Hearthstone’s next expansion takes players over to the Shadowlands in Murder at Castle Nathria, a whodunit set within the Venthyr covenant. With over 130 new cards on the way, here are six that we believe could define the meta for the expansion starting day one.
Murder at Castle Nathria represents a shift in tone for both the setting and tone for Hearthstone expansion. It’s the first expansion with a storyline that draws heavy inspiration from literary history with a murder mystery party.
It’s also the first time the card game devs have ventured into the Shadowlands, with tons of new characters making an appearance.
With its release just around the corner, here are the six cards we believe will domiante the expansion.
Prince Renethal
Prince Renethal, available to all players who logged in after the expansion was announced, is one of the only cards HS has printed that has an effect before a match begins.
There’s already been some testing around the card, and it certainly has decks that give it value. What those decks will look like matched up against other Castle Nathria desks remains a mystery, however.
Pelagos
Pelagos is a Priest Legendary that could provide massive value at just a 3 mana cost. Filling up your board with health-buffed minions has been a Priest tradition for quite some time, and with such a cheap cost, this could be slotted into tons of Priest decks that will pop up.
Kryxis the Voracious
Hearthstone fans were shocked when Kryxis was revealed as a new Demon Hunter Legendary card. Its 4-mana cost paired with a 7/7 body provides insane value, especially when played on curve. Although the text of discarding your entire hand might be a drawback but can synergize incredibly well with other DH cards like Razorfen Beastmaster.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
Steamcleaner
With so many cards in the new expansion, and in recent years, focused on adding new cards to your deck, Steamcleaner is looking to regulate the meta.
The ability to remove all the cards in both decks that didn’t star there is massively powerful, and could potentially nullify tons of archetypes. And, since it’s a rare card, two can be run in any deck. It will be interesting to monitor the popularity of this card in the Standard format
Baroness Vashj
Off the bat, Baroness Vashj is the strongest Legendary in all of Castle Nathria. Blizzard are printing tons of transform cards for the Shama class, and Vashja can bring them all together with enormous value.
At just a 4-mana cost, this card could see nerfs early in the expansion’s lifecycle.
Kael’thas Sinstrider
Kael’thas is back, but this time, he’s more evil than ever. He also will now grant a free minion on every third minion played, as opposed to his old card which allowed a free spell cast.
It’s unclear if Sinstrider will be as powerful as his older spell-focused card, but this one certainly has the potential to dominate the meta if big-minion decks reign supreme.
