It wasn’t a very well kept secret as various sites started reporting on a new Hearthstone expansion a couple days ago, and a wall mural for something called “Whispers of the Old Gods” was recently spotted. It’s now official, and Blizzard announced on Twitch ahead of the Hearthstone Americas Winter Championship Live Stream that the next expansion will indeed be called “Whispers of the Old Gods.”
Hearthstone officially launched two years ago today, and Blizzard felt it would be the perfect time to announce the newest expansion which will “herald the beginning of the standard format,” which we previously covered. The patch will start on Monday and gamers will see a preview of the user interface on how to switch between standard and regular game modes. In addition, those who have unlocked all nine classes will also be able to access nine additional deck slots for a total of 18. Players will also be able to access deck recipes to assist with creating fun new decks.
In true Blizzard fashion, the expansion was introduced with a new cinematic. Check it out below:
“Whispers of the Gods” will feature 134 new cards and will be released in late April or early May. In this expansion, the dark influence of the Old Gods has been slowly changing the minions and corrupting them — sometimes subtly, sometimes not so subtly. Some examples included new versions of the Loot Hoarder, Antique Healbot, and the Doomsayer. The original cards will still be part of Hearthstone, some will just have alternate versions.
In the case of the Loot Horder — a 2 attack/1 health/2 mana cost minion which draws a card when he dies, the Polluted Hoarder now costs 4 mana and has 4 attack and 2 health with the same Deathrattle effect.
Things get more interesting with the Antique Healbot — a 3 attack/3 health/5 mana cost minion who restores 8 health to your hero when it’s played. Corrupted Healbot? It’ll still cost you 5 mana to play, but now has 6 attack and 6 health — but don’t count on that 8 health when you play it as it now restores 8 health to the ENEMY hero when it dies.
Another revealed card is the Validated Doomsayer, a new version of the Doomsayer card which is a 2 mana cost card with no attack and 7 health that destroys ALL minions at the start of your next turn. The Validated Doomsayer on the other hand now costs 5 mana, has no attack and 7 health but at the start of your next turn sets its attack to 7.
In addition to card changes, there will be four Old Gods to collect – legendary minions. The first to be revealed is C’Thun, a 10 mana cost 6 attack/6 health minion. C’Thun’s battlecry has him dealing out damage equal to his attack, randomly split among all enemies. Six damage randomly split doesn’t sound like much, but here’s where it gets interesting. Other cards will buff C’Thun regardless of if he’s in your hand, deck, or on the board. Two of these, the Beckoner of Evil — which gives C’Thun +2/+2 when played — and the Twilight Elder — which gives C’Thun +1+1 at the end of your turn — can ramp C’Thun up pretty quick, and you could potentially be dropping a 14 attack/14 health C’Thun which would then deal 14 damage spread across all your enemies.
Blizzard also announced that when you open your first “Whispers of the Old Gods” pack, in addition to the five cards you normally receive from a pack, you’ll also get C’Thun for free. Players will also get three free packs for logging in during the promotion period, so you’ll start off with 15 new “Whispers of the Old Gods” cards as well as the legendary C’Thun card. New cards will be revealed over the next few weeks leading up to the release of the latest Hearthstone expansion, and players will be able to pre-purchase 50 packs starting on Monday, but won’t be able to open them until launch. Those who pre-purchase packs will also get the animated C’Thun eyeball card back as a pre-purchase bonus.
What aspect of “Whispers of the Old Gods” are you most excited for? Let us know in the comments below, or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
[button link=”http://www.oldgods.com/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Blizzard[/button]
