by stormraige23 - 2 years ago     show comments

The internet won’t stop talking about Titanic, and in order to understand all the details let me begin with some very basic concepts. So… late stage capitalism encourages individuals to be… oh wait. Sorry different Titanic.

Someone had to make that joke. Well they didn’t. But I wanted to.

THIS Titanic won’t come with that much pressure.

Sorry.

Again.

Sort of.

Hearthstone has announced its newest Expansion TITANS set to launch soon ™, and based off of past indicators likely late July or early August. There are many new and exciting things set to arrive and boy howdy they look SO VERY FUN! Let’s dive into some of the new mechanics and features.

Titans

These are a new category of cards that aren’t quite minions… but certainly aren’t spells… and are somewhat locations? They trigger as minions but they can’t attack… yet. Each titan will have three abilities and each titan can trigger each ability once. Once you activate all three abilities the titan can then attack… but they aren’t going to survive that many turns. If they are… you’re dead for other reasons.

Now they say that all 11 classes will have a titan… but there are only seven titans… The current known Titans are as follows: Aman’Thul- A Time Boy. Eonar- Life Girl. Norgannon- Magic Boy. Golganneth- Giant boy. Khaz’goroth- Earth boy. Aggramar- Strong boy. Sargeras- Destroy boy.

So you imagine they have to do a little lore gymnastics to make this fit. Perhaps Azeroth? The very titan soul that has been the focus of several WoW expansions now? Perhaps Sargeras before he became the leader of the Burning Crusade? Many questions remain and I’m excited for the possibilities.

Let’s take a look at the two Titans we’ve seen so far.

Eonar, the Life-Binder

The Titan of life who gifted her powers (in a long way about) to Alextsraza the… uhh… Lifebinder. Anyway. Nature stuffs. Pretty cool.

So when you play Eonar you get to use one of her abilities listed below AND her card ability (not the titan ability) means you ALSO get a 5/5 with taunt. Not bad. Turn 10 (or likely soon because… Druid…) you can play this and refresh all your mana crystals. You’ve got 10 more mana, a 5/5 with taunt, and a 5/7 that NEEDS to die. Need a way to survive against an aggro deck? Go back to full health instead. Out of cards? Not anymore. This card has an immense amount of utility and the fact that it ALSO builds your board makes its stonks go up.

This card is cool as hell.

Playability: A

Fun: A++

Norgannon

Ahh the titan of magic. It fits well both thematically and mechanically in mage. What exactly… does it do though? That… That’s the best part my friends.

Now most times this Titan is going to get off one of his abilities and then die… because he HAS to. But if for some reason your opponent doesn’t have removal this gets disgusting so very fast. Feeling greedy? Go ahead and try to start with just one secret… Then your enemies cards cost (2) more which makes it hard to remove before this thing does 20(!?) damage to face. Is this often just 5 damage and then dies? Yeah often… but mage has some freeze effects to stall out boards and this thing has 8 health which isn’t always easy to clear via spell damage. It’s not insane to me that this could survive at least a turn and if it survives even one turn… look out.

Playability: A

Fun: A++

Now that talked about the Titanic additions in the room. Well… both of them. Technically one of them was more a subtraction? Anyway.. Let’s talk about the next major addition to this set.

Forge

Forge is the major keyword of this set. By clicking and dragging the card over to your deck (similar in function to tradeable) you can spend to mana to “upgrade” the card. You can either do this in the same turn or over two different turns. Those awkward turns when all you can do is hero power? Well now you can just make your cards better. Doesn’t that seem rad as hell?

Let’s take a look at some of those cards.

Cyclopian Crusher

Cyclopian Crusher is a nice little bit of removal, but the real power comes from being able to forge on turn two. Yeah you skip a turn, but you’re essentially paying for a 5 mana creature on turn 3. In that way it’s almost like a reverse overload?

Wait let me see…how many other ways can I describe it?

It’s like inspire… if instead of using your hero power… you spent the same mana to make the card… inspire…? Confused? Great.

I think this card is a really strong contender in Arena with just a massive amount of stats and the ability to remove whatever it is your opponent has on the board. In standard it probably doesn’t see play. There’s no tags so menagerie warrior can’t use it and aggro decks likely want to play a minion on 2 rather than upgrade one. Overall pretty weak, but a great showcase in how forge works.

Playability: D+

Fun: Good showcase piece.

Oh wait another descriptor for forge. It’s like Kicker from mtg if kicker was paid at a different time? Nailed it.

Embrace of Nature

Now we are talking. I love this effect for druid. It’s a super unique and class defining mechanic and we really haven’t seen much of it lately. Instead druid has been more focused on armor, and ramp. Bringing this back is an excellent signal. That being said… paying 3 mana to draw a card feels bad. If there are other Choose One cards in this set this could be worth it. Right now you’re likely hoping to grab Nourish off of this… and that feels… not as good as what it can currently do. That being said druid does have very few turn 2 plays right now in its slower decks so maybe this does see play.

Playability: C+

Fun: C+

Hodir, Father of Giants

This card slaps. Giants. Hunter Big. It’s perfect. Hunter has a bunch of cards that can benefit from this. Free bird? Now a 4 mana 8/8 bird that charges. Hound? Now it’s an 8/8 that can cleave and life steal… 24 health anyone? The negative of this is that you have to play it on an empty board or… you’ll probably die. That being said there are some incredibly powerful combinations that can be pulled off with this card. LETS GO HODIR!! HOLD THE DOOR!! I mean… uhh… Make. Those. Giants!!

Paladin:

Noble Minibot

MAGNETIC IS BACK!!! YAY!! Magnetic is an absolutely banger mechanic in battlegrounds and is making a resurgence here. I’m glad that all of the quality of life changes we’ve seen in BGs also carry over here. Throw this on a mistake and… that’s not bad. Paladin has a lot of mech synergy already thanks to Sunken Voyage so… this seems to be extremely strong. A pure mech paladin? Seems okay.

Playability: B+

Fun: B

Tyr! Shed a tear for Tyr. This card seems… insane. It’s so very specific that it feels like there’s going to be a combo at some point… to do something… Great analysis right? There are so many 2/3/4 attack minions that I’m just going to showcase a handful.

None of these are insane, but Kotori does allow you to combo off immediately into other fun things. It’s a reliable way to annoy your opponent. Or if you go with a divine shield comp you can bring back Funkfin for some surprise damage.

Three attack is where things start to get really interesting. Bringing back Kangor might seem extremely strong but there’s one problem… He doesn’t actually die? So I included him in here because… it SEEMS like a bunch of value but I think it’s a trap. I don’t think these actually interact in the way I want them to, however, both Cool Ghoul and Liadrin are dope. Having Liadrin AND Kotori in the same resurrection? That could be okay.

These are all fine to even good. Leviathan on its own is likely worth it… but lead dancer hasn’t seen much play and I don’t expect that to change. Jitterbug is good, but it doesn’t immediately impact the board. I think if you focus exclusively getting The Leviathan this card is really pretty good. Outside of that… Paladin needs something new to make this card worth it.

Playability: B+

Fun: A+

SP-3Y3-D3R

It’s a spider tank.

Playability: Spider Tank

Fun: Spider Tank

Forge of Wills

I love this card. This seems like a card control warlock has been looking for for quite sometime. Combining this with Daddeus on its own is gross. Or Drak’thir… or really anything in Chad Warlock. If this is a signal of what is to come… Warlock is likely to get some big units… and I’m excited. I would love to see a control warlock back in the meta, especially if it was less dependent on getting Thaddeus out to do gross things. Without any new cards this would likely see play. You add in new toys. Yes.

Playability: A

Fun: For me? Yes. For you? No.

Son of Hodir

This card is borderline obscene in arena or a limited format. It’s likely too slow for duels and maybe even too slow for standard. that being said if you can make a control deck that wants to combo out… this is an option. Maybe slide this into Warlock and combine it with Forge of Wills to make this have removal capabilities. What an absolute chunk of stats for a  card. For those counting that’s 40/40 worth of stats for just 8 mana. That’s not bad.

Playability: B-

Fun: A+

Inquisitive Creation

This card seems… not great. There’s no doubt going to be more mechs but there doesn’t appear to be a lot of mech synergy… perhaps there already is enough with Mecha-Shark? Anyway this card is… interesting. We’re bringing back spell schools but don’t have a big payoff (yet) like the mage quest used to. Not much to talk about this card. Just neato and thematic. but not great.

Playability: C-

Fun: C-

Fate Splitter

Radio Star in standard anyone? Now this card is pretty bad. It’s got below average stats and just gives you a card that your opponent is fine with you having. So… bad. In BGs getting even a card advantage early is amazing… and your opponent doesn’t get to choose what trades into it. This is a fun and neat card and I’m sure it’ll cause some wild losses, but this is the most niche of niche cards.

Playability: F

Fun: A

Prison of Yogg-Saron

My god. Rather. My Old God. Yogg-Saron is the heart of Ulduar and the fact that this is the promotional legendary available to everyone is so very good. A quick recap of lore for those interested. The Titans (see above) are essentially all powerful beings. Their enemies are the Old Gods who represent the void. The Titans can’t kill the Old Gods because it would destroy the entire planet so… they created The Keepers to watch over the planet and keep watch over the Old Gods… like Yogg-Saron. As happens ole Yoggy boy corrupted one of The Keepers big time who killed or captured or corrupted basically all the others and then Yoggy-boy tries to get out and the adventurers of Azeroth have to stop him and the rest of the Keepers who have become corrupted.

Flavor wise? Amazing. Game play wise? A perfect promo card. Is it good? No. I don’t even know if I should target my friends or enemies with it… IT IS SO WEIRD!! AND AMAZING

Playability: F

Fun: F is for friends who do stuff together. 

So there you have it. Titans. More reveals will continue to happen, but boy howdy these cards as is are absolute bangers. This seems like a Titanic good time. No wait. Not the actual Titanic. No not the other one either. Shit. What are the odds? Anyway this set slaps.

I conducted an interview with two of the developers on the Hearthstone team about this set and I’ll be writing that up shortly. Look for it on Wednesday! Or catch it on the Blizzlet podcast! Cheers!

Oh… and if you’re looking for how to spend your money. Buy the pre order. Not a submarine ride.