Do you smell that? No? That’s the smell of an explosive brand new card set for Hearthstone!
(I swear it’s thematic. Please don’t go.)
A new set of cards has been just released for Hearthstone that’s themed towards Dr Boom and his researchers in Netherstorm, a science-based zone in World of Warcraft (WoW). Titled “The Boomsday Project”, some of the keywords and new cards have been quite interesting so far.
“Magnetic” is the latest set of keywords to be added into the game. Just like a Megazord, placing a card with “Magnetic” on the left of a Mech-type card will merge the two cards together, stats and abilities included. Putting it on the right, however, means it’ll be played as a regular “minion”.
“But Wesley,” I hear you cry, “there aren’t enough Mech-type cards in the game now!”
Well, not to worry, because they’ll be adding 39 new Mech-type cards in “The Boomsday Project”, 11 of which have this new keyword to buff up your new mechs. This brings the total of Mech-type cards to 46, excluding cards that summon Mech-type minions.
With only Hunter, Paladin, and Warrior classes getting class specific Magnetic cards, it does feel like they’re playing it safe with the new mechanic, by adding a conservative amount of cards. Nonetheless, the concept does sound incredibly exciting and I do want to see the possible synergies now and in future sets.
Another type of card to take note is the “Legendary Spells” – spells that function the same way as minions with a “Legendary” rarity. This does mean you can only take one copy of these spells, but that’s understandable considering some of these spells are pretty insane.
For instance, Warlock’s “The ” lets you draw 3 cards at a 1-mana cost, although you do have to discard them if you don’t play them. In a meta-game where Zoo Warlock, a deck made to play smaller minions with low costs to be aggressive, that can be an incredibly strong advantage to have.
We could also look at Shaman’s “The Storm Bringer” spell, which transforms your minions into “Legendary” minions, regardless of cost. With the amount of low cost minions Shaman is getting from the new card set, you can foresee some aggro Shaman decks having a blast (pun not intended) from this card.
Additionally, five “Omega” cards were released; these have an additional effect if played with 10 Mana-crystals. This means there’s some flexibility when using these cards, as you can either play them early to build up your board or keep them until you have 10 mana crystals.
Finally, the big reveal of this card set is that there is a new Hero card! Dr Boom returns in the form of “Dr Boom, Mad Genius”. Instead of the usual five armour that Hero cards come with, he comes with seven instead, while having six unique hero powers that he cycles through every turn. But perhaps one of the stronger effects are that his Battlecry, for the rest of the game, gives his Mech-type cards Rush. This is a HUGE addition to a popular Warrior deck, Control Warrior!
Overall, The Boomsday Project does feel like it will be one of Hearthstone’s more interesting card sets, with a small power boost to the core five types of deck playstyles. Aggro decks will have some very lovely tools like the aforementioned “The Solarium” and “The Storm Bringer” while Dr Boom will be a huge addition to Control decks. Value and Combo decks get some very useful boosts as well. It will be interesting to see how the meta will change in the next few days after release.
In fact, we can attest to how strong some of these cards are: we’ve attended the pre-launch event held at *SCAPE a few days before release and tried out some deck recipes of our favourite classes, Hunter and Paladin. The Magnetic cards do feel quite impactful, especially when you can play them on the mana curve. They aren’t strong enough to dictate a dedicated deck, but it does feel like they’ll still be strong as situational cards.
After doing a quick run through ranked and casual, it seems that some decks are picking up several Magnetic synergies already and are experimenting with them. The meta-game was initially quite unstable, but the stronger decks of the season eventually came about.
What are some of the new decks you’ve tried out? Let us know!
Visuals courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment.
