Another new year in the calendar for everyone’s favorite card game – and another new expansion. This time, Hearthstone takes us to a historic location marked with blood in both World of Warcraft as well as Warcraft 3. The Outland featured prominently in the Burning Crusade – World of Warcraft’s most well-received expansion to date. The area is also shown in the Human campaign of Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne. Illidan Stormrage is back to exact his revenge on the demons, accompanied by his army. Both Lady Vashj and Kael’Thas, the main commanders in Illidan’s army, make an appearance in this expansion. (Apparently, Blizzard can’t move away from Warcraft lore even though they wanted to).
The expansion adds a new class – the demon hunter class. The demon hunter’s special ability costs only one mana and adds one attack for one turn. There are a slew of basic and Classic cards for the hero – all unlockable through a special campaign that will be freely available on expansion launch. A preview of the demon hunter shows that Illidan likes to summon smaller minions and sacrifice them while using weapons to push face damage (all minions have some ability supporting this). Expect all players to be playing demon hunter when the next expansion hits – because it really is a good class. Demon Hunter also has a special ‘Outcast’ ability, which triggers when the card is the leftmost or rightmost card. Personally, I thought that the developers really need to monitor Demon Hunter’s power and then tweak cards accordingly.
The expansion adds Prime cards to every class too. Prime cards are legendaries that shuffle a superior version of itself into the deck when it dies. The Outland also is home to many Imprisoned Demons, all of which start dormant and activate a special effect when they “awaken”.
The Outlands await. Will you answer Illidan’s call for the extermination of the demons?