Game News Hearthstone Murder at Nathria Castle: we played it, everything you need to know!
Published on 07/22/2022 at 18:15
Starting August 2, the new Hearthstone expansion Murder at Castle Nathria will be rolling out to everyone. Thanks to a preview made last night, the editorial staff of JV was able to try the news and tell you everything there is to know about this 21st expansion of Blizzard’s card game.
Summary
- Imprinting, locations: how do the new mechanics work?
- Decks, for which meta?
- Hearthstone: the best decks already known?
Game conditions
As part of a preview evening from 6 p.m. to midnight, Blizzard invited us to discover the 135 new cards in the expansion Murder at Castle Nathria. Access to accounts including all the cards were given to us, and we could only face the other guests at the party.
Quickly unveiled with a trailer at the end of June, the next extension ofHearthstone ‘Murder at Castle Nathria arrives in a fortnight. Throughout the month of July, Blizzard and various content creators unveiled the 135 new cards that will flood (or not) the classified parts of the game from August 02. The last cards were unveiled yesterday, enough to give the media and creators a little time to refine their various lists in view of a preview evening for this expansion this Thursday.
JV was also invited there and was able to put the cards on the tables in order to form an opinion, not final, on the quality of new deck archetypes and printed cards. But before getting to the heart of the matter, it is worth recalling the new features to come with this twenty-first expansion of Hearthstone.
Murder at Castle Nathria is the first expansion for Blizzard’s card game to settle in the universe of the currently running expansion on World of Warcraft. Shadowlands takes place in Shadowlands, divided into four regions including Revendreth. This is where Castle Nathria and its resident Sir Denathrius is located. Without going into details, he is one of the first big bad guys in Shadowlands and for good reason: he is accused of diverting the anima, spiritual energy essential to anyone who enters this kingdom of the dead. A disputed resource that is the subject of the new keyword of this extension: Impregnation. All the cards published with this word have their power improved on one condition: the sacrifice of our allied creatures, accompanied by a quality animation. For example, the warlock card Evil Imp summon a copy of that minion when you play it from your hand. However, it is endowed with Impregnation (3) : If three of your allied creatures die while you have this card in your hand, it has an improved effect and no longer summons a copy but two copies. The players of the mode Battlefield can compare it to the mechanics of Vengeancewhich works exactly the same way.
Like its older sisters, the extension Murder at Castle Nathria also adds a new type of card: these are Premises. Each class (there are 10 of them, all with their own identity) has a place whose power matches an archetype of the class’ deck. For example, that of the hunter can be used to give +2 attack points to a minion and grants him an additional power if it is a beast. They can be used multiple times, but only once every two turns.
These mechanics and keywords digested, it is now necessary to move on to the new models of lists suggested by the new cards. For example, the previous extension Journey to the heart of the Sunken City brought up to date the Mage Mecha or the Beast Hunter”’.
Here, Blizzard repeats the same operation but unevenly. Among the ten classes in the game, only three really benefit from a new archetype. First of all, these are the cards Relics of the Demon Hunter that can bring diversity to players when building decks. They are represented by three different spells offering distinct advantages: pickaxe, management, or summoning minions. Using one improves the use of the next, and so on. A type of cards that should probably bring stability to lists midrange of style.
On this subject, it is also the Mage who is assigned a new list model around the frost and its skeletons… who wins the first vote for a deck that is simple to learn, refreshing and entertaining. The principle ? Several cards allow him to summon skeletons (2 hit points, 2 attack points) which deal two points of damage to a random opponent when they die. The goal is therefore to summon as many skeletons as possible and finish with the Kel’Thuzad card: this one re-explodes (almost) all the allied skeletons that died during the game and therefore serves as a fatal blow.
As a hunter, it’s the mechanics of the seeds which is new without being revolutionary. Several. cards allow him to summon seeds, containing creatures sleeping : minions that must wait a certain number of turns before being activated.
In any case, only the three classes mentioned above really benefit from a new type of decks. In this case, no one knows whether these lists will become top meta and they may be forgotten in the week following the release of the extension. Nevertheless, it is clear that Blizzard treated the classes unequally: once again, the paladin was assigned cards that reinforced the recruits of the silver hand. Concerning the Shaman, the evolution mechanic is making a comeback (consists of transforming his own creatures into higher cost minions) while the Warlock can see a list reborn around his imps. In short, the printed cards certainly refresh the gaming experience without bringing a total revolution.
Definition of the word meta
It is an English acronym, meaning Most Efficient Technique Available. In the context of Hearthstone, these are therefore the most effective decks: gold, are considered effective those that display a win/loss rate greater than or equal to 50%. The meta is therefore a set of these decks.
Hearthstone: the best decks already known?
On paper, this kind of preview seems like the perfect place to know in advance which decks might be strong on D-Day. So, yes and no. It is true that rubbing shoulders with some of the best players in the game (Thijs, the Solary team, Jarla…) could give this illusion. But in reality, this is not the case: they are also there to test new lists and above all to have fun: the watchword is fun, especially since Blizzard encourages players to integrate at least ten new cards in his lists. A majority of players, professional or not, are therefore not there to optimize their decks but to really test the cards printed for the expansion Murder at Castle Nathria.
However, some do not respect the rules and decide to seek the best possible lists (which is not the most pleasant when you meet them, it must be recognized). For example, it is certainly the Druid Alignment (which consists of cheating on the mana cost of his cards and reducing the mana of the opponent) with the new legendary Sir Denathrius which can impose itself in the coming weeks.
A fearsome card combination in Druid.
What about solo play in all of this?
Originally presented in the form of an investigation to find the murderer of Sir Denathrius, it does not seem that the extension Murder at Castle Nathria features a single-player campaign.
In any case, Blizzard seems to be listening to players by again offering them mechanics and roster models focused on minions and the board. Something that seemed a long way off this time last year: the extension United in Stormwind had brought the Quests, legendary cards allowing to benefit from colossal powers in exchange for the validation of criteria. However, the cards related to the Imbue mechanic seem slightly behind and will have a lot to prove. For their part, the “Places” type cards add an extra bit of thought (when to activate the power, think about the impossibility of using it the next turn…) which is not to displease. complete to come from next August 02, release day of Murder at Castle Nathria.