Last week Blizzard's teaser for the next Heartstone expansion heavily hinted that it will be themed around the League of Explorers and, whaddya know, it is! Saviors of Uldum will be about teaming up with the League of Explorers in their fight against the League of E.V.I.L. as part of this year's multi-part pulpy adventure. The new expansion is the second chapter of the story that's playing out across 2019 in Hearthstone, and follows on directly from the Rise of the Shadows set, and the solo adventure that accompanied it, The Dalaran Heist.
There are 135 new cards in Savior of Uldum and you can see a few of them accompanying this article, with a gallery at the end. The cards spoiled so far showcase some new keywords like Reborn, which allows minions to return to life with a single point of health, as seen on the Restless Mummy. (It's basically like having the Paladin Secret Redemption built into the card and able to proc on your turn).
There are also new Quest cards. This time, completing the requisite objectives will reward you with an alternate hero power that automatically goes into effect, as opposed to previous Quests which had to then be played from hand. According to Blizzard the new Quests will be easier to complete too.
The remaining mechanic is 'plague' cards, which are spells that affect every minion on the board. The Plague of Death, for instance, is a Priest card that both silences and destroys all minions for the princely sum of 9-Mana.
What we haven't seen yet are the new versions of Reno, Finley, Brann and Elise (the titular explorers), but it's fair to say they're certain to be reworked as legendaries. Given that those characters represented the first time that the Hearthstone team broke from the WoW lore and began creating their own heroes, plus how powerful they all were in the original League of Explorers, you can expect them to return with pretty sweet effects in Saviors of Uldum.
Here's a summary of the new cards we have seen:
- Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron casts 10 random spells at random targets for 10 mana
- Supreme Archaeology is a Warlock quest to draw 20 cards that rewards you with a Tome of Origination
- The Tome of Origination is a hero power that lets you draw a card and reduce its cost to 0
- Untapped Potential is a Druid quest to end four turns with no spare mana and has Ossirian Tear as its reward
- Ossirian Tear is a passive hero power that lets you use both effects of any "choose one" cards
- Restless Mummy is a 3/2 minion with rush and the new "reborn" keyword
- Jar Dealer is a 1/1 minion that adds another 1-cost minion to your hand as its deathrattle
- Questing Explorer is a 2/3 minion with a Battlecry that rewards you for controlling a quest with a bonus card
- EVIL Totem adds a Lackey to your hand at the end of every turn (Lackeys were introduced in Rise of Shadows)
The Saviors of Uldum expansion launches on August 6, and card packs will be winnable in Arena mode from that date, as well as being purchasable for in-game gold or real-world money. Anyone who logs in between launch and October 30 will get one of the set's legendary Quest cards at random for free. More information about the solo adventure to go with it will be revealed in September, so keep an eye on the official website.
Here's a gallery of some of those new cards. Click the bottom-right to embiggen. If you're looking to build a top tier deck, read up on Hearthstone's 20 best legendary cards.
