Hearthstone's newest expansion, Rastakhan's Rumble, has been fully spoiled for players just days ahead of its release next week. The final cards were revealed during a Blizzard-hosted stream that saw Hearthstone Lead Final Designer Dean Ayala and famous Hearthstone and Magic: The Gathering pro player Brian Kibler discuss some of the most exciting cards that were unveiled.
Hearthstone will launch Rastakhan's Rumble on December 4 next week, adding to an already impressive pool of cards available for Standard play. The newest set focuses on an imagined gladiatorial competition between trolls in a location called the Gurubashi Arena, named after a particular tribe of trolls that has deep roots in World of Warcraft lore. Rastakhan's Rumble will introduce 135 brand-new cards and new mechanics that appear to be another step in the right direction for a game that has begun to shed criticisms of being too reliant on RNG-based gameplay in recent years.
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The final reveal introduced Halazzi, the Lynx, a Hunter Legendary minion that fills players' hands with 1/1 Lynxes that have the keyword Rush. The spoiler stream also offered up another new card that forms an obvious combo with Halazzi in Spirit of the Lynx, a card that gives Beasts +1/+1 when they are summoned onto the board while it is in play. A major part of Rastakhan's Rumble is the new Spirit cards, which are meant to be extensions of powerful class-specific Legendaries called Loas.
Rastakhan's Rumble will also be running some exciting launch-day incentives for players, as upon the set's release, simply logging in will grant would be gladiators with a free Legendary Loa, two Spirit cards that go alongside it, and six Rastakhan's Rumble card packs just for showing up. While new games like Artifact and even Magic: The Gathering Arena are currently experiencing some criticism over how long it takes to build a collection or how accessible they are to new players, it is a wise move from Blizzard to offer up so much value just to get players to log in and check out the new set.
With that being said, though, Rastakhan's Rumble is an expansion that looks a little less powerful than ones that have been released recently. Hearthstone play design has been looking to shift the game away from being decided too often by early-turn plays, so it will be interesting to see if the developers have managed to strike a good balance between power and playability in one of the first sets they're releasing since adopting that philosophy. For now, it looks like Hearthstone's latest expansion is likely to live or die based on the viability of some quirky new Legendaries in the Loa and in Overkill, a new mechanic unlike anything the game has ever seen before that opens up the possibility for some exciting deckbuilding decisions.