First Batch of Journey to Un'Goro Hearthstone Cards Revealed

[Steven Bogos]

First Batch of Journey to Un'Goro Hearthstone Cards Revealed

A livestream event has revealed 11 cards for Hearthstone's upcoming Journey to Un'Goro expansion.

During a special livestream event over on the Play Hearthstone [https://www.twitch.tv/playhearthstone] Twitch channel, Blizzard gave us our first decent glimpse into the upcoming expansion, revealing 11 new cards from Journey to Un'goro. Some of them have some really unique interactions, which Blizzard clarified during the stream, but first, here they are:

[gallery=7060]

Additionally, Lakkari Sacrifice, Elise the Trailblazer and Sherazin, Corpse Flower come with their own unique tokens, which you can see here:

[gallery=7061]

Some caveats on these cards that we discerned from the livestream:

Nether Portal spawns two imps every turn
Un'Goro Pack via Elise the Trailblazer doesn't mimic in-game packs. It has better chances for Legendaries and gives a guaranteed epic.

Quest cards can be counterspelled

More cards will be revealed shown starting next week, including at the HCT Bahamas event. Check out all of the

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[Borty The Bort]

All interesting, apart from that last one. What the HELL is that thing, and how the hell is it balanced!?

 

[Imre Csete]

I'm utterly disappointed by the fact that the card which kills pirates isn't a ninja.

 

[TilMorrow]

All interesting, apart from that last one. What the HELL is that thing, and how the hell is it balanced!?

Well I guess since it can be forced to "eat" smaller minions, be removed by most spells, hexed, morphed and frozen it kind of is balanced. I think it's an interesting card but I have a feeling it might not see much play as it'll be a priority target if it appears often in hunter decks.

 

[Battenberg]

All interesting, apart from that last one. What the HELL is that thing, and how the hell is it balanced!?

It's better balanced than 4 mana 7-7s, pirates and jade golems currently are plus it's a 1 of for a dead class plus it dies to the same removal as other big minions (without the immediate effect some of those have) plus you can counter it with good minion play (if it somehow became dominant people could even run emperor combra to wipe it out).

Honestly all I'm seeing in these reveals are pirate warrior counters (making jade golems even stronger) and meme cards which are fun to play but generally not very good; especially if we do end up with another stale meta totally dominated by 2-3 decks.

 

[Schtimpy]

All interesting, apart from that last one. What the HELL is that thing, and how the hell is it balanced!?

I AM JARAXXAS, ERADAR LORD OF THE...

*RRRAAAWWWWRRRR* CHOMP

 

[Comic Sans]

All interesting, apart from that last one. What the HELL is that thing, and how the hell is it balanced!?

I AM JARAXXAS, ERADAR LORD OF THE...

*RRRAAAWWWWRRRR* CHOMP

That's actually an interesting thought. I am sure that battlecry effects go off before the attack does. If not that would be bonkers

 

[09philj]

All interesting, apart from that last one. What the HELL is that thing, and how the hell is it balanced!?

Venom.

 

[Battenberg]

All interesting, apart from that last one. What the HELL is that thing, and how the hell is it balanced!?

It's better balanced than 4 mana 7-7s, pirates and jade golems currently are plus it's a 1 of for a dead class plus it dies to the same removal as other big minions (without the immediate effect some of those have) plus you can counter it with good minion play (if it somehow became dominant people could even run emperor combra to wipe it out).

You realize that Shaman was also considered a dead class until The Grand Tournament, right? Then became one of the strongest from League of Explorers through to Old Gods.

When a new expansion is on the horizon, no class is considered "dead". Especially when two adventures and one expansion are on the verge of being retired.

I'm not sure what your point is, that we should assume hunter will be OP instead? All I said was hunter is a dead class (which it is until something extraordinary is revealed for it) and that one above average legendary isn't worth making a fuss over partly because of the class it's in. Not entirely sure why you take such exception to that.

It's not like shaman dominated the meta because it got one high cost legendary, it was a bunch of overpowered early game cards. There's no evidence to suggest hunter's going to dominate the meta but plenty to suggest it'll remain a bad class. Hunter's an aggro class that couldn't keep up with pirate warrior (which will basically be untouched by rotation) so to be viable again it either needs a LOT of late game cards to give it a control option that competes with Jade druid (also untouched by rotation) or it needs a more broken early game than pirate warrior. I'm pretty sure even team 5 know that would be a terrible idea. Realistically the odds are hunter's not going to reach tier 1, 2 or even 3 after the expansion.

Once something gets revealed that has a shot of turning things around for hunter by all means come back and tell me about it and we can not celebrate the meta getting that much more diverse. Until then balance of probability suggests it ain't happening.

 

[Mangod]

And ANOTHER Priest 4-drop... exactly what that class needs more of.

 

[babinro]

Tar Creeper - Meta Defining to Very Good.

This strikes me as power creep and seems absurdly good. People have been wanting the meta to slow down and cards like this are how you get that done. Expect to see this card everywhere. It does a great job at protecting aggro, its a clear control tool and it should slow down tempo.

I think this card was made to be anti-aggro but just might appeal to ALL types of decks. Lets not forget that decks like Zoolock are happy to play a 1/3 taunt for 1. Thankfully it 'should' be more effective in the hands of non-aggro.



Golakka Crawler - Bad.

As far as pure tech cards are concerned this is completely acceptable. Its not as tough to slot as something like the Keezan Mystic or BGH but at the same time its far too niche to call this well designed by any stretch of the imagination.

This card exists for a very specific future meta that may not even become viable post un'goro with this cards help. I don't blame Blizzard for making this card but it strikes me as far too niche. A card like this that techs against each Mean Street Faction might be appealing (anti-highlander, goon and Jade) but going after pirates seems weak long term.

I don't care how popular Finja gets, no one wants to run the crab counter. Likewise no one wants to play Hemet as a Beast counter. These aren't cleaver or fun answers to problems.


Elise the Trailblazer - Very Good
Looks like I have my first MUST CRAFT Legendary of Un'goro. While I HATE the original Elise and that Melchazaar 5 legendary card...I think this one has some excellent potential. I've always been a fan of the murloc Shaman legendary for its card value and this takes that concept even further, with a better body/mana cost and a better outcome!

I'll happily run this in just about any control deck out there as well as test it in just about any highlander deck to boot. I could see this card replacing what would have been my Sylvanas slot in standard for some decks.

Having said all of that I think this card is TERRIBLE for the game. It has every chance at being competitive and just layers on the RNG to absurd levels. If people hated how Yogg impacted the tournament scene then I think its fair to point out that Elise may well do the same. Granted it doesn't take an established board and reset things but I'm talking in terms of RNG stacking on RNG and determining the outcome in a long term way.


Explore Un'Goro - Dust It.
Do we at least have a discover quest to give people an excuse to run this?


Lakkari Felhound - Bad
I don't like the quest and I think this card just demands too much and offers too little impact in return. This is NOTHING like doomguard in terms of board impact. This is something you want to drop early and yet it suggests you play it with little to no cards in hand.

As an anti-pirate tech card go nuts....if you're playing the quest then why not. Any existing Warlock strategies will probably see this as a dead card more often than not. I don't think we can simply rely on the almighty imp while playing a ton of discard based cards with poor value otherwise. Your deck won't be reliable enough.


Lakkari Sacrifice - Bad.
I guess I'm going against the grain with this one but I just don't feel the quest requirements are all that obtainable or likely. Even when you do finally achieve this goal the portal costs quite a bit of mana and feels 'slow' for the late game. I think that you need too much luck and the card has too little of an immediate impact to truly work.

We'll see what further discard support the class gets, that could make this more appealing. I love the card from a casual standpoint but competitively this seems bad.


Sherazin, Corpse Flower - Bad.
The resources needed to return this are far too high and the base stats are not impressive enough. This game does offer opportunities to spam some cheap spells through mechs and the like along with the card stealing theme of the class but I don't think that's enough to warrant his inclusion.

This is particularly disappointing because Rogue could really benefit from a new deck type and this card doesn't present one. It might compliment a post-conceal version of Miracle Rogue but I doubt it.

Tortollan Shellraiser - Playable?
I'm really torn on this one to be honest. I can picture an aggro meta like pirates where this is an auto-include must run but I can also see it as being no better than Senjin because of the lower power and poor ability to impact the board. I feel like the deathrattle benefit is pointless beyond synergies with the quest and MORE IMPORTANTLY N'zoth. Any DR minion with Taunt is super appealing to N'Zoth strategies.

So the card has potential but it may not be realized. We'll see.


Dinosize - Playable to Very Good.
Bluegill and this seems to be a good finisher combo. Even without that paladin's hero power any ANY surviving recruit becomes an immediate game ending level threat. I could absolutely see this being played in Healadin deck if such a thing were viable again.

The problem here is that you only have so many late game slots and you aren't about to replace Tirion with this. So many people will be stuck between choosing this or Lay on Hands...or possibly just building a greedy deck. It might be genuinely tough to find room for this.


Arcanologist - Very good to potentially meta defining.
This card easily fits in several Mage strategies and can easily find a home in both wild and standard. His stats are great as well as I'd argue a 2/3 in mage is generally more helpful than a 3/2. Great stuff all around and naturally makes me wonder if we'll see more serious secret use as a result or if it just means Freeze mage is even more reliable. It would not shock me in the least if we see this card called out for nerfs in the future. Reliable Ice Blocks ftw.


Swamp King Dred - I'm torn between Playable and Very Good.
We've seen plenty of Hunter decks go beyond turn 7 so this could work in midrange hunter. You potentially really screw over an opponent who doesn't have removal ready or spent it on your turn 6 highmane. It also exists in a post-rags and sylvanas meta.

There's potential here. He's not someone I'd rush out and craft but if I open one then I'll happily test it out.

 

[Battenberg]

They've showed 1/10 cards for Hunter, as well 4/39 cards for Neutral. In addition, all classes are losing 2 adventures and 1 adventure worth of cards.

You can't discredit the validity of a legendary based entirely on the current state of a class. Considering that the meta is almost entirely unknown.

You're arguing against a point I never made (instead of anything I did say). I didn't say Dred was a bad card or dismiss it, I just said it wasn't overpowered like one person assumed it was.

And as I said before what we do know of the meta (that pirate warriors and jade golems are carrying over) means we can at least speculate what we'll see a month from now. I made an educated estimate of one aspect of the next meta backed up by things we actually know. For the second time you've decided to go out of your way to dismiss it based on evidence that doesn't exist but MIGHT at some point. That's not a counter argument or a debate so I'm unsure what your goal is at this point.

I'm clearly not going to stop considering hunter a dead class until there's actual cards to back that up and that seems to be a grievance for you so maybe we should leave it at that.

 

[Battenberg]

You're arguing against a point I never made

One above average legendary isn't worth making a fuss over partly because of the class it's in

it's a 1 of for a dead class

My point was that you can't call Hunter a dead class. Especially when they've had a grand total of ONE card shown for this expansion. I don't see how you're so obtuse to this? It's a basic point. Surely you can identify the redundancy of calling a card a "one-off" when it's the ONLY card for the class that has been shown..

Many new cards are being added, many are being removed. And as classes lose old tools, while gaining new ones to combat the existing meta, it shifts the power over to other classes and other specs. The meta won't remain on pirates and jades.

1. Yes I can call it a 1 of because it's a legendary and therefore can only go in the deck once (I thought that was obvious).
2. The cards being removed are basically irrelevant since pirate warrior and jade golem survive just fine and that is most the meta right now.

You're making a real mountain out of a molehill here. My original quote called hunter a dead class (because right now it indisputably is) to illustrate one of several reasons it was daft to call Dred OP (the point being a dead class needs good cards to come back again). You decided to take that to mean I think hunter is indisputably going to remain dead which I never said.

Since then I've pointed out that based on the current evidence there's no reason to assume hunter's going to come back (which is NOT the same as saying it will definitely remain dead). Your responses have been to things I didn't say and misinterpretations and you're calling me obtuse?

I'll spell this out very clearly in the hope you stop making the same exact post in reply: I understand the card pool is getting a shakeup and that may affect which classes will be good in the near future. That said the dominant decks of this meta are carrying over and we don't know most the new cards being added so right now nothing we do know suggests any kind of significant comeback for hunter.

Again being suuuuper clear for you I'm not saying hunter is 100% staying dead but I am saying that right now literally nothing has been presented that will bring it back. That first post calling hunter a dead class was in response to someone calling Dred OP to highlight that the class desperately needs something good to be viable again. I'm also not rooting against hunter or hoping it falls flat on its face; as far as I'm concerned the more viable classes there are the better off Hearthstone is.

Are we done here?

PS. I'm going to hold you to that last comment, I'm guessing at least 1 of those 2 decks will probably continue totally dominating (probably jade).