December and
the holiday season have officially arrived, and with it has come an all-new Hearthstone
expansion! I’ve always enjoyed getting new content for my favourite card game
this time of year. There’s nothing quite like sitting back in a cozy room
playing some Hearthstone while a Canadian winter storm rages outside. But does Mean
Streets of Gadgetzan measure up to the best or rank among the worst in terms of
Hearthstone?
The cool thing about Gadgetzan is the
theme of three mafia families competing for your attention. Each of the
families hold claim to three different classes. The brutish Grimy Goons control
the Hunter, Paladin, and Warrior classes. Rogues, Druids, and Shamans obey the
pandaren-led Jade Lotus. Last but not least, the sinister Kabal leads the Mages,
Priests and Warlock classes. Each of the families also have signature abilities
that apply to most of the new cards in these classes: The Grimy Goons
specialize in giving buffs to minions in your hand, the Kabal give you low cost
potion spells that can mess with your opponent, and perhaps coolest of all, the
Jade Lotus cards summon Jade Golems that grow stronger with each time they
appear on the battlefield.
Another new feature tying back to the
mafia family theme are tri-class cards, cards that can be used by a class that
applies to each of the families. There are nine in total, three for each of the
gangs, including a legendary card that represents the family leader and a
Discover card that allows you to choose a random card from one of the three
classes the family represents.
After buying several packs (I’ve been
saving up my gold ever since this expansion was announced), I immediately went
and built myself a Jade Golem deck to see how it worked. I haven’t collected
all the Jade cards yet, but as it stands right now it can be a powerful
adversary…provided you draw the right cards. How it works is every time you
play a card and a Jade Golem is summoned, it gains one attack and one health.
Some cards (including the Jade Lotus legendary Aya Blackpaw) summon more than
one, buffing it up and making it stronger and stronger each time. The problem
is that if you don’t have all the Jade Golem cards, it can be difficult to draw
one out of a deck on thirty, resulting in 2/2 or 3/3 Jade Golems at most. I imagine
it’ll get better as I collect more of the Jade Golem cards, but it’s definitely
a deck you need to be prepared for.
Easier to pick up and play are the
Grimy Goons cards, which are a huge help
for decks like Beast Hunter, Murloc Paladin and Patron Warrior. Many of the
cards are low cost and give minions in your hand or deck +1/+1 or even +2/+2. I
can’t tell you how satisfying it is to surprise an enemy with a super-buffed
King Krush from your hand to steal a victory from their grasp. It’s also
helpful in Zoo Decks, as it can give low-level minions the staying power it
needs to survive (such as the new Alley Cat card, an excellent early game play
for Hunters).
I haven’t played much of the Kabal
yet, but they’ve added in several new low level spells that cause chaos, as
well as some minions that play in directly to the spells. For example, Mages
now have access to a free Freezing Potion that instantly freezes an enemy, as
well as the new Cryomancer card that gains a +2/+2 buff when an enemy is
frozen. Combine this with a card like Ice Lance or Shatter and you’ve got
yourself an excellent combo. The Priest and Warlock cards are similar, with the
Warlock cards being more focused on destroying minions across the board and the
Priest cards both healing and harming minions. They work well, but seem more
situational than anything. Why would you need a card that deals 5 damage to
everything that isn’t a dragon outside a dragon deck, or a 7 mana buffed
version of arcane missiles? While there are much better cards here than there
were in, say, One Night at Karazhan, it’s definitely the weakest of the three
class trios.
The standard cards all play into
Gadgetzan’s theme of crooks and criminals, being big on getting you out of
sticky situations through a surprise attack. There’s a card that only gain
Charge when your opponent has a minion with Taunt, a card that goes into your
opponent’s deck when it dies, and even a legendary that pulls a Yogg-Saron on
the entire board, as all targets for both attacks and spells are chosen
randomly as long as he’s on the board.
It also wouldn’t be a new Hearthstone
expansion without a new game board, and Mean Streets of Gadgetzan doesn’t
disappoint. The Gadgetzan board features houses representing the three criminal
families, as well as some fun interactions that come from knocking on the doors
or windows. I even spotted what might just be a hidden reference to Genji from
fellow Blizzard game Overwatch. Alongside this new board, the classic Stormwind
and Orgrimmar boards have been decked out in their holiday best once more,
complete with snow falling from the sky.
While it doesn’t quite measure up to
the powerhouse expansion that was Whispers of the Old Gods, Mean Streets of
Gadgetzan’s wacky surprise cards and inventive tri-class idea makes it stand
out from some of Hearthstone’s less exciting expansions. I think what I
especially like about it is how much it shows how Hearthstone has changed over
the years from a semi-serious game planted firmly in the roots of the Warcraft
universe to a crazy, wild game where anything can happen. Don’t believe me?
Watch the original Hearthstone cinematic and the Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
cinematic back to back and tell me you don’t notice a difference. Even the old
subtitle “Heroes of Warcraft” isn’t on the title screen anymore, meaning that
Hearthstone is now standing on its own, without needing the support of Blizzard’s
largest franchise. And you know what? With great expansions like this, I think
it’s doing just fine like that.
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