New expansion season has rolled around yet again for Hearthstone. With the Saviors of Uldum set, coming August 6, Blizzard’s digital card game is bringing game-changing area-of-effect spells, minions that resummon after dying, and powerful Quest cards that offer a new Hero Power once certain requirements are met.
The Saviors of Uldum set calls back to Hearthstone’s League of Explorers, which launched in 2015 and included a wide range of fan-favourite cards such as Reno Jackson, Elise Starseeker and Sir Finley Mrrgglton.
As of now, those characters don’t have new cards of their own, but they’re being used to frame the expansion’s story, which sees the League of Explorers facing off against the League of EVIL, the same group of villains that starred in Hearthstone’s most recent Rise of Shadows expansion.
The cards themselves are looking pretty powerful from a mechanics standpoint, with Blizzard introducing three key features that will define a good chunk of the new set:
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Reborn is a new mechanic that behaves similar to Hearthstone’s classic Deathrattle mechanic, but instead of triggering a specific effect upon death, Reborn minions will resurrect with 1 remaining Health after they’re destroyed the first time.
So far, Blizzard has introduced a 4-Mana Warrior minion with 3 Health and 2 Attack called Restless Mummy, which has Rush and Reborn. When summoned, the card can attack a minion, resurrect and attack again, allowing for 6 board damage in a single turn — a solid tempo swing.
Compared with a minion such as Militia Commander, a 4-Mana Rush minion that’s super-popular even though it can only deal 5 damage to a single minion on the turn it’s played, Restless Mummy looks to have a lot of potential.
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Plagues are powerful AoE spells that can be used by Priest, Shaman, Warrior, Warlock and Rogue. Similar to cards such as Hellfire, Psychic Scream and Twisting Nether, these spells affect every minion on the board, so they’ll typically work best when one player has a distinct advantage.
The Priest card “Plague of Death” is a 9-mana AoE spell that may be one of the most powerful ones ever printed, as it silences and kills all minions on the board.
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Quest cards, which provide powerful effects when the player meets certain criteria in a game, were introduced with 2017’s Journey to Un’goro set and will return in Saviors of Uldum. Unlike those quests, however, the new ones offer new Hero Powers upon quest completion.
So far, the Druid Quest that has been revealed doesn’t seem to have a massive effect with the cards that are currently in the game, as it doubles up the effects of Druid “Choose One” cards, which players don’t currently tend to run regularly.
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