of them are no "win-buttons", but honestly, they shouldn't be anyway. While DKs were generally strong cards that can win the games for you, they were way too dominant and game-deciding, which isn't healthy for the game. By the way, I think Barista Lynchen is not too demanding to be worth it.
That said, as the guy above me mentioned, you are usually not capable of building a decent deck with 2-3 legendaries from packs anyway. The chance of getting a good legendary is not great, and even if you are lucky to get one, most decks need more than one legendary, and a bunch of epics alongside of it, especially when legendaries are designed as a package with epics or other legendaries that make them good to begin with. Like getting Rhok'delar is kind of pointless without To My Side! (and vice versa), the same goes for Blastmaster Boom without Wrenchcalibur and Lucentbark without Crystal Stag.
Decent decks, even if only built around one legendary or a new mechanic, tend to cost over 5000 dust, and some get close to 10,000 and higher. It's been like that pretty much since MSG. Rotations are just feeling bad because you have to replace your go-to cards with new ones every year and might need some time to catch up.
At least Team5 has aknowledged by now that this doesn't make the game particularly fun. So they might address this someday in the future with better dust rewards or exchange rates.
Yeah, but in the future there might not be many FTP player left. This rotation will be brutal, hardly any meta decks will survive (unlike last rotation).
I would not expect FTP players to have invested much dust into Year of the Raven cards, since they were so under-powered compared to Year of the Mamouth cards. In the last year it was far more efficient to craft Year of the Mamouth cards, so I would expect FTP to be missing many of the better Year of the Raven cards.
Hence it would have made sense for Blizzard to give away packs/dusts right now. Instead we get the most expensive pre-purchase ever, followed by a 20$ Adventure. And stuck in between a 10$ offer (8 packs/one arena entrance). Great for those willing to spend 150$, the rest can only look in despair.
Note: yes, Barista Lynchen is well worth it
I really like this set, cant wait for the others cards left :D
Is it just me or does these new legendary minions has a weird synergy with Arch-Villain Rafaam in the legendary pool for standard. Don't forget the legendaries we have from the three last expansions for example Princess Talanji.
Did
RafaamMadame Lazul Predict this?You may want to re-edit once more, for Madame Lazul is the fortune teller
Oh, I can do that
I'm actually getting half excited for this expansion. I might need to get back into the Hearthstone scene full time haha.
I really do appreciate the work that goes into this site, even if it's a bit whacky right now
Only 1 legendary left... For Warrior...... :'-(
And another for shaman