Hearthstone is inviting players to give in to the dark side in its newly announced expansion, Rise of Shadows, which will be stepping into the spotlight on April 9th. The expansion, which marks the beginning of Hearthstone’s first year-long storyline, will bring to the game a new 135-card set that focuses on some of Azeroth’s most sinister villains and introduces some dastardly new mechanics.
Following his defeat at the hands of the League of Explorers, nefarious Arch-Thief Rafaam has brought some of Hearthstone’s iconic antagonists together to form the League of E.V.I.L, and players will be enlisted to help them advance their dark agenda. The new set will introduce a new card type, Lackeys — because you can’t call yourself a supervillain without a suitable outfit of expendable mooks — which are 1/1 minions with “a variety of diabolical Battlecries.” In addition, the new Scheme card type will add a new layer of strategy to the game, as these sinister cards grow in power for each turn they’re held in a player’s hand.
The League of E.V.I.L. will be opposed by “a mysterious crime-fighting group known as the Defenders of Dalaran,” whose signature mechanic is the Twinspell. Cards with the Twinspell keyword duplicate themselves when cast, giving players an additional copy to cast later in the game.
From now until the expansion’s launch on April 9th, players can pre-purchase two Rise of Shadows bundle packs. The 50-pack bundle ($49.99 US) comes with 50 packs (of course) as well as a random Legendary and the exclusive Jewel of Lazul card back, while the 80-pack bundle ($79.99) includes a random golden Legendary, the Jewel of Lazul card back, and a new playable Priest hero, Madam Lazul. To learn more about the new expansion, be sure to check out the Rise of Shadows official site.
