Landscape After Galakrond's Awakening – Hearthstone Still Rules Supreme

Table of Contents

• Landscape After Galakrond's Awakening – Hearthstone Still Rules Supreme
• Pilgrim with an attitude
• Dragon wings – banned in the Wild West
• Sheriff's star still shines

Dragon wings – banned in the Wild West

Blizzard has played with concepts for single-player campaigns for many seasons. The first adventures – Naxxramas and Black Mountain – were released at a time when it took at least three days. However, they provided access to unique cards that were used to build exceptionally strong decks. Then, the idea was abandoned, and when it came back, it did so in a lighter form and with less motivating rewards such as regular packs, card reversals, hero portraits, sometimes a single interesting legend.

With Galakrond's Awakening, this has changed. First off, Blizzard is back with really meaningful rewards that motivate us to quickly unlock subsequent stages of the game. Only victories will let us access new, unique spells and units – an one hero. I looked at some of these gimmicks. I don't have the same sort of processing power as the pros (I can reach the 6th rank at most), and yet I'm able to appreciate that some of the cards will shake the meta like the landing of the powerful Galakrond.

Blizzard obviously wants to polish the classes that were neglected after the release of Descent of the Dragons, providing them with more power (Priest or Mage, for example). Chances are that the Dragon Priest will return to grace. Some new, decent dragons were added (as a fan of these cards ever since Old Gods and the super strong Dragonlord – I'm really happy about it). There's at least one card that will make Warlock players super happy, and Hunters get decent tools for dragon archetypes. There are no such cards as some of those related to Galakrond from the last expansion, but I haven't checked all the combinations.

I think that in the right deck, Mage's new hero card – the Amazing Reno – will wreak havoc. It pretty much works the same way as in the classic Deathwing – makes all the minions disappear from the table. Only that it doesn't take away all the cards from your hand, and does not trigger the post-mortem effects of units. In the right hands, this card will change the fate of many a battle. The card activated at the beginning of the turn casts a random spell – which doesn't always work in our favor – but even so, Reno seems worth taking a look at.

A good story of Azeroth

The meta level is one thing, but Blizzard isn't holding back with Hearthstone, also in terms of storytelling. The creators decided to tell an extensive story, spanning a few expansions, which is concluded Galakrond's Awakening. We got a light, laid-back story playing on comic clichés about villains and superheroes from Warcraft. All in a parodic and mocking tone, which easily sells the entire idea.

Additional attraction is that we lead both sides of the conflict – each gets its own campaign. The challenges are varied and not too complex – to unlock cards (we can always test ourselves on a heroic level), but they require attention and some creativity. They provide a pleasant experience.

Of course, each subsequent chapter of the storyline is a simplified, joyous camp, but that was always the idea. First, it fits into the tone of the entire game, and second, it makes us a little more involved – at least in the first approach. A cute, fun, diversity. And I know players who completely ignore leaderboards and rivalry, and focus on adventure, staged fights, and barroom brawls. This only goes to show how wide a circle of players Hearthstone attempts to reach – and to a large extent, it succeeds – even if some events or overly sharp meta may scare it away.