Blizzard has announced the newest card expansion to hit Hearthstone called Saviors of Uldum. The set brings back some familiar faces from the League of Explorers as well as some familiar mechanics. Saviors of Uldum adds Reborn and Plagues as new mechanics, in addition to bringing back Quests.
Reborn will make its debut in Saviors of Uldum as a new Keyword. These Reborn minions will return to life the first time they are destroyed with one remaining health. This functions exactly like the existing Paladin secret Redemption, where the minion revives upon death with one health.
The first example of the Reborn mechanic is the Warrior class card Restless Mummy. It is a four mana minion with a 3/2 stat line along with the card text Rush and Reborn. The card seems pretty solid on its own, effectively being a four mana deal six damage to a minion or three damage to two minions. However, we would have to see other Warrior cards that supported this one as it just doesn’t fit into the theme of Warrior decks right now with Mechs and Removal.
The Reborn mechanic has potential to be good. It looks like you will be making a stat sacrifice on the cards for the effect of reviving it. It also needs to have other Keywords on the card to make it worthwhile to play. Rush, Divine Shield and Deathrattle all would make playing a card that is Reborn pretty strong.
Plagues are somewhat similar to schemes in that only the classes that got schemes will be getting Plagues. These classes are Priest, Shaman, Warrior, Warlock and Rogue. We also know that Plagues are spells that will affect every minion on board, similar to cards like Hagatha’s Scheme.
Our first introduction to Plagues is with the Priest spell Plague of Death. It is a nine mana card that will silence and destroy all minions on board. The card seems a little expensive at first for nine mana, but the effect is totally worth it. Destroying all minions on board is a powerful effect in its own right, but silencing all of those pesky Deathrattle minions as well is fantastic. This card is just as powerful as Psychic Scream was when it was in Standard rotation.
If Plague of Death is any indication of what’s to come with the remaining Plagues, they are sure to spice up the meta game. Any form of AOE can be really powerful and turn games around. It’s hard to imagine what Rogue will get since they just got rid of Vanish and that was their key AOE card. However, Rogue’s Plague will likely be a much cheaper spell than Plague of Death.
Saviors of Uldum is bringing back Quests as well. Just as before, the quests will cost one mana and start in your opening hand. This time around, the Quest rewards will always be Hero Power upgrades. Before the Quest rewards varied between Spells and Minions.
There have been two Quests revealed from the new set. Warlock will be getting Supreme Archaeology, which requires you to draw 20 cards to complete the Quest. Upon completion you will get a new Hero Power that lets you draw a card for two mana and the drawn card will cost zero mana. This is just like the old card Wilfred Fizzlebang. Warlocks will have to find a way to shuffle cards into their deck as the requirement for this Quest will leave you quite close to fatiguing.
Druid will be getting the Quest Untapped Potential. The requirement for this quest is that you end four turns with unspent mana. This means on any given turn you need to have at least one unspent mana crystal. Your reward will be a passive hero power, meaning there is no mana cost. What this does is give your all of your Choose One spells both effects combined. Right now Choose One spells aren’t super popular, but maybe we will also get some new Choose One spells.
Either way, as long as there isn’t a repeat of the Quest Rogue disaster, it will probably be okay. The worst thing Blizzard can do is create a Quest way too simple to complete with a quite overpowered reward.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via their official website.
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