In the history of Hearthstone extensions, this is the first time that one of them has followed the lore of a World of Warcraft extension so closely. Shadowlands, not to name it… Indeed, Murder at Castle Nathria takes place in the region of Revendreth, stronghold of vampires and other swamp creatures.
Denathrius and Remornia from 7 p.m. on your servers, this August 2!
And if the Blizzard’s first MMO raid featured Sire Denathrius and his sword Remornia, it is the same on the GCC. Because yes, Denathrius is both at the heart of the virtual part of Cluedo managed by Murlock Holmes, but he is also an alternative Warrior hero skin, or even a legendary Neutral card that can be described as “with potential”. Her sword is a legendary warrior weapon whose design perfectly honors its behavior in WoW raid combat. And now that we have the big bad guys in the story… We can build around it.
Imprint: the new board-centric mechanic
Your thirst for anima has no end! Imbue works like an absorption of the souls of your fallen minions. When a card in your hand has Imbue, it will transform once a certain number of allied minions die, since you acquired this card in hand.
For example, if you draw the Priest of the Dead, and three of your minions die during the trades you make during your turn, your Priest of the Dead’s Imbue will activate, and the map will be strengthened. And in the end, it’s still developer Cora “Songbird” Georgiou who talks about it best…
The places: a real innovation. For the best ?
Location cards are played as minions, directly on the board, and you can activate their effects every 2 turns, until their durability expires (much like weapons). Nevertheless, here is the opinion of our Hearthstone tester after six hours spent on the Nathria test server a few days ago:
“The developers themselves announced it when unveiling the expansion: Murder at Castle Nathria is a board-centric set. It gives pride of place to the development of powerful minions, and their reinforcement. Forget the previous metas where you play on your own to set up an unstoppable combo: here, the games are played board against board, trade against trade.
The problem is that it is precisely in the middle of this Board-centric set that the Places arrive. And there, we no longer understand very well, because these cards (whose design is nice, by the way) take up a crazy place on the ground. In Hearthstone, there can only be 7 minions on your side of the field. So if more places come to occupy the space, making a big board profitable sometimes becomes laborious. Ultimately, the locations are a good idea, but they come at the wrong time. They sometimes generate frustration as they “steal” space from cards that would often be more explosive.
Same feeling for the “Seeds” of the hunter, which take a crazy place, while we want to be able to mobilize our servants quickly.
It is said that behind the scenes, Blizzard would like to increase the size of the maximum board for each player in the future. Let’s hope that this upheaval happens very soon.”
Murder at Castle Nathria arrives on live servers in early August, but some were lucky enough to experience the extension in preview. Will this new set upset the meta for good… or bad? Murloc Holmes style, we try to answer this question.
Lore for WoWists, and fun for everyone
If Hearthstone often allows itself to draw from the lore of WoW for the madeleine side of Proust which speaks to some, it sometimes takes a few roundabout paths. To materialize all this, World of Warcraft raiders will have the pleasure of reuniting with some of the Castle Nathria raid bosses : Artificer Xy’mox the Artificer, Altimor the Huntsman, Kael’Thas Vile-Sun, Lady Darkvein. Kryxis the Ravenous comes from the Sanguine Depths dungeon, for example, and others come directly from Shadowlands Covenants : Pelagos of the Kyrians, Sesselie of the Fae, Necrolord Draka of the Necrolords. There are a lot of characters from Revendreth and therefore from the Venthyr congregation, given all the vampires available: Denathrius, The Countess, Renathal etc.
And for those for whom lore is really secondary, and who favor fun, there is plenty to do:
- Kel’Thuzad is certainly a little present in the minimal campaign of the Necro Lords, but here it is above all the starting point of a Mage archetype, the Skeleton Magewhich is likely to explode for at least a few days on the ladder
- Olgra is a nod to the Forged in the Barrens expansion in which we discovered Mankrik who was looking for his wife. We find her here in the Shadowlands (roughly, the Kingdom of the Dead) ready to fight
- Théotar is just a vulgar valet who obeys the Venthyrs, but his card stealing design is quite fun (even if it will hardly be competitive)
- Star of all the “Roleplay/Cluedo” part brought by Blizzard for this extension, Murlock Holmes is also a very interesting design since it allows, after a pseudo investigation, to possibly draw 3 cards and to be informed about your opponent’s hand. If all goes well…
Are you missing any ideas for playing tonight? Don’t worry, we’ve put together a few lists for you that could be fun to try out tonight. See you at Nathria and good luck with your opening!
The release of the new Hearthstone expansion is imminent! If you want to smash the meta on D-Day, we’ve got you covered; a selection of decklists that have proven themselves during the preview, and which will surprise your opponents by betting on the new mechanics of the set.