Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft has been a particularly strong card-based title. Based completely in an online environment, the game has oozed a quality that rivals even the quality of games like Magic: The Gathering. While its longevity is yet to be guaranteed, we're sure Blizzard Entertainment – the game's developer – will be doing everything in their power to make sure it stands the test of time. Blizzard believes that their popular MMORPG, World of Warcraft, will still be around in ten years.
Hearthstone is set to receive its second big expansion, which comes in the form of Gnomes VS Goblins. The first expansion, Curse of Naxxramas, took us through an undead horror house. Goblins VS Gnomes will surely make things even more lighthearted.
What about the actual cards? Are they balanced, overpowered or underpowered? Let's take a look at a couple of the new cards that will be coming out in Goblins VS Gnomes.
This card, named 'Cogmaster,' gets an attack bonus as long as you control another minion with the 'Mech' minion type. This is an example of a really solid design and encourages synergistic gameplay within Hearthstone. It decreases variance, which has always been the pitfall of trading card games reminscent of Hearthstone. It will fit well in decks for a long time coming.
This next card, 'Madder Bomber,' features something we never like seeing in trading card games: the word 'random.' I get that the Goblin play archetype in Hearthstone has – for its short life span – been based on a huge amount of chance. That said, the continued use of cards that increase variance has me a little bit worried. The problem with releasing cards like this is that you can't really play around them. The person using them will either get really lucky or shoot themselves in the foot.
Check out this trailer for Hearthstone expansion Goblins VS Gnomes.