People have been complaining about the stale metagame in Hearthstone for a long time. The only decks standing any chance at playing a bit of ranked mode in Hearthstone are the Reno Jackson bases control decks, featuring highlander cards, whereas they are facing a tough challenge from a large number of aggressive decks that dominate the ranked ladder, most (if not all) featuring a 1/1 charge minion by the name of Patches The Pirate. Blizzard Entertainment faced some intense hate at the recent dev Question and Answer sessions, which was worsened by the fact that Blizzard was going to rotate a few cards from the Classic set to the Wild format from the Standard format. It is in these troubled times, that Blizzard rises to the occasion yet again, and announced a new expansion by the name of Journey to Un’Goro.
Journey to Un’Goro is a jungle themed expansion, featuring the journey of Elise Starseeker, the leader of the League of Explorers, to the Un’Goro crater, a primordial world full of dangers. There are exotic plant life, each with unique properties that can cause more harm than help if touched, as well as exotic creatures. The Un’Goro crater houses many types of creatures, which live in harmony with the dangerous plants that thrive there. The place radiates strange Elemental energy, along with the presence of strange minerals, whose existence is unexplained. It’s always worthy being cautious, in case one ends up as food to the dangerous fauna existing in the crater. Among the creatures living in the crater are dangerous Elementals, with the power of the five Elements, and big Dinos, along many other dangerous beasts, each with their unique adaptations to help them survive.
The new expansion features a new race or tribe: Elementals. Elementals are creatures borne from the energy of one of the five elements. They have their own unique race now, and own unique powers. There is also a new mechanic called “Adapt”. Staying in the harsh climate, both flora and fauna have to fight for life every single day, which makes adaptation necessary. Adapt allows the player to choose from 3 different choices to upgrade the minion to something significantly stronger, depending on the need of the hour. There are a total of 10 choices, from which three choices will be given. The Un’Goro story is mainly told through the eyes of Elise Starseeker, who goes on a quest to explore it with junior members of the League of Explorers. “Quest” is another new mechanic introduced by the new expansion. Quests are spells that work just like secrets and “stick to the player’s face”, but unlike secrets, can be seen by the opponent. Quests are one mana legendary spells, hence only one of them can be in a deck at any point of time. Quests, on being completed, reward some of the best and most powerful cards of the game.
The new expansion features 135 cards. There will be 2 legendary cards for every class – one spell (Quest), and one minion. There will also be 5 neutral legendaries, which essentially means the new expansion will have 23 legendaries. The expansion launches in early April, and one can preorder the expansion from the Battle.net store for a special price of $50 for 50 packs. Interested people can check out the announcement video below.
