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Everything you need to know about Hearthstone: Goblins vs Gnomes

120 pieces of marvellously mean mechanical mayhem

Everything you need to know about Hearthstone: Goblins vs Gnomes

We didn't think all that much of the first Hearthstone expansion, Curse of Naxxramas. But as several readers reminded us, it wasn't really about the content, it was about the cards.

The thirty new cards introduced across the five wings of Naxxramas had a colossal impact on the game. Some old favourites became untenable, and a bunch of new deck archetypes arose to take their place.

So if thirty cards do that, what's over a hundred and twenty new cards at the same price as the original packs going to achieve?

That's what's on the (ahem) cards for the upcoming Goblins vs Gnomes expansion. So far, Blizzard have only released details for about half the cards. It's going to be hard to assess their full impact until we've seen them all, and seen them in play. But here's the impressions that we've formed so far.

Chaotic Cards

The most obvious unifying factor in the revealed cards is the heavy use of randomness.

The ability to have a diverse range of chaotic effects is one of the key advantages Hearthstone has over a physical card game. However, a lot of the random cards in the game at present are too unpredictable to be worth using. When popular legendary Tinkmaster Overspark got an additional dose of randomness, most players dropped him like a hot brick.

Blizzard has taken this on board, and a lot of the new effects walk a nice balance, trading off chance against cheapness.

The warrior card Bouncing Blade, for instance, keeps hitting random minions for 1 damage until something dies. So you have an element of control over it, depending on how many minions are on the board when you cast it. Plus it only costs 3 mana and works well with all those warrior cards that get buffs when damaged.

There are also cards which, while not directly random, seem designed to invoke anarchy by disrupting traditional plays.

Explosive Sheep, a 2-cost 1/1 minion that does 2 damage to everything in play when it dies is a prime example. It's going to play havoc with the popular zoo deck archetype, which relies on getting lots of small creatures out as fast as possible.

These are all good things. One of the few common criticisms of Hearthstone is that it's a bit predictable. Both in terms of what the cards do, and the relatively narrow range of popular deck styles. Goblins vs Gnomes looks set to shake up both those stereotypes and keep things fresh and fun.

Mastering Mechs

The other stand out thing about these cards is the frequency of the new mech minion type. A lot of the cards in the expansion work with this keyword. And some existing cards, like Harvest Golem, are going to be reclassified as mechs when the expansion gets released.

Mech decks look powerful and exciting. And there's easily enough variety in the cards we've seen so far to suggest the keyword can support multiple deck styles.

Besides things you'd expect, like Cogmaster, which gets +2 attack while you have a mech in play, the focus on random effects means there's lots of bizarre new stuff to play with.


Several mech cards add Spare Part cards to your hand. These are 1 cost buffs you can use on other minions. So in addition to synergies between mech cards, they could be fearsome additions to decks using Gadgetzan Auctioneer or Violet Teacher.

There's also some way out cards that you'll rarely see, but which will swing a game when they appear. Mimiron's Head is a 5-cost 4/5 legendary with rubbish stats but an impressive effect. If you have three other mech cards in play it destroys them to summon another 4/8 mech which can attack four times a turn!

Class Conundrums

This expansion also includes some new class specific cards. They extend to epic and legendary cards, these first time we've seen new ones for classes.

While the full range isn't out yet, the additions for some classes, like Paladin and Rogue, look fun but not transformative. Other classes, who currently suffer from a limited range of functional deck archetypes, look to have more interesting cards. The expansion seems to want to tweak the balance between the classes, and offer some more options.

Priests, of instance, are pretty much confined to focusing on board control. But two of their new cards make it much easier to build offensive decks with the class. Shrinkmeister, a minion which temporarily reduces enemy attack values, making them vulnerable to Shadow Word: Pain. And Velen's Chosen, a buff to attack and defence that also increases spell damage.

There are also some mech cards for each class, ensuring that mech decks will be different depending on who's playing them. The warrior legendary Iron Juggernaut is particularly vicious, adding mine cards to the enemy deck that cause a massive 10 damage when drawn.

Amazing Additions

There are some other changes in the pipe. As well reclassifying some minions as mechs, some others are going to become beasts. That bodes well for the Hunter and Druid.

There's also going to be a new spectator mode so you can watch your friends play their matches. We'd rather be playing the game, but some people seem to like this sort of thing.

All in all, this promises to be a massive expansion. It was kind of expected that it'd transform the balance of the meta-game. But Blizzard has taken it a step further, and used the opportunity to address weaknesses in the game by playing up its strengths.

The new cards will be available in booster packs, separate from the old ones, but bought in the same way at the same price. We're saving up our gold in anticipation already.

Matt Thrower
Matt Thrower
Matt is a freelance arranger of words concerning boardgames and video games. He's appeared on IGN, PC Gamer, Gamezebo, and others.