Unless you actually have been living in the shadow of a prehistoric crater, you’ve probably already heard that Hearthstone’s next expansion will be themed around a lost land of dinosaurs, thanks to a voice artist who was a little too vocal. Today Blizzard confirmed that the next set is called Journey to Un’Goro, and is themed around an area of Azeroth known for having particularly weird wildlife. The set is due in April, contains 135 cards, and will feature several new keywords.
In keeping with the idea of prehistoric creatures evolving to become more powerful, some of Un’Goro’s minions will be able to ‘Adapt’. It’s a Battlecry effect which, when triggered, enables you to pick from three possible upgrades to apply to that creature (similar to how ‘Discover’ choices work currently). Examples of potential Adapt buffs include Divine Shield, Taunt, Windfurry, and +3 Attack. You can see the effects in the first few images of the gallery below.
Journey to Un’Goro also features a new type of Legendary card, which uses ‘Quest’ and ‘Reward’ keywords. From the example we have (see panel), the Quest is a 1-Mana Priest card which is always in your starting hand. Once cast, you need to fulfil its conditions in order to receive the reward, which in this case means summoning seven Deathrattle creatures over the course of the game. Pull that off and the Reward for the lucky Priest is a 5-Mana 8/8 card that also sets your Health to 40 when played. Reno eat your heart out!
The idea of setting your life total higher than 30 came up quite a few times when we ran the Priest card design competition last year, so it’ll be cool to see how that plays out. (In Wild, where Reno will still be playable, you can look forward to some insanely long Priest mirror matches.)
My assumption is that each of the hero classes will have a Quest/Reward legendary of its own, and it also seems certain these are all going to be nutty build-around cards in the same way that the Old Gods are. Check out the explainer video from Blizzard below to get more of a sense of how it all works.
There’s no exact date for Journey to Un’Goro yet, but we do know that at the same time it arrives, Hearthstone will transition from the Year of the Kraken to the Year of the Mammoth. That means older expansions will rotate out of the Standard format (The Grand Tournament, Blackrock Mountain and The League Of Explorers are the ones leaving this time), and Blizzard will also be retiring six classic cards to the Wild mode.
As is the way of these things, you can pre-order a 50-pack bundle now at the discounted price $49.99 (one per account), and get a swanky exclusive card back in return. Check out the new game board below, and let me know what you think of the theme and those new keywords. My personal dream is that somehow Un’Goro is the meta in which King Krush becomes viable.
