Hearthstone has revealed that United in Stormwind is the next expansion to arrive, featuring the new mechanic keyword, Tradeable, which aims shake the meta up with new and interesting interactions. The new expansion follows the theme of featuring one well-known region in World of Warcraft, following Forged in the Barrens and places like the Crossroads. As the name implies, United in Stormwind features cards based on the Alliance city, as well as troublemakers in the Stockades.
Tradeable is the newest keyword coming to Hearthstone, which right off the bat looks like it could be incredibly powerful thanks to its inherent connection to card cycle. These cards take on the form of both minions and spells, and they can be played for their card text, or you can pay one mana to “trade” it back into your deck and draw a new card. This is an excellent way to help even out your mana curve and play cards with only a minimal tempo loss in terms of resources, and it appears that you can trade a card back into your deck as many times as you like. On the surface, the Tradeable keyword looks to be one of the most impactful features added to Hearthstone in a while.
Profession cards are also making their way to Hearthstone in the form of weapons. The reveal announcement showed off a Runed Mithril Rod for the Warlock class, which can help reduce the cost of cards in your hand, and the Prismatic Jewel Kit for the Paladin class, which buffs minions in your hand when losing a Divine Shield effect on the board. Looks like the Handbuff archetype is getting yet another push towards relevance, and this might finally be what makes the deck worthwhile.
Quest Lines are another new type of card that is coming to Hearthstone, and like previous Quest cards, they begin in your hand at the start of a match. These are more complex than original quests, with different conditions for completion, but also different stages with better and better rewards. Completing all levels of a Quest Line will reward you with a powerful Mercenary, and in some cases, a permanent effect, such as the Mage class gaining a permanent +3 to spell power for the rest of the game.
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As with each new expansion announcement, its perceived success or failure depends not only on how fun the new cards are upon release, but on how they might shake up the established meta currently in-game. Shaman is currently highly represented at all ranks, more than Rogue, Paladin, and Warlock combined, and it would be great to see something done to even out the distribution of classes played on ladder, if nothing else in order to keep things interesting during each month’s ladder climb.
On the other hand, while Priest looks to be represented quite fairly among all classes, the Control Priest archetype still appears to be among the most dominant at high levels of play. Will the Tradeable keyword help shift things around, or are we in for another four months of mostly these two classes? Hopefully, the new expansion will have an immediate impact on the meta.
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