hearthstone Witchwood Spoiler Season Kicks Off With 10 New Cards

[Aleco 252]

Ready for The Witchwood? Spoiler season began today as 10 new cards were revealed from the upcoming set.

It's spoiler time! Ten new cards, including three legendaries, were revealed today's card reveal stream with Peter Whalen and Frodan.

Spoiler season is officially under way! Kicked off by today's card reveal stream, game designer Peter Whalen and Hearthstone caster Dan "Frodan" Chou spoiled 10 new cards from The Witchwood, including a pair of Legendary minions which give all of your minions one of the set's two new keyword abilities (Echo and Rush), as well as the marquee card of the set, Hagatha the Witch. You can check out all of today's new cards below, in addition to some brief insights from Peter, Dan, and myself:

 

• Hot damn! This card seems incredible in a Midrange, minion-focused deck, which has long been the bread and butter for Hunter. The body is respectable on its own, and if it ever gets to stick around for turns 5 and 6 it could completely take over the game.
• Dan noted that Hunters are currently want for powerful four drops, and this card fits that bill perfectly.
• Peter mentioned that Houndmaster Shaw is one of the heroes you can play in Monster Hunt, the new single-player adventure mode.

 

• The body on this card is respectable, and its effect is nothing to wag a stick at. Spiritually similar to Sludge Belcher, Rotten Applebaum isn't quite as strong as its predecessor, but that shouldn't stop it from seeing play as a much-needed defensive neutral minion in a post-rotation world.
• Dan mentioned that this card could be an all-star in the Arena.
• Peter noted that defensive neutral cards are a great thing for the game, and that the design team is looking to make more cards like this and Tar Creeper in the future.

 

• A potential 3 for 1, Witchwood Apple offers a ton of value in midrange decks that have the time to cast all three Treants. It's likely too slow for an aggressive token deck, but it has a powerful enough effect to see play in a variety of strategies.
• Dan noted that this card is great with hand-size matters cards such as Mountain Giant.
• Witchwood Apple could also offer some combo potential with Druid's aggressive buff cards, such as Savage Roar and Power of the Wild. A midrange token deck with this and Living Mana might end up being a force to be reckoned with.

 

• Obviously excellent with the previous card, Wispering Woods doesn't need very much synergy to be a great. Getting 4 1/1s off of this is quite respectable, and anything more than that offers huge potential with Savage Roar.
• Peter noted that there is a hand-size theme for Druid in this set, and that we should see more cards in the future to fit with this theme.

 

• It's Loatheb the spell! Rebuke can be used to set up combos (such as shenanigans with Uther of the Ebon Blade) or to protect powerful late-game cards to set up potential kills. Though this is likely too negative of a tempo play for aggressive strategies, decks with slower game plans should be able to make use of this card's powerful effect.
• Both Dan and Peter were under the impression that this card was highly versatile, and that it may end up being played in a variety of strategies.

 

• Rejoice, combo players! Vivid Nightmare offers massive combo potential to a number of different strategies. This could be used to double down on a Malygos or a Prophet Velen, it could make additional copies of Corrupted Healbot, and it can even be used in combination with Lyra the Sunshard and Radiant Elemental for some massive swing turns.
• Peter noted that the minions will be damaged, making it an excellent pair with Northshire Cleric and Circle of Healing.

 

• Though The Witchwood is no longer called "Murder on the Gilnean Express", Glinda will still offer you a one-way ticket to Valuetown. The number of different combos and synergies which can be accomplish with this card is staggering, and the number of deck-building opportunities it offers seems nearly endless. It's great with cheap minions like Kobold Librarian, could be used with Summoning Portal to set up combos, or could be used to power out Mountain or Sea Giants. The body on this cards is very respectable and could prove to be quite difficult for your opponents to clear, setting up some massive value turns on turn 7 and beyond.
• Peter noted that the Echo effects come after discards. If you play Glinda into Doomguard, you'll always get the echo copy in your hand. He also noted that you can use it to make infinite Wisps.

 

• I absolutely adore the design on this card, though I'm not sure we'll see it in any competitive decks. A 3/4 for 3 mana is fine, but it probably wouldn't make the cut in a tribal deck unless the tribe is seriously low on playable minions.
• Peter explained that this card always counts as all of these minion types. It can be discovered off a Netherspite Historian, for example.
• Dan mentioned that this card could really help out Arena decks in need of specific tribal cards to round out their deck's synergies.

 

• Witch's Apprentice draws comparisons to Babbling Book and Jeweled Macaw, but those comparisons are not particularly favorable. Though there's some great spell this can for Shaman (Volcano, Bloodlust), there are far more misses in the Shaman spell pool (all of totem-matters cards, Cryostasis). This little beast has to hit good cards fairly consistently to be playable, as the 0/1 Taunt body doesn't do nearly enough on its own, and I'm not convinced it'll do that.

 

• The only new hero card in the set, Hagatha the Witch might just be powerful enough to save Shaman on her own. Her Battlecry effect is exactly the kind of thing you're looking for out of a clunky 8 drop, and her passive Hero Power is capable of generating an insane amount of cards over the course of a long game. This is exactly the kind of card that control Shaman needs to close out games and overwhelm their opponent's.
• Her oops emote says "Unwise!", and I fully expect that emote to get a ton of mileage.

 

Stay tuned for many more Witchwood spoilers soon, as the community spoilers begin tomorrow morning and run through April 8th, and be sure to check out our Witchwood Expansion Hub if you're interested in learning more about the upcoming set!

[Synesthesy 114]

Rotten Applebaum is good, very good. I expect to see it a lot. In Wild, taunt+heal will make N'Zoth even stronger.

Druid "big hands matter" feels good, and explain why they have rotated out coldlight oracle: if big hand is a thing, mill must not be one.

Rebuke in the right meta can be great. For example, denying an AoE against a control deck can be enough to win for a dude paladin or something similar. Expecially against priest, expecially in wild.

Vivid Nightmare is... well, a Nightmare. Let's put it simple: machine gun highlander priest wasn't healty for wild because OTK. Ok. So, why give priest another OTK tool? Instead of an highlander priest playing HP Velen HP Mind Blast HP after having played Raza and the DK, we'll have Velen nightmare nightmare mind blast after having played Thaurissan!
Simple Thaurissan + DK means: Velen (6), nightmare (8), Hero Power (9) 8 damage, Mind Blast (20) 28 damage.
Thaurissan + drakkari enchanter means: Velen (5), nightmare (6), nightmare (7), Mind Blast (7) 40 damage, Mind Blast (7) 80 damage.
WTF is blizzard doing here? :O

Glinda Crowskin is another nightmare. Let's say it in one word: Giant. This is the real reason why they have rotated Molten Giant. But in wild, Giantlock is a thing right now, I don't like the idea of having another version of it.

Hagata is good in every control shaman deck that don't need the totems.

[Migol 425]

Vivid Nightmare+Leeroy Jenkins...

 

/sigh

[Bozonik 94]

54 minutes ago, Synesthesy said:

Rotten Applebaum is good, very good. I expect to see it a lot. In Wild, taunt+heal will make N'Zoth even stronger.

Rebuke in the right meta can be great. For example, denying an AoE against a control deck can be enough to win for a dude paladin or something similar. Expecially against priest, expecially in wild.

Vivid Nightmare is... well, a Nightmare. Let's put it simple: machine gun highlander priest wasn't healty for wild because OTK. Ok. So, why give priest another OTK tool? Instead of an highlander priest playing HP Velen HP Mind Blast HP after having played Raza and the DK, we'll have Velen nightmare nightmare mind blast after having played Thaurissan!
Simple Thaurissan + DK means: Velen (6), nightmare (8), Hero Power (9) 8 damage, Mind Blast (20) 28 damage.
Thaurissan + drakkari enchanter means: Velen (5), nightmare (6), nightmare (7), Mind Blast (7) 40 damage, Mind Blast (7) 80 damage.
WTF is blizzard doing here? :O

Applebaum: is it better than sludge belcher though? Dunno tbh. Against Minion based Aggro, probably no, against burn heavy aggro maybe.

Rebuke: yeah, I see plenty of aggro Paladins running loatheb to good effect. Whilst loatheb is rebuke plus summon a 3-mana 5/5 I think being able to play it earlier for 2 mana after you’ve just refilled/buffed you board could be very strong.

Vivid Nightmare: all of that can already be done with mirage caller though, no?

[Hanz39 53]

1 hour ago, Migol said:

Vivid Nightmare+Leeroy Jenkins...

 

/sigh

You would never play Leeroy Jenkins in Priest over Mind Blast if you want face damage

The card is pretty horrible for the cost... you can copy at best a 7 cost minion in the same turn, i think it will be used only for big priest with Shadow Essence to spam Obsidian statues Lich Kings and Yseras

[Bozonik 94]

5 hours ago, Bozonik said:

Vivid Nightmare: all of that can already be done with mirage caller though, no?

Well, it’s a spell rather than a minion, so does get reductions from radiant elemental too. There is a big priest variant in wild too where you play velen and malygos with mindblasts and holy smites in deck, this would fit into that well I imagine since you can’t play the minion mirage caller in that.

[VaraTreledees 138]

My thoughts, note I don't play enough wild or keep up on it well enough to have an informed opinion so this will mostly be for standard.

 

Shaw:  seems really good in mid-range Hunter.  Only concern is in a lot of matches turn 4 or 5 is roughly were mid range Hunter starts going face, so rush might not be as useful, and you already have the rhino.  Ultimately though, it's good enough to play on 4, just stat wise, has to be dealt with and can cause a lot of damage all in a slot Hunter has weaker cards.  So I definitely see it being played, it just might end up being weaker then it looks.

 

Applebaum: eh I am not impressed.  In knc they printed the 4 Mana 4/4 that restored 4 health, and that was so far below the power curve it was never considered for play.  This is 1 more Mana, the healing is conditional, and can't target minions, and all you get is 1 health and taunt.  Plus the amounts of silence that shows up ruins this card.

 

Apple: seems weak, obvious synergy with hand size stuff, so if that pans out it could see play as the worst card in that deck just to enable the rest of it.  

 

Woods: good synergy with roar and buff cards, but would you really want them in a hand size matters deck?  The playability of this card hinges on that question.

 

Glinda:. Doubt she will make into control lock, cube lock maybe, but it already has a critical mass of awkward hard to use value cards.  Could cut umbra for it, but I think umbra is better.  I think this card is strong enough it will see play sometime in the next two years, but maybe not during witch wood.  Who knows maybe it will see play in an even handlock deck Trump theory crafted.  Seems powerful, just needs a home imo.

 

Nightmare:. Really cool, but no where near the power level of competitive cards.  Maybe dragon priest needs one more dragon for duskbreaker, and doesn't want to run scalebane?  Too bad curator rotates, could have been great.

 

Apprentice: compares badly to paveling book.  Worse stat line, worse card on average.  Can protect a spellpower or healing totem though.  Possibly ends up in some shaman builds simply because shaman has really low card quality right now.

 

Hagatha: battle cry is great, and even though shaman spells are bad, so are priest spells and Lyra saw play, but lyra's effect is so much stronger because it feeds itself.  However, in a land of cubes and guldan, I think we are past the point of a bunch of random spells being a good long term game plan to beat control decks.  Works great with echo though.

Edited March 27, 2018 by VaraTreledees

[Caldyrvan 377]

I saw the live stream yesterday and already thought about the cards a bit:

• Houndmaster Shaw: I think this cards will either be much weaker than we might expect or be totally dominant, I hardly see middle ground here. But maybe against a control deck, that runs very few minions it's somehow useless. Also I was wondering playing a minion with Charge while this is on the board can it still attack face?
• Rotten Applebaum: Not so sure about this, Tar Creepers strength is to provide 5 health for a fairly low many cost as well as 3 attack for defense. While at 5 mana the 5 health is much less of an impact, but we will see.
• Witchwood Apple & Whispering Woods: Both look strong and have synergy with each other, let'S wait and see how this Big Hand Druid will be.
• Rebuke: I like it. Hopefully not so much for aggro, I would like to see control Paladin become stronger.
• Vivid Nightmare: A lot of potential I think. @Bozonik compared to other cards it summons not a 1/1, it's a full copy damaged to 1 health, which can be easily healed and the attack is unchanged.
• Glinda Crowskin: My first thought was it has a nice late game potential for Zoo, but maybe even (if it sticks for a turn) in a differently build cubelock deck, who knows.
• Nightmare Amalgam: Well, idk, really.
• Witch's Apprentice: Yea, a weak Babbling Book but if you can utilize the taunt it might see play.
• Hagatha the Witch: I like the design. The Battlecry looks good and can be paired with Murmuring Elemental at 10 mana. But due to the high number of weak/situational spells shaman has I'm not sure it will be strong enough.

Edited March 27, 2018 by Caldyrvan

[Taan 46]

Yeah, I agree with most of the comments here.

The overall design of witchwood starts to look really interesting and I like, that we finally get an "oldschool" expansion without completely new card-types like in all three expansions before (Quests, DKs, legendary weapons).

Just want to point out something about Witch's Apprentice: this card is not very exiting as it stands now. Trading a card and one mana for a random spell and a useless 0/1 Taunt is pretty meh. BUT considering Hagatha the Witch it seems that Shaman is getting some sort of spell-theme, in which a cheap value card like this could actually be reasonable.

But still...I don't know if I want to live in a world without Evolve-Shaman ;_;

[Caldyrvan 377]

40 minutes ago, Taan said:

But still...I don't know if I want to live in a world without Evolve-Shaman ;_;

I feel the same but I think without Evolve, Devolve and Doppelgangster It will have a hard time, even with Thrall, Deathseer and echo I doubt it will be viable.

[Bozonik 94]

6 hours ago, Caldyrvan said:

Vivid Nightmare: A lot of potential I think. @Bozonik compared to other cards it summons not a 1/1, it's a full copy damaged to 1 health, which can be easily healed and the attack is unchanged.

Yes, I wasn’t saying it’s the same card, but for OTK combo purposes it pretty much is (aside from the exceptions I already added).

On Shaw, I’d imagine minions with charge and given rush can still hit face but it’s a good question.