Hearthstone expansion coming 'soon'
The release of just a handful of new cards with Hearthstone's Curse of Naxxramas had a notable impact on competitive play -- the priest deck is considered by some to be a powerhouse with a suite of deathrattles, for example. That's often the case with collectible card games such as these, so an inevitable expansion has the potential to make Hearthstone feel like a whole new game again. Eric Dodds, Hearthstone's lead designer, told our sister site Joystiq at PAX Prime that just such an expansion is coming "soon."
It seems likely an official expansion announcement awaits us at BlizzCon. We have to wonder what approach they'll take with an influx of new cards. Power creep is always a concern -- Curse of Naxxramas's relatively few, deathrattle-themed cards is one thing, but the addition of a hundred new cards might be something else altogether. An oodle of new cards needs to hold some allure over the old ones to draw players in, but does Hearthstone have room for that many additions, given its simple rule set? An increase in base power-per-mana would be one approach, but unlikely to be endearing to players. That works fine in MMOs, but not card games. Brand new mechanics are also possible, something beyond Battlecry, Deathrattle, and Charge. Other CCGs have attempted to modify their tournament rules to limit the use of cards from previous sets or hold tournaments/ladders where only specific sets are allowed for use in play, requiring competitive players to dip into each and every set. That feels like a very un-Blizzard thing to do, but a CCG is new territory for them. Who knows?
