Today’s Hearthstone team update announcements are pretty exciting. I’ll list it in bullet form to give you an idea of its scale before we get into the specifics:
The Blood/Frost/Undead rune system and corpse mechanic give the Death Knight class in Hearthstone an extremely diversified gameplay. At launch, it will have 68 cards.
March of the Lich King, a new expansion tied to Warcraft lore and centered on the Lich King’s Scourge invading the Blood Elves of Silvermoon City, will debut alongside the new class. Manathirst, a brand-new keyword, will be introduced.
Hundreds of legacy cards have also been labeled Undead, a new minion type that debuts with the set. Nowadays, many minions are also dual-type.
The Sunwell, Hearthstone’s first neutral spell, is now available. Additionally, you’ll receive gratis if you sign into the game immediately.
The complete Knights of the Frozen Throne set, which was initially published in 2017 and was the first expansion to feature hero cards, has been added back to the Standard format and will remain there through the release of March of the Lich King (on December 6).
Hearthstone is introducing signature cards, which have unique expansion-specific artwork.
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Let’s review what was said in more detail now.
Runes & The Death Knight Class
Only the second additional class beyond the original nine has been added to Hearthstone. The development team has gone all-out to capture the variety of ways that the Death Knight may be played in World of Warcraft. The new rune system, which enables players to specialize in three separate areas: Blood, Frost, and Unholy, is the foundation of its identity.
The new rune system at Death Knight’s core allows players to specialize in Blood, Frost and Unholy.
Most, but not all, Death Knight class cards have a rune requirement, and players have three rune slots to complete when creating a Death Knight deck. For example, if you have three Frost runes, you can include cards with one, two, and three Frost runes but not any Blood or Unholy cards. The third rune slot can be Blood or Unholy, allowing you to splash in some cards from those other alignments. On the other hand, if you include Frost cards with just one and two rune requirements.
This complex new system has ten possible combinations: BBB, FFF, UUU, BBU, BBF, FFB, FFU, UUB, UUF, and BFU. As you might anticipate, each of the three alignments has distinct strengths, limitations, and play styles. Blood DKs are the control option with their massive hordes, health manipulation, and life stealing.
Spell synergy, direct damage, mana management, and a little freezing are a frost DK’s primary focus. Unholy DKs, on the other hand, are aggressive, go wide, buff minions, and are experts with corpses (which we’ll get to in a moment). They also swarm their adversaries with legions of the Undead.
When Death Knight is released, the Prologue for the class is the first thing you’ll go through. It chronicles the tale of Arthas Menethil as he embarks on his evil journey and battles legendary Warcraft characters like Uthar, Sylvanas, Illidan, and Mal’Ganis.
When you complete the Prologue, which introduces the Death Knight’s mechanics, the class is unlocked and you receive the 32 Core cards and three beginning decks.
Death Knights will have 68 cards in total upon debut, an increase of 50% above Demon Hunter’s initial 45 cards. The Path of Arthas package will include three “advanced” decks and have 26 cards in addition to the Core set (the same number of cards that the other classes have acquired through expansions and mini-sets this year)
. That bundle is a part of the March of the Lich King pre-order Mega Bundle, although it may also be purchased alone. Finally, like the other classes, Death Knights will have ten class cards in the next expansion.
It’s a lot, but the Hearthstone team wants to ensure that each specialization has enough cards to support one or more viable decks, so you may play your DK any way you want. Let’s discuss Corpses now.
Corpses, Ghoul Charge, and the Dead
Raising the dead is the main focus of Death Knights, and this trait is represented in both the class’s hero power and its use of Corpses. Death Knights have another resource at their disposal: corpses. Whenever a friendly minion perishes (with a few exceptions), a Corpse is added to the total (visible beneath the mana bar). Some cards spend those Corpses, usually for a bonus effect.
Notably, the hero power known as Ghoul Charge, which summons a 1/1 ghoul with the charge that dies at the end of the turn, can generate corpses built right in. In essence, it’s a one-damage ping with a corpse guarantee. When deciding which runes to use, a specialization like Unholy also offers a lot of Corpse-generating cards. Perhaps you combine one Unholy with two Blood to ensure you have enough Corpses to activate Blood’s Corpse spenders.
Hearthstone formally introduces the Undead as a minion type to further solidify this use of the Undead. Not only that, but the March of the Lich King set will have Undead synergy (“If a friendly Undead dies after your last turn…”).
The Undead update is retroactive. Thus hundreds of old cards have been newly classed as Undead. Many of the new Undead are also Reborn (two Corpses for the price of one!). Patches the Pirate is now both a pirate and a demon because cards can have two kinds.
Le Marche du Lich King
Over the past few years, Hearthstone has increasingly explored the worlds and characters from the original World of Warcraft, and the newest expansion, March of the Lich King, continues this trend.
With half of the classes (Death Knight, Warlock, Priest, Shaman, Rogue, and Druid) united with the Scourge (i.e., the events of Wrath of the Lich King) and half with Silvermoon and the Blood Elves, March of the Lich King is set during the beginning of the second Scourge war (Hunter, Paladin, Warrior, Mage and Demon Hunter).
There are common themes among each group of classes. For example, Priests are reviving the dead (little minions, don’t worry) and Warlocks are employing soul magic since the Scourge classes are concerned with the Undead. Other intriguing activities are taking place in these classes. For instance, Rogue is creating concoctions, and the Druids’ Nerubian bond has been restored.
Manathirst, the Blood Elves of Silvermoon’s unifying mechanic, reflects their (sometimes unhealthy) reliance on magical power. If you have enough mana, cards with Manathirst get an additional effect. They improve at a certain point in the game rather than using the mana.
Regarding individual classes, the Blood Knights are darker, more vindictive Paladins who have bent the light to their will via force. The Mages are members of the Magisters. They are masters of arcane magic, and the Fel Blood Elves are Demon Hunters and feel-addled outcasts.
Card Signatures
Along with March of the Lich King, signature cards will debut. These are a brand-new class of cosmetic cards with full-color variant artwork tailored to a particular expansion.
There will be signature variants on March 18 of the Lich King cards (15 are legendaries), and they appear as a rare drop in card packs and cannot be made. Golden assemblies will now be renamed “Signature Golden Packs,” which have a “high probability” of containing signature cards. Golden packets can now also be bought directly.
Return of the Knights of the Frozen Throne!
What if each of Hearthstone’s (then nine) classes turned into Death Knights? was a question posed back in 2017. As a result, the Knights of the Frozen Throne set and hero cards were released. One of the most well-liked Hearthstone expansions ever, it’s the perfect set to reintroduce to the Standard format before the Death Knight class debuts, and that’s exactly what Team 5 is doing with the Knights of Hallow’s End event.
As of right now, all Knights of the Frozen Cards have been added to your collection in Hearthstone. These cards are now a part of the Core set and will remain so until March of the Lich King is released. The hero cards are undoubtedly memorable—some are even infamous—but will they still be helpful in 2022? Finding out is going to be a lot of fun.
You’ll find more than that if you log into Hearthstone right now. The Sunwell, the first neutral spell in Hearthstone, is also yours for nothing. Even if it is not that powerful, it has a fascinating effect and will be fun to play with.
Lastly, pre-order bundles for March of the Lich King, which will be released on December 6 in North America (and December 7 in Australia and the Asia Pacific), have gone up. Be sure to check out the specifics. Check out our Designing Death Knight video and our article, in which we discuss the creation of the new class in-depth with Team 5.
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