New 'Hearthstone' quest, dino and legendary cards look like meta changers
Hearthstone's upcoming expansion Journey to Un'Goro is changing up the game, and a handful of new cards revealed over the past few days are showing just how much the dinosaur-themed set of cards is going to do so.
Blizzard revealed nearly 20 new cards during a Twitch stream on Friday. Adding those to the 14 cards they revealed a couple weeks ago still just equates to a sliver of the 135 incoming cards, though. Among the new cards are a handful of legendaries, a second quest card and a few interesting new minions and spells to shake up the meta.
SEE ALSO: 'Hearthstone: Journey to Un'Goro' expansion bringing 135 new cards in April
One of the most exciting reveals was the new Warlock quest card — Lakkari Sacrifice — and its crazy reward, Nether Portal.
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Once you complete Lakkari Sacrifice by discarding six cards, you get the Nether Portal, a 5-mana card that opens a permanent portal summoning an endless stream of 2-mana 3/2 Nether Imps. You get two imps at the end of every turn, making this a very effective card for building up a horde of demons. When paired with the other new Warlock card, Lakkari Felhound, decks built around this quest look like they'll have quite a lot of potential.
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Unlike the set above, Elise the Trailblazer and her battlecry Un'Goro Pack give you more cards instead of taking them away.
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Elise the Trailblazer is a very strong legendary despite being a middling 5-mana 5/5. Her battlecry puts an Un'Goro Pack into your deck, which for only 2 mana puts five Journey to Un'Goro cards right into your hand. This is a perfect late-in-the-game card for when you don't have many cards left in your deck and you have faith in the RNG gods, but is also a solid mid-game card to play with the potential to give you some momentum-shifting cards.
Another potential game changer is the new legendary Hunter card Swamp King Dred, a very powerful 7-mana 9/9 with an interesting attribute: After your opponent plays a minion, attack it.
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This card has a lot of potential, with the ability to kill nearly every minion in the game as soon as they hit the board. It's a great card to thwart a build up of low-cost minions, but can also be countered easily with the right card combos.
A Paladin legendary that IGN revealed Sunday is another strong mid-to-late card Sunkeeper Tarim that could actually act as a good counter to Swamp King Dred.
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For 6 mana, Sunkeeper Tarim does quite a lot. It's a bit of a meat shield with 7 health and 3 attack but it comes with taunt and an interesting battlecry: "Set all other minions' attack and health to 3." This is a great counter to strong late-game cards and can be beneficial when matched with a few weak Paladin minions like 1/1 Silver Hand Recruits, suddenly turning a meager board into something with a lot more power.
The second Paladin card revealed is Dinosize, which buffs any minion into a 10/10 for 8 mana. That means for 9 mana, you could throw a 10/10 Silver Hand Recruit out onto the board late in the game.
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The final legendary card revealed this weekend is the Rogue card Sherazin, Corpse Flower, a 4-mana minion that is unkillable.
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After this 5/3 aggressive plant is killed, it enter its dormant state, Sherazin, Seed. It will then re-emerge into its Corpse Flower state after four cards are played in a single turn, which is very useful for Rogue decks that utilize a flurry of low-cost cards every turn to do damage.
The other epic card revealed this weekend is another spell called Explore Un'Goro, a Warrior card that costs 2 mana and completely changes your deck.
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Explore Un'Goro works similarly to Golden Monkey, except it doesn't change any of the cards already in your hand and fills your deck with cards that discover other more powerful cards, not just legendaries. This can be very effective if things aren't going your way and you need a momentum shift at any point in a game.
Next up are two neutral minions, Golakka Crawler — a direct response to Mean Streets of Gadgetzan's pirate infestation — and Tar Creeper — a really solid defender for 3 mana.
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If Patches the Pirate is in play, Golakka Crawler is the perfect card to stop the incoming deluge of pirate cards, but is also a solid 2-mana card useful for taking any powerful pirate down. Meanwhile Tar Creeper, which has taunt, is a great early-game meat shield with 5 health and 1 attack (which boosts up to 3 attack on your opponent's turn).
Speaking of good defensive cards, the Priest minion Tortollan Shellraiser is a solid addition to the heal-heavy class.
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For 4 mana, Tortollan Shellraiser is a good early defender at 2/6 and with taunt. Plus the deathrattle is pretty beneficial for fellow early-game cards out on the board.
Blizzard also revealed several more Adapt cards that modify dinosaur beasts who have the Adapt attribute, giving them customizable bonuses free of charge.
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Finally, the new Arcanologist card for Mage decks is a decent card that takes a random Secret from your deck and puts it in your hand. It's nothing too special but is a helpful card to have on hand early in the game.
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With these cards it's pretty clear that Paladins, Rogues and Warlocks are among some of the classes that may be getting a boost when Journey to Un'Goro comes out in April, but more card reveals in the next couple weeks could easily swing the momentum in another class's favor, like Priests or Warriors.
