Blizzard details Hearthstone "Journey to Un'Goro" with new cards and mechanics

Blizzard has lifted the lid on its upcoming Hearthstone expansion, Journey to Un’Goro, which introduces 135 new cards and all-new mechanics. As is tradition, Blizzard revealed the update on its Hearthstone blog alongside a handful of cards from the set.

First up, Un’Goro delivers new Quest cards which reward players for fulfilling certain conditions. If you have one of these Quests in your deck, it will appear automatically in your starting hand.

Blizzard showed this off with the card Awaken the Makers, which challenges you to spawn seven Deathrattle minions. Should you achieve this during the course of play, you will be rewarded with Amara, Warden of Hope, an 8/8 creature with taunt that raises your health maximum to 40 (and heals any damage you’ve already taken). It costs 5 mana to play.

That’s a very powerful card for that mana cost, and given that these quests will be available to you from the beginning of the game (should you have one in the deck), pursuing them is going to be a very tempting prospect.

Adapt is a new keyword which allows you to choose a buff, from a pool of three, immediately when you play a creature. There will be 10 total adaptations, including things like +3 attack, Windfury, Taunt, Divine Shield and Can’t be targetted by Spells or Hero Powers, which will give players more important decisions to make during battle.

Finally, Blizzard has added a new minion type or “tribe” known as Elementals. This was shown off with the 2/2 creature Pyro which costs two mana to play. Its Deathrattle ability (which occurs when it dies) means Pyro returns to your hand as a 6/6 creature for six mana. After its next death, it will return as a 10/10 creature for 10. A number of new and existing Hearthstone cards will receive the Elemental tag (but note they won’t all feature that same Deathrattle ability).

You can pre-order 50 packs from the Journey to Un’Goro set now for $49.99 which you’ll receive early April in time for the expansion’s official release. More card reveals are coming March 17.