Hearthstone: Goblins vs. Gnomes cards and mechanics
Hearthstone announcing its expansion, Goblins vs. Gnomes, is no surprise. The fact that it releases in one month is a surprise. At BlizzCon this afternoon, Hearthstone Game Director Eric Dodds discussed some of the expansion's new gameplay developments in their Fireside Chat. You can see all of the newly revealed cards in our gallery embedded at the end of this post or follow along to learn about the new Mech minions, Piloted Mechs, Spare Parts, and new class cards.
Mechs
Goblins vs. Gnomes introduces a new minion type: Mechs. Not only are many of the new minions Mechs, but a number of old minions will be placed in this new category, too. The Harvest Golem was offered as an example along with the Alarm-o-Bot and Mechanical Dragonlings. There are enough new Mechs included in the expansion that you could, if you wanted to, build a full Mech Deck.
A few of the provided examples were aimed directly at altering the game's current meta -- that is, the accepted playstyles and overwhelmingly successful decks. Eric Dodds mentioned the Clockwork Giant in particular. It's a 12 mana cost minion with 8 health and 8 attack. The mana cost is reduced for every card in your opponent's hand. It's a direct response to the "handlock" deck which demands a near-full hand to be successful. The Clockwork Giant may make hording cards a dangerous prospect.
The Blingtron 3000 was offered as a sort of wish fulfillment. Blingtron's Battlecry equips both players with a random weapon. This includes priests and mages, for example. The weapons weren't shown off, but Eric Dodds stressed the potential strategy involved: throwing Blingtron down when your opponent has a scary weapon played and replacing it, or playing Blingtron to give yourself a weapon, followed by an Acidic Swamp Ooze to destroy the one your opponent received.
Piloted Mechs
Piloted Mechs are a new type of minion. The concept? Many of the Gnomish and Goblin machines of war need a pilot. You know you have the mech, but you have no idea who is piloting them until the mech is destroyed, at which point the pilot will parachute onto your gameboard. The 6 mana, 6 attack, 4 health Piloted Sky Golem summons a completely random 4-mana creature when it dies. The legendary Sneed's Old Shredder, with its mana cost of 8, its 5 attack, and 7 health, spawns any random legendary when it dies. This ranges from Lorewalker Cho to Ragnaros and any in better. You better be quick on that silence.
Spare Parts
Spare Parts are something of an extension of getting a handful of Bananas after someone has summoned King Mookla: they're low mana cost buffs generated through different effects. The Whirling Blades, for example, give a minion 1 additional attack for 1 mana. The Tinkertown Technician was an example of one such card that generates these. The Tinkertown Technician has the following battlecry:
If you have a Mech, gain +1/+1 and add a Spare Part to your hand.
While the buffs themselves aren't huge, most Hearthstone players have seen situations where an additional point of health or attack power could have made a big difference.
Class Cards
Yes, Goblins vs. Gnomes has worked class cards in, even with the wacky nature of the expansion. Examples were given for the priest and the warrior. The priest is the most straightforward: its Battlecry gives a friendly Mech +4 health. It's a 5 mana creature with 5 attack and 5 health. Through raw numbers, it's competitive with other priest minions.
The warrior's card is a crazier by far: the Bouncing Blade deals 1 damage to a random minion. It continues to do so until a minion dies. Theoretically, it could put a massive hurt on an entire board's worth of minions, if the RNG is in your favor. Or disfavor, depending on how much you like your minions.
Acquisition
Goblins vs Gnomes cards will be purchased through a new type of appropriately-labeled card packs separate from the vanilla Hearthstone cards. The price will be no different, able to be acquired through both gold and real money.
With the Android launch of Hearthstone coming this December, Goblins vs Gnomes' timing couldn't be better.
