All The Witchwood Expansion and Card Clarifications You May Have Missed
Yesterday was a busy and exciting day, so much so that our friendly neighbourhood Blizzard cast were out and about talking about the new expansion. Here's everything you may have missed that you absolutely need to know.
If you want to see the announcement, check out this post. We've also got our Witchwood guide up and if you want to see yesterday's patch, we've got a post on that too.
Important Details
- The expansion releases mid-April.
- The pre-order comes with 70 packs instead of the usual 50. You can pre-order here or in-game.
- Shaman is the only class getting a new playable hero card.
- Each class once again will be seeing two Legendary cards. (Source)
- There will be a stream to kickoff the card reveal season. (Source)
Baku, Genn, and Zero
- 0 is an even number. That's how it will work with Genn Greymane and Baku the Mooneater.
- Baku the Mooneater only upgrades basic Hero Powers - the exact same powers Justicar Trueheart does. (Source 1 | Source 2)
- New filters are going to be added that filter your collection to odd or even cost cards when you add Baku or Genn to a deck. (Source)
- Baku will still trigger if Prince Malchezaar adds even cost cards to your deck. (Source)
- Shifting Scroll counts as a 0-cost card. (Source)
Monster Hunt / PvE
- Dungeon Run will still be available for play. (Source)
- The four new heroes in the Monster Hunt mode have unique hero powers and even some special cards. (Source)
- They're not sure on what the plan is for Dungeon Run after Kobolds rotates out of Standard. (Source)
Game Mechanics
- Cards with the same effect as Echo which are already in the game will not be updated with the new keyword. (Source)
- Deathstalker Rexxar will be updated to work with both Kobolds and Witchwood Beasts when the set launches. (Source)
- If a Rush minion is played onto the board through a summon effect, the mechanic still works the same. (Source)
Why Greymane and Baku?
Quote from Mike DonaisThe two seem a bit like the opposites in terms of design. What made you pair the Worgen king with a "made up" lore monster? Is there any neat little lore about Baku that you guys came up with, which is why he seems to be paired with Genn?
Hagatha, the witch of the Witchwood awakened the trees and beasts of the woods making them stronger and angrier. Baku the Mooneater is the great worm that is basically her General.
Unrelated to WoW, Baku can also be found in Earth mythology too sometimes called Bakunawa.
Where is Witchwood?
Quote from Mike DonaisBefore Hagatha the Witch moved in it was called Blackwald and it is the forest outside Gilneas.
Correct - these woods are actually named "The Blackwald", but since Hagatha took up residence and twisted the woods around Gilneas, the Gilneans have started referring to it as "The Witchwood". It has become very dangerous.... (Source)
Will Each Class Get a New Hero?
Quote from Mike DonaisJust Shaman. Hagatha is the most impotant character in the set from a story standpoint. She brought The Witchwood to life and made it all dark and spooky. We wanted to signify that by making her a hero card.
Quests
Quote from Mike DonaisHow do quests work with the only even cost dude? Do you get the effect because the quest is guaranteed in your starting hand prior the check proir and you dont get it?
Quests are odd cost. You need all 30 even cost cards to run a Genn Greymane deck.
Just search common, rare ect.
They need to keep Dungeon Run around forever in solo mode.
Actually they need to keep fighting the lich king forever too (they can remove the reward though).
This game always needs more solo play for when we get sick of playing the meta
I mean, they will always have these available, won't they?
I agree, all it does is makes it harder for new players and harder to search for.
It seems there is a preorder card back issue, I have The Blue Portal displayed in game after I set In a Dark Wood as favorite ;)
Now they can Un-nerf patches!
I'm in-a-rush here!
Patches was a huge deal because it could attack minions the turn it came out, and make favorable trades that could snowball. Missing 1 dmg to face (or 2 with southsea captain) was never a big deal.
Hmmm...has an unnerf ever been done? if not, this would be an amazing first!
It will be an amazing first! But for molten giant, not patches.
/sigh
I guess I'll be that guy.
Going to assume that there is a technical limitation or a desire to not reconfigure any regression tests that is driving this choice to
not staycontinue to not stay consistent.This wording looks more complicated than original. I see no reason why should they change it to this.
Point is that charged devilsaur doesn't really work like rush cards, and there is no reason to change him.
Yup. Changing his warding to simply « Rush » would actually be a nerf.
It’s already weak enough in constructed, no need to remove the cool niche Recruit/Cube combos your can make with it :p
Just change the battlecry to rush and remove the extra text. The card would read as:
Charge
Battlecry: Rush
Problem solved.
The wording is never Battlecry: X, it's Battlecry: gain X. The problem is that without stating it, the minion gains rush but keeps the charge ability, resulting in downright contradiction. You can't have such ambiguity.
It's also just very weird to tie a keyword like rush into a battlecry.
They would have to change his name from "Charged Devilsaur" to "Rushed Devilsaur", closer match to his ability.