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.
70 preorder packs? I see 50 in the shop @ android at 49.99EUR.
When you buy it, you will get 70 packs. Not sure why they worded it as 50+20 other than maybe to emphasize that its more than in the past.
I preordered on my PC and got 70 packs.
They emphasized that it's 50 card packs because they don't want to "reduce" the cost of cards. When we look back in the future we won't say "damn, cards were only 71c a pack", we'll say "gee, we miss that promo with the 20 free card packs". This way they can step back and never do this again if that's what's best for their business.
Sad that there is only 1 new hero card :(. I would like to see more. One of the best designed mechanics imo. Hopefully we will see more interesting legendaries. Personally I like 2 legendary per class, because class legendaries are the most interesting (they may bring some new way to play class), while neutral is pretty hard to balance, to not made some class OP. For example if Keleseth was rogue only Legendary it would be much better, than every single class to play agro keleseth deck. Of course bringing some new legendary mechanics every single expansion is not very easy, so I can expected that it will come expansion in which there won't be some them (as quests, Hero card, legendary weapon) and maybe that is even for better, because exploring old one would be nice. I would like to see some new quests.
Anyway still excited for the year of the Raven :).
This logic with Keleseth you used works both ways. Although I hate aggro with white hot hatred, it's a necessary evil that Blizzard simply could never keep in check, and giving aggro tools to everyone is good, just like giving control or combo tools to everyone. Imagine if Sonya Shadowdancer was a neutral card. Sure, she'd be really tough to balance, but all classes would suddenly get a huge combo deck enabler. That would be incredible.
Yes, of course it can work both ways. My main point was, that if 1 card is only class it is much easier to balance it and to make it more interesting without risking of some over power combo which they didn't test. But otherwise of course, their should be neutral answers and combos. And of course that leads to a lot of uninspired neutral legendaries, which are just tuned down and useless. But however, anyway we receive more than enough class stuff, so everything is good.
What the hell on earth can be a good enough explanation to not update cards to tush??? Cards allready in the game do literally what rush is but some have card text that is worded wierd just so people understand it cannot go face, Which is exactly the reason rush was invented.
Cards? At this moment I can recall only one card with that effect, Charge. And since its name has "Charge" in it (and it's actually the whole name) changing its effect to "Give a friendly minion Rush" is a bit weird.
Charged devilsaur is the same exact thing with a text way more complex than neccesary. You would think a keyword is invented for such examples. Icehowl is similar as well.
The "can't attack heroes this turn" minions can still go face if they are summoned. The rush cards cannot, so there is still a difference. I guess you can say that rush is a little weaker mechanic.
the reason theyre not updating cards that have effects similar to rush to rush is cause that overall will nerf those cards, take the 8 mana 7/7 dino for example, if hes recruited or summoned he still has charge but since hes not played as a battlecry he gets to attack face due to that, if they just flat out put rush or charge on him and take away the battlecry effect he loses his versatility, they'll only put rush on cards they only want to be able to rush no matter what and leave ones with "can't attack face this turn" battlecries so people can eventually build around cheesing those out
that is true. however i think when they made devilsaur, they did not intend that to bypass it's restriction it is jsut something that was a byproduct (and people always search and ways to break the rules). But the intended use for that card was exactly what rush is, but obviously it kinda failed in a way since it can be bypassed by recruit for example. But they probably found that interaction cool so they kept it (i don't have an issue with that mentality). But i'm pretty sure the wanted the rush effect on it in terms of it's use.
Again with the two legendary for a class, i really think they are trying to destroy f2p players :p
There is hero card ONLY for shaman. Read post again.
He said 2 legendaries for each class,wtf does a hero has to do with his post?Dumb much?
It really doesn't make that much of a difference it terms of f2p experience. One legendary per class just means more neutral legendaries.