Hearthstone is now a well-established phenomenon among gamers around the world. A collectible card title, completely free (unless using micro-transactions to purchase packs or adventures), played by millions of people, with official tournaments and content-rich updates.
After the introduction of the "Standard" mode, which only allows the use of classic cards and the latest expansions and adventures released, the cards released with the new updates acquire enormous importance for the metagame of the Hearthstone universe. Precisely for this reason we will immediately examine the adventure released today: One Night in Karazhan, to talk about the bosses we're going to face in the first wing and the cards that will be awarded to us as a reward.
Unexpected guest
The great wizard Medivh threw a luxurious party at his castle in Karazhan, inviting all of Azeroth's most renowned bosses and villains. However, not everything goes as planned: before the start of the party appears in the entrance hall Prince Malchezaar, a demon quite angry at not being invited. With this battle that will put us in the shoes of Medivh, a prologue begins that Blizzard offers us for free by giving us a prefabricated deck.
Medivh's Hero Power costs two mana and allows him to draw three cards, making it extremely powerful. However, his opponent is far more powerful, with extremely strong cards and a Hero Power that puts out a 6/6 Abyssal for two mana.. As if that weren't enough Malchezaar starts his game with six mana crystals, allowing him to gain an important field presence from the start.
Both characters will start with thirty life points and thirty armor points, suggesting a battle of attrition but in reality this is not the case: Medivh has mainly spells in his deck and between fireballs, sheep mutations and arcane darts the only chance of victory is to put into play a combo using a card that will let us cast any spell at zero cost for the current turn and a minion who, while on the field, will put a copy of any spell played in our deck.
The cards that will be assigned to us for our victory will be the Enchanted Crow for the Druid (a very useful 2/2 Beast at the cost of only one mana) and the Portal: Firelands for the Wizard (seven-mana spell that deals five damage and summons a random five-mana minion).
The living room
So here we are at the first wing of the adventure, the Salotto. Medivh has been kidnapped by the demon he fought and his magic has gone mad, animating various objects in the castle ready to cause trouble. The butler, Moroes, will ask us to fix this and so here we are ready to fight. The first boss to face will be the Silverware Golem.
Plates, forks, knives and all the silverware of the castle have come to life and want to do the skin. The Silverware Golem has a zero-cost Hero Power that allows him to summon a 1/1 Pot. From here on his turns will follow with well-thought-out combos: between a 1/3 Spoon weapon at one mana cost, 5/1 knives that give Taunt to all Plates, 3/1 Forks that give them Charge and 2 Cups / 1 that boost them by a Force point. The secret to beating him is to use a deck with a lot of area damage, taking advantage of the fact that all enemy minions have only one life point.
The rewards for this stage will be there Deadly Fork (a 3/2 at a cost of three for the assassin who will make us equip a 3/2 weapon upon her death) and the Golem of the Silverware (a 3/3 at a cost of three for the Sorcerer that will be summoned for free if discarded in any way)
The second boss to face is the Magic Mirror.
This Mirror had been enchanted by Medivh to compliment all the guests, but with the magician's absence he went mad and started insulting anyone who passed by.. Time to teach him a lesson. The Magic Mirror has a passive Hero Power: each player who summons a minion will have a second copy of that minion on the field but with the power lowered to 1/1.
Defeating this boss shouldn't be too complicated, just use a deck full of creatures with effects that take place while the card is in play (like cards that lower the cost of spells, or +1 damage magic effects), making the Wizard or Shaman ideal for this fight. Defeating the boss will give us two neutral cards: theArcane Anomaly (2/1 at a cost of one that increases his health permanently by one for each spell played) and a Spider of the Pantry (Beast 1/3 at a cost of three which as a battle cry summons a second 1/3 Spider on the field).
The third and final battle will be a chess battle, pitting the White Team against the Black Team. These animated chess games will give us a very funny and definitely out of the ordinary battle.
As the White King, we will have to participate in a very unusual chess game: each card in our hand is a chess piece with a particular effect, and our Hero Power at the price of two mana will allow us to Find a new chess piece to choose from three random cards. The only card capable of attacking is the Knight, while all the others will deal damage to the enemies in front of them at the end of the turn (one damage to the Pawn, two damage to the rook and four damage to the Queen, while the Bishop will heal by two life points adjacent to it).
The Black King's Hero Power is pretty dangerous: it can instantly destroy our leftmost chess piece for two. In this stage, of course, there is no tactic to be exploited in building the deck, instead we will have to hope for luck and use a good strategy depending on the pieces played by the opponent.
Defeating him will put us in possession of four new cards: the Ivory horse (for the Paladin, at a cost of six and a power of 4/4 it will restore a random spell like Battlecry and regenerate our health based on the cost of the chosen spell), Protect the King! (for the Warrior, spell that summons a 1/1 Pawn with Taunt for each enemy minion on the field), the Masked Huntress (for the Hunter, a 3/4 cost three that will bring the cost of our secrets to zero as long as he is on the field) and finally the Arcane Blacksmith (neutral card at cost four, it is a 3/2 that once it arrives on the field will summon a 0/5 Minion with Taunt).
As in any adventure Hearthstone self-respecting completing this wing will reward us with a legendary card. In this case it is Moroes: a great three-cost Legendary with Stealth that will summon a 1/1 Butler at the end each turn. Needless to say, it could find a good place in current decks, being counterable only with cards that do area damage.
In addition to Moroes, the Shaman and Priest Class Challenges will also be unlocked, which will turn us against the Silverware Golem and against the Magic Mirror by equipping us with a pre-built deck. Winning these challenges will make us get the last cards available for this wing, namely the Portal: Maelstrom (fantastic two cost spell that deals damage to all enemy minions and summons a random one cost minion) and the Banquet Priest (3/6 at a cost of four which restores three health to our hero every time we play a spell)
In conclusion
The new Hearthstone adventure begins very well, giving us a free prologue and three bosses, one of which includes a new hilarious mechanic. The chess game is in fact the phase that has convinced us the most, making us want to continue to start it even with cards already obtained.
The new cards that will be included in the collection are particular but among them those that apparently could have more space in the decks of the current metagame could be for the Maelstrom Portal: Moroes, and for Lands of Fire: Mortal Fork and Protect the King! In any case we will see how the user will react by creating combos with the new cards that we did not believe possible. While waiting for the second unlockable wing next week, we remind you that buying this adventure now will also give you a beautiful new card back.
